by Ian Williams
“So what do you call this thing then?” she asked.
“This,” the driller man said, turning away from his blank computer terminal, “is called The Conduit.”
Even though this one was clearly faulty, she had still learnt something valuable. Isaac’s soldier Sentients were brought out of their world using this strange device. She had to be right too, that there were others around the city. There had to be a back-up somewhere. The one she stood before had been abandoned and deactivated, by the people who created it no less. They would not have done so if this was the only one. Her thinking at that moment was to learn what she could about it, and then search for a working one somewhere else.
“The Sentient who escaped from here, did you know him?” she asked.
The driller man froze in the middle of his futile attempt at starting his procedure and stared ahead. She had hit a nerve.
“We did not.”
“Did he come from this Conduit thing too?”
After a short moment of silence – apart from his laboured breathing – he answered. “He should not have. He stole a receptacle from us before fleeing like the coward he is. The Master was not pleased to have heard of this. Perhaps that is the mistake that angered him?”
“I guess so. But this Sentient that escaped, did he come straight here from inside your world?”
“Yes. His kind are the Master’s enemy.”
That had answered her next question before she had the chance to ask it. An idea she had been kicking about inside her head since awakening had been confirmed, and it meant something extraordinary. After watching Luke’s recorded memories, she knew that he had gone straight to her from this building. Importantly, it also meant he had entered her world through the device she looked up and down. His message to her had come directly from inside the Sentient world.
It also left nowhere else for Graham to be.
She became convinced she had found him finally. He had to be inside the Sentient world somewhere. It was the only reasonable assumption. For eighteen months, since the fall of Sanctuary, he had been alive and inside the Sentient world? It was madness, yet it remained the best explanation. What had he been doing in there for so long? Even though the more rational part of her mind had some reservations about believing it fully, the rest had already agreed it was the only answer.
The next thing she needed to do was find a way to reach him in the Sentient world. She knew he could be in serious danger, may even have been killed already. The thought of losing him before any chance to help had arrived made her knees weak. If that was the case, then everything she was about to do would be for nothing.
A new plan had formed without much intervention from her. A few moments to think it over was all she needed. Despite the craziness of it, she could think of nothing else to even consider trying. This had to be the only way, it made perfect sense to her. Luke’s memory problems did not appear to affect his understanding of strange, Sentient based technology. So it was only logical to assume he could do the same once more, and repair the small tower.
* * *
Racing at the fastest pace she could manage up the emergency exit stairwell, Phoenix was too excited to slow down and wait for the driller man to catch up. Figuring out where Graham might be had released her from the shackles of uncertainty. Now she had something to do, and a clear idea of what was needed to achieve it. She took the stairs two at a time until she reached the correct floor again. Once there she burst through the door and into the dark corridor, her entrance anything but subtle.
She would have to take it slow when explaining everything to Rhys. What she had planned would be reliant on Luke, currently back at Rhys’ apartment. She needed something from him that she was not entirely sure he would be able to do. What she had seen him do to retrieve some of his own memories hinted of his overall understanding of the Sentient technology – even if he could not quite remember how. She needed him to do exactly that once more.
The adrenaline pushed her along the corridor, bashing into anything in her way and forcing it aside. She became like a tidal wave, shoving buildings out of her way and toppling power-lines. Her new found surety had revitalised her body, giving her the energy she required to carry on. Not even the sedative could hold her back any longer. Phoenix had finally arrived to the party. The timid being she had become back at the farm during her time away from the city had taken a break suddenly. Now the version of her that had defeated Anthony could get to work.
And she meant business.
“Rhys,” she called to him.
A second later he popped his head out the door ahead of her, his Taser pistol still aimed at the injured Sentient inside. “What did you find?”
“You are not going to believe this?” she said with an excited skip in her step.
“So you found something then?”
“More than something. I think I’ve found Graham!”
“You’re kidding,” Rhys replied before lowering the gun to his side and holding out his arm to catch her in time. Without this she would have careened straight into him. Instead they met with a gentle pat as their bodies made contact. She hugged him tighter than she had ever done before. Once again she showed her more vulnerable side to him. Perhaps the ‘don’t fuck with me’ version of Phoenix had not totally taken over this time. She had room for real feelings around him.
“I need you to do something for me,” she said still in his arms.
“Sure.”
They parted with a slightly embarrassed look away from each other.
“Can you call Matt and ask him to bring Luke here?”
“OK. What’s the plan?”
She laughed, then rubbed a stubborn soreness on the side of her head. The box had not fully made its annoying presence felt just yet. It would not be allowed the chance until the sedative completely left her system. Her scratching had not gone by without a worried glance from Rhys though. She turned that side of her face away as a sudden feeling of self-consciousness took hold.
“I’m going to get Graham back.”
