by Eric Warren
Oh, you have no idea.
“I understand,” Frees said. He’d hoped Byron would be more of a loner, but it seemed he had at least one friend here. Which was going to be hard to maintain. If anyone was going to see through Frees’ deception, Lyman would be the first.
The first guard tapped something on his forearm Frees couldn’t see.
“Abrams, comma, Byron. Inspection complete. Code green.” The loudspeaker yelled.
The guard left him alone with Lyman. Frees felt a lot more nervous.
“So? What’s she like? The famous lost child? And how the fuck did you get to be the lucky asshole who found her?” Lyman clapped him on the back.
“Coincidence, I suppose,” Frees said, trying to keep the talk to a minimum. He didn’t want to try and field questions from someone who thought he knew who he was. Except Lyman knew about London. Which was information Frees needed. “How is it going…across the pond? Making any progress?”
Lyman arched an eyebrow at him. “Across the pond? Are you nuts? They said you got smacked around a little out there. I didn’t believe it until I saw your face. You should get down to the infirmary, get that checked out.”
“I’ll take care of it later,” Frees said. “It doesn’t bother me much.”
“Fuck me, man. If my face looked like that I’d have made a beeline for the nurse and told them to just rip it off and start over. It looks like someone took a jackhammer to you.” Lyman approached him for a closer look but Frees ducked away, moving to the other side of the room.
“Is it going well over there? Almost broken through the defenses?”
“Hehe.” Lyman fake-laughed. “Yeah, almost.” He winked. What the hell did that mean? “We’ve got troops surrounding that bastard AI, but he ain’t goin’ anywhere. An’ we’re just pickin’ off the Peacekeepers as they come out to defend him. Stupid fucks. Eventually he’s gonna figure out to stop sending them out. But it’s an easy job. Yours is much harder.”
“What? Taking out the Peacekeepers?”
“Yeah, one by one? They gotta be all over the place out there. Totally disorganized, you gotta hunt them down.” He leaned in closer. “Did you see any evidence of…you know? What the captain told us to look out for?”
Damn you, Bryon. Damn you and your stupid relationships. Why couldn’t have you been a hermit soldier?
“Didn’t see it, sorry,” Frees replied.
“Hey, man,” Lyman said, his voice back to normal volume. “Don’t be sorry! That’s a good thing! Personally, I think the captain is a little paranoid, but I’ve been wrong before. I ain’t seen it neither, and I don’t expect to. But hopefully all this will be over before it matters much.”
“Yeah,” Frees replied. “Hopefully.”
Frees managed to get rid of Lyman by making up some sort of excuse about being too tired to talk, which Lyman took in stride. Though he did reiterate Frees needed to go see the nurse sooner than later; he could have some permanent damage he wasn’t even aware of due to adrenaline or fatigue. Frees assured him he would while beginning to panic about just how long his disguise would hold water.
His room had a small mirror above the bed and Frees took some time to get a good look at the reflection staring back at him. The skin looked too new, not enough weathering in the face for someone Byron’s age. He hadn’t worn it long enough. It was the face of a young older person, but the longer he stared the less of Byron he saw and the more of his old self peeked through. How he had looked before he’d torn all his skin off. His nose hadn’t been as prominent, and his eyes had been set slightly wider apart, which is what he figured was giving Lyman so much pause. A human would look at his face and see something was wrong without being able to pinpoint it. And that was very bad. Frees pushed Byron’s hair up and across his forehead, watching the brown strands fall back into place. It had been so long since he’d had any sort of hair and it felt strange.
He turned away from the mirror. He was wasting time. If he left his barracks would it be a problem? He decided to peek out and see what the other soldiers were doing, maybe he could sneak away without being noticed.
Frees slid his door open and peeked down the long, claustrophobic hallway. Women and men were coming and going from all directions. Some of them wrapped in towels from the showers, others in full uniform. Lyman’s door remained closed which meant he was probably inside. It seemed when a soldier wasn’t in his quarters they kept their doors open. Frees stepped out into the hallway, only for someone he didn’t know to push past him without even an “excuse me”.
Frees made his way down the crowded hallway, taking care not to look anyone in the eye. A couple of people stopped to look at him and one even called out “Good job, Abrams!” to which he responded with a thumbs up without stopping. At the end of the hall was a four-way junction. Off to the right it opened into a large assembly area. Frees heard raucous noise coming from that direction which he assumed must be the kitchen and galley. Ahead of him were officer’s quarters and to the left took him back the way he’d originally come, back out to the rest of the colony.
He needed more information before he began his search. He didn’t see anyone stopping any of the other soldiers as they moved freely through the barracks, so he assumed he had the freedom to come and go as he pleased. But he needed a map.
Frees peered down the corridor leading to the officer’s quarters. Two of the doors were open but the rest of the hallway was the complete opposite from the barracks. No one was coming or going here. If he was caught he wouldn’t be able to feign ignorance, but if he had no idea where he was going or how to search this place it was only a matter of time before he was caught.
