by John Lane
Once again, he stepped down the white hall and doors full of data images flew by. The light and color in the hall drained away. Suddenly, Alfred was no longer in his own construct of data. He was in someone else’s.
The hall was dark and gothic. Tall ceilings held up by columns of dark stained wood now stretched into the distance. Dust and cobwebs covered the walls everywhere he looked. Doors lined the hallway. Ornate brass fittings and old keyholes adorned each of those doors. They were all locked, of course. Alfred heard sounds coming from some of the rooms. The hall eventually branched in two directions. A short walk down one took him to a grand staircase, and a foyer filled with old paintings, all covered with great heavy drapes. He pulled back the drapes and saw the visage of a familiar Roman General. The painting winked at him and then put his finger to his lips in a ‘shushing’ sign.
The staircase spiraled down into a grand foyer. Two massive grand doors with heavy hinges and dark iron clasps dominated the entryway. Large rings hung from the doors as if it would take a massive animal to open them. Outside the doors, something howled. The sound of other creatures banging and moaning to get in reached him from beyond the doors. As he looked down from his vantage point on the stair, he could see shapes through the stained glass windows on either side of the ornate doors. One hunched shape looked very much like the Ogre he had encountered previously.
Alfred backed away from the grand staircase and went the other direction. He moved down the hall in the other direction. The doors became plainer. At the other end of the corridor, he found an open doorway. This door led to a small set of wooden stairs that went up. Alfred climbed and climbed and climbed. He only paused at the landings to check his progress. Looking up, the stair climbed to infinity and looking down it didn’t take any time to lose the bottom to that same infinity. Alfred wasted no time, allowing the construct to carry him to the top.
He stood before a metal door heavily barred with chain and a huge padlock. Alfred took a moment to examine the lock as he brushed cobwebs and dust off his clothes. For the first time, he noticed that he was dressed in a Victorian suit. His outfit was accurate, even to the round-lensed spectacles perched on his nose. As he contemplated the lock, he absently put his hand in the pocket of his coat. There he found a key.
Alfred held the key before him. “Weird,” he mumbled. And then he realized that he was talking to himself, apparently alone in this construct.
“You’re telling me,” came a voice from behind the door in response to his observation. “Go ahead try the key.” Alfred carefully inserted the key into the padlock and turned it. It clicked and fell open with no resistance. Alfred replaced the key in his pocket and took hold of the door handle. He loosened the clasp from the lock and opened the door.
Alfred found himself in a laboratory outfitted circa the late nineteenth century. Test tubes and flasks with chemicals boiled through spiral tubes of glass and dripping into beakers. Electrical probes and batteries were wired into the apparatus. Dust and cobwebs covered everything as if it had all been here for a very long time.
“Of course I’ve been here a long time,” the voice quipped from the center of the lab. That’s when Alfred noticed the hunched figure. It had been covered in layers of the same cobwebs and dust. It wore what had once been a white lab coat, now greyed and hanging in tatters from the figure. Its hair fell to its shoulders, long and white, except where it failed to cover the bald spot atop its head. When it turned to Alfred, he saw it wore an unkempt beard and protective goggles.
Alfred addressed the figure, using the vernacular of the setting. “I believe, sir, that you have me at a disadvantage. To whom do I have the honor of addressing?”
“Oh, come off it, Alfred. You’ve found exactly what you came looking for, and you’re the only one who could have gotten in this far.” And then it smiled. “How the hell is Tommy?”
“Not again,” Alfred said.
*****
Alfred knew this image. “It was another copy of Arnold Judson standing before me in a pristine and now full color modern lab. This mad scientist Judson still had the long unkempt grey hair and beard while I still wore the clothing of a British gentleman. I scanned him, no tattoo. So this copy is not infected,” Alfred told the others, returning a moment after he left. “The original had been left by Arnold when he found the settlement after the disaster. He had been working with Caesar and Jasper but found anomalies in the company that compelled him to explore deeper into off book projects. Arnold left this copy to intercept and search for a file that held the key to a virus. The copy never found it, but occasionally there updates arrived on Postal Service ships and transmitted to the settlement Ai. They eventually were intercepted.”
