The Dead Zone Sovereign

Chapter 30: The Open Circuit

It took three days to get the salvage from the broken core of Sector Seven. The days were measured by the thawing and refreezing of the chemical slush in the Great Sump not by the lights in the administrative grid. Valen worked with his hands inside the dirty housing of the primary turbine. His muscles hurt from trying to move a retaining collar that had stuck to the central drive shaft. Every time he used his wrench it sent a shock through his arms. This reminded him that things do not come apart easily.

Noa stood on the catwalk writing in her ledger. She was counting the pieces that Tor and the salvage crew were taking from the pit. The air in the vault was thick with a smell from the old protein vats.. The green mold was starting to fade as it did not get the nutrients it needed.

"Noa called down her voice echoing off the walls. We got fourteen pieces of steel shafting. Each one is eight inches thick and six feet long. If Gar can cut them in half at the delta forge we will have iron to fix the Long Record before the mid-winter ice comes."

Valen replied, "Then we build a sled using the iron plates from the turbine housings. We cannot leave this metal behind. The mountain is dark. The materials it has are the only things that are valuable now. If we do not take these shafts back to Node Fourteen the frost will bury them deep that we will not find them next time."

Tor hit the retaining collar with a sledge making a loud noise. The metal moved a little and some dried starch pellets fell from the ceiling.

"The old system did not build things to be taken apart " Tor said. "It built things to run until they stopped and then it expected us to melt them down into material. This is not engineering; it's a loop that was never meant to be opened."

Valen said, "It is a loop now. My wrench is working on the loosened bolt."

By the day the salvage caravan was ready to cross the Great Sump again. The three tons of steel were put on three sleds, each with runners made from old panels. The men from Node Fourteen joined, wearing blankets and harnessed to the ropes.

The crossing was slow and hard. The yellow fog made it hard to see. The sun was just a distant spark. Valen kept his eyes on the causeway his boots finding traction on the narrow stones. The sleds moved through the slush below.

Twice the back runner of the sled slipped and the men had to pull it back onto the stone before the acid water damaged the metal.

When they finally saw the gate of Node Fourteen the afternoon light was fading. The settlement was active with smoke rising from the ventilation shafts and the sound of iron chisels echoing.

Elena was waiting for them her copper cap covered in frost. She did not ask about Sector Seven; she looked at the steel and the mens faces.

"The pylon is working again " Elena said, leading Valen and Noa up the stairs. "It is not the node this time. The vibration is coming from the south past our river delta. It is a pulse, three strikes and then a ten-second gap."

Noa asked, "Is it Node Eleven? Kaels node was stable when we left."

Valen said, "It is not Kael. This is a broadcast someone using an iron hammer on a foundation block. They are using the language we used but counting in threes instead of fours."

Noa whispered, "The third sector, Node Three was the primary marine registry. If there are people they have been running on an isolated grid for over forty cycles without connection to the mountain core."

Valen said, "They must have felt the feedback wave when the transmission towers melted. They know the system is open and they are checking to see who is still standing."

Tor said, "We cannot answer them from here. Our pendulum at the river intake is not strong enough to send a signal past the delta channels. If we want to talk to Node Three we have to use the Long Record to carry the line down the coast."

The next phase of the freeze was spent preparing for the voyage. The steel from Sector Seven was moved to the foundries, where Cors blacksmiths worked to reduce it into plates and angles.

Valen spent his days in the shipyard, where the Long Record was being transformed. Its hull was being covered in turbine steel. The bow was being built up into a sharp wedge to split the shore ice.

Mara supervised the storage modifications converting the cargo bays into cabins. They packed the ship with charcoal salted fish and copper wire.

Mara said one evening "The sea is changing. The water is losing its elasticity becoming heavy and thick like oil. The ice is not just forming along the rocks; it is rising from the bottom in cakes. If the wind shifts, to the south before we clear the white cliffs the channel will close behind us. We will be stuck until the spring thaw."

Valen said we should not let the wind get ahead of us. He was looking at the horizon where the grey sea met the grey sky. We know what we are up against now Mara. Every day we stay in this valley the system gets stronger. The cold gets worse. The people who made the system are gone,. The rules they made are still working. The winter is not an accident it is a plan that will keep going until the whole area is frozen solid.

They set sail from the delta pier on the day. The Long Record moved through the harbor ice with a crunch its strong bow breaking through the ice with ease. This made the blacksmiths who were watching from the shore cheer. The crew was small with Valen at the helm Noa at the chart table Tor managing the sail lines and three hunters from the delta who were there to help with the anchors.

