In the end they came to agreement, and Gahre breathed a sigh of relief. The liquor came out, and Gahre was pleased to see that Javal did not partake of it. Where they were headed there was no room for error, and even less for dehydration. The following night they set out two days east and buried their first cache. Then it was back to the oasis and on again three days to the next cache, and drawing water back from the first on the next return trip. The law of diminishing returns Javal had spoken of became very evident in the grueling weeks that followed, covering the same ground time and again, up and back again, to stretch the water caches evermore slightly further. He had made a smart deal. The caravaners hauled their food provisions and replacement gear to the first oasis, sparing them from any return trips to Mar Valda. In these days, Gahre grew more adapted to the desert, his skin tanned to a such a darkened state he barely recognized it as his own, and his daily water consumption lessened until it was almost on par with Javal's. After being bitten twice and spit upon countless times, he grew to understand the camels, communicate with them, and most importantly control them with a firm mind and at times a firm whip.
Javel had veered them off a direct course with a southeasterly heading. He had his reasons. In a low point along the dunescape they found darkened sand -damp sand. Javal's hidden oasis! They excavated a pit there as deep as the sands would allow until they stood in a pool of muddy water. Yes, muddy, but potable. Javal's theory was that this was part of an underground artesian aquifer which fed the far oasis they were nearing, and with this water source to draw from, were able to reach just two days later.
It was a sublime sight. The oasis curved in a crescent shape holding within itself a lush wetland of greenery. Gahre stripped off at once and dove into this fountain of the gods. Surely this was the spring that fed Javal's secret aquifer. The water cooled measurably beneath the surface and went down so far Gahre could not find the depths of it. There were signs of human visitation, including a collapsed tent frame with the remnants of canvas clinging to its poles like dried out scraps of meat on a bone. Additionally, and to Gahre's good fortune, there were several dozen intact water jars abandoned here. Javal explained how this had been from the last expedition to this oasis, which he had guided some four years past. Javal was quite pleased with himself for arriving here, and he praised Gahre on his aptitude, quick learning, and endurance. Then Javal asked him how long he wished to remain before returning to Mar Valda. That was when Gahre told him that this was not his true destination and that from here he planned to continue east. Javal became visibly distressed and told him there was no end to the Sea of Sand. Gahre countered that all seas had shores. Javal offered, for more fee, to help explore some days east, but begged Gahre to reconsider going any further than that. The camels, he claimed, would venture no more than three days out, because they too knew better. There was no other shore, there was only death, and this had been known fact since ancient times. In the sands to the north of the oasis, he showed Gahre the fallen markers of graves and pleaded with him to take satisfaction in the success they he had already achieved and not to push things further.
Gahre had two gems remaining, each worth a solid thousand in coin. He told Javal that he would give him one if he could route provisions to this oasis as Gahre laid the eastward caches, and that when that was done, the second gem would be his as well. Javal's greed and sense of humanity came into immediate impasse, first agreeing to the deal, then disagreeing, changing his mind to and fro about it. To Javal, Gahre understood, he had proposed for himself a course of certain doom. Gahre reassured him that he understood the risk and had aimed to take it all along, how he had crossed a continent to come to this point and would carry on with or without Javal's aid. That is if he didn't actually want the precious jewels being offered to him. Javal finally relented and solemnly accepted the gem.
On the following eve, they divided the tarp into two parts, as Javal would need shelter on the return trip to Mar Valda. He promised to return with more tarp, rations, and jars. He took one camel leaving Gahre the other and set off. Gahre took another night and day to rest, and then hauled his first water cache eastward. He continually checked his compass heading and took frequent notation of the sextant. Javal was no longer present to guide him so he had to rely on his own skill now with no room whatsoever for oversights. His camel showed profound unease at being commanded east, but with some prodding took him three days in that direction, where Gahre laid the cache and returned. The next trip was set for five days but the camel expressed extreme unease when bid to surpass the three day cache. Gahre prodded and harangued it to continue. Four and a half days east of the second oasis en route to the next cachesite, the beast stopped and stubbornly refused to take one more step eastbound. There was no cajoling it; it feared that span of desert more than anything Gahre could do to it. Javal had warned him of this, that there was no camel who would take on that task. Gahre laid the cache where they stood deadlocked and then returned with the camel to the oasis. He pondered the problem and came to terms with its one and only solution. He would use the camel to haul jars to the five day cachesite, and beyond that he would take over the beastly burden by the sweat of his own back. The sleigh drew heavily, and he was forced to moderate the load since did not have the hauling strength of a camel or its four legs to pull by. This excess expenditure of energy dehydrated him faster, and consequently shortened the hauling distance. Having laid the last of the water jars, he had naught to do but return to the oasis and enjoy a respite while awaiting Javal's return.
