by Frank Carey
"Sorry. There's some kind of vending machine against the wall. Press a button under a picture and a bar appears in the tray below. I scanned it and it's oddly fresh. No sign of decomposition whatsoever and the bar matches my nutritional requirements to a tee."
With a curious frown on his face, Iolaus walked over to the machine and noticed other machines standing next to it. He knelt down and examined the pictographs on the front. That's when he saw them shift. "Instructor, could you come look at this?"
"Sure," she said as she took his place in front of the machine. In moments, the pictures changed once more.
"Now, press a button under a picture which looks...tasty."
She shrugged, chose one, and pressed the button underneath it. A wrapped bar appeared in the tray below the buttons. Iolaus scanned the bar, opened the wrapper, and broke-off a small piece which he ate before handing it to Tannith. "Interesting. Try a taste," he said with a smile.
She took a bite. "Damn, that's good. Nice mouth feel, good taste, yet it doesn't seem heavy. What did you think, Iolaus?"
"Bland, with an odd aftertaste, but I expected us to have different reactions."
"Why?" Doris asked as she munched away.
"It scanned Doris, then changed its menu to fit her nutritional and physiological parameters. It adapts to whomever is standing in front of it."
"But that would mean its inventory would be impossibly large, not to mention a little stale after ten thousand years."
"The flash of light before the bar appeared is the giveaway. My people are working on a matter teleportation system, which can move matter—comic books, cans of soup, even people—from one point to another, almost instantaneously, using a mix of other-space and quantum-entanglement. This beautiful machine takes it a step further by taking raw materials and knitting them together into nutribars using a teleporter-like device. Hell, it may only need energy. Unless I miss my guess, this vending machine could produce an almost infinite number of foodstuffs based on the nutritional and dietary needs of the person standing in front of it."
"Hey, I think this has ethanol in it," Mauro said as he held up a glass of liquid dispensed by one of the other machines."
Tannith stood up and looked around her. "Food, drinks, fake computer systems, large vid screens, and a view outside... Sporting events?"
"Robotic sporting events, ones large enough to require large, underground repair facilities..." Mykkl said.
"And big enough to require orbital assets..." Mauro commented.
"Could we actually be talking about a global sporting event run from underground bunkers?"
"It's looking that way. Let's keep going. We still haven't found the control center Mauro was talking about," Tannith replied.
They filled their packs with food before heading out the door opposite the one they came in through.
"This definitely looks like the backstage area at an arena," Iolaus said as he looked at bundles of data communications cables and power conduits in the ceiling. "Repair carts, transportation, it's all here." Around them were vehicles of all sizes from handcarts all the way up to at least one the size of a battle tank. There were a lot of bloodstains as well. Brownish-red splotches covered the walls and floor, as well as many of the vehicles. No bodies, only dried blood
"How are you doing, Mauro?" Tannith asked.
"Just a touch warm..." he said as she wrapped a tentacle around his wrist, while another gently draped across his forehead.
"Hmmmm," Doris said. "Hot. Drink water and take it easy," she said.
"I'm fine I tell you," Mauro said as he walked to the front of the group.
Tannith made her way back to Doris. "How is he, really?"
"Getting hotter. Our friends better show up soon, or we'll need a miracle. I saw an infection like his go full-term once. It's something I hope to someday forget."
"Damn. Do what you can, and let me know if it gets worse," Tannith said.
"I suggest you take it easy as well. Those kids are leaning on you for support, especially your niece."
"But not the Doctor?"
"Oh, most definitely the Doctor," Doris said as she slid over and pressed up against Tannith while batting her three eyes at the elf.
Tannith smiled. "I see."
They eventually came to another doorway, this one blocked by a large, stout double-door without any sign of latch, lock, or mechanism which would allow them to open it.
"Well ain't this a crock of doo-doo," Aerith said as she ran her hand along the center seam. "How the hell do we..."
