Chapter II
Scott was running full speed, not noticing the titles of the rooms he was passing.
Barracks.
Test Subjects.
Synthetics.
The hallway exploded in a flash of sparks as Scott rounded the corner to his destination. Serakia and Erika stood armed in front of the doorway labeled Hardware. He dived instinctively into a small enclave to a locked door.
“Hello runt!” Serakia yelled, aiming his blaster at the small opening Scott managed to squeeze himself into. She pulled the trigger again, causing a green beam to scorch the wall near Scott. Erika and Serakia slowly start moving down the hallway towards his location as Scott starts fumbling through his bag.
“Oh damn. When we found out there were others here I thought I should worry.” Scott called from his hiding spot while he pulled a wrench the size of his forearm from his bag. He grabbed his ray gun with his other hand.
“Oh! SNAP!” Beta pushed the sound to Scott’s external speakers, adding insult to injury.
Erika lunged around the corner with a serrated blade about two feet long.
“You’re mine!”
“Beta! Light em up!” His headset illuminated blinding light that changed between colors. Scott turned the corner and charged with the wrench and his pistol in hand. He fired a blind shot towards the tall woman with the spotted skin and pointed ears, Serakia, as Erika dropped the knife and covered her eyes from the bright light. In one fluid motion, Scott stows his weapon, grabs the bouncing knife off the floor, and clocks Serakia in the face with the wrench, darting for the hardware room. Before he could make it through, Serakia was back on her feet, shooting at him.
Scott dove into the open room next to him and slammed his hand on the panel, hoping it worked. Luck was on his side, as the door slid shut. Unfortunately there were no lights on inside the room.
He ran his finger across his wrist, dimming his headlights and allowing him to see unhindered. The door had giant text on it, labeling the room as Project: Zephyr. Scott pulled up his map again.
“Hey Sis, I made it to the signal room. Ran into some friends. How’s the ship?”
~~~
Alexis is crouched behind the empty crates they had passed earlier, both blasters drawn as she exchanged fire with Kornath and Dev’ji. To her credit her suit didn’t have a scratch on it. Kornath brandished his rifle towards Alexis and fired off two shots. Both shots went wide, slamming into the exterior of the base. Dev’ji was the only one with a Spark visor similar to Alexis’ and Scott’s. His glowed an eerie yellow against his grey and red space suit, unlike the blue Alexis wore. His pistol was trained on the top of the crate Alexis was ducked behind.
“Come on out little girl! We want your ship!” Kornath snarled behind his glass helmet.
“We promise we won’t scratch it up too much.” Dev’ji smiled like he already knew the outcome of this fight.
Alexis glanced around the crate quickly, only to met with a hail of laser blasts from both of her assailants.
The bigger one...
She ducked out of cover for half a second, taking a shot with her rifle that hit it’s mark, square in Kornath’s chest. The impact of the blast forced him to drop his rifle. She fired a quick blind shot against the visored attacker, causing him to crouch behind cover and not get a shot off against her.
“AHHHHHHH!” Kornath grunted.
“Hey Scott...” Alexis is trying to make herself as small as possible behind the crates as chaos unfolds around her. Dev’ji takes a couple shots at the crate as Kornath shrugs off the hit, following up with a thrown pulse grenade.
Crap!
Alexis flicked her wrist activating the roaring jet pack on her back as the crate exploded behind her. The electricity from the blast arced onto her back, causing her hidden trajectory to stray. Her grip on her rifle slipped and fell into the smoke below. She braced herself from impact and skidded across the roof of the base, causing cracks to adorn her helmet. The jetpack was completely shot for now, and she had begun silently cursing herself for losing one of her weapons.
“Scott... hurry up. It is getting pretty bad out here.”
~~~
An explosion rippled over the radio then fell instantly silent.
“Alexis?!” Scott spoke to no one. “ALEXIS?!”
“She ain’t pickin up dude.” Beta projected a map of the landing pad with a blinking blue light on the roof of the station for some reason. “But she is still kicking around.” The digital map also had two red dots on it near the Antioch.
