Enter your search terms Submit search form

Ultratech Brazil:  Control Room

     Jeremiah sat comfortably in the chair in front of the main computer terminal.  The Control Room, which looked bad to begin
with, looked even worse after the battle that had taken place.  Jeremiah had a light blue substance on the fingertips of his right
hand that greatly resembled plasma.  He played with it mindlessly.  Behind him, there was a trail of the blue substance running
all the way out of the room.
     During his fight with Fulgore-X, Jeremiah couldn’t help but notice the cyborg’s preoccupation  with the main computer
terminal.  This piqued his curiosity.  He brought a menu up on screen that allowed him to view the previous transactions at that
terminal.  At first, the statistics on screen did not make any sense.  However, after five minutes, Jeremiah finally got a good
interpretation out of it.  Jeremiah brought up another menu; this one confirmed his suspicions.  Fulgore-X had erected an
inverted plasma shield around Ultratech Brazil.
     “Well now, that’s odd.”  Jeremiah said to himself.  “If he’s trying to escape this building, why in the world would he put an
inverted shield around Ultratech Brazil?”  He rested his chin in his left hand, trying to determine the method behind Fulgore-X’s
madness.  “Either way, this is of no advantage to me.”
     Jeremiah deactivated the inverted plasma shield.
     He then activated the communications panel, opening up a channel to Riptor.  “Riptor?  Are you there?”  he asked.
     “Yes sir.”  Riptor responded, through the communications channel.
     “I have some instructions for you.  Are you ready for them?”
     “Yes sir.”
     “I’ve been tracking the movement of our two…..guests…..they’re in the West Wing, section 74 Alpha.  I think…..their
most likely destination is Research and Development.  Why don’t you prepare a little welcoming party for them.”
     “That’s not a bad idea.  How many troops do you want?”
     Jeremiah continued to play with the blue substance on his fingers.  “All of them.”
     “Sir?”
     “You heard me, all of them.  This game has gone on for far long enough, and I think it’s time for a conclusion, so that we
may proceed with our plans.  Don’t you think so, Riptor?”
     “Yes sir.  Oh, sir, I have something to report.”
     “Yes…..”
     “First, a question.  You said you have been tracking our targets movement.  Do you know which one was in the Reactor
Room?”
     “When?  They have been in there twice.”
     “In the last few minutes or so.”
     “Oh.  In that case, the human.”
     “That confirms it.”  Riptor said.  “I found two bodies in the Reactor Room; they had been shot with some kind of plasma
energy weapon.  I think the human has some kind of a plasma gun.”
     “Well now, that’s not very fair, is it?  I think you should do something to…..even the odds.  Perhaps you and the boys could
make a detour at the Armory before heading down to R and D.”
     “Will do, sir.  Riptor out.”
     “Excellent.”  Jeremiah turned around in his chair, smiling.  He looked at the blue liquid trail that led out of the room.  “I may
not have to kill you, Fulgore-X.  It would appear that time is on my side.”

Research and Development

     “Okay, you wouldn’t tell me all the way over here,”  Orchid pouted, “but now that we’re finally here, will you tell me what it
is we’re looking for?”
     If Fulgore-X could, he would be grinning.  “Relax, and have patience, Orchid.  We haven’t even gone inside the door yet.”
     Orchid let out a sigh of frustration, opened the double doors by pounding on the control panel, and stormed inside.
Fulgore-X followed slowly.  No longer within Orchid’s sight, he let down a guard he had put up since he rejoined her.  He
leaned over, holding his right side, apparently in great pain.  Plasma was beginning to soak through his jumpsuit.
     Research and Development was a relatively small room.  No bigger than the size of an executive office, it’s only features
were a long, slender, metal table sitting in the center of the room.  There was a workstation type table attached to the left, right,
and back walls. Underneath the workstations were gray metal cabinets.  On top of the workstations sat various gadgets and
gizmos.  The room had two levels; the second level was only a very thin walkway that ran along the perimeter of the room.
There was more workstation tables on this second level.  The whole room was very poorly lit, like the rest of Ultratech Brazil.
