Farthest Reach Read online

  Now it was summer. Some girls she knew; they were her same age, seven years old, entered the home. She was laughing with them, joy filling her. She was ten and able to ride bikes with her friends.

  Now she was twelve and feeling sick. There was a man in a white coat. They called him the doctor. She heard that word a lot. Her parents and brother, for that’s who they were, grew concerned. They were worried all the time. It seemed she was always going to this doctor. She missed so many summer days and desperately wanted to be with her friends. She kept being dragged away to some place cold and sterile and hooked up to machines. Each time she would stay there longer, sleep more, have more and more tests run.

  Her parents took turns. They brought her presents and had a little tree by her bedside.

  She could no longer sit up. No longer eat. No longer speak. Her family watched her, having grown old before their time. They cried and prayed. Sadness wrapped her in its folds like a blanket. She felt the tears and her mother’s hand. Then she felt nothing.

  In an instant, everything exploded and fell into place into the view of empty space filled with tiny dots of light. Distant Stars winked at her as she floated in the void. Metallic debris floated past, unnoticed by her synthetic eyes, feelings of sadness and loss shutting out all else. She didn’t notice when TRX-33 wrapped a metallic arm around her and she was pulled through the void to land on what remained of the fuselage of her pod ship. A burst transmission came through. She did not comprehend it, until a metallic fist slammed on her chest knocking her back onto the fuselage. Internal integrity alarms flash through her matrix and her attention was brought back to the present.

  Galaxy’s edge, Tracks! What do you think you’re doing?

  As much as I enjoy your unresponsiveness, I thought you might want to know that we survived. Your ship, however, was torn to shreds. There’s a lot of debris.

  Kelsey looked around them. They stood on the forward section of the fuselage of her ship, the rest having been torn clean off. The interior could be clearly seen through a gaping hole. Floating in the space around them was more debris than came from her ship. A passing shard of metal displaying a piece of the Federation logo told her that her plan worked.

  Jump drives were more sensitive than hyperdrives. It was teleportation in a sense. Anything within twenty meters of the ship to which the drive was installed would be pulled along with it when the drive was activated. Consequently, any ship attempting to use such technology would be ripped to shreds if a strong enough opposing force were present, as was the case here. They had taken a portion of the Federation’s warship with them, thereby disabling it. Likely there were some shock troopers floating around among the wreckage as well, their black suits camouflaging them against the darkness of space. Three hundred meters away, the large cargo vessel that acted as her base of operations floated, silently awaiting their return. Kara floated next to her, those eyes of dull blue flame fixed on her.

  “Shall I restore your ship?”

  Did she just speak? In a vacuum?

  Kelsey just shook her head stupidly. Kara tilted her head to one side. She looked a little like a dog that way, an otherworldly, able-to-exist-in-a-vacuum kind of dog.

  Can you receive this? She burst-transmitted.

  “Yes. I can.”

  The federation likely left a stealth probe behind just in case we showed up back here. It will detect any unusual movement. They’ll know we tried to get here via jump drive. But the assumption will be that we were killed in the attempt. We need to make it seem as if that’s true and still somehow get to my ship. So, we’ll use the debris field as cover.

  Kara waved a hand. Two large pieces of debris came together in front of them. They didn’t exactly fuse together, so much as un-rip, as if someone was playing a holovid of a ship’s destruction in reverse.

  Immediately a beam of blue light shone around the newly assembled piece. It floated away from them, caught in the grip of a tractor beam being transmitted from somewhere off in the field. Kelsey and TRX-33 ducked behind the fuselage, keeping out of sight as it rotated. Kara floated down beside them.

  Very good, TRX-33 mocked. Now not only is our ship destroyed and our cover blown, but our chances of reaching the Arrow without being captured have increased almost one hundred percent.

  Never tell me the odds. Can you pinpoint where that beam came from?

