by Joseph Rhea
Ceejer nodded. “Everyone except for you and your father,” he said.
It took him a moment to realize that Ceejer was correct; he was separated from his body, just like his father. He had proven that fact by creating the weapon he held in his hands.
He straightened his back and his resolve. “I’m willing to die here if doing so will save my friends.”
“What about your father?” Ceejer said. “You are as weak as he is,” he added, “and I am willing to bet that you will not destroy what little is left of him.”
Alek glanced over at his father. He was standing tall, a look of defiance on his face.
“He’s not like me at all,” his father said. “My son is better than I ever was.” He glanced over at Alek. “He is a stronger man than I could ever hope to be.”
“We will see just how strong he really is,” Ceejer said. With a nod, one of the Soldiers wrapped its long metallic arms around his father’s chest and lifted him off the ground. “Your choice is a simple one, Alek. Give me the weapon right now, or your father dies.”
Alek stood there for a moment, unable to grasp the turn of events. He bit his lip. Keep the poker face, he said to himself. He’s bluffing too.
“Time’s up,” Ceejer said.
“Wait!” Alek yelled, but it was too late. The Soldier holding his father suddenly tightened its grip, crushing his father’s chest with an audible crack. His body fell lifelessly to the ground.
Alek stood there, unable to process what had just happened.
“Again you have a choice,” Ceejer said glancing over Alek’s shoulder.
He looked back to see another Soldier grab Maya and lift her off the ground. He immediately threw the gun at Ceejer’s feet and dropped to his knees. “I surrender,” he yelled as he raised his hands high in the air. “Don’t hurt her. You win.”
“Don’t do it,” Maya yelled from behind him, but it was too late.
Ceejer picked up the weapon and studied it carefully. Then he aimed it right at Alek’s face, the barrel pressing against his forehead. “Stand up, Alek. It is time for you to complete your journey.”
As he slowly rose to his feet, hands still held in the air, Maya yelled from behind him, “There is no benefit to you in killing him. He’s already crossed over, so you can’t use him now.”
Ceejer looked over at her. “That may be true, but I still have you, my dear. After I get rid of him, you and I will have the next dance.”
“Let’s just get it over with,” Alek snarled.
“Don’t worry,” Ceejer said with a smile as he aimed the gun right at Alek’s face. “This will only hurt for...ever.”
Maya screamed as Ceejer pulled the trigger. Instead of firing a deletion beam at Alek, the gun suddenly turned inside out and then wrapped itself tightly around Ceejer’s outstretched arm. Then it started to beep.
“What treachery is this?” Ceejer screamed as he fought to remove the device. The more he pulled on it, the tighter it clung to his arm. The beeping sound grew steadily louder. “What is this?” Ceejer repeated with fire in his eyes.
“Maya was right when she said that I could write programs in my sleep,” Alek said. “But not a deletion gun. As I keep telling everyone, there is only one program that I can write in my sleep.”
“It’s a Swarm,” Maya said from behind him.
“It won’t actually kill you,” Alek said as the beeping sound grew louder, “but it will divide you up into several million pieces and scatter them across HomeSpace. I would call it a punishment befitting your crimes. Your own personal hell.”
Suddenly, Ceejer lunged forward and wrapped both arms tightly around him. “Then I’ll take you to hell with me,” he whispered in Alek’s ear.
Alek fought to free himself, but Ceejer’s grip was just too strong. The countdown alarm had become a shrill scream in his ears. He closed his eyes tight and waited for the end.
Just then, something hit Ceejer hard from the side, knocking him off balance and breaking his grip. The impact spun Alek around, and when he looked back, he saw Javid pinning Ceejer down on the ground.
“I’ll kill you all,” Ceejer yelled, but his voice was cut off as the weapon attached to his arm began to break into little pieces, taking his arm with it. The pieces swirled around his torso like a small tornado, taking more of his body with every revolution. Javid took one last look at Alek before he too was caught up in the expanding tornado. His face looked…peaceful.
