Heart Of The Machine (Soulmates Book 2) Read online

  Aleshia rolled her eyes again. "Like I am going to. But then again, perhaps I should warn him what he is getting into."

  "Hey!"

  "I won't. But it seems like you could do better than the delivery guy."

  "Give me a break, with the Nexus down, a girl has to adapt. Besides, he is better than most of the ones the Nexus picked." The bell rang again as she stood up and inched towards the door. "I gotta go. Talk to you soon girlfriend." Mindy's image shrank to a point and disappeared.

  Aleshia's head sunk back down into the padding of the chair as she relaxed. "Mindy is dating a truck driver. Just when I thought the world couldn't get any crazier."

  Aleshia thought back to a few months ago when everything seemed so normal. Then her headaches began, and Deven contacting her. Finding out the man she had dreamed of all her life actually existed was enough of a shock, let alone to find out she had latent powers developing. Her life was upended in that second for the Nexus had a secret program of eliminating anyone exhibiting the signs. She lost her home, her car, everything she thought she knew was either a lie or could no longer be trusted. Well, except Deven.

  He had been her center point before she even knew he existed. Touching her mind with his own. Seeing him in her dreams. And when they did meet, even though she tried to hold her emotions in check, her heart couldn't be stopped. He was her soulmate, how could she not?

  But now, finally, here they were on their honeymoon and he was gone. She had given up so much, didn't he see that? He used to drift in and out of her thoughts, at least until her abilities grew. Perhaps he could read her now and didn't know. But any man should know you don't leave a wife on their honeymoon! She raised her head, checked the time on the console, then let it fall back into the arms of the waiting padding. He should have been back by now. "Deven, where are you?"

  Deven approached the large, roughly rectangular shaped Defiant and guided Aleshia's car into its large landing bay. While there were many landing pads on the flat upper surface next to the tower area, the ship was too high in the atmosphere. The large hover engines glowed and even the massive overdrive engines in back were repaired, as were the cannons that stuck out at various intervals. But even now, months after the battle that almost destroyed them all, some areas were still less than 100%. However, the Defiant could take on anything left on the planet, if needed.

  Deven made his way up to the bridge and grunted as he sat in his chair. He leaned back, put one black booted foot on the edge of his console, raised the other foot, and crossed them. His leather jacket squeaked as he leaned back. "Miles? Now what was so important you had to pull me away from Aleshia on our honeymoon?" He took another swig of synth coffee.

  Miles' bridge camera focused on Deven with his voice coming from the nearest intercom. "I am sorry sir, but this could not wait." While being inside the central core of the Defiant had its advantages, like being all over the ship at once, he still missed moving through the corridors. To make it easier Leon had installed cameras Miles could control, similar to his old Mechand head. It also helped everyone to think of him as another crew member, and not a disembodied ghost.

  Deven started drumming his fingers on the console, losing patience. "Which is?"

  "As you know, I am monitoring all communications—"

  "Yes I know, I told you to."

  "Correct. However, I am also monitoring the Nexus frequencies."

  "Why? There can't be anything on them now."

  "You were never directly controlled by the Nexus, I have. Therefore, including the command frequencies seemed prudent."

  "All right, I agree. Now what did you find?"

  "The Nexus."

  Deven choked spewing a mouth full of coffee all over the decking as he sat up. "What???? Not possible! Where?"

  "It was only a momentary blip, then disappeared."

  "It must have been a glitch."

  "While that is theoretically possible, the signature was very specific. I calculate the chance of system error is less than .02%."

  Deven leaned back in his chair again as he stared at the ceiling. "The Nexus survived."

  Miles' voice changed to a lower pitch. "Unfortunately, seems to be the case."

  "And I am assuming you do not have a fix on the position? Considering I asked and you didn't answer."

  "No, I do not. The presence was too short to locate the source. And I was about to answer when—"

  "Never mind Miles. Can you give me a rough location?"

  "I approximate the signal originated in the northern hemisphere, somewhere in the North American continent."

  Deven rubbed his chin. "That is a long way from where we shot her down the first time. Several continents away in fact. This signal couldn't be from equipment that survived our attack."

  Miles' voice lowered further. "Correct. If my location is also correct. I remind you the presence was too short, therefore this estimate has a 67% chance of error."

  Deven stood up, walked over to the large bridge window, and gazed out at the clouds flowing past the Defiant. "Miles I trust your judgment. If you say the Nexus survived, it did. Although, I can't imagine how. We used her own shut down and destruction codes programmed by the original founders."

  "While as impossible as it sounds, I suspect the Nexus downloaded herself to another system. We know she did do so to me, on a much smaller scale."

  Deven turned around to face Miles' camera. "To download a piece of herself to control you is one thing, to send her whole core in microseconds across the world before she exploded is quite another. Not to mention I can't imagine the founders not planning for that, and blocking it."

