the Runner

by Peter Ponzo

CHAPTER 8

  Kriss Cross

  The desk extended from wall to wall and was strewn with papers, books and a console. The wall above the desk was lined with elaborate schematics which illustrated the atomic makeup of various phonarite crystals. Except for this, the rest of the room was sparse and tidy: a table, a counter with kitchen utensils neatly arrayed, two comfortable chairs and one uncomfortable chair by the desk.

  Kevn lay on the cot in the corner, staring at the dimly lit ceiling. Although he had slept very little during the last two days, he couldn't sleep. He was thinking of the trip from C-phon3, the failure of the shipcomp, the need to quickly solve the decay problem and the use of 1-state crystals.

  He rose to get another glass of brandy and the yellow light flashed on the console. He punched the comtab and a vaguely familiar voice responded.

  "Kevn. This is Jan. I need your help. I'm locked in the conduit below the mall."

  "Jan? The conduit below the mall? What on Earth are you doing there?"

  "Kriss asked me to check the retainers for the canopy. I came down and now I can't get up. The door is jammed."

  "Why would Kriss ask you - oh, never mind. I'll be down shortly. Hold on, Jan."

  He closed the phonelink, pulled on his tunic and left. He had no skooter but the mall was not far. He walked swiftly down the ramp, wondering why Kriss had wanted to check the retainers - and why did he send Jan - and why had she phoned him? They weren't close friends. In fact, he hadn't seen her for nearly six months.

  Gravic had mentioned something about the canopy earlier. What was it? DOC had closed it prematurely, after a storm. Did Kriss know that DOC was suffering from phonarite decay? Most probably. Did this check have something to do with that premature closing of the canopy? But why didn't he send a technician? Jan was certainly not a technician. Besides, didn't Jan work for Gravic?

  When he reached the mall he walked to a heavy closed door which lead to the vault below the mall. From there he could reach the communication conduit. He placed his hand firmly against the tablet beside the door and waited for DOC to respond. The door opened, he stepped inside and began to jog down the long interior ramp. When he was at the entrance to the conduit he saw the door; it was closed. This must be the door which Jan had mentioned - jammed. He placed his hand on the tablet and the door slid open at once, much to his surprise. Maybe this wasn't the jammed door.

  It was dark. He stepped inside and was even more surprised to hear the door close behind him. That shouldn't happen. He quickly pushed the interior tablet but the door remained closed. This was clearly the jammed door! Kevn grunted.

  He walked along the wall, feeling his way, and bumped into the console. After running his hands over the smooth surface he mumbled.

  "An old D-standard model. They haven't changed these old consoles for years."

  He punched several comtabs and the conduit lights came on, but very dimly. He repeated the sequence but there was no change; the lights remained dim. DOC wasn't responding. He turned and peered into the dimly lit depths of the conduit. He was quite alone. Where was Jan? He turned to the console and punched several comtabs but DOC refused to open the door. Kevn wiped the dust from his hands. This console had been sitting here for some time without being used. Maybe some local phonarite component had decayed.

  This conduit, beneath the mall, was one of the smaller communication ducts in the Dome. Each duct carried various cables, videolinks, phonelinks and comlinks - and each duct had both a door and a levitator. Maybe the levitator did work.

  He began to walk to the far end of the conduit, examining the ductwork in the dim light. There was no sign of Jan. He reached the levitator and placed his hand over the levitator tablet and the door slid open. Kevn breathed a sigh of relief and entered. At least that was working. He punched the single comtab on the wall and the door closed, the levitator starting upward to the mall level. He leaned wearily against the wall. Although it was some 30 meters to the mall, he could sense the swiftness of the levitation.

  "I don't know where Jan is, but at least I won't have to phone for help," he thought.

  Then the levitator stopped, there was a distant humming, then he felt the cubicle dropping, gaining speed, plummeting in free-fall toward the vault level below. He jumped up and grabbed the struts which held the plastic levitator roof in place. When the levitator hit the ground he was holding himself tightly against the ceiling. The struts bent and snapped and he fell heavily to the floor.

  ______________________________________________________

  He didn't know how long he had been lying flat on the floor; minutes, maybe hours. He pushed himself onto an elbow and looked around. The walls were heavily creased and most of the ceiling was piled on top of him. He slowly rose to his feet, grabbed the side of his head and groaned. He was bleeding and some of the blood was dry and caked. It hadn't been minutes - more like hours.

  He was trapped inside the levitator. There was no comtab to open the door on these levitators. The single comtab simply changed the location of the levitator cab: from vault to mall to vault. When it arrived, the door opened automatically, and stayed that way until the next time the comtab was pressed. However, the door was now closed. In fact the door was so distorted that it would not be an easy job to pry it open. He leaned against the wall opposite the door and thought about it. He could run into the door and perhaps loosen it. Several such runs might just do the trick. He rubbed his elbow. It hurt. So did his side. He didn't relish this door-bashing scheme so he slid down the wall and sat on the floor, to think about it ... and the door fell open with a crash.

