Prophet's Journey, page 29
part #1 of Prophet of the Badlands Series
“Help! Turn them off!” yelled Althea.
“I can’t,” said the ghost. “I’m already using all my strength to hide you from the sensors.”
A plasma glob flew over her shoulder and hit the corner of a box, throwing a splash of molten metal at her face. She shrieked and dropped, sliding on her butt under the spray of doom. The robots kept trying to shoot her through a large cargo container she ended up behind. Not trusting it to protect her, she sprang upright and kept running around the edges of the room, a constant series of tiny explosions chasing her.
“Do something!” yelled Althea. “Please!”
“If I stop what I’m doing, you’ll have a hundred more of those things after you. I’m keeping these two from calling for backup and the sensors all over the place from realizing you got in here.”
Althea crashed into the wall at the corner, shoved off, and darted to the right. The mindless destruction going on behind her gave her an idea. She turned toward the middle of the room, zipping between cargo boxes, racing inches ahead of the trail of flaming destruction. When only one cargo box remained in front of her, she boosted her speed and sprinted into the open—dashing between the two hulking metal brutes, which continued trying to shoot her.
Clanks and small explosions accompanied a brilliant flash and a loud boom.
Althea raced to the other side of the clearing, scurrying behind the nearest cargo box for cover. She collapsed to all fours, panting, out of breath. When she realized the shooting had stopped, she crawled to the corner of the box and peered around.
The giant robots stood facing each other, arms raised, heat blur wafting up from their weapons. Both machine men had numerous glowing tunnels in their chests. Her trick worked. Neither cared about where their shots went beyond trying to hit her—and they had blown the mierda out of each other when she ran between them.
“Nice move, kid,” said Lieutenant Raines.
She peered up at him, barely able to talk between gulps of air. “Why didn’t you turn them off?”
“This place is full of sensors. If I don’t hide you from those electronic eyes, half the CRP will swarm all over you.”
She hung her head, staring at her blurry reflection in the steel floor, surrounded by a curtain of blonde. Two glowing blue smudges peered back at her at the center of the amorphous pale blob. “I was stupid to do this, wasn’t I?”
“You must really love that woman. Is she your mother?”
“No. She kidnapped me.”
“You wanted to go into the single most dangerous place in North America, possibly on Earth in general, to save someone who abducted you?” Lieutenant Raines blinked. “Are you serious?”
“No, I’m Althea.”
He groaned.
She lifted her head, managing a weak smile. “I’m teasing. Yes, I am serious. She kidnapped me at first, but now we’re friends.”
“Has anyone ever told you there’s such a thing as being too nice?”
“How can someone be too nice?” She pushed herself up to stand.
Lieutenant Raines gestured around. “Going into a place like this at all much less at your age, to help someone you don’t even know.”
“So you think I’m stupid.”
“There are degrees of dumb.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I served with plenty of tough guys who would’ve taken one look at this place and said no way.”
“I’m not a tough guy.”
A faint creak came from the huge robots. Althea glanced over at them, bracing to run, but the machines keeled over at the same time, falling with a heavy crash.
She cringed at the noise.
Raines laughed.
30
Disassembly
A sizzling electrical crackle preceded the large robots bursting into flame.
“Now would be a good time to go,” said Lieutenant Raines.
Althea hurried past the burning wreckage, hopping around the still-glowing spots of floor where plasma bolts had landed. Stepping in one of those puddles of molten metal would likely hurt. A thick door at the back end of the room stalled her for a moment until Lieutenant Raines pointed at a small box on the wall with two buttons, one green and one red.
She pushed the green button. Loud whirring came from beneath the floor. The door slid to the side, revealing another corridor that had no wall on the right, merely an opening that looked out over a massive chamber filled with machines. Sparks flew here and there from a legion of welding arms zapping robot parts on a seemingly endless conveyor system. Some of the pieces looked like the ones moving around outside on the hanging tracks, but not quite as complete.
Her strange feeling pulled her up to a run. Time ran out, and fast. She jogged along the corridor, glancing out at the production facility every few seconds in sheer awe at the size of it. Also, the place terrified her. Nothing she’d ever seen, not even the Zero police, had that many warriors.
“There’s no one here,” whispered Althea. “Just machines.”
“This whole place is automated.” Lieutenant Raines glided along beside her, appearing to be walking but moving too fast to match the motion of his legs. “We’re already inside their defense perimeter. They must be so certain that no threats could make it inside that they don’t have many units roaming around the interior.”
She glanced over at him. “What?”
“All their defenders are outside. They don’t have anyone in here because they don’t think it’s possible for someone to sneak past the robots outside.”
“Oh.”
“Then again, I think only a kid small enough for those pipes or a ghost could get past them without a major military offensive. And neither one of us is really any threat without a backpack nuke.”
“Nukes are bad,” said Althea, marching up to a door, or rather, a plain steel slab. “Where’s the knob?”
“Everything here is wireless. They built this facility for robots, not people. That one with buttons had to be from before, or they got lazy. Why would they build new doorknobs on anything?” He stuck a finger into the wall, and the door slid to the left.