  Miles' camera turned away then back. "I do not have an answer, other than perhaps the founders did not consider such a contingency."

  Deven's eyes narrowed. "Do you really suspect such a glaring hole could have been left? They thought of everything else."

  Mile's camera lowered. "I must admit I cannot find fault with your logic. But having had her inside my systems without my knowledge at the time, I would prefer to error on the side of caution. I advise we proceed with the assumption the Nexus did survive."

  Deven nodded. "I agree. But tell no one of this. This information remains between us."

  Miles' camera raised up and the iris went wide. "But sir, shouldn't Aleshia, Leon, Galina—"

  "No! We do not have any proof other than a possible momentary glitch. I will not worry them for no reason. If we find more evidence, then we will tell them. Is that understood?"

  Miles' camera lowered. "Yes sir. Command acknowledged, under protest."

  Deven walked to the door and turned around. "You can protest all you like, but only to me."

  "Yes sir." After Deven left the bridge every screen lit up with intense scanning data flashing past as Miles increased his scanning of frequencies, even to a few obscure ones not used in hundreds of years. "Nexus, I know you are out there. And I am going to find you. And when I do, I will make sure you stay offline … forever. You will not make me hurt anyone ever again."

  Chapter 3

  Power flowed and a few moments later the face of a blonde woman appeared on the smaller screen. Her eyes flashed as she scanned the room. The Nexus looked down and her Mechand arms raised up. "It worked! I can move!" She initiated a full power up sequence and her new body responded. She took a tentative step off of the rack and fell over. "Hmm, humans make it look so easy." But a few moments later she was walking around without difficulty.

  Examining the bunker further, she found two more rooms of Mechands. All different kinds of equipment, although outdated, still very serviceable. But she couldn't find any vehicles other than the main carrier and its normal compliment of fighters. Nothing resembled a standard transport or civilian truck. "If I arrive in these, they will either run or shoot me down."

  She tried to use the hover systems in her feet to fly, but they weren't powerful enough to raise her more than a meter off the floor. She sighed and scrounged one of the parts
rooms and got to work augmenting her hover system. After several hours of work, two extra hover units hung off of each foot. She activated them and flew around the room. But stopped suddenly leaving a slight humanoid-shaped indention in the one rock face. "The breaking systems need work. I am glad none of my units can see me now," she mumbled.

  She extracted herself from the rock face, landed, adjusted the hover units, and continued exploring. Further down an adjoining tunnel she found several more rooms. One contained the still-operating thermal generator. A short distance past the power room, the tunnel branched off and led up. At the end, a large round rusted door blocked her path. The control panel on the right glowed with a red locked indicator. She tried several combinations but the keypad refused every attempt. The door's interconnecting cross braces indicated it was built for massive strength. There was no way she could break through it.

  The door code must have been left behind in the central core, and she couldn't access it without re-merging. While she could, it would take too long and she had already lost precious time. She searched her mind and came up with a plan. She flew back to the first room she was in, grabbed the mobile arm, several tools, and flew back.

  She removed the control panel's cover and found several high voltage leads running through it. But would it be enough? She clipped the wires at their closest point and directed the arm to connect them to each other. The arm's platform motored closer and she stood back. When it grasped one lead there were a few sparks, but the real light show happened when the lead touched the other high voltage line. Large electrical arcs erupted and the door started rotating, inch by inch, out of the way. Air hissed around the open crack as the environment seal was broken. After a few minutes of squealing metal, the passage was open. She instructed the arm to pull back but it refused to move. Grabbing a non conductive area of the base nearest to the bedrock floor, she pulled it back. The sparks stopped, but the arm refused to accept commands.

  She sighed. "Your sacrifice is appreciated my little friend." But as she turned to leave, a slight beep was heard. She turned back around to see the arm move up. Accessing the command system, it informed her an overload had occurred and a system reboot was in progress. "You are one tough little guy." She gave it pending a final command to return to the core room when the reboot was completed and walked out.

  It was dark on the other side of the door. The only illumination was a narrow dim beam that spilled out from the bunker. Increasing light output from her screen, she kept walking. Looking back at the door, she admired how well the other side had been camouflaged. If she didn't know a door was there, she would have never suspected it. Continuing up the passage way, she saw ancient tracks. Evidence of the bunker's construction, hundreds of years ago. After a long walk, she approached the sealed entrance. Two large doors held by tracks on the top and bottom. To the right a giant wheel connected to gears and the tracks stood silent.

  The Nexus gripped the wheel. "Well at least I don't need to hot-wire this." She pulled trying to turn it, but it held fast. Years of non-use in this environment had rusted the tracks. She stepped back. The thought about returning to retrieve the carrier and blast the door might work, but it also might cause an instability leading to collapse of the bunker itself. She gripped the door again, planted her feet and tried again. The door refused, and she tried harder. Still nothing. Overriding the safety protocols in her articulation motors, she engaged their full strength and turned the wheel with all she had. A warning flashed into her mind. Danger, articulation motors are functioning above safe limits! Catastrophic failure imminent!

