Ironheart

by Allan Boroughs

  ‘It’s starting again!’ shouted Bentley. ‘Take cover and whatever you do, don’t go anywhere near it!’

  CHAPTER 27

  AWAKE IN THE DREAM WORLD

  The air shimmered with a blue haze as a hot breeze sprang up from the cauldron. Waves of electrical energy shivered across the surface of the metal and every few moments a bolt of white lightning arced across to the steel gantry.

  ‘How long does it do this for, Mr Bentley?’ said Calculus, raising his voice over the din.

  ‘About half an hour usually,’ he shouted back. ‘We’ll be all right as long as we stay out of the way.’

  ‘Them lightning bolts look like some kind of defence mechanism,’ said Sid, regarding the cauldron warily.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Calculus. ‘I can detect a signal within the electrical field. It’s a repeating pattern that resembles some computer authentication protocols.’

  ‘What does that mean in English?’ shouted India.

  ‘What I mean,’ he said, ‘is that it may be waiting for someone to give it instructions.’

  ‘It’s been here for thousands of years,’ said Bulldog. ‘No one ever had to tell it what to do before.’

  ‘Perhaps they did,’ said India. ‘Nentu said the job of the soul voyagers was to speak to the mountain spirit. She said they’d been doing it for a hundred generations. Maybe the shamans have to actively ask the machine for help.’

  ‘That’s what I mean to find out,’ said Calculus. ‘If I can replicate the same signal it might recognize me as a friend. I might be able to initiate some sort of log-on procedure.’

  ‘It might also decide to vaporize you on the spot,’ said Verity. ‘Forget it, Calc! It’s too risky.’

  ‘I understand the risks,’ he said, ‘but this machine was built by someone with technology far more advanced than our own and it may be at least partly intelligent. I am going to try and speak to it.’

  He walked towards the crackling cauldron. When he got within ten feet of it, he held out his palm. A white arc of electricity shot abruptly from the metal surface and connected with his hand. He stiffened and arched backwards.

  ‘It’s attacking him,’ cried India.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Verity. ‘I think it’s working, I think he’s actually talking to it!’

  The electricity ran lightly over the android’s metal skin, forming a latticework of connections. It really did look as though some sort of communication was taking place. Suddenly the lattice grew brighter and more intense. With a sound like a thunderclap, Calculus was sent flying backwards across the floor.

  Verity was by his side in an instant. ‘Calc, speak to me, let me know you’re still in there.’

  When he spoke, his voice had none of its usual resonance. ‘I think,’ he gasped, ‘it didn’t like the way I spoke to it.’

  She hooked her arms under his shoulders and tried to pull him clear. ‘India, help me to move him.’

  But India wasn’t listening. She was staring at the point where the arc had emerged from the cauldron. The bright spot had now elongated into a tall rectangle of brilliant light. Like a doorway, she thought to herself. Mesmerized by the blue-white glare, she walked slowly towards it. The sound of the storm receded and she heard only a faint hum and a voice that spoke clearly in her head.

  ‘Only a true soul voyager can enter the dream world,’ it said.

  She didn’t see her father rush forward to grab her and she didn’t notice as he was forced back by the bolts of raw energy. Oblivious to the shouts of her companions, she extended her hand towards the white-hot metal. In the moment of contact she felt a pulse of energy in her palm, then a sudden rush of coldness surged up her arm as the light overwhelmed and engulfed her.

  A sea of sparks danced around her like a shoal of fish before scattering in all directions. Then she was alone, floating on a dark sea, not black but deep red, the colour of blood. It felt good against her skin and all she wanted to do was let herself sink into its warm saltiness.

  ‘Wake up, soul voyager,’ Nentu’s voice was suddenly loud in her head. ‘Wake up and find your wits, your kujaii is already dead,’ An image flashed across her mind. The white deer, eyes glazed, blood running from its mouth.

  She opened her eyes. The place in which she stood was so dark that she could barely see, but she could tell she was no longer in the cavern; it felt closed in and uncomfortably hot. She sensed there was another presence in here too; the same ancient, brooding intelligence she had first felt when they entered the caverns.

