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Jonah entered Schrödinger's cabin, a dimly lit space that smelled of chemicals. The man had more of an obsession with keeping his precious machines clean, cleaner than himself.
"I'll just get dirty again anyway, but it's not going to make me malfunction, unlike my machines," he'd always say.
Schrödinger was anxiously typing away on an old fashioned keyboard,muttering non stop. Jonah carefully tapped him on the shoulder, at which the man turned around in his rotating chair, smiling blissfully with one hand still on the keyboard.
"I can't believe you gave up on this so willingly," he murmured.
"I prefer to own my own mind," Jonah said, not caring for the memory of how he had once felt about his current life.
Almost as if he knew his thoughts, Schrödinger said, "This hollow life is worthless in exchange for the hivemind. Or maybe my chimera is better than yours."
Jonah shrugged. "That's not your chimera and you used to love working here."
"Tss, just because I didn't think about how dead everything here is. If you would have felt it, Jonah, you would have wanted to stay forever."
He guessed the chimeras had met. The effect on this man seemed far deeper than what he had experienced. Oh, the link between him and that thing had been profound, but it hadn't turned him into a waxing idiot.
"It's just a trick," Jonah said.
"So? Everything is a trick. This hive mind is just a much better trick, and the viruses in Utara are a trick too. Such state of the art! Auton work, I know. She shares those things with me if I ask nicely."
Ah, there was a seed. No matter what delirium the chimeras brought someone in, they could not erase the personality that already was there.
"Did she tell you what the Auton can gain by helping her?"
Just a fraction of a pause betrayed that no, not yet.
"They are her allies and they are interested in her sister."
Ah, sister? He would have been curious if his own personality was half as in place as this man's, but instead he focused on the task at hand.
"I find it highly unlikely that they would help her because they are nice. You know what Auton are like, mister Schrödinger. Unlike your friends here, they aren't very nice machines. Off course they would send a cute little chimera, they know you are here and would otherwise never let them mess with their machines. Now, you're messing things up for them."
"What do you mean? She's blinding me for something?"
Jonah nodded gravely. "Will you listen for a moment?"
The simple truth was, nobody ever had to force him to break his bond with the chimera. They had simply made him listen to reason, and all the ugly truth that accompanied it. They had given him the choice of being a test subject willingly, or unwillingly. They had explained him the nature of telepathy and chimeras. He had listened. Nobody on Enigma was his friend, but he lived because he listened.
Schrödinger hadn't been under their touch for all that long, they'd never even really interacted. Jonah had an easy time talking to Schrödinger, but instead of the cold harshness he'd been addressed with, he played the role of concerned friend here to guide Schrödinger back to purpose. Kinda like a comic he'd once read, long ago when he could still enjoy things.
He was heard, too.
It took nineteen minutes before Schrödinger's other hand returned to the keyboard. This time, the typing was frantic and angered. Jonah patted him on the shoulder, and let him hunt viruses in peace. This time, he didn't have to pry the door open. Utara's control of the immediate area was the first Schrödinger restored to it.
Around now, Nuitar should make work of herding around the 'tame' drones towards the chimeras, which would also deal with the wild enemy hive. There were scientists down there, but he was incapable of caring for their lives. Existence was so easy this way.
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The cold drove them nearer, she could feel it.
When the flood of black monsters hit them, they had the luck to at least be in a hall. The main lightning was off, and only a few blue emergency lights glowed. Kirindi could see perfectly well on magnetism, but she worried her human allies would have problems getting where they ought to be. Telepathic aid or not, they were afraid, and fearing humans were not entirely functional. She had to fight, she did not have the time to give them calmness when she herself could feel no such thing.
With a soft click, he wrist blades unsheathed and telepathically probed the shrieking hive hurling their way. They were driven by rage, boiling down all sense of purpose to simple rage. Their queen wasn't awake to guide them, and they were not as natural as they ought to be. She couldn't expect them to work together, which was one advantage.
The first drone she aimed at dodged, leaving the shot to be taken by one behind it. Not cleanly, the bolt only took an arm off.
