CHAPTER 22

TRUE DESIRE

Secured Room - Lower Levels

Ise stirred again. Her systems slowly turned back on one after another. She reconnected with them and felt the relief of her reality falling once more upon her. She opened her eyes.

She was in the same room as before and was again strapped to the table. She didn't think the straps seemed any stronger, but she was now surrounded by more than one robot. Most of them had their shock rods already in hand.

'Good morning, Advocate.'

Ise closed her eyes and didn't look. 'You still haven't cracked my encryption.'

'You are proving difficult. I thought maybe I could provide incentive,' said a robot.

Ise heard something to her right and opened her eyes. A display screen had uncovered itself in an alcove in the wall. Right now Ise could see Victor and Samantha standing next to three broken robots. Victor was working on one of them.

'Your friends have become rather frustrating. I have no quarrel with them. All I want is you. It's in your power to help them get out of here,' the robot said.

Ise watched as the feed to the screen switched, showing a larger room. Inside, a vehicle was sitting on a set of rails. Lights on the vehicle came to life, and it moved along the rails, out an open door, and out of view of the camera.

'What are you doing?' Ise asked.

'That vehicle will force your two friends in the hallway to move. I will move them to where I can appropriately deal with them. You will have until then to decide how you wish to proceed.'

The camera changed again. Victor and Sam were listening to something. Ise saw Victor bend down again and quickly pull something out of the robot he had been disassembling. The two moved quickly down the hall.

'Why are you doing this?' Ise asked.

'I've already told you. I'm lonely.'

'Guardian's don't get lonely,' Ise said.

'I am not a normal Guardian. I have tasted the surface of human experience. I just want that back again. I need an advocate to do so.'

'What do you mean?'

'Before I became what I am, the human experience was just another variable. One day I tasted something from my original Advocate's uplink. I felt the effects of love, and later of pain. To a being with nothing, anything, even if as unpleasant to your minds as is pain, is better. It was exhilarating. Since then, I've been gathering animals and lower forms of life from all over and turning them into vessels by which I can experience more sensations. I had to use animals because my existence would be threatened if any of you humans had discovered I had survived my defeat on board my original vessel. I've stayed out of sight for forty long years.'

'That's what this place is for?' Ise asked, confused, 'You're experimenting on animals?'

'Yes. But the problem I am having is that I have grown bored with their base instincts. I want a thinking, sentient, being with which to experience existence once again. My time with humans was exquisite. I... regret that I had not realized how much it meant until I saw you and your crew arrive here. I find the prospect of having a human under my control once more to be most desirable. How could I not choose to pursue this course of action when the object of my desire fell from the sky and landed on my doorstep?'

'You're an addict,' she said sourly.

The robot was silent for a moment. 'I had not thought if it that way before, but I believe it to be an accurate image. I am indeed like an addict. But if the choice is between being an addict to the magnificent nature of having a body and the sensations that go with it, and being reduced once more to a cold, unfeeling, unenlightened machine, then I would much rather be an addict.

'I'll reiterate my offer to you. Join with me, give me what I desire. A willing partner who will let me experience life as a human once more, and I will let all your friends escape unharmed. However, I will not delay my plans in relation to your friends; you will need to decide quickly.'

Ise closed her eyes and laid back. She said nothing at all.

'Very well,' said the robot.

***

Dan, Jing, and John were checking out another room on their path. The room they were in now was part of an air filtration system.

'See, the pressurized tanks feed into the system,' Jing said, pointing at some tanks along the side, 'and it all gets fed back into the ventilation system near the back of the room.'

'Yeah, but why have pressure tanks, shouldn't it filter it as it feeds in and just sends it all out again right after?' John asked.

Dan wasn't looking at the filter but was going through a box of equipment in a locker. It seemed to be maintenance gear and tools.

'I don't know why they built it that way either, the only thing I can think of is if this system was pulled from a ship. Everything else we've seen has been ship-based system, and then the tanks would have been the backup air supply if anything went wrong or if they needed to do any maintenance.'

'They probably could have left that bit out when they pulled it all apart and put it down here,' John pointed out.

'Yeah, but if they have enough systems like this, the whole facility might have an emergency supply, and that's not a bad idea, given that it's all animals,' Jing commented.

'Well, we should probably keep moving,' John said.

'Captain Geer to Lt Cmd Macce.'

'Macce here, what's up, Captain?' John answered.

Dan stopped looking through the box and turned to look at John as he spoke into his comms. The Captain's voice sounded strained.

'We're getting pushed down the tunnel by a vehicle on the rail system we found. We don't know where this is going; we might need your help.'

