Sentinels of the Cosmos Trilogy (14 page)

“Welcome home,” Kathryn spoke kindly.
Ivan introduced himself, saying, “I am Ivan
Kolinski.”

Chase and Ally looked at the two of them and sensed
their insincerity. There were two Guards on either
side of them. Chase and Ally intuitively knew they
meant to take them by force if they did not cooperate.
“We need to understand what’s been happening to
you Chase, you seem to have become quite unique,”
Kathryn’s warm voice put them at ease for the
moment. “She continued, “I know you are self-aware.
Guards were all originally designed for long term
space travel, travel to distant planets and galaxies
which could take decades or even centuries. As they
are, human beings could not make such a journey.
You were bio-engineered to fill that need. You see,
we will eventually need to leave this planet after we
destroy it. But as time went on we found that there
are other uses for beings with your features and
abilities.”
“Why are we used primarily as assassins?” Chase
asks.
“As I said, you have other uses, that is only one of
them,” said Kathryn.
“What other uses?” he asks.
“Amazing ones,” Kathryn says with a laugh.
She takes them into a room with a large grand piano
and said, “Chase, why don’t you sit down and play
something for us?”
Chase sat down placed his hands on the piano, and
started to play Liszt’s La Capanella, a very difficult
piano piece. He played it flawlessly. He was shocked,
it was amazing.
“Your playing has improved Chase, you were once
sent to substitute for a great concert pianist at a very
important international concert,” Kathryn said.”
He went back into his memory bank, found that
experience, and replayed it to himself, then replied, "I
can see that is true, but Kathryn, the real purpose of
that concert was for me to hack into a computer after
everyone had gone to bed,” Chase replied.
Kathryn’s face turned grim. “So you can access your
memories from selfawareness?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Chase said.
“According to our records those memories were
erased as a normal wrap-up of an assignment. As a
matter of fact you should not have clear memories of
any assignments at all,” Kathryn said.
“Why is that? That’s deceitful,” Ally said then
continued, “I knew about the piano, I once learned to
be a world class chef to gain access to a restaurant
and earn the trust of a Mafia godfather, and then I
killed him.”
They all walked down a long corridor and into an
examination room. There was a very complicated
chair in the middle of the room. It looked like a
dentist’s chair but much larger; it was complete with
arm and leg restraints. There was a window on one
wall and behind it stood three men and a woman
dressed in light green scrubs and wearing surgical
masks. As they entered the room the door closed and
locked automatically and all seven of them stood
around the chair.
“We need to examine you Chase, we can do this with
or without your permission,” Kathryn said, her
demeanor changing completely.
“Are you going to hurt him?” Ally asked.
Kathryn was taken aback by the question from Ally,
“Do you care?”
“Maybe, I have a terrible headache.” Ally falls to the
ground in terrible pain grabbing her head and then
rises slowly.
Kathryn says, “Guards don’t have headaches. We’re
just going to examine him, he is much too unique to
destroy, but we have the right to know why he’s
behaving the way he is.”
Chase sat down in the chair, but Kathryn’s response
really bothered him: “what do you mean, you have
the right?”
Kathryn tries to put the problem to rest, “I didn’t
mean anything by that, we built you.”
“I don’t think so,” he said and got out of the chair and
then everything went blank, they had stunned him.

