Chris James [James - Onslaught

10.07 Monday 19 December 2061

WITH ONLY MOMENTS left to live, Kaliq Zayan crouched by the hot, hard metal container and shivered despite the heat. Terror chilled his body as the port city of Jeddah receded and the vast ship on which he stowed away proceeded towards open sea. Hed heard the rumours; he knew the risk. He felt the pulse in his right temple pound against the small data-pod sewn into the agal that held the traditional keffiyeh headdress on his head.

All of his life, Kaliq had wanted to know why. His memory replayed childhood recollections of his exasperated mother and confused father. Kaliq was different from his siblings, but only his parents grasped this. After problematic schooling, an uncle secured a place for the young Kaliq at the leading Tehran technical university, and from there hed been spotted by a lecturer who was also a covert member of the alkhidmat alssrriat aluwlaa , the near-mythical department of the Third Caliphs personal secret service. This service covertly monitored Kaliq for months until, a few days before his matriculation, the lecturer had called him into his office. Two other men flanked the lecturer.

Thereafter, Kaliq regarded that day as The Day: the last day he saw his family, his friends, his fellow students. The day his life changed irrevocably in the service of the Third Caliph. His relentless inquisitiveness, and chance that his lecturer was a member of the secret service, had altered the direction of his life to ensure it would end much sooner than it should have. The men took him from Tehran along the new network of highways which crisscrossed the entire terrain of the Caliphate. On the way, they explained the vast honour Kaliq had been fortunate enough to receive: he would be set to work with the most sophisticated artificial intelligence yet created, for the glory of the Caliph. At that time, Kaliq relished his good luck.

They took him to Tazirbu, an oasis deep in the Sahara desert. Rumours of such places had abounded at his university, unconfirmed secrets whispered late in the evening, but the shock Kaliq felt when he arrived at the sprawling weapons production facility equalled his confusion at being removed from his studies mere days before he would complete them. The men from the alkhidmat alssrriat aluwlaa handed him over to another man who, Kaliq later found out, was the director of the entire complex.

Kaliqs speciality meant his responsibility would be to monitor and interrogate the super AI tasked with overseeing construction. On the second day, he underwent a medical examination which included the doctor warning him that he should not question his orders, and should know that if he ever left Tazirbu, he would not be the only one to suffer. This veiled threat unnerved the young man, but a voice deeper in his mind whispered that the threat was empty, because the benevolent Caliph would not stoop to such measures.

A few weeks after his arrival, the facility began producing hundreds of autonomous combat aircraft. Through the super AI, he found out that this facility was one of a number spread throughout Caliphate territory, and in tandem with manufacturing arms on an immense scale, millions of warriors were also being trained, and a vast army would be created to invade and fight the infidels wherever the Third Caliph decided. In combination, super AI, Chinese raw materials and modern production techniques would be used to create a martial force greater than any the world had previously seen.

As the days turned into weeks, Kaliq met others like him and formed fleeting friendships with young men who had also been removed from towns and cities across the Caliphate. These friendships cut through Kaliqs naivety like a butchers knife through lamb. Soon, he understood that the veiled threats carried more than a grain of truth. His faith in the Third Caliphs benevolence wilted before finally dying when all of them concluded that their lives were indeed in the severest danger.

Denied contact with their families and friends, they realised that what was happening at Tazirbu had to remain absolutely secret; so secret, in fact, that very soon an air of fatality settled over the young men. Conjecture became rumour which became believed as fact. They knew the Caliph himself regarded Tazirbu as one of the first and most important steps on a journey which would make him the most powerful global ruler in history. Against such a destiny, these young men thought, and then talked themselves into believing, they played an important yet ultimately terminal role in the Third Caliphs designs.

One hundred and twenty-three days after The Day, Kaliq decided he would see his family again, whatever the risk. The volume of ACA production increased as a second and then a third production line were added to the mass of weapons being manufactured, and Kaliq sensed the governing super AI required less and less interrogation. Among his colleagues, recent rumours of their likely fate once their work was complete included everything from benevolent removal to distant mountain villages to summary execution.

Through some small subterfuge, he managed to acquire a cleaners uniform to aid his escape. In retrospect, he would come to see his attempt as the most futile act of his short life, but at the time he considered the four-and-a-half-thousand kilometre journey via Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad, to be achievable. Before he left, he elected to load data regarding current ACA stockpiles and the production rate, along with a few restricted reports hed accessed concerning the extent of warrior training programs at other facilities, into a small data-pod. He sewed this into the agal which held the keffiyeh on his head. He wanted to prove to his family all in which he had been involved.

He left after the roll call at sundown to give himself as much of a head start as possible. He hoped they wouldnt investigate his sudden absence too keenly, and hed have time to reach his home province. However, Kaliqs problems began before sunrise the following day as the transport approached the Siwa Oasis, still some seven hundred kilometres southwest of Cairo. Inspectors from the Transport Ministry boarded the multi-carriage autonomous vehicle and began checking identifications and questioning passengers on the purpose of their journeys. Kaliq had anticipated this, but when the moment came he doubted they would believe him, and he panicked. He overrode a lock between two of the spacious carriages, clung on to the outside grips, and pulled himself up onto the roof. He stayed there for the hour for which the transport remained at the oasis, breaking back in just as it accelerated towards its next destination.

The journey to Cairo saw the panic inside Kaliq grow like bacteria in a culture. He caught casual glances from strangers which made him think they were watching him. As the transport approached Cairo, his dread solidified, hardening into a perception that danger lurked around every partition. He walked back and forth along the length of the transport, from carriage to carriage, becoming more terrified at what awaited him. He realised the futility of his decision to leave Tazirbu, and briefly entertained the idea of returning. But in his panicked state, Kaliq only saw the potential for disaster in each of his limited choices. The belief that he would see his family again faded with the hot sunlight.