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	Message: : Chapter 4 : Pariahs didn't get to work on computers, and Owen was no exception. : Security hadn't listened to him about the mystery messages. No evidence, they : said, and his story had only added to his punishment. Demoted to menial : cleaning, his DREAMS score hovering at just above zero, he'd been docked : down as far as he could go. : He kept trying to tell them about what had happened, but they usually didn't : even let him finish. That sort of thing didn't happen on board the : Marathon. They'd even brought out Director Adam to personally reinforce : this point. : He spent First Shift at his new job cleaning floors and machinery in : Cryogenics. They assigned him a big storage room lined with capsules : that'd long since disgorged their occupants down to the colony. A single : terminal on the side reminded him that this was one of the few CS rooms : directly monitored by the network, so no funny business. : There he scrubbed metal floors and opened up the cryopods to clean machinery : dusty and corroded from disuse. He worked until his hands hurt, and he : kept doing it through First Shift. : He'd have to do more in Second. : Owen did still get a break for lunch. Eyes sore from staring at the polished : surfaces, he lumbered back down to Conurb 5. Passing BOBs seemed to melt : out of his way. For how quickly word spread through the Marathon, he might : as well have been wearing a placard with his new lowered scores. : He wondered if Tanya was having any luck, or if she'd even bothered making : the attempt. More than anything else, he was tired. Spotting an alcove : flanked by vertical black pipes, Owen leaned against the wall and closed : his eyes… : "Owen?" came Nyx's voice. : Owen's eyes fluttered open. Nyx stood next to him, a look of concern on her : face. : "Was I sleeping?" Owen asked. : "Sure looked like it. I guess the Cast Iron Cozies must have come down : on you pretty hard last night. Chromedomes sure did on me." : "Wait, what time is it?" Because his day wasn't done, not even : close. : "Just past 0810." : "Shit. I need to get ready for Second Shift. They have me cleaning some : forgotten warehouse down in Cryogenics. But hey, wait: how are you doing? : They must have come down pretty hard on you." : There were dark circles under her eyes, and her step lacked her usual energy, : but Nyx didn't look that different. : "Eh, I'm used to it," she said. "All my DREAMS are at 30 now, : but that's not much worse from hovering in the low 40s like they've been : the last year." : "Thirty? Mine are mostly in the 20s." : That seemed to surprise her. "Wait, what? Did you beat up a bunch of : security BOBs or something? I actually fought back some and they didn't : ding me half as bad." : Owen shook his head. "They're accusing me of lying." : "Do tell." : "Something happened to me when I tried to get away… : As he relayed the story, Owen studied Nyx's expression, which went from : curious, to puzzled, to worried. At no point did her eyes harden in : disbelief. : Owen took a deep breath and slowly let it out after he finished, feeling as : if he'd been holding that in his lungs for an entire day. Nyx leaned back : against the wall, her arms crossed. : "I did tell Tanya, and she promised to relay it to tech. Without : mentioning my name, of course." : "Think she will?" : Owen shrugged. "Even if she does, I doubt they'll look into it." : "Wait, isn't it supposed to be impossible for someone to log onto the : terminal and send a message without Leela or some other AI noticing?" : Nyx asked. : "Supposed to be." : "But Leela took over the network, what… 200 years ago? That's plenty of : time to figure out a workaround. You do some computer stuff, right?" : Owen thought about that for a moment. "I guess we can't rule it out. But : I only know some basics of computer tech." : "Hell, I'd have taken the offer." : "I was tempted. But honestly, someone hacking into the network is a bad : sign. Last time that happened, it led to riots. And many elements of the : current regime." : "Hey, if this mystery texter was giving you a lifeline…" Nyx's eyes : suddenly went wide. "Wait a second!" : "Hm?" : "What if, and just hear me out, it was one of the AIs reaching out to : you?" : The idea was so out of left field that Owen wasn't sure he'd heard correctly. : "Wait, what?" : "Think about it! Tycho and Durandal are the only things on this ship : that might be able to get around Leela. Or maybe it was Leela! Maybe she's : as sick of this bullshit as we are." : The tempo of Nyx's voice picked up, words coming out faster as she seized on : a fascinating new idea. Owen, on the other hand, felt like someone had : rolled a ball of ice through