Sector Seven

by Kaden Sinclair

  With increasing malice, Faust neutered Jason, cutting off all his male organs and throwing them into a transparent tub, placed where Jason could see. The Director kept him in mindless pain most of his waking hours.

  Hoping to learn something useful, Jason guided the process of regeneration, enhancing his arms and legs so they were incredibly strong. He guided his male organs to grow back and, though he kept them a bit larger than average, he did regrow them to something more within the norm. Not the monstrous appendages he’d had, but large enough to be personally pleasing. A vanity he opted to keep.

  One time, when they left Jason crying and sobbing, reattached to the wall and head dangling as his body tried to keep him alive after the last round of torture, one of the guards broke down and began to cry. He could feel her emotions as she watched his torment. She wanted to free him somehow. Most of the guards were sickened by what they saw and mortified at the extent to which Faust continually ruined Jason’s body. Still, they could do nothing.

  He wondered just how much they knew. Probing her thoughts, Jason realized she had no idea where they were. The guards were brought to this location through a complex set of transfers, leaving them disoriented. He wanted to send her a wave of calm, of reassurance. But he knew the information generated by calming her would be useful to Faust.

  The Director appeared with meticulous regularity and he kept urging Jason to work with the guards, to manipulate them. He needed this data. Faust now understood the complex signaling that Jason used to exert self-control and keep himself stable, but most of the external control information eluded him. The most vexing was the knowledge of how to manipulate others. He wanted this last bit of information desperately, for Faust’s unending goal was to know how to dominate those around him, to exert control over everyone.

  Jason knew he had limited time, whether he gave Faust what he wanted or not. Faust surely neared the time when he would give himself the treatment, since his aging body could give out at any time. He had enough information to keep from breaking down and losing control now. His control would be imperfect, and he’d have to struggle without Jason’s innate ability, but he could learn. Given time, he would gain increasing precision. He only kept Jason alive in order to shorten this process, to afford him the instructions he needed without having to discover them unaided.

  In desperation, Jason’s mind cast about for a way out, a solution. During one of his quiet periods, he came up with an idea. He wasn’t sure how easily it would be discovered, but he knew he had to try.

  With incredible focus, Jason began the long process of understanding every communication signal in his body. He enhanced his brain to retain this information, rebuilt his mind so it could process and store vast amounts of data. He assumed he modeled himself after a Tech in some rudimentary way. His memory became perfect, and his problem-solving skills soared. Once he felt he had a good understanding and direct control over every part of himself, he enhanced his nannies, having them build more advanced versions of themselves in rapid evolution. Then he began creating organic versions of nannies, far different than those he’d been injected with, an entirely new set of technology based on a language he invented as he created them. In this way, he created a secondary set of nannies tailored to his body alone. Let Faust get stuck trying to puzzle out this data, he thought. Any data Faust managed to gather would remain incomprehensible because he lacked a frame of reference. He would need the cipher Jason had created.

  The Director noticed. He could tell how the brain enhancements worked, how Jason augmented himself to become super-human, super intelligent. But Faust could not discern the purpose for the foreign instructions as Jason built new organic nannies—not without capturing the modified communication standards Jason invented as he went along. Faust brutally questioned him regarding this missing data, but Jason refused to tell him. The two sets of nannies existed side by side, one set dormant until Jason would have the opportunity to put them to use. He also used these new organic nannies for further mental enhancements, intent on cheating Faust out of as much data as he could.

  Faust became furious when the flow of data reduced to a trickle.

  Jason learned from accessing the guards’ emotions that the Director planned to have him executed in a few days. A week at most. Jason knew Faust purposefully let this information slip to frighten Jason into showing at least some progress. Jason set about the secondary phase of his plan. He began re-writing the nannies of the guards to match his new technology. If he could replace their nannies with those Jason had created, he could control them without the knowledge getting into Faust’s hands.

  The process didn’t work, however. The nano-technology present in the guards was crude, many generations behind the enhanced set Faust had injected him with. The guard’s nannies could not understand anything more than basic instructions and could not be reprogrammed. He tried to have the nannies build newer versions of themselves, but even those instructions were too complex for them to handle.

  He began a hurried mental search for some way around this problem, his terror making him desperate. Finally, he realized he could create machines that rested on his skin, waiting to come in contact with the next person who touched him. Perhaps someone who cleaned him off, or someone who fed him.

  The newly created machines rushed to his skin, exiting through his pores in beads of sweat. He purposefully soiled himself and waited for his captors to take care of him.

  Once more, he failed. They hosed him off, washing away the nannies. Even as more swarmed to his skin while they toweled him off, he realized the guards were too meticulous. They were not allowed to directly touch him in any way. They wore gloves and discarded them after they cleaned him. Unfortunately, the nannies couldn’t move fast enough up and through the gloves to reach exposed skin before the materials were thrown into the incinerator.

  He sagged against his chains in surrender, his last hope dashed. For all his cleverness, Faust stayed one step ahead of him.