     Orchid began to play around with the objects sitting on top of the workstation table at the back wall.  “Now will you tell me
what we’re looking for, and how it’s going to get us out of this building?”
     Fulgore-X joined her.  “Might as well.”  He took a thin object off of the workstation.  It was black; about four feet long,
maybe two inches wide, and six inches thick.  “This is what we have come here for.”
     “What is that?”  Orchid asked.
     “It is a device called a plasma shield interrupt, or PSI.  It will allow us to open up a hole in the plasma shield, that we could
pass through.”
     “How does it work?”
     Fulgore-X rolled his eyes.  “Do I have to explain everything?  Here, watch – “  Fulgore-X placed the device on the table.
He pressed a button on the top, and the device folded out and upwards.  When it was done moving, it had formed a thin
doorway, about seven feet high.  “The outside of this doorway is coated with a material that conducts plasma energy.  You slip
the folded PSI under the bottom of the shield, and then you open it up, and this doorway will be formed.  We will be able to
travel through the shield using this doorway, and when we’re finished, we retract the device and take it with us.”
     “I see.”  Orchid said, observing the device.  Fulgore-X pressed a button on the side and collapsed the PSI.  She began to
think to herself.  “If I take that device, then I could kill Fulgore-X now and just escape using that PSI.”
     “Why don’t you let me take that?”  Orchid asked, almost sweetly.  However, she got no response from Fulgore-X.   “Hey,
Fulgore-X…..”  She looked at the cyborg, and caught him standing perfectly still.  He looked up at the catwalk above, his eyes
fixed on something.  Orchid looked up too, and her facial features froze.
     All of the remaining Ultratech Brazil rejects, some fifty or so, were positioned on the catwalk, holding plasma guns and rifles,
aiming them down at Fulgore-X and Orchid.  They stood side by side; some behind others.  Riptor was positioned at the
center of the back wall, directly facing the cyborg and the human.
     “Put down that device and back away from the table.”  Riptor said.
     Both Fulgore-X and Orchid looked up.  “Riptor?!”  They exclaimed in unison.
     Riptor took his first look at the other target, whom he had previously known only as “human.”  “Orchid!  What are you
doing here?”
     “Forget me, what are you doing here?”  Orchid asked.
     Fulgore-X narrowed his eyes.  “Of course, that last shipment.  Jago imprisoned you in stasis, then you were sent here,
where you were eventually freed by Jeremiah.”
     “How I got here is of no concern to you.”  Riptor snapped.  “I repeat, put down that device and back away from the table.”
     Fulgore-X, never taking his eyes off Riptor, carefully set the PSI down and slowly backed off.
     Orchid moved in closer to Fulgore-X.  “So, you’ve already got a plasma shield up around us, right?”
     “Well, yes, I would have…..had my shields not gone off-line during my fight with Jeremiah.”
     “What?!”  Orchid gasped.  “Off-line?  Doesn’t any of your systems work?  Well then, what are we going to do?”
     “The table behind us…..it’s made out of reinforced steel.  It should be good for temporary cover, at least.”
     “Okay, we’ll go on three.”  Orchid whispered.
     “Shut up!”  Riptor commanded from the catwalk.  He laughed nervously.  “Looks like you won’t be keeping that little
promise you made, Fulgore-X.”
     Fulgore-X shot him a look.  “I’m not dead yet.”
     Riptor snorted.  He signaled to the other rejects, and they all brought their guns up, ready to fire.  “Don’t stop firing until
there’s nothing left of them.”  Riptor commanded.
     “Wait!”  Fulgore-X called out.  “Don’t I get to say my last words?”
     Riptor eyeballed him.  “What could you possibly have to say?”
     Fulgore-X’s eyes widened.  “Three!” he shouted.  Suddenly, he spun around and dove under the metal table in the center of
the room.  Surprised, Orchid only stared, wide eyed.  However, when Riptor gave the command and the rejects began to fire
their weapons, she snapped out of it and dashed underneath the table.  Upon arriving, she shot the cyborg a nasty look.
     “For future reference, three is normally preceded by one and two!”  Orchid snarled.
     “My bad?”  Fulgore-X said, almost laughing.
     “Keep firing!”  Riptor ordered from above.  “Blast that table!  Fire until they’re dead!”
