 
### The Price of Ascendance

### By Matt Sayer

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Matt Sayer

Cover Art By DaveSwanGraphics

CHAPTER ONE

### ELIZABETH FINLEA

I was facing an imposing wall of stiff-backed, silent individuals. My hand was clutching the metal railing by my side with a fierce determination, my knuckles turning white and the muscles in my arms burning from the strain. Mum stood next to me, that half stern, half sympathetic look adorning her face.

"C'mon sweetie, you need to let go. It's for the best, you know," she pleaded.

I tried to refuse, tried to coax some excuse, some reasoning out of my mouth but it was glued shut. Every time I tried to speak some invisible force pushed back, preventing anything but a tiny squeak from escaping. Frantically, I began hyperventilating, and Mum took advantage of my distraction to manoeuvre me into the line that had formed in front of us. I swung my hands furiously, pointing to my throat, but Mum just smiled and nodded, leading me forward as if nothing was amiss. I glanced around wildly but the press of bodies hid everything besides the dark concrete roof and the metal grating floor beneath our feet. I swept my eyes over the crowd, trying to find someone I knew, someone who could help me, someone who wasn't brainwashed like Mum seemed to be. But every time I tried to look at their faces my vision went haywire, their features distorting into an indistinct silver blur that I could not focus on no matter how hard I tried. Even so, I was inexplicably certain that we were all of the same age. Mum was the only exception.

Up ahead I could just see a bright light streaming in from outside. We were approaching the end of the tunnel. As we stepped out into a sea of shuffling bodies, each and every head craned up to look upon the monstrosity in front of us. I followed their gazes, struck frozen and dumb by the obscure shape of the enormous silver ship docked at the end of the platform. It resembled a giant medical syringe, with fat engines at the rear, a long transparent cylinder for its body, and an elongated proboscis extending from the cockpit. The ship towered above us, scaled as if to accommodate giants twenty-feet tall. Through the transparent walls I could see dozens of amorphous blobs rushing to and fro, occasional sparks of rainbow light bursting into and out of fleeting existence.

As I gazed in awe at the incredible sight, Mum continued to drag me along with the rest of the crowd. A large steel gangway bridged the gap between us and the ship, and we were ushered upwards by cloaked figures mumbling incoherently under their breath. I turned once again to Mum, hoping for her to see the desperation in my eyes and to come to her senses, but she had disappeared, swallowed whole by the blurred-face crowd. I tried to retreat but it was like swimming against the waves, an endless sea of bodies crushing me backwards every step I took. I was swept along with the current, victim to the will of the masses. Finally, when there were only a few people left between me and the top of the gangway, I was able to see above the crest of the horde, and I managed to locate Mum. She was being escorted from the edge of the swarm by a pair of the cloaked figures. The trio stepped onto a small, raised plinth in the corner of the platform and turned around. I threw my hands into the air and started waving and jumping furiously, doing everything I could to attract Mum's attention. I opened my jaw wide and pushed hard, struggling to force something, _anything_ out of my mouth.

"Rlllggagghh!" I managed to growl.

Mum appeared completely oblivious to my efforts and continued to smile blankly. As I gestured hopelessly the two figures beside her sprouted hideous wings, grotesque throbbing veins woven across a tapestry of sickly translucent skin. One of the abominations leaned in towards Mum and scooped her into its arms before launching into the sky, carrying her off so impossibly fast that in the span of a few seconds all that was left was a dot in the sky, no bigger than a grain of salt. I stood with my mouth agape, my hands limp at my side, confusion and horror battling it out in the pit of my stomach with no qualms about collateral damage. An icy chill washed over me from head to toe and my knees turned to jelly, no longer willing or able to support my weight. My vision turned to haze and I started to spin, around and around, down and down, a slow-motion dance, its climax a full body embrace with the floor. I spiralled at half-speed, watching as the platform below me transformed into a grotesque grey mass, its slimy bulk pulsating with a gloomy, unnatural light. I closed my eyes and braced for impact.

I awoke to a face full of grey carpet. I was lying on the floor beside my bed, the sheets tangled around my feet and my top halfway up my chest. A chill breeze was drifting in through the window as the automated alarm system gradually reduced the tinting of the glass and began letting in the air from outside. Living thirty-three stories up meant that mornings had the potential to deliver quite blistering winds, which was why most sensible people did not open their windows. I was clearly an idiot. That realisation aside, I had good reason for wanting to avoid the usual snooze button temptation this morning. It was my twenty-first birthday, and that meant it was time for my ascendance test.

The law stated that, after turning twenty-one, you had forty-eight hours to get your ass to an Ascension office. Well, maybe it didn't use those _exact_ words, but it meant essentially the same thing. The ads for Ark City made it clear that this rigid time constraint was for our own benefit, ensuring 'optimum results' in the test, but there was no denying that it was kind of an odd requirement to make legally binding.

An Ascension office is one of the few places where you could be assured of seeing an ascendant, catching them during their brief downtime before they disappeared into the city to conduct whatever business they had here in Sallustria. The offices also served as gatehouses for the only means of travel to the floating utopia above – assuming you could find a way to obtain authorisation. As far as I know, the only time 'normal' people are allowed up there is for their ascendance operation - _if_ they're lucky enough to pass the test. Passage is provided by the colossal stalk lifts connected to the buildings, the spires catapulting upwards to pierce the sky-scape projection covering the surface of Ark City's gargantuan hull. The ascendance test itself is apparently a series of non-invasive body scans that can determine whether you are capable of achieving 'ascendance', and thus the right to travel to and reside in Ark City. They say it's not compulsory for ascendants to live there, but I've never heard of any spending more than a few days down here before returning, even when they're visiting family!

And I'm not just basing my assumptions on the scant few ascendants I've personally seen. I have actual data that backs me up! I remember watching a newscast projection on the face of the See-Worlds building - _Tired of Earth? We can take you to the Stars!_ \- where some expert said that of the estimated 0.05% of the population that had been deemed viable and received the ascendance operation, less than two hundred were present in Sallustria at any one time. The data reportedly came from APT logs, and the list of IDs recorded one day would often be completely different to the next. While this validated my theory that ascendants were reluctant to stay here for an extended period of time, it gave me no clue as to why. I would love to get the chance to ask an ascendant face-to-face, but they all seemed to avoid us 'regular' people like we had the plague or something.

Only once had I ever seen an ascendant walk down the street alone. He had appeared completely oblivious to the world around him, his eyes locked forward and his arms swinging mechanically. Other pedestrians had stopped and stared in awe or tried to grab his attention, but he ignored them with unflinching resolve, striding onwards as the crowd's eager cries faded into whispered disappointment. As would be expected, this kind of behaviour had spawned much suspicion and distrust towards Ascension, alleviated in no way by the heavily scripted interviews and speeches they had presented over the years. Yet despite the regular smear campaigns that ran like clockwork every few months, Ascension showed no signs of leaving anytime soon, and Ark City remained a constant presence in the sky above, as ubiquitous as real grass had been, so many centuries ago.

I struggled to my feet, unravelling the sheets and heaping them back onto the bed. I pulled my shirt back down and started to leave the room, pausing at the threshold as goose-bumps started to rise up my arms. I decided that it was far too cold to be strutting around half-naked, so I grabbed the sheets back off the bed and threw them over my shoulders as a makeshift cloak. Huddled within, I emerged from my room into the hallway and made my way into the kitchen and living area. Mum was already up, sitting on the couch and watching the morning show projection on the wall. She had her Comp in one hand and a coffee in the other, and was so preoccupied with checking her messages that she didn't notice me enter.

"Hi Mum," I announced.

She jumped from the unexpected noise, and her coffee sloshed over her robe and onto the couch cushions.

"Crap! Liz, you scared the hell out of me! Damn it! Look at the bloody couch..."

Mum stood up and frowned disparagingly at the brown stain slowly spreading across the blue cushions.

"Sorry Mum!" I rushed into the kitchen and retrieved the multi-purpose cleaner from the top shelf in the pantry. I ran back and handed the can to her, shuffling around to get a good view as she squeezed the trigger and a fine mist settled onto the couch fabric. It was always fascinating to watch the cleaning substance take effect, and an unconscious smile spread across my face as the coffee stain began to rise from the cushion, solidifying into a thin brown cake that slowly contracted in on itself like a burning sheet of paper. Once it had compressed into a small, crinkled ball, Mum picked it up and deposited it into the trash receptacle in the kitchen. As she returned the can to its shelf, I caught sight of the flashing slogan playing across its side. _Spray once, problem solved!_ Mum sighed as she returned to the couch.

"Urgh! Cleaning is such a chore. Hey Liz, do you think you could do me a favour and go collect the laundry? The notification came through on my Comp a couple of minutes ago." I nodded and spun on my heel, eager to atone for making her spill her coffee. I dragged my blanket coat down the hallway and made my way to the laundry. It was more of an alcove than a room, just a slight depression in the wall with two square silver hatches. One was labelled _Dirty_ , the other _Clean_. The control panel set between them was currently glowing green, confirming that the laundry had indeed been returned from the building's central cleaning system. I opened the _Clean_ hatch and slid the tray out, dumping the fresh clothes into a basket which I picked up and started lugging back out to the living room. The system was pretty easy: you threw your soiled garments into the _Dirty_ chute, waited for a couple of minutes, then retrieved them from the _Clean_ chute, ironed, cleaned, folded, and ready to wear. As I carried the basket down the hallway, my nose picked out the fragrant raspberry-lime odour that had been infused into the fabric of the clothes. I smiled and closed my eyes, breathing in the succulent scent and savouring it as a shiver ran down my spine. Mum always knew how to make the most boring things enjoyable.

I stepped out from the end of the corridor and stared in awe at the fantastical transformation the living room had undergone in my absence. I was so shocked that the laundry basket slipped from my fingers and hit the ground with a blast of displaced air. Mum obviously hadn't expected me out of bed so early this morning, and had used the laundry as an excuse to get me back out of the room for a few minutes so she could enact her devious plan. She had turned the normally tepid space into a commotion of vibrant colours and frantic movement by setting the living room Comp to render a scene straight out of a swords and sorcery fantasy novel. A miniature castle stood in the middle of the room, with hundreds of tiny archers patrolling the ramparts as a swarm of hideous orcs assaulted the walls. A dragon screeched down from above and filled the room with orange flames and billowing smoke. After a minute or so the scene slowly faded away to reveal a tranquil grove buried within a dark forest. Mum wandered forward and wrapped an arm around me, squeezing my side affectionately. I reciprocated and we both watched as a parade of faeries fluttered through, their bodies constantly morphing into new and exotic forms. This elaborate vista eventually faded too, and we found ourselves inside a massive hall, towering statues arrayed between columns and an elevated dais in front of us bearing a proud oak throne. A velvet throw embroidered with twisting golden flowers adorned the seat, and a rug extended beneath our feet and back down the hall. A tall figure shuffled toward us, head lowered in deference.

"Your Grace, would you allow me the honour of bestowing your magnificent head with this simple crown?" With this the man produced a glittering golden circlet, inset with gems of onyx and sapphire – anything but 'simple'. I giggled, turning to Mum. She beamed at me, clearly seeing through my twenty-one year old façade to the innocent eight year old daughter within. I smiled back and knelt to receive my crown, knowing that Mum had spent an inordinate amount of time putting her heart and soul into this. While it might be kind of cheesy - and I had no plans to _voluntarily_ share it with my friends – it was something I would cherish for the rest of my life. Mum and I have had to rely on each other since Dad left, taking it in turns to make dinner, clean the house, and look after the other when they get sick. In truth, I saw Mum less as a parent and more as a friend. My best friend.

After spending a few minutes basking in the roaring applause of a people adoring their queen, the virtual began to shut down, the projection collapsing back into the Comp like a star about to go supernova. The room returned to its decidedly more mundane appearance and Mum rushed down the hallway, her fading footsteps tracking her progress as she ran to her bedroom. I was still smiling, stunned that Mum had managed to craft such a wonderful virtual based on my love of fantasy stories. It was infinitely more complex than the educationals and playhouse 'sitters that she built for work. It must have taken her _weeks_! My friends were always boasting about getting huge transfers from their parents, but that was the sum total of their birthday celebrations. I pitied them. I really did. I had a Mum who genuinely cared about me, who knew what I was interested in. Mum sauntered back in with a coy look on her face and her hands behind her back then gestured for me to sit down by nodding her head in the direction of the couch. As I sat, Mum approached and revealed a small plastic box wrapped with a bow.

"Go on, open it," said Mum eagerly, the grin on her face tempered with a slight hint of uncertainty.

I untied the bow and fumbled with the box until I managed to get the lid off. Inside, resting on springy black foam, were two pass cards for a short orbit of Earth.

"Oh my God Mum! These must have cost a fortune!"

Mum smiled back, her tension subsiding in the wake of my delight.

"Now, you don't _have_ to, but I was thinking, if none of your friends wanted to go, well, we could go together?" asked Mum warily.

"Don't be silly! Of course we'll go together!" I shouted, throwing my arms around her and pulling her onto the couch with me. We both smiled and laughed as we hugged. It was a tremendous gift from Mum, not only because of the cost of the passes, but because she was an extremely nervous flyer. Riding around in an APT (the generic descriptor: All-Purpose Transport) didn't cause any problems, but the few times we had taken a cruiser intercity Mum would get a bad case of claustrophobia. Her hands would begin shaking, and it would take a lot for her to push thoughts of the miles of open space between us and the ground to the back of her mind. So this was a big sacrifice she was making, and it wasn't the first time either. I grinned and squeezed Mum tighter, thanking every heavenly body I could think of for giving me everything I could hope for.

After wolfing down a banquet breakfast - courtesy of our top-of-the-line _KitchenMate_ \- it was time to finally take the plunge, grabbing my ticket, crossing my fingers, and hoping my number came up on the evolutionary wheel of fortune. I'd been dreaming of this day for months, my unconscious brain entertaining the remote possibility that I could join the ranks of the intellectual elite, the vanguards of human evolution, and play a pivotal role in shaping Sallustria's future. I grabbed a self-heating sachet of Chicken Munchies (one of my favourite snacks of late), kissed Mum goodbye and nearly made it to the door before I realised I was still wearing my pyjamas. I turned to see Mum grinning at me from the kitchen doorway, and I waved her off as I wandered dejectedly back to my room.

"Shut up. Don't. Say. A. Thing." I mumbled. Mum tried unsuccessfully to suppress a giggle as I stumbled past her.

After leaving my bedroom this morning, the house Comp had retracted the bed into the wall and replaced it with a couch, desk and desk chair according to my current daily routine. I swiped my hand over the wall next to the window, now closed but fully transparent and displaying a cityscape just starting to wake, and a panel ejected and slid sideways to reveal the closet. Inside was a neatly arrayed wall of blank grey outfits, a sight that never ceased to disappoint me. I understand that it's to save power, but still...

I swept my hand through the mass of grey fabric, playing the outfits like strings on a harp, and watched as a cacophony of colour exploded before my eyes. From each point of contact kaleidoscope ripples pulsed, life blooming into the dull grey material. Sleeves shrank down or puffed out, forming t-shirts and woolly jackets. Some outfits split apart and reformed with multiple layers, others adopted pre-programmed wear and tear to flavour their design. I stared at the now resplendent wardrobe and smiled proudly. Much better! I pulled out a cotton t-shirt and jacket combo with a long skirt. My jacket depicted a dark forest with multiple sets of eyes peering out of the shadows. Occasionally they would blink, and sometimes shift places. It was sufficiently unnerving and suited my sadistic side quite well.

I walked back down the hall to the bathroom and dumped my clothes on the bench before turning the shower on. The building's regulations limited the shower length and pressure, and after removing my clothes and stepping in to the enclosure the jets began a steady stream of room temperature water. I swiped my hand across the control panel and the heat gradually increased. Just before it got too hot I swiped again and the temperature stabilised. If I had wanted to I could have extended the length of the shower, but that would have incurred an excess charge on our bill and at any rate, I wasn't interested in dawdling. The shower ended and I dried and dressed as briskly as I could, remembering at the last minute to apply this month's treatment of green colouring to my hair. It had been starting to fade in the last few days, and I didn't fancy I could pull of the whole half-green, half-brown style. There were already too many kids running around with dozens of colours in their hair, and some were even getting those injections that caused the strands to alternate hue every few seconds. Seriously, sometimes I just didn't understand fashion.

After letting the spray work its magic for a few seconds, I swung back out to the kitchen to say goodbye to Mum, this time for real. Another quick peck on the cheek and I was out the door and into the lift at the end of the apartment hallway. The lift was walled with c-spex panels - the ultra-thin, durable, transparent material that was used for everything - and afforded quite an agreeable view of the city, with the early morning APTs buzzing through a jungle of sleek, towering edifices and flashing, multi-coloured projections. I skimmed my eye over the ads for the latest virtuals, the hottest actors, the most powerful portable Comps, all the wonderful excesses of our consumer driven society. Ark City loomed overhead, its dominant bulk tattooed with a clear sky-scape forecasting the perfect day ahead. Not for the first time I wondered what life must have been like before the cloud farming stations, when the weather was wild and uncontrolled, and rain would fall unimpeded from the sky. The water preservation scheme had been in place for so long that not even Mum had known true rain. The closest either of us had come had been during our trip to Kitaki forest, one of the few remaining nature reserves that wasn't hidden under an enviro-dome. During our closely guarded trek, a hydration drone had strafed us with bullets of chemically altered bio-fluid. It had been an interesting experience, but it was still a far cry from the raging storms depicted in many of my fantasy stories.

The lift settled on the twelfth floor and the doors slid apart to reveal a smattering of early risers wandering back and forth across the main plaza. Access to the public boarding platforms that jutted from the building was provided by a broad set of doors on the other side of the room, so I began negotiating my way through the congestion of tables and chairs, planters filled with synth-forestry, and harried office workers chugging their steaming hot coffees. I waded through a sea of fluctuating dialogue, overhearing conversations about the mech-fights _– Did you see the arena semi- last night? Phwoar, I've never seen c-spex melt that fast!_ -, lunch plans – _You reckon the boss'll spring for pizza if I tell 'im it's me birthday?_ \- , and complaints about the cleaning drones buzzing around above us – _Lazy bastards! What does a guy have to do here to get a clean table, dammit!?_ I tuned out the relentless drawl and continued to fight through the tangle of toppled chairs and discarded trash that the drones hadn't gotten around to yet. Man, if Mum caught our house looking like this I think she'd kill me!

With the terminal doors in sight, I sidled around a woman attempting to shovel breakfast into her rioting children and strode towards the APT panels set just inside the exit alcove. I commandeered the nearest one and punched in the address of the local Ascension office. The screen prompted me to sync my Comp to complete the request, so I slid the cool, slim rectangular strip out of my pocket and pulled the corners apart. It unfolded into a large empty rectangle which immediately filled with a vibrant projected display. I flicked my hand across it to initiate the connection. Once established, the panel confirmed that an APT would arrive for me within the next minute, so I bounced through the doors and into the chilly morning breeze. The boarding platform was completely open to the elements, with only a stubby perimeter railing and a line of benches that offered no protection from the wind's icy tendrils as they tunnelled through my clothes. I pulled at the collar of my jacket and peered at the micro-Comp display embedded inside. The temperature read eight degrees Celsius. I toggled the lock switch and swiped my finger across the sensor, feeling the fabric begin to vibrate almost imperceptibly as I increased the setting to a comfortable twenty degrees. A gratifying rush of warmth caused me to sigh in relief, and within a matter of seconds I was toasty warm, my shins the only remaining victims to the bite of the stiff morning currents.

I walked along the platform, past the rows of benches and a life size projection of a handsome male model beckoning to me, trying to persuade me to purchase a copy of a romantic vampire virtual that he insisted was 'better than sex'. The Comp controlling the projection must have polled the one in my pocket for my personal details: name, sector of residence and a couple of other things that the corps had pressured the government into making public access. I guess from there it must have picked up on my shopping history, despicably associating this wannabe piece of garbage with my plethora of fantasy fiction. I managed to resist the blatant attempt at appealing to my primal urges, only sparing a brief second glance as the model began to caress his body, a leering glint in his eyes. Damn, these ads don't hold back now that I'm classified as an adult!

I stepped up my pace and reached the end of the vacant platform, retrieving my Comp from my pocket, unfolding it and lifting it to face the sky. An arrow bulged on the display, indicating the direction of the APT I had booked, and I spun around until it was pointing dead ahead. I switched to augmented reality mode on the Comp and punched up the zoom until a small dot appeared, growing steadily larger every second. After a few seconds I didn't need the Comp at all, and watched with my own eyes as the bulbous blob revealed itself as one of the _Beetle_ APTs – flat on the bottom with two c-spex bubble cabins protruding from the top. I peered into the fore compartment as the shuttle descended and saw the driver's gruff, lined face, the journal of a man who had dealt with his fair share of irate and rowdy clientele. He set his ship down in front of me and the rear bubble slid away into the vehicle, prompting me to quickly leap up the small stairs that had extended from the compartment's side. I've had the 'pleasure' of dealing with a few grizzled APT drivers before, and they'll quite happily fly upside down if you take too long getting into the vehicle. Fortunately, after sitting down and strapping in, the driver took off smoothly and shot into the sky, deftly avoiding a convoy of mobile projection platforms orbiting a nearby shopping complex.

It wasn't a long trip, but by the time we touched down near the Ascension office the sky was filled with morning commuters. After authorising the fare payment on my Comp, the bubble retracted and I disembarked. Twin suits bustled past and clambered into the rear compartment and the APT drifted back into the traffic and off to its next destination. I flipped my Comp back up to get my bearings, and I noticed that I had a new message in my inbox. I threaded through the crowd of waiting passengers so that I wouldn't be knocked down in the rush, and found a reasonably vacant spot near a small café stall. The 3D projection of a large honey bee happily slurping a coffee and buzzing around conflicted with the openly unenthusiastic staff who manned the stall, and I couldn't help wondering whether any of them had actually seen a real bee before. During the trip Mum and I had made to the Kitaki forest we had been lucky enough to stroll through a small glade that was home to a wide range of flowers, and we witnessed a number of bees extracting nectar from them. Here in the city all you got were the synthetic varieties, engineered for form over function, a trend that had pervaded nearly all of Sallustria's flora and fauna. That was a pretty depressing thought, and I spent a moment lamenting the verdant landscapes long extinct, living on only inside the virtual worlds of our Comps. I shed the misery with a rough shake of my head and returned my focus to the display in my hand. Settling into one of the cheap plastic stools outside the stall, I flicked open the message icon and began reading.

Sender: Error 3135 – variable 'sender' cannot be NULL

Subject: An Urgent Plea for Your Assistance

Elizabeth Finlea,

Happy birthday! You are now legally an adult, and we would like to congratulate you and wish you all the best.

Since you will be taking the ascendance test within the next forty-eight hours, we felt it prudent to inform you that there may be more to Ascension than they want you to know. Their claims of leading humanity into a new age are admittedly noble, but there are many lingering questions that they refuse to answer. What does the procedure involve? Why can't they establish a laboratory down here to conduct it? Why do so few ascendants return to Sallustria after their operation?

In order to uncover the truth, we have established an enclave of dedicated and hardworking Sallustrians, each seeking answers to those difficult questions, and we like you to consider assisting us in our quest. We do not ask that you devote yourself to our cause, but simply that - should you pass your test and earn passage to Ark City - you provide us with any information that could help quell our concerns. We simply want to know the truth, which is something every citizen of Sallustria deserves.

If you are interested, please send a blank message to [ADDRESS PROVIDED] and we will contact you with further information.

Thank you for your time.

I stared quizzically at the message for some time, confused not by the content but by the missing sender address. I had thought it was impossible to communicate anonymously; at least, that's what the EDU-VI they showed us in high school had claimed. Electronic accountability was pretty darn important when you could live your entire life on the net and in virtuals. I shrugged and flipped the message into my archive. The plea for assistance wasn't anything new. It seemed like every other week a new petition was raised to get the Bureau to investigate Ascension, but they always failed. These guys were obviously fed up with the endless rejection cycle, and had taken it upon themselves to helm the inquiry. Oh well, good luck to them. I had zero interest in becoming a political activist and besides, Ascension had been a permanent fixture in Sallustria for decades. If they were up to something nefarious, it would have been discovered long ago.

I loaded up the quickest route to the Ascension office on my Comp and left the café, ducking through the stream of scooter pods that now dominated the street traffic and joining the comparatively scant number of pedestrians as they filed towards the auto-path. I spared a longing look for the clear bubbles whizzing past us. They were the smallest form of personal transport in the city; a malleable, body-conforming bubble that would shrink to the size of your palm when you weren't using it. Mum wouldn't let me buy one though, insisting that the walking was good for me. _Too many kids waste all their time in those bloody IN-VIs, never getting any exercise! You know, some parents have actually complained about all the songs and dances in my virtuals? They say it's too tough for their kids! Can you believe that?_

I dragged my eyes away from the procession of sleek, multi-coloured pods and boarded the auto-path. I gripped the railing as the fast-moving platform shot us through a short tunnel and spat us out at the end of a broad avenue. The street was walled with dull, monolithic towers, each responsible for managing different aspects of everyday life in the sector. Waste management, power distribution, construction and renovation, education: not exactly the most desirable jobs, but necessarily nonetheless. While undeniably imposing, these buildings were utterly dwarfed by the titanic stalk leering down from the end of the avenue. I let my gaze trail down the immense structure and settle on the lurid edifice of the Ascension office. Even from this distance I could spy the company logo projected above the doors: the word _Ascension_ gradually curling upwards in a visual manifestation of their name. Having confirmed my destination, I returned my gaze to the street and began marching forward.

Bisecting the road was a lengthy strip of shops and stalls, their myriad vibrant projections offering visual reprieve from the greys and browns of the corporate valley walls. Neon logos and pastel mascots pranced overhead while assistant drones twisted in and out of the bustle of people, hoping to entice them to exchange their hard earned currency for entertainment or a moment of relaxation. An old, one wheeled drone with a vaguely human torso spun around and around, flinging sparkling cylinders into the air. They would fly high above the crowd before exploding into shimmering fragments that formed and reformed various shapes as gravity pulled them down. Before hitting the ground, the tiny fireworks would coalesce into the original cylinder, primed and ready to go again. The slogan claimed: _Good for five-hundred launches!_ A popular children's virtual was being projected above an open air café. Various anthropomorphic characters were singing and beckoning a group of children to dance with them.

I let myself get swallowed up by the crowd, my mind wandering to the story I was currently reading. The author had adopted the recent trend of episodic chapters, where a chapter would be released and feedback and reader interest would influence the subsequent chapters. It created a very communal story - though many traditional writers considered this sacrilege to the art - and it would occasionally produce some extremely engaging fiction. Of course, there had also been many cases where a story turned to complete crap because a writer tried to please too many people at once. I was contemplating whether I wanted the protagonist of _The Vertical Slice_ to try and save his traitorous associate or not when I realised that I had arrived at the Ascension building.

Squeezing out of the flow of bodies, I stepped underneath the main archway and onto an illuminated path lined with super-scale projections. Each one depicted a stylised human figure looking upwards with a smile on its face, while cloaked figures descended from above to lift them up. Bold primary colours and beatific smiles presented a real image of hope, and I found my face had subconsciously shifted to reflect their radiant visages. Tearing my eyes away from the magnificent artistry, I strode toward the entrance doors. They were shaped like two hands grasping one another, the fingers interlocking when closed. They released their grip as I approached, and I wandered into the reception area. It was a brightly lit, heavily carpeted room with a curved desk sweeping from wall to wall in the opposite corner. Couches and benches lay unoccupied along the side wall, while a set of double doors beside the reception desk provided access further into the building. Two men were sitting behind the desk, one muttering something into a headset and the other staring vacantly at a Comp display. The rest of the foyer was vacant, so I stepped up to the desk and cleared my throat uncertainly.

"Hi, I'm Elizabeth Finlea. I'm here for my ascendance test?" I prodded politely, the rising inflection in my voice intended as a way of masking my nerves and endearing myself to the other party, a habit I had inherited from Mum.

The man looked at me with the same deadpan stare he had been giving his Comp and nodded slowly. He glanced back down and traced lazy arcs across the display for a few moments before finally addressing me.

"Okay, I've just notified the doc that you're here." He paused for a moment and yawned without covering his mouth. "You're first up today, so you shouldn't be waiting too long. Take a seat." The man gestured to the benches on the far wall without lifting his eyes from the Comp in front of him.

"Uhhh...thanks," I chimed, brushing off his rude attitude and turning to sit down on the proffered bench.

The light shining from the illuminated ceiling panels was far too intense for this time of morning, so I hung my head slightly as I shuffled into the seat. With my eyes boring holes into the floor, it wasn't until my name was called out that I realised I was no longer alone with the reception staff. I snapped my head up and recoiled in discomfort from the sudden, devastating glare. As my eyes adjusted, a new figure came into focus, standing with arms crossed in front of the interior doors. It was an ascendant! The realisation caused a minor flutter of my heart and my hand instinctively gripped tight on the arm rest next to me.

He was completely bald, his head instead inscribed with complex symbols in perpetual motion; the shapes ebbing and flowing, expanding and shrinking, almost impossible to resolve. Multi-coloured lines threaded across his scalp, forming spirals and clefts, cross-hatching and prisms. Some were pulsing, changing colour and luminosity in patterns impossible to discern. It was magical, spellbinding, like staring into a raging fire, both beautiful and deadly, his head a furnace lit with a thousand dancing flames. When I finally managed to tear my eyes away, I saw that he was staring at me, an expectant look on his face. I jumped to my feet and began stumbling towards him, wonder in my eyes but trepidation in my heart, the culmination of months of anticipation mere minutes away. I tried to clear my mind of concern by focusing back on the ascendant. He was clothed in a tight, form-fitting grey outfit, strikingly similar to the unpowered garb I had seen in my wardrobe earlier. He held the door for me and I stepped through, waiting then following as he led me further into the complex. My mind was spinning like a centrifuge, trying to separate the dozens of questions demanding to be asked. It proved futile, with my nerves continuously drowning my thoughts in cold waves of fear, and the ascendant and I walked on in mutual silence.

The ascendant led me into a bleak room of grey walls, a raised plinth in the centre of the room surrounded by a mess of expensive looking medical equipment. He turned to face me and gestured to the plinth.

"Please stand atop the raised platform, lower your arms, and try not to move too much. Thank you."

The entire line was spoken without a single change in tone, emotionless and dismissive. I stared at him in bafflement for a moment, startled by his odd voice, before following his command and climbing a small set of steps to stand in the middle of the platform.

"Do I need to, uhh, remove any items, you know, my Comp or anything?" I asked.

The ascendant shook his head very slowly, as if he was scanning the room. He retreated to the far corner and a panel extended from the wall at his touch. He flicked at the display for a few moments, and the ceiling above me made a _whoosh_ sound and slid away to allow a mechanical arm to descend. It lowered until it sat just above my head, a long black bar with a thick strip of light across its underside. The device began to spin slowly, and I had to look away to avoid making myself dizzy. Returning my gaze to the room revealed that the ascendant had disappeared and the door had closed, leaving me alone and suddenly quite scared. Before I could react, that droll, monotonous voice barked from a speaker hidden somewhere in the corner of the room.

"Please stay still. The test will begin in a second. It should only take a couple of minutes."

I focused on my breathing, keeping it steady and slow to suppress the jitters in my hands. The arm above me spun faster and faster, lowering and rotating around my body from head to toe. An involuntary shiver ran up my spine, a terrible sense of vulnerability permeating my fragile calm. I was sure I was being observed, through cameras in the walls or the ceiling or somewhere, but there was nothing I could do except wait it out. True to the ascendant's word, the arm finished scanning after a couple of minutes and the door opened to let in a red-haired woman. She was wearing a shimmering white coat over her silver body suit, and she smiled warmly as the device retracted into the ceiling.

"Miss Finlea? My name is Jane Drewer. I was just monitoring your scan," she cooed.

She thrust her hand out for a handshake, which I accepted with significantly less gusto than she offered.

"Is anything wrong?" I asked, my voice dipping into tremulous territory as butterflies assaulted my chest from inside.

"No, no, no, nothing wrong at all! Quite the opposite! The test has indicated that you're eligible for ascendance! You're going to take the next step in human evolution!"

I was stunned. My mouth dropped and my brain locked up for a few seconds as it attempted to cope with the magnitude of Jane's words. Did she really say I was going to become an ascendant? See Ark City? Was I dreaming? As the gears in my mind began turning once again, I regained my composure and closed my mouth. Jane was staring quizzically with an edge of concern before I finally managed to respond.

"Urrgh. Uhhhh. Are you sure?" I managed to choke out.

"Quite sure!" the woman replied, her face again breaking into a smile, albeit one significantly tamer than before.

My head was still reeling but I was beginning to piece together the consequences of this revelation. My life was going to change completely. All the advertisements I had seen presented a Utopia of science and discovery in Ark City. Technology decades that of Sallustria. Claims that ascendants perceived the world in more than three dimensions. It was pretty much the combination of the best parts of my favourite fantasy stories rolled into one and made real. Mum was going to flip! I wonder what we'll do once we get to Ark City and I've had my operation. Do we need to get jobs? I know they claim that citizens of Ark City are working to further the advancement of humanity, but what does that mean exactly? Will I become some sort of scientist? An inventor? There were so many unknowns, so much possibility. My imagination had not only run away, it had boarded a shuttle and left Earth!

"This is amazing!" I exclaimed. "Can I call my Mum?" Jane frowned for a second before her smile returned.

"Certainly! But it will have to wait until after we're on our way. We have so many things to do, and so little time!" She started waving her hands towards the door, beckoning me to move.

"Umm, can't I just call her now? I've got my Comp right here." I reached into my pocket and began sliding it out. "And wait a minute. What do you mean 'after we're on our way'? What about Mum? I'm not going up without her!" I was starting to get agitated, confusion begetting anger and briefly suspending my manners. What she was saying didn't make sense. What the heck was so important that we had to get going right now? They had waited twenty-one years to test me, what was another couple of hours? Jane's mouth and eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, another crack in her steadily crumbling facade. My hands were beginning to tremble, and I felt my heart flutter as it skipped a beat and fought to catch up.

"Sure dear, what was I thinking? We'll just head out to the lobby and contact your _mother_. Once she arrives we'll all go up the stalk together. How does that sound?" She strode over with a broad smile and wrapped her arm around my shoulders, gently manoeuvring me towards the door. With her free hand she tapped at a panel on the wall next to it.

"Th-that sounds much better. W-w-what are you doing?" I managed to bumble out amidst a cloying fog of confusion.

"Nothing dear. Come now, let's head back to the lobby and you can contact your mother." Her tone was soothing, but there was something in the way she had said 'mother' that sent a chill up my spine. No, I must be imagining things. My mind was probably just overloaded from all the new information and possibilities that had sprung up in the last few minutes. I shook my head to dislodge any errant thoughts and we swung left out the door and into the hallway. I eyed the door in the distance and took a couple of steps before I realised that the pressure on my shoulder had abated and I was walking alone. I stopped and turned to see where Jane had gone. As I swivelled I felt an icy sting shoot through my right shoulder and numbness began to creep along my arm and neck. The shock threw me off balance and my spin developed a noticeable vertical decline. As I spiralled down to the floor I caught sight of two silvery figures approaching from behind Jane, too distant for any features to resolve. Jane, however, was front and centre, crystal clear even as my vision began to fade. She stared at me with razor sharp eyes and a wicked keen smile, revelling in whatever inexplicable joy my fall had given her. She opened her mouth and bellowed furiously to her cohorts, her venomous tone shifting and distorting as my senses failed and a sudden, overwhelming fatigue dragged me into oblivion.

"Hurry up you two, we haven't got all day! And now I have to go deal with the _mother_ before sh-" Darkness overwhelmed me.

### CHAPTER TWO

### DEREK KWEI

"Doooooonnkey Kong!" screamed Jimmy. He was standing atop the church spire on the other side of the courtyard, waving dramatically and pointing to the blazing barn on my left. Swarms of flaming zombies were stumbling and falling as they tried to escape the burning building, forming a grotesque mound of charred and smoking death. I smiled grimly. The zombies had been a great idea (one of my best, if I don't say so myself) but the smarmy bastards on the other team had lit up their hiding place, sacrificing their superior cover but driving out my weaponised corpses. It was time to end this. They couldn't remain in the barn for long - the raging inferno would be draining their HP at a phenomenal rate - so Jimmy and I had to take advantage of their panicked escape, and fast. I pulled out my grapple gun, holding it up so that Jimmy could see and follow suit, and aimed it at a gargantuan, half-decayed redwood - according to the description in the codex - looming from behind the barn. I fired, a distant _thunk_ confirming that the shot had struck home, and yanked on the ejection trigger. The wire popped out and I quickly wrapped it around an air-conditioning vent protruding from the roof. I threw my hands over the taut line and leapt, holding tight and gritting my teeth as I careened towards the thick, rotted trunk. I let go at the last second, gracefully landing on a thick branch and immediately scanning the rear of the barn for movement. At the edge of my vision I could see Jimmy whizzing by against a backdrop of suburban ruin, dismounting and disappearing into a patch of dark green scrub on the other side of the barn.

I slipped my hand behind my back, rolling my fingers from thumb to pinkie to scroll through my inventory. Flares, medical syringes, ah, binoculars, there we go. I clenched my fist, and as I opened my hand a pair of binoculars materialised in my palm. Raising them to my eyes, I scanned the dim yard that extended from the rear door of the barn. Nothing yet. I swung my gaze to the roof and peered through gaps in the smouldering wood, but all I saw were the ravenous orange flames as they continued to consume the structure. A sudden mournful wail snapped my attention to the empty blackness beyond the barn. I squinted slightly and caught sight of a shimmer of movement, a black-on-black river flowing between the trees. Another novel idea blossomed inside my skull. The restriction on conventional weapons made for some truly excellent and harrowing experiences, and this was definitely one of the better matches I had played. I flicked through my inventory once again, settling on a hunk of rat meat I had found stashed in a barrel earlier. The wet slab coated my hand in grimy juices, and shook it dry as best I could before transferring it to my other hand. I selected a small flask of lighter fluid from my pack and coated the meat completely. Lining up my trajectory, I lifted my arm and pelted the meat into the middle of the yard. Finally, I pulled out the closest thing to a weapon that I had - the flare gun that all players started out with - and settled on my haunches, waiting anxiously, the binoculars trained on the rear door of the barn. I spotted Jimmy's head emerge from the brush and scan the area, and for a moment I considered scrapping my plan, but I shrugged the thought aside and refocused on the door. This was about the team, not the individual, and if I needed to sacrifice Jimmy, he'd understand.

A piercing creak shattered the night air and I squeezed the trigger, watching as the flare sailed through the sky and embedded itself in the chunk of meat. In a matter of seconds the slab had become improvised steak, extra crispy. I cupped a hand to my ear, eagerly awaiting confirmation of my ingenuity. A lone, unearthly howl quickly escalated into a chorus and I grinned, creeping to the edge of my branch to get a closer look at the impending bloodbath. A swarm of human figures burst out of the barn just as a black cloud seemed to emerge from the forest opposite. The burning meat clearly stumped the figures exiting the barn, as most stopped and swung their heads or span on the spot as they tried to locate their foes. One of them eventually spotted the approaching pack, and a bellowing cry ignited a flurry of confusion.

"WOOOOOOLLLLVVVVEESSSS!!!"

The figures darted in all directions, desperately seeking refuge but finding nothing but crumbled walls and rusting machinery. None proved quick-witted enough to attempt to scale my tree, and one even attempted to run back into the barn, meeting his fate at the hands of a rain of flaming timber. A text message popped up in the corner of my vision.

Kai_Master has been burnt alive by Donkey_Kong.

I pumped my fist and grinned. Sweet, credit for the kill! The readout started to scroll as the rest of the group succumbed to the ferocious wolves and their limitless appetites. I leaned closer, observing through the binoculars and trying to get a clearer view of the massacre. I heard a tiny _crack_ and a second later the branch gave way, sending me plummeting face first towards the ground.

"CRAAAAAP!" I bellowed.

I hit the dirt with a deafening _thud_ , my HP severely drained from the impact. I rolled on to my side, hoping to crawl back into cover, and froze. Gleaming teeth with fresh drops of blood still dripping from their tips filled my vision. I had less than a second to contemplate my fate before the world snapped to black with a sickening crunch.

"You're a bitch D.K.!" shouted Jimmy, jabbing me playfully in the shoulder. He was standing by my side with his IN-VI helmet in the crook of his arm, the smirk on his face relieving his eyes of their irritated glint. I lifted my own helmet from my head and jumped up, dumping the helmet on my seat and gently shoved Jimmy in retaliation. Strands of my shaggy brown hair were stuck to my forehead, and as I brushed them away I felt the sweat that had built up during our IN-VI session. Damn, that was some workout!

"You know you love it! 'Sides, we won didn't we?"

He smiled back at me and shook his head.

"Yeah, but we both died! We lost a shitload of points for that!"

"Awww, suck it up! We'll win them back next time!"

Jimmy pouted for a second, then shrugged and slapped on his usual goofy grin.

"Another match?" he asked, eagerly shifting into a fighting stance and bouncing on his toes.

"Mmmm, nah. I'm feeling pretty hungry, how about you? I'll even shout you to make up for the points we lost," I replied, stretching my arms and legs to awaken them from their slumber. The arcade's IN-VI chairs were comfortable, but sitting anywhere for such a prolonged period of time always left my muscles cramped and sore. It didn't help that my body was so awkwardly shaped and bulky – hence my nickname – that I often had to contort myself just to fit into some of the smaller chairs.

"Yeah!" Jimmy's eyes shone even brighter, and he started punching the air like a maniac. He had chugged down three boosters before the match, and he was literally vibrating with kinetic potential. "So Kong man, where we going to go?"

I glanced up at the time displays projected on the wall above the payment desk: 11:15. The night was young.

"Swing by the market, then hit up Gregor and see what he's working on?" I suggested.

Jimmy nodded, bounding towards the arcade entrance and swaying back and forth to music only he could hear. I rolled my eyes, shook my head, and smiled before following him between the rows of IN-VI chairs. We passed flashing projections of explosions and alien spaceships as we walked, and Jimmy stopped as he spied a pair of cute girls in the adjacent aisle. One had long pink hair hanging down to her shoulders; the other sported a half-white, half-black cut spiked three inches long. Jimmy whistled suggestively.

"Hey ladies, how _you_ doing tonight?"

Both girls laughed and flipped him off, turning their backs on us and walking away giggling.

"Nice work dipshit," I said. Jimmy took it all in stride, his grin broad and unwavering.

We passed out of the cramped neon playground into the flickering confusion of the street. We stood under a multi-layer canopy of living projections, exotic and unreal forms undulating in an explosion of vibrant colour, each replaying its brief existence loop in an endless cycle to garner more attention. A bright red phoenix swooped down from above, showering the crowded street with glittering flames. As it passed overhead, the words _Phoenix Energy Booster– Burn bright for 36 hours straight!_ sprang from its tail and grew to dominate the sky. The phoenix swung around and looped through the letters of the slogan. Jimmy and I ignored the advertisement, shielding our eyes to avoid the impending detonation. _BOOM_! A smattering of applause rang out from a small crowd of enthusiastic onlookers. I rolled my eyes. I'd seen the projection at least three times before, and it no longer impressed me.

We passed the gathered spectators and ascended a flight of pink strobing stairs, arriving at the restaurant plaza where a steady swarm of patrons flittered about the food stalls even at this time of night. A sleek archway passed over our heads, adorned by projections of various foodstuffs with coloured rays of light extending over the plaza. The trails split and curved through the air, ending their arcs at the food stalls that served that particular fare, making it somewhat easier for consumers to find what they desired. I was feeling like pizza, but it didn't boast a place on the arch, so I clambered onto one of the pillars and scanned the plaza keenly. The stalls here changed position fairly regularly, since none of the proprietors technically had permission to be there and had to pack up when the Enforcers decided to crack down and raid it. Jimmy stared up at me hanging on to the archway and smiled widely.

"Hey man, you going full monkey now? Ooh ooh, aah aah! Don-key Kong!" he shouted, scratching his head and his side in the timeless representation of a chimpanzee.

I sniggered, waving my free arm animatedly to mimic my namesake. This caused Jimmy to break into laughter, and a few passers-by stared at us dismissively. I returned my gaze to the plaza and spotted a portly projected man spinning a pizza next to a golden fire-breathing dragon, and jumped back down to the ground.

"Onward ho!" I shouted, slapping Jimmy on the back and surging into the mass of bodies ahead.

After sating our appetites on a few slices of teriyaki chicken, Jimmy and I exited the plaza and crept through the gloomy streets towards Gregor's emporium. The closer we got, the darker the shadows grew and the more furtive the people surrounding us became. At one point the ground beneath our feet got damp, and I looked down to see a pool of some muddy substance leaking from a doorway to our right. Glancing up to the windows on the second floor revealed periodic flashes of light, and I could just make out a slight buzzing sound that peaked and ebbed rhythmically. A cowled figure bustled past both Jimmy and I, grazing my shoulder as they went past. A cold flash sparked where he contacted me, and I caught a glimmer of metal on the figure's shoulder before they were swallowed by the inky night. As we drew closer to our destination, pushy stall owners began trying to hawk their wares on us: hacked Comps, hovering assistance drones, portable scanners that promised they could access the secure details of Comps within a 20 metre radius. I deflected their advances with waves of my arms or, when necessary, a forceful push and a polite _fuck off!_ Jimmy, being considerably slighter in build, had to duck and weave his way past an especially avid seller of illegal virtuals.

"Young man like you, you want pretty lady! You buy this, special discount, special ladies you find nowhere else!" the old man barked. Jimmy wasn't going to rise to the bait. He had sworn off purchasing street-side virtuals after the last time, when _Party Night_ had been so poorly coded that all the girls' heads had glitched out and been replaced with the words _NULL POINTER EXCEPTION_ floating disembodied above their necks. That had given Jimmy nightmares for weeks!

After successfully navigating the gauntlet of disreputable salespeople, we rounded a corner and found ourselves bathed in glowing red light from an old-fashioned neon sign. _Gregor's Emporium – Your 1 Stop Sho_. The 'p' had been busted for some time, but Gregor had stressed the fact that most of his clientele were regulars and the sign only remained for posterity. Inside Gregor's cavernous warehouse were rows and rows of cutting edge tech, most of it somewhat illegal or at least highly dubious. Glowing Comp terminals lined one wall, where you could flash all sorts of custom software onto your personal Comp or access various restricted databases under the cover of anonymity. Assistant drones projected product details in front of interested customers, while the deactivated drones sat on a shelf behind the counter at the back, available for purchase at a steep price. We wandered in amongst the scattered individuals browsing wares. There were very few parties of more than two, as the nature of the business here discouraged unnecessary social interaction. Off to the side of the sales counter was a heavy steel door, Gregor's custom humanoid drone serving as bouncer for the private section of the emporium. Jimmy and I approached casually.

"Hey Ay-Bee, what's been happening?" I asked cheerfully.

"Please state your name and business," the drone uttered emotionlessly.

"Derek Kwei and Jimmy Lauman, here to see ol' Gregor," I announced.

A-B was little more than a simple piece of authorization software wrapped in an old drone body, but it fit the atmosphere of the shop quite well, and served to dissuade troublemakers once they caught sight of the powerful mechanical arms A-B sported. The drone stepped aside, and the steel door slid away to reveal a beige hallway of cracked and peeling paint.

"Welcome Derek and Jimmy. Gregor will see you now," intoned the mechanical man.

We stepped through the doorway and it whispered shut behind us. Light and sound blasted from a doorway to our right, but Jimmy and I ignored it and strode down to the end of the hall and up the creaking stairwell. The second floor was a large open space divided by shimmering black curtains. It sort of resembled a hospital wing, with beds and blinking medical displays visible in the open compartments, though the emphasis on black lent it an almost morgue-like air. A few of the beds were occupied, and from behind closed curtains the sounds of various implements hummed and buzzed in earnest concert. Women and men clad in silky black bodysuits bustled in and out of the compartments, some carrying trays of food, some lugging large boxes or assisting clients in getting accustomed to their new states. This was the most illegal segment of Gregor's business: human augmentation. The law strictly limited augmentations to those with the valid reasons and the appropriate licenses, such as the disabled, or those working in the heavy labour industries. However, that did little to curb the overwhelming desire to achieve super-human strength, and Gregor's emporium was one of the few currently active parlours where - for an absurdly high cost - people could have a mechanical arm grafted to their body, or replace their skin with a far more resilient nano-machine compound. More extravagant options were available, though augmentation was not abundant enough legally to allow for a person with wheels instead of legs to pass unnoticed in the street. This didn't stop everyone, but those procedures were still a rarity.

I spied Gregor standing over one of the beds to my left, his broad shoulders and ample stomach accentuated by his tight brown jacket, and tapped Jimmy on the shoulder before setting off down the aisle of cubicles. As we drew within earshot, I heard Gregor reciting a list of complications that could arise from the procedure that the prone man was about to undergo.

"-and you have to keep washing it _every single day_ or you risk spreading infection. Your partner not be too happy about that, now would she?" Gregor chided.

The man lying on the bed blushed slightly, and nodded his understanding. Gregor turned, content that he had fulfilled his moral obligations, and raised his eyebrows when he saw Jimmy and I standing there.

"Boys! What brings you here this fine day?" asked Gregor, his thick Russian accent penetrating the background hum of machinery.

"Just thought we'd swing by and see what you were up to, old man," I joked.

Gregor narrowed his eyes, his bushy eyebrows forming a thick downward chevron. He had a face like mine: brown, square, and covered with a persistent layer of dark stubble.

"Bahaha!" he burst into raucous laughter, his hands resting on his quaking belly before clamping onto both our shoulders. He steered us past the rest of the cubicles and between the two partition walls that marked his corner office. Of the two remaining walls, one bore a full length window with a stellar view of the surrounding city. While projections bathed the nearby towers with light from their siren dances, the buildings stubbornly withheld their secrets, their tinted windows masking whatever activities were going on inside. The other wall was more practical than pretty, with surveillance feeds from the floor below and the immediate exterior streaming onto the matte white surface.

Gregor slumped into his plush, oversized chair and it moulded around his body, billowing out to resemble a beanbag more than an office chair. The steel desk in front of him was an imposing sight, the legs having been replaced with the very same mechanical appendages he sold and installed. He tapped away at a panel on the silver surface, and the floor next to me began to rise like a pyramid. Multiple layers extruded themselves from the grey slate, folding and unfolding as a stark white bench took its polygonal form. One moment a boxy couch stood before us, the next a dense carpet of fine, hair-like particles sprang from its surface, rising like a field blown by an unseen wind. Gregor motioned for Jimmy and me to sit down.

"You like? Still not perfect, I know, but it's getting there," Gregor explained, as Jimmy and I nodded approvingly. Gregor's boisterous voice then dropped to a conspiratorial tone.

"So boys, I have new toy you might like, highly illegal, highly illegal, but quite fun, yes?" he chuckled.

Gregor reached under his desk and retrieved a holographic card, dropping it in front of us. The card alternated between multiple different displays, pausing on each for about thirty seconds. He smiled gleefully and leant back in his fluffy chair. Both Jimmy and I edged forward, eager for a closer look at the ID badge that currently displayed a list of vehicle specifications and benchmark values.

"Brute force APT license, boys. Encryption is still unbreakable on those damned things, so I've got it polling on-board Comp for details until it calculates the transmission algorithm. Then it slips in backdoor access routine posing as firmware update and voila, APT is all yours! Of course, it only work on Beetles at the moment, cracking encryption taking too long on the others. Still, could be useful, yes?"

Gregor revelled in the technical details, his face alight with joy at his captivated audience.

"Wow! That's freakin' amazing Gregor!" shouted Jimmy.

"Keep your voice down!" admonished Gregor, waving his hand downward and glancing through the gap in his temporary office walls to ensure no-one was eavesdropping. When he was content that we were safe to continue our discussion, he slid the card across the desk to me.

"Take it, have some fun, but don't let Enforcers catch you. I don't want no shit from them, they already busted up _Frederik's Implants_ after some idiot got in fight with neighbour and put his entire arm through chest. Very messy, nasty stuff. Enforcers follow organ trail next door"- Gregor sprinkled his hands across the desk to illustrate his words, and I suppressed a shudder –"and catch guy packing to leave. He give up Frederik for reduced sentence. Moral of story, don't shit where you sleep!" Gregor laughed half-heartedly, then planted his hands on his desk and launched to his feet.

"No more time for chit-chat, I have operation to perform!" exclaimed Gregor, jabbing his finger at the roof for emphasis. With that, he strode out of the makeshift office, his finger directing him like the needle of a compass. Jimmy and I looked at each other and grinned. I pocketed the card, stood up, and Jimmy and I made our way back out to the dimly lit streets.

As the shadows cast from the neon sign at our backs lengthened then disappeared, I flipped open my Comp to check the time. It was nearing three in the morning.

"Yo, D.K. I completely forgot!" Jimmy's shout tore my gaze away from the display in my hand and I looked at him quizzically. He had his own Comp in one hand, but he was staring at me with a hangdog expression. "It's your goddamn birthday, man! Happy birthday!"

"Oh shit, you're right!" The fact had slipped my mind completely, even though Jimmy and I had been discussing it earlier the day before. I was still getting used to it being something you celebrated, having spent all but the last three years growing older with little to no fanfare. Dad had been pretty ignorant in that regard. In all regards, actually. I'm not even sure he knew when my birthday was. "Oh fuck! That means I've got that bloody ascendance test bullshit!" Man, I really didn't want to have to go through all that crap. Who wants to become an 'ascendant' anyway? What's the point in being able to perform 300 digit calculations in your head when your Comp could do it for you? I didn't buy the whole 'vanguards of human evolution' bullshit that the Ascension propaganda machine spouted either. Technology is where it's at, that's how it's been for all of human history. Unfortunately, unless I wanted a bunch of Enforcers on my ass for not showing up, I didn't have much choice. "Dammit! Alright Jimmy, I better go hit the sack then. If I get that shit out of the way early, we can go take this baby for a spin!" I pulled the card Gregor had given us out of my pocket and flipped it between my fingers.

Jimmy's eyes glowed with excitement and he nodded eagerly.

"Sweet! Okay, you go get some beauty sleep for your date with your freaky-ass Ascension buddies then. You'd hate to disappoint them."

"Haha, very funny you dick." Jimmy grinned and started to veer off towards a nearby alley. "So... you're going to be all good getting home, yeah?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes and sighed.

"What are you now, my dad? Course I'll be fine, you idiot! Catch you tomorrow D.K.!" he chanted, bounding off down the dark and narrow side street.

Despite his flippant dismissal, I was still concerned. Jimmy's parents were both long gone - they had been attacked and killed by a gang of sweepers who used projections to fool their victims; Jimmy had only been three at the time and was home with the 'sitter - and he was still being shunted between relatives who didn't give two shits about him. He was staying with a couple of cousins at the moment, but they barely acknowledged his presence. If he didn't show up for a couple of days, they probably wouldn't think twice about it. And these streets could get pretty nasty at this time of night; sweepers, dopplethievers, hawkers turning violent when you turned down their wares. Jimmy looked kind of scrawny too, making a pretty juicy target when he was all alone. Still, I didn't want to smother him or anything. He _hated_ it when I worried about him, but I couldn't help it. I felt responsible for him, like he was the little brother I had never had. We had both been loners until we met a couple of years back at the arcade. We had teamed up in a cycle of the _Colony Wars_ IN-VI and won, pissing off the 'professional' team we had beaten to no end. They waited until I was leaving then grabbed Jimmy, one of the losers holding him up against the wall and threatening him until he admitted he cheated. I ran back and scared the idiots off – bunch of wimps - and since then Jimmy and I have been pretty close.

"Grrrr," I grumbled. There wasn't really anything I could do, short of following him, and I knew that wouldn't go down well if he found out. He'd message me when he got home anyway; he'd made that much of a concession when he learned of my problems getting to sleep without it. I shoved the concern to the back of my mind and weaved my way through the city maze back home.

I lived on the second floor of a twenty-level, six-hundred capacity pod farm. Each cubicle offered little more than a sleeping pod (as the name suggests) and a minimal amount of storage space. Communal kitchen and bathroom facilities were provided on each floor. The place was usually pretty clean, the people kept to themselves, and the price was good. I had been here for the last three years, since Dad had died and the apartment had been sold off. The investigation had said it was faulty electronics, a loose wire or short circuit or something like that BUT that it was his fault for using electronics in the bath, so the insurance wouldn't cover it. Half the apartment had burned down before I got home and called the SFD, and by the time they had put the fire out, there wasn't much left. I ended up getting shit all from the sale, and with no extended family to speak of it had left my living options pretty slim. Those few months had been pretty dark, especially because I knew that Dad's death hadn't been an accident. He'd just finally cracked. He'd given up, thrown in the towel, and taken his own life. I had tried talking to him _hundreds_ of times in those last few months, when he had seemed even more morbid than usual. But he just gave me the same bullshit he always did. He would force a weak smile and nod, saying that he was feeling fine and that things would be better tomorrow. He was always talking about how things would be better tomorrow. They never were, though. If only he had talked about it, you know, told me just how badly that insurgent attack had messed him up...

Anyway, life was better here. No-one bothered you, no-one could touch your stuff, and the constant level of activity deterred most of the gangs. The few other residents I had talked to had actually seemed quite nice, and that was becoming a damn rarity in this sector. My allowance came through once a week, compensation for losing the house and all parental guardians. If I was more judicious with my money I could probably scrape by in a better sector, but I preferred the intoxicating atmosphere, vibrating with the rough and raw essence of life itself.

The multi-level monstrosity that I called home loomed over the street, squashing the adjacent offices and warehouses with its towering presence. I clambered up the front steps and under the burgundy-tinted projection of a top-of-the-line sleeping pod. Not exactly representative of the services they offered; only the top floor – the deluxe suites – contained pods of that quality. I pushed through the doors and into the open air lobby. Sliding in to an open lift I mashed the panel to indicate I wanted the second floor and began tapping my foot subconsciously. The door flew aside and I jumped out, almost colliding with a long haired teenager who was waiting to go down.

"Shit, sorry dude!" I apologised, spinning around and walking backwards down the corridor. The guy just sneered at me and entered the lift. I spun back around and powered towards my cubicle, ol' number twenty-six. The numbers were projected above my door in blue, indicating that nobody was home (Red meant occupied, white meant available to rent). I slid to a stop and waved my Comp in front of the door. The lock system queried my creds and the door whistled aside quietly. I jumped inside and slapped the door panel as the lights came on. To my left lay the sleeping pod, to my right a stack of crates forming a makeshift table and chairs. A small freezing unit sat in the corner, filled with a cornucopia of energy filled snacks and greasy concoctions. My tech was grouped together next to the pod, my data disks, spare Comps, hard tools and other accessories arrayed in a heap of reflective grey.

I kicked my shoes off beside the door, laid my Comp down on one the crate table and stripped down, throwing my dirty clothes into the laundry chute beside my sleeping pod. I levered the lid of the pod open with my foot and crashed onto the form fitting cushioned surface. A lazy swipe at the interior panel brought the lid down, sealing shut with a muffled _whoomf_. The interior ventilation kicked in and I slid backwards with the intention of falling asleep, but a niggling thought resurfaced. That damn test! Reluctantly I poked at the inner panel, setting an alarm for... Wait, it's only five hours till nine?! Oh man, I shouldn't have played that extra round of _Suburban Warfare_. Oh well, I'll be needing a booster when I wake up, that's for sure. I slumped back into the soft cushions, letting the warm air smother me into a deep sleep.

I awoke to a brisk breeze caressing my face and the sound of music rising from between my legs. As I yawned and sat up, the music faded, and I clumsily flicked the panel to open the lid. The c-spex dome slid away and I clambered out into the icy chill permeating the room. The lack of climate control outside of the pod was an expectation at a farm as cheap as this, but it didn't make me any happier when I had to wake up this early in nothing but my underwear. I shivered and quickly opened the laundry compartment, throwing on my freshly cleaned and pleasantly warm outfit. I bent down and opened up my refrigeration unit, pulling out an energy booster and a self-heating pie for later. I chugged down the booster, slid the pie into a Quik-Pak rigid container then attached the container to the side of my pants with the provided clips. Quik-Paks were much easier than lugging around an entire bag, as they wouldn't bounce and couldn't get crushed in a crowd. I picked up my Comp from the table and, happy that I had everything I needed, exited my cubicle.

Mornings in the Pod Farm were apparently vastly different to the afternoons - the time I normally got up. Residents were bustling out of their compartments and rushing to the kitchen and bathroom facilities, chatting amongst each other cordially over the background beat of distant music. The flurry of activity seemed unnatural so soon after I had woken up. Shaking my head and smiling incredulously, I proceeded towards the lift and descended into the lobby. I followed a train of suits out into the sunlight and looked up. The sky-scape was projecting a clear blue day, the sun blazing from a position I hadn't seen it in for years. I dropped my gaze back to street level and descended the stairs, jumping to the side to avoid a scooter pod racing past.

"Dickhead," I muttered, my half-asleep larynx adding cracks to my voice. I slipped out my Comp and pulled up the city map. Alright...to get to the Ascension office I was going to need to catch a public APT. The nearest terminal was in the commercial courtyard nearby, so I turned left and slipped into the flow of traffic heading up the street. Weaving in and out of the slower moving pedestrians, I saw the elongated oblong shape of a shuttle APT descending from above, and started to sprint.

"Fuck! Every. Time. I need. To. Catch. Public. Transport!" I seethed in between breathes, as I shoved my way through the press of bodies as fast as possible.

I managed to reach the courtyard just as the APT was setting down, and I hurried forward with the rest of the waiting passengers. The muddy-coloured dome of the shuttle split apart at both ends, and we scrambled through the front while the existing passengers took their leave from the rear. I nabbed the first cushioned seat I could find and strapped myself in as the rest of the passengers clambered aboard. The APT lifted off and I watched the scenery pass by outside the dome, everything permeated with a muddy hue from the brown tinting. The gentle pressure of flight combined with the whispered mutterings of my fellow passengers nearly lulled me back to sleep, and it was only thanks to my Comp vibrating with an alert that I didn't miss my destination.

I pulled it out of my pocket as I got up to disembark, confirming first that this _was_ the right stop, then tapping open the message notification that had set my Comp off. I raised an eyebrow as I scanned through the message. Hmm... An organisation opposed to Ascension was nothing new, but one that was actively seeking their downfall, or at least disruption, definitely piqued my interest. The unknown sender error also gave me pause. I swiped over to my utilities page and pulled up a diagnostics module that I had culled from a Comp repair business, and set it to spit out the full error stack. It reported that it couldn't resolve a hostname, so I weeded out the raw IP address and performed a quick traceroute to determine the path that the message had taken through the network. I copied the details into storage for later perusal and folded my Comp back into my pocket. A sly grin spread across my face. A rebellion, huh? That could be interesting.

I approached the entrance to the Ascension office, wading my way through the chaotic tangle of suits and stiffs, and slowly took in the spectacle before me. The path to the doors was overlooked by a cringe-worthy selection of projections: people being 'lifted up the evolutionary ladder' by the supposedly superior ascendants. I shook my head grimly and continued on between the rows of self-indulgent tripe only to be confronted with an even bigger display of excess ego. The enormous door was shaped like two interlocking hands! Are you kidding me? Did anyone actually buy this crap? I nearly spat on the ground in disgust, but the doors slid open in front of me and I wandered into an apparently deserted lobby, with empty benches on my right and a vacant desk in front of a set of double doors on the far side. So much for their claims of assistance, they couldn't even man their own office!

