Gravity Storm: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Shadow Vanguard Book 1)

by Tom Dublin

"It means there's a live file on the system," he said.

  Stepping over to the computer, he reached out and tapped a button on the keyboard. The screen lit up instantly, the Weather Control Center logo vanishing to be replaced with the face of Yan Mil.

  "I don't know which of you will be the first to find this," said the man on the screen. "I don't know which of you will find me."

  Jack tapped the button again, pausing the footage.

  "Why did you stop it?" asked Zeb Lok.

  Jack's gaze flicked up to the figure still dangling from the ceiling, then back to Zeb Lok. "I think we should move Yan Mil before we continue."

  Nodding silently, Zeb Lok took his communicator from his pocket and called down to the temporary laboratory to explain the situation, and ask for assistance.

  Then he, Jack, Adina and Tc'aarlat relocated to the apartment's dining room to wait while medics arrived to cut down the corpse, zip it into a body bag, and lay it onto a long, thin cart.

  Zeb Lok stood in the dining room doorway and watched as Yan Mil left his apartment for the very last time, two medics wheeling the cart onto the landing area, and then into the elevator.

  As the elevator doors closed, Adina shut the apartment door gently. "Now, let's see what he has to say."

  The group made their way back into the study, Jack and Tc'aarlat each bringing a wooden chair from the dining room. Adina perched on the edge of the large, polished desk while Zeb Lok took the padded chair.

  Mist, now properly recovered from being out in the freezing winds of the storm, flapped up to the curtain rail above the window and perched there, preening her dark red feathers.

  "Ready?" asked Tc'aarlat, his finger hovering above the 'enter' button on the computer's keyboard.

  Zeb Lok nodded. The video began again.

  "I don't know which of you will be the first to find this," said the image of Yan Mil on screen. "I don't know which of you will find me.

  "But I do know I will no longer be alive when you finally gain access to this apartment."

  From the corner of her eye, Adina saw Zeb Lok lower his head, unable to look at the video clip any longer. But he did continue to listen.

  "I have lost Vix Mil, the only reason I had for living. She was my all. My reason for breathing. My love.

  "But who else knew her? No-one! No-one knew her!"

  Zeb Lok looked up again quickly. He frowned at the screen.

  Yan Mil's demeanor began to change. He was still grieving, but now there was an anger to his words and body language.

  "All we've seen and heard for days is Tor Val this, and Tor Val that. News channels are filled with footage of her opening hospitals, visiting the elderly, reading to children.

  "Experts chatter non-stop about how worthy her life has been, how much she did for us, and how she will be missed."

  By now, the scientist was shouting at the camera, flecks of spit flying from his mouth.

  "Vix Mil died on the same day as the president. But who's talking about her? Who's filming sobbing members of the public laying flowers at the spot where she took her final breath? Where are the newspaper articles about all the good things she did for society, and how she'll be missed?"

  Fury flashed in Yan Mil's eyes as he bellowed.

  "What about Vix Mil?!"

  He rested back in his chair - the chair Zeb Lok was now sitting in - and took a moment to catch his breath.

  "So, I have decided that you will all remember Vix Mil. In fact, you will never be able to forget her. Hers will be the last name the people of Alma Nine ever hear."

  The scientist paused, then stared right down the lens of the camera.

  "Vix. Is. Coming."

  The screen hissed as the video file ended.

  No-one spoke for a full minute.

  "That was a bit... full on," Tc'aarlat commented.

  Adina scowled. "He was upset," she pointed out.

  Tc'aarlat held his palms up. "Hey, I wasn't saying he was wrong. I get it, he missed his wife, couldn't live without her."

  "Yes, but what does 'Vix is coming' mean?" queried Jack.

  Tc'aarlat shrugged, then he caught his breath as an idea struck him. He turned in his chair to address Zeb Lok. "When you guys die, you don't... you know. Do you?"

  "Don't what?"

  "You know..."

  Tc'aarlat stretched his arms out in front on him, rolled his eyes back in his head and groaned like a zombie from a cheap horror movie.

  "BRRRAAAIIINNNS!"

  "Don't be ridiculous!" barked Jack.

