by Isaac Hooke
“Wait!” Jason called.
She glanced over her shoulder, and then promptly vanished completely.
“Who was that?” Sophie said, coming up beside him.
“I don’t know,” Jason said.
“How did she get in here?” Tara said.
“She obviously hacked in,” Jason said.
“She has to be somewhere nearby,” Sophie said. “I mean in the real world. Within range of our comm nodes.”
Jason glanced at her, and then promptly logged off.
He had the Explorer begin a spiraling search pattern to look for signs of the intruder. He also left the cistern—the entrance hatch was only a little higher by then, so he easily stepped over.
Once he entered the dried up ravine that served as the retention pond, he joined the search. Tara and Sophie spread out, and Tara brought the dogs with her, in case they detected any foreign scents.
Jason divided them into quadrants, with the Explorer taking one, and the three mechs searching the remainder.
He pulled himself out of the crater that was the ravine, and waded through the bramble-weed vegetation that surrounded it. He scanned the area on all bands: visual, thermal, and LIDAR. But there was nothing out there.
When he finished sweeping the assigned area, he went a little farther before finally giving up. He was at the uppermost limit of his communications range with the other mechs. Any intruder would have had to have stayed within this distance from the cistern for any chance of interfacing with his comm node, let alone VR. In fact, they very likely would have had to have gotten a lot closer, given that the cistern itself would have interfered with reception. So he was well beyond the reasonable search area.
“I got nothing in my quadrant, did you guys fare any better?” Jason asked.
“Nope,” Sophie said.
“Likewise,” Tara reported.
Jason glanced at the map. The Explorer, though it was flying relatively low, hadn’t picked up anything either.
“Well I guess if anyone was out there, they’re gone now,” Jason said.
He turned back.
That was when he spotted it.
A small aberration on the thermal band. About thirty degrees to the right, in front of him, five meters away, behind a cluster of rocks and bramble-weeds. Like two, red footprints.
“Wait a second, I have something,” Jason said. “I’m marking it on the map.”
He did so, and approached.
All of a sudden a streak of blue light fired his way, striking the ground just in front of him, creating a small blast crater. He froze.
Meanwhile, ahead of him, space seemed to warp. The light bent, forming an almost humanoid shape from the background, a shape that began to flee.
Jason dashed forward, closing with that shape. It was just as tall as him. He hurled himself at it. The clang of metal upon metal reverberated from the pair as he tackled it.
He landed on the ground. His opponent materialized as the warped space dispersed. It was a Stalker mech, about the same size and shape as his own, except it had a long tail. It offered little resistance as he slammed his legs on top, pinning the unit. He noted that the weapon turret on the tip of that tail was pointed directly at him, and he considered trying to rip it off, but it was doubtful he’d succeed before it could fire, even in Bullet Time. It contained some sort of a plasma bolt weapon, judging from the impact he’d seen behind him. No doubt derived from the alien technology. And whatever technology it had used to turn invisible was definitely alien.
Sophie, Tara and the Rex Wolves arrived. The dogs barked and growled angrily.
“Well, well, well,” Sophie said. “We have our spy. A Stalker mech. The preferred model for scouts.”
“Please don’t hurt me,” a female voice came over the comm. An avatar appeared in the lower right of his display. The face matched up with the woman he’d seen in VR. She was cute, with freckles all over. She’d gotten rid of the woolen cap, and sported long blond hair that spilled onto her shoulders.
“How did you get on this line?” Jason asked. “It’s private. And encrypted.”
“Sorry,” the voice said. “I hacked in. And into your VR, too.”
“She’s a hacker…” Sophie said.
Jason sat up slightly, but still remained on top of the mech, pinning her in place.
“I’m sorry for hacking into your VR,” the pinned unit continued. “I was really bored. And… so lonely. I’m sorry.”
“You’re not part of a retrieval team?” Jason asked.
