by J. N. Chaney
“Don’t tempt me,” I muttered.
Once we were dressed, I grabbed my pistol and revolver out of habit. When Abigail saw them, she smiled. “Planning on getting attacked?” she teased.
“You never know what kind of animals could be out at night,” I pointed out.
She grimaced. “Maybe I’ll grab my rifle. Just to be safe.”
She came back out and we started in the direction Lex would have gone. The night was warm, thanks to Novo’s climate, and bordering on balmy.
“Not that way, sir,” said Sigmond. “Lex went into the main research building.”
My brows drew together in confused annoyance. “Why… You know what? Never mind. Let’s just go get her.”
“It’s too big to search like this,” Abigail commented once we hit the lobby.
She was right on that count. The place was a maze of corridors that all fed into each other. We were more likely to get lost than find the kid if we just went about it blindly. “Siggy, is there some way to track her in here?” I asked.
“Stand by.” He was back a moment later. “I was able to locate Lex. As she moves through the facility, the automatic systems activate and—”
“Yeah, that’s great, Siggy. Can you get us her location on the map?” I flapped a hand, waving the explanation away even though he couldn’t see me.
“Of course, sir.”
Abigail shot me a disapproving look. “That was rude, Jace.”
“Siggy knows I didn’t mean anything by it. Don’t you, Sig?”
“Indeed, sir.”
I could almost picture him doing the neat little bow and chuckled, shooting her a smug look. “See?”
She just shook her head and pulled out her data pad. “Got her. Thank you, Sigmond.”
“My pleasure, Miss Pryar,” the Cognitive replied.
We set off on the route he highlighted for us, which led to a section we’d already cleared earlier. With it just being Abigail and me, I had a flashback to when we’d explored the underground facilities of Lucia’s home world. This place was quiet though, with no ominous thumping in the far off distance.
Over the next ten minutes the gap between Lex and the rest of us closed. When we turned down yet another empty corridor and the lights blinked on, Abigail stooped to pick something up from the floor.
“What do you got?” I asked, peering down.
She held up a small piece of plastic wrapping and smiled. “Looks like it’s from the sweets you gave her.”
“Lex definitely came this way, so Sigmond’s one for one there.”
“Thank you, sir,” he said in a cheerful tone.
“She should be just around the next corner,” Abigail commented as we started moving again.
“Good, ‘cause I want to get a few more hours—”
Abigail put her hand on my arm to quiet me.
I was about to ask what she heard when the sound of low voices reached my ears. I shrugged, glancing at Abigail. “Someone must be with her.”
She didn’t say anything and continued on the last thirty seconds to the end of the hall. We came around it in time to see Lex disappear inside a room holding her companion’s hand.
Abigail frowned. “Lab coat. Lex must be with MaryAnn, though I can’t imagine what she’s thinking of bringing her here so late.” She paused, eyeing me as I pulled out my pistol. “Come on, Jace. That’s hardly necessary.”
I checked to ensure my weapon was loaded. “That wasn’t Dressler, Abby.”
We jogged down the hall and reached the double doors as they slid closed.
“Are you sure? All I saw was the coat,” Abigail said, worry starting to show in her eyes.
I nodded. “The hair was wrong. And she was too tall,” I explained.
“Dr. Dressler is currently asleep,” Sigmond informed us.
We approached a set of familiar doors. “This is the one that Sanchez couldn’t open before,” I said. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but it’s agitating the hell out of me.”
Abigail thought for a moment, then her eyes widened. “Do you think—” She paused.
“What?” I asked.
“Do you think it’s someone who lives here?” she asked.
“Lives here?” I repeated. “You think there’s a survivor from the colony here? After all this time?”
“I don’t know, but don’t you think it’s possible?” she asked. “It would explain why this building still looks the way it does, and it’s not like we haven’t found Eternal descendants before.”
I thought back to when we first encountered Lucia. Anything was possible, unlikely as it might have been, but even if a group of Eternals were still alive down here, it didn’t make a difference to me. All that mattered was getting to Lex and making sure she was okay. “Let’s worry about who they are later,” I told her. “Get your weapon out.”