Ceejer’s eyes, however, were filled with rage as the last of him broke up and joined the spinning vortex. The tornado continued to expand, pulling in his father’s lifeless body as well. Alek scrambled to get out of the way, but then, the tornado collapsed in on itself. A second later, it exploded like a fireworks display; a sudden white light sending a shower of sparkling pieces in all directions.
When Alek’s eyes readjusted to the normal twilight of the Core, he saw no sign of Ceejer, Javid, or his father’s body. The Swarm program had worked; Ceejer was now spread across the sector in a million useless pieces. Unfortunately, so was his friend. Javid had lived his life to protect Cyberdrome and had died in that cause.
Alek looked at the place where his father had died, and realized that it was probably for the best that his body was swarmed as well. He wasn’t sure he could face seeing his lifeless body a second time. It was also a fitting burial, he realized. It was the computer-equivalent of having his ashes spread on the wind.
As he stood, one of the Soldiers near him turned to face him and then crouched slightly. He thought that it was getting ready to charge, but then several others near it bowed toward him as well.
Then the entire circle followed suit. They all remained prostrate for a few moments, then stood back up in near unison, turned, and walked off in all directions, carrying the remains of their fallen comrades in their arms.
As the Soldiers vacated the area, Cloudhopper, Herschel, and the others slowly rose to their feet, shaking their heads and looking as bewildered by the outcome as he was. Elsala was still lying on the ground off to one side.
“Is it over?” Maya asked, coming up to stand beside him.
“I hope so,” he answered.
“That was quite a bluff,” she said.
“I thought Ceejer was bluffing too,” he said. “I didn’t think he would kill—”
“It wasn’t your fault,” she said, but he knew that it was.
“At least Ceejer can’t harm anyone else now.”
Just then, Cloudhopper and the others joined them. “This doesn’t make sense,” Cloudhopper said. “We should be going home.”
Alek looked up. “What do you mean?”
“If Ceejer was the THI, or what the system thought was a THI, then the threat is over. The system should’ve released us.”
Maya nodded. “Then Ceejer wasn’t the THI after all.”
“What?” Alek yelled. “Ceejer has to be. My father arranged all of this; remember? He made Ceejer into a potential THI to lock everyone inside and cover up what he was doing in here.” He looked at Maya. “If Ceejer isn’t the THI threat, then who, or what, is?”
“I’m not an expert in this field,” Herschel said, “but perhaps we are all jumping to conclusions. Since you said your Swarm program didn’t actually delete Ceejer, maybe the system still considers it a threat.”
“A more important question is; what do we do now?” Maya asked.
Suddenly, the Watchport sphere began to rotate and lines formed along the sides. As Alek and the other watched, the lines turned into openings that separated the sphere into curved segments. The segments then lowered themselves into the ground and disappeared.
As the outer sphere vanished, the Holographic planet inside began to stretch upwards, reaching from the Transport platform toward the sky. As it stretched, it began to glow and pulsate.
“What in the world is that?” Maya asked.
“It’s a temporary Comport beam,” Lorena said from behind them.
Everyone
turned at once. Cloudhopper started toward her but Alek stepped between them. “She’s not to blame,” he said. “My father planned all of this, and he probably tricked her into helping him, just like he tricked everyone else.”
“You expect me to believe her?” Cloudhopper asked, then turned to Lorena. “If that is an exit out of here, why didn’t you just use it and leave us all here to rot?”
Lorena looked stunned. “I’m not completely heartless, you know.”
“Either that, or you knew that we might be able to stop you if you tried to enter it alone,” Cloudhopper said.
“You and Mathew had an escape plan all along,” Maya said.
“Actually, this is my creation,” Lorena said. “It will allow us to bypass the THI lockout, but it only has enough power for a single use. We all have to step into the beam at the exact same time and we need to do it in the next three minutes.”
