by Scott Baron
“Of course,” he said, the requested image flashing onto the screen. “But I am with Rika on this. I fail to see how the loop tube has anything to do with the current predicament.”
“You guys need to think outside the box.”
“I’ll remind you, as an AI, I am, essentially, a box.”
“Ha-ha, very funny. That joke was already old when I was six. But listen. You guys see the links in the network that cross the Pacific? They run all over the place, from LA and Frisco and a bunch of places in between. And then they cross over to Hawaii, and Japan, and a whole ton of other locations.”
“Right. It’s the loop tube system. That’s what they do.”
“Gah, you’re being dense!” Ripley grumbled. “Uncle Cal, would you please overlay the loop tube map with the oceanic one showing the sub’s location? But do it on the same scale, okay?”
“Oh, my,” Cal exclaimed.
“What?” Rika asked. “I don’t see––oh, shit. Rip, that’s brilliant.”
“I know, right?” Ripley beamed.
The map overlay took the two disparate images, and lo and behold, an unexpected meeting of the two just so happened to exist, and right where they needed it most. The little dot marking the location of the downed submarine was close to a leg of the loop tube network where it crossed the seabed.
“It’s still several miles down,” Rika said. “And we don’t know exactly how close the sub is to the tube, precisely. But if it’s close enough, I don’t know. Maybe we could make something work. Cal, could you run a quick calculation on depth and distance, then share it with Ara?”
“I have already done so,” he replied. “And she has agreed, despite the depth, the sub appears to be close enough to the loop tube that the spell should be able to hold out long enough to effect a rescue.”
“Awesome!”
“Not so fast, Rip. This is all theoretical. And if we’re going to do this, we’ll need to achieve pinpoint accuracy when we stop the loop tube car. At the speeds they travel, it’d be easy to overshoot by miles.”
“I believe the other AIs linked into the system and I should be able to stop the car within four hundred meters of its desired location. I wish we could achieve greater accuracy, but the system was never designed for this type of operation.”
“Hell, that’s far better than I was expecting,” Rika said. “But I’m going to need backup on this one. If the spell starts to fail and I can’t catch it fast enough, we’re all going to have a very bad, very wet time of it.”
“What do you suggest?”
Rika turned to her young friend. “You ever want to learn magic, Rip?”
“Oh my God! Really?”
“We have spare konuses, and I don’t think there would be any harm teaching you, especially given the circumstances. You agree, Cal?”
“I do, but what would her parents say?”
“They’re frozen solid––sorry, Rip.”
“It’s okay.”
“So, given that little detail, I don’t think it’ll be a concern at this point.”
Cal was nothing if not practical, and after a millisecond’s thought, he came to the same conclusion. “Well, then. I think it would be wise if you gather your equipment and have Eddie fly you to meet Ara at the shoreline. She has informed me that you are both going to receive a crash course in some rather archaic magic involving water and force shields.”
Ripley was floating on air as they raced for her ship. “I’m gonna learn magic!” she squealed with glee.
And despite the gravity of the situation, Rika couldn’t help but enjoy her young friend’s enthusiasm. And if she and Ara were able to bring the girl up to speed, the two of them just might stand a chance.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The beachfront training of the teen had started off a bit sketchier than Rika had expected, and Ara had seemed far more brusque with her than she and Ripley had normally known her to be.
Given the intensive nature of her training, and the pressure they all faced, however, it was understandable. Charlie and Leila would die if they failed.
“No, no, not like that!” Ara grumbled as Ripley once again butchered the most basic of the spells the mighty Zomoki was trying to teach her. “You’re shouting the words––the wrong words, I might add––which does not play into the power and efficacy of a spell. Forcefully yelling does not make it work any better. It must come from within.”
“I’m trying,” Ripley replied, throwing her hand up in frustration, then attempting the spell once more, but to no avail.
“And what is this hand waving?” Ara asked.
“I’m casting. Like in the old movies. I mean, I’ve got this koonus thingy on my wrist.”
The dragon sighed. “No, you’re still not listening. None of that matters. The spell comes from inside you, Ripley. From your intent. The words are nothing if you do not first tap into that internal direction. And it’s called a konus, by the way, not koonus.”
“Tomato, tomahto. And hang on a minute. Charlie does it without even saying the words. I’ve seen it,” she countered.
“Yes, but Charlie is unique. He shares my blood, and that makes him capable of a bit more than the rest of you. But take Bawb for example. You’ve seen him cast, and I’m sure you can’t hear his spells every time. He’s been practicing continuously, and has made great progress in that. Nowadays, he barely makes a sound. And one day he may even succeed in casting as Charlie does. But for now he must still draw from that internal wellspring by tapping into the words. Just as you will learn to do. Now, try again.”
Ripley turned toward the waves and once more spoke the words that should have created a parting of the water, the waves held back by the power pulled from the konus.
But nothing happened. Again.
“Like this,” Rika said, enunciating the spell more clearly and quietly than her young friend.
The water pushed back, as if the waves were suddenly breaking against an invisible rock, forcing them to part and go around it. This was the least of the spells Ara was teaching them, but they had to start somewhere.
