Alternia Comics

   The hallway was well lit and seemed well kept, unlike the room he had left. He passed a dozen gleaming metal doors, six on each side, bearing cryptic inscriptions on small plates mounted on the wall next to each door. Office C17, next door to Office C19, across from Office C18. Kevin had come out of Office C16. Every door he tried was as unpowered as C14. SAL chimed in his ear as Kevin neared Office C22 and a heavy door sealing the end of the hallway.
   "I estimate you are nearing Corridor Charlie 2."
   "Thanks SAL," Kevin whispered. "It's probably on the other side of that door." He approached slowly, looking for the motion sensor that would open the door for him, but unable to see it. The door did not open even as he reached delicately to touch the cold steel. He pressed his ear gingerly to the surface and heard a faint crowd noise as colonists walked through the corridor. Footsteps and voices. Kevin concentrated to filter out the background and listen to the voices.
   "... on his way down. Something about a power spike, I think."
   "It's probably just a light flickering in one of the offices again. No one came through this door; we made sure of that."
   "Yeah... you're right, probably nothing to worry about. Look sharp, here he comes."
   Footsteps approached the door and the two voices on the other side. Kevin ran back to C14, closed the door and disconnected the power, hoping it would seem normal enough from the outside that whoever they were, they wouldn't check inside.
   The heavy door opened with a mechanical grinding that seemed to resonate even within this distant room. Working in these offices must have been a nightmare if that door was constantly opening and closing. The voices and footsteps were much clearer now, though different than the two at the door.
   "We're certain, Sir, no one could have gotten down here without us knowing. Guards are posted at each end of Charlie 1"
   "So what caused the power spike then?" This voice was familiar to every colonist, heard every hour of every day starting with the morning announcements and ending with the evening address and reminders broadcast throughout the day. This was the smooth, comforting voice of the CGC. At least, Kevin thought it was the CGC. He wasn't nearly as comforting now, his voice tinged with anger. "The draw was exactly enough to open one of these doors."
   "I dont know, Sir." Kevin heard the doors near them being tried, with none of them opening. "It looks like they're all closed and unpowered, as ordered."
   "I can see that! I'd better check C1 while I'm here. You are dismissed, Lieutenant." The CGC's voice faded away as he walked down the corridor.
   Kevin whispered to his wristcomp when he was sure no one would overhear. "Do you have any record of a room called C1 or corridor Charlie 1?" SAL responded with a three tone descending chime, indicating a negative response, as Kevin climbed back in to the vent system and made his way toward where he guessed the CGC was headed.
   He heard the voice again, and stopped.
   "I know you're here somewhere." Kevin froze in panic. He could see the light of a room coming through a vent cover ahead, and from the sound, the CGC was in that room, a large chamber that echoed his voice. "Maybe not here here, maybe not even in the colony anymore, but I know you left something here, Jack." Kevin allowed himself to relax when he realized the CGC wasn't talking to him and crawled forward to look through the vent cover.
   The room was immense, easily three times the size of his family's small home. Near one wall was a long table with nine high-backed, black, padded chairs. In front of this table was an open space, followed by several rows of benches behind a low wall. These benches were on a slope angling up from the open space. An aisle bisected them and lead to the door the CGC had entered from. He was a few steps down the aisle, pacing slowly toward the nine chairs as he spoke.
   The CGC was shorter than Kevin thought he was, around five feet eight inches. He wore a colony jumpsuit that showed he kept himself fit and trim, though the CGC's jumpsuit had purple stripes around the collar and down the arms and legs, instead of the typical blue or red Kevin was used to. He had brown hair and no beard or mustache. From what Kevin knew from Jack's journal, the CGC, Colin, was at least sixty years old, but he didn't look a day over forty.
   "You couldn't go quietly, could you. No, you had to fight back, organize others in to fighting. We lost a third of the population to your revolt those many years ago, though the recycling people told me they hadn't reclaimed nearly enough bodies to make up for the loss in population. So where did you take them? It seems unlikely that many people are hiding somewhere in the colony and haven't been found in all this time. Did you find a way out, you sly devil? Did you leave a trail for others to follow, a trail that will lead me to you so I can finish what I started back then?
   "You're the one loose end, Jack. I suppose I should just be grateful no one has pulled on that loose end and unraveled my little world here." The CGC had approached the nine chairs and walked behind them, trailing his hand over the tops of the chairs until he got to the seat second from the left. He stood behind it and gripped the top tightly with both hands, as if he imagined his hands were about the throat of whoever sat there, crushing the life out of the imaginary occupant.
   Something shook the CGC from his reverie and he quickly stalked back up the aisle, through the door and down the hallway, back to his daily business. Kevin faintly felt the heavy door at the end of the corridor closing; the reverberations were much weaker here, and he doubted whether he would have felt them if he weren't in the vent.
   Kevin estimated he was about fifteen feet above the floor of the room, safe enough to jump if he did it right, but no way to get back up to the vent unless the benches below weren't nailed down and he could stack them. Though that would leave an obvious trail for the CGC to follow next time he came here. He decided to jump down anyway.