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Chapter 4
Atlas quickly turned around, and Onica didn't manage to dodge his look. Now that she'd been spotted, the girl knew it was time to get out of there. As she was running through the corridor, her eyes were filling with deep red of hatred.
Synod decided their fate. Of course, humans were just
helpless dust for those holding all the power in the universe, and for all this
time they had been no more than lab subjects doomed to die. But Onica won't
provide Synod with such an entertainment.
Rage was overwhelming her like flame, it was breaking
out, echoing in shattered glass windows of the medical wards she was running
by. The wall separating her from Lee turned to debris with her slightest touch,
and with her own bare hands she tore the blindness of fake reality her brother
was immersed into.
‘Lee, wake up you spork, we gotta MOVE!’
‘Onica?’
Lee was shocked to see the ruined ward and his sister
covered in soot.
‘There has to be a door...’
Her wild gaze was darting around until she noticed a
barely visible outline in the familiar corner. She grabbed Lee, who was still
trying to process the information, and kicked the door open with loud
explosion, scaring him even more.
‘Get in, now!’
Onica pushed her brother behind the door, but suddenly
she gasped and tripped into his arms - there was a needle under her shoulder
blade. Lee looked up and saw Dr Eim standing in the ward with a tranquilizer
gun in his hand.
This was an actual moment of Lee's awakening. With
Onica on his arms he vanished in the dark corridor behind the secret door. His
steps were steady, each one avoiding lit patches on the floor. Calculating
their next move, he paused just long enough to scan the end of the passage –
the way up was cut off, professor Atlas was already going downstairs. But there
was a lift, and Lee called it without hesitation.
‘Don't worry, we'll get out of here,’ he gave his
sister a reassuring smile.
‘We're screwed up, and you tell me not to worry, are
you kidding?!’ Onica was spiting anger, in spite of her getting weaker -
sedative injection suppressed the raging flame in her body.
There was no way out when their pursuers appeared in
the hall. Amber flashed in Atlas' eyes, and dangerous bright rays surged
towards escapees. Lee didn't know what he was doing, he just felt an urge to
raise his hand to give them a warning sign not to come nearer.
'Please, slow down!’
And they slowed down their pace. Not because they
wanted to talk things through or wait until the lift carries Lee and Onica
away. Their lab coats lingered in the air, and the light spears started to move
slowly, as if they were struggling though the water column - the time seemed to
split. And it was enough to wait for the lift and push Onica inside.
‘Try not to fall asleep, I will hold them up.’
‘Lee, you jerk, no!’
The last thing Lee noticed was that Dr Eim managed to
break through the distortion and raised the gun.
‘Lee!!’
He heard Onica choking with tears behind closing doors
as he fell on his knees under sedative effect and flinched with pain when
bright rays found their aim.
***
The artificial sun of Ark was no good as this sea of
light in the sky. Lee was floating on the surface of the ocean, feeling the
warmth of the sun in his veins, bathing in the light rain, in spite of no
clouds in the sky. It felt like home. Somehow he knew this place, as if he never
left, and he knew this ocean washes the shore of the desert, where Onica would
wait for him.
'Start now, he remembered.'
'Yes, we are in, transmitting data.'
Lee went cold. Through the dream he was able to hear
professor Atlas and Dr Eim operating on his memories, but he didn't want to
lose them again, they were only his. Lee extinguished the vision, resisting
with all his strength, and it seemed the time went still.
He came to his senses inside a locked pod. It was in a
large room, which was losing its walls in darkness, but there was also bright
amber light on the other side. The first thing in the room he could see was
Eim's eyes, rounded with amazement, as he was watching the young man through
the glass of the pod. The white gas around Lee lingered in the air, hesitant to
approach, was it Lee's doing?
There was lack of information. He was intimidated by
neither Atlas nor Dr Eim, he just didn't know what was happening, and seemingly
it wasn't the right moment to ask. Fire in the ward, those strange bright
spears and how time was splitting around him were unknown variables that left
him in pain. The only conclusion he could come to so far was that Onica was
right all along. Hopefully she managed to make her way out…
'Eim, it is not a show.'
'Oh, sorry, sir.'
Dr Eim shook his head, briefly touched his glasses and
returned to the tray, where a sedative syringe lay. The moment he looked at Lee
again, he could see a clear message in his eyes.
Help me.
