by Frank Carey
"You... You stopped the legrole."
"I own the legrole. Now, start talking," Ruby said as she dropped Caleb into the chair.
He started talking the moment his butt touched the seat.
She looked up at Agendor. "You! With me. Lieutenant!"
"Ma'am!" the 1st Logash lieutenant said.
"If this creature attempts to escape, shoot it, but try to only wound it,” Ruby said. “The legrole likes to hear its dinner scream."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Ruby turned and walked off with Agendor in tow. When they go out of earshot of Caleb, she stopped and looked at the big Logash. "From the bottom of my heart, assuming I have one, I apologize."
"It was a different time. You weren't there. You weren't even born then. Look, I need to participate in the interrogation."
"And I need to get back to Harmon," she said. She watched as Agendor walked off. His reaction to her apology, though cordial, bothered her.
###
A mini base camp had been established near the closest ship. Here tables, a refrigerator, and computer terminals had been setup while a portable head sat nearby. All the comforts of home nearly one hundred and fifty feet below the Earth's surface. Seeing nobody about, Ruby walked up the gangway into the ship. At the top, she heard voices, so she followed them to their owners.
"Hey, everyone. Find anything?"
"You must read minds," Shanna exclaimed as she walked over to where the Alue was standing. She took her by the arm and led her to a console. "How'd it go with Caleb?"
Ruby shrugged. "Every species seems to have their version of a slime ball. I can't believe I lost my virginity to him. Ewwww!”
"Not to fret," Harm said from a seat near the presumed front of the room. "Your secret is safe with us."
Shanna pointed to the console and the labels covering it. "Can you read those?"
Ruby peered down. "Yep. Let's see, 'Engine Status,' 'Coolant Levels,' 'Field Generator Status.'" She looked up and pointed to other stations. "This is engineering, that's communications, that one is weapons, and the elf is sitting behind navigation and helm.” She leaned closer to one console, placing her hand on the console in the process. The ship came alive.
"I suspected as much," Harm said while dropping a hacker ball on his console. "Don't move your hand for just a second," he said while typing something. "Okay, you can let go now."
Ruby complied, but the consoles remained active. Harm tapped a command into the datapad and all the console labels changed to League Standard as did the displays.
"He's definitely a keeper," Nebs said.
Harm bowed as he got up and walked over to where his team poured over the controls. "I'm going to engineering to see how Rutile is doing. Ruby, I know it's been a trying day, but would you care to join me?"
Ruby smiled. "Sure. Feel like giving a girl a tour?"
"My pleasure," Harm replied, taking her arm and leading her into the ship. As they walked, Harmon told her about what they found out so far. "We think these are the crew’s quarters, galley, and life support. Back here, at the center of the ship, is engineering.
"What about data processing and network?"
"There is no central computer, at least none that we can find. As for a network, it's primitive. I was able to augment it with equipment I had aboard the Algonquin. The League is generations beyond what your species would call a computer system."
"Then how did they get these ships to work?"
"I think your people were the missing link. When you and Caleb got close enough, I think you formed a network that allowed you two to mate, so to speak. Get enough of you in a ship and I think the people and the ship connect together, performing the same function as the setup I put into place."
"He's right," Rutile said as she emerged from a room. "The engines just powered up. Ruby, I think they're responding to your presence."
Ruby leaned against a bulkhead and slid to a sitting position on the floor. "Someone can wake me up now. I want to go back to keeping Chasm safe. This shit is just getting too real."
Harm sat down next to her. "You must be like the leaf on the wind."
"Wow, elf, that is so deep. You're telling me to Alue up and stop whining, is that it?"
He nodded, vigorously.
"Fine. What do you need me to do?"
He got up, then reached down to help her. Together, they headed to engineering with Rutile close behind.
###
Clint threw the handset across the tent and into a canvas wall while looking to the heavens. He stood there for at least a minute before unleashing an inhuman scream.
"Mr. Simms, are you OK?" Eduardo asked as he and several members of site security ran into his tent with guns drawn.
"I'm fine. Sorry about yelling. I'm just frustrated with my employers and their insanity."
The roar of a ship lifting off was followed by Ciara pushing her way into the tent. "Get out of my way. Clint, what the hell is going on?"
"Was that Caleb leaving?"
"Yes. He's OffSec's problem now. Speaking of problems, why is there an armed security force standing in our tent?"
"Oh, that. Eduardo, you can go now."
"Are you sure?" Eduardo asked while glancing at an obviously angry Ciara.
"Get out," she growled.
Eduardo and his troops made a hasty exit.
She looked at her husband and tilted her head a little more than five degrees.
"I called OffSec to report about the children getting loose in the InterWeb. Their solution was to round them up. Unfortunately, the Alue got wind of this and refused to help while sheltering the kids. Meanwhile, the kids seem to have their parent's memories, so they told all the other Alue about Ruby's transformation. Now, we have dozens of corporeal Alue running around wreaking havoc to protect the kids."
"And?"
"And they blame me for filing the report."