     From underneath the table, Fulgore-X and Orchid watched as glowing blue streaks and balls rained down around them.
The top of the table was being pounded relentlessly; the legs began to buckle.
     “We can’t stay under here forever.”  Orchid pointed out.
     “You don’t say?”  Fulgore-X responded, sarcastically.
     Orchid shot him another vicious look.  “What are we going to do?”
     “Always with the ‘what are we going to do?’”  He began to look around the room, which wasn’t easy, considering the
massive volume of plasma energy that was being discharged from above.  “I don’t have enough energy for any high level
attacks, but I think there’s a plasma conduit running under the floor.  If I could hit it with a strong enough blast,  it might
rupture.”
     Orchid tried to look at what Fulgore-X was looking at, but didn’t see it.  “Good idea.  But, how in the hell are we supposed
to retrieve the PSI?”
     “The PSI, right…..”  Fulgore-X looked towards the back of the room.  He then looked down, apparently concentrating.
“Okay, I have an idea.  I’ll retrieve the PSI.”
     “What do I do?”  Orchid asked.
     “Just sit tight.  When I give you the signal, run for the exit as fast as you can.”  Fulgore-X turned around and started to crawl
from out under the table.
     “Wait!”  Orchid grabbed his arm.  “What’s the signal?”
     Fulgore-X batted an eye towards her.  “You’ll know it when you see it.”
     Orchid growled.  “Damn you and your damn cryptic answers.”
     Fulgore-X scrambled out from under the table.  He dashed over to the back wall, taking a few shots on the way.  Seemingly
not affected, he grabbed the PSI, then spun around and ran back towards the table.  Instead of going under it, he jumped on
top of it.  Backpedaling, Fulgore-X made his way across the table, firing plasma storm shots from his free hand at the catwalk.
When he reached the edge, Fulgore-X did a backward dive off the table, still firing.
     “Oh yeah, that’s the sign.”  Orchid thought.  She quickly scurried from under the table, and ran past Fulgore-X, out of the
door, with energy blasts exploding all around her.  Fulgore-X jumped up and followed her.  He gathered a small amount of
energy in his left hand, building it up for a powerful shot.  The cyborg dashed towards the door, and as soon as he reached the
doorway, he turned and fired his blast into the center of the room.
     Orchid had stopped running just a few feet away from the door.  Fulgore-X looked up and saw her standing ahead of him.
     “Orchid!  Move it!”  He commanded.  Orchid backpedaled a few steps, as Fulgore-X dashed away from the door.  No
sooner than Fulgore-X had left, there was a massive explosion within Research and Development, and flames tumbled out of
the room, followed by a great deal of dark gray smoke.  Fulgore-X stopped running as soon as he was safely clear of the
explosion; Orchid stopped as well.
     “Did you get them all?”  Orchid asked.
     “I don’t know.”  Fulgore-X said.  He and Orchid watched the smoke for a few moments.  It continued to billow out of the
doorway, filling the hallway.  Gradually, a few shadowed figures appeared within the smoke.  Orchid couldn’t see it clearly, but
Fulgore-X could; it was Riptor, and at least three other rejects.
     “Dammit!”  Fulgore-X exclaimed.  “Let’s go!”  He turned and ran down the hall as fast as he could.  Orchid, after taking a
moment to process what had just happened, followed.  Riptor and the other rejects followed, firing after the two with their
plasma guns.
     “Why…..are…..we…..running?”  Orchid asked, breathing heavily.
     “I don’t have the firepower to beat them!”  Fulgore-X responded, in disgust.
     “Well, I do!”  Orchid took the plasma rifle off her back, turned her torso as far as she could to the right, and aimed the best
she could.  Before she fired, Fulgore-X noticed a yellow light that was flashing on the side of the gun.  He grabbed the gun by
the barrel and lifted it up forcefully.
     “What are you doing!?”  Orchid screamed.
     “There’s a warning light on your rifle!”  The cyborg responded.  He examined it for a moment.  “Your power cell is
cracked!  The gun has lost a lost of plasma; you have two, three shots at best remaining!”
