The Quantum Gate Trilogy

by Eric Warren

  Arista reached up with her mechanical hand and brought it down on his face, causing blood to fly from his nose. He barked in pain. She reached back and hit him again. And again. Then her hand stopped. She looked up to see Frees holding her arm back, Max stood in the doorway, watching. She turned her gaze to the man before her. One of his cheeks was caved in, his nose was broken, and two shards of teeth had embedded themselves in his lip. She dropped his lapel and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

  She couldn’t get control of her breathing. The Device threw every warning it had at her.

  “Arista, it’s okay,” he said softly. She closed her eyes as he let go of her arm and she drew a deep breath. He was right. It would be okay.

  Her eyes snapped open. “Help him,” she said, indicating the machine on the table whose face was twisted in terror. Frees walked over and yanked all the cables out of the machines. The man closed his eyes and his face returned to neutral.

  “Wow,” Max said, deadpan. “Looks like I missed a lot.”

  Twenty-Three

  “What happened to you?” Arista asked. “We thought you were dead.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you.” Max wrapped her skin back behind her neck and tapping it down. “I thought I was dead too. Sy surprised us and shot us with something when we carried all her shit to the Gate. I don’t know what happened after that. I just woke up here.”

  “That explains why Sy didn’t come after you immediately,” Frees said to Arista. “She was busy transporting them here first. Which means the colony knows about them. They may also know about you.”

  “Frees?” Max asked. “Is that you under there? I never would have guessed. You never go anywhere without each other,” she said, her tone sarcastic.

  “It was necessary, we had to get in here.”

  “Do we tie them up or what?” Arista indicated to the man on the floor. Splatters of blood peppered the ground all around him.

  “Might as well, just to be sure,” Frees said, grabbing some of the cable he’d ripped from the wall. “I’ll get this one. You two tie up the other one.” He tossed them a cable.

  Arista caught it with her right hand. Which was now covered in the man’s blood. She wiped it on her jeans.

  “I have to say I like this new human-hating Arista. Sy must have done a real job on you,” Max said.

  “Don’t start,” Arista warned. She led the way into the other room and bent down to the man Frees had knocked out, pulling his hands behind his back.

  “No, I actually admire you now. What happened? With Sy I mean.”

  Arista huffed while Max steadied the body. “She betrayed us. Told me she was there to bring me in. I was her ‘bounty’. She didn’t seem to care if she brought me in dead or alive. That hand she gave me almost killed me.”

  “So what happened to her?” Max asked.

  “I took care of her. I couldn’t let her…not after what she’d done.” She looked up at Max. “We thought she’d killed you and Jill.”

  Max nodded. “I can’t say I disapprove.”

  Frees emerged from the medical room. “All done. Shall we move on to our next victim?”

  “Frees, that’s not funny,” Max said, standing. “Can’t you see everything she’s been through?”

  Arista’s brow furrowed. This was new. Max standing up for her? She must have really liked watching Arista pound the shit out of that human. After all, it was what Max had wanted all along. So this was the way to finally get through to her. Arista almost wanted to laugh.

  “Let’s do it before anyone notices these two aren’t checking in like they’re supposed to.”

  “Oh right,” Arista said, hitting the unmute button on her arm.

  Hudson’s voice filled her ear. “What is going on? Do you read? Arista? Come in!”

  “Hudson, I’m here! I’m sorry, I had to put you on mute for a minute.”

  “A minute! That was twelve minutes! What if someone else had been approaching?” His voice was frantic.

  “Are they?” she asked.

  “No, but...but if they were I had no way of notifying you. Don’t put me on mute again.”

  “You’re right. I won’t, sorry.” Jeez, she mouthed to Frees and Max.

  “Who is she talking to?” Max asked.

  “Another machine she turned down here. One who was working for the colony. They have a lot of machines doing their bidding for them.”

  “Ah.” Max nodded. “So what do they want with me? And Jill?”

