The Plan: Part 1

by J. A. James

  It was something that all Acruvae in the institute had to undergo rigorous training in, for the duration of the years they were in school. He found himself grateful for being a good student. It would save his life now.

  As he glanced at the terminal in front of him, the presence of the two guards behind him stayed with him at the back of his mind. He placed his hands a foot apart from each other, as the engine kickstarted and the blue screen lit up in front of him. A solid screen of symbols lined up in front of him.

  "Wow. This is old," he thought to himself. The shuttle was at least four syntax generations behind. Wait - his hands froze as he did a quick mental calculation in his head. Four generations ago, this meant that the ship was taken in its prime - over four hundred years ago. Did Matthias lie about how long he’d existed down here on Gaia? His body chilled at the thought.

  He felt a sudden nudge of a cold gun against his right shoulder. "What is takin' so long?" a gruff voice asked him.

  He started. "Oh... nothing. Just trying to get my bearings," he said quickly, as his hands began moving over the multiple screens which were displayed alongside the main computer. "This update is going to be intense. I don't know how long it's going to take."

  The guard said nothing.

  He breathed a short sigh of relief as he started the reprogramming. He started out by extracting the first symbol with his left hand. It had to be matched with the correct corresponding symbol, which he chose easily. To update the code required linking the proper symbols with each other – much like a jigsaw puzzle. The exact fusion of all the symbols would lead to the upgrade they needed. He needed.

  It was exactly like the rigorous training he had gone through in the Institute. As he continued moving through and updating the symbols, he felt an odd sense of peace come through him.

  He lost track of time as his concentration deepened. While he never lost sense of the urgency of finishing, Matthias and the guards seemed to be leaving him to his own devices, at least for the time being.

  Then, the sound of the shuttle door opened. Griesen looked up and saw another two guards standing outside. One of them also held a small tin cup along with a sandwich.

  "Energy," was all the guard said as they switched places with the guards who had been with Griesen. The food was placed in front of Griesen, and he reached for it, his mouth immediately salivating. He had forgotten all about his hunger until now.

  "Thanks," he mumbled before he started wolfing down the sandwich, never taking his eyes off the screen.

  Last one, he thought as he moved the final two symbols in place. As soon as he did, the panel glowed a bright blue, as all the ship lights brightened and the combined symbols fused together on the grid. The match worked; and the panel suddenly rearranged itself as all the symbols were updated.

  He was exhausted. He’d lost track of time. "Ugh," he groaned, as he tried to move his head from one side to the other, feeling neck muscles twinge from the lack of use. He had a fleeting sense of triumph amongst all of this.

  He looked over at the guards - this second rotation - of which, had said nary a word after they had brought him food.

  "I'm done," he told them.

  They remained expressionless as one of them hit a button on his front armored jacket. He spoke in a deeply-inflected language that Griesen could barely make out. It was possibly an earlier dialect of one of their Acruvaic ones, but that was only a guess. Griesen never specialized in languages but there was an odd tone of familiarity in the brief sentences he heard.

  A few moments passed, and then Matthias appeared in front of the shuttle windows.

  He strode into the shuttle and quickly motioned Griesen to sit in the passenger side.

  "Let's see if your Institute taught you enough, shall we?" He said in a lilting tone. It was almost playful.

  Matthias pressed a series of buttons on the screen, igniting all the shuttles' controls. The cockpit lit up and he spoke into an intercom. "Prepare the launchpad. Shuttle 360-1A is exiting Base 001."

  “We’re leaving,” Griesen said softly. “Are you sure you want to bring me with you?”

  Matthias chuckled as he started to navigate the shuttle to the sound of the docking gates unlocking. "I trust that you want to bridge your Case. And you're fighting for your survival. And for me, that is enough assurance you won’t be playing any games with me before then.”

  The shuttle hovered, positioned down a thousand-foot foot runway as the gates were nearly entirely open. Griesen's eyes widened at the entryway. It was a dark midnight sky which greeted them.

  Matthias pushed up on the accelerator. "Very, very nice work,” he murmured. “I've been dreaming of this moment for a long time now," he said. "We're going to find out though whether you did your job correctly in a matter of minutes."

  Griesen's throat went dry at the prospect of engine failure.

  They shot out into the night sky. The shuttle accelerated to over 450 kilometres in a matter of seconds, where Matthias continued to monitor the scores of data coming in from all the secondary monitors.

