The Quantum Gate Trilogy

by Eric Warren

  “And what if you’re captured or killed by Peacekeepers as soon as you get there?”

  “I think it is worth it. I can’t let my people down again. I know you know what that feels like.”

  He turned away and immediately she was sorry she had said it. She hadn’t meant to cut him deep. She’d just wanted him to understand, he was all about protecting and helping his people. Couldn’t she be the same thing?

  “And what about your parents?” Frees said after a moment. “Are you just forgetting about them?”

  “No, of course not. But there’s nothing I can do until you finish building the scanner is there? They still have…” She consulted her internal clock, “thirty-seven days, eleven hours and forty-six minutes before they are due to shut down.”

  “And what happens to them if you do get yourself killed going to this meeting? What happens to everyone if we’re all killed?”

  “That’s a chance I’m willing to take. No one’s making you go, Frees.” Why did he have to be so obtuse sometimes? Couldn’t he understand this was what she needed?

  Frees stood, watching her. “I wouldn’t be going if you weren’t. So consider that.” He turned and made his way to the door.

  “Hey!” Arista said and he turned back. “Don’t put your decisions on me. You have a bad habit of doing that and I’m getting sick of it. Just because I decide to do something doesn’t make me responsible for your actions.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry,” he said in that monotone voice she hated. But instead of calling him on it she let him leave, frustrated she’d let him get a rise out of her. He was just trying to discourage her from meeting because he was sure it was a trap. Well, she was sure it wasn’t. And even if it was they would find their way out of it. They’d been through worse.

  Arista turned over, facing the small window on looking out on the street below. Before long all thoughts of Frees had drifted away as she found herself searching the net for historical examples of humans who had been kept in stasis, then come back out no worse for wear.

  Six

  Okay, yes. The line about her being the cause of all his misfortunes had been a low blow. But she’d been the one who had started it when she’d insulted his character!

  Frees made his way back downstairs. He’d already taken a few minutes to install the new components they’d collected on his scanning devices, but they were nowhere near as sophisticated as the ones at his old apartment.

  The old apartment the Cadre had blown up with a missile strike.

  He doubted he’d even manage more than a few hundred miles scanning capability with this new system, he wasn’t even quite sure what to scan for. They didn’t have a way to specifically look for her parents; it would have to be done on a visual basis. Which meant going through the images one at a time. He did it to keep Arista’s mind occupied on a goal rather than fretting over finding her parents, as she had the first week they’d been here.

  After the disconnected phone call, she’d insisted they stay right where they were in case her mother called back. Or she could track them and knew their location and was coming to get her. But none of that happened. The longer they stayed in the hyperloop atrium the less likely they’d be able to get back to Jill’s before daybreak. Eventually he convinced her the signal wouldn’t drop if they moved a couple of blocks west. It had taken a few trips as Frees had to haul both the bodies from the underground station and down a few blocks of residential neighborhood to store them in Jill’s place. They hadn’t had much other choice. Leaving them in the hyperloop risked all their hard work if the machines accidentally happened to stumble upon it. Even though the Peacekeepers no longer had Charlie’s AI directing them, they still had their orders. And with their limited autonomy there was no telling what they might do to find Arista.

  “How is she?” Jill asked, having returned to her position over the modified charging cube.

  “Testy,” Frees said.

  “She still upset about those people in those jars she had to kill?”

  “Wait, how do you know about that?” Frees asked, widening his eyes.

  She turned and winked at him. “I have ears, don’t I? It’s tearing her up inside. I don’t necessarily think this is a good idea, but maybe it will get her mind off that. Let her focus on something else for a while.”

  “And if it turns out to be a trap?”

  “Then that testy attitude might save both your lives.”

  “What’s her problem now?” Max said, pushing back through the back door. “Whining her holo dog died?”

  “Are you coming with us tomorrow?” Frees asked.

  Max considered it. “If there are more humans, we can’t trust them for an instant. I’ll go to help you, but not her. If she’s killed by her own people then…I can’t think of a better form of justice. But if they try to lay a hand on us, I won’t hesitate.” She placed her hand on the handle of a large knife she’d stolen, which she wore on her belt in its own sheath. Ever since she’d found it she’d given up her shotgun. “From what I understand you only have to cut them a few times for it to be fatal. They’re so much more fragile than we are.”

  “Yeah,” Frees said, glancing at the ceiling. “They are.” He couldn’t help but think if Forsythia told the truth and a colony of humans did exist, he could help place them in strategic places all over the globe. There could be a mass awakening, something his culture had never seen before. “She’s adamant about going. And to be honest I hope that woman is telling the truth. More humans mean more freedom.”

  “C’mon, use your head, Frees,” Max said. “Don’t you think the humans would have already tried to change all of the machines over already?”

  “What are you saying? They don’t have the capability? That she’s the only one? We know that’s not true beca—”

  “No,” Max said, clenching her jaw. “What I’m saying is they haven’t done it for a reason. But wouldn’t that be what they would want? A revolt against the Cadre? They wouldn’t even have to turn that many people. Enough to destabilize the system. And yet they’ve been hiding out, underground for what? Eighty years or more?”

