by G J Ogden
“Look, Rikov, we’re not your usual simulants,” said Taylor, allowing Rikov to perform whatever analysis he was doing, “It would take too long to explain, but you need to get off this station.”
Rikov’s frown deepened, “I do not understand, your program does not register, and your neural activity is off the chart. I have never seen a simulant that is so...” he hesitated, unable to put into words what he was seeing.
“Alive?” suggested Taylor, and Rikov lowered the data pad and looked back at Taylor, once again full of fear.
“You are the rogue simulants...” he said, wide-eyed, “I had heard rumors, but did not believe they could be true.”
“They’re true,” said Taylor. “We’re real, and like I said, we’re not here to hurt you. But I have to shut down the Nexus. I’ll blow this thing out of space if I have to.”
“But, why?” asked Rikov.
Taylor was starting to get frustrated. “Look, I don’t have time to explain. A Hedalt Destroyer was following us in, and whoever is on board is probably looking for us.”
“Captain!” Blake shouted over. “We’re gonna have company very soon.”
Then Casey stepped in and held Rikov gently by the shoulder, looking kindly into his terrified eyes, “Look, I’ll give you the short-short version,” she began, and her sociable tone seemed to relax Rikov. “A group of humans survived the war. We’re helping them to take back Earth – to take back their home. But the only way they can do that is if we turn off this Nexus and disable all the simulants in the galaxy.”
“Casey, he’s Hedalt; I doubt helping humans is top of his agenda,” said Taylor. He may have been stuck for a way forward, but he was confident that a Hedalt Engineer would not be sympathetic to their cause.
Rikov seemed astonished. “Not all Hedalt are like those in Warfare Command.”
“Well, all the ones we’ve met have been,” Blake called back. He was still paying attention, despite monitoring the hallway.
“You ask me to believe that you are different to other simulants, yet cannot accept not all Hedalt are warmongers?” asked Rikov, pluckily.
“Prove us wrong,” said Taylor, hoping to gain an ally. “Help us.”
“But how can I help?” asked Rikov. “All of the human bases were destroyed.”
“You know about that?” said Taylor, now taking a turn to be astonished.
“Yes, I doubt there is a Hedalt alive who has not heard,” said Rikov, “and of the incident at the Way Station and the attack on the reclamation facility. News of these events was classified, but of course everything is available on the CoreNet, if you know where to look.”
“Don’t believe everything you read on the CoreNet,” Casey chipped in, cheerfully. “The human fleet survived. But they won’t survive for much longer, unless we can turn this giant spaceball off.”
“I will help you,” said Rikov, which achieved the extraordinarily rare effect of stunning Casey into silence. “There are a great many among us who want nothing more than to see the authority of Warfare Command crumble,” Rikov continued, speaking with passion and verve. “They have controlled our lives through fear and brutality for centuries, just as they once controlled you.”
“Two armored freaks incomin’, Cap,” Blake shouted back, “Can ya save this li’l chit-chat for another time?”
“Casey, go help Blake,” Taylor said, “keep them out of this room for as long as you can.” He handed Casey his weapon and ammo clips, but in the process the trouser twist that he’d taken from Satomi’s quarters fell from his pocket. None of them saw it land on the deck and fall through the thin metal grates.
“Aye aye, Captain Taylor Ray,” said Casey, taking the weapon and holstering it so that she could slide the extra clips into the pouches on her body armor. “Don’t take too long!” she added, before sprinting over to join Blake.
Rikov grabbed Taylor by the cuff of his jacket and ushered him over to one of the workstations. “I can trigger the laboratory to go into emergency containment mode. Even the Provost will not be able to override it. It will give you some time!” He began working the console as shots rang out behind them; Blake and Casey had smashed the glass in the doorway and were firing along the corridor to suppress the advancing Hedalt soldiers. Taylor hadn’t seen their faces, but he knew Adra must have been one of them. “There, done!” cried Rikov, then shutters slammed down over the exits, including the door that Blake and Casey were defending. “We will be safe in here for now.”
“Can you also shut down this station?” asked Taylor, grateful for his new friend’s intervention. “We need to disable all the simulants if Earth Fleet is to have any chance against Warfare Command’s armada.”
Rikov shook his head, “No, I do not have that kind of access. I doubt even the High Provost would be able to trigger such an event – disabling the Nexus would cripple the empire.”
“Then how do we shut it down?” wondered Taylor, asking the question more to himself than to Rikov. Come on, Satomi, help me out! What’s the next step?
“There is no way to shut down the Nexus,” Rikov answered, becoming flustered again, “The Nexus has existed for countless millennia. It was built by the Masters, long before the Hedaltus were brought to the world below.”
“The Masters?”
“The beings that brought us here from our original home planet,” said Rikov, surprised that Taylor was ignorant of this fact. “The beings that created the frame you now inhabit, and which created the CoreNet and Fabric itself.”
“I guess there’s a lot I still don’t know,” Taylor admitted, “but right now, all I need to know is how to shut this thing down.”
“Besides an assault from a thousand warships, disabling its power source is the only way,” Rikov offered. “The Nexus pulls energy from the Fabric itself, drawing it through like a black hole sucks in light itself.”
