by TJ Ryan
But for now, everything hinged on Professor Viktor Ravnak remembering how to wire a battery.
Bracing himself for the pain, Ravnak held one side of the stripped conduit down by the protective coating, below where he had bared the wire.
Then he worked the fiber-optic aluminum wires into the slit of his left wrist.
His hand went numb immediately. That might be a problem, considering he still had to do the same thing to his other arm.
Ravnak fumbled the other conduit up and into position, aligning it with his wrist. He was in so much pain already. So much pain!
This would end it. At the same time, it would give the human race a fighting chance.
Blubbering like a baby, he thrust the wire into his flesh.
Pain was the last thing he knew. Pain, and a blazing light that seared his eyes from the inside.
* * *
“After that,” Tyrese continued the story from where the Ravnak program had left off, “Ravnak’s consciousness was transferred over to the control consoles here. In essence, he became the world’s first AI program. Human intelligence integrated into circuitry and hardware. After the bombs had finished their work on the Earth, after this place had settled into the wreckage, Ravnak sealed it off and kept the survivors from dying. This is… it’s just absolutely incredible. Think of the history we never knew!”
Tara had lost track of what he was saying. All she could think about was this machine above their heads. The first AI. An Artificial Intelligence program that wasn’t just written code and relays and if-then decisions. An actual human intelligence in computer form. It was her living nightmare. After what Aiden had done to her, to see this abomination here, like some sort of electronic God…
What was she supposed to make of that?
“Tara?”
She startled, realizing she’d been staring open-mouthed at the computers and banks of monitors and control stations above them. “I can’t be here,” she told him finally.
“What? Why not?”
“Because, you moron. The AI… the way they… the way Aiden… I can’t be around them. I can’t trust them.”
“You can trust me,” Ravnak told her.
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No,” Dar told her. “This is supposed to make you feel better.”
One of the others came forward, huge hands clasped together into a sort of cup, he held them out to Tara.
Inside was a small round shape the size of a pebble and the color of mud.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Tyrese said to Tara. “I told them about the seed that you lost. They wanted to make sure that we had another one.”
He smiled when he said it. Tara reached out and reverently took the seed. It was rough to the touch and heavier than it looked. When she had first found the seed inside of the probe, hidden behind the fission fuel cell, her only thought had been to keep it as proof that life was possible on Earth. She could now make sure people knew about it. That was her proof. Her way of making sure the truth got out.
But now, looking at this one, she realized it was more than that. It represented a new Earth. One that was hostile and volatile and filled with wonders that were both exciting and dangerous. It represented Earth as it was at this moment, not as it was or could be. It was toxic, and strange. But it was true.
The fact that there was people here was enough to inspire hope that the entire human race might find its way back here someday. The rest of what she had seen, however, marked this planet as one big death trap.
“What will this grow into?” she asked, voicing her fears out loud as she turned the seed around in her fingers. “What will this thing in my hand become? Tell me that. Will it be one of those weird tree things we saw coming in? Will it be something poisonous and carnivorous? No, Tyrese, I’m serious,” she said when she caught the way he practically rolled his eyes at her. “Everything on this planet has tried to kill us. It did kill Crestin, remember?”
“Crestin killed himself. He was trying to take the ship away from us, and he blew it up. That isn’t the planet’s fault.”
Tara looked at her seed again, and then folded her hand around it. Deadly or not, it was a piece of homeworld. “Don’t talk to me about what this planet can do. I’m the one that was about to be buried out there. I’m the one who was forced into this situation by both the Academy and Overwatch. I’m between a rock and a hard place here, Tyrese, and now I’ve got a bagging ghost hanging over my head and a bunch of cousins who look more like aliens than most aliens I’ve ever met!”
“Tara…”
“No! Tyrese, we need to get out of here and get that fission tech and get back to Overwatch. This whole bagging planet is going to kill us off, one at a time.”
“What about Atria?” he asked.
Tara crossed her arms over her chest. Just the thought of what the rose-skinned Atria Enverly had done to her was enough to make her feel very, very small. “We need to stay away from her. I feel bad, I really do, but she’s gone too far now. She’s not… not human anymore.”
Tyrese looked over at Dar, standing there and listening to everything they said. “Not human. Right. Seems to be a lot of that going around.”
“We need to go.” Tara ignored him. She’d made up her mind. As insane as the whole situation was, she didn’t see any other way out of it. Find the tech, get back to Overwatch. That was the best thing they could do now.
“We can’t leave,” Tyrese told her. “I was really hoping that you’d see it that way after you met Dar and Ravnak. We’re not safe outside of this space. Right here, in these rooms, with their special sand and their knowledge of the Earth that we just do not have, this is the only place in the whole world that we’re safe. Right here.”
“Excuse me,” Ravnak’s voice said.
“Shut up!” Tara screamed at the computer. “You’re not even real! You’re not even a person! I need to stay alive and I can’t do it by hiding here under the surface. What’s going to happen when Atria finds her way in here? Hmm? Have you thought of that you bagging immortal piece of screte? What happens then?”