  "Well, see, your recalibrations were incredibly helpful in updating the shuttle, but one of the core things we were missing was the shield technology to avoid detection from your kind." Matthias' eyes flicked between the controls and the midnight skies which now enveloped them wholly.

  It was entirely dark, save for a few stars in the night sky. Griesen squinted as he looked around, but there was still nothing - no land masses, no bodies of water he could easily find.

  Griesen's hands tightened. "How quickly before they usually detected you?"

  Matthias looked at a radial dial which began emitting a light orange signal. "By now, your people would have been shooting at us.”

  “They’ve done that before, I take it.”

  “Many times. I’ve the battle scars to prove it." And he raised and folded down the collar of his tunic to expose a charred wound that looked like it still had not fully healed.

  Griesen cringed at the flesh which still looked strangely red and raw.

  "Your machine couldn't fix you?" he asked Matthias.

  Matthias did not answer. A smile spread across his lips as the orange hue on the radial dial faded to an inconspicuous black.

  "Well done, friend," he said, in a soft voice.

  He tapped in coordinates as he spoke next. "I believe I mentioned to you... The machine specializes in healing humans exceptionally well."

  The realization dawned on Griesen then. "You're still one of us," he whispered.

  His capability in rewiring the shuttle had seemed to garner him significant points in Matthias' eyes, perhaps even beginning to engender his trust.

  "I am not one of you heathen," Matthias spat out then. He nodded to the guards who continued to sit quietly behind him. He gestured for them to leave them. They retreated to the back cabin.

  Griesen looked at him, confused. Was Matthias somehow both human and Acruvae?

  "Just know this," Matthias said, drawing in a long breath of air. “Your people keep you young ones pristine, untouched. Groomed to commit to your duties unfailingly. But for those who have strayed from this plan...they end up like me."

  They end up like me.

  The words hit Griesen hard. By failing to follow through somehow, Matthias had been expunged from the Institute. Wasn’t that exactly what was happening to him now, in a different way?

  But he had done everything right, he thought, as he fought down a wave of despair. Yet everything had gone so wrong.

  The words echoed ominously through the otherwise silent shuttle as they propelled onwards.

  “Did Ithes do this to you? Or did you choose to be here? How much of this was your choice?” Griesen asked.

  Matthias did not respond for a moment before replying. “That is another story for another day.”

  "Where are we going?" he asked Matthias, who was continually scanning the dark skies. For what, Griesen could not surmise. The blackness of the skies seemed prete
rnaturally dark; obsidian black, even.

  It was almost a shame that he couldn't see anything from below; it would've been useful in calibrating his escape route as a last option.

  "You'll see." Matthias’ words were clipped.

  An image suddenly appeared on the main screen. The man's face had fierce, dark eyes that bored through the screen. His head was shaven; and he was adorned with metal. Griesen couldn't take his eyes off of his studded mouth piercing, which ran from his tongue to the edges of his mouth.

  "Jing Hua," Matthias said tersely.

  The man nodded in response. "Matthias. "

  Even Matthias, with his icy cold demeanor could not resist a smile with his news: "I am arriving at your portal within a matter of five minutes. Prepare your runway."

  Jinghua's eyebrows lifted and he did not conceal the surprise in his voice. "This is an unprecedented surprise. We look forward to your arrival."

  With that, the screen shut down.

  Matthias busied himself with the controls, as Griesen looked at how adeptly he operated in the cockpit.

  "Indeed...you did a spectacular job with the calibrations, my friend," he said in a tone which bordered nearly on respect. "We are virtually undetectable to your kind... and the stealth mode almost avoided detection by our sensors."

  There was a sinking feeling in Griesen's stomach. He still hoped that he was doing the right thing. What options did he really have at this point?

  He was now assisting them with whatever mastermind plans they had. Just for awhile, he thought. Until he had their cooperation.

  The shuttle suddenly began nosing down, dropping in altitude at a rapid pace. They seemed to accelerate in speed, while Griesen's stomach began doing flip-flops.

  He gripped the sides of his seat while he fought the urge to throw up from the suddenness of the movement. It was almost as if they were dropping out of orbit onto a Nascar track. Only through the control panel, he saw a gate open for them; the blackness of the night continued to shield anything visual from presenting itself outside of the windows.

