by Paul Teague
All the areas that I’ve seen so far – the embryos, the troops, the Transporters, the weaponry, the drones – all these lower bunker levels join together to make one ship. The Quadrants all piece together to create one vast structure, each part has its own function.
That’s why the lower levels are so different, they’re a separate structure entirely, they have a different purpose from these upper levels. It also makes sense now that they have their own Operations Centres, much better equipped than the upper-level Control Room that we’re in now.
Okay, but this just raises more questions, the biggest one being, ‘What the heck is going on?’ We have a lot to take on board here. Magnus takes the initiative.
‘We need to regroup everybody – and fast!’ he says authoritatively.
He issues a few commands to his staff – mainly to get more data about what just happened and what those four Quadrants are doing – and he ushers us back into the briefing room.
‘Xiang,’ he begins, ‘you need to gather a team and prioritize Dan and Nat’s situation.
‘Find out what accelerates and slows down the viral process, and obviously find a way to stop it if you can.’
Xiang is already there, she’s been working at her E-Pad throughout the entire drama of what just happened.
‘Mike, you need to continue with the files’ analysis, focus on Dan and Nat’s situation, and see if you can find anything about what just happened with the lower levels.’
Dad is on the case. Everybody just wants to do something now – I think we’re all really fired up by this.
‘I need to see Harriet and David,’ interrupts Mum, ‘but when I’m back , I want you to assign me a key task Magnus. Don’t keep me away from any of the good jobs.’
Mum’s way of dealing with this is going to be to keep fighting, she’s not going to lie down and watch things happen around her. Magnus tells her to grab an assistant to guide her to the RecRoom where David and Harriet are being looked after, and Mum rushes off. I’m embarrassed to say that I almost forget them – they must have been terrified by what just happened.
I’m seeing a new side of Mum right now, she’s pretty kick-ass but she’s really concerned about the family, and she’s always making sure that we’re okay.
Magnus continues his regrouping exercise; this is his Quadrant, nobody challenges his authority. ‘Viktor, you and I need to talk,’ he says. ‘I want to know more about these nukes of yours.’
Then he turns to me. ‘Dan and Nat ...’ he begins. But Nat has gone.
Exit
Kate recognized Simon in an instant. Without the Neuronic Device in her neck, with a clear and fully conscious mind, she knew him the minute that she saw him. In spite of his furtiveness.
‘Simon!’ she said, ‘Why are you here?’
She knew that if Simon was in this place, at this time, with all that was going on, it must be linked to what had happened to them in the past. And she thought back to what they’d seen in that room before they were stunned by the lasers. Whoever – or whatever – that was speaking to them during the botched military exercise. She knew immediately that it had to be connected.
Simon’s hand moved to his weapon and he pointed it directly at her. ‘Whoa!’ she said, holding up her hands, as if that would have defended her.
‘Steady Simon, it’s me Kate,’ she continued, taken aback by his greeting. Simon ordered her to turn around and kneel down. Kate started to protest, but decided to do as she was told. She knew this man and supposed that he had a good reason for this. And she wasn’t yet totally clear on what she’d done while under the control of Doctor Pierce, but she was beginning to get some rather worrying flashbacks. Holding the weapon right to her head, he came in really close and checked her neck.
‘It worked,’ he said after satisfying himself that Kate’s neck implant was no longer active.
‘Hell Kate, you’ve caused some serious trouble here today,’ he began. ‘Are you aware of what’s been going on?’
‘I don’t know what’s been going on Simon, but we have no time to talk, we need to get out of here.
‘The Troopers haven’t figured out yet that I’m okay now, but I reckon we only have a few minutes lead on them.
‘What did happen by the way? Was that you and your friends exploding things outside the bunker?’
The lift arrived at its destination, and Kate re-seized the initiative, taking Simon’s weapon and marching him out into the corridor. Level 3 was now busy with Trooper activity, and Kate needed to make it look as if Simon was a captive. She took a deep breath as they started walking along the third level. She was still unchallenged, they weren’t on to her just yet. They needed to use the Transporter.
‘Where’s safe?’ Kate whispered to Simon.
‘Quadrant 3,’ replied Simon, ‘if you haven’t taken it yet?’
‘Not yet,’ replied Kate. ‘We aborted when the disruption above ground began, lucky for you.’
‘Lucky for both us!’ replied Simon, but as he did so there was a violent shake throughout the bunker, deep, sustained and penetrating.
‘We need to leave!’ shouted Simon. ‘They’ve begun Unification.’
‘What?’ asked Kate, but there was no time to talk. The Troopers had instinctively moved into a high alert status as soon as the rumbling had begun.
Kate and Simon headed confidently for the Transporter without intervention as Kate activated her SymNode. As she placed her hand on the console to activate the Transporter, the Troopers all turned in unison to face her and they readied their weapons. They’d received a message from The Queen. They knew what Kate was doing.
The weapons began to fire. Kate and Simon ducked to take cover behind the console.
