The Dead Room Trilogy

by Stephanie Erickson

  “Has there been any contact with the ship?” Vega asked.

  “No,” the major answered simply.

  “Should we send someone down to help? There might be survivors,” Vega insisted, unable to take her eyes off the scrambling people in the cockpit. It was so like her dream. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, and then felt Mason’s hand move from the chair to her shoulder, giving her a squeeze.

  “Captain Fowell, we will not be sending a rescue mission. All ten thousand souls aboard the Tantalus are assumed dead.” The major’s tone was flat, and Vega could tell he tried to keep it emotionless, but something in the strain around his eyes gave him away.

  “But…”

  “You’ve seen the bots with your own eyes, Captain. You know what they are. What they can do. What they will do.” He didn’t elaborate further, and Vega didn’t challenge him again.

  “We need a solution. Or we could be next.” The major turned to look at Mason and Lehman. “How exactly are you keeping the bots at bay?”

  Vega looked up at Mason, knowing the answer to the question.

  “It’s a specialized EMP, an electromagnetic pulse. Except it’s not a pulse. It’s a constant stream of energy.”

  “How in the world did you come up with that?”

  Vega pulled out the journal and tossed it on the table. “With this, I’m betting.”

  The major picked it up. “And this is?”

  “Ashby’s journal.”

  He dropped it with a disgusted look on his face, as if it were contaminated. “Ashby?”

  “Yup,” Vega said. As if there was nothing more to it. “He had some interesting solutions to their problems, that’s for sure.”

  “Hey, you said no judging,” Mason said as he looked down at her.

  “It’s not you I judge.”

  Mason chuckled. “I think you and Mattli would get along beautifully.”

  “Back to the matter at hand. How can we build something like that, so that we can land safely and maintain our way of life?”

  “I don’t think you can,” Mason said without hesitation. The room exploded with accusations.

  “Then why are you here?” one person shouted.

  “That can’t be true,” someone else protested.

  The major held up his hands. “Let’s hear him out.”

  Once everyone was quiet, the major went on. “Mr. Hawkins, care to explain?”

  “Well, first of all, your ship is massive. I think our little EMP, or stream, or whatever you want to call it, only gives us about a hundred-yard radius to work with. Your airship is…enormous. I have no idea how you would even build something large enough to keep them out. You would need thousands of them around the perimeter.”

  The major interjected. “But we don’t need to stay on the ground for long. We just need to be there long enough to fix the problems, then we can be airborne again. If we could keep them at bay long enough to get in the air…”

  Mason thought for a moment. “I’m sorry, Major, but the machine isn’t a long-term solution at all. The bots quickly learned to stay away from it, but they’re hungry. They’re always there, waiting for it to break down. And if it does, it’s the end of us. It’s time to stop running from them. We need a way to overcome them. To kill them, once and for all.”

  The room was silent as he looked around, searching faces for a solution. He wasn’t from this world. Why was it his responsibility to save all these people? He was a welder with a simple life. That seemed like an eternity ago. Another life. He looked down at Vega. It was a life without Vega in it.

  Ashley’s words came back to him in a flash.

  Win.

  His eyes fell on the journal and he snatched it up, paging through it frantically.

  “Mason?” Lehman asked.

  “At the end, Ashby mentions something to Mendi about sending out a code to repair the bots.”

  “Right, I remember,” Lehman said.

  Vega looked at the black book, wishing she’d been able to finish so she knew what they were talking about.

  “Why not kill them with a code?” Mason asked.

  Seventeen

  “A code? Can we do that?” the German Prime Minister asked.

  “Why not? That’s how Ashby controlled them,” Mason explained.

  Vega sat back in her chair. A kill code. It was elegant and simple, but how would they execute it? “Without a main server, how will you upload the code?” she asked.

  She looked at Mason over her shoulder, and he frowned. “I don’t know. I’m not the genius here. You guys are the ones with the technology. Figure it out.”