The door opened onto a large, dark room. As they walked, the lights came on, revealing a control console at the center, surrounded by equipment racks. "How'd you do that?" Iolaus asked as he looked around.
"I didn't. It just opened on its own," she replied.
Mauro ran over and sat down at the console. He attached his hacker ball and began to run diagnostics. "System is alive," he said. "Powering down... Dammit, something is fighting me."
"Actually, I'm fighting you," a voice said from the console. Mauro jumped back from the console, instinctively taking his hacker ball with him.
"And you are?" Tannith asked as she placed herself between the console and the others.
A beam came from one of the racks of equipment, playing across first Tannith, then the others.
"Tannith Aymar, Instructor aboard the Tung'We and sister of the smuggler elf, Harmon Aymar. Next, we have Tannith's niece, Aerith, Daughter of Harmon and the human Marta. Damn, today is a good day to be alive, so to speak. Hmmm. Mauro, human, infected with Rotarr's Syndrome. I suggest someone take him outside—this place is impossible to keep clean on a normal day."
"How about we all go and leave you in peace," Tannith said.
"No, at least not until your brother arrives."
"Harmon? What does he have to do with anything? Last I heard he was on a run to Kessar Three."
"No, he and his ex are on their way here on a rescue mission. I know this because I have a weapons lock on their ship, the Septar..."
"Aunt Elizabeth!" Aerith blurted out, referring to the Septar's captain.
"...under command of Capt. Elizabeth Benson. I can't wait to see old Harmon."
"Who are you?"
"My name's Jurzik Malf, Harm's ex-partner."
"Ex-partner?" Tannith asked. "You two break up?" Tannith asked in a bid to buy time, time she needed to figure a way out of this room.
"No, not quite. You see, I tried to kill him," Jurzik said before explaining what had happened out on that empty Tralaskan airfield.
"You tried to kill my brother?" Show yourself so we can talk personal-like," Tannith said as she put her hand to her pistol.
"You tried to kill my father?" Aerith said bristling. "Yes, please show yourself."
"Sorry about that, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time. I had a couple of clients who knew elf physiology better than I did, so they knew Harmon could see well enough in the dark to identify them. They offered me a bonus to kill him and eliminate the problem."
"Where are you, so I can eliminate you?" Tannith hissed.
Two equipment racks rolled apart to reveal a large sphere made from some thick transparent material. Glowing streamers of multi-colored light danced around the inside of the meter wide chamber. "Surprise!" Jurzik yelled as the rest of the people in the room could only stare.
"It's a hamster ball," Aerith said as she walked over to get a closer look.
"Careful, I bruise easily," Jurzik joked as Aerith ran her hand over the sphere's smooth surface.
"How did this happen? The last human who tried this nearly died. Only an elf female has a chance of pulling this off," Aerith said as she stood up and rejoined the group.
"It's complicated..."
Chapter Fifteen
Back at the airfield, Jurzik and his party were making a hasty retreat after shooting Harmon...
"Are you sure he's dead?" the client named Drescher said as he followed Jurzik into the tra
nsport.
"He's dead," Jurzik replied as he walked to the cockpit. "No one could survive being shot like that. Stop worrying,"
"We always worry," the female, Moragg, said as she closed and locked the hatch behind them.
"Wonderful. Strap-in," Jurzik said as he ran a short preflight before powering up the main systems, "unless you want us to just sit here and hover. Where are we going? I need a set of coordinates."
Moragg reached into her coat and brought out a slip of paper just as headlights appeared in the distance. He glanced at the paper and copied the coordinates into the NAVComp.
"Hang on," Jurzik said as he pushed the throttles forward, causing the stout ship to leap into the sky. In moments, they were in space.
Eighteen-hours later, the ship was moored to a larger freighter, The League Transport Vessel Bellerophon, with their load being transferred to the larger ship's hold. When the offload was complete, the smaller ship would be set adrift.
"Careful there! That isn't a crate of wrenches," the loadmaster yelled as he directed the ship's crew.