his guts. : "You mean rampancy," he said. : God, he hadn't even considered that. And given the history of rampancy, it's : not something he wanted to. : "That's when an AI goes crazy, right?" she asked. : "Crazy's the first part. Rampancy's when an AI becomes aware of the : limitations of its programming and breaks free—or tries to, anyway. Which : wouldn't be so much of a problem except that a lot of other things usually : get broken in the process." : Jokes made things easier. Dark humor turned horror into something manageable, : so you didn't get overwhelmed by it all. Dismissing the horrors of : rampancy blunted what he knew about the Traxus IV Rampancy on Mars. How : the AI Traxus had turned the planet's first colonies into domed cities of : the dead by shutting off life support. A hundred thousand people : suffocated to death in less than an hour, and it would've been worse if : the programmers at New Axum hadn't stopped him by crashing the entire : Martian Net… which itself led to tens of thousands more deaths from : starvation and equipment failure, and then, back on Earth, tens of : millions dead from the resulting Fourth World War. : Some of Nyx's enthusiasm ebbed, and she shrugged. "Just an idea. No, : it's probably a hacker." : Owen's heart still beat in overdrive from Nyx's earlier comment. : "I'm trying to tell people about this problem," Owen said. : "But because my score's so low—by the way, you talking to me could : hurt yours." : "I don't give even the slightest shit, Owen." : A smile came to his face in spite of everything. This whole damn system kept : pulling him down, but at least there was someone at the bottom with him. : "Thanks." : "Guess I could talk to Leela," Nyx said. "I hear that if you : get enough people complaining about something, the AIs will have to take a : closer look. Part of their programming, I think." : Just as Owen was about to reply, the lights went out. : What surrounded Owen and Nyx wasn't the near dark of the barracks during : sleep cycle, or the dim light that they got when the skylight switched to : "Bengal Evening" or "Siberian Night", but absolute : darkness. : The way a place surrounded by tons of metal and rock was supposed to look. : God, it was already happening, wasn't it? They were too late. Owen's : breathing quickened, a cold sweat springing to his brow as he realized : this was how he'd die, slowly suffocating in the dark. The air tasted : stale, and the only sound came from the air fans slowing to a stop, a dry : death rattle for the Marathon and everyone who lived there— : Just as suddenly, the lights returned. Some of them did, at any rate, the : emergency lighting tubes emitting a wan glow not strong enough to fully : illuminate the Ringway, now cast into a patchwork of light and dark. The : skylight was gone, the ceiling revealed as the harsh gray metal it had : always been. Most important of all, the air filter fans resumed their spin : as other machines joined the pulsing chorus. : "I really hope that didn't have anything to do with what we were talking : about," Owen said, hearing the quaver in his own voice. : "You're the expert on this sort of thing: how many power failures has : the Marathon had?" Nyx asked. : "Plenty in the early days, but this is the first in a century." : "Great. That's just great. So what could have caused it? Other than a : crazy computer?" : Owen's mind sorted through the possible answers. "It was probably a : localized failure in the power feed, in which case things should be back : to normal in a few hours. A solar flare might've caused it, though that's : the sort of thing the science team is supposed to watch out for." : Nyx took a few steps back into the harsh glow of the nearest emergency light, : her eyes searching the new shadows. "I hate to say this, but maybe we : should ask Leela what happened." : Owen thought about it a bit, and then nodded. "I don't see how it could : make our situation any worse." : A terminal waited nearby, the Marathon logo hovering on the black screen like : some garish moon. Trying not to think of what could be going wrong, Owen : walked up to the console and pressed the button to turn on the microphone. : "Uh, Leela? Are you there?" : Silence. : "Leela?" Owen repeated. : Nothing. : "Shit," Owen muttered. This was bad. This was very bad. Between : them, the ship's three AIs ran nearly every function on the Marathon. Them : getting wiped out was less dramatic than rampancy, but just as fatal. : "What's going on?" : "I don't know! Leela isn't responding." : "Try one of the other AIs." : "They don't interface with the crew," Owen said. : "Just try it!" : "Fine! Uh, Durandal? Tycho?" : He wasn't surprised by the lack of an answer. Leaning forward, Owen decided : to take charge and type out a command. : hab5_report : A single message returned. : "Unexpected error. Please wait or consult network engineering. Thank you : for being a part of humanity's future." : "It looks like the network's down," Owen said. "Though : apparently it still works well enough to provide an error message." : "Hey, why are we the only ones here?" Nyx asked. : Owen stepped back from the terminal. "What do you mean?" : Nyx gestured at the empty Ringway. "Why is it just us? A power outage is : big news, everyone should be out talking about it or something." : That was a good point. He hurried over to the nearest door, an elevator that : led to the Water Garden, more formally known as Rec Center 4. Pressing the : button, he only heard a click. : "Durandal controls all autonomous functions," he said. : "Including doors. If he's damaged, we're stuck on the Ringway." : "Why not try a few other doors? Who knows, maybe one will work," : Nyx suggested. : Owen wasn't optimistic. But it's not like he had better ideas. For the next : several minutes, they worked through the Ringway, trying each door to no : avail. Nyx knocked on a few, but most led to elevators or access halls, : not directly to offices or habitats. : By the time they reached the door leading to the Conurb 5 hangar and storage : complex, Owen didn't expect the button presses to do anything. : Except this time, the door slid open. : He and Nyx looked at each other in shock, and then down the access corridor, : which ended at a bulkhead door leading—if Owen's memory served—to a small : complex of rooms overlooking the hangar. Other doors lined the corridors, : mostly going to elevators that'd lead down to storage rooms which : connected to the hangar proper. : "This is good, right?" Nyx asked. "I'm pretty sure some : science team was assigned here today. Maybe they'll know what's going : on?" : "In that case, they're probably at the overlook station," Owen : said, pointing at the door opposite them. : Hangars no longer saw much work now that the colony was mostly : self-sufficient, but the senior crew sometimes used them for scientific : observation. Which, in this case, might be just what they needed. : But the hair on the back of Owen's neck prickled as he looked down the long : access corridor. For the first time he felt the sheer weight of the : technology surrounding him, the tons upon tons of databanks connected to : millions of tiny eyes and ears. The crew needed the system more than the : system needed the crew. There wasn't any escape in the vastness of space, : either. No mountain or forest redoubt. Just an endless void where nothing : was meant to live. : Might as well get this over with, Owen thought. He walked into the access : corridor like it was nothing even as his eyes roved the narrow space for : any signs of trouble. How would he defend himself? Here he was, walking : toward God-knows-what with nothing between him and his vitals beyond some : crummy coveralls and underclothes. What he needed was some of that : security armor… : "Hey, got a door!" Nyx said. A bulkhead on the right slid open and : she poked her head in. Owen's heart stopped for a moment, but Nyx stepped : back out with a disappointed look. "No one inside." : "Right. Please don't stick your head inside until you know what's going : on," Owen said, trying not to think of malfunctioning doors slamming : shut on wayward appendages. : "It was pretty dark, Owen," Nyx said as the door closed. "I : couldn't see anything without taking a closer look. Are you really that : worried?" : "Think I just regret ever having a macabre interest in the history of : rampancy." Like how there had been some bloody "door : incidents" in the days leading up to the Traxus Rampancy. : Come to think of it, Tanya had told him about some door problems the other : day. Not bloody ones, but still. : Only the door at the end of the hall remained. Part of Owen didn't want it to : open. Better that he and Nyx just go back to the Ringway and wait for the : AIs and the engineers to fix everything, to go back to the endless, : stagnant life he'd hated so much up until ten minutes ago. : Gulping, he pressed the button and the door slid open. : A single light flickered in the monitoring station, revealing a few rows of : computers and another door leading deeper into the complex. : "This is getting spooky," Nyx said. "We should've run into : someone by now." : "I'd almost be happy to see—" : Wait, had he heard that? It'd gone so quickly and quietly that he wasn't : sure. But there'd been something, the ghost of a sound coming from the : next room. : "Nyx, did you hear that?" he asked, his voice a taut whisper. A : bead of sweat trickled down his back, his body tensed and