Annals of the Keepers - Deception

by Christiaan Hile

  As Kason approached the center of this hallway, he stopped. The floor around him began to descend, being replaced by another black piece to complete and seal in the floor above.

  Another descent downward and Kason was at his final destination.

  Upon exiting the lift, he was greeted by Doctor Solome.

  A large medical lab lay out before him as she approached.

  He was familiar with this area, for this is where he was born.

  “Welcome back, Lieutenant Bender,” she greeted.

  “It’s good to be back, Doctor,” Kason replied.

  She turned and began to walk through the lab.

  “How long has it been since you’ve been here, Kason?”

  “Three years, I believe.”

  “Then I’ll show you what we’ve been up to since then; after I take you to Ramek, of course.”

  “How’s he doing? The last report said he was in serious condition.”

  “He was in bad shape, but we stabilized him since his arrival.”

  “Is he conscious?”

  “No. Not consistently, at least. He comes in and out. We are doing a stage seven stabilization of his neuro systems and reentering regenerative cells and nanites.”

  She stopped and directed Kason, “Here, this way.”

  A siren sounded and red lights flashed along the walls.

  “What’s that?” Kason asked.

  “A false alarm. We have been having issues with a cryo-tank and heater filtration system. It’s been going off every hour or so. We’ve been trying to locate the glitch; but, so far, no luck.”

  “The lights went out as I came in. Didn’t pay the bill?”

  She laughed, “One would think.”

  The alarm stopped, as did the warning strobes.

  A sliding glass panel opened in front as they walked through to a longer hallway with glassed-off rooms on both sides.

  In the rooms were embryonic chambers. A blue liquid filled their tube centers as systems and monitors flashed around them.

  “What are these?” Kason asked.

  “These are the new accelerator chambers. We’ve got the development cycle down to one month from fertilization, embryonic, fetal, to birth stages.”

  “Impressive. I think my development took three months.”

  “Correct. We can now develop Reavers at a faster rate and cycle through the bio and nano stages much sooner,” she said, as another pair of glass doors opened to their front, “And, here, we have the first test commencing with live embryos. These are at two and three weeks.”

  Kason stopped to look at the tubes beyond the glass. There, in one of the tubes, was a new Reaver. “The baby looks developed now.”

  “This is the stage the nano-spinal systems are being developed. Cute, aren’t they?”

  Kason smiled, “Just as I was. Or, so I was told.”

  Solome smiled in kind, “Here’s the door to the med-bay.”

  The two entered.

  The room was lined with beds and med-tubes.

  Kason spotted Ramek on the opposite end.

  A robotic assistant was administering fluids into Ramek’s arm from a console attached to the bed.

  Ramek laid there in a black, tight-fitting compression suit. Woven into the fabric were wires and tubes.

  Kason approached his bedside.

  He looked at his friend for a moment before speaking, “Ramek. Ramek, can you hear me? It’s me, Kason. Can you hear me, Ramek?”

  ∞∞∞

  Ramek. Ramek. Ramek.

  His name echoed inside his head. He knew it was Kason.

  Ramek winced.

  He kept hearing his name, but was unable to respond. He was trying to open his eyes.

  His head twitched again.

  The voice calling his name got louder.

  A light flashed.

  Ramek awoke in his own mind.

  He could not see anything, but he could tell that he was face down on a rough surface. He couldn’t move, as his limbs and entire body were frozen in a contorted position. His massive hands were curled into useless claws, leaving him unable to even twitch a finger.

  The battle suit was not responding to any of his neural commands. Audio and visual input was useless. The Kryth electro-net must have overloaded his shielding and caused a catastrophic meltdown. The nanites, now inactive after the cascading failure, left him a prisoner is his own battle suit.

  He could hear muffled voices, rising in pitch and intensity, through his now sealed earpieces.

  A sharp blow cracked against Ramek’s spine, followed by multiple, erratic hits on his ribs, shoulders, and head.

