by J G Smith
My heart skips a beat and, for a moment, I feel weightless. I see a flash of red. For a moment, time seems to go by slowly. “Natalia!” I call.
“I’m here,” she says, directing me to one side of the room.
“Dad!” I call.
There is no answer.
“Ahteirus!” I try.
“She’s with me,” Natalia answers.
“Where’s dad?” I ask, drawing nearer to the sound of her voice.
“He ran out the second Private Martin arrived,” she mutters, trying to hide the uneasiness in her voice. “But there’s no time for that,” she soldiers on. “We need to get going.”
“Where?” I ask. Then, shifting focus, question, “Where did dad go?”
The click of a switch cuts the silence in the barracks and is accompanied by a green light from Private Martin’s Dark Shift goggles. He makes a random comment about someone shirking on sweeping duties before turning to reveal his oblong face, strained with dire news. “Your mother sent me back when she realised it was a trap,” he reports. “They’re already here. We need to get going.”
“Where’s the safest place right now?” Natalia asks, not taking any heed of my concern. “A place where we can stock up and prepare for any attack.”
Something doesn’t feel right. She’s making orders as if she’s already acting General—currently in command.
“The Albatross Neuron Facility,” Private Martin answers. “But you’ll need to be prepared.” He pauses, gathering his thoughts. “There are things your parents never told you—things you wouldn’t have been taught at school.”
“Hold up,” I interject. “Can someone please tell me where our father went?”
Private Martin turns to face me. I don’t like the readings for his facial expression. They’re grim.
“The battalion wasn’t holding their ground when your mother sent me back,” he explains. “Your father went to see if he can help—to see if there are any survivors.”
It can’t be. I feel my throat close up and vitals slow down. “Can’t we just check their readings on your tablet?” I ask, hoping the thought just slipped their mind.
Private Martin looks to the ground. “Their mappers are all offline, Master Price,” he tells me. “I’m sorry.”
I feel the tears build and begin to flow, beyond my control.
“We have to go!” Natalia demands. A grinding sound from the main entrance follows her words.
Private Martin is immediately alerted and heads to one of the rear exits. “This way,” he calls.
Natalia is the first to follow. I put my hand on Ahteirus’ shoulder and try to explain what’s happening as we make our way out.
“This is why we don’t trust Artificials,” I tell her.
“Wait,” she says worriedly, pulling back. “What about the other people? The ones in the city outside?”
“Do you hear that grinding?” I ask her. “The Artificials are already here. We don’t stand a chance.”
She seems distraught.
“We can only hope that some have already escaped,” I tell her. “The city does have warriors… and there were guards outside.”
She isn’t moving.
“This is the war I was talking about,” I tell her. “And, right now, we have to go.”
She struggles inside herself, but seems to understand.
“Reuben!” Natalia calls, ordering me to follow.
“Come,” I plead with my hand stretched out.
Ahteirus looks back at the main entrance and is startled by a sudden and sharp clanging sound over the grinding. She steps backwards, into me, and I repeat, “Come!” This time she listens and follows.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE ALBATROSS NEURON FACILITY
We enter through the door and into an underground tunnel. I ask Private Martin if I can use his tablet to recover as much of the translator’s coding from my server as possible. There’s at least an hour’s worth of programming lost, but perhaps I can finish at the facility.
“Private Martin,” my sister calls, hastening her pace to walk alongside him. “Have our parents ever said anything to you about Dr Albatross and the perfect Artificial?”
I can’t believe she just asked that. “Natalia!” I yell. She turns sharply with a glare in her eyes. “Dad said we should wait for mom before—”
“Mom’s dead,” she says, sternly, bringing the rest of us to a halt.
I’m flabbergasted by her detachment. “Then we can at least wait for dad and ask him,” I retort.
“I’m the acting General.” Her words come drunk with power. “I’m in charge.”
“It hasn’t even been a full moon since we received the news,” I return.
“We’re in the middle of a war,” Natalia booms. “People die. You best get used to it.”
This angers me. She’s right, but her priorities are way out of line. “You’re rather insensitive,” I tell her, contemptuously adding her title, “General.” It’s clear to anyone who hears that I disapprove of her rank at this given moment in time. “I know full well that this is a war,” I continue, fuming. “And what have we been doing?” I question, starting to veer off track. “Hiding in underground cities while people have been dying?”
“Master Price,” Private Martin attempts to step in.
“No,” I rebel, firmly. He’s taken aback. “I mean, let’s be honest, when have we ever seen a real battle?” My eyes are fixed on Natalia with that question. “We’re always held back, locked up or protected.”
“I’ve seen battle,” Natalia declares, taking out a battle orb, as if to boast.
Ahteirus steps back and hides behind me. She recognises the orb from her encounter with one of the guards at the entrance of what used to be my city… my home.
I start walking again, just ahead of Private Martin’s faint green light. “We should just take this battle straight to the Artificials,” I mutter, looking to the ground. My emotions are heightened. The Artificials have come a little too close to home.