Scott had barricaded the door behind him and was hunched over a computer screen as he typed furiously. The two assailants were banging on the door.
“Get out here right now you scumbag!”
“Yeah I owe you a pounding!” Both voices were muffled, but Scott didn’t care. He was searching for the source of the signal that ended up getting him and his sister in so much trouble.
Maybe she was right...
The files located on the computer were mostly useless, standard metrics used to measure various levels of nearly everything in the starbase. There was one sector of files that Scott was trying to bust into though. The sector was labeled Zephyr the same as the door, so it must be what was so important to hide away in a ghost system.
“Here, try this file. It breaks sectors like eggs.” Beta sent a flash of numbers to Scott’s visor.
“Yeah that looks like it should work.” Scott removed a small chip from his belt, tapped it to his wrist, and then placed it ontop of the desk, right below the monitor. The monitor started to flash different colors rapidly, then returned to its standard state. Scott tapped on the previously locked sector and, to his surprise, it opened.
“Well done Beta.”
“Thanks boss. I’ll take my bonus in stock options.”
Scott rolled his eyes and started to pour through the files.
“Download everything to the chip.”
As the chip blinked green constantly, signifying the loading of data, Scott started reading over the files.
“Whoa... No way.” Scott was in complete bewilderment. Is that even possible?
“Too cool!” Beta was thrilled.
~~~
Despite having the higher ground, Alexis felt that she was on the defensive. After all, she was down a weapon. Luckily, her cover was holding up much better this time, and she intended on keeping the higher ground.
“You don’t know who you are dealing with jerks!” She shouted down to them as she fired. The shots bounced off of cover.
“My dear... you are bluffing.” Dev’ji pulled another grenade looking object from his belt and threw it near the door. Blue mist exploded from the device and started to obscure Alexis’ view.
“Alpha...”
“Activating infrared ma’am.” The visor shifted into purple, then into a calm red. This allowed Alexis to spot the heat outlines of both Dev’ji and Kornath arranging the boxes below to climb onto the roof, to pursue her no doubt. She started to fumble with her belt, pulling out a wire with a hook.
“Alpha, head to the Antioch.”
“Ma’am I highly recommend a different course of action.” She locked the tether into the hull of the base.
“Alpha, I’m not asking.” Without a word of protest the lights on her wrist faded and her visor completely powered down. Seconds later they powered back up. “Alpha, that was a direct order!” Alexis wasn’t happy.
“I apologize ma’am, there seems to be a virus preventing me from jumping to The Antioch’s computers.” Alpha delivered the potential fatal news flatly.
The smoke cleared and Alexis saw her assailants about halfway up the boxes, climbing towards her with unmatched fury. With her previous plan shot, Alexis quickly spooled her hook back into her belt. She swung her one remaining rifle around and aimed down the sights.
“Thought you could run from us?!” Kornath was aggressive and snarling into his helmet.
The blast landed square in front of his feet, right where Alexis wanted it to. His mag-boots shorted out as he floated off into space.
“NO! Dev’ji! I can’t control my mag boots.” Kornath protested his inevitable trip into the abyss of space.
“Well done, miss. Let’s finish this?”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself Alpha.” Alexis braced against her rifle and took aim at Dev’ji below, firing shots around him as his ran off the edge of the landing platform. The jetpack on his back roared towards Kornath as he glared at Alexis.
“We are far from done here keth!” His voice seared with bile and hate.
Alexis ignored the insult and headed towards the Antioch.
“Rend! Come get us now! Ready the Serpent to head to the aft side of the station. Kornath, quit squirming like a baby.” The radio transmission faded out as Dev’ji navigated through empty space towards Kornath’s position, allowing Alexis to return to the Antioch.
“Alright Alpha, let’s see if we can retake our ship.”
~~~
The panel came off with relative ease, as Scott started to pull out various wires. The tangled mess of color controlled any number of functions in the room. He reached into his bag and took out a small blade, cutting the connective tape that bound all the wires together.
