Free Kirev's Door by JC Andrijeski Page A

vest––Kirev had yet to hear a name for.
    The other looked Middle Eastern in coloring and had long black hair, less straight than that of most seers and tied in a seer’s traditional hair clip covered in dark-blue stones.
    Kirev thought he heard Wreg call that one Loki.
    “Are you almost in?” that same seer asked through the open doorway. “We are eight minutes past mission parameters, brother Wreg.”
    “Any word from up top?” Wreg said, without taking his eyes off the flickering lights of the wall, or his hands off one of the dark patches.
    “No,” the one possibly called Loki said. “But it is highly questionable whether the walkie-talkies work down here, brother...under all of this stone and concrete. They would have to call the telephones down here, and I doubt they would risk such a thing.”
    Wreg grunted, as if in agreement.
    Straightening, the muscular seer placed his hands on his hips, staring at the darkened wall with a frown on his face. Exhaling a bit, he glanced around at the rest of them, before motioning with some frustration at the blinking lights of the wall panel.
    “This one doesn’t appear to be talking, brothers and sisters,” he said in Prexci, giving a more pointed look over his shoulder to Venai. “Thoughts, friends? Loki is right...it is a risk to remain here much longer. Do we simply destroy it and lose the intel on how it was made?”
    “Can you tell anything at all from it, brother?” Venai asked.
    Wreg gave her another direct look, his hands still on his hips.
    “Enough to know it’s alive, like those things out there,” he said, motioning towards the open door gracefully with one hand. “Enough to know that much more of the original being remains...it is structured in a way that is much more sophisticated than anything like this I have ever seen. Even during the war.”
    “How much more?” she said stiffly.
    Wreg turned that time, facing her directly. “Can you not feel the light field, sister?”
    “Of course,” Venai said, clicking at him. “Enough to know we should be able to communicate with it. I am wondering why you cannot. Why would it have loyalty to those beings who did this to it? During the war that was never the case. The machines were always willing to speak to us...even when they had human masters.”
    Wreg shrugged. “It cannot be coaxed like the others,” he said, matter-of-fact. “I do not know why. Except that the machines we came across during the war were said to have been designed originally and built by Syrimne...using only the parts of dead seers. It is unknown how this one was built, but we can assume that the humans were not so...gentle. And that perhaps the humans themselves might have different philosophies in their programming...and the machines might have different levels of gratitude to all living beings as a result.”
    Kirev flinched slightly at the casual mention of Syrimne, suddenly all-ears.  
    It occurred to him in looking around the small space that most of the seers here were old enough that they would have been alive during the time of Syrimne. Some of them might even have been a part of that original seer rebellion. They might have fought side by side with the famed telekinetic, who had been a folk hero to seers ever since.
    It had been the only time when most seers felt like they were really winning the war against the humans.
    “Well,” Wreg said, making a polite gesture to Venai. “Would the three of you like to try, before we go? Would could bring Loki in here, too...”
    “It cannot hurt,” Venai muttered next to him.
    Realizing he hadn’t stretched out his light since they’d walked through the door, that he had in fact kept it locked behind a shield since they got here, Kirev opened it now.
    As soon as he did, the machine let out a high-pitched, screeching sound.

    THE ROOM WENT entirely white.
    Kirev fell into a crouch...more out of instinct than anything he could hear or see...or touch with his light.