aSG: Chalandra Harkness: The Bloodchip Matrix #7

CHALANDRA HARKNESS:
THE BLOODCHIP MATRIX
(a tale from altiverse 998SUPERGUY)
Episode 7
"Ascent"
by
Gary W. Olson

+++

The Shodani Towers loomed on three sides around Chalandra,
arching gracefully into the red haze of the night sky. The two lesser
towers were ten thousand feet tall, flanking the immense central tower
at the southwest and southeast. Chalandra knew there were two more
towers, at the northwest and northeast, but they were hardly of
consequence.
The central tower was over eight thousand feet tall, and was the
largest single land-based structure ever created. Despite the arc-
lights that lit it with golden brilliance, despite the lights inside
that showed through tinted windows, the building had an Olympian
darkness, an aura of impregnability, of danger, of fear.
In Toyko, it was power. The decisions made by the Shodani Group
in this building radiated out like a black wave, affecting the fabric
of existence in multitudinous ways. Even the influence of the Yakuza
was dim, compared to that of Shodani. That was why the Yakuza was
clandestinely trying to expand the influence of Red Sky in Tokyo - to
erode the power, to create a new balance, in which the Yakuza would
have more say.
Fekesh, the man Chalandra was going to meet that night, had his
own plans, of course. He broke off from the Yakuza, creating a
splinter group that he called the Dying Sun, a group that sought the
continued patronage of Shodani. When he managed to steal the
Bloodchip, which contained Red Sky's completed genetic engineering
program, with the aid of Symonachadra Mataphouri, it had seemed that
the Shodani had trumped Red Sky once and for all. With the chip, they
would take a permanent lead in genetech, and could at last challenge
Red Sky for dominance in the neurocybertech field.
But Fekesh would not part with the Chip, for reasons which he
would not elaborate. That was why Shodani was allowing her to meet
with Fekesh that evening, on the roof of the central Shodani Tower.
They could not force a man like Fekesh to yield the chip - he was too
devious, too brilliant. Shodani recognized that Fekesh was in
control, and that they would have to play the game his way, toward
whatever end he desired.
Ordinarily, the courtyard between the buildings was active, even
at night. Shodani, like the city, never slept. It merely exchanged
daytime personnel for nighttime. The complex had a constant organic
rhythm, a smooth synergy of machine and flesh. It was a microcosm of
Tokyo, and Chalandra wondered which was imitating which.
Tonight, however, the courtyard was empty. While she felt
thousands of unofficial eyes upon her, Chalandra knew that her
presence was not being recorded, as she and her companions walked
towards the single shaft of light at the base of the immense central
tower.
They walked in silence. Symonachadra walked alongside Chalandra,
looking neither to the left nor to the right. He seemed to be feeling
something, a finality that Chalandra herself felt. She wondered if he
felt it for the same reasons she did.
Akane and Alexei flanked them, both dressed in tight black
fabric, walking like predatory cats. No one spoke; there was no need.
They were ghosts in the machine, after a fashion, treading silently
across the marble walkway.
After several minutes, they reached the source of the shaft of
light - an elegant, almost Victorian-styled elevator. Without a word
or a glance at her companions, Chalandra stepped into the elevator.
Symon, Akane, and Alexei did likewise, and the doors slid noiselessly
shut. The barest shift in inertia told Chalandra that they were
ascending, to a place where few had ever been. She wondered if she
would ever see the ground again.

