Author: Matthew Thomas Scarborough (aka Matt T. Brigs, Arnin, and probably a few other names here and there…)

E-mail: mts1172000@yahoo.com, maybe some others in the future.

I do claim all intellectual and such rights to something that is a product of my mind, emotions, spirit, imagination, and all that stuff, so no reprinting, publishing, distributing or selling without prior consent from me (in some tangible form) and hopefully where I’d get somethin’ out of it, though that isn’t really the reason I write. I write to express my imagination, to stretch it and expand it. I write for my emotion, when I’m depressed or in a melancholy mood, I write really well as I’m longing for an adventure of some sort. I write for intellect, to test ideas and consider and analyze possibilities. I write to yell, to comment, to criticize, to instill hope, courage, joy, love. I write cause I can, and I can because I write, weird how that works, eh? I write because I want to…well, ultimately, I write for a lot of reasons, those there and a lot more. But since it is my writing, I should hold some legal ground with it, huh? Uhm…so that’s that. Now onto the unnamed story, I guess, number 13…and this one’s different, I forgot the # and if I had a luck number, it’d be 13, just to spite people who say it’s unlucky and dare luck itself, for I make my own, isn’t that the nature of being human? Hmm…probably better stop with the philosophy, huh? I do enough of that in my writing as it is… : ) This is just in case someone gets a hold of this so they know. : )

Oh yeah, tell me what you think in an e-mail to one of those addresses (if one doesn’t work with being full or somethin’, just send to the other one.)

Prologue

On the height of technology…mankind has taken charge of his own evolution. The world was made perfect, perfect after the image of man. There is no hunger, no racial division, no governmental strife. There is no war, no famine, no shortage, no long, hard labor with little to know pay. It is a time of peace and prosperity as humanity forges onward to the future…

Of course, you’d have to understand some things about this future. Mankind has evolved, so to speak, but it has not been natural, but rather controlled and self directed. This alone is not a problem. Power alone can be good or evil, but is most often in the neutral category, depending on the will of man to direct it to be good or evil. In this perfect world, genetic engineering has allowed for people to create perfect babies and have them artificially, perfect people having perfect babies without all the mess.

The newly erected cities around the world were veritable islands themselves, surrounded by massive walls and possessing commuter air travel that would quickly take them between those cities as they wished. They were blue and crystalline appearing, glittering buildings in the sun set atop plates that towered above the surrounding landscape…though below many of them had emerged a swampy, toxic, wasteland, such that no one left the city save by air.

New Chicago was built in the heartland of the present day United States of America, not far from St. Louis, which was destroyed by a tidal wave. Hmm…yes, that’s important. The Earth went through a dense series of meteors which impacted the surface. Fortunately, it was mostly ocean impacts, but the tidal waves that spread along the waters of the world were devastating, destroying many major cities world wide.

Though the waves subsided some, coastal cities were flooded and lost. The impacts being in the water were indeed fortunate though, as it gave time for people to evacuate. But even so, millions were killed when a meteor crashed into New York and another into Chicago. Other major cities of the world were hit to, and there was some fallout for several years.

During this time, it was found that women and men, for the most part, seemed to become infertile. So then there seemed to be no choice…it was to be the age of genetic engineering…

People were grown and implanted into the mother for a while. As time went on, that became unnecessary. Babies were grown perfect, born perfect, and raised by the parents (parents being the two people that supplied the genetic material.) They would raise the child in this utopian society. All was well.

Fifty years after this time, one couple accidentally conceived a baby “the old fashioned” way. Though the scientists recommended against it and doctors suggested an abortion, it was not done. The mother, thought cesarean section (what she did heed the doctors on), delivered the baby. He was healthy, but different. All the people in this society had blond hair, a perfect shade, and blue eyes that glittered so. They were perfectly built to specifications of mental and physical perfection, all the men the same height and build, all the women likewise. There was variance in the faces, but that was really about it. But this baby was born with silver hair and gray eyes that seemed so have a light sheen of green tint to them.

