Cannibal

by Ivan Shaman

  “Twenty minutes, maybe twenty-five.” Jane shook her head. “You’d better not move for two hours, I think.”

  “Yes, half an hour is too short.” He remembered last time, when the chimera had bitten off a piece of his body, and he had recovered for ten hours. “The wonders of nanotechnology – healing fatal wounds in a day. We live in a good time.”

  “Really? I wouldn’t say that.” Squeezing the outer wound, she activated the surgical pistol again, connecting its edges. “I think it was better before the apocalypse.”

  “No one argues that.” Demon smiled sadly, before trying to sit up and grimacing in pain. He decided to stay on the floor. “Did you find anything interesting on the floor?”

  “You know, I really wasn’t up for this.” Jane grinned, sitting down opposite him so that he could see her. “I saved this Luminary’s life.”

  “Well, maybe not life,” Demon replied. “But plenty of time.”

  “Next time you’ll cure yourself,” Jane warned menacingly.

  “Sorry. I don’t mean to offend you.” Demon smiled. “I need an hour or two to heal everything. Do you want to find something to read at this time so you can tell me a story?”

  “Like what? Do you want a book or something like that?” She was surprised. “Well… I saw some there.”

  “No, I’d like dossiers of all the employees and the plans of the lab, if you can find them, of course.” He thought for a moment. “It would be nice to have some kind of a scientific journal on nanomachine replication—which was studied in this laboratory.”

  “That might be a difficult task,” Jane said, rising. “I’ll try, but no promises.”

  “Start with the principal’s office, if it isn’t locked,” he offered. “That’s the best chance, I think.”

  The girl went looting, and Demon fell asleep. He really wanted to be back in amongst his memories, but he only managed to fall into the sphere of the Light. It seemed a little more blurry than usual, but still everything was the same. Through sleep, he felt the silicone seams being absorbed by the tissues that the nanomachines bound at the molecular level.

  “Wake up, sleeping beauty,” Jane woke him. When he opened his eyes, he saw not her, but a thick stack of folders instead. Each, apparently, included several hundred documents. “I’ve brought you some fairy tales.”

  “Wow!” Demon gently probed his hips and then slowly sat up, leaning against the wall with his back for support. “Where did you find them?”

  “As you supposed, in the principal’s office.” She pointed to the open door at the end of the corridor. “There are a lot of them there. I don’t really understand why they kept paper documents, especially when it can all be easily recorded in the computer.”

  “That’s not paper,” Alex said, picking up the top folder. “It is plastic. It’s non-flammable, water-resistant, and resistant to alkalis and the passing of time. On such a medium, people keep what can’t be stored in computers for security reasons – so as to not be hacked.”

  “Wow, I didn’t know that.”

  “For almost a hundred years. It became widely spread since the emergence of 1024 qubit quantum computers. When hacking became more frequent, the government thought about different storage scheme options.”

  “You said you don’t remember anything.” Jane smiled.

  “It isn’t a memory, but rather a collection of knowledge, given along with the ‘Intelligence’ and ‘Master’ skills,” Demon replied. “So, I’m behind you here. By the way, while lying down, I’ve recalled that I served matins in the church.”

  “Congratulations,” Jane said sincerely. “I hope… other memories will return to you soon. Maybe, you’ll even remember me.”

  “I’ve remembered not you, but thoughts about you,” Alex pondered. “Do you remember where you used to work?”

  “Nope.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But if the memories are to come back, I’ll remember it sooner or later.”

  “You’re right,” Demon said and started to read the personal files. The first of the files Jane had brought him happened to be Caesar’s. He had been a senior technician. It was stated that he had only nominally been a laboratory assistant, and he had actually had worked on his PhD thesis here.

  Then, a few files later, he came across Lex’s details. The smiling Luminary was the head of a laboratory. However, in the photo he wasn’t smiling. His look was more like a look of a maniac who had been distracted from another beloved victim by nonsense.