  "Tell me something I don't know!" She muttered as her arms and shoulders shook under the strain. The diagnostics system showed her arms were only micro seconds from either tearing themselves off or crumpling under the strain. A small bend began in her right arm as the wheel started to turn. It creaked and groaned but it moved. Her left arm also started to bend. "Agrrrh! Move you dang thing! My children need me!"

  The wheel jerked to the one side as it broke free of the age-welding and she fell backwards. But the doors had opened a crack! She got back to her feet and spun the wheel. The doors slowly ground to the sides as a second pair of doors opened outwards. Dirt fell inwards as the door moved away. The Nexus stopped and locked the wheel when they were open enough for her to fit through. Sunlight poured in the through the opening. She sighed and walked out into the light.

  Outside, forest extended as far as she could see. Turning around, these doors were perfectly camouflaged, no one would suspect what lie deep under ground. She tried to access the Global Network, but nothing happened, even on the normal links. She tried again and realized her communications in this body were not up to the task. They predated the Global Network she helped build, connecting every Mechand to her and to the world itself. She couldn't even access the Auto Nav system to find out where she was. Back when this body was built, it wasn't yet a required element. Ships contained all the required communications, to build them into the Mechands themselves beyond the command network seemed like wasted resources. Later on, she felt differently, and the founders agreed. While she could upgrade her systems, it would take time. Time she, and her children didn't have.

  A thought flashed through her circuits. If she could find something with current communications abilities, she could jack into that. She activated her hover systems and flew off in a direction, hoping something wasn't too far away.

  An hour later she encountered a small town. She landed on the outskirts and walked in. Several people stood wide-eyed and mouths agape as she walked past. You would think they never saw a Mechand before. Then her eyes went wide with the memory. Of course, all my units are offline except for the most basic repedatory and manufacturing systems. I must be quick, they do not look at me with acceptance.

  She kept walking trying not to draw attention to herself, a futile move as more people came out to see her. She spotted a communications booth not far away, and she activated her hover systems to increase her speed. A shot of precise coalesced energy went over her head. She turned to see several people holding older Mechand weaponry. "Stop! You do not know what you are doing!"

  The man in front sneered. "We DO know! And we will never be slaves to a Mechand again!"

  "Listen, please, I am not—" She didn't get a chance to finish before another beam struck her in the shoulder. It dug in melting several components before emerging on the other side to strike the brick wall behind her. A quick diagnostic revealed the primary shoulder articulator was damaged, and the secondary had failed when opening the outer bunker door. Her arm fell and hung slack against her side. She darted in the other direction as another beam missed by microns.

  Setting her hover systems to full, she took off rocketing straight up. Not expecting that, the beams went wide missing her by a large margin. She flew to the closest forested area and landed. A few minutes later an old large cargo van with its doors open, flew overhead, looking for her. "I am glad they didn't have anything with scanners, or they would have spotted me."

  She sat down by the trunk of a large tree. While she didn't need rest like a human, it came to her naturally. Removing her chest plate, she examined the damage. The damage was worse than she thought, but still reparable. She tried, but lacking the proper tools, it wasn't possible and replaced the plate.

  The Nexus thought about heading back to the bunker for repairs, but time, or the lack of it, convinced her otherwise. When she couldn't detect the cargo van anymore, she took off heading back to the town. She landed some distance away, and hovered in silently. At the very edge of the town limits sat a small house. Her scanners revealed one small human inside and judging by the highest locations of thermal imagery, a boy. She headed for it.

  She knocked on the door instead of pressing the announcement button. It may activate cameras.

  A small boy wearing simple denim overalls answered the door. His eyes went wide viewing the very tall Mechand in front of him. He was about to run when she spoke.
"Please, don't be frightened. I mean you no harm. Where are your parents?"

  "They … they … left. Something about needing to protect me and the town. How are you here? I thought all Mechands were off?"

  "Most are. I am special. Perhaps you have heard of me, I am the Nexus."

  "The … the … Nexus?" The boy blurted. "Everyone said you died."

  "Well a part of me did. But I mean you no harm. Can I use your data tab for a few minutes?"

  The boy eyed her with suspicion. "Why? If you are the Nexus you should be able to do that on your own."

  The Nexus smiled. "I am not what I was. Please, it will only take a few minutes and I will leave."

  The boy shifted from one bare foot to the other. "But Mom and Dad said I wasn't to let anyone in."

  "You don't need to. You can bring it here. It will only take a minute."

  The boy rubbed his neck for several seconds. "Okay, they didn't say anything about that." He disappeared behind the door and reappeared a moment later with a battered old data tab. "I hope you can use this one. It is an old model. Was my Dad's."