The Doctor

Space Station Antioch, Orbiting Uninhibited planet

"We have made rather interesting discoveries in our latest batch" Said a man wearing a transparent lab coat with a black uniform underneath. He walked a group of what looked like first year students to a room he called, "The Incubator, here we breed and raise our subjects"

"How long does it take to breed and raise a test subject?" Asked one of the younger students.

"We take around a month at most, two is the farthest acceptable time period for the subject to achieve self-awareness. Once they begin to do most basic interactions we commence the induction process" The man approached the door and it opened revealing a room filled with at least five hundred small metallic tubes, ordered in several lines, connected to their network sentient computer that analyzed every single input from the test subjects. "Right now we are running only half of our tubes due to a lack of subjects but we await to have the rest by the end of our planetary cycle"

"Professor" Another young man, blond haired, rose a hand which was immediately lowered as the man placed his on the man. "I mean, Doctor Helger"

"Never forget. I am a Doctor not a Professor, I don't follow nor would I ever follow any of the academic methods or procedures, to follow through with the established paradigm is to eventually die a fool, we must push boundaries, never mind the academy and the government funding this project, ignore their lackeys, the hunt-hounds and the political trash that dare step into our station, they are only a mean to reach the true objective” The young man remained silent for a second wondering if he should say anything at all. "Their little minds lack the power to understand what the true power of becoming a God means, for them it is only an economical gain or a tactical superiority, it sickens me” The Doctor clenched his fists as he looked to the ceiling and began breathing in a controlled pattern. “I am sorry about that, could you repeat the question again?” Seeing no answer from the student the Doctor berated him immediately “Come on I don't bite, I may be angry most of the time but ignore that, it is part of being me. What was it that you wanted to know?"

"Well, I wanted to know about the current batch of subjects, has at anytime any of the subjects become fully aware of what is going around him?"

"As in?"

"Have they awakened?"

"A very Interesting question you just brought up. To this point we haven't had a subject that has achieved such thing but we are also speaking about subjects that have never been--" The station suddenly quaked as if it had been hit by something. "Hercules, report"

"Hercules on-line. The source of the impact is located in the thruster A, it is unknown at this point what hit us, nothing was reported on sub-space scanners" Reported an almost Human voice but still revealed the taint of a mechanical being. "At this point no security or emergency deployment is necessary as per current damage assessment, the Chief of Security and the Chief of Engineering have both been informed of this incident to investigate further"

"Good Hercules. Thanks for the report, keep me informed of the development"

"Hercules off-line"

"That is our advanced defense system, also a prototype from the early days of the station, he has been assigned to protect us ever since we released it to the station and now has reached a point where it also runs the experiments of this station, at this rate it will not be necessary to have human interaction with Hercules when our first batch is released into a protected environment"

"Hercules on-line. Doctor Helger I will advice you to--" The signal crackled and went out for a second. "Please proceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..." Slowly the voice began to get deeper and to fade away to the point where it died.

"Hercules, Hercules?" The Doctor walked past by the students and when trying to enter the room where the super computer was located the door wouldn't open. "Damn. Well I think our tour for today just ended and I just hope security has--"

Lights went off on the station together with the life support system, everything slowly stopped around them and with it panic slowly grew with it, panic turned into horror when the emergency systems did not go off-line and the group found itself floating in a cold hallway, struggling to breath. From both ends of the hallways horrible squeals could be heard, metal being ripped apart and something breaking down, machines and glass. to ensue when the backup system was not coming on-line and when horrible squeals could be heard from both ends of the hallway.

"Everyone remain calm" The Doctor, holding from a side bar next a window looking at the planet, awaited for security or engineering to do something about the situation, it worried him that he had seen no answer yet and was fearful that they would not survive whatever was coming at them, specially with the squealing becoming louder and no gunshots around them. "Damn..."

Suddenly one of the doors on the hallway opened and a massive figure appeared on the frame, it was someone from security as the Doctor recognized the mechanical sounds of a power armor, when it walked into their sight it became apparent that the situation was worse than he had thought, the armor had been terribly damaged with cables coming out of the left side of the torax, the left shoulder and upper arm missing, the top part of the helmet ripped apart by something that looked like a claw and a clank and buzz coming from both legs. The eyes on the armor pulsed with a bloody red and analyzed the surrounding area until they found the Doctor.

"Doctor Helger" The voice, a mechanical dead voice, came from the armor, the Doctor was not sure who the person was, he had doubts he was part of the security team to begin with. "You are coming with me"

"Who are you?” Asked the Doctor with a low tone of voice

“Salvation” The mechanical voice echoed as the squealing and destruction approached them ever faster. “There is little time left for you to come with me”

What if I don't!" The man pointed his rifle at the group of students. "No, wait, stop it, what do you think you are doing?"

"Leaving a bait for those things, they are not a priority or of anyones interest” Red and yellow lights lit up on the hallway and slowly life support systems picked back up, the Doctor took a deep breath and looked again at the power armor. “Doctor, you have little time to choose and if I can't take you willingly I will do it by force”

“Fine, fine, don't hurt them” Light violently returned to the hallway and with it came a moment of blindness.

