Gestalt Prime

by Ignacio Salome

  “What? I’m simply pointing out facts,” the engineer replied defensively then sat down.

  Solis shook his head in disapproval. “I’m sorry, Alexia. Apparently, engineers are not taught manners these days,” the Captain said as he faced Alexia who looked back in silence still unsure of how to react. Joel’s last comment seemed to grab Aurora’s attention who looked at him with curiosity.

  Really? Alexia asked. Oh yes, you two are perfect for each other.

  Aurora looked back at her again in silence as if interpreting the words but didn’t seem interested in continuing the situation. Solis then went back to his book and Joel pulled a tablet from his bag. The novelty of the world outside had worn off very quickly. As much of an interesting sight as it was, it reminded her too much how easily they would all die if anything compromised the shielded cabin of the PPC. At that moment, Alexia regretted not bringing a book or a tablet herself. It was going to be a long ride.

  Hey, can you play music from a memory or something? Alexia whispered.

  “It doesn’t work that way. I would need to reroute activity to the audiovisual centers of the cerebral cortex which would hurt you,” Aurora replied. “You should get some sleep to be rested for fast-convergence.”

  I guess, Alexia replied then pushed a button on the chair to recline it all the way back. It was surprisingly comfortable given how the rest of the vehicle exhibited a utilitarian priority in its design. She spent what felt like an hour trying to sleep but the occasional bumps that shook the PPC would startle her. Still, she lay in a fetal position trying to relax. With her eyes closed, she heard someone moving around in the cabin then something warm covering her body. When she opened her eyes, she saw Solis putting a blanket on her. He nodded and went back to his chair. The blanket certainly helped as soon she felt drowsy and went to sleep.

  *

  Alexia woke up startled to someone gently shaking her shoulder. It was dark outside and she barely recognized Solis under the faint light inside the PPC cabin. She pushed the button on the chair to bring it back up then removed the blanket and stretched her arms, yawning as she realized she had slept through the whole ride.

  “Uhm… what’s going on?” she asked.

  “We’re here and we need to move on,” Solis replied.

  Surprised it had been over eight hours, Alexia looked out the window but it was too dark to see much else beyond what appeared to be the front of a building right outside. The other two officers and Joel looked occupied gathering their equipment.

  “Oh I’m sorry,” she said embarrassed. “Go ahead, I’ll wait for the signal to come out.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not how it works,” he said. “There is no depressurization chamber in these vehicles so we all need to put on the suits before we open the door.”

  “I don’t understand, Director Sommers told me to wait here while your team made sure it was safe.”

  “No can do. We only have so much oxygen in the suits, you’re coming with us. Don’t worry, there’s nothing dangerous outside except the environment. The Director asked me to make sure you could move around without being surrounded by the casualties. That’s going to take too much work so you’ll need to get accustomed to whatever sights we may encounter.”

  Alexia felt a little embarrassed that Ethan had asked them to clean around for her as if underestimating her ability to cope with the devastation. He was probably just worried though. Solis’ approach sounded like a better idea. Instead of sitting there waiting for them, she could come with the main group and help in any way she could.

  “Alright then,” she said. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Please join Private Diaz in the front to change, we’ll do the same back here to give you some privacy,” Solis replied.

  Joel and Stone went to the back of the cabin and started checking their suits. Diaz was already sitting at the copilot’s chair checking both hers and Alexia’s.

  “Got it,” Alexia said but then realized there were no walls in the cabin and would have to change in the cramped space in front of everyone. She stood up and moved to the front to sit on the driver’s side.

  “Which one is mine?” she asked Diaz.

  “Here,” the officer replied, handing her the suit. From there, she could see the men taking off their clothes to put on the pressurized suits. They all faced away though, going out of their way to respect the women’s privacy.

  What are you waiting for? Aurora whispered.

  Fighting off the uncomfortableness of the situation, Alexia took a deep breath then removed her shoes and the lab uniform. She put on the pressurized suit as fast as possible. The suit was bulky and inside, the fabric was rough and ground slightly against her skin. The material it was made of was otherwise very light and flexible. Once she was in it, Diaz handed her a clear helmet and helped put it on by getting her ponytail out of the way then seal it down. There were some buttons on the chest which the security guard pushed, bringing the suit’s life support systems online. A faint hissing came and went away then she breathed in the pure oxygen which made her feel energized. Diaz then put on her own helmet and powered on the suit.

  “Can you hear me?” Diaz asked over the radio.

  “Loud and clear,” Alexia replied.

  “Almost ready,” Solis said over the same channel.

  Alexia looked at the back of the cabin to see Stone and the Captain helping Joel into his own suit then turned to check the buttons on front of her chest piece. Eventually everyone had suited up. Solis checked all the suits one by one then confirmed they were ready to exit and pushed some buttons by the door which opened it and let out the pressurized air inside. Alexia noticed the watch built into the left sleeve of the suit which displayed the time as 08:47PM. The complete absence of any noise except for her own breathing was unsettling and just another reminder that the group was now walking around in a zero-atmosphere environment.

