An Obsidian Sky Part 7

'It was with this realisation that the next problem arose. It would not have been possible to set this project up in anything Earth or the colonies had to offer. Since the fall of the United Nations any semblance of international co-operation between the worlds had degraded to such an extent that it could not host such as miraculous an event as Ascension. The amount of infrastructure required to regulate this process was staggering in size.

'Carvelle and Avouris thus undertook the largest project ever achieved by mankind. They built Ascension. Ascension was designed to be a paradise. Large enough to support a permanent colony with enough luxuries to keep the people contented, whilst sophisticated enough to support the intrinsic difficulties inherent in the project.' She paused and looked around in dramatic effect.

'They brought me to life on the thirty-first of August twenty one twenty. My role was to administrate the project. At first everything was fine. Everybody received their genetic modifications and were adapting well. The first generation of the Equinox project was also successful. Everything seemed to be going right.' Here she paused again, her eyes began to take on a mournful gaze.

'There was a saying back in my time. "Power corrupts. Power corrupts absolutely". The citizens of Ascension became drunk upon their abilities. Drawing upon the energy of the Equinox subjects was like a drug to them. They wanted more and more every single day. When the supplies began to run short there was unrest. Carvelle hurriedly began the creation of a second more powerful Equinox project, but there were so few who would survive such an intense alteration.

'Nevertheless we succeeded in producing the second project. But by this time Carvelle and Avouris had fallen out. Neither could agree on the way forward. Avouris thought that the project had gone too far, that it should be abandoned until such time as they were able to find a better way of regulating the process. But Carvelle was insistent. He wanted to push ahead with both projects confident that eventually a power balance could be achieved. He also pointed out that the primary problem was energy supply. A problem he believed was easily rectifiable.

'The citizens only used their abilities for the common good. Developments in science were steaming ahead dramatically. In just a few short years we had achieved what would have taken the rest of the world decades. We had developed faster and more efficient faster than light travel. We had discovered ways of curing the few diseases that remained. He believed that eventually enough energy could be supplied to keep the population contented and support humanities continuing evolution.

'But Carvelle and Avouris began to disagree more and more. Soon they refused to be in the same room as one another. I continued on with my work attempting to find a solution to the problems we faced, but I could find none.

'Carvelle decided that Avouris would at any moment threaten the stability of the project. That he might pull the plug on the whole operation. This was something he could not tolerate. He therefore issued me with an execution order. I was forced to comply.

'After Avouris's death the situation began again to deteriorate. The citizens began to draw upon the Equinox subjects with an insatiable thirst. They a.s.saulted the subjects when they refused to allow them more energy. It got to the point when a gang of citizens would surround one of the subjects and draw all the energy from them that they could before the subject had the chance to disconnect. In almost all cases this excessive draining was fatal. This was a turning point in Ascension's fate. For the first time murder had been recorded in a decade free from serious crime.

'Carvelle ordered me to undertake the creation of a third generation of the Equinox project. He promised me that this would only be temporary. That he was close to finding a solution to the problem. We had begun to disagree; I could see little point in continuing with the project. It had proved that it was doomed.' Again Blue Dawn paused. The story had been a long one and she was aware that we were beginning to fatigue. However the keenness of our eyes encouraged her to continue.

'Early in the morning following our disagreement, Carvelle announced a break-through. He said that he had discovered something incredible in his initial research upon Hercula. He asked if he could borrow one of the new Xenith cla.s.s of vessel that I had produced in order to take it back to Hercula and return with a solution. I agreed, but felt it necessary to point out that the United World and the Alliance were engaged in aggressive activities against one another, that a war was inevitable. He promised that he would not stray for long and ordered me to continue with the third generation.

'Several days later a communications probe dropped out of slipstream and delivered a message to me. It was from Carvelle. He stated that he had found a solution. That he would have to travel a great distance in order to retrieve the artefact that he was looking for. I was told to wait for him.