‘They’ve deactivated the SymNode Simon, we’re stuck!’
Chapter Four
The Covenant
The world’s governments had known of extraterrestrial life for many years. Who could think that we would be allowed to leave our planet and to send probes out into space without some form of intervention?
As a species, we’re so egocentric. Even though we know otherwise, we still see the universe in relation to ourselves, rather than as a tiny speck in a much greater landscape.
So when we began to prod the sleeping giant, he had to take action.
An individual species would not be permitted to leave its own planet without an intervention, because of the repercussions that could happen elsewhere.
So we were visited. Not in the form of flying saucers or little green men as the conspiracy theorists might like to have believed. It was done discreetly of course.
The systems of government had been studied from afar – it was quite clear how this would need to progress.
And so it was that The Global Consortium was formed and that Earth’s leaders signed The Covenant, a binding agreement among intelligent species from twelve planets, outlining the rules of engagement, mutual support and information sharing that would take place.
Referred to on Earth as The Off-World Federation – or sometimes O-Fed for short – by the very few leaders who even knew of its existence, a yearly meeting would take place to discuss, revise and re-commit to The Covenant and to debate any outstanding issues.
The meetings were held every 203 days – Federation time wasn’t measured in Earth years – and the biggest topics of discussion for the past fifty-five years had been Earth’s impending environmental doom, and the mineral crisis that was going to destroy Helyios 4 only twenty years afterwards.
Gone
I’m going to have to have words with Nat – she’s no use to anybody if she keeps disappearing like this. She was pretty angry about Doctor Pierce earlier. I hope that she hasn’t gone rushing off to seek revenge on her own.
I feel the same myself. With the minutes to my death counting down on my Comms-Tab, I’m just as keen as she is on solving this problem before our time is up. Two hours, forty-six minutes to be precise.
Nat hasn’t g
one too far – I still feel our connection, but she can’t leave now without triggering the Transporter alerts. Magnus has taken action to secure this Quadrant against attack. We’ve heard that Quadrants 2 and 4, Viktor and Xiang’s bunkers, have fallen to the Troopers. Their teams managed to get word to us before they were rounded up and moved to the upper levels of their bunkers, which probably means that they’re captives right at this moment. Hostages probably – human pawns with which to force our hand and judging from what Kate has done so far, they may not have even survived.
I shudder at the thought of what might be going on in the other bunkers. I would never have said before these events that I’m brave or courageous, but right now, in the heat of this situation, I’m feeling much bolder, I’d have a go at anything if it would help to fix this situation.
I’m at a bit of a loss, I don’t know what to do to take action. The adults are all away discussing things and hatching plans while I’m left here, waiting to self-terminate, or whatever it is Xiang said would happen. I’m with Nat on this, I’m not just sitting here waiting for this NanoVirus to kill me.
The Custodians and adults can discuss their plans, I’m not going to twiddle my fingers while it all plays out around me. I wish Nat had trusted me to come with her – I want in on this. I can feel that she’s still in this bunker, and I’m going to find her.
I’m just about to slip out of the Control Room, when the alert sirens go off. Somebody – or something – has breached the Transporters.
Rescue
While everybody had been regrouping, Nat had been the only one to notice Simon trying to get attention via the Comms-Tab. He was in some serious trouble – she could see weapon fire as he tried to speak to her and tell her what was going on. She was certain that he was with somebody, but she couldn’t tell who it was. Simon had been very clear what he needed though.
The SymNodes had been deactivated and he needed one of the twins to activate this Transporter, not a machine. That meant Dan or Nat – or both – but Dan was at the other side of the room and she couldn’t attract his attention without making a big deal of it. So she slipped out of the Control Room, along the corridor and to the lift.
Nat hadn’t got a clue what would happen now the upper and lower levels of the bunker had been separated. She assumed that Levels 3 and 4 would just be some vast, empty hangar area or something similar.
No time to experiment, she needed to use her genetic advantage to save Simon. The SymNodes were no good now, they’d been disabled according to Simon.
Simon was certain that everything would still work for Dan and Nat, and he was right. Nat was able to activate the upper buttons in the lift.
As she stared at the strange symbols placed above the level numbering, she hoped that she’d got the right combination to take her to where she needed to be. This was going to be a delicate operation.
She had Simon live on her Comms-Tab. It was looking desperate for him and whoever he was with.
‘Coming now!’ she said as the lift began its amazing metamorphosis into a Transporter. She appeared on a Transporter platform just behind Simon in Quadrant 1.
All around weapons were being fired, and there was an explosion just to her right as she materialized in the room. She could feel that this Quadrant was moving – it felt like being in an aeroplane – the Transporters were still working even though the upper and lower Quadrants had become separated.
‘Simon, run!’ she yelled over the sound of weapons being fired. Simon and his companion kept their heads down and ran as fast as they could. Simon fired randomly behind him to discourage the Troopers from taking an open shot at him.
