1 arrived at the cavern and found the sled with parts still on it and different parts on the table. He went to work.
ISA Control
The expression on Stryker’s face was one of utter disbelief. She was frozen in place. Even her eyes didn’t blink, and if Abbey and Alex didn’t know better, they would have sworn she was a wax figure from a space museum. Abbey and Alex looked at each other and waited. They didn’t know what else to do. They had told the whole story from front to back without missing a beat, not stopping long enough for Stryker to say anything. It would seem that it was all too much for one person to take in at one sitting. She was stunned.
“Please tell me this is all a bad joke. I’m going to wake up and realize this was a bad dream,” growled Stryker as a menacing look took over her usually stern face like a storm cloud.
Abbey’s voice shook. “I’m so sorry. I guess I didn’t think this through far enough before doing it. I was just so sad for them stuck there for eternity.”
“Yes, I know, ‘being aware’; well, now, I’m aware of what you did, and I gotta say, I don’t know what to say. I’m speechless. What the hell am I going to say to Addison? You do realize that this is the end of all of our careers, don’t you? Not to mention prison. I don’t see any way that won’t happen. You hacked your way into government property and set in motion a chain of events that could—and probably will—prove disastrous for the entire RAIDA project, and maybe even set back speed-of-light space flights for decades to come. In other words, we’re screwed!”
Alex stood up and approached Stryker. “We are the only three that know about this. Maybe we can find a way to fix it.”
“What is wrong with you? Now you want to include me in your clandestine operation?” said Stryker. “Screw that. I’m going straight to Addison with this and let the chips fall where they may. It will mean my job, but if I kept quiet about this, it would mean prison for me too. Sorry guys, I like ya, but there are limits.”
She turned to Abbey. “But you crossed those limits days ago when you fired up your own little ‘control center,’” she said, making the quotation marks in the air with her hands, “trying to change the world.” With that, she stood up, turned, and left the room without another word.
“Well, that’s that. I’m going home and calling my friends to let them know before this hits the media,” said Alex.
“Really? That’s all you have to say?” Abbey’s face was flushed, and tears ran down her cheeks. She started sobbing uncontrollably.
“And that’s going to help, right? Crying? Really, crying never solved anything! We are done! This is all you’re doing, and you are shouting at me!” He stood and walked out the door, leaving Abbey to stew alone.
She suddenly started to feel tired. No, she realized that her body was exhausted. Strangely, however, she felt relief. Wow, I guess confession is good for the soul, she thought to herself. Her body had actually relaxed. Now that the tension was gone, all her body wanted to do was sleep. The urge to sleep was so overwhelming her eyes started to close right there in Stryker’s office. She shook herself awake and made her way down to the skipper pad, expecting, all the way down, to be detained, but nothing. She stepped into a single-seat skipper and left it on auto and told it to take an indirect route to her home address. The gentle hum and vibration created by the skipper, along with the comfortable seat and soothing lighting, soon lulled her into a welcomed slumber.
Dong. “You have arrived at your destination.” Dong. “You have arrived at your destination.”
Abbey reached over to shut off her alarm but then realized it wasn’t her alarm. It was the skipper’s autopilot talking in a syrupy voice. She woke with a start and looked around to find that it was daylight. She had spent the entire night in the skipper.
Looking at her wrist comm., she saw eleven messages from Stryker. She brought them up. “My office now!” was the first one, and then they got even more demanding.
CHAPTER 8
The water flowed over Abbey’s body. She closed her eyes and tried to relax, but the emotions were coming fast and furious, going over and over in her head what she was going to say when they arrested her, and then she thought, This is probably the last time I will be able to shower alone for God knows how long.
She slowly slid down the wall of the shower cubicle and started sobbing uncontrollably. After about three minutes, she stopped and looked at her reflection in the glass wall. Get up, get dressed, and face the world like an adult; have the courage of your convictions, she thought, still looking at her own reflection. Then she laughed. “Poor choice of words.”
