CHAPTER 9 – THE AQUARIUS INCIDENT

The sun rose over the Aquarius Outpost on the Gotland island. The object was known as a civilian research facility, whose task was to conduct research on a new methods of purifying the contaminated water resources and thus solve the problem of drinking water shortage. According to the news they discovered something worth looking deeper into and were close to completing their goal.

One of their ships put out to sea to collect some samples and to run some tests. For an average observer it looked like this will be another ordinary day. No-one could know that this won't be the case.

No-one was also suppose to know that in the term "civilian research facility" only the word "facility" was true. The Outpost wasn't by any means civilian and the research – or rather tests – that were about to be started, were of a completely different nature.

The Aquarius Outpost, called Aquarius for short, was in fact a huge, military facility. Only a small part of it was visible from the island. The rest of the base was actually located underground, in a huge bunker. Strangely enough, it didn't belong to MJ12. Those who stood behind it – the Scandinavian Federation, wanted in fact, on a long run, to counter MJ12 balance. They were not alone – their efforts were aided by the Illuminati.

But still, they had to be very careful. Secrecy was the only key to success so, after finding out about MJ12 plans of wiring the whole network to the Aquinas Protocol it was decided that the sensitive part of the Aquarius Outpost will be disconnected from the Internet-3 and replaced with an alternative, fake database.

But the pace of the future events caused that Aquarius' computer scientists didn't make it in time. If they did, probably no-one would find out that Aquarius had – besides resisting MJ12 – it's own, secret agenda.

The soldiers' quarters located inside the base were empty. Every living soul either patrolled the base personally or monitored it through the security cameras. The sentry guns, located in strategic locations were silent at the moment, but their menacing presence was clear to everyone.

The guards located outside the complex, although hidden from the eyes of the islanders, were guarding the supposedly civilian object, scanning the surroundings for every slightest threat.

The massive interior of the base held many well guarded secrets. The latest weapon was surely one of those most important, but not necessarily one of those darkest. Some of the staff members could surely say something more about those latter, hidden in Aquarius' secret laboratories.

Erik Johannson was one of them. For an inexperienced eye he was merely one of the ordinary staff members. Perhaps more bad-tempered than the others, with constant headaches, but still within average.

No-one knew that in fact he was permanently on the verge of insanity. Chosen by the Aquarius' scientists, he was the first human whose brain was adapted to access every possible information from the network, in a similar way as the wireless computers – at least in theory. In reality, he was constantly haunted by an extremely strong and alien presence and Erik's abilities to surf the Net in that way were below expectations.

Right now all he wanted to do is to go back to his barracks, cover himself with a pillow and be left alone. And today it was the least possibly appropriate day to do this. Tests of great importance were scheduled for today and failure was not an option. A years long research on their secret weapon was finally complete. If all went well then, even after the change of power, they would have a dangerous tool in their hands.

The tests were about to begin. The submarine crew, which was supposed to carry out the tests, waited for orders.

Erik took his position in the Command Centre. He was one of those, who were supposed to make sure that everything will go as planned. He took a second painkiller and hoped that it will allow him to function more or less normally.

If he only knew that things will get even worse…

"Aries, what's your status?" Johannson radioed the submarine crew.

"All systems operational. Awaiting permission to put out to sea."

"Permission granted. Remember – launch the missile and get back to base ASAP."

"Roger that."

So far everything worked. The submarine's crew was ready. Erik pressed the button opening the underwater hatch and waited.

The hatch didn't open.

"What the fuck?" Erik thought, annoyed.

"Aries, something is wrong with the hatch. We are going to…"

"You will abort the tests immediately," a cryptic, inhuman voice suddenly cut in, being clearly audible in the whole complex. A metallic sound that was heard just a moment later, was unmistakable – the doors in the entire complex were sealed.

The staff members looked at each other, confused at first. Johannson clutched his head. It was this presence…

"What's that?"

One of the more astute staff members ducked behind the consoles and pushed two red buttons, in order to access the override mode. All he had to do was to punch the 10-digit code. As he started to do this, the voice spoke again:

"It's useless. All personal authorization codes, including the override sequence, have been revoked until further notice. I took over the security grid, the power control and the complex's network. Don't try to do anything foolish."

As if for stressing the statement, all sentry guns in the base suddenly aimed at the personnel, ready to fire.

"Damn, it's Helios, you idiot! It found us!" a computer scientist scolded one of his colleagues, who tried to access the systems.

"You mean…"

"Yes! Now leave this damn keyboard, before this damn thing kills us off!"

"I processed Aquarius' data and found out about the virus you plan to test today. I know its specifications" the AI stressed.

"No shit," someone murmured.

"Predicted mortality rate: 98 percent. Death will occur within 72 hours from contact. It's extremely infectious. Known cure: currently none.
One is being researched by Aquarius' scientists."

"Shit!" It was the most eloquent comment that came to mind of Lars Jansen, Aquarius' scientist who was the leader of the research group, responsible for this particular weapon. Whatever took over the base, it was pretty damn accurate. Lars only wondered, whether it found out about their genetic manipulations.

