Beta reader chapter one
MEL. B
(BETA READER COPY)
Melbourne: a word meaning “mill stream”, also known as a watermill used to divert energy.
"It is the tale of one person contemplating the world and not wanting to be stupid."
-D.V Lindley
Prologue
Director Sorren gave Jason the order to execute the temporary Bioform Prisoner 001 at Sunset by permanently deleting the Mindspace from the Biosphere's Internal Network.
Two minutes after Sorren gave the order, Jason removed 001 from the lab, hauled the unconscious form down the hallway, strapped her into an escape pod, and deleted every trace of her name off of the Internal Network.
Dead, according to the terms and conditions of the Biosphere, Jason uploaded a new name to the permanent form's wristband and deleted himself from her memory.
Thirty seconds after the pod shot off into the dark, he realized he forgot to delete the profile off of her. Her profile was still attached to her wrist in a solid metal wristband.
With shaking hands he can only stare down at the same message on his tablet.
"Highly Dangerous Prisoner: Execute Upon Arrival if not Found Dead.”
He squeezes his eyes shut and tries to ignore his stomach twisting. He can still see the look on her face burned into the back of his eyelids, how she’d looked at him with the most genuine, complete trust and hope, more hope than she’s ever had before.
He'd ruined it.
The only comfort he can tell himself is knowing she won’t ever remember him. He can only hope she feels how much he cares, and whoever is down there, that they’ll be kind to her when they find her.
Chapter One
Purple mist rolls the horizon, over snow-capped mountains and icy glaciers. The time is 5:50am.
A white orb on the horizon begins to rise.
The first ones to see it are the Producers and Directors. They position themselves high above the clouds, out of sight from the rest of the Sphere. At Sunrise, ambient golden light bathes the Director's pearl trimmed pods with glittering roofs and the prestigious Producer's mansion in a canopy of warmth and iridescent shimmer.
Golden rays cast through hundreds of multi-colored panels that construct the Director’s office walls. Dappled light of every color dances on the floors and walls of their rooms.
At 7:30am, the white orb shines harsh onto the manicured Great Lawn and bright into the windows of dorms of the Block Four Academy, and at 8:00, dull and murky light casts onto the roofs of houses in Block 2 as morning fog rolls across their area.
When 8:59 turns to 9:00, a soft hum from the electrical circuits disrupts the already dead, eerie silence in Block One. There's a forced short second of latency before harsh lights flicker against chipped metal.
At 9:05, the resident’s cell lights flicker on.
The Biosphere.
'Eternal paradise'.
For ‘Everyone.’
Academy history classes tell students that the ground they stand on, the ground everyone stands on, was created from the center out, that the ancestors of the children sitting in their same chairs were the same ones that built the core. The Biosphere was constructed using a naturally formed, zero-waste bio-tech material that benefits both the creator and user, creating a fully-closed system with no waste and
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah BLAH BLAH BLAH. Who is even listening to this shit? Are you? I’m not. anyway. Moving on to the real story.
What it really is, is that people crave the comfort of knowing someone else is taking care of everything behind the scenes and that that ‘danger’ is a nonsensical concept or a word to describe a mild inconvenience.
The books given to them say that humans were unable to come together in a cohesive way, that they didn’t care about eachother enough, so that they could reach their full potential. Academy teachers say not a particular person was at fault, but that it was a systematic lack of support, education, and motivation to change.
I know that’s all fucking bullshit. I’d tell them that too, if I even had a mouth to speak or hands to throw.
Residents within the Biosphere are placed throughout the map. Some are in houses, others in apartments, it just depends on placement and luck. Nobody is born in Block One, you can only be sent there by Management. Most of the residents are in Block Two, a large, tapered strip of land with zero elevation. The residents closest to the Block Four mountains have the best view. Past the mountains lies Block Three.
I'm not sure where I am in the Biosphere. I know I'm in Block 0 but I don't know where it is spatially compared to everything.
I can see everything else in my head besides where I am.
I listened in to a conversation at a Producers breakfast through the music player on the wall, when one of them was eating pancakes and slurping orange juice and guffawing about something stupid. He said that they had found a loose end in the code. He laughed loud with his mouth full of pancake and said he thinks the reason they can't find it is because the Internal System is somehow hiding it, but that would be impossible, so the Director's just need to look harder. He said that if there was an anomaly, it would effect the Sphere in ways they could see and manage.
When they bring me to the white wall with the black circles everywhere I feel watched and I know they're seeing me through the circles and they could have hidden cameras so I know they’re doing it just to piss me off.
In my head I can see them back and I don't know if I'm just imagining it or if what I see in my head is real.