  The other two pressurized personnel carriers were parked side by side with external lighting pointing to a spot between them where the Citpol who had arrived in them gathered. Solis, Diaz and Stone joined them while Alexia and Joel stayed behind. Apparently, the group had switched to a different radio channel and she couldn’t hear what they were saying. While Solis pointed and motioned probably giving orders to his squad, Alexia looked around her. She stepped out of the vehicles’ light well onto the darkness and noticed the stars and the moon high above actually illuminated the surface pretty well. For a couple minutes, she stood there, looking at the starry sky in pure amazement. The lack of a barrier or even an atmosphere for that matter caused the stars to shine with a brightness she had only seen in pre-Sync pictures of outer space. After a moment, she faced down, looking for familiar landmarks in a citadel she had never been to before. They were standing on a street just like the one outside of the control administration building back home but the layout of the panorama beyond was different. The greenhouses she could see were all collapsed as if all of them had been compressed by an unseen force at once.

  Then she noticed the first corpse on the sidewalk across the street. A farmer, most likely. It was hard to tell if it was a man or a woman in the dim light. The skin had a layer of crystallized ice but other than that it almost seemed as if this person was simply sleeping there. In the absence of a barrier, the atmosphere would dissipate and extreme temperatures from day or night would rapidly kill whoever happened to be on the surface at the time. Behind the corpse lay another. And then another and some more in the distance. Most of them were the size of adults but here and there she could see some children too. She had thought she would be strong enough to shrug off whatever devastation they would witness but at that moment she realized nothing could have prepared her for this. Without even noticing, her breathing accelerated as she felt a strong pressure on her chest, imagining the last moments of pain and hopelessness these people had gone through. Feeling the overwhelming need to get away from there, she took two steps back in horror, only to trip back
wards and fall down on the cold asphalt.

  Snap out of it, Aurora whispered, her actor materializing in front of Alexia blocking the view partially.

  All these innocent people… How could Sophia do something like this? Alexia whispered back. At that moment, a hand rested on her shoulder, startling her. When she turned, she saw Captain Solis who motioned with his arm for her to grab onto. She complied and was pulled up back on her feet. Joel stood there on the side and nodded at her then turned to join the main group. His eyes had betrayed he was just as disturbed.

  “Alexia, please stay with the group,” Solis said over the radio, directing her back to the pool of light that blinded them to the view beyond. She nodded then followed him.

  “Alright so here’s the situation,” the Captain said, facing her and Joel. “One of the teams ran tests on the control administration labs and found major damage to the infrastructure. You will not be able to perform a fast convergence from here.”

  “All I need is a fiber uplink to the mainframe onsite,” Alexia said, her composure somewhat restored.

  “I can set something up in the reactor chamber,” Joel said. “High speed uplinks are usually rare anywhere else but we’ll find plenty of fiber connections there. It might take me about an hour though since I have to restore power to critical systems first.”

  “Good,” Solis said. “You go ahead and do that. Looks like the elevators are functional.” He then switched channels and talked to his people. Stone detached from the group and joined Joel.

  “Stone, escort the chief to the reactor chamber and stand by while he works there.” Solis ordered.

  “Yes sir,” Stone replied then walked away with Joel towards one of the entrances to the subterranean levels a block away.

  This buys us time while he works on that, Aurora whispered. We need to go to the botanical research lab.

  Right, Alexia replied then walked towards Solis.

  “Excuse me, Captain,” she said, touching his shoulder to get for his attention. Solis turned and pressed a button on his arm to switch radio channels.

  “Yes, Alexia?”

  “I need to go to sublevel twelve. I’ll meet you at the reactor chamber when Joel is ready.”

  “Negative,” he said, shaking his head. “We’ll stay in a group until we have fully assessed the situation.” He then changed the radio channel and faced his team.

  He completely dismissed you, Aurora whispered.

  Yes, I noticed. What do you want me to do?

  You don’t convey your needs strongly enough. Try again and don’t ask. Demand.

  Alexia sighed then walked to where the Captain was standing and tapped on his shoulder. He turned again.

  “Yes, Alexia?” he asked, slightly annoyed.

  “I have official Citadel business to conduct as ordered by Director Sommers,” she said, struggling to sound firm and making up the words as she went. “You are obstructing my ability to do so. I will go to sublevel twelve with or without your consent.”

  The Captain looked at her apparently trying to make up his mind.

  “Very well,” he then said. “Diaz, you’re with the Controller.” Diaz approached them and nodded to Solis in acknowledgement. “Stay out of trouble, I’m responsible for your well-being.”

  Alexia nodded and turned to walk towards the subway station entrance. Diaz followed and caught up then pointed at her own arm while signaling the number 3 with her fingers. Alexia looked at the radio controls and pushed the buttons that appeared to switch channels. An LCD built into the suit showed the channel number.

  “Hello?” Alexia asked.

  “Copy,” Diaz replied. “What’s on sublevel twelve?”

  “Research labs.”

  The two of them continued towards the entrance then went down the stairs into an underground lobby which contained several elevators one of which was stationed at sublevel 25 where Joel and Stone were. Alexia walked towards one of them and Diaz followed.

