She turned angrily to Lin. "I told you. Why didn't you listen?"
The holographic military commander raised herself to her full seven feet and towered over Heartness menacingly. "And if that flesh composite had converted to energy while we were trying to rescue her? What then ‘Admiral’? Are you saying I should have risked all my officers for the sake of one girl? I already lost twelve people in Team One just trying to get to you. The stakes are much higher now."
Heartness was silent. Of course, she was right. But Szuki was gone, and now she had no idea what that thing was that had just appeared. Was it what Lin had suggested? Some kind of body-absorbing alien?
Now it was on the loose, chasing that scientist and probably wanting to absorb more. She took a breath and strained her neck, looking up at the chin of the commander. "Fine," she said. "Now what?"
Just then Lin’s hologram began flickering, and the maps on the walls momentarily turned off, then back on again.
It was Styert that spoke next. "Commander. Most of the cameras are down. The electromagnetic interference from the alien and the approaching plasma storm are causing a problem for the base systems, but I’m working on boosting the signal. Tracking suggests it’s chasing the man through the hexicles. He's made it to the hydroponics section in 30, but he is now circling back this way. We need him to move that thing elsewhere. Also, well, he is a scientist, so I'm guessing he doesn't have much energy left."
Heartness thought quickly. What was it? Some kind of energy being? It looked a bit like Torus, a friend of hers, but this alien was not as defined. It was more like a basic energy cloud. Was it trying to find another energy form? Could there be something that could stop that?
What could stop energy waves?
"Doctor,” interrupted Heartness. “Are there any Faraday cages?”
Styert looked to Lin’s hologram to see if he was authorized to answer. Lin nodded.
"Lots of them,” said Styert, addressing Heartness. “Standard practice for all research hives to have them. This one had one for every relevant field."
"Commander, can you patch me into the communications system? We need to get his attention."
The tall woman flicked her head at the communications officer, and the officer ran over to Heartness with a small device.
"You're connected. Speak into this top part.”
As she was about to speak, Heartness gave herself a mental facepalm when she realized, in all that time investigating the scientist’s situation, she never thought to look up his profile in her lobe storage. Had she just decided to wait and ask? "Do you know his name?"
"Sam-yel Utson," called another officer. “He’s wearing sound blockers, so we have patched you directly into his ear buds.”
"Thank you!" She took the little box and spoke into it. "Attention Sam-yel Utson. This is Admiral Victoria Heartness speaking. You must find a Faraday cage. It is your only hope. We believe there is no other defense against the energy cloud."
The map on the wall indicated a black dot changing direction, and Utson ran through hexicle 51, heading for 50. Styert called up additional information and the contents of 49 indicated that it did have a faraday cage.
Utson could very well be the last one ‘alive’ in the base, and he might have further information about the cloud. But, if it gets him, then they’ve lost their only lead. And if the cloud is picking people off one by one, then Heartness knew they’d be next.
She clenched her fists in anxiety as a yellow spot on the map representing the cloud sped closer to him.
Could he make it?
“Got the camera working outside 49,” said Styert, and he put it on screen, showing Utson running to the door. “Working on the inside one.”
Utson mashed his hand on the door opener to 49, and nothing happened. "Help," he yelled. "The door is stuck. Can you help?"
Heartness could see the cloud had already reached hexicle 51.
"Doors are working perfectly," said Styert. "The system is showing no conflicts."
"Impossible," said Heartness. "We had trouble with all sorts of areas. Can you recalibrate, or just override and open it?"
"Working on it." Styert called up icons for different doors and tapped on the activate buttons. On the screen, the door swung open and Utson rushed through. Styert immediately closed the door again, then activated the camera inside to show Utson running to the center where four rectangular tables were positioned in an almost complete u-shape.
Heartness couldn't see where the Faraday cage was, and briefly wondered why some of the tables had two of everything. Then she understood. The cage was completely reflective. The wire mesh was so close together as to reflect the wavelengths of light, too.
Utson ran towards the middle and reached for his reflection, touching his mirror hand. The door slowly opened with a hiss, and he ran inside, turning quickly to pull the door closed behind him. There was no handle, and gripping the edge wouldn't let him move it.
It continued to slowly open. Panicking, he backed into the cage.
"Officer Styert, can you close that door?" Heartness yelled.
"Special pneumatic system to make sure the door always shuts safely and perfectly," said the officer, calling up the schematic. "We can't speed it up."
Heartness gritted her teeth. The cage had started closing again, just as the cloud had reached the room and had begun passing through the closed hexicle door. She knew it could sense Utson, but it didn't change its pace.
It probably didn't realize he was about to be protected.
"Estimated time to door closure, five seconds."
It was the longest five seconds Heartness had ever experienced.
The cloud seemed to sense that something was happening.
It finished passing through the door and rushed towards the cage…
…just as the door sealed again with a hiss. There was a spark as the cloud's energy reverberated back at it, and it fell back.
The camera flickered, and they lost the signal.
“Styert!” yelled Lin, though her voice came through broken, and her image flickered wildly.
“Working on it, Commander. Permission to access reserve remote power from shuttle 3?”
