by Bob Blink
It was time to start the activations and Jessica was lobbying for Sammi Davidson to be first.
"Why would you wish for her to be the initial activation?" Sam asked.
"Because she is the only woman in the group, and I have little to do at the moment. I could probably bond with her better than anyone, and by the time the others are coming on-line I might have her acclimated to her situation here. Then she'd be able to help her friends."
Sam looked at the others for opinions.
"I am thinking this might be a good idea," Rao said when no one else spoke. "But after Sammi, I think we should activate the Cyborgs of the three of you, perhaps Greg, Ray, and finally Jessica. That would allow you more time for helping Sammi transition. Once those four are successfully activated, we proceed to the others, no?"
"I like it," Sam said, except maybe Jessica's Cyborg, "J-Bot" is last. Greg can interface with himself, as can Ray, while Jessica is free to focus on Sammi. When all of the others are functional, Jessica will be free to interface with herself."
"Okay," Jessica agreed.
They had given some thought to naming, finally deciding that those coming from the Sim could simply retain their names since they had no flesh and blood counterparts here in the caverns. Ray, Greg, and Jessica would follow Rao and Raobot naming, but use only the initials, so it would be R-Bot, G-Bot, and J-Bot, respectively.
Sam and Jessica stood next to the prone Sammi Cyborg in preparation of bringing her to full awareness. The others stood across the room so as not to overwhelm the detective as she regained her awareness. She already would have a tremendous shock between the new environment and the mechanical body her mind was now enclosed inside. Since all of the Cyborgs looked identical, Sam had taken a bright red marker and scribbled her name across the upper chest of the unit. Hopefully that would help once all of them were active.
"All readings are positive," Sam said after he had made the necessary adjustments.
"Sammi?" Jessica said softly, wondering what the detective was sensing.
For a moment there was no response, then the mechanical head turned toward Jessica.
"I feel really odd," the mechanical voice that sounded just like Raobot said. "I can't sense my body at all, but I feel warm and comfortable. How can that be?"
"Welcome to the caverns," Jessica said. "You are in one of the Cyborgs. We are just waking you up."
"I guessed that must be the case. So I'm the copy of me that was chosen, huh?"
Jessica smiled. At least there wasn't any panic or signs of rejection of her situation.
"Can you move your arms and legs?" Sam asked.
The Cyborg's head turned toward him.
"I'm Sam," he said. "We need a few tests, and then you can go off and talk with Jessica. She'll help you get oriented to this place."
"That feels completely normal," Sammi said after completing a sequence of moves that Sam requested. "It feels almost like myself, but the feedback is subtly different. It's a little like making an effort to use my fingers has made me aware of them."
"Good, now sit up," he directed.
Moments later they were looking at what appeared to be Raobot except for the name scrawled across the chest. Sammi looked at the mirror opposite the bench where she sat and examined the reflection.
"Wow, I'm a real beauty," she said, but the voice carried a sense of amusement rather than panic. She appeared to be adapting well. She scanned the room, spotting the others, and lingered on Rao and Raobot. "Finally I meet the real Rao," she said.
The others came forward and introduced themselves. It was odd to see Sammi and Raobot interact.
"You will become more comfortable to the body in an hour or so," Raobot informed her. "While it lacks some of the advantages of your human form, you are now quicker, stronger, faster than before. Also, you don't get cold, tired, or hungry. You will need to charge every couple of days though."
"Like any good electronic accessory," Sammi joked. "What's next?"
"Stand up, and let's check your balance, and then you can go with Jessica while I work on activating some of the others," Sam said.
Sammi did as directed, and after a few more checks, she was sent off with Jessica where the two women could talk.
"Who's next?" Sam asked, and Greg pointed to himself.
An hour later, a very strange gathering was interacting in the main area. Nine Cyborgs, all identical except for the names on the chests of all but Raobot, and the small band of humans were exchanging greetings and information. Only Don and J-Bot, Jessica's Cyborg, had shown some small indication of discomfort with their situation, but even that appeared to be disappearing with time. Ray and Greg were a bit subdued by being face-to-face with themselves, while Jessica had dragged her Cyborg self into a three way conversation that included herself and the Cyborg Sammi. Sam had indicated they should be given an hour or two to become accustomed to the bodies and the new people before Ray launched into his briefing of their tactical situation and sought input from the new arrivals.
Later, when the Ray and Greg Cyborgs huddled with their real counterparts to discuss the situation facing them and possible approaches, the humans headed to the kitchen to have something to eat. It had been a long afternoon, and unlike the Cyborgs, they needed input. R-Bot and G-Bot knew everything that Ray and Greg did, so they could handle the briefing, something that would probably run most of the night while the humans slept. Raobot was with the group, and would monitor the new arrivals for anything that looked abnormal.
