by Joseph Rhea
“You are here to protect and improve the system,” he said as he stood. “Even though you are destined to be a Gray, you are still a Tan, which is unusual. Normally, the system would have reformatted you before entering HomeSpace service. I can only surmise that damage to the system has resulted in your current preformatted state.”
This guy was nuts, Alek thought as he tried to stand up. Suddenly, the walls spun around and he fell to his knees. “What the hell did you do to me?”
Javid looked down at him. “When I first encountered you, I assumed that you were simply another CeeAut in a stolen Tracer. I used the stun as a precaution—your balance and energy will be restored momentarily.”
As Alek kneeled there, he began to feel stronger. Like earlier, he felt energy surging up from the ground and into his body. A minute later, he felt more alive and vital than he thought possible. “What’s doing this?” he asked.
“HomeSpace is a source of pure energy—it supplies what we need to survive,” Javid said. “Here, below the surface, we are even closer to the source.”
Feeling strong and back in control of his body, Alek stood and faced Javid. “You said that you thought I was a ‘CeeAut.’ What’s that?”
“You will acquire that knowledge in time,” Javid said. “But first, we must leave. Species-2 controls this sector and this tunnel will not provide us protection for much longer.”
“Just a minute,” Alek said as he tried to pull away from the man’s strong grip. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”
Javid frowned. “You were not formatted completely, Alek, so I do not expect you to understand everything I am about to tell you. It will take effort on both of our parts to get you properly trained.”
“What are you talking about? Trained for what?”
Javid faced him squarely and looked him in the eyes. “You have been brought from your world to HomeSpace, to bring order back to the system. You are a Sentinel, Alek Grey.”
“Now I get it,” Alek said with a sigh of relief. “You’re one of the hostages. You saw me fighting those machines inside a Sentinel’s Tracer, so you think I’m one of the enforcement programs. Well I’m not. I’m from the real world. Your company hired me to help get you out of here.”
Javid smiled. “I understand your confusion, Alek. You believe that you are a human and that you lived on a planet called Earth. What you must understand is that all Tans believe this. It is part of your programming. You must strive to go beyond what you have been programmed to believe. You must trust me.”
“Listen to me,” Alek said. “I’m not a program. I’m a human being interfaced to Cyberdrome. I’m here to get you out.” Then Javid’s words finally sunk in. “Wait a minute. You’re not a hostage, are you? You’re a Sentinel.”
Javid smiled. “Now you are beginning to think beyond your basic programming. Yes, I am a Sentinel. I believed that I was the last of my kind until I picked up your Tracer’s signature on my scanner. However, because of your lack of formatting, you have a great deal to learn, but I can teach you.”
This was getting him nowhere, Alek thought. “What makes you think I’m a Sentinel?”
“I observed the way you maneuvered your Tracer and defeated a large group of Species-2 without help. Only a Sentinel would have the required skills.”
“I just got lucky,” Alek said. “Besides, the Tracers design just seems to make sense to me. I feel comfortable inside mine.”
Javid showed his chalk-white teeth. “It is just as I surmised. Most of your Sentinel formatting is complete. Only your outer appearance and some of your memory routines are in error. I can work with that.”
Alek sighed. Until he located Maya and the others, he was alone and needed all the help he could get. If this lone Sentinel had survived when all others were destroyed, then it was either very skilled or very lucky. Either way, what better ally could he have? It certainly wouldn’t hurt to play along for a while.
“All right, I’m a Sentinel. So how do we get past the Spiders?”
Javid cocked his head to the side. “You are referring to Species-2?”
“Right. What you call Species-2, I call Spiders. These tunnels were made by Moles, which I guess you call Species-4.”
“Interesting. You have chosen a naming convention based on Earth creatures. Why is this?”
I can’t tell him the truth, Alek realized. What would this Sentinel think if he learned that I helped create these monsters? “Well, I guess it’s because they sort of look like the names I gave them.”
“Logical,” Javid said. “To aid in your training, I will utilize your designations from this point forward.”