I strode up to the desk and leaned over to check if somebody was crouching down behind it, but found it completely unstaffed too. Well, I wasn't just going to wait here for someone to come out. I wanted this over and done with as quickly as possible, so I wandered over to the double doors and gave the wall panel beside them a quick scan. It looked identical to any of the thousands of panels installed all around Sallustria, and I was banking on the fact that it had come straight from the factory production lines untouched. Thus, it would be exactly the same as the one that my father had installed on my door as a kid, a safety measure to ensure I couldn't get into anything dangerous while he lay paralysed, catatonic in his drug-induced state. The exact same one that I had managed to bypass with some code inspired by an archaic hacking technique known as SQL injection. The database of authorised credentials stored within the flash memory of the panel could be altered by replacing the user details of a Comp with certain carefully structured code. By trying to authorise with that Comp, the code would execute and create a new authorised user on the panel, thus allowing access. Very neat, and something that the developers of the panel software had fortunately overlooked. I dug out the old routine that I had written and activated it, swiping my Comp near the panel. I was rewarded with the grateful sigh of the door sliding away, just in time to see a young woman being stabbed with a thin syringe and falling roughly to the ground.

With barely a second of hesitation I barrelled down the hallway, heading straight for the nearest of the cloaked figures as it attempted to lift the girl onto its shoulders. A red-haired woman with a self-satisfied sneer stood off to one side, and she glanced up at the sound of my approaching footsteps. The grin on her face morphed into confusion, her jaw dropping and her eyes widening. She recovered quickly, turning to bellow an incomprehensible command at the figure beside her. The figure – identifiable as a bald-headed male now that his hood had slid back - abandoned his attempts at gathering up the girl and sighted on me. By now my brain had caught up to the rest of my body and had begun questioning my plan of attack, but I ignored its pleas for caution and let my instincts drive me.

The bald man unfolded a device from within his cloak and smiled gleefully. It looked suspiciously like a stun prod, and my suspicions were confirmed when he fingered the trigger and a flash of blue sparked between the end prongs. I hesitated for a brief moment. My brain took the opportunity to reassert its dominance, locking my legs and splaying my hands out in front and turning my reckless charge into a headlong dive. The bald man appeared as startled as I was at this sudden change of plans, and his face morphed in horror as my half-controlled fall launched me into his legs, sweeping him off his feet and sending him on a collision course with the floor. I rolled to absorb the impact and kicked my legs against the ground to give myself some space, only narrowly avoiding the red-haired woman and her frantically swung syringe.

My heart was pounding like crazy, and the adrenaline in my system was lending everything a weird sort of motion blur that I had only ever seen in IN-VIs and some of the weird artsy virtuals. The bald man was still kissing the floor, hopefully unconscious, so I focused on the maniacal woman creeping towards me. The demented gleam in her eyes was horrifying, the needle held in both hands like a sacrificial dagger about to plunge into the chest of the innocent victim. Except, that victim was me. No! Not like this! Anger flared inside my chest and combined with the fear and adrenaline already swirling in my system. I tucked my legs in to my body, hoping that the woman would think I was retreating from her advance. She seemed to fall for it, and her smile grew as she drew closer and began to stoop. Waiting until the last possible moment, I kicked my legs out and swung as hard as I could, harnessing the raging storm in my body to lend me strength. Her legs collapsed and she crumbled, the needle flying out of her hands and bouncing off the cold tiled floor. I rolled away as the woman hit the ground, a wet _thump_ that resounded down the hall, and it was only then that I realised a dull siren was echoing in the background. I decided it was time to get the hell out of there and looked to where bald-head had abandoned the girl, only to find that she was now conscious and crawling slowly towards the exit doors. I ran over to her, grabbed her right hand and bent down to look in her eyes.

"C'mon, we've got to go! Can you run?!" I shouted. Adrenaline intensified my voice, made it too loud, and she flinched backwards and cringed in pain.

"Sorry!" I said, considerably softer. "But we need to get moving!"

She groggily nodded her assent and tried to clamber to her feet. I slipped my left arm under her shoulder and helped her limp forward into an awkward, stunted jog. Eventually she found her balance and we both began sprinting for the door. I frantically waved my Comp across the inner panel and the door _swooshed_ open. I grabbed the girl's hand and dragged her through the door and out into the bright lights of the reception area. Standing between us and the absurd hand-door was another bald man, this one with a rainbow of line patterns covering his scalp. He seemed to be unarmed, and he was bouncing on the balls of his feet nervously, as if he was having second thoughts about his current position. I took a tentative step forward, then another, and another. With each step the man seemed to shrink visibly, and on my third step he finally made up his mind and shot off sideways, diving behind the far side of the curved desk and seeking refuge in its varnished façade. Smiling triumphantly I rushed forward and out the door, turning at the last moment to ensure that the girl was following. She was, though her gait was awkward, still suffering from the after-effects of whatever had been in the syringe. I held out my arm and she gripped it furiously, her nails digging in to my skin and leaving white furrows.

We stumbled down the front path, passing underneath the gaze of the pretentious projections and assimilating ourselves into the flow of traffic on the street. The rush of late utilities workers carried us rapidly down the avenue, and once we had lost sight of the Ascension building I pulled the girl out of the flow of pedestrians and sat with her underneath the awning of a small energy bar. Breathing heavily, I assessed the girl sitting across from me. Her shocking green hair was partially stuck to her face with sweat, her pupils were dilated and her cheeks were flushed, and she was gasping for air as much as I was. Her hands were shaking on the table between us, raising a beat of wooden _knocks_ , and I reached out and placed my hand over hers just to quiet the noise.

"Uhh, are you okay?" I asked, realising the stupidity of the question but unable to think of anything more appropriate.

She stared at me intensely, and I recoiled slightly under her fierce gaze.

"Okay?! Of course I'm not okay! Ascension just tried to kidnap me! Or...something! I don't know! I have no clue what the hell is going on! Everything's completely... I don't even know!" she screamed, causing the staff behind the energy bar to stare at us accusingly.

Her head fell into her hands, and I bit my lip nervously. I had no idea how to deal with this, the girl in front of me or the fact that we had just been attacked by a bunch of apparently psychotic ascendants. The girl looked up, her tears reflecting absurd contortions of my own, sweat-drenched face, and sniffed quietly.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. Y-you just saved me from those..." She sniffed again and wiped her face clean of tears. "I'm Liz by the way."

She tried to smile, but her red and raw eyes drained it of all happiness. I smiled back anyway and held out my hand.

"I'm D.K. Well, my name is Derek, but you can call me D.K."

She stared blankly at my hand for a moment, then fell forward and hugged me over the table, resting her head in the crook of my neck. The total sum of hugs I had received from girls in my life was less than the number of fingers on my hands, and this lack of experience left me feeling extremely awkward as Liz pressed close. My arms hovered uncertainly inches from her body, but as the embrace continued that awkward feeling began to ebb, replaced by a warm tingle that spread from my chest to the tips of my fingers. Just as I mustered the courage to close the gap and hug her back she pulled away, leaning back in her chair and wiping tears from her bloodshot eyes.

"So... can you tell me what happened back there?" I asked softly, afraid to speak too loud lest my voice shatter her fragile form. She took a deep breath, sniffed, then swallowed loudly before answering me.

"W-well, it's my twenty-first today, so I was going in for my ascendance test, an-and everything seemed okay until she said I had passed and that we had to go but I couldn't call Mum because there wasn't any time and..." She trailed off, staring at the table for a few moments before raising her head and continuing. "B-but then she said it was okay and w-we could go out to the lobby and call her and we were walking down the corridor and then I turned and... an-and then _she stabbed me!_ That bloody bitch!" Liz's voice had risen back up to a scream and her hands had curled into fists.

I glanced towards the energy bar to see if the workers were still watching us, but they were both staring intently at their Comps. Seeing the devices reminded me of something that I should have done straight away.

"We need to contact the Bureau. They can get some Enforcers down here and bust the place!" I announced, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my Comp.

It was only as I was doing this that I noticed the flow of traffic in the street beside us had slowed drastically. Scooter pods had been temporarily abandoned, their owners joining the pedestrian throng as they stabbed furiously at their Comps and exchanged bewildered expressions with their neighbours. I frantically unfolded my own Comp and was treated to a flashing _Connection Lost_ message in the top right corner. That was impossible! There were so many wireless base stations and repeaters spread all over Sallustria that even multiple failures wouldn't cause a complete loss of connection. I looked up again. Liz's head was back in her hands, her fingers drawing circles over her temples. I cautiously patted her shoulder and she smiled gratefully.

A sudden string of gasps and expletives caused me to swivel my head round, worried that Ascension had managed to track us down already. However, the grunts of surprise were coming from the people on the street; as one they were craning their necks skyward, staring at what should have been a wonderful vision of sky and sun. Instead I could see Liz's face, looking considerably less distraught than the one opposite me, with the words _WANTED FOR QUESTIONING: Reward for any information brought to local Enforcement or Ascension personnel immediately_ floating underneath. I stared disbelievingly at the monstrous projection, my jaw feeling like it was about to drop off completely. No. She couldn't... That didn't make sense. The Bureau had only ever commandeered the Ark City projection when something _really_ serious was going down, and they wanted to ensure everybody could see it even if they didn't have their Comp handy. Stuff like terrorist attacks or election reminders. But Liz was no terrorist, no way, of that I was sure. This...this had to be all Ascension's doing! I'd always suspected they were up to something nefarious, and this proved it. Though what the hell made Liz so important that they'd initiate a city-wide search for her was beyond me. I shook my head. This wasn't the time for puzzling out conspiracy theories.

"Uh...L-Liz?" I stammered out, tapping her on the shoulder.

She raised her head and frowned curiously at my gaping face. She followed my gaze and froze, transfixed at the impossibility above us. Then she screamed.

### CHAPTER THREE

### E.F.

I screamed. I was having no luck wrapping my head around the situation. My mind had literally switched off, and every time I tried to assemble a coherent thought a wave of confusion and frustration would flood over me, drowning everything else out. Tears were flowing uncontrollably from my eyes, my hands were shaking as if I had stuck them in the freezer, and there was a perpetual hum ringing in my ears. Wait, no, it was someone calling my name! Snapping back to reality I looked up and saw Derek standing in front of me, an urgent look on his face as he shouted my name.

"Liz! LIZ! We've got to go, NOW!" he bellowed, stabbing his finger frantically to his left.

I followed his hysterical gesticulation and saw that the traffic on the street had crawled to a halt. Everybody was frozen stiff, their eyes locked on to me. A couple of people were snapping their heads upwards to look at the projection, then back down at me, alternating between the two as their mouths and eyes adopted distinct 'O' shapes. A terrified cry of 'It's her!' rose from the crowd of onlookers, and I felt myself being tugged out of my chair and dragged sideways, my entire body lifted into the air for a brief moment. After regaining purchase on the ground, I spun around and realised that Derek had a firm grip on my forearm and was pulling me towards the set of stairs at the end of the avenue, back to the public APT terminal. I focused on making my feet cooperate and eventually managed to achieve a reasonable jogging pace beside my rescuer. I couldn't hear any signs of pursuit just yet, but my heart was pounding so loudly in my ears that I doubt I would have been able to tell if someone was screaming my name right into my ear. As my eyes drifted from my feet back to what was in front of me, I realised that somebody _was_ screaming my name, Derek again, his head twisted back and his face an odd mix of curiosity and scepticism.

"Liz! What did you do? Are you really a wanted criminal?" he yelled between gasping breaths.

"Criminal?! I didn't do anything! I have no idea what's going on! I told you exactly what happened!" I responded, a fresh worry sprouting in my mind. If Derek didn't believe me I had no chance. Sure, Mum would trust me if I told her what happened, but everybody else would see that projection and believe I was a criminal. Why wouldn't they? They had no reason to think it wasn't true. Only Derek had seen the attempted kidnapping, and I needed him to believe me, to see that Ascension were up to... _something_! I mean, they just commandeered the entire Ark City projection! What on earth had I done to warrant this kind of elaborate effort?!

"Okay, okay, calm down. Right now we need to get out of here, and fast," he replied, uncertainty still present in his voice.

By this time we had ascended the stairs and arrived back on the APT platform. The few people up here were either still staring at the projection above us, or were tapping away on their Comps. Even the APT drivers had abandoned their vehicles and were engaging in excited conversations with each other. Derek pulled a Comp out of his pocket, opening it and giving it a quick once over before slipping it back. Suddenly he turned around, his eyes wide, and grabbed my wrist.

"Do you have a Comp on you? Like, with your creds installed and everything?" he asked urgently, swinging my arm in time with his words.

"Uhhh...yeah. But why do you need mine? You've got one-" I started to ask before he silenced me by reaching into my skirt pocket and yanking out my Comp. Before I could even react to this outrageous breach of privacy he ran over to the Bee mascot coffee stall and dumped my Comp into one of the trash receptacles. He ran back looking rather grim.

"What the hell was that for?" I demanded, my arm instinctively drawing back ready to slap him.

"They would have tracked you from that. If they can temporarily knock out wireless communications and project your image on to the underside of fuckin' Ark City, then you can bet they will be homing in on your Comp's signature as soon as they can. Even more reason to get moving, so c'mon!" he explained, dashing off to the collection of APTs that lay dormant at the end of the platform. I followed his lead, and watched as he fumbled through his pockets before extracting a thin card and pumping his fist in triumph. He crouched down beside a flashing billboard and swung his head back and forth as he looked over the row of vacant APTs. I caught up and crouched down next to him.

"What are you doing?" I whispered, interpreting his stance as an unspoken signal to be stealthy. Derek raised one arm up.

"On the count of three. One...two...three!"

He dropped his arm and bounded forward, springing off the ground with long leaps that lent him a speed quite unexpected for a guy his size. I watched his flight for a good few seconds before realising that he expected me to follow, and I rose far slower and clumsily attempted to mimic his path. By this time he had already reached his destination: a Beetle class APT not unlike the one that I had been in earlier this morning. The driver of the vehicle had left both the front and rear bubbles retracted when he had left, and was currently chatting idly with a woman a few metres to Derek's right. Derek, meanwhile, was bent over the front console with the card he had fished out of his pocket, playing his hands over various screens and interfaces. His tongue poked out the corner of his mouth and his eyes flickered constantly between the screens in front of him.

I sidled up to the side of the APT as quietly as I could, keeping half an eye on the driver and his companion lest they decided to return to the vehicle. I watched Derek intently despite the fact that I couldn't comprehend a thing he was doing. Finally, I felt a slight rush of air on my bare legs and the side of the APT rocked a little.

"Aha!" announced Derek, grinning cheekily and giving me a quick thumbs up. He then flicked his thumb backwards to indicate the rear compartment, and I half-fell in as gracefully as I could manage in my still frazzled state. The c-spex bubbles began to sheathe over, and just before they sealed shut I heard a startled shout and the sound of stumbling footsteps. I rolled around in the padded seat just in time to see the distraught driver mouthing obscenities and frantically tapping away at his Comp before he shrank into a featureless blob.

"I can't believe you know how to fly one of these! I always thought you had to be registered with a specific vehicle for them to work," I bumbled excitedly, the heat of the moment temporarily overriding my fear and confusion.

"Yeah, well normally your creds have to be in the database, but... let's just say I have a backdoor. Oh, and I've never technically flown an APT before," explained Derek calmly. It took a moment for that to sink in.

"WHAT?!" I screamed, the giddiness of the previous moment replaced by a far stronger fear for my life, and a sudden reminder of how far down the ground already was.

"I was on top of the leader-board for _Liquid Velocity_ for 6 months though," he announced proudly. I had no idea what he was talking about. A sudden wave of vertigo prevented any further questioning as the APT dipped down and to the left. I realised not strapping myself in had been a serious mistake, and tried to brace myself against the roof of the bubble with my hands as best I could. The APT levelled out and I came crashing down hard onto the seat, sharp pains pricking through my tangled limbs. Picking myself up as carefully as possible I fumbled around until I found the seat straps, and secured myself tightly before slipping into the cushioned seat.

"Sorry about that!" Derek yelled from the front. "We've picked up a tail of cleaning drones. I managed to activate factory mode to prevent Ascension from tracking us, but I obviously wasn't fast enough to fool these guys."

"Cleaning drones?" I retorted incredulously. No further clarification was needed, as two of the small discs shot past on our right side. Streaming jets of sticky cleaning liquid sprayed out from high pressure tentacle nozzles and coated the bubbles' surface. We were thrust into a cocoon of grey-white foam, the light from the front console now casting shadows around the vehicle's interior.

"Fuckin' bastards," seethed Derek as he furiously attacked the controls in front of him. "C'mon, c'mon, where's the damned wiper controls?"

Derek was managing to keep us level as he swung back and forth, stabbing wildly at the controls, but every second we couldn't see out was a second closer to a catastrophic collision.

"Hurry up!" I cried as my heart tried to smash its way out of my chest.

"I'm doing my best here! They don't exactly provide a wiper tutorial in racing IN-VIs!" he replied angrily, pumping his arms harder and faster and orchestrating a cacophony of beeps. I felt the air conditioning system activate and de-activate, the seat beneath me squash down, and a dividing barrier rise up and descend in the space between the two bubbles, nearly crushing my arm.

"Grab something and hold on! This is going to get a little rough!" Derek said as he stabbed with a final determination at the console. He had evidently decided that the wiper controls did not exist, as I felt a sudden rush of air to my right and light began flooding back into the compartment. I swung my head around and watched as the bubbles began to retract, exposing us to the open sky. A billowing wind tore furiously at everything in its path and I struggled to hold myself down, even with the aid of the seat straps. When the bubbles hit the halfway point in their retraction I was able to see that we were rocketing between a row of towering office structures, uniform pillars of silver and grey ringed by halos of shiny c-spex. Interconnecting tunnels criss-crossed between the buildings, transparent tubes shuffling hundreds of people back and forth on automated pathways. On any normal day they would offer a breathtaking view of the surrounding skyline. Today, however, a selection of lucky citizens were graced with a sight even more fantastic; an APT half covered in foam careening towards them with a gang of errant cleaning drones hot on its tail. I could see the small figures inside the walkway scatter as we approached, and wished that _I_ could escape the situation just as easily. I leaned forward as far as I could, straining against the rushing wind.

"DEREK!!!" I screamed, thrusting a finger past his head towards the rapidly approaching obstruction.

"I know!" he responded, significantly more calmly than I deemed appropriate for the situation. I wrapped my arms around my head in a completely futile attempt to ward off the impending doom, and the rush of air pressed me back into my seat. The bubbles had fully retracted, and just before we turned in to a metal pancake the APT shot downwards, the bottom of the bridge structure nearly clipping the top of our heads as we dived towards the ground. Shit! If the bubbles had still been up we wouldn't have made it. A sudden deafening explosion and wave of heat made me briefly reassess whether I was wrong and we _had_ collided with something. Releasing my arms from around my head and turning around, I saw the remnants of the pursuing cleaning drones plunge down, flaming wreckage falling like some absurd metal rain. I spun back around and saw that Derek was grinning at the scene of destruction behind us, his face aglow with pride in the success of his radical manoeuvre.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" I screamed, planting my hands on Derek's shoulders and shaking him furiously.

### CHAPTER FOUR

### D.K.

That was awesome! Completely goddamn awesome! IN-VIs are great, don't get me wrong, but no matter how real they feel they could never match the exhilaration I experienced piloting that APT. The fact that it was a hell of a lot harder than something like _Liquid Velocity_ only increased my sense of accomplishment, especially given I had successfully outmanoeuvred a squad of repurposed flying drones. True, they were _cleaning_ drones, but I chose to take that as a badge of honour. After all, they had to dodge erratic human traffic all day when they were cleaning the streets so they would have to be skilfully programmed. Unfortunately, it seemed that Liz did not share my elation at our near-death experience. I continued to grin as I watched her face turn a dark shade of red.

"Awww c'mon, you've got to admit that was pretty cool. How many people can say they've outflown automated drones before? I should get a medal or something!"

Before I could ponder just who would present me with such an award, Liz shook me by the shoulders and screamed in my face.

"JUST FLY THIS THING, ALRIGHT? I DON'T PARTICULARLY WANT TO CRASH AGAIN!" she roared, twisting me into the front seat with unexpected force.

"We can't crash _again_ if we haven't crashed in the first place," I mumbled under my breath, too softly for Liz to hear. I returned my attention to the flight controls and expanded the bubbles to silence the rushing wind. They were transparent once again, considerably cleaner than they were before too.

"So... where to now?" I asked hesitantly, not particularly eager for another round of abuse.

"I don't know!" she replied, a definite hint of desperation creeping into her voice.

"Well, I guess normally this is one of those things you would report to the Bureau , but with you being a wanted criminal and all... maybe it's not such a good idea," I said, stumbling over my words as I tried to figure out the nicest way to phrase it.

"I don't think this situation is one that you can exactly call 'normal'," said Liz sardonically as she glanced wistfully at the traffic outside. I grunted in agreement and returned my focus to managing the controls. Lacking a clear destination, I decided the best bet would be to go see Gregor, thinking he might at least have some idea what was going on. Before I even had a chance to pull the map system up however, I felt Liz's hands clasp onto my shoulders and her warm breath brushed the nape of my neck.

"Shit! Mum! We have to warn Mum! Tha-that woman back at Ascension, s-she said she was going to do something to her!" shouted Liz, right into my ear. Shuffling slightly in my seat to put space between her mouth and my ear drum, I swung the APT over a courtyard where a multi-layered water feature spewed shimmering droplets over a circle of young children. I half-turned out of my seat so that I could continue to monitor our flight path while addressing Liz.

"That red-haired woman threatened your Mum? What did she say?" I asked in surprise. Now Liz's mother was involved too? This was getting more insane by the second.

"I-I can't remember exactly!" Liz's hands shot up and she began massaging her forehead with the tips of her fingers. She frowned in frustration. "It's all blurry...but it was something about Mum, I'm sure of it! We've got to get there before they do!"

With that, Liz jumped over the rise between the two compartments and settled on my lap, sweeping her eyes over the complex controls in front of us. I reached around her and flicked a simple 2D route-chart up on one of the screens. She swiped at the screen fervently and I watched the tops of buildings flash past as she scanned for her house. It only took a few seconds, and once she pinned it down I transferred the location to the auto-guidance system, generating a list of directions and projecting a guide arrow onto the interior surface of the front bubble. That was pretty handy. The system also offered an autopilot mode but it was crap, relying on pre-programmed flight zones and always maintaining an unnecessarily large minimum distance from other objects. It might ensure a safe trip, but it was horrendously slow, and if Liz was right then speed was of the utmost importance right now. Plus, I was getting a serious kick out of figuring out how to fly this thing.

Scanning over our directions, I contemplated rising above the cut off level of the buildings and just gunning it straight to Liz's place, but thought better of it. A single APT shooting through the no-fly zone would have attracted a lot of attention, and we couldn't really afford that right now. Instead, I followed the guidance directions, sliding between flashing advertising billboards, down crowded market avenues and swooping over a synth-reserve where people were out walking their pets. I glanced up and realised that the sky-scape had returned to its former grandeur, and pointed this out to Liz. She seemed to relax slightly, and I felt the leg muscles resting on my lap lose some of their tension. The tautness resumed however, upon our arrival at her apartment complex, and, after I performed an admirable yet slightly rough landing on the roof, she leapt off my lap and squeezed out of the opening bubble.

After shutting down the vehicle and removing the ID card from its dock I followed Liz's pounding footsteps down the roof access stairwell and into a sleek black and blue corridor. Pale doors lined the hallway, each with significantly more advanced control panels than the one I had bypassed back at the Ascension office. Damn! Liz's family must be doing pretty well for themselves to afford an apartment here. Liz was already halfway down the corridor, slamming her palm into a door panel and screaming in frustration.

"Stupid door, open up!" I jogged down the hallway towards her, watching as she turned on her heels to face me.

"This is your fault! If you hadn't thrown away my Comp..." she accused me, stabbing her finger violently into my chest.

"Hey! If I hadn't thrown it away they'd have already caught us! So back off!" I retorted harshly, regretting my words the instant they left my mouth. Liz broke down into tears, her body slumping to the foot of the closed door.

"Shit! Sorry, I didn't mean-" A _bang_ from down the hall cut me off and made both of us jump. I twisted my head towards the noise and brought my arms up in an instinctive fighting stance. It was a false alarm though, just a Comp slipping from a portly man's grasp as he exited one of the lifts. I turned back to Liz. The shock of noise had temporarily dammed the river of tears.

"I-I-it's okay. I-it's not your f-fault..."

"Did you try hitting the visitor button?" I asked, pointing at the large doorbell icon on the panel screen.

"Y-yeah, it didn't work," she croaked, wiping her face dry. I pressed the button to check for myself and was rewarded with a red X symbol flashing up on the screen.

"Huh, that's weird," I murmured. I had only seen these high-class panels a few times before, but I knew from experience that their robust security rendered my earlier hack useless. Fortunately, I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. These door panels were able to link up with other systems nearby, so that, for example, a resident who was taking a shower could be automatically notified when someone came knocking. It used biological scanners to determine where a person was within the house, a system which was also utilised by the lighting to ensure that power was not wasted illuminating rooms with nobody inside them. If I spoofed the identification of my Comp to pretend it was a new light source, I should be able to access the biological readings for inside the apartment. With that, we could at least determine whether Liz's mother was still there.

I set about editing my Comp's identification parameters while Liz rocked back and forth against the wall. I felt like I should try and comfort her, but I had no clue where to start. Social situations like this were not exactly within my area of expertise, especially not when it involved girls. Don't get me wrong, I have _spent_ _time_ with members of the opposite sex, it's just that said time usually didn't involve crying. Or much talking, for that matter. I decided to let Liz be. I'd probably just do more harm than good anyway. Best to focus on something I actually understood. I finished mocking up the Comp creds and pushed out a request for the bio-data. An empty set was returned. I sent a few more requests to ensure it wasn't a mistake, and each one confirmed that there were no biological readings from within the apartment. I crouched down to share the news with Liz.

"Hey Liz," I whispered, very gently placing my hand on her quivering shoulder. Feeling her body tremble under my fingers ignited the blood in my veins, spurring a ferocious desire to punish those responsible for the suffering of this innocent girl. I had to grit my teeth for a second to suppress the urge to take it out on the wall. I just couldn't understand how Ascension, a company so fixated on presenting their image as 'vanguards of humanity's future', could do this to someone as... _harmless_ as Liz. I took a deep breath to calm myself before speaking. "Your Mum isn't here. Is there any chance she went out somewhere? You know, shopping or something maybe?"

Liz lifted her head from her hands and I looked into her red and raw face. Her bloodshot eyes stared into mine intently.

"I don't know!" she cried, the misery in her voice so thick that it almost took physical form.

"Where did she work? Do you have any other family she might have gone to?" I inquired. I had to assume that Liz's mother had seen the projection of her daughter being wanted for questioning, not to mention the likelihood that similar messages were being broadcast across the news reports and on the net as well. It was hard to imagine how she would have reacted to the news though; my only metric of comparison was my father, and some days I had doubted if he even recognised me as his son.

"She w-worked from home. Sh-she created EDU-VIs, like the ones you'd get in school to learn history and all that..." she trailed off and her gaze fell to the floor. "My favourite one was about this forest we had visited, Kitaki forest. She made it after our vacation there, and she based one of the characters off me..."

Suddenly, I knew what to do. I slid down the wall next to Liz and tentatively curled my arm around her. She collapsed into me, burying her head in my chest and slowly shaking. We sat like that for a couple of minutes while her tears dried up. She gradually lifted her head and pulled away, wiping her face clean and looking up at me with a grim determination that hadn't been there before.

"I need to find her. That woman has taken her, I know it. I'm going to find that bitch, and I'm going to pay her back for drugging me, chasing me, and stealing my GODDAMN MOTHER!"

This announcement was accompanied by Liz leaping to her feet, her hands clenched at her sides and her eyes burning holes into the ceiling above us. I shimmied my way back on to my own feet, impressed with her rejuvenated attitude and incredibly excited at the prospect of staging a rescue mission. It felt like every thriller virtual I had ever seen, and the hours upon hours I had spent in IN-VIs suddenly seemed validated.

"Excellent!" I exclaimed, pumping my fist into the air. "I know just the guy to help us."

### CHAPTER FIVE

### E.F.

This last few hours felt like something pulled straight out of a virtual, and I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't, that this was real, and that I couldn't just wallow in misery while Ascension did God knows what to Mum. Only after making sure she was safe and sound would I let myself consider what a complete and utter mess today had become. I was extremely glad Derek was sticking by me, though; he seemed to relish the insanity of our situation and it seemed every time I looked he had a sly grin on his face.

"Are you ok?" I asked, as we climbed the stairs to the apartment complex roof. He looked back at me and his smile grew wider.

"Hell yeah! I mean, this whole thing with your Mum seriously sucks, but the rest of this is pretty awesome! Conspiracy theories, APT chases, this is like a freakin' dream!"

The electricity in his voice shocked me. It sounded like he was actually enjoying this! I on the other hand, could say without a shadow of doubt that this was a nightmare, and my only motivation was to find and rescue Mum, and perhaps exact a little revenge on that stupid red-haired bitch if I got the chance. Yet Derek seemed to be in his element, bouncing with a frenetic energy that disturbed me. We continued up the stairwell, emerging into the midday sun and clambering back into the APT. Derek powered it up, and we lifted off and drifted into the flow of traffic.

"So, where are we going? You said you knew someone who could help get Mum back?" I asked, breaking the silence now that Derek seemed comfortable at the controls.

"Yeah! I've got a friend, Gregor, he has a store with all sorts of crazy tech. With his connections, I'm sure he knows something about what's going on here, and at the very least he's bound to have something to help us rescue your mum. Maybe laser cutters or something..." said Derek eagerly. His voice trailed off as he stared wistfully out the bubble, and I had to slap him lightly on the cheek to get him to focus on flying again. He shook his head then began tapping a new course into the guidance system. Laser cutters? This was treading far too deep into Thriller-virtual territory. I shook my head in bewilderment and watched the city fly past outside. A shopping complex with enormous open-air pavilions and vibrant advertising projections flashed by beneath us. My gaze settled on the hilly synthetic park in the middle of one of the courtyards where Mum and I had gone for lunch last week. I could see small children frolicking between the semi-organic trees while their parents observed from afar, chatting to each other about their mundane troubles. I harnessed the anger that bubbled up as I was reminded of Mum, refining it into fuel for my determination. I gritted my teeth and swung my focus back to the interior of the APT.

"So, this friend of yours, what makes you so sure he'll be able to help us?" I asked.

"Believe me, if there's something fishy going down in Sallustria, Gregor knows about it," chimed Derek.

"But what if he says no? Do you have a plan B?"

"He'll help us, trust me," Derek replied with complete confidence. I was not so easily assured, but it's not like I had a better idea. The inability to report any of this to the Bureau would have left me with no choices at all were Derek not here, and once again I appreciated the fact that he was willing to assist a complete stranger for no good reason. That kind of Good Samaritan behaviour was becoming pretty scarce these days.

"Hey Derek... Thanks for this. For, you know, sticking around and all that," I said, trying to impart the full weight of my gratitude in the tone of my voice.

"No worries! We'll find your Mum, and expose Ascension for the corrupt bastards they are! I _never_ trusted their bullshit, this whole 'next step for humanity' crap they keep trumpeting," he said as he veered the APT to the left. We sidled past a projection barrier that surrounded a construction site, and through the yellow-tinted glow I spied a mechanised suit lifting large metal sheets onto a wire frame. Sparks and flashes played across the surface as a small flying welder drone connected one sheet to another, but we flew out of range before I could see anymore. A few minutes of silence passed before Derek announced that we had almost reached our destination.

The environment around us had transformed dramatically from the bright and bustling streets of my neighbourhood. The light from the sky-scape did not achieve the same level of illumination here as back home, with a plethora of awnings, overhangs and ancient stretched tarpaulins creating a canopy that left everything underneath in a sort of perpetual twilight. As we dropped through a gap in the makeshift canopy I felt like we had entered another world; blinking neon lights outnumbered the projections flickering on every corner, and the busy city streets were crowded with people just standing and talking to each other, instead of bustling to their destinations. We cruised amongst the rest of the air traffic, hanging back as other vehicles swooped and twisted erratically. There seemed to be no semblance of order, no adherence to flight paths or even the basic safety guidelines. If this is where Derek hangs out, that explains a lot.

Derek took us deeper into the mire and our APT's exterior lights activated, picking up on the low level of ambient lighting outside. We swung left around an odd structure, where each floor was constructed from a different material reflecting a different time period. A wooden saloon passed close by and I caught a glimpse of rapid activity before the doors burst open and two men tumbled out onto the thin balcony. I missed what happened next, as we shot off down a narrow alleyway and into a small, covered courtyard. Derek descended awkwardly between a garbage receptacle and the flaking wall of a shuttered bar, causing a few passers-by to scatter in order to avoid being crushed. Litter that hadn't made it into the garbage chute fluttered in the downdraft of our approach and a hamburger wrapper planted itself across the rear bubble's surface. The company slogon, _Big Burger: Bigger really is better_ , scrolled across the beige tinted plastic in deep red letters. The wrapper fell aside as the two bubbles opened, and I wrinkled my nose as an onslaught of powerful odours assaulted my senses. Discarded food, engine fluids and the lingering stench of body odour permeated the air. It was a shock in comparison to my neighbourhood, and even trumped the rich and fresh natural aromas that I had experienced on vacation. Derek didn't seem to notice, so I guessed that it must be one of those things you just got used to after spending enough time here. He vaulted out of the front compartment and sidled towards me, offering his hand to help me exit the vehicle.

"I'm not quite that incompetent, you know," I admonished him, proving my statement by mimicking his manoeuvre and landing cleanly on my feet. My skirt fluttered slightly and I hastened to pat it back down. Derek raised his eyebrow at me before lowering his hand, turning, and marching off across the courtyard. I gave the immediate area a quick scan, but it seemed the few people who had occupied the space prior to our landing had decided they had other places to be, and all I saw were the empty storefronts and a few dimly lit upper story windows. I jogged to catch up to Derek, glancing back to make sure that our vehicle was safe, or as safe as it could be in a place like this anyway. The bubbles had slid back across, and a matte black covering shimmered into existence across their surface. Derek seemed to be becoming more familiar with the controls every minute.

"Do you think we're safe here?" I asked as I slid alongside Derek.

"A shitload safer than we were back in your neighbourhood, I reckon. The Enforcers don't have much of a presence down here, and Ascension is almost universally loathed," he replied. "At any rate, it's not much further to Gregor's place, so let's keep moving." I followed as Derek led us through an oddly barren marketplace. There were only a few people hanging around, most of them dismantling their mobile stalls and trundling the components off on hover dollies. From the exhaustion in their faces I guessed they must have been up since last night, and were only now packing it in. If that was the case, it was certainly a curious alternative to the normal nine to five operation of the markets I was used to.

We continued beyond the marketplace and through a slimy alleyway, arriving at a shabby looking warehouse proclaiming itself as _Gregor's Emporium_. Though shabby was probably an unnecessary descriptor in this neighbourhood, as I was yet to see something that hadn't earned the moniker. We stepped inside and threaded our way through several shelves of machinery, Comp accessories and a tub of what looked like innocuous gloves until I stopped to take a closer look. Obscured by the reflective sheen coating on each set were tiny dimples, situated just behind the knuckles. As I leant forward and studied the pair sitting on top, I felt a hand clamp itself down firmly on my shoulder.

"I wouldn't get too closer if'n I were you, lassy," drawled a middle aged man in a dark brown trenchcoat, his open mouth set in a demonic grin that revealed a severe lack of hygiene. His eyes bore into mine with a ravenous hunger and I spun away as fast as I could, hobbling over to where Derek stood before a heavy silver door. I glanced back over my shoulder but the man had disappeared, vanishing into the depths of the store, so I swung my gaze slowly back to Derek and the massive metal door. It was currently guarded by an old blue and orange android. It reminded me of a character from an old 2D 'film' that I dredged up for a historical fiction essay on portrayal of the future back in eighth grade. If I remember correctly, it was called _Robocop_ , and depicted one of many ultimately unrealistic future scenarios. This droid had a similarly impressive physique and presence, and despite its worn condition seemed to be in reasonable working order.

"Please state your name and business." The request blared from the droid's external speaker in a crackling, monotone voice.

"Derek Kwei and uh... guest, here to see Gregor?" said Derek with a slight uncertainty. There was a brief moment while the droid seemed to consider whether it would let us pass or not. Of course, that was just me projecting a human trait on an artificial construct. In reality it was just executing an authorisation program, but the vaguely human form tricked the mind into thinking it embodied human characteristics. The brain is odd like that sometimes.

"Welcome Derek and 'uh... guest'. Gregor will see you now," the droid intoned flatly. Derek chuckled at its literal interpretation of his words. We sidestepped the old mechanical skeleton and walked down a corridor of peeling walls.

I was quite taken aback when I saw that it was real paint covering the walls. I had gotten so used to illuminated panelling since its inception a few years ago that I had completely forgotten that textured scent that paint emitted. I inhaled deeply to refresh my memory as we strolled towards a flight of wooden steps, ascending them into a large open space partitioned into individual cubicles of beds and machinery. Unlike the mildly pleasant scent of paint in the corridor below, the aroma that greeted me as we entered the room was both startling _and_ unpleasant. The vague metallic hint of human blood mixed in with oil and charred flesh, and I had to swallow hard to stop myself from retching in disgust. Once again Derek seemed unperturbed and strode down the aisle of dividers with breezy confidence. I shook my head slightly to clear it then followed him onwards, glancing wildly left and right at people in various states of mechanical augmentation. This was a chop shop, an illegal den of human modifications, where people went when they wanted super-human strength or an extra arm or all sorts of unnatural mutations. I had thought that these places had all been stamped out, though in retrospect that was a pretty naïve view of the world. Where there's money to be made, people will take advantage of it, and there was no doubt that everybody dreamed of having superpowers at some point in their lives. My train of thought was suddenly derailed by a booming roar from up ahead.

"JIMMY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" bellowed Derek. While I had been stunned by the procedures going on around us Derek had shot off ahead, and was now rushing towards one of the cubicles with a crazed look on his face. I sprinted after him in confusion, shrugging off the venomous looks I garnered from the staff as I shouldered my way past them.

### CHAPTER SIX

### D.K.

Seeing Jimmy propped up on the bed sent my organs on a wild quest to escape my body: my stomach plummeted to the floor while my heart tried to explode out of my chest. Up until that point I thought things had been going pretty well. Sure, Ascension were probably going nuts trying to find us, and I _was_ worried about Liz's mum, but the fact that an honest to God conspiracy was afoot and that I might play even a small role in subverting it was like a freakin' IN-VI come to life!

But now that wonderful fantasy was plunged into the deep recesses of my mind, replaced by the horror of seeing my best friend lying on the same bed where they cut people up and turned them into machines, bit by bit, limb by limb. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those anti-modification nuts or anything, but it changed people, I had seen it first-hand, and now Jimmy... No, he wouldn't, couldn't! Could he?

I launched myself towards the bed, rebounding off a stubby medical cart along the way. Jimmy had been smiling when I first saw him, but that smile had melted into a look of confusion when he saw me barrelling towards him. He threw his arms up in a reflexive defence stance. This ended up being a bad move for him, as it meant I got a good look at the metal monstrosity that had replaced his right arm, gleaming keenly like the weapon it now was. What the hell had he done? What had gone through his mind for him to decide to break the law and endanger his life like this? I voiced my incredulity with as much elegance as I could muster.

"Raaarrgghhhhh!" I screamed, throwing my hands around like a madman as if that would somehow bring sense to this situation. Jimmy just stared at me, fear beginning to creep into his features.

"D-d-d.k.? What's w-wrong man? I thought you'd be happy..." he stammered. His nervousness served to calm me down sufficiently for my brain to regain control. I took a deep breath and dropped my arms before slowly approaching the bed. The man who had been attending Jimmy had cowered down at my outburst and only now tentatively rose, keeping a good arm's distance away from me.

"Jimmy man, what have you done? Why did you do this to yourself dude?" I asked, trying to suppress the anger in my voice. Jimmy stared resolutely at the bed sheets in front of him.

"Well, you're always worrying about me, like last night, you know, and you've said before that I'm too weak to look after myself... I just wanted to show you I could be strong, like you..." he mumbled dejectedly.

"Are you serious? You don't need to show me shit! You've always been strong Jimmy, you know that! You sure as shit didn't need to go and cut your damn arm off to prove it!" I yelled, both frustrated at his stupidity and the possibility that it had been my concern that had caused him to act like this. Seeking someone else to blame, I spun around and scanned the room for Gregor and spotted him in conversation with one of his staff just outside his office. I rushed headlong towards him, brushing past Liz who had appeared behind me at some point.

"HOW COULD YOU LET HIM DO THIS?" I screamed, pointing aggressively over my shoulder. Gregor turned and frowned when he saw me.

"Jimmy? He come in, want means to defend himself, so I give him new arm. No problem?" he retorted forcefully in his thick accent. My anger was subsiding as I realised I was taking this too personally. Anyway, it's not like there was anything I could do about it now. My shoulders slumped as I deflated, and I wandered back to Jimmy with a hangdog expression on my face.

"Uh... sorry Jimmy, I kind of overreacted there. I-it just surprised me, that's all. I thought you would have discussed something like this with me beforehand..." I muttered.

"Dude, I'm not a child, and you're not my dad, remember? I can make my own decisions," he replied. I smiled back at him and patted his still human arm. His mechanical one lay across his lap, glinting menacingly without its synth-flesh covering.

"I've gotta admit, Jimmy, that _is_ pretty freakin' cool," I said with grin. He flashed a smile back at me then looked quizzically past my shoulder. I followed his gaze and saw Liz staring with wide-eyed confusion, her head still snapping between Jimmy, me and Gregor.

"Nice hair," commented Jimmy, flicking his head and shifting into his sleezy, pick-up-line voice.

"You shut up," I replied, punching him lightly in the shoulder of his natural arm. Something about him hitting on Liz rubbed me the wrong way. It wasn't because I liked her or anything, it was just that I felt like somebody needed to protect her from buffoons like Jimmy. Yet, as I slid over to Liz's side, I couldn't help noticing that she _was_ rather attractive. No! Now's not the time for that! I shook the thought from my head and gestured towards the occupied bed.

"Liz, this is Jimmy. He's a complete moron, if you can't tell, but he's also my best friend. Sorry about that outburst before, I was just kind of shocked with all this." I swept my hand to indicate his recent transformation. "Jimmy, this is Liz. We're on a mission to save her mother from Ascension!" Jimmy reacted with a look of bewilderment. Before he could say anything we were interrupted by Gregor storming over from his office.

"Oh no, no no! This not girl Ascension looking for, is it?" My hesitant look answered his question. "What did you bring her here for?! Are you trying to destroy my business?" he bellowed furiously, his hands dancing wildly in front of his face as he sought to emphasise his words.

"Relax Gregor, I threw away her Comp so Ascension can't track us here. But we need your help! Liz is innocent! Jesus, Gregor, they took her mum!" I pleaded. He narrowed his eyes and glared at me for a second before he caved and his face softened.

"Alright, alright, I guess I can do something. It not like I'm fan of Ascension anyway, bunch of stuck-up pricks. Let's see what I can find," he said. With that he rubbed his hands together and wandered back to his office. I followed, pulling the still confused Liz along by her hand. I glanced over my shoulder at Jimmy, and he tried to give me a thumbs-up with his new arm before realising that he no longer had a hand with which to shape one. He switched arms, smiling goofily and I sniggered despite myself.

"What the hell is going on here?" whispered Liz through gritted teeth.

"What do you mean?" I replied.

"This is all illegal human modification! Your _friend_ is breaking the law, he's a criminal!" she exclaimed, her voice still low enough to escape Gregor's hearing.

"Seriously? Ascension took your mum, tried to kidnap you, and you're worrying about the legality of modification? Listen, life is different here. it's not like your neighbourhood where everything is sunshine and freakin' rainbows. We just stole a vehicle, remember? I didn't hear you didn't complain about _that_ ," I said, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice. She seemed to deflate upon hearing this and looked away thoughtfully. I turned back to Gregor and saw that he had been rummaging through a previously hidden cache underneath the floor in his office. A section of the tiled floor had opened up, the panels sliding away on mechanical arms, and Gregor was on his knees fumbling in the murky depths.

"Let's see, no, no, aha! This could help," mumbled Gregor to himself as he pulled various indiscernible objects out of the pit. He placed something on the floor beside him and continued sifting through his hoard.

"No chance either of you interested in modification? Big company like Ascension, you could use a little extra power. I could give you shoulder cannon, reflective armour-skin, jet-pack..." he trailed off excitedly, suggesting all manner of extravagant procedures that would have made us stick out like a sore thumb.

"No Gregor," I replied, causing him to snap back to reality with a disappointed look.

"Ah well, no time for that anyway, need to get you out of here and away from Gregor's! You get into huge mess then you rope me into it, not good Derek, not good. You're going to owe me big time when... OH FUCK!" he bellowed, his face frozen in horror as he stared at the surveillance projections on the wall of his office. I followed his gaze and scanned the multiple displays, trying to determine the cause of Gregor's outburst. From the feeds I could see that the entrance to the emporium was a flurry of activity, with a large group flowing in from the street. They stormed in with complete disregard for subtlety, sending bins full of data chips crashing to the floor as they pushed their way inside.

"RAID!" screamed Gregor, leaping to his feet and rushing out of the office. An earthquake of pounding feet signalled the staff running back and forth, and a cacophony of _clangs_ echoed from the walls as they began dismantling and hiding the cornucopia of illegal machines. As far as I could tell all of the invaders were clad in thin cloaks that masked their features, but as they passed beneath the projection's field of view one of them caught his cloak on the edge of a shelving unit. The hood slid from her head momentarily, and I caught a glimpse of a bald scalp with flashing red and yellow chevrons streaked across it.

"It's Ascension!" I breathed, shocked and a little exhausted. How had they managed to find us here? We were probably as far away from their presence as we could get while staying within Sallustria, and yet they still managed to track us? Liz shuddered next to me then sighed heavily. I grabbed her hand and ran out of the cubicle and back into the large open area, glancing around wildly for where Gregor had run off to. No luck, but I found Jimmy sitting on the edge of his bed, looking confused and trying to grab the attention of the staff as they dashed past. He saw me and waved us over.

"What's going on Derek?" he asked, his puzzlement giving way to fear as he saw the panic etched on my face.

"Ascension are here! They must have tracked us...somehow. There's a bunch of ascendants storming in from the street," I explained. Jimmy nodded, but the terror did not leave his face. I gave the room a quick scan and decided that Gregor must have descended to the bottom floor to deal with his uninvited guests. I jogged back into his office, and as Liz and Jimmy made their way in after me I flicked my eyes over the various surveillance projections. I found Gregor standing before a squad of the cloaked ascendants, just outside the door that A-B was guarding. The old droid stood impassively behind him, performing an admirable job of making Gregor seem even more intimidating. Even so, despite Gregor being a big and imposing guy, one against a dozen is not good odds. Those odds dropped even further as the apparent leader of the group stepped forward and discarded his cloak. Underneath he was more machine than man. Other than his head his entire body was mechanically altered. One arm sported a thick metal spike protruding below the hand, while the other was peppered with an assortment of short tubes that looked frighteningly like rifle barrels. His legs were coils of springs that seemed like they would allow him to leap entire buildings if he so desired.

It was an absolutely terrifying sight, and as Liz stepped up to my side and looked at the display she recoiled in horror. Without sound it was impossible to know exactly what was going on down there, but from the way Gregor raised and waved his hands they must have been accusing him of something. The metal man tapped a pattern out on the top of his non-spiked arm and a projection flashed above it. It was a close-up of Liz's face with words underneath, but I couldn't read what they said through the projection. Gregor hesitated for a moment then shook his head, flipping his hands out in an apologetic gesture. The ascendant nodded at Gregor, turned back to the rest of his squad and nodded again. This was obviously the signal to attack, as they launched towards Gregor and A-B in a furious attempt to get through the open door behind them. Gregor fell back and managed to slide through the doorway, slamming the door shut behind him.

The rest of the cloaked ascendants quickly became uncloaked ascendants, revealing that they too had a vast array of augmentations at their disposal. They assaulted the door, letting fly with super-human kicks and palm strikes, flourishing slashes and stabs, leaving a slew of dents and marks in the silver surface but not yet bringing it down. A-B, who had remained motionless during the entire exchange, registered the attack on the door as disobedience of procedure and decided to join the fray.

His blue and orange and limbs struck out at the perpetrators, sending a few of them flying across the room and into a display case containing historical artefacts. I was stunned. I hadn't known A-B could even move from his designated post, let alone fight! Another swing of his mechanical arms caught one of the ascendants in the head, sending her down for the count. By this time the rest of the attackers had realised what was going on, and turned their attention from the door to the stranger in their midst. Outnumbered six to one and lacking the element of surprise A-B didn't last long. His arms were ripped from their sockets and his head was impaled on an enormous, black sword blade that had replaced one of the ascendant's arms. The ascendant shook the head off and it arced over the debris-strewn floor and onto the street outside.

"Uhhh guys? What are we going to do?" asked Liz, a noticeable waver creeping into her voice. If she was hoping that one of us had some magnificent plan up our sleeves, she was about to be severely disappointed. I looked over at Jimmy and the shrug of his shoulders confirmed it. As I swung my head back towards Liz to convey the news I caught a flash of metal from the floor behind Gregor's desk. I had forgotten all about the cache and Gregor's search for tools to assist us. He had left something on the floor, and I vaulted over the desk to see what it was.

Lying on their side next to the still gaping maw was a string of egg-shaped metal objects, each attached to a curved fabric belt. The eggs bore different patterns; one was a smooth black, another a patchwork of dark green bumps, yet another luminescent silver. At the head of each was a small round loop, dangling on a short chain. Grenades! I recognised them from _Eternal Conflict_ , a historical warfare IN-VI where you took part in pivotal battles from throughout the ages. I was familiar with how they worked. Pull the round link out, throw the grenade at the target, and run. Simple enough. I had no idea what the different patterns meant, though.

"What are you looking at?" asked Liz, who had appeared behind my shoulder.

"They're called grenades. They're weapons, of a sort. They could be what we need to get out of here," I replied.

"But what about Mum? You said Gregor could help us find her, but if we leave where else can we go?!" Her voice was so thick with sorrow that I found it almost painful to disappoint her.

"We'll just have to worry about that later. Right now, we need to focus on getting out of here alive. I think that's a bit more important!" I hadn't meant to sound so rude, and I tried to apologise but Liz got in before I had a chance.

"Look, you wouldn't understand. It's not like it's your mum who's been taken!" she shouted.

"Yeah, well, my mum died before I was two years old, so yeah, I guess I wouldn't know, would I?" I retorted, regretting every word as it spilled from my mouth.

"THIS ISN'T THE TIME TO BE ARGUING!" shouted Jimmy, who had been silently keeping watch from the office doorway up until that point. Liz and I glared at him then simultaneously hung our heads in shame.

"Sorry Liz."

"That's okay. I'm sorry too."

"If you guys are done, we need to get moving!" Jimmy was gesturing manically at the surveillance footage. The cluster of modified ascendants had finally broken through the door, and they were now streaming down the corridor towards the stairs.

"Ok, follow me!" I shouted, bounding out of the office and across the now vacant floor. The staff must have completed their evidence disposal as they were huddled together in small groups in a few of the patient cubicles. They seemed unnaturally calm until I realised that they were expecting a raid of Enforcers, not an attack squadron of modified ascendants. I debated whether to tell them what was actually happening but decided against it when the sound of pounding feet and splintering wood began drifting up from the stairwell. I sprinted towards the exit and pressed up against the wall, peering around the corner and confirming the landing was still deserted. I pulled back and waited for Liz and Jimmy to catch up.

"Here guys take a grenade. You've got to pull the little loop at the top then throw it. Spread out over the other side of the doorway and as soon as they come through, you throw it at them. Make sure you've got some cover to get behind as well." I handed them both a grenade each from the belt, keeping the final three for myself. I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins, my muscles tingling with excitement. My fear had been shunted aside, replaced by my innate desire to win, to face the unknown and walk away triumphant.

I grabbed the edge of a thin silver table laden with fluid-filled sacs and flasks, and gave it a good heave. It tipped on to its side and the flasks shattered, spilling a kaleidoscopic assortment of fluids across the floor in front of the archway. I crouched behind my makeshift cover and saw both Liz and Jimmy following suit. Liz was behind a hovering dolly stacked with dark blue boxes, and Jimmy was peering out from behind a cubicle partition. I nodded at each in turn and was rewarded with grim smiles that I knew mirrored my own.

I lifted the grenade belt and sized up the three metal eggs in front of me. God, this felt exactly like an IN-VI! Jimmy and I against the odds, preparing for assault, ready to weather the oncoming storm. I just really hoped Gregor was on to something when he pulled these out, because I wasn't particularly keen on seeing what Ascension had in mind if they got their hands on us. Technically they hadn't actually tried to kill us yet, though the repurposed drones had come damn close. At any rate, the attackers on their way up the stairs didn't seem to have any qualms about collateral damage, and I seriously doubted they would be in the mood for talking when they arrived.

A rain of footfalls signalled their imminent approach, and I cast another glance across to Jimmy and Liz. They both held the grenades tentatively in their hands, and I mimed the pull-pin-throw procedure that I had become so familiar with in the virtual realm. My own three grenades sat on the floor next to me, and I hefted the sleek silver one in my right hand, the bumpy green in my left. I craned my neck to try and get a better look through the entrance and just made out a flicker of light from the flight below. I swung my hand at the doorway to indicate it was go-time. I yanked the rings off the two grenades with my teeth and hurled them onto the landing beyond the door, watching their arc intently and praying for the best. I expected two more grenades to follow suit, but only saw one before my attention was drawn to the top of the stairs.

The ascendants had appeared, their augmented bodies leaping three steps at a time, and I locked eyes with the foremost one as he led the charge. His eyes burned fiercely in their sockets, threatening me with unspeakable wrath, pinning me to the spot. A sudden _clang_ rang out as the grenades they hit the ground, loud enough even to be heard over the avalanche of footsteps, and the spell was broken. I tore my eyes from his and ducked down behind the table. C'mon, c'mon, you stupid grenades! Explode already!

The ascendants were almost past the trap, almost upon us. No! Gregor's grenades must have been duds! I stared forlornly at the one remaining metal egg by my knee. At the very least I could use it as a projectile, maybe knock one of the ascendants out with a well-placed blow to the head. I scooped it up and peeked out from above the table. The leader had just reached the arch and was lifting his claw arm menacingly. He stopped at the perimeter and scanned the room, stopping suddenly when he spied Liz behind the dolly. Before he had a chance to take one step, an enormous explosion erupted behind him, launching him into the roof and sending a cloud of debris billowing out from the landing. I dropped back behind the table as more explosions rang out, chunks of plaster and warped metal flying overhead, and I caught the remnants of a massive flash of light. Smoke began drifting over my cover and I hesitantly peered around the table to see what had happened. I could barely make out the anything through the thick grey smoke. Squinting my eyes in a vain attempt to pierce the smog, I relinquished my barricade and ran for the last place I had seen Liz and Jimmy.

"Oooof!"

I stumbled sideways and grabbed at the obstacle I had run into. It turned out to be Liz, and we both tumbled to the floor in an awkward mess of tangled limbs. I carefully extracted myself and helped Liz to her feet, noticing that her face was coated in thick black dust from the explosions.

"Where's Jimmy" I yelled, in order to penetrate the ringing and crashing that was echoing around us.

"I don't know! I think he was over there," Liz bellowed back, gesturing through the haze at an indistinct blob of grey. We trekked through the mass of debris, tripping over bits of plaster and something I'm certain was once part of a mechanical arm. As we drew closer the blob took form, resolving into Jimmy as he stood bent over a body of one of the ascendants. He spun as he saw us approach, raising his arms in a fighting stance before lowering them when he recognised who we were. He waved his arm at the body on the floor.

"This bastard must have dodged the grenades. He came running in after the explosions and I smashed him with this." He lifted his modified arm. " _Told_ you it was a good idea."

I grimaced in concession, hearing but not really listening. My mind was trapped in a cloud of confusion even thicker than the smoke around us, and I was having trouble grasping any coherent thought from the murky stew. Liz, meanwhile, had started creeping towards the doorway where the smoke was thinnest. I followed, and through the clearing smog I saw the extent of the carnage we had wrought.

Motionless bodies lay strewn like children's toys all over the floor, red cordial blood forming puddles around them. I averted my gaze, not eager to know whether they were simply unconscious or... worse. Everything up until now had seemed like an IN-VI: crazy, frantic, exciting, unreal. Holding those grenades in my hand had felt no different to the arsenal of weapons I had wielded against armies of super-soldiers and alien forces. But now, now there were real consequences. The enemies had not simply been lines of code, but flesh and blood and machine. The sudden possibility that I had caused real harm, maybe even death, to living, breathing beings simply could not find purchase in my fog-filled mind. My brain literally blacked out my role in what had just happened, attributing some other entity with the responsibility for my actions. I knew this wouldn't last, but for the moment it meant I was still functioning, and right now the only thing I needed to worry about was getting out of here.

I stepped cautiously on to the landing with Liz and peered down the stairwell. As best as I could tell with my ears still ringing, there didn't seem to be anyone moving nearby.

"Time to go, I think," I stated, my voice sounding unnatural against the heavy silence that had engulfed us. Liz and Jimmy both nodded, their glassy eyes suggesting that they were having as much trouble processing the past few minutes as I was. I led my accomplices down the stairs, holding my head high to avoid letting my gaze linger on the half organic, half mechanical beings that littered the charred floor. The fact that they were not completely human did little to comfort me. I kept watch for movement, but everything seemed frozen still, encased in a bubble of suspended chaos, and we made it down the stairs and out into the store without encountering anyone.

"Wait, we should see if we can find Gregor," said Jimmy, swivelling on his feet and rushing back into the corridor. He swung into the first door he passed and was out of sight for a few seconds before he reappeared, catapulting through the air and crashing into the opposite wall in a heap. He met my gaze with a stunned look before hobbling to his feet and gesticulating frantically behind us.

"Run D.K.! Run! I'll buy you some time!" he shouted. Out of the door stalked the leader of the ascendants, the one who had threatened Gregor earlier. His metal body was singed and pockmarked with dents, and he was missing most of his projectile arm, but that just served to make him even more intimidating. I stared in mute horror as he stomped towards Jimmy, and it wasn't until Liz grabbed my arm and began pulling me backwards through the store that I regained control of my voice.

"JIMMY! JIIIIIMMMY!" I screamed, tugging my arm free and bolting back to the doorway. Jimmy and the ascendant were locked in close combat, Jimmy blocking the ascendant's pole arm with his own metal appendage, each struggling to get the upper hand. The ascendant's weakened state had evened the odds, but Jimmy was still a very small kid compared to the monster in front of him.

"RUN JIMMY!" I yelled, desperate for him to abandon the fight and join our escape. Such was not the case, and he instead opted to dive into his opponent, pinning him to the ground with his knees and arms. Liz seized me before I could make a move, getting a firm grip on my collar and yanking me backwards in such a way that I couldn't twist out of it. She was fuelled by a sudden, incredible strength – it must have been the adrenaline– and try as I might I just couldn't break free. All I could do was watch as the ascendant struggled against the weight of Jimmy's body, twisting sideways in an effort to dislodge him from his chest. Just before the duel was obscured behind rows of collapsed shelves I heard a deafening crack, followed by a terrifying avalanche of booming _thuds_. Part of the plaster ceiling had finally succumbed to the damage wrought by the earlier explosions, and was collapsing in a shower of grey and white chunks. A particle cloud spread from the downfall, engulfing my vision and forcing me to close my eyes to protect them from the grey dust. I held them shut for a few seconds, and when I opened them we had left the confines of the wrecked store and returned to the dimly lit street outside. I tried to break free, tried to regain control, but my muscles wouldn't listen. I was empty, exhausted, and I had no way of knowing whether either of the two combatants had managed to avoid the rain of debris. Draining my final reserve of energy I screamed as loud as I could, focusing all of my strength into one desperate cry.

"JIMMY!"

### CHAPTER SEVEN

### E.F

Molten lead had replaced the blood in my muscles, weighing them down with burning fatigue. My eyes stung from the smoke particles that had snuck in and tears were streaming down my ash-covered cheeks. On top of all that I felt like I had been awake for days, yet somehow I managed to pull Derek out of the store and onto the muddy street outside. I lowered Derek as gently as I could before collapsing into a heap next to him. The sky was dark, too dark, adding to the unreality of the moment and lending a surreal overtone to our surroundings. It must have been around lunch time, but it seemed more like midnight from the minimal amount of light making it through the web of platforms and overhangs above us. I felt the pooling liquid around me seep in to my clothes and the automatic filter kicked in, deflecting the moisture before it could wet my skin. Unfortunately, my bare legs were not so lucky and I could feel the sticky mud collecting along my calves. It was kind of gross, but also kind of refreshing. I lay back on the cool ground, allowing myself a few precious seconds of rest.

As I stared up into an endless vortex of towering skyscrapers and weaving APT traffic I pondered on the chaos that we had just narrowly escaped. Moments before Derek had signalled our attack I had seen the eyes of the ascendant climbing the stairs. I saw the menace there, the manic smile on his face, and I knew he was out for blood. They hadn't hesitated to stick me with a needle as soon as I deviated from their plan. They had no qualms kidnapping Mum just to get to me. They were happy to send a small army to destroy a store – an admittedly illegal store, but that's irrelevant here – just to find me, and I still had no clue how they knew we were there. I knew those grenades would hurt them, would offer some form of payback for what they had done to me. And yet, even though I hated them, even though I really wanted them dead, I couldn't do it. I could not throw that grenade and walk away knowing I had ended someone's life. I would do everything in my power to get Mum back, and maybe the next time I was in a kill-or-be-killed situation I wouldn't have a choice, but not this time. Not yet. Even so, I could tell I was already beginning to develop tunnel vision, losing perception of everything around me that didn't relate to my goal: to find Mum. Soon nothing else would matter, nobody else would matter, and when that happened I had no idea what I would be capable of. How long was it going to be before I would be able to throw that grenade, how long did I have before this focus consumed me and turned me into a single-minded monster?

I scrambled to my feet and my body screamed for a few more seconds rest, but there was no time. Ascension would no doubt be sending backup, and sans-weapons I didn't like our odds. I bent down to help Derek up and was startled at the hollow expression on his face. His eyes stared blankly into the canvas above and his limbs flopped around limply as I tried to lift him up.

"Derek! C'mon, we need to get the hell out of here!" I shouted, as I tried to shake some autonomy back into him. "DEREK!" I slapped him across the face. A red handprint blossomed on his cheek, and some life returned to his eyes.

"What?" he replied, his look a concoction of confusion, pain and anger.

"WE. GO. NOW!" I yelled, trying again to pull him up and away from the cluttered storefront. This time I was successful, and Derek and I stumbled towards the nearest alleyway. I tried to recall where we had landed, and even though it had only been a few streets away it took ten minutes of wrong-turns and dead-ends before we found it, emerging into the courtyard to the reassuring sight of the black-cloaked APT. It was well camouflaged in the darkness and I almost smashed my knee on its side as we approached. Derek pulled the card slowly out of his pocket and the bubbles retracted on his command. We clambered in and I searched the sky in a vain attempt to spot any pursuers. The bubbles closed over us and I waited for the vehicle to rise but we sat silent and motionless, and I leaned forward into the front compartment to see Derek frozen with his hands poised inches above the controls.