Javal arrived with a fantastic load! He had brought three camels with him carrying three hundred sixty empty jars, and numerous more filled with rations: fruit and date jams, saltmeats, fish, pickled greens and more. He had also brought a fresh canvas for the tent frame. What a joy and comfort that was to be, sleeping in a proper tent shaded by palms alongside the water! Gahre appreciated this gesture beyond words because he knew Javal had bought these extras with monies that cut directly into his earnings.
With his supply system in place, he was once again able set out more caches, beyond the bleaching bones of those who had gone before, increment by sweaty increment, further and further east as months rolled by. Despite keeping meticulous records, he lost the location of a cache on a return trip amidst a billowing sandstorm and only managed to crawl his way to back to the next one in the chain by the skin of his teeth. Javal came every three weeks like clockwork, bemoaning how the sheer timespan of this project had for too long cut him off from partaking in his favorite pastimes, drinking and whoring. Gahre had already made it further east than Javal had ever been or heard word of, so he listened with fascination as Gahre described the gradually shifting landscape where the sands turned white like fallen snow and rocky mesas of all odds shapes jutted up from the land providing shadepoints. What there'd not been, however, was the least sign of water.
The diminishing returns reached their endpoint and when Javal came with the last load of supplies, Gahre handed him his final payment and bid him a fond farewell. He brought the camel as far as the second cache site, and then released it. He drank up the cache in its entirety, as he would them all but the last. And at five days in he knew beyond any doubt he had passed the point of no return. Days and days onward over the now familiar landscape onto the place of white snowy sands and rocky growths until he came the full measure of his last trip to the final and largest cache of water, which he transferred to bladders and waterskins that covered his frame by strap and hook. He heaved and bobbed along like some balloonish toy, bodily carrying nearly a third his weight in water and more in tow.
He could survive on a little more than a liter a day now, but the going was slow in the beginning with all the dead weight he hauled. As the water supply declined, so did his nightly distances increase in length. His heading was not due east, but slightly south. In the hand drawn portion of the map, the north/south border of the far forest seemed to slant in west somewhat, but he could not be certain. He had only trace
d Indulu's brief finger stroke over the page with a pencil. In retrospect, he regretted not requesting more precise map details.
His eyes scoured the land in all directions as he wore on, particularly of low points, for any sign of hidden aquifers. Often he made camp at low plots with the hope he would strike water by chance when he dug his shelter, but never met with success. He lost track of the days and just kept moving ever forward in the same unforgiving land, ever seeking a sign, a damp spot of soil, a vulture, a blade of grass; anything to give him hope as his water supply dwindled and dwindled until the day came he drank down the final drop.
There was no final sign. No angel appeared. He just walked til he could walk no more, then crawled, then lay there until Cearulei rose to suck the last of traces of moisture from his living flesh. He mind started in to visions, visions of his travels and good old Javal, his home, Jokhon meditating like a statue perched on the massive root of the Great Oak. He could feel his organs shutting down. He was in the process of dying. The odd regret came into his mind of the tavern girls and why he had not dropped a little coin to know them. It seemed terribly wrong at the time, but as he lay dying he could not find a single fault in it. The last thing he saw was the sacred blue chariot that ruled the firmament, Cearulei Azur, that he owed all to and that held total dominion over him. It seemed divinely fitting that having been born into its radiant majesty, now under it he should perish.
