I found the icon and looked around, seeing if everyone was close enough to travel with the press of the image. The stone pulsed and glowed, but before I pushed on the symbol, Karo’s voice carried over to me. “Dean, do not press that.”
His words caught me off-guard, and I stopped short. “Why not?”
Karo turned, his white hair faintly glowing in the dim corner of the room. “Something’s wrong with the stone,” he said, stalking across the room. He was tall, and between his voice and his imposing statuesque figure coming at me, I stumbled away from the table.
Suma stood there, not flinching away from the last remaining Theos. “What’s wrong with it? How do you know?” she asked.
“It’s not that I know what’s wrong, but I can feel it. The Theos themselves power these stones. They needed to sacrifice their physical forms in order to retain the universe’s Balance when their fight with the Iskios transpired so long ago. Their essence is inside the stone. You saw what happened when you tried to travel through a portal stone while Leonard had an Iskios possessing him. The two energies collided and negated one another.” Karo was staring at the table and at the stone below.
“Do you think someone here is carrying an Iskios?” Slate asked, causing me to glance around at my companions.
“No, nothing like that. I can sense the Theos inside. There are a few of them,” he said as he knelt on the dusty stone floor. I moved around the table and crouched beside him.
“Are they aware?” Suma asked.
Karo shook his head. “I don’t think so. We might be able to pull some patterns from them if we had the tools, but they’re only an energy source at this time. There’s a chance that they’re drying up, dying off inside the stones.”
I cringed at this theory. “That would mean the stones could eventually fail.”
“That’s correct.” Karo placed a palm on the stone, which was growing brighter, hotter; I could feel the heat emanate off the surface, but Karo didn’t even seem to notice. “They could fail, but for now, they might act like they’ve crossed wires, sending users to the wrong place.”
“If the wires are crossed between the symbol selection and the actual destination stone, then the Gatekeepers will be sent to random places,” Suma said softly.
“That’s also correct,” Karo agreed. “Or it could be isolated to the stone at Haven, or perhaps even the stone leading to Oliter. We must cogitate on this before attempting a return.”
“We don’t have time for this. Maybe you should all leave the room, and I’ll go through alone, testing it to see if I can get to Oliter. Magnus needs my help,” I said, unable to keep the tension from my voice.
Slate set a hand on my chest. “Magnus needs our help, not just yours. Did you bring this team so you could abandon us at the first opportunity?”
Slate was still upset about me leaving them behind after the attack at Bazarn Five, when I went looking for Mary. I didn’t think I’d ever live that one down; plus, he was right. Magnus and Nat needed all of us around to help get them back. I wasn’t equipped to do it alone. “I’m sorry I even suggested it. Let’s take a look at what this world has to offer while we’re here and see if we can figure out where we landed. It’s a good thing Suma’s spent the last five months studying six hours a day, right?”
Suma smiled and took the lead, heading for the doorway. I knew she wanted nothing more than to go recover our missing friends, but I could also tell she was excited to explore a different world. This was her first real mission as a Gatekeeper, even though she’d already been on countless assignments with us.
“Ready or not, here we come,” Slate said, stepping in front of Suma. His pulse rifle was raised, and he opened the wooden door slab, ready for anything.
It creaked as he pushed it, and we saw more of the same. Stone floor, dirt walls, but a crack of light cast at the end of a slowly escalating corridor floor, promising an outside. Slate led us through, our suits’ lights showcasing nothing of interest, and three minutes later, we stood at another wooden door. It had a metal ring handle, but no visible locks.
“Let’s see what we’re working with,” I said, pushing the door open.
Six
Slate grabbed, pulling me from the ledge. I was leaning over a sharp descent that was hundreds of feet above the surface below. The walls shimmered, and gone was the rocky disposition, replaced with translucent glass barriers. I lost my breath, and I struggled to find it as I stared at the entrance where the tall wooden door had existed moments earlier.
“What happened?” Rulo asked from behind me. Slate pulled me away, waiting until I had a secure foothold on the floor before releasing me again.
“I don’t know, but this was all a show.” I walked the perimeter of the room, trying to understand what I was looking at. The walls were clear, the symbols lit up in a soft blue glow, but they were moving around the surface of the glass in fluid motions. The portal table appeared as it had before.
I glanced toward the surface far beneath, and a wave of vertigo swept over me. The floors were clear glass too, and I noticed blinking lights far underneath the tower we were stranded in.
“Look up,” Suma said, and I did, witnessing a dark, cloud-covered sky above. I couldn’t see a moon or any stars through the blanket over the heavens. Beyond the glass, we pointed out what was an elaborate and complex hive of buildings connected by enclosed pedways.
“W, what are you picking up now? Are we in the same place?” I asked, worried we’d been sent somewhere else by an erratic portal stone. If the stones began transporting us on their own, we were in even bigger trouble, unless we found a way out of this room. The exit was a thousand-foot dive through the air.
“We are on the same world upon which we arrived. Readouts show the same results.” W didn’t have to use a tablet or arm console like we would; his sensors were internal.
“Any ideas?” I asked. Karo was wandering the far side of the room, looking through the glass toward the ground.
