by Eric Warren
“Destroying the entire colony was also an option,” Frees said.
“Yeah, well, it’s a little larger than we first thought. It’d be kinda hard to blow the entire thing up now, don’t you think?”
He consulted the map he’d downloaded and easily concluded she was right. It would take twenty times as many explosives as they had in their possession to destroy the colony entirely. The best they could hope for would be to cut off all the access points. “We should also take out the research wing,” Frees said.
“What?” Arista said, sitting up. She’d already had two bowls of whatever had been in the fridge. Frees had seen her eat that voraciously once before, back when they’d first met. “Why?”
“So they’ll have a harder time rebuilding them.”
“Oh,” she replied. “That’s probably true. Do you think we have enough to go around?” She glanced at Hudson.
“You’ll need three separate blast points, all at the same time. The Gate room where you came in, the research facility and the third, unknown location. Wherever this mysterious time Gate is being held. There are areas not on the official map. To prevent people from doing exactly what we’re getting ready to do.”
“Areas they don’t want anyone poking around,” Arista said.
“I’d like to know how we’re supposed to start looking. This place is massive,” Frees said, standing back up. He didn’t like how close Hudson was standing to Arista, he’d come up right behind her and it had set Frees’ nerves on edge. He turned his back to them and pretended to study a piece of bland art on the wall.
“We’ll want to start in areas where there isn’t much foot traffic. They wouldn’t keep it close to here, for example, because there are too many people coming and going all the time,” Hudson said. Frees cringed every time he said we. What was wrong with him? He needed to get over this, whatever it was. If he couldn’t perform at top efficiency, then he had no business helping her. He needed…to focus.
“Hudson, I want you to stay here. You can guide us using a secure comm, but we need your eyes here, keeping watch on the patrol movements.” Frees turned to face her, surprised at the plan. She shrugged. “It worked well in Chicago, no reason not to do it now.”
“Right,” he said, secretly relieved.
“I don’t think so,” Hudson said. “I’m not letting them get away with their crimes. I plan on making them all pay.”
She grabbed him by the shoulder. “Listen. You can’t start a coup all by yourself. Now if you help us I will free the rest of the machines here and you can go on your rampage. But we have to find the Gate,” she turned to Frees, “and if they’re even here, my parents, before we can do anything else. You’re sure you don’t have any information on them?”
Hudson shook his head. “If they were brought here I don’t know about it. But that’s not uncommon. They don’t tell all machines everything, they like to keep us compartmentalized.”
Arista hung her head. “God damn that Sy. I bet you anything she was lying about that too. Just to get my cooperation.”
Frees shrugged. “Possibly. But there’s nothing we can do about it now. We need to start looking for that Gate. How long do you think we have?”
“No clue. But Jessika seemed to indicate that as soon as all the Gates out there were under human control, they’d be ready to begin. And Echo told me you were scheduled to ship out again soon. In another day or so. And she wants me out there too, so maybe a few more days? If we’re lucky?”
“That’s odd,” Frees said. “I haven’t gotten any updated orders yet. In fact, I’m supposed to be on a short leave. I just had to wait for my inspection. I don’t know if Brody told anyone else I’m supposed to go to medical but eventually they’re going to figure out I never made it.”
“Then we need to get going.” She stood and deposited her food containers in the sink. “Oh man,” she said doubling over.
“What is it?” Frees asked, taking a step forward.
She held out her hand to stop him. “I think…I think I’m just not used to eating such rich food. It’s messing with my system. ‘scuse me a second.” She made a beeline for the bathroom and shut the door quickly.
Frees shuddered.
“What’s wrong?” Hudson asked. “Don’t appreciate natural biological functions?”
Frees gave him the side-eye but decided not to respond. He liked this guy a lot better when he’d been a compliant husk.
“How long have you been working together?” Hudson asked.
“About five weeks,” Frees said.
“Last anyone here heard you were in Japan. They’ve got patrols out looking for you. You’re a high priority.”
Frees pushed his features together. “Why is that?”
“They think you’re one of these fully autonomous machines. Ones that have reached full ICS. I’ve overheard Echo talking about it. They want to do…tests.” Hudson remained motionless. Ever since he’d stopped acting human his extraneous movements had nearly stopped.
“Sy almost brought me in herself,” Frees said, looking toward the bathroom door. “If it weren’t for her I’d probably be in a thousand pieces in your basement.”
“Do you mean Forsythia?” Hudson asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because she used to be my…owner.”
Twenty-Two
“Personally, I’m glad you left him down there,” Frees whispered. “There is something very wrong with that guy.”
“Shhh,” Arista said. Even though the direct comm was between her and Hudson she was afraid her auditory implant might pick up Frees’ words and transmit them back to their new compatriot, fifteen floors below them now. She refocused her attention on the map she’d continued to build in her mind using the Device. “Hudson, we’re on twenty-four. Any machines stationed close to us?”