As she approached the ISA Headquarters in the skipper, she had a feeling of foreboding; then she shook her head. This is becoming a regular habit, she thought. Whenever I come here these days, I have no idea who might be waiting for me, and what type of reception I’ll receive.
There didn’t seem to be any more guards at the doors than normal, but as she approached and showed her ID, a security guard came up to her.
“I need you to come with me to the third floor, ma’am,” he said. Abbey’s chest tightened, her heart started racing, and she felt light-headed and almost passed out. “Are you OK?” asked the guard.
“I’m fine.” With a flip of her head, she began walking toward the turbo lifts. The guard, caught unaware, almost had to trot to keep up with her. Stepping out of the lift, she was directed to the right and into room IR3. I wonder if that stands for interrogation room 3, she thought. She was asked to sit, and then the guard then left the room.
Paranoia was setting in. She started to tremble. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears. She was about to lose control when the door flew open and in came Stryker and Addison.
“Do you know how much trouble you’re in?” said Addison as he walked around the room and sat at the desk, only to immediately stand up and walk around the other side of the same desk and then back again, this time sitting and staying. His eyes speared through Abbey, who was stunned by the dramatic entrance and the question.
“You might want to answer him,” said Stryker, standing with her back against the wall. Abbey looked at her, her eyes glazed. Stryker was spinning her electronic pointer around with her fingers (something she does when nervous) Abbey had noticed. The pointer was just a blur. It was mesmerizing.
“Well, what do you have to say, for God’s sake?” said Addison getting more irritated by the second.
Abbey snapped out of the trance and turned to Addison.
“What-what do you want me to say? I have no idea what trouble I’m in. I have never done anything like this before in my life. I’m scared, I’m frightened, and my head is spinning!” With that, she started to vomit all over the desk Addison was sitting behind. He pushed back from the desk and into the wall, but that wasn’t far enough to stop the splattering of Abbey’s stomach contents onto him. His face turned red, then purple. He was speechless and left the room without another word.
The door closed behind him, only to open again a few seconds later to two security officers who then asked Abbey to stand and turnaround.
“Put your hands behind your back,” said the larger of the two men. As she did so, she heard the sound of handcuffs rattling and felt the cold touch of the stainless steel as they engulfed her wrists, sending her into a panic; then it all went dark.
Lunar 3097
The red hue from the dwarf star grew as the new Lunar day began, and as the light grew, the shadows inside the cavern shortened, revealing 1 still working away on the slab. After some time, it started to unbolt parts of its left limb and placed it on the slab beside the mechanical parts from its project. As if absentmindedly switching the headlight off when there was enough light to accomplish its task, RAIDA AI, have night vision, but 1 for whatever reason, chose not to use it during the project build.
Now only having the use of one limb, 1 resembled a model crane working away using what was left of its left limb to assist in the building project. After a f
ew more hours, 1 took the odd-looking project from the slab and connected it to the remainder of the left limb, taking the umbilicals that dangled from it and threaded them through the upper limb and connected them into its chest and torso. Then opening a small scarlet red panel just under its rib cage, allowing an electric green light to engulf the entire cave, it took the remaining large cable and installed it into the reactor and closed the door.
1 turned and walked from the cavern for about 300 yards, stopped, turned, lifted its left arm, and pointed to the cavern. Suddenly, a blinding light erupted from 1’s arm, and the cavern exploded in a mass of green plasma. In a second, it was as if it had never existed. 1 lowered its arm and walked back the way it had come.
ISA
“Has anyone located LeGrange yet?” said Stryker.
“It’s as if he has fallen off the face of the planet,” said the tech sitting at Stryker’s desk going over files two feet high.
“Are you going to be able to contact the AIs after you’re caught up on those files?”
“I’m not sure, ma’am. There’s a lot to absorb here. Abbey and Alex have worked on this every day for years. How long do I have before we have to make contact?”