  Approximately forty degrees aft of the Arrow, and twenty degrees vertical. It is most likely mobile, however, so do forgive my lack of accuracy. I was only monitoring the entire starfield around the ship after all. Which part were you monitoring? Oh wait. Yes, that’s right. None.

  You really know how to push things, don’t you?

  A blessing from my programmers bestowed upon my handlers.

  Cute. Okay, if that thing is where you estimated—

  Approximated.

  ESTIMATED, then we should be able to get to the ship if we get close enough.

  Your logic astounds me. How do you propose we do that, fearless leader?

  Kelsey shot him a look.

  I’m going to find a way to turn down your sarcasm regulator once we’re done with all of this.

  Sarcasm regulator. Brilliant. Did you come up with that yourself or-

  Just fire your jets and hold on to the fuselage. The probe will lock on to it but not us, and that should give us sufficient cover to get to the ship.

  TRX-33 stared at Kelsey a moment as if such a strategy had never occurred to him and he needed a few cycles to process. Then, without another transmission, he placed metal hands on the remains of the fuselage, and fired up the integrated jet unit on his back.

  The moment the fuselage moved, a blue penumbra outlined the craft. Kelsey and TRX-33 hung on to the wreckage while Kara floated alongside them, their view of the probe shielded by the wreckage. After several minutes they came within twenty meters of the ship. TRX-33 grabbed Kelsey and fired his jets, propelling them toward the cargo bay which opened at a burst transmission from his com assembly. They were ten meters from the opening when Kelsey’s internal sensors registered a pull at her legs. She looked down to find a blue glow surrounding them.

  Tracks, it has me!

  TRX-33 increased his jets’ propulsion. Kelsey’s sensors registered the opposing forces. Sensor feed from her lower extremities went offline just before they passed through the forcefield of the docking bay. Then they were landing with Kara alongside them. Kelsey moved to stand only to find that she couldn’t. Looking over her legs, she saw that they were a mangled mess. Pieces of her epidermal layer lay stretched, torn, and sticking out of her pants. Her metal frame was twisted and crumpled, exposed wires and snapped hydraulics amongst the wreckage.

  “Well,” TRX-33 said as the docking bay door closed, “at least the plan was eighty-five percent successful. Better than seventy percent in which case there’d be nothing left of you but leftover parts.”

  “Thanks for your concern. I’ll be fine, by the way. Internals are already reconstructing. Just pick me up and take me to the bridge. We need to get moving. The Federation is sure to know we’re here now.”

  ***

  TRX-33 placed Kelsey in the pilot’s chair and strapped her in. He then took his position in the copilot’s station, metal clamps locking his treads into place. Kara stood between them staring out into the blackness.

  “All right, Kara, where is this aperture?”

  The blue flame in Kara’s eyes flashed and Kelsey reared as a thought hit her like a round from a slug-thrower.

  “You could just say the coordinates!”

  “Was this not your intent?”

  “Just... stay out of my head! And get strapped in. I don’t really care to lose you to some random blaster fire we may encounter.”

  “Undoubtedly encounter,” intoned TRX-33.

  Kelsey entered the jump coordinates into the hyperdrive calculator while her droid companion fired up the engines.

  “The probe is attempting to lock on to our ship w
ith its tractor beam.”

  Kelsey moved to the firing controls and brought up the targeting computer. The tractor beam on the probe wouldn’t be enough to haul them in, but it would be enough to prevent them from jumping to hyperspace. A couple of red blaster bolts and the probe was just another piece of debris.

  Kelsey clicked off the final safeties for the hyperdrive and pulled back on the lever. The stars streaked into beams of light and they were away. The trip wouldn’t take long, a couple hours at most. Kelsey swiveled her chair around to face Kara who was strapped into the navigator’s chair.

  “Alright, Kara,” she said, proceeding to supplement the repairs her internal systems were performing on her legs, “now that we’re safely away, I have a few questions for you. For starters, what will happen once you enter the aperture?”

  “All will be restored.”

  “Yeah. I got that. But what does that mean? Restored how?”

