Mother
Alternate
Finality
Chapter Four: Keep Me Hangin’ On
Four figures stood bathed in shadows, blanketed by the starry sky. Their silhouettes clashed against the rocky surface they stood on, which hadn’t felt the footsteps of humans in years. It was possible that the number of people who had contemplated this site before them could be counted on one hand.
Funny…it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be.
Joshua took a step forward and closed his eyes halfway as he sniffed the air tentatively. “There doesn’t seem to be anything here,” he said after thinking for a moment. “Like there’s no life, or something.”
Julian put his hands in his pockets, his brow furrowed in thought. It had only been a few hours since sunset, and it was hard to see anything with so little light, but it was possible that there was no other place to go. This had to be it…it just had to.
“So that’s it? This is the
“It looks like it,” mused Julian absently. “I don’t see how we could have taken a wrong turn. Besides, maybe all those rumors and stories were an exaggeration.”
It had to be true. Ninten himself had scaled this mountain, and it was possible that he was up here now. Ana, Loid, and Teddy had managed it as well. If they had done it, there was no reason why Julian couldn’t do it as well.
The seemingly relaxed atmosphere was shattered as Peel, who was sitting on a nearby rock, jumped and gave a quiet yell. “Someone’s coming!” she hissed. Everyone’s attention was suddenly drawn to Peel as she pointed to a vague figure making its way up the mountain, taking the very same path they had taken before. Julian didn’t waste any time; he quickly dove behind a nearby rock and bid for his friends to do the same.
The figure soon made its way to the spot where Julian and his friends had been standing mere moments ago. It stopped, seemingly troubled by something, and began looking around. It had detected something, and veered from its original course to stare directly at Julian’s hiding place.
Julian gulped as he felt the figure’s presence make its way towards him slowly, as if trying to surprise him when he least expected it. Technically, it was impossible for anything to see him unless they had senses as keen as Joshua’s, or perhaps the gift of telepathy. Still, it sensed something there. It couldn’t be any of the others, which were hiding somewhere else. Then again, it couldn’t be him, either. So then, who was…
Proghauser. The thought hit him like a brick, and he almost cried out. Proghauser was still unconscious, and when they stopped Vee had propped her up on an outcropping while she rested. Julian felt his stomach slowly make its way up to his throat as he realized than, in their haste, they had forgotten all about her.
The figure stopped a few feet from Julian’s hiding place, and it bent down to examine Dual Proghauser’s prone form. The moonlight reflected off its visor as its tendril-like appendages wrapped around the still form of the girl. Slowly it picked her up in its arms, apparently oblivious to the four humans concealed in the darkness.
With a brisk movement the figure lifted Proghauser’s body up as if it were as light as a feather. Julian could practically feel the figure staring at him through the dark rock, its eyes boring into his chest from far away. Then, as suddenly as it came, it was gone; its footsteps, much quicker now, could be heard as they carried the figure away. Slowly but surely the sound faded until it was gone.
Vee jumped out of her own hiding place and looked to the path the figure took to a few seconds earlier. Her expression was dark and worried.
“That was a Starman,” she stated simply.
“What’s a Starman doing all the way out here?” asked Joshua, who had crept out as well. “Do you think it noticed us?”
Peel joined them and shook her head. “Don’t think so. My guess is that it was on patrol or something, you know? I guess it just came through here by accident.”
And now it had Proghauser.
Julian caught up to his friends slowly and placed his hands back in his pockets. Maybe if they followed it, it would lead them to where they needed to go…
“Come on,” whispered Julian as he began walking in the same direction as the Starman. “Let’s see where that thing takes us.”
***
The lumbering robotic soldier, ‘Starman’, was surprisingly nonchalant in its actions as it walked from its patrol route to a nearby cave, somewhat concealed by shadows and fog. The limp figure in its arms looked exhausted, battered, and bruised; however, the artificial killer was barely even surprised to have found her like it did, sprawled against a rock in the middle of nowhere. Starman was, after all, not designed to experience surprise, or any other emotion that might cloud its judgment in any way. No, this particular humanoid machine was programmed only to patrol, and its core programming, which consisted of several directives and IF/THEN statements, dictated that anything or anyone found within the perimeter of the patrol route was to be taken immediately to a superior, someone with enough free will to decide what to do.
It was no surprise then that the synthetic man was unable to detect the group of human life-forms sneaking stealthily behind its back, observing it from afar and tracking it like some larger-than-life predator.
