The Contaminant Protocol
Dax and Jackie moved quickly through the central streets of the largest city on the huge fortress island. They were narrow and crammed and no one paid much attention to them.
No one except the city cameras that automatically snapped shots of random scenes in the dense city.
Dax was agile and Jackie found it challenging to keep up with the big man as he maneuvered through the congestion of the city. She was also amazed at how many humans moved through the streets along side robots, automatons, and cyborgs.
She found herself wondering if population numbers were true, could The People's Voice be as corrupt as Nexus?
She quieted her inner thoughts as BDJ refocused her.
>Tally's info stream indicates the remainder of Vi Somno have already descended into the levels below the city. They are still centrally located and she reports that all other members remain united. Turn left in 26 meters and descend, via an old conveyance tube 2 meters to the right after the turn.
Jackie gave the coordinates to Dax via their encrypted neural comms and they seamlessly moved onto a cramped alley. They moved through heaps of rot and old neon signage, piles of robotic and other mechanical systems, and an odd sludge that seemed ro have a mind of its own – reaching for them as they passed.
The tube was the same, only darker, but they no longer sensed the cameras or any type of monitoring.
The encrypted comms spiked and the moment Jackie was dreading came.
"Now tell me about your system making decisions for you."
His voice was smooth, as if he had not been moving quickly for the past hour, and determined.
Jackie shrugged, even though he could not see her, her mind partially in her 360-degree view – continually monitoring their situation.
"It would seem that I am a liability commander. I didn't know until a previous upgrade. Sorry for…"
Dax cursed into the comms. "They told us the new borgs were going to be part of a vast experiment but we could not find anything, no proof. When I found you in that alley I knew you were new gen but I couldn't see anything to warrant suspicion so I didn't bring you in – I see that was a mistake now, sorry Jackie."
Jackie was stunned. The world claimed cyborgs were the ultimate humans, sacred life – Earth's salvation – were they just materials for experimentation? Jackie's flesh and blood hand balled into a tight fist. The nanites there working to protect the skin from breaking as she dug the tips of her fingers in deep.
"No need to apologize commander. It was not you and I should've trusted you more."
The big man shook his head as they both ducked into a shorter tunnel that led deeper into the city infrastructure.
"Don't trust anyone Jackie. There are too many ways to monitor these days. You, Lyra and Mikael are unique. All three of you still stay outside the system, but don't count on that to always be the case."
He paused as the both rolled beneath ancient debris, left behind when the tunnels had working high speed hover trains barreling along them.
"We need to figure out how to help you with this."
"My system upgraded again and deletes most of the protocol but some of it is too deeply woven. I need another upgrade or two to eradicate it completely."
She saw his slight hesitation as she spoke, but he only nodded in understanding then suddenly halted – his fist shooting up to signal her to stop. They stood motionless and listened as smugglers talked as they moved carelessly through the tunnel. They could hear them clearly but Jackie's ocular implant was telling her they were not in the same tunnel.
BDJ found a schematic and Jackie sent it to Dax. Her ocular implant marked them in blue and the smugglers in neon green, moving in a tunnel directly above them and to the left.
It also marked three other groups moving through the tunnels, none in their vicinity, but all probably able to hear them. Dax nodded and the group encrypted comms sprang to life as he spoke to the entire squad.
"Jackie and I are in the lower tunnels in the old sonic train shafts. Jackie send Sura our location. We are moving to you. Mikael you have the lead until I get back, don't wait for me, begin the data exchange as soon as you can. We maintain our timetable."
"Yes commander." They all spoke at once – relief clear in their comrades voices.
"Okay Jackie. Let's get back to the team."