He was named Arthur Renae Carmal. He grew into a fine young man. At age 17, he became enamored of a young lady a year his senior, Maria Victoria Van Chiesmal. They grew close, but at first, her parents would hear nothing of it. Arthur’s parents were of a powerful family, but his difference was striking. For the next four years they carried on as such. The world was blissful and they knew one day they would be able to be together.

But one fateful day, the world would be rocked…and Arthur would never see things the same…

Chapter 1: Gathering Clouds

Arthur stood on a short three foot railing of a balcony, outside, looking at the transparent blue wall of the city. Maria stood just behind him, looking out as well. The city of New Chicago glittered below them in the blue tinted rays of the setting sun. The city of New Chicago was a total of five layers, and the lowest was 150 meters above the ground. The ground level on the surface of the earth was swampy muck-land, sludge and waste caused by the tidal waves that had reached so far inland long before. There were nine support pillars arranged in a square shape, the center one the largest. These went to the bottom of the first layer of the city, a massive circular plate over 7 miles long. The central pillar and the four closest to it went up to a second level dish, smaller, but still significant. The central pillar continued up and harbored three more circular levels of the city, each progressively smaller.

From the farthest outer reach of the lowest and widest level were semi-transparent blue crystalline walls that slanted inward as they rose, such that they formed a sort of open ended cone to the top of the city. Though in this perfect world there was no real need for classes, those families that had greater influence lived on the topmost level. The walls never directly touched any of the levels, after all, air-cabs used the spaces to go up and down, but intricate supports were lined from each plate out through the open space to the wall for support. Each level also had a similar wall, twenty feet high, which would keep youngsters from falling to their deaths.

To get between towns, travel by airship was used. It was fairly quick, though depending on the area of the world, travel times and conditions varied. The world was really very marsh-like after the cataclysms that had befallen it. Due to some of the meteor crashes, icebergs had broken loose from both poles and drifted into warmer waters, rising the water level around the world, and of course, some of the tidal waves had traveled quite far inland, devastating the world. This was also the reason the fifteen major cities of the world were built like they were.

Even despite having a child “naturally”, a taboo, the Carmal family was still quite powerful and strong, and Arthur was the youngest son of his parents three children. Maria was the eldest of two daughters. Excepting the families on the top, couples were only allowed to have one child. Even on the top, more than two was considered quite unbecoming, another reason Arthur had been looked down on. But his life had faired well. He had had some trouble, but as a child of more or less aristocrats, he had managed mostly unscathed. His life had passed quickly, but other than his face, eyes, and hair, he was almost identical to all the other boys his age.

He stood on the ledge of the balcony on the top level of his ouse, Maria behind him, watching the blue sunset through the blue walls. The were both wearing similar suits. His was a full body blue suit with white strips under his arms and down his sides to his feet, short sleeves, and matching shoes. The whole suit seemed to be made of a rubbery substance, and in the mid area, just below the waste was a little thicker. Maria’s suit was pink with white stripes down the sides, and her shoes were white. Also, her suit was long sleeved. Her blond hair, midway down her back in length, blew gently in the mechanically generated breeze. His silver hair, also shoulder length, gently blew behind him as well.

“You know something,” he started, still looking at the sunset, “I’ve heard that from outside, it’s orange and yellow…”

“Really?” Maria asked.

“Yeah…I think I’m gonna go out and find out someday.”

“Won’t that be dangerous?”

“Maybe…but I just wanna know if it’s true…I wanna know what it really looks like.”

Maria was quite for a few moments. “I wanna know too. When you go, can I come with you?”

Arthur turned to her. “Might be dangerous.”

“I’m not afraid if you aren’t.”

Maria started to climb up, Arthur put out his hand to help her. He took his hand and helped her up onto the wide railing on his left side. The thick stone support pillars didn’t even creak at the weight. She sat down with his help and dangled her legs over the railing. Arthur took a deep breath. He was about to say something that was making him nervous and Maria knew it. She took hold of his left hand again and held it.

“What is it?” She asked.

