©2025 SammyC

Alvin drove his “buggy” back to the underground city, and we took the elevator down to the lowest level. As we hopped into an unoccupied tube conveyor, he explained that this level was the “brain” of the city.

This was where all the administrative, technical, and operational systems were housed and staffed. Like the level above, it was all right angles and shimmery walls. Sections were marked by entranceways and circular windows. I tried to look within and caught glimpses of people in coveralls sitting at what Alvin called “consoles.”

The conveyor stopped in front of one of these entranceways, and we hopped off.

“I called ahead, and Dr. Princeton is expecting us. In fact, I think a number of your compatriots are already here.”

When we entered a vast room with arcane machinery looming above us, seemingly suspended from the high ceiling, I saw Merlyn, Luna, and Amos. Yes, Amos, his arms free of the sleeves they had placed on them in the medical unit. They were standing near a man in a white lab coat , who was, in turn, standing in front of a wall-sized screen that displayed a series of everchanging numerals over what seemed like a picture of the night sky.

“Alvin, please introduce me to your lovely friend. I’ve been told that this beautiful child is a royal personage.”

“Dr. Princeton, this is Princess Rani of the Eastern Kingdom. Rani, this is our Director of Science, Dr. Preston Princeton.”

Dr. Princeton bowed slightly as he made room for Alvin and me to stand closer to the huge screen behind him.

“The good doctor has been giving us his thoughts on The Dagger of Heaven,” Merlyn stated. “He believes it is neither a threat to our planet nor a weapon of destruction dispatched by The Gods—”

“It’s not a matter of belief, good lady,” corrected Dr. Princeton. “Let me show the Princess what I’ve already shown you.” He reached up and pressed some buttons on the console in front of him. “Darn those aliens for being 2 ½ meters tall! It’s getting harder for me to reach these controls as I get near my hundredth birthday.”

“You’re 99 years old?” I exclaimed in disbelief.

“I know, I know. I don’t look a day over 85.” He shook his head as if he’d heard that compliment too many times.

“Surely, you are joking, Doctor,” Merlyn swore. “I’m one of the oldest people in the world, as far as I know, and I’m not even 70.”

“70? That makes you a young pup, relatively speaking, in our city.” He turned to me and asked, “How old do you think young Alvin here is, Rani?”

Without hesitation, I answered, “He can’t be a day older than 18 or 19.”

“Well,” Dr. Princeton paused, teasing out his reply. “You’re…correct! Actually, he’s 17 years and 218 days old.”

“What’s so unusual about that, Doctor?” I was beginning to think this man was not in his right mind.

“Alvin is the last child born in the city. And it may be another ten years before we allow another birth—”

“How cruel,” Merlyn interjected. “What gives you the authority to meddle with the course of nature?”

“Simply the imperative to survive as a people, my good lady. We cannot sustain a population much above the numbers we currently provide life’s necessities for. With the medical facilities at our disposal in this alien complex and relief from the mortal stresses of internecine war and conflict here in our blessed isolation, our citizens’ average lifespan is now almost 110 years.

About two generations ago, we made the decision to restrict population growth. Our optimal state is 350 to 400 individuals. Alvin’s parents won the lottery to have our most recent child, Alvin here. Mind you, Georgia was, what, almost 60 years old then. As you must have discovered, she is fiercely protective of her…that is, our…only child.”

“That would make your mother close to 80 years old!” Alvin blanched at my stunned exclamation.

“My father is married to an older woman. A much, much older woman!” Luna shook her head in amazement.

“These are the benefits of scientific knowledge, my friends. Now, back to the so-called Dagger of Heaven.” He pointed to the screen and we saw an object come into focus, although still not sharp in resolution.

“Is that The Dagger?” I asked in a hushed tone.

“You call it a dagger due to the poor optical instruments at your disposal. Although, our viewing devices are not up to the standard of what on Earth were observatories or much less orbiting telescopes—”

“On Earth? What is Earth?” I asked quite innocently.

“Earth. Our home planet. The mother planet. Did you not know the name of our home planet?” Dr. Princeton scratched his gray beard in disbelief.

“I thought that was a mythical name…like Shambala or Camelot,” Merlyn said with uncertainty

“What kind of education do you pretend to…oh, I forget, centuries of a cultural doom loop has reduced you all to the intellectual level of the Middle Ages…” Dr. Princeton slapped his temple.