“A what?” she replied. “No. No way. I’m just, well I’m by myself. And I… I don’t know what I am. I woke up a few days ago in this place. I hate it here. I just want to go home.”
“What’s your name?” Jason said.
“I’m Lori,” she said.
“Lori,” Jason said.
“That’s right,” Lori said.
“All right,” Jason said. “And you know our names already, thanks to your hacking?”
“That’s right!” Lori said eagerly. “You’re Jason. She’s Tara. And she’s Sophie.” Her avatar suddenly looked chagrined. “Er. Sorry again for what I did. I was really bored.”
“You keep saying that,” Sophie said. “Peeping Tom. Tell me what else you saw? Did you peer into my VR last night, too?”
“Oh no!” Lori said. “I only went into his VR when you all returned to the cistern. I’ve been watching you since this morning, when I heard you pounding into the rock. And spying on your communications as soon as I was within range.”
Sophie rounded on Jason. “She’s been spying on us all morning!”
“And so she has,” Jason said.
“You’re able to hide on every band, from visible light to thermal?” Tara asked her.
“That’s right!” Lori said. “The only thing that gives me away is my feet—the heat has to go somewhere. But none of that usually shows up, especially if I position myself properly when you send your drone flying by.”
“I almost missed her,” Jason said. “I walked right by her the first time, and didn’t even notice the thermal signature of her feet.” He glanced down at her. “Well, I suppose if you wanted to attack us, you would have done it already. Still, you did fire at me, and I didn’t really like that.”
“Oh, I wasn’t trying to hit you!” Lori said. “Did I?”
“No,” Jason said.
“Okay, good,” Lori said. She seemed relieved. “I only wanted to scare you off. I didn’t know what you would do if you caught me.”
“Well, now you know,” Jason said. He stood up, and offered a hand to help her up.
She accepted, and said, rather breathlessly: “Thank you!” The Rex Wolves were still occasionally barking beside her, but they’d stopped growling at least.
Lori looked at the animals. “I like your… dogs?”
“Thanks,” Tara said suspiciously.
“So now I guess we have to decide what we’re going to do with her,” Jason said, glancing at Sophie and Tara.
“Can I stay with you?” Lori asked quickly.
“No,” Sophie and Tara answered at the same time.
The Shadow Hawk and Highlander exchanged a look.
“First time we’ve been on the same wavelength,” Sophie said.
“For good reason,” Tara said. She turned toward Jason. “We can’t let her stay. There’s not enough room in the cistern.”
“There’s more than enough room,” Jason said. “Where’s your heart?”
“I left it behind in my human body,” Tara said.
“Her invisibility tech might be useful…” Sophie said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m saying she should stay. I say we make her give us the tech, and then we send her packing.”
“If you don’t want me, I… I guess I’ll move on,” Lori said. Her avatar seemed to be tearing up. “I’ll find somewhere to stay. Somewhere to hide from the monsters.”
“Yes, you’ll move on, but only after you give us your invisibility tech,�
�� Tara said.
“I don’t think it’s possible,” Lori said. “The technology is integrated with my Stalker. I don’t think it can be duplicated.”
“Maybe it can’t be duplicated,” Tara said. “But I’m sure the Teaching AIs will be able to tell us how to take it from you.”
“But if you take it from me, I’ll be defenseless!” Lori said.
“So?” Tara said.
“You can stay with us on one condition,” Jason said.
“No she can’t!” Tara whined.
“On one condition,” Jason repeated. “You’re never to hack into my VR, or any of our VRs, again. You have to ask for permission, and then accept the standard way.”
“Oh yes, I promise I won’t,” Lori said. “I mean I won’t hack in. I’ll ask permission. And I won’t listen into your comm band anymore either.”
“Good,” Jason said. “I’m giving you the official codes so you can link up. But no listening on our private comms, got it?”
“For sure!” Lori said.
“Good,” Jason said.