“Are you crazy?” Natalia questions bewilderedly as I walk past each of them. Ahteirus hurries to catch up with me. “The only reason we’ve survived the war as long as we have is by seeking refuge where they cannot find us. We fight when necessary. We defend ourselves. We preserve what we have. The moment we step out of that—the moment we become greedy and fight them head on is the moment we lose. Then, the only question of our fate is extinction or slavery. Is that what you want?”
She chases after me with Private Martin just behind. “Reuben!” she calls.
I ignore her and Ahteirus notices. “I’m sorry, Reuben,” she says, fighting whether or not she should say more. She seems worried. “There’s just something I don’t understand.”
“What?” I ask, still hurrying away from my sister.
“I saw her… in my dream. I saw your mother. When I saw you, she was there, with your father and sister.”
Frowning, I ask, “So, she could still be alive?” I’m sceptical of her claim, but feel an inkling of hope.
“I don’t know,” she says. I can tell she wants to say more.
“What else did you see?” I ask her, firmer than I did before. If there’s a chance that my mother could be alive, I have to know.
She looks to the ground, hesitating.
“Well?” I ask, pushing her to speak.
She resists, but eventually gives in. “I saw you at the top of a building, a very tall building.” She looks back up at me and, with a choked-up voice, says, “You ran… and then I saw you fall.”
My pace slows down drastically. “Off the building?” I ask.
She nods.
“Then I’ll be sure to stay away from rooftops,” I attempt to assure her. “High ones. But, right now, I’m more interested in the part about my mother being alive. Did you see anything else about her?”
She stops walking. “Reuben,” she starts. Her readings appear grim. “You jumped.”
I did what
, now?
“The exit is just ahead,” Private Martin says, stepping ahead of Ahteirus and me.
Natalia is still firing scowls in my direction as a rounded vault-like door becomes visible a few steps ahead, half a metre above the ground and slanted at an angle of forty-seven degrees over the ground. I see those measurements as a pale blue holographic text alongside the door.
Private Martin enters a code on the archaic keypad and turns the gears on the tightly shut door, causing a loud grating sound to reverberate through the air. In addition to the calculations for the sound, I see the formula for an added weight on top of the vault, from outside. Nobody is pressing against it, though; the readings indicate that the substance is settled and that pressure is being applied throughout.
Private Martin takes a step back and pulls on the heavy door. It catches in its rusted hinges, but swings open with a little effort on his part. It causes a spike in everyone’s heart rate while soil and rubble fall through the opening to the ground.
A few rays of light peer through from outside; Light Shift has already begun. Private Martin dusts himself off and lifts himself up through the hole. He reaches down and helps Ahteirus up first and me second. My sister fusses over how she doesn’t need any help and that she is able to do it on her own, so we leave her to it.
I turn my back to the door and find a three hundred storey building setting the scene before me. It’s the Albatross Neuron Facility, surrounded by rubble and dusty land. On the outskirts are hilly planes and countless buildings with a few hovercrafts moving over them. I’m not worried, though. They’re too far off to see us.
“This is where it all began,” I tell Ahteirus, marvelling at the site before us. “But it’s been abandoned for almost sixteen years, if I remember my modern history correctly.”
When there is no answer, I turn to her and notice that her temperature and cardiorespiratory readings are unusually high. There’s a look of panic on her face and… something more. She’s not used to this environment. She seems to be struggling.
“Are you okay?” I ask her.
She looks straight past me with her eyes fixed on the Albatross Neuron Facility. Between her heavy breaths, she tells me, “We can’t go in there.”
“Why?” I ask.
“That’s the building I saw you ju—fall from.” She gulps and turns to look at me with eyes that tug at my heartstrings. Her right hand’s holding her left arm.
“Then we’ll just stay away from the top,” I attempt to reassure her, but she doesn’t seem too happy with that answer. I shrug. “Right now, that’s the safest place for us to be. Besides, if you saw my parents at the top of that building, they may be coming here for refuge, too.”
Private Martin closes the door we came through with an anti-gravitation magnet, covering it up with as much dirt and rubble as possible. My sister then takes charge and marches towards the facility, appearing to have ended a conversation with Private Martin. I can only assume it had to do with Dr Albatross and the perfect Artificial.
At the entrance of the facility, Private Martin enters another code and takes us to an open and spacious room on the ground floor. There appears to be a reception to the left, big enough for a large workforce, and a number of cream-coloured seats to the right.
Straight ahead is a large silver elevator which also seems to have a keypad instead of a scanner. This facility’s infrastructure is older than I realised.
“So, this is where it happened?” Natalia questions—Private Martin, I assume.
He nods.
“Show me,” she orders.
This is what they must’ve been speaking about earlier when Ahteirus expressed her concern about coming here.
“What’s he going to show you?” I ask.
“Now you’re interested?” Natalia sneers.
Private Martin walks toward the elevator and starts talking, trying to break the tension. We follow and listen.
“After the Artificials were created, Dr Albatross continued researching and experimenting to accomplish his dreams,” he begins, explaining that the Artificials had a primary purpose in helping Alpha Irrilium Prime repair its fallen ecosystem. “But his focus changed when the war began.”
