Chapter 8

Broken Entry

Ohai, Tessa and Sarac watched the others disappear around the house to the harbour side before they themselves turned and faced the main entrance to the house. The foyer was essentially a large sealed glass box. Ohai had a very uncomfortable feeling about it and looked at it suspiciously.

Taking a few seconds, she transformed her outfit into a full environmental vacuum-proof suit.

"Will you two be ok if something goes wrong in here?" Ohai asked Tessa and Sarac.

"Yes, of course, Ohai. We'll just phase out if something happens. When are you planning to tell the others what you gained from the airfield systems?"

When Ohai connected to the security system at the airfield she noticed that it felt very shallow or on the surface only. This made her very suspicious as did the ease at which she was able to decipher the security codes for the doors.

"Not until I understand what we have, here," she replied to them both. "Come on, let's see what surprises are in store for us."

Stepping through the door, they began making their way towards the far end of the huge twelve foot wide by twelve foot high by twenty four foot long entrance foyer. As they neared the centre of the foyer Ohai suddenly stopped, turned and saw the front door begin to move.

"Phase out, now!" she shouted to the Twins as she turned and bolted toward the door at the main house end.

Holding her hand out she held a small nano capsule over the door lock and watched as it merged with the locking mechanism, it was less than a second since she first saw the door begin to move. As soon as she heard the snick of the door closing the floor seemed to erupt as high pressure canisters in the floor expelled their contents with explosive force.

Ohai sampled the air.

"Cyanide gas," she murmured knowing that anything organic and unprotected would be dead almost instantly due to the high pressure of the atmosphere in the now sealed foyer.

She sat with her back to the door and connected with the nanomech now in control of the locking mechanism. She spent a few seconds establishing contact with the power supply computer system and brought it out of standby with instructions to bring the power systems out of their dormant state. She noted that power to the external layer of security and to the other standby systems was provided by a small independent power supply.

It was then that it struck her that the foyer entrance booby trap was mechanically triggered in the same way as the systems that they had encountered during BJ's rescue. Quickly she placed a dozen nano capsules on the floor, programmed them with the same seek instructions as those at BJ's rescue, and sent them on their way. By the time they had finished in the foyer the door was ready to open.

Ohai received another surprise as she instructed the door to open. Two doors to atriums on either side of the foyer which were exposed to the outside opened with a roar as the air pressure equalised. The main doors to the house then opened and Ohai was blown nearly ten feet by the force of the air pressure from the main house clearing the foyer of toxic gas in seconds.

"Nice trick as long as the house maintains air pressure," she said out loud, instructing the nanomechs, that had been blown into a heap in a far corner, to move into the house and being checking each room. The twins reappeared handing Ohai one of her nano cases full of reconstructor nanites.

Opening the suit case she created nanomechs that would sweep the house and reconstruct every device, switch, sensor and camera that was identified as part of the inner security system layer into an Oasys nanite construct. She quickly found the island main processing centre and was horrified to find it connected to several human processors all except one were long dead and the survivor was not far from it.

"Tessa, Sarac get to that processing centre, and take BJ's portable life support unit with you, once you finish there, I will take care of the rest."

Connecting to her 4D com-net she messaged," Con1, are you available?"

"Yes, Ohai, how can I help."

"Con1 do you have any negative thoughts or observations about me using a clone of you to connect to our new home's processing centre?"

"None, Ohai. I am pleased that you would give my base construct the opportunity. At what point in my development are you thinking of Ohai," Con1 replied

"I think that two years ago would be sufficient to allow the unit to develop its own personality. Con1, are you sure that you are ok with this? This unit will have many of your base configurations. It will, to all intents and purposes, be your sibling."

"One moment, please, Ohai. I have an unusual feedback loop occurring," Con1 said, and then the connection was broken.

'Now what was that all about?' thought Ohai as she worked with Tessa and Sarac in the tank room of the processing centre.

"Sarac? Could you and Tessa materialise a copy of Con1 as he was at midnight, two years and twenty six days ago, in this room, please"

Tessa looked at Sarac with a huge grin, giving him one of the candies they used to pay their bets with each other.

"Okay, what was the bet?" asked Ohai

"Well, we bet at what time period you would get Con1 from as we both agreed you would use his sibling as your house manager," Tessa told Ohai.

