The Oasis

Chapter 7

Ch 7 

Jake entered a short sequence into his COM and a nav-display appeared with a dot pinging the location of Bogs. As expected, Bogs was near the perimeter of Dev-Sec, remaining relatively stationary. Jake still had some time. He could send a message straight to Bogs, but he immediately disregarded the idea. His transmission was sure to be watched. What could he say that would raise some eyebrows? “Don’t’ go outside” wouldn’t work, because Control would ask, “why state the obvious?”. It would raise suspicion. If he asked him to come back for an emergency, then Bogs would have to file for a formal excuse or grievance. Then they would have to come up with a viable excuse for the absence, and one lie would only give rise to others. No, the best and only option was for him to physically find Bogs first and convince him to stand down. If this secret went directly to Dr. Tesh, then neither Bogs nor Jake knew what they were getting into.

                  The yellow line sped along, and Jake zipped up his jacket. The sun was due to go down in a couple minutes. Jake checked his COM. He was still over 1,000 meters from Bogs, and the Mag-Vac station wouldn’t drop him off any further. Jake dashed out of the tram the moment the doors opened, and he sprinted towards the entrance to the array of perimeter catwalks.

                  “Hold it!” A Control sentry called. Jake came to a skidding halt. “Authorization, please.”

                  “Look, my friend’s up there, and I need to tell him something urgent.” Jake pleaded.

                  “Then show me your authorization.”

                  “Look at the uniform, man. I have Mech-Sec written all over me.” Jake said, waving over himself. The sentry snatched Jake’s hand and probed his COM. The small band gave a red flash with an intense fail tone.

                  “No authorization, no dice. Please return to your quarters before curfew.”

                  “I need to tell him something.”

                  “Then call him if it’s that important. But you will not step beyond this point, Sir.”

                  “I’ll come right back. You can even escort me.”

                  The sentry tapped his COM and raised it to his mouth.

                  “We have an insubordinate employee looking to become belligerent. Request additional sentries.”

                  “Belligerent?!” Jake yelled. “What are you talking about?”

                  The sentry pulled a gun from his holster and held it down by his side. His finger slid over the safety, activating the weapon. The metallic form lit up with blue light, and the loading mechanism clicked into place. Jake recognized the gun. It was a Sediate-Specter, mark IV. Standard issue crowd control. Capable of firing hundreds of rounds form a single clip, and Jake had already seen how affective each round could be. A single shot of high density tranquilizing neuro-inhibitor, aptly referred to as “nepenthe” was enough to take down the bulk of a man from the transport ship. Jake knew he wouldn’t fair much better. In the next moment, two other sentries had rushed to the scene with their laser sights already trained on Jake’s chest, the auto-turrets locking him in their sights from the walls. Jake raised his hands and turned around.

                  “Fine.” He said. “I get the picture.” As Jake walked away, he heard the sentries stand down. Though he desperately wanted to warn Bogs about being in over his head, Jake could think of nothing else to do. At this rate, if he stepped another toe out of line, Control was likely to shoot first and ask questions later. Jake casually walked by the other catwalk access ways and saw they were just as heavily guarded. If only Jake could convince everyone that they were all on the same side. But at this point, reasoning with a Control officer was like asking a Death-row inmate to dance. It was clearly something most sane people would look at as a bad idea. Only one thing was left untried in Jake’s mind. He would have to send a coded message. But what could he say?