“We must prepare”

"Prepare for what?" The readjustment to light took longer than what the Doctor had expected, as he slowly picked up his vision he saw in horror at the body armor, the damages he had seen with the poor lightning was nothing compared to the reality of the power armor, scrap metal was the correct word for it, furthermore no one was inside the suit, the suspicions of the Doctor were slowly being confirmed, the impact had probably been a drop pod full of automated suits that were looking for him. From the open door came more of the suits and service robots that had probably been reprogrammed as they now held weaponry. The body armor extended the left arm toward the open door. "Please, proceed"

“Don't do anything stupid” The Doctor said while facing the machine and walking to the door, the message had been intended for the students but they did not listen, instead the students tried to push through and run, the Doctor was in shock as the machines rapidly worked their way through the feeble attempts of the students to go through them and soon there were only pieces of them laying around, flesh and bone ripped apart, sinew and organs littering the ground, the machines had no heart and seek only the best way to resolve an issue and by their calculations this would avoid them any additional quarrel with whatever was coming to them for long enough for them to get out.

"You retarded mongoloids, this will not go unpunished, Earth will respond to this violation--" The powered armor pushed the Doctor through the open door and quickly through the hallway until they reached a door with a the emblem of a cog and a triskelion. "The Empire of the Machines, really?"

"Doctor Helger you are of interest to the Empire of the Machine, this is why we have come this far to include you in our current set of plans" The mechanical voice rang through the hallway and as soon as he had finished the door with the emblem opened, inside a cryogenic tube open and waiting.

"Are you aware of the repercussions this will have, you are mad, they will hunt you to the end of the universe if necessary!" The powered armor pulled the Doctor into the room and threw him into the cryogenic tube. “Fools!”

"Humanity could not even begin to understand the power we hold. The Empire of the Machines cannot be stopped by your armed forces or space fleet, we have begun to transcend such idiocies" Robots ran through the hallway at full speed into the room, some stood back firing at an unknown danger rushing towards them. “Deploy”

The machines moved inside the ship and the door closed and pressurized, there was an explosion and the room had been expelled from the station, it continued to be pushed out of reach of the station until it gravitated towards something not visible through normal sight. The Machines had placed the Doctor in cryogenic stasis at that point and connected themselves to the internal battery of the room to wait for their time to wake up.

It would be centuries before they reached their destination.

Wake up Call

“Poseidon this is March Walker Twenty Seven, we’ve found some debris on the surface, may be something of importance, over” Corporal Waldo Ibañez looked at the strange charred and twisted pieces of metal over the barren planet surface, a planet infested with heat, pollution of unknown sources and impossible amounts of broken remains from civilizations past gone for an unknown time, the exploration team had been dropped in what was deemed the safest area of the planet in order to probe for possible resources or technology that could be salvaged. “I think we might have found something important… hopefully” He said to himself as he awaited a reply from Poseidon, the rest of his team looked around, moved rocks, examined some of the metallic remnants and took samples with them and into a small solar cart that followed them around in order to stash their discoveries.

“March Walker Twenty Seven this is Poseidon, cleared for investigation and extraction as deemed fit, over and out” A good sign, he thought, as the unlock code ran through his visor, he sent this to all the equipment and suits nearby and with it Waldo and his team began the excavation process, heavy machinery rapidly came to life and proceeded to break down any debris blocking their progress and processing anything the team had marked previously as unusable as is, which meant grinding and forging. After half a planet day they had found nothing of importance, they had recovered resources but Waldo was conscious that more could be obtained by mining raw ore than what they had pulled from this operation. “Shit, command is going to rip me a new one for this” He said through the local comm and his team cheered him and asked him to remain positive, they had just begun an operation that was deemed for at least one Earth year. “Poseidon this is March Walker Twenty Seven, we have--”.

“Hey Waldo, wait, I’ve got something here!” The team of eight rapidly gathered around the private in yellow power armor and red visor, they examined it rapidly and at first it seemed a sort of metal tomb in the shame of a humanoid figure.

“March Walker Twenty Seven this is Poseidon, repeat”

“Poseidon this is March Walker Twenty Seven, hold on” Waldo moved in closer and examined the object, it was not a tomb per-say but he had seen or read something about this, in Earth exploration times the members of a crew would be sometimes jettisoned into space to avoid cannibalism when resources were running short, in other instances they would bury them in their armor if the conditions outside did not allow it or if they were bound to pick them up after an operation and it was unfeasible to carry the extra weight, for said purpose the emergency beacon would be turned on and deliver a signal asking to bring the deceased somewhere, this one in particular was not sending any sort of signal which gave several possible scenarios, it was either damaged beyond repair or the battery inside had run out. Whichever was the final case it meant good salvage which in turn meant good credit on the Company, putting more thought on it Waldo figured more of these should be somewhere on the planet and with luck they would be at reachable distance.

“Poseidon this is March Walker Twenty Seven, we have good loot on our hands, send in collector for inventory cleansing”

“March Walker Twenty Seven this is Poseidon, collector heading your way, signal will be sent when arrival is at the thirty second mark, keep everything in a designated area and mark it for pickup, over”

“Poseidon this is March Walker Twenty Seven, loud and clear” Waldo looked at the armor then back at his team and the equipment still running around. “Alright team listen up, get everything ready for collection; Chunky, mark the spot for pickup”

“On it” Chunky had a yellow power armor with black stripes crossing horizontally through his torso, he took out a small metallic tube, pressed one of the sides and created a large square in the ground, as soon as he finished he pressed one of the ends again and the machinery stopped working then walked to the newly created square to drop whatever they had gathered.

“So, what is it?” Asked Meinz, his power armor blue with a white helmet and black visor, as he kept examining the recovered tomb-armor with curiosity but without touching anything on it.

