by Joseph Rhea
“You do not understand, Alek,” Javid said. “Borders were designed to prevent programs from crossing sectors. Scanners do not work inside and there are other means by which it will confuse any program trying to cross it.”
“Which makes it a great place to hide,” Alek said. “The Raptors would be crazy to follow us in.”
Javid shook his head. “I was inside that sector during the initial attack on Cyberdrome. After the blast nearly destroyed my ship, I could find no active Circuit Gates anywhere inside the sector. Having no other options, I risked a direct border crossing. I spent many days in the darkness trying to find my way back into normal memory, and it was only random chance that I managed to escape. I have no wish to repeat the experience.”
Alek looked at the blue face in his display. Javid was there when it all happened. What would he think if he knew that the Intruder was Alek’s own creation? “We don’t seem to have any other options.”
“I am opposed,” Javid repeated, “unless your mission requires it.”
He thought back to Cloudhopper’s briefing. “My mission involves locating something called ‘control nodes.’ Do you know what, or where, those are?”
Javid sighed. “Very well, we will attempt to cross the border, but let us proceed cautiously.”
“Wait a minute,” Alek said. “I said we should hide inside until your Tracer repairs itself. I didn’t say anything about trying to cross it.” He also wasn’t too crazy about entering the sector where his Cyberphage was destroyed either.
“One of the System Control Nodes you are looking for is located inside that sector. I suspect that it may have been what the Intruder was after.”
Alek bit his lip, then looked down at his scanner again. The Raptors were almost on top of them. “All right, let’s do it.”
The border looked like the others—a black wall stretching from horizon to horizon. As they approached, he saw that the surface itself seemed to be boiling, almost like a wall of storm clouds. He began to have second thoughts about driving into it, but the approaching Raptors pushed him on.
As their Tracers crossed the boundary, Alek’s view out of his windows went black. All scanners went offline as well. A few minutes into the darkness, his ship struck something hard, and he came to a sudden stop.
“Javid, do you read me,” Alek whispered. “I ran into something. Probably just a memory block, but I can’t see it. Where are you?”
“I am right behind you. I will pull up on your right side.”
Alek saw the glowing panels of Javid’s Tracer come into view out his side window. With the extra light from Javid’s ship, Alek was barely able to make out the memory block in front of him. Together they slid around the block and faced the darkness again.
“Well, we obviously can’t just drive across blindly,” Alek said. “However, I can see the lights of your Tracer, which means that it’s just dark here, no fog, or anything blocking our view. Maybe we can use that to get across.”
“Explain,” Javid said.
“Our Tracers have a number of ESD weapons. Can they be programmed to be launched without detonating?”
“Yes,” Javid replied. “There is a menu option when you prepare an ESD for launching.”
“All right, let me try something,” Alek said. It took him a few seconds to prepare one of the ESDs, and then launch it. A glowing ball of light dropped out of his forward weapons bay and began moving forward. Alek could see a short distance all around the ESD.
“Another clever idea, Alek,” Javid said.
Alek set his Tracer to stay up with the ESD. “If we follow these, we can use them to light our way across this zone.”
“It is a waste of resources,” Javid said, “But I have no wish to stay here.”
A few minutes later, the ESD ran out of energy and disappeared. Alek launched another. Just then, a light appeared off to their left. The light grew brighter, and before he realized what it was, it hit. His cockpit shook as his shields absorbed the blast.
“Someone’s firing at us,” Alek yelled. He checked his display—his shields were down to eighty percent.
Another light appeared. Alek switched on his pulsars and fired at the light. It exploded a few meters from his ship. He saw beams firing near him, and realized they were shooting at Javid as well. Another one appeared to his left, and then two on his right. He destroyed two of them and then tried to dodge the third, but ended up backing right into Javid’s Tracer. The energy charge hit and knocked both ships sideways.
“I am unable to fight what I cannot see,” Javid said.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky,” Alek said as he pivoted his Tracer to the right and fired his pulsars several times into the darkness. He watched the beams disappear without hitting anything.
“It is statistically impossible for you to hit an invisible target by firing randomly. You are wasting your resources.”
“If you’ve got a better idea, I would love to hear it,” Alek said. Just then, two-dozen lights appeared in all directions and began closing in. There was no way to destroy them all.
Just as the energy charges were about to hit, Alek suddenly felt weightless and realized that his ship was falling. Before he could react, his weight returned.
“What the hell?” he yelled. “Javid, did you feel that?”
Although he heard nothing, he thought he saw something move in the darkness off to his right. He pressed his face up against his side window to get a better view.
A green light appeared near his ship. Then another. He saw that he was no longer on the surface; but inside what looked like a large cave. It must be another one of the Mole tunnels, he realized. As more lights appeared, he saw that several dozen people filled the cave.
A strange, somewhat feminine, voice said, “CeeAut requires a speaking with Gray Sentinel.” The voice came from his internal speakers.
“Javid, are you getting this?” Alek asked.
“Blue Sentinel does not hear CeeAut speaking,” the voice said. “The Blue Sentinel aids KaNanee. KaNanee attack CeeAut. Blue Sentinel does not hear CeeAut speaking.”