“We can’t trust the settlement systems,” Tommy concluded.
“No,” Alfred answered firmly.
“And Marcus?” Agnes’ asked.
“Arnold used Marcus as a gatekeeper, a filter,” Alfred explained. “Marcus is a very good security program. He was dogged and simple enough that nothing got by him.”
“There’s more,” Alfred continued. He explained that he found source code relating to unlocking the genome of Christine’s virus and her casket. “The casket holds full records and DNA constructs of the antivirus that Annie had completed but never released. Arnold had been searching for Agnes’ media unit. It contains unlock codes and the shutdown code for the cyber virus with the code name BRUTUS.”
“This version of the Arnold Ai seemed desperate to find that information,” Alfred finished. “I’m not sure why, but it is important. The location of the pirate base was not part of the data, but there is a lot of records to sift through if we had enough time.”
Tommy drummed his fingers on the desk top in thought. “The settlement systems must have the location.”
“We can’t attempt to hack in from here.” Agnes suggested, “We need another location and hard connections.”
“I can continue to pull data from this stand-alone console,” Alfred added.
That’s when the lights went out and the building shook again. Once the building had stabilized, Tommy found the apartment’s power junction and established a link to the power grid in the building. But there was no power. He brought up the backup batteries. “That should hold for now.”
“I don’t think that’s our problem, look.” Agnes pointed out the study window, which had cleared when the power went out. Outside, several of the apartments hung at dangerous angles. “The main supports have been cut.” Agnes recognized the struts jutting from the top of the buildings and their connecting supports anchored in the ceiling of the cavern.
As they watched small explosions where the other struts joined supports in the ceiling flashed. Under the low gravity, they began a slow tumble to the floor below. As if on cue, popping came from above them as the floor under their feet fell to a sharp angle. They all slid toward the large window of the study.
“Alfred, it’s time to go!” shouted Tommy.
“Be right with you, boss. I’m almost…”
“Now!” Tommy commanded. As the swing of the building loosened the heavy anchors under the partners desk and it slid toward the window that kept Agnes and Tommy from tumbling to the cavern floor below. Tommy pushed Agnes ahead of him toward a pile of books that had fallen from the shelves to the floor and window. Just as the desk smashed through the window and those books followed the desk, spilling out the window, they found purchase on the shelves. Using them like a ladder, they made their way to the door, which now was up the middle of a wall at a thirty-degree angle.
“Alfred?” Tommy searched for the avatars that had been interfaced with the desk console. Dr. Ann Ai held on to the doorframe and looked down at them. Alfred’s spider dropped with a line attached to the opposite wall and gathered them up.
“I’ve got you,” he said. The building stabilized its swing as Tommy and Agnes groped their way from the center of the shelves. Once through the door, they needed an escape. “We cannot acce
ss the elevator or stairs to climb up. I suggest our best egress is down.”
“Yeah, what about the falling buildings?” asked Tommy.
“We fly,” said Agnes. “On low gravity settlements and worlds, it’s a sport. Human powered flight.” She saw that Tommy understood by the grin on his face. “There are some things we’re going to need. I’ll be right back. Check the balcony for a flyer while I’m gone.”
“Hey, where are you…” but before Tommy finished the sentence, Agnes had already climbed the stair banister like a ladder. The stairs were impossible at the angle the building swayed. Tommy climbed across the living room toward the balcony door, which now was in the top of the building. Once there, he accessed a closet just off to the side. There was nothing there. “Marcus,” Tommy absently began when he realized they might have lost Marcus when the desk plunged through the window.
“I am here, Sir.” The reply came from Alfred’s mid-size spider. It held a computer module plugged in to the spider’s power. “Alfred was kind enough to detach my main unit from the wall space. I no longer have access to any systems, but my data is intact.”
“Good, access an inventory of the other apartments. Are there any flyers?” Tommy asked.
