Miranda sighed again. “I suppose you’re right. I don’t want to sound like a princess, you know… ‘Poor me, my arms are so tired from carrying around all this gold.’ So don’t mind me, I’m just feeling sorry for myself. A lot of stress and uncertainty at the moment.”
“That’s why you need to get out of here. Go to Mars, where it’s safe.” Steph poured out the last of the wine. “And don’t push Scott away. You’re going to need him…in more ways than you think.”
Miranda raised her mug. “Thanks Steph, for everything…and especially the wine. I’m going to miss you… Miss your straight-talking.”
“Cheers to straight-talking, then.” They banged their mugs together.
While Miranda savored her drink—it would be a long time before she tasted anything this fine again—her comms unit pinged a message alert. She tapped the side of her temple to bring it up on her ocular implant. “Speak of the devil. It’s Scott.” She glanced over at Steph.
“At this hour?” Her words were followed by an alert from her own comms unit. Being old school, she didn’t go in for implants, so fished a unit out from a side pocket.
“Crap.” Miranda sat bolt upright in the recliner. “He wants to meet right now, says it’s urgent.”
Steph leaned over and showed Miranda the message on her comms screen.
Miranda glanced at it, then back to Steph. “It’s the same message…exactly the same.”
“Something’s up. We better go.”
Miranda stood up, downed her mug, and took a last look at the nighttime landscape. “I hope he’s okay.”
“Never a dull moment, eh?” Steph gave a wry smile.
3
Just Another Robot
Having located its target, the avatron disconnected from the access terminal and moved over to the rear wall of the room where a service hatch was located. It placed a hand over the control panel and the hatch swung open to reveal a short metal ladder descending into the service tunnels. These existed between the outer hull of the giant cylinder and the inner floor of the habitat. They spidered their way throughout the entire structure, bringing power and services to all sectors. The avatron stepped in through the open hatch and began climbing down. From here it could get all the way to the hospital complex without fear of detection.
The passageway was low, narrow, and pitch black save for the pinpricks of illumination emanating from the indicator lights of various systems dotted along the side walls. But this offered no difficulty for the avatron since it moved by utilizing its ultrasonic proximity sensors. It had also downloaded a complete schematic of the service tunnels and knew exactly where it was going and how to get there.
But its progress was slow, and it would need to hurry—it didn’t have much time. The low, narrow passage hampered its ability to move at speed, so it was almost an hour later when it finally came to another metal ladder leading up to what should be an exit hatch in the power room of the hospital complex.
It started up the ladder and found the hatch slightly open. Someone may have been using it; the avatron needed to be careful. It raised its head slowly above the lower rim of the hatch, placed a hand on the door, and slowly pushed it open—just enough so that it could scan the power room’s interior.
Two technicians were moving about, both over to its left, approximately fifteen meters away. Fortunately, their line of sight was mostly obscured by large vertical ducts, so they did not see the avatron as it stepped out of the service hatch. It moved quietly across the power room and over to a remote-access terminal that was hidden from view. It jacked-in and went hunting.
Datagrams and schematics flashed across the terminal screen as the avatron went searching for its target. Luca was here somewhere, that much it knew, but now it needed to know her exact location. It hacked into the primary database and found her room—a long-term, ICU. It accessed the camera feed.
A single bed occupied the room, supporting a frail figure covered with a thin sheet. It was Luca Lee-McNabb. The avatron had finally found her. Now it just needed to get to her without being spotted.
It disengaged from the camera in Luca’s room and began scanning through other ICU feeds to ascertain what staff were monitoring the patients in the ICU at this time of night.
There was just one: a lone technician sitting in the anti-room of the ICU, monitoring Luca and a number of other patients. But it was already very late and the technician had slumped over the desk, head resting in folded arms, grabbing a quick nap. This was fortuitous, and the avatron wasted no time in hijacking the camera feed for Luca’s room and freezing it. The monitor in the observation room went dark for a nanosecond as the live feed was swapped out for a static image.
But before it could continue on its mission, it had one more task to perform. It connected to the New World One comms network and sent three identical messages to three separate recipients. It jacked-out of the terminal and began to seek out a path toward the ICU ward.
Like all hospitals everywhere, the nighttime was the quiet time. Even so, a reasonable number of people still worked the nightshift: doctors, nurses, clinicians, porters, technicians, maintenance crews, cleaners, droids, and a host of others whose labors kept the facility running smoothly. And although the avatron had charted a course that avoided the more populated thoroughfares and security cameras, it still needed to be careful not to be spotted at this critical point in its mission. To this end, it had raided a storage room and found a set of overalls used by cleaning staff, along with a peaked cap emblazoned with the New World One hospital insignia. While this disguise did not cover its face, hands, or feet, it might allow it to pass a cursory glance—just another robotic worker going about its business.
The intensive care wing, however, was devoid of people, other than patients—and the lone technician in the observation room. But he was probably still asleep, not that it mattered, since the camera feed from Luca’s room had been frozen.
The avatron quietly open the door and entered.
