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The Flight Within

Christopher Dittrick

��Perhaps one day an off-worlder may read this. Actually I don’t care if anyone ever sees this. But since you have, I’ll begin with the textbook description of Tahnean that I learned early on in my schooling.
��Tahnean, the city I happen to live in, is one of many that exist within the world of my people. That is, the world-ship, a spaceship one quarter the size of a standard mid-sized life baring world. More description other than that is pretty irrelevant here. All I’ve known is my home, a city that is housed within two of the many thousand or so compartments within. A compartment is about a thousand meters high, a thousand meters wide, and two and a half kilometers long.
��The city itself looks much as the planets-side cities did, or at least thats what I’ve been taught. Squares of linear transitway abound buildings that sometimes reach the ceiling, although you’d never see to know it. Limitless mauve skies reach above a similarly holographic mountainscape outside the bounds of the city. A perfect illusion, except for two minor details: leaving the city puts one in the next compartment with a different illusion, and some buildings are actually connected to the top of the compartment.
��A perfectly smooth, white, two hundred meter high wall surrounds the city. It’s actually the compartment wall and contains regularly spaced orifices. But across the long dimension of Tahnean, there is another such wall. According to history, it represents the compartment wall that had once impeded view before the city had expanded enough to require the second compartment. Indeed a view from one side of the city can clearly see the other. This is where the trouble began.
��A few wispy clouds drifted in the virtual sky as the three of us stood on top of the nine building that stood on East Marok Tran. Its roof was about half-way to the ceiling. It was on such days when the virtual light shone that we came here to watch the traffic below as if we were the Cen-Comp AI, our world’s leader.
��“Wouldn’t it be cool to go over the dividing wall?” Said Chey, a maniacal smile peeking between the strands of hair that surrounded his head. He looked down leaning against the edge-rail.
��“Fool.” I replied. “You can’t climb the wall. Not even a fly can stick to it.”
��Irea put her arm around Chey’s dark vinyl jacket. “You ever heard of a ladder.”
��“Not one two hundred meters.” I said after their laughter had died enough to not have to shout. Chey did so hate shouting and my shoulder was still sore from the last time I tried to stand up to him several minutes before.
��Irea put her hands in pockets of her jacket as the pair turned to face me.
��Chey stepped up grabbed me tightly on both shoulders, his face close enough to smell what he had eaten for lunch. His eyes were wide in a gaze that spoke only of random destruction. Together, we held this pose and the breeze pulled at our hair. Then he let go and stepped back. If only I had never heard what he had said next.
��“We could fly.”
��I don’t remember much else of that day but the fact that I had been afraid. It was the first time I had ever thought about breaking a law. Flying was forbidden by the Cen-Comp.
��Within the next few days Chey had managed to obtain the plans for the makeshift glider.��It wasn’t an easy task, for the Cen-Comp knew of all accesses to the database and was not one to overlook such an inquiry. Chey’s brother had a friend who had a cousin who owed Chey a favor. I don’t know who this person was and I wouldn’t say if I did, but I do know that he was an infospec. He was one of the few people in this world who could acquire knowledge without its presence being known. It was accomplished pretty much by obtaining different bits of data from many ambiguous databases and assembling the whole. This could often require a second infospec who engineers mechanics, performs the replication chemistry, or some other such science.
��It took a week to produce the parts for the makeshift glider one piece at a time from different automated production sites. How we had ever managed to smuggle them to top of the nine build, piece by piece, without the Cen-Comp finding out was an unknown. The Cen-Comp was said to see everything that went on in the world and sometimes in the worlds outside ours.
��But the time had come to assemble our glider and fly. I had tried to stay home, but Chey and Irea came to my cubicle. My parents found this as the perfect excuse to put me outside. They had claimed I needed more time to socialize.
��So here I was yet again on the nine building, this time standing next to the gray glider. This time the sky too was overcast. “So who is going to try it?” I said to Chey as he tied the last of the harness.
��“Wouldn’t expect you to, friend. I’m lucky if I can get you to climb stairs.”
��“Maybe we shouldn’t do this.” I backed up a step toward the door and the comfort of the stairs leading down.
��“You can go back if you want.” Chey was now tying himself into the harness. “Say hi to your mommy for me.”
��If only I had the chance to turn back the clock at this moment; to, for once in my pitiful existence, stand up and tell Chey he was a dork and beat him down.
��But that’s not what had happened. Instead, Chey lifted his wings upon his shoulders and ran straight for the edge. He jumped neatly over the rail and into the air beyond. Where is the all seeing AI now? Why didn’t it stop this madness and protect us from ourselves?
��The glider seemingly hung in air for just a moment and drifted away from the building and towards the wall. I watched breathlessly as Chey drifted closer to the wall becoming lower and tinier in the distance.
��Irea held her fist tightly at her sides as she watched the spectacle unfold.
��From where we stood it was hard to tell if Chey had actually passed over the wall before his glider reared up and began its dive. I like to think that maybe he did look down and see the top of the wall. Neither am I sure what had happen with Irea after that moment of horror as the glider plummeted, gaining speed. I turned and ran down the stairs, gaining a speed of my own.
��I must have sat in my cubicle for days. Later, I was informed that it was four. It was then I had the nerve to check the datafile on the event. The AI had actually seen us. It was luck that we had merely amused her, because she decided that only Chey would be punished. His stall had not been fatal, but the immediate exile from Tahnean that followed might has well have been.
��It had been required of me to write out my view of the whole mess for the database and to help me think about what had been wrong. I know now that I will never seek the tops of buildings for solace and companionship.
��There is however a rumor of a forest in a nearby compartment....
��Signed - Johanes Rigby





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