by Joseph Rhea
“We’ll die here,” Alek tried to say. “We have to get to the Watchport.”
Cloudhopper turned his head from side to side, signaling either that it couldn’t be done, or that he didn’t understand. Alek was about to repeat himself when he saw Cloudhopper’s face look up in surprise. He then jumped up and ran back into the Rover’s cockpit.
The security chief had obviously heard something that Alek couldn’t, and he guessed that they were probably under attack. Unable to help in any way, he looked over at Maya and for a heart-seizing moment, thought she was dead. Then her burnt lips moved slightly and he realized that she was still alive, if just barely.
He felt the Rover lurch forward. A moment later, he felt heavy and realized that they were rising somehow. Whatever was going on, he knew that he was helpless to either help or prevent it from happening. With a sigh, he closed his eyes, and drifted into unconsciousness.
o o o
Sometime later, he woke abruptly and saw Maya and Herschel sitting across from him on the familiar curved Mole tunnel floor. Their faces and clothing showed no sign of burns, and in fact, their desert clothing looked newly mended and cleaned.
On his left was the glowing Watchport beam and on his right, sat the back end of some sort of airplane wedged into one of the Mole tunnels. Its rear door was open and he could see a Rover parked inside. They were back, he realized. They had made it.
“I suppose you think we should thank you for nearly killing us,” Maya said. His hearing was back, he realized. He looked down at his arms and hands. The Core rendering had returned and there were no signs of burns. It had worked. His plan had actually worked.
“Well, I for one thank you,” Herschel said. “You saved our lives.”
“He tried to kill us,” Maya corrected him.
Alek stood and faced her. “We made it out, didn’t we?”
She crossed her arms and scowled. “You pulled us into a burning building,” she said.
“I pulled you out of a burning building,” he corrected. “If you had a better plan, you should’ve said something.”
She stood and took a step toward him. “I’m sorry. You’re right, of course. I just can’t forget the pain. The Watchport beam may have repaired our bodies, but it didn’t remove the memory. I’ve never experienced anything as horrible as that.”
Herschel stood and placed a comforting arm across her shoulders. “Imagine what Alek must have felt,” he said. “He was burned more severely than either of us, but he still managed to pull both of us to safety.”
When Maya looked up, tears were streaming down her face. “Oh, Alek” she said, then stepped forward and put her hands around his neck. They hugged for a long time.
He tried to wipe the tears from her face, but his hand grazed something hard on her cheek and she flinched. He took a step back and tried to get a better look at her in the dim light.
“Your scar’s back,” he said, gently caressing the reddened skin around it.
“I thought I felt something,” she said, touching her face. “I guess I can’t complain, all things considered”
“My goodness,” Herschel said. Alek and Maya looked over at him as he pulled out what looked like a handgun out of one of his jacket pockets. “This is my design,” he said as he looked up at them.
“Where did you get that?” Maya asked.
He looked back down at the weapon in his hand. “I honestly don’t know,” he said. “But it looks exactly like the blaster I was modeling on the computer.” He reached back inside his pocket. “The memory tab I took from the computer is missing.”
“What was on the tab?” Alek asked.
Herschel held up the gun. “The schematics for this weapon. A year’s worth of work to find a way to defeat the Medari.”
Alek looked at the scar on Maya’s face. “It has to be the Watchport beam,” he said. “It healed Maya’s scar when we went in, but then gave it back to her when she passed back through.”
“So, you think it somehow read what was on Herschel’s memory tab and used it to create that weapon?” Maya asked.
Alek shrugged. “Everything here is a program of one kind or another,” he said. “Even us. Maybe the Watchport was designed to be some sort of software compiler to allow the Watchers to bring items in and out of the simulations.”
Maya touched her face and looked over at the glowing blue beam nearby. “If you’re right, it is apparently a one-way compilation,” she said. “Which means that if we stepped back through that beam, we would probably go back to our severely burned bodies.”
