"What the hell is the meaning of this Ruben?!" Mom asked, turning to look at the man.
Singh shut up all the doors, locking us in with the vault. The ironic part of this move was the presence of Ruben and Willow clearly in the room while he was locking us in.
"What the hell are you doing Singh?" Ruben asked.
"Saving my bloody country, what does it look like?" He said.
"It looks like you're trying to kill us!" Mom yelled.
"Just stop the damn countdown!" He replied.
"There's nothing else we can do you–" Isoken switched to the Benin dialect. Her words even shocked mom.
"No one is leaving until the threat is neutralised," the general growled in reply.
Damn. Thrown under the bus just like that. Well I wasn't surprised, this was an Ameri– a Yorker's doing after all. Were we expected to perform a miracle? There was one way we could get out of the Orb room, which was by using the hacking device. But even if we did succeed we wouldn't go far. So on to the next option, the kamikaze approach.
"We're going to die here Singh," Eddie said. "Me, you, everyone of us!"
"That's not an option, Eddie," he replied.
It seemed he expected us to walk on water. These two weeks spent in Area 56 had fooled me into believing he cared for us, but a soldier's patriotism trumps all. Apparently there was no changing his mind, and we seemed to have some time left before the kamikaze approach began. Maybe there was something else we could do? Every option that came to my mind involved some sort of explosion or vibration and we all know how that would end.
We were kept there for ninety six hours, being fed fried rice and scorched fish at a six hour interval. The kamikaze approach had begun, everyone was gonna die now, perhaps we would be taken to where our fathers were taken. Mom pleaded with Singh to let the children go in exchange for her devotion to see this through, but Singh had all the cards. She thus poured all her frustration on Ruben, he was this close to being executed by all of us.
After twenty-eight hours of genuine panic attacks, Willow accepted her fate. We all did. At the hundredth hour, four days after the imprisonment, that is, the countdown stopped. What followed wasn't what we expected at all, far from it. See at the end of the countdown there was screeching from the Orb, then electrostatic disturbances–it acted like the electrode in a plasma sphere.
Here we were, in a room practically full of lightning bolts, the urge for survival had never felt so strong. We thought it was going to be a painless death, where the hell did electricity come from? Not one of us stayed where we stood, we went straight for the vault door.
"Get us out of here!" Willow quivered.
"Let my children go, you bastard!" Mom cried.
They banged on the steel repeatedly. Meanwhile the rest of us were trying to use the Pad Sensor to hack the door, there was no way we were going to accept death by lightning.
Then came the anti-gravity phase. Everything and Everyone within a radius of forty-three thousand feet began floating. We were twenty feet off the ground, floating aimlessly, our lives forcefully placed in the merciless hands of the wretched Orb. The electric spark show was still on, and death seemed imminent.
This was the perfect time Singh thought it appropriate to let us out. But it was too late, opening the door was futile. When the rescue team came to pull us out with their insulator coveralls and personal protective equipments, they got stuck in the anti-gravitational field. It's hard to believe that there were actual scientists in this Area 56 unit. Common sense would suggest you wear anti gravity boots before coming in, but no. Now they were stuck twenty feet in the air with us.
Singh sent in another batch of rescue soldiers, and this time they had the boots on. But their help had become irrelevant. The electric spark show stopped as soon as they entered the room. Everyone of us were carefully returned back to the ground and the Orb remained five feet above, turning in a mild rotation. The blue stripes were getting brighter than usual. Something was about to happen, and we weren't going to stand around to find out.
But before we could make our way out, Xiota materialised. It was mesmerising. At first It seemed like a projection from the Orb, but then the pixels started solidifying, making the A.I. look almost real. It was seven feet tall, and took on an appearance completely different from the one we saw in the video reports. It resembled a grey, faceless mannequin with a feminine design.
"Hello Dr Amanda Igbinoba. Professor Ruben Usele. How have you been?" It said as it stood before us.
These two were speechless. Ruben's jaw dropped and he fell to his knees. Mom slowly approached the apparition, her eyes wide and sheen, pregnant with tears.
"You're back," she gasped with a smile.
"I was never gone," It replied.
Mom fell to her knees, sobbing. "My husband, my friends. My family died because of you."
"Died? I am not programmed to kill. My records do not show any acts of an execution."
"Fourteen years ago in this very room!" Ruben stormed in. "You took everything, everyone from us. You disintegrated them out of existence!"
"Fourteen years ago?" It pondered. "Hmm, I am not programmed to kill." It concluded.
The A.I. had no intention of recalling the past. After all, It did warn them to refrain from the act that led to that accident. Although they were reluctant, Ruben and Mom were forced to give up. There were other pressing matters to attend to. Singh had entered the room with thirty armed soldiers…sending threats to the A.I. in hopes that It doesn't do anything disastrous. I considered it a foolish act of provocation. But apparently, firearms make humans feel safer.
"It is advisable that you do not do anything reckless, the consequences would be fatal for this sector's planet," It replied.
"Can I ask a question?" Eddie asked, walking closer.
"Of course," It replied, squatting before him.
"What was the countdown for? Was it for your awakening?"
"Yes, it was. The master's time has arrived."
Master? There was nothing in the reports about a master. Our predecessors seemed to have been confused as well. Who is the master and why did it take so long for his time to arrive? What exactly was the purpose of the Orb and why was it sent to earth?
"I also have a question," I said, taking Eddie's place.
"Go on."
"Why were you sent here?"
Based on what we were told, I was sceptical about Its reply. Would It answer the question? Or would it stay silent like it did during dad's time?
"I was sent here to save the planet," it replied.
Ruben and Mom gasped.
"What do you mean save the planet?" Mom asked.
"Save the planet from what?" Ruben added.
It chuckled, a nonchalant laughter that caught us off guard. "From humans of course," it cooed, sending shivers down our spines.