Andena the Rebel Ch. 13

Lunn was walking back to the new headquarters after a few hours' sleep. It had taken nearly the whole night to set up the new secure connections. The previous owner had used Datanex as their provider. That wouldn't have been a problem if the physical connections weren't hosted by Datanex as well. It was a shocking realisation that they were obliged to use Datanex encryption to get a stable connection: all other forms of secure connections were dropped by Datanex within a minute. Lunn knew he had failed, and if they remained here, Datanex would finally gain access to everything. The new headquarters were utterly useless unless they found a way of keeping their information safe and hidden from Datanex. They had to come up with a solution because this was the only available space which could withstand an EMP.

He had slumped down on the floor holding his head between his knees trying to fight the horrific visions. He dreaded the fact that he had to report the huge setback to the financier. He also knew that remaining in the old headquarters was no longer an option.

Lunn was flabbergasted when Alice came up with an incredibly simple solution, and he had real trouble stopping himself from hugging the wonderful and smart woman. He was still a little jealous of her brilliant but simple solution: encrypt the "secure" Datanex connection again with your own.

While Lunn and his team were building the new hardware, Alice had found another panel hidden in a cupboard. It was the original data connection to the national grid.

Lunn was pleased that they could change their provider eventually, and he planned on doing that after the planned EMP attack at the plateau. He still hadn't had the opportunity to have a talk with his main technician, John, about the financier's request.

He entered the quarters and hoped to find the technician there alone. As he passed through the secure main entrance, he heard a voice shouting, "Who's there?"

Lunn chuckled, aware that John was yet to be convinced of the accuracy of the entrance security Lunn had developed. He retorted, "It's me, Lunn."

John murmured, "I still can't believe you're solely using your access system."

"All other systems are hackable John."

"Yeah, yeah I know, but it still freaks me out that I just can walk in without using any kind of key."

"If we have more time, I'll let you into my secret, but now we need to discuss something really important."

John sat down and as he rubbed his face he grumbled, "Here we go, again."

Lunn could see that John had had as little sleep as he had and he knew that John might be a little short-tempered.

"Well? Shoot." John said.

"How many satellites do we still need to launch?"

John squinted at Lunn as if he knew there was trouble coming. He blurted, "Two hundred and forty in the last two batches. The biggest, counting one-hundred and eighty satellites will be launched later today."

Lunn was shocked because he'd been unaware that the timing was so tight, and muttered, "Wow you're cutting it fine John! Is everything ready for that?"

John bragged with a sly smile on his face, "Yeah, we can do it from here, and I have my apartment as a backup. I've been sleeping with a satellite dish hanging just a few inches above my head."

Lunn had to laugh as he imagined John's little place stuffed to the gunnels with equipment, but he also admired John's commitment to the project. Lunn cleared his throat and asked, "What if we need to use the ring within a few days?"

John looked up and his burning eyes made clear that he was not happy.

"I assume it bloody can't wait," he scoffed.

Lunn heard John was about to explode into a tirade. He said calmly, "No, it can't wait another six weeks."

John sighed and shook his head. He revealed, "You're lucky I haven't ordered anything for the last batch yet."

Lunn was pleased that John hadn't exploded yet and mumbled softly, "Oh okay."

"If you want to use the ring we need to spread this batch to fill the gaps and after that, we need to initiate the ring. It is do-able, but there's a risk that it might fail if the gaps between the satellites are too big."

"I see," mumbled Lunn.

"Yes, and the other thing is, once the ring has been initiated you can't add more satellites."

Lunn started to understand what John was saying and wondered whether moving the activation forward was too great a risk. He also knew that the Bionex group wouldn't continue to practise for weeks on end on the plateau.

He sighed and said, "I think we should take the risk."

"I knew you would say that," John grunted.

"It's good that you understand."

"Yeah, but don't blame me if we have for five billion credit of worthless shit hanging up there."

Lunn had to laugh and smirked, "Don't worry John, I will inform him about the risks."

He was pleased that John had taken it so well. They still had a huge amount of work to do before the headquarters would be fully operational.