“I vote we don’t go back,” Herschel said. As if on cue, all three silently took a step away from the beam.
Someone cleared his throat. Alek turned his head and saw Cloudhopper standing there. He was shirtless and wearing some sort of animal skin pants.
“Roy. You’re alive,” Maya said. “I thought maybe it was a pain-induced hallucination.”
Cloudhopper looked first at Maya, then at Alek. “Are you two an item again?” he asked.
Maya pulled away from Alek and said, “Don’t be like that, Roy. What happened to you?”
“And where is the rest of your team?” Alek added, irritated at the man’s statement, as well as Maya’s reaction. “Did you leave them behind somewhere?”
“They’re dead,” he said flatly. “Any more questions?”
“Roy,” Maya protested.
“I’m sorry,” Alek said, and he meant it. “We saw what was left of your Tracers and we thought you were all dead.”
Cloudhopper ignored him as he walked over and abruptly snatched the gun in Herschel’s hands. He pointed it first at the wall, then turned and aimed it directly at Alek’s forehead.
“Roy!” Maya yelled.
Cloudhopper smiled and then turned the weapon around and handed it to Alek. As Alek took it, he saw that it looked somewhat like a modern handgun, except that it had a large, flat cylinder mounted below the barrel, just in front of the trigger. “What’s this?” Alek asked, pointing to the cylinder.
“Charge capacitor,” Herschel said. “Basically it builds up a charge of electricity which is then transferred to a small projectile in the chamber.”
“Non-lethal,” Cloudhopper said flatly. “Wouldn’t have done much good against the Medari.”
Herschel straightened his back and then snatched the gun from Alek’s hand. “I was instructed to make a weapon using spare parts salvaged from the Survey Vessel,” he said defiantly. “But that didn’t mean that I planned to use them against the enemy.”
“You were going to use it to escape,” Maya said, patting him on the shoulder. “That was very brave of you, Dr. Lyman.”
“Could the capacitor be modified to build up a bigger charge?” Alek asked.
“It already is,” Herschel said. He pressed a small lever near the trigger with his thumb. The gun began emitting a low humming sound. “Charge intensity is determined by the delay between activation and release,” he said.
The pitch of the hum began to increase steadily. A moment later, Herschel aimed at a wall and pulled the trigger. Everyone flinched when they realized what he was doing, but nothing happened. The humming sound began to decrease and then faded away.
Herschel lowered the weapon and faced Alek. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to grab the memory tab containing the design for the projectiles.”
“So it’s worthless unless one of us goes back for the bullets,” Cloudhopper said.
They all looked at the beam and once again, each took another step back.
Maya pushed past them and grabbed Cloudhopper by the arm. “What the hell happened to you?”
Cloudhopper took a step away from her, gently breaking her grip on his arms. He looked at her as if he didn’t understand the question, but then his eyes seemed to glaze over.
“We were cornered by the machine creatures,” he began, “and outnumbered thirty to one. We worked out that they were tracking us using the silicon in our Omnisu
its. We happened to find one of these tunnels, which gave me an idea. We backed our ships up to a defensive position near the tunnel mouth and set our ships to do a timed launch of the deletion routines. Then we crawled out of our suits, dropped down the tunnel, and ran for our lives.” He stopped then and stared off in the distance.
Maya stepped closer and put her hands back on his broad shoulders. “How did you get inside the simulation?”
“I grabbed a portable homing beacon from my ship. We planned to signal Lorena and request a pickup, but the explosion shot a fire ball down the tunnel, which blasted us right into that beam.” He stopped again.
“You entered the simulation in the sky,” Alek added. “We went through it too.”
“But you had your Omnisuits,” Cloudhopper said. “We didn’t. I saw my team fall to their deaths.”
“How did you survive the fall?” she asked. She was now holding Cloudhopper tightly with both hands. She hadn’t yet told him of Lorena’s betrayal. Maybe that would come later.
