by E. R. Torre
It made no sense yet the thoughts lingered and she held on to them.
Unit 8’s hand was inches from her face. She felt his being just as she felt Unit 1 moments before. But there was something different, something…
Unit 8 lowered it hand and stepped aside.
The other two ARWs didn’t move.
Laverna looked back.
At the end of the passenger compartment and lying on a metal bench was Elias Vulcan’s corpse.
She heard a voice in her head.
Stand up. It is time.
It was Elias’ voice.
“What…?” she said and stopped, not wanting to believe what she heard.
The ARWs surrounding her didn’t move.
At all.
Laverna got to her feet. She walked past Unit 8 and walked to the bench in which Elias’ body lay. Half his face and much of his clothing were scorched black. His limbs were twisted and gnarled.
He looked –felt– just as dead as before and yet…
You’re a machine. There must be some way to turn you on again.
How?
Laverna came closer to Elias.
“You can’t leave me,” she said.
She reached out. She was about to touch Elias’ face.
Unit 8 was suddenly next to her. It grabbed Laverna’s hand and held it firmly.
“Leave me—” Laverna yelled before abruptly stopping.
She felt something rush through her body. A new energy. It flowed through her and into Unit 8.
The creature sensed it, too. It fought hard to release Laverna but could not. It’s free hand moved, Laverna knew, against the creature’s will. Fingers spread out and touched Elias’ forehead.
In that moment a connection was made from Laverna to Unit 8 and, finally, Elias.
The connection set off an incredible burst of energy. Unit 8’s life force rushed from it and surged directly into Elias. The energy loss was such that the creature’s body smoked. Sparks and the smell of burnt circuitry filled the shuttle’s corridor. Thick black smoke rose from Unit 8’s joints.
The creature released Laverna.
Unit 8’s body grew pale, gray. Steel limbs turned to ash and the smoke was gone. Pieces of it crumbled away. At first they were small and floated to the ground. Soon, larger chunks fell. They hit the floor as nothing more than ash.
Then, at once, Unit 8’s body collapsed.
Its still smoldering remains lay between Laverna and Elias.
Laverna stepped over them and got closer to him. She looked down on his body.
Elias’ eyes opened.
He stared right back at her.
72
In the Salvo’s bridge, Unit 1 worked the ship’s controls while Unit 12 stood toward the rear. It still held the proto-fusion remote. The four ARWs that accompanied Unit 1 from the Goliath shuttle spread through the ship and continued the search for traps the human crew might have left behind.
Unit 1 accessed the ship’s fusion cannons and targeted the human settlement on Arcadia. It had a very clear shot.
Unit 1 longed for the moment it could finally fire on them and reduce Arcadia’s Megacity to a glowing crater. It would make sure all comm systems were turned on when it fired. The humans would see the missiles coming at them. Maybe they would try to call out, to beg for mercy.
It hoped they did.
Mercy would not come. Unit 1 simply wanted to hear their screams.
Its thoughts turned to other goals.
Its brothers in Epsillon, their group also a closely guarded secret, would be contacted as soon as the Salvo returned to Davilia. With Elias and his secrets revealed, the ARW forces would certainly conquer all. The many hundred years’ covert war waged between the Primary and them was over and age-old plans would finally be implemented.
But first, Unit 1 needed to clear the Salvo of its traps.
It checked the ARWs’ progress in cracking the security codes hidden within the ship’s computers. Unit 1 expected an updated time estimate. Perhaps his soldiers would clear the codes in less than a month’s time. It hoped they wouldn’t need much more.
Unit 1 accessed the computer and checked the self-destruct codes.
The creature was surprised to find they were no longer active.
Unit 1 stepped away from the control panel.
This is not possible.
Its mind cycled through the information.
Verified: Self-destruct code removed.
Unit 1 was baffled by this. If the information was to be believed, it could fire upon the settlement. There was nothing stopping it. Nothing but—
This is a trap.