“And lose the tail in VR,” Tara said.
“No!” Lori said.
Tara glanced at Jason. “It was worth a try.”
14
Jason and the others spent the next two days inside. Lori was kind enough to donate her repair drones to the housing project, and he diverted them to help with the solar collectors, and the main entrance hatch, which was taking the longest time to build. He had all of the drones stop their construction when it got dark, because he didn’t want to attract any of the mutants, and had Tara call the Rex Wolves inside for the night. He also landed the Explorer, because it’s humming might draw the creatures.
Throughout the evening, before they idled their consciousnesses in sleep mode, he often heard strange shrieks and howls in the distance. Jason had diverted some of the repair drones to print up a bunch of cameras, and he’d deployed them at various locations along the perimeter to keep watch. He’d also put some in the city street that bordered the escape tunnel. These were all passive cameras, able to transmit and record on the visual and thermal bands. He didn’t want to install something active like LIDAR, just in case military drones swept past looking for them—something like LIDAR would readily broadcast their location. He’d set up alerts to trigger whenever motion was detected.
At eight o’clock every night they slept. Jason did, too, trusting in his cameras. He awoke sometimes when an alert triggered; he’d access the feed of the camera in question and spot strange creatures roaming past. Sometimes he wouldn’t see anything at all, as whatever had triggered the alert would be long gone.
Yes, he slept. It was great, being able to fall asleep on command, and without having to worry about tossing and turning for an hour beforehand. Not to mention, he could do it in any position: standing up, seated, whatever. Yep, being a machine wasn’t so bad.
Every morning, they were up at four, and when dawn broke, they’d reactivate the drones to continue building the hatches, and the solar panels.
They spent a lot of time in Jason’s shared VR, especially in the hours before sunlight in the morning. They usually spent a couple of hours in his VR in the evenings, too. Jason had created a bedroom for each of the girls in his mountain home, all on the same floor as his master bedroom. Lori kept trying to sleep in the same room as him, on the floor, but he turned her down because he didn’t want to make the other girls jealous.
The entrance to the cistern got harder to navigate as the main hatch grew higher, until on the third day since building began, none of them could leave at all, not even the Rex Wolves. The dogs sat in the corner, lethargic without their daily dose of sunlight. The mechs plugged themselves into the power cells that were fed by the solar collectors outside, and charged.
And then, near dusk of that third day, construction was complete.
“Well,” Jason said. “That went a little faster than I expected. Considering the downtime the drones had to spend repairing themselves from the wear and tear. I have to thank Lori for donating her repair drones to the project. That helped speed things up.”
“You’re very welcome!” Lori said, her avatar beaming.
Jason examined the inside of the entrance hatch via his headlamps. He accessed the remote interface, and was able to execute the open command. The door irised open, the metal deploying into its surrounding frame. He could readily squeeze past, and outside. The Rex Wolves were happy to run outside and soak up the last minutes of sunlight.
“We’re going to have to build a few more portals, I think,” Jason said. “At different locations inside the entrance tunnel. For an added layer of security.”
“That works for me,” Tara said.
Jason returned to the cistern and checked out the escape tunnel in the ceiling. He was also able to spiral open that portal, whose tunnel led to a city street. There were rungs in the tunnel so that the mechs could climb—they had to leap up and grab the first rung, but after that they could pull themselves up. He tested the route by doing just that, and then scaled the intervening rungs to the surface. He glanced at the street outside, and then let go of the top rung to fall back down.
Right on top of Lori’s Stalker mech.
Jason crumpled on top of her, and rolled away, into a pillar. “Gah! What are you doing?”
“Sorry,” Lori said. “I thought you were going out, and I wanted to come, too.”
“Yeah well, I wasn’t.” Jason saw the big dent he’d made in her chest assembly. “Better get that repaired.”
Tara called the Rex Wolves back, because it was getting dark, and Jason recalled the drones, and sealed both exits.
