Onekka - The Tragedy of Jaqui Fennet (14 page)

She found the delay timer on the side of the pulsar and set it for one hour.
Long enough, she hoped, for her to get clear and prepare a revelatory broadcast
to Earth's international media. She judged the central point in the room, and
pushed the trigger before placing it inside an access panel on the bank of
displays. From that position, the EMP should destroy every military-based piece
of electronics in this cabin. They would not be able to stop her before she
exposed them, and any replacement equipment would be days away from
functioning.
This was it; the culmination of everything that'd happened to her since she
first dropped the ball in a meeting with the Armcorp delegation. Finally, she
felt a sense of real purpose beyond a need to find answers. This was why she
was here - to effect peace.
A clanking sound outside the cabin cut Jaq from her reverie. She cursed herself
for letting pride get in the way of awareness. Voices floated in from the area
outside. She sneaked across to the door, which had a small window in the upper
half, and peeked out. The square floor was packed with security personnel!
Either a new shift was switching in, or they were onto her. Then she watched an
armoured guy with an air cannon kick in the door of the cabin next door and
enter with his weapon braced before him.
These guys weren't dressed like station security personnel. They were decked
out in cutting edge armour and high end weapons - the marks of an expensive
private military contractor.
Crap - mercenaries, and they're looking for me!
Another merc headed towards the door she hid behind, this one with a smaller
hand-cannon. He wore an officer's cap and was shouting orders as he moved. Jaq
pulled her pistol and crouched behind the door, seeing only one way out of the
situation. When it was kicked open and the guy came through, she pushed the
door shut. Before he could spin, she planted a heavy foot on his backside,
sending him sprawling to his face, his weapon clattering away across the
corrugated metal floor. She leapt on him, straddling his back, and placed the
barrel of her gun to the rear of his head.
"Shout for help, and I swear it'll be the last sound you hear." He
waved a hand to indicate agreement, presumably afraid to answer verbally in
case she took it for an alarm.
Good; you believe me.
"Get up."
As he clambered to his feet, she took position behind him, the gun centred on
his spine. "What's your name?" she asked.
"Captain Barrow."
"Well, I hope your men like you, Captain Barrow, because you're my ticket
out of here." She nudged her gun at his back. "Now move it; you're coming
with me."

As Jaq exited
the cabin with her hostage, one hand hooked into the uniform at the back of his
neck and the other pressing her gun into him, the gravity of her situation
really hit home. Security personnel were everywhere; at least twenty of them.
One noticed them and shouted, and suddenly twenty air cannons were aimed their
way. It occurred to Jaq that, if they used the right setting, they could simply
bombard her into unconsciousness, safe in the knowledge they wouldn't harm her
hostage. She had to disavow them of that notion.
"Is that a ballistic weapon you have on me?" grunted Barrow.
"You won't fire that in here - nobody's that stupid. If it ricochets and
hits the plasti-glass, nothing will save us."
"I'm not stupid," she said, aiming the gun past him, "but I am
desperate." She fired in the direction of the crowd of cops. Her heavy gun
bucked in her hand, sending a jarring shockwave the length of her extended arm.
The bang was louder than she'd anticipated, setting her ears ringing and
filling the whole arena with its shocking report. Barrow yelled in pain as
blood burst from his ear, a victim of the extensive powder ignition flash.
The bullet caught one figure in his hip and he flew backwards like a spinning
top from the impact. A moment later, the high explosive in the round detonated
and he erupted into a bloom of ragged fragments amongst a cloud of blood.
Several nearby personnel were thrown from their feet by the shockwave. In the
throbbing silence of the wake, Jaq placed the weapon once more against Barrow's
spine.
"You crazy cunt!" he yelled. "You'll kill us all!"
"Sorry it came to this," she said, "but you're my only ticket
out of here. Now, where's the best way out, without having to climb that
slope?"
He nodded his head to one side. "Maintenance shaft, over there."
She sidled backwards and sideways, following the direction he'd indicated,
never exposing herself to the security personnel. Barrow was broader than her,
which helped, and they'd be far less willing to risk shooting her down now they
knew what she was capable of. Still, they weren't fools. Several headed quickly
to either side, trying to get good angles for flanking manoeuvres.
Jaq's heart raced in her chest and adrenalin pumped trough her system.
Am I
really willing to risk a hull breach just to escape?
Shuffling along
towards the lower rear corner, she considered that thought. She hadn't
hesitated. The moment she recognised the expedience of shooting at the mercs,
she'd taken the shot. Was this what the dream companions meant, about defining
her own reality and realising her potential?
Am I truly uninhibited?
"How much further?" she growled into Barrow's good ear.
"Few more steps," he panted. "Right in the corner, there's a
panel. Passcode six, four, four, two."
When they got to the edge, she risked a glance behind, and saw what he meant.
