Extinction

by Korza, Jay

  “Okay, but how does getting through the doors help Doc? We won't reach the control room in the next thirty seconds.”

  “Many of the security measures the Nortes employed used both a physical and verbal aspect. This particular security node allows that once you remove the physical barrier, you can give the verbal code to stand-down the alarm. The idea is that once a warrior unlocked this door, he would then go to the control room and give the verbal code. Because Daria is trapped in the control room, you'll need to go back to your neural link once the door is open and then you will be able to navigate to the same place I pulled you from before, but this time without the neural feedback in place. Go, now...”

  It was as though the vacuum of the universe was reversed and every sensation possible came flooding back into Bloom in an ever increasing wave of—everything.

  Bloom first saw his teammates trying to find a pry point on the doors. Then he heard them throwing out ideas of how to get through the door. Then he heard Daria trying to calm and console her team, telling them that it wasn't their fault if they couldn't get through to her.

  Bloom sat bolt upright. “Everyone get a flare now.” Although Bloom loved his team and thought they were the best in the galaxy, he was still impressed when they experienced moments like this. Bloom had been unconscious for over a minute and his first words got an immediate reaction. Without hesitation, flares were passed out and lit. Bloom moved each person to the proper spots on the wall and when the control panels opened, revealing the levers, he pointed to each operator in the proper order. “Quarter turn right. Full turn left. Half-turn right followed by quarter turn left. Two full turns right.”

  The doors began to open and Bloom immediately laid back down as he entered into the neural link once more. The path was already there from before and he entered near where he was pulled out and saved by Fouter. He saw the node he needed and attacked it. As he did, he could see an image of Daria in the sealed control room, kneeling down and looking at a photo of her standing between Mike and Davies. Bloom could faintly hear in the background a countdown from the control room. The countdown was slowed down to an almost incomprehensible slur: “Eeeeeeeeeleeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvennnn.”

  Bloom entered the node and made it his bitch. The slurring countdown stopped and Bloom left the node and the neural link. When he exited back to the real world, he could hear Daria. “Bloom, the countdown stopped and a control panel is coming out of the wall. Can you get here to figure this thing out?”

  Bloom could barely sit up. “We're on our way, Doc.”

  “Bloom, is that you? Can you read me?” Wilks' voice came over the comm link.

  Bloom could tell by his voice that he was in the middle of something intense. “Yes, sir. I was able to clear up the comm problem. To be fair, I had a bit of help from a new friend.”

  “I don't care how or what you did, right now I just need your team to get back here and help us take care of a security robot that's attacking us and the ship.”

  “Wilks, we're almost to the control room and I think I'll have better luck shutting it down from there as opposed to us trying to engage it back at the hangar.”

  No hesitation from Wilks. “I trust your judgment. Just hurry it up, please. We're not in immediate danger right now but the little fucker is getting creative and he might actually be able to do some damage in a minute. And regardless of what's going on, send Doc back to the hangar now. The lieutenant was hit; she's in bad shape.”

  “Copy that. We're moving now and should have a solution in less than ten minutes.” Bloom directed his squadmates to drop the bulk of their gear as it was not needed for the next part of their mission. The most important thing they needed was their cardiovascular system so they could run to the control room. Daria also acknowledged Wilks and began hightailing it back to the hangar.

  Bloom barely made it to the control room without passing out. He had passed Daria on the way and knew that she wasn't in much better shape. Fouter had been talking to him during the run and had given Bloom instructions on how to override the security system and take full control of the base. Though Fouter was “wired” into the system, he was still locked out from many of the higher functions of the base. Bloom was already making mental list of systems he wanted to explore once it was safe to do so.

  On the main screen of the control room, he could see the scene playing out in the hangar bay. The ship was at the top of the hangar and the security robot was throwing canisters in the air and then shooting them. Apparently the ship was too high for the robot's weapons so he was causing the gas canisters to vent and rocket themselves towards the ship, where they were exploding near the ship's hull. Bloom was fairly impressed with the robot's creativity but knew he had to stop it.

  With the instructions he received from Fouter, he was able to quickly access the correct systems and shut down the robot. “Wilks, the robot is down and I have full access to the base systems now. I have a little bit of programming to do here and then I'll be able to have access from anywhere in the base. We should be back to the hanger in less than a couple of hours.”

  “Copy that, Bloom”, Wilks said. “We're all pretty interested in finding out who this new friend of yours is.”

  “All in good time, sir. With this base, the information and technology it holds, we just gained a huge advantage that we didn't have ten minutes ago.” Bloom was finishing entering a command code into a subsystem. “I've hacked the droid and he'll now obey instructions from anyone on our team. Should be completely safe for you to land now.”

  “Thanks, buddy. I assume Doc is on her way?”

  “We passed her in the hall. She didn't look good; she took a pretty good hit to the head not too long ago. I sent Snake with her to keep her company, to make sure she makes it all the way. They were booking it pretty hard and their trackers say they’re still moving.” Bloom pulled up a map of the base and two triangles were still moving down the corridor, showing Daria and Snake's movement.

