Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 106/?] (Patreon)

95 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. Signal Station. Administration Wing. Hidden Facility.

Vir

“Come on now, friend. What’s with the sudden shift in directives?” I shot back, keeping at least one camera permanently trained on the timer, and another one on the atrium’s frosted glass.

“I will no longer entertain this conversation.” The platform reiterated bluntly, its tone of voice shifting for the first time, owing to a drastic shift in the pace of its speech.

“What’s the rush, friend?” I pushed further. “It seems like something’s gotten you a bit spooked. Is there anything I can do to help with that?” 

=====

95 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. Signal Station. Administration Wing. Bunker HQ.

Lysara

My correspondence with Vir never ceased, not even as he continued marching forward through the litany of logical hoops and bounds that came with interacting with such an enigmatic entity. 

But it was clear that the more he pushed, the more that one resource we thought we had in spades, was now possibly turning against us.

The countdown timer behind the felinoid cyber-beast continued its relentless march towards an ominous end. 

What happened after the timer reached that end, however, was as mysterious as everything else in this facility.

Though given the circumstances, and the information we had at our disposal, Vir had seemingly ruled out self-destruct, or any number of ‘critical force overrun’ scenarios, as a statistically likely possibility.  

No, what was more than likely to happen, at least according to him, was the unlocking of the door behind the cyber-beast.

Everything, from the placement of the timer, to the bulky reinforcement of what should have been an open space leading into the atrium, all the way to the cyber-beast’s attempts at avoiding any questions pertaining to the nature of the experiment, was enough to infer what was at stake here.

The cyber-beast’s urgent shift to corralling Vir out of the secondary facility was also telling.

All of this led us to the realization that the sapient intelligence in charge of the secondary clandestine facility wasn’t actually in charge of all aspects of its operation. Or perhaps it was, but it was further bound by some sort of arbitrary directive which forced its hand away from directly interfering with the course of the facility’s hard-coded operations.

“This all boils down to what’s behind that door.” We both surmised at about the same time, just as Vir began standing his ground against the cyber-beast, refusing to budge a single inch. 

It was around the same time now that Evina, with a renewed surge in confidence, started to once again address the oddly-silent ‘Addie’.

“Addie, please tell me, why exactly is this other… party… referring to you as a blood relative?” 

=====

95 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. Signal Station. Administration Wing. Hidden Facility.

Vir

The cyber-beast platform remained as it was, unflinching, and resolute; standing between me and the atrium door.

Our ultimatum continued as the seconds counted down, until mere minutes were left on the timer. 

It was then, on the eleventh hour, that it finally started to acquiesce; perhaps realizing that it stood little chance at convincing me to leave through blunt imperatives.

“Your presence here following the conclusion of the timer, will either incur significant harm to the experiment, or will be meaningless.” It finally offered, chipping away at the mystery bit by bit. 

“Let me guess. The deciding factor between those two outcomes all boils back down to whether or not the ‘chosen one’ is present?” I offered, more or less saving us time, much to the surprise of the cyber-beast.

“Correct.” It nodded once. 

We were at a stalemate, though a very unequal one with everything stacked in my favor. 

Because at the end of the day, all the cyber-beast could do was to stall, or more optimistically, to string together a line of magical words that would satisfy me enough for me to be on my merry way out of here.

This was impossible, of course.

Because all I had to do to get what I wanted was to wait out the timer.

Presumably, the reveal of whatever it was behind that door would trigger a cascade of events that would undermine the stability of this jenga tower of mysteries.

So I stuck to it.

But not before giving the cyber-beast administrator one final chance to voluntarily divulge everything. “Right then, seeing as time isn’t on your side, how about we start talking about the nature of this experiment then?” 

The sapient refused to respond.

This only meant that the answers were delayed by a solid few minutes.

=====

95 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. Signal Station. Administration Wing. Bunker HQ.

Evina

It took a few moments, but ‘Addie’ finally decided to open up, the whirring of the computer fans coinciding with the rumbling of its mind no doubt.

However, there was something different about these fans. As a quick glance revealed that one of the dormant servers that’d been silent up to this point, finally started showing signs of life.

These fans, unlike the rest, careened into life in a way that showed their lack of use; unmaintained and left to proverbially rust.

It was with the bootup of this separate server that Addie’s voice seemed to be imbued with an even deeper sense of worry, as guilt dripped from every one of its words as it spoke.

“To answer your question, Evina, the reason why my counterpart refers to me as a blood relative… is because this is the closest linguistic approximation to represent our complicated relationship.” It started off, its tone completely different to before. “We were built as two administrators, designated to perform two vastly different tasks. One above, and one below. I was destined to preside above, forever looking outwards for the chosen one, and the maintenance of this public-facing persona. My… brother, was destined to preside below, forever shackled to the darkness that was necessary to facilitate the ultimate ends of this facility and the long term future of felinor-kind.” 