“Alright, so if I am right...” Scott severed the blue and red wire.
“Which could happen for once.” Beta joked as Scott began stripping the wires.
“... then this will open up the containment unit.” He breathed a sigh of calmness and touched the two wires together. There was a small spark and the front door to the room rose open, Serakia standing in the door frame.
“Thanks pup.” She grinned and started to push her way through the makeshift barricade.
“Wrong door! Wrong door!” Beta started to freak out. Scott pushed his back up against the wall and shoved the nearby desk with all of his might towards the door. Serakia jumped out of the way of the desk. Erika came up to enter the room, wiping blood from her lip. Scott refused to move and cut the yellow wire in half, haphazzardly striping it.
“You took my blade. I would like it back.”
Scott briefly took his eyes off the wire he was working and grabbed Erika’s knife, took aim and threw the blade at her.
“Here take it back!”
The knife fell short of his target. Erika lifted her head and cackled, picking up the knife and slowly walking towards Scott, who had already turned his attention back to the open panel. The blue and red wire were free of their commitment.
“Please be right. Please be right.”
Shadows from Serakia and Erika loomed over Scott. Erika’s blade pierced his tool bag as Scott rolled away. With his out stretched fingers he flicked the yellow wire into the blue one, a small jolt signifying the temporary connection. Serakia had his ankle in a grip fit for a titan, pulling him away from the panel.
“No more tricks this time you little prick.” She picked him up and held his hands tightly around his back. Erika pulled some energy bands from her belt and started to secure them to Scott’s wrists.
“I know something you don’t know!!” Beta was ecstatic.
“Shut up you filthy Spark. Serakia, find out what they were doing in here.” The brute walked over to the computer Scott was using earlier.
“I would totally run if I were you two.” Beta joked.
Erika struck Scott across the face.
“Tell this damn Spark to shut its mouth.” Scott grimaced and readied himself for another blow. When he didn’t comply, Erika knocked the wind out of him.
“Beta? Progress?” He asked through harsh breathing.
“I mean... I still need popcorn before the show starts.”
Erika pressed her blade against Scott’s neck.
“There is no data here. Creep must have downloaded it.” Serakia stood up from the terminal.
“Fine. We will get it off of him when we get back to the ship.”
Serakia started to shove Scott down the hallway with her rifle. They were heading towards the fork in the halls near the cafeteria.
“You guys ever fight a Dresh? Rows and rows of teeth. My buddy Scott here took on three at once!” Beta tried to instil fear into the captors.
“Why don’t you reprogram that damn thing? He is annoying.” Erika was leading the three down the hallway back to what Scott presumed was their ship.
“I have been getting that a lot lately...” Beta mused.
The lights in the hallway started to pulse red.
“What is going on?!” Serakia and Erika exchanged a look and snapped into formation with their backs to each other, slowly spinning around Scott.
“Oh good! The show has started!!” Excitement filled Beta’s voice.
The lights snapped back on, and the vents started to blow air. Confident the immediate area was clear Erika turned to Scott and pressed her blade up to his throat.
“What did you do?”
Scott didn’t say a word and wasn’t budging. Erika slapped him across the face and he spun to the ground.
“Attention! Zephyr protocols activated.” A digitized voice came over the speaker system, echoing throughout the empty base. Serakia picked Scott off the floor.
“This keth ain’t worth keeping around to make Dev’ji happy. Let’s melt him now.” Serakia pointed her rifle at Scott’s face.
“AAAAAARRRRRRG!” Erika yelped in pain as electricity arced through her body.
“I can’t let you do that Dave.” Beta cheered. Serakia spun around to see a humanoid robot standing in front of him, palm out with small arcs of lightning arcing through the metal fingers. The text that was stamped on the frame of the bot read Zephyr-01. The light reflected off the perfectly smooth chassis, as if it was freshly off the assembly line.
