by Eyal Kless
I shrugged her off. She was right, of course, but this was Galinak, my Galinak, lying motionless on the ground, his eyes wide open. I bent down next to Vincha, who was frantically looking for damage on his body, mumbling, “Where the rust is it?”
Peach hovered above us a moment later. “Is he dead?” Her tone was cold, matter-of-fact, emotionless, like a veteran army officer. I checked his pulse, then looked up at her. “No,” I said, relief washing over me like a warm shower. “He was hit by a stun ray.”
As if on cue Galinak blinked and gasped for air.
“You rusting lucky bastard.” Vincha shook her head and banged her fists lightly on the old warrior’s chest. “I was sure I’d find you charred like a Dorgmahr steak.”
She helped bring Galinak slowly to a sitting position, and suddenly threw her hands around his shoulder in a clumsy hug. “You are a rusty old Troll,” she said.
Getting hit by a stun ray was not a nice experience, I knew it firsthand from when I was shot in the City of Towers, but it was far better than being hit by any of the alternatives.
Peach picked up the main part of the destroyed drone. “That is strange indeed.” She turned it over several times “This is the Hub’s defence drone. It should have killed you, but it used a stun ray instead.”
Galinak managed a grin. “Yeah, guess it’s my lucky day in space.”
For once, Peach was the one looking confused. “The entire time we were fighting the drones, they were using stun rays. And why send waves of them instead of one big assault that would overwhelm us? And where are the human soldiers? The doors are locked but we are just passing them manually. Mannes is surely aware that we are here, and the Hub has a few more defence protocols against intruders. This doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“It’s like he’s not trying to kill us,” I said, “just slow us down.”
A small but sudden shake accentuated the end of my sentence.
“Bukra’s balls.” Galinak grabbed the edge of a machine to steady himself. “Tell me it was just me.”
“No, we all felt it. Watch my back.” Peach leaned over one of the screens and tapped furiously, but after a moment she shook her head. “Locked out, but the energy expenditure level is at 130 percent, which means a third septimum engine has been fired up.”
We all looked at her.
“The Hub has four engines,” she explained. “Two are constantly working to create a functional low gravity, power the protective force field around the shaft, and stabilize the Hub as it spins around the Earth on top of the Star Pillar. The other two engines were built for emergency use or . . .” Her brow furrowed, then her head snapped up, eyes wide. “Whatever he is planning to do, we have to get to Mannes and stop him.”
Galinak tried to step forward too soon, and it was only Vincha’s quick reaction that stopped him from falling to the floor. “That was . . . unexpected.” He waved his hand at us. “Go, scan ahead, I’ll be fine in a few moments.”
Vincha got under his arm while the three of us moved ahead. A few doors down got us to a long hall, filled with human-sized glass and metal tubes, each containing a person in it. The bodies were totally naked but for masks on their mouths and noses, and they were constantly turning in blue liquid.
“Well, at least that’s one question answered,” I said after peering inside. “We now know why all the guards disappeared. I recognise this woman from the truck ride.” I looked into a few more tubes just to be sure. Each had a set of dials with constantly changing green numbers, flashing on a small screen. There were at least two hundred soldiers rotating in liquid. The sheer number of them ruled out the idea that they were all coerced to step into these strange tubes. These people went into the tubes voluntarily. I stood next to Peach, who was staring at one particular tube.
“Someone you know?” I asked.
She pointed. “This is Sergiu the Dying, the man who shot me.”
“That’s a surprisingly apt name. Are you sure it’s him? He’s hard to recognise, with the nose and mouth covers and without that weird hat.”
She glanced at me briefly, “Not a face I would soon forget under any circumstances, believe me.”
Vincha and Galinak were just coming into the room while the Lizard stoically stood among us four.
“He did not want to shoot me, you know.” Peach aimed her gun at the turning body. “He was just following orders. I used to be exactly like him, duty bound to follow without questioning what my actions might do to others, so I can’t really blame him for doing what I would have done. The world is a very bad place because of people like us. What’s left of it . . .”
