The Deep Life -Chpt 1:Life of the Dammed-

“Spread across the infinity of the blue horizons, we think we live.”

Hatches line the walls of a spiral room of the 3rd column of the central hull chamber, where the hum of lights scream in the endless hours.  Accompanying each rusty hatch stands guard a composition of metal joints and circuits, each a head taller than a full grown man.  In each ones’ eyes, a blue light dimly glows to indicate it is in hibernation mode.  If one strained their ears, they could hear distant, muffled fizzing and clanking.  One hatch began to hesitantly turn, interrupting the buzz of the lights.  The eyes of the guard assigned to the hatch began to blink awake.  It turned it’s attention to the door as it opened.  Eyes around the room began to blink on, and turn their attention to the noisy hatch.  A young girl stepped out of the cell behind the hatch and into the room.
“Aviv,” the guard addressed, “why have you left you cell?”
“I need to go to the bathroom,” said the blonde child, with a hop in her stance,  “bad.”
“You should know better that you can’t break curfew.  Return to your cell or I will report you to my superiors.”
“Moaz,” she whined, “I really need to go.”
The guard moved from its post toward Aviv.  “You will abide curfew.”  It said as it gave Aviv a forceful push into her cell.  The child began to yell at her guard as her hatch spun shut.  Tantrums became tears which did not stop for some time, but the guard had gone into hibernation long before the crying stopped.  The whimpers of Aviv were slowly drowned out by the hum of the lights.
When curfew ended, all the guards awoke from their hibernation, their eyes a neon blue.  In unison, they opened their assigned hatches to wake the inhabitants.  One hatch released the thick stench of human urine, and a young girl came out saturated in the odor.  She timidly stepped out of her cell, trying not to be noticed.  She turned to her guard and said “Moaz . . . I had an accident on my cot last night, may I clean myself this morning?”
The guard looked at her.  “Your disobedience has been reported to your teacher.”  Aviv looked to the floor where her heart had shattered.  “You will follow me and you will be cleaned.  Afterward you are to head straight to class.”  The guard said coldly.
“Yes Moaz.” she said defeated.

* * * * *

Elkan awoke to the sound of his name.  He sat up from his cot and looked to the door of his cell.  His Daeon stood behind the doorway, looking at him behind neon blue eyes.  He grumpily sat up in his cot, and gave his guard a morning greeting.  It stared at him and did not give a response.  He stood up and put his day clothes on.  He brushed his teeth and shaved.  He admired himself through a dirty, cracked mirror.  The daeon outside the cell repeated Elkan’s name, letting him know that he was taking too long basking in his own beauty.  A quick comb through his short hair and he was out the door.  He walked up the spiral walkway of the room, accompanied by his daeon.  “Read me my schedule for today, Midas.” said Elkan.
“At fifteen hundred hours you begin your shift and are to report to the northern exit to continue repair on the north-eastern wall.  Your shift will end at six hundred hours.  Until then, you are free to take care of any personal needs or wishes you might have.”
“What can you tell me in regards to the Jess’ approach?  Am I going to have to work through the Jess?”  Elkan asked, hoping that the answer to his second question was: no.
“Any further inquiry to classified information will result in your detainment.” The machine stated.  “ I highly recommend that you drop the issue, as the Dam needs your work if it is to survive the Jess, in addition to the fact that you will be debriefed when you arrive at work, thereby making you quite the fool to all your co-workers, not to mention demotion, repossession of property, and all other punishments the law sees fit.”
“Fair enough, I think I will go to the bar.” Elkan said.  They proceeded through the passageways and passing stations of the dam.  After the last passing station, they arrived at the top level.  The S.I.M. level.  Elkan and Midas pressed through the crowds of people and their respective daeons that were on the Social Interaction and Merchandise level until they arrived at the bar.  At which time, Midas walked into the daeon recharge hall as soon as Elkan had a bar robot assigned to him.  Elkan took a seat and ordered himself a beverage.  He searched the bar until he found one of his working buddies.  As he approached, he noticed he had several cuts, scrapes, and a shiner developing on his left eye.  “Aravel, what the hell happened to you?” Elkan asked as soon as his presence had been noticed.
With a sigh, Aravel answered “I was involved in a fight.”