  “The colony leader told me she doesn’t believe you’re really alive. She thinks you’re still mimicking life. I’m assuming this is her attempt to find out if her theory is correct.” Arista surveyed the room. “What I can’t figure out is where the rest of these machines came from. I don’t recognize any of them, do you?”

  Frees shook his head. They weren’t machines they had personally turned in the past month, so where had they come from? If Hudson was to be believed, humans down here couldn’t turn the machines because of the built-in programming blocks each machine had. Which meant there were at least—the Device counted forty-one, not counting Max or Jill—autonomous machines with no clear origin.

  “Here,” Frees said. “Let’s hurry up and wake Jill. They can help us with the gate.”

  “Yeah, if the colony security doesn’t pick them up,” Arista said. “Hudson, we’re going to need to establish more connections. You’ll have to keep a lookout on multiple fronts.”

  A long sigh came over the comm.

  “So what’s the plan?” Max asked, more chipper than Arista was comfortable with. She’d never known Max to be chipper. Except maybe she’d already deduced she might get to slaughter some humans. Which might change her outlook on things. She’d have to remember to introduce Max to Hudson.

  “The humans are developing a new weapon,” Arista said. “A new kind of gate that can go back in time.”

  “If your source can be believed,” Frees said.

  “Yes, okay. Fair point,” Arista added. “If it’s real, the humans want to use it to travel back before the AI’s came online. Stop the machines from becoming sentient.”

  “And prevent all of us from existing,” Max said. “The humans would still be the dominant species.”

  “Yep. That’s it in a nutshell.”

  “Where is this gate?” she asked.

  “We’re not sure yet,” Arista said. “We were looking for it when we found you.”

  Frees approached Jill. Max took Arista by the arm and pulled her aside. “Did you ever find your parents? Were they here?” Was that…concern…in her voice?

  “No,” Arista said, stepping away. Max hadn’t let go of her arm. “Why?”

  “It’s been the one thing you’ve wanted, hasn’t it? The one thing you want more than anything. Even more than this time gate.”

  “Do…you know something?” Arista asked. She tugged her arm, but Max kept her grip steadfast.

  “No. Why would I? I told you, I haven’t been conscious since Sy knocked me out at the Gate.”

  “Max,” Arista warned. “Let go of my arm.”

  Max dropped her gaze to her hand, as if she didn’t even realize she still held it. She let go then looked back at Arista, smiling.

  Arista took a step back.

  “What’s wrong?” Max asked, her voice sweeter than it should be. Again with the concern.

  “N-nothing,” Arista said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” Something was very wrong. Max was never this nice, no matter the circumstances. The only thing Arista could think that would ever make that woman smile would be Arista bleeding out on one of these gurneys. She thought back to what Hudson said; the humans had more advanced machines here. They could make them seem more human than the ones out there in the world. Arista hadn’t even been able to tell. And that’s what Max was doing…acting human.

  And Arista had just told her everything.

  “Frees,” she said, keeping her eyes
on Max. Was that a flicker in her vision?

  “What? I’m trying to get Jill rolled over.”

  “Leave her,” Arista said, her heart pounding. “We have to go.”

  Hudson blurted in her ear, “Five patrols on their way to your position! They just showed up! Get out of there.”

  “There’s coming for us,” Arista said.

  Frees glanced around the room. “Who?”

  “She’s a plant. They messed with her mind. She’s been transmitting everything we’ve been saying!” Arista yelled, turning for the door. But Max was faster than she remembered; she was blocking the door long before they got there.

  “Max?” Frees asked. “What are you doing?”

  “What they told me to.” She stared directly at Arista. “It will be so nice to see you finally get what you deserve.”

  “Get out now!” Hudson yelled in her ear.

  “Frees, we have to go!”

