Sons of Abraham: J-17's Trial (9 page)

“You know,” she started. “If we can’t find the schematics, we could always sell HIM. I bet the Cybers would love to have their messiah back.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” he replied. “I doubt we’d find any second gens anyway, and third gens wouldn’t care enough to pay for him.”

She replayed the thought through her head, realizing that he was right. A payday like that would have to have happened two hundred years ago, perhaps more, if they wanted to find a pool of interested parties. Still, some extravagant collector might offer a million or two million credits for such a find. A hater of Cybers may pay half a million more. She would bring it up again if they couldn’t find anything on how to make a Cyber.

The pair retraced their steps, finding their way back to the main chamber of the abandoned science facility. The room in question was far different from the main chamber, the walls being the most notable of the variances. The partitions of the main chamber were the same metal, but age and rust had long taken the luster away, leaving the appearance of an ancient ruin. This room, however, lacked the same rust that the other chambers shared. In fact, had she not known better, Sandra would swear that the room was recently active.

It didn’t take long to find the panel on the far wall, the switches being clearly marked by labels above, below, and on the panel itself. Quaid wasted no time, finding the switch to the lights only moments after prying the lock off the exterior. The lights flickered a few times, the same as the water chamber, before humming to life. A few more switches were thrown before the computer panels on the walls came to life as well. Sandra went right to work.

“This shouldn’t be right,” she noted as she waited for the system to boot. “There’s rust over every piece of metal in this place. This room should be the same. The boards on these computers should have shorted out the second a charge went through them.”

“They’re not that old,” he replied, having pried the cover off the panel in front of him. “These circuits look like Hopper’s, maybe a hundred years old or less. That explains why the room doesn’t look ruined like the rest of this place.”

“That means it was recently built,” she fired back, still waiting on the computer. “Compared to the facility that is. Maybe somebody is still checking in on this place?”

Quaid thought long and hard about the possibilities, opting to pull his Ruger from the holster. It wasn’t his favorite weapon, but he already had his hands full with gear when they left the Hopper and broke into the science facility. It was a decent enough firearm, thanks to his own modifications. It lacked the power of his other handguns, but he preferred accuracy when he didn’t know if old gas lines were still in use. When in doubt, go simple.

“Doubt it, but I’m not taking any chances,” he stated. “Soon as that thing fires up, load everything you can and yell for me. I’m gonna take a look around and see if I can figure out how long it’s been since someone was here.”

“Don’t shoot yourself,” she replied, still waiting on the mainframe to finish its startup protocols.

“You do something ONE time,” he laughed, disappearing through the door.

She managed a smile, acknowledging that she would never let her boss live down the day when he put that same Ruger into the holster when the trigger caught on the edge of the strap. He’d only grazed his thigh, barely missing his foot and calf in the process. What Sandra loved was that she saw the whole thing happen. From the moment the shot momentarily deafened her ears to the moment the wound turned to a scar, she’d never stopped laughing about it. Perhaps their relationship wasn’t entirely professional.

No sooner had Quaid disappeared around the corner than the mainframe finished its startup. A long line of options presented her with far too many options from which to choose. She read the list, trying to decipher where she should start. Opting to be thorough rather than precise, she picked the first option and followed the lead. It proved to be little more than the computer’s operating system, something that most programmers would hide away in secondary files. One by one, she went through each file, quickly deciding which was useless to their cause.

She has halfway through the list when a flare went off in her mind. A cluster of diagrams popped up, displaying a piece of circuitry that seemed foreign to her. She hadn’t a single clue what rested inside the skull of a Cyber, but the diagram on the screen seemed important enough for her to begin the download. Other diagrams followed, each progressively more complex than the previous. One by one, she loaded each to her data pad. She had just completed the last download when she realized she needed to look for the surgery procedure. Having the greatest engine in the universe was worthless if you didn’t know how to hook it up to the vehicle. She returned to the process of sifting through all the folders, finally coming across a folder marked ‘application.’

The folder opened and the screen shifted within itself. Sandra had this happen often enough to recognize an encryption when she saw one. The entire screen filled with foreign symbols, all designed to confuse the viewer. She thought about her options, realizing that she didn’t want to stay much longer inside the ghost shell of a facility. She started the download, realizing that she would have to either fix it later or find someone whom could. Both sounded better than staying here, far closer to the floating Cyber than she wanted.

The encrypted file was nearly finished with its download to her data pad when a new sound caught her attention. She was so busy searching for the desired files that she hadn’t noticed the humming motor in the other room had stopped running, a new sound replacing it. It didn’t sound mechanical, but organic somehow as if she were standing near a…….

Her heart jumped up into her throat as her mind filled in the missing pieces of the terrifying puzzle. The organic sound was running water, coming from the same room of the floating Cyber. Her blue eyes opened wide, looking for any signs of movement outside of the doorway. The lights that hung from the ceiling were high above the edge of the door, only illuminating an area the width of the door and stretching perhaps ten feet out into the main chamber. Quaid had a lot of ground to cover if he intended to check the remaining seven doors that led out of the main room.

She turned back, thankful that the data pad had completed the download. She shut the device off, forcing it back into the pouch sewn into her thigh. She reached for the pouch on her belt as her stomach dropped into her knees. Her pistol was still on the Hopper, replaced with a portable cutting torch instead. The handheld torch fit perfectly into the gun’s holster, making it an easy decision for her to take the tool rather than the protection. Quaid always had her back in the past, proving to be a far better shot than she would ever be. Quaid, however, wasn’t here right now, making her far more vulnerable than she cared to be. Thinking quickly, she tapped the red button on her wrist. Static filled the air as she attempted to call her boss.

“Quaid,” she whispered. “Quaid, come in!”

