The Quantum Gate Trilogy

by Eric Warren

  “She’s…” She blinked a few times. “Sorry, studying the info Hudson sent. They have these tiny discs; I removed two from Hudson. They’re like inhibitors of some kind. They interrupt the autonomous process. It’s the only thing I can think of. She wouldn’t turn on us on her own. She hates the humans more than she hates me.”

  “So you think she’s been corrupted.”

  “I do,” Arista said. “And getting her to sit still long enough for me to remove the discs will be difficult. That is, if we can even get back to her. I’d be willing to bet they did the same thing to Jill.”

  The doors slid open again and Arista peered out. “This is nineteen, I don’t see anyone so far.”

  Frees glanced to the wall. “Magenta nineteen Rho.”

  “Ugh,” Arista replied. “That’s a good way from Research. It’s in a completely different section: Purple.”

  “Then we better start moving, they might predict you’ll go there.”

  “No, they’ll expect me to go back to my room. Hudson said they were already guarding it in case.”

  Frees rubbed the side of his head. “That means we can’t get the rest of the explosives.”

  “Not until things calm down.” She headed off down the bright hallway. There were no claxons on this level, but a light strip embedded in the crease where the walls met the ceiling blinked red.

  “I’m surprised they don’t have cameras on every level,” Frees said.

  “Humans are too secretive,” Arista said. “And they’re too clever. Stationary cameras wouldn’t be very effective, everyone could get around them easily. But since all the machines are slaves, why not just let them be the cameras? That way you can task them to move around as much as you want. Follow whomever you want.”

  “Makes sense,” Frees said, as much as he didn’t like it. He’d thought it was bad when he learned what the humans used to do to machines back before the war. Now he was seeing it in real-time.

  “And if we run into any—machines I mean—then you’re going to need to take them down.”

  Frees sighed, despite having no breath to do so. It was his new coping mechanism. “How far do we have to go?”

  “Seventeen sections.”

  Frees cursed. “Let’s get it over with.”

  Twenty-Five

  Most of the hallways were empty on the way to Research. Arista assumed the colony must go on lockdown mode when there was a problem. Otherwise there should be people swarming all over the place. They’d encountered three different machines—at least Arista assumed they were machines since she couldn’t pick up any bio-readings—but had managed to stay out of their lines of sight. They reached the doors without incident.

  “Aren’t there people who work inside?” Frees asked.

  “If they’re in there, incapacitate them,” she said, her voice hard.

  “You know I can only use this so many times before I have to recharge, right? Remember what happened with Charlie?”

  She tapped her pocket. “That’s what these are for. Use away.” She thought she caught him rolling his eyes at her, but she ignored it. What did he want from her? She was flying by the seat of her pants here.

  The doors whooshed open in front of them, revealing the same room she’d seen before, only deserted. She had expected everyone would still be here, including Jessika, but perhaps they had been put on lockdown. She hadn’t thought to try and find Jessika’s personal quarters.

  “This feels wrong,” Frees said as they made their way down the middle of the room, the doors whooshing closed behind them. They were exposed here, if anyone was hiding in the room they’d have a perfect shot at them.

  “What can I say? You were the one who wanted to stay,” she replied, glancing all around. The lights had been dimmed somewhat, maybe a power-saving function in times of distress? What had she been thinking coming here? They should have used Frees’ map to find some cargo room and hide inside some boxes for a couple hours. No doubt McCulluh would have people checking all the different science wings.

  “Okay,” she said. “You might be right, maybe we sho—”

  “Arista!” a voice whispered. Arista turned to her right to see Jessika standing over in the same area she’d last seen her in. Past the bio-field. Her heart fluttered for one brief second before she stomped it back down.

  “She’s here,” Frees said. “That’s her, right?”

  Arista nodded.

  “And you think we can trust her.”

  She hoped they could; that Jessika’s guilt would give her enough reason to help them. And Arista was prepared to lay it on as thick as she needed to.

  “Where is everyone else?” she asked, approaching her biological mother.

  “In lockdown everyone is supposed to report to their quarters,” Jessika said. “But I had a feeling you have something to do with this. Plus,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at her display. “I’ve been watching.”

  “What?” She’d been watching what exactly? Them? Her eyes moved to the display to find a small blinking dot standing inside a birds-eye view of this very room. “You’ve been tracking me?” she said through clenched teeth.

  “Now wait, it isn’t what you think,” Jessika said, holding her hands up. “I wanted to make sure you were safe. That if you needed help I could provide some. I sent messages to re-route most of the machines in your way here. I assume you figured out a large percentage of the population here is artificial.”

  “And yet you forgot to mention the fact you were tracking me the last time we talked,” Arista said.

  “Typical human,” Frees added.

  “I only activated it when I reactivated your implant,” Jessika said. “I’m the only one who can track it.”

  “Yeah?” Arista spat. “Then how did Sy find me? How did she know where I was?”

  Jessika dropped her gaze. “I gave her the access code to find you before she left. I was so worried about you, and when they said they were going out to find you I thought I could help. I thought it would make the process easier if we didn’t have to waste resources trying to track you down. I didn’t know Sy would abuse it. She was supposed to find you and bring you back.”

