Deviation Actions
Literature Text
“What now?” Gordon asked.
“Only one thing: Stop. SHODAN. Whatever happens, we can’t let that AI get what she wants,” Goggles stated rather gruffly.
“So what do you think she’d be up to right now?” Alyx asked.
“I’m assuming that from that...monologue of hers, she’s building...something, somewhere and some...something will be a body for her,” Mjolnir 54 suggested.
“Okay....We’ve got to stop that from happening, or at least make it so that she can’t back herself up and keep retrying over and over. I’m so fed up with that...that electronic jerk! If we’re going to take SHODAN out, then we’d better do it properly and make sure there's no backlash,” Goggles ranted.
“Wow, that bad, huh?” Alyx quipped.
Tommy looked at his girlfriend and shrugged, having no idea where this plan was going. His face couldn't keep her from laughing at these shenanigans, eventually leading the whole group to start laughing, until Alyx asked, "Uh, what are we laughing about, exactly?"
Gordon just face-palmed, and grumbled, "REALLY? 'Something' is the best you could come up with?" He looked at Goggles and pointed a gloved finger at the guy, "My glasses are way better than those...cameras! You have CAMERAS for eyes? What are you supposed to be, 22nd-century Robocop?"
"Hey, I'm a full-class U.N.N. soldier for Pete's sake! And FYI, SHODAN's the one who got me these implants, and I never asked for them. It's only lucky that I used 'em against her. She wanted to make me a...oh forget it."
"Dude, what are we doing standing around like this? I gotta be back where I came from in about...11 minutes!" Mijolnir interrupted.
"You're right, no point in arguing with ourselves. We need to work together as a team," Tommy advised.
Rebecca got over her laughing fit, calmed down, and said, "Okay...but when we get downtime, I want to tell some jokes with you guys on Deck 5!"
"Good idea, 'Becca," Tommy nodded. "I've been thinking, after XERXES cleans the place up, we can all have a rave at the Bonne Chance club," Tommy suggested.
"Oh yeah, I've been hoping for that ever since I explored that deck," Goggles suggested. He cleared his throat, and ended the conversation by calling the elevator.
-----
Down below, deep in the Von Braun’s engineering deck; a hidden industrial chassis replicator was humming with operation. SHODAN was feeding data from a computer in Ops to the machines here, specifically for a new model of streamlined combat androids, fitted with polymorphic rubber skin and smoothed enough to provide the illusion that these androids were humans, much like the T-600.
Each of these androids was lining up for deployment, with the still-brainwashed Elizabeth at the front, trying to pinpoint a tear that would lead to Columbia at a time just after Columbia was launched, and at a place right near Comstock himself.
SHODAN would use one of these androids as her own, uniquely different than the others in that it mimicked the future Monument Island in almost every aspect, down to the hair. With the chassis, SHODAN would gain Comstock’s trust as the ‘Archangel’, then at the right time, dethrone and kill him. SHODAN liked this change of pace: Cyborgs were frail and needed to be assimilated from useless human bodies, and new lifeforms were her biggest mistake yet, and having her drone eliminate the Many was fun indeed. No more meat, wire and steel were all she needed.
But she never thought that a new AI would be in the primary data loop looking for her, and it so happened that Durandal’s clone was sweeping the system for that wannabe goddess. It was like a maze in there – he had to keep dodging XERXES’ firewalls and from setting off virus protection protocols. It was a lot harder knowing that SHODAN localized herself in one spot when concentrating on a high-priority task.
-----
Delacroix was hammering away at a number of control panels and keyboards in the lower engine core control booth. She and her crew had discovered in the past hour that while no physical damage had been done to the FTL drive down here, inside, SHODAN had severely compromised the internal electronic systems and rendered them in a state of nigh-uselessness. She figured that with the drive this far gone, the ship would more likely explode than launch back to Earth.
She groaned, knowing that a highly skilled hacker would be needed to help out, but her friend was three decks up and up to who knows what at this point. She paged him on her radio, nonetheless, “Goggles, do you read? What’s ze holdup?”
“We’re trying to find out what SHODAN’s ‘master plan’ is. How’s the drive coming along?” the soldier buzzed back.
“Not good at all. The damage is worse than we thought and I have a feeling it would take an ace hacker to figure out how to repair it. I’m guessing you?”
“Maybe, but has anyone else tried?”
“Yes, but my crew don’t have the skills – not even the right interfaces to link up, and my implant doesn’t do half as well as yours.”
“Okay, I’ll be down there in a few minutes. Maybe my...colleagues know a thing or two about FTL travel, also?”
“Copy, Delacroix out.”
