Sentinel: The Race Against Dark Energy

by Andrew McIntyre

  “Not at all.” Replied E, “We can go and grab a burger and a coke first, if you wish? You probably deserve it after that last piece of excitement?”

  “Great!” said Saul, “I’m up for it. Are you hungry Nell?”

  E interrupted, “Yeah, you’re really gonna need to appreciate that I have a handle on this humour thing now.”

  The young students slumped in disappointment, looking at each other deflated.

  “Buckle-up.” E said, blankly.

  “Are you ready for this Saul?” Nell checked.

  “Piece of cake.” He replied nonchalantly. “Now do as the man,… I mean universal positive polarity says.” He casually put his arm around her and the routine began once more.

  As a number of the street crowd glanced over from the clearing of debris from the gunfight, they noticed a wind storm, gathering around the youngsters. Just a dust devil at first, but soon becoming more powerful. “Hey kids!” the barman shouted, “Better get inside, a storm’s coming!” Nell and Saul both looked over and waved at the barman, with the circular wind and dust cloud engulfing them. Then they were gone.

  Chapter 10: 3000AD

  The pair, were now getting used to their time-travelling taxi ride phenomenon, so arriving in the future had little affect upon them physically, or created little nausea. But the sights they were greeted with each time however, had totally the opposite reaction. They routinely came into the moment, the here and now, after their psychedelic road trip, by automatically checking themselves and each other a number of times. Like an OCD sufferer, going through an absurd routine of checks and balances. But each new place they visited, offered sights, sounds, smells and noises that were frighteningly new and confusing, yet exciting at the same time. Arriving back upon planet Earth however, some nine hundred years into its future, was nothing short of bewildering.

  The landscape resembled an alien world, with pink and red coloured skies. The Polar ice caps had long melted and altered the shape and size of the oceans beyond recognition. This in turn had dramatically changed the shape of continental landmasses, which then affected the plant-life, vegetation and ultimately the life forms it supported. Nell and Saul were in shock! They viewed the catastrophic scene from way above and through a clear, Perspex panel that stretched from below their feet to above their heads. Their hands held flat up against it in a desperate desire to disbelieve their own eyes.

  Saul was incensed. Nell was saddened.

  “What the hell has happened here E?” Demanded Saul, angrily.

  “This is the result of the current reality and the direction it follows Saul.” E explained. “However, it is not all down to Dark energy’s plans to harness the element of water. Your planet earth was already in serious trouble before Dark energy began mining H20. The human race saw to that quite effectively. We are nine hundred and eighty four years into your future. The world as you know it, is all but long gone. The human race exists once more as tribes and nomads, roaming the landscape. A complete return to their original evolutionary cycle.”

  The two students fell silent, as if mourning a lost loved one. Saul’s eyes danced about in disbelief, attempting to understand what he was witnessing and what he was being told by E. Nell simply shed a single tear, from eyes so laden with them, they could have cried for week if she’d allowed it. But wiping the solitary teardrop before Saul noticed, she asked, “So where are we? If that is Earth down below, where are we? What is this structure we’re inside of?”

  E began one of his emotionless monologues, whilst simultaneously bringing up another 3D plan of their location. “This is the main command vessel of the fleet of water mining ships, which circle the globe. It remains in its position whilst remotely guiding the mining vessels to source new water supplies, which they then systematically siphon. We are currently located at the lower level, which is what you would term the engine room of the whole ship. But we must locate the main mind of the operation within the core.”

  The young companions looked around their immediate surroundings, which was in itself, mind-bending. They were clearly in a man-made, or alien-made structure, but everything appeared to be constructed of rigid plastic. It was solid enough, but plastic nevertheless. It was mainly different shades of white and the cleanliness was that of a surgery or laboratory.

  “So this ‘mind’ as you call it, is the computer controlling everything and where we need to upload the virus?” Asked Saul impatiently.

