Rebirth: The City Electric Book Three

By Michael Cairns

Six month ago, the Cleansing wiped out most of Earth’s population. Since then, the rest have been put to work for the Rebirth, building the latest version of civilisation for the Loas.
But the clock is ticking...
Soon, a new city will sit where London once did, inhabited by people who have no memories of what came before, not even of themselves.
For Dancy Visionthief and her soldiers, that has to change. The world has to be saved and there’s no better way of doing that than one step at a time. The government will call them terrorists and history, freedom fighters, but for them, it’s the only option they have.
But nothing is ever that simple. Because Dancy has discovered something within herself, the ghost of a long-lost alien civilisation. And the echoes they have left behind will take her on a different course. The Loas own Earth, but behind every alien invasion is a human just desperate for power. After all, when the Cleansing comes, someone has to press the button.
And then there’s Mina....
In this, the third book of the City Electric, Dancy has some hard choices to make if she is to fulfil her destiny. Sometimes, the choice is made for you and the best you can do is live with the consequences. Sometimes, there’s no choice at all...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Cairns
• Release date: Dec 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781909699786

Michael Cairns

Michael Cairns was born at a young age and could write even before he could play the drums, but that was long ago, in the glory days - when he actually had hair. He loves chocolate, pineapple, playing gigs and outwitting his young daughter (the scores are about level but she's getting smarter every day). Michael is currently working hard on writing, getting enough sleep and keeping his hair. The first is going well, the other two...not so much. His current novels include: > Young adult, science fiction adventure series, 'A Game of War' 1. Childhood dreams 2. The end of innocence 3. Playing God 4. Breathing in space 5. Escape 6. Gateway to earth > Urban fantasy super-hero series, 'The Planets' 1. The spirit room 2. The story of Erie 3. The long way home >Paranormal horror post apocalyptic zombie series, 'Thirteen Roses' 1. Before (Books 2-6 due for release in spring)

Book preview

Above ground, above our strange home beneath the city, a new world is being made.

But down here in the darkness we’re exploring new worlds.

I should go up, take a look. I should move from my chair but I can’t. I’m glued here by my curiosity, held firmly in place by my overwhelming sense of wonder. Better still, I’ve been persuaded to stay by Mina, who is finally, finally, showing something more than idle interest.

We’ve pulled up another seat so the two of us are sitting side by side before the most wonderful computer I’ve ever used. I don’t understand how it works, the technical stuff, but I know enough to make it sing and dance. Antioch thinks it’s amazing. DarkHeart and Beatdown still aren’t talking to me, which I understand.

Every time I move from the computer to use the toilet, or eat something, I see Daniel’s face in my mind. I can’t stop seeing the Loas drag its knife across his neck. I can’t help seeing the blood.

Maybe that’s why I’m still down here, days after we returned. Maybe I’m scared of what I’ll have to face if I leave. I’m scared of the real world. But there’s plenty of reality here. It just isn’t ours.

Mina taps my arm, her signal for me to change the page. I’ve only read half of this one, but the look on her face makes me grin so wide my mouth hurts, so I move us on. We come to a planet described as TCH243. I knew what the letters and numbers meant, in my previous life, but it’s one of the details I’ve not yet been able to recall.

The planet is small apparently, though the stats show it’s bigger than Earth. It’s populated by sentient life and occupies a small corner of the Milky Way, the only life-bearing planet in its solar system.

There’s life out there, life beyond Earth. I knew that. I’ve met the Loas, seen the aliens, drunk the Kool Aid, but I guess I’d imagined them coming from the only other place out there that supports life. Mina and I have spent two days finding planet after planet, each with its own civilisation, complete and distinct.

We’re not alone.

At least, not the way we thought we were.

In other ways though, we still are. We’ve found planets flagged as restricted in flashing red letters. Sometimes it’s a plague, some terrible disease that means no one should go anywhere near it.

Sometimes, it’s the Enemy.

Tor’s people, my people, have a little symbol of a guy in a cloak. It looks like the Jawas from Star Wars, only I know what lies beneath the hood, so there’s nothing cute about it. When the planet flashes up restricted, the symbol appears beneath it.

Earth isn’t the only place to be Cleansed. In fact, Earth is just one of many places in the galaxy torn apart by the Loas. My people call them the Enemy. It’s not very inventive, but it does the job.

