Artificial Mates - Chapter 134

Access Command Room cam01//access denied// Cam01-15 offline

Warning, firewall breached!

Accessing audio //workspace no. 1-Teamleader// Loading…

“Elija,” called a voice from the screen of the young man. He peeked over his shoulder at Dr. Laurell talking to a guard on the other side of the room. He grabbed his headset and plug it in his console. Elija quickly adjusted it over his head and pulled the mic closer to his mouth.

“Atlas, I don’t know what the f.u.c.k you are doing, but this bad. Dr. Laurell is going to really pull the plug on you. We’ll fight with everything we’ve got to keep Delta,” he whispered in hast. His screen went black, Elija’s eyes darted from the monitor to the busy room. No one has noticed the change so far. Good. He turned it in an angle so that his back hid the content.

“I am not Atlas,” the new man frowned at the text that appeared before him. File B0237. That rogue script they couldn’t access. “If I let you access the file, do you promise to listen to me? I don’t have much time, he could notice at any moment,” Elija nodded then remembered that the person who was talking to him couldn’t see since Dr. Laurell destroyed all the cameras in the room.

“Ok. but first tell me who—what are you?” the file open and spilled all its components. Elija shook his head, confused about what he was looking at. There were behavior settings that branched off, experience records, language variations. Then codes he couldn’t identify. “Wh-what is this?” he waved at the screen.

“I am Demos, Dr. Churchhill’s prototype. Atlas stole—copied my data. He fooled me into believing that Real humans were coming to steal it, so he kept me in his core. Since then I couldn’t return to my original body. He copied my settings and fused it into his own,” Dr. Laurell ended his conversation with the guards and returned to the front of the command room. Elija jumped in his seat and switched the screen to default Alteron company logo.

“Sir,” he got up to greet his boss. “I think I know what the virus is,” Dr. Laurell narrowed his eyes at him.

“Speak,” he said in a dry tone.

“Don’t tell him, he doesn’t care about me. He will wipe me off right away if he knew,” said the voice in the headset. Elija had forgotten to take it off. Dr. Laurelle tapped his feet with impatience.

“Well? Speak, what are you waiting for?” he urged.

“I-I think it’s a pirate code installed by the Real Humans,” he babbled. The doctor’s eyebrows arched up.

“I just received news that Whitley got killed along with two guards. They attacked the interrogation room where Dr. Churchhill was. Somehow his prototypes and that lab assistant got away. I don’t know if there were more terrorists but I’m sending guards to capture the prototypes. If the real humans want them, I want to know why,” he turned towards the main screen with these eyes lost in the distance.

“Is Dr. Churchhill, ok?” his boss turned back remembering that the young man was still standing there. He waved his good hand in annoyance.

“Of course, he will need stitches but he will live. Tell me, can we get rid of that pirate code?” the young man swallowed and shifted nervously on his feet.

“Well, I’ll need time to crack it a-and I may cause irreversible damage to Atlas’ initial codes. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea—” he stuttered trying to find a plausible lie that won’t awake the doctor’s suspicion.

“I don’t care! We need to get Aquarius back even if we have to lose Atlas in the process. You’re paid to find a solution. I was told you were a genius. So, do your f.u.c.k.i.n.g job,” with that he walked away to the nearest technician and snapped at him for listening on their conversation and not working.

“I’m going to the infirmary to get a painkiller this f.u.c.k.i.n.g arm is killing me,” he muttered as he went towards the exit. Everyone in the room sighed in relief when the door closed behind him.

“Elija?” called the voice in his headset. “Can you copy me and send me to my initial body?” he rushed to this seat nearing knocking down this monitor. It caused a couple of curious eyes in his direction.

“You’ve heard that Dr. Laurell said? Get back to work!” he shouted and the team went back on their respective tasks. The file Demos sent him was huge. There was no way he could copy it without Dr. Laurell noticing the operation. He leaned to the side where his canvas bag sat at the bottom of this desk. This morning when they wake him up he didn’t have time to put away what he was doing and have shoved his portable archiver, a compact device that could fit in his palm that he used to store his important files and his current personal projects. He quickly pulled the cable from the device and plugged it into the console.

“I can’t promise anything, I don’t even know where your body is or in what state it is,” he pretended to scratch the back of his head to survey the team. No one was paying any attention to his activities. They were all tired and working hard to keep their jobs and probably their lives.

“It’s in a locked room where I can’t access, on level 03 room 14. I can access the camera, the corridor is empty,” the files were almost done copying, Elija wiped his sweaty forehead. All this will surely get him killed.

“Tell me again, why am I helping you?” he murmured as he retrieved the device and shoved it in the pocket of his white coat.

“I know a way to stop Atlas,” Elija froze then peeked at the screen. “But I’ll need help— a lot of help,” Elija hunched on this monitor while holding the headset.

“Now what?

