Broken Mirror: Apophis 2029 (30 page)

  "There seems to be no communication from the space station.  All transmissions have gone dark," she noted. 

  "It's possible they could have ran out of food and air up there after nearly a decade," Tasha mentioned, "serves them right!"

  It would be an ironic turn of events if that was the actual fact.  The EMP that sent us back to cooking by campfire and the global storms that darkened the skies, were petty hardships compared to the viral outbreak that swept the planet and wiped out almost an entire species.  We had enough grief in our lives; just to learn that we did it to ourselves was icing on the cake with a cherry on top.  Fuck, we were stupid.

  "
I can guarantee you that was not the case...
" a strange voice came over the intercom in the room.  Even Beatrice turned and appeared surprised by the interruption.  We had assumed the base had been long abandoned and overrun; but apparently, there was someone else still here.

  "Who are you?" Thorn tried to demand to the hidden speakers in the room, yet feeling at the disadvantage.  We knew cameras could be imbedded within the screens displays; it was just unnerving knowing we were being watched all this time.

  "
I am your host, and it has been some time since I have had guests,"
the man’s voice offered, "
my sincere apologies for the recent deaths in your group, but the automations are, well... automated
," he smirked with distasteful humor.

  "What is it that you want?" Tasha demanded, as she gripped her gun tightly.  She wasn't keen to being put on the defense by an unseen foe.

  "
It's not what I want young lady
," he answering abruptly, "
but what I can provide
."

  We looked at one another with a hint of apprehension, not knowing what we should do next.  Thorn tapped Beatrice on the shoulder with his gun, motioning her to get up from the console, not knowing if she was somehow a party to this new contact.

  "Who is that?" he whispered to her threateningly, trying not to be overheard.  Respectfully, they were still standing in front of the screens that picked up every word he said.

  "
You may call me Cypher.  I invite you to let us get better acquainted and will offer to provide you with answers to many of your questions
," Cypher granted, "
I have provided security access to the top floor.  If you would, please bring your other two companions from the 3rd floor breakroom
," he instructed.  With that said, the door to the secured room opened as a prompt for us to depart. 

  Clearly, he had some measure of control over the security systems and access.  With the recent deaths of our companions weighing on us, we wondered if this 'Cypher' could be trusted at any length.  We did not want to walk into another ambush, but we were here for a reason; and he was offering answers.

  It was an odd feeling walking down that corridor back to the break room.  We were still in a daze as we disclosed what we had just learned to Serena.  The young boy had calmed down to a reasonable level, having cried himself to sleep over Haiti's death.  The seven of us assembled and shuffled over to the elevator, still wary of any robotic threats that still lurked within the halls.

  The elevator ride was far longer than we expected for only going up a single floor.  Finally, the door chimed as the female voice uttered "Green Level," over the speaker while the doors slid open and we stepped outside.  The room was stark white with a jumble of makeshift panels that had been scavenged elsewhere and reassembled within this chamber.  With uncomfortable tension, the elevator door slammed closed behind us after we stepped out.  When she tried to open it again, the control was unresponsive to Betty's touch.

  The metal panels were attached to a gear that swung them up to reveal a wide glass wall; beyond it stood our host.

  He was oddly dressed in a mix of a modern lab coat which had been retailored to resemble something from the renaissance age.  An entire top floor of the building had been cleared and repurposed as a living space.  Makeshift curtains had been assembled to decorate the windows in an ornamental way.  Bits of plastic and data disks had been patch worked into
the windowpanes to faintly resemble stained glass trim. 

  Scraps of lab equipment had been remade into the visage of candelabras, each adorned with bright lights to simulate flickering candle flames.  Similar to their construction was an enormous digital fireplace that overwhelmed the rear wall with its lavish decorum.  Our impression was that our host had gone a little off kilter trapped up here all alone after all these years in his solitude.  Our initial presumption was pretty close to point.

  "Welcome," Cypher gestured with a faint smile.  He was not terribly tall, clean-shaven and slightly gaunt.  The strange fellow certainly had an odd look to him that befit a recluse.  He carried himself well as he casually strolled over to lean on a desk chair that had been altered to give it the illusion of a high back.  It was all strangely pseudo 18th century, including his eccentric gait. 

  We were baffled by his initial presentation, but kept a tight hold of our firearms, not knowing what his game was. As we twitched uneasily with our weapons, several robotic arms unfolded from the sides of the room in response.  We turned in defense as their metal clamps extended towards us.

  "What's this all about?" Thorn demanded as we raised our guns to fire.  The metal arms kept at a distance for a moment as their multiple appendages spun and whirred. 

  "There will be no need for those," Cypher gestured for us to lower our weapons while he glinted a shameless grin, "I can assure you the glass is quite indestructible."

  "You don't look familiar," Betty noted aloud, trying to recall if she had ever met him in the years before the cataclysm.  Cypher just shook his head.

  "No, I wouldn't," he shook his head at the old woman's comment, "I was assigned here after you left, Beatrice," Cypher noted to her directly.  She was surprised that he knew her named, "Your staff file was flagged the moment you entered the main facility.  I've been keeping tabs on you and what you have been researching, dear."

  "What are you still doing here?" Kel asked as she gently tapped on the thick glass that separated them.  He smiled back and raised his hands to his secured cell.

  "It's a mere safeguard against contamination," he explained, and I have everything I need and more than enough idle hobbies here to keep me entertained."

  In a facility this size, we could imagine that he had more than enough food and water to last him the rest of his life.  Instead of risking the contagion, he had chosen to seal himself off.  Cypher revealed had been here since the day the catastrophe hit, while most of the personnel had already been evacuated to the underground shelters along the rail system.  Only an exclusive staff of scientists had been left on detail here to secure the laboratory habitat.

