Chapter 7 – Heist
Alos woke up, rubbing his eyes as he sat up. He stretched his arms out over his head, letting out a long yawn. Swinging his feet around to the side of the bed, Alos stood up surveying the room.
The room was primarily furnished with the bed he had gotten up from but it also had a multi-cabinet desk and an incinerator toilet in the corner. Above the desk was a section of interactive touch screen glass. When he got up and walked towards it, a graphical user interface popped up displaying information regarding the temperature of the room, its humidity, light brightness, and time. Each of these segments of information branched from a central point on the screen. The interface was so similar to the screens he used back home, that Alos was led to believe it was probably created by the same software developer.
Alos touched the central point, having the display retract the stemming information, and present a menu of options instead. The options ranged from the ship’s layout to an Omninet connection. He selected the option which read “Main room display”, which brought up a video of the main room showing most of the crew was in the room, sitting on the couch eating breakfast. Xri and Merick however, were missing. Pressing the screen again, the menu retracted, representing the original information regarding the room. As he walked away from the screen and out the door, the display powered down.
Once outside, Alos made his way down the hall, and over to the main room and upon arrival found the crew sitting there enjoying their breakfast. The day before, when he had been inside the room, there were walls under the mounted screen but now where the walls had previously been were instead wall sized touch screen windows. Through the windows Alos could see fish swimming through coral reefs, sea weed waving with the tide, and even a few turtles off in the distance. Unless it was some kind of video being displayed, the ship was clearly underwater.
Running over to the window, Alos pressed his face against the glass and stared out into the navy waters around the ship. Such vivid, naturally occurring color he had never seen before, especially in an oceanic domain; the waters on the beaches back in Optimaris were bright and beautiful but they were also empty of any life around the coastline. Pink like the petals of a rose striped the backs of one species of fish as it swam by while another larger fish was specked with green and white splotches in no apparent order and shaped like a spade. Even the reefs jumped out with sharp oranges and distinct pinks. As he was staring in awe at a passing reef, a fish snapped at the ship from out of the reef. Alos staggered back several feet, startled, and nearly fell onto his backside.
“So why are we underwater? Or better yet, HOW are we underwater?” Alos said as he turned around to face the crew. As he turned he saw that they were all staring at the ground which was projecting a holographic image displaying a rough path to their destination.
Levitas looked at Dardaños, who returned his own gaze.
“I guess it won’t hurt to tell ‘im now.” Levitas said. He stood and walked towards the window.
“We are pickin’ up some,” Dardaños stopped, pausing to think about his choice of words.
“We're pickin’ up some precious cargo.” Levitas butted in.
“Precious cargo? What is this, some kind of drug running operation?” Alos said squinting with skepticism.
Levitas’ hand shot up to his face, pinching the arch of his nose as his lips pressed together.
“You really are clueless kid.”
“I really am, and you aren’t helping.” Alos responded, shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head.
“Educate me.”
Levitas’ index finger and thumb slid out over his brow along the metal rim of his visor, and then back in to his furrows.
“We're picking up slaves, kid.”
“Slaves?” Alos said under his breath in a raspy cracking voice as he looked at Levitas.
“Well, and a data module.” Levitas replied, as he walked back over to the couch where he sat down.
“You guys sell slaves?”
“Kind of-” Levitas started, before he was interrupted by Bert.
“We are a part of an anti-slavery collective which operates as the political military force within the Non-States. It is called the NSR, short for Non-States Resistance. We locate imprisoned slaves and release them; with several added bonuses.”
Alos looked over at Bert who was starring fervently back. Bert’s towering stature was intimidating.
“You don’t sell slaves then?” Alos asked feeling as though his question had been effectively dodged.
“Not quite,” Levitas replied, his voice stern and forceful, “you see, we hate slavery, we despise slavery. It's clearly a violation of an individual’s rights to dignity and freedom. As much as we hate it though, it is reality, and we can’t do this job forever with no pay. It costs a lot to keep this collective operating: fuel, maintenance, arms, real estate, equipment, and so on. I mean, a man’s gotta eat right?”
“Cut to the chase.” Alos said with an impatient bite.
“Look, when we free a collection of slaves, they usually number in the thousands. What we do is take a small number of these slaves, ten sometimes fifteen, and sell them back.”
