The URANUS Code (Citadel World Book #1)

by Kir Lukovkin

  A scuffle began. There was a deafening gunshot. Rick put his half of the key into the slot. A loud signal sounded and a metallic voice announced, “Attention. The Uranus program has been launched. All crew members and passengers are requested to take their places in their sections and fasten their seat belts The launch will take place in thirty minutes. The countdown has begun.”

  A timer appeared on every working screen and began the countdown.

  “What is this?” Croesus screamed, as he reappeared in front of the screen. “What have you done?”

  Rick did not yet comprehend what he had done. He only felt the foundation of Thermopolis shudder and the loud rumbling sound became even louder, as if a dormant volcano had suddenly awoken below the tower.

  “Stop this!” Croesus shook the blaster at the screen. “Stop this at once!”

  “I can't.” Rick calmly replied and smiled.

  Croesus was finally transfixed by his realization His face stretched out in surprise, as if he was a child that had suddenly been given the toy he dreamed of.

  “It wasn't the generators that you launched,” Croesus breathed out in a whisper.

  “They were launched before that,” Rick replied. “Turning on the generators is the first stage of the Uranus program, which I had already completed when I was in the Sigma and Tau sectors.”

  “What is this program? What's the program! Speak!” Croesus shouted, spittle flying everywhere.

  “I don't know,” Rick replied and laughed uproariously.

  “What? You filthy puppy! I should have killed your mother back then? Why did you...”

  But the Warden did not get to finish his sentence. Maya smashed him over the head with a chair. Croesus fell as if struck by lightning. Maya spat in his direction and turned towards the screen.

  “Rick! By the Great Axis! What have you done? I thought you were here!”

  “Maya, everything is fine! It's Tommo who's with you up there. We managed to... transfer his soul into the body of my double to fool Paris.”

  “If that's the case, then Tommo is no more,” Maya replied sadly. “Croesus shot him.”

  Suddenly a “Command Center Evacuation” message appeared in a pop-up dialog window. An evacuation plan was displayed with arrows showing the way, as well as a message saying that the plan was also displayed in every room and corridor as a notice on the walls and arrows pointing in the direction of evacuation.

  “Rick! Where are you?”

  “I am below, under Thermopolis on level zero. I launched the Uranus program. Wait for me, I will be with you soon!”

  “Rick,” Maya stretched her hands out towards him. Tears streamed down her face. “Oh, Rick... I have a bad feeling about this, hurry up!”

  “I'm coming back!”

  “I wanted to say something to you... Forgive me!”

  But rick never heard her, as he had already left the command post. Once he got out into the corridor, he froze, pushing himself against the wall—there were people moving towards the post.

  “Halt!” one of them barked and came into the light of the lamp.

  It was Yeshua.

  “What are you doing here?” asked Rick with surprise.

  “Didn't expect me?” Yeshua seemed happy. “We've been watching you ever since you left Omicron.”

  Rick was confused.

  “What a face,” Yeshua said mockingly as he pointed his blaster. “All right, hands up, face to the wall and don't do anything stupid.”

  “You're too late,” Rick replied, showing him his empty hands. “The program has been launched.”

  “You're going to stop it the same way as you started it. Face the wall!” Yeshua commanded.

  “You don't understand...”

  Yeshua struck Rick in the chest with the stock of his weapon. Rick yelped with pain and fell to one knee, considering his chances. Four against one, there was no way he could deal with them all. They grabbed him by the shoulder, dragged him up and turned him towards the wall, went through his pockets and took his knife out of the scabbard.

  While this was going on, Yeshua kept muttering obscenities about the filthy hole they had ended up in.

  “How did you get into Epsilon?” Rick asked when he was turned back to face Yeshua.

  “None of your business,” he growled, and then added, “You bastard! If I wasn't ordered to deliver you alive, I would smash you into a fine paste on this wall.”

  Rick carefully watched all four of his opponents, as well as what was happening behind them.

  “You don't have the guts for it,” he replied.

  “Whaat?” Yeshua's face twisted from this insolence.

  “You heard. You're just a typical coward!”

  Yeshua shook in a fit of rage.

  “Just you wait, you vermin! I'm going to light you up so well, that your own mother won't recognize you...”

  A piercing scream rang out behind his back. Everyone turned around. The warrior at the rear of the unit was quickly disappearing into the corridor feet first, trying to grab onto the walls and screaming loudly. Two of the others ran to help him, but they were too late—the unfortunate man was sucked into the blackness of the corridor and only his receding, desperate cries could be heard.

  “Machine God, save us!” one of the warriors whispered, making a ritual gesture of protection.

  “What was that?” Yeshua whispered.

  They did not even have time to get a grip on themselves when another scream sounded in the corridor. A slimy, snake-like body whipped itself around another victim, dragging him into the opening of the air duct in the ceiling.

  “Help!” the condemned man shouted and immediately fell silent as he disappeared through the opening.

  No one had the time to say a word when the wide, fanged maw of the worm-like monster bit into the body of the third warrior. Yeshua jumped in the direction of the command post with a terrified squeal. Rick used the opportunity to punch him hard in the stomach. As Yeshua doubled over, Rick knocked the blaster from his hands, but did not bother to keep going and sprinted towards the safety of the exit from the corridor.

