Rise in Revolution (Chapter Seventeen)

[tanadin]

 In which we meet a new character, investigate some shit, and learn some things about our friendly neighborhood 7007.

Chapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
World map: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Kaldriel-RiR-map-594639189

Chapter Seventeen

Siblings in Steel

Control Center IAL, Sector IAL. January 18, 2272. Time instance 842N.

“Seven!”

The cyborg looked up at the sound of Fan’s voice. He and Kyir had been working to get into one of the consoles to access its files to see if it had anything worthwhile on it.

“What is it?”

“There’s a cyborg in the other room. It’s not activated or anything.”

“Really? I would have thought it would have been activated in the fight.”

“Nope. It’s just down the stairs and to the right, past a few rooms.”

Seven and Kyir exchanged glances before leaving the room, following Fan’s directions. She slipped away into a side hallway but Kyir didn’t particularly care, figuring her job there was done.

The room they entered was large and mostly empty, with rows of large, open tubes, all but one empty and lacking cyborgs. Each had a small screen, and all were dark except for the one that was occupied. A faint green light shone from beneath the feet of the cyborg, and as they approached, Kyir noted that the screen indicated that the unit was 7009-α.

“He’s not active.” Kyir muttered unnecessarily. “I should be able to cut his connection to the Mainframe if we can safely get him out of that tube.” He looked at the control panel. “I wonder how you open it without acti-”

Seven smashed the glass.

“That’s fine too.”

As they struggled to get the cyborg unplugged from the tube and out into the open, Kyir examined his physical appearance. He was about 6’2 and had dark skin, even darker than Zahnra’s. Most of his torso and both arms were replaced with cybernetics, as was his left eye, and if he had to hazard a guess, the guy’s entire spinal cord was replaced. He had short black hair and a small scar on his right cheek, a detail that made Kyir growl quietly.

Kyir got Seven’s assistance in getting the trenchcoat and shirt off of 7009. He opened up the back of the cyborg and quickly found the right wire for disconnecting the cyborg from the Mainframe. “Hold his arms, will you? I don’t want to get elbowed in the face again.”

Seven shrugged and grabbed the other cyborg’s arms. “It won’t really matter if he swings with his left arm. It’s stronger than my right.”

Kyir ignored him and snipped the wire. 7009 had no reaction.

“Okay. Time to switch this fucker on. How do I…” Kyir fiddled with wires and switches until a light blinked green momentarily and the machinery started to whirr. Kyir shut the access panel and stepped back, motioning for Seven to do the same.

The cyborg almost fell before his eyes snapped open (right) and lit with red light (left) and he stumbled to regain his balance, blinking and looking around wildly. His natural eye was a warm brown color.

“Who...what...I…”

“My name is Seven. You’re a cyborg, previously under the control of the Mainframe in Sector IAL. IAL has fallen and we’ve freed you from the Mainframe’s control.”

7009 blinked a few times, looking between the two of them. “You, too?” He pointed at Seven. He nodded affirmative. “Well, this is...a development.” He looked at his hands. “I don’t...I don’t remember anything.”

“That’s how it is, apparently.” Kyir grumbled.

“So you...freed me from enslavement, basically.”

“Pretty much.”

“Awesome.” He looked up at them and smiled. “Thank you. Why am I shirtless?”

“Had to get to the access panel in your back. Nothing creepy.” Kyir rolled his eyes behind his shades.

“Ah.” 7009 started to dress himself again. “Thank you again for freeing me. I don’t remember anything, but…”

“You were never activated. I don’t know why, but you weren’t.” Seven told him.

“Weird. Do I have a name?”

“Nine. Now you do.”

“Nine. Why Nine?”

“Your unit number was 7009-α.” Kyir pointed at the tag on the cyborg’s shirt. “See?”

“So I am. Was. Um. Whatever.” Nine blinked a few times, left eye spinning. “I’m not...not really…” His robotic eye whirred and clicked. “I’m not really sure what’s going on,” he admitted, “but I’m about ready to believe anything you guys tell me.”

“Great. You want to introduce this asshole to Zahnra and see if she murders him, or should I?” Kyir looked at Seven, crossing his arms.

Seven shrugged. “We should introduce him to the entire resistance force so they don’t kill him on sight.”

“Woah, woah, woah. I don’t like the sounds of this conversation and where it’s going. I don’t really feel like dying.” Nine held up his hands.

“You won’t die.” Seven said confidently. “Come on.” He motioned for Nine to follow him out the door, Kyir not far behind, wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into.

