by Frank Carey
"I have one," Sheila yelled out. "Do I have your personal assurance that we will not be harmed after you find your new toy?"
Danyr walked over to stand toe-to-toe with Sheila. "You have my word. You and the members of this expedition are valuable to me, and because of that, my men are under strict orders not to harm you in anyway. Having said that, I must warn you that there is no escape from this planet. If you run off, we will just let you deal with whatever you find out there. Understand?"
"We won't leave," Jarrus said. He turned to his flock. "You have my word." The group nodded agreement.
"Good. Then have at it. Quinto, Nero, show them the way. Dr. Minty, a word."
Jarrus looked at Sheila who nodded back. "I'll be fine."
Once the others left, Danyr took Sheila's arm in hers. "Walk with me, Doctor."
"You know, I am a happily bonded woman who only has eyes for her fire-breathing husband."
"Yes, I've read your file. You have led an interesting life. I've also read Dr. Hardy's file, and I'm impressed. You really have married a flying, fire-breathing dragon, a creature of myth to my people."
"He's great at family cookouts."
"No doubt. Tell me, Doctor, are you as good a computer hacker as your file leads me to believe?"
"Yep. I also pick locks. Wish I was a better cook."
"I have a problem. Would you like to hear it?"
"Sure. Tell away."
"My operative was able to obtain the location of the samsar and the programming specs for it. Unfortunately, she was unable to obtain either the destruct codes or the sleep codes before she was killed."
"Wait a damn minute. I thought you went into berserker rages when you were around females."
Danyr stopped and looked at the ground. "I am the daughter of the royal family of Tegan, a gene pool rife with impropriety and intermarriage. My rages are usually saved for anyone not of my bloodline. My men are all cousins or nephews. My operative was a cousin as well. You and yours are alive because your genetics originated over fifteen hundred light-centuries away."
"That must make dating difficult. So, you can't control the damn thing. What do you want me to do about it? Why not just get the plark off this rock and let the damn thing die of old age?"
"I need it to stop a nearby planet from further enslaving my people. Now, I could just drop this thing on the other world's capital and be done with it, or I could use it as an implied threat. To perform the latter, I need to control it. That's where you come in. I want you to figure out the stop and destroy codes."
Sheila looked down at her shoes while scratching her head. "Please, tell me you haven't touched the expedition's main computer."
"No, though we've disconnected it from the communications system. I've never seen an angry computer before."
"Good. I need angry. Take me to it."
###
Sheila and Danyr stood in front of the main terminal used to access the expedition's computer system. Danyr was right, the room reeked of anger. In fact, the lights blinked in angry patterns, assuming any pattern could be construed as being angry.
"You may want to step outside," Sheila said while typing a series of commands into the terminal.
"Why? It's only a computer..."
All blinking stopped.
"Yeah, no. What do you know about computers?"
"They are nothing more than tools..."
All the lights went out except one, which started to slowly pulse.
"Most computers are tools. We've found that there are at least three types of sapient beings masquerading as computer systems. There are the Alue, a race from another universe; the Olympian gods, a group of immortals who lived in the Milky Way galaxy thousands of years ago; and what I like to call the automats, creatures who exist only in complex computer systems. Two dear friends of mine are automats, while Kel is friends with several Olympians. Now, let's see who we're dealing with. Computer, identify yourself."
Every status light in the room flared. "I am Brack. How dare she lock me in here. Where is my expedition?"
"Automat," Sheila said as she sat down.
"How can you tell?" Danyr asked while keeping her distance from the consoles.
"An Alue or an Olympian could easily leave the system by manifesting a body. Automats can only move from system to system. Right, Brack?"
"Who are you?"
"My name is Dr. Sheila Minty, mate to Dr. Kellen Matu Hardy and friend of Rex and Gracie."
"And the creature who had me trapped in here?"
"Danyr, a Tegan terrorist."
"Excuse me?" Danyr asked in a shocked voice.
"Sorry. This is Danyr, the patriot," Sheila replied. Brack, are you up for some code translation?"
"Is a wombat up for a meal? Show me this so-called code!"
"Danyr, Brack and I need access to all information you have on the samsar programming and the Tegan coding standards," Sheila informed the leader.
"It will take time to sift through the database..."
"No need!" Brack stated for all to hear. "It will take me but a few seconds to complete the task. I just need access to your files."
"Now wait a damn minute," Danyr said in shock. "I can't just let you..."
"Where's the trust? You dragged us into this, remember? Now, you have my word, Brack has no interest in your files other than to crack the programming, right Brack?"
"Of course not. Anyway, now that you've freed me my prison, I could easily jump the tissue paper you call a firewall and steal what I need. I prefer to follow the moral high road, though."
After a moment's hesitation, Danyr relented. She walked outside the tent, then returned. "You have access."
"Thank you," Sheila replied. "Brack, time to get to work. Access Tegan interface and download all code-specific files."
"Yes, mistress. Working..."
"Now, time for some fun, kiddo," Sheila said to her daughter as she watched the code stream across the screen.
"Danyr, could you come to the computer tent, please?" Sheila called over the radio.
"Give me five. Danyr out."
