Prologue: The Last Call
It was her birthday this evening, and she felt entitled to a free drink at least. Just one, she wasn't begging him to pour the whole damn bottle of champagne down her throat. Just one fucking drink and she'd be happy. But Morgan, the cheap bastard, had a heart of stone, and you couldn't pry a credit from his cold dead fingers. She gave the bartender a venomous look again as she approached with one of her girlfriends, intent on getting her due.
The Bomb was packed tonight, the zero-g dance floor resembled nothing more than a school of fish as the dancers spun, twirled and snaked their way between each other beneath the flickering kaleidoscope of the laser light and neon. For those not so inclined to the nuances of zero gravity, there was a concentric circle of disco floor, for the more grounded to enjoy. It was one of the best clubs on Aegis VII, but there was hardly any competition when there was a grand total of four between the sixty-thousand or so colonists.
Carah had dropped numerous hints to her friends and co-workers as to where she wanted her "surprise party" to be that year. Reminiscing over how great the chicken fingers and fries were (crispy and golden) to the colourful terraces of orchids and ferns that surrounded the booths (so classy). And then there was the bar. The CEC had ensured that all its workers were more than happy to work and stay in the ass end of the universe, by providing them with just about the best of everything.
Now it wasn't everyday that a girl turned twenty-four. And it sure as hell wasn't everyday that fifty people blew their brains out in public. After the "incident" in Union Square, more and more people had turned to alcohol or other vices to keep their minds occupied, and to keep those little voices that seemed to be crawling into so many heads at bay. Carah wanted to celebrate, sure, but she also wanted to get as hammered as she possibly could with the best booze money could buy. And she sure wasn't going to pay when she knew the owner.
She and her friend Talia had discussed with the rest of the gang, after a dinner, and an embarrassing round of "Happy Birthday" and cake (during which time a few hundred other strangers decided to join in on their awful singing); the possibility of getting their hands on a bottle of Arcadian Ambrosia, which they had spied beneath the bar the week before. Morgan was saving it, Carah was sure, for whenever the blowhards from CEC came down to Aegis City to congratulate themselves on the 37th successful Planetcrack (Intently ignoring of course the Wanat Disaster of 11 years prior). At this point in time however, Carah was pretty certain that whatever victory dance was being done, it was happening in orbit; there was a snowball's chance in hell that some rich exec and his prissy wife would risk getting cannibalized by some Unitologists on the rampage.
The bar was packed, waitresses passing out drinks as quickly as the credits were being tossed. Morgan had noticed their approach, and was busily inspecting a bottle of Supernova Champagne, seemingly enthralled by the vineyards of Alpha Centauri. Talia slinked over in her black dress, flashing that million dollar smile at him.
"Hey Morgan, whatcha up to?"
"Inspecting all the vintage, doesn't help to be prepared for when the Ex's come down here to party," he replied curtly, thumb tracing lines across the ingredients.
"Why do that down here with all us crazies when they could do that perfectly fine on the largest ship in the fleet?" Carah asked, twirling a bit of tinsel in her hair.
He flashed a knowing smile at her "Well we can all take comfort in knowing that you and your friends will find some way to drink whatever's left."
"Morgan," Talia said, pressing a hand against her breast and lowering the neck of her dress somewhat "You kill me sometimes. We've been coming here for two years, we're friends right?"
The scowl he bounced back at them spoke volumes, but Talia took the pass and ran with it "... Loyal customers who spend their hard earned credits in your fine little establishment here. Now Carah here, turns twenty-four today, and what I think would really top her day off would be a nice slick bottle of Ambrosia."
"Talia, you can get that stuff by the gallon at any bar on the planet."
"Sure we can, but there doesn't seem to be too much of the Arcadian stuff floating around now is there? And you really don't expect Carah to be drinking some cheap shit from The Sprawl on her special day now do you?"
"How the hell did you two know I had Arcadian here?" Exasperated he set the bottle onto the counter and turned to face them, resting both palms on the bar top.
"Same way I know that it ain't my eyes you're looking at honey, you're fucking obvious," she laughed. "Now why don't you give Carah here a glass on the house and we'll see about maybe a kiss or two from some of the ladies over there?"
"Carah, do you two know how much a bottle of this stuff costs? You couldn't afford the fucking import! Three gees. You want something free? You can take a look at the bottle, because that's a close as you'll ever get."
"Ugh, honestly Morgan, if you're going to be so damn immature about it then we'll take our business somewhere else," cleavage was quickly hidden, and any illusion of their flirtatious facade quickly melted with anger.
"My god, we've known each other since colonization and what, you can't even give me a drink on my birthday? I forgot why we went to the other club last year."
"Hey," Morgan raised his hands in defence "Arcadian's expensive shit to come by, especially out here on the fucking verge. You want something sweet? Something good, I've got booze from a hundred colonies under here, from Earth to Olduvai, I'll get you a bottle of the good stuff..."
Talia's eyebrows were threatening to meld with hairline by that point.
"Something that won't taste like paint thinner I hope? Last time you gave me something for free I was bedridden and Doc Albert asked me if I'd been chugging engine cleaner."
"That stuff's good for ya, cleans out your system, gets rid of impurities, you'll be pushing two hundred when you get your dirt bath if you keep drinking that stuff."
"And I'll be twenty-five by the time I get any drink at this rate Morgan," Carah sighed.
"Give me a sec, damn girl no wonder you're single."
