Exodus Earth: The Complete Series, page 40
That was the last thought that ran through my noggin before the lights went out completely.
19
AREQUOT
“Hey. Come on back, Admiral. Wakey wakey.”
“Wakey wakey?” The voice I heard sounded vaguely like my own, but with a lot more gravelly sandpaper to it.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, Admiral. Here, have some more water.”
I carefully opened my eyes. I was delighted to see some dim lighting. Wherever we were, at least we weren’t in absolute darkness.
The doctor was holding some type of ceramic cup to my lips. My hands raised of their own accord to take it from her.
“No, no. Let me hold it. You just focus on small sips. Not too much at a time.”
The hell with that. I took it from her anyway and downed it in a single gulp.
“More.”
Janice gave me one of those patented, they-teach-it-in-medical-school, scolding stink eyes.
Finally, she sighed.
“Fine, but if you get sick and make a mess all over yourself, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
My only response was to push the cup back toward her and repeat my monosyllabic command. “More… please.”
My friend took the cup from my shaking hands, the scolding look never leaving her face.
I literally could feel my tissues rehydrating. I learned over the course of the next hour or so that the lights never really went out. I just passed out.
At about the same time I went nighty night, the hatch we had screwed with apparently gave up the ghost and burst open… at least that was what we were assuming. A deluge of water swept us through the tunnel’s larger branches.
According to the doctor, the water flow stopped abruptly. I suspect some type of emergency water-tight door had been triggered and slammed shut. I was just glad we were on this side of it.
The end result was we were quite a bit further down in the bowels of whatever facility we were in, soaking we, and obviously with access to some water.
Janice handed me the cup, now refilled. I didn’t see where she had refilled it from and, frankly, I didn’t care. I had never, ever been as thirsty as I was right now.
I sipped the water more slowly this time. I figured I might as well throw the good doctor a bone. She had been good enough to keep my head above water during our impromptu swim after all.
Speaking of heads, now that mine was finally clearing a bit, I took a look at the cup that I was holding. I raised it and shot the doctor a questioning look.
Her response was to smile and wave an arm in a wide circle.
“Holy…” I began as my eyes finally took in where we were… or more to the point… where we weren’t. We weren’t in an access or service tunnel.
“Are we in a mess hall?”
“That was my guess,” Janice confirmed. “When the water stopped dragging us along, a panel opened up in the wall and here was this room… lights on and everything.”
I squinted. I could make out tables and oddly tall chairs. The light, what little of it there was, seemed to come from panels in the walls and ceiling.
“It’s pretty dim in here. I think my ocular implants may be offline.”
“It was brighter a few minutes ago, but the moment you started to wake up the lights dimmed,” Janice said by way of explanation. “I think there may be an AI monitoring us. When I was looking for a way to scoop water off the floor to drink, a cupboard slid open and, lo and behold, there were some cups. Just what the doctor ordered. The interesting thing was, the second my fingers touched one of the cups, the lights in the room started getting all funky.
“It seemed to move in a way that encouraged my eyes to follow it. Pretty soon I was staring at a faucet that had begun to flow.”
“You’re right. Interesting,” I said as I took a bigger gulp of water. “But you say the lights dimmed when I began to wake up? I wonder why?”
“Maybe because you should be dead. I’ve been pouring water down your throat for the better part of two hours. I’ve never seen anything like it. Most of your major organs besides your brain and heart shut down because of dehydration. And… just to be clear, the jury’s still out about the brain.
“If I hadn’t pumped you full of medical nanites before we left the ship, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. The reason you can’t see right is because your eyes looked like plump raisins an hour ago. It’s a miracle you can see at all.”
“Ok. I get it. I pushed the envelope a little. Consider this though. If I hadn’t, you and I would be on the wrong side of an emergency bulkhead. I didn’t have a lot to lose.”
Janice raised a finger and started to say something. She paused and then lowered her finger.
“Do you ever get tired of being right?”
“Not yet,” I grinned. “Help me stand. I’d rather sit at a table then lay on a wet floor.”
With the doctor’s help I made my way to one of the chairs. As I sat down, the lighting in the room increased slightly. I could tell by the doctor’s sudden start that she had seen it too, which meant it wasn’t a function of my eyes healing but rather the actual illumination getting brighter.
At the same time, a soft chime filled the room and a light emanating from a small alcove to the left of the water spigot began to slowly cycle through greens and blues.
Janice and I looked at each other.
“You thinking what I’m thinking, Doc?”
“Burger and fries?”
“I’d settle for a bowl of pretzels,” I chuckled.
“I’d settle for day-old supermarket sushi,” she countered.
Time to bring out the big guns. “I’d settle for pizza with anchovies.”
“That’s just revolting,” she gagged. “You win.”
Having settled that debate, Janice and I made our way over to the alcove. It turns out, none of the aforementioned items were on the menu… although, much to our delight, food was the main event.
There were two small bowls with a non-descript brownish-gray mush in them. There were also two small cup-like containers with colored pills in them. It’s worth noting, the number, sizes, and colors of the pills were different in each of the two containers.
