Just an Undercity Rat - Julie Steimle (top fiction books of all time .txt) 📗

at his fingers he saw the familiar color of green electrical fluid, proof of a leak. Peering under the casing, he could see some corrosive wear on a part next to the polarized cell coated with strange rust colored grime near where the leak originated. He tried to rub some of it off but it was stuck fast. 

“Something wrong?” Alea Arden stepped behind him.

Startled, Jafarr glanced up at the man. “Your ship needs some checking over. This one is covered in some sort of grime.”

Arden smiled and crouched down.

“Penchee. We call it penchee. It comes from flying through the ice clouds and dust. It will thaw, but that lubricant drip should have been checked.” Alea Arden looked Jafarr in the eye, seeking the source of his interest. “You have a keen eye. Have you thought of becoming a Surface Patrol officer?”

Jafarr stood up and brushed off his knees, smirking though he tried to hide it. “No. I plan to be an electrical engineer like my father.” 

His eye caught on the two cadets who had followed the Alea into the docking bay. They had passed them, going over to a pair of flight scooters that were much larger than they both were, attempting to climb on. Jafarr was about to walk away but the Alea mentioned frankly, “Funny, you seem to know you way around ships, like you have flown one. Most undercity boys don’t have that experience.”

Jafarr’s chest tightened. Surface Patrol people had a reputation for being very observant. That was a problem.

Seeing Jafarr’s discomfort, Alea Arden glanced around first then said in a lower voice, “Out of all the students here, I think you’d make a great Surface Patrol officer.” 

It was an honest compliment. And looking at Alea Arden, his manner and the mark on his right palm it was clear he was decent Guard Class man. Jafarr’s smile became more real, though guarded and small. 

But the roar of a flight scooter engine starting made everyone jump, including the head Alea. Everyone turned to look at the two cadets who were mischievously grinning. As the motor hushed down to a buzzing whir, Alea Arden glared back at her, making the girl duck before she and the boy steered their vehicles out of the cavern into the exit tunnel. Most of Jafarr’s class was still shaken from the earlier fly-by from their trip through the corridor, though he glared after her also knowing she did that on purpose just to freak them out.

Jafarr shook his head and returned the frankness Alea Arden had shown him once she was gone. “But the Surface Patrol works in conjunction with the People’s Military. I couldn’t work with the People’s Military, not for any reason. I’ll stick with engineering, thanks.”

Giving a dismayed nod, Alea Arden extended his hand and wished the Jafarr luck. Jafarr took it just as Dzhon approached the two.

“Jafarr! This is so surfaced!” Then turning to Alea Arden, Dzhon exclaimed, “Alea, how early can a person sigh up?” 

The Alea had a genuine smile, but Jafarr shook his head, closing his eyes.

“If you were an adult we could take you right away. However, as a minor you must enroll with your parents’ approval,” Alea Arden said. Then Alea Arden turned to Jafarr, whom he could see was perturbed by his friend’s choice. “Jafarr…That’s quite an uncommon name—an ancient one. Doesn’t it mean—?”

       Very quickly, Jafarr replied to cut him off, “I know what it means. My mother had a fondness for the unusual.” 

The Alea closed his mouth and peered more intently at Jafarr, taking in the full image of this undercity boy—his pallor, his eyes and seer-like dark hair. Jafarr looked somewhat nervous, and he gazed about the hall as if trying to find another subject to talk about. But when his eyes crossed the hall, they fell on Alzdar who was examining the computer console on the wall. He decided to join him, nodding to the Alea as he turned. “Excuse me.”

The Alea watched him go with sad interest in his eyes.

Still feeling the Alea’s eyes on him, Jafarr strode across the room over to his tall friend and pinched Alzdar’s arm to get his attention. 

“You look awfully conspicuous looking at those,” Jafarr said in a low voice as if just starting a casual conversation. “Remember the Surface Patrol is trained to watch people.”

Alzdar nodded then turned from the machine to look at the other students.

The two boys leaned against the metal wall and sighed, letting silence be their conversation. Both stared at the closed door of the docking bay. Beyond that was a world they could only dream about. Cold. Lifeless. Airless. But the sun…it was real there.

Someday.

 

[2] Would be 9 Arrassian years.

 

Interrupted Departure

Their tour of the docking bay lasted about twenty minutes. It was cut short when a group of cadets entered the room. These were older cadets, older than the children they saw anyway, on their last leg of training before they could be admitted into the Surface Patrol officially. The troop, led by an Alea, saluted Alea Arden; and Arden nodded to them.

“It is time we go. This hall needs to be used for training. Please exit and follow me back to the entrance hall,” the Alea said as if he were a tour guide rather than a military leader.

Their teacher barked a fiercer command and clapped her hands. “Line up!”

