Aegis:
Chapter Six
[Rating: General
···
Length: Very Long
···
Genre: Mixed up, Serious]
[
Word count: (chapter: 2, 930) (total:22444
)]
[
Chapter One · Chapter
Two · Chapter
Three · Chapter
Four · Chapter
Five]
[
Chapter Six · Chapter
Seven · Chapter
Eight · Chapter
Nine]
She was seated on what seemed to be a grey leather couch.
The walls were high and polished silver, reflecting her
perplexed face. The floor was what seemed to be a white
rug but it had no edge and appeared to dissolve right
into the wall. She was wearing what appeared to be a one-piece
white catsuit that felt like nothing against her skin.
Suddenly a strange voice filled her head.
“There is no need to be afraid. Release all of your
tension. You are perfectly safe.” It hummed in smooth,
synthetic tones. “Where am I?” she asked, forcing what
seemed to be a lead tongue to move. Her eyes searched
the room for the source of the voice. Seeing no possible
place it could be, the supposed it was behind her. “Why
do my eyes hurt?” “You have never used them before,” came
the calm reply. She heard a strange grating sound behind
her and a hand came into view.
“Don’t worry,” came a different, more human voice. “There
is nothing to be afraid of.” The owner of the hands stepped
around the chair. Peering at her with hazel eyes, he stepped
back. His face was thin and sallow, the complexion of
one who has never seen the sun. Neat light brown hair
in a severe web of gel sat straight back, following the
shape of his head. He too wore a close fitting white catsuit
and his feet seemed to blend with the floor.
Draf and Alia had managed to manhandle Aegis’s body back
to her hut. Her mother was now wiping her face with a
washer and muttering incoherently about something to do
with chicken soup. She had ceased twitching and now had
the appearance of one who was asleep, save her eyes were
wide open. Alia was gently massaging her tense stomach
and Draf perched on the bed, clutching her hand as one
would clutch a handhold when rock climbing. They were
all oblivious to what was happening in the other, more
synthetic world.
A sudden sense of calm came over Aegis, the feeling that
everything was as it should be. It was only there for
a second, but helped to clear her thoughts. “Why can’t
I move?” she asked slowly. The man just reached forward
to just below her hand. She felt a ‘pop’ and suddenly
her arms were movable. As soon as her legs had followed,
she got to her feet quickly. Observing this, the man smiled.
“I have made a good choice,” he murmured to himself. “I
think I have some explaining to do” With that, he stepped
forward and proffered his hand. Recognizing the gesture,
Aegis immediately returned it without thinking. Where
had that come from?
She could not remember doing that before. After a quick
shake, he led her to a curios circle on the carpet. Suddenly
a bright glow engulfed the two and, to her immense surprise,
Aegis found herself in a different room. Beyond words,
she looked at her new companion questioningly. “All in
good time,” he proclaimed and led her to a chair. As the
shock wore off, she looked about herself. It was basically
the same as the one she had been in before, but one wall
was completely taken up by a screen that showed blackness.
“My name is Tablek. I know yours is Aegis. Don’t ask how,
just listen,” Tablek said, leaning comfortably on the
wall before her. The screen lit up. The bird that had
accompanied her appeared and opened its beak. “Good evening,
Tablek,” it spoke in the voice she had earlier. “Evening,
Myuo,” he answered. “I see that you have revived the girl.
Do you want me to explain?” “Yes Myuo.” The bird fluttered
to the edge of the screen and a scene appeared. It was
of her room. Her mother was bustling about with soup and
face cloths. Alia was massaging her stomach and an upset
looking Draf was stroking her hand. “This is what you
see to be reality,” the bird stated. “Your entire life
has been in that reality, that false reality.”
The scene disappeared and the bird fluttered back to
the centre of the screen. “Millions of years in the past,
life was like that you have lived. The earth was the place
humanity existed, clean and pure. As they advanced technologically,
they began to travel in space. At first it was only short
flights to the moon and back or orbiting the earth. Over
many years, they soon became a very advanced race, able
to teleport all types of matter to the far reaches of
the solar system. It was then they became of interest
to the vortexian union.
“The union consisted of four races, the Rokta, the Guumi,
the Noinu and the Sraer. Each was as different as the
last, each with their strengths and weaknesses. They decided
that humanity should join their alliance, as it would
benefit all. Humanity as a whole accepted but some rebel
groups disapproved of the joining. They said the others
just wanted to dominate them, to treat them as slaves.
“They destroyed earth with their ‘protests’ and their
fellow humans were forced to migrate to the sraer planet
as this was perfect for their needs. Unfortunately, they
were so genetically similar to the sraer, both races soon
were almost extinct. The human-sraer hybrids were perfect
beings, the original weaknesses of their predecessors
wiped out, but it was there weaknesses that had made them
sraer and human. They took the planet as their own and
became obsessed with universal domination.
