Binary Cycle - (Part 1: Disruption) (9 page)

She tapped a series of buttons on the buggy’s control panel and a hatch opened behind the diver’s seat. A large turret emerged from the opening, a long shaft of dangerous steel. Keeping the vehicle steady, she reached behind her and pressed a button on the side of the turret which would activate the auto-fire mode.

Nothing happened.

Cassidy cursed herself for not doing a full systems-check when she picked up the buggy from her storage garage. She had no other weapons, so her choice was simple. She gauged the distance between herself and the alien following behind and then launched into action.

In a single motion, she released the gas pedal, yanked the parking brake, and spun the wheel. The vehicle slid into a sideways drift across the gravel. Before the wheels stopped moving, Cassidy leapt over her seat into the back, grabbed the turret’s handle, and spun the gun toward the advancing Spindroth.

She pulled the trigger, praying the plasma conduit worked better than the auto-fire function.

Cassidy nearly cried out in relief as a blast of white hot energy erupted from the barrel of the turret, causing her to wince against the brightness. But the Spindroth, smart as their species were, was ready for her move and launched itself sideways, dodging the attack.

As the vehicle skidded to a halt, Cassidy knew she only had one more shot before the Spindroth was upon her. The gun’s recharge time wouldn’t allow another failed attempt. 

After a beat, a chime sounded, signifying the gun was fully charged, ready for another blast. Cassidy held her breath, ignored the throbbing pain in her shoulder, and aimed the turret at the moving target that was closing in on her. Ten meters, eight, five…

She couldn’t miss.

She was petrified.

Cassidy pulled the trigger just as the creature coiled itself, preparing for a leaping attack. A jolt of energy sliced through the air, barely making contact with the Spindroth. Her shot nicked its side—not a direct hit, but enough to send it sprawling and stumbling past her vehicle and careening over the edge of the cliff.

Without hesitation, Cassidy swung herself back into the driver’s seat, released the parking break, jammed her foot on the gas, and sped up the path as fast as the vehicle would allow. She only had to pause at the tall electrified gate, waiting for it to open and let her through, before driving onward and watching the mirror to make sure it closed behind her. This gate encircled the mountain, preventing any such attacks from occurring at the Tower itself. Even if she hadn’t killed this Spindroth, at least she knew it wouldn’t be able to chase after her.

She was starting to feel dizzy from the venom, and desperately wanted to be home. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for the original settlers on Taran to have to face the Spindroth on a daily basis. Attacks in these parts, so close to the city, were rare now, but not unheard of. Cassidy was lucky to have escaped relatively unscathed. She would have to take a look at the gun’s auto-fire…

∞

Cassidy reached the plateau at full speed, jammed her foot on the brakes, cranked the wheel, and drifted sideways to a full stop in front of the car hold. A dust cloud rose up and bellowed toward the entrance of her house at the bottom of the Tower. The dust cloud preceded her as she disembarked from the buggy and crunched across the gravel driveway. 

Several service droids rushed past her and descended upon the vehicle for its post trip maintenance examination. They would be able to fix the turret quicker than she could.

Cassidy approached the front door, lugging her carry-on pack.

She decided she wouldn’t tell Skyia about the Spindroth attack. She’d covered her shoulder with a bandage and had thrown a jacket on, so Skyia wouldn’t know anything had happened. No need to frighten her with events out of her control.

Cassidy framed in her mind all the things that she needed to speak to her daughter about. The poor darling had no idea of the dramatic life changes that were about to take place for her—had no idea her little world was about to be yanked from its roots and shaken about its axis. This was going to be the most telling few cycles of humanity’s existence on Taran thus far.

She approached the door, knocked once for posterity, and pressed a small button which activated the internal audio system.

“Hello?” Her voice sizzled through hidden wires and rang out clear against the titanium walls and polished stone floor inside.