“Well done, Rika. Did you see what she did there, Ripley? How she was not forcing the magic, but rather, letting it flow through her without strain? Try again, but in the way she did.”
Ripley started to raise her hand, then lowered it, self-conscious of her overly dramatic casting method. She was the first person on the whole planet the newcomers had agreed to teach magic to, and she was not going to mess it up.
She messed it up, the spell firing wild, splashing into the water before careening into the sand and dissipating.
“Ugh! This sucks! And why is Rika so good at it? She only just learned the spell too,” Ripley griped.
Rika lightly punched her on the shoulder. “Hey, it’s because I’ve been doing this longer than you,” she noted. “And I also had some pretty nasty business done to my head, you know. All sorts of magic got crammed in there against my will. Along with a bunch of other things I’d rather not think about,” she said, a slight shadow flashing across her face at the memory.
“Yeah, I know,” Ripley said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be a bitch, Rika.”
“It’s okay, Rip. I know you didn’t,” Rika said. “I just wish there was some way we could help you take in all of this new information. I understand how frustrating this must be.”
Ripley nodded, her jaw twitching as she struggled to keep her frustration in check. Then her mood abruptly shifted, as it so often seemed to do.
“Oh my God,” she blurted. “I’ve got an idea. But we need to talk to the big brains. Eddie, fire up the engines. We’re going to see Uncle Cal,” she said into her comm unit. She then turned to her dragon instructor.
“Couldn’t we just talk to him over the comms?” Rika asked.
“Sure, but if I’m right, we’ll need to see him in person.” She turned to Ara. “Meet us back Downtown. I think there’s something that might make this work. If Uncle Cal agr
ees to it, that is. And I’ve got a good feeling he will, given the circumstances.”
After a short flight to Downtown, they set down beside Ara on the rooftop landing pad a few short minutes later.
“Absolutely not. You know your mother’s wishes on this,” Cal said. “Not to mention, something of this nature has never been attempted. The risks are unacceptable.”
“But Uncle Cal––”
“Your mother was very clear about this, Ripley. And so was your aunt. And if anyone has relevant experience with neuro-stims, it would be her.”
“I’m sorry,” Rika said, “I’m confused. A neuro what, now?”
“It’s called a neuro-stim,” Ripley informed her. “It was a type of tech they used to drip feed training and mission information into spaceship crews while they were in flight. That way the people could learn new, mission-specific skills while they slept in cryo.”
“That’s wild. We’d hypothesized about cryo stasis back in my time, but never did we envision that kind of tech.”
“It was invented several hundred years after the Asbrú disappeared, Rika. And it was a very useful system, for our purposes, and it is available for all to obtain linguistic fluency with alien races.”
“Nice. But I have to say, our translation spells are a bit more useful.”
“True, but we work with what we have. In any case, beyond that one use, the neuro-stim is reserved for those who need it for specific purposes, not just willy-nilly downloading into a malleable brain. And while the safeties have been greatly improved, we restrict neuro-stim use to adults over the age of twenty-one, and only after a thorough evaluation beforehand.”
“But this is important! Can’t we waive the age thingy just this once? It’s for a good cause.”
Rika and Ara shared a look.
“I don’t mean to step on any toes here,” Rika said. “But if what you’ve just described is really an option, I think, given the circumstances, that it’s worth making an exception.”
Ara shifted on her haunches, taking in the implications of this tech-magic. “Cal, if I am understanding this process correctly, are you saying that the proper use of spells, from the pronunciation to the actual casting itself could be imprinted in a person’s mind instantly?”
“Oh, no. Nothing like that,” Cal said.
“Ah, I see.”
“It would take several hours to do safely. And even then, it would be for a tiny fraction of information. The system is designed to be a slow feed of knowledge. To force it any faster is to risk great neurologic damage.”
“Not always, though,” Ripley said.
“Yes, I know, Ripley. But she was a special case, and she could very well have lobotomized herself in the process.”
“Who?” Rika asked.
“My aunt Daisy,” Ripley replied. “She’s a total badass, and she’s got, like, all of this awesome stuff in her head. And it was all put there with a neuro-stim.”
“And it nearly killed her,” Cal said, effectively neutering Ripley’s enthusiasm.
Ara was intrigued by this device. This use of science to accomplish what only a few rather arcane bits of magic could achieve––and usually while causing a fair amount of damage to the recipient. But this? If it could be modified to deliver just the most necessary of spells, then Charlie and Leila might stand a chance.
“Rika? How do you feel about the use of this neuro-stim device? You’ve had your mind tampered with enough already. Would you be willing to subject yourself to this new form of mental alteration?” Ara asked.
“Hell yes,” she replied without hesitation. “If this saves Charlie, then I say let’s do it, consequences be damned. I owe him that much. A lot more than that, to be honest. So let’s stop yapping and start neuro-stimming.” She looked at the others, her adrenaline flowing high from voicing the somewhat frightening decision. “Uh, what exactly do I have to do now?” she asked.
