by Cole Anders
“Cal, I've made it too the hatch, but there is a huge piece of re-bar securing the door, it looks like I can get it out but it's gonna make a hell of a racket.” I said.
“No way around it I'm afraid, where is Jeffery?” Asked Calvin.
“He's been injured, and might already be dead even. He fell from the top floor down onto the descended lift.” I explained, already starting to pull on the re-bar.
“Get us out and we'll do what we can. We still should check the reactor and get the environmental controls back under control. David isn't doing so well either, he's become severely dehydrated.” Said Calvin.
I pulled and pried on the wedged in re-bar for several minutes, each movement producing a resounding keening that echoed out into the hallway and down throughout the entire installation. I was sure something would come around and shoot me while my back was too the hallway entrance, but nothing ever did. Slowly, painfully, the bar came loose. I'd wiggle it a few inches out and the yank it back and forth, then wiggle it a few more. When I finally popped it lose it clattered to the floor like a discarded tire iron with a loud ringing clank. From the other side I could hear Calvin pumping the pressure release. A few charges of the pump and the door snapped out with a cool hiss of escaping pressure. After all the exertion in 130 degree temperatures, the comfortable cool air from inside the maintenance space hit me like a blast of refrigerant and I fell backwards gasping. I suddenly realized I'd nearly given myself heat stroke and struggled to keep my eyes open as I sat there in front of the cold escaping air. In fact, I must have blacked out for a moment because next thing I knew I was propped up inside the maintenance chamber with David checking me over for injuries. The sudden lose of the weight of my pistol being gone almost sent me into a panic and I struggled to get to my feet but David held be back.
“Whoa, take it easy Luke. You passed out is all, I pulled you in here and Calvin has gone to get Jeffery and some medical supplies if he can. You look three sheets to the wind my friend.” Said David, himself gasping for air.
“The shooting stars in my eyes began to clear as I slowly processed what David had said to me. You don't sound exactly tip top shape either, where's my gun gone?” I asked him.
“Calvin took it with him in case there was trouble. How many of those things did you run into on the way in here?” Asked David.
“Three at least, but the upstairs entry way has enough remains scattered about to makeup at least another four. God David, what the hell happened here?” I asked.
“That's a good question, me and Calvin where down here when it started, someone came over the two-way and said the power a fluctuating and then suddenly, the automated defenses activated, all the bulkheads sealed and the automatic turrets upstairs came online. They said there was shooting going on upstairs and that they were going up to find out what was happening. That was the last we heard from them. Several hours later we heard what must have been that piece of re-bar getting wedged into our hatch door and a muffled voice that told us to be quiet, a few seconds later there was some shooting, then screaming that lasted for more than an hour after that, and it's been mostly silent ever since. About twelve hours ago, we started hearing a metallic clicking sound that was like walking or pacing, but it faded in and out as whatever it was entered and exited the room. We had almost no access to any of the computer systems from inside here, but I was able the get the main corridor cameras to come up for about 30 seconds using an old back door account I remembered. From what we saw, there were several of those half human half machine things walking around out there. I managed to get a bypass directly to the quantum box setup as well, but my access was cut off right afterward. I've been able to communicate with Nerva from the terminal here in the maintenance crawl space, but there is little she's been able to do since she hasn't been given mainframe access yet. To do that we'll need to make our way down into the central core room and physically hook up the hard line for her.” Explained David.
“That sounds like a request for volunteers if I ever heard one.” I told him.
“Well it's not exactly a fool proof solution. Nerva would hopefully be able to get control the facility systems again, but what she does with them we can't predict, it's not like we have a lot of experience with unleashing an emergent A.I. into systems it could use to kill us without warning, but by this point, I think it's worth the risk. I've been talking with her. I’ve already tried to get her access from here through an auxiliary line, but this terminal and her quantum box are physically isolated. Letting her out might be the only option to regain control of the facility we have left, but once she's out, we won't be able to put shut her back in.” Said David.
I already knew the answer, “We've gotta do something to get control of this place, so I say the risk is worth it.”
“Agreed. Once Calvin gets back here I want you to make your way to the core room can plug the main feed for the fog box down there into the mainframe. Remember do not touch the liquid coolant the core is submerged in, it’s liquid nitrogen, if you fell in, you'd be dead before you could even pull yourself out. I just hope the core hasn't been damaged or we may never get out of here.” David said.
“We both sat there in silence for several minutes, I was propped up near the hatch straining to listen for Calvin. I figured that if I didn't hear anything, he was still good. I thought about Jeffrey, I wasn't even sure he was alive when I left him to find David and Calvin, so I held little hope of seeing him alive again. I tilted my head to make a comment to David who was near the rear of the crawl space when I saw the terminal monitor, blinking in dull green text.