The doctor lingered, watching the white cloud shrink
under the upper part of the pod - demonstration of Lee's incredible power, and
a spark of lust flickered in his eyes. Eim cautiously turned back to see that
Atlas had already left the room with a probe of precious memories, and put down
the syringe. As soon as he attempted to approach, Lee tried to split the time
again, but for some reason doctor was immune to his powers, which made Lee
realise that things didn't go well.
‘It's okay, Lee, I won't harm you.’
He powered off the gas delivery and unlocked the pod,
but it didn't give Lee the freedom yet, as he was still strapped in. Eim sat
nearby, smiling as usual. Lee recognised this smile of a caring teacher at the
academy, an attentive doctor, the one who always had words of comfort for
students. But he couldn't recognise a person in front of him anymore.
‘Lee, my dear, have I ever betrayed your trust?’
‘When you shot at my sister.’
Eim smirked and touched Lee's hand gently.
‘She will be fine, it's just a tiny dose of sedation.
You'll meet her very soon.’
He went to the farthest wall and moved his hand over
its surface.
‘This is an emergency exit. I will tell Atlas that I
erased your memory, but you need to promise me that you and your sister won't
make a fuss in the city, alright? Believe me, it will be much worse if you
don't keep a low profile.’
Lee was confused, he wasn't ready to trust anything
Eim said.
‘Why are you helping me?’
There was a fleeting touch of sadness in Eim's smile.
‘I have nothing more to lose, Lee. I don't share
Atlas' means, as well as he doesn't let me carry on with my investigation. I
feel that… My days at Ark are running out, so it's the best time for me to
escape.’
‘I don't know if I can believe you.’
‘Yes, there is no way to know,’ Eim said gently. ‘But
maybe you won't distrust me so much if I answer your questions.’
Lee was thirsty for answers. Even if there wasn't any
proof that they were honest, it wouldn't hurt to grasp the whole picture.
‘Who… are you?’
Eim drew nearer and put his hands on the straps,
giving him a carefree gaze.
'Let me show you something first. But promise to
behave.'
As soon as Lee got unstrapped from the pod, he finally
could see the source of the light on the other side of the room. The young man
held his breath with fear - behind the wide window there was a view of a
massive destroyer with blinding amber iris of vanishing nebula.
‘Maybe you know, Lee, that in the centre of some solar
systems destroyers are sometimes born. They devour everything on their way,
planet after planet, and star after star. Our system is like this.’
Lee could barely breathe, and Eim stroke his shoulder
gently as if comforting him, but now it made Lee even more nervous.
‘We are the space investigation department, the SID.
We are looking for special people like your sister and you, Lee. Your unusual
mutation can help find the answer how to stop the growth of this black hole.’
'I… I don't understand… Why can't we just escape
somewhere safe?'
'That is precisely my concern too, my boy. The
professor is obsessed with his experiments on the destroyer, but to be honest
he isn't doing much progress for now. And if the destroyer overgrows the
system, it will attract watchers of the nebula…'
'…you mean Synod,' Lee said, astonished. Stars are
superiour beings, life-giving and generative, but when they turn their gaze on
you, it means nothing good.
'Very smart, my dear. Yes, Synod has to seal the black
hole after it destroys the last planet, this is their… protocol. However, my
dear, we needn't wait for that to happen. I've found the way to the place,
where humanity could have a refuge, but first we need to prove if it's safe -
this is where I need a reliable crew.'
Dr Eim winked at Lee, clearly implying that he and
Onica were welcome to join him on the expedition. Pieces of puzzle started to
connect in Lee's head - indeed, Dr Eim had always guarded them from the
professor and he never reported Onica to Atlas. But it didn't change the fact
that Eim was professor's accomplice.
'Then why do you erase our memories and make us live in the fake city? Just to
find mutations?’ asked Lee in a cold voice.
‘What? No, of course not. It is true that we… fill up
the reality in your minds, but it is just because your memory is damaged by
destroyer effect. The SID has saved many people from planets dying inside the
destroyer, and I doubt you want to remember that, right?’
Lee was lost in doubts, and Eim noticed that. He came
in front of Lee, blocking the view of the black hole and bent, looking him in
the eyes.
‘Listen, Lee, I was the same as you. Even when I
gained my powers I never had freedom. But if you join me, we'll be able to free
ourselves from this illusion. I will help you and your sister escape Ark City.’
