The Spire

by Peter F Smith

  She began to laugh as she destroyed yet another set of drones charging her position. Just the other day she and Walter had been discussing ways to spend what was effectively going to be eternity, and now, no matter what happened, he was dead and she was about to die, blood loss or death by machine her only options here. The irony of the situation was not lost on her in these final moments. The rifle ran dry. The drone she had down her sights dropped but was not put entirely out of commission and was crawling its way toward her. Another ran up from behind it leaping over its crippled body and barreling toward her.

  She had another drum of ammunition in her pack, but in a fraction of a second she had already calculated that she couldn’t possibly swap the spent drum for the fresh. Still kneeling she straightened her body letting the rifle go and it fell into the strap, its weight being born by her shoulders. The drone was nearly on her position as she raised her hand and wrapped it around the cross. The robotic soldier grabbed the desk and flung it aside as if it weighed nothing. Her eyes closed as the drone’s arm pulled back to deliver what could only be a death blow. She whispered the command word to activate the explosive located in her vest pocket.

  “Walter."

  Aaron Miller

  For the second time in just a few minutes the floor beneath them heaved, not as violently as the first, but enough to force all three of them to rebalance themselves. Miller looked at Tommy, his face long with sorrow, and he shook his head not knowing what to say even though they both knew what the second explosion must have meant. Aaron calmed himself with a few breaths and used that to center his thoughts on the doors at the end of the hallway. Several belonged to the bank of elevators that were where the enemy was likely to come from, and the other was the stairwell they had exited. Both were near one another making it possible for him to cover them in his field of fire at the same time.

  “How’s it going Rod?”

  A string of obscenities were his response as Rodney’s fingers flew over the holographic keypad of his personal terminal. Miller risked looking back and could see dozens of holographic windows open as his tech guy transitioned from one to the next at a speed that made the entire endeavor appear chaotic to him, but must have made sense to Rodney, at least he hoped it did.

  “What’s our back up plan Commander?” Tommy asked.

  He shook his head and answered, “Only one plan.”

  Tommy nodded and stared ahead. “Hey Rod, buddy ol pal, don’t mean to put too much stress on you but our very existence is kind of riding of your nerd credibility, so if you could get that door open so I can put a bullet in Patterson’s head, I’d be really appreciative.”

  “You want to fucking do this,” Rodney barked back at him.

  A loud ding sounded throughout the hallway, and the weapons of both Miller and Tommy snapped up, focusing on the elevator. “In case I don’t get to say this later, I always thought of you as a big brother that I looked up to,” Tommy quickly said.

  The emotions that had been threatening to overwhelm Miller crashed against his defenses yet again. He quickly reached over and clapped his brother on the shoulder and refocused forward. The elevator doors began to slide open, but before they were even half way parted, the drones inside began to pour out into the hall. Miller’s first slug picked one of them up and flung them to the end of the hall. Tommy’s smaller caliber bullets ripped them to pieces. Miller began choosing drones that were directly in front of others, hoping that it would be flung into the ones behind it, or that he’d achieve complete penetration and possibly destroy the unit behind the first as well with the same round.

  “Who just happens to be less attractive than I am” Tommy said matter-of-factly over the report of their rifles and the din of the debris crashing to the ground.

  Miller began to laugh feeling the tension begin to leave him. The rifle bucked against him with every pull of the trigger. A drone broke off from the group pouring out of the elevator. He immediately began to keep track of it attempting to get a clear line of sight knowing that whatever it was doing was likely not going to be beneficial to he and his team. The drone, shielded by the writhing mass of its duplicates, walked to the end of the hall and stopped at the stairwell door. It began to punch at the hinges holding it to the frame. The material dented and collapsed under the force of the impacts until its fists literally flew apart. It stepped aside as another drone joined it completing the task of destroying the hinges and pulling the solid metal fire door from away from the stairwell.

  The drones were beginning to thin out. Their shattered remains making the floor between them and the position of the robots nearly impassable. The drone with the door closed the distance slowly with the bulk of the material decreasing its speed and agility. Miller dealt with a drone that had made it within a few feet of him and then transitioned his aim to the door wielding drone, which then dropped the piece of metal in front of itself like a shield. The solid slug from his shotgun formed crater in the smooth surface and pushed the drone back a yard. It began to jog forward with the remaining drones.

  “Almost there,” Rodney cried.

  Tommy directed his fire at the unshielded units, and Miller focused on the one with the door. The second slug impacted an inch from where the machine’s fingers wrapped over the material forcing the drone into a spin.

