Prototype: The Lost and Forgotten Series

by Robert Gallagher

  All that Professor Brookes and Dr. Zorn can do is stare at Sam with astonishment. Frank still looks confused but is silent. Seeing this as a good sign, Sam continues, “The computer matrix allows me to talk telepathically with the real Sam. When Sam was infected, the infection very quickly overcame his body’s natural defenses and erased his consciousness. The real Sam already had some of my bionanites within his system and alerted me to this invasive infection. Over time I was able to reverse much of the damage and cleansed Sam’s body of the infection, but his consciousness is gone. In the meantime, I have taken control over his body, and here we are now.”

  Frank, still looking confused, seems to be trying to understand what was just said. Dr. Zorn’s astonishment changes to a smile, and Brookes replies first. “You used your bionanites to heal my shoulder. Can you use your nanites to cure everyone else from the infection?”

  “I did heal your shoulder, Professor, but sadly, although I could rid the infection from all of the victims over time, I could not recover their true consciousness. In effect they would be infection free but empty of their previous personalities; they would become mindless zombies, with just the brain’s basic instincts, but this would also take time, and my plan also has a small window for our chance of escape. Let me take a look at Jessica, and then I’ll explain my plan.”

  The others all nod their approval, and Sam moves over to where Jessica has been strapped in. The chair has been reclined as far as possible, and a makeshift bandage has been applied to her wound. Slipping a finger underneath Jessica’s bandage, Sam closes his eyes for a few seconds before removing it.

  The others watch expectantly as Sam, now looking concerned, returns to his chair. “It’s not good, I’m afraid. As I already suspected, Jessica has military-grade nanites protecting her body, but she has a very nasty blood infection that is somehow slowly killing off her nanites, but it’s these nanites that are currently helping in keeping her alive.”

  “Can your bionanites help?” asks Dr. Zorn.

  “I would say yes, but she is in no way out of the woods yet. My nanites have boosted her body’s immune system; however, her nanites will consider mine a threat in time, which will in all probability result in Jessica losing the rest of her nanites. At that point my nanites will take over complete care.”

  “Won’t that be a backward step?” Professor Brookes asks.

  “On the contrary, my nanites are rather more advanced than her military ones, and in the long term they will help her body become immune to many deadly infections and recover from the most severe of injuries. Nevertheless, her current infection is not listed on any of my medical databases, and I’m sure that the blade that is still inside her is somehow adapting to her body’s defenses.”

  “How can a blade fashioned here become so deadly to Jessica? She seemed almost unstoppable,” Dr. Zorn asks, looking concerned.

  “I’m not entirely sure, Doctor, but while it remains in her, Jessica will not recover, and even my nanites will not save her in the end. At the very best, all I have given Jessica is few more hours.”

  “If we can get her medical help, maybe she will pull through. I know you were against it before, but you must consider Facility One as being her best option,” Professor Brookes says with more emotion than he would have liked. His own desires to find his wife and family still weigh heavily on his mind.

  “It was the other Sam that desired to leave here and not visit Facility One, Professor. However, I think that he would relent in this case.”

  The professor breathes out with a great sigh of relief upon hearing Sam’s response and asks, “Can you do anything for Sam’s mind?”

  “Normally this would be impossible unless you lived within the Inner Federation, where a citizen’s consciousness is automatically transferred to a special storage matrix upon death. This is also done for special individuals selected from the outer worlds. However, in Sam’s case, although his mind has been destroyed from the infection, the black hole’s influence would have prevented any outward transference in any case, but I am Sam, and as such, I can reverse the process that created me, but it will take time.”

  Both Dr. Zorn and Professor Brookes look confused by Sam’s words. “What does that mean?” Professor Brookes asks.

  “I have already prepared a soul matrix to contain his consciousness. All I need to do is reconstruct his consciousness from my own matrix, and once that is complete, I’ll transfer him back to his body. Transference of a consciousness is extremely easy, but to copy one is another matter.”

  Dr. Zorn asks the next question. “How much time?”

  “Well, copying from an organic mind takes longer because they are unhappy to remain still for very long periods of time, but in this case maybe only five to ten years.”

  “That sounds like a long time, but I’m guessing for us it won’t take as long. When can you start doing this?” Professor Brookes asks.

  “That, Professor, I have already started. Now we need to reduce the mass for the pod. Sam had already started working on this issue as an option of last resort, and I’m guessing that’s now. Can you pressurize all the unoccupied levels without activating them?”

  Professor Brookes considers this for a moment. “In theory that should be possible—we do have surplus power for now. But why?”

  “All in good time, Professor. We also need to do this within the inhabited levels as well. I realize this might not be the most humane thing to do, but considering one side wants to eat our flesh and the other side desires to take over our minds, I would say they deserve it.”

  Looking a little irritated, Dr. Zorn replies, “None of them asked to be taken over or corrupted in this way.”

  “But all of them have committed the most atrocious crimes to be sent here in the first place,” retorts Professor Brookes.

  “Jessica was innocent of any crime,” replies Dr. Zorn, now standing up and becoming red faced. “How can we be sure no one else has been sent here by mistake or just to be silenced?”

