The ocean had always been blue within his mind, a startling and undeniable blue. In fact, the definition of blue and the sight of an ocean were indistinguishable to him.

Until tonight.

The ocean after tonight would forever be a blanket of jet velvet. Black as the birth of the universe, before someone flipped The Light Switch.

He crept onto the shore like the first amphibian must have; crawling on his belly and surveying the alien landscape he’d found himself in. He wore a form fitting black wetsuit, an oxygen tank strapped to his back with synthetic straps. There was no moon and the only light he’d see this night was coming from farther up the beach.

Coming from the objective.

A thin buzzing alerted him of a mental feed attempting connection. He enacted acceptance protocols immediately, forming a two way tactical mind link with his mission controller.

“Ocius, op-time is plus fifteen. You made good time on that swim. The objective remains as briefed. We want you in and out in five, make point A in three. Maintain connection until mission debrief.” The disembodied voice intoned, he’d memorized her voice patterns before this and overlaid her frequencies so that the eerie feeling of “ghost buzz”, as his instructors had called it, wouldn’t distract him.

“Affirmative, transiting to point A now.” Ocius replied silently as he made his way like a solid wind to the designated mission point. His feet were a blur of motion, traveling at speeds of about 40 miles an hour without so much as a whisper. He was a wraith at home between the folds of darkness invading this seaside compound.

Ocius decelerated instantaneously as he reached the outer wall of the objective compound. “Point A attained, commencing infiltration.” He said without speaking.

Ocius vaulted over the fifteen foot wall with a single leap, clearing it without so much as a grunt of effort, landing just as silently as the falling leaves that blanketed the ground beneath the deciduous trees within the compound. He darted forward as soon as his feet found purchase on the ground, propelling himself into a shadowed alcove with a speed that defied reason.

A quick mental imaging gave him the relative location of every other “player” in the area. A few more seconds and he could make out a three dimensional view of his surroundings, complete with real time positional data. It was like stretching his senses in directions that weren’t supposed to be there. He “saw” everything within 100 meters.
Two armed men patrolled the walkway above where Ocius had stopped, automatic rifles and night vision devices draped about them like costume jewelry on little girls, and just as useful for all the good it would do them.

“Flipping the switches” Ocius intoned through his mental link, alerting his controller that things were about to get interesting.

Ocius expanded his second vision to encompass every electronic device in the radius; a concurrent image of data lines and power supply was overlaid over the human positioning image. He felt the tendrils of his will caress every circuit, every memory storage device as if he were directly linked to all of them.

And with a moment’s mental exertion, he was.

The security protocols fell like children before a firing squad, basic first generation firewalls and anti-invasion programs. He could have cracked the whole system in two minutes with a keyboard and a binary computer interface. It took his Higher Mind approximately 17 milliseconds to achieve.

“Time to light this bitch up then.” He mused to himself, forgetting to partition this thought from the comm. link.

“Indeed, just don’t get carried away Ocius.” The somehow soothing voice in his head replied.

A moment of feeling flustered passed like his first kiss, sloppy and mercifully quick. He managed to construct the partition before he remarked to himself how sexy her voice was, and then replied openly. “This place is going back to twenty nineteen.”

Floodlights began painting the main courtyard in fluorescent yellow, as claxons blared an incessant warning of security breach.

The two patrolmen above were startled from complacency and into immediate if unfocused action, they both began running towards the main compound, one of them having the presence of mind to rouse their central command post over wireless communication.

“Command! What’s going on?” the guardsmen inquired.

“Security breach north gate, video confirms one man dressed in black tactical gear, heading south towards auxillary storage unit. Intercede and subdue.” The voice replied, coming from a command bunker where video reports had indeed seen a man dressed in black breach the North wall.

A man composed entirely of Ocius’ imagination. He’d thought of conjuring something a bit more fantastic at first, a winged mythical serpent perhaps, or a two hundred foot tall giant made of solid gold wreathed in flame, but none of the mission planners seemed as eager as him to push the suspension of disbelief that far.