These were obviously the CeeAuts that Javid had mentioned. Their English sounded primitive, which probably meant that his Avatar’s built-in translator was having difficulty converting their native tongue into something he could understand.
“Does Gray Sentinel accept a speaking?” the voice asked.
What was Javid doing right now? Should he try to make contact with him? After all, Javid seemed to know more about these CeeAut creatures than he did.
“Does Gray Sentinel accept a speaking?” the voice repeated.
“Sure, I’ll speak with you.” He sat there for a moment, and then realized what they wanted. He slid open his canopy and stood in his chair.
The CeeAuts began closing in on his ship. Some of them crept up on the ground, while others seemed to crawl toward him along the cave’s walls and ceiling. How they were holding onto the smooth surface, he couldn’t tell. In the dim glow of the lights they carried, he could see that they were all short, thin, and pale—the exact opposite of the KaNanee.
As they approached his ship from all sides, he realized that their bodies moved as if they were made of rubber. Several of the CeeAut were doing cartwheels toward him, while others were walking on their hands. It was like watching a group of acrobats, or contortionists, performing. It was both disturbing and at the same time, oddly sensual.
Two of them approached within a meter of his Tracer. In the glow from his ship’s lights, he could see them much better. They were both wearing some sort of bodysuits in various dark shades of red, blue, and violet. They both had pale faces and short black hair, and although their faces appeared somewhat androgynous, the curves under their skin-tight bodysuits told him they were both females.
“This one is called Alpris,” the nearest one said.
“This one is called Persis,” the other one said.
“I understand,” Alek said. “You’re the leaders of
your people.” The nearest one, Persis, was close enough to see that her eyes were much larger than normal. They glowed slightly green in the dark, which meant that they were adapted to low-light conditions. In the darkness of the tunnel, he was probably quite visible to her. “So tell me, why did you bring me here?”
“Sentinels travel through Circuit Gates,” Alpris said. “KaNanee not travel through Circuit Gates.”
“Ah, now I get it. You’re bothered that we have brought the KaNanee here to your sector. Well, don’t worry. We will be leaving as soon as we can, and we will take the KaNanee back with us.”
“KaNanee not leave,” Persis said, moving slightly closer to him. She was actually quite attractive, he realized, but in an exotic—almost alien—sort of way.
“Sure they will,” he said.
“KaNanee not leave,” Persis repeated, again moving subtly closer. Close up he could see that her face was delicate, but covered with smudges of sweat and filth. It was as if he was staring at a living fairy-princess—but one who had been forced to live on the streets for a month. No matter the external condition, her inner beauty was able to shine through the grime.
“Blue Sentinel lets them stay,” Alpris said, pulling her partner back and breaking the mood. “Blue Sentinel gives KaNanee weapons to destroy CeeAut.”
He rubbed his eyes to clear his mind, and suddenly it was obvious. The KaNanee would use the Tracers Javid had promised them to hunt down the CeeAut in this sector. He looked up at Persis and realized that he couldn’t allow the KaNanee to hurt her.
“What can I do to help you?” he asked her, then looked at Alpris and added, “All of you.”
Persis and Alpris fell to their knees. Then the entire group suddenly dropped from the walls and ceiling and fell to their knees as well. Alek thought for a moment that something had happened to them, but then realized that they were bowing to him. They were thanking him.
“Gray Sentinel helps CeeAut,” Alpris said. “Give CeeAut the Sentinel Tracers.”
Alek thought for a moment. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll find a way to get you one of the ships, which should help balance the power between you and the KaNanee.”
Persis stood and said, “CeeAut can ask no more.”
“We return you now,” Alpris said as she and the others stood back up.
“Wait,” Alek said. “Can you help us get out of this border area? We are surrounded by things that we can’t see.”
Persis stepped forward and gently touched her hand to his cheek. Then she whispered, “Use the darkness.”
He started to ask what she meant, but the lights suddenly went out and she and the others disappeared from view. He then felt his Tracer begin to rise and realized that he was returning to the surface. He touched his cheek, then reluctantly ducked his head back inside his ship, pulled back the canopy, and sealed it.
“Alek, respond.” Javid’s voice said.
“I’m all right,” Alek said. “How long have I been gone?”
“I have been attempting to restore communications since the blast. I counted eleven energy charges and they all detonated before impacting our Tracers. We were fortunate. Did one of them damage your Tracer?”
“Yes,” Alek lied. “My communications system was knocked out and I just now fixed it.” If the Sentinel hadn’t realized that he was gone, all the better.
Just then, another volley of energy charges appeared all around them. “Use the darkness,” Alek said aloud.
“Repeat, Alek,”
The energy charges were closing in, and this time, no one would step in to save them. “Listen, Javid. Power down your ship. Turn every system off. I think whatever’s out there is using the darkness to locate us. I don’t think they can see in here any better than we can. It’s our Tracers—the shield and weapons pads are glowing. That’s how they are locating us.”
“With systems off,” Javid said, “we have no defense against the enemy.”
“A while back you asked me to trust you. Now you must trust me. I know what I’m doing. All power off. Quickly.”
