Massive tubes ran across the ceiling, all converging on a round, raised column at the far wall, some forty yards away. Near the base, a holographic monitor screen displayed the Citadel Corporation logo, which she recognized as the arcology-building-slash-terraformer. Taken by sudden fear something would go wrong, she sprinted across the room, sneakers chirping on the polished metal.
Kiera waved her arms for balance as she stopped short by the column. The terminal screen had no visible keyboard or any other controls. Sticking her finger into the intangible graphic did nothing. “No… this is stupid. What am I supposed to do now?” She looked around, heart racing, breathing too fast. Below the screen, an angled shelf had a darker metal square in the middle. “Hmm.”
The chip! On a lark, she placed her right hand on it.
A second later, a small panel to the right of the monitor popped open, flickering blue laser light glimmering within. She remembered Min saying something about facial scanning. Squinting, she leaned closer. Bright gridlines appeared over her blurry reflection on the shiny steel around the screen. Soon, the terminal beeped.
“Access granted,” said a pleasant voice, mostly robotic, but enough like a mature woman to feel calming. “Emergency authorization provision enabled. Welcome, Quinn, Kiera A.”
A bright orange holographic man shimmered into existence beside her. Bald, indeterminate age neither too young nor too old, and wearing a Chinese jacket and pants, he smiled with the meditative calm of the Shaolin monk he appeared to be. “Welcome, child.”
“Who…” She blinked, afraid to pick her hand up from the panel.
“I am Thread Alpha, and I am grateful to you for having undertaken this task.”
She managed a feeble smile. “Is it done? How do I turn on the citadels?”
Thread Alpha bowed. “As an authorized user from the senior leadership team, you have only to issue the directive.”
“So, tell you to do it, and you do it?”
“That is correct,” said the hologram.
She narrowed her eyes at the console. I win. She opened her mouth to issue the command, but hesitated. Is Anton right? Am I going to blow up the planet?
46
The Concordant Sequence
Visions of nuclear mushrooms filled her mind, helped along by the bright orange apparition standing beside her. Kiera opened and closed her mouth a few times. She glanced at Pet for support, but her friend said nothing, hovering quiet nearby.
“Stop!” roared Anton.
She screamed and whirled toward the voice, but only a hologram version of the Administrator loomed over her. Still, she pointed her gun at him.
The red in Anton’s face showed clear despite the blue, ghostly holographic projection. “Stupid child! What are you doing! How on Earth did you get in there!” he shrieked. “You’re going to destroy us all! What little we’ve managed to get back will be wasted.” He cleared his throat and tried to put on an authoritative voice. “You will do nothing and wait for security units to bring you safely back out of there.”
“I don’t believe you.” Kiera looked at Thread Alpha’s ghost. “Will it explode?”
“The report claiming the citadels will malfunction or experience a reactor core breach, and concerns of subsequent thermonuclear detonation were derived from a mathematical error in a simulation. I am certain there is no risk. The report is false.”
“Of course it lies,” yelled Anton. “You’re a little girl. Easy to fool with stories of flowers and happy little animals prancing around again in the woods. Do you really believe you’ll hit that button and the world will be fixed? It’s a computer. The AIs changed while we were all asleep. They don’t want humans back! They were made to kill us all. It’s trying to trick you!”
Kiera looked down at her shoes. “You gave me two choices. I could kill myself or let you keep me and my parents locked up. Both your choices were evil. I choose option three.”
“Wait!” roared Anton. “Run that sequence and we’re all dead! Those… those dirt-rakers you call parents will die first―and not quickly. It’ll take a few minutes for everything to explode and I promise you, they will suffer. The insurgents as well. I’ll raze your whole village before the clouds take us.”
Kiera shot a laser through Anton’s face, but the hologram didn’t care. “Don’t you dare hurt them!”
“Projections indicate the citadels will achieve restoration of the Earth sufficient to permit reseeding the biosphere in 677.37 years without activating the primary sequence. However, the machinery will not last that long, Kiera. By my calculations, the terraforming cores will last 140 years at most before the installations in the harshest conditions break down.”
