The Rubidium Beach Series - Episodes 1 Through 4: Cyberpunk/Dystopian Science Fiction

by G. D. Blanton

  “Ani, exactly how much can you do beyond the normal on this Level?” asked Junco.

  Ani replied. “Basically, soft tissue damage – I can't do much with metal, stone or even bones to be honest.”

  Junco thought for a second. “Okay, that's a good start. We can kill our captors then.”

  “Sure but that leaves us still attached to the plumbing,” replied Ani.

  There were footsteps – a lot of them. Then six large, heavily armed thugs towered over the group. One of them barked, “Stay seated until we tell you otherwise.”

  Another produced a key and undid all of the handcuffs, other than those securing Yellowlegs.

  Another Barked Instruction. “On your feet – now!” The group did as ordered.

  Scoter managed to throw the barkeeper a look that said, 'We've got your back.' Junco caught this and was impressed.

  A hasty internal net conversation ensued:

  “Any ideas?” asked Junco.

  Ani responded. “Look out for open doors, anything to the outside world that isn't locked.”

  “What about the barman?” Junco again.

  “The idiot currently in front of you – he is the one with the key,” said Ani.

  “Got it.”

  Junco spotted a strip of daylight, at ground level, about three inches high and ten feet long. Ani raised his arm, pointed and swung through an arc that encompassed the necks of all of the half a dozen thugs. This time Ani's built in weapon did not cauterize. The heads stayed attached to the bodies, spines still intact. Everything that wasn't bone was cut through. Blood pumped from a ring on each neck and the thugs fell to the ground. There were no screams because Ani's cut had intentionally destroyed the vocal chords of each victim.

  Junco rushed to the corpse directly in front of him and rifled through pants pockets until he found the key that he wanted. Somehow, he managed to avoid most of the blood. The others ran towards the strip of daylight and managed to manhandle the loading bay shutter up to where a body could roll underneath it. They then exited, closely followed by Junco and the bartender.

  As the group were getting to their feet Junco saw a transporter cube pull up across the street from where they stood. The front panel opened and a very quick decision was taken to get in. Anything was better than being here when the murdered thugs were discovered. Yellowlegs was obviously familiar with the transporter cubes. Turned out that he had ordered it via his own implant while the others were busy taking care of their guards.

  “Thanks – I think,” said Ani. “But it now seems that you have us at a disadvantage. Where are we going?”

  Yellowlegs responded. “Away from here. Then we can talk.”

  11. THE SAFE HOUSE

  A few minutes later the transporter cube's front panel opened and the group climbed out. They were outside a row of nondescript terrace houses. Yellowlegs pressed a button on the wall beside the door and a noise sounded inside the house. A woman answered.

  “Safe?” asked the barman.

  “Yes, had the place swept for bugs two days ago – they found nothing this time.”

  “Great.” With that the woman stepped out of the way and they followed Yellowlegs into a room off of the small and narrow hallway.

  With the agreement of the others, Ani hooked Yellowlegs into their private network.

  “Right, I have one quick question to ask before we get onto the really important stuff. The transporters – how long have they been here and do you know who invented them?” Ani was obviously addressing Yellowlegs.

  “Hundreds of years, as far as I know. I have no idea as to who invented them – I don't think that anyone here does.”

  Junco interjected. “Okay, let's just file the transporters away under 'interesting curiosity.' We need a plan to get Teal back and to stop this Osmium person from wreaking any more havoc on Rubidium Beach.”

  “I wouldn't worry to much about Teal ,” said Ani. “Her military training will stand her in good stead. I have a hunch that we are in more danger than she is. Besides, I have managed to work out that she cut communications with us deliberately and not under duress. Indicates that she was in control of whatever situation she was in.”

  Junco nodded. “That makes sense. Lets focus on Osmium then and worry about Teal if she hasn't surfaced by the time we are ready to leave.”

  “May I say something?” asked the bartender.

  “Sure, please do,” Said Junco.

  Ani interjected. “Hold that thought. This room is shielded isn't it?”

  “Of course it is,” replied Yellowlegs.

  “Okay then. I need to pop out for a few minutes. I was just starting to run background checks on Rubidium Beach and I really need to be in contact with that Level to finish them. Does the shielding start at the front door?”

  Yellowlegs shook his head. “No this room is the only space that's dead. There is a room down the hallway, use that.”

  “Thanks. Much appreciated,” said Ani.

  12. COMINGS AND GOINGS

  “It's not good,” said Ani.

  “How bad is not good?” Junco asked.

  “Well, for starters the colatoos have made it down onto Rubidium Beach proper. There are now three packs with about twenty animals in each. Two are roaming downtown and one has made it all the way out to Neon Cove.”

  “The Cove? Crap! That won't be good for business.” Scoter was referring to 'Scotes Boats,' his recently opened, destroyed and reopened business servicing the water-based needs of the Neon Cove community.

  Ani continued. “Unfortunately, the Terminals have been decimated. I wish they had even a minimal sense of self-preservation.”

  “Then they wouldn't be Terminals,” said Scoter. “They have to live every second on its own merit. No consideration of future or past. Just ask Teal. Don't forget that we almost lost her to them once.”

