Gamma Nine (Book One) (5 page)

Pain rocked
Christian’s leg and he bit down a curse, he just watched Sam as he
continued to meander on about his job. He still lay there, unable
to move, as Sam launched into a detailed account of his final
surgery. Sam was odd, tall and thin, like a lost bamboo stalk
separated from the rest of his bamboo family. Glass thicker than
void windows inserted into what seemed to be old welding goggles
covered his eyes. The colour of his eyes just a smudge of green
behind the thickness of his ocular device. A grease-smeared face
and greying black hair completed Sam’s odd outward persona.

Sam looked like
just another deck engineer, destined to live in the bowels of a
void vessel, forever tinkering and maintaining ship systems. But
Christian knew better, the man at the foot of his bed was the Chief
Engineer of the Titan Project. A genius, that was the only word to
describe him, and now he was attending to Christian personally for
some unknown reason.

“Why are
you...?” Christian tried to say through his burning throat.

“Why am I here?
Oh, I thought you were told. You, Corporal Quinn that is, are the
last Titan that will be created during this cycle.” Sam took a deep
breath before he spoke again. “We are unsure if there will be any
more production cycles after this one. You see, our vaults are
empty, our resources dry. Only thirteen could be produced during
this cycle, which means that there was only enough of everything to
create thirteen complete suits and their Operators.”

Christian
nodded in acknowledgement. Shifting his eyes to the ceiling, there
were no words there in this room. The missing words made him
anxious.

“During dire
times there is always dire news. The Fateful Moment disappeared,
with all of our Nano systems and power system in its cargo bays for
the next ten cycles, some time ago. Anctinium is in very short
supply, enough to maybe produce a few more Titan suits, but without
the other systems it would just be an empty husk. All of them
worthless without the other pieces of the project puzzle.”

“When will I be
able to move?” Christian’s throat was on fire with every word he
spoke. Water, he needed water.

Sam somehow
sensed it. He walked over to the table beside the immobile future
Titan’s bed, producing a cold water pitcher from the cupboard
bellow the table.

Christian just
swallowed at the sight of the cold fluid inside the pitcher. His
body responded and he instinctively licked his dry lips.

Sam poured the
mesmerizing liquid into a container that looked like a child’s
drinking cup with twirled straw. He placed the twirled straw
between Christian’s lips. “This cup belonged to the daughter of the
previous occupant of this room, the young lady never made it past
the first surgery. Her heart too weak to handle the trauma caused
to her body,” his voice trailed off as a memory resurfaced. “I
watched her succumb to her wounds. Give me a bleeding and broken
machine and I will fix it without hesitation, but show me a human
in pain and I cry like a little girl.”

The cold liquid
was nectar from ancient gods, never had machine filtered water
taste so good. Usually it tasted like burnt coffee and underpants,
but now it was up there with the finest and most delicate wines he
had sampled during his younger years.

Even though he
was just twenty-nine, he still felt like he had wasted most of his
life on meaningless things. The decision to volunteer for the Titan
Project was one he had to make, his brother the inspiration, and
his own feeling of unworthiness fuelled the courage to go through
with it. Wherever his brother was now, he hoped he could make him
proud again. He hoped he could prove that he was not just a spoiled
brat from a disjointed family. All he wanted was his brother’s
approval, just to hear words of encouragement once. His first
objective of the mission to become a Titan was complete. He was
broken, in almost unbearable agony, but he had survived. And now he
was with Chief Engineer Walters, he needed to get on with the next
objective.

All of these
thoughts raced through his head as he sipped the life-saving liquid
with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes and spoke with growing
strength as Sam removed the cup’s straw from his lips. “What’s
next?”

Sam nodded and
lifted his dirty clipboard again. “So eager, let’s see here.” He
scanned through a list of names. “Oh, well that’s not very nice,”
he looked up and directly at Christian. “It would seem that you are
the punch line of some cosmic joke. Your Operator number is
QC0021-13. You have been assigned to suit...thirteen.” Sam paused
before speaking again. “Well, if you are killed during your first
mission you will know why at least.”