Virtually invisible amongst the shadows where the two curved walls met, there
was a panel. It lit up when Jaq hovered near, displaying numbers. Running feet
told her the mercs were closing in. Regardless of threats, they might try to
take her down - it was more than their contract was worth to let her escape.
Ignoring the urgency that sliced through her bladder like rusty metal, she
punched in the code and watched as the corner peeled away to reveal a small
box. She backed in, pulling Barrow with her, and barked at him to close the
doors.
"Bottom floor - if this is a maintenance shaft, it'll go all the way. We
want the underring - press it!"
A slight
whumm
sounded, and she ducked just in time. An air bole whizzed
into the elevator box and released, throwing both Jaq and her hostage to the
floor. Anger flashed through her head. She reared up - knowing there were just
fractions of a second before others followed suit, filling the elevator car
with gale-force compression - and fired back. A guy's face disappeared in a
splash of crimson, his head snapping back, moments before his upper half burst,
lacerating the mercs to either side. It may even have been the one who'd shot
at her. Jaq slammed her palm on the controls, closing the door.
Barrow reared up from the floor towards her, but she was ready. Her gun butt
met his face and he collapsed in a bleeding, moaning heap. As the elevator
started to descend, Jaq pressed the button for the underring - a maintenance
tunnel that circled the bowels of Onekka, providing access to all essential
systems and areas from beneath. Soon there was just the whirring of elevator
gears, the faint snuffling of Barrow on the floor, and the after-effects of her
second shot to listen to. It would be a slow journey - maintenance elevators
ran on reserve power - and they were traversing the entire height of the
station.
"They'll follow us, all the way. My boys are loyal. You do realise that,
don't you?"
She looked down at Barrow's earnest face with her gun as well as her eyes.
So
young, to be commanding men in battle.
"Pray they don't catch up with
us, or maybe nobody will breathe tomorrow's air."
"Where are we even going?"
"To the place with the thinnest hull on all Onekka. Keep that in mind.
Now," she squatted down next to his prostrate form, "I have
questions." Barrow's eyes, despite his apparent youth, were steely and
determined. He wasn't fazed by the blood that dribbled from his nose and cheek.
Jaq wondered if he'd expected a cushy assignment, looking after a bunch of
scientists and lab-rats.
No such luck, boy.
"What are those giant
chairs in the middle of the arena up there - who uses them, and to what
purpose?"
He blinked, apparently not expecting to be quizzed on the equipment. "Is
that how you saw it - an arena?"
"That, or the biggest radar dish in the universe. What's the truth,
then?"
"Well it's for communications alright, so I guess the dish is the closer
of the two. The chairs are for the watchers. It's where they sit while they ...
well, while they watch stuff."
"Watchers?" She felt frustration building in her chest. "What do
you mean? Why not use display screens?"
"I'm not really the right person to ask, but I know they plug into the
chairs. When a watcher sits, monofilaments push into the length of their spinal
column and through to the brain via the ears. There's so much for them to see,
it's just not possible to take in the information. As I understand it, they
receive feedback via those filaments, directly into their nervous systems, and
as their brains interpret the information, it's fed back into a central
computer, prioritised and arranged for others to view."
"So what," she frowned. "Are they like those surveillance
mummies with the cameras for faces?"
He shook his head. "No. They need to be alive and fully cognisant. It
takes a functional, and amplified, brain to process that information."
As they descended, the temperature was dropping steadily. Human comforts such
as warmth and air filtration were not maintained in the service areas of the
station. The underring would be cold indeed - a chill deep enough that nobody
worked there without thick protective clothing. They would simply have to make
do.
Jaq sat back on her haunches, unsure what she was hearing. "But what do
they watch?"
Barrow smiled. "Everything. They watch everything."
At that moment, Jaq's personal comm unit beeped at her, the sound accompanied
by a sensation of inquiry in her head - the closest communications got these
days to a 'vibrate' feature. She looked at the small readout strapped to her
wrist; unknown caller. Jaq denied the call.
"What about you?" asked Barrow, causing her to jump. "What's
your story, Fennet? You murder your friends and colleagues, break into
restricted areas, and gun down my men with barely a blink. What made you so
cold?" He looked genuinely hurt, and she saw his attachment to his charges
betray itself in the glistening around his eyes.
"Circumstance," she said. "Little more. I've been here on Onekka
since she was new, when the vid screens still flickered and bugs caused the
comm stations to interfere with elevator movements. I was a pioneer, one of the
first in mechanical administration. I helped her through those teething
problems and her terrible twos. She runs beautifully now, an electro-mechanical
angel in the heavens - the shining light of humanity's achievement. We're a
part of each other, inextricably.
"And in all that time, I've never once felt anything but benevolence in
her existence. I, one of the parents of a burgeoning creation, didn't even know
why she'd been designed. Suddenly, she was keeping secrets from me - from
me!