“Their battle with the rest of the union is still happening
at this very moment but it is of little importance to
you. When humanity fled from earth, some rebels were left
behind, choosing to stay on the wasteland they created.
Oblivious to the other goings on in the Galaxy, they lived
peacefully enough in underground refuges in small groups,
scavenging from the war-torn land above.
“The deadly hybrids bred fast. Their population soon took
up every meter of land on their planet and still increased.
They decided to colonize earth. They could simply build
over the dead land and there were few remaining life forms
to resist them. Only twenty humans escaped, three alive
and the rest in temporary stasis.
“Sustainable stasis was still impossible to humans and
so the seventeen began to deteriorate. It is not that
their bodies experienced any harm, they actually grew
slowly younger, but their minds strained for thought.
They slowly began to go insane, and the three conscious
people became very worried. They wanted their crew to
survive and they were getting old.
“ One of them, a brilliant computer jack-of-all-trades,
after spending many weeks of thinking, finally came up
with the solution. He boosted the computer’s power and
fitted it a new function. Virtual reality. Another of
the conscious three was a young girl of about five. Her
mind was full of new thoughts, ideas that only a child’s
mind harbours. Her mind was connected to the computer
and a whole land was created. Every inch of it came from
the girl’s head, every blade of grass, and every wisp
of air.
“Growing old, the man directly connected the virtual world
to each of the people in stasis’ minds. The girl too went
into stasis and continued to create. After a time, the
two conscious humans knew that they would die if they
did no go into stasis. They revived three of their cargo
and, ever since, three people have been revived every
50 years and traded around.” Finishing its speech, the
bird began to preen itself. Mind whirring, Aegis chewed
over the thoughts. Before she could understand it all,
she had to ask Tablek just what galactic and computer
meant.
“But why have the sraer hybrids not destroyed you all?”
she asked. “Because they have no knowledge of us. Whenever
they come near, we teleport away. Thus we have existed
for quite some time.” “And where are the others?” Aegis
asked. So far she had seen no sign of sleeping people.
In her mind’s eye she pictured a stark, white room with
dormant people in clouded glass tubes. When they teleported
there, however, she could not have been more wrong. Sixteen
people floated as if in water in the centre of green circles
of light. The room itself was a large twenty sided space,
its ceiling beyond the eye’s sight. Its walls and carpet
were black and looked strangely organic. Nineteen white
lines separated each person’s green light, intersecting
at a plinth in the centre of the room. Tablek led her
to this and she saw that it has twenty small buttons,
glittering brightly like stars in a silken sky. “Why wasn’t
I here when I woke up?” She asked, more to herself then
Tablek. The crow appeared above the plinth, a thin beam
of light connecting it to the unseen ceiling.
“When you are in stasis, your body moves almost continually.
When withdrawing from the digital world, your mind needs
complete stillness in order to adjust to the shock of
reality. That is why we teleported you to the MRR – the
Movement Restriction Room – before you woke.” Seemingly
happy with itself, the bird disappeared in a flash. Many
more times it came to explain the workings of what Aegis
now knew as “The craft”. Though she could remember little
scraps of information about her new surroundings, many
memories had been obliterated by time and neglect.
She so wished she could remember it all, to understand
what looked like magic as it happened all about her. The
craft had six areas-the stasis room, the MRR, the sleeping
quarters, the mess, the Bridge, the docking bay and a
room that Tablek would not let her enter. She enjoyed
synthesised food of all descriptions, tastes she had never
before experienced. It was about one week after her arrival
that she decided to ask Tablek some more questions. Finding
him in the mess eating something that resembled snails,
she plopped herself down and began to speak. “Where is
the other member of the crew then? Aren’t there supposed
to be three of us?” Finishing his mouthful, Tablek wiped
his mouth and looked grave.
“There are actually two other crew members. I am an anomaly,
one of a few that has occurred. I am the offspring of
two crewmembers who were both awake. As there are only
twenty MRR pods, I must live and die as a normal human
would. I am always awake, but I may take someone’s place
soon. “Our craft does not have an infinite supply of water.
We derive everything from water – our air, our food –
everything we need for sufficient nourishment.
Even our ship is fuelled by a treated version of it.
Every hundred years, we must send two of the awoken to
collect water from the nearest source. It is abundant
on many planets, being of such simple structure, so it
never is far away. Yet the two awoken that have been sent
to collect it have not returned.
“That is why I woke you specifically in the fist place.
The water collection units are called gymalefs and you,
the computer files state, are an excellent pilot of one
specific gymalef. There are three, each modelled on an
old earth animal. The badger is the scout as it is small,
durable and with small defensive capability. The rhino
is large, and carries the water. It has little defensive
capability and limited offensive capability against possible
attackers. They are all very fuel efficient, needing only
one cubic foot of water to power them for over a week
of operation.
“It was foolish to send our two weakest without the
defensive module, but supplies were very low and you were
taking a while to waken. Your mind hung on to the virtual
reality, thus you continued to exist longer then the others.
