Exile: Arc

by Jack Lance

  There was a circular pit at the other side of the hexagonal floor, and a matching hole above it. Barton moved to it and took a box with two punch buttons hanging on a long wire from the ceiling.

  Bailey could hear a groaning of metal from above and then a thick grated platform was lowered on chains from the hole in the ceiling. It stopped in the hole in the floor and the couple walked through a gap in the thin pole fencing around its edge. Bailey followed and then Barton pressed the top button on a similar box atop a pole attached to the elevator.

  The chain tugged and pulled the grated industrial elevator up, fitting neatly into and up through the circular shaft in the ceiling.

  As the elevator began to accelerate upward, Cix raised her voice “We’re going to introduce you to the prison defences. You’ll be working with the team in charge of hacking and disabling them.”

  “This is one of the few views out of the colony wall. It’s a nature observation tower we think was used by the original scientists that lived here, before the ice age.” Barton spoke.

  Ice age?

  Bailey looked upward seeing light from above, and feeling the cold winds intensify.

  “The ice age?” Bailey asked.

  Cix said “Yeah. The colony used to be a Cequodus science outpost during the first colonization era. Narcosia was a prehistoric planet, but like most planets in that era it suffered a bombardment of meteors. Star nursery leftovers on a cosmic timer returning or some such. The planet was thrust into an ice age and so the colony was converted to this.”

  She gestured toward the colony behind them, and Bailey felt a tinge of sadness.

  “Goggles.” Barton shouted, as the cold winds intensified, and handed them both a pair. Bailey put his on and hugged against the harsh bite of the swirling draft.

  The elevator slid to the top, and stopped within the observation room looking out onto the snowy landscape, through narrow slits encircling them.

  There was no storm outside but the winds were savage and fierce. The view beyond was clear, with a full view of the atmosphere beyond the prison wall.

  Through two of the narrow slits could only be seen a rock face leading upward, but at the other three could be seen greater distances. One looked out over the same rock face from a side angle, showing how it led down to an outcropping and series of hangars. There were lights down there denoting robot activity in the area. From the other two, beyond a short ledge of rock could be seen a massive expanse of undisturbed snow reaching off into the misty distance.

  The Citadels aren’t there?

  Through each slit a strange slogan could be easily read. Through the two blocked by the rock face, the words were scribbled in red paint and easy to read across the rock. The Citadels aren’t there. Through the slit looking down over the hangars, the words were painted on the side of the first hangar, clear as day. Lastly, though the two slits looking out over the wide flat of white, the words could be seen at a distance, scribbled on a huge wooden sign, much like an old sign from the pre industrial period. It had been stabbed into the snow a few miles out, and had been blown slightly askew in the time it had stood there. It echoed mockery. The Citadels aren’t there.

  “Citadels?” Bailey asked.

  “Slow down.” Cix said. “Well explain all that we can.”

  Barton had opened the control box and was switching a pin from one resistor to another that looked like an earth. A single fat spark flew out as the connection was made and the box was closed. Barton pushed the button to go back down and the elevator dropped back along the shaft. It slowed and stopped just before the opening in the hall roof. To the side, in the direction of the hangars, a tall metal panel sat in the wall of the shaft.

  Barton unclipped the handle and opened it, revealing a tunnel through the rock, ending at an opening to the outer environment.

  “This way.” Barton said, and began crawling on his knees through the tunnel. Cix followed then Bailey.

  Ahead, Barton reached a round, glass hatch that snapped open forcefully at the press of a switch. It was the last door before the outer world of the planet and Bailey followed them out into the grip of it's brutal weather.

  They emerged from the hole on the outside, and he found himself looking down the slope of a snow covered hill, that led to the gangway between the sealed hangars.

  Barton pulled him down by his sleeve and said "Stay low."

  Bailey followed the couple as they crouched behind a low ridge of rock and headed away from the round doorway.

  Looking around he saw how the observation tower had been built into a protruding shape of rock that was part of a taller cliff face. The pasty white walls of the dome towered miles higher to the left and right, just beyond the top of it.

  Bailey saw Barton smiling as he watched him try to weigh up the outer topography.

  “The base of the dome is just beyond that cliff. We’re at the perimeter of the colony. Don’t worry, they can’t see us down here.” Barton said, then began crawling in the opposite direction, toward what looked like another cliff face falling far down to the flat expanse and the weird sign. “You’ll see more around this way. Stay out of sight of those buildings.”

  Bailey followed them along to the edge of the cliff, and then around the base of the tall rock tower. As they moved to the other side of it they lost sight of the buildings and stood up.

  From here the cliffs merged into one, and far along could be seen a huge outflowing pipe, spewing the leftovers of the recycling process down into the misty places far below.

  “God, it’s cold!” Bailey hissed, trying not to look at the cliff edge.

  “Look.” Barton said, and walked cautiously back the way they had come.

  Bailey looked around the side of the rock wall at the hangars, catching sight of a shorter tower close by, caked in snow, with an arm and ear radar spinning slowly atop. There was a robot standing sentry at its base, close to a box that would probably be used to interface its firmware. It held before it a huge rifle topped by a long, jagged bayonet.

