by T. R. Harris
“Because you’ll rig the games so you can’t lose. That’s really brave of you. You’re just a bunch of pussy gladiators.”
The Nuorean glared at Sherri. “There will still be sport. You will have your opportunity to make the contests entertaining. And you, Sherri Valentine, will not be exempt. Our lower-ranking players will have the opportunity to meet you in the arena as well. The combat won’t be too challenging, but the uniqueness of the contest will entertain the crowd—at least for a moment or two.”
“Like I said, real brave of you, dickhead.”
Azon smiled. “I will leave you now so you can resume planning for your escape. But please hurry. You only have two more days to come up with a winning strategy before we reach our destination.”
Chapter 16
Adam and Trimen opened the door to their room and passed effortless through the shimmering blue barrier beyond. Even after what Lila had told him, he still wished he had known about this earlier. There had been four juicy Aris targets sitting right across the table from him, their frail bodies no match for a rabid Human with a bad attitude. With only eighteen of the bastards around, it would have been a good start.
The Aris space station was huge for such a small population, even if you counted the hundreds of robots that serviced the facility. So the corridor outside the holding cell was deserted as the pair made their way toward the energy control room. As mentioned before, Adam wouldn’t have had any idea where he was going if it hadn’t been for the Aris employment of the James Bond Syndrome. Now he not only knew the location, but the Aris had been so kind as to explain how important the facility was to their wellbeing.
The Aris lived off pure energy, yet it was a refined form made from the background radiation of the universe. Adam had no idea what that meant, but it seemed important to the Aris. Beyond the control room was a vast chamber filled with rods and antenna that collected the ambient energy from the surrounding space. The energy was then fed into filtering devices that re-tuned the frequency to something that could be processed through their service modules and then delivered directly into their bodies. All Adam needed to know was that it worked for them, and without it they were up shit creek without a paddle.
The control room was located half an hour from the holding rooms, which was a long way to go without being spotted. Fortunately, the Aris hadn’t built the station with internal security in mind. Why would they? Sure, they had adequate defenses outside against intruders, but for the majority of the station, only the Aris and their servants traveled the hallways and chambers.
The going wasn’t completely without excitement. They did encounter three of the four-wheeled robots along the way, managing to scamper to cover before they passed. The bots made a distinctive hum that echoed in the hallway long before they appeared, and it was apparent none carried elaborate sensing gear because no alarms were sounded.
Another feature of the space station was that most of the main chambers and control rooms didn’t have doors. So confident were the Aris that no breach of internal atmosphere or air pressure was possible, they didn’t see the need for pressure doors in case of emergency.
When Adam and Trimen reached the control room, they simply entered through the open portal and ran to the proper station as instructed by Lila. The mutants had only spent a few moments in the room earlier—as had Adam and Trimen—but in that time they recorded every detail for later recall. Their genius also deciphered the purpose for most of the instruments and control panels, confirming once again the fatal flaw in the James Bond Syndrome.
Adam scanned the main control panel, desperately trying to recall the words and sequence Lila had conveyed to him. It wasn’t easy, but fortunately, telepathic communication seemed to have a more last impression on him than did verbal communication. He grasped the concept of the procedure and set to work.
“The energy is gathered and then fed into the re-tuners,” he explained to Trimen. “Lila wants us to channel the energy into the station’s main electrical system.”
“That sounds…dangerous.”
“It is. The only way we’re going to be able to escape is to stop the Aris for good.”
“By destroying the station?”
“Eventually. First we have to get away. That’s why the rechanneling has to be done quietly. Over time, the effect will multiply, making for one big ka-boom after we’re gone. Now take your place over at that panel to your right. I’ll feed you instructions as I work from here.”
There were no chairs in the control room—robots didn’t need them and the Aris didn’t bother themselves with the actual running of the station. So the saboteurs stood before the consoles and began to make adjustments.
“This is rather complicated; are you sure you have remembered all the steps?” Trimen asked.
He was right, but Adam felt confident he could remember. Besides, the more he operated the controls, the more sense they made. He was concerned, however, when he didn’t notice any change in the meters or the sound of the collectors in the chamber beyond. A large, plate glass window showed the interior of the gathering room, and everything seemed normal inside. But Adam had to trust Lila and Panur. This was their plan, to keep the sabotage secret until it was too late. It wouldn’t pay for everything to go haywire long before the explosion. The Aris were too smart to give them time to find a solution to the impending disaster.
“That should do it,” Adam said after about fifteen minutes of work. He looked over at Trimen, who returned his grin with an unusual display of white teeth for the alien.
But then Trimen’s eyes grew wide and his mouth fell slack. He looked down at his chest, to where a small black hole had appeared with faint traces of smoke rising from it.
Adam looked to his right, to where three of the spindly, two-legged robots stood. One carried a small object that looked like a flashlight, although it wasn’t a flashlight. It was a laser beam weapon.
Adam dove for cover, just as a small red beam sliced through the air next to him. It contacted the control panel, sending sparks along a black line in the metal. He crawled on his belly to his left, behind equipment blocks set in the floor. The clink of metal feet told him the location of the robots, which had never been designed to be stealthy. He stood up and saw them entering the room, heading for Trimen. Adam didn’t know if the beam had been lethal, but he wasn’t holding out much hope. The thought made his blood boil.