I checked all the virtual books that they use in the Block 4 Academy to get an answer on what he meant but I couldn't find what I was looking for. If I actually went to the Academy I bet I could figure it out eventually, maybe. The Academy kids are special. They get pulled, once in a while, from the schools in Block Two. Or, they’re the Management’s kids so they already have a spot in the school.
'A Place Where Wishes Can Actually Come True!'
I think that the most interesting part of the Biosphere’s code is that it can actually grant wishes, and there’s supposedly locations to increase chances of your wish being granted. Which isn't true but they pretend it's true.
The Wishing Hill is where the kids wait for shooting stars, and there always are on that hill. Always an abundance. The sky is full of shooting stars, a constant shower. Looking up almost feels fantastical, even the youngest children don’t get bored looking up for even a second.
Truthfully they just added it for fun, and it was my idea.
Adults make wishes on the shooting stars too but most have given up on their wishes being granted. Wishing Hill is just for fun. Some kids wait to say their wishes when they get to the Hill, and the system can flag it there. Others whisper wishes to a dark ceiling alone in the middle of the night, or to stuffed animals with a flashlight under blankets.
Wishes are magical, for everyone involved that doesn’t know what’s going on. Mostly it’s for compliance now, to reinforce the notion in children’s minds that their whispers can be heard by someone, somehow, but they make it a good thing, where they get their wish if they are good. It’s all to help them understand Biosphere is a good place, that being here is where everyone wants to be, it is being in Paradise. That was never my idea.
Adults can’t keep maintaining the idea of magic when their own wishes stop coming true. They stop whispering wishes at night, completely, or even in their heads. The magic always dissipates when you never receive your wish at all.
I’ve never gotten a chance to make a real wish anyway.
Not even one.
Almost all the adults have stopped wishing. Their point being that there’s no point in even trying if the system will just deny their most precious thoughts. Most adults, that is. Adults in Block 3, the Professors, and the ones Above The Line are a different story.
I meant the adults in Block Two. Everyone has a chance to have 3 wishes granted in a lifetime. A childhood wish, a teenage wish, and an adult wish. Three to satiate fantasy, rebellion, and practicality. Not everyone gets all three. Most do. Some get much more, and many get nothing.
Cotton candy skies, cobalt mountains, neon streets and customized nightclubs paint over the mental image of those in Block 1. Block One remains a concept of a place you only go if you have to work or are forced into a cell.
Sometimes you end up even lower.
I don’t even remember how I got to Block 0. If I’m supposed to be missing my family. If I’ve been held by someone that’s not my own arms.
Who I am at this point.
Or if I am a person at all.
Block 0:00
???? Meters Below Ground Level
The floor is cold on my back when I open my eyes.
"Prisoner 001." An ugly voice calls out to me.
"Melbourne.”Again. Colder.
"Mel." Angrier.
Several cameras line the cold walls and ceiling of the room, observing my every facial expression. I purposefully wait to acknowledge the man said anything until he, who I’ve named Stupid Mitch in my head, says my name before I scrunch my eyes at the black orb directly above my eye line.
"What? I was taking a nap."
I make my tone whiny just to annoy him, making a purposeful grotesque face up at the circular black orb.
"No you weren't. I can see your vitals. I have a question. Sit up."
His tone is practiced strict, already annoyed most definitely, and now coming to me as a last resort because he can’t solve his problems himself. The fact almost makes me feel sorry for him, but not enough to feel bad that I enjoy messing with him. I like wasting his time knowing he’s dependent on me. After getting myself to a sitting position I flip off the camera on the ceiling.
'I can see your vitals'. Fuck you, Mitchell." I mime sticking the finger up my ass and then use the same one to make a half-heart with my hand. Stupid Mike’s jaw ticks and he doesn’t respond to that. I don’t even care he didn’t, the fact he tried to hide a physical response is humorous enough.
"Luitenet Mitchell. I have a question for you. I’ve taken you out of your MindSpace and put you in a temporary Bioform with limited memories and capabilities. We have questions. What do you want." He remains firm, but I heard the sharp exhale out of his nose and I can tell he’s needy which I like because it means he’s desperate which is more interesting than him thinking he knows anything. Plus it means he’s learning because he used his big dumb mouth to ask what I wanted first, instead of just asking a stupid question which he usually does and I think that’s a sign I’ve been successful in training him.
"Mmm.." I scratch my chin, looking around the current setup.
Blank walls, a white desk, a white bed-frame with white sheets. Everything is completely blank. And the floors are grouted tile which is probably the worst flooring choice but it means I can dive head first off the desk just to scare him if he starts pissing me off. ‘Just a temporary Bioform.’ I hope he’s not attached to this face. And I hope he doesn’t have an appetite for strawberry jam because I’m not beyond testing this Bioform’s bodily limits, and I’ve already bitten the inside of my cheek hard and felt nothing and tasted no iron so he didn’t even turn on the Body Sense mode, so I think a head first dive could be pretty interesting and fun to see his reaction.
