Absolute Knowledge Box Set (Books 1-3)

by Drew Cordell

  Suddenly, Bailey was panting for breath, flailing her arms and trying to figure out where she was.

  “What happened?” Bailey asked through labored breaths.

  “Your tank wasn’t full, must have been a faulty sensor. You’re lucky it didn’t happen when we were underwater,” Caeldra said.

  “How are we going to get out of here?” Bailey wheezed.

  “We’ll work the problem. Look, we’re out of the flooded tunneling, so we don’t have to worry about that. We’ve got repair kits so we can fix your tank; we just need to find somewhere with enough oxygen to refill it. Until then, we’re sharing,” Caeldra said.

  “Bailey, pinch that tube so it doesn’t leak. You and Caeldra need to move slowly until we’re able to find a section of tunneling that’s breathable through filters,” I said, wading forward.

  “Adam, stay back with them. Mary and I will scout ahead and look for air. We’ll map it so you can see where we went if we get separated. We’ll be sure there isn’t any water on the other side of any doors before we open them,” I said.

  Adam nodded and joined Caeldra, Bailey, and Leroy.

  Leroy had already pulled his maintenance kit form his pack and was inspecting Bailey’s O2 tank for mechanical problems as they walked. “I’m not going to fuse this line unless it’s our only option,” he said, pointing to the small tube that tethered Bailey and Caeldra.

  “We’ll be quick and find some air,” I said, running as fast as I could through the gray water with Mary trailing behind.

  Mary and I cleared a few hundred feet before coming across another hatch on the floor secured by the same circular vent as before. We were traveling up an incline, and the flooding of the tunnels from behind us hadn’t made it all the way up here. Nodding at each other, we grabbed both sets of handles and pried open the rusted metal, opening the hatch and peering down into the darkness below. My Artemis overlay flickered, indicating breathable air through our filters—Bailey could refill her O2 tank if there weren’t any mechanical problems.

  “Guys, we found a hatch with clean air. We’re going to scout it out to make sure everything is clear. It’s directly ahead of you, so just keep heading this way,” I said over radio.

  “Copy. I see it on my map; we’re on our way,” Caeldra said.

  I shrugged and jumped down the hatch with my rifle raised. The shock of the ten-foot drop was mitigated by my armor, dispersing the force with a hydraulic thud. I scanned the tunnel, but it looked empty like all the others. At least it had breathable air.

  Mary climbed down and closed the hatch as she descended the ladder. When she made it to the bottom, we scouted the tunnel on both sides, stopping when we hit the first corners. There were a couple of empty maintenance rooms with doors that locked from the inside.

  “Caeldra?” I called but heard nothing but static.

  “They’ll be here soon. We probably can’t read them since we’re on different levels,” Mary said.

  The rest of Knight Squad descended the ladder, and we bunkered up in one of the maintenance rooms, locking the door and settling in while Leroy worked on Bailey’s tank. After the air became stale, we opted to open the door and have someone keep guard since the vents in the room weren’t working like they were supposed to.

  “Son of a bitch,” Leroy cursed, pulling out a bearing from the tank’s assembly. “Just a busted ball bearing. The tank didn’t fill all the way, and it held pressure in the assembly reader while most of the tank was empty.” Leroy replaced the part with a spare one in his kit. He finished reassembling the tank and attached it back to the frame on Bailey’s suit.

  When the tank was connected to the frame, it began to hiss, and the pressure gauge on the side started to creep up. Caeldra disconnected the makeshift lifeline, and Leroy helped both of them patch the holes in their main O2 lines with a thick epoxy paste and a section of teflon tubing.

  Just to be safe, Leroy checked the mechanical parts in everyone’s tanks to be sure they were working properly while we waited for them to refill. The compressors on the assembly pulled a lot of power, and without pushing our reactors too hard, the power on everything else on the suit was running at a bare minimum making us feel the full weight of the equipment. I sunk down, sitting and propping myself against the wall, pulling out my CZR-7 and checking to see the mag was full. After what we’d seen so far, I didn’t expect to run into anything in the Depths; it seemed so empty and lifeless.