“It could be a tomb as Chunky mentioned or it could be lost equipment, casualties of war. It looks old, older than anything we usually run through the Company”

“I think I know what it is” The old-timer, Greg, had been around the Company longer than most of the field operatives or officers, while he had been liberated from any heavy work at the Company or any work at all if he wished but he decided to go into the field to avoid feeling useless.

“Give me some ideas Greg, is it from back in your day?” Everyone laughed, Greg chuckled for a while and approached the tomb-armor, he removed dust from the top and the sides, noticed there was no equipment and an empty utility belt, small marks on the front and the left side but nothing severe. “So?”

“It's not a tomb, this is not even Human, probably a machine of sorts” Replied Greg as he continued examining, moving it to the side and examining the back he found what looked like a service panel, removing it without the necessary tool would probably damage something in the process so he left it and placed it the way it was. “Definitely a machine, probably a service unit”

“What's it doing this far out into the Rim?” Asked Chunky as he formed up with the rest. “Weren't those only designated for the inner worlds?”

“Well you are in a way right about it, this should not be here but it is here and it is not working, I see no damage on any side aside from some dents which makes me suspicious about it”

“You think it still works?” Asked Waldo as he reached for his side-arm, a large laser pistol he could only wield with his power armor.

“I doubt it” Replied Greg with a serene voice as he examined the head of the tomb-armor. “We could probably salvage some parts and if we are lucky enough the memory core, transferring the information is a whole 'nother story”

“Anything else you know about this, Greg?” Asked Chunky looking intrigued at Greg who in turn would not stop examining the tomb-armor.

“There is a possibility though that this robot is an old remnant of an ARC expedition, it would be far-fetched though”

“No, that would make perfect sense now that you mention it” Said Waldo who rapidly started looking for information on his visor. “The old ARC's were not designed with the same layout”

“Could be a miner expedition sent by Earth, we do know for a fact that they sent many ARC ships out into space but for one to reach this far is crazy” Replied Greg as he stood up  and wondered, he looked around him and the machinery still dropping their salvage and it struck him right there “That makes sense now, the debris around the planet could be remnants of the ARC, reaching this far into space probably sent it into emergency mode and it crashed into the surface. What a tragedy”

“That's horrible” Added Meinz “Do you think that's what happened?”

“Who knows, so far it seems reasonable to assume that” Answered Greg while looking towards space. “We did not find any ships floating or sending distress signals, no lifeboats, escape pods, tubes or boxes to hint us in the right way”

“We'll let the Company figure it out”

Tech Men

EVERYDAYS WORK

"The Cathedral" Engineer Solomon Sanchez looked at the magnanimous Gothic structure in front of him, it never stopped awing him but at the same time it produced a sense of disgust inside of him, it represented not only a pinnacle in human engineering but also in ignorance. Remembering his classes at the Monitor School, one of the few remaining educational institutions in charge of educating a few select individuals in the secrets of information and technology, the structure was constructed by the fervent religious people of England back in the lost ages, known as such due to the continuously deteriorating veracity of the information found throughout the world, information being transferred back into palpable objects, books or parchments, of terrible quality and questionable importance to the greater structure of history. Everything was slowly deteriorating into the void, said his old master, with humanity going into nothingness with it, forgetting who one was and where he came from was the eventual and final decline of civilization and an organized society, the end of all things and probably the beginning of chaos unless it could be stopped. This cathedral, as the men inside called it, was a place to preach to a God foreign and unknown to the Tech Men, one which they knew from the texts but never fully understood or debated, a metaphysical object in their cosmogony. Officially and bureaucratically to the them, the Tech Men, this was just another place, another building, another congregation, nothing special about it except for the fact that it contained a small amount of ancient machines they worked with from time to time.

Approaching the Cathedral drew the attention of Law Men, he wasn't sure if they were police or army since the standardization of one uniform for all Law and Military Forces, they called them Law Men anyway since they in the end had the final say and word on a judical situation, courts removed and only assembled in case of a major emergency, the constitution and civil rights almost all abolished in the frantic and explosive end of what was once known as the first world. They, the men in uniform, wouldn't stop him though, he was wearing the only emblem that distinguished him from the local population and any other surrounding entity. This was his emblem, a simple black jacket made of an unknown material but built to last an atomic blast if neccesary, covered in what they themselves called the Tech Man regalia, an ensemble of emblems and symbols long forgotten but still in use to identify each other through and through. This immediately opened doors, differentiated him from the plebs and the remaining government figures, placed him in a strange pedestal from where he was untouchable, in the end it was a blessing and a curse as he had no way to escape his destiny as hard as he tried.

"Greetings, do you come to the congregation?" Called a man dressed with a simple brown robe, a monk had recalled Solomon, who didn't recognize him at first until he squinted his eyes to examine him appropertly and finally with a gasp he raised both hands. "Ahh, my apologies! Welcome, welcome great holder of knowledge, this way please"

It was strange, they always bowed and kneeled as if he was some kind of noble or politician, or sanctity, truth be told he was a simple man, with no more power than the Monk, that simply held knowledge, in fact just like the Monk, knowledge once thought lost and forgotten, yet again just like the man he was now following, that was part of a a 'Legacy Society and Workframe' as it was called at some point by Science Men.

The steps of the boots worn by the Engineer echoed in contrast with the sandals the Monk was wearing which made a 'flap' every time he gave a step. He was taken straight into the mouth of the main library where a congregation of monks were studying a bunch of old books on separated tables, each of them held at least three terminals that connected to a series of small sized local servers.