“I guess you could say the gods were with me,” he said. “I saw a series of hot air balloons—what ended up being a Medari airship—below me and off to one side. I guess my paratrooper training kicked in and I aimed my body toward the ship and just managed to reach it. I went right through two of the upper balloons, which broke my fall, as well as a few ribs. I damaged the air ship pretty badly and forced them to make an emergency landing nearby.” He shrugged. “As you could probably guess, the Medari weren’t too happy with me at first.”
“We saw the Medari,” Maya said, “They were monsters.”
“Some people would say that about me,” he said dryly. “Anyway, luckily for me they are a religious people. I noticed a number of symbols decorating their airships, which looked similar to ones my ancestors worshiped. I convinced them that I came from one of their sky gods. I don’t know if they ever truly believed me, but they allowed me to remain alive, just in case.”
“Considering that you fell right out of the sky,” Maya said, “it probably wasn’t hard for them to believe you.”
“Yes,” he said almost remorsefully. Something in his blank expression told Alek there was more to the story than he was willing to tell. “Anyway, I agreed to help them attack that village you were in, with the hopes that I could find some way back up to the opening.”
“I suppose I should thank you for helping us back there,” Alek said, reaching out his hand.
“Just doing my job,” Cloudhopper replied, ignoring the offer. Alek awkwardly dropped his hand. “Besides, it was a Blue Sentinel who got us all out of that place.”
Javid took that moment to step from behind the aircraft and approach the group. “I, also, was just doing my job,” he said.
“What were you doing inside?” Alek asked.
“I followed a strange translucent being down the tunnel and into the Watchport beam,” he began. “Then I happened to see all of you leaving the burning building. When the Tan you call Cloudhopper rescued you using the all terrain vehicle, I saw an opportunity to take one of the air vehicles designed to carry it.”
“You flew a Dragon?” Maya asked as she looked up at the aircraft parked in the tunnel nearby. “That’s a vehicle very few pilots can handle, especially with the weight of a Rover inside. Not to mention the fact that you managed to fly it into the Watchport opening and land it inside such a tight space.”
Alek looked up at the aircraft and saw for the first time that there was less than a meter separating the wings from the tunnel walls. It really was a tight fit.
“As I have told Alek,” Javid began, “Sentinels are taken from the simulations. Although I do not have a direct memory of that period, apparently I piloted an aircraft similar to this one in my previous life.”
Something clicked in Alek’s mind. “Wait a minute. Which simulation did you come from?”
“The same as you, Alek. All Sentinels come from Earth-Zero.”
Alek looked at Maya, and then at Herschel. “What is that?”
Maya glanced at Javid before answering. “Earth-Zero is Cyberdrome’s first simulation. It’s where all of our researchers come from.”
“You mean the people who usually occupy your Survey vessels?”
“Right. It’s a close copy of the real Earth, updated constantly with data from the real world and never allowed to evolve on its own like the others. It helps make sure our ALife researchers behave as closely to humans as possible.”
“This is all adding up in a way I don’t really like,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
He was about to tell her of Javid’s belief that he was a Sentinel, but then thought better of it. That would be one more nail in the coffin of his reality. One more than he could handle at that moment. Instead, he reached out his hand toward Javid, who looked at it and cocked his head to the side.
“It’s a gesture,” Herschel said. “Used for greeting or sometimes, saying thanks.”
Javid reached out a blue hand and placed it in Alek’s tan version.
“Thank you,” Alek said. “Cloudhopper’s right. You did save us. We couldn’t have made it out of there without you.”
Javid released his hand and shrugged. “Sentinels always work in teams. We are best in numbers and we take care of our own. Thanking me is not necessary.”
“Well, I thank you anyway,” Alek said with a smile.
“We all thank you,” Maya added, reaching out her hand to touch Javid’s arm.
“That goes double for me, my blue friend,” Herschel said, patting Javid on the shoulder.
Javid stepped backward, looking a little uncomfortable with all the attention. “We must return to the surface,” he said. “This area is under attack and the CeeAut and KaNanee cannot hold this position much longer.”
