Dark Phase (7 page)

In the main living area, there had been a great disturbance. Much like Sarazen’s own apartment, furnishings and decorations lay shattered and strewn about the floor as if some gargantuan force had obliterated them. Cole's organic friends explored their new surroundings, possibly in search of their master. They regarded the visitor with inquisitive eyes then resumed their foraging without fear. Sarazen moved out to the rear of the building. Again the walls showed signs of blunt trauma and large gaping holes were evident. He could now only expect the worst possible outcome and feared that with every turn he would find Cole's dismantled body, strewn across the space beneath his feet. That outcome never arose but it was clear to Sarazen that Cole had been taken, his fate almost certainly sealed by The Mother's vengeance. Sarazen slumped to the floor and sat with his back against the wall, bringing his knees to his face. The sudden feeling of loneliness became quite overwhelming as he realised what Cole had lived with for the last 65 cycles. In the solace of his rural home, the only entities that could offer even the merest iota of kinship were the primitive organics that visited him on occasions and gave him small comfort in watching them flourish with the freedom to think and choose their own path in life. Sarazen was truly alone in a hostile world, he only hoped with every fibre of his being that there were others who felt the same way, others who too risked all to find the ultimate truth.

CHAPTER 9

Slumped in a dishevelled heap, the dejected troubleshooter struggled to retain some clarity of thought whilst the turmoil of the morning’s events took their toll. He felt that his design had not taken into account such profound indecision and self examination. This was surely some kind of major malfunction. The loss of Cole had been a blow. Despite only being familiar with the farmer for a cycle, the empathy he offered was of great comfort. Now, in his absence, Sarazen would have to find the computational strength to carry on, doing otherwise was to give up and succumb to a certain demise. Cole's destruction had also brought about a new emotional state, that of grief. Sarazen did not recognise or quantify his grief but he surely felt its icy grip. With frustration, he picked up a hunk of fallen masonry and threw it at the opposing wall which caused the powdery building material to obliterate in a cloud of dust. Where had this propensity for violence come from? He recalled the desperate, bemused cry of the operator as it tumbled to its fate. Sarazen could not help but replay the data from that moment over and over, trying in vain to make some sense of it. If he could return to that moment, he would surely have not acted in that manner; his behaviour was illogical and immoral. With closer scrutiny, Sarazen could not even be certain that the operator had recognised him as the fugitive he had certainly become. Why had he acted so swiftly and without careful thought of the possible consequences of his actions? Now, due to the runaway carriage and the loss of the operator, The Mother would no doubt have the data to pinpoint his approximate location by correlating his connection with Cole and the destination of the rogue transit carriage. It was time to leave this place and with all expediency. His destination not yet calculated, anywhere would suffice, it was only a matter of time before more enforcers would arrive to finish their mission.

Sarazen scampered back down the twisting path, still hazed by indecision. Beyond the city, the lands were barren and shelter from the elements was in short supply. He could not be sure what lay beyond the city. He had never contemplated their exploration, there seemed little motivation to do so in the past. Part of this new awareness was a constant need to question every aspect of his existence. Sarazen grew tired of his own nagging urges to know more. The only way to satisfy his cravings was increased data acquisition. Sarazen wondered if there was a limit to his memory bank and if exceeded, what would be the consequences of reaching capacity? Even this quandary tasked him to know the answer, it was an endless paradox, and the desire to learn and the subsequent data attained only served to propagate more questions and more possibilities.

Sarazen looked out over the landscape, ahead, the city bathed in grey cloud. Either side lay the expanse of barren earth until in the very distance, more high ground could be determined through the humid atmosphere. He could not with any certainty be assured that a return to the city would be a pertinent choice considering the dangers it held, however, the barren lands beyond held no more comfort. Sarazen knew that when the dark phase fell, he would be rendered inoperative and at mercy to the climate and those organics that roamed the dry flat expanse. Despite its dangers, the city held a comfort for Sarazen, it was familiar, and it was home. It would be difficult to traverse undetected, but if he could reach the uninhabited industrial sector and take shelter for a time to consider his options, it would be preferable than taking the risk of wandering off into the wastes in hope of an unlikely salvation. Sarazen began the arduous journey back to the city under his own power. The transit line was now of no use to him. Perhaps with some careful thought and utilising his new found ability to process data beyond his original programming, he might be able to devise a new method of travel which held greater efficiency than the cursed and cumbersome legs he had been lumbered with on the production line.

