Nano Contestant - Episode 4: Arctic Survival: The Technothriller Futuristic Science Fiction Adventure of a Cyberpunk Marine (Nano Contestant Series)

by Leif Sterling

  Skylar shook her head. “I already checked that. We didn’t.” She continued typing and analyzing the data. “It’s not like any of our normal signals. It doesn’t have our usual signal signature.”

  Coach adjusted his glasses. “If it doesn’t have our signature, whose does it have?”

  Skylar swiped the screen to her right. It showed two signal waveforms. The top was the waveform that Skylar had captured on her last ping. Below that was a running search, which went through other signals in the library. The search beeped and a waveform blinked on the screen. “We don’t have an exact match for this, but this signal most closely resembles Hunter’s.”

  Coach nodded. “Maybe he attached it somehow during the fight. Can you pinpoint where it is coming from on Roland’s body?”

  Skylar paused and thought a moment. “Yes. But it will take awhile.” She went back to typing.

  Roland watched as a dozen wolves broke through the tree line out into the open. They were all either white or gray, except one. He was black and much bigger than the rest. Roland halted his run. His adrenaline timer showed that he only had a minute and fifteen seconds left. “I got this.”

  Roland looked directly into the sinister eyes of the alpha wolf. They were wide and round. Their amber color was a stark contrast to his rich, black pelt. The wolf growled as he came nearer, a hearty, rich sound that rumbled from the very core of the animal. His mouth was half open, baring his sharp fangs. Drool oozed from between his lower teeth, adding a more liquid sound to his guttural growl. Roland held the wolf’s gaze for another second; unblinking, unspoken communication occurred between the two predators.

  Roland let out a barbaric yell and then turned, launching into a full sprint down the mountain.

  The alpha bolted from his position with a howl to call his troops into rank and file. The rest of the pack followed his lead. As an Arctic creature in his element, the alpha closed the gap between himself and his prey in a few loping strides, unable to resist the chase.

  Skylar muted her mic and looked over at Coach. “Do something! Help him!”

  Coach shook his head. “No. He said he had this.”

  Skylar watched her terminal helplessly.

  The guttural growling of the alpha consumed Roland as he neared. Slow Mo even picked up the soft pitter-patter of the rest of the pack directly behind the alpha.

  The growling stopped briefly as the alpha gathered his powerful legs underneath him and exploded towards Roland’s unprotected back. He was ready to make his kill and feed the members of his pack.

  Slow Mo honed in on the auditory change. Roland whirled around and sank to his knees in the snow.

  The alpha flew through the air towards Roland, a hundred and fifty pounds worth of hungry canine muscle and teeth transformed into a living projectile.

  Skylar jumped up from her chair, analyzing the signal data was all but forgotten. “Roland!”

  The rest of the wolf pack closed ranks around the alpha, snarling as their leader went for the kill.

  Roland pulled Charlotte from her case and gave the thought command for a spear. The carbon alloy weapon instantly extended and grew a fine, tapered point. Roland switched his vision over to infrared. His field of view was nearly filled with the orange heat signature of the enormous canine. Slow Mo let Roland’s eyes follow the orange to where it changed into a crimson red, in the center of the alpha’s great chest. The crimson area pulsed rhythmically. Roland locked in on his target.

  The wolf let out a ferocious growl as he opened his mouth wide for the kill. His lips curled back onto his face, revealing the full length of his pointy arsenal. Without the barrier created by his lips, a glob of drool escaped and plunged downwards, splattering onto Roland’s parka.

  Roland thrust his spear into the center of the red pulsing. The pointed weapon pierced into the alpha’s body, parting layers of fur, tissue and organ before coming to an abrupt stop in the spinal vertebrae. Roland used the wolf’s momentum to direct the hundred and fifty pound shish kabob safely over his shoulder.

  The still warm carcass of the wolf crashed into the powdery snow, pinned by the spear. Roland enabled Grip and held on tightly to the end of the spear. He let it carry him upwards like the classic pole vault event, righting itself as it rose, using the canine’s corpse as counterweight.

