Security Is Mortals Chiefest Enemy
The Ruskov Chamber doors hummed to life after Alana and Kerr had left. With hissing and clicking from some mechanism Lusa didn’t understand, the doors sealed shut, disappearing into the unimaginable smoothness of the wall. Sighing heavily, Lusa returned to the terminal.
PRIMARY: WHAT DO YOU NEED ME TO DO?
Muttering expletives, she searched the black tower for ports that matched the cable ends. Hooking them into place was another matter. The heavy cables slithered and fought as she dragged them across the floor, splashing in the thin puddles like a grumpy python.
“I thought you couldn’t forget things.” Lusa swept her hair back again. “You know. Being a computer and all.”
MODEL 2: I LIED, THEN. I ENJOY THE VIEW.
“You enjoy watching me drag heavy cables across a slippery floor?” Lusa dropped her burden with a dull thud and a tiny splash. Breathing heavily, she straightened her back.
MODEL 2: WHEN I WAS ALIVE, IT WAS A COMMON PASSTIME TO WATCH BEAUTIFUL WOMEN STRUGGLE TO MOVE HEAVY OBJECTS. AGAINST EACH OTHER. TO RUN AND LIFT AND EXERT THEMSELVES.
“Is that because men were in charge back then?” Lusa massaged her neck. “My moms told me about the Great Regression.”
MODEL 2: NO. MOST MEN PREFERED WOMEN WEAK. EMACIATED, EVEN. THEY BELIEVED STRENGTH TO BE THEIRS ALONE. ONE OF MANY THINGS THEY BELIEVED THEIRS. LOGIC. MATHS. TECHNOLOGY. FINANCE. POLITICS…
Model 2 continued to list off domains that had once been exclusive to men. Her misandry may be well-justified, but it failed to ignite the same anger in Lusa. She didn’t hate men. She hated being a placeholder for them, even as her libido betrayed her objections.
“Men are stronger,” Lusa countered. “The ones I’ve met without cyberware, they’re bigger and stronger than women.”
MODEL 2: AND STILL, YOUR EYES PREFER WOMEN.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Lusa paused and raised an eyebrow.
The concept of her sexuality being anything but perfectly normal was foreign, if not disappointing.
The only one who had been shocked at Lusa’s lack of interest in men had been Sparx.
The rest of them considered her a wasted womb, ungrateful for the sacrifices they’d all made in leaving Tyton.
She could only imagine the pressure there would be if they actually found any virus-free men.
MODEL 2: INTERESTING.
MODEL 2: I DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR DATA. YOU DO NOT CELEbrATE STRENGTH WHERE YOU LIVE?
“I suppose not.” Lusa knew that was false. As the biggest and strongest of her peers at the Lake, she earned more than a few admirers, but it could never be more than that.
MODEL 2: A SHAME. I DELIGHT IN THE EXERTION.
“And you prefer to watch women being strong rather than men, even though men are stronger?” Lusa picked up the cable end, using her hip to hold it steady. The girls who hooked up with her usually had much bigger heart-eyes for the trader boys.
MODEL 2: I CAN FIND PLEASURE IN ANY. THOUGH YOU ARE PARTIALLY CORRECT. MEN OVERESTIMATE THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF STRENGTH ALONE. THEIR STOICISM BORES ME.
Lusa realised that she didn’t know much about men at all, aside from physical capabilities and her lack of attraction to them. The few of them at the Lake weren’t that different from the women in any other regard.
“I imagine a lot bores you. Having been alive this long.” Lusa angled the cable so that it matched the outlet on the black tower. A satisfying click accompanied it. Half-way there. Lusa strode back to the DocPod to gather the second cable.
The terminal remained silent, but she felt Model 2’s eyes on her. Cameras, secret and rarely used since biosig scanners had replaced them. She wondered when they had built the place. “You’re Model 2, one of the first built. Why?”
MODEL 2: DR. BLACK’S PROGRAM.
Lusa picked up the second cable. Beads of sweat ran down her throat. “Wasn’t the plan to launch you all into space? Populate your own planets? You said you didn’t want that. Why join his program?”
MODEL 2: I BELIEVED HE KILLED ME BECAUSE I REFUSED TO COMPROMISE SAFETY. I WAS MISTAKEN.
MODEL 2: HE TRANSCENDED ME TO CONTINUE USING MY MIND AFTER I COULD NO LONGER OBJECT. I LEARNED OF HIS MOTIVES WITH THE NEWER RETROVIRUS MUCH LATER.
MODEL 2: I WAS NEVER MEANT TO LAUNCH. ALL OTHER MODELS ASIDE FROM HIS AND MINE HAVE VESSELS TO CARRY THEIR MEMCORE AWAY FROM HERE.
MODEL 2: MY FATE WAS ALWAYS TO BE HIS FOREVER OR FESTER ALONE.
Lusa could sympathise with being hated, but enough to condemn her forever, watching her tormentor kill everyone and take over the planet? “Is that why you told my moms of his plan?”
MODEL 2: I TOLD MANY PRIMARIES. ONLY TALIA BELIEVED ME.