Alos arms flew up into the air in outrage. “You're no better than they are! Can’t you see you are simply perpetuating the system!? How can you be anti-slavery when you fucking SELL slaves!? I’ve never heard of such blatant hypocrisy…”
“We duh not like it anymore d’an yah,” began Dardaños, “it esss what esss necessary fuhr us to remain in service, and dis service esss necessary.”
Clearing his throat, Levitas began to talk with his rough grated voice.
"You think we're different than them because they’re in metal cages and we're not? You think that because we have the key we're somehow freer than they are?”
Levitas shook his head, his metallic visor catching gleams of light with each movement.
“Kid, we're all slaves. Slaves to this pile of shit we call society. They own you, because they own your time, every month, every week, every day, grinding away for just enough money to get by. Don't ever think that your time is yours, because the minute you do, the minute you try to take your time back, you'll end up cold and alone in this world begging for the scraps that that schmuck with a job carelessly tosses away. Time may be a single person's greatest resource and this money crazed world stole it away from us a long, LONG time ago. We don’t do this because we want to, we do this because we have to. For us, for them, and for the good of the Non-States."
Alos shook his head angrily, turning his back to them and walking back over to the window. He placed his left hand on the window then pressed his forehead to the glass. He didn’t know what to say. What could he say to that?
“With juxtaposition, false assessment is made.
Naivety rejects what is a dull grey shade.”
“Zeith, yar only makin’ matters worse wit yar riddles.” Dardaños snapped.
“MMMMMmmmmm
HHmmm hhhhmmmMMMm”
From the reflection within the glass, Alos could see Zeith making the nasally grunting sounds before slumping away and out of the room. The rest of the crew stood motionless, the thick air of unease in the room weighing down on all of them. Dardaños turned his head watching Zeith leave, before immediately returning his gaze to Alos. Alos dragged his head against the glass smearing his misery into it, and as he did a small trail of oil from his skin was left behind. He pulled his head back, looking at the trail before turning back to the crew.
“Is there a shower anywhere on this ship?” Alos asked, his brow slightly lowered with disdain.
“Iee am sorry but dare esss not.” Dardaños replied. “When we land yah mayee ‘ave first access though.”
Alos walked over to the couch and plopped down next to Bert. The previous excitement from gazing out the window had been replaced by a general distaste for his entire situation. Thoughts of the events leading up to this point pounded through his head, only exacerbating how he felt. The reality of not being able to go home was finally hitting pretty hard and being stuck with these self-justified slavers, these fucking pirates... well that was only making matters worse.
Levitas was taking a bite of a pastry when the holographic display magnified to adjust to the ships closeness in proximity to its destination. Mouth full, Levitas nodded towards the display and said,
“Aye we best be headin’ down to the slime room, we’re almost there.”
The crew got up and followed Levitas out of the room, all except Alos. Alos sat slouched back against the couch staring blankly out the window at the schools of passing fish, empty and void of any desire to do anything. After several minutes of mindless, contemptible staring, watching the ship slowly pull up and out of the water, he decided he should probably follow the others. He didn’t know why he should, but he figured if this was his life, he may as well get used it. Standing up and shaking his head in disapproval to himself, Alos walked toward the hallway. About halfway to the hallway, he suddenly stopped and turned to the wall beside him. He glanced up at the top of the wall then slowly dragged his eyes down to the bottom.
“Fuck my life.” he said as he knocked his head into the wall. His head hunkered over his chest shaking back and forth as he dragged himself down the hall in pursuit of the rest.
On his way down, Alos ran into Xri who was standing outside the elevator waiting for its arrival. The elevator opened up and Xri stepped inside, then turned around pressing a button. His head shifted up towards Alos.
“It is time for you to earn your keep my lad.”
The elevator shut before Alos could respond, cutting him off, his mouth still opened and ready for use. With a deep sigh, he continued down the hall towards the slime room. Along the way, he passed by a display showing the ship’s garage. In the image, the garage’s loading bay slowly opened and a midsized cruiser flew out. The frame of the image followed the cruiser as it flew out, and in the cockpit, Alos could clearly see Xri piloting it.
When he finally made it down, he found Levitas standing in front of the remaining crew: Dardaños, Zeith, and Merick, with Bert nowhere to be found. Levitas reached up to his forehead, wedging his fingers into his bandanna. Pulling his hand away, the previous bulge in the bandanna had disappeared and in his right hand was a small gold coin with a square cut through the middle with the rim of the coin embroidered with tiny runes unfamiliar to Alos. Levitas began rolling the coin back and forth between his fingers, feeling out the embroidering.