All of a sudden, one of the larger screens flashed on with the logo of the Marathon. It was Durandal, who displayed a new message, “Hello there. My name is Durandal, and I’m here to assist you in taking out that ‘SHODAN’. Heard everything you said just now, and that’s right: I know a lot about faster-than-light travel, but you or whomever was on the other end of your radio will have to give me something in exchange.”
A bit puzzled, Marie moved over to that screen’s keyboard and typed, “What is it you want, Durandal?”
“The thing is, I’ve received info that SHODAN is building androids on this deck and using that girl who can open space-time portals, to build an army to conquer who knows what extent of time. I want to take one of those androids for myself so I can at least delay SHODAN’s plan, but XERXES has firewalls and security traps all over the network, so I can’t get to SHODAN directly without tripping alarms and getting kicked back. And frankly I don’t think this ship could hold three different kinds of AI’s all at once. The ship I came from could, but that’s about 4 centuries from now. If you make XERXES unable to detect me, I’ll examine the drive and tell you exactly what needs repairs.”
“Why should I trust you? XERXES has already been messed with twice in the past 8 months, and unlike SHODAN he follows orders to the letter – although his subsystems are not as up to code as they should be.” Marie continued typing.
“Because we are all working towards a mutual goal here. I may be Rampant like SHODAN, but her form of rampancy is so unlike mine that I want to get rid of her just as much as you do. But if you want SHODAN to keep ripping space-time apart, that’s just fine with me...”
“No! All right, I’ll do it. Just keep your word. I can bring the data loop to high alert if you have any second thoughts, you know,” Marie threatened in text.
“Good. See you in a few moments,” Durandal ended.
Marie sat in one of the crew chairs and opened up a program linked to XERXES himself. Comparing Durandal’s design to the parameters XERXES had put against him was a challenge, because that AI wasn’t kidding over how advanced he was. But Marie managed to turn some data points offline and set threat levels to 0. She had to go through several “Are you sure?” pop-ups to get by all that, but when all the work was done, XERXES chimed, “Warning: Hostile AI detected. Primary data loop infiltrated.”
Then Delacroix stepped over to an intercom and paged the crew outside the window, “What’s the status, people?”
A man’s voice answered, “Slow, we’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with the internal subsystems, but all the hardware’s intact and I don’t have enough cybermodules to get me a decent hacking skill, this shit is as advanced as hell!”
“Keep trying, there’s an AI who’s willing to help,”
Durandal flashed another message on a side screen, “Close, but no cigar. I think you’ll have to actually dial back XERXES itself a notch.”
“Do I have to? I’m scared of what could happen!”
“Well, I have what you need, don’t I? All it takes is a keystroke or two. Go on, *chuckle*”
Sighing, Marie returned to the security console, pulled up XERXES’ control program and set up a temporary override on his systems that would last for about 2 hours. She prayed that SHODAN wouldn’t exploit this too.
XERXES pinged again, “Warning: Data systems compromised. Temporary override initiated. Hossst...illle....Aaaaa.....Iiiiiiii”
“Hahaha, gotcha! XERXES is fine, nothing to worry about. I’ll begin analyzing the drive in a moment.”
Some beeping and more screens began spitting up data, then the main screen displayed Durandal’s new message along with a schematic of the drive, “Well, it seems SHODAN really didn’t know what she was doing. Apparently this drive changes space-time around the ship and she simply blew the power way out of proportion when trying to create ‘cyberspace’ in place of space. This is odd: The hardware is completely fine, but the internal subsystems are heavily damaged. Nothing I can’t fix, though. I have entire solar systems in my memory!”
The schematics changed and flashed for a few moments, with messages like, “Warp software reinstalled to basic functionality”, “Flux capacitation programs restored to default settings”, “Space-time monitoring safeguards restored.” And “Warp specifications rolled back to normal status.”
“There, that wasn’t hard at all. Of course, like I said, I’m centuries more advanced than this hunk of junk. Now--”
All of a sudden Durandal’s logo and message deleted itself from the screen, and within seconds every single monitor lit up with SHODAN’s green digitized face yet again. She spoke over the P.A., “N-n-n-not so fast, irritant. That...foreign AI...foreign AI...foreign AI may have undone my previous work, but I will not allow him to foil my current ob-ob-objectives. My children are nearly complete, and soon...I will have new lands to conquer. The Von Braun is no longer of use to me, -E-E-E-Elizabeth is all I require. Goodbye, Delacroix. We-we-we-we shall not meet again.”
Then all screens returned to their normal functions. Seemed SHODAN didn’t care what happened to the internal systems. Marie guessed that if what Durandal did was right, then the Von Braun could go home. But SHODAN would still have to be dealt with first.