  “Turn it off,” Arista said. “Right now.”

  Jessika cleared her throat. “Of course, sorry.” She reached over and flipped a small switch and the blinking dot, and the map disappeared from the screen.

  “Don’t ever turn that back on again,” Arista said, struggling to contain her anger.

  “I told you,” Frees said behind her. She ignored him.

  “You’re not in the clear. They’ll be coming to look for you here. You’re going to need to hide.”

  Could she even trust this woman? Even in all her guilt she’d still spied on Arista. It seemed her conscience wasn’t opposed to spying. “I thought I could trust you,” Arista said. “But it turns out you’re just like the rest of them.” She turned to leave.

  “You can’t go,” Jessika said. “They’ll find you. Here.” She pulled something out of her pocket and tossed it at Arista but before she could reach for it Frees had moved in front of her and caught it with his own hand.

  “I could have gotten it,” Arista said, giving Frees a small push. She’d been looking forward to testing out the dexterity of her new hand.

  “Even if it was a bomb?” Frees asked.

  Her eyes widened. “Was it?”

  “It could have been. Point was, you didn’t know.” He held his hand out, a refractor sat in the palm of his hand.

  “Why would I throw a bomb at my own daughter?” Jessika asked, giving Frees an incredulous stare.

  “I don’t know, human. Why would you build Gates to deliver bombs to all the machines at once?”

  “I had nothing to do with that,” Jessika said. “That was before I was even born.”

  “Makes no difference,” Frees said. “It was still a human decision.”

  “Are you going to condemn me for the actions of every single human in
history? Because that can go two ways. I seem to remember reading something about how machines would round up people and dump them into giant containers that would then be placed in crushing devices, effectively turning humans into goo. Was that your fault?” Jessika demanded.

  Frees didn’t reply.

  “What do we need a refractor for?” Arista asked, taking it from him.

  “It will hide you from them, but you need to hurry. Once they clear the hallways they’ll start checking the individual units it’s already been…” She glanced at her monitor. “Thirty-five minutes. They’ll be here soon.”

  “We need another one,” Arista said. “It’s too small for both of us.”

  “I don’t have another one. I was just expecting you. But don’t worry, you can both fit.” Jessika smiled. “You just have to get close. And you won’t be able to move.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Frees said, staring at it.

  “No, you’d be able to tell when I was kidding because I’m terrible at jokes,” Jessika replied. “Now, get over there, squeeze together, and turn the damn thing on.” She pointed to a far corner of her wing.

  Arista gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to trust this woman, but what choice did they have? They could try and hide from the soldiers sweeping the colony, but they still might discover them. At least this would buy them more time. Enough to get back up to Max and Jill if they were lucky.

  She passed through the bio-barrier with Frees close on her heels. “Ow,” he said. “That was sharp.”

  “What was?” she asked.

  “Whatever that field I just passed through was. I felt a shock.”

  “Hmm,” Jessika said, examining her screen. “It looks like you had a lot of bacteria on your…skin.”

  Frees’ face morphed into one of horror. “What? Where would that have come from?”

  Jessika waved a hand. “This place can be like a petri dish sometimes. Confined area, lots of people intermixing all the time. I hear the barracks are particularly grimy, but I don’t go down there myself.”

  Arista watched Frees shudder and force himself into a neutral standing position. But the tiny twitch of his face “muscles” betrayed him. She knew he was doing everything he could not to freak out. His self-control was admirable.

  “See, now you’re clean. C’mon, let’s get this over with,” Arista said.

  “Just stand straight, keep as close as you can and don’t move. The refractor will do the rest.” Jessika ushered them into the corner of the room, pushing them closer together.

  The beam of a strong flashlight swept across the far end of the room. “Search pattern Io,” a gruff voice called out.

  “Brody,” Frees whispered.

  Jessika had a hurried look on her face as she smashed the two of them together and clipped the refractor on Arista’s shoulder. Frees was still cold to the touch; the last time they’d been pressed up together like this was when he’d hugged her. It was strange, the two of them being so close.

  “Remain still,” Jessika said, activating the refractor. The air around them shimmered. Jessika hurried back over and sat her workstation as the first beam of light came around the corner.

  “Hands up!” the soldier said, and Jessika complied, standing again. “Identify yourself!”

  “Jessika Thorne, Vice-Head of special projects, research division. ID number 012755.”

  “You’re supposed to be in your quarters!” The man turned his head. “Sir! Civilian located.”

  More flashlights approached. Some of them flashed over Arista and Frees, but she couldn’t tell if they were highlighting any distortion from the refractor.

  “I have a time-sensitive project that couldn’t be left alone,” Jessika said. “Months of research could be lost.”

  “I’ll need to see—” the soldier stepped into the bio-field which knocked him back, his weapon flying out of his hands.

  “Don’t move!” yelled another, his flashlight pointing directly in Jessika’s face.

  “That’s the experiment,” she yelled. “It’s a new shield program for the colony and it is in the middle of netting. I can’t leave it right now or it could possibly collapse in on itself.”

