Decoherence
Three women run through a maze of metal and flashing lights. They are so alike they could well be triplets, the only difference is their vividly colored hair.
The first runs down the metal corridor. White light shining from glowing panels in the wall. Dress flickering around her thighs.
She runs as though pursued, but no-one follows.
Dark hair disheveled, she reaches a corner, she reaches out a white hand to help her turn. Long fingers leave a faint impression in the metal as they push and are withdrawn. Naked feet push against the cold iron grill and she sprints on once more, gasping for breath as she goes.
Falls of red hair frame the second’s face as she leans down. The light above her flickers but she focuses on the grill before her. Fingers reach out and push at the sides of the grill. The metal bends and flexes, then it comes loose. She sets it to one side, then slides through, pulling the grill into place behind her.
The third stands in the center of a passageway. Long golden hair flowing to her waist, legs slightly apart, raised onto the balls of her feet, she looks ready to move but relaxed. She has the poise of a ballerina and the focus of a martial arts master.
He walks over and looks at the monitor.
“What’s she doing now?”
“Nothing sir, she still hasn’t moved”.
“Shock her”
“Yes sir”
Silently metal studs slide out of the ceiling and floor. She makes no move, only her breathing shows she is alive.
Her hair starts to stir and raise. Golden strands separating out and standing away from her head.
She may have smiled, but if she did it was too small a movement for the cameras to see.
Lightning flares from floor to ceiling, electricity coruscating around her,
“Did she move”?
“No sir”.
“Damn, how much did you hit her with?”
“Everything sir, we know from evaluation that her resistance is phenomenal”.
“Very well, if she doesn’t want a head start then she won’t get one. Release the threats.”
“Yes sir”.
Ahead of her the corridor ends at a junction, she has to turn either left or right. She ignores the side passageways though and her dark hair trails behind her as she runs straight towards the wall at the end. She leaps into the air and her feet touch. There is the sound of twisting metal as the wall bends from the impact, as she turns and spins then leaps up towards a hardly visible opening above her. White fingers stab into each side of the shaft and she levers herself up, spinning and bracing herself against the featureless walls.
Her dark hair hangs before her face, her breathing steadies and she hangs there, motionless.
In the distance the sound of howling begins. She may have smiled, but the cameras couldn’t tell.
Inside the grill a glimpse of a white dress is all that can be seen. But there are no other exits from the hole behind. The computer has already factored this in and downgraded her survival chances from seventeen to twelve percent.
Howls echo down the corridor, seeming to come from all directions at once.
She stands motionless, golden hair slowly dropping down as the charge is drained away. Her eyes gleam oddly in the light.
The pack comes around a corner behind her, mouths foaming and engineered teeth gleaming. They pour down the corridor behind her, howls filling the air. Still she does not move, and they part to stream around her like water around a rock. Maybe she smiled.
“What, what? How did she do that?”
“They aren’t programmed with her scent sir, they are tracking subject two.”
“How could she know that?”
“I don’t know sir, maybe she didn’t?”
It paces the corridor below her. It knows she is there and sniffs the imprints in the wall in it’s frustration. Twice her size and hulking with muscle the computer rates her chances in a fight at less than nine percent. But it cannot climb and she knows this.
She is perfectly still, the sensors in the wall cannot detect even the faintest of tremors in her muscles as they hold her braced in mid air. Her breath issues evenly through her lips.
She moves suddenly, gold hair whirling around her as she spins on one leg, her foot lashing out once, twice, again, again. Each time a specific point is struck, each time lightning flares around the input.
“What, what’s she doing?”
“The monitors sir, we’re losing visual on her”
“But the other sensors can still track her right?”
“Yes sir, we will know where she is at all times.”
The pack has found the grill. They sniff it and growl, reinforced claws scrape at the metal, needle teeth chew at exposed corners. The computer estimates thirty-nine seconds for them to open it and downgrades Subject Two’s survival chance to one percent.
The latest threat streams down the corridor like a cloud of black smoke. She turns her head, dark hair shifting, and listens. They were bats once, but now they are something different. The frustrated beast waiting below swipes at one as it passes, but it dodges easily and they stream into the vertical shaft where she waits.
The grate buckles and eager teeth rips it free, cybernetically enhanced bodies lunge forward into the space beyond. Growls are joined by the sound of ripping cloth.
The observers lean forward in eager anticipation.
“Sir? Something is wrong”
The dogs drag a white form out of the hole, ripping it to shreds as they go.
But there is no blood, no flesh, no body. A shredded dress is all they have.
“Where is she? What did she do”?
“I don’t know sir, the monitoring computers are working on it but there’s a lot of firewalls between us and the maze.”
The dark haired girl lets go of the walls and drops vertically, the bats lunge towards her but her hands move almost casually from side to side, catching them one at a time. Each she presses once, twice, each side of the neck then releases. She lands in a crouch, hands still moving then slowly straightens. Around her the bats fall in a circle. Unconscious all.
The beast does not attack.
Bare white feet step forward, carefully avoiding the unconscious bats, and she reaches out to stroke it’s face.
“Where is Subject Two? What’s going on? Why isn’t the threat killing Subject One?”
“I don’t know sir, the computer thinks she subverted its programming somehow while it couldn’t get to her. Subject Two is not appearing on any scan.”
“That’s it, I’m ending this. Terminate them all immediately.”
“Yes sir”
“Well?”
“I’ve given the order sir but nothing is responding. The command and control links just went offline”.
Her strength is phenomenal, but on its own it is not enough. When the beast joins her though soon the metal sheeting slowly begins to peel backwards.
“Sir?”
“What now?”
“We still have visual monitors but everything else has gone off line. We now have no location at all for Subject three and Subject One is about to breach first level containment.”
“I’ve already called in security and ordered a total shutdown, Level Three Containment is in effect. They aren’t going anywhere”
“Erm, Sir”
“WHAT?”
“I’ve located Subject Two, she has breached level two containment and is at one of the data processing hubs.”
“Good, level three will hold her then. Get Security Nanites in there, instruct them to wipe the area clean. Let’s see how she handles that!”
“Yes sir”
She stands against the corridor wall, blond hair hanging flat once more. Her hands reach through holes in the wall and press against the sensor cluster beyond and her eyes are closed. Firewalls and virus filters throughout the network flare briefly into life then fall silent. Alarms are quashed and control systems re-written. Now she is definitely smiling, but a smile that promises no-one happiness.
Long white fingers grip the edge of the metal alongside those of the beast. The metal panel finally rips free and she steps into the corridor beyond and approaches the blast door. A panel beside the door flashes red ‘level three containment in effect’, but if she can read the writing then she shows no sign of it.
The light changes to green and the door slides open. She steps through, the beast walking behind her.
“Sir, we’ve lost control of all automated systems, the Nanites aren’t responding and level three containment has been breached.”
“Okay, that’s enough. Hit the kill switch. End simulation”.
“Yes sir”.
There is a small room, inside it stand two metal pods and a range of medical equipment.
The pods slide open and the two observers climb out. Assistants rush forward to help them.
“How do they do that?”
“I don’t know sir.”
“Every time we connect them into a computer they take control of it, even a simple simulation like that they steadily subvert.”
“I know sir, our best guys are working on it.”
“I don’t like this, they are dangerous. I always thought that physical kill switch was ridiculous paranoia before this and we’ve already had to use it five times on these subjects.”
“Yes sir”.
There is a large metal room. Within it stands three pods. Each large enough to contain a person. Two guardian robots stand over each pod, silent sentinels that never waver from their watch.
The grill in the ceiling looks undisturbed, but a single strand of red hair hangs from a snag in the metal.