  “Please, both of you. This has in no way been an easy decision to make, but it’s one that needs to be done. In all probability, we are the only ones left alive, and if we do not do this, Jessica will most assuredly die.”

  Professor Brookes types in a few commands as the pod’s door slides shut. “Pressurization of the facility will take two hours. I hope you know what you are doing.”

  Dr. Zorn sits back down, buckles himself into his chair, and starts running systems checks on the engine.

  Sam closes his eyes and commands his bionanites to disable the oxygen generators’ automatic hydrogen-venting process and the production of additional water within the unoccupied levels of the facility and then returns to the prototype.

  Upon returning to the prototype, Sam checks the status of the space around the black hole and notices the addition of a third facility and that the cryostation’s weapons system has been repaired. With an approximate time dilation of twenty-one hours to one hour passing on the facility, rapid change is to be expected.

  The patrols have been increased but still seem to be keeping their distance from where they last detected the prototype. This is good news, and Sam should be able to use this to his advantage. It’s also interesting that the federation hasn’t sent out a fleet in an attempt to recover their stolen property. There are various reasons for this, and the one that seems most likely is that they are unable to spare the resources at this time.

  Sam’s original plan of last resort could have worked with the inclusion of the prototype’s arrival; however, this is no longer an escape but rather a relocation to one of the other facilities. The fact that the patrols are keeping away from Facility One should help with this added complication.

  With the black hole being the center, each facility is placed around it in the formation of a clock face, with the cryostation hanging centrally above the facility. The patrols then help to secure the areas that the cryostation cannot effectively cover. Spending spare time in watc
hing the patrols and identifying their patrol routes and patterns helps with the preparation.

  Reaction times of the cryostation will be the deciding factor for the success or failure of this attempt. With Sam’s consciousness building well, there is nothing left to do other than return to the facility.

  Sam opens his eyes to urgent shouts from both Professor Brookes and Dr. Zorn calling out his name and replying to each other regarding the status of the facility. “Power fluctuations now affecting all occupied levels. All the walls are down, and I’m detecting unauthorized access to the elevator shafts. Levels twelve to twenty are sealed off and still secure,” Zorn shouts across to Professor Brookes.

  Hearing sounds of gunfire and explosions from below doesn’t help with the feeling of acute dislocation of time. Phantom Sam is now starting to appreciate what the real Sam must have felt due to the relative time differences between observer and participant during their previous chats. “What’s the status of the pressurization?” Sam manages to ask.

  “I’m glad you decided to come back. All unoccupied levels have now been pressurized, and we noticed a dangerous buildup of hydrogen. I hope you know what you’re doing. The eight occupied levels have reacted to the pressure changes on their levels, and that has forced them to stop fighting each other and start focusing their attention on us,” Professor Brookes replies quickly, with a clear look of relief.

  Another explosion booms out from below, this one much closer than the last. “Infected faction has breached security. What you have in mind—which, by the way, both I and Professor Brookes thinks is insanity—you might want to consider commencing very shortly,” Dr. Zorn responds, looking shaken after the last explosion.

  “Fair point, Doctor. Professor, please seal off the landing/jettison tube and begin pressurization. I have ordered the internal pressure doors to close on each level.”

  “I really hope you know what you are doing,” replies Professor Brookes as he enters the commands and mumbles something under his breath about painful deaths.

  Ignoring his words and fears, Sam continues with his plan. “I’ll need you to carry out an explosive decompression with levels two through eight, one at a time—and this is the important part—each level must be jettisoned as the pressure equalizes. I’ve disabled the safety protocols so all you will have to do is select the corresponding level to jettison them.”

  “You crazy son of a—” Brookes’s expletive is cut short as the pressurization warning alert sounds.

  Dr. Zorn goes pale with fear as Professor Brookes opens the level two external doors to the inner tube. The sound of the structure’s complaints from the facility’s stresses and strains echoes upward as the inner tube doors hold. Then gunfire erupts within security as someone below fires up at the pod’s hatch.

  With just a single command, the inner tube of the facility, where dismantled pods are discarded and jettisoned, opens up toward the black hole. As this external hatch opens, the whole facility begins to shake, and the gunfire below abruptly stops.

  Within a matter of minutes, the occupants of level two are sucked out of the facility, followed by a thunderous vibration as level two is blasted away from the rest, the jettisoning process helped along by explosive charges to propel the separated level away from the rest, preventing any sections of the discarded level from damaging the rest of the station. Then another whine and hiss of air is heard as the third level is opened to the black hole and the vacuum of space as the vibration continues.

  The inner central tube is now being used as a rudimentary thruster. The only reason this kind of thrust has any kind of effect upon the black hole is the gravitational bubble reducing the pull from the black hole to zero mass. The main purpose of the stabilization beams is to hold the station in place, preventing the facility from moving toward the black hole, and even then they can’t exert force upon the station to prevent the upward thrust. The third level is jettisoned, and the fourth floor is opened up, causing another blast of thrust. The station becomes lighter, and each additional thrust has more effect than the last as the station slowly accelerates. The vibration rising up through the structure makes the pod shake.