  Our questions were many as we tried to piece together the information which had been revealed back in the lab chamber from Betty's computer, along with Cypher's own first hand account.  It was Tasha's inquiry to her father's disappearance and consequential collapse of the tunnel road that won our Host's foremost attention.  Being of strategic importance, a squadron had been left to guard this facility, which explained the cluster of military vehicles strewn across the base entrance outside.  He proceeded to explain the purpose of her father
’
s mission, and how it had so abruptly ended.

  "A convoy had been assigned to escort one of the lead scientists along with a secured meteorite fragment excavated from the surface impact site," Cypher began, as he took a seat in the tall chair facing us, "Unfortunately there was an alleged mutiny within the ranks of the security contractor and we failed to acquire the sample specimen," he concluded, while we kept silent that we were already aware of this knowledge.

  "But what did they need the sample for, was it to create a vaccine?" I asked on Tasha's behalf.  Cypher gave a long sigh, as if either he was choosing his words, or it was a subject he would rather entirely forget.  Either way, we wanted to know.  We had lugged that rock all this way here after all, at our own risk.  Tasha had brought the capsule with her, since she did not trust letting it out of their site nor wished to leave it behind in the breakroom during this introduction.

  "The fragment was a primary specimen for the military branch on the blue level," he finally admitted as we turned our attention to Beatrice, whose face flushed with mild guilt, "as you can tell, we were quite secluded here from the ravages that affected the global population, and this site was kept secret in effort to keep it from becoming a target of infiltration or air strikes from foreign rivals," Cypher related.

  "I'm a little confused.  Why would anyone want to attack this compound in the first place?" Tasha inquired with our joint interest behind her.

  "It would be nothing to do with the failure of the Veil probe, I assure you," Cypher declared, his eyes lingered on Betty when he spoke, "nor anything to do with the secret space station that was constructed on this site; but it could certainly be over concerns about the exploitation of the virus that would make this complex a target."

It wasn't until that very moment when he revealed this crucial position that we could finally put all the pieces together.  The scientists stationed in the upper levels of Fallhaven had been researching how to enhance the virus for military applications.  Cypher further went on to disclose that the automations working around the clock in the Phase Development lab where Betty had been stationed, were not creating biological test samples as a remedy for clinical inoculations, but were instead tailored to intensify the original pathogen for use as a biological agent for adoption towards chemical warfare.

  "I've attempted many times to shut down the program that has been running on the blue level over all these years, but I was locked out its system and unable to affect the termination of that phase of operation," Cypher admitted, "since its integration is deeply rooted into the core system of the complex, and doing so would require that I cut all power to this facility that protects me," he explained as he got up and walked to the large pane window to the outside world.  The sun had already set, but its soft glow was still settling in the cloud swept sky that painted the distant horizon.

  "The files showed that this Mirage space station, or whatever it is called, was unresponsive to hails, and there was no activity displayed from the orbital," Thorn stated as an inquiry to the man behind the glass about the data the computer had shown the group just moments before at Betty's work station.  Cypher nodded solemnly at his remark, his pattern changing to a callous tone.

  "And there wouldn't be either," he acknowledged with an almost whimsical flare, "as the original launching platform, we had full access to remote systems on the station, of course.  I took it upon myself to induce a certain level of ...intervention." he finished with a pause.  We weren't quite sure what he had meant by that last statement, and he could read that by the confused look that spread among us.

  "What did you do?" Beatrice spoke up, a serious tone seeping from under her breath.  Our self-elected host casually wandered back to his chair, leaning upon it in thought as he placed a hand to his chin.  We were all a little disarmed by what he said next.

  "The final transport of our top branch Commanders to the orbiting station was postponed by a few last minute glitches and unforeseen mechanical setbacks.  When our Administration here failed to acquire the meteor sample for their project research and the widespread outbreak of the alien virus resulting from the incursion that followed, they decided to initiate an emergency launch to evacuate the top members of the governing body to the Mirage orbital," he pointed above in reference to the space station still circling the Earth, "with a little ingenuity, a single person could override a few systems, push a few buttons and abort the launch mid flight with a kill switch ...kapooow!" he added with dramatization using his hands to represent a rocket in flight and then exploding along the length of its journey. 

  "You blew it up?" Ava intervened, to clarify his theatrics.

  "Not the station, mind you ...though I do admit that it had originally crossed my mind," Cypher granted to our dismay, "unfortunately for them, at the last moment they chose not to include me on their exclusive VIP list, so I taught those arrogant fucks a little respect!" he admitted with smug resonance.  The grin he wore proved that he still found an ample amount of amusement from their demise after all these years.

  "You just ...just, murdered them?" Beatrice spat back, exposing the true color of her loyalties to everyone in the room.  Cypher stomped up to the glass and gave the old woman an ugly glare, stepping out of character for the first time.  The unbalance of his genius coming to light.

  "Murder! Murder?  Those self serving aristocratic lumps of human filth deserved worse!" he spat back in anger, "I've had a great deal of time to contemplate their conduct over these past several years, and I would do it again, a hundred times over.  They didn't care about the world they had destroyed from their bungling, their
only selfish concern went towards surviving the aftermath of their negligence," he affirmed.

  His words rang true.  The elite branch of our ruling government and military grossly mismanaged the recovery operations and conspired to weaponize the virus rather than concentrate on cleaning up their own mess.  It was about securing their power, even after proving they did not possess the ethics to wield it.  Then they tried to jump ship when they lost control of the entire situation; it served them right.  As for Cypher, I was actually beginning to like this guy.