  “It’s not quite that easy,” their maintenance director said. “To communicate with the lot of them, you’d need a server that they responded to.”

  “So build one. Speak to them,” Mason said, as if it were just that easy. But Vega didn’t think it was.

  However, the silence in the room gave her hope. No one could dispute him. Maybe they could kill them. If they could learn their language.

  “The way Ashby controlled them, and subsequently lost control of them, is all spelled out in the journal. In fact, he mentioned sending a code that would bring the bots to heel to Mendi. Maybe you could start with that, morph it into a kill code.” Mason gestured toward the black book on the table. “I’m not lying to you here. It’s a real possibility I think you should explore. Upload a kill code, then you can land safely, and we can repopulate the surface.”

  The prime minister from the UK piped up. He was a middle-aged man with an accent Vega could listen to forever. “I think I may have someone.”

  Vega leaned forward as she, and everyone else in their group, looked at the screen.

  “He’s a notorious man. Imprisoned for repeatedly hacking our systems. Although he’s never done anything with the information he’s gained, he seems to enjoy the chase more than the prize. The danger he potentially poses led us to detain him. However, he escaped our maximum-security cells more than once.”

  “Are you kidding? Those cells are state of the art,” Vega said. She’d never been to the maximum-security area of the airship, but she’d read about the upgrade. They included electrical bars, almost like a Taser beam. If the inmate touched the bars, they’d be zapped. No windows gave them minimal chances for escape. And the doors were reduced to an absolute minimum. Only large enough for one person to go in and out. How had he hacked that? Particularly without access to a computer. “Aside from that, where in the sky would he go? I mean, the airships are pretty confined.” Offering a bit of a prison in and of themselves, she thought, but she didn’t say it out loud.

  The prime minister laughed. “It seems to be more about the challenge than the end result. The fact that he can escape, more than he has an actual destination in mind. As if he’s showing us we can’t contain him. So, you can see our problem with him. He’s brilliant, but dangerous.”

  “Why is he so dangerous if he’s never done anything with what he’s discovered? You should have hired him to work for you, not imprisoned him. Sounds to me like he’s good at a puzzle and enjoys the thrill of solving it, not the end game,” Mason said.

  “We tried that, but he quickly grew bored. He doesn’t like being told what to do,” the prime minister answered.

  “With all due respect, sir, how on Ashby’s earth do you anticipate getting him to help with something like this? Particularly if he doesn’t like being told what to do? We need someone we can count on, not a question mark,” Mason demanded.

  “I don’t know. But it couldn’t hurt to ask him,” the prime minister said. Vega wasn’t so sure about that. He seemed confident, but…

  “What if he tells others, starts a panic? Leaks our intel to the media?” the major said, as if reading her mind.

  “We’ll have to tell the people eventually, Major Burridge,” the UK prime minister said.

  “Yes. But it’s better for them to hear it from us, not some hacker. And more in our favor if we have a sol
ution first.”

  “I’ll give you that. It’s a risk.” The prime minister ran a hand through his blond hair, rumpling it a bit, but only managing to make himself look more appealing. Vega smiled as she looked over at Lehman, who was also appreciating the scene in front of her.

  “A risk? With the fate of humanity? Is now the time to be taking risks?” Mason asked as he walked around and sat down hard in the chair to Vega’s left.

  Vega looked over at him with concern. “I think now’s the perfect time to be taking risks. If we don’t, we die.”

  “If we do, we die,” Mason insisted, his frustration rising with the color in his cheeks.

  Vega nodded and sat back in her chair, hoping she’d rattled his cage enough for him to consider stepping out on his solution. But then she sat forward again. This was his solution.

  “Mason, this was your idea! Don’t you want to see it through?”

  “Yes, I want to see it through, but not recklessly. There must be other options. There are tens of thousands of people at our fingertips. Surely one of them is as skilled as this hacker, and more reliable.”

  The room was silent.