  “I’ve never seen one of those bearings break before, so it’s not going to happen again,” Leroy assured Bailey who was still noticeably shaking, even after sitting propped against the wall for close to an hour.

  Bailey nodded in her suit, looking away and fumbling with her wrist link and some of the settings.

  “On the bright side, we fixed it now rather than later and we’re safe here,” I said.

  “We’re not safe here; we’re just safer than we were in the water,” Caeldra said. “As soon as Bailey’s tank is refilled, we need to get moving. Eat something if you haven’t already.”

  I angled my chin down, sucking on the thick rubber tube to the left of my face. I drank a few gulps of water, then pressed the screen on my wrist. A protein cube ejected from a slot in my helmet and launched into my mouth. I caught it and chewed heavily. It was flavored like peanut butter, but there was nothing natural about it. The dense food-like bar was packed with as much nutrition and calories as possible at the expense of flavor. We hadn’t packed actual meals with our gear as we weren’t expecting to take off our helmets during the trip. All we had was special bottles of water which could be loaded into the bladder packs on our suits and small magazine-like cartridges of protein cubes we could load the same way.

  I launched another chunk of protein matter into my mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

  “I bet you wish we had some spaghetti right about now,” I mused, smiling at Caeldra as she chewed.

  “Don’t do that to me,” she replied, laughing.

  “Hey, I enjoy these protein bars,” Leroy said, shooting another into his mouth.

  “They’re filling at least,” Mary said, grimacing as she chewed. “Better than Jake’s cooking,” she said, laughing and punching me on the arm lightly.

  I shrugged and smiled back. “She’s not wrong,” I conceded.

  “I’ve had his cooking. Never again,” Caeldra said.

  “All right, I get it. I suck at cooking.”

  Bailey, Adam, and Leroy didn’t defend or attack me, and we moved to new topics of conversation for the next hour. Bailey’s tank beeped, indicating it was full, and we set out on our journey deeper into the Depths. With Bailey’s suit back at full capacity, we were able to increase our pace. Fortunately, the rest of the way to the level we needed to be on was dry, and the air, for the most part, was breathable through our filters with a slight oxygen boost from our tanks.

  “This is it,” I said as we finished the twenty-minute descent down a seemingly endless ladder. The room we needed to go to was highlighted in red, only four hundred feet away.

  “Weapons ready, and don’t open any doors until we scan them,” Caeldra said. We all drew our weapons, and Leroy pulled the advanced scanner from his pack, mounting it on his helmet. The scanner spun to life, sending thousands of tiny orange lasers skittering across the surface of the tunnel, checking for traps, or any signs of life. As with everything else in the Depths, there was nothing.

  “Two hundred feet,” I called out as we walked through the desolate tunneling. The burning red dot in my visor glowed brighter and larger as we approached, and my heart was pounding in my chest.

  As we cleared a corner, I spotted a robot pinned to the wall with rod of rebar. It was covered in dark sludge, and I knew without the Artemis scan that it had been out of commission for a long time. The build looked older than anything I had ever seen, but it still gave me the creeps. What had pinned it to the wall like that?

  “Not reading anything. Power cells are all depleted, and it’s
not rigged to anything,” Leroy said as his scanner finished appraising the robot.

  “Keep moving,” Caeldra said, stepping forward alongside me. There weren’t any pipes on this level, but the temperature was still over one hundred degrees. Fortunately, the EPX suits kept us cool.

  “It’s that door up ahead,” I said as we walked, pointing to the left.

  “Leroy, Jake, go check it out. Everyone else wait here and keep scanning,” Caeldra said.

  The door looked like all others in the Undercity—a slab of bulky, rusted metal.

  “No power on the inside, no mechanical traps on the door, and no readings on the inside,” Leroy said.

  “All right. Move back while I open it, just in case,” I said.

