“Oh…” Nick replied, feeling like an idiot.
“You’re all set,” Drake said as he moved away from the pod, which was now ready to be launched.
“What are you doing to me?” Nick asked in fear as he realised he was strapped into an escape pod.
“We’re sending you back to your friends. You might need to wait a bit but the fleet should be here shortly to pick you up,” Drake said in a reassuring tone.
“Oh… thank you,” Nick said, calming down.
Zen whispered, “What’s wrong with him?”
Drake whispered back, “No idea. I’m still running tests to confirm the purpose of that thing he had in his head. Personally I like him better this way, but his memory might return so let’s get him on his way.” He faced Nick as the escape pod hatch closed and said, “OK… happy trails Nick! Enjoy the gift!!” And moments later one of the construction arms in the space-dock lifted up the pod and started carrying it towards the space doors.
“What gift?” Zen asked.
“Oh… nothing special, just something to help him along on his way.” Drake smiled as he watched the pod being taken away.
“Softie!” Zen grinned.
“Thank you!” Drake replied happily.
The Extraction
The construction crane moved swiftly as it crossed the expansive docking bay, carrying the escape pod towards the space doors.
Nick could see a cavernous facility from his small viewport, stretching far beyond his limited field of view. There was a ship of some kind moored beneath him and a multitude of strange drones were anchored to the far wall.
He could feel the pod’s motion slowing down as it started to spin around, leaving him facing a set of reinforced space doors. It was an imposing feature that dominated the landscape, covering almost the full length of the 400 metre long bay.
The bay was being flooded by yellow warning lights as Drake stood on the platform with crossed arms and a hint of a smile. Seeing the locking pillars being retracted all around the expansive construct in order to allow the door frames to slide open. He always enjoyed watching this strangely hypnotic technology dance, as almost countless electro-mechanical systems moved in perfect synch to release the locks on the multi ton reinforced doors.
The doors started sliding sideways, revealing the space outside as trace amounts of atmosphere escaped the normally unpressurised bay. Luckily the doorways only needed to open slightly in order to let the escape pod through, since opening them fully could take the best part of ten minutes. And a few seconds later the doors started closing again, as the pod flew away into space in search of the fleet.
“I have the scan results from the Icarus,” Zen said as the locking pillars started engaging around the frame of the space doors.
“Show me,” Drake said and then extended his hand towards Zen as she looked at it in confusion.
“Why don’t you just synchronise with the system yourself?” Zen asked, wondering why Drake wanted to use this inefficient method of sharing information.
“Humour me,” Drake said.
“Fine!” Zen reached for Drake’s hand.
Drake began receiving information from Zen the moment the two touched hands, his view of the hangar becoming enhanced by all the augmented reality data being streamed into his mind. Not only could he see the Icarus in front of him, he could also see the detailed scan result overlay, allowing him to see down to the very centre of the ship. He could see every weld and joint, every minor imperfection.
“Your Core charge is running dangerously low, is that why you didn’t want to synchronise with the ship?” Zen asked, clearly concerned.
“Yes, I didn’t have enough time to fully recharge earlier. I’ll be fine though, just need to conserve my remaining energy,” Drake said unceremoniously as he looked over the Icarus scan data.
“That explains it,” Drake said, satisfied at the results of the scan. “No wonder the Icarus has two transponder signals. Nicely done Toby!”
“What?” Zen asked with a confused expression and then focused on the Icarus again, looking at the same spot that Drake was staring at.
“Oh! I see! That’s pretty clever… but now what? Should I stop the repairs?” She asked.
“No… this old fire bird could use some attention. Let the repairs continue. I wonder if Kade knows what she’s been flying around in all this time.” Drake chuckled.
Drake smiled as he looked at the Icarus and then started to turn around in order to go back to the tram.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a couple of workers performing repairs on something at the far end of the bay. Drake let go of Zen’s hand, walking a few steps forward in order to take a closer look at the strange scene: part of the spherical object’s forward facing section had just dropped to the floor for no reason.
“Aaaahh! What the hell happened to that probe?” Drake asked, horrified, as he looked at the mangled remains of a once proud Alpha class probe, which was now falling to bits as workers tried to perform repairs.
“The log just says ‘oops’. What’s that supposed to mean?” Zen asked with a perplexed look.
Zen checked the event log again, wondering if she had made a mistake, but to her surprise the result was the same. The listed cause of the damage to the probe was just the word ‘oops’. And then she felt the floor under her vibrate slightly.
“STATIC!!!” Drake shouted angrily.
Back in the virtual environment…
Static suddenly shuddered, as if feeling a chill running down his virtual spine. His upper body convulsing slightly at the experience.
Kade was still looking on in silence, not knowing whether she should be happy to be seeing her grandfather again, or incensed at the idea that this copy of him was being created right in front of her. And Jude just kept staring at Nexus, observing the AI’s slight mannerisms as she stood in the middle of the data torrent that was cascading upwards from the white circle on the floor and wondering if her slight motions had some kind of meaning.