  Smiling, Ramek was amused at the irony of the situation. His armor trapped him, making him immobile, but also protected his body as his captors pummeled him.

  The assault on his armor ceased as a commanding voice bellowed over the din. A few lights flickered inside his helmet, illuminating Ramek’s face in the darkness. One of the errant blows must have somehow freed some of the nanites and spurred them in to operation again. Their self-repairing protocol had re-initialized some basic functions.

  Closing his eyes, Ramek calculated the odds of his battle suit recovering to allow basic movement, much less the total economy of movement necessary for the excruciating demand of combat.

  The battle-drugs thrummed with a subsiding roar, no longer thundering in his bloodstream and nervous system.

  His eyes snapped open with clear purpose towards his mission.

  “Omega. . . 2-4-9-8. . . Keres. . . Codes. . . Disperse,” Ramek spoke while he triggered multiple commands through his retinal displays.

  ∞∞∞

  Sontar Jol snapped his hand at the brutish Comondon, indicating that he should strike the prone warrior in the black carapace again.

  The bull beast complied without thought or question. It was as natural to him to obey his Kryth masters as eating, breathing, or mating to the dull-witted Comondon warrior.

  His dense, corded muscle flexed as he brought the club down with brutal force, rocking the Human’s armored head to one side.

  The Comondon struck again and again with increasing intensity, searching with each strike for a weak spot in the black, armored shell of the Human.

  The difficulty of his task began to annoy the bull. His arm did not tire, but his patience did. He grew bored with this useless game, but licked his lips after a strong blow to the spine of the downed prey.

  The Comondon’s brow creased in concentration as he watched the black armor, not crack open as he expected, but instead ooze, sluicing off the pale flesh of the Human’s body and disappear through a metal grate in the floor.

  Ramek had activated the dissolve feature in his suit’s nanite architecture.

  The Human’s flesh was covered in rippling layers of muscle, shoulders as massive as some members of the Comondon’s clan.

  The Comondon’s victim pushed itself up to rest on one knee, hanging its head low between its shoulders. It shook its head, as if trying to awake from a deep slumber.

  Sontar stood mute, watching the Human captive.

  The bull turned towards Sontar Jal, flexing his huge hand around the shaft of the club, waiting for instruction.

  The Kryth general nodded, allowing him to club the prey unconscious.

  Turning back to the pale Human, the Comondon raised his arm to strike, but faltered, his instincts bellowing at him to flee.

  The naked Human looked at him, not in a haze, but focused; his eyes radiating death and destruction towards his assailant.

  “Ramek.”

  The image of the Comondon flashed before him.

  “Ramek. Ramek, can you hear me?”

  The flash of light enveloped him once again. The sound of his name being called was even closer than before, snapping him from his dream.

  He could feel his body; his feet, his hands, and then his fingers.

  Ramek began to open his eyes.

  A blurry image of Kason was beside him.<
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  DATA CELL 9

  “Ramek? There he is, Doctor. He’s coming to. Welcome back, old friend.”

  Kason reached out his forearm and grabbed Ramek’s.

  “It’s good to see you, big guy, but we need to stop meeting like this,” Kason said with lifted spirits.

  Ramek smiled at Kason’s remark.

  Doctor Solome smiled, saying “He is still sedated. It will be a few more hours until he is fully coherent. Let him rest.”

  Kason released his grip and patted his friend on the shoulder.

  “I still have some time until my meeting with Commander Parejas at the Adytum. Perhaps you could show me what you’ve done with the place?” Kason said to the Doctor as Ramek’s eyes closed again.

  “Right this way.”

  The two walked down a hall as other medical personnel moved from adjacent rooms. They passed several secure checkpoints along the long corridor.

  “Have you had a chance with adding the enhancements to the R.A.S. suits?” Kason asked.

  “I have. We should have them ready in the next day or two. Why? You eager to try them out?”