Alice woke up with a start. Bewildered she looked around the strangely decorated room, but it quickly dawned on her that she was in Lunn's bedroom. She fell back onto the soft pillow, and she realised she was still dressed. She remembered that they had entered the bedroom and that they both were too tired to get undressed. It was strange but also very comforting to fall asleep being cocooned by a person, especially when it was by Lunn. She turned her face into the pillow to inhale Lunn's strong masculine smell. She loved the spicy tones of his scent because it made her light-headed. She would love to be able to breathe in that scent every day.

With a start, she realised that her belief system was weakening. Her mantra was to keep herself at arm's length. It was simple but effective: better to be alone than suffer heartbreak.

She had always been able to keep her feelings for him under control, but ever since Danette had dumped him, it had become harder to ignore what was truly simmering in her heart. Deep down she knew that she was fooling herself because right from the first moment she had laid her eyes on his gorgeous body she'd felt an irresistible attraction to him. She couldn't keep her eyes off his beautifully developed muscles, and his strong facial features made him so incredibly handsome. He was so hot!

At the time, she had needed the additional job to pay for her place. It was practically impossible to live with her sister Lily under one roof. She could count the number of nights that she'd had a proper and undisturbed night of sleep on one hand. The fact that she was regularly bumping into strange men made her decide to live alone.

She had enjoyed the life of solitude, but now her body and her mind were longing for something more. Her time with Lunn had made her even more aware of it. Alice knew she was trying to rationalise what had happened over the course of the last few days. It was her way of dealing with things that were bothering her but this time, it seemed that she was having great difficulty comprehending her feelings. That was something which never had happened before!

She desperately craved his warm touch, the comforting feeling that his strong muscles were protecting her. His smile and the twinkle in his eye were all so disarming. Thinking about it made her tingle all over. Could it be that she had fallen for him?

No! No!

With a gasp, she jumped from the bed, and rushed towards the door. She had to go! If she stayed here any longer, she would suffocate. It should never have happened! How could she have been so blind?

Andena sat on a bench in a large hall waiting for 'the others' to arrive. Joshua had instructed her to sit on the bench which clearly felt like an order. Her mind was still sluggish as if it was repressed in some way. While she was waiting she tried to make sense of it all: she knew that something wasn't right. The fact that she saw text appearing in front of her right eye was somewhat disturbing. It was as if she was being controlled by something and it felt unnatural. She had stumbled several times over her own feet and as far as she knew she'd never had such problems before. She was wondering if she could walk around the hall without stumbling if she were to concentrate hard on her movements.

As she got up, she found herself flying, at least six feet up into the air, and she barely had enough time to adjust the position of her body to break her fall. A little dazed she got up very slowly afraid that she might launch herself again. Andena was frantically trying to fathom what was going on with her body because it was abundantly clear something was really wrong. She knew that she should be scared, but was aware that her emotions had been considerably repressed somehow. It made her realise that she needed to be bolder and after a brief moment of deliberation, decided to explore the strangeness of it all. She had already discovered that her muscles were much stronger than before, and her initial jerkiness was starting to make sense. She needed to investigate her capabilities and decided to do some simple tests.

As she stood, she bent her legs and concentrated on making a small jump. She was surprised to see a little dial appearing in front of her eye. By tensing her muscles, she could manipulate the number, and she came to the conclusion she could vary her power. She practised with several jumps and quickly learned that the dial only appeared when she concentrated for a little longer.

Andena prepared herself to jump to the other side of the hall and to her astonishment the display indicated the exact amount of power she had to use to successfully complete the task. Her tensed muscles released the immense power, which felt like a small explosion and she launched towards the other side. But as soon as she was descending she realised she had forgotten that she needed space to come to a stop!

She knew she would collide with the door, and she brought her arms forward to soften the blow somewhat. At the moment she braced herself for the impact, the door opened, and Andena saw that she was flying straight at a woman she vaguely recognised.

