Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (86 page)

              The enemy were upon him in seconds.  Gloved hands grabbed Sigurdson, forcing him to the floor.  He screamed.  He knew what would happen to him next.  He looked up at Steven as the enslaved fell upon him.  ‘Please...’ he said, and Steven knew what to do.  ‘Please!’ cried Sigurdson again as he was hauled backwards, his hands scrabbling for purchase on the floor.  Steven  raised his weapon and shot Sigurdson through the eye, pulping the man’s brain.  It was a mercy.  He fired again and again, scrambling backwards up the stairs as more armoured figures tried to pile into the doorway.  Reaching the top, Isaacs and Anna were able to add their own fire to his, knocking the black-clad figures back down the stairs.  Some, the less seriously injured, started to get up again.  Others lay still, temporarily blocking the stairs until their comrades could clamber over them.

              To their relief, there was a second door at the top of the stairs.  This one was solid steel and was equipped with old fashioned deadbolts.  Slamming the door shut, they slid the bolt and looked around.  They were in some kind of office. The windows looked out onto the flat roof of the building and the network of alleys beyond.

              ‘That won’t hold them for long,’ said Isaacs, nodding in the direction of the locked door behind them as heavy boots hammered upwards on the stairs outside.  ‘Got a plan?’

              ‘Yeah, we get out onto this roof, and then we run like hell,’ said Steven.

              ‘They’re onto us, Steven.  Anita... Anita said that they’d been watching us the whole time that we’ve been here,’ said Isaacs.

              ‘The girl?’ said Steven, as he forced the window open.

              Isaacs nodded, mutely.

              ‘Okay.  Sigurdson thought that he knew where Haines is being held, but we need to get out of the city first and save our own skins before we can think about that.’

              There was a loud hammering sound from the door, the sound of something heavy battering against it.

              ‘Come on,’ said Steven, stepping out onto the roof.  ‘Follow me.’

Chapter 47

Mocking laughter pierced the utter darkness, and then a chilling voice began to speak in glutinous tones.  Katherine couldn’t understand it, but Rekkid could.  It was speaking in the language of the Progenitors.

              ‘It’s thanking us,’ he said.  ‘It says that it has been trapped here for millions of years inside this monitoring system but now that we have turned the power back on all over the base, it can infect those other systems and escape.’

              Lights mounted on the drone’s head came alive, piercing the blackness.  It turned towards them, weapon arms deployed.

              ‘It’s also thanking us for the gift of the drone,’ said Rekkid.  ‘It says...’

              ‘...your primitive toys are most amusing,’ said the voice.  ‘Simple things, but useful in my predicament.  You two are of the Progenitors, and yet you are not Progenitors.  Interesting.  I shall enjoy using this primitive toy in dissecting you.  This other beast is of lesser interest, but I will enjoy studying him all the same.’  There was sound of the doors slamming shut behind them in the darkness.

              ‘There is no escape for you,’ said the voice, as the hijacked drone began to advance towards them.  ‘It would be easier for you if you did not resist.’

              The drone stopped in its tracks, twitching spasmodically before it froze.

              ‘This is Eonara,’ said a voice on the comm. that belonged to the Progenitor AI but which was horribly distorted by interference.  ‘Aaokon and I are working to get you out of there.  Please stand by.’

              ‘Interesting...’ said the glutinous voice of the Shaper.  ‘Two of my old adversaries, here at last?  Very interesting...  I see that this drone provides a conduit to your ship.  Perhaps it will be more malleable to my will?’

              The drone moved again. Its motions were jerky and spasmodic, and the lights on its head began to strobe wildly.

              ‘This is the ship, stand clear of the drone!’ said the voice of the
Shining Glory
in their ears.  The archaeologists began to back away, and as they did so there was a strange keening sound from the drone.  Its movements became random and violent as if it were undergoing some sort of fit, then it convulsed one final time and keeled over, arcing energies playing across its surface as it died, plunging them back into darkness.

