The Primary Protocol: A Cyberpunk Espionage Tale of Eldritch Horror (The Dossiers of Asset 108 Book 2)

by JM Guillen

  I would suggest approximately 1.44 meters away from it at this location. Anya patched again.

  “—and leave it. If I key it to emit certain wavelengths of light, no more wall.” He grinned. “But when I turn the lights off, back it will come.”

  “That’s…” Gideon let his voice trail off for a moment. “That’s brilliant.”

  “Yup.” Wyatt nodded. “I don’t think we’re dealing with some castaway Asset. This’s way too complex. I can’t even begin to see how this was done.” He paused. “Could this be an outlier station?”

  At the mention of the idea, my heart rose. If this was a Facility station, we could send a message. With the proper telemetry, I could do a fuck-ton more than create apertures.

  I could create a conduit. We could go home.

  “That’s getting ahead of ourselves.” Gideon cracked a hint of a smile. “Maybe so, Wyatt. That’d be nice. Why don’t you fire up your gear? Let’s find out.”

  “Yes, sir.” Wyatt’s voice positively crackled with glee. The tangler hummed, and he tapped away at the keyboard. Moments later, he had our key constructed.

  WHUF. Almost immediately, the spike began to glow with an eerie blue light. It was spectral and so soft it didn’t do much to improve vision in the small room.

  The moment the light touched the wall, though, it simply ceased to exist.

  I stared into the dim room, stunned.

  Greetings Assets. The system prompt was like thunder in a drought.

  Welcome to Substation 306.

  13

  I had never been so happy to hear a system prompt. However after a moment, my joy faded.

  “It’s awfully dark for a functional substation.” Apparently I voiced what we were all thinking. Facility installations were typically brilliantly lit, all white tile and stainless steel. Although the light from Wyatt’s spike bled into the room, it was a wan, sickly glow that revealed very little.

  Query. Gideon linked all of us as well as the system as we peered into the dim room. What is the current date and time at Facility Prime? It was the perfect question to test if the station had connectivity to Rationality.

  I heard a whirring sound somewhere in the room, which cumulated in a grinding sensation in my Crown.

  Facility Prime is no longer appearing on telemetry. Solution unknown.

  Of course. I sighed.

  “The axiomatic anomaly is approximately three meters inside.” Anya’s tone held her customary detachment.

  “System command: lights.” Gideon spoke firmly, taking a half step into the room.

  Slowly, light dawned in the room from no source in particular.

  It looked exactly like a Facility installation. The left hand wall was lined with telemetry stations, two of which were actively blipping green and gold lettering across the screens. A stainless steel door on the left side stood closed, as well as a double-bay door at the back of the room. Aside from being in distant topia, everything seemed completely five by five.

  Except for the silvery stasis field dominating the center of the room, silently waiting for us.

  “What the hell?” Wyatt asked as he stepped forward, even though he obviously knew what it was. Wyatt used them to devastating effect in combat, and we all knew very well what they looked like.

  “That’s unexpected.” I limped forward, trying to get a look at the thing.

  “It’s more than that.” Wyatt worked his keys and looked into an interface none of us could see. “It’s fucking impossible.”

  “These telemetry stations are all showing local readings.” Anya peered closely at one of the screens. “I don’t understand how they are figuring baseline rationality.”

  “What’s impossible?” Gideon looked to Wyatt, apparently choosing to deal with one mystery at a time.

  “This whole thing!” Wyatt turned wide eyes to our Alpha. “Stasis fields are truly awesome, Gideon, but they’re limited. Takes a whole lot of juice to completely stop space-time.” He paused. “If I fired one off now, I could probably maintain it for an hour or two.”

  “Query.” I leaned back against the wall as I spoke, the pain in my ribs like a crimson ache. “According to current system time, when was the last time an Asset made use of this substation?”

  Eighty-seven days, ten hours, and eight minutes. The response arrived immediately into all of our Crowns.

  “That’s fucking impossible,” Wyatt repeated. “The sheer energy consumption of such a thing would be astronomical.”