  Kason laughed, “I’m always ready to try new tech, Doctor. Anything that keeps us on the cutting edge.”

  “I do my best.”

  Kason was about to ask the doctor another question when he heard a sound.

  He stopped.

  She had walked ahead a few meters before looking back at him.

  Kason was looking around the ceiling, trying to place the sound he heard.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Do you hear that?”

  She paused and listened. She looked back at Kason, not finding the sound he now searched for, “No, I don’t.”

  The Reaver walked towards the wall, turning his head, trying to place the sound. He was focused on a vent near the ceiling. He wasn’t surprised Doctor Solome couldn’t hear the sound. Reaver hearing was far superior to normal Human hearing.

  The Reavers’ auditory field crossed over into both infrasound and ultrasound ranges. Without any enhancement, a Reaver’s hearing is about seventy percent better than a natural Human’s. This aided in combat situations while out of their R.A.S. suits. The suits themselves amplified incoming sounds, carrying over into both the low infrasound and high ultrasound ranges.

  Kason heard the sound clearly. “It resonates like a hiss. I think it’s some type of leak. Maybe a pressure line.”

  Doctor Solome walked over to a console and pulled up the floor’s mechanical layout. She moved wall layers aside with her hand to see sensor readings of the support systems inside the facility.

  “I have no alarms or malfunctions. You sure it sounds like a leak?” she asked.

  “Yes, and it’s getting louder.”

  “I don’t. . . wait. . . I think I do hear it.” She approached the wall where Kason was standing, “Yes. Yes, I can hear it. What do you think it is?”

  Kason’s calm look turned serious, “GET DOWN!” He yelled, grabbing the doctor and driving her to the other side of the corridor when the explosion went off.

  The upper wall vent blew outward, showering the hallway with debris. A tremendous roar rocked the corridor as the wall bulged out. Fire whooshed through the top vent, dancing across the ceiling, and licking the corridor air in both directions.

  Kason landed on his side, not wanting to land and injure his friend, “Are you okay?”

  She coughed, “Ye. . . ye. . . yes. I think I got the wind knocked out of me. What happened?”

  Another explosion rocked the other room. The corridor shook. Fire continued to pour out the top vent. Smoke filled the hallway, rushing along the ceiling in a torrent.

  The klaxons waned and lights flashed.

  Doctor Solome got to her feet and moved towards the nearest emergency read-out, “We are having system problems.” She activated the console.

  The console showed the fire safety system malfunctioning in red.

  “The fire suppression system is offline, Kason.”

  “What’s in that room?”

  She pulled up the layout. “Cryo and embryonic circulatory systems for the newborns,” Solome read. Her heart stopped at the thought as she said, “Kason. The babies.”

  Without hesitation, Kason ran down the hall to the room where the newborn birthing tubes were located. Fire had already entered the room, lashing against medical containers and storage lockers.

  Another explosion came through the wall, throwing Kason to the far side. He rolled and continued to the second room were the babies were.

  The room was engulfed in flames inching closer to the birthing tubes.

  Kason patted at the fire that had started on his officer’s uniform near his right shoulder. He tore off the jacket and removed his pants. His body-tight under-garments protected him against the fire.

  Kason made his way through the debris and towards the tubes. There were three babies left intact.

  He grabbed one of the med-lev tubes, disconnecting it from its umbilical connections on the wall and started to move it out of the room.

  Kason didn’t make it far as the smoke and fire were thick. He knew he didn’t have much time.

  Another sound caught his attention.

  The far wall nearest to the room where the explosion originated from was bulging out. It creaked under the strain as the metal contorted and flexed.

  Whoop! The delayed klaxon went off and the nursery door started to descend.

  Kason grabbed a hold of an empty tube and flung it under the door. The door was stopped halfway as it wrenched against the top of the med-lev tube.

  He knew the door wouldn’t hold. Kason removed his under-armor.

  Opening the first tube, he reached in and wrapped the baby up in the thin, protective body suit. He continued to the second and third tubes. He removed each baby and placed them together inside the garment.