Christian let
out a slight chuckle at the last remark. “How long?” he asked.

“In about two
days your body will have recovered from the surgery. Wonderful
little things these Nanites you now have flowing through your
system. They can rebuild your tissue and muscles within hours, even
help you recover from fatal wounds - should you not be dead by the
time they start that is.”

“Only two
days?”

“Don’t get too
excited just yet cupcake...err I mean Corporal.” He gave Christian
a sly grin before continuing. “Please mind my manners, I am use to
speaking to machines and ship parts most of the time, and always in
curse words.”

Christian’s
voice was almost back to normal now, and he could feel the pain
subsiding in his hands and feet. “What then?” he asked.

“Then you will
go through Syncro training with your suit and then, well then,
uhm...” Sam looked uncomfortable as he went quiet. His eyes darted
back and forth from Christian’s prone body to the doorway. He hoped
someone would enter the room and save him from an explanation.

“What is it,
Sam?”

“Well, after
all of that you need to train in the Labyrinth,” he said.

“Sound
ominous,” Christian tilted his head up as he spoke, his joints not
aching as much anymore. “Should I be scared?”

Sam cleared his
throat and avoided answering the question. “Uh yes, when you are
able to walk again please report to Beta Facility for outfitting.
From there Syncro training can begin.”

“Great. Do they
have my measurements? I have a deceptively small waist.”

Sam just
sniggered and plodded out of the dull room, leaving him with his
diminishing pain and his last few hours of peace and quiet.

“
It made me feel immortal, impossibly
strong. But that feeling vanished as soon as you met your first
monster.”
-Operator Smith, Vigilance Squad, KIA

Beta Facility
looked like any other building on the Titan Project’s compound.
There was nothing peculiar about it, from the outside it could have
been mistaken for just another habitation block. But that was the
masterful deception created by the engineers that designed it.
Behind the steel and concrete walls the most advanced, and most
deadly, training facility in the galaxy could be found. Deep below
the facility level after level of fire ranges and training grounds
were built. Dozens of equipment, armouries and control rooms were
hidden from prying eyes, all of them housing crews of engineers
manufacturing weapons and experimenting with new systems. Beta
Facility looked different than Echo Facility, sanitary green and
white walls were replaced with bare metal and concrete.

It is in one of
these small rooms that Christian found himself. He had entered the
room through a keypad locked door, the code and instructions given
to him when he was released from Echo Facility. On the opposite
wall from the door was a giant mirror, or what was made to look
like one, staring back at him. He noticed the gaunt features of his
reflection, but he knew the weakness was only temporary as his body
healed from the surgeries. The Nano machines had done their job, he
was able to move and sit up only hours after Sam had left. His
strength returning to levels he never thought possible, he could
feel new power and vitality coursing through his veins. The pain
from the last few months only a feint shadow in the back of his
mind. The walls on either side of the room were bare metal, with
thin vertical and horizontal gaps everywhere, criss-crossing each
other. The walls looked like a complicated puzzle, pieces
overlapping without a clear discernable pattern.

Christian
reached out to run his hand over the wall and one of the closest
gaps.

“Don’t touch
that,” a male voice said from a hidden source. “We need to
calibrate it before we can begin.”

“Calibrate
what?” Christian asked, walking back to the centre of the room to
face the mirror.

“Operator,
please be silent.” Light sources were turned on behind the walls as
light spilled out through the gaps. Beneath Christian’s feet a
round bright light spot lit up. “Step onto the light,
Operator.”

Without
hesitation he stepped onto the light. As soon as he did a
bright-blue radiance swept over him from a hidden recess above the
mirror. He was now sure there were people behind the mirror. The
light scanned him from head to toe a few times before shutting off
and vanishing back into the wall.