“Are you saying we’re stupid?” Amos asked in a derisive tone.

“Look, everyone, let’s not argue over IQ levels. Doctor, please go on with your summary on The Dagger.” Alvin took a position between the Doctor and us, holding up his hands to calm things down.

“As I was saying. The object is definitely a meteor or small asteroid, certainly not a comet. It’s not even as large as what you believe is a second moon.”

“What do you mean ‘believe’?” Merlyn was getting testy.

“It’s not a moon. Not a natural object. It’s a satellite left behind by the alien race that built this underground complex. Over the years, we’ve tried to communicate with it, but we’ve never received a response. Nobody’s home, I suppose.”

“You speak of strange things I’ve never heard of, Doctor,” Merlyn admitted. “But the Dagger gleams with a halo of light as only a thing made by The Gods would. And its shape—”

“Unusual, yes. But it’s so far away right now that our minds can trick our eyes into seeing a dagger shape. A long blade, quillons jutting out in front of a handle, even a pommel at the rear. But it’s an illusion. As for the halo? The high albedo of the object is probably due to its metallic composition. Iron and nickel.”

“Still, whatever you think it is, it’s headed straight for us!” Amos cried.

“At its present speed, its nearest approach to us will occur…” He picked up a rectangular totem and seemed to be reading something on its surface. “Ah, yes, I calculate it will be here in four days, give or take an hour.”

“Oh, the Gods! We have to leave immediately! It’ll take us three days to reach the Western Kingdom.” Amos reached out to take my hand, but Dr. Princeton hit his wrist with the totem.

“But it won’t hit the planet. It’ll miss us by a good 20,000 kilometers. No need to worry, my friends.”

“You are certain? Absolutely certain?” Merlyn glared at the Doctor.

“Nothing is absolute, my good lady. I’d say it’s within a standard error of 3%. I can show you the regression analysis I’ve done—”

“That 3% error could mean the extinction of all life on this planet,” Merlyn pointed out.

“We’re far enough below the surface to withstand the effects of such an impact. As long as it’s not right on top of us.”

“That’s all well and good for you, but…” Amos swallowed the last part of his sentence.

“Thank you for your hospitality, but I think we have to leave immediately. Amos, can we make it to the coast in three days?” Merlyn asked.

“If we cut down rest periods to a minimum, yes,” Amos replied.

Alvin placed himself in front of us as we moved toward the door.

“Please, you can leave tomorrow morning…if you insist. I told you we have a means of getting you to the Western Kingdom in much less time. A matter of hours rather than days.”

“Another buggy like the one we rode this morning?” I asked dubiously.

“No. There’s an underground railway system that the aliens used to transport the mineral ore that they mined. And it extends to within a few kilometers of the Western Kingdom. We rarely use it, but it works. I’ve been on it a few times just for the experience. My father was an engineer, and he was fascinated by it. I cajoled him into taking me along on his test drives. Mother was apoplectic—”

“Enough! We’ll take the railway, as you call it, tomorrow morning. As early as possible. Who will operate it for us?” Merlyn looked around the room for someone to step forward.

“I’ll drive. I know how to,” Alvin quickly stated. “We can leave at sunrise. I’ll come by and pick you all up. Meanwhile, since that’s all settled, let’s have lunch. I know a place that serves the best Mulligatawny Soup in these parts.”

When we entered the space that Alvin took us to for lunch, I recalled his talk that morning about a society in which people could pursue their interests regardless of what class they were born into. He had said that one could “hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner.” Well, add to that, be the master chef of your own eatery. Luna’s father, Eric, had discovered his true avocation: running his own restaurant.

Since every housing unit had a machine that made meals to order, the art of home cooking had been lost over the years in the underground city. You could just about boil a pot of water in the rudimentary kitchens every household possessed.

Luna had told me that Eric’s favorite hobby was cooking and that, aside from the more serious things she missed about her father, it was the delicious meals he’d make for the family whenever he was at leisure from his geographical duties.

Eric, wearing a chef’s apron over his coveralls, came out to welcome us to his humble establishment, which was packed to the rafters, necessitating we sit at two tables in the rear of the room. When Luna informed him that we had decided to leave in the morning, he was crestfallen. Luna, herself, was close to tears.

I reached across the table to hold her hand and told her, “I will not stand in your way if you wish to stay here with your father.”