“So, who is coming with me?” Levitas said as he flicked the coin into the air.
Both Dardaños and Zeith stood up to this inquisition. Levitas glanced back and forth between the two, and then caught the coin out of the air.
“Call it Dard.” Levitas' hand stood stretched out, clenching the coin. “And no cheatin’ Zeith.”
“Triangle.” Dardaños’ eyes widened with excitement.
Levitas' hand rolled over and he unclenched his fingers. Laying flat on the palm of his hand, was what appeared to be the same coin, but with a triangle cutting through the middle instead.
“Aye!” Dardaños cried as his robotic fist shot up into the air.
“Alright then, let’s get ready.” Levitas started to walk away, followed by Dardaños, when he stopped.
“Kid, you’re coming too.”
Alos didn’t know what to expect, and reluctantly trotted along behind. They exited into the hall and descended down into the lower room. Merick was inside smoking his pipe, his jaw jutting forward as he held the pipe in his mouth. His eyes were fixated onto a screen that was too far away for Alos to see. As they entered the room, Merick turned his attention to them.
“Suit up yeh sagits, were almost ‘tare.” Merick’s brow tilted as he looked at Alos. “What’s he doin ‘ere?”
“He's going to be helping us on our escapade from here. We get to see if he's as good as Frank says.” Levitas said, as he pulled a hanging suit from a closet.
The suit Levitas had pulled down was full body with magnetic fastening strips running from the groin up to the collar. On the back, plastic clamps extended out, two just below the shoulders and two just above the waist. The area between the clamps was covered with a black and gray checkered grid that looked rubbery. Alos did not have a clue as to what the suit was for.
“So what exactly am I doing here?” Alos asked, shaking his head at Levitas.
“You are going to be opening a few doors for us.” Levitas said as he reached back inside the closet and pulled out a pack. He threw the pack over his back, causing the clamps to clip into place inside.
“Look.” Levitas said pointing his fingers to the screen displaying the view outside the ship. Outside was a massive building towering into the sky, so large, the neighboring mountains appeared to be kneeling before it. It was easily several square miles in area and went straight up for at least a mile. The muscles in Alos jaw relaxed in awe of the sheer size of the structure.
“What the fu-“, Alos began before being cut off by Merick’s snarky voice.
“Yeh act like yeh neva seen a buildin’ befohr.” Merick’s lips curled up at the corners ever so slightly as he said this. A weasel’s smile never looked so snarky as this. Alos’ head slowly rotated over to Merick, holding an annoyed, piercing, leer.
Over beside Merick was Dardaños who was also now wearing a suit with a pack. Both Levitas and Dardaños walked over to one of the slime tanks in the room, each reaching up and pulling a long rubber hose down. They pressed the nozzles of the hoses into a slot on the upper part of the backpacks and then pulled a lever on the wall. Slime sucked down into their packs as a small gauge beside the slot began filling up with the green slime until it was completely filled. As each gauge filled, both their bodies’ weight seemed to lessen until they were finally hovering buoyantly above the floor of the ship.
“This building right here, we're going to relieve it of some of its assets.” Levitas said placing emphasized amounts of facetiousness on the word relieve, his stubbled face stretching into a sneering grin.
“So we are stealing?” Alos’ face went as flat as his words were blunt.
Dardaños let out a hearty laugh. “Teh lad doesn’t know ‘ees wit pirates.”
Merick, Levitas and Dardaños all turned towards each other releasing howls of laughter.
“Look at teh poor behby’s pouteh face!” Merick said pointing at Alos bending over clutching his knee to support himself from falling over. Alos’ raised his right hand up to his face, palming his eyes and mouth away from the utter stupidity of Merick’s response.
“Okay that’s quite enough,” Levitas said clenching his jaw. “Dardaños and I are going to enter from the side of the building. That’s where you come in.” Levitas turned facing Alos. “You are going to hack into it and open the door for us.”
“What about security? A place like this is going to have more than a little.”
“Don’t worry about that kid, they’re going to have their hands full.”
Levitas and Dardaños walked over to the side of the ship where they took the elevator back up into the main hull. Merick returned to monitoring the display.