She held out her hand. Hesitantly, he placed the comm unit in her hand before taking a step backwards. She punched in a code.
"This is Devlin. Let me speak to Security Chief Donovan, please. Yes, I'll hold. Donny? Ciara. Shut down the search for the Alue kids. They are not a threat... They're just kids running rampant. See if the Alue can round them up, or at least, contain them. Have a good one." She handed the unit back to her husband while tilting her head to the other side.
"Sorry. I should have waited for you," Clint said.
"Very good. At the Cube, you are the security god. Out here in the wild, you need to ask me for help. I'm used to the bullshit."
"Love you."
"Love you more."
"What happened with Caleb?"
Ciara plopped down into a seat and kicked-off her shoes, a sign that she desperately needed a neck rub, so he grabbed her a tea before getting to work. "Oh, you evil man," she purred as she melted into her specially delivered overstuffed chair.
"So, what happened?"
"I was working the nice-girl scenario with the little shit when Ruby stepped in with the demon from hell gambit, only she wasn't kidding. Agendor and I fully expected to get an Alue internal anatomy lesson at any moment. Instead, she scared him so badly that he folded like a house of cards. After she left, the bastard opened up and spilled everything. He was so scared that he continued to spill while they loaded him on the shuttle."
"What did he say?"
Basically, the Alue on the other side consider us barely sapient creatures who are only useful for the creation of the Alue's breeding ground. The Logash had already created what the Alue needed, so bye-bye Logash."
"Only the Alue didn't count on a Logash detonating the planet."
"Or seeding the galaxy with Logash genetics. He said that things went to shit when the main force didn't return from the home universe. Someone in charge decided to follow the seed ships in the hope they would seed a planet and produce a civilization advanced enough to build a network. If that didn't work, the hope was the followers would encounter a planet with the
required hardware."
"How long do Alue live?"
"Millions of years, but they can die, so they need to breed to repopulate."
Clint pulled up a chair in front of Ciara's so he could work on her feet. "Shit, what about the grange? How do they fit into all this?" Clint asked, referring to the race that had tried to invade the League several years ago. They were a warrior people bent on conquering any people they could find using their inter-reality bridges. Clint read the reports on how Harmon had stopped them and saved the League. They hadn’t been seen again except for a brief visit during the Suit Fighting League Championship.
"Don't know," Ciara said, almost asleep. "There are just too many possible scenarios. We need to figure out why and how that probe was sent here. According to Harm and Rutile, the probe shares tech with the Logash, League, and Alue, which means they have samples of advanced technologies. Now, I would love to be able to assume the Alue would use that tech to fix their breeding problem, but I just don’t have that luxury. I have to assume the worst."
"That they want to use our verse as a breeding ground."
"Exactly. Hmmmm, you can stop doing that in about twenty years."
"Yes, dear," Clint said as he leaned over and kissed his wife's head before returning to the foot massage.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After returning from Earth, Harm got word that Malg, Tessa, Sil, and Qui had found the coordinates of their Homeworld. A hyperspeed probe had been dispatched and the data was already streaming back to the Cube for analysis. Harm made his way to the Data Analysis Lab to start on the study.
The Data Analysis Lab was the Cube's heaviest power user. Walking in, one was immediately struck by the number of monitor screens in the room. At last count, there were twenty-four computer stations, each with a state of the art quantum computer attached to nine 23-inch monitors in a 3x3 configuration. All twenty-four stations were attached to the Cube's 96-core quantum mainframe via an ultra-secure, terabit fiber optic link. In the room's walls were four-hundred petabyte-sized optical drives with enough capacity to store every photo, video, audio, and text file ever created anywhere in the League. It was the most powerful computing center known in this part of the galaxy.
Much to the irritation of the other users, Harm was slowing it down.
A lot.
"Harmon!" Ciara yelled from the entryway. "Outside! Now!"
With head hung, Harm shut down the simulation he was running and walked outside.
The other analysts cheered.
Once outside, Ciara motioned for him to join her in a side alcove. "What the hell are you doing, elf? I'm getting complaints from computer users across the station. I'm even getting complaints from ship's captains, including your daughter. Ever face an angry female elfling?"
Harm raised one eyebrow.
"Forget that. What the hell are you doing in there? No one, except maybe the Creator, needs that much computer resource."
"We got back the data from the probe we sent to what was left of the Logash homeworld."
"I hear there's nothing much there."
"It's an asteroid field with rocks no bigger than a baseball."
"And you're using our computers to do what? Plot the trajectory of rocks?"
"No. I can do that with my commlink."
"Then what?"
"I think that when Delna blew the planet, she damaged the space-time barrier between our universe and the Alue universe. That damage is what trapped the surviving Alue on this side of the barrier. I don't think it's a matter of sheer power to cross the barrier. Instead, we have to figure out the code to bypass the damage."
Ciara frowned. "Huh?"
"Think of the barrier as being one of those games you play at the carnival. You start out with small prizes and work your way up to giant ones as you unlock the secrets of the game. I think someone on the other side is doing just that. They are starting out opening small gates. As they learn more secrets, they can open bigger gates."