"My work here is done," Jurzik said to his hosts. "Now, if I could be paid and get a lift to the nearest station, I will be on my way."
"Mr. Jurzik, you have a class-eight telepresence operator's license, do you not?" Moragg asked as Drescher watched.
"Yes, and it's up to date. One never knows when one will need to change careers. Why do you ask?"
"Our staff TPO took ill before the trip began and had to be left behind. We were hoping we could hire you to replace her, just for this one job, of course. We're willing to pay you five hundred credits per hour plus expenses. When we're finished, we'll drop you off anywhere you please. Your pay starts the moment you accept."
"Five hundred credits per hour? That's five times the going rate for hazardous duty," Jurzik replied.
"Yes it is. Do you accept?"
"Give me a minute to think...yes, I accept. What does the job entail?"
"Usually people ask that question before they take a job," Drescher said.
"I'm greedy, so sue me." Jurzik replied. "So what's the job?"
"Ever hear of a star called Maranta? It's in the New Territories," Moraag asked.
"Can't say that I have."
"Not surprising," she continued. "What makes Maranta interesting is its fifth planet, Maranta Five. According to some highly placed sources in the government, Maranta Five is where the League 'borrowed' the core code which makes the InterWeb possible. This code was taken from a server farm on that planet."
"What? Didn't the locals take exception to that bit of larceny?"
"There were no locals. There was no sign of civilization until an exploration team found an entrance to an underground installation. They found a dormant computer system and were able to pull this code off a server before being...persuaded to leave, at least as far as the story goes. We're going back to get the rest of the code, which is why we need your help," Moragg explained.
"I don't understand. It sounds like a simple hard drive cloning op."
"It would be if the software running the servers hadn't coalesced over the years into a pseudo-sentient personality. Now, instead of performing a core dump and recording the contents, the damn PSP is running around from server to server like a spooked prey animal. "We need to corral it in a biocybernetic storage sphere and hold it there until we can get it back to our facilities for disassembly. There is one sticking point to all this, though."
"Go on," Jurzik said while wondering what he had gotten himself into.
"We don't think this pseudo-sentient personality—call it Pauly—is alone in there. About ten thousand years ago, a rogue program—we call it Wraith—tore through the system and killed everybody on the planet."
"Just what exactly did they do on this planet ten thousand years ago?"
"We think they were involved with planetary-scale sporting events. Robots would battle to the death on the surface and in orbit while players and spectators participated and watched from subsurface bunkers. There's evidence the main controlling entity went nuts and killed everyone before taking the system dormant, at least that's what the data collected by the previous expedition suggests."
"Let make sure I've got this right. You want me to go in, chase down Pauly and coral it in the hamster ball without disturbing this Wraith thing?"
Moragg smiled at him with her pointed teeth. "Yep, that's pretty much it. Still interested?"
Jurzik smiled. "Of course. I'm always up for a challenge," he said. Just think what I can do with that code when I get my hands on it, he thought to himself.
###
The Bellerophon orbited above Maranta Five as the freighter prepared to land on the surface of the planet. In the cockpit, Moragg and Drescher were briefing the captain while Jurzik quietly watched.
"Captain, we have to go in on heat shields only. According to the notes left by the first team, defensive shields can cause an unpleasant reaction in the systems which are still active below," Moragg said,
"What kind of unpleasant reaction?" the captain asked.
"They'd tear this ship and its crew into small pieces," Drescher said dryly.
"I see, so no shields it is. Anything else?"
"Captain, I suggest you keep the ship ready for immediate lift-off while we're gone, just as a precaution."
"Copy that. Do you have the landing coordinates?"
Moragg handed him a slip of paper. "There's a clearing near a cliff. Land there and we'll walk in."
The captain handed the paper to the navigator who punched them into the computer. In a moment, it spit out its calculations which he gave to the captain.
