Chapter Thirteen

Brave New World

One Week Later...

Lupus had never been to Zoness. He had heard of it of course. It was one of the most popular vacation spots in all of Lylat. It attracted visitors from every part of the Federation and beyond. Lupus could remember seeing the posters advertising the tropical resorts, with their warm air and cool ocean breezes, and mixed drinks strong enough to curl paint, and sweet enough to make a candy shop owner queasy.

One thing he'd not been expecting though was the humidity. The moment they left the spaceport and walked out under the open sky, Lupus could feel sweat pooling under his arms and on his chest. His fur would be soaked before long. His tongue hung out, his breath panting and trying to keep his body temperature at a reasonable level. "I thought Macbeth was hot," he said, shouldering his duffle bag and glancing around the parking lot.

"Macbeth is a dry, regulated heat," came a deep, rumbling voice from behind him. "You'll get used to this."

Lupus turned and looked at Cadman Dane, their handler for this mission. Lupus had bristled at first when informed that they would have someone looking over their shoulder. He'd been insulted that their mysterious employer didn't trust them, and had taken umbrage to the implication that they couldn't handle the job on their own. Then Sarah had reminded him that anyone as mysterious as their actual employer probably didn't trust anyone, and that they wouldn't have gotten the job if whoever it was didn't think they could handle it. Not that Cadman or his boss have told us anything. They've been oddly mysterious about what it is we're doing. "I guess I'll have to."

Cadman chuckled and told them to follow him to the parking lot. Lupus took a look around. People were hustling and bustling, families abounded, small children sucking on popsicles they'd gotten inside the spaceport as their parents corralled them into waiting cabs. He felt a brief stab of bitterness at how happy the children looked, and how affectionate and patient their parents seemed. I never got anything like that.

A weight settled on his shoulders, and Lupus felt all those bitter and unfair thoughts drift away with the wind. Jax leaned over and kissed him between the ears, holding him tight and reminding him that if he hadn't gotten much love as a child, he had more than he knew what to do with in his adulthood.

The group stopped when they reached a parked SUV. It didn't look like much, just a standard 2-OSK model made by Cornerian Auto Works. CAW was one of the largest car manufacturers in Lylat, competing fiercely with the Macbeth based Convoy Motors. The rivalry had reached such epic proportions in recent years that entire movies and TV dramas were devoted to the battle as the two mega corporations duked it out for market share. Of course, most of those dramas had substantially more sex and violence, and far fewer corporate board meetings and dull, cheap, advertisements. "Do we have to drive this?" Jax asked, glancing at the circular CAW logo on the back.

Tapping in the code on the small holographic panel on the driver's side window, Cadman pulled the door open and said gruffly, "Unless you wanna walk."

Lupus nudged Jax forward, the two of them plus Sarah piling in. Macbethan natives tended to have a low opinion of anything manufactured outside of their home planet, a byproduct of having an economy that relied on making things to a standard unmatched just about anywhere else in the galaxy. The rivalry between CAW and CM was about more than just stock prices and sales, it also tapped into the pride and competitive spirit exhibited by the Cornerian and Macbethan employees who ran and maintained the machines that worked the assembly lines.

Cadman keyed the ignition and the hydrogen fuel cell engine hummed to life. The air conditioning came on as well, blasting frigid air to compensate for the glow of Lylat and Solar overhead.

As they left the parking lot and began the drive to the place where they would be staying, Lupus looked out the window, admiring the scenery as it flashed by along the road. Despite the heat, Lupus could understand why people came here. The lush vegetation, the clear skies, and the snowcapped mountains in the distance were breathtaking.

Other than the natural surroundings, with the trees and ferns and wild animals that, on Macbeth, existed only in the closed off, delicate cave ecosystems, and the arboretums reserved for the very wealthy, Lupus could also see tall, glimmering skyscrapers rising in the distance. A bit too tall now that he looked at them. They seemed to stretch on forever. He could also see bridges and skyways connecting them. "Are those..."