  Junco chipped in. “I think her time with the Terminals was always more of a vacation than a permanent life-style choice. They had what she needed for a time – I don't think that she ever completely lost her sense of self preservation though.”

  “What else, Ani?” This time it was Skua who spoke up.

  “A big chunk of the plateau has fallen into the metallic sea. It was an undeveloped edge so no real harm done. The fact that Osmium can already do this is ,worrying though,” Ani said with massive understatement. Junco knew that if someone could destroy the fabric of Rubidium Beach they were a force to be reckoned with – even allowing for the fact that the plateau represented a softer target than the Beach proper. Ani continued, “Other than that, just small stuff like the language changes on the signs.”

  “Guess we are going back to Rubidium Beach then?” asked Scoter.

  “Not necessary. Repairs may take a while so I need to access the White Room from the Jupiter Moon but you might as well all stay here and see what you can come up with regarding Osmium. I'll be back within the hour.”

  Before Ani could leave, the shielded room the door swung open and Teal walked in.

  “Teal!” exclaimed Junco. “Great to see you.”

  “You too. How is everyone?” said Teal. Then she noticed Yellowlegs. “Hey, you are the barman. I am sure that there is a good reason why you are sitting here, with my friends, and not dead. Can't think of what it might be but I'm sure there is one.”

  “It's Okay, Teal,” said Ani. “The others can give you the gory details while I'm gone – I have some repair work to do.” With that Ani exited the shielded room so that he could drop back to Rubidium Beach.

  The group took turns to tell Teal what had happened. Junco covered the capture and being held prisoner in the warehouse. Skua described their escape and Yellowlegs filled in detail about both himself, and getting to the safe house. It was this part that grabbed Teal's attention. “So, in a nutshell, you are trusting the guy who sold you down the river?”

  “In a nutshell yes,” said Skua, pointedly. “Look, six people died during our escape. Do you think Yellowlegs
would let that happen to people that he were on the same team as him?”

  Teal was not done. “Why not? It's a rough town. Besides, You have to admit that the story is hardly plausible. The guy who dobbed you in also got arrested himself, then just happened to know of a safe house with shielding. Excuse me for being suspicious.”

  This time the barman spoke. “Look, there is nothing that I can say that will convince you, I can see that. All that I can offer is this: If you want me to do anything that will help prove myself just tell me what it is. Your friends saved my life back in that warehouse. I owe them.”

  Junco decided that it was time to change the subject. “Look. This is getting us nowhere. Ani is back on Rubidium Beach making running repairs and we are all sitting around here twiddling our thumbs. Teal – tell us something so that we can at least start to make a plan.'

  “Fair enough,” said Teal. “Here is what I found out. Osmium lives in a castle, the sort that we learned about in our ancient history lessons, or pre-virtual reality history if you'd prefer. It is a built of large blocks of stone and has walls many feet thick. It is even surrounded by water filled with animals that can kill a person. If anyone wants to get in or out a virtual bridge is dropped into place. After the person has entered or left the bridge vanishes.

  “Once inside the outer wall there are several buildings, housing for her worker slaves and animals, some offices and her own apartments. Her apartments are very well fortified and guarded twenty-four seven.”

  “This is not filling me with hope,” said Junco. The others were looking increasingly forlorn.

  Teal continued. “It is not all doom and gloom, just hear me out. I made friends with one of the servants and he has already gotten me in and out of the castle on two occasions. I also managed to sneak into Osmium's private quarters. This means that I have a more or less perfect map of the layout of everything important inside the castle.”

  Skua looked concerned. “That must have been incredibly risky.”

  “It was, but don't forget that it is also what I'm trained to do. I am also trained in risk assessment and, on this occasion, the reward vastly outweighed the risk,” said Teal.

  “But what about her coders, the ones actually attacking Rubidium Beach? Do you think that if we can take care of Osmium that the whole operation will just fall apart?” asked Junco.

  “No, there are layers of supervision between Osmium and the coders. In other words we could kill her but the Rubidium Beach attacks could continue,” Replied Teal.

  “So we have to kill the coders,” Said Junco.

  Teal replied “Not necessarily.”

  Ani walked back into the room.

  “How was it?” asked Junco.

  “Pretty bad. I think that that I've managed to fix the worst of it but I don't know how long things will hold for. I've put some extra firewalls in place and set up some blocks that will do any electronic trespassers no end of harm. Any average hackers that take on Rubidium Beach will probably not survive. I really am fed up with playing nice.”

  Junco thought that maybe Ani had a new definition of the word nice in mind. In Junco's experience Ani played anything but nice – especially when his back was up against the wall. He decided not to push the point and let Ani continue.

  “I think that I've killed off all of the colatoos, and that took some major coding. The problem, though, is psychological. The Beach is on self imposed lock-down at the moment. Everyone had either dropped to different Levels for the duration or decided to do everything from their Beach accommodation. I think that its going to take a bit of time before people start coming out into the streets again.”

  “Not enough time has passed for the effect to be so profound, surely?” said Junco.