  The wolf pack paused their attack, collectively raising their ears to get a signal from their leader. None came. The two in the center sniffed at the dark body in the snow. Another licked the alpha’s nose, looking for a response.

  Roland sailed through the air. At the top of his jump, he yanked Charlotte from the wolf and retracted the weapon back into her handle form. He changed his vision back to normal. The deep snow cushioned his landing. He took a few steps to steady himself.

  Skylar finally exhaled and then smiled. “Roland! How in the world did you do that?”

  Coach smiled and nodded. “Well done. That bought you some time. Now get moving. Only thirty seconds left on the adrenaline timer.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:

  GLACIAL

  IVAN CLAPPED HIS hands, shaking his head in disbelief. “This calls for another celebration!” He reached for his vodka bottle.

  Roland gave the thought command for skis. The carbon alloy weapon split in half and flattened into the skis he imagined. He stepped into them and gave a shove off with his hands. Then he looked back over his shoulder at the wolf pack.

  The pack was still gathered around its lifeless leader. The second largest one, a white female, sat back on her haunches, threw back her head and let out a long howl.

  Roland hunched into a tight skiing stance and began gaining speed down the mountain. His adrenaline timer showed another twenty seconds remaining.

  The large, white female wolf growled and took off after Roland. Half of the pack followed her.

  Roland dodged a row of trees and aimed for a clearer path. He leaned his head right. “What happens when the adrenaline runs out?”

  Skylar paused her typing. “I’m not exactly sure. I never was able to test it. You’ll definitely feel tired and sluggish.”

  The other half of the wolf pack joined in the pursuit of Roland. They gave a series of short howls as they regrouped.

  Roland looked ahead. He could see the river rapidly approaching. “I need a crossing.”

  Ivan nodded vigorously. “Yes. You not go into water, da? Certain death. This water much colder than at warehouse. If it not moving, it be frozen solid.”

  Roland nodded and continued scanning the rapidly approaching river ahead, looking for a place to cross. He heard the wolf pack’s howls getting louder as they neared.

  Skylar examined the three dimensional holographic map, looking for a crossing. Using both hands, she rotated the map to look from a different vantage point. She zoomed in on Roland’s course. She inhaled sharply and covered her mouth with her hand.

  Coach heard the noise and looked over at Skylar. Her face had blanched. “What is it?” He followed her gaze to the map. She was staring at Roland’s course. “Roland. The hill you are on ends in a drop off.”

  Roland turned his skis sideways to slow down. He slid another twenty feet before coming to a stop ten feet from the sheer drop. He glanced behind him. The wolves were only fifty yards back and advancing quickly. He looked ahead. The edge of the drop off was deceptive. A forty feet cliff hid the full width of the turbulent, glacial river. He gave the thought command for Charlotte to return to her normal form and then quickly shoved her back in her case as he jogged towards the edge.

  Skylar’s terminal beeped. She glanced at the notification. The adrenaline timer flashed 0:00. “The adrenaline has just ran out!”

  Nausea hit Roland with an unrelenting force. His heart rate slowed to a lethargic crawl. His limbs hung like sandbags. His head was consumed with the discordant tendrils of a mental fog. “Can’t. Hardly. Move.”

  The video feed on Skylar’s terminal blipped with static and then came back. “What is this
interference? A side effect?” She swiped over to check Roland’s vitals. Static flashed again across all of the terminals in the room that were connected to Roland, and then they returned to normal.

  Coach flipped his terminal over the official Pinnacle race feed. A lone hover cam floated fifty feet above Roland. The wolf pack was bearing down him from the rear. The cliff’s edge loomed in front of him.

  Roland stumbled the last ten feet to the edge of the cliff, kicking snow covered gravel over the edge. He looked down. The gravel plunged into the fast moving water and was swept away. A sharp blast of icy, upward bound air slapped him in the face, now unimpeded by the forest. The river rushed by creating white caps on its surface as it twisted and turned over the rocks in its bed. The water was a baby blue color and crystal clear all the way to the bottom. The riverbanks were garnished in thick coatings of ice and new snow. Roland’s HUD disappeared briefly and then returned. His ears popped as though he were descending a great distance. He sank to his knees.

