Two walked on that day. Their protective visors shielded their eyes and prevented instant death – the world around them was so bright. They wore armour several dells thick, which made walking almost impossible, and all the time, there was that brightness!

The light was the result of accumulated energy – energy obtained from a sun that was no longer a source of life but rather a merciless destroyer.

Ten thousand years ago, a star had gone supernova and the resulting thermonuclear explosion had released enough energy to increase the surface temperature of Earth’s nearby sun.

The increase in temperature created an unstable situation in the planet’s atmosphere, as it could not possibly handle the increase in cosmic activity. The planet had burned, and mankind had had no choice but to escape. For once, technology could not develop fast enough for sceptics who were thankful when these bubbles were created into which the population ran.

How many of these bubbles existed, no one really knew. They had lost communication a long time ago, so that each bubble became an island.

Massive underground structures were created underneath the bubbles – these became the new cities we lived in. The bubbles trapped and stored photon energy for much-needed power to run the underground structures.

Me, I’m Matt Okri, a technician, and one of the two that walked within the bubble that day, surrounded by stored energy – only kept alive by this thick suit. My companion was Tony Mantis, also a technician, although of a higher rank.

Today we were scheduled to do a little maintenance on some equipment, and we went about this task quietly – more to conserve much needed bodily fluids than for anything else. But each of us had his thoughts, and I also had a plan. I turned 50 next week, and the thought had suddenly occurred to me that I had wasted my life. This waste was not from neglect or laziness, because I was in an enviable position, as far as this bubble was concerned – I had an enviable job. For to be a technician, called to maintain equipment in the bubble, meant that I was well placed in the upper echelons of social life in my community. So, this thought was not meant to diminish me. Rather, it inspired me. Maybe there was something else out there. Something that my present life had no way of defining and hence employing into that complex equation known as success. Maybe there was success waiting to be explored beyond my borders…

‘We need to get in shortly,’ I heard Tony screech through my earpiece.

‘Tony, maybe you should get that fixed,’ I called back irritably – for I had been jolted out of my daydream, and I could not quite remember what I had been thinking about.

‘Oh, sorry,’ I heard Tony screech back. ‘I must be coming through quite badly?’

‘Quite; yes,’ I replied.

‘Well, that’s OK,’ Tony said, ‘we’re done here anyway.’

‘Fine,’ I replied. ‘Just let me solder these joints.’

‘Hurry,’ Tony said. ‘We’ve been told that the temperature will be over 300 Halls before a Darwin hour is up.’

‘I know. I know,’ I returned. Then: ‘There, I’m done.’ We both gathered up equipment and headed for the safety of the underground structure.

‘So, what’s been on your mind?’ Tony asked when we had entered the nexus point – a room with reinforced shielding and cooling systems that ran without stopping throughout the day. The laborious suits were now off, and we were back in our civilian clothes – a skin-tight one-piece suit designed to keep the skin cool. ‘I heard you whistling that song when we were outside.’

‘What song?’ I asked. My mind was somewhere else now that I remembered what I had been thinking about before Tony interrupted me whilst we were working outside.

‘There’s a tune you usually whistle when you’re deep in thought,’ Tony said. ‘Or is it when you are in high spirits? I don’t know which.’

‘What are you talking about?’ I asked irritably, wanting him to leave me alone. I needed a quiet place to think, and Tony wasn’t helping matters by yapping needlessly. I decided to throw him a bone and end our conversation until a more convenient time for me. ‘I’m thinking of going to see the game. I have an extra ticket, want to come?’

‘Oh, no,’ Tony said, wagging his finger at me. ‘You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.’

‘Okay, if you don’t want it,’ I started.

‘I want it,’ Tony said, ‘but not as much as I want to know what’s running wild inside that head of yours.’

‘Nothing,’ I persisted.

‘If you’re thinking of some way to make money I want in,’ Tony said, licking his lips.

I stared at him.

‘I’m serious,’ Tony said. ‘I’m in the red right now, and I need out.’

‘Tony, you get paid more than I do,’ I protested. ‘What do you do with all your money?’