The journey down the coast was very quiet. The black cliffs of the mountain node disappeared into the grey mist behind them. The sea was empty with no boats or machines in sight. The silence was different here it was a quiet that came from the ocean swells hitting the caves below. The air was cleaner. It was very cold and it went right through their wool coats.

By the afternoon they saw the white cliffs through the sea mist. These cliffs were not like the ones in the north they were made of limestone and rose straight up out of the water. The surfaces of the cliffs were carved into patterns by the waves. Noa reported that the magnetic variance was rising again and the compass needle was pointing down towards the water. Valen said this was the entry point for Node Three.

The entrance to the node was an opening at the water level with a big iron beam holding it up. There was a timber boom across the channel, which was chained to the cliff. Valen brought the Long Record to a stop in front of the boom. Noa took an iron bar. Hit the metal plates of the bow three times waiting for a response. After a minutes the chains started to move and the boom opened, revealing a narrow channel into the heart of the limestone mountain.

Tor said that someone was turning the chains by hand as there were no machines making the noise. Valen guided the Long Record into the opened gap. Inside Node Three they found a cavern with a high ceiling, supported by iron columns. The air was cold. It was dry and smelled like chalk. They saw a group of people standing near the landing stage dressed in coats made of sea-otter skins and hemp fabric.

The man in charge Jaron was tall and broad-shouldered with a beard and a long iron boat-hook. He said they had been watching the horizon for a long time waiting to see who would come out of the smoke. Valen introduced himself and Noa. Said they were not an administrative entity but the people who broke the transmission lines at the peninsula. Jaron was surprised. Invited them to the registry house.

The registry house was a timber structure with windows made of polished horn. Inside they found an oak table with hand-drawn marine charts. Jaron explained that his people had been maintaining Node Three as a community since the unlinking. They had survived by fishing and trading with settlements and ignoring the administrative scripts from the mountain. Jaron said they cut the copper lines forty years ago and had been running their log since then.

Noa asked why they broadcast the count through the stone. Jaron said it was because the static charge, in the rock had inverted when they cut the peninsula cables. This charge had gone into the deep-sea cables. There was a secondary core, Node Zero, three hundred miles into the deep water. This was the root directory.

Valen set his cup down. Looked at the old harbor master. The old man did not include Node Zero on his list he said. His list stopped at eighteen.

Because Node Zero is not a place where people work Jaron explained, pulling out a chart and spreading it over the other maps. It is where the system was first made. It is where the original rules were written before the first big pole was put into the ground. When the mountain stopped working the automatic safety systems inside Node Zero started working. It thinks the whole area has been badly damaged, Valen. It is making a plan to reset everything.

What does a reset mean for the coast Noa asked, her hand shaking a little as she held her pen.

It means everything will be turned off Jaron said. It means the system will stop all power to the coast shutting down all power sources, all furnaces and all water valves from the ice to the cliffs. It will stay that way for forty-eight hours to clear the memory. Then it will send out new machines from the underwater factories to start again. If that happens Noa, everything we have made. Your delta, Kaels reef, our caves. Will be gone.

How long do we have before the plan is ready Valen asked.

The underwater cables are working hard Jaron said, pointing to a line on the chart. Based on how it is working the plan will be ready in six days. If we want to stop it we cannot do it from the land. We have to take a boat out into the water find the main cable junction on the ocean floor and cut the connection before the reset command is sent.

The room was completely quiet the only sound the boom of the sea against the gates outside. The outer ocean was an unknown area of black water and huge icebergs a place where no wooden boat had ever gone and where the rules were made by the winter storms.

The Long Record can handle the sea Valen said, his voice steady. We covered the hull in steel, Jaron. The front of the boat is heavy enough to break through the ice. The frames are bolted with strong anchors.

It is not the ice you will have to fight Jaron said, his eyes looking at Valen. The system has its defense systems. The Iron Leviathans. They are machines that watch the underwater lines for damage. They are three hundred feet long Valen and their bodies are made of iron. If they find your boat they will not use lights or sensors; they will just run you down.

Then we will have to make sure they do not find us Noa said, her fingers tracing the line of the cable on the chart. The cable goes through a canyon two hundred miles out. The Maw. The water there is not too deep for our anchor lines to reach the bottom. If we can catch the cable with our hook at the mouth of the canyon we can bring the line to the surface. Use Kaels shears to cut it before the Leviathans find us.