  "Alright, keep your hair on," said Tc'aarlat, turning back. "Someone's got to ask these things, haven't they?"

  "No!" Jack retorted. "That's just not the sort of question any sensible, sane person would ever ask!"

  "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few legs, Jack!"

  "EGGS!" Jack bellowed. "EGGS!"

  Tc'aarlat frowned. "You can't make eggs without breaking a few legs? That doesn't make sense."

  "There's another light!"

  Everyone turned to Adina, and then to where she was pointing on the computer keyboard. "A blue one, this time."

  Zeb Lok scooted the desk chair forward on its wheels until he reached the computer desk. "It's another file," he said. "Scheduled to play after that last one."

  "Another video?" queried Jack.

  "No," Zeb Lok replied. "This is one of our weather program's timelines." He looked up at the others. "Should I play it?"

  Jack nodded his head, and he Tc'aarlat and Adina leaned in closer to the screen.

  Zeb Lok hit the button.

  This time, the screen showed a satellite image of the coast line on which Taron City sat. Layered over the pictures of the land and the sea, were sweeping lines showing areas of air pressure and symbols detailing temperature, wind speed and more.

  "Oh, fuck!" croaked Zeb Lok, swallowing hard.

  "What is it?" asked Adina.

  Zeb Lok pointed to the far right of the screen where a mass of swirling white was gradually approaching Taron City from the east. It grew in size as it traveled, spinning faster as the mass grew darker.

  "What is that thing?" said Tc'aarlat.

  Zeb Lok typed a series of commands into the computer, giving him a closer look at the raw data behind the graphics. "It's a storm," he said after reading and re-reading the lines of numbers. "A big one. The biggest this planet has ever seen."

  He pointed to where three lines of digits were flashing orange. "And that's another group of gravitational waves."

  "Headed this way?" asked Jack.

  Zeb Lok nodded. "We've got about three hours until it hits land."

  "And then?"

  "It will destroy the city."

  "Wait!" cried Adina, pressing a finger to a side box of text at the top left of the screen. "That says 'Yan Mil'. What does it mean?"

  "That box shows the name of the person who programmed the nanobots to create this weather system," Zeb Lok explained.

  "Yan Mil did this?" exclaimed 'Tc'aarlat. "On purpose."

  "I'm afraid so," said Zeb Lok. "One minute - I'll see if I can access the program and cancel it."

  Leaning forward, his fingers danced across the keys, flashing through screen after screen of green computer code on a black background.

  Suddenly, he stopped, stared at the naked code, then slumped back in the chair. "I can't get in. He's password protected everything."

  Adina looked at him in horror. "You can't stop the storm?"

  Zeb Lok shook his head. "I can't stop it, can't divert it, can't even reduce its ferocity. Plus..."

  Jack turned to the scientist. "Plus what?"

  Zeb Lok swallowed hard as he reached out for the keyboard once more. "He's named the storm after his wife."

  "The storm is called 'Vix'?" questioned Jack. "I don't understand."

  Zeb Lok hit the 'enter' key, and the screen went blank. Then three words written in bold, red text slowly faded into view...

  VIX IS COMING. />
  Jack turned to face his fellow crew members. "Oh, fuck."

  Alma Nine, Taron City, Saf Tah's Residence

  "Are you out of your mind?" exclaimed Saf Tah. "We can't evacuate the entire city in under three hours! Have you seen how bad the weather is out there?"

  Jack wiped his hand through his dripping wet hair and thrust it in the vice president's direction. "Seen it?" he snapped. We've just been in it! But it's going to get worse. A lot worse!"

  "So you claim..."

  "It's true," Zeb Lok put in. "The storm heading our way - Vix - is the most powerful we've ever seen, both in terms of severity of the weather, and the surge in gravity.

  Saf Tah blinked, not understanding. "The storm has a name?"

  "All storms are named," Zeb Lok confirmed. "It's how we log them for future reference, rather than refer to them by date or location."

  "But why Vix?"

  "That's the name of the chief weather control scientist's late wife," Adina explained. "Vix Mil."

  Saf Tah held up a hand. "Slow down... You're telling me the guy who invented our weather control system has programmed it to destroy the city with a killer gravity storm, and named it after his dead wife?!"

