"Net is beginning to sound a little scary," Suni said, a little worried.
"Net has become powerful," Patricia agreed, "and wealthy… in Frank's name, of course."
"How many bots can that drone factory on Iskol make?"
"As many as it has of Frank's cells. Their processors can't operate without cells from his body."
"Any idea how many it has?"
"Trillions. But they obey him."
"That's fine… so long as he isn't corrupted."
"I don't think he's the type."
"Let's hope not. Get a crew up here. We're headed for Relm."
"Aye, Cap'n."
Twenty-Three
"Let me see if I understand this," Frank said, looking at Gronk as they meandered back to the cave near the group of huts as the local Relmish looked on in awe. "You come from Earth of 120,000 years ago, but you're more than 10 million years old?"
"Yup," Gronk replied.
"How can that be?"
"Well it's easy. I'm the Shadow Rider."
"Seems I've heard of them. They think I'm the Shadow Rider."
"You are."
"Okay, this is getting a little confusing."
"I don't see how."
"How can I be the Shadow Rider if you're the Shadow Rider?"
"That's easy too. You're my replacement."
"Oh…"
"That went well."
"As though I believe it."
"Maybe not that well."
As the two walked, they approached the entrance to Gronk's cave, and walked in. A few Relmish hung about near the entrance, but none went more than ten meters or so inside the entrance.
"Why do you live in this cave? They all live in those huts."
"I'm used to caves. That's where I was born. Even the inside of my ship looks like a cave. I've lived in caves all my life. I like caves."
"You have a ship?"
"Sure. It's parked about twenty light-years from here. It's in orbit around a star with a bunch of gas giants where nobody ever goes."
Frank and Gronk were deep into the cave, now. A warm glow ahead told Frank they were near Gronk's abode. They rounded a curve in the tunnel and he saw that a small fire burned in a hearth. There were no animal skins, as he might have expected, but furniture that appeared to be suitable to Gronk's build. It was obviously made from fairly advanced materials that Frank could not identify.
"I see you didn't bring any bear skins with you," Frank commented, "hunting knives, bones, spears…"
"I said I like caves. I didn't say I liked the way they were decorated. Besides, you’re the one with animal skins."
"Fair enough. You're a modern… cave man. I don't recognize some of this equipment."
"Conveniences of modern cave life."
"And the locals, they don't come in here?"
"That's the beauty of this place. They have some crazy fear of being underground. You can't get them to go more than a few meters in here. So I have all the privacy I want when I'm here. It has to be burned out of them when they take them as slaves."
"So what's all this about replacing you?"
"Hmmm. Let me see if I can explain it. The universe goes on for trillions of years. And in all that time, there always have been and always will be Shadow Riders. I'm not really interested in living that long," as an aside, he said, "It gets pretty lonely. All of my people are long gone, and I've never found any other people like me. After all this, I don't think I could go back to that life anyway. These people here are about the closest I've ever found and they seem to tolerate me, so I made a home here."
"Why not back on Earth?"
"That place? Yech. Look what it's turned into. I don't think I'd get a moment's peace if I lived there. These people are friendly and they don't pay taxes. I'm afraid that probably won't go on for much longer."
"Why?"
"They're evolving - if you call that evolving. You're evolving. I'm evolving. Everybody's evolving. When that happens, this all goes away. I don't want to be around here to see it when it does. These people are happy and peaceful… except for that mess of a crowd on Iskol," Gronk says this, pointing upward, towards where the planet Iskol might be.
"Why didn't you do something about that?"
"What? I've been doing something about 'that' for ten million years. I'm tired of it. Now it's your turn. You do something about it."
"Why me?"
"Why not you? Somebody has to do it."
"But… so many trillions of other people… millions of other races…"
"All of the Shadow Riders are human. Don't ask me why."
"I don't get it."
"Neither did I, at first."
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"I don't know. Whatever you want, I guess."
"What did you do?"
"Whatever I wanted."
"What are we in charge of."
"I'm not in charge of anything except squatting here and living a reasonably comfortable life."
"Then what am I in charge of?"
"Yourself."
"Now I really don't get it."
"Yeah… took me a while, too."
The grizzled old creature got up and went into what Frank perceived as a kitchen and pulled up a bottle of purple liquid.
"Want some wine?" he asked.
"You have wine? Where did you get that?" Frank asked.
"The only place in the universe where you can get wine."
"Earth?"
"You're getting more learned by the minute."
"Back then… when you first started out, was your name really 'Gronk' back then?"
"Yeah."
"You people talked?"
"Of course. We're weren't stupid. See how hairy this body is?" Gronk displayed himself, "While I'm hairier than you, this still doesn't give much protection from the elements. We had to think to stay alive. And survival is a lot harder in my time than it is in yours. I'll tell you, if your people had to endure what we had to endure, half the human race would be dead in a month."
"But, I built my starship. Where did you get yours?"