  “Security alert. Stabilization beam one has been deactivated. Cease your actions, or an additional beam will be deactivated. You have thirty seconds to comply.”

  “Professor, open floors five, six, seven, and eight once you release floor four, and jettison them at the same time. When the bubble drops, we are going to come to a sudden stop. This thrust will not be enough, so open the internal doors in floors nine through twelve. Once the bubble drops, you need to open up a single door and release the hydrogen/oxygen mix and ignite it using the pod’s fuel burn-off protocol. After that, hold on tight. It’s going to be a rough ride.”

  With total concentration Brookes punches the button to jettison floor four and follows Sam’s instructions, opening the level’s external doors and releasing another burst of power, greater than before, as the facility lurches away from the black hole but still at a relative slow crawl.

  “Security alert. Stabilization beam two has been deactivated. Cease your actions, or this facility will be released. You have one minute to comply.”

  Dr. Zorn, now having regained some of his color, laughs at the last announcement. “I’m pretty sure, Professor, you never considered this.”

  Professor Brookes gives Zorn a quick smile of amazement and then goes back to his total concentration as the seconds count slowly down to zero. Then the gravitation bubble drops, and as expected, the facility decelerates at a neck-jarring speed. The breaching pod screams out its distress due to the external forces but remains together.

  “Now, Professor!”

  On cue, Professor Brookes releases the oxygen/hydrogen and ignites the explosive mix. The facility’s central core burns with untainted fury as the acceleration pushes Sam, Brookes, and Zorn back into their chairs. “Doc, at the first sign of danger or when the last levels of the facility are jettisoned, whatever comes first, you will need to punch the pod’s thrusters, regardless of optimum range,” Sam shouts out over the noise of the vibrations.

  Private First Class Collins awakes with a jerk of his head at hearing the alarm sounds. The double-length shift has taken its toll. He lost yet again at cards, and the wager this time was shifts. More importantly, the forfeit was to work Private First Class Benson’s shift, an additional nine hours on top of his own.

  The watch shift’s primary task is to monitor the facility’s status, mainly to do with escape attempts, and other than the first attempt almost twenty-five years ago, nothing ever happens. Computers could monitor this, but command wanted a human backup.

  With bleary eyes Collins tries to focus upon his task at hand as he reads his terminal. “Facility Zero out of position. Gravitation field offline.”

  “System, how long before Facility Zero falls into the black hole?” Collins asks the monitoring system.

  “At the station’s current trajectory, this will not occur for another ten minutes.”

  Well, that doesn’t make sense with the gravitational field off. “System, show me Facility Zero’s current trajectory.”

  Private First Class Collins’s jaw drops as he watches the system display Facility Zero’s trajectory. He activates the station’s emergency alarm, and the chief of operations responds first. “Collins, you do realize it’s 0330 hours. What is the emergency?”

  “Its Facility Zero, Chief. It’s moving.”

  “Ah, okay, Private. Run systems diagnostics, and send repair teams down to the gravitational array. How long does Facility Zero have before it cannot be retrieved?” the chief of operations asks.

  “No, Chief, you misunderstand me. It’s not falling; it’s accelerating away from the black hole.”

  At the last possible moment, Dr. Zorn holds back with the breaching pod’s main thrusters until it is certain that the top-heavy facility can no longer maintain its stable trajectory. The black hole’s pull has helped maintain stabili
ty up to this point. With the main thrusters activated, the pod uses the top of the facility as a launch pad and accelerates away, fighting impressively now against the pull of the black hole. The facility’s own acceleration turns into an uncontrollable spin, but moments later the thrust dies, and then the facility slowly comes to a spinning halt as the gravitational effect of the black hole wins the constant struggle and drags the first facility of its kind to its final moments.

  But the breaching pod’s own thrusters weren’t designed to carry more than one on this return trip out from the black hole, and even though the modified thrusters managed to thrust the pod another ten kilometers away, they too are fighting a losing battle. Then with a sudden loss of thrust, the pod decelerates. Professor Brookes and Dr. Zorn look toward one another, horrified, but Sam’s eyes remain closed.

  Back in control of the prototype, Sam watches the breaching pod thrust away from the facility. “This is going to be close,” he says out loud—a human trait, he muses momentarily, and then he puts his mind back in focus. Accelerating to full speed, he plots a curved trajectory toward the black hole and then out again, coming up behind the breaching pod just as the pod’s thrusters are showing signs of an imminent malfunction or power loss.

  Getting in as close as possible to the pod, the main hull of the ship in phase matches speed and then veers across the pod’s trajectory. Just as the thrusters fail, the prototype comes out of phase on top of the pod at the same time that the cryostation’s main proton lasers fire at the pod, landing a direct hit upon the prototype. The lasers hit the hull’s crystalline structure and scatter out across the surface, leaving a black, scorched impact mark several inches deep with trails of blackened, weblike scars along its hull. The cryostation does not get the chance to fire a second shot before the prototype goes into phase and then vanishes from sight as it enters warp.