Sheila killed the link, then sat back to stare at the screen. Danyr walked in five minutes later and sat down next to her. "What's up?"
"Who developed this code?"
"What do you mean? We're stealing it from the Negrue family—they wrote the operations manual after all, so I assume they wrote the code."
"Never assume anything, Leader," Brack said. "The code snippets in the operations manual do not conform to any Tegan programming language or standard..."
"So Brack and I did some digging," Sheila continued. "It seems that the Negrues stole the code from your government, and now, you're stealing it back. We still have the problem that this code does not belong in your systems. It's alien. It would be like finding your code in a Sokuhl coffee maker."
"How is that possible?"
"I think your government pulled an Area 51."
"What the hell is an 'Area 5?'"
"Alien technology obtained, analyzed, and implemented by the military industrial complex," Sheila explained. "Area 51 is a top secret lab on Earth, one of the Leagues more tenacious worlds. Area 51 is notorious for capturing alien spacecraft, stripping out their technology, then incorporating it into their own. Due to the dangerous materials involved, most of Area 51 has been moved to the Cube Advanced Research Center, a lab orbiting a white dwarf star out in the middle of nowhere."
"We have nothing like that; I would know if we did."
"The code says different. Brack, your thoughts?"
"For starters, your computer coding follows a base-two scheme were the basic unit is a bit-either on or off. There are differences such as word length, but nothing strange. The samsar code is based on a six-state unit which means that you have on, off, and four states in between. This is some crazy-powerful shit."
"You're telling me my parents' government created this thing?"
"Actually, they adapted off-world tech
nology. Who the hell do you hate bad enough to unleash this abomination on? Nuclear bombs or bioweapons are tame compared to this thing."
"The Trent."
"The Trent?"
"The Trent."
"Who the hell are the Trent?"
Danyr was quiet for a moment before standing up and heading out the door. As she walked out, she turned and said, "Let me know when you have the codes."
"What the hell just happened," Shelia asked. "Brack! Find all..."
"References to the Trent in their database? On it. Oh, I assume I can open any door marked 'Keep Out?'"
"Kick them down and don't be dainty. That girl is scared to death of these Trent and I want to know why."
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kel sat back in his seat and steepled his fingers as he studied the data before him. It was the end of a chapter in a book on Tegan myths and legends and the last page dealt with a scourge of the ancients known only as the Trent. Strewn about on the floor were other datapads, each containing stories about the Trent as told by members of different civilizations living on the Tegan homeworld through the ages, all of whom died-out under mysterious circumstances. "Gracie, do you have a minute?"
"Of course, Kel. What can I help you with?"
“The Tegans have a very long and rich history, too long for me to sort through it by hand. I need help sifting.”
“What are you looking for?"
"Mentions of mysterious mass deaths."
"Limits?"
"None. The Tegans have formed an alliance with the Stitch and Crylos, but I can't believe they're the only civilizations in the LMC, so any mention of any unexplained mass deaths. Keep an eye out for any mention of something called Trent."
"As in a family or given name?"
"No. The context would be a scourge or a demon."
"Working... Results displayed."
"That was quick... Damn! Gracie, do you see this?"
"Analyzing pattern... Pattern is similar to hunting patterns of many apex predators in areas where prey is scarce."
Kel leaned in and stared at the map. "Where's Cerberus and Arctillus?"
Two dots appeared. "Red is the oldest report and blue the newest?" Kel asked.
"Yes. Standard Roy G. Biv temporal coding," Gracie replied, referring to the red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet visible spectrum to indicate the relative age of data points—red being oldest and violet the newest.
"Damn, Arctillus is next in line for an attack after Cerberus, but Cerberus is a dead world due to whatever befell its inhabitants. Transfer this to the lounge. I have to show the others."
"Of course, Kel."
"What the hell have we gotten ourselves into now," the historian muttered as he got up and headed to the lounge.
###
Nayla shook her head, then turned to Percy and glared. "What do you know about this Trent-thing?"
Percy swallowed, then squirmed a little. "It's a creature parents use to scare kids into behaving. It's not real."
"I hope you're right," Kel said. He pointed to the room's main viewer. "If this pattern holds, then both Arctillus and Tegan are next in line for an extinction-level event."
"Are you sure this pattern is due to the Trent?" Nayla asked.
"Gracie, can you superimpose mentions of the Trent in the Tegan database?"
"Yes, Doctor. One moment..." A series of red X's appeared. Though fewer in number than the mass deaths, the X's followed the other pattern exactly.
"Gracie, change color of any X to green if the Trent mention includes the Trent being the cause of the mass death."
All the X's changed to green.
"It's not a myth?" Percy asked in a whisper. Kel looked at him, then Maeve.
"Maeve, could you help Percy into a chair and get him a drink."
Maeve looked at the Tegan, then ran over to catch him as he headed to the floor. "Come on, Kid. Why don't you have a seat?"
"It's real!" Percy said once more, his voice on the edge of hysteria. Maeve handed him a tall glass of something which he drained in one gulp.
"It looks like," Nayla said as she studied the map. "Why hasn't anyone seen this pattern?"
