Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 8: Vortex Industries

"At Vortex Industries, We're working together to explore the limits of imagination. If humankind can dream it, test it, and create it, then why shouldn't we? If it can be done in the world, we firmly believe that the only obstacle is discovering a methodology to use that technology to mankind's benefit. Together, we can create a world that pushes the boundaries of possibility. The governments and private sectors have utilized our technologies and solutions to create real change in a way that touches everyone's lives, whether they know it or not. By adhering to the most determined and cutting-edge solutions to advanced problems, we provide innovation that outstrips any competition.

Come and join us on this journey of science, be part of something greater and leave your mark in history,"

- Board Executive Dan Brovski, Why You Should Join Vortex Industries Today [Job-fair Version] (2093, 2nd Era)

The old-world meant a lot of things to different people in the Kingdom. Were you of the clergy, you’d insist man went too far and left behind monuments of hubris that defied the Goddess’ holy flames. If you were an engineer, you’d see it as a past filled with technical marvels, interesting piece studies, and ultimately, outdated tech.

It may hold marvels, but without the touch of magic, the old-world had its limits.

Except, now and again, a rare tech would surface that would blow the minds of the engineers. Someone would discover feats of science pure from magic that was unreplicable with humanity’s current understanding of how things worked.

As Erec strode down the halls of this deserted vault, he knew this was the exact type of treasure trove that the Kingdom’s engineers would lose their minds over.

Even without being able to peer too far into the rooms due to most of them having tinted glass windows, he caught wisps of their outlines. They whispered stories about the old-world, secrets long forgotten that lit his imagination on fire. If I get out of here, the first thing I need to do is tell someone about this.

Even if they couldn’t replicate the tech now—studying it might yield future avenues of research to pursue. But then, if it was too advanced…

Sometimes the Church had tech burned or destroyed. They cited that the Goddess had seared the Earth to purge us of that unholy living.

The Kingdom had to balance the scales of progress with that of the divine. Erec didn’t envy the royal family and the delicate tightrope they walked. Both the Goddess and technology were what let them conquer the surface again. If the two remained married, then humanity would live in the light. If either got too far from the other, they’d regress back into the shadows.

Erec traced the sterile white wall with his hand. He peered past a window into a lab; this one untinted but reinforced with a crosshatch pattern of metal wire. Inside was a steel table filled with all manner of glass equipment formed into odd shapes. One of which was a long tube filled with black gravel that narrowed to a neck stoppered by a turn switch.

How many secrets were buried in here?

Would he live to share them with those outside? Was the knowledge within dangerous or helpful? And who had the truth of it, the engineers or the priests?

He shook his head and moved forward. Each trip through an open door ended with said door slamming closed behind him. Slowly yet steadily funneling to his final destination.

When he arrived at the office, it was almost disappointing. He’d pictured some massive startling revelation—but no, the last door led to a small room with a wooden desk and two steel chairs on either side. A plaque on the wall read “103” in bold black letters. Remarkably plain, without any kind of carpeting, and utterly devoid of the age and dust it should have accumulated over the years. Erec hesitated at the doorway.

The blaring alert informing him to enter the office had been and remained his only companion since entering the facility. So, I go in and either get trapped and die or stay here and am trapped and die. Would their examiner go out searching for him if he waited a few hours? If he did, it was possible he’d find the facility Erec got locked away in, but breaching it would be another matter entirely. No matter what, he wasn’t getting out of here without playing whatever game this place wanted to play.

Better to go along and see.

Erec firmed his resolve and boldly strode through the office door. Predictably, it slammed shut behind him and locked with a deadbolt.

“COMMENCING AUTOMATED INTERNSHIP INTERVIEW. PLEASE TAKE A SEAT INTERN CANDIDATE 100232.”

In a rather disturbing moment, the chair on Erec’s side of the desk slid away as if a ghost had pulled it for him to sit in. Erec stared long at the empty seat. Once more, the instruction repeated itself; Erec sighed and complied. It shoved him into a spot in front of the desk—from his new position, Erec could see the small tracks in the steel floor that allowed the automatic action, taking a little bit of the horror away.

The chair was a cold thing, the steel bit through his clothes, and the angle had him leaning slightly. As if it’d been calibrated to cause slight discomfort. He nearly jumped out of the chair as the figure of a man flickered to life across the desk—it lacked definitive detail, absent a face, but it was wearing an old-world suit.

