Pitch

The future is not a terrible place. It's also not a particularly great one. We've made some advances in technology, and we've solved some problems of scarcity. But we've also overcrowded the earth and sold it out to corporations. In an attempt to solve the former, the latter have built out layers of infrastructure that allow society to expand upward. Each layer is newer bigger, and more expensive than the last. But what happens when there's a problem at the bottom?

Blurb

Archer Gray is one of the millions of folks who live and work on Levels One and Two. Most of his time is spent on construction work, but he also takes a shift as a handyman each day. His work sometimes takes him to the sub-Level, where old, forgotten infrastructure still remains. Everything is routine inspections and small-time repairs, until one day he finds a crack. If it widens, it could bring down all sixteen Levels above. But is it up to him to fix it?

Stats

Version history

Idea conceived 2017

First draft completed 2018 (NaNoWriMo)

Extended first draft completed 2018-2019

Word count

~100,000

Auxiliary word count (notes, outline, etc.)

~8,600

Table of contents

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Epilogue

Preview: Chapter 2 exerpt

          The warden yelled for Archer the moment he emerged from the hatch. She must have been watching and waiting to catch him coming up.
          "There's a leak in the eastern facilities," she called. "Fourth toilet."
          "Got it, Dara," Archer called back.
          He shrugged and headed straight for the eastern bathrooms. Dara had been giving him grunge work ever since she was denied sub-Level access. Technically she wasn't his boss, but as the warden she could dictate most of the work in the prison.
          The thought gave him an idea, and he paused for a moment.
          "Hey, Dara," he yelled. When she turned to look, he asked, "Who would you report an infrastructure issue to? One that needs some investigation, maybe tools."
          Dara raised an eyebrow, obviously surprised and irritated.
          "Well, I suppose that would be you," she replied sardonically. "I don't remember asking you to fix infrastructure, though."
          Archer took the hint and turned back east. He didn't bother to call out an apology, knowing it would just irritate her more. He would have to think on his question later.
          On his way to the bathrooms, he waved to some of the inmates heading from one facility to the next. He'd been contracting here long enough to recognize some faces. The friendlier ones even knew his name, if only because they could get their burnt bulbs replaced faster when they knew who to yell for.
          Another familiar face was the young temp working the eastern bathrooms. When Archer got there he could see the problem immediately. What Dara had described as a leak was more like a fountain, and not everything it was spewing was water. The temp, Perry, was desperately trying to fight back the flood without touching it, using a mop.
          Archer sighed and waded in. He put a hand on Perry's shoulder, and the temp startled wildly. When he saw Archer, his look of alarm was taken over by one of profound relief, which he quickly tried to cover up with a stern nod. Archer waved him off and took his mop.
          By the time Archer was done fixing the piping, he was soaked through and covered in all sorts of unsavory, awful-smelling gunk. He stuck around long enough to try to wipe himself off, taking off his shirt to scrub his pants. Then, before Dara could find him again, he made his way north to the laundry. There he dropped his filthy uniform in the chute and put on a new one that was the same gray color as the other prison workers. He stood in front of one of the UV lights for a while, using the warmth to dry off his tools and his hair.
          While he was there, he asked Laura, one of the laundry workers, who she would report infrastructure issues to. She shrugged and suggested the warden. Then she wrinkled her nose and told him that he smelled. Archer grimaced, thanked her, and headed off to the yard where most of the inmates took recreation time.
          Dara found him while he was talking to inmates and gave him three more tasks fixing lighting, plumbing, and comms. The comms issue took him the longest because he didn't understand electrical systems nearly as well as concrete or steel. But he got his most useful lead from talking to Jared, who made the PA announcements for shift changes. Any changes to those announcements went through the district director, who was probably the warden's boss.
          By the end of First shift, Archer had fixed another leak, two doors, a ventilation issue, and a broken basketball hoop. He'd also discovered how to contact the director, from talking with an inmate who really loved basketball. Near the end of the shift, he sent a quick message to the director's office, using a tablet in the prison ConnectionPoint. He didn't have time for much more before he had to be on Two.
          Archer scanned out and headed for an elevator. He skipped past the nearest ones, which were always overcrowded with prison workers changing shifts. Instead, he walked an extra block to the one just outside prison walls. This one still had a line, but it tended to go faster. The elevator was slow but large, and there were separate chutes for materials and equipment. It wasn't long before he shuffled on with thirty others and headed up.
          
          Even just going from One to Two, everything was slightly newer, slightly cleaner, and slightly nicer, including the people. Even the ceiling was higher, though only by a couple feet. One was just tall enough to handle old-style street lamps and wiring, but Two left a little room for trees and some smaller private buildings.
          Outside the prison there was also more activity. Pods zipped by regularly on the roads, containing both people and equipment. Here they still ran on tracks, but it was definitely a step up from the slow, wired buses that inched along on One. At least the pods had been replaced sometime this century.
          Still, cheap as they were, Archer couldn't afford to take a pod. He joined the workers traveling on foot, jogging a bit to make up for lost time. Even with his delays at the ConnectionPoint earlier, he managed to get there and scan himself in one minute early. With a wave to the overseer, he grabbed his hat and went straight to work.