  He frowned, but moved back anyway. I clicked my rifle back onto the magnetic hardpoint on my pack and drew my CZR-7, clicking on the green laser beam and pointing it at the handle. I took a deep breath and wrapped my fingers around the handle, squeezing the rusted metal and preparing to pull.

  “Jake?” Mary’s voice said over the comms channel.

  “Yeah?” I asked, exhaling and loosening my grip.

  “I just want you to know that I love you,” she said.

  “I love you, too,” I replied, gripping the handle again and yanking it open. The door protested the movement, but screeched open. I rushed in, clearing my corners and tracing the laser of my gun around the room, looking for anything to shoot. Cabinets and ancient-looking computers filled the room, and they were covered in a thick layer of dust. Everything was from another age, completely foreign to me. I moved in and jumped back as my helmet’s flashlights caught what looked to be a figure under a white sheet. I almost yelled out, but stopped myself.

  Catching my breath, I moved my finger from the frame of my gun to the trigger and crept forward, raising my hand to pull the sheet down. Artemis wasn’t reading anything. I almost squeezed the trigger when Caeldra’s voice blared in my ears. “Jake? Everything okay?” she asked.

  “It’s fine; stay there,” I said, muting comms and refocusing. I grabbed the sheet and pulled it down, revealing the husk of an ancient robot covered in rust. The coating on the internal wires had eroded away, revealing corroded copper that had crystallized in a bluish green mass. The robot looked archaic, impossibly simple and cobbled together with heavy metal and bulky motors. After clearing the rest of the room, I sheathed my weapon and returned to the robot. Something was written on the side, but it was obscured by dust that had bypassed the protection of the sheet. I wiped my hand along it, clearing it and reading the faded text: ‘AUTOMATON FOUR.’

  “It’s clear! Come on in,” I called.

  “Why did you mute us?” Caeldra asked, annoyed.

  “I found an old robot and needed to focus. Didn’t want to put you guys in any danger,” I said.

  The others entered the room and began searching the old cabinets for anything useful.

  “This stuff is ancient!” Leroy called, picking up some old desk fan and inspecting it under the light beams of his suit.

  “Don’t weigh down your packs with garbage. We’ve got a long way back to the Guild Hall,” Caeldra said.

  She was right, and I still had to find whatever my father left for me here.

  “Still clear on the scanners,” Adam called from outside the room. He and Bailey were guarding the outside so nothing could sneak up on us.

  I moved to the central desk, pulling the cover off a computer console much newer than everything else down here. There was a small piece of paper on the keyboard tucked between the bulky, plastic keys. I pulled it free and unfolded it.

  I knew you’d make it, Jake. Behind the green cabinet. The big box is for you, and the small one is for the Guild. -W.A.

  It was unmistakably my father’s handwriting, and I scanned the surroundings for the green cabinet. Spotting it, I rushed over and pulled it back, revealing a large box like the one we had opened in the Guild Hall. Along with it was another smaller box built in a similar fashion. I clicked the edges of the small box, punching in the same code as before. There was an audible click as the box popped open, and I lifted it. Inside was a small data card similar to the red card loaded in one of the data slots on my EPX suit’s control board. I waved it over my wrist link and sent the files to everyone else in Knight Squad. It was a few terabytes of code, unintelligible to our suits in offline mode.

  “We don’t have the hardware to run this type of executable. Artemis can’t parse the code,” Leroy said. “This is a subdirectory of the Omniscience Mainframe code, and it won’t run without the rest.”

  “What’s in the other box?” Caeldra asked me.

  “The robot told me it’s only for me to open. It said if anyone else sees it, then everyone will die.”

  “You believe that crap? Come on, Jake. Open it,” Caeldra said.

  I found myself pulling the case away instinctively, protecting it from them as if they were my enemy. “You’re right. That’s ridiculous,” I said.

  I placed the box down and keyed in the code. It popped open to reveal three large, sealed manila envelopes each marked with red marker labeled one through three.

  There was a note in the box, and I shined my light on the paper to read it.

  I knew you’d open this, but you can’t open the envelopes yet. If you open them, everyone in the Champions will die and Infinitum wins.