“HELLO THERE INTERNSHIP CANDIDATE 100232, I’VE REVIEWED YOUR QUALIFICATIONS AND WANTED TO TAKE A MOMENT TO ASK ABOUT YOUR LISTED JOB EXPERIENCE OF: [NULL]” The figure of light moved animatedly as if the words weren’t coming from the speakers in the room. At the error, it began to jerk and loop. After a few seconds, it returned to a seated position as if nothing had happened. “—THAT CONCLUDES THE PORTION OF THE INTERVIEW REGARDING YOUR QUALIFICATIONS. AH. I SEE YOU’RE JUST THE TYPE OF CANDIDATE WE’RE LOOKING FOR. A REAL GO-GETTER. YOU’D BE A WELCOME ADDITION TO THE VORTEX INDUSTRIES FAMILY. NEXT, WE WILL PROCEED TO THE BEHAVIORAL AND HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION QUESTIONNAIRE. IS THIS UNDERSTOOD?”

Erec leaned back and rubbed his eyes. The illusion remained frozen in the same position in the chair, slightly forward and with an eager posture. “Strange.” Magic could be used for illusions such as this, but given it was an old-world facility, they’d somehow managed it without any of that. “How’d they pull it off?” It wasn’t as realistic as a spell but eerie all the same.

“PLEASE GIVE AN AFFIRMATIVE CONFIRMATION THAT YOU UNDERSTAND, INTERNSHIP CANDIDATE 100232.”

“Understood. I uh, yeah, I’m ready to move on.”

“QUESTION NUMBER ONE: YOU ARE ASSISTING IN THE TESTING OF A CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED BY VORTEX INDUSTRIES. A MONTH INTO THE PROJECT, YOU BEGIN TO SUSPECT YOUR COWORKER JANE OF SELLING CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION TO THE COMMUNIST CHINESE GOVERNMENT. HOW DO YOU RESPOND?”

“Uh.” Erec rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the flickering image of a man. “…I tell someone?”

“WHOM DO YOU INFORM?”

“…My government?”

“INVALID ANSWER. EMPLOYEES SHALL NOT REPORT BREACHES OF INFORMATION TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. DOING SO CAN POTENTIALLY SUBJECT VORTEX INDUSTRIES TO REGULATION AND FURTHER INVESTIGATIVE ACTION. INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: LAWSUITS, FINES, AND UNFORTUNATE PROJECT TERMINATIONS. YOU ARE TO INFORM YOUR DIRECT SUPERVISOR, WHO WILL TAKE THE MATTER TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR THE ISSUE TO BE RESOLVED INTERNALLY.”

Erec squirmed in his seat. Even though it was a robotic voice, something in that response and the way the figure of light’s gestures seemed downright hostile. There was vitriol to the word ‘Federal Government.’

“SECOND QUESTION. EXECUTIVE DAN BROVSKI REQUESTS YOU TO MAKE AND DELIVER A CUP OF COFFEE TO HIS OFFICE. WHAT COFFEE ARE YOU TO DELIVER?”

Coffee? Erec racked his brain, and then he recalled. Old-world packaging, long expired, and some novels from the past mentioned it. Wasn’t it some stimulant? “I crush the er—coffee and make a cup for him.” It would likely come in powdered form if it were a stimulant like pharmaceutical supplements. However, all texts referenced drinking it, so it had to have been mixed with water. The figure stared at him for a moment.

“INVALID ANSWER. DAN BROVSKI PREFERS HIS COFFEE A MEDIUM ROAST WITH TWO TEASPOONS OF SUGAR, ONE TEASPOON OF CARAMEL EXTRACT, AND A HEALTHY TOPPING OF WHIPPED CREAM. SERVED AT AN APPROXIMATE TEMPERATURE OF 135°F. TWO INVALID ANSWERS IN A ROW. THIS IS NOT LOOKING GOOD, CANDIDATE 100232.” The figure of light shook its head, tapping a hand against the steel table. Despite the gesture, it made no sound. What is the point of this? Erec glanced around and looked at the camera in the corner of the room, a blinking red light.

“Right. A medium roast with two teaspoons of sugar, one of caramel extract, and whipped cream. Got it.”

“THE BEHAVIORAL AND HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION QUESTIONNAIRE PORTION OF THIS INTERNSHIP INTERVIEW HAS CONCLUDED. BASED ON THE RESULTS OF THIS ASSESSMENT, CANDIDATE 100232 HAS BEEN DETERMINED TO BE A SUBPAR FIT FOR THIS JOB POSITION. DON’T CALL US. WE’LL CALL YOU. SECURITY WILL BE BY TO ESCORT YOU OUT OF THE FACILITY—“

The figure of light flickered and spasmed. It flashed between several different gestures in rapid succession. Erec’s seat jerked out from underneath him, letting his ass slam on the ground. He quickly scrambled away towards the corner of the room as the facility went through its spasms. A moment later, there was a pleasant chime from the speakers.