The youngster nervously averted his gaze. It was hard
to believe that their tiny paradise of Ark was just a bubble of lie filled with
dark secrets, but what was more important - there was a way to change this all,
and have a better life. And he really, really wanted to trust Eim at the moment
like this.
‘What do you want me to do?’
Dr Eim smiled with content and put an e-ward into his
pocket.
‘Here is the plan of the city. Wait for my message and
make sure your sister doesn't attract unwanted attention. In a few days we will
escape.’
***
Lee was used to his sister's occasional bad temper,
but this time she was really loud.
‘Darn, you believed him? Really?’
They were standing on the wall balcony overlooking the
city, which once was their special place - a shoulder. It was a wonder how the
whole city could fit just into one hall, and how tricked they were to think
that the world could be bigger than this. They used to think that the city was
an island surrounded by water, but instead of water there were walls, and haze
above the sea was now steam coming from pipes. And there has never been the
sun, just artificial lighting under the ceiling.
‘Lee, listen, we need to act immediately. Let's shake
this rusty hole, it will distract them and we will flee!’
The youngster shook his head.
‘Too dangerous. We don't know if we might escape, and
we can't risk revealing ourselves. They are watching us closely.’
‘Then we need to shut down surveillance system.’
‘It will only make us more suspicious. If we need to
do so, we will have only moments to escape, so we have to know exactly what to
do and where to go. I suggest we wait for some time and see what happens.’
‘You meant… Wait for his message,’ Onica gave him a
disapproving look. ‘Lee, it's a trap, can't you see?’
‘Maybe, but we have no other choice. All in all it was
Dr Eim who helped you out of the ward.’
Onica gasped in disbelief.
‘Your precious doctor just wants to use a naïve fool
like you, that's it.’
They didn't talk ever since. Lee had a feeling that
Onica lost trust to him. On the one hand it was a good thing, as they don't
spend much time together they rise less suspicion, and yet Lee couldn't tell
what Onica was up to. She was susceptible to emotions and it always dragged her
into trouble. But he didn't think troubles will find them so soon.
One day Lee woke up to an unpleasant discovery - the
e-ward was gone. Lee had good memory and organisation, he simply couldn't
misplace it. The door of his cell was still locked, so no one could get in.
Even though losing e-ward was a disaster, Lee didn't rush and took his time to
think. He looked around and inspected the room once more before he found a
vent. Its cover was black with time, but the screws looked different.
Onica.
Although it was obvious, Lee decided not to jump into
conclusions and check her department in case she was still there. But on his
way he noticed a fuss down the artificial city, where people were discussing
the latest news - a message from the shuttle came this morning, Dr Eim died in
the expedition.
Lee went cold. He was trying to pull his thoughts
together, but they were just slipping away, and he could feel his heart clench
with the pain of loss. Even when it turned out that Dr Eim had been lying to
them all along, Lee was still hopeful that he didn't mean any harm. And now,
when he was gone, Lee realised that Eim told him the truth at their last
meeting. He foresaw that Atlas would get rid of him and left Lee and Onica with
the chance to break free. He risked his life for that, and now Lee felt as if
Eim's blood was on his hands.
The young man shuddered with a sudden realisation - if
Atlas began taking steps, Onica could be his next target. Lee quickly dashed to
the engineers department, but Onica was absent. Then he returned to the
shoulder, but she wasn't there either. He could feel his temples throbbing,
thoughts were all over the place and it was hard to stay calm.
‘Lee, over here!’
A sudden whisper made him come to his senses. He
turned back to see no one around, and then a small screw fell on the floor near
his feet. Lee looked up to see Onica reaching her hand to him out of the vent
above.
‘Hold on, quickly!’
She had always been incredibly strong even for a mechanic,
so she pulled in her thin brother with no effort. It was dark inside, the shaft
was bending and forking, but Onica quickly navigated the vent thanks to the
e-ward she stole from brother. After what seemed to be ages they descended into
the basement under the city, and Lee flinched when instead of carefully unscrewing the vent cover, Onica just kicked it open with a
deafening echo.
‘Are you serious?!’
‘Relax, there's no one here. Come on, this one's gonna
be tricky.’
They ended up in a narrow corridor, lit by eerie red
lights and filled with a musty bitter smell of wet metal. At
the end of it they found a door, which had an intricate panel with numbers and
symbols on it.