  "Pretty much," said Tc'aarlat.

  "Then get him to un-program it, on the orders of the president!"

  Standing behind Saf Tah, Jus Clo gave out a timid cough. "Er... vice president, sir."

  "Vice president, then!" spat Saf Tah.

  "I don't think he'll listen..." began Jack.

  "Then make him listen!" Saf Tah roared. "Threaten him with demotion, jail time, deportation back to Malatia, anything!"

  Tc'aarlat took a step towards the vice president's desk. "You can't threaten a dead guy."

  Saf Tah sat up in his chair. "He's dead?"

  "By his own hand," Adina confirmed. "And he locked everyone else out of the system beforehand."

  "Which is why you have to give the order to evacuate Taron City now!" exclaimed Jack. "Time is running out."

  Saf Tah fixed the group before him with a fierce stare. "Do you have any idea how much mayhem and confusion that will cause?" he demanded. "Yes, some people will be able to abandon the city without assistance, but then there's the elderly, the infirm, hospital patients. If we try to move those individuals in these conditions, many of them will perish in the process."

  "They'll all die if they stay here," snarled Jack, "and more besides."

  "All thanks to a mad scientist, driven to insanity by the death of his wife." Saf Tah's expression remained stern. "If I sound the alert to evacuate Taron City, the resulting deaths will be on my hands."

  "You pint-sized, piss-faced prick!" thundered Tc'aarlat. "You're condemning people to die so you can keep your reputation?!"

  Saf Tah fixed the Yollin with a fierce stare. "If people want to leave the city under their own volition, they can. They don't need me to tell them what they should do."

  The Yollin took another step towards Saf Tah's desk, but Jack held him back. "We're leaving," he growled.

  Jack, Zeb Lok and Adina all made for the door. Tc'aarlat continued to glare at the vice-president for a few seconds longer before following.

  As the door began to close behind the group, Mol Gat tossed his clipboard onto Saf Tah's desk, then scurried after them.

  Saf Tah frowned. "Where do you think you're going?"

  "I don't, um... really know to be honest," Mol Gat admitted. "I just know I'm not staying here to work for a witless pile of cockroach droppings like you, any longer."

  Saf Tah's eyes grew wider than the embittered political assistant had ever seen.

  Mol Gat paused before leaving, and looked back. "Um... Fuck you, and every odious little spunk bubble like you."

  With that he left the office and slammed the door behind him.

  Alma Nine, Taron City, Outside Saf Tah's Residence

  Mol Gat stomped down the steps outside the house, his feet sinking into the deep snow. Lifting his knees high with each step, he walked past the group that had left just before him without saying a word.

  Jack watched him struggle on down the street until he was lost among the swirling torrent of snow.

  "So," said Adina. "What now?"

  "I should return to the lab," said Zeb Lok. "I don't know how to crack Yan Mil's password to access the system and stop the storm, but I have to at least try."

  Tc'aarlat's mandibles tapped together as he thought hard. "Can't you, I dunno... use a computer to hack into Yan Mil's computer." He realized the others were staring at him in surprise, and added: "Hey, I'm not the tech genius scientist here..."

  Jack frowned. "You don't say..."

  Adina turned to Zeb Lok. "Is that, whatever Tc'aarlat just said, is it possible?"

  "It's possible," Zeb Lok replied. "But we don't have a computer anywhere near as powerful as you would need to do that in the time we have remaining. To stand any kind of chance, we'd need a system working almost at artificial intelligence levels."

  A smile crept across Jack's face, leaving Zeb Lok confused. Especially when Tc'aarlat and Adina began to smile as well.

  "Zeb Lok," beamed Jack. "There's someone we'd like you to meet..."

  25

  ICS Fortitude, Bridge

  It took the group 40 minutes to slog their way through the rapidly expanding snow drifts to reach the ship. The snow was now so deep TV and radio stations were issuing travel warnings due to the safety risk.

  And, even if some valiant driver was brave enough to attempt an automobile journey, they wouldn't have been able to get very far at all.

  Piles of rubble that had, until recently, been houses, stores and offices now resembled smooth, snow-covered hills, awarding the many scenes of death and destruction a temporary air of serenity.