"
She sucked in a breath. "I hate secrets. They lead to pain, tear families
apart, and cause people to lie, even to themselves. Secrets are the reason for
everything that's shit in this life. Up here, I was free of that, or so I
thought, until recently."
He stared at her for a long time before saying anything. "If I came at you
right now, intent on taking that gun, you really would pull the trigger,
wouldn't you?"
"Without a nano's hesitation."
He gulped. "I guess I'll go along with you, then."
"Don't do that - try to make me feel guilty! You said yourself, I've
killed all my friends. What makes you think a pipsqueak merc captain can appeal
to my emotions after that? I have to complete my mission. I have to let
humanity know the deception that's gone on here. I can't let Onekka be used as
a weapon for global conflict - I honestly thought we were past all that, as a
species. Up here, at least. I thought things could be better."
"Hang on a minute." He shifted to a sitting position, but held his
hands up when she reaffirmed her gun aim. "Global conflict - is that what
you think this place is meant for? We don't have any weapons designed for
that."
"If Onekka's not built to attack Earth, why are there displays showing
target zones and impact assessments at various sites on the planet?"
"It's a defence measure. Those are the most vulnerable surface sites, the
areas where most defence would need to be concentrated, if the planet ever came
under attack. This place was never meant to assault Earth. Why do you think the
huge radar arrangement is on the top of the station, facing away from Earth?
It's not down there that's the problem." He waved a hand at the ceiling.
"It's up above that everyone's afraid of."
Jaq slumped back into the opposite corner from the merc. "So the reason
Onekka's listing target zones on Earth..."
"Is because we needed to know where the aliens were most likely to hit, so
we could be ready," he finished for her.
Jaq felt her head spinning as the enormity of his revelation hit her like a
juggernaut. She knocked her head against the metal wall behind her, but barely
noticed.
"All the weapons are aimed outwards," continued Barrow. "The
watchers use those chairs because they view such distances, the calculations
simply cannot be made by normal humans, and software doesn't exist to decode
such gigantic numbers. I guess they thought, rather than have the geniuses
trying to convert their minds into a tool for others to use, it made more sense
to turn the geniuses themselves into the tools."
"Go back to the bit about the aliens," Jaq heard her mouth say.
"I want to know about the aliens."
"Hey, I only hear stories." There was a brief silence, and then
Barrow started to move. Jaq, despite still staring at the ceiling, raised her
gun hand, which had started to falter. He settled back to the floor. "But
what I hear is that, maybe a decade ago, SETI - that's the Search for Extra
Terrestrial Intelligence - caught wind of a transmission. At first, they
thought it was just an echo from one of the pods we've sent out over the
generations, but then they realised it wasn't quite our language - it was
something trying to mimic it.
"They replied, thinking first contact could only be a good thing, but then
got something back that scared them silly. That's when the UN got together and
started work on this place. Nobody really knows what that second message from
the aliens said, but it was enough to spur technology on like even war hadn't
managed in the past. I guess they thought telling everybody the real purpose
for Onekka was a bad idea, and that's why you're surrounded by secrets. I... I
don't really know what else to say, Ms Fennet. Does this change anything for
you?"
She sniffed as she studied the metal wall. "Do you ever wish for a blank
mind, or am I the first person in history to think a lobotomy would be a good
thing? To have no thoughts, no paranoia, no desperation to find out the things
you really don't need to know, and probably aren't ready to find out; that
sounds like a good way to be."
There was a clank and a shudder as the elevator finally reached its
destination. It struck Jaq that, in the course of a single ride across Onekka,
the entire world had altered shape, and yet nothing had changed. Perhaps her
reality simply had insufficient space for the ramifications that bashed at her
thoughts like mosquitos. No matter - when there was too much to think about, it
seemed expedient to stay one's course, and complete the assignment given.
"Come," she said, climbing to her feet and gesturing with the gun.
"We must get to the shuttle bays. There are too many secrets around here.
Whatever else happens, I have to get word out. People need to know."
"Why?" he asked. "To spread panic, to waste time and money on
oversight committees, press conferences, and the handling of religious groups?
To cause dissent across the Earth when she is potentially vulnerable to attack
from a species we know nothing about? Why, Ms Fennet, why?"
She smiled, but wasn't sure what caused it. "Because I need to tell
them."
She pushed a button on the elevator panel and the doors slid open. She gestured
again with the firearm, prompting Barrow to walk ahead of her, and they moved
into the underring. It looked for all the world like a corrugated metal pipe,
but twenty feet in diameter and interspersed with control panels and ladders
which gave access to overhead airlock doors. If most of Onekka was a smooth,
beautiful skin with dazzling features and a blinding smile, this was the guts
in her abdomen.