The Dead Zone Sovereign

Chapter 25: The Static Shore

The autumn winds. The first real freeze came to the coast in just one night. Valen stood at the edge of the delta his boots sinking into the sand. The ocean water still moved against the shore. It was making thin ice on the black rocks.

The people of the settlement were already up. Moving when the sun rose over the mountains. They were not wearing their uniforms but instead wore warm layered clothes made from the wool of the lowland animals and reinforced with iron plates. They did not have any warnings about the cold on their bodies. They did not have any health bars to tell them if they were getting too cold. They had to watch each other and make sure everyone was okay.

Noa walked along the storage bins checking the ropes that held the canvas covers over the dried fish. She moved slowly and carefully making sure each knot was tight. She did not look up when Valen came over. She stopped moving when he got close.

The ice is getting thicker near the channel Noa said, her voice steady and calm. If the water freezes before noon the blacksmiths will not be able to work. They are already working with metal but if they do not get it hot it will break easily.

We can use some of the water from the cooling troughs to keep the channel open Valen said, his hands in his coat pockets. The facility under the mountain is still leaking heat. We can use that to our advantage.

Mara met them at the entrance to the council room her boots kicking off the frost. She looked very tired from watching the horizon all night. She was holding a piece of charcoal. Marking some tallies on a cedar post.

The scouts came down from the ridge a hours ago Mara said, gesturing for them to come in by the fire. The upper plateau is quiet. It is a strange quiet. The chains that held the floating structures are not. The creators are not adjusting the weights. They have dropped the platforms to the ground. Buried the doors under ice and rocks. They are hiding, Valen. They are not getting ready to attack us

They are trying to save their energy Valen said, sitting by the fire. Every time they run a script without being connected to the server they make mistakes that hurt their system. By hiding they are trying to make mistakes.

Why are the sensors still working? Noa asked, spreading out her maps. Look at the lines on the map. The sensors are sending out a signal every four minutes. It is like they are looking for something. It is not us. They are looking out at the water.

Valen leaned over the table looking at the maps. He remembered the maps he saw in the archive.

There is a repository under the ocean Valen said, his voice quiet. The creators called it the Sub-Sunk Archive. It has the system code, the code that was used before the empire started to automate everything. If the upper plateau is scanning the water they are trying to find the key to that repository. They want to reset the system and start over.

If they find it Mara said, her hand on her gun what will happen to us? What will happen to the people who came out of the tanks?

A system reset will erase everything Valen said simply. It will make the system go back to how it was at the start. The archive doors will close the valley will be empty. The system will expect the first subject to be waiting for instructions.

The room was silent for a moment the only sound being the fire crackling.

Noa stood up gathering her maps. Then we have to get to the ocean bed before they find the key she said. If it is there we have to destroy it before they can use it.

We do not have a suit Mara said, shaking her head. The old suits we found are no good. They will not work at that depth.

We do not need a suit Valen said, standing up. The old man at the typewriter left a code in the iron key. It will let me into the repository.

You cannot breathe underwater, Valen Noa said, her voice sharp with worry. The key will not help you with that. You are human now like us.

I will not be swimming Valen said, pointing to the map. There is a tunnel under the delta that goes to the repository. It is a path and I can use it to get there.

Mara looked at the map then at Valen. That tunnel is flooded she said. The gate is rusted shut. The valves are locked.

Then we will take a sledge and a crowbar Valen said, his eyes reflecting the fire. We can use the titanium scrap to make a wedge to open the gate.

They spent the rest of the day getting ready for the trip. Noa worked with the foundry team to make the iron wedges and Valen checked the defenses with the guards.

By the time the sun went down a team of five people was ready to go. Valen, Noa, Mara and two blacksmiths, Gar and Tor stood at the mouth of the river channel. They had the sledges and the titanium wedges. They were ready to start.

