She searched for Peter in the thread.
- -
Apartment 28a
It was like the feeling a graviton machine would give you, a machine you would normally see kids play in at a fair or a theme park. It would spin and swirl in a circular motion at growing speed, creating a force that would pull you to the outer wall and hold you there.
Initially one would enjoy the experience of the gravitational forces. Until slowly a sickness would come over you, making you regret the decision to come aboard.
He felt ill as well, tasting his stomach in the back of his throat. But it wasn’t the nausea or the gravity that bothered him, it was the lights. It was as if he was looking through a kaleidoscope at some manufactured set of images, only the images were clearly not manufactured, they seemed real.
The images shone bright at first but now they were starting to swirl into the distance, starting to fade away from him slowly. For some reason, he felt panic rising in him as they faded and he desperately tried to wake himself from this impending sense of doom. He clenched his mind to the task but seemed powerless to change its course, he felt his consciousness slowly start to fade away.
“Harrison! Can you hear me?” a voice called out.
“Doc, he’s slipping do something!” Suni pleaded.
It’d been less than a day since Truck had left the apartment, off in search of the device. And in that time Harrison’s body had begun to fail, almost as if he couldn’t survive alone without Truck. His heart rate had dropped and his breathing had become lighter and shallower. Doc stood over him, trying to fathom some sort of miracle but a look of resignation had already formed on his face.
He looked hesitantly at Suni and his shoulders rose to his ears. “I don’t know what else I can do for him, there just isn’t a …”
The heart monitor blurred suddenly, its continual beeping suddenly changed into a continuous streaming alarm.
Harrison’s heart had stopped.
“Suni, there’s nothing I can do … I … the body can only take so much damage, and ... gee, it’s a miracle he got this far … I mean …”
She cut him off. “Shut it, just … let’s just shut it down.” Both her palms slammed into her forehead, where she rubbed them around gingerly.
She stood there, not knowing what to do, staring at his limp body as Doc checked the heart rate monitor first and then Harrison’s pulse. Satisfied, he leant over and turned the heart monitor off, bringing the eerie noise to a halt and plunging the room into silence.
Harrison had passed.
Suni moved over to Harrison’s body and grasped his hand in her own, pulling it to her chest. “He was, he was a brave little kid.” she whispered as she kissed his hand. “Such a shame to see him go.”
Doc didn’t offer a reply, he only placed his hand on her shoulder to console her. Sorrow also threatened to well up inside of him, but years of working in the medical profession had numbed him to the sight of death. He turned and decided to take a few items back to the sink to wash, distracting himself from the loss of Harrison.
Truth was, there was nothing that could be done. Three gunshot wounds, one to the head, had been too much for Harrison’s body to bear. He had lasted more than most would, or should, and true to his spirit had been a fighter.
As Doc scrubbed his utensils his chin began to wobble and tears threatened to come from his eyes. He and Suni had become partners many years ago and when they found Harrison they had become almost like his parents, grief welled up in his throat. He stifled his cry and scrubbed harder, trying to ignore his emotions when he heard Suni cry out. He frowned when he realised it wasn’t a cry of anguish, but one of pain.
Turning to see what’d happened, he saw Harrison’s arm contracting with a force, and it was beginning to crush Suni’s hand. He jumped to her aide immediately, grabbing Harrison’s hand and attempting to pry the fingers open.
But Harrison’s hand had an unnatural strength to it and Doc couldn’t free Suni from its clasp. Right on the verge of crushing Suni’s hand, it stopped, Harrison’s hand went limp and returned to normal. Suni felt the pressure come off and pulled back instantly, watching in horror as Harrison’s hand flopped back onto the bed.
“What the hell was that?” Suni yelped, mortified.
Doc frowned, “I’m not ... muscle spasm maybe ... it’s not uncommon but,” he laid the arm back at Harrisons side. “But I’ve actually never seen something like this before.”
Harrison moved again, only this time his entire body twitched. Suni looked quizzically at Doc for an explanation, but he had the same look on his face. Harrison’s body went inert again and the body lay still once more, Suni and Doc exhaled slowly, hoping the worst of whatever was happening was over.
But something even more peculiar happened.
Harrison’s body suddenly sprung upwards, chest first he sat bolt upright, as if propelled by some sort of an electric current. His eyes and mouth gaped wide open as if pulled backward in a cruel kind of cosmetic surgery. Both of his hands raised themselves up as well, pointing to the roof and out towards the sky with fingers spread wide.
His head leaned back and from his mouth a strange guttural noise emanated, a gargling that vibrated throughout the small room. It sounded like Harrison’s voice, but more animalistic, like a loud roaring that could have come from a war chief about to send his troops into battle.
As if someone had just flicked a switch on and then off, it ended. Harrison’s body slumped back to the bed and lay once again passive.
Doc stood there stunned, unsure of himself, and looked over to see what Suni’s reaction was. She too had the same look on her face. Slowly, he started to see her demeanour change from shock horror to curiosity, as if she realised something he hadn’t.