“It lies!” shouted Anton. “Even if it’s true, that’s almost two more centuries to figure something out. You’re going to nuke us!”
Tromping echoed on the other side of the giant door, an army of security androids approaching.
Kiera stared at the console screen, full of text that appeared to be a checklist for ‘The Concordant Sequence Initiation Protocol.’ If she did it, she’d kill her parents by making Anton furious. If she didn’t, she’d doom the whole planet. The citadels would fall apart before completing their work. She didn’t believe the citadels would go nuclear, but considering her parents would die either way, couldn’t find the ability to care if the machines exploded or not. She looked from the console to Anton’s glaring phantom.
“You killed my mom and dad before they even woke up. You killed Pet. You killed all the executives in that place, and even that cop who refused to arrest me. You want me to die too, and I’m only a kid. I don’t know how many people you’ll kill in the future. No, I think no matter what I do, you will kill everyone I love anyway. I can’t let everyone in the world die.”
“Wait,” said Anton in a twitchy voice. “I-I’ll let all of you go back to your hovels if you stay out of the Citadel forever.”
I don’t trust you. Hot tears ran down her cheeks as she closed her eyes, grief for the parents she prepared to sentence to death. “Initiate the Concordant Sequence. Run it. Go. Do it. I grant permission.”
“No!” roared Anton. He made a funny gurgling noise and grabbed his chest.
His scream cut off when the entire chamber fell dark. Only the glow of Pet’s thruster remained, its soft whirr filling her ears. Kiera looked around at the chamber. Except for distant reflections of Pet’s light gleaming from metal high over her head, she couldn’t see anything. The absence of the heavy mechanical noises, so constant that she had tuned them out, became a suffocating silence. Each breath in and out of her throat carried over the chamber like a shout.
“Was that supposed to happen?” asked Kiera.
Pet drifted close. “I’m not sure. The network went down. I have no connection to anything.”
“Crap.”
A deep thud shook the floor. The chamber shuddered. Kiera screamed, falling to the ground amid the earthquake and curling up in a ball. Violent shaking stopped a few seconds later. The lights flickered on again. Distant mechanical whirring wound up, like an entire fleet of jets starting their engines at the same time. Heavier rumbles followed soon after. Panels lit up along the walls, racing along the paths of pipes.
“Did I break it?” asked Kiera.
“I don’t know.” Pet flew into her arms.
The orange apparition of Thread Alpha reappeared, surrounded in a halo of blue static. “Sequence Initiated. Commencement signal successfully transmitted to all other citadels. Primary atmospheric filtering and terraforming systems are coming online throughout the globe. Estimated time until restoration of atmosphere: 387 days. Once complete, biomass regeneration will begin via bacterial organism distribution, seed release, wildlife cloning, and water processing. In approximately 962 days from initiation, conditions will meet baseline for Cairn Activation Protocol. Preliminary CAP initiation has been scheduled.”
Kiera didn’t bother standing, instead staring glumly at the floor. Somewhere,
Anton would be doing horrible things to Mom and Dad. “Uhh, yeah, that’s great.”
“I am detecting an unexpected emotional response to such good news,” said Thread Alpha.
“How many kids lose two sets of parents?” She clutched Pet/Ashleigh tight, all she had left in the world.
Thread Alpha stared quizzically at her.
A group of ten silver and white security androids walked in. She made no move to run, raise her hands, or shoot at them, remaining slumped in place as they approached and formed a half-circle around her.
“You guys are too late,” said Kiera at the floor. “You can’t stop it. It doesn’t matter what you do to me now.”
47
Dangerous Powers
Kiera stared at the blurry mixture of color on the steel surface in front of her knees. After a moment of no lasers piercing her body or plastic hands grabbing her, she looked up in confusion. The androids all faced her, heads tilted down to stare with their unblinking blue hexagon eyes. None of them pointed a weapon at her.