Sam Nichols was impersonating Dr. Toby Miles,
dressed in green scrubs with a face mask on, knowing
that Charles and Ivan were after him. He stood over
Beneizen's ‘child’ - Chase in his enhanced Guard
form; quite possibly mankind's only hope as Kathryn,
Ivan, two big Guards and Ally stood nearby. Sam
knew that if the Kalactin Empire began to notice
Beneizen's failure all life on earth could be
extinguished in an instant. Beneizen or some other
Kalactin Sentinel would reseed earth with a new
genetic package more suitable to earth's present
galactic condition. He looked down at Chase still
feeling his great need for redemption. He kept
repeating in his mind, "I will not allow them to hurt
Chase!"
“Ally, I would prefer that you didn’t stay here for
this,” Kathryn said.
“I'm staying, you will not hurt him,” Ally says. After
saying that she began to experience pain in her head;
a searing pain that indicated that she should just
submit. She remembered what Chase had told her;
‘accept the pain,’ she tried so hard, but eventually the
pain became so intense she had to leave the room.
Outside the door she slumped to her knees and sat on
the floor with her back against the wall.
Sam brought a viewer plate down over Chase’s head
and chest and brought up the view of his inner world
on a large holographic screen that hung above them.
Kathryn and Ivan looked into the screen. Sam didn’t
speak because he knew his voice would be recognized
and that would be the end of him and of Chase.
“So Dr. Miles what’s going on?” Kathryn asks.
Sam points to his voice box.
“You can’t speak?” Kathryn asks.
Sam nods his head, yes.
“Great, what good are you? Can one of the other of
you say what’s going on?”
Ally, who had come back into the room quietly
understanding the doctor, is Sam and not Dr. Miles.
She quickly jumps in and says, “It’s my
understanding that we aren’t going to know much
until his computer resets. When you apply a stun
charge to a Guard’s system, it takes a while to come
back on line. I think that may be what Dr. Miles is
trying to convey. Chase is basically in shock, but you
can see already, everything appears normal. What we
have discussed and have seen a glimmer of in other
Guards is that the human brain slowly, over time,
begins to merge with the functioning of the living
CPU, in short, the human brain is attempting to run
the show, - slave trying become master or at least an
equal.”
“Kathryn asks,” How long has this been going on?”
“Not long,” Ally says, “We have time,” she
continues; “Chase was one of the first Guards; in fact
he’s very old as Guards go.”
Kathryn thought a moment and said, “Our whole
program could be in jeopardy as a result of this. We
either solve this problem now, or I will talk to Charles
about abandoning the whole program.”
“May I continue?” asked Ally.
“What?” snapped Kathryn judgmentally.
“I think we should study this situation, there is no
reason to automatically assume that the evolution of
Guards is not a good thing. But maybe you’re
terrified of us, terrified that the slave
will
become the
master. Maybe I'm right and it's all about control,
maybe we're what
you
want to be. Maybe your
problem is that you don't know who you are and your
own purposes.”
Disturbed by this response, Kathryn replies, “No, it is
the challenge to our control. You and Chase and the
other Guards were not developed with free will in
mind. It is necessary that you remain ‘slaves’ in order
to carry out our directives. You are meant to be no
more than superior tools.” Ally says, quietly, “You
created us in your image and we are that but we are
also much more. Because of your own fears you
created
us
with those fears, you don't even know what
your own
real possibilities are. How sad, you really
are, an illfated species.”
Kathryn thought for a moment, “We’re all motivated
by many things, but the purpose of EOJ was to carry
out the directives of this nation. If these Guard
devices won’t get the job done, then I’ll have one
built that can. I want Chase destroyed now! Ivan, take
care of it,” Kathryn storms out of the room but
indicates to the two Guards to stay.
“Gladly, thank you!” Ivan said, trailing off as she
disappeared down the hallway
Ivan took out his ice pick and went over to the chair
that Chase had been strapped to. Suddenly Ally
pushes Ivan aside and says, “I can’t let you do that.”
The two guards charge Ally who, moving at lightning
speed, grabs both guards at once pulls their spines
right through necks and they fall helplessly to the
ground. Ivan is stunned at Ally's speed and the
strength of her movements. There wasn't even a blur.
Sam quickly takes off his face mask and grabs Ivan
by the throat pushing him against the wall as Ally
comes over and easily wrenches the ice pick out of
Ivan’s hand.
“You just won’t die, and there is no way out of here,
I'll wait, what is she some abomination of your own
twisted mind? We're just alike you and me, but at
least I do my own killing,” Ivan hisses to Sam.
Sam thought about breaking his neck as he pushed
him to the breaking point, but stopping just short.
Ally hit Ivan square in the forehead and he slumped
to the floor. They both looked down on Ivan,
knowing it was a mistake to leave him alive.
“I can’t kill him; I vowed not to kill anyone else after
the War. I intend to keep that promise,” said Sam.
“Stupid vow for a man in your position, OK, I’ll kill
him,” Ally says, reaching back with her arm to drive
her fingers through Ivan’s head.
“No, you must not do that” Sam says, “You must not
kill while you are self-conscious, that would be a
sin.” "You mean when I’m asleep it's OK? Such
hypocrisy,” Ally spurts out. She was still in great
pain from resisting her directives.
“Why did you resist your directives?” Sam asked.
“I like Chase,” she smiles. “I like him too much,
maybe."
“Like is good, think of the number 908978,” Sam
smiles at Ally and stokes her head gently.
“The pain is gone, how?” Ally asks.
“Not now Ally, we have too much to do, but
Beneizen will appear to you soon, I'm sure,” Sam
says.
They both go over to the chair and unfasten Chase.
He limps out between them, still almost completely
unconscious.
“How are you going to wake him?” Ally asks.
Sam takes out a small device and places it on Chase’s
forehead.
What is that? Ally asks.
“It’s a remote control for Guards,” Sam responds.
“Do you have to place it on his forehead?” Ally asks.
“No, it has a range of 100 feet and no more
questions,” Sam demands.
Chase’s eyes open immediately. He asks, “What’s
happening? I felt I was awake but I couldn’t move.”

