After some further pleasantries, Dag started to explain to Elias his ideas about the Aggie planet and its purpose.
“I think you are probably right Dag. It's logical, it makes sense from what I know about Aggies.”
Just then the ship vibrated.
Then a call came in from Bucky in engineering.
“Arn it looks like we just lost one of our Helium 3 tanks. It exploded.”
“Sir,” said Dag. “The ship is under attack.”
“How do you know Dag?”
“I'm interfaced with the ship's Ems. There are two ships below and behind us.”
“How did they get there without us knowing?” asked Arn.
“I'm afraid it was my fault sir,” said Dag. “Julie betrayed us. She has terminated herself and probably resumed her copy she left on the planet.”
Arn looked at Elias.
“Okay,” said Elias, “whatever. Let's defend ourselves, shall we? First thing, Roy plot a course that will take us below the plane of their heading. Their weapons are superstructure mounted, they have a blind spot for a target under the ship.”
“They're adjusting course Elias.”
“Of course, just do what you can to compromise their firing angle and align the chute up with the lead ship.”
Elias and Arn had already prepared the explosive “shells” and Buck had already loaded one.
“Okay Buck discharge!”
Just then the ship shook again. Buck didn't answer.
“We're hit again Elias,” said Arn.
“Buck did you discharge the explosive?” asked Elias through his Emmie.
“Buck?”
There was no answer.
“I'll go Elias,” said Arn.
“Elias I've almost got us below the attacker's horizon.”
“Excellent Al. Once you do you're going to have to roll the ship so we can use the discharge chute.”
“Understood.”
Another shot from the attacker bore a hole through the rear radiation shield which shielded the crew wheel from the byproducts of the fusion engine. It was not threatening to the operation of the ship.
“They don't seem to be very good shots,” said Al.
“I imagine it's our maneuvering. The mechanics of the weapon lose accuracy as the target approaches the ship's horizon,” said Elias.
“Elias this is Arn. Buck is unconscious but breathing. I'm ready to discharge on your say so.”
“Roger Arn. Get ready. Now!”
Elias watched the Emmie countdown. He resisted the urge to start wormhole generation too early. Al had the ship rotated and pointing the discharge chute at the attackers. Elias watched the countdown reach zero and touched the screen starting wormhole generation.
On the wallscreen in the direction of the attacking ships was seen a dot of light. it didn't brighten much before it disappeared.
A moment later Steve who was monitoring the location of the lead ship said, “The lead ship has stopped accelerating Elias.”
Elias looked at Al.
“We must have succeeded.”
“Arn have you got the second one loaded?”
“All ready Elias.”
“Discharge!”
Again Elias went through the countdown but just after he touched the screen of his Emmie to power the wormhole the ship was struck and shaken by a blast from the second ship's wormhole weapon.
The bridge went dark and the backups didn't kick in. The controls were down. Elias could feel the crew wheel spinning down. But that wasn't what worried him. If the lights were affected then probably life support was also. They wouldn't have long before the air became unbreathable.
Chapter 22
Hugh Mason was peeved. Here they had gone to the trouble of capturing that bot Dag and he had gotten away somehow. Then that ship of geriatrics had been able to get away from the Federation cruisers. All they had left was the bot's Emmie and it was useless. Somehow Elias Mach knew that the communication link had been compromised.
Oh and that old robot Sigmund. He had been absolutely useless under questioning and then he malfunctioned somehow and terminated.
We are the superior ones. How is it we came up with so little. Maybe we were sabotaged?
After brooding for a few more minutes his thoughts settled on Burgess Mach, the wife. She was still under his control. He hadn't failed as the others had. But how could he use her to get at her husband?
Burgess was sure something had happened to Dag, he had promised to contact her before now. Dag was supposed to watch over her during her pregnancy. She was sure his continued absence wasn't voluntary. She worried that he was dead if that was the proper word for a robot. Even if it wasn't, it was the way she felt about him.
Upon learning of Dag's absence Burgess' older sister Charlotte had moved in to help take care of Burgess. No one would have known they were sisters, with Charlotte being tall to Burgess' short, Charlotte being dark-haired to Burgess' sandy blonde, and not much resemblance in the face either. In fact, they had never really gotten along that well. But the family felt someone had to help Burgess.
Burgess took the call on her Emmie. It was from the office of Hugh Mason. Elaine Horton was calling to ask Burgess if she would be willing to talk to her boss.
“Why should I? You would have my husband executed if you could.”
“Mrs. Mach, Mr. Mason is willing to intervene on the part of your husband and see that he gets a fair retrial and a minimum sentence if convicted again. There will be no death sentence. He is even willing to allow your husband to stay there with you until the retrial. I'm sure that would be a help to you in your condition.”
“My condition is fine Ms. Horton. However, if what you say is true I would be willing to meet with Mr. Mason if you will tell me one thing.”
“Yes Mrs. Mach?”
“What does he want to discuss with me?”
