Chapter Four "The Gel and the Devil"
Simon set down the Cortex Chip on the table at Phi, he unloaded everything he managed to scrounge up from that room in-case he would need them. Why not be prepared for anything? Unless he lost his sanity before he made it to the other side. How long would it take it for him to start hallucinating? He guessed it depended on the mental stability of the person, if they were quite sane then it would take years but if they weren't then goodbye sanity.
"Gotta keep it together, Simon," he told himself out loud. "Do it for Catherine. Keep it together! Don't stop. Keep going, keeeeeeep going, don't stop, keep going." He turned back to his board. Crossing out the Cortex Chip he looked at the Structure Gel supposedly in Johan Ross' room back in Tau. He had flashbacks to when Ross would follow him and stalk him whilst he roamed around the site, urging him onwards whenever Simon stopped to take a break. He never went upstairs to Sarah, either he didn't want to look upon her or he didn't even know she existed at all.
"You have to stop it!" he would shout.
Simon wasn't interested in his goals and ambitions, the world was gone! What was the point of stopping the WAU? Let it have the Earth, let it have everything. All that mattered to him was what good it brought him. Catherine, the ARK, and another chance at life. The original him died long ago with hopes and dreams silenced, now he had the chance at it again except that not much was left. The world may be gone but there's plenty of things to do down here. Maybe there were stuff still intact up there? The Omega Space Gun was intact enough to even launch a new satellite into space.
"Ok," he spoke and cleared his thoughts of worry and stress, "let's do this." He began the travel back to Tau, keeping an eye out for the Leviathan and that Whale in-case they wanted his robotic insides. When he reached the WAU, he found more growth of the gunk and foliage than before. On a cracked screen brought in from the original Site Alpha, it displayed images of the above before the Impact Event. No doubt, planning and learning to "revive" what was up there. It's sick, twisted version of it.
Then, he looked back at the hole next to his way out. A dark trail of Structure Gel leaked out of it down back into Alpha. Some scrap metal followed along with what looked like a leg or a mutilated arm. Ross? He's been brought back once, he could have been brought back again. That or something worse found him. An angler fish? No, no, he already saw that on his way to Tau and it was barely his size. An octopus? Maybe. That'd be terrifying, covered in faces on every angle with glowing lights illuminating the dark with a false sense of hope. Regardless, they were heading in the same direction so he'll find out whether he likes it or not. When he passed by the ruins of Alpha again, he wondered if there were any human staff here? What happened to them? There were rooms seemingly built to house them but not a single body or indication was to be found. Out of every Site he's been to, this one is in the worst state of the WAU's overhaul to "save" Humanity.
The trail would stop then reappeared from what he could tell, larger clumps became smaller and smaller every time he found them again with his Power Suit helmet's light. The anglerfish stalked him from afar in the dark, the human face on its side writhing in seemingly anguish. Did it have a human brainscan? Did the WAU graft someone onto the fish? God, Simon didn't even want to imagine it. He pushed on into Tau, passing by the crushed body of Neil Tsiolkovsky, the Russian crew member of Tau. Simon wondered about using his suit for Catherine. It was mostly intact except for the face region and basically the upper half of the body. Nevermind, he'll go with the original plan. Better a good suit then one where the top half is useless, he wouldn't get to see Catherine's face and he didn't have the skill to repair it.
He managed to get back to the living area, still set up and livable if he needed a place to hang out. There was the bodies of Auclair and the rest of the ARK team were there. He read the old records and files still active on the terminals he found, thankfully a few kept paper journals during their last days. To extend his trip here, he searched around for the possible whereabouts of the crew. Auclair was in his room, malformed by the WAU into this...cacoon thing. What was it doing with him? Was it trying to rebuild him? Back at Omicron he saw what the "rebuilding" looked like with that crew member in the orange jumpsuit. Malformed: one leg was longer than the other, the proportions of his body oddly shifted, and the machinery in his chest of course.
Then he found the trail again. It led to one of the corner vents in the main area of the living quarters, the grate was popped open. Simon crouched down, turning on his flashlight to get a better look at the insides. Structure Gel bubbling and slightly growing until it died back down only to do so again in a cycle. "The hell is here?" He went over to Johan Ross's room, pressing the button only for it to deny access. He pressed it again. Access denied. He slammed his fist against the button. Denied. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" He kicked the door with full force, making a small dent in the metal.
The Data Buffer cracked to life. "You had your chance to save Humanity and what did you do?! You threw it away! Now it'll infect and infect the world, making the grand illusion that we're still alive! All for what?! The ARK? Another illusion of our existence! A mockery!"