"Arcologies," Cadman answered. "Zoness, outside the beach resorts and a few upper class towns, doesn't have much in the way of urban sprawl. If you think the Cornerians are crazy environmentalists, you've never met a Zonessian."

Lupus nodded, staring at the distant buildings in wonder. Made of clear, glimmering glass and metal, they were built in a pyramidal shape, with three 'arms' each reaching up and connecting at the apex, where solar collectors glinted as they caught the rays of Lylat's twin stars. As they drove closer Lupus could see that there were four of them, all linked by a series of sky bridges and elevated railways. "How many people live in that city?" Lupus asked.

Sarah, looking down at her tablet, pulled up the information. "All told? Those four arcologies are home to eight million people."

Jax let out an explosive breath. "Four buildings and eight million people?

"Amazing." Lupus shook his head. "Where will we be staying?"

"One of the lower levels." Cadman pointed to one of the arcologies. "The Zitza Arcology. We'll be on level fourteen."

"I thought you said we'd be on one of the lower levels," Jax said, arching an eyebrow.

"That's fourteen out of fourteen hundred. Trust me, it's basically the bottom." Cadman turned onto a main road, increasing speed.

The road was packed with cars of all different makes and models. Lupus found these almost as fascinating as the arcologies in the distance. Macbeth may have made tens of millions of automobiles a year, but about ninety percent of those were exported. Since the domes were the only places liveable, and since much of the population lived underground at this point, Macbethans rarely ever found a reason to own a car. The domes all had highly advanced transit systems, with everything from subways, trains, and large elevators, to moving sidewalks in the more wealthy districts. No one drove on Macbeth, unless you were wealthy and had the money to burn. Here though, it seemed like just about everyone could own a car. "If they mostly live in arcologies, why do so many people need cars?" Lupus asked.

"Travel between arcology clusters, out to resorts, campgrounds," Cadman said. "When living under the sun isn't going to kill you people tend to get out more."

"Huh." Lupus glanced at Jax, not bothering to correct Cadman and say that going outside the domes on Macbeth wouldn't necessarily kill you, just make life even more difficult and uncomfortable. "I say we move here."

Jax chuckled. "Sure. Though you'll probably say that about any planet that isn't Macbeth."

"Probably." Lupus chuckled back and continued looking out the window. He'd finally done it. He'd gotten off Macbeth. He'd left behind that hellish landscape with even more hellish memories. Now the real work can finally begin. I've got plans. And as soon as we're done with this job, it'll be time to show the galaxy just who Lupus O'Donnell really is.

Level fourteen of the Zitza Arcology looked a hell of a lot better than level fourteen of Numanchester. Here, despite being one of the lowest and poorest levels, the streets were clear of obstacles and garbage, the city services were functioning, and the buildings all looked cleaned and well maintained. "I'm sorry, this is the poorer level?" Sarah whispered softly. She could see stores and small businesses, restaurants, donut shops, and people walking around with smiles and carefree attitudes. It all looked...nice. Happy. As if these people weren't poor at all, as if they weren't making choices and compromises just to survive. Maybe they...aren't?

In Numanchester, people living in the bottom levels simply didn't look like this. They didn't walk around smiling, they didn't walk around eating ice cream cones and laughing with their friends. They didn't come out of supermarkets with arms full of groceries. No. They kept their heads down and tried not to be noticed. They walked out of stores with just enough food to not go to bed hungry. And they certainly didn't spend valuable money on things like sweets since...well, they didn't have money to spend on sweets. They needed to scrimp and save every spare coin just in case the landlord jacked up the rent again or, in most cases, to buy a case of liquor and drown their sorrows. The Federation took it as a point of pride, Sarah knew, that people didn't starve inside its borders. And, while that was certainly true, sometimes Sarah thought the fact that everyone could survive might have been more of a curse than a blessing for the people she'd grown up around.

"Strange, isn't it?" Cadman said. "The definition of poverty changes depending on the world. Corneria and Zoness are two of the wealthiest worlds in Lylat, probably in the galaxy. Standard of living on both of them is nearly post-scarcity. If you lived like this on Macbeth, you'd be well off."