“Until yesterday, so I suggest you move your ass,” was Stryker’s reply.
The tech looked up at her with his eyes as big as plates and tried to swallow, but his mouth and throat had suddenly dried up. When he finally swallowed, his throat stuck together, and he started coughing, so he reached for a blue plastic cup sitting on the edge of the table behind him and took a long drink.
“I’ll do the best I can,” he said through a still dry, scratchy voice.
Abbey lay on a gurney in a well-lit room, but all she could see was darkness. She could hear murmurs … incoherent speech. “Abb, can … Ab …” Suddenly, she saw bright spikes of lights like millions of stars.
“Abbey, can you hear me?”
Her eyes snapped open as she took a deep breath and wildly looked around at her surroundings. She felt something on her face, around her mouth. She reached up to touch it, but her arm wouldn’t move more than a foot, so she used the other arm, but the same thing happened. Then the realization hit her, and she panicked, struggling against the restraints that held her to the gurney.
“Calm down. You’re OK. You passed out. We have you in the medical department. You’ll be fine; just breathe and relax,” said the tech.
“Relax? How the hell do you expect me to relax? You have me strapped down like a prisoner!” said Abbey her voice muffled from the oxygen mask still on her face.
A booming, gravelly voice farther away from the bed said, “That’s because you are a prisoner. Now calm down as the lady said, or we’ll have to calm you down.”
Abbey turned her head and could see a uniformed man. The oxygen mask partially blocked her sight, but there was no mistake. It was a security guard.
“My God, what did I do?” she said under her breath. She tried again, almost absentmindedly, to remove the mask from her face, only to come up against the extent of the restraints. Frustrated, she turned to the nurse. “Please, could you remove this mask? I’m fine. I find it restricting, please.”
The nurse checked the tablet connected to the bed. “Your blood oxygen level is still a little low. If I take it off, you need to promise me you won’t start getting panicky again.”
“I promise I’ll behave,” said Abbey in a begging voice.
“You think that’s restricting; you ain’t seen anything yet,” said the booming voice.
“Why do you have to be like that?” said the nurse. “Don’t you think she’s been through enough for one day?”
“The day has only just got started for her. Now, stop mollycoddling her so much and get her ready for transport.”
“Transport? Transport to where?” inquired Abbey.
“To police headquarters—where do you think? A five-star hotel and spa? Maybe you don’t understand the gravity of the situation here.” The voice approached her bed. A shadow of his outline cast across the ceiling announced his approach like a scene from a badly made horror movie.
Abbey felt a chill run down her back, and she involuntarily quivered as the footsteps came closer. The nurse had left the room, and Abbey felt vulnerable. It didn’t help that her hands were cuffed to the bed.
The guard leaned over her ominously. “Hey, so, do you wanna get outta here?”
“Alex? Is that you? Oh, thank God! Quick, undo the handcuffs,” she said raising her wrists as high as they would allow. “Wait a minute! What the hell are you doing here? They’re looking for you too. Do you want to end up like me?”
“Well, there’s gratitude for ya. I come to save you, and all I get is abuse.”
“I’m sorry, I just don’t want you to get arrested.”
“Bit late for that, isn’t it? You should have thought about that a week ago. Now, try to relax, and I’ll get you out of here as soon as the doctor clears you for transport.” Alex turned to make sure they were still alone. “The handcuffs stay on until I get you in the transport truck, so the sooner you act normal, the sooner we can leave, got it?”
“Got it. Thanks, Alex. I can’t thank you enough for what you’re doing. Who would have ever thought that this would happen to us?” she said. Her voice cracked, and tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke.
“Now don’t start that again, or we’ll never get out of here.”
“Okay, okay, I know, I know. I’ll act normally from now on,” she said as she tried to wipe away the tears from her eyes, only to remember that she was still restrained. This brought more tears. “Come on, and pull yourself together,” she said to herself under her breath, taking deep, slow breaths and closing her eyes from the harsh lighting.
