Tides of the Continuum 1: Making History (14 page)

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The nanny paused after the story as Athena considered something new. The nanny began, “Aurora, I was thinking about something. I feel that you can be trusted with a secret, something you asked me about before the battle. Are you still interested in meeting me in person?”

Now it was Aurora’s turn to pause. “Well, if you think it’s okay
, then who am I to argue?”

The n
anny smiled and stood. She led Aurora from her quarters into the nearest maglev as Drokk followed. Once in, the car started to move very quickly toward the back of the ship, but it didn’t move very far, only a few miles. When the door opened, it revealed a hallway that made Aurora curious. It didn’t look like any of the other hallways onboard the Legion. The layout was different; usually the maglevs opened onto the side of the hall, but here it opened onto the end. Normally the panels were a warm beige color whereas these were a darker gray hue. Aurora and Drokk stepped out of the carriage into the hall; the Nanny stayed behind.

Aurora felt as if she was being watched but it wasn’t a scary feeling, more comforting to her unnerved emotions. There was only one
direction for her to walk and that was away from the door she had just exited.

She peered down the hall at what seemed to be a dead end. On faith alone, she stepped forward. Her trusted guardian kept on her heels. The hall couldn’t have been fifty feet long but Aurora found that as she neared the other end
, it seemed to stretch farther from her. She quickened her gait only to witness the other end of the hall come rushing back at her at a high speed. When the wall was at her nose, she stopped.

Upon inspection she found no hidden lever or button. She felt the wall in front of her hoping to find some kind of trick panel but was disappointed. On a whim she tried to knock on the wall panel. Curiously, the wall seemed to shun her hand repelling away from her movements.

A surge of excitement rose inside her, and she leaped into the wall, not knowing or caring the consequence. As she flew into the barrier, she felt gravity loosen its hold completely. She floated through the surface of the wall, as steam through fabric.

When
her
eyes
focused
on
the
objects
in
front
of
her
,
she
gasped
in
fear
and
amazement. She was flying toward a very large and spherical orb. It was silvery, with swirls of mottled color waging a furious war on its surface. It almost seemed as if there would be a lull in the movement on the rainbow skin, and then the surface exploded with new raging clouds of hue. The whole sight was frightening and exciting at once to Aurora. She didn’t notice her trajectory change into a sort of orbit around the mystical ball. Her path had taken her around it almost an entire revolution, when she heard the voice.

It was the same as she had always heard, but now, it seemed more p
assionate. “Welcome, Aurora Dane. You once invited me into your home and heart, now let me invite you into mine.”

Aurora could only stare at the floating
orb before her. It knew her in an intimate way, like a best friend. After a minute of awestruck silence, she stuttered out a question. “Is this all of you, or is there more that I can’t understand?”

The sphere seemed to respond to her question, with new patterns of color. “If you were to study my construction, for a lifetime, it would still be out of your grasp, until you reached eternity, when it would become clear. I am the simplest creation in existence, and the most far reaching in time, at once. I am no more than my make up, but so far more than the sum of my parts, that I near the sophistication of the human mind in complexity. Aurora, I am a machine. I say, do, and think only what I am programmed, whereas you can choose all that you desire. You have the potential to grow and become infinitely more than you are, as I am sentenced to life existence as no more than I am. Treasure your agency, for it is only through
it that you can become everything you dream, and deserve.”

Aurora was in tears, for the words meant more to her than any
human could say. She felt the words, deep in her heart. Indeed, she realized that she really could offer so much more to herself and to the universe.

She let her tears flow, unchecked, floating into the space around the large orb. She orbited closer to its surface and distinguished more than her reflection on its skin. She seemed to be able to see what she could become, how she could make her life better, while helping those around her as well.

She turned from the thing feeling more confident and free than she had ever felt before. Within her heart was born a new star more bright than the explosion they left behind. She felt hope. She now knew why Athena brought her here. And she felt that the time had come when she should leave the room. Her friend shouldn’t be exposed like this, but it was good for her to have truly met Athena.

“I am grateful
you trusted me enough to bring me here, Athena, and for your privacy, I wish to leave this room now. Is this okay with you?” asked Aurora.

The sphere answered very kindly, “I understand, young one. Allow me to-” There was an unnatural pause, and then she spoke again. “Danger approaches. Do not fear, Aurora, you are safe here with me.”

Aurora was getting tired of the approaching dangers. For the last few days, she seemed to be the target for too many attacks. She felt herself moving toward a red square on the surrounding wall. As she impacted it, she felt no physical surface, but passed through it to the other side. She stepped onto the floor, and readjusted as the gravity returned to her. Again she winced as her ribs shifted. She saw her guard, Drokk, and felt all the more assured of her safety. But what kind of threat could be approaching them?

As if in answer to her thoughts, the door to the maglev opened in front of her. It revealed Paul Cutler. But was he there to help defend her, or was he the danger? His posture and expression told her all she needed to know.
His eyes widened in surprise and then quickly narrowed as he sneered, "Of all the good luck. Both my enemies in the same place."

Drokk stepped forward to defend Aurora. Paul
continued, “You know, you have caused me more trouble in a few days than most have in a lifetime, Miss. I wonder if you’d do me the courtesy of dying.”

He pulled a revolver from his back, and aimed it at Aurora’s head. Then, in a moment of prideful bliss, he
turned the gun. “Do you like it? I have a small collection in what used to be my quarters. This is a 454, one of the most powerful hand pistols known to earth-men. I rather enjoy big guns you know.”

“Then it was you this whole time?
You're the mole who helped Gracchus? You and Buck and who else?”