The two found a table.  “Well what happened?  Who’d ya get in a fight with?”
“Oh, it was nothing like that.  When I got here the fight had already started and I just jumped right in.  How is my left eye coming along?”
“It’s coming along nicely.  How did the brawl stop?”
“Oh it was funny!  I guess the guy that started the whole deal got knifed through by the guy he was picking on.  I saw the look on his face when he got run through . . . it, it was like:” and Aravel contorted his face to a ridiculous pained expression, and then broke out into hysterical fit of laughter.  Elkan found the man’s last expression infectiously funny, and so joined in the laughter.  Aravel began to boast of his finesse and dramatize the fight.  Elkan allowed his attention to drift, for he knew that he would hear of the fight at least three more times, as Aravel told everyone else at work.  They went ahead and ordered strong beverages of their preference and they practiced their regular routine of ogling the lady on the news, not caring much about the news report that she was giving.  “She gives me an idea.” Elkan stated slightly buzzed.
“Whats that?” Aravel inquired.
“Lets make a visit to The Lady.” he said with a sly smirk.
“Oh no.  Please, not again.” Aravel complained.
“What’s wrong with The Lady?”
“I hate government whore houses.  They are so damn lousy.”
“What?!”  Elkan said sharply.
“Yeah, they are aweful.  I prefer to grab any broad off the street and take her in an alley than going to The Lady.  I was stationed in Biztap Dam and was reassigned here right before the dam went under, right?  Well, they had privately owned houses.  They were a thousand times better than any government run place.” Aravel stated as he leaned back in his chair, a wide grin on his face.
“What?  How’d they own it privately?” Elkan asked shocked.
“The owner of the brothels would work deals out with the daeon in charge of Biztap.  At that time, it  saw no problem with privately owned businesses.  Well, that daeon got scrapped when The Associate decided that it was the private houses that were in part responsible for the dam being taken by the sea.”  Aravel said.
“Really?”
“Yeup, and that’s why The Associate outlawed private businesses.  Just a little too much for the daeons to keep track of.”
“How did the whore house cause the dam to go under?” Elkan asked stunned.
“Hell if I know.” Aravel stated.  “I was long gone when it all happened.”
Elkan took a sip of his drink and pondered for a moment.  “How did a human make a deal with a daeon?  That blows my mind.”
“Oh, if I remember correctly, the owner vowed themself and some others service working as vessels.”  Aravel said reminiscently.  With a shiver he added, “Ugliest owner of a brothel I’ve ever seen.  Lucky bugger tho, got out of being a vessel.”
“Yeah, I would take death over being a vessel any day.  Ugly blighters.”  Elkan said despicably.  “Well, you stay here and enjoy yer’self.” Elkan said as he stood up.  “I am off to The Lady.”

* * * * *

Business was bustling as usual at The Lady.  Pushing through a crowd of children, Elkan made his way to The Lady.  Ever accompanied by Midas, Elkan entered the line.  When he was only third in line, the daeon of The Lady told the young boy at the front of the line that all the talents were busy, and that he would have to wait.  The child began a fit of cuss words, aimed at The Lady’s daeon.  Elkan’s attention snapped to the boy, as he watched expectantly.  It wasn’t long into the child’s fuss that his daeon whipped around and picked him up off the ground.  The boy began to cry, for he knew he was in trouble with the law now.  As the boy was being taken by, Elkan chuckled at the boy’s foolishness.  Sure, he was upset that he wasn’t gonna be able to go into The Lady before work, but this child was learning a lesson Elkan had learned long ago.
The chuckle had caught the boy’s attention.  “Lemme down Bocra, I wanna kick that guy’s ass.”  The daeon complied, but warned not to make any attempts of a get away, lest the punishments double.  The boy walked up behind Elkan and gave a violent shove.  “Think you’re pretty dang funny, don’t cha?”  Elkan whipped around.
“How old are you?  Five?  Six?” Elkan asked mockingly.
“I’m tweleve, and I can easily take you on.”  He puffed up like a banton cock.