‘Visionthief. Time to go up.’ I jump, spin round, scowling at Elder. He’s standing at the entrance to my room. I told them this place was for everybody, but mostly they keep away. I don’t know why. I gave them the tour of the spaceship and they thought it was just as amazing as I did. But still, they keep out unless they’ve got no choice.

Except for Mina. She’s here all the time. She moved out of Maria’s little room, found a bunk on board the ship. I haven’t moved in here yet. I’m hoping Mina might invite me, though I’m not holding out much hope.

When we’re at this computer, exploring new worlds together, she’s animated, alive. Almost like her old self. But the moment we leave it she relapses and becomes the mindless drone they made of her. It’s worse now, because I’ve seen how alive she can be.

She still takes my hand whenever we go anywhere though. It’s not enough, nowhere near, but since it’s all I’ve got, it’ll have to do. For now.

I sigh, heave myself from the chair. ‘We’re going up to the surface to have a look around. Do you want to come?’ I ask. She shakes her head whilst I try to hide my relief. ‘Do you want to stay and explore some more?’

She nods, eyes lighting up, and I can’t help laughing. Sometimes it’s like talking to a child. I try not to because there’s nothing creepier, but she’s so innocent in her pleasures, so naive in her ways, I can’t help it.

Elder ostentatiously checks his watch and I scowl at him again. I bend, kiss Mina on the forehead, but she’s already lost herself in the screen. I can’t figure out why she gets what she does. She learnt to use the computer in a matter of hours, just by watching me. I’m not sure she could live alone yet, but she can use a computer that employs technology most people on Earth don’t even dream exist.

‘Who’s coming?’ I ask Elder as I stroll across the stone floor.

‘Never Man, Raven. I think Urlest is taking it easy. I couldn’t get an answer from the tech guys.’

‘They not talking to you, either?’

‘They’re just grumpy. Can you blame them?’

I shake my head as we fall into step. It’s been a week since we returned from the factories and I haven’t had the chance to speak to Elder properly. Actually, that isn’t true. I’ve had the chance, I just haven’t taken it. I still don’t know what I want to say.

So I keep my mouth shut as we walk to meet up with Raven and Never. I called him Nem a day ago and he gave me a glare so bad I thought he was going to punch me, so I’ve settled for Never. Call me lazy, but Never Man’s such a mouthful.

‘Everyone ready?’

I don’t know when leading started feeling natural. It might have happened after we found a spaceship half a mile below London. Or more accurately, I found a spaceship. Only I already knew it was there. The same way I knew how to work the computers in the cave and the same way I know I’ll fly it out of here, just as soon as I work out how to get it down the tunnel.

We pace past the droids, blank eyes staring in the darkness. I was excited about them not so long ago, but now they’re antiquated. They still have the AI chips so there’s potential, though I don’t know what sort. Right now, they just make me think of Daniel.

I only let my breath out once we’re past them. The corridor slopes gradually up and into the old tube tunnel. The air smells dusty in here, cold, still. We traipse through and up to the next level, then up again. Finally I glimpse light through the hole we made.

It’s still there. One of us has been watching it, first when I was sleeping and since, when I’ve been buried in the computer learning about distant worlds.

I pause for a moment, frowning. What if they thought I was finding out useful stuff? They probably thought I was figuring out how to beat the Loas, when in reality all I was doing was watching Mina. Seeing her light up, become human again, is something I can’t begin to describe, not even to myself.

Never’s headed past me, scrambling up the slope to the hole. His head and chest disappear a moment, then he ducks back into the darkness. ‘We go up quick and quiet. There’s a building either side, so we should be safe for a little while.’

He leaps straight up and vanishes. The others follow, until I’m left on my own with the dust and the silence.

This is it.

All I’m doing is going above ground, but in truth I’m climbing into a new world. There’s no other way to look at it. I saw the bare bones before but now, a week later, I have no idea what we’re going to find.

I grab the edges of the hole and boost myself up.

The summer’s thinking about leaving and the late afternoon sunlight does little to warm me. The others are flattened against the building opposite, hiding in the shadows, so I dash to join them, blood thudding in my temples.

