Socrates and the Ionian

by Thomas Fay

  ‘Gage. I should have known,’ John said.

  Councillor Gage raised his arms. ‘I am unarmed, Sentinel.’

  ‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t pull the trigger. God knows you deserve it for everything you’ve put this city and its people through.’

  Councillor Gage’s cold blue eyes bored into John’s as he spoke.

  ‘This city wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the technology we provided. Your world would have torn itself apart years ago. We saved you.’

  ‘Saved us? You’ve got to be joking—this is the second time you’ve tried to tear this city apart.’

  Councillor Gage lowered his hands slowly. His eyes never left John’s.

  ‘My actions have been necessitated by Frost’s betrayal.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Frost is handing over control of our most valuable technology. He’s even going as far as stepping down from the Ruling Council and allowing non-Ionians to become Councillors.’

  ‘Is that why you had the candidates kidnapped?’ John asked.

  A flicker crossed Councillor Gage’s face. Just as quickly, it was gone.

  ‘Unlike Frost, I will not betray my people. I will not surrender control of our technology or this city.’

  John glanced at Socrates. The android was standing beside him. His head was moving from side to side, scanning the equipment in the Ionian R and D facility. One of the holographic projections shimmered as the image it was displaying changed.

  ‘There’s a lot I don’t understand these days about what’s going on in Iona. What I do know is that your technology saved the world from the GEC and that under Frost’s leadership this city has not only recovered quickly but prospered. Crime is low thanks to the Sentinels and Council operatives. People are generally content. Iona has become a great city. I just can’t understand why someone like you is so hell bent on destroying it all? Why can’t you just live your life in peace?’

  Councillor Gage seemed to consider his words. The energy syphon continued to draw power from the Flux Cells across Iona. Holographic projections shimmered in the air around them, showing the status of the power being drawn along with a multitude of other data. Despite the advanced technology located in the facility and the sheer power being drawn, there was no sound. It was unnerving.

  ‘You do not know the truth, Sentinel—why we came here, what happened to our world. The choices that were made,’ Councillor Gage said. Then his voice dropped to barely above a whisper. ‘Those we left behind.’

  John lowered his handgun. This was not what he had expected. Since Councillor Gage’s coup attempt four years ago he had seen the Ionian as a power-hungry megalomaniac. Now he wasn’t so sure. There were clearly two sides to the story. He knew Frost’s. Perhaps it was time he learned Gage’s. Then he thought of everyone in the city who was in danger because of Gage’s actions. Saving them had to be his first priority but perhaps there was another way.

  ‘Then tell me. Help me understand why you’re putting everyone in this city in danger,’ John said.

  ‘Do you think I want to do this? I have no choice. Frost has forced my hand. He’s the reason we’re here. Now it’s on me to save our people.’

  A sudden high-pitched sound permeated the underground R and D facility.

  ‘John, I am detecting a surge in exotic particles,’ Socrates said.

  ‘What is it?’ John asked.

  ‘I believe a second wormhole is being activated in this location.’

  John raised his handgun. ‘Shut it down, Gage. Now!’

  ‘You’re too late, Sentinel.’

  Councillor Gage raised his right arm. A pair of people dressed in black suits appeared behind him. John instantly recognised them as the rogue androids by their slightly distorted facial features.

  ‘Activate the portal!’ Councillor Gage ordered.

  The holographic projections changed from showing a map of the Flux Cells in Iona to something very different. It appeared to be a highly complex vortex with multilayered spirals. John had no idea what it meant but he knew it couldn’t be good. He raised his handgun and fired. The entire clip exploded from the Sentinel rapid-fire handgun. His aim was true. The polycarbonate rounds were powerful and fast. The androids were faster. One of them pushed Councillor Gage out of the way even as another absorbed the bullets. It was sent flying into a wall seconds later by an azure beam of energy. Socrates had activated his arc cannons. His entire form was glowing from the excess energy he’d absorbed.

  ‘Socrates, we need to—’

  John lost his footing as a powerful tremor passed through the floor beneath him. Cement dust began to fall from the ceiling as the light around them intensified. Shielding his eyes, John looked at the energy syphon. The sphere was no longer solid. It had shed its metallic exterior in less than a second. A powerful white ambience shone from within. John raised his arms up in a defensive gesture even as a figure interposed itself between him and the syphon. Socrates raised his arc cannons. It felt like the entire building was crumbling around them. His skin was vibrating from the energy being thrown off by the exposed singularity.

  ‘Socrates!’

  The vibrations reached a fever pitch. Then they stopped. A blinding flash of light exploded before his eyes as the world around them vanished.

  Fifty-Seven

  They were drifting in a void of nothingness. White light surrounded them on all sides. Nothing else existed except for them. Blinking, John waited until his eyes readjusted. They were inside some form of structure. It appeared deserted.

  ‘What happened?’ John asked.

  Socrates’s arc cannons retracted into his hands, the synthetic polycarbonate skin folding seamlessly over them. He stood motionless for a moment. His eyes blurred rapidly.

  ‘I do not know, John, but I am unable to access any databases. I am also unable to triangulate our location from any GPS data.’

