Titan's Lens

The day Edward coughed up blood was the day he decided to enlist.

Seagulls swooped low into the still ocean waters off the coast of his home island. Their incessant screeches and splashes muffled by the glass of the medical facility. There, he leaned against the window, inviting the warmth of the afternoon sun and peered down at the yellow sand beaches as Dr. Amara prepped the machine.

The decision came easy for him. Like a looming cloud finally releasing thousands of liters of water into his mind and flooded it with possibilities. The flood washed away his shock and pain to a singular island of choice. Enlist or die, a simple statement, one that split the clouds for a moment, just a moment.

The plan however, ate at him. Time was running out and he counted the hour and waited. The ship would come, he told himself and he will board it. All he had to do was lie. Lie and trick the very machine intent on killing him.

Dr. Amara finished and tapped her data pad. A low metallic hum whirred as the hulking dome-like machine came to life. A veritable web of tubes and wires extended out from this monster, like the roots of a demented and twisted tree. Sweat trickled down his brow, and he felt as though his blood boiled underneath scorched skin.

“One last time Ed. Then we can find you a few more years.” Dr. Amara said. “Just a few questions and you’re good to go.”

There it was. He clenched his jaw and stood up. The first lie; pretend you don’t feel like you’re being torn to shreds by hot irons. The second, walk into the machine.

“Have the symptoms gotten worse?” Dr. Amara asked. “Any spasms, headaches, coughing of blood?”

“No.” He lied.

***

He focused on his hands as he opened and closed them just like his father said. One, two, one, two. “I think the treatments are working” He lied again. “Just tired from all the dock work, you know. Not used to it.”

Dr. Amara flicked a blinking light on her data pad and a holographic skeleton appeared in front of him. A flashing red light emanated from where his lungs should be. “There, you see that? It’s good we caught this one before you started spitting blood. Last month it was in your kidneys. When we kill it this time, it will find a new home. Watch for the symptoms all right. Remember, how each cancer causes different reactions.”

How could he forget? He’d spent the last few weeks memorizing every cancer known to man. Even though using the computers felt like rolling around in hot tar. He had to know. Had too. A self-diagnosis could save him in the academy. And, the treatments might run out before he gets assigned. That thought chilled his pain for a moment and brought the dread back.

He closed his eyes and pictured home. White painted stones with blue curtains danced with the gentle breeze while mother sat above on their balcony, binoculars out and watched his transports leave. Father hunched over in the other room and softly cursed as he tinkered with his new pet project.

The pain faded.

“All set Ed,” Dr. Amara said as she released the maglock door. A sweet smile formed on her face as she wiped away a tear. “We’ll keep trying. For now this is the best we can do.”

The optimism came double-edged. There is a cure. He can be cured. He just wasn’t important enough. She knew it. He knew it. The king’s disease. A nasty cancer that mutates with radiation brought on by machines. A flea bite for those owning planets. They spend their lives around tools that output radiation that could kill half the town he grew up in. Tools Edward spent most of his life fixing.

He stepped out and grabbed the edge of the doorframe. His muscles ached, but he steadied himself for his next lie. “What’s the count for this month?”

“30 not counting today,” Dr Amara said as she helped him back to his chair. “Your lungs will purge you know. Keep physical activity down and rest up.”

She kneeled down next to him with a warm expression on her face hiding the cold. Memories flashed of her and her family. Being the only local with a Meddoc had made her a second family to his. Summers spent with her daughter as a kid and his childish crush that came with it. This woman, who is like an aunt, treated him, but could not cure him. All while knowing there is a machine that will cure it like an afterthought.

The Sarcophagus.

A relic so rare that his own planet has only one. One that is within shouting distance from his city. One that could let him throw away his glasses and see clearly for the first time. One that could cure the disease they so casually discard. An affliction that robbed him of all his years of studying the very machines that killed him.

Edward pushed those thoughts back and continued the plan. “Amara?” He asked with a hoarse voice as she handed him a cup of water. “You’d let me travel with my father?”

“Of course,” She stammered “I..I want you to spend the rest of this year with them. Where are you going?”

His eyes watered. He hated to lie to her, but he is out of options. He stilled himself and breathed out slowly. She would need to leave the room just long enough for him to change a seven to an eight.

“How many devices are you allowed to give me? If I were to leave for three months.”

Dr. Amara’s face gave a puzzling look for a moment. Edward knew she could more than double the dosage. He intercepted her communications with other patients and her propensity for helping others. But, his request came with a caveat, one that he intended to erase once she left the room.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Dr. Amara said and stood up. “If you’re planning to leave the planet though I can’t help you, you know that. You’re ignoring my question too. There is something you’re not telling me.”

“My father is heading to the capitol for supplies. They have the liquid nitrogen we need for the T.I comms.” Edward said. He almost slipped, but his father did need some liquid nitrogen. Next year. “He needs me to help load the ship. And...and well, we can visit relatives there and bond for the few months that trip would take.”