‘The cards have not been good to me recently, Matt,’ Tony said, shaking his head. He made for a pitiable portrait.

‘When have they ever been?’ I rejoined. But I put my hand on his shoulder, and said, ‘I’m not thinking in that direction now, Tony. The thing is I haven’t for a long time.’

‘A man has got to eat,’ Tony said.

‘Well, that’s just it,’ I replied. ‘And then what?’

‘I’m not following,’ Tony said.

I sighed as we walked down a narrow hall to the lifts that would take us down to our home.

‘Don’t you ever get bored of this?’ I asked, as we got on the lifts.   ‘What, the job?’ Tony asked. Tony hit the down button – there was only one way to go from here.

‘Not the job,’ I said. ‘Don’t you get tired of the dreariness? The solid walls of rock. The environment.’

‘It’s home, Matt,’ Tony said with a sigh.

‘But what if there’s something else?’ I asked Tony, sensing that his spirit, like mine, was tired and just going through the motions. There is something to be said about a day to day routine that never changes, so that specialisation becomes a killer of the human soul.

‘We were brought up to do this, Tony,’ I continued. ‘Everyone knows where they’ll end up from birth. We’re all given our papers. They decide from the start what positions will be filled by whom.’

‘And?’

‘I can’t breathe, Tony,’ I said. ‘I want to do something else.’

‘Like what?’ Tony asked, confused.

‘Anything else – just something different,’ I replied.

Tony still looked confused as we disembarked from the lifts. The familiar stifled, recycled air reached us as we entered the underground structure. I curled up my nose immediately. It wasn’t that the air was foul – it was just that it was still. The air had no character! Nothing here had any character. We had run down here to stay alive and instead, we had unknowingly buried ourselves. This was our grave and we were all dead.

‘Listen, I don’t understand you,’ Tony said, looking at me. ‘I just want a way to make some extra cash. But here you are with this high talk.’

I pulled Tony aside – there was hardly a crevasse down this hole that was not occupied by some body or other. ‘I’m thinking of going out there.’

‘Out where?’ Tony asked.

I bobbed my head upward.

‘What, up there?’ Tony said. He hissed. ‘We just came from there, Matt. Really!’

‘No,’ I said, hissing back. ‘I mean farther than where we normally go.’

‘You’ll have to wait for when next our scheduled run will be. Maybe we can trade for a team that works farther down. But why would you want us to go that far?’

‘I’m talking about even farther still,’ I said. I now had an impish grin slapped across my face.

‘Matt, you’re off-key today, and I have no way of knowing what you’re talking about. I give up.’

‘Tony, I want to leave the bubble,’ I said.

Tony stared at me curiously, as if trying to figure out the joke – maybe the punch line was yet to come. And then he threw his head back and laughed.

I left Tony and headed for home. We had decided to meet up later that evening at the game. I put the fact that my best friend had laughed mercilessly at me to the back of my mind. I needed to stay sharp for my scheduled supervised meeting with my daughter. Her mother was such a….

The doorbell of my apartment sounded, and I walked over and opened it.

‘Hello, dad,’ my eight-year-old, Iroro, said. She looked as pretty as always, long hair and intelligent eyes that shone bright as the stars.

‘Hello, kiddo,’ I said to her with a smile that was immediately turned wrong side up when I spied the social services worker. I said, ‘Do you want to take off your backpack and sit, Iroro? Daddy wants a word with your caseworker.’

I allowed the caseworker into my apartment and watched her walk around, inspecting, like she owned the place.

‘Uh, Ms Angela,’ I started – it was all I could do to refrain from pouncing on her and removing her wig – ‘I was thinking that maybe I could have her alone today; I mean without any supervision. I discussed it with Cynthia.’

‘No one said anything to me,’ Ms Angela said, curling her lips into a frown, as she always did.

I would like to bite you, I thought. If only I could bite you without having any consequences.

‘You can call Cynthia,’ I said.

‘Your wife, sir –’

‘Actually, former wife,’ I corrected.

‘Your wife,’ she continued, ignoring the remark, ‘is not my employee. A judge will decide how you are to see your child.’