She hung her head, hoping her parents had gone peacefully, like the ones who never even woke up. “I’m not gonna roll over and put my hands behind my back. If you’re gonna arrest me, you’ll have to carry me.”
They continued standing there, silent and motionless.
“What?” She looked up at them.
“Kiera,” said Thread Alpha. “The security units are here to protect you, not harm you.”
She whipped her head around to gawk at the hologram. “Huh?”
“When you gave the command, you unlocked the system to me. I obtained root level access to the entire citadel network. I am the primary process that controls the restoration. My functions were shadowed to prevent tampering by unauthorized users. You rebooted Citadel Zero, and I have moved to a foreground process. Anton Sokolov no longer has any clearance in the system. I revoked it. The robots listen to you now, as you have been granted equivalent access to a senior executive. Also, Assistant Administrator Alan Chan has been promoted to administrator. The director of law enforcement, Melanie Stanton, also has the authority to issue commands to the robots.”
She trembled from a collision of worry and hope. It occurred to her at that instant that the robots’ eyes glowed blue, like the one she found trapped―not green like they had been when they killed Legacy or chased her before. “Are… are my parents…?”
“Anton can order them to kill as much as he likes, but they will not obey. You have the same authorization as Theresa Quinn, SVP of Research and Development.”
Kiera tilted her head. “Alpha? He said when he went there to kill them, my bio parents, that I was dead. Is this a dream? Am I a robot or something?”
“No, child.” Thread Alpha’s smile radiated the placidity of a monk. “Prior to you initiating the restart, my ability to affect systems was limited. I became aware of his plan to murder the executives so the authorization to initiate the Sequence defaulted to him. Before he arrived at the facility, I altered your stasis pod to falsely show your vital signs as dead, hoping he would leave you alone.”
“It worked.” She shivered. “Thanks for flushing me, by the way.”
“An unavoidable side effect. The false status triggered a flag in ROM software that resulted in postmortem processing of the tank’s occupant. That portion of code resided in hardware and could not be changed.”
“So, my parents were dead for two years before I woke up? Why didn’t you make them look dead, too?”
Thread Alpha nodded. “Yes. A few months plus two years. I initiated the virtual world to prepare you for this. Their pods had executive access restrictions. I could not. You were inserted with dependent child permission. Additionally, multiple ‘dead’ occupants would have increased the risk of detection to an unacceptable level. As you are a child, I predicted Anton would not expect you to even be aware of the Sequence and thus, not a threat.”
Pet nuzzled her cheek. “I’m sorry you lost your parents, Kiera. The whole world owes you thanks.”
“It’s okay.” She stood, hoping the AI’s words meant Teryn and Mala were alive. If the robots wouldn’t listen to Anton anymore, maybe they survived. He wouldn’t do it himself, and even if he tried, Dad would kick his butt. Hope tingled inside her chest and made her hands shake. “I… I’ve still got parents.” She looked at the line of androids. “Take me to the seventy-eighth floor.”
Kiera hurried off the elevator, surrounded by ten law enforcement robots. Ever since the lights came back on, the Citadel building rumbled more noticeably than before, a constant vibration in the ground. Outside, cracks and booms from a great thunderstorm lashed the walls. Every so often, the lights faltered. She made her way down the street behind the two androids leading their group. A few minutes later, she spotted Mala and Teryn walking out from a doorway beside a group of small electric police cars. Behind them, Pash and Ford staggered, both looking like they’d lost fistfights. Two androids and about a dozen live police officers escorted them, including the two who had tried to help her.
“Dad! Mom!” shouted Kiera.
Pash and Ford looked up with hope.
She broke away from the group of androids and ran into her parents’ arms.
Mala burst into tears, squeezing all the air out of her. Teryn wrapped his arms around them both. Having her mother cry set Kiera off with sobs of joy. She clung to them as if letting go would cause their death. Her emotion sapped the strength from her legs, but Teryn picked her up, rocking her while Mala held on. Pet orbited the three of them, chirping and beeping merrily.
