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Stories from the Verse
Multiverser: The Thirteenth Story
Chapter 31: Beam 206
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 374
Calmly but without lowering his gun, which he again cocked, Beam said to the next officer to come through the door, “There seems to be some kind of misunderstanding. We asked that maintenance man to show us how to get out of this insane plastic city of yours, and instead he brought us here and said that we were criminals. Just to be clear, my friends and I have the ability to kill you all and blow holes in your fake walls until we manage to break through one which actually does lead out into the real world. We just thought we’d be civil about it, give you the chance to help us. I mean, we’re here by accident anyway. It’s not like you want us here; we certainly don’t want to be here. So what’s the problem?”
This officer had the good sense not to draw a weapon, but about there it ended. He said, “I’m sorry. I can’t let you leave. It’s against the law to go outside.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Beam said. “Why would it be against the law to go outside?”
“It’s for your own protection, really. It’s not safe outside the city. Everyone knows that.”
“And how is it unsafe? What’s dangerous out there?” He wanted to ask what’s more dangerous than me, but decided to keep it simple.
“Dangers,” the enforcer said unrevealingly. “Everyone knows that there are Dangers outside.”
“That’s not terribly informative,” he said. “And it’s also not true. I don’t know that there are dangers outside, and my companions don’t, either. What, specifically, are the dangers outside?”
There was a moment of silence, and then Bob’s voice reported, he does not know.
“You don’t know. You’re risking your life to protect complete strangers from some imagined danger that you can’t even define. Who told you that there are dangers out there? Huh?”
The now befuddled man was losing his composure. “There are dangers. Everyone knows it. Why does it matter what they are?”
“There are several ways of dealing with danger,” Beam explained. “One way we often choose is to face it and eliminate it. But it helps to know what the danger is before you get there. Dragons? Done that. Armies? Done that. Wild animals? Done that. Zombie hordes? Giant robotic war machines? Aliens? Done that, that, and that. We laugh at danger. I could use a good laugh. What’s the danger?”
For a moment, the enforcer seemed stymied, but then he found an answer. “The vibgyor say that it’s too dangerous to go outside, and that no one is permitted to do so. That’s sufficient for me.”
“So, this is a matter of faith, right? You don’t have any facts to support your belief other than that someone you trust told you, and you believe them. I don’t suppose these, what did you call them? Doesn’t matter. I don’t suppose they benefit in some way from keeping everyone in the city?”
He looked confused at the notion, considering the idea, and then shook his head.
“The vibgyor guide us, and protect us. Without them, we’d be in trouble.”
Beam smiled to himself. He’d be willing to bet he’d found the beneficiaries of this weird situation. He could be wrong, but it smelled right.
“How about I meet these vibyour?”
The officer blinked, looking shocked, but then nodded.
“Perhaps that would be best. Yes.”
Nobody moved until Beam impatiently spoke.
“Lead me to them.”
“Oh! Yes, this way.” The officer led off, and they passed a line of officers and a doctor type. The doctor rushed past them to the wounded men, and the officers glared at them, but their guide told them of the decision. The officers settled, and Beam relaxed after they did. He thought that in the close confines they would still win, but odds of three-to-one were not good in a melee brawl at close range. Still, none of them looked hard, like Bron, who was at least twice the girth of any of them. None of them were willing to look at Bob for more than a half-second, and what with Ashleigh slipping around somewhere, and Sophia’s fire magery, and his favorite little deathdealer Dawn, he thought they could have won.
Better not to find out though.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