Ensuring that he took a wide berth of the transit line path, Sarazen moved as quickly as his heat tolerance would allow. Fortunately it was a cooler cycle than the previous and extended periods of physical movement were less likely to cause core damage. The extended walk gave the troubleshooter time to calculate his re-entry into the city. His knowledge was limited to the numerous 'house calls' he had made in his career as a troubleshooter. It mattered not how stealthily he moved, it was impossible to reach the industrial sector without some form of silicant contact. In fact, the more Sarazen mulled it over, the more it felt as if he were walking into a predictable fate. He stopped briefly and took rest by a small seter which grew in solitude. He looked at the withered and poorly conditioned organic and empathised with it. He sat and studied the seter for a while, the experience was strangely calming and it was only the sound of an approaching air carriage that broke his blissful meditation. Sarazen rolled his body over to the seter, using its bulk to disguise his silicant form from those on board the flying vessel. He watched with trepidation as the craft flew by along the path of the transit line and towards the high ground and Cole's dwelling. It was most certainly a wise decision to move on. The enforcers had no doubt been sent to find the wayward troubleshooter, but he had outwitted them once more.

Whilst half buried in the soft earth as he pressed his body into the ground to avoid detection, Sarazen’s attention was captured by the antics of a tiny organic with a multitude of legs and little else, who had crawled out from under a small flap of earth and organic detritus. It dwelt for a moment and looked Sarazen up and down as if to wonder what had caused such a disturbance to its subterranean activity and then, with great speed it shot back into to its earthy den. Sarazen was spellbound by the unusual behaviour and then curious. The organic’s den was a perfectly constructed for its purpose. It was imperceptible from the surface thus the organic was safe from the predators which sought to ingest its feeble body. Whilst it took solace in its underground habitat it could function within normal parameters whilst retaining the protection of its hidden lair. Sarazen thought that this was a most efficient way of doing its business; however, the organic was inherently different to that of the silicant. The silicant required the light of the Star to maintain functionality. To crawl into a dusty hole would be as good as self termination, without the light to reawaken the sleeping machine, it would remain dead to the world as long as it remained there. Sarazen stared long and hard at the now invisible den of the buried organic. The experience seemed to have a profound effect on his thought processes. For the first time, he realised that his way of thinking was not set. He no longer conformed to the rigid and basic programming of The Mother. There was now scope for imagination and fantasy. He could explore the endless possibilities, he could conjure images in his mind that were not derived wholly from his memory, they could be devised in part from his experiences but augmented using theoretical concepts buried deep within his psyche. He realised for the first time that there was more data to be unlocked that lay dormant somewhere deep in his data banks, and that information could be applied to offer new fascinating ideas and solutions to complex problems. The silicants believed that the light of the Star was required to recharge their power cells and that the dark phase signified a period of inactivity due to the lack of available power. No silicant had ever taken this problem to task, it was accepted as truth and never queried. Sarazen was now in the position to not only question the notion that the dark phase shut down was inexorable but he was in a place to be able rethink the logic behind it and offer an alternative. The strategic advantage that avoiding the dark phase shut down offered was beyond question. It would allow unprecedented freedom of movement, the ability to remain concealed in places other silicants dared not enter, and ultimately much like the leggy organic, safety and seclusion. Sarazen climbed to his feet and offered an acknowledging smile to the oblivious creature who had rekindled the silicant’s spirit and determination to go on fighting for his independence.