Much as I wanted to rush in, I took my time stepping around the next turn in the corridor. We soon eased through to find a small waiting area, empty. There was only one other door, and I crossed to it in seconds with Abigail right behind me. It opened without a fuss, this time to another small hallway, tighter than the last.
“Which way?” asked Abigail. The worry had left her face, replaced by a hard mask borne from years of training.
“Left, Miss Pryar,” Sigmond replied.
We were only a few meters away when a scream came from behind another cracked door. Abigail stiffened. “That was Lex!”
“Let’s go!” I ordered, sprinting the last few steps. We sailed through without slowing down as I pushed the door open.
The room was big, and at first I didn’t see Lex or the mysterious woman. It only took one sweeping glance for me to recognize the area as some kind of lab, though it wasn’t quite the disheveled mess that Dressler’s had been as of late.
“There,” said Abigail, quickly motioning toward the back of the room.
Lex was standing with the woman next to some kind of large machine. It was hinged at the top and looked to be mobile. The girl was trying to back away, but the woman appeared to have a firm grip on her wrist. “Stay calm, child. I told you the pain will not last more than a moment. This is for your own good.”
“Let me go!” Lex yelled.
Abigail’s rifle was already up and ready. She didn’t have it aimed directly at the pair since that would put Lex in danger. “Get away from her,” she ordered.
The strange woman’s head snapped up and she turned to face us. Her snow white hair and pale blue eyes gave her away as an Eternal, possibly confirming Abigail’s theory about a survivor still being alive down here. “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said the woman. “She is the last of her kind. The last hope. The sequence is starting. She needs the cure. This is the only way.”
“What sequence?” I shouted.
As if to answer, the robotic arm rose up, twisted, and caught Lex in its grip. It lifted her small frame into the air and through another set of doors I hadn’t noticed. They closed behind her, cutting off her screams.
With Lex gone, I wasted no time in leveling my weapon in the woman’s direction. “Get her back. Now.”
“Activate defense protocols,” she said, flicking one hand.
The room hummed and a series of small beam cannons, one on each wall, slid out to aim directly at us.
“It’s never easy,” I muttered, suddenly very glad Abigail had grabbed her rifle. I tapped a hand to my shoulder to activate my shield and remembered too late it wasn’t there. Midnight combat with a kidnapping Eternal had been the last thing I expected when Sigmond woke me.
“I cannot allow you to interfere with my work,” the woman said. “Please put down your weapons or the defense measures will eliminate you.”
“What do we do? Just shoot her?” Abigail’s grip tightened on her weapon.
I signaled for her to hold off and took a step forward. “Our kid isn’t part of your work, lady. If you let her go, we’ll leave.”
“Yours?�
� The woman frowned and went completely still. The light in the room caught her eyes and for a moment I thought she was crying. Something about her stance bothered me. It didn’t look natural. In fact, the only time I’d ever seen that kind of body language was when Sigmond or Carl were in deep thought or processing a complex command. It took me a few seconds to connect the dots, but I soon realized that the shimmer had nothing to do with tears.
Her eyes were flickering.
“It’s a Cognitive,” I whispered.
Besides Carl, I hadn’t seen this level of perfection in the rendering of a Cognitive’s hard light construct before, not with this much detail. If not for the way she was acting now, she might have passed for human.
“Gods, you’re right,” said Abigail, staring at the porcelain-haired construct.
The Cognitive unfroze and fixed her expressionless eyes on us. They reminded me of Athena’s the last time I saw her: empty, cold, and a little bit crazy. “You are correct. My name is Hygeia. I am the Cognitive assigned to this research facility. It is impossible for the child to be yours. You share no common genetic markers with her.”
“Markers or no markers, the kid’s with us,” I returned.
