by Camie Elias
The robot looked straight at Carbon.
"Yes, Scars, that's right: I need you to open this door. Sentient says you're an old robot and this is an old door. So, will you please open it?"
"Carbon," objected Sentient.
"What?"
"You've seen the tunnels. There are no humans here. Let's leave this place."
"I don't want to leave this place," passionately responded Carbon. "There are no humans here—as far as we can see—but the tunnels might lead to where they are. Have you thought of that?" Her eyes suddenly lit up with an idea. "I'm such an idiot! I haven't tried the other purple doors! There are… Let me see… Six! There are six purple doors."
"Yes, and they all have portal-locks," noted Sentient.
"One of those portal-locks must be working properly. One of them will open the door. I'm sure of that!"
She ran to the closest purple door and placed her hand on a similar box next to it.
"Human detected. Running identification program," announced the portal-lock.
"Please, say Carbon. Please, please say Carbon," pleaded the girl.
"Identification completed. Human is Zoe Arkan. Eleven years old. Deceased."
She glanced at Sentient and declared: "I'm not giving up."
Sentient didn't even try to stop her. He sat down and watched as Carbon tried the portal-locks next to all the other purple glass doors. They all told her the same thing: "Zoe Arkan. Eleven years old. Deceased."
After listening to the last portal-lock reciting the very same words, Carbon dragged her feet toward Sentient and sat next to him.
"It's useless," she said. "All these stupid portal-locks think I'm a dead girl."
"You're not a dead girl," said the fox. "You're very much alive."
"Then why won't those stupid doorways open?"
"Maybe it's a sign."
"A sign? What kind of sign?"
"A sign that we shouldn't stay here, Carbon. Let's teleport back to the bubble."
"No! How can you even suggest that when we're so close?"
"Close to what, Carbon? Do you really believe you're going to find other human beings at the end of one of those tunnels, living in some verdant underworld?"
"Why not? They didn't just disappear, did they? They must be living somewhere."
Sentient shook his head and was about to say something when the robot started making noises. They looked around and noticed that Scars was touching one of the portal-locks.
"He's talking to it, isn't he?" asked Carbon.
The portal-lock answered her question by stating: "Equanimity agent identified. Overriding protocol. Opening MTT gate."
Chapter 10: When Nemesis Visited
Carbon jumped up and ran to the glass doors that had just started to open. Beyond the doorway, the lights inside the tunnel were becoming brighter.
"This tunnel is so long! I can't see the end of it," she said to Sentient, who was already standing beside her.
She moved forward and tried to enter the tunnel, but was stopped by Sentient's voice.
"Do not step into that tunnel," commanded the fox.
"Why?"
"Because you'll die."
"You can't know that," objected the girl.
"Please, Carbon, do not step in there," begged her Sentient. "That's a Massive Teleport Tunnel. If you go in there, it will teleport you to a place outside this planet, and you'll die."
"I don't believe you," retorted Carbon. "You just don't want me to meet other humans. You want me to stay here forever. Alone."
"You're not alone," said the fox. Then, looking up to the robot, he ordered: "Close the MTT gate, Scars."
The robot didn't react. The gate, however, started to speak:
"Initiating teleport protocol. Massive Teleport Tunnel will be ready in one hundred seconds. Ninety-nine seconds. Ninety-eight seconds…"
"Close the gate, Scars," insisted Sentient.
"No! Don't close the gate, Scars," shouted Carbon. "See? Scars is not closing the gate, and he was in charge of protecting children. He knows there's no danger in using this tunnel."
"Scars is an old robot and probably can't remember what happened," said the fox with a calm voice. "Please, Carbon, step away from the gate."
"I won't! I want to teleport to where the other humans are. I want to find my family! You know there's no danger in doing that. You just don't want me to go."
"I am your family," said the fox. He sounded hurt.
"Sixty-seconds," stated the gate.
"My human family," corrected Carbon.
Sentient shook his head as he often did before having to say something hard to the girl and declared:
"You have no human family."
"How can you say that? I'm human! I must have a human family. You just never told me about them."
"I would never hide the existence of other humans from you," vowed the fox. "There are no other humans. They're all dead. And you're right: I don't want you to go. I don't want you to die. I've disregarded my orders so that you could live. Letting you die because of a foolish decision is not an option."
Carbon's expression softened.
"You're not lying," she said.
"I don't lie," asserted Sentient. "Though I'll confess to occasionally managing information."
"What does that mean?"
"Data suppression."
"I don't understand."
"I've suppressed information that I thought would make you unhappy," admitted the fox.
"What kind of information?"
"Massive Teleport Tunnel is now ready," informed the gate.
"Move away from the gate, Carbon. Please, move away from there, and I promise to tell you everything."
Carbon moved away from the tunnel and followed Sentient to the center of the immense hall.
"Let's teleport out of here first," suggested the fox. "Scars, close the MTT gate."
"No," protested the girl. "You said nothing about teleporting out of here. What you said was that if I'd move away from the gate, you would tell me everything. I've moved away from the gate. Now, tell me everything."
"Very well," said the fox, sitting on the floor. "The Massive Teleport Tunnels were part of project Safe Home."