  “Indeed. Assuming we can deactivate it, we can halt the whole operation.” Confirmed E. “The problem will be ‘how’ we upload the virus. This computer or mind is like nothing you will have ever experienced before Saul. We will not be able to simply plug in a USB!”

  “We’ll worry about that when we get there. For now just point me in the right direction.” Saul declared. “Is there somewhere safe for Nell?”

  “Hey!” Exclaimed Nell, “I’ve seen the movies, where someone waits alone and then gets captured, I’m not staying here! I’m coming with you. Anyway,.. I’ve saved your ass before, so you need me.”

  “Nell does make a good point Saul.” E added.

  “Listen, I had that Demonicon,…”

  Saul is interrupted, by an indignant Nell. “You were unconscious!”

  “I was just taking a breather.” He lied. “OK let’s get up there and get this thing done. E – How much trouble will these droids be? Are they dangerous?”

  “Oh no,.. The droids are only programmed to do their tasks in managing this command station.” Confirmed E.

  “OK Good!” Saul said relieved.

  “The drones, on the other hand,…” Continued E, “They will shoot you on sight!”

  Nell put both hands to her head and paced frantically. “If only someone had told you this trip would be a foolhardy, dangerous, life-threatening , crazy goddamned merry-go-round!... Oh hang on a minute,… I did tell you that!” She fired at Saul.

  “OK Nell,…” Saul countered, trying to calm her. “Give me numbers E. What are we up against here? How many of these things do we need to avoid? What they got,..ten, twenty, how many?”

  “My information says,.. ten thousand.” E responded flatly.

  “TEN THOUSAND!” Saul shouted. “How are we supposed to avoid ten thousand of the damn things?”

  “I doubt very much you can avoid all of them.”

  “So we avoid most of them, then I presume we will have to deal with the rest?”

  E stayed silent for a few seconds, whilst Saul awaiting the inevitable unsavory answer.

  “When one drone spots you, it instantaneously and automatically communicates this to every other drone, as they are programmed to constantly seek out and eliminate anything that is not a droid, or drone. Any living organism will be terminated.”

  Saul ignored E’s terrifying account and whilst calculating his next move, looked around at the stark white plastic world they now inhabited. “Why is this place constructed solely of Perspex?” he enquired.

  E obliged explaining, “Natural resources became extremely scarce upon Earth some six hundred years before and therefore Dark energy had little to work with in terms of construction materials. It therefore synthetically created the solid materials out of which it could construct a mining base on the blue planet. Plastic, Perspex or any other variations are an easily mimicked molecular structure, whilst retaining strength and durability, as it does not corrode or decay in a harsh environment, such as Earth’s oceans.”

  “Mimicked?” Asked Saul.

  “Yes, each solid material, or element within the universe has a molecular code, at which frequency it vibrates. Therefore mimicking that energetic vibration will ‘create’ that solid element.” Continued E.

  “So why doesn’t Dark energy simply manufacture water in this way, just synthesize it?”

  “Oh it does in other realms within the universe.” Responded E, “But you must realise, this is dark energy. Its role is to destroy and to wreak havoc. It has no conscience. It is delibera
tely draining planet Earth. And when it has completed its work here, it will move on to another, and another.”

  “Remind me never to invite Dark energy around for a movie and pizza.” Nell scoffed.

  “Dark energy is already everywhere Nell.” E countered. “You will have already interacted with it on a daily basis, but what we are talking about here is Dark energy, manipulated by consciousness, thereby giving it a direction. A goal.”

  “What is its goal then?” Saul butted in.

  “To destroy the universe.” E said calmly. “First there was just energy. Then energy realised it was also consciousness. Consciousness decided to split into negative and positive energy and then chose to manifest itself into solid entities, through which consciousness realised it could experience the physical realm. Therefore it decided to become trillions of physical entities through simple vibration.”

  The conversation was interrupted abruptly, but a deafening hooter sounding. A deep, ear-splitting tone which was some ten seconds long. It paused and repeated, like an automotive factory sounding the end of a shift. The two young students flinched in shock at the noise level and put their fingers to their ears in a futile attempt to reduce the discomfort.

