#39

Two Guards arrive, and alongside Your father—or, rather, the Emperor—You, Mom, Klaus, and Susie are escorted back into the elevator. There's no sense fighting back. You has lost.

To Your mild surprise, when the elevator begins moving, it is actually descending; it contradicts the ordinary notion that things of importance are higher in buildings. Yet, as You learned in Zorro City, the Emperor likes to keep things buried, and so whatever his “Engine Room” is, it's deep underground.

The elevator drops for several minutes, until at last it pauses and the door opens. You and others are ushered out, and the Emperor signals to the Guards to leave. They stay on the car as it goes back up.

You is in a dark room with only a faint overhead light—a situation reminiscent of Your cell from just a little while ago. The far wall appears to be composed of sliding panels, and is hooked up appropriately to a computer. The screen is flanked with statues of a nude woman whom You doesn't recognize.

The Emperor smiles as he approaches the window. “Venus,” he says proudly, referring to the statues. “No offense to you, my wife,” and he points to Your mom. “But she's always been my favorite woman. She would have liked the fuel, as it represents life. Our project has given us the medics, who have infused themselves with the fuel to restore those even from the brink of death. But their role isn't important; not yet, not next to the Ultimate Project. Speaking of Venus, actually, Caesar said she was his ancestor. Food for thought.”

He begins to type into the computer, and no one says anything. You, Klaus, and Your mom seem silent because of rage. Susie is more contemplative; not defeated, not as far as the rest of you at least, but taking in the scenery and calculating. Or maybe her face's act of giving You such an impression is only distorted in the low light.

Just then, the panels slide aside, revealing—something bright. A vast column of light, that hurts Your still-weakened eyes. The room inside is itself a glowing shaft, with an even brighter beam going straight up the center, coursing with power. Curious black dots swirl around the central beam, dark enough to obscure the light, and tubules full of pumping fuel go both up and down around the room. There's a glass pane separating You and this chamber.

“Below us is a sphere a mile deep that is full of fuel. The product of our hard work over the years. Presently, that fuel is being refined into energy, which is being distributed throughout this building. Not merely for power or storage, but for part of an advanced computer program. A computer program so advanced that it borders on magic in terms of complexity.

“We have operatives standing by who have been infused with the fuel who are, in essence, our synthetic wizards. These wizards have been trained on how to manipulate this advanced fuel energy, and when the fuel is completely converted, the energy will be reshaped on a psychic scale to turn Imperial Central into an active portal to the Multiverse. Our computers will be able to track Multiversal coordinates and allow us to visit any world that we wish. From these worlds, the Empire will be able to expand exponentially, until at last we have unified the Multiverse under our common peace.”

He turns back to You. “The fuel will spread across every world, beyond our tiny macrocosm, and everyone will enjoy the happiness that I enjoyed as a simple farmer.”

Your mom is the one to speak now. “Kai, what you've told me is sick. You've turned people into cyborgs against their will and you've—you've started wars just to cover up this project! And you tortured us! You tortured us! We're your family, you sick bastard!”

“The cost the cyborgs bear will be relieved—when their purpose is served. And the happiness you'll find in my paradise will help you forget the torture you've endured, to be sure.”

“That doesn't make up for anything,” says Susie. Her voice is no longer the shaken one of the girl upstairs; there's something in it that makes You shudder.

Your father waves his hand at this, uncaring. “The fact is, we're all in it together now. As a family. As one. As all will soon be, with the rise of the Empire.” He looks directly at You, now. “You. I know Your friend has what You found in the cave. I will now take it from him...and there will be no resistance.”

He approaches You, and suddenly You pulls out Your knife. But You can't do it; he's still Your dad, and he knows this. With a grin, he reaches over to Klaus, who gives him...the flash drive. He glances at You suddenly, and his eyes convey meaning. He's pulling some sort of bluff, and not giving him the stone. But even then, this is tricky—You doesn't know what's on that drive. It might be the Ultimate Whatever of the Brotherhood of Kletus, or something else entirely. And You doesn't really know what Your dad needs, either, specifically. However, he seems pleased when he takes the flash drive; though he says nothing.

He plugs the drive into the computer. “Now, let's see here...” He seems to be analyzing the data, but You can't see what he says. “There's an executable...” He clicks on something, but You jumps back, as an alarm begins to sound.

“Oh no!!” Your father cries out. “This...this isn't what I wanted! This is...” He looks out the window as machinery in the chamber begins to shift. He struggles to type something, but the screen begins to flash red. “Logged out...” Then he looks at You. “You fool!”

One of the machines seems to rearrange itself into some sort of nozzle. The Emperor tries to make a break for it, but Susie and Klaus stop him. “What's happening?!” Susie yells.

“The program triggered the auto-destruct sequence!” he shouts back. “That cannon in there is emitting a maser beam. It'll agitate the fuel-energy pulse and blow up this entire building!” He tries to assault Klaus, in a wild panic; it shakes You to see him like this. He's feverish and raving. “Where is it!? Where's the...” He tries to strangle Klaus, who begins fighting him. He roars “Die!!” but there's something off about the way he says it. But paying attention to Your APPLE is the least of Your problems; the cannon inside the chamber is pulsing, and the column is started to look odd—as though it's becoming unstable. There are more flocks of those dark dots now.

Suddenly, Your father manages to knock Klaus aside, showing both courage and strength. It's Your turn to try and hold him back, but he's already aboard the elevator. It ascends, and doesn't respond as You enters a frenzy, and tries to call it back.

“He's trapped us in here with a time-bomb!” Your mom cries out. You runs to the computer and looks it over, but the screen is just flashing in and out between a pattern of red and black. Once more, You doesn't know anything about computers. Given Your father's quickness to give up, it looks as if this terminal is blocked now; possibly a product of the same program on the flash drive that triggered this “suicide sequence”. That's when You realizes: the executable was likely a virus, meant to destroy, remotely, the engine that the Brotherhood of Kletus created. “The Ultimate” may be the ultimate computer virus; capable even of overthrowing these Imperial computers.

You turns and looks back at Susie, Klaus, and Mom. The column of energy is beginning to scream now; and if it erupts, and hits that fuel-sphere the Emperor mentioned, there won't be any time to run. That sort of power could take out the entire city. And so it's in the hands of another power now.

You huddles close around Your loved ones, and You is happy that You saw them again at last. Your quest is over.

It's all over.