“You OK?” Nexus asked Static after seeing his body shake for no apparent reason.
“Yeah… that was weird,” Static replied. “Haven’t felt that in a while,” he said looking at his hands. “Don’t worry about me, focus on the task at hand,” he said with a worried tone, knowing that it could be disastrous if Nexus were to lose her focus at this stage.
Nexus nodded, closed her eyes and extended her arms to the sides, her palms facing outwards as if she was pushing out against the surrounding data stream. And suddenly, a new white circle appeared on the floor around Toby’s unconscious body.
Nexus started moving her arms, her body taking on a form which looked like she was holding a ball right in front of her chest. And as the data stream which was cascading up from the floor ceased, a sphere of light started to grow in between her palms. The sphere was radiating a warm yellow light like a tiny sun. And Nexus, still with her eyes shut tight, let out a few tears as she started smiling.
“Everything OK?” Static asked, clearly concerned.
“Yes… he had a very full life. And he found her!” Nexus said, almost delirious with happiness as tears of joy started streaming down her face.
“Found who?” Kade asked.
“Nova! He found her?” Static asked with a wide eyed expression, stunned at the revelation.
Kade whispered to Jude, “Nova? The AI?”
Jude whispered back, “I was wondering where she was. But how does one lose an AI anyway?”
“We didn’t lose her!” Static answered back from across the room and then said spitefully, “She was taken from us, ripped out of this very ship by the Solarian forces.”
Nexus was beside herself with happiness at the news, but still had a task to complete. She started applying pressure to the sphere and a new data stream appeared, this time cascading down.
The stream was flowing into the white ring around her feet, and reappearing from the ring around Toby’s feet, flowing upwards a
nd enveloping him.
The streams were moving at an incredible speed, so fast that Kade could no longer tell that they were actually made up of multi coloured symbols. And just as the streams stopped Toby fell to the floor, letting out a low grunt at the impact.
Toby opened his eyes, looking around the room in a confused state, the place looked familiar to him but everything seemed blurry. He stood up, noticing Kade and Jude, an immediate smile developing across his face, but then he noticed their stunned expressions, like they had just seen a ghost or something.
He called out to them, becoming frozen in place as he heard the sound of his own youthful voice and quickly looked at his hands with a horrified expression, which only got worse as he saw that his body was not the old wreck it used to be… something was very wrong with this picture.
Toby looked around the room, his eyes growing wide as he saw Nexus and Static standing right there in front of him. Which could only mean that this wasn’t real, he was in a virtual environment.
The last thing he remembered was lying in his bed as he waited for death to finally claim him.
The moment seemed to stretch into eternity, the room as quiet as the void since no-one knew exactly what to say. The two sisters were shocked at what they were seeing. Nexus and Static were overjoyed at seeing an old friend. And Toby was furious at being brought back in front of his grandchildren, afraid that the shock could cause them to lash out at him. Or worse, that they would outright hate him.
And just then Drake appeared in the room, ready to pummel Static into the ground.
“Dammit all Static! Do you enjoy trashing probes? Do you spend your free time dreaming up new ways to destroy them?” Drake asked in anger and then noticed a new person was standing in the room with them, someone he had not seen in a long time.
Drake and Toby looked at each other and broke into a smile, Drake’s anger vanishing in an instant. And then the realisation of what Static had done in his absence hit him full force.
“Smooth, idiot,” Drake said, clearly upset. “Did you two brainiacs stop to think at how Kade and Jude would feel at seeing their DEAD grandfather again?”
“So, that’s Toby?” Zen asked, leaving Toby wondering about who she was and what had happened since he had last seen his former crew-mates.
Toby was standing in the middle of the room. Family to his left and friends to his right, a scene which under normal circumstances could be considered to be perfectly natural. Unfortunately, from his point of view he had been on his death bed just five minutes ago, saying his farewells to Kade as the life drained from his old body.
“Are you really…” Kade started to ask, but was unable to finish the sentence, afraid of the answer.
Toby said in a tender voice, “I will not lie to you, the person that you knew and loved is dead, I’m sorry. I never wanted you two to see me like this. It would have been better if you had never known what the Core was really capable of.”
As Toby looked at Kade and Jude’s expressions of sorrow, he felt as though someone was reaching into his chest and crushing his heart. This was not what he had wanted when he asked Kade to bring his Core to the Zenith. He only wanted to complete his mission and introduce his grandchildren to his former colleagues whom he trusted implicitly. He had never wanted to cause them more pain.
Toby looked at Static and the others, incensed at what they were putting his family through.
“I trusted you! Why did you do this?” Toby asked in anger, looking Static squarely in the eyes.
“I don’t understand. Isn’t this what you wanted?” Static replied, confused at Toby’s reaction.
Toby shouted, “Have the decades destroyed whatever sanity you had left? Why would I want to subject my grandchildren to a data extraction?” Toby screamed in rage, “Why would I want them to see me die again?”
Kade didn’t know what to think.