"What does this have to do with hogging computer capacity?"
"We don't have time to mimic what the Alue are doing, nor do I have time to write a comprehensive simulation of the barrier separating the two 'verses, so I'm brute forcing a simulation which will get me close enough to create a small doorway. Unfortunately, I'm coming up against a computing wall."
"What else can you do?"
"I could ask an Alue to go into the system and manually route the data. This would increase my computing speed by a factor of ten."
"Absolutely not! No Alue is allowed back into the system until the directorship discusses the ramifications of the information we've received from the Logash. This includes data from the probe."
"You don't trust the Alue?"
"No. I can't afford to. I have the lives of billions of people to worry about."
"Odd, you trusted me even though I was a smuggler, hacker, thief, and certifiably nuts."
"You're my friend."
"And the Alue are mine."
Ciara turned and walked away. "Find another way."
Harm watched her leave, his hearts heavy with sadness at what she had just said.
"Well that sucks."
Harm turned around in time to see Ruby and Roscoe walk out from another alcove. "How much of that did you hear?" he asked.
"All of it," Ruby said. "You still trust us, don't you?"
Harm looked at his friends, his jaws clenching with suppressed rage. He remembered the first time he met Ruby. Her companion, now his son-in-law, Chasm, had just saved his life from the ravaging nanites invading his body. She was there in her non-corporeal form. She became part of Harm’s family as did Chasm.
Roscoe, on the other hand, used to work as the NAVComp on Harm’s ship, the Conquistador. Harm remembered when Roscoe had single-handedly stopped an attacking force of grange from entering the League’s InterWebs through the network connections of the League Warship Protector, saving the ship and its crew in the process.
Both Alue had proven themselves not only in his eyes, but the eyes of many League citizens.
He walked over to a wall comm and tapped in a code. "Bob, are you busy?"
"Of course not, Harmon, my old friend. Are you coming for a visit?"
"Yes, Bob, I am, and I'm bringing some friends. I'll see you in twenty. Harm out." He clicked the comm off. "You two busy?"
"Nope," Ruby replied while Roscoe shook his head.
"This way," Harm said as he headed down the corridor toward the docking area.
###
A large sphere sat in front of the shuttle. A thousand meters in diameter, featureless except for a single docking port, it was surrounded by computer-controlled weapons satellites, several of which had locked onto the small ship. Off to the side was one of the large asteroids orbiting the nearby white dwarf star.
Harm opened a secure link. "Harmon Aymar."
The weapons turned away as the docking port lit up.
"Sir, what is this place?" Roscoe asked.
"It's the biggest secret the League still maintains. Normally, it sits here cloaked, protected by the satellites and the weapons systems inside the asteroid. It only comes out when visitors come a calling."
"What's inside?"
"A myth."
Harm docked the shuttle. As they headed to the hatch, Harm stopped them. "Needless to say, what you are about to experience is ten notches above ultra-top secret, so don't tell anyone."
"Why are you showing this to us?" Ruby asked, her eyebrows making a beeline to the top of her head.
"To answer your question."
They walked through the lock and found themselves in total darkness except for a single, six-foot wide pool of bright light surrounding them.
"Years ago, Gloria Aymar fooled the League into thinking she was an honest to God artificial intelligence. The computer engineering community was sure we had succeeded in creating enough transistor density to spontaneously form an AI. We were wrong.”
"Then we showed
up and pulled the same shit," Roscoe said. "For years, we foolishly tried to hide our true selves from your kind."
"Don't feel bad. No one knows why, but every sapient race in the League wanted an AI to appear. The psychologists have studied the phenomenon to death, yet can't find an underlying reason why. Lights."
The room became illuminated. At the center of the room was a hundred-foot wide glass sphere partially imbedded in the floor. In front of the sphere was a single computer console. Images appeared and disappeared inside the sphere.
Ruby and Roscoe froze in place. "That's a hamster ball," Ruby said.
Harm walked over to the glass orb and ran his hand over it. Inside, balls of plasma chased after the appendage. "Yes, it is. It won't hurt you," he said.
Ruby and Roscoe hesitated, then slowly walked up to the sphere. As they got close, the scene inside shifted to a pastoral forest glen complete with unicorns munching grass while dragons flew overhead. One of the unicorns walked over and nuzzled the glass between it and Ruby.
"Several years ago, I found myself in a funk. Something I didn't understand was happening between me and Losira, so I decided to start a project. As you know, I have a small interest in computers..."
Ruby snorted. "Small? Are you kidding?"
"So I revisited the Transistor Density Paradox--why haven't any true AIs appeared? The Cube has several systems which are way beyond the density limit, yet no AI has ever been reported either by an Alue or a corporeal citizen."
Another unicorn sauntered over.
"Intrigued, I set out to increase both the density and size of a computer using advanced materials, FTL technology, cryogenics, and fiber communications. In the end, I bought this pod and installed the system, then I waited."