Patreon or PayPal Me keeps this site and its author alive. Thank you. |
Stories from the Verse
Multiverser: The Thirteenth Story
Chapter 40: Beam 209
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 377
Dawn easily led them back to the enforcement department, where Beam casually walked in and said, "Who's in charge here?" The shocked silence stretched long enough for him to add, "Well?"
The enforcement officer who had taken them to the vibgyor's office replied, "That would be me."
"Very good. I suppose I should learn your name, but there's time for that later. I'm here to inform you that the vibgyor has abdicated, resigning his position and naming me Emperor here. Also, he has suffered an accident. He appears to have fallen down and is unable to get up again. You'll have to send people to attend to that and remove him from what is now my office. Are there any questions?"
The officer obviously thought of several questions but decided not to ask any of them.
"Very good. Dawn, I think we need to visit Maintenance next."
They retraced their steps to the room where William Shatner had originally confronted them with his sword. He had returned to his desk, but was clearly distressed when Beam addressed him.
"Bill!"
"How--how are you here?"
"It's simple. I had a talk with your vibgyor, and he resigned his position and made me the new ruler. So now I make the rules. I'm seriously thinking of rescinding the rule about nobody going outside, but I need to see what's outside. So we're back where we were a couple hours ago: you're going to show us how to get outside."
"But it's against the rules."
"You weren't listening, Bill. I told you: I make the rules now. I get to go outside and see whether it's safe for everyone to go outside. You get to show me the way."
Bill seemed very confused, but he apparently remembered his previous fight with Beam, and possibly also what happened to the enforcement officers who had opposed him, so he grabbed a hat and started out the door. "This way, this way, don't hurt William Shatner, this way."
As Beam followed, it occurred to him that he couldn't actually be entirely certain that the outside wasn't dangerous. They spoke of pollen and smoke, and he had known people with respiratory conditions that were exacerbated by high pollen counts and heavy smoke concentrations. Air quality reports were not at all uncommon back home. But those were special individuals, and it made sense for those people to stay indoors while others were largely unaffected by such issues. So this could be a case of the government overreacting to a minor danger that only impacted a small fraction of the population, or it could be a government taking advantage of a potential problem to create fear in the people--but it was not impossible that the air outside the domes was dangerous, and that they had been breathing carefully filtered air the entire time they were here.
He would find out.
It took most of an hour of wandering through corridors to reach a room with a very large door with a black handle. "This is D-2, D-2," Shatner said. "That door opens to outside. Not permitted. Black bar."
"Thank you, William. We'll take it from here. Just stand by in case something breaks and needs to be fixed." With that he walked over to the door and pressed on the handle.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with ten other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #542: Verser Initiatives. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