The one that had dodged responded in kind by taking off her plasma caster and a chunk of her skin. She curled up and rolled out of the way, narrowly avoiding the piercing tail and the jaws of a third attacker. As she skittered across the ground, she took off the next leg with her wrist blades and climbed through the clawing to drove the blades into its neck, severing vital relay systems. Without time to check her success, she jumped to her hind legs and screamed. Echo location revealed her plasma caster in a puddle of acid, and her friends under siege. Most of the flock had focused on her sister.
Sheer size and inherent strength gave her sister an advantage, but only so much in this narrow space. From one side below her crest, Jake was operating a cyborg arm with its gun, somehow, and had shot two, killed none. He was suffering acid burns already, and 921-Y was only doing slightly better.
Kirindi was treated to two new attackers before she could join them, let alone plan anything. Putting all focus on her legs, she leaped up, clawing at the wall to climb higher. They pursued her, but due to weight had more trouble keeping up with her. From here, she noticed their guide with three drones in pursuit. They tried, and failed, at concerning him.
Pushing off the wall, she made two risky leaps to a pipe and a ledge to get closer to him. They were the only ones capable of even leaving her sister's shelter, they had a better shot cooperating.
Their guide zig-zagged further away from her sister; what was he doing? He didn't respond to her call for cooperating, save with an almost amused sense of stubbornness.
One of the drones that had followed her had reached the top of the hall and was scaling the pipes there until it was almost above her. There it dropped. Down below two others drones waited. There was no safe way to do it, so she pushed up and tackled the falling drone in mid air, gaining some leverage on how they collided. Falling was an art she'd mastered in the rain forest well enough; with a quick twist she was on its upper side. It fell right onto the other two, and she leaped back up the wall.
Another leaped at her from behind, she curled her back outward and extended her spikes. When the impact of the claws on her back tore open her shoulder, and the sheer weight behind the arm that got pierced by her spikes broken then off. Had she needed air, it would have been knocked out of her. Pulling herself free, she lost the two spikes in her enemy's arm. The pain she'd caused it gave her a second to turn around, twist her tail around it other arm to pull it away and ram her blades into its chest. This one died at once.
For a few moments, nothing attacked her, as most were occupied with her sister in the middle of the hall. Here she noticed it. Too few bodies, there had been much, much more drones. Instead, there were holes in the floor and a drone who apparently had fallen and snapped it's neck rather clumsily...
The speed with which the acid ate through these floors could work in their favor. Kirindi hadn't realized beforehand that pure hardmeat would have blood so much more corrosive, but now it was obvious what to do.
Her head whipped up at their guide. He fought one on one with a drone, close to her sister who shoved a previous kill into a circle of body parts and skulls. She could afford a little smile when she realized how quickly her sister responded. A new flood of drones threatened to come down the hall soon.
921-Y's gave her a look when her sister started backing into a small hall where she risked getting stuck. The two humans on her back she shook off before folding back her crest.
"It's alright," she sent to Jake with complimentary image of the plan, and nodded at 921-Y while pointing at the floor. The android and the man understood at the same time. Jake pulled Shadhahvar against the wall with one arm, shooting at the new drones that came in right then.
Kirindi stayed high, but crawled closer to the others by dangling from pipes. Her sister drew back against the wall before pushing herself off, out of the hall and into the air. With a screech of metal and her own voice, she landed in the center of the hall. At its most corroded points, the floor went down a little. Her sister was sorely disappointed with the lack of effect. Placing all her focus on getting this done, she ignored the new enemies. Jake and 921-Y had a small window of shooting at the new drones as her sister raised up and banged down her torso.
The floor sank lower and the creaking of metal supporting too much weight became loud. A drone jumped on her crest and bit down, she noticed but ignored it with disturbing ease. Kirindi hurled herself off the wall and tackled it away. She struggled with impaling it while her sister explored the concept of 'game' by bouncing against the floor until it finally caved.
The floor underneath was burning in acid as well and was now presented with another floor and the same chimera. It started collapsing as well.
The hostile drones were born from humans and hence were not the best climbers. Most of them fell down despite trying to latch onto the hall walls, right along with her sister.
