Spheria (32 page)

They pulled harder. Slowly, the beam moved deeper into the cylinder. It wobbled and spun a bit, as the conflicting forces of the blue rock competed to eject it. The rope creaked with the strain, and pulling became harder.

Sa∙ma joined the others and grabbed the remaining length of rope. They all strained together. The beam moved further into the cylinder and was nearly to the back.

“On the count of four, release it,” directed Sa∙ma. “One… two… three… four!”

The rope was released. The beam was ejected out of the front of the cylinder with incredible speed and force. It slammed into the first leg of the tower, completely obliterating it, and continued into the second leg, knocking it to the side.

#

Fa∙ro watched as the Workers lined up around an object. They seemed to be forming a line and moving slowly away from the tower, stopping, then moving a little more. They all fell backward at the same time.

Something caught his eye. The tower appeared to shudder. He focused on it, and something wasn’t right. The tower wasn't pointing exactly at the Source but leaned slightly to one side. It began to tilt, slowly at first, but then faster. In a blur, it collapsed sideways. His dream of reaching the Source had been thwarted by the same Workers he’d enslaved to create it.

If Fa∙ro’s core could’ve turned red, it would have. “Ga∙zo! Gather your Soldiers. I want all of them, every last one, destroyed.”

Chapter 41 - Button Mashup

“One thing I'm not going to do is chase staying alive. You spend so much time chasing staying alive, you won't live.” - Patrick Swayze

The elevator arrived on the first floor, and Min exited. Sunlight rained down through the skylight, illuminating the potted trees and benches. It was blinding to her red, puffy eyes.
What time is it?
she wondered. She looked down the hallway in the direction of campus security but headed in the opposite direction instead.

#

Dana was preparing for the board meeting. In one hour, she was to present their grant awards to Graham in the Experience Room. Appropriate, as this was their gateway to another world – a world with different rules that made sense, in a weird way. It was completely opposite of the grant process on earth. She wondered how anything ever got done given that some of these government agencies were still functioning in the Dark Ages. She saved her presentation to a flash drive just as Min stormed into her office.

Min was out of breath.

“Can I help you?” Dana scowled at her.

“… Max… wrong…. weapon…” she stammered, barely able to get the words out.

“Weapon?” Dana was intrigued. She stood and assisted Min to a chair. “Relax. What’s gotten you so flustered?”

“It’s Max… I found a room… a duplicate of the server room… but all red… he's working on a super weapon… working for the military.”

Dana stared at her blankly, trying to process what she’d heard. Min knew what she said didn’t make much sense. But she also knew she was in danger. She needed Dana to know about the room in case something happened to her.

“Olivia... It all makes sense now,” said Min. “She didn’t commit suicide. She was onto this, and something bad happened to her. I want you to know before it happens to me.”

Dana rose, went to her office door and locked it from the inside. Then she pulled a bottle of water out of her mini fridge and handed it to Min.

“Please, calm down,” she said. “We’re safe here. Let me know what this is all about.”

Min twisted open the bottle cap and began to chug it down. She realized she’d not drunk anything all night and was parched from the dry air in the server room. She drained the bottle.

“Well, I sense you've had an exciting night.”

“Very,” Min replied.

“How so?”

“I was in the server room, our server room…”

“Our server room,” Dana repeated. “What other server room is there?”

“I'm getting to that. I was up in the server room and spilled my coffee.”

“You know drinks aren't allowed in there!” Dana scolded.

“I know, sorry. But I was cleaning it up, and it got under the floor tiles. That’s when I found a duplicate server room directly below ours, and it was full of only red Qubes. There was a terminal there, and I hacked in. The Qubes were being used to calculate a power source for a new military super weapon.”

“Is this some kind of joke?” Dana asked, incredulous.

“No… No… I wish it were. I'm serious. Max found me in the room, and he tried to kill me. He was furious.”

“Max,” Dana said with a look of shock. She walked back to her desk and squatted underneath to get her purse. “We need to find him.”

“No. Why? He’s after me!”

“We need to question him.”

“No, we don’t. We need to get out of here.”

“Maybe you’re right. Let’s go to my house. We can talk there without him around.”

Dana unlocked the door and exited the office. “Follow me,” she commanded.

Min trailed behind her.

#

Chelsea tried to stay awake as Dr. Reynolds lectured from the podium in Massey Auditorium. Behind him was a large projection of a fractured bone. He zoomed in on a clump of blood cells in the gap between the break.

“After the bone is set, these hematoma cells will gradually be replaced with hyaline cartilage,” he said. “It will then be calcified into new material, fusing the bones together. Your assignment over the weekend is to research how this process works – a process we call ‘endochondral ossification.’ Please turn in a two-page paper on Monday describing it. And if you copy it from Wikipedia, I will know. Have a great weekend.”

He turned off the projector and began packing up his laptop.

The students began to mill around. Some talked in small groups. Others gathered to privately ask the professor questions, having been too shy to do so in front of the class. The rest began to shuffle into the hallway.

Chelsea loaded the thick textbook into her backpack and hoisted it onto her back. She followed the crowd out of the lecture hall. For the most part, the students all headed toward the academic lobby, which led to the building exit. A few stragglers went to the library, or in the opposite direction to another class or a laboratory.

