Sons of Abraham: J-17's Trial

by JOSEPH RAY

  “So you feel emotions same as we do?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest.

  “I believe so,” he stated. “I can’t know for certain, however, as emotions are not easily measured by typical means. I know the man I was before the procedure, and I know how I feel about him and everything that he lost.”

  “He lost?” she asked. “You mean when his wife died?”

  Abraham nodded, searching for the proper words to use. He looked down at the olive green satchel, his fingers slowly tracing the straps.

  “My tear ducts were removed when they replaced my eyes,” he mumbled lowly. “That isn’t to say that I don’t weep for her though.”

  He pulled away, heading for the hatch down the corridor. Sandra chased after him, grabbing her own bag from the chair in the common room. It looked similar to her father’s though it was brown and made of leather rather than canvas. The layout was the same though hers had a few hidden pockets that his did not. That made it an easy choice for her whenever they took something small from a salvage operation.

  “Well, it’s about time!” Quaid snapped as he slid his Ruger into the holster. “I was wondering if I’d have to make you two breakfast in bed.”

  Sandra blushed as Jenna elbowed the Captain in the stomach. He held his hand out, indicating that he knew the line he’d just crossed.

  “Please, I’m old enough to be her grandfather twenty times over,” Abraham replied, stepping past him and exiting the open ramp of the Hopper.

  The Cyber stood in place, his eyes scanning the terrain before him. His head moved slowly, taking in the entire scene as the group followed in around him. Quaid pressed a few buttons on his wrist device. The Hopper obeyed, closing the ramp behind them.

  “Is it like you remember?” Sandra asked, noting the thick layer of dirt and dust forming on the windows of the buildings.

  “Not quite,” he responded, taking his first step forward. “Though that seems to be the pattern lately.”

  The group quietly passed from the grass clearing to the cracked pavement of the street, making for the tallest building before them. Quaid stayed towards the rear, his hand resting upon his holster as he slowly turned to look in all directions. The air pushed through the trees, the ruffling of the leaves filling the air. It was colder than he’d anticipated, making him wish he’d worn the gray coat he’d given to their new partner.

  Abraham wasted little effort, jumping up onto the sidewalk and breaking straight to the glass front façade of the tall building before them. There was a small, shiny pad next to the glass door, but no handles were attached to the edges. He wiped off the pad, then pressed his hand against it and waited. The device came to live, a thin blue line scanning over his hand. To Sandra’s surprise, the door cracked open.

  The Cyber pulled the door open, holding it for his comrades to pass. He let the door fall shut behind him as he circled around the group. The room was tall, with a ceiling that reached nearly five stories. The floor was clear glass, though too thick to see the ground below them. Abe circled the group, leading them past a large desk just before the first hallway.

  Quaid stopped as they passed the desk, brushing his hand over the front of the wooden structure. Dust fell off it, revealing the wording beneath.

  “Divinity Corporation?” he asked, looking back to Sandra. “Are you kidding me?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Abraham replied. “Divinity played a large role in helping man expand across the universe. They were the ones whom paid for everything, including my surgeries. I guess you would say they are my employers, though I imagine they stopped paying me a long time ago.”

  “I’d still check your old accounts,” Quaid laughed. “You never know.”

  Abraham ignored the joke, trekking the long corridor in silence. The walls were made of glass, frosted as to allow some privacy for each of the meeting rooms. Sandra peaked through the open doors, confirming the long tables with dozens of chairs surrounding each one. She’d never sat in a board meeting before, but she felt disappointed at the scene before her. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but the abandoned facility did not fulfill her fantasies.

  The sunlight passed through the windows, making the lights that illuminated their path obsolete. The group continued until the hallway split into two others, stretching out to the ends of the buildings. Abraham stopped for a moment, then chose to go left. Sandra dusted off a map on the wall, noting that he was heading towards some sort of laboratory. She nodded to Quaid, who looked at the same map and nodded. Always best to know where you’re going.

  The crew followed the Cyber through the hallways, eventually stopping at the doorway that led to the laboratories. Quaid couldn’t help but feel for the Ruger, his instincts warning him that he was going to require it to be drawn from the holster. The scenery quickly changed once they entered the hall to the labs. They were presented with an elevator, which had to be scanned the same as the front entrance. The motor to the lift came to life, though it took several minutes before it reached their floor.

  “The building didn’t seem that tall from the outside,” Jenna asked. “Why is it taking so long to get here?”

  “Because it doesn’t go above this floor,” Abraham offered, just as the doors opened.

  The Cyber stepped in, along with the reluctant crew of the Hopper. The doors closed behind Quaid as they rode in the metallic box. There were only two buttons on the wall, and no indication of what floor they were leaving. The drop in their stomachs told them that they were going down, though no one but the Cyber seem to understand what that meant.

  “When were you last here?” Sandra asked, trying to pass the time.

  “I’m not sure,” he replied.

  “Not sure?” Quaid snapped. “How can you not be sure? Thought your brain was a computer.”

  The lift stopped and the door opened several seconds later. The group slowly stepped out behind Abraham, careful to keep him in front of them at all times. The room stretched on forever, making it impossible to tell how large the structure underneath the building was. Abraham made for the first terminal while the others tried to soak in the vastness of the facility.