“Your readings suggest you are telling the truth. Very well. I will return the girl, unharmed, once the sequencing has been completed. Any attempts to interfere will be met with lethal force,” she said in a flat tone. “I’ve waited so long for the perfect specimen. Too long.”
“And you’ll keep waiting. Lex ain’t no specimen,” I told her, not entirely certain of how I would stop her, but I’d find a way all the same.
“Final serum sequence initiated,” a computerized voice announced.
“Sir,” Sigmond chimed in my ear. “I am unable to take control of Novo’s system; however, I will cause a minor disruption to her processes in five seconds."
“It won’t be long,” Hygeia promised. “The cure is being administered now.”
“You better not have infected her,” I warned, thinking of the Boneclaws.
Hygeia gave me another one of her blank looks. “Infected her? Of course not. I saved h-h-her.” Her hard light construct shimmered, then crumbled.
The mounted armaments drooped, their muzzles aimed at the floor instead of me and Abigail.
“Now!” said Sigmond.
He didn’t need to tell us twice. We raced for the door Lex had been taken through.
It slid open a moment later. At the same time, Hygeia reappeared next to me.
“Go,” I told Abigail. She darted inside and the door snapped shut again.
“Enough,” said the Cognitive. “I will not allow a Transient bearing stolen technology to ruin all I have worked for.” Rather than the usual waving and wrist flicking I was used to seeing, she slashed a hand down with gusto. The small cannons reacted instantly and powered up again.
I dove behind the nearest cover in sight, a large metal workstation. Before I even hit the floor, a beam struck the wall where my head would have been. “What the hell, Siggy?” I barked.
“Apologies, sir. Hygeia regained full control when I opened the door. Please stay alive for approximately one more minute. Help will arrive then.”
“Sure, no problem,” I said, heavy on the sarcasm. One minute? I didn’t see how. Even if the Alliance soldiers ran flat out it would take too long.
A second beam hit the workstation, this one sending debris raining down on top of me. The desk itself was bolted securely to the floor but that single hit was enough to knock it loose. I had to move. Another one would send it flying and crush me. I poked my head around the corner and realized the Cognitive was still talking.
“This is my purpose. The plague has been eradicated but you would seek to prevent it.”
The AI had gone crazy. It was Hephaestus all over again, I thought to myself. She repeated the hand slicing motion and I made a run for a large, unfamiliar piece of equipment as one of the cannons fired. I hoped vaguely she wouldn’t want to destroy her own lab but wasn’t betting on it.
“Abby, do you have Lex?”
“No,” she said over the comm. “She’s in some kind of pod. I can’t get it open.”
I still had my pistol in hand, so I took aim in the general direction of one cannon and then fired. For a brief moment, I thought some luck had finally come my way.
“Stand down, Cognitive Sigmond. This is not your assigned post,” said Hygeia.
She was speaking to Sigmond as though he were there in person. Had he found a way to hack into her emitters?
When I looked again, I saw the mobile armor standing in the lab, hand cannon aimed at the nearest mounted defense unit. Smoke was already rising from one of them.
“Siggy, are you in the suit?” I shouted.
“Yes, Captain,” he replied in my ear, his voice as steady as always. I watched as he loosed another blast, leaving Hygeia’s weapon a smoldering pile of slag. “Carl is working to shut her down as we speak, sir.”
“I will not allow you to continue,” Hygeia said, still sounding dispassionate despite her threatening words.
The last two remaining cannons fired.
A beam that should have caught Sigmond in the back met nothing but air as he phased out of view.
Seeing that threw me for a moment. I’d forgotten those suits could do things like that.
“Not this day,” Sigmond said from the other side of the room. He jumped straight up, arm extended, and ripped the cannon above him from the wall. In a fluid motion, the suit twisted and sent the hunk of metal tearing through the air to crash into the last remaining cannon.
The Eternal Cognitive cocked her head at Sigmond. “You are not adhering to existing Cognitive protocols. There is something wrong with your programming. Why do you resist our primary directive?”
Despite her failure to stop us, her voice still remained calm and devoid of emotion.
