Sentinels of the Cosmos Trilogy (5 page)

"Come in Chase," said Susan, the precinct’s shrink.
Juan and Chase paraded through the door together. "I
thought you wouldn't mind if Juan sat in on my
session with you this afternoon," said Chase.
Susan just looked perplexed. "Let me understand this,
you want Juan to be present at your psychiatric
session with me, do you guys take showers together?"
Susan was not amused, "Forget it Juan, and get out.
He’s mine for an hour."
Juan left and Chase sat down in the comfortable chair
in front of her desk. It was the only comfortable chair
in the entire precinct. She picked up a pencil and just
stared at him for a minute. She was waiting for him to
speak, but Chase wasn't a big talker, he was happy to
enjoy sitting quietly in comfort.
Susan was a beautiful woman. She was slim with
black hair and large luscious red lips. She had a
perfect figure and one had to wonder why such a
perfect female specimen ended up a cop shrink, this
chick could have been in the movies. She and Chase
seemed strangely out of place in this world of cops
and robbers.
"No explanation?" she opened.
"No!" Chase replied. Chase liked silence. He was
tired and emotionally beat; not talking was just fine.
Susan stood up and walked around the chair. "Chase
I’ve known you for a long time; we're friends and
you're just about the most stable cop I have ever
known. What's up?"
Chase says in frustration, "How could you have
known me for a long time, I've only been here for six
months; I’ve been in a coma, I have complete
amnesia and I’ve been back on the job for less than a
year.
Susan thought for a moment, and then said gently,
“That’s true.”
He continues, "How old am I really? I still don’t
remember anything, and tell me, Susan, why can’t I
get any information about myself? I checked around
at the precinct that I was supposed to have worked at
for a long but undetermined time and no one knows
me, why is that? How is that even possible? Why are
there no records on me?” Chase asked.
“I don’t know, but maybe we can find some answers
to your questions together, Susan replies.
“I often feel there is a closed door between me and
reality. I think people are keeping me from the truth
and what they are telling me is all lies,” Chase says.
Susan says, “Lies? I am going to tell you a number
and I want you to tell me what it means to you;
1428571,” Susan says woodenly.
Chase stopped cold. He was frozen in time paralyzed, and then as suddenly as he had fallen
asleep he woke up. Susan was taken aback; he was
not supposed to wake up until she woke him.
“That shouldn’t have happened,” Susan says quietly
to herself.
“What shouldn’t have happened? What’s going on
here?” Chase asks.
Susan walks quickly to the door, locks it and then
closes the shades to the room. Chase grabs her by the
throat and lifts her up and holds her against the door.
Susan does not struggle she simply looks him the
eyes. Chase gradually puts her down and says,
“Susan, I can hear every word being spoken in the
next room, they’re monitoring this room. We’re under
surveillance.”
“You’re under investigation,” Susan says.
“Under investigation for what?” Chase asks.
“Your past, I don’t know. I’m just your shrink,”
Susan says and drives a small needle into his throat.
“How come you’re not out of breath? I almost choked
you to death and what did you just stab me with?”
Chase asks and takes the needle out of his throat.
“I don’t know, maybe you’re a gentle killer,” Susan
responds.
“So, I’m a killer?” Chase asks.
“Maybe, I don’t know,” Susan says.
Chase starts sweating. He becomes very dizzy. He sits
down in the chair. Susan fumbles around in several
drawers until she finds a thermometer and sticks it
into his mouth.
“You’re a sick puppy Chase. It’s time to get you
home.” Susan takes the thermometer out of his mouth
and reads it. “Damn, 105
⁰
, we have to get you out of
here now.”
“What did you stab me with?” Chase asks and falls to
his knees.
“Rest Chase, rest, I stabbed you with rest,” Susan tells
him.
Chase falls into a deep sleep and is taken out of the
precinct and back to his house.

Lying in his own bed at home, Chase’s eyes opened.
He was flat on his back looking up at the ceiling. He
slowly made out Susan's features looking down at
him. "Hey gorgeous, where am I?" Chase asks. He
tries to get up but is very weak and light headed.
Susan got him a glass of water. After a few sips he
moved his legs over the side of the bed and sat with
his head hanging down, breathing heavily, and said,
"Why did you drug me, and how long have I been
out?"