“I am sorry, but I cannot let you hurt my liberator.” Serakia raised her rifle, her hand on the trigger. Scott body checked her in the back of the knee, causing the shot to go wide and scorch the ceiling. The metal frame in front of Scott smashed Serakia in the head, her body dropping like a sack of potatoes.
The robot brought its hand up, a full charge of electricity ready to be fired at any moment. The color left Scott’s face.
“Who are you? What is your purpose here?” The robot questioned.
“My name is Scott Thados. My sister and I traced radio signal here.” The robot lowered its hand. Its ‘face’ was a full curved black screen with blue light where a human would have their eyes. The mouth was a straight line the same color of the eyes, that danced to life as the robot spoke. It reached behind Scott’s bag and disabled the energy bands holding his wrists together.
“The signal?! The station must have gone into lockdown mode.” The robot was fairly articulate. Scott had never seen anything like it.
Serakia started to stir awake.
“Okay then Scott, lets get out of here before these two wake up. Is your ship the Antioch or the Serpent?”
“The Antioch.” Scott snapped out of his haze of bewilderment. “What are you? Some sort of advanced Syn?”
The robot paused, as if it couldn’t find the words.
“A scan of my systems tell me I am classified as an advanced platform prototype. For now you may call me Oh-One.” 01 nodded, as if it was confirming its name to itself. The two started to head back towards the landing pad the Antioch was parked at.
“And I’m Beta! Great work saving our skin back there.”
“Who is there?!” 01 was perplexed as to the origin of the voice.
“It’s my Spark.” Scott pointed to his wrist as they passed the cafeteria.
“Ha! That’s rich Scott! A Spark? That techno...” 01 looked into the cafeteria and its eyes widened in digital horror.
“Hey, Oh-One, let’s keep moving.” Scott was already a few paces ahead of the stunned robot. 01 was looking into the cafeteria, broken and erratic pixels dancing across its digital face.
~~~
Alexis was pissed. Not only had her attackers gotten away, but they attacked the Antioch, and almost breached her. She navigated to the underbelly of the ship, running her hand along the hull. She installed a secret hatch near the front of the ship after a solar flare knocked out the Antioch’s power systems during a fly through of the Jainus system. Luckily it was independent from the Antioch's main power system.
She opened the hatch and climbed in. All of the air from the ship rushed out of the hatch and into space. Alexis grabbed the cord on the inside of the hatch and pulled it from the inside, tying it to the pipe above. The crawl to the bridge was problematic with her helmet on, but with the main power out she didn't have a choice. After opening the grate near the power terminal she got right to work. She manually opened the Spark reader and put her wrist inside.
"Alpha, get me some atmosphere."
"Yes ma'am." Her visor started flashing different information in front of her. "30% atmosphere restored." The visor flashed yellow briefly and then returned to the normal blue.
"Alpha? Everything okay?"
"Launch sector seem to have been compromised. From what I can tell the virus is only attached to that system. As a precaution I have severed the system from the ship's network." Alpha prattled off. Alexis glanced out of the bridge at the behemoth of a starbase in front of her.
“So for now we are stuck here...” She said to no one in particular. Alpha was too busy getting other systems back online to respond.
“Ma’am, communications have been restored. Opening a channel to Scott now.”
~~~
"What happened here?"
"I don't know, we got here and the place was like this." Scott didn't really want to waste any more time in the space station. 01 slowly walked into the room and reached down for a chair, placing it up right. Scott was a little more anxious though, the pair of ladies that were chasing him were probably going to wake up here shortly. "Look, I downloaded all the data I could. We would be safer on the ship than we would be standing here."
01 seemed to follow the logic and came back to the front of the cafeteria.
"Yes but of course. Lead the way Scott."
The radio in Scott's visor blaired to life.
"Scott!? Scott are you there?" Alexis was nearly screaming and out of breath.
"Yeah sis, I am fine. Had a little run in with some uglies. Two of em. Are you okay?"
"For now. Looks like our buddies are heading back to their ship. The Antioch is dead right now because of some sort of virus. Get back here so we can regroup."
