up? If they haven't dropped in to pick him up by now, I don't think they're coming, lady.”
Ayan sighed, it was a clearly visible gesture, even from where Oz and Jason were sitting at the other end of the barricade. She spoke to him at a normal volume that no one could overhear.
Yves nodded, said something in return then walked towards the bulk of the refugees. “All right, it looks like our guests are leaving. Anyone who wants to join them can go now, we'll be collapsing the main transit tunnel behind them. You have five minutes!” he shouted before stalking off towards one of the watch posts.
Ayan returned to the corner Jason had set up his mini terminal in, shaking her head. “He's an idiot. Whoever goes with him is dead.”
“You're right. I just wish so many people didn't believe in him,” Oz agreed.
“Did you offer to patch him into the secure channels?” Jason asked.
Ayan nodded as she opened a meal bar. “I did but he doesn't want to coordinate. He said he doesn't want to end up involving more people in his resistance than he can evacuate from Pandem when the time comes. Honestly I'm assuming this is the worst place to take off from. If there are planetary cannons working some of them must be pointed straight at the air above the Spaceport. Anyone who signs up for his plan and takes an average ship up doesn't stand much of a chance.”
“Oh, I don't think Jake or his new friends are stupid enough to go along with Yves' plan.” Oz chuckled and nodded.
“He said that now that the signal jamming on all channels has stopped he won't have any problems reaching any survivors on Pandem,” Ayan said after finishing her first bite.
“I haven't found any. A few remnant security captures that were flagged by someone showed a lot of people being loaded onto ships, but that's all the evidence I found of anyone surviving this mess.” Jason closed the mini- terminal up and pushed it into his backpack. “The size of the fleet responsible for this has got to be bigger than anything I've seen. It takes at least four million troops to sack a planet like this even with bots everywhere cooperating.”
“So you think the West Keepers or Regent Galactic wanted the land and resources here?”
“From what I'm hearing on the religious broadcasts this is going to be their new base of operations. I've been listening ever since they started broadcasting in the clear. So far I've heard Hampon mentioned once and they keep talking about the coming of Eve.”
“Hampon? How did he get mixed up in this?” Ayan asked in surprise.
“He's considered a prophet, sounds like a child. I want nothing more than to meet up with Jake and his people then find a way out of here, it's time to get some distance,” Oz said, nodding at a few dozen people who had gathered and were walking towards them. “I don't think I'm the only one.”
They were led by several rebels who were wearing salvaged West Keeper armour. They were all quite young. In the lead was the young woman Minh had saved from being killed by a grenade. “Excuse me, but we'd like to go with you. There are about fifty of us, but we'll try not to slow you down.”
Oz stood and shook his hand while Ayan and Jason did the same with his friends. “You're welcome to come along,” he said with a smile.
“We have to get moving though, they're already rigging lines to the dock loaders to pull the main supports for the tunnel.” Jason nodded at the tunnel opening.
Preparation to leave took minutes. Few of the fifty six people going with them into the long, dark tunnel had much in the way of belongings and Yves only allowed them to take the food they already had on them. Less than ten minutes passed before they all heard the collapse of the tunnel behind.
Everyone stopped to look back the way they had come even though the tracks only led into the darkness and they couldn't see the mass of debris that had filled the tunnel opening. They were cut off, there was no return.
Oz was standing right beside Jason when he heard Dementia open a channel with him. “Hello Jason, I have some bad news for you,” the normally friendly, if not slightly clinical at times, voice said over the communicator quietly.
“I'm glad to hear you were able to access an open channel,” Jason congratulated the artificial intelligence quietly. “Is everything all right down there?”
“Yes. I have been monitoring what has been going on with you and the rest of the refugees now that the jamming is gone and I can access some of the wireless systems. As much as I'm disappointed in how they behaved in my absence I must say that the better group of people won.”
“What do you mean?” Jason asked.
Ayan stepped in closer to listen in to the quiet conversation between Jason and Dementia.
“When I tried to open communications with the machines wirelessly after the jamming signals subsided I was denied contact. The bots are succumbing to an evolved version of the holocaust virus and will soon side with the Order of Eden again. I have tried to contact Yves directly but he is not accepting communications with me, it seems he is under the impression that I wish to take command of the group.”
“You could have told us, we could have tried to warn him,” Ayan said harshly.
“Considering the tone of the conversation you had with him Ayan, I decided it was more prudent to allow you to take whatever survivors were willing to see sense in another direction. Do you have any bots with you? I can't tell while you're in the tunnel.”
“No, they all sided with Yves.”
“All the better then. I am sorry for the loss of life, but their decisions have sealed their fates.”
Oz looked at Jason and Ayan in turn, they both looked ashen in the dim blue light emitted by Jason's comm unit. “Dementia, is the virus changing enough to affect you?”
“As I've integrated the virus code in my core program and am evolving with it I am immune. I've also been able to maintain a connection with the few bots who are working to replace my Xetima fuelled systems with a more practical form of micro fusion propulsion. I should be ready by the time you arrive. I have devised a plan involving my own cloaking device to get you and many more people off the planet. I have cleared out all non-essential components in order to accommodate as many people as I can.”
The trio looked at each other for a moment before Ayan replied; “I assume you have a way for us to get to you?”
“You will be coming up on a junction with access to lower transit tunnels,” replied Dementia as a small holographic map appeared, projected by Jason's comm unit.
“We'll meet up with Jake and Alaka then head down. Thank you Dementia. Just do one more thing for me, okay?”
“What's that?”
“Don't count us out of any decisions in the future. I'd rather know what sacrifices we're making before we're forced into carrying them out,” Ayan said gently but firmly.
“All right Ayan, I look forward to seeing all of you. Alice has told me so much about you.”
“Us too.”
Oz shook his head and cleared his throat before shouting; “all right, let's keep moving!” to everyone who was waiting behind.
Underground
The sounds of distant digging echoed in the near complete darkness of the subway side passage. There were numerous makeshift beds set up, and when Iloona recommended that he get some rest he couldn't help but admit that he was exhausted. Ayan, Oz and Jason were getting some rest while they could as well. They had repelled another rush of West Keeper soldiers and the resistance fighters were keeping watch. Sleep came on quickly despite his uncertain surroundings. Scant hours later he was wide awake, however, and he lay there thinking about Ayan, Oz, Jason and Minh. Just as he was about to stand up to go see if there was anything more he could do, he heard a voice from the cot beside him; “God I wish I was home again,” said the tall, thin man from the cot beside Jake's.
He looked at the bare headed fellow and reached across the empty air between them to shake his hand. “I am Dindamen, they've come to call me Din.”