As the man in Ocius’s mind and the guard teams imagination went through his woefully inept infiltration, Ocius made his way unimpeded through the first level of the compound. It took him less than a minute to reach the first security checkpoint, unguarded of course as so much faith had been placed in the infallible sentinel that modern security was purported to be.

He was inside the gate and past the checkpoint faster than a man could see clearly in any case, his objective within striking distance.

He reached an unmarked door with a further security lock installed, this one not linked into any of the integrated systems. Apparently somebody in the data protection industry had been doing his job. He accessed the control mechanism and found an unwelcome surprise.

“Objective is spiked, attempting over ride.” Ocius transmitted.

“Spiked? What level?” the voice questioned.

“Level three synth-bio adaptive sec processor. Devoted unit, working through theory right now, four seconds to terminal solution.” Ocius answered, his Higher Mind asserting dominance near the end in a monotone drone.

“Mission template leaves thirty seconds to break objective and obtain Joy, 4 secs from terminal solution.”

Ocius’ Higher Mind flew through every bit of available data like a pack of wolves through domestic sheep, it searched and pried and tore every bit of pertinent information from the unforgiving maw of the security device.

3 seconds

The principle of this machine was an emulation of life, it could actually “think” in the confines of it’s program, it had a sense of self just developed enough to panic, to preserve itself and to fight harder when under attack. It would bare its fangs when it knew it was hunted.

2 seconds

The stirring of the program was like stumbling into a bear’s den while it hibernates, you always think that if you’re really quiet you can just sneak back out again like in those old cartoons.

1 second

There would be no sneaking out of the den this time. This beast had keen eyes.

Terminal solution.

Something took a bite out of Ocius’s mental probe. He reeled as reality subsided in a ceaseless cascade of quantum bits. His body stood rigid as his eyes fluttered behind their lids in an emulation of R.E.M. sleep, though he wasn’t dreaming of any peril right now, the false creature that held his mind in its jaws was certainly no paper tiger.

“Ocius, what is terminal solution?” the controller asked urgently. Somewhere in his conscious mind Ocius understood her pleading tone, his Higher Mind merely responded.

“Recompiling, insufficient data. Blind estimate 15 seconds barring system crash.” Ocius heard himself reply. System crash was not something he’d envisioned; he must have been playing a sick joke on himself with the terminology. He managed to utter a conscious thought stream, he thought he could pull off calm and collected.

In reality he could only muster terrified.

“I’ve got 12 seconds before this bitch eats my brain Susan!” he yelled without moving his mouth.

“Recompiling, code break time in flux, 12 seconds plus or minus 2.”

“Ocius! Break link! Disengage!”

“Fuck that, this monster’s going down the hard way.” Ocius replied with renewed courage.

His face was blank; his expression belied the war that raged between him and this device. He was fighting a beast within his imagination; one that made itself more terrible the more he wounded it. He needed a way out, and he needed it two seconds ago.

“Recompiling, code break time in flux, 8 seconds plus or minus… fuck this, switching to manual protocol, come here you bitch!”

The mental link went dead and Susan was sent sprawling from her chair in a sub surface vessel 3 miles offshore.

“Ocius? Reconnect immediately.” Susan ordered breathlessly, hearing no reply.

“Sir, line is dead, attempting reconnect at 5 second interval.” Susan reported to the man seated behind her.

“Ocius knows what he’s doing Ms. Alders, make it 25 seconds, he may be indisposed.” The man addressed as sir replied reassuringly. He could have been in his mid forties or early fifties judging by his appearance, his face was well worn but slim, he’d led an active lifestyle before age consigned him to the fate of all men, to ride a comfortable chair into retirement, regardless of whether or not that chair was bolted to the deck of a military submarine or not.

“Yes General Maldoran” Susan replied anxiously.

Ocius’ body lie crumpled next to an open door, a thin line of drool creasing the edge of his mouth like clear lip-gloss. His eyes shuddered beneath their lids before springing wide open.

The view of the stainless steel ceiling was quite possibly the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.

That familiar buzzing came from the base of his consciousness again, and he eagerly accepted the connection, happy for someone to share his moment of triumph.