  “Maybe they don’t have as many humans as we think they do. Maybe it is down to dozens. She didn’t give us a number.”

  “Whatever is going on I don’t trust—”

  “What’s that?” Arista made her way down the stairs, looking at Max as she did.

  “I said I don’t trust your new friend not to kill us all.” Max stared right back at her, her orange eyes defiant.

  “Get a new song and dance, Max,” Arista said. “As for everyone else I’ve already told Frees he doesn’t need to go. I don’t want to put any of you in danger. This is my risk, not yours.”

  “You’re not going alone. I thought I made that clear,” Frees said. Didn’t she ever listen? What was it about this new human that she had such a hold over her already? Wasn’t Arista comfortable here for the time being?

  “And I made it clear I don’t expect you to.” She looked over Frees’ shoulder. “I don’t expect you to go either. I’ve already caused you enough damage, Max. I don’t want to be responsible for any more.”

  Frees turned to look at Max but couldn’t read her face.

  “In case anyone cares, I’ll stay here.” Jill walked over and took Arista’s hand. “Frees can maintain an open comm line with me, in case you get into trouble. I’ll be your cavalry.” She glanced around. “It’s too bad we don’t have a sniper rifle. I’d love to get up on the rooftops to take some pot-shots. Scare the shit outta her a little.” She belted out a full-throated laugh and dropped Arista’s hand, patting her shoulder as she walked past.

  “Now that, I would pay to see,” said Max, the barest hint of a smile on her face.

  “Me too.” Frees hoped Arista was making the right decision. He’d find out soon enough.

  “7:58, right on time,” Frees said as they rounded the corner of West 43rd and Kedzie. In front of them, a large lot stretched out
, intermodal containers as far as they could see. The entire area was bordered by an aluminum fence with barbed wire wrapped over it.

  “And why did you choose this place?” Arista asked. They’d called Forsythia back at 6:30 and given her the location. Then Frees had called again at 7:15 and changed it to this one.

  “Flat area, no high points other than the main building over there,” Max answered for him. “She won’t be able to get the drop on us if she brings her own backup.” She paused. “Which I expect her to do. If I haven’t made that clear.”

  “You’ve made it clear.” Arista groaned. If there was one thing she could count on it was Max’s paranoia. Especially when it came to humans.

  They made their way down 43rd until they came to breach in the fence. It hadn’t been repaired in some time and pitched forward in a dangerous fashion. Of course it didn’t matter as no machine would break in unless programmed to. Then the police would be programmed to come in after them and depending on the parameters there might be a longer chase. It all depended on “the plan”. Though, Arista supposed, without Charlie to orchestrate the plan once all of these machines had completed their pre-prescribed programming they wouldn’t know what to do. Things would come to a standstill.

  Frees and Max wrenched the fence apart enough for Arista to squeeze through, then they both followed.

  “Which row?” Frees asked.

  “Over there, row six by the smaller stacks. Just enough to hide us from the roads.” Arista replied.

  “And we’re good as far as surveillance goes?” Frees glanced up, as if looking for an automated drone.

  “Obsidian says there are no patrols scheduled in this area until tomorrow morning.” Arista double checked the schedule she’d downloaded from their contacts at Cadre HQ. Right before they’d destroyed Charlie, Arista had managed to change three of the Peacekeepers who ended up helping them take down Charlie’s superstructure. Every so often she’d check in with their leader, Obsidian, to make sure they would be clear on certain routes when they had to travel. He hadn’t made any changes to the schedule, only monitored what had already been established prior to Charlie’s disappearance.

  But the thing with Peacekeepers was: they tended to surprise you. That was the whole point.

  They reached the meeting point right as Arista’s internal chronometer turned from 20:01 to 20:02. She glanced around, checking the tops of the containers, the sides, all over. A thought occurred to her. “Should one of us—?”

  “Are we clear?” a female voice said from the darkness. Arista stiffened immediately and Frees raised his palm. Max’s knife was already in her hand. Arista didn’t want to guess how hard or how accurately she could throw it.

  “I said are we clear?” the voice asked again.

  “We are,” Arista said. “Are you?” She wasn’t quite sure what was being asked.

  In front of them a figure shimmered into existence as if from nowhere. It took a moment to coalesce but as soon as it did Arista recognized it as Forsythia. She wore the same clothes she’d seen in the holo-projection. Where had she come from?

  “Have you been standing there this whole time?” Arista asked.

  “Not the whole time. I only arrived a few minutes ago.” Forsythia smiled.

  “What is that? Some kind of transporter?”

  “It’s a portable refractor. It bends light around me. Allows me to travel unseen when I need to.”

  “Which means she could have a hundred people around us right now,” Max said, looking around frantically.

  “Trust me, it’s just me. I don’t mean you any harm,” Forsythia said. She reached out with her right hand to shake Arista’s, glanced down, then immediately changed hands. “Sorry,” she said, grasping Arista’s other hand. “I didn’t realize.”

  Arista gasped when Forsythia took her by the hand. It was warm! And slightly clammy, maybe a little sweaty. She’d never felt anything like it before. Forsythia was a real human!