  “What on earth is that?” Nell bellowed at E.

  “Its what it sounds like,..An alarm. My guess is the central monitoring systems have already picked up your heartbeats and body temperature and therefore, that’s our sign to get out of here. This area will be crawling with drones in a few seconds.”

  “So where exactly will it be safe for us to move?” Saul shouted urgently.

  “That depends on what you term as safe?” E responded.

  “Oh I don’t know,.. How about somewhere where they won’t try to kill us maybe?” Saul was becoming sarcastic once more.

  “There is no area of this base that the drones will NOT attempt to eliminate you,…” E thought for a moment, “Maybe the service lift for droids, as it only travels vertically and is only used for droids to access different levels, that would be my suggestion.”

  Saul grabbed his phone handset, running off at high speed, with Nell directly behind him. They both darted across an open space behind where they were stood at the huge window and sped towards some sliding doors, which carried no signage apart from a long barcode.

  As they approached at breakneck speed, the doors slid apart with a ‘shoooshing’ sound, revealing tightly packed droids all stood to attention in the sane direction, but motionless. Saul came to a standstill so quickly that Nell rushed into the back of him. Saul steadied himself by bracing his outstretched arms against the open doors, whilst still clinging to his prized phone handset.

  “What now E?” He exclaimed.

  “Well,.. I would get in, because they won’t hurt you. They’re just immobilised during transportation. Whereas, those will definitely hurt you!”

  As E spoke both Nell and Saul turned to see a swarm of spherical drones, flying into sight. The drones were approximately a meter in diameter, tightly grouped and seemingly, each a simple chrome ball. But as they flew like a murmuration of starlings into the surrounding area, they all began to fire a pulsating barrage of laser-type bullets at the escaping humans.

  Saul and Nell dived into the service lift with the tightly-packed droids and as the doors ‘swished’ closed the laser-bullets pounded against the exterior, sounding like a shower of meteorites.

  As the lift fired upwards towards its destination level, both Saul and Nell looked at the droids, feeling uneasy at their silent stance, like sentries outside of Buckingham palace. Without warning the lift stopped, the droids all began to light up with power kicking in, as the doors opened. They all buzzed and clicked into action, wheeling out of the lift with a whining noise reminiscent of a disabled motorbility scooter.

  “Is this our floor?” asked Saul sarcastically.

  “No!” Replied E. “We need to get higher up into the core area of the station. Whilst in here you are protected, so it would be good strategy to take this service lift to as close as we can get to the main core processor.”

  “What happens then?”

  “Stay alive,.. Access the main mind computer and upload the virus.”

  “Stay alive is like priority number one yeah?”

  “Hmmm,.. maybe two or three.”

  “Humour?”

  “Humour!” E said blankly.

  Saul paced the emptied lift and was clearly deep in thought.

  “E – what is the simplest living organism you can synthesize?” Asked Saul.

  “That would be bacteria.” Came the reply.

  “OK – what about something bigger, bigger and can fly. I need a swarm.”

  E fired up another hologram, which again morphed out from the phone screen, showing a 3D diagram of an insect. “I would suggest the common mosquito.”

  The image span around into different orientations once more and next to it rolled data about he tiny insect which E related. “Kingdon: Animalia, Family: Culicidae, Order: Diptera, Suborder: Nematocera, class: Insecta.”

  “Perfect!” Said Saul, “Give me a few thousand please.”

  The hologram collapsed back into the phone handset and was replaced by fifty or so tiny beams of white light firing out in different directions, each beginning to dance around frantically, creating synthesized insects, like a 3d printer, which appeared in their glory and began to stretch their wings and fly around the lift interior. As each insect became whole and living, the beam of light would simply create another, and another.

  Nell recoiled in disgust as the lift began to fill with annoying insects buzzing around her and causing her to flap her arms and hands about, repelling the tiny flying critters. “What on earth are you doing Saul.” She protested.

