A.I. Zombie: Book 1 of the Space Station At The Edge Of The Black Hole Series

by L. A. Johnson

  And she still didn't know what was going on. Which was bad because on a space station in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a black hole, there was nowhere to run. And even if she could, she doubted that she would. This place was her home, for better or for worse.

  Gorb fell into a new rhythm, humming along with the patient song. She had to fight the urge to sing along herself. She shook her head.

  "Got it," Ian said. "At least, I think." He glanced up from his computer, and the worried look on his face did not make her feel any better. She crossed the room and sat down next to him.

  Gorb followed her and shimmied over to where Ian was. MACRO stayed put.

  "What is it, Ian?"

  "Well, I got a few hits on the Scythe search. A couple of them look good, and one of them looks very bad."

  "Describe very bad," Lyra told him, planning to lose patience if she had to ask him again.

  "Like I said, there are a few options. One is a type of tree in the Massey system, one is a store at a shopping mall in Vega, and the third is a group centered around an escaped intergalactic mad scientist who is rumored to have turned himself into an Artificially Intelligent Being."

  Lyra opened and then shut her mouth. She simply wasn't sure how to respond to that kind of information. "Oh come on! Why can't it ever be the store inside the shopping mall?"

  "What do you think it means?"

  "Well," Lyra said, "I don't know. Supposedly, MACRO went into that archaic and almost completely useless body in order not to get hacked. Grayson said that he was hiding from a hive mind, borg-type of group that he escaped from. Maybe he's just telling us what it is he'd like to stay away from?"

  She felt stupid saying it. She knew it wasn't true, and that now really wasn't the time for optimistic assessments of their situation. Whether the people around her liked it or not, though, right now she was happy to be digging into denial.

  MACRO beeped three times, the universal robot symbol for no.

  "Shut up, MACRO," she snapped.

  He rolled backwards.

  "I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know what it was that I expected, but it wasn't that-whatever you just said. So, this Scythe is a person? Or an AI? Or a criminal?"

  Ian re-read the information. "It's really not very clear on any of those points. There's only general and speculative information since the group is very secretive and obviously the leader is on the run."

  Lyra crossed her arms. "Perfect. What do you think this group has to do with us?"

  "Hey," Ian answered, sensing her change in mood. "Maybe it has nothing to do with us. You're the one who pulled me into this whole thing. And besides, the only thing we know for sure right now is that one of your, um, odder patients happens to be singing. And also, a really large rat started a bar fight. Right? Is that all or did I miss something?"

  "Good point." He was right, in theory. She wanted badly to believe that she was overreacting, but she just had a feeling that things were not right. "Okay, a weird, singing patient, a giant rat, and a weirded-out robot. Things could be worse, right?"

  That's when the patient stopped singing.

  18

  A dread washed over Lyra. If anything, the silence was even worse than the singing. She jumped up and ran to the radio and turned it up. Maybe it just wasn't as loud. She turned it up more, and then all the way. Nothing. She knew what it meant, and she didn't like it at all. It meant she had to check on Vax.

  Vax made her think of Nancy. There was still no sign of her. Lyra glanced around the room to see if anybody else was going to volunteer before steeling herself to go back into the haunted room.

  "Ok, people, so the weird singing patient is no longer singing. Maybe the lack of brain function finally caught up to him. That would, in fact, be completely normal. And a very rational explanation as to why he stopped. Just in case, though, I'm going to check on Vax."

  Except that her feet wouldn't move. "Gorb, you coming with me, buddy?"

  Gorb shook his head.

  "What about you, MACRO? Up for a walk?"

  Beep, beep, beep.

  "Ian?"

  "Um," he replied, pointing at his phone. "Research. Very important."

  "Fine," she said, as she made her way slowly down the hall like she was being made to walk the plank in a pirate horror movie. "I'll go alone."

  She rounded the corner. The door was still ajar. She peeked in, realizing that she was no longer breathing. She considered starting to again, but then decided it was best if she continued to just hold her breath. Vax was still standing guard and the patient looked to be in the same exact position with the same exact expression on his face as before, which was blank. She exhaled.