"Uh... Derek? I think we should be moving now!" I said, a tremble in my voice from steadily fraying nerves. Derek started at the sound of my voice and shook his head before unleashing a flurry of commands into the console. We rose erratically and shot off so abruptly that I fell back and nearly out of my seat. I had forgotten to strap in again! I was pin-balled back and forth between the inner walls, and I threw my hands up to brace myself against the worst of the turbulence. Eventually we levelled out, giving me enough time to belt in, and I stared out the bubble as we began cruising down a valley of vertically scrolling projections. Suggestive advertisements for adult entertainment. I averted my gaze. Just lovely. The warm red light permeated the environment and washed over the APT, bathing the interior in a ghastly hue.

"Derek? W-where are we going?" I asked.

"I have absolutely no clue. I _want_ to go back and see what happened to Jimmy. Don't worry, I know we can't. They'll be there be now, I'm sure," he replied, the venom in his voice so thick it seemed to poison the air inside the APT.

"Derek... I'm so sorry about Jimmy," I mumbled, unsure of what else to say. He grunted in reply without taking his eyes off the controls in front of him. We sat in silence for a few minutes, questionable businesses and dilapidated housing giving way to open pavilions and a few synthetic parks. We weren't back in my neighbourhood, but wherever we were was a marked improvement on where we'd come from.

As I sat and stared blankly at our surroundings my hand drifted to my skirt pocket, searching for the Comp that was no longer there. I frowned in frustration, yearning to try and contact Mum or at least check the news or my inbox... Wait! That message! The message I had received this morning! The one from that anti-Ascension group! They could help us, they could help get Mum back! My heart raced as I spun back to Derek and I nearly cheered before I realised that I had no idea where to find them. There had been an address provided to respond to, but I hadn't been paying enough attention at the time to remember what it was. Damn! I slumped back into my seat in dismay, but Derek must have heard my movement because he turned around and looked quizzically at me.

"What's up?" he asked in a forcefully cheerful tone betrayed by the misery etched in his face.

"Never mind, there was a message but... it was in my Comp and...well... you threw it away," I answered.

"A message... WAIT!" Derek shouted, life flickering back into his eyes, the sorrow temporarily stricken from his voice. He reached into his pocket and fumbled open his Comp, flicking the display madly until settling on a screen of familiar text.

"Do you mean this message?" he asked as he passed the Comp over the divide and into my hands. I quickly scanned the message and nodded confirmation. Derek grabbed his Comp back and began swiping furiously again.

"I completely forgot about that message," mumbled Derek, his previous melancholy forgotten in light of this new information. He scrolled down a large list of text completely incomprehensible to me. I asked what he was doing but he just raised his hand for silence and kept tapping away. I glanced up through the front bubble and realised that Derek had put us in a stationary hover out of the way of traffic. At least his brain was still functioning. I hadn't given a single thought to the fact we were in a moving vehicle when Derek shifted his attention from the APT to the Comp.

"Aha!" cried Derek in glee. His finger was tapping on the item at the bottom of a list. I leaned forward to get a closer look, but it might as well have been in another language. Derek smiled triumphantly and I smiled back despite my lack of understanding. I preferred him like this; his transformation from the depressive state he was in moments before had significantly improved my mood too. I hoped it would last.

"What is it?" I asked, squinting my eyes in a hopeless attempt to decipher the text.

"I got that message too, as you saw, and I ran a trace on the sender IP to see where it came from. The trace utility jumped through, like, 150 nodes before it hit the source, but I've got it. Now we just need to put the wireless access point's location in to the navigation system and see what's within range."

With that explanation out of the way, Derek switched from his Comp to the navigation controls and hammered in a new destination. The map panned over a sector of broad, stubby office buildings and flat warehouses, a manufacturing sector by the looks of it. Derek pulled the APT into a spiralling ascent and then banked to the right, sliding us through a narrow gap underneath a crowded causeway and out into a vast open area above a decorative courtyard. Physical statues and fountains dotted the ground, with small gazebos offering shelter to the people milling amongst them. If I remembered correctly this was the Old Arboretum, a public park based off historical documents from the twentieth century. Instead of the vibrant rainbow of colours that adorned most public meeting places, the common hues here tended towards beige and brown. The fountains were tiny, little more than a spout and basin shaped to reflect a person or an animal. Despite its large surface area it was extremely sparse, with the majority of the space taken up by simple grey paths and dark green synth-grass.

"So that trace-thing you did told you where this group is?" I asked.

"Not exactly," responded Derek. "It showed me the first node that message jumped through, in other words, the closest wireless point when the message was sent. Assuming that this message was sent from their base - which may or may not be the case- we just need to search the immediate area around that access point."

I didn't understand the specifics of what Derek had done, but I got the gist from his explanation.

"On the plus side, it looks like most of the buildings close to the node are production facilities. They're all completely automated and not built to accommodate people, so I doubt they would set up a base there. That just leaves these two offices. Now, let me see if I can pull up some info on them..."

Derek trailed off as he tapped away on his Comp again, thankfully glancing up frequently to keep us on course. My mind drifted to what would happen if we found this group of anti-Ascension activists. It was impossible to determine their exact motives from the message they sent. They could be a group of battle-ready soldiers just waiting for sufficient evidence before storming a stalk and laying waste to the corrupt ascendants. Then again, it could just be one guy with a grudge, working from an office building with lofty dreams of toppling a corporation like Ascension. Well, even if that were the case I would not stop, would not rest, until I had found Mum. Even if it meant I was running to my death. All those petty concerns that had consumed my life seemed so insignificant now. How could I have ever cared about what clothes to wear, what parties to go to, what food to eat? It was all stupid. Only one thing mattered, only one thing was important. Mum.

Derek swung us over the top of one of the factories, its roof adorned with vents that belched out the heat, steam and smoke produced by the manufacturing lines within. On the way we had made a brief stop-over at a mid-air market: a primarily food-focused congregation of hovering stalls that catered mostly to the public-service professions. In amidst a sea of couriers, APT drivers and Enforcers, Derek had purchased a new Comp for me with his own money. It was a kind gesture, especially when I caught a glimpse of how little he had in his account. I had offered to pay him back while he set about tweaking my new Comp but he flatly refused, wary that my bank accounts were being monitored. The entire trip was kept as brief as possible, and we had the bubbles set to opaque from the outside, but it was still a nerve-wracking experience being so close to Enforcer vehicles.

The streets between the factories were deserted. With no need for human intervention in their day-to-day activities, the place was a ghost town, absent the restaurants and shopping complexes so ubiquitous back home. We set down on a landing platform beside a slightly more populated street, the two office buildings spanning either side looking mildly depressing with no windows and only a single set of double doors each. We exited the APT, Derek not bothering with the camouflage coating this time, and strode along the vacant platform down to the street.

Derek had managed to compile a considerable amount of information on the two buildings now looming over us. The one on the left was owned by the marketing department for a popular sales-projections provider. They had pioneered the 'stalker' projection, an advertising scheme where projected figures would literally follow you around as you passed through their domain. The scheme didn't last long. It was outlawed when a little girl got so scared of the projected man standing over her that she ran away, ignoring her mother's cries, and fell down a maintenance shaft that had not been cordoned off properly. Her death was in the news for days, and the company suffered a massive blow to its reputation and finances. Somehow they managed to struggle back, though, and were once again the leaders in providing projection hardware and software to businesses all over Sallustria. Derek and I had agreed that it was unlikely that this office was being used as a front for an anti-Ascension group - and we _were_ operating under the assumption that this was a group, as the alternative would be quite disappointing.

The building on the other side of the street was a far more attractive prospect for an underground movement that wanted to remain under the radar. It was owned by _RoboMation_ , one of the largest distributors of automated devices in the city. They had developed and produced the showers, laundry chutes and _KitchenMates_ that could be found in nearly every home, and they were responsible for many of the components that made up larger constructions like APTs, lift systems and mechanised power and construction suits. They had emerged during the early days of automated development, back when everything was human-shaped and commonly referred to as 'robots'. They had evolved and continued to succeed even after 'The Sentience Incident' and the subsequent prohibitions placed on artificial intelligence. That had been before my time, but even today it was spoken of in hushed tones, with the millions of lives lost in the rebellion no less tragic for the years passed.

The blank grey structure that now stood before us served as one of the research hubs for _RoboMation_ and, according to a number of published reports Derek had managed to find, would contain a treasure trove of bleeding-edge hardware and software. Just the kind of tools a group with designs on bringing down a company as powerful as Ascension would want.

Unfortunately we couldn't exactly walk in proclaiming our intentions of joining this underground organisation and hope for a welcoming embrace. There could be any number of people within the building that weren't part of the plot; there could even be Ascension supporters for all we knew. I was still a wanted criminal, and if anyone recognised my face we were screwed. So Derek had volunteered to enter under the guise of a courier while I waited outside. I had opted out of sitting in the APT for the simple fact that I had no idea how to operate it. Without Derek, it was about as useful as a kitchen without a _KitchenMate_. Plus, I preferred the fresh air and the chance to stretch my legs while he did his thing.

The plan was for Derek to talk his way in, find somewhere quiet to hide for a few minutes, then run a couple of utilities from his Comp that would pick up, decrypt and analyse wireless transmissions in the vicinity. It was a hit-and-miss procedure, according to Derek's explanation, and it would come down to luck as to whether he would be able to extract anything of use. If we were fortunate we'd be able to use the data Derek weeded out to weasel our way into the bowels of the building and locate somebody affiliated with the rebellious outfit. Failing that I guess we'd have to chance the whole 'walk in and ask outright' plan as subtly as possible, but I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. Derek and I stood before the nondescript opaque doors and he turned to face me, his mouth twisted in a half-hearted smile. He reached out and tapped the pocket where my new Comp hid.

"Remember, don't do anything that will attract attention to you. Keep as anonymous as you can, and wait for me to message you."

"Ok. And good luck!" I said with a laugh that expressed the absurdity of our ongoing predicament.

"Thanks. Don't let anyone see your face out here, I don't want this all to be for nothing," he replied as he grabbed the hood of my jacket and pulled it down over my head. I smiled glumly and watched the doors slide shut behind him.

### CHAPTER EIGHT

### D.K.

I was in a bad state. I could feel the maelstrom of guilt swirling at the back of my mind, hammering at the mental wall I had erected. Only one thought was keeping it at bay, one idea that kept reinforcing that barrier, and that was Jimmy. I had to do this for Jimmy. I couldn't let the confusion and guilt overwhelm me, not yet, not until I'd paid Ascension back for what they did. Jimmy was an innocent fucking kid! He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and those bastards treated him like a goddamn obstacle in their path. I knew they were corrupt – I had even seen them drug Liz with my own eyes - but to try and _kill_ a kid? It was almost beyond comprehension. I honestly couldn't see how I was going to deal with everything that had happened after all this, but I was sure as hell going to see Ascension burn for their actions.

The building's lobby was awash with a tepid blue light, emanating from the wall and ceiling panels. White cushioned couches occupied the corner closest to me, and a matching white desk overlooked the room from over on the left wall. A woman and a man sat behind it, studying projected displays in front of them with the typically bored look of office workers. I approached slowly, unclipping the Quik-Pak I had packed earlier from my pants' leg and presenting it as the parcel in this charade. I set it down on the bench-top and smiled politely at the woman in front of me. Her brown hair fluttered in front of her glazed eyes and she turned to face me, offering a weak smile in return.

"Can I help you sir?"

"Uh, yes, I, umm, have a delivery here for _RoboMation_? And I need your signature?" The signature involved was that of her Comp, a unique encrypted certificate that was used to authorise documents and prove you were who you said you were. The woman transferred her signature over to my Comp with routine ease, and I slipped it back into my pocket.

"Thanks! Uh, would I be able to use your toilet facilities?"

The woman had already returned her attention to her display, and offered a lazy hand gesture at a door in the corner.

"Down the hall, third door on the right. Be quick," she drawled, her brow crinkling in frustration at having to deal with me a second longer than absolutely necessary. I exited the lobby and wandered slowly down the dark-blue corridor, swinging my head left and right at each doorway to peek inside. Most of the doors were open, and the rooms beyond all adopted a similar design: large open spaces divided into smaller rooms by neck-high partitions. Some of the rooms were multi-layered, with stepped platforms ascending towards the far walls. Each room was occupied by a group of researchers – at least, that's what I assumed they were- clad in coats of various colours. The colours were consistent within each room, but they changed as I made my way deeper into the facility. I figured they reflected what division they belonged to within the company, or something like that.

No-one paid me any attention as I wandered the halls, not even when I hazarded a second glance into one particularly interesting lab. It sported a large transparent tank with a modified man suspended in thick, green liquid. I had no idea what sort of research they were doing that involved human modification, but the reports had listed _RoboMation_ as an authorised modification occupation, so it wasn't illegal at the very least. Immoral perhaps, but that was an entirely different issue.

I had long passed the toilet door the woman at reception had directed me to. I was aiming to find a vacant room deep enough in to the building to access the wireless communications between staff, somewhere I could work without being discovered. I lucked out upon passing a Comp recharge bay. Perfect! No-one would second-guess why I was sitting there tapping away on a Comp.

I settled down at one of the terminals, plugged the power connector in and booted up my suite of wireless-traffic analysing tools. A flood of data was shooting through the air around me, most of it encrypted. I activated the decryption utility and let it run in the background while I filtered the traffic down to the unsecured transmissions and began reading. Mostly it was status updates being shared amongst the facility's basic systems: the bio-sign scanners communicating with the lighting and door panels, the air-conditioning systems communicating with what I believe were specimen tanks of some sort, and other useless crap. I flicked back to the decryption process briefly, but there had been no progress yet. I didn't really expect it to achieve anything within such a short time frame, but stranger things had happened.

Returning to the readable communications, I also pulled up the building's structural diagram from amongst the documents I had collected during the trip here. I flicked it into the corner of the display on overlay mode, and began collating the density of transmissions that weren't addressed to other nodes within the building - the transmissions that were being sent across the net. I marked the direction of the heaviest output in relation to my current position, then polled a few of the other systems from around the building with a diagnostics request and received wireless density reports from each. Using this data I was able to get a reasonably accurate idea of where most of the externally directed communications where coming from. I was betting that this would be where the anti-Ascension group would be working from. A research company relies heavily on keeping its work secret, and would thus limit the amount of external traffic to prevent leaks. I was reasonably confident that the high level of traffic I was seeing was no simple anomaly, and instead was a clear sign of where our activist friends were holed up. Then again, I've been wrong before. Sometimes, anyway.

The next part of my plan was to get in contact with the group, and that would involve slightly less subtle efforts. In this case I intended to fool the monitoring system into triggering alarms purely in the area I had isolated. I wasn't picky; I was going to activate all the different types in the hope that the people inside would flee, giving Liz and I a chance to make contact with them without the risk of bumping into any pro-Ascension nuts. Not the greatest plan in the world, but it was the best I could come up with in the brief downtime we'd had on the flight here. I sent a quick message to Liz summarising what was about to go down, and before she had a chance to reply I dumped the diagnostic spoofer into the monitoring systems and let it do its work. A few minutes past while it wormed its way in to the environment controls, and I glanced at Liz's reply:

WHAT? I thought we were just going to talk our way in!

Talking our way in would involve too many variables and too many opportunities for disaster. This was far simpler. If all went to plan only the alarms within the target room would be triggered, and so long as none of our anti-Ascension chumps spoke to anyone else along the way, we wouldn't have anything to worry about. Yeah, I know it's not perfect, but no plan ever is. Thinking about the number of assumptions I had made left me considerably less confident, so I returned focus to my Comp and swiped my hand to check whether the decryption process had made any progress. Shockingly it had managed to decipher an entire message - one from amongst hundreds - and after recovering from my surprise at the achievement I read through the message.

TK-508,

Yes, we've been monitoring this E.F situation closely. We're not blind you know. It seems she was scheduled for the ascendance test today, first on the list. We're not certain of whether she skipped the test or showed up first, as Ascension have disclosed no specific charges, and their lackeys within the Enforcers are keeping tight-lipped. We're currently operating under the assumption that she is still on the loose, judging by the continued flurry of activity out of their offices. Next of kin was listed as mother, and we've tried contacting her to no avail. Some of the others believe Ascension have taken her, not sure whether they're being paranoid or not.

This could be our big chance to catch them red-handed. Keep your eyes peeled, and I'll let you know if any of our search team turns up anything.

TK-334

I read it through twice, and a brief smile crested my lips when I had finished. I had already seen first-hand what Ascension were capable of, but it was still somewhat of a relief to know that there were other people actively opposing them. We weren't alone, and these guys even seemed like they had their shit together. Maybe they really would be able to help me exact my revenge. And rescue Liz's mum, of course.

A distant echo of _thumps_ caused me to snap my neck up, nearly collecting my head on the edge of the Comp terminal. I stood up slowly, allowing my vision to steady, and focused on the rising footfalls approaching from down the hall. A rush of jogging and fast-walking individuals passed the alcove, mumbling angrily about the disruption to their workday. Unlike what I had previously spied through doorways the dress code here seemed more relaxed, and I slipped into the throng of bodies without attracting undue attention. The crowd eventually flowed back into the lobby, and a couple of people split off to talk to reception while the rest headed for the door outside. Shit, there goes my hope for keeping everyone together. I sighed through gritted teeth but kept moving. There was nothing I could do about it now.

We passed through the doors and emerged into the afternoon sun, and I immediately swept left and spotted Liz standing by a public comms terminal with her head down. Her hood probably served counter to our intent here; the weather was fine and it made her look kind of odd to be covering up. Oh well, it wasn't going to matter in a few seconds anyway. She looked up as people continued to pour out of the building and I caught her gaze, gesturing for her to join me. She jogged over eagerly and faced me, nerves and excitement fighting for real-estate on her face.

"So... do we just pick somebody and ask, or what?" asked Liz. A few of the stragglers at the perimeter of the crowd were eyeing us quizzically. I took a deep breath. Time to take the plunge. I grabbed Liz's arm and dragged her towards the centre of the crowd. Curious and irritated faces greeted us as we weaved amongst the bodies, but attention was now our goal rather than our enemy. Once we had penetrated the thickest grouping I stopped, Liz glaring at me and mouthing 'what are you doing?' as she pulled her arm out of my grip. I grabbed her hood and ripped it down.

"ATTENTION! EVERBODY LOOK! IMPORTANT STUFF HAPPENING RIGHT HERE!" I bellowed as loudly as possible. The figures closest to us recoiled in shock, and those further along stared in utter bewilderment. I waved my arms frantically as I scanned the cluster of people, hoping to spot someone who would take charge, somebody with authority.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Liz seethed through gritted teeth. I ignored her and continued bellowing to attract attention. I was waiting for someone to come forth to settle this disturbance, banking on it being someone in a leadership role. Either that or someone would recognise Liz's face and would communicate that to whoever was in charge. It took a few uncomfortable seconds as I caught my breath for someone to appear from the press of bodies around us. A short man with a fine brown beard approached with a stern look.

"Might I ask what you hope to achieve by yelling like this, young man?" he asked. He didn't look particularly old, so I knew the comment on my age was intended as a slight, but I let it pass unchallenged.

"Uhhh, yes. I was hoping to discuss plans for a little... _corporate restructuring_ , actually. A company going by the name of Ascension, perhaps you've heard of them? Liz here and I have some debts we need repaid, and we wouldn't mind a bit of assistance in their collection."

Liz squeezed my arm hard and stared at me in wide-eyed bewilderment. I reassured her with an easy smile, one that masked the hurricane wreaking havoc in my chest. The man in front of me lifted one side of his mouth in a smirk and leaned forward to grab my shoulder.

"My boy, I think you might want to come inside."

The man introduced himself as John Walters, an engineer who had dipped his toes into numerous research and development roles in the past before settling with _RoboMation_. I explained that the raised alarm had been my doing, and he seemed quite impressed by my unorthodox approach. As he led us and the rest of his flock back through the building towards their base of operations, he explained how their organisation had come into existence.

"You are probably too young to remember, but Ascension began as a small, privately owned research company formed with the intent of increasing the capacity of the human brain. A noble cause, some may say." I could tell from the way John spoke that he was clearly not part of that group.

"They spent years in self-imposed isolation, apparently studying and conducting experiments though revealing very little of their progress to the public. One day, without warning, the entire business dissolved, their campus stripped and left abandoned, their employees vanishing with barely a trace. Rumours began to circulate regarding the death of a human test subject - an experiment gone wrong some claimed. To this day we have not been able to determine the validity of those allegations, though I for one am convinced they are true.

"An anonymous source provided _OmniNews_ with a story of how the majority of the researchers had left Sallustria entirely, seeking the freedom of the wastelands to conduct their illegal and immoral experiments. The Enforcement Bureau assigned a token task force to investigate, but they never left the bounds of Sallustria, never followed the damn trail!" John formed a fist and slammed it into his hand to punctuate his words. The slap of flesh on flesh marked a suspension of his speech as we passed through an enormous showroom.

I swung my head from side to side as we walked between the aisles of cut-away model homes, glancing at all manner of prototype hardware sporting the latest innovations in cooking, cleaning and small-scale construction. We reached the far wall and John waved his Comp at a broad set of steel doors, leading us through as they parted and we continued our expedition deeper into the building. John cleared his throat before returning to his explanation.

"It was years before we heard anything more from Ascension. Years of wonderful, peaceful, bliss." John fell silent for a moment and looked longingly into the distance. "That peace was shattered when reports began flooding in from roamers in the wastelands, rumours of an enormous ship heading for Sallustria. The Bureau chalked the sightings up to the typical fringe crazies, but once the proximity alerts began going off, they had no choice but to respond. By that time, however, the scout force they assembled was practically useless. Ark City had arrived."

"The Bureau attempted to establish contact and, failing that, tried to halt its advance. They failed that as well. It continued on relentless, eventually settling into its current position above us, bathing the streets in shadow. Nobody had any idea what was going on inside, not with that impenetrable opaque dome capping the ship, and all our attempts at communication were met with silence. Well, not silence exactly, but our own wireless signals reflected back at us. Whatever fabrication method they used to construct that hull is light-years ahead of our technology. We spent days in that cloying blackness, claustrophobia and chaos our puppet masters, before they finally returned us our light, albeit in artificial form: the sky-scape that to you is probably as natural as the air you breathe." I felt compelled to object, but what he said was true. I had never seen the 'true' sky; I had lived my entire life underneath the Ark City projection.

"Shortly after that, they sent representatives to meet with the Bureau, placating them with assurances that there was no malice in their presence. Pah!" He was very close to spitting his words. "They delivered a public message, informing the people that the technological 'marvel'-"John illustrated his words with dramatic air quotes. "- above them was the work of a group of 'ascendants', humans with supposedly 'incomparable' intelligence granted from the procedures they had spent all those years developing. It did not take long for the initial fear and scepticism to morph into curiosity, and people began clamouring to undergo the procedure and become 'ascendants' themselves. I will admit that I, too, was intrigued by the prospect of a heightened intellect, but I was not so easily fooled. The way Ascension had reacted to the level of public interest sowed the first seeds of doubt in my mind, seeds that eventually led to this." He gestured to the stream of people following along behind us.

"Inexplicably, Ascension denied any and all requests to receive the operation, claiming that the process was extremely complicated and further development was required before it could be ready for the general public." John snorted and shook his head. "Why would they have returned to Sallustria if they weren't ready? I knew there was more to their story, but the authorities were so inundated with petitions demanding they overrule Ascension that they ignored the difficult questions posed by keen folk like myself. Ultimately the public pressure became too much and prompted a clandestine discussion with representatives from above. All that we were told was that an agreement was reached: at the age of twenty-one all citizens would be tested for viability to undergo the ascendance procedure. If they were successful, the operation would be performed free of charge in Ark City facilities. This was even more perplexing! Why would Ascension sway so readily from denial to acceptance? Did they not state that their procedure was not ready yet?" He dismissed the rhetorical questions with a frustrated grunt.

"I only suspected it at the time, but this was the moment when Ascension first established their grip around the throat of our fragile city. By building their offices and their stalks, they planted their lips on our supple necks, fangs drawn, poised to bleed us dry.

"It was during that initial development that we discovered their wireless shielding. Sure, Ascension claimed it was 'necessary' due to the highly delicate nature of their equipment, but I saw it as yet more proof that they had something sinister tucked away up there. By limiting all communications to only the hard lines in the stalks, they could monitor and alter all data traffic going in and out of Ark City. And what possible reason could they have for doing that, other than to hide something from us?" John stopped mid-stride and turned to face us, his eyes wide and glistening in the half-light of the corridor.

"That's a breach of the freedom of information act. That's _illegal_." His tone was rife with accusation, each word coated in a thick layer of venom.

"Well why didn't the Bureau do something about it then?" I asked, unable to remain silent any longer.

"Aha, you see, it's the fallibility of humanity! Corruption, my dear boy, corruption! Every investigation they conducted would peter out before it could gather steam, victim to back-door deals and sabotage, I am sure. In light of their failure, I made contact with as many like-minded citizens as I could find, and we tried pressuring the Bureau into more significant action. Our pleas fell on deaf ears. That's when I decided that we needed to take it upon ourselves to uncover the true nature of Ascension.

"My fellow sceptics and I formed the core of what we call the 'Techtivists'. The name was suggested by one of my associates, and I must say, I think it fits quite well. He intended for it to embody the central motivation that drove many of our members to oppose Ascension in the first place: the firm belief that humanity's future lay in technological advancement and _not_ organic 'enhancements'. Our first action as a group was to conduct our own investigation, piecing together what we could from public domain files and a scant few first-hand reports of interaction with Ascension's representatives. There was very little to go on, but our efforts did succeed in attracting ever more unbelievers, people who were ready and willing to see the floating abomination return to the wastelands from whence it came.

"Our supporters are many and varied in what drives them; some are part of the larger hardware companies, _RoboMation_ among them, and are concerned that Ascension will one day choose to sell the advanced technology that went into constructing Ark City. We know from the meagre findings of the Bureau investigations that Ark City is full of supposed 'breakthrough' inventions. Highly power-efficient engines, complex distributed computing systems, life support systems that could deliver aid through miasma rather than injections and other apparent 'miracle machines'. Many fear that if Ascension were to take these products to market, well, it would mean widespread bankruptcy for the hardware industry.

"We also have quite a few idealistic devotees, those who believe that evolution lies in the mechanical modification of the human body. Many of those who were involved with artificial intelligence research in the years prior to its collapse count themselves among this group. They desire leniency on human augmentation licenses, and see the ascendance procedure as a step taken down the wrong evolutionary path. Their belief is that the exclusionary nature of the procedure is discriminatory, and that augmentation, with its almost one-hundred percent viability coverage, is the appropriate avenue for global human advancement.

"Though I am reticent to admit it, our number also consists of a few who joined with more religious ambitions. I'm sure you have seen them in the city before, parading their views on the purity of the human body, spouting that trash of how any modification strips away a part of your soul. In addition to the ascendance procedure they also oppose mechanical augmentations, a stance I find rather regressive, so we often do not see eye to eye. However, they claim we are the lesser of two evils, and their animosity towards Ascension has occasionally made them useful allies, so I endeavour to hide the worst of my disdain.

"And that is about it. This wonderful facility plays home to our largest concentration of Techtivists, though we have other, smaller, quarters scattered around the city. _RoboMation_ allow many of our number to operate here under the guise of their research and development division, and in return we split our time between working for them and furthering our own agenda. We have tasked ourselves with discovering the truth behind the lies and facades Ascension has erected. Despite their claims to the contrary they are indeed fallible, and every week reveals a fresh chink in their armour for us to exploit. We are the hammer and the pick, methodically chipping away at the cracks until Ascension crumble and fall, returning our city its independence and splendour."

By the time he had finished his lengthy explanation my head was reeling, and the three of us were sitting on crystal clear couches within the egg-shaped bubble of John's office. The office sat in the middle of the large research area, raised above its surroundings to afford the occupants a view of the entire department. Spread around the room were dozens of Comp terminals, projection bubbles (sound-proofed with an opaque setting to ensure privacy during communications) and a large section in the corner that looked vaguely similar to the top level of Gregor's emporium. Oh shit, Gregor's probably dead too! The though hadn't even crossed my mind in the hours since the battle at his store. Guilt compounded with fresh sorrow, hope gave way to despair, and I suddenly felt weak and breathless.

I let my head drop to my hands and felt a warm touch caress my neck. I looked up and forced a grim smile for Liz, and she returned the knowing gaze that said she understood. She may not have lost somebody yet, but her mother was very much in danger of suffering the same fate as Jimmy and Gregor. No. I couldn't let that happen. Nobody else deserved that fate. I caught John staring at us with an eyebrow raised, so I lowered my hands and lifted my head, then took a deep breath and proceeded to tell him our story so far. Liz chimed in with details that I had either missed or hadn't known, and afterwards John let out a long sigh.

"I can see that you've had an extremely trying day. However, you should take some comfort in knowing that you may have uncovered exactly what we need to finally bring Ascension's illegality to light!" he said, a look of triumph on his face.

"Are you going to have us testify against Ascension? B-but, everyone thinks I'm a criminal!" asked Liz.

"No, my girl! You will not need to testify. Ascension has no license for human modification, and now that we know there are illegally modified ascendants running amok, we can have our teams equipped with bio-scanners to keep an eye out for them. Once we have a few definitive recordings, the Bureau will have no choice but to accept that we were right!"

Liz and I looked at each other with a mix of confusion and disappointment.

"But, if you're sending out teams, they might not find the ascendants for days! Weeks even!" I exclaimed.

"Certainly, but you must understand that we have been working at this for years. The number of supporters that Ascension has managed to embed within the Bureau, the utilities companies, the public services... Let's just say we are quite used to taking things slow for the benefit of secrecy. A few weeks more is a pittance." John looked pleased with his explanation but both Liz and I were not so easily placated.

"But something has to be done now! Mum's been taken, and who knows how much longer we have before they... " Liz stumbled then cleared her throat. "Th-they could be experimenting on her or something! We can't just sit around and wait!" Liz rose to her feet, her fists clenched in anger. I stood beside her and we both loomed over John. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye as a couple of the burlier men outside the office left their Comp terminals and approached the c-spex bubble. They must have been keeping an eye on our exchange. John noticed their approach and dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

"Sit down, sit down. I can see how determined you are to act, but we have been working for years, _years_ to build a solid case against Ascension. We've lost too many good people from acting too hastily, and it's something we just cannot afford anymore. If you had solid evidence that we could display, then perhaps things would be different. But that is not the case." He looked at us sympathetically, but Liz just snorted and turned to leave.

"So you're saying that if we can get hard evidence, you'll help us?" I asked as I placed a gentle hand on Liz's shoulder to stay her flight.

"Certainly. We have spent much time assembling plans for an assault on Ark City, plans that will be set in to motion as soon as we can be assured that the Bureau are on our side. Without their support, we are simply too few to survive open conflict. With it, however, we will finally be able to expose Ascension's true nature, their years of surreptitious machinations, and break their stranglehold on our lives!" He thumped his fist on the desk before him. I took a deep breath and lifted my hand from Liz's shoulder.

"Fine, I'll break in to one of Ascension's offices and find some proof of their human modification, or whatever else I can find. Will that do?" John chuckled dismissively.

"You don't think we've tried that? I told you, my boy, we've been at this for years! Ascension are not so incompetent as to keep anything incriminating in their offices. Aside from capturing footage of their agents in action, you would have to track down one of their lackeys and interrogate them for useful information. And that's exactly what half of the people you see here are trying to do." He swept his hand across the banks of Comp terminals and the people working at them. "The only place you could be sure of finding irrefutable evidence would be in Ark City itself!" He laughed sarcastically.

"If that's the only way..." John reacted to my implication first with another bout of dry laughter, then a cynical look as he realised I was serious.

"It's not possible, my boy. The only way into Ark City is through a stalk, and only ascendants and pre-ops are allowed access. You wouldn't even make it past reception." His tone was condescending and harsh.

"What if I disguised myself as an ascendant? I could shave my head, get a cloak, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference." John shook his head slowly.

"You just don't give up, do you? Alright then, if you're serious about this, I guess I can help. We've managed to send a few people up the stalks in the past, but you must know that none have ever returned. They pass under the shielding and that's it, we do not hear from them again." I gave this a few seconds of thought, but I already knew my decision. I'd promised to help Liz get her Mum back, and I wanted my vengeance. It didn't matter that these experienced Techtivists hadn't been successful, because I _knew_ I could do this. John saw the intent burning in my eyes and smiled grimly.

"Alright. We can shave your head, and we have plenty of ascendant outfits on hand. We will have to graft a flexible projection sheet to your head to mimic the tattoos they normally receive. It is only temporary, but it will hurt when we install it and, assuming you make it back, also when we remove it. Fortunately for you, we have the current access key for the Ascension office located in the Docks. It will provide you access to the stalk from here in Sallustria, but whether it will work for the return trip..." As he trailed off I shifted my gaze to Liz. She had been watching the exchange in silence with a mix of irritation and impatience, and took advantage of the break to chime in.

"Fine. Good. We'll dress up like ascendants and go on a suicide run to get you your evidence. Fantastic. Any chance of using your bathroom?" Liz was clearly fed up with John's reluctant attitude and stormed out of the bubble as soon as he provided directions. He raised his eyebrow at me and I shrugged.

"So, those agents you've sent before, you have no idea what happened to them?" I asked.

"We have suspicions, but nothing concrete. We are hindered by our inability to communicate with them once they have entered the stalk. The wireless shielding means they need to physically return to recount their tale, and thus far it seems that has proven impossible."

"Well what about using the stalk itself? Ascension use the hard lines to communicate between here and there don't they, so why can't we? If I could find an access point or something while I'm up there I'm sure I could get a message through. All you'd need to do is get a feed of the data coming down the stalk. Either intercept the data, or pull it from the office itself. Wouldn't be that difficult." John adopted a thoughtful look for a few moments before a hesitant smile crept on to his face. His head was bobbing slowly.

"It could work, it could work. If you managed to get in to their system and pipe the data down the stalk, maybe use some sort of flag that we could detect, we could have our man inside the office forward it all to us. Then we just strip out your message. If the evidence is good, we could even initiate the plan immediately..." John was staring at a spot to the right of my head, his mind playing through the possible culmination of his decades-long dream. He snapped back to reality with a shake of his head and the wistful look was gone.

"Of course, if all goes to plan you will probably want to find somewhere well protected to hunker down, as we cannot afford to extract you prior to launching the attack. We will have no means of contacting you until their shield is taken down, _if_ we can take it down. If it is possible for you to make it back down the stalk, I would highly advise doing so as quickly as you can."

John and I sat in silent contemplation for a few minutes before Liz returned. She seemed to have shed some of the fury from minutes before, replacing it with an air of exhaustion. My body reflected the fatigue etched in her eyes.

"Alright then, let's go make ourselves beautiful, shall we?" said Liz, a sarcastic smile playing for a few brief moments across her lips.

### CHAPTER NINE

### E.F

I spent a blissful few minutes of my excursion to the bathroom ensconced in a personal cocoon, seeking a temporary reprieve from the day's menagerie of horror. I blanked my mind, letting the windstorm sense of free-fall that had been battering me simply drift away, and took solace in sweet, peaceful emptiness. I knew it could not last forever, though, and too soon I returned to reality with a brief splash of water from the mirror sink (the taps were flow controlled so they only spat out a barely sufficient amount).

As the water fell from my face so too did my shell of mental silence, and I felt the renewed press of emotions threatening to implode my brain once more. I sighed and shook my head. I needed to take charge of my thoughts. We had an opportunity here to do something to save Mum. True, it was pretty much suicidal; what chance did two barely-adults have at bringing down a company as large as Ascension? But as minute as the chance of success was, at least it was something that I could focus on, a light at the end of my single-lane tunnel vision. I needed to entertain the notion that we could save Mum, _would_ save Mum, in order to keep the guilt and the worries at bay. I looked at my reflection in the digital mirror and observed the stream of data that scrolled up the side. My blood sugar was apparently low. No surprise there, considering I hadn't eaten for hours, and I'd been on my feet pretty much nonstop. I ran my hands through my hair, patted down my skirt and took a deep breath. Mum. Mum. Mum. It's all that matters.

I returned to the office to see Derek and John sitting across from each other in silence. After deciding to start with our disguises, John led us out of the bubble and between the rows of Comp terminals with their dedicated operators hammering away commands at lightning speed. Multi-projection displays appeared to be the norm, and they flickered with rapidly streaming text and image and video feeds. We exited the enormous command room from the corner opposite the hospital-style pavilion, passing down a short, dark corridor, and taking a sharp left at the end.

We emerged in what seemed to have once been some sort of combat training area. The antechamber contained a large interactive projection table in the middle of the room, and it was currently displaying a close up of the top of a stalk; the part where it connected with the bottom of Ark City. Numerous floating addendums contained technical data, such as estimated power flow, density of materials, and the expected force necessary to penetrate it. The chamber was empty apart from us, but thumping sounds could be heard from beyond one of the doors on the other side of the room. The doors were transparent and offered a glimpse into a cavernous hall filled with temporary barricades and projections of false environment. I caught flashes of movement between various points of cover, but it wasn't until I saw a figure pop up from behind a rocky outcropping, cocking a weapon of some sort and aiming into the distance, that I realised it was a combat training course. John smiled at me as he saw my curious expression.

"This is where we have some of our more physical members hone their craft. It is all simulated; we have our system projecting different targets for each scenario, and the weapons do not really fire. The system Comp tabulates accuracy and efficiency from weapons and surveillance data. Scores are improving, but very few of us have ever seen real warfare. Those who have insist that a simulation will never come close to the real thing, but this is the best we can do." John seemed quite proud of his group's accomplishments, so I presented him with a wan smile.

"Uh, it's very impressive," I managed.

"Yes, well, if you do manage to successfully obtain sufficient evidence, then all of this training may be put to the test very soon. If Ascension choose not to 'come quietly' as it were, we may just end up with a war on our hands." John pressed his hands together to form a steeple. "We have a few people inside the Bureau, and the general indication is that they would assist us given irrefutable proof of Ascension's wrongdoings, but until the moment arrives one can never be sure..." His admission didn't exactly fill me with hope. Was he seriously saying that even if we found hard evidence, there was a chance that nothing would come of it? That we would be abandoned in Ark City to fend for ourselves? He waved the issue away with his hand and walked over to a panel set into the opposite wall. After a few taps the wall scissored apart and revealed a deep vault of obscure apparel: Enforcer suits, public service uniforms, garish outfits that looked like something out of a high-fashion projection. John stepped in and a light activated, revealing just how enormous the vault actually was. He rummaged within the cavern of clothing before returning with two drab, grey suits.

"Here you are. We acquired these from the _Techno-Gala_ press event a few months back. Put them on."

Derek and I took the suits and I slid mine over my clothes with ease. It was far too big, even as a layer on top of another outfit, and I pointed this out to John.

"Just hold on a second, my dear."

He reached behind my neck and I stiffened, concerned until I realised he was only thumbing a thin strip on the neckline of the suit. It began to shrink slowly, halting just before it became skin-tight.

"Much better," John said with a smile. Meanwhile, Derek was struggling to fit into his. It had clearly belonged to somebody with a far leaner physique, and even after John activated the reverse procedure of mine on the suit, Derek had to strip down to his underwear before he could slip it on. Once we had both donned our ascendant outfits, John ushered us back down the hall and through a door we had passed on the way. The room beyond appeared to be some sort of storage area, with rows of shelves disappearing into an abyssal darkness after a few metres.

"Lights broken?" asked Derek, indicating the gloom in front of us.

"No, no. They are ordinary bio-scanner lights; they would activate if we walked down that way, but we do not need to. We are looking for some projection sheeting, and that should be just... here we go." He had wandered over to a nearby shelf and pulled a large tube of c-spex film down. He opened it up and unravelled a length before flipping the lid back down. The exposed sheeting separated neatly from the roll and he returned the tube to its spot on the shelf. Comps used to be made out of flex sheeting; just thin, transparent, bendable strips that you had to either roll up or slide somewhere on your person to take with you. That had been pretty awkward though, and had stimulated development in projection technology, ultimately leading to the sleek and compact models in use today. I much preferred them.

"We can set these to project a pattern of oscillating symbols on top of a skin texture. That way we will avoid the need for shaving both of you bald!" He chuckled and moved to rub Derek's head playfully, but Derek ducked out of the way and fired a stern glance back.

"Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically. John discarded his smile like a piece of trash and filed out of the room.

"Come on then, we'll head to the med lab and get these grafted on to your heads. I'll have the stalk codes retrieved for you as well." As we walked he stabbed commands into his Comp, glancing up only to prevent himself from running headlong into a wall. Eventually we found ourselves back in the large area we had started in, and we were ushered towards the aisle of white curtained cubicles, each containing a clean bed and a squat silver hover cabinet.

John left us to loiter as he conferred with a short woman cleaning a tray of glinting silver instruments with the aid of a drone. I suppressed a shudder as the drone ejected a thin steam of foamy liquid from its nozzle, remembering the frantic chase and our lucky escape only hours earlier. John gestured to us as he spoke, before handing the reel of projection sheeting to the woman. I turned to see Derek examining the equipment in the nearest cubicle and moved to join him. He was bent over a display screen connected to one of the silver cabinets, and was absent-mindedly drumming his fingers across its surface in a steady rhythm. I crouched down next to him.

"So, what do you think of all this?" I whispered. Derek glanced over his shoulder at the pair still engaged in conversation.

"I don't know. He seems pretty happy to let us go get ourselves killed, but I guess it's not any of his people's lives on the line. At least he's doing something I guess. Bit of a wanker, though." Derek's twisted grimace echoed the cynical thoughts that were swirling in my head. Not even my tunnel vision could protect me from the realisation that we were going to be risking death, real, honest-to-god irrevocable death, by going through with this. It was all I could do to keep it from crumbling my resolve, to push it to the back of my mind and hold it there prisoner. Nevertheless it leered at me between the bars, poisoning my determination with images of the infinite void. I let it be – it was a like diving into a bottomless reservoir of misery trying to comprehend your own mortality – and returned my focus to the slightly less terrifying here and now.

"Yeah, I guess..." I replied.

I spun around at the sound of approaching footsteps and rose as John and the stocky woman strode towards us.

"Elizabeth, Derek, this is Mary. She will be performing the grafting procedure. It should not take long but I need to contact our insider at the Docks' office and set up the transmission forwarding. Once you are finished here, please join me in my office and we can see about organising some appropriate transport." With that John swivelled on his feet and left us, striding back to his office with long, loping steps. Mary, her features soft and welcoming, gestured for us to head down to the beds at the end of the row. As we obeyed, she returned to the hover trolley she had been cleaning and scooted it along with us.

"Just hop up onto these beds right here, that's the way," said Mary in a soothing tone. Derek and I lay down on separate beds and I felt my heart begin to pound. I had never been a fan of doctors or hospitals, though I had been lucky enough in the past to mostly avoid them. In fact the last time I had been was something like ten years ago, when Mum had started coughing and sputtering profusely in the kitchen, and none of the usual antibody medication had done anything to help. The ambulance had taken us both, and when we had arrived I had hated every minute of it; the sterile surfaces, the even more sterile attitudes, being so close to all that sickness and death. I had sat next to Mum for as long as I could before leaping out of the room and hiding in the toilets. By the time I had gathered myself enough to head back out, Mum had been diagnosed and taken to her operation, and I felt even worse. It had only taken them half an hour to find the tear in her lungs and patch it up, but it hadn't helped my disdain for hospitals one bit.

True to John's word, the grafting procedure was pretty quick. It didn't hurt even hurt that much, at least, not to begin with. The sheeting had to be heated for it to conform to our head shapes neatly, and that had been a little uncomfortable when the sheeting was draped over my scalp, but not too bad. While we waited for the sheeting to harden around our heads, Mary explained the purpose of the medical lab we were in.

"I don't know if John explained it to you, but many of us believe that the true path of human evolution lies in physical augmentation, like fortifying muscle and bone with graphite compounds to increase resilience and embedding Comps alongside the brain to enhance mental capacity. You understand that this is _not_ what Ascension are doing. Their method of modifying the brain directly through dangerous surgery is abhorrent! Not only could it harbour unforeseen consequences in the future, but it's discriminatory! It excludes all but a minute portion of the population, leaving the rest of us out in the cold! Surely you can see where this will lead? What future is there for those who do not meet their requirements, what future in a society predicated on being ascended? Would they let us live in squalor, or would they dispose of us as mere animals? Exclusion is not the way. Technology is available to everyone, and technology is the future." Her tone was powerful, pride and excitement burning a flush into her plump cheeks.

"The research division of _RoboMation_ has permission to use human modification in its experiments, to a limited degree. We take advantage of this. As I said before, many of our members are heavily pro-modification, and nearly all have taken the opportunity to undergo various operations. We've had to take it slow to ensure that no unwanted attention is garnered from material acquisition, but the number of modified Techtivists is steadily growing. And John just told me that we might finally acquire the evidence we need to take Ascension down. If that's the case, there are going to be a lot of us eager to lend a hand."

Mary lifted her sleeve, exposing a seam just above her elbow. Her arm was fake! The synth-flesh covering was exquisite, and I could barely tell the difference even now that I knew. She let her sleeve fall back down and flashed a sly smile. I was a little taken aback, but I managed a weak smile in return. To break the awkward silence that followed, I started explaining about our escape from Gregor's store, an attack that had involved modified ascendants.

"Good Lord! Are you sure? Did you get any proof? Silly me, of course you didn't, if you had you wouldn't be going on this crazy mission, would you?" She chuckled humourlessly. "Well that certainly changes things, doesn't it? We've been assuming that we might face more advanced weaponry, but we hadn't entertained the notion that Ascension would also employ modified soldiers..." She tapped her chin thoughtfully.

Once the sheeting had hardened Mary used a prism-shaped tool to graft it to our skin. It vibrated with a dull _buzz_ as she slid the tool around the edges of the sheeting, and though she exhibited great care with her strokes, it still hurt like hell. I managed to withhold crying out in pain at any point, but even Derek let loose a whimper as the paste applied by the tool fused with the skin and sheeting.

Pleased with the result, Mary used an old-school, heavy duty Comp - one that sported a physical screen and did not fold down - to program a projection loop onto our new, exotic fashion-statements. I admired the strobing prongs of light that fanned out across Derek's head. The skin texture beneath was flawless, and there was no way to tell he wasn't actually bald. Mary directed us to the nearby wall and tapped her Comp, causing one of the panels to transition from opaque to reflective. I stepped back in shock when I first saw how terrifying I looked. Blue and pink globes were skiing around my apparently bald head, expanding and contracting in accordance with some rhythm only they could perceive. I continued staring wide-eyed at my reflection while Derek stroked his head and smiled.

"I've always wondered what I'd look like bald," he said. After coming to grips with the aberration staring back at me from the mirrored panel, Derek and I bid Mary farewell and left as she wished us good luck. I peered curiously at the Comp terminal displays as we crossed back to John's office, but the scrolling text and high-def surveillance footage was useless out of context. My stomach began gurgling, and I was once again reminded that I had been running on empty for far too long. It was so loud that Derek actually heard it, and flicked a knowing glance my way.

"Damn, I'm hungry too! Reckon we should see if they can score us something?" he asked, as we approached the bubble's door.

"I think we may have to, if any of our plans involve me remaining upright and conscious that is." The door slid sideways and we were greeted by John's cheerful voice rising from behind his desk.

"Marvellous! Mary has done a wonderful job! You two will pass for ascendants with no trouble at all." I didn't share his unreserved optimism, and from the look on Derek's face neither did he. I collapsed onto the clear couch while Derek remained standing.

"Uh, is there any chance we could get something to eat? It's been kind of a while..." John smiled and nodded, sliding his Comp from across his desk and flicking at it for a few seconds.

"I have organised someone to take you to the Docks in one of _RoboMation's_ company shuttles. It should not attract any attention, and I have just asked the pilot to have some food prepared for you when you board. I have also contacted our man inside the Ascension office, and he is confident that he will have the data ready to route to us very soon. All that is left is to give you this." John slid the data card that had been lying next to his Comp over to our side of the desk.

"The access codes for the stalk. We have had them for a few weeks now, so I cannot guarantee that they will still be valid. From experience we believe they only change them every few months, but there is no way to be sure without compromising our contact's cover. He only works reception, and he should not have even had access to the codes, let alone the stalk itself." Derek scooped the data chip into his hand and proceeded to upload it to his Comp.

"Now, if this were a covert operation, I would advise using flashed Comps to prevent anything being traced back to you. However, I do not think we need to worry about that for this mission, do we?" The joviality in John's tone conflicted with the unspoken implication. Once we hit the stalk there was no turning back. It would be do or die; half-assing it was not going to be an option.

We rose, our business concluded, and John led us back through the winding corridors and echoing stairwells to the fading light of the street outside. The hectic pace at which the day was cannonballing along had complete ruined my sense of time, and the realisation that it was already evening and getting darker by the minute came as quite a shock. I hadn't noticed any of the Techtivists leaving their stations either, though I hadn't really been paying much attention. Maybe they worked all night?

The street was cold and empty, the peak hour exodus having concluded hours ago. John led us back towards the landing platform where our APT was docked. Opposite our hijacked vessel sat a far more impressive shuttle: a chrome and black dagger that dwarfed the Beetle and made it look like a child's toy. Stubby engines protruded from the rear, the only bumps betraying the sleek curves of the ship. John tapped his Comp and a bay door sliced open, a thin ramp descending from within. He turned to face us and flashed his teeth in a half-hearted grin.

"Good luck, good luck! Though you won't need it! I'm sure you'll be able to handle whatever Ascension throw at you!" I seriously disagreed, but I took his hand when he offered it anyway and shook. Derek did the same, and we climbed the ramp into the bowels of the shuttle. I turned for one last glance at John but he was already walking away, head down, staring in concentration at the Comp in his hands.

### CHAPTER TEN

### D.K.

I've got to admit, the shuttle was pretty damn impressive. Even the airlock we first stepped into conjured memories of a space trading IN-VI where Jimmy and I had put together a small fleet and explored the outer reaches of the galaxy for alien life. Recollections of Jimmy's gleeful face as we blasted pirate vessels into smithereens unleashed a fresh wave of depression and guilt, washing over my entire body and blurring my vision. I placed my hand on the airlock wall to steady myself and took a deep breath. It wasn't my fault. It was Ascension. It was _those_ bastards that had taken Jimmy from me, _those_ bastards who had tried to do the same to Liz and me, _those_ bastards who had taken Liz's mother in the first place. Then my mind switched gears.

But if you hadn't suggested going to Gregor's, Jimmy would still be alive.

Yeah, but it was Jimmy's choice to take that guy on. He could have run with us. He could have been okay!

But you didn't stop him, did you? You could have done something!

I tried, b-but I couldn't move! Anyway, what chance would I have had against a modified ascendant?

None of this would have happened if it weren't for Liz.

What?! This isn't Liz's fault, Ascension took her mother!

But you didn't need to get involved. This isn't your fight!

It is now! Ascension needs to pay for what they've done, and I'm going to be the one to cash the cheque.

Oh, nice line loser.

I lifted my hand from the wall and shook free the remnants of my confliction. Liz had already passed through the airlock and was standing in the main corridor, so I quickly caught up with her and took in our surroundings. To the right the corridor split into two. I figured from the shape of the ship that each path would lead to an engine, probably for maintenance access and such. To the left closed doors lined the walls, ending in a thick, imposing black door leading into the bridge. From my experience in IN-VIs – not always entirely accurate, but they were usually pretty well researched– I would guess that the area we were in could be opened to space in the event of a fire or lack of oxygen, and the strength of the bridge door would be necessary to keep the bridge sealed from the vacuum. As we approached the door scissored apart slowly, exposing its reinforced construction, and a young man stepped through to greet us.

"Hi! I'm Tag, well, that's my nickname anyway. My real name's Tadsworth, but no-one calls me that. I'm the one taking you down to the Docks! It's a real pleasure to meet you two!" Tag stuck his hand out and offered us a broad, genuine smile, something that had become increasingly rare as the day progressed. I returned his gentle handshake and resisted launching into a cavalcade of questions about the vessel, instead opting for the simplest concern on my mind.

"Uh, John said there'd be food?" Tag finished shaking Liz's hand then nodded energetically, sweeping us into the bridge while humming a jaunty tune. This area of the shuttle was night and day compared to the rear: lush red velvet carpeting spread across the floor, thick white couches resting against the walls, scrolling text and flashing diagrams lighting up the command console splayed below the view-screen. What stole most of my attention however was the bench laden with vac-sealed containers of food: an assortment of hamburgers and fries, pizza, dim-sims and chicken nuggets that was probably meant to feed six people. I was feeling pretty confident at that point that I could demolish enough for at least four, though with Liz's slight frame I wouldn't count on her finishing the rest.

I leapt over to the bench with gleeful anticipation and ripped open the containers, tearing through a cuisine that seemed like it had been put together from teenage stereotypes. Liz joined me and Tag watched on in silent awe as we eagerly consumed our fill. By the time we had finished there weren't even scraps left; I had not given Liz enough credit, she had one mean appetite. After dumping the containers down a chute and into the shuttle's cleaning system – this was a far cry from the two-person APT I had been getting accustomed to – Tag waved us over to the front console and we sat on the nearby couches as he began the flight preparations.

"So, they didn't give me a full briefing on this situation, but from what I could gather you two are going to try and sneak up there?" Tag pointed at the roof of the shuttle, though his intention was clearly Ark City.

"That's right." I said frankly. "Ascension slew my best friend, they've taken Liz's mum, and they're going to goddamn pay."

"I can't go on without Mum," added Liz. She didn't shed any tears, but the sorrow in her tone was heart wrenching. By focusing so keenly on my own situation I had been blinded to the fact that she was going through something just as bad, worse in fact. She had been controlling her emotions so effectively since we left her apartment that I hadn't realised that she was feeling just as awful as I was.

I got up from my couch and crossed the ship to settle down next to her. I put my arm around her and let her lean against me. She didn't say anything, but I felt her body relax, and Tag took the hint and spun back to fiddle with the shuttle controls in silence. After a minute or so I felt the ship begin to rise and, with considerably less jerking and jolting than we had suffered in the APT, we cruised above smoky warehouses and deserted streets on our way to the Docks.

### CHAPTER ELEVEN

### E.F.

We had studied the history of the Docks for an entire term at school, a couple of years back. It had been part of our larger topic of the effects societal and technological change had on nature and the world around us. Here's what I could remember:

The Docks had earned their name back when natural bodies of water still existed in Sallustria. Even prior to the arrival of Ark City and its sky-obstructing bulk, organically constructed rivers and oceans were things only ever talked about or seen in history projections. It had been decades since the consortium of atmospheric scientists, meteorologists and other professionals who dealt with our natural resources had come to the decision to establish an artificial water cycle, rather than relying on collecting it once it had reached the ground. Their goal had been to eliminate the wasted water that did not fall on crops or into existing bodies by intercepting it long before it impacted the earth, allowing them to instead distribute it efficiently and effectively to where it was needed most. To ensure the water cycle continued unabated, they used slow moving barges that released water vapour into the atmosphere where it would eventually condense and form clouds.

Their endeavour had proved phenomenally successful, creating a system of near one-hundred percent efficiency that not only reduced water wastage, but increased the quality and quantity of organically grown foods. To appease the nature-enthusiasts that were irate at the loss of one of humanity's constants, artifical lakes had been established in parks and synthetic reserves. The water levels were carefully monitored and controlled; similar to fountains and water features they were now a luxury rather than a necessity, and were among the first to be abandoned in the event of water shortages.

Back when the Fahrenheit river had been more than just projected images inside the History of Nature exhibit, the Docks had been the busiest sector of Sallustria, second maybe to the main commerce thoroughfare. Even after air transport became the default means of travel, boats and ships retained their use in cargo shipping. It was still prohibitively expensive to construct aircraft capable of transporting large cargo; individual packages and small goods were manageable, but it became far less feasible when appliances, vehicles, and bulk shipments were involved. Thus, by applying many of the technological advances championed in aircraft development, the shipping business soldiered on. That is, until water became such a precious commodity that the green light was given to the artificial water cycle plan.

As the rivers were drained so too was the very lifeblood of the Docks, siphoned away the district was naught but a shadow of its former self. Cargo shipping money was funnelled into a new system of underground rail-cars. Restaurants and hotels that had once operated twenty-four hour days now existed only in memories, and the abandoned husks that remained served as little more than shelter for the poor and homeless. Yet still people eked out a living here. The craterous valley that had once been filled with glorious rushing water had revealed a treasure trove of previously undiscovered plant life, and the workers desperate to regain a reliable income set about establishing an eco-dome to preserve the flora. Unfortunately, without a copious supply of water and a functioning ecosystem of aquatic fauna, the plant life could simply not be sustained. Dreams of a unique nature reservation died in an instant but, having already established a climate controlled environment, the green thumb predilection was not abandoned. The rich earth was converted into synthetic farming land and though the hybrid crops were bountiful, the space was not endless, and infighting between farmers quickly became the norm. The automated seeding and harvesting left ample free time for the owners, time that was filled with schemes to take over adjacent plots and tenuous alliances formed between other farmers. This constant feuding ensured that no-one rose into success, and kept the Docks in a perpetual state of dismal half-ruin.

While I had been reflecting on what I knew of the Docks from school, Tag had been giving us a run-down of his history with the Techtivists. He was young, mid- or late-twenties by the look of him, and had only been with them for a few years. He told us of his family life, how his older brother had been ascended, garnering rapturous praise from his parents and friends. Alas, this had left Tag neglected and even spurned when he did not follow suit, irrespective of his inability to affect the outcome. Poor grades in school had not helped the situation and, with no assistance from his parents, he had been forced to leave home and choose between working the food markets and sitting his APT license. Though the hours were rough and the pay no better he had chosen to fly, hoping that one day it would lead to something more than ferrying disgruntled patrons around the city. It had thus been a fortuitous day when a Techtivist had wound up in his APT, and when small talk between the two veered into how Tag had come about his job, his disdain for Ascension had been exposed. A seed was planted in the Techtivist's head, and weeks later when in need of a skilled pilot he had tracked Tag down and recruited him for the cause. He had been ecstatic to leave his job and as he spent more time amongst the idealistic activists, he too became convinced that technology was the only way forward for humanity.

Tag's brief account had been delivered in such a cheerful tone - even the sad parts - that I couldn't help but find him endearing. Especially after all the despair that today had wrought, his jovial attitude was a splash of cool water on the face of my misery. I smiled at him as he wove his tale, and for a few brief minutes I let myself forget, forget the fear, the pain, the hopelessness: the thorn-riddled tangle of emotions that was slowly choking my brain.

I spotted the tip of the vast blue dome even before Tag announced that we had arrived. As dull as it was it still outshone the dun and silver that dominated the rest of the sector. We swooped down as the towering buildings gave way to shorter warrens, and Tag weaved and dodged the chaotic traffic effortlessly, bringing us down in what seemed to be the main thoroughfare.

The landing platform was crowded with people shuffling back and forth between a queue of APTs and the shopping complex nearby, and I found myself longing for the boredom of a Saturday morning shopping trip with Mum. Tag bid us an honest and heartfelt farewell with a toothy grin, and despite having only just met him, I felt like I was really going to miss him. I sincerely hoped that I would get the chance to see him again, assuming we made it back from Ark City alive. Derek and I watched as the shuttle rose and slipped around a boxy APT, meandering back to wherever Tag was needed next.

"Well, this is it I guess," I said glumly.

"Yeah, time to see if these disguises hold up."

"Do you really think we can pull this off? I mean, if they don't detect us on the stalk we still have to find some way of sneaking off and taking footage of whatever is going on up there. Then you have to hook up the communications or whatever and send it back down. THEN we have to look for Mum, or any information about where she is. THEN we have to either try our luck getting back down the stalk or find somewhere to hide while the Techtivists launch their attack." I sighed and slumped as the futility of our mission weighed down on me. "It sounds impossible."

"Yeah, it sounds like the plot in one of those thriller virtuals doesn't it? Still, I reckon we can do it. The hardest part's going to be finding your Mum, if she's up there. Can't see them letting us back down the stalk with her in tow. Probably going to have to wait it out somewhere..."

"You don't have to worry about Mum. As soon as we get up there, you go get the evidence and send it back then take the stalk back down. I'll look for Mum by myself. There's no need to drag you along."

"Are you kidding? They already took Jimmy, I can't let your mum suffer the same fate! I promise you, Liz, we're going to save her. I'm with you in this every step of the way." Derek smiled and held out his hand, palm up. I didn't know whether he wanted to shake it or what, but his offer of support deserved more thanks than a simple handshake could convey. I leapt forward and hugged him tight.

"Thank you Derek. You have _no_ idea how much that means to me. I know you don't owe me anything. In fact I owe you my life multiple times over, and it's my fault that you got involved in this mess in the first place."

I could feel tears starting to form and wiped away the moisture with the sleeve of my grey suit. I had forgotten about the outfits, and as I looked up through the haze of smeared teardrops I realised that we had garnered a crowd of onlookers. Two 'ascendants' hugging wasn't just a rare sight, it was downright impossible. I quickly released Derek from our embrace and patted myself down self-consciously.

"Umm, I think we may have attracted some unwanted attention," I whispered out of the side of my mouth.

Derek looked over his shoulder at our captive audience and nodded solemnly. He pulled out his Comp and marched onwards, pointedly ignored the crowd. I swiftly joined him, adopting the same air of indifference and silently praying that we hadn't just screwed our mission before it had even begun. There wasn't much we could do about it now though, we just had to hope that nobody in the crowd was affiliated with Ascension and that any gossip would take a while to reach them.

Eyes bore into our backs as we descended the landing platform stairs, the pressure stifling as we passed the entrance to the shopping complex and nervously threaded our way through an avenue of less-than-salubrious restaurant stalls. There were enough patrons frequenting the stalls here that we quickly managed to break line of sight with our raptured fans, but at the same time we avoided the usual pitfalls associated with a crowd so thick. People were scrambling to get out of our way, like we had one of those archaic cowcatchers trundling along in front of us. It reminded me of a press junket broadcast I had seen on projection. Ascension had been advertising new improvements to their procedure or something, stuff that wasn't going to be seen for years anyway as it underwent rigorous testing. The ascendant speakers had passed through a live audience to reach the stage, and the effect there was frighteningly similar to what we were experiencing now.

I focused on presenting an unflinching stone face to the world, staring straight ahead as often as possible and ignoring everything and everyone around us. Without the hassle of negotiating the traffic, Derek managed to direct us to the Ascension office in just ten minutes. It was similar in design to the one back home, boasting an identical pathway lined with the self-indulgent projections and ending in the same clasped-hands doors. The façade stood out significantly more than it had before though, namely because the prosperity contrasted with the stuttering lights, chipped and broken panelling, and unlit, trash-strewn alleyways that surrounded it. The beaming faces on the projections seemed more a mockery than a ray of hope. In a sector that ranged from rancid squalor to liveable at best, the claim that Ascension were benefitting humanity fell utterly flat.

At the foot of the pathway, Derek turned to look at me, his stony expression abandoned and replaced with one of trepidation and concern.

"Are you ready?" Three simple words that signified a monumental decision. I could just say no. Leave. But where would I go? Ascension clearly want me for something, and they're not just going to give up because they haven't found me yet. I mean, it hasn't even been a day, yet I feel like I've been on the run for a year! No, the only way out of this now was to find out what Ascension was up to and bring them down. Failing that, I would at least rescue Mum and get the hell out of Sallustria. Where we would go was something I would deal with later. What about Derek though? Maybe he could come with us? Would he want to, though? Arrgh! Focus Liz, focus!

"Yes. Let's go."

### CHAPTER TWELVE

### D.K.

For the first time since all this crap had started, I almost felt like I was in control. We were taking the fight to Ascension. Well, not so much the fight as the sneaking and evidence-gathering, but it was something, it was action. It was fascinating, in a morbid kind of way, how different the fear felt now compared to when we were on the run. It had been like an adrenaline-fuelled rock concert when we were trying to escape, whereas now it was more akin to a single drum beat, the _thud_ a constant and consistent presence in the pit of my stomach. It was better this way, as I felt like I had a something of a grasp on it, like I could use it to my advantage rather than succumb to its wanton will.

