Universe Online - Enter the Game: Complete Edition (29 page)

Andrix's words are tired and almost hopeless; like when I'd first talked to him. Had it only been days ago, in-game? Damn. It seems like an eternity.

“I don't have any time for pity though. Site Prime isn't going to survive. We'd have to burn a big chunk of the facility to stop the spread of that Drex crap, and even then I'm not sure if we can really kill it with what we have. Not and still be able to live.

“There isn't any other option but to abandon Site Prime and move to Archon Station.”

His words don't really surprise me, but I still make a stiff face. It’s a grimace that even Andrix catches, and he gives me a somewhat rueful chuckle.

“Well, I say the station, but I actually mean the Trident. You should probably know that it isn't really part of the station itself, right?”

His words cause me to look up at his face, only slightly surprised. But I do nod.

“I've seen up close images of it a couple of times. It’s connected to the station, but it isn't tethered as part of the structure. More like... docked. It’s a ship.”

Andrix nods, although his own expression has gone stern.

“The Trident was the last resort. Even beyond the Imperial-class shielding array. A super-carrier colony ship. As armed and armored as we could make it. But it isn't a generation ship. Instead, it would house nearly a hundred and twenty thousand Drune Rex in state-of-the-art cryostasis pods. Not the cryo-sleep you were put in, but the real deal. Almost complete biological stasis.”

He stops and reaches up to rub his chin, looking at me with a dark gaze I cannot fathom. Just what is running through this guys head?

In the end though, he cracks a slight smile and reaches out to type a few keys on the console built into the desk separating us.

I get a message saying that my suit has downloaded something. I arch a brow at Andrix even as I put on my helmet to check it out, feeling better doing so instead of using the monitor on his desk.

Holy freak...

What comes up is a complete, detailed schematic of Archon Station and the Trident.

It is not the rough thing me and my crew up there have been working out, either. It’s the full construction and project details. Hell, even Trident's specs, which I look through quickly, surprise me as much as the station itself.

It’s a giant freaking jump gate. And not just any warp gate, either. They tend to have limits to only a couple of hundred light years. And have to be tethered on both ends, creating a revolving door system that is logged and opened every time a ship passes through after sending its destination coordinates to the gate itself.

Archon Station uses something different. It creates a stable connection without a tethering gate. Up to almost 5000 light years. Almost a twentieth (1:20) of the entire distance of the Milky Way Galaxy in length.

Not only that, but the station itself has the drives to potentially become mobile in space. At slow speeds, admittedly, but still... Damn.

Andrix must have seen the look on my face even through my helmet, cause he starts laughing at me.

I shake my head and pull off my helmet, setting it on the desk so we can continue speaking.

“A massive ship, a giant freaking jump gate. A moving battle station. The last resort against the Drex taking the system?”

Yep, I cannot help but ask. I'd just been hit over the head by something mind boggling, but I still have enough sense left to question it.

“Heh. Yeah. Not just the system though. We always feared that the Drex would move out into the rest of the galaxy. And they did. Archon Station and the Trident were meant to give us enough breathing room and time to figure out how to stop them. But that was five hundred years ago, and our needs are more pressing now.”

I nod to that.

“From what your crew has managed to see and the information they've sent back here from every computer system they've managed to reactivate and retrieve information on, the Trident wasn't damaged very much during the fighting. It has its own power, life support, engines and shields. And weapons. It held its own better than the rest of the station did. But it went dead just like the rest.

“We need the Trident, Allec. That means boarding and reactivating the ship. To do that though... You need to deal with the Archive first.”

He stops, and I stare at him. I hadn't been that curious about the Archive. Well, I take that back. I have been curious. But curiosity has a way of killing the cat that tries to break into it. And I've had far too much to do.

“Okay... I'll bite. What do you mean?”

He grimaces at my question, and leans back in his seat, once more staring at the bare rock ceiling of the office for a moment before letting out a sigh.

“The Archive isn't just a repository of vast amounts of information. It’s a sort of quasi-collective consciousness. It learns and responds and grows all on its own. It is sentient. More so than most A.I.'s in fact. Organic growth. Maturing over time and experience. I told you before that it was here, either under the Site or at least still on the planet.

“I lied. The Archive was used as the core component of the Trident. We reversed engineered enough of the technology to allow almost seamless integration into the ship itself. It became... Well, the ships computer. Except it was much, much more. Far more powerful than any computer system. We wanted to make sure that no matter where we ended up, we'd be able to keep the thing that allowed us to thrive on this planet, and out in space.”

Now I could see the entire picture. Why the Drex attacked the Archon so fervently, then seemingly went crazy when they couldn't breach the defenses. Bombed the entire planet into radioactive ash. They knew, and they were wanting it. It was retaliation of the most brutal kind.

After that... I could easily imagine them searching every single star system they came across, hoping against all hope to find another Archive. Or some other form of advanced technology. Their own genetic manipulation tech was based on faulty, incomplete science.