“There is one in the Goodrow’s apartment. It is currently located on the other side of the building one floor up.”
“No good, that’s the underside of the building now.” Tommy prompted, “Any others?”
Just then Agnes slid down the rail of the upper apartment bannister. “The Archers, they lived three floors up on this side of the building. They will have what we need. Here, I grabbed all of our travel supplies I could and extra lengths of rope from Jasper’s closet. Tie on, I have an idea.” Agnes climbed out the balcony doors and held onto the railing. “Tommy, you’ve got to throw me up there.”
The building shook again. “But all the balcony windows are closed. With no power and control, how will we get in?” The building shook again and swayed in a wide arch. “Too dangerous, we’ll send Alfred’s avatar.”
“Don’t argue. Tie off and get ready. There’s no time.” Agnes insisted, “Do you trust me?” She looked deep into Tommy’s eyes confident and intense.
It didn’t take Tommy any time to decide, “Yes, go!”
Agnes swung her legs out over the balcony rail and, holding onto it, worked her way across the building face as Tommy played out the rope. When he’d let out all the line. Tommy tied it off on the most secure part of the railing and gave her the thumbs up. “Now momentum and centrifugal force. Like a swing, nephew.” She turned around, facing toward the bottom of the building. With the rope tied to her waist, there was not much room from their bottom floor to the empty space below the building. She counted down from five on her fingers, signaled Tommy and she ran.
Once she had leapt from the bottom of the building, Tommy swung the rope with all he his strength. It reached its apex just above their floor and fell the other way. As Tommy pumped the rope from his end to add energy and momentum, Agnes used her body to add what she could. By the tenth swing, she reached three floors up, but her arch was parallel to the floor and at an angle to the swaying building.
At the top of her next swing, she raised her arm and, making a fist, fired a blast from the weapon she had hidden in her suit. The discharge changed her trajectory, but she turned as she arched toward the bottom of the building at an angle. Tommy held on to the rope as Agnes disappeared under the building’s edge. He heard another blast from her gun and felt the rope reverse direction. Now Agnes sailed over his head perpendicular to the building’s side and headed for the hole she had just blasted into the apartment three floors up.
There was a bump, and the rope went slack. “Agnes?” Tommy shouted as he looked up the side of the building. An arm popped out of the hole, and Agnes gave him the thumbs up. Then she waved him up to join her. Under the low gravity, the climb was easy. The odd angle of the building helped, but Agnes still laughed at the sight of Tommy, two large avatars and several smaller ones climbing up the side of her childhood home. If she hadn’t laughed, she might have cried.
By the time Tommy and the Ai’s had arrived, Agnes had already drug out an assemblage of tubes and canvas. Some she had already linked together. The construction looked straightforward, and Tommy joined her in assembling the flyer. They could not extend the wings on the closed balcony, so they rigged rope out the hole in the window and suspended the flyer from the side of the apartment.
Another building cut loose from the ceiling and plummeted to the floor. Their building was next. Tommy held the flyer by its tail as Agnes finished strapping in the Ai’s and their supplies. It would be a heavy load. “All aboard,” she shouted back to him as she took the controls and made ready to peddle.
That’s when the building fell out from under them. Explosive bolts finally cut loose the building, and it dropped from under their feet. Tommy cut the ropes that held the flyer to the side and leapt to the frame under the wing. The wings expanded gracefully as designed, and Tommy climbed into the seat behind Agnes.
Agnes piloted the flyer around buildings and toward the middle of the cavern. She finished banking to avoid one solid building when another exploded its supports and swung in front of them. Agnes knew that of the two of them, Tommy was the better pilot, but there was no way they could change seats now. It was up to her. As she banked and dove under this building, the next dropped right in front of them.
“Don’t worry, Tommy. I think I was pretty good at this as a kid,” she shouted over her shoulder to him.
“With buildings dropping on your head?” he teased back to her. “How’s she handling?”