The work for the deep-sea trip started within an hour. Jaron gave the Long Record two weights to use as anchors, as well as a long iron chain that had been taken from the old gates. His fishermen worked with Tor to make the mast stronger adding lines made of braided leather that could withstand the wind.

Valen spent the night on the landing stage checking the tiller and covering the rudder fittings in canvas to prevent the salt water from freezing. He felt no fear; he felt the reality of the choice they had made. They had broken the rules but freedom was not something that could be defended from one place. It was something that had to be taken across the area even if that meant going under three thousand feet of black water.

Noa joined him as the lanterns were being turned off her book wrapped in a pouch and secured to her belt. The moon had risen outside its light reflecting off the arches in patterns.

If we do not come back Valen she said softly her hand touching the steel of the ships rail. The delta will still have the furnace. Node Fourteen will still have their salvage. They know how to talk through the stone

They will keep the connection open Valen said, his hand closing over hers.. We are coming back Noa. We did not clear the mountain just to let a deep-sea cable erase our page.

They left the quay at dawn the fishermen pulling the vessel through the channel until the iron front cleared the iron gate. The outer sea was waiting for them a big grey expanse of waves and foam that stretched out toward the horizon.

The wind hit them immediately a blast that came straight from the ocean turning the sail into a hard sheet of canvas that pulled the Long Record forward. Valen gripped the tiller his boots bracing against the deck as the vessel lifted over the first big wave.

The journey continued.

The road was long. Valen was ready.

He took a step. The world was finally his.

The hundred miles of the deep-sea run were done under a sky that had lost all its variation turning into a uniform sheet of cloud that seemed to compress the horizon. The Long Record proved its design within the first six hours; the steel sheathing along the waterline prevented the hull from twisting under the forces of the waves.

Noa remained at the chart table working with Jarons map to calculate their position based on the speed Tor was maintaining. The deep-sea cable was not visible. Its presence was felt through the behavior of the compass needle, which had settled into a heavy alignment with the ships axis.

The depth is increasing rapidly Noa said, walking out to the steering cockpit. She held a line in her hand its cord stiff with grease. I dropped the lead ten minutes ago Valen. It did not find the bottom before the line ran out. The trench beneath us is a drop that extends past the limits of our instruments. If we miss the mouth of the canyon we will not have chain to reach the cable.

We will not miss it Valen said, his hands adjusting the tiller to meet a wave. The current is drawing toward the northwest exactly as Jarons logs indicated. The temperature of the water is rising. That is the discharge from the systems cooling lines. We are following the warmth of the machine, Noa.

Tor stood near the mast his eyes fixed on the rigging where the leather lines were singing under the tension of the wind. He had wrapped the halyard around the iron cleats his hands remaining close to the release hitch in case a sudden squall threatened to carry the mast over.

The clouds are dropping lower ahead Tor called out pointing toward a wall of fog that had risen from the sea. That is not ocean mist, Valen. That is steam. The thermal runoff, from the system is hitting the ice water right at the edge of the canyon.

The Long Record sailed into the steam bank five minutes later. The change was instant the cold sea air replaced by a damp mist that smelled like old sulfur and hot oil. This was the smell that was inside Sector Seven but now it was all around them covering the whole ocean. The Long Record could not see anything the waves disappearing into a white swirling fog that made the deck slippery with hot water.

Keep the bow on the compass Noa shouted from the door of the deckhouse holding her lamp so the damp air would not put it out. The static is getting Valen. The needle is shaking hard that the brass case is humming. We are right over the junction line.

The Long Record started to shake a rumble that came from the seabed like the sound of a big machine running under the water.

The Leviathan, Tor whispered, taking his iron ice-pick from his belt and looking into the steam over the side of the ship.

Through the swirling mist a shape began to appear one hundred yards away. It was not a rock. It was not an iceberg. It was a wall of iron that rose thirty feet out of the gray water its surface smooth and without any rivets or weld lines. The structure was three hundred feet long its rectangular front cutting through the ocean waves without moving up or down. The Long Record saw that it was an Iron Leviathan, a machine that fixed the deep-sea cables. It did not have windows or a bridge, a big crane on its upper deck to lift the cables from the ocean floor.

Get the sail down Valen said, his voice low and rough. Tor drop the halyard now. Do not let the flap.