That familiar presence was still tucked away in the back of my mind, struggling to process what had happened at Gregor's Emporium. It seemed impossible to even consider that I could be labelled a murderer, so my brain continued to chip away at the shape of that memory, attempting to find some way for it to fit, like sanding a square peg to fit in a round hole. The moment my conscious decided that that wasn't going to work, that it had really happened, that I was responsible, I was screwed. I didn't know whether I would collapse, or burst into tears, or jump off a goddamn roof. Whatever it was, I just hoped it would wait until we had completed our mission, not for my sake, but for Liz's. She didn't deserve to suffer because I couldn't cope, couldn't handle the fact that I was stupid enough to allow my experience with IN-VIs to infiltrate my very being, to make me so comfortable with wielding weapons that I was able to take a life.

It's not like I could blame the IN-VIs either; they may be designed to seem as realistic as possible but it's the user's responsibility to separate fact from fiction, reality from virtual. I couldn't even blame my father for it; after all, it was his decision to leave my upbringing to 'sitter virtuals and EDU-VIs. But it wasn't _his_ arm that threw those grenades, it was _mine_. _He_ wasn't the one that turned a blind eye to the fact that living, breathing human beings were climbing those stairs, running into the path of death wrought by my own hand. Even the fact that Jimmy and Liz shared part of the blame didn't ease the pain. What did it matter if I wasn't the only one responsible? I still contributed, I still played my part.

These terrifying thoughts swam around my mind and blanketed my vision, forcing me to knuckle my eyes until I saw stars. The pain drove the misery back to the murky depths, and I refocused on the task at hand. Leave the moral contemplation for later, when lives weren't hanging in the balance.

Liz was taking deep breaths, and I wondered for a moment whether she had similar thoughts swimming around her neon-tattooed head, or whether it was thoughts of her mum. She looked up at me and formed a completely humourless smile. I nodded and stepped forward, striding between the projections of false happiness and towards the door. Rather than being comforting the interlocked hands projected a sense of malice, as if they were crushing the life out of some unseen entity between them. They whispered apart, releasing their death grip, and I swallowed audibly and set my face into the hard, blank look that I associated with ascendants.

John had assured us that all the Ascension offices were constructed from the same blueprint, though in this case that didn't actually matter. Their insider had captured footage of the premises' interior, and the path from the door to the stalk was firmly embedded in my mind. We strolled past the reception desk and through the double doors, ignoring the curious but fearful gazes of the non-ascendant staff. Down the long, blank corridor, striding purposefully and hoping that no-one would emerge from the doors lining the walls in front of us. Liz flicked her head slightly as we passed one of the open doorways, and out of the corner of my eye I caught an instant where her stony veneer crumbled to reveal a scared, pained expression. She recovered quickly and marched onward. Poor Liz. I can't believe that it was only this morning that I had first seen her, collapsing in a hallway just like this as that red-haired woman attempted to kidnap her. What would have happened if I hadn't been able to stop them? Why did they want her so badly?

We turned a corner, then another, and then the thick silver doors that barred access to the stalk lay before us. We were still yet to encounter anyone besides the receptionists, but that wasn't particularly unusual. All of Ascension's real business was conducted behind the opaque dome of Ark City, hidden away from prying eyes and safe from scrupulous investigation. I stepped up to the door panel and retrieved my Comp from my pocket. Looking down at the dull grey sheen of my outfit reminded me of a stealth suit from an IN-VI I had played long ago. How naïve I was at the time to think that it would be cool to sneak into an 'evil' corporation and assassinate the terrorist leader. How many times had I laid awake at night, wishing that all those virtual realities could become real? That all the skills I had developed over years would elevate me to a god-like status? Not for one second had I ever imagined it would be less than perfect, less than a dream come true. But here I was, about to shoot up a stalk into a world that very few returned from, and those few who did came back as an entirely new species, no longer deigning to associate with us regular humans.

Liz was beginning to stare expectantly at me, and I realised I had been staring at my Comp blankly for over a minute now. I hurriedly tapped through to the access codes that John had provided and sent an authorization request to the nearby panel. I watched as the animated logo ran through its loop, spinning round and round as the panel checked our access, recorded our presence, and proceeded to open the door. I gave Liz a single _here we go_ look and stepped in to the stalk chamber.

Curved walls splayed out to either side, joining together again at the far end of the room where a stack of brown boxes was partially obscured in shadow. Two expansive circular platforms dominated most of the space, each slightly raised with the ground sloping upwards to reach them. The platform on the right was vacant but the one on the left was not, instead supporting an enormous lift capped by a smooth navy-blue dome.

Just like the hallway we had walked through, the chamber was barren of life, so I hustled towards the dome without maintaining my ascendant composure. Liz trotted along behind me, head swinging around as she scanned the rest of the chamber. Set into a raised terminal in front of the platform were the lift controls: little more than simple 'Call' and 'Open' buttons projected on the display. I poked 'Open' and the dark blue dome sheathed into the ground, revealing a mostly empty space disrupted only by a small grey hut. I clambered onto the platform and tapped another panel next to the hut door. It slid aside and I stepped into the small shack. It was furnished simply with a few burgundy couches and another Comp terminal, one that bore the controls for activating the lift. Aside from that the shack was barren. Ascension were clearly aiming for the stark and drab motif here.

I stuck my head back out the door and motioned for Liz to join me. The terminal was essentially the same as the other one, replacing 'Call' with 'Transport', and 'Open' currently read 'Closed' instead. I hit the 'Transport' button and the dome closed itself, a seething _hiss_ that lasted only a few seconds. Then the lift began its ascent, rumbling and jolting enough that I took a seat next to Liz to keep from falling over.

"Almost there," she said, with false humour.

"Yep."

"Nervous?"

"Yep."

"Me too."

There wasn't much else to say, and we spent the next few minutes in silence as we slid up the stalk. The slight bump as we reached our destination triggered chaos in my chest. My heart started beating frantically, my lungs screamed for more oxygen, my stomach folded in on itself. My hands began shaking, twitching and trembling where they sat on top of my knees. Liz noticed and reached out, placing her own hand on mine and smiling weakly. I felt my tension fade, only slightly, but enough to calm my hammering heart.

The dome around us remained still and silent, so at the very least I assumed that no-one was waiting for us, weapons readied to bring us down or do whatever it was they planned for us. I stood up and approached the terminal. My hand hovered over the 'Open' button and I looked to Liz for confirmation that she was ready. A slow nod, a deep breath, and I slammed the button.

### CHAPTER THIRTEEN

### E.F.

I'm not really sure what I had been expecting to face when we disembarked. An army of modified ascendants perhaps, their gleaming mechanical bodies ready to tear us limb from limb? A security checkpoint where any hopes of getting through undetected would be dashed instantly? A dark chamber exactly the same as the one below? All of these seemed like reasonable possibilities, but none even came close to the sight that greeted us when the bubble retracted.

A vista of incomprehensible scale unfolded before me, and I found myself gaping slack-jawed at the sheer audacity of it. The window of the hut offered only a sliver view of the expanse outside, so I jumped off the couch and swung out the door to take in the full majesty of our surroundings. Our platform had emerged in the middle of a field of tall swaying grass, the vibrant green almost sensory overload after the dull greys and blues that had ruled the Ascension office. They sky was different too; we had entered the office in the dim light of evening, yet here the sun shone bright and warm in the middle of a brilliant blue sky. A gentle breeze brought with it a sweet aroma that I had not smelled before, but brought to mind the odd combination of honey-infused coffee and damp hair.

Movement flashed across my vision and I instinctively dropped to a crouch, my heart-rate skyrocketing and my stomach disappearing into my bowels. They've found us! As I spun my head and tried to hone in on the source of the movement, numerous other figures darted around, slipping in and out of chest-high stalks of grass and flittering in between the trees in the distance. I managed to catch a glimpse as one passed into the shadows of the colossal forest. Was that... a dog? No, wait, a fox! A real fox! I rose from my defensive squat and tried to regain my composure.

I had only ever glimpsed a fox once before, at the zoo, but despite the claims of an 'authentic' habitat, it had been little more than synthetic props and projected backgrounds. This was raw, true nature, like the Kitaki forest blown up a hundred-fold, a thousand-fold! I felt like I had stepped back in time, like I was back in the nature exhibit at the History Museum and playing an EDU-VI on life in past generations. Except there you couldn't feel the breeze, couldn't breathe in the rich aroma and couldn't feel the dirt under your feet. Speaking of which...

I gingerly stepped down the platform incline and onto the lush, green grass that extended in all directions. It was cropped short to about twenty metres out, where it sprouted into a thick, dense mat that disappeared into the forest. I bent down and clenched my hand into the brown mass, subconsciously expecting the firm resistance of synth-turf but instead being rewarded with the squidgy mess of soil and mud. This was phenomenal! Flabbergasting! I was so used to everything being a synthetic imitation, from the parks we visited, the material used in the clothes we wore, even the food we ate, that being so close to something organic gave me chills. And it was humungous! Gargantuan! The grass rolled off into hills in one direction, while it rose up into a gloomy forest in another. A spray of colour spread off in yet another direction: a field of flowers, duller than some of the synthetic counterparts I was used to, but far more beautiful for their lack of symmetrical perfection. I kicked off my shoes, ripped off my socks and let my feet plunge into the soft dirt, relishing the cold, wet sensation of the mud as it splashed between my toes.

A whining roar broke through the serenity, causing me to stumble and nearly collapse. As it was I had to fling my hands out to stop myself eating dirt, and a blade of grass managed to nick the webbing between two of my fingers. I had been so engrossed with the beauty of the environment that I had completely forgotten where we were and why we were there. Derek had not been so careless, and he lay pressed against the dull surface of the lift, his grey outfit acting as camouflage against whatever was out there. His head was tilted into the air and I traced his gaze to a dark splotch in the sky, streaking its way underneath the clouds. Wait a minute. Clouds? And the sun... midday bright? It was obviously another sky-scape, but why was it set to the middle of the day when it should be displaying evening? Weird... Something about it felt more real too: the sunshine felt warmer, the sky more blue, but maybe that was all just a side-effect of standing in the midst of a _real_ natural environment. Still, that did nothing to explain why the hell Ascension would choose to project clouds up there. Arrrgh! So many questions!

I shook my head and the black dot dwindled away, disappearing behind the leafy tree tops and bounding hills. Derek slowly lifted himself into a crouch, then swung his head in my direction and raised his eyebrows. I was still on my hands and knees in the muddy earth, so I quickly pushed myself upwards and gathered my shoes and socks from where I had tossed them. I wiped my hands as clean as possible on the grass, careful not to cut myself again, and joined Derek back on the platform.

"Having fun there?" he asked with a smirk.

"Haha, very funny. What was that before? Also, HAVE YOU SEEN ALL THIS?" My voice unintentionally rose to a shout and Derek clamped his hand over my mouth just as I realised my mistake. He allowed me a second to regain control then removed his hand.

"Sorry! But seriously, look at where we are! I've never seen anything this magical, this massive! Kitaki was nothing compared to this!"

"I know. I can't imagine how much it must cost them to maintain this. All the water you would need just to keep this grass alive, plus I saw some animals before and they'd need food, shelter, protection, and probably a bunch of other shit I don't even know about. Not to mention the hills and mountains"- Derek gestured to the monstrosities looming in the distance -"over there and the effort it would take to build them. Ascension wouldn't have done unless they had a damn good reason for it." I was genuinely surprised by how much Derek seemed to know. I hadn't picked him as the nature type.

"Yeah, I hadn't thought about that..." I chewed my lip for a second. "So what was that thing that flew over before?"

"Well, it wasn't a ship. As best as I could tell, it wasn't anything man-made. I think it may have been a bird of some kind, but a hell of a lot bigger than any budgie I've ever seen." I had to agree with Derek. Aside from a few pets and a two-cage exhibit at the zoo, you didn't see many birds in Sallustria. Occasionally an errant crow would swoop in front of an APT and come off second-best, with the news dredging up their stock report on the tragedy that _a species driven to the brink of extinction by man's evolution was still suffering at our hands_. But whatever it was that had passed over us moments ago must have been at least as big as me. It was certainly no crow, that's for sure. Once again I had the feeling that we had stepped back in time, teleported to a period before technology had bent nature to its will and replaced the quiet and contemplative moments with bombastic excitement and superfluous gimmicks.

Derek shrugged it off and took a look around. His gaze settled on something behind me and he began striding purposefully in its direction. I swivelled on my heel and spotted a terminal rising from the ground, an aberration on such an idyllic landscape. It looked similar to the one inside the lift hut, and the one back down the stalk, but it was slightly larger and featured two separate displays.

Derek began swiping and tapping away, his brow furrowed in concentration, so I slipped back into my socks and shoes and joined him. Half of the terminal displayed the same lift controls as the previous terminals, but the other half was a stream of dense, multi-coloured text half-obscured by pop-up windows and dialog boxes. It was all incomprehensible gibberish to me, but Derek seemed to understand it and he was nodding slowly and mumbling to himself as he worked.

"Anything interesting?" I asked as I slowly swept my gaze around the gorgeous environment, trying unsuccessfully to stifle my wonder and watch for signs of danger.

"Mmm. This is a manual comms terminal for messages going down the stalk. I think I can... there we go, got it. They've got a wireless network running in here. I've got in – their security was pretty crap – and I've got the IP for this terminal. I've set up a backdoor forward on port 66301, so we should be able to just send a message with the footage we get to this terminal and it will route it back down the stalk. Then all we have to do is hope that John was right and the data gets to him." Derek stepped back and folded his Comp back into his pocket.

"Wait, why don't we send some footage of all this?" I waved my hand over the luscious fields of grass, the shadowy forest and the looming crags of distant mountains. It may not prove anything sinister on Ascension's part but it sure as hell would raise some interesting questions.

"I've grabbed some footage already but I'm saving it for when we have something more incriminating. If we start sending messages now Ascension could catch on and block my access. Safer to wait and just bombard the stalk with copies of one message once we've got all the proof we can get." That made sense, I guess. There was so much more to Comps and technology than I had ever imagined, it was like another world entirely. Derek only seemed at home when he had a Comp in his hands; the pain and grief that had been ebbing in and out since his friend was attacked would fade from his face, replaced with eager concentration and hard-earned pride. It even made him look kind of cute.

Another droning buzz pierced the soothing thrum of nature and Derek and I both dropped into a crouch this time. From behind the verdant hills rose a faint blip, growing at a startling rate. I started to squint to see if I recognised the creature from any EDU-VIs but my vision abruptly spun away and my knees crumpled, and I suddenly found myself having a face-to-face conversation with a tuft of grass. Derek had dragged me to the ground, and we both lay prone while he glared fixatedly at the growing blip.

"Wha-" I started.

"Shhh. Stay down," Derek replied in a whisper. I obeyed and returned my gaze to the approaching creature. Only now I could see it wasn't a bird at all. It appeared to be a cargo transport of some kind: a wide, flat skiff with a curved railing surrounding it, and a small cab in the rear in which two figures were talking animatedly. The cargo bed looked empty from my vantage point though I couldn't actually see below the railing no matter how low the transport swooped. As it drew closer I felt Derek squeeze my shoulder and I held my breath, but it passed overhead without slowing or changing course, and Derek slowly let go and rose to his knees.

"That was lucky," I said, as he stared at the point where the transport had vanished beyond the trees.

"Mmm. I think we should follow it."

"What? Why?" I had almost shouted, but I caught myself and lowered my voice to a normal level.

"Look around, where else are we going to go? Besides, they were flying pretty low so I reckon wherever they were heading can't be that far. And I don't want to try and access a map from their network either - if they have any - in case someone picks up on the request and tracks our location."

"Alright," I agreed, reluctantly. He was right though, we had literally no information to go on, and nothing in this undeniably wondrous environment gave a clue as to where all the people were.

Derek began trudging towards the tree line, his shoulders tense and his legs bent slightly like a predator stalking its prey. I tried to mimic his stance as best I could, but found that it made the muscles in my legs burn red-hot, so I abandoned it and simply trotted along beside him. The grass grew thick and tall the closer we got to the forest, and by the time we slid into the shade of the canopy we were practically swimming through the field with our hands. I moved closer to Derek to avoid losing sight of him in the oppressive gloom, and I felt him grab my wrist with a gentle but firm strength.

"It can't be too far. We just have to make sure we don't get turned around in here. It all looks so friggin' similar." Derek's voice had risen to a half-shout to combat the rustling and crunching of the twigs and leaves beneath our feet. He pulled out his Comp and used its projection as a light, nearly causing me to cry out in fear as freshly cast shadows flickered on the edge of my vision. Despite the density of the trees and the carpet of debris at our feet it was fairly easy going, and only a few minutes passed before natural light began to bleed back into our surroundings.

Derek pocketed his Comp and we crept slowly forward as a muffled hum began to penetrate the thick, sticky silence. It continued to rise and I started identifying individual tones: a rumbling engine, the rush of water, a person yelling. That last sound caused both Derek and I to freeze, but a cheerful reply to the call revealed that we had not been discovered, yet. The trees were beginning to thin out and I started catching glimpses of a field of tall, yellow-green fronds masking the bottom of a cluster of tall structures. Derek waved his hand down to signal a crouch before creeping over a tangle of roots and taking cover behind a dark brown trunk. He carefully laid his hand on the charcoal tinged bark and edged his head around the tree. I took tentative steps over the roots, being careful not to catch my feet, and dropped to my knees next to him.

"What do you see?" I mumbled to the back of Derek's flashing head.

"I think you might want to take a look for yourself."

### CHAPTER FOURTEEN

### D.K.

Liz placed her hands on my shoulders, and I shuffled sideways so she could get a good look at the farm beyond the tree-line. Yep, it was definitely a farm. Not the normal kind either. There were no eco-domes, no harvesting drones flittering back and forth, none of the typical technologies that sprung to mind when I thought of farming. This was an archaic set-up; the kind that you saw in documentaries and did projects on in school. You knew they must have existed at one stage but they had become so obsolete that it just didn't warrant thinking about. Like how you used to have to physically hold a controller in your hands to play IN-VIs, and all the action took place on an external display rather than through a headset. Goddamn ancient, man.

Blurry figures were passing up and down the aisles of crops, pausing and fiddling with the stalks and occasionally plucking things and putting them into containers they were carrying. The closest of these figures was just near enough for me to realise that it wasn't an ascendant but a woman with long brown hair, wearing a light pink blouse that billowed slightly in the breeze. As I watched, another figure abruptly jumped out of the thick of the crops and onto the dirt path behind the woman. My heart leapt into my throat as I saw the tell-tale glint of metal that signified modifications, and I held my breath in expectation of an attack. The man wrapped his non-metal arm around the woman and spun her around, and as close as we were I was able to watch the shock in her face collapse into a breaming grin. The man stooped to her height and they embraced with a long kiss.

"Wha?" I breathed, glad that the lack of oxygen in my lungs prevented me from shouting instead. I glanced up at Liz's face, and I could see she too was baffled. There were so many things wrong with the scene before my eyes. Farming without technological assistance? A modified and non-modified couple in a relationship? And they weren't ascendants? What the hell was Ascension doing here? A tiny voice in the back of my head screamed ' _footage_!' and I realised that the augmented man before us would serve as adequate proof of at least one of Ascension's crimes. I flicked my Comp out while Liz continued to stare in wide-eyed fascination at the display of affection. I held the Comp - still folded - and pulled the shutter hatch to activate camera mode. I zoomed and began recording as the couple broke apart and began chatting excitedly with each other as they strode along a path parallel to the tree-line. I made sure to focus on the man and his gleaming silver arm. Once I had sufficient footage of his augmentation, I pulled the zoom out to take in the entire farmstead. I pushed in on the structures and discovered that they too reflected the technology of decades past. Rather than a single smooth surface, the walls appeared to be constructed from individual bricks and slabs stacked on top of each other. There was a distinct lack of uniformity to the construction, with some of the buildings larger than others, some a slightly different hue, some cracked and faded and some garish and whole. As I zoomed closer I also noticed that the some of the windows weren't actually windows at all, just simple holes in the wall. I could spy movement within, but the distance was too great and the picture was blurry. I couldn't tell whether it was more people inside, or something else.

"I'm going to get a closer look, stay here and watch my back." I was up and sprinting towards the green and yellow mass of crops before Liz could even react, and once I was ensconced by the surprisingly resilient stalks I glanced back to see Liz gaping in shock. She recovered quickly and frowned at me, then shuffled back behind the tree and disappeared from my vision. I turned around and forced my way through the field, suffering the battering and whipping of the stalks as the breeze picked up, and eventually broke into a clearing with ample view of the primitive structures. I was close enough now to be able to see through one of the 'windows' with my own eyes, but I raised and activated the Comp regardless to record the intriguing sight. The source of the movement I had seen was now clear; not humans, but livestock. A veritable menagerie of exotic fauna had been penned inside, each species accorded a space relevant to its needs with barriers built from the same archaic materials as the structures themselves. There were no habitat fields and no transparent protection domes; akin to the field behind me this was farming in its most basic and raw form. To what end Ascension were striving with this display of anti-technological resource gathering was beyond me, but I was sure the utilities departments back in Sallustria would have a few things to say about their use of water and whatever else it was taking to sustain this elaborate museum environment.

Having obtained sufficient footage of the disturbingly docile creatures, I debated whether to head back to Liz or scout the rest of the buildings. I was about to head back when the image of a crumbling ceiling, a cloud of dust, and Jimmy's snarling face appeared vividly in front of my eyes, obscuring the field of amber and wrenching my heart asunder. If for some reason one modified human and a weird-ass historical recreation wasn't enough to bring Ascension down, Jimmy's murder would remain unpunished, and there was no fucking way I was going to let that happen. I had to see if I could find something more concrete. If I could just get some better footage of a couple of modified ascendants, or maybe I could find a terminal around here with direct access to the network. I didn't want to risk running anything from my own Comp, not yet, as I had to imagine they'd be logging access attempts and I didn't want them tracking or blocking me before I'd sent off the evidence. But if I could find a terminal that was already logged in...

The nearest building was a squat collection of grey huts joined by narrow corridors, the living quarters for the farmers if I had to guess. If anywhere in this backwards homestead was going to have network access, it would be there. Unfortunately, the field on my left only extended about halfway to the huts before it gave way to open grassland. To my right there were small enclosures sprouting ball-shaped fruit and vegetables, but they offered no real cover and were too far apart at any rate. I would have to risk the field.

I dove in and scrambled through the rough vegetation, fighting for every step against the thick and sturdy stalks. I slowed as it thinned out, and stopped completely when I could clearly see one of the ash-stone hut walls fifty metres away. The huts appeared to be deserted, but off to the left and a little beyond there was a metal husk surrounded by a small crowd. I used the zoom on my Comp to get a closer look. The husk appeared to be a vehicle of some kind, albeit one without an engine and only two physical wheels. One figure was lying beneath a bladed cylinder and performing some sort of adjustments with a small silver tool. The rest were pacing around and making wild hand gestures. They were all unmodified as far as I could tell. They appeared to be sufficiently pre-occupied with their task, so I pocketed my Comp and took a deep breath, then bolted for the nearest hut.

Following the primitive motif I had already seen in abundance, the hut door was little more than a simple wooden slab, attached to its frame by a metal hinge that squeaked slightly as I gingerly pushed it open. I paused, my body tensed as I waited for a shout of discovery, but it did not come. I crept cautiously through the gap in the door and assessed my surroundings. Small windows illuminated the space, but the material they were made of was partially opaque and rendered everything like it was smeared flat. Good, that would ensure nobody could recognise me from outside. Two sleeping pods were lined up against one of the walls, opposite a large square couch. I guess my assumption about the huts being used as the living quarters was correct. The existence of pods seemed to go against the apparent anti-tech rule, but then again so did human modification, so maybe it wasn't as clear a restriction as I had thought. The room offered nothing else apart from a doorway on the far wall, so I stepped through it and tread cautiously down a narrow corridor, emerging in another dimly lit shack.

This room was significantly larger than the previous one, with open doorways and faded posters made of actual hard-copy lining each of the walls. A few painful looking wooden chairs and a rickety table sat in one corner, while another contained a kitchen area that appeared remarkably modern. Another exception to the rule, it seemed. I surveyed the placid interior with a mix of curiosity and pity. I was intrigued as to why Ascension were going to all this trouble to avoid technology, as it was so appallingly inefficient to revert to such ancient techniques for survival when they offered no real benefits.

My eyes lit up and my heart double-tapped as my gaze settled on a Comp terminal embedded in one of the walls. I leapt over to it and activated the display, triggering a cascade of flickering shadows to burst into life across the room. Yes! The terminal was already logged in to the network, but my hopes rapidly dwindled as the limited commands available flashed before me. It only offered a direct line of communication to a base station labelled 'Home', as well as a directory link marked 'Education'. The comms link would be worse than useless, as presenting myself to Ascension seemed like the quickest way to completely fuck up our mission. I swiped through to 'Education' and found myself staring at a list of projection loops related to farming, construction and basic household maintenance. Oh joy. I couldn't see much purpose in watching any of them unless I wanted to be bored to death, but I loaded up the one labelled 'Introduction' anyway, just in case.

Welcome to Ascension EOT Program 3: Natural Survival Skills.

An attractive woman dressed in a tight blue jumpsuit stood before me as her soothing voice echoed around the room. The sudden sound caused me to jump backwards and swivel my head furiously around the room to see if I had aroused attention. It was a pointless endeavour; if someone had heard they would be coming from one of the corridors and I wouldn't be able to see them until it was too late. I remained stock still regardless, poised in a crouch and ready to run for it if I heard anyone approaching. A minute passed without interruption, then two, and I relaxed and returned to the paused projection. The woman was waiting patiently with a smile on her face; the projection was awaiting my input for it to continue. I waved my hand over the projected 'Continue' marker and the woman began speaking again.

This program has been created to address the possibility of complete technological disruption following the EOT. By participating in the provided virtuals, you will build a core set of survival skills that you can then apply in the fabricated farm environment. You will be tested at the end of every week to ensure your abilities are progressing sufficiently, and at the end of the three month program you will sit a final exam. We understand that much of the provided material will appear archaic and inefficient, but we must be prepared for all possible outcomes of the EOT. If you feel that you need to discuss the situation further, please use the provided communications link to speak to an advisor. Your living quarters have been provided with two exceptions to the protocol: a communal kitchen area, as well as this terminal. It has been determined that these were necessary concessions, but as you will see from week two onward, you will need to be able to prepare and cook your own meals without the aid of appliances to succeed in the program. A note for all modified personnel: We are in the final stages of the organic replacement program, and we are confident that you will have no problems transferring the skills learnt here to an organic body should the need arise. For all participants: a keen intellect and an eager attitude will serve you well in this program, and never forget our larger goals. What we are doing here is for the sake of the entire world, for the benefit all of humanity.

The projection shrank and faded, leaving the directory listing as the only artificial light in the room. I was staring open-mouthed at the wall, piercing the point where the projection had been just a moment ago. My jaw hung slack and my eyes were glazed over. I blinked slowly and took a deep breath. I think I needed to watch that again.

### CHAPTER FIFTEEN

### E.F.

I can't believe he just left! What kind of jerk just up and abandons a girl in the middle of a completely unknown and hostile environment? Derek had vanished into the dense field of crops with barely a glance back, leaving me pressed up against the rough bark with no clue what to do next. At least I had plenty to look at. Every step we had taken since arriving here had unveiled something new, something magical, something completely unexpected. The tree I was huddled behind wasn't just some imitation synth-bark wrapped around a metal frame, it was _real_ , just like the ones Mum and I had seen at Kitaki albeit much, much bigger. They were more alive too, with bugs crawling in and out of knots in the wood and sap dribbling down like amber tears.

I shifted my attention from the tree to the wondrous field beyond. They appeared to be growing food – I wasn't well versed enough in vegetation to know what kind – the old-fashioned way, without any automated drones or eco-domes.

The couple from earlier wandered back into my field of view, strolling alongside the edge of the field, hand in hand. The modified man was leading his partner towards an odd formation of stacked grey blocks arranged in a circle. The blocks rose to about chest-height, and a wooden frame arched across the gap with a rope disappearing down the centre. I scuttled through the trees to keep the couple in sight as they approached the odd construction. When they arrived, the man let go of his partner's hand and reached for a thin lever jutting from the side of the wooden frame. He seemed to hesitate for a second before pivoting slightly and gripping the handle with his natural arm, rather than the mechanical one. He began rotating the lever in long, slow circles. From where I was nothing appeared to be happening, but the tree cover was beginning to thin out and getting any closer would have left me exposed. The field opposite, however, extended beyond the couple and would offer a much clearer view of the captivating ritual they were performing. I glanced quickly left and right to ensure the coast was clear and, verifying that the only people in proximity were the couple with their backs facing me, I sprinted across the verdant carpet of grass and crashed into the billowing yellow stalks with a muffled grunt of pain.

After extracting myself from a mound of half-crushed shoots I pressed on, keeping close enough to the dirt path to ensure I was heading in the right direction. Soon the intermittent drone of conversation reached my ears, but it was still too distant for me to understand what was being said. As soon as I was able to pick out individual words I halted my advance, deciding that I was close enough, and carefully crept back out to the edge of the field.

"-and now Roy is going on about how it's all a load of crap, and that he's just going to take the shuttle and fly back to the station. He's a complete moron, we all saw the tank, and they knew exactly what we were going to do..." The man had stopped turning the lever and was now facing his partner. I was still out of his line of sight, but I was still cautious not to make any sudden movements.

"He's not that stupid is he? Remember that guy who wanted to leave, what was his name... Jerry I think? They put him straight into confinement with the rest of the dissenters, as soon as they found that message of his – they didn't even listen to what he had to say. He's just damn lucky he didn't send it first. They don't want anyone down in Sallustria knowing; they say our defences are still too weak to hold up against a full scale assault if that's what it came to."

"Yeah, well, let's hope so. I don't fancy being a man down when harvest time comes. I'll kill him myself if we fail the exam." The man returned to the lever and I gradually edged sideways to get a better view of the structure. A large grey bucket rose up from within the circle of blocks, swinging back and forth on the rope and sloshing water over its sides. The man pushed the lever in, which seemed to lock the rope in place and proceeded to dip two small cups into the bucket. He handed one to his partner and they both began drinking. My legs were beginning to burn from the effort of crouching so I leant back and collapsed on to my backside, welcoming the relief but regretting the rough and jagged ground I had landed on. I guess this is one of the downsides of nature; smooth surfaces are something I had taken for granted my whole life.

I planted my hands to lift myself up again but I had barely lifted an inch off the ground when I felt something bristle against my forearm. The shock of the sudden contact threw me off balance and I fell onto my side, rolling across the dirt to absorb the force of the impact. Dazed and slightly confused, I lifted my head and scanned between the stalks for the cause of my unplanned spill. A sleek grey and white cat sat on its haunches, looking up at me with clear round eyes and a slightly squashed upturned nose. It meowed softly and I smiled back at it, warmed by its shabby appearance until I realised that it was sitting at the edge of the field between two tall stems. The _edge_ of the field. I could see the _edge_ of the field. I was not _in_ the field. I was lying on the dirt path, naked, exposed, vulnerable. After repeating the obvious for several seconds, my brain finally kicked into gear and I leapt to my feet and made to dive back into cover. Before I had the chance, however, a fiercely strong grip clenched on my shoulder and pulled me backwards.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here, eh?" I recognised the sneering tone as belonging to the man I had been stalking.

"She's not part of the program, Mark." The woman's voice rose in volume as she drew closer. I was dumped roughly back on to the ground and landed gracelessly with my legs askew. I collected myself into a ball instinctively before peering out at my two captors. The woman's look exuded curiosity, but also warmth; there didn't seem to be any malice there. The man had his back to me and was gesticulating ferociously as he began walking slowly away.

"Watch her for a sec, will ya?" He broke into a run and began shouting while the woman loomed over me.

"So what are you doing here, dear? You're not part of this program. I haven't seen you before either. My name's Shelly, my boyfriend is Mark. What's your name?" Her voice was inviting, and unless she was lying it seemed that she knew nothing about me or my fugitive status. I needed to make sure it stayed that way. I had to come up a convincing excuse of some sort and quick, before my hesitation made her suspicious.

"Uhh... I'm new. I just had my ascendance test and came up from Sallustria."

"Which office did you come through? Where's the person who accompanied you up the stalk?" I had no good answer to that and I was starting to contemplate an escape attempt when the man came thundering back, a rag-tag crowd in tow. They were dressed in an assortment of unassuming colours and patterns, with each outfit loose and flapping mildly in the breeze. It was cheap, 'dumb' clothing as far as I could tell; no temperature control, no size adjustment.

"Nope, haven't seen her before."

"Me neither."

"You think she's run off from one of the other stations?"

"Nah, it's too far. Echo's the closest and I don't fancy her travelling that far on foot."

"True. So where did she come from?"

"She says she's new. Came up the stalk just now."

"Really? Who's with her? What stalk is that one?"

"I think it's the Docks. Got no idea who's working there though."

"Eh, let's let someone else deal with this. I'm going to go buzz the station." One of the figures turned and jogged off into the distance. The rest remained, looking down on me with a mix of intrigue and suspicion.

"What's your name?" I was outnumbered, and by the sounds of it they were going to contact somebody higher up to figure out what to do. Eventually someone who recognised me was going to find out, and then I'd be screwed. I couldn't see a way out, but these people seemed reasonable; at least they weren't tying me down or trying to jab me with needles. Maybe if I told them the truth they'd be able to help?

"Umm...I'm Liz. I came up the stalk by myself because Ascension took my mum, and I have no idea why, or what they are doing with her." No use mentioning Derek and getting him in to more trouble. If this didn't pan out, at least _he_ might be able to escape.

"You came up here by yourself?" asked one of the figures incredulously; a short, hairy man in a thin brown vest.

"She broke in? Wait! You're not one of those anti-Ascension protesters are you? Are you trying to blow this place up? Quick, somebody get some rope so we can restrain her!" One of the figures made to run while the others crowded in closer.

"No, no, no! I told you, I just want my Mum!" I pleaded, tears beginning to spill from my eyes. "Please! They took her and I didn't do anything and she didn't do anything and...and it's just not fair!" I was desperate, unleashing all my suppressed emotions - the fear, the misery, the hopelessness - in the hopes of convincing these strangers I was no threat.

"Hmmm, I don't know. If she was an activist, don't you think she'd have, like, weapons or something? And really, how much damage could one person do to Ark City?" They stopped swarming in, paused in thought, then backed away to a more comfortable distance.

"Good point. Still, I'd rather somebody at the station deal with this. It's way beyond my pay grade." The man who was speaking then turned to look at me. "Listen, if what you say is true, I'm sure there is some good explanation as to why your mother is here. We'll get one of the higher ups down here and they can sort everything out. In the meantime, we're going to have to tie you up. Sorry, but we can't take any risks." He nodded to a woman next to him who turned and ran off. Now there was absolutely nothing I could do. I just had to hope for a miracle. Well, at least they hadn't caught Derek.

### CHAPTER SIXTEEN

### D.K.

So, Ascension were training up their people to be able to survive without technology because they believed that this 'EOT' – whatever the hell that was - might send us back to the dark ages. At least, that's what I took from the virtual after watching it three more times. But what was this 'EOT" thing, and why were Ascension so convinced of its worth that they were making their people live like goddamn Neanderthals?

I had pulled up a couple of other virtuals from the list in the hope that they might shed some more light on the matter, but they just ended up being shitty IN-VIs to test your knowledge and didn't provide any more exposition. I ran through the introduction for the fifth time and recorded it with my Comp, then compressed and combined the file with the rest of the evidence I had collected. If this wasn't enough for John to convince the Buerau that Ascension were into some seriously messed up shit, nothing was. Now I just needed to get back to Liz so we could find somewhere to hunker down and wait for the assault to begin. I knew we were putting a lot of trust in John and his compatriots, probably too much, but it's not like we had been flooded with offers of assistance. We didn't have the luxury of being picky. And they _did_ seem genuine. If the entire operation consisted of people as dedicated as the ones we had met, I was confident that they wouldn't squander the opportunity this evidence would provide.

I folded my Comp and slipped it away, then carefully wandered back to the squat living area I had come from. I entered the cramped room and nearly stumbled when I realised I had left the door wide open; I was so used to automatic systems I had forgotten to pull it shut behind me. Shit! I had been damn lucky no-one outside had been observant enough to notice that. I crept to the wall beside the opening and peeked out. The bright sunshine was playing havoc with my body clock, and the transition from the dark and stuffy room didn't help. For a few seconds my vision was all fuzzy shapes on a harsh, white-yellow background, and my head throbbed in pain. I blinked rapidly to clear my eyes and watched as the landscape materialised before me. Everything appeared to be the same as when I had entered the structure. The swaying fields and rustling trees were the only things moving. I took a step forward and stuck my head out to see if the metal husk I had spied earlier was still surrounded by its adoring fans. Before I could get a good look, a rain of thunderous footsteps surged forth from behind me, and I threw myself back through the doorway and out of sight. Risking a peek around the doorframe, I saw a man sprinting from the fields to the left – where I had come from – and heading determinedly towards where I had spotted the crowd. He quickly disappeared from my view, and I shuffled back to my vantage point at the wall as a frantic shouting match broke out. I slid my head across the rough stone surface of the wall and risked a one-eyed glance at the commotion. The man was standing before the rest of the huddled figures and waving his arms in the direction he had come from. He was still yelling, but I was too far and all I could hear was garbled gibberish. After a few seconds he turned and began sprinting back, so I retreated into the cover of the doorway and crouched low. He shot across the open ground, his speedy gait soon followed by the slightly less enthusiastic pace of the rest of the raggedy group. And boy, were they raggedy! They passed close enough by for me to get a good, long look at the thin and cheap attire draped over their bodies. It was all loose robes and baggy shorts, fraying at the seams and littered with open wounds. I guess it made sense after watching the projection; getting used to dumb clothes that didn't rely on embedded Comps was evidently part of the survival program. That didn't stop it from being bloody stupid, though. Wait a minute... What if Ascension were secretly an anti-tech cult, and were planning on disabling or destroying the power farms in Sallustria? That would cause anarchy! Nah, they couldn't do that! Ascension is built on a foundation of technology; they'd be signing their own death warrant if they tried to eradicate it.

The half-jog carried the group across the soft grass plain and towards the towering crop fields. Oh crap! Liz! She's still over there! I sprang to my feet and ignored the pins and needles stabbing at my thighs. She should be safe in the cover of the trees, but I wanted to get there as fast as possible anyway. People did some pretty stupid things when they were frightened, and I hadn't seen enough of Liz yet to know whether she belonged in that category too.

I leapt to the corner of the hut and confirmed that no stragglers remained before streaking into the open setting my sights on the distant tree-line. It was probably not the smartest way to return to Liz, given it involved about two-hundred metres of exposed grasslands, but I couldn't afford to waste any more time by weaving my way back through the fields. I thundered across the alternating patches of grass and mud, my heart drumming in time with my feet, and realised that I was in extremely poor shape. Spending all my time in IN-VIs wasn't exactly building me into an Adonis. I think I need to give those exercise IN-VIs a crack when I hit up the arcade next, see if I can beat Jimmy on that _Space Run_ one. Oh...fuck. Man, I just can't believe Jimmy's gone! Screw that, I'll get all the exercise I need beating the shit out of whoever ordered those ascendants to storm Gregor's! I held that thought tight in my head, focusing on it to the exclusion of all else, and managed to avoid slipping back into a pit of despair.

Unfortunately, with my mind preoccupied I didn't realise I had reached the forest until I passed under the shadow of its canopy, and my lack of attention resulted in a spectacular tumble as my foot caught on a tree root and I collapsed into a pile of mossy brush. I lay there for a few seconds, taking comfort in the cushioned surface while I caught my breath. My crash had only resulted in grazed palms and knees, and I struggled to my feet without any significant pain. Right, I've got to get Liz. I continued deep enough into the forest to reduce my chance of exposure without losing all sense of direction.

As I scrambled over vast networks of roots and sidestepped rebellious brambles, the gentle back-and-forth of conversation rose above the creaks and croaks of nature. I couldn't make out the words but it provided a good indication of distance and direction, and I soon found myself catching glimpses of colour and movement between the trees. I drifted cautiously closer to the edge of the tree-line, stopping when I achieved a clear line of sight on the source of the commotion. Damn it! Liz was being tied up by the modified man that we had spotted before, while that rag-tag group was clustered around her. Shit, shit, shit! What was I going to do now? There was no way in hell I could take on that many people at once, let alone the fact that one of them was modified. But I couldn't just leave her. Who knows what they would do to her? They could be a bunch of perverted freaks for all I knew. Well, first things first. If I'm going to do something heroically stupid, or stupidly heroic, I should at least send the evidence down to John before I get myself captured or killed. I flicked out my Comp and dumped the data back to the lift terminal as quickly as possible. I had wrapped the message with the flags that John and I had worked out earlier, so now I just had to hope that his insider would send it on. _And_ that he would remain true to his word and get that assault organised. In my mind I pictured a fleet of gunner ships launching torpedos into stalks and power-suit soldiers planting det-packs on the curving hull of Ark City. Even as the images flickered through my head I knew it was ridiculous fantasy: an elaborate dream conjured by an imagination fuelled by a life of IN-VIs. The real assault would no doubt be far more subdued, far less exciting.

A brief stutter of vibrations from my Comp indicated that the message had been transmitted, so I closed it up and stashed it back into my pocket. Liz was still sitting propped up with a thick rope holding her at bay, but the surrounding crowd had dispersed, leaving only the couple that we had initially spied on remaining. This was my chance. If I could somehow knock out the guy, then I reckon I could take the woman one-on-one and free Liz. I scanned left and right to make sure that no-one was within earshot then spun to search for a weapon amidst the clutter of the forest floor. There had to be a broken branch or a rock or something here. Even the synth-trees back home would have debris littered at their bases, though that was from vandalism rather than natural causes. I spied a rocky boulder that seemed a formidable weapon until I picked it up and it crumbled into dirt. Goddamn it! I had more success with a knobbly branch three fingers wide at its thickest point. I heaved it off the ground with a high-pitched whine. Wait, that wasn't right. The noise continued to grow louder, approaching from somewhere in front of me and above the tree canopy. It sounded like another shuttle, but even closer this time. I twisted around, my freshly acquired weapon leaving a curved furrow in the dirt, and hobbled back to the tree-line as fast as I could. I was just in time to see a boxy shuttle being waved down by Liz's male captor, the amber stalks of the nearby field tilted forty-five degrees by the force of its descent. Fuck! I was too late.

The shuttle had barely even settled on the ground when the bay doors shot open and two modified ascendants jumped out. The modified man ran over and tried to engage in conversation with them but they ignored him, striding towards Liz while he stood there with a dejected look on his face. A third man stepped out of the shuttle and approached, spoke a few words to the man that I had no hope of hearing over the roar of the shuttle's engines, and climbed back aboard as the two ascendants carried Liz inside. I stood there, leaning against the jagged surface of a dark trunk and feeling incredibly impotent while the vessel rose and shrank into a blotch in the sky. The branch fell from my hand with a dull _thud_.

### CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

### E.F.

The two ascendants who had bundled me into the shuttle were surprisingly gentle about it. They supported me easily with their modified limbs and carried me into a richly decorated stateroom. There they carefully lowered me onto a plush mauve couch; a smart one that melted into my body and started massaging my back. This seemed like extremely odd treatment for a prisoner, a fact that I stated when a tall, black-haired man with a short, fuzzy beard entered from the corridor. His face was streaked with frown lines and wrinkles, and patches of his hair were beginning to grey, but he couldn't have been much older than fifty. His expression remained stoic as he sat down on a chair opposite me and leant forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands. We sat there in silence for what seemed an eternity before he finally replied to my question.

"You are no prisoner here. Not unless you choose to be." His voice was controlled and commanding.

"Really? Because my bound wrists seem to say otherwise. And who the hell chooses to be a prisoner?" I spat the retort out, converting my anxiety over Mum into venom for my words. The man took his time answering again, allowing the fire in my eyes to flicker and tremble under his cool, hard gaze.

"I will remove your physical shackles very soon - provided you behave - though some of the less corporeal ones will have to wait. First, I must explain to you a few vital truths. It is very important that you listen. Afterwards, you may ask questions and seek clarification, or even verbally abuse me if you believe it warranted. Will you grant my request?" Every word that came out of his mouth seemed to take solid form, like his thoughts were so powerful they had presence in the real world. I considered his eloquently worded proposal. I didn't really have much of a choice, given the circumstances. Regardless of whether he was actually going to untie me or not I might as well listen to what he has to say. And if he _was_ telling the truth I could ask him about Mum. Maybe he'd even give me a straight answer.

"Shoot." He smiled - a slow upturning of his lips that wasn't exactly pleasant but did offer some relief to his weathered face. He folded his hands into his lap, crossed his legs and sat back.

"Well then, let us start with introductions, shall we? I already know your name, Ms Finlea, but I do not believe you know mine. I am Edward Levine. I own the majority share in Ascension Corp and, though it may be an oversimplification of my role, for all intents and purposes I run the company. My father was the man who founded our humble organisation many years ago." He paused for a moment and leant forward slightly, pressing his hands together in a steeple shape. "How much do you know about us, Elizabeth?"

"I thought you told me to save my questions until the end?" I may not have had much control over the situation, but that didn't mean I had to make it easy for him.

"Indulge me."

"Okay then. You invented a procedure that unlocks the potential of the human brain, increasing intelligence, memory, all that. Problem is, not everybody is capable of undergoing the procedure, so you made it mandatory for all 21 year olds to get tested on their birthdays."

"Go on."

"The thing is, you make everyone come up here to get the operation, and then they don't come back down. _If_ their families are lucky they'll receive a message, maybe two, but that's about it. And now you've decided that's not enough and you tried to drug and kidnap me, then you took my mum when I escaped! And you sent that hit squad to get me, and they killed a kid! You're all monsters!" My voice had gravitated from anger into a furious explosion of rage, and I struggled against the ropes and tried to roll onto my feet. I only succeeded in falling off the couch and ending up face first on the floor.

"Now that was not a very intelligent move, was it?" There was no condescension in Edward's voice, in fact it sounded more like a parent speaking to their child; a drop of very mild irritation in a sea of extreme patience.

"Mmmph," was all I managed to mumble out with my face pressed against the soft velvet carpet. I felt arms scoop underneath my chest and I was lifted back onto the couch. I rolled around to see Edward lowering himself back into his chair.

"I would advise you not to try that again, Elizabeth." Once again, there was no anger in his tone or manner. He exuded the patience of someone in complete control of his surroundings, which I guess was true in the current situation. I grunted a non-committal reply, but there was nothing to gain from continuing to act defiant. If I behaved, at least the possibility of seeing Mum again still existed. That wouldn't be the case if I kept trying to attack my captor.

"Yes, well, while your succinct description of our organisation did highlight our public affairs rather colourfully, I would like to make some clarifications. Ms Drewer was in breach of protocol when she attempted to physically subdue you, and she has received appropriate punishment for her insubordination. In her defence, no-one has ever resisted so swiftly before. Typically they are far too intoxicated by the prospect of visiting Ark City to worry themselves with such details. Regardless, I had no knowledge of her true actions until just recently; the initial report she gave claimed that you and your partner had attacked her and threatened to expose our private affairs to the world. The order to detain your mother was a necessary measure to prevent you doing just that."

"Necessary measure?! What private affairs? All I did was pass your stupid test and that _woman_ didn't want to let me tell my own mother! I didn't even know about all your bullshit yet!"

"Didn't?" Edward's eyebrows raised and he cocked his head to the side. I realised my slip of the tongue too late. Oh well, it's not like it mattered anyway. It's not like the Techtivists had gone out of their way to help us. All they did was slap a disguise on Derek and me and expect us to do their job for them. I let out a long sigh.

"We met a group of people who don't exactly appreciate your insular nature. They told us how coming here is a one-way trip, how you're influencing things down in Sallustria, how you've keep paying off all the investigations into your activities. And now you've got an army of modified humans running around attacking people! And what the hell is with this place? The mountains, the trees, the animals?! What is going on?!" My voice had bubbled back up to a high pitched scream and I collapsed back into the couch in exhaustion. I lay in silence for a full minute before Edward replied.

"Alright, now it is my turn. Please wait until the conclusion before fronting any more questions. I promise I will do my best to address any concerns you raise." He cleared his throat before continuing.

"When I was notified that an unauthorised female had been found loitering in sector three, claiming to have just arrived from Sallustria, I was too preoccupied to immediately make the connection. That was rectified the moment I was informed that this individual was sporting the elaborate markings of one of my, ahem, _ascendants_. I cannot admit to being omnipotent when it comes to the locations of _all_ the denizens of Ark City, but I do endeavour to remain aware of the comings and goings of the _ascendants_ , at the very least. Armed with this knowledge, it was a trivial matter to determine that you were involved." I found it extremely difficult to follow his reasoning; he had seemed to jump to his conclusion with nowhere near enough information. Therefore, I assumed he wasn't telling me everything.

"Of course, I should have realised that the so-called Techtivists played a role in this charade. They never cease to prance around with their misguided presumptions of righteousness, buzzing away like the infuriating insects they are. The only reason we allow them to continue operation is because they cause more harm to themselves than they do us!" Edward chuckled mirthlessly.

"But as I said before, it was not my intention for your mother to become ensnared in this matter, nor have I at any point permitted a violent response to your actions. The people that I had sent to retrieve you were given explicit orders to do so as silently and with as little collateral damage as possible. Unfortunately, modifications tend to induce... _side-effects_ in their hosts, and they may have been a little over-zealous in their efforts. However, I can assure you that no-one was killed by their hands, although I cannot say the same for you and your partner. Three deceased; let me tell you that that has taken quite a toll on our combat-ready forces. Quite a significant price to pay."

Edward's assurances sounded genuine, but then so had John's claims. And when in doubt, I tended to side with those who didn't kidnap my mum. I opened my mouth to object but Edward cut in before I could say anything.

"Not yet, I have not finished. I believe I can predict your objection; why should you trust me? Well, Elizabeth, when we arrive at our destination I will show you something that I intended for you to see this morning, and I believe it will provide a new perspective on Ascension and our behaviour. And before you ask again, your mother will be waiting for us, safe and sound." The prospect of being reunited with Mum filled me with a joy so rich that my smile threatened to tear my face in half. Derek, John, the Techtivists; they were all ancillary concerns compared to the one thing that really mattered. Edward noted my happiness with a barely perceptible nod and a brief smile.

"I had predicted that would cool you down." I chose not to add a spiteful retort to the conversation and instead waited for him to continue. He remained mute, however, and my patience slipped away after a minute of listening to the dull hum of the shuttle's engines.

"But why? Why are you doing all this? Why did you need me here? Why do you need any of this elaborate set up? What is it all for?" I had a dozen more questions to ask but the look on Edward's face told me I'd be wasting my breath. He shook his head slowly and his lips drew a thin line across his face.

"Not yet. I can promise you that when we land what I will show you will help explain everything. Until then, I can say no more of our operations." I expected him to leave, given his reluctance to share anything more with me, but he remained seated, apparently comfortable with the heavy, awkward silence between us. I shifted uncomfortably against my bonds. My nose itched something fierce and I turned my head to rub it against the smooth cabin wall.

"Ah, your bonds, I had forgotten. Can I trust you not to cause any more trouble if I remove them? It will only make things terribly difficult for everyone if you keep behaving so recklessly." I promised him that I would behave, resenting his condescending words despite the calm, almost monotone delivery. He lifted himself from the chairs with his arms and carefully spun me onto my chest. I felt the bonds around my feet loosen then slip away, followed by the ones around my wrists. I rolled onto my back and rubbed at the depressions the rope had left on my wrists. Edward was still standing, his attention occupied by the Comp in his hand. He stared at it for a few seconds before folding it back into his pocket and flashing another of his creepy not-quite smiles at me.

"We have almost arrived. Follow me." Without waiting for a reaction he spun around and palmed the door panel before stepping through. I slid off the couch and stumbled for a second as my feet woke from their slumber. Using the furniture and walls for balance, I made my way out into the corridor to see Edward marching purposefully to what I assumed was the shuttle's exit. I had not been paying much attention to direction when I'd been carried in. I hobbled up the hallway, planting my hands on the walls until I felt confident enough to support myself, and followed Edward around a corner before halting in front of the formidable bay doors. The cool silver sheen reflected a distorted version of my body; elongated and stretched as it passed over the bumps and contortions of the door's surface. I could just barely feel the shuttle jolt as we touched down, then the bay door split apart with a _whoosh_ and I was momentarily blinded by a bright light. When my eyes had adjusted to what I realised was sunshine from the sky-scape above, I joined Edward on the grey surface of the landing pad and we proceeded to the enormous facility nearby. It bristled with towers and its matte white surface was broken by very few windows. The wings of the building extended outward and split off, giving it the appearance of a small city. Looking beyond the facility I realised that we were on the side of a mountain, commanding a breathtaking view of the landscape as it meandered down into forest and fields. I couldn't be sure, but I thought that this might be the range I had seen in the distance when Derek and I had first arrived. Looking back at the facility I saw Edward waiting patiently by a set of transparent double doors. Remembering his assurance that Mum would be here, I broke into a run and joined him as we slipped inside the enormous complex.

### CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

### D.K.

Goddamn it! First Jimmy, now Liz... I can't protect anyone! I'm fucking useless! I almost launched myself at the modified man just to unleash my fury, but as my adrenaline ebbed I returned to my senses. Violence for the sake of violence wasn't right. I didn't want a repeat of the incident at Gregor's; my conscience had barely survived one moral crisis, I'm pretty sure two would push me over the edge.

The couple wandered off and I was left staring at the speck in the sky as it dwindled towards the distant mountain range. I had no hope of following the shuttle without a vehicle of my own, and given what I had learnt about the nature of this program, I didn't like my chances of finding one just lying around. Trailing on foot was out of the question. That didn't leave me with very many options. I could try my luck getting back down the stalk... No! There was no way in hell I was going to abandon Liz to whatever crazy shit Ascension had planned.

I put my hand into my pocket and grasped my Comp. Eh, might as well. They'd probably be able to trace anything I did on the network, but I might be able to at least pull a vehicle list before they cut me off. Then I could toss the Comp and cross my fingers that the vessels here didn't rely on biometric identification or Comp authorisation. Yeah, it was a long shot, but I had to do _something_ to help Liz. I needed a goal, something to focus my mind, something to keep me from wallowing in guilt and regret. And some positive karma could go a long way towards rectifying the god-awful nightmare at Gregor's.

I flicked my Comp open and was greeted by the dazzling sight of dozens of flashing messages. At first I thought my access had been detected and revoked, and my heart sank along with my hopes. On closer inspection, however, I realised that each notification was a reply from the evidence dump I had sent down the stalk. The messages consisted of symbols and seemingly nonsense words, indecipherable gibberish for the most part but I did recognise a few conditional statements here and there. It was code of some sort, a hybrid machine-language that exhibited a few elements that I was familiar with. My inbox was rapidly filling up as more and more of the messages flooded in, and I realised what was going on. John must have gotten a line back into the stalk, and he was pumping the network with program code, most likely a virus or a utility to overload the bandwidth. On the plus side that meant that they had received my message, and an attack on Ascension's infrastructure pretty much confirmed they were preparing for assault. On the flipside, this was the part where Liz and I were supposed to seek refuge while the Techtivists did their thing, but being held captive was probably going to put her _in_ the firing line rather than _out_ of it.

I unlocked full network access on my Comp and rapidly fired off a search for a vehicle directory. The results filtered in slowly; the overloaded network was already suffering and I doubted access would last much longer. I dumped the first few documents to my Comp and pulled them up as I started a new search for an area map. The result came through just in time; my network access dropped as the foreign code accomplished its task of disrupting communications.

I overlayed the co-ordinates from the vehicle list on to the map, swiping and flicking to zoom in to what I was reasonably confident was my current location. I could see the stalk platform labelled _Sallustria Docks Access_ , and the farmstead showed up as _Program 3 Test Site_ , and from those I was able to guess where in the forest I was currently hiding. No vehicles showed up on the farm - just as I had expected - but there was a clearing marked _Program 2_ on the other side of a dividing tree line that was filled with tiny position markers. Okay, that would be my best bet.

Now that I had the information I needed, the attack on the network was pretty damn useful. Ascension wouldn't be able to track me, and they'd probably be so hung up on finding out what happened and fixing it that they wouldn't be expecting me to do... whatever the heck it was I was going to do. At least, that's what I was telling myself. Well, first things first, I need to get to this _Program 2_ place. The fastest route to the site would be to run directly through the farm, but I didn't want to push my luck. The network outage wouldn't affect this no-technology site, so I wouldn't have the luxury of confusion and panic that I hoped would be affecting the rest of Ark City. To play it safe I stuck to the tree-line, skirting the edge of enormous fields bearing a wild cornucopia of harvest. I reached the corner of the farm and, after activating the gyroscope in my Comp to maintain a straight path, delved deep into the forest towards my goal.

### CHAPTER NINETEEN

### E.F.

I was beginning to question the sincerity behind Edward's promise as we traversed the twists and turns of the enormous complex. Mum had not been waiting just inside the doors, as I had naively hoped. Instead we were greeted with a formidable security checkpoint staffed by two heavy-set modified males – not ascendants as they had full heads of hair – and one older woman seated behind a desk with a multi-tier, multi-display Comp. Edward had been ushered through with barely a second of hesitation but I had to undergo a thorough search. They took my Comp, discovered the edges of the flex-panelling that was covering my head and removed it – painfully -, and violated my privacy numerous times.

My wet, sticky hair clung to my face as we continued further into the surprisingly colourful facility. Blues, reds and yellows mixed together to present a vibrant facade that seemed as out-of-place in an Ascension facility as the natural environment outside. We passed though corridor after corridor, some with clear windows that looked into vast medical laboratories filled with fluids gushing through tubes and hospital beds only occasionally occupied by patients. Others revealed dull grey rooms that contrasted starkly with the neon brightness of the rest of the facility. The purpose of these rooms became evident after we passed the third, where a small group were testing weaponry against stationary and moving targets. The group had a mix of ordinary and modified humans, though none appeared to be ascendants. One of the modified women was attaching a small projectile launcher to a metal panel on her forearm. It clipped into place and she leant forward, sighting on one of the targets. A slick flick of her wrist sent an almost invisible dart shooting out and embedding itself into the torso of a padded dummy. Two seconds passed before a muffled explosion reached my ears and the dummy exploded in a cloud of smoke. I stopped walking and tried to stare through the cloud, but Edward reached back and pulled me along.

As we approached the ten minute mark of our sojourn through the complex the windows became opaque. Despite myself I was curious as to what lay beyond those dark panels, but Edward pressed on and brought us to another checkpoint, this one just a small guardhouse next to a door with the words _Containment Zone_ etched on its surface. As my gaze drew across those black letters I found myself momentarily breathless, before a rush of anger flooded my senses and I lunged at Edward, barely restraining myself in time.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?!" I screamed at Edward's back; he had been talking to the guard through the window of his hut. My hands were outstretched, strangling an invisible neck half a metre behind his own. Edward turned and just shook his head disapprovingly, causing my anger to rise even higher. I took another step closer before I caught a hold of myself.

"Elizabeth, Elizabeth. You really must develop some patience. Your mother is fine, as I told you before, and if you could just contain your murderous intent for another few minutes, you would realise that for yourself." The door in front of us slid open extremely slowly, crawling as if it were intentionally trying to build the tension. I stood shaking, my arms still outstretched in a death grip, while Edward sauntered through the doorway and into a cavernous hall. The far wall was lined with doors, each leading to a large, transparent cell. No privacy here. Aside from that one concession, however, this 'containment' area seemed more like a set of apartments than a prison.

My curiosity and yearning to see Mum drove me onwards, my body continuing to shake as my rage refused to die, and as I drew closer to the cells I was able to see just what they contained. They were outfitted like open-plan apartments: a kitchen area, a living area with projection Comp and couch, an exposed bathroom, a sleeping pod, a wardrobe. The furniture and appliances appeared modern and in good condition, aside from a few crinkled bed-sheets and empty meal packs that had been left lying around. Edward was walking towards a cell four down from the one I was peering into, and I leapt frantically at the possibility that Mum was inside. I glanced sideways as I ran but no occupants were visible in the cells that I passed. My eager searching very nearly caused me to collide with my captor, but I slid to a stop just in time and followed his gaze into the room beside us. MUM! She was sitting on the couch, watching a projection with her legs curled up under her body. I swept my eyes over her frantically, terrified to find any signs of injury that would suggest rough treatment. I slammed my hands onto the thin barrier between us and screamed.

"MUM!!! MUM!!!" My hands pounded against the surface, but there was no reaction from within.

"Soundproofed, Elizabeth, you should have known that. Now before I open this door-"

"OPEN THE DAMN DOOR, NOW!" I ran to the door panel and smashed at it furiously, succeeding only in hurting my hand as it demanded authorisation. Edward sighed heavily.

"Very well. Please move aside." He stepped forward and swept his Comp near the panel. The door did not open, and I stared at the panel readout impatiently as a spinning disc hovered above the word ' _Authenticating..._ ' I glared at Edward, fed up with his every attempt to prevent me from seeing Mum. He was frowning too though, a furrowed brow that marked the most emotion I had seen him exhibit yet. I glanced over his shoulder as the door we had arrived through opened again with a steady rumble. A thin, young man came sprinting in, swinging his head wildly as he scanned the room. His gaze fell on us, and he bolted over with an almost mortified expression. His face was turning red and his breathing was hard, but he did not stop to catch his breath.

"Network... overload... Someone... flooding bandwidth... Have to... reset... system... Block comms... to Sallustria." He gasped for desperate gulps of air between his words. Edward responded by letting a rush of air escape through gritted teeth.

"Don't bother me with the details, just do it. And get somebody working on a full report. I want to know who did it, and how." The young man nodded, spun around, and set off again in the direction he had come. Edward looked mildly frustrated, with his mouth drawn into a thin line and his brow creased. He turned to me and narrowed his eyes.

"You don't happen to know anything about this, do you Elizabeth?" His question was delivered with less suspicion and more exhaustion. I couldn't tell whether he really thought I was involved, or if he was just covering his bases. Regardless, my heart was thumping so hard against my chest I was certain that Edward would be able to hear it. I held my face as straight as I could, gritting my teeth behind my lips while I decided how best to reply. Had Derek succeeded in the mission? Was this network thingy his work, or John's, or just a coincidence? Should I tell Edward the truth? I was so close to being reunited with Mum, maybe I should just tell him everything, let him know what the Techtivists had planned. It's not like I needed them anymore; I was only one thin wall away from having Mum back.

I broke Edward's gaze and my eyes drifted back into Mum's cell. Despite the plush interior, Mum was still a prisoner. As great as having her back would be, what was the plan then? It's not like we could just walk out of here and go home. Edward wanted me for something, something so big he was prepared to kidnap and murder – I wasn't fooled by his claims to the contrary - for it. All of Edward's justifications meant squat. No matter how pure his intentions, it didn't change the fact that he gave the order for Mum to be taken from me. I mustered my courage and hardened my face. I needed to convince him that I was telling the truth, then get Mum and somehow get the hell of out here. If Derek _had_ managed to contact John, his people might be on their way right now. If we could just hide somewhere until it was all over... If, if, if. Damn it! How did I end up in this situation?

I spun my head back and met Edward's gaze. It was starting to grow suspicious.