‘But if we could just use a little common sense here,’ I protested.

Ms Angela curled her lips again.

I managed to cough out quickly, ‘Not that you don’t usually use good judgment. It’s just that in this instance, maybe you can reconsider and be a little merciful.’ I smiled sweetly at her, then said, as jovially as I could handle, ‘I throw myself at the mercy of your court, m’lady.’ I bowed my head, and only raised it to see her decision, but not before smiling again.

Ms Angela looked at me, not betraying her malice, and said, leaving no doubt as to her meaning, ‘No.’

Villain, I thought.

I took Iroro back home later that evening, just before the game, Ms Angela making herself a very visible nuisance as chaperon.  

Cynthia opened the door to her cubicle. She frowned at me. She smiled at Iroro.

‘I’ll be leaving now,’ Ms Angela called to Cynthia.

‘Oh, thank you,’ Cynthia called back. ‘I appreciate your help.’

‘My pleasure,’ Ms Angela said. She frowned at me. Then smiled at Cynthia before leaving.

‘What a horrible person,’ I said, entering the little apartment, and shutting the door behind me.

‘Reminds me of someone,’ Cynthia said caustically.

‘No need to start with me,’ I said to her.

‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘That’s OK,’ I replied. ‘So, what happened today with the caseworker?’

Cynthia shook her head to say she did not comprehend.

‘I mean with Ms Angela, who, by the way, was a real headache today.’ Cynthia smiled, taking obvious pleasure at my distress. ‘I know the woman doesn’t have kids of her own, which explains why she is overly concerned with mine.’

‘Actually, she has two – a boy and a girl.’

‘And since when did you become best friends with social services?’ I asked.

Cynthia smiled again. And I noticed her perfect white teeth – but she was so annoying, and this wasn’t fair.

‘Why do I think that you’ve said something to her about us?’ I asked.

Cynthia shrugged her shoulders. ‘She just sympathises, I think.’

‘Sympathises with what?’ I asked. ‘What did you tell her?’

Cynthia’s face grew grave, losing some of its beauty. ‘Whatever I told her was the truth,’ she said. She turned away.

I bit my lip hard and then left without saying another word.

‘Where’s daddy?’ I heard Iroro ask – spying her running into the front room, having changed into her pyjamas. I hurried away.

An hour and a half later and I was sitting down in the fifteenth row of the Space Ball auditorium. These were good seats. And next to me, an empty one, reserved for Tony – if he showed up. I scanned the crowd to see if I could find him among the people making their way to their seats.

‘Hey!’ I heard. He was on the other side of me.

I turned around. ‘Hey,’ I said. ‘I’m glad you could make it.’

‘I wouldn’t miss these kinds of seats,’ Tony said. ‘What did I miss?’

‘They haven’t kicked off yet.’

The game started and the whole auditorium erupted in cheers. We both stood up, as was customary, as both teams walked into the enclosed cubicle. The game was simple but had a huge and fanatical following. It played very much like handball, except for a computer randomly selecting when to switch the gravity off. Of course, this would make things harder, as player movement would be hampered. Further complexities to the game included the use of gravity boots, which could also randomly be turned on by the computer. The computer could choose to turn any player’s gravity boots on during zero-grav play. It could choose to switch on all boots on one or both teams, some boots on one or both teams, or it could choose not to switch any boots on. All of this was randomly selected. And all of these decisions added to the excitement. There was once a time when there was a lot of corruption in the game, as the computer would be tampered with, thus giving one team the advantage. But the game had been cleaned up – supposedly.

The game had been on now for 20 minutes. The team in red uniforms had the advantage – their star player was with the ball and running forward to throw it between the goalposts.

The goalkeeper of the blue team braced himself to make a block. A familiar sound went off and the crowd erupted – the computer had chosen to turn on the zero-grav. And no one had their gravity boots on.

‘I went to see Cynthia,’ I said to Tony, shouting to be heard above the din.

‘Not now, Matt,’ Tony said, peeved. The computer turned the gravity boots on for one member of the blue team and one member of the red team. They both scrambled for the ball.

