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THE NEWCOMER
Path A1A3B2 by Jay
[Path A1A3B2. Cyberreyn goes to her room.]
Cyberreyn's blue-gray eyes open immediately as she regains her real-world breathing. She sees the familiar metallic arteries and veins of the Operator Station above her.
"Thanks, Flicker," she sighs, "That construct was getting-- Hey, wait!"
Flicker looks to her. "Yeah?"
"I thought I told you 'No peeking!'"
Flicker awkwardly looks back to his monitors. "Uhh, yeah, well, um... I just thought..."
"That's the problem. You THOUGHT," she retorts, then softens. "But thanks anyway."
"No prob."
"But I have a question," she starts.
"Yeah?"
Sitting up, Cyberreyn adds, "Did you notice--" But then she stops herself, wondering if she was just imagining things. "No, forget it..."
"You sure?" Flicker asks genuinely. "You can tell me, right?"
"I... don't know," she hesitates. "I'll think about it. Maybe later."
"Suit yourself," Flicker shrugs.
"Thanks again... for the Constructs," Cyberreyn replies with a slight smile.
"Anytime," the operator says, his eyes following her as she glides away from the Station and down the hallway. With a double-blink, he returns to the present, and scans over his display screens. "Anytime," he whispers to himself.
On her way back to her room, Cyberreyn smiles to herself.
"First, that awful goop-- Ughhh!" she reflects quietly, "Then the Cape Cod Construct-- That was awesome! And then that pseudo-kiss with Brad Pitt-- That was OK, weird but OK!" She just had to record that in her diary. "No, I mean 'journal'," she corrected herself. "Diaries are for girlie girls... But what was that weird 'pirate signal'? Who was that woman? Surviving some attack? Then something about '10:13' and some guy named 'Vernon Wells'?" She shakes her head, her short black hair swaying. "What's going on?"
Caught up in her own whirlwind of thoughts, Cyberreyn fails to notice an odd shadow flitting towards her, along the pipe-covered hallway...
"Fuck! Fuckin' piece of shit!" yells Commander Pandora amidst the remains of the Red Dragon's Operator Station. "Can you bring it back up, Enn?"
Operator Enigma shakes her greasy-haired head. "Sorry, Pann. It's dead." She hops off her chair to unplug Pandora.
"F*ck!" the commander repeats. "I hope they got my message!"
"I'm pretty sure they did."
Pandora sits up and sighs, "Let's hope so, Enn." She takes a look at her battered chrono-scope. "Come on, let's go, it's almost 10:13."
The two human survivors of the battle leap down the hovercraft's fractured entrance and onto the dark, muddy, smelly tunnel floor. Nearby, they take refuge in a shoddily-constructed camp site... a site they built five days ago.
"They better get my message," Pandora looks past the dim glow of the Red Dragon's collapsed hull, into the endless blackness beyond. "Or I'm gonna kill their asses."
In the humming cockpit of the "Nosferatu," Captain Kan-chiang wonders about Cyberreyn and her preparedness in the real world. "She has the potential," he says silently to himself, "but lacks the drive, the spark, the purpose..." He presses a more few buttons. "She must be tested... sooner than later..."
Suddenly, the bright indicator flashes and loud klaxon blasts pierce his senses. A security alert!
Hitch, the first officer and senior operator above Flicker, scrambles up the ladder, the creased bill of his orange cap turned from forward to back to avoid hitting the rungs. "What's the situation, Captain?" Hitch calls.
"Two, no... Three Sentinels," Kan-chiang responds, bringing up the central holographic display. "Behind us... maybe three minutes... and closing."
"Any side entrances, pockets, places to shut down?" Sky, as second officer, jumps into the third seat of the cockpit, behind her captain.
"Let me see..." Hitch turns to one of his display screens, punches a few keys, "Yes! The tunnel splits into a major and minor branch up ahead... about... three or four minutes away."
"Dammit!" Sky curses. "It's gonna be close."
"We can do it," the captain reassures her. Peering ahead down the spinning tunnel, Kan-chiang weighs his options. In three or so minutes, the junction will appear, as will the Sentinels. The laser cannons don't have a chance of deactivating the machines, but they may delay them. If he can delay the Sentinels, he may have additional time to shut down the hovercraft, and release the electro-magnetic pulse. Or he may not.
But he does have one card he didn't have before -- the digital human 'Nos,' the hovercraft 'Nosferatu' himself. Was this the time... to test her... to test Cyberreyn?
"Hitchhiker," he turns his brown eyes to his first officer. "Get Sky and Cyberreyn ready. I think it's time."
"Time for what?" Sky's emerald eyes widen in realization. "You mean... the Cockpit Construct? But we haven't completed all of the tests. There's still some glitches with 'Nos'--"
"I understand, Sky," the captain nods. "We have several paths before us. It is best to be prepared for as many as we can anticipate."
In that moment, his words seem to both soothe and pierce her still skeptical soul.
Sensing the familiar energy signature of a hovercraft, the Sentinels correct their trajectories to intercept its fleeing electro-mechanical prey. Assuming a triangular formation, the three tentacled-bullets streak through the wide-sweeping twists and turns of the sparsely-lit passageway.
Their appendages undulating according to specific mathematical formulae, two of the multi-eyed machines focus on their sole mission: Seek and destroy. However, the third machine experiences an improbable electronic sensation... a pulse or flash... a spark verging on desire...
It's the second such spark it has experienced in five days...
Hitch easily hoists and hurls his muscular mass down the ladder. But upon landing, he sees the unconscious form of Cyberreyn lying upon the cold metal deck halfway up the hallway. With his focused rush up to the cockpit, he hadn't noticed her there before. "Cy!" he calls, hurrying to her.
Quickly, Sky slides down the ladder, and sees the two of them. "Hitch! What happened?"
"I don't know!" He brushes away the short black bangs from Cyberreyn's forehead, blood trailing down her left brow.
"Did she fall?" Sky demands.
"I don't know!"
"Dammit!" she adds, cursing the changed plans. Then amidst the emergency, from the corner of her eye, Sky notices a strange shadow flitting down the pipe-covered hallway. "What was that?" she asks.
"Forget it, Sky," First Officer Hitch commands. "We need to inform the captain that Cy is down! We need a new plan!"
Choose Path A1A3B2A - for Hitch to command Sky to inform the captain; he'll take care of Cy.
Choose Path A1A3B2B - for Hitch to command Sky to take care of Cy; he'll inform the captain.
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