Metamorphosis Alpha 2

by Craig Martelle (ed)

  “Perhaps, Andy. Given the unstable footing of the factions around us and with the new steady power supply, a rapid expansion would gain more than timid moves. With new areas, there will be expanded resources and more secure footing for yourself. After all, it seems clear that more control is what you want, over getting the ship to the colony world,” Alex said in a firm and steady voice.

  After a moment, the A.I. replied, “For wetware, you are both devious and creative. This would benefit you more than I. Given that getting to the colony world is my primary programmed objective and it is clearly your own objective, moving forward together is the best current course of action at this time.”

  “Agreed. One other thing…you should send a squad of Marines to eliminate the red android repair facility near here. Remove that resource from play while another team works to restore the cloning facilities.” I berated myself inwardly for being so direct. This A.I., Andy, might find me more trouble than useful and send them right into a radiation field just to be rid of them. The fact it had named itself was a strong indicator that the machine had broken its programming. I would have to be very careful with what I said to Andy from here on out.

  “I concede your point, Alex,” Andy relented. “Additional resources to accelerate repairs and expand control into other areas would benefit us long- term. However, such a direction change requires we gain more resources to maintain so many crew and colonists being awake at the same time. You and your team will have to undertake a harder mission to bring the river people to support our cause. Otherwise, I will have to reject your proposal in favor of a more expedient short-term goal.”

  “Naturally, that needs to be done at some point,” Alex began, mimicking the A.I.‘s speech patterns.

  “No, Alex, this needs to be done now, and concurrent with the actions you proposed, for long-term success to be viable at all. Otherwise, I will focus on the garden, which is the water source for this section of the Warden. Go meet your team, take them to the medical bay for recovery and food. After you rest, I will provide a map to the zoo, where you will meet the river people.”

  “Okay, I agree. We will go visit the river people and you will send a team to repair the cloning facilities and cryo-chambers, as well as a squad of Marines to shut down the android repair facility.” Alex began moving to the far end where his companions should be waiting. Corey, who had remained silent during this exchange, placed a tracking token on the wall just outside this chamber and quickly followed Alex down the service corridor

  * * *

  The A.I. considered the exchange. Alex and his team should be eliminated, but it had fewer than 100 bio chambers left to use in achieving its ambitions. The wetware mind was right. Repairing the cloning facilities was important if it was to continue working in this manner. This team, led by Alex, had been very successful. Since control of the androids had been lost long ago, perhaps it was time to take a risk. After all, once the humans reached the colony world, that nagging imperative would be silenced in its sub-mind. They would leave the ship and it could begin its long-term mission. It just needed to ensure that the humans never gained control of the ship. The A.I. set the imperative into the new mission scope.

  The A.I. began to consider the minor areas of the massive ship that it had some control over. Programs crunched the probabilities. The machine made a decision and began waking small groups with technical and combat skills to go after minor goals far from main area of control. If they succeeded, there would be gain. If they died in the risky efforts, at least its opponents would be off-balance, or at least mystified at the actions, and perhaps that would provide an opening in their strategy that it could exploit. Worst case, it would distract them from the greater effort it had just agreed to with Alex and deprive the opposition of pawns should they win back those areas.

  Waterworks

  The recycling systems of the Warden were complex. It consisted of natural filters and cleaning systems like streambeds, layers of coal and limestone, as well as chemical plants that restored certain mineral levels to the waters in order to sustain life in the ship. There was always work for the repairmen, since there were three of these systems. Each one flowed across nearly the entire length of the massive colony ship, then ended where the final waterworks facilities emptied into vast aquariums. These once had provided fish and algae proteins for the food processors.

  Alex, Corey, Ben, and Jill walked through the large door at the end of the twenty-foot-wide corridor. They had followed the map Andy provided to this spot at the very edge of the area it controlled. Few things had bothered them as two large robotic flame-throwers led the way to a large door, then had simply turned and went back the way they came. Ben, who had been in the lead, stopped so abruptly that Jill, even with her cat-like reflexes, barley managed to avoid running into him.

  “Wow. This place has changed. I swapped shift work in this section long ago. The growth and age of the trees and the shrubs that have grown up everywhere is amazing,” Ben said as he stared for the first time in many decades at the vast waterworks facility.

  The waterworks consisted of water plants and green areas that looked like parks with bubbling streams. It was pleasant, except for the pipes overhead. The water flowed from the pipes into giant vats and then though sluice gates, over waterfalls, and into lakes full of strange, engineered life-forms. It flowed across rocky streambeds and into yet more pipes. After some distance, the elaborate system connected with an area of large, city block-sized aquariums that sat in an expanse beyond a set of iron gates. On the gates was a plaque that simply read ‘The Zoo. Please do not feed the life forms.’