+++

Even here, towering miles above the city, Tokyo seemed immense.
The buildings rose out of a furnace of yellow, blue and red, light
boiling from the streets like steam, stretching up and out in all
directions. Tokyo took up over a fifth of the main island of Honshu
now, a dense technosprawl that radiated omnidirectionally from the
Shodani Towers.
They had emerged from the elevator to find themselves alone on
the roof. That is, no one else was in sight. Chalandra could sense
the presences around her, however. If Symon had taught his other
pupils anything, they could as well, she knew.
"Fekesh," Symon's voice called, breaking the stillness. "We are
here."
"Yes, Fekesh, why don't you come out?" Chalandra asked. "We're
all friends here. Aren't we?"
"Chalandra, please..." Symon started. Chalandra waved him off.
"Or would you perhaps like me to call you a different name?" she
asked. "Your deception is done... Percy McFae."
The sound of tempered laughter reached their ears. Their eyes
followed the sound, their heads turning to regard a man in a white
suit, who had stepped out from behind a transmitter array. As the man
stepped forward, the others who were present made themselves visible
as well. Twelve kyuuketsuki ninjas emerged from the shadowy
machinery, surrounding Chalandra and her companions.
"Fekesh...what is the meaning of this?" Symon asked.
"I suggest," he said, a look of practiced blandness on his face,
"you ask Ms. Harkness. She has already identified me properly.
Though I must admit, I am curious as to how she knew." Symon looked
at Chalandra, sharply.
"I had my first inkling in San Francisco, at the airport,"
Chalandra answered. "We were attacked by a pack of vampboys, and
easily repelled them. Too easily, in fact. It had the earmarkings of
a setup, and who better to set it up than the legendary Fekesh
himself?"
"Hardly sufficient to convict me," McFae/Fekesh said, prompting.
"No," Chalandra agreed. "That was just the beginning. There
were more hints...your cryptic comments on changing the application of
something by changing the item it is applied to. The electric blue
roses in Temekhan's greenhouse, roses that matched the visions I've
been having perfectly. The way you tried to get me to return to see
Temekhan the following night."
"Mere conjecture," McFae told her.
"There was one thing that clinched it, though," Chalandra went
on. "You told me how Fekesh's forces attacked your lab, moments after
Symon laid in his final programming into the Bloodchip. You said that
he left Percy McFae alive, as a way of thumbing his nose at Red Sky
and the Yakuza. But when Symon told me the same story, he told me
that everyone present was killed, save for himself. The only way
McFae could have survived the encounter was if he was also Fekesh, as
well."
"That's why he never gave the chip to Shodani," Akane said,
realizing. "Red Sky never lost the chip at all."
"You did this...just to capture me?" Symon asked, anger breaking
his placid exterior.
"Hardly," McFae said, making no effort to conceal the contempt in
his voice. "You were just a bonus."
"Their real goal was me," Chalandra said. "All along. Had I
returned to Temekhan's garden, that second night, they would have
taken me then."
"Why didn't he take you the first night?" Alexei asked.
"It was close to dawn when we had arrived," Chalandra told him.
"The Red Fortress had already passed by for the night. He had to wait
for the next evening, to transport me up there."
"I can see that your detective skills are formidable, Ms.
Harkness," McFae said, the cold smile on his face broadening slightly.
"But if you knew, why did you come tonight? You could have stayed
hidden, below the city. We would have caught you, eventually, of
course, but..."
"I ran away once," Chalandra said. "I thought I could outrun the
terror that was building inside of me. Now I know that's not
possible. So I will enter the lair of the beast, to learn the truth."
"You've betrayed us, Chalandra," Symon told her, turning angrily.
"How could you? Why?"
"Don't talk to me about betrayal, Symon," Chalandra told him, a
steel chill in her voice. "Unless you'd like to talk about your own."
Symon looked at her, sadly, silently. Chalandra ignored him,
instead looking up at the sky. There was a small, metallic object
descending from the red haze, approaching the central tower.
"Temekhan, I'll bet," Akane said.
"Correct," McFae answered. "I imagine he will be somewhat
disappointed, at not being able to gloat so much at your capture. But
I'm certain he will get over it."
Silently, they watched, as the ship descended.