"No. I have no clue what you're talking about. Now can you _please_ open this friggin' door?!" I refrained from screaming but my words were thick with poison, anger masking my nerves and lending strength to my voice. Edward's face softened slightly and he pursed his lips as he pocketed his Comp and went straight to the door panel. His hand flicked through a variety of rejected gestures before the door finally whisked open with a sigh. Through the clear panels I saw Mum turn, saw the dark shadows beneath her eyes, and I pushed past Edward with a stifled cry. Happiness and sadness both vied for supremacy over my face as I ran towards the couch, staring deep into Mum's eyes and trying to convey the indescribable relief I felt from knowing she was safe and well. Her face rose from despair into the joyful radiance I knew so well. I leapt over the back of the couch and threw my arms around her, holding her so tight that she struggled for breath and I had to loosen my grip. I refused to let go for a full minute before I finally pulled my head back and kissed Mum's cheek.

"I missed you so much!" Tears were rolling down my face, an unstoppable torrent of emotional release. Mum was stroking her hands up and down my arms, and swept her eyes over me with a cautious smile.

"Are you okay sweetie? Did anyone hurt you? They wouldn't tell me where you were, or what was happening! I've been so worried!" Mum's look of concern caused me to let loose a sob that had been building in my throat.

"YOU were worried? I've been terrified that Ascension were doing all sorts of horrible things to you! And it's my fault they took you! I don't know why, but they want me for something and they took you as ransom! This is all just so...horrible!" I flew forward and hugged Mum tight again, and we held each other as we trembled with emotion. I lost track of time as we huddled together, but eventually Mum pulled away and stood up, looking past me back to the door.

"What do you want my daughter for?" she demanded, the warmth and love that she had been addressing me with replaced with furious authority. I turned and saw Edward standing in the doorway, as patient as ever with his calm and collected expression and his hands clasped behind his back.

"As I have told you daughter, Mrs Finlea, there is something I would like to show you that I am certain will answer most, if not all of your questions. Please follow me and do hurry; this network disruption is something I fear I will have to personally address rather soon." Mum glared at his back as he turned and left the room. I took her hand in mine and gently pulled her after him.

"C'mon Mum, I don't think we really have much choice. If he wanted to hurt us, I think he would have done so already."

Mum maintained her piercing stare as we followed Edward out and back down the corridor. I was overjoyed at having her back safe and sound, but I now had to think further ahead to some sort of escape. Whatever it was that Edward was so intent on showing us wasn't going to change my mind; I wanted to get off this floating absurdity and back home as soon as possible. I was voraciously hoping that the Techtivist assault was imminent, but the cold and logical part of my brain demanded a plan B. Unfortunately, I couldn't really see Mum and I fighting our way through an entire complex of Ascension's goons, and this place was far too big and confusing to have a hope of sneaking away without getting lost. That left talking our way out, and given Edward's unrelenting perspicacity I ranked that even lower than going commando. No, I'm pretty sure our hopes lay in Derek and John's hands. I crossed the fingers of my free hand and focused on the one thing that I had some measure of control over: keeping myself and Mum safe long enough for help to arrive. IF it arrived.

### CHAPTER TWENTY

### D.K.

Trekking through the forest towards the clearing was taking far longer than expected. Looking at the map it had seemed such a short distance. I had expected to reach my destination in approximately fifteen minutes but, according to my Comp, I had already been walking for over an hour and there was still no sign that I was getting any closer. Thin beams of sunlight broke through the canopy above, motes of dirt and dust visible in the air until I passed through and disturbed them. I was starting to get tired and thirsty, and my pace had slowed from an eager jog to a steady walk. I pulled the map up again, probably the fifth time in as many minutes, and stared uselessly at the patch of forest between the farm and the clearing. I sighed and lowered my arm, striding forward and squinting my eyes into the brush ahead, willing it to break apart and reveal the open space I desired. This time the tangle of forest ahead really did seem to thin out and my energy levels jumped back up. I broke into an easy jog as gaps began appearing in the trees and a lighter shade of green became visible.

A grassy valley took form between the bushes and the trees, dozens of enormous structures rising high into the sky while numerous smaller buildings lay scattered around their bases. The forest receded and I found myself standing at the edge of a small cliff with a commanding view of the clearing. My eyes were immediately drawn to a group of vast, transparent domes, enclosing what appeared to be obstacle courses of some kind. Within the closest I could see climbing apparatuses, fabricated mini-mountains, jagged trenches and endless other variations on physical impediments, many of which I had tackled myself in IN-VIs. Another dome appeared to be filled with water; stringy green fronds formed a jungle on the dome floor while indistinct shapes patrolled the depths, never getting close enough to be distinguishable. Yet another dome seemed to contain nothing but white smoke until a swarm of flying figures exploded through the puffy surface, leaving looping trails of cloud behind them as they swooped and disappeared back into the mist. I stood motionless, absorbing the absurdities of the valley city, a startling new sight greeting me everywhere I looked. It wasn't until my eyes came to rest on an enormous donut-shaped landing platform that I remembered what I was supposed to be doing and snapped out of my reverie.

At first I thought it was a sports field of some kind: a concentric ring of audience benches surrounding a synthetically cushioned court surface. It wasn't until what I had thought were concession stands resolved into sleek single-person skiffs and mundane cargo haulers that I realised what I was looking at. The ringed platform slanted and staggered inward in all but one place, with a powered transit ramp leading from the main valley thoroughfare to the centre of the ring. Within resided access to another stalk, the two circular lift platforms identical to the one Liz and I had arrived on. Once again the thought of escape crossed my mind, but I shook my head and smashed it back in disgust. I was _not_ going to abandon Liz! It's not like I would have been able to sneak out anyway; the actual lifts were back down in Sallustria and spiralling silver hatches capped the chutes. I would need to call one of the platforms up and wait if I wanted to leave, and that would have been sure to attract attention. In truth it still probably would have been easier than stealing a vehicle and finding Liz was going to be, but at least then – even if I failed - I wouldn't have her fate on my conscience too.

Making my way down to the platform proved to be significantly more difficult than it had looked. From above it had seemed only a gradual slope, with plenty of rubble to use as handholds. As I descended, however, I realised that the incline quite severe, and the rocky surface tore at my hand when I tried to grab hold. Eventually, through a combination of barely controlled slides and hand-over-hand scrabbling, I made it to the bottom of the cliff face. A thin strip of overgrown brush separated me from the end of the main thoroughfare, with the landing platform and its selection of ships a few hundred metres down the road. There was no convenient cover beyond the bushes, but as I dropped my head in thought the sight of my dull grey disguise jogged my memory. The suit was muddy and stained from my trek through the forest but the flexi-panel was still in place on my head, and as far as I could tell my façade was intact.

From my vantage point on the cliff the site had appeared to be a hive of activity, at least in comparison to the farm. If I moved fast enough nobody would have time for a second glance, and I might be able to get to a ship without incident. Whether I could gain access and fly one away was another question, but I could deal with that when the time came. I scrambled through the tangle of leaves and branches, ducking and weaving to avoid catching my suit on any sharp thorns, and emerged at the end of the long causeway stretching the length of the valley. There were a few people hanging around the smaller buildings at this end of the thoroughfare, so I broke into a brisk walk to avoid raising suspicion at my odd point of entry. Many of the structures I passed appeared to be storehouses, which made sense given their proximity to the stalk. I assumed this is where they kept goods before they were sent down on the lifts or were forwarded somewhere else in Ark City. I was curious as to where this stalk connected to back in Sallustria; if their shipping required so much storage space, what was it they were shipping? And what was it for?

A steady flow of people materialised in the distance; a liquid tide streaming on and off the automated walkway that connected the landing platform with the main street. I had managed to keep my distance from other pedestrians so far, but that wasn't going to be possible any longer. As the individual figures in the crowd began to take form I noticed a distinct lack of metal and flashing lights. No modifications, no ascendants, just ordinary humans. I began to worry my disguise was going to attract more attention than it was worth, but underneath the tell-tale grey suit I had only underwear, and I was pretty confident that would be even worse. I maintained my pace, lifting my head high in an attempt to instil an air of authority to my gait, and joined the bustle of people making their way inside the landing ring. I peered out of the corner of my eyes at my fellow passengers, but it seemed I warranted little more than a cursory glance as they went about their business. The walkway shuffled us into the shadow of the ring, the illuminated panels of the tunnel quite dim after the brightness of the afternoon sun. Music and advertising chants broke through the steady murmur of the crowd, startling me and bringing my attention to the rows of storefronts arrayed along the inner tunnel walls. Food vendors and cafes were serving patrons as they stepped off the walkway, their day's work shunted aside for a quick break. The intoxicating scent of frying food wafted through the air and made my mouth water, and I debated stopping for something to eat and drink before remembering that I had no way of paying. I couldn't exactly use my Comp, could I? As a matter of fact, I didn't even know how the economy up here worked. Did they have centralised bank accounts hooked up to the network like we did?

Thoughts of the network led me to the realisation that all of the businesses around me were functioning normally, despite the communications disruption earlier. I pulled out my Comp and confirmed that, yep, the wireless connection had been re-established. They must have finally reset the system and blocked John's denial-of-service attack. I pocketed my Comp as the walkway shot me out of the tunnel and back into the brilliant sunlight. Through half-shut eyes I surveyed the broad range of vessels as landing gear deployed, airlocks _hissed_ through their pressure cycles, and engines sang their whining chorus. I had no idea which ship to start with, nor any real clue as to how I would go about 'acquiring' any of them. What I needed was a plan.

I slid off the end of the walkway and moved out of the flow of traffic, my hand absent-mindedly scratching my chin as I ran all manner of ludicrous suggestions through my head. I had barely discounted half a dozen harebrained schemes when the two silver end-caps peeled back from the lift platforms, drawing the attention of myself and a few other loitering individuals. I had expected cargo shipments or possibly a new arrival, and after a brief, cursory glance I returned my eyes to the ground and continued strategizing. I snapped my head back frantically as my brain actually processed what I had seen. The unmistakeable blue and white pattern of the Enforcement Bureau, repeated across power-suited Enforcers, patrol shuttles and two mammoth detainment vehicles. A booming, electronically enhanced voice rose up from the midst of the forces.

"Attention Ark City residents. This is the Enforcement Bureau. We have in our possession warrants for the detainment of the corporate leaders of Ascension for crimes the group has committed. Please remain calm and return to your homes to ensure you do not obstruct the course of justice."

### CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

### E.F.

Edward led us down another slew of endlessly contorting corridors, occasionally stealing glances at his Comp and frowning or _tsking_ under his breath. Mum and I walked with an arm around each other, treasuring the warmth and comfort the day had sorely lacked. I held her as tight as I could, afraid that at any moment she might be torn away again. I couldn't believe we had only been separated for a day; it had felt like a year, and I _never_ wanted to have to go through it again.

As we followed our captor, I filled Mum in on the explosive chain of events that had propelled me back to her. By the end I could barely breathe for how tight she was squeezing me. She promised to never let me out of her sight again, and swore that when we got out of here we were moving far away from Sallustria. I envied her confidence in our escape. I guess it _was_ possible Edward would let Mum go, but he hadn't gone to this much trouble for _me_ just to let me leave again.

After reluctantly releasing me from her iron grip, Mum relayed the story of her capture and subsequent incarceration. A pair of Enforcers (clearly in Ascension's back pocket) had arrived at the apartment and requested access on the basis of an important enquiry. Mum had no reason to doubt them, and had let them in to conduct their investigation. Once inside, one of the Enforcers had distracted her with idle banter while the other must have drugged her or something. The next thing she knew, Mum had found herself waking up inside the confines of her not-quite-a-cell. Edward had eventually paid her a visit and run down the situation: that I was safe, that this would all be over soon, and that she was free to use whatever amenities she desired.

When I realised that Mum had completely missed witnessing the breathtaking majesty of Ark City, I gave her an exhaustive recount of every wonder I had seen. She was as shocked and intrigued as I was; what on earth was Ascension's motive here? What were they getting out of spending so much time and money on recreating such an inefficient yet undeniably beautiful environment?

Our conversation broke off as we arrived at an elevator lobby and Edward turned to look at us. His face had adopted a permanent scowl, though it was tempered enough to suggest he was still in control of his emotions.

"This lift will carry us to our destination. When we arrive, you will undoubtedly feel a little displaced by your surroundings, but please, remain calm and do not act under the influence of your immediate emotions, _Elizabeth_. As I have been forced to say far too many times now, I will explain everything in time. So be prepared to listen, because this will alter your perception of not only Ascension, but the world itself."

With that ominous prediction he turned back to the elevator panel, relying on a manual series of gestures to get the lift to accept his authorisation. I stared at Mum with my eyebrows raised and she pursed her lips and frowned. My heart fluttered slightly. Edward had a way with words, but even so a small voice in the back of my mind wondered if it wasn't all just garbage. It was only a weak chirp though, and it was quickly drowned out by insistent questions of what exactly it could be that was so life changing. What was down there that made Edward so confident that our perception would change? Could it possibly justify his actions today?

The lift doors shuttered open and Mum and I stepped in behind Edward. He stood facing the doors with the slightly perturbed air he had carried since learning the network system had collapsed. Thinking of the disruption reminded me of Derek, and I patted my pockets for the Comp that was not there. Damn it. Even though I had no idea whether it would work or not, I wanted to at least _try_ and contact him to see if he was okay. I owed him my life multiple times over, and I was never going to be able to repay him for that. I guess it didn't really matter at the moment anyway; Mum and I were still prisoners, and we would remain that way until John and his Techtivists succeeded. _If_ they succeeded. _If_ they were even coming at all. I banished that depressing thought from my mind; there was nothing to gain from worrying about something that was completely out of my control.

The steady rumble of the elevator ceased as we arrived at our target floor. Edward strode forward as the doors slid apart, stepping aside to afford us full view of our surroundings. I had been dumbstruck by the natural environment Ascension had crafted outside, but that didn't even come close to the absolute incomprehension I felt as I gaped around the hemispherical dome we found ourselves in. The enormous curving surface was clear and offered a window into a sea of thick green-yellow liquid. And floating inside that liquid were...brains. Engorged human brains. Each was surrounded by a weird mechanical apparatus, a twisted contortion of tubes and wires sprouting from creases in the grey-pink mass and disappearing into a canister mounted underneath. At least a dozen were visible, but with the liquid gloom deepening the further back it went, there could have been hundreds more hidden away for all I knew.

Shifting my gaze back into the room, I discovered a large cylindrical tube rising from the centre of the floor, spilling open at the top to join with the sickly coloured sea outside. Hovering just above head height within the narrow tank was a single enormous brain, bobbing gently to and fro on a thin stream of bubbles. Unlike the others, the cables protruding from this one did not connect to the mounted canister, instead spiralling down the tube and disappearing behind a curving bank of flickering command terminals. While my eyes soaked in all the obscure details, my brain whirred frantically as it tried to make sense of the nightmare scene before me. I felt like I had jumped into a horror virtual, and I was just waiting for the screech of violin to announce the arrival of some demonic hell-creature bent on sating its bloodlust. I could feel Mum's vice-like grip digging into my skin, and I knew without looking that she was as bewildered as I was. I caught Edward staring at us, a look of amusement replacing the scowl on his face.

"What the fuck is going on here? How does this explain anything? What the fuck does this have to do with me?" Mum let go of my arm as I threw my hands around in my confused rage. Things just kept getting crazier and crazier, and I was starting to sincerely believe it was all some sort of fever dream. Any second now I was going to wake up. Any second. Edward gave me his now familiar shake of the head.

"Before I reveal to you the significance of our current location, please pick a number." I stared at him with my mouth agape, speechless. What the hell was he on about?

"Please Elizabeth, envision a random number in your head, then go and have a look at the console over there."

Edward pointed to the terminals set up in front of the central tube and its bobbing brain. I stumbled over, my head reeling from my surroundings, and thought of the number 42. It was stupid, but my curiosity willed me on. I planted my hands on the front of the console for balance and blinked my eyes clear before staring at the projected displays. Reams of text were grouped into paragraphs, each with a large flashing percentage value in the top corner that increased and decreased in small increments every few seconds. I started reading the one on the top of the primary display; it was also the one with the largest number: 63.7%. I almost collapsed as I absorbed the words in front of me. The paragraph was a description of my movements since exiting the lift, but not simply from a third-person perspective. It described what I had been thinking, my reactions to what I had seen, and, most worrying of all, the number that I had imagined while approaching the console: 42.

I couldn't believe what I was looking at. Was this some kind of joke? But it couldn't be; the details seemed too accurate to be simple guess work. Could this enormous fleshy mass in front of me be reading my mind somehow? No, that's ridiculous! I hurriedly read the other paragraphs. They were mostly just slight variations on the first one, with different thoughts and different numbers but the same chain of events. However, in one, after surveying the room I apparently leapt on Edward and started biting him. Hmm, maybe that's not such a bad idea...

"What the fuck is this? Are you playing some kind of fucked-up mind game with me?"

"Liz!" shouted Mum, frowning half-heartedly at my use of expletives before returning to her slack-jawed study of the room. Edward just smiled grimly and motioned me back to where he stood. I hesitated, but once again my curiosity got the better of me and I groggily staggered towards him.

"Now that you are adequately prepared, I can explain. Most citizens of Sallustria are under the impression that our ascendance procedure can miraculously increase the potential of their brains, bestowing the gift of boundless intelligence on their mundane little lives. Unfortunately, as much as I wish that were true, it is simply not the case. The truth is far more complex. For you to understand, I must begin with the inception of our defining goal.

"Many years ago, when we made our first real breakthrough into expanding mental capacity, we were utterly thrilled. I can recall my father coming home, the grin on his face and the spring in his step. We celebrated that night, he and I, in recognition of the achievement he himself had championed. I was already part of Ascension, his dream, climbing the scientific ladder to join my father as a colleague, a peer. But the very next day we discovered that our test patient had perished in the night; even with the life support systems functioning optimally he succumbed to brain death as his body ran out of oxygen. The team was mortified, all the more so for the assurances my father had made on the safety of the procedure. It was non-invasive; he had claimed the worst possible outcome would be none at all. He had only installed the life support systems to satisfy the safety regulations. His partners - those he had once called his friends - turned on him, blamed him for the young man's death. He was harassed, abused and threatened with expulsion from the medical profession. He could not handle the shame. He took his life that next night, in the confines of our study, poison still dribbling from the syringe when I stumbled in to investigate the noise."

Edward's face was still, a lump forming in his throat as a single tear wavered in the corner of his right eye. He swallowed hard before continuing.

"All was not lost, however. My father had devoted his life to unlocking the secrets of the human brain, and I was _not_ going to let his vision die with him. There were still people within the company who shared his beliefs, who thought that the procedure was worthy of refinement. I collected them, and we abandoned the city to pursue my father's dream without the tyranny of rules and regulations. We spent years attempting to recreate the procedure in a synthetic form but to no avail. The research required human test subjects, there was no alternative. It proved frightfully difficult to obtain subjects who met the very selective criteria, especially from our remote location, and our progress was excruciatingly slow. What we succeeded in discovering, however, was that with the heightened mental ability came an increased need for oxygen. Incredible amounts, such that the human body alone could not support. So we eliminated the fragile flesh from the equation, and what you see before you is the result. These are the _real_ ascendants."

He gestured to the floating brains, their throbbing pink masses so absurd I could barely believe they were real.

"You mean those are _living_ brains?!" I cried incredulously. Edward nodded affirmation, no change to his solemn expression.

"Through the use of support frames and this oxygen-rich liquid compound, we have been able to keep the brains functioning in their elevated capacity. Alas, no sooner had we celebrated this victory that we uncovered another pitfall with our procedure." I was already mortified at the travesty Edward had confessed to; the possibility of something worse chilled me to my very core.

"These ascendants, so full of incredible potential, are little more than terribly efficient organic computers. They have lost all sense of self, their individuality stripped away until all that is left is non-autonomous function. They are capable of responding to queries or external stimuli - the computer analogy is apt in this regard – but they possess no self-motivation." Edward sighed. "Processing power beyond anything the world has ever seen, but with as little intelligence as a door." He hung his head and rubbed his temples.

"What the f-" I started to scream, but he flipped his head up and cut me off with a fierce scowl.

"Quiet!" The shout came as a frightening surprise; there was more emotion in that one word than in all he had spoken up to that point. I was so startled I took a step back and clamped my mouth shut. Edward took a deep breath and went on.

"We were ready to abandon all hope. I had fallen victim to misery; that foul, most heinous mistress. I had let my father down, failed to accomplish his lifelong dream. How could we call what we had achieved evolution if it required giving up everything that made life unique?

"We set about finalising our study, preparing to dismantle our operation after the conclusion of a final few desperate experiments. One of our testers, suffering an existential crisis in the wake of our actions, asked the question: _What will I do now?_ Expecting the typical mute response that had accompanied all non-computational questions, we were bewildered when a reply was projected on the display. It was a comprehensive essay on all the possible outcomes of that day, from the perspective of our despondent tester. Paragraph upon paragraph of alternate futures, from returning to his family in the living quarters, to going out for a celebratory drink after discovering that the ascendants could perceive the time-line as a fourth dimension. Each outcome was assigned a probability percentage, and even as we looked on in silence those numbers were changing, oscillating up and down as time drew us closer and closer to the futures it had depicted. Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day interrogating the ascendants, attempting to coax similar predictions on other topics, other people. The vast majority of questions failed to elicit response, but enough bore fruit for us to discern patterns and prove that it was not merely a farce. Relatively innocuous events, such as bumping into a wall or knocking over a chair, served as grounds for our initial proof that the ascendance procedure had triggered a sixth sense: the ability to perceive the flow of time surrounding a particular object or person.

"Further testing verified what many of us had expected even as we celebrated; time perception was an imprecise art rather than a methodical science, and even when we received a response to our queries it was most often vague. For instance, all information they provided was presented from the perspective of the examiner, a quirk that significantly limited its usefulness. This did not stop us, however, and with a renewed sense of purpose we began constructing a timeline of the future."

Edward paused for a second and took a deep breath. I was rooted to the spot, transfixed by his horrific tale. A smile played across his lips as he met my gaze, and it was clear that he was revelling in his captive audience. He eagerly continued.

"We devoted ourselves to calculating the probabilities of war, famine, natural disasters, political upheaval; every magnanimous pursuit we could imagine. We intended to return to Sallustria with these fluctuating figures and operate behind the scenes to promote stability and avert disaster. It may not have been what my father had envisioned, but I would have taken pride in working for the benefit of all humanity, even if it necessitated a few souls sacrificed to lead civilization into a golden age. Alas, once again, our plans crumbled to dust in the harsh light of a new discovery." Another pause, another deep breath.

"The timeline we were compiling was approaching the ten-year mark. We had a series of routine questions that we would ask, querying each day in turn - as moving any faster had achieved naught but nonsensical gibberish and, on occasion, subject expiration. It was during a typical round of questioning that one of our testers cried out; the ascendant he had been interrogating had perished, its vital signs flat-lining without apparent cause. As we watched, one by one all other ascendants undergoing testing expired, a chorus of life support alarms that I can still recall with vivid clarity." Edward shuddered, almost imperceptibly.

"We halted further testing while we pulled the support logs to determine exactly what had occurred. We could find no physical cause, no indication of why the ascendants had suddenly ceased to function in spite of the life support systems in place. We looked to the questions being asked to see if there existed some connection between each death. There was. Each query had been concerned with a particular date, the furthest point we had reached in the timeline. We confirmed our assertion three times; the ascendants could not see anything beyond that date, and would expire in the attempt. We waited, desperate to learn more but lacking sufficient test subjects to replace our losses. After a month we presented the query again; the same date, now a month closer. Again we received the same result, and another ascendant was lost.

"My colleagues and I were becoming increasingly convinced that this foretold the coming apocalypse; something so catastrophic that it tore the very fabric of time asunder. We sought direct advice from the ascendants themselves, asking what it could mean if a particular question resulted in the termination of one of their kind. From their vague responses we managed to deduce that it indicated time was imperceptible beyond that point; that some event would occur that completely rewrote humanity's future. By this point we had only two functioning ascendants and no remaining test subjects; even asking broad questions regarding this possible Armageddon had caused a few of the ascendants to perish. We needed more information but we lacked the resources. So we created the 'Ascendance Program': a ruse designed to supply us with a steady stream of fresh test subjects to fuel further studies. We were so certain that we would only require a few more ascendants, just a few more questions to determine the cause of this impending cataclysm and how we could prevent it. Given that you are here, you can see that was not the case."

Edward exhaled, his shoulders drooping and the dejected look back on his face. This time it was quite noticeable.

"I am sure that those Techtivist friends of yours gave you their own version of our return to Sallustria. In truth, it is possible that it was not that fallacious. We harnessed the remaining ascendants to devise the schematics for Ark City, with the primary purpose being a display of incredible technological advancement, even if it was only a façade."

Edward stopped, this time visibly out of breath and appearing tired beyond his years. He stared at me with weary eyes, an almost pleading look on his face as if he sought confirmation for his actions. I wasn't going to be the one to provide it.

"Wha-?" My mouth was hanging open and my head was cocked on its side, questions clashing violently on the battlefield of my mind. Incomprehension plagued my thoughts, but one realisation managed to find purchase: Ascension was luring people here under false pretences and harvesting them for their brains. Plucking out the useful bits and discarding the rest like trash. I managed to choke out a weak response.

"You're a fucking monster." Edward's face tightened into a frown, all traces of age and weakness replaced by stern disapproval.

"Elizabeth, you _must_ realise the importance of our work! The fate of Sallustria, of the entire world is at stake! We have made hard decisions, bad decisions, but they have been necessary evils perpetrated for the greater good! Tell me, what would you have done different in my place? What benevolent course of action would you have followed?" His voice was beginning to show signs of fury now, the volume increasing and occasional cracks appearing in his speech. My head was finally starting to match the furious pace the conversation was careening at, and I found I could string more than four words together again.

"I- I don't know! How about just telling everybody! If- if you're not making this up then why didn't you just explain the situation-"

"Bah!" Edward interrupted me emphatically. "And you expect people would have believed us? You would have dismissed everything I just said had I not personally shown you what the ascendants can do." He had a point there; I was still trying to decide whether it was him or the world itself that had gone bat-shit insane.

"W-well why didn't you show them _that_ , then?" I pointed to the central terminals and the dull green tube rising up behind them.

"And trust that they would not think it a ruse? A scheme designed to extort something from them? Would they not be blinded to the greater purpose, seeing only malicious intent in the acts we have committed?"

"But- but why did you have to make more of these... these _brains_? You say you already know when the world's supposed to end, so why the fuck are you slaughtering more innocent people?!" I was starting to scream, both from the atrocities Edward was revealing and my inability to comprehend them.

"Prepare? Prepare? And what could we possibly have prepared for an apocalypse we knew nothing about? Should we have built an underground bunker, only to find out that the threat was subterranean? No. We needed more information. There was no other way." Edward's rage was slowly taking him over, his calm and confident demeanour long gone as his emotions began to take control. Even amidst the complete and utter confusion of the situation I could feel fear bubbling away at the back of my mind. This man had done bad things, _really_ bad things, and it was becoming clear that he wanted me to be a part of it.

"So what, you test people back in Sallustria and if they fit the bill you bring them here and scoop out their brains?" I could hear my voice begin to waver as the terror tightened its stranglehold grip.

"Not quite. Contrary to what you believe, we are not evil. Having established our presence here in Sallustria, we found ourselves inundated with viable candidates, and we did indeed make use of them to replenish our stock." I was appalled at the way he referred to human beings as 'candidates' and 'stock'. He was trying to distance himself from their humanity; it was probably the only way he could fall asleep at night.

"But we were not about to strip every subject of their humanity unless it was absolutely necessary; we are not monsters. We have instituted a baseline contingent of ascendants, and we only dip into the pool of candidates when one dies and must be replaced. We endeavour to ensure minimal losses in our investigations, with innumerable precautionary measures and safety protocols in place. And as you saw at Site Three, we do not lock the candidates away like common criminals; we provide them with every possible comfort that Ark City has to offer. The life they can seize here is a vast improvement on the oppression and squalor they previously suffered, and, in many cases, they will never be required to undergo the ascendance operation. They will live out their days in peace and productivity, aiding us in our endeavour to control the EOT.

"I take no pleasure in any of this, Elizabeth, and neither do my colleagues, but we are prepared to do what must be done to save humanity." Edward _really_ had a way with words. His explanation had sparked something inside of him, emotions steaming up from the depths of his core to infuse his voice with hope, grief, anger, frustration, pride.

The overload of information was stampeding through my brain, pummelling me from all sides, and I struggled hopelessly to come to grips with the full scope of Edward's revelation. Was it true? Was the world really in danger, or was this all part of some complex scheme to convince us that he wasn't so evil after all? The 'prediction' I had seen on the console display seemed unfathomably accurate, but could it have been faked? But then why would Edward lie to us, _here_ , when there was no value in it? This was his city. He was in control and we were his prisoners; he had nothing to gain from trying to convince us he was telling the truth. So, if it _was_ true, why was he telling _us_? What did he want from me? I snapped back from my inner dialogue and tried to focus my unsteady eyes on Edward's drained expression.

"Why are you telling us all this? Aren't you just going to cut me open and take my brain anyway? What good is knowing all this if you're just going to kill me?"

I was shocked at how steady my voice was, considering I was talking about my own impending death. Unfortunately, my head was not so resilient, and the room in front of me started to swirl. That awful hot/cold flush swept over me from head to toe, and I felt like I was about to faint. I swaggered and had to pirouette to regain my balance. Edward let out an exasperated sigh.

"We are not monsters, Elizabeth. Every single person who is admitted to Ark City is provided with the same information you just received. They deserve to know why what we are doing is necessary, how much is at stake, and their role in preventing catastrophe. There are many people living here who are not capable of becoming ascendants. They are the individuals who expressed enthusiasm in Ascension even after failing their tests. They exhibited dedication, motivation, and we rewarded them with the truth. Now they work here, of their own volition, assisting us in preparing for what is to come."

The flood of conflicting reactions finally took its toll on me, covering my vision with black spots and spinning my head in a tornado. I threw my hands out unsteadily and fell to the floor. I heard someone rush over and felt an arm slip under my shoulders. My mind had been so pre-occupied with churning over Edward's words that I had completely forgotten about Mum, and I reached out now to hold her close. She pressed my head to her chest and ran her hand through my hair. Before I knew it I was shaking; the ramifications of what Edward had told us were finally hitting home. We sat there in silence, holding each other tight, until Edward cleared his throat and I looked up, glaring into his piercing eyes.

"I understand that I have given you much to consider. Perhaps you would appreciate some time to ruminate on it? We will assign you proper housing tomorrow, wherever on Ark City you may wish to reside. There will an array of other things to attend to, but I believe they can be delayed for a few hours. For tonight, you both may use the facilities that we prepared for Jennifer."

He nodded at Mum and began walking towards the elevator before turning and looking at us expectantly.

"Regretfully, before you leave this facility we will need to install your tracking chips. A safety precaution, you understand." His confidence had returned and his face was once more locked in a stony, emotionless mask. Mum helped me stagger to my feet, and with shaky steps we stumbled towards the elevator. Mum kept her arm around me and bent down to whisper in my ear.

"This man is certifiably crazy. I want you to stay between me and him at all times. I will _not_ let him get his hands on you." I smiled despite myself. I had missed Mum so much in the last day, and all I wanted to do was cuddle up to her and escape from all this insanity. My smile faded slightly as I turned my head and whispered a reply.

"I don't know Mum, the things that were on that terminal...they were my thoughts. Maybe he's telling the truth. I mean, why would he lie to us? He has nothing to gain."

"I told you, dear, he's crazy."

"I hope you're right, Mum. I really do."

### CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

### D.K.

Up until the moment the Bureau arrived, the landing platform had been a steady swarm of people casually bustling about their daily business, the persistent buzz of conversation mingling with the clatter and whine of tools as engineers tweaked their vessels and pilots emptied their cargo. That had all stopped now though, and silence had fallen heavy and thick over the landing port. Every head was turned to face the central platforms where the fleet of Enforcers lay. No-one moved and no-one spoke. For a few seconds it seemed like I was in a virtual that had been corrupted; a moment in time frozen mid-stride. But then came the clatter of dropped equipment, the thunder of running feet, the yells and screams as people fled in all directions. I didn't understand what was going on. Why were these people scared? The Enforcers were after the icing on the top, not the plain dough underneath. It was only then that my mind ticked over and I realised that the Enforcers were here because of my message. It had worked! John had convinced them that Ascension needed to be brought down! Hell yes!

I smiled broadly and began striding towards the nearest fleet. I wouldn't have to steal a ship after all, I could just get one of the Enforcers to help me rescue Liz, or maybe even let them do it and go back home- No, I couldn't do that. I needed to save her, her and her mum, to try and erase some of the guilt for what I did to those... ascendants. I shivered at the thought of their bodies lying crumpled on the floor, twisted limbs and pooling blood and vacant eyes. I rubbed my hand over my forehead to try and massage the images away and frowned when I didn't feel the usual brush of my fringe. Oh yeah, the flex-panel! Shit! I forgot I was still disguised as an ascendant, and I had almost walked right up to the Enforcers. I dived behind a stack of crates and set about feeling for the small gap that had been left at the back of my neck. I got my finger underneath it and pulled, biting back a scream as the adhesive substance tore apart my skin. You were supposed to use heat to separate grafted components, but I didn't have the time or the tools. I gritted my teeth and pulled as hard as I could, tearing the panel off and throwing it to the ground in front of me. I ran my hand around my scalp, finding only minimal blood when I pulled my hand away. Phew. I shook my head and my damp hair flicked down in front of my eyes. I mussed it up to get rid of some of the sweat, then stepped out from behind the crates and continued towards the central platforms.

"Stop, citizen!" shouted the nearest Enforcer, a woman in a powered-suit who raised her hand and stared at me through the clear screen of her helmet. Behind her the rest of the forces were beginning to disperse amongst the crowd, pulling people aside as they tried to flee. I flashed a wide smile at the Enforcer and raised my hands, palms out, to ensure she did not see me as a threat.

"It's okay! I'm with John and the Techtivists! I'm one of the good guys!"

The woman opened her mouth to reply but before she could an explosion rang out behind her. She spun around and we both watched as smoke billowed up from the side of one of the detainment vehicles. I couldn't see much from where I was standing, but as a group of power-suits descended on a stocky figure trying to make his escape, I gathered that he had been involved. The female Enforcer launched into the air, leaping several metres in a single bound with the aid of the suit's mechanical legs, and joined her companions. A collection of dull _thumps_ rang out from the other side of the smoking vehicle, and I heard shouting as more Enforcers ran to investigate. Things were starting to get out of control. Some of the citizens had decided to fight back against the Enforcers and were launching a guerrilla-style attack with weapons they had suddenly acquired. I ran backwards as projectiles began peppering the ground in front of me and watched as one of the Enforcers launched a cylindrical canister from the power suit's arm into the air. It twirled end over end as it arced towards the tunnel entrance. A sharp _clang_ resounded as the canister hit the ground, bouncing once before it exploded in a rapidly expanding pink cloud. I wasn't exactly sure what the cloud was doing to the people it passed over - the mist was too thick to see through - but the sound of combat was fading even faster than it had arrived. Whatever it was, I was fairly certain I didn't want to be in the middle of it, so I spun around and ran up the landing ramp towards a group of gleaming cargo haulers. As I scrambled up the incline - falling onto all fours halfway up when my feet slid out from under me - I saw that the bay doors of one of the haulers sat wide open. If I could just get inside and close the doors, I should be safe from the effects of that pink gas.

I leapt up the boarding ramp and slapped my hand on the inside wall, searching for the door controls. The interior of the bay was much darker than outside, and my vision was practically useless while my eyes struggled to adjust. I kept sliding my hand up and down the wall until eventually a slight jolt and a faint whine confirmed that I had found the controls. The boarding ramp steadily ascended to seal the bay shut, and I stared through the steadily shrinking gap as the pink cloud continued its approach. A few seconds and the gap had closed, the ramp sealing shut with a _hiss_ of air, and I was momentarily blinded as the bay lights flickered on. My eyes had almost acclimated to the gloom, and the sudden illumination sent me reeling. I stumbled sideways and pin-wheeled my arms in an attempt to regain balance. My right hand slammed into something solid, and a sharp stabbing pain shot through my wrist as something heavy slid on to the floor with a _bang_. I managed to grab hold of a firm surface and pulled myself into a half-crouch, squatting there for a few seconds while I caught my breath. I stood up slowly and massaged my hand, blinking furiously to bring the room into focus and banish the stars from my eyes.

As details resolved, I got a good look at the object I had struck my hand on. It was a small crate, sitting on top of a stack of identically patterned crates, a stack not dissimilar to the one I had hidden behind outside. The lid must have been askew when my hand struck it, as it was now resting upside down on the floor. Looking inside the box revealed a row of neatly stacked carbonated beverages. Using my non-injured hand I opened a few of the other boxes and confirmed that they contained more of the same, as well as an assortment of pre-packaged foodstuffs. At a guess, I would hazard that this had been a delivery for one of the cafes or food stalls in the landing port entrance.

Now that my vision had returned, I gave the interior a thorough analysis. The stack of crates took up most of the bay, with the only other notable feature being the hallway that provided access to the rest of the ship. Taking a few steps forward and looking down the corridor, I could see that the cockpit door was open, and the insides were bathed in a soft pink glow. A glance through the front window revealed the cause; the Enforcer's gas weapon had completely enveloped the ship with its thick, puffy cloud. I took cautious steps down the hallway, peering into the few rooms that branched off the corridor before I passed to check for other occupants. I made it to the cockpit unmolested, and once there a quick scan determined that I was indeed alone aboard the ship. I let out a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding. Given their propensity for attacking intruders, I wasn't particularly eager to come face to face with the owner of the ship, or any other Ark City residents for that matter.

A flashing light caught my attention on the command console, and I slid into the pilot seat to take a closer look. The main display was projecting a protocol checklist sorts, with progress bars next to them that were steadily filling. Apparently closing the bay door had triggered the ship's start up sequence, and it was now verifying system integrity and warming the engines for lift-off. A small status box in the corner of the display read _M. Deveraux_ followed by a pilot ID. Whoever had been flying this thing had obviously left the system logged in while they unloaded the cargo! Yes! I pumped my fist excitedly and thanked my lucky stars. This meant I didn't have to mess around trying to bypass network authentication and break in to the ship's Comp.

As soon as the pre-flight check was complete, I assigned full power to the engines and prepared to take off. The controls seemed to be built off the standard vehicle framework, and had enough in common with the APT that I felt comfortable flicking through the various menus. I was searching for a scanner of some kind, something that would give me an indication of what was going on outside behind the impenetrable pink cloud. Unfortunately, the closest thing the cargo hauler had was a vehicle scanner, and that merely reported that there were still plenty of ships docked on the landing platform. Oh well, time to wing it and hope for the best.

The engines were primed so I slowly lifted the ship off the ground, vision returning as the smoke gradually dissipated. The hauler was an unwieldy beast compared to the APT, and I gave it a few experimental twitches to the right and left to see how responsively it handled. I ended up being a bit too enthusiastic with my first strafing swipe and the cockpit dipped sharply, nearly sending me tumbling out of the pilot seat. I corrected the overzealous tilt with another flick of my wrist and brought the ship back into a straight ascent. The mist outside had cleared enough for me to get a reasonable overview of the battlefield, for that is most certainly what it had become.

Bodies were strewn haphazardly over the platform, with the largest concentration in front of the exit tunnel. The two lift platforms in the centre were now only occupied by the enormous transport shuttles, with the Enforcers spread out, passing from body to body, running brief scans over them with their wrist mounted Comps. As I slowed the ascent and punched the viewport zoom closer, I noticed one of the Enforcers appeared to be pointing at me. Oh shit! The figure held up their arm, cocked something on the power suit, and then all I could see was the sky. Without even thinking about it I had swept my hand across the controls and pulled the ship into a steep, diagonal ascent. I ramped the engines back up to full capacity and began carefully twisting my wrist over the controls, jockeying the ship in an attempt at evasive manoeuvres. Without any sort of projectile detection system I had no clue how effective my attempts were, but seconds ticked by and I was still flying, so I figured they must be working. I gave it a full minute before I eased off the engines and brought the ship level again. I carefully spun the nose around and searched the sky for pursuers. I couldn't find any, and looking down I realised that I had left the landing platform far, far below. From this height, the valley was little more than a small oval pit, filled with even smaller scratches that marked the distant fabricated structures. Beyond the miniature city, rolling green hills fled into patchy forests, which themselves burst into enormous mountains and cliffs. It was quite a sight.

A blinking message on the side display brought me back to reality. _Please select destination_. Okay, time to find Liz. With the network back on, I would be able to use my trace program to track Liz's Comp. I'd have to do it from the ship's Comp, though, so I flipped mine out and started transferring the utility over. I pulled up Liz's authorisation certificate and sent that too. Without that, her Comp would deny any attempt at retrieving positioning data. The transfer complete, I ran the utility and watched as it tried to ping the Comp's location. _Error: Cannot establish connection_. Crap! I slapped my forehead as I realised my mistake. Liz's Comp was set up for the Sallustrian network, not Ark City's. And without network access on her end, the tracking utility was completely useless.

I slumped back into the seat, my head resting on my hands while I seethed a little over my stupidity. I needed a plan B. I pulled my right hand away - the pain from the incident before had subsided – and swiped through the various network utilities the ship's Comp had pre-installed. Docking assistant, emergency request, traffic map; none appeared to be of any real use to me. One thing did catch my eye though, the cargo manifest log. I pulled it up and watched as an exhaustive list of previous deliveries scrolled down the display. I began filtering out the mundane shipments; food and drink, power units, stuff labelled 'manure' for site three. Eventually this brought the list down to just three items. The first two were weapons shipments to site three which, while interesting, didn't really help me either. The third, though, proved to be very useful indeed.

_Test subject transfer to Containment Zone_. The inventory listing stated three human passengers. I switched to the map and fed the location data in. The view panned and zoomed over an enormous facility in the mountains, a description bubble popping out that read _Research and Development_. There was no mention of a 'Containment Zone', but it sounded like a prison or quarantine, and I can't imagine that would be something they'd want to advertise. Of course, there was no guarantee that Liz had been taken there, but it was the best option I had. I passed the details into the route planner and lined the hauler up on a direct course.

### CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

### E.F.

Our trip back to Mum's cell was significantly more sombre than our departure had been. Not that I was particularly happy before, but being reunited with Mum had helped me temporarily forget the terrifying situation we were in. Now, however, my heart and head were pounding furiously as I tried to make sense of what was going on. Was Edward, a man who appeared so utterly confident in himself, telling us the truth, or was it all part of some maniacal fantasy he had concocted? Could humanity really be at risk from some terrible, catastrophic event? I couldn't fathom a reason why Edward would lie; he had nothing to gain from convincing Mum and I. And I had seen what the ascendants could do when I had stepped up to the console. It knew what I had been thinking, what I had been feeling, and that was impossible... unless Edward was telling the truth.

I envied Mum's confidence in his lack of sanity, but I struggled to share it. There were too many other people involved, too many checks and balances in an organisation like Ascension for one crazy person to lead them on a deranged quest without ample proof. There had to be more to this. Here was an entire city convinced that Edward was right, that the apocalypse was fast approaching, and that frightened the hell out of me. Worse, irrespective of whether it was true, were the extreme measures they were taking to prevent it. Harvesting innocent people for their brains? I shuddered in revulsion, picturing the oversized blobs in their silver frames, bobbing silently in the thick green sludge of the tank. They were fooling people into thinking they were heading to a new life of incredible intelligence and instead turning them into fuel for their hideous experiments. This so-called ascendance procedure was all a ruse, one that even members of the Enforcement Bureau back in Sallustria were party to. I felt lost, wanting to do _something_ , but having no idea what. Did Ascension need to be stopped? What was worse, a possible end to all of humanity, or the monstrous atrocities Ascension were committing?

I was so absorbed in pondering conundrums that I didn't notice when Edward stopped halfway down the corridor, and I nearly ran into the back of him before Mum grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back. He was fiddling around in his pocket, eventually managing to pull out his vibrating Comp and flick it open. He proceeded to stare at it accusingly. Mum suddenly spun me around, her hand still on my shoulder, and began pulling me slowly back down the corridor, away from Edward. She started mouthing a countdown from three, pointing back at an open door we had passed on the way up. Before she got to one, however, Edward cried out in alarm, a startling break in his normally level demeanour. I glanced over my shoulder and saw him turning towards us, his eyes still locked to his Comp, and flung Mum's arm off my shoulder before spinning us both back around. When Edward looked up, his face scowling with more bewilderment than rage, he made no indication he'd noticed the increased distance between us.

"But, how..? Why was I not informed? Someone is going to pay for this, mark my words." He was mumbling to himself, staring in our direction without actually seeing us. His scowl was gradually darkening, adopting more fury, and an aura of rage seemed to distort the air around him. His eyes finally narrowed into focus, and he acknowledged our presence with a short, sharp nod.

"Right. You two, this way, now." Short, sharp tones. He motioned for us to walk ahead of him as he tapped away at his Comp. A voice connection was established, and he folded up the device and clipped it into his collar. As we walked past him, he began talking.

"Jules? Yes, _yes_ , I realise the network is back, how else would I be contacting you? Yes, I got the messages. How did they get in? Then find out! And get everything squared away, I will be there soon. Do everything you can to establish a line with them. I am currently heading through Containment, escorting Elizabeth and her mother. The new arrival, yes. Very well, keep me informed."

Edward was walking far enough behind us for the other side of the conversation to be nothing more than a dull buzz. The connection terminated with a beep, and we walked on in a silence only broken by Edward's terse directions. Curiosity was slowly overwhelming me, but before I could ask Edward anything, another one-sided conversation erupted.

"WHAT?! How could that happen? What incompetent _moron_ decided it was a grand idea to initiate a damn fire-fight? I swear, if this results in any more set-backs I will personally ensure the life of every single _cretin_ involved is so miserable, they will be begging for ascendance." Edward ripped his Comp from his collar and made to throw it to the ground, paused, thought better of it, and very deliberately put it back in his pocket.

" _Why_ must I suffer these _ignoramuses_? Are they incapable of realising that there are more important issues at play than their petty ethical concerns? Why must this happen _now_ , of all times?" Edward had stopped, was stooped over and rubbing his temples with his thumb and forefinger. He took a deep breath before straightening up and glaring at me, a fire burning behind his eyes that sent a chill down my spine.

"Move."

He had abandoned his steady demeanour, spitting out the word as if it was poison to be ejected from his body. Without hesitation I spun around and continued walking, swallowing hard as I felt his eyes burning blisters onto my back. I risked a glance sideways at Mum, and she too seemed frightened, but noticing my look she put on a brave smile and grabbed my hand. The warmth of her contact dulled my anxiety and we strode on, following Edward's barked directions as I ran through the scraps of overheard conversations in my mind. It could have been a coincidence, but I was sure that this was related to John and the Techtivists. They had kept their word and were launching an assault on Ascension! At first, my heart began pounding with excitement, hope spreading its wings and bringing a smile to my face. My eagerness faltered, however, when I thought of all that Edward had told us. He and his colleagues deserved to be punished, that was unquestionable, but what would happen to their operation? Their efforts to prevent and prepare for this approaching apocalypse? As every second passed by I became more and more convinced that there was a good deal of truth to Edward's words. Unfortunately, even from the short time I had spent with John, I knew _he_ wasn't going to be as easily swayed. I could see it now: Ascension would be written off as a fanatical cult, and their followers simply brainwashed puppets. Any talk of predictions for the end of the world would be swept under the rug, an absurd vision dreamt up by an irrational man on a quest to instil fear in the masses. I wallowed in that realisation for a while, letting my shoulders slump and my eyes drift to the floor. What was the right choice here? On one hand, Ascension might be necessary for the survival of the entire human race. On the other hand, they had committed despicable and depraved acts in the name of that survival, and they needed to answer for them. I swayed a little, feeling hopelessly underequipped to handle the situation. The hardest decision I had ever had to make prior to today was what career I wanted to follow. This was several orders of magnitude more difficult, and I needed to stop thinking about it before it made my head explode. I would leave it to the authorities. They would decide what to do, it was their job after all. Nevertheless, I couldn't shake the feeling that Edward would be written off as a deranged lunatic and their entire operation shut down if the Techtivists had their way. Maybe I could talk to John, tell him to at least consider the possibility that it was true? He wouldn't listen to any of the Ark City residents, I had no doubts about that, but he owed me, me _and_ Derek, for the terrific risk we had taken getting his evidence. I would call in that favour and make sure that he heard what I had to say. The fate of humanity might rest on it.

### CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

### D.K.

While the ship cruised along at maximum speed, I copied the transfer details to my Comp, thinking they might come in handy as collateral if Ascension tried to bribe their way out of the whole human modification fiasco. I leant back in the pilot's chair and pressed my hands together in a steeple while I decided what I was going to do when I arrived at the facility. Any sort of combat was out of question, and not just because I was outmanned and outgunned; I still couldn't shake the image of those mangled bodies scattered across the landing in Gregor's Emporium. Blank spots in my memory had been filled in with details I had never actually seen, conjurations of my mind in its anxious, guilt-stricken state. Blood trickling down the side of a head, mouth open in shock, the eyes wide and vacant. A body missing an arm, the shoulder stump resting in a pool of its own coagulated vital fluid. All the bodies were completely human, with no modifications, and it was noticing this inconsistency that allowed me to dismiss the images as fantasy and regain control of my mind. Right. No combat then.

I breathed in deeply, holding it for a few seconds before exhaling, wishing I could expunge my woes as easily as the air in my lungs. Let me think. Well, I couldn't just walk in and ask where Liz was being kept. I considered faking a delivery of 'test subjects', but cast it aside immediately. It had no chance of working when I had no willing participants. The delivery idea wasn't terrible though, I just needed something that would get me into this 'Containment Zone', or at least reasonably close. I glanced over my shoulder and down the hall to the cargo bay. Even prisoners need food, right?

The ship's docking assistant directed me to a low rooftop, nestled within the criss-crossing sprawl of larger facility buildings. It held only a small platform and though I managed a comfortable landing, any other ships wanting to touch down in the meantime would be straight out of luck. I ran a backup of the delivery credentials to my Comp, noting the profile image of an older man with cropped black hair and a square jaw. Not exactly my doppelganger. Fingers crossed they're too lazy to run any facial recognition. I shut down the engines and other flight systems, but left the Comp logged on in the hopes that Liz and I would be able to return and escape.

As I passed back down the corridor to the cargo bay, I gave the rooms on either side a more thorough survey than I had before. If I was going to be a convincing deliveryman, I was going to need more than just the one crate I could carry. The second door on the right opened into just what I had been hoping for: a supply closet. Inside were numerous maintenance tools for the ship, medical supplies and empty boxes, but what I was most interested in was the cargo dolly docked on the side wall. I stepped over to it and pulled the manual release lever. The heavy platform unfolded from the wall, settling on a cushion of air a foot above the ground. The dolly was flat, a small curved lip marking the perimeter from which a protection bubble would extend. The rear-left of the platform housed a small Comp terminal and seat for the driver, so I climbed aboard and activated the controls. The main platform was malleable, allowing for contraction or expansion depending on the load you wanted to carry. Given that the door to the hall and the hall itself were both much narrower than the dolly currently was, it was time for some shrinking. I retracted the platform into its smallest state, a two foot square that seemed ridiculously unusable, and drove the dolly out to the cargo bay. Then I expanded it back to its original size and began loading the crates on. The stack built up as I mulled over the biggest flaw in my plan. While I had appropriate credentials for a delivery, said delivery was not going to be logged in any of Ark City's systems, and I doubted the staff here would just let that slide. But there was nothing I could do to change that fact, so I needed to come up with a good excuse. When the answer hit me I literally snapped my head back in shock that I hadn't thought of it earlier. Duh! There are Enforcers invading Ark City! All I needed to say was that I was fleeing from them, and that there hadn't been time to sort out a delivery order. Maybe they'd still be suspicious, but heck, they won't have the time to worry about it! With the network up and running again, no doubt they knew of the attack, and they'd be going crazy trying to manage the disaster. Maybe I _would_ be able to stroll right in! My hopes significantly elevated, I finished loading the dolly then opened the bay door, descending the ramp and walking towards the alcove entrance as the ship closed up behind me.

It turns out I had actually underestimated the level of chaos that the arrival of the Enforcers would cause. Stepping into the rooftop reception was like entering a warzone, with people marching in every direction, many carrying stacks of data chips or tapping away into Comps. The room was far too small for the number of bodies currently crammed into it, and driving a large flatbed dolly into it was not helping things. I was graced with more than a few aggravated looks before a man rushed over with his arms stretched out in the universal _stop_ sign. His brown hair was cropped short, and the gaily coloured outfit he wore stood out amidst the sea of whites, blacks and greys.

"No, no, no! What are you doing? Get that thing out of here!" He bent down and tried to push the dolly back out the door, to no avail. I jumped out of the driver's seat and wandered over to him.

"I've got a delivery to make. To Conta-" I started.

"Don't you know what's going on? The Bureau is here, and we're too busy dealing with important business to worry about deliveries!" I was sorely tempted to ask exactly what business was occupying them, but I knew it wouldn't be a good idea. The insinuation that they were hiding something sparked an idea in my brain.

"Look, I've got _confidential_ _data_ here that needs to get to the Containment Zone. I've just come from Site Two, made it out just before the Enforcers, and I need to move this, now!" I added a hint of anger to my voice, hoping that it would add credence to the bluff. The man either understood, or couldn't be bother dealing with me anymore, as he indicated for me to present my credentials. I passed him my Comp with the delivery details up and he barely glanced over it before handing it back and waving me on. I barged through the mass of bodies, most people getting out of the way of the dolly but some requiring a knock to the legs before they obliged and stepped aside.

The crowd began to thin as I made my way down a wide hallway lined with transparent walls and doors that led into dozens of featureless rooms. It looked like they had only recently been cleaned out, with a few pieces of permanent furniture remaining and marks on the floor from where the rest had once sat. I continued to glance around as I drove down the corridor, hoping to spot a sign or an interior map to help me find the Containment Zone. My heart was beating furiously as I continued deeper into the facility, concerns of someone spotting me for a fraud swirling in my head despite nobody giving me more than a cursory glance.

After a few minutes of fruitless searching, I realised that as little as I wanted to, I was going to have to ask somebody for directions. I pulled the dolly to a stop just shy of a large cafeteria area and hopped down. I swung my gaze over the bustling people, trying to gauge who would be the most likely to assist me. A short, blonde-haired woman was sitting down at a bench staring at her Comp, her form-fitting grey uniform brightened with an adornment of blue and green banners, yellow smiley faces marching across their matte surfaces. She was alone, and her face seemed friendly enough, so I approached and tried to grab her attention with a wave of my hand. I flashed a warm smile as she looked up, and she raised her eyebrow when I extended my arm in greeting. I let my hand fall back to my side and sat down opposite her.

"Hi! Uh, I was just wondering if you happened to know where the Containment Zone wa-"

"What? Oh, yes, sure, it's just- Wait. Shouldn't you have your own map?" She narrowed her eyes and stared at me suspiciously for a second, before catching sight of the dolly resting against the wall. A knowing look flashed onto her face.

"Ah! Didn't give you one, did they? Of course not, I shouldn't have been surprised. Useless bastards. Things get a little hectic and it all goes to hell in a hand basket. Here, hold on." She motioned with her hand and I pulled out my Comp, accepting the map transfer with another friendly smile. The woman returned the smile, glanced back at her own Comp, and recoiled slightly.

"Frazzlesticks! Sorry, I've got to run. Have a nice day and all that," She was up and jogging off towards one of the connecting corridors before I even had time to reply. I rose from the bench and returned to the dolly, clambering on board and searching for the Containment Zone on the map. It was three floors down, and the map provided a route that went via the nearest lifts. I started the dolly back up, and a few short corridors later I settled into an elevator behind a tall, dark-skinned man and dropped the three levels to my destination.

I exited the lift, leaving the dark-skinned man to continue tapping frantically into a slew of Comps fanned out in his hands. The projected arrow provided by the map was pointing forward, and I continued to follow as it led me through the twists and turns of the complex. There were far fewer people on this level, and the rooms that I passed were deserted though still furnished. The engines of the dolly purred as I scooted along, offering a soothing soundtrack to my thoughts as I contemplated what I was going to do when I arrived at the Containment Zone. Assuming Liz was in a cell of some sort, I would need to find a way of unlocking it, and that would involve acquiring an authorised Comp. Or, perhaps I wouldn't need to acquire one if I could convince a guard to unlock it for me. I stroked my chin with my free hand. A crate of beverages, and I'm sure I could spare one for a thirsty guard... Yes, I reckon that could work.

I motored towards a thick steel door, _Containment Zone_ emblazoned on it in bold letters, the first label I had seen since I had arrived. A stubby guardhouse sat to the side, and I hopped off and approached the transparent window, slipping my Comp into my hand as I went. The sound of the dolly must have alerted the guard to my arrival, as he was up and standing by the time I reached his station. Behind him I could see a curved black chair and a small desk littered with crumbs and snack wrappers. A Comp was paused mid projection, an action-virtual of some kind with the hero bravely diving through the air, weapons held akimbo. The guard was a plump man, bald, and wearing loose clothes at odds with the form-fitting fashion trend that seemed to govern Ark City. I forced a wide smile, one that he returned, and presented my credentials.

"Delivery, huh? Whatcha got there?" He leaned to the side to get a view of the dolly, staring intently as if he could pierce the crates and see the goods inside.

"Food, mostly. Prisoners have to eat, don't they?" I tried to chuckle, but it came out like a garbled cough. The guard frowned at me, and I was worried that I'd been caught out before he responded.

" _Prisoners_? Only one _prisoner_ in there at the moment. Seems like an awful lotta food for just one prisoner though." The implication in his words was obvious, and I smiled, nodded, and turned back to the delivery. I popped open a box containing the beverages, followed by one that contained self-heating pies, and collected a few into my arms. I waddled back, dumping the load onto the bench where the window had been moments before. The guard had slid it upwards, opening a gap for his bounty to fit through.

"Well thank you very much, good sir." The guard made a motion under the bench that I could not see and the door began to slide open beside us. The guard started collecting his reward, an enormous smile on his face, but I had one more request of him.

"Hey, uh, I need that cell opened so I can get this stuff inside. Is there an authorisation key, or, uh, what?" I tried to keep my voice casual and steady, but I could feel my nerves beginning to fray. I'd never been a particularly good liar; that had always been Jimmy's forte. Fortunately, the guard didn't seem to notice, and he handed me a small ID card which I slipped into my breast pocket.

"You're lucky, if you hadda been here when the system was down, you woulda been clean outta luck. These things don't work without the network up." I slipped the card into my palm, turning to face the dolly, but I hadn't taken two steps before the guard called out.

"Hey! I'm gonna have to hold that while you're in there." He pointed to my Comp. "Protocol, you know? Can't risk the _prisoner_ getting a hold of it." He was still putting a strange emphasis on the word 'prisoner'.

"Uh, sure."

I tried to keep the disappointment out of my voice. Ever since the day I had got it, I had rarely been more than three feet from my Comp. It had undergone numerous upgrades and transformations, so much so that it no longer contained any of its original hardware. Regardless, I still associated the vast majority of my happy memories with the device. It had been one of the few gifts I had received from my father, during one of his lucid 'bonding' phases. I felt disconnected and alone without its familiar weight on my person, lost in a way that even leaving Sallustria had not made me feel.

I reluctantly placed my Comp onto the guardhouse bench, my hand trembling slightly, wondering if this would be the last time I saw it. If I was going to bust Liz out, there probably wasn't going to be time to come back for it. The guard passed a scanner in front of me, double-checking that I wasn't trying to smuggle any other devices in, then waved me off. I wandered back to the dolly, climbed into the driver's chair and drove onward as the mighty metal door slid shut behind me.

The Containment Zone turned out to be a lot less depressing than I had expected. True, the image in my head had been cobbled together from prisons I had seen in virtuals or escaped from in IN-VIs, and they were _designed_ to appear as creepy as hell. Still, this place seemed more like the floor of an apartment building than a 'containment' zone. In fact, it looked considerably nicer than my place back at the pod farm. Lucky bastards. There were doors along the far wall, ten by my count, separated from the rest of the room by the same transparent sheeting I had seen in abundance all throughout the facility. As I nudged the dolly closer to get a look inside, I wondered whether the transparency went in both directions. I couldn't see a reason for prisoners to be able to see out of their cells, but then again, this wasn't exactly a typical prison. The cell- No, I couldn't continue to classify it as such. It was a _room_ , furnished exquisitely – at least, compared to what I was accustomed to. Sure, it was open-plan and lacked the privacy of walls – I didn't envy them having to go to the bathroom \- but this was definitely not the kind of environment normally associated with punishment.

I drifted down the length of the wall, staring into each and every room I passed. The guard had said they only had one prisoner, but I wanted to check for myself. I saw scattered food packets and disturbed furniture, ruffled sheets and abandoned Comps, but not one sign of movement. These rooms had been occupied recently, even if they weren't now. I reached the final door and brought the dolly to a halt, grunting in frustration. The guard had said that there was a prisoner here, but every room was empty! Where the heck was Liz? I chewed my lip and concentrated. They must have taken her somewhere else, for questioning or something. I felt a wave of sickness crash against the walls of my stomach at the thought of Liz being interrogated. I shouldn't have left her alone back at the farm. It wasn't safe, and now it was my fault she'd been taken. If anything happened to her... My hands balled into fists and I began picturing beating the snot out of her imaginary captors. At the thought of violence, though, the crippling revulsion became more intense, the images of dead bodies rising from the murky depths of my mind.

"Damn it!" I clutched at my head with my hands and shook it madly, trying to dislodge the abhorrent thoughts with physical force. I couldn't afford to wallow in guilt right now. I needed to get a hold of myself, so I pushed back at the corpses, pushed them down, down, back to the dark recesses, back under the black shadows. It was getting worse. Each time the memories surfaced it was harder to get rid of them, harder to avoid thinking about what I had done. I wasn't going to be able to put it off forever, but I just needed a bit little longer, long enough to get Liz and get out of here. Right, Liz. I've got to do this for Liz.

I got my mind back on track by focusing on creating a plan. I had to assume that Liz was indeed the prisoner the guard had mentioned. That meant that she would be returning at some stage, and given the current Enforcer attack, it was probably going to be sooner rather than later. Unless, of course, the reason she wasn't here was that they were taking her somewhere more secure. Crap! I rubbed my forehead, hoping that some brilliant idea would manifest itself. It never had the chance.

A low rumbling drew my gaze to the door, where three figures were emerging. I instinctively ducked and slid off the driver's seat, taking cover behind the stacked crates on the dolly. Positioning myself so I could see through the gaps between the crate towers, I watched as the figures wandered over to one of the doors further down. This could be it, this could be my chance. I was too far away to know for sure whether Liz was part of the trio, so I hopped back up onto the dolly and edged it very slowly towards them. The whine of the engine was still too loud though, and they swivelled to watch my approach. I abandoned the attempt at stealth and punched the dolly forward, and after a few seconds I was able to make out their faces.

The foremost of the three was a tall man, his face hidden behind a light-brown beard, his eyes narrowed in a look of frustration or curiosity, I couldn't tell. Behind him were two females huddled close together; one was Liz and the other... The resemblance was obvious, with Liz lacking only the age lines and faded brown hair of her mother. They both appeared to be safe and unharmed, and a I let out a long breath as a cold wave of relief trickled down my spine. As I drew closer though, I realised I had no plan, no idea of how I was going to get them away from whoever this old guy was. I needed to think, and fast.

### CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

### E.F.

Derek! How the hell did he get in here, and what on Earth was he driving? He really had a thing for stealing vehicles, didn't he? Bah, who cares? I was so happy just to see him alive that I almost ran towards him, eager both to slog him for abandoning me, and to hug him for coming back. As it was, I could barely stop myself from calling out his name, realising just in time that it would probably ruin any plan he had in mind for our escape. I was extremely thankful that Edward had his back to us, though, because the look on my face would have given me away for sure. I turned to Mum as Derek continued to scooter along, and leant over to whisper an explanation.