  “It’s not geared to an Asset’s system.” Anya had turned her attention from the telemetry station to the stasis field.

  “Doesn’t matter.” He was running calculations on his interface. “Even if it was geared to the station itself, it would need a constant power source. There’s nothing like that here.”

  “It’s what I’ve been reading.” She looked to her left, a small furrow appearing on her forehead. “That is the anomaly.”

  “The stasis field?” Rachel asked.

  “No. The power source.” Anya plucked at nothingness. “The stasis field is made from four different spikes, Wyatt. Look at the baselines.”

  “I’ll be god-damned.” His awed tone was positively reverent, despite his language. “It’s running off gravity.”

  “Gravity?” Gideon stepped forward, as if the change in perspective would grant him more data on the matter. “That’s not quite—”

  “Possible.” Wyatt gave him a serious look. “You can convert gravitational energy into other forms of energy, but the math doesn’t allow for anything but a net zero in the end. Besides, gravity isn’t exactly energy. It’s just a fundamental force. Whoever set this up would have to be—” Wyatt cut off suddenly, his eyes going wide.

  “What?” I watched as his gears spun.

  “Query: When did this substation lose connectivity to Rationality?” Wyatt demanded.

  Three-hundred-fifteen days, nine hours, and forty-two minutes.

  He nodded to himself. “That would be enough time.”

  “We all love it when you’re cryptic.” I slumped against the wall. “Someone tell me when Sweet Home Alabama over there starts making sense.”

  “This stasis field”—he eyed each of us in turn—“has been operational an impossibly long time. Its power source is gravity, and it’s so well made that there is even room for an S.O.S. hidden in the algorithm.” He shook his head, almost ruefully. “There’s only one Asset that I’ve ever heard of remotely brilliant enough for this. And he’s been missing for almost a year now.”

  “Oh, fuck me. Not this.” I almost laughed. “You think it’s the Rook.”

  “Jonathon Crowe, Asset 081.” Wyatt nodded. “Can you think of any other cadre to go missing in the last five years? The man was an absolute master with the Artisan packet. He had a formula that altered a percentage of his blood to pure alcohol. He used to enter a hot zone while jamming to Skinnard. The man worked up next level shit just for giggles in his spare time.” Wyatt grinned.

  “And you spend your spare time coming up with every crazy conspiracy theory you can.” I couldn’t yell properly, not with my ribs and their apparent allergy to iron bars. “You once told me that you thought Johnny Cash was an Irrat!”

  “You have to admit, the man’s voice is irrational.” He chuckled at my protest.

  “I don’t know that getting Assets drunk with the tangler signifies genius.” Gideon crossed his arms in skepticism.

  “Alpha, I’m right on this.” Wyatt trembled with eagerness. “The Rook is hyper-intelligent. He rewrote sixty percent of the technicals that the Artisan packet uses today.” Wyatt nodded toward the stasis field. “Whoever did this was a genius, a complete maestro with the tangler.” Wyatt’s grin faded. “The Rook’s been missing the right amount of time.”

  “So what’s inside it?” Rachel seemed almost nonchalant. When we all just looked at her, she shrugged. “What? That’s the point of these things, right? Wyatt fires one off and some Irrat is stuck insi
de it.”

  Anya gave the closest thing to a shrug I had ever seen her give.

  “Telemetry cannot read the inside of a stasis field. By definition.”

  “Can you take it down?” Gideon looked at Wyatt. “Perhaps after you shut the door?”

  “I could.” Wyatt sounded genuinely pained. “I could also use the tangler to melt the Sistine Chapel. You just don’t get it. This is a marvel.”

  “It’s unreasonable to think that the entire field is required for the distress signal.” Anya was quite matter-of-fact. “Logically, there is something beneath it. Every bit of telemetry shows that such a thing would be drastically over-resourced otherwise.”

  “I know. I already ran the numbers.” Wyatt sighed. “I’m certain you’re right; I just hate destroying it.”

  “If you’re right, then the Rook left something beneath it.” I cleared my throat. “Perhaps something we need to survive.”