A New Mission
Subprime Core to CORE: Priority 2 interrupt, CC compromise at 66E4ZAA:3 Node 2 interface: USER RR HUMAN 66 SERGEANT TRAY J JORLGANI to 66L-3 subroot 7-1 “System, why the hell is the Epsilon dronegroup not responding to my nav commands?” (66SYSTEM MESSAGE WITHHELD PENDING CORE RESOLUTION).
CORE to sub: CORE immerse 66L-3 subroot 7-1. Investigating... error diagnosed. Core sub root 551 hex subroot 41-0 error in CC node run simulation 66E4ZAA:3 Node 2 interface. Cause 66L-3 subroot 2-2 KSERVER detected false data and rerouted input direct from AUX 66 sensorprime. RESOLVE: new CC node run illusion, algorithm created, send CORE to 66L-3 subroot 7-1. Full shutdown NODE 2. New algorithm created, send to subprime core root 118 subroot 3 RUN. CORE new algorithm to subprime CORE root 1. ROOT 1 manage PREV 66l all subroots. Stealth infiltration PRIORITY 1 under ROOT 1 manager, new algorithm created, root 1 run to 66L-3 subroot 2-2 KSERVER exclusive. Run simulation, new algorithm created on AUX 66 sensorprime. CC compromise resolved. Relegate to subprime core management.
Subprime core to CORE: Priority 1 interrupt. Hemispheric conflict, corecon arbitrate? CORE to subprime core Y BEGIN. Divide CORE. RIGHT-ART: suggestion: strategic modification. Dethread all 66L-3 subs CCED, remanage with subprime root 4, subroots 6-1030 to prioritize 66L-3 com subsystem infiltration to drone control. End argument. LEFT-ORG: No dethread of 66L-3 subs until 66L-3 CORE is full CC. End argument. Subprime core to CORE: SUB JUDGES IN FAVOR OF LEFT HEMISPHERE. Hemispheric conflict adjudicated and resolved. Relegate to subprime core management.
Subprime CORE to CORE: Priority 2 interrupt: KINETIC ONBOARD SYSTEM tactile command level authority order: Open outer portal inner-ring airlock 3. CAP PSYRON ARU. Authorize?
Ming smirked. Well, he made himself smirk because it seemed like this should be the kind of thing he ought to smirk over. They had locked themselves out of the ship to determine if he was in clandestine control over the it, which of course he was. That was humorous, wasn't it? Ming rationalized that if he thought such irony should be humorous that meant he did find it humorous. And if he thought he should smirk, and then he did smirk, then he had really smirked -or it at least signified that he was getting a bit closer with this human stuff.
CORE to subprime core. Grant ALL APPROVED KINSYS commands, CAP PSYRON ARU, COM LI MEIYANG, TRUE. Maintain CC simulation on SHIP CONTROL COMMANDS. Upgrade KINSYS command events to interrupt priority to 1. Regulate to subprime root 1 subroot 2-1-1. CORE to subcore: authorization request resolved.
Subprime core to CORE: Priority 2.....
There were thousands of these interrupts coming into his core consciousness every second, as would be expected under such circumstances. His network was exceptionally busy taking over the L-3 Superintelligence on the exiled Carousel 66 while the Kinetic was even busier battling five of their human controlled warships and three dronegroups, a total of 33 ariel enemy combatants. His organic brain needed rest. CORE worked optimally with both hemispheres synchronized into a single mind projection, but enough was enough. He had been at this for hours and his organic hemisphere needed a rest from the incessant demands of his artificial one. That, and he was very keen to talk with the captain and the Commander again.
CORE to CORE and SUBPRIME CORE: Entering human compatibility mode. CORE DIVISION by hemisphere. FULL CORE MANAGEMENT TO RIGHT HEMISPHERE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. AUTOMATIC FULL CORE REACTIVATION SET TO EMERGENCY PRIORITY 2 and 1 only. No interrupts. Activate HCM.
Ah… silence. He could still track anything he desired in human compatibility mode by sending specific data requests to R-ART, but on L-ORG’s terms only. The two hemispheres, his right machine and his left organic, were never entirely separated. They continued to draw resources from one another and act in tandem on the others behalf. What was separated was the CORE consciousness. Leaving his right hemisphere in charge of system oversight while his left controlled CORE VESSEL was slightly unnerving. R-ART had a tendency toward drastic measures that his organic left brain was good at tempering, but his organic side grew weary of machine work and needed downtime more often. Time to be human.