  “I'm here, Wilks”, Daria cut in. “Give me a rundown of what happened to the lieutenant. Send pictures to my visor, too, so I can see what I'm dealing with.”

  “She took a round in her chest from the droid.” Davies was sending her photos of the injury along with the lieutenant's trending vital signs. “Her armor slowed it down but it still penetrated. I have a chest seal in place but her lung is still collapsing. I've tried burping the seal more than once but I think she needs surgery.”

  “Copy that.” Daria was dangerously close to passing out but she put a little more effort into her run anyway and started going through in her head the possible medical procedures she might need to do.

  Snake keyed his comlink. “Wilks, look around the ship—there might be one of those torture tubes on board. If there is, maybe Bloom can repurpose it to perform surgery on the lieutenant.” Snake looked at Daria as they ran. “No offense, Doc, I know you could handle it on your own under normal circumstances but we don't have any equipment down here beyond basic trauma stuff.”

  “No offense taken, Snake. I think that's a great idea.” Daria thought for a moment. “Davies, if you find one of the tubes, go ahead and just put the lieutenant in it right away.”

  “Are you sure, Doc?” Davies was a little hesitant.

  “She's right,” Bloom cut in. “The primary instruction on the torture tubes is to keep its subject alive unless told to do otherwise. If you put el-tee in the tube, it will automatically discover her injuries and start putting her back together again. The key will be to turn it off before it starts torturing her, which won't be a problem.”

  “Okay, guys, I'm on it.” Davies pointed to two other team members who followed his lead and left the bridge in search of the torture tube.

  Your plan is a good one, Bloom.

  Out loud Bloom responded, “Thanks, I'm glad you agree.”

  There is in fact a torture tube on the ship. I will send the location to you in just a moment.

  “If you knew it was there,
why didn't you just say so a moment ago when we were discussing the idea?”

  Because, I needed to divert my full attention to other processes to prepare for what will happen when you find the tube. After short pause, Fouter continued. I told you I was placed into a torture tube a thousand years ago; the one and only tube aboard that ship is the one I was placed in. In order for you to use it to save your teammate, you will have to remove my body and I will die.

  Bloom was stunned and saddened. He had only known Fouter for less than fifteen minutes in real life but he had been with Fouter for decades when they were inside Bloom's mind.

  “Are you sure? There are other tubes in the facility that we can use. We already used one of them.”

  The elevator from the hangar bay does not work. It was purposely damaged during the purge when the escaping emperor retreated to this level during his escape. When you tried to access it from the top levels, it wasn't security protocols that kept it from coming to you. There is no way to get your teammate to another tube within the complex, at least not in time.

  “Okay, but how can we justify murdering you to save one of our own? It's not as if you are the enemy any more, then it would be a simple decision. You have helped my team and the information you have provided will help the rest of the Coalition, too. Not to mention that your continued existence will further help us in the upcoming conflict.” Bloom knew, even without the debate, how this would end but he still needed to talk about it.

  I appreciate your sentiment but I have lived for more than a thousand years and I'm ready to move on to whatever is the next step, even if it is nothingness. I have prepared the system to be ready for my departure from it. I have been organizing the data for several hundred years now, trying to put it into logical categories and rating it in terms of usefulness for whoever might find it. I honestly didn't expect to still be around when someone did find it. For the last hundred years or so I've just been “tinkering” with it because I've had nothing else to do.

  Bloom was about to open his mouth when he was interrupted.

  All I have to offer you will still be available. I just won't be around to interact with you. I do wish things could be different but I'm looking at your teammate through the ship's onboard monitoring system and she doesn't look good. Because of my genetic engineering, I was never capable of truly being a friend to the emperor as he was to me but at least I was able to experience friendship once before I moved on. If any of the emperor's descendants are still alive, please tell them of how I changed and how, looking back at my time in the empire, I can now see what a great man and friend the emperor was to me and his own empire.

  Bloom then saw a map of the ship show up on his visor and a blinking triangle showing the waypoint destination of where the torture tube was located. “Davies.”

  “Go ahead, Bloom. I hope you have some help for us. This ship is huge.”

  “I do. The waypoint should show up on your visor now.” Bloom's own visor gave an indication that the software handshake had been made between it and Davies' visor. “When you get there you're going to find a warrior in the tube.”

  Davies didn't reply for a second, wondering how Bloom knew this. “Okaaaaaay. So we just yank his fucking ass out, right?”

  “I don't have time to explain everything so here's the extremely short version.” Bloom took a deep breath before he gave the instructions to kill his new friend. “The warrior is still alive and more than a thousand years old. The tube has been keeping him alive since the emperor's revolt. He has changed, evolved, become a more aware and let's say—socially conscious being.

  “I don't know what condition his body will be in when you find him but his mind is tapped into the computer system of this base. When you remove him from the tube, he will die.”

  “Bloom,” Wilks was in the conversation now, “is this warrior the new friend you were talking about? Will he be a danger at all when we disconnect him?”

