Aftertime- Chapter Sixty-Two

Chapter Sixty-Two

The ‘facility’ was so overgrown that Shalvir only noticed it when the toe of his boot stubbed against the overgrown concrete of its foundations. The night swallowed the roof and most of the walls, but what he could see of it was totally covered in vegetation. What little of the stone peeked through was stained green with algae. With the blanket of concrete providing a rare break in the trees, what smaller plants could colonise the area swarmed over the construct. Even in daylight, it would have been difficult to distinguish from the rest of the forest.

“We’re here.” Said Eonar.
Tasche shone the lantern beam over to one side, surveying the area, and caught what was probably the only obvious indication that the building existed. There was a large standing pool of water, or something that probably contained a measure of water, laid out next to a rust-eaten spherical vessel standing on feeble, spindly steel legs. Here, nothing grew.
“What is this place?” Asked Shalvir.
“This was once a manufacturing plant owned by Nanosoft, during a brief legal dispute with Setcorp’s design team. Put simply, Nanosoft wasn’t satisfied with the profit margin of a new model. At a cost of billions of units to their own company, Nanosoft began to flood the market with ludicrously underpriced androids. But Nanosoft’s losses were nothing compared to those of Setcorp, whose sales plummeted to zero. Needless to say, they reconsidered the offer and Nanosoft got what it wanted.”
“So why is this plant so important to the rebellion?”
Carrying Zamiel, still unconscious, over to a bench just inside the building, he sat her down and adjusted the sling on her arm.
“The plant is derelict.” He replied, snapping down a switch for the lights, “It’s worthless.” The lights stuttered into life, one after another, revealing the spacious interior. Shalvir jumped. A little further into the warehouse, an army stood, perfectly still. “It’s the stock that’s valuable. As part of the agreement to Nanosoft’s increased pay, they were legally required to stop distributing their own-brand models. The surplus has been here ever since.”

Shalvir understood immediately. “So, you’re planning to use these as soldiers?”
“No.” Eonar shook his head, moving towards the stockpile, “These were produced extremely cheaply. They were low-spec models even when they were new, and that was over two centuries ago. They’re not suited to fighting, and besides, there aren’t enough of them.”
“If they’re such poor quality, why do you want them?”
Eonar smiled, “That’s the beauty of it. When Nanosoft designed these, they cut out everything they could afford to lose: including virus protection. The immune systems of these androids are pitiful. They’ll become infected by—and spread—any computer virus they come into contact with. I understand that you’ve seen?”
Shalvir thought back to the android Tasche had recovered. The one thing it had said...Product of Setcorp. Already, these Nanosoft models must be spreading whatever it was Eonar had programmed into them.

“Does the new general know that you’re doing this?”
“No. I have no need to inform him of it. His position is temporary.”
“Why is his position temporary?” Shalvir was suspicious of Eonar’s motives, now.
“General Kharef is not dead.”
“No, you see...”
“General?” Eonar called. Somewhere in an adjoining room, something stirred. The ground trembled, faintly and familiarly, under iron footfalls, a sensorlight tracing its path to the door.