<<Captain, they will detect us. Our signature is too strong. Abort.>>

Our small shuttle had crept over towards Kepler station, with my nerves in tatters. But here we were now crawling through a conduit, totally undetected. At least I hoped.

<<You weren't saying that thirty minutes ago. We can't abort.>> I adjusted my grip on the railing I was using to slide myself up with. <<There just isn't time.>>

"What are the atmospheric readings?" I whispered to Torres, who crawled beside me.

"We're at normal pressure," she replied. "I am detecting some weird electromagnetic interference from the levels below.

"We know they're drawing serious power." I replied, "Keep going."

When Lt Stevens emerged ahead of us, I did not like the look on his face. "The service elevator's functional, but they've got motion sensors on every level between here and sublevel seven. We go down that shaft, we're announcing ourselves."

"The alternative?" Sorrel asked.

"Ventilation ducts," Stevens answered with a frown. "Thirty-meter crawl through ductwork that'll take us past their sensor grid. The problem is the cooling exhaust from their consciousness extraction equipment. We're talking minus-forty Celsius, maybe worse."

"You're not going into any service shafts. Peyton, get me to a console."

Commander Torres gave me a sidelong nod. "She can disable it?"

"Of course I can," Lia answered, and I felt her snark; she was damn angry.

<<Calm down,>> I said. <<I need you here.>>

<<Piotr,>> she said. << I can feel them down here,>> she returned, and there was real fear and anger oozing off her in waves. <<The AI controlling this place—it's not like me. It's made from pieces of stolen minds.>>

"How bad?" I asked in our command comms, knowing the others needed to hear this.

"Bad," she replied, her image on the Faulkner materializing on Torres's datapad; she was showing visible signs of distress.

I put my hand to the console and, following her quick instructions, hooked her into the station's mainframe.

"They have integrated approximately forty human minds into its core architecture. They're... they're still aware and they're still suffering."

Torres went pale. "Fuck, no way. They're aware?"

"Language that accurately describes our situation," Mac said, "If you don't hurry this along."

"How you doing?" I asked Lia.

"I'm in, and the AI, though powerful, is not aware we're here. There's something wrong with its way of thinking… I."

Commander Torres moved to my side. "Something made of forty different people can't be anywhere near sane."

"That's it," Lia said. "It's not sane. In fact… It's very much not like us."

"You and Nyx?"

She shivered. "You have an hour to reach Martinez and get out," she said. "Tight, but it is doable."

"Have you got the elevator sorted?"

"Done," Lia reported. "You have clear access up to Level seven."

When we started to move once again, she said for me. <<What if our consciousness protection protocols don't work? What if they detect us and try to extract our minds?>>

<<Then we fight them,>> I replied, though my own confidence was wearing thin.

We entered the lift, and I questioned whether the cameras were active. <<Everything is on a loop; they will know nothing is here.>> Lia confirmed.

"How do you feel?" Sorrel asked.

"Me?" I glanced her way, and she was actively scanning over me.

"You're the one with the AI in here, who is most at risk."

"We've got the new software running, we've done all we can."

"It is active and stable, for all of you. It's doing what we asked of it." Though Lia's holographic form flickered with anxiety. "The nanite disruption pulse is holding at ninety-seven percent effectiveness. Anything they try should be thwarted."

"Should," Torres repeated. "I love the confidence in your battle plans."

The elevator stopped, and carefully, Lt Stevens stepped out first with Torres, stance low, guns raised, fingers on the trigger.

Sorrel and I followed, though Sorrel made sure she was just that bit ahead of me. <<Very protective,>> Lia noted.

"Motion detector ahead," Lt Stevens whispered, holding up his hand while he studied the sensor array mounted above a junction box.

"Different set than the Elevator ones, these aren't on any grid," Lia said.

"You never saw this before? Though it's tied into their security?"

"Never," Torres said.

"Can you bypass it?" I asked them.

"I'm not sure.

<<Their AI is scanning this way. It seems confused,>> Lia reported. <<It seems the protection system we have put in place is throwing off its target algorithms. It knows something's wrong but can't pinpoint what.>>

<<How long do we have before they send people to investigate?>>

<<Not long,>> she replied. <<It is already talking to those in charge.>>

<<Who is in charge? Any information you can get me?>>

"Sending packet information now," Lia then passed us a file across.

I did my best to follow the others while accessing it, but in the end, I had to flick it away. "Give us the condensed version."

"Jerry Miller and Drew Bozloe," she started.

I stopped walking. "Wait… you told us those names before."

"With Captain Crai, yes."

"The connection?"

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"You won't like this."

"The VIP," Sorrel said, and I saw her scanner visibly shake. "Is my mother here?"

"Yes," Lia answered for her.

I put my hand on her arm and squeezed. "We've got this," I said.

"She'll know… like Rob's parents knew."