He climbed to the top of an eight-foot-high piece of machinery and launched himself at the robots. He didn’t bother with a high trajectory, but rather a more straight line path with the most force. Like bowling pins, he plowed them over, their tall, slender bodies not allowing for much leeway to retain balance. The rods, blocks and metal heads bruised his skin as he rolled over them. He didn’t care. He pulled on an arm made of three long rods, a maze of wires and a thin wire mesh covering. The limb didn’t break, but it did bend by ninety degrees.
The robots made no noise, and their black, stereographic eyes neither blinked nor showed emotion. Adam continued to grab pieces and parts from the three fallen mechanical beasts, finding their construction to be loose and easy to rip apart. He continued in a savage rage for several seconds, until only one head remained intact, the dark eyes of the robot watching him as he climbed to his feet.
He rushed over to Trimen, who had collapsed against the control console. His face was ashen, arms hanging limp to his side. There was life in his eyes, but barely.
“Trimen, can you hear me?” Adam said as he examined the injury. As was common with energy weapons, the heat of the beam had cauterized the wound, leaving only a slight trace of blood on the thin cloth of the shirt. The opening was about half an inch in diameter with an offensive odor filling the air around the Formilian.
“I…I am gravely injured,” Trimen replied. Air was drawn into the hole in his chest and exhaled, indicating a puncture directly to the lungs. Adam placed his hand over the wound, allowing Trimen’s breathing to come more evenly. Through his
hand, Adam could feel the heartbeat. It was rapid, but slowing noticeably. It wouldn’t be much longer.
“Stay with me, Trimen.”
“I cannot. Even now my vision is going. Tell Lila I—”
And then he was gone, along ten years of friendship and shared adventures. Trimen had been the first to train him on his ATD, and throughout the years, had shown up at the most opportune moments to help pull Adam’s ass out of the fire.
Firming his resolve, Adam knew there was one thing he could do to honor his fallen comrade, and that was not to leave his body on this godforsaken space station. He scooped up the lifeless body—light in the gravity of the Aris artificial world—and carried him back to where the last robotic head lay on the floor, the eyes still alert and following his movements. Adam bent down and picked up the laser weapon that had been used to kill Trimen. He looked down at the metal head watching him.
The laser would be too clean, too surgical. So Adam lifted his foot and smashed his boot onto what remained of the killer robot. The metal collapsed easily, and the dark eyes went still. It was a start.
Chapter 17
Adam carried Trimen’s body into the hallway outside the control room and turned left. He hurried down the passageway before coming to an intersection. He remembered from the tour that the robot maintenance room was down the adjoining corridor. He didn’t give it a second thought.
Outside the portal to the robot room, Adam set Trimen on the floor. After taking a moment to look at the body of his friend, he gripped the laser weapon in his right hand, turned and entered the room.
There had to be over fifty robots in the room, both of the two-legged and four-wheeled variety. Since very few were programmed for security, none of the ones who saw him enter registered him as a threat, at least not initially. He walked calmly to a workbench and picked up a heavy metal rod—part of the framework of the wheeled robots. With the rod in his left hand and the laser in his right, he approached the first cluster of automatons.
The red beam shot out, slicing easily through three metal frameworks with ease. The rod then swung in, crushing more metal bodies in the process.
The other robots now took notice. Without fear or anxiety, they came at Adam in a slow, yet deliberate manner, allowing the Human to key up on individuals with deadly efficiency. The sound was deafening, not from the robots, but from the crashing and clanging of metal parts as the machines were broken, sliced or otherwise shattered by the crazed living being in their midst. Two minutes later, nearly all the Aris maintenance bots in the room were destroyed.
None ran away, however, and were now being joined by re-enforcements from outside. Adam met them straight on continuing with only the metal rod once the battery in the laser weapon went dry.
Adam, what are you doing? The panicked voice inside his head was that of Lila.
They killed Trimen, he thought back.
There was a moment’s pause in his mind, with telepathic link allowing a wave of incredible grief to fill his brain. I am beyond words. I loved him on the level of you and my mother.
So to answer your question, I’m getting some payback.
The Aris are aware of your activities. You must stop and meet me in the dome room. You remember how to get there?
Yeah, but just a few more—
No, go now! There are other ways to reconcile Trimen’s death without sacrificing your own.
There were very few robots left to demolish. Okay, I’m on my way, but I’m not leaving his body here. I’m taking him with me.
I understand. But please hurry!
A few of the smashed robots had laser weapons; Adam now rummaged through the wreckage until he found one. Then he rushed out into the hallway and lifted Trimen’s body into his arms once again, the laser weapon aimed outward in his right hand.
He met a number of other bots on the way, dispatching them with the energy weapon. Then he heard a rapid clicking on the metal deck, coming up behind him. He turned, just as one of the mechanical dogs with the four-inch long needle-teeth leapt into the air.