“Do it.”
There was a hum and the image reloaded.
The cloud was circling the room, trying to find a way into the cage. It floated around the mirror box, touching each side, then floated over the top.
It then stretched and wrapped itself around the cage, humming and buzzing. Each time it came close there was a spark, then it moved away again.
"That was close," said Styert. "That particular cage is designed to prevent wavelengths upwards of one gigahertz. Not even communication signals can get in."
"Can we get a reading on the cloud?"
"Its energy band is increasing. It's now increasing its frequency to 330,000 cycles per second."
"What?" yelled Lin.
"Oh, no," said Heartness.
There was a loud sparking sound, a white flash, and the cloud disappeared.
For a moment there was silence.
“Get that door open!” yelled Lin.
“On it.”
The door to the Faraday cage moved slowly open, but the interior revealed what they all feared.
Utson was gone.
And now that the energy cloud had absorbed him, they had no doubt it would be after them next.
Episode 5
Builderbots
Chapter 33
Patel looked at the flashing light on his wrist band. “Hiro!” he said. “Any luck?”
“You’ll never guess!”
Patel frowned. “I might be the smartest human in the Solar System, but I can’t access my entire brain at once. Do you want to play 100 questions as well?”
“Point taken. Short version. The upgrade has been hacked. I’ve been able to get a copy of the download and a copy of the original. The upgrade contains a new instruction that disables the doors, and increases external
security. It looks positive, but it essentially turns it into a fortress.”
“So, this isn’t a case of a faulty upgrade, or one that has been interrupted mid installation. Someone is deliberately trying to prevent the Stellar Flash from going somewhere.”
“I guess with all the crew on leave, Victoria in another star system, a temp in space station command, and updates being installed, it was the perfect opportunity for a test run. We just don’t know yet why.”
“It could be any number of reasons. Thank you, Hiro. Keep me updated. I think I know where to go next.”
Patel turned to the window. Saturn was directly in front, and little robot worker drones were flying pieces of material, continuing their construction of Ring Four. Even though humanity had advanced a lot since 2033, and there was a much more upbeat and positive feeling to reality, there was always some segment of the population that wanted to cause trouble. Selfishness was innate in young humans, and no amount of a utopian society was going to change that.
It was why he continued to run a secret services organization which had access to much more advanced technology than anyone on Earth could acquire. He doubted giving all humans access to time travel and frequency shifting technology, not to mention phase shift and astral communication, would be good for reality as a whole. He knew from history how a simple unregulated piece of technology could destroy an entire galaxy for millions of years. Imagine giving space-fold technology to humans.
But, who would need the Stellar Flash disabled? Or, for that matter, need to work from Saturn Space Station X1-a? He could run a simulation, but waiting for Watanabe’s results might be just as…
Then Patel laughed to himself. “Simulation it is!” He looked for an address on his flash band, and disappeared. Moments later, he appeared in a laboratory in Ring Three. The humans and aliens inside greeted him as he walked through, and headed to a crystalline computer system. The heart of the station’s A.I. unit.
He approached it, deep in thought. “A.I. Create a signal isolation field around our communications. Scan current space-time, and model the future for me.”
“Estimated time for answer, 7.5 million years, making the enquiry obsolete. Though, I could make a prediction that the answer is 42.”
Patel chuckled. “Funny! I should delete Douglas Adams’ radio play from your records. Localize the simulation to this station and the Stellar Flash. Project for one day’s time.”
“Simulation estimated to take 1 hour.”
“Yes. Advise me of anything that might cause a problem.”
“Alert. Initial calculations suggests foothold situation in minutes.”
“What?”
“Invasion expected.”
Patel didn’t need to ask twice. He immediately flashed back to Zhou’s office.
As he materialized, Zhou leapt from behind her desk, ready to get angry with him, again. “Not now Wei,” he snapped as the flash dissipated. “Possible foothold situation.”
Zhou immediately turned to her desk. “Alert, all personnel. Activate arms. Prepare for possible invasion. Red alert.”
She turned back to Patel. “Are you sure?”
Patel looked at Zhou seriously. “For the record. Doctor John Patel hereby takes temporary command of Space Station X-1a on behalf of the Solar System Interstellar Security Council.” Then he smiled. “Sorry, Wei. I’ll need your desk. For now, you’re in charge of base security.”
“I want Puppy to head security.”
“A.I.? Is Puppy available to head security of this station?”
“Puppy is unconscious in Dev Bar,” replied the A.I.
Zhou’s mouth fell open. “Impossible!”
“It must have been the first thing the A.I. identified in the simulation,” Patel mused, stroking his toothbrush moustache. “And it followed the natural progression of possible futures from there. Arachnoids are not affected by alcohol. They don’t have the receptors for it. They just enjoy the taste.” Patel glanced at his tablet. “A medical team is heading to Puppy now. Well?”
Zhou quickly stood to attention, becoming equally serious. This wasn’t a simple temp job anymore. “Yes, Sir. On it, Sir.”
“Thank you, Admiral. At ease. Let’s deal with this problem first, then return to our normal working relationship later.”