The static continued, broken by two brief pauses of nothing. She realized that he’d responded, but something was interfering with the signal. The wrist coms worked well when they were outside, but thick metal walls, such as these, often kept the signal from reaching its destination. She’d have to rely upon a much more primitive method of communication.

“Quaid!” she yelled, turning on her shoulder light as she left the room. “Quaid, come back!”

She saw a light come out of a doorway on the far side of the main chamber, waving back and forth, as Quaid hurried back to her location. She would never tell him, but she was never so happy to see him.

“What?” he gasped, trying to catch his breath.

“Hush,” she whispered. “Can you hear it?”

The Captain tried quietly to catch his breath as he listened for whatever had freaked his partner out enough for her to scream for him. He cursed inside his mind, trying to understand why he was short-winded after such a short jog. He decided that he would park the Hopper more frequently and start jogging again. His job required him to be in decent shape, whether it was for chasing someone or running away from someone. There were few technological replacements for a body that was in peak physique.

After a few seconds, he was able to close his mouth and breathe through his nose. Another second passed before he was able to join Sandra in listening to the new sound. The humming of the tank’s motor had ceased, replaced by a sound that could only signify trouble for the two of them.

“Shit,” he snapped, heading towards the long hallway. “All that damn button pushing.”

Sandra chased after him. She didn’t want to go back down the long hallway, but she certainly wasn’t about to be left in the big, dark chamber all by herself. Similar tanks to the one with the stiff inside lined the main chamber, forcing her to stay towards the middle of the room. She had no intentions of knowing whether or not the other chambers were empty, or occupied.

She caught up to him a few steps into the hallway, grabbing for his shoulder as she nearly tripped on his feet. He slowed down, waiting for her to catch her balance.

“We must have started the evacuation program somehow,” he stated. “I just wanna make sure we didn’t do anything worse than drop a stiff onto the ground.”

“Who cares?” she whimpered, her eyes locked on the dim light from the room up ahead. “If he’s on the floor or standing there pissing, who cares? I got everything loaded, let’s just get the hell out of here!”

Quaid ignored her. He didn’t like to tell her of jobs he’d performed before she’d come to his employment, but there was a harsh lessoned he’d learned the hard way many years prior. His father had taught him to have an exit strategy, and never leave a loose end. He’d ignored the last part of the advice, on more than one occasion. The last time he left a loose end, he found himself in the need of a new crew. So far, Sandra was the only person who suited his needs. He wasn’t about to lose a valuable asset like her because he was scared.

“Just in and out,” he replied, starting for the doorway once more. “If it’s laying on the floor, not breathing, then we bolt. Just like you said.”

“And if it isn’t laying on the floor?” she whispered, letting him take the lead.

He cocked the hammer back on the Ruger, giving her the answer to her question. The pair inched down the hallway, both wishing the light from the inside of the tank were a little brighter. Gradually, the view on the other side of the open doorway spread open. Three-quarters of the water were missing from inside the tank. The missing water, however, wasn’t all that was absent from their view. A few more steps found them inside the room, alone with the empty tank.

“Where is it?” she whispered, clutching his shoulder and looking around the room.

He shrugged her off, wanting his body free to turn at a moment’s notice. He glanced at the empty tank, then down to the floor.

“Look,” he muttered, pointing the gun at the floor.

Sandra turned her gaze to where Julius pointed, noting the foot shaped puddles on the floor. She took a step back, putting her shoulder lamp on the tiny puddles of orange and green tinted water. It was awkward, but she managed to make the beam of light follow the footprints, realizing that they led down the hall from which they’d just came.

“Shit,” he groaned, raising the gun and storming down the hallway.

“Let’s just leave!” she pleaded. “Just get back to the Hopper and get the hell off this rock while we still can.”

They reached the end of the hallway quicker than Sandra wanted, the creepiness of the main chamber sending chills down her spine. She could stay here for days and never get over the uneasy feeling the hollow place crammed into her chest. Quaid had slowed his pace, holding his light in one hand, his gun in the other, and placing his hands over one another to work in unison.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he hissed. “If that thing has any senses, it’d make a ‘b’ line right to its only way off this station.”

Sandra’s eyes opened wide, fear and regret forming in her throat. She’d spent this entire expedition without giving a single thought to her little sister, sitting on the ship all alone. She pictured the bald Cyber, his glass covered eyes seeing Jenna as unnecessary cargo. Even if it left her alone, and simply took the ship, they’d have no way of getting off the planet themselves. She had a few bars of protein in one of her pockets, but there wasn’t any water. Her stomach quivered as she realized there was water all around her, nearly emptying onto the floor at the thought of having to drink it.

“Jenna!” she stammered.

Before Quaid could stop her, Sandra had pushed past him, jumping over the beams and cables in the middle of the floor. He chased after her, unable to keep his gun out in front of him and catch her at the same time. He squeezed through the open doorway, ducking the cables that hung from the ceiling in the outer hall. He could see her light shaking back and forth, thirty paces up ahead of him. This only confirmed that he needed to get more exercise. She was younger than him but not so much to warrant the distance between them.

The door to the air lock was slowly swinging shut as he rounded the corner. He knew she hadn’t closed it on him as all air locks were designed to return to a closed position when nothing was keeping them open. He crashed into the door with his shoulder, barely catching it just before the latch could catch. He jogged down the corridor, opting to lower his gun so he could move quicker. The other airlock to the Hopper opened with ease as it was used more recently than the door to the facility. He locked the door behind himself, holstering the weapon and heading towards the cockpit. He passed the common room in the middle of the ship, noting that neither Sandra nor Jenna was sitting in any of the chairs. He passed through the open room quickly, down another narrow corridor, and jumped over the protruding frame of the cockpit door.