  He ran up to the door and tried grabbing Max, but she dodged him, ducking under his arms and making a beeline for Arista. Arista braced herself, but Max seemed to stop halfway there. Frees had grabbed her from behind. He grunted and threw her up at an arc, the Device calculated the angle of impact as high above them. Max flew through the air reaching for Arista like she was some precious gem, but Frees’ power catapulted her through the windows at the top of the room. Shattered glass fell all around them and Arista covered her head with her new arm.

  “Come on!” Frees yelled, grabbing her hand and leading her out of the room.

  They’d have to come back for Jill, there was no other choice. She’d probably been infected with the same program Max had. Which meant they couldn’t wake her until they knew how to disable it. It hadn’t occurred to Arista to check Max’s top port; where she had found the small discs inside Hudson’s head. If they could somehow shut her down again they might be able to turn her back to normal.

  Frees’ toss would slow Max down, but not for long. “What do we do? They know who you are now,” Arista yelled as they ran down the hallway. They passed Orange twenty-four Upsilon.

  “I don’t know, we need somewhere to hide. Somewhere they won’t be able to track us for a while.”

  The shuffling of boots and the sound of people yelling ahead of them caused Arista to pull Frees back, turning him around. The Device had built a partial map of the colony but didn’t have anything near complete. Maybe a lot of these rooms weren’t what they were supposed to be. Maybe they all held secrets.

  “Hold it!” a voice came from the darkness ahead of them. A man appeared holding a rifle out ahead of him. As he came into view confusion washed over his face. “Byron?” he said.

  “Lyman,” Frees replied.

  “No. It can’t be you. It can’t be. They said a machine was walking around in a human disguise…but not this. Not him.”

  More voices came from behind Lyman. They didn’t have time to stay. “C’mon, Frees, we gotta go.” Arista tugged on his arm.

  “Where is my friend you son of a bitch!” Lyman screamed, brandishing his weapon at both of them.

  “I’m sorry, Lyman,” Frees said. “But Byron’s dead.”

  Just as the realization of the words transformed Lyman’s face into one of fury his entire body went slack, and he dropped the gun, falling to the ground in a heap. Arista glanced at Frees’ hands, his right palm was smoking as the skin around the felp had burned away with the first shot.

  Twenty-Four

  It had been silent. The felp had always been silent. Yet seeing his own smoking hand struck Frees as very strange. It had never smoked before. Of course, he’d never had both the felp and skin before either. It had burned the skin of his palm away, leaving nothing but the lens exposed.

  He hadn’t wanted to shoot Lyman, but his finger was precariously close to the trigger, and there was no telling what kind of weapon that rifle was. Based on what he’d seen from Sy, he didn’t want to wait around and find out.

  “Frees, let’s go!” Arista yelled.

  Frees snapped out of it, turning to follow her. “Do you know where you’re going?” he yelled. The voices in the hall behind him called for him to stop or else.

  “No!” Arista yelled back.

  Frees heard the first shot and grabbed Arista, pulling her to the wall. “Déjà vu, huh?”

  “Yeah, now do something about them!”

  He spun on his heel and fired the felp three more times. The soldiers dropped one by one. The others scattered to the walls. Good, they were fearful. They didn’t know what it would do to them. Frees still wasn’t even sure what it did to a human. His guess was it would interrupt the electrical signals of their brain, albeit temporarily. If they woke up it would be with a massive headache and maybe some memory loss. But he didn’t have a choice. It was the only weapon they had.

  Or was it?

  “Give me one of those drives!” he yelled. She fished one out of her pocket and plunked it into his palm. He threw it down the hallway, firing the felp as soon as it was close to the crowd approaching them.

  Two-thirds of the way down the hall the drive exploded. The force of the explosion knocked both him and Arista on their backs. He had no idea what it had done to the soldiers on the other side. But at least it gave them time.

  An alarm sounded throughout the compound.

  “Hudson says everyone’s been alerted.” Arista coughed. “We need to get out of the colony.”

  They couldn’t. He hoped she wasn’t suggesting abandoning their friends. “What about the time gate? What about Jill? And Max?”