“Are you going to kill him?” I asked carefully.
Peach lowered her gun. “He’s in cryo.” She sighed. “His mind is somewhere else. He won’t feel fear, or pain. They might find another vessel for him to come back in. Kind of takes the edge off revenge, don’t you think? So no, I won’t shoot him now, but I might be here when he wakes up. Good-bye, Sergiu.”
She turned and walked away, and we followed her, gathering around the locked door leading to the next room.
I used my sight to scan what was behind the door as Peach worked the manual override and Galinak and the Lizard pushed the heavy door. By the time the door was open I knew what to expect inside.
“Well?” Peach looked at me as she readied her power gun.
It was a stupid thing to say, but it was the only thing I could think of. “Vincha,” I said softly, “you . . . you’d better stay here.”
“What? Why?”
My guess was that she already knew what was waiting for her by the tone of my voice.
“I’m sorry, Vincha . . .”
Vincha shoved me out of the way and I watched her storm into the next room. Galinak and the rest followed her, but I stayed back a little longer, hoping that I was wrong, that my eyes, for once, had betrayed me. I heard Vincha cry her daughter’s name, first in fear, then again, in the kind of agony that can only come out of the mouth of a mother facing the lifeless body of her child.
Chapter 73
Twinkle Eyes
By the time I gathered the nerve to enter the room, they had found a way to open the glass cocoon. The room was quite large but cluttered with floating screens and a large amount of alien-looking machinery. I did not pay any attention to any of it. Emilija’s corpse was lying inside the open glass case and Vincha was bent over her with Galinak at her side. I wanted to reach Vincha’s side, although I had no idea what I was to say or do once I stood next to her.
As I approached the cocoon, I saw the Lizard standing on the other side of it, his head bent low. I was no expert on Lizard body language, but it looked to me as stricken as the rest of us.
I had chased Vincha’s shadow for years and used every trick to manipulate and interrogate her. I heard how Vincha unplugged herself and overcame terrible Skint addiction, how she faced Nakamura and lost Bayne inside the City Within the Mountain. We had fought shoulder to shoulder, but she had also physically assaulted me and pointed weapons at my head more times than I wished to remember. I even saw Vincha break to pieces under interrogation before getting up again and carrying on. There were stronger Trolls and better fighters than Vincha, but I’d swear that she was the hardest, toughest warrior I’d ever met. Yet seeing Vincha’s face as she gently caressed her dead daughter’s face, I knew she was shattered in a way that would never let her be whole again.
Emilija’s eyes were shut, and I wished I could say that she looked peaceful, but she just looked like a dead young woman. The tattoos on her arms and neck were surprisingly faded but there were also ugly deep red markings on her temples and forehead and some crusted blood under her nose.
I don’t know how many times I opened my mouth to say something just to close it again without uttering a word.
We just stood there, silent, until the Hub shuddered again.
“That’s the fourth septimum engine,” Peach said. “We are very close to the command hall. I am g
oing in there now to stop whatever Mannes is planning to do. With or without you.”
I thought Vincha would ask for more time or be so lost in her grief that she would simply ignore what was said. I didn’t expect her to straighten up and walk away without looking back as the glass cocoon closed over the body of Emilija.
She walked towards Peach and simply said, “I decide when and how to kill him.”
Peach opened her mouth to say something but must have thought better of it and just nodded.
We gathered in front of the door but this time it proved a more difficult task. So close to the command hall, the manual override to the heavy door was password locked even beyond Peach’s capabilities, and no amount of strength from the Lizard or Galinak could move it.
We stood there, twiddling our thumbs, when Vincha’s red hair suddenly shot up in all directions, twitching as she spoke over all the channels. We heard her over our personal Comms, but her voice also resonated in the entire Hub.
“I am coming for you, Mannes,” she said in a chillingly calm tone. “You can hide behind this door like the coward you are, but I will find you, so—”
The heavy door suddenly slid open.
We looked at each other, aware of the implications of what had just happened.
