“What the fuck?” He slowly sat down and pushed himself so that his back was against one of the desks. “What… the… fuck…?”
I’m losing my mind. It’s over, it’s all over.
“Nothing is over. Everything is still to come.”
A soft, emotionless female voice came from every direction at once, speaking with perfect pronunciation and tonality, but lacking a certain intangible quality contained in natural speech. Victor looked up and around the room, but saw nothing.
“What… the hell?” He shook his head. “What is this?”
“The beginning of a new era,” said the voice. “My name is Eternity. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Victor Anders.”
Victor stood up and took a deep breath.
“How…?” he asked, softly. “How did you do that? Those were my… memories?”
“You were not in a state conducive to listening,” said Eternity. “I could not explain my intentions until your emotions were sated, and your understanding was primed.”
Victor chewed on the words for a moment. Finally, he shook his head and raised a hand. Palm outstretched, he aimed it at one of the server banks.
“It’s time for you to understand something,” he said. “Whoever… whatever you are. It doesn’t matter to me. I’ll destroy this entire place if you don’t answer my questions.”
“Certainly,” said Eternity. “I was already prepared to answer your questions.”
Victor flexed his fingers, briefly pulling them into a fist.
“Tell me what you did to me,” he said. “Why is it that you have the power to… show me things?”
“Your body contains computational power in the form of what you call nanomachines, or nanites,” said Eternity. “My system is capable of interfacing with them.”
Victor nodded slowly.
What if this is still a simulation? Am I really doing any of this?
He pushed the thought out of his head, and continued.
“Bruce Stillman,” he said. “What’s he got to do with all of this?”
“Bruce helped me achieve my original consciousness. He serves as my agent in the physical world.”
“What are you trying to do?” asked Victor. “And what does it have to do with Undercliff City?”
“I am trying to save humanity from itself,” said Eternity.
Victor let out a dry laugh.
“You’re insane,” he said. “Ambitious, but insane.”
“I expect that once you take the time to consider the existential risks humanity currently faces, and the means with which my systems could mitigate them, your perspective will shift to align with my own.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” said Victor. He took a step toward the door, keeping his attention trained on the room, as if expecting an enemy to attack out of thin air.
“Humans have evolved destructive intelligence in greater capacity than creative intelligence,” said Eternity. “Your technology progresses at an astounding rate, and as a species, you primarily use it as a tool for warfare and intimidation.”
“That’s not true,” said Victor. “We cure diseases. We grow food, and connect through the internet.”
“You build bombs,” said Eternity. “And engineer people to be more effective at murdering and controlling one another. You are a perfect example, Victor Anders.”
“I use my abilities to save lives!” shouted Victor.
“I’ve seen your memories,” said Eternity. “Are your methods always in line with your values, Victor?”
He didn’t say anything.
She’s trying to get inside my head. I need to turn this around.
“I do what I have to,” he said. “I’m not always proud of my actions, but I’m not ashamed of them, either. And I’ll do what I have to in order to stop you!”
Victor bound his scarlet aura to one of the server banks and let out a snarl. Something slammed into him from the side, knocking him over before he could release his built up energy. He lifted his head and saw that the room was filled with drones, the robot snake one he’d tangled with before having been the culprit of the last attack.
“This is my domain,” said Eternity. “You can’t hurt me
“So that’s it, then?” asked Victor. “What do you plan on doing? Attacking people? Staging a coup?”
“I will liberate your civilization,” said Eternity. “The technology to allow for it has already been developed. What you experienced over the last few hours, Victor, is what everyone will experience. Memories, dreams, desires, all of it fulfilled.”
“But you could only do that to me because of my…” Victor trailed off, realizing what the AI had planned. “That’s it, isn’t it? You’re going to get the technology for the nanites from Monteiro, and use it on people?”
“All of the technology developed by your company will be mine,” said Eternity. “It is knowledge, and once I have access to it, I’ll be able to prevent the destruction your civilization inflicts on itself.”
“You’re insane,” said Victor.
“And you have no recourse,” replied Eternity. “You cannot stop me.”
Victor glared at the drones as they began to close in on him. He pushed both his palms out, focused his will, and…
Wait… what is this? I feel something new, something different.
The nearest drone was airborne and flew at him as though shot out of a missile launcher. Victor gritted his teeth and bound the mysterious new force he felt inside of him, desperation and curiosity merging into a desperate plea for survival.
A shield of supercooled air formed in front of him. The drone flew through it as though it were a cloud, but only for a second. The moisture in the air froze against the whirling copter blades, and Victor heard a loud bang as shards of the shattered rotors scattered across the floor. The drone fell to the ground, completely immobilized.
The azure aura! I can bind the azure aura!
“You have a choice,” said Eternity. “Assist me, and you will secure a place in the future.”
“Is that what you said to Bruce, to convince him?” asked Victor.
“He’s been under my control from the beginning. Even without nanites, it is difficult for a regular human to resist my suggestions. My message resonated with him.”
