Gestalt Prime

by Ignacio Salome

  Alexia

  THE FRONT OF the distribution center was lined with gates where laborers brought up carts loaded with those knapsacks they had seen back in the greenhouse. Vegetable products were being dropped off there to be sent down to the junctions underground. Alexia walked towards a door on the side of the gates and Joel followed, apparently still looking in all directions for Citpol.

  You still can’t detect anyone? Alexia whispered.

  No. There aren’t many detection systems on the surface, Aurora replied. Don’t change the subject though.

  What do you want me to say? Alexia replied in her mind. That I didn’t like my clean apartment? That I didn’t like the idea of not having to risk my life inside a greenhouse or at a dig site?

  Listen to yourself. You’re justifying the abuse done to you by the Controller Program. By your stepfather Ethan Sommers.

  You were right too, Alexia whispered as she looked down, disappointed with herself. I’m scared even if I clear my name, once it’s all over I’m going to be just another anonymous woman surviving out here.

  Joel seemed to notice and stopped then asked “are you okay?”

  “Yes,” Alexia replied. “Let’s just keep going.”

  Joel nodded and they walked inside the building where Alexia was surprised by all the activity going on. From the outside, it didn’t look like much but near the loading dock, dozens of people stacked crates and knapsacks off the delivery carts onto smaller carts then they were taken away. Other laborers returned with empty crates which they handed back to the people making the rounds outside. Crates filled with vegetables were being moved towards the back. Some of the laborers would look at them for a few seconds then return to their work. No one there appeared alarmed by the newcomers.

  “The drop off rooms should be in the back,” Joel said. Alexia nodded and followed him.

  Whatever happens now, the Program must be stopped, Aurora continued. After Francisco Citadel, Sophia and the failed test subjects we saw. It must be stopped at all costs, including your personal comfort.

  I know, Alexia whispered. I was being selfish there for a moment. I know what’s at stake but I also have a right to think what I want without you judging me.

  Think whatever you want but let your actions speak for themselves, Aurora whispered. And you were right also, this is all you’ve ever known. I understand you’re scared of what’s going to happen now.

  Whatever happens. Either Citpol catches us and I am convicted of genocide or I end up out there, risking my life every day like father did.

  You wouldn’t be the first one. Maybe they’ll let you go live with Joel like he offered.

  He’s so naïve to think I would be left off to go on with my life like that, Alexia whispered then looked at Joel with a smile who noticed and smiled back.

  Well, believe me when I say I hope things work out for you two.

  Thanks, Alexia whispered but knew the chances of that happening were next to none.

  After a short walk inside the distribution center, Alexia saw a row of rooms with large doors.

  “This is it,” Joel said.

  Dodging people pushing carts in and out of the rooms, they continued to their goal. On their way there, Alexia peeked inside and saw they contained storage racks on the sides where crates were placed and other laborers filled empty knapsacks with the rations of the day. Then towards the back, the filled sacks were placed against a raised platform where a supervisor checked them one by one then threw them down a hole.

  It didn’t take long for them to reach a room without too many people in it. Joel turned right to go in and Alexia followed.

  “Are you sure it’s safe?” Alexia asked quietly.

  “Should be,” Joel replied. “Just keep your hands wrapped around your body. I think the material these suits are made of should let us slide down the pipe easily.”

  Alexia nodded to acknowledge but still couldn’t put aside the fact they were going to jump down a hole about three hundred meters deep. Joel walked inside then climbed the three steps up the raised platform. The worker there looked at him and said “what do you want?”

  Joel stood there as if unsure of what to say then tried “well, you see…” giving up, he pushed the worker who fell down the side of the platform. The other laborers in the room looked at him, alarmed then left in a hurry.

  “Come on,” Joel said. “We might not have much time.”

  “Alright,” Alexia said then climbed up to stand next to him. Next to their feet, there was a hole about a foot and a half wide.

  “I’ll go first, wait 10 seconds then follow,” Joel said.

  Alexia sighed and shook her head. Joel seemed to realize she was paralyzed with fear so he approached and grabbed her shoulders while looking in her eyes and said “you can do this. Ten seconds, okay?”

  She nodded then saw Joel jump in, immediately disappearing in the darkness of the tunnel. After counting ten seconds, Alexia took a deep breath then jumped in. At first, there was a sudden pull down and she felt her chest and head warm up from the blood rush. Without a point of reference in the pitch black darkness, it was hard to see how fast she was going but like Joel said, she kept her arms around her chest and the patchwork suit slid down the steel pipe easily. After a few seconds, the tunnel swirled, making her hit the side but at that speed it didn’t make much of a difference. Without a way to orient herself there was no way to tell where she was going. Then surprisingly as quick as it started, she found herself on a pile of empty knapsacks inside a round steel room which had closed windows all around. Joel was standing on the side with his hands on his knees, hyperventilating. She tried to stand up but the dizziness was too overwhelming so instead settled for sitting there for a moment. The empty sacks were almost as comfortable as the bed she had used in the underground sanatorium but still good enough to close her eyes and take deep breaths to return her senses back to normal. Plenty of times in the past she had done so on those occasions where Aurora had decided to mess with her senses.