921-Y dealt with the drones that had escaped into corridors, while Jake fired at those that were lifting along with her sister. Kirindi herself fell down and killed her enemy as they hit the floor four levels down by ripping his throat open with her tail.
Her sister was sturdy, but this much impact she felt. Her shriek echoed filled every hall and room it could creep in, deafening the humans for a half a minute. It was a queen's call, disorienting even the hostile drones. They didn't understand what was so familiar yet wrong.
Kirindi recovered first, killing a paralyzed drone that had latched onto her sister's head.
Broken, her sister crawled to her feet. Kirindi quietly urged her to climb back up, which she did with much cracking exoskeleton and bleeding. They'd fallen into a tall hall, but she was long enough that she could reach the ceiling if she stood on her hind legs.
As fast as she could, she hauled herself back into the passage she'd jumped from, leaving the enemy drones that still lived behind. Kirindi took the momentary quiet to look at her sister's injuries, only to find she could do nothing. Some distant instinct urged her to produce something, perhaps a resin, to stop the bleeding of the queen entity. She didn't possess the organ for this, in this one regard she was too human.
Her sister was weak from years of imprisonment, and her exoskeleton not as hard as that of a true hardmeat. The large body started to shudder, and it took a few moments before Kirindi realized the lunges were starting to kick in. Wheezing and coughing, the chimera gasped for air. Being mostly I. Raptus, neither of the sisters needed breath with lungs constantly, but when exhausted the function came in handy. Kirindi was glad she had that at least.
The larger sister uttered a deep moan, pain shooting through her as she moved her wounded limbs and her chest expanded for the first time in years. One might mistake her for being in a fit of rage, but Kirindi knew better. Only pain caused her to cry. Kirindi's fingernails scraped the floor as she crouched down aside of her sister's head. She was helpless, useless to her sister right now.
"Is she alright?" her android friend asked.
Softly, Kirindi shook her head. "She hurts."
"She'll be okay, right?" asked Shadhahvar, hesitantly. "How are we gonna get out without her?"
Jake gave her a hard poke in the ribs.
"Hey!" But she said no more, and a tired silence fell.
Kirindi finally tore her eyes away and looked at the others.
The android no longer looked human, his body covered with splashes of acid, circles of smoke still rising up. In his attempts to protect the humans, as he was programmed to do, he had neglected the secondary self preservation program. Concealment was trivial. Drips of white liquid were behind him, mingled with splatters of red from both humans.
She saw the scene through glimpses of Jake's mind. In the dim blue light of the spare lamps and the occasional electrical sizzle in the hall beyond, they looked miserable and hopeless. Trapped inside this station, the shadows around reminiscent of the void beyond the walls. The man had a bit of a dramatic flair.
921-Y tried to log into cyberspace, but failed miserably. His viruses were running low on defenses by now. The mission had lasted much longer than originally planned. At least the main objective had been acquired. The bomb was planted. Kirindi heard him mutter this once, and though she could not feel emotions or read his mind, she knew he was alive due to small things like that.
"We need do move," the android said, a mechanic, dead tone to his voice.
Jake cleared his throat. "You're right, nine-two. Shadhahvar, stay close to me. Kirindi..."
He lips moved with the words "We come", but no sound came out.
The android was already making his way down the hall. Jake turned to Shadhahvar, shaking her gentle, but she barely responded. If not before, she'd finally understood what danger they were in.
"They'll come...don't worry, the android knows a way out, he has a map, remember?" Taking her by the arm, Jake began leading her away. Jake didn't want to mention the android had lost his modem and thereby the map, and that the map Kirindi had given him earlier had melted away.
Kirindi softly brushed her forehead against her sister's wide corona. "We go now" she said.
Unsteady, her sister pushed herself on her feet, as far as the passage allowed to to stand straight. Going on two legs was still no option. Not that she had the energy for it anyway, but the hall was so small she could not properly position her broken legs underneath her. Her pace was labored and the frosted surrounding made it only worse. Kirindi wanted to support her, but higher reason prevented it : she herself was not in the best of shapes and might have to fight again. She had to be in her best form to defend her sister.