  Mason stood back up. “Oh, for Ashby’s sake,” he said as he began pacing Major Burridge’s conference room. “I think we should revisit this later,” Mason finally said when no one else spoke. “Once we’ve had a chance to let the idea simmer.”

  A collective grumble passed over the room.

  “Respectfully, Mr. Hawkins, I’m going to disagree with that. We’ve already lost over ten thousand people due to our inaction and lack of ideas. We need to move, and it needs to be now.” The major turned to the screen. “Prime Minister Williams?”

  The UK prime minister answered, “Yes, Major Burridge?”

  “Can we contact this hacker?”

  “Yes. Give me twenty seconds.”

  They waited in awkward silence. Vega didn’t miss Mason’s frown as he continued pacing to her left. She glanced to Lehman, who just shrugged and shook her head.

  A deep, smooth voice came over the line. “How can I help you, Prime Minister?”

  “Mister Kingsly, wonderful to speak to you again—”

  Kingsly cut him off. “Is it really, Prime Minister? When last we spoke, I felt I’d left a rather poor taste in your mouth.”

  “Be that as it may, I have an…opportunity I’d like to explore with you.”

  “We both know how that went the last time,” Kingsly said.

  “Indeed. However, there’s a bit more at stake this time around. Thought it might be worth exploring.”

  “Is that so? Do tell.”

  Vega thought she heard a hint of interest in his voice, either that or the man was teasing the prime minister. Maybe a little bit of both.

  Williams ignored it, if he heard it at all. “We’re dealing with Ashby’s nanobots here.”

  “Well, now you do have my attention.” It sounded more sincere to Vega this time.

  “You see, we need to find a way to disable them.”

  “Oh, really? Just now? Why the urgency? I mean, they have been running amok down there for the last three and a half centuries. What’s the big deal? We rule the sky; they rule the land. I see no reason to rock their boat.” He was so complacent. Vega could tell they’d lost his interest, just like that.

  “We will all die if we don’t,” she blurted.

  Vega could count the number of times she’d been on the receiving end of one of the major’s stern looks on one hand. In that moment, she just added another, and she tried to disappear into her chair.

  “What is that? Who is that? You have your assistant listening in on this call, Prime Minister? And here I thought this was a private conversation.” Kingsly laughed. Vega knew he was teasing Prime Minister Williams, but by the look on Williams’ face, he didn’t find it all that funny. He looked into the camera, and Vega felt like he was glaring right at her. She wanted to sink down into the chair even further, yet the plastic, cushioned thing wasn’t very forgiving.

  Lehman offered her a reassuring pat on the knee, but it didn’t help much. She didn’t know what they were so mad about. If they didn’t want anyone talking, they should’ve said something. That was all it would’ve taken. A simple statement. ‘Hey guys, we don’t want this high-security prisoner to know exactly what’s going on at first, so just pipe down.’ How hard was that?

  Vega folded her arms over her chest, irritated now, and sat up a little straighter in her chair. She didn’t miss Mason watching her, and she thought she caught a grin forming on the corner of his mouth, so she sat up even straighter, just to show him she wouldn’t be intimidated. He covered his mouth with his hand, acting like he was scratching his face.

  “So, there are lives at stake?” Kingsly asked, but Vega could read nothing from it. It wasn’t clear if he cared or just wanted to play a game.

  Mason apparently decided to interject. “Perhaps a better question is if it’s even possible to control the bots without a server they respond to?”

  “Anything is possible, Mister Mystery American. Although, I don’t like how you skipped over general niceties such as introducing yourself. Obviously, you know who I am. Who are you?”

  “My name is Mason Hawkins. I’m working with the prime minister to try to solve our problem.”

  “And you decided you needed my help?” Kingsly asked.

  “No, actually, I was against your help from the start.”

  Kingsly laughed, and it was such a musical sound. Vega found herself having to work not to smile. Charming and dangerous, a deadly combination in Vega’s opinion.

  “I think I will like you, Mr. Hawkins.”

  “I’m a bit undecided about you, Kingsly,” Mason replied.