They were just sitting down to eat when Cindy returned from the back room. She's gone to check on the communications to see if anything new had happened with Walker's group or was being broadcast on the Facility's net. Everyone noticed the concerned look on her face.
"They've found the truck," she said.
Chapter 55
Sequoia Facility
"Where was it found?" Director Walker demanded. Bill Williams had contacted him via their secure net to alert him that the vehicle had been located. "Are we certain it is the right one?"
"Absolutely certain," Bill replied. "It is in the small cave that leads to the emergency exit out of the caverns."
Walker was silent for a moment.
"I had all but forgotten that existed," Walker said, in an uncharacteristic admission of fault. "That's about as far south as you can get as I recall."
"That's right," Bill agreed. "I think this might be where they ditched the other vehicles also."
"Did you find them?"
"No, but we checked the cave tunnel. There's a fork, and at one point on the unused path, there is a scrape near a steep drop off that is deep enough our flashlight won't penetrate. I'll bet they're down there somewhere."
"So they've probably been there before," mused Walker. "Maybe they've been getting out topside from that location?"
"I don't think so," Bill replied. "It's certainly alarmed, and there is a complicated band that has to be broken to allow the lock to be opened. It is not something that could be readily replaced and it hasn't been broken. But it is interesting that this place is only a couple of miles, deserted miles at that, from the place where they set up that fake office to lure us away from the main Clinic the other night."
"You don't think it's another red herring to distract us?" Walker asked.
"I can't be sure, but if I'm right about the other vehicles being down that shaft, they didn't intend for us to find this place. I'm guessing they had to ditch the truck earlier than they planned when Dr. Ho surprised them at the lab."
"But you have seen no sign of them?"
"Nothing. This place is pretty deserted. I can see a couple of the Ring nodes a bit to the north and on either side of the entrance, and in the distance the clinic buildings to the east, and a bit farther on the west the outlines of Power Plant #3. That's about it."
"Search the area thoroughly," Walker directed. "Call in a couple dozen of the reserves and check everything, working your way north until you have cov
ered everything up to the Command Center. Understand? There shouldn't be much out there, but maybe we missed something."
"Yes, sir!" Bill replied. "I will contact you immediately if we spot anything of interest."
Walker set down the secure Communicator when the contact had been terminated. It had been the worst week of his life. His face was drawn from lack of sleep and the frustration of not knowing how he was going to recover from this set back, or if it was even possible. What he did know was that if such a recovery were possible, it would require the help of the very people he sought.
Meanwhile, repairs of the Resort were faltering. He'd been warned that they lacked the expertise to repair the incredible damage the blast had caused. Power was one thing, but the snarled nest of high capacity links that tied the Resort to its computer system and Simulation, and more importantly the smaller, but for Walker, vital set that allowed him access to the Ring and the main Sim there were apparently something that wasn't documented or understood. It seemed ludicrous to him, but in the previous thousand years only a single cable had required repair, and then it was a simple one-for-one change out. Now, with the recent damage at the Cloning Clinic, the loss of Dr. Ho and the ability to transfer a kernel into any of the many Cyborgs waiting in the lower levels, he couldn't bring anyone else in. Not yet. Jake, who was temporarily in charge of things, had warned him that at least another week was required before he could have a set of equipment properly configured to deal with the Cyborgs. Meanwhile, people were surprisingly intolerant of the delays on getting the Resort up and running. He believed they wanted reassurance, and feared that the facility might be lost forever.
His directive that had Security exploring topside had also run into difficulties, and the staff were showing reluctance to continue the effort, claiming this is something that the Cyborgs were meant to do. Even Rao and his small group had been wise enough to send one of the mechanical devices to do whatever exploring they had conducted on the surface. Yesterday, the death of Ian Wilson had sealed the matter. He'd been two hours away from the airlock, when he'd experienced a suit failure. The leak wasn't major, but the suits dated back to the opening of the Facility and they had no capability to manufacture new ones, at least not in any reasonable time frame. Ian had used the patch repair kit that accompanied the suit, and the sealant had done its job, but the atmosphere inside the suit had already been compromised. Forced to breath the contaminated air mixture all the way back to the Facility had been fatal, the doctors saying they'd never seen lungs so badly damaged in such a short time. Had he been within a few minutes walk of the outer airlock, which was what the suits were designed for, he would have been okay. Now, Ian's fellow workers were refusing to continue the explorations topside.