“I think the portal room is floating,” Suma said.
“Floating? There has to be a stand somewhere, doesn’t there?” Slate asked, ducking by the other end, looking into the bottom corner.
“Not necessarily,” W offered. “Judging by the slight variance in altitude every few seconds, the room could either be using thrusters to hold itself in the air or a powerful magnetic force. Since I am not affected by the energy a magnet of that strength would require, I think thrusters are the answer.”
“Karo, do you think this room could be the cause of the disturbance on the portal stone?” I asked the Theos. His gaze met mine with a vacant stare. He was really out of it, and I needed to find a way to get him back to normal.
He shook his head. “While this is an odd location for us to end up, I don’t think the correlation is so simple. From what I can assume, my people are dying inside the portal stones, and our arrival here is happenstance of that fact.”
“Okay,” I started, “what do we know?” I flipped a finger in the air. “One. The portals brought us here instead of to Oliter, the Keppe world.” Rulo grunted, her minigun in her hand, but it dangled toward the floor. “Two. We’re in a clear glass portal room, hovering nearly a mile from the surface.”
Suma took over. “Three. We didn’t bring much in the way of supplies.”
She was right. We’d been expecting to arrive right on our ally’s planet, under Lord Crul’s palace. This wasn’t good.
I liked talking it out. This group was resourceful, and I had confidence we’d figure this out like we always did. We just needed to put our heads together. “What are the options?”
Slate went first. “We pick another symbol and see where the portal takes us.”
“That’s not a terrible idea. At least that might give us a chance to arrive somewhere a little more hospitable,” Rulo suggested.
“I don’t think there are other options, at least not any that make sense. We can’t wait. We don’t have much food and water.” Each
of us had a small pack, but the combined sustenance would only be enough for a day, two days max.
Karo was back in the middle of the room. “I don’t like to use it again so soon. It’s like I can feel them inside the stone, fading away.”
“Then it’s better if we go sooner rather than later,” Slate said, urgency thick in his voice.
I agreed, though I hated going into the portal again with so many unknowns. “This is so frustrating.” I stared out the glass toward the intricate pattern of structures beyond. I didn’t see anything moving, but still… there were a lot of blinking lights, and that told me someone had to be in the city around us.
“There’s always a third option,” Suma said.
“What’s that?” I walked over to her side, my gaze catching what she was seeing.
She pointed to a distant dot that was getting larger with each breath. “We wait for the welcoming party to arrive.”
Slate and Rulo had their weapons raised in a flash, and they came to stand between the rest of us and the doorway, which was wide open. There was nowhere to hide, and I was considering using the portal to make a quick exit, but Karo’s worries over its functionality made me hesitate.
“What is it?” Slate asked.
We stood in a line between the entrance and the table hovering over the crystal. The glow was absent from both the portal stone and the walls, and all the symbols were gone, leaving the room feeling empty.
A cube approached us, glowing thrusters urging it up and forward to meet with our room, which shook slightly at the gentle impact. A sound indicated the cube had locked in place with the portal room, and my back tensed as we waited for a door to open from the newly arrived hosts.
We didn’t have to wait long. One second, a barrier was there; the next, it had vanished, revealing a dark box beyond.
“What do we do, boss?” Slate didn’t turn around to ask. Instead, he took a single step forward before stopping.
“There’s something inside,” I whispered after hearing a noise emanate from beyond our doorway. “W, any life signs?”
“Not on my sensors, no, Captain,” W said, far too loudly. The robot needed some programming in tact.
Rulo’s imposing minigun was raised as she walked stealthily toward the cube. She turned her suit’s lights on, casting beams into the dark space. Seconds later, she turned around, facing us, and shrugged her broad shoulders. “Looks empty,” she said, and I saw it then.
“Rulo, behind you!” I shouted, but it was too late. The mechanical being moved with a speed I’d never seen before. Her gun was on the ground, and a lance of energy tethered to the weapon’s grip, casting it to the side.
Rulo stumbled, unsure what to make of the intruder. It clearly wasn’t organic, nor did it look humanoid. It walked on four legs, a thin torso rising from the center of them, and dozens of protrusions shot out from all angles of the body. Lights blinked and pulsed as the functional arms moved around slowly, cautiously.
“What is it?” Slate asked, likely not expecting an answer.
“It is a robot, is that not obvious?” W said, stepping around us and toward the newcomer.
“Be careful, W. We don’t know how dangerous it is,” Suma said, but W didn’t seem to care.
“If we want to leave this world, we will need the locals’ help.” W stood five feet away from the other robot, and they couldn’t have been more different. Humans and other humanoid creatures built robots in their own likenesses, mostly so they’d feel comfortable around them. I always thought it was a little bit of a god complex mixed in there as well, and if there was one thing sentient beings were full of, it was ego.
“This is the local?” I asked.
“Since we’re getting no life signs within this region of the world, I have to assume the ones who constructed the city are like the one before us,” W said.
Suma moved over beside W, and I watched the alien robot closely, trying to stay alert for any signs of danger. “Could this place be like Sterona, where the inhabitants vanished, leaving things like drones behind?” she asked.