“I’m twice your age, and then som-”
Elkan’s sentence had been interrupted as the boy gave a swift lunge toward Elkan, with his arm extended.  A shimmer of light from the boy’s hand, and Elkan quickly dodged left.  Elkan gave the boy a shove, and he went flying into the crowd.  The dagger in the boy’s hand slipped from his grip and went flying into the crowd behind him.  There was a scream in the crowd, the boy ceased his pursuit of Elkan, and spun around.  The crowd parted, creating a passageway for the boy and Elkan.  A woman, a little heavy-set and richly robed in linen, lay on the ground.  She gripped a dagger which sat six inches deep beneath her bosom.  The woman’s daeon standing beside her, looked to the boy and said “Reporting death.”  The boy ran over to the gasping woman.  Elkan followed the boy.
“No, no don’t,” the woman began to say, “those are not yours, you did not earn them.”
The boy had bent down beside her, scavaging through the contents of her pockets.  At her protests, the boy shoved the woman so that she fell on her back.  “What will it matter.  You’re done.  I might as well take what’s yours.” 
“Heris!” she called on her daeon, “Heris!  Stop this brat and pull him off of me!”  But Heris did not respond.  He only looked at her, as if a helpless spectator.  Just another one of the crowd.
The reality of the woman’s mortality struck her, and it was written all over her face.  Elkan came over to the woman, and took off her shoes, gave them a look, and decided he didn’t like them.  He gave them a toss and the on looking vultures behind him vied for the sandals.  The boy found a gold pocket watch, and quickly pocketed it so that no one would see it; however, Elkan only saw the glint of the watch as the dome cracked open above the level, letting the outside light into the dam. 
“What do you have?” Elkan demanded the boy.
“Nothing.  Go follow a Siren.”  The boy retorted.
The woman, lying flat on the floor, watched as a small black circle flew over the split  of the dome.  Entering the dome, the black circle grew larger and larger as it approached her.  She could see an fiery whole on the bottom of the circle, like a hungry mouth, as the blackness came closer.
Elkan demanded again, “Show me what you put in your pocket!”  After the boy made it clear he was not going to comply, Elkan lunged at the boy, swinging his fists left and right at the boy’s face.  The child was no match for a full grown man.  About the third or fourth punch that made contact, the boy’s arms would not respond to try and put up a defense against the brick fists.  It was the seventh punch when Elkan noticed that he had knocked the boy out, and he halted the barrage of fists.  Elkan’s fingers probed into the boy’s pocket to find the gold pocket watch.  “See, if you’d a told me what you had, I wouldn’ta done that.”  Elkan said to the unconscious body.  Elkan gave the watch a through look, and decided “Too feminine.” and tossed it as well to the welcoming vultures behind him. “However,” Elkan said not really to anybody, “I think I know what I’ll do.”
He stood up returned his attention to the dying woman, who was looking straight up.  “Have you lost sense of the pain yet?” he asked the woman.  She did not reply, but looked at him, fury and fear in her eyes, and then returned her gaze to the sky.  “Have you lost all your senses then?”  She did not look to him this time.  He knelt down and pulled the dagger out from her ribs.  She gave a shriek, and blood splattered out of her mouth.  Elkan looked to the boy’s body “Thanks for the dagger.”  Elkan whipped the blood off of the blade on the linen draping the woman.  The woman’s breathing became heavier than it had previously been.  Heris walked over to the body wracked with pain.  He picked it up and lifted the woman to the blackness which hovered above.  Tentacles came out from the fiery mouth of the saucer and took the body into it’s cold grip.  While pulling her into it’s mouth, the black saucer shot up and out of the dome.  Out of the dam, and the dome closed.  She saw that which every inhabitant was denied, what every inhabitant was told was vile, evil.  An endless blue, with white cotton on the horizons.  The woman’s last moments were seeing the fate of her body in the fiery belly of the saucer, lined with knives and blades and fire, things of the like of torture chambers.  The mouth of the blackness closed.  And a minute after, the mouth opened again, excreting the ash and soot from it’s innards into the lower blue oblivion.
Elkan walked over to Midas, looked to Bocra and said “Your guy is unconscious, better get him to the pound before he wakes.  Midas, I wish to head to work now.”
“Then let us go.”

