Plutos Plague

The cafés fittings began to vibrate, cups contents started to ripple, and its occupants barely sat up from their slouches as the metal leviathan thundered through the station, slowing to a stop along the platform the train bellowed its low howl and hundreds of magpies burst forth frightened from their alcoves circling the air on black and white wings “Well” Alexis sighed arms folded against the early morning chill glancing over at the newly arrived train “our coffins here”.

“How long until call?” Nolan asked lifelessly looking at his watch “I swear it takes longer every time.”

“No more than 10 minutes” Alexis dictated looking back towards the table and its contents “it’s only a commuter’s swap, they don’t even touch the freight at this junction.” The pair sat outside one of many storefronts flanking the main railway concourse, the shopfronts walkways stood at a raised level that lined the platform proper, which separated foot traffic by a short elevation and created a small vista along its path.

An upbeat jingle echoed along the length of concourse “Attention” a feminine electronic voice sounded splitting the early mornings still spring air “Filtration Cycle complete – arriving at Miranda – passenger doors opening – those getting off please watch your step and disembark in a calm fashion – those embarking, please wait for the second announcement before boarding in an orderly fashion – next stop Blackstone.”

The trains heavy metal doors released a hiss of depressurisation as they gingerly opened, the birds began to settle and people along the shopfronts and platform turned to watch the opening doors. The passengers disembarked in broad trickles from both sides of the imposing colossus and the days chorus began as they marched and chatted away; This morning they were varied in their clothing and appearances, more in workers uniforms, some in office attire, and next to none in casual clothes.

“So” Nolan continued leaning in his seat “finally getting away from this place are you? Just how many celestial bodies do you wanna put between yourself and our dear blue marble? Luna? Mars? Titan? Oh, maybe the other Miranda?”

“The Moon will do for now” Alexis answered rising from her slouch “You know work is starting to dry up around here and unlike Blackstone, or Adelaide or wherever else Selene isn’t going to get hotter or more flooded anytime soon and they’ve got the Plague more under wraps too. Isn’t that why you’re going to? Less patients and less work?”

“Yeah” Nolan replied unabashed “speaking of, are you take your meds now or you are going to keep putting it off?”

Undoing the zip of her jackets inside pocket Alexis reached her hand into the slim roomy space above her left breast, and eye closed in pause for only a moment she placed two of its several items in front of her: a small silvery heart shaped locket and a broad grey sheet of medicinal pills.

“Why do they make these things so difficult to open?” Alexis whined pressing her thumb hard into the sheet. The prescription was packaged in a thick aluminium foil, as if the manufacturers and the regulatory bodies could not stand even the possibility of even one tablet getting loose.

“Anyway” Nolan continued “anyone with any sense or skill is going to clear off sooner or later, like has been happening for years already, though some would say some are more deserving of that privilege than others.”

Alexis started at Nolans remark and stared at him “I had to slog through three of engineering school and two years of bitch work to get my ticket off this sweltering rock and I - ” a capsules packaging snapped beneath her thumb the force of the impact partially detaching the end of her thumbnail.

“Fuck me dead” Alexis whispered under her breath as the injury began to well with blood; Alexis sucked at the wound on instinct and the tang of metal spread onto her tongue. Irritated Alexis pried loose the last tablet, braced herself, threw back her medicine, and gritting downed the rest of her lukewarm coffee in one gulp.

The three pills were dry bitter stones on her tongue, yet its endless consumption was a sacred as communion, and every last instance of this foul eucharist was taken as solemnly as a devotees last rite upon their deathbed, only in this case with a slightly greater certainty of salvation if taken or damnation if it was refused or forgotten.

Metal – coffee – medicine, that had been the triumvirate of tastes on Alexis’ tongue for the last five years of life from ’71 to ’76; on the air the taste of asteroid ore and the machinery necessary to extract its value, and both the stimulant to keep her awake and the drug to keep her alive.

Alexis looked at her heart shaped locket and rubbed her thumb over its platinum alloy surface, its platinum content was at least in the nineties, not that it mattered, the success of asteroid mining and the influx of material that followed crashed the commodity price of nearly every metal back in the day. Nearly everyone was raking it in and made money hand over fist as the desperately needed mineral abundance was used to develop industries and a global economy starved for resources and a new age dawned for humanity, until that thing descended upon the earth.

Plutos Plague it was dubbed. it hadn’t thought to have come from Pluto, all that was certain was that it came from out there. Whether borne on an asteroid, a moon, or another planet entirely it didn’t matter the hunk of material that carried it released a virulent virus into at least one of Earths refinery complexes. Upon contact, the disease quickly incubated near unnoticed within a victims body and it was only until a person started coughing, convulsing, haemorrhaging, their bodies functions failing one by one was it too late and most of the people a carrier came into contact with rapidly followed suit and the global human population was decimated in the outbreak, one tenth of humanity succumbing to Plutos Plague.

The same upbeat jingle replayed and filled a station as cavernous as a cathedral “Attention – Cleansing complete – departing for Blackstone – passengers please board the train as soon as you are able.”

Without words Alexis placed her items back into her breast pocket, stood up, barely waiting for Nolan to follow marched across the shopfront walkway down the stairs and stormed towards the train door in a determined fury and didn’t glance back to see if Nolan had followed and didn’t the notice the strange characters that boarded and stood only a few paces away and soon became drowned out by the new herd of commuters.

This routine had been a ritual for a long time now and the same voice had recited the same lines and dictated the same routines that were followed to the letter for over two decades at his point; Ever since the new administration had gotten its act together. Built the necessary infrastructure, created the fundamental programmes, and etched into the minds, bodies, and souls of the citizenry into their perfect vision.

Coming to life the metal leviathan released its low howl and began to move, emerging into the morning daylight and into the industrial landscape, piers and wharfs of lined Spencer Gulf like rows of monolithic teeth and refineries and towers were arrayed like spears, looking out the window was the Moon and the city of Selene, a luminous cancer upon its surface, and Alexis and perhaps everyone on board had the desperate drive to another cell of that celestial malignancy and all others like it beyond to escape and stave off Plutos Plague.