AZU-1: Lifehack (17 page)

“
Naw,” Regan hummed,
“There’s gotta be millions of nanites in a single zombie. Maybe it
represents groups of nanites, like maybe those in one
zombie.”

Alisia looked at where the power supply
should be. There was a similar sized device, which looked very
sturdy and polished, with only plugs leaving it to supply power to
the machine. The word ‘Mana’ was embossed on it. “I guess it is a
battery. Whatever.” Alisia tapped on her comm. “Major? I think we
have the nanite server. Permission to bash it?”

Regan spoke softly to herself,
searching her memory. “Mana.. mana...?”

“
Bash it?” The Major
eventually came on to answer, “Why not unplug it?”

“
There’s no plug. Some kinda
battery.” Alisia put her finger on the mana box and aimed her visor
at it.

“
Sure, whatever.”

Alisia and Regan stood back, and Alisia
leveled her P90 at the shiny little box. Another voice jumped onto
the comm.

“
Captain! Stop!” The voice
was not familiar. “Captain, this is General Westmore. Do not
destroy the mana box.”

“
Sir?” Alisia was surprised
to hear the Major’s superior officer jump in. Short, unnecessary
introductions were made. Since the start of the mission, the
General was quietly monitoring events from his own office, wherever
that was.

The General decided that events
warranted filling Alisia and Regan in on the big bad secret of
Autar. First, all others were cut out of the conversation,
including the Major.

“
Captain, thanks to you and
Ms. Grier, we’ve been able to piece together some things. This
A.I.-controlled nanite thing has taken advantage of Autar in order
to power itself. You’ve noticed perhaps that many things in Autar
have power without any noticeable power lines?”

“
Y-yes Sir. I’d kind of
assumed it was something like geothermal... or maybe some kind of
automated nuclear reactor, but how is the power getting into this
computer?”

“
The city runs off of
something called a Mana drive. One of the reasons Autar was
expected to be the new way for urban planning, is that it can send
power though the air, to be received by devices like the one in
front of you.”

“
So.... with this, it’s like
you’re pulling power out of the air... I’ve never heard of
this.”

“
It was still in testing
phases. It’s a government project, but some trusted companies such
as AutarLabs, were given receivers for field testing purposes. The
drive also is connected to standard power stations in the city
which supplied power to a lot of areas in conventional wires. Until
now, no one imagined the Mana drive was related to the
zombies.”

“
So, if we unplug the mana
box from this computer, the nanites will lose their control, and
hopefully, all the zombies will collapse?”

“
....no..” Regan said,
staring at the monitor. “These servers. This list is over four
thousand long. They’re servers just like this one. They’re all
doing the same job. We’d have to find them all. Dammit, I think I
saw a couple being delivered shortly after the outbreak. The
zombies did it.”

“
What? Christ, we should
just get out and nuke the damned city!” Even as she said it, Alisia
remembered that explosions were not allowed.

“
That would be nice,
Captain,” the General said, “But there’s a problem with the Mana
Drive. Just as a circuit can have feedback, so can the mana boxes
with the drive.”

“
Explosions might damage a
mana box, and cause feedback...” Alisia thought out loud, “So what
happens? The drive blows and we have some fallout to deal with? No
worse than nuking the city... lots of desert around here, who
cares?”

“
No, Captain, not fallout.
Let me explain. After Autar was taken, smaller-scale tests of the
Mana drive took place. One of them suffered a critical failure.
There was no explosion, but two hundred or so people in the
building died on the spot. No apparent cause of death. We assume
that somehow the drive spat its explosion out in the same way it
transmits energy to the mana boxes, but was strong enough that it
reset the neural functions of everyone nearby. Their biological
functions were just... ‘stopped’.”

Regan and Alisia pondered it. It could
be an even worse weapon than the ‘neutron’ bomb. “Ah, Sir,” Alisia
feared to ask, “You said this was a small scale project that
blew..? How does that compare to Autar?”