  “Those drones are seeking non-robotic life forms. Sop they can have some. We need a distraction.”

  As the service lift reached its destination, the interior was already covered with a disgusting thick swarm of the tiny mosquitos. No sooner had the doors swished open, the swarm of insects burst out into the open air and began buzzing around in every direction. The lift had stopped at the main core of the building structure, which was cathedral-like. It was vast. A colossal hall of gleaming white and clear Perspex, glistening with cleanliness. The main mind-computer was situated on a central platform, which was accessed by one bridge, extending out to it from the surrounding high-level platform. The drop below was frightening.

  The drones were already on high-alert and no sooner had the swarm exited, the shooting soon began. It was a deafening volley of lightening bolts emitting from each drone, exploding all around them and destroying everything they hit. Explosions, debris flying and different coloured bolts of automatic cannon-fire punctuating the immediate area. As Saul and Nell exited the lift behind the swarm, Saul shouted, “E – force field mode!” As he did so, a spherical barrier of white and blue, flickering light engulfed them both, absorbing hundreds of bolts of energy, which were aimed at the young pair.

  The noise inside the force field was terrifying and both of the young students were jumping and ducking from shots being fired, but absorbed. It was chaos. It reminded Saul of how the soldiers must have felt during the D-day landings and being shot at repeatedly, with nowhere to hide. As the swarm of mosquitos flew in every direction possible, so did the drones following them and with terrifying automated responses, they followed the swarm around the vast open space and into sub-rooms and corridors off the main atrium. The amount of energy bullets now hitting the youngsters’ force filed reduced, as the drones all followed the swarm off into other areas, until the sound of shooting began to die into the distance.

  Saul stood and studied the surrounding carnage, whilst assessing the options open to him in traversing the bridge to the mind-computer. “OK Drop the force field E.” He instructed and the spherical, protective ball of light shrank down into the phone handset once more.

  “OK Let’s do this thing!” Saul bellowed. “E – Get me a compute
r virus at the ready, some Trojon horse thing will suffice.” As he shouted instructions, he ran towards the long thin bridge that connected he outside perimeter ledge with the central control platform. The base of the bridge, although made of Perspex, was clear like glass and offered a nauseating glimpse down into the vast space below. Saul stalled before running onto the bridge and gathered his courage, whilst exhaling loudly with a blowing-noise.

  “Nell, stay close to me, those things will be back soon enough.” As Saul spoke a large humanoid-robotic being, stepped out from behind the central control platform and onto the other end of the bridge. “OK,.. Maybe not so close to me then.”

  The being stepped forward onto the first few meters of the bridge and stood some eight feet tall. It appeared to be an organism but was clearly in robotic form. Its limbs were heavily armoured, same with the body and breastplate and its head was without features except for camera lenses for eyes. They were black. Completely black.

  “Shit! Not again.” Whispered Saul.

  “Saul! Get away from it!” Nell shouted.

  “I don’t think getting away from it is a choice, right now. I have to get to that computer”

  The robotic Demonicon stamped, menacingly across the bridge, towards Saul, with clearly one intention in mind. Saul waited until it was some few meters away and shouted. “Laser mode E!” Saul held his phone out towards the Demonicon approaching and a bolt of laser fired out at high speed, hitting it full force in its armoured breastplate and knocking it backwards. The Demonicon was knocked off balance but stayed upright and continued forwards.

  The robotic servant of dark energy broke into a thundering trot towards Saul and swiped wildly with its huge hand, striking Saul in the face and throwing him back two meters or so onto his back. As Saul rolled in agony and with his head split open and bleeding, the Demonicon stood, towering above him and grabbed Saul by the neck. It held Saul up in the air by his throat and once again threw him at high speed against the far wall of the vast auditorium. Saul hit the plastic wall with such force it shattered into Perspex debris exposing electrical and computer data cables behind, sparking and crackling.