“An invitation?” I asked.
“A trap.” Peach, weapon at ready, peered quickly around the door.
“Who gives a rusty rod?” Vincha stepped through the door, guns in hands, and we all followed her.
A moment later we were walking through another corridor with our weapons drawn and ready, but nothing happened. No drones assaulted us, and the doors just kept opening all the way to the command hall. It was a vast, rectangular room with high windows looking out to space, empty of people but for Mannes, who was sitting in the centre of it, calmly watching us enter. The Earth was just coming into view as the Hub circled around itself when Peach approached him. “Power down the two engines, right now,” she comanded.
“Nice to see you again, Colonel Major Vera Geer,” Mannes answered calmly. “I admit I regretted ordering Sergiu to have you killed, but at the time I could not afford loose ends.”
Peach trained her weapon at the sitting Mannes and kept a safe distance, but Vincha simply walked straight towards the ghoul, gun raised. She stopped when the barrel was an inch from his wrinkled forehead.
“I’d promised to kill you slowly,” she said, the power gun shaking in her hand, “but I’m not sure I can control myself now. Do as she says.”
Mannes turned his head and looked up to her, completely unfazed. “You can pull the trigger,” he said quietly. “I have lived for far too long as it is. But the engines cannot be shut down.” Hearing this, Peach began moving from screen to screen. “Your code won’t work anymore,” Mannes said without breaking eye contact with Vincha. “I purged it from the system when I realised you somehow survived. Sergiu has always been a thorough kind of guy—you should tell me one day how you managed to do that.”
“I told you what I would do to you if you harmed her.” Vincha’s voice was tight and in control. “And I intend to find new ways to make you scream for mercy every rusting moment of the rest of your life.”
“I know,” Mannes said. “I lost my daughter, too, a long time ago, and every day since is a new lesson in pain. Emilija is gone, Vincha, but I am the only one who can bring her back.”
Vincha pressed the barrel of her gun into Mannes’s forehead. “You lie,” she snarled.
“No, he is not lying.” The new voice made all of us spin around, but the screens around us were filled by the face of a young man with dark skin and long, braided hair.
“Is it done?” Mannes asked from his chair, his voice suddenly filled with barely held emotion.
The image of the young man nodded. “It is done, Dr. Holtz. We took everyone we could before Adam managed to close the gap. Two thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven minds are now safely stored in the Hub. The best scientists, doctors, architects, artists, philosophers, composers, and free thinkers Tarakan has to offer.”
“That’s not everyone,” Mannes said softly. “I was hoping for more.”
“It’s about a third of the minds Adam had. You’ll be happy to know that Dr. Tamir and Dr. Gustav are among those we managed to pull out. I am sure they will be a great help as soon as we restore them back to consciousness.”
I saw Mannes take a long, steadying breath. “And Deborah, is her pattern still intact?”
The man smiled. “Yes, Dr. Holtz, but it will take some time and careful effort for her mind to be reconstructed. I must say your new program is brilliant, but we will need a little time to make it better before we separate Deborah from my own consciousness. If you want I can show you—”
“No.” Mannes straightened in his seat. “This is not the time. Proceed as planned.”
“As you wish.” The transparent screens suddenly spun around and some of them floated to the Lizard. “My my, is that what I think it is?”
A silvery ray briefly shone on the Lizard, who hissed and clawed at one of the screens, his sharp talons passing through the image.
“Jean Pierre. Goodness, is it really you?” The image spoke again, his voice filled with wonder and awe.
The Lizard hissed again, but shook his head, seemingly confused.
“Oh no, Jean Pierre. I am so sorry,” the image said.
“Right.” I stepped between the hovering screen and the confused-looking Lizard. “I’m sorry to stop this interesting reunion, but would you mind telling me what is going on here?”
Several more screens turned towards me. “Well, of course. I am the Sentient Program known as Cain, and you were probably sent here by Adam.”
“My daughter, Emilija, is she inside you?” Vincha moved to Mannes’s side, aiming her gun at his temple.
