I looked at Enea’s biochemical monitoring panel. Without bothering you with the details, I could see that her body was functioning just fine. Most of the indicators glowed a healthy emerald green. Her main vital signs were within the norms. If you considered the fact that individual in-mode capsules had been designed for use in deep space, then Enea was perfectly safe from both radiation and toxic environment.
And what about that yellow light?
Life support cartridge
Charge: 20%
I crouched next to the capsule and opened the protective lid at its base.
Not good. The cartridge clip was empty. This was the last one.
The moment I focused on it, a prompt came into my view,
The remaining cartridge charge is enough to maintain life in the subject for eight more days.
Oh no. This wasn’t going to happen.
I moved around the destroyed lab, searching it. Logically, life support cartridges had to be fed into capsules automatically. And although now this system didn’t seem to work, they must have had an emergency supply stashed here somewhere.
I tried to force a few wall panels aside.
Yes!
Behind them, the walls were lined with niches. In one of them, I discovered a large stack of plastic containers with familiar markings. Inside were several cartridge clips. I hurried to insert them into Enea’s in-mode.
Life support cartridges successfully loaded.
Data update in progress...
The remaining cartridge charge is enough to maintain life in the subject for four more months.
That was a bit better. I was pretty sure that if I searched all the adjacent rooms I might find more of them.
You might not have it your way, Dietrich, I spoke to him mentally just to keep my emotions in check.
What now? I was getting worse, I could feel that. I wasn’t going to survive these radiation levels for much longer. The cyber prosthetics could help me move around, but they weren’t going to replace my dying brain.
I couldn’t forbid myself to think about my approaching demise. I had to do something.
Should I try and contact the Crystal Sphere?
I checked the data saved in my mind expander. My friend list helpfully opened before me. I could contact anyone but what was I supposed to tell them?
How about White?
He was the only person who could probably understand me without freaking out. I didn’t want to lie to Enea or tell her it was all going to work out fine.
I clicked on White’s icon.
After a few seconds’ delay, I received a new message,
Connection established.
Would you like to connect your optic nerve to the data exchange channel?
No, I sent a mental reply.
“Alex?!” White’s anxious voice echoed through my mind. “Where the hell are you?”
I gave him a quick rundown of the situation. “Don’t tell anything to Enea, please. I’m not sure I can make it.”
“Go and find a functioning in-mode. Do it now!”
Just as I expected, White hadn’t fallen apart with the news. On the contrary: he’d mustered up all his willpower and spoke clearly and to the point.
“Okay. I’ll see what I can do,” I replied. “Do you know if I managed to kill Dietrich?”
“Absolutely. You finished him off, then you just disappeared. Vanished into thin air.”
“Could you really see us fight?”
“We could see both of you perfectly well. The barrier was transparent. We even filmed it. Which makes me think that Dietrich was pretty sure he was going to win.”
“How about the rest of the Reapers army?”
“It’s falling apart like a rotten rag. The game’s defense mechanisms just won’t leave them alone. The world is losing the last of its vegetation but Enea’s adamant she can restore it. Alex, please get out of there alive!”
“I’ll do what I can. The place is pretty much dead. It looks like we’ve had a technogenic disaster of some kind which must have culminated in a nuclear reactor meltdown. I’ll try to move Enea’s in-mode to a safe place. Then I’ll contact you again. Don’t tell her anything, will you?”
“Alex, she loves you.”
“I love her too.”
I was about to disconnect when he interrupted me,
“No, wait! Just tell me. If indeed the Corporation’s labs are destroyed, how long do you think Enea’s in-mode will last?”
“It has enough life support cartridges for four more months. But I’m going to find more, I promise!”
“How about power?”
“Don’t know. I haven’t checked yet. It looks like the lab is self-contained. It must be powered by micro nuclear batteries.”
“Okay, keep your hair on. Did you tell me that the system had attempted to summon an evacuation module when you were coming round?”
“I did. It never arrived.”
“Very well. I want you to listen to me very carefully. When I was looking for Enea, I seriously considered hacking into the testing grounds.”
“It didn’t work, did it?”
“I didn’t get the chance to try. I took a different approach. But I still have a few emergency system command codes which I intended to use at the time. I’m sending them to you now.”
“I got them. Did you memorize them?”
White chuckled. “I’m never without them. Seriously, before I left the real world for good, I uploaded all the important data to my mind expander just in case. You never know when something might come in handy.”
“What good can emergency access codes be to me? Everything’s dead here.”
