Andena the Rebel (The adventures of Andena Book 1) Read online

  Now she had done the easy part of her to-do list, and there was one thing left to do, which probably would take the rest of her afternoon to get organised. She knew that nearly all the meeting rooms had their own particle array, but had never been used since the last civil war which had ended long before she was even born. Her knowledge of the quantum physics was limited, but she knew enough about how to connect to a particle array. The real challenge was to gain access to the heavily secured gate which had been purposely built to keep out nosy people like her.

  Meleda had created a new program which could fool the security protocol by extending the network paths into the gate. Once she was in, she would be able to access the right time particles to create a grainy video. It took her a few attempts before the secured gate granted her the coveted green light and with trembling fingers she gave one of her bots the command to gather the ancient information. As soon as the bot gave her an acknowledgment of the fact that there truly was data to recover, Meleda slumped back into her chair with a joyful sigh. She could barely wait to find out what data the bot would come back with, but knew that for now she had to be patient. She estimated it would take at least six hours before the bot had enough completed data ready to use.

  She was surprised when she saw how long she had been busy and suddenly realised how hungry she was. With a soft groan, she got up from her chair and limped to the kitchen to raid the fridge for food. She chided herself for going without food for so long and knew that she would suffer as a result, later this evening. She knew that she needed to be more careful because she couldn’t allow herself to get too weak.

  The sound of footsteps in the corridor woke Andena, and when the door opened, she heard a familiar voice say, “Why is she still not responding?”

  A nervous sounding male voice said, “Because she has the full upgrade which meant she had to be sedated for a longer period for to heal fully.”

  The female voice sounded annoyed when she replied, “I see. When do you think we can deploy her?”

  The man started to stutter, “I, I don’t know because we have never successfully implemented a full upgrade before.”

  The female growled, “I’ve been waiting for her to be ready. Every delay is costing a fortune in credits, and she will be too far behind soon.”

  “But she doesn’t need that much training because of the full upgrade. I’m sure she will come to within a day and then it will be a matter of another day or two before you can fully deploy her.”

  Andena listened to the conversation with a strange sense of apprehension, and she wondered what they had done to her. She still couldn’t move any muscles: it was as if something had switched her off. Her mind was very sluggish, and she had great difficulty in comprehending what the two were talking about. The woman’s high heels reverberated in the room as she walked away from Andena, and when she stopped, she sneered, “I’ll give you one more day. After that, I will personally pull the plug.”

  The young man was clearly upset when he exclaimed, “You can’t do that! That is first-degree murder!”

  The woman laughed as she walked away, before shouting, “Come on now! You can hardly claim that she is still human!”

  The man sighed. He moved closer to Andena and whispered in her ear, “Why oh why are you still not awake?”

  It was strange for Andena knowing she was awake, but she couldn’t do anything. She vaguely remembered the woman’s voice, but couldn’t remember her name. She was not afraid of what might happen but had no desire to die. She could hear the man pacing around the room, and he shrieked when something loudly played a short melody. She heard him nearly shouting, “Patrick! Did you find anything? What? What do you mean by resetting her core?”

  The man walked closer to Andena, and he asked, “How can it be so simple? Are you sure? Do I need to do anything before I reset it?”

  Andena heard the other voice now clearly because the man was hovering above her head, “No. Just connect to the core and type the word reboot. That should do the trick.”

  The man asked anxiously, “What if nothing happens?”

  “Then we have messed up and killed this girl. A pity, though, she was a beauty.”

  The man growled, “Patrick, how on Earth can you say that?”

  The voice from the telephone snorted and said, “You were the one who suggested giving her the full upgrade.”

  The man yelled, “Yes, I did because she had the most suitable body for it and she was incredibly fit.”

  “Hey! Calm down, Joshua! Just reboot the damn core will you?”

  The man sighed deeply before he conceded, “All right Patrick, I’m sorry. I just had a bad conversation with that bitch. I’ll hang up and call you back as soon as I’m done.”

  “It’s okay, Joshua. Good luck, I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

  A short beep which reverberated in the room told Andena that he had finished the conversation, and she wondered what he was planning to do. As far as she knew she didn’t have a core and why would you need to reboot a person? She heard him rubbing his hands while he said, “Right. Here goes, pretty one.”