“I, for one, am happy to be anywhere other than that world,” Herschel said.
“So, you remember where you’re from now?” Alek asked.
“This helped jog my memory,” Herschel said as he held up his hand. Alek saw that his amputated fingers were fully restored.
Just then, a blast rocked the ground. Alek and Maya saw the section of tunnel leading back up to their Tracers collapse.
“Is there another way to our ships?” Maya asked.
“How would I know?” Alek yelled. “These are Mole tunnels. There are no floor plans.”
“Well, what do we do now?”
Just then, three Tracers shot down one of the side tunnels and stopped next to the Watchport beam.
“Why have you called us in here,” Kaido screamed as he and the others climbed out of their ships. “We will not cower in the tunnels like CeeAuts.”
“You are outnumbered fifty to one,” Javid stated calmly.
“More like eighty to one now, but I accept those odds,” Kaido said. “Besides, now that the others have returned, you have three more Tracers to add to the fight.”
“My ship was destroyed,” Javid said.
“And our Tracers are back up on the surface where we left them,” Alek said, stepping up beside Javid, “and we can’t reach them from here.”
The KaNanee let out a roar that echoed down the tunnels. Alek glanced over at Herschel who looked like he was regretting having stepped through the beam.
Another explosion collapsed another one of the tunnels nearby.
“We need a safe place to regroup,” Javid said to Persis as she joined them. Alek noticed how she had placed herself as far as possible from the KaNanee.
“Deeper tunnels are safer,” she said.
“Take us,” Javid ordered.
As Persis walked back and climbed back into her Tracer, Cloudhopper climbed into the Rover and drove it out of the back of the Dragon. He then motioned for Alek and the others to climb into the rear section. When they were all inside, the Rover began following Persis’ Tracer down one of the tunnels. When Alek noticed that the two KaNanee were still just standing there, he yelled for Cloudhopper to stop.
“W
e will not hide from the enemy,” Kaido said when Alek approached him. He turned to leave.
“We are not hiding, you idiot,” Alek yelled without thinking.
Kaido stopped walking and the muscles along his back began to expand. Alek didn’t care; he had just walked through fire—literally—and he wasn’t going to take any more of the KaNanee’s attitude.
Kaido turned slowly around and faced Alek. “So, the mouse has a voice after all,” he growled.
Alek felt adrenalin surging through his body. It gave him a confidence he didn’t know existed.
“Don’t give me any more of your crap, Kaido,” he said with as much vile as he could muster. “We are going to follow the CeeAut into the tunnels, and you’re going with us.”
“And who, pray tell, will make me?” Kaido said, baring his teeth.
“The group of Sentinels you see standing before you,” Alek said, trying to show as much teeth as the KaNanee. “We are a team and we own HomeSpace. This is our domain. You’re a visitor here and you will act accordingly.”
Kaido lunged—as expected—but Alek was already moving forward, both arms outstretched and fists clenched. The KaNanee’s teeth were centimeters from Alek’s face when his stomach slammed into Alek’s fists. The impact knocked Alek backward, but he rolled and recovered quickly. Kaido fell to his hands and knees on the tunnel floor, gasping for breath.
Alek turned and saw everyone staring at him, mouths open and eyes wide—everyone, that is, except for Javid who walked over to Kaido and offered him a hand. Alek was about to protest, when Javid spoke.
“I should have warned you about Gray Sentinels, old friend,” he said to the KaNanee with a straight face. “They are unpredictable and volatile. I would not attempt to attack him again.” He lowered his voice and then added. “You might not survive the attempt.”
Jas Kaido looked up at Alek with a strange expression on his face. “He does appear to anger quite easily,” he said.
“That, he does,” Javid agreed, looking back at Alek with a slight gleam in his eye.
Alek then realized what the Sentinel was doing. This is one of those “good cop, bad cop” routines. They both knew that they needed the KaNanee’s help, but he would have to work as part of a team. To do that, Kaido would have to change his attitude.