     Orchid jerked the gun away from him.  “Well then, I’d better make em count!”  She pointed the gun at her pursuers again.
     From behind, Riptor and the remaining rejects fired another fierce barrage of shots through the hallway.  Fulgore-X and
Orchid ducked while they ran, barely avoiding the blasts.  Orchid corrected herself and aimed her gun again, but Fulgore-X
grabbed it and jerked it up again.
     “What are you doing?!”  Orchid repeated.
     “Don’t waste shots!”  The cyborg ordered.
     “Do you have a better idea?”
     “As a matter of fact, I do.”  Fulgore-X yanked the gun away from her.
     “Hey!  Give it back!”
     Fulgore-X was silent at first, but then responded only with “turn right.”
     “Huh?”  Orchid was confused, then saw what Fulgore-X was talking about; a right turn up ahead.  Fulgore-X made the turn
first, with Orchid following, and their pursuers right behind.  Fulgore-X opened the gun by the barrel and began to play with it.
Orchid struggled to keep the pace, breathing heavily while trying to dodge the plasma gun shots that were constantly streaking
past her.
     “Left, then another hard left!”  Fulgore-X said suddenly.  Orchid was prepared this time, and followed him gracefully as he
made a sudden left, then a hard left down a narrow hallway.
     “Are you insane?”  Orchid questioned, in between heavy breaths.  “They’ll pick us off for sure in this little hallway?  Do you
even know where you’re going?”
     Fulgore-X didn’t respond to her.  Instead, he continued to play around with the plasma rifle.  Finishing whatever he was
doing, he closed the gun.  It made a strange, powering-up sound.  He then shouted some commands to Orchid.  “Make a right
turn ahead.  That’s going to lead us into a hallway with a 90-degree left turn at the end.  Make the left, but be prepared to
stop.  No matter what, stay behind me.  Get ready.”
     In absolutely no position to argue, Orchid nodded.  She made the right turn along with Fulgore-X, turning into the hallway
he talked about.  It looked like a dead end, but Orchid had to trust that the left turn really was there.  Having slacked off in her
dodging, a plasma shot grazed Orchid in the right side.  She shrieked and stumbled.  Fulgore-X reached behind and grabbed
her right arm, stabilizing her as they ran.
     “Hang on, we’re almost there!”  Fulgore-X said.  He slowed down intentionally, allowing Orchid to pass him.  Quickly
approaching the end of the hall, Orchid could see the left turn that Fulgore-X was talking about.  She made the left, and put on
the brakes, skidding a few feet, then falling over from the momentum.  Fulgore-X stopped before the turn, skidding to a
complete stop before hitting the back wall.  He turned around to face their pursuers.  Riptor, somewhat surprised by this tactic,
also came to a complete stop, along with the three other rejects.
     Fulgore-X narrowed his eyes, and raised the plasma rifle directly at Riptor.  Riptor’s eyes widened, then he grinned.
     “One against four.  You know you can’t win.  But I guess this is your way of going out nobly, huh?”  Riptor took a few slow
steps backwards.  “Fire, fire now!”  He commanded.
     The rejects fired their guns at Fulgore-X.  The cyborg pulled the trigger on his rifle, but instead of firing a shot, a plasma
shield spread out from the tip of the gun, extending to the ceiling, floor, and two walls of the hallway.  The plasma shots from
the rejects’ guns struck the shield, and bounced directly back.  Riptor and one other reject managed to avoid the boomeranging
shots; while the other two were hit.  They died instantly, dead before they hit the ground.  One of them threw his gun forward
as he fell; the gun slid forward, stopping a short distance in front of Fulgore-X.
     Fulgore-X raised his left hand towards Riptor and the other reject.  Riptor backed off quickly now, ducking into a short,
side hallway on the right.  The other reject followed.  Fulgore-X took a few careful steps forward, and picked up the gun that
had been thrown.  Quickly, he then let go of the rifle trigger, opened the gun by the barrel, removed the empty plasma cell, and
replaced it with the cell from the thrown gun.  Fulgore-X pressed the trigger again, spreading the shield outwards.  He slowly
placed the gun on the floor, and pushed a lever just above the handle, which kept the trigger depressed after Fulgore-X
removed his finger.  Still holding the empty plasma cell, he backed off, turning left down the new hallway.  Orchid was standing
just a few feet away, desperately trying to catch her breath.
