Beyond the Darkside, Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

Aldric laid in bed, looking out the window overhead. It was one of the few luxuries he afforded himself. Having windows on the moon was expensive, and a little dangerous, but being locked inside his labs for most of his waking hours made him crave the open view into the abyss of space. Seeing the stars move overhead game him a sense of time and purpose. “We should be out there by now,” he said. Margaret mumbled something and rolled over. He did not usually bring her home with him, but their work in the lab had left him energized and their visit to his office bedroom was not enough for either of them.

A satellite flew past his window high overhead. It was one of his, he could tell by the pattern of the blinking lights, and he knew it was a data collector performing its monitoring duties. The satellite was one of a dozen small units he had orbiting the moon, checking power outputs and grid flow. Aldric’s power system was the safest power source available outside of the waterwheel and air turbine of earth, but it never hurt to keep an eye on things. More often than not his satellites caught someone trying to modify a power converter unit illegally, and that could definitely turn dangerous in a hurry. Without the exact settings and materials, the power converter could become unstable and result in an electrical discharge that could leave a city block without power.

100-Word Challenge, Day 274-275

Asphyxiation (Photo credit: Rob Watling)

“The reality is that your friends at DarkSide are gaining more control of the moon every day, and no one is even talking about it,” Isis said.

“DarkSide is a big company,” Evan said. “Big companies buy up smaller companies. There’s nothing wrong with that.” He took another slug of alcohol and gasped as it burned down the length of his throat.

Isis smiled and said, “On the surface, no, but when you consider that DarkSide has gotten big enough that they dictate prices and command the government to do their bidding, then there is something wrong with it.”

100-Word Challenge, Day 271

“So explain to me again what you are revolting against?” Evan said between bites. “And why haven’t I heard of you before?”

Isis smiled and said, “I would like to say that we try to keep a low profile, but the honest truth is that Aldric Dewitt’s media contacts make sure that anything we do ends up on the news as an industrial accident.” She smiled and pointed at Evan. “Your little accident in the lab was the first legitimate accident DarkSide has had in more than five years.” She plucked a piece of chicken from his plate and flipped it into her mouth. “Needless to say, when you bolted I got curious.”

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100-Word Challenge, Day 176-177

Shadow Profile (Photo credit: Walt Stoneburner)

Evan drank his water and ate his sandwich while he casually used his mind to swat the blanket that hung from the edge of his bed. He hated the boredom of being confined and imagined his life had become much like that of one of the lost souls locked away in one of the penal colonies. Of course he was free to leave if he wanted, but his prospects outside of the building were dim at best. Captured and tortured by either Darkside Security, Marcus or the Lunar government was the most likely scenario, but Evan was sure there were other waiting in the wing to the same or worse.

100-Word Challenge, Day 160

The Philippsburg nuclear power plant, in Germany. Français : La Centrale nucléaire de Philippsburg, en Allemagne. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“What is that exactly?”

Evan scratched his head for a second before saying, “It was a new energy source, even more powerful than the Void System.”

“So what,” Jacob said, “more free energy from Darkside. Big deal.”

“You don’t understand,” Evan said as he stood up and paced the length of his bed. “The kind of output we were looking at was staggering. It was an enormous leap forward.” He looked about the room for some frame of reference, but couldn’t find anything adequate. “Think of it in terms of going straight from discovering fire to discovering nuclear fission without all of the messy halfway steps in between.”

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100-Word Challenge, Day 154-157

English: Hip flask Polski: Piersiówka (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Evan sat on the edge of his bed and said, “No offense, sir, but what are you doing here?”

“To the point I see,” said Jacob. “Very well. I have some questions and you are going to answer them.” He held up his hand to ward off Evan’s response. “You will do it, Doctor Murray, because if you do not, then I will let the thugs at Darkside, the military and your…debtors, know exactly where you are the moment I leave the building. You might be able to escape them again, but I doubt it. You are running out of places to hide.” Jacob pulled a small metal flask from his coat pocket, took a long drink from it and offered it to Evan. “If it weren’t for me Darkside would have found you yesterday, but I wanted to talk to you first.”

100-Word Challenge, Day 148

Fighting boredom was a constant challenge for Evan, and as he hit a roadblock in his research the fight became one that he was losing. He managed to pirate away some of his research data the day after he abandoned his home, but when he tried to connect to Darkside’s network again he discovered that his privileges had been revoked. Evan suspected that security had put a trace on his connection, so he had left the first hotel he had sheltered in and was now on his third. As nice as access to his data would have been, a fully functioning lab would be better by light years, but there were few located on the moon that were not controlled by Darkside.

 

100-Word Challenge, Day 146-147

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Evan looked out of the six-inch by two-inch slit that the landlord called a window and sighed. The sight of Darkside’s communications tower blinking in the distance was a constant reminder of where he should be, but he did not dare risk a return until Aldric recovered or Margaret showed up and cleared his name. Of course that assumed that she actually would clear his name. He hated to admit it, but there was the chance that he had misread her at the end of it all and that she would turn on him the moment she showed up.

100-Word Challenge, Day 138

English: Pictogram of CCTV camera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Once Evan was settled behind the wheel of his hover car, he fired up the engine, opened the garage door and lowered the force field before he backed down his driveway and onto the street. His own security cameras might have captured the big sedan’s direction if his attacker hadn’t disabled them, but the departure was not lost on the DarkSide security officer who sat hidden in an insulated camouflage suit just outside the scientist’s property line. It was not as fancy as the thug who had entered the home the night before, but it’s mottled grey surface allowed him to blend into the landscape while the shielding protected him from the freezing nights and blistering days. He had not expected to see the thinner man exit the home, so he punched the code into his transmitter and signaled a watch officer in the command bunker that Evan was alive and on the move.

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