“Accepted.”
Alek quickly turned off all systems: main drive, shields, weapons, navigation, and scanners. His Tracer dropped to the ground with a thud. He couldn’t see Javid’s ship, but he hoped he had done the same.
The energy charges approached and Alek braced for impact. Instead of detonating, they passed all around him. One passed right over his head, missing his ship by less than a meter.
“Your plan worked,” Javid said, using low-power, ship-to-ship communications, “but we cannot remain here forever. What do we do now?”
“We wait,” Alek replied.
“Wait for what, exactly?” Javid asked.
“For them to make the next move.”
o o o
“We’ve been sitting here for over an hour,” Alek finally said, breaking the long silence. “Has your ship repaired itself yet?”
“Yes, physical contact with the floor actually boosts the power transfer. My ship is fully functional now.”
“We obviously missed our rendezvous with the KaNanee. How will they get back to their own sector if we don’t make it back to help them across the border?”
“There is much you still do not understand, Alek.”
“Oh, I understand more than you know,” Alek said, unable to contain himself any longer. “I understand that you jeopardized our lives to blow up that stupid Replicator. I understand that you never intended to bring the KaNanee out of this sector when you left. You have sentenced the CeeAut here to death by giving the KaNanee Tracers. What the hell kind of a Sentinel are you?”
“You know nothing of the CeeAut,” Javid said flatly.
“I know more than you think,” Alek blurted out. “An hour ago, when I told you my communications were damaged, I was actually speaking to them. They seemed like a peaceful people, at least compared to the KaNanee. They told me that you were going to allow the KaNanee to stay here. Were they telling me the truth?”
“I did not promise the KaNanee they could remain in this sector. My agreement was to give them Tracers in return for their assistance.”
“So, you think they are going to take the Tracers and just leave the sector. You can’t be serious.”
“The KaNanee may be a violent people, but they are honorable.”
“What if they don’t leave? What about the CeeAut? Giving the KaNanee Tracers is condemning the CeeAut to death.”
“If you truly knew the CeeAut, you would realize that they have little to fear from the KaNanee. What the CeeAut lack in size and strength, they make up for in intelligence and cunning.”
A light appeared in the distance, abruptly ending their conversation. It wasn’t an energy weapon this time. It looked more like a searchlight.
“Do you see that?” Alek whispered.
“It appears that the creatures have grown tired of waiting for us,” Javid replied. “Your instincts have prevailed again, Alek.”
“Now let’s see if we can follow them out of here.”
One of the lights passed near them. Alek and Javid powered up only their main drives and began to follow the light. They left all other systems turned off, which seemed to do the trick. No one shot at them as they followed the light. What was actually living in this dark place—or the source of the light it carried—was anyone’s guess.
A few minutes later, Alek remembered his promise to Persis and the CeeAut. He called up the menu for his ship’s towing beam, and silently released one of the Tracers behind him while retaining the other two. He looked out his window in the direction of Javid’s ship. It was dark out there, and with scanners offline, Javid would not know what he was doing. He felt bad for deceiving Javid, but what the Sentinel was doing was unfair. Maybe it was a human frailty, but he was human after all. He shouldn’t have to answer to a program regardless.
They followed the creature for over an hour in silence. It appeared to be in a search pattern, zigzagging back and forth in the d
arkness. Eventually, they saw a rim of faint light in the distance. They took a chance and headed in that direction.
When they broke through the border wall into the next sector, the ambient light of the Core blinded Alek temporarily. This sector looked quite different from the last. Instead of a flat ground littered with a few blocks of various sizes and shapes, the ground here seemed to be covered entirely by blocks. They formed a rough terrain consisting of blocky hills and valleys. Since the Tracers floated on a magnetic field, they would probably be able to cross over it, but the going would be slow.
It finally dawned on him that his Panspermia bomb was probably to blame for the changes he had seen in the Core as well. The closer they got to the point of origin, the more cluttered and broken up the ground had become.
“One of the Tracers is missing,” Javid said.
“What?” Alek asked with as much astonishment as he could muster. After glancing down at his scanner, he added, “Maybe something happened when I powered down my systems earlier.”
“That leaves only two for the KaNanee,” Javid said. “That may be a problem.”
“I’m sure it will piss them off,” Alek said. “But then again, we probably won’t be seeing them for a while.”
At that moment, a huge Mantis stepped out from behind a nearby block wall. Alek’s mind jumped to his weapons control then realized that it was the KaNanee transport. It had blast marks on its sides and one of its legs was missing. Alek wondered if the damage had come from battling the Raptors in the last sector, or from crossing the border as they had.
Without a word, two KaNanee slid down ropes and ran toward them. As they passed his ship and headed for the Tracers, Alek realized that it was Jas Kaido and Kay Broon. They were both carrying cloth bags and Kaido had some sort of metal club strapped to his leg. They climbed into the Tracers as if they knew what they were doing.
“Do you need instructions, Kaido?” Javid asked.
“We agreed on four ships, Sentinel. Where are the other two?”
“Lost in combat,” Javid said. “Do you wish to terminate our agreement?”
“I am considering it.”