  “Fine. I’ll do it.” He tapped his keyboard, and the spike outside the substation slowly doused its light. In response, the construct slowly shadowed its way back into existence, and we were walled off from the world.

  Wyatt glared at us, sullen as a teenager. He said nothing, however, as he remorsefully tapped at the keys on his hip, the only sound in the room for a long while.

  Wyatt took a deep breath and then, resentfully, hit the final key. As he did, the silver field sputtered once, twice, and then faded from sight.

  Inside its radius on the floor appeared a young man. He had brown hair and wide, dark eyes. A Stylus, the Crown augment typically used by a Veracitor-class Asset, was attached to his left arm.

  He lay in a pool of his own blood.

  The man looked up at us and screamed.

  14

  Things happened very quickly then.

  The man dragged himself forward, and we could see the blood pouring from a large wound in his abdomen. His eyes were wild, frantic.

  It’s in me! His link was filled with terror. He crawled forward, trying to pull himself up. You need to know—

  Then the Vyriim exploded from him.

  It was small, far smaller than the ones we had been dealing with, but it had no apparent trouble ripping itself free from the Asset’s body. The tendrils were only about as thick as my fingers, but there were easily a half dozen of them, twined together, ending in drooling maws and wicked hooks.

  It hissed.

  Linking now! The man’s link felt desperate, like a person clawing for breath.

  Then the largest packet I had ever received slammed into my Crown like a runaway train.

  Engaging. Gideon initiated the Seraph, and it sang its low, deadly hum.

  Wyatt wisely stepped out of the way as Gideon swung the blade, its blinding, golden brilliance shimmering across the metallic surfaces of the room. The Vyriim wriggled through the air, dodging him. It was no larger than a small cat, but it swam through the air like an apex predator.

  Wyatt frantically engaged the tangler again as Anya stepped back to where Rachel and I stood. I gripped the gatekeeper, remembering that I still had a hanging aperture above the rooftop garden.

  None of us were needed.

  Gideon Du’Marque had everything in hand.

  The small Vyriim cracked like shattered pottery where Gideon sliced through it. Two of the tendrils fell to the floor, writhing where they lay.

  Then our Alpha lifted a heavy boot and stomped down, hard.

  Asset 441, Alexander Sparks. The man coughed wetly. Is… He looked up at us, desperate. Is the system time you are displaying correct?

  “Yes, Alexander. Relax.” Rachel dropped to one knee before any of the rest of us could move. Her fingers frantically scrabbled across the interface on her arm. Then she lay her palm flat against his chest and fired three small injectables into Alexander.

  Almost instantly, he visibly relaxed. His breathing grew regular.

  “I’ve completely stopped his pain process, but his internal organs were partially shredded by the aberration. He’s in shock, but he was placed into stasis that way.” She turned as Gideon started to speak, but Alexander raised one hand.

  I’m a dead man without Facility care. That’s why I was in stasis. The idea was to keep the data packet secure. He smiled, wanly. You’ve got to get that packet to Facility Prime.

  I had been tempted to peruse it the moment it hit my Crown but hadn’t yet. It did, however, contain a tremendous amount of data with one primary interface over them all.

  “Son, how did you get so far adrift?” Gideon’s voice was soft.

  Too long. That’s all in the packet. Alexander coughed again and looked to Wyatt. Section, I-135 has the specifications to retrigger that stasis field you found me under. If you activate it, then maybe you can get me home too. His gaze turned to Rachel. Unless it’s too late for that?

  “If we were at a Facility, we could axio-graph almost anything we needed.” She gave Alexander a tight smile. “Without it, your systems will shut down within an hour.”

  That was what we had guessed. He nodded as he spoke and looked back to Gideon. You’ll find the substation quite well supplied. Your Caduceus will find a wide range of injectables, and there’s more than enough cached resources to keep going for quite a while. He coughed wetly. No Crown ports or Cradle though. Otherwise we could have stored the packet there.

  “Understood.” Gideon kneeled next to him. “I’ll have Wyatt reengage the field, and we’ll get you home if we can, Alexander.”