It landed. Her puzzled expression went from cautious skepticism to relaxed. She went over to the other end of the room. There, she entered a glass door and pulled out the box that saved his life every waking hour. In it, contained thirty disk-shaped devices that would purge his lungs.

As she began counting out the first month of treatment Edward rolled on his chair and pulled out his personal data pad. Wrapped in cloth, with traces of lead in the fibers to block radiation, the data pad gave a muted chirp. Even with his precautions, it felt as though he were slicing his hands open with red-hot knives every time he worked it. The rootkit exploit flashed Titancode and he wrapped it back up in the cloth just as Dr.Amara returned with his disks.

“I’ll be right back. Thirty in all, for now.” She said as she started counting in her head in an obvious way. “Might have a few boxes in the left wing. Not sure, but maybe.”

Before she left the room she turned back and with a determined look. “I’ll get you those days back Ed.”

His heart sank even further. With her gone he began his attack. The machine, now powered off, looked like a sleeping kraken resting after a kill. Once he opened it’s brain and triggered his exploit he would only have a few minutes. Then, he would need to access his medical records and falsify his information. There he could reimagine himself as eighteen instead of seventeen, healthy and eligible to enlist. With history re-written to be the perfect candidate for war.

He stopped and considered the crime he was about to commit. He knew this path would lead to more pain. Lead to fighting he never prepared for and he would probably never see his family again. The thought chilled him, like an icy wave crashing down on his fragile decaying island. There he stood, and knew. Knew that his plan was more than survival and then turned it on.

The machine brain pulsed with electromagnetic energy. Each pounding wave seemed to claw at his insides. Through the pain, he worked fast. Each input fell upon the rest like a cascading array of perfectly cut stones. He became the mason of its new architecture, and for a moment he forgot the pain.

His strategic attacks unfurled as practiced hands flew from one screen to another. While one defense crumbled another sprang up, Edward scrambled to intercept. Focused attack failed. Root attack failed. System purge activated. What was he missing? His troops lie scattered, each new ground eared two others scorched. What was he missing? He thought.

He sat back and let the rhythmic sounds calm his mind. He checked the time. Dr. Amara will be back soon, he thought, “I have to build the game”. A saying his father always said whenever he ran into a problem with Titancode. He said the A.Is perfected adaptive learning hundreds of thousands of years ago, and one thing they always did, was build.

If they encountered a problem, they built around it, and changed it. His father’s admiration for the machines would always get him into trouble. He then built. Built a life around fixing machines and changed his perception. Edward changed. Troops failing on open ground? Build a chokepoint. System scorching his conquered land after he leaves? Build walls around its walls. It can’t build and attack at once. Not while he remains the architect.

He claimed his prize, and as he built defenses around his victory, he changed his age to eighteen. Instead of crippling illness, he excelled at his hometown sport. Wave Running. Nondescript information anything the recruiters would want. The most important and final note being he shows an aptitude for high gravity training.

With one final tap he executed his plan. The data stream flowed, imprinting on his personal pad. Thirty percent...forty percent, fifty percent. Dr. Amara knocked on the door. Edward stood up and put his back against the machine.

Dr. Amara swung the door open and sat the box down. Sixty percent. She gave him a worried look. “I’m sorry,” She said. “I can only get you two months for now.”

Two months. That number swirled around his mind. Should he just tell her? Maybe she can help if she knew what he planned on doing. Seventy percent. All he would need to do is stop the transfer. He could reverse this. No. The ship came today. This time he will board it. Eighty percent.

“Is there any other way?” He asked. “Maybe we can retrofit some other device or-”

“You always think like an engineer you know,” She sighed. “There are other devices I can get you, but they will uplesant. I can’t guarantee more than five or six. Only for emergencies all right?”

He nodded. Ninety percent.

“You really want to go on this trip huh?” Dr. Amara asked as she walked over to the other end of the room. There, she pulled out four other disks and inspected them. Edward froze for a moment as the machine’s hum abruptly stopped and she looked up.

“This might be the last one for a while,” He added. “Before being around one like this becomes unbearable.”

One Hundred percent.

As he gestured to the machine he crouched down and tucked his data pad away. She looked over just before it’s lights blinked out. “Four just for emergencies Doc. We can do this trip in two. I can do this trip in two if I have to.” He lied.

Three months of high G training with a third of his supplies gone. Not ideal, but with the transfer complete he had no choice. She will find out what he did. By then, he should be on his way to Callae.

They spent some time packing his things. The disks are surprisingly compact and easy to keep on his person. Sixty-four in total. Just enough he figured to make it to the Hollow planet. Just enough not to die on the way, and die during whatever training he endured. I can make it, he lied to himself.

“Keep watch over everybody while I’m gone,” And with one last lie, he said. “I’ll see you when I get back.”