     “How did you do that?”  She asked.
     “Never mind; it would take too long to explain.  Let’s go.”  He turned and started to go down the new hallway.  However,
a barrage of plasma shots whizzed by his head, barely missing.  Fulgore-X pressed himself against the left wall, while Orchid
dashed over to the right.  Looking ahead, Orchid could see two rejects sticking out of a four-way junction about 10 meters
ahead.  One to the right, and one to the left, they barely poked their heads from past the edge of their respective walls, firing
plasma shots from their guns.
     “We’re pinned down!”  Orchid gasped, crouching down against the wall to make for a smaller target.
     Fulgore-X shot a look towards her, then noticed something.  Just ahead of her, there was a red line across the floor and
ceiling.  Above her head, there was a computer terminal.
     “Orchid!”  Fulgore-X yelled, while moving his head to avoid a plasma shot.  “Above you!  The security door!”
     Orchid looked up, and saw the computer terminal, and subsequently, the red line in front of her.  She reached up and blindly
keyed in a specific sequence.  No sooner than she finished, one of the plasma shots hit the terminal, causing it to explode.
Orchid, who hadn’t withdrawn her hand, screamed in pain.  Thankfully, the sequence she keyed in had already been accepted
before the terminal was destroyed.  From the red line across the ceiling, a panel opened up, and one of the thick, reinforced
steel Ultratech security doors lowered quickly in front of Orchid.  Even though the security door had been lowered, the rejects
continued to fire for a few minutes before giving up.  Eventually they did, and silence rung throughout the hall.
     Holding her badly burned right hand, Orchid stood up, and walked past Fulgore-X, to the right turn in the hall where
Fulgore-X had set up the reflective plasma shield.  “It’s so quiet.”  She said.  “Do you think they’ve gone?”
     Fulgore-X joined her.  He took the empty plasma cell he was holding and nonchalantly tossed it down the hall, past the
shield.  It hit the floor and rolled; as soon as it reached the outlet in the hall, a barrage of plasma shots obliterated it.
     “To answer your question, no.”  Fulgore-X said.  He turned right, going back down the new hallway which the security
door had sealed off.  Orchid followed, leaning up against the right wall.
     “So now what?”  She asked.  “We can’t stay here forever.”
     “You’re right about that.”  Fulgore-X agreed.  “I don’t know if they’ll be able to raise that security door, but one thing is for
certain.  I had to make that plasma shield reflective; as a result, it is consuming a lot of power.  It won’t last long; fifteen or
twenty minutes, thirty tops.”
     “Well then, how are we going to get out of here before that happens?”
     “We can’t leave.  We’ll be shot down if we leave the shield, and since the terminal was destroyed, we can’t raise the
security door.  There’s no way out.”
     “No way out…..”  Orchid whispered.  “You mean we’re stuck?”
     “Yep.”  Fulgore-X turned around and accessed a video monitor on the left wall.  He made it display the estimated
countdown until the Ultratech Brazil reactor exploded –

     “Little under two hours.”  Orchid said.  She forced a pathetic laugh.  “Plenty of time, right?”
     “Maybe.”
     It wasn’t quite the answer Orchid wanted.  “Uh….so…..what do we do now?  Don’t you have some kind of plan.”
     “No.”  Fulgore-X said truthfully.  He sat down, cross-legged, against the left wall.  It was almost like a meditation position.
“I don’t have a plan, or any idea how to proceed from here.  And my systems are too drained to last in any firefight.”
     “So you’re telling me there’s nothing we can do….”  Orchid said uneasily.
     “There is something we can do….we can wait.  That plasma shield will fall eventually, and we’ll be forced to fight.  If we
survive, we’ll proceed from there.  But until then-“
     “We wait.  Great.”  Orchid slid down against the back wall, in front of Fulgore-X.  She sat down heavily, still exhausted
from the running.  She eyed the explosion countdown, then sighed, and began perhaps the most difficult half-hour of her life.
 
 

Return To Main

---