Earth Keepers

by Jorge Alejandro Lavera

  “Now what?” asked Juan Carlos.

  Damaris operated the console and informed them:

  “The transporter in Alpha just activated.”

  “They’re evacuating Alpha?” Althaea asked.

  “It’s possible...to where? Communicate with Delta,” ordered Tzedek.

  “Transporter?” asked Juan Carlos, and Tzedek gave him a quick explanation.

  MUSA

  Delta, November 28, 2027. 6:40 p.m. (7:40 a.m. Rho time)

  The underground facility was closed, and empty of people. But suddenly the equipment in the large transfer chamber started, and yellow lights warned that the devices were in operation. The large central cylinder started to turn, until it got to a certain position. The bridge lined up with one side of the cylinder, and all the energy of the nuclear fusion reaction of the installation was poured into the activation of the mechanism. The cylinder, perfectly aligned with its identical pair in Alpha, doubled its size and was transformed into a single one, at the same time that the green lights were turned on to indicated that the equipment was ready and could be used.

  The people and everything that went in one side of the cylinder in Alpha, came out on the other side just by taking a step.

  One group left through the ZSLP center near Delta, another one near Rho.

  People were crammed into the Delta transportation room. For some reason, it was smaller than Alpha’s. The transporter machine turned off while the last of Marsan’s men passed through, and when the machines turned off, they were left in absolute darkness.

  “Turn on the light or I’ll start killing everybody, bitch!” cried one of Marsan’s men, hysterically.

  “Wait, I can’t even see where I am! Nobody move, you could hurt yourself. No one has a flashlight or some kind of light?” asked Musa.

  A minute passed, then they heard a click, and a lighter was lit.

  “Hold it up for a minute,” Musa ordered, while she pushed through people towards one of the consoles. She pressed one of the panels and the lights came back to life. In the second when everyone was looking up, she took something from under the desk and hid it behind her back as she turned around.

  “We need to get out of here,” she commented.

  “After you,” spit one of Marsan’s men.

  Musa got herself oriented and headed towards one of the walls. She touched a panel, which lit up in green, and opened the exit.

  “You go first, we’ll come behind everyone, and remember who has the guns,” threatened another of the men, while two of them went behind Musa and the rest brought up the rear.

  Musa opened the doors as they went until they got to the chamber with the exit stairs, and activated the elevator.

  “The elevator works, are you sure you want to go up the stairs? There are probably thirty floors to the surface,” she asked.

  Marsan’s men looked at each other.

  “I don’t want to climb that much,” one said.

  “But we also don’t want to divide up to watch every elevator trip,” said another.

  “We won’t be much good if we’re wiped out by the time we get up there,” said the first one.

  “Let’s do this: they can go by stairs, and we’ll wait for them with our friend here. We don’t need to go with them as incentive. If one of them stays back, they’ll end up buried alive right here. Come on, open the elevator.”

  While Musa opened the elevator, Marsan’s man signaled to the hostages and ordered them:

  “Get going, start climbing.”

  The elevator doors opened. It was large, for about ten people.

  The men entered, surrounding Musa. She looked at the people starting to climb and touched a button in the elevator. The doors closed silently and they felt the jerk when it started to rise.

  A few seconds went by and the men started to stir. There were no indicators in the elevator, and it was a claustrophobic atmosphere. Musa started casually walking from one side to the other, until the men stopped paying attention to her and then she moved furtively towards the back of the cubicle. As soon as the elevator started to slow down, the men looked towards the door. Musa took advantage of the distraction to take out what she had hidden under her clothing behind her back. A sonic firearm, which she raised, and not waiting a second, shot the two men on the left. They ran towards the door and she heard the sound of broken bones. As she turned the arm towards the second group, the other men reacted, startled. They all took out their guns and pointed them at her, while she did the same. One of the men in the middle fired at the same time she did. While the man flew against the door, Musa felt the impact in her shoulder and was pushed back against the elevator wall. The delay was enough for the other men to start firing.

  She screamed when she saw that one bullet had penetrated her. She’d already had a lot of impacts that day, the most critical one at pointblank range by Marsan himself.

  There were two men left. Musa tried to aim her gun, while she heard more shots and felt them perforating her. She shot from the waist because the wound in her arm wouldn’t allow her to raise it higher. Just as the doors started to open, the last two men were crushed against them and the edges of the elevator. Musa looked at her chest and realized that the last man’s shot had hit her right in the heart. She was already bathed in blood from several of the shots, but now the blood with golden specks was squirting, as if it were a broken mechanism.

  “Damn it!” she shouted. She left the elevator, stepping on men and kicked them into the elevator, while she pushed the down button from outside the elevator. She got away from the door to watch it close and carry the men back down. If any of them were alive, they weren’t going anywhere with their broken bones and no way to authorize their exit from the elevator. She looked at her body and saw blood, but not as much as what spurted out from under the hand that she had pressed to her chest. She had no energy and too many injuries for the nanites to repair in time. She rested against the wall. If she fainted now, everyone would be locked inside. But the doors closed if no one passed through them, so she couldn’t leave them open. She thought for a moment and then put her hand on the door plate. Instead of taking it off, she said aloud, “Delta Control Center.” The plate began to flicker.

  She rested against the wall near the elevator and waited for the hostages to arrive. Blood flowed from her injuries, and the nanites couldn’t cope enough to close the holes produced by the bullets. She urgently needed pressure bandages and to replenish fluids and food, but she was alone. Her eyes felt heavy and she lost consciousness.

  The people came up helping each other. It took them more than an hour to climb up the more than thirty floors from the transport room. When they got to ground level, they found Musa’s body leaning against the wall and they rushed to see how she was. There was no trace of Marsan’s men.

  Musa’s body was cold, lying in an immense pool of golden blood. Several people went around the small space looking for an exit. Unfortunately, the controls did not respond. They were locked in and incommunicado.

  TZEDEK

  Rho, November 28, 2027. 7:40 a.m.

  After Marsan passed through the transporter, he headed towards the console, where he activated the energy for the rest of the building and turned off the cylinder. For a moment, the room was dark compared to the light of the cylinder, but in a few moments everyone’s eyes were accustomed to the normal light coming from the ceiling.

  “Good, let’s move on, with the rest of the people escorted by ours,” Marsan signaled.

  He forced Halius to open the doors, until they reached the elevator room and stairs. He instructed Halius to activate the device.

  “We have to get up to the top as soon as possible. I’m taking you two with me and you all,” he ordered, pointing out seven guards. “Everyone else, go up the stairs. If anyone lags, they’ll end up shut in here to die of hunger and thirst, understood?”

  No one said anything.

  “Get going,” he ordered, pointing to the stairs.
People started climbing up. There were three men for each hostage.

  The elevator doors opened, and Marsan went in with Halius, Nikaia, and the other men.

  A few minutes later they reached the surface, where Marsan made Halius open every door, with his men locking them in place so they wouldn’t close again. When they got to the exit, they breathed the fresh air and waited for the rest of the people to arrive.

  Almost an hour later, people started coming out of the building.

  “Now we’ll head towards the city. Don’t worry, we’re close to having rest, food, and drink,” said Marsan, when everyone had arrived and walked them towards the city. “Hide the firearms from sight but have them ready,” he ordered his men.

  When they arrived at the doors of the city, Halius activated the authorization to enter, but nothing happened.

  “We have to wait for someone to open it for us.”

  When the door finally opened, they entered by force before it had finished opening and they could be welcomed in. A young woman who had come up to receive them was surprised when Marsan grabbed her by the arm and put a pistol to her head.

  “Yes, we’re armed and no, we’re not going to leave them. Now, take us to the Center, please.”

  He signaled to four of his men and ordered them:

  “You, you see that antenna up there? Go up there right now, dismantle the base plate and disconnect the cables. Don’t break anything, we’ll need to rearm it later.”

  “Yes, sir,” said the men and ran to disarm the antenna, while Marsan and everyone else headed towards the center.

  When they got to the Tower, Marsan hid behind the other Atlanteans, and made sure the cameras got them clearly. Then they entered the building and distributed his men efficiently to subdue all the personnel. They went floor by floor, disarming people and closing them into the sections where they found them.

  His men went along opening doors, using Halius when they needed him. When they opened Damaris’ apartment, Marsan saw Sofía, and turned white as a sheet. He stumbled back.

  “Gea. How?”

  Sofía got up and Marsan could see her better, which made him recover a little.

  “You’re not Gea, but what...”

  “I’m Sofía, you’ve confused me with someone else.”

  “Yes, I see that. You’re just a human child. You’ll stay here until we’ve got control of everything. You’d best cooperate if you don’t want to lose your life.”

  He left the Control Center for last. When he went through the high tech lab, he made Halius open the door one more time. He found various technicians and Raquel dressed in a white coat. Pointing to her, he asked:

  “You, are you in charge of developing the nanites for the humans?”

  “What’s going on here?”

  “You’ll come with me,” he threatened, pointing his firearm at her head. He pushed away the girl he had and grabbed the doctor by her neck.

  “I still can’t communicate with Delta. There’s a big group of people walking down the main street, they’re getting ready to enter the building,” Althaea reported.

  “Is it the people from Alpha? How strange that they didn’t communicate first,” Tzedek commented.

  Althaea turned the cameras.

  “Halius and Nikaia are in front, there aren’t many people, but quite a few considering they suffered a direct impact. They’ll be here in a minute.”

  When the door to the Control Center opened, the first to enter was Halius with Nikaia at his side. Tzedek broke out in a big smile, and headed to the door saying:

  “I’m so happy to see you well!”

  When he saw another person pushing them from one side, and that that person was Marsan, the surprise kept him from reacting. Marsan had Raquel by the arm, and behind them were other people. Tzedek said incredulously:

  “Marsan? But how...” Marsan pulled out a short shotgun that he had hidden behind him, raised it and fired all in one movement, pointing at Tzedek’s head from less than six feet away.

  Nanites had a certain power of armor, but they could only resist impacts of a certain caliber and intensity and needed a proportionate amount of time to recharge. Tzedek’s hadn’t had time to completely recharge after the failed attempt by Norberto Almeida, since he had hardly slept. His nanites had been depleted to the limit in stopping the shots from the hitman.

  Before Tzedek could even understand what was happening, his head exploded. Pieces of brain, skull, and hair flew in all directions, splashing the nearby wall and the ground around it. His body fell to the ground an instant later, forming a lake of golden blood underneath him.

  Marsan was surprised for a second, but then smiled, threw the shotgun on the ground, and pulled a pistol from his waist. Althaea screamed in pure horror. Juan Carlos also gasped in shock and instinctively began to move forward at the same that Althaea did, but Marsan pulled Raquel’s arm and moved her in front of him, putting his gun to her temple.

  “Stay where you are or there will be more blood on the floor,” Marsan threatened.

  Juan Carlos and Althaea froze where they were. More armed people moved into the Control Center and took Halius and the other Atlanteans.

  INCOMMUNICADO

  Delta, November 28, 2027. 7:30 p.m. (8:30 Rho time)

  Niobe was operating the control console of the city when a signal caught his attention.

  “Ponteus, look at this,” he alerted him.

  “What am I looking at?”

  “It...looks like a call for attention, like they want to communicate, but it isn’t a communication console. It’s strange...” He got uneasy, checking data in the system. “It isn’t in the city, this is coming from the outskirts, like a couple of miles to the west. Isn’t that where the reactor is?”

  “That’s the ZSLP center,” Apollo noted.

  “Don’t we have cameras in that sector? Hmm, there’s no image, another strange thing,” Ponteus pondered. Someone was trying to communicate from inside of the complex. Only an Atlantean could have got to that point. At the same time, they could have accessed the communication console, instead of sending out a call. No one could have arrived there without authorization, unless they used explosives to blow up all the intermediate doors from the entrance on, but in that case, sensors would have detected the attack. Whoever it was had got there peacefully and that could only mean an Atlantean. He concluded that only someone who had transported from Alpha could have sent that signal. Could they be badly wounded?

  “Niobe, communicate with Rho, ask if they know anything about this.”

  “About that...there was also a call from Rho a few minutes ago, but when I went to answer there was no response, and now...it’s like they’re not connected.”

  Ponteus got serious and frowned. He looked at Niobe and Apollo.

  “Apollo, get to the ZSLP quick and take ten armed guards. And please, be careful. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like this.”

  Apollo and the contingent of guards headed towards Delta’s ZSLP in two automated vehicles. They arrived at the location and Apollo started opening doors while the guards placed themselves strategically. There were lights on, but no signs of life, until they got to the descent room. When they opened the door, Apollo found a crowd, stale air, blood everywhere and a body covered with coats in a corner.

  “Oh, finally,” exclaimed one of the people, and came up to Apollo.

  “Stop right there,” shouted one of the guards raising his firearm.

  “What happened here? Who is that?” Apollo asked, pointing to the body.

  “Some men revolted in Alpha,” explained the person who’d spoken before. “They threatened us with firearms and made us come here, killing anyone who resisted. I think that she fought with the ones who came here. I don’t know where the rest of them are but they didn’t come with us and there were a lot of them.”

  Apollo approached the body apprehensively and lifted the jacket that covered the face. When he saw it was Musa, he un
covered her and checked her over, but he understood that she was dead. He lowered his head, covered his face with his hands, and then shouted in fury.

  He returned to his men and his rage made everyone back up a little.

  “Who killed her?” he said with ice in his voice.

  “The men of that guy Marsan...I think they fought in the elevator,” explained the subject.

  “This one?” he said, activating it. “And what do you mean, Marsan’s men? That’s what they said they were?”

  “Yes, they followed him and obeyed him completely,” affirmed the man.

  “Who?”

  “The guy who was tall and young like you, who called himself Marsan.”

  Apollo turned white for a second.

  Just then, the elevator doors opened. One of the bodies fell out.

  “Wow, she took on those six armed guys,” said one man, admiringly.

  Apollo entered the elevator and confirmed it was true, all six were dead.

  He ran to a communications console.

  “Ponteus, it’s best if you communicate immediately with Rho. Musa is dead, there are a ton of human survivors from Alpha here and they say she died defending them from a group of armed men that she eliminated. From what the witnesses say, the rest of the armed men have gone towards Rho. We have to warn them.”

  “We can’t communicate with Rho. I’m afraid something is happening...send the survivors towards the city, I’ll be sending you some of our men so you can head to Rho from there,” Ponteus answered him.

  Apollo thought about telling him about Marsan, but thought he wouldn’t believe him if he didn’t tell him in person.

  “Agreed.” He signed off. He had the people go outside, where it was getting dark, and when he had counted them, used his gadget to call for enough vehicles to take them to the city. It took a few minutes, and as they arrived, he sent people in groups of six to the city. The vehicles that arrived brought armed guards sent by Ponteus.