  “Because my memory has been partially erased,” he answered, bringing the touch screen to life.

  Everything in the laboratory seemed to glow white. The walls and the floors, even the four rows of doors that lined the walls, only accessible by scaling narrow catwalks, were all white in color. The girls looked at themselves, almost afraid they would contaminate the place with their dirt.

  “Captain Quaid, I believe I have found something of value for you,” Abraham remarked.

  With the push of a button, a large panel on the white wall next to them pushed out, then slid down a narrow track on the floor. Behind the panel were rows of weapons, the likes of which Quaid had never seen before. His jaw dropped open as he walked over to them, attempting to make out their bullet types.

  “Jenna,” he continued.

  Three panels down, another covering opened the same as the last. This time, the panel revealed medical devices. Scanners, injectors, and various devices were hung with care. She looked to each one, only half-certain that their use was. She pictured her father for a moment, wondering which of these devices he’d used most frequently.

  “I believe there are medicines in a panel behind us,” Abraham replied. “Please remind me to take them before we leave. We can sell what we don’t use.”

  Sandra watched her crewmates, their eyes and jaws opened, touching everything on the shelves before them. She wondered for a moment why the Cyber hadn’t thought of something that suited her, as though her traits were not as obvious as theirs were.

  “What else is on the list?” Sandra asked, stepping in beside Abraham at the terminal.

  “Everything a heart could desire,” he replied. “Yet so much more. I’m afraid we’d need a bigger ship though if we were to take it all.”

  “Well, why can’t we just make this our base?” Jenna as
ked, looking around her. “I mean, we could use the rooms upstairs for living quarters. I’m sure the place has running water and a kitchen. It’s not like anyone’s using it.”

  “For starters,” Abraham started, looking away from the terminal. “Someone is using it though they seem to be a little shy. Secondly, the moment I scanned myself into the front door, a signal was transmitted back to Earth. I suspect that Divinity will send a team out to investigate the intrusion.”

  “Do you really think they would?” Quaid asked, a metallic blue covered rifle in hand. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in forever. Why would their care about this place if they never came back?”

  “I can only speculate,” Abraham replied. “Girls, bring me your data pads please.”

  Sandra and Jenna looked to one another as Jenna crossed the room to their place at the terminal. Each handed the Cyber their data pads and watched him program something onto them, his hand moving at a blinding speed.

  “We will need to make several trips,” he continued. “So I’m programming your pads to act as the chip in my hand. That way, I won’t have to accompany you every time you take something back to the Hopper.”

  “About that,” Quaid started. “I really appreciate all this Doc, but how the hell are we supposed to carry all this back to the ship? Even if we loaded the lift full, it’d still take forever to get it all out of the building.”

  “Quite right,” he answered. “I promise I thought this thru.”

  He went back to work on the terminal. A moment later, another long panel slid away, same as the others. Behind them, three long, rectangular slabs could be seen. Abe pushed another command into the terminal. One by one, the three slabs fell away from whatever held them in place. Quaid almost dropped his new toy, thinking that the thick slabs would crash to the floor. Instead, they simply hovered above the ground.

  “Are you serious?” Sandra asked, running to the hovering boards. “These are made from atronium, right?”

  Abraham looked up from the terminal, confused at her joy.

  “You seem quite pleased by that,” he remarked. “I’m curious as to why.”

  “Atronium is rare,” Quaid stammered, his mind working the math. “Very, very, VERY rare these days. What little they had all got bought up and disappeared from the market ages ago.”

  “I still don’t understand,” Abraham continued. “Atronium was only found on one planet, but it was deemed an asset to the entire universe. Its value was decided by the marketers on Earth to avoid it being unobtainable to the common buyer. What changed?”

  “Atronia changed,” Sandra offered, her hands running over the smooth slabs. “Well, rather the assumed amount of atronium on the planet changed. Come to find out that the alloy was from a comet that’d destroyed the planet millions of years ago. There just wasn’t as much on the planet as they’d initially thought. Nearly caused the stock market to collapse overnight. Every mining company hit it hard, wars broke out on the planet’s surface, and all the atronium was picked up. Now you couldn’t buy this much without at least a million credits.”

  “Really?” Abraham asked, his fingers tapping the screen without looking. “So what would this do for our financial situation Captain?”

  A dozen panels slid away, with fifty feet in between them. From each one, three more hovering slabs fell to a horizontal position with the floor. Everyone gasped at the sight, stretching further away than their eyes could make out. They looked to one another, realizing that they’d just become rich.

  “How long you think we have Doc?” Quaid asked, loading weapons onto the first hover lift. “I don’t want to get caught with our hands in their cookie jar.”

  The Cyber made a calculation.

  “Around six hours,” he replied. “It would take at least an hour for someone to make the decision to investigate. Thirty minutes to assemble a team. Then, there are fourteen Gabriel Rings between here and Earth. Six hours is my safest prediction.”

  “What if the team was in a closer system?” Jenna asked, placing medical equipment onto her hovering board.

  “Then I would suggest you get moving,” he replied.