“Evacuation modules are complex robotic systems developed by the Military Space Forces. They’re powered by their own reactors which makes them perfectly autonomous. The reason I know this is because my old company, TransEnergy, used to supply emergency power units for those and similar devices. For your information, the first in-mode capsules were based on the rescue capsule used on spaceships. Are you with me?”
“Do you mean that I might be able to move Enea’s capsule myself if I find a working evacuation module?”
“Exactly.”
“But where do you want me to evacuate it to? Everything’s really badly damaged. I don’t think any of the cities have survived.”
“Evacuation modules are extremely secure and have a ten year autonomy. I suggest you find a working in-mode for yourself, then have yourself and Enea evacuated. When you enter your destination, make sure it’s as far from the cities as possible. Then just log back in. Once you’re back, we’ll think of what to do next.”
“Okay. I got it. I’ll see if I can do it. I’ll contact you when I have something positive.”
* * *
If the truth were known, his idea of finding a working in-mode for myself wasn’t going to help me much. I’d received too much radiation to come out of this alive.
I tried not to think about it. White had been right: I had to act fast. But how did he want me to connect Enea to the emergency power supply if all of the lab’s terminals were dead? Should I go and look for something that might still work?
Wait a sec. I thought these people used cutting-edge technologies here. Wouldn’t that include a neural interface? I’d just received some messages via my mind expander, hadn’t I?
I picked up an upended chair from the floor and slumped into it, then focused on my own interface icons which hovered in my mental view.
Despite all the changes caused by my return to the real world, my interface remained highly intuitive and efficient.
I clicked the Emergencies tab, then glanced over the Life Hazard button, activating it.
Please choose the action required
“Staff Evacuation.”
Please provide the sector number
I looked around. The walls were marked with signs which said A3. I couldn’t see any other information.
Next, the emergency system a
sked me to enter a code. This was a classified facility, after all. Not like in a city where any such system responded to all and sundry.
I entered the code White had given me.
After a few tense seconds, a new message came up,
Please wait
Soon the floor began to vibrate. The walls caved in. Pieces of broken panels started falling.
A huge shadow eclipsed the gaping hole in the sunken ceiling.
The evacuation module.
A bundle of long, snaking manipulators reached into the lab through the hole in the ceiling. Supplied with toolkits and covered in emergency power sockets, they unhesitantly reached for Enea’s in-mode. It took them only a few minutes to detach it from its mountings and lift it effortlessly into the air, about to haul it up.
My heart clenched. Would they return for me too?
Please remain calm
Prepare for evacuation
A hatch opened. A steel ladder slid down. I hurried to climb in.
I was standing in a small cabin with bare walls and an anti-G seat mounted at the center.
Please buckle up and prepare for takeoff
I did as they told me. My mind was racing. My lips were chapped. I kept zoning out but my anxiety was stronger than my growing malaise. Where would the module take us?
In any case, Dietrich had lost. Yes, bastard, you heard me right. I might be dying but Enea was going to live!
New messages flashed through my foggy mindview,
Searching for available landing sites...
Search failed
Searching for available shelters owned by Infosystems Corporation...
Search failed
Searching for available communal in-mode centers...
Search failed
I was feeling increasingly worse. I had to do something, otherwise the module might simply return to its hangar nearby and stay there.
Struggling to remain focused, I mustered my last strength to issue a mental order,
Manual coordinates entry
Where could I possibly go, might you ask?
I still had the scroll Borisov had given me. This was my last resort. He must have had a good reason to enter real-world coordinates into it.
Authorization required
I tried entering White’s codes again. They didn’t work.
There was just one remaining option. I used my mind expander to access the number that Borisov had scribbled on the scroll just under the coordinates.
Command sequence identified
Execution protocol activated
The messages swam before my eyes. The cabin began to vibrate. The module must have taken off and activated its cruise engines. Not that I cared anymore.
The last message faded in my mental view,
Critical failure warning! Your organic components have shut down.
* * *
No idea how long I’d been unconscious. When I finally came round, the module was still in flight, judging by the faint vibration of its engines.
How come I wasn’t dead? Your organic components have shut down — that sounded pretty self-explanatory.
That wasn’t the last message, though. I must have fainted before I got the chance to read the rest.
Your neural implant has been successfully reloaded.
Please wait while we stabilize your identity matrix.
Your identity matrix has been successfully stabilized.
Kimberly had been wrong all along. The testing grounds had nothing to do with stabilizing our identity matrices. This was a built-in option in all of our implants. Logical, really. How else would the Founders have traveled between stars?