Alek turned and looked at Elsala and the others. She was up on her feet now and the two KaNanee and the lone CeeAut were standing on each side of her; close enough to show they cared about her health, but still maintaining a safe distance from each other.
“We need to go, Alek,” Maya said.
“I know,” he said, “but I have to talk to them first.”
As he walked toward the group, Elsala met him half way.
“Thank you for your help, Alek Grey,” she said.
He looked back at the group of humans near the Comport, then at the group of near-humans behind her. “What will you do now?” he asked her.
“Even though I have been reformatted to be physically human again,” she said, “I am still a Sentinel. My future must include rebuilding the Sentinel force and restoring the system to its original status.” She frowned. “However, without my beloved’s guidance, I do not see how these goals can be accomplished.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Maya said from behind him, “but we need to go, Alek. Right now.”
He turned and saw her standing close to him. She gestured toward the Comport beam where Cloudhopper, Lorena, and Herschel stood waiting for him.
“You’re right,” he said. “You’d better go.”
Her face dropped. “Alek—”
He turned back to Elsala and said, “Your goals can be accomplished because I’m going to stay here and help you achieve them.”
“You can’t stay here, Alek,” Maya said cautiously. “You have to come back with me.” She placed one hand on her stomach and looked into his eyes. “You have to come back with us.”
He looked at her, then up at the glowing beam. “I’m sorry, Maya, but I can’t go back,” he said, not expecting her to accept the truth. “I’m disconnected from my body, remember? Just like my father.”
Maya took his hand and tried to pull him toward the Comport beam. “Time is passing a hundred times slower in the real world,” she reminded him, “which means that your real brain and body have only been disconnected for a few seconds.”
She was right, he realized. “It doesn’t change the fact that I have to stay. Besides,” he added, pointing to his chest with his thumb, “if I really am disconnected, then this is just a copy. The real Alek Grey is back there, on the other side of the Comport beam waiting for you.”
“This is you, Alek,” she said, grabbing hold of his arm. “You’re not just a copy. Don’t ask me how I know, but I do. If you step through that beam, you will download this version of you back into your brain.” He hugged him hard. “I want all of you, Alek.”
“I can’t,” he said. She started to protest, but then he grabbed her by both arms. “Before we came in here, you told me about Nexus points; places in your life where one decision changes the path of your future.” He looked at the humans standing near the Comport and then at Elsala and the others standing behind him. “I think that this is one of those points.”
“But what if it’s the wrong path you’re choosing,” she pleaded.
He shrugged. “They need me here,” he said, “and the other hostages are still trapped. None of that has changed.” He glanced toward Persis and the two KaNanee standing behind him. “The three of them have experience fighting the machines. I think that with their help, I have a chance to complete what you and I started. That has to mean that this is the right decision.”
“Choosing the right path doesn’t guarantee that you will succeed,” she said. “What if it’s impossible to get them all out?”
He looked over at Herschel. “We managed to get him out,” he said. “I’ll try to do the same for the others.”
Tears were welling up in her eyes. “You could die,” she said, “just like your father. If it’s true that you’re disconnected from the real world, your body could be dying right now, just like your father’s did.”
He hugged her tightly. “I don’t think so,” he said gently. “My father said that the neuroprobes were designed to keep us alive, even during disconnection. I’m inside his chamber right now and I have those same neuroprobes protecting me. My father only died because Ceejer tried to escape using his body, and his heart and brain couldn’t handle the stress.”
“Maya,” Cloudhopper called from behind them. “Lorena believes this makeshift Comport is beginning to lose power. We need to go—now.”
Maya released her grip on Alek, wiped the tears from her eyes, and then turned toward the security chief. “You three go ahead,” she said. “Tell Leconte what we are trying to do.” She glanced back at Alek. “Correction—tell her what we are going to do.”
Alek grabbed her shoulder. “You can’t stay,” he whispered.