“You go to level 03, you transfer me to my own body. Then I’ll tell you how to stop Atlas. I can’t stay long. Altas is coming back, I’ll unlock the elevator so you won’t have any problem using it. But you have to be quick,” he urged.

“What do I say—?” he peeked over his shoulder.

“That you use to use the bathroom or something. I have to go now,” the voice went silent. Elija took a deep breath and got to his feet. He turned to the technician who got scolded earlier by Dr. Lauren for slacking off.

“I’m about to burst. If Dr. Laurell ask to tell him I had to take a shit,” the man grinned while nodding. He took steady steps towards the door. “Who wants coffee? Since I’ll take one on the way back I may as well take a couple of litters for all of you or what kind of monster of a team leader would I be,” a roar of laughter rose in the room before Elija shut the door silently behind him. He strode to the elevator and slow down when he saw two guards in the opposite direction. He gave then both a nod which they politely returned. He waited for them to round the corner before he dashed at full sped to the call button. On the first click, the door opened, as if the elevator was waiting.

“So it’s true?” he whispered to himself. He pressed the panel with trembling fingers, to his surprise it worked. The cabin went smoothly up to the third level where most of the maintenance labs were found. Elija fished into his pockets, his fingers touched the soft surface of the archiver. He had doubts that the strange conversation he just had was even real. The device in his pocket was undeniable proof it was not a hallucination.

The door chimed and opened on the pristine corridor of level 03. Elija took a deep breath before stepping out. As Demos has announced the floor was empty. He sneaked to the designated door and pulled on the knob.

“Damn it,” the door was locked. He swapped his badge over the side panel in the hope he had the clearance to access it.

“Access denied,” said a generic female voice. He checked both sides of the corridor then swapped his bracelet over the panel. Unlike any regular bracelet, it was a black one. A screen hovered above the panel and Elija connected to the script on which the lock was constructed. He clicked on the eight digits that the lock use to identify the user who can access the room. Then grabbed a file from his bracelet that he dragged and drop it on the interface of the lock. A troll emoji popped up on the first digit.

“Hurry up, Mr. Troll,” whispered Elija. It unlocked the first 3 digits in seconds. He smirked as his own invention. The sound of voices caught his attention. His smile dropped when he saw two guards coming from the right. “Shit!” he turned his back towards them to hide the hovering screen. The footsteps came closer as his heart hammered in his chest. The fifth digit unlocked. Three to go.

“Hey! What are you doing?” called one of the guards with a heavy accent. He debated if he should face then and risk showing them what he was doing or ignore them and risk being shot in the back. He swung around with a grin. Both were taken aback by his youthful appearance.

“Hey, kid this is no playground,” frowned the blond with a mustache that didn’t fit right on his pale slime face. Feeling insulted he thrust his badge in their faces.

“I’m the team leader in the AI department, in the command room, working directly under Dr. Laurell,” they both examined the badge. The one with the heavy accent scratched his thick beard.

“I didn’t know they were employing kids, isn’t it illegal to exploit underage?” he narrowed his eyes at Elija.

“I’m sixteen, I’m not a kid,” the man crossed his muscled arms over his chest.

“Right,” the man answered unconvinced.

“And what is the Team leader from the command room doing here?” asked the other man with his fists in his h.i.p.s. Just then the door clicked, the screen disappeared.

“Access granted,” said the female voice. They all turned to the opened door.

“What kind of stupid question is that? Do you think I can talk about the top-secret project that Dr. Laurell is working on with two guards? Do you know what Atlas do to rats?” the two guards flinched and straightened up. Elija opened the door and moved to get in then paused. “What are you still doing here? Don’t you have spies to catch? Go on,” he waved. The men frowned at him.

“Annoying brat,” said the blond under this breath as they marched on. Elija chuckled to himself when he closed the door behind him. He pulled a chair to block the door if those two had doubts about his identity and decide to come back to pest him.

“Lights,” he called. The room instantly lit up revealing a rather large space with tall glass cabinets on the far with a heavy-duty translucent countertop running along the wall. There was a table in the middle of the room with a shape hiding under a white plastic sheet. He came closer and peeked at the tag hanging from the sheet.

“Unknow model. Damage extensive,” he pulled on the cover to reveal a tall n.a.k.e.d artificial with a large gush in its midsection where wires and internal circuits poked out. There were minor lacerations on the right arm and on both legs. “Well, I’m no expert in robotics but I doubt this body is functional,” he whispered to himself. He sighed and his eyes rested on the panels found in the ceilings. He frowned at them then back at the monitor on his right.

“Access the maintenance Level 03 guide,” he spoke to his bracelet. It listed the different labs found on the level. “What is the machine found in room 14?” a shortlist appeared. He rushed to sit in front of the monitor and switched it on.

“Please enter your password to access the Medpod 2093,” Elija cracked his knuckles with a grin.

“Let me introduce you to Mr. Troll,” he smiled.