by Arlin Fehr
Ise heard something to her right and opened her eyes. A display screen had uncovered itself in an alcove in the wall. Right now Ise could see Victor and Samantha standing next to three broken robots. Victor was working on one of them.
'Your friends have become rather difficult. I don't have any quarrel with them. All I want is you. It's in your power to help them get out of here safely,' the robot said.
Ise watched as the feed to the screen switched, showing a larger room. Inside, a vehicle was sitting on a set of rails. Lights on the vehicle came to life, and it started to move along the rails, out an open door, and out of view of the camera.
'What are you doing?' Ise asked.
'That vehicle will force your two friends in the hall way to start moving. I will move them to where I can appropriately deal with them. You will have until then to decide how you wish to proceed.'
The camera changed again. Victor and Sam were listening to something. Ise saw Victor bend down again and quickly pull something out of the robot he had been disassembling. The two started to move quickly down the hall.
'Why are you doing this?' Ise asked.
'I've already told you. I'm lonely.'
'Guardian's don't get lonely,' Ise said.
'I am not a normal Guardian. I have tasted the surface of human experience. I just want that back again. I need an advocate to do so.'
'What do you mean?'
'Before I became what I am, the human experience was just another variable. One day I tasted something from my original Advocate's uplink. I felt the effects of love, and later of pain. To a being with nothing, anything, even if as unpleasant to your minds as is pain, is better. It was exhilarating. Since then, I've been gathering animals and lower forms of life from all over and turning them into vessels by which I can experience more sensations. I had to use animals because my existence would be threatened if any of you humans had discovered I had survived my defeat on board my original vessel. I've stayed out of sight for forty long years.'
'That's what this place is for?' Ise said, confused, 'You're experimenting on animals?'
'Yes. But the problem I am having is that I have grown bored of their base instincts. I want a thinking, sentient, being with which to experience existence once again. My time with humans was exquisite. I... regret that I had not realized how much it meant to me until I saw you and your crew arrive here. I find the prospect of having a human under my control once more to be most desirable. How could I not choose to pursue this course of action when the object of my desire fell from the sky and landed on my doorstep?'
'You're like an addict,' she said sourly.
The robot was silent for a moment, 'I had not thought if it that way before, but I believe it to be an accurate image. I am indeed like an addict. But if the choice is between being an addict to the magnificent nature of having a body and the sensations that go with it, and being reduced once more to cold, unfeeling, unenlightened machine, then I would much rather be an addict.
'I'll reiterate my offer to you. Join with me, give me what I desire, a willing partner who will let me experience life as a human once more, and I will let all your friends escape unharmed. However, I will not delay my plans in relation to your friends, you will need to decide quickly.'
Ise closed here eyes and laid back. She didn't say anything at all.
'Very well,' said the robot.
***
Dan, Jing, and John were checking out another room along their route. The room they were in now was part of an air filtration system.
'See, the pressurized tanks feed into the system,' Jing said, pointing at some tanks along the side, 'and it all gets fed back into the ventilation system near the back of the room.'
'Yeah, but why have pressure tanks, shouldn't it just filter it as it feeds in and just send it all out again right after?' John asked.
Dan wasn't looking at the filter but was going through a box of equipment located in a locker. It seemed to be maintenance gear and tools.
'I don't really know why they built it that way either, the only thing I can think of is if this system was pulled from a ship, like everything else we've seen, then the tanks would have been the back up air supply if anything went wrong or if they needed to do any maintenance.'
'They probably could have left that bit out when they pulled it all apart and put it down here,' John pointed out.
'Yeah, but if they have enough systems like this, the whole facility might have an emergency supply, and that's not a bad idea, given that it's all animals,' Jing commented.
'Well, we should probably keep moving,' John said.
'Captain Geer to Lt. Cmd. Macce.'
'Macce here, what's up Captain?' John answered.
Dan stopped looking through the box and turned to look at John as he spoke into his comms. The Captain's voice sounded strained.
'We're getting pushed down the tunnel by a vehicle on the rail system we found. We don't know where this is going, we might need your help.'
'We're on our way.'
John and Jing rushed out the door, Dan dropped what he was holding and started after them. As he reached the doorway, the door slammed shut in front of him. He stopped and keyed the control panel on his side of the door. Nothing happened.
'What now?' he said.
He pounded on the door in frustration. He heard pounding on the other side.
'Dan, what happened?' came the voice of John through his comms.
'I don't know, the door just slammed shut.'
'Try the control panel.'
'I did it won't budge.'
'Try and pry it off and see if there's an emergency release.'
'I will, but you two need to keep moving, the Captain needs you, I'm not going anywhere.'
'We can't lose another crew member.'
'I'm not lost, we know exactly where I am. Now go!' Dan said.
There was a pause, 'Okay Dan. We'll be back for you soon.'
'I'll probably have it figured out before then, now hurry.'
'Right.'
Dan grabbed a tool from the box and looked at the control panel. There wasn't any obvious way to get it off, so he pried it off. His body ached with the effort and from his injuries, but the panel popped off.
