by Zoey Ivers
"Can a horse outrun a Tyrannosaurus?"
"There's only one way to find out. Not that Salty is really a horse, nor the T-Rex really a dinosaur. But I hope we don't have to find out."
They stopped at the big pink cube.
It sat atop a flat copper stripe. "Right. Time for a bit of vandalism." Alice ran her hand over the copper. "Smooth as can be. Let's see if the chisel can give us enough to clamp onto." It took the chisel and the hammer to pry up the edge of the strip, then they tackled the other side.
The clamps were large and stiff, but manageable.
The sparks and flame impressive.
Smoke curled up from the pink thing.
Bambi grinned and bounced on her heels. "Let's go find another one!"
"Or we could try a random jolt to the other wall." Alice grinned back. "After all, we are here for the purpose of mayhem."
Bambi grabbed chisel and hammer and had two spots pried up by the time Alice had pulled the wires across the space between the walls.
Several things popped and sparked. A bit more smoke.
Then Salty got to work pulling the charger toward the next wall.
Alice bounced suddenly. Hard fast thumps.
They leaped and released Salty. Bambi swung aboard as the T-Rex rounded the corner.
"Go!" Alice shouted. She grabbed her brief case, cast a box of tacks more-or-less in the path of the dinosaur, then hit the floor and wiggled through a small hole.
The scream deafened her, then the floor flexed and threw her into the air. She could only hope the T-Rex had fallen on more tacks. She snuck a peek through the hole, saw the Avatar raking the last of the over sized tacks out of its feet and standing up. Snarling. Hissing. It headed off in the direction Bambi and Salty had taken. Alice looked down the electronic canyon and saw the black and white flash pass by, down at the end.
Good thinking, get several walls away, make him guess where you might be. The T-Rex rounded the corner. Alice stepped out. The T-Rex's head snapped around, and it turned, accelerated. And I can slide back and forth through the hole.
She waited... gulped and threw herself down, slid through and jerked her feet away from a toothy snap. The T-Rex roared and shoved at the hole. Alice grabbed for her briefcase full of goodies. Staple gun, apply between nostrils, squeeze.
The Avatar screamed. The wall shuddered, cracked, as it threw itself against it.
It won't damage itself, will it? Alice backed away, then turned and ran for the clamp ends of the charger wires. Watch for tacks! The wall shuddered, cracked and creaked. The T-Rex snarled, concentrated on a cracked spot.
Black clamp to ground, red ... As a toothy muzzle shoved and widened a crack, Alice released the clamp on the staple still between the Avatar's nostrils and threw herself at the discharge button.
A screech like a tea kettle. The T-Rex threw itself backwards.
Can an Avatar go insane? An AI totally lose it? A computer go berserk?
The T-Rex charged the wall. Turned and side kicked with a powerful hind leg. Shards flew, cracks propagated, widened.
Alice bolted across to the opposite wall and started climbing the circuit board bumps and squares. Fortunately small components. "I really hope that thing can't climb. Or jump."
Cracking and smashing, another roaring scream. She looked down and caught a glimpse of it biting at a foot. I'm really glad I thought of those tacks.
It spit out a tack, took another step and leaped.
Alice screamed and jerked her lowest foot out of danger. The wall shook as the avatar hit it, slid down and hit the floor. Alice found a foot hold reached for a higher handhold. The wall whipped and she slipped, hung precariously by one hand, reached and grabbed, found a foot hold. The wall creaked, leaned. Holy moly, I am really in trouble now.
***
Barton seemed to know where he was going. Joe and Tommy followed him through the steel walled maze.
"What if the T-Rex doesn't come?" Joe panted a bit.
Barton Street showed his teeth in the closest thing to a smile Joe had seen yet. It wasn't a bit cheerful. "Then when we get to its core, we will find a d-door and you will be in its dimension one computer equipment."
"And we can sabotage it directly."
"Yes, disconnect optical cables between the major components. This will cripple the AI's thinking ability, possibly even drop it below a critical threshold for a personality, although that is strictly theoretical."