  The three moved quickly, loading the equipment on the boards. They gave a data pad to Quaid, choosing for him to be the one to go back and forth after he had all his weapons and ammo loaded onto two of the hovering boards. The girls stayed behind, each running down to the far end of the corridor to push the hovering boards back to the lift.

  “Please leave three lifts for my personal use,” Abraham replied, punching a command into the terminal.

  “Whatever you say Doc,” Jenna smiled, pushing a lift full of medical equipment to the lift.

  “Is that nickname going to stick to me?” he asked, a frown forming on his face.

  “What, you don’t like it?” Sandra mocked, forming a big frown upon her lips.

  “They revoked my title many years ago,” he stated, looking down at the terminal.

  “Well, you’re doctor material to us,” Jenna stated, running back to retrieve another board. “How many of these do you think we can shove up the Hopper’s butt?”

  Sandra laughed. Anyone else would call it the cargo bay, but her sister always called it the Hopper’s butt since the ramp was located on the rear of the ship. She tried to picture the cargo bay, wondering what Quaid would sacrifice to get every last board onto his ship.

  “If I know Quaid, all of them,” she replied, leaving a board next to the panels by the elevator. “I’ll load the medicine if you open the panel, Abe.”

  Abe punched in a command and the panel before Sandra slid open. She wasted little time, neatly stacking boxes of medicine onto the hovering board. She’d stacked everything much higher than she wanted to, but no one had to worry about running over a rock and dumping the contents onto the ground.

  “I’ll join you shortly,” he muttered, heading towards the far end of the room.

  Jenna watched as he took the next to last hovering board and pushed it towards a panel some two hundred feet away. She nodded to her sister, then ran to catch up with him.

  “What ya buying me Doc?” she asked, a sheepish grin on her face.

  She looked ahead, realizing what was behind the three panels that had opened. She recognized the welding torch right away, but the other tools on the shelves resembled nothing she could recall. She cast the doubt away, opting to help rather than hinder. She pulled the torch from the shelf, placing it neatly upon the hovering board. One by one, they loaded various bit drivers and other tools onto the boards. Sandra had joined them, bringing two more boards with her. The three made quick work of it, emptying the shelves before Quaid could return for the next load. The Captain didn’t bother to ask what they were doing, opting to grab the board next to the elevator, one of Jenna’s medical equipment stashes, and returning to the open elevator.

  “What will you do with all of this?” Sandra asked as they returned to the lift.

  “For starters,” he replied. “I’m going to fix those holes in the floor. Can’t have you girls breaking an ankle because you had to use the restroom in the middle of the night.”

  Jenna laughed and Sandra cheered. She would miss hopping around the floor, avoiding the weak spots, but she would gladly trade the knowledge for a solid foundation beneath her.

  “Then, if I can get some raw materials, I’ll fashion some items we can sell,” he finished.

  “Like what?” Jenna asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.

  “It seems your sister and the Captain has quite a pile of parts laying around the cargo bay,” he replied. “I think I can make something useful out of them, so long as I have all the tools I need and some room to work.”

  “There’s an empty room next to the engine room,” Jenna remarked, looking to Sandra. “Would that work for you?”

  “It would, assuming the Captain allows for it,” he continued. “It is his ship after all.”

  The elevator returned as the three finished gather
ing the boards to the door. Quaid stepped out, looking at the haul laying before him. His scratched his head, a puzzled look on his face.

  “What’s all the equipment for Doc?” he asked. “You looking to build something?”

  “I am,” he stated. “Assuming you give me the free room next to the engine. I think it’s time to make use of all those parts and sheets of metal you’ve collected over the years.”

  “We can discuss that later,” Quaid replied. “Right now, I just want to know how we’ll get all of this back in time to avoid the team that’s heading our way.”

  “Right.”

  Abraham left the board before him, moving to the other boards that hovered without any cargo. His fingers touched a small panel on the far corner of one, which he lifted and stacked upon another board. In a minute’s time, he stacked five boards on top of one another and pushed them to the lift. Quaid had already made up his mind what Abe was doing, having left with another load of medical supplies. Abraham pushed the stacked boards next to the others, then took the last empty board and headed down the long room.

  “Where you going?” Sandra asked, following behind him. “We should start taking these out now. We could send the lift back down after each person reaches the top and save time.”

  “I’m picking up our next passenger,” he replied, still pushing the board to the end of the room. “I just discovered why our host has been so shy.”

  Sandra looked down, realizing that another panel had been left open. She looked back to her sister, whom could only shrug her shoulders in response. Quaid must have thought the same as Sandra as the empty lift opened. Jenna took the board with the stacks of medical boxes and disappeared from their view.

  “What do you mean, another passenger?” she asked, jogging to catch up with him. “You didn’t say anything about that before.”

  Abraham kept pushing the board, ignoring her request. The couple reached the end of the room and stood before the open panel. It looked to Sandra like a metallic coffin, with illuminated panels along the sides. A tiny window was on the lid, though it was completely frozen over. The Cyber pressed a button on the side of the coffin, which allowed for it to slide away from the wall, a hydraulic lift holding the back of the box.