Extinction (58 page)

“Copy that. We're moving now and should
have a solution in less than ten minutes.” Bloom directed his squadmates to
drop the bulk of their gear as it was not needed for the next part of their
mission. The most important thing they needed was their cardiovascular system
so they could run to the control room. Daria also acknowledged Wilks and began
hightailing it back to the hangar.

Bloom barely made it to the control room
without passing out. He had passed Daria on the way and knew that she wasn't in
much better shape. Fouter had been talking to him during the run and had given
Bloom instructions on how to override the security system and take full control
of the base. Though Fouter was “wired” into the system, he was still locked out
from many of the higher functions of the base. Bloom was already making mental
list of systems he wanted to explore once it was safe to do so.

On the main screen of the control room,
he could see the scene playing out in the hangar bay. The ship was at the top
of the hangar and the security robot was throwing canisters in the air and then
shooting them. Apparently the ship was too high for the robot's weapons so he
was causing the gas canisters to vent and rocket themselves towards the ship,
where they were exploding near the ship's hull. Bloom was fairly impressed with
the robot's creativity but knew he had to stop it.

With the instructions he received from
Fouter, he was able to quickly access the correct systems and shut down the
robot. “Wilks, the robot is down and I have full access to the base systems
now. I have a little bit of programming to do here and then I'll be able to
have access from anywhere in the base. We should be back to the hanger in less
than a couple of hours.”

“Copy that, Bloom”, Wilks said. “We're
all pretty interested in finding out who this new friend of yours is.”

“All in good time, sir. With this base,
the information and technology it holds, we just gained a huge advantage that
we didn't have ten minutes ago.” Bloom was finishing entering a command code
into a subsystem. “I've hacked the droid and he'll now obey instructions from
anyone on our team. Should be completely safe for you to land now.”

“Thanks, buddy. I assume Doc is on her
way?”

“We passed her in the hall. She didn't
look good; she took a pretty good hit to the head not too long ago. I sent
Snake with her to keep her company, to make sure she makes it all the way. They
were booking it pretty hard and their trackers say they’re still moving.” Bloom
pulled up a map of the base and two triangles were still moving down the
corridor, showing Daria and Snake's movement.

“I'm here, Wilks”, Daria cut in. “Give
me a rundown of what happened to the lieutenant. Send pictures to my visor, too,
so I can see what I'm dealing with.”

“She took a round in her chest from the droid.”
Davies was sending her photos of the injury along with the lieutenant's trending
vital signs. “Her armor slowed it down but it still penetrated. I have a chest
seal in place but her lung is still collapsing. I've tried burping the seal
more than once but I think she needs surgery.”

“Copy that.” Daria was dangerously close
to passing out but she put a little more effort into her run anyway and started
going through in her head the possible medical procedures she might need to do.

Snake keyed his comlink. “Wilks, look
around the ship—there might be one of those torture tubes on board. If there
is, maybe Bloom can repurpose it to perform surgery on the lieutenant.” Snake
looked at Daria as they ran. “No offense, Doc, I know you could handle it on
your own under normal circumstances but we don't have any equipment down here
beyond basic trauma stuff.”

“No offense taken, Snake. I think that's
a great idea.” Daria thought for a moment. “Davies, if you find one of the
tubes, go ahead and just put the lieutenant in it right away.”

“Are you sure, Doc?” Davies was a little
hesitant.

“She's right,” Bloom cut in. “The
primary instruction on the torture tubes is to keep its subject alive unless
told to do otherwise. If you put el-tee in the tube, it will automatically
discover her injuries and start putting her back together again. The key will
be to turn it off before it starts torturing her, which won't be a problem.”

“Okay, guys, I'm on it.” Davies pointed
to two other team members who followed his lead and left the bridge in search
of the torture tube.

Your plan is a good one, Bloom.

Out loud Bloom responded, “Thanks, I'm
glad you agree.”

There is in fact a torture tube on
the ship. I will send the location to you in just a moment.

“If you knew it was there, why didn't
you just say so a moment ago when we were discussing the idea?”

Because, I needed to divert my full
attention to other processes to prepare for what will happen when you find the
tube
. After short pause, Fouter continued.
I told you I was placed into
a torture tube a thousand years ago; the one and only tube aboard that ship is
the one I was placed in. In order for you to use it to save your teammate, you
will have to remove my body and I will die.

Bloom was stunned and saddened. He had
only known Fouter for less than fifteen minutes in real life but he had been
with Fouter for decades when they were inside Bloom's mind.

“Are you sure? There are other tubes in
the facility that we can use. We already used one of them.”

The elevator from the hangar bay does
not work. It was purposely damaged during the purge when the escaping emperor retreated
to this level during his escape. When you tried to access it from the top
levels, it wasn't security protocols that kept it from coming to you. There is
no way to get your teammate to another tube within the complex, at least not in
time.

“Okay, but how can we justify murdering
you to save one of our own? It's not as if you are the enemy any more, then it
would be a simple decision. You have helped my team and the information you
have provided will help the rest of the Coalition, too. Not to mention that
your continued existence will further help us in the upcoming conflict.” Bloom
knew, even without the debate, how this would end but he still needed to talk
about it.

I appreciate your sentiment but I
have lived for more than a thousand years and I'm ready to move on to whatever
is the next step, even if it is nothingness. I have prepared the system to be
ready for my departure from it. I have been organizing the data for several
hundred years now, trying to put it into logical categories and rating it in
terms of usefulness for whoever might find it. I honestly didn't expect to
still be around when someone did find it. For the last hundred years or so I've
just been “tinkering” with it because I've had nothing else to do.

Bloom was about to open his mouth when
he was interrupted.

