Chapter 12

The air smelled of ozone and dried blood, the results of the battle between myself and the drone. I had won the fight but the cost was high, I had taken a hit to my left arm which was already damaged. I had also received damage to my left side, both my hip and ribs were damaged. My CC was busy evaluating and rerouting all the connections it could to attempt to restore a percentage of functionality to my battered body. The truth was if I was not a cyborg I would be dead, but even cyborgs have limits and I was getting very close to mine. Suddenly my interface displayed, Functionality restored to 65 percent, repairs needed urgently, code red.

“Damn it,” I swore softly to myself. This was not going as I had planned, but what choice did I have, I was stuck on an abandoned Space station that had been through a series of battles. It still had live drones, none of which would be friendly to me. My goal was to make it to the center of the series of eco-domes that carried a diverse selection of flora. So far, I had not seen any fauna but that was not to say I would not find any. The station comprised of hundreds of these eco-domes all linked by tunnels and many of them showing damage from the battles that had taken place long ago.

Sighing, I stood up and began to limp my way out of the building, I wanted to check out the drone and see if there were anything of value left. Once I made my way off this station any ancient tech would be worth its weight in gold. Exiting the building I managed to crawl over the top of the heap of rubble in front of the building, then sliding down it I ended up on my feet and slowly limped over to the destroyed drone. It was battered and had several holes in it from my Merrifield and the Winchester-Crossman. I could see some of the tracking mechanism and circuitry as well as the motors and gears that had driven, aimed and fired the weapons.

Carefully pulling and bending open the panels, I exposed more of the drone’s inner workings.

With the use of a couple of jagged pieces of metal, I was able to un attach one of the guns which did not appear to be damaged. Putting it away I looked further into the body of the drone but found nothing I could use. After making sure I had taken enough pictures I left the area and made my way deeper into the maze of structures. Several hours passed without finding anything of use as I made my way across the dome to the exit. Going through the airlock I made my way to the next dome. Entering this dome, I observed that while it was a lightly wooded ecosystem it had been used as a camp for the defenders who had abandoned most if not all of their gear. Jackpot I thought as I took in the neatly stacked chests and other gear that was on the ground.

I could not tell how long this stuff had been here but the fact that it was covered in a layer of dirt and leaves almost 20 centimeters deep it had been a long time. The chest was made of a white plastic like material and had simple clasps keeping them closed. I began by opening the first row of 4 chests, they contained what I guessed was emergency food rations. The second row of chests contained some kind of a machine, once all the chests were opened the 4 units powered up and then floated about 2 meters above the ground while somehow joining together. This all took about 10 seconds then suddenly I was aware that the strange unit was initiating a scan of me as it began to circle me. My CC informed me that the scan was deep and thorough and that it could not be jammed. Suddenly the machine stopped bobbing up and down and began to flash a series of low-powered beams at me. The CC then told me that the machine was attempting to scan the communication channel and was rapidly accessing all the information that the various CPUs that were a part of my cyborg body. Once it was done I suddenly received a communication link up from the machine and we began to actually communicate.

“I am unit 2B73, a self-contained mobile medical unit. I have determined that the cyborg elements that comprise 80 percent of your body are beyond the scope of my repair skill, the skin, hair and other living tissues that are damaged can be repaired. I have sent out an emergency call for a cyborg repair unit, once it arrives and completes your structural and electrical repairs I can repair the cell damage. For now, I would encourage you to rest by sitting down, regardless of the fact that you are more machine than flesh the psyche of the flesh has troubling accepting any damage to the body. Shock is a real possibility.”

I nodded, this med unit was right, I felt a little weird every time I looked down at my ruined skin and saw the machine within. Sitting down I began to ask the med drone what had happened here and how long ago that the fighting had taken place and several other questions. 273b responded after a second, “This station is the hope of the people of Mars. It was built to contain a sample of the many different ecosystems that comprised Mars before the dry times. The station went active 490 years ago a Martian year is 678 days long.”

Thinking about what 2B had just said I realized that the station was almost a thousand years old. That explained a few things, but I still had many questions. “2B, who were fighting on the station and why, also are there any survivors or autonomous units still active?” Knowledge is power and knowing if I might encounter more armed resistance might mean the difference between life and death.

“There are no survivors, however, there are several drones and a large number of autonomous self-healing operational equipment that is still active. Most of the ASHOEs are from the Martian faction that opposed the construction of the station.” On Mars, there are 2 primary races that developed. Over the years, a peace was forged as both peoples developed. During the time that the Cha’crae (spirit power) was discovered a split occurred in the previously good relations between the two races. The humanoid Martians began to develop the use of the spirit and science often combining them into effective items, such as the Martian weapon you have attached to your body. The other race of Martians the Draiktha, the people of the Black Sands used the Cha’crae as a focus to look for answers outside of science, they began to search for power and found something. Something dark, they call it Scren’toa the dark one and believe that it is a God that sucks all matter and energy to itself, eating it all and getting stronger. They believe that they are chosen to guide it to Mars and then receive their reward.”

Sounds like a black hole I thought to myself. “So once the station was completed these people attacked the station, what was their purpose?” I asked. “Did they want to destroy what Mars once had for an ecosystem?” I was curious as to why there was a need to destroy this station.