"Ross? You're alive! The Leviathan-"
"The WAU tried to silence me! I breathed again thanks to the Structure Gel, no matter what it keeps me alive with it pulsating in my veins. Now I have to use the weapon of my enemy in order to destroy it. I need a body Simon! I can't make one on my own, and I need the same Gel in yours. So, I'm going to replace your copy with my own." The door opened with Ross leaping atop Simon, sending him to the ground. Ross clawed and smacked against the helmet; he howled like an animal and clawed like one too at the Power Suit.
Simon threw him at the desk inside his room. Ross's arm dislocated itself, the tissue and flesh still weak from the revival. "It's over for us. It's done," he told the deranged man. Or what was left of the man, he was still human at her despite whatever the WAU put him through. His mind may be centered on one goal, but if he didn't have that goal he would realize that it was over, that there was no point anymore to taking his Structure Gel to infect it. He was still human to a degree, nothing like Sarah but what else would convince him?
"I have to stop it! Humanity-"
"Ross," Simon tried a less aggressive tone, "Think about it. It's just you and me, the last sane beings left on this earth. The only true human that was left alive is dead. Sarah's gone, she couldn't go on anymore. Nothing else mattered, no way to reproduce and save us, even if you killed the WAU what would you do after that? Kill yourself? Kill everything is brought to life? All the life still living?"
Ross just looked at him, blue lights flickering in his weakened state like a broken computer, his posture slumped. His metallic and rotted insides slowly spilled out with some just hanging there still attached to their original pieces, the tube connected to his head scrunched up every time he took a deep breath. He leaned against the chair with what was left of him. They both listened to the fan go and the clock go by. "Is it really over?" His voice was broken. "Did we really lose? Can we have lost?"
Simon took a seat in front of him. "The ARK launched, our memory and the copies of us are up there. Thousands of years, maybe even more, they'll be in Paradise. Now down here, us, the WAU, these creatures, we're all that's left of the living. Sure, Humanity may be gone but at least life is still flourishing. We're still living. Maybe someplace up there is still intact, maybe something is still up there worth living for. The scans, even though they're not us or truly human they still have a chance to make this...work. Without the WAU, none of this was possible. Sure, it may have led to people losing it. To the monsters killing people at Tau, the fall of Theta, Upsilon's abandonment, and so much more. Despite all that, here we are. You died, Ross, a part of you did but the WAU saved you. Saved what was left of you yet your mind is still intact, you still have that. Think. Use it. Is killing the WAU really going to make the world much better than it already is?"
Ross didn't say anything. Simon didn't know where that part came from, he did know that Catherine would be proud of him. What else did they have to live for? They had to live just because the world needed live to continue, even if they weren't human they had to go on.
"You...you have a point." Ross's voice was gloomy, he didn't want to admit it but what else did he have left? Everyone he wanted to protect was dead. They're long gone. The last human left alive didn't want to live, they simply wanted to die. He looked up at Simon."Why did you come here? Why come to Tau? To my room?"
"I'm trying to fix...my friend, Catherine. The WAU gave me some kind of vision, I guess, on how to fix her. Kinda like how I made the body for me using...Herber. The one part that it didn't tell me was how to actually get her into the suit. Catherine was the only one who knew how and I doubt it'll tell me in any way that makes sense."
"Friend? Hmm...I can figure it out if you get me some of her notes. The schematics or anything," Ross suggested. "Why not? I'll put myself to use down here."
Simon, surprised by this revelation, was speechless with joy. "Y-You will? You'll help me get her back?" Such hope was in his voice at the thought of his chances being greater.
Ross nodded.
"Theta. She had a room in Theta. Akers was there with his Proxies if they'll be trouble. I think he died when the tunnel flooded."
"What else did you need?"
Simon explained everything from the vision to him. The Power Suit, the Structure Gel, and the Cortext Chip he's already collected. How he came here to get one of Ross's jars of Structure Gel that was hidden in a compartment in his vent. Ross turned around, climbed up and revealed the jar that was there.
"This is how I knew the WAU was changing, I watched it infect one of the plant life when I was out with Glasser so I collected a sample before he had to pull me back." Ross thought back to his colleague, the only one that believed him about the WAU and the threat it posed. "And he died trying to get me to Omicron. Glasser, the ever noble and proud man, charged forward unto death without a second thought. Here I am, doing what I can to honor him. He studied life so I'll make sure that there's life to be studied."
As the two talked, a monitor over in the communication hub sparked to life:
WARNING, SATELLITE DESCENT DETECTED. IMPACT NEAR SITE THETA.