“Please do not
move Operator. The system will calibrate now, move and you might
get torn apart by it.” The voice clicked off, more voices could be
heard in the background before the voice was cut off.

A drone started
building in the room, slowly rising to an approaching crescendo.
The gaps in the walls parted and shifted all around him, revealing
more light and unmoving mechanical arms behind the wall panels.
Panels started to fold away, parting in places to allow the
mechanical arms to extend and rotate outward. He counted at least
ten mechanical arms he could see in the mirror. He was so focused
on the arms whirring and clicking that he almost didn’t notice the
floor fall away, only the platform of light he was standing on was
still there. Beneath him more mechanical arms freed themselves;
these looked different. The ones from the walls were all equipped
with articulating mechanical hands, flexing fingers as they
rotated. The arms from the floor had what seemed to be various
implements instead of hands, ranging from welders to rotating
blades.

“Calibration
complete,” the voice confirmed as every mechanical arm froze in
place and took up positions surrounding Christian.

“Ready,
Operator?”

“Ready,” he
said with conviction.

“Do we have to
watch this?”

“If we want to
see our new squad member in action, then yes, we do have to.” Locke
leaned forward to manipulate the display on the wall.

All of the Grim
Wolves had gathered in one of the many observation rooms located
within Beta Facility. It looked more like an interrogation room
than anything else. Furnished by a wobbly table and a few prison
chairs. A large monitor was mounted on one of the walls, cycling
through different views of an Operator being manhandled by an army
of robotic arms. Individually clad in their remarkable and
freshly-painted suits, watching the monitor with detached interest.
They had come directly from training drills run in the upper
levels, ordered by Locke to report to the observation room to
evaluate their new recruit.

“I still don’t
see why we have to watch this,” Nathan complained again. “I could
be killing things instead of procrastinating here.”

Nathan was
always on edge, as if he expected an enemy to burst into the room
at any moment. Locke silently thanked himself during every mission
for the situational awareness his second possessed.

“Complain some
more mate, won’t change a thing. Captain might give you latrine
duty if you keep moaning like an old woman,” the Titan leaning
against the doorframe said. Sergeant Rivers’ ancestral drawl always
made him sound angry, but he was probably the most cheerful person
in the entire galaxy. His two best attributes being his ability to
crack a sarcastic comment or one liner at the right moment, and his
skill as a combat field engineer,

Another Titan
seated behind Locke shifted in his seat as he laughed. “Wait until
you see what I left in the latrines for you before we left,
Hyperion’s protein based sludge goes right through me,” he said,
tapping Nathan on the shoulder. “You might need to keep your suit
on for that one.” Xander was always quick to join in on Rivers’
jokes, even if it was funny or not. His entire suit festooned with
belts of rattling explosives, never going anywhere without things
that go boom.

“Keep it up,”
Nathan said as he turned around to face the last Titan seated
against the back wall, nodding at him. “Pyoter is with me on this
one.”

“Nyet. Not this
time Lieutenant.” Pyoter’s eastern wing of old Earth’s descent
clear with every word he spoke. He was the biggest Titan in the
entire division, standing almost seven feet tall without his
armour. It was an obvious choice to let him handle the squads heavy
weapons, his giant frame able to lift and carry almost everything
the military had available.

Locke finished
fiddling with the display and crossed his arms as he watched the
proceedings. “Quiet! Do you see that?” he asked, pointing at the
display.

He was smiling.
With every piece of equipment the mechanical arms attached to his
body his strength grew. His limbs were covered first; mesh suit
pieces slid into place over his limbs and then his chest and lower
body. The suit pieces were fit to his form and soldered together
with Anctinium interlocking hinges. These hinges formed the joints
of the protective mesh suit. When the arms retracted only a few
minutes had passed, he was now almost completely covered by the
Titan suit’s under layer. Only his face and the interface plugs in
his limbs and spine were visible.