‘I've managed to get only
this far. A dead end.’
‘Is it?’
Lee inspected the door for a brief moment and then tried to push it. And... It just
opened.
‘Onica...’ he gave her a lenient look.
‘It was closed, I swear!
Someone might've been here not long ago...’
As soon as they opened the door, a strong wave of cold
breathed out. There was a narrow vertical shaft with no end in sight, only
occasional dim lights marked different heights.
‘This is an emergency
exit,’ explained Onica in a low voice, ‘If this door's open, it means the hatch
on the other side is too.’
‘Where does it go?’
‘Out.’
‘You mean… Out of the city?’
‘Out to the surface.’
Seeing that Lee wasn't really contented with answer,
she took out an e-ward.
‘The Ark city's
underground. And this vent will lead us all the way up to the ground space
station. There're some skiffs. Actual skiffs, Lee, not those you saw in that
stupid simulation.’
‘Are you sure we will be
able to board them? I mean, don't you think there is no security system? And if
we escape, where should we go?’
Onica rolled up her eyes. Lee was hard to get moving if he didn't have enough answers, and sometimes it
was quite inconvenient.
‘There's no time for
that, okay? While there's a fuss in the city and Atlas is distracted, we've
gotta get the bolt out of here, understood?’
She ventured into the shaft first and began climbing the ladder.
‘Oh, one more thing. This shaft is scanned, so if you
see the bright light coming just stay still and not even breathe, or else the
hatch will get closed dead and we'll be stuck here forever.’
‘Thank you for timely warning,’ rumbled Lee, who on
his side was annoyed with Onica's habit not to think first. Good that she at
least remembered about this complication they were about to face inside the
shaft.
Hardly had they started their ascent, as the shaft was
swayed with a slight vibration similar to heart beat. A red holographic net
appeared on the lower level of the shaft and started its way up towards the two
escapees.
‘Lee, don't move.’
Lee turned into a stone, his emotions and thoughts
froze at once, and he even felt his heart slowing down. As the weightless net
was slowly passing by, it seemed that the suffocating water was filling the
vent.
‘Clear. Go.’
With business-like demeanour Onica went on with her energetic
climb, Lee hardly managed to keep up. Several more waves passed by, but each
time it was harder and harder not to move, as the ladder lacked fastening and
was getting shaky. The ascent seemed to be eternal, and Lee's hands were sore,
his body was exhausted, but he kept clinging to the ladder, ignoring pain.
‘Lee, hold on, good news. The end is within reach!‘
‘Oh really.’
Lee noticed a bright spot above quite a while ago, but
it never seemed to get closer. Maybe because he was so tired, but what was like
eternity for him, for Onica was just a stroll in the park.
‘Onica… Wait…’
‘No time for being lazy, Lee, come on.’
‘The ladder… It's falling apart…’
Another 'heart beat' shook the shaft along with metal
clang of a falling rung.
‘Err… Well, mind your step then. This stuff is darn
old.’
Lee slowed his pace, trying every rung carefully,
while Onica brutally tore off every worn part of the ladder, so that it won't
collapse under them. The young man watched them fall with concern into a rising
tide of the red net, but luckily, it didn't detect moving things low on
temperature.
The exit was now definitely not far away, but it was
still dangerous in the shaft, and they had to make another stop. The light from
the net seemed to be burning hot. Even though they could have some rest when it
scanned them, such breaks were even more strained than the climb itself. The
ladder was shaky, and they had to stop in advance to stabilize it, and those
rungs, they…
‘Onica, up!!’
Several rungs gave away under Lee just when the net
was passing by. Startled, Onica watched him hanging on one hand above the
endless pit.
‘The entrance! You still have time!’
The light above was getting dimmer, as the hatch was
closing. Lee strained to reach it with his thoughts, make it close slower. And
slower… She still can break through, he will speed her up, just don't hesitate,
don't waste time on me…
‘Lee, a piece of an idiot, what have you done!’
He felt how she grabbed his collar and abruptly lifted
him on her back, while trying to reach the hatch with jumps and holding just
with one hand. The ladder was crushing under their weight, but Onica ignored
that, she moved fast as a shot, as if clinging to the thin air. The hatch
closed the moment they felt solid ground again.