Arthur sighed and looked deep into her glittering blue eyes. She gently squeezed his hand. He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it, looking up. Maria tilted her head and looked up too. There was a gray cloud moving above the city from the east. As it cleared the halo opening at the top of the wall where inbound and outbound airships would enter and exit, they could see the rays of the sunset hitting the side of it. This was no ordinary cloud. Excepting this cloud, the sky was clear and blue, but its gray mass was dark and foreboding above the city.

People all over the city, on all the levels, if they were far enough out on the plates could see it. In a matter of less then ten minutes, the city had almost stopped. Men in gray suits, women in red suits, young men in blue suits, young women in pink suits, boys in yellow suits, and girls in white ones, all looking upward at the sky.

People stood watching for over an hour, neither the weather forecasters nor the weather direction service had issued any notice of this happening. No warnings of storm or cloud either natural or manmade. The cloud began to swirl, forming a light funnel on the bottom, and then that funnel lowered into the opening. As it filled the opening, the outer portion of the cloud surrounded the city’s walls, clouding them over and blotting out the last rays of the sunset. Support girders for the walls held, but some broke and fell to the plates blow, smashing into them.

The railing shook and Maria fell forward, but Arthur quickly reached out with his hand and took hold of hers as she fell. He hefted her lighter frame back up onto the balcony railing. and both hopped down onto the balcony itself. She clung to him and he held her tight.

“What’s going on, Arthur?”

He answered nothing, but looked up at the cloud that was violating their city’s airspace. The funnel was getting longer and spreading out. The city shook, throwing them both down again. Maria was flung to the balcony railing, but didn’t fall over, Arthur to the floor. The, the funnel dispersed…and the cloud was sucked into the city as if a powerful vacuum had been created and it was being blown in.

Arthur got to his feet and held Maria. They both looked up. Another violent shaking threw them apart. Arthur hit the ground again.

“Maria! We have to get out of here!”

People on the lower levels screamed as a sudden rush of gray and brown overtook them. The cloud flooded into the city in a powerful rush that threw people to the ground and into walls. The gas seemed to be doing more then just the initial impact. But if shattered windows and lights, sent any airborne vehicles into the ground, and filled the whole city. From outside, it looked like a blue chemists’ test tube, roughly bell shaped, and with a wispy rising column of smoke raising out the hole at the top, as if it were a test tube bubbling over or releasing a rising plume of chemical smoke.

“Maria!”

Arthur jumped to his feet as Maria seemed to pass out and keel over the edge of the railing. He jumped over after her. They both fell toward the ground, but he adjusted himself to fall faster. He caught up with her limp body in the air at around the third story of their five story drop. He took her under his left arm and reached out with his right arm, grabbing hold of the eves of the first floor. His strong right hand clamped down on it like a vice, slowing their fall significantly, but the force of their fall broke the eve and they crashed into the ground. Arthur landed feet first and then rolling, the whole time cushioning Maria’s body in his arms.

Bruised and battered, he held her in his arms as he stood up, her hair dangling below her.

“Maria! Maria! Can you hear me!?”

She just lay there in his arms, in his gentle grip. He quickly kicked open the door and went inside. Everyone was out, having fallen into paralysis or passed out, he didn’t know which, doing whatever they had been doing. He looked at the television wall and saw that whoever was anchoring the news was in a similar state, having collapsed on the desk in front of him. Though with the camera angled down at the floor, the camera operator having fallen likewise, only the news anchor on the right side of the desk could be seen on the top right of the screen.

The wood facade was the same, the dark, warm, brown hard floors of the kitchen/dining room, the lighter blue living room with the television that he could see through the large wall opening. Arthur’s brother and wife were there, both in the same state, on the plushy, soft white couch. Having fallen into that state in each other’s arms.

Arthur carried Maria to the plushy white chair next to the couch and set her down, kneeling at her feet. He held her right hand to his cheek as he bowed his head forward and closed his eyes.

“Maria…I’ll find out what’s going on…trust me.”

He stood up and started to run, but a broom handle stretched out in front of him. He tripped over it and hit the hard wood floor of the kitchen/dining room. He caught himself with his hands, but still hit pretty hard. He rolled over and sat up.