  “You forget the time irregularities,” said Ani. “One effect of all this outside interference is that the time-synching between the Beach and everywhere has really gone out of whack. The difference between there and Violencia is horrendous, though.”

  “How bad?” asked Junco.

  Ani responded, “Five years bad as best I can tell. “

  “Crap! That means that the Colatoos had been wandering around for years.”

  Ani agreed. “Yes, I am going to have to spend a lot of time mending bridges and reassuring people when this little escapade is over.”

  “How about the Plateau?” Asked Teal.

  “It's Interesting. About a quarter of it came away and fell into the sea. As it sunk it tilted, so now we have a very unusual island.” Replied Ani.

  “Are you going to keep it?” she asked.

  Ani smiled. “Well, the locals have already given it a name so I may have to.”

  “What are they calling it?”

  “Ani's Error – if you must know.”

  Teal bought Ani up to speed regarding her own adventures by means of direct transfer. This meant that Ani saw and heard whatever Teal did without any commentary or overlay. The advantage of this method was speed; what would take half an hour to convey verbally took mere seconds. The disadvantage was one of context, A verbal debrief was required for anything even remotely complicated.

  The group then discussed whether to stay on Violencia to formulate a plan or to return to Rubidium Beach where Ani would have access to the White Room and its time stretching and fast coding possibilities. In the end it was decided that a trip back to the Beach was too risky. The way the time differentials were working between the two Levels were just too uneven. What would happen if say, Violencia had advanced years in the time they were away? Osmium may have moved out or completely redesigned her castle, rendering all of Teal's work redundant.

  “We have at least one thing in our favor here. This room is shielded, and that means that no one can eavesdrop on our planning,” said Ani.

  Skua asked, “What about the woman who let us in? Do we know for sure that she is trustworthy?”

  “I've known her for most of my life and she is on our side, believe me,” said the barman. “She has two daughters who were captured by and are now slave coders for Osmium.”

  Teal thought for a moment. “I want to show you something but you have to promise to stay calm – okay?” The group all promised to do as she asked.

  “Follow me.” She led them out of the room, down the hallway and opened a door on her left. They were looking into a kitchen. The only thing out of place was the woman's body lying, perfectly straight, on the floor. All heads turned towards Teal.

  “Don't worry, she is unconscious but perfectly okay. She will wake in one hour and fifty minutes give or take a few seconds. To be honest I don't think that she presents any risk at all but there is no point taking chances when we don't have to.” Yellowlegs looked as if he was about to speak then appeared to change his mind. The group returned to the shielded room.

  “So what are the objectives here?” asked Skua. “If my understanding is correct we need to stop the coders from working. That is the given, but what about Osmium? If we leave her in place then this will happen again.”

  Ani took the question on. “Exactly. We need to do as much damage to her and her subordinates as we can. We cannot afford to be soft on anyone inside the castle.”

  “I agree completely regarding Osmium and her court, but I have a huge problem with taking out the coders. They are slaves, there against their will,” said Junco.

  Ani headed off the impending confrontation. “Okay we will do everything we can to get the coders out alive.”

  “Fair enough,” said Junco.

  “Teal, did you find out where the coders operate from?” asked Ani.

  “No, they are inside the castle but the exact location is a mystery.”

  Now that the objectives had been agreed upon, it was time to come up with a plan.

  13. THE CASTLE

  Yellowlegs stepped outside the shielded room and summoned a transporter. Teal gave it an address about a mile away from the castle and told the others what she had done.

  “Why make us walk?�
� Scoter asked her.

  “Because if I asked the transporter to take us straight to the castle, Osmium and her minions would have been notified, and we'd probably already be under attack.”

  “She's right,” said the barman. Skua nodded in agreement.

  The transporter dropped them in a backstreet in the middle of Miasma territory. Everything about the place felt bad. The eyes could not be seen but they could definitely be felt. A curtain twitch here, a door opening an inch there. This place ran on fear. They all sensed it. The group had walked barely a hundred yards when the first challenge occurred. Two males in the purple and red Miasma colors approached them with knives out and ready for business. Ani didn't wait for them to get close – he just moved his finger and the two slumped to the floor. The group carried on walking.

  “Well, if the clock wasn't ticking before, it certainly is now,” said Skua.

  Yellowlegs, the other Violencia native, agreed with him. “No point in loitering now, word will be out.” With that he started to jog and the others followed suit. They were approached twice more before they exited the streets and entered the park that surrounded the castle. In both cases there were four potential assailants and in both cases none survived. Teal was the only one who had any familiarity with the park and its layout as Violencia natives knew better than to even approach it. There were no guards at the automatic gates. The packs of colatoos that roamed the grounds usually rendered additional manpower unnecessary.

  It wasn't long before one of the packs realized that visitors were present and headed towards the group at dizzying speed. Scoter was lagging a little behind the group and if Yellowlegs had been any slower grabbing him and pulling him forward, he would have been the first course. Ani threw his arm in an arc over his head, from one side to the other. Blue static crackled and they were safe from the animals – at least for the time being. Several of the colatoos took it in turns to walk away from the group, turn and charge the force field bubble at full speed. After the fourth had nothing more than an injured shoulder to show for its efforts the pack slunk off.