  As her eyes adjusted, she thought she thought she could make out three shapes, like dark spheres, floating against the blood-red background.

  ‘You are not Nentu.’ Three voices spoke in perfect unison and a flurry of tiny lights danced over the surface of each sphere.

  India wondered what response was required and she struggled to make her mouth work. ‘No,’ she said thickly. ‘No, I’m not Nentu.’

  The sphere on the left floated a fraction closer to her. ‘Then you are another soul voyager?’ it said. It sounded female and clinical, as though it was partly artificial. Violet and blue lights flickered when it spoke.

  ‘Well, no, not exactly,’ she said. The heat was starting to make her feel faint. ‘Who are you exactly? Where is this place?’

  The sphere drew back.

  ‘She is confused,’ said the sphere. ‘She is still partly in the dream world.’

  ‘She must be a soul voyager,’ said the middle sphere. ‘Even if she does not know it yet.’ It flashed lights of gold and silver and its voice combined both male and female tones.

  ‘I said who are you?’ said India more insistently.

  ‘We are the mind of the machine,’ said the first sphere. ‘The mind is made of three parts. I am the voice of Compassion and these are the voices of Wisdom and Logic. Only when all three parts of the mind are in agreement will the machine make a decision.’

  ‘Why is Nentu not here?’ said the last sphere. ‘Nentu was trusted but you have not earned any trust.’ It sounded cold and irritable. India guessed this was Logic.

  ‘Nentu couldn’t come,’ said India, ‘she wasn’t strong enough any more.’

  ‘Then how do we know you can be trusted?’ said the voice of Logic. ‘What assurances do you bring?’

  ‘The bag child,’ said Nentu’s voice in her ear. ‘Show them the bag.’

  She pulled the half-remembered fur bag from her pocket and emptied the collection of pebbles and small bones on the floor in front of her. ‘I have these,’ she said.

  The three voices went quiet and the spheres drew nearer. Then the voice of Wisdom spoke. ‘She holds a nexus,’ it said.

  ‘Is it important?’ said India faintly.

  ‘The nexus is the key to the portal,’ said the voice of Compassion. ‘We have granted them only to a few soul voyagers. Without it, the portal would have killed you.’

  She was feeling horribly hot and longed for some fresh air. ‘If you’re a machine, then who built you?’ she said, trying a different tack.

  ‘We were created by the long-lives at the start of the last great cycle, many millennia ago,’ said Wisdom. ‘They built the machine to protect their world. Now they are gone and only we remain. Nentu calls us . . . the Elder Spirit.’

  ‘And what about the Valleymen?’ said India. ‘Did the long-lives create them too? I’ve seen them kill a man.’

  ‘The Valleymen protect the machine from the inquisitive,’ said Compassion. ‘They reflect only what men bring with them into the forests.’

  ‘There’s an asteroid,’ said India, remembering why she was there. ‘It’s heading towards the Earth.’

  ‘We know this,’ said Logic. ‘We have detected the coming of the rogue planet named Nibiru.’

  ‘You have to shoot it down,’ said India. ‘I mean, could you shoot it down? If it’s not too much trouble. Please?’ She wondered how you were supposed to ask a machine to save the world.

  ‘Wh
y should we do this?’ said the voice of Logic. ‘This machine was built to protect the makers. Short-lives like you are not our concern.’

  ‘But . . .’ India struggled for words. ‘The people who made you, the long-lives, wouldn’t they want you to help us, even if they weren’t here any more?’

  The three voices fell silent. India felt there was a conversation going on between them.

  Compassion spoke next. ‘You speak the truth,’ it said. ‘But still we cannot help you.’

  ‘But why not?’ said India. ‘Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?’

  ‘There are tools of war in this place,’ said Compassion. ‘We can sense the greed and fear that surrounds them.’

  ‘Do you mean the warheads?’

  ‘The man of blood will take what he wants and then he will destroy Ironheart,’ said Logic. ‘He has set one of the warrior heads to explode. This machine will be destroyed before the asteroid comes within range.’

  India’s head swam. ‘Lucifer Stone’s going to set off a warhead? Here, in Ironheart? But then what will happen?’

