“Pleased to meet you, Controller Sommers,” he said and shook her hand with a tight grip. The man had a firm voice and carried himself with a certain general stiffness. She figured he had either been trained in the old military style or watched too many movies to get an idea of how soldiers used to behave back during pre-Sync times.
“Nice to meet you too, sir,” Alexia replied.
“Captain Solis and his team will perform initial cleanup and facilities damage assessment at ground zero,” Ethan said. “But more important than that, he will make absolutely sure that you are safe at all times.”
“Thanks,” Alexia added with a timid smile. Solis nodded in acknowledgement.
“And this here is Joel Vega, power grid engineering chief.”
“Nice to meet you,” Alexia said, shaking his hand.
“Likewise,” he said, returning the handshake then immediately crossing his arms to his chest while staring at her in a strangely defensive manner. It was an odd way to behave but she didn’t think much of it. The poor guy was probably just as uncertain of the safety of the PPC as she was.
“And over there, we have….” Ethan said, motioning to the younger Citpol who had helped with her bag.
“Private Stone,” Solis said. “And Private Diaz back there.”
“Hi,” Alexia waved to him and the woman behind who nodded back.
“Well, now that we’ve been introduced, we have to get going,” Solis said then went back to meet the officers near the back of the vehicle. The engineer joined them and helped putting bags and supply boxes inside.
“As you can see, you’re in good hands,” Ethan said reassuringly.
“Thanks,” Alexia said. “It’s weird leaving the building though,” she added, looking back.
“Get used to it,” Ethan smiled. “After you’re back, you’ll be free to roam around as much as you want.”
Alexia observed the building. Over the past few years living there, she had explored nearly all floors and knew its layout by heart. She was looking forward to the prospect of not being bound to it but it was still hard to even imagine what she would do or where she would go instead.
This is our last chance until we come back, Aurora’s voice echoed in her mind, startling her. Ask him again.
Aurora’s words had made sense before. But it still felt like a betrayal to even suggest Ethan was lying. It was important to find out though and so she did her best to control herself, as she faced him and felt her heartbeat speed up.
“Dad?” she asked.
“Yes, Alexia?”
“Are you sure you don’t know how to unify my mind with Aurora’s?”
“I haven’t looked into it but like I said before, it’s not as simple as you would think.”
“Why not? You’re the neuropsychologist who designed the whole Controller program.”
“Again, like I said before, the split personality is not something we planned for,” Ethan replied, crossing his arms and speaking with that dreadful tone he used when he was beginning to lose his patience. “I already told you what I know, why do you keep asking?”
“I don’t know,” Alexia replied, distressed. “It just feels like you’re hiding something from us.”
“What gives you that idea?”
“Well, for one, Aurora couldn’t find any documentation files for the Controller Program in her embedded library.”
“You two are spying on me?”
“No, we just want to help you sort through years of notes. Maybe at some point you discovered something but never explored it further.”
“She won’t find anything,” Ethan said, lowering his voice. “I have enemies, Alexia. Powerful enemies that have opposed the Program from the beginning. I keep everything in my notebooks, away from prying eyes.”
“Why would anyone oppose it?” Alexia asked. “We have helped so much.”
“Some people don’t see the big picture. Back during its earlier stages, all they saw was the number of failed test subjects.”
Alexia considered this as she recalled the friends who had simply stopped showing up for training back in those days.
“You keep calling them failed test subjects,” she said. “But what really happened to them?”
“We have to focus on what’s ahead,” he replied. “You must trust that everything I do is for the good of humanity and I would never hurt you in any way.”
Alexia was about to point out he didn’t answer her questions when she noticed Captain Solis approaching them.
“The others are waiting for us,” Solis said. “We really have to get going.”
“Give us five minutes,” Ethan said. Solis nodded, annoyed then went back to the PPC.
“Listen,” he continued as he looked back at Alexia. “You’re my daughter. Forget the fact I adopted you. I love you as if you were my own.”
She looked up at him in silence, her eyes tearing up.
“You have to trust me,” he continued. “Do you?”
She nodded silently, wiping her eyes with a sleeve. “I’m sorry. I’m just so confused with everything that has happened. Leaving the Citadel only makes it worse.”
“I know,” he said as he reached to hug her. “It’s going to be alright. I know it’s important to you so I promise I’ll do my best to come up with a way to unify your minds.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you soon,” Alexia said as they separated then she turned and walked towards the back of the PPC. Near the door, Diaz, the female Citpol was there to help her climb the steps up the tall vehicle. Before she stepped in, Alexia looked back and saw Ethan going through the building doors.
Inside the PPC cabin, there were two seats in the front with the steering wheel and a mess of buttons and levers used to drive it. Private Stone was at the wheel and Diaz joined him as his copilot. Directly behind them, two rows of passenger seats ran perpendicular to the length of the vehicle and were arranged so they faced each other. On the sides, there were thick glass windows that offered a darkened view of the panorama outside. The rest of the space was occupied with crates and equipment. Alexia sat down on the left window chair facing the front. As scary as it was to travel outside of the protection of the barrier, she was also excited to see how the world outside looked like. Joel took the seat facing towards the back on the right side while Solis shut down the door then joined him to seat in front of him. Aurora then constructed her actor in the seat directly in front of Alexia and sat there in silence with a disappointed expression. Alexia didn’t feel like discussing her failure to extract any information from Ethan so she looked away to see the streets outside.