“Ms. Percy?”

Ms. Percy had long been the cook for the Carmal family. She struggled to speak. Arthur quickly came close to her. She was laying on her stomach and her blond hair was spread across her back. He was holding onto the broom. Arthur held her hand and lifted her up, leaning his ear close to her mouth to hear what she was trying to say.

“Go see…your mother…quickly…child…”

Arthur nodded to her, and she fell limp. In record time, he bounded up four flights of steps and crashed through the door to his parents room.

The white room was quiet, save for the airy white curtains fluttering in the large open glass door to the balcony. The room had but the large bed with umbrella over it and curtains of its own hanging down over it and blowing in the breeze, all of them white as well except the wooden supports and headboard. There was a large door off the side of the room opposite the window that lead to the bathroom and closet.

Arthur’s eyes shifted to the bright white floor. His mother was on her hands and knees, stumbling toward him. He rushed to her and knelt beside her. She raised her head.

“Arthur…my son…so you aren’t affected…”

“Mother-?!”

“Arthur…listen to me carefully…you have to enter the central complex…”

“Mother? I don’t understand! What’s happening to you?” Arthur’s questions came quick and exlamic. His senses were on edge and adrenaline high, and he was watching his mother drift away from him, perhaps forever...

“Arthur! Our fate…rests with you now…”

Arthur nodded. “Okay mother,” he said, taking a deep breath and trying to calm himself (which didn’t work all that well), “Tell me what to do.”

“Open…the middle dower on the head board of my bed. Take the card and push the button inside. Then go to the…entrance to the pillar. Find your father…and the council…they’ll know what to do…”

“But mother, there’s no middle-“

“Just push…it’s there…”

Arthur’s eyes started to tear up.

“My boy…my baby boy…how you’ve grown. You’re our only hope now…be brave…Ar…th…e…r…”

She fell forward. Arthur caught her in his arms and guided her gently. He lifted her in his arms and set her across the foot of the bed. He walked around the side of the bed and climbed onto it. He put his hands between the two dowers and pushed. Sure enough, with enough force, he pushed through. It split in the middle and opened inward. So well was its construction though, not even a crack could be seen when it was closed.

Inside was a small plastic card, unmarked, with a small square on one side and two magnetic strips opposite each other running lengthwise on the other side. He also saw a red button on a small gray box in the back. He pushed it in. Nothing happened, but it was his mother’s wish. He took the card and got off the bed. He walked around to his mother and knelt by her side. He kissed her forehead.

“Don’t worry mother…I won’t fail you and everyone else…I can’t…”

He stood up and ran from the room, he had no time to waste…

Chapter 2: Descent

Arthur’s steps echoed in the fog surrounding him. The dense cloud limited his vision to ten feet in any direction, but he knew where to find the main support pillar and the only one that reached the top level. It was capped with a tall building that towered over all the rest with its fifty stories. It was high in this building he would find the council. The city was quiet and his echoing steps and pants of breath were all the sound his ears would register.

He ran on in the fog until a large gray form began to take shape before him. He slowed as he approached it, it was the Capital Building, of course. The glass automatic doors had been shattered and either the fog or the damage prevented the sensor from detecting him. He carefully stepped through the opening, his shoes crunching on the shattered glass. The inside of the building had almost as dense a fog as the outside, though it was much darker.

He stepped forward and shouted, “Hello…?” But no answer came. His steps, now gentle and silent, came slowly as he walked into the darkness, his vision shortening to arms length. He walked in the direction as best he could tell was forward. He thought he could see someone, a gray form, standing a few feet beyond his vision. He jumped when it took form. It was a man standing up flat against the wall with a trickle of blood coming out of his mouth.

His heart now pumping, Arthur gently laid the man on the floor. It was the elevator attendant. He put his hands on the wall and slid to his right. Finding the elevator door nearest to him, he remembered he would need a keycard to operate it. He found the slot and noticed the pattern of the magnetic stripes. He took the white card from his pocket and slid it into the slot. A mechanical voice asked for thumbprint identification.