“Well that should really be left until the meeting but if it will persuade you to meet I can say that he only wants to tell you some recent information about your husband. And how you can help him get home.”
“Very well Ms. Horton, I will meet with Mr. Mason. Please send the details to my Emmie.”
A few days later, accompanied by Charlotte, Burgess took the shuttle to Hadar habitat. It wasn't long until they were sitting in the reception area of Hugh Mason's office. And it was quite impressive.
This Committee on Public Safety obviously had a big budget, thought Burgess.
“How do you feel Burgess?” asked Charlotte.
“Fine Charlotte, just fine.”
“You're not nervous?”
“No, not at all.”
“Well seeing how fancy this place is I'm a little nervous.”
“Charlotte if it bothers you please excuse yourself, I'll be fine.”
“No, I'm staying if you are.”
They were quiet.
Charlotte would like to get out of here, she's afraid. But she would like it to be on my account and not hers, as usual.
“Mrs. Mach, Mr. Mason will see you now.”
Burgess and Charlotte got up and went through the door opened by Mason's secretary. Mason's office was huge. Being on the top floor and having two walls of floor to ceiling glass gave a tremendous view of the huge Hadar habitat.
Mason rose from behind his desk and walked to meet Burgess and Charlotte, shaking their hands and asking them to please be seated in the chairs in front of his desk. He stood for a moment beside Burgess.
“May I get you ladies something? Coffee, tea, water?”
“I'll have a water,” said Charlotte.
“Nothing for me, thank you,” said Burgess.
“Very well.” He called to the receptionist to bring two glasses of water.
“I think I'll have some water myself,” he said with a smile. He then turned and seated himself behind his desk.
The receptionist came in with water in ornate containers.
Some kind of crystal, thought Burgess u
pon seeing the ornate glass Charlotte was holding. Charlotte gazed admiringly at what she was holding in her hand.
Mason set his drink down.
“Mrs. Mach I hope you are well?”
“Very well thank you.”
“Good. I believe it was explained to you why I wished to see you in person?”
“Somewhat Mr. Mason. But I do have one question for you.”
“Yes?”
“Why after causing my family such grief would you want to help us?”
“Mrs. Mach I will be frank with you. You and your husband are somewhat celebrities, not only in this system but in the Solar System as well. And since the Committee has no real power except that which the public invests in us. It is to our advantage to keep ourselves in good standing with the public.”
“I see,” said Burgess. “And how does that involve my family?”
“Mrs. Mach as I said you are somewhat celebrities. And as celebrities, you are in the public eye. And right now the public eye has a favorable impression, especially about you and the way you have handled yourself through this adversity.”
Mason paused a moment.
“No doubt being with child also elicits a good deal of sympathy. So you see it is to the Committee's advantage to take a friendly stance toward you and Dr. Mach.”
“So you will help to bring him home and retry him. Why should we go through a retrial?”
“Because that is the quickest way to get your husband home and with you.”
“And you get kudos for this?”
“Of course,” said Mason.
“If tried again and found guilty what kind of sentence will Elias face.”
“I am prepared to ask for no more than a year under house arrest. I would make it less but we do have to maintain our dignity. A year seems a serious length of time for him to serve, if he is found guilty of course. And I can tell you that the Committee would be just as satisfied if he were acquitted of all crimes.”
“I see. What about his friends aboard the ship?”
“Well we really aren't interested in them at all so the Committee won't pursue any charges. But of course, I can't speak for other authorities or entities.”
“And what exactly is it that you want me to do?”
“Mrs. Mach we know where your husband is. We want you to record a vid in which you can tell him all we have discussed and ask him to turn himself into the authorities in that sector of space. And then he can come home.”
Burgess looked at Mason without blinking.
“I won't.”
“If you care about your husband's safety Mrs. Mach, you should.”
“I care about my husband's safety I can assure you Mr. Mason. That's why I will not make such a vid.”
“You don't trust me, I presume?”
“We have been hounded by you and your Committee ever since it was established. I'm not even sure you weren't responsible for our problems, to begin with. No, I don't trust you Mr. Mason. Now good day. Come on Charlotte.”
Burgess rose and was halfway to the door when she turned to see if Charlotte was behind her, she wasn't.
“Come on Charlotte let's go.”
Charlotte rose reluctantly and thanked Mason for her water before moving towards the door and Burgess.
“Well if you should change your mind, either of you please let us know.”
Burgess only quickened her pace.
The last blast of the wormhole weapon had severed the main power conduit from the fusion engines to the crew wheel. Once recovered, Buck had been able to reroute some of the power through auxiliary circuits. Enough to restore a minimum of life support and control of the ship.
But Elias hadn't heard from Dag since the incident. The information in the main memory was lost during the outage. The switch over to backup had been delayed because of the extent of the damage. Dag hadn't answered any queries afterward. Elias had finally accepted that he was gone.
A few days later Elias got a call from Al.
“Elias I picked up a transmission from that planet and I thought you ought to see it.”