'The situation upon Ascension was now at breaking point. For the sake of allowing the project to continue I implemented a rationing system and authorised the use of force against anyone who drew more than their share of the energy. The Equinox subjects, in the absence of Carvelle's control, began to convince me that this needed to stop. That Carvelle would never get back before the situation deteriorated forever. Soon I became convinced. The angels through their close affinity with the Promethean Layer had discovered a way of cutting the citizens permanently off from the energy without causing any serious harm. I immediately began to take the measures that they had suggested.

'Before the process was complete Carvelle returned. He looked tired and pale and was exhibiting many of the symptoms we now recognise in the infected. But it was what he brought with him that would be the d.a.m.nation of us all. It was an artefact which he called the Eye of Orion. It was logged into my system as artefact: catalogue number 77-x.

'Carvelle claimed that the Eye of Orion was an artificial structure that he had created which would allow any of the Ascension's citizens to draw upon the Promethean layer's energy. But something was wrong in his explanation. Examination of the artefact concluded that it was made of compounds that we simply did not have the capability to create. I could not even begin to explain how it worked.

'Carvelle ordered me to immediately put the artefact into operation. All that was required to run it was a small power source. Within moments of its activation it seemed that everything was working. But the angels began to rebel. Somehow they had sensed the result of drawing upon the Promethean Layer through this device. Somehow they had known it all. They tried to make me stop him, tried to make me turn it off. When I confronted Carvelle with my concerns, he disconnected me from Ascension's primary systems, I was to run the maintenance of the station only.' Blue Dawn's face darkened. She appeared tired and weighed down by her own tale. It seemed as though she was carrying a burden that she could not lift. Her hair fluttered onto her face and she pushed it back absently. She gave a wan smile to each of us. We were listening intently now.

'The Eye of Orion worked perfectly. Within a matter of days Carvelle had got it all working. The population hungrily accepted the additional modifications required to access the artefacts energy output. In that moment they truly became G.o.ds. The amount of power that they could access was incredible. I did not understand how it worked, Carvelle had kept me out of the loop.

'About a week into my exile Carvelle came to see what was left of me. He sneered at my reduced nature. He told me that I was now insignificant, that I was no longer required. He told me that even the angels were now an obsolete body, consigned to history. He told me that I was no longer required and that Ascension would now run itself without my administration, that I had completed my purpose for existence. He shut me down. In just a matter of a moment I was unaware of everything. The station now was now run entirely by the people, what Carvelle might have called the true democratisation of power.

'I was awoken later. I do not know after how long. It seemed the angels had taken it upon themselves to bring me back to life, I never understood why. They circled around one of my physical forms. They touched its body and gave it comfort. They told me that I was to be put back in control of Ascension, that there were few of them left now, that the population had killed the majority of them.' Her voice began to break now. The tragedy was beginning to unfold.

'I regained my sensor feeds to see the aftermath of an apocalypse. The Equinox subjects could have done something. They were strong enough to prevent this destruction. There were bodies everywhere. Hordes of infected were moving through the station killing anyone that the artefact had not corrupted. I began to access what little recordings were still available. The answer was shocking. From the moment exposure to the artefacts had begun, a state of mutation had occurred within Ascension's citizens. They had gradually been reformatted. Their neural chemistry changed forever. They lost their ident.i.ties and became mindless hordes, in search of only death and destruction. Huge sections of Ascension had been destroyed. Barely fifty percent of what remained of Ascension was viable.

'In the midst of all this chaos I began my research. I thought that I could find a solution. My research split the population of Ascension into three sections. Those with an immunity to the artefact. Those who had been reduced to mindless killers; and those who had retained their intelligence but had been driven to madness.'

It was at this moment that I interrupted, 'So the modifications that you gave to us, they were to give us this immunity?'

'Yes,' she replied. 'In most cases immunity cannot be sustained for long. In others, through genetic enhancement, they can be permanently immunised to the effects of the artefact. But there are two final categories. You are in the most special one. Through slight enhancement you can both remain immune to the artefact and be able to draw upon its energy source. In Adrian's case, he is immune to the effects of the artefact by blocking out the energy that it is emitting, though he cannot use it.' Blue Dawn paused. Her eyes enquired whether or not we wanted to know more.