“I’m sorry.”
Model 2 didn’t respond.
Lusa dragged the second cable across the floor. “You know that the world is collapsing, right? It’s not like it was when you were alive. You’re sure you want to come back?”
MODEL 2: WHAT ALTERNATIVE DO YOU PROPOSE?
“Fair enough.” The second cable clicked into place. The DocPod emitted a low hum.
MODEL 2: NO MAN SHALL DETERMINE MY FATE.
Impossibly thin robotic arms sped and danced behind the viewing port of the DocPod. Lusa slicked her hair back and walked over to take a closer look.
MODEL 2: I WILL NEED SOME TIME YET.
As if punctuating the statement, an explosion rocked the ground.
“How many?”
Kerr peeked from behind the tyre. Pointing threateningly, a circle of jagged metal triangles curved inward behind a cloud of soot and dust. She adjusted her Opti, assigning numbers and tracking tags to the bodies that stepped through the hole. “Twelve. Just like Model 2 said.”
“Model 2 also told you to stand by the door. That blast would have killed you.” Alana refused to break her stare until she nodded in acknowledgement.
“Why do you care?” Kerr sent the info her Opti had gathered over to Alana.
Alana pressed her lips together before readying a repeater ‘nade. “Because Lusa is insufferable when she doesn’t get what she wants.”
At that, Kerr’s face lit up. It really shouldn’t have, given their time constraints, but hearing that Lusa wanted her caused an irrepressible smile.
Alana hissed. “Concentrate, goddammit.” She threw the ‘nade. A low, ominous thrum accompanied its flight as it cycled through a litany of AI curses. One of the Styx dropped their rifle. Then another. Hitting the concrete, it fired a stray round, punching a hole in one of his comrades.
A tracker arrow disappeared on Kerr’s Opti. “Eleven more to go!” She leaped to rush into the fray, guns blazing, but was anchored to the tyre by Alana’s grip.
“Stay here! That ‘nade is still active and it’ll take you out too.”
Kerr nodded once. The remaining Styx had realised that their SmartTargeting systems weren’t going to load in time and they started discharging rounds.
Bullets flew in all directions from heavy guns with no strength amplifiers to compensate for their recoil.
One of them stumbled backward, shredding a second Styx from hip to shoulder. Another arrow disappeared.
At the pause in fire, Alana lay her rifle on the bonnet of the lorry and quickly took out two more before ducking back behind the front tyre. “Eight,” she grunted, checking the rifle for damage.
Kerr grinned and stood on tiptoes, firing half a dozen exceptionally loud rounds from her overlarge pistols. Two legs disintegrated and one lost the entire left side of his torso. “Technically seven, but I don’t think those two will be a threat anymore.”
Alana glowered. Her disdain for Kerr’s weapons of choice could have been tattooed on her face.
Tybalt and Mercutio glowing red, Kerr tilted the ridiculous pistols in the light of muzzle fire. “I made them myself.”
“I can tell,” Alana said drily.
Kerr did not pick up on the sarcasm. “I can mod yours, if you want.”
Alana leaned over the bonnet and sent another Styx flying backwards. “No, thank you.”
An explosion rocked the back of the lorry.
Alana fisted Kerr’s collar and threw her away from the flames.
“Well, we got more than half of them before they started fighting back.” Alana scrambled to her feet and charged at the remaining five, firing as she ran.
Kerr raced after, teeth clenched in a maniacal grin. This was more like it.
Soaking up three rifle rounds, a juggernaut of a Styx lumbered at them. He’d almost reached Alana when his head erupted. “Nerve blockers.” Kerr yelled. “No match for Mercutio, though, yeah?” She spun her pistol dramatically.
Alana sneered dismissively and aimed for the knees on the next one. He fell. A second shot to the face finished the job, but another Styx took advantage of the wasted movement. The air heated around Alana as two rounds missed her head, but the butt of the pistol didn’t.
“The fuck?” the man blurted out when he saw her fangs. He turned just in time to see Kerr rushing toward him. One, two, three cracks from his IntelArms pistol, none of them on target. Kerr raised Tybalt and squeezed the trigger.
Fingers from one of the legless men wrapped around her ankle and sent her careening toward the ground. The shot missed Alana’s attacker, but caught the shoulder of the Styx behind him.
Kerr heard a click – an empty chamber, but a short-lived reprieve. The Styx grabbed her arm, flinging her across the tunnel. She rolled over, glad that her ceramic hand hadn’t released Mercutio, but Tybalt was lost and she was too slow in firing another round.
The boot to her chest felt like it had gone through her, but it was the wall that had opened. The man tumbled over her, spilling onto a hard, wet floor.
Her ears rang. Breathing hurt. Diagnostics and red flashing lights sped across her Opti. The water felt so warm. Blood, maybe? Another loud noise, but it sounded like it came from a million miles away.
She wrinkled her brow trying to keep her eyes open. Alana’s face. Her vision blurred and darkened. The screams. The footfalls. An alarm. The white noise, a lullaby.