“Yes, she is part of the programming now.” The image changed into Emilija’s face, but she still talked in the man’s tone of voice. “It will take some time to separate her consciousness from mine, it is still a process that needs to be done very carefully. We need to run simulations and right now—”
“You do that separation process, right now, and put her mind where it belongs, which is in her own body, or I’ll shoot your wrinkled friend here in the head and destroy every rusting machine in this Hub.”
The image turned back into that of a young man with long, plaited hair. “I have just been transferred to this Hub together with thousands of minds. It will take me a little time to adjust my programming to the new environment. I suggest you be patient, perhaps listen to what Dr. Holtz has to tell you. What he set in motion took dozens of years to accomplish. This must be a big day for you, Dr. Holtz.”
I turned my head back to the central chair and saw that Mannes had covered his face with his gnarled hands. It was such an odd gesture, and it took me a few heartbeats to realise he was crying.
Chapter 74
Mannes
“Are you really going to meet him, Doctor Holtz?”
Mannes shook his head and, in the last moment, caught himself and suppressed a sigh. “Of course I am not going to really meet him, Daichi. We will converse via a grid channel.”
The tall man was literally shaking with excitement. “That’s meeting him, in my books. I don’t care about shaking his hand.” Daichi actually shoved his own hands into the pockets of the old-fashioned lab coat he insisted on wearing, to everyone’s embarrassment. “I don’t like touching people anyways.” He added the last in Japanese in a soft mumble probably meant for himself, but Mannes’s brain amp picked it up and translated the sentence.
Daichi reverted to English again. “But to meet the great man himself, the one who woke up Adam . . . I mean, wow.”
Mannes shrugged, a gesture he hoped projected suave coolness, but in truth, he was almost as excited about meeting his old professor as Daichi was.
“I’ve never met him, you know,” Daichi chattered on as they stepped out of the elevator. “By the
time I was in training we just watched old lectures or talked to his replica bot.” He looked at Mannes. “But you got to work with the Professor himself. What was that like?”
Mannes chuckled softly as he scratched his greying beard. “Demanding, exciting, stressful, and sometimes downright horrid. But he is a genius, the genius of our generation, perhaps. The way he analyses and dissects the most complex of problems down to the most basic level is inspiring.” Remembering Daichi’s fragile spirit, Mannes finished the sentence with “But his replica bot could answer any question you might think of.”
The look Daichi gave him was of cold impatience. “Yeah, yeah, but it’s not him, the man who awoke Adam. Shinjirarenai, incredible.”
Mannes sympathized with Daichi’s frustration. Professor Vitor was a legend in Tarakan, not only for being in the room when Adam gained full consciousness. He was the one who nurtured him from AI infancy to SP maturity and averted several disasters in the making, writing new rules after breaking his fair share of the old ones. Professor Vitor was also the first Tarkanian to upload himself into Adam, insisting that he should take the risk of dying in agony for the future of the human race. After the successful uploading, Professor Vitor continued his work improving Adam and even gave annual lectures in all seven Tarakan Universities and Colleges. When other uploaders slowly withdrew from the outside world, the Professor kept a close contact, appearing in the media and of course, at every maintenance meeting.
Mannes was just beginning his second doctorate in advanced program engineering at the Tarakan Technology Institute when he was called to replace an engineer who suffered a minor but debilitating sports injury. He never completed the second doctorate, but he got to work with his teacher and idol for four of the most interesting years of his life. Yet even someone as strong willed as the Professor slowly succumbed to the pull, for when you could simply be a god of your own realm, the world of men became less interesting. His public meetings began to dwindle; he cancelled all the annual press appointments and often sent his replica bot for lectures. The only time Professor Vitor would show himself in public anymore was at the yearly maintenance and evaluation review, and every time, the Professor always acknowledged Mannes by name, even when he was sitting in the far corner of the outside table. Mannes suspected this acknowledgement was one of the reasons for his rapid advancement to the main table, where he now occupied one of the six main seats.