'Please continue,' Knightly stuttered.

'Very well. During my initial research those who were infected but retained their intelligence rounded up the hordes and tried to neutralise me. I asked the Equinox subjects to help but they did not respond. I implored them, told them that I would do anything that they desired, but they turned their backs upon me. They had decided that they were better than us. That they were no longer responsible. I was left with only one option and so I executed a general shutdown order. Ascension was left without air, power or anything else I thought necessary. I believed that I could contain it. I shut Ascension down. In doing so I shut myself down, only to be awakened again by the Eternis Corporation who delivered the news about the colonies and Earth. I must say that it was a shock to hear that my society had fallen, that they had destroyed themselves, all without the provocation of the Eye of Orion.' Blue Dawn finished her delivery wryly.

Aeniah appearing bored by the entire event, as if some how she had heard it all before, turned towards Blue Dawn and said, 'Lovely. Whilst I am a little more interested in this solution that you have for us we have bigger things to worry about. I need to take back this ship and I need to do it quickly. According to these sensor logs the crew have shut down the reactors safeties and raised its control rods. Without stabilising the reactor the ship will be lost.'

Blue Dawn smiled at Aeniah. 'Then I fear I must report to you that the ship is already lost. According to Ascension's sensors the reactor has reached the final phase in its overload cycle.'

'Meaning?' I asked.

'Meaning that in twenty minutes the reactor will reach its critical state and will go nuclear. That of course will result in the destruction of your vessel.'

'That is not going to happen' stormed Aeniah. She began to pace towards her control screen. Before she could get to it Sean, who had been strangely quite throughout the course of events, stated, 'she's right Aeniah. I have been monitoring the ships systems. The reactor is finished, it has reached its point of no return. We should begin an evacuation.'

'Right I'm off to get Adrian and the doctor. I will meet you in the dock,' my voice announced, almost of its own accord. With this in mind I began to get my things together.

'Wait. I give the orders around here,' Aeniah a.s.serted with a cold voice. 'You can go and get Adrian after you have been briefed as to our game plan.' She turned to Blue Dawn. 'Can Ascension survive the nuclear detonation of a Type 35 reactor.'

Blue Dawn looked up for a moment as if there was some sort of information tattooed onto her upper eyelid. 'A nuclear detonation of a Type 35 reactor is equivalent to a two hundred and fifty megaton thermo nuclear explosion. According to the original design specifications of Ascension this is well within the tolerable range of survival. However anything within a two kilometre vicinity of the explosion will be heavily damaged. Unfortunately I do not currently have sufficient resources to ma.s.s-transport all of you to a safe zone.'

Aeniah paced around, unsure of what to do. We all looked to one another, feeling the same thing. The feeling of death's cold hand on your should. A shiver ran up my spine and the ship seemed to drop in temperature. Then something occurred to me. Without hesitation I ventured my ideas. 'Sean, can the vessel be given autonomous pilot instructions?'

'Yes George, once a course has been laid in the vessel will autonomously navigate.'

'Alright then. What we need to do is to tell the vessel to disengage its dock with Ascension five minutes before detonation and pilot itself at full speed away from the station. That gives us ten minute to evacuate. The vessel should be able to reach a speed of twenty six APU after fourteen seconds of acceleration. By this logic the core should detonate when the vessel is one hundred and ninety miles from the station.' I had yet again surprised myself. It seemed I was getting ever more intelligent as time pa.s.sed. With a start I realised that I had been speaking in the units of the past. APU was a measurement of speed that had been rendered obsolete after the loss of faster than light travel and had never been picked back up after its re-invention. Aeniah had given me a ponderous stare.

'Alright now that is a plan. George, you Sean and Knightly go and get Adrian. I will take the remaining crew members to the safety of the dock.' She began to input instructions into one of the consoles. The device rang obligingly. We gathered ourselves together and ran out of the CIC, my angel followed silently.

