87: Gatekeeper

"Don't bother thinking about it," Nathan Doom said. "You can't figure it out. When they built you, they cut out your ability to think about these things along with it."

Corvin's jaw muscles tightened.

"You don't know me."

"I know your kind," Nathan Doom said, taking a step back and sitting down again in his chair. "I've studied you. Thunder Warriors. The Emperor's first creations. Crude, unstable, short-lived. You are prototypes, test subjects. Once he creates a better version, you will be discarded."

Corvin said nothing.

Because he knew it was the truth.

The gene sequence was collapsing.

His left hand was trembling.

He didn't have long to live.

And the Emperor was developing new, stronger, more stable transhuman soldiers.

By then, the Thunder Warriors would be scrap.

"You see," Nathan Doom said, his tone carrying a strange gentleness.

"We are actually the same. I am also a man to be discarded. The difference is, I know I'm going to be discarded, and you... you're only just beginning to think about this question."

"Shut up," Corvin said.

"Alright," Nathan Doom closed his mouth.

The hall fell silent.

Only the faint hum from the luminescent material on the dome and the sound of dripping water from somewhere far away.

Drip by drip, a steady rhythm, exceptionally clear in the silence.

TW-201 had been standing to the side the whole time, his gun aimed at Nathan Doom.

But the hand holding his gun was trembling slightly. Not from fear, nor from cold.

He had been born only two days ago.

His memories were blank, his worldview implanted.

He knew he was a Thunder Warrior, knew he must obey orders, knew he was expendable.

But he didn't know expendable things could also think.

Nathan Doom's words echoed in his mind.

"Once he creates a better version, you will be discarded."

Discarded.

The weight of that word pressed on his chest, heavy and dense.

"Where is the control system for the gate?" Corvin broke the silence.

Nathan Doom looked at him, his gray eyes half-squinted.

"You want to open the gate and let your army in."

"Yes."

"Then you'll occupy this Deep Palace, take everything inside, and declare the Pacific Empire extinct."

"Yes."

Nathan Doom was silent for a few seconds.

Then he laughed.

This laughter was different from before.

"Do you know what lies within this Deep Palace?" he asked.

"No."

"A database from the Dark Age," Nathan Doom said. "Agriculture, metallurgy, energy, medicine, genetic engineering, materials science. The legacy of the pinnacle of human civilization, all stored in the servers of this Deep Palace."

He paused.

"But there are other things as well."

His voice changed. Became lower and slower.

"Do you know why humanity lost all of this? Why did the Dark Age end?"

"The Great Catastrophe," Corvin said. "Nuclear War, Gene-Plagues, the Men of Iron rebellion."

"Those are surface reasons," Nathan Doom shook his head. "The real reason... lies Beyond."

He raised a hand and pointed upward.

Not at the dome.

At somewhere much farther away.

"Some knowledge," he said, "humans should not possess, some doors humans should not open. Humanity in the Dark Age opened those doors, and then..."

He didn't finish.

His hand lowered, a flicker of fear passing through his gray eyes.

Real fear.

Not fear of Corvin's gun, but fear of something older and vaster.

Corvin noticed Nathan Doom's hands were trembling.

Not his left hand.

Both hands.

"So you locked yourself away ten thousand meters under the sea," Corvin said.

"I am guarding the gate," Nathan Doom said. "Some of this data is treasure, some is a curse. I've spent thirty years classifying, labeling, sealing it away. The safe parts I let my scientists study and apply. The dangerous ones..."

He looked at Corvin.

"I locked them away in the deepest levels."

"What kind of things?"

Nathan Doom didn't answer.

He just looked at Corvin, those gray eyes a mix of madness and clarity.

"You don't want to know," he said. "Your master wouldn't want to know either. But he will open them. Because he, like all those who think they can save humanity, believes he can control everything."

He stood up and walked over to the screen, operating it a few times.

The image switched.

No longer a map of the Pacific Ocean, but an interface of a control panel.

On it was a huge red button, with a line of text labeled beside it:

[Deep Palace Master Control System · Passageway Unlock]

"The unlock code is your biometrics?" Corvin asked.

"No," Nathan Doom said. "It's a string of numbers."

He recited the string of numbers.

Corvin memorized it.

Corvin understood clearly in his heart why Nathan Doom gave up the unlock code so easily.

This man wasn't surrendering; he was negotiating.

He knew he couldn't hold out. Rather than let the Emperor's army force a breach and risk data corruption, it was better to hand it over voluntarily to preserve the database.

And he still held a trump card.

"But I must warn you," Nathan Doom said. "This Deep Palace has a self-destruct system. It's linked to my heartbeat. If I die, the system will activate in twenty-four hours. At that time, the entire Deep Palace and all the data inside, including the sealed dangerous data, will be destroyed."

"You're threatening me."

"I'm stating a fact," Nathan Doom said. "You can kill me. But if you kill me, your master will get nothing."

He sat back down in his chair, crossing his hands over his chest.

"Of course, you could also not kill me. Take me back and hand me over to your master, let him decide how to deal with me and this data."

He tilted his head to look at Corvin, a half-smile playing on his lips.

"But I guess he'll kill me. Because a man like him cannot tolerate a living person who knows too much."

Corvin stared at him for a long time.

This man sat in his chair wearing golden armor and a human bone ring, muttering prayer words no one could understand.

His eyes held madness, fear, arrogance, and a twisted sort of wisdom.

Corvin had seen many enemies.

Brutal ones, stupid ones, cunning ones, desperate ones.

But he had never seen an enemy who could so calmly discuss philosophy with you while under the barrel of a gun.

"TW-201," Corvin said.

"Here."

"Go to the control panel and input the unlock code. Open the gate."

"Received."

TW-201 holstered his gun and quickly walked towards the back of the platform.

He crouched down, found the hidden control panel, and began inputting the string of numbers.

His fingers trembled slightly as they moved across the keyboard, not from nervousness, but because Nathan Doom's words were still turning in his mind.

"Once he creates a better version, you will be discarded."

He pressed the final number.

Corvin's gun remained aimed at Nathan Doom the whole time.

"You're not going to kill me?" Nathan Doom asked.

"That's not my decision to make," Corvin said.

"Clever," Nathan Doom nodded. "Cleverer than I imagined."

He closed his eyes, his lips beginning to move slightly again.

That low, distorted chanting sound rose once more.

Corvin didn't stop him.

A few seconds later, the entire Deep Palace emitted a low, rumbling roar.

The floor shook. The walls shook. The luminescent material on the dome flickered a few times and then grew brighter.

[Deep Palace Master Control System Activated]

[All Passageways Unlocked]

[Elevator Platform Initializing]

"The gate is open," TW-201 said.

Corvin nodded.

He looked at Nathan Doom.

The man was still sitting in his chair with his eyes closed, muttering prayer words no one could understand.

The golden armor reflected a cold luster in the blue light.

The human bone ring rotated slightly on his finger.