Carbon sat down in front of the fox.
"I'm listening," she said.
"You are right about something: there used to be humans here on Gaea-32. Almost a million of them."
"Used to? Not anymore? They're all gone?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Where are they?"
"They used the MTT to move to Safe Home."
Carbon seemed ready to get up, but Sentient moved his right paw forward and said: "They're not there anymore. Safe Home is not there anymore."
"Why? What happened?"
"Do you remember what a meteorite is?"
"It's a solid piece of debris from outer space, isn't it?"
"That's correct."
"What do meteorites have to do with this?"
"Many years ago, scientists detected a huge bolide, with the potential of becoming a very large impactor, heading for Gaea-32. Plans were made to destroy it before it could hit the planet. They called the object Nemesis — an unfortunate and prophetic name."
"The crater on Stacks Mountain," remembered Carbon. "You showed it to me once, from above."
"Yes, the crater that used to be Stacks Mountain," acknowledged the fox. "They all knew that the probabilities of succeeding in destroying the object were quite low, so the Scientific High Council also approved the creation of Safe Home: a huge orbital station that would provide shelter for all the humans until the damages caused by the meteorite on the planet could be assessed and dealt with."
"And they all teleported to that place?"
"Yes. Unfortunately."
"What do you mean?"
"When it was approaching Gaea-32, the meteorite broke into several pieces, probably due to the explosive charges used in the attempts to destroy it. A lot of those pieces
hit the planet. The largest of them destroyed Stacks Mountain. Unfortunately, one of the large fragments changed its course after the meteorite breakdown and hit Safe Home. There was a chain reaction. The orbital station exploded."
Carbon involuntarily covered her mouth, horror clouding her gaze.
"Synthetics and robots that had stayed on the ground, scanned for any signs of life—again and again. Until we were forced to admit that the explosion had left no survivors. All the humans on Safe Home had perished."
Tears started to roll down the girl's cheeks.
"I'm so sorry, Carbon. I didn't want to make you sad. That's why I never told you about this. It all happened a long time ago. We've adapted and moved on. All of us." He glanced at Scars still holding the gate open and added: "Well, more or less. Some of us are a bit rusty, while others are still dominated by obsolete directives."
"Like the scorpion-guards?" asked Carbon, wiping away the tears from her face.
"Yes. Scorpion-guards provide an excellent example of anachronistic behavior—in the worst possible sense."
"There's something I don't understand," said the girl, frowning slightly. "Why wasn't I on the orbital station when it all happened? I should have been there, shouldn't I? I should have died with all of the other humans. Why didn't I? Did you have something to do with that? Is that why that scorpion-guard, Sting, attacked us?"
"Something like that," said the fox. "Do you think we could continue this conversation somewhere else? Somewhere with sunlight."
Chapter 11: Under Attack
Carbon was still pondering about Sentient's suggestion of continuing their conversation elsewhere when all the lights in the building except the ones inside the tunnel went down.
"What is happening?" cried the girl. "Scars? Did you do that?"
"I don't think so," said the fox. "Scars is still at the MTT gate. Check your teleport badge, please."
Carbon tried to make it work, but the badge didn't respond.
"Is it Sting again?" she asked, anxiously.
"Not exactly — but, yes, I suspect that there are scorpion-guards inside the building. Most likely, the triplets."
"Triplets, as in three scorpion-guards?"
"Yes. Don't worry. The triplets aren't as big as Sting."
"But they're three, right? What are we going to do if three scorpion-guards decide to attack us?"
"They are going to attack us. There's no other reason for scorpion-guards to be down here. Only, this time, I won't be caught off-guard."
"Sentient," uttered the girl, with a pleading voice. "How can we fight three of those horrid things?"
"Don't be afraid."
"But I am afraid," Carbon confessed. "The other scorpion-guard hurt you and tried to terminate me!"
"That won't happen again," promised Sentient. "You need to move close to Scars and stay there. On his right. Remember to stay on his right. No matter what happens, be silent, and stay on his right, away from the gate."
"Will Scars be able to help us?"
"I hope so, but not like he did with Sting. I'm afraid that little robot wouldn't be able to tackle the triplets — at least, not all of them at the same time. Keeping the MTT gate open will be very helpful, though."
"Are you sure scorpion-guards are coming this way?"
"Unfortunately, yes. I can feel them approaching," stated the fox." All Scars needs to do is keep the MTT gate open. Don't let him stop doing that."
"I won't let him close the gate," said the girl.
She walked toward Scars while Sentient kept his post at the center of the hall, barely illuminated by the lights inside the tunnel.
There was a sudden noise, like the sound of glass doors opening, and three sets of red lights entered the hall.
Carbon winced and held on to Scars. Something inside her knew those lights were merely the visible part of the scorpion-guards Sentient had said would try to attack them.
"Keep the gate open," she murmured to Scars, remembering the fox's words, even though the reason why that was important escaped her.
The sets of red lights moved closer, and the forms behind them became clearer under the pale blue shimmer emanating from the tunnel: three scorpion-guards, much smaller than Sting, yet no less frightening with their terrible looking stingers, were rapidly encircling Sentient.