As he and Kate made it to the Transporter, Nat activated the console and they began to dematerialize. But in the panic and weaponry fire, Nat hesitated and pressed the fifth button, the one that had appeared across the entire Transporter network at the moment Unification was initiated.
They’d escaped the immediate danger of the Troopers, but they’d materialized somewhere new, they had not made it back to their bunker. In fact this wasn’t a bunker at all.
As they exited the Transporter, they stepped out into a curved corridor. Nat didn’t look back to see who Simon’s companion was, she was immediately distracted by this new place. It was lined with windows.
She looked outside to get a sense of where she was.
They were in space.
Chapter Five
14 April 1990
The business of The Off-World Federation had gone on for many years, since the 1940s, unknown to the majority of the world’s leaders.
Initially, contact was restricted to those countries with the capacity to send rockets, animals and –eventually – people into space. Off-World Federation members were bound to extremely strict and rigid rules.
The twelve planets which formed this alliance were at very different stages in their own evolution. Some were very advanced technologically, others lived very simple lives and were concerned more with cerebral matters.
One planet was perpetually at war, and there was Zatheon of course, a planet dominated by humanoid and intelligent life forms. It was not unlike Earth, but massively advanced in terms of its technology, social justice and environmental initiatives.
In fact, Zatheon was not dissimilar to a utopian version of the Earth that science fiction writers might create. It was an evolved version of Earth, where petty squabbles between leaders were largely resolved, democracy was universally applied, and a fair but very firm justice system permitted Zatheons to live a high quality of life.
As a consequence of each planet’s unique circumstances, there were binding rules for Off-World Federation members. Those rules included allowing other planets to co-exist with no external interference, to preserve life on those planets if it were threatened by anyone or anything, and to restrict space travel, exploration and exploitation of other uninhabited planets to agreed zones.
One of the rules enshrined in this interplanetary pact related to the level of contact permitted between planets. Only a very limited number of leaders on each planet knew about The Off-World Federation.
Life on other planets – to the general population – was largely a matter of conjecture and rumour. But the issues on Helyios 4 and Earth had resulted in a new pact, an agreement for three planets to share expertise and data.
When The Global Consortium was formed in 1983, compelling the divided nations across the globe to work together to solve the looming environmental catastrophe, it followed shortly afterwards that any solution must also involve off-world input. It was sanctioned by The Off-World Federation because it pertained to preserving life and keeping two member planets alive, an overarching principle of this alliance.
And so O-Fed became involved in the Genesis 2 project. There was an agreement that technology and expertise could be shared, but it must be used and contained only in this project, it was not to be deployed to accelerate the progress and technological advances elsewhere on Earth.
Helyios 4 was also granted this privilege, but the problems facing that planet were mineral based; their power sources were becoming completely depleted.
The Helyions were a formidable and warlike people who lived predominantly underground. They thrived in radioactive environments, their industry was heavy and destructive, and they were a disruptive force within The Off-World Federation.
There was a feeling though among the more advanced planets that Helyios 4 needed to become part of the inner circle or – in many generations’ time, when their ability to travel deep into space had evolved – they might be more inclined to play the role of aggressor.
The Off-World Federation felt that it was better to guide and influence rather than to leave the planet to its own devices and the inevitable violent conclusion.
It was because of these pacts that Zadra Nurmeen had been permitted to leave Helyios 4 to work alongside the humans on Earth. And it was the reason that a female mineral specialist was sent to the same planet, as
an emissary from Zatheon.
A highly talented mineralogist who was to end up years later as the tortured captive of the Helyions she was supposed to be helping.
The Fifth Button
The Control Room is on a state of very high alert. Magnus has rushed away from whatever he and Viktor were discussing to attend to the breach.
Since the Quadrants separated, it seems that the main vulnerability is via the lifts on Levels 1 and 2. The Transporter areas on the lower levels are hovering above the planet now – they’ve separated from the main bunker.
Security in the lift areas is very tight, and there are heavily armed guards on both levels. The screens in the Control Room are switched to multi-camera views so that Magnus can see the nature of the breach.
It’s come in on Level 1, the floor above us, and the tension in the room is high. The doors have not yet opened. We watch and wait, there is complete silence.
The doors begin to open and a probe of some sort flies fast out of the doors, making those of us watching on the screens jump in surprise. Immediately, there are shots from the security teams and the probe explodes and falls to the ground.
‘They’re preparing to take over the Quadrants,’ Magnus announces. ‘They’re just checking out our defences first.’ By way of confirmation, the security chief who just oversaw the shooting down of the probe speaks over the comms system.
‘It’s a 360 probe,’ he says. ‘They just got a complete feed of our fortifications here.
‘I’d recommend that we disable the Transporters.’
Magnus is not so sure – I see it in his face straight away. He knows, like everybody else in the room, that if we just blow up the lifts we can certainly prevent a Trooper attack, but in doing so, we abandon the bunker teams who have been captured in the other three Quadrants. I’ll bet Viktor and Xiang won’t go for that either.