“Doors are already wireless. They have knobs and hinges. They’re not supposed to have wires. I don’t understand.” She ran through, turned right, and hurried down another hallway.
The ghost followed, whistling to himself.
She followed her gut to the second corridor on the left, running past door after door until a sense of ‘oops’ made her stop. She backed up to the nearest door, faced it, and glanced expectantly at the ghost.
Lieutenant Raines poked the wall.
The door opened with a soft pssht noise. Althea crept into a medium-sized room with shiny metal walls. Two large clusters of tall, boxy cabinets decked out in flashing lights, a spider’s nest of thin wires, and hoses occupied most of the right and left sides. An alcove at the back end contained a medical table, upon which Teal lay.
The synthetic woman struggled to break free from silver metal bands circling her wrists and ankles. Two thick wires hung down from the ceiling, connected to her head behind her ears. A rickety-looking machine-man made of simple spar limbs with exposed hydraulics and cables hovered over her. Camera-lens eyes jutting from its melon-shaped head whirred and clicked as the robot studied her.
Lieutenant Raines raised a hand. The skinny robot shuddered before teetering over to one side, evidently dead—or off.
Althea padded closer, walking up to the foot end of the table.
Teal stopped struggling, staring at her with an expression of complete shock. Two seconds later, the woman started to cry. “What are you doing here, kid? Holy shit. How did you get in here? You gotta get out of here before someone finds you.”
“I don’t want you to die,” said Althea.
“Umm, kid.” Lieutenant Raines pointed his thumb at Teal. “That’s not a person. She’s not alive.”
“She is, too. Just alive different.”
“What?” asked Teal.
“I was talking to Loo-tem-ant Raines.”
“I heard a man… but here’s no one… oh, holy crap. There’s like a huge cold spot next to you. Is… that a ghost?”
“Yes.” Althea grabbed the metal band around Teal’s ankle and pulled, having about as much success as any ordinary scrawny child attempting to break inch-thick steel would have.
“Hey, kid. Pull these damn wires out of my head. It’s trying to hack my core and rewrite my AI. I’ve only got like a minute or two left before it breaks the encryption.”
Althea grabbed the wire in both hands and pulled. A tiny metal plug popped out of a socket behind the woman’s ear, which promptly vanished under rapidly-growing skin. She ran around the table and yanked the other wire.
Teal let her head fall back and gave a heavy sigh. “Holy shit that was too damn close. I’m so frickin’ lucky they wanted my AI so bad or they would’ve cut me apart by now.”
“Initiate reverse engineering procedure,” said a digitized voice.
Teal lifted her head. “Aww shit.”
A round panel in the ceiling above the table opened, allowing a three-foot-diameter metal dome to extend downward. It promptly sprouted an array of robotic arms tipped with various tools from lasers, to pincers, to saws.
Althea jumped back and yelped, clamping her hands over her chest where a tiny spinning saw once bit her. She shivered, remembering her horrible experience with a machine quite like that before.
“Uh oh.” Teal stared at it. “Kid, you might want to get out of here before things get ugly. That robo-surgeon doesn’t look friendly.”
“Un-freakin’-believable,” muttered Lieutenant Raines. “You came here to get your doll back? She’s not even a real person.”
“She is real. Please help.” Althea pointed up at the cluster of skinny metal arms. “Do you know how to shut off the bad machine?”
He stared at it. A few seconds later, the robo-surgeon stopped moving.
“Wow.” Teal swallowed hard. “You’re really here? I’m not like glitching out and having a dream or something after death? This isn’t some weird virtual reality head game they’re using to mess with me? Wait, no… you pulled out the wires and you’re still here. Or maybe I’m in the simulation and only think you pulled the wires out.”
“You aren’t dead.” Althea smiled and took her hand. “Someone tried to cut me open with one of those bad robots once, too. I didn’t like it either. I screamed a lot more than you. You’re pretty brave.”
“Kid, I don’t think there’s anyone alive on this planet who would willingly walk into this place alone and unarmed.” Lieutenant Raines whistled. “You got some serious nerve.”
Althea tugged at the wrist restraint holding Teal down, grumbling. “You helped me. I didn’t do it all alone. How do I open this?”
“There’s a terminal over there, but I don’t think it’s got any interface a person can use,” said Teal. “I’ve been trying to tap it with wireless, but for such old crap, it’s got damn good encryption. I’d give my left ovary for a Nano knife.”
“You don’t have ovaries, dear,” said Lieutenant Raines.
“Bite me,” muttered Teal.
Althea blinked in confusion, but obliged.
“Ow!” shouted Teal. “What the hell was that for? Wait, never mind…”
Lieutenant Raines laughed. “That kid tries so damn hard.”
“Yeah, she does.” Teal sighed.
“You can see ghosts too?” Althea beamed. “Really?”
“No, but I can hear him sometimes. Guess that’s one perk of having electronics in my head instead of bio goop. Told you, my ears are really sensitive.”
Althea squeezed her hand. “You’re alive. Just different alive than me.”
