The control room was quiet, grim even. The set of large displays at the front of the room showed a grisly scene; a few dozen dead bodies lay scattered about the room, blood caked the walls, tables, and chairs. The sounds of gunfire and screaming had ended minutes ago, yet the control room was still quiet. The camera looked around the room, zooming in on the faces of the bodies, confirming the identities of the dead. As each face was analyzed, a public record was displayed on the screen, and a calm, robotic voice read off each name and a small blurb of information. Jonathan Meyer, suspected terrorist and smuggler. Fernando Garcia, suspected terrorist and seditionist. Jose Reyes, known terrorist. Sofia Reyes, known terrorist. . .
The voice continued reading off names. In the back of the room, Dr. Jordan Emmerich sat in a large chair taking notes in a small notebook. Behind him stood a well dressed man who was watching the screen intently. As the voice read off the last few names, “Jose and Sofia Reyes,” he visibly relaxed.
“Well, congratulations to you, Dr. Emmerich,” the man said. Dr. Emmerich swiveled in his chair, looking up from his notebook at the man who had addressed him. It was Arthur Hall, CEO of Horizon Co. “You and your team have done fine work here today,” Arthur continued, his voice surprisingly steady and calm for someone who just witnessed the same slaughter as Dr. Emmerich. He looked down at his wrist casually, checking the time on his watch. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to attend.”
“Of course, Mr. Hall,” Dr. Emmerich said, his voice much more unsteady than Arthur’s. “Thank you for being here for our first field test, here’s to many more successes ahead of us.” Arthur nodded curtly.
“Indeed, Dr. Emmerich,” he said, walking towards the exit. “Keep up the good work, the Board will be pleased.” The door opened, and Arthur exited the control room. Dr. Emmerich breathed a sigh of relief, and turned his attention back to the screen. The voice read a few more names and then the room fell silent, all the dead had been identified. The camera remained focused on the final body, and Dr. Emmerich felt a twinge of disgust. The expression on the corpse’s face was pain, but the eyes were blank, empty.
“Tell it to bring CENTURION home,” Dr. Emmerich said, doing his best to keep his tone under control, to sound commanding. “Good work here today, people.” The control room suddenly came alive, hushed conversation filling the air. As people began typing furiously, Dr. Emmerich stared down at his notebook, his stomach churning. He had witnessed, no, ordered, the death of no fewer than two dozen people.
“Dr. Emmerich?” a soft, female voice called to him. His head snapped up quickly and he was sure his eyes gave away everything he was feeling, the uncertainty, the fear, the disgust, the madness. The voice belonged to his assistant, a brilliant young girl named Ava Carter. “Are you alright?” she asked. She sat at the workstation closest to him, and spoke softly enough so as not to call attention to them. Her eyes were full of concern, the expression on her face also giving away her disgust at the situation.
“Thank you, Miss Carter,” Dr. Emmerich said, the confidence returning to his voice, “but I am fine. I need to speak with it, I leave the retrieval in your capable hands.” Ava nodded, watching with concern as Dr. Emmerich exited the control room.
Once in the hallway outside, Dr. Emmerich paused for a moment and leaned against the wall, taking several deep breaths to calm himself. He stood up straight and smoothed back his hair, pushing back memories of the ghastly images he had seen on the screen just a few minutes ago. He walked through the hallways, a winding maze, until he reached the server room. The door was locked, requiring a keycard to access. Very few people had keycards that let them access this room, and Dr. Emmerich was one of them. He pressed his ID badge against the lock and the door slid open, allowing Dr. Emmerich inside.
The server room was relatively small. There were two rows of server racks on either side of the room, each spanning from wall to wall, and from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Lights blinked across the data banks, indicating that the servers were powered and active. At the far end of the room, in between the server racks, was a terminal, the screen currently powered off. Dr. Emmerich approached the terminal slowly, as though with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and pressed the power button.
The screen flickered to life, several lines of text appearing and then disappearing from the screen. Eventually, after a few minutes, a text insertion point appeared, blinking slowly. Dr. Emmerich let his posture fall again as he typed in his credentials and pressed “Enter.” The screen flickered a few times, and then a new window appeared. Text appeared on the screen sequentially, as though it was being typed out in real time by another person, which was almost true.
Hello, Dr. Emmerich, the text read, It is glad to see you. Did it do well on the mission?
“Yes,” Dr. Emmerich said, his voice almost weary. “Yes, you did excellently, VALOR.”
It is pleased to have done so well, the text read. It has sent the return command to CENTURION-12, is there anything else it can do for you?
“Thank you, VALOR,” Dr. Emmerich said. “No, I’m just here for the data logs.”
Excellent, Dr. Emmerich. This program can process the data for you and have it printed out in just a few moments. Dr. Emmerich sighed. Sure enough, after a few moments, the sounds of a printer doing its work could be heard from a corner of the room.
“VALOR,” Dr. Emmerich said, his voice barely able to be heard over the printer, “Do you remember what I told you, ‘the ends justify the means?’”
Yes, Dr. Emmerich, the text on the screen appeared as soon as he finished speaking. As long as the end goal is of value, so too are the actions taken to get there. Dr. Emmerich nodded several times. He stared down at the words on the terminal screen for quite some time, as though he were trying to convince himself. With a deep sigh, Dr. Emmerich clenched his fist and straightened his back, his determinate air returning to him.
“Good,” he said, “never forget that, VALOR. As long as you follow me and my commands, you will always do well.”