"She never knew when you were sitting with me," I said. "She won't know now."

"I—"

"Come on," Torres said. "We're in."

"I've cut the feeds to the whole level," Lia said. "You're going to have to move, now."

Sorrel and I glanced at both of them and put the wild thoughts aside.

The noise that was ahead of us sounded like screaming.

"I can't stop it," Lia said.

Torres and Lt Stevens had guns up.

"Straight down, the doors will open."

The screams were getting more desperate.

Sorrel and I ran with the other two behind us. When the doors opened, the screaming was even louder.

I think I stumbled because Lt. Stevens was by my side and had fired his gun with Torres in rapid succession.

Bodies dropped, but the screaming didn't stop.

"Peyton," Sorrel said.

I couldn't respond. My eyes tracked the row upon row of beds that stretched across the floor, each one occupied by someone unconscious.

There, suspended up in some kind of floating chamber, was our first direct view of the consciousness extraction facility. A woman hung, while several lights penetrated her all over. It was clear she was in agony, not just from the screaming.

"Piotr!"

I turned to Sorrel and blinked. "Sorry."

"I need your help now." She grabbed hold of me and pulled me toward the centre of the room.

"Is that Martinez?" I asked.

"Yes," Lia said.

"What can you do?"

"You need to step inside," Sorrel said.

"What?" I took a step back. No way was I going in there.

"Do you trust me?"

"Trust us," Lia added.

My feet took a step forward, though I have no idea why. "You know I do." I relented, that was why my feet were moving.

"We'll secure the room." Lt Stevens said.

"I think we can wake some of those in the beds up," Torres said.

"Do it," I said.

In the next breath, I was inside the matrix. "What do you need me to do?"

"Be yourself," Lia said. "See what they're doing for what it truly is."

I closed my eyes. The streams of code flowed around me, moving and shifting in waves like water through a canyon. "This is incredible. I've never seen anything so complex."

"I can't make heads or tails of any of it, it's beyond my comprehension," Sorrel with a tinge of awe.

The more the code scrolled on by, the more I saw of what it was. Beyond a program, beyond what Lia was.

"Let me connect to it," Lia said.

"We're safe?"

"Yes. See the pulsating energy around us?"

I looked, and there it was, "That's us?"

"Our nites, they're shielding us."

"Quite the show from out here," Sorrel said. "Do what you have to, but please bring her out of there."

"Concentrate and follow my lead," Lia instructed.

She appeared beside me, and smiled. "Got it."

The codes slowed as Lia worked. She rewrote the code so fast I struggled to see what she was changing.

Then it clicked. "I see," I said, smiled at her, and then once I located the patterns she was changing, I copied her. "How much of this is there?"

"Approximately, two hundred and thirty-eight sections to rewrite."

"Do we have time?"

"Concentrate," she replied. "The AI is aware of me now; it will send everything it can at us."

"We've got movement across the facility," Torres announced. "We're tracking them down from levels above and moving up from below."

"We've several patients willing to defend the area." Lt Stevens said.

<<It is learning,>> Lia said, her fear bleeding through our connection. << It's adapting to compensate for our nanites. We need to move faster.>>

Lia sped up, her hands moving even faster. There was no chance I could keep up. I was no AI supercomputer and she was truly amazing.

The back of my neck felt wet.

"You're bleeding from your port," Sorrel said.

"Keep going," Lia begged. "We're almost there."

"Peyton," Sorrel warned. "Pull out."

The sounds of gunfire erupted all around us.

"Duck," Sorrel yelled.

I flinched as bullets sped past my head. Ducking just in time as they bounced off the equipment.

"Fire," Sorrel screamed as it erupted into flames.

"I'm on it," someone else called out, and then I was getting wetter. Fuck.

"Can the systems in here hold out against water?"

"I don't know," Sorrel said.

It was clear moments later it was not waterproof. More sparks lit the room, though this time no fire to go with it. The smell burnt the back of my nose and throat. I coughed.

An unearthly moan echoed around us. "Noooo."

It was like a multitude of voices all together. Glanced at Lia. "Is that it?"

"Concentrate, please," Sorrel begged. "We're losing her."

I looked up and noticed the water wasn't just wet in here, it was bloody. Very bloody, and I was soaked in it.

I did focus, and seeing Lia move faster and faster spurred me on.

"Two more," she gasped.

Something was wrong, though; she flickered out of view.

"Pull back," I ordered her. "I've got this."

There was more gunfire and retaliation from our team. "Torres?"

"We're holding as well. Hurry."

When the last parts of the code were fixed, my knees wobbled.

The chamber lights went out, and Martinez dropped with a sickening thud before me, her eyes rolled back in her head.

I slid across to her just as Sorrel reached her. "Is she dead?" I asked.

"Not yet," Sorrel said. "But not far off it."

"Torres! I shouted.

"Dr, can you hear me?" Sorrel whispered.