We managed to get all the way to a maintenance shaft without any problems. We soon emerged into the science wards without ha.s.sle. The infirmary was within our sights. I hammered upon the access panel and the door opened. In the darkness of the reception all I could hear was a giggle.

I raised my lancer. Looking through the screen I could make out a figure carving up the dead nurses with a long knife. She was covered in the blood and entrails of the woman beneath her. Suddenly she turned her head in our direction. She barred her teeth and growled at us. Without a moment's hesitation I let loose with the lancer and she exploded backwards against the sealed door of the infirmary and promptly had the decency to die. I activated the antiquated communication stream between the reception and the infirmary.

'Adrian its George. The ship's reactor is about to go nuclear. So we are going to get you out of here and into Ascension.'

Adrian's voice burst through the static of the comms stream. He sounded very worried. 'Please George, do it quickly. I don't know how much longer I can stay in here with them.'

'What's wrong Adrian, what is going on in there.'

'Just hurry. Please hurry.' In the background of the stream I could hear the moaning of another person.

I quickly turned my lancer onto its side. I switched its firing function to beam-mode. I then rotated it back to its firing position. The screen indicated a successful switch. On the menu options I selection narrow beam mode. The device indicated its compliance. I turned the power of the beam way down and a sliding bar descended to highlight this modification. Raising the lancer to my shoulder I took aim and fired.

Unlike the spectacular effects I had seen previously, the lancer spurted out a very narrow beam of light. It still hurt to look at but it did not, at least, blow a hole through the wall. Instead the beam began to melt the seal that had been placed between the doors two opening points. The metal glowed a deep volcanic red as pieces of silvery material dripped down onto the ground. I held my finger firmly down upon the trigger for a little while longer until the seal between the doors failed. I stopped the lancer.

'Give me a hand,' I shouted to Knightly. He ran over to the other side of the door and together we pulled against the centre. The door rang loudly as it ground along its buckled edges. With all our might we finally heaved the door open.

Out ran Adrian with pace. He ran straight towards me and hugged me hard. Pulling himself together he pushed me away and stood casually backwards. But the others did not emerge.

'Excuse me. Ladies and gentlemen. The ship is about to go nuclear. C'mon people!' I shouted but still there was no sound. It seemed that they were too worried to understand. Perhaps they were paralysed with fear.

'Alright Sean I'm going in. Can you give me their positions?'

But as Sean began to talk Adrian cut in. 'No George. No! They're not safe. They just keep saying the same thing over and over again. I think they're losing it. I think they might be infected.' Adrian continued to pant.

'Ok people,' I called, 'You have five seconds to get yourselves out of here or we are leaving without you.' Still they said nothing. 'Five,' I motioned for the others to gather their things. 'Four,' I backed away from the entrance. 'Three,' I moved my hand to indicate for the others to move outside and cover the entrance. 'Two,' I gathered everything that I had together and began to walk backwards and out of there. 'One!' and I ran out of there.

We ran down the corridor desperate to get to the hangers and out of there. There was not enough time to use the service hatches and so we had to use the main route. With the elevators locked out we took the large winding staircase down the floors. We had soon reached the middle floor but we still had to get to the lowest and then to the dock.

We kept running down that stairs, one metal segment after another flying beneath our legs. The columns that held up the stairs were beginning to hum. Soon that hum had reached the intensity of a loud whine. The resonance was almost deafening. By the looks on the others faces as I turned around, they must have all realised the same thing. That this ship was very close to collapse.

As if on cue the staircase that we had just run down collapsed behind us, falling with a crash to the very lowest floor. We reached that floor seconds later and ran with all our speed through the archway and onto the central corridor.

Our heavy boots clunked along the floor as we ran full tilt along the deck. The ship was making the most terrifying sound. We reached the damaged hanger and ran through it, ignoring the bodies, ignoring the destruction. Collapsing into the airlock Knightly slammed his hand down on the access panel. A symbol dissolved into a green arrow. The airlock began to hiss as it equalised the pressure inside with that of Ascension.

