.jpg)
PART II. THE
CRUCIBLE
Chapter 5
Mattias woke up to cold serenity of the light wind,
which found its way through holes in the shuttered skiff. The world around was
of magnificent blue with silent glaciers and frozen plants towering the ocean -
the cold realm of Icarus-6S.
The man did his best to move, and it seemed all limbs
where on their places, good news on its own. Bad news, however, was that the
e-ward with precious AI was broken beyond recognition.
‘So… I guess here is the end to unlimited power,’
Mattias felt bitterly disappointed, as if he was given a super cool toy that
was taken from him the next moment. ‘Good bye, Enitheris, never you will launch
again.’
‘Request accepted, launching the system.’
‘Oh, soot!’
Apparently Mattias will never get used to her sudden
resurrections. The cracked screen of the e-ward blinked dimly, revealing a nice
familiar interface. Mattias didn't dare to move as the device could be
extremely fragile now.
‘Are you alright? I mean… Report the data integrity.’
‘The integrity report request accepted. Analyzing,
please be patient… System check complete. No issues detected. Would you like to
launch the health examination service?’
Mattias let out a sigh of relief and promised to
himself to be more careful around technologies from now on.
‘No, thank you.’
‘Checking the integrity of your body after the
incident is highly recommended. Launching the health examination…’
‘Oh, come on…’
It seemed this AI had somewhat of a free will,
technologies of Icarus3G were beyond praise indeed, but sometimes it was rather
inconvenient. Mattias didn't want to wait until Enitheris completed her
scanning, so he crouched out from the skiff to discover that it landed quite
far from the shore. While he was thinking of a way how to get to the land, a
strange glimmer on the unusually calm water surface caught his eye, and he
leaned closer to inspect it.
Suddenly his e-ward vibrated letting out Enitheris'
optimistic voice, which made Mattias lose his balance and fall his face
straight into the water.
‘Examination check completed, no injuries found!’
The young researcher moaned and rubbed his nose,
trying to stand up without slipping on the water surface, which turned out to
be frozen.
‘New accident detected. Would you like to receive an
update?’
‘Shut up already!’
Mattias put hands on his hips and looked around,
thinking. There was still destroyer's black shape present in the sky, casting
heavy waves of dangerous radiation, which felt no more than a cool breeze with
no effect on Mattias' body. But Mattias didn't care, overwhelmed with his
thoughts. He was dreaming of meeting Eim and turning him into a puddle of soot,
no it would be a mercy! And still, something that Eim said didn't leave
Mattias' mind - he mentioned the safe planet. Mattias' imagination depicted a
calm quiet desert with no storms and radiation, the place of freedom and
abundance, and he thought it would be a good idea to get there before Eim, as
he would definitely desecrate it with his filthy hands… At that moment Mattias
didn't know what he wanted more - find a place of peace, where this ordeal will
end, or take revenge on that damned madman.
But now it all wasn't the priority, first it would be
great at least to leave this planet.
'Enitheris, show data on Icarus-6S.'
There wasn't much too it, as the icy planet was cold
and uninhabited. Except the unknown creature that was spot under the frozen
ocean. According to the SID records, the creature was predatory, it had ability
to merge with the ocean, and everything that was caught into its icy territory
soon froze, becoming part of the planet. This might explain why the SID didn't
spend here much time.
It made Mattias wonder if the destroyer affected the
creature of Icarus-6S in any way, as he knew that the ancient species living on
the other planets became extinct with destroyer's appearance. In response to
his request, Enitheris presented comparative data and even simulations showing
how Icarus-6S, along with the other planets and their species, were changing
over time. As Mattias was scrolling through files, he noticed something
eye-catching in properties of those species. The ones living on water planets
Icarus-4-5L possessed unique skills which allowed them to control time, the
ones of gas giant Icarus-3G were made of gas too and were able to move freely
among the raging winds of the planet, and the species of Icarus-2P could change
temperature of environment which could even result in explosions.
The young scientist looked at his hands, trying to
process the information. It seemed that his powers were somehow connected to
abilities of species that used to live on his planet. Maybe he would find some
useful information in more recent data storages of the SID.
‘Enitheris, locations of SID bases.’
It was a long walk, and Mattias had to move carefully
and slowly on the slippery ice. The fine bluish-pink glaciers he occasionally
met were even smoother, so it was no use to walk on them, and solid healthy
plants had no spare twig for him to make a walking cane. The young man decided
to take off his lab coat and tie the fabric to his shoes, when he realised that
surprisingly the air wasn't that cold at all. Maybe it was an effect of the
destroyer that was breaking the planet laws.