  "The robot's beeping again, Lyra."

  She was so startled that she literally jumped in the air. He had wafted in behind her. "Stop sneaking up on me, what is wrong with you?"

  "Well, the robot's beeping and handsome guy wants you for something." He grinned. "And I know what it is," he said it playfully.

  "Now is not the time for this, Gorb." She turned back toward the room and whispered to Vax. "I'll be right back." Then she made her way back to the waiting room, where MACRO was in fact beeping.

  "Did you need something, Ian?"

  "I've been looking over the data and I have a theory. But I'm afraid I can't test it if the guy isn't singing."

  "What are you talking about?"

  Beep.

  "Well, the type of signal that we're hearing, in theory, could actually be disrupted if you had a strong enough competing signal."

  Beep. Boop. Boop.

  "Oh, get a real robot body," Lyra snapped. "I don't have the manual with me right now." She ran her fingers through her hair and then turned back to Ian. "I'm afraid I'm not following."

  "Well, I obviously can't stop him from singing, but I think I could override the signal that he was sending to the radio."

  Nancy came through the door, breathing hard. She opened her mouth to speak and then decided to breathe instead. She held up a finger for them to wait.

  "Did you go all the way to the other end of the space station?" Lyra asked.

  Boop. Beep.

  Nancy nodded. "Yes. And the weird patient singing is top forty everywhere I went. In fact, the rowdies in engineering are nearing the breaking point. They want the old stations back."

  "Don't we all."

  "Wait, why don't I hear anything?" Nancy asked.

  "Because he stopped singing," Lyra answered.

  "Why? Hey, MACRO!"

  Beep. Boop. Boop. Beep.

  "I don't know why the patient picked now to stop singing. With any luck, maybe he's done," Lyra said it, but she didn't believe it. There was an eeriness that permeated the whole room.

  "Is Vax still in there?" Nancy asked.

  "Yeah, I just checked on him, he's fine."

  There was a sound on the radio and Lyra realized she had left the volume all the way up. It sounded like the patient was still broadcasting live, and that he was taking a very long, very deep breath. Then there was a beat of silence.

  Then there was a loud, screaming, inhuman noise that Lyra had never experienced before in her life. If what the patient was doing before was singing softly, now he was screeching in a pitch that was liable to cause hearing and nerve damage.

  Lyra made a mad dash to the radio and switched it off, but the noise barely got any better. That can't be good. She unplugged it and the sound was the same.

  Everybody in the room covered their ears and fell to their knees. Lyra did too, but only for a second. Then she remembered something. Vax.

  She ran down the hallway, screaming even though she couldn't hear it over the noise. She reached in and grabbed the giant doctor by the shirt. He still had the sword in his hand, but he appeared frozen in place.

  The patient, despite the change in volume and pitch of the sound emanating from him, had not changed his position or facial expression.

  She pulled with all of her frenzied, terrified s
trength and managed to tug Vax out into the hallway. Then she slammed the door behind them.

  With the door shut, the sound was, unfortunately, only slightly muted. Lyra turned and stared at the door for a moment, worried the patient was going to get up and come after them. Where did that thought even come from?

  The pain in her ears was replaced by a ringing so pervasive it made her doubt the idea that there was a time that it never existed. That doesn't make sense, she told herself, but her body didn't seem to be listening to her brain anymore. Her feelings were even getting disjointed. It was like this new sound was affecting more than just her hearing. She and Vax made their way back to the waiting room.

  The patients had all bugged out finally, leaving just Lyra, Vax, Ian, Nancy, Gorb, and MACRO. Lyra was finding it hard to think, but she fought through it. "Ian, you think there might be a way to disrupt whatever this is?" She was screaming over the noise.

  He nodded. "I think so. It's all hypothetical though. The equipment I need is back in my room."

  "Go get it, okay? I'll wait for you here."

  "What are you going to do?" Ian and Vax shouted at her at the same time.

