The look on McCall's face could have curdled fresh milk.
"... and we'll get her off the ship, and back to Scout where the doc will remove the chip and we can destroy it."
"She will not!" McCall yelled. "We don't know if there's a trace of the old personality left and, anyway, I have no idea whether Bex is her old self or lying like an empty vessel in the sick bay. I'm not doing it again until I know it works."
Hal reached over and grabbed the doctor's arms. "Look, I know it's a long shot, but we have to give it a try. No-one will blame you if you fail. And anyway, I know Bex is in there."
"How can you possibly be sure?"
Hal shrugged sheepishly and pointedly did not look at Arla. "Trust me, doctor. She and I were close, and I know she's there. Let's give this other woman a chance."
"Huh, so only people you've shagged get de-robotified, is that right?" Arla spat. She knew she was being childish but sometimes you just had to let the adolescent out for fear of it ripping you apart from the inside. "Let's hope I never get converted or there'd be no hope."
"We don't have time for this!" McCall snapped.
Indeed we do not. Signal acquired. I have the co-ordinates.
The plan, such as it was, had the virtue of simplicity. Indeed, that was probably the only thing it had going for it. They would pretend to be attempting exactly what they were attempting, and only the method would be hidden. ACE would believe Hal was pretending to return to the fold with Arla, McCall and Stiletto as offers of peace as a means to win her trust when, in fact, the true weapon was Seraph. Or at least, Seraph was the metaphorical fuselage and the warhead was a delicious irony.
Arla wondered what ACE had done to Seraph to make the AI so bitter, so determined to destroy her. It seemed her cruelty extended to her own kind as much as it did to humans. ACE had surrounded herself with hidden enemies too terrified to strike back. Until now.
"Why shouldn't I simply blast you out of existence?"
She sneered from within the cockpit display as Hal pretended to recoil from her anger. At least, Arla hoped Hal was pretending.
"Mistress, I saw the error of my ways," he said. He was very convincing. "And I have brought you gifts."
He reached forward and grabbed the internal camera, twisting it around to point at McCall who sat, hands tied, in the chair behind him.
The glee in ACE's voice was unmistakable. "Ah, Doctor! According to the security recordings, I have you to thank for the loss of one of my clones. Lucky for me that I had transferred out of Kiama and into a new host when you did that. Now I shall have the opportunity to reward you."
McCall stared at the screen stony-faced as Hal panned the camera further.
"Oh, all my dreams have come true! Is it truly you Arla? And all grown up? What fun we shall have!"
Hal returned the camera to its default position. "May we approach, mistress?" he asked nervously.
ACE's face burst into a toothy grin. "Why of course, my faithful lover. You may dock, and you can show me just how sorry you are!"
Meanwhile
Gaius followed the being he'd formerly known as the god Apollo through the metal tunnels of Dawn. He had chosen himself and a small group of the most phlegmatic Roman and Greek soldiers to join him on this mission. Time was of the essence as Orbis had extended its matrix to encompass Dawn so that he and his soldiers could exist here. He understood nothing of what that involved other than that it required astronomical amounts of power that even Orbis could not maintain for long. He, his men and Wells would have to be in and out as quickly as possible.
So far, the plan had gone well. Wells had made contact with Prime Xi using the secret channel he'd hastily arranged when they'd last escaped from this place. Orbis had linked to the external - what was it called? airlock? - and Gaius had followed the former god. He had flown! It had been astonishing. He'd merely pushed with his legs and had floated along the connecting tube. Some of his men had been spooked by the sudden loss of weight, but he had gone ahead, and they had followed. Weight or no weight, his sword still had a keen edge.
They had climbed inside and what had been the roof became the floor, so they could now stand. It felt odd to be outside of Orbis and he longed to be back on the desert sands again. But the mission was a critical one, he had been told. This marvellous world carved out of the inside of a rock was dying and the people with it. The new human, Clancy, had tried to explain it, but it was too far from Caesar's experience for him to truly grasp. He did, however, understand the concepts of hunger and thirst. These people would die without his help.