Just then, an explosion rocked the walls around them.
“We have been discovered,” Javid said. “You must follow me and do exactly as I say.”
They ran along a narrow passage that led to a wide chamber containing two Tracers. One was beat up and looked like it had seen a lot of combat. The other he recognized as his, since it had only a few singed sections.
Javid jumped into the damaged Tracer and Alek climbed into his. As soon as the canopy sealed above him, he felt a wave of relief pass over him. The little ship had already become his home, he realized. Faced with so much that he didn’t understand, at least his Tracer made sense.
He had his ship powered up and ready for action in seconds. Both Tracers lifted off the ground and then Alek followed Javid along another passage that sloped upwards toward the surface.
As they rose above the ground, Alek saw a group of Spiders off to the left. Both Tracers pivoted to the right and raced off at full Recon Mode speed. Alek felt more comfortable with the velocity this time, for some reason. Maybe Javid Rho was right, he mused to himself. Maybe he really was born to be a Sentinel after all.
EIGHT
What’s that?” Alek asked a few minutes later. His scanner showed some sort of wall ahead.
“All memory sectors inside HomeSpace are separated by barriers,” Javid replied in the ship-to-ship intercom. “This prevents illegal programs from jumping sectors.”
This is the boundary that Klaxon mentioned, Alek realized. “How do we get past it?”
“You have observed the numerous circular markings on the ground. Some of them are Circuit Gates and only Tracers can activate them. Maintain your current speed and heading and follow me. Accept?”
“Sure—I mean, I accept.”
The barrier was now visible out of Alek’s forward window. It was pitch black but the surface seemed to ripple with raw energy. He could only guess what waited inside for any program trying to cross it.
“Activating Circuit Gate,” Javid said.
A disk rose out of the ground directly ahead of them, then folded in half and began to glow. He braced for impact as both ships hit the disk, but they passed right through. Strange patterns flew past him at high speeds. Symbols he didn’t understand seemed to dance all around him. It was like the worst drug trip he could imagine. A moment later, the trip ended and his ship reentered the now familiar Core space.
Alek opened his mouth, but said nothing—words couldn’t describe what he had just experienced.
Javid’s blue face smiled at him from the communications display. “I remember my first crossing,” he said. “I’m sure my eyes were as wide as yours are now.”
“So, where are we?”
“This is the sector I was patrolling when I detected your Tracer’s signature. It is controlled by Species-3, but there is a small resistance cell attempting to retake control.”
“Sentinels?”
“Negative. As I have explained, we are the last of our kind. The life forms in this sector are from the local Earth simulation. How they escaped their world is still unknown to me.”
“Are these the CeeAuts you mentioned?”
“Negative. These Tans call themselves, ‘KaNanee.’ The CeeAuts reside in an adjacent sector and are hunted by the KaNanee.” Before Alek could ask another question, Javid
added, “Reduce speed now. We are entering KaNanee territory.”
Alek reduced his Tracer’s velocity, mirroring Javid’s movements perfectly. They were entering an area where a number of rectangular blocks of varying sizes covered the normally flat ground. The blocks looked like they were made of uprooted floor material.
Javid brought his ship to rest near one of the taller blocks and Alek stopped a short distance behind him. When he saw the Sentinel climb out of his Tracer, he reluctantly did the same and rushed over to join him. He was about to ask what was up when something appeared from behind a group of blocks in the distance. It had legs like a Mantis, but it seemed to be missing its entire upper half.
“What’s that?” Alek asked.
“It is a
KaNanee transport.”
Alek watched as the hulking thing walked toward them. As it grew closer, Alek finally saw why it looked so strange. It was a Mantis after all, or at least the lower half of one. The upper half was missing and filled with what looked like two dozen people. They were bouncing all over the place as the Mantis legs below them traversed the rough terrain.
“What did they do?” Alek whispered. “Kill a Mantis and turn its carcass into a vehicle?”