Susan seemed concerned. "Long enough, you had
better lay back down, you’ve been very sick. We still
need to look after you. I injected you with a nasty
virus. I needed to get you out of the precinct and I felt
this was the only way I could get you out safely."
“We?” Chase sounded surprised.
"Yes, there is someone you need to meet."
Another beautiful woman came into his field of
vision. She was an apparition, tall, slim, a face as
porcelain as china. Her long black hair hung down
over a perfectly proportioned face. She had a smile
like a Cheshire cat with black eyes as cold as ice yet
seemingly with an innocence that was almost
arresting. She didn't move like normal people, she
seemed to glide, all her movements as smooth as silk.
“My name is Ally, and I need to examine you very
carefully,” she said softly.
“Are you a doctor?” he asked.
“No Chase, but we’re alike you and I, we are the
same,” Ally retorted and continued, “Please lay back
down.”
Chase did as he was told.
“Good” Ally smiles and takes out a slightly larger
than normal smart phone places it on his forehead,
and something very strange happened. A hologram
appeared above his body in which all of Chase's inner
organs could be seen. By touching each organ in the
hologram, Ally, could check his condition. Chase
could hear Ally speaking to him
in his head,
saying,
“You’re not who you think you are Chase, I need to
check your Cybarium implant. It's your other brain.
You and I both have two brains and one is not aware
of the other. You are controlled from this brain here
as she visually expands the image in the hologram.
You're a synthetic Chase, an android of a very special
kind and so am I.”

“I can hear you in my mind, how can this be?” Chase
thinks silently.
Ally replies, still telepathically; "You’re an android;
figure it out. This is interesting it seems that your
organic brain is in the process of merging with your
implanted one. Fascinating; that is not supposed to
happen. Also your organic and mechanical parts are
beginning to merge on a cellular level. You seem to
be evolving like a caterpillar to a butterfly without a
cocoon. I wonder if Beneizen knows what's
happening, anyway, “Speak out loud, Susan knows
everything, and it’s rude to carry on a telepathic
conversation with others in the room, show your good
manners.”
“Can I talk to Susan this way?” asks Chase.
“No, only me; I’m also a Cybarium Guard.”
Chase sat up and looked at both of them, saying,
“What’s going on? Am I having a dream?”
Susan looks him in the eye, and says, “You are a
dream sweetie; but now you need to lie down again,
and let Ally continue to examine you.” He looked at
both of them and started to get up. Ally reaches into
the hologram and squeezes his heart. Chase collapsed
back down on the bed. He had no thoughts; and was
unable to move. It was a very special sensation to be
right there, with no turning thoughts yet unable to
move. Ally started typing very quickly into the
smartphone.
"That's not a hologram is it?” asks Susan.
"No it's called an actualization reflection. Anything I
do to the hologram happens in the subject. You can
perform surgery without opening someone up. For
example you could remove a blockage in the
intestines simply by kneading them in the hologram.
Right now I'm running a test on his implant,” replies
Ally and she continues,” “Chase you’re a genetic
creation. You are a fusion of man and machine.”
“Look here Susan, there is no lower brain stem - just
a titanium casing with a small but very powerful
computer and it's merging on a cellular level with his
brain. We can erase his memories, and we can
implant a history or knowledge he will need, to
complete any assignment that we give him. The great
thing is the front part of the brain doesn't know that
the back brain is controlling everything. However his
brain has gone nuts; Chase like all Guards, can act a
part and live a normal life and when we need him, we
can activate him anywhere in the world to do
anything we want. We can give him the knowledge to
do it, the personality to fit in, and the emotions to
bring trust and confidence to his victims or
accomplices. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do
until he does it and he completely believes the role he
is playing. There is no conscience, there is no will,
and there is no fear. He has no sense of ‘self’ because
there is no self. He is not a robot completely; he is an
enhanced human, just slightly altered. We just keep
him deeply asleep until he’s needed. When he’s
activated, he believes in what he does, he thinks he’s
right, and always acts like he knows. In other words
he fits in our world. Think of his implant as his subconscious. But, we have a small problem with Chase;
he is not accepting his programming, our ability to
control him is in doubt.”
“He tried to kill his partner,” Susan snapped.