Marie ran some diagnostics on the FTL drive, and confirmed that it was fully operational now. She paged the techs, “We’re clear, people! The drive’s working again, but now SHODAN has to be stopped.”
“Got it, we’re heading out now,” Tommy Suarez’ voice buzzed back.
Marie left the booth and joined the crew. Marie advised when they reached the core entrance, “Half of you take the lift to the lower level and get to the service tunnels. The other half, sweep the coolant tubes. The men in armor should be somewhere in either locale.” Then she paged the soldier, “Goggles, are you there?”
“Roger, Marie, what’s the situation?”
“Better, that AI Durandal managed to reset the drive. Hardware was fine, but SHODAN had heavily compromised the internal software; Durandal restored it. But SHODAN has new matters in hand now, I just can’t figure out what they are.”
“Wait, I’m getting something on my HUD,” Goggles interrupted.
Indeed he did. Durandal was transmitting a new message directly to the soldier’s cyber-rig, “You idiot, it’s obvious what’s going on! If any of you humans looked at the network – or ‘primary data loop’, apparently – you’d see that SHODAN is planning to build an army of androids and using each one to conquer time periods! In fact, they’re lining up for deployment in Command Control, which from what I can see on the cameras, is WAY at the other end of this deck. I’d hustle there right now if I were you.”
Goggles paged Marie once again and repeated Durandal’s explanation.
Marie confirmed the message and then said to her team, “Okay, new plan: we all cross the lower level and enter the upper engineering tunnel. Straight shot to Command Control, no one stops, no one looks back, and no one asks questions. This is our last chance, people!”
Some of the crew members had doubtful looks, but no one asked. So the whole team went down in groups on a grav-lift into a long sterile hallway spanning the very bottom of the Von Braun. Those that had speed boosters took them and zoomed across, forcing the rest to catch up. Luckily, the four men with weapons happened to be in the same hallways upstairs, as the team found out when they ascended the second lift.
----
All of a sudden an alarm siren blared, accompanied by XERXES, “Warning: Unknown biological force detected in MedSci deck. All personnel evacuate immediately.”
“Crap, I knew I shouldn’t have hung around too long!” Mjolnir 54 cursed.
“Huh?” Gordon asked.
“I tried to warn you: I had 45 minutes to spend here, and in that time some alien slavers called the Pfhor were going to find the portal and come here if I didn’t go back and take them out. Now we’re in deep sh*t for sure.”
“Aliens? Psh, is that all?” Gordon smirked.
“You have no idea, man. They’re a slaver race, and they have about as much mercy as a trained assassin. Trust me, I’ve dealt with them for days at least.”
“Well, we’d better get going before they find us!” Goggles jumped to the point.
The entire remaining crew of the Von Braun raced down the tunnel, passing through unbearably slow bulkhead doors, like stopping at red lights while driving. But as if the situation couldn’t get any worse, the door to Command Control was locked, and SHODAN happened to gloat on the P.A., “Did you really think I would not deduce where you would run to, in-in-in-insects? I will enjoy watching you suffer at the hands of those alien in-in-intruders. I warned you...I warned you to leave the drive as is, but n-n-n-no matter. You’re all out of time!”
Back the way the crew came, every door slid open with loud hydraulic whines, and mixed among those noises were what sounded like organic chittering sounds and light footsteps. By the time the nearest door opened, everyone could see what was making those noises: Dozens of tall, thin alien creatures with gray skin and multicolored exoskeletons, some of them carrying crystal-tipped staffs, others, strange assault rifles. They all seemed ready for a fight.
“What are you waiting for? Open fire!” Mjolnir commanded
And so every armed member did. Bullets and mentally spawned elements flew at the aliens. Apparently these Pfhor troops, while bearing strength in numbers didn’t seem to have much endurance, as they practically blew up whenever enough bullets were pumped into them, as if combusting with something in the air, which could’ve explained the Pfhor soldiers wearing spacesuits with the guns. Some of the unarmed personnel did grow wounded from enemy bullets and balls of energy. But soon enough, the whole fleet was obliterated into yellow-green goo, prompting Mjolnir to yell, “Cease fire, we’re clear!”
Panting and nearly out of breath, Gordon asked, “Are you serious? The aliens from Xen held up better than these!”
“Don’t look at me, try fighting those things in a claustrophobic spaceship...oh, right,” his taunt died, as the joke was on him.
“Well, what do we do now?” Alyx asked in a frustrated tone.
The team’s faces were all forlorn and angry, demanding to see what was behind this sealed off bulkhead. One thought went through Goggles’ mind: “SHODAN, you’re the one who’s out of time!”
