#orbit chapter 7

Suddenly, the station itself seems to rock under your feet as you hear a loud crashing sound and a distant explosion. The lights flicker haphazardly, and you nearly lose your balance before things stabilize. CAL-19014 shows himself on every screen in the station, the normally smug AI seeming almost panicked. 

"Come on your FLESH SLUGS, MOVE IT! You need to confront Tsujii NOW, UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE HORRIBLY. I'll let you into his SANCTUM. THE MAIN CONTROL ROOM, AND MAYBE, YOU SHITFUCKS WILL SURVIVE THIS." 

His image is briefly replaced by a soundbite, Arnold Schwarzenegger saying "Come with me if you want to live." 

And with that, arrows appear upon the screens. Following them will lead you the lobby once more, for what seems like the final time. CAL-19014 is displayed on the screen above the entrance to the gravity-defying corridor. 

Your ID will now show a new app, labelled "Patient monitoring system"  A grid of 22 small black squares shows up on the screen, each one with a picture of a student on it. Most are dim, and simply read DECEASED in block capitals, but, of those still glowing, some read "IMMUNIZATION SUCCESSFUL.", with the rest reading "IMMUNIZATION FAILED. PATIENT INFECTED." 

"Hey, stupid fucking wastes of air, it's me, Caligula. Tell you what, because I'm so lovely and kind and generous, I've left each of you a little present on your cards. You want an explanation? Well, you'll have to confront Tsujii about it. And I assure you, I think you'l want one."

“Ahem.”

It seems that Shinsuke (or ShinsukAI, or Screensuke, or whatever nickname the kids were wont to give their former peer who was never really a peer at all) isn’t content to keep his mouth shut.

But before he can continue with whatever self-righteous thing he has to say, a shriek of feedback tears across the microphone and summarily all of the speakers throughout the space station, and through the godawful racket you can hear a muffled “SHIT”, and then, as if he doesn’t know the mic is still on, some angrily mumbled dialogue: “fuckin’ useless program… coded him myself… used the mic last… probably time to delete him…” Though the feedback fades fairly quickly, it doesn’t seem the action is done quite yet.

Whatever the AI is mumbling to himself is cut short by a creaking metal noise in the background. There’s a pause. “Wh—" The creaking turns to the piercing sound of metal tearing itself apart. There’s a brief moment of silence. Then what sounds like an avalanche takes place over the mic, metal and other debris falling somewhere on the ship. After a few seconds of the deafening noise the mic cuts out again, and when it cuts back in about a minute later, there’s nothing but the sound of Shinsuke’s voice. 

He coughs lightly to get their attention once more. “Alright, SHITMONKEYS, listen up. Everything is FINE. CAL is right. I’m more right, obviously, but that doesn’t mean CAL isn’t, yeah? Anyway. Here’s a friendly FUCKIN’ reminder that I could kill each and everyone of you if I wanted. Which. Don’t get me wrong. I WOULD LOVE TO DO THAT. But what good is genius if you don’t have anyone around to admire it, y’know?” There’s a buzzing sound in the background, but either he doesn’t hear it or he’s ignoring it. 

"Oh yeah. And don’t try any funny shit. I’m not gonna single any of you ASSHOLES out, because I don’t FUCKING TRUST ANY OF YOU. But, I mean, I wouldn’t try anything if I were you, since I SEE ALL. And speaking of ‘seeing’, I’ll see you MEATFUCKS later."

You're going around your daily routine, well whatever passes for it these days at least, when you hear a series of loud sounds. First, a loud crack, one that reverberates throughout the ship, followed by an even louder clang, followed by a siren blaring for a few short seconds before being suddenly silenced.