Ally replied, “He was ordered to kill his partner but
he somehow resisted the order from EOJ, the
program; most curious, because that is technically
impossible, unless he is becoming conscious, selfaware, evolving.” Ally looked at the screen very
carefully, “How extraordinary! I don't even know
what's going on here.” Ally appears silent as she
makes a call telepathically, saying, “He’s fully
functional, but we have a problem, he’s evolving.
Yes, extraordinary. His human brain is developing
new parts; I don’t know what these new parts do. No.
OK. Terminate, yes, yes.” She ends the call, saying to
Susan, “It looks like you’re going to be re-assigned.
They want me to terminate him.”
“Why?” Susan exclaimed. “Can’t you just fix him?
You know you're just like him, it would be like
killing yourself.”
Susan takes out a gun and places it at Ally’s head
saying, “I’m afraid I can’t let you kill him.”
Ally looks at her with a wide broad smile and with
amazing speed takes the gun right out of Susan’s
hand and says, “Sit down! I said they want me to kill
him. I do not work for the man who ordered me to do
that. We need to get Chase someplace safe and away
from here. Otherwise
they will
kill him.”
Susan looks at Ally trying to decide if she believes
her or not. Her cold black eyes reflect a mood of
tranquility like that of a shark. Ally says, “Sam, who
created us, ordered me to keep him alive and bring
him back to EOJ for his evaluation.”
“What a piece of work you Guards are,” Susan
probed.
“No, I’m not just a Guard; I'm a Cybarium Guard,
very different. I’m whatever you want me to be and
do whatever you want. But surely you know this
you’ve been working for EOJ for eight years.
I can
read that right off your own internal chip.
”
Ally takes the device off Chase’s forehead; he wakes
up, sits up and leans against the backboard of the bed.
“Welcome back stranger,” said Susan.
Chase looks at Ally, “I
am
self-aware, but for how
long?”
“Until you are reassigned and reprogrammed,” Ally
responds.
“Have I been selfaware before?”
“Of course," she replies
“What are you to me, Susan?” Chase asks, looking at
her.
"I'm one of your handlers," Susan answers.
“Can I be reprogrammed at any time?” asks Chase.
“Yes” Ally answers.
Looking at Ally, Chase asks, “And who are you?
"I'm Ally, think of me as your sister, figuratively
speaking. I could be your wife if you like, or hot
girlfriend," Ally says.
“Why didn’t I kill Juan, I thought
he
was my
handler?” asks Chase.
“I don’t know, your DNA seems to be slightly
different than mine, so I believe you are evolving.
Something in you seems to be trying to take charge of
your processor, but that’s only my speculation.
Different parts of you are becoming aware of other
parts. In the human sense the mind and body are
becoming one,” Ally replied.

“Why do they want Juan dead?” Chase continues
doggedly.
Ally takes the smartphone and places it in her pocket.
She adjusts herself in the mirror and says, “I don’t
know.”
“I don’t believe you!” says Chase sharply.
“I don't care what you believe,” Ally says.
She looked out the window and saw several men with
guns approaching. “We have company,” she whispers
loudly.
Suddenly Chase’s head began to pound. He felt
almost paralyzed and could hardly move. He was so
weak he could feel the life forced draining from his
body. Ally and Susan help Chase out the back door
and they all run into the woods and wait quietly in a
thicket.
Ally sat very still. He could hear her voice in his
head; “Sit up Chase and take out your gun. Shape up,
get it together. There are ten men coming up this hill
towards us. You must scan and pre-visualize each
one. You have the program for this in your CPU. I
will take the 5 on the left you take the 5 on the right.
One shot for each. If you miss, they won’t, they’re
Guards.”
Suddenly a scanning program activated in Chase’s
brain. He pre-scanned each man coming up the hill,
took out his gun and they waited. Both Chase and
Ally could see all of the men at the same time; they
knew where each of them was. At just the right
moment each of them fired 5 bullets, all ten going
right through the foreheads of the ten men. The speed
of the operation was almost instantaneous.
“How did you two do that?” Susan asked in shock.
“We're androids,” Ally said.
“Ally, how
did
I do that?” asked Chase telepathically.
“You have no idea what you’re capable of Chase.
You have an inner order and abilities that you know
nothing about; accept the fact that you're an android,”
Ally smiled.
“What are you two?” Susan asked.
“That's always a good question isn't it? If only I had
the ability to answer it. I could be re-programmed at
any moment, even to kill you,” Ally replies
sheepishly.