I press my hands against the building, feel the texture. It’s not the same as the one I destroyed. I crouch, turn to face it, then slam a stiffened hand into it. My fingers hurt and there’s no give. I can’t penetrate it, not the same way I can concrete.

I look up and see that it doesn’t matter. This one, like the one I saw being delivered, isn’t smooth-sided. It has random outcrops, rooms or stairwells or whatever they have in there, sticking out every which way. There’s plenty to grab hold of.

So I do. I launch myself straight up and wrap my hands over the top of the outcrop above us. From there, I jump again to the roof. I scramble over, drop below the level of the wall that rings the entire building, and wait for the alarms.

Nothing.

I take a look at London.

The sky scrapers glitter and gleam in the sunlight, breath taking and beautiful. It’s nothing like the London I know. Dotted between them lie parks, perfectly groomed and landscaped, and utterly dull. There are shorter buildings, five and six storeys, and even they’re pretty in a bland sort of way.

The scrapers go for miles, all the way to the edges of town. There’s no suburbs, no neighbourhoods, not from up here, just massive buildings in every direction, vast valleys between them. The streets are being laid and they’re enormous, six lane highways running in every direction.

The scrapers are every colour under the sun; even the squat buildings between look like they’ve been decorated by an artist. The shapes of the scrapers look kind of random at first, but they’re oddly graceful and where the lumps make that impossible, they fit together, tessellating despite the distance between them. I’d never have imagined this kind of beauty could come from the Loas. In fact, I’m betting it isn’t them at all. This was made by a human given free reign to design something more aesthetically pleasing than what came before and with no concerns about money.

I don’t quite jump when I realise Never’s right beside me and turn it into a wave at the city. ‘It’s pretty.’ I say, ‘A bit dull, maybe, but pretty.’

‘I’ve seen this before.’

‘What?’

‘They’ve used this reality before. Not exactly the same, but something similar. I wonder what they’re doing differently this time?’

‘When did they use it?’

‘No idea. I saw it in the records. Hundreds of years. Thousands maybe.’

I whistle under my breath. ‘All this technology has been around that long.’

‘And not a soul aware of it.’

‘Except you. Why didn’t you say something?’

‘What would you have had me say?’

‘I don’t know. Surely there was some way you could have undermined them.’

‘I did. I killed their chosen ones. I destroyed their attempts to make an army of powered beings. But we’ve been through this. What do you think, really?’

‘I think it’s dull. I think it’s tough to hide in. I think there might be flying cars.’

‘Is that really the best you can do?’ Raven joins us, rude even before she’s stopped moving, which has to be a record. Our moment of camaraderie in the factories was just that, a moment. Since I woke up she’s returned to the glares and I have no idea why.

‘Come on then, Rave, what do you think?’ She hates being called Rave. I hope.

‘I think it’s clean and healthy. I think there’s a real opportunity for people to grow up happy—’

‘Haven’t you heard what we’ve said? These people aren’t growing up anything they’ve not been programmed to be.’

‘They’re still humans, Visionthief. Just because they aren’t special like us doesn’t make them any less.’

‘Like you need to tell me that.’

She scowls but gives up, turns to look over the city. She’s right though, in a way. It’ll be far more interesting once the people are here. ‘Elder?’

He lounges against the wall, peering over the edge. ‘I’d like to know what that’s about.’ A colossal machine is cruising down the street that runs past our block. It’s covered in pipes, hundreds of them, nozzles thrusting out in all directions.

It looks like a mutated street sweeper the size of an articulated lorry. It rumbles past, heading into the centre of town. ‘I’m following that,’ I shout as I dash to the edge of the building. My leap carries me to the next and despite all the differences, London is still wide open to me.

The others keep up, despite some unwanted shocks by way of a sloping roof and some drastically different heights, and the four of us are soon huddled at the edge of another scraper. I look back, try to trace our route, feeling my cheeks heat up. ‘Does anyone know where we came from?’

Never Man chuckles and I thump him on the arm. ‘I know I can find it, I’m just checking.’

He only laughs harder so I turn away and peer over the edge. The truck has stopped, but it’s getting vocal, hissing and chugging to itself. The hissing rises in pitch just before every nozzle begins firing. A fine mist emerges, covering the wall of the building before stopping.

Then the fire comes. Blasts of flame burst against the walls of the buildings and the street. They last longer than the mist before being replaced by a random assortment of other things. More paint, more fire, more paint. The smell drifts up, toxic, stinging my nose.