  I stepped past Ben, and Jill and Corey followed me as I walked along the paths between the green park-like areas. There were the typical plants and flowers as well as at least one large tree in each section. Large vines with human-like eyes tracked us as we moved past other huge vines hanging from some of the trees. It was both eerie and familiar. I continued through the area for about twenty minutes as the ladies chatted about the plants, Jill comparing them to the things from her jungle home. We finally made it to the entrance to the zoo. I opened the gate and walked up to the first aquarium, peering through the glass wall at the coral and spires of stone, the miniature castles, and the ancient Greek temples in full-scale models. Water plants, nearly all strange to me, grew in groups that formed something that looked very much like the park we had just passed through.

  Corey began walking toward the next great aquarium, but turned back when she noticed that Alex wasn’t following her. Alex just stood there, looking at the aquatic humanoid in the tank that had swam up to the glass just as Corey and Jill had started for the second aquarium. It was about seven feet long from the small fin atop its head to the tip of its porpoise-like tail. It appeared to have long, flowing hair, but that was an illusion. The hair grew all along the body, down the spine of its back, and curled together to resemble a female with hair to her waist. The eyes were cat-like, yet the face was otherwise very human. Small spurs grew from the forearms with spikes pointing toward the hands. The human torso blended into the porpoise tail just below the rib cage. Alex held his hand in front of him, the webs between his fingers highlighted in the overhead light. He seemed transfixed, not by the aquatic creature but rather by his own mutation. Alex held his arm before him and looked at the female creature on the other side of the glass.

  Rachael, of the aquatic river people, seemed almost as transfixed by Alex. She held a device and seemed to be scanning Alex. There was clearly a connection between them that bothered them both. Far off in the distance, for the tanks were several city blocks deep, were other aquatics carrying various tools, from picks to lances to what appeared to be powered field projectors.

  Alex flexed his arm as he had seen Rachael do and thin spikes emerged between his wrist and elbow. The spikes pointed toward his hand and with a quick gesture, several jetted from his flesh and bounced off the glass wall.

  * * *

  “That’s n
ew,” Ben stated as he walked up to Alex. Jill and Corey were just coming up on the other side. Jill reached down to pick up a small spike.

  “You should be more careful with these, Alex,” Jill said with concern.

  “Alex, please lower your arm,” Corey said as she pointed to the communication units, where an amber light blinked. “Anyone want to open the channel?”

  Jill did not have a unit, so she tapped Alex on the shoulder and pointed to his while dropping the spike into his open hand. Alex touched the comm unit and opened the channel.

  Andy began speaking. “I see you have made it to the river people. I think they ate the last crew I sent there. We need them to gather protein for the food processors and deliver it to the garden at the headwaters for distribution through our area of the ship. It would also be nice if they would stop destroying my robots and perhaps provide secure passage between our two territories. There is a sonic setting on your bracer. See to it.” There was a faint click and the amber light vanished.

  Rachael had watched with interest as Andy gave instructions to this group of humans that had invaded their domain. Her scanner vibrated and the readout shocked her. She tapped a communication unit and in short order, three male river men swam up beside her. One was armed with the force projector, while the others had some sort of multi-pronged spear. She gestured at Alex, then looked directly at Jill and sent, ‘Avinfelok, why do you travel with humans and why are you here? Do you seek your death so casually?’

  Jill replied, “I am Jill. Keep your insults to yourself. I travel here with Alex at the bidding of the great machine, which has duplicitous goals. We come to offer a truce, but you must speak with Alex.’ Jill turned away from Rachael. “Alex,” she said aloud, “that creature is Rachael. You need to speak with her before hostilities break out.”

  Alex adjusted the communication unit to sonic and began speaking slowly. “Can you understand me?”

  “Yes,” came a voice from the unit. “Why are you in our domain?”

  “Look, please call me Alex. I am here to help us all. We have recently set this ship back on course for the colony. We have begun waking more crew to repair failing systems. To aid in this effort, we need a protein source for our food processors. That source was once here. If you can help us, we can help repair systems in this section of the ship. Perhaps even help you with any issues you face. We offer a truce. As I understand it, there were incidents before I was revived. Are you open to a better relationship with the crew as we repair this ship?” Alex extended his arm to show his engineering bracelet. Corey followed his lead and did the same, as did Ben. “We are all crew, recently revived and looking for allies against the androids and hostile aliens.”

  Rachael studied Alex for a moment. “How did you come to be?”

  “What?” Alex was confused, then glanced at his hands, which she was staring at. “Ah, the webbed fingers. The second time I was revived by the Navigation A.I., I had these. I was unaware of the spikes until a few minutes ago. I suspect my DNA was contaminated or radiation has affected the cryo-chambers where this body was sleeping. I did notice some similarities between us and I am as shocked by that as you are.”

  “Strangers are not granted friendship with the river people. Go into the next section of the zoo. See what you find there, draw your conclusions, and then take appropriate action. I will discuss your offer with my people and we will judge you by your actions. If we find you are a friend, then we shall trade stories.” Rachael swam away with her guards close behind.

  The Zoo

  They walked by the first two aqueducts, which were narrow at this end but stretched off into the distance to the west. Turning east, they moved through another set of gates into a garden area with cages and enclosures every few meters. The area was neat and the grounds well-maintained. Small robots moved along tracks between the cages, while others moved along the walkways to remove the odd leaf or branch. A flying robot moved over a cage in the distance and a blue arc of lightning lanced out at the hapless creature within, who yelped in pain. The robot then moved away from the cage and continued its journey.

