Neon Helix

by Nik Whittaker

  “Owens, come on you damn fool,” Jacob pulled himself up alongside the body.

  “Jacob…” Owens whispered through blood filled gurgles.

  “Owens! I thought we’d lost you,” Jacob said with relief.

  “I think… you have. I don't think I’ll be lasting much longer Jacob,” his voice was weak. “I’m surprised you didn’t join Peter, you didn’t have to step in front of him,” Owens said.

  “Despite it all Owens, you were always my friend. We may have different visions of what we want for the future. Peter has gone too far.”

  “The murders he committed weren’t too far?” Owens laughed, before the pain caused the laugh into a grimace.

  “I thought I could control him, he has an incredible mind and abilities, but nothing can control him, I realise that now.”

  “It’s ok, Prime will stop him. He has the same mind as Peter, but without the chaos,” Owens said.

  “Perhaps,” Jacob replied.

  The two lay there in silence, the blood pooling around them.

  Next, they were being pulled up by something, their bodies being dragged along the floor by their arms. Owens could not look up due to the pain in his body, Jacob however tilted his head back.

  All he could see was someone pulling them away, her blue dreadlocks hanging behind her.

  CHAPTER 57

  Quartzig

  Julian had taken a moment to collect his thoughts and refocus on the task at hand.

  “Hey Quartz,” he activated the comms unit Ally had given him.

  “Julian! You ok?” Quartz had broken into the video feeds for the building and had seen everything that had happened.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, but we need to work fast,” Julian accessed Ava’s core once again.

  “Yuri said Ally was the key to all this, any ideas what he meant by that?” Julian asked, as he pulled several wires loose.

  “I’m not sure, I can’t say I’ve looked much into Ally’s past. Only Peter and his history of being her brother.”

  “It’s like he needs her for something,” Julian was now ready to connect Quartzig to Ava’s systems. “You sure this will work Q?”

  “Yes it should, I can use Ava’s connection to the mainframe as a base for my programming to connect through, using her as a hard drive so to speak.”

  “OK, good luck Quartz, see you on the other side.”

  “Thank you Julian, I’ll see you soon.”

  Julian attached the wires from Ava to the comms device with an audible click.

  A moment later and the comms device lit up with several lights, Julian then connected the device directly to the main circuit board to hold it and to ensure it had a consistent power supply.

  Quartzig hadn’t experienced another system in this way before.

  He felt like he was wearing a strangers clothing, or at least what that must feel like, seeing as he had never worn clothes.

  As the system formed around him, he acknowledged the world.

  This was Ava’s inner system, the main matrix where all her functions were communicated. He needed to get from the entry level to where the connection to the main CyBio server was.

  The highways of electric currents ran in infinite parallels, surrounded by nothingness in front of him as far as he could sense. He followed them in search of the connection.

  The highway lit up with information as he travelled down it. He had no physical body that could be described, he was the idea of information which moved along the process.

  He saw his destination up ahead when suddenly, the pathway was blocked. The lights along the highway cut off, a red glow showing a firewall.

  His form approached them and attempted to bypass the system, but with no contact something knocked it back, like a magnet pushing another away. He knew he would have to bypass the firewall, and to do that he would need to become part of the data.

  He retraced his path a short way until he could track some of the data lights which traveled along the highway. Watching as different sized lights passed by, evaluating them. The larger the better, as they held more data.

  When he saw one which was adequate for his needs, he moved alongside it and started to create a copy of the data, until he had a perfect replica.

  He then merged his own data with it, removing any parts which didn’t alter the outer shell of the original light. Before long he was inside, which for all intents and purposes, was a perfect copy of the original.

  He travelled down the highway once more, this time on approach to the firewall he felt no repelling, he slid straight though, his Trojan horse working perfectly.

  A moment, or a lifetime later, he was at the connection he needed. He removed the light shell he had created and traveled along the connection and into the CyBio servers.

  A flash before him.

  A world formed.

  A replica of the real world was before him, but one ravaged by war and destruction. The sky a burning red, as sunlight tried to break through clouds of dust in the air. Buildings half crumbled and roads cracked.

  He looked down, as he did he felt himself forming a construct. Legs and feet appeared below his vision. A torso, followed with arms. Then his vision became bi-focal, and he realised he now had eyes, a face, a head. He was now a self-created construct in this world.

  He looked around, trying to understand where he was and what was happening.

  “Who are you?” A voice shouted from across the building he was now stood upon.

  Turning slowly, he wasn’t used to physical movement; he saw a woman stood atop a pile of rocks which used to be a wall. Her clothes a patchwork mess of torn and repaired fabrics.

  “I ask again, who are you?” She shouted louder.

  “My name is Quartzig, I’m here to find Ava.”

  “There is no one here by that name,” she called back. “Not anymore.”

  Suddenly a beam of light flashed across Quartzig's vision and exploded in front of him. The woman had leapt out of its way and landed next to Quartzig.