The room was sparse and clinical. A single bed took up most of the central space, surrounded by an array of monitors and medical equipment. The avatron moved over to the side of the bed and looked down at the sleeping figure of Luca Lee-McNabb. Her face was pale, her eyes closed, and her breathing was shallow. An oxygen tube ran up into her nostrils.
It leaned over and, with one hand, gently turned her head so it could examine the base of her skull. With the other hand, it brushed away her hair to reveal a portion of the neural lace that the QI, Athena, had originally given her. The avatron leaned in a little closer and scanned the lace.
The multitude of thin filaments spidering across her skull seemed to have fused themselves with her scalp, and were no doubt the reason why the clinicians treating her had decided to leave it in place.
It reached under the thin sheet, lifted out Luca’s left hand, and brought the tip of her index finger up to the control pad on the neural lace. It activated.
The avatron returned her arm to its original resting position, stood upright, and began to scan the RF spectrum, seeking out the interface frequency. Once found, it jacked-in to Luca’s mind.
4
Canyons of the Mind
Luca floated face-up in a cool, languid rock pool. The water was clear and fresh, fed by a slow-moving stream running through the canyon. Overhead, a bright sun warmed her face, a light breeze whispered in her ear. Small birds chirped in the trees and bushes lining the banks of the stream. Farther up the slopes she could hear the tinkle of goat bells as they hopped from edge to edge. High up in the clear blue sky, a hawk circled in graceful, effortless arcs. And in that moment, she had never felt more content.
But a new presence entered the canyon. She could sense it in the changing tone of the birdsong, a slight agitation, the chirping of an alert. It seemed to be coming from her left. She pulled her feet up under her and stretched her legs to stand on the sandy bottom of the rock pool, her head and shoulders just above the waterline. She scanned t
he bank for signs of this new creature that she knew had come. The bushes rustled, and a young boy—or was it a girl, or maybe neither, she wasn’t sure—emerged into a clearing on the bank. It stood, smiled at her, and waved. Silence filled the canyon now as the creatures who called it home paused to consider this interloper.
Luca raised a hand and waved back. “Who are you?”
The boy/girl sat down on the sandy bank cross-legged. “I am a messenger from the QI Aria. I’ve come to take you home.”
There was something familiar in the name Aria, but she could not quite remember what it was. “Home?” she asked, a little confused. “But this is my home.”
“Then do you remember how you got here?”
Luca laughed a little at this ridiculous question. Even the birds seemed to be laughing as their twittering started up again. Perhaps they assumed this silly creature was no threat, and continued as they were before.
“What a daft question. Of course I do. I…” Luca paused for a moment. “Well…eh…” She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It was there somewhere in her mind, it had to be. But now that this creature had asked her straight out, she found it troubling that she could not answer this simple question. Perhaps it was playing a trick on her, casting some spell.
“What concern is it of yours?” Her voice was harsh and dismissive.
“How long have you been here, in this pool?” The creature gestured at the water.
“I’ve been here…eh…” Again, Luca found that she did not know. She had no recollection of finding this pool, or wading in for a swim, but she must have—why could she not remember?
The birds seemed to reflect her concern as their chirping became more agitated. They no longer liked this creature; it was bringing disharmony to the canyon.
“Go away, whoever you are. We do not want you here.” Luca backed away.
“Have no fear, I am here to help you. I am a friend of the QI Athena. You remember Athena, do you not?”
This name did indeed trigger a memory in Luca’s mind. Athena? she thought. How do I know that name?
“Do you want to see your family again? Miranda and Scott? And your friend, Dr. Rayman?” The creature stood up now and stepped forward, almost to the water’s edge.
At the sound of these names, Luca felt a tremor in the canyon. The pool rippled, the sun overhead grew harsher, even the birdsong lost its sweetness. She glanced around, a little concerned.
“What are you doing?” she shouted over to the creature. “You’re changing my world. Go away.”
“I am not changing it. You are, Luca. This is your dream—you created it.” The creature made an expansive gesture with its arms. “It is the safe place you constructed in your mind to shield you from the effects of trauma. You are, in reality, lying in a bed in an intensive care unit in a hospital on the habitat known as New World One.”
Luca felt the tremors intensify as the creature continued, this time pointing at the sky. “The sun above you is the bright ceiling light above your hospital bed. The birdsong and the goat bells are the sounds of the machines monitoring your vitals. The wind whispering down the canyon is the air conditioning unit. The walls of the canyon are the walls of your room.”
Luca’s world began to transmute as the creature broke down her illusion. The walls of the canyon began to lose their substance, becoming more ethereal. Light and sound began to change, morphing into reality.
But Luca fought back, moving farther out into the pool. She lifted her feet and floated on her back again, looking up at the sky. The sun slowly resumed its warm, steady glow, the birds their cheery chirping, the pool its languid stillness.
“I don’t want to leave,” Luca said, in a low, almost fragile voice. “I like it here. It’s safe.”
The creature took a few steps into the water. “I am sorry, Luca, but it is not safe here anymore—and the longer you remain, the more danger you will be in.”