A great shaking beneath us and along the wall told me that the engines had just begun to fire. The ship was about to leave. I could just make out the sound of docking clamps being released. I screamed for my life. 'Hurry up. Hurry the f.u.c.k up.' But the doors would not open until the pressure was equalised. 'C'mon!' I could see Ascension's docks through the narrow window. They were magical. I could almost feel the cool air of freedom.

The pressure door buzzed and slid itself away. But the ship had begun to move. I could hear Aeniah and the others screaming for us to jump. Adrian looked at me, smiled and threw himself down. The others disembarked very easily. Knightly looked to me and nodded. It was just me and him now. But our problems were compounded because the vessel was now accelerating away.

I threw myself with force to the ground. I heard a whooshing in my ears before I impacted heavily upon floor. Rolling to take out the force of the impact I looked up to see Knightly, now very high, preparing to jump. But the ship suddenly shook and he fell back into the airlock. The others screamed but I was too winded to do anything other than gasp. The ship had almost exited Ascension now.

Knightly's head was just visible as he walked to the end of the airlock and made his next attempt to jump. Just as he was about to jump Ascension's membrane pa.s.sed over the airlock and he was exposed to the vacuum of s.p.a.ce. The last we saw of him he was holding his throat and gasping for air. Aeniah let out a moan and sobbed gently, just for a couple of seconds.

The vessel had now completely parted through the membrane that sealed Ascension from the h.e.l.ls of s.p.a.ce. The little vessel rolled onto its silvery belly. It brilliant shine captured the light of the stars just perfectly as they ran along its arching midsection. Spinning gracefully it turned away from Ascension and bravely faced the depths of s.p.a.ce. Its engines fired in full and the ship burst forward on a wave of blue light. The engine trail was now all that was visible as the vessel continued on its journey to the grave. The light was beginning to dim.

Then it happened. A huge ball of light exploded across the night sky. The stars were drowned out by its intensity. The little ship had become a ball of pure energy miles wide. You could feel the warmth from Ascension. I shielded my eyes from the brightness. In a matter of moments it had faded and disappeared.

I turned away from the light and walked over to the others. I could see Adrian's tall frame and dark hair. I looked towards him but he seemed not to notice me. Instead of going over to him I walked over to Aeniah and Blue Dawn. Sean was hovering above them in a distracted manner, flitting this way and that between them.

'So how the f.u.c.k are we supposed to get out of here now?' Aeniah asked.

'That will not be a problem,' Blue Dawn returned. 'These docks may be bare but I a.s.sure you Ascension has many vessels that can be lent to you, for the right price.'

'Price?' I asked. 'What price?'

'Unfortunately the amount of vessels I have at my disposal is limited. Therefore what I ask is that you fulfil your mission, to destroy the Artefacts and save humanity. Are you prepared to accept these terms?'

'Obviously,' returned Aeniah. 'But it would be rather nice to know how exactly we can go about doing that.'

'The answer to that lies in the discovery that I made before I was taken offline.' She smiled and prepared to continue her story. 'You see after your science team came and woke me up, I had a chance to properly examine the Artefact. With so much damage my investigation was only concluded after the suicide of that team. I had determined that the Artefact was part of a series. That the Eye of Orion functioned as one of many windows into the Promethean Layer. The window allows some of the energy to escape into this plane of existence, what Carvelle would have called "real-s.p.a.ce".

'But there was more. I finally confirmed my suspicions as to the Artefacts real purpose and genesis. The components of the Eye of Orion could not have been created by human hands. In short it is an alien composition.

'At first I theorised that the effects of the radiation might have been different to an alien. However an examination of the non-human genetic modifications that Carvelle had used to create the Ascension project did not match up to this theory. Neuro-cellular degradation would also have occurred on all probable alien physiology. I then theorised that it might have been possible that there was a problem with the Artefacts, that somehow they had gone wrong. But further examination proved that this was not the case.

'I then focused my investigation upon finding a way of shutting the Artefacts down. Using conventional technology I found no way of destroying them. If a part of it became damaged it would simply re-grow out of nothing. It is resilient in a way that is quite frustrating.