“Accessing the grid now,” he said. It had been hard convincing him to stay in the room. He’d left briefly to retrieve a small tracker, so he could watch their progress on his screens; otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to give them a heads-up about approaching patrols. But the only argument that seemed to keep him there was telling him he could have all the human blood he wanted once they found what they were looking for. She couldn’t audibly agree with Frees’ assessment of him, but her inner consciousness was nodding along voraciously. Add on top of that he’d been in the service of Sy—the details of which Arista didn’t want to hear—and Hudson was primed to blow any second.
“None in the immediate area. Begin by heading west, two corridors down. That section is mostly abandoned. Low traffic, low use.”
“Okay.” She glanced up at the wall. “Entering Orange twenty-four Sigma.”
“Proceed with caution,” Hudson said in her ear.
They moved quietly down the hallway, Arista listening for any sounds or possible signs of movement.
“Do you think this will be any different than the other five floors we’ve already searched?” Frees asked.
“It has to be here somewhere,” Arista said. “This place is self-contained. Everything is here. Even if we can’t necessarily see it.” They came to the intersection and she moved forward, heading down to the next corridor. “Orange twenty-four Tau.” They passed into the next area.
“Confirmed,” Hudson said. “No threats.”
“Jessika told you this Gate was huge, right?” Frees asked. She nodded. “Then shouldn’t we be looking somewhere with a lot of space?”
She was half-distracted by keeping an open ear for any errant sounds. Hudson had been right, this floor seemed deserted. There had been a few people on some of the others, but they’d managed to either blend in somewhere or hide from them. The patrols were few and far in between. “Any one of these doors could open to a huge room. We don’t have a complete map, so we don’t know exactly how big some rooms can be.”
“Well, I’m looking at my version,” Frees said, “and it’s saying this is all nothing but storage.”
“Maybe it’s a smokescreen. You know, to throw us off the trail.” She tapped her pockets out of habit. Arista had made sure to grab a third of the energy drives and stuff them in her jacket before they left. They’d deal with blowing the others later. First and foremost was the time Gate. She’d set the charges and then Frees could ignite them with the felp.
“Maybe,” Frees said. “And maybe we’re wasting our time listening to him.”
Arista spun on him and shoved her finger up to her lips. It was only when she noticed him staring at the finger did she realize she’d done it with her right hand. “Working pretty well for you, huh?” he asked, his mouth turned into a frown.
Arista had to admit it was and she wasn’t sure why. The hand Sy had installed had felt different—more fragile maybe. Like if she didn’t treat it right it might shatter. But this appendage was different. It felt more durable, less like a threat. She hadn’t liked using the other hand, it made her into a killer. But this, all it was designed to do was restore her natural function. And almost immediately it had felt like it was her again. Like she’d never lost anything. “Do you think it’s a problem?” she asked.
“No, I think it’s a trap. You think they just whipped it up for you, no problem?”
“I had to do something, Frees. Echo ordered me to get it done. If I said no she would have made me do it anyway.” She pulled her sleeve up. “Look.” She twisted the arm the opposite way and there was an audible click where the hand went limp. Then she gently pulled it away from the sleeve and it hung in her hand, lifeless. “Happy?”
“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have surveillance equipment in it,” Frees said.
“Where are they then? You really think they’d let us search this far if they knew what we were up to?”
“If they knew we weren’t anywhere close they would,” he said.
“Uggghhh,” she said in frustration.
“Alert!” Hudson said in her ear. “Patrol approaching from the south! Just showed up on my reports! Get inside the nearest room.”
Her eyes widened. “We have to get out of the hall,” she whispered to Frees. She didn’t want to re-attach the arm for fear the sound might attract the guards.
“Where?” he asked.
“Anywhere! Just open one of these doors!”
He looked to his left at a door labeled CS-Storage and forced the handle, cracking it. They pushed their way in and quietly closed the door behind them. “Where are they?” Arista asked Hudson.
“Approaching your door. Get further back in the room. Somewhere out of sight!”
“Just had to choose the one they were coming for, didn’t you?” Arista hissed at him. Frees rolled his eyes and ducked further back into the dark room. She couldn’t see hardly anything inside, other than the ceiling was higher than she expected. A soft blue light came through a grid of windows at the top. Were they at the top of the colony? Was that the outside? It wouldn’t make sense. There were supposed to be another twenty floors above them.
An adjacent room with what looked like medical equipment inside was to their left, but it looked too open, too exposed. She followed Frees through and around a bunch of small islands in the room until they reached the back. A supply alcove off to their right looked like it could provide plenty of cover. She ducked around and hid behind the desk with Frees close on her heels. She still hadn’t gotten her arm back on and fumbled with it, trying to get it to re-attach.
The door on the far side of the room opened.
“Handle’s broken,” someone outside of her view said.
“Let maintenance fix it. It’s old. When’s the last time anyone other than you or I have been up here?” said another.
The first voice chuckled and there was an audible click. Two dim fluorescent lights came on illuminating the room. Arista realized those hadn’t been islands they’d been running around. They were gurneys, each supporting a body.
“Let’s get this started,” the first voice said.