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Elkan followed Midas as they left the S.I.M. level. Elkan admired his new trinket the whole way. He found an even deeper appreciation for it when he noticed he could faintly make out his reflection in the blade. “Do you think you will be able to put down that blade long enough for you to focus on work?” Midas asked with a hint of irritated sarcasm.
“Haha,” Elkan bemused passively, “you’re very funny. I bet all the daeons think you are a riot in the recharge hall.” He returned to his self-basking. Seemingly without warning, Midas grabbed the dagger by the blade. “What the hell Midas!” The dagger was torn from Elkan’s hands and found itself lodged in the ceiling after Midas had tossed it. “I was looking at that MIDAS!” Elkan said with increasing anger.
“You have arrived at work.”
“Well you didn’t have to go and throw my new dagger away.”
“I called your name 4 times, twice the legal limit. Be thankful that that” the daeon pointed a metal finger to the dagger penciled in the ceiling “is what you receive for punishment.”
Elkan looked around and noticed, indeed, they had arrived at the docking station. Elkan walked into the plain white room they had arrived at. Inside was a single chair, and a flimsy table, atop which rested an old, heavy computer monitor. On the seat and behind the computer screen sat a tired, old man. On the wall to the old man’s back stood a daeon, like a statue. The eyes of the man were stained red, telling of a life deprived of rest. But such was his joy.
“Hey,” Elkan announced himself loudly, “where do I work today?”
Dusty eyes slowly turned to look at the loud man who had entered and disrupted his mechanical repitition. Gears slowly turned behind the tired eyes, registering what the request required. After some slow processing, the man exercised his atrophied vocal-cords “What is your ID number?”
“6R203M” Elkan answered.
The old man entered the information and whipped up what he sought. “You and your team are reporting to docking port 32.”
“Oh, hell. I hate going out to that one. It’s so far out.” He spun around and left the white room. The old man’s eyes returned to their natural position of the computer monitor as if against sandpaper. Midas, who had waited outside, looked patiently to Elkan to inform him where they were going. “32.” Elkan said shortly.
“Then let us get going.” The two went down a door and entered the center of the docking station.  A large poorly lit, relatively empty lobby, with several doors lining the circular walls.  And here was the second least favorite part of Elkan’s job. Being processed.
When he’d started the job, he tried to get through this as quickly as possible. But the daeons figured out what he was trying to do, and made things harder for him. He finally submitted to the system, but he didn’t like it any more than before. 
The center of the room contained a monstrosity of humanity and cause for Elkan’s disdain of being processed. Surrounded by a control panel was what was once a man as Elkan was. But the man had submitted himself to the government and daeons to the fullest extent, allowing himself to be made a Vessel. The daeon that had followed him his entire life had started the process by burning the man’s eyes til only the sockets were left, marred his ears, and shredded the man’s tongue. After this mutilation, the daeon forced its way into the man’s body, horribly disfiguring the man’s body. Nothing of him was identifiable to the man he once was. The daeon took over the man’s nervous system, and while the man could not speak or communicate, the daeon still could. Tubes and cords came down from the ceiling, into the Vessel, providing blood to the flesh, inlets and outlets for processed information, and various other cables.  Elkan had been raised as a child to revere Vessels as heroic, and that they were an important part in maintaining existence for it made the daeons more capable. That didn’t help Elkan feel any more comfortable around them.
“ID number.” The vessel said with a breath, causing a gust of the unwashed flesh to waft its way to Elkan.
“eck-” Elkan said with disgust as he approached the stinking heap of flesh and metal. There was no need for formalities, the part of the vessel that was once a man could not hear, and if it could, it could not respond unless the part of it that was daeon allowed the flesh to express itself.  As Elkan was answering, Aravel and his daeon walked in.
“Most of your team has already arrived and are waiting for opening.” The flesh was allowed to moan in agony. “Elevator B will deliver you to Dock 32.” Elkan quickly made his way to the elevator, thankful that he didn’t need to stand hear the smelly, pathetic heap.
“Hold the door for me Elkan while I check in.” Aravel asked.  The vessel asked for Aravel’s number, and he answered “3R1E-5V16.”  Aravel spun around quickly, and didn’t wait to be told where to go or where he was going.
When the elevator gate opened, Elkan, Midas, Aravel and Ashtoh stepped on. The vessel gave one last, loud groan as the gate was closing, as if crying hopelessly.