  Lyra took a deep breath of resignation. "I think it's time to get Grayson down here."

  Both Vax and Nancy's eyes got wide. Lyra turned from them for a moment to see Ian run out of the waiting area and wondered if he was ever going to come back.

  Then she turned her expression back to Vax and Nancy. And Gorb, who had gathered with them at the thought of juicy gossip.

  "No," Vax said. "You can't mean it."

  "I do," Lyra said. "It's time for him to get his old butt down here."

  She went to Gorb's desk where she knew there was a special phone that went straight to his cell phone. She picked it up.

  "You think he'll be able to hear you?" Nancy asked.

  "Oh, he'll hear me alright." She had to jam the phone to one ear while covering the other in order to hear the dial tone and then the ringing. It rang once, and twice and again. Nothing. His voicemail picked up.

  "Hey!" she shouted. "In case you're still oblivious, we've got a situation in the waiting room that needs your attention. Got it? If you're not here in five minutes I will personally search this entire space station, find you, and drag you back here. Do you hear me? We need your help NOW! Oh yeah, this is Lyra." She hung up.

  "I left a message," she shouted.

  "We heard," they shouted back.

  "Do you think he'll come?" Vax asked.

  Nancy frowned. "I don't think there's any question he'll come. I think the only question is whether he's going to kill you when he gets here."

  "At this point, it's either him or zombie patient guy, so I figure I don't have anything to lose, do I? Close your mouth, Gorb."

  Gorb was, in fact, gaping, which was a very strange sight.

  Lyra couldn't take it anymore and threw herself in a chair and buried her head in her hands. That's when the noise went to approximately half volume. She looked up at the others and found it slightly easier to think now.

  Her phone rang. She jumped. Was it Grayson calling her back? It was Ian.

  "I got here before the signal strength went down. Is it quieter there now?"

  "Yes, it's quieter here, but we can still hear it."

  "Okay, listen. I'm not one hundred percent sure yet, but I think that the signal is some kind of distress call."

  "What?" Lyra asked. "We're the ones that are in distress."

  "I know, right? But what I'm saying is that I don't think the signal itself is what we should be worried about."

  Lyra felt her shoulders droop. "Oh no."

  "Yeah, according to all of the data that my instruments are collecting, it's not the signal itself, but what that creature is calling to. And you should see my ratings! I just did a quick five-minute video blog about what's going on here and it's gone viral. Isn't that great?"

  It's great if we're not all about to get killed, Lyra thought. "You think he's calling that weird AI evil scientist person?" She tried to whisper, but everybody in the room was in the process of scooting closer to her.

  "Like I said, I'm just telling you what the data is showing. Pretty sure about the distress call, no idea of the end goal. No wait, in fact, distress call might even be the wrong term for it. A more specific explanation would be a homing beacon."

  "That's not any better, Ian."

  "I didn't say it was any better. Sorry, that's all I've got right now."

  Grayson came bursting into the room. His hair was mussed, his coat was askew, and his face was red as a boiled lobster that had been drinking whiskey.

  "Hey, Ian," she said, "I gotta go."

  Grayson stopped in the middle of the waiting room and glanced around. "What in the middle of holy hell is going on here, Lyra? And let me be clear that whatever it is, I'm holding you personally responsible because you're the one who called me in the middle of the night."

  Lyra looked down at her watch. "It's nine forty-five."

  "I can't believe I'm having to repeat myself here," he said and scowled at Vax and Nancy, who both took a few steps back. "What is going on here?"

  Lyra stood her ground. "Well, you can hear the noise, right?"

  Grayson frowned somehow with his entire face, not just his mouth. It was a terrifying sight. "The noise that sounds like fingernails on the chalkboard of my soul? Yes, I think I hear it. What is it?"

  "It's the patient in room 22b." At least she hoped he was still there, she hadn't checked in a few minutes, but she was pretty sure.

  Grayson rubbed his face with his hand. "Why, pray tell, is he making that noise, and why don't you shut him up?"

  "We tried sedating him, sir. It didn't take."

