Ascension

Chapter 1

He had always hated silence. It had always felt too loud for him and would start up a niggling buzz in his head that would distract him more than any noise could. Whenever he worked, he usually either had some low music playing or let one of the secretary autons remain in the vicinity, the low buzz of its movement cutting the quiet. He knew about the rising trends of quieter cybernetic employees, but he generally preferred to keep to the older models, just to preserve his sanity. Too much silence had always been too much for him to take. However, at present, he had never been more grateful for it. Silence meant that he was alone. Silence meant that he had time. Silence meant that he was not yet going to die.

The hallways were devoid of any external noises as he strode down their length, the flat overhead lights winking on and off as he passed below them. The only sounds were the tap-tap of his own boots on the floor and the soft swish of the level doors as he broke down their heavy firewalls. He could feel sweat slicking his palms as he manually broke down the dense layers of code that he himself had created, re-erecting them rapidly on passing through.

He threw a quick glance up to the ceiling, where the lights had not yet begun to glow mauve, and slipped into the elevator. He jammed his thumb on the down button, pressed a key card to a sensor and sagged against the wall as the capsule descended into the lower levels. His heart thudded wildly and his breath was starting to come out in little pants, emerging as little puffs of white.

He slowed his breathing, drawing in slow gulps of air in an attempt to calm himself down. He still had some time.

When he reached the lowest level, a place he hadn’t previously even known existed, he nearly threw himself out of the capsule and hurtled towards the doors. His fingers flew across the access keyboard, breaking through the layers of coded defences that separated him from the interior of the room. He snarled at himself, cursing that he couldn’t type as fast as his mind could process the codes, but the lower levels were the highest security and they all had to be manual.

He knew the bastard’s tricks, all of the little whimsies that made him the genius that he was. He knew exactly the kind of traps he would lay, the false routes he would place out, the dummy defences he would put up. It was just so aggravating to break them all down by hand.

Distantly, he could hear the alarms wail. The silence was broken. He didn’t have much time left.

The lock clicked open after an agonizing minute and he sprinted through the doors even before they had completely opened. Once he entered, he found himself staggering to a halt, jaw slackening in horror.

There were so many more than he had even counted on.

He felt bile rise in his throat, but swallowed it down roughly. The alarms were growing louder. He didn’t have much time left.

He strode through the corridors of tall sealed capsules that seemed even more sickly and sinister in the low greenish light. Selecting one at random, he began to work.

Minutes later, the lights in the level turned mauve and the room buzzed with the sound of static from the security autons.

He had known that he was going to die, but when he saw the face of the man standing between the autons, he wondered if he was in store for something so much worse.

*****

If anyone were to ask Mick when it all started, he would say six months ago, on the tenth of February, at eleven o’clock in the morning. He generally wasn’t one to remember dates and times, especially not so clearly, but as much as he claimed to not be a romantic, this was one moment that never left his mind.

He had been taking Lenore Smythe to see Dr. Morgenstern about her depression. Her ex-husband, Albert, had refused to come because he was a scumbag whose teeth Mick ought to have punched in. It had taken a lot of get Lenore to put the cigarettes and the whiskey away and get some help, So Mick had supported her in every way he could. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, he would take off from Betsy’s and drive Lenore for her appointments. Like a good friend, he would sit in the waiting room with her until her name was called. He would chat with Hattie Morris behind the register, a woman who had doted on him like a son ever since his own counselling days with the good doctor. He would then hang out with Sid Hoult from Sid’s Vinyls around the corner and occasionally, get himself a few new records for his collection. After her appointment was over, he would drop Lenore back in her apartment, tell her gently, but firmly, to say away from the smokes and bottles, and then leave to get on with his day.