Zhou nodded, dissolved the door, and left.
Patel sat at the desk. “Now. Let’s find out who’s behind all this.” He immediately called up camera recordings of just after Puppy’s collapse, zooming into a red alien and a blue alien standing outside the bar area. Dev briefly looked at the camera and seemed to wink at it, before they began whispering to each other.
“Well, well, well. Dev and Ange. So, Sue still hasn’t been able to catch you.”
He zoomed in further and slowed the image down. “A.I. Lip read this video.”
The A.I.’s voice quickly translated. “Red humanoid: ‘Smart stroking his mandibles. That stuff isn’t going to knock me out, is it?’ Blue humanoid: ‘Of course not. Fairly harmless to humanoids. Like an insect spray.’”
When the A.I. stopped, Patel was shaking angrily. “Insect spray! Containing organophosphate. The only thing that could knock out an Arachnoid. Outlawed for over fifty years. By me! Their little joke. They knew I’d read their recording.” Patel leant back in the chair, his face like thunder. “It must have been only a small amount. Anything more would have killed him. Where in the galaxy did they get that?”
Chapter 34
Heartness felt sick. Now, Utson was gone, and the cloud could appear anywhere and anytime.
The commander’s hologram stared at the screen, then turned to everyone. "Emergency evacuation. Ignore previous orders. Head to 48 for Team Three’s shuttle. The cloud needs a new location. It will reappear to get its bearings and then decide what to do next. For all we know it could be directly above us." Then she turned to Heartness. “My mission was to rescue you. But now we have a homicidal cloud on our hands. If you know of any way to stop it, let me know.”
“I need to get back to hexicle 3, and check for something,” said Heartness. “It might help.”
Lin’s hologram turned to Styert. “Accompany her to 3, then take her to the shuttle.”
Styert nodded, gathered his things, and quickly followed after Heartness, who had already left the hexicle.
“Hurry up, Officer Styert,” called Heartness.
“It’s doctor actually,” called Styert, breaking into a run. “Though, if you get us out of this, you can call me anything you want.”
Chapter 35
Officer Mavicio Chen swept hexicle 16 with his plasma rifle, knowing it was futile but feeling a touch more in control.
He was glad his metal arms could do the sweeping. His human hands were far too sweaty to hold a gun at this stage.
He quickly glanced above him to make sure Phub was following, and grinned at the hairy humanoid soldier, clinging to the ceiling like a tarantula, or one of those huntsman spiders still prevalent in Australia.
"This is harder than I thought," grunted Phub. "The anti-x-ray polymer on the ceiling is rejecting my adhesion too quickly. I'm going to be exhausted."
"Just walk about like the rest of us!"
Phub shook her head. "And walk into an accelerated time area like Team One? No thanks. Happy for you to do that."
"Gee, thanks." Mavicio pushed open the door to 34, and went into the next hexicle, scanning quickly. Then realized it only had the door he had entered through. "Dead end. Try 17."
Before he went back to 16, Mavicio looked about the room. Prayer mats on the floor and symbols of thousands of different religions peppered the wall. "Hey Phub, maybe I'll stay here. It's probably the safest place in the star system."
He went back into 16 and looked up. "Phub? Can we get through 17?"
No answer, and then the viewscreen and lights around him flickered. More tentatively he called "Phub. Are you alright?"
Moments later a crackling sound came from 17, and the
energy cloud rushed at him. Mavicio immediately hit his flash band. The white light enveloped him, and he disappeared.
And just at that very moment, the cloud became white and disappeared too, then reappeared seconds later, slightly larger. For a moment Mavicio's face could be seen screaming in the swirling energy, and then it faded as the cloud headed through 17.
Chapter 36
"Hexicle 18 won't open," said a spikey, blue humanoid, pushing on the door with his second set of arms. "And I can't even tell if this one lifts up, slides right, opens in or out, or even dissolves!"
A huge soldier with massive biceps on both his sets of arms waved the humanoid aside. "Leave this to me." He flexed his massive muscles, and cracked his knotty knuckles.
"Wait," called another soldier coming from 1. He trotted up to them. "Leave it. Let's go via 19. It looks like 20 is now yellowed out."
"This is no problem for me, Smooch," said the burly man.
"Judes. That’s part of the gravity research section. For all we know there could be a black hole in there. Leave it."
Judes pulled his hands away quickly and looked alarmed. "Yes, sir."
"Uh, oh," said the spikey alien. "I can hear crackling."
"From where, Spike?" Smooch turned his head about. "Which direction?"
"That way!" Spike pointed back the way they had come.
Smooch pointed at the other exit. "This way, now."
They rushed through 19, just as the map to the right of them began flashing yellow.
Whatever the hexicle was that they went through, the pictures on the walls were almost a blur. Judes grimaced at some of the artwork. "I prefer the renaissance period, myself."
"Never really got flat art," said Spike, as they ran. "You should check out our holey cities."
"I'm not religious."
"No, we make ball cities and poke holes in them. They're pretty amazing."
"Hurry up, you two," yelled Smooch. "You know what happened to that scientist."
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