"Engineer Sanchez" Called a man sitting behind a desk on the bottom left side. The whole congregation turned to him and then to the Engineer to which they bowed. "Welcome"

"Bishop McCay" Sanchez simply gave him a nod, a formality as he called it, which McCay understood quite well as the Engineer was a quiet man who kept his thoughts and emotions only to himself. The Bishop and the Engineer had worked for quite a while now, approximately seven years, but only twice he had been taken to this specific library to fix terminals. This time it came to something a little more severe to which the Engineer was unsure if he could fix. "Where is the ailing machine?"

"Brother Nellus, take the Engineer to the location" The Monk that had led him to the hallways once more became his guide. He took him to a group of four conventional machines, standard sized computers, that were left on a wooden table, which the Engineer assumed immediately were the local servers.

During the twenty something years of his career as an Engineer, from which seven of those were dedicated solely to the study of Legacy Hardware which had proven to be a horrendously difficult task. He as an Engineer had seen a lot of things in his time, he had found computers in sewer systems, he had taken systems back to life after being put under harsh conditions, he even had the opportunity to build two ancient systems himself from scratch gaining great respect from his master and the council, and then he had seen awkward things done to these marvels of technology, like decorating them with gold and silver, dressing them up or even glorify them as Gods.

These particular ones were decorated with several candles and incense burning on top of them which immediately infuriated the Engineer. There were ashes everywhere on top of casings and one of them had been burnt by a candle, the reason why he had been summoned here. He passed his right hand over the casings and removed all the dust and ashes leaving his black leather glove dirty and with a combined smell of old, decay and wild flowers, the Monks gasped as they saw the dust fly and the candles removed.

"Clean them every week at least, daily under this conditions, do not put warm objects on top or anything that burns. No liquids either or anything that can melt, like candles" With these words he moved the chair to the left edge of the table and looked for the service tag. Once found he took out an old book from his gas mask bag, painted with the most holy of the symbols the Cross of Technology, and looked for the serial code.

"Great one, what is this great book about?" Asked Brother Nellus who approached a lantern to the Engineer.

"It contains information regarding these machines, this one in particular is the one that I am looking for" The pages of this book were not ancient, they were archaic to the point Engineer Sanchez was fearful they would just rip and disintegrate in mid air, once he found the service tag, and giving a sigh from not having to torture the poor relic anymore, he now became worried with the information provided. "Pre-Y2K. Custom made... oh... curses"

He sighed at the thought of having to work with a mess of cables and things that were built before there was a firm standard in computing. They called this the Pre-Y2k, machines built before what was to be a great cataclysm that wouldn't happen until thirty two years later, this great event was was known as U32, the Unix 2032 Cataclysm that literally drove the world down in flames due to the negligence of the great Gurus. If only such was his luck...

"Is it bad news Master?"

"Maybe" From his bag he took out a small LCD screen created by the blessed Mechanical Engineers of the 4th Office, those were the ones that he had to thank for all the times they helped him solve one of this peculiar problems. The LCD serial port was connected to the back of the machine and a display showed only red and purple lines all over the place. "Not Good..."

Pressing the restart button did remove the lines but afterward nothing would happen. The machine would remain in a semi-dead status with a whirling sound coming from the back and an annoying TAK TAK coming from the heart of it that went silent after a few seconds.

He came up with the idea of reconnecting the LCD cable just in case it was not fitting in correctly. Doing the most holy of techniques, the power cycle which consisted only of turning the machine on and off, did not work either which had put a dent on the his 'Let this be fast and painless' plan.

"Time to disassemble" After putting the LCD back into his bag he removed the cables from the machine as if he was taking it out of life support.

"G-Great one, sorry to interrupt!" The monk called a little worried at what the Engineer was doing. "But would you not be killing the great machine?"

Ignorance was not a bliss. Solomon had to deal with this kind of things every time he was working with a machine or computer. People seemed to think computers and machines were actually alive, with a spirit and mind of their own, at first he always tried to tell them the contrary but with the current culture of the local population he decided to go with the flow and avoid any problems... like that time in Norwich when they almost lynched him.

"No Brother Nellus do not worry. The machine ails but it goes to sleep before I remove his power source thus it will not die" Brother Nellus seemed relieved by that.

"Ahh if only we could be like that" If he could only explain the process of medicine...

"I need an empty table" As soon as he asked for a clear table the Monks removed everything from one of the work stations closest to him and gave him enough space to maneuver with the metal beast. A set of conventional screwdrivers released group of rusted old screws barely holding onto the body and revealed what he had expected, a jungle of cables and devices he feared working with. What scared him actually was the fact that the candle had managed to burn through the casing, the cables and the motherboard. And the dust... dear gracious god the dust accumulated inside the machine... Engineer Sanchez was sure he could sew himself a new robe with the quantity of dust inside this thing. A simple task it was not. "An unfortunate event has led to the death of this machine"

In the book he wrote down a technical note about what had happened. He began to make notes on pieces that would probably work on other bodies and then with a red marker painted a D over the case of the machine.

"I will take this back to our shop for a proper disposal"

"And our information? What will happen to it?" Asked Bishop McCay who approached the Engineer.

"It can be recovered. But as a matter of fact we need to do this at a time when nobody is working on this library to avoid anymore interruptions thus I would gladly take it with me and do the proper repairs in our shop"

"As you well know I cannot allow you to take anything unless the information contained is preserved here. In an hour we will have a congregation in the Cathedral that will last the rest of the day. I can allow you in here but you will be under heavy watch"

"Fair enough. I shall return shortly in that case"

"Do you need to report back to the Master Engineer?"

