by Stefan Bolz
"Look down here." Mila's voice echoes across the space. "The steps leading down are the same as the ones leading up."
Born-of-Night swoops down and lands on Aries’s shoulder.
There is an identical structure far below as well, Aries hears her think.
How far down, do you think?
Thirty, maybe forty stories, the hawk replies. The stairs look solid.
When Aries arrives at the opening, the others have gathered around it.
"Any suggestions?" Aries asks.
"We're here now," Seth says. "We could go down and see what's there. Unless you want to go back up."
"What about Kiire?" Aries replies. "The further down we go, the further away we are from his location."
Seth looks down. Aries realizes at this moment that Seth has hidden his concern for Kiire.
"Seth, we couldn't have gotten him out. We saved you because we could. Trying to get Kiire would have gotten us all caught."
"I know. I know," he says.
But his eyes belie his words and Aries can see the pain in them. "I should be in there and Kiire should be free," is what they seem to say.
"Maybe there's another way up from down there," Ty says. "I don't think we have a choice."
"Keep him in your thoughts," Tevis says into the silence. "For now. Until there is more we can do for him."
Aries looks at the others.
"Kiire Understaad," she says quietly.
"Kiire Understaad," Mila says next to her.
"Kiire Understaad," Seth repeats.
They all say Kiire's name. For Aries, this is promise and vow alike—their declaration to keep their friend close in their thoughts.
"Let's do this," Sam says, his deep voice echoing through the space. Mila is the first to disappear into the opening. Aries is next. The stairs are made of individual steel platforms built straight into the rock. There is no railing. Whoever built this didn't bother. Before them, the stairs lead downward in a spiral until far below they reach another platform, similar to this one.
You can do it, Max's thoughts reach her. I'll be right behind you.
Aries looks at him briefly. Her right hand finds the wall. It seems impossible, at that moment, to take another step. The sense of being suspended high above the ground, with nothing in between her and the abyss below except a piece of steel that may or may not even hold her, is overwhelming.
You'll get used to it, Max thinks.
I doubt that very much.
As she takes a few more steps she realizes that if she concentrates on the stairs and only looks straight down toward her feet, the individual platforms make a seemingly uninterrupted stairway. Much better. It's far from comfortable but she doesn't have the feeling anymore that she will get sick at any moment. The others don't seem to be bothered by the height at all.
"Hold on a second," Ty says, and looks up at the underside of the platform. The half-moon-shaped individual shutters look the same. "The mechanism must be inside the wall somehow. There isn't enough space under the walkway to take the panels."
From here the construction looks even more imposing. What would be the reason for its existence in the first place? When they continue, Aries tries to calculate in her head how long it will take to complete one full circle. She could probably just look down to see where the steps end up but as she has decided not to do that, she has to figure it out another way.
"Jeremiah, can I ask you something?" she asks. Jeremiah walks in front of Amber who is just in front of her.
"Sure," he answers. "If y-you want to know how l-l-long it will t-t-take us to get down there, I can tell you."
"That was my question, yes," Aries says. Amber looks up at her, smiling.
"One hundred and fifty feet across gives it a circ-c-cumference of four hundred and seventy one f-feet. If each step is about ten inches ap-p-part, we'll cover about three hundred and fifty f-f-feet of height with one evolution. That should bring us down to the next p-p-platform. Should be less than ten minutes.”
"Wow, really? That fast?" she says, but a few moments later she has already regretted her statement. Ten minutes can seem long and for Aries, those ten minutes might as well have been ten hours. On the one hand, after a certain routine has set in, it's easier to take one step after another. On the other hand, concentrating only on one spot before her makes everything around her slowly start to spin. Several times she has to ask the others to wait awhile, and after the second time she begins to feel silly.
At one time, she is convinced that she can't possibly take another step without slipping and falling to her death. When they are halfway down, Tevis asks for a break. Aries, glad to not have to walk any further for the moment, also realizes that staying on the stairs for any prolonged period is not helping her at all.