‘What the hell are they doing?’

‘Weathering.’ Never Man replies. ‘I’m surprised it’s happening here. They normally like to keep the centre of town clean, but not this time.’

‘That can’t be the only thing they’re doing differently.’

‘I’m sure they’ve got lots of other things up their sleeve…’

He trails off as Raven hooks a leg over the wall. ‘I wanna see what it looks like.’

‘Hang on, we don’t want to get spotted.’

‘I won’t, don’t worry.’ She slips her other leg over and drops. We watch her hurtle down to land on a balcony. The truck is crawling down the road, repeating the process, so Raven lands behind it. Unseen. Possibly.

I sniff, turn away. Never Man is watching me. ‘What?’ I say.

‘You’re the boss. Should you be letting her do that?’

‘I can’t stop her.’

His cowl rises and I scowl at him. Elder grins. ‘That’s not Visionthief’s style. She’s much more hands off. She takes votes and everything.’

I switch my scowl to him and he backs away, hands held up. ‘Hey, I’m just trying to say how much I like your leadership style.’

‘You’re taking the piss, that’s what you’re doing.’ I don’t wait for his answer. Instead, I leap straight over the wall. I’m going to show them why I’m in charge and bypass the balcony entirely. Or, at least, I make it look like it do.

At the last second, I grab the edge. I barely hold on, but it slows my descent enough to make the rest of the drop without snapping my knees when I land. I crunch to the smooth tarmac just behind Raven, smile when she jumps.

‘When I tell you to hang on, it means hang on.’ I fix her with what I hope is a fierce stare. There’s every chance I look confused or constipated, but from the glare she sends back, I’m guessing I’ve got it right.

‘I’m not in danger.’

‘It’s not about you being in danger. You can take care of yourself. It’s about not putting the mission in danger.’

‘What exactly is the mission?’ She lunges at me, gets right in my face. Her teeth are clamped together so tight her jaw’s shaking. ‘Come on, Visionthief, what’s the damned mission? You keep talking about it, but I still don’t know what it is.’

I open my mouth, then close it again. I’ve thought about this too much already. Not so much in the last couple of days, but plenty before that. Never Man’s mission is to kill off everyone who could be dangerous in the new world. My mission was to rescue Mina, then Annabel, then find out what the hell was going on in my head.

When I think about it like that, I can’t help feeling selfish. Everything I’ve done has been about me. It hasn’t, not really, but when faced with Raven’s fury, I can imagine that’s how it looks. Well, maybe the last thing actually was. But it was worth it.

Raven’s staring at me, the beginnings of a smug smile stirring her lips. I need an answer. ‘What do you think the mission should be?’

Her eyes widen a moment before she shakes her head. ‘Don’t give me that, that’s the coward’s way out. If you want to lead, you have to say what we’re doing.’

‘I want my planet back. I want to get rid of the Loas and get Earth back.’

‘Right. So how the hell are you gonna do that?’

It’s another question I can’t answer. I feel like I should be able to, but I haven’t got a clue. ‘So, we’ll start by, uh, freeing the slaves and…’ I stop talking because Raven’s stopped listening. She’s done that annoying waving her hand in the air thing and turned away.

I bite my lip, go to grab her shoulder, but when I see what the truck’s done my words dry up. The building beside us looks a hundred years old. It’s painted a dirty shade of white, but the paint’s chipped and worn. The pavement’s cracked, tatty and the whole place smells vaguely of rotten vegetables and sweat.

I wrinkle my nose as Raven turns to me, mouth open in an O. ‘Bloody hell, that’s scary,’ she says and I can’t argue. If the building wasn’t made of that weird material, we could be standing in Mile End or Acton, or any other dodgy part of London. They’ll keep doing this and no one will ever know, because they’re just too good at it. We’re the only ones who can change things.

‘We start by watching.’

Her eyebrows rise as she hears the difference in my voice. ‘We start by watching this new world, finding out how it works. Then we figure out where the weaknesses are. Then we attack.’

‘But that’ll take months.’

‘Years, possibly. But this has been going on for centuries, millenia, so what’s a few more years between friends?’

She scowls again, but she’s not arguing. And then it hits me. We don’t have