Tunnel Rat

Chapter 311: Geometry

Chapter 311: Geometry

Milo retreated two levels from the entrance to the fusion levels, just in case, before sitting down to rest and talk to Rusty. He checked his injuries over and made some adjustments to the drugs and nanites being released into his body. This larger suit could take care of him almost as well as his pod. It recommended several days of rest. Milo decided that an hour would be all he would take.

"Where do you think he got those guns, Rusty?"

"Oh, those were put there by Jeremy. He was worried people would try to stop him. He hid four of the construction robots in the fusion area. All the rest were shipped elsewhere. They were brand new back then and really, really expensive. Pretty stupid though, not like Max and the other Roomba. They need constant control and stop after doing each job."

"You knew about the guns?"

"No. My other has been talking a lot and bragging. Your idea to not talk to him is brilliant! He's getting so mad! It's fun just to listen to him and not say anything. Jeremy used the Franklins to fill in the other entrances and install the guns. But he didn't let me play with the Franklins. I couldn't fire the guns."

"What's a Franklin? A robot?"

"Friendly Franklin, a type of versatile robot for doing construction and other things. They look like a big box with mechanical arms."

Milo remembered seeing Friendly Franklin offered for sale but hadn't ordered any. They weren't designed for ducts or tubes. They needed hallways to move along and looked clunky. He might have to reconsider and take another look at them.

"Rusty, how much do you know about the fusion levels?"

"Um, almost nothing. And I don't think other me knows much about upstairs. When we talk, sometimes I find out I know about new things, and I can tell you about them. It's confusing. Sometimes we're two people, and other times there's just one, but I'm talking to myself. It's been a long time since we were one person."

"Interesting." Milo knew that 'memory' for an AI wasn't the same as for a human. Or for him, for that matter. Memory for normal humans could be partial and flawed, with only some of the experiences available to be recalled. For him, it was nearly perfect but was filtered through his own perspective. All of his siblings had noticed a difference between what they remembered in the real world and cyberspace. When connected to computing systems huge amounts of information were available with just a thought, but not once they logged out. It was just part of their world back then, the way things worked, but it gave Milo clues about how Rusty and Icarus interacted. As much as they were at odds with each other, he suspected data flowed back and forth between them. Part of what Rusty called 'cheating'. Icarus might be ahead of Rusty in that way. How much better was a scary thought.

"What about security? Did Jeremy have any security Roomba like Max or the black ones in Downtown?"

He heard nothing for a full minute, and then the sounds of 'We are the Champions' came echoing up the hallway, occasionally accompanied by an exploding round of ammo.

Rusty's voice spoke in Milo's ear. "Something changed! He's working hard to get around my blocks. I have to concentrate. Hurry!"

Milo walked down the stairs, taking the last Happy Sam with him. There was a new opening at the end of the tunnel into a large room that had once been a security station. The two corridors went around the room and merged behind it. Milo decided to move through the new opening and skip the hallways. The Roomba moved in front and behind him. When they exited the next door, one went right, one left, and Max scouted ahead. The sounds of lasers firing came from the side corridors. The Roomba had found the four Friendly Franklin robots, two in each corridor, and shot their power packs from behind, deactivating them.

After that, the trip was anticlimactic. For the next hour, they scouted the warren of empty control stations filled with automatic systems that monitored and controlled the fusion reactor and the infinitesimally small black hole at its center. Every room and corridor had heavy shielding against the magnetic fields that controlled the plasma from the Fusion Reactor. Vast amounts of energy were generated from a thin stream of heavy hydrogen atoms, or H3. Excess heat could be vented into the singularity. Milo had two goals: Keeping the reactor from reaching catastrophic temperatures and yet keeping it running. Without the reactor and singularity, Rusty and Icarus would both die as the facility shut down. Stored power would only last so long.

Further and further, they went, encountering no resistance and hearing nothing from Icarus. Finally, there was only one place left to look for Jeremy, and Milo had suspected he'd find him there all along. It was out of the way and extremely dangerous. Underneath everything was a small area dubbed the Secondary Emergency Control System. It could be used to control the reactor in emergencies if other methods were inoperable or destroyed. Its connections went directly to the Fusion Reactor. But to get to it meant a trip down a collapsium corridor filled with hard radiation and temperatures that soared over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. The staff there had been locked into months-long shifts and were rotated out twice yearly. Milo found heavy hazmat suits in the room before the corridor and wasn't impressed. His own suit had more protection, but then Max pointed out something by using a laser pointer to spotlight where Milo's suit had taken damage.

"You think those are weak points? Maybe you're right. Can't be too careful." His armor made him the size of a normal adult male, and after some work, he managed to fit inside the largest of the hazmat suits. As a last precaution, tied to the back of his suit was a long steel cable hooked to max. If he collapsed in the corridor, Max could drag him out. He opened the first part of the airlock, noting the temperature inside had been over 400 degrees. Max rolled in next to him, with the other Roomba hooked into the door controls. The second door opened, and Milo took a step into the corridor. The temperature was over 800 degrees and rising. He moved as fast as he could to cover the two hundred feet to the next airlock. The far door opened to his touch.

"OK, Max. I'm releasing the hook." The wire dropped to the floor, but instead of Max closing the far door, his not-so-little Roomba buddy raced down the corridor, putting his upgraded speed to the test. The rubber outer layer of Max's wheels melted off, leaving him rolling on steel cylinders, but other than that, the shielding Rusty had designed did its job. Milo slowly shook his head at the antics of his faithful buddy but was smiling as he shut the door. Beyond was a large control room, living quarters for six people, and a medical center. In the middle of the floor of the medical center sat a heavily modified pod with a body inside.

If this was Jeremy Cooper, he wasn't doing well. His weight was down to only ninety pounds, and the body inside looked almost mummified. Milo looked at the readouts and the latest diagnostics. He was only alive because of the pod, with nearly all major organs failing. But most distressing was his nervous system, with only .063% of normal electrical activity in the shrunken brain and nerve cells.

Several thick cables ran from the pod. A console was moved to the side, and panels and machinery were missing. Beyond was a complex control panel and computer station that Milo recognized as part of a Quantum Core. Jeremy had wired himself directly to Icarus to stop him.

The dusty screen glowed brightly. "Welcome, Milo. Would you like to play a game?"

Icarus was waiting for him.