"Yes and I also need additional tools to perform the repairs on the machine"

"Very well, give my regard to the Master Engineer in that case"

"Will do Bishop McCay" With a nod Engineer Sanchez left the room and headed back through the ugly grim crowded streets of the city known as Lincoln.

PREPARING FOR RESURRECTION

Lucky enough the 7th English Office of Adepts of Technology was not far from the city itself. It held ground close enough in Lincolnshire to quickly respond to any calls from the city and nearby south counties.

The Office itself was nothing of grandeur, on the contrary it was a simple two stories house, quite modest one would say for men of such knowledge and 'power'. Two reasons had lead to this, the first was economy and the second security, scoundrels and extortionists had tried to rip the Order once before and by mere luck they managed to get out of the situation but not without learning a valuable lesson.

"So Bishop McCay sends his regards" Master Engineer Gabriel Johansen began to examine the book carefully.

"Yes and he was reluctant on me taking the machine"

"That man has always been like that since I've known him" He read through the report.

"Hmm... do we know the exact year?"

"Label indicated compatible with Windows 95 and NT 4.0, I am assuming this machine has to be from... '96, maybe '97"

"Borland save us! That machine but be a monster!"

"Indeed Master a monster it is. A jungle of cables that sends shivers down my spine, transistors and chips the size of my pinky, and the dust..."

"Cursed dust demons, your worst enemy to date is it not Solomon?"

"Yes indeed Master... yes indeed"

"So an ancient one" The Master Engineer finished examining the notes Engineer Sanchez had prepared on his report. "Gold and silver decorations... Candles... ohh those monks and their beliefs"

"I wouldn't complain as much in my report if they followed the instructions we give them Master. Even a monkey could perform such tasks everyday and it is not as if we could come up with the required replacement pieces with such ease"

"Unfortunate to think that no matter how hard you try to teach them they will never understand that"

"One tries to do his best" Engineer Sanchez remembered his little chat with Brother Nellus. "One tries indeed..." And a sigh.

"Speaking of best. I have news for you my good pupil"

"Oh?" The Master Engineer took out a wrapped brown package from a plastic bin sitting on a table with all kind of tools and papers and gave it to the Engineer. "What is this?"

"It comes from the State Council of Technology, that is as much as I can tell you" Engineer Sanchez opened the package revealing a new purple robe with golden sewn edges and a note with a plastic card. "A Master Engineer robe?"

The Master Engineer took the plastic card and the note which he read it out loud.

"Third Level Engineer Solomon Sanchez of the 7th English Office. The State Council has reviewed your file and has approved your raise from Third Level Engineer to First Level Master Engineer with Master Knowledge in Legacy Archaeology and Computer Repairs"

"Oh my... and... I..." The new Master Engineer was speechless. He received a fond hug from his former master and a couple of pats in the back. "I never..."

"It is a well deserved raise Solomon, you've earned it, and I couldn't be anymore proud of you" Solomon changed his robe for the new one. He passed his hands over the material, silk, pure silk that must have cost a fortune but with a beautiful dark padding that would keep him warm when necessary. Master Engineer Johansen on the other hand continued to read from the the note.

"As an additional note due to your knowledge on the fields we are assigning you a pupil, First Class Technician Daniel Baldwin, for training under your wing until his third year"

"A pupil so soon... well that doesn't sound too bad, when is he arriving?"

"Excuse me sir" Both Master Engineers turned around to see a panting young man in a fadded purple robe. "I am looking for..."

The man looked for something in his bag but he seemed not to be able to find whatever he was going for. He sighed as he looked back at both men.

"Master Engineer Sanchez" Solomon walked toward him making the young man bow three times in a row.

"Yes! I am looking for him" Solomon walked toward him.

"You must be Technician Daniel Baldwin" Baldwin immediately bowed at him again.

"At your service Master Engineer. Who is..."

"That is me, I am your new master"

"Ahh... I apologize sir but I seem to have misplaced my instructions"

"Do not worry it happens to us all. You will find out that misplacing is a common word here in this shop, in fact it is our favorite word"

"I believe fellow brother, that you should teach your pupil around"

"Quite true. I will take my leave now Master... Engineer" He hesitated for a second there because he forgot he wasn't his pupil anymore. Odd how things can change in one minute.

THE CREW OF THE 7TH OFFICE

"Come on damn you! Work!" Second Level Engineer Luis Tavera fought with a computer that kept giving him a blue screen mentioning some indecipherable blocks of information. "Oh why do you curse me so Blue Screen of Death, why?"

"Engineer" Tavera turned around to see a figure dressed in Master Engineer clothing. At first he thought it was Johansen but then saw Solomon face.

"Master Engineer... what a surprise indeed" He went towards him and gave him a pat on the back. "About time"

"Aghh you know the drill"

"Politics. Misplacing. My Ass" Both man said then laughed jovially.

"What?" The young pupil seemed to be not confused but rather scared a bit by what they had said.

"It is our motto in this shop young pupil. Politics are always holding work and the few bits of knowledge on our possession down, misplacing is our best friend here and my ass because everyone can kiss it in the end"

"Ahh..." A bit of confusion and disgust was the new expression of the pupils face.

