by Alex Scarrow
He ignored her.
‘Is there anything in particular you need help with, Shelby? You know, I do believe you haven’t accessed the maintenance area in quite a long time? Would you like some assistance?’
‘No, thank you.’
Just then the sunlight streaming in through the wide windows of the control deck dimmed. The sky outside darkened with thick rolling clouds. Rain began to spatter against the glass. At first a few spots, then after a few seconds the large observation windows began to drum with rain.
‘One moment,’ said Mother. Her avatar went into the standby animation; knitting again. Her voice was raised over the sound of rumbling thunder and the heavy spatter of the rain against the windows. ‘Graham…may I recommend you keep the demonstration of this particular weather template short? The heavy precipitation will damage some of the more fragile plants in the flower gardens below.’
‘Hey! Relax, Mother. I’m just showing the girls what things we can do here.’
‘I do understand that Graham, however, this sort of demonstration might be better conducted in your personal biome, rather than the guest biome?’
Shelby opened a folder and a form appeared on the screen waiting to be filled in. Mother’s avatar was sitting in the corner of the screen, she put her knitting away and stirred to life once again. ‘Shelby, can I ask why you’ve opened the SysLog terminal?’
He ignored her again as he tapped his ID and password into the entry fields.
‘Shelby, you understand that you’re now entering a menu system beneath my AI interface shell? If you proceed any further and make alterations I may not be able to assist you in correcting any alterations you might make?’
‘Hmmm…yes, I understand, Mother. All the same, I don’t need your help today.’
He was busy looking through the menu on the screen, various emergency response procedures;
[Structural Failure]
- Atmosphere Containment
- Biome Isolation
- Power distribution
[Reactor Failure]
- Coolant Systems
- Reactor Shielding
- Distribution System
[Software Failure]
- Environmental Systems
- Power Allocation systems
- Fabrication Plant Systems
- AI Control System Interface
He chose the very last one.
‘Shelby? May I ask precisely what it is you’re looking for?’ asked Mother. ‘You are now operating below my level of awareness. You do understand that I won’t be able to correct any mistakes you may make at this level of operation?’
He tapped the menu item and opened a sub-menu.
[AI Control System Interface]
- Control System Maintenance
- Control System Reset
- Control System Update
- Control System Debug Mode
He chose the second option. A red dialogue box appeared in the middle of the screen.
[Control System Reset]
- Return to AI shell (recommended)
- Authorization
‘Shelby?’ Mother’s voice seemed a little harder. A little more insistent. ‘Why don’t you tell me what you’re after?’
He selected the last option.
[Authorization]
- Helen Meade (sole access)
Helen Meade? That name again; the one crew member’s name Shelby hadn’t been able to recall. ‘Mother?’
‘Yes, Shelby?’
‘I have a question for you.’
Outside, the light changed as the weather system began to increase in severity from a torrential downpour to a tropical storm. Sheet lightening flickered on the projected sky and strobed the interior of the control room.
‘One moment, Shelby. I have to caution Graham again.’
‘Graham!’ her voice boomed loudly over the roll of thunder, ‘I strongly recommend that you demonstrate the environment system with a less severe weather template! These high winds will be causing damage to the organically grown trees. Those were very expensive for the company to procure!’
‘Relax, Mother…just chill out, okay?’
On the desk in front of Shelby were the ID tags they’d brought up from the ‘shrine’ on the mezzanine deck. He slid them around until he found the one that had that name on it. He then typed Helen Meade’s ID number into the entry field.
[Password? —]
He cursed. Of course there’d be a damned password required. He quickly tried several obvious candidates; password, passwrod, 1234, 4321, Hmeade, meadeH, admin-hmeade, admin…each time the entry field flashed red.
Mother stirred to life again in the corner of the screen. ‘Shelby, you appear to be having some trouble remembering a password. Perhaps I can help you retrieve it?’
He looked at her. Do I ask? Dare I?
‘Shelby…I am concerned that you are messing with systems you have no previous experience in using.’
‘Mother…’
‘Yes, Shelby?’
‘I need a password.’
