CHAPTER 23

OPPORTUNITY

Elevator Car – Conservatory Chamber

The elevator ride was short. Sam had been hoping the car might just go back to the upper levels of the facility, but as it had stopped back at the conservatory, she had lost hope.

Now she wished that it would just go anywhere but here.

The doors to the car had opened, sliding up in front of them. Surrounding the car in a circle was a ring of assorted animals. Behind the ring, standing a fair distance off, were a handful of silver-skinned robots. Above them flew several large birds.

'What now captain?' Victor asked.

They were standing as far back in the car as they could, each with their sidearm out and raised.

'I'm not sure Vick. Maybe we can negotiate with the Guardian.'

'Worth a try.' Victor said.

'Guardian! What do you want from us?' Sam shouted.

There was no answer.

Sam turned on her comms system.

'John, you there?'

'Yes, Captain.'

'What's your status?'

'We can't find a way to you. All the doors are sealed up tight.'

'Keep at it,' Sam said.

'Aye captain.'

Sam turned off her mic.

They stood there in the quiet, waiting for something to happen. None of the animals moved from their spots. The only sounds were of their breathing and the gentle breeze of the air filtration systems within the conservatory.

'He's just trying to keep us here.' Sam noted.

'I'd rather not stay. I may have an idea to get us out of here Captain.'

'Go ahead.'

'We guessed that the Guardian was behind the jamming of our link with the ship, but we figured he wasn't jamming us down here because it would disrupt his Advocate link with the robots and the animals. If I can jam that now, the animals wouldn't be in such perfect formations right about now. I think we'd have a chance to get away.'

'And how would you do that?' Sam asked.

'I have the frequency of the Guardian's Advocate uplink on my tablet. It was connected to Ise when she tried to access the Guardian's link and override his systems.'

'She did what?' Sam asked, surprised.

Victor was quiet for a moment. 'I neglected to mention that before didn't I?'

'Yep.'

'She tried to hack into the Guardian to get answers. She was overwhelmed by its defences, it's at the point the robot showed up, and I was knocked out.'

'No wonder he's so angry... can a Guardian even be angry?'

'I didn't think so, but it seems that way.'

'It's not important, can you jam its link?'

'Can't hurt to try.'

'Not anymore, no. Do it.'

***

Ise could do little else except watch as Sam and Victor stood frozen in the elevator shaft, surrounded by animals under the Guardian’s control.

The robot closest to her turned to her. 'It's not too late to decide you want to join me. No one else will be able to save them, your wounded friend is trapped, and the other two won't get anywhere near the elevator without my so desiring it. It was rather foolish of them all to charge off into the lower levels of my facility.'

Ise looked at the robot. 'You are full of yourself.'

'Oh, how I have missed the human wit. I could now comment you are not so full of yourself. You have considerably less of your original human parts remaining within your frame. In essence, you are full of something else,' Exo said, 'My old Advocate was far more human than you were.'

'Advocate's are a little more advanced than they used to be.'

'You trade off increasingly more of your human frame to be more like a machine and call that advancement. How strange it must be to find a machine that desires you for your humanity. However, I still think there's enough of you left to matter. Otherwise, I would never try to make this deal with you.'

On the screen, Ise noticed Victor had pulled out his tablet and was working on it as quickly as he could. She didn't know if Exo had seen Victor, but tried to buy them some time.

'What exactly would happen if I agreed?'

'You would give me the encryption code to your Advocate Uplink systems and grant me access. From there we could discover what it means to be human, in as much as we are able. I would cease to be alone. You would experience something no other human will ever have the opportunity to do that being to have life experienced vicariously through you.'

'What promises can I get that my friends would be all right though?'

'So long as you are here, you'd have full right to keep me on track with that promise. I would keep them from harm, and even give them a ship to leave in, provided your ship and Guardian don't come back.'

'I may still need a minute to think.'

'You will have at le-' the robot cut off in mid sentence. It stood there perfectly still. 'Error, uplink lost,' it said.

On the screen, the animals all milled around. Ise noticed something rushing forward from the edge of the screen. A humanoid with red skin and a white flight suit ran towards the animals with its arms in the air. Ise recognized this as a Linkal. The animals nearest to it scattered and fled. It paused and looked towards Victor and Sam. The three looked at each other for a moment before the Linkal turned and moved off. Victor and Sam took after it.

She looked back at the robot. It was still repeating it's same error message again and again. She tried her strength on the new restraints holding her down. They were no stronger than the last and quickly snapped under the force she exerted on them.

Suddenly the robot moved again, a stun rod back in its hands, pointing it at Ise. Ise stopped struggling.

'Very clever, your friend jammed my uplink, allowing them to escape. I have re-established my connection by changing the frequency, but it seems the two in the elevator have escaped. You will do no such thing, nor would it be in your best interest to try to escape again, your injured friend is still in my possession.'

The display screen changed to showing Dan, still resting on the floor in his sealed room.