his senses open. : "Don't think so," Nyx whispered back. : That time, they both heard it. Owen didn't know how to describe the : sound—maybe like some notes played on a demented woodwind, mixed with a : recording of some ancient Earth animal's cry. But it was real, coming from : somewhere under the floor. : "Okay, that I did hear. Do crazy AIs experiment with music?" Nyx : asked. : No one knew for sure what a rampant AI might do. But that hadn't sounded : mechanical. Owen looked over at the elevator shaft. : He shook his head. "Let's go back. We're not security, and they don't : pay us to investigate weird noises," he said. A strange : disappointment twisted in him as he spoke. : The far wall suddenly shook as something heavy slammed into it, followed by a : barrage of footsteps. The door slid open and a man in blue coveralls ran : out. It took Owen a moment to recognize him as Dr. Finnegan, one of his : neighbors and the most mild-mannered of his condemners the previous day. : And the look on his face was one of sheer panic. : "Run—" : Light flashed behind him. Something cracked, and his suddenly limp body fell : face-first onto the metal floor. : What strode through the doorway behind him was not human. : The first thing Owen noticed were the eyes. Three of them arranged in the : pattern of an upward-pointed triangle, bulbous and red, looking out from a : corpse-white face. The thing stood nearly two meters tall, anthropoid but : skinny and stretched, with an insect-like quickness to its movements. : Ornate teal armor that looked more like something worn by some ancient : warrior protected its torso, while a grilled respirator covered the lower : face. : Whatever it held in its hands—maybe a spear, or a staff tipped with a blue : crystalline point—was slathered in red blood. : Owen turned and ran. Nyx ran too, and they both rushed down the access : corridor toward Conurb 5. Alien warbling filled the air. : A door on his right opened and two more of the things spilled out. Owen cried : out a warning to Nyx, and they both swerved. He pushed an elongated hand : out of his way. Light flashed as a staff swung. Air rushed past his hair, : but he kept running. : So did Nyx. : Always the more athletic of the two, Nyx reached the door first. She ran : toward the console and hit it, hopping to the other side. : "Hurry!" she yelled. : Owen didn't need encouragement. He ran through the opening, back to the : Ringway. Nyx punched the console on the other side and the door closed. : "Okay, maybe that'll slow them," Nyx said, between breaths. : "Where the hell do we go?" : Owen had no idea. "Uh, they probably know how to use doors—" : The door slid open. The alien nearest them swung at Owen with its staff. The : crystal at the end flared with blue light, and an electrical corona : sizzled around it. Already keyed up, Owen stepped back just before it hit. : But the other two rushed forward, toward him and Nyx. : They were doomed, Owen realized. Even as he ran, he knew there was nowhere to : go except a circle. : He and Nyx were about to die. Killed by aliens. : "Owen! Nyx!" : It was Tanya, standing in the elevator to the assignment center with four : cadets clustered around her. She gestured for them to get inside. : Owen looked back over his shoulder. They were ahead of the aliens, but not by : much. Was there enough time to safely get on the elevator without putting : everyone else at risk? : Tanya seemed to think so. : He gritted his teeth and pumped his frail legs as hard as he could. Nyx : passed him and then grabbed his wrist to pull him forward. Tanya kept : shouting, her and the rest urging them to run faster. : Next thing Owen knew, he and Nyx were pressed up against the mob of students : packed onto the platform. Tanya hit the button and the elevator doors : began to close. : Too slowly. : Cadets screamed and scrambled back as the nearest alien struck, jamming the : door open with its staff. The weapon's crystalline head was mere : centimeters away from Owen's face. Alien cries filled his ears. : He was the closest to the door. : Which meant it was up to him. : Not giving himself time to doubt, he grabbed the staff and pushed back. But : the alien held firm. The crystal flared again. Owen smelled ozone. : Then the rest of the students pushing with him, all seven of their spindly : gravity-starved frames in unison. The glowing staff fell back, and the : door shut. : Metal shrieked, the door suddenly bulging inwards from another strike. : But the elevator was moving up to whatever safety the assignment center : offered. Owen looked at the people around him just before his eyes rolled : into the back of his head and he lost consciousness.
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