  Gently ushering Bailey back out of sight, Barton said “This is where we can access the solar grid. If we can set up an override in that radar, it can be used to send the signals needed to spoof commands from the Citadels.”

  “The Citadels that aren’t there?” Bailey smirked.

  “The Citadels most certainly are there.” Barton said. “There are a few things you should know.”

  Barton went on “For years we had no comprehension of who was in command of this colony. We assumed it was all run robotically or perhaps from the weather station in orbit. You can’t see the station right now, but it’s clear most nights. But even the station is robot-run, according to our experts. Seventeen years ago there was a rumour put around by a new exile, who had worked in the inner command circles of the Cequodus military, that when the research colony was converted to a prison, there had been three citadels built in the center of the crater.”

  Barton gestured at the wide expanse of snow. The sign still signalled its creepy message.

  The dome is built within a crater. Interesting…

  “The citadels were cloaked to invisible, so he said, and a smaller colony of guards posted permanently within.” Barton said, stopping to take a breath in the thin air.

  Bailey digested this and looked out over the gigantic crater, the other side of which could not be seen. His eyes caught sight of a strange shape in the distance, wondering momentarily if it were a citadel or something related. Looking at it further he saw it was another dome, miles to the fogged distance.

  Pointing to it Bailey said “Another dome? Here within the crater?”

  “That’s right.” Cix said. “As far as we know there are only two, but there is a third smaller dome in the opposite direction. That, we are told reliably is the robot center of the prison. It’s all coordinated from there. You can’t see it today, but on a really clear day you can see it with a telescope from the tower.”

  “What about that?” Bail
ey pointed at the crooked sign post. “The Citadels aren’t there?”

  “Shortly after the rumour of the citadels began, this slogan began appearing all over the prison. At first we thought it must be a new cult or a gang of kids. Surveillance cameras would go offline, miss whoever did it, and then we found it painted on the outside of the dome, in places inaccessible by anyone. It became apparent that we were dealing with something... else. We think it must be something robotic, programmed by those living in the citadels. But to what ends? We don't know.”

  “How can you be sure there are citadels?” Bailey said. “Maybe they aren’t there after all.”

  Barton smiled and walked past him toward the cliff edge. From his back pack he brought two stands, placing one at one point and the other a few meters along. He knelt beside it and pressed a control.

  A line of holographic light reached from it to the other stand, and a screen reached up from the line. It was transparent, colouring the view beyond a dark blue.

  Barton stepped back beside the other two and they looked up at the landscape, and three tall buildings, the citadels reaching up out of it. They stood miles high merging into the slow rolling clouds above.

  Barton walked back toward the screen, and pointed up to the citadels.

  “Centuries of redesign and planning has developed layer upon layer of security systems for this dome. Many minds create one mind, but the same applies to us. We have stripped away that layering, and are now ready to break free.” Barton latticed his fingers, staring intensely at him. “And there’s one last thing.”

  Barton reached inside his backpack, and produced a dark grey human skull. He threw the skull and Bailey caught it. It looked as if it had been burnt.

  Barton continued “This was found in the waste system, at a point we found flows from the citadels. They mustn’t have recycling facilities at their side, so food and water is no doubt sent to them through pipes, and their waste sent here for reprocessing. This is the skull of a man who disappeared a few months back. He is one of many that have disappeared. We believe they are kidnapping, and killing them.”

  “The families up there, how many generations are between them?” Bailey asked.

  Cix gulped and said “Not many.”

  “And you’re suggesting they cooked and ate this person?” Bailey gestured with the skull, grimacing. “The guy’s fried…”

  “We don’t know. We’re telling you all that we know.” Barton said.

  “Lording over you all these centuries, up there all alone? They could be completely insane. Nice...” Bailey said, failing to see the irony. “It’s hard to believe they haven’t been removed from their position.”

  “What do Cequodus care if they keep doing their jobs?” Cix said. “They are hackers just like you. They reprogram the robots to be stronger every year.”

  Bailey looked up at the towering buildings, standing in the snow far beyond the contradictory sign.

  Barton turned off the screen and gathered the stands.

  “Let’s go back now. You’ve yet to meet your team. They should be more on your wavelength.” Barton said, and crawled back around the rock face.

  They crouched along the ridge out of sight of the robot sentries, and on reaching the tunnel to the elevator, Barton tapped Baileys shoulder and said “One last thing.”

  Barton took a large rock and stood up in sight of the robot at the radar. He threw the rock, as the robot readied its rifle. Bailey watched the rock sail down and strike it on its flickering head. Immediately it aimed the rifle at them and sprayed the other side of the ridge with plasma shots. Snow kicked up high into the air over them, as Bailey held his hands over his ears and crouched down out of sight.

  He felt a powerful hand grab his coat and pull him into the tunnel.

  “Don’t freeze up.” Barton said, an inch away from his face.

  They sat cramped in the rock tunnel as the footsteps, metal on rock, approached up the face of the hill. The lights came, and then the robot stopped just beyond the ridge, looking left and right as if they weren’t in plain view.