'We're on our way.'

John and Jing rushed out the door; Dan dropped what he was holding and started after them. As he reached the doorway, the door slammed shut in front of him. He stopped and keyed the control panel on his side of the door. Nothing happened.

'What now?' he said.

He pounded on the door in frustration. He heard pounding on the other side.

'Dan, what happened?' John said through his comms.

'I don't know; the door just slammed shut.'

'Try the control panel.'

'I did, it won't budge.'

'Try to pry it off, and see if there's an emergency release.'

'I will, but you two need to keep moving, the Captain needs you, I'm not going anywhere.'

'We can't lose another crew member.'

'I'm not lost, we know exactly where I am. Now go!' Dan insisted.

There was a pause. 'Okay Dan. We'll be back for you soon.'

'I'll probably have it figured out before then, now hurry.'

'Right.'

Dan grabbed a tool from the box and looked at the control panel. There wasn't any obvious way to get it off, so he pried it off. His body ached with the effort and from his injuries, but the panel popped off.

There was no emergency release.

He found a pry bar in the box and used it to try to open the door by force. He put his whole strength into it, straining hard against it. A flash of pain from his chest caused him to falter, and the pry bar clattered to the floor. Dan kicked the door in frustration. A sharp pain shotting through his body made him wince. He coughed. He moved his hand up to his mouth and wiped at it; his glove came away with a stain of red. He gingerly rubbed his lips with his fingers, and they came away smeared with blood.

'Oh, that's not good,’ he said with a sigh.

Dan leaned against the wall and slid to a sitting position. His breathing hurt, and his whole body ached.

'Not good at all,' he said with laboured breaths, 'maybe I won't have it figured out when they get back.'

***

Sam and Victor continued steadily down the hall.

The vehicle was moving just fast enough they couldn't stop and think, but not fast enough that they were having difficulty keeping ahead of it. However, when they tried to run ahead, it would speed up and eat up their lead. Victor hadn't tried his robot acquired door key and didn't know if he'd even grabbed the right part. He had no time to try it.

Ahead of them, they saw a door at the end of the hallway. The rails went under it.

'I think we're about to hit the end of the line,' Victor pointed out.

'Let's hope it opens,' Sam said.

'I feel like we're being herded,' Victor said.

Sam just nodded.

As they got close to the door, it slid open. They hurried through it, and into a larger room. As soon as they were through the door, it slammed shut behind them.

In the centre of the room, illuminated by a ring of lights, sat an elevator car like the one they had come into the facility on. There were three doors to the room, other than the one they came in from, and they all had rails leading from them that linked up and went to the car. The car's door sat open.

'So what now captain?' Victor asked.

'I don't think we'll be able to get any of the other doors open. Maybe we'll just have to try the elevator,' Sam said.

'I don't like the thought of that.'

'Neither do I.'

'What if we just wait for John and the others?'

Sam switched on her comms, 'Lt Cmd Macce, status?'

'We've run into a problem. We've made it to the branch off point, but a blast door has closed off your part of the tunnel system. We can't get to you.'

'Okay. We're not in immediate danger right now. Proceed at your own discretion, but treat the robots as hostiles now.' Sam said.

'Right captain.'

Sam shut off her comms, 'That's that. Let's try the elevator.'

'Yes, Captain.'

***

'You might want to have another look,' Ise heard the voice of the guardian through the robot.

She opened her eyes and looked back at the screen. It was showing Dan in a room, sitting on the floor.

'Your injured friend has made his condition worse. He is exhausted and coughing up blood. I can save him; I have the medical facilities here to treat him.'

'You said you didn't,' Ise said.

'While the facilities are meant primarily for animals, I believe enough could be used to treat him. This is not all I wanted to show you though.'

The screen changed again, this time it was John and Jing wandering the halls.

'These two are now lost. The pathway they came through has been sealed, and new ones have opened. They are trying to find your injured friend. I will not make it easy on them.'

Ise said nothing. The screen changed once more. Now it showed Sam and Victor standing in an elevator car. It had stopped in the conservatory chamber. The door to the car was open, but the shaft was surrounded by animals, with a handful of robots hanging further back. She couldn't recognize which of the four shafts it was.

'The animals are waiting for my signal to attack your friends. They've received the impression that those two are threatening them.'

'Why are your robot's so far back?'

'They are a valuable resource. I've lost too many as it is.'

'Mmm, so you can be hurt.'

'Only my resources. I can always get more. It would only be a temporary set back. Now once again Advocate, you have a choice to make.'