While Lee was recovering from shock, Onica laughed out
loud.
‘Feels good! Damn, it was close. Was it your trick?’
‘Not funny at all. Basing on my calculations we
couldn't survive.’
‘But we did,’ Onica sat on the floor and gave him a
bragging look. ‘Don't worry, I had a back up plan. Hardly does this piece of
scrap have anything to say against some friendly booms.’
‘Yes, blow the hatch together with us, nice plan,
sister.’
Lee tried to stand up and looked around. It was a
spacious hall with some holographic screens screaming with a notice of unknown
objects detected in the emergency shaft - of course they had already been
noticed.
Meanwhile Onica was more curious about a large ceiling-to-floor
window, revealing a pitch black sky of the destroyer eye above the rocky
surface of the planet. She was about to draw nearer, but Lee grabbed her
quickly and hid deeper in the room. The next moment a bright searchlight lit
the large spaceport outside, reaching the hall through the glass window.
‘There is a chance they still don't know where we
are,’ he explained. ‘Such searchlights are usually equipped with cameras, so
try to stay away from them or we'll expose ourselves. Now go look for the
entrance, and I'll watch the runway, but please, please be careful.’
Ignoring the beeping message on the screens, Lee was
studying the intervals and routes of the beams, calculating the timing. If they
wait for the right moment, they might slip through the surveillance system and…
Suddenly the loud explosion made him shudder, and
Onica grabbed his arm, rushing to the hole formed in the wall.
‘Nailed it - the entrance.’
‘What are you doing?! They will notice us if we step
into the light!’
‘It doesn't matter as long as we manage to board! I'm
not gonna sit and wait 'til they come for us, come on, move!’
To Lee's despair the searchlights were equipped with
lasers too. They were emitting the similar spears to the ones Lee encountered
in the command office, while trapped by Atlas and Eim, and he knew from his own
experience that they meant no good. Fortunately, he managed to get used to
dealing with them, and light arrows slowed down halfway to Lee and Onica as
they were running across the spaceport. However, there were great plenty of
them frying the runway, so it was hard to predict where they would shoot next
moment, Lee was at his limit.
Suddenly one of the spaceships in front of them
started up, and its door opened down. Without a second thought the two jumped
inside the moment deadly beams landed on the shuttle protection field.
‘Welcome on board, my dear.’
Lee and Onica exchanged looks. The expression of one
was joy and relief, while the other showed anxiety and confusion.
‘Dr Eim? We thought you were dead…’
‘Oh, so you did get my message,’ said the calm gentle
voice from the speakers. ‘Hold on and get ready to the wild ride!’
The skiff took off, maneuvering between lasers and
gaining speed until it seemed as if the beams of light were floating motionless
underwater. They were apparently no threat to the hypersonic shuttle, unlike
the light barrier ahead, which covered the spaceport like a dome.
‘Do you have any means to turn it off? It looks…
impassable.’ Lee sounded nervously.
‘Not at all. It's flickering.’
The flickering rate of the shield was impossible to
notice by the human eye, it took fractures of seconds to reload. But Eim's tone
suggested he knew what he was doing.
‘Here we go...’
And then Lee and Onica witnessed a miracle - as soon
as they got closer, time seemed to stand still. The shield winked for a moment,
and this moment lasted long enough for them to slip through. The both turned
around to look at the cold artificial planet moving away - their former place of
confinement.
Lee was the first to notice a shadow descending to the
boarding hall towards them. Dr Eim looked different this time in plain sweater
instead of lab coat, barefooted. The only things that remained unchanged were
mysteriously flickering glasses on his nose and his usual gentle smile.
‘Dr Eim!’ Lee had much to say, but now was one of
those rare moments when emotions took best of him and he lost all words. ‘I…
I'm just glad you stayed alive.’
‘I am glad to see you two safe and sound as well,’ he
nodded friendly.
‘Oh really? If you had in mind taking us with you, you
could at least help us out!’
Onica was full of fury as she was looking through
doctor's fake smile. But he remained nice and calm.
‘Consider it training. Have you already mastered your
skills?’
‘We aren't test subjects for you! Not anymore.’
There was rage and hatred in her eyes. Eim nodded and
made his way to the bridge.
‘Hey, wait! Tell where you're taking us!’
‘A good question.’
Eim stopped halfway.
‘Next stop - the destroyer.’