Arista and Frees had shrunk to the back of the alcove, still obscured by shadows. “What is this place?” she whispered.
Frees shook his head.
“Hudson?”
“I’ve got nothing,” he said in her ear. “The map has it marked as a storage unit. You’re standing in a part of the room that shouldn’t exist.” She tapped the mute button on her arm.
She took a chance to peer around the corner and saw the two men wheeling one of the gurneys into the other room, the one with all the medical equipment. Was this a morgue? If so, then why wasn’t there more of a smell? Or any cold storage? These people had just been left out here to rot, only…they weren’t rotting.
Arista stood, the men had moved behind the frosted glass into the other room. The lights were on in there now. Machines hummed to life and the sound of equipment scraping across the floor reached her ears. She glanced over the bodies one by one; each of them lay in the same position, some with their eyes wide open to the high ceiling above. Their eyes were orange.
“Frees, these are all machines that have been changed.” She glanced around the room. There had to be at least four dozen people in here. The sound of a buzz saw came from the other room, startling her. “What the hell are they doing?” she said through clenched teeth.
“Nothing good,” Frees replied. He surveyed the bodies along with her. “Arista! Look!”
She followed his arm. Jill. Max. They were laid out on their own gurneys near the back of the room. Sy hadn’t killed them, she’d sent them here, ahead of her. “Why waste perfectly good machines if you want to do experiments on them? If your bosses suspect their autonomy may not be real,” she whispered to herself.
“C’mon,” Frees said, making his way around the gurneys. Arista focused on reattaching her arm, finally finding the port and clicking it into place. The sound of the buzz saw in the other room obscured the sound. She flexed her hand again, confirming it was connected properly and pulled her sleeve back down.
“What did they do to them?” Frees asked when she made her way over.
“Probably the same thing she did to you when she shut you down. She cut your higher functions, leaving just your motor capacity. So you could move yourself around. It took Mitsu forever how to figure out how to wake you up.”
“Is it something you can do? Can you wake them?” Frees asked.
“Now I know what I’m doing, I think so, yeah,” Arista said. The port was in the back of the neck. With Frees it had been easy since he hadn’t had any skin at the time. As much as she didn’t want to, she’d start with Max. She still had her original injury from where Arista had first disabled her. When Arista had hit her with that metal pipe it had torn some of the skin away and Max had never had it replaced. Which was fortunate as it gave her easy access to her higher functions. “Help me get her on her side,” Arista said, pushing her hands under Max. Frees joined in and rolled her enough to grant Arista access. Arista pulled back the piece of loose skin and tapped the port on the back of her neck, the small doors sliding away. It wasn’t the same as Frees as Max was a different model, but she was essentially identical. As she worked Arista wished they could have fixed Jill first.
“There,” she whispered, still wary of the men working next door. “I think I got it.” She closed the port and Frees rolled Max back to her original position. “Any second now.”
Max’s eyes fluttered a moment and stared directly up into Arista’s. “I don’t think I could have woken up to anything worse,” she said.
Arista stood back, smiling. “Give your body a minute to warm up, you’ve been out a while.” She turned to Frees. “Let’s get Jill.”
Max turned her head toward Frees and shuffled back on the gurney. It was too much for her weight and the gurney toppled over backward with Max still on it, clattering on the floor.
“Shit,” Arista said, looking at the other room. “I said stay still!” The buzz saw stopped.
“Check it out,” one of the men said.
Arista st
ared at Frees. You get one I’ll get the other, she mouthed. He nodded. They made their way around the rest of the gurneys to the doorway to the other room. The first man came through, his eyes landing on Max who stood, brushing herself off.
“Hey,” he said, “one’s awake. Call—” his voice was cut off by Frees grabbing his neck from behind, choking him down. As his face turned blue the second man appeared in the doorway.
“What the hell?” Arista whipped herself into the doorway and used her new hand to clock the man across the jaw, sending him reeling backward. It had been a stronger punch than she’d intended, but it had the proper effect. She followed him into the medical room. She didn’t want to kill him, just knock him out or otherwise incapacitate him.
That was, until she saw the table.
She hadn’t meant to look, all her focus had been on the human, but something had drawn her gaze over as she advanced on the man. And she realized it was the buzz saw. They had taken one of the machines from the room and already had him in five different pieces, all his components exposed. From his head were a series of wires and cables attached to machines against the wall, all of them lit up with activity. Arista realized with horror that the machine was awake. His eyes searched the room, landing on hers. He was in terrible pain, and the look on his face was one of pleading.
“Plleeeaaassee,” he said, the words barely carrying across the room.
The Device flashed warnings in her vision. Her breathing became abnormal and her heart rate skyrocketed. She balled her fists, stiffened her body as she continued to approach the human.
“What have you been doing here? What are you doing?” she screamed at him, grabbing his lapel.
“I knew you were a machine lover, but I didn’t know it was this bad,” he spat. “What else should we expect from someone who’s been in the field so long.” He grinned, his teeth covered in blood.