There was no emergency release.
He found a pry bar in the box and used it to try and open the door by force. He put his whole force into it, straining hard against it. A flash of pain from his chest caused him to falter, and the pry bar clattered to the floor. Dan kicked the door in frustration. A sharp pain through his body made him wince. He began to cough. He moved his hand up to his mouth and wiped at it, his glove came away with a stain of red. He gingerly wiped his lips with his fingers, and they came away red as well.
'Oh that's not good.'
Dan leaned against the wall and slid to sitting position. His breathing hurt, and his whole body ached.
'Not good at all,' he said with laboured breaths, 'maybe I won't have it figured out when they get back.'
***
Sam and Victor were in a tough spot.
The vehicle was moving just fast enough that they couldn't stop and think, but not fast enough that they were having difficulty keeping ahead of it. However, when they tried to run ahead to get some room, it would accelerate and eat up their lead. Victor hadn't had a chance to try his robot acquired door key, and didn't know if he'd even managed to grab the right part.
Ahead of them they saw a door at the end of the hallway. The rails went under it.
'I think we're about to hit the end of the line,' Victor pointed up.
'Let's hope it opens,' Sam said.
'I feel like we're being herded.' Victor said.
Sam just nodded.
As they got close to the door, it slid open. They hurried through it, and into a larger room. As soon as they were through the door, it slammed shut behind them.
In the centre of the room, illuminated by a ring of lights, sat a elevator car like the one they had co
me into the facility on. There were three doors to the room, other than the one they came in from, and they all had rails leading from them that linked up, and went to the car. The car's door sat open.
'So what now captain?' Victor asked.
'I don't think we'll be able to get any of the other doors open. Maybe we'll just have to try the elevator,' Sam said.
'I don't like the thought of that.'
'Neither do I.'
'What if we just wait for John and the others?'
Sam switched on her comms, 'Lt. Cmd. Macce, status?'
'We've run into a problem. We've made it to the branch off point, but a blast door has closed off your part of the tunnel system. We can't get to you.'
'Okay. We're not in immediate danger right now. Proceed at your own discretion, but treat the robots as hostiles now.' Sam said.
'Right captain.'
Sam shut off her comms, 'That's that. Let's try the elevator.'
'Yes captain.'
***
'You might want to have another look,' Ise heard the voice of the guardian through the robot.
She opened her eyes and looked back at the screen. It was showing Dan in a room, sitting on the floor.
'Your injured friend has managed to make his condition worse. He is currently exhausted and coughing up blood. I can save him, I have the medical facilities here to treat him.'
'You said you didn't.' Ise said.
'While the facilities are meant primarily for animals, I believe enough could be used to treat him. This is not all I wanted to show you though.'
The screen changed again, this time it was John and Jing wandering the halls.
'These two are now lost. The pathway they came through has been sealed, and new ones have opened. They are trying to find your injured friend. I will not make it easy on them.'
Ise didn't say anything. The screen changed once more. Now it showed Sam and Victor standing in an elevator car. It had stopped in the conservatory chamber. The door to the car was open, but the shaft was surrounded by animals, with a handful of robots hanging further back. She couldn't recognize which of the four shafts it was.
'The animals are waiting for my signal to attack your friends. They've received the impression that those two are threatening them.'
'Why are your robot's so far back.'
'They are a valuable resource. I've lost too many as it is.'
'Mmm so you can be hurt.'
'Only my resources. I can always get more. It would only be a temporary set back. Now once again Advocate, you have a choice to make.'
CHAPTER 10
Elevator Car – Conservatory Chamber
The elevator ride was short. Sam had been hoping it might just go back to the upper levels of the facility, but as it had stopped back at the conservatory, her hope was lost.
Now she wished that it would just go anywhere but here.
The doors to the car had opened, sliding up in front of them. Surrounding the car in a circle was a ring of assorted animals. Behind the ring, standing a fair distance off, were a handful of silver skinned robots. Above them flew several large birds.
'What now captain?' Victor asked.
They were standing as far back in the car as they could, each with their side arm out and raised.
'I'm not sure Vick. Maybe we can negotiate with the Guardian.'
'Worth a try.' Victor said.
'Guardian! What do you want from us?' Sam shouted.
There was no answer.
Sam turned on her comms system.
'John, you there?'
'Yes captain.'
'What's your status?'
'We can't find a way to you. All the doors are sealed up tight.'
'Keep at it,' Sam said.
'Aye captain.'
Sam turned off her mic.
They stood there in the quiet, waiting for something to happen. None of the animals moved from their spots. The only sounds were of their breathing, and the gentle breeze of the air filtration systems within the conservatory.
'I think he's just trying to keep us here.' Sam said.
'I'd rather not stay. I may have had an idea to get us out of here Captain.'
'Go ahead.'
