Chapter 4 The Surprise

Chapter 4

The Surprise

 

 

It’s been eight months since we first met, Theta thought to himself.

He was currently sitting in a cushioned chair that was trying to suck him into it. He wasn’t wearing his suit at the moment. He tried to relax sweeping his eyes across the room. The ceiling and the upper part of the walls were red, like red velvet cake. And the lower half was wooden. Behind him was a bed that was length ways along the wall and a closet that contained his suit. Near the bed was a door that was currently closed. In a connected room was a kitchen and connected to that was a small but efficient bathroom. There was a fireplace and he was seated very close to it, absorbing the heat. Alysia was on the left of the fireplace. She was thinking and was very quiet. She was like that a lot after the incident.

He shuddered as he began to remember. It was more of a blur now.

We had been testing again. There were these floating creatures that shot lightning. He didn’t understand how these things existed but they did. The scientists had left a gun with a note. It was like a rifle but instead of shooting bullets. It shot energy infused plasma. The note read that he was to test the weapon and if it proved effective it would be added to his arsenal. It was effective all right I killed them, but the effect of energy colliding with a creature that naturally created large amounts of energy had a devastating effect. A large outburst of energy but it was electric so it was more static than actual energy. To say the least it crippled Alysia. One moment she was flying around killing with little trouble. Then she stopped flying and she crashed, writhing with pain. With each one he killed it increased her pain so he had abandoned the rifle using his swords witch put them down causing him some pain. He reached her after dispatching them and cradled her. She started to cry. Theta didn’t know a robot could cry. She hadn’t been the same since.

 In the amount of time that had passed there had been many more tests. There had also been missions. Into the world. He had done bad things. It had seemed necessary at first. It looked like he was fighting the bad guys. But then it all changed. The more he did the more he questioned it. So much bloodshed and for nothing he had found.  He didn’t understand why they wanted him to kill. Yes he was good, but they had to have a purpose.

“No they don’t.” Alysia said. Sadness etched on her features.

He had grown to hate his masters. They threatened to never let him have his memories. At first it was

She could do that. Tap into his brain. Hear his thoughts feel what he felt. It made him a little uncomfortable at times. So if he ever asked her she would leave his mind be. Plus if he focused really hard he could lock her out from parts of his brain.

Theta didn’t know what to do. All the things she usually liked, now seemed to aggravate and sadden her. She punished herself for what had happened so long ago. She blamed herself for his pain though it had only lasted moments.

Theta however had a plan. He had made a request to the scientists (via a note, long story) that he bring Alysia outside. Theta was only allowed out so many times a month. But Alysia wasn’t allowed and it was never explained. But he had asked to bring her out because it was beautiful, and there was a flower in the center of the courtyard that was incredibly beautiful. It was star shaped and purple. It was not tall but it was on and elevated pedestal. And it glowed lightly, shading the immediate area in purple.

Theta knew she liked flowers. There had been a painting in one of their earlier rooms. It showed a flower that had many shades of orange and red and yellow. She had stared at it, mystified. Until he had explained what it was. She noted to herself she wished she could see one in person.

He was going to do just that. Her sadness was slowly crushing her.

He prepared for the next day with a renewed vigor. Even Alysia noticed.

“What are you so excited about?” she asked.

“I dunno.” He lied. “Today just feels good.”

She didn't know because he had been careful never to think about the flower or let her have access to the idea when there minds were synced

She accepted it and perched on his shoulder. Theta opened the door and left but instead of a room meeting them it was an elevator that had a mirror on the inside and no buttons. And dark wooden walls. Theta stepped in not even hesitating. Alysia however shot him a questioning look, but he gave no answer.

As soon as he stepped in the elevator closed the doors and began to rise.

“What kind of test is this?” She asked.

Theta couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. After a few minutes the doors opened. And they were in the courtyard. With its high stone walls. The green, luscious grass. The flowers that dotted the area. And at the center was the purple, glowing flower. It was night time. Even though they had just awoken. The scientists’ hands at work there. He silently thanked them because the darkness made the flower all the brighter and wonderful.

Alysia let out a gasp. She obviously was trying to understand what was going on.

Theta looked at her and said, “Surprise.”

Speechless she remained on his shoulder. So, he toured her around showing all of the different flowers. He showed her the lightning bugs that sometimes appeared. He showed her everything until they arrived at the purple flower. Arriving there she flew from his shoulder and landed on the pedestal with it. And she gazed at it still very silent.

“What do you think?” Theta asked. Simply hoping for a resoponse.

“This is wonderful.” Alysia said lightly.

She looked to Theta and flew to his shoulder. When she landed she rested her head on his helmet with a smile on her face. Theta fist pumped in his mind. She was happy again. Suddenly she perked up and looked to the right of the purple flower.

Then from the ground came a steel briefcase. It was lying on the ground. Then it gave a click as it opened slightly.

Theta walked to it and opened it the rest of the way. In it was a small square with a button. He pressed it and a three dimensional map zoomed on a building, a picture of what looked like a smooth, steel football, and another picture of a large building from the sky. This was another mission. However this one wasn't like the others. Theta examined it closer and took note of its defenses.