"A pupil" Engineer Tavera nod at the pupil. "Well the council loves you all of sudden"

"Pupil, this is Second Class Engineer Luis Tavera, or resident software and programmer" The Engineer slightly bowed at the mention of his name.

"An honor sir, I am Technician First Class Daniel Baldwin" The pupil bowed but his was a little irregular, probably because he wasn't that familiar yet with ethics and traditions or maybe because he was tired from his trip.

"What are field are you specializing in Technician?"

"Programming sir"

"Ahh, anything in particular?"

"Nothing yet sir, but ASM does look particularly interesting"

"Oh by Torvald don't be daft son. ASM was obsolete even in the times were technology reigned, ignore it and learn something that was a little more wide-spread... like C or Visual Basic"

"Let me remind you sir that ASM, no matter how obsolete and no matter how many languages came afterward, is still the center of everything"

"Touche, but I am not a machine myself nor could I ever remember all the sacred mnemonics for every machine. That would be impossible"

"One tries"

"Right" Solomon made a funny face while rolling his eyes. "Now that I remember, do you know where Clark is?"

"Oh the wanker went to fix a machine down in the industrial sector"

"Curses of the Infinite Loop, I needed to verify our current inventory"

"Tell me what you need and I'll check it up"

"Verify the serial code of this pieces" Solomon placed the book on the table where the vile computer was resisting to be put back in working condition and pointed at the information. "We are estimating this was built in 96 or 97"

"Oww... I'm not even sure if we have anything left from that specific time"

"Well then I will have to perform a..." He thought about it for a second but then he just shook his head. "Oh forget it"

"Master?" The pupil seemed to be curious on what his Master wanted to do.

"I planned to do a cable select on the old hard drive and then just transfer it to another of the three servers but that means taking them offline and see if I can mark it on the BIOS so the original hard drive is the one that boots and not the other one, then I have to subtract the information from the old hard drive and rearrange it inside the other hard drive... and if that sounds scary, complicated or simply FUBAR'd then just wait until I find out what program they use to read the information from the servers and verify if it reads the old hard drive dump"

"I can do that for you Master"

"What? Fix the computer?"

"The information dump. I can do that for you"

"How?"

"I would have to see it myself Master but I know I can handle it"

"What makes you so sure?"

"I was trained by Master Engineer Hector Bilbao-Marquez"

"You what? How old are you?"

"Twenty two Master"

"If you were trained by him then why were you sent with me?"

"I have the knowledge of how to work inside on a computer, how it runs and processes, but I don't know how to repair it or anything about the parts. My Master thought it would be good that I learned from someone with ample knowledge on the field and selected you"

"It IS an honor that a Master Engineer from Spain has selected me from all the Master Engineers of this continent but you might rust in those fields if you stay with me too long"

"Or you could die" Engineer Tavera was never subtle with the subject.

"Die? Why, because of the Norwich incident? People are ignorant, that's all"

"No good God no, you don't tell people that, the whole reason why I got into that problem was because of that"

"You told them they were ignorant?"

"No, I told them the truth and that almost got me killed had it not been for a group of Law Men patrolling the area"

"But that was one incident"

"One of many. It is the only documented incident of that kind but it is not unique and certainly it won't be the last at any rate"

"You might not know it kid, or it might be different in Spain, but here in good ol' England they don't like us"

"That is enough Engineer Tavera. Continue to look for what I asked"

"Yes Master Engineer"

"Does that mean we could be walking on a street and next thing we know is we are dead?"

"It is a probability pupil, yes, and that is why we only perform our work and proceed with our lives quietly" Solomon turned to Engineer Tavera who was still checking on a small sized computer for his request. "Engineer Tavera will take some time, thus let us proceed to meet the final member of our office"

Science

(This story was originally posted in Jottify, which is now defunct, for a competition that involved Science)

“Holy...” The blue suit man gasped and stared in awe at what was inside that giant cylinder, about twenty feet high by twelve, filled with orange liquid; he had almost dropped his suitcase from the first impression “Doc, what the hell is that?”

“That is an exologue morphus continuum” Answered the man in white lab coat as he adjusted his glasses. He noticed the face of disbelief on his companion and continued. “In Christian words, it's what we call an outside traveler that continuously morphs, what you see right now is not what it will become in a second or two, it has no shape in this dimension, at all. As we understand it, this being comes from a higher plane, drops in by accident and gets trapped; it is quite fascinating if I may add”

“Doc, how the hell can you call this fascinating, it's like looking at a freakshow, gives me the creeps!”

“My good man, nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist after all, and what I have seen in this lab surpasses everything we have so far managed to understand from reality, but this, this is different”

“Whatever, just tell me you've made sure this thing is locked up for good”

“It is as secure as we can possibly make it. For all we know the thing may one day wake up and kill us, hasn't happened yet though and we do not have any expectations on the killing portion of it”

“Hold a second, so that thing is asleep?”

“That... is something I can't fully answer. The entity is not exactly asleep, it seems to be away from his physical entity in this reality”

“Doc, Doc, please, Christian words for the masses, keep it in pig Latin for me”

“From what we understand this form of the exologue morphus continuum, 'exolo' for short, is just one of the many physical manifestations it can achieve in the different planes of existence”

“This sounds too complicated for me still”

“It is like you, it has a different suit for each occasion, it changes it as it sees fit but when it does it leaves the other behind for someone to find it out, it could be in the middle of the ocean, a jungle, a city, it doesn't matter to it, we know this for a fact”

“And then?”