If a computer could laugh, then that was what Ravnak did. Tara felt her skin crawl to listen to that reverberation. “There is no way for that woman to get in here without my permission. I open the doors. I close the doors. This is how I have kept my people safe for these thousand years. Every time your people have sent one of their purges, I have kept us safe. They come every two years and we are still safe. Our people leave when the atmosphere clears, when the Earth is green again. It takes months after each purge, but it happens every time. Then, on the twenty third month after each purge, I call everyone back and we stay safe until the next attack is complete, and the Earth fights back once again.”
“He’s protected humanity from us, Tara,” Tyrese said. “If what Atria says is true, then we’re the ones keeping Earth toxic. We’re the ones killing it. Only, I doubt the Academy expected there to be people living here. I doubt they would do such a thing if they understood the implications on the people living on Earth.”
Tara felt her eyes go wide, and it was a moment before she found her voice. “The purges? Wait, so… You mean to tell me that it’s true? We really are sending in toxic attacks? I’m not sure what to believe. I need proof.”
She then turned towards the machine in the center of the room above them, not that it mattered where she looked, as the system was all around them. “You keep them in here for their protection? And what do you mean they leave? The air isn’t always toxic? They go outside?”
“Of course they go outside, Engineer Tara Royce.” Ravnak spoke calmly. “They went out just a few moments ago to save your life, although typically I would keep them indoors for another two months just to be safe. They are allowed to go out for short periods of time at first, then after six months the air is clear enough to remain outdoors for days on end.”
Tyrese was staring at the computer consoles on the ceiling with a blank
expression. Tara could see the beginnings of something in his mind. It looked like hope, but she wasn’t quite sure. If what he said was true, then her seed, the green she saw through the atmosphere, it all meant that the planet was inhabitable. She grew excited, and forgot her previous disbelief. He was starting to come to the same conclusion, too. It was just taking him a little longer.
She didn’t trust anything an AI did, or said. However, seeing as this Ravnak was once human, her ease settled a bit.
“How long do the attacks last?” Tyrese asked. “How do you know when it’s safe to go outside? What happens if we go outside now into the atmosphere as it currently is? What will happen to Tara now that she has been exposed?”
Silence met his question.
“Professor Ravnak,” he said, stepping closer to Tara. “What’s the answer? What happens to the people who stay out too long?”
“We die,” Dar told them. “We all know that. Ravnak keeps us safe. We follow his rule, and we are safe. Tara may be safe. At this point, I do not know.”
Tara shook her head. “You mean I might die? This damn planet is going to kill me. I knew it. I have to leave! We have to leave, now!”
A series of whirs and clicks emanated from the control console. Then Ravnak said, “No, you must stay. For your own safety. The air is not yet clear Engineers Tyrese Gypsum and Tara Royce.”
“You won’t let us leave?” Tara paled, her biggest fears realizing themselves.
“You’re holding us prisoner,” Tyrese said, echoing Tara’s own thoughts. “Professor, you’re taking away our freedom. What are we as a human race if not free?”
“There is no freedom on this planet,” the AI said. “The only freedom is here with me. It’s for your own safety, please understand. You can leave in a few months when the air clears.”
“A few months?” Tara asked him. “Overwatch will assume we’re dead by then. We’ll have no way to get home.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Excuse me?” Tara took Tyrese’s hand and glared up at the computer.
“You won’t,” Ravnak repeated. “You won’t go home. You will stay here. With us. Where you are safe. The purges cannot reach here.”
Dar and his people began to move, shuffling around to stand between them and the doors leading out. Not that they needed to, she supposed. If Ravnak actually controlled the doors then there was no way out.
They were as trapped as these other people were.
Tyrese blew out a sigh and tried to calm his breath. He held Tara’s hand in his. “It’s okay, we’re not trapped forever, Tara. I believe him when he says he’ll keep us safe. They know this planet. We’ll wait until the atmosphere has cleared, and then we’ll find a way to get in touch with Overwatch. Who knows, maybe the drop ship hasn’t completely disappeared. Maybe we can find something at the crash site to help. Don’t worry.”
Tara squeezed her hand around the seed and pulled away from Tyrese. She made herself look up at the computers… at Ravnak. “Please, Professor. You don’t need to do this. We aren’t your people. You can let us go.”
“I must keep you safe. That is my…” The voice hesitated, sounding more mechanical and unsure of itself, as if the human part of Ravnak was fading just a little bit more behind the electronics and the programming. “That is my primary function. To keep the human race safe from the destruction of the Earth. From the purges. That includes you.”
“We need to leave,” she insisted. “Atria is looking for us. She’s going to find us. Overwatch will be looking for us, as well, and I want to make sure they find us before Atria does. We still have our suits, we can top up the air here and only go out for short periods of time. Okay? You’ll still be keeping us safe.”
“Even if you find a way out of here” Ravnak said, ignoring Tara’s pleading. “Overwatch will not hear your calls. Not through the atmosphere. Not now. You are trapped on this planet, whether inside safe with us, or out in the toxic environment of the surface.”