Making his way down the corridor as quickly and quietly as he could, Frees noted and memorized the names on each of the doors. Captain Price. Second Lieutenant Miral. First Lieutenant Yama. Major Dorchester. Each had a small number underneath their names but Frees couldn’t understand the significance. The person’s age perhaps? It didn’t really matter. He reached the first open door, the sign beside it told him this was Captain Brody’s quarters. Inside it was much larger and more spacious than his own with multiple interface screens. Frees wouldn’t be able to use his own thumbprint to access the ports, he’d need something else.
He adjusted the modulation and pitch of his voice to mimic the recordings of Brody he’d seen while studying the manifest.
“Access location map.” The console sprung to life, unlocking and producing a multi-level map of the facility. Wow, this place was big. Bigger than it had any right to be. Seventy stories in height, all of them underground? And probably five square miles of walking space, split up by floor. The military levels were on the bottom levels, where he was now. Arista was up in the civilian population. They had every amenity down here, every convenience. Why would they want to leave?
Frees quickly memorized the map, he’d take some time to analyze it later. He didn’t need to be caught in here.
As he prepared to leave, something Lyman said caught in his mind. He said the humans were looking for something…something in the Peacekeepers they were hunting. Frees wondered if he could access the battle plans for whatever operation the humans were out there executing. He tapped a few commands on the screen but was only met with a password block. No matter, he could pump Lyman for more information later.
“What the—?”
Frees glanced up to see Captain Brody standing in the doorway, his face red with fury.
Fifteen
Arista didn’t like Jessika. Didn’t trust her in the slightest. The woman was very closed off. And when she spoke her voice came across as timid; Arista couldn’t stand timid people, human or not.
And Jessika wouldn’t stop staring at Arista’s arm. She’d glance away every time Arista caught her looking, but she made no effort to hide it. Arista had no intention of taking off the metal sleeve—the ambulon—as Jessika had called it. Somehow her arm felt safer encased inside. Stronger in a way.
Follo
wing Jessika down the hallways to the elevator, Arista had a million questions about the colony, but she wasn’t about to ask this woman. She didn’t want to let it slip she was in awe of this place, its size, and its technology. She’d never seen anything so advanced. There were just so many humans! Far more than she could have ever hoped to meet in one lifetime. Old humans, young humans, large and small. They were all shapes, sizes, colors, and faces. For a moment, she allowed herself to pretend like she was part of this intricate system, like she belonged here.
No. That felt like a betrayal to everything she’d come here for. A betrayal to Shin, to her parents, to Frees and even on some level…to Jonn, the machine who’d betrayed them to Charlie. She couldn’t let herself romanticize this place. The people here were capable of atrocities and it was important to stay focused on the task at hand. She only hoped Frees was having some good luck in his search.
She slid her eyes to the side and caught Jessika staring at her face before she turned away quickly. “What? What is so interesting about me?” she finally asked.
“You’re different than I remember,” Jessika said, adjusting the glasses on her nose. “More determined. Life out there has made you hard.”
Arista brought her eyebrows together. Was there anyone here who didn’t know her from before? “You knew me too.” She wanted to say something snarky about adding Jessika to the list of people who decided not to come for her but thought better of it. She needed to remember she was playing a role: the happy, well-adjusted human who was thankful to be back among her people.
“I did,” Jessika said. “Lots of people did.”
“I’m sorry I can’t remember you.”
Jessika forced a smile. “Maybe it will come back. We’ll check once we get down to the lab.”
“Check how?” Arista asked.
Jessika eyed her. “You know about your implant. On your parietal lobe?”
Arista nodded.
“It should have a recording of all your memories, even before the accident. We’ll see what we can pull. I don’t care what Echo says.”
Arista’s heart threatened to crack a few ribs. If the Device had a recording of all her memories, they would see she’d been lying. They’d see what she’d done to those humans in the tanks…and to Sy. And her true purpose here. She couldn’t let them access the Device, no matter what. No matter what she had to do.
“How do you pull the memories, exactly?” Arista struggled to keep her voice from wavering.
“We’ll have to remove it. Don’t worry, it’s an easy surgery. And once we’re done we can replace it for you. Give you an updated model.”
“Does everyone have one?” Arista asked.
Jessika’s eyes narrowed. “No. They are reserved for people like you. They wouldn’t work on me.”
“What does that mean?”
The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened. “Here we are, follow me please.” Jessika exited ahead of her and Arista had the desire to knock the woman out and make a run for it. What would happen when they viewed those memories? This whole time she’d thought the Device had been helping her, but in reality it had been a surveillance device? What could be the point of something that records your memories? What advantage did it provide, other than weeding out liars?
She had to be smarter about this. She couldn’t take Jessika down right now, not in this hallway. She needed to wait until she got her alone. Or at least somewhere less conspicuous.
“Are you getting off, or what?” a woman on the other side of the door said. She was holding what looked to be a heavy box as she was struggling to keep it up.