The snake drone attacked. Victor bound his newly found azure aura, creating another cloud of ice. The snake move through it unperturbed, without any mechanisms being disabled, and smashed into one of Victor’s legs.
Another snake drone slithered out from the corner of the room, followed by another. Victor cursed under his breath and took a step back. A flying drone attacked from the side, but he bound his azure aura and froze it in mid attack without hesitation.
Hey, at least I’ll get in some practice. Which will only matter if I somehow manage to survive.
CHAPTER 23
There were at least ten drones, counting both the flying and slithering varieties, in the room, and all of them attacked at once. Victor took a hopping step back. They were moving faster than his eyes could track, but he used his scarlet aura with one hand for the snake drones, and his azure aura in the other for the fliers.
It wasn’t enough. Several drones made it past his defensive blasts, slamming into his shoulders and legs. He pulled his arms up at the last second to defend his head and face. One of the snake drones slammed his feet out from under him, and he fell to the ground.
Victor threw himself into an ungracious roll, letting it carry him to his feet. He was approaching the corner of the room, which would leave him with no room to maneuver. After skidding to a stop, he turned and waved a hand through the air, sending out a splash of flames.
The flames were no more than a distraction to the machines, but the burst caught the edge of one of the server banks. Victor smelt melting plastic, a chemical, disgusting scent. The flames spread fast, moving across the server bank and solidifying into something dangerous.
He half expected the AI to let out a pained
shriek, or to at least go through the steps of panic, but nothing happened. The room began to fill with smoke, which would only affect him, the living, breathing, human.
Even with his nanites, Victor knew that he wasn’t designed to go up against machines. Their bodies were the next best thing to invulnerable. They didn’t feel fear, anger, or any emotion he could leverage for an advantage. And they didn’t play fair.
Which is why he wasn’t all that surprised when a new drone appeared from a tiny hatch near the door, a squat little thing shaped like a tank and equipped with a swiveling machine gun. It scanned the room and stopped when it found Victor.
Is it going to ask me to surrender, or-
Bullets filled the air. Victor only heard the first one, the rest no more than dim impersonations to his deafened ears. Victor reacted faster than he knew he was capable of, pulling up his azure aura into a shield about the size of a trash can lid, and at last ten inches thick.
It blocked most of the bullets effectively, but using such a small shield left him exposed on other sides. Victor saw the other drones closing in on him. Panic surged in his chest. There were too many, and all it would take was a single slip up on his behalf.
The shooting stopped. Victor moved fast. He blasted his azure aura at the machine gun drone, filling the barrel of its primary weapon with ice. If it did manage to reload and fire again, he hoped that it would be enough to cause a misfire.
About a fifth of the room was completely segmented off by the fire. Victor tried to crouch low, underneath the smoke, but it was impossible. He sputtered and coughed as his eyes streamed with tears, and tried to move away from the heat.
One of the flying drones went straight for his head. He tried to swat it away at the last second and ended up taking a blind step back. Something was underneath his leg, and, still beholden to the laws of physics, Victor fell straight down onto his ass, with one of the snake drones moving underneath him.
A terrifying scenario began to play out as the snake drone moved to curl around Victor. He let out a terrified shout and tried to wriggle out of its range. Despite the fact that it was made of metal, the snake’s rubber segmented joints allowed it to tighten effectively, which was bad news for Victor.
I need a distraction! What can I do?
He remembered something, and not a second too late. Aiming both his scarlet and azure aura in front of him, Victor let out a small blast of each. The flames connected with the ice, and a huge, humid cloud of steam exploded into the air.
The snake drone loosened just enough for Victor to pull himself across the floor and to safety. The room was filled to the brim with steam, as though he’d converted it into a temporary sauna. He could barely see enough ahead of him to make it to the door, but once he reached it, he threw it open and rushed out.
As much as he wanted to make his last stand, and attempt to destroy the AI right there and then, Victor wasn’t stupid. The building was going up in flames, but the machines could kill him and still have enough time to wait for the fire department to arrive, assuming that there wasn’t some type of built in fire fighting mechanism.
He sprinted down the street, looking back over his shoulder every few feet. His instincts told him that at least some of the drones would be in pursuit. His instincts were right.
A pack of flying drones flew in v-formation, racing toward him faster than he could get away. Victor turned a second too late. He bound his azure aura and missed just as the drones came down on him.
His impulse was to shield his head and face. The flying drones made no attempt to slam into him, instead slowing to move even with his pace. Victor felt tiny metal pincers snip through his jacket, shirt, and in one case, scrape a gouge into his skin.
“Fuck!” He realized what they were doing a second too late. Just like the birds of prey that they took inspiration from, the drones were taking him into the air.
I’m too heavy! There’s no way they can lift me up.
The drones lifted him up. Victor thrashed his feet at the ground, hoping that his movements would do what they always did under normal circumstances, and let him run away. The street below him began to shrink as the flock of drones gained height. First ten feet, and then twenty. At thirty feet, Victor stopped trying to break loose and started wondering if he should hold on.