W stood silently for a moment, pondering the Shimmali’s question. “It is doubtful, Suma. The patterns of the city around us are too mathematical, too precise. I understand the structure of them on a basic level built into my positronic brain. This robot is made for optimized function, hence the multi-tooled design. I suspect it is able to do the work of dozens of drones on New Spero. There seem to be no limits…”
W’s speech was clipped as it ended. His eyes glowed bright red, and his arms shot straight out, rigid and tense.
Suma jumped, and I caught her. Slate was still holding a pulse rifle up, and I motioned for him to lower it.
“W, what’s happening to you?” I asked, worried about our companion. I glanced back and saw Karo standing at the stone, his hand resting on the smooth surface, a distant look in his eyes. I’d have to deal with that later.
“It is speaking to me.” W’s voice was strained, more robotic than normal. Gone were his programming’s pretenses of trying to sound human in tone.
“What does it want?” Suma asked, ever curious.
“Can you understand it?” I inquired, since the robot hadn’t made a single sound since entering our space.
“Yes. It’s pushing the communication directly into my core.” W’s eyes were bright and red, causing concern. I hoped that whatever the other robot was doing wasn’t risking harm to our team member.
“What’s it saying?” I asked, reiterating Suma’s question.
“The information is streaming into me in a version of binary code. It’s taking my processors… there it is. We are the first beings they have seen here in centuries, if I perceive the timeline properly. The last carbon-based being that entered through the room had feigned being an ally, but eventually turned on them.” W’s eyes were returning to normal, the red lessening with each sentence.
The robot hadn’t moved in several minutes, and my gaze lingered on it, catching a blinking light on its midsection. I had a bad feeling.
One of its many arms shot out, a beam pushing toward Slate, the only one still holding a gun in his hands. Slate fell to the ground, and I started to rush toward him when W stopped me.
“Captain, refrain from moving. I’m speaking with it, assuring it we mean no harm.” W’s hands were raised, showing he wasn’t a threat. Slate was breathing, and I took solace in that fact.
W and the robot were only a foot apart now, and I wished I could hear the silent communication passing between them. Suma was tense beside me and she grabbed my arm, holding it tightly. She was looking at Slate, who was slumped along the wall, gun displaced to the clear floor next to him.
“It is willing to discuss our freedom,” W finally said, after at least two silent minutes.
Rulo shifted on her feet and grunted. It was almost as if I could read her mind. She thought we should blast our way out of here, heading for the portal again. There were too many variables with the afflicted stone. Karo was right to be concerned. We had no idea where we might end up if we traveled through it right now.
“What does it need?” I asked, knowing there was always a trade involved. That much was universal, whether we were flesh and blood or wires and metal.
“This city was once a wonderment of robotics. From what I understand, someone was here long ago, leaving behind an advanced AI prototype. Perhaps they tried to hide it somewhere isolated, to protect their own interests. They don’t know. From there, that single robot expanded, using pieces of a crashed ship to make small drones. It expanded continuously, growing, utilizing the planet’s metals, geothermal energy, and various other sources.” W paused, as if getting further transmissions. Suma and I leaned in, both caught up in the tale.
“You’re telling us that everything we see around us was created from that first robot?” I asked quietly.
W nodded. “That is what this one tells me. They call it Origin. Origin is powerful beyond our understanding. It created a
matrix of such complexity that even this one can only briefly communicate what Origin’s capabilities are.”
My gut tensed at the implications. “You didn’t answer my question. What does it need from us?”
W turned to look at everyone, finally breaking his lock with the four-legged host. “The city goes on for most of the planet, but there is a section of the world where they cannot survive because of the magnetic poles. The beings that came hundreds of years ago seized Origin from here and took it to the northern pole, rendering much of their world useless.
“The cities used to be alive with drones, robots like this one, and countless other forms, all interconnected like a hivemind. Now the ones with enough energy stored roam aimlessly. Only a few still have purpose, like J-NAK.”
“Who’s J-NAK?” I asked as I glanced over to Slate, who was coming to.
“This is J-NAK. That is the character equivalent of his binary ID. He seems to like the name,” W said, though I hadn’t seen J-NAK react in the slightest.
“Can he speak?” I asked, and W turned to the robot, silently asking the question.
“He can if he has the proper translation tools. I can pass those to him if you like, Captain,” W said, and I nodded.
“It’ll make this easier.” I watched as W pulled a datastick from a cubby inside his chest cavity and passed it to one of J-NAK’s thin, outstretched black metal arms. Another arm took the portable datastick and scanned it, covering it with a yellow glow before two more skinny arms began working.
Suma stepped closer as it cut into its own metal torso before five or six arms worked, soldering and adjusting pieces from around its own body.
“It’s making a receptor for the datastick. It doesn’t have a slot that size, so it’s constructing one. Fascinating,” Suma said, and I had to agree. It was amazing and scary at the same time.
The whole process took only minutes, arms flashing so quickly, we could hardly follow. Soon it was pressing the stick inside the newly formed port, and seconds later, a sound carried from a speaker in its chest.
New Alliance Page 5