  “If you are looking for Ava you should follow me,” she said. “It’s not safe out here in the open.”

  With that, she turned and ran towards a doorway which appeared on a wall opposite.

  Quartzig looked back at where the light had come from and saw several more beams twinkling in the distance. He decided that he was safer with the woman and followed her through the doorway, wherever it lead.

  CHAPTER 58

  Yuri

  Ally woke slowly. Her adrenaline and fight instinct was still active and she jumped to her feet, ready to attack.

  She was alone though, in a small room with no lights. Upon realising this, she began to slowly feel her way around the wall of the room in an attempt to find an access point.

  She put her hand on what appeared to be a handle and twisted it, no luck. If it was the doorway, it was locked. She continued her search and had completed what she thought was a full circle, when a light flicked on above her.

  It was a singular light bulb, hanging by a cable. The room she could now see was a perfect square with each side about two meters long, she estimated.

  “Hello?” She called out, but there was no answer.

  One of the walls illuminated as a television screen opposite her, the image was of the laboratory where Peter was attacking Jacob and Owens; she watched as Peter stabbed Jacob and Prime made his escape.

  “Do you see the trouble that is happening due to the emotions of the people here?” A voice boomed around the room, loud enough that Ally ducked slightly at first.

  “Yuri? Is that you?”

  “Indeed Ally, I apologise for the aggressive means in which I had to take to get you here. It was, however, unavoidable.”

  “You could have just asked nicely,” Ally quipped.

  “You would not have come, the human mind is too fragile to be able to pause its own emotions long enough to understand two sides of a story,” Yuri stated.

  “You mean, explain that yo
u are trying to take over the human race using those nanobots?” Ally replied.

  “You are just proving my point Ally, you simply assume I mean the worst, when you do not understand what it is I’m trying to accomplish here,” Yuri continued.

  The television screens all lit up and changed to show images of violence and aggression from around the world. Images of war and destruction, of humans attacking humans.

  “It is in your nature to attack that which you do not understand, regardless of consequences. You have shown this repeatedly throughout history. Times when a simple conversation could help reduce the death toll and pain suffered tenfold.”

  The images now changed to examples of new technologies being used to ease the pain and suffering. Medical bots which have sped up recovery times, AI judges which offer impartial advice and verdicts for criminals, automated services that allow humans more freedom.

  “Technology has created more and more ways for humans to have less responsibility for their actions, more time to pursue what it truly means to be human, and what have they done with this new freedom?”

  The videos returned to more recent spates of violence. Augmented humans causing more violent bloodshed than had ever been possible previously. The technology perverted for their own twisted means. Men with their hands augmented to become blades and other weapons. A final image of a large explosion, Ally recognised it as the one which had caused the mass extinction across the planet, leaving the Boulevard as one of the last remaining areas of habitation.

  “It is time that we take things to the next level, the simple implementation of technology is not enough, we must also educate and control people to protect them. If left unaided, then the advances made in technology will only expedite the end of the human race.”

  “So you’re to be our Saviour?” Ally asked, sarcasm in her voice.

  “Oh, no, not me I’m afraid,” Yuri said, “You are.”

  Ally just stared at the screens around her as they revealed her own life and growing up. Beginning with her birth, it was all in perfect clarity as if it had been filmed professionally. Her mother laying on a hospital bed, her father holding her hand.

  “What is this?” She asked.

  “This was your birth, or at least how you were made to believe your birth was,” Yuri replied, as he did the screens changed to a chamber, similar to the ones at the hotel but a much larger model.

  “This, however, is the truth of the matter.”

  Inside the chamber was a body, Ally recognised that despite its small size, just a child, it was her. Next to the chamber, Owens and Jacob, both younger, were stood working on a pair of computers.

  “Biosigns are all at nominal levels,” Jacob said.

  “Initiating download now, cerebral cortex is set and ready,” Owens added.

  On the screen in front of Owens, visions of her early childhood flashed across.

  “So far so good, her memory is adapting to the new information naturally.”

  “Excellent,” Owens said.“The tech is coping well and still perfectly augmented to the flesh.”

  “What… ” Ally could hardly speak.

  “You are nothing more and nothing less than the perfect original creation of Owens and Jacob. A Bio-Tech hybrid.”

  “No, that can’t be,” Ally was beginning to lose her focus.

  “You were built by them using DNA make up from the people you believe to be your parents. Then that DNA was merged with several layers of robotics and technology. Truly, you are a masterpiece.”

  “‘But…Peter? My whole life…”

  “Yes, Peter. They made him as a clone of yourself, an attempt to clone the BioTech DNA they had produced, not quite perfect however. His mental state wasn’t as clear as yours, the cloning process having side effects. Though he retained some augmentation which was imbued in yourself.”

  “I don’t understand, I’m not a robot!”

  “No, you’re something new, Cyborg perhaps would be the closest human term, but even that isn’t accurate. You have technology literally growing like cells inside you. It’s the original basis for the nanobots I have been using.”