2B explained, “The Draiktha over time have come to hate those that dwell in the deep places, they believe that Scren’toa would have all sentient life undergo hardship, to be purged and made ready for his coming. There is no place for softness or memories of a different life, there is only burning sand, wind and the dust. It was taken as an insult to their God Scren’toa that an effort was made to preserve Mars. As such they directed their full fury upon us, using technology that they had stolen from the Deep Dwellers, the Burning Sand people staged an attack and tried to destroy the station.”

I had to ask, “So after this attack, the station was left abandoned, why didn’t the Deep Dwellers return to the station and fix things, why did they leave it abandoned, and why has nobody found it yet, the solar system is a pretty busy place these days? Also, who is now in charge of the station, is there a central AI running things or is the station just abandoned?”

2B spoke, “The station is not accessible without a teleporter, once the battle began the commander attempted to shift the station through hyperlinks to its destination, the area of the asteroids. Unfortunately, the hyperlinks were damaged and now we are sitting in a drifting bubble of time and space, a pocket universe. Occasionally we come close to the present time but do not have the means of opening the hyperlinks without central control, and the AI that ran the station.” 2B did not express emotion in his voice but I felt something, sadness perhaps from the alien robot.

Mentally making a list of things to do I could only acknowledge that I needed more information before I could decide on my course of action. “2B how long until we drift close to the present time?”

“We will be at our closest point in 5 years, then it will be 122 years before we drift close again.”

I shrugged, 5 years, I would have 5 years to figure this out, if I could not find a portal passageway then I would have to activate the AI assume command and then fix the hyperlinks. Suddenly I saw a rectangular floating box approaching and then it began to communicate with 2B in high range radio frequency.

Soon after it turned to me and said, “Welcome sir I am a repair bot, called from hibernation by 2B73 to attempt to help repair you. My designation in your language would be NTB12 if I may analyze you I can correlate the data with 2B73 and then develop a repair/replace plan.”

I nodded at the chirpy little robot and watched as I was the subject of various probes, scans, and pictures, at least I did not have to pee in a cup. During this time, I found out that I being the only person on the ship who had the Ak’amai ability was by default now in charge. I was looked at as a Deep Dweller Martian or perhaps as something else but related to the Deep Dwellers. At any right, I was unofficially in Command of the station. I watched the two bots begin to communicate with each other occasionally asking my questions about my cyborg physiology along with the biological physiology of humans. I had full records in my data banks and was able to soon pass along the needed information in what amounted to short range microwave communication. I also had the bots download to me all the information that I could handle with my memory chips.

With this data I now had access to, I could introduce whole new technology and change the current Solarian economy. I would have to be careful how I released the information, in fact, I might not release it but rather hold onto it and modify the manufacturing capability of my asteroid to produce advanced tech, that only I would have access to. It would greatly assist my efforts to deal with Bai Ong. I needed to think about this, it was a game changer. I also wondered where Me’kima was the little spirit dragon had been gone for a while now.

Interrupting my musings 2B began to speak, “Sir, we have developed a strategy to deal with your healing and repairs. I have called several construction units to come here to build a small repair facility, in which we will work on you. By including our technology along with yours, we can rebuild you, making you faster stronger and more capable of survival. However, to do this we need to dissolve your consciousness from your body for a set period of time. Do you agree with this?”

Why not I thought, I have the time and am relatively safe here, plus who knew what the addition of Martian technology to my cyborg body could do. I nodded at 2B and said, “Just make sure I wake up.” Upon hearing my words NTB shot a ray of some kind which played over my body and suddenly I was asleep. Sleeping perhaps is not the right way to describe what was happening, after all, how could a circuit board, powered by a software program dream, yet that is what happened.

I had closed my eyes and then I was floating in space, there was no time or place it was just a huge space. The sun was visible as well as the planets, I could focus in on where they were supposed to be and they would become visible. Eventually, I grew tired of being a telescope looking at the planets and began to look at the stars, which while beautiful did not grow into other suns with planets in orbits. After a period of time, I had no way of telling how long, I was aware that I felt something. It was that funny feeling you get when someone is staring at you and you look up and the girl across the room quickly looks away. You know it was her but there is nothing that can be said.

I began to search all across my field of vision and eventually I noticed what was staring at me. It was a Me’kima, but not a baby, this spirit Dragon was huge, easily the size of a large capacity transport plane. It stayed motionless in space observing me, while I was observing it. Almost see through the body was dark but stars could be seen twinkling right through it. The wings were folded alongside the body and the creature rather looked like he was resting on his body, just floating in space. The eyes sparkled with intelligence and I knew that this was not some kind of animal but a highly evolved life form. After staring at each other for several minutes the dragon moved his right claw, pointing it at me and suddenly I was gone.

Slowly I opened my eyes and extended my other senses. Where was I and what was this weird interface in front of me, I did not recognize any of the symbols or words. My CC was not actively warning me but I was aware that something else was happening. Within a moment of regaining consciousness, the interface changed to English and I could read what it was saying.

Congratulations, software operating system upgrade, you have been upgraded with alien software technology that has been programmed to function within the parameters of the original earth programing.

Congratulations, your genetic disposition has been altered by Transduction which is the process by which foreign DNA is introduced into a cell by a virus or viral vector. Your DNA is now 25 percent Martian.

Congratulations you have achieved a level.

Congratulations you have achieved a level.

Congratulations you have achieved a level.

Congratulations you have achieved a level.

Congratulations you have achieved a level.

Huh, this was interesting, how long was I unconscious I wondered, checking my internal clock saw that I had been out for 4 years. Holy Crap.