The entrance, to the drainage locks was hidden behind a curtain of briars and ivy. Gar cleared it away with his knife. They saw the old iron gate. It was covered in rust. Fused to the surrounding rocks.

Mara said this is where the system ended for the builders. She was holding a torch to the iron surface. The words on the lintel said: Operational Sector Zero-Zero. It also said: No admittance without clearance.

Valen stepped forward. He pulled the iron key from his pocket. He did not look for a keyhole. Instead he pressed the edge of the iron key directly against the center of the rusted slab. There was a faint circle on the iron.

For a second nothing happened. The rust remained undisturbed. The cold mist continued to drift past their faces. Then a sharp metallic ping vibrated through the iron. The sound was like a command authentication.

There were counterweights inside the concrete wall. They groaned. The iron slid against stone. The gate did not swing open. It dropped downward into a recess in the floor. This revealed a narrow tunnel. The tunnel sloped sharply into the bedrock beneath the sea.

The air that rushed out of the opening was old dry. It had a smell of ozone and desiccated copper. It was like the breath of a machine. The machine had been sealed since the first line of the book had been set down.

Valen said to keep the torches low. He stepped over the threshold into the dark. The internal lighting grid is dead.. The automated defense circuits might still be running on their local batteries. If you see a line along the floorboards do not step on it. That is a rail.

The tunnel was narrow. Its walls were constructed from gray concrete blocks. The blocks had thousands of serial numbers. As they descended the sound of the ocean waves began to fade. It was replaced by a hollow resonance. The resonance felt like being inside a empty bell.

The temperature rose slightly. The dry heat of the machinery spaces replaced the freezing dampness of the coast. Noa walked close behind Valen. Her frame was silhouetted by the flickering light of Mara’s torch. She kept her fingers pressed against the wall. She was feeling for the vibrations of the upper plateaus scanning frequency.

Noa whispered that the pulse is stronger here. It isn't a scan anymore. They have found the perimeter coordinates of the repository. The signal is beginning to modulate. They are trying to send the handshake protocol to the archives internal receiver.

Mara asked how time they have before the handshake completes. Noa said ten minutes, less. The protocol has to go through four validation cycles before the core opens its directory. If they aren't inside the control room by the cycle the link will lock them out permanently.

They accelerated their pace. Their boots clicked rapidly against the concrete floor. The tunnel took a turn to the left. It terminated in a circular junction chamber. Five separate pipes converged on a manifold. The pipes were covered in brass fittings and iron valves. The valves were encrusted with a white layer of mineral scale.

Gar said this is the block. He ran his torch over the central valve wheel. The valve wheel was completely buried beneath a deposit of stone. The stone looked as hard as granite. The valve is closed. If they don't clear this wheel the water won't flow. The backup pumps won't engage to open the repository entrance.

Valen said to give him the wedge. Tor stepped forward. He unwrapped the long titanium wedge. He placed its tip against the junction where the valve stem met the packing nut. Gar raised his sledge. He brought the iron mallet down with a ringing blow.

The impact sent a shower of stone chips flying across the chamber.. The scale did not split. It was like striking iron. Valen said to do it. Gar swung a time then a third. The rhythmic thud of the sledge filled the room with a deafening noise. The noise drowned out the pulse of the mountain.

On the strike a long clean crack opened in the mineral deposit. The crack ran down the length of the valve stem. It revealed the dull yellow brass beneath. Mara jammed her iron crowbar into the fissure. She leveraged her weight against the wall. The great chunk of scale broke away. It crashed onto the floor grates in a dozen pieces.

Valen grabbed the brass wheel. His fingers found the notches that had been worn into the metal. He did not use his light. He used the unassisted strength of his arms. He forced the wheel to turn against the resistance of the packing.

The valve turned an inch two. It was accompanied by a wet gurgle from within the manifold. Then with a violent hiss the wheel broke free. It spun rapidly. A torrent of stagnant black water erupted from a relief port near the base. The water filled the floor grates with a smelling pool. The pool rose to their ankles.