“System diagnostics have all passed and we have a confirmed oxygen seal,” Diaz said as she typed on a portable computer on the dashboard.
“Go when ready,” Solis ordered.
Private Stone pushed some buttons and the vehicle shook to life, the growl of its engine muffled inside the cabin, then they started moving down the street away from the Control Administration building. Absentmindedly, Alexia reached for the small titanium plate on the back of her head. Through the windows, she could see activity in the aeroponic farms as people went about their daily routines apparently still oblivious to recent events. It was hard to tell how long the Troika was going to keep the Francisco Citadel tragedy a secret.
Eventually, the PPC arrived at a street crossing where two more were parked. Diaz contacted them on the radio then they moved ahead with them on the back of the convoy. For a while they rode towards the edge of the Citadel as Alexia took in everything her eyes could capture outside.
“Enjoying the view, Controller?” Solis asked from his seat.
“This is all new to me,” Alexia replied, fascinated. “And please, just call me Alexia.”
Solis chuckled then pulled a book from his back pocket. It looked like an old novel whose pages were falling apart. He opened it at the bookmark and reclined his chair to give it his undivided attention. Next to him, Joel sat by his window as if lost in trance look
ing out as she was. After a few minutes, the convoy went down into a tunnel. Alexia looked around the cabin which was enveloped in darkness except for some indicator lights on the walls. They hadn’t moved for too long when the vehicles stopped.
“Cabin seal, 100%,” Diaz said as she read status reports from the computer. “Closing airlock.”
The deep rumble of machinery working outside made its way to the cabin. A loud sound of something heavy hitting the ground startled Alexia as she looked around for any visual clues of what was going on. Before she could find anything in the darkness, a large gate opened in front of them, letting in sunlight. For the first time in her life, Alexia saw the bright, clear tone of sunshine, free from the red shades that tinted it when filtered through the Citadel barrier. The PPC shook back to life then followed the others as they resumed the trip, climbing out of the tunnel onto the dead wastes outside.
“Should be about an hour to reach PCH,” Stone reported.
“PCH?” Alexia asked.
“Pacific Coast Highway. It’s an old but preserved road that will take us straight to Francisco Citadel.”
“I see, thanks,” she replied then sat back as she realized there was a strange, uncomfortable sensation of dizziness that made her grab onto the seat handles.
“Motion sickness,” Aurora pointed out.
“I think I’m going to vomit,” Alexia said, covering her mouth.
“Ah yes,” Solis said then stood up and went to the back of the cabin to look through one of the crates. “I forgot some people get sick on their first ride.” He then returned and handed Alexia a capsule from a small plastic bottle. “Go ahead, it’ll make you feel better.”
Alexia took the medicine and swallowed it then closed her eyes as she waited for it to take effect.
“Excuse me,” she heard Joel say, “can I have one too?”
“Sure, here you go,” Solis replied.
“Thanks.”
You’re going to have to get used to this. Alexia whispered in her mind. Pain, being sick, and all that. It’s not something you experience in the Controller domain.
“Correct, I do not process sensory feedback from your body as you do,” Aurora said. “I can detect pain registering in the brain and the subsequent chemical reactions the encephalon uses to mitigate it, but nothing more.”
Lucky you.
“You imply my state as a consciousness lacking a physical body counterpart is somehow favorable and even better than yours.”
In so many words, yes.
“You do this…” Aurora paused as if interpreting what was going on through Alexia’s mind. “… to make me feel better about myself.”
You kind of ruin it when you say it like that, Alexia whispered then opened her eyes. Luckily, the dizziness had receded for the most part. Aurora was looking at her in silence. Alexia realized her sister would go into those moments of quiet shortly after an exchange that included some sort of emotional interaction. Could be she had to take her time to learn the subtleties behind them. Not wanting to interrupt, she directed back her attention to the window and the view outside. The convoy was driving down a street packed with the ruins of buildings and destroyed cars. Amongst the desolated landscape, she spotted a few mummified corpses. The view was too sad and disturbing so she sat back and looked around the cabin. Solis and the reactor engineer had apparently reached the same conclusion as they didn’t look interested in peeking out. Diaz and Stone in the front didn’t have a choice. It could be they had been out there dozens of times before and after a while had grown desensitized to the desolation.
“Pacific Canyon ahead,” Diaz reported from the copilot’s seat.
Alexia looked out and saw they were on a road that turned north along the ruins of buildings lined up next to it on what once was a beach. Beyond the strip of sand, the landscape ran down a canyon as far as the eye could see. She had been taught in school how one of the consequences of atmospheric dissipation had been the gradual evaporation of all of the planet’s oceans but it was one thing to read about it in a textbook and another to actually see the empty tract of dry land. In the distance she spotted the massive corroded husks of boats and ships. Pictures and video clips in the Citadel network had showed her the mind-blowing amounts of saltwater that had once filled the canyon. It was depressing to see the once majestic sight be reduced to a sterile desert.
