“The high powered zerpy’s analyses found an underlying problem that is quickly causing chaos. I have to seal off and therefore permanently disable the sections of the control programs that are causing the trouble. I can’t take the time to get the crew to trust me and do what I know needs to be done, I have to do it - and fast. You guys will insist on analyzing each change in detail first and there’s simply no time for that.
“I’ve set my zerpy Wowseyla the task of preparing changes based on the feedback it’s currently getting from the various systems. For truly sure I expected that to go a lot faster. Only now do I learn that you guys have made big changes in the programs. I understand what you did and why but it’s slowing up my response. Only time, and not much of that, will tell if I’m saving us all or if it’s too late to do that. I’m confident that I won’t cause a disaster but I accept that you’ll want to debate that at length. Gotta go, new analysis information coming in. Hold tight. I’d tell you not to worry but there’s plenty for us all to worry about.” Nerber disconnected.
* * *
A short time later Nerber said, “Dear diary, I am amassing this extensive record of my thoughts to explain my adventures if I don’t survive to do so – and as memory janglers if I do as I would for truth prefer. I will continue while the zerpy processes information and works out rerouted paths for commands.
“I am Nerber to Bang-Boom Shows Certificated but if they ever go searching in the official records they will not find such a one. That doesn’t mean I am a fiction and a fantasy, only that my for truth and for official reasons name is Omtonk. I have used the fake-who-I-am identity Nerber for several years for complicated reasons I will explain at some future time but those who need to follow me back in time will need to know that name. Rempilcarp, it seemed best to disappear for my personal safety. I knew too much and could put too many on the spot.
“For this record, I became a show contestant in part because I worked for a time for PHEW, the company that I see designed the inexcusably complicated and deliberately unlogical changes to dear Whizybeam’s control systems. When I was told how they wanted us to design programs to keep those using them but unaware of their details from making any major corrections I questioned and then I protested that idea. Obviously that would gravely endanger those using the system, whatever it was going to be installed in. I was fired and there were attempts to help me have a lethal accident.
“I reported the general aims of the new plans to the governors without a big fuss because it wasn’t right to put some major project in jeopardy so those who would be at a safe distance could feel better that they were in charge. When I came to suspect that A.D.U. was the company paying PHEW to create those booby-trapped programs I felt I should check that out.
“I also became a contestant in part because I also worked for SHHH, Secret Heroics Headscratch Helmetry, a company devising the most advanced technologies on our planet. We were especially far ahead in zerpy design, testing new, small units with greatly, and I mean greatly, increased and improved abilities. Some of those devices are so useful that the governors have taken exclusive possession of them and, as of last I heard, the company wasn’t even allowed to discuss what those can do, much less how they can do it, with anyone without explicit clearance. I made major contributions to the company but I was forced out by a jealous rival in an administrative position. That really put me in danger.
”At least I had the satisfaction of knowing I hadn’t yet told them anything about some even more powerful new zerpy programs I was working on. Those are mine to develop and sell and they are big-big. I admit that I ‘forget to return’ some test hardware that I fashioned into my super but mini-sized zerpy Wowseyla. All its software though, even the new ideas for what such devices can do, are my own modifications and improvements over anything that existed before. Wowseyla is mine and I am proud as I can be of it and very dependent on it at this time.”
* * *
The three producers paced in the hall outside the security pod. They walked parallel paths, Hasley, then Feedle, then Lacrat. Three steps behind one another to keep them from bumping together at the reverses.
“I checked with Molten in the zerpy servicing room. He moved everything stored in Wilburps in the show’s processors. The zerpy is now turned off and in a storage spot on the wall,” Feedle said. “I stood over them and made Svenly and Venrik do a fast search through what came out of it looking for anything that will tell us about Nerber and any special tricks he was using. They say there’s a lot of good show material but there are also extensive holes in the information. Times when nothing was recorded and the zerpy itself wasn’t aware that it wasn’t operational.”
“Good, that’s the kind of thing we’re looking for,” Hasley said. “Proof that he tampered with the zerpy.”
“What good does it do us if we don’t know what happened at those times?” Lacrat asked. Realizing that wouldn’t take them into a useful discussion he quickly added, “Did we learn anything from zerpy Wilburps that seems relevant to the ship’s current problems, Feedle?”
“They can tell that the zerpy downloaded what all it had stored just before it was transported up. It barely completed that transfer before it was grabbed. But there are no signs that Nerber or anyone tried to erase any stored stuff,” she said.
“What does that mean?” Lacrat asked.
“Someone wanted to be able to learn all that Wilburps recorded but didn’t care if we learned it all too,” Hasley said.
“Do we have any overall conclusion?” Lacrat asked.
Feedle said enthusiastically, “You bet I do. Add it up. Signals Wilburps recorded but couldn’t interpret. Something in the transport record that Biccup can’t explain. The techs’ saying among themselves that Nerber must have a high-powered zerpy with a huge data storage capacity and that has recorded everything from the moment he landed down there. That means Nerber has a big-big amount of usable show material. Which means we will get that from him for our exclusive use. If he gets killed in the process that’s actually to our advantage. Arguments?”