I dipped a pinky in the mush and brought it up to my nose to smell. It had food smell, but I wouldn’t have been able to name it. On the plus side, it didn’t smell bad. I decided to risk tasting it. It was sweet and salty at the same time with a hint of citrus.
If I had to guess, I’d say whoever was pulling the strings had analyzed our physiology and deduced what our bodies needed to survive. That meant the mush was likely a mix of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins all suitable for consumption by hairless apes from the planet Earth.
I tried to pick up one of the bowls. The alcove flashed red, and a brief drumming noise sounded. The bowl for its part, refused to budge. Janice and I exchanged raised eyebrows. As an experiment, I reached for the other bowl. Before I would even touch it, the lights flashed red. I switched targets and reached for a pill container.
I was able to pick it up. I put it down and reached for the other pill container. As expected, as soon as I made a move towards the other pill container, the alcove flashed red. The instant my fingers actually touched the container, the drumming noise sounded.
“Well, it seems pretty obvious what they want. They want us to take the pills if we want to eat.”
Janice picked up her box of pills.
“Mine are different than yours. I suspect these are tailored to our specific needs.”
I nodded in agreement.
“Should we take them?” Janice asked.
“Probably, but I’m tired of not knowing who we’re dealing with. Let’s see what happens if we play hard to get.”
I stepped out of the alcove without taking the pills with me. The doctor followed.
I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms. Now for the record and in the spirit of complete transparency, “leaned” is a generous term for propped… as in, if I was not propped, I would most certainly fall down.
The alcove began to flash red, and the drumming sounded insistently. I kept my arms crossed. After a few moments the drumming and the flashing lights ceased.
A minute later, an almost familiar holographic shape shimmered into existence near the opening to the alcove. It was Arty… almost. The figure before us wasn’t dressed the same and he seemed a tad shorter and thicker-bodied.
He pointed towards the alcove while using his other hand to make a cupping motion towards his mouth. The entire time he maintained as friendly a human smile as I had ever seen.
“Want… want.”
“Who are you?” I asked while pointing to the holographic AI.
He looked confused and pointed back towards the alcove, this time taking half a step towards it.
“Want?”
I shook my head.
I pointed toward him. “What’s your name?” I pointed back at myself. “My name is Dare.”
A look of sudden understanding flashed across his face.
He pointed towards himself. “Arequot.” He then pointed at me. “My-name-is-dare.”
“Baby steps” I kept telling myself. “Baby steps.”
* * *
Arequot was a wealth of information once we developed a working vocabulary. It turns out he was the caretaker of the domed facility. As I had suspected, the domed area above ground was the tip of the iceberg of a much larger structure. A discussion of the size and nature of the Jabesh facility was far too complex for our rudimentary lexicon. We simply had no idea what this facility’s purpose was. As a consolation prize, we were able to get Arequot to bring up a holographic map. Whatever this place was, it was a hell of a lot bigger than we had imagined. Unfortunately, the holographic map also told what had to be a very sad story.
Sections, like where we were standing, looked semitransparent. Other areas were dark, and still others were red. The ancient Jabesh AI seemed genuinely despondent when he looked at those areas. I suspected we were responsible for a few of them… what with the whole Noah and his ark thing.
My interest in a map of the facility wasn’t just idle curiosity. There were members of my crew… friends… missing. Arequot was my best chance of finding them.
“Arequot?” I pointed to the holographic display. “Where?”
The Jabesh AI looked confused. He waved his hands to cover the entire floating map. “Arequot here.”
“No, no,” I said.
“Yes, yes,” the AI insisted.
“Let me try this another way. Janice where?”
Arequot pointed to the doctor and said with a big smile, “Janice here.”
I waved my hands in frustration. “No, no…”
“Yes, yes. She here. You here. We here.”
“Yes, yes,” I agreed. “You are here.” I pointed to the floor where Arequot appeared to be standing. “You are here,” I pointed to the floating map… circling the map to encompass the whole thing. “Yes, yes?”
“Yes, yes,” Arequot agreed.
“We,” I pointed to Janice and then myself, “are here.” I pointed to the floor between us. “We are here?” I pointed to a random spot on the map.
“No, no. My-name-is dare is here.” Arequot pointed to one of the clear areas near a red zone.
Finally, we were making progress. We had a location for us. Unfortunately, nowhere on the map did I see any clue as to where our friends were.
“Arequot, we are looking for our friends. Do you know where they are? Can you show us?”
The Jabesh AI clasped his hands loosely in from of him and adopted a stunningly sublime expression of angelic innocence as he glanced back and forth between Janice and me. I suspected he was looking for additional verbal clues and likely had no idea what I was asking for.
“Let me try, Captain,” Janice said, stepping in. She pointed first at the AI and then at herself. “Not Arequot, not Janice… where?”
I got immediately what she was doing. She was asking Arequot to identify an individual by elimination. She wasn’t asking about herself or Arequot because she had deliberately excluded herself and him. Therefore, of the set of all people present, I was the only one left.