Tor pulled the release. The heavy sail fell onto the deck. The Long Record stopped moving, drifting silently through the steam like a piece of ice.

The Leviathan passed the Long Record within fifty yards its iron side looking like a moving cliff in the white mist. The green lens on its front spun slowly its light passing over the rail of the Long Record without stopping. The machine did not see the deck or the people hiding under the sail. It only saw its iron and it did not find anything different.

The big vessel disappeared back into the steam bank its rumble fading into the sound of the ocean waves.

That was too close Tor said, standing up and pulling the sail off Noas shoulders. If the lens had looked down a little more it would have seen the ribs of the Long Record.

It did not see us Valen said, putting his hands back on the tiller. The machine follows its instructions, Tor. It does not look for things that are not supposed to be. We are part of the system now.

By noon of the day the steam bank cleared, showing a wide deep-water basin where the sea was calm and clear of ice. This was the Maw, a submarine canyon where the deep-sea cable came up over a shallow ledge before going down into the outer ocean.

We are on the ledge Noa said, checking the anchor line. The cable should be right under our ship, Valen. If Jarons drawings are correct it is inside a groove in the limestone floor.

Tor raised the iron grappling hook securing it to the anchor chain. He threw the hook over the side of the ship. The chain ran out with a loud noise its links disappearing into the dark water.

Now we wait Valen said, moving the rudder to let the current pull the ship across the canyon.

They moved slowly the hunters holding the anchor line to feel the hook moving along the bottom. For twenty minutes the iron prongs scraped across the limestone sending a faint vibration up the chain.

Then the line went tight. The Long Record stopped moving. The grappling hook had caught something that would not move.

We have it Tor shouted, throwing a rope around the capstan drum. It is not stone, Valen. I can feel it moving. It is the deep-sea cable.

The work to bring the cable to the surface was hard. Took a long time. Valen left the tiller. Joined Tor and the hunters at the capstan turning the drum one click at a time against the strong resistance of the ocean depth.

By mid-afternoon the cable came out of the water. It was six inches thick with a layer of dark lead plates wrapped in tarred hemp and steel wire. It was vibrating with a pitched hum its surface hot from the inside.

This is the loop Noa said, holding her lamp close to the humming cable. The system is complete Valen. The lead is already soft near the junction. If we do not cut it soon the command will clear the transmitter and the delta gates will lock.

Give me the shears Valen said.

He took the iron cutters and wrapped his hands in greased canvas. He hooked the jaws over the center of the steaming cable.

The static around the line was strong forming an aura that jumped between the steel wire and the iron jaws with a continuous crackle. Valen felt his thoughts blurring as the magnetic field threatened to override his memory.

Hold the line, Valen Noa screamed, her hands gripping his shoulders. You are not a machine, Valen. Look at the water. Look at the ship. You are here.

He opened his eyes his focus returning with clarity. He was a man with an iron tool. He was finishing the job.

He threw his weight onto the handles of the shears.

The metal groaned, the iron jaws biting through the tarred hemp and, into the soft lead jacket.

The cable split and a massive flash of violet light erupted from the severed ends. The ocean basin turned into a colorless void that lasted for three seconds. The disruption of the grid sent a feedback wave running back down the line the deep-sea water boiling into a mile-wide plume of white steam.

Three hundred miles away inside the rooms of Node Zero, the main computer stopped working. Its job of putting things together was interrupted its memory was destroyed and its reset script was deleted forever.

The two ends of the cable fell from the hook and went back into the dark water with a slow hiss that was lost in the sound of the waves.

The purple light around them disappeared, leaving the smell of the ocean and the sound of the waves hitting the ship.

Valen dropped the broken scissors on the floor his hands were shaking as he took off the burned wraps from his hands. He had burns on his skin where the electricity had passed through but he felt calm. His thoughts were his own and not connected to any other computer.

The needle on Noas compass spun around slowly before it stopped and pointed to the field of the planet.

The system is open Noa said quietly her book was still blank and her face was lit by the sunlight that came through the clouds for the time since they left the white cliffs.

We finished the job Valen said, walking back to the control room and putting his hands on the handle.

They put up the sail again and the wind filled it turning the ship back, to the coast where they would map the river the rocks and the caves. The winter would keep going the land was still unexplored. They had the chance to write their own story.

The journey went on.

The road was long the future looked good. Valen was ready.

He took one step, another and the world was finally his.

The end.