“What in God’s name was that, I’ve not seen anything like it before,” he said.
Suni was initially shocked, but a memory came flashing back into her mind. She thought about it for a second and remembered, remembered something from her past.
“I’ve seen this Doc, I’ve seen this happen before.”
“Seen what happen?”
“This … that.” she pointed at Harrison’s body.
“And pray do tell, what exactly just happened?”
- -
Catlin
The Destiny installation had suddenly descended into chaos. The operations floor changed colour, the lights going out and plunging the facility into utter darkness. Within moments the backup generators switched on, activating the emergency lighting.
The facility now began to flash red and an audible alarm sounded throughout the facility, signalling an evacuation of the premises.
The staff at the facility had experienced this procedure before, having practised it many times at the behest of Ma’am, but this was different. People quickly realised this was no drill, this was real.
All the stations had gone into emergency shutdown mode and operators found themselves locked out of their consoles, unsure of what had caused it. It was a system defence mechanism to protect the data, and now some consoles could be seen sparking and catching on fire, causing sporadic fires inside the facility.
Once the smoke rose, it set off the internal sprinkler system, which in turn flooded the room, adding to the panic as people evacuated.
Ursula, upon hearing the alarm, dropped the two coffee mugs she’d just made in the kitchen and ran back out onto the floor. She reached Station Eight and yanked on the chair which Cat was sitting on. “What the hell did you do?”
Catlin was wide eyed and could fathom no response. “I … I don’t know what happened, I ... oh my god, what’s going on?”
“Evacuate, NOW!” She yelled, just as Catlin’s terminal sparked and caught on fire.
Ursula grabbed Cat by the arm and led her towards the now flashing EXIT sign as o
ther operators flowed in the same direction. They reached the staircase to the mezzanine just as a succession of minor explosions reverberated through the installation, lots of tiny pops sounding as if someone had just started setting off firecrackers in the building.
“What’s that?” Catlin screamed at Ursula above the noise.
“The stations are imploding!” They both turned around to see several stations now fully ablaze, burning despite the mist the rooftop sprinklers were creating.
“C’mon we have to move.” Ursula yelled, pulling Catlin’s hand harder as they went. “It’s an electrical fire now.”
They ascended the stairway to the mezzanine and moved onwards to the main entrance, reaching another set of stairs which were concreted and leading upwards at a forty-five-degree angle. Catlin realised this was a part of the installation she’d not seen before; when first brought here she was blindfolded.
She looked up its length, some fifty or so metres and noticed all the personnel hastily climbing the steep angled tunnel, upwards to what she assumed was the surface.
Catlin continued upward, following the others until she could see a light emanating at the end of the tunnel. Clearly it was light coming from the outside world and she felt a trip of excitement for a moment as she remembered she hadn’t seen the sky or breathed a single breath of fresh air in quite a while.
Reaching the top of the stairs, they were funnelled slowly through a small opening in an outhouse, which exited into a forest clearing. After a delay from all the people exiting, Catlin could taste the fresh air immediately and sucked it in eagerly as she walked outside, fresh aromas of pine and eucalypt filling her senses.
They’d exited into, by all accounts, what appeared to Catlin to be an old timber mill set amongst the forest.
It was housed behind a set of trees which people were now filing through. She followed the file of people and noticed on the other side a large cleared area of land. As they walked further, more buildings came into view as well. A cottage, a large concrete building that resembled a warehouse and a set of demountable buildings.
This must have been the upstairs facility.
It was by the demountable buildings that everybody seemed to be congregating and Cat, with Ursula still leading her on, moved to join the group of personnel who’d been evacuated. When she arrived, she realised people were also coming out of the demountable buildings. She asked Ursula who they were.
“They’re the staff that run the above ground Destiny.”
“Above ground?” she asked.
“There are two facilities Catlin,” she replied, almost annoyingly at her.
Cat rolled her eyes, “sorry, I knew that.”
“I guess they’re probably wondering who the hell we are.” Ursula looked around.
“You mean they don’t …”
“Mum!” Ursula exclaimed suddenly, noticing a woman in the crowd running over to her.
Catlin thought it weird, especially as the two embraced quite lovingly. They asked each other if they were alright and then she observed the conversation must’ve turned to her as they both looked over quizzically.
Catlin smiled awkwardly as the two of them came to where she was standing, holding hands.
“You’ll have to excuse these imbeciles!” The lady spoke kindly.
“I’m sorry?” Catlin asked.
The woman came in closer, “you’re Catlin, am I right?”
“Yes, how did you know that?”
“Hmmm,” she chuckled to herself. “I know everything dear.”
“Sorry ... what’s your name?”
“My name is Marion dear, and it’s so nice to meet you Catlin.”
