Stairs

By Brett Kottmann

Stairs is a short story about five friends who (with a little help) overcome their fears while on an adventure. Along the way they learn that something has gone amiss in the world where they live and they decide to do something about it.

Stairs is a Science Fiction story set in the far future, when civilization has reached a crisis point and sends out expeditions in the hope of finding new worlds where they can reboot society. Along the way an accident occur and the expedition loses its way when it is taken over by self-serving people who do not share the same goals as their former leaders.

Our group of adventurers start out on a simple quest: to retrieve a lost game ball. They end up in a position to change their world forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brett Kottmann
• Release date: Dec 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370426140

Brett Kottmann

Born too soon; there's never enough time.

Book preview

Chapter One: Downstairs

Duran Daleron sized up his opponent. He was quick and agile, with a reputation as a serious striker among the sixteen cycles. He would have to be careful with this one. Reaching back, he selected a combination of settings on the sphere he was holding and then hurled it directly at his foe.

The sphere zoomed directly toward his opponent’s head, increasing in speed while also starting to rotate. Approximately one meter away from its target it suddenly dipped down and slightly away.

Get it, Rayland! a crowd of onlookers yelled. Knock it down the promenade!

Duran watched as Rayland, his determined foe, struck down with his right arm, then swiftly spun about while leaping off his left leg.

The sphere lurched toward Rayland, then went hurtling down the promenade to the delight of the onlookers.

Lucky strike, Duran called to Rayland, who was busy celebrating with his teammates. The sphere returned from its trip down the promenade showing a gain of seventeen points for the striking team.

I think that’s game! Rayland called back, grinning. Better luck next time.

As the game ended most of the participants departed for class or home. Rayland stayed behind as it was his free day. At their age, late teenagers, they only had seven days of school, with another two days dedicated to work-study and one free day. The schedules varied so there was always a different mix of students free on any one particular day.

Duran smiled in return at Rayland. Rayland Willcamp was one of his best friends, so losing to his team was not a big deal. Duran’s younger brother Sev, on the other hand, was an intense but friendly rivalry that could only develop between brothers.

With that thought Sev appeared from down the promenade.

Duran, it’s here! he cried. Above his head he triumphantly held a large ball.

Duran recognized it immediately: his new skip ball!

Sev! he called out to his brother. Grab some of your friends and we’ll get up a game of skip-ball! Turning to Rayland he asked willing to play some skip-ball?

Rayland nodded. Sounds like a plan! A new skip-ball was quite unusual. People waited many short-cycles for them. Sometimes even more than a long-cycle for something particularly involved like a holo-action stage or a skip-ball. The structure of the promenade—rectangular and punctuated with many out-of-bounds areas—usually limited they type of games they could play. Skip-ball was different: it used the out of bounds areas to change direction; or hop; or skip; or any number of combinations the game computer could devise. The computer even took the ages of the competitors into consideration, generating easy to handle changes for young players and harder ones for older players. Duran, Sev and their friends played it at the highest level. It was the most difficult game along the promenade.

Watch out, brother, Sev said, sending out a summons to their friends on his wrist pad. Your team is going to stumble today!

Hah! Duran answered, adding a snort of disdain. My leg is better than your arm, and you know it. They set out up the promenade where a large free space reserved for team sports could accommodate a game of skip-ball.

Be home by fifth bell! A voice called out to them across the promenade.

Okay, we will! Duran answered their mother. Duran was anxious to get to the skip ball field on the promenade before his mother found a chore or two for him to do first.

At the field they found a few of their friends had already gathered, hoping to find a few bell’s-worth of amusement on an end-day. Others arrived as they responded to the summoning message.

Hey, everyone, Duran greeted the cluster of boys and girls. I’ve got a new sports ball; anyone want to play some skip-ball?

A chorus of affirmative answers greeted him as almost everyone was eager to get to play with a new sports ball. Old balls tended to lose their oomph after a few long-cycles. Duran’s father was always admonishing him to take care of the things he valued, or they would lose their value!

The game quickly commenced with Duran’s and Sev’s teams facing off. The sports ball proved particularly energetic this day and after a mere two rounds the score was tied at a relatively high thirty to thirty. You could never tell what the game computer would emphasize in one game over another. Sometimes it was offense. Other times it was defense. Sometimes it even seemed to be random at each face-off.

Okay, here comes my special super-duper, twisting wild send, called out Sev as Duran stepped up for his team. Sev’s boast proved to be an underestimate, if anything, as the ball careened wildly past Duran and cut to the side of the promenade.

That’s a free one, called out Duran happily as he trotted to the first post.

Sev, however, was watching the ball travel dangerously close to a stairwell. Lolynnia! Get the ball! He called to a girl closest to the ball. Lolynnia Treharp was a very fast runner, and she took off like a mag-lev sled, but she was not fast enough this day and the ball reached the stairwell first, bouncing ominously down the stairs: thump… thump… thump… thump…. The sound of the ball was soon drowned out by noise from the promenade.

The players on the field fell into a dead silence.

Oh my gosh! I’m sorry, Duran, I didn’t mean to do that! Sev looked pleadingly at his brother, who was just rounding the fourth post in the tag-field and becoming aware of the situation. Until that moment he would have sworn that a game computer would never let a ball near a forbidden area like a stairwell.

Duran stopped dead in his tracks—looking at his friends in turn—and then at the stairwell. He seemed at a loss for words as he stared into the dimly-lit recess where his ball, his brand new ball, had disappeared. Well…that’s the way the ball bounces, he finally said. He kicked at the ground and walked dejectedly to the side of the promenade.

He was crushed by the loss of his sports ball but there was nothing they could do about it. It’s not like they could just go into the stairwell and follow it down. He shuddered to think of the punishment that would be meted out by his parents if he were caught doing something so forbidden.

"Duran…you can’t just let it go, it’s a brand-new ball," his friend Rayland admonished.

Are you going to go get it? Duran asked Rayland irritably.

Well, no… Rayland looked away uncomfortably. He knew the rule, too: None shall enter a stairwell for fear of punishment. None shall traverse one except for dire emergencies and only when instructed to do so by Watchmen. Under no circumstances shall you go up. Don’t you remember what happened to the Sumill family? They all went down a stairwell and were never heard from again! Rayland was built more solidly than Duran and he was an excellent defender and striker, but his fearlessness on the field did not transfer to risking a trip into a stairwell.

It wasn’t the Sumill family, it was the old clothing shopkeep from down the way, objected Sev. The Sumills just got new jobs far up the promenade.

That’s not what I heard, Duran injected. I heard in vectors class that it was the older Toohey twins who got lost exploring a stairwell. Anyway...none of that matters to us, especially if no one will go after the ball.

I will, a soft voice sounded behind Duran. He turned to find his friend Gellian Anderson watching him with her great round eyes. Gellian was closer to Sev’s age and she always seemed to be around when Duran and Sev were out playing. She had even secured a spot on Duran’s team by working harder than anyone else and becoming second only to Sev in pitching ability.

I’ll go get it, she said again, a bit