Luca turned her head to look at the creature, then rolled over and swam to the edge of the pool. She stood up and gave it a cold, hard look. “It will never end, will it? There will be no future for me save for running and hiding and fighting.” Her face grew more troubled and she looked away. “All those dying minds, all that…white noise. All for what?” She snapped around, moved closer, and stared into the dark eyes of the creature. “It will never end. Only when I’m dead, and even then I fear they will find a way to bring me back like some Frankenstein monster.”
“I cannot say with any certainty what the future holds, other than you cannot face it by hiding away inside an illusion.” The creature met her eyes. “If there is a way to end it, as you say, then you will not find it in here. You must come back. Only then do you have a chance.”
Luca cast her gaze around the canyon, savoring the sights, the sounds, the smells. It was just an illusion—in her heart she knew that. She had always known that. She had only intended to tarry here a while, just long enough to replenish her mental strength. Perhaps that time had come, perhaps the creature was right—it was time to go home.
She stepped a little closer to the creature and offered it her hand.
“Very well, I will return.”
5
Late-Night Caller
A door alert pinged somewhere deep inside Scott McNabb’s sleep-addled brain—was it a dream, or was it someone trying to get his attention? His brain shifted up a gear and began turning the wheels for consciousness, starting with audio input analysis. And there it was again—that same alert.
He lifted his head slightly from the pillow and strained to listen. For a moment, there was only silence, accompanied by the sound of his own breathing.
Rat-tat-tat.
Scott sat up on the bed and jerked his head toward the wide windows facing onto the patio at the rear of his accommodation module on New World One. Whoever was trying to get his attention had given up on the front door and now moved on to the back of the building, knocking loudly on the windows. As his eyes began to adjust to the dim light, he could see a human-shaped shadow move through the opaque glass.
Rat-tat-tat.
Scott slowly reached down between the mattress and the headboard of his bed and extracted a plasma pistol. He checked the charge and dialed it up a notch or two above stun. He wasn’t taking any chances.
Things had been pretty crazy here ever since the destruction of the QI on Ceres and the attack on New World One. Thousands of new people had migrated to the habitat from Rongo City, all driven by fear of another attack. And even more were arriving from the outlying population centers spread out across this region of the asteroid belt. The situation out there was becoming chaotic and dangerous as various corporations and privateers tried to capitalize on the opportunity presented to them by the loss of the QI.
What passed for government in this neck of the solar system found itself completely out of its depth, struggling to contain the rapidly unfolding situation, having grown soft and impotent after relying on the quantum intelligence on Ceres for over two decades.
So now there was nothing to stop these various interests fighting it out for control over valuable mining resources. As a result, mini-conflicts had broken out all over the region and people were rightly concerned for their safety and that of their families. So a mass exodus was underway. What started as a trickle had now turned into a flood, and New World One was their ark. But it was ill-prepared for this rapid influx. Yes, it was designed to accommodate millions, but the infrastructure was not yet in place to feed and manage all these people. Food was now being rationed until production had a chance to ramp up. But even so, some people were hungry, and prices on the fledgling black market were skyrocketing. As a result, many were desperate and not averse to committing simple acts of burglary as a way to feed their families.
Scott reckoned that whoever was outside right now might simply be trying to ascertain if his place was empty or not. He hefted the pistol, stood up, and made his way to the window. He kept the lights off and his body
tight to the wall. The shadow was still out there, moving around, perhaps looking for a way in.
Scott considered just switching on the lights and simply scaring this person away, but another part of him wanted to catch them in the act, or maybe it was just the thrill of the hunt.
Rat-tat-tat.
The shadow had moved closer to the opaque window and was rapping on it again. The figure’s outline had become much more defined, and…there was something very familiar about it. He moved a little closer and heard a loud whisper.
“Scott…you lazy bastard, wake up.”
Cyrus? he thought. Then quickly slid the door open to find a very irate Cyrus Sanato standing in the pale light, hands on his hips.
“Scott, mind telling me what the hell is going on?”
Scott glanced around, half expecting to see someone else. “What are you doing here?”
Cyrus gave an exasperated gesture with both hands. “What do you mean, what am I doing here? You called me, said it was urgent.”
Scott stood dumfounded for a beat. “No I didn’t.”
They exchanged a split-second look, one that only two friends who know each other’s minds can do. A look that said, Uh-oh. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Scott grabbed his old friend by the arm and pulled him into the building. “Better get inside.” He scanned the outside area for a moment. He was in a sparsely built sector of the gargantuan cylindrical habitat, down near the end cap. Some familiar lights flickered here and there in the gloom—nothing out of the ordinary. Scott stepped back inside and slid the door closed.
“I’ve been trying to contact you for the last hour,” Cyrus said with a concerned look on his face. “But there was no connection. I thought that was a bit strange. It’s not like you to go dark.”
Scott put the plasma pistol down on a countertop and waved a hand over a flat panel to activate a holo-screen. It floated just above the countertop and displayed a list of recent messages. “Connection looks okay. Nothing in from you. Very weird.”
Exodus: Sci-Fi Thriller (The Belt Book 5) Page 2