"That's Derek. He's the one I told you about, the one who saved me this morning." Mum's eyes flickered in understanding, and I span back to watch for Derek's brilliant plan. I really envied his pro-active attitude; never waiting around for something to happen when he could do it himself. Edward was standing tall, his hands on his hips and his back to us. He hadn't moved since he'd seen Derek, but as I watched he slipped a hand into his pocket and began rummaging around. I expected him to bring out his Comp, but when his hand finally emerged it was grasping a small silver disk, the light reflecting of its shiny surface. I watched as Edward slid it between his thumb and forefinger then slipped it back into his palm where it stuck, unaided.

"I don't have time for this," he murmured, just loud enough for me to hear. He closed his hand into a fist and strode towards Derek, who had come to a stop only a few metres away. I didn't recognise the device Edward had pulled from his pocket, but from the way he kept it hidden from Derek I knew it was something bad. Somehow, he knew who Derek was. But how...?

I started forward, jogging towards Edward and desperately waving to Derek. I saw his eyes perk up as I flung my hands back and forth but he did not deviate from his course, and quickly came to a halt in front of Edward. I lifted my right hand and pointed to the palm with the left, mouthing a warning and shaking my head furiously. I saw an eyebrow lift, but then Edward's arm was up, his hand outstretched, waiting for Derek to accept his greeting. Then time seemed to slow to a crawl, everything operating at a dreamy half-pace. Images flashed before my eyes; Derek tackling the guards to save me from the awful red-haired woman, Derek outflying those cleaning drones, Derek throwing the grenades to protect us from the Ascension goons. He hadn't stopped saving my life all day. Now it was time for me to start paying him back.

I watched as Derek began lifting his hand towards Edward's. Discarding rational thought for animal instinct, I broke into a headlong charge aimed square at Edward's back. My feet pounded and my arms tensed, poised to strike. I heard Mum yell out something, but the words were distant and unnatural, white noise to my single-purpose mind. Edward began turning, slowly, too slowly, his face still a pleasant grin that was only just morphing into surprise. I jumped, floating through the air like it was made of a thick batter, and came crashing down, Edward and I tumbling to the floor in a contorted heap. Time sped back up, and suddenly I was rolling sideways across the floor, pushed away by Edward as he rose to his feet. I seemed to roll for an eternity, my view alternating between ceiling and floor, before I finally came to rest against a wall. My body ached, dark bruises already starting to form, but I summoned the strength to raise my weary head and saw Edward striding over to me, his face alive with a demonic rage. His lips were pulled back into a feral snarl, and his eyebrows formed a razor sharp chevron below his forehead.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Any semblance of calm had vanished, and Edward was bellowing so loud that my ears began ringing. "I TOLD YOU WHAT IS AT STAKE HERE! I EXPLAINED THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR WORK! I TREATED YOU AS A GUEST, A GUEST IN MY CITY, AND YOU REPAY ME BY ATTACKING ME?" Edward was stamping his feet and throwing his hands in time with his shouting. I scooted sideways along the wall, trying to keep as much distance between us as possible. Utter dread was consuming my body and reducing my breathing to short, ragged gasps. I swung my head back and forth, frantically searching for Derek or Mum, but they had disappeared. I was alone with Edward.

"I gave you an opportunity to be a part of something magnificent, a chance to save the world. Yet you hurl my generosity back in my face. You are an impatient, immature little girl, and you do not deserve the gift you have been granted. Do not fret though; you will still play a role in our plan. You just won't be able to enjoy it." Edward had stopped yelling, instead choosing to enunciate each word with a maniacal glee that was even more terrifying. His arms scythed in concert with his speech, as if he was conducting the devil's orchestra on the eve of Armageddon. They swung faster and faster, building in ferocity as he took deliberate steps towards me.

"Such a waste, such a waste." He shook his head, a sad smile on his face. "You could have become one of us, Elizabeth, a part of my father's vision for a better humanity. Instead, we must take that wonderful little brain of yours and put it to good use." His hands mimed the act of unscrewing a jar and plucking out the object inside. "I feel like I owe you a concession, though. I may have distorted the truth somewhat during my explanation. You see, we have not been keeping our discovery secret out of fear of public ridicule. No, I am certain, given sufficient time, we could convince your petty government of the verity of our claims."

He had stopped his advance, and was staring above and past me, as if he were on stage, speaking to a crowd.

"My father envisioned a new era for humanity, a renaissance period, where scientists and inventors flourished with discoveries that would revolutionise the world. He was weary of the perpetual cycle of iteration and repetition that plagued society, where fresh ideas were ground into the sidewalk in favour of the tried and true, where ingenuity dissolved in the face of mass-market appeal. He believed that this was a result of the brain reaching its peak, that the lack of innovation marked the termination point for the current evolution of the human race. He wanted to change that, and that is why he set out to develop the ascendance procedure.

"However, though my father had identified the problem, his solution did not address the crux of the issue. It was not our brains that were shackling us to mediocrity, but our _reliance_ on technology. We have become slaves to our Comps, allowing them to think for us. We have become slaves to drones, allowing them to labour for us. It is no surprise that our race has stagnated.

"The solution, therefore, is to re-establish our intellectual independence, to stimulate the drive for constant advancement. To teach the value of working with one's own hands, to inspire creativity through creation itself. This does not require the abandonment of all technology, that would be a step backwards, but we must exert control over it, lest _it_ control _us_.

"And that, my dear Elizabeth, is the reason behind Ark City. It is the perfect hybrid, an amalgamation of the purity of old with the advancements of the new. Here we can witness the majesty of the elements intertwined with the most remarkable examples of human ingenuity. Neither affords preference, and thus we achieve perfect harmony, the ideal environment for human evolution."

My retreat had halted during Edward's speech, yet another revelation that was defying comprehension inside my head. I had to take back my previous indictment of Mum's diagnosis. Edward was clearly crazy, delivering a monologue worthy of the most comically evil overlords in children's virtuals. I was no longer concerned whether he was telling the truth or not. Fear for my own safety overrode concerns for the fate of humanity, and all I wanted to do was get as far away from this madman as possible. Unfortunately, I had run out of wall to scoot along, my back pressed up into the corner with Edward too close to slip by. My frantic scurrying must have reminded him of my presence, as his eyes regained focus and his gaze fell back to me. I felt compelled to say something, to try and buy time for some miracle to save me.

"S-so what you said about the end of the w-world, t-that was all a lie?" I stuttered through chattering teeth. For a brief moment, Edward's face melted into something akin to sorrow. It did not last though, and a blink later he had donned his arrogant mask once more.

"Oh, I am afraid not, my dear. Our ascendants really cannot see beyond the EOT. But _we_ could see beyond it, _we_ recognised our opportunity to wipe the slate clean and begin anew. _We_ had been warned and _we_ had the means to prepare. We gathered the bright and the motivated, all those who would thrive in an environment crafted for the pursuit of ceaseless discovery, endless invention. We established the roots of our new society here, aboard Ark City, and we plan to weather the storm that will scrape away the bloated fat of humanity, leaving it lean and resilient, primed for a new age of prosperity.

"And now that era is almost upon us. Soon we will be rid of the excesses that have reduced humanity to mindless sheep, slaves in a consumer-driven society reticent to engage in any personal or communal advancement. It is a shame you will not be able to enjoy it, Elizabeth. Nevertheless, you can take solace in the fact that your gift will ensure that the vanguards, the inventors and the innovators, will lead the human race into a new era, while the loafers and slackers suffer the fate they have purchased with their sloth and their excess."

He took a step forward and I closed my eyes, covering my face with my arms as tears began to crawl down my cheeks.

### CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

### D.K.

Well that hurt like a bitch! I was lying on my back, staring up at the blank ceiling and trying to slow my spinning head. The last minute had erupted into chaos so fast that I was still struggling to piece it together. I collected the fragmented images, slotting them into place as I reconstructed the shattered timeline. Okay, let's see:

I had disembarked from the dolly, walking towards the tall man and intending to convince him that I was there to deliver the food. My success with lying to the guard had buoyed my confidence, and I was sure that I could persuade this other man too. All I would have to do is wait for him to leave, then I could work on formulating an escape plan with Liz and her mother. Unfortunately, Liz apparently had something else in mind, and she had started gesticulating madly before deciding to rush the man from behind, jumping on to his back and sending them both tumbling to the floor. It was then that things started to get _really_ crazy.

The man had contracted into a ball then flung his arms and legs out, sending Liz careening across the floor away from him. I had been stunned, standing with my arm still outstretched ready to shake the man's hand. He had jumped back to his feet, spun his gaze on to me, and leapt. His face, which had been soft and inviting at first, had contorted in rage, and from the way his fingers were clawed and his mouth pulled back in a snarl, he had looked frighteningly similar to a werewolf straight out of a horror IN-VI. I had tried to back away but it was too late, he had been on me before I even had a chance to move. He had slammed his palm into my chest, sending an electric jolt shooting through my body, and my vision went stark white, then pitch black. And that brought me back to now.

I planted my hands on the cold floor and managed to struggle into a sitting position. My head had ceased its devilish dance, but a thin haze still coated my vision, and the pungent aroma of smoke reached my nostrils. I sniffed and looked down. My breast pocket was glowing red, tendrils of grey smoke wafting upwards like ghostly fingers. My body suddenly registered that yes, something extremely hot was pressing against it and it should be removed _right_ _now_. The pain drilled through my chest, and I frantically started pulling and patting at my outfit, unable to decide whether to remove it or try and put out the fire within. After agonizingly painful seconds of fruitless gesticulating, I managed to slip my hand inside the pocket, flinging out the small ID card that had been transformed into a pulsating red and orange lump.

"Yeargh!"

The card was red-hot and my fingers burned at the touch. I waved my hands wildly in a vain attempt to cool them down, and eventually the pain subsided enough that I could focus on what had just happened. The tall man must have used some sort of concealed weapon, something that could fry the circuits in an ID card so completely that it was reduced to slag. My heart was rebounding between the walls of my ribcage, alive with residual shock and adrenaline from the attack. I could feel the blood pumping through every vein in my body, my muscles trembling and twitching, my mind racing like I'd just downed a booster.

I spun a quick three-sixty and scanned the room. Liz's mother was lying prone on the ground a few metres away. The man must have hit her with the same thing he got me with, but she clearly hadn't been lucky enough to have an ID card to absorb some of the force. The dolly was still idling behind me, the dull purr of its engines suddenly breaking through the ringing in my ears I hadn't even known was there. Heavy footsteps and slapping _thumps_ caught my attention, and I spun to the right to see the tall man striding slowly towards the opposite wall. Liz was on the ground in front of him, her back pressed against the wall, hysterically motoring her arms and legs as she tried to gain distance from the imposing figure. Shit! What was I going to do? I didn't want to push my luck with that weapon a second time, and the man himself was no sloth; as well as standing around six feet tall, his arms and shoulders were muscular, and he carried a weight that was not born of fat. I needed a weapon of my own, something to put him down long enough for Liz and I to escape. _And_ her mother! We had to get her out too! Assuming that she was only unconscious and that she wasn't... Well, regardless, we would need to put her onto the dolly if we hoped to get out of here. The dolly... Yes, that's it!

I ran over to the driver's seat and leapt aboard, swinging the dolly to face Liz and her attacker. I set the throttle to maximum, ignoring the safety warning not to travel at that speed while bearing any load. I looked up at the figures across the room. The man had Liz cornered and had halted his approach, standing with his feet wide apart and twirling his hand through the air. I dropped my attention back to the dolly controls. I swiped to the platform commands, selecting the smallest size and disregarding the caution about doing so while in motion. This was going to be tricky. I needed to line it up perfectly so that Liz didn't end up in the firing line.

I closed in fast, my hands shaking and my finger hovering unsteadily over the confirm button. I could see that Liz had retreated into a ball, her arms pulled up over her head and her knees tucked in to her chest. The man took a step forward, looming over her and lifting his right arm, the arm he had struck me with, the arm that held the concealed weapon. Only metres left. Okay...now!

I stabbed the button then activated the emergency brakes, reversing the thrust of the engines and slamming the edge of the console into my gut as the vehicle rapidly decelerated. A cacophony of screeching metal, shattering c-spex and sloshing liquid assaulted my ears as the dolly's load careened forward, the platform supporting it suddenly no longer there. The abrupt shift in velocity had left me sprawled over the console, and I extracted myself just in time to see Liz's would-be attacker disappear beneath an avalanche of pre-packaged meal containers. The dolly shuddered to a halt as a final spray of bubbly brown liquid fountained through the air, a container of carbonated beverages delivering its payload into the mountain of crates with a shower of _hissing_ and _fizzing_. For a second I did nothing but stare at the disgusting mess I had made, a pattern of exhilaration and dread parading through my head. I had wanted to take the man out of action, not _kill_ him, but my dolly-cum-missile-launcher had caused more devastation than I had expected. A sudden cry snapped my attention from the revolting brown heap to the rising figure beside it.

"DEREK! YOU SAVED ME!"

All of a sudden Liz was launching herself towards me, an enormous smile from ear to ear. Her face glowed with such radiance that I found myself smiling back without even realising it. I slid out of the dolly and onto the floor, stepping past the now empty and severely shrunk platform, and caught Liz as she collapsed into my arms. I held her tight as she rested her head on my chest, her breathing coming in ragged sobs. She had been crying, and her cheeks were staining my light-grey outfit with little wet splotches. I rubbed her back while her body heaved gently, her choked cries gradually fading away, the silence only punctuated by the occasional muffled hiccup. I stroked her tangled hair smooth with one hand, starting to feel slightly awkward, not quite sure what I was supposed to do. Liz took the initiative, pushing off me and staring into my face with wide eyes, her dark green pupils matching the clumps of damp jade hair stuck to her skin.

"MUM!"

I was thrown into a spin as she ran past me, and it took a few seconds of groggy stumbling to regain my balance and follow her to where her mother lay. By the time I joined her she was on her knees, her hands clasped on her mother's shoulders and shaking her back and forth.

"Wake up! Mum! Wake up! We have to go! Mum! Muuuuum!"

Liz was screaming, tears streaming once more, her body shaking more furiously than her mother's. My heart plummeted. It was over. I had failed to keep the promise I had made Liz, failed to save her mother. I had even failed myself, unable to claim penance for the lives I had taken. I dropped to the ground, letting my head fall into my hands while I rocked back and forth on my heels. I could hear Liz repeating "Mum" over and over again between gasping breaths. Suddenly, there was silence. It was so startling that I looked up, finding Liz with her mouth open wide, wider than I thought possible, and her mother swaying groggily.

"MUM!"

Liz finally found her voice, and she screamed so loud that I had to cover my ears with my hands, throwing me off balance and sending me toppling to the floor. When the squeal finally faded out I scrambled to my feet, rushing over to join Liz's ecstatic celebration.

"Muuuuuuum! I'd thought you were... that Edward had... Mum!"

Liz fell on top of her mother, squeezing her so tight that she grunted in surprise. A splash of cool relief crashed over me. I hadn't failed! I still had a chance to balance the scales, to win back some karma!

From the looks of it, Liz wasn't going to let go of her mother anytime soon, so I decided to bring the dolly over and ready it for our escape. As I jogged past the section of floor where Liz had first brought down – Edward, was it? – I noticed a glint of silver. A Comp. Edward's Comp, no doubt. I scooped it up and opened it as I continued towards the dolly. The Comp wasn't locked. I was beginning to wonder how anybody managed to have any privacy here, given the blasé attitude they seemed to exhibit towards logging out of their Comps. I gave the system a brief once-over before closing it, and shoved it into my side pocket. I could have a good, long look later, once we had gotten out of here. And doing just that was going to be significantly easier with Edward's Comp, as my previous means of getting out of the room was now a melted hunk of c-spex and circuits, still lying on the floor where I had thrown it.

I jumped back on to the dolly, but not before giving the craggy mountain of crates a thorough scan for movement. The pungent pile remained motionless, so I drove back to Liz and her mother and disembarked as they clambered to their feet.

"I don't think Mum's going to be able to walk by herself," said Liz, as she helped her mother up. Her words were lent credence as her mother staggered, and Liz had to slip her arm underneath her shoulder to keep her from falling to the ground.

"No problem, that's why we have this!"

I gestured dramatically to the dolly, stooping and unfurling my hands like it was some wonderful, never-before-seen invention. I'm not quite sure why I did it, but there was something about seeing the bond between Liz and her mother that filled me with warmth, an inexplicable joy that I hadn't felt before. Ignoring the flush of embarrassment as Liz giggled and raised her eyebrows, I stepped back on to the dolly and extended the platform, making enough space for two to rest comfortably. Liz was finding it difficult to support her mother, so I dropped down and slipped my arm underneath her free shoulder, and together we lifted her onto the platform. Liz followed her up while I returned to the controls, settling into the driver's seat and piloting us over to the door. I pulled Edward's Comp out of my pocket and readied it for authentication.

"Okay, I'm going to extend the dome and set it to opaque. If nobody can see you, maybe we can get out of here before anyone finds all _this_." I gestured to the trash heap beside the wall. I was explaining my plan for my own benefit as much as my passenger's; I was making it up as I went along. "Are you ready?"

Liz looked down at her mother lying beside her. She smiled weakly back at her daughter, and nodded slowly. Liz gave me the affirmative and I activated the dome, increasing its opacity until all I could see was a distorted reflection of the ceiling in its dark black surface. I cracked my knuckles nervously, swiped the Comp close enough to the door panel to trigger it, and waited anxiously as the door parted to reveal the broad corridor beyond.

As soon as the gap was large enough I punched the acceleration and sent the dolly flying through the door. I kept my gaze locked forward as we rocketed past the guardhouse, the guard's muffled cry of surprise quickly drowned out by the steady purr of the dolly's engines. I had Edward's Comp in one hand, the facility map providing directions as we sped along, while my other hand was busy steering the dolly. The corridor was deserted, and it wasn't until we arrived at the elevator lobby, numerous high-speed twists and turns later, that we encountered anybody at all.

A single elderly man stood waiting for a lift to arrive, his back stooped from the effort of carrying a large blue-and-yellow striped container. He swivelled around ponderously as I slid the dolly to a halt, his eyes narrowing behind the thin optical strip that wrapped around his head. He looked me up and down, shifting his eyes to the blackened bubble then laying them back on me. His curiosity sated, he turned back to face the bank of elevator doors just in time for one to scythe open. He hobbled into the lift but I kept the dolly stationary, deciding that it would be best to wait for one of our own. The doors slid shut and I manoeuvred the dolly forward, close enough for the lift system to detect my presence and call another one down. We had to wait almost a full minute before it arrived, but when it did it was thankfully empty, so I slid the dolly inside and selected the top floor. As we ascended I crossed my fingers, hoping fervently that the cargo shuttle remained on the roof, untouched and unmolested.

When we reached our destination and the lift doors parted, it was immediately clear why we had waited so long three floors down. The lobby was a nightmare crush of bodies, happy-hour at _Paradise_ _Plaza_ , everyone pushing and shoving to be the first to get past us and into the lift. Seeing the dolly caused the first wave to hesitate, but then they were on top of us, scrambling over the smooth black surface of the bubble dome, their faces burning with fear and desperation. I was sorely tempted to ask what the heck was causing this mania, but somebody had selected basement level on the interior panel and the doors were attempting to shut. I frantically punched the dolly forward, only narrowly making it between the closing doors, and sent the rest of the crowd scattering as I ploughed towards an exit on the left-hand side of the lobby.

Leaving was a decidedly unnerving experience; one second we were crashing through a throng of tightly packed bodies, a chorus of grunts and screams playing backdrop to their efforts to get to the lifts, and the next we were shooting down an empty corridor, the cries fading into an indistinct echo, then nothing. I continued to follow the map's instructions, pinching out the zoom and watching the remaining distance steadily shrink. Only a single antechamber separated us from the landing pad when the entire world seemed to tip onto its side. The dolly careened sideways, the front corner crumpling inwards as we collided with the wall. The neon blue surface scraped against the bubble's black, and the dark tinting began to flicker in and out, eventually shutting down completely as we drew to a halt. I had been sent sprawling over the console for the second time in the last hour, and I extricated myself to see Liz staring up at me, her eyes wide with terror. I fumbled with the controls as I gulped in fresh air, and the dome slowly began to slide back. It moved in stops and starts, whirring and whining in protest, finally giving up when it was only half-way open.

"What the hell just happened?" shouted Liz.

I had no idea, and I was still struggling with my breath, so I just shrugged. Further questions were drowned out by another shake of the building, this time launching me off the side of the dolly and onto the floor. There was no sound of explosions. No sound at all, in fact, accompanied the tremors. It was extremely unsettling. I picked myself up off the floor, turning back to the dolly to see Liz helping her mother out from underneath the half-dome.

"What are you doing? We need to get out of here! Get back on the-"

My voice died as I noticed the severe lean that the dolly had developed after the last tremor. The thrust pads on the right side of the dolly must have been damaged, because the platform was now on an almost forty-five degree angle, with the right edge resting on the ground. It was not going to be going anywhere in a hurry.

"Right..."

I sighed heavily, and ran over to help Liz with her mother. It turned out to be unnecessary, as she had clearly recovered significantly during the trip, and the cushioned inner surface of the bubble had prevented any further injuries during our crash. Instead, I took one of Liz's hands in mine, while she grabbed her mother's, and I led the pair in a hasty jog towards the final barrier between us and the shuttle. I opened it with the aid of Edward's Comp, and as we stepped out into the projected evening light another rumble rose through the ground, this one less intense than the ones before. As we waited it out, I looked to the landing pad and smiled in relief. The ship was still there, undamaged and untouched as far as I could tell. A blurry shape streaked through the sky above the shuttle, appearing from below the landing pad and disappearing behind one of the facility towers. A few seconds later a distant _thump_ rang out, and the ground began shaking again.

"C'mon Derek!"

Liz was shouting at me from the landing pad. I had been distracted by the flying blur, and Liz and her mother had already climbed onto the platform and were waiting for me by the ship. I ran to join them, hitting the door panel I had left unlocked and clambering into the cargo bay. Once again the darkness inside was difficult to adjust to, but this time I was prepared. I closed my eyes as Liz and her mother followed me in then swiped the panel, only opening my eyes again once the interior lights had activated. Liz and her mother were dazed, but before I could help them I needed to get the ship up and away from whatever disaster was plaguing the facility.

I ran down the corridor and into the cockpit, jumping into the pilot's chair and drumming my fingers on the armrest while the system went through the start-up sequence. I could hear Liz and her mother cursing as they fumbled their way into the corridor, but they were quickly drowned out by a musical chime indicating the success of the pre-flight checks. I powered up the engines and propelled us into the air, turning my attention to the viewport as the facility shrank below us. As my perspective expanded, other ships began to appear, hovering amongst the various buildings. I recognised some as the same class of Enforcer ships that had come through the stalk from Sallustria. The others were also Enforcer vehicles, sporting the same white and blue colour scheme, but they were significantly larger than the shuttles I had seen before. They also appeared to be segmented, with each compartment connected by flexible tubing that expanded and contracted with the movement of the ship. Mounted underneath at the front and rear were long round tubes, and as I watched a small white cylinder was launched from one of them, arcing towards the wall of a stubby silver tower. Before it struck, multiple gleaming legs fanned out from its sides, jabbing into the wall and holding it in place. The spider-like weapon bored a smoking hole through the wall, the _thud_ so loud it even managed to penetrate our cockpit. It followed up by ejecting a small, grey canister, shooting it through the hole and into the depths of the stubby building. I only got a brief look, but it seemed very similar to the canisters that the Enforcers had used back at site three. I swung us around and pulled away as fast as possible, silently berating myself for the seconds spent exposed watching the spider-missile.

I flipped through to the ship scanner on the shuttle's Comp and stared at it intently as we shot off, my hands poised above the yaw and pitch controls, ready to attempt evasive manoeuvres at the first sign of a tail. I was still watching the display as Liz and her mother entered the cockpit, collapsing into the passenger bench on the rear wall. Liz must have regained most of her vision, because she suddenly appeared at my side and was joining me in staring at the flickering projection. It was a small three-dimensional representation of the space around the ship, though only in terms of other vehicles. There was some minor environmental detection, but at this altitude that meant jack squat. Our shuttle was still the only thing being displayed.

"Everything okay?" Liz asked, her voice straining with exhaustion.

"Yeah, I don't think they saw us. Well, either that or they don't care. I _think_ they might have been trying to gas the facility with some sort of drug. That's what all those tremors were, I'm pretty sure."

"Why would they gas their own building?"

I had forgotten that Liz knew nothing about the Enforcer invasion. I briefly caught her up, explaining how they had arrived to arrest the Ascension leadership, but had started incapacitating (at least that's what I assumed) the population when they decided to fight back. Liz took the news surprisingly well, displaying far less shock than I expected. As I was wrapping up my story, detailing what I had learnt at the farm - or 'site two' - Liz opened her mouth, preparing to interrupt me but deciding against it. She clamped her jaw shut and waited for me to finish before chiming in.

"That fits with what Edward told us. I guess that's where he sends the new recruits to learn all about 'living in harmony with nature'."

Liz put on a dry, pompous accent for those last few words. I recoiled slightly, my eyebrows shooting up, not quite understanding what had come over her. Noticing my confusion, Liz set about filling me in on what she had learnt from Edward, about the _real_ ascendance procedure, about why Ascension had come to Sallustria, and their plans for a radical new society. She wrapped it up by telling me about the supposed impending apocalypse.

"Really?" I asked, after she had finished. I didn't bother trying to keep the scepticism from my voice. The end of the world was one of those things that every lunatic on the street corner would proclaim was coming. It was also the go-to weapon for cults that wanted to instigate some sort of mass panic or radical cultural overhaul.

"Well... I don't know. I'm certain he was crazy, but I don't think he was lying. Plus, I can't get over the fact that brain read my thoughts. There's some really creepy stuff going on here, and I know it sounds stupid, but I think Edward may have really been telling the truth."

Liz looked at me with sad eyes and a pleading smile. Maybe it was the strength of her conviction, or maybe it was the numerous end-of-world scenarios I had experienced in IN-VIs, but I found it difficult to deny her. After all, it made everything I had seen at the farm make a lot more sense.

"Damn." I didn't feel like it really conveyed the enormity of the approaching apocalypse, so I tried again. "Fuck!" Liz just nodded her head glumly.

"Yep."

A contemplative silence descended on the cockpit. It remained unbroken for a full minute before I felt the need to voice a realisation that had coalesced out of my stewing thoughts.

"It kind of gives you a new perspective on what John told us, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Liz asked.

"You know, how when Ascension first arrived in Sallustria they unveiled the ascendance procedure but refused to let anybody undergo it? I had thought that sounded really weird, but I guess it makes sense now. By announcing then withholding the promise of a 'higher existence', they gave it the allure of the forbidden, ensuring that they would have a hearty supply of eager volunteers when they eventually gave in to public demand."

"Wow, you're right. Damn, that's some grade-A scheming."

"Yep."

I returned my gaze to the ship scanner, not really focusing on the display but instead letting my thoughts drift back to the possible extinction of the entire human race. I had prevented Armageddon so many times in IN-VIs, saving the world from alien races and lunatic dictators, but for it to be real... I shuddered in my seat.

A mail icon blipped on one of the ship's secondary displays, wrenching me from my morbid thoughts. I swiped it over to the main projection and opened the message.

HIGHEST PRIORITY COMMUNICATION

Sender: E. Levine, Chancellor

Subject: Emergency Protocol Activated

Fellow residents of Ark City, a parasite is within our midst! Our perimeter has been breached, our enemy: The Enforcement Bureau. They have dispatched forces intent on demolishing everything we have built, everything we have achieved. They have already taken prisoners; your friends, your families, and they will not stop until they have enslaved every last one of us. They have attacked unprovoked, without justification, and I must call on all of you to defend our wondrous utopia with all your formidable strength.

In approximately fifteen minutes, I will deactivate the sky-scape and shut off all light sources in Ark City. Our foes will be rendered blind, and we must strike while they wallow in confusion and put a swift end to their senseless incursion. Band together, assemble your arms, and be prepared to eradicate our enemies before they jeopardize all we have toiled so studiously for.

In addition, to ensure that we suffer no further attacks, I will be disengaging the stalk connections and Ark City will be departing from Sallustria. I understand this betrays our initial expectations, but for the safety of all citizens we must take the initiative and leave, lest our ignorant foes repeat their destructive mistake. We will be heading for the next most viable community, Cinsula, to ensure we can continue our operations until the EOT.

Please accept my personal apologies for the need to resort to violence, but we must protect our society. Remember, with us stands the future of the entire human race.

"He's alive?!" shouted Liz, who was suddenly leaning over my shoulder, her hands resting on the back of the pilot's chair.

"Huh?" I replied, unsure of who exactly she was talking about. She pointed at the sender field in the message.

"Edward! But I thought you killed him?" I suppressed another shudder at the thought of more murder.

"No, I wasn't trying to. I just wanted to buy us enough time to escape."

"Oh!" Liz paused for a few seconds. "Well, we can't let him do this! If he leaves with Ark City, we won't have any way of proving that he's telling the truth! We need those brains or no-one's going to believe us!" Liz was screaming, her hands in the air, and I had to duck forward to save my ears from the aural assault.

"Look, Liz, we need to get out of here. If they're going to disconnect the stalks, we don't have much time, and besides, how exactly do you expect the two of us to stop an entire floating city?" I wasn't particularly keen on the possibility of Ascension escaping punishment, but at the moment I was more concerned with Liz's safety. I _needed_ to keep my promise.

"But we can't leave! If we go back to Sallustria empty-handed, no-one is going to believe that the apocalypse is really coming! People need to see what Ascension have done with their own eyes, it's the only way they'll believe us!" Liz was pleading with me, her arms outstretched and her palms facing the ceiling. "You've already saved my life multiple times today but please, just do this one last thing for me!"

She was tired, her skin pale and her eyes red and bloodshot. Behind her, on the passenger bench, her mother lay sleeping. We weren't exactly a crack team, and the chances of us actually being able to stop Ascension from leaving if they really wanted to were slim, to say the least. Nevertheless, I still hadn't earned my redemption, and if anything could make up for ending a few lives, it would be saving a billion. Or trying to, at least.

I nodded to myself, my decision made. I spun back to the ship's Comp and flicked up the map, finding the nearest stalk entrance and setting course for it.

"So, what are we going to do?" asked Liz, her voice no longer pleading, but still weak and weary.

" _We_ are not going to do anything. _You_ will be taking your mother back down the stalk, to safety, while _I_ will be saving the world." I said it matter-of-factly, forcing false confidence into my voice.

"Wha... No!" Liz swung around the seat and tried to force me from the controls. She managed to jump onto my lap, but as she had no idea how to pilot the vehicle, it didn't help her any. We stayed on course as she furiously stabbed at one of the displays. She was rapidly activating and deactivating the external lights, lighting us up like a disco on the outside.

"Uhh, unless you want to attract attention to us, I'd probably stop doing that." Liz removed her hands from the controls, slumping back in defeat. She slid back on to her feet and stood behind me once more.

"Derek, you've already saved my life more times than I can count. This should be my turn. Y-you take Mum home, and I... I'll find a way of stopping Edward from escaping." Her voice was trembling, reluctance and despair evident in her voice. She didn't want to leave her mother, it was obvious, and that just strengthened my resolve to ensure she didn't have to.

"No, Liz. Look, we're almost there. Go wake your mother up, then head down to the cargo bay. I'll open the doors for you when we land." She stood silently for a few seconds, staring at me with her brow crinkled, biting her lower lip. She wanted to object, I could tell. But, instead, she fell on me again, wrapping her arms around my back.

"No. Let's just forget about it Derek. We'll go home and tell everybody what we saw here. If they don't believe us, we'll just keep shouting until they do." There was no trace of resignation in her voice, and I'm sure she really meant what she said, but I couldn't do it. Not when my chance of redemption was this close.

"Sorry Liz, but you were right. Nobody is going to believe us without proof. Shit, the Techtivists wouldn't even move against Ascension without documented evidence, so I can't see people embracing a doomsday prophecy at the word of two twenty-one year olds." Wow, I had completely forgotten that today was still my birthday. It was, without a doubt, the most memorable one I'd ever had. Maybe all those times I had wished to be a superhero were finally coming true. In hindsight, I probably should have wished for something a little less insane, money perhaps.

"What are _you_ going to do, though? How are you going to stop Edward from just flying away?"

Liz had let me go and stepped back, wiping her face with the sleeve of her jumpsuit. She had been crying. Only slightly, but she had been crying. For me. I don't remember anyone ever caring about me enough to worry for my safety. Maybe Jimmy, but most of the time we had spent together was in virtual worlds, where real emotions were hidden behind our fake avatars. Realising that Liz might actually care that much made me start to regret my decision to split up. I was beginning to care for her too, especially after losing Jimmy, and I didn't want to give that up. But, no, I couldn't be that selfish. I had to do the right thing here, had to try and balance the scales.

"I...don't know yet. But I'll think of something. Just you...stay safe. And keep your mother safe. And, if they manage to get away, make sure you tell everybody about Ascension."

I had to clear my throat to prevent my voice from cracking. I was starting to feel moisture building behind my eyes and I frowned angrily, turning back to the ship's controls to hide my weakness. I blinked my eyes clear and focused on bringing the ship down on the platform which, fortunately, appeared deserted.

The stalk platform was located in the middle of nowhere, just like the one we had arrived on, but the grass around this one was tainted with pink and purple goo. I could see it through the viewpoint, clustered in thick blobs with strands of grass poking through. The platform itself was clear though, and I touched down, leaving the ship idling while I got up to help Liz with her mother. Liz was still standing behind the pilot's chair, silently staring at me, her lower lip trembling almost imperceptibly.

"Promise me... promise me you'll come back?" Her voice was a thin sheet of honeycomb, sweet yet incredibly brittle. I had to grit my teeth to keep the tears from flooding back.

"S-sure." What else could I say? Even considering all the crazy shit that had happened today, from hijacking an APT to learning that the apocalypse was coming, this was somehow the most terrifying. My whole life I had been a loner. I never knew my mother, and Dad had been about as warm as the inside of a _PermaFrost_ freezer. Jimmy had been my only real friend, the only one I had ever held on to for longer than a month. But he and I had spent most of our time hidden behind the masks of our avatars, our only emotions those necessary to grind our opponents to dust. Even out in the harsh reality of the physical world our conversations had revolved around IN-VIs or Gregor's latest tech, only on the rare occasions touching on troubles at home or our dreams for the future. I had always suppressed the other feelings: the fear of being alone, the depression from Dad's death, the anxiety over what the hell I was going to do with my life. I knew that nothing good would come of exposing these weaknesses.

But now, now something was different. The emotions bubbling up; I didn't _want_ to push them away. The terror, the giddiness, the inexplicable exuberance; they didn't feel like burdens that needed to be shunned. Instead, they felt like a toasty fire, warming me from inside; like the thumping kick of energy you got right after you chugged a booster. It was new and frightening but utterly exciting at the same time.

Though inside I was a raging storm of emotions, my actual body had frozen up, my brain too swamped by sensation to think of something to fill the awkward silence that had descended on the cockpit. Suddenly, fed up with my lethargic brain, my body decided to take charge. I stepped forward and slid my arm around Liz's back, pulling her in close. I pressed my forehead against hers, looking into her shimmering eyes, realising their green was the same vibrant shade of the real grass here in Ark City. They were beautiful, mesmerising eyes, eyes that sent sparks skittering across the surface of my heart just from looking at them. I bent down slightly and kissed her, savouring the taste of her soft, tender lips for a few wonderful seconds. My relationships in the past had all been of the cool, carefree type, the kind you needed every so often to combat the loneliness. They had been functional affairs, born of a mutual desire for physical closeness, the handful of faces long blurred by the passage of time. And though through them I had known the touch of the female form, the gentle caress of a lithe body, the memory was like the pinprick of a needle on an anaesthetised limb compared to the full-body explosion when my lips and Liz's met.

It was something transcendent, something far beyond mere physical pleasure. Feelings I hadn't even realised I'd been burying burst from their graves, shedding their dirt coats and shambling through my body, seizing control of my muscles, my thoughts. The world disintegrated around me, the walls fading, the worries shrinking to indistinct specks; even the constant pressure of guilt was lifted, leaving nothing but Liz and I. Electricity flowed through my veins, twitching and tugging my muscles and sending me into a state of hyper-awareness. The kiss ended all too soon, the glorious embrace over, and I stumbled backwards in a drunken daze. The room came back into view for only a brief second before disappearing again as I cartwheeled backwards onto the ground. I heard Liz laugh, a beautiful, tear-choked melody, music I had never known I yearned for until that every moment. I tried to get back up, but my brain was still reeling from the torrent of relentless emotions, and my body wasn't back under my control yet. I decided to just lie on the ground and wait for the chaos to settle down. I closed my eyes and savoured the weird and wonderful thoughts that swirled inside my head.

### CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

### E.F.

I was giggling uncontrollably, the absurdity of passing from heart-pounding fear to euphoric glee in such a short span of time being too unreal to comprehend. It seemed like only moments ago that I was pressed up against the cold hard wall, a deranged lunatic looming over me with death in his eyes, certain I was never going to see Mum or home again. But I had been saved, saved by this boy so clumsily sprawled on the floor. He had rescued me, rescued us, and now he was going to risk his life again to try and save the entire world? He was like a freakin' hero straight out of one of my fantasy stories; brave, reckless, and even kind of cute. I had a sneaking suspicion that I had been developing feelings for him, but with the breakneck speed with which the day had progressed, I hadn't had the time to address them. It was clear now, though. And that kiss... ! Some insignificant part of my brain had tried to tell me that this was neither the time nor the place, but it was triumphantly shouted down by the larger part in favour of enjoying the moment. And enjoy it I did.

As I stood there, rocking back and forth on my heels and trying to get my laughing under control, I realised that Mum had woken from her slumber and was staring at me, her head propped up on one of her arms. Fatigue was evident on her face, but she still managed to embarrass me with a sly smile and a flick of her eyebrows. I turned away reflexively, my chuckling dying out but the warmth in my chest living strong, and bent down to help Derek back on to his feet. His eyes were closed and his body jumped at my touch, but when his eyes fluttered open I was rewarded with a broad grin and the press of his hand on mine. He gathered himself up and stood, noticing for himself that Mum was awake and now vertical. My heart leapt even further at this, my worries about permanent injury quickly receding. As far as I could tell, despite me complete lack of medical training whatsoever, Mum had only been knocked unconscious and hadn't suffered any physical injuries. Of course, her body could be damaged internally, so as soon as we got back to Sallustria we'd need to pay a visit to a hospital.

The three of us exited the ship in silence. I don't know about Derek, but I was starting to feel kind of awkward under Mum's watchful eye. After our recent embrace I had wanted to talk to him, to tell him that I really liked him and to be safe and please come back, to kiss him again and again and not let go, but I just couldn't do it with Mum standing there, a sneaky smile playing across her bright red lips. So instead, as we stood on the edge of the stalk platform, Derek having already activated the lift controls with Edward's Comp, I simply took his hand and kissed him briefly on the cheek.

"You made me a promise. Don't you _dare_ break it," I whispered as I pulled away. Derek replied by stepping forward and embracing me in a tight hug. I felt completely safe in his arms, cocooned from the evil and the worries and the despair, and I never wanted him to let go. But he did, retreating back inside the shuttle after wishing us a safe trip. A minute later the vessel was back in the air, the steady whine of the engines fading into silence as the shuttle shrank and shrank, soon nothing only an indistinct dot in the sky. Mum stepped in close, wrapping her arm around me and gently rubbing my back.

"C'mon sweetie, let's go home." And with that Mum turned to the controls and we descended, passing down the dark throat of the stalk and back to a home that felt a lifetime distant from everything that had happened. All I could think about as the lift vibrated and hummed was Derek. I shouldn't have let him go. Edward was a certifiable lunatic, and Derek was only one guy. He had no chance of stopping an entire city! Why the hell did I suggest we stay, why did I let him walk alone into what was most certainly going to be his death? Was I ever going to see him again?

### CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

### D.K.

It was almost impossible to turn away from Liz, but I knew I had to do it. I wanted to leave with them, wanted to stay by her side, holding her hand and staring into those verdant eyes, but I knew that if I did I would never be able to forgive myself. This was my opportunity for redemption, a chance to atone for the lives I had taken, and I needed to take it before I fell down the same path as my father.

So much of what Dad had tried to tell me over the years was making sense now. Those times he had sat me down and attempted to explain why he was so distant, why he felt he couldn't connect emotionally any more, they all suddenly clicked into place. He had taken lives, just as I now had, and he had been struggling to find his peace with it just as I was. He had spent his life wallowing in the grief, unable to find solace in anything but the absolute nothingness of death. But unlike him, I was being presented with a chance for redemption, a way to clean the slate, and I had to take it. I didn't want to become my father - the miserable excuse for a parent living in a perpetual drug-driven hallucination - and now I had something to live for: Liz. I couldn't help but feel like my entire life had been a walking dream, one that had finally ended with that glorious kiss. I felt more alive than I ever had before, like liquid fire had replaced the blood in my veins and was burning through my body, dancing between muscles and fuelling me with boundless energy. I closed my eyes and smiled, relishing the newfound purpose, the guiding star lighting up my mind.

As I pulled the cargo shuttle up and away from the stalk platform, my fingers drumming an eclectic beat on the command console, I desperately tried to think of anything I could do to stop an entire city from simply flying away. There had to be a weak point, some vulnerability that I could strike at to bring it down. No, that was me thinking this was an IN-VI, where every enemy succumbed to a particular strategy. This was real life, and things weren't that simple.

I was shaking my head, feeling both disappointed and a little foolish, when the viewport suddenly went dark. What had, only moments ago, been a skyline of brilliant blue and late-afternoon sun was now completely black, and the sudden brightness of the ship's displays caused stars to flash before my eyes. I blinked furiously to clear my vision and fumbled with the controls, pulling up the ship detection system and trying to find a low-light mode of some sort. Goddamn it! I had completely forgotten about the warning in Edward's broadcast!

I located the alternative viewport modes, ignoring the thermal vision and activating the image enhancer. And suddenly the world was visible again, albeit with a slightly fuzzy haze permeating everything. The landscape appeared the same as before, except that now the distant spires of the research facility were just indistinct smudges, the image enhancer unable to pick out the individual details from this far away.

Thinking of Edward's message, I began wondering if there wasn't a central command room somewhere within the facility, as he couldn't possibly have travelled far after his unplanned burial, and he no longer had his Comp on him. _That_ thought made me slap my forehead, as I realised that I had stupidly forgotten that his Comp was sitting in my pocket, no doubt containing access to many of Ark City's technical systems. This was the key to stopping his plan! I excitedly fumbled the device out of my pocket and into my hands, unfolding it and swiping through to the list of applications and utilities. They were separated into categories, and I flicked through to the one labelled 'Maintenance'. The list was fairly small - most of the basic operations were probably automated or delegated to other people - but it did contain overrides for the stalk controls and the sky-scape. I deactivated the enhanced image mode on the ship's Comp before bathing Ark City once more in the brilliant afternoon light. Even without any visual modifications, the transition from night to day was jarring, and I was left blinded for a few moments while my eyes gradually adjusted. Hopefully that would give Ascension a little taste of their own medicine, and perhaps stop them from slaughtering the Enforcer troops.

Next I tried to lock down the stalks, but to my dismay the connections had already been disengaged; Ark City was free to move. In fact, we could be moving right now and I wouldn't know it, thanks to the inertia dampening system. Or, that would have been the case if I hadn't had Edward's Comp. I scrolled through to the ship status readout and confirmed that we were indeed already on our way. Crap! I needed to stop this thing now, before we got so far away from Sallustria that the Enforcement Bureau wouldn't be able to follow. I was praying that they had reinforcements on the way; that the resistance they had encountered here had prompted them to call for backup. For the second time in as many minutes, I slapped myself in the forehead. The Enforcers here wouldn't have been able to communicate with those back down in Sallustria, not through that goddamn shielded hull! And they wouldn't have been able to use the hard-wires either, because Ascension rebooted the network! That meant no-one in Sallustria had any idea what was going on up here! Fuck! Well, it was time to change that.

Switching back to the stalk control utility on Edward's Comp, I found what I was looking for: the manual lift override. When the stalk connections had been disengaged, the stalk platforms had formed the barrier between Ark City and the atmosphere below, or, in the case of the lifts being back in Sallustria, a thick metal cover had sheathed over instead. By selecting all of the stalks and sending the appropriate lift command, either up or down, I opened Ark City to the elements, introducing holes to their 'impenetrable' shield. I turned the ship to face the platform that Liz and her mother had left on. It was now a satisfyingly empty hole, with the distant rooftops of Sallustria passing by far below. With perfect timing, a flurry of repeated messages assaulted both the ship's Comp and Edward's. It was broadcast on an open, unencrypted channel, and was the same message repeated ad infinitum.

Attention all Ark City residents. This is your final warning. Cut your engines, lay down your arms and submit to Enforcer personnel. If you do not comply, we will be forced to employ severe measures. In this event, we will no longer be able to prevent collateral damage. You have been warned.

The message filled me with confidence, both because of my success in re-establishing communications and because it meant that I was no longer alone in this fight. I fought the urge to fly the shuttle down through the gap, to take a peek at what kind of fleet the Enforcement Bureau had mustered. But I couldn't abandon my quest, not yet, not until I had made sure that Ascension were going to pay for their crimes. Instead, I flicked back out of the maintenance applications on Edward's Comp, searching through the categories and settling on the one marked 'Surveillance'. Inside were even more categories, names of the various sectors in Ark City, but I ignored them completely. What I was interested in lay not within the floating monstrosity, but outside it.

I tapped the icon for 'External' surveillance and was treated to a list of camera locations - recorded as angular measurements in degrees and minutes - that covered the entire hull. I flipped through a few of the streams until I caught a blur of white and blue, and repositioned the camera to get a better look. It was a squat, figure-eight shaped remote-controlled drone, about the size and shape of two large pizzas sitting next to each other. It had numerous thin arms projecting from its side, some sporting cylindrical tubes and others with blue glowing spheres, but all were pointing at something below the view of the camera. I cycled through other streams and found more drones, most of them clustered around the front and rear of Ark City. By manipulating one of the cameras, I was able to get a glimpse of what it was the drones were so interested in.

They appeared to be targeting the giant spherical engines, their weapons trained on the balls as they swivelled in their sockets. There were dozens of these engines, each providing Ark City with the necessary propulsion to keep it afloat, and every single one seemed to have a contingent of drones watching on. Their arms, which I had to assume were weapons of some kind, were tracking their every pivoting movement. So the Enforcers were going to take down Ark City's engines? At first that seemed logical, but what was the plan once there was no longer anything keeping the city in the air? Left to its own devices, it would crash land into Sallustria, killing thousands, hundreds of thousands! The Enforcement Bureau couldn't let that happen! They _must_ have some sort of plan, and I was going to find out exactly what it was.

I opened up the wireless connections on the Comp and scanned for the frequency I knew off by heart. Jimmy and I had spent many quiet nights roaming the streets, listening in to the Enforcer frequency on our Comps. When we had no money, or nothing else to do, we would scan for raids or embarrassing misdemeanours to keep us entertained. Sometimes we'd even visit the scene of the action, watching from an adjacent rooftop or a quiet alleyway while the Enforcers doled out justice. They were good times, and I felt sick thinking that they could never happen again. It wasn't fair!

I rubbed my forehead hard until my mind was clear, focusing my attention back on the task at hand. The Enforcer communication was encrypted, but they hadn't changed their key for years, and it was something else that I had committed to memory. I fed it into the connection utility and the flood of incomprehensible data became a steady stream of status updates between the Enforcers within Ark City and those outside. I ran through the various messages, skimming over the intricate details and trying to absorb the bigger picture. Apparently there were four mammoth construction vehicles stationed at the ready, pulled from their normal roles transporting pre-fabricated structures to await the deactivation of Ark City's engines. As soon as they went offline they would activate their tractor beams and guide Ark City away from Sallustria, bringing it down in a gentle descent over the barren wasteland that extended to the north. The fall would still be heavy, but whoever was organising this plan seemed confident that the city would remain intact and that minimal lives would be put at risk.

I flipped back to the surveillance footage, thinking that I might be able to catch a glimpse of the giant construction vehicles that had been mentioned, but all I saw were more drones. As I scrolled through the innumerable range of viewpoints something caught my eye, a protrusion from the side of the city that didn't mesh with the sleek line aesthetic that Ascension seemed so predisposed to. I stopped my stream surfing and zoomed in on the anomaly. It was moving, unpacking from a square box into... something else. It looked kind of like one of those puzzle boxes you could buy at the markets, where each time you wanted to play it would contort itself into a different tangle of blocks that you had to unravel. It continued to unfold, with elongated poles splaying outwards and a thin wire mesh forming between them. The end result was almost like a satellite dish, though this one was far bigger than the ones that were used to communicate with the satellites orbiting the planet. In the centre of the odd structure a thick, silver metal pole rose, a sphere capping its tip.

I shrunk the stream window down and pushed it to the side, quickly glancing over the rest of the feeds. More of the structures were sprouting up all over the hull, with each seeming to be forming in perfect synchronisation with the rest. I zoomed back in on the main display and watched as thin blue-white sparks began to jump from the sphere on the pole to the lines of the mesh dish. The sparks were instantaneous, blink-and-you'll-miss-it streaks of light, possibly electricity but thicker and bluer than any I had ever seen. There was no doubt that these structures were weapons of some kind, a weapon that Ascension could use to take down the drones if they didn't hurry up and act. But I waited and I watched, and the drones made no moves, hovering silently as the electric-dishes continued to unpack.

"Hurry up you idiots!" I screamed, venting my frustration by slapping the side of the main display. I had no idea what they were waiting for, but I did know that if they didn't attack soon, they were screwed.

I switched back to the communications module and frantically bashed out an irate warning message to the Enforcer fleet, lambasting them for their reticence and urging them to attack. After stabbing the send button I turned back to the stream and watched as lightning continued to build up within the dish webbing, lending the black surface an almost blinding glow that forced my eyes half-shut in pain. I kept the message channel open on a secondary projection, to the side of the main display, alternating between watching the weapon and waiting to see if the Enforcers would heed my warning. The fine webbing had now completely abandoned its black mask and had instead adopted a pulsating blue glow. The sparks were leaping back and forth almost constantly, creating the illusion that there were physical strands connecting the centre pole and the mesh. Finally, a burst of command messages came through, orders intended for the remote drone operators but intercepted by the ship's wireless receiver. It advised them to drop the drones below the bulk of Ark City, to break the line of sight with the 'supposed' weapons.

"Are you kidding me?" I yelled. They still didn't believe they were really weapons! There was electricity sparking all over them! What kind of moron was running this show? I spun back to the surveillance footage and watched as a drone hovering behind the dish disappeared from my field of view. I pulled back and watched as the rest started to do the same, but either the mass exodus must have triggered something or it was just bad timing, because the blue glow rapidly shifted from the mesh to the splayed arms, shooting to the tips and blasting out towards the fleeing drones. Each hit spawned a blinding flash and then the drones were falling, spinning, lifeless, with smoke billowing out from charred holes in their otherwise pristine surfaces. Some managed to avoid the attack, but many more did not, and I wondered for a moment what it would be like for somebody on Sallustria to see the smouldering carcass of an Enforcer drone plummeting from the heavens.

The communications window blurred as new messages began flooding the network. At first they were all formal reports of losses and avoidances, but then one message, succinct but effective and repeated endlessly, drowned out the rest.

FIRE!

Finally! They took their goddamn time, didn't they? I wasn't able to get a good view of the retaliation through any of the available feeds, but reports of success began streaming in as engines were steadily neutralised. Raising my head to look out the front viewport, I could see the effect that the loss of propulsion was having on the camber of Ark City. The landscape was beginning to tilt, as if I had rolled the ship onto its side. I made a few slight adjustments to the controls, swinging the ship to compensate for the angle, and headed for the massive stalk opening below. It was time to leave. The Enforcement Bureau had managed to cripple the city, and I wasn't going to achieve anything by remaining here, except maybe an untimely death when I crashed into the rocking landscape. I glanced back at the message display as I aimed for the enormous hole in the ground, yanking the pitch up and away when I saw the warning message bombarding the open frequencies. It was from Edward:

_The Enforcement Bureau. I've always thought that a ridiculous name for a body that claims to 'protect the peace'. Highlighting the consequences of disobedience in your very title does not instil confidence; it merely promotes fear in the populace. Perhaps it is poetic justice that all your 'enforcing' is now the cause of your own demise. Yes, you have succeeded in crippling my city, preventing my people from leaving, but you should not be celebrating. You see, we are now locked in a collision course with_ your _lovely city, and your lovely people, and I suspect there is little you can do to prevent it. It certainly does not bode well for the 'Enforcers' when their show of force is no longer enough to protect their own homes, does it? But I digress, and I have matters which I must attend to. I would like for you to remember that it is you who is responsible for your own premature demise, though I do not suppose you will have very long to ponder on it._

The message was confusing, and I was almost tempted to write it off as the deranged ramblings of a man who had crossed the threshold of sanity, but looking over the Enforcer communications stream lent validity to his claim. It seemed that the attack on the drones had been more of a diversion than a real defence, as three of the four large construction vessels surrounding Ark City had been crippled by a crushing wave of missiles launched while the drones had been preoccupied. Unable to employ the drones to intercept them, the missiles had found their targets, decimating the defenceless behemoths. And now Ark City was falling, and the single remaining tractor beam was inadequate to do anything more than slightly alter its trajectory.

The only one with any control over where the city came down now was Edward. I could picture him now, sitting in the secure command room hidden somewhere within the facility I had only recently left, a smug smile plastered on his smarmy face. I was certain the room was there somewhere; Edward was sure to be in no physical condition to travel, so it would have to be close to the Containment Zone where I took him down. As I seethed in anger at the thought of him keying in a course that would cost the lives of thousands upon thousands, another message came in on the ship's Comp. Speak of the devil.

HIGHEST PRIORITY COMMUNICATION

Sender: E. Levine, Chancellor

Evacuation Protocol Activated

_Fellow residents of Ark City, I have failed you. Our city is lost, and many of our lives' labours will go with it. I must apologise to you, for it is my foolishness that has brought us to this tragic outcome. I believed the people of Sallustria merely misinformed, only requiring gentle guidance to lead them off the path of societal stagnation. Unfortunately, it seems they are not simply ignorant of their folly, but brash and aggressive in support of it too. They have managed to disable our beautiful floating utopia, and I fear there is no saving her now. However, do not think that all is lost. I have attached the location for your evacuation, a segment of the city that will disengage from the rest and can be piloted independently. I beg all of you to assemble there as soon as possible, taking with you only what is necessary to re-establish our community at our next destination. I have assigned a group of supremely capable individuals to command the vessel, and they will ensure that you arrive at Cinsula safe and secure, whereupon you may rest and recover. I regret that I will not be accompanying you, as I must remain to ensure that the other parties responsible for this catastrophe are suitably punished. This city was my dream, inspired by my father's, and if it must perish then I must too. It is your duty to continue the work of Ascension, and maintain a society built on the foundations of innovation and determination that I and my father laid forth. You_ must _achieve what I could not. You can and will survive the coming apocalypse, because you are the best and the brightest of what humanity has to offer. But do not become complacent, do not fall prey to the same lack of ambition that has befallen the rest of our world. Continue to strive forwards, forever seeking improvement, remembering that very soon you will be the last of our kind, the seeds of a new humanity._

Remain steadfast in your conviction.

Edward Levine.

It was official. The leader of Ascension was a certifiable fucking madman. He was going to commit near-genocide-level mass murder simply because he felt that Sallustria was to blame for the damage to Ark City? It was _his_ fault that the Enforcers attacked, _he_ forced their hand, and it all came back to the atrocities _he_ had committed anyway! And now thousands of innocent lives were going to be lost due to his deranged belief. No. No, he could _not_ be allowed to do this! He had to be stopped, and that meant I needed to find the command room.

I stared down at the gaping maw in the ground of Ark City, now tilted to the point where it was more wall than floor, and briefly considered just punching through. I could leave it to the Enforcers, the ones who were trained for this sort of thing, at least as much as anyone could be trained for stopping a city sized missile. No, it needed to be me. This was my shot for salvation, and besides, time was of the essence and it would take way too long to bring the Enforcers up to speed. I nodded my head and steeled myself, swinging the nose of the vessel around to point back towards the facility. That's where Edward was, I was sure of it. I took a deep breath and jacked up the acceleration.

As I approached the dim spires of the facility – Edward had clearly not bothered to reactivate the lights – I transmitted the location that had been provided with Edward's message to the Enforcers. I sent it out on both the open frequencies and their own, just to be sure. Fingers crossed they wouldn't write it off – I _had_ tried to warn them about the lightning dishes, after all - and would be on the lookout for a segment of Ark City jettisoning before impact.

I pulled up the location of the evacuation zone on the map, just to sate my curiosity, and saw that it was further towards the rear of the gigantic city ship, far beyond the facility in the direction I was heading. I shrugged the irrelevant information off and returned focus to figuring out just how I was going to find the command room. I had decided the best bet would be to start from the Containment Zone, as Edward would not have been able to travel far in the time between his 'accident' and his subsequent message to Ark City. From the control room, Edward clearly had access to all the city's systems: the engines, the power, the sky projection. To ensure consistent operation, and to avoid interference, the connections to the distributed systems would have to be hard-wired, rather than wireless. And, to enhance security, I was confident that the command room would be shrouded in the same transmission shielding that Ark City itself was encased in.

As many would-be hackers had found out – myself included - signals attempting to penetrate the city's exterior would be bounced back, the data warped from the impact with the shield. One group of snooping enthusiasts had inundated the city with streams of unique data, collating the results over months to form the basis for a pattern search. They had discovered an algorithm that reasonably accurately (about 97%) predicted the effect the warping would have on a particular stream of data. This hadn't really achieved anything, at least not for them, but for me it sparked a plan to locate the command room. I would go to the Containment Zone and send out bursts of messages, scanning for bouncing transmissions that correlated with the warping algorithm. I could then move around and hopefully approximate the location by the strength of the returned signal. It might not have been the most efficient plan, but it was a damn sight better than nothing.

Once again I had the map up on Edward's Comp, but instead of landing on the roof like last time, I located the ground floor entrance and touched down on the empty platform nearby. I left the ship logged in and idling, praying that some divine miracle would give me a chance to get back and make it out of the doomed city. Though all the lights were off, the power to the buildings remained, and the front doors slid apart when I approached. The lobby was deserted and a deathly silence lay thick in the air, whispered tales of untold horrors just beyond the realm of hearing. It deepened as I navigated my way through to the Containment Zone, the light from the map projection casting flickering shadows across the gaily coloured walls as I jogged forward. Before long, I reached the thick steel door and the vacant guardhouse beside it. I leant in through the partially raised window of the hut, rejoicing as I retrieved my Comp from where it lay amidst the wrappers of food I had traded to the guard. I pocketed it, breathing a sigh of relief as the familiar weight pressed against my leg.

The Containment Zone door trundled open with a quick swipe from Edward's Comp, and I slid through the gap as it sluggishly meandered aside. It was slightly brighter inside than it had been everywhere else, with flickering lights still active within the small cell/rooms suppling dim illumination to the rest of the cavernous hall. I checked the interior door panel to see if it had controls for the lights, which it did, so I powered them up and closed my eyes as they winked on around me. I waited for a few seconds as the bright yellow haze on the inside of my eyelids faded, then blinked a few times and began reassessing my surroundings. The mountain of crates that I had launched from the dolly existed no more, instead transformed into a collection of haphazard towers leaning precariously against the far wall. The space that the pile had taken up was sparkling clean, no traces of the brown liquid or foodstuffs that had exploded as the crates burst open. I frowned. That was odd. Why would you go to all the trouble of cleaning up when the entire facility was going to be pancake flat in the very near future? I shook my head and pushed the thought to the back of my mind. It was weird, but there was a far more pressing concern right now, one that was getting more urgent with every second that ticked by.

I flipped out both Edward's and my own Comp, swiping through the screens on mine until I found where I had archived the warping algorithm. It felt seriously good to have my Comp back, like it was an anchor to my normal life back on Sallustria, like having it with me meant everything was going to be okay somehow. It was also going to make tracking down this signal a crapload easier, thanks to the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink wireless utility I had installed. Rather than having to manually switch between different programs just to send the messages, monitor the incoming traffic, _and_ feed that data into the warping algorithm, I could automate it all from the one display. I copied the utility over to Edward's Comp, keen to utilise the fact that I now had two Comps in order to get a better fix on the signal. Then, just to establish some redundancy, I transferred Edward's profile – credentials and all - to mine, using a little trick that involved a hard reboot of the Comp midway through the transfer process to bypass the de-authorisation step. Now, even if something happened to Edward's Comp, I wouldn't be stuck in this godforsaken hellhole.

I began polling the airwaves with a simple ' _Hello world_ ' message, a throwback to my early programming days. As I waited for the Comps to start receiving the bounced messages and begin calculating the signal strength, I gave the room another once over. My gaze drifted over the slapdash arrangement of containers, and I realised that what I had initially taken to be a small pile of pre-packaged food stacked on top of a crate was actually the helmet of a power-suit, the rest of its body obscured by a half-collapsed box tower. I ran over eagerly, setting Edward's Comp down on the floor halfway along to provide a clearer indication of direction when the signal strengths came in. I clambered over a few of the single box stacks, sliding past the crumbled tower to come face-to-face with the seven-foot monstrosity that stood open before me. It looked like an absurdly padded jumpsuit, with the sleeves and pants made from thick coils of black material that would expand and contract as the user desired, offering superhuman strength one minute and precision control the next.

The torso was currently split apart down the middle, waiting for someone to jump in and turn it on. I avoided the temptation to do just that, holding the power fantasy at bay for a moment while I looked back down at my Comp. Commandeering the suit was a good idea, as it would ensure an extra layer of protection against any defences Edward had set up, as well as serving as an effective non-lethal weapon, but I needed to get a ping on the command room's location first. And though they were excellent for heavy operations, the arms and gloves of the power-suit were simply impractical for the delicate swipes and pinches necessary for Comp manipulation. To compensate, the suits featured a wrist mounted Comp slot accessed by slipping your hand out of the glove and into a separate part of the sleeve. The problem was, not only did it mean trading control of the arm for access to the Comp, but it was damn fiddly too, locking your wrist in place so all you could do was wiggle your fingers. Not particularly great for when you wanted something done fast.

My Comp reported the signal strength as a surprisingly large 63%, much higher than I expected. That meant it was close, very close. I ran back to where I had left Edward's Comp and checked the reading there. 58%. Okay, that meant it was in _that_ direction. I was staring directly at the wall beyond the stack of crates. A smile bloomed across my face, a disbelieving shake of my head and a sly chuckle escaping my lips. Folding Edward's Comp into my pocket, I ran over to the power-suit, clipping my Comp into the wrist connection. Then I backed myself in carefully, first one leg, then the other, and pulled the handles on the inside of the chest to close it up. The suit began its power on sequence, a pleasant hum reverberating from behind my back and the cool rush of circulated air caressing my cheeks. I practiced pulling my right arm in and out of the different sections of the sleeve, testing how long it would take me to access my Comp if I needed to. It was more awkward than I would have liked, but at least it meant I didn't have to exit the suit every time I wanted to ping the location.

The start-up sequence concluded with a whimsical chime, and I very slowly began shuffling in a circle, getting used to the odd weightlessness that accompanied each step. The suit made liberal use of inhibitors, preventing the user from making any violent movements that could exceed the bounds of their frail human body, but it was still easy to move so quickly you ended up flat on your ass.

