The elevator door opened to yet another security checkpoint. I counted seven guards at the checkpoint, and Ghost cursed in my ear, “Shit, I didn’t expect them to be here!” I nodded at the guards as I exited the elevator, noticing more than a few stares at the carrying tube in my hand. “They’re going to ask why you have a security tube with you,” Ghost spoke quickly, “tell them you’ve been asked to run maintenance on the CPU in your lab one floor up. You’ve never met these guards, but they’ve been working here for a long time.”
The first and closest guard raised a hand to stop me, “Hold on there, what’s your name?”
I looked the guard up and down quickly, slightly activating my perception booster to take in everything about him and the rest of the guards. The man looked to be middle-aged with greying hair and well-built, heavily trained muscles throughout his body, judging by how tight his shirt was around his chest. He and the rest of the guards had MK-45 plasma pistols on their right hips, with taser pistols on their left and a baton next to their pistols. I also read their nametags and badge numbers, noting that the first man’s name was Christopher.
I deactivated my perception and extended my free hand to introduce myself, “I’m Dr. Anya Von Fortclif, head of engineering and computer sciences here. Nice to meet you …” I made a show of leaning in to see the guard’s name tag, “Christopher. I just came down from the meeting up top because I was told to do a quick routine maintenance on the CPU. And that needs to be done in my office. Thus, the security tube,” I answered, lifting the tube for emphasis.
Christopher looked suspicious for a bit, then said, “I never got a call about this. Where’s your work order?”
I rolled my eyes exasperatedly while activating my perception to take in the rest of the checkpoint. I noted four MKVI Valkyrie turrets, two in the floor on either side of the hall and two in the ceiling, along with six security gates down the hall, each six inches thick and most likely made of tungsten carbide. I deactivated my perception again and said, “Look, I don’t make the rules, and I just follow orders. This just happened, and I haven’t gotten a work order.”
“Then I can’t let you through,” Christopher said, crossing his arms.
I scoffed and shook my head, rubbing the bridge of my nose under my glasses as I tried to come up with a way to get past them, “Look, Chris, can I call you Chris? I need to get through and complete the maintenance I’ve been tasked with today. Otherwise, it’s my head and yours!”
Christopher glowered and snarled, “It’s Christopher to you! And I fail to see how it’s my problem.”
“It’s your problem because we have investors up top!” I snapped back, pointing up, “I was called in on my day off to present my CPU to other research firms and investors, and right before the meeting, which is in an hour, by the way, I noticed a bit of lag. With this chip, lag should be non-existent. When I pointed this out to—”
“Mr. Wellerbe, known for long tirades when disciplining,” Ghost whispered in my ear helpfully.
“Mr. Wellerbe, not only was I chewed out for ten minutes straight, but I was told to get down here and fix it immediately, and if it’s not done, I’m fired. And when I’m fired I will be sure to drag you and the rest of your men here down with me as the people who stopped me from making him trillions of credits. Do you want to be fired for that?! Huh?” I finished almost getting in his face by the end of my rant.
Christopher’s glower deepened, and he chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Fine,” he snapped, “Get a pat down and a quick scan to make sure you’re not carrying anything else, then we’ll let you through. While that’s happening, I’ll call Mr. Wellerbe to make sure that your story checks out.”
I nodded and moved towards the guards, pulling out my badge to scan it and go through the whole procedure. It quickly ended with a pat down that was a little too thorough for my liking and went on through while Christopher made calls to slowly go up the chain of command to get to Mr. Wellerbe.
As quickly as I dared, I walked down the hall and whispered, “How much time do I got?”
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“I don’t know! I’m trying to delay the signal as much as I can but that may only buy you a couple of minutes. You need to hurry,” Ghost answered, sounding as panicked as I felt.
“Why didn’t you see the guards were there in the first place?!” I snapped in a whisper.
“I’m sorry! I couldn’t access those cameras in time! I’ve been having to get the camera control in small clusters to avoid being caught. And the cameras on the bottom floors are extremely hard to get through. We’re running blind right now. The door code is 60-48-08-29-85-93-26-10.”
