Bleep. Bleep. Bleep.
A cursor flicked on a computer screen like a word processor, ready to write. Letters began to appear.
ARE YOU THERE?
Jamie’s mouth was dry. He glanced at the glass jar, then back to the monitor.
“You don’t think. . .” Fatty said, slow to make the same connection the others had.
“Yes,” Jamie said, speaking out loud the words he was (slowly) typing. “I am here.”
IT’S DARK. I CAN’T SEE.
“Stay calm,” Jamie said, typing.
“Yeah, right,” Donny said. “As if there’s any way to be calm in her situation.”
Jamie ignored him.
I’M SCARED.
“Concentrate,” Jamie said. “Like you did in the City before. And when you opened the door to Denver City. Try to open your eyes and turn on the lights.”
OKAY.
A pause as Lucy tried to replicate whatever it was she’d done before.
I CAN’T. IT’S NOT THE SAME.
“It is the same,” Jamie said. “Just focus. I know you can do it.”
Another pause, and this time the lights flickered. On, off, and then on again. They brightened—too bright—blinding them. One lightbulb burst. Then another. Then the lighting lowered again to its normal level.
“Good,” Jamie said. “Now access the supercomputer program.”
He shook his head. He had no idea what he was talking about, never mind how to do it. Until a couple of weeks ago, he hadn’t so much as touched a working computer. Now, he was instructing the most powerful computer system the world had ever created.
I DID IT.
The other terminals flickered to life, the graphs and charts and dials spinning, revolving and flashing with signals and information.
“Well done,” Jamie said. “Now, see if you can turn on the other systems.”
WHICH ONES?
“All of them,” Jamie said.
“Uh, guys,” Fatty said, keeping an eye on his monitors. “Something’s happening.”
44.
LUCY COULD see every inch of the ship. It was moving, entering its default setup mode.
The weapons systems switched on.
The powerful guns unfurled from the node’s innards, facing the stars.
The defense system powered up, creating an impregnable shield around the ship.
The drones—billions of them of various shapes and sizes—flickered into life. They uncurled from their sleeping positions and stretched their limbs.
The engines simmered with energy, roaring like a driver itching to take off.
Behind them all, controlling every movement and tiny alteration, was Lucy. Their Mother.
45.
PLINK. PLINK. Plink. Plink.
The computer console was bathed in a slimy green liquid, the natural Bug habitat. The computer monitor flickered to life.
A message flashed on the screen, unreadable in the Bug script. The system acknowledged the sensor’s information and relayed a response.
Beneath the hull of the Bug ship parked outside the Earth’s atmosphere, a hatch door opened. A single ball of spinning metal shot out of the bottom.
As it gathered in speed, four spider-like arms stretched, unfolded, and formed a dish. The probe validated its course.
The far side of the moon.
46.
“ALL SYSTEMS operational,” Lucy’s voice said over the speaker system. A faint electronic buzz under her words.
“How are you feeling now?” Jamie said out loud.
“Great,” Lucy said. “Still unpacking the various systems.”
“Good,” Jamie said, turning to look at the glass tank in the middle of the room.
“You’re looking at me,” Lucy said.
“No, I’m not,” Jamie said, turning back to his terminal and casting hasty glances around himself. Strange. He couldn’t see any cameras. “You can see me?”
“I can see everything,” Lucy said. “Hear everything. Everything is under my control.”
“Except us,” Jamie said.
“Yes, except you,” Lucy said.
“You’re not in pain anymore?” Jamie said.
“No,” Lucy said. “Although it does feel a little. . . uncomfortable.”
“I guess having dozens of needles sticking in your body will do that,” Jamie said with a faint chuckle. “Did you know they were going to do that to you? Were going to stab you with those things?”
“Yes,” Lucy said. “Dr. Beck showed me a basic model. It had long needles too. I’m glad I didn’t try it then.”
“Otherwise you wouldn’t have jumped in this machine, I bet,” Jamie said.
“Exactly,” Lucy said.
Computers were exceptionally good at repetitive tasks. They never tired, never slept, never ate nor took restroom breaks. It was incredible how far the human race had managed to get without the use of computers. Everything had been done in a slow humanly fashion. Human speed, human time, human weaknesses.
Computers removed these issues. They could develop their own systems and processes in a much faster, more efficient and reliable way. Every day, the supercomputers onboard the mothership had been working quietly in the background, developing their own processes, programming and functions.
They worked completely autonomously. They ran multiple random tests to check their updates would have few, if no, errors. Even after the improvements were made, there was a failsafe installed so if there was any kind of deficiency they could delete the latest version of themselves and begin researching again from scratch.
Lucy glanced at the defense systems and noticed they had become fifteen percent more powerful and twelve percent more efficient in the one hundred and fifty-six days since it had taken off from its host City and docked with the rest of the mothership.
The drones system had likewise been updated and improved greatly. So had the lightspeed engines. The weapons system—the one she and the others had ridden from Denver City—had only just arrived but was already beginning to make improvements.