“All right, well, this is finally beginning to feel a little bit like a home,” Jason said.
Jason instructed some of the drones to repair the dent he’d made in Lori’s chest, and had the other drones shut down for the night. Then he entered his VR in preparation for sleeping.
His man cave appeared around him. He heard giggling from upstairs. The girls were having their usual pre-bed supper.
He walked to the patio and went outside to smell the virtual mountain air.
Tara appeared from nowhere to stand beside him.
“I hate it when you do that,” Jason said.
She shrugged. “I am a teleporter.”
“Everything is going well between you and the other two?” Jason asked.
“As well as can be expected,” Tara said. “I’m managing, anyway. It’s getting crowded in here.”
“Good thing we can build-out as many rooms as we want in VR, huh?” Jason said.
“I meant in the cistern,” Tara said.
“It’s not so bad,” Jason said. “We all have our own corners. We could fit more if we needed to.”
“God, I hope not,” Tara said.
“What’s the matter?” Jason said. “You make it seem like you don’t like female company.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I do,” Tara said. “It just seems like there isn’t enough testosterone to go around, if you know what I mean.”
“Not really,” Jason said.
“Is Lori still trying to sleep with you?” Tara asked.
“She was never trying to sleep with me,” Jason replied. “She wanted to sleep on the floor.”
“So she says,” Tara said. “You’d shut your eyes and a moment later she’d be climbing into bed beside you.”
“Well you could do the same,” Jason said. “Worse, even. Teleporting directly into my bed.”
“Except that you disappear from VR when you go to sleep,” Tara said. “That’s purposeful?”
“Obviously,” Jason said. “It’s to prevent the very scenario I described. I don’t need people teleporting into my bed when I’m under.”
“It’s your VR,” Tara said. “You make the rules here. You can prevent materializations in your room if you want.”
He hadn’t considered that. “I suppose I can. But I still think I’m going to disappear when
I sleep. If Lori can hack my VR, that means any of you can.”
“No,” Tara said. “It’s one of her unique abilities.”
Jason pursed his lips. “You all bring something to the table, don’t you?”
“I suppose so.” Tara looked out toward the lake.
Jason followed her gaze, and regarded the mountains reflecting from the surface of the water. He’d set his VR to dusk, and the clouds were a colorful mix of reds and purples, also reflected from the lake. Nightingales chirped somewhere nearby.
“What do you think our original purpose here was?” Tara said.
“I don’t know,” Jason said.
“Speculate,” Tara said.
“Hunt bioweapons?” Jason said. “Dig out Nightmare nests?”
“That would make sense,” Tara said. “But why send us, when there are bombers, and other offhand methods of doing the same thing? Hell, I was doing remote bombing missions on the coasts, if you remember.”
“Maybe the military wanted something more precision based,” Jason said. “Something that could kill these mutants, without destroying everything else around them.”
“I suppose we’ll never know,” Tara said.
“Maybe it’s better that way,” Jason said.
She glanced at him, and for a moment he thought she wanted to say more, but then she looked away. “Have a good night.”
“Thanks,” Jason said.
She vanished, perhaps teleporting to her room before logging off.
Lori dashed out from the patio behind him. “Hi!” As usual, she was dressed in winter clothes, with a wool cap on her head, and thick pants and boots.
“Oh hey,” Jason said. “How long were you there?”
“I wasn’t listening in,” Lori said, lowering her gaze. She swept her tail behind her back.
“You know, that is kind of distracting,” Jason said, nodding toward the tail.
Her face dropped. “You don’t like it?”
“No, it’s fine,” Jason said.
She was all smiles again. “I’m glad. It helps me control the tail I have in real life. At first I didn’t create a tail here, but whenever I’d return to the real world, I’d have to get used to having one again. I figured, why not just keep the tail all the time, in both the virtual and real worlds? Then I wouldn’t be so caught off guard when I returned to reality.”