Once I had successfully spun to face the direction I wanted, I took a few tentative steps forward, getting more comfortable with each one. As soon as I was happy that I wasn't going to perform any impromptu interpretive dance routines, I strode to the wall and lifted my right arm. The display on my Comp read 65% signal strength. I was definitely heading the right way, then. I brought my left arm up next to my right and planted both hands on the wall in front of me, taking a deep breath then letting the air out in a rush as I pushed forward with all my enhanced strength. _BRRRRGH_!

Shit! That definitely didn't go the way I had planned! The clear screen of my helmet was pressing against the wall, the blank beige surface comprising my entire field of vision. Both my arms were shoulder deep into the wall, with my legs still planted firmly on the ground a couple of feet back. I had intended for the entire wall to give way under my pressure, creating a shortcut between the Containment Zone and a small room on the other side that I had seen on the map. But it seemed I had not only misjudged the structure of the wall, I had screwed up my aim as well. I retracted my arms and stared through the two jagged holes I had made. I had expected to see an aisle of sleeping pods - the map had labelled the room as living quarters - and I was shocked when instead I was treated to a tangled mess of wires and chipped and fragmented circuit boards. I had clearly missed my target, trashing a section of internal wiring instead of establishing a neat shortcut. Goddammit I was lucky those wires hadn't been live! The power-suit might be resilient to physical trauma, but I was pretty sure it wasn't equipped to handle high voltage surges. I would have been fried!

Shivering and shaking off the thought, I pulled my arm up and took a look at my Comp. The map still seemed to indicate that there should be a room on the other side, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Hmmm. I decided to try again, a little further down this time, but I was not going to use the same failed tactic. Realising how close I came to being zapped made me more cautious, and I glanced around the room looking for something use as a ram. Some of the crates that had been first to fall during my dolly attack had been partially crushed by the avalanche that followed. One had landed on its side before it was squashed, and now resembled more of an oblong than a rectangle. It was almost the right shape for a battering ram...

I walked over nice and slowly, still taking it easy with the suit's queer gait, and bent down to pick the squashed container up. With the ease of folding hard-copy I compressed the wrecked container further, fashioning it into a point at one end and pressing the rest of it in on itself to create a firm barrel. There, not too bad for a makeshift spear, if I don't say so myself! I hefted my new creation, testing a swinging motion and knocking a few of the other crates down in the process. It seemed to hold its shape, so I strolled back to the wall, setting myself up a few feet down from the jagged marks of my failed first attempt. I had thought the wall to be made from interlocking panels - as the pattern coating it indicated - but my unintended arm spears had revealed that it was actually constructed from small hexagonal panels, a neat tessellation of the honeycomb shapes. I had no idea why Ascension weren't using the typical contiguous c-spex panels that were in such abundance back in Sallustria. Then again, most of what Ascension were doing up here didn't make any sense either. With a basket-case for a leader, I couldn't really put much stock in their decisions.

I returned my attention to the section of wall in front of me, sizing it up and picking my target. This time, if I did happen to break through into a live current, my 'ram' would absorb it, and I would be left safely uncooked. Well, that was the plan anyway. I took a few preparatory swings then, holding the ram tight with both gloved hands, I swung it back and jammed it into the wall. It pierced the surface and kept going, going, going, flying out of my grip and disappearing into the darkness beyond. I stood there for a second with my arms still outstretched, feeling more than a little stupid, then wandered over to the hole and peered through. It was dark, but there was just enough light bleeding through from behind me to see a few sleeping pods sitting nearby. Bingo! I slipped both hands into the gap, taking a firm grip on either side of the small hole, and pulled. The structure tore away, clumps of hexagonal panels crashing onto the floor as I tore madly at the pale wall. As soon as the hole was big enough to clamber through, I ducked my head and pushed my way inside, triggering another cascade of falling debris as I emerged between rows of idle sleeping pods. I lifted my head and gave the room a cursory glance, failing to see much of anything in the thick, shadowy gloom. To bust through the inky blackness I activated the helmet's low-light mode, rendering everything in that same hazy filter that the shuttle had when Edward shut off the sky-scape. I probably could have found the room's light controls for a clearer picture, but being so close to the command room, I didn't want to give Edward any more warning than I had to. Though I had just smashed through an entire wall...Oops. I dialled down the brightness on my Comp's display, not wanting to blind myself every time I looked at it with the helmet's increased light sensitivity. With the entirety of the room now visible before me, I spotted a door set into the far wall, and strode down the aisle of pods towards it. A quick check of my Comp indicated the signal strength had risen to 70%. Not far now.

The hallway outside extended off in both directions, fading into indistinct grey haze as the suit's visor mode failed to bring clarity to the distant gloom. A brief stroll in both directions proved the signal was stronger to the right, so that's the way I went, passing opaqued windows that no longer offered glimpses into the rooms beyond them. With no furnishings or adornments and no way of peering into the adjacent rooms, the journey devolved into a slow, monotonous march, left, right, left, right, each foot placed carefully in front of the other. I passed the time by continuously glancing at the signal reading on my Comp, stumbling and only just catching myself when the number started ticking downwards instead. It had read 83% the last time I checked, but now it was back down to 82%. Now 81%. I came to a deliberate stop, turning around and strolling backwards to see where it peaked. I found where it topped out at 84%, and stared at two doors on the opposite side of the wall from where I had entered. According to the map, the left one led to a storage closet, and the right to a cafeteria.

The storage room was a tiny box on the display, small enough to make searching for hidden entrances to the command room a simple task, so I decided to check it out first. The door opened as it detected Edward's Comp, and the room offered exactly what you would expect when you heard the words 'storage closet'. A few shelves covered in bottles, boxes, tubes, flasks and myriad other containers, all labelled with names I had no hope of pronouncing. Nestled in the lower half of the back wall was a narrow chute, an orange kennel of some kind sitting next to it. Courtesy of the enhanced vision, I was able to read the words plastered on its side:

MULTI-PURPOSE UTILITY DRONE

And below that, in much smaller letters:

When indicator light is flashing red, fluid levels are low. Remove back panel and top up as soon as possible.

There were a bunch of drone houses just like this back at the pod farm. Except those systems were all automated, the tag-line being that they required no human intervention for the drones to keep the halls clean and tidy. It was a little weird that Ascension would be using a less efficient system, one that required manual refilling, but I figured it was probably just another part of the whole restricted-tech thing they had going on.

I shrugged the thought away and finished surveying the storage area. The door I had entered through was the only visible way in or out of the tiny room, but I gave the walls a quick pat down anyway, checking for hidden seams or pressure-sensitive buttons. Nothing there, as best I could tell. I could have wasted an hour thoroughly scouring every surface for concealed switches, but I was pressed for time as it was, and I just couldn't see the entrance to central command being hidden inside a supply closet. That kind of thing was the realm of corny mystery virtuals.

I backed out of the closet and let the door slide shut as I started my investigation of the cafeteria. It was a fairly typical affair, with long communal tables surrounded by faux leather seats and an enormous serving kiosk lining the far wall. The size of the room immediately made it more promising than the closet, as simply walking towards the kiosk caused the signal strength to jump by 1%. Standing in front of the transparent case of foodstuffs, wilting lettuce, cold meats and slices of bread lying forgotten beneath the curved display window,

I scanned the wall opposite me for doors, hatches, pipes – anything that looked remotely like it might lead further on. I was plum out of luck; the light-blue wall, peppered by occasional dots of white fuzz from the visor, stretched from one end of the cafeteria to the other without break. I spun back around and began sizing up the chairs in the room, trying to determine what would be best for slapping together another homemade spear/battering ram, when I spied a large black door on the side wall, framed by two glowing authentication panels located unusually high. The suit detected the light sources and lowered the image amplification, but not before I was hit with a blinding white flash that sent me stumbling backwards. I waved my arms in wild desperation, extremely keen _not_ to find out whether I was capable of rising from the floor without assistance, and slowly regained my balance after twirling one-eighty degrees.

With the helmet's reduced light I could no longer see the cafeteria as clearly as before, with the mess of half-finished meals left abandoned now blending in with the table tops on which they sat. I carefully spun myself back around to face the door and its beacon-light panels, staring with accusing eyes as I trudged forward. _Two_ panels? That was odd enough that it had to have something to do with the command room. I wound my way around the edge of the room, keeping as much distance as possible from the dim blobs of furniture that I was still able to see, and shuffled up to the door. It was an imposing slab of steel, with sharp patterns and heavy bars criss-crossing its surface. I wasn't certain that any of that had any functionality, but it sure as hell succeeded in convincing you to stay away.

I stepped up to the panel on the right side of the door and glared at the screen. It didn't seem much different to any I had seen before, so I waved my hand in front of it to trigger authentication and waited for the door to open. It stubbornly refused to do so. I raised an eyebrow and stared curiously at the panel, resisting the urge to rub my chin in contemplation; I didn't want to crush my lower jaw by accidentally squeezing too hard. All the systems I had ever used offered some sort of message if the door did not open, usually an _Access Denied_ or _Insufficient Privileges_ or possibly a _Maintenance Required_ , often accompanied by a musical chime or beep. This panel, however, was simply displaying a spinning arrow animation, one that disappeared after just a few moments. I swiped again, and watched as the same arrow spun around in a circle, then vanished. Hmmm. I stepped over to the other panel, trying the same thing with exactly the same result. I tried activating one then the other, but the distance between the two was much too far to travel before the animation completed. Deciding that I was wasting precious time, I straightened up and turned on my heel, striding to the nearest table and seizing one of the chairs. Lifting it up over my head in preparation, I walked back to the door and, after choosing the wall over the door as the weaker looking structure, swung the chair with all my strength. _THWONG_! The legs of the chair struck with a booming ring that echoed around the room before collapsing in on themselves, leaving the chair in a state more suited for ground-level dining than the regular kind. I had been bracing myself for the wall to collapse before me, and when it didn't my preparatory lean caused me to stumble backwards, dropping the chair and windmilling my arms in another frantic attempt to regain my balance. Thanks to the table that I backpedalled into, I managed to remain mostly upright, though the suit left a nasty butt-dent in the table's smooth surface.

I stood up, carefully wiping the moist remains of a burger from the rear of the suit, and marched back to the door. The malformed chair lay on the floor, barely recognisable as a seat anymore, but the wall was so untouched that I couldn't even tell where I had struck it. I tried placing my hands on its surface and pushing, lightly at first, then harder, but the wall did not give. It seemed that whatever had been used to construct the wall here was significantly stronger than what they had used back in the Containment Zone. Damn. I dropped my arms and stepped back, scanning the length of the wall's smooth blue surface to see if there were any areas that looked weaker than the rest. Nothing caught my eye. I sighed. The only consolation was that this pretty much settled it: the command room lay beyond this door.

I returned my attention to the pulsating panels. I realised now that the system was designed so that two people had to pass authorisation at the same time. While I _did_ have two Comps, the slack time that the system allowed between scans was too short for me to activate them both by myself. And simply leaving one of the Comps on the ground in front of a panel was out of the question, as the scan only triggered when it detected a waving gesture right in front of it. For a second I almost wished that Liz had come along with me before remembering exactly where I was. When Ark City crashed, chances of survival were going to be practically zero, and I wouldn't have wanted Liz here no matter how much easier it would have made getting past the door. Saving her from Ascension was the best thing I had ever done, the _only_ thing I had ever done with my life that really mattered. Damn it, I had to stop Edward! For Liz's sake, and all the other innocent people who would die if that megalomaniac got his wish!

I frowned hard in concentration, trying to will the inspiration into my head. I dropped my gaze to the floor, a habit I often indulged in when deep in contemplation, and stared at the tiled ground between the feet of the suit. The suit! Of course! I stopped myself before I tried to slap my forehead, knowing that I'd probably knock myself unconscious if I tried, and strode over to the left of the two panels. If I got out of the suit, I could use it as the other person. I just needed to get it to wave at the right time, to trigger the panel. I lifted the arm of the suit up so that it was sitting just above the glowing blue screen, then ran through the suit's shut down procedure and pushed the chest open from the inside. I clambered out, stumbling awkwardly in the meagre light and trying to get used to unpowered movement. The dull glow of the panels only lit up a small rectangle immediately in front of the door, so I pulled Edward's Comp out of my pocket and clipped it to my collar, flicking the light switch and launching a wide white beam onto the ground before me. I looked back at the imposing suit, its arm extended upwards. It seemed vaguely sinister somehow... I shook the distraction out of my head and regained focus. Now I just needed to get that arm to drop at the same time that I activated the other panel, hopefully resulting in an open door.

Power-suits were designed so that, when they were shut down, the arms and leg joints would offer firm resistance but could be repositioned to allow for optimal storage format. Maybe I could weight it down somehow... I looked back at the unsullied chairs surrounding a nearby table. If I could balance one of them on the arm, the weight should cause it to slowly drop down and trigger the panel. I wobbled over, still a little unsteady on my feet, and lifted one of the chairs up. I grunted from the unexpected weight. It was a lot heavier than it had felt when I was in the suit, but I still managed a test lift over my head, albeit it with trembling arms. Confident that it would work, I dragged the chair back to the suit, glancing at my Comp still clipped into the wrist of its right arm. The clock on the side of the display told me that it had only been thirty minutes since I had left the ship and entered the facility. It felt like it had been hours. I wasn't sure how much time I had before it was too late to avert disaster, but I was sure that every second counted.

An injection of adrenaline surged through my body, spurring me into action, and I lifted the chair up easily and sat it astride the suit's arm, two legs on each side and the back resting against the side of the helmet. At first I thought the weight had had no effect, but then the arm shifted just slightly, and as I started backing away towards the other panel it dropped again, and again, faster and faster until it had developed a steady decline. I spun around and ran for the panel, holding my arm above it and readying myself as I turned back to watch the suit. The arm was dropping slowly, too slowly I feared, and I gritted my teeth and willed it to be fast enough to register with the door panel. I leant to the left, trying to get a better look at the other display so I could tell if and when the scan had been triggered. The arm passed in front of the screen, blocking it from my view. I craned my neck to try and see over it, praying that it was fast enough, and finally caught a satisfying glimpse of a white arrow spinning on the blue display. I spun to my right and swept my hand past the panel in front of me as fast as I could, eliciting a musical _ding-doong-ding_ as the system verified the Comps and opened the door.

I recoiled as the door slid away, dazzling light streaking out from the corridor beyond and blasting my eyes sightless. I closed them and lifted my hands to my head, blocking the door from view. Blinking the tears from my eyes, I began staggering back to the suit, but as I passed the door my curiosity got the better of me, coaxing me to stop and look. I made a visor out of my hands to temper the brightness and squinted through the doorway. At first I could only make out a short landing, dropping away into darkness, but as my eyes acclimated to the light I was able to see that a stairwell led down from the landing, obscured in shadow as it doubled back on itself. My interest temporarily satisfied, I turned back and continued walking to the power-suit, but stopped abruptly as the beam of light streaming off to my left from the doorway began shrinking back. A quick glance over my shoulder confirmed that the door was closing and, acting on impulse rather than rational thought, I launched myself through the gap and collapsed painfully on the inside floor, the door crashing shut behind me. I immediately regretted my snap decision, wondering why I didn't just let the door close and set the trick up again. As I got up to open the door from the _one_ internal panel – no authorization at all required on this side – I realised that it was pointless to go back. After authorisation the door had only remained open for about ten seconds, nowhere near enough time to get back into the suit, power it on, and manoeuvre it in here. That meant I was stuck without both it _and_ my Comp, given it was still clipped into the suits wrist jack. Shit! Now I had nothing to protect me from whatever weapons Edward was packing. I sighed, cursing the day's shitty fortunes, and struggled back to my feet.

With nothing to gain from wallowing in sorrow, I turned to the stairs and began to descend. The lights began activating as I drew close, a sliding window of illumination that followed my progress, shadows snapping back into existence behind me as I made my way down. The stairs continued for two flights with no doors, no windows, nothing at all to break up the monotony. Upon reaching the bottom I found myself on another short landing, facing a smaller cousin of the black door above. Only one panel again, fortunately, but before I activated it I decided to double-check the signal reading. 97% now. Yep, this was it then. The command room was just beyond this door, with Edward and God knows how many other fanatics he had persuaded to help hold Ark City on its collision course.

I steeled myself as best I could, rubbing my trembling muscles and massaging my temples. I had to assume Edward knew I was coming. It was the central command room after all; it was bound to have all sorts of surveillance and security built in. But Edward was less of a concern than the potential gang of crazed followers he had in there with him. Not only would they be injury-free - eliminating any advantage I may have had over Edward's crippled form - but they were clearly as mental as he was, willing to die for some depraved form of reparation they felt they were owed. Fuckin' nutcases! But...he couldn't have _that many_ of them in there, could he? He couldn't have found _that many_ idiots willing to kill themselves for nothing, right? I shuddered, images of a legion of frothing mouth maniacs waiting for me on the other side of the door sending icy tendrils tickling down my spine. No, that's too depressing. I needed to stay positive. If he had managed to assemble an entire sacrificial army then I was already screwed, and there was no point dwelling on it. Ha! You know you're fucked when you consider apathy positive thinking.

Well, I wasn't going to achieve anything by moping around out here, but before I opened the door I really needed some sort of plan. I didn't have any weapons, and even if I had, I don't know how confident I would have been using them. I felt I could handle a little bit of physical violence, but the thought of killing, even in this justifiable case, brewed a bubbling sickness in the pit of my stomach. I berated myself for this weakness, trying to reason that taking a life here would mean saving thousands down below. The boiling stew in my belly cooled to a simmer, but even so, I was kind of glad that I was going in unarmed, even if it was going to make things a shitload more difficult.

Running through the extremely limited options I managed to conjure up, I settled on the simplest: running in as fast as I could and making a beeline for Edward, ignoring everyone else in the room in the hope that I could take him hostage. If I pulled off that minor miracle, I would find the controls and try to adjust Ark City's descent myself, lining up a trajectory into the wastelands just as the Enforcers had intended. Obviously my plan had one fatal flaw: everyone in the room knew they were heading to their deaths anyway, so why would any of them care if I threatened them with Edward's life? Well, I was banking on them forgetting that little fact in the heat of the moment, buying me at least a couple of seconds to get to the controls and work some magic.

Sure, and who knows, after that maybe you can fly out of here on a fucking rainbow unicorn!

Ha! A laugh actually escaped my lips, a distinct note of hysteria pervading my crackling voice. Well, if you can't laugh in the face of death, when can you?

Ark City was dropping closer to Sallustria with every second I stood there, so I rolled my shoulders, took a few deep breaths, and sidled up to the wall beside the door. I pressed my back against the cool grey surface and palmed the activation panel. The door slid open beside me and I waited for a few seconds before edging close enough to peek inside. Banks of Comp terminals slid into view, sporadic flashes of light illuminating empty chairs and abandoned coffee cups. The projections were showing obtuse diagrams, surveillance footage, reams upon reams of flickering text; all the information relevant to keeping the gargantuan city functioning. Many of the displays were covered in red: flashing red alert messages, red outlines around text, red highlights around sections of the city system diagrams. There was no sign of Edward, no sign of anybody at all, so I edged a little further, bringing the back wall into my line of sight.

"Derek. Please _do_ come in."

Edward's crackling voice caught me off guard as it pierced the low background hum of electronics and I lost my balance, leaning too far forward and falling headlong through the doorway. I flailed my arms, trying madly to find purchase on the edges of the door, but my fingers slipped across the glossy surface and I crashed painfully on to my knees. I picked myself up as quickly as possible and snapped my head back and forth, wide-eyes searching then finding Edward sitting in front of a wall-spanning projection in the back corner. He was turned to face me, a cocky smile plastered on his face, but I could see the pain in his eyes, the bruises on his skin, and the awkward way in which he sat with one leg resting on the other.

So much for your brilliant plan, dickhead.

Speaking of which, where the heck was Edward's army? I gave the entire room a quick scan, followed by a more thorough one when it still came up blank. Edward was alone, his only companions the rows of flashing Comps and a solitary food dispenser resting open against the left wall.

"I must say, I am genuinely impressed that you found your way here. Alone as well, I see. You will have to explain just how you accomplished that while we await death's gentle embrace. Would you care for a drink?"

Edward gestured to the food dispenser on the other side of the room. I didn't reply. I was scanning the room for a weapon, something I could throw to distract him before I wrestled him to the ground. Edward continued, unfazed.

"I can't say I picked you as the heroic type. You've always been far more of a loner in the past, have you not Mr Kwei?"

I snapped my attention back to Edward, glaring at him fiercely, trying to mask my shock at his claims of intimate knowledge. I took a few tentative steps forward, tensing my muscles in preparation. Screw the weapon! All I needed to do was knock him out of his chair and get to those command controls. In his crippled state, it ought to take him quite a while to pick himself up again.

"So I gather you are here to prevent me from extracting my due payment from the people of Sallustria? Do you understand what their actions have really bought you? They have jeopardised the future of the entire human race! They have denied themselves any chance they had for salvation, to become part of humanity's rebirth into the revolutionary species we once were, so long ago! Do you honestly believe they deserve to continue with their meaningless, recalcitrant lives? Bah! They would have accomplished nothing in their miserable two years anyway."

Edward was alternating between disturbing calm and violent lividity, his piercing gaze tracking my every step as I threaded my way among the blinking lights and pungent aromas of discarded food towards him.

"Those are innocent people down there! They've done nothing to hurt you or your stupid organisation! Meanwhile, you've been screwing around with all sorts of fucked up shit up here, kidnapping people and cutting them open for their brains! What the _fuck_ is wrong with you?!"

I was screeching through gritted teeth, tiny flecks of spittle blasting from my lips as rage took me over. This maniac in front of me was responsible for every single bullshit thing that had happened today, from Liz's capture and Jimmy's death to forcing me to kill in self-defence, and now he was trying to claim justification for wanting the deaths of thousands upon thousands of harmless Sallustrian citizens! It was so fucking arrogant that I found myself struck dumb, my mouth hanging open as I glared in revulsion.

Edward took advantage of my silence and responded to my accusations with a chuckle, so carefree and cocky that I felt my hands clench into fists and my arms start to tremble.

"'Kidnapping people and cutting them open'? My boy, you _do_ have quite an imagination. Ark City is no prison, nor is it a slaughterhouse. I have felt keenly every lost ascendant, every citizen who valiantly sacrificed body and soul that we might continue our efforts to understand and prepare for the EOT. Were it purely academic I would have had our operations dismantled long ago, but such is not the case. We are rapidly approaching a critical juncture in the history of the universe, an event so catastrophic that it will disrupt the very fabric of time itself. For our ascendants it has proven a fatal impasse, where even allusion to the question of humanity's fate is sufficient to trigger immediate self-termination. So, in deference to your _obvious_ moral superiority, I propose a counter to your question: what is wrong with _you_ , that you can so easily ignore the most significant threat our species has ever faced?"

Edward paused only briefly, denying me the chance to offer up an appropriately indignant response.

"And do not tell me you truly believe the people of Sallustria 'innocent'. They spend their lives sheltered beneath layers upon layers of lazy technology, relinquishing the pursuit of improvement for the succubus of sloth and gluttony. Do you not see what this has done for our once magnificent race? There is no creativity, no invention; only endless iteration devoid of emotion. Humanity has become lodged firmly in a rut of complacency, and it is those 'innocents' that are responsible. I merely wish for a little compensation for the degradation of an entire species. Is that too much to ask?" His words were coated with a veneer of sneering, condescending venom.

By now Edward was only a few metres away, and I was ready to spring and knock him to the ground. He had stopped watching me during his speech, his eyes locked to a section of the ceiling far behind me. I steadily dropped to a crouch, planting my hands on the back of a chair to lend my jump a little extra power.

"And what about you, Derek? You took the lives of three innocent Ark City residents, so what does that make _you_? How does that make _you_ feel?" His patronizing tone was too much. I lost my composure, the tension draining from my muscles as I tried to comprehend what Edward was saying.

"WHAT? How- But... T-they were soldiers! They were sent there to kill us! They weren't innocent!" I was screaming, trying to quash both Edward's accusation and the little voice in the back of my head that was agreeing with him. " _You_ sent them there to kidnap Liz! It's _your_ fault they're dead!" Edward just smirked back at me, his utter confidence completely impenetrable.

"No, my dear boy, they were under strict orders _not_ to harm anybody. You were the one who chose to behave violently, not they, and it is you who must carry the burden of their deaths. Innocent lives, Derek... I believe you and I have more in common than you thought." He clasped his hands in his lap, wincing and closing his eyes for a brief moment. Good, the fucker deserved to be in pain for the lies he was spewing.

"That's bullshit! Your goons have been trying to kill us all day!" Even as I threw the justification into his face, doubts were creeping into my mind. Had anybody actually tried to _kill_ us? I flashed back through the events of the day, scanning through every moment where I had feared for my life. There were plenty, but when I examined them closely my conviction began to crumble. At no point had someone actually threatened to kill me, either verbally or with force. In fact, the first weapon I had seen had been in the hands of an Enforcer, and they'd been the only ones to fire at me as well. My resolve was collapsing, my guilt steadily rising as I realised I could no longer claim self-defence for killing those Ascension soldiers. That god-awful sick feeling in my stomach began welling up again, this time much more severe, and no matter how hard I tried I could not push it down. I swayed on my feet, my left hand rubbing my temple while my right searched for a surface to lean on. I half-collapsed into a nearby chair and let my head drop into my hands. What had I done? What had I become? Had I really killed in cold blood, with no reasonable justification? Was I a monster?

"You see, it is not so clear-cut, is it Derek? One mistake, one slight miscalculation, and the hero becomes the villain, the saint a sinner. A permanent scar you must wear with pride, for the past is not something that you can escape. You carry it with you for the rest of your life, a relentless pressure in the back of your mind that will never cease, forever reminding you of the pain you caused. You must learn to embrace it, my boy, embrace it as a part of your very being, accept it, learn from it, lest you be forever trapped in a vortex of misery and self-loathing." He paused to catch his breath. "Just like your father, Derek. And just like he, you will find there is only one escape from that nightmare, and unfortunately it is rather... _permanent_."

I had been starting to tune Edward out while I focused on resolving my internal conflict, but at the mention of my father my head snapped up and I leapt from my seat. I glared ferociously at Edward, staring through his smarmy expression and into the bottomless blue pits within his eyes.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY? HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY DAD?" I was shocked at just how angry I felt at Edward's abuse of my father. We'd never been close, and I can barely even remember the last time I called him 'dad' to his face, but some sort of familial instinct in the core of my being kicked in, demanding that I defend the man who brought me into this world and raised me by himself. Edward exhibited no reaction to my shouting, maintaining his half-smile and holding my gaze until my fury deflated and the guilt rose back up. I collapsed into the chair behind me once more, feeling drained and overwhelmed by a sudden urge to sleep. I was having serious trouble keeping up with the constant sway of emotions, the back-and-forth from despair to anger pummelling my brain into a mushy paste.

"Well, Derek, here we are, both of us following our fathers' selfish footsteps. Me, 'going down with the ship' as they say, perishing with my dream just as my father did before me. And you, succumbing to the same guilt that drove your father to neglect you and ultimately end his own meaningless life. I find I must reiterate my previous sentiment: I believe you and I are far more alike than your petty claims would suggest."

The possibility that I was not all that different to the freak sitting opposite me was the straw that broke my back. I may have acted recklessly back at Gregor's, but at the time I honestly believed that they were there to kill us. All the evidence had pointed to that, and I'll be damned if I was going to let this bastard talk me into thinking otherwise.

A soothing rush of clarity blew through my head, tearing up the roots of self-despair and allowing me to focus again. It felt like I had woken up from a horrific nightmare - the feeling was that intense - and I finally realised that Edward had been talking all that bullshit in an effort to stall me from foiling his plan. And I had let him. You dickhead! I slammed my hands into the armrests of the chair and stood up, glaring viciously at Edward and baring my teeth.

"You fucking bastard! I'm not going to let you destroy half a fucking city by convincing _me_ I'm evil. You're the psychopath here, and it's time for you to take your fucking medicine!"

I conceded myself the awful pun given the circumstances, and launched myself at Edward. He was a big guy, but his injury had impacted his reaction time, and I was on top of him with my arm raised back before he even got his own arms up. I socked him as hard as I could right above his left eye, hissing at the pain that shot through my wrist but immediately pulling back for another go. I pierced his ocean eyes with mine and, seeing defiance swirling in their murky depths, wailed on him again and again until his head drooped and he slipped into unconsciousness. I shoved him carelessly off the chair and onto the floor, taking his seat and spinning to face the wall of Comp terminals and their morbid red displays.

Okay, navigation, navigation, c'mon where the heck are you? I searched for anything that vaguely resembled the nav systems I'd used in the APT and the shuttle, hoping that Ascension hadn't been paranoid enough to go the whole 'obfuscation via proprietary systems' route. I managed to find a status readout that listed altitude, speed and current heading, but I didn't have the maths to translate the figures useful data by sight alone, and time was too precious for me to waste it with manual calculations. As I stumbled through screen after screen I realised my suspicions had been correct, with every system I encountered seemingly designed by a neurotic monkey, pertinent information hidden away amongst endless blocks of useless ancillary data. Eventually, after blundering through menus for what seemed like an eternity, I swiped up a crappy geo-display of the terrain below. Everything was etched out in bland lines, with no detail to distinguish building from building, but by rotating the view and zooming out I was able to get a general feel for where we were in relation to the barren wastelands.

Flicking the vector map on to a secondary display, I punched the status readout back on the primary, stabbing furiously at the data fields until I found the controls to edit them. Okay. Now that I had the means to alter the low-level variables _and_ see what effect my changes were having, I could try and steer us away from this disaster.

My heart had been trying to escape my chest ever since I entered the command room, but now it started really going for it, hammering away at near light speed. This was the important part, the pivotal moment. Thousands of lives depended on me getting this right. So, no pressure, yeah? Alright, where do I start? I could see an input for general control, but without knowing just how many of the engines were still online, I wasn't confident about the kind of results I would get from changing it. Lower down on the display were individual pitch and thrust controls for each engine. All four-hundred and seventy-five of them. A disturbingly large portion of them were marked as inactive. I isolated the starboard engines – the border of Sallustria was running along our left flank – and began increasing the thrust on different ones, alternating between fore and aft to avoid sending the city into an out-of-control tumble.

I glanced back at the shitty terrain map to see what effect I'd had. No change. I glowered at the screen and stabbed furiously at the controls, pushing each engine to its limit until it was no longer possible to maintain parity between the front and rear thrust. Still nothing. God-fucking-damn it! I scowled and gnashed my teeth, frantically searching the displays for what I was doing wrong.

"C'mon you piece of crap!" I started adjusting the angle on the port engines, tilting them to direct their thrust to the right as well.

"Hrgghh! Har-Hahaha." A wet, gurgling cackle rose from the ground beside me. I looked down, seeing Edward lying on his back, blood seeping from his mouth as he laughed. He stopped, swallowed, and spat a wad of blood and saliva onto the floor beside him.

"I'm afraid you're out of luck, my boy. Our course is locked in. Our fate is set. Embrace it. Like your father..." His voice cracked and trailed off into a fit of hacking and coughing, his hands quickly coated in his thick, red life-fluid. I bounded off the chair and planted my knee on his chest, grabbing his head and holding it to my face.

"WHAT DID YOU DO? HOW DO YOU CHANGE IT?" Barely two inches separated us, and I was bellowing at the top of my lungs, but it was useless. Edward's eyes had retreated into his head and he was unconscious again. I let him fall to the ground and rose, sliding back into the chair and staring at the confusion of interweaving systems in front of me. How had he locked a course in? More importantly, how the heck did I change it? There was so much data, so many different screens to navigate, and I had only the faintest idea of what I was actually looking for. For all I knew I could have already passed over the course planner and not even realised it. This system design was freakin' atrocious!

I looked back at the secondary display, where the city was one long oblong suspended above a sea of much smaller ones. I couldn't be sure, but it seemed like there was a lot less distance between the two than there had been the last time I checked. I was running out of time, and searching for a way to undo what Edward had done was going to take too long. But I had an idea. It was risky, but it was literally all I had. I flicked to a screen I had distinctly remembered passing earlier, pulling it up on the main display and pausing with my finger hovering over the tiny icon marked 'Reboot. Well, here goes nothing.

Restarting the system required high-level authorisation which, thanks to Edward's Comp, I possessed. All the secondary displays blinked out while the primary ran down a list of shut-down and start-up processes. I ground my teeth in nervous anticipation as I watched on, uncertain as to whether this was going undo the lock that Edward had set. Hell, for all I knew I could be making things worse; the engines were about to power off and if they didn't kick back in, we were undeniably fucked. I watched impatiently as the list scrolled down, the shut-down now complete and the city running through its start-up diagnostics. The list scrolled to engine initialisation and hung, the tiny wheel animation spinning around and around. I leaned forward and narrowed my eyes, praying fervently for Edward's course to be forgotten when the engines reactivated. _If_ they reactivated.

A sudden violent jolt sent me bucking from my seat and tumbling across the floor. After an ungainly somersault I swivelled my head and looked back to see the rest of the displays reactivating, the primary once again displaying the status screen. A dialog box popped up in front of the sea of numbers, and I clambered back to my feet and approached to read what it said.

Do you wish to restore previous navigation course? Yes/No

I assumed that meant Edward's suicide plan, so I denied the request.

Do you wish to restore previous engine values? Yes/No

This, however, would hopefully be the manual adjustments I had made, so I accepted it and immediately felt the floor beneath my feet begin to tilt. I glanced at the rough vector map, the primitive shapes indicating a harrowingly small distance between us and the ground, and watched as we finally began to drift left, towards the open wastes. I let out a long held breath and dropped my shoulders, relaxing just a little. The angle of the floor was still increasing though, and I frowned as my calves began to tense from the effort of keeping me upright. When it reached the point where I had to plant my hands on the command console to keep from falling over, I knew something was wrong, and I flicked back to the engine controls and started punching up more thrust on the port side. I collapsed backwards into the chair as my feet began to slide out from under me, and I caught a glimpse in the corner of my eye of Edward's limp body gliding across the floor, bumping into and flopping over the furniture along the way. I took some satisfaction in the _thumps_ that accompanied each collision, conceding a few moments for a grim, wicked smile.

The speed at which we were approaching verticality began dropping, eventually drawing to a halt at almost forty-five degrees, my knuckles white with exertion from gripping the chair's armrests. Another message popped up on the main display, accompanied by an unnaturally calm woman's voice emanating from speakers I could not see.

Safety parameters have been breached. Automatic adjustment systems engaging.

"Bit goddamn slow on the reaction there," I hissed, watching as the individual engine readouts started to change by themselves. Unfortunately, due to the system being a piece of absolute crap, it assumed that all the engines were online and acted accordingly. This meant that although we were regaining our lateral equilibrium, we were developing a distinct backward pitch, with more engines still active on the fore of the city than the aft.

"Gah! You stupid heap of shit!" I slammed a fist onto the cool surface of the command console, ignoring the pain that shot through my already injured hand and focusing on balancing out the automatic adjustments. There seemed to be a considerable delay before the auto-system could act on any manual adjustments, and I was able to make an appreciable difference in pitch before those changes were overridden. By repeatedly deactivating a number of engines on the front of the city I was able to counteract our backwards slant, but by then I had realised our horizontal drifting had slowed to a crawl. The port engines had all been maxed out and angled to balance against the starboard ones.

"Fuckin' useless system," I seethed through closed teeth. I began swivelling the ball engines back, playing my hands feverishly over the controls as I tried to manage both our horizontal and vertical alignment. My head was throbbing and my eyes were starting to hurt, but the city continued to veer over Sallustria's perimeter, with every second bringing more and more of the arid plains into view on the terrain display.

Altitude warning. Altitude warning. Collision predicted in approximately ten minutes.

This warning was in a different voice to the previous one, this a loud and husky male tone with a noticeable sense of authority to it. I guess they wanted to make sure that no-one would miss it. No chances of that happening here.

"Ten minutes? Goddamn it!"

I had avoided dwelling on my slim chances of escape, secretly hoping for some sort of divine intervention to manifest while my attention was drawn elsewhere. But no, it seemed I'd used up all my miracles for one day. I took a long, slow breath and pinched the bridge of my nose. I really didn't want to die. I mean, I know nobody _wants_ to, but c'mon, I'm only twenty-one! I'm meant to have decades of time left!

Massaging my temples, I turned back to look at the dodgy geo-display. We had almost breached Sallustria's borders entirely, the endless rolling wastes rising up to greet us. The map depicted the arid wastelands as a mesh of poorly connected flat rectangles, a few bumps here and there where the ground formed hills and crags. The barren landscape seemed to promise a smooth landing, but I knew that was just wishful thinking. A million-tonne amalgamation of steel and nature colliding with anything was never going to be smooth.

I began running through my head everything that I had achieved in my life. Until today, there really hadn't been that much I was proud of. About the only thing that came to mind was looking out for Jimmy, and even that had been motivated by a selfish desire to quell my loneliness. But today... today I had saved Liz from the slaughterhouse, saved her from being harvested like an animal, saved her from the machinations of the deranged lunatic currently lying unconscious on the other side of the room. It didn't matter what Edward had said, I knew that I had acted with good intentions. Maybe the Ascension soldiers _had_ been under orders not to kill us – I was still sceptical - but I hadn't known that. Their behaviour had given me every reason to assume they were out for blood. Yes, I had killed, but it was in self-defence, damn it! And right now, what I was doing, it was going to save thousands of lives, at least. That had to earn me some sort of redemption, didn't it?

A countdown timer had sprung up on the main display, ticking down the seconds until the predicted moment of impact. It currently read _7:14.23_ and was dropping steadily, confidently performing its job while I contemplated my impending demise. Man, this sucks. Really, really sucks. My head was starting to spin, a storm of carnivorous emotions chowing down on my mental stability. Thoughts of my father began drifting to the forefront of my mind. How had Edward known that he had killed himself? How had he known that he hadn't been able to cope with his past? Obviously Edward had a lot of connections back in Sallustria, but those things weren't exactly common knowledge. The Bureau had recorded my father's death as an accident, as was the custom with suicides, and as far as I knew only his old militia buddies and I knew of the torment plaguing his mind.

6:21.55

There. I had done it. We had completely crossed over the city border and were now sinking rapidly towards the vast wasteland that lay beyond. Crisis averted. Too bad I wouldn't live to see the celebrations. Not even a chance to see Liz again. That's what hurt the most. I had grown closer to her in just this one day than I had anyone in my entire life. And now I'd never have the chance to see what that meant, to know what it felt like to be in a _real_ relationship with _real_ emotions where both people actually gave a shit about each other. Not that I even knew whether she felt the same way. I was probably just romanticising the idea, a fabricated fantasy, but like hell I was going to take away the last happy thought I had before I died.

I slumped back in the chair, kicking my feet up and, purely out of habit, reaching for the familiar bulge in my pocket where my Comp sat. I sighed and stuck out my bottom lip as I realised it was Edward's, not mine, and let my hand drop. My comp was still stuck in the arm of the- YOU FUCKING MORON! I literally fell backwards out of the chair in my haste to get on my feet. I had completely forgotten about the power-suit I had abandoned back in the cafeteria! The reinforced skin was built to withstand extreme temperatures, dangerous chemicals and, most importantly, tremendous physical pressure. It may not have been much, but if there was even a slight chance that the suit could protect me from the crash, I was going to take it. Even if I didn't survive, it would at least keep my body in one piece for the clean-up crew, saving them the trouble of re-assembling my pulped remains. Hey, maybe they'd even give me a posthumous award.

"Ha!" My voice crackled with static as I laughed. I didn't even think it was funny, but the sudden prospect of actually surviving beyond the next... _5:50.13_ had induced a full-on emotion inversion, an almost euphoric hysteria. I clambered across slanted chairs and desks as fast as I could, knocking Comp displays askew as I bounded towards the door.

Now free of my interference, the automated systems were starting to eliminate our lateral drift, but in doing so were reintroducing that mean backwards pitch. At the moment this was actually quite useful, increasing my momentum and pushing me through the door and up the first flight of stairs. Once I had reached the first landing, however, it began to work against me, with the next set of stairs more like a ladder that required both hands and feet to ascend. My chest heaved and my lungs burned from the exertion, but I managed to hurl myself up and onto the top floor, scrabbling across the too-smooth surface towards my final, steel-faced adversary. My hands were sweaty, and my fingers were fast losing grip, but I managed to crawl close enough to reach the activation panel, waving my hand in front of it and praying for the door to open fast. As soon as it began sliding away I pushed off the ground as hard as I could, kicking with my feet and lunging forward with my hands, grabbing the inside edge of the cafeteria wall with fingertips as the floor continued to slope away. It hit forty-five degrees and my feet could no longer maintain purchase on the smooth silver surface, my arms alone defending me against gravity's inexorable pull. I hazarded a glance over my shoulder. If I lost my grip, I was royally screwed.

I focused every ounce of strength I had into my arms and pulled, lifting myself up just enough to get my right palm over the lip of the doorframe. My muscles were on fire, screaming in protest as blood turned to acid in my veins. I pushed again, throwing my left palm over the lip as well then bending my elbows to hoist the rest of my body up. I was vehemently cursing the neglect I had shown my physique all my life. I promised, if I survived this, I was going to buy a physical trainer drone, or maybe work out with some of those fitness IN-VIs.

Through quaking arms, shoulders pierced by ice-shard daggers, and the conviction that my entire body was mere seconds from complete shutdown, I managed to drag my chest over the edge of the doorframe, collapsing forward and rolling until I was far away from the steel-clad door. I lay sprawled across the cafeteria's inner wall, gasping for breath, every muscle twitching in painful spasms and my guts compressed into a tight round ball. I gave myself a few seconds before I forced my aching head up, scanning the room - now ninety degrees rotated - for a sign of the power-suit. My slick piloting ability must have sent it flying, because it was now laying face up in the corner of the room, half obscured by a pile of the bright green chairs. I levered myself onto my elbows, gritting my teeth and ignoring the cries of anguish spouted by my muscles. Had to get up. Had to get to the suit. I rolled onto my knees then stood shakily, using the wall – previously the ceiling – for support. Okay, I've just got to get over the door, then get into the suit. Then I can rest.

"C'mon. You can do this," I told myself, trying to source scraps of energy from every remaining reserve in my body. I took two wobbling steps to the edge of the door, bent my knees, and leapt, waving my arms in front of me in some crazy attempt to increase my propulsion. I was too wrecked to even glance down as I soared over the door, crashing onto the wall/floor on the other side with a wet slap and an intense cracking pain rising up my left leg. I tried getting back up, but whatever I had done to my leg had rendered it about as sturdy as if it were made of jelly, and it collapsed underneath me as soon as I put weight on it. Abandoning the two-legged approach, I started crawling towards the suit, a voice in the back of my mind repeating the miserable fact that I probably didn't even have sixty seconds left before we crashed. I powered my arms and my one useful leg as fast as I could, reaching the suit in what felt like record time. I grabbed hold of a chair resting with its legs inside the chest of the suit, leaning my weight into it until it gave and fell out to join the rest of the pile. I clambered in through the chest cavity, shoving my useless left leg in with both hands before the rest of me followed. I grabbed the handles and with the final ounce of strength left in my body, pulled them shut. My vision was blurring, my eyelids weighed several tonnes, and my head was pounding furiously, but before I succumbed to the overwhelming void, I pressed down on the inner surface of the suit and triggered the power-on sequence. Only then did I let my exhaustion take over, the world disintegrating in front of me into sweet, sweet nothingness.

### CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

### E.F.

Mum and I spent the entire trip down the stalk in silence. It felt a little odd since we're normally quite chatty, but I had been so worn down by the relentless onslaught of events that I couldn't muster the energy for even a single word. Instead we huddled together atop a stack of brown crates and rode the platform down, down, down. I tried to think of home, to feel joy at being back with Mum and free from Edward and his terrifying plans for humanity's future, but my mind inevitably returned to Derek, all alone up there, putting his life on the line all because I couldn't keep my big mouth shut. If I hadn't made such a fuss Derek would be right here with us, leaving the protection of Sallustria in the hands of those expressly trained for it. But no, I just _had_ to press the point that no-one would believe us if Edward escaped, didn't I?

And of course, to cap it all off, I had started to develop feelings for him and, in typical Liz fashion, I had waited too long to act on them. Now I might never get the chance. No! I can't think like that! Derek is going to be fine! I continued to tell myself this as our descent began to slow, the inner walls of the stalk giving way to the same large chamber that Derek and I had passed through on our way up to Ark City. Well, not _quite_ the same chamber.

"On the ground, now! Arms and legs to the side! If you do not obey, we will open fire!" The orders were magnified from a speaker in the helmet of one of the Enforcer soldiers who surrounded us. I was shocked by the deafening voice after the silence of the trip, and nearly covered my ears until I thought better of it. I didn't want to give the Enforcers any reason to attack. I lowered myself slowly onto my knees, watching Mum do the same next to me, and prostrated myself on the cool surface of the platform. The sound of my heart thudding against my chest almost drowned out the clanking footsteps of a group of Enforcers as they broke off from the rest and approached us. I contemplated objecting to this hostile treatment, but a more pressing concern came to mind.

"Derek's still up there! You've got to get up there and save him! He's trying to stop Edward all by himself but he needs help!"

The echoing footsteps stopped, replaced by an odd stillness that left me confused until I caught the tell-tale squawk of radio static. The Enforcers were communicating through their helmet comms, talking about something they didn't want us to hear. I risked tilting my head slightly to get a glimpse of what was happening. Two Enforcers stood a few metres away, both wearing quizzical expressions beneath their transparent helmets.

"We're Sallustrian citizens! We're not part of those maniacs up there! They imprisoned us and we only just managed to escape! Scan me if you don't believe me!" Mum was pleading with the Enforcers, her voice dripping with distress. Strangely enough, though my heart was racing, I wasn't actually scared. I had gone through so much today that being surrounded by Enforcers was actually somewhat relaxing.

One of the pair that I was watching turned and strode over to us, a young woman from what I could tell, and pulled a bio-scanner from her belt. She ran it over first Mum then me, glancing at the readout each time and nodding. I could see her lips moving through the helmet, but she was still communicating with her companions, and no discernible words reached my ears. After a few seconds of muted conversation, the woman turned back to us, speaking audibly through the speaker in her helmet.

"Jennifer and Elizabeth Finlea. We have been searching for you for quite some time." An image suddenly flashed in my head. An enormous projection of my face with the words ' _WANTED FOR QUESTIONING_ ' emblazoned below it. My heart stopped as I realised that returning to Sallustria had not spelled the end of my troubles. The charges that Ascension had fabricated against me had completely slipped my mind, but now they were front and centre, and I had to find some way to convince these Enforcers that it was all a lie.

"It's not true, it's not true! It was Ascension, I swear! They made it up, they-"

"Calm down ma'am. We are aware that the accusations made against you were false. Those charges have been abandoned, and appropriate reparations will be made for the inconvenience they have caused. Unfortunately, that will have to wait, as we have for more pressing concerns. Will you both please accompany me?" The woman's voice carried an air of authority but was pleasant enough, and after only a moment of hesitation Mum and I rose and followed her through the ring of Enforcers. We passed through the door and out into a long corridor. Back in the Ascension office. I must be one of the only Sallustrians not part of the organisation to have seen the inside of more than one of these. They all looked the same, though, so I guess it wasn't really much of a privelege.

The woman was striding swiftly, and Mum and I had to jog to keep up. I slid in beside her and turned to look through the clear visor of her matte-black helmet.

"So, the rest of the Enforcers back there, when they go up, they're going to find Derek, right?" Nobody had followed us through the door, so I figured it was reasonable to assume they would be heading back up the stalk on the platform Mum and I had come down on.

"I'm afraid that's not going to be possible. The stalks are no longer connected to Ark City, and as well as being physically locked out, we have lost all communications to our forces installed there." The woman stopped in her tracks, turned to face me, and frowned. "I shouldn't be telling you this, it's none of your concern. Just understand that if your friend is up there, he will have to remain so for the time being. When we re-establish communications I will see about having a search team put together, if we can spare it." The pleasant quality of her voice had disappeared, replaced with a strong, firm command tone that left no question of who was in charge.

She marched off, forcing me to trail along behind with Mum at my side. I wanted to object, wanted to kick and scream until someone listened, but the authority in the woman's voice had tempered my defiance and I remained mute. If she was right, Edward's plan had already been set in motion, severing the only means of transport and communication between Sallustria and Ark City. I thought of Derek, alone, now completely cut off from the world with assistance only a possibility, and I felt tears forming in the corners of my eyes. No! He would be fine. He was the sole reason that we had both survived this horrible day. He was the reason Mum was walking next to me, safe and sound. All he had to do was hold out for a little while longer, just until the Enforcers managed to crack into Ark City, or whatever it was they were planning on doing, and they'd be able to find him and bring him back. I kept telling myself this, ignoring the cold, logical portion of my brain that insisted on pointing out all the flaws in my fantasy, as we weaved our way through the winding hallways of the Ascension office and out into the late-evening gloom.

I froze up as we stepped out, stiff and slack jawed, my mind working to comprehend the scene before me; the darkness, broken by the dim glow bleeding through shuttered windows and a flamboyant advertising projection on the building opposite, wasn't supposed to be there. It was still late-afternoon...wasn't it? The wheels in my brain began turning again as I recalled what had happened when we first arrived in Ark City. For reasons unknown, their sky-scape had been running a few hours behind Sallustria's. Man, all this stuff was getting too confusing. I just wanted to go home and wake up tomorrow and realise it was all a bad dream.

Glancing up, I watched as the immense bulk of Ark City slowly drifted by overhead, the first time I had ever seen it move. Even more shocking was the canvas of dull grey replacing the usual sky-projection, the crisscrossing metal hull of the city visible through the transparent screen. After a few seconds of baffled gawping I let my gaze drop back down, noticing that the Enforcer woman was standing underneath the office's front archway with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently. Mum was between us, waiting in front of one of the empty plinths – the projections had been deactivated \- for me to catch up. I jogged down the steps and joined her as we followed the woman out into the street.

The area was strangely bereft of activity, odd even for this late at night, and I shivered as we threaded our way through an empty marketplace and down a dark alleyway. A faint buzz was rising from somewhere in front of us, and as we emerged in front of the shopping complex that Derek and I had passed earlier, its source became clear. A crowd was huddling in front of an enormous news projection, a male reporter currently reminding the audience to stay calm and put their trust in the capable hands of the Enforcement Bureau. Many members of the crowd were dividing their attention between the projection display and the sky above, where Ark City continued on its ponderous course. The Enforcer rushed us past the rear of the furtive cluster, ignoring those who noticed her and begged for answers to what was going on. I caught a few faint words from the broadcast before we descended into an underground tunnel and passed out of earshot.

-s far as we can tell, the Enforcers are preparing to disable Ark City's engines. They appear to be employing the recently touted EP line of combat drones, designed specifically in response to the recent bouts of machine degradation that have led to rebe-

We turned left at an intersection in the tunnel, squeezed through a cramped passageway, and ascended a broad flight of stairs onto a stubby landing platform. A solitary shuttle awaited us, not an Enforcer vehicle as I had expected but a recreational one, the kind that only those with more money than sense would purchase.

"We've had to co-opt a few private vessels to cover the ground forces. Most of our ships are busy up there." She gestured at the massive hulk that obscured the sky above us. "Had to leave the trooper back with the crew at the stalk, so we're stuck with this thing. Might be a bit of a squeeze but we'll be at the hospital before long."

She took a small device out of her pocket and used it to open the cockpit canopy, reaching in and fiddling with something for a second before the rear bay door scythed apart. She clambered in to the cockpit over the maroon edge of the ship, sliding into the seat with practiced ease and gesturing for us to hop in the back. We obeyed and shuffled into the single rear seat, my right leg resting on Mum's left and my back pressed into the wall of the tiny bay. Calling it uncomfortable would have been an understatement, but fortunately enough the Enforcer had been right, and only five minutes later we were back out and standing on the emergency platform on the roof of the hospital.

Given the brevity of the trip, I assumed we were still somewhere in the Docks sector, but I wouldn't have known it from the appearance of the building alone. It was identical to the one closest to home, the one I could only remember visiting twice before. One of those had been to see Mum, when she had come down with a flu that hadn't succumbed to the usual at-home antibody treatments. Turned out that the batch that pack had come had been tainted, and she was in and out of the hospital in a matter of hours. The other time was from when I was about eight years old, re-enacting a scene from one of my favourite virtuals of the time. I had wanted to be a brave warrior, storming through the jungle to fight off an evil band of cannibalistic reptilian mages, and had tried to create a forest in the living room while Mum was out. I had used synth-seeds from a model garden I had received for my birthday, but had blatantly ignored the safety guidelines and added assorted growth hormones from the bathroom in with the soil mixture. The end result had not been pretty, with a room that required a week of intense cleaning and a rather severe case of burns on my arms and legs. Needless to say, Mum had not been particularly happy about that foray into the botanical studies. Hadn't stopped _my_ interest though.

The generic layout employed in Sallustrian hospitals was one born from the desire to make life easier for both the patients and the workers. It meant that staff could be shuffled between different locations without the need for extensive tours of the premises, as well as providing an atmosphere of familiarity for patients regardless of which hospital they attended. It also sped the whole admissions process up significantly, and we were through the bustling lobby and into a private examination room before I knew it. I had tried to catch some more of the news broadcast as we passed through the reception area, but the crowd of people murmuring amongst themselves had drowned out the audio. All I had managed was a brief glimpse of a close-up of Ark City, one of the bulbous ball engines dominating the view, before we left the throng of people and entered the muffled quiet of the examination area. Mum and I were split into separate sound-proofed cubicles, and I sat down on a tall bench covered with a white sheet while a doctor ran me through some basic tests. The Enforcer woman had her Comp out and was standing beside the exit flap of the cubicle, drilling me with questions about Ark City.

"Did you witness any examples of human modification, mechanical or otherwise?" She didn't raise her head, her gaze fixated on the display as I answered.

"Yes, but that's not important! Ascension are... doing things up there... bad things. You need to focus on stopping them from escaping!"

I had to stop myself from mentioning anything about the brains or the end of the world. Without any proof, I was going to sound like a lunatic, and I wasn't in the mood to be coddled or shuttled off for a psych evaluation. The woman lifted her head and stared at me, eyebrows raised with a look that said she had heard this kind of thing many times before. I opened my mouth to try and explain, but a chime from her Comp drew her attention back down, and a second later she was pushing aside the thick curtains of the cubicle and running towards the door. Both the doctor and I stared after her, wondering what it was that could elicit such a frenetic response, before the peaceful quiet of the examination area was obliterated by an avalanche of pained cries. I jumped up from the bench and followed the doctor as he jogged out of the cubicle. The sound was tremendous, tunnelling through the thick walls that separated us from the reception area. When the Enforcer opened the door at the end of the room, exposing us to the unfiltered cacophony spilling from the lobby, I had to clasp my hands over my ears to keep from shrieking in pain myself. It took a few seconds for the noise to soften into a dull drone, and by that time Mum had joined me from her cubicle and was asking me what was going on. I just shrugged and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the door and out into the commotion of the hospital lobby.

The hospital had been crowded even when we arrived, but at least it had been a reasonably calm and organised crowd, with everyone's focus directed on the news projections or talking softly to the person beside them. Now, though, the area had erupted into complete anarchy, with people jogging back and forth, mumbling to themselves or screaming into their Comps. Others were trying to comfort each other, huddled together on the shallow benches and trembling with unmistakeable fear. A few of the hospital staff were attempting to control the situation, but many of them were as wide-eyed in terror as the rest of the horde, repeatedly glancing back at the news projection on the wall as if to confirm they weren't imagining it. I chiselled my way through the clusters of distraught individuals, pulling Mum behind me, and finally got close enough to the projection display to both hear and see clearly the cause of all the distress. It was footage of Ark City, black smoke billowing from the underside hull as it sluggishly drifted above Sallustria. The footage was being shot from a distance, but I could just make out small, indistinct blobs flittering back and forth around the floating behemoth, disappearing into the black clouds then reappearing moments later. A reporter's voice was playing over the footage, his tone urgent and noticeably uncertain.

-have revealed that it did not go according to plan, and are advising all residents in the greater north-west region to evacuate in a calm and orderly fashion. Passenger shuttles are en route, and the Enforcement Bureau has marked the following transport terminals as pickup locations...

The reporter began listing various landing platforms I'd never heard of, but it didn't matter anyway as I had tuned him out. I hadn't noticed it at first, but after the mention of evacuation I realised that Ark City had developed a list, the normally precisely balanced monstrosity now starting to slant almost imperceptibly towards the city below. I was breathless in shock, my mouth agape as I stared transfixed at the scene unfolding on the projection. I lifted my hand to cover my mouth, saw that I was still gripping Mum tightly and spun to face her, diving into her arms and wrapping myself around her.

"Derek... he's...he's up there and... and...it's all my fault!" I was starting to sob, tears of anger and pain burning in my eyes and trickling down my cheeks. But Mum's embrace was warm and comforting, and for a minute I was able to block out the world, retreating into a shielded cocoon of blissful nothingness. It couldn't last though, and after a few moments I realised I had to emerge. If I had learnt one thing from Derek today, it was that if you had a problem you solved it by being proactive, not by hiding away until someone else did it for you.

I lifted my head from Mum's chest, wiping away the trails of moisture that had stained my cheeks, and began scanning the room to see if the Enforcer was still nearby. The crowd was divided into small clusters, making it easier to determine that she was not, in fact, present. Well, I hadn't really expected her to be. No doubt she had been called back to join the rest of the squad in dealing with the evacuation plan the reporter had mentioned.

The constant buzz of panicked voices and the thick atmosphere of emotional despair drove me to get outside, punching through the crowd with Mum dangling along behind. We stepped into the cool and quiet evening air and I immediately craned my neck skywards, wanting to get a first-hand look at the severely damaged city. It could have just been my imagination but it really did seem closer than normal. From this angle, the smoke that streamed from the ball engines was thin and grey, rather than the thick black from the news footage. I stared in morbid curiosity at the destruction and the uneven descent that Ark City had adopted. It seemed unreal for something that had always been a static monument in the background to suddenly be moving, no longer just a motionless backdrop but the colossal city-ship it had always been. I was finding it hard to believe that less than an hour ago I had been up there, my conscious mind ignorant to the fact that the ground beneath my feet had not been Earth, that miles of empty space had separated me from the surface of the planet.

A shrill whine broke through the still air and the red bulk of the shuttle we had arrived in shot off from the hospital roof, disappearing behind the façade of a nearby tower as it rocketed towards Ark City. I sighed. I wanted, _needed_ , to save Derek - God knows how many times he had saved me today – but what could I do? Maybe if I had his technical skills I could have 'borrowed' an APT and flown up there myself, but that just wasn't going to happen. The limits of my Comp knowledge extended to the tricks that Mum had shown me for creating believable virtuals, and somehow I doubted that was going to be of much use now.

"Liz, honey, let's go back inside. It's _freezing_ out here." Mum looked down with a sympathetic expression, putting her arm around me and leading me back towards the door. "I know it's an awful situation, but we have to let the Bureau handle this. I'm sure they're doing everything they can to save your friend." I tried to pull away, but she was right. I was useless. Worse than useless. I had abandoned Derek, and now he was going to _die_. I felt another wave of tears bubbling at the surface, the infuriating sense of impotence threatening to overwhelm me, when a husky shout pierced the chill silence and shattered my feelings of self-depredation.

"ELIZABETH!"

My ears pricked and my head snapped up, swivelling manically to find the source of the shout. I saw John jogging out of an alleyway, his hands raised and an electric smile lighting up his face. He was trailed by a young man and woman, both outfitted in dark green uniforms that bore more than a passing resemblance to regular Enforcer suits. Coming to a halt a few feet in front of us, he gave first me, then Mum, a thorough up-and-down with his eyes.

"I must say, I'm overjoyed to see you back here, safe and sound after completing your mission. I take it this is your mother? Wonderful, wonderful! Now will you both follow me, please? Things are a bit hectic at the moment, as I'm sure you understand. Not everything went according to plan, you see, but irrespective of that I can't see Ascension talking their way out this one, can you?" He chuckled, a genuine, bountiful pleasure evident in his voice.

"Are you serious?" I asked incredulously, pointing up at the monstrosity that had grown noticeably larger in the last five minutes. "You know that thing's going to crash into Sallustria, right?"

John just cocked an eyebrow and smiled casually – a little too casually, given the situation. "A small price to pay for exterminating such a putrescent parasite from our lives. You needn't worry about collateral damage; the evacuation will ensure that no-one comes to harm, no-one that does not deserve it at least."

His blasé attitude disgusted me. I felt even worse a few seconds later when I realised that he didn't even know about the whole brains thing, and that he was acting purely on his own beliefs and the meagre amount of footage that Derek had collected earlier. It almost made me physically ill thinking about it, and I couldn't help but notice similarities between John's show of indifference and Edward's speech back on Ark City. I tried to shunt the concerns from my mind. John and the Techtivists were the ones who had convinced the Bureau to launch their raid on Ascension, and without that distraction Derek would never have been able to free us. He might have a bit of a skewed perspective on what constitutes acceptable losses, but at least some of that could be blamed on an inflated ego. I'm sure that _I_ would be feeling a little infallible too if I'd just accomplished my life's work.

I managed to suppress my revulsion for the time being and strode alongside Mum as John and his retinue led us away from the hospital and down another empty boulevard.

"Are you sure we can trust this man, honey? He's not exactly what I imagined when you described him to me," Mum whispered, as we passed underneath a broad walkway. I caught sight of a few bobbing heads as people scampered across before they disappeared from view.

"I-I think so. I mean, he _did_ help us get into Ark City. You're right though, he does seem to be acting a little weird, but..." I let the sentence trail off as I tried to think of a way to finish it. Before I had the chance to, John stopped in his tracks, spun around, and directed a quizzical expression at me.

"Wait a minute! Where is Derek? I'm aware that he did not arrive with you at the Docks' stalk, so did he come down another? I'm afraid I've only been privy to the happenings in a few of the Ascension offices, and my coverage has been somewhat... _lackluster_. Anyway, I was thinking we pick him up and go for a celebratory drink. I know just the place, this little fa-"

"Derek's still up there." My voice was flat, monotonous, emotionless, the polar opposite of the hurricane of worry and grief that was tearing through my insides. "He was trying to stop Ed-, Ascension from getting away."

John's smile faltered for a second, his face briefly flashing through puzzlement and irritation before settling on comprehension.

"Ah, that explains _that_ then."

"Explains what?" I asked. John ignored me, his head bobbing slowly up and down and his hand stroking his short beard. I opened my mouth to ask again but he got in first.

"That is...unfortunate. He was quite a resourceful young boy, would have made an excellent addition to the team..." John trailed off, his eyes staring into space.

" _Was_? What do you mean _was_? He's still up there! You-you've got ships! You need to send someone to save him, now! Before it's too late!" I ran up to John, stopping a few inches away with my hands balling into fists at my sides.

"I'm afraid I really can't spare any-"

"Then give me a ship! I-I'll fly up there myself!" The prospect of taking action had fired me up, injecting a pint of pure adrenaline surging through my veins.

"You know how to fly, do you?" It was less of a question and more of an objection, with John's tone clearly indicating he knew I could not.

"No, but... Screw you! We need to do something! Derek's the reason you're so damn happy you idiot, he's the one who did what you were too scared to do!" My words must have struck a sore spot, because John's eyes flared up and his mouth compressed into a thin, hard line.

" _Scared_? You dare to accuse us of being _scared_? You have no idea how many people we've lost trying to bring Ascension down, damn good people!" His hands were clenched tight, and the few inches of air between us suddenly seemed superheated by his fury. I felt a hand clasp my shoulder and pull me back a few feet. It was Mum. She smoothly inserted herself between John and me, meeting and holding his glare until he relaxed and returned to his calm demeanour. He cleared his throat and took a few steps backwards.

