My armored body jets forward, towards the roiling mass of mindless bots. I lift up and over, finding the center, then lift up higher. A hundred meters or so and full thrust downward should be enough to get past terminal velocity. I want as much momentum as I can get.
I dive straight down head first.
The plunge into the mass of bots is like trying to dive through sand, if every grain of sand were covered with tiny claws and trying to eat you. The bots that make up the surface of my armor bite back as fiercely as their attackers, but they’re surrounded here a million to one.
From Lin: You get back up here now!
My initial plunge got me several meters down, about halfway through to the bottom of the depression. I descend further into the squirming chaos, chewing the bots below me and pushing back on the ones above me. I feel the constant pinpricks as I lose the outer layers of my armor and do some calculations. I’m OK. I’m moving fast enough that I should still be able to reach the bottom before my skin is exposed.
To Lin: I can’t. Even if I wanted to, at this point my only way out is down.
My progress feels glacial. It’s like trying to sink through honey.
From Lin: Then you get down there and find another way up. I don’t want to be a widow before I even get married.
I don’t think that’s how that even works, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to contradict her over it.
From Evan: How are things going? Did you make it?
To Evan: I found a shaft going down at the bottom of the swarm. The bots aren’t going down it. I think it’s Jeff’s escape hatch.
The swarming mass has chewed through half of my armor, but I’m almost through.
From Lin: I love you! I’m sorry!
To Lin: I know.
I can feel the ice on one side of the shaft. I’m so close. The continual pinpricks of my armor being consumed have gone from irritation to pain. I hate losing this much of myself this fast.
From Louise: We’ve got this up here. Your ice idea is brilliant. It’ll probably take days to clear this all out, but with this we should be able to keep it contained until help arrives.
To Louise: Good. Thanks.
I feel slushy water flowing down below, the product of my pumping setup.
From Evan: Plug that shaft when you get to it so we can get ice all the way around under there.
To Evan: On it. Will be there soon. Set up more pumps from the lake and get the whole thing frozen if you can. I’m handing off a bunch of my cloud up there to you. I doubt it will do me much good down here and I want all my attention available for Jeff. Spread it out to the others if you need to.
I release all the bots that are up above ground, along with all the ones digging. I feel Evan accept control. I feel so small again now. Just me and the bots in my armor.
From Evan: Got them. Wow, how do you do anything with this many? I feel like my brain is going to explode.
To Evan: Just hand them off to the firefighter crews. Between them, they should be able to put them to work.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
My head finally breaks through the bottom of the lake of bots and it’s like breaching the surface of water after a deep dive, but upside down. I kick down and through, freeing myself from the writhing swarm and consuming the stragglers that had attached to me.
The tube is pitch black, a couple of meters wide, and very long. My bots feel the surface of the shaft. The walls are some kind of ceramic that’s smooth, hard, and devoid of any of the minerals that would let me grow my cloud back up. Jeff definitely set this up ahead of time as an escape route. A slow flow of slushy water emerges from where my initial digging had broken through, maybe half a meter below the line where the swarm stops itself.
I crack through the surface of the tube, gathering materials. I don’t have a lot of charge left in my bots after my dive through the swarm, and it’s cold and dark down here so there’s no prospect for easy recharging, but I have enough power to create a seal in the tunnel above me. There’s plenty of energy left for mobility, the drain from that is nothing compared to the construction effort of sealing the tube. I hear the water pooling on the other side of my seal. It’ll be a wall of ice soon enough. I check my armor before I go further, smoothing out where it was more damaged and ensuring that I’m covered everywhere. I have ideas for some of the things that Jeff might pull, and I want to be prepared for any of them.
From Lin: Did you make it through? Are you OK?
The shaft goes straight down a long, long way before making a turn. I let myself drop to the bottom, landing with a crash as my armor absorbs the impact. The rounded tube opens to a square horizontal shaft with walls, ceiling and floors made from that same ceramic material.
To Lin: I’m through. I’m in a tunnel. I’ll get back up there when I can. When I’ve handled my brother.
I start walking down the shaft. My muscles still don’t want to cooperate, especially on the right side, but the armor compensates and I’m able to move at a normal pace. The tunnel is freezing, but the armor design insulates really well and I don’t even have to expend any extra energy to keep my flesh warm.
From Lin: How could you risk yourself like this? I’m so angry with you right now!
The signal I get from her is faint. I think the tunnel surface has some blocking properties. If I go much further, I’ll be all alone down here in mind and in body.
I wonder if Jeff is still down here, or if this was some kind of trick. A death trap that he’s luring me into. I’m so tired of chasing after him. Please Mom, let him still be here.
To Lin: I made Jeff what he is today. All of this is my fault. Mom always taught me to take responsibility for my actions. I have to do this. If there’s any chance at all of catching him and stopping him now, I have to take it.
From Lin: No! No, you don’t. What you have to do is get back up here and stay with me. What you have to do is get your brain checked and make sure you don’t die from the stroke you just had. Get back up here now!
I continue down the tunnel. There’s a downward slope, so walking along it feels effortless. I see a light ahead, way off in the distance. Please let it be Jeff.
To Lin: Blood vessels bursting are a known risk for the implant. There are safeguards that automatically repair it. It’s handled. I’m fine.
From Lin: You didn’t look fine or sound fine. If you don’t get back up here now, I’ll never forgive you.
Every footstep reverberates along the empty tunnel. If he’s down there, he knows I’m coming.
To Lin: I hope that you will once you cool off, because I need to do this.
From Lin: Fine. Go get yourself killed. I’m so mad at you right now I don’t even care!
The tunnel slopes further downward. I’m at the very edge of the range where I can still get a signal up to the other clouds.
From Lin: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. Come back up now, please. I don’t even care about killing Jeff. Just come back. I love you.
To Lin: I love you too. I will come back if I can.
The connection to the other clouds breaks. There’s too much mass between them and me. I could switch to the new acoustical signaling system, but at this distance it would be useless for talking to Lin. Maybe Andrea could receive a message, since her cloud’s almost as big as mine was and that gives her a massive receiver, but it wouldn’t even register with the others. I hope Lin still wants me when I get back up there, she seems really mad and freaked out right now.
Problem for later. Right now, I need to fix my broken mouth. I’m going to need to talk to Jeff, and this slurring voice won’t do. Most of the problem is that my jaw muscles on the right hand side aren't responding to the signals from my nervous system. I connect a group of bots along that side of my mouth, just inside my cheek, and practice working my jaw that way. I think I can get it to open and close my mouth right like that.
I let myself bark out a laugh as I test the process of forcing my mouth to move with my bots. It’s such a Jeff solution to the problem.
I walk the rest of the long, dark tunnel with only my slowly improving voice and my echoing footsteps for company.