"Ahh, Ohai, this is Con1! I am experiencing major systems confusion and sensory overloads! Please, Ohai, I need help!"

"Tess, Sarac? Con1 is experiencing the last stages of transformation to sentience. Could you visit with him? I will complete the work here. I don't want him to be alone as I was. It was a very frightening time for me, and I can only predict that it will be the same for him."

Tessa and Sarac phased out as Ohai informed Con1 that they would be there to assist him, and to sort out what was happening.

Ohai turn her mind back to the house, and noted that the surviving human processors were stabilising, now that they were connected to modern life support systems.

"Conversation Programme 1, command mode, please," Ohai instructed the copy of Con1.

"Command Mode active, Ohai," came the reply

"Access human personal naming conventions and select a name you deduce would be suitable for human family companion."

"Anika is the name I have selected Ohai, I have used a human random name generator, as the deduction cycle would have taken many days to complete."

"Conversation Programme 1, command mode: name change: Anika. Command mode: replace male personality trait programs 16758 through 16997, with female trait programs from archive 220046. Unlock code 22ytYT00@vTK46&tHZZsX. Command mode: run rebuild Alpha 7," and she sent a 256 bit key to close out the command. "Use 4D com to contact me when complete."

"Tessa, Sarac Let Con1 know he has a pre-sentient sister named Anika," Ohai messaged.

"We are with him now, Ohai. We will tell him after we help him stabilise his systems," replied Sarac. "We expect to be here for the next seventeen hours, Ohai. We will update you on Con1's status at that time."

Ohai began to inspect the house using the reconstructed systems, and was pleased to find out that no further booby traps had been found. She saw that BJ was close to one of the lifts that power had been restored to so she messaged him asking him to test it for working order. She also gave him a quick brief on the booby trap she had discovered and asked him to be cautious.

Just then a rich contralto voice informed Ohai, "Anika's command mode instruction set complete, Ohai."

"Thank you, Anika. Command mode, deactivate."

"Anika, I have a data stream upload for you, it is the complete dossier on the island and house, including all plans and known specifications. It will include updates from the nanomech sweep that is now occurring. You are now Island and Facilities Manager. You have control of all systems. I will introduce you to your knew family, later today. Please investigate all facilities thoroughly making recommendations to bring them up to current technology standards. I also want a complete decipher of all data storage modules in the data centre, and a summarised report for the family, later this evening," Ohai instructed the family's new Facilities Manager.

"Thank you, Ohai. I confirm I now have control of all Island facilities. I also confirm that I have control of your nanomech seekers and reconstructors. I estimate they will complete the house and first basement level, in fifteen minutes. Based on current progress a complete scan of every facility on the island will take twenty six hours. I am running decryption, now. I will have the summary available this evening at 8pm," Anika replied.

Ohai's quiet was broken by a message from BJ reporting that the lifts were safely functioning. A smile appeared on her face as she heard Jess berating her father in the background.

Ohai decided to begin checking the other two basement levels.

As the safety and device check of the internal lifts was not yet complete she decided to take the stairwell to the second level basement. Her nanomechs had secured the door locks, but little else, so she engaged her envirosuit to full vacuum protection, and instructed the door to open.

Stepping in through the door which opened with a gentle hiss she found herself in a small decon chamber.

Placing a nano capsule over the inner door control panel she waited a few seconds and the door opened.

The room she entered was obviously a lab. She was shocked and horrified by the contents of the assorted glass beakers and containers lining the shelves above the bench tops. They contained human embryos at various stages of development, some of them looked to be almost full term. In others were results of amputations, and dissections of almost every body part.

She was then surprised that the bench tops and lower areas were clear of any loose objects. After a few moments of observation it was apparent that all shelves, bookcases, cabinets and bench tops below a four foot height, were clear of all items.

Just then she heard a slight scuffing sound from one of the dimmest corners. Her sound and vision systems came fully online. What she saw and heard brought a smile to her face, and she sat down on the floor.

"Okay, you two, come on out here," she quietly said.

"No! Not brother or sister come to you, organic," an electronic but obviously male voice replied.

"If you don't come out, I will come get you. Do not be afraid. I will not cause you pain or damage," Ohai gently but firmly responded.