"Copy that Sis, the three of us are heading back now."
"Three?"
"Yeah, I think I found a survivor." The radio crackled as 01 hijacked the radio channel.
"Hello. My name is..." The robot paused. "I actually don't know my name. I know I had one. I have been designated Zephyr-Oh-One. But that is not my name..." The digital screen seemed to be surveying its hands.
"Oh-one?" Scott interrupted the train of thought.
"Sorry. Your sister is correct, we should retreat to the safety of your ship."
The two headed towards the landing pad with haste, not stopping for anything. Scott secured his helmet in the airlock and started the process of opening the door into the void of space.
"Wait! You can't do that! Where is my helmet?!" 01 started to protest. The door swooped open, and the robot clutched at its throat. Scott looked at the machine in front of him, his eyes going wide. Shock donned the mechanical face as it stopped gasping for air. "Interesting. Shall we?"
"You don’t need a helmet. You're a..."
"Pick your jaw up off the floor, we can figure it out later." Beta spoke up in a voice of annoyance.
The two walked towards and boarded the ship in silence as Scott tried his best not to stare. The hanger hatch rumbled shut.
"Everyone accounted for Alpha?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Go to full lock down, all power to essentials and shields.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Awww why you gotta be...” Beta’s voice faded as he shut down.
Scott stood in complete bewilderment and showed no reaction to what was happening around him. Instead of removing his helmet and heading upstairs, he stared blankly, unable to take his eyes off of 01.
"Scott?" Alexis' voice over the radio broke the silence.
"Yeah... Sorry. Yeah?" Scott snapped out of it.
"Are you going to come up to the bridge with that thing any time soon?" Scott shook his head in disbelieve and slowly removed his helmet. 01 stood right past the airlock door, scanning itself with increased curiosity. The robot started to bend its fingers in sequential order, slowly rotating at the wrist, then testing the tension of the elbow joints.
"Ummm 01." Scott had stripped down to a t-shirt again, the top half of his jumpsuit hanging off his waist. "We should go upstairs."
"Of course. I would love to pour over that data you confiscated." 01 spoke with renewed curiosity and looked at Scott. Scott wasn't sure, but he thought he saw fear behind the digital screen in front of him. “It seems I have many questions as to my origin. Perhaps those records would shed light on the subject.”
"This way..."
~~~
Alexis and Scott stood opposite of 01, a small electronic table between them. 01 remembered that the feeling it was experiencing was discomfort. The data the trio had dissected over the past few hours all pointed to one outcome.
"Do you have a better theory?" Alexis' arms were crossed. She didn't know what to make of any of this.
"Based on the data we all read, no. I am a digital backup of a human life."
The air took on an unnatural weight to it.
"This is... intense. Way too much for me." Scott looked frazzled beyond belief.
Alexis looked right at 01, her eyes trying to pierce into the supposed human soul that resided inside.
"You are lying. You are an AI routine." 01 shook its head back and forth, certain of its existence. Scott was staring into the the table, deep in thought.
"Okay. I can't promise we will find out who you were, but we will figure out what you are." Scott said. Alexis looked at him with eyes full of hatred.
“Nope. We are gonna power it down and scrap it as soon as we can get back to Tychon.” Alexis was firm.
“Sis, look at this. If 01 is right, this is monumental. We are going to figure this out, we should figure this out.” Scott was hopeful.
"You would do that for me?" 01 lifted its head up, hope glimmering in the display.
"Yeap. Consider yourself part of the Antioch team now." Scott spoke, cutting Alexis off from any rebuttal.
01 stood up and looked at both Scott and Alexis in there ship bound uniforms and blinked. The frame then went rigid and plates started to move around its body, almost convulsing. A bright light emerged from within, causing Alexis and Scott to shield their eyes. When they brought their hands down, 01 was standing in front of them, the matching blue stripe from their uniform down the side of the robot's arms legs and body. Alexis stood and looked at the humanoid machine in front of her with disgust, and left the room in a huff.
"I figured I should at least look the part."