“
If the eggheads have their
math correct, a blowout of the Autar Mana drive could easily
blanket the country.”

Regan rolled her eyes, and Alisia
slumped into a stunned heap. “Serious? And this could be triggered
if we nuke the drive? Or even shoot a mana box?”

“
That is the speculation,
correct.”

Alisia thought about how close she was
to firing at the mana box sitting in front of her. “Holy
fuck.”

“
SOOOoooo....” Regan called
out, “If we shut down the drive properly, then, will everything
shut down? The zombies collapse in the streets, whoopie
yay?”

“
Sounds about right.” The
General said. “Come back to base, girls. I’ll meet you there and
we’ll get organized.”

~~~~~

Chapter 25: Fix

~~~~~

The two arrived back at base, tired and
anxious. In the south bay, Regan headed for the decontamination
shower without pestering Alisia at all. Regan stopped by the door,
jacket half off, shoulders slumped. She turned back to
Alisia.

“
I... could just leave, you
know.”

Alisia paused a moment. “What do you
mean?”

“
Well... Harold is buried.
It’s what I was staying for...”

“
Don’t you want to stay, and
see if we can beat the zombies?”

“
......they’re not exactly
my highest priority.” Regan slowly turned away from Alisia’s stare,
and trodded into the shower.

Alisia suddenly felt a little of the
weight of Regan’s crush. Logically, the crush was just because she
was the first person Regan had seen in years... logically.
Right?

An hour later they found themselves
waiting in a board room. It was one of the nicer rooms on base, but
still fairly spartan with its concrete walls. The chairs and table
were a bit nicer than standard issue, at least. A few maps of Autar
hung on the walls. Word had just come in that the General’s
helicopter had landed.

Soon, a soldier opened the door, taking
a quick look around and saying nothing. He backed out and the
General entered. His weathered face bore concern, but he still
forced a welcoming smile. His white hair had long ago retreated to
the rear flanks of his head, and his dark blue track suit said ‘I’m
too old to dress up for every damned emergency.’

He stopped just after he stepped in and
turned to the soldier. “That’ll be all, Corporal.” The General
closed the door and made his way to a seat at the table. “Good day,
ladies.”

Alisia saluted. “Sir! I’m prepared to
organize an assault team on the mana drive. Some people I’ve
pick-“

The General raised his hand, to stop
her. “Easy, Captain. This is a very sensitive issue. We can’t have
more people in on all this than need be.”

“
What?” Alisia popped out,
with a face that looked like a confused puppy, “But we’re talking
about getting rid of all the zombies here!”

“
Yes, but we’re also talking
about leaking info on the Mana drive, a potential future threat,
not to mention AutarLabs’ partners who are unfortunately very
valuable to us.”

The girls sat back in mild disgust.
“Money.” Regan said.

The General sighed. “Well... yes,
that’s what a lot of it comes down to. Besides, it’s not like the
zombies are putting anyone new at risk here. The wall and defensive
gunners do a good job.”

Regan fiddled with the strap on her
glove while glaring at the General. Alisia looked lost in her own
thoughts, staring at the tabletop. The General sighed, and put his
hands flat on the table. “Look. You two know all there is to know
now. You’ve proven your ability as well. If you think you can, you
two are welcome to try to unplug the mana core.”

“
Solo, hm?” Alisia said. She
leaned back, and looked at Regan. Regan had obviously decided to go
in with or without the General’s blessings. She looked back at the
General. “Fine. We go in the morning.” The sound of Regan’s leather
gloves clenching spoke volumes.

“
I expected as much. When
you disable the core, call me and I’ll mobilize a bombing run. If
all goes well, this time tomorrow, Autar will be a crater
surrounded by a charred wall.” The General smirked to himself. “At
least we get to have some fun with some bigger ordinance.” he
thought to himself. He stood and prepared to leave. “Oh, and
Regan,” he said, “Unless you have any objections, I’d like to
consider you a civilian consultant. We can work out the details
later, but given the nature of the work it should pay pretty
well.”

