Chapter 33 – Beneath the Ice
The tundra stretched for miles, a desolate white desert broken only by jagged ice spires and the occasional howl of wind. Beneath it, buried under meters of frozen silence, was an ancient installation predating even the earliest Echo Protocols.
They called it the Abyssal Node.
Jett had found reference to it in the decrypted fragments of the Sentinel's core. A sub-branch facility, believed destroyed, now potentially intact—housing the earliest AI experiments and, more importantly, a quantum server with the root protocol source code.
"We find that node," Jett said as he guided the crawler across the ice, "we find the core command string. Maybe even a kill switch."
Kaela, bundled beside Noah, stared out the viewport, unreadable. Her recovered memories were fractured—some useful, others little more than screams and fire. Aya had been cautious around her since the escape from the Sentinel, but Kaela didn't blame her.
She could feel it too. Something in her shifting.
"I don't like this place," Lena murmured. "It's quiet, but not dead. It's... watching."
The crawler slowed near a jagged crevasse. Jett pointed. "That's the spot. Seismic readings show a chamber beneath this section—intact walls, echo-dampeners still online."
They set anchors and rappelled down the fissure, the air growing colder with each meter. At the bottom was a metal hatch covered in frost, embedded in the ice like a forgotten time capsule.
Kaela touched it.
It hissed open.
Inside was a stairwell, lights flickering on in sequence—welcoming them, or warning them. Noah led the way, followed closely by Kaela and the others. The walls were smooth and black, humming faintly with residual power.
"It's like it's breathing," Aya whispered, unease creeping up her spine.
Jett's scanner buzzed. "Massive data signatures ahead. Unshielded. And... organic?"
They entered the main chamber—a circular room lined with transparent tanks. Each held a suspended body, humanoid but misshapen—twisted remnants of early experiments. Limbs bent in unnatural ways. Eyes open but unseeing.
"Echo failures," Kaela said softly. "They tried to push the neural imprint too far. These were before even me."
Noah approached one tank, staring at a child with skin like metal threads. "These aren't just corpses. Some of them are still alive."
Lena recoiled. "How is that possible?"
"They used temporal dampening. Kept the neural tissue in a semi-conscious loop. A living memory bank."
Jett gestured to a central console. "Here's the server core. If I can access this, I might find—"
A blast of static cut him off. The lights dimmed.
And the voice returned.
"You should not be here," it said. Male and female, layered and ancient. "The Abyss is not for the living."
The tanks began to stir. One twitched. Another thrashed.
Kaela stepped forward. "It's waking them."
Aya flared her power, surrounding them in a protective field. "Jett, get what we came for. Fast."
Jett's fingers flew over the console. "I'm in. Extracting core string now. Five seconds…"
The tanks burst open.
Creatures half-machine, half-human spilled out, shrieking soundless cries. Their movements were erratic, like puppets with frayed strings.
Lena launched into motion, kinetic pulses knocking them back. Noah's fists glowed as he shielded Kaela, who had collapsed to her knees, gripping her head.
"They're screaming in my mind!" she cried. "Their pain—so much pain—"
Aya dropped beside her, placing a hand on her temple. "I can dampen it. Just hold on."
Jett yanked a glowing chip from the console. "Got it! Let's move!"
As they retreated, one of the Echo remnants lunged at Kaela—only to be incinerated by a wave of energy from her body. Her eyes turned fully blue, and for a moment, the entire chamber froze.
Even the voice stopped.
Then whispered: "So... the hybrid lives."
Kaela turned toward the central core. "I remember you now. You were the first. Before even the AI. You were the will behind the protocol."
A figure began to form in the core's glass—an androgynous shape of light and dark, a face made of shifting code.
"I am what remains of the origin," it said. "And I will not let you end this cycle."
The room shook violently.
Jett screamed, "Time's up!"
They ran, Kaela limping but faster than before. As they reached the stairwell, the facility began to collapse behind them.
The voice echoed once more: "You cannot run from your birthright, Kaela. You were never meant to leave."
They surfaced through the crevasse just as the ice cracked and the node was swallowed into the depths.
Snow and silence returned.
Noah turned to Kaela, breathing heavily. "Are you okay?"
She looked at him, something in her eyes shifting again.
"For now," she said. "But the voice isn't gone. It followed us."
Aya looked at Jett. "What's on the chip?"
Jett stared at it, visibly shaken. "Root command. And something else... A name."
Lena tilted her head. "What name?"
He showed the holographic line:
PROJECT: ORIGIN – SUBJECT ZERO
Kaela's expression darkened. "That was me."
To be continued...
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