Catlin stuck out her hand instinctively but Marion brushed it away, choosing instead to embrace Catlin in a great hug. After a few moments, Catlin started to worry as the embrace seemed a little too familiar, it went on longer than a usual greeting.
“I’m sorry dear, I didn’t mean to ...” she wiped away a tear. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”
Catlin was completely confused now, Marion seemed to sense this and calmed her with an arm to the shoulder, “I know dear ... you have more questions, right?”
Catlin smiled, thankful that at least someone had the empathy to understand her predicament.
“I know you must feel a little lost right now.”
“A little.” Catlin smiled. “I’ve learnt a lot but there are so many grey areas here.”
“It’s ok, perfectly normal dear.”
“So ... this is Destiny too?”
“There are two facilities. The one up here is an intelligence agency that contracts to anyone wanting high level intelligence. If you want to know what Joe Blow is doing at six o’clock on a week night, then they’ll find everything they can by using available digital devices. They can access anything electrical, digital. Anything.”
“Anything?”
“They can turn your microwave on at ten in the evening using your next-door neighbour’s television if they so choose.”
“Right.”
“They don’t need the internet, all they need is the device to be accessible through remote connection. Mostly they utilise mobile phone technology, as it’s the most commonly used personal device. Destiny hacks all these electrical devices and uses them to gather Intel. They can access the camera or microphone on your phone, they can track you with GPS, listen to conversations, hack servers, check what you do when you watch T.V, backtrack anything deleted.”
“As you can imagine, this kind of information is very valuable and in turn is sold, generating a great amount of wealth to pay for ...” she winked. “Extra-curricular activities.”
“Destiny above ground is in all reality a front for Destiny below ground.”
Catlin’s head was starting to hurt.
“Now, you have another question?” Marion took another deep breath.
“Oh so many.” Catlin’s eyes went wide. “But what’s going on here?”
Marion looked around and seemed to not hear Catlin’s question, “has anyone seen Ma’am?” she called out in a loud voice in the large gathered group of people.
People began looking around in response to her question, but no sign of Ma’am could be found.
Then Catlin noticed someone in a red fireman’s hat walking around with a sheet of paper, obviously checking names off. She recognised her as the lady that’d looked after her the first morning, Jenny.
Stupid bitch, why can’t you just be nice to people. Isn’t that hard to be polite, is it? Mind you, with that fat arse I don’t blame you!
She looked like she was issuing orders to a man in black fatigues.
“Who is that guy?”
“Ops guy, goes by the name Mr Okko.”
Catlin watched him, hoping to spot the other Ops guy she’d seen earlier. But after a brief discussion he led a group of men back towards the outhouse, down its staircase and back into Destiny. She assumed they were trying to locate Ma’am.
“So ...” Catlin wondered.
“Hmmm, I’m sensing something afoot here.” Marion said.
“What do you mean?” Ursula responded.
“No Lucinda,” she said. “And can you see Samuel either?”
“Who’s Lucinda?” Catlin asked.
“Ma’am.” they both replied in unison.
“Oh, strange name.”
“And Catlin isn’t?”
“True. And that’s her name? Ma’am’s name?”
“Yes.”
“Why doesn’t anyone use it then?”
“Long story kid.”
“Marion? Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“Hmmm, I will try my best dear.”
“Do you know what happened to my brother and to Peter?”
Marion stiffened at th
e question, Ursula too averted her gaze, leading Catlin to think something was wrong. Before Catlin asked again though, Marion raised a hand to calm her.
“Some things are best told by those who had a hand in their play.”
“What the hell kind of answer is that!” she retorted.
“There are things here happening here that you are unaware of, things I’m not sure you’re ready for.” She paused with a stern look on her face, “I can tell you this though, both the men you spoke of … they were working against you.”
“Bullshit.”
“Again, there are things that have happened here that you do not understand.”
“I’m so sick of hearing this shit. Peter, he used to say rubbish like that.”
“Peter said a lot of things that made sense too.”
“Yeah, like what exactly?”
“I saw the writing on the wall.”
“What writing on the wall, what are you talking about?”
“In the detention cell …”
“Huh?”
“Catlin, the answers will come, now is just not the time.”
“Whatever.”
An awkward silence ensued between the three.
Catlin hadn’t realised how silent it was until the noise of a distant motor sounded from afar. The sound grew louder, more penetrating, until its origin appeared through the line in the trees. Catlin squinted her eyes up to the sky and couldn’t believe she could see a helicopter, descending to the forest floor.
It landed and a short balding man wearing glasses, who had been waiting nearby, moved over and opened the helicopter door.
There were five people in total, two in suits and the other three, whom she could only discern were soldiers, wore military clothing. As they stoically made their way to the demountable buildings, Cat wondered to herself what on earth they were doing here. She had no idea anyone else knew of, or had control of, the Destiny installation.
True her time had only been short, but she was led to believe that they were an independent installation, operating unknown to the world under the direction of Ma’am, and the man in charge she knew only as Samuel.
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