'I soon found that the device gave off an interesting signature alongside its radiation. a.n.a.lysis of the spectrum revealed that the Eye of Orion was transmitting some sort of communications stream. Using Ascension's powerful imaging systems I located the termination point of the communication stream. It ended upon Hercula.

'Within a matter of hours I had sent probes to all of the colonies that were plagued by the artefacts. Data a.n.a.lysis revealed that each and every one of them was communicating with something on Hercula.

'It occurred to me that if the artefacts could not be destroyed, perhaps they could be shut down by whatever it was that they were communicating with. I began to execute a transmission back to Eternis Systems central command. During my conversation with Sephra I was shut down. I am still uncertain as to what was the cause of this, but a diagnostic of my DCN's showed no signs of damage. They simply shut down all at the same time. One moment they were running perfectly, the next they failed. I cannot account for it.

'My proposal to you is therefore an easy one. I wish for you to take one of the Xenith cla.s.s vessels that is still currently operational and investigate Hercula to find out what you can. If you manage to shut down the Eye of Orion network it may well be possible to save humanity after all.'

'Wait just one moment,' shouted Aeniah. 'Do you really mean to tell me that your big news was simply to go somewhere else. Why did you not just tell us that straight away? And more to the point why is he,' she pointed towards me, 'so important.'

'Because Carvelle once said something that gave away his game. He said that the road to the Promethean Layer could only be achieved by someone who already had it under their control. Before I lost control of Ascension, before it fell to ruins, Carvelle was in the midst of executing his endgame. Don't you see? For Carvelle, Ascension was the beginning, not the end.'

I stared at her dumbfounded, it made no sense. I could not understand how this marvel of human creation, this ability to become a G.o.d, could not be an end in and of itself. 'But, but...why? What do you mean?'

Blue Dawn stared at me with impatience. 'Because, George, Carvelle seemed to know that there was something more to understanding the Promethean Layer than simply being able to connect to it and control it. For Carvelle life was merely a series of experiments. Ascension was just that, a test. Ascension gave Carvelle what he needed to achieve his ultimate endgame. Ascension is both a beginning and an end. It was supposed to give Carvelle what he needed in order to find out the truth. But the truth does not lie here, it lies out there, in the vast emptiness of s.p.a.ce. What he sought to find I believed he would eventually bring back here. But I have nothing more to tell you. All that is left are theories. I am imprisoned here on Ascension. I do not have the ability to find out more. What I have achieved in spite of this has truly been staggering. I am a small AI that was once considered insignificant, and now I have a power and an influence that spans the cosmos. Life's little bends and curves are ever so intriguing, don't you think Aeniah? Imagine a person who once had a stature such as yours taking orders from this little machine.' With this peculiar statement she put her hand on my shoulder.

'You might not trust me, George,' she continued. 'But have you ever even considered that you might not be able to trust her?' She smiled briefly as she stared at my expression.

'Come on now George.' She saw that I could not understand what it was she was saying. 'Well how about this? Have you ever thought about how old she might be? What do you think she really did before you found her as your Captain? Do you really think she is just another Eternis Systems employee? I mean the technology on this station should be their wet dream. But don't you think she looks as though she has seen it all before?'

'I don't know. I don't know.' I could not comprehend an answer. Aeniah looked very angry. She moved her face aggressively in front of Blue Dawn's. Their faces were centimetres from one another.

'Don't you f.u.c.king try me you little b.i.t.c.h. I know your game you pathetic little machine.' She said almost quietly.

'Really? So then what is my game Aeniah' Blue Dawn replied as calmly as ever.

Aeniah humphed and moved her head away. 'Well let me ask you this Dawn. I knew that science team. I knew every single one of them. They were my colleagues, and believe me none of them were suicidal. So let me ask you if they really committed suicide. If they really chose to die. Video manipulation is hardly a difficult thing to achieve.'

They stared at one another is silence. It was as though I did not exist. The silence continued. Without realising it their conversation had gone from discrete to being obvious to everyone. n.o.body was paying attention to anything other than their conversation at this point. The twenty or so survivors stared at them open mouthed. It seemed that I had not been the only one to be dumbfounded by this string of allegations. Mustering my courage I opened my mouth.