“Great, so how do we turn it off, or destroy it?”
“You cannot,” said Rikov without hesitation, “It is impossible. No living creature can get near the core, not even you.”
Damn it, Taylor, think! There has to be a way! Then he remembered how he had been able to influence and direct energy while connected to the Fabric. He’d done it several times before, on the Way Station and at the reclamation facility. “Is there a way for me to hook into the CoreNet from here?” Taylor asked, feeling a tingle of excitement inside his simulant skull. “If I can connect to the CoreNet, I might be able to overload the core.”
“How?...” Rikov began, but Taylor held up his hand.
“There’s no time to explain,” he said, though he also couldn’t explain even if he wanted to. “Is there a way?”
“Yes, I believe so,” Rikov answered. “The original simulant stasis pods all have direct neural interfaces.” Then he pointed towards a large open space at the far side of the laboratory. “The original prototypes are still inside too. This is where the military officer first created them.”
“The original prototypes of what?” said Taylor, scrunching up his simulant brow.
“Of you, of course,” said Rikov, again speaking as if Taylor should have known this. “Casey Valera, Blake Meade, Taylor Ray and...”
“Satomi Rose...” said Taylor out loud. Suddenly, everything was becoming clear; how he had been able to see Satomi and she him, and how they had communicated all this time. He looked towards the large open chamber and suddenly recognized it. It was the same space he had seen during the extraordinary long jump to the Nexus.
“Come on!” he called to Rikov, and then his simulant legs propelled him towards the stasis pods at the far end of the chamber at a speed that made an Olympic 100m sprinter look slow. Hurriedly, he checked the names on the console screen and then peered inside each pod. Casey Valera… non-viable, Blake Meade… non-viable, Taylor Ray... non-viable. Just like I saw during the jump! He thought. And then he saw her. Satomi Rose. He double-checked the status… Unit viable. She was still alive! Alive, but in stasis.
“Satomi!” Taylor cried, “Satomi, can you hear me? Do you know who I am?”
Satomi looked at him, studying his smooth simulant face, “What’s happening?” she said, her words coming out as an electronically-processed slur. “You look strange...” Then Satomi looked around the large open chamber, “Where am I? I can’t feel myself breathing. Taylor, what’s going on?”
“It’s okay, Satomi,” said Taylor, trying to comfort her as best he could, but there was no DMZ to fall back on here. Satomi was waking up to a new reality and seeing it raw and unfiltered, just as Taylor had done on the Contingency Base.
Then he remembered the trouser twist, “Wait, I have something that will help!” he cried, and reached into his jacket pocket, but he felt nothing but the fabric lining. He fumbled around for several seconds looking for the twist, but then to his horror he realized it was no longer there.
TWENTY
Taylor panicked. The trouser twist may not have seemed like much, but it was a vital link between the fictional reality the Hedalt had programmed into Satomi’s brain through the advanced neural circuitry and the real world. That the object had existed in both the programmed reality and the real world somehow connected these two existences like a bridge. It allowed the mind to step through the looking glass and not only escape the fictional reality, but more rapidly come to terms with the truth. Without it, Taylor had no way to help Satomi adjust, and he still desperately needed her help. But time was running out.
“Taylor what’s wrong with my hands?!” Satomi cried, “And what happened to your face! You don’t look...” she couldn’t finish the sentence and forced her eyes shut.
“I’m not human, Satomi,” said Taylor, guessing what she was about to say. “But I am real. Try to remember. You came to me, and told me to come here, to the Nexus. Don’t you remember?”
“I... I can’t remember...” said Satomi, and then her voice broke down into a garble of electronic sound, like an old fashioned cassette tape being played on rewind. “I... what’s happening... to me... Taylor... please...”
“Satomi look at me!” cried Taylor. He was having to physically hold her upright; if he let go, she would have collapsed to the deck. “Look at me, please!”
Satomi’s head jerked upright and Taylor slid his hand gently behind her head to support it. Slowly, she eased open her silver simulant eyes. “I’m real, Satomi. This frame is just a shell, but inside it’s still Taylor. And you’re still Satomi.” Their eyes locked and then Satomi’s body started to feel stronger. She traced the outline of his face with her eyes, scanning the line of his chin and the shape of his nose, then suddenly she reached up and placed a hand against his cheek. Taylor smiled, realizing what had just happened. He was the object that Satomi had a connection to; he was her touchstone of reality.
“Taylor?” she said, her voice now returning to normal. Her balance was now steadier and she managed to stand, unaided. “You’re here? When did you arrive?”
“Not long ago. Thanks for opening the door and leading the way here.”
“It’s like I’m waking from a dream, but the dream was real,” said Satomi, rubbing her eyes. And then she realized that Taylor’s hand was on the back of her head, with the other clasped around her waist. “Were we just... kissing?”
Taylor couldn’t help it; he laughed out loud, almost maniacally, and then released Satomi and took a pace back, “No, but in all honestly, Satomi, I could kiss you right now.”
Satomi rubbed the back of her neck and looked away, “Yes, well, I think we have other matters to resolve first.”
