WW Fiction?

Titan

Liam Chancey, OP Contributor

“T want to see God.”

She could feel Chordo’s stare burrowing into the back of her head. She imagined puz-
zlement and bewilderment on his face. She imagined a kind of horror.

“Don’t joke about stuff like that.” He pressed a few buttons on the power station. It
thrummed to life, pouring energy into her body. “Just don’t do it, Alta,” he repeated.
“Someone might take you seriously.”

She smiled faintly, the motors in her face whirring almost inaudibly. Only at times like
this, in the recharge zones, did she hear them. There was nobody else around them. Not
even the Cherubim watchers floated around in the air, observing and recording everything
that happened. They were alone, for now. It was these rare moments of solitude that Alta
savoured.

“Tm not joking,”

Thick power conduits ran along the walls and ceiling, hidden behind ribbed steel that
had become dark and grimy from the air. The floor was scuffed, even caved in at parts,
from the endless stream of bodies looking to charge their batteries up.

Power stations were lined up in rows spreading out in all directions. They extended for
at least a dozen metres around, ending at the blackened walls that hid the rest of the city
from the two within.

A quick surge sent shivers up her spine, and Chordo quickly apologized, readjusting
the power flow subtly.

“What do you mean, then, seeing God?” His voice was almost too low for her to hear,
even with the machinery in her ears. “Nobody even goes close to the Titan. Well, nobody
except for the Powers, that is.”

“Don’t you think that’s strange, though?” She wanted to turn around and look at him,
but the power cables were stiff, and kept her body from moving. Desperately, she tried to
crane her neck over her shoulder, but could only see one side of his face. “Haven’t you
ever wondered what goes on in there? Don’t you...”

“We are told.”

Alta snorted, and raised her hand, running it through her hair. Her fingers were still
shiny, so metallic, from her last visit to the body shop. They almost glowed in the light.
“Yeah, but that’s one thing. They could be hiding anything in there, and we wouldn’t ever
know. “

Chordo moved into her view, and she smiled faintly at him. He said, “I’m happy
enough living out my life like this. I don’t need to mess it up with any of your crazy
ideas.”

She frowned, and bit her lip. Metal on metal, a soft grating. “Fine,” she murmured, her
head dropping away, lowering her gaze to the floor. “Don’t even try to humour me.”

His hand came to rest on her shoulder, squeezed, released. “You are joking, aren’t
you?”

Her eyes sharpened and she paused, briefly thinking. “Yeah,” she offered with a quick
mock-laugh, “just spewing nonsense.”

Chordo laughed in response, and ran his hand through her hair. “That’s what I
thought.”

The power station detached from her, and they switched places. She admired Chordo’s
designer body, so smooth and fitted, so fluid and graceful. Like a fine blade. Bodies like

that were impossible for almost anyone to get. He knew people, important people in the
City. Not that he ever spoke of it.

She pressed a few keys on the power station, and the thick tentacle of the cable
wormed its way into his back. He tensed slightly, his body straightening, as it aligned with
his power-core.

“as thete...7

Alta’s voice was cut off as others began streaming in. A brilliant phalanx of people.
Men and women and children, all weaving in, metal feet stomping on the battered floor,
went to the power stations. Within moments, all of them were active. The collective noise
made conversation impossible.

Alta frowned to herself. There was more to say. There was always more.

RK

They walked slowly through the city, Alta’s eyes turning towards everything, watching
all with an odd voyeurism.

The buildings leaned together, built too close, the planning too poor to accommodate
so many people. Windows faced windows, doors opened into doors, stairways crashed
against each other. Mass movement was impossible. And it wasn’t just here: She had been
everywhere in the city and they all looked the same.

Tightly crammed together, millions upon millions, living in squalor.

Smoke snaked its way through the city day and night, churned out from the factories at
the centre of each part of the city. Churned out from the Titan in more quantities than
could ever be believed.

Light was muted behind the indelible haze that hugged the homes and windows and
everything so completely that it was impossible to see for much further than a mile.
Except if one looked skyward.

It was always day. Always clear. Not a single cloud to be seen from one stretch of the
horizon to another. The sun moved rapidly around, coming into view then disappearing
every few hours. But that was because the city was rotating, not the sun.

Alta had memorized the layout. Nodes building off of nodes, branching in every
direction. They all grew out of the thick central ring that orbited the Titan.

Titan, the house of God.

Chordo pointed towards the black steel construct. It was an enormous statue, so tall
that, even in the ever-clear day, they couldn’t see the head, only up to the massive, bulbous
knees. “There, you’ve seen God.”

Her eyes turned towards him. She glared. “You know what I mean.”

“That’s all there is to see. The Titan is God.”

Alta stopped suddenly and crossed her arms over her chest. “More propaganda.”

He turned towards her as an indignant look covered his face. “There’s nothing else to
it. Just that, big and black and spoiled. God doesn’t exist if he lets something like that
happen to his home.”

Her eyes flitted away from him, towards the distant view of the Titan. “Wasn’t it
always like that?”

“Tt’s silver.”

Alta turned back to him, then slowly her eyes dropped back to the ground at her feet.
“OHS