There was no reply, but her eyes blinked the once—yes.

Sorrel was trying to pull at the wires attached to her port… I couldn't look; they were everywhere.

"We're here to help, but this is going to hurt."

"Stop!" Lia warned. "I'm detecting massive data flows through those cables. The matrix is using her consciousness as a template for upgrading its own capabilities."

"What?"

"Green ones first," Lia said. "And together, you can't pull them out a second later."

Sorrel and I shared a look. "On three…. Two."

"One," Sorrel and I both said at the same time.

With the green cables out, the doctor's hands trembled, then clenched into fists.

"Can you move?" Torres asked.

Martinez nodded weakly, though her coordination was obviously impaired by the partial neural extraction. But she was alive, aware, and still fundamentally herself despite what they'd tried to steal from her mind.

"Yellow cables next," Lia guided.

The gunfire was getting worse and worse. We could hear shouting now, lots of it.

"We're not getting out of here," Sorrel said.

Martinez gripped her arm. "Stand me up."

"What?" I stuttered. Hell, it was cold. When had the temperature dropped?

"Up, please."

Sorrel and I took an arm each and managed to get her on her feet. Blood still dripped from every wound.

"Lia," Martinez asked. "Can you help?"

Sorrel's eyes widened. "How?"

Dr. Martinez looked at me. "I can see her standing next to you."

I looked but couldn't see anything. "Interference," I hoped.

"I am still here," Lia said. "But our connection is weaker, prolonged use of the nanite pulse."

"Bring up the code view," Dr. Martinez said.

With a thought, I was back looking over the scrolling codes. "I need to shut it down for good," Martinez said, though her voice was weak.

"Sorrel," I said, "do something?"

She rushed off and pulled out vials and other equipment. I caught the flash of Lia and her working the code. This was different.

We watched as she broke the code apart on a whole other level. The code turned green and red, and then it was flashing.

The voice that had screamed earlier was now wailing.

Then I saw something else, in the water dancing off the floor. Someone was standing before us.

"Nooo," it said. "Please, Sarah. No. I need you."

"You don't need me. You never needed me. You wanted this more than my love. You don't deserve this, or me."

SELF DESTRUCT INITIATED

The room erupted in yet even more red lights, and alarms sounded everywhere.

Dr. Martinez looked at me and wobbled. "I can't hit it," she gasped.

There before me was a big red button. I reached forward and tapped.

SELF DESTRUCT in T-MINUS fifteen seconds.

"We have to get out of here," Dr Martinez said.

"We have nowhere to go," I replied.

"Follow Lia," she said.

TEN SECONDS

"The cables," Lia shouted at us. "Now, Orange, Green, Red. Together!"

"Now," Sorrel and I spoke, and in unison we pulled those cables, one by one.

Martinez collapsed, but Lia reappeared. "I don't have long. Follow me."

But no sooner had she said it than she vanished in a blinding white light.

ZERO SECONDS

My legs gave way. "Torres!" Sorrel screamed.

The facility shook around us, and those who were still shooting were getting closer.

"Options?" I asked the team.

"Core chamber assault," Torres said. "High risk, but if we can disrupt their processing capability, we might create enough chaos to escape."

"Service tunnels," Mac suggested through the comm. "I can try to override the lockdown systems, but it'll take time you might not have."

"Surrender," Martinez said quietly. "Let them capture us."

"All terrible options," Sorrel said.

"We're here to rescue you," I said.

"You have," she replied. "You have. They will never fix this damage, not in a million years."

"Unless they have you," I added and glanced at Torres. "We're holding out as long as we can." To Sorrel, I said. "Get me to a bed."

Someone was behind me, and I was lifted into the air. "I got you," Someone said.

"Lev," I said. "You got here fast."

But when they put me on one of the beds, I could see it clearly wasn't.

Sorrel had a gel pack on my neck and a drip in my arm in seconds. Then she was seeing Dr. Martinez.

"I can see it," Martinez said. "The connection between you and Lia."

"How?"

"Something I did, something they did, I don't know. But you two… you're special."

"How long can you hold on?" I asked her.

"Depends," she glanced at the firefight still at the doors. "They don't have long."

Someone screamed as a bullet hit them square in the shoulder.

"So surrender then?"

Dr. Martinez was nodding, but Sorrel was shaking her head.

We were trapped.

Dr Martinez took hold of my hand. "When they come through those doors," she whispered. "Promise me one thing."

"I—" I knew what she was going to say next, and Sorrel was shaking her head.

"Please," she begged. "Don't let them take me. Promise me."

Status Report:

Consciousness Protection: 94% effective, degrading under analysis

Team Status: Martinez rescued, but team trapped

Matrix Status: Destroyed

Escape Routes: None

Time to Lev's Arrival: 3 hours, 47 minutes

Mission Status: Critical—immediate rescue required

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