  Ivan crossed his arms and raised his right eyebrow. “Why him stop? That not good. Wolves eat him, da?”

  Coach adjusted his headset. “Roland? Can you hear me? Blink twice if you hear me.”

  Skylar was breathing in short, shallow breaths as she tried command after command. “His system is nearly unresponsive.”

  Coach watched Roland’s video feed. The feed slowly went black from top to bottom once and then twice. “He’s still with us but just barely.”

  Skylar scowled at her terminal. “It’s got to be the adrenaline blast. I think it’s having a tidewater effect. The adrenaline rushed into his system like a rising tide. Now that it is depleted, the nano cells are getting pulled out of their normal positions, like a receding tide.”

  The wolf pack stopped six feet from Roland. They surrounded him in a half circle. The big, white female growled. Condensation clouds chugged from their open mouths with the effort. Every member of the wolf pack bared their fangs as they joined their new leader’s vocalizations.

  Coach motioned to the video feed. “Skylar. Look at this. Grip just turned off on Roland’s HUD.”

  Skylar looked up. She watched Leapfrog disappear from its usual spot. Her eyes widened. She shook her head quickly back and forth. “No! He’s shutting down!” Her fingers flashed across her holographic keyboard as she worked her way through the core level system commands. “Nothing! I’m getting nothing!”

  The lead wolf went into a crouch. The pack followed her example.

  Three more hover cams flew in. One zoomed in on the snarling wolves, drooling over their cornered quarry. Another captured the contestant, on his knees in front of the wolves, with his back to the raging arctic river. The third hover cam flew out over the river and to focus on a wide angle effect.

  Ivan waved his arms. “Get up, Roland! Attack the wolves! Get up, City Boy!”

  Coach held his microphone next to his lips. “Roland?”

  Fast Twitch disappeared from the HUD.

  Skylar alternated between typing commands and swiping over to the next screen. “Every screen is unresponsive!”

  Slow Mo went out.

  All of the terminals connected to Roland went to static.

  Skylar hit the table with both hands as she leapt to her feet

  The Pinnacle race feed showed the wolf pack lunging forward, as one massive canine feeding frenzy.

  The feed switched to the hover cam’s view from the river. Roland and the lead wolf were falling off of the cliff, head first into the lethal liquid below. The wolf flailed, trying to regain control. Roland’s body, a limp rag doll, plummeted downwards.

  The two bodies splashed simultaneously into the frigid waters. The arctic wolf struggled against the fierce currents.

  Roland’s inert body was carried downstream, flung against broken ice floes at the whims of the river.

  Skylar screamed. “Roland!”

  Coach’s lips were moving, but he said nothing.

  Ivan stared at the screen, his mouth open, speechless.

  …Continue the Tech Games Race!

  Find out what happens next:

  Nano Contestant

  Episode 5

  Available March 2016!

  Go to:

  www.LeifSterling.com/nc-ep5

  for details!

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  about the author:

  Leif Sterling

  Leif Sterling has always had a rich imagination and an eccentricity for all things technical. He read every door-stoppingly, thick computer manual that he could get his hands on from the time he was twelve on. Not surprisingly, college yielded bachelors and masters degrees in IT for him, which has come in handy when describing futuristic nano systems that haven’t been invented yet.

  He enjoys using his powers for good, especially in the craft of storytelling - dreaming up the barely possible, and then placing the reader right in the middle of the action.

  Writing is also a great reason to stay inside, in the AC, away from the hot Texas sun where he lives with his beautiful wife, two children and one feisty cat.

  I love to hear from readers! Feel free drop me an email at sterling.leif@gmail.com and visit my blog to see when the next episode is coming out!

  Thanks for reading!

  ~Leif Sterling~

  www.LeifSterling.com