His expression immediately switched from one of concern to a teeth clamping fear. He, understandably, disliked what he was hearing. Unfortunately for him, there would be worse to come. He would find out the rest of her plan once the others arrived. There was so much more she had to explain to him before she told him that. First of which was exactly how a human could have ended up inside a world created by a society of rogue AIs.
Thankfully for her, there was a precedent for such an occurrence; Stephen. He and Luke had told her about an experiment which involved the very same feat. One she now realised could possibly have been achieved again. The only way she could confirm it, was to see it with her own eyes. The question that remained was, would that even be possible?
Chapter 20
A return to ruin
A voice broke through the dark and cold of Graham’s surroundings. It forced its way inside his head and rattled around, seemingly loosening the rock-hard brain cells as it moved. He was waking up in response to it, as though it had called to him personally. When he heard it again he realised it had been close by, somewhere just beyond the fallen rocks that trapped him in place.
“Over here!” they shouted. “I think I’ve found him. Quick, help me get these off.”
To his surprise, he could feel something shaking beneath him. Despite being frozen in place, he could move his eyes around. He searched the small area around him, looking for movement. Then he saw it. A rock fell away, followed by more, until finally the light had found its way inside.
The hand that reached in through the hole was human, but much smaller than he expected. It was quickly followed by a tiny arm extending out to him. For a second or two he assumed the re-creation of the past had simply restarted. It took the sight of his daughter to prove to him it had not. She had found him.
“Graham!” she screamed with delight as she desperately pulled the remaining rocks away. Her strength was that of a fully grown S
entient rather than a young girl. To get to him she had given up a little on image for favour of results.
Once the hole was big enough, the others began to invade his burial site too. Stephen was right behind, and further back he could see Kindness, as well as a handful of other Sentients. They had teamed up to find him.
“Move aside, Alex,” Kindness said in his most powerful sounding and authoritative voice. He had the power of a king proclaiming to his people his will. It had been the first time Graham had heard anything but anger from the one strangely named Kindness.
Swiftly, and with little visible effort, the glowing Sentient removed the surrounding rocks in one go. Each floated away as though filled with Helium and were then sent on their own journey through the air. Graham was left exposed and stuck in his crystalline tomb. From inside, he could now see where his memory had spontaneously formed; he was inside a small offshoot of the hidden realm Kindness and the others had been hiding in. Only it had a few more exits than before. His addition now sat like a conservatory attached to the outside of their refuge, one sitting between them and war-torn landscape of beyond.
“Can you get him out of there?” Stephen asked while they all watched.
As Kindness leaned in for a closer inspection, he filled Graham’s view of the world around him. There were no facial features, just like before, but this time his glow was one Graham found oddly familiar. Was this how they were able to tell each other apart? He felt almost positive he had gained another skill. Telling one Sentient apart from another had him at peace with this world for the very first time. He would no longer feel such a stranger if he could see each Sentient for what they really were; people just like him.
“Stand back please,” Kindness said, his long, thin arms held wide apart. He then stepped forward one final time and placed his hands upon the glass-like structure holding Graham prisoner.
After a steady build-up of heat and vibration, Graham could finally begin to feel his extremities again. The solid material clamped around his internal organs slowly evaporated, releasing him to breathe on his own. With the freedom of movement came an unexpected weakness to his body. The more of the structure that melted away, the more he felt himself being drawn down to the ground. He would need to rest for a little while, before trying anything so strenuous again.
Kindness caught him as he fell, lowering Graham the rest of the way gently to the floor. He then faced the others and spoke loudly, so those at the back could hear too.
“Hear me.” His voice carried much farther than was necessary, his power not diminished at all by their tiny hiding place. “We have defeated the remaining enemies. They were almost too much for us to cope with. If not for this Human, we would all have perished. We must rebuild our walls to keep the enemy out. Get those holes repaired and sealed tight. They will return again, you can be certain of that. Send out a scout to watch for them. Now, go.”
The crowd dispersed the second Kindness finished speaking. Those still standing appeared more energised than before. Their fight had been a tough one, but something new had happened, and it had given them a taste of hope. Graham thought the same too. What he had done had almost certainly saved them all. If he could do it again, they might just survive the next attack as well.
“I must confer with the others,” Kindness said, almost as an afterthought as he slowly wandered away. Either he was in shock from what he saw or he had something else going on, such as a new plan. Their position had almost become totally hopeless before.
Alex sat to Graham’s side and supported him with her left arm. She was clearly worried for her friend and was unable to hide it.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
“I…” he coughed before he could continue. “I feel terrible. What happened?”
“You killed one of them, all by yourself.”
With slightly less enthusiasm, Stephen confirmed it too. “Yes, all by yourself. It appears you’ve been holding back on me, Mr. Denehey.”
“What do you mean?” Graham said through another short round of coughs. The strange looks he was getting from the Sentients in the distance had him slightly concerned. He had changed in their eyes all of a sudden.
