by Rian Davis
“Let’s head for the final attack sub. Keep an eye on the two beasts in case they want to follow me.”
“Will do. They are currently occupied trying to make each other their meal.”
“Great! Let’s hope they both become a meal for each other.”
The last sub moved towards the landing dock. There was no way it couldn’t have known I was following. I didn’t know how to make the Golem suit have the ability to hide its movements. I just went forward as fast as I could.
“It seems that Jen is currently being transferred towards the surface. The last sub is trying to dock and escape.”
“I bet they’re all going to try to make a run for it. They’ve got your data, Z4. Why wouldn’t they?”
“I’m afraid you’re right. They’ll probably use Jen as some kind of bargaining chip.”
“Yes, that’s why they haven’t killed her yet. They must have some value for her—thank god.”
“Careful. I detect some traps—mines! Watch out!”
It was too late. Before I could detect anything, right before the landing, two tiny objects moved towards me at a great speed. The explosion was swift. I was knocked back, but luckily the Golem suit was able to withstand most of the damage. The landing was located near the point where the shallow part of the lake met with the glacier itself. There was a hollow area at the top, and it was here where the routes to the surface were made. A steep incline came off the front part of the landing zone. It was there I tumbled down. The Golem suit crackled with strong volts of current and random sparks flew off, feeding into the already charged water. I was shocked to my core and fell down.
“Jake, are you all right? Jake?”
“No. I need a moment.”
“Jake. You have to get up. The megalodon was the winner. It is coming now. It is coming for you.”
These words barely registered in me at the time. I was utterly dazed. How the Golem suit was able to still function was a mystery. All my training in electromagnetism suggested that with the water and the explosion, I should have been dead or at least out of commission.
“I’m getting up. I may need medical attention.”
“I’m reading your vital signs. It seems this suit has the ability to heal you, though I’m not sure how it will work on humans. I think I can do the work myself.”
I felt a boost in my energy and things stabilized somewhat.
“Z4, are you able to detect any more mines?”
“Good question. Hang on.”
Yes, it was a very good question. I did not want to experience that kind of impact again for as long as I lived, though I somehow doubted it would be my last time experiencing it.
“There are two more. I don’t think you will run into them however. They’re a bit further from the landing zone.”
“Good. I want the megalodon to run into them.”
“Good idea. I think you can manage it if you are far enough away from the mines before they detonate. I’m putting the mines on your grid now.”
Two orange spheres appeared in my vision suddenly as if they had always been there. I guessed the mines were not really that color nor size—they seemed to be far smaller based on the appearance of a smaller dark object at the center of the orange spheres. Moving carefully, I positioned myself in front of the mines, perhaps twenty meters away while standing on the landing zone. The megalodon came straight for me.
“Why Gehenna is it hellbent on coming after me?”
“It must be attracted to your suit somehow. Maybe it’s related to the Chiron technology.”
“Here it comes. Get ready to move fast if this doesn’t work.”
The megalodon didn’t slow down at all. It came for me until the detonation hit. The two mines, luckily, exploded near where the eyes were. The explosions caused the megalodon to reel in pain. It had already been wounded by its previous battles.
“Let’s get out of here before it recovers.”
“If it recovers.”
“I don’t want to take any chances. I’m not sensing any danger from the landing zone. Are you?”
“Not yet.”
“Oh great. So maybe there will be some danger in the near future—just like the mines we just experienced.”
“As far as I can tell—no.”
I shrugged. “Let’s get this over with.”
Using the electromagnetic propulsion, I moved slowly towards the entrance that led up to the surface. This was obviously an unknown landing zone that worked functionally, unlike the one we had come down before. I was amazed that they could have constructed such a difficult to make structure without others knowing.
In front of me directly was a portal that seemed locked with no obvious way of entry. It soon opened though.
“There. I’ve just made myself useful by hacking into their locking system.”
“Great. Thank you. I sense another elevator in front. Is that what you see too?”
“Yes.”
“Why would they leave the elevator here for me. Why not just blow it up like they did before?”
“Perhaps they’re going to try to blow it up while you’re on it.”
“Good point. I think the easy thing to do is to fly to the surface. I don’t want them alerted to the fact that I’m coming either. I’ll use the Golem suit to fly up the shaft.”
“That’s a good idea. I don’t detect any danger from the elevator though.”
There was no movement or indications of danger from the landing area. The elevator itself seemed to be of the type as the one I had first taken down with my team. That seemed so long ago now though it was only a few days. Upon closer view, it was larger than the other one. That was likely to move heavy equipment like the attack submarines. I realized why it was hidden from view before. There was a large portable wall that seemed to be open at the time. It had excellent camouflage made up of various kinds of rock very similar to the composition of the surrounding area that made me wonder if the barrier itself had been made by a geologist.
There were two guards at the entrance to the elevator. I decided to try to talk to them and see what happened. I cautiously approached the guards who seemed well armed but not too worried to see a man in a heavy suit suddenly walk up to them from an ancient lake.