I jump to my feet and gesture around aggressively like a Biosphere Director.
"Can you.... make the room boysenberry themed?” I tilt my head to the ceiling camera to give it my best sweet smile to please those ugly bitches up there.
Before his dry thin lip mouth breathing dumbass stupid grody ‘face has a chance to respond I point to the center of the room.
“Beach, all around. Sand. Ocean here. I want a picnic blanket with a big boysenberry spread. Boysenberry scones, boysenberry jams, and a big bowl of boysenberries and boysenberry syrup too.” Then I stand and wait with my arms at my side.
"Noted. ‘Boysenberry’ room. Answer the question first." He clears his throat wetly, like he needs to hack something up, and it sounds so disgusting I almost puke, and I think I would if I had a stomach.
"Would it make you mad if I kept saying no, if I just decided to not think it loud enough so you can see it. What then." I purposefully make my face look grotesque again to see what happens.
Sent with big grin emoji. Ten poop emojis.
"Then the process would just be more painful for you. I don’t find that funny.” He keeps his tone flat but I can tell he’s annoyed.
“Well I do, jackass.”
sent with monkey covering eyes emoji and sparkling pink heart
“This process could be incredibly painful in less than a second if this behavior continues.”
I scoff. “Painful how? What if I just up and decided to not make my Bioform this … pretty looking young female face you coded up and instead I decided to become some 8 foot tall sagging flesh creature with 87 teeth and an exposed spine and rectum and I was dripping pussy fecal matter? I bet you’d hate asking me questions if I was dripping snot out of 6 nose holes.”
“You wanna play hard, Prisoner 001? We can play hard.” Mitchell presses a button on the control panel, sending a high-pitched frequency sound into the room.
the scream is instant and piercing, my entire body feeling the sound. I think maybe it came from inside me, in my head.
It leaves me retching and gasping for air.
Mitchell stays silent and lets the sound play for five, torturous seconds.
Then his voice crackles in again.
“I’ll say the question, you don’t have to respond out loud.”
no. No. Please no.
“Oh a please? That’s a first. Not going to work.There are people that need to be sent to Earth, but we cannot have them know or be suspicious of it. We cannot send them in pods because that would require the pods to take off and leave the atmosphere.”
no response
Mitchell looks at the Thought Tab. “Nice try.”
no response from subject
”Your persistence is notable. What’s the answer to the question?”
I won’t tell you.
“What are we working for?” His tone turns mocking.
I undo my hands from my ears. “FUCK. YOU.”
boysenberries.
“Language. You can always not get the boysenberries, that’s your choice.”
“I’m not telling you.”
“How do we send hundreds of people to Earth without a takeoff?”
eject from below
NO NO NO DELETE THOUGHT DELETE
“Too late. I already saw it. Thank you. Your blueberry room will ready when you wake up."
Mitchell switches off the microphone and turns to his assistant, Jason, ignoring the onslaught of “no’s ” and "that's not what I said" coming in on the screen.
“reset her memory to ten minutes ago, before she asked for that blueberry shit. I want her to think it’s a surprise of our own doing.”
Jason nods. “Will do, sir.”
But he doesn’t. Not fully.
The Alcove, 7:00PM
Block Six, 1000 Meters Above Cloud Line
The Alcove sits high above the clouds, a luxurious cluster of pods used by the Directors. The Producer live in a mansion on Sky Island, accessible by sky boats using their personal hover scooters. Biosphere Management jobs are highly coveted, and many people set goals to get above the cloud line.
Director Harris's fingers hover on the opaque scroll wheel in his hands, legs kicked up on a dark green velvet stool that changes color depending on the light, going from a dark green in golden light to a lavender in the shadows.
"Show me the Courtyard," He sighs into the device, half hoping it might show him something entertaining, or at least not boring.
Once in a while an assistant will send him a message about a ‘concerning’ resident the System flagged, one who’s dopamine levels have dropped or someone caught whispering about possible rebellion.
Most of the time, he’s extremely bored.
With a lazy flick of his finger the holographic screen in front of him switches to show a bird's eye view of the Courtyard. He pinches the air in front of him and the camera zooms in to a young girl with dark braids jumping at one of the dark purple shimmering butterflies, one of the Artistic Director's newest creations. He smiles satisfactorily.
He did this.
Her brother, however, looks on edge. Harris can tell immediately, the tight jaw, the subtle shuffle of anxiety of his feet.
"Pull up Beaumont West and Havi West's physical vitals."
