The Forever Gate Ultimate Edition

by Isaac Hooke

  "Hoodwink," Sarella said.

  He glanced at her.

  Her eyes were open and she was smiling. Her face glowed. She yawned, rubbed her eyes, and sat up.

  "Is it really you?" Hoodwink asked.

  For a moment he was unsure whether some other Satori had downloaded its consciousness into her body, perhaps Jeremy himself. But as he stared at her face, he could clearly see the tenderness in her eyes. The love.

  She touched his chin fondly, as she often did after a session of unrestrained passion.

  "It's you." Hoodwink fell to his knees beside her in the truck bed and hugged her close. Then he kissed her. "I thought I had lost you."

  "And I you," Sarella said.

  Hoodwink glanced at Skull and the others. They all had their rifles pointed at the two of them.

  "What are you doing?" Hoodwink said. "Put those down before you hurt someone!"

  "We can't trust her," Skull said.

  "Nonsense," Hoodwink said. "Lower your weapons. It's her!"

  No one obeyed. The pickup hit a bump and everyone in the truck bed was jolted.

  Hoodwink shifted, placing himself between her and as many of the commandos as he could. "Trust me. It's her."

  "She's a Satori," Skull said.

  "So am I," Hoodwink responded.

  "But you've proven yourself," Skull insisted. "This woman, we don't even know if the same Satori consciousness operates her surrogate body."

  "You may not know it, but I do," Hoodwink said. "Look into her eyes. Do it. And tell me what you see."

  Skull pursed his lips, then he handed his rifle to Pencils. He knelt beside her and gazed into Sarella's eyes for a long moment.

  "My my," she told Skull. "You're the handsomest fisherman I've ever met."

  Skull stiffened slightly.

  She stared at him searchingly, and when he didn't say anything more, she added: "That's what I said to you the very first time we met. You were holding a fresh catch from the lake. It was in Bortar. A rebel outpost. We lived there before the Satori raid. Before we escaped and moved to the city."

  Skull stared at her a moment longer and then his shoulders relaxed subtly. He glanced askance. "It's her. Lower your weapons."

  The commandos hesitated. When Pencils obeyed, the others complied.

  "What did Jeremy do to you?" Hoodwink asked.

  "These underwater robots disconnected my Satori body from where it was moored. They took me, tried to force me to undergo something called Return therapy. It was meant to brainwash me, I think, into believing all humans must die. But since my own mind thought I was human the whole time, I rejected their programming. I'm still me. Incredibly, I could still understand the language they used, and reply. I was able to convince the AI that called itself the Shell that the Return therapy had worked. I promised to come back to my human body, and to find a way to reveal your position if I was still among you. And so here I am. With no intention of betraying our cause."

  Skull had Pencils assign a soldier to watch her at all times, and that night a commando stood guard outside the small tent Hoodwink shared with her.

  "What's wrong?" Hoodwink asked after they made love. She had seemed reserved during the session. Her kisses weak compared to his passionate ones, her touch subdued, almost mechanical, like she was afraid of something.

  "Other than the fact that a soldier is listening just outside?" Sarella said.

  Hoodwink smiled sheepishly, and nodded.

  She sighed. "I don't feel completely human anymore."

  "I don't blame you," Hoodwink said. "Not after what happened to you."

  "I'm not sure I'll ever feel entirely human again," Sarella said.

  "I felt that way, too, at first," Hoodwink said. "When I first returned to humanity, walking among the buildings of steel and glass on this planet, after spending so much time as a Satori. The feeling goes away after a few days. Trust me. Soon, it will almost seem like you never were a Satori. The memory will become a dream within a dream within a dream."

  She sighed, cuddling against him. She rested her head on his chest.

  She looked up suddenly, as if she just thought of something. "Can I go with you when we reach the submersible?"

  "I don't know," Hoodwink told her. "Maybe. I'll have to ask Skull."

  "But he'll listen to you. You're the only one who knows where to place the bomb. You can convince him."

  "I could die down there," Hoodwink said. "If I make a mistake. Both of us could. Either at the hands of the Satori, or because of the nuclear weapon itself. We might not get away in time."

