Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [43]
Nothing. Anji couldnt find a damn thing on Silvers origins. Everyone knew who he was, but he seemed to have walked out of nowhere. His features were human, a product of a bygone age as far as the Endpointers were concerned. Looking through his public appearances on the communications channels of Endpoint, Anji noted Silvers militaristic manner, his combat trousers, polished boots and rigid bearing. Endpoint wasnt organised enough to have a proper police force, let alone armed forces. Where the hell did Silver pick up the army way?
Humberto looks in the mirror before he leaves the barracks, admires his reflection. Each button of his uniform shines in the halflight of a winters night, reflecting the multicoloured sparkle of the occasional firework. Its millennium eve, the end of 2999 and the dawn of the year 3000. Humberto bas just passed his twentyfirst birthday, hes a handsome young officer, the Tactical AI Divisions brightest star. Caught hacking into the Central TacNet five years before, he had been whisked out of his barrio home to an elite training centre, where a sickly young man had been given artificial lungs more efficient than any organic lungs, the best drugs the military could afford which were the best in known space and the chance to play with the most powerful hardware and software in mankinds possession. In the whirl of events the reason for his transgression and his desire for death were swept away, and through a physical fitness regime, all the physical traits of the old Humberto disappeared too. His mother was proud not to recognise him, delighted in this new son of hers.
And so Humberto was a good soldier; appointed to barracks just outside of Melbourne, his days as a hacker long forgotten. Leaving his quarters he strides purposefully down the path to the bases gates, intending to enjoy the onceinathousandyears party. Its a beautiful Australian night, and his friends are waiting.
He has no idea that a resentful teenager in a Sun City basement is hacking into the TacNet mainframe, just as Humberto did before. But this teenager will be more successful, his unwitting application to the military will cause a technological meltdown that will kill thousands across Australias wealthy east coast. Humberto will be one of the survivors. Just.
A scan of the communication channels in Hope revealed many archived threads of conversation concerning Silvers legendary fighting ability. The computer interface Anji was using was straightforward enough, and she flicked through endless grainy images of Silver punching peoples faces in with his metal fist, firing the gun on the back of that hand. There had been an assassination attempt a couple of years back, and a bullet had bounced clean off his faceplate, not leaving a scratch.
No one seemed to know how Silver got to be the way he was, who had fitted those implants. Would someone do that to themselves voluntarily, no matter how powerful it made them? Or was Silver just a glorified guinea pig, on the run from the lab?
Maria don Silvestre thought herself too old at the best of times. Her son had provided for her well, and when he suffered an accident in Melbourne the army looked after Maria. But she knew that the hard years before those had aged her that in her fifties she had the health of a woman twenty years older. As she pulled herself through the airlock, bobbing weightlessly against the walls, she felt ancient and fragile. So, weightlessness was good for arthritis, was it? Not if your brittle bones were shattered boarding the station.
The army had treated Maria well, as the only nextofkin of a promising young officer. Now she had come to the Zero G Hospital facility orbiting the Earth, to see how they were caring for Humberto himself.
Two men in blue overalls were waiting for her.
Senora don Silvestre, said one, pushing himself over to help her. Welcome to Zero G. Im Dr Venni, and this is Dr