"I ordered mine from the JC Penny catalog." Frank cocked his head at Gronk and gave him the eye. "I made mine the same way you made yours."
"But how, without the technology?"
"All your technology did was help you make it faster. The basic methods of building a Shadow Ship are the same. I like your robots, by the way. I sure wish I had some of them."
"You're welcome to some of mine. I can show you how to build them."
"Thanks, but I'm done with all that. I just want to retire and be done with it."
"But how could you build all of that? How could you launch it?"
"I just had an inspiration one day. It came to me, just like it did you. Just like it did or will do all the Shadow Riders."
"But… you… you had stones, bones and wooden clubs. How could you possibly build something so powerful as a Shadow Ship? Were you… your mind… were you… enhanced?"
"I told you, we were smart."
"Now when I think of it… I really didn't need the technology. I could have done it without machines."
"Of course."
"But they sure made it a lot easier."
"And it looks to me like you might even do a better job of things than I did. Setting up that 'Net' thing was pretty ingenious."
"That kind of happened by itself, almost."
"Yeah but look at what they're doing. They're taking over. They're doing your bidding."
"So?"
"So? Are you kidding? You don't know all the legwork I had to do. You have machines doing all your work for you. When I had to take care of things, I had to do every little thing myself. This is great! You could do everything I did in ten million years and be done in twenty years."
"But… the universe is huge."
"Sure it is. And with all those machines working for you and replicating themselves, you should have the entire universe covered in maybe fifty t
housand years easy."
"I don't want to rule the universe."
"You don't have to. Your machines'll do everything for you. They'll rule it and run it according to your wishes. If you decide that there'll be no more slavery in the universe, then that's what'll happen. In a few hundred thousand years, there'll be a complete end to slavery—everywhere."
"How do you know about all of this? You're all tucked away nice and comfy here, ignoring the rest of the universe."
"I don't have machines—I have spies. All I do is ask, and they get the information for me. I asked about you and they gave me everything they could find, which was a lot, by the way."
"You still haven't told me how you came to being ten million years old."
"You'll figure that out soon enough. I'd say in about 300 years or so."
"I don't expect to live that long."
"You'll figure that out, too."
"Huh?"
"That was a smart thing you did, Frank, bringing those females along. Man, I really wish I'd thought of that back then. I didn't even know it was allowed. My predecessor didn't say a thing about it to me. He didn't last long—all of about two hundred thousand years before he quit."
"You had a predecessor?"
"The line goes back a ways. I think he just couldn't stand the loneliness. He came from the 90th century, some seven thousand years after you. I have all that information on my ship. It's all yours to keep and pass on."
"He came from my future? You time-travel?"
"Now you're really catching on. You know, if I'd thought to bring along some female companionship, I probably wouldn't quit just yet."
"But what'll happen to you now?"
"Now? I don't know. The guy before me just went away and I never saw him again. I don't know if he died or what. Maybe he went back to where he came from. Your life doesn't have to end here. Think of this as a break in your life. You might go on for a hundred million years or more, and then one day decide you're finished with it and go right back to the day and time you left off from your previous life, as though nothing had ever happened."
"Then why don't you do that?"
"You people never really understood what it was like for us, did you. That was a really rough life. I'm not that hot on going back to it."
"The information you have on your ship… what is it?"
"Ah. Now you're interested. It's almost the history of the universe. There are histories of the universe that date back trillions of years and into the future trillions of years. Every language ever spoken or that will be spoken, every race that ever existed or will exist will eventually be recorded by the Shadow Riders. That history is kept on the Shadow Ships."
"But how? Without machines?"
"I have machines, just no robots. My predecessor didn't have robots. Seems like he should have, don't you think? But he sure did have some wondrous things aboard his old ship."
"Maybe he knew something I don't."
"Could be. As soon as you're done with this Okofani crowd, I'll get everything to you. You're gonna have to deal with that shortly."
"I know."
"No, I mean real shortly."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean they're here."
"What?"
"On Relm. Looking for you. My spies told me this morning. Fleets of ships are gathering in the space above us, and it's my guess that your ship is on its way here too."
"Oh my God."
"I know. A lot of these innocents are gonna get killed. They'll try to defend you, but the Okofani have superior weapons."
"But how do they know I'm here?"
"Dunno. But they don't know exactly where you are, otherwise they would have glassed this whole mountainside by now. They'll start doing DNA scans pretty soon. That'll pick up anything that doesn't belong here—like you and me."
"They'll find us in no time."
"Not easily. I picked this cave for a reason—there's a lot of gold in this rock. Their scanners can't see through it. They'll find us, but not easily. Just hope that your ship gets here before they do."
"What about your ship? Can't you bring it here?"
"Sure, but what would that accomplish? You're the new Shadow Rider—this is your battle. If I bring my ship here, it'll undermine your credibility and respect. People won't fear you. You'll have no end of troubles if they see two Shadow Ships in the same battle. Besides, I'm retired."
