Chronosphere Read online

  Chronosphere

  Adam Witcher

  Copyright © 2020 by Adam Witcher

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in book reviews.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Endnotes

  Chapter One

  Anton sat in his cubicle, anxiously squeezing a stress ball when he heard the sound that would change everything. The airy ding of his email notifications, but altered in such a subtle way that it wouldn’t be noticed if he hadn’t been desperately listening for it. He’d been waiting nearly two weeks for this moment, for that one little notification. His heart pounded, his face flushed.

  Anton:

  Chronosphere running.

  -Ana

  The information was encrypted, of course. Anton never utilized Jagarian writing for anything but his work assignments. The cuneiform-inspired text that concealed his true talents was incomprehensible to anyone but him and Ana. He’d designed it that way, going so far as to study the Draconian writing system and develop a language that seemed most counterintuitive to them. They could speak and read Jagarian perfectly, so it seemed worth the extra effort.

  Though the chronosphere had only begun its final diagnostic tests two weeks ago, he felt as though he’d been awaiting the results for a year. Each moment he spent forcing himself to go about business as usual was agonizing, but suddenly, the burden of normalcy was all but removed.

  Anton stood up from his desk and glanced around the office. It looked the same as it had when he started five years ago: white-walled, sterile, unassuming. His unwillingness to display his personality had served him well. On the surface, he was just the right man for the job - highly efficient but utterly lacking in imagination. Little did they know. He couldn’t help but grin at the thought of never returning here.

  The Draconians had probably been at the head of Minocorp since its inception. There were no humans in charge of the tech industry. It was a wonder they even brought humans into research and development, but he supposed they had to occasionally keep up appearances for the public. When Anton started as a low-level office grunt, he showed enough inherent skill at robotics that they begrudgingly acknowledged his abilities, even sent out an office memo about “recognizing talent and potential”. He suspected that he had one of the highest clearance levels of any human in the company, but there was no way to be sure. Even so, he was still left in the dark most of the time. Assignments were passed down to him daily or weekly, and he complied dutifully. He had no real way of knowing how his inventions were being used, but he was at least given enough autonomy to order more parts and materials than necessary. This made putting together his home laboratory possible.

  Anton slipped out of his office for the last time and thought about these things as he wandered through the fluorescent-lit farm of cubicles where corporate slaves toiled away on projects that were far, far beyond their control. Briefly, he considered simply walking out of the place. He might have time to make it home before anyone realized he was gone. But that plan dissipated the moment Tony Blawan stepped out from his private office, coffee cup in hand, and settled his critical gaze on Anton.

  “Leaving, Anton? Everything alright?”

  Tony had never struck Anton as being one of the more intelligent Draconians at Minocorp, which was likely why he’d been placed as a middleman between the lowly laborers and the shadowy executives upstairs. His human form was pale and blonde, and the yellow glints in his eyes were constant reminders to his underlings which race was really in charge. But Tony himself had never shown any suspicion of Anton’s true activities.

  “Super nauseous,” Anton blurted and grabbed his stomach. “Must have eaten something bad. I’m gonna need to take the rest of the day.”

  Tony sipped his coffee, unimpressed by the stammered excuse.

  “We’ve got a lot of projects going,” he said. “You’ll need to make this up.”

  “I can come in this weekend,” Anton bartered. “Saturday. I’m sure I’ll be better by then.”

  Indeed, if all went according to plan, things would be much better by Saturday. But not just for him. For all of humanity.

  Tony nodded slightly. Anton hoped that his red cheeks and sweaty brow helped his sickness alibi, but he could sense distrust. Even so, he didn’t need much time.

  Anton did his best to look nonchalant as he boarded the elevator and pushed the button for the first floor. He tried to avoid eye contact with those aboard. No matter how many times he saw that yellow gleam, it never failed to make him nervous.

  As he stepped out into the parking lot, he fell into a power-walk. He slammed his car door and chanced a glance at the third floor. Through the gloom of the city smog, he made out the form of Tony Blawan staring down at him. He was speaking to someone to someone over his left shoulder, hidden behind drawn blinds. He never took his reptilian eyes off Anton.

  “Shit shit shit shit shit...” Anton mumbled to himself, so anxious that it took a minute to figure out how to operate his car.

  What the fuck are you doing, man? Don’t say that out loud! What if they have your car bugged?

  It didn’t matter now, anyway. If they knew, they knew. Even if they didn’t know exactly what Anton had up his sleeve, that wouldn’t stop them from intervening on some pretext. He peeled out of the parking lot and took the road toward home.

  The drive was an out-of-body experience. Every dark-tinted car window he passed seemed to have a yellow gleam behind it. Every concrete and steel tower seemed to have terrible metallic eyes boring down on him. The dreary cityscape suited the cold, brutal authority of the Draconian regime.