Arequot’s face lit up with understanding. “My-name-is dare is here,” he said pointing at me.
“Yes,” Janice agreed with a smile.
“Not Dare, not Janice, not Arequot where?” With this, she pointed to the floating holographic map.
Arequot paused to consider her words for a moment. With Arty, I always thought these delays were purely for the benefit of us meat sacks. I wasn’t so sure with Arequot. Don’t get me wrong. He was a powerful AI, but he wasn’t in the same league as Arty.
After a lengthy pause, he pointed tentatively at himself. “Arequot here.” Next, he pointed to the doctor. “Janice here.” I was next. “My-name-is-dare here.”
Finally, he pointed to an empty spot on the floor. “Not Arequot. Not Janice. Not My-name-is-dare no here.”
I pointed to the same empty space. “Others no here. Others where?” Now I pointed to the holographic map.
Arequot leaned forward and pointed to first one and then another of the smaller dark areas. “Yes, no,” he said.
“Maybe,” I said.
“Others maybe,” Arequot echoed.
The fact that he didn’t point at the third and largest dead zone spoke volumes. It was the flood zone we had inadvertently created. If my people were in it… it likely meant they were already dead.
20
HOPE IN STRANGE PLACES
The food Arequot served us provided for all of our nutritional needs while carefully avoiding any of the pleasurable elements typically associated with eating. That minor annoyance aside, Janice and I dug into our strangely flavored mush with gusto. The reality was, our bodies needed the fuel after the extreme abuse we had put them through.
The medicinals Arequot provided and flatly insisted we swallow prior to eating were apparently designed to aid in our recovery. I learned later that the pills included custom nanites. His little buggers were somewhat more sophisticated than what we hairless apes were able to produce. This was a good thing. The results spoke for themselves.
After the hearty, if somewhat unappetizing meal, as well as a doctor-mandated sleep period, I felt better than I had in days. Whatever Arequot put in those little pills of his… they did wonders.
Sadly, Arequot was not Arquat. He had much more defined limits. The doctor and I were reminded of this again and again. As advanced as our new AI friend was—especially compared to humanity—Arequot and his creators were not at the same level as Arty. Nowhere was this more evident than in the state of repair of the facility we were now making our way through.
The lighting was inconsistent from corridor to corridor. In addition, numerous sections had suffered minor cave-ins… forcing us to backtrack and attempt alternate routes. Debris and machine parts littered the floor in many areas. There were some signs of fire and water damage. One thing I did notice was that as we approached certain areas the illumination increased. It was almost as if the facility was waking up from a deep slumber. I suppose in many ways it had. I also noticed that in some of those areas, as they awoke, Arequot would wince. I found that most disturbing.
Strangely, this wasn’t always the case. Every now and then the opposite would occur… as if to bear witness to the splendor that once was, we would walk through an area that was pristine. It could be my imagination, but it seemed our AI host stood taller and prouder. These were the areas that reminded me most of the Jabesh facilities I had toured with Arty… places like Midway station.
I noticed as we walked through some of the dingier sections, Arequot’s holographic image would dim, flicker, or even briefly disappear. I suspected whatever he used for holographic emitters were hit-or-miss in these areas. As strange as it sounds, that actually gave me some hope.
Work with me here. Janice and I had been unceremoniously teleported into one of those aforementioned black areas. Arequot hadn’t confirmed it, but I was sure it was the case nonetheless. It was an area that sucked our power systems dry.
If all the blacked-out areas were the same… and if my people had been teleported into a similar area… and if they had been unable to escape like we had, then there was a good chance they were in serious trouble. I wasn’t so much worried about Matt or Catherine, but Doctor Carter and Chief Cochran were a different matter. Would they have the physical stamina to last that long without food or water?
On the other hand, if they had been dumped into an area that was still functioning at some level, there is every reason to suspect their power systems would not have been drained. Their armor could keep them alive for weeks by recycling water and oxygen. It wouldn’t be fun, but it beat being dead.
“I no,” Arequot said while gesturing in the direction we were headed. His flickering had intensified to the point he was hard to make out. “My-name-is-Dare yes, Janice yes. Arequot no.”
Arequot was telling us we were on our own for a while. I had expected this was going to happen at some point. That said, I was somewhat concerned about losing access to the map. Arequot was apparently a mind reader when he wanted to be. A small cube shimmered into existence on the floor between Arequot and me. To my delight, a copy of the map floated above it.
“You think of everything, don’t you,” I said with a grin.
“Yes,” the ancient Jabesh AI answered with a similar grin.
* * *
“What do you think, Doc? Left, or right?”
Janice, who was holding the map cube, looked at the red dot that represented us relative to the rest of the map.
“There’s a wide-open space to the left. The right leads to a longer maze of dark corridors. If you’re asking my opinion, I’d say let’s check out the big space first and then backtrack to the maze if we have to.”
“That works for me. Lead on.”