I growled as I reached the only door at the end of the hundred-twenty-foot hallway and punched in the sixteen-digit code. The door opened, and I walked into what looked like a nuclear reactor control room. Large screens covered every wall, and under a few clusters of screens were desks with keyboards and switches. On the screens were lines of code, news feeds, graphs of the stock market, and other statistics. On the right side of the room was the only part of the room that didn’t have screens, but instead had one massive window that covered half the wall with a control panel under it and a slot to insert the security tube. Beyond the window was the computer, the massive megastructure that was far larger than the blueprints suggested.
I stepped up to the window, looked into the megastructure, and fully realized the numbers on the blueprints. A few hundred thousand internal lights slightly lit the inside of the megastructure, and I could see small drones off in the distance, one of which floated up to the window I stood at, and I realized I underestimated the size of the drones. The drone that floated past was almost twice my height in length making me guess it was about twelve feet long at minimum and at least six feet tall and wide. It had ten robotic arms along its body and a long flat tail like a lobster’s that generated a blue-purple light with tiny sparks of electricity, and it had six parabolic eyes all along where its head should be.
Looking back at the drones in the distance, I put together a guess as to how big the structure was and asked, “Ghost, how big is this thing?”
“I don’t know, a few hundred feet. Why?”
“I’m guessing those numbers are a few thousand kilometers each,” I squinted and tried to find the center of the megastructure and couldn’t even see that far as it quickly became blurry before I activated the zoom function in my right eye, increasing it to x40 zoom before I saw the center of the structure.
“Well, doesn’t matter. Insert the tube and the thumb drive. The programs will do the rest.”
I nodded and did as I was told, opening the slot for the security tube that slid open easily and inserted the security tube before closing the slot. I then went up to the control panel and inserted the thumb drive. Immediately, the screen changed, and lines of script began running up the screen before disappearing. A few seconds later, a drone floated up to the window and retrieved the security tube before floating off into the megastructure.
“How long should this take?” I asked, tapping my foot impatiently before getting annoyed by the heels and knelt to take them off.
“Maybe a couple of minutes if what you said is right about the size of the structure. I don’t know for sure anymore since the blueprints are apparently off by a zero or two,” Ghost answered, sounding exasperated.
I pulled off my other heel and stood feeling relief at not having to wear the uncomfortable shoes. “Well, I hope it’s worth it,” I said, then heard the door open as three guards rushed in, pulling their guns.
“Freeze! Put your hands up!” the guards yelled.
I slowly looked over my shoulder as I raised my hands, holding my heels. “What seems to be the problem?” I asked calmly.
Then Christopher walked into the room, “I just got off the phone with Mr. Wellerbe. He said he gave no such order and that he hadn’t seen you all week. So he gave us new orders. To arrest you and bring you up to his office for a little chat.”
I closed my eyes and hung my head as a small chuckle built up inside my chest. Finally, this job is getting interesting. I slowly turned to the guards with a smile on my face, “Okay, I’ll come quietly.” And presented my wrists to them.
Christopher stepped up with handcuffs in hand, and just before he could put them on me, an alarm blared through the halls, making everyone jump with surprise but me. I threw the heels at the two closest guards behind Christopher and grabbed the handcuffs, jumping over his head and wrapping the metal chain that held the cuffs together around his neck, strangling him with my weight. The last two guards aimed while the other two shook their heads to shake off their daze.
My smile broadened as I released the handcuffs to grab the pistol on Christopher’s hip and fired four quick shots, hitting the guards between the eyes before firing a shot into Christopher’s leg, making him scream in pain and fall to one knee. He reached for his Taser, and I fired another shot into his hand before kicking him down and stepping on the back of his head.
He grunted in pain and asked, “Who the fuck are you!?”
“Me?” I said playfully, the alarms still blaring, “I’m the Reaper,” I answered before firing three shots into his back, killing him.
“You have three minutes to get to the surface!” Ghost exclaimed, “Go.”
“Not before my job is done,” I shot back as I saw the drone return with the security tube. I quickly grabbed it and cracked my neck, “Secure facility speed run. Let’s go.”
***