  The R.A.S. suit under-armor would protect the babies from the intense heat, fire, and flying debris. Kason, on the other hand, was on his own. Even though his epidermal was twice as thick as a normal Human’s, it could still burn.

  He held the babies against his chest and raced for the door.

  Boom! The wall gave way and exploded inward, showering the room in a flood of fire and debris.

  Kason squeezed through the half-opened door to the next room, but was knocked off balance and thrown into a blaze of raging fire.

  He emerged from the flames on the floor and reached for a desk to lift himself up. He could feel his skin melting away around each finger; but, with a firm hand-hold, he pushed to stand. The weakening metal of the desk screeched and toppled over.

  Kason turned his shoulder and back to the toppling desk, protecting the babies in his arms. The cabinet on top of the desk slammed him down to the floor with its additional impact. With the fire engulfing him, Kason closed his eyes and heaved the desk off his back.

  He got up and hurried to the last door. Before he entered, a rain of halocarbon jets sprayed through the opening, drenching him and sending him sliding along the floor to the main corridor wall opposite the fire.

  Fire Bots continued their assault on the blaze while Doctor Solome and personnel ran to Kason.

  Kason rolled over, showing the under-armor. “The babies are inside. Get them to safety.”

  The doctor grabbed the infants and ordered her team to assist Kason, “Get him into a hydro-regen tank immediately!” she yelled, as the group around her attended to Kason and his injuries.

  His body was burnt over ninety-five percent. All his facial and body hair was gone. The second layer of skin hung off his body like a wet rag, exposing the tissue and muscle underneath.

  The nanites in his system began the stabilization, along with infectious and clotting triage.

  Kason lay there, painless, as the nanites also injected his system with drugs to handle the damage to his body and to compensate for his nervous system shock.

  Kason saw the mag-lev plate next to
him the medical team placed.

  The voices around him began to linger and his vision started to blur.

  His breathing slowed.

  It was time for his body to repair itself.

  Kason closed his eyes and didn’t fight what was already being fought for him.

  DATA CELL 10

  Sontar Jal lifted his cup to his lips, drinking with short, quick gulps. The hot zaar splashed over the rim of the ornate metal cup as he set it down too hard on the table. The heated metal stung his hand, which did not improve his foul mood. No sooner had the cup rang on the stone surface of his table than Skentil Nelesk’s bony hands shot past Sontar Jal’s shoulder to refill the cup with more steaming liquid.

  “Away from me, you miserable sot,” he growled, cuffing Skentil’s shoulder. “Go! Go, before I feed you to my aythras.” On his right side, a raucous guffaw drew his ire. Sontar glared at his lieutenant, Zartock, cramming mouthfuls of meat into his mouth and washing it down with sloshing goblets of kouvil, a potent spirit drink. “Should drive that one into the jungles of Ventokon and let the beasts strip the flesh from his useless bones.”

  “Yes, yes,” answered Sontar Jal, half-paying attention, as he was preoccupied with scanning the crowded amphitheater.

  The Chamber Lore, located in the capital of Dranneous Kor, was an ancient structure of stone, metal, and blood. Games of skill and death were once played on the stone floor in this arena. Surrounded by tiers of seats and tables, the powerful Kryth Mahr generals and their retinues once reveled in the barbaric games on the sun-blasted clay. The games exhibited warriors from conquered races to test their skill against their new Kryth Mahr masters; much to the crowd’s delight, and often to their dismay, as legends were born and heroes slain.

  Now, the ancient arena and the exploits of ages past were closed to the sky with a great, domed roof supported by massive arches. The howls of victory replaced with those of petulance and bureaucracy. Politics ruled here now.

  The tiers radiated out in concentric circles, growing larger the further away from the center of the amphitheater they were situated. The lowest tiers, closest to the empty, stone throne in the center of the floor, held the greater generals of the Kryth Mahr Domain.