  A desperate need to talk to Ana pulled at him, and he decided to chance contact. The encrypted network between their communicators had never failed before, but he was still nervous.

  “Ana, I think they have eyes on me, you picking up anything?”

  There was a brief silence before Ana’s calm, collected voice entered the tiny device in his ear.

  “Sensors detect an active alert from Draconian officers,” she replied. “I suspect they are in pursuit.”

  “Shit,” he felt his stomach turn over. “What tipped them off?”

  “Unclear. According to my scans, this line is still safe. It is unlikely that they cracked your code in the email, but it is possible that they intercepted it.”

  “Damn.” Anton tapped his fingers frantically against the steering wheel. “I was afraid of this. We should have just done confirmation from the communicator.”

  “I have expressed before that it is unwise to open this link while you are in Minocorp. Electromagnetic sensors monitor connections continuously. An embedded email was most likely to bypass the security buffer. The safest course of action would have been for you to await news upon your arrival home from
work.”

  “And risk spending even a minute more than I had to at that place?” He knew she was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. Her mechanical scolding was kind of cute, anyway.

  Red and blue lights of a patrol car flashed behind him. He debated whether to pull over or to floor it, but, momentarily regretting the impulsiveness that had gotten him to this point, he decided to pull over.

  A dark-skinned, bald officer sauntered over to the driver’s side window, then knocked on it lightly. His hand shaking, Anton rolled it down.

  “Is there a problem officer?”

  Anton didn’t need for the cop to lower his sunglasses to know there were yellow glints behind them. There were no human police.

  The cop leaned in close.

  “What the fuck are you trying to pull right now, Anton?” He threatened in a low, husky voice.

  “Sorry, I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Step out of the car.” The cop lowered his sunglasses, and Anton saw rage in his yellow eyes.

  “Am I under arrest?” he stammered, knowing he was only buying himself a few moments.

  “Enough games. Step out before I drag you out.”

  Anton moved his hand toward the door handle, but before grabbing it, he dipped it to the lower part of the door and hit a three-digit code. A compartment popped open, revealing the laser pistol he kept stashed there. He looked up at the cop, who couldn’t see it.

  “Sorry, I just need to unbuckle my seatbelt,” he forced a chuckle. “Safety first, right?”

  He grabbed the pistol, then twisted his body to the right, pretending to unbuckle. When he turned back, he stuck the gun to the cop’s face and pulled the trigger.

  A burst of red light produced a fountain of green blood that sprayed out into the street. The cop lost his human form immediately. His scaled body hit the pavement with a thud, his long tail still twitching, chunks of green and blue brain matter splattered around the ridges of his head. The corpse convulsed. Anton stared at the ground, unable to believe what he’d just done. A few pedestrians gawked, mouths agape. They were human.

  He floored it. Only a few seconds passed before he heard sirens in every direction. He passed an alley where another patrol vehicle shot out and began its pursuit.

  Gunshots exploded into his car’s safety glass. One of the bullets ripped through the fabric of his headrest and exited through the driver’s side window, missing his skull by inches.

  Okay, no more unnecessary risks. This isn’t just about you.

  Anton clutched his steering wheel with white knuckles, trying to make his movements erratic and unpredictable. He reached the end of Jagari’s business district and approached the five-lane bridge that led over the Dromarre River and into the residential part of town. He swerved around the other cars on the bridge. A glance in his rearview mirror showed at least four cars in pursuit.

  One officer fired two more shots. His heart was beating so fast that the shots sounded like they were underwater. One bullet smashed into the bumper of an adjacent vehicle. The other tore into its tire and sent it skidding off to the side of the bridge. It came dangerously close to falling into the river below. Sweat streamed down Anton’s face. They were reckless. What did they really know?

  “Ana, I’m gonna need some help,” he shouted. “Are there patrol cars at the end of the bridge?”

  “Affirmative, Anton,” she replied. “Two vehicles have blocked the other side. I have accessed their dash cams. They are armed and waiting for you.”

  Anton swerved around a tall truck and saw the twin sets of red and blue lights.

  “Can you hack into their electronics? I just need them distracted.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  He was close enough to see the glints of their eyes. They were about to fire. Anton sunk low in his chair.

  The sirens went erratic. The steady, pulsing sounds became a cacophony of random electronic shrieks. The cars honked. The shocked officers turned around just as Ana hacked into the hydraulics and made the cars bounce up and down.

  The cops were torn in their attention. So used to being in control, it was clear they’d never seen anything like this. This allowed Anton to get close enough for a shot. He aimed his laser pistol carefully at one of their torsos and fired two blasts. The red beams melted through the windshield and entered the cop’s chest, eviscerating whatever internal organs it found. The dead lizard hit the pavement. The other cop panicked. He fired several shots without aiming. Anton approached the spastic patrol car and swerved to avoid it.

