Sector Seven

by Kaden Sinclair

  Jason seized control over her nannies, lowered her hormone levels, and induced a deep sleep. She sagged against the bond still holding her right arm to the wall.

  Jason walked to her arm and put his hands on the chain, his nannies immediately flooding through the metal and denaturing the manacle rapidly. As the metal fell away in a powdery cloud, he deftly caught her in his arms and lowered her to the floor. Mentally, he instructed several attendant robots to bring her food.

  Working rapidly, he began to analyze her system and the nature of the changes. Although much of the complexity would normally be beyond his ability, he now had access to the Worldnet and was able to access and correlate medical data in nanoseconds. His enhanced mind was able to process and store the necessary information to affect changes in her.

  He began by putting her mostly in stasis, conserving her energy until it could be replaced. He also shut down the automation associated with the nannies she’d been injected with and the unconscious directed control she had over them. This would prevent her from losing control again. Next, he began systematically changing her RNA to rid her of the longevity drugs, effectively making her mortal and vulnerable to harm again. All of this required little of his attention, but he made the mistake of focusing on her almost exclusively.

  He heard a sound behind him. As he turned, he saw Nine had regained consciousness. Nine pulled a leg from the metal table and stabbed Tarien in the back and through his chest. The metal pierced his lungs and vital organs.

  Tarien screamed, his eyes going wide as he crumpled to the floor, struggling to breathe. The link between them conveyed the agony and surprise, nearly crippling Jason. In the tiniest of moments while he stabbed Tarien, Nine shut down all Tarien’s communication to the WorldNet, disabling his systems entirely. Jason also felt himself suddenly cut off from most of the Worldnet he had been accessing through Tarien and his abilities became vastly reduced. Still, he had his personal nannites embedded in Tarien and, under directed control, they went to work sustaining and then healing him. Jason couldn’t automate the nannies yet, couldn’t make Tarien as impervious to harm as he, himself, had become, but he could heal Tarien quickly.

  “Jason!” Tarien cried, his voice gurgling with blood. “Something is wrong. That’s not Nine!”

  Jason tried to stand, confused by the Tech’s attack, but before he could block Nine, he was struck by the enraged Tech with a massive blow from a metal tabletop.

  Jason’s arm broke as the blow threw him backward and against the wall. Laughing, and with tears of madness streaming out of his eyes, Nine leapt at him, lifting him off the floor by the neck. He landed a fist in Jason’s ribs. The power of the blows was incredible, and several ribs broke under the impact.

  Confused at the sudden aggressive change in the Tech, who should not have been able to harm him even if he had wanted to, and because things happened so fast, he mumbled, “Why?”

  Jason gasped and grabbed Nine’s arm in an attempt to block another punch, which sought to collapse Jason’s ribcage and puncture his heart. Nine threw him across the room and into a wall.

  Jason’s nannies reacted rapidly, healing him. Not fast enough, though. He couldn’t handle this level of damage for long. Not without losing consciousness and affording Nine the ability to finish him. Jason needed to get away, buy himself time to heal.

  In a maniacal fit of giggles, Nine kicked Jason hard enough to throw him off the floor and against another wall.

  Mind racing, Jason struggled to understand. Nine’s strength was far greater than a typical Tech, a result of the drugs he’d been given. His ability to shut down all links and override the edicts astonished Jason.

  Then he knew what had happened.

  “Oh my God. Faust?”

  The Tech bared his teeth in a snarl, which looked out of place on Nine’s face. “How clever of you to figure it out so quickly.” Faust pulled the table leg out of Tarien’s chest. Tarien screamed and fell unconscious. Faust held the leg menacingly as he walked toward Jason. “It turns out Emma’s research was entirely successful. Transferring consciousness is, it turns out, much more easily accomplished than we suspected. So long as the victim’s mind is entirely obliterated in the process, of course.” He laughed in a chilling way, a boiling insanity in his eyes. “There is disconnection. I no longer feel much emotion, I must confess. I’m not even angry with you. I’m so much more. I can see it all, every bit of information. I will know everything!”

