“We’ve been inside the sphere the whole time,” said Zoey. “Well, not literally. The computer within the sphere is sending electrical pulses to stimulate our brains, creating images and sensations much like a dream.”
“Weren’t you able to sense the computer, like you do most data?”
“That’s what’s so creepy, Sara. It’s so complex, this computer, that it’s almost human.”
“Then, what’s its purpose?” asked Sara. “Is there a way to ask it?”
“The A.I. seems damaged. Otherwise, it’s not very responsive.” Zoey looked up to the floating face. “Pull up system preferences.” Several windows appeared before Zoey. “Good news is it looks like it’s all in English. Bad news is I still can’t make out half the words.” Zoey flipped between the different windows. “It sustained a small amount of damage since its crash, and over time, age has been slowly eating away at the memory circuits.”
“So, it’s actually a lot like a human,” remarked Sara.
“Obviously, the A.I. was one of the first components to lose quality. Just skimming through the hard drive, there seems to be a just a ton of information in all sorts of formats.”
“Can you find out what has the most current time stamp on it?”
“As far as I can tell, it’s a movie file,” said Zoey. “It’s dated 2000 years into the future.”
“Play it.” Everything turned dark as the movie expanded and surrounded them.
A human face appeared, shrouded in shadows. “This message is for any who comes across this ark of human knowledge. The Earth has finally been destroyed through folly and pettiness. I have gathered all known knowledge of our race, so that you may learn from us and prevent the mistakes we made.” The screen erupted in static.
“The rest of the message seems to have been lost,” said Zoey as their surroundings returned to white. “Can this really be from the future?”
“If it was jettison into space, it could have been sucked into a wormhole or a black hole. Or…”
“Or what, Sara?”
“Or it is a time machine.”
“More like a time capsule. Like those old Voyager satellites they’d send out into space. What if it really does have the accumulated knowledge of the human race?”
“Then, we can’t let the Cabal get their hands on it.”
“Wait a minute,” said Zoey. “They’d have to have information on Zeitgeist.”
“This isn’t the time for personal vendettas,” remarked Sara. “I thought you were over him.”
“He’s just the person who experimented on me all those years ago. I can finally know more about him than just an alias.”
“No,” replied Sara. “This is forbidden information. We can’t risk learning about the future. I’m sorry, Zoey.” Sara closed her eyes and pushed the picture out in her mind. She soon felt the bite of the cold and heaviness of her many layers of clothing.
Sara opened her real eyes to find that stood exactly where they had been when Zoey had touched the Omnisphere. Quickly, Sara jerked Zoey away from the sphere. Zoey slowly came to, disoriented at first.
“You had no right,” she started, but her voice trailed off. “Where’s Lee?” Before Sara could respond, three armored men took them by surprised. In between the cracks in their white armor was a thick thermal material. Smooth helmets hid their faces. With guns thrust into their faces, Sara and Zoey were led back down to the altar room, where several more troops were waiting.
Lee was on his hands and feet, clutching his bleeding shoulder. The troopers shoved the women down next to him. “Well, well,” came a voice in their receivers. “Look who we ran into.” Zoey felt a chill run up her spine as she instantly recognized the voice belonging to none other than “Scarface.”
“Thanks for leading us straight to the sphere.” Came his gleeful voice.
“They snuck up on me,” said Lee. “I tried to fight them off, but they were too much for me.”
“It’s all right,” said Sara. To her captors, she asked, “What are you going to do with us?”
“I toyed with the idea of leaving you in one of the various traps set in this temple,” said Scarface. “But then, you’d escape. It’s your talents of getting out of trouble that made my boss pick you in the first place.” He snapped his fingers, and the troopers lined up behind their captives. “So, I thought a bullet to the back of the head would work just as well.”
The troopers, as one, took aim at Sara, Zoey, and Lee.
“Any last requests?”
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Written by J M Emmons. The story and all characters are copyrighted by J M Emmons.
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