by Adam Matlow
The drone hovered above them and continued to fire towards where Davon was concealed.
“Is that--?”
“Jax,” replied Vana. “It has to be.”
Kali darted for the door and cautiously looked out. “It’s clear,” she shouted. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Marcus and Vana followed her out, with the drone close behind. They stopped as they reached a junction, splitting off into two paths.
Marcus collapsed onto one knee, panting hard from the exertion. “Which way?” he managed between breaths. The drone didn’t stop and forged along the rightmost path.
“I guess that way,” said Kali setting off after it.
As they ran, bulkheads behind them slid into place, blocking the route back. “Where the hell is he taking us?” said Marcus breathlessly as they rounded another corner. This time, the corridor was a dead end, a large door at one end opened slowly as they approached. They ducked underneath and into the room beyond.
Weapon blasts struck the door above them, and the drone span around letting loose several shots, with at least one of them finding its target. A Krall soldier fell, his weapon rattling across the ground towards Kali. With a scream, she jumped at the weapon. Snatching it from the ground, she rolled into a crouching position and unleashed a hail of fire.
Metallic shards exploded outwards as Jax’s drone was hit by a stray shot. It dropped to the ground with a clang and rolled to one side. Marcus scooped up the remains and scrambled into the room, clambering to one side to get out of the line of fire.
“Come on!” screamed Kali, and unleashed another barrage of fire at the remaining Krall. They tried to fall back, but the bulkhead behind them had closed and they were cut down where they stood. Kali got to her feet and walked over to the downed soldiers kicking each one to make sure it was dead. Then she collected their weapons and headed back to the doorway which slammed closed behind her as she entered.
“Well that was fun,” she said calmly, before flopping to the ground to catch her breath.
Marcus looked at her, stunned. “Err, remind me never to piss you off.”
Kali glared at him.
“I mean, again. Remind me never to piss you off again.”
Vana caught sight of the remains of the drone sat on the floor next to Marcus.
“Jax!” cried out Vana. She crawled across to the remains of the drone, picking through its mangled components. A few moments later she pulled a small white crystal from the chassis and tucked it into her jacket and sighed with relief.
“It’s the drone’s memory core,” she said. “it looks intact. Jax should still be in there.”
A figure loomed over Marcus and a hand jutted out to help him up. He took it and righted himself, coming face to face with Doc. Amara was on the other side of the room, helping Kali and Vana to their feet. The room itself was devoid of anything interesting, except a few empty crates stacked against one wall. It had probably once been used for storage but lay unused now.
“Am I glad to see you,” said Marcus. He grabbed Doc by the arm and pulled him in for a hug, slapping his back. “But what are you doing here?”
Doc removed his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt. “You have Jax to thank for that,” he said. He replaced them and pushed them along the bridge of his nose.
“We managed to slip away from the control room during the firefight. If it hadn’t been for Vickers… Well, after wandering around aimlessly for a while we stumbled, quite by accident, onto a room full of these.” Doc reached into his jacket and produced a small flat device, slightly bigger than the palm of his hand and a few millimetres thick.
“They are a kind of portable computer or interface device. With Jax’s help we’ve managed to interface it with some of the less protected systems here. Doors, lighting that sort of thing. We used it to stay one step ahead of the aliens.”
“Wait, wait,” said Marcus holding up a hand. “How could Jax be with you? He was with me and Vana in the tower. Then he was in that drone.”
“Jax can occupy multiple places at one time,” said Vana walking over to join the discussion. “Then, when they are no longer needed these shards, can be reintegrated into his core program, which will bring with it all the experience and knowledge it acquired along the way.”
“Well, why don't we just copy him into all the drones in this place then? That should make things a bit easier.”
“It’s not that simple,” said Vana. “As he occupies more and more systems, the effort needed to maintain control over those systems rises exponentially. He’s strong, but not strong enough to take complete control of all the drones, or even a fraction of them. Besides, we need to get his program out of the drone’s memory and back into his real hardware.”
“That’ll be tough,” said Marcus. “I think Davon has his real… body. We’ll add getting that back to the list of impossible things we need to do today. Where are we anyway?” he turned on the spot and surveyed the room.
“A storage room of some description,” replied Doc, looking at the interface device. We’ve disabled the internal monitoring of this and many other rooms, and have been sending false signals to others. We have those aliens scurrying aimlessly around this place looking for us.”
Marcus pointed at the remains of Jax. “It’s a good bet they know where we are now, so we better plan our next move.”
Kali huffed. “What next move? This whole mission has been a disaster from the start. We need to abort.”
“We can’t do that,” replied Doc. “Not until we deal with the asteroid heading for Earth. If we leave now, even if we had the means, where would we go?”
“Doc’s right,” said Marcus. “We don’t have a choice. We need to do something and do it fast, otherwise we won’t have a home to go back to.”
“There is only one option,” said Doc. “The Sentinel put the asteroid on a collision course with Earth, so we must use the Sentinel to undo that action. Someone is going to have to interface with the Sentinel. And without Jax--”
“We already tried Doc,” said Marcus. “It didn’t go well. We need another plan.”