"Huh. And duck back into dimension five so I don't get into trouble with the vermin around the Federal Complex."
"Do other vermin packs react with hostility to strangers?"
"Yes, and the reputation of that particular pack is that they are exceptionally touchy about intruders." Joe swallowed. "I will avoid them."
"Perhaps I can assist you with them, later."
Joe blinked. Tread carefully. This AI doesn't understand that people manufacture computers, own them, use them. "I am very young to be acquiring territory. I am currently still amassing data, and sparring for position within the larger pack of the Gym Building. Thank you for the offer, though."
"You vermin have only recently begun to live in the dimension two cubbies?"
"Yes. I miss being outside, although I like the Gym too. Perhaps when I am older, and a pack leader, I will have a cubby with a dimension one balcony."
"Balcony. An architectural term. I will study it later." The Avatar slowed at the end of a wall, looking out carefully, surveying the open stretch ahead. "Surely the T-Rex has noticed our presence."
"Unless Alice is keeping it busy. Maybe we ought to hurry." Joe tried to suppress a mental picture of the T-Rex chasing the pinto with two women aboard.
"I feel a d-door around the corner. You could check. If the Alice Unit is unbothered, then we will have to proceed with extreme care."
Tommy grinned. "Aye. 'E could be waiting in ambush for us. Out in the open, we'd be in serious trouble."
Barton Street slipped around the end of the wall.
Joe followed, pulling out his multi-tool. The d-door was just around the corner, and he popped the ovals off it quickly. Tommy pulled the top down, startled back at the blast of noise. Joe threw himself on the door as it rose, and jerked it back down.
There was smoke on the other side, and roaring, crackling and crunching. A metallic drumbeat, like hooves on metal. A black and white pinto raced through the smoke, veered to aim at their d-door. The rider flattened as the horse leaped through the door; Joe and Tommy scrambled to get out of the way. The door started to rise. Joe spotted something looming through the smoke, lunging at the door. It slammed down. The T-Rex gave a deafening scream as it jammed, twisted to get its powerful thighs through one at a time. Joe dropped the point of his spear and ran at the dinosaur. A hind claw caught the edge of the door and propelled the rest of the beast through, more on its back than side; it writhed to right itself. Joe aimed the spear down the gaping mouth.
The T-Rex snapped, jerked its head. Joe flew, hit a wall and then the floor. He heard the clang of the spear hitting somewhere, not close, by the sound of it. He heard Barton Street yelling "Explode!" Bright blue white flashes. T-Rex roars echoed between the walls.
He blinked and spotted Barton Street and Tommy coming around the end of the wall. Ducked away from the EMP. Smart move.
Joe scrambled to get to his feet, to pull off his backpack and grab the black cats. He struck an oversized match, the fuse lit and hissed and spit. Joe threw the string of firecrackers underhanded, skidding them under the T-Rex as it gained its feet.
The maddened gleam in the Avatar's eyes froze him. Its snout was blackened and oozing blood. It was scraped, scratched... insane.
Crack!
The T-Rex leaped straight up as the first firecracker exploded; it landed on the string as the rest started exploding. Leaped forward. Joe dodged to the side. Tommy rammed his spear into the AI's side, and it turned to snap at him, slashed out with a foot, and nearly collapsed as the other leg sagged.
Joe stared up at huge teeth, barely registered the thunder of hooves, and the running horse. He was snatched off his feet and dragged away. He saw the T-Rex's head turn to find another attacker. A hind foot kicked and he saw a claw rake Tommy's side.
Joe twisted away from Bambi's grip. His backpack was still in his hands. He grabbed blindly and pulled out a rocket. Struck another match, lit the fuse, and ran at the dinosaur. It tossed Tommy aside jerked its head up. The rocket caromed off its shoulder and away.
The T-Rex lowered its head, snarled and lunged.
Past Joe.
Barton Street, with a spear, Joe's spear, met it head on. The spear head disappeared down its gullet and the teeth snapped cems from Barton Street's hands.
