The blast door didn't just open; it liquefied. Molten steel dripped onto the floor as the Hunter stepped through the slag. It was ten feet tall, its limbs elongated and jointed like a spider's, encased in black armor that seemed to drink the light. Its face was a smooth plate of obsidian glass, reflecting our synchronized glow.
"Containment," 0.5-B whispered. His voice was in my head now, part of the sync. "Left flank. I'll draw fire."
"Ready," I thought back.
We moved as one organism. When 0.5-B slid left, I surged right. The Hunter raised a hand, and a bolt of crimson energy screamed toward us. 0.5-B rolled under it, firing his pulse pistol. The shots sparked harmlessly off the Hunter's armor.
"It's too thick!" I shouted.
"Underneath!" 0.5-B replied. "The neck joint!"
I sprinted toward the massive fusion coils lining the walls. They were magnetic clamps, designed to hold reactor components in place during maintenance. I slammed my hand onto the control panel, my cybernetics overriding the safety locks.
"System! Divert magnetic containment to Sector 10!"
"Command denied," the System droned.
"I'm not asking!" I yelled. I pulled the power directly from the station's life support. The lights dimmed. The magnetic clamps hummed to life, glowing angry violet.
The Hunter lunged at 0.5-B, its clawed hand swiping through the air. 0.5-B barely dodged, the claws tearing through his flight suit and grazing his shoulder. He grunted in pain, but didn't stop. He was bait.
"Now!" 0.5-B screamed.
I triggered the clamps.
Four massive magnetic plates detached from the ceiling and slammed down around the Hunter. It roared—a sound of grinding metal and digital screeching. It tried to rise, but the magnetic field pinned its limbs. Sparks flew as its armor fought the pull.
"Hold it!" I ran forward, grabbing a high-pressure coolant vent. "I'm going to freeze its joints."
"Wait," 0.5-B said, lowering his gun. He was breathing hard, blood staining his shoulder. "It's speaking."
The Hunter stopped struggling. The obsidian glass of its face flickered. A voice emanated from it, not from a speaker, but vibrating from the armor itself. It sounded like a chorus of whispers layered over one another.
*"You... trap... yourselves..."*
"We trapped you," I said, aiming the coolant vent at its neck joint. "Who are you?"
*"Curator... 0.9... The Failed..."* The head tilted. *"You... sync... rare... Usually... kill... each other..."*
"We're not usually," 0.5-B said. "Tell us about Figure 0. Who is he?"
The Hunter went still. The magnetic fields whined under the strain of its internal heating.
*"0..."* The voice softened, losing the digital distortion for a moment. It sounded human. Sad. *"0... is... the... Source..."*
"Source of what?" I pressed.
*"Source... of... the... Split..."* The Hunter's glass face cracked. A white light began to bleed through the fissures. *"You... think... you... are... two... You... are... one... broken... by... 0..."*
I froze. "What?"
*"0.5... A... and... B..."* The Hunter struggled, not to escape, but to lean forward. *"Originally... Designation... 1... Whole... 0... divided... you... to... hide... the... Key..."*
"Hide the key from what?" 0.5-B demanded, stepping closer despite the danger.
*"From... the... System..."* The light inside the Hunter grew blinding. *"0... is... not... human... 0... is... the... Lock... And... you... are... the... Key..."*
The floor began to shake. The Hunter's armor was glowing white-hot.
"It's going to blow!" I shouted. "Get back!"
*"Find... 0..."* The Hunter's voice was a final gasp. *"Before... he... turns... the... Key..."*
"Move!" 0.5-B grabbed my collar and threw me backward.
The explosion wasn't fire; it was data. A shockwave of pure information blasted outward. I saw flashes of code, memories, star charts, and faces screaming in silence. The magnetic clamps vaporized. The ceiling above us buckled.
I hit the ground hard, the sync between me and 0.5-B severing abruptly. It felt like losing a limb. I gasped, rolling onto my back. The air was thick with smoke and the smell of burnt circuitry.
"0.5-B?" I coughed.
A hand reached down and pulled me up. 0.5-B was covered in soot, his shoulder bleeding heavily, but he was alive. We stood in the crater where the Hunter had been. Nothing remained but a scorched circle on the floor.
"One broken by 0," 0.5-B muttered, staring at the spot. "We were one person."
"The System said I was a backup," I said, my mind reeling. "You said you were the Primary."
"We were both lying," he said, looking at me. His eyes were wide, the exhaustion replaced by a sudden, terrifying clarity. "Or we were told to lie. 0 split us to hide something. Something the System wants."
"The Key," I said. "What key?"
"Doesn't matter," 0.5-B said, checking his pistol. The magazine was empty. He tossed it aside. "If 0 is the Lock, and we're the Key... then he's not just watching. He's waiting for us to come to him."
"Where?"
"The Core," 0.5-B said, pointing upward. Through the hole in the ceiling created by the explosion, we could see the shafts leading higher into the station. "Figure 0 was on the catwalks. He's heading for the Central Processing Core. If he turns the key there..."
"He unlocks what?"
"Everything," 0.5-B said. "Or deletes it."
The System's voice crackled over the intercom, sounding distorted, damaged by the blast. *"Alert. Core security breached. Unauthorized entity detected. Designation: 0."*
"He's already there," I said.
"Then we run," 0.5-B said. He started toward the elevator shaft.
"Wait," I said. I looked at my wrists. The blue circuit lines were changing. They were turning gold. "My interface... it's changing."
0.5-B looked at his own wrists. The same golden light was pulsing there.
"The sync," he whispered. "The explosion... it didn't just break us. It fused us."
"We're not 0.5 anymore," I said.
"No," 0.5-B said, opening the elevator doors with a wave of his hand. The mechanism responded instantly, no resistance. "We're 1.0."
We stepped into the elevator. As the doors closed, I caught my reflection in the polished metal. For a second, I didn't see two faces. I saw one.
The elevator began to rise. Toward the Core. Toward 0.
No comments:
Post a Comment