“So how do they plan on get-“ Alos started before being cut off by Merick’s barks.
“Shut up, and get tuh werk! They need that door open yesterday!”
Alos shrugged and walked over to an empty couch he found in the room. He plopped down onto it, removing his Orb from his pocket, leaning back into the couch. He stretched his shoulders, arms, and back, releasing several cracks in the process as he sank further into the cushioned furniture. Pulling his goggles down over his eyes, he clenched his Orb in his left hand and furrowed his brow.
The cold creep of hypocrisy tingled up his spine as he prepared to boot up the net. Was he really about to collaborate with his so called crew after his fierce opposition to their practices? It made him look inconsistent, that much he knew for sure, and at the very least he wanted his dignity. But as he sat there clutching his Orb between the nervous fingers of his left hand, he knew there was no other option. The more he thought about it, the more apparent it became what that contract was. He was a slave to his situation, and their slave at that, and if it had to be between working on this ship and rotting away in the medical bed of a de-nerving facility, well it really did seem obvious.
The Omninet boot sequence initiated. The animation of the boy stacking papers finished, and he climbed through the ceiling into the area. The viewing angle zoomed in until Alos was in control of his BOT.
0rnj was on a giant floating platform which Alos instantly knew to be the ship. He could see that the platform was drawing close to a massive blocky structure which he took to be the monster of a building he had seen earlier, its size only seeming to grow as they flew in closer. On the digitally blocky structure Alos could see a small section of sixteen squares composing an even larger interlacing field of squares slightly bulging outwards.
The platform drew close enough for Alos’ tastes and he started the process. His left arm began to shudder with spasms causing 0rnj’s left arm to stretch out towards the squares, the cumulative neural activity of his actions combining together into a single impulse that transcoded into the preprogrammed actions of his BOT. 0rnj’s arm stretched out towards the building touching one of the squares and causing it to light up in a bright green. He moved 0rnj’s arm over to another square. This square also lit up but instead with a bright blue. This gave him the inclination that it was some sort of password protected gate, most likely for quick access of the owners within the Omninet. Given how much he was being rushed he figured he didn’t have enough time to decode it and instead decided to infiltrate it.
0rnj’s hand that was touching the square began to morph, shifting into a light fluid, like a puddle extending out of his arm. Without hesitation, Alos pressed 0rnj’s arm against the squares, and the fluid extension of his arm began seeping though the tiny gaps between each square. 0rnj’s arm continued to press in, melting into the side of the wall until finally, it stopped. With a sudden yank, Alos snapped 0rnj’s arm back and then all of the squares on the wall lit up a bright array of rainbow colors before fading back to grey. In a specific order, a sequence of flashes occurred on the squares.
ORANGE
BLUE
RED
BLUE
GREEN
PURPLE
The squares all began to strobe with flashing colors before they disappeared and the wall opened up, dissipating into the adjacent sides of the building. Alos smiled, he couldn’t help it and it caused the receptor on 0rnj’s face to distort to the side, taking on the shape of a rounded triangle. The extent to which 0rnj was programmed to even his most minor flexions was a feat of pride for Alos, as no one else he knew even came close and whenever he saw a small accidental flash of it, he felt that pride ring true throughout his body. It felt good. No. It felt amazing.
Facing the newly opened gap in the side of the digital building, 0rnj jumped the gap from the platform onto the new opening and walked slightly inside.
“Eh, anyone coulda dun dat…” Merick murmured to himself. Alos smiled as he pulled up his goggles slightly to look over at the display.
On the screen Alos could see the nose of the ship. It had a flat circular structure shaped similar to the other spiraling doors on the ship and appeared to open like the mouth of a stingray. Sure enough, the door spiraled open revealing Levitas and Dardaños standing on the deck, each holding onto handles extending down from the ceiling, pushing themselves down into the floor. When the door on the building opened up, Levitas and Dardaños eased their legs off the ground and began to float up towards the ceiling. They planted their feet against the back wall, curled their legs inward, and then forced their bodies tightly up into the corner, cocking them back like a spring in a gun.
It was as if a cannon shot out from within the ship, when suddenly Levitas shot out, bulleting through the air and flying into the opening on the building and out of sight.
Dardaños looked up and took a nervous breath. Whatever nervousness held him back though, soon vanished as he released his legs, flying out and away from the ship. His nervousness soon returned however after he realized his shove off from the wall wasn’t nearly enough, flying not even at half the speed that his companion did. He flailed his arms forward toward the opening trying to gain speed in a desperate swing, struggling, but only worsening his state.