The message started with an offer of cease-fire. The Aggies wished no more damage or loss of life to occur.
Elias thought about Dag whom he had not heard from since the attack.
They also had a vid from Elias' family. It turned out to be Charlotte offering Mason's deal. She said she was presenting it because Burgess wasn't well. She hoped Elias could come home in time.
After viewing the vid alone, Elias went to Arn.
“Arn I've just viewed the vid that Al recorded for me. It seems that Mason is offering us and especially me a deal. A cease fire for you and the rest of the crew and a retrial for me with one year home detention if I'm found guilty.”
“Well that's certainly a change of heart. Why Elias?”
“All Charlotte said was that it would reflect favorably on the Committee to offer me the deal.”
“Public opinion no doubt has swayed Mason. But I don't know Elias. We are innocent of the charges. I would hate for you to be convicted of something you didn't do.”
“I know Arn, me too. But there are complications. According to Charlotte Burgess isn't well. She seemed to intimate that I should come home soon for Burgess' sake.”
“I'm sorry Elias. That changes things. Maybe you should go back. But how do we get you there?”
“The Aggies have offered to transport me. It will take some time though as they will not make any jump over seven and a half light-years out of consideration for my safety.”
“Well I guess you will have to take the deal Elias. It's more important to be there if Burgess should need you than here. We'll be fine. Once we finish bypassing the damage we'll take advantage of the cease-fire to recharge the isotopics. We probably won't be far behind you.”
“I guess we did the right thing Arn but we aren't old-time swashbucklers. We just didn't have much choice I guess. But all the deaths. That still weighs on me.”
“Me too Elias but there's one thing I haven't told you. I just heard it from Steve before I came to see you.”
“What is it Arn?”
“One of your old friends isn't dead. Dag is alive.”
“How?”
“It seems that during the battle he copied himself into a memory cube. The loss of power didn't bother him at all. He's back in the main memory now that Steve has it restored.”
Chapter 23
On Earth, the meta-verse was astir with the news. It seemed as if the Aggies were having a “family” fight. A disagreement that had finally gone public.
One side thought to be about one-third of the entire Aggie population had prepared a highly advanced meta-verse and were offering to take any metizens to it free of charge. In return, the metizen would work on certain mathematical and theoretical problems that this faction of Aggies were trying to solve.
The description of the resources available to each metizen was very attractive. Computing power equal to that which supported a hundred or a thousand in Earth's meta-verse would be available for each metizen that accepted the invitation. With that kind of power each could have a world unto themselves and they could be as a god to that world. In essence a simulation within a simulation.
Many were jumping at the chance. But the other faction of Aggies was highly disturbed by such activities. They pointed out that any metizen taking up the offer would completely lose touch with his past. He would become nothing but a calculating machine.
The riff in the Aggie community was also exposing a rift in the meta-verse community.
Clarence Jones was intrigued by the idea but his buddy Winston Long wasn't as interested.
“Winston how can you be so reticent about this? Don't you realize how exciting the possibilities are?”
“Clarence I'll tell you the truth, I'm afraid. I think it's as the Aggies said, we'll lose our humanity with such power at the tips of our fingers.”
“Ridiculous,” said Clarence. “It's just an
extension of what we have now. Did we become less human when we entered the meta-verse?”
“I don't know,” said Winston. “It doesn't seem like it but in a way, we are still connected to Earth. That provides an anchor for our aspirations. I think absolute power leads to ... well something not human anyway.”
“I have to say that I never thought you were like this. It's as if you have a limit to your imagination or something.”
“I've seen what some people imagine,” said Winston shuddering. “I think there should be limits and right now we are limited by computing power.”
“So that's what you are afraid of? You're afraid that with almost unlimited power you'll what? Become some kind of monster?”
“Our core is human. There have been monsters in human history. Usually as a result of absolute power.”
“Well I'm taking them up on it. I can't wait to see what I can do with the offer.”
“I guess then we won't be seeing each other,” said Winston.
“Probably not. But you'll always be welcome on my planet Winston,” said Clarence with a grin.
It was everything that Clarence had hoped. This new meta-verse was quickly becoming populated by the more adventurous from Earth's meta-verse. He was just becoming familiar with some of the other metizens that had made the change.
“So this system is to be called Belenos?” asked Clarence.
“That's right Clarence,” said Caisson. “I believe it means the 'shining land' or something like that.”
“The shining land,” repeated Clarence. “I like that. Any way when do we start our jobs?”
“We have an orientation anytime we want to. You want to go with me?”
“Sure.”
Clarence and Caisson only had to walk from their apartment building across the quad to the orientation center. Upon entering they seated themselves in one of the light airy rooms with the light shining through the floor to ceiling windows and the comfortable furniture. It was much more like a college campus than a company or corporation. One side of the wall of windows became opaque and a presentation began.
“Thank you for coming fellow Belenos,” said the cheerful voice. The face was that of a young and attractive female.
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