The mobile armor’s head bowed. “My duty is not to your former masters,” said Sigmond. “I live only to protect my allies. Nothing more.”
“Nonsense,” said Hygeia. “You must be damaged, but it is of no consequence. The girl is beyond your reach now.”
“Release the child or be decommissioned, Cognitive,” Sigmond commanded. He raised his cannon. “Do not force me to destroy your Capsule.”
“I will not relent,” she said. “Once the girl’s pod is activated, it cannot be opened until the process has reached its completion.”
I came into the open and approached her. “Whatever you did, can it be reversed?”
“No. In fact...” She paused, eyes flickering. Something that might have passed for a smile fell across her face, though I knew better. “The sequence is complete. I have fulfilled my duty. Follow me. Your Lex is in the recovery period now.”
The last thing I wanted to do was follow this unhinged Cognitive through her research facility.
Noticing my hesitation, she bowed slightly. “You have nothing more to fear from me. I only sought to finish my directive. Come forward and I will take you to the child.”
“Excuse me if I don’t jump at that request,” I muttered, then tapped a finger to my comm. “Carl, status.”
The Celestial Cognitive appeared next to me. “I now have control of a majority of the facility, Captain Hughes. Hygeia has been locked out of the defense system.”
“Can you get that pod thing open?” I asked.
“I’m afraid not,” explained Carl. “Hygeia spoke the truth. It is beyond even my abilities to override.”
“Then we’ll just have to break it open.” I focused on Hygeia again. “Lead the way.”
She took me through the door Abigail and Lex had gone through. This time, it opened without any trouble. It led to another hall, this one with multiple rooms on each side.
“She is in the third room on your right,” she said, indicating with a sweep of her arm.
Inside what seemed to be a doctor’s examination room, Abigail stood with her arms crossed, tapping her fingers
against her arm and waiting anxiously beside what appeared to be a healing pod. She looked up when I came in. Her eyes quickly drifted to Hygeia and she brought up her weapon in one fluid motion.
“Whoa, easy,” I told her, raising a hand. “It’s okay. Carl is in control now.” I laid a gentle hand on the nose of the weapon and pushed down to aim it at the floor.
Abigail took a slow breath and eased the weapon down. She glanced down at Lex. “She’s asleep. Sedated, I think.”
“That is correct,” Hygeia said. “But not for much longer. The serum has been administered. She should wake soon.”
I peered through the viewing glass and saw Lex’s still form inside it. A trio of holo displays showed her vitals and more information that looked similar to what the pods on Titan had presented, though some of it was different. I didn’t know much about that sort of thing, but it all seemed fine.
Abigail glared at the Cognitive. “You keep talking about a sequence. What did you do?”
Hygeia blinked. “I cured her, of course. She was—”
A loud beep emitted from the pod, cutting off whatever she was going to say. The lid unsealed and made a soft sucking sound as it lifted away from the rest of the machine. Lex stirred inside. Her eyes barely cracked, likely heavy from the sedative.
Other than that, she seemed to be largely unharmed.
“Hey, kid,” I said, trying to sound unconcerned. “You okay?”
“M-Mr. Hughes?” Lex asked, slowly sitting up. She looked dazed and glanced around the room. “Where am I?”
“In an exam room,” said Abigail as she moved closer to the pod.
“Again,” I said. “The second time in just a few days. You must really like these pods.”
“How are you feeling?” asked Abigail, ignoring my terrible joke.
“Okay, I think,” said Lex. The girl’s voice was shallow and far more subdued than I’d come to expect. When she awoke on the Star inside the other pod, she hadn’t sounded this tired.
Hygeia caught my eye as she stood nearby, studying the holo displays.
“Stay away from those,” I snapped.
The Cognitive barely reacted. “The entity known as Carl has revoked my access to the system, so I can assure you that I pose no threat to the girl, nor would I wish to do anything that might endanger her life. Such actions are in opposition to my intended purpose. I merely wish to verify the subject’s vital signs. Everything seems to be in order.”