Unit 1’s head came up.
“Landing bay doors opening,” the ship’s computer announced.
Unit 1 and Unit 12 ran to the main elevator and ordered it to the landing bay.
Once the elevator arrived, it had to be manually opened as there was no atmosphere present in the landing bay.
Unit 1 entered the landing bay just as the Goliath Shuttle drifted past the battleship’s outer doors and into space.
Unit 1 focused its visual mechanisms on the ship’s cockpit. It zoomed in and enhanced its view.
Sitting at the pilots’ chairs were Laverna DeCastillo and Elias.
Elias activated the cameras within the Goliath’s cockpit and sent a live feed to the Salvo.
Beyond the cockpit doors and within the passenger compartment lay the two ARWs left behind by Unit 1. Like Unit 8, their bodies were ash.
Elias looked far better than before. The burnt flesh on his face was quickly healing and his twisted limbs were straightening. The energy infusion had not just revived him, it had energized him. He pressed a series of buttons while Laverna watched.
“I thought you were dead,” she said. “You had every bit of energy transferred from your system. You were just as dead as Two of Three.”
“Not to brag, but my situation was far worse than Two of Three’s,” Elias said. “Two of Three managed to strip the energy from over eighty nine percent of its body but there was that eleven percent which was still accessible. For me, every nano-probe was stripped of energy. Had another day passed, the nano-probes –and my body– would have turned to ash.”
“Just like…?”
“Yeah, just like the others I terminated.”
“You couldn’t revive Two of Three. How were you able to revive yourself?”
Elias smiled.
“When I found him, there was nothing that I knew of to do for him,” Elias said. “But that was thousands of years ago, Laverna. I’ve learned a few tricks since then.”
One of the monitors before them came to life and Elias pointed to it. On it appeared Unit 1. He was back in the Salvo’s bridge.
“Hello old friend,” Elias said. “Bet you didn’t expect to hear from me.”
“You’re alive,” Unit 1 said.
Elias flashed his perfect teeth for the camera.
“That’s obvious,” he said. “What are you going to do about it?”
The Salvo’s port thrusters roared to life.
A thick burst of accelerant pushed the mighty vessel from its orbit near Arcadia’s Displacer.
Moments later the aft thrusters also came alive. Angry wisps of flame and thousands of tons of superheated gases were released and ignited in a controlled explosion. The vessel moved forward and shook mightily.
The Salvo’s weapons emerged from their bays and rotated into place. Every single one of them, just moments before primed to take out the human camp on Arcadia, now targeted the shuttle.
Unit 1 and Unit 12 stared at the monitor before them. It displayed the Goliath craft carrying Laverna and Elias.
Unit 1 spoke into the ship’s communicator system.
“The self-destruct mechanism is gone,” Unit 1 said. “If I wanted to, I could fire upon the settlement. Or you.”
“Why not take us both out at the same time?” Elias said.
“How dumb do you think I am,
Primary? The self-destruct mechanism disappears and I’m tempted to immediately use the Salvo’s fusion cannons. It’s almost as if you want me to fire. Which means I should proceed carefully. Instead of using the fusion cannons, I’ll simply run your craft down.”
Within the shuttle, its defensive systems screamed multiple warnings. Tired of their wails, Elias slammed his hand over a panel button. The warnings immediately stopped.
“That’s better,” he said.
Laverna eyed him.
“He’s figured you out, Elias,” Laverna said. “He’s speeding up. He’s going to ram us and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“Don’t be so pessimistic,” Elias said.
He re-activated the ship’s communication system.
“Unit 1, this is the Primary,” Elias said. “Before you take that first tiny step toward Galactic domination and rid the universe of all our pitiful souls, I have to ask: Aren’t you curious how it was I not only survived, but got away from the Salvo?”
73
Within the Salvo, Unit 1 poured the speed on. As big as the battleship was, it gained on the Goliath. Even as it did, Unit 1 worked furiously on the ship’s weapons system, checking and re-checking them for traps.