Jonathas felt the ground stir beneath him as he crawled on hands and knees through the tight corridor. The vibrations began far below, deep within the planet itself. The rumbling turned to shaking and the shakes became violent shocks. The booming roar of the disruption was deafening in his ears. He thought about retreating back into the supply depot, escaping the narrow confines of the ventilation shaft, but he would have had to back up blindly as there was no room to turn around.

Another incredible thump and his hands gave way beneath him. His face smacked against the metal floor and he felt warm drops of blood dripping from his chin.

The shaking continued.

Jonathas lay in the uncomfortable space, unable to move until, finally, the turbulence abated. 

He pushed himself onto hands and knees and continued his slow crawl through the vent. He wiped blood from his face and nearly gagged when he saw the sticky red mess it made on his sleeve. Vomiting in these cramped quarters wouldn’t be fun. He summoned extra strength from deep within himself and crawled onward.

After a claustrophobic eternity, he came to the end of the shaft. With relief, he saw that the vent cover had already been removed.
Someone had been through here.

He emerged into a hallway, but saw that rocks had already fallen in enormous piles, blocking the way forward. He pushed himself to his feet, relishing the ability to move freely once again, and called out for Linsya.

No answer.

Jonathas scanned the pile of rocks blocking the hall, looking for any signs of people. 

Of Linsya
. 

The ceiling was low—cracked and crumbled after the last cave-in—and he picked across the rubble and large rock pieces. In the dim light, the floor was uneven and treacherous. 

He had the strange sensation that he was being watched from the pitch black corners or from the murky stew behind him.

A hot blast of air whipped past. The heat became overwhelming. Without functioning heat sinks in the lower levels, the temperature in the mining tunnels and thermal processing rooms was quickly rising to the natural intensity that existed in these volcanic regions. 

He didn’t have any water, and his throat already felt parched and sore. He’d have to move quickly.

Jonathas pawed through the debris, hoping to find a way through to the other side of the cave-in. Sweat poured off his skin as he lifted and tossed away the heavy ore. If he cleared enough space from the top of the pile, he might be able to slide through between the rock and ceiling, check if Lindsya was on the other side of the blockage. He shuddered, thinking about the possibility of her lying trapped somewhere, crushed beneath stones.

For a fleeting moment it occurred to Jonathas that by moving from his original location near the door where he’d woken up, he’d made it impossible for Linsya to find him if she went back there looking. He cursed himself for not leaving some kind of message for her in case she came back, just as she had tied her hair ribbon to his wrist to let him know she was ok.

Oh well, there was no use thinking about what he could have done differently; all he could do was to try his luck here and see where this passage would lead, fearful of what new horrors might be waiting for him on the other side.

He tossed aside a few more rocks and realized there was something buried underneath a giant boulder. His flashlight shone against a smooth, reflective surface. Anchoring his legs against the wall, he used it as a ballast and heaved against the enormous stone. With one great push, the rock gave out and tumbled away.

Panting, Jonathas brushed aside some of the smaller bits and realized the trapped object was a robotic mining droid. It didn’t appear to be damaged. After all, these things were designed to navigate rough, sketchy tunnels of rock hundreds of kilometers below the surface. There was almost no amount of beating these machines couldn’t handle—ironic considering how many of them he'd repaired down in maintenance.

Jonathas rolled the hefty drone out of its rocky prison and pushed it down the slope. It was as large as an oil-drum, and as it tumbled down, the activation switch must have been compressed because it bloomed to life. Red and blue lights blinked across its spherical surface and a faint humming sound emanated from deep within. As a long-time repair technician, Jonathas was no stranger to this type of thermal droid. He could tell at a glance that it was operational.

He rolled it over to inspect the underside and as he did so, felt a very curious sensation, like that of temporarily losing his balance. When the droid settled on its side, the sensation dissipated. Jonathas shook himself and knelt down, hoping to access the manual controls located behind a panel on the bottom side. 

He found the panel open, and the manual controls destroyed.
Damn
. 

Jonathas grabbed a screwdriver from his pocket and moved his hand toward the drone, but as he did so, the robot skidded away from him.