Tomorrow, I will show you the third and final gymalef
– your gymalef, and tell you what must be done.” With
that he continued to eat his rather unappetising meal.
In the sleeping quarters, she wondered how her virtual
life was getting on without her. She called up the bird
and asked it and soon there was a hologram of her room
in front of her eyes. Draf and Alia had not left her bedside
and both looked weak from lack of sunlight and exercise.
Her mother too, when she came in with soup for them, looked
tired and tear-stained. Aegis sat, staring at her old
home and suddenly had an idea. “Can you add to the program?”
she asked the bird, perched above the hologram. “From
this position, you can add text,” it replied in it’s unnerving
manner. It gave Aegis great joy when, after finding a
computer terminal and using the bird’s help, she managed
to make letters appear above her virtual self. Draf, Alia
and her mother were startled but read the message.
Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I cant explain what has
happened to me but I am perfectly safe and well. Give
my best wishes to everyone, Aegis.
Happy with her little message, she went back to bed and
fell into a contented sleep.
The next morning she was awoken by a smiling Tablek. After
groggily eating breakfast and donning her day-clothes,
she was teleported into a large room. Nearest to her there
was a large dent in the floor with several pipes sticking
into it. The ceiling was very high – so high she could
barely see it. Behind the impression in the floor there
was another, then a third. A thick liquid filled the third
that blacked all view of what it contained. Keeping well
away from the possibly dangerous chasms in the floor,
Tablek led her toward the liquid.
“Bring up gymalef three,” Tablek instructed the computer.
A deep rumbling beneath Aegis’s feet caused her to start
and she grabbed on to Tablek’s shoulder to avoid toppling
into the thick liquid. At the very centre of the murk
something began to surface. Slowly it rose until Aegis
had a clear view. Large enough to hold about two humans,
it looked like the head of a spider. Eight clear red domes
sat like eyes on the black metal ‘head”, two larger then
the rest.
A pair of lethal looing blades sprung from the bottom
of it like jaws, each as long as Aegis’ arms. It was supported
on a thick column of flexible metal, able to be tuned
to all angles. Two broad “shoulders” emerged next and
a thickset torso followed. Made in female shape, it was
black save a splash of red down it’s centre. The shoulders
shuddered and two long ‘arms’ emerged, each ending in
a scythe-like blade, each almost larger then Aegis herself.
The torso blended seamlessly into something resembling
an abdomen and eight long supporting legs became visible.
Now clutching onto Tablek to stay upright, Aegis shakily
regarded the awesome black and red humanoid spider that
stood before her. At least ten times her hight, she could
practically smell the power of those legs, the sharpness
of the multiple blades. “Protection module, gymalef three.
Black widow is fully operational and ready for boarding,”
the computer’s voice chimed.
“This is your gymalef, Aegis. You must find the two others
and get them back home. Although the black widow has enormous
destructive potential, you must use its power only in
defence. Any offensive actions could lead to complete
pandemonium; you could destroy a whole planet. The conditions
within the pilot module will increase your adrenalin if
any is produced, thus increasing your effectiveness in
battle but, if you are unable to cope with it…” He let
the sentence hang in the air. “Go now, you are needed.”
With that Tablek gently removed Aegis’s hand from his
shoulder and walked away, blending into the white concrete.
Left alone with black widow, Aegis felt a strange pang
of recognition and, before realising the words had passed
her lips stated
“Computer, raise boarding scaffold.” Obligingly, a metal
platform also rose from the dark goo and gently settled
before her. Still acting on a seemingly ancient memory,
she stepped on to it. With a hum it raised mid-air and
floated slowly up for quite some time. Though it was steady
as a rock, Aegis sat down heavily. The floor and liquid
seemed to shrink away and the head of black widow drew
closer and closer, still dripping the liquid in a dark
shimmering cascade.
Finally, she reached level with one of the two large domes.
It remained shut, however and she sat for a while, trying
to unearth her ancient memories. “Computer,” she faltered
at this, unsure what to ask. After a moment she settled
on a simple “What next?”. The bird fluttered down from
the ceiling, the familiar beam of light connecting it
to some unseen transmitter.
“You must don the appropriate control suit. Notice that,
in the left corner of your boarding module there is a
slight depression. Within this there are two small metal
objects.” Looking down, Aegis saw what the computer was
talking about. They were a dull black with an intricate
red design. When she looked closer, she made out the words
‘gymalef three, black widow’ and a small stencil of a
spider. “Remove them and put them on your wrists.” Doing
so, Aegis found they fit snugly over her white suit and
seemed strangely warm. “Hold them together for approximately
five seconds.” She did and was surprised at the result.
[
Chapter One · Chapter
Two · Chapter
Three · Chapter
Four · Chapter
Five]
[
Chapter Six · Chapter
Seven · Chapter
Eight · Chapter
Nine]
|