The Starman soon reached the cave mouth that he was seeking and stepped inside without a moment’s hesitation; the creature in its arms did not stir. Its steps echoed desolately against the walls as it strolled inside; its posture was stiff and invariable as its feet left the dirty ground and began stepping on clean, cold metal. It began passing by several metallic doors incrusted into the cavern wall until it finally came to a large awning. After spotting the door it was searching for within the darkened hallway, the Starman stepped up to it and, still unmoving, watched as it slid downwards with a hiss and beckoned for it to enter.
It still didn’t notice that it had visitors…
***
Julian took a few, soft steps onto the cold, metallic floor and began scrutinizing the long hallway in front of him. The doors that littered the walls were metallic, and apparently lacked doorknobs or any other visible manner of opening them—evidently, as the Starman had demonstrated, one had to approach the entryway, and it would open automatically. The floor itself was polished to the point of absurdity, as Julian could clearly see his reflection on the blackish metal.
The place was odd, however; the tubes running in, out, and along the walls, coupled with the lights adorning the ceiling, which for all practical purposes looked like floating spheres of light, and the awning at the end, which opened to reveal a central hub of sorts, gave the impression that the cave was slowly evolving to become something else…like a gradual passageway from Earth to the unknown.
“So…should we follow the Starman, or just pick a door?” asked Peel as she too stepped onto the cold metal, grabbing the straps on her backpack.
Julian looked at Peel, then at Joshua and Vee, who were a few steps behind, still on the last vestiges of rock within the cave.
“We’ll have to pick a door, I guess,” he admitted. “It’s as good a plan as any.”
Cautiously Julian walked up to the first door and stood expectantly in front of it as he looked up at the frame. Not surprisingly, the metal panel slid down with a whoosh of hydraulics, opening up to reveal a small room. It, like the hallway, was still an amalgamation of rock and metal, with a small workstation in the corner.
The four humans walked inside, and Peel strolled up to the workstation immediately. “I think I can get this computer terminal to work,” she commented as she began typing away at the small keyboard. “Give me a few minu—huh?”
Peel looked down to find something bumping repeatedly against her foot. It looked like nothing more than a small, rectangular box made of metal, with a small red light on the front, which was blinking frenetically as it tried, again and again, to ram into Peel’s foot.
Joshua grabbed the little machine with both hands and began looking it over curiously. “I’ve never seen an animal like this before…” he whispered. “And it was little wheels on the bottom, too…”
“It must be a drone or something,” deduced Vee as she too grabbed the little robot and watched it beep and rev its wheels in an attempt to squirm from Vee’s grasp. “We should just leave it alone.”
“No, wait…” Peel’s typing became quicker suddenly as she finally figured out the workings of the terminal. Quickly beckoning Vee over to her, Peel grabbed the drone and set it on the floor, then stepped away and allowed the contraption to reach a hidden platform below the terminal, from which a small, thin cable protruded and imbedded itself in the front of the drone, just below its flashing light.
“This thing is like a navigation machine,” she said as she resumed typing. “I think this is where the Starmen are briefed on their missions and stuff…so the drones are here to take them to different places in the base once they come back. Sort of like a guide, you know?”
“So this thing can be programmed to take us anywhere in the base?” asked Julian as he approached Peel and peered over her shoulder and into the screen, which showed a map of the base, as well as several commands written below it.
“That’s right!” Peel slammed one last key with her forefinger, then stepped back and looked at Julian. “So where do we want to go?”
“Where else?” asked Julian. “Make it take us to the World Device…”
***
Julian, Peel, Joshua and Vee followed the drone silently as it zigged and zagged along the metallic floor of the Mt. Itoi base, sending out beeps of confirmation whenever the group it was guiding passed through certain points on the floor—as if the drone had to make sure these ‘checkpoints’ were being reached in order to know it was still being followed. After it reached the end of the hallway, the drone went to one of the doors in the awning and stopped, awaiting the presence of the travelers, which was necessary to open the door.
Once Julian and his friends opened the door, the drone rolled through silently and stepped onto the conveyor belt on the other side. It was here that the base assumed its true persona of extraterrestrial technology; there was now no more rock to contaminate the metallic purity of the halls which, despite being made of a dark metal, seemed to emanate light, bathing everything in light but apparently not casting any shadows of any kind.