Alex went to the door and called the nurse, “Hey do you think we can get this show on the road?” he said in the deep voice of the “security officer.” “My shift ends in an hour, and it’s a forty-five minute trip to headquarters from here. How about getting the doc to clear us to move?” Abbey heard something incoherent from the other side of the door; then Alex let the door close and came back to the bed.
“Okay, she went to get the doc. It’s up to you now. Act as normal as you can, okay?” Abbey nodded, scared to say anything in case she started to cry again.
Alex retreated to the back wall and stood with his hands behind his back and his hat pulled down over his eyes in an attempt to keep anyone from seeing a full view of his face as it had been blasted on every video viewer in the country.
The door to Abbey’s room flew open, and the doctor strode up to the tablet connected to her bed. He studied it for a few moments, reached in his pocket for his stylus, and wrote something on the tablet. Then he shot the guard a look and said, “She’s good to go.” Then he walked out of the room. The nurse had come in at some point without Abbey noticing her entry.
“I’ll get some orderlies to help you down to transport,” she said.
“No, that’s okay. I got it. She’s already on a gurney, so I just need to push her to the truck and slide her in,” said Alex as he released the brakes on the bed one by one and started to the door. “You could open the door for me, though, if you wouldn’t mind,” he said as he passed her.
“The doors are hooked to your wrist comm. You know, all you have to do is touch the red button, and the doors open automatically,” said the nurse.
“Oh, I’m new here,” said Alex. “No one told me about that.”
“That’s strange. It’s part of the orientation training program.”
“I must have slept through that part,” Alex said with a smile as he left the room.
The truck was backed up to the dock, so all Alex had to do was open the door and push the gurney inside and drive away.
He had the door open, and as he moved to the front of the gurney, a security guard approached him with a clipboard in his hand. “Hey, I was told Duncan was coming to transport her. Where is he?” said the guard.
/> “I dunno. Something about his kids, so they asked me to get her. What a pain in the ass. I was going home early today, but you know how that is.” Alex pushed her into the truck and closed the door quickly. “See ya next time,” he said as he grabbed the door handle. Just as he opened the door, the guard shouted for him to stop.
Alex froze. Abbey turned to try to look out the window but found, instead, a man in his underwear lying on the floor of the truck with a gag in his mouth. This startled her so much that she almost let out a screech but managed to suppress it.
“What’s up?” said Alex to the dock guard.
“You forgot to sign the outgoing sheet, man. You trying to get me in trouble?” he said with a grin on his face.
“Sorry, man. I guess I just want to get this over with and get home for the night.” Alex reached for the sheet and signed it quickly, hoping the guard wasn’t smart enough to check the name to the badge he was wearing with Duncan’s face and name on it. Alex had turned, so the badge was facing away from the guard.
“Okay, thanks. Have a good night,” said the guard, turning his attention to another truck at the other end of the dock.
Alex drove out slowly so as not to draw any more unwanted attention, and after about ten minutes, pulled into a shopping mall parking lot. He came back into the rear compartment and released Abbey from the handcuffs. They both then seated themselves in the front and started driving again.
“Do you know how much trouble we’re in? You kidnapped someone and took his clothes.”
“Are you freaking kidding me?” said Alex. “That’s the least of our worries. That’s just local authorities. The Feds are looking for me and now you. That’s big time.”
“So what’s the plan?” asked Abbey expectantly.
“Plan? There’s no plan. I guess we ditch the van and call and let someone know that Duncan is tied up in the back.”
“Then what?”
CHAPTER 9
“What the hell is going on around here? First, my two best robotics engineers reprogrammed ISA equipment; then we can only find one of them to arrest. Now, you’re telling me that the second one has helped the first one escape?” shouted Stryker over the phone to the unfortunate bastard that got assigned to inform her of the escape.
Lunar 3097 Page 5