A heavy hydraulic piston located behind the manifold began to move. Its long shaft slid out of its housing with a oiled motion. The motion carried the weight of the secondary gates. Across the chamber a massive circular door began to rotate. Its locking lugs cleared the rim. The door swung inward on two hinges.

The entrance to the Sub-Sunk Archive was open. Inside the room was vast. It was a cylinder of dark glass and silver racks. The cylinder descended into the oceanic shelf. In the center of the cylinder suspended by three steel structural columns sat the primary data vault. The vault was a sphere of obsidian. It looked like the core of the Deletion Engine Valen had encountered in the simulation.

The sphere was glowing with a dangerous red light. Its surface flickered with thousands of lines of text. The text was moving fast to read. The plateau’s handshake protocol had reached its second validation cycle.

Noa said they are too late. The data link is already established. The directory is unpacking. Valen didn't answer. He ran across the iron catwalk. The catwalk connected the door to the sphere. His boots threw off sparks against the mesh. He reached the surface. He saw the primary input interface. It was a square recess. The recess was identical to the interface on the creators typewriter above.

He did not hesitate. He took the iron key from his pocket. He jammed it directly into the center of the glowing text. The effect was not a system crash. It was a ground-out. The iron key carried the deadlock data from the typewriter above. It acted as a lightning rod for the signal.

The immense processing power of the plateau’s transmission surged through the key. It directly went into the sphere.. Instead of completing the handshake the text began to loop. The same sentence that Valen had written on the yellowed paper flooded the repository’s memory buffers. It filled the directory blocks with a logic error.

The red light on the sphere flared into a blinding crimson. Then it turned a stable amber. The white lines of text stopped moving. They were frozen into a permanent image of a world that refused to be formatted.

The mountains pulse stopped. High above them through three thousand feet of rock and water the scanning frequency of the plateau died instantly. Its final validation cycle was uncompleted.

The firewall had been breached from below. Valen stood on the catwalk. His hand was still resting on the iron key. The key was now warm to the touch. Its metal surface was humming with the trapped energy of the deadlock. He looked down into the vertical cylinder. The silver racks of the archive were now dark and silent. Their data was permanently locked behind the barrier of his choice.

Mara asked if it is secure. Valen said it is deadlocked. The creators cannot use this repository to reset the world. They cannot overwrite the coast. The master key is gone. The only thing left in this directory is the memory of the day they left the machine.

Noa walked up to the sphere. Her hand came down to touch the glass beside Valen’s. She noted that the text doesn't look like code anymore. It looks like a map. Valen looked closer. The lines of light had rearranged themselves. They were no longer forming the syntax of a protocol.. They were forming the physical contours of the northern coast.

The map showed the delta, the mountain, the river channels. It showed a continuous line of smaller settlements. The settlements stretched across the horizon like a string of pearls. Valen said they aren't alone. The old man didn't just save their story. He saved all of them.. They are all waiting for the doors to open.

They left the Sub- Archive behind. They left the iron key inside the sphere. The key would maintain the deadlock for eternity. They climbed back up the drainage tunnel. Their steps were lighter. Their hearts were steady, against the cold night air. The air was waiting for them at the surface.

When Valen and Noa emerged from beneath the apron the morning sun was just starting to shine on the silver leaves of the delta trees. The ground was still covered in frost but the fire in the town plaza was burning strong sending smoke up into the sky.

The sky was really clear now.

The road ahead of Valen and Noa was wide. Had no marks on it. They could see the shapes of away mountains on the horizon. These mountains were not traps for Valen and Noa they were places to explore.

Valen took a breath of the cold air from the sea turned to Noa and they walked forward together into their first real winter.

The journey was not yet.

The road was very long. Valen and Noa thought the future looked good and Valen was ready, for it.

He took one step then another step and the world was really Valen. Noas now.

The end.