“My thoughts exactly,” replied Taylor, still grinning like a loon. Satomi’s transition had been quicker even than Blake’s, but in truth Satomi had been adjusting to what she was from the first moment they had talked inside the Fabric, what seemed like a lifetime ago. “But we’re running out of time. Casey and Blake are over by the door. One of the engineers helped to seal us inside, but there are two Hedalt military officers outside, and I don’t know how long we can keep them out for.”
“Vice Provost Adra and Adjutant Vika,” said Satomi, nodding.
“Vice Provost?” said Taylor, picking up on the change of title. “The last time we saw her, she was a Provost and her adjutant was someone called Lux.”
“Let’s just say her fortunes have dwindled since then,” replied Satomi, “but that only makes her more desperate. And dangerous.”
Taylor saw that Blake and Casey appeared to have noticed Satomi, and were running in their direction. He turned back to Satomi with a million questions on his mind, but he spoke the only one that mattered. “Do you know how to disable the Nexus?” he asked, “I thought perhaps I could overload the power core, using one of these stasis chambers.”
“Great minds think alike,” said Satomi, smiling, “but, you can’t do it alone, Taylor. The effort would kill you.”
“Then how? I assume you know a way?”
“I do,” said Satomi as Blake and Casey arrived, giddy expressions on their faces. Casey wasted no time and threw herself onto Satomi, embracing her like a long-lost sister, while Blake stood alongside Taylor, awkwardly trying to hide his obvious joy at seeing their Technical Specialist again.
“How do you feel?” asked Casey, eventually pulling back and beaming at her, “I can’t believe you’re here!”
“I’ll tell you everything later, Casey,” said Satomi, “but first, I need your help.” Then she looked at Taylor and Blake too. “I need all of you. Or, more precisely, Taylor does.”
“What d’ya need, Satomi?” asked Blake. “Just name it.”
“It’s going to sound a little crazy, but I need you all to get inside these stasis pods,” Satomi said, gesturing to the four tubes behind her. “From here, Taylor and I can hook into the CoreNet and overload the power core.”
“You gottit,” said Blake, “but Casey and I can’t dial-in like Taylor can. What’re we s’posed to do in there?”
“You can’t connect to the CoreNet, but we can connect to each other,” said Satomi. “Disabling the CoreNet will take all four of us. We’ll need to draw from your strength.”
Rikov also now came running over and for a moment he didn’t realize that there was a new addition to the simulant troupe. “The Vice Provost, I believe she is planting charges around the door!” Rikov blurted out. And then he saw Satomi, and the empty chamber behind her. “But that is simply not possible!” he began, rushing to her and inspecting her like a technician inspecting a priceless piece of machinery. Then he changed his mind, “No, this is more than impossible – it’s incredible! You are the AA0 model, but you have been non-viable for centuries. How are you...”
“Alive?” finished Satomi, smiling at him. Then she looked at Taylor and gave a little shrug, “I guess not everything can be explained with science or logic. Some things I suppose just... are.”
Blake snorted, “Okay, tell us what you have done with the real Satomi?”
They all laughed, but then a series of low vibrations originating from the direction of the sealed doorway brought them sharply back to reality.
“Empty the other chambers, quickly,” said Satomi, “If Adra gets inside this laboratory, we lose our chance.”
“I’m more concerned about her killing us first,” Taylor chipped in, but then he joined Blake and Casey as they each opened one of the remaining stasis chambers. Respectfully, they removed their non-viable doppelgangers and delicately rested their bodies on the deck to the side. Taylor had gotten used to seeing his simulant reflection, but handling what
was essentially a dead version of himself was high amongst the more bizarre and chilling events he’d experienced.
Casey had been more concerned at the lack of color or creativity in her double’s clothing, while Blake had pulled a face like was chewing a wasp the whole time he was wrestling non-viable Blake to the deck.
“Rikov, if this works then you’ll need to get off this station, fast,” said Taylor, stepping inside his chamber. “Do you have any way to escape?”
Rikov nodded, “There are planetary shuttles that can take the crews back down to the surface of the home world,” he answered, “enough to get everyone away. Once you destabilize the power core, the emergency evacuation protocols will kick in automatically. I will be fine, but until then, I shall do my best to keep the soldiers out.”
Rikov turned to head back into the main laboratory, but Taylor called out to stop him. In all the time he’d been awake, he’d never considered that there could be more to the Hedalt race than the cruel and belligerent warriors of Warfare Command, or the equally menacing racketeers. But Rikov had opened his eyes to another reality that was just as startling as his own. As he had once been under the control of Warfare Command, so too it appeared were the majority of Hedalt society, forced to live under the strict rule of the empire. Perhaps destroying the Nexus and crippling simulants throughout the galaxy would not only deliver justice for the crimes committed against humanity, but it would liberate the Hedalt people too. Rikov frowned as he waited for Taylor to eventually speak, but there was too much to say and so he kept it brief.
“Thank you.”
Rikov seemed to understand the layers of meaning hidden inside those two simple words. He bowed slightly, maintaining eye contact with Taylor, before hurrying away. Taylor realized that there were times when simply saying ‘thank you’, and meaning it with a deep sincerity, could be more powerful than a thousand words.