<- Chapter 6: It's Just Not Fair
While talking to Mr. SeBright, I get another message from Lunie. By skipping physical forms of communication, the message is able to register much more quickly.
The scientists that had studied my portals, that were now in my space station, were all military trained. One major thing that I hate about militaries is that they train people to lose some of their natural appreciation for life, so it's easier for them to kill. I believe that anyone capable of killing, unless in defense of themselves or someone they know, is insane. One can argue that militaries kill in defense of their nation, but whether it's defense or not, they're trained not to question the order and to need no reason.
Also, many scientists think more on a philosophical level than a realistic one. After discussing it, they decided that it would prevent future wars to destroy the planet and repopulate the human race themselves. In response to this, Lunie shut down many of the space station's systems. The scientists have, as a result, begun separating the remote portalling unit from the rest of the system, so they could turn it back on.
There are six of them, but only one of me.
"Feb!," I quickly turn, mid-conversation, "Do you still have that robotic armor?"
"Yeah... Why?"
"Some people in the space station are going to try to open a portal to the Earth's core. I'll go try to distract them while you get that armor on."
As I turn to run to the nearest portal, Ray says "Untie me and I'll come too."
I untie Ray and we run to the nearest portal, which Lunie opens from the lab to the space station. Because of my mechanical body, I'm faster than Ray is, so I get to the portal well before him, but it's not easy to get lost in here, so I don't worry about that too much.
When I get to the space station, I run right to the room that controls the portalling device. I see two of the scientists there, looking at the disabled controls thinking about how they probably work.
"Hey," I start, "What are you doing?"
I act as if I have no knowledge of what they're doing, as I make light conversation and have them explain everything. I walk around the room like I'm in deep thought pondering their suggestion. This is so they'll suspect nothing as I walk over to the keyboard. I grab the keyboard and pull it quickly, snapping it's wire, and toss it through the monitor. I then turn around to find that the scientists had fled. I try to leave, but the door is locked. It's a steel door too, which I set up to keep people out of this room. I start looking around for some way I can get out. Even if I wind up in space, there are places where I can re-enter, and I don't need to breathe.
As I enter the space station, Lunie greets me from the nearest speaker console. It looks like Dr. Shay set up a lot of these, probably for communication with Lunie. She tells me that I should pick up a headset from the nearby closet. I open the closet and see a box labeled "Digital Tour Guide". The headsets were probably for giving some sort of tour of the space station. I grab one and turn it on.
I hear her through the headphones, "Now I can talk to you without anyone else hearing me."
"Yeah, now which way are they?"
Some lights change color from blue to red where the floor meets the wall.
"Follow the red line. It'll take you to the system's power supply."
I start following the line as she continues, "Three of the scientists are in a room near the battery. Occasionally, one will go to the battery to check some schematics. If someone's in there checking the battery, I'll use yellow lights where you should wait."
"You don't think I can handle one guy?"
"It's a woman, actually. I'd prefer to minimize confrontation, especially since you're completely unarmed."
When I get there, I wait by the yellow lights, like she said to do. After about a minute, the line turns red again, signalling that I can go.
The room is dark and full of wires. There's doesn't seem to be any source of light. Lunie explains that if I simply damage the center of the battery, it should quickly give off all it's energy and become unable to hold a charge. If I remove one of it's connections first, the charge won't be able to go into the portalling system. It's a rather large metal tank. I rip out one of the wires and kick the tank, making a loud clang sound.
"Uh oh," I hear "They heard that."
I look around for a second, and pull the other wire connected to the battery from it's other port and jam it into open port I created when I pulled the first wire out to create a complete circuit so the battery will run itself out. As I tie the other end of the wire to the battery, using the wire I ripped out before, a woman appears in the doorway, looks at me, and runs off. I grab and pull out a couple more random wires in the room before getting out of there. I tie the door shut with one of the pulled wires, and hold the other while I wait.
The woman comes back with two guys. They have a fire extinguisher.
"What are you doing here?", One of them asks.
"I just decided to visit, nothing more."
One of them looks at the tied doorknob and asks, "Really? Then why is that door tied shut?"
"I don't know," I respond.
The one with the fire extinguisher lifts it up as if to club me. I quickly snap the wire I'm holding at his armpit causing him to drop it on the upswing. It lands on the handle and starts spraying everywhere. I can barely see or breathe. I lose consciousness.
When I wake up, I'm tied to a chair, once again. This time I'm tied with a wire, probably the one I was holding. Still a bit groggy, I hear "First the console gets smashed and now the battery's fried. We're gonna have to route in power from the main generator. Since we're rerouting anyway, we should reroute to a console near the generator too."
At that moment, the lights go out and I begin to feel a good deal lighter. I wonder if I'm dead, as I feel myself floating, but then I realize that I'm still tied to a chair.
I then hear "Hmm, somebody must be listening."
I get my armor on and head to the portal. It's somewhat big and bulky, so I don't move quite as fast as I otherwise would. Once I get in, Lunie tells me to break the main or secondary central processor, which are on opposite sides of the space station. They're there so the station wouldn't need Lunie, for when we were going to eventually add high speed traveling to it. By destroying them, all system processes would have to go through Lunie. The secondary one is closer, so I'll take care of that one. It's fairly easy for me to get to, and a few slashes is all it takes to destroy it.
"Want me to go after the other one?"
"No, while you were destroying the secondary processor, I was building up power in the main generator. I'm going to send the other processor a large surge in 23 more seconds. Unfortunately, dad is locked in the portal control room. See what you can do about that."
I start to head to the portal control room and ask, "What about Ray?"
"He just took care of the remote portalling device's battery power. He's been spotted, but he's too far from where you are for you to be of much help."
I reach the door to the portal control room.
"Rick?"
"Feb?"
"Yeah."
"Look for a broken wire. If the door has power again, Lunie should be able to open it."
I find a broken wire, but a full segment of it is missing. I can't connect the two ends. I bend my wrist for a blade to come out. I carefully remove some of the rubber coating from the end of each wire, and then rest them carefully on the blade. The door opens. I quickly retract the blade and hug him.
Rick suddenly looks worried for a sec, and all the power goes out. As the station stops spinning, gravity ceases.
"Lunie turned off the generator. You get there and guard it. I'll go untie Ray again."
"Without any power, how will Lunie keep track of where the scientists are?"
"She won't."
He swims off. I start to try to move around, but I'm too big and bulky to swim in this armor. I take it off. The lack of gravity gives me a bit of an advantage because of my wings. I can move any way I want to, and at a higher speed than simple arms would allow for. I disconnect the blades from the armor and hold one in each hand as I fly to the generator.
Chapter 8: Deadly Butterfly ->
Copyright 2007 Sean Breslin