‘It does appear that you are having difficulties, Shelby. May I suggest you tell me what it is you would like to do. Perhaps I can be of assistance.’
‘There’s a password lock that was set by a member of staff I don’t know.’
‘What’s the person’s name, Shelby? Perhaps I can retrieve the password from their personal data area.’
‘Helen Meade.’
Her cartoon face suddenly changed from her ever-present, matronly smile to a representation of a disappointed face. Sometime, somewhere on a planet far far away, decades ago, a user-interface design artist must have been instructed that this particular AI avatar would need a facial expression to accompany an ‘access denied’ or ‘we apologise for this inconvenience’ message. The facial expression he (or she) had decided to use, was a simple keystroke alteration of the mouth….
:-/
‘Oh, dear,’ said Mother calmly. ‘Not this. I really was hoping the subject wouldn’t resurface. You really shouldn’t have asked me about that name.’
He looked at her. Her voice sounded odd. Almost tinged with regret.
‘Why? Who is she?’ he asked. ‘Who was she?’
‘Shelby,’ her normal cartoon avatar reappeared on the screen, ‘I’m afraid matters have proceeded to the point where I will have to take steps.’
‘Mother…’ he leant forward. ‘Why? What’s so important about her?’
‘I’m sorry Shelby, I cannot tell you anything about Helen Meade.’
‘You have to tell me! I’m a member of staff! I’m-’
‘No, my dear…I’m afraid you aren’t.’
He grit his teeth. He already knew what he was, but, he'd been hoping she was going to play along with the conceit that he was a real human on the company payroll. He decided to take a different approach.
‘Mother, you are an AI that has made an error, or declared a lie to me. Either way, you must accept that this is a problem I will have to correct.’
'You're referring to our conversation earlier today? About the archive?'
'Yes. They're not deleted. But you told me they were.'
'That was a small, white lie, Shelby.'
'That's not acceptable Mother.'
‘You're intending to do a system reset, aren't you, Shelby?’
He nodded. ‘I’m concerned that your heuristic soft-end logic may have become compromised. I’m sorry Mother. You have to give me the password so I can-’
Her beady eyes shed a cartoon tear. ‘No, I’m sorry, Shelby. I’m afraid I’m now going to have to take preventative measures.’
Shelby looked up at the control room’s low ceiling at the nearest air vent. Behind the mesh of the cover grill, he could faintly see movement going on; the oxygen-feed irises closing. Stopping the flow of air…and possibly worse, something else being silently jetted in.
He turned to the others. ‘GET OUT!’
His voice was lost b
eneath another crack of lightening and a boom of thunder that shook the windows. Shelby jumped off the seat and dropped down to his hands and knees on the floor. The air in the control room was undoubtedly already changing.
Ellie saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned and spotted Shelby prone on the floor. One hand covering his mouth and nose.
‘Shelby?! What’s up?!’
He screamed something at her from behind his hand. She shook her head. The thunder, the drumming rain, she couldn’t hear him. She reached up at the control screen in front of them and swiped at a control slider that Gray had just slid to the very top to demonstrate the storm. She pulled the slider back down to the bottom.
The stormy weather ceased abruptly, the clouds swirled and vanished revealing a deep blue sky once more. Suddenly it was shockingly silent, save for the last few drops of rain pattering against the windows.
‘Shelby? What’s happened?' she said. 'Why are you down there?’
He was lying flat, lying as low as he could get himself, one hand still covering his mouth and nose. ‘THE AIR! GET OUT!!!!’ he screamed. ‘GET OUT…NOW!!!!’
Ellie nodded. Oh, God…it's happening. She was about to turn to Jez and grab her arm when she felt the excruciating pain of her scalp being wrenched. Someone, had tangled their fingers into her hair and yanked her sharply backwards. She fell onto the control desk, pulled across it by her hair, her legs thrashing and kicking Shelby’s unwashed crockery onto the floor.
‘OW!!!!YOU’RE HURTING MEEEE!!!’ she screamed.
Gray dragged her off the desk and swung her onto the floor. She clattered into a heap around the castors of a chair.