I didn’t attempt to get up.
I didn’t want to ruin the moment with the sight of my half-dead, half-robotic body.
Not that it mattered, really. I’d crossed the line between life and death — but I’d preserved my identity.
I still had all my feelings about me. None of them had faded, even though I could see a lot of things differently now. The wealth of data I’d uploaded in the Founders’ library back at the Temple of Oblivion was stirring in the depths of my mind.
I could read it now! I could understand every symbol!
For a brief moment, the entire Universe opened up before me.
I saw the map of our Galaxy threaded with the fine web of the ancient hyperspace network. Some of its routes were broken.
The star system closest to Earth was Darg. I’d never heard the name before. Still, it looked like the Space Forces had already set up a secure wormhole which opened into it.
My heart clenched, bringing back the smarting pain of my loss.
I didn’t care about space travel. I wasn’t interested in other star systems. All I wanted was to see Enea again, knowing she was going to be fine.
The moment I thought about it, I clearly saw her in-mode capsule safely secured in the cargo hold and illuminated by the flashing red emergency lights.
Congratulations! You’ve activated a new option of your neural implant.
You’ve received a new ability: Piercing Vision.
For Your Information: none of the abilities acquired in the physical world can be automatically transferred to digital reality unless it was previously integrated into it.
Oh wow. The opportunities it opened up!
Should I try it again?
I willed my vision to penetrate the flying module’s hull.
The megalopolis lay below. I could see spots of raging fires — a sign of the failing technology in a world deserted by people. I could see dead maintenance robots frozen in the power saving mode.
The wind howled below. Windows were dark. A snowstorm thrashed among the precipitous canyons of streets, piling up banks of snow against abandoned cars.
Soon we left the city behind us. The tiered blocks of its outskirts descended towards the ocean.
The module banked into a smooth turn and began to land.
A snowed-in wasteland opened out before me.
The ground shuddered, revealing a giant camouflaged hatch below. It rose and slid sideways. A deep shaft gaped beneath into which the module dropped.
The electronic landing mechanisms clamped on to it and set it gently to the ground.
The module’s hatches swung open. Maintenance robots began fussing about, unloading Enea’s in-mode.
It looked like I could get out too. But should I? Where the hell was I, really?
I had no idea what this place was. What kind of “execution protocol” had Borisov’s command sequence activated?
Reacting to my thoughts, a glowing 3D holographic image formed at the center of the dark cabin.
“Hi, Alex.”
“Bors?! What are you doing here? What is this place? You sent me the coordinates but you didn’t explain-”
“I’m not Borisov. Also, if you managed to activate the command sequence, it can only mean one thing. Borisov is in trouble.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m this facility’s AI. Borisov is my prototype. He built me using his identity matrix.”
“Where are we?”
“This is Infosystems’ backup control bunker. It’s been sealed and put on standby to ensure that nothing could damage the data and equipment stored here.”
“You don’t mean I activated it, do you?”
“Oh yes, you did. You entered a remote command known only to my prototype. This facility was built on his direct orders as an emergency measure. Borisov never trusted the military. He didn’t think we could entrust our lives to some alien space station many light years away.”
“Sorry, I don’t understand. What future are you talking about? The Crystal Sphere is dying. The Corporation’s defense mechanisms have basically flattened it!”
“I know. Still, you can change that. Borisov did warn me about you. He said I should be expecting you if something happened to him. So now it’s up to you to make the right decisions.”
“Please exp
lain.”
A 3D map of the Crystal Sphere unfolded in front of me.
It was a miserable sight, I tell you. In their pursuit of the Reapers, the defense mechanisms had completely defaced it. Virtually all wildlife was gone, replaced by dead wastelands as the game engine tried desperately to fill in the blanks.
Protocol activation: Revival
The selected digital world is ready to be restored from backup.
Please introduce all necessary modifications, then re-enter the confirmation code.
For your information: You’re about to decide the fate of an immense world which has become the last refuge for everyone still left on planet Earth.
Please select the regions that can be closed or do not require reloading.
“Go ahead,” the AI gave me a friendly look. “It’s up to you. I’ll take care of the rest. Don’t drag it out. It’s getting a bit urgent.”
My vision clouded. A long list of locations unfolded in my mental view.
Corporation Testing Grounds, Untick.
Rion Castle, Add to exceptions. Enable overload protection.
Restore the Crystal Sphere from backup?
The Reapers (The Neuro 3) Page 28