  The next moment Andena felt a surge right in the middle of her head, and everything went blank for a brief moment. However, it wasn’t long before she was able to hear her heart beating again, and she was stunned that she was able to see a row of text scrolling in front of her right eye. It went too fast for her to read it and she didn’t have time to focus on that because she felt that she was lying on something soft. Something was wrong with her mouth and her breathing. Andena was getting more and more strange sensations and knew that something was very wrong. She grabbed her face and discovered a tube going into her mouth. Her instinct told her that it had to go out, and she started to pull at it.

  She heard the man shout, “Stop! Don’t pull it! Let me do it! It will only hurt much more if you do it.”

  Andena felt the man tugging at the mouthpiece and after that, the breathing immediately became more normal, however, when he hauled the tube from her mouth in one swift move she arched her back when the pain became almost impossible to bear. She turned on her side into a foetal position and coughed for at least a minute. Thick mucus dribbled from the side of her mouth, and she came to the conclusion that she must have had this tube in her windpipe for a long time. She was wondering what had happened to her and felt strange. Her rational mind told her that she should be afraid but she felt….normal.

  Her mouth was dry, and she longed for some water. She sat up, and she opened her eyes for the first time and saw the man looking at her with a huge grin on his face. Andena saw lines of text appearing in front of her right eye. It said, “Joshua Killman, Tech. Opp. Bionex. Age 29. Weight 165 lb. Heart rate 150. Body Temp. 99.7.”

  He said, “Thank God. It worked! What is your status?”

  Before Andena could think about his question, her display showed, “Status: 100% fully functional, all systems: green.”

  It was as if Andena had been taken over by something. She was forced to take a breath, and she croaked involuntarily, “I’m hundred percent fully functional and all systems are green.”

  Joshua jumped a little and yelled, “Yes!”

  After she had told the information, the compulsive urge was gone. Andena looked at him, and the taste of the mucus was quite strong in her mouth, and she said, “I would like some water.”

  Instantly the display in her eye gave a red cross and under a text was blinking, “Water level: 102%. No water intake allowed.”

  Joshua looked at his device and said, “I see that your levels are sufficient, so you don’t need water.”

  It was a strange feeling for her that her desire for water had somehow vanished into thin air. But again her mind acknowledged that this was an unusual situation that would normally have made her feel upset.

  Joshua said in a commanding voice before leaving the room, “Stay here.”

  Andena was sitting on the bed still a bit dazed about what just had happened, and
she couldn’t put her finger on what was disturbing her. She didn’t have much chance to think about because it wasn’t long before Joshua came back carrying a grey suit and a pair of familiar looking boots.

  “Put these on,” he ordered and handed her the clothes.

  It felt strange and quite weird that she had the urge to follow his orders. Without any hesitation and with a certain determination she started to step into the suit which fitted her like a glove. She noticed that her movements were a bit jerky, and she had trouble grabbing the zip’s lever. She tried again, but her fingers were not responding as she wanted and she couldn’t get hold of it.

  Joshua noticed her struggle and helped her to zip up her suit. He followed the zip with his eyes and he slowed down considerably when the suit was pressing her breasts together. Andena was at the point of asking why he had slowed down, but he suddenly moved the zip up until her suit was completely done up.

  She felt dizzy as a result of moving too quickly to put her boots on. Her hand shot to Joshua’s leg in an attempt to prevent herself from falling over.

  He gasped and exclaimed, “Ah! You’re hurting me! Let go!”

  As he was holding her wrist, she instantly loosened her grip and found that she was able to regain her balance. She used his hand to hold herself and with the other hand she took one of the boots. As she stepped into it, she noticed that it felt strange: as if it was too small and Andena struggled to slide her foot into it. Much as she tried, she was unable to get her foot into the boot and eventually heard Joshua ask, “What is the matter?”

  Her voice was still a bit hoarse from the respiration tube when she replied, “It seems that the boot is too small.”

  “What? But they are yours, and they are auto fitters, it shouldn’t be a problem!” he said getting irritated, “Let me have a look at it.”

  Andena handed him the boot. He fiddled with it until she heard a soft beep and he handed it over to her.

  “Try again.” he snapped.

  This time, the boot adjusted to her foot as she was slipping into it. She vaguely remembered she’d had a pair of carbon boots which had been fitted for her feet, and it was strange they didn’t fit. She didn’t have any more time to reflect upon it because she heard Joshua say, “Come, follow me, I need to introduce you to your new commander.”

  Andena had some trouble initially walking, but within a minute, she felt as if her body was functioning a lot better. But still something was not right!

  She knew something was different, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She thought it was strange that it didn’t bother her at all and that every emotion she felt seemed to be flattened.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  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 t
hey 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?