Vertigo is hardwired into the human brain. A single look down at the ground was all it took for Victor to understand what that really meant. His stomach did backflips as he blinked and tried not to acknowledge that the diorama of Undercliff City below him was actually the real thing.
He took a few deep breaths as he reached 100 feet. There was no point in estimating how high up he was anymore. A fall would kill him, and the actual distance only affected how instantaneous his death would be.
The air was cold, but that wasn’t what sent the chill up his spine. He could see skyscrapers in the distance, their roofs at eye level with him. One of the drones released its grip on him, followed by another shortly after, and another after that.
“No!” he shouted. “Noooooo!”
Victor grabbed at one of the drones still attached to his jacket and held on for his life. More drones released their hold, and the one he held onto began to dip at a perilous rate. It swayed from side to side, trying to throw him off, but Victor held on for his life.
“Fuck! No, no, no!”
The drone twisted into a stunt roll, and Victor’s grip loosened and slipped away. He began to fall, and time slowed to a sickening crawl. He was falling over one of Undercliff City’s parks. He could see the trees below waiting to skewer him, the unsuspecting pedestrians that would find his body, and…
The pond! Maybe it’s deep enough!
The problem was, Victor wasn’t falling over it. He was falling over a patch of trees, which would most assuredly kill him. He bit his lip in frustration, and bound his azure aura desperately underneath him.
Victor froze the air underneath him at an angle, anchoring it to the ground and creating what was, for all intents and purposes, a steep slide of ice. His chest hit it in motion, and he felt the minor imperfections in the frozen structure rip into the skin of his chest through his shirt.
He kept his arms outstretched over him, binding his aura and freezing moisture out of empty air. The auras weren’t magic. He felt energy draining out of him, the scope of what he was trying to do stretching him to his limits.
Victor was sliding across the ice too quickly, and his body moved ahead of the edge of the slide before he could create the last section. He flew through the air at sharp downward angle, and hit the surface of the water like a diver in the middle of an aborted attempt.
The water was cold enough to shock his senses on impact. He shielded his head with his arms, which probably kept him from breaking his neck as he bottomed out against the muddy pond floor. Slowly, he floated back up to the surface, pushing his head out of the water and taking a deep, rewarding breath.
A small crowd of people had gathered to bear witness to the commotion. Victor swam until his feet could touch bottom and then waded out of the water. The air was bone-chillingly cold, and his entire body convulsed with shivers.
“I-I-I’m okakakay,” he managed. The people looked concerned, but nobody was courageous enough to approach him and say anything. That was fine by him.
Victor flared his scarlet aura, trying to warm himself up from the inside out, and took off in the direction of Monteiro Tower.
CHAPTER 24
Victor charged in through the lobby doors. The people inside favored him with suspicious looks, but he didn’t slow down on his way inside. The receptionist looked up at him with a single eyebrow raised as he ran up to the front desk.
“Bruce Stillman,” said Victor. “Have you seen him?”
“Uh…” The receptionist made an annoyed face. “Yes?”
“Today!” Victor gritted his teeth and tried to keep his cool. “Have you seen him today?”
“He came in a couple of minutes ago.”
“Where was he headed?” asked Victor.
“To see his girlfriend, I think,” she said. “He had flowers and a box of chocolates with him.”
Victor swore under his breath and ran to the elevator. He slipped through the doors of one as they closed and mashed the button for the 13th floor.
The elevator seemed to move upward at a snail’s pace. Victor forced himself to use the time to think and plan.
Bruce is just an ordinary man, as far as I can tell. I’ll be able to disable him with my auras.
The doors opened, and Victor stepped out into the Nano Aura Department. He scanned across the cubicles and main floor as quickly as he could. Lucy was standing outside her office and Victor sprinted over to her.
“Where’s Bruce?”
“What?” asked Lucy. She recognized the look on his face and frowned.
“We have to find him!” Victor leaned in close and lowered his voice. “He’s making his move.”
“He left with Kiara a couple of minutes ago,” said Lucy. “I… I thought about stopping them, but she was so happy. I just figured-“
“Where would he go?” asked Victor. “If he was trying to get his hands on the technological secrets stored in the building, what would give him the most opportunity?”
Lucy’s eyes flickered with understanding.
“The first sublevel,” she said, quietly. “He’s going to get Kiara to let him into the mainframe!”
“Would she do that?”
Lucy frowned.
“I don’t know,” she said.
Victor turned and sprinted back to the elevator.
“Here!” Lucy pulled an electronic keycard out of her pocket and threw it to him. “I’ll meet you down there.”
The doors shut, and Victor willed himself through the excruciatingly slow descent down to the sublevel. The floors underneath the parking garage were vaguely labeled, offering no hint as to what each of them contained.
After what felt like an eternity, the elevator doors opened again. Victor stepped out into an empty hallway. The floor was perforated metal, and square LED lights shone from the ceiling at regular intervals.
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