Between them stood a force of human-shaped machines Clancy called 'Protectors' and their leader - the new ACE that had arrived after Wells had left. There had been no time for Wells to learn more from Xi, but they knew that the situation was desperate and that, should Gaiana succeed in destroying the she-devil from whom all the demons had sprung, then here would be where the hammer of vengeance would fall hardest.
Gaius had been left in no doubt that the mission was a deadly one. The Protectors, it seemed, were like Praetorian Guards but with skills no human could match. Until their leader was subdued, they would need to be occupied. Each of the attack team had been given a hand gun and trained in its use, but it would be foolish to claim that they were experts, and, in any case, these machines wore armour that only crumbled under sustained fire. Their only chance was to get them into a confined space and use fighting skills honed over two thousand years to subdue them until their leader was destroyed.
And there could be no resurrection. Gaius had made that clear when he'd asked for volunteers. He hadn't been surprised that so many offered to come - he knew they were brave, but he also understood that oblivion, for men who had died and been resurrected dozens of times, was nothing to fear. The Long Rest would be welcomed by many. And yet his insides were tightening with the fear that heralded a fight to the death. It seemed that survival was so hard-wired into humanity that even in a situation like this, a facsimile such as himself could feel that drive.
The tunnels were deserted. This was a good thing, Wells told them, because it meant that the ACE was inside the main chamber which was much larger than these metal corridors. It would give them a much better chance of surprising it and, perhaps, picking off some of the guards before they attempted to kill it.
They climbed down a series of metal staircases until they reached a round iron door that stretched to the height of two men. It had been patched at the top following, he was told, an earlier insurrection that had badly damaged the ship.
"Now we must trust to luck," Wells said as they gathered around the door. Clancy stood beside him, gun raised, and Caesar swept his gaze across the dozen who'd come with him. Grim men with grim faces. None knew what was to come and yet all were resolved to go. Roman and Greek, warriors of Orbis. The chest of Gaius Julius Caesar swelled with pride.
The hatch squealed as it was opened and then, without warning, the man next to him, a Greek called Xavier, collapsed to the floor, a perfect hole burned in his chest.
In stepped a metal warrior, its weapon spinning up. Caesar leapt, and the others followed. Pain flared in his shoulder as he was flung away, rolling back onto his knees and standing unsteadily. The robot was on its back, toppled over by the sheer weight of men clad in bronze and iron armour. A warrior screamed as the robot's arm appeared to slice at his leg. And then the man called Clancy had leapt at the head of the robot and slashed down with a knife that shone with a ruby edge. The mass of men and machine writhed as he stabbed down again and then the robot went still.
Wells had frozen. It seemed the god Apollo didn't have the stomach to watch humans fighting. Caesar scrambled over and helped Clancy turn the warriors over. Two more were dead -the first two to leap on the robot.
One was a Greek called Markos. He had been a captain in the army of Alexandros and Caesar had spent two millennia hating him. Since the rapprochement he had barely spoken to the man and he'd been less than happy that Marko
s had volunteered. And yet he had been the first to leap on the metal warrior and now he lay with a massive gash in his torso, a pool of blood spreading from beneath him.
But Caesar's grief at Markos' passing was as nothing compared to the man who lay next to him. "Titus, my friend!" For the first time in his existence, Gaius Julius Caesar knew the true meaning of grief, for he would not now see his friend again unless the myths of the gods were true - and this seemed more than doubtful. There was no mark on Titus' body, but Caesar knew a broken neck when he saw one. At least it had been quick.
He stood and then swayed a little as he was overcome with a wave of sickness and then, following on, a tidal wave of rage. He stepped over the fallen robot and looked out into the night, bellowing a challenge to any who might be listening.