"Look at this," Ty says, when they stop at a set of thick, vertical pipes.
"What do you think?" Aries asks, mostly to distract herself.
"Power lines. I've never seen big ones like that, though."
"Power lines?" Aries repeats. "For what?"
"I have no idea—"
They all hear it at once: a rhythmic metallic pounding coming from far above the platform. The sound is distant at first but slowly increases in volume.
"What could this be?" C.J. asks.
Max and Aries exchange a glance, each seeing in the other’s face what they fear. Born-of-Night is on her way up and slips through the opening above.
Be careful, Aries thinks. When she stops and looks through the hawk's eyes, Aries sees them. They are about halfway down the stairs above the platform. Their rhythmic, synchronized movements echo eerily through the space. The black uniforms make them almost invisible against the dark walls. There must be one on each step and more seem to keep coming through the opening high up.
"Androids," she says to the others. "They are about halfway down to the platform."
"How many?" Ty asks.
"I can't tell. At least three hundred but more are coming." Fear grips Aries's throat. They are far too exposed and vulnerable on the stairs, two hundred feet above the ground. If anybody fell, it would be a disaster. She concentrates on Amber's head in front of her; she seems to be repeating a sentence in her language, over and over. Aries can't understand it but doesn't want to interrupt her out of fear of her stumbling.
The platform below seems identical to the one above, except that instead of an opening leading further down, there sits a large transformer unit. The power lines lead straight into it. On the opposite side of where they are, two tunnels—similar to the one they came from—lead into the darkness. They begin about fifteen feet above the platform. A narrow ladder leads up to either one. Born-of-Night swoops down and flies into the left tunnel.
I'll see where it leads. The hawk’s thoughts reach Aries.
When they are fifty feet above the ground, the first of the androids passes through the opening above them.
I hope their rifles don't reach that far, Max thinks.
The rhythmic sound gets louder and louder, like an unyielding force of destruction that descends upon them.
"Do you still have your pliers?" Ty asks.
"I think so, yes," Aries answers.
"Take them out," he says.
Aries reaches into her satchel and takes out the pliers. She sees that Ty has his in his hand, as well.
This tunnel leads upward. Born-of-Night thinks. You should take the other one.
"You take the left bolt, I'll take the right," Ty says, when they reach the platform.
They run straight across the crescent-moon-shaped plates to the other side. The ladder, Aries sees now, is bolted into the wall in two places—at the bottom and at the top. She immediately grasps what Ty wants to do.
"Everybody up," Ty says. Seth climbs, taking two rungs at a time. His work in Rodent Control has prepared him for this. At the top he turns, stretching out his arm to help whoever is behind him. Mila is first, then C.J., Tevis, Amber, and Jeremiah. Max climbs next,
then Sam.
"Done," Aries says.
"Go!" Ty replies.
Aries climbs up as fast as she can. The others run into the tunnel. When she's at the top, she starts loosening the bolt on her side. Ty is right behind her and begins to loosen the second bolt. When the first of the androids is less than twenty feet from the platform, he jumps, lands on his feet and begins to move across.
"Hurry," Ty says.
"I'm going as fast as I can," Aries replies.
The other androids follow the first and jump down, in two-second increments. Completely synchronized. Too many times, Aries's pliers slip off the bolt. Her hands are bloody but she doesn't seem to notice. When hers is out, she sees that Ty has also taken his bolt out. Sam grabs the ladder and pulls it up.
"Run!" he says.
A blue ball explodes next to them, lifting Ty off his feet. A second charge flies past her and disappears into the tunnel. Ty doesn't move.
"Ty!" Aries cries. She kneels next to him. His right ear is bloody.