The gates closed, sealing off the second least favorite part of Elkan’s job, beginning Elkan’s least favorite part. Listening to the Government Issued tapes. Graced with Aravel’s company and a long elevator ride, made it doubly bad. The audio started halfway through the recording, but Elkan wasn’t missing anything he hadn’t heard before. He hated listening but there was something about the recording that even if he plugged his ears, spoke loudly, screamed loudly (which he got in trouble for); the audio snuck its way into his head. Everyone just learns to get used to it.  The elevator chugged to its ascent.
“It was a little over two thousand years ago,” the tape started as the gates had closed, “when the world entered the state it is in now.” Spoke the voice that every man, woman and child knew by heart. It was the Associate. He led the government and the daeon. “And it is because of me that you are all here now. Because of me, you have food, order and protection; you wouldn’t even be alive today if I hadn’t crafted these dams around you to live in. Free to live as you please. To store up riches and live fully!” he said ecstatically. “You are living the good life!” A crowd that had been attending the recorded speech rejoiced. “Thank you. Thank you. I know, please. . .”
“Now,” the Associate continued after the crowd died down a bit. “I must ask you to be understanding. Life will not be as it used to be. With a change in the world as drastic as this, of course things are going to be different. The government I am establishing is effective, but we will continuously be trying to adapt to the change of times, to provide the most effective and efficient system the human race has ever known.” Cheers. “But, this means that some, just a few, of the liberties you enjoyed before the change will not be had for some time as we find this system. But I guarantee that we shall provide results!” The crowd was ecstatic. The crowds died and another tape began.
“Ladies and gentlemen, there is a new species in the world. They’ve risen from the depths and have a voracious appetite. BEWARE the Sirens! They are blood thirsty vampires that lure any living thing foolish enough to follow their whiles.”
Which was true, in Elkan’s line of work, you don’t go more than a year without seeing at least one Siren. And if you are working before the Jess hits, you are going to see at least a hundred Sirens in one work day. Many times he’d be working and he would hear a Siren calling out from a distance, calling Elkan to follow him.  He knew better tho.  Sirens have claimed every victim at sea.
“They draw you out by their talk, and when they have you cornered, they swarm you. Already, we have lost several hundred men, woman and children to these beasts.”  His tone of voice changed to a consoling, sympathizing tone, “We mourn their loss in these times, and I give you my word, that I and my daeon are hard at work to counter this threat. We are convinced that the daeon cannot breath air for too long. They can’t stand our air; they can’t be separated from liquid for too long. But they can tolerate our air long enough that they can walk right into our dams and drink our blood. This is why I have moved my headquarters. To ensure that our government continues to run, I have moved to a flying airbase, high above the highest clouds, were I will be safe from the Jess.”
Elkan smirked as he recalled one time where he’d seen the presidential base one night when he was working. It was evening outside the dam, but the base above still floated beautifully in the sunlight.
“I do this for you and to ensure your way of life. But in the mean time, I am enacting a law that prohibits anyone from leaving the dams or walking on the dams. You leave yourself too exposed otherwise. This will only be a temporary law, however.  I am beginning a project with every dam, we are going to build domes over the S.I.M. levels of every dam.  You will be losing your skies, but you will be ensuring your safety.”
Elkan chuckled very quietly to himself. Sirens were crafty things. They learned, they could comprehend, and it wasn’t until after several dams were destroyed at the Siren’s hands that the Associate discovered that only when dams were diligently maintained, repaired after every storm, tightening and repairing faulty or poor plates and sidings, did the dams stand a chance against the Sirens and the Jess. It was a difficult job, physically and mentally demanding, but it was Elkan’s existence.
Elkan brought his attention to Aravel, who wore a wide, prideful grin under his purpling eye.  “I am so awesome.” Aravel would start, “and oh man!  That one guy in the fight, you should ‘ave seen this guy’s nose.  He was asking to be killed . . . ” 
“Yeah” Elkan said passively.  Frankly, Elkan tried to listen to the audio tapes, he would say to himself: “I will hear all this later during work.”  Aravel’s blathering only irritated Elkan b/c it was interrupting what the Associate had to say.