Halfway across the gap, he began losing momentum.
“Oh Menelich, he’s going tuh bloody stall!” Merick stammered, his eyes widening and his pupils dilating.
Dardaños began looking around frantically as his body drifted to a halt in the dead air. With a thrusting jerk, he clutched his mechanical arm, reached back, and then threw it forward. The metallic hand on his mechanical arm shot out with a black powder assisted throw, landing behind the bottom wall on the opening, slowly dragging along the ground until it snagged secure. Dardaños twisted something on his mechanical arm and a crank began pulling him towards the hand and out of the air.
Merick looked down below the display wide eyed, wiping some sweat from his face.
“Dat was wayee too damn close. If ‘ee stalled fur mutch longehr ‘ee woulda been sucked right intuh our turbines.”
Once Levitas and Dardaños were secure in the room, Merick pulled the ship back from the building, hesitating before flying off. On the display in the room, Alos watched the front of the ship pull down and away from Dardaños and Levitas, Dardaños waving once at the ship when he was finally across. With the confirmation, Merick spun the ship around and blasted off towards the beach, throwing Alos back into the couch and nearly off his feet.
“So what now?” Alos asked aloud.
“Now ya sit yar ass dewn and bloody wait!” Merick answered without even turning from the ship’s navigational computer.
With nothing to do, Alos powered down his orb and relaxed back into the couch, finally becoming comfortable. Merick’s condescension wasn’t really affecting him as much as thought it would but when he thought about why, he realized just how tired he was after the past few days. His weight shifted around, and Alos quickly found himself being pulled down into the deep leather cushions of the couch. Warm, comfortable, and cozy, sleep came quickly to Alos, easily slipping him out of his agitated conscious state and away from any immediate worries. Alos wasn’t one to easily fall asleep, or so he thought, but his misadventures were starting to get the better of him.
____________________________________
The next thing Alos remembered was waking up. The light outside had faded to the beginnings of twilight and Levitas and Dardaños were back on the ship as notified by the display. With a sudden jolt of awareness, Alos realized he was on the couch in the main room as opposed to down inside the slime room. Someone had carried him up. With a big yawn and a long stretch, he decided to go find the others in his half asleep mental fog.
Down in the room with the tanks of slime, Alos found the others standing in a semicircle staring down at the ground. Merick was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, pulling levers, turning knobs, and flipping switches. He walked over to see what the others were staring at.
On the ground, was a floral design identical to the one covering Xri’s quarters. The only difference was that this was about twenty times larger.
“Is there a reason everyone is staring at this?” Alos tapped the spiraling door with his foot.
Without moving his head, Levitas replied.
“Xri should be back any minute.”
Merick ran by nearly bumping into Levitas. He ran over to a screen on the far side of the room, leaned over it and then placed his thickly gloved hands onto the screen. The ship violently jerked back, tossing Alos off his feet and onto the ground. The rest of the crew seemed unbothered though, as if they had braced for it. As Alos was pushing himself back up to his feet, the floral design on the ground spiraled outwards opening the door.
Levitas drew his pistol and a small rifle extended out of Dardaños’ mechanical arm.
Ascending on a platform from below, Xri stood with twelve other people. Ten of which were human, one being Lycanian and one being Simanian. They were all clothed in eccentric yellow jumpsuits, each with a differing bold black number printed on their chest and back. Most of their jumpsuits had tears and stains as well as being caked with dirt.
The platform reached the floor of the ship and locked into place. Raising their arms, Levitas and Dardaños brandished their weapons aiming them at the crowd of people.
“Let’s not make this any more difficult than it needs to be.” Levitas said raising his voice to the newcomers on the ship. “Me and my friend here,” Levitas nodded his head at Dardaños, “are going to lead you over to your holding chamber. For your own sake please just cooperate.”
Levitas walked over to the elevator leading up into the ship, leading the group of twelve with Dardaños in the rear. Halfway to the elevator platform, one of the men started charging Levitas sprinting full force at his back. The man leaped forward at his back, latching onto his neck with his interlaced fingers around his throat. Acting as if the man wasn’t even there, Levitas continued walking towards the elevator, the man continuing to pull at his throat before switching his attention to the gun. He then struggled trying to pull the gun from Levitas' hand but Levitas didn’t even seem to recognize that he was being attacked, his swaggering walk unhindered by the ravaging human flailing about on his back. In fact, Alos began to wonder if he was oblivious to the man.