  “Fair enough. So, tell me what you need,” Kingsly said.

  “We need the bots disabled,” Prime Minister Williams said, interrupting the friendly banter between the two men.

  “Funny enough, I’d worked that out myself, Prime Minister. The question is why?”

  “We need to land,” Williams bit out, as if it pained him to say it.

  “Why?” Kingsly pushed, and Vega wanted to smack him.

  “Know your limits, man,” Vega said under her breath.

  “And what are my limits, young minx with no filter?” Kingsly asked, a clear chuckle in his voice.

  Major Burridge silently eyed Vega, but it was far from the glare she’d gotten a few moments ago.

  “Cut the prime minister some slack; he threw you a bone. The polite thing to do would be to toss one back,” Vega said in a matter-of-fact manner.

  “Toss one back?” Kingsley asked.

  “A bone.”

  “What kind of bone are you looking for, miss?”

  A few of the men snorted, and Lehman frowned. Vega stood up and leaned forward on the table. “If all you have to offer is cheap innuendos, then Mason is right. We’re wasting our time here.”

  “Excuse me, but who is wasting whose time? You called me, I do believe,” Kingsly said rather arrogantly.

  “And that cut into your busy schedule, did it?” Vega snapped, and Kingsly laughed.

  “I like this one,” he said, which only made Vega grip the glass table a little harder.

  Lehman put her hand on Vega’s shoulder and squeezed slightly, but Vega didn’t relax much.

  Mason eyed her, urging her to step down a bit. She sighed as her shoulders finally relaxed.

  “Fine. You need the bots eliminated. And you want to upload a code, I take it, based on your question about a server? A kill code?”

  “That’s about it,” Mason said. “Can you do it?”

  “It’s not a question of can I do it. A better question, Mr. Hawkins, is will I?”

  Mason sighed. “Fine. Will you?”

  “What do I get out of it?” Kingsly asked.

  “What do you mean? The chance to continue being a pompous ass for the rest of your life isn’t enough of a reward?” Vega’s comment earned a few sn
ickers throughout the room.

  Kingsley laughed again. It was full bodied, but Vega didn’t have to resist smiling that time. She was over the man and his musical accent. He knew he could help them, and he wouldn’t. Not unless it benefitted him somehow.

  “My life means nothing to me, Miss Minx. I’m cooped up in this cell all day—”

  “Oh, right. And you got there through no fault of your own,” Vega interrupted, rolling her eyes.

  Again with that damned laugh. “Be that as it may, my time here on this godforsaken ship is over. The prime minister will have to offer me something pretty delicious to make me consider helping you.”

  Vega hesitated, knowing she couldn’t do anything from that point on. It was out of her hands. Was it ever really in her hands to begin with? Probably not. Although she did think she helped more than the major did. Yes, she’d stirred the pot, but she’d kept him interested.

  “We are willing to offer you amnesty from your past crimes. If you should succeed, you will be free. Should you commit further crimes after your amnesty is granted, no such gratitude will be extended. We urge you not to squander this opportunity.”

  “Freedom?” Kingsly hesitated, and Vega knew Williams was close to having the convicted criminal eating out of his hands. “Exactly how much freedom? It’s not like I can escape the airship,” Kingsly asked, pushing a little.

  “If you succeed, and we can land, you can go wherever you want. You are a grown man. Take care of yourself. Set foot on solid ground if you like. Or transfer to another ship. I will certainly sign the paperwork to make it happen. However, I will warn you again—anything you do after you step foot outside that cell, you take full responsibility for. Amnesty is not something we hand out lightly.”

  “I think I should like seeing the surface of the Earth,” Kingsly said, his voice low, almost like a whisper, as if he were imagining himself stepping onto the ground as he said it.

  “Prime Minister Williams, I beg you to reconsider. There are tens of thousands of people in this fleet. There has to be someone who’s a little less…” Mason cleared his throat, trying to bite back his opinions.