by Michael Kan
It was a look that lingered. Her eyes staring at him, and then through. Just like the Ouryan, the android's expression was genuine, the tacit understanding there.
"She knows," Righton whispered to himself. "I think she knows."
Realizing the situation, the colonel turned to his staff and yelled. "Charge the catalyst now, and execute!" he said.
The officers, shaken by the words, obeyed the order. "Deploying now," a lieutenant said. "Generating the absorption field."
The storage bay's ceiling opened, a large dish dropping down over the woman below. The emitter, gathering its anti-particles, charged a fiery blue light that seemed to swirl around the spire at its fore.
"Five seconds," the lieutenant counted down. "Four."
As the officer went on, Righton looked back at their target. The woman, now standing, stared directly up toward the emitter, her body bathing in its wild glow.
"Three, two, one."
The coalescing light cascaded, the burst flashing downward, concentrating within the ring of equipment below. Righton closed his eyes, the searing glow almost blinding. But in another second, the view into the storage room turned to black.
The lights were out. The surrounding power depleted.
"How are we?" Righton said, rushing back to one of the command consoles.
"Good," the lieutenant said. "Secondary lights coming online...now."
The storage room became clear once again. The particle emitter had fired off its payload. The blue light had evaporated into a glassy miasma, leaving a fog to percolate.
Righton then turned to the display monitors. The android woman, completely motionless, stood silently in the center of the room. He could see that her face was still staring upward, her hands clenched together, her eyes shut.
"Is she disabled?" he asked. "Can we confirm?"
"The sensors show no movement," an officer said.
Hearing the reply, Righton looked at one of the monitors, as the camera panned in closer to the frozen face of the android.
He glanced at the Ouryan, and saw the satisfied look on the virtual man’s face.
"Wait," an officer said. "Colonel, I'm starting to read something strange here."
"Movement?" he asked, "I'm not seeing anything on the camera."
"No. We're reading some energy fluctuations."
"Probably leftover from the catalyst,” he replied. “Or maybe something wrong with the sensors.”
"I don’t think so. The dispersed anti-particles are still there, as expected. But I'm reading a spike in quantum fields across the board. It's all localized at the target."
The readings on an adjacent console showed it to be true: energy and quantum fields had not only shifted, but scans showed a complete absence of anti-particles isolated around the android.
"What the hell is this?" Righton asked.
He felt the subtle tap of a hand on his shoulder. “Look,” the Ouryan said, pointing to a display monitor. “She’s moving.”
Projected through the monitor was the android, her face no longer frozen, her body no longer still. She looked upward, toward them.
“Move to contingencies!” Righton yelled. “Deploy the energy shield now.”
Entering the storage room from a sealed bay hovered three miniature robotic drones. No larger than a standard surveillance pod, they flew high above into the air, circling around the target.
The android, walking past the ring of monitoring equipment, stopped as she stared at the drones. A violet light began to surround the woman, the drones circling faster. It then solidified, the energy barrier forming an impenetrable field.
Walking slowly, the android placed her hand on the barrier wall.
“The shield is holding,” the lieutenant said. “At least she’s contained.”
Righton, however, was not convinced.
“Bring those shields up to 200 percent,” he shouted. “Don’t take any chances.”
Despite the order, it would not be enough. The energy shield, thought to be stable, had begun to break. An expanding gap had materialized along its side, the skin of the shield peeling back before the android.
“Colonel, I don’t understand. I’m detecting no problems with the drones. “
“Drop the field and reform it again,” Righton barked.
The drones followed the android, keeping her body between them. Re-generating the energy shield, a solid field of light again came down surrounding the target.
The android, undeterred, stopped, as another gap in the shield mysteriously opened before her. She walked through unaffected.
“Draw back the drones, and order the security teams in place, with weapons drawn,” Righton said. “She will not leave the room.”
The colonel left behind the command console and rushed toward the windows to see the android for himself. As he did, the main entrance to the storage room below opened. Running in was the security team, the ten armed guards suited in full military gear.
Wielding disrupter canons, the guards formed a line in front of the android and pointed their weapons. Mechanized masks covered their faces, the power armor so thick each guard appeared almost twice in size.
“Patch me in,” the colonel said, his voice connecting into the storage room’s communication system.
“Arendi Soldanas,” he said, the words echoing through the confines. “Don’t move or we will be forced to fire.”
The android looked above, glaring at Righton.
“What do you want?” she asked, flexing the metallic fabric laced over her hands and arms.
“We will escort you to an Alliance vessel for departure to a—“
“Why the deception?”
Righton paused. “It’s been decided you will be disassembled for further study,” he admitted. “I’m sorry.”
Cautiously, the security team walked toward the android, closing in around her, their canons charged to fire.
“Stand down Arendi,” Righton repeated. “Don’t make this any harder.”
But she would not surrender. Not as she contained an unimaginable power within.