"What about these innocents anyway? Why did you tell them I was the ‘Chosen One?’ It’s such a cliché."
Gronk rumbled a laugh and grinned. "I know. I’ve read a few Earth books and a lot of them have this, ‘Chosen One’ thing going on. I thought I’d throw it in for fun."
"This doesn’t seem like that much fun. Besides, now they’re treating me like some kind of holy man."
"Better that than the alternative."
"What’s that?"
"Anywhere outside of Relm City, they would have killed you."
Twenty-Four
Suni Tashika stood on the balcony gazing over the gleeming army of warbots standing before her at attention, more than twenty thousand in all. Each and every one had an individual name. Each and every one was indistinguishable from each and every other, except for its name. Trong, Frank's personal bodyguard, was in command of the entire force, and stood at the front of the assemblage, along with Crush and Batter.
This field was more than two kilometers across either way and the ceiling was a kilometer above them inside the Butterworth. It was created as a wide-open space for the sole purpose of recreational use. This had been a field of green grass, kept and tended by bots. Today it was being used as a military formation ground in preparation for war. Suni and the rest of her crew were dressed in warsuits, gleeming neutronium armor covering their bodies from head to toe. They had been watching the news nets and knew that more than a thousand warships from twenty different worlds were gathered over the skies of Relm. More than three million soldiers were on its surface, looking for Frank and preparing for battle against the most fearsome being in the universe; the Shadow Rider. The Shadow Ship was expected.
Each day more ships and soldiers arrived, adding to the force that Suni and her crew would face when they finally got there. Each day, two hundred and fifty new warbots rolled off the assembly line. By the time they got to Relm, seven hundred and fifty warbots would be added to this army. But warbots were superior warriors to biologics and even to mechanicals. Even facing more than three million combined biologic and mechanical soldiers, the warbots would be a formidable force. It was obvious to Suni that these other people did not know she had such an army. Otherwise, they would be trying to get away.
Sandy and Michelle came up from behind her, standing silently for a few moments as they looked on in awe of their own acheivements.
"News of the return of the Shadow Ship has reached more than three thousand worlds, now," Sandy said.
"But only twenty of those worlds gather against us," Suni replied.
"The rest are mired in political debate," Michelle informed. "They can't decide whether the return of the Shadow Ship is a good thing or a bad thing."
"I still don't understand how we managed to get that label. We're explorers, not warriors," Sandy complained.
"There can only be one reason for this," Suni replied.
"And what would that be," Michelle asked.
"This is the Shadow Ship," Suni answered.
"And us? What are we?"
"I've been looking over the ancient histories of the Shadow Ships. The translations are difficult and some are impossible to understand. It seems there have been a few Shadow Riders over the course of recorded history in this universe. Not just one, but several. Occasionally, I have seen images, old and difficult to make out, but there seems to be a common denominator about them," Suni paused for effect. "They were all human."
"How do you know?" Michelle asked.
"The image qualities are poor, since they come from millions of years bac
k, so I had Dyna enhance them. They weren't much better, but the features in some cases became a bit easier to make out. They all looked like us—the ones I could find images of."
"So how does that make this the Shadow Ship?" Michelle asked.
"That's another part of the old histories. In all of recorded galactic history, no race has ever achieved speeds greater than ships using Vulaxium hulls. No race has ever traveled as fast as we can. But the Shadow Ships can. The histories talk about instances of the Shadow Ships moving at great speeds between galaxies, which no ship of Vulaxium construction could ever do. Only the Shadow Ship could ever travel between galaxies."
"But we…" Michelle started.
"We can travel between galaxies. Not yet, perhaps, but eventually we will be able to." Suni interrupted.
"But what about the Black Hole people?" Sandy returned.
"I don't know who they are," Suni replied, "They may just be some race with an invisibility cloak and a powerful weapon. I don't know if they can move as fast as we can. No other known race can do that."
"Then it's possible," Michelle said. "This could be the Shadow Ship."
"But what about the Shadow Riders?" Sandy asked. "In all the stories I've seen, they've all been alone. None of them had a crew."
"Maybe Frank broke the rules. Maybe no one else bothered to think that there could be more than one person on the ship," Suni replied.
"What a lonely thought," Michelle speculated.
"Maybe the other Shadow Riders did have crews but never let them be seen," Sandy suggested.
"It doesn't matter," Suni interjected. "Maybe there are no rules. The most striking thing about all of this is that it was Frank who came up with these technologies originally. We all know him well enough."
Sandy and Michelle grinned at each other.
"The mathematics he had to use for this design did not exist on Earth at the time he came up with this technology."
"He is a brilliant man, Suni," Sandy countered.
"No man—or woman—on Earth is that brilliant," Suni replied. "I know…" she looked at them, "I wanted to believe it too. But the evidence weighs against it. It is obvious that his mathematics were inspired, but they had to come from somewhere else. They had to come from something else."
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