Regan nodded, almost obliviously. The
General left, rejoined by his escort, leaving the girls sitting
alone in the board room.

“
A crater...” Regan
whispered, earning a curious expression from Alisia. “He said Autar
would be a crater. I mean... that’s great... but... it’s been my
home for so long... and there’s no other place like it. It sounds
stupid, but I think I’ll miss it.”

Alisia got up and put a hand on Regan’s
shoulder. Regan took it and held in just under her chin. Alisia
began to regret her action already, but to make it worse, Regan
gave Alisia’s hand a soft kiss. Alisia retracted her hand, perhaps
a bit rougher than intended. Regan sat there, head hung low, just
gazing at her lap.

“
Regan...” Alisia uttered,
“it’s just that... well, you know... I...” She shut herself up,
realizing that her words would fix nothing.

~~~~~

Chapter 26: Ponder

~~~~~

Regan sat in the deep windowsill facing
Autar and set a guitar in her lap. The guitar was borrowed from a
soldier. She saw him with it and asked. He gave it up with very
little fuss after a little suggestive smile. No biggie.

She leaned back and put her hand over
the strings. Her fingertips dangled down to the rim of the hole,
where she felt the inner roughness of the wood. It felt familiar,
safe, and for that matter, accepting. She tapped the outside gently
with her nail to hear the hollow sound it made. It was the only
sound in this area of the wall.

She looked out to Autar, glistening in
the moonlight. You could hardly tell it was infested with walking
corpses, and this made it easier for Regan to see it as the city
she moved into long ago. It was home. What would life be like after
tomorrow? Move to some random city and look for a job? It’s just
such an alien concept compared to the life she’d been living. Maybe
she’s be better suited to run off into the hills and live off the
land. Less zombies, too. It sounded easy. But boring as
hell.

Regan looked down to the guitar as if
it would reveal answers. She plucked a string softly and listened
to it fade into the silence. Slowly, Regan plucked out some old
melancholy tune. The notes floated about, washing away the tension
but leaving the hopelessness.

But the notes brought footsteps. Quiet,
nearly silent footsteps, but Regan heard them coming up behind. She
stopped playing and looked out the window. The footsteps stopped
maybe five meters away or so. She could feel who it was and she
desperately wished that Alisia would come closer. But she did
not.

Alisia stared at Regan’s back,
wondering what to do. This silly little tarzan girl. She felt
responsible for her, pulling her out of her... ‘habitat’. It would
be good to be her friend, but the lesbian thing was just too much.
Well, no, not the lesbian thing unto itself. It was just that the
lesbian thing was aimed right at her, and so strong. If Regan would
just give it up so she could relax. Well, maybe she’ll get the
message.

Alisia turned away and walked off
slowly. She decided that she needed a drink. She wasn’t much of a
drinker, but it felt like a situation where you’re supposed to want
a drink, so she headed for the base club.

It wasn’t really much more than another
conference room with a fridge, a couple cheesy posters, a stereo,
and a volunteer bartender. It was quiet there. The bartender was
the only other person there at the time. She ordered a glass of red
wine and made herself at home at a small, secluded table in the far
corner. She took one sip when Corporal Parker happened by. He
stopped dead in his tracks.

“
Uh, hey Cap, don’t see you
in here often.”

“
Hey Parker.” Alisia
replied, partially lost in thought.

“
Cap? Uh, if you don’t mind
me asking, is something wrong?” His tone went quieter, taking his
cue from Alisia.

Alisia looked at Parker. He wasn’t a
bad guy, so she decided to tell him. “It’s Regan,” she
started.

“
What? The girl from Autar?
Is she OK?”

“
Yeah, yeah, it’s nothing
like that. She just.. comes on so strong.”