Two cyborgs and a bunch of assorted assholes up against tens of thousands. What could go wrong?

~~~

Emma leaned back in her seat as Seven pressed a few keys on the console. The screen switched to a folder displaying several files. He typed in a year and started to filter through various video clips. Emma lost interest as he did so, instead directing her gaze to the other cyborg in the room, noticing Tanadin doing the same thing.

Nine was leaned back in his seat as well, balanced perfectly on the edge of the chair’s back legs. He was tossing a green stress ball, borrowed from Tanadin, to himself. He noticed them watching and paused, raising an eyebrow. They both looked away, embarrassed to be caught. They were both curious about their newest teammate, especially since he was a cyborg- Emma especially was curious to see if he would act just like Seven, or at all different. He certainly seemed different so far, at least more human- tossing the stress ball, more easily amused and sliding into conversations without too much difficulty. He seemed to have forgotten how to act like a human, but he was remembering quickly.

So why isn’t Seven like that?

It simply was, Emma concluded, that Seven was a really weird dude.

Eventually Seven gently tapped the screen with a metal finger. “Found it. This is the date that the control center took severe damage.” That immediately drew everyone’s attention and they got up, crowding around the screen. Seven set the footage to play and watched.

The camera rolled for a few seconds before a form darted into sight, racing along a wall before putting its back to the wall and peeking around the corner. He appeared to be in his early twenties, with blond hair and wearing mostly gray. He had a sword in his right hand and both a knife and some kind of grenade buckled at his waist.

He looks awfully familiar.

He pulled the grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, and threw it around the corner. It exploded, sending chunks of white rock everywhere. Seven typed in a command on the console to switch the camera as the man ran around the corner. This new angle showed the nine thousand unit, stunned but undamaged, standing next to the primary door into the control center.

The man hacked at the unit’s shoulder-mounted weapon, slicing wires and cutting part of it off before realizing that the stun wouldn’t last for long. He slashed at its neck several times, damaging the armor and likely some wiring beneath, before moving out of their range of sight and into the control center.

“Why isn’t it chasing him? The stun should have worn off by now.” Tanadin mumbled.

“That grenade probably had something in it other than the kartzal. What I’d like to know is how he got into the control center in the first place.”

Emma glanced at Tanadin’s face and could see her glancing between Seven and the man on-screen as well, and knew that she wasn’t alone.

Seven kept switching the camera to show the man running around the control center, getting to the second floor and doing his best to avoid turrets and other cyborgs alike. He quickly located a kind of satellite dish- at least that’s what it looked like- labeled 9000. He twisted the antenna on the dish, not breaking it- as a monitor on the screen said it was still broadcasting- but preventing it from sending meaningful messages, causing alarms to blare. He made a face and raced out of the room into a hallway.

The camera switched to show him racing through the hallways, then switched again to show him entering a familiar room. He glanced around before racing towards a console, slicing through wires with his sword and causing the machinery to spark and lights to flash.

The man jumped and looked around hurriedly before kneeling down, drawing his knife and carving an arrow in the surface of the machine. He looked behind him again, apparently hearing something, before taking off out the door, following the direction of the arrow.

Seven switched the camera again to show the man running through the hallways once more, when Emma told him to pause. He paused the video at a good moment, with the man looking up in the direction of the camera.

“Doesn’t he look like you?”

Seven blinked and looked closer at him. “He does.” He admitted.

“Almost identical.” Tanadin mumbled.

Nine looked between them. “It could be you. I mean, it’s around the right timeframe, isn’t it?”

“It is. This is early on when the seven thousand units were being made.” Seven hit the play button again, and now watched the man on-screen- his apparent past self- more curiously.

Past-Seven froze suddenly and turned around in time to see the nine thousand unit come around the corner. His eyes widened and he turned to run, but the unit took aim and fired.

But not at him.

The bullet struck a pipe to his left, tearing a gash in the metal and igniting the gas within. A blazing fireball engulfed the area, including past-Seven, who fell to the floor, burned and dying.

The nine thousand unit stepped forward towards him, but Seven shut off the video before it could continue.

Silence in the room.

“So.” Tanadin looked over at him. “That answers a lot of questions.”

“And raises more.”

“How did you get in?” Emma demanded. “They didn’t know you were there until you attacked the nine thousand unit.”

“I have no idea.” Seven shrugged. “I don’t remember.”

“Maybe you’re magical.” Tanadin suggested. “Try and see if you can find your file.”

Seven shrugged and typed into the console again, navigating through several menus before typing in a search bar. He opened up the file it provided, filling the screen with black overlaid with bright blue text.

The file listed some information about him, including his name.

“Asphodel.” Tanadin mumbled. “Do you want us to call you that? That is your name, after all.”

Seven shrugged. “Not really. I don’t have any connection to it anymore. I have more memories with my new name than my old one.” He kept scrolling.

The rest of the information seemed to be accurate, but he paused when he reached family relations. It showed him as having two deceased parents as well as a dead sister.

“Huh. I have a sister.” He paused. “Well, had.”

Tanadin frowned. “I’m sorry.”

Seven shrugged. “I don’t remember her. I don’t really remember myself.” He kept scrolling until he reached a section talking about magical abilities.

“No apparent magical abilities,” he read aloud. “Occasionally displays superhuman physical abilities. Magical in nature? No signs of magic use detected.” He reread it silently a few times. “I have no idea what that is talking about.”

“Maybe that’s how you got in.” Emma suggested.

“I don’t think superhuman abilities involve turning invisible both visually and to sensors. They would have said that.” Nine pointed out. “However he got in, he’s not gonna remember anytime soon.”

“Hm.” Seven shrugged and closed out of his file. “Okay. I’m going to download some files and go around IAL getting collars off of people and figuring out who and what we have.”

“Can I help?” Nine sounded hopeful.

“Sure.”

“Awesome. You guys get some cyborg bonding time. I’ll go see if I’m needed anywhere.” Tanadin moved to leave.

“I’ll send the elementals to you.” Seven told her.

“What?! Why?”

“You’re an elemental.”

Tanadin growled softly and rolled her eyes before leaving the room, Emma reluctantly not far behind.

So it was Seven that damaged 9099-α and incapacitated part of the control center.

But how did he get in? How did he know what he was doing and where to go?

And why doesn’t he seem bothered by anything we’ve seen today?