  “Okay,” Joel struggled to say. “I’m never doing that again, ever.”

  “Same,” Alexia said then chuckled, causing Joel to chuckle too. After a couple minutes, she had recovered well enough so she could stand up and look around the strange room she was in then asked “what is this place?”

  “It’s the rations center for my junction,” Joel said. “It’s empty right until late afternoon when laborers start coming back from work and pick up the rations for the day on their way home.”

  “Okay, so now what?”

  “We exit and go west down tunnel seven then we find the service elevator that will take us down to my workshop. From there, it’s a short walk then another elevator ride straight to the reactor chamber. I mean, the portal chamber I guess.”

  “Good,” Alexia said. “Almost there.”

  Joel nodded then walked to the door and slowly opened to peek out and said “weird, the commissary is empty. The whole place is abandoned.”

  “Is that not normal? Maybe people don’t show up until later.”

  “No,” he replied with concern. “There should be attendants at the commissary window and small children playing here.”

  “Well, we can’t stay here indefinitely.”

  “Right,” he said, looking down as if trying to come up with a plan.

  Wait, Aurora suddenly whispered to Alexia.

  She immediately understood her sister meant that to reach Joel so she said out loud “wait.”

  “What is it?” Joel asked.

  “One second,” Alexia replied. What’s wrong?

  I don’t know but he’s right, the junction is deserted along with the two contiguous tunnels.

  Is there anyone from here to the service elevator?

  Motion sensors are null, that’s all I can tell.

  Well, it’s weird but it should be safe, right? Alexia asked in her mind.

  I suppose so, yes.

  “Alright, Aurora says the motion se
nsors are not showing any activity from here to the service elevator,” Alexia said.

  Joel nodded then said “it’s weird the place is empty but we can use that to our advantage.”

  “Maybe there’s some kind of evacuation training going on?”

  “We never do those kinds of things down here,” Joel replied as he shook his head.

  “What choice do we have?” Alexia asked.

  “None.”

  “Alright let’s go then.”

  Joel opened the steel door and stepped out then Alexia followed behind.

  “Alright, that’s enough,” Alexia heard a familiar voice behind her say. She turned and saw Private Stone, standing there with another Citpol officer she did not recognize. They both pointed rifles at them. “Hands in the air.”

  No, we were almost there, Alexia whispered in her mind as she turned and raised her hands. Joel followed and did the same.

  Comply for now, Aurora replied. I’m working on a distraction.

  “How did you find us?” Joel demanded.

  “Keep silence and turn around,” Stone replied. “And put your hands behind your back.

  Their weapons are disabled, run now! Aurora echoed in Alexia’s mind.

  When Alexia heard steps behind her within range, she quickly turned around and hit the man in front of her on the chest with both hands. It had little effect but it was enough for him to take a step back and Joel to understand what was going on. He immediately punched the officer and he fell down. Behind him, Stone pointed his rifle at Joel and pulled the trigger but the firearm did not react and instead showed a red light next to the trigger guard.

  “Run!” Alexia yelled and made for tunnel seven. Then, she turned around and saw Joel following closely behind and Stone a few feet away chasing them. As soon as they entered tunnel seven, a steel blast door fell down, leaving the three Citpol outside.

  “Was that you, Aurora?” Alexia asked when she saw it.

  Yes, Aurora replied.

  “Good job,” Joel said. “Alright, we just have to go around this tunnel and we’ll see the elevator in a moment.”

  “We’re almost there then,” Alexia said and walked away from the blast door. As they made their way down the tunnel, Alexia looked around and vaguely recalled those days when she had been living in the ventilation tunnels with other kids who for one reason or another were not with her parents. The damp cave was thick with that smell of earth she had not felt for almost fifteen years, ever since the Controller Program had picked her up for training. They passed some vents and she looked down a couple of them to check if she could see any alley rats there but didn’t see anyone. Whatever evacuation protocol Citpol had used seemed to have been very through.

  Then in the distance, she saw the door to the service elevator but blocking their way was Captain Solis and private Diaz. Diaz pointed her rifle at them and Solis his sidearm.

  What now? Alexia asked.

  Nothing I can do, that handgun is not network-aware, Aurora replied.

  “Just come here, slowly,” Solis commanded with that thunderous voice that demanded attention. He then reached for the radio on his chest and said “open gate to tunnel seven from junction six.”

  “Yes, sir,” a garbled voice responded.

  Back in the distance, Alexia heard the heavy blast door retracting then soon after that, Stone and the other two officers had joined them. After taking some steps, Alexia and Joel were standing a few feet from the Captain. He passed the handgun to Diaz who took it and put aside her rifle on its sling so she could aim it at them.

  “It pays to have collected ancient firearms after all, Controller,” Solis said as he took two steps forward then stopped and held his arms behind his back.

  “How did you know we were coming here?” Joel demanded.

  Solis looked at him then dismissively back at Alexia and said, “sometimes the old fashioned solution is better than the high tech one. Take for example the ARZ-1500 carbine with its fingerprint actuated trigger. Useful to keep undesirables from using it but useless when its electronics can be hacked so easily by a Controller such as yourself.”