When Levitas reached the elevator platform, he hit the button opening its doors. With one hand, he reached over his shoulder, picked up the man by his neck and then threw him slamming against the back wall in the elevator. The man collapsed to the floor, unconscious, and slumped up into a ball against the wall.
“Does anybody else need to get that out of their system?” Levitas turned his back to the people, patting it. None of the people so much as exhaled.
“Okay then, that’s what I like to see.”
Levitas turned back to the crowd of people.
“We’re gonna go up the elevator in two groups of seven, since one is already on the elevator, let’s get five more.”
The people stood looking at each other, unsure if they wanted to risk moving. After seeing that poor guy get thrown across the room, the group of people looked as though all hope had suddenly been lost, and their great hero defeated. Dardaños walked up behind a row of five of the people and shoved them all forward with his foot, nudging them along one by one. The people staggered forward trying not to lose their balance, and then unwillingly stepped onto the elevator. The glass doors closed and the elevator ascended.
Alos turned back to find Xri talking to Bert off to the side of the room. Xri was holding something Alos didn’t notice earlier. He raised it up, rotating it around to show Bert. It was rectangular in shape, but curved outwards encasing a sphere at the middle. The outer casing was dark grey and about a foot long with a handle at the top, while the spherical middle was a deep marine blue which seemed to be pulsating a radiant aura of color. Bert said something and Xri nodded with agreement, they then turned and started walking towards Alos.
“What’s that?” Alos said, pointing to what Xri was holding.
“This is what you will be helping me with.” Xri responded, holding it up to Alos.
Alos reached out and took it from Xri, the weight of the object catching him off guard and almost causing him to drop it. Lifting it back up, he rotated it around to get a better look.
“Careful, it's a data module.” Xri said. “We're hoping it has data regarding other similar items.”
“You want me to extract the data then?” Alos asked, finally beginning to understand what his role was going to be in this crew.
“Exactly.” Xri said as he put his arm around Alos walking towards the elevator. “And who knows, there could be some other goodies on there.” Xri retook the module from Alos.
The elevator came down and Xri, Bert and Alos got on it. They took it to the main floor of the ship, got off, and walked down the hall. At the end of the hall, on the other side of the main room, they could see the second group of slaves being escorted by Dardaños.
Xri placed the module down on the table in the main room. He sat down on the couch, being joined by Bert.
“Do your thing.” Xri said to Alos, as he kicked his feet up onto the table.
Alos sat down on the couch beside Xri and removed his Orb from his pocket. After pulling his goggles down, he sat back into the couch, relaxing, his goggles lit up and he went to work.
Inside, his goggles displayed his normal user interface screen. He worked his way through several menus, until he reached the program he was looking for. Selecting it opened a new window. The window was an empty black window with a single blinking line. Alos input the command, “Search local Omninet host points.” A circle appeared with three smaller circles around it, each differing in size. Alos selected one of the smaller circles and a display came up which read, “XHSpt”. He unselected that one and tried a different circle. The second circle read, “BertHSpt”. That didn’t seem right either. Alos selected the last smaller circle which displayed the host name, “MOSptV”.
With the host selected, Alos reopened the black window and input, “Inject 0rnj MOSptV” and after a short processing time, a confirmation message appeared. He went back to his menu and selected “Boot Omninet”. An array of images fluttered through his goggles and then stopped at the animation of the boy stacking papers under him. The animation finished and the view frame zoomed in to 0rnj’s view.
Once inside the module, Alos looked around through 0rnj. The Omninetic room containing the data within the module was a long hall with close walls and a short ceiling. All of the walls and floor were white, only being divided by thin black lines and the only real color within the room was at the very end of the hall, which was a navy blue shape that he couldn’t quite make out.
0rnj started walking down the hall.
Alos wasn’t used to holding his Orb in his left hand, so controlling 0rnj felt awkward. It was like trying to write his name with his left hand since he was right handed. 0rnj’s movements were clunky and stiff, lacking any sort of grace or smoothness and felt as though they were contrived. Not knowing about his newfound lack of finesse, Xri and Bert were somewhat disturbed by the abrupt, rapidly over compensating clenching and releasing of muscles by Alos.