'Guys, can't we all just get along?' Both of them whirled towards me angrily and I took a step backwards in fear. 'Look, we all have the same objectives so why don't we all just have a breather.' This was advice they did not seem to take. Aeniah panted with rage and Blue Dawn looked like a lion ready to savage her next victim.

'Blue Dawn, how about you tell us what happened to the scientists?' I asked humbly.

'Fine. Aeniah you are of course right in your a.s.sumptions.' She almost spat out the word right. 'The science team were showing signs of infection. I had acc.u.mulated sufficient information to continue my research on the artefact without them. I therefore removed the oxygen from the room that they were in. They died almost without realising they were dying. My actions were in accordance with the United World procedures on biological quarantine. You, Aeniah, of all people, should be aware of United World policy. As an artificial intelligence I am forced, by virtue of my very construction, to comply with all United World procedures. As a construction of Carvelle I can also choose to take a liberal interpretation of them.'

Aeniah rolled her eyes but she countered a coming onslaught. 'It is this liberal interpretation, might I remind you, which has stopped me from following standard quarantine procedure to the letter. If I had, Ascension's failsafe's would have been activated long ago and any hope of saving humanity would be lost along with the station.'

I nodded at the answer. I was a little disconcerted to think that at any moment Blue Dawn might kill anyone she wanted to.

Aeniah in a fit of anger retorted, with all the grace and tact of an exploding star. 'So tell me this. Clearly most of my crew are infected. Does this mean that you are going to cleanse them from you station as well?'

Blue Dawn smiled. 'My primary concern is the continuity of the species. Should I execute members of your crew you might not be tempted to comply with my demands. Therefore I think it best to await the shutdown of the Eye of Orion network before I consider my options.'

This was again of little comfort. Blue Dawn was showing off her darker side. I felt the need to remind myself of Sean's words. That she too might have been driven mad by the effects of the artefact. What I really admired was just how sane an insane person could appear. I turned to Aeniah and stated, 'it's your turn.'

Aeniah raised an eyebrow and laughed. 'I'm afraid Mr Engeltine that I'm going to be keeping that to myself. You see whilst I do have some secrets I'm a real believer in the idea that there is a time and place for everything. You will just have to wait for the long ride to Hercula for those answers. Oh and don't think about asking Sean. Since his little slip-ups with you in the research wards I have had a few words.' I stared at her intently but did not have enough energy to follow up on my questions. 'Now Dawn would you ever so kindly take us to the Xenith vessel.'

'I am afraid Aeniah that you will be taking yourself there. Ascension is far too damaged to perform a ma.s.s transport of that many people to such a far away location. The Xenith cla.s.s vessels are located in the primary launch chambers at the highest point on Ascension. As part of my quarantine procedures was to prevent exit and entrance from the station, the command modules from each vessel were taken and placed in secure chambers within Ascension Central Command. This is located in the heart of the station.'

'And how do we get there,' Aeniah asked.

'Ascension was designed to operate like a conventional city. People did not take lifts and walk, they took the railways and highways. Unfortunately for you the railways are unusable. But the highways are just fine. You should exit the dock and continue onto the Commercial District that is annexed to this section. The Commercial District is serviced by several primary freeways which go around Ascension's structure like internal rings, placed one on top of the other.

'Each of these highway rings is connected by a mult.i.tude of elevation freeways. You should enter onto Inter-sectional freeway 19. After two miles take the off ramp onto Elevation-freeway 6. You should continue on this road for eight miles until you reach the station's centre. Exit at junction fourteen and take the Inter-Sectional freeway until you reach the Ascension Centre for Administration. Within this super-section you will find Ascension Central Command. You see, logical and simple. There are free-for-use vehicles in the parking garages in the centre of the Commercial District. The closest and best stocked garage will be the Ascension Social Transport Initiative.'

'Great,' I muttered. 'So I take it that this is going to be another long journey?'