“Well…at least something works…”

He placed his thumb on the square on the top, doubting his would clear. After a few moments, the doors opened. Arthur stepped into the white cylindrical elevator. It was a dull white, not piercingly bright, though it was somewhat dim in the fog, and the button panel displaying floor numbers lay to the right of the sliding door from the inside. The circular room was roughly five feet in diameter, and spacious enough to keep passengers from feeling claustrophobic. “Have a nice day…” he heard the automated voice say as the doors closed.

“Yeah…thanks…”

Before he could push any buttons, the lift jolted and started downward. He looked around. This elevator was supposed to go up, he thought, not down. If it was going down, it was taking him deeper into the very heart of the pillar.

The room grew dark, almost black. A dim red light flashed on overhead. The walls lit up as computer screens activated, so did the ceiling and the floor. Arthur slowly stepped back, but bumped the wall behind him. The screens adjusted to show what would be outside, as if the elevators walls had become windows to the outside city. It was a little strange and almost like he was riding air descending through space. He now saw the damage to the city. As the elevator descended, he could see all the levels of the city and what had happened.

Fallen girders, crashed aircars, shattered windows, battered people and buildings, the former of which were collapsed on whatever they had fallen onto. Apparently, the screens were able to enhance the image, they could see deeper into the fog then he could. As he passed the fourth level from the top, he began to wonder when the elevator was going to stop.

He looked down at the ground and could see below him, the First Plate, the bottom level of the city. He again felt a little lightheaded as it seemed he was in a controlled fall, but he kept his composure. Soon, he bypassed that plate as well, going deeper into the pillar. The elevator continued its trek down, and he thought it would have to stop soon as the ground was only so far off. He looked out the sides. He saw the other eight pillars and the waste that surrounded their bases. It was as if the waste of all the ages of men was gathered here, sludge and tar and sediment from the flood mixed with it.

Plumes of smoke rose from the ground and Arthur began to wonder if all of it was natural, though he also remembered that there weren’t such plumes the time he traveled with his father to another city. He was glad he couldn’t smell the outside world as it seemed it would have to be most unpleasant. In the distance, he could see the tip of the setting sun…it was orange…

He looked back down. He was quickly closing on the ground, but the elevator didn’t seem to slow. He gritted his teeth. Surely they wouldn’t make a course that would kill the passengers? He kept his eyes open and fixed his jaw as it seemed to him the car sped up somewhat. He took a deep breath.

As his feet should have made contact with the ground, it opened up before him, a black pit that seemed to swallow him whole. His head jerked up with the passing of the ground, now looking up at the quickly shrinking circle of light above him. It was dark all around him and he wondered why the screens were even still on. As if in response to that thought, they flickered off, and he was left once again in the dark room with only a dim red light, the white car once again black.

He heard a dim hum from outside and felt the car begin to slow down. It finally came to a gentle stop. He heard a ding and the sound of doors opening. He turned around, realizing the door was behind him. He had gotten turned around somewhere during the descent. His eyes widened at what he saw.

(NTS: Revise later, I WILL NOT get stuck on one little part when I could just add to it later…)
Before him opened a large rounded room of three levels that stepped down to the center of the room where was a table with holographic emitters displaying several areas of the city. Around this table were several men, some standing, some leaning on the table and pointing at various areas, some sitting on chairs at the table accessing the computer terminals there. One had an electronic notepad he was writing on recording what was going on. The other tiers of the room were also bustling with activity. It was apparent they were attempting to analyze the situation.

The middle level which encircled the lower one and was connected to it by four separate sets of stairs leading down and this level housed computer terminals lined around the perimeter. The top level, connected by the upper part of those steps, had a hand rail around the center portion, but the outer walls were lined with displays, holographic and digital, maps which were also of the same, and terminals set into the walls. There were also two large halls leading out of the room from the top of the stairs on the left and right from where Arthur stood. One of the series of steps leading down was directly in front of him, and on the far wall was a massive map of the planet itself, the major landmasses, at least.