+++

"My dear Chalandra," Vedrik Temekhan's gravelish voice spoke,
"you have caused me no end of trouble."
"It's been a pleasure," Chalandra answered him, as she gazed into
his predatory, now victorious, eyes.
"Quickly, now, into the craft," Temekhan instructed. "McFae's
influence, as Fekesh, has gotten Shodani to lower their defenses, but
that cannot last." The kyuuketsuki ninjas closed in, forcing
Chalandra, Symon, Akane, and Symon into the hovercar. Their seats
were sealed apart from the pilot's seat, which Temekhan took. McFae
sat across from Temekhan, and looked at the scopes.
There was a strong feeling of inertia, as the car lifted hard
into the night sky, moving considerably faster than it had on its way
down. Chalandra watched, out the window, as the roof of the central
Shodani Tower receded below, gradually disappearing into the swirling
chaotic light of the city. They were heading straight up, Chalandra
realized.
As if on cue, the roof of the vehicle became transparent, and the
red haze of the sky leapt at them. She could see it. They all could.
The Red Fortress.
God *damn,* it was big, Chalandra thought.
"We are approaching the headquarters of Red Sky Systems,"
Temekhan's voice crackled at them. "By the time we reach its
elevation, it will be directly above us."
They watched, silently, as the huge, black metal mountain grew
larger. Portions of its underside glowed a bright red. Chalandra
wondered how something that size could stay aloft.
"I will give you a tour, when we arrive," Temekhan told her, as
though he had read her mind. "It will be your home for a long, long
time, so I wish for you to be comfortable with it."
"That..." Chalandra whispered. "...is something I will never
be."
"Do not be certain," Temekhan countered. "It orbits the Earth
once every twenty four hours. What does this tell you?"
"It stays on the dark side of the Earth, perpetually," Alexei
answered.
"A city perpetually shrouded in darkness," Chalandra said. "The
perfect home for a vampire."
"Technology is making the old magic obsolete," Temekhan told
them. "What was once a barrier, the rise and fall of the sun god Ra,
is no more."
"It is nothing more than an evasion," Chalandra said. "The old
magic is changing, I acknowledge, but some barriers are still as
potent now as they were six centuries ago."
"Are they?" Temekhan asked, softly.
Chalandra didn't answer, instead watching silently, along with
her companions, as the Red Fortress loomed almost directly overhead.
They were getting close to it, close enough to see the details, the
landing bays out of which personnel from Red Sky locations around the
world were shuffled and redistributed. They could see the guns that
guarded against possible attack, not that anyone feared Red Sky so
little as to try.
There was an opening, above, that the hovercar was ascending
towards. A slit in the metal underbelly of the mountainous fortress.
A terrible sense of deja vu washed over Chalandra, as the slit
grew in size and definition. This was where her vision began. Inside
the belly of the metallic beast.
The car entered the Fortress, through the slit in the surface.
The slit closed behind the hovercar, sealing it in. The Red Fortress
continued westward, staying in the eternal shadow of night.

(to be continued...)
--
Copyright (c) 1994-2010 by Gary W. Olson. All Rights Reserved.
--
Gary W. Olson
swede at novitious dot com
Superguy LiveJournal: http://community.livejournal.com/superguy_list/
Superguy DreamWidth: http://superguy.dreamwidth.org/
Superguy Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47273370926

aSG: Chalandra Harkness: The Bloodchip Matrix #6

CHALANDRA HARKNESS:
THE BLOODCHIP MATRIX
(a tale from altiverse 998SUPERGUY)
Episode 6
"Symon Said"
by
Gary W. Olson