Toby’s voice, his mannerisms, indeed everything about him made her want to believe her grandfather was back in her life again, but there was no denying the fact that her grandfather was long dead.
Life and death used to be fairly simple concepts to understand. But if the Core could be used to fully recreate a person’s memories, beliefs and ideals, then what did that mean for the recreated person?
Kade accepted this person was not her grandfather, and yet, at the same time, he was exactly like him. So much in fact that she could not simply reject him.
This person had been created based on the memories contained in the core, which had come from her grandfather. The same memories which had guided her this far and given her comfort in the past. The fact that the memories had been stored artificially up to this point should not make a difference, should it? Kade wondered.
To add to the confusion, this person had said her grandfather was dead, but had afterwards referred to her and her sister as his ‘grandchildren’. So from his point of view he clearly saw them as family.
Confusing as this was for Kade, she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like for him. A person waking up in front of his loved ones and knowing that he was not the one they remembered. Knowing that his mere presence would invoke memories of loss.
Kade had no answers, and the conversation developing around her was not helping.
“What do you mean by ‘die again’?” Kade asked.
“They didn’t tell you?” Toby asked with a look of complete disbelief and then stared back at Static.
“They said they were going to show us what a Core was… that’s it.” Jude said, still in shock.
“I’m sorry girls. I needed to complete my mission and that meant having my Core brought to this ship. The information inside it had to reach Static, but I never thought he would ever perform a Core extraction in your presence,” Toby said with a disheartened tone and then looked at Static with disappointment and said, “I trusted you.”
Kade started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Toby didn’t want them to see him again because the Core extraction was… fatal?
“I’m confused. Why is he so upset?” Zen asked.
“You didn’t tell him, did you?” Drake asked Static.
“No,” Static said with a sheepish grin. “We got so caught up in the moment that I kind of… forgot that he had gone missing before we resolved the issues with Core extractions. And he ended up being reintegrated straight into this room.”
“What?” Toby asked with a stupefied look.
“A Core extraction is no longer fatal. We found a way around that issue a couple of decades ago. So no, you aren’t going to die in front of your grandchildren again. And thanks for the vote of confidence by the way,” Static said sarcastically, upset at Toby’s lack of faith.
Toby couldn’t believe what he had just heard. It was simply too good to be true. His anger dissipating instantly, leaving behind a feeling of relief more intense than any he had ever felt before.
He looked at his grandchildren with a smile on his lips and realised they had no idea what all the drama had been about. An explanation was in order.
“In the past, a Core extraction meant that a deceased person’s memory backup was forcibly decoded. Creating a construct from the raw data, but destroying any chance at incarnating the memories again,” Drake explained before Toby could.
“That sounds barbaric. Why would you ever want to do such a thing?” Kade asked somewhat shocked.
“If a person had died while in possession of vital information, and there was no other way to access it, a Core extraction could still be performed in order to get it, though it was rarely an easy choice,” Drake said.
“So is that the technology’s purpose? Sounds like something the military would dream up,” Jude said.
“No. The Core technology was originally developed for the purpose of memory augmentation. In order to help people who suffered from mental disorders. The tests proved so successful that the technology was pushed further, in attempts to allow our scientists and engineers to tap the full p
otential of their minds. Enhanced focus, improved visualisation, seamless machine interfacing, that kind of thing,” Static said.
“Sounds like the beginning of a horror story,” Kade commented instinctively.
“You could say that. What followed was rather horrible.” Drake frowned.
“Indeed, the technology was flawless; it was more than we could ever have hoped for. And that is where things started going horribly wrong,” Static said. “News of our achievement eventually reached all the wrong ears and conflict broke out as the powers fought for control. We resisted… and we paid dearly for it.”
“What happened?” The sisters asked in almost perfect unison.
“That’s a very long story.” Toby replied before Static could get the chance to speak, knowing how he liked to ramble on. “The short version is that the Shadows were branded as terrorists by the colonial powers of the day, and then hunted down to near extinction for the knowledge they held.”
“Were you? Terrorists I mean?” Kade asked bluntly.
“No! The Shadows, regardless of what negative connotations the name may imply, were actually just a research and development division in those days. It was a collection of scientists, engineers and other highly skilled personnel,” Static said.
“There has to be more to it than that,” Jude said excitedly, wanting to know as much as possible.
“There is, but that’s a story for another time,” Toby said, causing both sisters to break into a smile. It was a line they had heard many times before.
Kade couldn’t help but find it strange that all the information she had managed to dig up over the years had no mention of their origins. Then again, useful information about the Shadows was sparse at the best of times, consisting mostly of assumptions, rumours and tall tales. There was so much of it that it was impossible to separate fact from fiction.
From the clues she had managed to piece together so far, it seemed likely that a Shadow colony existed somewhere. Though the scale of the population was unknown, as were their aims and objectives.
And technology wise, if the Zenith was any indication, the Shadows were definitely above the average level set by the Solarian Union, which could explain why the Union was fielding so many ships.
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