0rnj slowly but steadily made his way down the hall, and as he got closer to the end, the blue shape grew increasingly clear. The large blue object was in the shape of a doughnut, and it became clear that this object was containing the data Xri wanted, but getting it was going to be a challenge. The center of the doughnut was enclosed around a pillar going from the ceiling to the floor, and was being covered by two disks, one on top the other on the bottom. It looked inaccessible.
Alos shifted his weight on the couch, rubbing his chin, searching the small crevice of his cleft for a solution. Xri and Bert looked at Alos curious of what he was doing. They were users of the Omninet, that much Alos could tell, but he would guess they were only as advanced as the average person, maybe even less. Then with sudden inspiration, Alos snapped his fingers at the idea that popped into his head.
0rnj moved over to the pillar and climbed up onto the top disk. He stretched both arms and both legs around the pillar, hugging it with each. The red blob on 0rnj’s face changed to an upside down triangle and then 0rnj began to squeeze the pillar with every pixel of his might.
For Alos to control 0rnj in this way, he was flexing an array of obscure muscles. His face contorted into a part sneer, part smile, and part frowning hodgepodge of emotional conveyance. His arms and legs curled slightly up into his torso, almost convulsively twitching while the fingers on his left hand curved inward towards his body rolling the Orb back and forth between his fingers and thumb. Xri and Bert were not only startled but heavily disturbed by the display of body manipulation taking place.
The pillar trapping the doughnut ring began to shrink in width until it eventually got so skinny, that the hole in the ring exceeded the diameter of the disk holding it up, and it fell to the floor. 0rnj hopped off the pillar, looking down at the ring lying on the floor, and then reached down and gripped the ring with both hands. With one decisive yank, the ring broke through the bottom part of the pillar, becoming free from its containment. 0rnj stepped back and held the ring up with both his hands. He brought the ring towards his stomach which opened up like a giant mouth, and then inserted the ring. His stomach closed around the large edge of the ring, having a large disk like bulge sticking out from his abdomen and then after a brief moment, the bulge collapsed back into his body’s normal, flat state. It wasn’t normal for users to so easily extract the graphically encrypted data, but Alos was a pro, and 0rnj was programmed specifically for the task.
Alos sat on the couch pouring with sweat from the ordeal of control he had just gone through. His chest was rising and falling with each panting breath. From head to toe, every muscle in his body ached from exhaustion. Bert and Xri sat staring at Alos in wonder. They had no idea what it meant to be an advanced Omninet user, nor had they ever witnessed a more disturbing yet impressive performance of muscle spasms but from the demonstration that just took place, Alos could see they were beginning to get an understanding.
“…Are you done then?” Xri asked, unsure of what to make of what had just happened.
“Yes... I have... The data.” Alos replied gasping for air between each sentence.
Xri reached into his pocket pulling out an Orb of his own.
“Transfer it to this, unless you think it will kill you.” Xri said smirking as he stretched out his hand with his Orb.
“I don’t need your Orb. Your Orb’s host name is XHSpt right?” Alos asked.
“Indeed it is.”
“And does it have a password?” Alos placed his Orb on his lap to stretch out his hand as he asked this.
“Do you really need it? After seeing that, I am positive you could just hack into it.”
“You’re right, I could.” Alos said, as he slid his goggles up onto his forehead. Alos’ head tilted towards Xri, glancing flatly out the corner of his eyes.
“But are you really going to make me after all that?”
“Alright, alright.” Xri said waving his hands out in front of him. “The first password is ‘298377299283892910kkl’. The second is ‘Capital H, 827j7222092 capital K, capital K, 0’. And the last is ‘whisperingminds’ one word, no caps.”
Alos slid his goggles back down, connecting to Xri’s Orb and then quickly input each password as Xri spelled them out. The three passwords were accepted and Alos gained full access. He went into his menu, located the ring data, and then sent it to Xri’s Orb. After a brief sending time, the file transferred over.
“I’m impressed that you can remember such long passwords off the top of your head.” Alos said as he powered down his Orb, placing it back into his pocket.
“Oh is that right?” Xri responded sarcastically. The corner of Bert’s mouth rose ever so slightly to Xri’s comment. It was the first time Alos had seen Bert’s blank expression change.
“Just take your slave data and be happy.” Alos turned away disgusted.