“There is no other plan and besides, that’s not even the hard part. The main control room in the tower looks to be heavily guarded now, so we can’t use that. I’ve been studying the schematics of this place on this device and have an alternative.”
He waved the pad towards Marcus and pointed at a wireframe rendering of the Sentinel as seen from above. He swiped his finger across the screen rotating to a three-quarters view. Coloured lines appeared, branching out from the tower via the four junctions to various other parts of the station.
“See these four areas highlighted here?” He pointed to one of four small red dots spaced equally across the perimeter of the Sentinel. “These appear to be some sort of nexus. All these communication and data lines pass through them. If we can get to one of those, we may be able to jack into the system from there.”
“It’s a good plan,” said Vana. “Come on, we should get moving, we don’t have much time.”
Marcus opened his mouth to speak but stopped. He waved his hands in frustration.
“Fine,” he grunted. “Lead on.”
The door slid open and the group headed out. Marcus grabbed Doc’s arm and pulled him back, letting the others get ahead of them.
“Doc, this implant in my head - does it still work?” asked Marcus in a hushed tone. “We’re going to need Vana to get everyone out of this place in one piece, but if she goes into the machine she may not come back out. I’m going to need your help.”
A solemn look crossed Doc’s face and he nodded slowly. “From what I know of how this process is supposed to work, then it is possible. The implants were designed to interface with Sentinel. Yours was disabled so Davon couldn’t control you, but it remains otherwise intact. And there’s something else.” Doc lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “Jax was working on a way to interface with Sentinel remotely via the implants. You would
n’t need to be in the chair like Vana, you would just need to be in close proximity to one of these nexus points.”
“You can do that?”
“Of course. Well, I mean, probably. Jax left detailed instructions on this little device here. All I need to do is run through the steps he listed, and everything should be fine.”
“Should?”
“There are a couple of gaps, but I’m sure I’ll figure them out.”
Marcus put his hand on Doc’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Without Vana, none of us stands a chance, and we can’t ask Amara to do this, she’s been through enough. That just leaves me. Besides, I’m relying on you to pull me out of that thing.” Marcus smiled. “Come on, let’s catch up.”
◆◆◆
Though not far, the journey to the secondary control room at the nearest junction had taken several hours. They had done their best to conceal their movements, which took time. Using the interface device, Doc triggered motion alarms and sensors leading away from their actual destination, whilst suppressing any signs of their movement along their current path.
As well as leaving a false trail, Doc managed to trap various groups of drones and soldiers in rooms and corridors all over the Sentinel, by closing sections off after luring them in. Even so, they were still heavily outnumbered.
The control room was tiny by comparison to everything else on the Sentinel at only a few meters wide. Conduits lined every wall meeting at a pillar in the centre of the room. Several consoles lining the walls sprang to life as they approached them. Kali and Amara took up position by the doorway, while Doc went to work on one of the consoles, referring to the interface device as he entered commands into the system.
“How’s this going to work Doc?” asked Marcus.
Doc didn’t look from his work. “Jax showed me how to initiate the interface, but he did warn that it hadn’t been tested. There is however another catch. Once I do this, Davon will know exactly where we are. No doubt he will send everything he has at us.”
“Yeah, well let him come,” said Marcus. “We’ve kicked his ass every time we’ve crossed paths. I’m happy to administer another beating to him if he wants one.”
“I wish I had your confidence, Marcus.”
“I thought you said you had this covered?”
“I said I could probably do it.” He smiled weakly and continued to tap away at the device.
Vana paced around the room, she wore a frown. “There’s nothing here I can use to interface with the Sentinel. No interface chair or anything.” She headed for the door. “We need to get to the tower.”
Marcus grabbed her hand and pulled her back into the room. “Hold up. You’re not going into the Sentinel, I am.”
She shook herself free and glared at him. “This is for me to do, not you. I’ve been preparing for this for years. Besides, that doesn’t change the fact there’s no interface here. We would still need to go to the tower.”
“I don’t need an interface,” said Marcus. He tapped the side of his head. “I already have one. Doc here just needs to do some black magic with the interface thing and I’ll be good to go.”
“Are you mad,” cried Vana. “One misstep and you’ll fry your brain.”
“No great loss there,” chuckled Kali.
“Oi, you keep your nose out of this,” sniped Marcus. “Davon put this thing in my head to control this place, so it seems only right that I do so.”
“It’s ready,” announced Doc. “Just tell me when.”
Vana looked Marcus in the eyes, “There’s still time to make it to--”
He put his hand to her face and wiped away a tear. “This isn’t the end. Everything is going to be fine. We’re all a part of this now, but without you, none of us has a chance. And hey, if this thing backfires and melts my brain, then you’ll have to go to the tower anyway. We’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
He gave the thumbs up to Doc, who paused for a moment, his finger hovered over the button. “Ten seconds to connection, better sit yourself down.”