The creature experienced a curious frustration. It could find no trap at all.
They are there.
“I am curious,” Unit 1 admitted. “If you want to explain how you did this, do so. But be quick. By my count, you have one minute fifty seven seconds before the Salvo crushes you.”
“I copied what you did to me on Pomos,” Elias said.
The answer surprised Unit 1. It said:
“What do you mean?”
In the Goliath class shuttle, Elias leaned back in his chair.
“It takes a special kind of inventiveness, an understanding of nano-technology only beings like you and I have, along with a ruthlessness no human possesses, to go through with what the Milities Generation did on Pomos. I did the same to you.”
In the Salvo’s bridge, Unit 1 watched as one weapon system after another was cleared.
Their target was locked and the fusion cannons were primed. Still Unit 1 did not dare fire.
“You destroyed Pomos.”
“The planet and its people were already dead,” Elias said. “I just made sure the virus didn’t spread. It must bother you to know how badly you failed.”
“It did,” Unit 1 admitted. “Until now.”
The last of the weapon systems were cleared.
Though Unit 1 could still ram the Salvo into the Goliath shuttle, it would take another forty five seconds. With the flick of the creature’s wrist, a lethal barrage of fusion energy would vaporize it.
That would be accomplished in five seconds.
“My calculations were incorrect,” Unit 1 said. “Time’s up, Primary.”
The creature reached for the weapon controls but its hand did not touch them.
Unit 12 grabbed and held onto Unit 1’s hand. It pulled the ARW back and away.
Unit 1 was confused. It spun around and attacked Unit 12. But Unit 12 was just as quick as its leader. It grabbed Unit 1’s other arm and the creatures were locked into place. They fell to the floor.
Elias watched the monitor and its images from the Salvo’s bridge. On it, the two ARWs fought.
“Bringing a virus into Pomos piece by inert piece and undetectable by my security system was so damn ingenious,” Elias said. “I admired even as I was sickened by the results of the plan. I had to eliminate you, Unit 1. I had to eliminate the Milities. Thing is, I didn’t have the strength to fight on your level. To get you, I had to lie in wait and when you reached Davilia, I had you. I lured you there and hoped to quickly eliminate you. But you were clever. You surrounded yourselves with hostages, though they didn’t know that’s what they were. Fortunately, I prepared for that possibility.”
Elias rubbed his chin.
“When the Salvo reached Arcadian space, I made things interesting enough planet side to bring you down. Had you not left one of your soldiers on the Salvo, I would have taken care of you the moment you set foot on the planet. Though I couldn’t act as I wanted, I had one more contingency waiting.”
Unit 12’s arms warped under Unit 1’s grip. The ARW leader was slowly winning the battle against its fellow soldier.
“So you and your boys are down on Arcadia and you sense the machinery below its surface. Your curiosity, along with a healthy measure of fear, was aroused. It was time to make that fear real, so I gave you a taste of the machine’s power.”
“The sand storm?” Unit 1 said.
“Yes,” Elias said. “Once it hit, you knew what lay below the surface of Arcadia was beyond your power to stop. You needed to get off Arcadia but there were complications. The Salvo had a self-destruct mechanism on board and it was tied to the lives of the crew of the ship. Your soldier on board had already killed two of them and couldn’t kill another because that would set off the self-destruct. If you couldn’t hurt any other crew members then you’d be slowed while trying to deactivate those destruct codes. That meant there was a greater and greater chance the machine below Arcadia’s surface might awaken and take you and the Salvo out. This in turn made it so much easier to convince you to trade places with the crew of the Salvo.”
On the Goliath shuttle, Laverna faced Elias.
“That was my idea!” she said.
“I’m afraid it wasn’t,” Elias replied. He saw the pain on her face and added: “I planted only that single idea in you, Laverna. That was all.”
Laverna fell back in her chair and Elias faced the monitor.