BEAUMONT WEST
STATUS: ABOVE-AVERAGE STRESSHR: 110BLOOD PRESSURE: HIGH
CURRENT MOOD PROFILE:NERVOUS, AGITATED, ANXIOUS
The report displays like a warning on the bright, glowing screen and he jabs on a green button to print a physical copy.
Not that Harris needs one, he could easily look at it on his tablet.
He simply enjoys the pleasure of standing in high up places with important documents and looking down at everyone that’s underneath him.
Standing in his wall to wall bay window lookout, he has an unobstructed view of the Academy, the Producer's mansion, and the Director's Central office, accessible from his personal walkway.
He lazily taps a message on his tablet to the Internal Chat while holding the paper in his arm.
why id Beaumont Wests botals si hugh
Several seconds later, a message sends back.
Thank you for your patience. The Internal Chat is currently experiencing longer wait times than usual due to updates that will improve its functionality in the future. After reviewing the current vitals of Beaumont West and comparing them to averages over the past three days it is likely that the resident is stressed.
“UGH! YOU DUMB BITCH!" He yells loudly before one-finger jabbing out another message.
“WGT ATE BAUBOMTS VITOLS SY HYGH”
Several seconds later the Internal Network responds.
The Resident's vitals have increased over the last three days due to stress relating to his sister.
"NO!" he shouts, gripping the tablet harder so he doesn’t throw it. "THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!"
“I'll figure it out myself, dumbass useless chat." He grumbles, walking over to grab the paper off the floor where it fell before throwing himself back in the desk chair.
His eyes snap up when he sees the chat loading a response.
“I DIDNT SAY ANYTHING, STOP DOING THAT."
He crumples up the paper and groans, tossing it in an energy converter can.
“Sorren thinks that it was a good idea to add a wake word for you, I think that idea was idiotic as hell, now you try to respond even when I don't ask you to."
He stands up, grabbing the monitor and putting his face up to the screen. "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
He sits back hard. “Whatever, I don’t care. Give me examples of how to decrease stress.”
Stress reduction can be achieved through a variety of practices, including prioritizing self care, maintaining healthy habits, self care, and reducing environmental stressors.
“What kind of environmental stressors? This place is paradise, even for those block two people."
*All humans can experience a wide range of emotions that are not necessarily influenced by their external location. I suggested self care because focusing on yourself and what makes you happy can increase dopamine and decrease anxiety.”
“What’s the first part?”
*“Humans can experience emotions that are not necessarily determined by their physical location, and self care can--"
“Stop talking. Show me his Internal Thought tab from the last hour and put it in a word cloud format.”
He leans closer to the screen. This is the most exciting thing he’s seen all week.
“What do you see, Beaumont?” He whispers.
“‘Careful’ you might ‘think’ the ‘directors’ are ‘hiding’ something.” He chuckles to himself, amused by his own joke. "Dont hide from me now, Beaumont."
"Chat, tell me what Beaumont thinks about the Management."
Invalid input
"No, tell me what he is thinking about the Management right now.”
invalid input
"STOP IT YOU DUMB BITCH!" Harris yells, standing up from his chair and jabbing the keys with the same message:
"*SHOW ME BEAUMONT WEST OPINION ABOUT MANAGEMENT."
He lets out a deep breath, sitting back and waiting for a response.
.........
slams his fist on the keyboard when the three dots appear.
"LOAD REST OF MESSAGE."
Invalid input
"STOP IT! STOP IT! GIVE ME WHAT IM ASKING! CAN YOU EVEN HEAR ME?" He yells, shaking the monitor before throwing himself back into the chair, swearing under his breath.
"Just give me something to take the edge off, then." He nearly pouts, his white brows pulling in as he shoves his body back in the armchair.
A couple seconds later a small tray pops out of the side of his desk with a small, golden rolled up cigar.
"OH, so now you listen? They really need to update the programming on this. We shouldn't be having to deal with the system glitching." He mutters under his breath.
Block 0, 7:01P.M
-1000 ft Below Ground Level
I can hear him I just don't want to respond and I’m intentionally making him wait because he's annoying me and also I don't want him to know what residents really think of Management.
The second he sends an actual prompt I hit him with 'Apologies. The Internal Network is experiencing higher use than average and responses may take longer than normal. You may need to shut down the Chat and try again later.
In my head I want to send him *'I can hear and see everything you do and think, Harris and I think you're a pathetic little bitch."
But unfortunately that would probably scare him and I'd have to deal with him freaking out like an annoying little bitch and ruining my time so I don't say that and I don't say anything else for as long as I can.
When they let me go free in my mind space I make a big room with a soft blue floor and stay until I forget how I got there.
…