"I'll carry him," Sam says, as a charge hits his leg. He loses his balance and falls down. But he manages to get up and as he pulls Ty deeper into the tunnel, away from the blast radius of the rifles, Aries looks back toward the stairway across the platform. Like dark liquid dropping from the sky, the endless line of androids jump from the stairway onto the platform. Sam picks Ty up and lifts him on his shoulders as if he weighed nothing.
"Go," he says quietly. Aries runs.
* * *
//Pulled from Mainframe S-0t11nn_nf114. Recording 1_41191_4899 1 A.R.C
- Where are they?
- They have reached the tunnels at the third lock.
- How many?
- So far as we know, there are ten. We have the others.
- How can they have come this far?
- I'm not sure—
- HOW CAN THEY HAVE COME THIS FAR?
- I... don't know, sir.
- I told her that the girl needed to be eliminated. Her point score was too far off scale. The smallest infestation, if unintended, can take down the whole crop. She is the one we need to focus on. Forget the others. Get her and the rest of the group will collapse. How far are we with the E-9s?
- Eighty-five percent complete, sir.
- Take them out of the program and activate them.
- But, sir—
- Take them out now. Eighty-five percent of one E-9 is still far superior to two dozen of the basic android models. Androids still think like soldiers. For this, I need a hunter.
- Yes, sir.
- How many do we have in the 85 percent mark?
- Four.
- Get them all. And bring the boy.
//S-0t11nn_nf114. End of Recording 1_41191_4899 1 A.R.C
* * *
Sam lays Ty on the ground. Tevis kneels beside him, feeling his pulse.
"It's weak but it's there. He needs to lie flat and rest."
They had been running for about ten minutes until they’d come to a fork where the tunnel split into two. Aries's growing concern for Ty has made it impossible to concentrate on a plan.
"We need to keep going," Seth says. "They’ll be here any second."
"Which one do we take?" Tevis asks.
"Born-of-Night, what do you see?" Aries says. She has decided that she will speak out loud whenever she communicates with the hawk so that the others might get the gist of their conversations.
"There are just more tunnels." Aries repeats the hawk's thoughts. "We have no way of knowing which ones lead where."
Born-of-Night flies out of the left tunnel and lands on Aries’s shoulder.
"How do we decide which one to take?" Tevis asks again.
"What would t-t-they do?" Jeremiah asks.
"What do you mean?" Aries replies.
"If we could f-f-figure out what the androids would d-d-do, we could just go the other w-w-way."
"They are so many, they could split up and go into each one," Seth says.
"We should go r-r-right," Jeremiah says.
"Why do you think that?" Amber asks.
"Because it makes s-s-sense."
"To you, maybe," Amber replies.
"See how it f-f-forks off? If you look at it, not as a random but as a s-s-system of tunnels with a purpose, it makes more s-s-sense."
"Ants," Seth says.
"What?" C.J. asks.
"Their tunnels are never random," Seth replies.
"The f-f-forks should have subtle differences," Jeremiah says. "And we should be able to identify the main tunnel each t-t-ime."
I got it, Max thinks. I can see it. It's not a lot but if you concentrate on the differences, you can see that the right tunnel here is very slightly more of a main pathway than the other.
"Max, why don't you go with Born-of-Night and see if you can figure out where to go," Aries says.
Max nods. The hawk lifts off Aries's shoulder and flies into the right tunnel. Sam picks up Ty, lays him over his shoulder. Seth helps Tevis to her feet. Aries can see in Tevis's expression that she is simultaneously worried about Ty and grateful to Sam.
"Let me go with them," Mila says. "I can make a drawing in my head. It might help.”
"Sure," Aries replies.
"We need to keep moving," Sam says.
They begin to run into the tunnel. A few minutes later, Aries notices that Ty’s arm is hitting Sam’s leg repeatedly. At first, she thinks it's a random motion, but then she sees Ty's face pleading with her to let him down.
"Sam, stop. Sam!"
He slows down.
"Let me stand up!" Ty says, his voice hoarse and cracking. "I can't get any air."