“The KaNanee are adaptive,” Javid replied. “They have done well inside HomeSpace. I have seen Species-3, what you call Mantis, going out of their way to avoid them. They are fierce warriors indeed.”
“If they are so good, how do you know they are not unformatted Sentinels like me?”
“They came to HomeSpace by means other than death.”
Alek looked at him. “What do you mean?”
Javid shrugged. “Sentinels are only brought into HomeSpace service after death in the Earth simulations. We are, in a sense, resurrected for this singular purpose.”
Alek was about to say that he didn’t die before coming here, but then remembered the injection the doctor had given him. He assumed that it was just something to knock him out, but there was no way to know for sure.
The KaNanee stopped their transport a short distance away, then threw ropes over the sides, and began sliding down to the ground. As they approached, Alek saw that they were large people, well over two meters tall and very muscular. Both men and women had long, matted hair of varying colors, and their clothing seemed to consist mostly of rags.
Two from the group approached the ships while the remainder made a wide circle around them. “The male is Jas Kaido,” Javid whispered without taking his eyes off the approaching pair. “He is the current leader of the KaNanee. His mate, Kay Broon, walks behind him.”
“She looks almost meaner than he does, if that’s possible.”
“Do not look at her, or any other KaNanee female,” Javid warned as the couple neared.
“Sentinel Rho,” the male called out with a deep, raspy voice. “I should gut you where you stand.” Alek noticed that the movement of KaNanee’s mouth didn’t match the words he heard, which meant that there was some sort of translator built into his Avatar. Nice touch, he thought.
“I would welcome the challenge, Kaido,” Javid yelled back, with more malice than Alek thought possible.
As the couple approached, Alek realized that they were even larger than he originally thought.
“What sort of pet have you brought me?” Jas Kaido said, sniffing the air and looking down at Alek. “I have not seen its kind before. It might please my mate if I were to gut it, and serve it up for her next meal.”
Alek fought back a lump in his throat and replied, “I too, would welcome the challenge.”
Kaido lunged at him so fast he barely saw it coming. His huge teeth were suddenly a centimeter away from Alek’s nose. His hot, foul breath made Alek want to vomit, but he held firm—more out of shock than bravado.
Kaido backed up and grinned. “He stands well for a newcomer, even though he reeks of fear. Perhaps I will gut him anyway. Blood food is nonexistent in this barren region, and my people are hungry.” He raised his arm and Alek saw that his fingernails were several inches long and looked like the claws of a tiger.
“None of you are hungry,” Javid said, stepping between Kaido and Alek. “HomeSpace sustains all of you, as it does me.”
“It is not natural,” Kaido snarled as he lowered his arm. “We need food that bleeds. We must kill something.” He looked over Javid’s shoulder at Alek.
“Is your life so easy now that you have nothing better to do than play your games?” Javid asked.
Kaido stepped up to the Sentinel and stared down at him. “Do you mock me, Rho? If the others overheard you, I would have no choice but gut you as well.”
“You could try,” Javid said with a snarl. “You would, of course, fail. Then I would lead the KaNanee and Kay Broon would be my mate.”
Kaido raised his head back and screamed. It sounded so much like a bear’s roar that it startled Alek. What was Javid trying to do, get them both killed?
“Don’t worry, old friend,” Javid said calmly when the KaNanee’s roar ended. “I have no taste for your position, or desire for your mate. I am a Sentinel, as you well know. I am only here to offer you something more interesting than gutting games. Something to appease your appetite for conflict.”
Kaido suddenly erupted in laughter, but Alek wasn’t sure what the joke was. “It is true that I am in need of things to kill,” Kaido said, patting Javid hard on the shoulder. “Tell me, Sentinel Rho. What have you in mind?”
“I plan to rebuild the Sentinel force,” Javid said evenly. “To achieve this goal, I must first resupply my Tracer’s energy. There is a building in the next sector that was once a Sentinel facility. I need access to that facility and I need your help to get in.”
Kaido’s eyes lit up. “The CeeAut.”
