The ocean was definitely a dangerous place. She returned her attention to the slowly sinking foot. It had been a brutal and instant death and in a few seconds not a single trace of it would remain. The ocean had swallowed its dark monster back into its heart.
“Radio me when you reach the retail levels. I’m trying to patch back into the system, it might take me a while…”
“I thought you was in?” She thought of Krahm’s last minute deactivation of the fan.
“When you rebooted the system, you booted me out. My makeshift patch back in to stall the fan alerted the AI aboard the spire and now its making it very difficult for me…” Krahm sounded a little put out that Liara’s actions had caused him more work.
Liara ignored it, as far as she was concerned it was necessary. It had worked after all.
“Tell me Krahm, and don’t bullshit me… What the fuck was that thing?” She demanded as she approached the spiral stair case. She began ascending it step by step.
“…It’s complicated,”
“Oh fuck off Krahm!” she snatched the radio from her suit and held it to her mouth, “tell me what it was! I’ve just jettisoned the fucking thing to the ocean floor, I deserve to know what it was. What type of fucking monster did you create?”
She emerged on a new floor. It was the same shape as the Observatory below only this had two long surfaces on the furthest side. They looked like a pair of bars. Situated between them and Liara was a large square grid of floor tiles. To her left was the useless elevator. Either side of it appeared to be small stairwells.
As she waited for an answer from Krahm she crossed to the bars. The floor panels lit up beneath her feet as she stepped on them.
“…We didn’t deliberately make it… It was an accident…” was Krahm’s delayed remorseful reply.
“An accident? What happened?”
“I told you Liara, get to the surface and I’ll tell you everything…”
That particular phrase was starting to irk her greatly.
She studied the bar as she approached and found strange colourful liquids served in pretty cocktail glasses abandoned upon it. Long cylindrical bottles lined the walls, rows of spare glasses were housed on cubicles beneath them. Liara was a million miles from Earth yet everything felt distinctly familiar. It was yet more evidence of this universal blueprint that each species seemingly riffed off. She plucked the abandoned cocktail nearest her. She smelt it. It smelt slightly fruity, a sweet and sickly smell like strawberries.
For a second she considered drinking it, she had surely earned herself a drink after all the shit she‘d been through, yet she replaced it on the bar. Who knew what kind of effect this drink would have on a human system. With her current standing of rotten luck she wasn’t prepared to chance it.
With a reluctant sigh she departed for the stairwell.
She ascended and left the nightclub behind. When she reached the top she emerged in what appeared to be a mall. The grand level was two-tiered with a set of stairs in the middle. Little boutiques, kiosks and stalls lined either side of her. A colossal glass chandelier composed of vertical slices hung over the entire level like a crowning achievement. Everything was bathed in an ambient gold light.
She pressed on, aware that to her right stood what appeared to be a fast food restaurant. Cute little black tables and chairs lined out in front of it in rows. Everything was so neat and orderly it was disconcerting. It felt deficit of life’s touch.
She carried on towards the stairs. A glance to her left revealed a cluster of stalls. Some were selling those peculiar slices of glass she’d spotted in the lab. Others were selling odd knick-knacks and fluffy characters. The stuffed soft toys were reminiscent of stylised cartoons and manga. The next shop along sported a sliding display of foreign locales and exotic shores. The next shop looked like a boutique for clothes.
Liara turned her attention to the right.
A collection of posters illustrated some unknown project that Liara couldn’t identify. The Tethu pictured was attired in futuristic armour and cutting a heroic pose. Was it a movie poster? The next shop had a display reel of Tethu faces. As Liara closed in she realised the images were being used as comparisons, much like the before and after pictures of cosmetic surgeries.
It was like someone had taken elements of human life on Earth and teleported it here. It felt like a mish-mash of human life seen through an alien lens.
She climbed the stairs and took the set to her left. The second floor of the shopping complex continued the same themes.
“What exactly am I looking for here?” She asked Krahm.
“The way out. Try looking for a glass elevator…”
She hadn’t seen a glass elevator yet. The second floor had bridges connecting both sides, so she crossed to the left side. From the middle she spotted the glass elevator. Her heart sank. It had been shattered and a small plume of smoke was rising from its bottom.
“Bad news… It’s out of action,” It was the first significant sign she’d encountered that anything was wrong aboard the rest of the spire. It changed the nature of the place, no longer did it feel like a ghost town - now it felt like an aftermath.
“There should be the industrial stairwell near it, try that…”
“…And that looks like?” she prompted reminding him this shopping mall was a foreign land to her.
“Sorry, big blue doors…”
She crossed around the balcony and neared the broken glass elevator. She was now stood over where she had entered. She’d not known there was a broken smouldering elevator above her head when she’d entered. The smell of smoke and fire wafted slightly in the air. She glanced back and saw there was a new stairwell behind her that led up to a third floor. It ran up against the back of the stores. How much retail did this one spire need?
