[ctg]

Maybe I just have rescued them from the hell.

The blue light immersed six tubes and the Inspector. And a few seconds later there was nothing but air left over the teleporter.

“Load the one,” Tree ordered. “And get ready.”

“Yes sir,” Igor said, tapping in the command that unlocked the oldest boy’s tube and loaded in on top of the pad. Tom smiled. He flipped a switch on last explosive as the scientist went to unlock the lifting system.

Suddenly his eyes caught a pair of sleek metallic spiders crawling on the ceiling. He looked around and saw more of them. The spiders were creeping out from behind the cables, airing ducts.

Tom felt adrenaline rushing through his veins; heightening his senses. He felt shirt fabric tightening with every breath of metallic tasting air he pulled in his lungs.

“Tree,” he shouted, and started running towards the pad. But the spiders had obviously other thoughts as they plunged down from the ceiling, creating obstacles between him and the pad.

Tom stopped on his tracks, flipped open the top of the detonator and said, “Don’t try me.” Then he heard a loud click. The wall on his right crackled, pulled in and then exploded out. The blast wave full of twisted metal and burning plastic hit him and hurled him around as if he weighted nothing.

[1101001]

“Barrett,” Jim shouted, pointing at the shimmering air above the plastic sheet they had laid on top of the dusty warehouse floor. Within a few seconds a single light pylon intensified in colour and brightness.

Just one, Barrett thought. Something’s not right.

“Take cover.” He swung the mini-gun from his back at front and thumped the switch. At the same time as the barrels started gathering speed, the connector on his palm enabled the smartgun that instantly painted a wide cross-hair over the pylon. The light show started to sparkle, blinked out and came back split in three.

This isn’t the delivery, Barrett decided. He took a deep breath as the light show intensified again and started to become more solid. On three.

One. Barrett moved his finger on the trigger.

Two. He started squeezing it, immediately shooting out a targeting laser.

Three…

The God Machine

"Everybody's a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We're all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos." - David Cronenberg

PART I - WHAT WAS IT WORTH?

[0]

Es cursed the madness and chaos that went around him as he stepped over the biggest pieces of once-worthy stuff littering Deep Sea Colony’s first Base Colony’s shopping alleys. Every once and while his eyes glued to watch massive holographic-displays spitting out commercials before they suddenly pixelated and then alternated to show a leafy substance, that were rabidly eating resources in the Earth Super-Node.

If anything, what was going around felt like an end-of-the-world as he knew it. And it was all happening thanks to the Traveller’s plan on releasing a worm inside the mega-corporation network that was responsible for all communications inside the colony.

He had opposed the plan, knowing that at the end of it the plan wouldn’t end up executed exactly in the way Mister Dee had imagined. As in the first time he’d handled Tree’s worm, it’d nearly ruined all his computers, and this time there wasn’t an easy way back to the normality. Not with all of that fear and anxiety going around. Especially not with those that the corporations had forced to live at the edge of the society were crawling out from their hiding holes to shake the pillars on the community; a community that the Corporate Court had held in its iron gauntlet for so long time.

Tonight there weren’t electronic barriers, no robots, no security drones, not even the private security force to held back the numbers, as the rag-tag mops joined forces with those from the middle class who wanted to break the chains, and gain freedom by swooping down from one place to another like a horde of crazed wasteland mutants.

This … this is a total anarchy.

Even though what was going on was beyond his darkest dreams, he had not expected to see the Metropolitan Police standing at the back, doing nothing but guarding the essential and the most important pieces that the colony needed to function. Maybe they were scared, but then again, maybe they were under orders to wait until the Inter Planetary Security Forces had pulled a finger out from their collective-butt and massed enough of forces to take back what rightfully belonged to the powers-that-be.

But … “How long that’s gonna take?”

“What did you say buddy?” Manson asked.

Es glanced the three and half meter tall hulking figure on his side and said, “I was just wondering how long it’s gonna take for the big—“

“Oh, I don’t know.” Manson shrugged his shoulders. “Soon probably.”

“Yeah?” Es raised his eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Manson nodded. “Look at them. They’re waiting. So you know … something’s gonna happen sooner than later.”

Right. I have to do something before that drek-storm breaks loose. But what he were thinking wasn’t easy. Not without the Matrix. There just wasn’t any easy way to establish a connection to the Traveller’s team. Even the simplest things were down. And anything that could had established communication wasn’t going to come back anytime soon. No way…

“I said no. Don’t do it. But did you listen? No!” Es muttered angrily as he negotiated the escalators going up and down manically. Like with anything that had a connection to the Matrix, the escalators seemed to have a mind of their own. “She was right. This was the stupidest plan ever. They should’ve waited till I arrived. But did they? No fragging …”