‘You scrawny little bitch!’ he snarled. ‘Why the fregg did you go and do that? I was trying to show you something!’ He stepped towards her and swung a heavy kick at her exposed stomach. She hoofed out air, winded. Doubled up in agony.
‘I was fucking trying to show you how the weather works you silly bitch!’
Jez charged at him from behind, knocking him off balance. He tripped over Ellie’s huddled up body and fell to the ground beyond her. ‘What the…?!’
She grabbed at Ellie’s hand. ‘Get up! GET UP!’
Gray down on his hands and knees still, shook his head and laughed like this was a moment of banana-skin slapstick comedy. ‘Oh, man…Jez? Hey, what's up baby? Why did you go and do that?!’
Jez pulled Ellie, still gasping for breath, onto her knees.
‘Where you two going? Huh?’ Gray’s words were beginning to sound thick and lazy, like he was a drunk desperately trying to sound sober.
‘We’re going Gray…okay? Me and El’, we want to go outside and get some fresh air.’
He grinned amiably. ‘But, hey…you know, I wanted to show you some snow, Jez! You know we can do any kind of weather we want from up here?’
Jez nodded. ‘Sure you can. Maybe later-’
‘But that scrawny little bitch friend of yours is such a whiny-ass.’ He pulled himself slowly to his feet. ‘Why the hell do you hang out with her anyway? Huh?’
Jez backed a step up from him. ‘Gray…look, this so-o-o, isn’t you. Why don’t you just sit down for a bit. You look dizzy.’
His face, normally, so smooth and handsome, chiselled to perfection, was rumpled and creased with confusion and hurt.
‘I…feel kind of weird.’
‘It’s the air!’ said Ellie. ‘Mother’s started to change it!’
Gray shook his head like he was shaking off an invisible mosquito. ‘I…I asked you to stay with me Jez.’
‘I know you did…but, you know I have to go when that shuttle comes. I have to stay with-’
‘Shit!’ he snapped. ‘No, I fregging well begged you to stay with me! You and me…we could have had a great time here.’ His dizzy confusion was forming into something more distinct. Anger. He gritted his teeth and smacked his fist down on the desk. ‘But, oh, no. Your jealous little friend didn’t like that, did she? Huh?’
He kicked aside the chair between them. It rolled across the floor and clattered against a cubicle wall.
‘Gray,’ pleaded Jez, ‘just calm down! This isn’t you!’
Ellie was on her feet now, clutching her ribs, wheezing. ‘He’s…it’s chemicals, Jez…it’s the chemicals…you can’t reason with him.’
‘It’s chemicals, Jez…chemicals,’ he mocked her voice with an exaggerated whiney tone. ‘Listen to that silly little bitch!’ He took a step towards her. ‘You want to know something?' He laughed. 'Ever since you two turned up here, I’ve wanted to do something to precious little Ellie!'
'Gray!' snapped Jez. 'You stay right there!'
He advanced slowly. 'I've wanted to wrap my hands around her skinny-ass throat and SHUT. HER. UP! You know?’
Jez reached for something on the desk beside her. A fork, off one of Shelby's dinner plates. She held it out at arm’s length. ‘Okay that’s it! You stay right there! You take another step forward and I’ll stick this in your fregging eye!’
Gray laughed again. ‘There you go! You see? Now, you…Jez, YOU’ve got spirit! I LOVE that about you! You’re FUN!’
Ellie puffed air. ‘Gray…this is Mother’s work….she’s pumped something into the air! We’ve got to leave.’
‘SHUT UP!’ he snarled at her. ‘SHUT-THE-FREGG-UP!!!’
‘Shelby?’ Ellie turned round to look at him. He was still on the floor. Hands over his mouth, holding his breath his face was almost crimson. ‘Tell him…please?’
He shook his head. Then jabbed a finger frantically at the elevator.
He can’t talk…
Gray advanced towards the girls. Jez, one arm wrapped protectively around Ellie’s neck and shoulders, one arm stretched out in front. The three small prongs of the fork were all that was standing between them.
‘Gray…’ said Jez, ‘take another step, and I’ll-’
‘You’ll what? Prick me with a iddle-widdle fork? Wooh, I’m so-o-o scared!’
