1. Iyara
1. Iyara
Iyara’s staff clinked along the stone floor as he made his way through the darkness of his home. He stopped briefly to fix his shirt, he had apparently put it on backwards, and it was pressing uncomfortably up against his neck. He kept to the left side, hoping to avoid waking the rest of the family by running into their cots as he made his way out.
“Iyara?” It was the voice of his sister.
“Shh, don’t bother Dad.”
“Are you going to work?”
“Yeah, I have to be upstairs before next Bell.”
“Will you bring us back something from the farm?”
Iyara paused, considering. “We aren’t really supposed to do that…” He spoke with awkward guilt in his voice.
“It’s just, with Dad’s medicine, we’re a bit short this week.” Her voice sounded strained and tired, hoarse with sleep and, Iyara was sure, stress as well.
“I know…but with today’s pay, we can get into the community fireplace.”
“Not much use getting in if we have nothing to cook.”
Iyara sighed. “I’ll see what I can do. Maybe Rigo will be cool. Love you, Bug.”
“Thanks, Bigger Bug.”
Iyara left his sister, and stepped out into the tunnel. His eyes blinked as they adjusted to the relative brightness of the tunnel lights, with their red bulbs hung intermittently by their wiring. It wasn’t the brightest, but at least when the bulbs went out they were replaced quickly enough. There were few other people out at this time. He was among the few who woke with the first Bell. Iyara strapped his staff to his back. He didn’t need it while the lights were on.
The powered elevator wasn’t in operation today, so Iyara stepped into the pulley-drawn shaft. He waited a few moments until a handful of his coworkers joined him and began winching them up. He had probably let one too many people on, but it didn’t bother him much, a morning workout was the best way to wake up.
The rest of the way up was stairs, leading to a small staff room on the surface. Everyoneautomatically went to their lockers to pick up their tools, and put on their oxygen packs. No one said hello until they shuffled into the airlock and stood waiting for the next Bell. Iyara attached the back of his mask, and left it hanging off his neck, waiting to put it on properly so he could say good morning. He shuffled through the group of half-awake farmers over to their supervisor.
“Good day Rigo, how was the rest of your day yesterday?”
“Same old, same old, you?”
“Yeah, fine. I mean, my dad’s not really getting better, so it was mostly taking care of him.”
“Shit, sorry to hear that. I haven’t seen mine much since I moved farms.”
“Is there any chance I can take anything home today? Rejects or anything?”
“It’s really the wrong time of year to be asking that, it’s too early to be picking, and we don’t want to mess with the estimated crop yields. But if you can hang in there a month or two I wouldn’t mind you taking some corn home.”
“Yeah, no, thanks, I appreciate it,” Iyara tried to hide the disappointment in his voice.
The Bell rang and the sound resonated from the stairwell down. The farmers all placed their masks over their mouths and nose. Rigo closed the doors to the staff room and sealed it, before opening the large, sealed barn doors to the outside. For a moment, Iyara put his worries to the side, and soaked in the moment. It was always the best part of the day. Artificial light gave way to sunlight, and the rolling hills of farmland. The sun was still rising, but the light was already warm and bright.
The work was the same as every other day, repetitive, laborious, and boring unless you synced your pace with someone else’s so you could talk to each other between rows. Right now the work was thinning the leaves off the the orchard fruits. Fruit needed to see the sun in order to ripen; without the sun they stayed stagnant and green.
It was easy to tell the time while outside, the sun moved across the sky in the same rhythm every day. It was satisfying to watch as it touched the top of the orchard trees, signaling the day was nearly over. Iyara was in a row with one other person, but she was paying attention to her own work. Iyara tried to do it quickly, so she wouldn’t notice. He picked three unripe mangoes and zipped them into his oxygen pack next to his shears.
“You know, it’s more suspicious if you rush it like you have something to hide.” Iyara’s coworker edged closer to him.
“Suspicious? I was just…uh…”
“Don’t worry about it, I won’t tell. What’s the point of doing all this hard work if there aren’t any perks? But you know, the fruit isn’t ripe yet.”
“Yeah, but my family needs food now, not in a month or two. My sister just lost her job and our dad’s sick.”
“You’re thinking too directly, you need food, so you’re taking food,” she looked up and down the row of trees, like she was about to reveal a secret. “Follow me.”
This coworker had just transferred from another farm, and Iyara couldn’t remember her name. It must have been said once, when she was first introduced to everyone, but it had never seemed that important to remember. Now it did. She led him out of the rows of orchard, towards the wild jungle that skirted the farm. Iyara checked his oxygen pack, making sure there was enough to get him back again, and when it showed he had plenty, he retrieved his staff and used it to help navigate through the brush.
“Does your family have light?”
“Yeah we still have lots of candles from when my sister was working. Trying to ration them though.”
“Food’s cheaper than light.”
“When I said lots, I didn’t mean that we have a surplus, we have enough to get us until Jannah finds another job.”
“Here we are,” the woman pulled some leaves out of the way to showcase her prize. Within the green jungle with its tall trees and plentiful bushes there was an exposed nest clinging to the side of a trunk. “This is lucky, the ur-bees usually nest inside of things.”
“You’re going to take the wax and sell it.”
“As long as you don’t take the farm beeswax, they can’t say anything.” Soy candles were more common, but beeswax was produced as well. “I’ll share it with you! I wouldn’t mind some help with this one.”
“How do you get past the ur-bees?”
“Smoke.”
“It’s not exactly like you can just start a fire out here.”
“Sure you can,” Iyara’s new friend rummaged around in her pack for a minute, and pulled out a small flat kettle. She poured water into it from a bottle, followed by a few drops of cashew oil. she put the lid back on the kettle and made sure the vent was open. Then from her pack she pulled out a small, silver ball, and showed it off.
“Whoah, is that?” Iyara took a few step away from the kettle.
“Yep! I have a deal with one of the miners, apparently it’s not too hard to process.”
She dropped the ball into the vent and joined Iyara at a safe distance. There was a mad sizzling sound, followed by a muted “pop!” and the kettle shaking. There was a brief stream of orange flame from the vent before it settled down to smoke. The bees buzzing around the hive slowed, and many of them crawled through invisible holes in the hive, nesting.
With the ur-bees pacified, they were able to retrieve the wax from the hive, and Iyara was even offered the empty water bottle to catch what little honey there was. He hoped the bees would be able to find a new home, maybe somewhere safer.
“You’re pretty used to this, huh?”
“Yeah, well, my family’s from the dark quarter, so I grew up without a lot of light. Now that I’m a farmer, I have all the light I could need, but I can’t take the sun down with me. So I’ve come up with little tricks. If you’re looking to do more to support your family, I can show you some more?”
“Yeah, I think I’d like that.” Iyara held out a hand. “I’m Iyara, in case you don’t remember.”
She shook his hand, sealing their contract. “I’m—