"Good, make it so, helm," he said while reading over the data. "Sir, ma’am, we de-orbit in ten minutes. Please take your seats and strap-in."
###
The landing was uneventful. Jurzik found himself standing near the ship in an open area near some cliffs while a stream gurgled past about five hundred or so feet below. In a word, idyllic. "What a beautiful place," he said to Moragg.
"Yes, but deadly," she replied. The last expedition had three ships land here. Only one made it out."
Drescher walked up with packs for Moragg and Jurzik. "We're ready to head out," he said.
Donning their packs, they followed the rest of the team toward the cliffs. Jurzik pulled out his scanpad and took readings of the area. "Low level energy emissions dead ahead."
"Yes. That's our destination," Drescher said.
They soon found themselves in front of a ruined doorway inset in the cliff-side. "Adamantine steel," Jurzik said as he played his scanpad over it. "I would not like to meet what did this damage. Was this done during the last expedition?"
"No, this was the way they found it."
They entered a doorway and walked down to the control room where several of the crew began scanning the walls, floor, and ceiling. "On the other side of this wall," one of the techs said as he pointed to a blank expanse.
Moragg pulled out a notebook and sat down at a dust-covered expanse of console. After brushing off the surface, she pressed a spot on the console, causing it to light up. Satisfied, she read the notebook then typed in several commands. The wall opened to reveal a room full of multi-colored hexagonal towers with cables coming from their tops. "This way," she said as she headed down a path through the towers.
"This all looks new," Jurzik commented.
"They're ten thousand years old and fake," Drescher replied.
Jurzik followed Drescher, Moragg, and their crew, though a pair of double-doors into an equipment-filled room and stood out of the way, as the others got to work preparing the room for his big game hunt. Jurzik walked around the periphery of the area while they interfaced the hamster ball with the system and activated a TPU bed for him to use. What he saw was impressive. In each of the four corners stood a rather impressive looking security bot. He walked over to the closest one and gave it a tap, but it just stood there like a piece of modern art.
/> "Dammit, don't power-up that circuit yet you fool! You'll..." Drescher yelled but was cut-off by the sound of servos as the four security bots powered up.
Before any of them could react, the bots spun-up their weapons and sprayed the room with gunfire as a security shield went up in front of the hamster ball and the rest of the equipment. Jurzik caught several rounds in the chest, throwing him into the TPU bed. In moments, he and the others were dead...
###
The group from the Asgard looked around as Jurzik finished his story, "Where's your body?" Aerith asked.
"I watched the cleaner bots remove it along with the other bodies and all the equipment. By then, I was in the system, so I was able to stop them from removing the hamster ball. Unlike the rest of the facility, the system likes to keep this section spotless. All I know is I found myself in the system, alone, though I do sense Pauly and the Wraith nearby. I've explored my little world and have gained control over some things, but not others. For instance, I control the security bots," he said as the four automatons stepped out from their corners accompanied by the whine of servos, "but not the bots that took out your ship. Those seem to be under the Wraith's control."
"What do you want from us?" Tannith asked.
"I want off this rock and into an elf synth body. I'm tired of this place and little miss half-elf is going to help me."
"Right, I've only taken a few biocybernetics courses. What you're talking about requires someone like Dr. John Taggart or my cousin Gloria Aymar. I'm pretty much useless for the task you describe."
"I so love an honest person, but you're wrong. You and your aunt are infinitely valuable to me. You may not know this, but there is a third person who is of the caliber necessary to free me from this prison—your father. Everybody thinks of Harm as being just a smuggler, but he's so much more. I plan to use you all as leverage to persuade Harm to get me out of here, so sit back, and relax. He'll be here soon."
Chapter Sixteen
The Septar parked behind the asteroid and prepared to launch the Conquistador. In Shuttle Bay Three, the final supplies had been loaded leaving only the serum for Mauro.
"Here's Doctor Stanley," the captain said as a tall human in a medical uniform walked up with two cases containing spray injectors which she handed to Marta.