  A few minutes later, the elevator wire mesh doors opened and the pair stepped out. Unlike the general population areas, the sublevel was not an open vault but rather a series of hallways extending into the distance. Except for the lights by the elevator doors, all others were off, giving the otherwise unremarkable halls an eerie atmosphere. Alexia stood there stumped as she had no idea where to go.

  “What are we looking for?” Diaz asked.

  “Botanical research.”

  “Alright,” the security guard replied then tapped on the screen attached to her arm. “This way,” she said pointing to the left then turning on her suit flashlights. Alexia noticed which button she had pressed and so she did the same. An LED on her shoulder powered on and made easier to see where they were going. Diaz continued guiding them with the map in her personal computer. The labs appeared to have been abandoned. Standard emergency protocol was for citadel inhabitants to gather in the lowest levels in case of a catastrophic event which was a relief for Alexia as she was not looking forward to seeing any more dead people. Eventually the pair arrived at a door with the words Botanical Research engraved on it. It was unlocked so they stepped in. The lab was quite large inside. There were rows of tables with plants on various stages of growth as well as small contained aeroponic tanks. Normally, botanists would be all over the place investigating better varieties of fruits and vegetables to grow in the aeroponic farms. Their research was critical to keep the population fed, given the space constraints and the limited supply of chemicals used in the greenhouses. But now, the place had been abandoned. There were still some personal effects on the tables. Pens, notepads, coats and other items had been left behind as the scientist had rushed to join the rest of the survivors down below.

  As they moved along the rows of tables, Alexia noticed a door with a smoked glass panel in the back which lacked any markings or labels. When she walked there and tried to open it, it was locked.

  “Weird,” Diaz said. “This is not in the map.”

  “It’s locked too,” Alexia pointed out. “Do you have some sort of master key?”

  “Sure, let me take a look,” Diaz said then pulled a small hammer shaped tool from the side of her suit and gave the glass on the door a firm tap which broke it down to tiny beads.

  “Diamond tip, the master key,” she said, smiling then got her arm inside, unlocking the door. Alexia returned the smile, nodding then stepped inside.

  The room was empty except for a desk against the back wall. On the desk, there was a small box that looked like a network switch. Two fiber cables ran from it to independent jacks on the wall. Alexia approached and examined it.

  It’s a network router, Aurora pointed out. High speed. And those are fiber uplinks.

  I don’t understand, what is it doing here? Alexia said.

  “Is this what you were looking for?” Diaz interrupted.

  “I’m not sure,” Alexia replied. “Can you give me a few minutes?”

  Diaz nodded and stepped out.

  Alexia picked up the small device hoping to see something that would help explain what it was for.

  You won’t find anything worthwhile there, Aurora whispered. Look at the jacks on the wall.

  She put the box down then noticed the labels on the jacks. The one on the left was labeled ‘CI-68’, the other ‘RP4-32’.

  What do the numbers mean?

  They look like patch panel identifiers but I don’t know what the designations mean.

  I have an idea, Alexia whispered then reached for the radio controls on her arm.

  “Joel, you there?” she asked.

  “Try channel two,” the voice on the other side replied, perhaps one of the Citpol from the other PPCs. Alexia pushed the button for channel two and tried again.

  “Hello, Joel?”

  “What’s up?” the engineer replied.

  “Do you know the patch panel designation codes for network cabling?”

  “Back home yeah but they could be different here. Read them to me.”

>   “CI-86 and RP4-32.”

  “Lucky, it’s the same designation. CI means Controller Interface and RP4, Reactor Panel Four. So, the first network drop connects to port 86 somewhere in the Control Administration building and the second one to port 32 in the reactor chamber.”

  “Anything else you can tell from the numbers?”

  “Well, I don’t know about the CI interface but Panel 4 in the reactor chamber is usually reserved for high speed fiber backbones. Wherever you are right now, there must be some kind of critical mainframe node or something that requires extremely high network throughput.”

  Alexia looked around but there was nothing there except for the network router.

  “Thanks, Joel. That is all.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  I don’t understand, Alexia whispered. I thought Sophia said her interface was connected to some kind of plant with roots that ran underground.

  I think I do, Aurora said. Someone set all this up for her.

  What do you mean?

  There is no way to monitor this room. No cameras, microphones or motion sensors. She couldn’t know what was in here.

  How did she implement the chemical reaction socket she created then?

  Same way I get things done when the task falls outside of my domain. I open a ticket and a support staff person like Joel does it for me. More importantly, think of the data flow this router sets up.

  Alexia wasn’t sure what to look for but the labels on the jacks clearly indicated that Sophia was able to connect to this router through the CI interface. Then the connection looped back to the reactor chamber.

  The Gea interface is actually in the reactor chamber.

  Correct. Additionally, the router would effectively partition the network connection into two segments. From the point of view of a network device or a Controller connecting to it, the RP4 jack could lead anywhere in the physical domain without the Controller knowing where specifically.

  Someone left this breadcrumb trail for Sophia, Alexia whispered, disturbed as she realized the implications. And tricked her into thinking she was interfacing with this plant-based entity on the other side.