"A library? We skipped school, went wandering through broken and disused sections of the colony, risked life and limb for a LIBRARY?! We can get to the colony library database from our home terminals, you know. Or school. Or the library in corridor Bravo-4. Or for that matter our wristcomps!" Paul held up his wristcomp for Jen to see.
"First off, your wristcomp doesn't get signal here." She tapped his screen. Paul looked for himself and the wireless signal indicator was blinking. No signal at all, not just low signal. He couldn't remember ever seeing less than 90% signal strength. "Second, this isn't the same library." Jen stood in front of the closed door, lightly tracing her hand along the letters spelling the room's purpose. "Not by a long shot."
Reverently, Jen grasped the door handle and pulled. Paul pressed his back against the corridor wall opposite the door, slightly confused as the door creaked toward him. "It's unpowered? Well, that's not a surprise. But it doesn't slide apart like the others? How did you know how to do that?"
"I've been here before, remember. This is how all doors worked before the automatic doors were invented, before the colony." She stepped inside and the door swung slowly toward closing. Paul rushed forward before realizing the door wouldn't close on its own, resting about halfway to closed. "Pull it shut behind you. Just in case."
"Okay, Library. Off the grid. Are we here to hide from the truancy officers? Because they wouldn't have been a problem if we hadn't skipped school to come here."
Jen shot Paul a look that seemed almost to have the power to knock him over. Instead, he quietly closed the door and kept his head down. "We're here to find Jack."
"The journal guy?" He ran his finger through the dust on a table near the door. He took it for granted that the lights still worked as he wiped his finger on his shirt. The dust looked to be nearly a quarter of an inch thick on the table.
"Yes. If he was a colony founder, he'll be in the colony records kept here. Records from before the CGC changed and forgot about these areas.
"Where am I?" Kevin turned the map over in his hands in the cramped confines of the ventilation duct. He held a small flashlight in his mouth and mumbled to himself around it. "I turned left back there... and a right... so I should be near the arboretum... shouldn't I?" He puzzled for a few moments more before removing the flashlight and speaking clearly, and quietly, to his wristcomp. "SAL, respond in my earpiece until further notice. Project a map of the colony over Jack's map."
The computer chimed in his ear in acknowledgment and projected a holographic map overlaying the paper map spread on the floor of the duct. Kevin turned off his flashlight to keep it from washing out the projection as he traced his route with his eyes. "This doesn't make sense, SAL. According to your map, I'm nowhere. Why is there a gap in the middle of the colony?"
"Unknown. This is the map compiled by the most recent survey of the colony, five years after the Sealing."
"Can you access an older map? Something just after the Sealing, or maybe before the doors shut? Building plans or something?"
The chime indicated a negative response. "This is the only map available. I am unable to access records of older maps."
"Well, if it's not on the map, maybe it's not being watched. Projection off." Kevin folded the map carefully in the darkness and crawled forward. He saw a light up ahead, flickering, but definitely not a hallucination. Before he turned off his flashlight, he saw a vent opening five meters ahead.
The room looked empty, so Kevin cautiously opened the vent's grate wider to get a better view. The room was sparse, bearing only a single desk with a chair, empty bookshelf, and ceiling mounted light fixture: the source of the flickering. He pushed the vent cover off, then pulled it in to the duct with him rather than dropping it to clatter on the desk.
The vent had run directly above the door, blocking his view of it earlier. The room was small, barely ten feet square. The desk dominated the space, but held nothing except spiderwebs and dust. His shoe-prints were clear and crisp in the layer of dust resting atop the desk. The bookshelf was not as empty as Kevin had thought, holding a single book on the lower shelf: a handbook on vehicle maintenance. Kevin tucked it in his bag for possible later reference, then tried the door.
It didn't open automatically as he approached. He tried manually sliding the door, and after ten minutes of work he had gained barely an inch of movement. Kevin sat with his back against the wall, covering his eyes, fearing he might go mad with that flickering light. "The light! That's it!" He dug in his backpack for his multi-tool and pried the cover off the door's access panel. In short order, he had the power circuit wiring exposed and verified the door had no power.
But the light did.
He spent some time getting the housing off the fixture, and used the sleeve of his shirt to unscrew the lightbulb. With his flashlight back in his mouth, the rest of the lamp was quickly disassembled, and Kevin thanked the builders that the electricians had left plenty of electrical cable coiled in the ceiling. In moments, the door was powered again, and Kevin left the room in darkness, whispering to his wristcomp, "Try to track my position and let me know when I'm near to getting back on the map."