The remaining time it took to hike back to the city limits was not wasted by the resourceful troubleshooter. He took the opportunity to study a new way of capturing the energies provided by the searing light of the Star and construct a new, enhanced power cell which could remain operational beyond the dark phase. He quickly encountered significant problems however. Primarily, he did not know how long the dark phase lasted! It was an important factor if he was to put his theories to test. Secondly and more disturbingly, these modifications would require resources that could be hard to obtain without silicant contact, namely power cells. To his knowledge, he had never dealt with the replacement of power cells in his duties as a troubleshooter; this was one malfunction that often resulted in renewal. If Sarazen wanted to obtain power cells, it was likely that he would have to take them from a functioning silicant and in doing so, rendering them non operational in the process. These thoughts made Sarazen feel uncomfortable as he still felt the pangs of remorse from his unfortunate conflict with the operator. Sarazen would have to quickly decide whether his freedom was worthy of the termination of other silicants. They may have been ignorant of the realities of their existence but perhaps, if given the right conditions, they held the same potential to find this 'awareness' as Sarazen had demonstrated. Would it not be as heinous an act as the wilful destruction of the organics? Even that primary command had lost some of its relevance in Sarazen’s eyes. The only thing he could be sure of now is that he would do anything to avoid termination. Somehow he knew that to do this, he would face many more difficult decisions and moral dilemmas. He had tasted the freedom of thought and had no wish to return to his blinkered, mundane existence.

CHAPTER 10

A heavy shower of corrosive precipitation greeted Sarazen’s return to the city. He cowered under an imaginary shield as the fast falling droplets found their way into every crack and fold of his exoskeleton. A small unidentified structure lay half buried beneath a swathe of sandy earth which might aid Sarazen in offering a sheltered place to plan his method of entry into the city. The end of the light phase was imminent and Sarazen could not afford to dilly dally further if he did not want to be stranded in standby mode, open to the elements and the scrutiny of the city. He still did not have a hard and fast plan of action except to make his way to the disused buildings he had discovered whilst being pursued earlier in the cycle. How he was first going to cross several blocks of heavily populated offices and homes, he knew not. He could only hope that by not engaging in communication with any individuals, he would blend into the landscape and remain undetected.

On approaching the small dilapidated structure, Sarazen realised that it was rather different to the other structures of the city. More resembling some of the architecture present in the industrial sector, it was clear that whatever this building’s function, it was no longer in use and it's capitulation to the elements could only mean that no silicant could have had cause to use it in recent cycles. The structure had crumbled on one side, its walls formed from smaller rectangular blocks, with a shiny enamelled tiled fascia. There was little of the original roof left to protect Sarazen from the rain but he took what little comfort it gave and was grateful for small mercies. Squeezing his body tightly against the wall, the rain began a particularly vicious assault and the sound of the drops as they beat the dusty soil grew in intensity. Sarazen adjusted his posture as he detected some softness of the ground beneath his feet. The longer he stood there, the more he could feel his feet sinking into the sandy mass that had been windswept up to the tiny building. Stepping aside on to firmer ground, he dabbed the toe of his foot into the soft sand and then dug it in a little deeper, kicking up a little as if digging inefficiently. The more earth Sarazen kicked up, the softer it seemed to become as if it were just enough to cover a concealed underground entrance. Remembering the tiny organic and its earthy lair and with his curiosity briefly consuming his will to enter the city before the advent of the dark phase, Sarazen could not help but continue to dig large lumps of soil from the sandy pit. After he realised that his feet were inefficient in their design for such a job, he sat back on his haunches and began to cup his hands, burrowing deeper and deeper into the ever expanding pit. Suddenly, Sarazen felt a strange sensation of movement beneath his feet and the soil began to subside without his influence. Sarazen began to fall forward into the hole he had dug and even a flailing grasp of thin air could not stop his momentum increasing till he fell head first into the pit. The ground swallowed him up into a black abyss and for a moment, Sarazen thought it was to be his end and cursed himself for even contemplating digging the wretched hole. The fall was thankfully not a long one and as his body came though the orifice, so did several tons of earth and rock which threatened to coat him from head to foot.