  Rather than fighting the energy placed into the door by the slug, the drone fed more into the spin, finishing its arc faster than it should have and released the door at the exact right moment to send it sailing at his team. Miller threw his left shoulder back to clear the center part of the hall, and Tommy behaved similarly. He watched in great detail as his adrenaline fueled brain appeared to slow down time. He felt the air over his chest as it was disturbed by the passing mass and followed it as it flew past. It was in this moment that he realized he was not the intended target. The metal door crashed into the back of Rodney’s skull compressing the man’s head between it and the blast door. A burst of red and white served as the dramatic indication that their only hope of getting into the office and stopping Jacob Patterson had just come to an end.

  Only two drones remained, the one with no functioning hands and the thrower. As the damaged drone came upon them both, Miller was bringing his shotgun to bear when Tommy, always with a faster reaction time, managed to place the drone in his sights with inches separating his barrel from it, and placed several bullets into its chest. The already damaged machine fell to the ground and in a blur, the last drone dropped into the space having jumped the remaining distance. It grabbed the barrel of Tom’s rifle and with a jerk shifted it from his shoulder where it had been braced, and then shoved the stock into his neck with super human speed.

  As Tommy fell, his hands going to his throat and eyes bulging outward, the machine threw its right fist in a curve toward Miller. His shotgun lined up with the machine, and his finger pulled the trigger back as its balled fist crashed into his chest. The drone blew apart, ripped into two halves, and pain exploded through his consciousness. He slammed into the wall sliding down to join Tom on the floor. His face was going blue as he tried to breathe through his collapsed trachea, the veins in his forehead extending outward. Miller looked down at his own chest and could see a baseball sized depression over his heart. Blood was beginning to stain his already ruined dress shirt. He reached for Tommy with no strength to move any closer. His friend… his brother had already stopped moving; his eyes fixed on a spot above Miller.

  There was movement to his left, and he turned his head some to get a view. The hard clack of expensive shoe soles on tile filled his ears. He looked up to see Jacob Patterson standing over him, a look of absolute remorse covering his face. He stepped over to Tommy and closed his eyes. Miller began to raise the shotgun with his right hand, but his damaged body couldn’t produce enough strength. It clattered against the floor and debris. Patterson turned, seeing his intention, and gently took the weapon away. He placed it several feet out of reach and then sat next to him.

 
The world was beginning to go black around the edges. He was pretty sure the drone had crushed his heart, so it wouldn’t be long now until he found out if all that religious talk from Natalia was true or not. There was a pretty big part of him that hoped it was, but given how the universe had been treating them thus far, he suspected that it wasn’t the case. He managed to turn his head far enough to look Patterson in the eye. “I’m sorry my friend,” he said to Miller.

  He tried to respond, but all that came out was a crackle of blood. “Don’t try to talk. It will only make it hurt more.”

  Patterson looked down, his hands wringing themselves. “I thought about including you in my plan. I thought about bringing your entire team in.”

  Miller’s head began to slide down, wondering why it was the universe saw it fit to force him to listen to the man that had killed so many of the people that mattered most to him. “But I knew, I knew you wouldn’t agree with me, and you would all try to stop me from doing what I had to do in order to make things better.”

  The world faded. Blackness was all that he could see, and the last thing his brain was able to process were Jacob Patterson’s words. “But listen to me my friend, I will make this up to you. I will not let your loyalty and dedication to my family be wasted. I will bring you back,” he promised.

  1

  Maria Patterson

  Her lungs felt as if they were about to explode. The searing sensation seemed to spread throughout every muscle. Her body protested each movement it was forced to do, yet in spite of its insistence that it be granted a reprieve, the pounding noise in her ears compelled her legs to propel her over the uneven surface as fast as they were able to. As uncomfortable as this was, she enjoyed every minute of it.

  Trees abound as she leapt over rocks and fallen branches. Morning sunlight filtered through hundreds of thousands of leaves and glistened off their dew covered surface. Cool fall air streamed over her skin and work out attire rewarding her for pushing herself faster through the idyllic space. Beethoven pulsed in her ears accompanying the beauty of the moment. This was her favorite place to be, doing what she loved the most. Out here in the forest, away from the Spire and her parents, she was as close to free as she would ever become. If only she could run a little faster... a little farther, then maybe just maybe...

  Her digital contacts displayed an alert informing her that she had an incoming call. She tapped the palm of her hand. The ring on her finger captured the motion and transmitted the "decline" signal to her contacts which ended the call. With the interruption past, her contacts once again began to stream music to the micro-sized devices embedded in her ears. She pushed herself again hoping to lose herself in her work out. The world began to drop away leaving nothing but the forest in front of her and the nip of cool October air on her skin, her shoulder blade length ponytail swaying from side to side.

  Again the call imposed itself on her field of vision and silenced her music. Again she tapped the palm of her hand. This time though she stopped her run, her chest heaving in an effort to fill her lungs and supply her blood with life giving oxygen. She forced herself to calm her body as she reached into the little pocket located on her thigh. Her long fingers removed a small case which she opened. Skillfully she removed the contacts from her eyes, placed them in the case, and then secured it in her pocket. Once they were deprived access to the surface of her eyes, they stopped being able to draw power from her body's natural electric field, and they shut down inside their container.