She turned and looked him square in the eyes. “The hell I can’t,” she said as she patted her stomach again. “And not just because of this. I lost you once, Alek Grey. If I can help it, I’m not going to lose you again.” She glanced at the others behind him. “Besides, no one here knows the simulations better than I do. If you’re serious about bringing all of my people up to the Core, you’re going to need my help.”
Alek smiled and hugged her tightly. After a moment, he looked back at Cloudhopper. “Tell Leconte to watch the Core,” he said. “When we get everyone out of the simulations, she needs to perform a secondary systems reboot. It will shut down Cyberdrome and free the hostages—free us all.”
Cloudhopper nodded and then turned to Herschel. “You heard the man. Tell Leconte everything.”
“Roy?” Maya asked.
Cloudhopper glanced over at her. “If you’re planning what I think you are, then you’re going to need my help.” He glanced over at the Survey Vessel floating nearby. “Also, Lorena is the only one among us qualified to pilot that ship, and if she’s staying in here, then so am I.”
“The Survey Vessel can pilot itself,” Lorena yelled, but the Security Chief’s grasp on her arm made her shut up.
“After all that’s happened, I have reason not to trust anything you programmed,” Cloudhopper said. When Lorena reluctantly nodded, he added, “Besides, I never leave a mission until it’s completed, and this one is far from over.”
Herschel looked at them all and then at the beam. “I hope you don’t mind if I choose to return home,” he said. “I have seen enough of this place to last a lifetime.”
“You’ve suffered enough,” Alek said. “And someone has to tell them what we are attempting.”
Herschel turned his head toward the group. “Goodbye, Alek,” he said. “Thank you—thank you all for what you did, and what you hope to do.” He then turned and stepped into the glowing beam and disappeared.
A moment later, the Comport beam vanished, sealing their fate. As they moved away from the spot, the Watchport spiraled up out of the ground and reformed itself into a sphere.
Alek scanned the group surrounding him and then addressed them all, “We have a new mission,” he said, “and this is our new team.” He glanced up at the Survey Vessel in the distance and added, “And that, I guess, will be our new home for a while. Let’s go check it out.”
o o o
> Several hours later, Alek and Maya sat alone on the bridge of the Survey Vessel. The Dragon, Rover, and several of the damaged—but repairable—Tracers had been recovered from the Mole tunnels and stored away in the lower hangar. Since this was a new Survey Vessel, built specifically for this mission, it had never been properly named. No one complained when Alek chose to call it the “Mathew Grey.”
Alek switched one of the bridge’s internal monitors to the lower hangar and saw Cloudhopper and the others in the middle of a discussion.
“The Watchport was designed to be transported by this ship,” Cloudhopper was saying.
“At least, according to the female,” Jas Kaido added.
“I trust nothing Lorena says without verification,” Cloudhopper replied, “which is what I did less than an hour ago. The tow beams should hold as long as we don’t push it too hard.”
“Now that we have access to more Tracer vehicles,” Kay Broon said, apparently ignoring their conversation, “my mate and I will be able to defend your position while you are searching for your people.”
“We will need to work out patrol shifts,” Cloudhopper began as Alek muted the sound.
He turned to Maya who was busy entering data on one of the other terminals. “Did you notice?” he asked.
“What?” she said without looking up from her work. “Are they arguing already?”
“No. Actually the opposite,” he said looking back at the screen. “They’re starting to act—and even think—like a team.”
She stood, stretched, and then walked over and stood next to his chair. “So, are we ever going to talk about it?”
He glanced up at her. “You mean how I created that swarm gun out of thin air? I told you—”
She put a finger to his lips. “No, I’m talking about the Queen program you’re thinking about building.”
He leaned back in his chair. “So you have superpowers now too? Reading people’s minds can be very dangerous, you know.”
“Not as dangerous as trying to bring your father back.”
He looked back down at the floor. “I know. Even if I could recall the swarm and somehow revive him, it would release Ceejer as well, and we’d be right back where we started.”