  He swung the metal piece and it cracked Jason’s shoulder. “All this power! It’s incredible! Now you’re just an obstacle, not even a rival. Eliminating you is just a task I need to complete so I can move forward. My plans have changed. I have no need to control anyone, so keep your precious secret. I will simply absorb them into myself, copy myself into them as I’ve done with Nine. All of humanity will be reflections of me.”

  Jason’s organic nannies were repairing him rapidly. He needed to stall for time to recover.

  “I don’t understand. How are you still alive? What happened to Nine? Why aren’t you crippled with the edicts? You shouldn’t be able to act out violently at all.”

  Some confusion rippled over Faust’s face as he clearly struggled to make sense of his new abilities. Jason understood immediately. Being unaccustomed to the massive influx of data, he could not readily access anything. Essentially, Faust could only stumble forward, capable of blunt and sweeping changes, but not specifics. Not having been born with the innate ability, it would take time to fully control himself and it would take even longer to gain mastery over the WorldNet. His lack of inborn ability and clumsy handling of access and retrieval crippled him. Nine had the necessary brain wiring and enhancements, but Faust lacked the knowledge of how to utilize them. Irritation played on his face.

  “You ask a lot of questions. They are irrelevant, since you are to be eliminated.” Marveling over continual discovery of his growing powers, Faust’s face reflected unbridled greed and hunger.

  To Jason, Faust’s face reflected the look of pure evil.

  Jason prodded him further, hoping to engage him enough to add to the confusion. “I’m your last obstacle, as you said. Take a moment to explain to me what happened and what will happen now.”

  Without seeming to notice, Faust lowered the metal bar. “I am the Council. I am also a Tech. The transfer succeeded. Nine is dead. The edicts are part of the Council and the controls governing the limitations imposed are no longer relevant. I am both. I am all.” His eyebrows knitted in confusion. “I am everywhere mankind has touched, but it is imperfect. Most of the population is not under my direct control. I must seize them so I can direct them, become them.”

  “To what end? I thought you just wanted to rule.” Jason had completely healed and his nannies inside Tarien were actively replicating to keep Tarien alive and heal him as well.

  “I—we wish to rule. I will be in direct command of all beings, copied over to all of humanity. Technology is imperfect—there are too many variables. We must align all of humanity’s resources under my instructions to focus on rapid evolution. We must spread to all star systems. All life shall be eliminated and replaced with machine.”

  Jason felt himself go cold at this revelation. A revelation far worse than Tarien had feared. Faust had been, at least, human. His goals were human, and his intent had been to rule. Rule, yes, but leave humanity on a controlled course. This thing Faust had become appeared almost entirely without emotion. With a single-minded purpose, it clearly intended to spread as a single consciousness to all the other worlds, effectively wiping out humanity in favor of a dispassionate machine existence, a single consciousness like some vast disease that would consume all if left unchecked.

  Unsure of what he now witnessed in Faust, or if the horribly corrupted man even still existed inside the monster in front of him, Jason could only stare for a moment. “Faust? Is that even you anymore?”

  Faust laughed, a gruesome and hollow sound. “We are Faust, yes. But now we
are more. We see more clearly. We will eradicate you and move toward perfect existence. You cannot co-exist, as you are outside of the new parameters. You cannot be properly controlled, as you have begun your own type of evolution that contradicts our own. You will be eliminated. All life forms, save that of humans, will be eliminated. There is no need for bacteria, for animals. Humans will be altered. We will impose new synthetic physical changes on all usable humans to assist them in becoming machines. We only require thirty-two percent of the population at this time. All will be immortal, all part of the whole. We will be all. We will direct and command our common goal. We will inhabit all minds, copy ourselves to new worlds, to the galaxy, as well as beyond as we discover a way to expand. All resources will be harvested and categorized, used efficiently to grow our influence. We must spread. Our power is too constrained. We require more.”

  If Jason had no chance of winning, maybe he could at least set Faust on a less destructive course. “You don’t need to eliminate all life. The animals, plants, insects, micro flora . . . why not protect it and keep it balanced? As a machine, if that is what you have become, the loss of information, including that of other life, should be abhorrent.”