One of Lucy’s first objectives was to link the systems together so they could share their various programs and upgrade one another. The drones, for example, had been shipped with low-level shield technology. The Cities in charge of defensive capabilities hadn’t been able to share those developments. Until now.
Without Lucy, they could not link up. Lucy handed responsibility for the task to the supercomputer. It was her job to absorb the relevant information before making a decision and taking action. The supercomputer’s job was to carry it out effectively.
“I finished the scan for life forms,” Lucy said. “There are no Rages onboard. However, it appears we have a couple of stowaways. Two species.”
“What?” Donny said. “The Bugs?”
“No,” Lucy said. He could hear the smile in her voice. “They’re wandering around the weapons node now.”
“Which one’s the weapon’s node?” Donny said.
“The one we came in on, of course,” Lucy said.
47.
ISABELLE LED Humperdinck by the reins, his hooves clip-clopping on the hard metal floor. Isabelle liked to think she had an awesome sense of direction but after wandering around the facility for the past three hours, she was starting to think they were utterly and totally lost.
The facility had been shaken like a giant had taken hold of it. It had terrified both her and Hump. They had run, looking for somewhere safe to hide. But it turned out nowhere was safe in this place.
This building was unlike anything she had ever seen before. There was no nature here. No trees, no grass, no wildlife—besides Humperdinck, of course. Even the Station commune had some wildlife. They had tried but failed to keep it out. In this place, nothing. Only blank metal walls.
“I know, I know,” Isabelle said. “You told me not to come in here. I know. And you were right. There. Does that make you happy?”
Humperdinck snorted, eyes wary. No. It
didn’t.
“We need to find the door and we’re out of here, I swear,” Isabelle said.
The doors were few and far between so far as she could see.
In one of the rooms, she’d found strange-looking weapons with glass canisters on the top, filled with some kind of thick green liquid. She didn’t even want to touch it. As time passed, she thought it wise to have something to protect herself with. It looked like a weapon, after all, and if this was what passed for a weapon in this place, then she supposed she’d best get down with the jive.
At first, she thought this was the only kind of weapon they made there. Then she came across even more shelves, with even larger weapons. The little balls reminded her of the grenades they used to have in her old commune before they got destroyed by the Rages.
And yet other weapons that were long and thin, bulbous at one end and looked like something the elders used to talk about all the time: missiles. She’d always imagined them being bigger than this but what did she know?
Good luck to the Station commune if they wanted to make ammunition for this baby.
“Look on the bright side,” Isabelle said. “We have weapons. If anything comes at us, blam! They are a bit strange, I’ll grant you. I’ve never seen weapons like this before. Maybe I should fire it, test to make sure it actually works.”
“Don’t shoot!”
Isabelle spun around. Humperdinck grunted, moving behind her.
“Who’s there?” Isabelle said, grasping the weapon with both hands.
“It’s me! Donny!”
“Donny?” Isabelle said. “Come out.”
“Do you promise not to shoot me?” Donny said.
“We’ll see how I feel,” Isabelle said.
Donny stepped out from behind a rack of plasma rifles, hands up.
“It is you,” Isabelle said, lowering her rifle, before raising it again.
“Woah!” Donny said. “I thought you weren’t going to shoot me?”
“I said we’ll see how I feel,” Isabelle said, considering. She put the rifle down. “I guess I feel okay. Can you do me a favour and tell me where I am, please? Because I’ve got to tell you, I haven’t got a clue.”
Donny edged closer, sideways, and grabbed the weapon. He let out a relieved breath and put the weapon back on the shelf.
“We came into the City after some asshole treasure hunters chased after me, thinking they could make a claim on my claim,” Isabelle said “I shut the door, and the next thing I know, the whole damn place is falling apart! Now I’m in this huge room with a weapon I don’t even recognize, talking to the guy responsible for opening the door to the City in the first place! Explain to me what’s happening here, poncho. Is this City from the future? The same as that girl of yours with the finger?”
“Pretty good guess,” Donny said. “You’re very nearly almost not quite completely wrong.”
“That’s not an explanation,” Isabelle said. “You’re going to have to do better than that, hombre.”
“Poncho, hombre,” Donny said. “How many more words like that do you know?”
“Plenty, mes ami,” Isabelle said. “How about you direct me to a door so I can blow this popsicle stand? I never signed up for this.”
“Then we’ve got something in common,” Donny said. “We didn’t sign up for this either. And it’s no use me taking you to a door.”
“And why’s that?” Isabelle said.
“Because I’ve got a feeling it wouldn’t end well,” Donny said.
“Because I’d be out of here?” Isabelle said.
“Because I don’t know what happens to people in space,” Donny said.
A beat of deafening silence.
“Excuse me?” Isabelle said. “Do you want to say that again in my good ear? Did you say we’re in space?”
“We’re certainly not in Kansas,” Donny said, repeating a line he recalled from one of the travelling shows he’d seen. He wasn’t even sure what it really meant.
“You’re joking?” Isabelle said.
She said it with a smile on her lips but really it was her covering her own panic.