  "Which is exactly why it should be the two of us," Sarella said. "If these surrogates die, we'll still exist in the Satori city. It's not like that Inside you told me the human ship has, where you die for real if you die within. We can find new bodies for ourselves, come back, and try again."

  "It might not be so simple," Hoodwink said. "Especially if Jeremy has usurped control of the AI that runs the place."

  "Please, let me come," Sarella told him. "I have to do this. I won't have closure unless I do."

  "I'll consider it," Hoodwink told her.

  His mind thought ahead to the far future in that moment. He was going to succeed in his mission and free the Earth from Satori rule. Together, Hoodwink and Sarella would return to Ganymede and rejoin the humans stranded there, and help repair their ship. When that was done, Ari and Tanner and all the others would come back to Earth and help build a new society, one that existed in harmony with the Satori.

  He thought of Ari and Sarella meeting for the first time, and he knew they would both love each other.

  In that moment Hoodwink realized he had already decided. He was going to do whatever he could to ensure Sarella came.

  The rebels reached the hidden seaside base two afternoons later. The location was so remote, and so far from any known ports, that it would have been impossible for the robots to cover all that area to find them. Like the previous rebel base Hoodwink had visited, it was camouflaged to look like the surrounding land.

  Hoodwink was treated to a meal after his arrival. He and Sarella ate by themselves in the mess, guarded by two commandos. Skull had ordered them not to talk to any of the base personnel—he told Hoodwink that he'd withheld most of the details of the mission from the local rebels. He called it 'operational security.' Skull was worried, like Hoodwink, that spies lurked in their midst. Given Sarella's recent unveiling, it was probably a sensible precaution. Instead he fed the personnel the cover story that Hoodwink was a visiting scientist whose underwater surveying equipment just so happened to look like a large, black inverted cone.

  When they finished the meal, two guards escorted Hoodwink and Sarella to the beach outside. The sky was hidden behind thick brown camouflage that hung on poles dug into the sand.

  Hoodwink approached a small submersible that perched well away from the high water mark of the contaminated sea. The black Mk210 was gripped between two long arms at the front of the submersible. The bomb was further secured by several carbon fiber cables wrapped around it and the arms. A carrying harness enfolded the remainder of the craft, with ropes leading to a ring near the top. A ladder climbed the side to the upper entry hatch.

  Skull stood on top, waving toward a nearby crane as it lowered a hook. A couple of dwarfs babysat the machine, while commandos stood guard behind them. The dwarfs resembled Brent and Gab with their long beards and shabby clothes.

  When the hook was in range, Skull attached it to the uppermost ring of the harness that enveloped the craft. He gave the signal to cut power and the dwarfs deactivated the crane. Skull climbed down and walked toward the dwarfs. He turned around when he reached them to gaze at the ebbs and flows of the dead tide.

  Hoodwink joined them.

  Skull glanced at him for only a moment before returning his gaze to the greenish-tinged water.

  "Hard to believe our greatest enemy resides underneath something so innocuous looking," Skull said. "Who would have thought w
e would have been brought to the brink by an alien species, our race nearly exterminated, not for our resources but for the simple fact that we existed?" Skull shook his head bitterly. "Those oceans once teemed with life. And now look at them. Poisoned. Green with death."

  As Hoodwink stared at the tainted ocean, he couldn't help but feel a longing deep inside himself. A yearning. A part of him wanted to go back to those murky waters and swim the fathomless depths more than anything in the world. And another part of him was repelled to the core by the thought.

  "Any problems attaching the survey equipment?" Hoodwink asked Skull, keeping with the cover story the man had fed the local rebels.

  "The lifter robot loaded it between the detachable arms earlier," Skull answered. "It was a tight fit, but we wrapped it up with the carbon fiber cables just to be safe. It's going to take a lot of power to counter the weight, at first. At least until you're deep enough for some buoyancy to take effect."

  "What about the paint?" Included in the original information packet Hoodwink had sent to Skull was a special paint that would allow the craft to resist the acid in the ocean.