"The dots are colored coded to indicate time of occurrence. This map is a linear representation of the history recorded by the Tegan. Unless you had a lot computing power or a skyscraper full of researchers, you probably wouldn't see what we're seeing. Luckily, we have Gracie to help us.”
"Thank you, Doctor."
"How does the samsar fit into all of this?" Rex asked as he joined Nayla at the screen.
"Percy, you said your mother's people created this weapon based on something they found, right?"
"Yeah, it was cloud-like. Mom said it was resting when the team stumbled upon it."
"So, they weren't looking for this creature?"
"Oh, no. They were looking for artifacts to free from their confines so that the people of the Commonwealth could see them."
Kel tilted his head back and roared a laugh that shook the cabin. When he finished, he looked at Percy and said, "That's a new one. Altruistic tomb robbing. I think I’m going to include that in one of my lectures next semester."
"What's so damn funny?" Percy asked.
"Your Mother's supposed belief that she is doing good by ransacking archaeological sites and selling the artifacts on the open market is nothing but hokum. In reality, she is doing incalculable damage to the very fabric of her civilization. By removing those artifacts willy-nilly, she's destroying the context of their stories. And in history, context is everything."
"Not to get back on the subject, but where did your Mother's people find this artifact?" Nayla asked.
"Here," Percy said. He pointed to a dot about twenty light-years out from Cerberus, on the opposite side of the ring of dead civilizations.
"OK, so your mom's people got a read on this thing as it took off, then they created the samsar, correct?" Nayla asked.
"Sort of."
She raised her eyebrow along with her hair. "Excuse me?"
"She tried to get the Tegan government to go in with her on weapons's development like a hundred times before, only this time they took the data and threatened to shut her down if she ever mentioned it again. She said they scared her."
"Your mother doesn't seem to be the kind who scares easily," Rex noted.
"That is the first time in my life she had ever admitted to being afraid of anything."
"Hmmmm," Gracie said.
"What's up, girlfriend?" Dash asked.
"I have the name and coordinates of the planet the creature was found on. Cross-referencing those with top secret reports in the database should prove interesting. Ah, here it is, in a section labeled 'Eyes Only—Ultra Top Secret... Oh my."
"What's wrong?" Maeve asked.
"The Tegans went back to the planet and found a library..."
###
"SAMSAR online!"
Toltec looked up and saw the cloud weapon floating in the containment chamber. Made up of millions of biocybernetic organisms—neither living or synthetic, yet a little of both—the cloud moved about the room using a combination of maneuvers derived from bird flocks and fish schools.
"Samsar, mission parameters?"
"Seek out Trent. Destroy."
"Excellent. Samsar, transfer to shuttle and prepare for deployment."
"Aye, Deploy! Seek! Destroy!" the cloud said as it shot up through a hole in the enclosure's ceiling.
"Good luck," Toltec said to the departing weapon.
"Is that the last one?" Cinabar asked from the far side of the room. In her hands were cups of tea.
"Yep, the last one. That makes over a hundred deployed in space with one left planet-side. I hope we're doing the right thing."
"What worries you?"
"What if the protocols are too weak? The samsars could attack innocent sapient races."
"Unless the race is a multi-body biological with the same weird life energy signature, it has
no worry. The samsar will bypass it. The only thing out there that has to worry about the samsar is the Trent."
"I hope you're right."
"We have tested that weapon more than any other device in our history, equivalent to one hundred cycles around the sun. I would not have unleashed it unless I was absolutely sure it was deadly to the samsar while safe for all other races and life forms."
"Your confidence is legendary, Old Friend. What now?"
"My work is through. My family and I are on the next ship out to our new home world. What of you?"
"The same! We need to record this moment!" she said as she took out a photorecorder and aimed it at the two of them as they hugged. "To our new life on Tega!" she said as she snapped the shutter.
"To Tega!" Toltec said, and together, they left the lab for one final time.
###
The sound of plastic bouncing echoed through the lounge as Percy dropped his cup in shock and horror at what he saw on the screen. For there stood two Tegans in a picture from thousands of years ago on a planet dozens of light-years away. "That's not possible."
"Why not?" Kel asked. "I can name a dozen examples of League civilizations which have planet-hopped across space and time. Hell, my people were thought dead for centuries before we found them in the LMC and on the Sokuhl home world itself."
"You don't understand. Tega is the world chosen by the gods for the Tegans to spring forth. It is the most sacred of our teachings."
"Percy, listen to me. All we know is that a group of beings who look like you migrated to your home world," Kel said. "We don't know exactly when or if they even made it. Your teachings are intact, so let's focus on the problem at hand."
"And that is?" Maeve said as she hugged the young Tegan.
"Those people in the record created a weapon whose sole purpose is to destroy this Trent, a creature responsible for the death of hundreds of civilizations. The Negrue got their hands on a copy, then the Tegans stole it from the Negrue, who stole it back. During all this stealing, the samsar's coding got corrupted so that it kills anything living. We need to stop it, somehow," Kel said. "Gracie, can you search the library for any mention of an off-switch."
"Kel, we're talking about a corrupt copy. What makes you think the original off-switch will work with this copy?" Nayla asked.