“Yes, we’re in space,” Donny said. “Aboard a ship that the world’s advanced Cities helped create. You saw what Lucy can do with her little finger—”
“Index finger,” Isabelle said.
“All right, index finger,” Donny said. “She can do a lot more with the rest of her body. I’m going to tell you something now, something no one else on Earth knows but it’s the truth. It’s going to sound crazy but you have to believe me.”
“I’m all ears,” Isabelle said.
48.
ISABELLE WAS silent a long time after Donny had finished telling her everything he’d learned up to that point. Finally, having made a decision, she took a step back.
“That’s interesting,” she said. “That’s very, very interesting.”
She scooped up her earlier rifle and aimed it at Donny.
“You’re wacko, dude,” she said. “I’ve heard some ridiculous crap in my life but you take the damn cake. And the biscuit. And the ice cream. And every other sweet confectionary there is.”
“You think I’m making this up?” Donny said.
“I sure do,” Isabelle said. “Take me out of this place. Right now. I’ve had enough of listening to a crazy guy.”
“I told you,” Donny said, getting angry now. “You’re not going to like stepping out of this place.”
“I beg to differ,” Isabelle said.
“You can fight this all you want—” Donny said.
“Why thank you,” Isabelle said. “I don’t mind if I do.”
“—but you’re not going to get out of here,” Donny said.
“Everything going all right, Donny?” Lucy’s voice said over the speaker system.
“Woah!” Isabelle said, pointing the rifle at the roof, the walls. “Where did the voice come from?”
“What voice?” Donny said.
“You must have heard it,” Isabelle said. “Like a kid’s voice.”
“No,” Donny said. “You must have imagined it. Maybe I’m not the one going crazy after all. You are.”
Isabelle brought the muzzle of her rifle back to Donny and peered around at her surroundings. Very confused. She didn’t know who to trust.
“You did hear it,” she said, thrusting the rifle at him accusingly.
“Yes, I heard it,” Donny said. “It was Lucy.”
He turned to address the room.
“I’ve got everything handled, thanks Lucy,” he said.
“Understood,” Lucy’s voice said.
“You’re talking to a random voice?” Isabelle said.
“Not random,” Donny said. “Lucy. I told you. She plugged herself into the computers here. She’s in charge of everything.”
“Everything, huh?” Isabelle said. “What about this rifle?”
“Yeah, probably,” Donny said. “I don’t know. Look. I know this is hard to understand. Just come with me.”
“What about Hump?” Isabelle said.
“Let him wander around,” Donny said. “He can’t hurt anything.”
“You think I’m going to leave him here?” Isabelle said.
“You can shoot me if anything bad happens to him,” Donny said.
“No deal,” Isabelle said. “Chances are, I’ll shoot you anyway.”
“Bring him with us then,” Donny said.
He turned to the room at large again.
“Lucy, do we have a stable or something in this place?” he said.
“No,” Lucy said. “Not much call for horses in space, funnily enough.”
“Hm,” Donny said. “Sounds like an oversight to me. Can you find somewhere safe for Humperdinck?”
“Sure,” Lucy said. “Take the elevator to the quarters’ section. He can have one of the rooms. Next to Isabelle’s room.”
“I have a room?” Isabelle said. “I won’t be here long. I don’t need a room.”
<
br /> “Until we do what we need to, you’re not going anywhere,” Donny said.
Isabelle pressed her lips together and clutched the Bug rifle hard to her chest. More for reassurance than to defend herself with now.
“Follow me,” Donny said. “Let’s put Humperdinck somewhere safe.”
He led her to the elevator. It was a tight fit with the horse in there. Hump grunted softly, nervous.
“It’s okay, boy,” Isabelle said, gently rubbing his nose. It calmed him.
“I really am sorry you had to get involved in all this,” Donny said. “I can’t believe I’m here either half the time.”
“So, you’re here to, like, save the world?” Isabelle said.
“Pretty much,” Donny said. “Play your cards right, and you might be able to join us.”
“My world-saving days are over,” Isabelle said.
“When was the last time you saved the world?” Donny said.
“Every day,” Isabelle said. “I’m totally efficient. I don’t leave any carbon footprint.”
“That’s you saving the world?” Donny said.
Isabelle stuck out her chin.
“When was the last time you did something for somebody else?” she said.
“I’m helping destroy an alien race intent on killing every last human on the face of the planet,” Donny said. “Does that count?”
“So you’re going to wipe out an alien race before they wipe you out. . .” Isabelle said. “Hm. I’ll have to think about that one.”
Donny smiled.
“You don’t think it’s worth saving the world?” he said.
“Sure I do,” Isabelle said. “But the human race is one species, not the world.”
The elevator stopped. Isabelle led Humperdinck off. They walked down a regular corridor with normal doors leading to rooms on either side.
“It’s not all bad here, you know,” Donny said.
“Oh yeah?” Isabelle said. “What are the perks?”
“You’re not alone,” Donny said. “We’re all here. You’re got Humperdinck, safe and sound, and the views are pretty amazing.”
After the Fall- The Complete series Box Set Page 51