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Stories from the Verse
Re Verse All
Chapter 90: Beam 87
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Takano 41
Despite the fact that at some point Sophia covered them both with a blanket and snuggled next to him, the white-haired man did not sleep well. Maybe part of it was the muscle aches from the physical climb. More of it was the sheer complexity of the task he had undertaken, problems he was now anticipating but had not really resolved, and the realization that as they approached the surface traffic would worsen, trucks that did not descend as deep as this bringing goods to the upper levels. He had not yet encountered a truck, but knew that it was going to be a problem when it happened.
He woke, groggily, at a time he decided was extremely early. He should go back to sleep, but did not see that happening--he hadn’t had any alcohol for a few days now. He could check the computer for the time, but since he couldn’t remember having done so previously it would tell him nothing. His best bet was to wait for others to awaken.
There were going to be problems when everyone started awakening. It appeared that at least here Varlax had wrangled them into apartments, so the bathroom situation was addressed. However, food was limited, and he would prefer not to exhaust it prematurely. He walked down to the screen in the main room and ordered a hundred assorted breakfast sandwiches and a like number each of breakfast potatoes and single serve milk and orange juice. Satisfied, he left the compound and headed for the next one.
As he walked in the dimly lit hall he mused on the notion that he could just keep walking. He could leave these people to fend for themselves, find their own path to the outside, figure out what to do when they got there. Sophia, Bron, Bob, and Dawn could always find him, and would each in their own way understand. Sophia would give him a good reaming out, but wives did that and husbands endured it since the dawn of time, so that was no big deal.
Without thinking, he stopped at the next door and opened it. It appeared again that everyone had been pushed into apartments; some loose gear was lying in the common area. He repeated his breakfast order for the new address, hoping that the system would hold itself together long enough to feed everyone edible food and potable beverages.
He continued his journey to the third complex, to repeat the process once more, and then returned to his own apartment and his own bed.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with five other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #385: Characters Ascend. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