  But then he had another flash of insight. He built new versions of the nannies and had them bond with the material of his chains. Other versions fell from his body to the floor, replicating rapidly as they permeated the concrete. They used the materials around them as a resource to make more of themselves. Copying with increasing rapidity, they swarmed over the walls, over the guards. In a matter of hours, he had complete control of the room and both guards. As the guards changed shifts, they carried these new versions with them, shedding them along the way as they touched objects and other people. Like a virus, he spread his control outward onto each new surface the guards touched. He even permeated his towel, so he’d have a way of fashioning clothing from it. He had nearly perfect control over these new nannites since they were specifically attuned to him. He also increased his broadcast and receiving abilities, broadening his range.

  Hurriedly, he sent his nannies still further and soon knew his general location. By intercepting communication, Jason knew Faust had detected something was wrong. Faust’s computers were analyzing data related to Jason’s broadcasts and it had caught Faust’s attention that almost none of the enormous amount of data being recorded actually contained anything he could decipher. To Faust, this massive increase of foreign transmission must mean that Jason had devised a way to keep things secret. A team was dispatched to dispose of Jason before he could become a threat.

  He needed to buy time before they arrived and Faust discovered his escape. Jason quickly took control of the guards in the room, paralyzing them. They crumpled to the floor, even as Jason’s towel transformed into a skin-tight suit. There wasn’t enough fabric to do more until the nannies came in contact with more building material, which left him with a basic one-piece fitted suit. Jason’s chains fell away as he deteriorated the metal. He landed lightly on his feet. With inhuman speed he rushed to the door, which opened at his command.

  With knowledge of the area still incomplete, he only had a vague sense of how to escape. His nannies were still re
plicating with exponential speed, but they were too few. Nonetheless, he knew to run to the left and down the hall to the nearest elevator shaft.

  During the time he’d built his new nannites, his strength had grown. Jason tore the doors off with ease and flung himself forward, grabbing the cabling. He scaled upward rapidly, modifying his body as he went so his hands and feet took on climbing properties of a gecko. Everything he touched along the way became infused with his new nannies as he shed them. Creating so many new copies expended energy at a horrendous rate, however, and he knew he needed food. He could feel himself growing visibly more emaciated as he spread his new technology.

  As he reached the upper levels, he launched himself through another set of doors and ran into a busy office. Faust’s assassination team must have arrived at Jason’s cell because an alarm went off. His nannies confirmed that secondary security teams had been dispatched and were attempting to isolate him. He threw himself at the windows. They cracked, and he kicked hard, shattering the glass and creating an opening large enough for escape. He climbed out, his exposed hands and feet now fully capable of scaling the side of the building by adhering to it. His internal modifications continued, his vision improved, his senses heightened.

  He crawled rapidly on his hands and feet down the side of the building, even as he saw incoming enforcement vehicles flying toward him. With a leap, Jason threw himself into the air, knowing he could easily survive the six-story fall.

  He hit the concrete and his body absorbed the shock, translating up his enhanced skeleton. He began running, dodging through a startled crowd.

  Jason knew he had limited time before being recaptured. Remotely, he knew everything transpiring through his uplinks with the nannies as they reported back to him. From afar, Jason infected the security team as they entered his former prison cell. In moments, he gained control of their communication gear and tried to stop all transmissions. Unfortunately, he couldn’t shut down the alarm to Faust fast enough.

  The building he’d just dropped away from exploded, the wave of the detonation sending Jason to his knees.

  Faust knew. While he may have hoped and planned Jason would not find a way to bypass the heavily controlled technology, Faust was clever. He had clearly guessed it was possible, given Jason’s increasing level of control, along with the experiment of treating the materials in the apartment with improved nannies to see how Jason would learn to work with them. The experiment was designed to encourage changing matter, so Jason could figure out a way to create new technology on the fly. It was a risk Faust had needed to take, or he would struggle to find a way to learn how to change materials around him that were embedded with nannites.

  He must have embedded explosives in the building, having been far-sighted enough to have planned for this possibility. Still, he couldn’t destroy all the nannies, not with Jason still on the loose. If Faust knew they existed, he must also know that Jason could spread them upon contact. He’d have to capture and destroy Jason to be rid of them.

  Jason grew more exhausted each moment and could not keep manufacturing more of the microscopic swarm from his body without food. His continual output of the nannies had weakened him dangerously, but he dared not stop. His only hope was to gain enough control of an area to protect himself. He ran as fast as his new body would carry him, the people around him becoming a blur as he passed.

  But it wasn’t fast enough. Faust had immense resources at his disposal and access to the main observation and security systems in the city. He must already know Jason’s location since every camera and sensor in the city reported back to Faust.

  Jason threw himself at a street vendor, scattering the stand and the food in all directions. Quickly, he grabbed as much food as he could and crammed it into his mouth, eating ravenously, spending a precious few moments on replenishing his energy stores. Grabbing more food, he leaped over the debris and continued to eat while he ran.

  With a new burst of energy, he resumed synthesizing more of the nannies, which he dropped along the way. His only hope, before they captured him, would be to spread them far enough to give him some sort of advantage. With enough time, they would be a serious threat and Jason might be able to protect himself . . . if he wasn’t killed first.