At last, when he reached the shore, a tall metal
contraption came into view, jutting out of the harmonious landscape like a
hibernating beast. Mattias didn't bother to find a door or get an invitation
and broke through with the help of always reliable explosion. However, there
was an unpleasant surprise - the base was completely unpowered and there was
nothing left there, not even a single energy source.
Mattias didn't waste a moment and set out to another
one, but it appeared to be empty too, perhaps the SID took everything with them
when they were leaving the planet. With the next storage Mattias had a bit more
luck - there were some batteries, but they were empty. While he was walking
hopelessly through his most favourite icy ocean to the last base, something
strange came up in his mind. Back then, when he was captured on Eim's shuttle,
Enitheris willingly embedded herself into the network and even helped him find
the skiffs, although Mattias clearly didn't give her any commands.
‘Enitheris, are you able to read thoughts?’
‘Enitheris artificial intelligence system is not
supplied with mind-reading software.’
Mattias narrowed his eyes at the interface of
unsuspecting AI.
‘Was it you to save me on the spaceship? I didn't tell
you to turn off the power supply.’
The interface showed a loading screen, as if Enitheris
didn't have a ready answer.
‘Enitheris is capable of analyzing the situation and suggesting
the most suitable solution…’
Mattias sighed and looked up at the distressful hole
in the sky.
'If you claim to be all-knowing, why can't you suggest
how to escape from the destroyer?'
It was just his moment of weakness, but Enitheris actually
started analysis and showing data on the tiny screen.
'Wait… You have an answer?'
The data contained coordinates of a planet with
surprisingly appealing characteristics. According to Enitheris, its temperature
and atmosphere composition were suitable for humans, moreover, it had its own
sun. But Mattias wasn't pleased with this discovery, as he recognised this
planet. Icarus-1 had long been considered to disappear, and the numbers were
now coordinates of the destroyer.
'Sorry to disappoint you, but someone needs an
update.'
However, Enitheris was ready to counter that too. The
screen revealed the date of the last update, and Mattias was surprised to see
that it fell at the time when they were onboard Eim's shuttle.
'Oh, I see, you managed not only to infiltrate the
system, but steal the data from that dirk! Wise, wise. Guys from Icarus-3G were
damn good at spying that they created a monster like you. Let's see what you
have here…'
What did Eim come up with? Maybe all knowledge about
Icarus-1 was distorted by the SID, and maybe there is a chance to leave this
cursed system. But for now it all seemed to be another crazy theory of the
helpless madman. With no hope of success, Mattias opened a file named
'Evolution project', featuring Icarus-1. To his surprise it revealed that for
some time the gas giant Icarus-3G, where Enitheris was brought from, kept
receiving some signals from Icarus-1. The first planet in the system was still
somewhere there.
Mattias wiped his face with a trembling hand and went
on reading. The file contained a table with data on retrieved signals, on which
current coordinates of the lost planet were based, but the last, most crucial
one, wasn't checked yet. There was no doubt, Icarus-3G contained a great secret
the SID was about to reveal.
'I guess it'll be next stop of our journey, Enitheris.
If only I had a skiff… And more intel on Icarus-3G won't hurt either.'
Mattias made an inquiry on the gas planet and its
mysterious civilisation, but most of the files were encrypted.
'Unauthorised access. For the SID members only.'
'I used to be with the SID! Damn, foolish program…'
Mattias didn't give up and tried to do something else
- open hidden files, maybe there can be a key to encryption. For a short moment
he caught a glimpse of rows of folders with the same name - 'Novi', but then
Enitheris noticed what he was trying to do and denied access.
Mattias felt that he was ready to fry the e-ward with
his gaze, so he forced himself to calm down.
'Okay, fine, you know, forget it… I'll find a way to
crack you later. First we need to find a working skiff.'
The man stopped in the middle of the sea of ice and
frowned. According to the map, a storage base must have been right on this
spot. Did Enitheris make a mistake? Impossible.
‘Enitheris, distance to target.’
‘Checking the distance. Fifty four steps down and…’
Enitheris' voice drowned in a loud outburst, as
Mattias got it immediately - the base was under the ice. Maybe it was reckless
to stand in the heart of explosion, but the scientist was sure of one thing
which made him confident beyond measures - he was invincible. Oh, right, but
the e-ward!
‘Alive?’
‘…and two steps to the north.’
‘Alive.’