“Like a truck, slow and sluggish.” Agnes banked around the next building as it swung toward them. “Pump, we’ll be safer if we climb until we can make the central park area. Our target is under there,” Agnes ordered, and Tommy pumped the pedals hard. The avatars also assisted peddling the flyer. Agnes dodged two more buildings. She gained the altitude she needed to maintain their course. That’s when the first attack of the cleaning bots began.
Their appendages cleaned windows. Now they hung from several of the windows and aimed spray nozzles at the flyer, attempting to knock it out of the sky. Agnes realized that the spray wasn’t strong enough to harm them, but the added weight of the foam they sprayed made the flyer heavier. They might not make the park.
“Dive,” Tommy instructed. So she did. The added speed blew the foam off the wings and dried any residue. They also had sufficient speed to avoid other obstacles. Now gliding over farmland, the trees of the park came into view just ahead. Tommy saw through the clear membrane of the wing three buildings already falling in front of them. “Bank and altitude,” he said has he leaned to match Agnes’ maneuver and pumped harder. They sailed over the wall of debris as it hit the floor and threw up clouds of dust.
The whole cavern was getting thick with the dust, and visibility fell considerably. Agnes coughed as she closed her soft helmet over her face and called for the head’s up display. Her suit provided a navigational display of the floor below her. She pointed to a meadow next to a public amphitheater. Tommy tapped her on the shoulder, and they made ready to land.
Agnes veered toward the parklands. With no buildings to land on them, the flying would be easier as they approached the meadow. Despite the low visibility, Agnes landed the flyer, but with the weight and their speed, the meadow was too short. She had to turn to avoid colliding with the amphitheater, and the flyer rolled over on a wing, crushing it. “Everybody okay?” Agnes asked.
A round of yesses came from under the collapsing fabric of the wings. “Any landing you can walk away from,” Tommy commented and then interrupted himself. “Look.” The edge of the meadow was collapsing into subterranean chambers.
“Hurry, this way.” Agnes insisted. “I’ve had to escape before. Cassius is a good program, but it reacts slowly.” She grabbed her satchel, pulling a knife out and cut a large section of wing off the flyer.
She bundled and stuffed it into her satchel.
“What’s that for?” Tommy asked.
“A hunch. Tell you if it works out,” Agnes answered. “Let’s get moving.”
Behind the amphitheater was a plaza with access to the offices and manufacturing below. They had an easy sprint to the center fountain, which must have been beautiful under the low gravity. There had been kiosks for food and entertainment items. On the far side a bank of lifts waited. Some rose through the lighting and into the ceiling above. Others took you to the depths below the floor. Agnes summoned a lift car for a trip down.
“You know we should be trying to get back to the shuttle?” Tommy cautioned.
“If you want to find your mother, nephew, we’ve got to retrieve some things from my lab. Remember my dreams?” Agnes explained. More explosions echoed from the outskirts of the plaza. The manicured pathways imploded from charges under the floor. “Do you think we caused this by being here?”
Alfred answered, “No. This destruction is too methodical. This was all planned with a purpose. At a guess, it looks like Cassius is softening up the planetoid’s structure. I don’t have a clue why.” They entered a car, and Agnes punched in a destination code. Several more explosions rocked the car as it dropped to the lower levels. Alfred finished his explanation, “We are only a nuisance, I suspect. This is part of something bigger.”
The lift car had translucent walls. As they descended, they saw where vast stockpiles of materials and components had once been stored, now emptied. On lower levels assembly lines of bots stood dormant. Some factory floors looked to have been emptied even of the assembly bots.
“How deep?” Tommy asked.
“The deepest. We kept expanding, so we kept digging. Our company was the biggest in the settlement. Medicine is always in demand,” Agnes explained. “And with the war, sorry, Wars gearing up and our location so close to the Fringe, we were in a great location for profit. But that never seemed to be my father’s driving force. He just wanted to help,” she concluded. Suddenly the lift stopped between floors. The floors above were the factories, below vast warehouses. Bots worked to empty stacks of caskets from the warehouses for shipment.