  One of the dwarfs looked up. "The formula we were given didn't work. We ended up developing our own, with the help of trainer AIs from the archives. It's based on a sample of metal we extracted from an old Satori undersea robot in our possession. It was captured centuries ago, during the war."

  "And you're sure the new formula works?" Hoodwink said. He was positive his old formula was correct. Then again, perhaps his memory of all things Satori was failing him.

  "We soaked the submersible overnight," the dwarf said. "The outer surface remained completely intact. Even so, we gave it another coating just to be on the safe side. You'll be fine."

  Hoodwink nodded. He hoped so.

  "We also upgraded the oxygen tanks to your specs." The dwarf nodded to the unsightly bulge on the right side of the submersible. "You have three months worth. And we applied the requested feed drip and excretion collection tubes, with automated systems to change them out. Guess you're planning on staying down there for a long time? Must be a lot of surveying to do."

  "There is," Hoodwink said, trying to make his voice sound as mysterious as possible. There needed to be enough oxygen to reach Ganymede afterward. Assuming the mission even succeeded...

  "Oh, and we installed the requested noise makers." The short scientist pointed out the speakers attached with thick arms to the left and right sides. "They're rated to withstand pressures up to the requested depths."

  "Well done," Hoodwink said.

  Skull turned toward him. "So. The submersible is ready. The question is: are you?"

  Hoodwink nodded. "All right. I guess it's time to stop equivocating. Time to get her done, it is."

  Skull abruptly shook his hand. "Thank you for doing this. For helping us."

  "Don't thank me yet," Hoodwink said. "Wait until you see the dead bodies of the Satori washing ashore."

  The dwarfs looked at him with wide eyes. "Dead bodies? I thought this was a survey mission?"

  "It is," Hoodwink snapped. "I'm speaking metaphorically, to years in the future, when someone can actually make use of the data we gather." He quickly stepped toward the submersible, mentally cursing himself for nearly blowing his cover story. Though he doubted the dwarfs could ruin the mission.

  Sarella came, too. Skull walked with them.

  When they were out of earshot of the scientists, Skull said: "Are you sure you don't want to stay when you're done down there?"

  "I have to help the colonists," Hoodwink said.

  "Perhaps it's for the best that you're going," Skull told him. "I wasn't too keen on that whole peace proposal you wanted to shove down our throats."

  "Oh, I'll force it down your throat eventually, don't you worry," Hoodwink said with a grin.

  Skull paused just at the edge of the submersible, while Hoodwink and Sarella continued forward.

  "Hey, Sarella, that's far enough," Skull told her.

  "Oh," Hoodwink said. "I forgot to tell you. She's coming, too."

  Skull shook his head. "No she isn't. I can't allow it."

  Hoodwink withdrew the blaster from the concealed in-the-waistband holster he had worn for that very contingency and he pointed it at Skull. "I'm sorry, my friend. But I promised I wouldn't leave her behind. She's a surrogate. If something happens to me, as a Satori she can continue the mission and redirect the bomb to the right place. I need her. She belongs at my side."

  Skull gazed angrily at the blaster, but he held out a halting hand to the commandos behind him, lest they decide to take matters into their own hands.

  "By her own admission she was sent by the Satori to infiltrate our ranks," Skull said. "I humored you these past few days, allowed you to keep her as a toy, but I cannot allow her to go down with you." He shook his head fiercely. "I knew I should have killed her the moment she awakened."

  "If you had, you would not be standing here before me," Hoodwink said. "You looked into her eyes that day. You saw the truth in her. She's no toy. I trust her."

  "I wouldn't betray humanity," Sarella pleaded. "I wouldn't."

  Skull reached toward his own belt and the blaster he had holstered there. He likely intended to shoot Sarella.

  "Don't," Hoodwink said.

  After a tense few moments Skull finally relented, letting his hand fall to his side. He told Hoodwink: "Fine. It's your call. If you believe she's trustworthy, take her." He turned his back on Hoodwink but then added over his shoulder: "Watch your back down there, that's all I ask."