Sam stands Ty on his feet while holding him. Ty breathes in deeply.
"Are you okay?" Tevis asks.
Ty gestures to her that he needs a minute to catch his breath.
The next tunnel is to your left. Aries hears Max in her thoughts. We're moving away from the core right now. Pretty much in a straight line.
"Okay," Aries replies out loud. "Next tunnel is left."
"How long was I out?" Ty asks.
"Fifteen minutes, more or less," Tevis replies. "How are you feeling?"
"My ear hurts like hell. Otherwise I think I'm okay."
"You might have blown your eardrum," she says, while spitting onto her sleeve and cleaning the blood from his ear. "Can you walk?"
"I think so," Ty replies.
"Don't do that again, okay?" Tevis touches Ty's face, as if to remove more dried blood. He smiles.
"Well, if I get more of that, why shouldn't I?" he says.
"You can have that without getting injured," Tevis replies.
In the distance, they hear a sound. Rhythmic. Pounding.
"They must have found a way to climb the wall," Seth says.
"We should move," Sam replies
When they reach the next fork, they go left. Aries's feeling of discomfort increases. The further toward the left they go, the closer they come to the second tunnel. Hopefully there is no access between the two. Otherwise they will be surrounded really soon. Aries keeps looking behind them, expecting the androids to reach them any moment now. The sound of their synchronized footsteps has slowly but steadily become louder.
"We can't run forever," she says. "We'll run out of steam soon."
She can see it in Ty's face. He's holding it together, but it’s only a matter of time until he has to stop.
"I've been here before," Amber says.
"What? How?" Aries says.
"I'm not sure. I know, I've never been here in my life but still, these tunnels seem very familiar. As if someone had told me about them in the past."
"Do you know where to go?"
"No," Amber replies. "The only thing I can say is that it seems dark in here. And there were markings on the walls."
"Markings?"
"Yes. Like writings. But I can't see them now."
They are coming toward us. Aries hears Born-of-Night in her thoughts. I almost flew in
to them in one of the side tunnels. We have to go further to the right, even though the main path goes straight.
"They went through the second tunnel," Aries says to the others. "Born-of-Night just saw them. We have to keep going right."
"They're hunting us," Seth says.
His words echo eerily through the space.
"They know where we are. They know the tunnels. They are moving us like cattle to the slaughterhouse."
Seth is right. Aries hears Max in her thoughts. We're trapped in here.
"Wait for us, we're coming to you," Aries says.
Okay, Max replies.
A few minutes later, Born-of-Night flies toward them and lands on Aries’s shoulder.
Max and Mila are ahead. Not far.
Thanks.
I'm sorry. She hears the hawk in her thoughts.
About what?
I told you to come down here. I told you to trust me. And see where it got you.
I know you don't know the whole picture, Aries replies in her thoughts. You only know a small part of it. But so do I. It seems as if we all only know very little. But all of us together might know much more than we think.
Aries is surprised by her own thought process. She has never thought this before now, but after formulating the thought it seems to make sense.
So, you still trust me?
I trust you with my life.
For a moment, there is silence between them.
You might have to, before this is over. Aries hears the hawk’s thoughts.
I wish you'd get a little bit more information whenever something like this comes to you.
Me too, Born-of-Night replies.
Mila and Max stand at the next tunnel intersection.
"They're close," Mila says, as they join the others. "I think there are several main tunnels. And they all lead to the same place."
"How do you know this?" Aries asks.
"I don't. But through Born-of-Night, I saw an image in one of the soldier's minds."
"If you see an image, he can't be an android." Aries repeats Max's thoughts.
"Could be an E-9," Ty says, by now completely out of breath.
"What's that?" Tevis asks.
"A few years ago, I heard of a new breed of androids," Ty says. "One that doesn't have a synthetic neurological system but a biological one. Capable of making decisions that go past basic android programming. I have no idea how advanced they are by now."