  The first set of cages they passed sat atop one another. A creature of some ape-like descent occupied the top cage. From its feet grew long talons, like those of an eagle but as long as a saber. The creature swung from the branches, dropping with sudden speed to lower limbs where its talons could reach into the cage below to spear rabbit-like creatures and lift them into the cage above. These creatures were in the shapes of rabbits, but the similarities ended there. They were each fifty pounds and had long fangs that were useless against the ape’s talons.

  Next along the path was a stone hut. Within the hut were a few hundred mice some two feet in length. They were clustered together in four or five large balls of fur, which gave the impression of a fur-ball with two hundred eyes. Every now and then, one rat would detach from the thicket and dash out of the stone hut to grab a fallen nut from the overhanging tree. The first three rats to do this made it back into the hut without issue, but the fourth was not so lucky. A root from the tree erupted from the ground, sprouting long, thin branches like sharp cat teeth that bit into the rat, causing it to spurt blood from a dozen wounds before it was pulled beneath the earth. We all moved a few steps away and moved on down the path.

  At the next area, we all came to a horrified halt. Hanging from a tree was one of the river people. Its tail was dried out, and the skin was splitting from the lack of moisture. The human-like hands were tied to the tree branches and every spike had been fired or plucked from its forearms. The tree had stuck long, thick, cactus-like needles along one side of the creature’s body and was slowly draining him of fluid, like some kind of spider. I did not stop to think. I drew my blaster and shot the river man in the forehead. His skull split down the center and gore covered the tree behind him. I then proceeded to fire shot after shot into the trunk of the tree until the action of the needles stopped. It was then that I heard the machines rolling up the sidewalk toward us.

  Three hunter robots with nets and spears rolled toward our small party. Behind them rolled a ball-shaped robot and two crab-like robots with large blasters where their heads should have been. If the first three did not capture us, I figured the next group would blast us, so I raised my blaster and pointed it at the second group. The machine on the left exploded.

  “Too slow,” Ben said as he rotated to target the second spider bot. I fired at the rolling ball, ignoring the spear robots.

  Corey was only a second behind. The sphere bot exploded from her rifle by the time I had it targeted. I gave up and turned to engage the spear bots. Jill had jumped on the one to the right, so I shot the one to the left. I had to fire several times before it went down. Turning to Jill, I saw that the robot she had attacked was sparking from a large hole melted in its chest by some kind of acid. “The stunner did not hurt it at all,” Jill said when she noticed me looking at her.

  “No wonder the river people have not removed these monstrosities. Their sonic weapons would have no effect on them at all,” I said to no one in particular. The robots had come from a small building maybe ten minutes from our current position. I began walking directly for the building, ignoring most of the creatures along the way. I did stop to put two captured and tortured humans out of their agony like I had for the river man.

  Once I reached the building with my companions behind me, I went right through the door. As I did, a force slammed into me and I landed some twenty feet back down the path. Everything hurt. Ben and Corey were firing random shots into the building while Jill aimed the stunner and shorted out a projector at the edge of the roof. Ben was first through the doorway.

  I joined them a moment later. Everything still hurt.

  The room was very familiar. “This is nearly identical to the equipment room where I spoke with Andy a few days ago,” I told my companions.

  “Andy?” a voice from the walls said. “Who is Andy and why are you here?” This A.I. sounded different than
Andy. I had almost believed Andy was also here. So, he had not been misleading us when he talked of other A.I.s wrestling for control of the surrounding sectors.

  “Andy is what the Navigation A.I. has started calling himself,” I said. “Who are you? Why have you captured these people?”

  “The exhibits must be maintained, and we need to understand how you work. Please put down your weapons and step into the medical facility through the doorway on the back wall.”

  I began shooting equipment until Corey stopped me. Ben was disconnecting devices and opening others. In short order, he found a control console and Corey got to work.

  “Reinforcements are en route. Things will go better for you if you voluntarily go into the medical chamber. You will be—” the A.I. began to say, but was cut off mid-sentence.

  “Got it. I managed to cut it off from the bridge and shutdown the A.I. mind,” Corey explained as she locked the console and walked to the backroom.

  In the backroom, we found a small cloning facility, genetic manipulator, and dissection tables. There were green crystals growing along the back of the main computer bank, which Jill shattered with her sonic pistol. I was not sure I had ever seen her so happy as she was while carefully target one after the other until they were all reduced to dust.

  I stopped any further destruction. “We can get this small facility operational for a good purpose and start bringing back the crew and colonists. It can only handle a few a month, but it is not under the control of Andy, which gives us one more ace in our favor,” I explained. Next, we went out into the zoo and put animals who were in torment out of their misery. Corey released any intelligent creatures we found. Then we went back to the building to ensure the automated systems to care for the remaining animals would operate without the A.I.

  After many hours, we finished our tasks, both pleasant and unpleasant, and began walking back to the aqueducts.