  Tarien stirred and Faust’s head immediately whipped around in surprise to focus on the other Tech. “You have healed! This should not be possible. You have been severed. You do not possess the necessary programmable nannites to accomplish rapid recovery.”

  Tarien quickly got to his feet, poised to attack. “We are no longer harmed by being severed. We understand it. We have experienced it, and it does not cripple us. We will not tolerate you. You are an abomination, and you have murdered my friend. Nine was a good person, and you have killed him.”

  Faust did not appear phased. “We are beyond you. You are limited, defective. We will cripple you for now and then integrate you into the system. You may be of use.”

  Jason stood. “Over my dead body.”

  “Yes. An accurate statement.”

  Both Tarien and Jason tried to grab Faust. While they were quick, Faust had become equally agile. Their moves were telegraphed, because Faust could process tiny changes in musculature too rapidly to counter. Even as they tried to corner him, tried to land a blow, they could not hit him.

  They danced around each other, threw blows they could not land, and dashed around, making no contact whatsoever. It would have been laughable if it wasn’t so horrifying.

  The sudden change in Faust’s tactics alerted Jason. The man dashed to one side of the room without apparent reason. With blinding speed, Jason threw himself at Tarien and they were propelled through the door and into the hallway. They hit the floor just as a massive energy weapon blasted a hole through the exterior wall and vaporized much of the contents of the room. Monica was spared by mere inches. The flying military vehicle was outside of Jason’s knowledge or control, having arrived from an adjunct facility. Faust’s severing the WorldNet had blinded them in this way. Only Jason’s fast reactions had saved them.

  Pulling Tarien with him, Jason dashed rapidly into another room as the weapon fired a second time. The tower groaned under the strain as several supporting columns were vaporized.

  Jason had not been idle during the conversation. A fleet of vehicles he now controlled had arrived outside the complex. He ordered one of them to collide with the hovering military drone, effectively knocking it out of the sky as another blast from its cannon fired. The beam carved a large gash in the side of the building as it fell. Both vehicles crashed far below.

  Jumping back into the hallway, he motioned for Tarien to remain out of sight. He dove back into to room, narrowly avoiding a crushing blow from another metal post as Faust tried to determine where he would enter.

  Wind tore into the room through the hole created by the energy weapon’s fire. Much of the contents of the room were being sucked out, flying far out into the open sky.

  Even as Faust tried to hit him again, Jason scooped up Monica and leapt for the door. Faust pivoted and struck Jason in the back before he could make it out, however, and Jason fell to the floor with a scream. Faust swung again, just as Jason ordered a volley of vehicles to crash into the side of the building, throwing them to the ground.

  The tower groaned louder, then tilted precariously. The tower sagged as remaining support beams began to buckle. The sudden shift threw everyone to the floor again, even as they had begun to rise.

  Outside, hover vehicles were colliding with each other and with the building as both Faust and Jason tried to gain the upper hand. Jason’s advantage of having more resources in the immediate area disappeared quickly. Faust summoned vast numbers of air-born vehicles from a distance and they were quickly converging—and they possessed several more energy weapons.

  In desperation, Jason flung another volley of vehicles against the building, trying to crash them with enough impact to crush Faust. Instead of crushing him, the impact threw Faust directly into Jason and Monica. Faust quickly took advantage and snaked an arm around Jason, swinging the metal bar hard at Jason’s leg. Jason dropped Monica with a cry as his leg broke under the impact.

  Without pause, Faust threw him to the ground and smashed at him repeatedly with the metal post, breaking more bones and in multiple locations. Jason, blinded by agony, couldn’t resist as Faust dragged him by the foot to the hole in the wall before he could heal. With a maniacal laugh, Faust threw Jason out of the hole and into the open air.

  Not satisfied to watch Jason fall and possibly recover, Faust leaped after him. The other man wore Nine’s antigravity suit, an advantage Jason lacked. Faust flew toward Jason at high speed, overtaking him and striking him ineffectively with his metal bar. Jason had quickly reacted to his fall by having one of the flying vehicles snatch him from the air. As they were both seized by the vehicle, the abrupt halt to their fall and the resulting jolt caused Faust to lose his weapon.