"Very well. I can take you as close as the Enforcer perimeter, but as you will find out any rescue attempt would be utterly futile. This way." He spun on his heel and stomped off down the hemispherical tunnel, his companions in tow. Mum looked at me questioningly, concern radiating from her eyes.

"Are you su-"

"Yes Mum. Derek has saved me so many times today, I've lost count. I owe him, big time. C'mon, let's go." I pressed my hand gently on Mum's back and we scurried off down the tunnel, following John under the gaze of broken and flickering lights to a vast junk-filled courtyard.

Amidst the piles of dented c-spex panels and oozing liquids of unidentifiable origin rose a public landing platform, deserted except for one large, sleek shuttle, the cone-shaped silver chassis reflecting distorted images of the buildings surrounding us. We stood alone at the foot of a thin winding path, illuminated poorly by the tiny strips embedded in its cracked surface. We strode briskly over the warped and broken path towards the platform, avoiding the sections torn up by free-sliding vandals to make room for their waist-high ramps and twisting rails. We continued up the long, smooth incline, across the empty landing bays, then John was waving a rear door open and we were piling in to the shuttle while his two young companions clambered into the cockpit. I had barely a moment to wonder at the odd two-pilot arrangement before we were launched into the air, and I braced myself against the wall of the hallway as the intense vertical thrust threw me off balance. I was sorely tempted to complain about the lack of consideration for unsecured passengers but thought better of it, remembering that time was of the essence if we wanted any chance of rescuing Derek.

John led us into the lone cabin at the rear of the ship, settling onto the edge of a plush sleeping pod as the quaking floor beneath us finally began to steady. Mum directed us both onto a couch on the opposite side of the room, continuing to juxtapose herself between John and me.

"Well, now that we're all comfortable, why don't we pass the time with a recap of your mission? This trip will take quite a while."

John leant back into the pod, sweeping his hands in an invitation for me to begin. I hesitated and turned to Mum for input. She remained silent and raised her eyebrow, the unspoken question a repeat of her earlier mistrust. I spun my head back and shrugged. Where was the harm in just telling him what happened? Anyway, I figured John was probably the most likely to believe the despicable things Ascension had done, even without any proof, so I recanted the tale of what Derek and I had discovered in Ark City. For his part John remained silent throughout, reacting in shock when I came to the truth of the 'ascendants' but allowing me to finish before he aired his thoughts.

"Well. I must say that I find myself rather torn. If what you say is true, and Ascension have been committing such... _atrocities_ , then all will finally see how valid our suspicions were. However, if that also means that an apocalyptic scenario is on the cards... well that puts quite a dampener on things now, doesn't it?"

"A-a dampener? It would mean _the end of the world_! That's one fucking big dampener!" John just smirked back at me condescendingly.

"Now, now, my girl, there's no need for that sort of language. While I am ready to believe that Ascension would act so reprehensibly, I think it more likely that have fabricated this 'cataclysm' story in order to assuage themselves of guilt for their crimes. I am certain that once we have some trustworthy experts analyse their so-called 'evidence', we will discover that it was merely a ruse concocted for their own benefit," John said, continuing to talk to me like I was a little child.

"No! That's bullshit! When Edward took us into that chamber, one of those brains knew what I was thinking! It was way too accurate to be faked, believe me!"

I really didn't appreciate being talked down to, and I had risen to my feet, trembling with rage. John paused for a few seconds and twisted his mouth in contemplation. I used the time to catch my breath and try to defuse my anger.

"Perhaps they are simply misinformed, then. I can't imagine that predicting the future is an accurate science; no doubt they simply leapt at the first opportunity to justify their misdeeds."

I could see that I wasn't going to get anywhere with John. Just as I had suspected when I talked Derek into staying in Ark City, nobody was prepared to believe the insane ramblings of a twenty-one year old girl. I collapsed back onto the couch next to Mum, leaving John to stew in his thoughts as the hum of the ship's engines rose to fill the silence.

I wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed before we finally settled down, the tell-tale _thump_ of the ship settling into its landing bay jolting me from the seat and igniting a fire in my chest.

"Why the heck are we landing? We're supposed to be going to save Derek!" I glared at John, praying for him to provide some sort of reasonable explanation, but he just flashed an apologetic smile and spread his hands in placation. I snarled at him before leaping towards the door, slamming the activation panel and rushing down the hallway towards the bay door. It had already begun opening before I reached it, the lower half of the young woman visible as it folded back into the chassis. I ducked and shoved her aside as I ran out into the night, scanning the unfamiliar surroundings to try and get a rough idea of where the hell we were.

The buildings around us were flat enough that I could see the bulk of Ark City, the mammoth structure now terrifyingly low in the sky, but it was so far in the distance that my hopes of reaching it before impact began to flicker and fade to black. I turned and saw Mum standing behind me, trying and failing to mask her obvious relief that we weren't going to have to go back. John was still inside, striding down the hallway with infuriating patience. I flung myself past Mum and skidded to a halt in front of him, fighting my every temptation to beat him to a pulp.

"Why?! Why did you lie to me?! If you're that much of a _coward_ you should have just said so and left me to save Derek on my own!" John flinched at the word 'coward', but restrained himself from another outburst.

"I brought you along so I could hear your unfiltered take on events. I am far too familiar with some of the techniques the Enforcement Bureau use when they are 'questioning' witnesses, and I wasn't particularly interested in having your memory skewed before I had a chance to hear the full, unbiased tale." He paused for a moment and looked past me, the raw night sky now more visible than it had ever been all my life. "Besides, there was nothing we could do to help Derek. We would barely have reached him in time, and all we would have accomplished was our own deaths as well as his."

"He's not dead! Not yet! He could have escaped! He's the one who did your goddamn job for you, so what the hell would you know about his chances of survival?" I flung my hands at him in disgust. "Arghh! I don't know why I even agreed to come with you!"

I spun around, grabbed Mum's hand and pulled her out of the bay entrance. I had no idea where we were, but I knew for sure that I wanted to get as far away from John as was possible. He had ruined my one chance of rescuing Derek, and it was all I could do to keep myself from tearing into him tooth and claw, unleashing my frustration with unadulterated animalistic fury.

We fled into the night, John calling for us to return but making no move to follow. I had half expected him to send his lackeys after us, but a quick glance over my shoulder as we cut through a transparent umbilical tunnel revealed the shuttle rising high above the stubby building tops and slowly jetting away. I wondered where he was heading, and why he had brought us here if he was just going to leave again. There were a lot of unanswered questions swirling in my head about John and his motives, but right now none of that mattered. A far more pressing concern was finding out just where the heck he had dumped us.

Both Mum and I had been stripped of our Comps long ago, so upon spotting a public terminal I jumped in and punched up the tourist info page. It reported our location as some neighbourhood in Aurea, one of the most affluent districts in Sallustria. That left me even more perplexed with John's decision. Why here? Why not back at their headquarters? I filed the questions away at the back of my mind and sighed. Yet another drop in the swirling pool of conspiracies and unknowns.

Our first point of business was seeing what kind of transport we could wrangle up at this time of night, so I pulled up the APT listings and tried to request a pickup. I was faced with a cheerfully presented, bright red message: _APT service currently unavailable. Expected wait time: Currently unknown. We apologise for the inconvenience._ Damn. I was reminded of what the Enforcer woman had said about the Bureau running out of vehicles, and having to borrow shuttles from the private sector. I guess they'd called in the public transport system too. I sighed heavily, the final dim sparks of my hope extinguished. My chances of doing anything for Derek before had been slim, I had known that, but now they were exactly zero.

I slumped against the wall of the public terminal, the cool c-spex pressing against my face as I let the misery and hopelessness batter down my protective walls. I closed my eyes, slipping into a hazy state of half-consciousness; long periods of darkness interspersed with brief moments of intense conscious recollection.

First it was the sound of Mum's voice and the touch of her hand, talk of going home and slow, wobbling steps through the night. Then it was the fervent buzz of a rushing crowd, screams and shouts rising above the background drone, the mechanical whine of fast-moving machinery. _That_ brought the world back into vivid contrast and I instantly craned my neck upward, hoping for the sight of a shuttle, an APT, anything that could resurrect my freshly buried hope. Instead it was a curving ad-dome that greeted me, impossibly beautiful men and women proclaiming the benefits of the latest all-you-can-eat wonder drug, the noise I had heard only that of a train. We were in an underground station, walking towards one of the high-velocity 'spinners', giant cylindrical transports that created an artificial gravity field through the miracle of centrifugal force. At least, that's what the projection said. All I really knew was that you sat in seats arrayed around the inner surface of the train, and that looking up afforded you the completely breathtaking view of the heads of the people sitting above you. I'm sure it was a remarkable piece of technology, but right now at least, I couldn't give two shits. What did manage to grab my attention, though, was the news projection being broadcast from the backs of the seats as we boarded. It was more footage of Ark City, this time two separate feeds: one taken from the same height as the monstrosity, the other shot from high above, focusing more on the projected impact zone than the city itself. But rather than the brilliant neon and towering edifices of north-west Sallustria, it was a barren wasteland of dead shrubs and low rolling hills that stood in the monstrosity's path. Text was streaming below the videos, summarising the situation, but I was still too exhausted to focus on the fast-moving words so I listened instead to the surprisingly cheerful tone of the chirpy male reporter.

-yes, yes it is wonderful news indeed Janine, wonderful news indeed. Though it may seem unnecessary now, the Enforcement Bureau has reported that the evacuation was a complete success, with all residents of the north-west quadrant of Sallustria removed to a safe distance. We have been informed that – following a brief damage survey - residents may be able to return to their homes within the next few hours. We have also received word that the vehicle that was reported launching from Ark City only moments ago has been apprehended, and the citizens on-board are being duly processed. Oh- Our countdown has reached the two-minute mark! Once again I must remind all of you watching this to please remain inside, under shelter, for at least the next fifteen minutes. The Enforcement Bureau has confirmed that the projected debris cloud will not reach Sallustria, now that they have succeeded in diverting its course, but nevertheless they continue to advise caution for your own safety. This is not a virtual, ladies and gentlemen. Please remain inside, and stay tuned to OmniNews, your number one source for complete and timely coverage of Sallustria's biggest issues.

As soon as the reporter mentioned a ship escaping from Ark City, every other thought was banished from my mind. Could Derek have been on the ship? Did he really escape? The reporter had said 'citizens'; maybe Derek had managed to sneak aboard with the rest of Ark City's fleeing residents? Despite an utter lack of supporting evidence, just the possibility of Derek surviving sparked a renewed optimism, something I was extremely glad for a minute later as I watched the gigantic metal city collide with the vast arid plains and explode into thousands upon thousands of twisted, mangled fragments, hurtling in all directions. The destruction continued unabated for an incredibly long time, the seemingly endless bulk pummelling itself into the ground with tremendous force, an expansive crater billowing from the impact zone and threatening to extend right to the edge of Sallustria. However, true to the reporter's words, it ceased its terraforming before it reached civilisation, a terrifying mechanical junkyard of smouldering hull and shattered dome born amidst mountains of bubbling slag. As the images shrank and the reporter's face reappeared in its own window, I held fast to the fragile hope that Derek was on the ejected vessel. He _had_ to be. The alternative would be simply too horrid to bear.

I slept fitfully that night, my dreams alternating between disturbingly graphic depictions of Derek's charred corpse amidst the ruins of Ark City, and Ascension goons busting into the apartment to exact their revenge, Edward at the lead, his cocky sneer the last thing I saw before I was snapped back to consciousness. Eventually I abandoned all hope of rest, crawling out of bed while the morning was still dark to find Mum sitting in the living room, a cold mug of coffee sitting untouched on the bench before her. She started at the sound of my plodding footsteps, and when she turned it was with bloodshot eyes and a puffy face that she met my gaze. She had been crying, that was blatantly obvious, so I sprinted forward and enveloped her in my arms.

"M-mum? W-what's wrong?" With the tumultuous events of the past twenty-four hours, it could have been any number of things that were causing her grief. Mum sniffed and cleared her throat before replying.

"I-I'll be fine, sweetie. Yesterday was just a bit... traumatic. I need a little time to process it, that's all."

It was a lie, I knew it. I could read Mum well enough to know that she was really shaken up, and it was going to take more than 'a little time' for her to recover. Honestly, the only reason that I hadn't broken down yet - huddled into a corner, shaking in fear, unable to move under my own power - was the faint glimmer of hope that Derek had managed to escape, that I would see again his smooth round face, his sharp hazel eyes, his shaggy mess of brown hair. It was that hope that kept me sane while I sat there with Mum, comforting her as she heaved and sobbed quietly.

Eventually we migrated from the bench to the couch, switching on the room's Comp and firing up the news projection. While scattered with occasional ancillary news segments, most of the broadcast was devoted to coverage of yesterday's disaster. Interviews with witnesses and Enforcers, reports on the progress of the re-population of the north-west sector, supposed experts weighing in on the motivations behind Ark City's attempted departure. I ignored most of it, instead desperately searching for any news regarding the survivors that had escaped before the crash. I encountered only a single, brief mention of it, however, and the story had been altered somewhat since last night. The Enforcement Bureau were reporting the ship as devoid of life, an unmanned drone suspected to have been ejected prematurely. Condolences were directed to those with friends and family who had lived in Ark City, and though teams were working around the clock to sift through the remains at the impact zone, chances of anybody surviving were negligible at best.

I balked at the Bureau's claim. Edward had been too much of a control freak to let that ship jettison unless it was part of his plan. But if that was the case, why hadn't he packed it full of his people? He had made it abundantly clear just how much he cared for them. Unless...unless it _wasn't_ empty, and the Bureau were covering it up. Maybe they'd found evidence of Ascension's true activities, and didn't want that information getting out until they had it under control? But if that's what they were doing, how was I supposed to find out if Derek had made it out alive? I couldn't exactly stroll into a Bureau station and just ask them, they'd kick me out in a heartbeat. Or worse, they'd detain me to buy my silence until they were ready to go public. That wasn't a particularly attractive prospect, but I needed to do _something_. I drummed my hand on the coffee table impatiently as I tried to come up with a less harrowing alternative. Unfortunately, the only one that sprang to mind was almost as unpleasant as incarceration. I needed to contact John.

John had told us his full name when we met, but in the intervening chaos that insignificant piece of information had been completely erased from my brain. Fortunately, I could still remember the location of the Techtivist headquarters, so I took a shower, had a quick bite to eat, and made to head out the door before Mum stopped me.

"What are you doing? Wait... where are you going?" Mum had been asleep on the couch, wrapped in a thick blanket that I had dragged out of the closet for her. Now, though, she had pushed the blanket aside and was sitting upright, staring at me and blinking away the residues of her restless dream world.

"Umm... I was going to go see John. See if he knows anything about Derek..." My voice trailed off as I saw the look of pity on Mum's face.

"Honey, you're not going to be able to achieve anything by running around out there. If Derek managed to escape, I'm sure he will contact you as soon as he can. And anyway, I really don't want you anywhere near that John character. He seemed a little... shady to me." From the way Mum had paused, I knew 'shady' wasn't the word she had wanted to use.

"But he might not be able to contact me! He might be hurt, or being held prisoner, or...or anything! I need to know what happened to him, Mum."

My voice was straining as I tried to convey to Mum just how important this was. Even if the worst had happened, I needed to know. At least then I would be justified in tearing John limb from limb for refusing to help save Derek.

Mum picked her Comp up from the edge of the coffee table and flipped it open. "Can't you just send John a message, or give him a call? There's no need for you to go see him face-to-face, is there?"

"No. He never gave me his contact info. All I remember is where Derek and I met him, so that's where I'm heading." Mum frowned in disappointment and dropped her head to stare at the Comp display.

"Oh look, you've got messages waiting. Maybe one of them is from him? You can at least check before you go gallivanting off, can't you?"

Being my registered guardian, Mum received notifications whenever I was sent a message. That was supposed to stop when you turned twenty-one, so the messages Mum was talking about were probably old notifications that she hadn't cleared yet. Nevertheless, it was a good idea to check my inbox, considering I hadn't looked at it since the previous morning.

I sat down at the living room terminal and punched in my login details. I swiped at the mail icon and watched as the list of unread communications scrolled off the display. Crap! That was a lot of messages. Almost all of them were stamped with the Enforcement Bureau logo, requests to report to my nearest station dated from mid-morning yesterday (when those fake charges Ascension had planted were still in place) all the way to just an hour ago, with another summons pertaining to my time spent in Ark City. The most recent message, though, was from John, just as Mum had predicted. That was a little convenient. I opened it and began reading.

Elizabeth. I will keep this short and sweet. First, I must apologise for my attitude last night. I realise that you are extremely worried for our friend Derek, and I understand your frustration at being incapable of rendering assistance. As a show of reparation for my discourteous manner, I have managed to obtain information from a reputable source that indicates a lone survivor was recovered from among the wreckage of Ark City. The individual has not yet regained consciousness, but all reported physical features match those of Derek, and I am confident it is him. I have called in a few favours and acquired an Enforcer escort to take you to him, if that is your wish. They should arrive at your premises in the next hour or so.

I pray that this report proves true and settles your concerns, and that you will deign to absolve me of my abhorrent behaviour last night. I have attached my details if you ever desire to contact me.

John Walters

"He's alive! He's okay!"

I screamed in delight. I was so happy that I leapt out of my chair and flung myself at Mum, hugging her so tight I could feel her ribs. An enormous smile tried to tear my face in half as I sat back down and showed Mum the message. Once she had finished she turned and returned my goofy smile, and I could see that little knowing glint forming in the corner of her eye.

"See honey, everything has sorted itself out. The Enforcers did their job, just like they're paid to. Make sure you remember this in the future: there's no need to be hasty and act irrationally. Leave it to the professionals."

Trust Mum to lecture me at a time like this. It didn't matter though, I was too ecstatic to care. Derek was alive! And an escort was on its way to take me to him! As if on cue, a chime rang out of hidden speakers in the walls, indicating that somebody was waiting at our door. I stepped over to the Comp terminal and flicked open the entrance video feed. Two Enforcers, decked out in their usual black garb, their ID cards held high as the system scanned and verified them. After confirming they were genuine I authorised their entry and practically skipped to the front door, ignoring their stern faces and continuing to beam gleefully.

"Ms Elizabeth Finlea? We are uh- your escort," stated the first Enforcer in a deep, flat tone.

He was dark-skinned and quite tall, appearing almost comically so from the fact his partner was over a foot shorter than him. They seemed to differ in every way, at least every way I could tell through their suits, with the shorter man extremely pale and chubby-faced, while the taller man seemed much older, and had lines creasing his face. Noticing how eager I was to get going, the two Enforcers spun on their heels and strode back through the door and into the hallway. I took two steps and was almost out the door with them before I stopped myself short. Mum! I twisted my head and started to shout but caught myself when I saw Mum standing just a few feet behind me, her purse dangling over a dress she had somehow managed to throw on in the last thirty seconds.

"I'm not letting you out of my sight again, remember?"

Mum's tone was reluctant and her face still weary, but she strode forward regardless and made ready to activate the security system as we left. Impossibly my smile became even wider, stretching muscles in my face I had never known I had. I slipped my arms around her back and held her tight, so immeasurably grateful for everything in the world in that single moment. Mum squeezed back, and we followed the Enforcers arm-in-arm to the elevator at the end of the hall and up to the roof, where we boarded a typical white and blue checked Enforcer shuttle and shot off into the dazzling, _real_ morning sun.

The flight seemed to last an eternity, each minute dragging for hours, and my nervous excitement wilted away as worries began creeping in. John had been confident that this survivor was Derek, but he hadn't been certain. And he had said that the individual was unconscious; if it was Derek he could be seriously hurt! I tried pressing our escort for more information, but I was met first with noncommittal grunts, and eventually silence.

When we finally touched down, stepping out onto the roof of an Enforcer station in a neighbourhood I did not recognise, my earlier joy had completely eroded, eaten away by doubt and worry and replaced with a terrible apprehension of what I was going to find. It took Mum prodding me in the back to drive me forward and into the lift chamber with the Enforcers.

We descended in silence, stepping out on the ground floor to the roar of dozens of simultaneous conversations, shrieking and shouting and the scuff of reluctantly dragged feet. People were bustling back and forth across the broad corridor, Enforcers and other Bureau staff directing the lines of chaotic traffic. One sight immediately stood out, even amidst the furious activity: there were ascendants in the crowd. But they weren't really 'ascendants', were they? As Edward had revealed, the whole 'ascendant' thing was a scam, a ruse to maintain their fictional facade, and they were nothing more than normal people in impressive disguises.

Something tugged at the back of my mind, the undeniable feeling that something was slightly off, but it took a moment for me to realise exactly what it was. What the hell were 'ascendants' doing _here_? Sure, they wouldn't _all_ have been on Ark City when it crashed, but wouldn't they want to get as far away from the Bureau as possible? It was only then that I noticed all non-Bureau personnel - ascendants and regular citizens both - were either cuffed or being closely monitored by an Enforcer escort. The glowing blue rings of the restraint gauntlets put me on edge, and I voiced my concern to our pair of Enforcers. The shorter guy hesitated and looked to his partner before answering.

"Anyone with ties to Ascension is being brought in for questioning regarding yesterday's incident." The finality in his voice left no room for further questions. But...surely that was overkill? There were bound to be at least a few other members of Ascension who shared Edward's maniacal vision of a new humanity, but to bring in everyone? I guess it was better to be safe than sorry, but still...

Our guides led us out of the elevator and through the river of shuffling bodies, passing down a short hallway lined with identical spaced sets of paired doors, and into a much quieter open area segmented by a maze of cubicles. Here Bureau staff fixatedly tapped away at their Comp terminals in relative silence, the occasional hushed conversation rising to the surface of the heavy atmosphere. We did not remain there for long, and we were quickly led around the perimeter of the maze and down another long corridor, coming to a halt in front of a light-brown door set into the chocolate coloured wall. The dark-skinned man slid his hand over the activation panel and sauntered into the room, while his partner motioned for me to follow. I walked through the open door, whirling around as a rush of air tickled my back and a dull _thud_ sounded from my feet. I came face to face with the bare brown surface of the door, the interior panel pulsing with red light: locked. My first thought was of Mum, now alone on the other side of the door, separated from me once again. My second thought I decided to voice emphatically.

"What the fuck is going on?" I spun back and glared at the Enforcer, who was now standing behind a chair on the other side of a square table. The chair in front of him was occupied by a thin, middle-aged man sporting a light-grey suit and a grim smile. He motioned to the chair opposite him.

"Please sit down, Ms Finlea. We have a few questions to ask you." His voice was warm and smooth, and he made no indication he had heard my outburst.

"No! Not until you tell me what's going on!" I crossed my arms and glared at his long, angular face, injecting as much venom into my stare as possible. I was so sick of being a puppet to somebody else's desires. The man sighed before responding.

"We are simply trying to establish an accurate picture of the events of yesterday. You were present on Ark City during much of the turmoil, so we would appreciate hearing your account to... confirm a few things." His pleasant tone was unsettling; how could he be so cheerful when he was trapping me here like a prisoner? "Do not worry; your mother is just in the next room, being asked the same questions as you. As soon as we are finished, we will take you both to go see your friend Derek." With the locked door and the impromptu interrogation, I had been starting to think that Derek's survival had been another ruse, that John had been misinformed or perhaps in on it too. My doubts weren't entirely quashed by the man's words, but they did calm me enough to drop the glare and sit down.

"So, Ms Finlea, how about you start from the beginning? I find it's often the best place." He chuckled and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him and looking at me expectantly.

At first I was tempted to lie. I had been strung along and screwed around with by so many different people lately and I really wanted to get my own back, but I knew that doing so would just stir up more trouble for me _and_ Mum. So I told my tale, recounting everything from my ascendance test to our trip back down the stalk. When I came to Edward's revelation about the brains and Ascension's true experiments, I hesitated. On the one hand I didn't want to seem mentally unstable, but then again if the Bureau had recovered Derek from the crash, perhaps they had found evidence of Ascension's studies too. And if they already knew and I lied to them...well, they probably wouldn't be too happy about that. I didn't want to put Mum or myself in danger, nor jeopardise my chances of seeing Derek, so I withheld nothing, ignoring the voice in my head that kept telling me how insane it all sounded.

By the time I had finished I was exhausted, breathless, and my head was throbbing from having to relive every nightmarish experience. My interrogator had remained mute the entire time, nodding occasionally but never interrupting, even when I stumbled over details. Now that it was clear that I had finished he leant forward, resting his chin on clasped hands and stared calmly into my eyes. I held his gaze for as long as I could, but eventually his unflinching expression became uncomfortable, and I looked away. I don't know whether it had been some sort of test or what, but when I turned back he smiled and rose from his seat, walking to the door and unlocking it before gesturing for me to follow.

"Thank you very much for your time, Ms Finlea. If you would follow me, we will re-join your mother before going to see young Derek. I believe he has been asking about you."

The abrupt change of direction caught me off guard. I had been pretty sceptical of the promises the thin man had made, but I had tried to appease him anyway, figuring I had nothing to gain by defying the Bureau. But realising that he may have actually been telling the truth about Derek threw my head into a spin and sent my heart rate skyrocketing, and before I knew it I was up and bounding down the corridor, watching as Mum emerged from the door of a room further down. I raced forward and hugged her tight, pulling back and looking her over to make sure she was unhurt.

"Are you okay?" We both asked the same question at exactly the same time, and I couldn't help but laugh in the face of all the crap we just couldn't seem to escape. Mum gave me a sad smile as I covered my mouth and finished giggling.

"I think I can safely say that I've had enough excitement to last a lifetime." She leant in closer and dropped her voice to a whisper as the thin man led us further down the corridor. "I can't help but be extremely disappointed with the way the Bureau is treating us. I didn't expect this kind of rude behaviour from such a renowned and trusted organisation. I may have to file a complaint when we get home."

I had to stifle another giggle at the absurdity of what Mum was saying. After all she had gone through, from kidnapping to high speed dolly rides, it was the poor treatment here that she felt required her to take action. It was ridiculous, but then again Mum had always seen things in her own peculiar way. I guess I did too, sometimes.

Dwelling on thoughts of Mum's imprisonment was not a good idea, as it reminded me that it was only because of me that she had been roped into this convoluted mess. Obviously I hadn't _intended_ for all this to happen – it's not like I walked into the Ascension office yesterday morning and tried to pick a fight with that stupid red-haired bitch – but I still felt like I owed Mum an apology for the suffering she had endured.

"Hey Mum." I waited for her to face me so I could look into her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's not your fault, sweetie. I'm sure this whole disaster had just put them on edge-"

"No, I mean about yesterday. About everything. I'm sorry you got dragged into all of it." Mum frowned at me and pressed her lips together; the lecturing face I knew so well.

"Elizabeth Finlea. Do not for a _second_ blame yourself for what happened. We both know who was responsible - that cockeyed lunatic admitted as much himself – and now he's paying his dues six feet under. And to be honest, I got off rather easy compared to what you told me you went through. Oh and by the way, remind me to delete all of those fantasy stories of yours when we get home." This time we both laughed, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed the thin man had reacted to the reference to Edward with a slight stiffening of his shoulders.

When we reached the end of the corridor we were directed down a narrow set of brightly illuminated stairs and into a multi-level gallery, where dozens of silver-clad figures flittered between benches overflowing with gutted Comps, gargantuan fragments of torn metal hull, and endless other dented and damaged equipment. It only took me a second to identify what it all was: wreckage from Ark City. Seeing the scientists (at least, that's what I assumed they were) working so feverishly compounded with my suspicions from the thin man's placid reaction earlier. Now I was almost certain that the Bureau had discovered proof of Ascension's doomsday prediction. Why else would they have all this junk hidden away down here?

Any doubts I may have had vanished when I saw what had been stacked up in the corner of the room, initially obscured by the silver shine of the crowd pressing around it. It was a brain tank, just like the one Edward had shown us, the one that had known everything I had been thinking. I shuddered, reliving how creepy it had felt to see my private thoughts laid bare on screen. As I gawped something tugged insistently at my arm, snapping my gaze away from the bobbing pink and grey mass. The thin man was trying to pull me along, an Enforcer guard prodding Mum in the back to keep us moving.

"Come along, you still want to see your friend, don't you?" asked the thin man, still maintaining his disconcertingly upbeat tone.

"Yeah but... h-have you figured out whether it's true yet? The apocalypse thing?"

He refused to answer, instead turning his back and continuing to lead us around the edge of the room and into a small antechamber. Once inside he stopped in front of a plain black door, let go of my wrist and made a few complex gestures in the direction of the door panel. The door slid away, revealing yet another door behind it, one that receded into the wall after another serious of quick hand movements. He stepped inside and I followed, Mum right on my heels with our Enforcer guard taking up the rear.

The room we found ourselves in appeared to be a poorly repurposed laboratory, now serving as makeshift living quarters, precarious mounds of scientific equipment piled wherever there was space. The walls and ceiling were a brilliant white, as were the rows of empty benches stacked up against the front wall. An enormous tank of green fluid stretched along most of the back wall, with a small gap in the far right corner cordoned off with a thick, most likely soundproofed curtain, just like the ones from the hospital earlier. Small stacks of crates were dotted around the rest of the room, some of them open and revealing pre-packaged meals and drink bulbs. Two benches had been separated from their brethren and were pushed together against the left-hand wall to form an improvised bed. Thick, ruffled blankets were piled next to the pillows on top, but they were sent tumbling to the ground as a figure slid off the bed and began running towards us, ambling unsteadily and nearly falling in his haste. He managed to catch himself, and started awkwardly hobbling as fast as he could in our direction.

"LIZ!"

His voice was like static, with cracks and gaps turning his one word into four. He coughed a few times and cleared his throat loudly.

"DEREK!"

I ran forward and caught him just as he began to stumble again. His face was stained with purple bruises, the skin on his neck pink and raw. He was wearing a loose white gown that covered his body down to his knees, but I could see more bruises and fresh scars on his shins and bare feet. I felt him wince as I held him tight so I relaxed my grip, eventually stepping back and helping him up. I kept one hand curled around his arm, though. I wanted to reassure myself that he was really there, that he wasn't going to disappear when I closed my eyes.

"Are you okay? You're all bruised and... and how the heck did you survive? Did you escape on that ship that they caught? Why are you here and not in hospital? Wha-"

Derek interrupted me by half leaping, half collapsing forward, hooking his arms around the back of my neck and pressing his lips on to mine, kissing me with a tenderness that instantly swept the world and its worries away. Time and space became insignificant as Derek and I stood there, wrapped around each other, his cold lips succumbing to the heat of mine and my fingers tracing careful lines across his shoulders and back. After what could have been a minute or an hour, but was too short either way, Mum cleared her throat and the rest of the world came hurtling back into existence. Derek took a wobbling step backwards, his eyes never leaving mine.

"I-I was kind of sore before, but now... now I'm feeling pretty good!" Derek's voice had risen in pitch, and a goofy grin was plastered on his face. I returned his smile, electric joy sizzling away inside of me.

"I was so worried! I'm so happy you're okay!" I could feel my eyes watering, tears of relief starting to form.

"Don't forget, you _did_ make me promise..."

His smile slipped into a sly grin and an overwhelming rush from head to toe threatened me with light-headedness. I fell into his arms, almost sending the both of us sprawling onto the floor. We swayed and held each other tight until another overly dramatic cough drew my attention away. Mum was still standing by the door, staring at us with a look of mild impatience. The smile slowly faded from my face as I looked past Mum, seeing the red panel next to the door we came in and the distinct absence of the thin man and our escort. Mum followed my gaze, spinning around and rushing to the door to hammer the activation panel, her desperation increasing as the red glow stubbornly refused to change. I looked back to Derek, hoping that he'd be able to offer a good explanation, but he just stared glumly, his brow creased in a slight frown.

"Damn it. I knew I should have said something when you came in. They've kept the door locked since I've been here. Told me it was too dangerous to leave, that Ascension were after me and I'd be safer in here than out there. I figured it was bullshit but, you know, it's not like I really had much say in the matter. Still, this place is a damn sight nicer than home."

Mum had stopped assaulting the door panel and had walked over to join us in the centre of the room, standing beside a stack of crates with self-heating mini pizzas poking out.

"Imprisoned again. I tell you what, sweetie, when we get out of here, we're moving to a new city. I don't care how long I have to spend cooped up in a cruiser, I've had enough of Sallustria and Ascension and the Enforcers..."

Mum's voice faded away, the pained expression on her face driving out the excitement I had felt at being reunited with Derek. I took her hand in mine and squeezed tight. It was bad enough that I was caught up in this wild crap-storm of events, but Mum...Damn it! What had we done to deserve this?

I shook my head and turned back to Derek. Just seeing him safe and relatively unharmed was enough to bring a smile back to my face, and my resolve hardened. If he could survive the destruction of an entire city with just a few cuts and bruises, we could cope with a few hours of waiting. They would _have_ to let us go at some stage.

"It'll be okay, Mum. They can't keep us here forever." To Derek I said, "I think they might actually be telling you the truth about keeping you safe down here. They've been rounding up anybody associated with Ascension; we passed a bunch of them on the way in." I still had my doubts, but I really wanted to believe that things were finally settling down, that we were going to be okay. Just then, a projection sprang up from the wall near the door, the gaunt face of the thin man blown up to twice its regular size. We all stared as the floating head turned to face us.

"Before you say anything, let me apologise for the discourteous treatment you have had to endure. We are extremely understaffed at present, and though I am sure you would prefer to be in the comfort of your own homes, we simply do not have the manpower to ensure your safety there. As you no doubt witnessed on the way in, we are working tirelessly to round up the last of Ascension's supporters here on Sallustria, and once we have neutralised all the malicious elements, you will be free to return home. In the meantime, food, drink and hygiene facilities have been provided, and should you require anything else, you can establish a communications link from the panel by the door. Once again I sincerely regret the current situation, but you must understand this is necessary for your own safety. I will contact you with an update in the next couple of hours." The projection blinked out, and the three of us were left staring at a blank white wall.

"A couple of hours? Man..." I sighed, staring at the hard, sharp surfaces all around and thinking of my plush bed back home. Oh well, at least I had Derek to cuddle up to.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what the other guy said to me earlier. Something about 'the remnants of Ascension wanting revenge for the loss of their city'. He also said you were in danger, and that they needed to know exactly what I had seen on Ark City to help them protect you. Yeah... I figured that was kind of a stretch, but I would have told them anyway. Somebody needs to do something about the end of the world, after all."

He smiled grimly and reached for my free hand. I let him take it, and he led the three of us over to his makeshift bed. By spreading the blanket out and sitting on the pillows, it was actually rather comfortable. Mum was sitting to my right and Derek to my left, each of us mentally drained from the trauma of the last twenty-four hours.

"You don't happen to have a Comp on you, do you? When I woke up all I had was this gown, so I guess they must have taken mine. Well, it was Edward's technically, but you know..." I shook my head apologetically before catching sight of Mum's red leather purse. I swivelled right and began rummaging through it, but Mum just pressed her lips together and slowly shook her head.

"Sorry honey, they took mine before, after they split us up. They had one of those scanners in the door, like the ones at Kitaki, remember?"

Derek gently pulled me away from the purse and slid his hand back into mine. "Ah, don't worry about it. They've probably blocked network access here anyway. How about you guys tell me what you've been up to instead?"

With occasional additions from Mum, I told Derek about everything that had happened since we parted ways at the stalk platform in Ark City. At the mention of John and his reluctance to offer assistance, Derek's face twisted into an angry scowl, and he punched his fist into the pillow he was sitting on.

"That prick! I saved thousands of goddamn lives and he was too much of a coward to send help? Man, I should have known. I mean c'mon, he made us, two untrained twenty-one year-olds, do his bloody job for him, didn't he?"

"W-wait, _you_ saved the city? B-but I thought it was th-the Enforcers... How-how the hell did you do that?" I was stunned, almost speechless, my mouth wide open in a blend of horror and awe. I looked at Derek, a proud smile spreading across his blotchy, purple-stained face. "You're a freakin' superhero!"

"I wouldn't go that far, but..." Derek bared his teeth in a cheeky grin, and proceeded to tell us exactly how he had managed to prevent the destruction of an entire sector of Sallustria. I neglected to mention the fact that the area had been successfully evacuated before the crash, letting Derek bask in the belief that he had prevented thousands of innocent people from being crushed to death. I particularly enjoyed hearing about Edward's suffering, thankful that he had gotten at least some of the comeuppance he so desperately deserved.

When Derek finished his story I slumped back against the wall, physically exhausted from just hearing about the action-virtual antics he had miraculously pulled off. I turned to Mum and saw that her eyes were closed, having already given in to the comforting embrace of sleep. Derek didn't seem far off either, with dark shadows under his eyes and a glassy sheen to his face. I squeezed his hand affectionately, my fingers interlocked with his, and carefully rested my head on his shoulder. Despite the bright light and the reflective white walls, I felt myself nodding off, caving to fatigue and letting my eyes close heavily. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, I felt safe and content. Edward the Insane was no more, Ascension and their despicable operations all but destroyed, and the innocent people of Sallustria would no longer be harvested like lab-bred animals. I had both Derek and Mum back, alive and well, and all that was left was to wait for the Enforcers to find the last few members of Ascension before we could go back home.

I drifted into restful sleep with a smile on my face, the soothing sounds of Derek's breathing like a lullaby to my ears, his warm breath tickling my skin and sending a pleasant shudder down my spine.

### CHAPTER THIRTY

### D.K

Lying on the bench-cum-bed with Liz's body pressed close was unbelievably relaxing, my bruises and recently sealed wounds all but forgotten, my mind full of a peaceful emptiness and the sense that everything was right in the world. I didn't even care that the Bureau had us locked up. It didn't matter, because I was exactly where I wanted to be. I smiled and stroked Liz's emerald hair, gently tugging the knots out as I ran my fingers down her neck. Since waking up in this... laboratory, or whatever it was, I had felt like a new person, like a phoenix reborn from the dust and debris of Ark City. I felt like I had finally earned the right to exist, that by saving all those lives I had made up for every wasted opportunity, every bad thing I had ever done. I had even come to terms with having killed \- yes, killed - because I knew that if I hadn't Edward would have never been stopped, and regardless of whether it was a few months or a few years from now, he would have done something far, far worse than I had. His deranged vision of the future only included his very small portion of the human race, and to him, everybody else was expendable. If he had been able to go through with his plan, _millions_ would have died, at least.

So, all in all, I was feeling pretty pumped up. That's why, even though my body was wracked with sores and my eyes were getting heavy, I was still awake and alert an hour after Liz had fallen asleep. I was gazing blankly at the wall, brushing my fingers absent-mindedly over Liz's arm and enjoying the tranquillity of a thoughtless mind when I noticed the red glow of the door panel blink out, replaced by the familiar cyan interface. The door _zoomed_ open a few seconds later, and I gently lifted Liz's head off my lap, resting it carefully on a pillow to avoid disturbing her sleep.

I slid off the end of the bench and onto the floor and began walking cautiously towards the open door. My legs were still pretty weak so it ended up being more of a hobble than a walk, and by the time I had threaded my way between the piles of food crates to the centre of the room, two Enforcers had stepped through the door, one fiddling with the interior door panel while the other watched me approach. The dull red glow returned to the panel, and the crouched Enforcer stood up and turned to join his partner in patiently staring at me. I was too far away to see through their face-masks, but as I drew closer I realised that they were blacked out anyway, set to one-way tinted mode. I waited until I was within whisper range to speak, so that Liz and her Mum wouldn't be woken by our conversation.

"Hey, so are we free to go now? If it's okay, we might stay just a little bit longer. Those two are taking some much-needed rest and..."

I trailed off as both of the Enforcers raised their hands to their necks, tapping the seal release for their helmets and lifting them off. Both of the black buckets crashed to the floor with reverberating _clangs_ , certain to wake up Liz and her mother, but I had no time to check as the bewildering sight froze me stiff. I was staring up at two faces I knew extremely well, one that had been more of a father figure to me than my biological one had, and the other the only real friend I had ever known, a friend I had assumed lost to me forever.

"GREGOR?! JIMMY?!?!" I was screaming like a little child, a high-pitched and warbling tone, feeling utterly and hopelessly disoriented. Was this real, or was I dreaming? I honestly couldn't think of two people that I would have been more shocked to see. "Bu-but I thought you were dead?! What the hell is going on?!"

The echo of the helmets hitting the floor and my cacophonous shrieking had awoken the two women, and Liz suddenly appeared at my side, grasping my right arm with both hands and staring at Jimmy incredulously. Her mother stood on her other side, folding her arms and looking sternly at our new guests.

"Oh... I thought we had put all the excitement behind us for one day..."

I was still staring slack-jawed at Jimmy, a sly grin creeping onto his face as he began tapping hotspots all over his Enforcer suit, releasing the seals that held it together. Pieces began falling away, but instead of seeing clothes or hell, even Jimmy's naked body, what _was_ underneath completely blew my mind.

"Ay-Bee?! WHAT. THE. FUCK?!" My right arm was still playing host to Liz's', so I used my left to stretch forward and touch the dark blue metal, unable to believe what I was seeing. My brain struggled to reconcile the scene before me, smashing square pegs into round holes. I'd seen Jimmy get buried by an avalanche of plaster ceiling chunks, hadn't I? And what about A-B; hadn't I seen him rent asunder, shattered into pieces and strewn across the floor of Gregor's store by the augmented Ascension soldiers?

While Jimmy finished climbing out of the suit and I looked on dumbstruck, Gregor was fishing a thin silver rectangle out of his pocket and placing it in the corner of the room, between a stack of carbonated beverage crates and the curtained area that served as a bathroom. He set the device down on the ground, tapped it twice, and began scurrying back towards us. I tried to ask Gregor what was going on but I couldn't find my voice. Fortunately, Liz suffered no such problem and eloquently articulated the question most dominant in my mind.

"Uh... Would you mind explaining just what the _fuck_ is going on here?" Her voice was soft and polite, all except the _fuck_ which was half-screamed. Gregor stretched out his huge, padded arms and began hustling us towards the opposite corner from where he had just fled.

"No time! First we escape, then we talk."

"Escape, why would we need to escape?" asked Liz, shaking her head, a quizzical look on her face. Gregor opened his mouth to respond, but before he had the chance the white light of the room suddenly changed to red, and a _whooping_ alarm blared from all sides. Gregor finished herding us into the corner, crouching down behind a tower of containers and indicating for us to do the same.

"Let me guess, it's something to do with that, right?" I asked Gregor rhetorically, flicking my thumb in the direction of the device he had abandoned. He just smiled and covered his ears with his thick black gloves. I followed his example, making sure that Liz and her mother did the same. Gregor had never been one for theatrics, so I knew whatever he had planned was going to be _loud_.

As we squatted on our knees behind the crates, waiting for Gregor's device to do its thing, I stared at Jimmy. I couldn't believe he was here, alive and, of all things, sporting A-B's mechanical body. As soon as I got the chance, I was going to extract some goddamn answers from those two. I tried imagining possible explanations for Jimmy's absurd appearance, but I was distracted by a steady rumbling rising through the floor. I was just about to yell out to Gregor, asking him if the ground was supposed to be shaking so much, when a deafening shockwave knocked me to the ground, the _boom_ reverberating in my skull even with my ears firmly covered.

From where I landed I could see Liz and her mother, both in similar heaps on the floor, and Gregor and Jimmy hurried to help them to their feet while I struggled to my own. They then frantically shepherded us through a cloud of thick, grey dust towards the other corner of the room – the source of the almighty earthquake.

We waded through the sea of grey, making slow progress as we careened off the barely visible crate islands, our arms outstretched to avoid collisions. My ears were still ringing from the aural assault, so when Gregor stopped right in front of us and began working his mouth furiously, I had no idea what he was saying. He was gesturing with his hands, miming the act of putting on a glove and grabbing hold of a pole or something. My hearing started to return as he reached into his pocket and withdrew a bunch of thin, silver gloves. A few slid from his grasp and fell to the floor.

"-with you. So, lucky I pack extra, yes?" He bent down and scooped up the loose gloves, handing a pair to each of us. I gave them a brief once-over before slipping them on. Across the palm was a thick black strip that protruded above the rest, running from the gap between the thumb and forefinger across to the other side.

"Uhh, Gregor? Just what the heck are these for?" I croaked, spitting out dust I hadn't realised had crept into my mouth. Gregor frowned at me before answering.

"I just told you! Electro-adhesive gloves for sliding down transpole!" He pointed to the left where, now that most of the fog had cleared, I could see a bright blue pole curving out of a fresh puncture wound in the floor. The end of the pole was embedded in the ground a few feet away.

Gregor wasted no more time with explanations, shuffling forward and guiding Liz and her mother to the precipice of the gaping maw. I trotted over to join them, Jimmy stomping his mechanical feet in unison with mine, and peered over the edge. It was an immense black eye that stared back at me, thick shadow surrounding a tiny speck of light hundreds of metres down. I looked back up at Gregor, my eyes wide and my face contorted in bafflement.

"Are you fucking serious?" I managed to ask, once I had found my voice. Liz was swinging her gaze back and forth between Gregor and me, her face pale and her mouth agape.

"Oh stop being big baby. Look, Jimmy have no problem!" Jimmy was bounding forward to where the pole disappeared into the murky depths. He had no gloves on, but his mechanical hands clearly had the same adhesion because he grabbed hold without hesitation, tiny blue sparks sizzling at the contact, and flashed me an enormous grin before jumping off the edge and vanishing into the hungry opening. Gregor motioned for me to follow. I turned to Liz, recognising the trepidation in her eyes, and reached out to grab her hand. I squeezed it tight and forced a confident smile.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine! Just think, this isn't the craziest thing we've done in the last day, is it?" She laughed, though I could clearly hear the straining notes. I gave her quick hug, clutching her tight and relishing the feel of her body pressed against mine, then strode to where Jimmy had stood only moments ago. I looked down at my hands and pulled the silver and black gloves on a little tighter.

"Well, here goes nothing!" I gave Gregor, Liz, and her mother one final glance, gritted my teeth, and grabbed hold of the blue pole with both hands. The black strip on the gloves immediately stuck to the cool surface, adhering with a reassuring strength. I took a deep breath, bent my legs, and launched myself into the unknown.

It was both incredibly exhilarating and utterly terrifying to slide through the darkness, no say over my speed or destination, the red light from the room above receding rapidly. The gloves kept my descent stable and constant, just fast enough to feel the air whipping by but not so fast that I felt out of control. It was considerably shorter than I expected too, and before I knew it the gloom was dissipating, replaced by a dim yellow light, and the pole began curving around the inner surface of an enormous cylindrical tunnel. I cried out in surprise at the sudden change of direction, my legs dangling in the air and the tunnel floor a hundred metres below.

"Shiiiiiiit!"

I glanced up from the abyssal drop to see where the pole was taking me. It followed the arc of the tunnel roof, passing underneath thick silver rails that spiralled around the surface of the wall. Further down the tunnel and connected to one of the rails was a capsule-shaped vessel, clear bubbles dotted around its hull like bug eyes. And that's where it seemed the pole was taking me.

As I drew closer to the vessel, the pole began changing colour, changing from blue to yellow then to red. Accompanying the change in hue was a drop in velocity, slowing to a crawl as I reached the end of the red segment above the roof of the capsule vehicle. The final stretch of the pole was black, and passed through a hatch into the ship itself. The grip of the gloves began to loosen just as I entered the hatch, giving way completely a few seconds later and leaving me to plunge the last metre into the soft embrace of a gigantic white sponge. The pillowy surface sucked me in, and I was overwhelmed by the sudden fear of being completely consumed by this fluffy monstrosity until a cold metal arm grabbed me by the wrist, effortlessly lifting me out and onto my feet.

"Thanks Jimmy! Oww!" I winced as he let go of my arm and I was forced to stand under my own power. My bruised muscles weren't particularly happy with my recent violent exercise, and I gently massaged the side of my hip while I waited for the pain to subside. After a few uncomfortable moments the sharp sting faded to a mild throbbing, and I slowly stood up straight and surveyed the room.

The thing that I had landed on turned out to be an enormous mattress, positioned beneath the open hatch to cushion our arrival. "Man, that was freakin' nuts!" I shook my head from side to side in disbelief. I had experienced some _seriously_ crazy shit recently, stuff that absolutely crushed even my most exciting IN-VI memories.

I turned to face Jimmy, my eyes picking out the spot where his human neck fused with his mechanical torso. "So, dude, are you going to tell me how the heck _this_ happened?" I swept my hand from his head to his feet. Jimmy hunched his metal shoulders and pulled that hangdog expression he normally reserved for the times he lost us a round. I waited for him to explain but he stood unusually mute, and before I could press him further a high pitched wail screeched in from outside the ship.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah fuuuuuuuuuck!"

Shockingly, it wasn't Liz's voice but her mother's. They both dropped through the hatch, Liz's mother clutching her daughter for dear life, and crashed into the mattress with a soft _poof_. Jimmy and I helped pull them out, Jimmy doing so effortlessly thanks to his significantly stronger arms, and I smiled and looked at Liz's stony face.

"I am never doing that again! _Never_!" I couldn't help but laugh, and Liz punched me playfully in the shoulder. Her mother was visibly shaking, and Liz walked over and took her in her arms, swaying back and forth in silence while she recovered. Gregor had arrived by the time she had stopped trembling, making a distinctly more graceful entrance than any of us had, landing on his feet and bouncing off the mattress in one smooth motion. He ran over to where the pole connected to the wall of the room and tapped a panel beside it. A hum started up and the pipe began retracting, speedily passing from black to red to yellow to blue, then disappearing completely into the wall. The hatch sealed by itself, and Gregor hurried over to an open doorway and leant through it.

"We're good to go! Let's move!" he shouted down the passageway before spinning back to face us, flashing a broad toothy grin and spreading his arms wide. "Excellent! Successful rescue! You and I make good team, Jimmy!" He elbowed Jimmy roughly, then grimaced and rubbed his arm. Jimmy opened his mouth as if to laugh, but no sound came out.

"Jimmy? What's wrong? Gregor, why isn't he talking?" I asked. Gregor stopped nursing his arm and looked at me sheepishly.

"Well, I haven't got round to doing voice-box hook-up yet. First priority when we get back though, right Jimmy?" I raised an eyebrow and threw my hands up. I was fed up with not understanding what the hell was going on.

"I think you owe us a damn explanation, Gregor. I don't understand half of what you're saying, plus, why the hell did we just bomb our way out of an Enforcer station?" Gregor smiled and nodded, walking towards another door and gesturing for us to follow.

"You are right, Derek, it is time for talk now." He led us through a short hallway and into a kitchen/dining area outfitted with couches, chairs, and a single, massive metal table. We sat down as the ship began rumbling beneath us, and a weird sensation of weightlessness started brewing in the pit of my stomach. Liz and her mother didn't look so crash hot either, a fact which Gregor must have noticed.

"Ah, yes, my apologies. We are travelling on train lines, and they curve round tunnel, so ship has gyroscope system to keep us level." Gregor was acting all this out with his hands, curving one around in a loop while the other remained steady. "Unfortunate side effect is little bit of motion sickness. Should pass soon." True to his word, I was already beginning to feel a little better, my stomach settling back into its regular position. Gregor rubbed his hands together and continued.

"So, let's talk Jimmy first. The staff and I hide out from Enforcers, wait for them to leave after destroying store. When I walk out I find Jimmy, body crushed under huge pile of second-story crap. It not right, make me very upset. Jimmy good kid, not deserve this. He still breathing, though, so I think Gregor, you must do something, save innocent little boy." Jimmy sneered and flipped his hand, dismissing Gregor's claim of 'innocence'. "Lucky for me, stupid Ascension soldiers not destroy stasis tank, so I was able to keep Jimmy alive while I put together new body. Lost a lot of merchandise though, so I had to improvise with Ay-Bee's body. Shame, he was good bodyguard."

Gregor fell silent, one hand stroking his chin while he stared at the floor. I waited a few seconds for him to continue, but when he didn't, I reached forward and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Uhh... Gregor?" He jumped at my touch and snapped his head back up. For a moment he stared at me in wide-eyed confusion, before shaking his head and flashing a grim smile.

"Sorry, sorry! Was thinking about...uh...never mind. Where was I? Ah yes! So I put Ay-Bee's body back together, build in synthetic nervous system, circulatory system, muscle control... Finally I fix Jimmy's head on top and presto, all good! Except I not find voice-chip, so I give Jimmy Comp to communicate. What is first thing he say? 'We need to find Derek'. I tell him 'What about my store? I need righteous vengeance on bastards who did this!'" Gregor slammed his fist into the palm of his hand. "But he say Ascension were after _you_ , so quickest way to find _them_ is to find _you_ first. Smart boy, that Jimmy." Gregor chuckled, and Jimmy smiled a little bashfully.

"Okay, that's completely insane, but that explains that. Now how about telling us why you chose to sneak into an Enforcer station and blow a hole through the floor, instead of just waiting for us to be let out?" I asked, stealing a glance at Liz and her mother. They were sitting silently, arms around each other's backs, both displaying equally stunned expressions. Turning back to Gregor, I saw that he was frowning at me disapprovingly.

"You really think Bureau was going to let you go? With what you knew? About the _Armageddon_?" My jaw dropped, and I knew Liz and her mother would be reacting the same way. Gregor continued before any of us had a chance to voice our incredulity.

"Yes, we know about Ascension's little experiments. We know more than you as well, I think. But that not important right now. Back to story. So, we were trying to think of way to find you when whole city goes to shit. Ark City attacking Enforcers, then heading for collision with Sallustria, then last minute course correction and it end up as smoking heap in wasteland desert. It seem like no coincidence, so I talk to contacts, find out there is survivor to crash, just happens to be boy about same age as you. Then my contact tell me something _really_ interesting. She say Bureau uncover extremely nasty experiments, and irrefutable evidence about upcoming apocalypse. But Bureau not plan on telling anybody. They want to keep it secret, so they round up anyone who knows anything and 'neutralise'" – Gregor acted out the air quotes – "them."

My mouth was stuck permanently open and my head was reeling as I tried to comprehend Gregor's accusation. I wanted to speak but all I could manage was a croak, my throat having dried up while I sat stunned. I swallowed hard and cleared my parched throat.

"Bu-but, the Bureau are the good guys, aren't they? Why would they want to hide something this monumental from the world?" Gregor closed his eyes and swung his head back and forth.

"Derek, Derek, Derek. You know better than that! Bureau always think they know what's best for society. They make decisions so everybody can sit back in their homes and relax. But Bureau not always right. And in this case, they are very, very wrong. Big change _is_ coming, but they are missing important piece of the puzzle."

What Gregor was insinuating was baffling enough, but it was the vague terms and lack of explanation that was really confusing. He had always been blunt and outspoken, sometimes brutally so, never one to loiter around the salient point. But now it seemed like he was purposely avoiding something.

"Well, if that's the case then we need to tell everyone! You've always talked about cracking in to the public directory, we could do that and send messages with proof and-"

"Bah!" Gregor silenced me with a wave of his arm and rose from the couch. "Why tell people when you can show them? Come! You see what I mean."

He walked over to the door and motioned for us to follow. I stood up slowly, my brain backpedalling as it tried to keep up with the frenetic pace of events. Liz was staring blankly ahead and hadn't even realised Gregor had left the couch. I put my hand on her shoulder and she snapped back to reality, blinking furiously as she looked up at me.

"What's going on?" she asked, her voice a mix of cautious interest and mild irritation. I just shrugged, as clueless as she was, and helped her up from the couch. I wandered over to the doorway to join Gregor while she waited for her mother to rise. Gregor was smiling keenly, and I knew that this was the moment he had been building towards.

"Come, come!" He spun and walked out the door, down the corridor and back into the mattress room, then down the passageway that he had poked his head into earlier. I waited for the others to join me, but as Liz and her mother walked over, I noticed that Jimmy hadn't moved from his spot on the couch. He must have sensed my gaze because he turned his head and smiled at me. I pointed to the door and gestured with my thumb but he just smiled sadly and shook his head. I was tempted to question his reluctance, but thought better of it when I remembered he couldn't respond. _That_ was going to take some getting used to.

The three of us left the room and followed in Gregor's footsteps to what turned out to be the cockpit. Gregor was standing next to a black chair, his arm leaning casually on the headrest, our pilot hidden from view. I could see the tunnel whizzing by out of the front view-screen, but the constant rotation made me dizzy so I focused my eyes on Gregor.

"Derek, lovely ladies, let me introduce you to friend of mine. Meet Luna."

He swung his arm and spun the pilot's chair around, affording us full view of its occupant. From the way Gregor had been building up to this, I had expected something absolutely mind blowing. Instead, sitting comfortably in the chair with its hands clasped before it, was nothing more than a humanoid drone. True, it looked far more complex and realistic than A-B had, but that wasn't saying a hell of a lot. Very few had been produced since The Sentience Incident, with manufacturers preferring to avoid reminding consumers of the tragedy that had nearly wiped out humanity, but you did occasionally see the odd one here or there.

The drone began speaking in a soothing female voice. "Hello. As Gregor said, I am Luna, and it is quite a pleasure to meet you all. I look forward to getting to know you a _lot_ better in the future." 'Luna' spun the chair back around and returned to the ship's controls. Gregor was grinning, his face alight with pride.

"Marvellous, yes? Luna is state-of-the-art robotic system with one major difference: human consciousness." Gregor tapped his head and grinned proudly.

Wait, what did he say? That robot is actually a _person_? Man, first Jimmy and now this? What the heck was going on? I opened my mouth to ask Gregor but Liz's mother beat me to the punch, dashing forward and stabbing her finger at Gregor accusingly.

"But that's illegal! Not to mention immoral! And for good reason! Don't you remember what happened last time?! The Sentience Incident?!" She was in hysterics, and for a moment it looked like she was going to lunge for Gregor's throat but she held herself back, clenching her fists and trembling with white-hot rage. Liz took her wrist and tried to calm her down.

"No, no, no! This completely different situation! That was _artificial_ intelligence, this just next logical step in human modification. Totally superior mechanical body: iron grip, brute strength, blinding speed; even internal Comp module! Upgrades too!" He clapped his hands together and beamed encouragingly at us. Liz's mother wasn't mollified, though.

"That doesn't change the fact that it's just _wrong_! We were born flesh and blood, not metal and machine!"

Gregor took a few slow steps towards Liz's mother and gently put his hand on her shoulder. "Would you deny man born without legs chance to walk? Would you let child paralysed in accident never play again?" Gregor paused, waiting for her reaction. She pursed her lips but remained silent. He continued. "Well, why deny man who simply _want_ better legs or better arms? Should he be forced to suffer injury first? No! He should have equal opportunity to improve himself, equal chance to be. Who. He. Want. To be." Gregor stabbed his finger into his palm emphatically to punctuate his words. "You cannot stop human progress; you must embrace it."

I'd heard Gregor's sales pitch before, but this time I took it to heart. After all, it was only because of his skill with modifications that Jimmy was alive and anyway, who was I to judge? Who was I to dictate how other people lived their lives? Liz's mother was clearly torn, her lip curled and her brow furrowed in deep concentration. Liz herself was alternating between frightened and perplexed, her head swinging from Gregor to her mother and back again.

"Okay, okay, it big news, I know. I give you time to think. Sleep on it!"

Gregor began ushering us out of the room, pointing us back towards the kitchen/dining area while he remained behind with Luna. I stumbled back through the ship, my head pounding and my vision blurring as the fire of confusion melted my brain, and when we returned to the large cabin I eagerly collapsed onto the couch next to Jimmy. Everything was going at such a breakneck speed that I hadn't even had a chance to properly reunite with him. I shuffled forward, looked Jimmy in the eye, and held out my fist. He stared back, pressed his lips together for a second then grinned, bumping my fist with his. I was careful to keep it gentle; I didn't want to hurt myself like Gregor had before.

"Man, I'm so glad you're okay, Jimmy. Goddamnit dude, I seriously thought you were dead!" Jimmy pointed to himself then me, miming the words _me too_.

"This is pretty messed up," said Liz. She had settled down on the couch with her mother, each holding the other as they stared wide-eyed into the ether.

"Yep. You can say that again." I closed my eyes and rubbed my hand down my face. "And I don't think my brain has even processed half of it yet."

"Yeah." I opened my eyes briefly and saw Liz nodding, a glum and worried expression on her face. I felt compelled to make her feel better, so I reached over and took her hand in mine.

"Hey, at least we're all safe. Well, for the moment anyway."

"Sure, safe. It's not like we're about to have the entire Enforcement Bureau scouring the city for us or anything. We totally didn't just bust out of their station." Liz let her head droop, her shoulders slumping and a sigh escaping her lips. I couldn't let her lose hope like that. I had to cheer her up.

"But look. If Gregor and whoever else is involved here have managed to keep something like this hidden for God knows how long, they've got to have a _really_ secure headquarters. And if they're producing fluid-form bodies like 'Luna's', it must be damn big too. We'll be safe there." I squeezed her hand and ducked my head low to meet her eyes. I gave her my most heartfelt smile, and after a few seconds of contemplation she returned it.

"Maybe...maybe you're right. I just... everything's been so hectic. I can't believe it's only been a day since I left for the Ascension office. It feels like a lifetime."

"I know what you mean. But all in all I'm pretty happy, even with all this crazy shit going on." Liz gawped at me incredulously.

"Happy? Are you serious? You nearly died!"

"Yeah... but I finally accomplished something with my life. Something important. If Jimmy could talk, he'd tell you how much of a bum I've been. All I've ever done is played IN-VIs and screwed around with Gregor's 'toys'. Now I can say that something I did made a real difference in people's lives, a _positive_ difference. I never imagined it could feel this good." I stared solemnly into Liz's eyes for a few seconds before slipping into a sly smile. "And on top of that, I also met this really cool chick, you might know her..."

I caught movement in the corner of my eye and turned to see Jimmy roll his eyes and wave his arm dismissively. I ignored him and returned my gaze to Liz. She had lifted her free hand to cover her face but I still caught a glimpse of a slight red hue blossoming on her cheeks. Jimmy stood up and walked over to a Comp terminal in the corner, giving us some space. Liz's mother had withdrawn to the other side of the couch, eyes shuttered in sleep or deep contemplation; I could not tell which.

I grabbed Liz's hand from her face and pulled her onto the couch next to me. She slid sideways and rested her head on my chest. I began absentmindedly stroking her hair, feeling my body relax and caving to exhaustion. My eyes drooped shut, closed for business. A furious storm of questions where still whirling around my head, but I pushed them aside. They weren't going anywhere, and they could wait at least a few hours while I slept.

I slid my hands down Liz's side and wrapped my arms around her. I savoured the texture of her smooth skin, the heat radiating from her body as she pressed in close. For the moment, everything was perfect. Sure, we probably had a whole mess of craziness awaiting us when we arrived wherever it was we were going, but for now none of that mattered. My best friend had come back from the dead, I had met a fantastic, wonderful, beautiful girl, _and_ I had managed to save thousands of lives by taking command of an _entire freakin' city!_ I was happy, I was proud, and for the first time in my life, I felt like I was part of something larger than myself, a group, a _family_. I knew that no matter what happened we would be okay, because I had friends who had risked their lives for me, just as I had for them. With that reassuring thought I let sleep steal me away, enveloping me with a blanket of hope, of joy, of purpose. I submitted to the void with a smile on my face and warmth in my heart.

###

About the author:

Matt Sayer is a full-time code-monkey, dabbling in everything from web development to application programming to database management. He has been a fervent reader all his life, amassing a literary library with a life of its own, growing larger and larger with each passing day, never submitting to even the most zealous reading binges. He is unimaginably grateful that you have given your precious time to reading this, his first novel, and hopes that you found it as enjoyable as it was for him to write!

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