He didn't get the possibility to find out the answer. One of the sentry guns located in the laboratories spotted him and opened fire.

At the same time, in the Command Centre, Erik Johannson didn't intend to stand idly by. He decided that he has to at least try to confront the entity that took over the base. An extremely bold and risky idea came to him. In normal circumstances he wouldn't even think of doing this, but this situation was far from normal.

Putting an enormous amount of effort into it, he concentrated on entering the network.

It took him some time, but he made it, eventually. It felt like he was diving into an ocean of data.

After Erik more or less recovered from this sensation, he saw that those were rather various – bigger and smaller – streams of data, connected with each other. There were also larger clusters of data, strangely resembling city lights at night. Somewhere in a distance – although the term "distance" didn't exactly apply there – he saw something he could describe only as a huge beacon.

"It must be the Aquarius' mainframe," he thought.

Now he had to navigate through this tangle. His plan was to unlock the doors, especially the hatch, so the tests could be continued.

But before Erik managed to choose a path, he was spotted. He didn't know how but he could feel it.

The feeling was accurate. Helios saw the unauthorized presence and observed it, somewhat curiously. It wasn't an AI – this… guest seemed to take his first steps in the digital world – but the subject was conscious, no doubt about it.

It is a human.

This seemed to be pretty absurd, but it was the only possible option. Theoretically, it wasn't possible, but after a quick search in Aquarius' database Helios found the explanation.

"Erik Johannson," the entity spoke, "You don't belong here. You will leave at once."

If Erik could, he would jump. This kind of communication felt like telepathy and it really unnerved him. The stay in the network exhausted him in a way faster rate then he initially expected. But he had to do something… At least, he had to know, what attacked them.

"It hurts…" the man thought, "but I can't just leave…"

Helios heard that. It was so typical, so irrational, so… human. The subject didn't stand a chance – and it probably was aware of it. Not probably – surely. He could barely remain conscious.

"Why do you persist?" the AI asked. "Leave. You are an early prototype, Johannson. If you stay, the amount of data will kill you."

"I won't leave, before you tell me who are you," the man spoke.

"Everyone knows me," Helios found this direct way of communication with a human being, in a way, fascinating.

"I'm not asking you to introduce yourself," the man insisted. "I'm asking you about your nature."

"See for yourself."

Erik looked. What he saw, was a sudden appearance of something equivalent to a sun – it was blinding him and caused the bizarre tangle of data to fade. The man wasn't prepared for that.

"Look at me."

It was hard not to. It was much more difficult for Johannson to interpret correctly the data… or rather a vision he saw.

The blinding light faded a bit for a moment, revealing a human figure holding in his hand an extremely bright web, which entangled everything. The clusters flashed with the blinding light.

Erik realized that this entity was in control of everything and, upon this realization, his consciousness slipped away. He collapsed, causing one of his colleagues to jump on his chair.

"Erik, are you alright?" the colleague shook the unconscious man, trying to wake him up, to no avail.

"I'm not certain," Helios answered. "Erik is one among many secret experiments conducted in this base."

"What?"

"Your scientists don't tell you everything, do they?" the AI asked dryly, this time using different, human voice.

The people in Command Centre froze.

"There is some very interesting research data, yes. A lethal virus in the first place. Then goes their idea of an ideal soldier, which bases on some nasty genetic experiments. Then, there was Erik Johannson – a prototype for something far more sophisticated – a being capable of directly accessing the network."

"What the hell…" Erik's colleague gasped.

"Erik was assessed as a failure and thus he was to be terminated tomorrow. According to the reports, his human brain couldn't handle the prolonged exposition to the data. A replacement is being worked on. Apparently, Aquarius' research data doesn't have much in common with purifying water resources."

There was dead silence, until the voice spoke again, with a hint of aggression:

"I know your objectives and I will stop you and your research, by any means possible. Aquarius is by no means better than MJ12."

If anyone wondered, whether things could get any worse, the answer came just a moment later. The red, emergency lights lit in the whole complex and the female voice of Aquarius' system spoke:

"Autodestruct sequence initialized. Time left: 15 minutes."

The people stared one at another with horror.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" someone shouted.

"I said: by any means possible," Helios stressed.

The reactions were various. Some people just sat there, petrified, others panicked. The two computer experts just looked one at another and nodded. They had nothing to loose.

Helios saw their both heroic and irrational attempts of regaining control. Either those humans weren't aware to full extent of the fact who they were opposing or they knew, but decided to try anyway. Bravery was one of those fascinating human qualities he valued the most, but the decision has been already made.

The mysterious explosion that shook Gotland and obliterated The Aquarius Outpost, was a main subject of conversations for days to come. According to the official news, the explosion was caused by storing the ship fuel against the rules. But the newspapers didn't answer some questions posed by the islanders. People doubted, whether it was actually possible for an ordinary fuel explosion to cause tremors. One of the Gotland inhabitants swore he saw two military jeeps heading the road from the outpost at full speed, short before the explosion.

Someting was definitely not right there.