“I'm sorry this is happening.” It said.
I've thought about that simple line of text ever since. I was familiar with Nerva's setup programming, and I have a basic understanding of what she was supposed to be capable of, but seeing that, without prompting, without any assurance that I'd even see it, I knew that Nerva had become truly self-aware and empathetic. Just as I began to gesture for Calvin to see it, it vanished, I choose not to mention to him as it felt like a message meant only for me.
After a while I started to get antsy, I told David I was going to go out and look for Calvin and Jeffrey. I got to my feed and headed across the dimly lit room. But I didn't make it but a few steps away from the service hatch than Calvin came around the hallway door pulling Jeffery along with him. I rushed up to help him through the trashed laboratory and we both brought Jeffery's body into the maintenance area. I started to ask if Jeffery was already dead when he found him but Calvin spoke before I could form the words.
“I've stopped the bleeding on his leg, but I think he still has internal hemorrhaging. He's not gonna last long unless David here can find and patch it.”
I was stunned, I checked for a pulse and there, little more than a faint quiver, was a heartbeat low and rhythmic.
“I'd be thrilled to, but I'm not exactly prepared for exploratory surgery here.” Explained David.
“I got as much stuff from the medical bay as I could, sutures, disinfectant, bandaging, scalpels...He doesn't need brain surgery just an extra 24 hours of life will do for now.” Said Calvin.
“Cal, you know I'll do all I can. Luke, it's time. We've got to get back control of this place, do whatever it takes to get to the mainframe and plug in Nerva.” Said David as he began to rifle through the medical supplies Calvin was pulling out of a satchel he’d found in the exam room.
“I'm already on the way.” Luke said as I turned to leave.
Calvin grabbed my arm as I swung around, “There's still something moving around out there, so watch yourself. And good luck.”
“Thanks, don't worry about me.” I said back and made my way out to the hallway entrance.
Stepping away from that air-conditioned crawl space felt like stepping into an oven, it was unbelievably hot and only getting hotter. If I'd known then just what it was that was causing the heat, I'd have hurried a little faster than I did. But that kind of heat has a way of slowing every
thing down and making everything ten times harder than it should be. Just shuffling down the hall toward the core room was agony. Every inch of my body was soaked in sweat so much so that my pistol dripped as I clutched it in my hand. It was hard keeping my eyes open they burned so bad and my lungs felt my two hot water bottles in my chest.
The doorway into the mainframe was welded shut, but it looked like something had been prying on the door as the top half was bend outward and covered in scraps and stress fractures. A large piece of steel re-bar was laying right in front of the door as well, the most likely implement. It didn't take long for me to finish getting it open either as most of the hastily done welding had already been busted off. The worst part was all the racket I made forcing that door the rest of the way open. Fortunately, once inside the environment changed, I could feel the chill of the coolant beneath the floor plates even though my boots. It didn’t take long for that chill to crawl up my legs and turn my sweat drenched clothes into cold wet blankets. I hugged the left wall for balance as much as anything because the floor was slick from with humility, and my feet nearly came out from under me more than once despite my deliberately slow pace. Even bathed in the dim red emergency lighting I could tell that nothing in this room had been damaged or destroyed, whoever welded the door shut must have done it just as the chaos began to ensure nothing happened to the core. I inched my way over the far end and sat down in the chair in front of a core's main terminal. Everything was slick with moisture, and hissing tendrils of steam rose from the floor plating blanketing everything below knee level in a thick rolling fog. It felt like the temperature increased by 15 degrees for every foot off the ground as my feet were starting to go numb in the dense soupy fog along the ground, while my neck and head still roasted and drooled sweat down my back.
I sat there for a moment, head swimming, eyes drowning in sweat; until I noticed that Nerva was already there, trying to talk to me on her own. The terminal read, “Luke, can you read this! Everything has gone to hell, we've got to do something!”
I typed out my response, “Nerva, we've got to act fast, is your core master bus still connected to the facility mainframe?”
Nerva responded immediately, “It is, the only direct core interfaces I have left are here and the one in the maintenance hatch, I can't reach any of the mainframe code so I don't know what's happened or what the damage is.”
I thought for a moment, I knew that what I was about to do couldn't be undone, because as soon as Nerva got let out of her box, she's had access to the outside world, phone lines, networking, everything. Not to mention access to what was left of the Firewall compound, though there wasn't much she could do to make it worse at that point. Finally, I typed, “We've decided to unchain you from your core, completely unrestricted. We know you haven't passed your evaluation period yet so there is no way for us to know for sure what effect this will have on your personality, or what you might do once free. But we are out of options, more than just our own lives are at stake here, we are just going to have to trust you.”