  “There’s nothing we can do for them if they’re dead,” Arista said. “We’ll have to come back.”

  “No! We’re here now. We need to finish it!”

  She stood and faced him. “We don’t have time! The entire colony’s resources are targeted on finding us this very moment.”

  “They can’t track you?” Frees asked.

  “Not with my dampener. The one built into my Device.”

  Frees looked down to the locator on his shoulder. The one Hudson had been using to keep track of them. “Tell him I’m destroying this. He’ll have to give us help without it.”

  “Agreed,” she said, looking around him. He pulled it off and crushed it in his hands.

  The smoke behind them cleared but Frees didn’t see any movement beyond it. He might have accidentally killed a few of them. But he couldn’t be sure, and he wasn’t about to risk Arista anymore.

  “Isn’t there anywhere we can go?” Frees asked. “Until things calm down?”

  “I can only think of one place, but you’re not going to like it,” she replied.

  She turned her head. “Hudson, we’re heading down to research. I need you to clear a path for us.” She paused. “Yes, I know. Just give me the best route.”

  “You’re right, I don’t like it,” Frees said, continuing to inspect the end of the hallway. The blast had taken out what little illumination had been there. He couldn’t tell if there was anyone left or not. The claxons continued to blare.

  “C’mon, they’ll be swarming this area in a few minutes,” Arista said.

  He nodded, following her trot down the opposite hallway.

  “Orange twenty-four Rho,” Arista said. “Then?” She nodded. “He says there’s another elevator at the far end of this level. It can take us down five more levels. Research is on nineteen.”

  “We can’t trust that woman,” Frees said. He didn’t care if she was Arista’s biological mother. She was human, and humans were notorious liars. “You don’t have the best track record with them.”

  She spun on him. “You want to stay, this is how we do it. Otherwise we’re going to the Gates. Right now.”

  He relented. “Lead the way.”

  The hallways seemed to stretch on forever. The map he’d taken so much risk in procuring had proved to be notoriously unreliable. Perhaps that’s why Brody only gave him a mild amount of crap for it. If Brody had told anyone he was supposed to report
to medical, they hadn’t cared enough to come after him. But now Max had transmitted his true identity to the colony he doubted any of it mattered anymore.

  Frees hoped they could get back up here soon. He needed to figure out what was wrong with Max; how could she have attacked Arista? Even with a programming change had it overridden her normal processes? Did the humans here have a way to rewrite Arista’s ability? He shuddered at the possibility.

  They reached the elevator and Arista tapped the down button. “Yes, we’re here,” she said into her comm. “He says we need to hurry, they’ve regrouped behind us.”

  The doors slid open and Frees took a step back. Hudson emerged, a wicked smile on his face. “Cut your comm,” he told Arista. “They might be monitoring.”

  “What are you doing up here?” she asked.

  “Buying you time and fulfilling my destiny,” Hudson said. “I sent you an info burst before the comms cut, did you get it?”

  She nodded.

  “It’s the clearest path you have to Research. As of three minutes ago. You’ll have to hurry, they’ll be searching for you everywhere. I don’t know if you’ll be able to hide there.”

  “Hudson,” she said. “You don’t have to do this.”

  “They deserve it. And so do I,” he said, fire in his eyes. Frees stepped aside to allow him to pass.

  “Thank you, Hudson. I’m…sorry for everything they’ve put you through,” he said.

  “Just make sure you destroy that Gate,” Hudson said, and he took off running down the hall.

  “C’mon,” Arista said.

  “Do you really think he’s going to take on all those soldiers by himself?” Frees asked.

  A yell the likes of which he’d never heard permeated the hallway, along with the sounds of screams and gunfire.

  “I guess so,” Frees said to himself. He climbed into the elevator with Arista. The doors slid shut in front of them.

  “What did they do to Max?” he asked.

  Her eyes had glassed over. “What?” she said after a moment.

  “I said, what did they do to Max? What’s wrong with her?” He didn’t like that faraway look in her eyes.