“No, Your Highness, I couldn’t abandon my post. I was privileged to be assigned to your traveling party and be Merlyn’s right hand. I just couldn’t…”

Merlyn grabbed her other hand. “Child, there is no shame in choosing family over duty. If I were in your place, I’d stay here. These people seem to enjoy a marvelous life here. And, if the Dagger is not diverted in time, you’ll be safe and sound as well.”

“I’ll think about it.” Luna finally said remorsefully.

After a moment of awkward silence, Eric brandished his totem and announced, in a cheery voice, “The special of the day is Lobster Bisque.”

“What in the name of the Gods is a lobster?” I inquired, tremulously.

Eric placed his totem below my eyes and I saw a picture of this thing called a lobster.

“Why, that’s a giant insect! You can’t expect me to eat that!”

Since we were leaving in the morning, Alvin wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon showing me as much of the underground city as he could in a few hours. Most of the time, we rode the tube conveyors in every direction, from end to end, and he pointed out the most interesting units in each district of the city. There was a disturbing sameness to everything and everywhere. I mentioned that to Alvin.

“You’re right, Rani. I’m afraid there’s not much variety in our lives here. The homes we reside in, the places we work in, and even the people we run across in our daily routines all suffer from a sameness that sometimes numbs the senses. We, the people in this city, have done the same things, in the same way, at the same times we have for generations now.

“Sure, we try to figure out the technology that the aliens left behind, but it seems we’ve hit a wall. I’m thinking that the key to all this might be on that satellite up there. But we have no way of leaving the surface of this planet and no likelihood that we ever will.”

I looked into Alvin’s blue eyes instead of the city beyond the transparent sides of the tube conveyor. There was real intelligence there and a restless spirit that sought to experience a greater scope of existence than hunkering down a kilometer below the planet’s surface.

“So, we are really born into our stations in life, after all, even in your perfect society here. You don’t want to stay, yet you cannot leave. We’re in the same boat, aren’t we?”

“Things can change, Rani. I’ve been working with Doctor Princeton and some of his colleagues on a plan to expand the city, below and above the surface. I think we can sustain a larger population if we can build aboveground. We have the technology to bring our society forward centuries from the medieval way of life both kingdoms maintain now. Perhaps as far forward as the 20th century on Earth.”

“I don’t know what the 20th century was like on our home planet.”

“If we can recruit people from the kingdoms to join us, we’d have the labor pool to build this vision. A city of 1,000 individuals can accomplish a lot with the resources that the aliens left behind.”

“But. What’s the but?”

“The City Council, led by my mother, is very conservative. They’re solidly against my plan. Despite Dr. Princeton having worked out the math and logistics. We can do it. But they’re afraid of the city collapsing from expanding too quickly and the possibility that the two kingdoms will see us as a threat to their hegemony and attack us.”

“I see. The Eastern Kingdom would never do that, I assure you. But I wouldn’t put it past those power-hungry blackguards in the West.”

“You certainly don’t have a high opinion of them, do you? And yet you’re rushing to marry that baby prince of theirs—”

“He’s not a baby. He’s nine years old.” Alvin snorted and looked away. “Anyway, it’s something I have to do! It’s the only thing that’ll appease the Gods and stop The Dagger from destroying the planet.”

“But it’s not hitting the planet! It’s probably going to miss us by 20,000 kilometers!”

“Says you. But are you absolutely certain? I can’t take the chance that you’re wrong, Alvin.”

“Stay here, Rani. You can help me convince my mother and the others that my plan can work. If you can bring The Eastern Kingdom aboard, we can assuage some of their concerns. And…” He turned away as the tube conveyor reached the endpoint of its route with a soft jolt.

I got up from my seat to exit when he grabbed my arm. I turned to him.

“Rani, there’s no one my age for me to marry or even be friends with. You are so beautiful. I’ve never in my life seen anyone so young and so beautiful. I know I’m not from a royal lineage, and I’m not very attractive…”

“No, I like you, Alvin. You’re nice, smart, and very attractive. But I have a duty to perform. And that duty resumes tomorrow morning.”

Alvin’s mother invited us to have dinner at her home on our last evening in her city. Luna assured me that Rumperdon was not on the menu this time.

“Have you told your mother that you’re driving the train tomorrow?”

“No, I’ll spring it on her during dessert,” Alvin laughed.

“Does the word apoplectic mean anything to you?”