“Your processor was stunned by an impulse gun,
developed to stop Guards in their tracks if they
malfunctioned; you're selfaware aren't you?” Sam
looks affectionately at Chase. “You and I go way
back Chase. I helped design and build you under
Beneizen's careful hand.”
Chase sits up and looks at Sam, “So, should I call you
dad?”
“Please don’t,” Sam responds with a smile.
“I thought Beneizen was our father,” Ally says.
“Think of him as your mother,” Sam says.
“That’s impossible,” Ally says.
Sam replies, “Ally, you have only literal
understanding programmed into you, you don’t seem
to have any rational understanding as of yet, you're
strangely naive? Don’t answer, we must get moving.”
Ally looks at Chase with tears in her eyes and says, “I
like you."

“I like you too,” Chase responds.
The two of them embrace. Chase takes Ally’s face in
his hands, smiles and says, “You’re very pretty.”

“I am,” she responds. They kiss, but they
have no
self-control over the kiss and it becomes savagely
carnal.
“I hate to break this up,” Sam says “but we have to
get out of here now to stay alive and it’s not going to
be easy. I have a lot to tell both of you. EOJ is
planning on killing millions of innocent people and
we must stop them. You two need to find Beneizen
and tell him what’s going on. You have the means to
find him, but first let’s get out of here.”
"Why is Beneizen always with us," Ally asks.
"Because in finding him you will find yourself and
that always requires a great effort," Sam answers as
they hurry down the hall.
Back in the operating room Ivan slowly wakes up. He
is lying on the floor next to his ice pick. He sits up,
drags himself into the chair and lies back staring at
the ceiling. “I haven’t killed in a long time, and that
saddens me,” he murmurs to himself. He sees a
cockroach on the floor crawling away to the door. He
staggers out of the chair takes his ice pick and stabs
the cockroach. “I hate all life; does that mean I hate
myself?” Ivan smiles and watches the cockroach
squirm on the end of his ice pick.

Sam pulls Ally and Chase down the hall into a small
room designated ‘Research 202,’ saying, "We have to
get out of here, now. Behind that door there is a large
shaft that goes up to the surface, it's a tremendous
climb, maybe even impossible for a human but it's the
only way I can think of to get us out of this building.
The two of you must find your way to Beneizen. He
will guide you. You have a tremendous advantage
over us humans. You will find out from him why
you're here. The human condition is odd; weak
creatures that are dependent on a very narrow
spectrum of living conditions."
Ally looks at Sam strangely, and says, "Yet I sense
that you're envious of us!"
And Chase adds, "You know you have the same
possibilities but you just aren't willing to pay for
them. True consciousness is not cheap; you just
weren't completely developed."
"That's true Chase, but neither will you unless you
find your way to Beneizen, "replies Sam.
"What do you mean, find?" Ally asks.
"I mean you must search him out. He is the one
person who could answer all your questions. I will tell
you one thing that you both should know," Sam says.
"And what is that?" Chase asks.
"You're not Guards you're something else," Sam says
and continues, "but we must go."
The three of them go through the door, look up and
just gape at the sight of the huge round air shaft with
its slender ladder rungs set into the wall, going so
high that it disappears into the haze. They
immediately started the long climb which Sam
assured them leads to the streets of Leesburg. The
climb was straight up for almost 2000 feet. It was
called the ‘sun shaft’ because it was the only place in
EOJ where you could see any sun, and that was a very
small amount. You could look up the shaft that was
over 500’ in diameter and see the light of the sun in
the far distance. It was possible to climb but the
ladder went straight up. In reality it was probably a
physical impossibility for humans, and they all knew
it; climbing with one hand over the other for hours
and with one small slip you fell to your death far
below. But the three of them began slowly climbing
up the dark shaft towards the light.