  He felt a mild relief as he reached the residential part of the city. His house was only three blocks away. When he entered his neighborhood, though, he heard a chorus of sirens. Judging from the direction of the sound, they had blockaded his street, surrounded his house. How did they know how badly he needed to go there? Did they not think he’d try to escape the city-state? He could have asked Ana, but the distraction sounded like a bad idea.

  Three more gunshots rang behind him. The cop from the bridge somehow had gotten his car back under control and resumed the chase. Luckily, Anton didn’t need to go much further. The neighborhood park by his house came into view, a dreary, seldom-used patch of grass with a rusted old swing set. He made like he was going to swing a left, but then whipped the car back to his right at the last moment and went into the park. The cop car just behind him took the bait, veering even harder in an attempt to ram him. It spun out just enough to buy him a little time.

  He floored the car, narrowly missing a fire hydrant and then a parked car. A few pedestrians ran for cover. Then, when he was close enough to the manhole, he slammed the brakes and jumped out. The laser pistol fit snugly into his black slacks.

  He heard more gunshots and yelling behind him. There was no point in looking. If they shot him, it was all over, and the longer he stayed on the surface, the longer he was a target. He kept his eyes on the metal disc that would be his salvation.

  Anton got to his knees and pulled the crowbar from the bush he’d stashed it under weeks ago. He took a deep breath, pried the top off the manhole, and jumped down into the abyss. There was no need to cover it again. They would know he was there from the parked car and the cast-aside crowbar.

  Anton grabbed the LED flashlight that he kept hidden in one of the walls. He shined it forward and sprinted as best as he could through the muck of the sewer. Now close enough to enact the next phase of his plan, he rang for Ana again.

  “Yes, Anton?”

  “What’s the status?”

  “The house is surrounded, but they have not entered. I suspect that they have done a bioscan and found no organic life. I believe they mean to intercept you in the street. If you do not arrive soon, I anticipate they will enter forcefully and search for anything you’re hiding.”

  “Great. Are you in position?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “I’ll be there in thirty seconds.”

  Anton ran harder, already feeling winded from the stress. Sirens echoed down through the manhole. He heard shouts from behind him in the sewer as he breathed heavily.

  Finally, he reached the spot where he’d marked an “X” on the wall and pushed it. It gave slowly, and he hoped no one would see fit to open fire in the sewer. The moment he could squeeze his body through it, he did.

  C’mon.

  The shouts got louder as the hidden door slid back into position. They must have seen it, because they beat their fists against it and yelled for him to show himself. He latched it closed with a steel barricade. He turned around, felt for the light switch, and flipped it on.

  The slick, rounded surface of the chronosphere shined gloriously in his cavernous basement. Beside it, Ana stood, grinning in the comforting way that only an A.I. could in a situation like this. Her brown hair was tied neatly into a ponytail behind her head. Her skin was only a shade pinker than the pure-white chronosphere, but her flawless teeth matched it perfectly. She stood in a white leather bodysuit that looked s
imultaneously badass, professional, and sexy. There was something different about the look of satisfaction on her angular, feminine face. It looked genuine. She seemed to develop more of a personality every day. He shook the thought from his head. There was no time for that.

  “Welcome, Anton,” she said. “I don’t know if you got a chance to closely examine the results of today’s test run, but they were promising. We are running at a 99.86% chance for success.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  Above them, the impatient police officers stormed the house. For a moment, he listened to them shout and throw things, treating his belongings like enemies of the state, looking for something, anything, that could allow them to squash his scheme. He smiled as they howled in frustration. As calculating and intelligent as the Draconians were, they did not handle failure with much tact.

  “The basement! Check the basement!” a muffled cry came from above.

  Anton wasn’t worried. The only way to access this basement lab from the house was via fingerprint, and they would never guess where they’d have to stick his forged print in order to get in.

  “Excellent, Ana. And you found the date?”

  “Yes, Anton. And the location. Our landing site is far enough from civilization so that we may go unnoticed, but close enough to reach easily.”

  “Great, tell me more when we get there. Everything stocked?”

  “The chronosphere contains two weeks’ worth of potable water and food rations.”

  “Perfect.”

  Anton walked up to the side of the chronosphere and keyed a code into an unmarked spot on the side. A large panel popped outward before sliding over, allowing a heavy fog to spill out into the basement. Panels of blinking lights inside lit up the gas.

  “What’s this smoke stuff?”

  “Just a little dramatic flair,” she said with a cocked head and playful smile. “This is your big moment, Anton. It should live up to your expectations.”

  He laughed and made a mental note to ask her more later. This wasn’t the first time she’d done something just for his enjoyment.