  ‘Are your systems damaged?’

  ‘No. I remain one hundred per cent functional but isolated. This is a new experience for me. I find it … interesting.’

  John stared at his partner for a long moment.

  ‘Are you … you … again?’ he asked.

  ‘If you are referring to whether my memories of the past eight years have been restored, then the answer is yes.’

  ‘So, it’s really you?’

  ‘Is that not what I just communicated?’

  ‘Okay, it’s definitely you. What the hell happened and where are we?’

  ‘I do not have sufficient data to form a hypothesis.’

  John cast around. They were inside a large chamber made of a highly reflective material cast into various geometric shapes. It reminded John of an old computer game he’d seen once at the museum—polygons and sixteen colours. Except that this was real. It also appeared not to have been used for a long time: a thick layer of grainy dust covered the floor and there was a section of ceiling missing. A narrow beam of light was streaming into the room through the hole.

  ‘Does that light look right to you?’ John asked.

  ‘The spectrum is off. That is not terrestrial sunlight,’ Socrates replied.

  A chill passed through John as a slow realisation of what had happened to them began to form in the back of his mind. It was a fantastic, impossible scenario yet it seemed the only plausible explanation.

  ‘What is it then?’ he asked.

  ‘I do not know,’ Socrates said.

  ‘One way to find out.’

  John approached the missing section of ceiling. Shielding his eyes, he looked up. The light was warm on his face to the point of being unpleasant.

  ‘Impossible …’ he whispered.

  Socrates appeared beside him. His artificial eyes turned towards the source of the light. A light that was brighter than the sun. A light that was being cast by two suns.

  ‘Tell me you know what happened?’ John asked, backing away from the strange light. For some reason his legs felt like th
ey couldn’t support his weight. He took a deep breath as he realised that he was truly afraid.

  ‘I believe we have been drawn into a different dimension,’ Socrates said.

  ‘You mean this is Earth?’ John asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Then how do you explain that!’ John demanded, pointing at the twin suns.

  ‘As I said, this is an alternate dimension. Clearly in this dimension, Earth has more than one sun.’

  ‘But … shouldn’t it be really hot? Like scorching hot? With two suns?’

  Socrates stared at the light once more. He moved his head from side to side, analysing.

  ‘I believe the answer to that lies in the distance of Earth from the two suns.’

  ‘You mean it’s further away?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How is that possible?’

  ‘I have estimated the distance of Earth to the closest sun to be approximately two hundred and twenty-seven million kilometres. In our reality, that distance is only one hundred and forty-nine million kilometres. I would postulate that, in this dimension, Earth is not the third planet from the sun.’

  John’s legs gave out as he sank to the floor. He buried his head in his hands as thoughts and images flashed through his mind: Iona tearing itself apart as the Flux Cells malfunctioned, Councillor Gage activating the energy syphon, all the people that were depending on them to succeed. His thoughts turned to his uncle, to Agostino Romano, to his fellow Sentinels—Sorensen, Streeter, Fernali, the Chief. Then he thought of Simone. He could picture her in the Sentinel tech lab, watching as the Flux Cells failed one by one. She would have seen the energy spike when Councillor Gage had activated the energy syphon to transport them here. He could picture her reacting, checking with Councillor Green where he was. The realisation that he had been at the epicentre of the energy spike. John could only hope that she had stayed at Sentinel HQ and that she was safe. But he knew her better than that.

  He stood up slowly. Taking a deep breath, he said, ‘We need to figure out how to get back.’

  Fifty-Eight

  They made their way across the chamber to the opposite side. The floor was the same reflective material throughout; the dust turned out to be fine white sand upon closer examination. There were no symbols, no objects, nothing that could provide any clues as to the nature of the structure they had been transported to. John deliberately avoided looking at the strange light beaming through the broken ceiling section. They reached what appeared to be a doorway. It was an imposing ten-foot-high archway made of the same reflective polygons with a shimmering curtain of energy. John paused, his feet seemingly refusing to move any further. Staring at the archway, he realised he was suffering from a mild case of dissociation combined with a severe case of neophobia.

  ‘Are you alright, John?’ Socrates asked.

  ‘I … no, not really.’

  The android looked him over once.

  ‘Your heart rate is elevated and your pupils are dilated. I would postulate that your mind is finding it difficult to process what has transpired.’

  John leaned forward, taking several deep breaths. He straightened back up.

  ‘I’m not sure how I’m supposed to process what happened. We’re in another dimension. I know you’re an android and you can’t experience emotions but even you must realise how completely out there this is?’

  ‘As I stipulated before, this is a new experience for me. I have been continuously analysing across all spectrums since we arrived here. There is much I have learned.’

  ‘Such as …?’

  ‘This reality is not dissimilar to ours, which is not unexpected given it is reasonable to assume this is one of the dimensions the Flux Cells were drawing power from. The presence of the twin suns should have resulted in a significantly higher surface temperature. This has been offset by Earth’s increased distance from the twin suns. However, it does not account for the increased gravity.’

  ‘Gravity? What do you mean?’

