House of the Morningstar: Chapter 29
Created | Updated Jun 3, 2023
House of the Morningstar: Chapter 29
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Everything is broken. We made it back to our container village just in time yesterday. Just as we entered the air lock, the ground started shaking and it didn't seem to stop for a long time. There was a rumble like thunder and the dust clouds rose as high as the rocks which fell from the canyon on both sides. A few buildings which were not even finished fell and crumbled to dust. Large cranes toppled over. People screamed and ran through the corridors in panic. Alarms went off – later I found out that there was an air leak in one part of the containers of the structure and it had to be sealed off.
When the large dust cloud outside had settled it became obvious that there was now a large crater where our building site had once been. The metal ribbon which was the Museum of Modern Art at the other side of the street is now tilted downwards like a sinking ship.
Messages were sent back and forth and in the end it was decided that the whole site had to be evacuated. People are in panic, everyone is packing their things. All machinery which is still intact is prepared for transport.
And in the middle of all this we received a message from the boss. He reviewed the footage from the building site and is very unhappy with practically everything. He sent a video message saying, 'Your productivity is equal to that of guinea pigs! I pay for the hundreds of hours in which you produce junk! And don't tell me you made it like that because I wanted it like that! You always find excuses! You have to think for yourselves just once in your lives and not wait for me to do the thinking for you! Why is everyone always coming to me?! And next time you do anything you show me before you spend hours producing this rubbish! Your brains must be really very small!' Gene answered him that he should not bother, the whole building collapsed anyway, and also he quit right there on the spot.
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Darkness
Despite Tanja's protests, Rahim and three of his people accompanied her on her search for Angela Morgenstern. The moon was already sinking to the horizon in front of them and the sky was full of stars, when Tanja and her companions reached the edge of a large depression near the old road. It was surrounded by the remains of unfinished buildings. One of them looked suspiciously like a ship, but it was hard to tell in the moonlight. Not far in front of them, in an empty space between the ruins there was a light. They left their bikes and left them at one of the ruins of a house. From there, they went on foot.
As they approached they could see that it was the dome of a temporary inflatable shelter which was illuminated from within. Tanja and the others walked in the shadow of the crumbled walls of houses as they came closer. They could already see shadows moving inside of the shelter, when suddenly a light started blinking on the arm of Rahim's environmental suit.
'Zara says she is here with four people. They come from the other side,' Tanja heard Rahim's voice through the speaker in her helmet. 'She says they are ready whenever we are.'
She nodded and told everyone to take the positions they had defined earlier. They were sneaking through the ruins and around what were once supposed to be street corners. Tanja waited behind a low wall, while watching the shelter. She could see two people moving in it and one was standing in front of the airlock as a guard.
Suddenly, the guard turned around. Tanja could see him reaching to his belt where he probably had a weapon and carefully walking away from Tanja and the camp. Just barely she could make out how the man walked into a deep shadow and did not come out again.
A few minutes later another man entered the airlock. Tanja could see his shadow putting on a helmet. He exited the shelter, already holding a weapon in his hand. Cautiously he walked while looking left and right, searching for any movement in the darkness. Suddenly someone jumped out from behind the corner of a wall and waved. The man turned quickly, fired a few shots from what seemed to be a FluxTec multi zap gun and ran towards the spot where his target had already disappeared. He sprinted around the corner, Tanja could see the shine of another shot being fired, a short shout, then all was quiet again.
As the moon set, Tanja could see the shadows in the tent move. One was pacing around, two seemed to be standing up from the floor, maybe they had been sleeping while the others were holding guard? She saw them move. They must have noticed that something was wrong.
Tanja waited. She looked at Rahim, who was crouching behind the wall next to her. He shrugged, then watched the dome again. Tanja watched as the three people were pacing around inside of the dome. Zara had reported six people in the camp. Two had been dealt with, three could be seen in the dome. There was no sign of the last person – presumably Angela.
There was movement again. It seemed like two of the three persons were putting on suits. Tanja hoped they would leave the dome just like the two others. It would be easier to take them by surprise outside than having to find a way into the dome and deal with them at close quarters.
To Tanja's satisfaction, two people soon exited the airlock of the temporary shelter. They were very obviously armed and a lot more cautious than their two friends who had come out before them. She was sure that none of them had expected an assault here, in the middle of the lifeless desert.
Millions of stars were twinkling in the sky and the moon had already disappeared when a shot was fired and brightly lit the ruins in red light. With the night vision turned on in her helmet, Tanja could watch the two people cautiously walking away from the shelter and towards where the shot had been fired. She could see that they were holding their weapons ready to fire if needed. Slowly, they walked around a corner, when suddenly a shot was fired further down what was once supposed to be a road. In unison the two people started sprinting, weapons in hand, occasionally blindly firing a purple beam. Tanja hoped they would miss their targets. From afar she could see more shots, red, purple, blue. There was movement. A few people were running in different directions, shots again, someone was hit, lying in the street. Two others came and huddled around them. There were a few more shots. People struggled with each other. A last red shot was fired, then the ruins lay in darkness again.
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