              Then the holo-display that had been showing the star map suddenly flicked back on above the room’s central plinth. Its display distorted and blurred and showed only a random snow of characters that moved like oil on water.  Faces came and went in the display, transient images that formed and dissolved.

              The display went blank for a moment and then switched itself off again.

              They could hear noises elsewhere in the complex as if the very Life Forge itself were alive, or the complex were inhabited by unruly poltergeists.  The lights came on, briefly, then died and began to flicker randomly.  The door behind them opened and the lights came back on and stayed on.

              ‘Get out of there, now!’ said Eonara.  ‘We are holding it back!’

              The three archaeologists turned and sprinted out of the chamber.

              In a shared virtual space, Eonara, Aaokon and the
Shining Glory
surveyed the networks of the Life Forge.  Near its centre, where the monitoring array sat, a pulsing red mass warned of the presence of the Shaper AI, its tendrils of thought pushing outwards along conduits to other systems in a virulent mesh of corruption.  Those other systems were being held by the two Progenitor AIs as each side battered one another with increasingly complex firewall algorithms and ever-evolving strains of destructive virus programs in a lightning fast contest.  Thousands of changes were being made every millisecond, as each tested the defences of the other.  So far, the Progenitor AIs were winning, their combined computing power more than a match for the sole Shaper AI.  It was contained, for now, but they were unable to destroy it.

              ‘I still fail to understand how that thing could have snuck through your defences,’ said the
Glory
.  ‘Were your systems not hardened against such an eventuality?’

              ‘With billions of years to find a chink in our armour, I doubt any system would have held out,’ said Aaokon. ‘In any case, the system it penetrated was only capable of receiving data from outside the Sphere, not transmitting it, thus it found itself trapped within the monitoring array and unable to go further, since the rest of the systems on this planet had long been deactivated.  We, of course, have reactivated them.’

              ‘So, logically, the correct response would be to turn them off again,’ said the
Glory
.

              ‘Perhaps, but that would still leave a Shaper AI in control of a system that contains vital information on the location of species descended, however indirectly, from the Progenitors.  However out of date that information might be, it could still be of use to the Shapers were they able to somehow communicate with their comrade,’ said Aaokon.

              ‘Presumably, the system went into lock down after its defences were breached?’

              ‘Yes.  Hence the data it contains being tens of millions of years out of date.’

              ‘Our first priority should be to extract the archaeological teams from the complex.  We do not know what harm they might come to at the hands of the Shaper,’ said the
Glory
.

              ‘Indeed.  Looking at the activity of this entity it appears to be trying to reach the hall of mechanoids that Cor, O’Reilly and Steelscale entered only moments ago.  It would give it the necessary physical presence to slaughter anyone within the complex and then begin making physical changes to the Life Forge’s network to somehow escape its prison,’ said Aaokon.

              ‘I will recommend to War Marshal Mentith that I should stand by and prepare to destroy the facility from orbit should there be any chance of that occurring,’ said the
Glory
.  ‘I suggest that you also prepare to assist me in that task, Aaokon.’

              ‘Agreed,’ Aaokon.  ‘Whether or not we are able to get the teams out of the facility, we cannot allow that entity to escape.’

              ‘Wait,’ said Eonara.  ‘Perhaps we are looking at this in the wrong way.  Perhaps we need to extract the Shaper AI from the system that it has infested and allow it to escape, only to bottle and trap it elsewhere.  We have been looking for a solution to destroy the Shapers, a vector that will carry the virus that we have already begun to design, have we not, Aaokon?  I think we have our candidate.’

              ‘What do you suggest?’ said Aaokon

              ‘The hall of mechanoids: the prototype Shaper that sits on the throne. Its mind is an empty vessel.’

              ‘But if activated, it could escape or kill the others!’ Aaokon protested

              ‘We only need a part of it, a fragment in which to trap the AI but which is incapable of independent movement.  The head, for example.’

              ‘We should speak to the K’Soth. I suspect he is the only one capable of removing it.’

              ‘Agreed,’ said Eonara, and activated the comm.  The entire conversation had taken less than a microsecond.