As soon as she touched the floor, she grabbed the woman's shoulders which changed her forward momentum into a turn. The woman began screaming when she saw Andena flying towards her, and she didn't stop until she was lying, unharmed, on top of Andena's body.

As she scrambled up from Andena, she shouted, "What the fuck were you doing? You could have killed me!"

Andena was still a bit dazed from the blow she had endured when she had landed roughly on her back. The collision with the angry woman's body had slammed all her air out of her lungs, and she could only whisper, "I'm sorry."

She ranted, "You were told to sit on the bench and wait for me. Who gave you the order to charge at the door at such a dangerous speed?"

Andena stood up and said meekly, "Nobody, Miss."

She looked straight into the woman's eyes and the display in her right eye gave the next information, "Danette Williams, Trainer Bionex. Age 31. Weight 140 lb. Heart rate 170. Body temp. 98.4."

When she saw the name, she vaguely remembered her being the associate of a very nice man she thought she knew. It bothered her only a little that her past was blurred and that she couldn't remember his name.

Danette sighed and said, "Right. Go back into the hall and sit on the bench."

Andena knew she had to be polite because Danette was her trainer and whispered, "Yes, Miss Williams."

As she started to walk towards the hall, Danette stopped her by sticking her arm out in front of her chest and requested grumpily, "How do you know my surname?"

Andena felt a little odd as if she wasn't supposed to know Danette's surname and she stammered softly, "I, I. If I look at a person I get information about them."

"Tell me what kind of information you get," Danette commanded.

Again Andena had no choice than to reply instantly and blurted placidly, "Name, occupation, age, weight, heart rate and body temperature."

Danette shouted, "Tell me my age! I'm curious as to how the hell you know my age."

This time, the urge to tell Danette the information was as strong as before, but she also saw Danette's heart rate increasing even more. Andena knew she had to give an answer and decided to see if she could avoid giving her the information.

"I don't know how I know your age. It is just stated on the list," she replied. Andena was surprised that it wasn't that difficult to ignore the urge to comply with the demanded instruction. She wondered if it was possible to ignore it completely.

"Tell me my fucking age!" barked Danette.

The command was too direct for Andena to dismiss and said placidly, "Your age is thirty-one."

Danette sighed and said, "Right. Go back to the hall and stop using my surname."

Andena wondered if she might be able to dismiss any direct command in time. The urge to tell Danette her correct age was strong but she had the time to contemplate whether she should give a different number of years than her actual age. It made her wonder what was controlling her and if she could control it rather than being controlled. She wondered why she felt that there was still something she had to do and realised that Danette had given her an order.

"Yes, Miss," she said quickly and walked towards the bench in the hall with firm steps. She sat down on the bench and was utterly surprised when a line of nine women marched into the hall.

With resolute steps, they headed for the same bench where Andena was sitting, and she had to move quickly aside to avoid a collision with the first woman. Andena felt the bench shudder when the women, as if they were one, sat down when Danette shouted, "At ease!"

With great interest, she looked at the girl who sat next to her and came to the conclusion that she was part of the same team. She realised she was wearing the same outfit as the other girls except for her boots which were her own. Andena saw the number zero-one on the suit of her neighbour and noticed for the first time that her suit had the numbers zero-zero.

Arnost was pacing around the room impatiently waiting for Haruz to arrive. He was getting extremely anxious about the whole situation with Tancred and his alien race. The fact that Tancred was missing made it all worse because Arnost started to realise that he had been deceived. The longer he thought about the awkward situation the madder he became. Why had he never asked Tancred the question? How many of your kind are coming to Earth?

Arnost shivered at the thought that Earth would soon be overrun by aliens and that the whole population of Earth might be used for the production of drugs. He knew that the number of nuclear missiles available might be enough to disable a few ships but what if their superior technology could destroy the weapons in the blink of an eye?

Arnost slumped down on his chair feeling defeated: he had personally invited the aliens to come to raid his beloved planet. Even though a most of the population realised that Earth was facing ruin: the outcome in the near future would have been the inevitable extinction of the human race. There simply was not enough oxygen left to sustain the huge number of people living on the planet. He started to doubt whether those weird plants would ever be able to replenish the Earth's atmosphere with the necessary oxygen. How many plants would be needed to restore the level of oxygen?