  “I…I don’t know what—”

  “It’s okay,” Forsythia said, releasing her. “I know this must be a shock to you. You’ve been alone a long time.”

  “Yes…well, I mean, not completely alone.” She turned back to Frees and was horrified to see he still had his hand up like he was about to shoot her. Grimacing, she indicated he drop it with a flick of her eyes. She turned back to Forsythia with a smile.

  “No, no, of course. I don’t mean to minimize your friends. You couldn’t have survived otherwise. I just want to tell you how good it is to finally meet you. We’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

  “Tell us how you found us again,” Frees said, his voice stern. He needed to lighten up. This wasn’t the time for an interrogation.

  “We’ve been monitoring the Cadre for a while now. When we saw Charlie was offline we knew something major had happened. After we pieced together what happened from various sources, we found your call to your mother, Arista. It was in the communication logs.”

  “I knew it. I knew we should have thrown—” Frees began.

  “No, don’t worry,” Forsythia said. “We deleted the information as soon as we found it. The Peacekeepers hadn’t seen it yet. And now they won’t. Though I think it would have been a stretch imagining they would have found it in the first place.”

  “You never know,” Max said. “They’re designed to be unpredictable.”

  “You told me you could give me answers,” Arista said. “Where is the colony? How many people live there? Is that where I’m from?”

  “Three hundred meters beneath the surface of the Earth, over seven hundred, and yes. Keep going,” Forsythia said.

  Arista was taken aback by her candor. She had come from the colony. Was that where she’d been born? Did that mean she had human parents too?

  She couldn’t stop herself from trembling with excitement. “What happened to me? Why was I abandoned?”

  “You weren’t. Let me just put your mind at ease. You were in an accident. The ship you were on had a fire, and there was an explosion. You were thrown from the ship mid-flight. Everyone thought you were dead. When we went back to search for your body, we couldn’t find you.”

  “Why didn’t you keep looking? Why did you leave me?” She was desperate now. All of this information coming so fast was like a sledgehammer to her brain, but she couldn’t quit asking the questions. She needed to know.

  “We did keep looking. But with your built-in dampener it was impossible to find you. We couldn’t scan for life signs because you don’t show any. We looked for years. And there seemed to be traces of you popping up in places, but never the same one twice. Such as Jill, for example. By the time we’d logged her as autonomous you were long gone and we still had no way to find you, or even know what you looked like. If you hadn’t destroyed Charlie there’s a good chance we never would have found you.”

  “Do I have…family? Back in the colony?”

  Forsythia screwed up her face. “Unfortunately your birth parents died when your ship eventually crashed. I’m very sorry.” She moved to place a hand on Arista’s shoulder, but then seemed to think better of it and stepped back.

  “What were their names?”

  “David and Jessika. I didn’t know them personally but from what I understand they were good people.”

  “Do I have anyone else?”

  Forsythia shook her head. Arista’s shoulders slumped. Back to square one. Finding out she had family only to discover they were long dead. It was almost worse than not knowing. At least when she didn’t know there had always been a glimmer of hope. A glimmer that had just been unequivocally stamped out.

  “What do you want with Arista?” Frees asked. Arista barely heard him.

  “I need her help. Charlie wasn’t the only AI in the Cadre. He was only one part. We have to eliminate the others.”

  Seven

  The words took a moment to penetrate her brain. She was still thinking about her parents—her real parents—burning to death in a
fire. Just like the one she’d witnessed as a kid, when they’d had to leave the farm. What a horrible way to die.

  “This has to be a joke,” Frees said, snapping her back to reality. Forsythia’s words caught up with her.

  “I wish it were. But no, the worldwide Cadre is made up of three different members who split their duties to maintain control over society. It wasn’t just Charlie’s ‘plan’, it was the amalgamation of their cumulative efforts. Charlie was only one-third. Unfortunately the Cadre has built in redundancies and removing one member from the equation is not enough to disrupt the system. A second member needs to be eliminated. We predict the third member will manage to maintain control for a short time, but like a bridge with most of its supports removed, eventually the system will collapse.”

  “Charlie told us about others. He said he was the first of three. And that’s what you want,” Frees said. Arista still couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Another AI like Charlie? She thought he’d meant he had underlings or some kind of subordinates. She didn’t think it meant there were more AI’s out there. Did that mean there were more humans in captivity? She couldn’t go through that again. Not again.

  “We want the same things you do,” Forsythia said. “With the AI’s in control and directing this society, we are trapped within the colony. Safe, yes. But trapped all the same. Once the AI’s have been disabled or destroyed, we will be able to emerge and re-integrate into your world. And if that isn’t possible, maybe just carve out a small area somewhere we won’t bother you. All of that can be decided later. What is most important now is removing the second Cadre member before they implement additional redundancies.”

  “Why us?” Arista asked, her voice smaller than she’d intended.

  “Because you have been the only ones to successfully do it so far. We have tried other methods and none have ever worked. They were either too dangerous or they would expose us, neither of which we could risk. With only seven hundred of us, we are something of an endangered species. We can’t afford to lose anyone. But you,” she looked directly at Arista. “You managed to do what no one else ever could. And we need you to do it one more time. I need you to do it one more time.”