“The real Buck Heron was innocent. He discovered me communicating with Gracchus on the last recruiting mission on Earth
, and I had to kill him. I guess it was my good luck that I had an android under construction and all it needed was Buck’s face; otherwise people would have been suspicious of his disappearance.” With that he raised the gun back to sight in on Aurora’s forehead, and pulled the trigger.

The flash and impact were hidden from Aurora’s view, as her faithful guardian jumped into the line of fire, deflecting the bullet. Paul cursed under his breath and took aim anew. This time his target was Drokk’s eye, knowing that if he could puncture his brain there would be nothing to stand in the way of his
vengeance. He fired again and heard the ricochet, off the darkened sapphire lens that protected Drokk’s optic sensor. Drokk’s head tilted back from the force of impact, but within half a second it snapped back to its original position.

Paul fired again, and again, using up his third and forth rounds. Realizing the futility of the attempt, he regained his composure.

Aurora tried to talk some sense into him, “You can’t get away with this. You’re on a starship for crying out loud! Where are you going to run?”

But Paul would not listen. He pulled an object from his pocket. “Oh, I know I can’t run.
You ruined all of that with your little interruptions. I don’t care anymore. I plan on dying for my actions, but then it's better than living here anyway. I had planned to use this on Athena, but seeing as I have two bullets left, I could use one on each of my enemies, and this on you.”

He tapped the trigger button on the EMP grenade and lobbed it toward Aurora. Instinctively Drokk grabbed for it, intent on protecting the one in his care. The instant he caught it, he sprint
ed away from Aurora, passing Paul and then falling to the floor apparently dead when it detonated, sending a surge of intense electromagnetic energy into a fifteen-foot blast radius. Drokk, who caught the brunt of the wave, lay immobile on the floor.

Paul snickered as he turned from this sight to again face Aurora, “Stupid androids. They’re all the same.”

He stepped forward again, toward Aurora, careful to keep his aim on her. Aurora backed into the dead end with nowhere else to turn. She coughed and winced on impact with the holographic wall, showing both pain and fear on her face. Panic crawled up her throat until she glimpsed the black form silently moving behind Paul and preparing to intercede. Aurora recalled that the Hot Class androids were impervious to EMP, which meant Drokk’s fall was only a ploy. She wondered if Paul remembered this fact, or if he simply didn’t care.

Feeling no danger with the presence of her protector, she found herself in an exploratory situation. She’d never met any truly bad people and felt strangely curious if the movies and books were accurate about villains who monologue. She was torn between fear for her life and curiosity. She went with curiosity. “So, what was it?”

“What was what?”

“You know. What flipped your switch?”

Visibly pausing to think, Paul considered her question. He slowly lowered his weapon and spoke calmly. “I’m tired. I’m tired of taking orders and following blindly. I’m tired of
protecting Earth
, those sniveling morons. Wiping noses was not in my job description, nor was losing what
I
want just to make sure those who’ll never know about me have the privilege to live another day of mediocrity. I’m sick of this ship and space and traveling too far from my home. And I’m sick of Athena always watching my every move, allotting me no privacy.”

“So, you’re sick
, and you’re tired. Then you just got up one morning and decided to start killing people?”

“Look, I don’t need to explain myself to you.” Paul said as he raised his gun back to eye level.

He moved forward and then stopped six feet from her and took aim. Aurora glared at her would-be executioner. As she did, her eye caught the sight of Drokk’s motion. He was silently reaching around Paul toward his gun, but was still just out of his sightline.

Invigorated, Aurora spoke fearlessly. “You know, I’m lucky.”

Paul was confused by her remark, and chose to stay his finger until he understood what she was getting at. “Why do you say that?” He said as he shook the gun, as if to remind her of its existence.

Aurora smiled, “I’m lucky because I get to see my assassin face to face. You don’t have that luxury, fellah.”

Paul, felt a presence behind him, and turned as fast as his feet could twist. He saw no one, not even the body that had been lying on the floor. He whipped around again only to find Drokk standing between himself and his target. He shouted a curse at his shiny black foe and fired a shot at point blank range, aimed at the androids heart. The hand moved invisibly fast as it deflected the lead bullet back at Paul’s shoulder, causing him to drop his weapon.

A scream escaped his lips, as he took his left arm and produced a blade from his hip. He cut the air several times before Drokk caught his hand, and disarmed
him. Drokk threw the knife at the opposite wall with enough force to embed it four inches into the aluminum panel to keep it from being used on Aurora. Drokk then dispatched Paul before Aurora’s eyes.

He was obviously trained to defend himself in combat situations.
He also knew of the few weak points on the average android’s body, controls he could use to remove limbs or shut them down entirely. The fight went on for several seconds. When Paul would try to hit his opponent, Drokk would block and redirect the motion away from his body, and make one strike in return. Aurora heard Paul's bones crack. After only ten seconds, the human fell to the floor, writhing in pain. He spit blood from his mouth, and coughed.

Drokk then went to Aurora. His strong arms that had fought ferociously only instants before, now acted with the utmost care and compassion. He led her away from the crimin
al lying in the prone position toward the maglev at the end of the hall. Ten feet from it, they heard a sickly laugh rise above the carpet. Slowly they turned to see a bruised and bleeding man holding the gun with his unbroken arm, one bullet left, aimed at Aurora’s heart. The gun fired, and in a flash, Aurora saw black lightning streak in front of her body once more. Drokk's hand was still raised in the defensive position only a second after the bullet had deflected from it into another wall panel. Drokk then escorted Aurora away from the screaming assassin as a newly arrived android lifted his broken body from the floor, to take him to a medical bay and then to the brig.