  I shuddered as a deep series of chills worked their way up through my spine. How had my father known about Infinitum? Was this all a trick?

  Open the first envelope when a massive shift in political power occurs in Olympus. You’ll know when it happens. The first envelope contains instructions on when to open the second envelope.

  I passed the letter around so the others could read it, and they all stood staring at the envelopes. Caeldra lunged forward to grab them, but I caught her arm, throwing it back harder than I intended. The force from my suit lifted her from the ground and caused her to lose her footing when she hit the ground again, causing her to fall and curse at me. She lunged forward again, but I slammed the box shut.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” I yelled, dodging a punch from her and trying to stop her. Mary and Leroy were yelling as well, trying to keep Caeldra away from me.

  “You read the letter. We can’t open the envelopes,” I said.

  “That information can save the Guild,” she growled.

  “It can also kill us all. We have new information for the Guild, and we need to trust it will be enough. The rest isn’t for you. It’s for me, and it’s from my dad,” I said.

  “You already told me that robot wasn’t your dad, or did you forget it killed two Guild members when you brought it to us?” she spat.

  “That’s not fair,” I said, trying to control the fury building inside me.

  Adam and Bailey were back in the room now, trying to calm us down and end the fight.

  “Caeldra, come on, leave him alone,” Leroy pleaded.

  “Open the box. It’s an order,” Caeldra snarled.

  “That’s not happening,” I said, grabbing the case and pulling it behind me. Caeldra’s hand was on her gun now, and I stiffened.

  “Are you refusing my order, Jake?” she asked, her voice cold.

  “I won’t comply,” I said. “Come on, Caeldra, just drop it. At least wait until we can give the Guild the code we recovered from the other box.”

  Caeldra flipped up the latch on her hip holster, gripping her CZR-7.

  Leroy tried to grab Caeldra’s arm, but she pushed him off. “Come on, Caeldra. This isn’t worth it. It’s Jake’s box.”

  Caeldra grabbed the gun and pointed it at my face, the laser obscuring my vision.

  “Seriously?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Caeldra! Put it down; come on,” Leroy pleaded.

  “Don’t point that at him,” Mary yelled, lunging forward and tackling Caeldra. The force knocked Caeldra off her feet, but something hit my visor. A purple blast slapped the front
of my helmet, causing my head to jolt back and hit the back of my helmet painfully. The bright explosion sent black spots dancing across my vision, and the sound of the impact and cracking of the glass visor made my head swim and vision blur.

  I fell back, hitting my head again and staring up at the ceiling, disoriented. My world was spinning, and I could barely make out yelling in the background as my ears continued to ring. What the hell happened?

  Someone was pulling me up, and I could barely make out her face. It was Bailey. Leroy and Adam had restrained Caeldra, and Mary was cursing up a storm.

  “What the hell, Caeldra?” I shouted as I pieced together the information. She had shot me.

  I tried to focus my frantic mind and ran a diagnostic scan on my system. My helmet was screwed.

  “I’m sorry, Jake,” Caeldra managed, walking outside while Leroy pulled out his maintenance kit.

  The powerful HexTox blast from point blank had cracked my visor, and it would have gone through my head if I hadn’t been wearing it. I turned off the flickering overlay in the helmet so I’d be able to see, but the spider web-like cracks still made it hard.

  I opened my pack and stuffed the box inside. It was mine, and I wasn’t going to risk everything. I had to have faith in my father, to believe he knew something I didn’t—something I couldn’t know yet. Something bigger was at play here, and I couldn’t risk everyone’s lives if I had a chance to save them. My radio stopped working, and I was left in silence while Leroy worked on my helmet.

  Leroy plastered the surface of my helmet with a clear gel and waved a small blue light over the surface. He did something else and my radio crackled back on. “Can you hear me, Jake?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Okay. I’m going to need to flood your mask with air to check the patching I just did. Your overlay isn’t going to work, but I’ll modify your suit to run to the best of its ability while we get back to the Guild Hall.”