Up until the call from Bill just a few minutes ago, all their efforts to locate Rao and his group had been fruitless. Walker wasn't yet convinced Bill William's find wasn't another trick to use up time and resources, but Williams had a good point if this was where the two missing vehicles had been hidden. Walker had enlisted the services of nearly fifty auxiliary deputies to aid in the search for the troublesome group. None of these recent additions were privy to the real situation, and saw Rao's group as some kind of rebels intent on destruction for reasons unknown. Thus far, Walker had resisted arming the men with anything beyond knives and clubs, worrying that should they realize that Walker had access to real weapons would provide verification to the damn message that had been clandestinely inserted into the Facility broadcast system. Somehow his adversaries had created a message for the Facility's public, explaining their side of the conflict and accusing Walker of illegal activities both within the Sim and the Facility. Fortunately the broadcast had been interrupted before the most damaging information had been released, but he could sense that a portion of the residents now were uncertain whether he might be guilty of the indicated crimes, and whether to trust him. It didn't help that his former girlfriend, Vicki Chen, had apparently confirmed some of the claims made by the broadcast. If it wouldn't cause talk, he'd have had her disappear for her disloyalty. He put her on his private list for later action.
Walker was certain that Rao had gained at least some support among those that hadn't particularly liked Walker from the beginning. He knew it would be a long time before he could put aside the damage done by that brief announcement. Unlike those inside the Sim, the people in the caverns didn't have memories designed to fade quickly.
Stewing on how to approach the growing list of problems, particularly the seemingly insurmountable issue of there being no way to keep the current version of himself alive and in charge without the cloning approach he'd worked out with Ho, Walker was on the verge of losing control. When Luke Morales stepped into his office and closed the door, Walker worried that Luke might have even more bad news.
Luke looked as ragged as Walker. Sharper than the others on Walker's team, he alone had figured out what the raid on the clinic meant to them. The others might yet figure it out, but for the moment, it was a secret the two of them shared. They had talked most of the night after the raid, and had jointly concluded that Rao was key if they were to have any chance of recovering from the devastating setback. Both agreed there might be answers on the surface somewhere, but thus far the attempts to locate whatever had taken the Cyborg topside had proven fruitless. And now Rao had more of the Cyborgs. Walker couldn't figure out what he wanted them for, nor how he would be able to populate them. The fact he must have a way was important, however. Therein might be the only way Walker could recover his chances at completing his plan.
"They found the truck," he told Luke.
"I heard your conversation," Luke replied. Walker should have expected as much. The channel was open to Luke and the others of his original team.
"Do you know the area?" Walker asked.
Luke shook his head.
"Not really. I've been down there once or twice, but it's pretty empty. I was wondering as I walked over here whether they could be hiding out somewhere in the Power Plant. It's kind of isolated, yet would have power and cover they would need."
"I don't think so," Walker argued. "There is no connection to the Sim from there. The power plants are totally isolated in that way. The only connection they have is the power grid. Besides, it is one of the places that has a full staff all the time. I'd think they would have been noticed. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a careful look. I've decided I can't predict what these people might do."
"I'll go there myself," Luke said. "It would be worthwhile seeing what Bill found and whether we can test his theory about what happened to your car."
"I've had another thought," Walker said. "It would be bold, and risky, and I don't know how they might have overcome the alarms, but they have shown a knowledge of this place that exceeds that of anyone I've ever known. Let me show you something."
Walker turned and picked up something from his desk.
"What's this?" Luke asked, looking at the complicated pages of code.
"A report. Something submitted during the construction days. I found it by accident and printed out a copy. Look at the signature."
Luke flipped to the last page.
"Does that say what I think it does?"
"Subha Rao," Walker confirmed. "By the sheerest chance, the programmer I chose to work my problem, was one of those heavily involved in the creation of this place. Somehow, I think he has some or all of his memories about this place intact. Maybe he has all along, but it didn't seem that way in the beginning. But that is why he has been able to do all the things that seem so impossible. It's also the reason why I want him alive."
"At least we know," Luke said.
"That brings me back to what I was saying. What is the possibility that they are hiding inside of one of the nodes themselves. The buildings are huge, and no one goes there unless there is an anomaly that specifically requires attention. I know of no one going inside any node in more than twenty-five years."
"Those structures ar
e nearly indestructible," Luke said. "And getting inside would set off a host of alarms at security. I would never have even considered they might be using them to hide in."
Walker nodded.
"I hadn't either. All this time where they have been gaining easy access to the Sim. What better place than inside the physical structures that houses it? Maybe there is an easy way we don't know about once you are inside. As for the alarms, what you say is supposed to be true. But if Rao is who we think, and he has Ray Burke on his team who came from Security, then maybe all those barriers aren't a problem for them. I'd like you, and maybe Kurt, to have a personal look at all of the node structures. Start in the south, down where Bill found that truck. See if there is anything that might suggest they are hiding inside one of them."
"What if that is the case?"
"Well, then we'll know where to find them. I'll willing to risk one of the nodes if it will bring those bastards down."
"That's a bit drastic, isn't it?" Luke asked, wondering not for the first time if Walker was sane. More and more he worried about what Walker might do.
"They have to be stopped," Walker said.