  “You’re not taking me back,” Alexia heard herself saying with clenched fists.

  “But sometimes the high tech solution is helpful,” the Captain continued. “Like that geolocator built into your stemlink which we have been tracking since this morning.”

  “What?” Alexia said, reaching for the titanium cover on the back of her neck.

  I didn’t know, Aurora whispered.

  “Of course you didn’t know,” Solis said. “When you hand the Citadel kill switch to a single person, there must be some sort of mechanism to stop them from doing what Maya did in Francisco Citadel. Just like the chief here said yesterday.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Alexia said.

  “I know,” Solis said. “It was my idea to misinform the Citadel with the news of your supposed terrorist activities. Maybe one day you’ll forgive me.”

  As he pointed that out, the other officers lowered their weapons and Alexia looked at Joel, confused and he appeared to be just as disturbed.

  “Why would you do that?” Joel demanded. “You understand you have ruined her life with those accusations?”

  “Not necessarily, it would just take another carefully crafted public service announcement to take it all back. But anyway, the stakes were too high. We needed to find Director Sommers one way or another and I knew eventually he would break his stepdaughter out of prison then she would lead us to him.”

  “Was it really necessary?” Joel asked.

  “It was,” Solis said motioning to the elevator behind with his head. “Now we know where he is.”

  “What are you going to do with him?” Alexia asked. “And what about me?”

  “I don’t know, that’s up to the Troika to decide.”

  “Wait, you can’t just go down there,” Joel said. “He’s got some kind of wearable computer that gives him root access to all Citadel systems. He’s a man on the run with nothing to lose, he could collapse the barrier with it if he wanted.”

  “I know,” Solis said with exhaustion in his voice. “That’s why it was so tricky to find him.”

  “Let me talk to him first,” Alexia interjected.

  The Captain raised an eyebrow and focused his attention back to her and asked “what could you accomplish?”

  “He thinks he can prove our innocence if he reads some files I carry in my stemlink,” she replied. “Maybe I can convince him to turn himself over while we’re at it.”

  “Martin is down there too,” Joel added. “If that fails I think we can overpower an old man who probably hasn’t slept in a long while.”

  Solis looked down and crossed his arms, apparently trying to decide what to do.

  “If he sees you with your guns, he might do something stupid,” Joel added.

  “Very well,” the Captain said. “You have fifteen minutes then we’re coming down.”

  With that, Solis motioned to Diaz to step aside. Joel approached the keypad on the side of the elevator but it unlocked itself before he did anything then its wire mesh doors opened.

  “We’ll have to do something about those powers you have over electronics,” Solis said as Alexia walked inside the elevator cab.

  Joel followed then the doors closed and soon they were being slowly lowered down. It was surprising for Alexia that even after learning the Troika was only after Ethan, she still didn’t feel any more at peace than before. Perhaps, she figured, the real source of her distress was facing him. She wasn’t even sure what she was going to say or what to expect from her stepfather.

  “See? I told you things were going to work out,” Joel said, breaking the silence. She faced him and he smiled, maybe trying to cheer her up but she only nodded then looked away.

  Eventually, the elevator stopped and they stepped out. He pointed at what looked like a large metal cube embedded on the wall and barely visible in the distance under th
e dim lighting of the cave and said “that’s where I work most of the time.”

  “I see,” Alexia said. “I’ll check it out some other time.”

  “Sure,” he said then pushed the button for the other service elevator on the side which would take them to the reactor chamber.

  After a ride down that felt longer than she thought it would be, the wire mesh doors opened and Alexia stepped onto the dimly lit natural cave that housed the reactor core. It was larger than the one she had seen in Francisco Citadel and lacked an antechamber. There were computer terminals facing the back and in front of them, the giant chrome sphere that hummed steadily and floated there in place with a steel structure on top that resembled giant metal fingers. Every now and then, electric arcs would jump between the sphere and the structure. And in front of the sphere, stood Ethan Sommers. The man who had devised the Controller Program. The man who had rescued her from the alleys. The man who had played with the lives of uncounted children. And the man who at one point, had adopted her. On his side stood another man she did not recognize and was probably this Martin person Joel had mentioned.

  “Stay back,” Alexia said motioning to Joel who as soon as he stepped out of the elevator, pushed the button to recall the cab up. “I’ll talk to him.”

  “Are you sure?” Joel asked and looked her in the eyes.

  “Yes. He is my father or at least he was, I’ll be okay.”

  “Alright, I’ll see you back in a moment.”

  Alexia nodded and walked away from Joel, approaching Ethan. Martin walked from where he was standing and joined Joel next to the elevator. As she approached, the background lighting emitted by the sphere illuminated the back of the cave. Ethan stood there with an expression of relief in his face. He took a few steps and opened his arms to hug her but she stopped.

  I wish I was out there with you, Aurora whispered.

  Thanks but it’s not necessary, Alexia replied.

  I have a promise to myself to fulfill.

  Unsure of what her sister meant by that she stood there in silence. Ethan seemed to get the message she was not going to accept his greeting and asked “are you okay? Did they hurt you?”