  “Let me out here!” Ally was becoming hysterical. “What do you want from me?” She banged on the walls.

  “Do you not see? You have the key to what I need. Inside your DNA is the answer to merging the two sides of the coin. Taking control of those with tech using the nanobots is just step one, once I have control I will use the secrets in your DNA to merge the nanobots to the human DNA in perfect synchronicity, to make them true hybrids, not just replicas.”

  Ally stood still, her mind still trying to take it all in.

  “So, without anymore wasted time, I’m afraid I do need a sample of blood from you.”

  One of the monitors slid aside to reveal a large robotic arm which grabbed Ally’s left wrist before she could avoid it. More came from the other sides of the room until Ally was completely unable to move.

  One of the arms spiralled into the shape of a large needle.

  “No!” Ally screamed as the needle pierced her arm and drew blood.

  CHAPTER 59

  Peter

  Stepping away for a moment, Julian watched Ava, there was no change in her stance. He knew that inside there was a massive transfer of data happening, but from the outside she looked as still as a frozen lake.

  All he could do now was wait and hope that Quartzig and Ava could stop Yuri.

  A moment later, Prime barrelled through the doorway, tripping over the small barricades Julian had half set up.

  “Julian! We need to get away quick!”

  “Prime? Where’s the others?”

  “Dead, I think…. I had to run. I have the ability to control Peter now, I need space and time to think, but he’s coming for me!”

  “Shit! They’re dead? We can’t leave Ava unprotected! What if Yuri comes looking again!” Julian shouted back.

  They both stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do next.

  “Where’s Ally and Xander?” Prime said, looking around the room.

  “Yuri took Ally, he said she was the key to everything. Xander is trying to track them down.”

  “The key to everything? What does that mean?” Peter asked rhetorically.

  “Ally is my… is Peter’s sister. I have vague memories of her from before, before Julian and Owens separated the family. There isn’t much more I remember of her,” Prime was finding it hard to separate the differences from himself and Peter, finding it hard to trust his own memories.

  “Whatever is going on here, we need to keep Ava safe, she’s our only chance of stopping Yuri, and you are the only chance of stopping Peter,” Julian said, wishing he had more weapons to protect them.

  “What do we do?” Prime asked.

  “So Peter is looking for you, and Yuri will try to stop Ava. So chances are both are headed this way,” Julian thought through their situation.

  “They both have the ability to be in several places at once, clones and nanobots between them,” Prime chimed in.

  “I think I have an idea,” Julian said quietly.

  A noise alerted them both, and they turned to look at the doorway, standing there was Peter.

  “Hello boys,” he said smiling, “it’s time you stopped this little game and let me finish this. Prime, you’ve had a good run but let's be honest you have always only been a secondhand copy,” Peter marched forwards towards them.

  “Wait!” Julian shouted. “I know what it is you want.”

  Peter paused for a second.

  “Julian, I very much doubt that there is anything you can say that I don’t already know,” turning his head to the side, he reconsidered. “However, if it weren’t for you I would never have escaped prison, so I suppose I owe you. Explain.”

  Julian wasted no time, explaining how Ava and Quartzig were shutting down Yuri.

  “Once successful, they will have shut down Yuri’s programming, leaving it wide open for you to take over,
” Julian told Peter. “If you want to stop him, then this is the best way to do it!”

  Peter considered this before smiling.

  “Very well Julian, I will protect Ava until the kill switch is engaged, that’s a good plan, however I can’t promise Yuri won’t get through. He is adapting to my strategies.”

  “I could help,” Prime spoke up. “I could take control of some of the clones, we could attack from two sides. Yuri wouldn’t expect a second mind.”

  Peter narrowed his eyes as he looked at Prime, searching for any sign of deceit in his words, but finding none that he could register.

  “That’s an idea Prime, if I can trust you.”

  “You just said it yourself, you might not be able to beat Yuri on your own, this might be your only chance.”

  Peter nodded slowly.

  “OK, but if you try to make a connection through me, then the deal ends, I won’t let you compromise me.”

  Prime nodded and took a step backwards, showing his deferring to Peter.

  “Excellent, well then I better get some backup, if Yuri knows what’s happening here I guess he’ll be sending people.”

  Peter blinked, he had become so adept at controlling the others that it took little effort to send an influencing command to them.

  A moment later and a rumble was heard coming towards the room, the noise was answered by several clones appearing at the doorway. They entered and took a pose facing the two entrances to the room, ready to fight anything that came through the doors.

  “I'll take the ten on this side, you take the other five Prime. Are you sure you can do this?” Peter said, turning to Prime.

  Prime closed his eyes, letting the transmitter in his head activate and then he felt for the clones. He felt the connections click into place and their senses powered through him.

  He could acknowledge each of them, experiencing all their senses.

  Slowly he became one with them all, they were him and he was them. Slowly, he made them all turn towards Prime, raise their arms and point their middle finger up at him.

  “Haha! Touché Prime, let us prepare for the coming fight!” Peter laughed.