Barton Street pulled it to the side. The T-Rex lunged again and the butt of the spear hit the metal wall. Barton Street jerked its hands away as the spear sank deeper, dodged a raking hind foot. As the T-Rex recoiled, Barton Street lunged in, grabbed the spear and twisted. The T-Rex fell, jerking spasmodically, a high keening was drowned in a bubbling gurgle.
It twitched, spasming muscles accomplishing nothing. The frantic gleam dimmed in the maddened orange eyes and the head sank.
Barton Street leaned and laid a hand on the head of the Avatar. The dinosaur's flesh started pixelating, dissolving. The tail went first, then the legs and body. Finally the huge toothy head pixelated and started fading. Barton Street removed his hands.
"Mine."
Chapter Seventeen
Joe limped over to Tommy. The bio-model was gasping for breath, blood all down his side, clear down his leg. Quick footsteps. Alice knelt and started pulling stuff out of her backpack. "Lay still. Let us help you."
Joe carefully peeled back bloody material.
"Shallow down the flank, thank goodness. Gets deeper over the hip and down your thigh, but that's just muscle." Alice winced. "Should have thought about a proper first aid kit. It's paper towels and duck tape for you, soldier."
Tommy craned his head to look and paled. "I 'ate the sight of my own blood."
Barton Street limped over. "I do not understand you vermin. Why so much leaking fluids?"
"It's the way we work." Joe looked up at the AI. "Do you control the T-Rex's domain now?"
"Yes." The AI smiled. "There are several small fires in the basement computer room. Rooms. They connect to several office towers. The buildings are all being evacuated. There is much smoke, but little danger from that pack, if you wish to enter dimension one there."
"Can you program an autodoc to heal a bio-model? The software will be filed as a veterinarian program, rather than a medical program. If you can program one in the Federal Center, as near as possible to a d-door, we can take Tommy there, immediately." Joe glanced at the wall. The d-door had closed, sometime during the fight, and disappeared.
Barton Street froze, for a long moment. Then nodded. "It is done. Floor fifteen, room 321. Will you leave now?"
Alice looked up, and bit her lip. "Bambi and Salty should go back to your old domain. Wait for me to open a d-door to you."
"I've got a lot of bio-chow I can leave with you." Joe said. "And as soon as Tommy can move, we'll duck through a d-door and join you."
Alice nodded. "I'm supposed to be in the Federal Center, so I'll get home the old fashioned way."
Joe helped Tommy stand up, then Salty knelt so he could mount. And they walked very carefully to the nearest d-door.
Once through the door, Joe picked him up and carried him carefully down a floor to a tiny clinic with an autodoc. The blinking controls informed users that it was set for Bio-model 3827. Joe set Tommy inside and closed the door.
Alice hovered a bit over the controls, then nodded as if she understood what they were saying. "I'd better go now. If I'm the last person out of the buildings it'll be awfully conspicuous."
Joe nodded, and sat down abruptly. "We did it, it's all over."
Alice grinned. "No. It's just beginning."
Chapter Eighteen
"Alice Steinway Brown! Do not ever frighten me like that!"
Alice frowned up at her Father. "Well, at least I had enough sense to get out of the building when the fire alarm went off."
He was even smokier than she was, having forced himself against the tide of sensibly evacuating people, to climb up five flights of stairs only to find the closet empty and her note about the bathroom. In a frenzy of parental anxiety, he'd searched the bathrooms on several floors, before he finally followed the last of the crowd down and out.
Fortunately missing Alice's quick cleanup in a bathroom, before she'd gotten out and mingled with the crowd.
Good timing; he'd found her within minutes and hauled her home. All unaware that she was nearly as smoky smelling as he was.
A quick shower while the vendo produced all new clothing identical to the old ones, and she was home free. Well, badly overdrawn. She was not going to let her father know about that, either!
Bad enough he was leaning on the wall outside the ladies' mini-spa, waiting for her.
Now all she needed to do was find Bambi and Salt.
"Pumpkin, I really need to get back to the office... "
"Just lock me in the cubby, Father. I feel a need to watch a vid, and Mom will be home in a couple of hours."
"Your wish is my command."