She found the blue door. It resembled the ones from the labs. She approached it and a little red light denied her entry. Well, that was just great. She glanced annoyed to the broken rubble of the elevator and back to the door. Was everything always such hard work?
She took the Hacker and began to hack her way in. She found the right frequency and drew the symbol along the screen. It displayed a block of alien text.
“Why isn’t my Hacker working?” she enquired puzzled.
“Dammit, it’ll lack the correct security passes…”
Her eyes rolled upwards and she shook her head. Seriously…?
“Is there any way you can log in?”
“I’m struggling… You’ll need to find a way to install the security passes on the Hacker…”
He made it sound so easy.
“…And how am I going to do that?” She didn’t mean to sound petulant but she felt a little justified having a sulk.
“Erm…”
A noise behind her caused her to turn. She spotted a group of Tethu’s descending the third stairwell. They were brandishing what looked like guns and were heavily conferring amongst themselves.
“There’s survivors…” she announced. She was unsure whether to flag their attention. They hadn’t noticed her yet.
“HIDE!”
Krahm’s order surprised her but she instinctively ducked. As a further precaution she also lowered the volume on the radio.
“Why?” She hissed sliding up against the handrail in front. She spied over the top of it, the Tethu’s were doing a systematic sweep of the stores. She counted six. Two were sweeping at the front, their guns trained to fire. The middle two were hauling giant bags of some kind, they were stopping to fill them with products from the shelves. The two at the back were warily protecting the rear. A little ball of light flickered from the muzzles of their guns.
They were doing an organised sweep and they were working in her direction.
“…The spire is in evacuation status, because of a biohazard leak. They know something escaped the labs…”
“-But it’s dead, I’ve killed it,” Liara interjected.
“…They’ve never met
one of your kind before Liara, they don’t even know you exist…”
Liara realised what he was getting to. The Tethu didn’t know what exactly had escaped the lab and they would mistakenly assume she was it. They would terminate her on sight.
It was obviously too much to ask for a little bit of back up.
“You need to avoid them at all costs, they’ll think you’re the biohazard risk…”
“Okay, but they’re heading this way. Where can I get those damned security passes?”
“Looking at the floor plans, you might be able to find what you need at the security desk. It’s on the third floor, illuminated with an orange logo. It’s near a hologram of the Spire…”
Of course it was on the third floor. Where the Tethu’s had come from…
She began to head towards it, heading clockwise around the circular second-floor. She was grateful the side rails were built from frosted plates of glass. It meant she was well hidden as she scuttled along.
“Why didn’t the quarantine process work? Surely you should’ve been able to contain the Progenmorph?” She bobbed her head up briefly and spied the Tethu, they were still heading towards the lift, ransacking as they went.
“…It was like a perfect storm, we was attacked shortly after the accident and half our systems were destroyed. We couldn‘t contain it…”
It was the most Krahm had revealed and she hoped it might be the beginning of more.
“Attacked by who?”
“I don’t know… Whoever attacked our network did a good job and erased all traces…”
“You have many enemies?”
“Some, though it’s hard to say if they were responsible…”
“Have any ideas? Any suspicions?”
“Honestly…” he stalled for a moment, “…I think it might have been an inside job…”
That was interesting. Why would someone destroy their own networks after a quarantine has been activated? The culprit had set the Progenmorph loose… Was that their intention?
She wanted to pose the idea to Krahm but she didn’t want to stray too close to the topic lest he stonewalled her again.
She had reached the interconnecting bridge between the two sides of the second floor. A quick peek told her the Tethu were scrutinising the broken elevator. She crossed to the opposite side and kept low. She realised as she approached the stairwell that she would have to abandon the safety of the railing. She would have to venture into the open.
“Isn’t there any other way up out of here?”
“Afraid not. The only direct route to the surface was the lift we lost in the labs…”
“No other way up?”
“The glass elevator takes you to the residential floors and no higher. There’s only one lift on the residential floor that leads to the surface…”
“The stairwell? Does that lead to the surface…?”
“Yes but it’ll be a long trip. If you can patch me into the systems I might be able to figure out an easier way out, but for now you really need to get to the residential floors…”
“…And what about the survivors?”
“You’re my priority,”
She wanted to feel flattered by that but she knew he ranked the data she was carrying much more important. She was the courier and only important for that sole fact.
She peeked at the Tethu. They were still occupied.
She took a gulp of air and chanced it. She rushed towards and then up the stairs. She made it to the top without incident.
She had arrived on a long and slender floor that curved around the giant chandelier. In the distance she spotted a orange glowing symbol. It appeared to be a little café to her right but she ignored it. She hurried towards the orange beacon. The opposite side of the balcony seemed to house a myriad of desks. Maybe help desks and other information points? If she understood the language she’d probably find she was right.