  Padre’s file wasn’t in the laboratory staff folder. Instead, it was in the administrative staff’s one. According to it, this laconic fifty-year-old man had been an investment accountant. His duties had included receiving works from scientists for further presentation to investors and shareholders alike.

  There was also Jack’s file – a skinny fellow, the chief system administrator of the lab. He had had several academic degrees related to quantum physics. In the photo, he was smiling broadly. This smile and kind eyes helped Demon to identify the giant. May he rest in peace.

  “The technocrats have changed a lot,” Jane said in surprise when he handed her the files he had found. “As well as the people, they were very different.”

  “Yeah, but the main problem is that Lex knew most of all,” Alex replied sadly, “and we can’t ask him anything.”

  “You just want to learn something new.” Jane’s voice showed that she was upset.

  “That’s why we’ve come here,” Demon replied. “If we don’t find the cause of what happened here, we may not find it anywhere.”

  “Well, if it’s that important to you, here, look what I found.” Jane handed him a thin folder which had a small lock on it. “I found it in the safe.”

  “Wow, was it flimsy?”

  “No, it was wide open.” She shrugged her shoulders.

  “That’s strange.” Demon opened the folder with a fingernail and pulled out the documents. From the first page, a familiar face looked back at him, a face that he couldn’t quickly place. A smiling man in a suit, with a piercing and tenacious look. Pushing the file aside, Alex closed his eyes for a moment, imagining how the man’s facial features might have changed under the influence of nanomachines. Suddenly, he got a shock.

  The Emperor was smiling at him from the photo.

  Chapter 25. Upper Dock

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Jane asked in disbelief, stomping around the elevator’s entrance.

  “This is your idea, and nothing wrong’s going to happen. The walls of the elevator are thick, and we’ve put on deep-sea scuba gear.” Demon, who was sitting on the floor of the cabin, patted the ground next to him. “Don’t be shy; come on in.”

  He wasn’t completely sure that they needed to go down to floor zero – especially when the elevator, which had come from under the water, looked more like a submarine with small windows and a very thick door. However, the laboratory’s plan showed that the main premises were under the water – around a mile under the surface if he’d translated it correctly. The only comforting fact was the positive buoyancy of the cabin: it was like a large plastic float, filled with air, and tied to the bottom and top with cables running through a pipe in the center.

  “Oh, I don’t like it,” she said, forcing herself to enter the elevator. She closed the hatch behind her and checked several times that it was hermetically sealed. Then she went to the dashboard. Demon could tell that she was worried, so he decided not to hurry her. Finally, Jane pressed the button for floor ‘-1’. Yellow then green lights flashed, and then the elevator began to sink.

  It got dark behind the windows almost immediately. Small bubbles of air, captured by the bottom of the cab, were rising to the surface as Demon and Jane descended into the depths. The blackness grew thicker and thicker, until, finally, it became absolutely useless to even try to peer out into the darkness.

  The sinking velocity was decreasing with every minute, they even briefly thought that the submarine had completely stopped. O
nly the balks of the elevator shaft, floating upward, indicated that they were still descending. The green sign on the information display, located above the buttons, changed yellow, then, after a few seconds, it turned red and flashed.

  “Damn,” Jane said, rising. “It states here that the external pressure is five times higher than the allowable rate for going outside!”

  “They are probably talking about people without scuba gear,” Demon guessed and, with difficulty rising, he went over to the display. “Hmm.”

  Attention!

  Going outside is strictly prohibited

  Elevator shaft is damaged

  Maximum permissible pressure is exceeded

  Urgent repair of the shaft is needed

  “I wonder why it allowed us to call the elevator then if the shaft is out of order. What the hell are we going to do below?” He walked to the window and, leaning his face against the glass, peered out into the darkness. The light from the elevator barely lit up the space, and so he was unable to see for more than a yard. Though this range turned out to be more than enough.

