PREY II: End of Era
Some of the Truth
Nicole was led, by Captain Tyrh, through a brightly lit, chrome corridor very much like a tin can. She thought the place looked rather like the inside of a spaceship. The corridor branched off at several places but they kept going along. The walls were riddled with large, rectangular windows and Nicole couldn't help but look every time they passed a window. In one room there was a huge sphere. Captain Tyrh commented sarcastically, "In that room they are developing 'mind control' technology."
Another room showed strange Petri dishes with red substances in them. A large screen showed hexagonal shapes tessellating, occasionally turning purple then green. The room was marked 'WARNING! ALL STAFF MUST WEAR PROTECTIVE CLOTHING WHILE IN THIS ROOM- IMMEADIATE DEATH WILL OCCUR!' Captain Tyrh spoke again: "They're reverse engineering a virus from the outer atmosphere for sending into outer space where it can survive"
Nicole had not uttered a single word and silence resumed as they continued this seemingly endless corridor until the captain addressed her once again. "By the way, my name's Dido, named after the Carthage Queen... Oh! Now we're coming to genetics, my favourite part. The guys in there are developing some sort of dragon!"
At last, after what seemed like ages, Nicole saw a security door. There was a slot to swipe a card in. A sign was stencilled onto the door it read 'TRNSPRT HNGR'. Somebody couldn't spell. As they came closer they were bathed in red light, Nicole assumed this meant no security clearance. Dido produced a security card and swiped it along the slot and the red light changed to green. The door opened with a pneumatic hiss. They were in.
Halogen lights illuminated a large room that you could fit a jumbo jet in and it wouldn't scrape the sides. It was full of vehicles of all sorts put in different areas, jet skies and submarines lined the area at the opposite site of this vast hangar while jeeps and cars were in front of them. Dido dodged between the cars until she arrived at one jeep with 'Dido' stencilled on the side. This place must be the most stencilled place in the world Nicole thought. Dido spoke, as she started the engine, "Hop in! And fasten your seatbelts it going to be a bumpy ride!"
"How can we? All the machines are frictionless…"
"It's a line from an old movie..."
"Oh…"
Nicole opened the door and got in beside Dido. Dido took out a palm-top computer and pressed a menu with her stylus pen, suddenly the whole ground started to turn, they were on a turntable! Nicole now noticed several tunnels lining the room each had its own neon light. The turntable stopped and the jeep faced a tunnel named 'ώύ'. She did understand 'wu' or was it Greek? For what? Omega-Upsilon! That didn't mean anything.
The tunnel looked deep and threatening like a mouth about to swallow them. Dido slowly manoeuvred them forward into the tunnel, the jeep stopped, engine on, and Dido flipped the lid of the gear stick to reveal a large red button. Dido pushed it. The jeep made a loud humming noise and lurched forward at frightening speed. "We'll be there in about 5 minutes!" After admiring the speed, Nicole turned to Dido, "Are Major Ion and Ghost always fighting like that? Why?"
Dido laughed, "It's a long story!"
Nicole shrugged her shoulders, "We've got time to kill!"
END TRANSMISSION/CHAPTER 3