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Stories from the Verse
Re Verse All
Chapter 132: Beam 108
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Hastings 225
Beam awoke a bit stiff and a bit sore, but considerably less so than he had expected. The regular climbs were becoming easier, and yesterday’s triple level had him in a positive frame of mind. Yesterday morning they were on level nineteen, and at one level a day were weeks from the surface. This morning they were on level sixteen, and had proved they could do two levels a day, putting them a week away.
He searched the computer and found that full breakfast with the pancakes and eggs and breakfast meats he had ordered for everyone a week or so ago, and ordered a hundred of them. For himself he ordered a loaded omelet with bacon and scrapple, and again bacon, coffee and orange juice, and a bit of hot sauce for the omelet. He took orders from Bron and Sophie, and was not surprised that Bron ordered steak and scrambled eggs or that Sophie ordered a single egg soft boiled with sausage, and oatmeal with strawberries and cream. He encouraged her to get more, telling her he hoped to climb two levels every day for the next week, but she said that would be plenty and she was sure he would stop for lunch at some point.
He did, hitting a pizza and sandwich shop on level fifteen before continuing to level fourteen. About halfway up to level fourteen they encountered a truck crawling down. “Stay to the right,” Beam shouted back to the mob behind him, and glimpsed the ranks tightening a bit. He knew with almost a hundred people behind him he couldn’t really supervise them, but hopefully they had learned and would give space for the machine. Also, hopefully the machine was still functioning with safeties the computer hadn’t disabled yet. They reached level fourteen without incident, and another truck emerged from the ramp while Beam was organizing them, trying to decide whether to feed them in the restaurants there or order delivery to their temporary housing. The truck decided him, and he rushed everyone into the dining space and out of the path of the vehicle.
Thus when they reached the apartments everyone had been fed and it was just a matter of getting settled. Beam was tempted to order some whiskey, but recognized that he hoped to reach level twelve tomorrow and he might not make it if he didn’t get an early enough start.
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 #403: Versers Innovating. 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:
