Mech 2

by Isaac Hooke

  Still, he was a bit leery of even attempting the access attempt, because it was possible it could alert whatever AI was in charge of the Pyramid Palace, especially if the attempt failed.

  But it turned out he didn’t have to try the kit:

  The door suddenly opened of its own accord.

  Rade stepped back, pushing Shaw behind him and out of the way.

  A robot on treads entered, carrying a wagon full of fuel tanks.

  Rade waited for the robot to pass, and before the hatch sealed, he and Shaw entered.

  “Stay right behind me,” he told her. “Literally.”

  “I intend to,” she said.

  He slowly made his way forward, and kept an eye on his rearview camera feed to ensure Shaw didn’t stray far from the cover of his jumpsuit.

  The hall around them was rather plain: a concrete-floored, rectangular-walled, white-painted affair that might be classified as a service corridor in an office building or mall. Harsh LED lights shone from the ceiling.

  “I noticed there are no surveillance camera positions marked on your blueprints,” Shaw transmitted.

  “No, there aren’t,” he agreed.

  “Is that because cameras aren’t actually present?” she asked. “Or they’re just not indicated?”

  “The latter,” he replied.

  She continued walking in silence for a few moments, and then said: “Most security cameras are multidirectional. I’ll be spotted as we pass by. And we can’t just switch places. The detection algorithms in surveillance cameras are programmed to pick up even small discrepancies in the feed: they’ll sound the alarm if even a small part of me becomes visible.”

  “I realize that,” Rade said, gazing at different areas on his overhead map. “Which is why I’m looking for a place you can hide, while I continue on ahead to free Nicolas. I’ll come back for you on the way out.”

  “Well, if that’s what you wanted to do, I could have stayed in the hangar bay,” Shaw said.

  “No,” he told her. “Too busy, and too many robots. You’d have been spotted eventually.”

  She didn’t answer immediately, giving him the impression that she was frustrated.

  “And here I thought you weren’t going to abandon me,” she commented finally.

  He was torn enough as it was, and hearing those words only furthered his emotional turmoil. On the one hand he didn’t want to abandon her, but on the other, she couldn’t really come along, not here. Still, the big question was: would she be safe if he left her alone?

  Yes. She was capable of taking care of herself… she had survived alone on a planet eight thousand lightyears from home, after all.

  Yes, she would be all right.

  “I’m not abandoning you,” he said. “But you said it yourself, there’s no way you’ll be able to sneak by the security cameras, considering we don’t even know where they are.”

  “I guess it’s not like I’d have to hide for more than a couple of hours anyway, right?” she said.

  “I don’t know,” he told her honestly. “It depends on how secure this prison is.”

  “Doesn’t seem very secure so far,” she said dryly.

  “That’s because we haven’t reached it yet,” Rade said. “We’re still officially in the hangar bay support wing. There are some rooms up ahead. Some of them look like storage closets. Those might work perfectly for a hiding place.”

  He reached the rooms in question. Doors sealed off access to each one of them. None of them had handles, and they were all accessed by remote interfaces, which would probably require a hack attempt. He was still a bit leery to make such an attempt, not wanting to alert the palace AI. The doors did have keypads for manual entry, but those were useless to him without access codes.

  He spotted three equally spaced doors ahead that lacked the keypads of the other doors, which gave him hope that they were unlocked. He did a quick check for remote interfaces as he approached, but there were none: a good sign.

  He reached the first door. It had a label in Chinese. He glanced at the other two doors, which were similarly labelled. His Implant translated them into something readable immediately.

  He couldn’t conceal his disappointment as he sent Shaw: “Toilets.”

  “For robots?” Shaw said. “So far we haven’t seen any personnel.”

  “Obviously there are some nearby,” Rade said. “Maybe behind these other doors.”

  An alarm suddenly sounded.

  24

  “Shit.” Rade glanced at the ceiling. He assumed Shaw had been spotted by a hidden surveillance camera.

  “Is that for us?” Shaw asked.

  “Has to be.” Rade shoved open one of the bathroom doors—wasn’t locked, as expected—and pulled Shaw inside.

  His eyes darted about as he quickly took in his new surroundings. Tiled floor. Metal sink set in front of a mirror. Two bathroom stalls.

  He hesitated a moment. It was possible he was wrong, and they hadn’t been spotted. Maybe he was hearing a scheduled alarm test.

  No, best to err on the side of caution.

  With his exo-enhanced strength, he ripped away the metal framework of one of the bathroom stalls and rammed it between the sink counter and the door, blocking access to the room.

  A Sino Korean happened to be taking a dump inside that stall. He stood squatting over one of those standing, porcelain-style toilets that were little more than glorified holes in the ground.

  Now that he was exposed, he quickly stood up and covered his bare crotch. He struggled with one hand to pull up his pants, which were now too low for him to reach. With that grimy shop shirt and those oil-blackened fingers, he looked like a mechanic of some kind.

  Unarmed.

  “Don’t kill me!” he was saying in Korean Chinese, according to Rade’s Implant. “Don’t kill me!”

  “I don’t know what’s more disgusting,” Shaw said. “The man, or the toilet he’s squatting over.”

