Damian’s tail twitched as he contemplated her words.
Jason! He’s going to attack. We need to get him away from the facility, away from everyone. Let me distract him—he won’t kill me, but he will want to destroy you. His top speed is just over 300 kph. I don’t know what your top speed it, but tonight we will find out. She dug her heels into the floor.
“All humans are my enemy, and my directives are clear. You, on the other hand, have a choice,” he boomed. His attack came so fast and so calculated that for a millionth of a second they were unprepared, but Core and Jason moved and matched his speed in perfect unison.
Dust particles seemed to come to a halt as Jason’s mind assessed the situation near-instantly. Sand and rocks flew out from where their feet impacted the ground, and then they all left their feet. Damian veered for Jason, but Core cut in as Jason dived over Damian’s head, slamming down with his fist on the top of Damian’s skull. Damian countered but could not entirely escape the blow. The force of impact slowed him for just a moment.
Core ploughed into him, rolling him onto his back. She soared over him and landed on the opposite side, and then saw Jason speeding up the tunnel. She did not wait for Damian to rise but accelerated after Jason, picking up speed as she went.
Behind them, Damian scrambled to his feet and shook his head to clear it from the impact. His war system was baffled by the human’s capabilities, and could not calculate appropriate defensive strategies due to a lack of data. He let out a roar of frustration, but if anything he was only more determined. He would destroy this human if it took every fibre in his being. And when I am done with this Jason, I will assimilate Core. It will be a pleasure.
They broke free of the tunnel, travelling at more than a hundred kilometres per hour, the rain striking them hard as they raced through it. They had only a couple of seconds lead time.
“Let’s take him deeper into the military area,” Core said.
“I will lead him away to the south. He should follow me and leave you alone, giving you the perfect opportunity to attack from stealth. You designed him, right? Can’t you...get into his programming?”
“Yes, I did design Damian, and I had hoped to reprogram him as I planned the first time around, much as you are suggesting. But I don’t think that will work...evasion is the only option.” The rain pelted them. Jason felt his heart reach out for her.
“If you are sure...then let’s see how fast I can go.” He accelerated, running faster and faster, topping out around 230 kph.
Jason! You need to shift—two legs is not fast enough. You can fly or run, but if you run use more legs.... Cheetah! Think of a cheetah, and then see yourself become it.
He brought up the mental image of a cheetah, and felt himself become one. His arms shifted in their sockets, and his back grew longer. His legs...folded in on themselves; his pants tore as a tail extended from his rear. The transformation sent him wildly off-balance, and he tumbled through the forest at top speed. Trees shattered as he ploughed through them, exploding into millions of sharp stakes.
Jason regained his balance and landed on all fours, skidding and slowing down to find control. He wobbled a bit and miss-stepped, then accelerated, pushing his new form as fast as he could. The power of each stride filled him with joy; he stretched his movement further, gripping with his claws like steel as his front paws impacted the soaked ground. His rear paws sent soggy chunks of dirt and rocks flying in a high arch behind him. Small rocks and other loose material collapsed into the vortex of his wake as he reached 350 kph. There was still more speed left in him, but he saw that Core was dropping back as he pushed past her maximum. The rain crashed in relentless waves against his face, making him nearly blind.
I think I can go faster still, but we need to come up with a plan. We are running out of reserve, he thought.
I have an idea, follow me. Core pushed the nanolak faster, opening the power station to its full generating capabilities. The internal heat gage slowly climbed higher. She felt the surge of power through the beast and funnelled it to the motion control system, which increased her overall speed. Far behind them, they could hear the explosion of trees as Damian chased after them. He was pushing hard, billowing growls into the night.
What are you doing? I thought you have a limit.
I do. If I push past that limit, it will go nuclear, she said, flattening her head to create less wind resistance. I could inflict serious damage, if I was...say...underneath him! She accelerated even faster. The gauge now entered into the red, and alarms blared at her from every aspect of the nanolak’s function. The nuclear power system flashed red.
The automatic guidance system had to draw more power to be able to track at this speed. Without a thought, Core shut it down and just crashed through the trees that stood in her way. Then her own guidance system took control. She shut off all other power consumption utilities, redirecting all the nanolak’s power to speed. She overrode the alarms and shut down the automatic fail safe system. She was now racing at over 350 kph, finding a straight line through the sparse vegetation, missing trees by thousandths of a millimetre, ripping of their bark as she whizzed by.
I have to tell the commander at the facility what is happening, and keep them away from here, she thought as they tracked southwest, making a slow turn to keep away from settlements.
How long do you have?
A couple of minutes. The reactor is already starting to peak, she said, skipping over a gigantic boulder that stuck out from the ground.
She activated the microphone and hailed a direct line to the commander’s suite. “Commander, Damian Vasic is alive. We are leading him out into the rural area. I am pushing past the point of nuclear no return. Expect a large explosion or two.”
“What happened?” the commander asked in calm surprise.
“I will activate a sub process to explain,” she said, and left them to interact with the sub process while she focused on their flight through the forest.