From the entry, she gave Lily and Eclipse a thumbs up. They were hovering at the bottom of the stairs, and ducked away as her father followed her in.
Five minutes after he was gone, Alice opened the cubby d-door to dimension five. Joe and the bio-models were within whistling range and all was right with the world.
She chickened out and didn't kiss Joe.
Lily was not so restrained, but careful to not reinjure the wounded hero. Joe snickered, and left the soldier behind as he headed home by himself.
The vid was pretty boring, compared to real action. They watched it anyway.
The d-door clicked open, and Alice jerked awake, blinked at her mother.
"Hi Honey, are you all right?"
"Umm, fine. Things got a little exciting at Father's office." Alice looked around. Bambi and the horses were all three waking up in the recliner. No sign of Lily or Tommy.
"So I heard, and you know those horses are not supposed to get up on the furniture."
"Sorry, the movie was so boring I actually fell asleep."
"Hmm, you've just started Alert, so you may need an extra booster shot. We'll have to see an autodoc about that." Her mom watched the horses sliding down the footrest of the recliner and heading for the stairs. "You do have those little rats well trained."
Alice met Bambi's gaze and sighed. "You're as bad as Father. You ought to at least get an ear adapter so you can hear them when they talk to you."
"Oh honestly, Alice. It's just conversational software on their brain implants. Now, I talked to George. He's going to be stuck in a meeting till who-knows-when, so I thought we could grab a quick snack, and later, when George gets home, go out for a fancy dinner."
Alice nodded. "Good idea."
***
"... not helped by Director Zuloft carrying on about the setback to the superstrand opticable test."
"Wow." Joe swallowed a grin. "I didn't realize those high end processors could short out and burn."
"Neither did we, and you wouldn't believe some of the other damage. Fortunately it was all localized. We'll clear it away and examine the flooring and the wiring. It may have been caused by a power spike or just ordinary wires shorting out."
"So the damage was all in a small part of the computer room, and the rest of the buildings are fine?"
"A bit smoky smelling. And there were a few odd resets to equipment. One guy says his email is cross wired to the printer, and I heard an autodoc was reprogrammed for bio-models."
Joe had had time to think, and was ready with a comeback. He snickered. "Sounds more like wistful thinking from some guys hoping any women who hopped in for a check up would come
out built like a Bambi Doll."
His dad laughed. "Could be. At any rate, I'll be working from home while they wipe down walls and shampoo carpets. Shouldn't take more than a day or two. I think our building has priority, since it got the most smoke." He faked a cough. "Couldn't have anything to do with the state director being pushy."
"Of course not." Joe grinned back. Holy Cow! We're getting away with it. "Has it put the schedule back for the superstrand test, or just increased your over-time?"
"Probably both. But I will get home and check on you regularly. Honest."
Joe grinned. "Darn! No more running amok. Anyhow, I've got some reports to finish up and then new projects to start. Did I tell you I talked to MIT about majoring in Dimensional Physics?"
"No, what did they have to say?"
"That it was currently a specialty under their Quantum Physics Major. I also looked into engineering programs, but they aren't really addressing d-doors and cubbies as anything but special cases, not needing much in the way of extra attention. I do think I'll take some engineering classes, though, while I do the Quantum Physics major."
His dad looked a bit dubious. "I don't know that there are many job openings for... Quantum Physicists specializing in d-doors."
"Oh, there will be. Trust me, there's a lot more potential in these phenomena than just affordable housing. I just hope I'm in time to be the next cutting edge." Joe grinned at his dad. The universe looks all bright and shiny today, and about five times larger and stranger than I'd realized. I wonder what will happen when the superstrand goes live? Is there another belligerent AI in Chicago, just waiting to pounce?
***
"It's not that I don't appreciate your protective instincts, Father, but yesterday was a bit wild. I'm much better off in school." Alice admired the bento box full of tempura stuff. Shrimp and miscellaneous veggies. The sushi appetizer had fallen into the "interesting" category. Cold salads are fine for dinner, so why not cold rice and fish and veggies? My revulsion is all psychological. Not to mention that it's too large for my mouth and it falls apart.