+++

"Lights," Symonachadra Mataphouri ordered. Soft light flooded
the room, washing over the dark colors of the weavings on the walls,
over the expensive rugs that covered the floor. There was techware in
every free corner that Chalandra looked, along with corroded wiring,
gleaming silotech chips, and interface decks.
"It's a different place," Chalandra said, as she looked around.
"But I remember a lot of it."
"Many are the talents I've acquired over fifteen centuries,"
Symon said, his sharp fangs glinting as he smiled, "but orderliness
has never been one of them." Chalandra smiled, as she considered him.
If anything, he seemed younger than when she had left him, half a
century before, even though he appeared as he always did, a male
native of India, in his late teens.
He saw her look, and his smile grew wider. "I, too, found it
difficult in those last days," he said. "My pupils, however, have
done wonders for me." Akane gave Symon a kiss on the cheek before
heading over to one of the Shodani Group workstations.
"Pupils?" Chalandra asked. "You told me you never had more than
one pupil at any time."
"These are changing times," Symon said. "Alexei! Come in and
greet our guest!"
A tall, rugged-looking male, who had a shock of blond hair and
looked only a little older than Symon, entered from a darkened alcove
that Chalandra presumed led to the rest of the complex. Alexei and
Symon embraced. Chalandra waited, politely.
"Teacher," Alexei said, as he parted from Symon. "It is good to
see you. The streets have been ablaze with searchers."
"Allow me to introduce my pupil," Symon said to Chalandra.
"Chalandra, this is Alexei Rasputin. Alexei, this is Chalandra
Harkness."
"He has told us much about you," Alexei said. "I am honored by
your beauty."
"And I, yours," Chalandra replied. Alexei smiled at the
compliment.
"If you will excuse me," Symon said, bowing to Chalandra. "I
have some business to attend to. It shall only require a few moments
of my time." He slipped into the darkened alcove.
Chalandra looked around for a place to sit. There were several
black silk pillows arranged in a circle on the floor. Chalandra took
one of those, and sighed inwardly, as she took the weight off her
legs. She had done a considerable amount of running that evening,
enough to tax even her stamina. Plus, the trek to this place from
where she and Akane had found Symon had been arduous, not only due to
distance, but due to the convoluted means used to get to where they
were.
"Where are we now, anyway?" Chalandra asked, as Alexei stretched
out on the pillow next to her. She admired his trim, muscular
contours, his careful grace.
"Directly under the Shodani Towers," Akane said, as she powered
down her workstation and glided over to join them. "We moved here
five years ago. Red Sky could not get close enough to touch us, even
if they knew where we were."
"The irony, of course," Alexei said, as Akane began massaging
Chalandra's shoulders, "is that the Red Fortress passes directly over
the Shodani Towers whenever Vedrik Temekhan has it at this latitude.
The Shodani executives have protested, of course, but to no avail.
Even they fear the Fortress."
"I saw the Fortress on the flight here," Chalandra said, relaxing
visibly as Akane's fingers dug into her shoulder blades. "It was the
first time I'd seen it. It looks like a small mountain."
"A lot of us would like to know what goes on behind its walls,"
Akane said.
"How far have you two progressed in his teachings?" Chalandra
asked.
"The Tantrics are slow," Alexei said. "I have been able to
generate some feeling, with his help, but... not as much as I would
like. I do feel an increased awareness of my inner body, however, and
sometimes...sometimes I can feel the blood move."
"I have found that the dance brings me closer to the edge of
bliss," Akane said. "When you saw me, early this evening, I felt a
wave crashing through my mind. It was not physical, though... it felt
like my brain was on forced overload."
"Ecstasy is mental," Chalandra responded. "The overloading of
the brain's pleasure receptors. The idea that it is a physiological
phenomenon is a breather misconception."
"We know," Alexei said. "Symon has told us of this, many times.
It is very difficult to grasp, however."
"You'll have plenty of time," Chalandra said. Symon appeared out
of the dark alcove, and stood above them. "I believe you are
neglecting your studies," he said, quietly.
"Please," Akane said, rising and embracing Symon. "Can we not
share her company tonight? You have told us so much about her..."
"Another night, my pupil," Symon responded. "I wish tonight to
be private, between myself and her." Symon took Chalandra's hand as
she stood.
She followed him willingly into the darkness, as she had almost a
century before.