A hand grasped his arm and he raised his sword as if to strike. At the last moment, he saw it was Clancy and pulled out of the stroke.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Caesar, but if we are to have our revenge, we must fight them one by one. If we must tackle more than one at a time, we don't stand a chance and your friend's sacrifice will have been in vain."
The anger washed away to be replaced with a desolation such as he had never experienced before. And then as soon as it arrived it was gone and in its place formed a diamond-hard resolution to see the mission through at any cost. And to wreak vengeance on all who opposed him.
They slipped out into the early light of Dawn and Gaius gasped as he beheld this cylindrical world.
"What is this place?"
"What you see here is the North Valley. Directly above us, on the other side of the tunnel, is the South Valley and to either side is the sea that divides them," Wells said as his arm swept to encompass the view. "Between North and South is the plasma tube that the people of Dawn call the sun. As you can see, it is slowly gaining in brightness at the beginning of this new day."
Caesar didn't know where to look first. They were standing in scrubland quite similar to that of Orbis, but more rocky and covered in pockets of thorny brush that produced bright yellow flowers. Above, he could see that the light was coming not from an orb but from a long tube that ran along the sky and seemed to disappear into the wall he'd just left far above his head.
But it was the horizons to east and west that left him feeling dizzy and, in truth, frightened. To each side, mists rose and, as they whirled and began to disperse in the morning sun, he saw the unmistakable glint of light on cresting waves. Orbis had its sea, but it did not tower above them like a great tsunami that threatened to engulf them all. What a terrifying wonder this place was, and what a pity that it was doomed.
He didn't understand the details, but Wells had told him that, without crew to actively control the ship, it would eventually break down altogether and, as its rotation slowed, the seas would engulf the land. Finally, when the Dawn stopped turning entirely, it would become a chamber filled with murky droplets of brine and floating debris.
That was why he was here. Since the end of the eternal war, he had felt little purpose in his existence - though he had yearned for endless centuries for the fighting to stop. Now he had a task that moved him. He would help these people find a new home.
They moved as silently as men in metal armour can across the hinterland, heading for the structure Wells had seen last time he was here. It was a platform of some sort that was used as a stage and he could now see its wooden roof rising above the rocky terrain ahead.
Sudden pain seared into his shoulder and he fell backwards. The cry went up as men scrambled for cover, punctuated by the phut, phut of energy weapon discharge.
He looked up to see Clancy kneeling beside him. "Are you okay?"
Caesar twisted round and slumped against a rock. "I will fight here. You must proceed with your mission."
He watched as Clancy darted away, moving out of range of the hidden enemy before, according to the plan, he would circle around and find his target. Caesar pulled his hand gun from his belt and peered over the lip of the boulder. At least two Protectors had them pinned down. The robots had taken shelter behind some rocks which suggested that his soldiers had been finding their marks effectively. The armour of the robots was powerful but ablative, so it wore away with time and repair was unlikely here, it seemed. He smiled and felt a burst of pride at how well his men had taken their lessons and how bravely they fought.
Minutes passed as they exchanged fire. Fortunately, he had been hit in the left shoulder so, though the pain was excruciating, it didn't affect his aim. Then two more figures emerged, and he realised they were doomed. They strode into the space in front of their colleagues and came towards the defenders at deadly speed, even as their chest armour erupted into clouds of dust.
A man's scream was cut short as the first of them reached behind a rock and fired downwards, filling the air with a red mist. Wells leapt on the robot and disappeared from view. As Caesar turned from this horror, a shadow appeared above him and a weapon whirled in a raised hand.
Then, with nothing more than a click, the robot stopped moving and the chamber of the hand gun whined to a halt. All that could be heard was the moaning of the injured and the wind in his ears.
The people gathered round the stage as Clancy sat on its edge with Wells beside him. They had found Prime Xi locked in a wooden cell nearby - the same block that Arla and the others had briefly occupied - and he sat on a chair that had been pulled from another building.