All I have to offer you will still be
available. I just won't be around to interact with you. I do wish things could
be different but I'm looking at your teammate through the ship's onboard
monitoring system and she doesn't look good. Because of my genetic engineering,
I was never capable of truly being a friend to the emperor as he was to me but
at least I was able to experience friendship once before I moved on. If any of
the emperor's descendants are still alive, please tell them of how I changed
and how, looking back at my time in the empire, I can now see what a great man
and friend the emperor was to me and his own empire.

Bloom then saw a map of the ship show up
on his visor and a blinking triangle showing the waypoint destination of where
the torture tube was located. “Davies.”

“Go ahead, Bloom. I hope you have some
help for us. This ship is huge.”

“I do. The waypoint should show up on
your visor now.” Bloom's own visor gave an indication that the software
handshake had been made between it and Davies' visor. “When you get there
you're going to find a warrior in the tube.”

Davies didn't reply for a second,
wondering how Bloom knew this. “Okaaaaaay. So we just yank his fucking ass out,
right?”

“I don't have time to explain everything
so here's the extremely short version.” Bloom took a deep breath before he gave
the instructions to kill his new friend. “The warrior is still alive and more
than a thousand years old. The tube has been keeping him alive since the emperor's
revolt. He has changed, evolved, become a more aware and let's say—socially
conscious being.

“I don't know what condition his body
will be in when you find him but his mind is tapped into the computer system of
this base. When you remove him from the tube, he will die.”

“Bloom,” Wilks was in the conversation
now, “is this warrior the new friend you were talking about? Will he be a
danger at all when we disconnect him?”

“Yes, sir, he is my friend in every
sense of the word.” Bloom felt what could only be described as a “brain tickle”
and he knew it was Fouter responding to Bloom's last comment. “I'll explain
everything later but he wants to sacrifice his life so the lieutenant can be
saved in the tube. All of the information he has on our enemies will be
retained in the system after he's gone.”

Emily could barely talk with her
collapsing lung and other internal injuries but she managed to get a few words
out. “No. If...evolved...murder. Too important...need him...more than me.”

For the first time, Fouter spoke through
all of the comlinks. “I appreciate your sense of morality but this is my choice
and I make it freely and without reservation. As Bloom has said, all the
information I have will be retained. This is the gift I give to my emperor's descendants
to make sure they can live in a peaceful galaxy the way he wanted them to be
able to.”

“Davies, when you get to the tube, enter
these commands on the side panel.” Bloom sent the sequence to Davies' visor. “And
please, remove Fouter from the tube like he was one of us. He deserves our
respect and thanks.”

“You got it, brother.” Davies had just
located the tube when Wilks advised he was already on his way with the lieutenant.

Davies saw the warrior in the tube, or
what was left of him. The body was whole as far as he could tell but all of the
limbs were emaciated to a fraction of what they had once been. Based on the
other warriors Davies had seen, this one used to be huge, bigger than the
others by far.

There weren't any tables in the room so
Davies made room on the floor near the tube to place Fouter's body. He was
getting ready to enter the commands into the control panel when Wilks and Patz
came into the room with Emily on a stretcher between them. Emily was barely
conscious but aware enough that she was able to look towards Fouter and reach
out to try to touch his hand.

Wilks and Patz put Emily down and
without being told, went to the tube to catch Fouter after he was released.
Davies entered the commands into the panel and the torture tube began to flash
a warning that the current occupant would die if he were removed at this point.
Davies entered the proper override commands and the tube began to disconnect
Fouter. As disconnections were made and his mind was retreating from the system
and back into his body, Fouter's physical form was becoming more aware and
actually looking somewhat alive.

With only a few connections left to
sever, Fouter's eyes opened for the first time in almost a millennia. He slowly
looked around the room with eyes that could barely move or focus. When he saw
Emily, he stopped looking around and locked eyes with her. Once more, she
reached out to him and managed to gasp, “Thank you.”

As Davies and Wilks gently took control
of Fouter's body and lowered him to the ground, Emily was able to take hold of
one of his lower hands. Fouter didn't have the strength to reach towards Emily
or even reciprocate her touch but he could still feel hers.

For the first time in his life, he knew
what it meant to touch another living creature without malice in his heart or
anger in his soul. The touch was almost electric in the way it stimulated his
emotions and filled him with regret for all the lost moments he had with other
sentient beings while at the same time filling him with what he could only
assume was love. Not love of another person but the love of life, of existence,
of being a part of the universe in a way that hadn't been possible a thousand
years ago.

Fouter tried to speak but his vocal
cords had stopped working centuries earlier. Bloom was receiving live feed from
Patz's visor and was recording it for posterity. On the screen, Bloom saw his
friend locking eyes with the lieutenant and Fouter became obviously emotionally
moved when Emily grasped his hand in hers. His soundless mouth moved and did
its best to express his final thought, “Thank you.“

Fouter died and in doing so, made way
for Emily to live. Emily was deep in shock and her body had shunted all of its
available fluid and blood to her core organs and brain but it managed to spare
a single tear for the sacrifice Fouter made for her. She slipped into
unconsciousness as Wilks pried her hand from her savior's and placed her in the
tube.

Davies winced as he entered the commands
to start the torture session on the lieutenant. He immediately received a
warning from the device that the subject was near death and any torture would
kill her almost instantly. The very helpful and insightful torture program gave
a friendly suggestion that it be allowed to repair the subject before the
torture began. Davies keyed in the proper sequence that told the tube to begin
the repair process and to alert him before any torture processes began. The
tube went about its business and began affecting Davies' instructions. If he
didn't know any better, Davies would have said the tube was actually cheerful
as it began its duties.