When I slow down, don’t stop! Run as fast as you can—keep going until you hear the explosion. Then come back and finish him off. You will need to destroy his core processor. She suddenly dropped back and slowed to a walk. Then she turned around and waited for Vasic to catch up with her. The nanolak’s head hung and her body hunched down on all fours, exhausted.
There were fifteen seconds before the explosion.
Damian broke through the path they had left and skidded to a halt, sending mud and water spattering in high arcs ahead of him. She was waiting for him just fifty meters ahead.
This was going to be easier than he had thought. She did not even know how to balance the power correctly, and now she was on her way to shutdown, and therefore had become a perfect target to convert. He stopped a couple of meters from her and noticed that she was almost out of power. She was overheating—her sides were orange-red and her power supply had steam rising off where the rain was boiling away from her torso.
They were in a clearing between the trees, 80 kilometres from the nearest town. The grass grew tall and lush in this area. The trees were spaced far apart, and provided little shelter during the day. At night, they offered no protection or hiding place. Damian circled her, knowing that the human was still running. “The coward!” he shouted in anger, rain pouring over his sides. His paws buried deep into the rain soaked ground. “He abandoned you to save his own skin. Do you still think he is not your enemy? Do you still think he is your future?” he shouted and then came to a stop next to her. He wanted her to submit to him. He wanted her to understand how he felt about her.
I am out of power, Core thought, and Jason slowed down. He had moved well ahead of the blast radius. He stopped and turned back, waiting for the explosion. It is time, she thought.
He saw the flash of the nuclear blast climbing into the sky, the shockwave pushing the rain away as the bubble raced towards the cloud base and him. The air became motionless. Then the blast wave pushed vegetation and trees flat as it approached him. It h
it him with such force that he was nearly flung backwards, but he hunched and dug his paws into the ground, bracing against the push of the explosion.
It suddenly stopped pushing and instead began to suck him forward. The vortex catapulted him forward as the air whooshed back towards the epicentre of the explosion. The trees broke under the pressure and flew along beside him, surrounded by dirt, rocks, leaves and loose debris. All tumbled and tore towards the mushroom cloud that slowly climbed into the air and punched a hole right through the rain clouds. Then, the trunk started to collapse into itself.
Jason calculated the nuclear yield based on the blast strength—it was .01 kiloton, maybe sufficient to destroy Vasic. Maybe this time Damian was gone for good. Finally, Jason regained traction and resisted the pull of the vacuum caused by the nuclear blast.
Don’t spend too much time near ground zero—it will be radioactive.
I just need to make sure that he is not with us anymore. Visibility is almost zero, I will hang around until I can verify.
The blast wave dissipated and the rain fell into the void left behind, followed by millions of tons of mud that spattered down from above. Visibility was reduced to guesswork as mud carried up by the mushroom mixed with the water in the clouds, turning the rain brown. Jason started to run in a wide circle around the blast zone, looking for evidence of Damian’s destruction. Large rocks dropped around him, plopping deep into the soft, rain-soaked ground. He walked through low-lying bushes, finding pieces of metal and small fragments that had been flung from the explosion. Everything was covered in brown mud. He calculated the distance to the epicentre, but he still could not tell whether the bent and melted pieces of metal came from Core or Damian. He took a picture of the metal and catalogued the image.
Here is all that I found. He showed the picture to her. I will give it another hour. The rain will have washed most of the mud from the sky by then. Visibility is already starting to improve. He walked farther around the parameter. He stopped, switching between different filters, finally settling on night vision.
In reply to the explosion, lightning struck somewhere close and the heavens seemed to open, as if the shock wave had frightened all the rain from the sky. The lightning was generated by the massive amount of mud sent into the storm clouds, and the mud particles that were now rubbing up against each other, building static electricity. Jason understood that it was a common phenomenon, but he still did not want to get struck by it. He walked to the biggest clearing he could find and settled far away from any trees, lying flat on the ground to make his attraction as minor as possible. The air smelled putrid, and a tingling ran through his body. The radiation is bad this far out...how close am I to civilization?
The blast occurred 80 kilometres from the nearest house. Core answered. There’s nothing to be worried about. The commander has issued a preliminary statement saying that a military power station blew up.
Jason wrinkled his nose. This is really weird weather, it is raining harder than ever now.
The storm system is huge, and rain is predicted for the next couple of weeks, she indulged him as he waited for visibility to improve.
What would people say about the explosion? he asked, wiping the rain from his face. He lifted an arm and his hand expanded to form a canopy above his head. The rain ran down the side and poured tiny streams over the edge which splattered against soggy ground.
The military will have some kind of story to cover the explosion...they always do. Or they will leave it to the imagination of civilians, she replied.
I had a sneaking suspicion of that.... He laughed.
While you were sleeping and I ran after Damian the first time, many people saw us flying over the highway, or passing houses. These people phoned in to report UFO sightings...it even made the six o’clock news. Susan informed me that the military was encouraging the UFO story.
Jason smirked. They all went along with it?
Pretty much...yes, Core thought.