  Matthias looked at him as the shuttle suddenly paused in mid-air, and then landed its last foot on the ground. He gave a small chuckle at Griesen's ashen face. "Our hangars are located deep underground, as you may begin to gather," he said. "You'll get used to it," he said, as he gave him a rough pat on the shoulder.

  As Griesen stepped out of the shuttle, he found the guards behind him promptly place their automatic barrels pointed right at his back.

  "Put your hands up!" one guard barked at him.

  Griesen quickly obliged. The hangar they docked in was quite a bit smaller than the one they had exited. The air was humid and muddy.

  Matthias gave his orders. "He is with us. But go ahead and scan him again, just to be sure. You can never be too sure of the tricks up their sleeve." He cast a flinty-eyed look at Griesen again as he said those words.

  Griesen felt a sharp pang of betrayal at his words. For a moment, he’d thought he was getting somewhere with this man. He felt the butt of a rifle direct him to a doorway. Maybe not yet.

  He was put into a chamber, which ran several scans on him. When he emerged, no comments were made by either of the guardsmen waiting for him.

  They walked him to a room. The doors were open; as he strode in, he saw Matthias and the man he had seen on the shuttle screen speaking quietly together, their backs turned to the door.

  "Griesen," Matthias noticed him first, turning around and hitting a button on the control screen. "Come sit.”

  The screen turned on, revealing a birds' eye view of a statuesque domed building, centered on a sunny, tropical-looking island.

  He took a seat at the oblong table as the guardsmen behind him closed the doors.

  They continued speaking in low voices for a few minutes longer before sitting down across from him.

  The man called Jing Hua spoke first. "We find you have been very productive, and most importantly, cooperative since your landing with us. Matthias has briefed me of how you came down here. All a very interesting tale." He cast Griesen a look that was difficult to read.

  Jing Hua was covered in tattoos. He wore a dark green sleeveless military vest, which revealed his arms covered in an ornate maze of spirals, Asiatic dragons and renderings of ocean waves merged together on both forearms in a mesmerizing tapestry. All his fingers were encased with at least one thick silver ring – the emblems of several skulls and hammered bone-like symbols lacing his hands.

  Griesen said nothing.

  Matthias spoke next. "We have discussed at length and have decided you will be joining us on an operation. The breach you have caused in the tapestry presents an opportune moment.”

  “I’d like to know first how you’re going to help me protect Halva before it’s too late.”

  “Breaking promises this early on is just bad manners,” Matthias said, looking at him pointedly. “And I haven’t broken anything yet.”

  Griesen felt Jing Hua glaring at him, shooting a stable of bullets across the table with his eyes.

  "You will help us with this operation, or you will be sent right back to where you came from where they will have no issue skinning you alive as the traitor that you are," Jinghua seethed.

  Griesen's skin pricked at his words. He couldn't be thrown back to the wolves... not now. His jaw tightened. He knew it was a matter of time before they would find him; but in the meantime, he had to bide his time here, with these people. He had to remember that. And get on their good side, he chided himself. Jing Hua was treating him like a virulent disease he couldn’t wait to get rid of. He had to make himself at least somewhat indispensable to them.

  “Of course,” he said. “I just wanted to remind you… I don’t have a lot of time.”

  And if somehow she died before he could get to her, then all bets were off. He couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t break his promise to help Matthias. And he knew Matthias could read between the lines of what he’d just said.

  “Time,” Matthias remarked, an odd flicker of a smile tracing his lips before it vanished. “You’re not the only one running out of it. Rest assured. Now."

  Matthias stood up as the screen flicked to the coordinates of the city. "The dome we need to get into is located just within the Canary Islands."

  The Canary Islands. Griesen squinted as he tried to remember the geography of the region. The islands were a Spanish archipelago, just off the coast of northwest Africa. "This dome. I’ve never heard of it.”

  "Well, then, your people have certainly done a superb job brainwashing you," Matthias responded.

  The remark stung. They had studied Gaia's geography at length in the classroom, and he was aware of every building, landmark and country that was to know....

  ”How can this be?” Griesen said. “The dome. I’ve never heard nor seen it.”

  Matthias raised one eyebrow. "Your concealment technology is remarkable. You might be surprised at how much has been concealed down here. You, of all people, should know this." He then switched subjects, as though they had just been speaking of the humidity in the room. "This dome contains a package we need to get our hands on.”

  He gave a pregnant pause. "Given your entirely thorough knowledge of Acruvae technology, you will come in handy as part of the team.”