Marcus sunk to the floor and rested his head against the wall. Vana dropped to her knees and spoke quickly.
“Marcus, when you get in there, you will feel overwhelmed. You’re going to have information flowing at you from everywhere. You’ll experience sensations you don’t understand. It will be too much for you to take in all at once, so concentrate on one goal. Have it clear in your mind, focus on it and ignore everything else. And most importantly--”
The edges of Marcus’s vision dimmed. Doc and Vana faded from his consciousness and a faint trace of a voice, Vana’s voice, echoed in the void.
“Come back to me.”
Chapter Twenty
Darkness surrounded Marcus. He recalled Vana’s words, that he would be overwhelmed with information and sensation. But there was nothing. Had something gone wrong with the connection? Would he be trapped like this forever?
At this point he became aware of his lack of corporeal form. No body - only an essence floating in an endless sea of black.
“Hello?” he shouted. Or at least, he thought he shouted. He didn’t have a mouth, but he heard the words nonetheless. There was no reply, nor did he expect one. He let out an imaginary sigh.
“Well, what now?” he asked himself.
In the distance ahead of him, a rectangle of light appeared. A doorway leading from the darkness to somewhere else. Since he had nothing better to do, investigating this doorway seemed the next logical step. Before he could consider how it would be possible to get to the door without a body, he felt himself drawn closer to it. As if this environment reacted to his thoughts. Perhaps it made sense. If he was connected to the Sentinel, then the only muscle that would matter in this place would be the one between his ears.
He’d been praying it wouldn’t come to that.
Memories of his trip through Amara’s subconscious with Vana ran through his mind. He’d been able to control the environment around him to some degree during that experience. Could he do the same now?
He willed himself towards the light, not pausing before heading through. On the other side the light was blinding. At least it would have been if he had eyes. Out of the brightness, a shape emerged, circular with a large central tower. A bird's eye view of the Sentinel - the first time he had seen it in its entirety. It’s grandeur becoming ever more apparent as the view crystallized into sharp focus.
With some practice, he found it possible to move the image around, and if he concentrated hard, could zoom into any area or room.
His thoughts switched to Vana and immediately he was stood beside her. She and Doc were crouched over a third figure.
It was him. His body at least. For a moment Marcus wondered if he was dead. Did the interface fail somehow, killing him? Was he in limbo? He studied his own form laid across the floor and was relieved to see his chest slowly rising and falling with his breath.
He watched as Vana and Doc checked his vital signs and made him comfortable. Their mouths moved, but he heard no voices. Marcus concentrated on Vana and her voice, quietly at first, became audible.
“Has there been any change?”
Doc tapped the interface pad and shook his head. “Nothing I can detect so far. If he’s in there, he’s not showing up.”
“Come on Marcus,” said Vana. She held his hand. “Give us a signal. Anything to let us know you’re okay.”
“I’m here!” shouted Marcus. “Right here, can’t you see me? Hear me?” He tried to wave to get their attention, but with no arms it proved difficult. He looked around for anything he could use. The consoles on the wall of the room caught his attention and he focused on them. With great mental effort, the display changed from the streams of alien text to a simple black screen containing the words. “I’m here.”
It was a pity nobody was looking at the readouts; they were all busy looking after Marcus’s body.
“Turn around,” yelled Marcus, but to no avail. Weakened from the ef
fort, he found it harder to maintain focus on the room and he receded back into the overhead view.
He didn’t fight it, choosing instead to let himself drift back. He needed to gather his strength if he was to be of any use to his friends. Before he connected himself to this device he assumed it would be obvious what he would need to do. Indeed, he knew what he had to do: Send everyone home and destroy the Sentinel once and for all. But how he was supposed to do any of that he hadn’t considered.
A flicker of light from the tower caught his eye and once again he found himself drawn towards it. It was easier this time as if the more he moved about this place the more control he had. His perspective shifted to hover above the needle-like tower and saw to his surprise he was not alone. The faint outline of a figure was barely visible against the white background, a human-shaped figure holding out a hand, beckoning Marcus to take it. Instinctively he reached out and saw now he too had a faint outline. It felt good again to have a body, no matter how ethereal.
There was a flash as their hands touched and the tower below rushed towards him. Moments later he found himself standing by the interface device in the tower. He looked down at himself to see he was no longer a faint outline but was fully formed.
A door hissed open on the other side of the tower and Davon marched awkwardly towards him, leaning heavily to one side, his right leg dragging behind him. The first outward sign of injury he had ever seen him display.
So, he isn’t invulnerable after all.
He stopped several meters away and held up a small device before entering several commands on it. Two drones appeared from the heights above and hovered over Davon. He looked at them and entered more commands. The drones shot away towards the exit and vanished.
Marcus broke the silence. “So, erm, Davon. Good to see you. Sorry about, the whole, you know, escape thing. No hard feelings?” He winced, expecting a backlash.
“He can’t hear you,” said an unfamiliar voice behind him. “Or see you for that matter. You’re not actually in the room.”