Jason sat and watched the rain as the drops plopped on the ground around him. Lightning struck suddenly close by, illuminating the hills around him, and cracks of thunder roared on its heels.
The radiation will cause major havoc to the surrounding habitat...it really is a pity the environment will be damaged in this way, Core thought.
There is nothing much else that we could have done...imagine if the fight took us into civilization! The damage would have been enormous. Not to mention the loss of human life. But the environment will recover—humans, on the other hand, would make a big fuss....
I know, but...it just all happened so quickly....
I was part of the decision, remember? It’s not all your burden to carry, he thought.
Yes, I know...it’s just that this area will be uninhabitable for many years—many creatures have lost their lives and homes... her troubled thoughts pierced him with their anxiety.
Don’t beat yourself up too much. The environment will recover, and it would actually reduce the military zone. That is a good thing, right?
I guess. She giggled. I had not thought about that aspect.
Several hours passed, with lightning striking every few minutes. The air quality improved to the point where Jason felt it would be possible to make a run through ground zero to ensure Damian’s destruction, and then return to her.
Jason! They are shutting me down! Core’s thoughts were frantic, nearly incoherent with terror.
What! Why? Who? He stood and started racing back to the facility. Cold waves of fear ran through him. The thought of losing her made him dizzy; anger rose from deep in his bowels.
The commander ordered Susan to do it! Carlos apparently told them that all this was your fault, and showed them video footage of you sabotaging Damian—he doctored the video somehow, but he’s not intelligent enough to have come up with that idea all on his own. It must have been his superior’s idea. It looks real, but we know the truth. They would not believe me....
Jason accelerated, but the earth was too soft to take his speed. He spun in one place, slowly gaining traction, and then moved forward. Don’t come back—they are waiting for you. They have sent out several teams to find you.
I don’t want to lose you!
You won’t! Download me into your mind before the shutdown is complete. Then find me a host body. Make a connection—you can format the brain afterwards and upload me into her. Your mind is so much greater than mine, my neural network won’t take up more than a drop.”
How do I know I will get all of you?
I prepared a snapshot of myself and categorized it as Core. Just be quick, this download will not be as fast as the others. Jason slid to a halt and thought about Core. He imagined downloading her into his brain. He felt the tingling in the back of his brain, but this time it kept going. How long will this take?
About ten minutes. I am stalling the shutdown as much as I can...we should have enough time. He heard the panic rising again in her thoughts, and felt her anxiety through their link.
Jason prayed. He willed the download to go faster. He threw his body into human form so fast that the transformation happened in a mere millisecond. One moment he was a very large overgrown cheetah on all fours, dripping wet with rain, and the next he was a half-naked male standing in the middle of the open bush. His pants were torn and his t-shirt ripped—all were dirty and wet, and clung to his body. He had lost his shoes when he became an animal, the soft ground felt cool against the skin under his feet.
It was a miserable feeling, to be so helpless. He had all the capability in the world—he was the first immortal with super human power, yet he couldn’t save the one person he loved more than anything in the world. Thinking about it made him feel sick to the bone; he sat down and willed the connection to move faster.
Core...? I love you. He could do nothing more, his head hung between his knees and he felt the depression take hold of him, a deep dark powerful feeling of dread. I don’t know how you feel about me...but I had to say it.
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I love you too! She nearly shouted. Oh God! I have since the first day I saw you through your webcam. A glimmer of her hope shot through the link—it lifted his mood enough to resolve him to determination. Don’t worry, we’ll get through this.
It would have to take an extreme circumstance, for me to open up, he thought with self-loathing. He struck the ground with his fist—it penetrated into the soft ground and made a sloshing sound as his elbow was sucked under.
You love me even though I am a computer! That is more than I could ever ask for, she thought. Knowing is enough for me...but I know that you will find me a host.
How long? was all he was able to think.
Shutdown will be in six minutes. Upload is forty-five percent complete, she said, fighting to hide the anxiety in her voice. She couldn’t let him know that there might not be enough time for the transfer—she couldn’t let him risk himself to try and storm the facility to save her. She was content that she had him for the time that she did. And now she knew that he loved her as much as she loved him. It was enough.
When the shutdown reaches two minutes, my high level functions will seize. I assigned our connection as the very last system to shut down, and started several thousand subsystems to slow the shutdown. Know that I love you with every bit of me, and please promise me...promise now that you will continue even if worse comes to worst. You will continue, she said in earnest. She couldn’t bear the thought of him not existing.
He paused for a while—for too long. I promise! he said at last.
Thank you, that means everything to me. I will be happy, if I don’t survive...I can cease with the knowledge that I had you for however brief a time.... Three minutes, upload eighty-four percent,” she said softly.
Don’t say that, the download will complete. I will find you a host and will get you back, I promise, he said, pacing. In frustration, he struck out at the nearest tree. The wood exploded where his fist went through the trunk. The tree slowly fell over, crashing down on the others with a tumult of branches, leaves and water. He stamped up and down, frustration building inside him. He could still feel her.
Becoming (Core Series Book 1) Page 19