Morgan quickly popped below the bar, narrowly avoiding a double set of heart-stopping glares from the two women. The dim lighting of the bar made it difficult to find anything below the counter. Something smelt foul, the sickly sweet scent of decay seemed to billow out of the vents. And suddenly he felt as though he'd sunk his hands into a pile of ground beef, a cold slimy substance covered all of the bottles closest to the back. He grasped one and pulled out, lifting it triumphantly before the Carah and Talia, who quickly stepped back, eyes narrowed in disgust.
Perturbed, Morgan quickly glanced at his discovery.
"What the fuck is this shit?" Morgan yelled, holding the bottle of Vodka at arm's length.
Something that resembled an awful cross of vomit and a tumour had snaked its way around the base of the bottle, bubbling up in little growths. Little back worms crawled desperately from the goop. Falling onto the counter, and sidling towards Carah and Talia, who both backed a foot away.
"What the fuck Morgan? Is that shit mould? Christ, I just got through eating here!"
Even over the thrum of the techno, Carah's voice spread the news to at least a dozen other surrounding tables, a wide range of spitting suddenly broke out in the vicinity. A man and his wife who moments before had been enjoying an overpriced steak coughed their meals back onto their plates before glaring venomously in their direction
"God, it's everywhere, it's coming out of the fucking vents! What is this shit?" Morgan set the bottle onto the countertop, and looked over to a nearby waitress "Lisa, what's the nearest Megavent from here?"
"14," she replied, bending down to eye the growth that had spread across the bottom counter "But this wasn't here last night, I swear to god. I mean it can't have been here more than an hour ago! I used some of the glasses on this shelf." She reached forward and tried to wrench one out, the top merely snapped from the base "It's really in there isn't it, and it's spreading... What in god's name is this stuff?"
"Call up maintenance down there, get them to do a sweep or something, if this shit is blocking up all the filtration systems, then we have a serious problem."
Lisa quickly leant over her register's holographic display, and began to scroll through the communication numbers. Wireless communications registered where one was in the city, sector-by-sector, at all times, so Lisa was rather disheartened to discover a single RIG working in the maintenance shafts beneath their feet. One Richard Avery, who took every opportunity to hit on her, and always tipped poorly. She quickly tapped his ID, glancing down the bar towards Morgan who was fending off a dozen irate customers, demanding refunds.
Richard's sweaty face quickly popped up, glancing at her inquisitively "Well, well! Look who's finally come to their senses baby!"
"Richard, there's something coming out the vents up here and I was kind of hoping you knew something about it down on your end? Is there some sort of issue we should all be aware of?"
"Not that I know of Babe, just me and the robots down on this end."
"The vents are kind of integral to our operations here, air quality's rather intermittent out there, shouldn't you be monitoring it?" she said exasperated.
"Well you see honey, in case you don't watch the news at all, some douche bag murdered a few dozen of my co-workers last week, so we've been rather short staffed lately. And considering the fact that everyone else either phoned in sick with the crazy or is out getting trashed, there's not many of us doing any real work here," he replied icily.
"I know, I know... Listen I'm sorry, it's packed up here tonight. The party's been in full swing since planetcrack. I'm just in a bitch of a mood, I haven't had a decent sleep in what feels like a lifetime and I ju-"
"Oi! Lisa, this isn't a social call here, what's the problem?" Morgan flourished his arms at the ventilation "Do they know what our little issue here is?"
"I'm sorry Morgan, just give us a minute okay, they're kind of short staffed considering all the engineers are well... " Lisa raised an arm in a vain attempt to block the scintillating strobes of light, and scanned the crowd "Well actually I think most of them are here, drunk off your booze..."
"Just figure out what this shit is already."
Lisa glanced down at the video call "You know which junction we're above right?"
"I'm already on my way, the 12-14 right?"
"Yeah, just hurry the hell over there, Morgan's trying to avoid refunds."
"Alright ladies and gentlemen! We all having a good time tonight or what?" The DJ cried from his booth above the dance floor, waving at his fans in the audience. A profusion of agreements and cheers resounded back at him. "Did we do a good job or what tonight? Thirty seven planet cracks now ladies and gents! We made history tonight!"
Screams of approval were given in response.
"And speaking of history, I have a wonderful little number to grind your hearts out to tonight, this is Surprised, by Sara Nova!"
The crowd cheered, arms waving, feet pounding as the strobe lights fractured each moment in time.
"If you could see me now
What would you say?
Did I waste my life
Begging you to stay?
Your scathing voice
It's in my head
And with those shards of glass
Left in my bed..."
She spun in little circles through the air, thirty feet above the dance floor, competing with a dozen others to keep her little corner of the ceiling between her and her boyfriend. He just held onto her hips, that stupid grin on his face as he moved in to kiss her again. She slithered away, enticing him towards a nearby vent, her hips gyrating beneath a thin satin dress. Someone's wine floated carelessly through the air, splattering against her arm's as she twirled. She reached over with the other hand to wipe it off. Red, like blood.
"...and now that I'm here
You'll never let me go
And now that I'm here
You're gonna let me know
That no matter where I hide...
No matter how I lie...
There is no disguise...
Cause you caught me surprised..."
She glanced back at the vent behind her, and for an instant the pinpricks of eyes glistened in the dark before they retreated. She drew her boyfriend closer, pausing to look behind her every few moments.
She had about four minutes to live...