  Except for those areas where body parts still jutted from the icy covering at disturbing angles.

  Jack pulled off one of his gloves and tapped his key-code into the panel beside the door.

  "Two hours left until the storm hits," announced Zeb Lok, checking the countdown he'd set on his personal communicator.

  One by one, the crew and Zeb Lok stepped inside, stomped the snow from their boots and made their way onto the bridge.

  "Captain Marber!" exclaimed Solo as she spotted Jack. "I've been so worried about you."

  "You have?"

  "Of course!" Solo replied. "You didn't call even once to let me know you were safe."

  "Oh, er... sorry," said Jack, throwing a concerned look towards Adina. "I didn't realize I was supposed to."

  "How else am I supposed to ensure you haven't been hurt, or worse?"

  Tc'aarlat held his arms wide towards the face on the view screen. "Adina and I are both here and unharmed as well, Solo."

  Solo turned to smile at the pair - a little too condescendingly for Tc'aarlat's taste.

  "I can see, that."

  Finally, Solo turned her attention to Zeb Lok. "And we have a visitor," she smiled. "Welcome to the ICS Fortitude, sir. Would you care for something to drink, or a light snack perhaps?"

  "If he does, will you be the one preparing this mini-feast, Solo?" Tc'aarlat inquired.

  "As you are aware, I do not have the necessary body parts to undertake such a task," said Solo.

  "So, one of us lot would have to do it?"

  "I'm merely welcoming our guest," Solo replied. "I would be forced to leave the logistics of the situation to someone more... mortal."

  Tc'aarlat turned and whispered to Adina. "I agree with Jack," he hissed. "Check she was installed properly, first chance you get."

  Zeb Lok smiled politely. "Thank you," he said to Solo. "I don't need anything just now."

  "As you wish."

  "I'm afraid we don't have time for drinks or snacks, Solo," said Jack, pulling off his heavy coat and dumping it over the back of his chair. "There's a gravity storm heading this way, and-"

  "Storm Vix," interrupted Solo to everyone's surprise. "I am aware of the impending catastroph
e."

  "You are?" Adina frowned. "How?"

  "While alone, I took the liberty of monitoring local news broadcasts for any mention of Captain Marber," Solo explained. "While none of the major channels saw fit to mention the arrival of the esteemed delegate from the Etheric Empire, they have been reporting about the incoming storm."

  The E.I.'s avatar shrunk in size and slid to the top corner of the main screen. In its place, six individual windows appeared, each featuring a live broadcast from one of Alma Nine's television stations.

  Tc'aarlat made a mental note to remind Solo later on that they were all official delegates and asked. "How did they find out about that?"

  Adina turned to Zeb Lok. "Did you tell them?"

  "No," he replied. "I gave the order for a news embargo on our way to see Saf Tah."

  "Actually," Solo commented, "I believe the originator of the storm, Yan Mil, arranged for copies of his recorded suicide message to be sent to all available news outlets before he took his own life.

  "They were delivered electronically approximately 13 minutes ago."

  Jack sank into his seat. "There's going to be mass panic."

  "That is also my prediction," agreed Solo.

  "We need your help, Solo," said Adina. "Can you work with Zeb Lok to hack into Alma Nine's weather control system?"

  Solo's avatar shifted to form an expression of concern. "I'm not sure I should get involved in such an activity, Adina. Hacking into computer systems is highly illegal."

  "Even if it could save thousands of lives?" questioned Tc'aarlat. "Maybe tens of thousands?"

  "The end does not always justify the means," Solo replied. "I, like the rest of the ship's crew, am on this planet as a guest. If I were to break a law, no matter how worthy the cause, the political fallout could be-"

  "Forget the legality of the exercise!" Jack commanded. "Can you hack into another computer system or not?"

  "Yes, Captain. I believe that would be possible."

  Jack stood, grabbed Zeb Lok's arm and steered him towards his captain's chair. "Right, stop talking and get to work, both of you."

  Taking a deep breath, the Malatian began to hammer at the ancient, springy keyboard built into the console. Solo responded by flooding each of the bridge's many screens with rapidly scrolling lines of code.