  "I will," Hoodwink told him. "Get inside, Sarella."

  Keeping his blaster pointed at Skull, Hoodwink backed toward the submersible and then scaled the ladder after Sarella. He lowered himself inside; as he reached the upper rim of the hatch, he gave Skull one last mock salute, and then vanished inside, closing the hatch above him.

  He took a seat in the cramped compartment. Sarella sat to his left, facing forty-five degrees away. The total parenteral drip was squeezed in beside the panel to his right. There were two feeds, one for him and one for Sarella.

  There were no windows in the craft for visual navigation. Instead, the operator piloted via the electromagnetic waves the submersible emitted.

  Hoodwink grabbed the supplied aReal from the cockpit dashboard. It was an older model, tethered directly to the computer system via a small cord, guaranteeing that the Shell wouldn't be listening in. He activated the remote view screen and the EM emitters painted two circular, black and white images onto his vision. The first circle appeared in the upper right, and represented the one-hundred-and-eighty degrees in front of the submersible. The edges were spherically distorted. The second circle resided in the upper left of his vision, and depicted the one-hundred-and-eighty degrees behind the craft. Together, both images allowed him to effectively see in all directions.

  "Almost like being a Satori," he commented.

  Sarella, who was also wearing her tethered aReal, said: "I can't say it's a welcome feeling."

  The submersible left the sand as the crane lifted the vessel. He felt the vehicle tilt forward—the center of gravity was off thanks to the Mk210 dangling between the arms at the front of the submersible.

  "Thanks for standing up for me back there," Sarella said. "I can't imagine what it would have been like to stay behind, constantly looking over my shoulder, wondering when I'd get a knife in the back simply for being a Satori host."

  "You would have done the same for me," Hoodwink said.

  The crane swung the submersible out over the water and then began lowering it. When the craft touched the ocean waves, the swaying momentarily worsened.

  And then they were under. In seconds the submersible slammed into the sandy bottom.

  "You're unhooked," Skull's voice came over the aReal radio. "Good luck."

  "Thank you. We'll need it."

  The trainer AI on the overlay walked him through the operation of the craft, and soon they were underway. At
first the motors of the submersible struggled to counter the weight of the warhead, as they were forced to advance at a shallow, almost horizontal angle; but when the ocean deepened and they could descend nearly vertically, their progress improved.

  "Looks like that damn paint of theirs is holding up so far," Hoodwink said after the AI demonstrated how to monitor the hull integrity. "I guess we'll see how well the rest of the vessel fares against the crushing depths we'll need to descend to."

  The hours passed. The submersible descended far slower than the Satori flyer Hoodwink had utilized during his last journey to these depths.

  At one point Sarella rested her hand on the hull, as if yearning to feel the kiss of the unseen sea beyond.

  "The Satori part asserts itself in the oceans," Hoodwink said.

  "You feel it, too?" Sarella asked.

  "I do," Hoodwink said. "It's an immutable part of ourselves. Though we are human, we are also Satori, and nothing we can do will ever change that. Not unless we permanently inject our consciousnesses into a human mind."

  "Is that even possible?" Sarella said.

  "I think so," Hoodwink told her. "We can transfer a consciousness into another Satori entirely, so I don't see why we couldn't do it with a human. We're basically doing that with these surrogates after all."

  "But we're still connected by a thin cord to our Satori bodies," Sarella said.

  "At the moment, yes. I'll have to look into it, sometime." He sighed. "You know, at one point, that's all I wanted to do. I wanted to leave behind my Satori body entirely, and become human through and through. But now I'm not so sure that's a good idea. I'll need to retain the ability to move between both worlds, especially if I want to act as an emissary for both races, a go-between to broker the upcoming peace."

  "You always were a romantic idealist," Sarella said. "But honestly, I don't think there will ever be peace between Satori and humankind. We're too different. Our religions drive us apart."

  "There can be peace," Hoodwink exclaimed. "There will be."

  "Maybe a temporary peace while both sides regroup and gather their resources to attack again," Sarella said. "But it will never be anything more than a short ceasefire."