That’s strange
, Jonathas frowned.

He ran over and forcibly grabbed the bot with both hands. He felt a surge, not of electricity, more like a pulsing sensation that shot up his arms and made the dark lines running through his skin tingle like ice. He suddenly felt faint, and dark shapes clouded his vision. Again he thought he could see dozens of drones churning beneath him, spinning through the planet’s insides. Shadows danced on the walls, though no shadows were cast by the dim lights.

Dark figures pressed against him, suffocating him. He swung his arms, trying to fight back against the pressurized tension, but his muscles were too weak. He crumpled onto his side, eyes wide with terror, though he could no longer see what was in front of him. That wasn’t true, he could see the drone, but not with his eyes. He knew the robot was there, could
feel
it in the room with him.

The taste in his mouth was bitter, metallic. A buzzing filled his ears, though he knew the room was silent. His thoughts swirled. He had trouble remembering who he was, why he was here. 

The corporeal presence of the robotic drone lying next to him taunted him from the shadows. He scratched at the dark veins covering his arms; cursed out at unnamed demons.

A sharp pain flashed through his body, reminding him of where he was. He needed water, realized he hadn’t eaten for hours, felt weak and exposed.

Was there something wrong with the nano-DNA? Perhaps it was a new strain that hadn’t been tested, and now it was killing him. Jonathas didn’t want to die down here, torn apart by the very nano-bots that were supposed to grant him a better life. 

 Gradually, the pain subsided. His vision returned. The throbbing abated. He blinked a few times as the room came back into focus. Fighting the urge to sleep, he lay on the grimy floor and closed his eyes. He desperately wanted to drift into unconsciousness, use oblivion as a weapon to ward off the monsters which crawled through his blood, to silence the ghosts that encroached upon him. His mind sank back into a deeper darkness, one that comes after a fit of exhaustion. He saw her porcelain face, that beautiful smile reserved just for him.

Linsya.

He had to persevere… for her.

Jonathas had no idea what was happening to him, but with renewed strength, he tore himself out of his stupor and into a sitting position. The drone lay before him, dim in the darkened room, but inexplicably bright in his mind. The blinking lights on its control panel beckoned to him, the shiny metal ringing out invisible noise. He reached toward it and felt a surge of energy connecting him to the machine's remote receiver. 

Suddenly he could feel the drone, waiting for a signal. It was like a school child sitting at a desk, pencil in hand, waiting for the teacher’s instruction. 

Jonathas felt like he was trapped in some bizarre dream, but decided to go along with it. At this point, there was nothing to lose. 

He stood in the center of the room and waved his hand, picturing the drone moving forward across the floor.

Nothing happened.

He raised his hands again with the same result.

Jonathas shook his head, feeling foolish for thinking he could have  moved it. He dropped his hand and sighed. These things didn’t work if the Operator wasn’t connected to a control module to read the signals sent from the nano-DNA.

Trudging back toward the rock pile, he shot a last glance at the drone, thinking about how much easier it would be if he could use it to burrow through the debris. What would take him hours by hand, the robot could do in mere seconds.

He still felt the presence of the drones below him, coursing through rock tunnels like blood cells through veins. The tearing noise they made—grinding and screeching—seeped into his brain, the sounds of their endeavours growing louder and louder in his ears. They tore through the mantle, magma chasing them upward through tunnels. 

His head spun and he imagined the drone before him drilling through the rock pile, tearing it up, making a corridor for him to walk through. The grinding grew louder, the noise pressing sharply against his skull until he felt as if his head would split down the center. He struggled against the sensations and stumbled, falling against a wall, using its surface as a crutch so he wouldn’t collapse. Jonathas held a hand against his chest and concentrated on breathing slowly, deeply. In and out, in and out…

The pain slowly evaporated and an eerie silence returned to the room. He caught his breath and opened his eyes. Looking down, he saw that the drone was gone. Somehow it had vanished into the darkness without a trace. He didn’t understand: it had been right there with him. Maybe he was dreaming after all.