“Oh,” Arista said. “Sorry.” She stepped off the elevator and caught up to Jessika, who didn’t seem concerned she had left Arista behind. The very next room she found herself alone with Jessika she would knock her out, call Frees and they’d make a run for the Gates. It was their only option. Stupid! Of course, that’s why they hadn’t questioned any of her activities, they were about to get a play-by-play. They had no reason to doubt what she said because if she was lying it would become clear soon enough. No wonder they’d given her the pampered treatment. Arista wished she hadn’t left all those explosives in her room. She’d been foolish and naïve.
“It’s right over here,” Jessika said, motioning to the side. Arista noted the walls were flecked with purple down here as it was designated Epsilon sector. There had to be an order to all these locations, some logical way they’d been laid out. She tried to remember where the Gates were, the walls were white…but what sector? What floor? She’d become too reliant on the Device. It would have given her all that information, and now she felt defenseless without it.
Jessika stood in front of the doors while a small light above them moved over her. The doors slid apart, revealing the large room before them. It was primarily a long walkway with stations on either side, running from one end to the other. People at each of the stations were clad in white jumpsuits, all working on different projects. Arista wanted to see what each station was working on, but she needed to keep her focus. only hoped they’d be going somewhere more private.
“Will you be performing the surgery?” she asked.
“I’ll be assisting,” Jessika replied, not looking back, instead continuing to lead Arista down the walkway toward the end of the room. Her pulse quickened.
“And it’s…painless?”
“Completely,” Jessika said. “This way please.”
Jessika had turned to the right, walking along the massive back wall toward a series of rooms on the side of the research wing. Each one was like a giant alcove, not completely shut off from the others but with enough privacy so an occupant of one alcove couldn’t see anyone. As they walked over they passed through a field of some sort; the sensation tickled Arista’s skin.
“Biohazard barrier,” Jessika said, answering a question that hadn’t been asked. In fact, she still wasn’t watching Arista, she had approached a table beside one of the alcoves and was studying something on the display.
“I guess that means I’m clean?” Arista asked.
“If you weren’t before you are now,” she replied. Wow. Frees would love this thing. She hoped she got a chance to tell him about it. Arista glanced around, they still weren’t alone, but people were far enough away now that they might not notice. And this might be her only chance. “Have a seat over here if you don’t mind.” Jessika indicated to the reclined seat behind her.
She wasn’t looking. Now was her chance. Arista took two steps closer.
“Hello now, who’s this?” a male voice announced.
Shit! She’d waited too late. Now someone else had come in. Could she disable them both? With one arm and no weapons? Probably not before one of them called security. But she wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
She turned to face the owner of the voice and came face to face with a man in his early fifties, his blonde hair a mess and peppered with gray. He also had considerable stubble like he hadn’t shaved in a week. He wore a ratty lab coat over what she would consider normal clothes and sneakers. She’d met men like him before, perpetual college students who never moved on past grad school. Or at least those had been the personalities the machines had installed in them. It was odd seeing that cliché in real life.
“This is Arista,” Jessika said.
The man’s eyes went wide. “Oh.” His face softened. “Welcome home…Arista.” He held out his hand and she took it; she needed to maintain the façade to the best of her ability. Maybe she could still get the jump on them. “I’m David. It’s very nice to see you, again.”
“I’m supposed to know you, aren’t I?” she asked, dropping her hand.
“I understand you have some memory loss. From before the accident. You don’t remember anything?”
She shook her head.
He pressed his lips in a line. “I don’t know about you, but that seems awfully convenient to me.”
She furrowed her brow. “What do you me
an?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it. We’ll retrieve those memories for you. If they’re stored in your implant, we can help you remember. Experience them again.”
“How long have I had this implant?” she asked.
David exchanged looks with Jessika. “Since you were six. It was installed two years before you were lost.”
“Why?”
He put his hands up. “If you’ll lie down we can get you all the answers you—”
“Please,” she said. “I’d really prefer you just tell me.”
David sighed, his eyes falling to her arm and his face went cross, as if he’d just seen it. “What in the hell? Jessika?”
Arista turned to look at her. Why was everyone so concerned with her arm?
“She arrived like that,” Jessika replied. “It’s more severe than we expected.”
“I should say so!” David marched past Arista, standing beside Jessika as they studied whatever was on the screen. Didn’t they have amputees here in the colony? Though, now that she thought about it, out of the hundreds of humans she had seen so far, none had missing limbs. Maybe there wasn’t much chance for industrial accidents in a place like this.
“Arista, would you come and lie down for a moment please?” David asked.
“I already told her,” Jessika whispered. He ignored her and turned his attention back on Arista.
“Are you doing the surgery now?”
“No,” David said. “That can wait, I want to look at your arm first. Can you take off your jacket?”
“Why, is something wrong?” Arista hesitated. She didn’t like the sound of any of this.
“No, nothing you need to worry about. I just…need a closer look.” He seemed agitated.
She shrugged off the jacket, folding it over her arm and laying it on a chair beside her. Her tank top made her feel more exposed than normal, but it had been so hot in Chicago before they left she hadn’t thought about changing it.