All the students filed into their places at once along the wall. The Alea smiled when he watched them then nodded to the teacher. She led them behind Alea Arden, and they marched back into the narrow halls that led back through a rather direct path to the entrance hall. There were a few checkpoints, but it was obvious that these halls were meant for direct flight from the inside to the outside, and to go from one place to the other was made very convenient. The trip alone took no more than five minutes.

As they walked they noticed the other Surface Patrol officers busy with their duties in the areas they had not toured. Several different kinds of men and women in four different uniform styles marched around carrying regulatory material, some hefting vis-pads, others leading cadets. They mostly saw cadets though, all wearing purple suits with those white chevron and stripes. The youngest of them toddled after an older version of himself, both of them wearing mourning strands and identical unhappy expressions on their faces. Their faces only lit up at the sight of Alea Arden, who patted both of them on their heads as he passed by.

When they reached the threshold of the district, facing the doors once again, they noticed the gatekeeper directing a young man in a silver gray uniform with short red hair on the procedures of gate keeping.

“Is Anzer Tellovii ready?” Alea Arden said to the gatekeeper.

The young redhead looked nervous and took a breath, eying Jafarr’s class critically as if they were all suspected criminals.

“We’ll find out,” the gatekeeper responded. He then nudged the young man to move forward.

Alea Arden turned to the class and said, “Before you go, you must submit to another search. Procedure.”

The students glanced at each other.

Anzer Tellovii, the redheaded soldier, stepped forward and instigated the search—having the students also press their thumbs against a pad to validate the completion. It took a bit longer than the first search—but then the young man looked nervous, it obviously being his first search on the job. When he reached Dzhon, the boy snickered. Anzer Tellovii peered at him hard. But when he reached Jafarr he paused and held up the cards he took from Jafarr’s jacket pocket.

“Leave those,” the regular guard said to the young man. “He came with them. They’re his.”

But the Anzer eyed Jafarr as he put them back in his pocket, huffing. When he was done, he had Jafarr press his thumb on the pad. Anzer Tellovii looked at it along with the name that came up. His eyes flickered on the name and then returned to it a second time. Jafarr tried to contain the slight blush that threatened to burn his ears whenever people did read his name, maintaining a straight face.

“Zeldar?” the Anzer said aloud.

Alea Arden took in a breath. His expression changed as he looked at the undercity boy once more.

“Are you done?” Jafarr said, glancing back at the other classmates behind him in the line as if to hint the Anzer was wasting time.

The Anzer would have snapped a response, but an impatient huff from his supervisor insisted that he hurry, so he continued down the line, checking another boy, then Aldzar, and then a girl. When he finished, he handed the results to Alea Arden and nodded.

Alea Arden smiled once again, taking the information, then waved the students toward the door, still keeping his eyes on Jafarr as if had suddenly realized that he ought to something about him. As they moved to open the pedestrian door they heard the com buzz. The gatekeeper answered it.

“Alea Arden.” An officer alerted him.

The Alea promptly joined him inside the access booth then quickly stepped out again.

“Class, I need you to line up in an orderly manner along the wall. The Kevin is approaching.”

Their teacher clapped sharply. “Line up!”

They moved directly without too much giggling and whispering despite their inclination to under the excitement. Their instructor had to only order them to be quiet twice before the front gate beeped alerting them of oncoming traffic.

Jerking sharply, the front gate opened. Zooming in was a great car, shiny with official symbols on it. It was like being up close to a celebrity at a private concert. Three flight scooter escorts accompanied it, all the officers dressed in black Alea uniforms.

The vehicle’s pilot door opened efficiently, tucking the panel into the ceiling with a silent whirr. They expected a chauffer to step out of the flight car and open the door for a venerable looking dignitary, but instead a red haired thickset man in the later half of his life climbed out of the seat wearing a uniform of rich blue decorated with the Arrassian symbol on the chest. He did not move to open another door, but stood up as if he were the dignitary. They all had the sinking feeling that the pilot was the Kevin himself. 

Jafarr squared his shoulders with his classmates, watching the dignified form march into the gate room, marching right up to the head Alea. Alea Arden saluted him, lifting his right palm forward, exposing the Guard Class brand mark that had been burned into his hand—the same plain symbol on the hands of Jafarr’s Guard Class and Servant Class classmates. The Kevin saluted him back, showing the same brand on his palm.

Alea Arden quickly explained to the Kevin the presence of the company of the students, and they all straightened up to give a good impression.

The Kevin nodded to him then marched towards them.

Jafarr could feel his heart sinking into his shoes. This man had an entirely intimidating manner, and his affect on all around him made every one feel unworthy. Anzer Tellovii tried to look more responsible and even Alea Arden, with his usual casual manner as the Kevin’s second, stood straighter with a pleased