“We don't know for sure, we think that it elevated or lowered to other dimensions, but that is as far as we can take our assumptions as our investigations have not managed to push through that specific portion as we had expected”

“So we're waisting money on this”

“No, not really, it is a matter of time. Our main concern is what happens when it wakes up, if we will be able to communicate with it directly, will we be able to contain it, will it friend or foe. We are pushing as hard as we can to understand more before it eventually happens”

“Then that means that we could be handling a nuke with no safety whatsoever”

“If you want to look at it that way, yes, but do not make it sound so lightly, we are making our best efforts to understand how this entity works; science, Director, is a long process, but we make sure of what we are doing when we do it”

“I will report back to the board then, but I'm warning you, we need to see some progress or we are closing down this project”

“That is the last thing you want to do, take that as a light warning” With that the man left but not without gazing back at what was inside the cylinder, it looked monstrous but at the same time beautiful, it provoked in him a queer feeling, of not being able to understand it fully, something that came as familiar too, as if he had seen it somewhere before but he had no recollection of it. He proceeded to walk out of that room as fast as he could, the scientist looked at the cylinder and sighed. “How unfortunate; if only they could understand the full potential”

Bruce - Short Story II

Capitol City, Industrial Sector

Bruce woke up yet again, every time it was a different nightmare but it all began the same way.

He had to wake up, that was his recurrent nightmare, always had high hopes of dying in a dream, not happening today. He began his daily routine.

He ate some sausages and eggs from the machine, tasted like plastic, hadn't had a real meal in years now, specially after the crisis in the west had hit hard on the farm land and wiped almost all, if not all, the available farms. A quick bath was next in order, he examined the news feeds, bombed with gonzo material worthy of the early twenty first century, he had stopped caring for all of that, he only checked them for key patches he needed from his contacts, nothing else.

Time for a dress up, black sneakers, jeans, white long sleeved shirt, black hoodie and a blue cap. He knew nothing about fashion, he was looking for comfort, not trying to setup the next five minute trend. Inside that closet was a thirty eight Gianolli revolver, easy to stash, made from materials that could not be picked up easily by detectors or the police.

Next stop, the relays downstairs, he needed to be near so he could pick up a line with his contacts.

He waited for the magical hour, eight in the morning, when his contact would pick up with him and set him up for the next assignment. It was all killing and dicing and slicing, not his cup of tea but it helped him live and pass his idle time, other reasons were there though.

He also did it for the people in the apartment complex in which he lived, horrible conditions, not worthy of any living being no matter who or what it was. It was all for Doña Maria and his kids, who had been left alone by an abusive husband with a debt in blood to some gangs his husband had gotten in trouble with; for Joey the mechanic, who worked day and night to make a miserable living, without the opportunity to get anywhere else in life as it was either school or food; for Lola the porn actress, diagnosed with bone cancer, her career paid for her meds and all the junk she set herself up with, she lived for her vices and her vices lived for her as no medical service would provide her assistance without her having a steady job or a class one citizenship; for Pepe the shoeshiner, who had done this for the last thirty five years of his life, just as his dad, and his dad did until they died, with two kids on the street also trying to pick up any sort of living, no education, nothing.

They were the important figures of his life, the underdogs, the ones without a voice.

The feed picked up on him, he linked up and spoke mentally.

"Bruce, just in time"

"What you got for me man?" Asked Bruce, he was still half asleep but more than ready to do his work.

"Check under the second relay. You have thirty minutes" Said the voice and the connection ended. Bruce checked the nearby physical relays, antennas setup to spread communications freely throughout the city network, and found a piece of paper with some information written on it. "Fourth and twelve. Black Lieutenant. Driver"

Bruce took out a cigarette and lit it, he used the lighter to burn out the piece of paper and quickly walked to the intersection. It was crowded, people crossing streets like herds of sheep, cars going around senselessly and food stands on every corner. It was a curious type of Industrial Sector, not much industry to be seen as commerce and residences had taken over and displaced it somewhere else, mostly third world countries.

He stood on the intersection of Fourth and Twelfth waiting for a Black Lieutenant to pass, it wouldn't be hard to recognize it between all the trucks, cars and bikes flowing through. He waited patiently.

He took some time to look around, more poor people, but at least they had values, not like the rich people on top of them. He was disgusted by all the higher strains of society, living in the highest zones of the towers, spending their money like if there was no tomorrow, burning it in useless and senseless things that keep the capitalist machinery running at disturbing speeds, fast cars, fast women, fast money, fast food, fast families, fast everything, it was all dirty, it had all died, broken dreams and hopes of an ever crumbling society.

He saw the car coming up from the north. He knew the drill. He would ask the man for directions and when he least expected it he would plant three bullets into his chest or face.

The light went green and the car advanced, slowly like if it knew what was coming. Bruce had a trick under his sleeve, the relays in the city were connected to the main network which in turn led him with ways to either close or stop certain intersections from working, in this case he would switch the red light once the car had gotten close enough.

He did so at two cars of distance from the light, nothing suspicious about it, everything was in order. Bruce approached the car, he knocked on the dark tinted window a couple of times before getting it to roll down a little, the sight of a woman in black surprised him.

"What can I do for you?" Asked the woman with a nice tone of voice. Bruce had seen and been there many times before, people talking nice to him, trying to escape their inevitable faith, trying to backstab him when he wasn't looking, they were all the same, all of them.

"I'm looking for directions to Avalon street. You know where that is?" Asked Bruce with a rural accent.