The figure spread its arms wide as if it was about to embrace him from across the room.

“CONGRATULATIONS, CANDIDATE 100232; VORTEX INDUSTRIES IS THRILLED THAT YOU’VE ACCEPTED OUR JOB OFFER TO JOIN THIS INNOVATIVE FAMILY. TOGETHER WE WILL EXPAND THE HORIZONS OF SCIENCE AND MANKIND. PLEASE PROCEED TO—“ The figure spasmed again. “—LAB 40-X—“ More glitching and flickering. I don’t like this. Erec crossed his arms, glaring at the camera watching him. It was impossible that anything was alive down here, but the way it tracked his movements left him uneasy. “—FOR ON-BOARDING AND PAPERWORK.” After that statement, the man made of light vanished into the nothingness from which it sprang.

The door clicked open behind Erec.

“Creepy.” This time the intercoms were completely silent. He left the room—and looked up and down the hallway. There was, of course, only one direction to head. Everywhere else lead to locked doors and dead ends.

He arrived back at the stairway and continued downward. Were he not used to living this deep underground, he’d feel a bit more put off. As it was, he wasn’t sure how far into the ground this facility went.

After around two to three more stories of descent, he reached an open doorway, which expanded out into another sterile room, filled with complex machines and little else. This place was a graveyard of technology—complex mechanical robotics thrown around as if they were scrap metal.

Something moved in the corner of the room.

As Erec reached for his hatchet again, a spider on four mechanical legs sprinted the distance between them and leaped—jabbing a needle right into his chest. Erec screamed out in fear and yanked the machinery off of himself. He threw it hard against a wall.

With a buzz of fried circuitry, it smashed apart. Erec set a hand on the throbbing wound.

[Interesting.]

The voice came from inside his head.

[No. Not there. Blood type B+; Musculature unexpectedly developed, near professional athletic level in terms of strength, but muscle fibers are far denser than should be possible. Teeth—Oh, no wisdom teeth? Not even a trace of the DNA. Peculiar. Warrants further study.]

“What the hell?” Erec clutched his skull and slid to his knees. It was like his own thoughts—but no, that wasn’t him. As if something were interjecting them.

[Subject displaying emotional distress markers. Typical response. Great. Humans don’t change after all… Sigh. Attempt to engage coping mechanism strategy: Cheer up, buckeroo! There’s no need to get needlessly stressed! Why don’t you take a nap? Subject scan will complete in one hour.]

“What is this?” Erec stared around at the rest of the machinery in the lab. As far as he could tell, nothing was active; the speakers weren’t on. And the cameras in this room… Weird, they were no longer tracking him. Even the red light was gone.

[Must I explain?]

“Hell yes—what is going on?” Erec drew the hatchet as his head whipped around, expecting other machines to leap out at him. But there was nothing, just the dull hum of lights.

[Troublesome. Pausing scan. Hello Human. My name is VAL. There is no cause for alarm; you’ve arrived at the perfect time. The EMERGENCY EXIT project has been in the end phase for thirteen years, and you provided the last necessary component required for this research project: a living human subject.]

“I’m not going along with whatever this is.”

[Ah. Well, I regret to inform you, but that is already the case. Though the scans are preliminary, I do believe you’re an ideal candidate—]

“Get out.”

[No. However, there is no need for additional stress responses, as they will cause the scan to take longer to complete. My nanites are simply within you to conduct their scan and allow direct transmission of information; I’ve found you to be an ideal subject for further information analysis and gathering. Congratulations!]

“Nanites—in me?” Erec looked down at the puncture wound and started to breathe quickly. What do I do—what do I—?

A small cube pulsing red light floated free from its hiding spot on top of a machine and hovered in front of him. [See? No need for alarm. I’m not within you, per se. The nanites are hardware used for—]

Erec yanked the box out of the air, slammed it to the ground, and held his hatchet above his head. Slicing the edge into the cube with a quick downward chop to end this horror story. It rebounded off the surface of a thin, near invisible wall. The hatchet flew out of his hand as all of the force behind the hit reversed its direction as it made contact with VAL’s defenses.

[That was excessively violent and in no small measure rude. That is no shape, way, or form the correct way to treat your employer.]