  “It... is all I can say.”

  “You’re being intentionally vague and I don’t like it.”

  “How may I be more specific?”

  Kelsey looked up at her. Those blue flames smoldered behind her eyes.

  “What’s going to happen to me, to Tracks, to our ship, to this universe?”

  “I do not have an answer for that.”

  Kelsey sent a transmission to her console. Kara’s eyes went wide a split second before Kevlar straps ejected from several ports on the navigator’s seat and wrapped themselves around Kara, pinning her in place. Those blue flames ignited. Kelsey drew a pistol and aimed it squarely at Kara’s forehead.

  “Here’s how this works,” she said. “You move, or I see your eyes blaze up any more and I pull the trigger. And in case you’re thinking of scrambling my circuitry, I’ve set the gun to auto-fire if that happens. I may have rescued you from the Federation, but that doesn’t mean I trust you. I won’t hesitate to put a crater in your head if I deem it necessary. Now I’d like some answers.”

  Kara’s face showed genuine fear, the only emotion she had shown since waking up.

  “Do... not...” Kara’s otherworldly voice quivered. “... please... doctor...”

  Tears streamed from her eyes as she pulled at her restraints.

  “What doctor?” Kelsey asked.

  “The interface... please, no... the information... it’s too much... please... no more...”

  Kelsey activated her lenses and initiated a brainwave scan as Kara continued to rant. The girl’s brainwaves were spiking like nothing else. But she saw something within them, a pattern that was far too familiar. Kelsey lowered her gun.

  “Information,” she muttered.

  “I beg your pardon?” TRX-33 asked.

  “She’s a bion, an android made from organic material built from the ground up. What she’s saying about being a key is true. But there’s more to it than that. Her body holds a vast amount of information.”

  Kelsey sent a signal and the straps retracted from Kara’s chair. Kara looked at them examining her arms, her concern fading from her face.

  “Kara, I need you to come with us to the medical bay. Any issues with that?”

  “There are no issues,” Kara replied, having returned to her more placid self.

  TRX-33 unlocked himself and rolled over to take Kelsey into his arms and the three of them traveled to the medical bay. Kelsey had barely ever used the bay. Neither she nor TRX-33 needed it and she only kept it for any organics she needed to transport that needed medical attention. She did her best to avoid those jobs.

  Kelsey directed Kara to lie down on a table. The girl did so without comment while TRX-33 set Kelsey down on a stool next to the console.

  “What would have caused the lapse in her personality?” TRX-33 asked as Kelsey initiated the scan.

  A blue light shimmered from above and scanned the entirety of the table in a slow, deliberate movement.

  “The programmed personality is likely designed as a cage for the memories, so she doesn’t give anything away to the wrong person. But me aiming my gun at her, or more likely, her restraints, must have awakened some traumatic memory from when she was created or when she was being fed the information her genetic code and brainwaves contain.

  “She is definitely a key... to something. But she’s also a storehouse of information, prefaced by a message. The interesting thing is, both her brainwaves and her genetic code are needed for the complete message.”

  “And how did you determine this? Your psychic powers are a bit lacking after all.”

  “Cute. Her brainwaves contain a code. I combined that with the scan I took of her earlier and I got a pattern that translates to the symbol of an hourglass. It’s like a subspace message preceded by whatever symbol the message’s originator chooses to use as their identifier.”

  She took off a glove and showed TRX-33 the hourglass symbol visible only through the receptors of a synthetic being.

  “All the Synths have this same symbol. It was engraved on the wall of the facility where we were activated. Kara was made by the same people who created us. And I suspect the message inside her is meant for us to see.”

  As if on cue, the scan completed. Kelsey directed the information to be displayed as a holovid and turned to the ethereal, 3-D image that appeared just left of the table.

  The image of an hourglass hovered in the air and then shifted to a man in a lab coat with a thick, unkempt beard. Kelsey felt she knew the man, though she did not recognize him. He was leaning forward as if adjusting the holo cam’s position.