"Just go down this street until you reach the Chinese laundromat and turn left. Are you looking for something in specific?" Asked the woman.

"Yeah. See that over there?" Bruce pointed at the other side of the street and the woman looked.

"What?" Asked the woman, she looked back and saw Bruce with the revolver on hand.

"It's the place where your brain will be left after I finish with you" Then he pulled the trigger three times. First on the head, second on the chest and last one on the thorax. He was making sure she was really dead, really, really dead.

He walked away from the scene, no one seemed to notice him or really care about it, too common for anyone to bother anymore, to usual for anyone to be surprised, it was just a matter of walking out of there and blending with the crowds.

When he returned to the apartment complex he found a small aluminum can lying next to the door. He picked it up and took out a wad of bills. As he counted it down he walked down the hallway, knocked at every door and gave a portion to each one of them.

When he reached Doña Maria she stopped him

"Bruce they came looking for you again" Said the old woman in her late forties or fifties wearing a green apron over an old dotted dress, slippers dirty and worn out.

"The police won't find me, they can keep trying but I'm not going down, believe me" Said Bruce

"Be careful mijo. I don't want anything to happen to you. You are the best thing that ever happened to us" Said Maria

"Don't worry. Take this for juliancito. I know he's sick" Said Bruce and gave an extra to Maria

"Thanks Bruce. God bless you" Said Maria and gave him the sign of the cross over his forehead, Bruce walked back to his apartment and closed down, sat down and placed everything on a small table. He stared at the gun, the money and the pack of cigarettes. He took out another cigarette, lit it up, took the gun back to the closet and hid the money in a hole being covered by his clothing properly lined up.

Back on the small living room he sat on the couch and connected to the relay to see the news feed and some programming, anything to keep him distracted until two and then at seven, keeping up with his tasks and his partners in business, every day, same place.

Bruce - Short Story

Bruce coughed as he walked down the unlit street.

He, a dark clad figure, had no problem passing unnoticed but some other figures called more and more of his attention.

There was the Lizard Man known as Ed, always dressed formal in an ever changing two piece suit, who lurked the streets only at night, he hissed and sissed as he walked past by, checked his golden watch and ran off in a hurry as if he was late for something.

Mindy the psychotic cyborg whore wearing her mini skirt, nothing else aside from that, and a cigarette on her left hand, not that it mattered if she smoked it or not, it was a good tactic anyway and made her look more real than the udders she had implanted.

Don the Butcher which was just closing down his shop but Don was a weird guy, secretive, a loner, big fellow but with a heart of gold, that he could never deny to anyone. Bruce had heard of people that had come into his store and never gone out, it was relative though as most of those that never came out weren't in good terms with society to start with.

There was Alex standing near a broken down light post, his distinctive bowler hat had a seven of clubs on the left side and a bullet casing on the right that had the word 'Mother' engraved on it. He loved to play with a folding knife and show his rotten teeth as he sneered at passerbies who were always terrified of him, it made him laugh but he wasn't that bad.

Mark the dealer who could hook you up from anything simple like drugs or guns to complex stuff like military grade weaponry and vehicles or households and vehicles. He was quite a peculiar being, no one knew how he did it or who his contacts were.

Dan the Man, a mercenary that had fought in the China and African wars. He had been hit by every possible projectile and chemical known to man, clinically he has been called dead at least fifteen times but he is still alive, somehow, but not complete, had gone mad during the process of said wars and had begun predicting the world would end soon. He even opened up his own cult and preached day and night how it would all go down.

Bruce knew all of them because he lived in Quarter Stone, a place also known to be Satan’s little Hell Hole. Anything could happen at any moment here, any second, it was as unpredictible as the population that inhabited the area, even time itself wasn't sure what was going on here anymore.

Bruce kept walking down the street when someone stopped him and pulled him back.

"Where are you going Bruce?" Asked the voice and Bruce turned his head over his left shoulder. It was a loan shark that had been chasing Bruce, his debt calling on his door again.

"Home. What do you think you are doing here?" Asked Bruce. The Loan Shark smirked.

"I can go wherever I want. Now where is my money" He looked really angry now. Bruce turned his sight back front and sighed.

"You really want to know. I think I have your money right here" Bruce turned and produced his Pescadero Automatic Pistol which he pointed to the man forehead. The Loan Shark laughed.

"You think you are going to kill me and get away with it. My boss would surely get your ass for this, he will anyway" Said the Loan Shark then grinned.

"You know, I prefer to run the risks nowadays" A succession of five micro bullets came out from the gun and tore most of the head off. The lifeless body crashed on the ground with a single thud and Bruce noticed chunks of the head everywhere on the street, not that he was going to clean it or that it mattered to him.

He hid the Pescadero again under his jacket and walked to a small alley in which an single engine air-cycle was waiting for him. The air-cycle was shinning gray and was resting in the open ground of the alley, respected by those who passed by and left alone by the ones that lived there.

Bruce took off a small card from his pants pockets and placed it on the ignition. The air-cycle came to life and it hovered a few centimeters from the ground. Bruce mounted in and went forward with it, trying to keep the speed at a minimum. He reached a street that was made of blue color markers, twelve lanes on each side, and entered it, the speed raising automatically to the minimum accepted, his trench coat flying, knuckles red then white from pressure, lenses reflecting the morbid lights of the city, the horror show born in it, the panoramic view of the twenty second century, cold and magnetic, dead with desire but never giving anything back for it. He kept the speed up and continued up north, destination unknown...