A bright blue hologram burst into life as she passed it. It illustrated a 3D model of what she understood to be the spire. It looked like an industrial space station fashioned like a stalactite. She stopped for a second to admire it. It was an impressive sculpture of steel.
Had the Tethu abandoned the ocean when they built it? Was this one of many spires?
That well buried yearning for discovery sparked a little in her weary heart. The old sensations washed over her; the unknown, the secrets, the alternate ways of life. If she closed her eyes she would be back in Egypt, or Cambodia, rooting through ancient ruins piecing together ancient history. It felt like lifetimes had passed since those moments.
A thumping overhead brought her back to the present with an abrupt start.
She glanced up, the convex ceiling sculpted from grey metal reached high. There was no follow up sound. Was it just her imagination? Was it the spire settling just as old houses did?
“If I patch you in, could you sweep the spire and make sure that thing’s dead…?”
Krahm didn’t respond.
“Krahm?”
“Yes?” was his response after a small pause.
“If I patch you into the system, could you sweep the system and make sure that thing is dead?”
“I could… but it’s dead. We trapped it in the research module, it’s gone…”
Her eyes washed over the ceiling over and over again. No further thump, no clattering of the vents. Nothing. Just a faint little hum of ambience noise.
It was just her imagination. It was the creature lingering in her mind. Krahm was right. She’d jettisoned the creature to the bottom of the ocean.
She turned her attention to the security desk.
CHAPTER SIX:
There was a room behind the desk and she stole inside it. It was lined with strong industrial shelving. Several boxes and crates of unknown electrical objects crammed the shelves. At the back of the room stood the most surprising addition. A grey ugly bulk of a computer. It was built from grubby grey plastic and had a LCD screen built into it. The rest of the technology Liara had seen had been futuristic, somewhat sleek and refined. This was like the ugly bastard child from the days of early technology. Liara thought it looked it had beamed in from the 90’s. She half expected to see a floppy drive and a roller ball mouse.
There was another room behind this one. It seemed to go on for a considerable distance.
“What am I looking for in here Krahm?”
“Look for a console that’ll take the Hacker… You could update its firmware by that,”
It wasn’t the first time Liara had been surprised by the alien’s choice of word. Firmware, a relatively contemporary word. It spoke English so well it was unnerving sometimes. She’d grown accustomed to hearing it using her own voice, it barely registered anymore.
“How do you speak English so well?”
She slipped into the backroom and was dismayed to see several rows of computers. They were slick and sophisticated, elegant and tall transparent works of engineering. Even their inner guts composed of wires and chips looked elegant. They only further reinforced the previous computer’s ugliness. She counted eight. One by one she studied these unusual consoles looking for the telltale pins of a docking station.
“…You remember when we met, I took a sample of blood from the dead clone…?”
She did. That strange slurping noise flashed in her ears.
“Well… We, as a species, managed to harness the power of cell memories. I took the clone’s genetic memories and used it to learn your language,”
“Is that all you took? Any other memories?”
She felt strangely violated. If Krahm had the ability to understand and read cell memories it meant that he also had access to all of her memories. Every secret, every sliver of a memory would be open to him. It was like someone prising into your secret diary and reading the contents.
“There were some memories, but most of them were broken or incomplete. The clone’s memory banks were patchy to say the least…”
She didn’t feel a
ny better.
“And how did you learn to do that?”
“Evolution and genetic research…”
The answer made her think of the Fours. They had been the ultimate manifestation of the technological drive. Was every species of intelligent life destined to pursue the very limits of the world and its technologies? Humans were eerily similar in that respect. Was it another case of the same blueprint and different interpretations? Liara felt somewhere in amongst this idea was the proof of God existing. Or some master-designer of life at the very least… Why did life keep replicating different takes on the same ideas?
She found the correct console.
“Ok, I’m docked in…” she announced as she docked the Hacker. Its screen turned into a cryptic collection of symbols.
“Ok… I don’t think I can guide you through the process of updating, but if you could find the console hooked into the mainframe then maybe you can patch me in and I can do it…”
That sounded like a good idea, though she wasn’t entirely convinced it was going to be any easier.
“What will that console look like?” she enquired flicking her attention across the computers before her. Just why was there so many in here? She guessed that they must’ve had different uses but what they were she wouldn’t ever know.
“It’ll look out of place. Old and ugly…”
She knew exactly what he was talking about. She retreated into the previous room and squatted before the ugly console. In a painstakingly lengthy and frustrating experience, Krahm then guided her how to log into the system. It involved lots of improvised descriptions of what symbol to press next and Liara trying to get her head around it. She typed out the command on the touch screen keyboard, the computer brought up a whole new window. From there Krahm, via Liara’s novice eyes, broke into the mainframe and allowed himself access. By the time they were done Liara felt she’d written an essay in Egyptian hieroglyphics. She had not a single clue what she’d typed out but Krahm was elated.
“Ok, I’m going to update the Hacker now…”
Progenitor Page 7