Adam ducked, while lifting Trimen’s body above him. The metal dog sank its teeth into the corpse—rather than Adam—and began tearing at the dead flesh. Adam tossed both body and dog off him and to the floor. Realizing its mistake, the beast focused its red eyes on Adam…and jumped again.
Unable to bring the laser weapon the bear, Adam dropped it and crouched down, grabbing the dog by the neck with his right hand on its belly. He squeezed with his left hand and felt metal mesh collapse. Then he rose up and ran toward the nearest wall, slamming the dog against the surface. The body bent inward, causing internal mechanisms to jamb up or cease operating. Next, Adam slammed the security bot to the floor, producing a deafening clang as metal met metal. The body deformed even more. Then as before, Adam set about smashing the robot to pulp with his booted foot. Moments later, only the twitching of a back leg was left moving.
Out the corner of his right eye, Adam saw three other figures further down the hallway. It was the Aris, and they were raising their palms toward him.
He dove for the deck, sliding in behind Trimen’s narrow body, looking for any cover he could find against the incoming sonic wave. The wave hit, pushing Adam and Trimen along the smooth metal floor, but otherwise protecting him from the physical effects of the wave. The laser weapon slid along with him. Adam reached out for the flashlight-like device and then shoved it under Trimen’s body, pointing down the hallway at the Aris.
The beam appeared, but he was off target, aiming high above the aliens. But then he swept the red beam down—until it sliced in half the head of the middle Aris.
An ear-shattering screech echoed off the metal walls. Adam grimaced from the agonizing sound before looking down the corridor. The flanking Aris were staring aghast at their fallen companion, shock and disbelief on their pale faces. Adam figured they’d seen dead Aris before, but never one killed.
Adam grinned. If it was up to him, it wouldn’t be the last Aris killed this day in their tidy, artificial world. He triggered the weapon again, and soon the population of three-billion-year-old Aris was reduced from eighteen to fifteen. It was a start.
With calm returning to the hall way, Adam lifted Trimen’s body again and set off for the dome room, the chamber with the astronomical projection for a ceiling. It wasn’t far, and he arrived without incident just as Lila, Panur and J’nae entered from the opposite side.
Lila rushed up to him, her eyes filled with tears as she stared down at the body of Trimen O’lac. She placed her hands on his face.
“Oh, Trimen, I am so sorry you sacrificed yourself for me. If I had the power, I would gladly trade my life for yours.”
Adam set the body on the floor and Lila knelt next to it. He walked over to Panur. “How much time do we have before the energy room explodes?”
“Plenty to make our escape—”
“I am afraid you are wrong, my creator,” said J’nae from behind them.
Adam and Panur turned, only to find four more Aris in the room, including the one called Nunki. Adam’s face turned red and his heart set to racing. He was going to kill these bastards with his bare hands.
Suddenly, everyone in the room was encased in halos of soft blue. Adam knew the truth of the interphase effect, so he stepped toward the aliens. But his movement was stopped. He lifted his arms and pushed. There was a tingling, but that was it. He couldn’t move beyond the shimmering wall. These were a real interphase shields.
“I did it, Adam Cain,” said J’nae.
“Did what?” was his natural reply.
“I have restored the interphase effect to full force. I have also reversed all the damage you did to the energy supply. There will be no catastrophic explosion destroying the station.”
Panur turned toward his mutant creation, he, too trapped within the blue time-shift prison. “Why would you do that?”
“For my own ends, Panur. I constructed another device as you worked on yours. Now I control th
e shields.”
“Again, I ask why?”
“Because I wish to negotiate a bargain with the Aris.”
“What bargain?” Nunki asked.
J’nae looked at the alien with intensity. “I know how to give you the immortality you seek.”
“And how is that?”
“Through a direct mind meld.”
“Don’t, J’nae,” Panur commanded.
She ignored the mutant and continued to address the Aris. “I can blend my cells with those of the Aris—”
“And in the process transfer your cells to our bodies,” said Nunki, finishing the sentence for her.
“Precisely. I have seen the process done, although at that time there was an un-melding of the cells. I will purposefully designate a portion of my brain cells to be transferred to each of the remaining Aris.”
“The process has been discussed, yet it could only be done with the cooperation of the immortal. You say you will agree to this?”
“Yes, with conditions.”
“Again, J’nae, don’t do this. It will mean the end of your existence,” said Panur.
“What conditions?” Nunki pressed.
“That you allow Panur and the others to leave, unharmed and to never pursue them in the future.”
“Bullshit!” Adam yelled. “You make them truly immortal and they’ll be all over us—all over the entire galaxy—like stink on shit.”
“To the contrary,” Nunki said. “We care nothing for the activities in which your galaxy engages. The only reason we interfered in the beginning was to produce the Apex Being.”
“You’re lying.”
“The Aris do not lie; we have no reason to lie to such primitive beings.”
“Hey, this primitive being just killed three of your buddies.”
The comment caused Nunki to pause and his mouth fall open slightly. He quickly regained his composure. “Yes, I am aware of that. Yet the ability to kill that which is superior to does not make you superior. You, too, can fall prey to any number of deadly threats, including mindless diseases and bacteria. The ability to kill instinctively is a trait of…animals.”