  “As long as we’re within the borders of the colony, it won’t attack.” Cix whispered.

  “Is that what you wanted to show me?” Bailey said, as the robot walked back the way it had come.

  “No. Wait.” Cix said, and so they waited. Bailey, being the closest to the end of the tunnel had a wider view over the hangars and what looked like the top of a weather rocket beyond them. It was white with red and blue stripes spiralling down over it.

  Are they really thinking of getting off the planet in that?

  “Hmmn.” Bailey said concerned.

  Just then, a large black vehicle emerged from beyond the cliff face, flying up around the rocket and encircling the hangars with incredible agility. It had two archaic helicopter propellers reaching up from its wings, that angled as the body itself twisted slightly with its every movement. It looked to be a living creature but for the fact that it was clearly robotic. Massive bays of chain guns and missiles hung below it.

  “There’s our real problem.” Barton said. “We call it the Heletank. A work-horse artificial intelligence completely independent of the robotic grid. Un-networked so we can’t hack it.”

  “Shit.” Bailey said, watching it.

  The massive AI shone alternating colours of flood lamps around the hangars and observation tower, screeching a hideous siren in frustration as it searched for whoever had hurled the rock.

  “Let’s get back before it sees us.” Barton pulled at Bailey’s coat. “I’m not so sure that it won’t attack.”

  Bailey closed the hatch, and then followed them through the tunnel. They dropped back onto the elevator, and shook the caked snow from their coats to the metal grating.

  “We think it comes from the robot dome, but we don’t know for sure. It could come from the citadels for all we know.” Cix said, shaking her head side to side, having caught some snow flakes in her length of white hair.

  Barton lit a cigarette before changing the wires back to normal in the control box. He pressed the down button twice and the elevator slid down into the hexagonal hall and directly on into the floor.

  The shaft continued deep down into the rock until finally the walls became plastic and portholes showed that they were underwater. The water was a tanned colour from what looked to be soil or biomatter.

  “We’re in an underground lake.” Barton said “It’s the waste water from the biosphere. We’ve commandeered one of the recycling plants on the lake bed. The terminals in the plant are connected to certain networks we need to access… or something. This is where you and your team take over, I’m afraid.”

  The tunnel suddenly moved through a dark stretch and then they emerged in a room completely surrounded by clear walls. Like a glass hut on the bed of the lake, with the damp, rocky floor of the room covered flat by metal grating. Through the clear roof could be seen the tidal eb and flow of muddy water, and long illuminous eels higher up that looked as though they belonged in some deep ocean trench on their homeworld.

  The water was flowing all around the outside of the walls, thick with bits of wood and insect that had washed down from the upper dome. There was obviously plenty to recycle, since a colony such as this wouldn’t wish to waste organic matter. He noticed vaguely a group of short eels fighting in frenzy over a piece of fish.

  Bailey looked around at the laboratory interior, and the men and women in lab coats running here and there between terminals.

  One of the men, noticing their arrival shouted out “Ahh! A new addition to our order!”

  He ran up steps from the lab to their level, and Barton introduced him.

  “Bailey this is Lloyd Oric, team leader. Lloyd, this is the big hacker we promised, Aaron Bailey.”

  “Welcome comrade!” Lloyd yelled and held a hand to Bailey, who shook it, a little disorientated.

  “Let me introduce you to our mission.” the geeky scientist took Bailey by the wrist and practi
cally dragged him down the steps to the lab.

  He moved around the outside from terminal to terminal showing him what systems each member of the team were working on.

  “And this is the primary system dealing with the robotic ability to call for assistance. If we succeed in severing this link we can localize the alert during the break.” Lloyd spat in his toothy way. “Simply put, we here seek to sever all connection with the outside world from the specific areas utilized within the escape plan. Although we aren’t privy to the other teams work, and rightly so given the failures of security in previous escape attempts, we possess all the data required to bring our tasks to completion. Any questions?”

  Lloyd leaned at Bailey smiling slightly

  “How come it’s taking so long?” Bailey shrugged. “You have the connections by the look of it. Why not install the programs on standby?”

  “We have encountered a number of unanticipated hurdles.” he confessed.

  “Hurdles?” Bailey tried not to smile.

  “There are gaps in our understanding of the requirements to spoof such commands to the robotic mainframe.” he nodded.

  “Can I take a little look?” Bailed asked laconically, and Lloyd began walking him to an unused computer terminal, that could have been Lloyd’s.

  “I do admit that we could do with a few pointers.” said Lloyd. “This particular terminal has been set up to deal with security surrounding the weather rocket…”

  Oh dear.

  Lloyd went on “I hypothesize that a source signal spoofed to come from the citadels…”

  “No.” Bailey interrupted, and leant down to work on the computer. “They will only take command from the robotic center, which I’m told is another dome. If we can take a sample signal from that dome… Ah I see you have a couple. Well with that sample you can recalculate the key to the signal and then simply encode each signal with the key. Normal this would take a long time but luckily I can do the calculations myself. Looks like it’s in the 600 range so that’s…. tsk-tsk-tsk…”