Halfway through the seemingly endless hall, Julian spotted what was apparently a transparent wall, made up only of dark blue light. There were dots of static scrambling around on the ‘screen’, giving the impression that the conveyor belt was feeding Julian and his friends into a blue-tinged, translucent television screen. The drone, upon reaching the ‘wall’, passed through harmlessly, beeping happily. The four humans weren’t as lucky.
Julian extended his hand and tried to grip at the screen as it washed over him and his friends without making so much as a sound. “I don’t think I like what just happened,” he commented out loud, more to himself than anyone else.
“Me neither…” Peel ran back in the opposite direction the belt traveled, and glanced briefly at the field before letting the belt carry her away and back to her friends. “I think that field’s a scanner or something…like a security checkpoint…”
The words had barely left Peel’s mouth when the hall they were in began pulsating a deep shade of crimson. The strobe effect of the red-and-white intermittent flashes of light was accompanied by a muffled alarm.
“Oh no! They found us! What are we gonna do, Julian? What are we gonna do?!” Peel began shaking frantically as she clung to Julian’s sleeve. Joshua clenched his fists, as did Vee, while Julian stared ahead.
The door’s only a few feet away, he thought to himself. If we run once we get to the other side, we might be able to hide until the alarm’s deactivated…
That though was neatly dashed once Julian stepped out of the hallway and found himself in a large elevator.
The drone, oblivious to the happening about it, found a small niche in a tiny dome in one corner of the elevator and plugged itself in, activating the elevator and commanding it to go upwards. The elevator itself was octagonal-shaped, and had no roof, making it more like a rising platform than an elevator.
Julian beckoned the others to him, and together they crowded around the center of the elevator. “Well, we can’t turn back now…” he said. “We’ll just have to fight whatever comes our way…”
That line was soon answered as the elevator came to an abrupt halt, sending vibrations through the bodies of the four humans, racking their bones. The door immediately above them whooshed open, ushering in a red Starman, who dropped in and landed gracefully on the hard floor of the elevator, donning a sword. The first was soon followed by a second, blue in color, which hovered above its targets.
Julian grabbed Joshua’s hand and pulled him close, then turned to the girls. “You guys take care of this one!” he cried. “We’ll take care of the one in the air!”
With that Joshua and Julian levitated themselves psychically and shot up towards their airborne foe, while Peel drew her wrench and Vee put up her fists.
Once the blue Starman saw its prey shoot up towards it, it raised its arm and prepared to fire a beam, but its aim was interrupted and it ended up firing into the wall as Julian shot up to it and punched its arm. A blast of PK Fire from behind was able to knock it off-balance before it could counter. Then, as it turned to face the one who hit him from behind, Julian charged up a concentrated blast of PK Freeze in his hand and punched him in the back, shattering its armor. A final blast of PK Thunder from Joshua shorted its circuits from the inside out, destroying it and sending it collapsing to the floor of the elevator in a smoldering heap.
Down on the ground, the red Starman was backed into a corner, assaulted by the team of Peel and Vee. It tried to raise its sword to attack, but Peel threw a bolt mine at her before it could swing, and Vee grappled it, throwing it to the side. It tumbled to the floor face first, allowing Peel to take out a can of Rust Promoter, which she hastily sprayed on the robot. As its armor turned from crimson to maroon to brown, Vee jumped up and, letting out a loud battle cry, slammed her heel into the Starman’s head, crushing it below the weight of her foot. Then it too was disabled.
Julian and Joshua slowly lowered themselves down to the elevator floor and landed beside their teammates with a soft thud as their feet made contact with the floor just as it resumed its course upward. The four stood there quietly in anticipation, but fortunately nothing else came.
“Well, I guess we’re going to have to either fight or run away from now on…” mused Peel, who holstered her weapons. “Those two are sure to have friends around here somewhere.”
“We’ll just have to beat them, too, then…” Vee walked over to the remains of the red Starman and pulled its sword from its arm, brandishing it experimentally. “In any case, we’ve already come this far, right? It’s not like we have anywhere else to go but forward.”
“You’re right,” said Julian. “Like it or not, we’re knee-deep in enemy territory now. We’ll just have to get to the World Device before—”
Julian’s speech was interrupted as the elevator came to a screeching halt and the drone, which had previously been hiding in the small dome in the corner, came out. Once it did, it went over to the door and opened it.
Standing on the other side were over two dozen Starmen.
“…they find out
where we are…”