              Katherine, Rekkid and Steelscale ran back the way that they had come amidst the chaos caused by the Shaper AI.  Lights flickered crazily, automatic doors were jammed open or shut, or slammed themselves closed repeatedly like a mad man beating his head against the wall.  The environmental systems too appeared out of control, the temperature alternating wildly between hot and cold, the air recycling systems blowing howling gales or sucking the air out at an alarming rate.  The entire facility groaned and creaked from the mayhem like a ship in a storm.

              ‘This is the
Shining Glory
, are you receiving my transmission?’ said the voice of the ship on the comm.  Faint and scratchy though it was, they could make out the words well enough.

              ‘We can hear you, ship,’ said Katherine.  ‘Can you get us out of here?’

              ‘The other AIs and I need you to do something for us.  Specifically, we need Steelscale.  You must return to the hall of mechanoids that you passed on your way in.’

              ‘Why?’

              ‘We need you to remove the head from the Shaper prototype within.  It is still coupled to the Life Forge’s network.  We’re going to attempt to capture the Shaper AI within it.  Lord Steelscale is the only one with enough strength to tear it from its body.’

              ‘What about getting cutting gear from the Arkari teams?’

              ‘There’s no time.  The main entrance is locked and beyond our control.  Please, we need you to do this quickly.’

              ‘Okay,’ said Katherine.  ‘Steelscale, do you think you can manage this?’

              Steelscale nodded.

              ‘Perhaps,’ he said.  ‘I will try.’

              They hurried through the maze of corridors, back to the room filled with silent ranks of mechanoids, whose brooding presence now seemed all the more sinister with the suspicion that they might spring to life at any moment and turn on them.  They stepped up to the seated figure and examined it.  The neck of the ancient Shaper was surprisingly slender, the flaring, tapered skull perfectly balanced atop the complex joint.  Steelscale took hold of the skull and then, pinning the figure to the chair with the weight of his reptilian body, began to pull and twist.

              The lights were flickering wildly now, strobing in an eye-aching manner that made it difficult to see.  At first, nothing happened to the ancient Shaper.  Steelscale’s massive muscles bulged under his scaly skin as he strained, the tendons along his neck standing out like hawsers.  He gritted his teeth, and then with one final effort and a deafening roar, ripped the skull from the neck of the ancient Shaper and held it aloft like a trophy.

              Rekkid was already looking at the rest of the room in alarm.  He’d seen movement there out of the corner of his eye, had heard the sound of ancient motors coming to life.

              ‘Ship, Steelscale has managed to do as you ask,’ said Katherine into her comm. ‘Whatever you were about to do: now would be a good time,’ she said as one by one, every single ancient mechanoid in the room began to turn slowly to face them.

              ‘The Shaper has gained access to the hall of mechanoids!’ said Aaokon.  ‘Eonara, I hope you know what you are doing.  It is beginning to assert control over the machines inside there.’

              ‘Do what you can.  Slow its progress a moment longer!’ said Eonara and she dove into the ancient systems within the skull, reconfiguring some, disabling others.  The Shaper must be able to enter but never leave, never communicate unless prompted.  The skull must be the perfect prison, the Shaper AI the genie trapped inside the lamp.  She tested the communication links and disabled all others save for one, frying the systems so that they could never be re-activated and then switched the only remaining conduit to a one way path into the skull.  She withdrew.

              ‘Aaokon, relinquish your defences in the direction of the skull.  Pull back! Look as though it is wearing you down but shore up all other routes!’

              Aaokon did as he was asked, giving up systems whilst strengthening his defences around the link to the other mechanoids.  He hung on for a microsecond to make it look as though he was putting up a brave defence and then withdrew.  The Shaper took the bait.  It poured itself into the waiting vessel.

              The skull came alive in Steelscale’s clawed hands.  The black crystal suddenly began to glow as if light were flooding into it, changing it from the appearance of smoky glass to a living ice sculpture.  It writhed in his hands like a newborn grub, struggling against his grip.