“Alex and I believe you possess more power than predicted. You are the first fully human consciousness to exist for this long within the Sentient world after all, so you can understand our trouble in realising what you were capable of. But it seems your human mind is quite adept at restructuring our world, more so than I thought possible.”
“What are you saying? I’m able to do what a real Sentient can do?”
Stephen had not taken his eyes off of the remaining structure surrounding Graham’s weakened body. A small amount of it was still intact, enough to attract his full attention. He ran his hands along the sidewalls and studied it closely while his audience waited for a reply. What had appeared out of nothing was not quite as ordinary as he was letting on.
“Stephen?”
“Forgive me, Graham,” he said, his investigation continuing unabated. “If what you’ve shown so far is only the first step, then indeed you are. And possibly even more.”
“More? How? I thought being human meant I wouldn’t be able to.”
A loose rock rolled to the floor and stopped beside Stephen’s right foot. He kicked it a couple of times before deciding to pick it up for a much closer look. With it held only an inch or two in front of his face, he picked at it with his other hand. Again he ignored what Graham had asked so he could concentrate on whatever had him distracted.
This time it was Alex who became impatient. “Stephen, what is your answer?”
“Pardon me?” he replied, surprised to have found himself the centre of attention once more. “Just give me a little time to speak with Kindness. Wait here for me.” He was gone before anyone could stop him, away to tell others what he dare not tell Graham and Alex for some reason.
Graham could not chase after him because of the terrible fatigue coursing through his body. One he had never felt before. His limbs were refusing to move the way he wanted. They flapped around like they were only loosely attached to his body. He could feel a distinct disconnect between his brain and body. For the first time ever, he had realised what Stephen tried to tell him during his training; his body was not real anymore, it was only something his mind was unwilling to let go of. In the middle of his fight with the enemy he had almost done just that, and let go of his human image. Whether he would lose it entirely in the end was something that had him doubting if he should continue or not.
For a brief moment their small realm became uncharacteristically quiet. News of their success had spread to the others by now and caused a hushed tone to follow soon after. Graham could see the Sentients inside there looking at him differently. They did not send him glances of suspicion or mistrust anymore, but ones filled with a confused form of gratitude. He had saved them, only they could not understand how – or possibly even why. Their only image of humanity had been altered in a heartbeat. And it had them weary.
He could see Stephen discussing something with Kindness. They were speaking away from any others, their conversation concealed and hidden. It had something to do with Graham’s newly found power, only they were unwilling to share it with him just yet. He had to watch and guess as they plotted.
“Graham?” Alex said beside him. She watched the two talking in private too. “I have to thank you for pushing me away during the attack. You saved me.”
The thought had never even crossed his mind, he still nodded in reply. Reacting the way he had was an automatic response, just like removing a hand from a fire. To have done nothing in such a situation did not register as an option to him. No harm could come to his daughter – even if the being sat to his side was actually not in reality.
“Stephen is right,” Alex went on. “You are stronger than you think.”
“I’m not too sure I could do anything like this again. Whatever strength I had before, it’s gone now.”
&
nbsp; “You can’t think like that, Graham. Remember what you’re fighting for; your wife and daughter. I might not understand what it means to be human, but I still know what it’s like to lose someone close. If you have a chance to see them again, you must take it. You will have to find that strength again, if what Stephen has discovered is to help any of us.”
The mention of a loss not associated with Graham’s family had him in shock. He had seen the imitation slip a few times before, though not like this. For the first time since breaking him out of the prison maze, Alex had revealed something personal to the real being behind the copy of his daughter. The Sentient he was looking at in surprise had lived a life before this. So what had made her give up on that life and take on the image of a six year old human?
For now he had to ignore the idea that something more was to be expected of him. “You’ve lost people?” he asked, turning in place to face her.
She looked away, just like Alex did when she felt embarrassed.
“Who did you lose?”
“Surrounded by so much loss already, it didn’t seem right to tell you earlier,” she said, as Graham gently turned her chin to face him.
He wiped a loose tear with his thumb. “You can tell me, Kiddo.”
“A piece of me was destroyed during the war, what a human would call a partner.” She grimaced as she recalled, the hurt was more than just emotional. “We were one together. Now we are separate parts of that whole. What I lost, it left me without reason. Until I met Stephen, and then you, I had nothing to live for.”
“Did you have a family?”
“Such a thing does not exist to a Sentient. Did we spawn others? No. Did we plan on doing so? Absolutely. Since losing that part of me, I have struggled to come to terms with all I will no longer have.”
It made sense to him now, she had been hiding all this time from the truth. Taking the form of his daughter had allowed her to pretend it never happened. She was finally facing up to the reality of her situation now that death had pushed his way into their world. Still, hearing such a painful story from a young child made him anxious to do something about it. He acted the same when Alex came home from school saying someone had bullied her. It was a call to action.