“I think I might be able to… simple matter of draining the electromagnetic…” Lieutenant Raines’ body faded transparent, shimmering in and out of view as tiny lighting sparks leapt from the surgical table into him. He grinned, wide eyed, making the same face some of the raiders did when eating the pills that kept them awake for three days. “Oh, yeah… power. Whoo! Better than a triple espresso.”
The restraint bands popped open.
“Yes!” Teal jumped off the table, scooped Althea into a hug, and swung her around a few times before putting her back on her feet. “Holy shit, kid. I don’t know what to say.”
“How did they get you?”
“After that flyer chased you off, I tried to go after it, but got cornered by a whole squad of walkers. They ran you off on purpose to lead me into a trap. Guess they wanted to take me alive to see what makes me tick.”
“You don’t tick. You’re not a clock.”
“Hah.”
A sudden look of alarm flickered across Teal’s face. She shuddered, grabbed her head in both hands, and took a step back.
“Kid… get out of here.”
“What? No…”
Teal grunted, backing up another step, her body convulsing. “Something… happening. Losing my… thoughts. Virus… making me want… kill you.”
Althea reached for her. “I can fix a sick.”
“Go! Quick,” shouted Teal. “Not that kind of sick. Gonna… kill. Please… run.”
Althea hesitated. She’s not a human. I can’t fix her sick. She took one step back. “Please don’t.”
Teal collapsed to one knee, screaming. “Run!”
31
Override
Lieutenant Raines grabbed for Althea’s shoulder, but his hand passed through her with a sharp chill. He grumbled and tried again, this time his hand squeezed her like any other live person’s, only frigid. She gasped at the cold, squirming in an effort to hold her ground, lip quivering, heartbroken that her friend might lose her mind and go crazy because of a sick. All she’d done to find her, and she still couldn’t help…
Sniffling, Althea let the ghost pull her backward toward the door as Teal continued convulsing, screaming, and growling. An instant before she gave up and sprinted for her life, she caught sight of a dark black vapor seeping across the floor around the woman’s boots. The instant she saw it, she knew.
The Many.
Althea’s fear and sorrow exploded into indignant anger. Her wings burst out of her back. She leaned forward, glowering. “No! Leave her alone!”
She rushed over and grabbed Teal’s shoulders, shrouding the woman within her wings. Time seemed to freeze. The room, Teal, Lieutenant Raines, all fell away into a void, leaving Althea floating in darkness.
The old gunslinger strolled into view from behind her, shaking his head. “Insufferable.”
“Please leave her alone.”
“Why do little girls become so attached to their dolls?” asked The Many, his dry voice crackling in the air with the crunch of a corpse dragged across dusty gravel.
“She’s not a doll.”
“Aww, Althea. I thought you never lied? I know you don’t understand the first thing about how a machine like her works.” He paced a circle around her, turning a coin between his fingers.
“You’re right. I don’t know how she works. But I know she has parents who love her. She has guilt and fear and sadness and anger and even greed. It’s not the same as most people, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
He sneered at the mention of loving parents. “Deluded fools. I admit you surprised me by coming here for an expensive toy. Never did I imagine you would choose a fancy amusement over your supposed family.”
Anger surged out Althea’s eyes on a flare of blue light. “Father and Karina are my family. Whatever ‘supposed’ is, they’re not that.”
Her upwelling of love for them pushed him away like a physical force, nearly causing him to fumble the coin. “Nauseating.”
“Ash isn’t a toy. She’s a person made out of different stuff. It felt wrong to let the bad machines hurt her.”
“Even after she took you away from that ‘family.’”
“We made up. She’s helping me.”
He sneered again.
“Please leave her alone. And thank you for saving me.”
The Many made an odd gurgling noise. “What? I brought you here to die. That you were stupid enough to run straight into the heart of this place astounds me.”
“I know you made the flying machine crash.”
He snarled and made an explosion gesture. “You weren’t supposed to jump.”
“You stopped them from taking me to the big city full of awful people. I want to stay in the Badlands. You helped me. Thank you.”
“Stop saying that.” He backed up a step.
“You did. They were going to take me to the big city and a corp’ration would ‘test’ me. Probably would have hurt me and I’d never see Father or Karina again. You hate it when people leave your land. I don’t like the ‘modern’ place either. We both belong here, and you helped me stay home. Thank you.”
He scowled, emitted a disgusted grunt, and vanished into a cloud of inky blackness. The baleful howl of a large bonedog echoed as if from a mile away.
The void in which she floated disappeared. She again found herself standing with her wings around Teal, who had stopped convulsing. Such intense light shone from the energy threads that the room almost washed out to a field of pure white. The synthetic woman lifted her head, making eye contact
“What happened? How the hell did you reset my system with psionics?”
Althea let her wings recede. “You didn’t have a sick. The Many tried to make you hurt me.”
“The what?”
“I don’t want to tell you ’cause you’ll put tape on my mouth.”
Teal squeezed her. “No, kid. I promise I’ll never do that again.”
“The Many. All the angry ghosts from people who died when the ancients made war have gathered their power into one being. Aurora called him a sentience. Kate thinks he’s a demon. He is made out of suffering and pain.”
Teal whistled. “Whoa. I need a whole bunch of Flowerbasket to process that.”