  “I’d say they’re about equal in the disgust department,” Rade said.

  Pounding came at the door. A muted series of Sino Korean syllables came from the other side, too fast and unintelligible for Rade’s Implant to translate.

  Well, at least he hadn’t torn down the stall for nothing. They had been spotted.

  His gaze drifted to the ceiling, where earlier he had spotted a ventilation grill near the wall. He leaped onto the sink countertop, and pulled Shaw up beside him. With a quick punch from his glove, he poked a hole in the grill, and peeled it back.

  He glanced at the Sino Korean tech: “Stay away from that door. If you try to clear the blockage, I’m coming back for you.” His helmet speakers translated the words into Korean-Chinese.

  Obviously frightened, the man nodded hastily. “I’ll stay away!”

  Rade lifted Shaw up and gave her a boost inside.

  The knocking on the door became loud thuds, and he saw indentions appearing.

  Rade quickly pulled himself in after her.

  A long, daunting metal shaft proceeded into the distance, quickly growing dark.

  “Go!” he told her.

  Rade activated his headlamps and lowered his laser rifle so that he had it in one hand while he crawled on hands and knees after Shaw through the ventilation shaft. He was careful to keep the weapon pointed backward, away from her.

  He glanced at his overhead map. None of the ventilation shafts were marked, so according to the data, he was traveling in a black area between the hallways and rooms. That area slowly filled out with a rectangular tunnel as his Implant mapped their progress.

  He kept glancing over his shoulder, looking for signs of pursuit. The thudding on the door grew distant.

  As he rounded a bend, all light from behind him cut off so that the only illumination was from his headlamp.

  “Are you able to breath all right?” he asked Shaw. He wouldn’t know, since he kept his jumpsuit sealed.

  “The air’s breathable,” she agreed.

  He heard
a soft clattering sound behind him, coming from around the bend he’d just vacated.

  “Something’s coming,” Rade said.

  That clattering grew louder and seemed to be accompanied by an eerie chittering.

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Shaw said.

  “You and me both,” he said. “Faster!”

  She picked up the pace.

  They reached another shaft and took it. The clattering sound continued to grow in volume behind him.

  Shaw paused.

  “What is it?” he said.

  “The shaft branches down here,” she said. “Should I descend?”

  Rade glanced at his overhead map. He looked past the black areas ahead and below, to the rooms beyond. The vents weren’t marked, unfortunately, so he wasn’t quite sure where the closest one was. The hallway on the floor below did seem to pass closer to the black area, so he guessed there might be a vent somewhere along that route.

  So he said: “Yes, descend.”

  Shaw was about to lower herself when he told her: “Wait. I’ll go first. In case you lose your footing, so I can catch you. Plus, I’m guessing the walls are fairly slippery. You’re going to need me to make a few hand and footholds.”

  “Go ahead,” Shaw said, pulling herself over the pit to the other side.

  Rade slid the rifle over his shoulder, lowered himself into the opening, and then slammed his toes experimentally into the wall of the shaft below him, confirming that he could make footholds. Then he lowered his feet even farther, so that his arms were outstretched above him, and made more footholds. He released one hand above him, and crunched his strength-enhanced glove into the metal to form a handhold. He slowly let go with his other hand, testing that the handhold could carry his weight, and then formed another close beside it with his free hand.

  He continued downward, creating new holds as he went. He cringed at the din: if the SKs didn’t know where he and Shaw were before, they certainly did now, with all the noise he was making.

  Meanwhile, above him, Shaw lowered herself into the opening and slid her feet into the footholds he had formed. She glanced over her shoulder before descending beneath the upper edge of the shaft.

  “I see them,” she said.

  Rade attempted to access her viewpoint via the remote interface of her Implant, and she gave him access. He could see the robotic shapes scurrying into view as they rounded the bend and entered the limited light that reflected up from his headlamp. They were some kind of searcher bots, spiderish in shape, with small pincers serving as forelimbs, and scissor-like mandibles. He realized the chittering he heard was echolocation.

  He realized that they sounded closer than they actually were: it was an illusion, thanks to the acoustics of the shaft. The nearest searcher bot was still about twenty-five meters away, well down the shaft. Based on its speed, it wouldn’t reach the downward passage for another forty-five seconds.

  Still, that didn’t mean Rade and Shaw could dally.

  “I don’t think I’d like to have those mandibles touching me…” Shaw said.

  “Could be painful,” Rade agreed. “Let’s go!” He dismissed her viewpoint, and moved downward more quickly.

  Above him, Shaw carefully placed her fingers and boots into the holds he had left behind, and lowered herself after him.

  “Fuck!” Shaw said suddenly.

  “What is it?” he asked, looking up. He was worried one of those robots had attacked, but he didn’t see any…

  “Cut myself,” she said. “You’re leaving sharp edges on some of these handholds of yours.”

  “Sorry,” he said, continuing his downward descent. “I’ll try not to break the surface, but it’s tricky.”

  “No doubt,” she said. “But if I slip and fall on you because my hands are too bloody to get a grip, I hope you understand.”

  “Get a grip, Shaw,” he mocked.

  “Funny,” she said.