Sarah stared in wonder. How in the world did people live like this? Not that she didn't want to live like this but...she didn't think it was possible for more than a few people in a society to have such ready access to much more than their basic needs. It almost didn't seem fair that Zonessians lived like this. Then again, maybe it wasn't the Zonessians way of life that was unfair, but rather the way she had been forced to live on Macbeth that was.

"You alright sis?" Lupus asked, brushing his tail up against hers.

"Yeah, just kinda...disoriented."

"It is weird, isn't it? I didn't expect the people on the lower levels to be living like this," Lupus admitted.

"I wonder if they're as ignorant about how we live as were about how they did?" Jax muttered. "If people in my neighborhood saw this, there'd be riots."

Sarah caught Cadman giving them all a bemused glance. "What?"

"You're all a lot more philosophical than I thought you would be," Cadman said, stopping in front of a lift. "We're going up to the residential tier. I've got an apartment there. You'll like it."

There was a line for the lift, but it moved quickly. Once their turn came Sarah and the rest followed Cadman in, along with about a dozen other people. The lift doors shut when the room filled to capacity, and Sarah didn't even notice when it kicked into motion. How?

"E-diffusers. Less powerful than I-diffusers, but they're common for things like this. Arcology lifts move very, very fast," Cadman supplied, noticing the confused look on her face.

The lift doors opened and Cadman led them out. Sarah glanced back at the lift as the doors closed, another group of passengers having piled aboard. She didn't hear a sound when it started moving.

When they reached Cadman's apartment the canine tapped in a security code and the entrance unlocked. Sarah followed him in and shook her head. "I don't get this place."

Next to her, Lupus seemed to be having no problem with the adjustment. Grinning from ear to ear he plopped himself down on one of the soft couches and put his feet up on the coffee table. Sunlight streamed in from a sliding glass door leading to a small balcony. A ceiling fan whirred into motion at the flick of a switch, and vents pumped in cool, conditioned air. A flat screen TV occupied one wall of the room. A kitchen took up space on the other side. Sarah decided to investigate it.

Clean counters. Glassware and ceramic dishes, not cheap plastic like should would have found on Macbeth. The pantry was stocked with food and canned goods, and the refrigerator had fresh vegetables. There were even fruits in a little basket on the counter. "Help yourself," Cadman said, opening the refrigerator and pulling out a cold water bottle.

Sarah reached out and grabbed a banana. She peeled it and took a bite. Her mouth watered and stars exploded across her vision at the taste. Sweet and ripe. It tasted as if it had just come off the tree. "Oh my..."

Jax walked over and arched an eyebrow at her, grabbing an apple from the basket. Cadman glanced at her as he set down the water bottle and pulled out a cigarette. He lit it, sucked in a breath of smoke, and then exhaled before saying, "Bananas are the local specialty."

"I can believe it," Sarah mumbled, chomping down on it eagerly before reaching for another. When she'd been a child she'd only ever had bananas when she could steal them. She remembered how much she'd loved them, and how she'd begged her father to buy her some whenever he went shopping. When she was a child he'd always ignored her, yelling at her that they were too expensive and she didn't need to eat like some rich corporate suit. Then, after she'd turned fourteen and begun to...fill out...No. I will not let him ruin this for me. He's dead. I won't let him ruin even the simple pleasures in my life. He already ruined so many of the others...

Sarah finished the second fruit with a defiant expression on her face, then sat down next to Lupus. Her brother gave her a concerned look. She knew he'd seen the change in her expression when the memory had surfaced. "I'm fine," she whispered to him.

Lupus nodded, patting her on the knee and giving her that loving, loyal glance that told her everything that mattered most about her brother. Cadman walked over and sat down in a chair across from them, still puffing on his cigarette. Sarah's nose twitched at the scent of the smoke. She resisted the urge to sneeze. "It's been a long flight," Cadman said. "Clean up and get some rest. It'll be night here soon, so we'll discuss the mission in the morning." He stood up, putting his smoke out in the ashtray on the coffee table. "The apartment is yours."