  “It does not seem to be working,” TRX-33 said.

  Kelsey didn’t know why he couldn’t see the same thing as she, but she nevertheless relayed what her eyes saw through their private com link.

  “Oh. Very curious. Well, I certainly feel less special now. Shall I leave you and the hologram alone together?”

  Kelsey shushed him as the man stood straight and spoke.

  “My name is Doctor Matthias Alcove. Don’t bother searching for my name. The Federation has likely expunged all record of my existence. If you’re able to see this, you are one of my creations, a Synth to be exact. I’ve programmed this recording to run with an internal code that makes it invisible and inaudible to all but your visual and audio receptors... your eyes and ears only. You’re no doubt wondering where I was when you awoke. The answer to that question is that I was on the run from the Federation who was convinced your existence would cause war and genocide.

  “But I was able to keep your creation secret on a facility I had constructed in an asteroid field, the very facility in which you awoke. I smuggled out some bio-electric samples from deceased human beings which I used in your construction. I paid for it with my freedom.

  “They came after me, but I escaped. I initiated your startup sequences, and fled, leading the Federation away from you. All I could do at that point was trust that you would find your way in the galaxy.

  “You are indeed my greatest achievement; life brought forth from death. But you are incomplete. And that is why I created Kara. The bio-electric samples each of you was endowed with, they are the emotions and personalities of the beings you once were, matured and adjusted for functionality in the bodies you possess and the galaxy in which you exist... in which you live.

  “Kara is the key to unlocking your full potential. She holds the memories of all of you and will grant the senses you lack, that of true touch, taste, and smell. You’ll be able to feel your synthetic muscles straining and relaxing. You’ll experience laughter and be able to truly weep. Except for your synthetic body, you will be fully human.

  “The process was... difficult on Kara. One organic being, even a constructed one, is not meant to hold that much information. I built into her safeguards to keep her stable and calm, but they are not perfect. I charge you to treat her with care and guard her with your lives.

  “The Federation would love nothing more than to carve her up and duplicate her. In addition to safeguards, I have built into her defense
s against any attempting to harm her. In retrospect, the abilities I have given her make her into a formidable weapon. You must not let the Federation get their hands on her! Her purpose is to restore life, not to destroy it!

  “Kara can restore the missing pieces of your lives by her own power, but in order for the process to be complete, she must enter the initiation device I have constructed in subspace. I will not attempt to explain the physics to you. Suffice it to say, it is mostly hidden from the Federation, except for the aperture which she alone can open and enter. But its signature is there and can be found if one is looking. I have split the device, the key, and all of you to keep you hidden and to prevent the Federation from gaining control and using you to their own ends. Once Kara enters the aperture, the final piece of your humanity will be complete.”

  A beeping sounded and Doctor Alcove looked at a device on his wrist.

  “They are here.”

  The image fritzed and the doctor fell off his feet as the lights of wherever he was flickered. He crawled up to the camera.

  “I have no more time. I will put Kara in cryo-stasis. Get her to the aperture! And receive the greatest gift I can give you of any human: the ability to procreate.”

  Another flicker and the doctor stood, pulling on an arm that came into view. The camera moved as if the whatever that held it stood up. The doctor reached up past the camera, and the message defaulted to the hourglass.

  Kelsey stared at the hourglass, not seeing it. Her matrix felt as though it might short out with the revelation of who... of what she was. Her hand went to the spot in her midsection where she... experienced the energy surge.

  “Have your questions been answered?” Kara asked.

  She was sitting up, staring at Kelsey with that blank look and those eyes of smoldering blue flame.

  “I have one more question,” Kelsey replied. “What will happen to you when you enter the aperture?”

  “I… do not know.”

  ***

  Kelsey sat in her private chambers, her eyes closed, her matrix pouring over everything she had learned. She placed a hand on her stomach. She knew what was in there. Servos, fluid, electronics. She had a digital schematic of her whole body. But the doctor’s revelation… could it be possible?