  ‘Your unbalanced psychological state may have prevented you from noticing the fact that the gravity is higher than that on our Earth. I have estimated it to be almost ten per cent higher.’

  John realised he felt more tired from the walk across the chamber than he should have. He lifted his leg off the floor. It felt heavier than normal.

  ‘Why is it higher?’

  ‘I believe it is a result of Earth having a greater mass in this reality than in ours. A larger mass would result in greater gravitational pull.’

  ‘Looks like we’ll get more of a workout here. What else have you learned?’

  Socrates swung his arm in a wide arc in front of them as he spoke. ‘There is a large amount of electromagnetic radiation all around us, along with trace signatures of exotic particle emissions.’

  John nodded, his mind still in a state of dissociation. He knew who he was, where he had come from, but for some reason that person seemed like they were someone else. Like everything was happening to someone else. He had read about out-of-body experiences, he just never thought he’d live through one while fully awake.

  ‘I guess there’s only one way to find out where we are,’ John said. He stepped forward and passed through the archway.

  ****

  A vast cityscape dominated the horizon. Shimmering towers made of a highly reflective material stretched far into the clear sky. Several lower buildings, also made of the reflective material, were closer to them. That was where any semblance of familiarity ended. The strange city was clawing its way out of a desert. Everything around them was covered in fine white sand. There was no vegetation, nor any signs of life. The sky above was dominated by the twin suns, both shining brightly, one a slightly darker orange colour.

  ‘Interesting,’ Socrates said. ‘The increased gravity—’

  ‘What the hell is that?’ John asked, pointing at the sky in the opposite direction. A gigantic planet with twin concentric rings dominated the sky. It appeared close. Very close.

  ‘I would postulate that that is this reality’s version of Saturn,’ Socrates said.

  ‘Earth is next to Saturn?’ John asked.

  ‘In this reality.’

  ‘Christ, this is too much. Everything is messed up here.’

  ‘That is not true, John.’

  ‘Name one thing that is the same?’

  ‘The air. You have been breathing the air since we arrived here and you continue to live. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the chemical composition of the air is sufficiently similar to that in our dimension that your body is able to metabolise the oxygen from it to survive.’

  John realised he hadn’t even thought of that. Breathing was something that occurred on a subconscious level. He had never had to actively think about it. Until now. He took a few shallow breaths, testing the air. When he didn’t start to choke or struggle to breathe, he accepted the truth of what Socrates had told him.

  ‘Okay, so the air is the same. Gravity is different, there are two suns and a weird version of Saturn is right on our doorstep. Not to mention the alien city rising out of the desert around us. Seems just about everything else is different.’

  ‘While it may appear that way, my analysis has confirmed that this reality is based on the same underlying principles as ours—the physics of this dimension are compatible with ours.’

  ‘Good to know.’

  They stood in silence for a long moment. John felt himself sweating in the heat of the twin suns, which was reflected by the white sand around them.

  ‘I’m not sure how long I can stand out—’

  ‘John, look closely at the buildings. Do they look familiar to you?’

  ‘Sure, they remind me of the last dystopian movie I watched.’

  ‘No, John. Look closely.’

  ‘Okay. The reflective coating … I guess it reminds me of the Ruling Council Chambers.’

  ‘That is correct. I believe it is Ionian construction.’

  ‘How is that possible?’


  ‘Look at Saturn. Do you not recognise it?’

  John stared at the planet with concentric rings around it. He realised it did look familiar. Where had he seen it before? It was right there at the edge of his awareness. Something he had seen many times before. Each time he’d seen a Ruling Council transport ship. Or Iona Corporation vehicle. That’s when he realised what it was—the Iona Corporation logo.

  ‘Oh, my God … it can’t be!’ he exclaimed.

  ‘I believe we have deduced where we are,’ Socrates said.

  ‘But that’s impossible!’

  The android, a machine built by the Ionians, whom until that moment he had believed to be a race of aliens from interstellar space, looked at him with eyes that only appeared human.

  ‘This is Iona.’

  Fifty-Nine

  The light of the twin suns was reflected by the towering structures on the horizon and the white grains of sand covering the world around them. The heat had been increasing steadily since the moment they’d stepped outside, to the point where John was sweating profusely through his black shirt. He had removed his dark-grey Sentinel jacket and tie. The jacket was slung over his right shoulder while the end of the tie protruded from his pocket. For some reason he was loathe to part with them. They were a reminder of his normal life, something which seemed like a distant memory now.

  ‘It’s getting really hot. We need to get out of the sun … suns,’ John said.

  ‘We could re-enter the structure we arrived in or we could seek shelter elsewhere. There are several buildings within a two-kilometre radius,’ Socrates said.

  John shielded his eyes as he looked around. The reflective coating on the Ionian buildings made them difficult to see against the white sand. He had to trust in Socrates’s sensors to guide them.

  ‘What about the city? Are you detecting anything?’

  ‘I am reading energy signatures. There appear to be functioning systems in those structures; however, our priority must be to get you out of the sun. My sensors are reading the temperature as forty-eight degrees Celsius.’