“Z4, where is Jen?” I asked. “I can’t sense her anymore.”
“She must be on the surface,” he replied.
“She couldn’t have gone far. Is it possible they know we’re tracking them?”
“It’s possible and likely. I fear she may be already on the surface with our mutual friend.”
“I thought you didn’t do humor? Isn’t that what you said? And please don’t call him that—even in jest.” At that point, I hated the man. I knew I would probably end up seeing him again soon. He was the embodiment of all I had fought against.
“Remember, I have just as much right to dislike him as you do. He killed my fellow scientists and nearly killed me as well.”
“Your feelings have been transferred over to your new form?”
“Only in a sense. To me, it’s more of a fact now to be weighed among other concerns. I doubt my emotions before could ever overrule my rational decisions, but now they are even more secondary.”
“The world could use more of that kind of thought process.”
“I thought it did already. What with governments being run by AI and most of the companies who control society with their supposedly efficient algorithms. Weren’t those all supposedly run by dispassionate benefactors? And where are we now?”
I made no response. None was needed.
“Careful,” Z4 said. “Here we are.”
The two guards approached me just as I was caught in my abstract thoughts. I knew I should have been more careful. Their guns were pointed directly at me. Standard procedure obviously didn’t call for directly charging a numerically superior opponent out in the open with zero surprise factor. This wasn’t a standard situation however.
“We knew you
’d come, Dr. Bloom. We wanted to give you a chance to join us, and—“
I shot one who was speaking with enough electricity to knock him out and no more. The other one fired his gun at me. The three bullets he managed to get off were easily deflected by my magnetic shield. I shot the guard still standing with the same amount I had the other guard. I was getting good at regulating the amount of electricity so as not to make lethal strikes. I did this in spite of the fact the last time I left guards alive like this, it has gotten some of my men killed. Old habits die hard. I had wanted to cause as little pain and death as possible. I had already witnessed enough. I remember my instructor at the BUDS training camp at New San Diego telling me that I wasn’t cut out for this—that I didn’t have the killer instinct. He was partially right. The truth was I was sick of death. I could, however, deal it if necessary.
Chapter 18
Getting the elevator to work was a cinch. I put the two guards on the platform with me. Leaving them down here would have been the same as murdering them outright. After making sure they would not be in danger of exposure by covering them with some of the cargo blankets lying around, I got rid of their weapons by smashing the barrels of their guns and chucking the ammo. I did a crude job of tying them up. It would last long enough to get done what I had to.
Before starting the elevator, I made sure my magnetic shield had enough charge to withstand a powerful explosion. I pushed the button to go up, but no explosion occurred. The elevator took ten minutes to reach the other end. It felt like an eternity. Z4 stood with me at the side saying nothing. He seemed to be focused on something else. I didn’t ask him what it was.
When we arrived at the top of the shaft, they were waiting for us.
“Alex must have been warned of my coming,” I said.
“Makes sense. They couldn’t have expected you to just give up. Besides, they have Jen. They know you want her back, which is why they took her in the first place. I will support you in any way I can. I must warn you that I am not trained for battle like you are though I have had some training before.”
“You can explain that later please,” I replied. “Heads up. It’s time.”
There were at least twenty heavily armed soldiers arranged semi-circle in loose standing formation around me when I emerged from the elevator. The arc was small enough to prevent cross-fire, which any professional soldier would make sure to work against. I had already checked the health of my Golem suit and found that it was mostly intact.
A figure dressed all in a crimson red uniform emerged from a heavy duty snow vehicle. There were many others parked around it. They must have had a base around the area, but I couldn’t see how they could keep anything permanent nearby in such frigid temperatures. The logistics would have been a nightmare. And how could it have gone unnoticed?
“Greetings Jake.”
“Alex. Greetings. I guess you’re actually pretty high up.”
“I’m not that high up, but I’m trusted, let’s say that. Thank you for coming to visit me. You were supposed to be dead.”
“I would have been. But I had some help from some pretty special people. Some of them weren’t really even people.”
“The Chirons. You see—we’ve known about them for a while.”
“That’s why Kraftberger didn’t tell me directly. He had bad intel—thanks to you.”
“Thanks to us. It wasn’t just me, Jake,” he looked very self-assured, much more than when I had seen him before. He had a slight smile on his face as if he were an artist and someone were admiring his work—someone who could appreciate it properly.
“You can join us, Jake. You can join Gaia and be a part of our movement. What do you say?”
“I can’t Alex. You know that. No more death. I can’t do it. Besides, the whole idea of getting the world to kill each other and then living off the carcass doesn’t appeal to me.”
“Come on. Think of it as some kind of speeding up process—something inevitable is going to happen. Most of the world’s population will die due to Malthusian processes. It’s finally happening after all the naysaying. It’s not our fault even. We’re just the catalyst, speeding it along.”
“And how convenient. After everyone’s dead, you can repopulate the earth with the chosen few.”