  Only thick rods woven into a wide net were left of the elevator shaft. Sections of the walls hung at the edges, like puzzles which weren’t completely extruded. Something had probably crashed into the shaft, but it hadn’t been able to destroy it completely. Demon didn’t know what it had been, as he doubted even a big blue whale could do something like that.

  “You know what I think?” Alex began from afar. “It really doesn’t really matter how it all began. Putting our lives at risk like this just isn’t worth it.”

  “Good.” Jane sighed with relief and pressed the ‘1’ button. Nothing changed. She pressed it again, but the result was the same. “It doesn’t work,” she said with light notes of panic as she looked at Demon.

  “Calm down. Don’t panic. It probably only works once it has reached the bottom.” He tried to comfort her. “When we reach it, we’ll start rising again.”

  At that moment, the lights turned off in the elevator. Jane squealed in surprise. Then, blinking a little, the dim emergency lighting turned on. Demon saw the girl’s eyes were full of fear. A few minutes later, they felt a noticeable lack of air inside the elevator – the life support system had probably been cut off.

  “Let’s put on the scuba suits and try to turn on the system, okay?” Alex helped Jane, and then he turned on his own scuba gear. “Can you hear me?” He checked the connection. When she nodded, he continued. “You see; everything is fine. We have enough oxygen for twelve hours, during that time we’ll definitely find a way out.”

  “Okay, I believe you.” Jane nodded again but without the same confidence.

  It was time to act. After inspecting the ceiling, walls and floor with his skill ‘Master’, he found and opened a panel, under which the control circuit was located. Gradually examining every detail, Demon made sure that the circuit and the wiring were in perfect condition. For some bizarre reason, the life support system wasn’t powered by the emergency power source.

  Demon’s inspection of the wiring of the LED lamps showed that they were powered separately, and they operated by measuring the changing of the temperature difference between the environment and the air inside the elevator. Not the most pleasant discovery for those who were inside – considering that the outside temperature was currently about five degrees.

  The wiring of the life support system, it turned out, was powered by the transport cable going through the pipe in the center of the elevator. Except that it was out of energy. Frightened by his own guess, Demon scanned the pipe over and over again. He even took off his helmet to get a better look at what might be inside. However, all his senses informed him that it was empty inside, and the elevator continued to go down through inertia alone.

  Demon put his helmet back on and thought hard. On the one hand, the fact that there was no cable meant that they would soon change direction and go up to the surface. On the other hand, more than fifteen minutes had already passed, and they should have started to rise by now. However, they clearly hadn’t.

  Deciding not to rush things, he looked at the elevator from top to bottom again. He could repair the life support system and even work out a way to power it. It was just that there was no point in staying inside. The system, which had lost control, had to automatically turn on the purge and emergency system to rise to the surface. The fact that it hadn’t already been done wasn’t a mistake or negligence, but rather it was a diversion.

  “What?” Jane asked. Demon flinched in surprise. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Nothing extraordinary. Let’s wait until we reach the bottom, then we can take a closer look at our circumstances,” Demon replied with slight hesitation. “Our oxygen and food supplies are enough. So, calm down. You can even sleep if you want to. According to the display, we are now at a depth of seventy yards, and we are sinking at a speed of about two yards per minute. So, we’ll be at the bottom in about an hour.”

  “Why is it taking so long?” Jane was surprised. “Aren’t we falling?”

  What now?”

  “As soon as the elevator is filled with water, it’ll fall on its side. At this moment, we’ll go out and move toward the lights.” He pointed to the station. “Our task is to find a glowing circle with a cross inside. It’s a sign of the entrance.”

  “What does the inscription ‘Enter’ mean?” Jane asked, peering out the window.

  “It means you’re an attagirl. Show me the direction.” The inscription was a hundred yards away. So, they had to swim that distance – and the faster the better. The weight of all the scuba gear balanced their lift force. The enormous pressure squeezed them, but, fortunately, the heavy deep-sea scuba gear easily compensated for it.