  ‘The course of nature will run true,’ said Logic. ‘Nibiru will enter the Earth’s gravitational well in approximately three hours. The impact will destroy all higher-level life forms on the planet.’

  ‘What? But there must be something that can be done?’ said India. She was finding it hard to breathe now.

  ‘This is no longer our concern,’ said Logic. ‘The short-lives sow the seeds of their own destruction and care nothing for the consequences. Now we must shut down the machine to preserve the mind.’

  India struggled to focus. ‘But you can’t just leave us to die,’ she cried.

  The room spun and the spheres began to fade to blackness.

  The three voices spoke as one. ‘Our time in the dream world is at an end and your world will soon be gone. Goodbye.’

  India felt herself slipping away.

  ‘India!’ hissed Nentu’s voice. ‘This is your last chance!’

  ‘Wait,’ said India, though she was not sure if anyone was still listening. ‘What if we could stop Lucifer Stone and prevent the explosion? If we could do that, you could still shoot down the asteroid, couldn’t you?’

  ‘Do you know how to do this?’ said the voice of Logic.

  ‘Speak only what is in your heart, India.’ Nentu’s voice was suddenly loud. ‘Say nothing less.’

  India sighed. ‘No,’ she said. ‘No, I don’t know. But I’ll find a way. Whatever it takes I will find a way to stop that bomb. I give you my word.’

  ‘Whose word do you give?’ said the voice of Wisdom.

  ‘My word!’

  ‘And who are you?’ said the three voices together.

  India felt groggy, as if she might faint.

  ‘Now, India,’ said Nentu. ‘Now is your last chance. Say what is in your heart.’

  ‘Who are you?’ demanded the voices.

  ‘I am a soul voyager!’ she shouted with the last of her strength. ‘I am a soul voyager and I give you my word. Now will you help us?’

  There was no response, just silence and blackness and the sense that the whole scene was slipping away from her.

  ‘Answer me!’ she shouted. ‘You have to answer me, it’s not fair!’

  ‘Steady now, steady.’

  ‘I’ll find away. Whatever it takes, I’ll find away.’

  ‘Give her some space. Here, drink this.’

  A bottle was pressed to her lips and her eyelids flickered under a harsh light. She coughed as cold water was poured into her throat.

  ‘Go easy now,’ said a voice that sounded like Bulldog’s. ‘That thing gave you a helluva jolt.’

  India pulled herself up to rest on her elbows and the pain in her head seemed to split her skull in two.

  ‘I think she’s going to be OK,’ said Verity. ‘India, can you hear me? You’ve been out cold for the last ten minutes. You gave us a real scare there, but don’t worry, everything’s going to be all right.’

  India shook her head, sending more waves of pain through her skull. ‘No, it isn’t,’ she said with as much force as she could muster. ‘Everything’s not all right. It’s a long way from being all right. We’re all going to die!’

  CHAPTER 28

  THE END OF DAYS

  It took a long while to make her tongue work so that she could be understood. Then they wouldn’t let her speak until she had taken a drink.

  ‘Just sit still for a moment, India,’ said her father, wide-eyed with anxiety. ‘Give yourself a bit of time.’ So she drank the water and took a deep breath, feeling that the frustration might kill her.

  ‘There is an asteroid coming,’ she managed to say eventually, ‘and it’s going to hit the Earth.’

  Verity and her father exchanged looks.

  ‘We already know that,’ said Bentley. ‘I told you, remember, just before you got knocked out.’

  ‘But the machine can’t defend us!’ she said, pulling herself up. The pain in her head redoubled. ‘They can’t fire the machine because Stone’s going to explode one of those bombs and destroy everything.’

  ‘Calm down, India,’ said Verity. ‘You were hit by a lightning bolt and you’ve been unconscious, you must have dreamed it.’

  The fragments of her memory started to fall into place. ‘Where’s Calc? He’ll believe me – he spoke to them too!’

  A look passed between her father and Verity.

  India turned to see Calculus sitting against the wall of the chamber about twenty feet away. His head was drooped on his chest and his sinewy body was limp and lifeless. Worst of all, a black, clotted liquid had begun to bubble from the hole in his chest plate.

  ‘Calc!’