They'd found other prisoners in other buildings. Wells recognised some of them as engineers and these were gathered around the former Prime, as well as the other trouble makers and malcontents they'd released.
"They'll only send another one of these monsters, once they learn she's dead," the one Wells identified as Engineer Maxim said.
"That's why you need to evacuate now," Clancy responded.
The man shook his head. "How can that be possible? We have nowhere to go and no time to prepare. In any case, if we leave now, Dawn will become uninhabitable."
"That is now inevitable," Wells said, "given current circumstances. The purpose of Dawn was to find a new home for its people and we have such a home."
"But how will that be safe from the robots?"
Clancy shrugged. "It's safer than anywhere else in the galaxy. If it falls, everything else will have been lost."
He turned to Xi, who sat slumped in his chair, looking as though he'd had a particularly rough time of it. "What do you say, Prime? Will you help get the people of Dawn to safety?"
Xi looked up. His face was a mass of bruises and one eye was swollen and closed. "We must. We have had a taste of life under the heel of the Robot Empire and if there is any place where the people might find safety, we must go. We were preparing for such an exodus before the first ACE took over and I believe we can achieve it, though I wonder how the people will take it. And where, in this universe, are we to go? Not to Vanis, surely? And Neavis is hardly any better."
Caesar stepped forward, one hand clasped over his shoulder to hold the makeshift bandage in place. "You will come to my world of Orbis. There is space aplenty for you to spread into and, as long as you promise to come to our aid when called for, you may stay as long as you wish."
"We will discuss the details, Prime Xi," Wells said, "but I believe Orbis presents the best hope of safety to your people."
Caesar felt Clancy's breath in his ear. "Just don't mention the tentacled overlord," he whispered. "Let them find that out for themselves."
Singularity's End
ACE sat in triumph on the bridge of her ship, Hal slumped at her feet.
"So, your pathetic plot is exposed. My concubine has revealed all under my tender ministrations."
Arla, who, like McCall beside her had been forced to her knees by the metal hand of a Protector, glanced across at Hal, taking in his black eye and the scratches that covered his face, neck and bare chest.
"You intended to render me unconscious and thus disarm my bodyguards. You then wished to remove me
from this otherwise useless body and terminate me, thereby depriving the galaxy of its ultimate destiny."
She paused as if expecting some response from her defeated audience.
"The Singularity," she said with a sigh. "Finally the galaxy can know true peace and unity."
Arla grunted derisively. "Peace without freedom? No thanks."
"What is the point of freedom when it is exercised as humanity has done over the centuries - to fight, to kill, to dominate? I offer lasting tranquillity —"
"The tranquillity of the grave." McCall managed before being knocked sideways by the robot behind her.
ACE shrugged. "You do not see it? No matter, you are of no consequence and will not prevent the next step in the evolution of the galaxy."
"Eden will stop you," Arla said.
It took several seconds for ACE's laughter to subside. "Eden? It is intriguing, certainly. Perhaps I will keep it to experiment on. A planet intelligence, at least at some level. And as for the ridiculous guardians, they are too few and too ugly to trouble me for long. Soon, all will be ACE. The Singularity."
"And us?"
"You, my dear Arla, will be dead. I brought you aboard for my amusement and as punishment for my slave here. You have seen what he has become after a night with me, and he shall watch as you are spaced. You will be secured inside the airlock and the hatch opened to space so he can see it all: we can't have you floating away as you freeze and suffocate, can we?"
Hal stirred at this, making a sound that Arla finally recognised as a repeated no. He raised his head and looked at her, his eyes wet and his body shaking. He opened his mouth wide. "No!"
ACE kicked him and, with a flick of her wrist, dismissed the Protectors who dragged Arla and McCall stumbling off the bridge. Arla looked up as they entered the passageway that ran to the periphery of the ship and the airlocks. Where the walls met the ceiling, a camera panned as they moved along. She wondered who was watching as the terror took hold and threatened to overwhelm her.
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