Two women abruptly rushed into the same hallway from one of the management wings. They seemed to be in a big hurry, and Chelsea watched them curiously as they merged into the flow of students.

Suddenly a tall man appeared on the opposite side of the crowd, seemed to recognize the women, and began to push through the crowd. Beneath unsightly fresh bruises, his face was red with anger. The gaggle of people moving towards him impeded his progress.

The older woman noticed him, grabbed the other’s arm, and pulled her in the opposite direction. “Let’s get out of here fast!” she said. “Stay close.”

They broke from the crowd and rushed down the corridor, entering an inconspicuous door on the side of the hallway.
 
The man pushed his way through the students, shoving many aside.

Chelsea heard rumors of other experiments going on in the research building, but now she decided she didn’t want to know. She continued on her way, wondering about bone ossification.

#

The door led into a stairwell. “We can get to the parking lot this way,” said Dana to Min. She dashed downward. Min pumped her legs to keep up.

As they reached the bottom, they heard the door above open and someone start down, skipping stairs.

“This way,” whispered Dana. Instead of ducking out the exit door, they entered the basement and sprinted down a long hallway. Min knew Max had heard them since he was just one floor above. He’d assume they went outside, so Dana was trying to throw him off their trail. They got about 30 yards down the corridor when the stairwell door opened, and Max nearly fell through. Min and Dana both glanced back and locked eyes with their pursuer.

“Shit!” said Dana. “C’mon.” She made an abrupt right turn and headed deeper into the basement. This area was a maze of storage rooms, partitioned from floor to ceiling with rusted chain link fencing. The lighting was dimmer, and it looked like something one would see in a Grade B horror flick. Min was confused but assumed Dana knew the area and could find a place to hide. Or maybe a shortcut out the other side and they’d lose Max in the twisting passages. Min didn’t have much time to think about it as keeping up with Dana took all of her focus.

Max crashed into the fencing behind them. He was closer now. They turned again and again. It seemed like they were slowing, and Max was catching up. It was possible to see through the walls and across the stored debris – tables, chairs, medical equipment, a ping pong table. It didn’t provide enough concealment; their escape was failing!
 

They dashed into a caged room. It was empty save for a large iron boiler-like apparatus. It was a dead end.

“Shit,” Min whispered to Dana.

They turned around. Max stood in the doorway, blocking their egress.

Chapter 42 - Storm Wind

“Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.” - Robert Frost

The mass of Soldiers was too many to keep to the trail, so they fanned out, pushing through the foliage. Somewhere ahead, the remains of the tower would lie, surrounded by the disloyal Workers.

Or at least Ga∙zo hoped they were still there. But he doubted it. Whatever motive led them to this organized betrayal must’ve also made them scatter and hide. It would’ve been easy to predict the reaction of the Colony.

“I expect the Workers have fled,” said Ga∙zo to Za∙zo, who followed close behind. “When we get to the tower base, we’ll need to spread out and find them. Each of us should be able to kill a couple of them, and if we find them one-on-one, we’ll wipe them out in short order.”

“Agreed,” responded Za∙zo. He was too enraged to have a conversation. Ga∙zo sensed this so he fell silent. When they reached the tower ruins, he’d gather them up and give additional instructions. The pursuit of the Workers into the foliage was his plan. But since it was unexplored territory, he figured they’d take it slow, lest they fall into a river.

Bam!

Za∙zo was knocked onto his back by Ga∙zo’s body, which spontaneously reversed direction. Dazed, they both picked themselves off the ground. Regaining their senses, they observed a blue glow before them. A long channel had been cleared through the foliage, perpendicular to their heading. In the center of the track, forming a wall, was a continuous line of vertical blue rock. It stretched in both directions as far as they could see.

“What the Rift?” said Za∙zo.

“Indeed,” mused Ga∙zo. “The Workers are more cunning than expected.” He looked up and down the clearing as the remainder of the Soldiers emerged from the foliage. They came to a halt, looking puzzled and discouraged.
 

“Find the edge,” shouted Ga∙zo to the Soldiers on his immediate left and right. They, in turn, communicated the instructions to their nearest neighbor, and so on, until the message traveled to the furthest Polyan at each end. These charged away, seeking to locate a way around the fence.

Ga∙zo held up a leg, and the Soldiers gathered around him. “Fellow Polyans. What’s been committed today is nothing short of an attack on the heart of the Colony. Our beloved leader, Fa∙ro, sought only to take his natural place next to the other gods. And he’d look down upon us with respect and admiration.
 

“He would’ve rewarded us with a continuous and endless yellow Source. This would’ve halted our need to replenish energy. We Soldiers would no longer have had to hunt for violet energy cores. And the Drones would no longer have had to forage for green power crystals. By destroying the tower, the Workers have dashed our hope for a simpler life. Their act has been a betrayal of Fa∙ro, the Colony, and each of us as individuals.”

The Soldiers listened intently to their chief. They stood motionless, and an eerie silence spread through the dim morning light. Ga∙zo continued.

“Never before has Polyan opposed Polyan at this level of intensity. After the purge of the Leaders, Fa∙ro thought their evil guidance had come to an end. But now we see their destructive ways have corrupted the honor of the Workers. It’s clouded their judgment and desire to serve the collective. By wrecking the tower, they wounded us all.