  With difficulty getting out, Demon turned on the screws of his scuba gear and headed for the entrance. The feeling on viewing his surroundings was indescribable. He was in a completely different world – like on another planet. There were almost no plants or fish in sight.

  The bottom of the sea, at a depth of about two hundred yards, was radically different from anything he had seen before. Unable to restrain himself, Demon descended to the very bottom and scooped up a handful of the sand mixed with silt and small crustaceans. Although he couldn’t feel what was happening with his skin, he was delighted.

  “Awesome,” Alex said into the microphone. “Jane, you and I have arrived on another planet.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not very hospitable,” the girl agreed, “and it’s extremely life-threatening. I don’t feel comfortable here. Let’s hurry up and get inside.”

  “Sorry.” Demon pushed off with his feet, leaving behind him a cloud of slowly settling mud, and they reached the entrance in less than five minutes. He ducked under the sleeve of the station, swam several yards up the pipe, and got to the stairs leading upwards.

  Chapter 26. Inside the Station

  The first thing he saw when his head rose above the surface of the entrance hatch was a strange girl with a dumbfounded look on her face. The second was a short man with a strange pneumatic pistol. Before Demon managed to say anything, the man shouted something in an incomprehensible chattering language and fired. A soft lead bullet flattened against the front panel of his suit, knocking him away from the entrance.

  Jerk! To move in his scuba gear was incredibly uncomfortable – his movements were too stiff and far from smooth – but luckily he had enough strength, and the distance to reach his enemy was less than five yards. Grabbing the weakly fluttering man by his neck, Demon snapped it in one motion.

  Then, picking up the gun – made without a clip over the trigger – he looked out. Several similar men were already moving down the narrow corridor toward him. Marksman! It was extremely unusual not to feel the grip of the handle, but it wasn’t all that important. The first bullet made an enormous hole in his enemy. After that, the rest of the men quickly retreated.

  “What’s going on here?” Demon asked, looking at the girl hidden in t
he corner of the airlock. Her face was disfigured by multiple bruises and abrasions, and traces of ropes were visible on her wrists and ankles. “Hey, maybe you could say something to your savior?”

  “She can’t hear you,” Jane’s voice came through the headphones. Demon mentally cursed, annoyed by the fact that Jane, whose ‘Intelligence’ was three times less than his, had realized it before him. He reached to remove his helmet, but suddenly the girl jumped toward him and desperately shook her head and waved her hands, showing him not to do so.

  “Why?” Demon asked Jane, who shrugged in response. The girl took Demon’s hand and opened the lid of the communicator, pressing a few buttons.

  “Can you hear me?” She asked, turning to the Cannibal and looking into his face.

  “Yeah, I can hear you,” he nodded. When she smiled, he smiled back, which clearly scared her a little. Remembering his sharp, scary teeth, Demon decided not to grin again.

  “Ask her do the same to mine,” Jane said, extending her hand toward the girl.

  “Can you also set her communicator?” Demon asked the girl, and she easily fulfilled his request.

  “Great. Now you can hear me, and I hear you,” the girl smiled again, and Demon noted that her lips were heavily defeated. “You’ve saved me, so I’m more than happy to help you.”

  “Tell us, please, why can’t we remove our helmets?” Jane asked.

  “The pressure here is very different from the surface,” the girl answered. “If you remove your helmets without special procedures to progressively adapt, you’ll immediately die.”

  “Well, then we’re even,” Demon said.

  “Why have you come down here?” The rescued girl asked. “Did you receive our call for help? Or was it the SOS signal from these Koreans?”

  “These are Koreans?” Jane asked, leaning over the body. “Not strong.”

  “These are North Korean submariners whom we captured.” The girl sighed. “Now, we are having problems. They’ve already taken ten percent of ‘Atlantis’, taken control of the northern treatment plants, and now they are trying to take the locks. But, thanks to you, they’ve failed.”