‘She’s still upset, you know,’ I continued, now no longer paying attention to the game.

‘Do you blame her?’ Tony said, his concentration split between two worlds. ‘I mean, you cheated on her. Women remember things like that.’

‘It wasn’t like that,’ I said.

‘There’s only one way this will pan out. You have to give her time.’

I said, ‘I’ve given her all the time in the world.’

Now all the players had their gravity boots on. The computer turned the zero-grav off and they all froze, glued to their positions. The ball was with the blue team. In spite of his restriction, the blue player threw the ball hard and scored. The crowd went wild.

‘You see that?’ Tony said.

I nodded my head.

Tony looked searchingly at me. ‘Sometimes you have to still play despite your restrictions.’

‘And how does this particular bit of wisdom help me?’ I asked.

Tony shrugged. ‘I’m just saying you have a commitment to Iroro. No matter what the courts do to you, she’s still your child and you should still see her no matter what inconveniences they throw at you.’

‘But I’m tired,’ I said.

‘You’re just 50,’ Tony said with a smile. ‘What will you do when you get to 60?’

‘Actually, I’m 49,’ I said.

‘For a week,’ Tony said dryly. ‘And then it’s prepare for retirement time – just like the rest of us.’

‘I don’t want to go out like that,’ I said. Hands open wide, I cupped my face in them.

‘Look at you, Matt,’ Tony said. ‘You’re falling apart. Listen, maybe the midlife thing came rather late for you. You were supposed to deal with this drama at age 40. You should see someone.’

‘It’s not a midlife crisis,’ I said stubbornly.

‘It isn’t?’ Tony asked, as the blue team scored again.

‘I just need to get out of here. Up there.’

‘Not that again,’ Tony said.

‘I’m serious,’ I replied. ‘I have thought about this.’

‘And just how do you aim to accomplish this? No one is allowed out of the bubble.’

‘How do you know? No one has ever tried leaving.’

‘Exactly,’ Tony said. ‘And do you know why?’

‘Maybe I could be the first,’ I persisted.

‘You’ll die,’ Tony said.

‘Why would anybody care?’ I asked. ‘It’s my life at risk.’

‘And that of this community,’ Tony said – now lowering his voice, despite the noise. ‘When word of your death gets out, it will demoralise everyone. I don’t need to tell you how fragile emotions are down here. Besides, you could start off a new trend here. How long before people start wanting to follow suit, demanding to be set free of this place? Then even our key workers may want to leave: our very best technicians. What happens to maintenance then? What happens when doctors leave? Teachers? Nurses? Are you getting the picture yet? They’ll never let you leave. So, drop this idea and enjoy the game. I promise you that you’ll feel better after your birthday has come and gone.’

I looked uncertainly at Tony. ‘I don’t know, Tony,’ I started. But he hushed me and got back to concentrating on the game. Even though they were two down, the red team won that night. And Tony was wrong: my birthday came and went, and I still felt bad.

A week passed.

‘I’ve worked out how to do it,’ I said to Tony in the cafeteria.

Tony looked irritably at me with tired eyes.

‘I hope you aren’t still on what we talked about at the game,’ he said to me.

‘I always knew the answer, but I wanted to see if there were other options. There aren’t.’

‘Listen, Matt, I need you to get something started that will make me some money,’ Tony said, clearly doing his best to change the subject. ‘I still owe. I need a way out.’

‘You aren’t listening,’ I said. ‘I’m going to get out of this place. Do you want to hear my plan or not?’

‘Okay, let’s hear it,’ Tony said.

‘I’m going to use Joe’s card to get me out of the bubble,’ I said.

Tony shook his head. ‘You talked to Joe about this?’

‘No,’ I said, ‘but I’m going to get it.’

‘You’ll get a high-level security clearance card from a high-level official,’ Tony said, not hiding his disbelief. ‘How?’

‘I’ll see her for one night,’ I said.

Tony sighed loudly, shaking his head furiously. ‘You do remember that she is what came between you and Cynthia, don’t you? She’s the reason you don’t have a marriage anymore.’