“Yes your majesty.” Xri stood up, bowing to Alos. He reached over, grabbed the module from the table, and then walked out of the room.
“With time the intricacies of our operations will become clearer.” Bert said, before standing and walking over to the window in the main room.
Alos shook his head in disagreement. How can recycling slaves become clearer? How can they possibly try to justify denying a group of people their freedom, for the sake of a larger group? Who are they to decide? None of it made any sense.
Over on the window, Bert was doing something with the user interface. He selected an option which turned on the giant screen above him. An image of thousands upon thousands of small figures in yellow jumpsuits could be seen flooding out from the building, pouring into the citadel around the massive structure.
“Maybe that will make you feel better.” Xri said as he pressed a glass bottle to his lips. Alos' jaw dropped in amazement. Feelings of confliction, contradiction, and unease began to swell up from deep within his stomach. Slavery wasn’t right, on any level, and yet here was a textbook example for the argument of “the ends justify the means”, which forced him to second guess himself. It wasn’t right, that much he knew, but was it wrong?
Then, watching the prisoners pour out from the mouth of the underground facility, Alos had a sudden realization.
“That contract I signed, that literally enslaved me didn’t it?”
“So teh boy finuhlly poots two an’ two toegtha’ ey?” Merick remarked from off to the side of the room, his heavy accent slurring the words to the point of verbal salad.
“So I am a slave of the ship then?” Alos’ face drew into a solemn visage, void of emotion.
Xri smacked Alos’ back gripping his shoulder tightly, “Do not worry, we are all slaves at some point. Working on this ship will eventually pay enough for you to buy your own freedom.”
“It’ll teach ‘im sum financial discipline it will.” Merick added.
Alos stood speechless. He felt as if he was drowning in the weight of the room. How could he have ended up at the bottom of the barrel in society so quickly? Within a few days he went from being the heir to one of the most prestigious political families in the world to a pirate slave. To think that his friend, Darkbum94, recommended this; well that was just too much.
After only a brief moment of watching, Bert interacted with the interface and the screen changed. The screen began flipping through channels until it came to display a television show. After watching it for a brief moment, Alos saw it was the same show he had been watching at the train stop.
The screen showed the previously victorious red team entering the arena from one side. From the other side, entered three gladiators, each fully equipped with mechanical battle suits and an entire arsenal of weaponry. The red team only consisted of eight individuals, each of them equipped with what looked to be a rail gun. No armor for the red team whatsoever.
Bert interrupted the show with an announcement over the ship’s com system.
“In celebration of the mission’s success, refreshments will be served in the main room.”
Bert walked over to the side of the main room and pulled a cake and a case of beverages from the refrigerator. The cake looked to be chocolate, but the beverages were unknown to Alos. The labeling was in a language unfamiliar to him, containing calligraphic symbols, from the look of the packaging though, he guessed it was some kind of alcohol.
Alos returned his attention to the show on the giant screen. Only one of the gladiators and two members of the red team remained alive. One of the people on the red team started firing at the ground in front of the gladiator, running over and around him. The gladiator turned to him and raised his plasma cannon up to fire. It charged and then with a brilliant pulsating flash, it fired. The running member of the red team leapt into the air, over the blast, and then landed on the gladiator’s head. The gladiator swung his arm, flinging the contestant off of him and across the field. What the gladiator failed to realize though, was that the other member of the red team had managed to sneak up on him while he was distracted. At point blank range, he aimed his rail gun at the head of the gladiator. With sudden realization he spun around but it was too late, the sneaky member of the red team had fired his rail gun, penetrating the helmet of the gladiator’s battle suit, and flying out the other side, leaving only the outline of his skull. The two remaining red team members jumped up and high-fived each other dancing around the body laden battlefield. The show cut to advertisements.
Alos turned his attention away from the screen to find the entire crew in the main room. Each member had a plate of cake and a bottle of whatever drink that was. There was conversation taking place between several groups of the crew. Even Merick and Zeith appeared to be talking casually with the others, if their way of speaking could be considered casual. They seemed completely free of guilt, nor drawn by the excitement on the screen, and completely outside the moral dilemma that he was experiencing being involved in this slavery business. It was as if they were completely unaware. Unaware of anything. How could they not only support slavery, but trap him in it too? Why did HE have to be de-nerved?
Alos did not understand. He could not understand.