  "Well, why don't you up his dose?"

  "We did. In fact, we upped his dose to about three hundred."

  "Three hundred?" For the first time, Grayson looked like he was starting to wake up. "Then he wouldn't be singing, he would be dead."

  "Well, about that," Lyra said and then remembered Vax had a copy of his chart. She crossed to Vax and held out her hand and he gave it to her.

  She waved it at Grayson. "Look, he came in here nearly brain dead and he crashed after that. And then, well, he sort of just kept going on a downward slope."

  He grabbed the chart out of her hand. "What are you talking about? Minus three hundred and eighty? That's not possible, Lyra."

  "I know."

  "DEAD people have a better brain function that negative three eighty."

  "I'm aware. But Grayson, there's more."

  "Should I sit down for this?" He didn't bother waiting for an answer and plopped himself down in the nearest chair.

  "Ian says that-"

  "Who's Ian? Does he work here at the hospital?"

  "No, he's a visiting scientist."

  "Bored," Grayson blurted out. "If this is a ghost story, then it's got a very bad beginning."

  "Oh, I'm just getting started. As I was saying, Ian analyzed the patient."

  "With what? Spreadsheets?"

  "Can I just get through this?" Lyra asked. "I'm not sure we have that much time. This patient has a history of being unpredictable."

  "You're telling me that double dead in there is unpredictable?"

  "You're right," Lyra said, "I'm going about this the wrong way. Come on." She grabbed his hand, pulled him up, and led him to the room with the door that was now closed. "You should see for yourself. Vax, could you bring your sword?"

  "I hardly think that's necessary." Grayson objected which was weird, he was fully aware that Vax never went anywhere without it. Maybe he was getting scared after all.

  Lyra went down the hall and cracked the door open. The patient was indeed still sitting there singing. When the door opened, though, he swung his head in their direction.

  Grayson screamed like a little girl. Lyra let out a scream as well. The patient's eyes were twice the size they should be and were now dripping a yellowish liquid. Lyra shut t
he door and backed away slowly. She watched the door carefully for signs of movement. Thankfully, there were none.

  "So what do you think?" she asked Grayson.

  He backed all the way out to the waiting room before he spoke again. Then he frowned at her. "What you're telling me is that you can't handle even one weird, oozing patient on your own? You had to call me over here for this?"

  Lyra could see the fear in his eyes, though. "Look," she said. Stubborn old man. "As I was saying, Ian analyzed the sound data and concluded that this patient is acting as some kind of signal."

  She walked back over to Gorb's desk and turned the radio back on. Then she switched the station repeatedly, revealing the same awful sound.

  "Lyra, what exactly are you trying to tell me here?"

  "Ian thinks he's acting as some kind of homing beacon."

  "You think that thing in there is calling something?"

  "Yes."

  "So what's coming?"

  "That's the million-galactic-credit-question, isn't it? MACRO has been acting crazy lately, and when I reset him, he gave us a message."

  "What was the message?" Grayson asked. This was as engaged as he had been since he had entered the room.

  "The message was Scythe. Does that mean anything to you?"

  "Oh no," Grayson said.

  "What?" Everybody blurted out at him at once. "What does it mean?"

  "Yeah," Grayson answered. "It means we're screwed."

  "What are we in for, here?"

  "I only know the name by reputation, in passing. But it's not good."

  Emily burst into the room, looked around. Froze. Then looked like she was in the process of deciding whether or not to just bolt back out.

  "Oh yeah," Gorb said cheerfully. "Emily was looking for you, Lyra."

  "Emily!" Lyra said. She grabbed her arm before she could wisely run off. "Welcome to the party. What is it that you needed to tell me?"

  "And please tell me it had nothing to do with the rat," Grayson said.

  "It is about the rat," Emily said. "Specifically, the guy that the rat bit."

  "What?" Lyra asked.

  "At the Frenzy incident. This guy got bit, but didn't tell anybody. Maura tracked him down. Genius here, just let a possibly infected patient just walk right out of there."