‘It’s just for one night,’ I replied. ‘After that, I steal her card and that will be that.’

For the first time Tony was conscious of the 20 or so people sitting around the cafeteria. They were all spread out and none of them were particularly close to he or I. Nevertheless, he leaned in close. ‘This is madness,’ he said. ‘Do you know what they will do to you if – when – you are caught?’

I shook my head.

‘It’s a matter of community security,’ Tony replied. ‘You’ll be singing in heaven with a jolly harp – that is if they’ll have you, seeing as you’re an adulterer and whatnot.’

‘They won’t catch me,’ I said. ‘I’ll see Joe a few hours before we have a shift. It’s a nightshift and so she won’t know her card is missing until the morning when she gets ready for work. By that time, I’ll be long gone.’

‘And me?’ Tony asked.

‘We’ll pretend I got the better of you and knocked you out. You weren’t expecting it and so I caught you unawares.’

‘Poor me,’ Tony said dryly.

‘Tony, I need you to make this work.’ I looked imploringly at Tony, holding my breath, and praying that his answer would be favourable. Finally, he nodded his head, and I could breathe again.

‘It’s going to be in two days,’ I said, grabbing and squeezing his shoulder. Tony nodded and I left him.

That night I called Josephine on the cable service. She was surprised; said she had not talked to me since we decided to “cool things down a bit”. I told her that my marriage was effectively over. She said she was sorry. I said that I wasn’t and that I would like to start things up again. She said she didn’t know. I convinced her.

The night to execute my plan came. I headed for Josephine’s, rehearsing how things should end up: I would sleep with her, and then steal her security card in the middle of the night when she was asleep. Then I would head for work to start my shift. After that, it was all up to Tony. I knew I could count on him. He would be there when I got there. He would not turn coward.

One in the morning and Josephine was fast asleep. I stroked her hair, feeling sorry that I was using her this way. And there would be no way that I could tell her I was sorry after I’d escaped. I made up my mind to tell Tony to tell her how sorry I was. I kissed her lightly on her cheek and she stirred. Then I hurried through her things and found the card.

Having put on my clothes, I hurried to the front door, and with an, ‘I’m sorry,’ spoken quietly into the still air, I went out.

My heart was racing as I ran to the station to get a train that would take me to work.

The train pulled up to the station and I got on. It was still early in the day and the morning papers had not yet got out. I half expected to see a headline that spoke of my crime. I jumped at every announcement from the speakers that declared we were now in this station or that.

We pulled up at my stop. I tapped my pocket to make sure the security card was still with me, and then got off onto the station platform.

I walked to my office building as circumspectly as I could, always anxious that my plot had been exposed.

I arrived 15 minutes later. I was supposedly a veteran in maintenance on the outside structure and so there was no need to attend the customary briefing. I got into a thin exoskeleton suit first – the bulky and clumsy thermo-sealed protective suit would come on at the nexus point, just before I left the underground structure.

Half an hour later at the nexus point, and I was getting into my protective unit, wondering just where Tony was.

I picked up the phone and called the control room. The phone rang once before someone in a gruff voice answered: ‘Control room.’

‘Where’s Senior Tech Tony Mantis?’ I asked.

‘He should be there,’ the voice answered.

‘Well, he isn’t,’ I said.

‘He’ll be there,’ the gruff voice said. And even as I finished speaking and dropped the phone, I saw Tony appear round a corner and walk toward me. Two heavy-set men in the outfit of the community police flanked Tony.

‘Hello, Tony,’ I said. ‘What’s this?’

Tony hesitated.

One of the heavy-set men looked at him, then at me. ‘Are you Matt Okri?’ he said.

‘Who’s asking?’ I said, hiding my shaking hand behind my back. Had Tony done the unthinkable and betrayed me to the authorities?

‘Mr. Mantis,’ the heavy-set man said, ‘we will need you to confirm that this is indeed Tech Matthew Okri.’

Tony hesitated, and then he nodded slowly.

‘Tony,’ I said. But he looked away.