“I understand,” Tara said. “Believe me, I understand how trapped we are.” She rubbed her temples and sat down on the floor. Her body was aching, and she needed to think. “Can you tell us more about these purges? The latest one was recent, right? So we’ll be safe for another two years?”
“You are correct, Engineer Tara Royce. The purges will not come for two years.”
“Okay, so we’re safe until then. If we promise to return to you, will you let us leave?” She was appealing to the protective side of Ravnak’s system. If she played the part, maybe he’d let them leave.
“Once, maybe,” he said. “But unfortunately the damage your friend Atria did to our building has destroyed our outer air barrier. It is more difficult for me to maintain separation from our clean air inside to the toxic environment outside. It will take time to repair the damage, and we cannot do so until the air outside has cleared. Fortunately, we have two years to complete these repairs. I am confident we will repair in time for the next purge. However, as it stands, I’m afraid it’s too dangerous for you to leave, as I cannot guarantee the breach won’t contaminate the air in here. I have closed off those walls, and will not open them again.”
“We can salvage parts from their wreckage,” Dar said, stepping forward. “We can use parts of your broken ship to repair our home. Often things from outside Earth’s atmosphere come crashing down to the surface. Broken parts of ships and stations, material and trash. We have grown resourceful, using collected technology and parts to contribute to our home here.”
They would need to be resourceful, Tara thought, in order to keep their lives interesting living on a planet with little infrastructure and a bi-yearly death cycle.
Tara felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. She willed herself not to cry. She was a Defense Engineer, and she did not cry.
“You will learn to live among us, do not worry. We will welcome you and your partner into our society. Even in two years, the purges cannot reach you here. There is no way—”
The entire room shook with a low rumble that vibrated through the metal under their feet.
Tara looked at Tyrese. He shook his head. He didn’t know what they had just felt either.
Dar and his people obviously did. They shrank back, looking all around them, knowing something was coming. They were scared, and Tara did not take that as a good sign.
“Professor Ravnak,” Tyrese began to ask. “What was…?”
“A moment, please,” the voice said to them.
The room rocked again, and this time it was accompanied by the sound of a distant, hollow boom.
The AIs voice buzzed with distracted thought. “A moment, please. I am scanning. Scanning…”
“This isn’t good.” Tara backed away from the command consoles. Dar was there suddenly, behind her, blocking her path.
“The purge comes early,” he said. “Ravnak says stay. We shall stay. He has always kept us safe.”
“A moment, please,” was what Ravnak was saying, again and again.
This time when the room shook, the metal of the walls warped.
Through the doors outside they could hear screams and shouted words that were muffled through the metal walls. The booms continued, growing louder, and the last one shook the room so hard that Tara lost her footing and fell on her ass.
If this was how Professor Ravnak was keeping them safe, Tara would be a lot happier far, far away from this place.
Above them the computer squealed, one long high-pitched note. To hear a voice that had tried to be so human make such an electronic noise unsettled Tara even more than feeling the world coming unhinged around her.
The tone became Ravnak’s voice again. “I am opening the doors,” he told them. “When I do, you must run. Dar will show you the way to evacuate. It will be different than the way you came in. You must run.”
“Ravnak?” Dar asked. “Are you sure? What is going on?”
“Do not question me,” Ravnak said. “You must go. When I open the doors.
”
“Yes, Ravnak.” Just like that, Dar had changed his mind to match the AI’s wishes.
“What’s going on?” Tyrese demanded.
“The impossible is happening,” Ravnak explained in a typical AI tone of voice. Too calm, and too smooth. “It is impossible, yet it is happening. The purge comes early. Never in our history has the purge come at any other time than every two years. Yet, it happens.”
The wall to their right crumpled and twisted and began to buckle inward. Tara’s ears rang with the sound of something ramming into the metal from behind. Something was coming in. Something huge and powerful and apparently unstoppable…
Oh no, she thought to herself. Oh, bagging Hell… No.
“Open the doors!” Tara screamed at Ravnak. “Open the doors!”
“Yes,” he said back to them. “Yes, you are right. I’m sorry. I have kept the human race safe all this time but I can’t do it any longer. I cannot keep you safe from what is coming. Our defenses are down. Atria has destroyed our outer defense, and I cannot protect you.. I am sorry, I have failed you. It is coming. Run.”
The doors behind them began to slide open with a slow grinding. The wall boomed again, and metal tore.
“What’s coming?” Tara asked frantically, getting back to her feet with Tyrese’s help. “What is it?”
“You have to run,” Ravnak told her.
Dar took hold of them, pulling both her and Tyrese towards the open doors. Both of them scrambled to get their helmets back into place at the same time. They knew they were going to need them. Once they left the safety of Ravnak’s little world, they would be at the mercy of the hostile Earth once again.
“Ready?” Tyrese asked, his voice coming through the speakers in their helmets once more.
“No, I’m not. What the Hell is going on?” She shook off Dar’s grip and turned back to glare at the AI that was responsible for everything that was happening to them. “Ravnak, what is going on? What is out there? What is coming?”