  Thank you. Alexander’s face lit with the renewal of abandoned hope. But it’s even more important that you get the data into the right hands. There’s an invasion coming.

  I exchanged glances with Anya. We knew very well that the Vyriim had been making moves into Rationality. The idea that Alexander had been stranded here almost a year ago but also knew about the invasion unnerved me.

  “Wyatt.” Gideon stood, directing the bear-like man with nothing more than his concerned expression.

  Wyatt nodded once, and the tangler whined.

  Moments later, we were clear, and he reengaged the field. As he did, I noted the glad smile on Alexander’s face.

  He had no way of knowing if he would live, but he knew one thing for certain: the packet was in our hands.

  We had the ball.

  “This thing is huge.” Gideon wasn’t looking at any of us in particular; his cobalt eyes were unfocussed as he perused the packet.

  “I wonder why he didn’t port this to memory?” I opened the main interface and noticed a phaneric record there, a recording directly from Alexander’s Crown.

  “He had no way of knowing our current available resources.” Anya also focused on the packet. “He wouldn’t want to send the packet only to discover that our Crowns were almost at capacity.”

  “Polite,” Wyatt mused.

  “Let’s queue the record up together.” Gideon nodded. “I’ll patch it so that my Crown spends the resources. We’ll discuss after.”

  I wasn’t even finished nodding when a small silver point appeared in my field of vision. It lay over the Gatekeeper interface, and my other controls faded from sight. Then the point resolved into a small rectangle. I could see an interface with sliders and small glowing spheres on one side; it was an interface I had never seen before, but I realized that it was likely the Veracitor. Behind the interface, I could see the wide bay doors of Substation 306.

  “We on?” The voice came from off to one side.

  The view jumped up and down for a moment and then stopped, as if Alexander had realized he probably shouldn’t nod.

  “Yeah. We’re live.”

  “Good.” A man slid one of the chairs in front of Alexander and promptly sat down. He was a good-looking guy, lean, with long, dark hair. Just the way he held himself implied he was a confident man, someone who knew his business.

  He also looked worn, like a man who had been on the run, scraping by. For the barest moment, the view dimmed as Alexander linked his Crown to the lean m
an’s, and the ID readout changed at the top of the display.

  CROWE, JONATHAN, ASSET 081

  Believe it or not, it’s possible to chuckle victoriously. Wyatt proved this while grinning like a madman.

  On my screen, the man cleared his throat.

  “This communique is quite possibly our last. We are recording it over the system of Asset 441 because we don’t know if we will be able to compile all known data. Currently, our primary objective is to message Facility Prime regarding an invasion involving Aberration 45171R. This recording holds the most basic of our intel. If possible, we will accumulate more and place it all in a packet.”

  I briefly thumbed the packet as he spoke. It certainly seemed as if they had accumulated more. I was fascinated at the sheer volume of data regarding the city alone. As I perused, I realized I had missed part of the recording.

  “…have been adrift in a distant topia for approximately six months.” The man paused. “My cadre, along with much of Substation 306, were transported here by unknown technology. After many encounters with 45171R and their servitors, we are the only two survivors.”

  I frowned, fairly certain we’d encountered Crowe’s “unknown technology” first-hand.

  The Vyriim had been acting against us for almost a year now, and furthermore, they had made off with most of an entire substation! It chilled me to realize I had no prior knowledge of this.

  Wyatt frowned at me, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. Why had the Facility kept this from us?

  “It is important to understand the capabilities and motivations of Aberration 45171R. We have secured allies locally and will be conducting as much research as possible.” The man swallowed and gave a nervous smile. “While attempting to come home, of course.”

  I glanced at Wyatt. We already knew that Crowe never made it home.

  “While there is little that we can say for certain, we do have one vital piece of intel. Aberration 45171R intends on a full occupation before September 18, 2015. This date has no importance to our knowledge, but 45171R seems to believe it quite significant. From what we have learned of the species, they are long term planners, staying generations ahead of themselves, therefore an invasion planned for eighteen years in the future is well within the scope of their known patterns.” He leaned forward, his dark eyes serious. “Do not underestimate them.”