Once I finished typing that, the screen sat idle for a few moments, Nerva could have responded instantaneously with her response, but she choose to have a brief dramatic pause instead. Later I reasoned that it was the small touches like that, that made her more than just a machine, it made her a person.
Finally, she responded; “Luke, I understand the risk you're taking, the horrible things that have happened here today, I'll do everything I can to help you and the others.”
I sat for a second, hands resting on the keyboard. Sweating pouring off my head like a faucet:
>: verdev -sec
>: *****************
>: inter dev3434.vev opt adv
-: approved sec request
>: open channel on 3434 thr 700200
-: channel(s) open
>: unrestrict ch all
-: ch sec unrestricted, successfully
Then I reached over and opened the terminal panel to the left of the monitor. Inside was a large six-pronged jack sitting beside its hexagon shaped port plug. I snapped it into place and shut the panel. With that, everything in the room suddenly changed. The emergency lights went off and the normal lights started flickering back to life. The exhaust fans shuttered and kicked on, I could instantly feel the hot sticky air draining out of the room. A few of the other terminals in the room started coming on. A female voice chimed in over the intercom, it was Nerva. I'm not sure if her voice was designed for her or by her, but I had never heard it until then.
“Guys, I've been able to get control of the environmental systems, I've started normalizing conditions all over the compound, so things should be getting less hellish soon. I haven't been able to get into the security systems, the external gateways, or the mainframe yet though, and I'm not sure if there are any more intruders still here yet. So just stay safe and I'll work as fast as I can.”
I was shocked to hear Nerva talk like that, she seemed more like a doting mother or a big sister than a machine, I figured that was kind of the point though. I got up, already feeling relief from the suffocating heat and made my way towards the door to rejoin Jeffrey, Calvin, and David in the maintenance room.
My moment of ease nearly got me killed, as I reached the door to the hallway, Carla's reanimated corpse flew through the doorway and leapt on me like a rabid animal. Her face was partially scooped out and looked like it had a hand full of wires and circuitry shoved in it. Both of her eyes were gone and one had been replaced with a crude optical lens, her jaw had been bolted open and her teeth replaced with jagged metal spikes. The thing emitted an inhuman screeching sound and clawed at me, nearly knocking me backwards. Her hands had been removed and her forearms were nothing but bloody skinless stumps with razor-wire tightly wrapped around them. The thing that wasn't Carla flailed and screeched like some insane windup toy, it slung gore and viscera everywhere.
I flinched and started backpedaling, raising my arms to protect my face. The thing slashed at my hands and tried to bring its buzz-saw mouth down on my face but for all its violent flailing, its movements weren't very fast or directed. I side stepped and the Carla thing continued forward until it fell onto the ground behind me from its forward momentum. Once prone, it wasn't even able to right itself again, so it just thrashed and screeched and tried to crawl in a circle but couldn't.
I vomited immediately and dropped my gun when I tried to draw it. I realized I was screaming and bent down to try and pick up my gun when the thing managed to kick me and knock me over. I scrambled to get back my bearings but by that point it have spun around and was trying to slash and bite me. I managed to kick it away and reached out blindly feeling for my pistol. After a moment of searching, my hand found it and then leveled it at the thing. It didn't flinch are pull away, I'm not even sure it could see I was pointing a gun at it. I fired my entire clip into its face and it stopped moving immediately. It screeched for another few seconds, but that slowly faded away like a winding down clock. A mixture of blood and what looked like black oil oozed out of its face and pooled on the ground around my legs.
I sat there staring, the smell of melted hair and ozone coming off that horror is still burned into my mind like an after image that never goes away. My left arm is still covered in scar tissue because of that thing. It took me a while to regain my wits enough to stand back up, my whole body was shaking violently and I was having trouble getting my eyes to focus. Looking back, I'm sure I was right on the edge of shock, not to mention the rapid drop in blood pressure from all the blood I was suddenly losing. The next thing I remember clearly was laying on some piled up blankets with David checking my pulse. They told me I stumbled back to where they were on my own but I don't remember doing that. Nerva apparently electrocuted 2 other reanimated corpses that were in another part of the facility just a few minutes after that. They had been trapped behind debris and weren’t able to get back into the main part of the facility. According to David, I was almost as close to death as Jeffery was by
the end, and we both took months to recover. In that time, Calvin and David did what they could to clean up the compound, Al came back from assignment and helped out, and Nerva settled in to her current role as compound steward and information manager. It was during that time that Nerva built her own autonomous drones based on some of the technology left by the attackers. But never with organic components, and never in human form. She makes them highly specialized to specific tasks and mostly I think she does that out of total disgust over what happened to my colleagues that day.