A piercing scream from up ahead nearly sent her back into battle mode, but she calmed when she didn't sense anything new. The only living hardmeat drone on this level was their guide.
Kirindi went ahead and rounded the corner. There, Jake was trying to calm Shadhahvar down. The woman had sunken into a corner, babbling frantically. Their guiding drone stood in a doorway, long head tilted slightly. He was curious at the nonsensical display, enough to forget his own wounds.
"That's our friend, Shadey. Nothing to worry, just another weird friend. He helped us before." Jake repeated the words to her, as the drone remained on a distance.
The android was staring at him too, Kirindi could only guess he wasn't sure what behavior program to run for the creature.
Kirindi herself had only one thing on her mind, getting out.
It took a while before he responded, but then he showed her a sound map, constructed by his own echo and the long dome of his head, added with what his telepathic sense showed him.
"He says... ahead ... several tunnels ... ahead. Elevator, I think," Kirindi said.
921-Y nodded slowly. He tried to check his own data, but found his energy reserves running dangerously low, much due to the fact his main 'stomach', had been ripped out.
For twenty-five minutes they trailed the empty halls, haunted by the shrieks in the far distance growing dimmer. It meant the enemy drones were moving away from the hole, and they were following. Kirindi hoped they wouldn't find a way up.
There indeed was a single wide space moving upward, and it indeed was an elevator. It was perfectly clean, smooth and significantly warmer. No drones had been driven through this room. As 921-Y processed this, he realized that some of his virus friends still had to be active, for as long as Utara did not had a system override code that was needed to drive the drones.
The frosters in the wall were still offline, he speculated. But he couldn't tell for sure. Kirindi liked to believed those she trusted on their word, so she stepped in without hesitation.
"Don't!"
She halted, a few steps into small room.
At that moment, a ray of ice shot free from the wall, right onto her. She screamed, trying to skitter back to the group, but a second ray joined in. Inhaling the frigid air scorched her lungs, she stopped breathing entirely. A normal human would have died already, and her skin started to show cracks.
921-Y pushed Jake back and lunged forward himself, grabbing Kirindi's outstretched hand, trying to pull her back. She seemed heavier than she should be, or maybe it was just that he was lacking a few vital motion functions. His silicon skin was started to show the same cracking patterns as that of Kirindi.
A sudden jerk pulled them both back into the passage. 921-Y tried to let go of Kirindi, but his hands took a while to cooperate. Kirindi whimpered as she slumped to the ground, and 921-Y fell backward, having lost his balance.
The drone loomed over them, his tail covered with eyes. The painful cold eased as Kirindi's internal organs went into overdrive to reheat her, and she managed a smile at the drone.
"I guess none of us will be able to pass that hall," Jake said as half question, half statement. Kirindi didn't like how much despair she felt behind those words, but he was right. Even her sister wouldn't last long in that cold, not in her open wounded condition.
"We can't go on?" Shadhahvar squeaked.
"We can't go on."
"But...why isn't that blaster thing in this hall, why only in that room?"
No one did speak, no one answered. They didn't know. "Why?" Shadhahvar's voice whined.
Behind them, the queen chimera moved. A pale and crimson arm stretched past the humans, softly nudging her little sister. Kirindi didn't move at first, and when she did, her top skin layer sounded eerily crispy.
Uttering a catlike mewl, she stood up with her sister's help. Slivers of skin fell off her back and shoulders, revealing the equally white bony layer underneath.
The slumping android was shivering. Almost as if he was a human, but the reaction was in fact caused by a malfunction in his silicon relais, causing tiny spurts of energy to go through his muscles. He looked more human than her, in part.
"So what now?" Jake asked, kneeling down to try and help the android sit up. The question was directed at Kirindi.
She parted her lips, bit cringed back to the ground in pain again as a piece of her neck skin tore loose. There, she curled to a ball like a small child, biting back the pain as well as she could. She'd need a little longer before her body put itself back in place.
"Don't know..." she whispered.
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