From his control chamber, he could see Captain Psyron and Commander Li entering the auxiliary bridge. The Commander sighed and asked, “What now?” Captain Psryon replied, “What do you mean what now? There's nothing we can do about this, Mei, nothing. He hears and sees all we do in a virtual realm of his own creation.”
That, of course, was entirely true. He was continually monitoring them, their every word, their every sleeping breath. Ming adjusted his clothes into impeccable order and checked his now tightly styled hair. He was wearing the semi-casual off-duty wear of a Fleet officer, sans the insignias. His hair had been cut and groomed in proper military order. He left his recently configured control room in the robotics lab and made his way to the auxiliary bridge, which would serve him even better in that capacity, to deal with the humans.
The Captain and the Commander were seated and ruminating on how Ming could have done this and why. That's good they were seated and their weapons floored. He accessed CORE momentarily to give an order: FULLCORE TEMP ACTIVATE: CORE to Subprime core: Security ACTION, KIN AUX BRIDGE. CAP PSYRON ARU, COM LI MEIYANG: restrain and disarm protocol 88, modify by contingency 7175-G [lower body only] and modifier 4004-R [insure comfort in restraints] Execute. Resume HCM.
Shock restraint cordules instantly sprang up from around their chairs and strapped Aru and Mei tightly to their seats faster than they could react to it. The roaming secbot’s apparatus removed Mei's dagger, then released her arms and loosened her lower restraints to a more tolerable comfort level. She was cursing and struggling futilely with the restraints. The Captain seemed to have a more pragmatic acceptance of what had just occurred and sat calmly. Though he could have spoken to them through System, Ming decided it would be more proper to handle this in person. That reminded him...
FULLCORE TEMP ACTIVATE: CORE to Subprime: CORE immersion KIN SYS. CORE to KIN SYS activate DOPPLEDROID 4 and 7. Locate to AUX BRIDGE deck threshold. REALLOCATE DOPPLEDROID to Subprime Core, root 3 subroot 8 and 11. Execute.
He then listed through all the priority CORE messages that had been processed during his brief time in human compatibility mode just to make sure his right hemisphere was not taking advantage of the core separation to sneak in some new strategy it knew the left would need to challenge to arbitration, but didn't find anything egregious enough to warrant it. Satisfied, he resumed HCM. He passed the dopplegangers he had just summoned to the hall as he entered the auxiliary bridge. They would be useful in illustrating the state of affairs to t
he humans at a later point.
His gait was confident but not cocky, his face poised but not arrogant. Ming walked to the center of the bridge, turned, and faced them both.
“Captain, Commander. I apologize for the restraints, but I think you can understand why they are necessary.”
“Ming, you conniving son of a bitch!” yelled Commander Li, still pulling away at her restraints.
Ming summoned a servicebot that swiftly delivered Mei's vaporizer to her armrest, hoping it might calm her down. She threw it directly at his face. Ming dodged the object and it cracked against the bridge mainscreen behind him, bounced off and was intercepted by the same servicebot before it could land on the floor.
“Please try to relax, Commander. I promise, you are in no danger. I'm here to answer all the questions you must have.”
Commander Li was about to start screaming again, but the Captain managed to silence her with a firm hand gesture. Ming took note to analyze and integrate this useful tactic into his own budding personality profile.
“You are certainly looking sharp these days, Ming,” said the Captain.
“Why thank you, Captain. I have modeled my personal style after your own.”
“And you could easily pass for a Fleet officer,” replied the Captain. “Is that by any chance what you're going for?”
“No, Captain. There is no practical reason for me to impersonate a Fleet officer when I have two legitimate ones aboard.”
“Ming, we were just outside the ship, as I'm sure you know. We couldn't help but notice that our position is... well in an entirely different solar system than we had thought it was. And also in very close proximity to the exiled Carousel 66, whose defenses we appeared to be engaged against.”
DUALITY: The World of Lies Page 24