Cal remained silent a moment as he conferred with several of the other AIs who were very familiar not only with the precocious teen, but more importantly, with her mother as well. She was not one to be trifled with, and tampering with her child’s brain was a line they would not normally even consider crossing.
But these were not normal times, and despite her mother’s wishes that Ripley learn everything the old-fashioned way until she was an adult, the situation was one that they all agreed she would definitely see the importance of. And knowing her, that meant she would, reluctantly, perhaps, let her daughter load magic into her mind.
“Very well,” Cal finally said. “But this is not a well-defined insertion of data. We will have to retrieve the relevant information directly from the source, then parse it into injectable packets, which will then be drip-fed as rapidly as we can safely do so. All aspects will be closely monitored by the top AI minds on the planet.”
“Aww, I feel so special,” Ripley said.
“If anything happens to you, there will be hell to pay,” Cal replied. “Your mother would turn me into scrap.”
“You know she wouldn’t.”
“But not for lack of trying,” he replied.
Ripley and Rika shared a nervous smile. It was a little terrifying, knowing they were about to have a computer tap into their minds. For Ripley, it was her first time actually using the device she already knew so much about but had been forbidden from trying.
“Mom’s gonna shit when she finds out,” she chuckled with glee. “And I’m gonna learn magic!”
As for Rika, she faced a different flavor of fear. She was a brave woman, and not even death scared her––at least, not much––but harm had been done to her in a very similar manner, and she’d been robbed of not only her memories and her old self, but also her free will. At least for a time.
Fortunately, the healing waters Charlie had steadily provided her from their dwindling reserve, along with the efforts of the cutting-edge medical machinery in this time, had finally put her right.
The enormous dragon watched the two women with interest, smelling the emotions and fears wafting off of them. It was good they were scared. This was not something to go into lightly.
“What do you need of me?” Ara finally asked.
“I have already tasked the fabricators with combining and modifying a set of neuro-stim headbands to fit you, Ara. Now, while we have worked together for a while, which has afforded us some knowledge of your physiology, the workings of your brain remain beyond us.”
“I suppose they would.”
“As such, we will need to ask you specific questions as we attempt to download the correct information. It will be a bit hit-and-miss at first, but once we dial it in, I believe we should be able to process the data. Then it is just a matter of whether it will stick in its new recipients.”
“I have the utmost confidence in you,” Ara said. “Now, let us begin. Time is of the essence.”
And so, just like that, it was decided. Ripley and Rika both were going to get a very small and very specific upgrade to their magical skill set. Just a pair of spells for this one task, plus a tiny refinement of casting style to help the neophyte teen better grasp the actual act of casting.
Of course, there were plenty of other spells the Zomoki thought might be of use to them in the course of their rescue attempt, but by Cal’s calculations, there was simply not enough time to even begin to perform the collection and subsequent transfer before the subs ran out of air.
With the clock ticking, they set to work as fast as they were able. The results surely wouldn’t be perfect by any stretch, but this would have to be enough.
Chapter Thirty-Six
A small contingent of cyborgs had volunteered to help in the undersea rescue operation and were all crammed into the single loop tube car with the two magically enhanced women as it sped toward its destination deep beneath the sea.
The mechanical men and women would have seemed a logical addition to any rescue effort, but, with the exception of some very specialized military units th
at were not on the planet at the moment, the cybernetic population found themselves rather susceptible to extremes of pressure. Especially when saltwater was involved. And thus, at that depth, the mission was as dangerous for them as the two humans.
“How much longer do you think?” Rika asked, fidgeting with the thick konuses now gracing each wrist.
“Cal and the others had to really dial down the speed on this thing so we wouldn’t overshoot the target. I’d say maybe another three or four minutes,” Ripley replied, likewise toying with the powerful magic devices now sported on her forearms.
It was an odd sensation, she found. Knowing something so innately that had been utterly foreign to her just hours prior.
“So, this is what it’s like,” she had said upon removing the neuro-stim headband, her mind loaded with proper casting technique and a few particular spells. “So freakin’ cool.”
Even Rika had to admit that this process, while still invasive in its own way, was far less disconcerting than what had been done to her in the past. Of course, that had been done against her will, and the voluntary nature of this particular bit of mental fiddling sat better with her, for obvious reasons.
Ara had been both thrilled as well as somewhat horrified at the success of the process. It meant a rescue had a real chance of success, which was the entire point, but she could also see the potential for abuse of the merging of technology and magic.
“Cal, this has been a fascinating process, but I feel we need a particularly high level of security for this neuro-stim information I have fed into your storage facilities.”
“We’re one step ahead of you, Ara,” he informed her. “As soon as we agreed to attempt this, the other AIs and I devised a quintuple fail-safe storage protocol specifically for any magical information loaded into the systems both globally, as well as on any ship that comes within transmission range of Earth and its moon. It’s an automatic process that, once activated, will only allow access to this data with a minimum of three top-tier AIs confirming the release. Additionally, there are several false files to serve as a further deterrent. Download one of those, and you’ll find yourself not only unable to use magic, but also using any magical device in such a way that we will be able to track its misuse.”