Mattias looked around - they ended up in a huge cave,
which probably was the entrance to the storage base. The man jumped down from
icy rubble and went deeper into the cave, which was giving an impression that
this place was once a low ground - maybe it was flooded and frozen because of
the ocean creature. A blurred shade of a huge complex was seen beneath the ice
with its entrance somewhere there, but Mattias was too impatient to dig it all
out. For him the front door to any building was now a charred hole in the wall.
Fortunately, the storage wasn't flooded inside, and
Mattias could explore the dilapidated base, which soon appeared to be a massive
power reserve facility with a small hangar for skiffs. But it didn't matter
anyways without power supply.
After inspecting almost every department of the
complex maze, which seemed to be forever, Mattias found a storage room. Luckily
there were some butteries, bad news - they were all covered with thick layer of
ice.
‘Why should everything always go wrong?!’
Mattias was tired and irritated, but a sudden thought
made him straighten his shoulders - he remembered how he'd managed to charge
the skiff without blowing it up.
‘Maybe I could try to heat them with my powers…’
‘Calculating the required temperature,’ the e-ward
peeped, showing some numbers which Mattias ignored.
‘I am not a machine to you, I just can't control it,
okay?’ he sighed, trying to sooth his temper. ‘But… I'll do my best.’
The man took a deep breath and raised a trembling
hand. It was the last storage, maybe these batteries were still loaded with
energy, which was his last chance to leave this planet and find Eim. He didn't
have the right for a mistake. All those thoughts made him even more nervous,
and his hand began trembling violently. Annoyed, Mattias grabbed his arm and
made a decisive touch.
He squinted, but nothing happened - the ice didn't
give in. But the next moment the base shuddered with a terrifying explosion,
and when Mattias opened his eyes, he found out that all the batteries had
turned into useless shards. Based on the power of the blast, they contained
precious energy. And along with it the e-ward finally breathed its last too.
Mattias let out the most indecent curse which came to
his mind. He fell to his knees, rubbing black soot from the floor aimlessly. It
was unknown what the destroyer did to him, but it was definitely not a
blessing. The man even caught himself on the thought that he didn't actually
mind being taken away, deprived of memories of this whole nightmare. However,
the possibility of being under Eim's control made him sick, and even his
current situation couldn't be worse than that.
Suddenly, his wandering gaze stumbled across a black
object in the corner of the room. A battery! Mattias' eyes flared up with a
predatory glint, and he rushed towards the only battery to survive the
explosion, but immediately lost balance - a violent quake ran across the floor.
The man remained still, as he was watching ice patterns creeping over the
walls. Now he felt cold. Freezing cold.
With no intent to wait for the battery to be buried in
ice, Mattias grabbed it and checked the contents - it wasn't fully loaded, but
just enough to power a single skiff. The scientist placed the heavy battery
behind his back and was ready to return, when the quake repeated with greater
intensity. It was hard to say if the icy construction was falling apart because
of the recent blast, or predatory creature was waking from slumber, but Mattias
was sure about one thing - it was time to leave the facility as fast as
possible.
It wasn't an easy task though - the floor was being
covered with ice, which was inexcusably slippery. But Mattias couldn't afford
to linger, as soon he found out the source of the quake - there was a cracking
sound from under the ceiling, informing about formation of heavy sharp icicles.
The man hardly managed to notice them falling towards him, well no, the last
battery on his back, and he exploded with anger. One by one, the icicles burst
midair. It seemed that this place had some kind of sentience and it wasn't
friendly towards him for sure, - maybe the planet's only inhabitant had already
got into the base. And maybe the explosion Mattias made awakened it. The man
strained at the thought that he couldn't imagine what the ‘it’ might be.
Focused on keeping his balance and blowing vicious
icicles, Mattias found himself hopelessly lost in a web of twisted passages. At
some point he had to burn his way through the constantly growing ice, but
without the layout of the building all his efforts could lead him only further
into the frozen trap. Enitheris could be of much help here…
Feeling that he was losing strength, Mattias decided
to change the plan. If he couldn't break through the freezing grip, he had to
find the source of cold and confront the ice-wielding monster or whatever it
was. The easiest way to do it was to see where the ice was the thickest.
Mattias gathered all his strength to break through the dense blocks of ice,
ignoring the freezing pain in his limbs. If he exhausted himself on the way, he
would get frozen, if the entity in the heart of cold was powerful enough - he
would get frozen too, and if he finds nothing at the end and his guess was
wrong… Well, he could never be wrong in his guesses. The further he went, the
more aggressive blows were, the more fire there was in his gaze.