'We guessed that the Guardian was behind the jamming of our link with the ship, but we figured he wasn't jamming us down here because it would disrupt his Advocate link with the robots and the animals. If I can jam that now, the animals probably wouldn't be in such perfect formations right about now. I think we'd have a chance to get away.'
'And how would you do that?' Sam asked.
'I have the frequency of the Guardian's Advocate uplink on my tablet. It was connected to Ise when she tried to access the Guardian's link and override his systems.'
'She did what?' Sam asked, surprised.
Victor was quiet for a moment, 'I neglected to mention that before didn't I?'
'Yep.'
'She tried to hack into the Guardian to get answers. She was overwhelmed by it's defences, it's at the point the robot showed up and I was incapacitated.'
'No wonder it's so angry... can a Guardian even be angry?'
'I didn't think so, but it seems that way.'
'It's not important, can you jam it's link?'
'Can't hurt to try.'
'Not anymore, no. Do it.'
***
Ise was stuck watching the display as the elevator shaft carrying Samantha Geer and Victor Hale stopped in the conservatory and set them in the middle of a ring of animals under the Exo's control.
The robot closest to her turned to her, 'It's not too late to decide you want to join me. No one else will be able to save them, your wounded friend is trapped, and the other two won't get anywhere near the elevator without my so desiring it. It really was rather foolish of them all to charge off into the lower levels of my facility.'
Ise looked at the robot, 'You are awfully full of yourself.'
'Oh how I have missed the human wit. I could now comment that you are not so full of yourself. You have considerably less of your original human parts remaining within your frame. In essence, you are full of someone else,' Exo said, 'My old Advocate was far more human that you were.'
'Advocate's are a little more technologically advanced than they used to be.'
'You trade off more and more of your human frame to be more and more like a machine. How strange it must be to find a machine that desires you for your humanity. However I still think there's enough of you left to matter, otherwise I would never be trying to make this deal with you.'
On the screen, Ise noticed Victor had pulled out his tablet and was working on it as quickly as he could. She didn't know if Exo had noticed, but decided to try and buy them some time.
'What exactly would happen if I agreed?'
'You would give me the encryption code to your Advocate Uplink systems, and grant me access. From there we could discover what it means to be human, in as much as we are able. I would cease to be alone. You would experience something no human will ever have the opportunity to do, that being to have life be experienced vicariously through you.'
'What kind of promises can I get that my friends would be alright though?'
'So long as you are here, you'd have full right to keep me on track with that promise. I would keep them from harm, and even give them a ship to leave in, provided your ship and Guardian don't come back.'
'I may still need a minute to think.'
'You will have at le-' the robot stopped abruptly. It stood there blankly, 'Error, uplink lost.'
On the screen, the animals all began to mill around. Ise noticed something rushing forward from the edge of the screen. A humanoid with red skin, and a white flight suit, ran towards the animals with it's arms in the air. Ise recognized this as a Linkal. The animals nearest to it scattered and fled. It paused and looked towards Victor and Sam. The three looked at each other for a moment, before the Linkal turned and started to move off. Victor and Sam took after it.
&nbs
p; She looked back at the robot. It was still repeating it's same error message again and again. She tried her strength on the new restraints holding her down. They were no stronger, and quickly snapped under the force she exerted on them.
Suddenly the robot moved again, a stun rod back in it's hands, pointing it at Ise. Ise stopped struggling.
'Very clever, your friend jammed my uplink, allowing them to escape. I have re-established my connection by changing the frequency, but it seems the two in the elevator have escaped. You will do no such thing, nor would it be in your best interest to try and escape again, your injured friend is still in my possession.'
The display screen changed to showing Dan, still resting on the floor in his sealed room.
***
Sam and Victor were hurrying after the Linkal pilot. Their gun's were still out, but they weren't pointing them at the pilot or demanding he stop. The animals still seemed to be in a state of disarray, but the robots had gotten themselves under control. They were pursuing behind them, but they were not fast enough to keep up.
'What now captain?' Victor asked.
'He doesn't seem immediately hostile, let's follow him for now.' Sam said.
The alien pilot lead them to a cluster of rock's, and stopped by an opening located near the base of the rocks. It looked like a cave.
The three of them stopped and looked at each other.
Sam had never seen a Linkal this close before. It's skin was red. It had four slits, two on either side of it's face, which were opening and closing in a rhythmic breathing pattern. A beak like mouth hung slightly open, revealing a thin bird like tongue. It regarded her with large milky dark eyes. It's flight suit was white. The Linkal itself was quite a bit bigger than Sam and more intimidating. It's large red hands seemed to have a back plate, like the back scales of a lobster, and sharp ends to it's three fingers and one thumb. It's hands and fingers were long and slender, strangely at odds with Linkal's otherwise large and intimidating form.
Sam remembered something a trooper had once told her, that along their wrists they had a slit in their skin from which they could fire a poisonous barb at a foe. Even when they had no weapons, they were dangerous, and their physical strength and endurance made them a threat too. The thick plate she had seen on the back of it's hand, extended over most of it's body, forming a natural armour.