“And why not?” Alex asked with a grin. “Why shouldn’t we be the ones to do it? You think democracy is going to save humanity? Look around you? This is the last lily pad on which the human race can jump onto. Antarctica is the future. We’ll settle here, and the traditional powers will recede.”
“You have a base around here, don’t you? I was told nothing about it.”
“Of course you weren’t. We are an embarrassment to the traditional powers. They don’t even acknowledge us to themselves, let alone their pawns.”
“I doubt the Eastern Alliance will give up their claim—though I agree that the US and the West in general is now in no position to contest it.” I sensed the area around us. Something was approaching fast—something big.
“The Eastern Alliance? Do you know how many people we have in high places there? They’re practically begging us to join Gaia. They want their families and friends to be a part of it too. We literally have to betray thousands of them at some point or else things will get too crowded. “
“So how are you going to do it? Just carve a part of some nation and then take over? Wait for things to explode?”
“Not quite, but that’s as close as I’m going to let you know.”
“Why? Obviously you have me surrounded here. I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“Well, let’s just say I don’t trust anyone—even dead men. That’s a fine-looking armor suit you have on by the way. Did anyone ever tell you that?”
“Who’s the leader of Gaia, Alex?” I ignored his question. I knew they were scanning me, trying to find my weaknesses.
He gave another smirk. Just another funny joke that no one else is going to understand, the smile said.
“When the time is ready,” Alex replied. “He or she—I don’t want to be a sexist jerk here—will reveal his or her true identity. Not before, and not after.”
“It sounds like you don’t know who the person is,” I said.
“Oh I know. Don’t worry about that. I know who it is. The person’s identity helped me decide to join this organization in the first place.”
“I bet it’s not even a person. Who is the AI? Who made it, Alex?”
“You are pretty clever there, aren’t you? AI is nothing to be feared—especially the latest modifications. They are much more efficient at running things. It’s simply survival of the fittest. Traditional governments cannot keep up. Like a cutthroat CEO, the AI can handle the necessary cuts to society. The hangers-on are let go. No human politician was strong enough to make those decisions. But now those issues have been dealt with.”
“How nice,” I said coldly.
“Hey, don’t hate the player—hate the game. Isn’t that what we usually say? I’m simply someone who chose the side that’s going to win. Do you really think that flabby government we have now, partially run by humans, partially by AI is really going to navigate all the challenges of the next few decades? It can’t even keep order within its own borders.”
“It’s the only humane way, Alex.”
“Humane way? What happened to my wife Khadija? I told you she was killed by some local bandit. She was killed by our government. No one told me. I told my CO that I wanted to get her out of there. I told him I married her. He was going to charge me for insubordination of course—it’s forbidden to marry the locals let alone have any relationship with them. What did they do to her? How does that fit in with your ideals of humanity? That was the last I’ll ever trust those morals. To the rest, to hell with them. I’m going to pledge my loyalty to a cause that I can understand—that’s not hypocritical. We both know our government cannot last. Those fools are like the last inhabitants of Easter Island, cutting down the last life-giving tree.
It’s no mistake that we’ve named ourselves Children of Gaia.”
“I don’t have an answer to what happened to Khadija. I’m sorry to hear that. It sounds like she was killed in the fog of war. Maybe she—”
“Bullshit. She was killed indiscriminately by fools, voted in by idiots who could care less. This cannot continue.”
“How many are slated to survive after whatever you’re planning? More innocent people killed? How is that different?”
“Oh I’m definitely not going to tell you that. That would ruin the surprise.”
I knew that they were going to try and kill a lot of people. I doubted they would let more than a few million survive towards phase two. Maybe even a million was too high a number after hearing Alex’s deranged words. I wanted to give peace one more chance.
“You can’t give up on humanity yet Alex. It’s not perfect but—“
“Shut up! Shut your fucking mouth. Just the same bullshit I hear from everyone else who’s like you.”
Z4 addressed me in a surreptitious way: “They’re going to strike soon. The suit has two more powers that I’m aware of. First, you can shoot a force wave that will push everyone back at least five meters. Second, you can increase the electromagnetic force field on your suit. It will block their bullets but up to a point. It can absorb a combined stress level of around one million Newtons. A bullet from one of their rifles will cause about twenty thousand Newtons. However, the combined stress will accumulate and could cause dangers.”
To Z4, I said, “Thanks. That’s good to know.” I looked at Alex to see if he had noticed me talking to Z4. There was no indication as he continued to speak.
“Let’s stop this line of talk here and now. It’s boring. I don’t really care—no. I literally do not care at all. OK? All that bullshit about good and bad—that’s not really going to matter at all anymore, is it? Because if there were a hell, all of us would be going there. That’s not what’s happening is it? We’ve already made sure that most of the people least responsible for our mess on this planet are going to die. Oh and by the way, the people who least deserve to die—we’re not planning on doing anything to them, OK? They could actually make out just as well or better than us.”