  He burst out of an alley and into the street.

  Nine landed on the street in front of Jason, staring at him. As he’d surmised, Faust had him pinpointed.

  For a moment, he almost thought the Tech nodded to him in recognition, but he couldn’t be sure. Nine cocked his head as if listening to something. Incoming orders from the Council, Jason guessed. Nine’s emotionless face horrified Jason as a wave of commands hit him, cutting off all communication to his original nannies.

  However, the new organic versions were not encoded into the system. This loss of communication afforded him the ability to use the now inert robots for material to synthesize more of the new nannies. His new nannites began to tear down all the old ones and harvest the molecules.

  Nine confidently walked toward Jason, an odd look of regret on his face. Jason, however, took off in another direction with a burst of speed, clearly indicating he hadn’t been slowed by the Tech’s superior technology. Jason shrugged off an order for him to freeze in place, a command for his muscles to lock. Those nannies were no longer able to enforce the incoming commands. For the first time in his life, Jason imagined, Nine suffered a shock.

  Jason managed to escape the street and duck into another alley, but the surprise bought him little time. Immediately after realizing Jason had become immune to directed commands, the technology in the area, under Nine’s direction, began to hinder him and tried to force him into a corner. He burst onto another street and desperately dodged vehicles and small flying machines as they converged on him. He scrambled over cars as he ran toward a narrow opening in the obstructions, but law enforcement quickly converged, officers pouring out of hovercrafts to try to capture him. Robots of all kinds surrounded him. In a matter of moments, the combined forces cut off all chance of escape.

  His skin oozed a blackened oil-like substance as he hyper-accelerated the manufacture of his version of nano-technology. It poured out of him onto the street and onto vehicles. If he could distract his pursuers long enough, his nannies could overwhelm the area, giving him control.

  Unfortunately, they were too limited in their replication ability. Even as fast as they could build new version of themselves, they were still too tiny, and he didn’t have enough time to multiply to the extent needed. If he’d had hours, he would have been unstoppable, but with only seconds, he could not prevent recapture. Desperately, he established communication with pockets of technology as they came online from his sprint down various streets, but they were too far away to be of any use.

  Several robots seized him. Jason began to infect them out of reflex.

  Officers surrounded the area, energy weapons aimed. Nine flew in from over the top of the nearby buildings, landing deftly on the street a few dozen yards away. The robots dragged Jason toward a police hovercraft. Jason sagged in defeat.

  Without warning, the robots let him go and suddenly went limp. All nearby vehicles moved away, and the police hovercraft began to rise out of the area with no warning, startling most of the enforcement agents.

  Tarien walked toward the scene with a look of anger on his face. Jason was so shocked to see an expression of outrage on the normally stoic face of a Tech, he didn’t take advantage of his release. He stood dumbly, unsure.

  Tarien’s voice boomed. “We will not permit this. You are commanded to disband from this area immediately. Citizen Emerson has not been convicted of a crime and is being unduly harassed. Power is being abused. A warrant has not been issued, and direct orders from a Council member are not sufficient to eliminate his freedoms. We will not permit further abuses. Leave immediately, or we will be forced to defend citizen Emerson, and this may result in physical harm to anyone in violation of our command.”

  Silent communication
between Nine and Seven happened in a flash, and Nine seemed momentarily torn. Ignoring Faust, who was a full member of the Council, was difficult. He nodded in agreement with Seven and the two of them faced the gaping crowd.

  “Citizen, we will remove you from this area and carry you to safety. You are not permitted to seek your own way at this time, as it is deemed unsafe,” said Nine in his monotone voice. “You should not speak at this time.” There seemed to be some deeper warning here. Jason suspected they had set this entire exchange up. Planned this out. How had either of them arrived so quickly? Two Techs in the same location? The probability of such an occurrence was so vast as to be absurd.

  Tarien walked forward, all the vehicles moving aside for him. He enveloped Jason in his arms tenderly. “We found you,” he whispered.

  They lifted into the air and flew upward.

  Fifteen

  JASON PROCESSED THE intervention rapidly, his enhanced mind deducing the probable outcome of this reprieve. While stunned at Tarien’s interference, Jason imagined it would do little good in the end.

  “Thank you, Tarien. I don’t know what to say. You have bought me a little bit of time. Still, we both know Faust will have a warrant out for me within the hour.”

  “We will have hidden you before that occurs and will disguise the path taken to obscure the search parameters. Nine is already engaged in hindering the warrant process and One is helping him remotely. This will not last, but it will give you time to work with your new nano-technology.”

  “You know about that?”

  “Nine confirmed this immediately after you were able to refuse his commands. He purged this knew knowledge from his mind, to keep it hidden, for reasons that will become apparent later. We foresaw this possibility. We approve, though this technology must be limited.” A more human element entered his voice. “Jason, it is imperative for you to put an end to the immortality research and find a way to alter the course of Faust’s actions. Already, this technology grants the ability to cause widespread destruction. If you were not the person we have entrusted to overcome this, the Techs would despair.”