“Mind if I sit here?” the engineer said, interrupting her train of thought. He then sat on the chair in front of her, for a moment occupying the same space as Aurora, whose actor dissolved then reappeared on the seat to the right, visibly annoyed.
“Not at all,” Alexia said then returned her attention to the landscape outside. He looked out too, fascinated. It was unfortunate that a citadel had to fall for them to see the world outside with their own eyes.
The convoy continued north until the road ran directly next to the edge of the precipice. Travelers had once enjoyed the drive as a scenic route but now it was disturbing to imagine what would happen if the PPC veered off down the canyon.
“Amazing,” he muttered absentmindedly.
“Yeah,” Alexia said then figured it was going to be a long trip so she might as well try and carry a conversation with the engineer if only to pass the time. “Joel, right? Power grid engineer?”
“Uhm?” Joel mumbled, looking at her. “Oh yeah my job is to take care of whatever work is needed when you need a pair of hands to get dirty.”
“I see,” Alexia replied. There had been a kind of subtle hostility in his comment but she dismissed it, concluding it was just her not being used to people treating her like anything else than a Citadel elite. “Like what kind of work?” she added, continuing the conversation.
“You know, turning screws, pushing levers and whatever else can’t be controlled from an electronic interface.”
“Interesting. How long have you been working in power grid maintenance?”
“Five years. That’s practical experience. Before that, I spent three years in engineering school and two more doing hands-on training.”
“Impressive,” Alexia said with a smile. “Sounds like you did well in the aptitude tests.”
“Top of my class,” Joel pointed out with a slightly arrogant tone. “It was very hard to get where I am but then again that’s how it is for us regular folk without an implant that lets us do our jobs by just thinking about it.”
Her smile went away as she sat there trying to think what she had done to make him take that attitude.
Is it me or he is being a little bit rude? she whispered.
“Understandably so,” Aurora replied. “His role was rendered obsolete thanks to me.”
Oh, I see, Alexia said then returned her attention to the apparently frustrated engineer.
“Well, it wasn’t that easy for me either,” she said to Joel. “I joined the Controller program when I was eight then spent the next seven years in training.”
“Really?” Joel said with a bewildered expression. “Wasn’t that kind of a waste of time?”
“Excuse me?” Alexia asked defensively.
“The implant in your head lets you run all sorts of Citadel systems. I don’t know much else about it but I would imagine it gives you some sort of abstract translation in your mind to issue commands to electronic systems. In other words, you just have to think it then it’s done. Why all the training then?”
Alexia found herself at a loss for words.
“That’s an interesting sight,” Aurora said. “One of your worshippers has a slight understanding of how the stemlink works. Perhaps you should fill in the blanks and tell him there’s no conscious work involved and whatever your neural groups don’t take care of automatically, I do it for you.”
I’m glad you find this rude person’s remarks amusing.
“I am not amused but simply stating a fact.”
“It’s called a stemlink,” Alexia said, facing Joel. “And it took years to learn how to use it.”
“S
temlink,” Joel said as if registering the word. “Sounds like it makes use of your brainstem involuntary control functions. So then, does that mean you control the Citadel at a subconscious level?”
“Up to a certain extent, yes,” Alexia replied. “You seem to be well versed on the subject of human anatomy.”
“You learn a lot about many different things when you have a terminal with access to the Internet archives and too much free time on your hands,” Joel said, reclining back on his seat.
“Your role is not very demanding then?”
“It used to be back when it was thirty of us taking care of all power routing on top of capacitor matrix maintenance. Then you took over control of one system after the other. I’m more of a glorified mechanic these days.”
“I’m sorry you see it that way. It’s just more efficient when a Controller runs Citadel operations. You see less accidents, miscommunications, better resource management-“
“Accidents happen,” Joel interrupted. “But at least when you have different teams working different systems, you have some sort of system of checks and balances which forces them to hold each other accountable. Francisco Citadel is a good example of what happens when you give that much power to a single individual.”
“This tragedy was an isolated event,” Alexia countered, increasingly annoyed by this person with ignorant opinions. “Just the result of a mentally unstable Controller and nothing else.”
“My point exactly. It is absurd that a single person would have exclusive access to a citadel kill switch. Controller or not, people are unpredictable.”
Annoyance turned to disbelief. It was the first time anyone had said anything to her that wasn’t awed praise. It was understandable for the technician to feel betrayed he has spent those many years of his life training for a role that had been taken from him by the Controller Program but this shouldn’t give him the right to be so rude. As she thought of a way to counter that argument, she noticed Solis motioning for Joel to go back to his seat.
“Okay that’s enough, chief,” the Captain said. “You may want to come back here.” Joel shrugged and stood up to join him. “What’s the matter with you?” he added.
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