  Another man approached, slightly larger than the other two. The second soldier helped the first one up and retrieved his weapon.

  “Civilian,” the man in charge said, addressing Jessika. “We are pursuing two fugitives. You need to drop this shield, so we can search the area.”

  “I can assure you no one is in here,” Jessika said. “It’s just been me since I started working on the shield earlier. No one could get in or out if they wanted.”

  “I’m not going to ask again,” the man said.

  Jessika relented, defeat showing on her face. “Fine. Then you’ll have to tell Leader Dante it was your fault we don’t have a new shield if I can’t bring it back up.”

  “I will take that responsibility.” He glared at her.

  Jessika tapped a few buttons and the bio-shield Arista and Frees had walked through disappeared. “Get in there. Sweep it,” the man said to the two soldiers behind them. The first one took a few cautious steps toward the entrance, then passed through, satisfied he wasn’t about to be shocked on his ass again. He checked all the nooks and crannies of the rooms, while the second one swept over everything with his weapon and light. The beam flashed over Arista and Frees multiple times, but he never got very close to them. Arista couldn’t help but tremble at the thought of being caught, but she felt Frees’ arms wrap around her. She couldn’t decide whether he was trying to calm her, keep her from trembling by physically holding her in place, or something else entirely. If they could talk she would have made some off-handed joke to defuse the situation but all she could do right now was try not to look at him. Whatever she might see in his eyes could be potentially disastrous for both of them.

  “I’ve got nothing sir,” the soldier with the flashlight and weapon said.

  “Clear here, sir.”

  He nodded at both of them then turned his attention back on Jessika. “I’ll be sure to mention to Leader Dante about my interference with your project. In case it doesn’t come back online,” he said, a gleam in his eye.

  “Thank you,” Jessika replied, not missing a beat. “This is very important to our future survival.”

  “I’m sure it is,” the man said. “And next time, report to your room as ordered. As we’ve already searched this area, you are to stay here until the all-clear. Understood?”

  “Yes, captain.”

  The captain and his two men left Jessika’s area without a second look back. “Anything?” the captain called to someone Arista couldn’t see from her vantage point.

  “Room is all-clear!”

  “Proceed to section Purple nineteen Delta. Move it!” The captain barked, and the sound of shuffling feet reached her ears. They’d made it.

  Arista shuddered herself out of Frees’ grasp and reached around, turning off the refractor. But just as she did she caught a glimpse at his eyes, seeing exactly what she’d both wanted and been afraid of.

  Longing.

  Twenty-Six

  “Clear?” Arista asked as the refractor dropped from around them.

  Jessika poked her head around the edge of the room and came back, nodding. Arista stared at the barrier where the bio-field had been only a few minutes before. “So did you…?”

  “I turned up the intensity a little.” Jessika grinned.

  Arista kept her gaze averted from Frees. “We need to get back up to twenty-four,” she said. “We still have to reactivate Jill and see if we can find out what’s wrong with Max.”

  “Who are Jill and Max? And what happened?” Jessika asked, her mouth turning into a frown.

  “They’re two other autonomous machines,” Arista said. “We all lived together for a while. I accidentally turned them. We…we thought they’d been killed but it turns out they’re here.”

  “How would they get here?” J
essika asked, glancing around. “Are you sure?”

  Arista sneaked a glimpse at Frees. The longing was gone, having been replaced with warning. If they told her about what Sy really did, they might be compromised. But she had just saved them from the colony. Sy had talked a big game, but she’d never done anything that might be in direct opposition to the colony. Unless that entire little show they’d watched had been an act by everyone involved, Jessika had.

  “I feel like she needs to know,” Arista said.

  Frees grimaced. “No, she doesn’t.”

  “Look,” Jessika said. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me. But I want to help. You said they’re up on twenty-four? That’s not good. They keep all the high-priority stuff up there. David’s gate is up on twenty-four.”

  She pushed Frees playfully. “See? I knew we were close!”

  “Regardless,” Jessika said. “If they’re up there for whatever reason, we need to get them out.”

  “We already saw,” Arista said. “There are a bunch of autos up there. I think they’re experimenting on them. Trying to confirm Echo’s hypothesis.”

  “We incapacitated the workers in there; they might expect we’ll return.” Frees walked over to one of the stations and picked up a small device, then tossed it back to the side. “If they know who Jill is and why she’s important to us, that is.”

  “Which they may not.” Arista turned to Jessika. “What’s above twenty-four? I saw some windows. Is that the outside? I still haven’t managed to tap into the GLS.”

  “And you probably won’t,” Jessika said. “We’re shielded from all the satellites except our own. But I can answer your question. We’re about a hundred meters below Antarctica. And those windows you saw are nothing but decorative.”

  “Antarctica? But…Sy said the colony was under the Rockies.”

  “Then she lied to you. From what you’ve told me her behavior is becoming more and more worrisome. I hope they find her soon, I want to give her a piece of my mind.”

  “Wow,” Frees said. “Antarctica. I never thought I’d be here. How did you make something so large but so remote?” he asked.