It came fast, even as the android’s body was completely still. The entire security team suddenly fell back, their bodies hit by a sweeping force that sent them flying through the air.
Men and women, in tank-like armor, had been flattened, each one falling to the floor with the sound of a hammer.
Righton could hear the security team’s moans over the comm-link, as a few were knocked unconscious by the uncanny assault.
“What just happened?” Righton yelled. “Is she armed?”
He scanned the room, demanding an answer. But there was no reply. Everyone was staring at the monitors in shock.
Righton then heard the shots. He turned his gaze back to the android.
A few of the security guards had grabbed their weapons, and begun unloading the energized ammunition. More fire came, the disruptor beams burning through the air in the storage room. Righton feared the worst, expecting the android to be torn apart.
He looked, and found that she was still standing. In fact, she was in no danger at all.
Each beam had zeroed in on the android, the energies blasting from the weapons. The target was so visible a hit was almost guaranteed. But each shot seemed to strangely miss its target. Rather than slam into the android, Righton could see that the disruptor beams were bending around her body. Somehow, she was warping space, molding it to suit her will.
The gunfire abruptly stopped, the rifles flying out of the guards’ hands, and exploding in the air. Another push came, flinging the security team back into the storage room’s walls.
Righton was speechless. Without lifting a finger, the android had decimated the entire security team.
Arendi looked back up at Righton, her stare cold and remote.
He then felt the force hit. The entire room began to shake.
Wanting to duck away, the colonel could hear the glass behind him shatter. He wrapped his hands around his h
ead, closing his eyes.
Something was pulling him. Not to the ground, but to the broken window. He was being drawn away, and fast. The suction ripping him out and into the storage room.
Righton screamed, feeling the shards of glass sink into his face. He could see himself exiting out the window, his hand reaching, trying to escape. But still he fell, his body powerless to control its chaotic descent.
The colonel expected to die. The velocity was climbing, the fall over 30 feet down. Violently, his body swirled, ready to hit the metal floor.
The glass fell to the ground, but Righton was still alive and conscious. There had been no impact at all, not even the sound of his body colliding into the floor. Panting and gasping for air, he found himself inside the storage room, although not in the way he imagined. His body, still intact, was suspended in the air, the ground only a few feet below him.
A metallic hand then grabbed his collar. Now face-to-face, the android made its demand.
“Allow me to leave this station,” she said. “And no one will be harmed.”
Chapter 39
Arendi held the man by the collar tight, wanting to crush his neck in anger.
The colonel was bleeding from his cuts, his face shaking in terror. But Arendi held no sympathy for the man and his plight. These humans had betrayed her, the whereabouts of Julian unknown. Now she was left to fend for herself, to take matters into her own hands.
She had feared this outcome as the hours went by inside the isolated storage bay. The interrogators came, wanting information on Earth, the Endervars, and even her own body. Study her they did, the scanning equipment encircling her presence, the questions almost never-ending.
“Captain Nverson will arrive soon,” they said. “These measures are necessary for your security,” they repeated again and again.
But they were all lies, the behavioral scans pointing to the growing probability of deception. Arendi had no choice now, her only option to tap into the very power they wish to possess.
Holding the man’s collar tight, Arendi stated her demands, only to see a look of dread on the officer’s face.
“I…” the officer muttered. “I’m sorry. But we had no choice.”
She no longer cared for the excuses. All she needed was a ship. To leave here as soon as possible. To save herself before it was too late.
Arendi was about to state her demands again, when he heard the voice from above.
“Let him go.”
The blonde-haired man stood on edge of the room overlooking above, the glass window shattered, with only a few pieces hanging around the fringes.
He was different from the others, dressed not in a military uniform, but in what seemed to be common clothing. He then did something not thought possible, jumping down from what was a dangerous height. For any other human it would have been death or serious injury. But as the man hit the floor, he did so elegantly, landing on his two feet with a clang against the ground.
Arendi threw the officer aside, his body hitting against the wall in a thud.
Seeing that she complied, the blonde-haired man smiled.
“Thank you,” he said. “I have to apologize. It seems we took the wrong approach.”
He stood a distance from her, their bodies still several meters away.
“Fascinating. Somehow the power within you is capable of all this. Able to bend space. And so easily.”
Arendi remained silent, wondering why this man showed no fear.
“I, however, have to correct our friend the colonel. We do wish to disassemble you, but you’re A.I. core will continue to exist. In fact, it will be uplifted into the great collective, where billions beings already live.”
“Of course if you wish, you can still continue to operate from your existing body. We’d very much like it if you could help us study the power source inside you. It would be a great opportunity to—”
“I want a ship.” Arendi interrupted. “That is all. If I cannot have it. Then I will take it forcibly. You have no choice in the matter.”
She prepared to walk off and exit the storage room. Whether the door would open itself, or if she needed to rip it apart, Arendi did not care. Already, she had memorized all available information on the station and basic SpaceCore ship mechanics, having accessed it from the public database. Once at the nearest hanger bay, Arendi could leave this station for good, putting past this disaster behind her.