A large concrete wall, in the shape if an octagon which gave a hundred feet distance between it and the main facility. Numerous towers dotted intermittently along the wall. A small hangar. Turrets were placed at the roofs of the building. The main building was circle around a strange, glass and steel dome. Strange rods with a ball on top and rings below made of steel surrounded the dome. The wall had entrances on four of its sides. One in each cardinal direction. All surrounded with fortifications, consisting of turrets, force fields, and sandbag cover that undoubtedly were manned.

Man force fields suck, Theta thought to himself. Remembering a previous test.

The map zoomed out and saw that the facility was on the other side of a land mass he recognized as a continent. And a red dot was placed over the facility location

There was one more thing in the briefcase. A green rectangular card.

He held it up and asked, “Alysia, do you know what this is?”

Alysia looked at it, her eyes narrowed. She was scanning it electronically.

“It is a banking card. It contains a large sum of money. And there is a note in here. We have a mission. They want us to retrieve that device.” Alysia said rather annoyed.

“Fine. But what is the money for?” Theta said.

“Well according to the map the facility is on the other side of the continent. We will need money for transport, lodging, and food.” Alysia reasoned.

“Your suit is almost out of nourishment, correct?” Alysia asked.

“Yes it is. It is almost as if they planned it like this.” Theta said after checking his suit levels.

Alysia paused at this and looked at him. Then said, “Though that seems a little far fetched it is possible. I talk to them about their days, not that I care. Every second is planned out for them. Don't really see why, every day is the same for them. Rather pitiful.”

Theta knew, she had told him after her trips. They took her in for diagnostics while he slept. Had to make sure she operated at full capacity. No repairs though. She had some kind of nano-bots. They handle repairs. Anything catastrophic however had to be handled by advanced robotic engineers.

Thank God for nano-bots. If he was going to be out there he would have no idea how to repair her if necessary. And he wouldn’t trust anyone else. He didn’t know what to expect out there. He didn’t expect long range anything because the scientists had been testing him in very close range environments. With close range weapons. His swords being the favorite. But he had been trained in hand to hand combat through simulators, in case of a non-lethal necessary encounter.

He hated those scientists but they made sure Alysia was alright, so that saved them from him hating them too much. He knew Alysia hated them too. The duo had both been used for evil.

He walked to the wall and part of it sank to the ground revealing a gate, which looked old and discolored but there was no rust, it opened slowly but gave off no sound. Theta walked through and was greeted by a lush forest. It was full of fireflies. There were many trees, tall with most of their branches forming a canopy above, but there were a few stragglers lower down. The ground was covered with ferns that seemed to mark a trail. They seemed like its guardians. For not a single thing touched the path. No leaves, grass, tracks, plants. Nothing.

Theta began to walk and Alycia followed by flying from tree to tree on their lower branches and would advance as soon as Theta got closer to a new tree. Always a tree behind or ahead.

She wasn’t avoiding. She was watching him to keep him alerted and safe.

Theta followed the path because it seemed to go in the direction necessary for him to arrive at the facility. He wasn’t moving fast. They had a long way to go; there was no need to rush.

As Theta walked he tried to remember. Anything at all. He had been successful of late. He remembered nations, wars, cities, music, languages (he couldn't speak any but he knew of them), technology, and other general things.

But never anything about himself. That was always a blank.

A few weeks after meeting Alysia, the scientists told him returning all his memories was too dangerous. But they reassured him by telling him he could get them back himself. They had implanted a device in his head that tempered the flow of memories. He could only let in a few memories. It wasn’t as easy as pressing a button. He had to think of things. If he was close to retrieving a memory, Theta’s suit would alert him. The more he thought and thought on the subject and branched from it the closer he would get to the memory. Well it was that easy until the scientists had threatened to never let him return his memories. In fact he sometimes thought that the reason it was so rare he unlocked a memory. Was because they were holding it back. But he had no proof.

It was difficult, maybe more proof that they were holding back his memories. But it was a wonderful feeling when he finally got the memory back. It felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, a very heavy weight. That if he wasn’t careful and persistent with it the weight would either remain there or fall away and never return.

They kept walking for a few hours. The scenery didn’t change much, forest and more forest. But it rose and fell at certain areas and got slightly rockier. It was well into the night when Alysia spoke.

“You should try and sleep. We have to have a synced sleep schedule with the outside world. Besides we would be safer being able to see where we are going.” She said.

“We know where we are going the map points the way.” Theta reasoned.

“Yes it points the way. But it doesn’t tell us what is in the forest. I have noticed some large heat signatures. But all seemed to get distracted and walk away. What if they become interested?” Alysia asked.

Theta had Alysia fly ahead and  begin looking for a place to spend the night. He began sprinting, to keep up with Alysia. Besides if he worked himself hard enough it would be easier to get to sleep later. It was beginning to get harder because they were starting to go up. So Theta began running up the harder parts of the mountain. Alysia found a cave after few miles running up and down the sides of mountains. He had known there were mountains in the area but never this many. It was near a stream, its light babbling could be heard.

 As Theta entered, he leaned against the cave wall and looked out the cave mouth.

It was dark. He could see the silhouettes of trees and the small area outside the cave but no details.

His sprinting had been effective in making him tired, for he leaned his head back and fell fast asleep.

He dreamed of fire and death.

And of her.