"Where are you going?" Lupus asked.

"I have a few appointments I need to make. Preparation for the mission. I'll be back before you wake up," Cadman assured them.

"Alright," Lupus said. "If we need to contact you?"

"You won't," Cadman said, already heading for the door. He turned and gave them a smile. "Trust me, this apartment is probably the safest place you've ever been inside of. See you in the morning."

Sarah watched the door close behind the dane, then leaned back against the couch and let out a sigh. "Mysterious, isn't he?"

Jax nodded from where he sat, perched on the edge of a stool by the kitchen counter. "Do we trust him?"

"No. Of course not." Lupus shook his head. "But we need him. And he needs us. That much is obvious."

"Is it?" Sarah asked, cocking her head. "We still don't know what this job is. I'm frankly not even sure why we took it to begin with."

Lupus pursed his lips and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "How much do we know about Lylat?"

"What do you mean?" Odd question coming from Lupus.

"I mean, how much do we know about the criminal underworld? Or the law enforcement we'll need to avoid?" Lupus said. "Not to mention the societies, their blind spots, their values. We never left Macbeth. Hell, we never left Numanchester."

Sarah began to see her brother's point. "We're fish out of water."

"Exactly." Lupus stood up and turned on the TV. "Newsfeed anyone?"

"Ugh." Jax shook his head. "Do I have to?"

"Consider it homework."

"I dropped out in the eighth grade," Jax said, crossing his arms and looking petulant.

"I'll make it worth it for you dear," Lupus promised, winking at the lion.

Sarah chuckled as Jax's expression lightened and he came over to sit next to Lupus. Standing up just as the two of them sat back down, Sarah said, "I'm going to take a shower and check out the restrooms. Have fun with your newsfeeds."

"Oh I'm having fun already," Lupus said, his gaze riveted to the screen.

Leaving the two of them to their homework, Sarah made her way deeper into the apartment. It was larger than she was expecting, though not huge. She found the bathroom in the hall and once again had to do a double take. It was more than just a closet with a sonic shower, toilet, and a sink with some basic toiletries. Opening the medicine cabinet she found toothbrushes, and toothpaste in six different flavors. Soap bars sat waiting to be unwrapped and used. And, sitting on the counter were bottles of shampoo in five different scents. Grabbing the one marked 'pear', she disrobed.

Before stepping into the shower she took a moment to look at herself in the mirror. Like her brother, her body was covered in scars, marked by the bone white coloring of the fur where it had been forced to regrow. They crisscrossed her flanks, one of them running a jagged, zigzagging line across her right breast before stopping at her neck. Some of them she remembered getting, others were more of a blur. Tracing a finger through the scar fur from her neck across her breast, she cursed the name of the man who'd given it to her. A 'friend' of her father's who she'd been loaned to in exchange for forgetting about some minor transgression her father had committed. When she'd come home covered in bloody bandages her father hadn't spared her a second glance. It had been Lupus who snuck her out and got her to the neighborhood clinic, just as she'd done countless times for him after he'd been beaten. The scar, however, also held a certain level of satisfaction along with the horror. It had been on that night that she and Lupus had begun conspiring to kill their father. Sometimes Sarah wondered if they ever would have found the courage to get out from under his thumb were it not for that incident. I don't want to think about this, so why do I always think about it?

"Fuck." Sarah shook her head, running a hand through her violet colored hair before stepping into the shower. She hit the button to turn on the sonic waves and...nothing happened. "Huh?" Leaning down she realized that, had she been paying attention she would have noticed that the button she had tried to press wasn't a button at all. It was a knob. She turned it, then yipped in surprise as water spurted out of the nozzle above her head. On Macbeth, where the water supply came from underground aquifers and trade shipments, the precious, life giving liquid was at a premium. If you came from the economic strata that she had, you drank water and that was it. You didn't bathe in it, and you didn't swim in it. As the water flowed across her fur, running down her curves and soothing her scars, Sarah suddenly realized what she'd been missing.