As we reach the elevator, Private Martin presses the sequence for floor number two-hundred-and-seventeen. Ahteirus grabs my arm and nervously asks, “We’re not going in there, are we?”
Private Martin stops.
“Yes, we are.” I answer. “Why?”
“I’m terrified of elevators,” she mentions. “They’re cramped. And what if we get stuck? You can’t even see through this one – not that I’d want to.”
“Would you rather take the stairs?” I ask, rhetorically.
She answers, “Yes!” almost immediately.
“All two hundred and seventeen floors?” I scoff.
“What?” she shrieks. Her readings indicate that she is no longer in favour of the stairs.
“I thought so,” I boast, triumphantly.
“I’ll wait down here then,” she says with crossed arms and her nose in the air.
“What if an Artificial shows up?” I ask her, adding, “What if Lithen doesn’t come to our rescue?”
Her arms fall back to the ground and her eyes widen, sticking to me like glue. This is interesting. Her readings suggest shock… no, surprise. “That actually happened?” she questions. “Liffen is real?”
“Yes,” I answer with a crumpled face. “But that’s beside the point. We should be sticking together.”
The elevator shaft eventually reaches the ground floor and opens, but Ahteirus is still not budging. Everyone is staring at her.
“Private Martin wants to show us some of Dr Albatross’ experiments,” I tell her. “Perhaps we can find something that explains the dream you had about your friend, Robert.” I suspect it will, as opposed to it as I currently am.
I notice that her interest peaks with her readings indicating that she is now more receptive to suggestion. She really cares about this Robert. “I’m not going to like this,” she murmurs, waiting for the rest of us to enter the elevator before she slowly does the same, pressing her back against the far-right corner. Her pulse spikes even more and her breathing becomes even more erratic.
Her hands grip tightly on the aluminium handlebars and she lowers her head, closing her eyes. The shaft begins moving, slowly. “Seventeen minutes and forty-six seconds,” I whisper to myself, seeing the calculations before me.
I turn my focus back to Private Martin, noticing that he has been waiting patiently for Ahteirus and me to finish.
“How long do you think it’ll take to finish that translator?” he asks.
“I should be done by the end of today’s Light Shift,” I answer.
“I sure hope so,” he says.
With his tablet still in my hand, I look up with a sudden thought. “Did our father take any neural mappers when he left?” I ask.
Private Martin breathes disconcertedly. “He was in too much of a hurry,” he answers. “But you’re welcome to check.”
I load the battalion monitor and ask Private Martin for his prints to access it. But it isn’t good news. My father’s neural mappers were never activated. Worse still is my mother’s name, first on the list. Her status reads as offline, along with almost everyone else’s. Private Martin’s name, lower down on the list, still reflects as online.
“I’m sorry,” Private Martin remarks, but I don’t really take heed. With a quick glance at Ahteirus, I’m reminded that my mother might still be alive. She has to be.
A couple of minutes go by and I ask Private Martin to continue explaining. “Did Dr Albatross’ experiments have anything to do with the perfect Artificial?” I ask.
Natalia simply rolls her eyes.
“Yes,” he answers, “but it was never a success, so far as I know. What you’ll see upstairs is the remnants of his work.”
“Why weren’t we told about this?” I ask with an elevated tone.
“Because research continues,” Private Martin tells me. “And if the Artificials knew, they’d reign down on this facility faster than any of us could imagine.”
I shake my head and step backwards, standing close to Ahteirus for the remainder of the trip.
§
A soft ping alerts our arrival at the two-hundred-and-seventeenth floor. Private Martin takes the first step out into a small reception area and approaches a secure-looking door, typing yet another code into a keypad. The door opens. I lock Private Martin’s tablet and hold it to my side as Ahteirus takes a step closer toward me.
A young woman dressed in similar attire to Ahteirus is the first to notice us, from the other side of the door, followed by an older man wearing a white lab coat.
“What are they doing here?” they question Private Martin.
He explains the situation, turning their demeanour from objection to interest. “Have you been briefed on Reuben Price?” they ask Private Martin, causing him to look rather puzzled. “We’ll take that as a no.”
The older looking man takes me aside and tells me that his name is Dr Heldrain. He has rough hands and a black and grey beard, pointing to a tip. “Have your parents said anything about where you come from?” he asks. My reaction is the same as Private Martin’s. “We have a lot to discuss then,” he adds.
The young woman attempts to gather Natalia, Ahteirus and Private Martin one side, away from Dr Heldrain and me, stating, “Only authorised personnel beyond this point.”
“I am battalion General of this sector,” Natalia reports, demanding access alongside me.
“Acting General,” I correct. “Dad is out searching for mom and—”
“I’m sorry, Reuben,” Dr Heldrain says, continuing to rush through his words, “but we can’t sit around and hope that General Sandra is still alive—and now that Professor Charles has put himself in danger, we have to take matters into our own hands.”
“Professor?” I question.
“Why, yes,” Dr Heldrain affirms. “He and Dr Albatross worked on the Artificials side by side.”