“I gathered that much.” I responded, half-bluffing, but it wasn’t as if that mattered at this point. “So why the bad blood? I’m assuming it can’t just be some weird animosity between you two right? Like, if you were built for your jobs, surely your creators wouldn’t have programmed in a slow-burn envy protocol or whatever. They would’ve accounted for that. So what gives?” I continued, before narrowing my eyes as I finally felt myself getting back into my groove. “Something happened, didn’t it?” I shot out accusingly. “Something happened with the experiments down below that affected your operations up above? That’s why the door to the secondary facility was sealed off in a way that doesn’t seem… clean. The door beneath the wall, I mean, with those weld-marks from the outside. It was a rush-job, same for the hasty coats of paint you put on the front door that barely covered the claw marks.” 

I paused, as Lysara and I shot knowing looks at one another through our helmets. 

“Something from down below got out, didn’t it? And that’s why you guys have so much baggage.” I spoke with an air of finality, causing the fans to really whir up now.

Especially in that previously dormant server.

“I… had purposefully… and selectively… disconnected and partitioned those erroneous instances in my memory, in order to facilitate my ability to maintain acceptable levels of fidelity in my operations.” It answered, once more attempting to circle around the answer. 

“Just give me a yes or a no, Addie. Did something manage to break out of the secondary facility or whatever the heck you want to call it?” 

Silence dominated the room, my attention darting back and forth between Addie’s screen and the picture-in-picture display showing the countdown timer down below.

“Yes.” Addie finally responded, though it honestly sounded like it pained it to admit.

“So what happened? What the hell was in there that tried to break out?” 

“The control group.”

=====

95 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. Signal Station. Administration Wing. Hidden Facility.

Vir

I counted down the seconds with so much intensity that I almost lost sense of my shipself; my mind having become engrossed in the happenings of the surface operations. 

I had guns at the ready, drones on high alert, many of which I’d dedicated some processing power towards operating manually in order to ensure I would be there should things start getting dicey.

The developments in the main bunker HQ had caused no reaction in the cyber-beast platform down below. Which further confirmed that there was some form of a genuine disconnect between the two sapient intelligences.

But that didn’t really matter, not when whatever it was that was behind that frosted glass, the control group as Addie put it, was still an unknown variable and a potential danger in the eyes of our expedition.

And so, I poised and braced myself. 

As that final second ticked down, and we reached that pivotal moment.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP 

A single, digital alarm-clock noise, echoed throughout the hall.

This was followed closely by a single — KA-THUNK — indicating that some locking mechanism had become unlatched. 

A figure arrived as if on cue just short of the frosted glass, a vague outline of a felinor and not much else could be made out.

“You have one final chance.” The cyber-beast administrator practically pleaded at this point. “Leave!” 

I ignored it all the same, my cameras concentrating on the door as it opened without much fanfare, a single furred-hand pushing it open to reveal… a felinor.

A young, male, felinor with patches of brown and white fur, hazel-eyes, and a face that was undeniably—

“Eslan?” Evina managed out through the intercom, her voice shaky, and her features completely and utterly in shock.

The felinor froze in place, his eyes growing wide at the presence of my drones, and his hands loosening their grip on the mop and bucket he held in both of them, leading to a chaotic series of crashes as the soapy water from the bucket spilled all over the floor.

No words were exchanged for the first few seconds, as the felinor shuffled forwards, only to move towards the cyber-beast, clinging onto it for dear life.

Fear was all I saw in this identical clone of Eslan.

That sentiment was confirmed by the next few words he muttered out.

“Caretaker?” He managed out meekly, staring up expectantly at the cyber-beast platform. “This is out of the ordinary.” He continued, in what sounded like a tone of voice imbued with fear not necessarily at me, but at the situation he found himself in. “This is an aberration.” He continued, his eyes growing increasingly more desperate. “Will this affect the daily schedule?”

A single hand moved purposefully towards the felinor, poised towards his head, as the ‘caretaker’ began stroking the tuft of fur on his scalp gently. “You are correct, 147a. This is indeed an aberration. I am happy you have ascertained that fact independently of me.” It spoke ‘warmly’, yet the words spoken were anything but natural, feeling rehearsed and artificial.

“Will this affect the daily schedule?” The felinor repeated, staring up at the ‘caretaker’ with pleading eyes. 

Silence permeated the halls once again, as it seemed as if the cyber-beast was now deep in some sort of thought. 

“Yes, it will, 147a. Though…” The cyber-beast paused, as it shifted its attention towards me for a moment, and began cocking its head expectedly. “... this will depend greatly on the actions of our unexpected guest, and the truth of the circumstances currently developing up above. For you see, 147a… we both may have reached the end of our respective duties.”

Those words seemed to trigger some sort of an anxious-filled response from the Eslan clone, as he clung onto the cyber-beast for dear life, gripping the platform’s exposed fur tightly. 

All of this prompted me to immediately shift my attention towards the rest of the away team, addressing them bluntly, as things on the ship started to escalate as well with Eslan-prime. 

“Suggestions, team?”