  He spent some time meandering through the bunker, following the direction of the arrows on the notices until he reached a hall that was the start of a railway that stretched out into a dark tunnel. There was a small carriage in the tunnel, with open entrances on the side. It looked like this was the carriage that would deliver those evacuating from the command post back up above.

  Rick jumped inside and approached the controls at the front of the cabin. He pressed his palm against the scanner, bringing up a system message offering to power up the engine. Rick confirmed the instruction—the automatic systems worked perfectly and the carriage smoothly started to roll along, gathering speed.

  Rick grabbed onto a railing and stuck his head outside, looking back. Yeshua ran into the hall and raised his blaster. However, he had no time to shoot, as the worm-like monster appeared behind him and opened its maw, biting into him from the top and swallowing his head whole.

  The carriage noticeably picked up speed. Rick was expected the rails to turn upwards in a moment and for the tunnel to lead to the surface, and even started to think about the way he would protect his loved ones from Croesus should he wake up and take over the situation again.

  However, the carriage continued on its way and kept building up speed. The walls of the tunnel rushed on buy, sometimes lit up with the light of the forebodingly blinking lamps. Rick gripped the railing, tensely looking ahead. According to every calculation, he should have been up in Thermopolis long ago. Maya and Aurora needed him!

  But the tunnel seemed to be never-ending. Rick entered the cabin and pressed his palm to the screen on the controls.

  System failure.

  What?

  He tried to take over the controls again, but the automatic systems did not let him.

  “Mother Darkness!” Rick shouted inside his mind through force of habit. Where did this tunnel actually lead?
<
br />   After a few minutes, the carriage began to gradually decrease. The carriage was moving noticeably slower. Rick was staring ahead, trying to understand which sector he ended up in. Finally, the carriage reached a platform and the brakes squealed as it came to a stop.

  Rick rushed outside and looked around the vaulted ceiling of the cave he found himself in and the wide spiral stairway that led upwards. A few dimply glowing lamps hung down from the ceiling on long wires. Without waiting for something unexpected to happen, Rick ran headlong up the stairs.

  The steps coiled like a spring through the masses of rock. Rick had no idea of the exact distance he had traveled, but he finally entered a stone hall, feeling completely out of breath. There were lamps here too, but there was not enough light—a lot of them were not in working order. The floor of the hall vibrated slightly and tiny chips of stone fell from the ceiling. Rick stopped for a moment, listening to the distant rumble coming from above.

  A flickering white light suddenly added itself to the lamps. Rick turned around—a terminal with a shining screen and flashing diodes stood against the opposite wall, which was incredibly smooth. Without a thought, Rick threw himself towards the keyboard, but all the system offered him was several commands that had nothing to do with Thermopolis. In the end, he selected one and stood still, looking at the steel panels sliding open in front of him.

  By this time, the rumble had turned into a thunderous road. Rick instinctively grabbed onto the edge of the control terminal and stole a fearful glance at the ceiling. He hoped that the roof would not crack and bury him in stone...

  The soft, reddish light of the setting Sun entered the hall through thick crystal glass. The metallic panels had finally slid completely open and he could see the plain from the mountainside where the observation post was located.

  Thermopolis towered opposite, still as massive as a mountain, but it was far, too far away to return to it in time.

  The tower had changed a lot from the outside. Its upper section looked different now, like a thin rod with oblong growths in several places.

  Tommo's words about the way that Thermopolis adapted itself immediately came into his mind. Rick was struck dumb by a realization

  His impotence made him scream.

  Clouds of steam billowed beneath the base of the rod, as the sun glinted off its external shell, the roar grew louder with every second and the floor shook beneath Rick's feet. He stumbled, almost losing his balance—he was saved by his tight grip on the control terminal.

  The timer on the monitor was counting down the last seconds before the initiation of the Uranus program. Once the numbers became a sting of zeroes, the message “Adaptation Complete” flashed on the screen, followed by the word “LAUNCH”.

  Thermopolis shuddered. Rick stumbled again as a second sun lit beneath the base of the rod. The glass immediately dimmed, saving his eyes from the incandescent light and letting him see the details.

  Rick stood still, without daring to breathe. The light grew so bright that even the artificially darkened glass offered little protection, but Rick kept watching as the rod breathed fire and separated itself from a gigantic conical platform, rising above the plain.

  The world shook all around him. It seemed that the skies were about to be rent asunder. But the inevitable happened—Thermopolis rose ever higher, gathering speed and striking the plain with a stream of fire, annihilating the structures below.

  The clouds of smoke and steam soon reached the observation post. Rick stretched out his neck, rising up on his toes, trying to watch the direction of the flight to the last, but the view behind the window got inexorably obscured by an impenetrable fog, and the upward flight of the rod disappeared from sight.

  It took a long time until all the dust had settled and Rick Omicron managed to find his way outside and look at the distant star that appeared among the others in the evening sky.

  He looked up at the sky until night fell and the unbearable cold forced him to return to his shelter.

  “I will find you,” he whispered, standing before the window. “No matter how gigantic the Expanse may be.”

  End of Book One

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  [1] The die is cast (Lat.).