  "My lucky day," he said, pushing himself to his feet.

  In a few minutes he was again by the dusty console, talking to DOC. The automaton could not release the door to the conduit and couldn't determine why it had failed. The most recent control check had been two days ago and it was functioning at that time, but DOC promised to interrogate all the slave automatons.

  "Great," Kevn mumbled. He punched several comtabs and heard the sound of rock music.

  "Yeah," said Gry, "who is it?"

  "Gry, you won't believe this, but I'm trapped in the conduit below the mall."

  "Kevn, is that you?" said Gry.

  "Yes, it is I," said Kevn. "Could you get me out? Don't bother with the levitator; it's damaged. The door from the vault is also jammed."

  "Then how ... uh, how do I get you out?"

  "Drop a line down the levitator shaft. I think I can reach it through the roof of the levitator. That's broken too, so I should be able to climb through."

  "Well, how on Earth did that -"

  "Gry, please, I'll tell you the story later. Right now I'd like to get out."

  "Okay, I'm on my way."

  The rock music stopped abruptly. Kevn walked to the levitator, slid against the wall and sat quietly on the floor. Where was Jan? Why had she phoned him and not a technician? Was DOC suffering from decay more severe than Gravic and Sal had imagined?

  ______________________________________________________

  The next morning Kevn, Sal, Gry and Runr had gathered in Gry's room for coffee. Kevn was wearing a white blood-stained scarf wrapped about his head. All were sitting on the floor, surrounded by various tunics, videodisks and other Gry debris. Kevn had explained the strange phone call from Jan and his subsequent misadventure. They all shook their heads. The computer systems in the Dome were becoming dangerously defective.

  Gry gulped his third mug of coffee, pulled his rings. "Well, you guys are the experts. You can't let things ... uh, go on like this. Am I right?"

  "We haven't yet discovered the alpha data necessary to generate 1-states, but we're getting there," said Kevn.

  "At least we know what we're going to call it, once we find it," said Sal with a smile.

  "Oh ... what's that?" said Gry without much enthusiasm.

  "DNA," responded Kevn.

  "I suppose that stands for
something very abstruse," said Gry, parting his hair.

  "Yes. Alphacrystal Nascent Data," said Kevn with a straight face.

  "That's AND, not DNA," said Gry.

  "You see," said Kevn with a serious look, "we begin with the required overall structure of the automaton, in all its complexity. Then we work backward to see what alpha state will generate this final result."

  Sal was smiling behind his hand. Kevn continued. "This backward procedure is reflected in the name of the initial data: DNA instead of AND. Do you see that Gry?"

  Gry put down his mug, stared at the ceiling and thought about it. Sal burst out laughing and Kevn joined in.

  "Okay! Okay! So I'm no phonarite guru," grunted Gry. "So tell me, when are you guys going to fix the ... uh, computers?"

  Kevn stopped laughing and frowned. "The calculations are complex. I've spent years on similar analyses while on K-47. DOC isn't going to repeat these computations overnight - he's not that much faster than LIZ was. In fact I suspect that LIZ could leave him standing at the gate; she was modified to optimize her analytical abilities, you know."

  Runr, who had been sitting quietly on the floor atop a pile of tunics, said "Will you fix LIZ?"

  Kevn stared at Runr for a moment. Sal said "Why not? DOC could help. That's probably a simpler task for DOC than trying to reproduce LIZ's calculations."

  Kevn jumped to his feet. "Let's go out to the landing pad," he said. "We can remove the cortex and bring it into the lab. Once that's repaired then LIZ herself can help with the peripheral repairs."

  Gry grunted. "Why not just patch DOC into K-47. Then you can do it all on board. Even TOM can help."

  Sal jumped to his feet. "Let's do it now!"

  Runr whispered. "Do you think LIZ will talk to me again?"

  Gry leaned over and gently pulled the boy's curls. "Listen kid. When LIZ is in good shape again she'll understand what you did. She may even thank you for doin' it. Maybe I'll come along just to be sure - although the thought of living on that ... uh, miserable ship ain't so great."

  "We'll meet at the Dome exitport in 20 minutes," said Kevn. Then he and Sal left immediately. Gry grabbed his pack and began stuffing it with green coffee powder and cans of greenstew.

  Runr walked to the console and absentmindedly ran his hands over the comtabs, lightly, gently. There was a dancing of lights. "Gry? When master Kevn got stuck in the vault, it wasn't a computer error. DOC says that the door to the vault was intentionally altered, at 21:00 hours last night. He says the levitator was also changed 19 minutes later."