  He gazed down, and spotted the bottom of the shaft just below. It ended in an L-shaped turn.

  He reached the shaft floor and pulled himself into the turn beyond.

  He pressed himself against the wall when Shaw arrived, making room for her to go by.

  “Get in front of me,” Rade said.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked. “Shoot them?”

  “There’s too many for that,” he said. “I have a jumpsuit. You don’t. Now get in front of me.”

  Shaw obeyed, and pulled herself into the shaft ahead of him.

  He followed after her. After crawling about fifteen meters, he began to hear plinks behind him. His headlamps faced forward, which made his rearview camera relatively useless at the moment, so instead he glanced over his shoulder, toward the L-shaped rise they’d left behind. He could see the searcher robots dropping to the bottom of the shaft behind him.

  He lay down and held his rifle vertically across his body. Aiming through the scope, he picked off a few of them, but more kept falling, quickly overwhelming his aim.

  He spun back around and maxed out his jumpsuit servomotors to catch up with Shaw.

  “Can you go any faster?” he asked.

  “I’m crawling as fast as I can already,” she replied.

  According to the map, there was a hallway just below. But so far, no vents.

  The shaft turned away from the hall, and they reached another downward shaft. He checked his map for the closer rooms and hallways again, but before he could make up his mind, the clattering seemed to spike in volume.

  “Up ahead!” Shaw said.

  He gazed down the forward passage, and the cone from his headlamp illuminated a passageway crowded with more of those searcher bots.

  “Down we go!” Rade said.

  She edged forward, making room for him, and he led the way down, making handholds and footholds as before.

  He punctured his glove at one point, when he accidentally broke through the metal with his fingers, forming sharp edges.

  Rade used his HUD interface to open up his helmet faceplate at that point, because his suit lost pressurization.

  “Careful on this one,” Rade said, highlight it on his HUD. “You’ll cut yourself.”

  He reached the bottom, which was a T intersection, and pulled himself into the forward branch. He squeezed to the side to make room for her, and when she joined him, she squeezed past.

  “Well hello,” she said, glancing into his helmet as she passed. She shielded her eyes from the headlamp. “I finally get to see your face again.”

  Rade smiled. “Miss it?”

  She snorted, and led the way.

  There still weren’t any vents. Plinks came from behind them as the pursuing robots leaped down to this level.

  Rade was considering trying to smash his way through to one of the adjacent rooms or hallways, when they reached another branch, four way.

  “Got more noises here,” Shaw said. “Not sure which direction.”

  She pulled ahead. Rade glanced to the left and right with his headlamp, and spotted searcher robots in either passage. Ahead seemed clear.

  “Continue forward,” Rade said.

  More of those robots continued to arrive, and Rade and Shaw diverted down side passages and descents to avoid them.

  “It’s almost like they’re herding us,” Shaw said at one point.

  “Maybe,” Rade said. “But to where?” He glanced at the map. They seemed to be growing ever closer to the center of the pyramid, where the Paramount Leader’s throne room awaited.

  Finally, they arrived at a vent. Looking though the grill, he could see a carpeted hall. According to the map, it belonged to a service hallway next to the throne room. Assuming the map was right, and that his internal accelerometer had correctly updated his position.

  Searcher robots were close behind them. Ahead, more bots appeared.

  “It seems the palace AI wants us to take this vent,” Shaw said.

  “Apparently so,” Rade said.

  Rade punched hi
s exoskeleton through the vent, and peeled it open. He gazed out, peering in both directions. He saw white painted walls, a red carpet, but otherwise no furniture, or occupants.

  “Strangely, it’s empty,” Rade said.

  “Want me to go first?” Shaw asked.

  “No, I’ll go.” He pulled himself through and leaped down. He slid his laser rifle into hand and rapidly scanned every direction.

  No one appeared to attack him.

  He slid the rifle over his shoulder and beckoned toward Shaw. She lowered herself, and he grabbed her legs to bring her to the floor.

  He let her go, stood up straight, and slid the rifle down from his shoulder once more. Then he led her away from the open vent in the ceiling, moving down the service corridor away from the throne room.

  Rade heard the clang of metal ahead, as of combat robots approaching. He aimed his laser rifle at an intersection ahead, and dropped to a crouch. Shaw meanwhile flattened herself onto the rug beside him, as there wasn’t anything to hide behind in that empty corridor.

  Rifles appeared at the end of the corridor. Rade fired immediately, and the rifles pulled out of view.

  “Rade,” Shaw said.

  He glanced at her.

  She nodded at his jumpsuit.

  Looking down, he saw the red dots of several laser sights on his chest assembly. Those dots seemed to float in space, because his suit was still set to environment blending.

  Glancing upward, he saw three combat robots crowded around another vent in the ceiling. They’d been following him through the shaft, no doubt.

  Rade lifted his rifle out to one side, and dropped it.

  Then he stood up, raising his hands. Shaw did the same. He disabled his environment blending to show them he was serious about surrendering. He wasn’t going to risk Shaw’s life. His camouflage was useless now anyway, since he couldn’t seal the faceplate without full pressurization.

  He waited, but no instructions came from the robots.