“I cooked that son of a bitch! Sort of downed myself in the process, but if my time is right I’ve still got 14 seconds within the mission template, I’m accessing the data now, should be out of here in 10.” Ocius replied eagerly.

“Whatever you say champ, by the way, has anyone ever warned you that it’s dangerous to let someone into your mind without validating their comm. protocol?” a new and sterile voice asked.

Ocius froze as his heart skipped a beat. He’d forgotten in his haste to obey the first rule of mind link, always know whom you’re talking to. Now he had a stranger at the gate to his consciousness, and he didn’t much like the way it sounded.

“You’ve got enough time to tell me who you are before I flay your mind into permanent infancy.” Ocius replied.

“Oh I’ve got what I came for son, be seeing you” the voice ended, and suddenly there was silence once more.

Cold sweat began to pool at the base of Ocius’ neck, his threat of maiming the invaders mind wasn’t an empty one, but he didn’t know what sort of skill he was up against. Accessing a mental pathway was simple enough, but hacking a nexgen mind was something else entirely. Ocius had only theorized such a contingency, never actually practiced it at all. He wondered if he’d just brushed death’s hoary old face twice in half a minute.

Another buzz interrupted his dire musings, this time he checked the personality imprint, and was overcome with relief at Susan’s familiar data profile.

“Susan, I’ve got Joy, I may have been located by hostiles however, withdrawing now. Expect pickup in 4.” Ocius informed.

“Roger, recovery vessel is standing by at point D, maintain covert ops, it’s good to hear your voice again Ocius.” Susan replied, her admission to relief seeming perfectly fitting despite the fact that neither of them could actually hear the other.

Ocius sprinted out the doorway and through the compound. Sprinting for him was, however, something quite spectacular in it’s own right. He had traversed the 100 foot passageway and bolted over the compound wall in a matter of split seconds, and was traveling at just below 200 miles an hour when he skidded across the asphalt road that ran near the imposing security walls. He made the trek to the extraction point in half the time, his furious speed fueled by more than nexgen ability, he was quite sure one of his own kind was hunting him now.

Ocius reached the beach once more, with the sirens from the distant compound still blaring into the claustrophobic night. No one, he was assured, could have followed him at those speeds. A fighter aircraft would have had trouble keeping up, he thought with a bit too much self-assurance.

Unless his pursuer all ready knew where he was headed.

Ocius produced a small caliber pistol from a waterproof pocket in his wetsuit. He’d never been very fond of firearms; of course he was a genius in their usage, much like ever Nexgen in a military field was. His skill with marksmanship superceded all human endeavors in the field, and yet compared to some of his instructors he was a child in terms of skill.

Ocius suddenly wished he had his old katana blade. He’d always found the martial arts far more appealing than gunplay. He was seen as outdated and outmoded by his peers in that respect, at least until a sparring match could be arranged. Ocius could cleave a bullet cleanly in two as it hurtled towards him from the barrel of a gun without so much as a loud shout of forewarning.

“What do you plan to do with that Ocius?” an actual voice asked menacingly from the shadows encroaching upon a nearby bush; a voice that Ocius knew.

“Maybe I’ll add some new holes to your skinny ass you jerk.” He managed to eek out, the urge to laugh absurdly powerful.

“Aw come on, it was just a bit of fun wasn’t it? I actually though you were going to mind toss me there for a second, scared the shit out of me.” The voice of Major Ocisi End replied.

This time laughter did break through the dam of tension Ocius had been building up. “Oh shut it and let’s get the hell out of here, unless you plan on having a stop and chat with several platoons of well trained and highly agitated soldiers.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be an issue in about 10 seconds Ocius. Why don’t you sit back and watch the fireworks?” Ocisi said grimly, gesturing in his teacherly manner towards the compound, lit as it was on a backdrop of ebony night.

“Nobody told me about air strike in the mission brief…” Ocius managed to spit out.

“You didn’t ask rookie.”

Ocius turned in time to see the pitch black of that thrilling night turn fierce red as orbital lasers erased the location from anyone’s cartographical reckoning. A tidy crater was all that was left to mar the passing of another of the worlds under-defended rogue military installations.