Soon he noticed that cold didn't resist him anymore,
and new ice stopped shaping. Mattias felt that he was close, and a vague shade
was already seen beyond the wall of ice. The man took a break to breathe and
leaned to ice with his face, trying to figure out what it was, and the next
moment he took a step back, shocked, - a shade turned out to be a sleeping
young girl. She seemed to be in her early teens, and the colour of her hair
tied in a silly ponytail reminded of pink-bluish glaciers of the planet.
Mattias could feel the ice shifting under his hands,
as if it was breathing, and somehow he knew for sure - the child was alive. The
man looked at his hands, hesitating. The last attempt to melt the ice resulted
in a disaster, and now he was too close to the girl, another explosion would be
unforgivable. But the only one able to melt the ice and get the child out was
him.
Memories of burning rise of the destroyer flashed in
Mattias' mind, the moment when he held tight a young boy for the last time, and
the moment when the SID spaceship took off from Icarus-2P leaving everyone to
mercy of the destroyer. Despite his efforts, that boy and other evacuees were
lost. He tried to remember when he succeeded to help someone, but recalled only
how he left his people in those capsules filled with white gas.
'Why is my mind filled with such useless scrap? I am a
scientist, my task is just to draw a conclusion of the failed experiment and
correct the calculations. Alright, Enitheris mentioned the temperature…'
Mattias took a deep breath, reducing the bright flames
in his mind to the subtle warmth and reached to the ice with his hand.
'This time will be different, I promise. Just wait a
bit more.'
The ice thinned under his touch and began to
dissipate, Mattias abruptly pulled his hand away and nervously stoke his face.
The experiment didn't end up with an explosion, but the results he showed were
still far from being perfect. The ice melted quickly, infected with the strong
heat, and when Mattias managed to retrieve the girl from the frozen
confinement, she had a bad fever.
Anxious, Mattias took the girl on his arms and rushed
through the corridor. Now, when the building was free from ice, he began to
recognise the way, and he remembered an emergency ward he'd come across
earlier. As he left the girl in the pod, Mattias plugged it to the last
battery, hoping that the energy would be enough to stabilise the child's
condition. Then he connected his e-ward to the pod and remained breathless,
watching the chaotic spidering - all that was left of the screen.
'Please, Enitheris, tell me you are there, I really,
really need you now…'
Mattias waited with bated breath, watching the girl,
who was dying because of his silly mistake, because he was playing god,
thinking high of his new abilities. Her skin was still red with fever, and of
course Mattias forgot at least to take off her warm coat and winter goggles
from her face.
'Life sustaining settings completed.'
As the pod began filling with soothing steam, Mattias
shuddered and almost touched the pod but as he remembered how deadly his hands
could be, he dashed away at once.
'Enitheris, thank stars, I thought I broke you…' he
sighed with relief and tiredly rubbed the bridge of his nose. 'Why were you
silent?'
'Access to the software controls was restricted due to
improper handling,' there was a hint of irritation in Enitheris' usually
emotionless voice.
'Right, look how important you are…'
Meanwhile the girl showed first signs of life, waking
from a restless dream. As she found herself in a locked pod, she jerked
unnerved, darting her head from side to side like a cornered animal. Mattias
approached her impatiently, which made her press herself to the farthest wall
of the pod.
'How are you feeling? Can you speak?'
The scientist scanned her with his eyes and didn't
notice any strains of pain, looks like the girl's condition was stable. But he
decided not to let her out yet, not until he finds all answers. With his usual
cold voice of a scientist and pragmatic approach, he began asking her simple
but essential questions about her origins and situation on the planet. But the
girl didn't let out a single sound, frozen in the same position like a prey
playing dead.
'Looks like a mental breakdown. Let's see what we can
do…'
The girl was silently watching Mattias draw a syringe
from the medical supplies box.
'Where do they keep those damn stimulants…'
Suddenly the air flared with a projection of Enitheris
interface. Mattias recognised pictures from the files he'd been viewing
recently - a snowy landscape of Icarus-6S, soft deserts of Icarus-2P, windy
plains of Icarus-3G and enigmatic creatures of prehistoric times, simulated
from the most beautiful side. He didn't know why the AI was showing it, but the
girl moved her head to look at them, immersed in the show. Mattias realised
that this matter had to be entrusted to Enitheris. He took off the e-ward, put
it on the table beside the pod and left the medical ward.
Apparently, there was still that pile of ice near the
entrance. He will need some training.