  She scrambled over to where he lay, ignoring the pain that flooded her body. A faint rasping came from deep inside his chest like the sound of metal gears grinding without enough oil.

  ‘He’s been like this since he was struck by the lightning,’ said Verity.

  India put her mouth close to his ear. ‘Calc, can you hear me? It’s India. I need you to wake up and tell the others what you heard.’

  ‘Let him rest, India,’ said Verity, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  ‘No!’ she cried. ‘It’s too important. Calc! You have to wake up!’

  ‘That’s enough, India!’ said Verity firmly.

  ‘Did somebody call me?’ Calculus’s voice was weaker than before. He sat up slowly and placed his head in his hands. ‘There is an asteroid coming,’ he said eventually. ‘India is right. But the machine can’t shoot it down because Lucifer Stone is going to destroy Ironheart first.’

  ‘Then you did hear them too,’ said India. ‘The voices, I mean?’

  He shook his head wearily. ‘No. They spoke to you because you are human. When they realized I was a machine, they tried to download information directly to me. The entire history of the ancient people who built the machine was fed into my brain in a microsecond.’ He looked down at his scorched body. ‘I’m afraid it took it out of me a little.’ He made a sound like a cough and the grinding noise increased.

  ‘Well, the hell with it,’ said Clench. ‘Asteroid or no asteroid, if Stone’s going to blow the place up, then let’s just get out of here. Who cares where the asteroid lands as long as we’re not underneath it.’

  ‘The asteroid is over five miles wide and made almost completely of iron,’ said Calculus. ‘It’s bigger than the one that made the dinosaurs extinct. When it hits the Earth it will cause widespread earthquakes and tsunami. After that it will throw up enough dust to blot out the sun for a hundred years and create a new ice age. Nothing will grow and nothing will survive except for a few bacteria . . . and, well . . . me,’ he added.

  ‘“First comes the iron and then comes the snow,’” said India under her breath, ‘“and then comes the winter when nothing will grow.” It’s what Cromerty was trying to tell me and it’s what Nentu meant when she talked about the end of days. If Stone lets off that bomb, he
’ll not only destroy Ironheart but the rest of the world too!’

  ‘Then it makes no difference what we do,’ said Verity. ‘Either way, we’re going to die.’

  ‘I told them,’ said India, ‘that we’d stop the explosion if we could. Couldn’t we try?’

  Verity shook her head wearily. ‘It’s not that easy, India,’ she said. ‘Shutting down a sophisticated warhead isn’t just a matter of throwing a switch. They have security systems and codes that have to be entered.’

  ‘But didn’t Dr Cirenkov say they had already bypassed the security systems?’ said India.

  Bulldog snapped his fingers. ‘You’re right, she did say that!’

  ‘That doesn’t help us,’ said Clench. ‘We’ve still got no way of getting back to the turbine hall. There’s a maze of tunnels between here and there and they’re full of Valleymen, remember?’

  ‘Mr Bentley,’ said Verity, ‘is there any way back to that control room without going through the tunnels?’

  Bentley shook his head. ‘You could get out through the drainage tunnels and then double back through the forest but that would take hours, and you’d still risk running into the Valleymen.’

  ‘Come on, Bentley, you’ve lived here for ayear and a half,’ said Bulldog. ‘There must be another way. Think, man!’

  Bentley shrugged and held up his hands. ‘The only other route between floors is the conduits that carry the pipes and cables. The rats used to use them but they’re way too small for a person. Believe me, I’ve tried.’

  ‘Show me!’ said Verity.

  He took them to a tiny rectangular opening high in the chamber wall with cables running out of it. It was gushing with icy water.

  ‘I might get in there at a push,’ said Verity, biting her lip. She slipped off her jacket and Clench and Bentley gave her a boost. By turning her head sideways she could just about squeeze it into the slot but there was no room for her shoulders. She tried leading with one arm and then the other as freezing water cascaded over her. After ten minutes she clambered back down, soaked and filthy and with nothing to show for her efforts but some fierce scratches on her hands and arms. ‘It’s hopeless. I couldn’t get in there if I starved myself for a month. I’m running short of ideas.’