Free City Without Suns by Wade Andrew Butcher Page B

anyway with what I was called to do, not by the authorities that presided over me, but by some inner voice that drew me to a sense of right and wrong.  The oppression imposed on Isla, Eon, and all of the commoners was wrong.  To give Isla at least a temporary escape was nothing short of right.
    I approached the patrol monitoring the perimeter longitudinal corridor that led to their room. “You’re relieved,” I said quickly.
    “Captain Salazar,” he gave me his full attention.  “My patrol leader told me I was here for a full shift.”
    I took a deep breath because I secretly knew he was right and I was out of line, but I continued, “Yes, my orders came from Leonidas.  You may go.”
    I knew he would undoubtedly report back to his leader, which would be no problem unless it got back to Leonidas and surfaced my lie.  Misrepresenting orders, however minor, would not be taken lightly.  I will worry about that hypothetical event if it happens.  I can deny mentioning the Commander and just tell them that I was trying to be helpful.
    When the patrol was gone, I summoned Isla and Eon to come with me.  I led them down the passageway from where I came, which was now unoccupied by any of the patrols.  It did not take long to reach the greenhouse levels.
    At the point where we entered up from the ladder tubes, a collection of trees reached inward in an open space I had seldom seen.  The soil stretched deep under our feet to accommodate the transplanted trees, too big to have grown only during the years in space.  The radial layered ceilings had not been placed in this section.  I was unsure of all the species that may have been engineered abundant with nuts and fruits stretching up to a hundred feet in the air.  We were mesmerized by the ecosystem within our strange world, full of life, which much like us was completely nonindigenous to the void in which we were launched. 
    The oasis gave us a pleasant taste of our old home, but it also begged a question of who was harvesting the rich amount of produce growing from those trees.  This forest was so abundant there was rotten fruit on the ground. It didn’t make sense. With so many able-bodied individuals in need of work, this seemed disturbingly incongruous with the food shortage in the commoner wing.
    I stood in the forest looking straight up to gauge the volume of the open air above the tops of the trees.  There wasn’t much space, but there was enough for me to spread my wings. For a few moments, Isla and I forgot where we were.  I removed my shirt and let the upper portion of my wings unfold. 
    Isla, embarrassed for me like a little sister, had helped me overcome the problem of flexing my wings and rendering myself unclothed. She had helped design a pair of pants, like the ones I had long ago back home, held together with thin straps between the segments so I could flex the lower part of my wings also.
    We looked at each other with a smile.  She knew what I was thinking and nodded her head.  I stood behind her, wrapped my arms under her shoulders, and hooked my legs around hers.  I took off up through a gap in the branches.  The space was tight and the ride was not smooth, but Isla held her arms out as if gliding like one of the seagulls we had flown amongst so many years ago.
    I returned her to the ground, and she turned to thank me with a hug.  I missed my old home and imagined she was homesick as well.  I held her with a tight embrace while Eon stood with his hand on her shoulder. 
    I felt a drop of water on my shoulder.  I thought it might have been tears, but then I felt another. The drops were cold.  Was this…rain?  It was . The rain was filtered and recycled water, gravity fed from above, recreating a habitat for the plant life to thrive. 
    Partially sheltered by the canopy of leaves over our heads, we walked at least a mile through the brush out to the multilayered section of vegetation where more fruit grew. I hoped, perhaps in vain, we