Time became a non-factor and Sarah proceeded to lose track of how long she'd been in there. Steam rose from the bottom of the shower, enveloping her in a warm, foggy embrace she'd never experienced before. It felt soothing but alien. She didn't know quite what to make of it, other than that she enjoyed it and she didn't want to leave. Her legs started to get wobbly from the heat, but rather than turn down the water (she didn't know if she could) she sat down, leaning her back against the tile wall. Her eyes drifted shut and as she lay there, luxuriating. Part of her felt almost guilty, like she was taking something away from everyone else on this world. The other part of her though, the part that she let control her, figured she deserved it and that, quite honestly, if they had showers like this in the poor strata of their arcologies, water probably wasn't a problem to begin with. Besides, she thought to herself with a smile, I steal things from people all the time. Girl's gotta make a living.

"Sarah? You okay in there hon?"

Sarah's eyes drifted open at the sound of that familiar lisp. Smiling, her soggy tail wagging against the bottom of the shower, she said, "I'm fine. Why?"

"You've been in there almost an hour," Lupus said through the door, his voice still sounding concerned.

"What?" Sarah shook her head. "You're lying."

"Sis, it's been almost an hour, I swear," Lupus told her. "Are you sure you're okay? I don't want your teeth rattling out."

That caught Sarah's attention. He doesn't realize. "Come in and see for yourself," she told him.

The door opened without a second's hesitation. Sarah pulled the shower curtain aside and said, "What do you think?"

Lupus stepped up, eyes wide in wonder. "A water shower? They have those here? I thought..."

"Only rich people got water showers?" Sarah finished for him.

"Yeah." Lupus started pulling his shirt over his head. "Move over, I'm coming in."

Sarah shook her head. "There's not room enough for the two of us."

"Fine. Then you get out. Jax!" Lupus called over his shoulder, already down to his underwear.

Sarah rolled her eyes and stood up, stepping out and reaching for a towel to dry herself off. She assumed that's what the cloth things were for. She'd seen it in movies once or twice. "I told you there's not room enough for two."

Jax appeared in the doorway. "What?"

Lupus pulled off his shorts and stepped into the shower. "Water shower. Get in here. Now."

Jax looked disbelievingly at Sarah. The female lupine jerked her head in the direction of the shower. "I don't know how you'll fit..."

A hand appeared around the corner of the shower curtain, crooking its finger in a 'come hither' gesture. Jax smirked and said, "Oh I'm sure we'll find a way."

Sarah rolled her eyes and left the two boys to their fun while she returned to the living room. She kept the towel wrapped around herself as she sat down on one of the couches. It was leather, so she didn't need to worry about making a stain. Closing her eyes and resting her head on the back cushion she took a deep breath through her nose, and then out through her muzzle. E-diffusers. Fresh fruit. Water showers. It's almost too much to believe, she thought to herself. Except it was real. It was all real. As she slipped into nap mode she sighed happily. Macbeth would soon be nothing but a memory. She'd escaped from the pit into a world of wonders she had only ever dreamed of. And, soon, she, her brother, and Jax would begin building their empire. An empire where every single one of those wonders would be theirs. I just wonder what we'll call ourselves?

There was another thought in her mind that came up as she had a moment to relax. Cadman Dane. He reminded her of her father. She didn't want to say anything. It would send Lupus into a spiral. But he had that same quality she'd seen in other men...the quality that told her he got what he wanted, and he didn't care how. It also meant she didn't trust him. And he doesn't trust us. Which is a recipe for trouble.

Sarah stood up. She knocked on the bathroom door and called out, "I'm gonna go walk around a little."

There was a muffled moan, followed by something that sounded like an "OK". Sarah smiled and got dressed. Lupus and Jax would be in that thing when she came back, no doubt about it. Pulling on her boots she closed the apartment door behind her. Time to find out what this Cadman was all about. And then, decide what to do about him.