They didn't have enough data to move forward, or to figure out a way to fix the problems that came up as they tried to push forward anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if someone said that the modern Drex are no longer a sentient species at all.

Driven by instinct or something even more unfathomable.

That thought was not very encouraging. Not at all.

“Here, take off your glove and hold out your hand, palm up.” Andrix says then, having reached into the front pouch of his own suit and pulls out what looks to be a flat, oval jewel. It’s a brilliant green color, so bright and yet dark at the same time that it instantly draws my gaze.

I do take off the glove on my left hand though, and hold it out to him palm up, as instructed.

He looks at my hand and the jewel a moment before pressing it against the palm of my hand with two of his fingers. Then he jerks his fingers away. That should have proved a major clue to what was to come; but I was too busy looking at what had been pushed into my hand.

At least until the pain started. A burning pain that raced up my arm and shoulder and straight into the base of my brain. Totally unexpected and unprepared. I scream. I couldn't help it. It was as if my entire hand was being speared with a red hot poker. Hotter, actually. I could feel my skin crisping around the thing and it set every nerve in that arm on fire!

The pain simply makes it seem as if it lasted forever. As if someone was hammering away at my brain non-stop, washing away reason and thought itself.

I'm not at all ashamed to say that I fainted right then and there, my throat having gone raw.

I wake up a short while later, after having somehow felt a sting in my throat and the remnants of pain is washed away in a drug-induced haze that clears up rather quickly. I sit up and grimace. My hand from the wrist down was utterly numb.

I'm almost afraid to look at it, so I turn away and accept the straw that someone was pushing against my lips. Drawing a drink, I find my parched and somewhat sore throat is in serious need of attention, so I down the drink in several small, rapid gulps. Aaah.

Finally regaining myself, I find Andrix still seated where he had been, with a wry and somewhat guilty look on his face, while Silene is standing at my shoulder, holding the bottle I'd just drunk from.

“... Thank you.” Damn. My voice is coarse as all freak, and simply trying to speak makes me flinch from the grinding in my throat.

“Don't bother speaking just yet, Allec. Andrix utterly failed to tell you what that was, so you were in no ways prepared.”

Silene's stern tone could cut through metal, and even Andrix pulls back from the words and the glare she shoots him before sighing herself.

“Still, it is perhaps better this way. That jewel is the 'Key Gem' to the Archive, Allec. Somehow or another it attaches itself to the nerves of the hosts body and ties itself directly to the brain. It'll allow you to access both the Trident and the Archive itself.”

Her tone had gone soft, and for a moment I see a rather startling look of relief and then guilt as well. She sees me looking and gives me a rather forlorn smile.

“That said... The Key Gem won't accept just anyone. Its been over a hundred years since we last tried to give it to anyone. Failure to accept the host means death. There isn't any other options. We've never been able to connect it to a machine. None of our scans work on it. Whatever it is made from, and its exact purpose has eluded us for millennium.”

Ah. That makes much more sense, and why it seems that Andrix is looking more than a little contrite at the moment. If it hadn't had worked, I'd be dead right now. Huh. I wonder how that'd work, given that I'm a player. I decide to take it with a pinch of salt and simply nods, although I grimace as a flash of heat runs up my shoulder and into the lower part of my brain through my spine.

Ouch.

I curse; or rather try to, but my throat is so damned sore that only a pained groan escapes my lips.

Silene puts her hand on my shoulder and gives a somewhat rueful chuckle.

“It'll hurt for a little while longer. Its part of the integration process. It will heal up rather quickly though and the pain will be gone in about ten more minutes or so. Your hand may be stiff and numb for a while longer though.”

Well, at least I will be able to use my hand again, although now the green jewel is buried half in my flesh. I can move my fingers a little with a bit of effort; and it seems all the bones and joints and muscles work just fine. However it works, it doesn't impede anything.

Except being able to feel it 'in' my hand is rather odd. Like having a rock lodged in your leg that you can feel against the bone. It doesn't hurt, or seem out of place. Just really odd. In fact, as I slowly work my hand closed, all I can feel is the oddly smooth and slippery surface under my fingers. It’s almost like water. Fluid, almost.

I 'umph' in understanding before looking at Andrix with an arched brow. He tries to smile sheepishly and fails, before shrugging.

“Sorry, Allec. But you need it, and no one else would bother trying to accept it. Or rather, get accepted by it. I was actually worried that I had killed you as soon as you fainted, but thankfully you were only just unconscious from the pain.”

He turns his head, and I can finally see the rather red hand print spread across his cheek. It seems Silene had reached the limits of her patience with Andrix's antics in this case.

I almost feel sorry for the guy.

Almost.

Not.

In a very real sense, he just tried to kill me. If it hadn't accepted me, I'd be dead, and he and all of his people would be dead within days. They'd have had to have tried everyone to get the key to work. And either died one at a time that way, or killed for whenever the Drex... mold escaped into the rest of the shelter.