+++

"Mmmmm," Chalandra hummed. "It has been a long time since I've
had such an intense feeling." She looked over her shoulder at Symon,
who was massaging her back.
"I'm glad you did not forsake your disciplines," Symon told her.
His long black hair draped over her lower back, mixing with the
afterglow. "Even as you forsook me."
"Symon, you know why I left," Chalandra said. "Just as you know
why I'm back."
"Did I really terrify you so much?" Symon asked, as he stopped
his massage.
"You took everything I ever knew about being a vampire and turned
it upside down," Chalandra said. "The things you taught me...the
perception... the seeing... it built up until I had to escape."
"And how do you feel now...?"
"You *did* hear me scream earlier, right?"
"That is not what I mean."
"I'd rather discuss something else," Chalandra said, turning over
and looking up at Symon. "Namely, your involvement with Vedrik
Temekhan in the making of the Bloodchip."
Symon took a deep breath, and lay down beside her, propping his
head up with his forearm, as his other hand's fingers played with a
lock of Chalandra's long, dirtwater-blonde hair.
"I have known Vedrik Temekhan for about two hundred years, I
suppose," he said. "We were never really friends, I think, but we did
have the same vision."
"Which was?" Chalandra prompted.
"To expand consciousness," Symon said. "To reach the next stage
of our evolutionary being. In my view, we are reaching the point
where we, if we so choose, can guide our development, write our
evolutionary program ourselves. In previous centuries, hallucinogenic
agents were thought to be the key. They opened the doorway, but few
knew what to do with the complex program they discovered within. They
dreamed angels, and tread the delicate fibers of their own nerve
systems, but could not grasp what they had found.
"What the chemical magic of the previous centuries failed at
became the success of the cybertech revolution. Vedrik and I cracked
the code of that most marvelous of computers, our minds, and brought
DarkNET into existence, uniting the scattered information nets of the
world into a complex, interdependent fabric. We were able to develop
interfaces that would allow direct net-to-mind data communication. A
group in Egypt developed perception control instruments, allowing for
the custom shaping of the illusion within cyberspace.
"Anything is possible, in cyberspace. There are no boundaries.
Cause and effect is suspended, an archaic law from an archaic time.
All is mind, and in cyberspace, mind is all you need."
"Where does the Bloodchip come in?" Chalandra asked.
"My experiences within the net convinced me that the time was
ripe to apply our technology to ourselves," Symon answered. "The net,
for all it's wonders, is only a facade, an environment we construct as
we see fit. True evolution means changing oneself, not one's
environment.
"Vedrik said he had been thinking along similar lines. By this
time, however, our differences had become more pronounced, and I was
on the verge of leaving. His vision clashed with mine, but we agreed
to go ahead and begin development."
"When was this?" Chalandra inquired.
"Nearly a century ago," Symon said. "I met you very soon
thereafter."
"And over the fifty years that I was with you," Chalandra
continued. "You worked with him on the chip. And you never told me."
"There are more aspects to my life than you can possibly
imagine," Symon told her, looking directly into her eyes. "You were a
pupil. You did not need to know my other activities."
"I suppose not," Chalandra said. "Please, continue."
"Our work was long, and arduous," he said. "We were charting
unknown territory, and proceeding very cautiously. The chip had to be
programmed with a very precise sequence of genecoding instructions. A
subject had to be prepared, to receive the wet trigger and load it's
program into a previously implanted Bloodchip Matrix, which would
manage the program, using the subject's brain itself as a program
storage and processing machine. Finally, a few weeks ago, the program
was nearly complete. Vedrik had completed his work on it, and all
that remained was for me to finalize my code instructions, and it
would be ready to test.
"By that time, however, my associations with Vedrik had become
seriously strained, and I had little doubt that he intended to kill
me, once my work was completed. That is why I refused to ascend with
him to the Fortress, as he told you he wished. Instead, the final
transfer took place in the Red Sky tower's labs."
"Where you got help from Fekesh and his Dying Sun to steal the
chip," Chalandra filled in.
"I had begun my association with Fekesh decades before, soon
after he split the Dying Sun off of the Yakuza. I needed allies
against the might of Red Sky, and with the Yakuza siding with Red Sky,
they were all that was available to me. Similarly, they saw me as a
way to enlist the patronage of the Shodani Group, and become a true
force in Japan.
"That day, as soon as I sent the signal that my work on the
Bloodchip was complete, they stormed the labs, killing everyone
present save myself. Fekesh led the raid, and took the Bloodchip. I
argued vigorously with him, that I would be the better custodian for
the chip, but he refused to hear my arguments. And the kyuuketsuki
ninjas he had with him made more forceful protests on my part
unrealistic.
"In truth, I had expected him to have given the chip to the
Shodani Group by now. Yet, he has not. I do not know why."
"This Fekesh would seem a very difficult man to fathom,"
Chalandra replied.
"Indeed," Symon said. "In my fifteen centuries, I have never met
a being, turned or not, whose inner workings have so eluded me, whose
face I could not read."
"I would like to meet this 'Fekesh'," Chalandra told him.
"You shall," Symon replied. "That was my business earlier this
evening, which took me away from you for a few moments. I convinced
Fekesh to allow you to meet with him, in person."
"Will you accompany?" Chalandra asked.
"Yes," Symon answered. "He insisted. Akane and Alexei will
accompany us as well."
"When will this meeting occur?" Chalandra inquired.
"Tomorrow night, on the roof of the Shodani Group towers," Symon
told her. "Fekesh will arrange for the security personnel to be
mysteriously absent."
"Do you trust him?" Chalandra asked.
"No," Symon said. "But he has little to gain from holding us
prisoner, I think." He paused, and shivered a bit. "The sun is
beginning to rise, far above us. It is time to sleep."
"Hold me," Chalandra whispered. Symon drew her into his arms,
and kissed her lips, as she drifted into sleep. In her dream, the
machinery swallowed her up again, as blood poured from the gaping
stars in the wounded sky, and the electric blue rose dazzled her eyes.

(to be continued...)
--
Copyright (c) 1993-2010 by Gary W. Olson. All Rights Reserved.
--
Gary W. Olson
swede at novitious dot com
Superguy LiveJournal: http://community.livejournal.com/superguy_list/
Superguy DreamWidth: http://superguy.dreamwidth.org/
Superguy Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47273370926