Carbon wanted to cry out, but Sentient had told her to be quiet, so she held on the robot even tighter, and whispered: "Please, Scars, keep the MTT gate open."
Scars said something in his robot lingo, a very short phrase, that seemed to prompt a reply from the portal-lock:
"Equanimity agent identified. Gate open. Massive Teleport Tunnel ready."
The announcement made the scorpion-guards look that way.
"The girl," said one of the scorpions.
"The girl," echoed the other two simultaneously.
They appeared to lose interest in Sentient and started creeping their way to Carbon.
The girl's breath quickened. She could hear her pulse throbbing in her ears.
Then, something utterly uncanny happened: Sentient began to glow—a powerful white radiance that made him look eerily fantastic and fiercer than ever.
The three scorpion-guards looked back at the fox and seemed to lose control over their own movements, gliding toward the MTT gate as if some invisible and irresistible force was driving them into the tunnel.
The reason for keeping the gate open suddenly became obvious. As soon as the third scorpion-guard was inside the tunnel, Sentient shouted:
"Close the gate, Scars! Close the gate!"
The robot said something, and the glass doors started to close.
"MTT gate secured," informed the system's soft voice. "Initiating teleport sequence. Teleport to Safe Home will start in thirty seconds, twenty-nine, twenty-eight…"
Inside the tunnel, the scorpion-guards were trying to regain control over their movements. One of them slammed its stinger against the glass doors. The other two attempted to do the same.
"They're trying to break down the doors," Carbon screamed.
Before any of the scorpion-guards could do any harm to the doors, however, a bright blue light invaded the tunnel, and they simply disappeared.
"Teleport completed," informed the MTT gate.
The lights inside the tunnel dimmed at once, and the hall was again immersed in shadows.
Carbon dared to leave Scars and looked inside the tunnel.
"They're gone! They're really gone! Oh, that was amazing. You are so clever, Sentient!" She looked back, smiling, but couldn't see the fox glowing in the dark. "Sentient? Where are you? Sentient?"
The girl advanced as quickly as she could to the center of the hall and tried to find Sentient in the dark. She looked around, hoping to detect the faintest trace of his glow.
"Sentient? Please, tell me where you are."
All the lights in the hall lit up at the same time, blinding her momentarily.
When the girl opened her eyes, she was finally able to see the fox. Sentient was lying on the floor, only two feet away from her. His eyes were closed. He wasn't glowing anymore.
Chapter 12: Scars Leads The Way
Carbon held Sentient’s head gently in her hands.
“Sentient, please, open your eyes,” she pleaded. “The scorpion-guards are gone! We can go home! We can teleport back to the bubble and then go find that tiny almond tree you said would look great in the garden. Please, Sentient, wake up.”
The fox didn’t respond.
“Sentient, please, don’t leave me,” cried Carbon. “Sentient!”
She tried shaking him a little, but there was no reaction.
A torrent of tears flooded Carbon’s eyes and ran down her face.
“This is all my fault,” she cried. “All my fault. You should never have come here. You were right: I like my life, and we do have fun. You are my best friend. My best friend! The best friend I could ever have. Please, Sentient, wake up. Wake up. Please!”
; Sentient remained on the floor, seemingly lifeless.
Scars came clanging from the other side of the hall and leaned over Carbon’s shoulder.
“High Councilor Fox sleeps,” remarked the robot.
Carbon answered Scars' comment with nothing but her tears.
“High Councilor Fox sleeps,” repeated Scars. “Needs energy. Sunlight.”
The girl gazed at the metal face looking at Sentient over her shoulder.
“What?”
“High Councilor Fox sleeps,” reiterated the robot. “Needs energy. Sunlight.”
“Sunlight?"
"Sunlight. Energy."
A wave of hope lit up her face.
"Sunlight, of course! I'm such an idiot,” said Carbon with a sudden smile. “Sentient used up all his energy. He needs to recharge. We need to take him outside, to a place with sunlight. Lots and lots of sunlight!”
Carbon wiped the tears from her face and reached for the teleport badge.
“It’s not working," she yelled with rage. "This thing is still not working. Those horrid, horrid scorpions.” She looked at the robot and asked: “Can you fix my teleport badge? We need to teleport out of here. We need to go outside. We need sunlight.”
“Sunlight,” echoed the robot.
“Yes, Scars. Sunlight! We need to go to where there’s sunlight.”
“All humans to the tunnels,” said the robot.
“No, Scars, not to the tunnels,” Carbon shouted. “We are already in the tunnels! We need to go outside.”
She thought for a while and then said: “Equanimity. Remember Equanimity? You need to take me to a safe place. A place with sunlight.”
“All humans to the tunnels,” repeated the robot.
Carbon looked at Sentient’s lifeless body.
“What was it you said about directives. Old directives? Obsolete! Obsolete directives.”
The girl turned to the robot and stated in the most positive way she could manage: “New Equanimity directive, Scars: you need to take humans outside, to a place with sunlight.”
“Outside. Sunlight.”
“Yes, Scars! Sunlight! You need to fix my teleport badge so that we can go outside where there is sunlight.”