  She started running again this time without music to help her drift away. It was a minor sacrifice she had accepted. The contact lenses were not just for visual assistance but also acted as receivers and short range transmitters. Without them the implants on her auditory nerve had no way to receive the music streaming over the various wireless nodes located around the Spire. This meant that she couldn't be interrupted through them any more either. A worthy trade off if she had ever known one. Normally she wouldn't disconnect herself from the local network while outside of the Spire. Even though this area was one of the most secure on the planet, the uninterrupted forest extended for some distance, all the way to the coast and many kilometers inland, which for all it’s raw beauty was still wild and not wholly predictable.

  Her father was very proud of the "Reconstitution Program" he had created and begun shortly after “The Fall”, but he had instilled in her a healthy sense of caution and forethought. The size and density of the forest made it difficult to be entirely certain that there weren't hazards lurking nearby, chief among them being savages and ferals, or more likely nasty surprises concocted and stealthily inserted into their territory by their rival Spire families. Therefore, on a normal day, she would never disconnect herself from the local net, but today was not a normal day.

  So, she ran through the forest but made sure the constructed path was parallel to her course and visible at all times. She wanted privacy, but, as her mother had stated in the past, "She wasn't in the business of raising a fool."

  Her feet pounded the ground and through the sound of her steady rhythm another beat deftly joined with hers. The hair on the back of her neck began to rise. Had she made a mistake removing her communications device? Was she now being followed by the very things she feared could be lurking in this space? She increased her run by lengthening her stride. The follower matched her pace almost perfectly. If it hadn't been for the sound of a small twig snapping, it would have gone unnoticed, the volume nearly imperceptible except to her adrenaline fueled senses. She quickly turned her head to get a look behind without disrupting her gazelle like stride.

  What she saw made her frown. Quickly she faced forward and brought her right hand up over her should giving the uninvited visitor a single finger greeting. A gesture that she had learned from the other Spire children. With a rasping voice that attempted to both draw in air and show her disgust at the interloper, she shouted over her shoulder, "Go away Tobor."

  Instantly she regretted this. Not only did having her arm up throw off her rhythm, but speaking so forcefully also interrupted the delicate balance her body had reached in regard to supplying her lungs with oxygen. Her uninvited guest easily came up alongside her placing itself between her and the main body of the forest.

  "Ms. Patterson, you have been asked to refrain from disconnecting yourself from the local net by both of your parents and myself," Tobor said without so much as a single huff of exhaustion as its long powerful legs effortlessly matched her stride. She glanced over at the robot noticing for the first time that it was running forward while keeping its shiny, smooth, black face plate aimed directly at her. It knew she hated when it did that. It just didn't look right that Tobor’s visual focus could be undeniably on her, and yet it never missed a step and was far more graceful than she could hope to be. It was creepy to say the least.

  "I told you I wanted to be left alone,” she said tersely.

  "Your familial obligations supersede personal desires. You are aware of what time your father and mother planned on departing and deliberately chose this time to be away from the Spire.”

  As they both ran, she began to feel Tobor get closer to her. For a moment she thought its ground tracking sensors might not be functioning properly, but it rarely did anything by accident, and if it were malfunctioning in any way, it would have informed her. She wasn't sure what the robot was up to, but she made sure to keep her distance by moving subtly to the left every time she felt crowded in by Tobor. It had been years since it had picked her up and flung her over its shoulder, but if her father was insistent enough on them being prompt for their arrival at the gathering, then it just might. While she knew there was really nothing she could do to stop Tobor if that was the course of action it took, she was very much of the opinion that she shouldn't make the event easy. So she kept her distance the best she could.

  "What about their obligation to me? I don't get along with the other kids, and every time I go to one of these stupid birthday parties I end up getting in a fig
ht with someone." Her feet slipped slightly on some dew-drenched moss as she was going down a small grade. She quickly regained her footing and finished her train of thought. "It’s not fair that they keep putting me in such awkward situations, so why shouldn't I let them know how it feels by putting them in a similar position?"

  "Young miss, one day soon, like the other children, you will be working alongside your respective parents to further the goals of your family. One of those goals is to successfully work with the other families in order to peacefully co-exist.” It leapt over a fallen and decomposing tree, the surface of which was already covered in moss.

  “Or to enable greater ease of manipulation. To this end you will need to have developed interpersonal skills that will allow you to efficiently communicate with the other children. As they assume their new leadership roles, you will then have first-hand knowledge of their behaviors and thought processes which will help you to effectively predict their future actions, and how best to influence them in order to guarantee an outcome that is favorable to your family."