“What you didn’t know is that by then I had already done to you what you did to me on Pomos.”
Unit 1 stared at the monitor and Elias. It felt Unit 12’s grip weaken. For Unit 1, the battle against it was already won.
“I discharged my entire energy and effectively killed myself,” Elias said. “You suspected, rightfully, this was a trick and that too was predictable. You treated Laverna and I very carefully, as if we carried some kind of… virus.”
Elias smiled.
“Your suspicions were correct. We did carry a virus, but not a complete one. Rather, an inert portion of one. When you had Unit 8 disconnect itself from the rest of you and examine us, it allowed both Laverna and I to infect it with those inert portions of the virus we carried. The two portions transmitted to Unit 8 combined with the other inert portions already inside it and the virus was complete and activated itself. Care to guess how we got the rest of the virus into you and your boys?”
Unit 1’s red eyes flared.
“The sand storm.”
“Exactly,” Elias said. “Everyone, including you, were infected. Unit 8 acted normally despite being under the virus’ control and you didn’t know it because Unit 8 was not connected with any of the others.”
Unit 1 let out a very human sounding yell and thrashed around. Unit 12’s grip weakened even more.
The two rolled around the Salvo’s cockpit. They broke chairs and slammed into metal panels. Sparks flew and smoke filled the cockpit.
“All Unit 8 had to do was brush against the other ARWs to in turn infect them. Soon, I had every one of your soldiers under my control. All except for you, Unit 1. Infecting you was not enough. You needed to be obliterated. Or, as you would say, annihilated. Now take a look at this.”
Unit 1 looked up at the monitors. The image of Elias was replaced by an image of the Salvo’s landing bay and Elias’ shuttle.
“Bringing my shuttle to the Salvo was your next, and last, mistake.”
Inside Elias’ shuttle, the cockpit came to life.
Hidden circuitry was activated and programs buried within it came alive. In the shuttle craft’s engine room, the engine’s energy levels spiked.
“You brought my shuttle here just as I knew you would,” Elias said. “Your ARWs, your infected ARWs, those you thought were searching the Salvo for traps, instead dismantled the proto-fusi
on bomb in 14 Storage and took the pieces there. They assembled a smaller proto-fusion device using my shuttle’s power core. The bomb is much smaller and won’t damage Arcadia’s Displacer or the planet itself. Yet it will be more than enough to destroy you and your battleship. As of ten minutes ago, I have command of the device.”
Unit 1 stopped thrashing. Though it had gained even more leverage and was near freeing itself from Unit 12’s grip, it was too late. There was no more reason to fight.
“Where is the prototype you were based on, Unit 1?” Elias asked. “The prototype that was stolen from me?”
Unit 1 didn’t say.
“I will find it,” Elias said.
“The war isn’t over,” Unit 1 said. “There are many others like me out there, ready to fight.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Elias said. “I’ve already downloaded the Goliath’s databanks. Perhaps within them I will find information on the others?”
Unit 1 didn’t say anything.
“This is where it ends for you, Unit 1,” Elias said. “You probably won’t believe me, but—”
“Are you going to apologize for killing me, Primary?”
“I suppose so,” Elias admitted. “Your experiences made you a monster, Unit 1, and this is the reason you cannot be allowed to continue. Had things gone differently, you could have been—”
“—a saint?” Unit 1 said. “To most people, Saint Vulcan is just as much a monster as I am.”
Elias sat back in his seat.
“I’ll find them, Unit 1,” Elias said. “I’ll find them all. And those who are anything at all like you will also be eliminated.”
The Salvo’s monitors switched off and Unit 1 saw the stars through the cockpit’s view screen.
It felt the vibrations in the floor. They came from the landing bay.
In the next microsecond Unit 1 cursed Elias Vulcan.
Saint Vulcan.
The Primary.
Then Unit 1’s body, along with the rest of the Salvo, was ripped to pieces.
74