It took quite some time before she could manage words. “I’m so sorry. I thought I killed you.”
At their astonished expressions, she explained ‘hitting the button’ despite Anton’s threat to kill them. “I knew he’d do it anyway.”
“I’m proud of you.” Teryn squeezed her. “A father could not ask for a braver daughter.”
“The choice was not easy, but you made the right one.” Mala kissed her atop the head.
Kiera sniveled. “But you’ve got a baby.”
“Who would have been lost when that”―Mala’s face gave away a word she chose not to speak out loud―“man… killed us anyway.”
“He showed you what he did to your parents once before,” said Pet. “The man does not possess mercy.”
Kiera wiped her cheeks dry, almost smiling. “Yeah. Well… we didn’t blow up.”
The two cops who assisted her escape walked over, looking much less somber.
“Nice job, kid,” said the woman. “I’m really sorry for how we treated you. We couldn’t help you, or your parents, if Anton turned his robots on us.”
“I know.” Kiera hugged her. “Thanks for helping me get out… and I guess for leaving the cuffs on. I don’t think I would’ve taken that pill, but not having a choice helped.”
The woman cringed, shaking her head. “That place is nowhere for a child to be. I’m sorry we had to do any of it.”
“Yeah. Anton didn’t have a high opinion of us… lower than his robots even.” The male cop patted her shoulder. “By the way, I also swapped the pill. That was a vitamin.”
His partner gasped. “You should’ve told me. I wouldn’t have left her in restraints.”
Kiera stared at him, on the verge of laughing.
“Didn’t want to risk getting overheard. Anton’s got a vicious streak,” said the male cop. “It’s almost hard to believe he didn’t… uhh, hurt her.”
“I don’t think he was lying when he said he didn’t like hurting kids.” Kiera frowned. “But if he thought I was going to blow up the whole planet….”
“Most likely, he never believed you had any chance of getting past all the security to reach the terminal four levels down.” The female cop scratched above her ear. “I’m still not sure how you managed it.”
“I had a lot of practice.” Kiera clung to her father. “Is Anton gonna try to hurt me?”
The woman gave her parents an apologetic
look before shaking her head at Kiera. “When you issued the command to the system, he had a heart attack.”
“He really believed you were about to blow us up.” The male cop chuckled. “He’s in the hospital now, probably going to survive. Although, he will face trial once he recovers. Administrator Chan has ordered him arrested.”
“Trial?” Kiera narrowed her eyes. “For kidnapping my parents… and me? And killing everyone in those tanks?”
Both cops nodded.
“And there have been a few officials and police officers who have gone missing or been killed at the hands of his robots for disagreeing with him.” The woman’s expression mixed angry with pleased. “He will answer for everything.”
Ford and Pash got into a car, headed to a hospital as well from what Kiera overheard. When the cop preparing to drive them passed along that the Citadel had been activated, they both cheered at her.
She grinned at them, waving as the car pulled off.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us with the new administrator. I think we’re in for quite a few changes here.” The female cop smiled. “Please don’t be afraid of us anymore.”
Kiera smiled. “Thanks for helping me get out and for being nice to my parents.”
The cops spent a moment apologizing and shaking hands with her mother and father before going back inside the police building.
“The world is shuddering.” Teryn looked at the ceiling. “I cannot get used to seeing metal sky. Come, child. Let us return home.”
“Umm.” Kiera glanced at the robots. “I think I kinda control this place now. We could stay here if you want.”
Mala fidgeted. “What of your friends? Won’t you miss them? I thought you liked our garden.”
“I do! I really miss my room.” She looked up. “And being inside all the time is kinda weird. I have a lot of numbers… from my old parents. We don’t have to worry about food, and we can get stuff to make the garden healthy. Maybe we can build up Exxo? When the Cairns open, we’ll need to build a lot more houses. And work permits are going away. The gates will open. I’m going to tell the new administrator to treat everyone fair.”
Citadel: The Concordant Sequence Page 42