Two guards, both brandishing a sidearm, and each wearing a suit not unlike his, but black with silver as the secondary color, and both of their suits seemed to be somewhat more significant, perhaps having some armor plating of some sort, stood on each side of the elevator. They both turned to Arthur as he was surveying the room.

“State your name and show us your identification card,” the one on the right said in a commanding tone.

“Arthur Renae Carmal,” he replied. He wasn’t sure about the identification card, but he handed them the card he had used to get here.

“Dr. Carmal,” the guard on the left called out, “we have someone here claiming to be your son. Will you identify him?”

A man looking not all that unlike the others lifted his head up from the table display, his white labcoat swaying as he turned in their direction. He rushed up the steps and stopped at the top.

“Yes, that’s my son. Arthur, how did you survive?”

“Father…” Arthur said, holding back the urge to rush to him and cry or anything of the sort. “What’s happened? Is everyone…dead?”

The doctor shook his head no. “They aren’t dead…not yet. But we can’t go up there while that fog is there. But, you were up there, right?”

“Yes. Why?”

“It would appear,” a man said, stepping up beside Dr. Carmal, “that you are immune.”

“Immune, to what?”

“Arthur,” his father came up to him and put his hand on Arthur’s shoulder, “we’re in trouble. Our city, and all of our people.”

“Doctor…if your son is really immune…”

Dr. Carmal disregarded the words of his colleague. “Our own arrogance has brought this about, Lieutenant.” The doctor turned to address the man. “Through our genetic tampering, we made it easy enough for this plague to be formed. It’s because he wasn’t genetically preset that he IS immune, at least partially. I’m still not willing to put my son in danger saying he’s immune when he may not be.

“He is more than any of the rest of us, yes, but how much more? Besides, until we know for sure who sent this, we don’t need to take any rash actions.”

“Doctor Carmal, I think there’s no denying who caused this.”

A man who’s dark green suit with its many decorations walked toward them from the right, flanked by another man in similar garb, though less decorated.

“General.”

“We have two possible candidates for who launched this attack. I think you know which one did it.”

“General, we still can’t be sure. But whoever did do it, it would surly be futile to go against them while they have a weapon that can disable us so quickly.”

“Doctor, I have just received word that Tokyo has also fallen, as has New London. The last unaffected cities have been hit.”

At this proclamation, the clamor in the room died as everything ground to a halt.

“General, that’s impossible, the Norms don’t have that kind of technological power. Neither do the Avials. It wasn’t a bomb we were hit with, it was a cloud. Launching an assault on either won’t solve anything.”

“As much as I’d like to agree, Doctor, my superiors have decided the course of action. Right down to the numbers. Our battlecrusiers and combat gunships are already being deployed. I am to command the Excalibur. We have no say in the matter, Doctor.”

Doctor Carmal lowered his head and let out a sigh of exasperation. “So be it. Am I to stay here and work on finding a cure?”

“No, I want you to come with me. James, I know you are against this…that’s why I want you on my bridge. I won’t make it an order though.”

The doctor nodded, and looked at Arthur.

“Son, I want you to stay here, okay? It may not be exciting, but you’ll be safe.”

Arthur nodded. Already people were starting to file out of the room going down the right hallway to be briefed before heading out on their mission. The General and Doctor Carmal were among the last to leave, directing Arthur down the hall to the left. He stayed in the room a little while longer with the few people there, watching the projection over the table display a large cruiser that had come in from somewhere and onto which the war effort personal had loaded. It moved off quickly enough, though it seemed slow and lumbering to him. Flanked by two smaller cruisers and two dozen smaller gunships, it headed south over the horizon into the twilight. Arthur watched the display for a while longer, the twinkling stars in the sky looked so strange as he saw them above the horizon, not through the glimmering crystalline walls of his city…but the rising plumes of smoke and ash which were now above him.

Chapter 3:

Chapter X: Paradise Lost

A sword ringing pierced the cold still air. On the far end of the room, all eyes turned to see Mack. He had pulled the blade from its resting stone for a thousand years. The blade shimmered as it seemed a holy light from another plane was focused through its blade.