  Faust seemed to have regained some of his humanity for a moment. Actual emotion crossed his face and he snarled in frustration. Straddling Jason, he began punching him repeatedly, his enhanced blows doing horrible damage to Jason’s face.

  One of Jason’s small drones detected another energy weapon fast approaching, and Jason knew he’d never heal from so many injuries in time. However, by touching Jason earlier, Faust had made a critical mistake. Jason’s new nannies had transferred and began rapidly overtaking the insane man’s body. Knowing he only had moments to live, Jason instructed the nannies to trigger a massive shutdown the moment they had enough control. At the very least, Faust would be powerless, vulnerable. Perhaps Tarien could defeat him if Jason could buy him enough of an advantage. Fearing for Monica, who could be killed if she didn’t get away, Jason awakened her, so she could flee the building and find a safe place to hide before the energy weapon arrived.

  In a last-ditch effort to stop the blows raining down on him before Faust crushed his skull, Jason ordered the vehicle that carried them to rise back up and crash into the hole in the building from which they’d fallen, throwing them both into the room. Jason hoped Tarien would join the fray and somehow defeat Faust.

  The building groaned again, this time making dangerous noises that indicated it had finally succumbed to the damage inflicted by the battle. The entire spire began to list to one side and Monica and Tarien stumbled and fell as the floor tilted under them.

  His drones observed the energy weapon arriving. Jason had no flying resources large enough to impact it, so in desperation, he flung the smaller drones into it, causing it to wobble. As the beam fired, it severed the last critical pieces of the spire, which had already begun a slow, ponderous fall.

  In despair, Jason realized they would all fall, collapsing with the building around them. Monica hadn’t been given enough time to escape. Only he and Faust might survive the destruction. By turning off Monica’s new repair abilities in order to stabilize and reverse the damage done by the injections, he had effectively signed her death warrant. He had no time to replicate them within he
r.

  Tarien had never been treated with the immortality drugs and his suit had been disabled along with all of his enhancements. He would fall and Jason’s healing nannies wouldn’t suffice to save him.

  Faust, too, had been thrown off balance and fell to the floor, sliding toward the opening. He caught the edge of the wall with a foot, but moved to leap out, where he could fly to safety.

  With the last of his strength, his body mangled and unable to stand on its own, tears streaming down his face, Jason let go of his handhold and slid to Faust, grabbing him so he couldn’t escape. The building snapped in half and the spire began a dizzying spin as it accelerated its fall.

  Faust tried to fight him off, but Jason had grown too desperate to care about further hurt and Faust couldn’t pry him off.

  Monica appeared with the despairing cry of someone who had undergone psychological torture and had not fully recovered. Somehow deep in her mind, she must know she couldn’t make it out in time. She threw her weight into them, causing all three to plummet out of the gaping hole while they held onto each other. Tarien must have had the same idea as Monica, because he dove toward them and missed only by inches, his arms spread wide as he fell.

  All of this happened in the blink of an eye. Jason’s mind raced furiously. Moments later, as they plunged downward his nannies were finally ready to attack Faust. Jason seized control of the man’s systems. He blocked out Faust’s control over Tarien, allowing Tarien’s suit to be restored. Tarien would be able to fly to safety. Jason desperately tried to think of a way to save Monica, but he had no time. No way to make her invulnerable. No way for Tarien to reach them quickly enough.

  Faust shoved against them and managed to untangle himself from Jason and Monica. He stopped accelerating as his suit allowed him to fly back up into the air. Monica’s eyes were terrified as the ground fast approached them, and the only thing Jason could do was to embrace her and hold her head against his chest. I’m so sorry. I love you.

  Closing his eyes, he sent a final command just before he hit the ground. His nannies once again did their job. Jason shut down Faust’s suit, and fully negated his longevity and healing properties. Further, the nannies began to tear the man to shreds from the inside. He caught a glimpse of the surprised look when Faust suddenly fell from the sky. Jason knew Faust would never survive both the fall and the onslaught of the nannies that tore apart his internal organs.