  “Yes, sir, he is my friend in every sense of the word.” Bloom felt what could only be described as a “brain tickle” and he knew it was Fouter responding to Bloom's last comment. “I'll explain everything later but he wants to sacrifice his life so the lieutenant can be saved in the tube. All of the information he has on our enemies will be retained in the system after he's gone.”

  Emily could barely talk with her collapsing lung and other internal injuries but she managed to get a few words out. “No. If...evolved...murder. Too important...need him...more than me.”

  For the first time, Fouter spoke through all of the comlinks. “I appreciate your sense of morality but this is my choice and I make it freely and without reservation. As Bloom has said, all the information I have will be retained. This is the gift I give to my emperor's descendants to make sure they can live in a peaceful galaxy the way he wanted them to be able to.”

  “Davies, when you get to the tube, enter these commands on the side panel.” Bloom sent the sequence to Davies' visor. “And please, remove Fouter from the tube like he was one of us. He deserves our respect and thanks.”

  “You got it, brother.” Davies had just located the tube when Wilks advised he was already on his way with the lieutenant.

  Davies saw the warrior in the tube, or what was left of him. The body was whole as far as he could tell but all of the limbs were emaciated to a fraction of what they had once been. Based on the other warriors Davies had seen, this one used to be huge, bigger than the others by far.

  There weren't any tables in the room so Davies made room on the floor near the tube to place Fouter's body. He was getting ready to enter the commands into the control panel when Wilks and Patz came into the room with Emily on a stretcher between them. Emily was barely conscious but aware enough that she was able to look towards Fouter and reach out to try to touch his hand.

  Wilks and Patz put Emily down and without being told, went to the tube to catch Fouter after he was released. Davies entered the commands into the panel and the torture tube began to flash a warning that the current occupant would die if he were removed at this point. Davies entered the proper override commands and the tube began to disconnect Fouter. As disconnections were made and his mind was retreating from the system and back into his body, Fouter's physical form was becoming more aware and actually looking somewhat alive.

  With only a few connections left to sever, Fouter's eyes opened for the first time in almost a millennia. He slowly looked around the room with eyes that could barely move or focus. When he saw Emily, he stopped looking around and locked eyes with her. Once more, she reached out to him and managed to gasp, “Thank you.”

  As Davies and Wilks gently took control of Fouter's body and lowered him to the ground, Emily was able to take hold of one of his lower hands. Fouter didn't have the strength to reach towards Emily or even reciprocate her touch but he could still feel hers.

  For the first time in his life, he knew what it meant to touch another living creature without malice in his heart or anger in his soul. The touch was almost electric in the way it stimulated his emotions and filled him with regret for all the lost moments he had with other sentient beings while at the same time filling him with what he could only assume was love. Not love of another person but the love of life, of existence, of being a part of the universe in a way that hadn't been possible a thousand years ago.

  Fouter tried to speak but his vocal cords had stopped working centuries earlier. Bloom was receiving live feed from Patz's visor and was recording it for posterity. On the screen, Bloom saw his friend locking eyes with the lieutenant and Fouter became obviously emotionally moved when Emily grasped his hand in hers. His soundless mouth moved and did its best to express his final thought, “Thank you.“

  Fouter died and in doing so, made way for Emily to live. Emily was deep in shock and her body had shunted all of its available fluid and blood to her core organs and brain but it managed to spare a single tear for the sacrifice Fouter made for her. She slipped into unconsciousness as Wilks pried her han
d from her savior's and placed her in the tube.

  Davies winced as he entered the commands to start the torture session on the lieutenant. He immediately received a warning from the device that the subject was near death and any torture would kill her almost instantly. The very helpful and insightful torture program gave a friendly suggestion that it be allowed to repair the subject before the torture began. Davies keyed in the proper sequence that told the tube to begin the repair process and to alert him before any torture processes began. The tube went about its business and began affecting Davies' instructions. If he didn't know any better, Davies would have said the tube was actually cheerful as it began its duties.

  Almost three hours later, the entire team was assembled together again on the bridge of their newly acquired ship. Bloom had rerouted and programmed the central computer and returned to the ship and was now fiddling with the droid. Daria had come in from checking on Emily and reported that she was well out of the woods and would make a full recovery. Wilks was preparing a burst report for his superiors and was finding it difficult to condense all that had happened in to a readily understandable story. The rest of the team was relaxing or reviewing ship's systems and data that was pertinent to their personal expertise and positions.

  A beeping began on a control panel near Patz. Jockey came to look at it. “Sergeant, we have company.”

  Wilks had just put the finishing sentence in his report and inwardly sighed at the prospect of another engagement so soon after the last one. His team was just starting to recover from the last few days and although they were the best team he had ever worked with, every sentient being needs to physically and emotionally recoup after these sorts of engagements.

  “What have you got, fly boy?” Wilks managed to sound much more cheery than he felt, something his men needed right now.

  “I'm not sure. I'm reading one friendly craft incoming. It's slightly smaller than our own. The computer designates our ship to be a class nine craft and the other to be a class six. The analogs to Coalition craft would be us as a large cruiser and the incoming ship as a smaller scout vessel.”