“Yes, it is in the sector containing the CeeAut. Will you join us?”
Kaido was actually drooling. “We are ready to leave immediately,” he said as he turned and signaled his people. A cheer came from the group. Alek glanced at the female, Kay Broon, who stood closer to him, sniffing the air between them. When she noticed him looking at her, she smiled. Her teeth were chiseled and sharp, and her overly long incisors made her look like a vampire.
Just then, Kaido turned back around. Alek dropped his eyes to his feet and waited for the blow. It never came. When he looked back up, the two KaNanee were running back toward their transport.
“You did well,” Javid said.
“Why the hell didn’t you warn me about them?”
“I told you about the females,” Javid said with a shrug.
“I thought Kaido was going to kill me.”
“As you no doubt discovered, as a Sentinel, you are able to speak and understand the languages of all Tans. This does not mean, however, that you will understand their customs. Since the Intruder’s attack, there have been many strange, and often violent, life forms making their way up to HomeSpace. As a Sentinel, you will be required to deal with all of them at one time or another. Consider this your first test.”
As Javid climbed up onto his Tracer, Alek watched the two KaNanee leave. Kay Broon glanced back at him twice. Alek shuddered and climbed back into the comparative safety of his Tracer. They headed off across the sector with the KaNanee transport following a short distance behind. They cruised at a relatively slow speed because the transport couldn’t move any faster.
“Not a very efficient way to get around,” Alek said through his intercom.
“The KaNanee brought no advanced technology when they left their home world and came to HomeSpace,” Javid replied. “They are a clever people to have built such a machine.”
“So, what’s the deal between the KaNanee and the CeeAut? Did you see the way Kaido’s eyes lit up when you mentioned where we were going?”
“The KaNanee are always on the hunt for something to eat,” Javid said. “I believe that they allow their stomachs to guide their behavior at times.”
“They actually want to eat the CeeAut?”
�
��As I told you, HomeSpace sustains all who stand upon it, but apparently for some Tans, the need for physical nourishment is overwhelming.”
“So, where did the KaNanee come from? I mean, they can’t be standard human simulations. Who would model people like that?”
“I have encountered Tans of various sizes and shapes, entering HomeSpace since the attack. Some of their skin colors are light shades of Tan, while others are darker. They are all Tans to me.”
He thought he heard a hint of disdain in Javid’s voice. Perhaps from the Sentinels point of view, humans, or Tans, were nothing more than cattle to look after. He didn’t like that idea—considering his own skin color—so he changed the subject.
“I noticed that you seemed to be able to change your personality back there. You talked to the KaNanee as if you were one of them. Is that another Sentinel skill?”
There was a pause before Javid answered. “Sentinels are not programmed to deal directly with Tans. The system created us to patrol HomeSpace and protect the simulations from outside attacks. Nothing more.”
“So, how did you learn to talk so tough?”
“Adaptive skills were programmed into me during my initial reformat. They allow me to adjust my parameters to deal with nearly any situation.”
“Well, most species on Earth have done pretty well because of adaptation.”
“I must repeat that you should not dwell on your previous existence,” Javid said. “The world you called Earth, is nothing more than a simulation, one of a hundred running inside Cyberdrome. When I was reformatted into a Sentinel, I gained true knowledge of my existence. This will be difficult for you to accept, since you were not properly reformatted, but you must try.”
“I’ll try,” Alek answered, hoping that he sounded sincere. He didn’t need to get into an argument about what was—and wasn’t—real with a program. Javid could believe what he wanted—Alek knew the truth.
They traveled in silence for over an hour. Alek actually dozed off at one point and then woke with a start, thinking he had fallen asleep at the wheel of his car back home. He was glad his Tracer was able to negotiate slight changes in the terrain by itself. Finally, they came to another barrier wall and another Circuit Gate spiraled open in front of them. The KaNanee transport had to bend low to fit through the Gate opening. Obviously, the Circuit Gates were designed for Tracer passage only.