Thousands?

Millions?

Arnost came to the conclusion that Tancred had manipulated the board right from the start, and the most devastating part of it all was that he had only just realised it this morning. It had been a full day now since Tancred had failed to attend their regular meetings. Arnost was almost certain that he had been manipulated by a mind-bending 'spell' Tancred had cast on him. His mind was cleared from a strange fog, and he could think much more clear by now. The sturdy knock on the door sounded like music in his ear, and he exclaimed, "Come!"

Even though he was pleased that Haruz had walked into the room, he couldn't muster up a smile. He felt the huge burden of guilt resting on his shoulders when he said, "Haruz, we are doomed. Tancred has deceived us completely. Soon we'll be swamped with others of his kind. It will be the end of our existence."

Haruz sighed and said, "We are not doomed yet, Arnost. If we can join forces with each group, we will have a chance of fighting them off."

Arnost snorted and shook his head several times. He murmured, "They will lynch me when they find out that I made this unbelievably hideous and fatal deal with an alien race."

"When is the next board meeting?"

"In an hour."

Arnost shuddered a little when he recalled the first meeting when Tancred had given a very interesting talk which was received very well. He couldn't understand how the alien had fooled the whole board with his smooth talk. He was convinced that the alien had a special gift to create illusions which lasted for a long time. He knew he had to make certain that Tancred couldn't manipulate the situation anymore. He looked at Haruz who looked as agitated as he felt and he grumbled, "Make sure that this building is off limits. When we catch him, I want to ensure that he goes to prison, far away from any human."

Haruz retorted, "Hmm, that will be a challenge."

"How so? Just arrest him."

"If he can manipulate us, he can definitely manipulate guards."

Arnost sighed and asked, "How about the android guards? Can we re-deploy them?"

Haruz nodded slowly. He responded, "You mean the old ones? Maybe, if we use the remote controlled androids, we might have a chance. I sincerely hope that Tancred can't control the men who are operating the androids."

Arnost felt a sense of panic rising in his body as he commanded, "Find him, Haruz. I hate that this dangerous alien is nowhere to be found."

Haruz nodded, and as he left the room he said, "Yes, as soon as I have him, I'll let you know."

When the door was shut Arnost closed his eyes, but it was only for a short moment because he was disturbed by a vision of Tancred's ghastly face. He hated Tancred's strange narrow eyes which right now seemed to be dancing in front of him.

He had never liked Tancred. He had always felt that there was something creepy about him.

Now he knew why he didn't like the alien.

It was probably too late to change the destiny of his beloved planet, and he couldn't think of a solution that might save Earth from a horrible fate. With a deep sigh, Arnost went to his office to prepare for the board meeting. He knew he had to be honest about the catastrophe that was looming. He knew it was going to be the toughest meeting he had ever had in his life.

Danette was staring at the two pills which were lying in the palm of her hand. She didn't dare to think about how many pills she had already taken during the last few days. She knew the longer she took the Dormancans the harder it would be to wean herself off them again. The pills glistening in the light had a soothing quality, and she wondered whether the manufacturer had deliberately made them so shiny. She closed her hand to hide them for a while: they were distracting her too much.

Today was one of her better days, considering the progress she had made with the android girls. Joshua was right about the fast rate at which Andena was adjusting to the rest of the group, but there was something about her which concerned Danette. If she compared her with the rest of the androids, she wondered whether Andena's conscience, which had been overruled, was seeping through somehow. It seemed that she was starting to become more aware of what had happened to her. It was something she needed to pay more attention to because if Andena started to rebel against what had happened to her, she would become a real danger. Danette had already noticed Andena's small and hesitant delays when she had given the group a command. Sometimes Andena had asked her for more information which would justify why she had ignored the direct order, but there were a few times where it looked like she might have deliberately ignored the direct command.