Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Julia hastily made her way over to the neurotech booth. It was up against the bottom of the wrecked elevator so the roof of the booth caved in slightly. She picked up a broken piece of rebar and pried the jammed door open. Julia slid onto the cold metal chair with the neuro sensors attacked to the back head rest. From the neurotech booth she could access any device with software in a short distance. She opened the main computer and found the signal for the only functioning climbing suit, the one she had saw. Julia had the computer run a diagnostic on it for brain scan capability and waited patiently, blocking out the horrifying sounds coming from the door into the base. After several agonizing minutes the computer finished its diagnosis. Julia could not inhabit the climbing suit unless it was filled with... Heliogel? It had only been a few weeks since the material Heliogel was even entered into the system, why would she possibly need it in the climbing suit and why did he computer think that she did? She didn't have time for questions, the sounds from the door were getting louder. She could try scanning herself into the suit without Heliogel but for all she knew that could leave her completely incapacitated, retarded, or dead. The best thing that she could do was to follow the computers instructions. Julia thought that the booth might have the range to control one of the arms in the lab room. While controlling an arm she could fill the climbing suit with Heliogel that had not been tainted or transformed from this dark node explosion.

Julia exited out of the diagnosis and searched for the signal for one of the arms. She could only hope that one of them was still functioning and able to reach the climbing suit. A faint signal was picked up and with a glimmer of hope Julia scanned herself into the arm. Again she felt the odd out of body experience and was suddenly back in the lab room. The cameras on the arm had been damaged and she could not look at the dark node enclosure, but she could see one entire wall coated with pulsating Heliogel. One of the Heliogel tanks on the far wall had been breached by the explosion, and it's interior had turned into a mix of grey black oil and the light blue sacs of light. Julia didn't want to think about what would happen to her if she used that for the climbing suit. The other tank seemed to be fine, it had no breaches and the gel inside appeared as its normal, black oily self. That didn't mean that Julia trusted the Heliogel by any means, but it was her only option. She inserted the syringe arm into the tank receptacle and filled the arm. With her cameras she could see up through a gaping hole in the ceiling of the lab and it appeared as if the arm could just reach the climbing suit kiosks outside the base. She finished filling up the arm and maneuvered it through the wrecked base, up to the kiosks. She could see the waste line of a climbing suit and she could tell from the surrounding rubble that this was the last functioning one that she had previously seen. Nervously, she entered the thin syringe through a slit between the back metal plate and the waistline, and filled the suit with Heliogel.

Julia was near frantic when the arm had finally finished filling the suit, the door sounded like it could give away any second. Heliogel had filled the suit to the brim and had completely colored the viewport on the head black, but that didn't matter, she would be using the durable cameras on either side of the head to see. As soon as the computer stated that the climbing suit was ready for a brain scan Julia locked the booth door and moved a large filing cabinet up against it. While she was piloting the suit, her body would be completely vulnerable to those things trying to get to her. She didn't want to think about it too long. Julia sat down in the neuro chair with shaking hands and laid her head back against the head rest. Without too many more thoughts she activated the scan and felt herself flowing from her body and into the climbing suit across the top of the base.


- By Ashton