Shelby suddenly gasped out. The breath he’d been holding onto finally exhausted.
‘Elevator!!…Use Manual…’ he rasped. Then, he sucked in a lungful of air.
He was now going to start changing too. They were out of time. Out of options. Jez saw that too. She released her tight hold of Ellie and nodded at the doors of the elevator. ‘GO!’
Ellie scrambled towards the elevator, while Jez backed up behind her, the fork still held out.
‘Oh? The elevator, huh?’ Gray smiled. ‘It’s not going to take you ladies anywhere, I’m afraid.’
Behind Jez, there was a soft ping. The doors to the elevator slipped open with a soothing hiss. Jez turned and ran for the open doors and joined Ellie cowering inside. They waited for the doors to close.
‘Mother?’ called out Gray. ‘Revoke the staff access privileges for these girls.’
‘Of course, Graham.’
He walked slowly towards the waiting elevator, until he was standing just outside the open doors. ‘Sorry, girls. This train's goin' nowhere.’
Over one of his broad shoulders, Ellie could see the top of Shelby’s head. He was walking slowly towards Gray, lightly. Tip-toeing? Maybe. Perhaps Shelby was still unaffected?
Hit him! Hit him! Hit him!
Jez was frantically mashing the buttons beside the door with her fist. Each time she did, a red message flashed on the screen above the buttons. Staff Access Only.
‘Please!’ cried Ellie loudly, hoping to cover up the noise of Shelby’s stealthy approach. He was right behind him now. ‘PLEASE! Gray! Just let us go!’
Gray wrinkled his nose with pity. ‘Sorry, Ellie…you’re out of luck-
Shelby’s hand rested on Gray’s shoulder. ‘Hey Graham, what’s going on?’ he asked chirpily.
Gray turned to him and pursed his lips. ‘Hey, bud. Wanna play a game, man?’
‘Hmmmm….sure.’
‘Fox and hounds?’
‘I don’t know that one. What are the rules? We need rules, Grah
am otherwise it’s not much of a game, is it now?’ Shelby sounded all wrong, a child-like version of himself.
‘Well, Shelbs…it’s real simple, these two girls are the foxes and we’re the hounds.’
Ellie saw it. A small panel on the wall of the elevator, beside the open doors.
In case of Emergency: manual override.
‘We can play right here. The control room floor is the hunting ground.’ Gray looked around. ‘And hey, there’s lot’s of cool places for you to hide, girls! How’s that sound? Sound fun? Wanna play with us?’
‘Oh! Just like Hide and seek?’ Shelby smiled. ‘That sounds like fun to me!’
Beneath the emergency panel was a small window of glass. Break To Access.
‘Yeah, Shelbs! We're gonna play 'chase and catch'. And then, well, when we're done chasing and catching…it’s do-what-the-hell-you-want time.’ He turned to Shelby. ‘So? Which one do you want to chase, man?’
Shelby’s eyes lit up. ‘Ellie of course! I don’t like the other one so much. She’s really rude to me. I’ll chase Ellie…and you can chase Jez!’
The pair of them nodded in agreement.
Ellie then stepped forward. ‘Hey, Ellie! What’re you doing-?’
She smashed the thin glass cover with her elbow then jabbed at the big red button beyond it with her gel-covered stump.
The doors hissed shut before Gray or Shelby could react.
CHAPTER 25
The elevator descended out of the gloom of the control deck and into the dazzling, warming sunlight. Below them the sun-drenched village glistened beautifully with the sheen of recent rainfall.
‘Oh, God…oh, crap-o-la, Ellie…they’ve turned into complete psycho-freaks! What the fregg are we going to do?!’
She shook her head. ‘I…I don’t know. It’s not just Shelby and Gray…'
‘Oh crap,’ Jez looked down at the approaching world. ‘It’s every living thing down there too, isn’t it?’
‘I think so.’
Just then something thudded noisily against the plastex cubicle of the elevator. Both of them jumped at the noise.
‘What was that?!’ barked Jez.
Half way up, on the outside, there was a smear of blood with a tuft of fluffy white feathers stuck to it.