The blonde-haired man, however, was not ready to give up. Far from it.
“I’m curious. How human are you?” he asked.
Arendi stopped in mid-step, turning her head back to her inquisitor.
“The man, Julian Nverson,” he said. “What would you say if I threatened to kill him?”
“What?”
“If you leave the station. I will kill him.”
“This is a threat?”
“Perhaps. Think of him as a hostage. He is after all locked in the station’s brig. Our dear captain refused to join our plan, wanting to instead endeavor on his foolish journey to save his homeworld. Very loyal and cunning he is, but still misguided.”
“And what if I kill you?” she fired back. “Then your threat would be meaningless.”
“But would you kill an unarmed man?”
Arendi looked at the bodies around her, a few scampering on the floor, while others remained still and motionless. Unconscious or dead, she didn’t dare venture to think.
The man then slowly walked forward to her, unimpeded by the perceived threat.
“What will you do?” he said, his two hands up in the air. He carefully walked toward her, a morbid glee taking over his face.
“I will rip him apart. I will skin him alive if you do not stay on this station.”
He said it as if it were joke, wanting to almost laugh. But as the behavioral scan came through, Arendi could see the conviction in his eyes, as he approached ever closer, daring her to react.
Who was this man? Why was he not afraid? Why did he not back down?
Still he came, completely unarmed, yet utterly fearless.
She realized why, as the façade of the being came closer and closer. She processed the scans, moving from one lens to another, seeing that he was not, in fact, unarmed. He was no human, but something she had faced before.
“I will have you,” the being said, his hands open. “You are now mine.”
The image of the man then suddenly turned into the war machine that it was. Its two human hands morphed into giant blades; its flesh-like face became a mechanized cyclops.
It then came running, the being’s hologram having hidden its true size. In just three strides with its insect-like legs, the machine was now only inches away from her face, its weaponized arms poised to tear into Arendi.
Anyone else would have been killed by the attack, the force alone able to crush both metal and flesh. So close that it seemed almost certain.
But despite the Ouryan’s power, space itself would intervene.
Once stable and inert, the void around Arendi formed into a protective barrier, bisecting the fabric of time. Upon impact, the machine collided, its body staggering from the blow.
Warping in on itself, space now eyed the prey before it. In one strike, the force had come alive and claimed what was formerly the blonde-haired man, crushing and grinding the soon-to-be corpse. Digesting and expelling the body, a flood of parts then spilled out into the room, trails of the dead machine smeared around her.
Arendi walked past its crushed body, hearing the crackle of broken pieces beneath her feet. Seeing that the being was no more, she turned back at the colonel on the floor, his face aghast in disbelief.
“Where can I find Julian Nverson?” she asked. “Tell me now.”
***
They still had told him nothing — the force field wall unchanged — when the two guards entered the brig.
The sound of heavy robotic gears moved about, each figure entirely encased in thick military body armor.
�
�Hey!” Julian shouted behind the transparent force field. “I need to talk with your superiors.”
Holding pulse rifles, they walked quickly, one of the officers inputting the commands at his cell door, the other standing watch.
The purr of the force field stopped, the entrance to his cell now opened. Julian looked at the officer closest to him, the man’s armored mask covering the entirety of his face.
“Remain silent and follow us,” the officer said, through the speaker in his helmet. “Do so, and you won’t be hurt.”
A plated hand then grabbed his shoulder, pulling him out of the cell.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
Julian’s question was met with a fist to his face, the gloved hand striking him hard.
“Quiet!” the officer said.
Julian crashed to the floor, his mind close to losing consciousness.
The officer grabbed him by the arm and yelled. “Move!”
He shook his head, trying to regain his senses.
“Are we under attack?” Julian asked, spitting the blood out of his mouth.
The guard behind him ignored his question, pushing him forward with the end of his rifle.
“I said shut up,” the man yelled.
Forced to obey, Julian slowly walked forward, noticing the other guard up ahead.
“Hold,” the man said, standing against the brig’s wall.
“Perimeter has been breached,” the guard continued. “Damn!”
“Where to now?” the other said.
Hearing them talk, Julian knew something was gravely wrong.
“Is it the android?” he asked. “Is she okay?”
“Shut him up!”
The guard behind him took the butt of his rifle, slamming it into his back. Falling down, Julian moaned.
Now on his back, he looked up, to see the rifle pointed directly into his face. But still, the guards stood in their position, distracted by something else.
“Goddamn, the target’s coming here,” the guard said. “We’ll have to defend this position. Move him over there, and I’ll—”
A screech echoed, the two guards turning their gaze to the room’s entrance. They left Julian behind, and ran toward the fore of brig. The screech grew louder, the sound like the grinding of bulkhead metal. Still reeling in pain, Julian rolled on his chest, searching for the two armed officers. There they stood, the men crouched down and pointing their rifles at the entrance door.