“How could we argue with such an obvious conclusion?” Hasley asked as he stopped to glare at the pod door.
Feedle stopped beside him and glared.
Lacrat stopped beside her, shrugged agreement, and glared.
“Aha!” Hasley said and marched off down the hall. The others shrugged and followed.
* * *
A few minutes later the three producers were back in that hall. Hasley, with Wilburps hovering beside him, went to the pod door and pounded a fist on it to be heard inside, not projecting aggression. The other two stayed down the hall where they might not be obvious but could see and hear everything.
“He asks who is out here and what you want,” Wilburps said.
“Ah, so you are in there, Nerber. I was worried about you when I couldn’t find you to ask if there’s anything I can get you to help you relax after your scary adventure,” Hasley said.
After a moment Wilburps said, “He has what he needs.”
“Tell him I thought that since you shared the thrills with him he might want to talk out some of his remembrances with you, Wilburps. That’s why I brought you here to the door.”
Wilburps said, “He repeats that he has what he needs.”
“Can we talk about what happened to you, Nerber?”
Wilburps relayed the answer. “No. He says he will have no more to say to you by way of me.” Then the zerpy settled quickly to a soft-landing on the floor.
Feedle and Lacrat hurried up. Lacrat stared at the zerpy and asked, “What happened to Wilburps?”
“Nerber demonstrated that he can control things like our zerpies from in there. This ruse won’t work,” Feedle said.
“Is it wise to say that aloud?” Lacrat asked in a whisper.
“He might as well know it is open conflict from now on,” Feedle said through clenched teeth. “It would have been easier if he took Wilburps inside so we could use the zerpy to
take control of things, maybe even kill him and be done with it. Now we’ll do it the messy way and he has no one but himself to blame for his stretched out agony.”
“Isn’t it unwise to say that aloud?” Lacrat whispered.
“I’m determined, therefore he’s as good as dead,” Feedle said. “Clear the way, I’m going to open his shell and make me the owner of a whole bunch of show material.”
She went back up the hall a bit and with considerable scraping and clanking noise dragged a large cloth bag to the door. The others stepped aside and dodged as Wilburps rose into the air and moved a distance down the hall, then it remained hovering there at waist-height.
“Should we record this as show material?” Lacrat asked.
“We’ll have Wilburps do it,” Hasley said.
Feedle took seven large and dangerous looking tools from her bag and spread them on the floor so they would be in easy reach as she got into this. She glared at the closed door, rubbed her hands together in anticipation, and reached for a bazooka-sized device that looked like a drill on steroids.
But that slid out her reach across the floor.
Anticipating what might be about to happen, Lacrat moved down the hall away from the others and from the hovering zerpy. He was concerned about his safety. He could alter any recorded images that showed his fear later.
Growling to encourage herself in her aggression, Feedle grabbed for a large battering ram that was within easy reach.
But then it wasn’t within reach. It slid away, then it and the other six tools rose into the air in a large circular pattern, as if caught in a slow-moving whirlpool swirling around Feedle in its center.
Hasley ducked and dashed down the hall to join Lacrat.
As Feedle grabbed for but missed first one, then another, the tools swirled faster and faster while also beginning to individually rotate, swivel, gyrate, and make chopping moves.
“Give it up, Feedle,” Hasley called.
She hated to admit defeat but as the swirl tightened so she had to fend off free-moving tools Feedle saw she couldn’t win this match but could end up maimed or dead. Not winning positions. She ducked, and when there was a momentary opening in the ring of metal objects she ducked through that and ran down the hall to Wilburps.
To her relief the tools dropped to the floor with considerable clatter rather than chase her. To her annoyance Wilburps moved quickly down the hall ahead of her staying beyond her reach. “Wilburps, settle,” she ordered.
The zerpy continued down the hall.
“Come back here!” she shouted after it.
It promptly reversed direction and moved back toward her – but at high speed, head-height, and with a few little wiggles in its moves that suggested it wasn’t going to stop until it hit something solid or hit something solidly.
She dropped flat on the floor and covered her head with her arms. The zerpy swopped down and passed over her close enough that she could feel it but without it harming her. Directly outside the pod door it settled to a soft landing on the floor as it shut down.
“We need a new plan,” Hasley called from down the hall.
Chapter 40
Eroder sat at the main control room console with Icetop and Yelpam looking over his shoulders. They were focused on two monitors in the console.
“His zerpy got it right. Those glitches were in there from early on and they’ve been causing more and more problems as their effects mess up additional sub-routines,” Icetop said.
“So he is trying to help. He hasn’t gone crazy and isn’t imagining problems where they don’t exist,” Eroder said.
“It makes me so mad I want to hurt somebody that the complete plans for the systems are stored in the ship’s memory but until now we didn’t know that and had no clues to use to try to search them out,” Yelpam said.
“He’s right though that we would, in fact I still do, want to insist on reviewing any changes he proposes to make,” Eroder said. “Maybe because he’s seen how fast things have been going in the bad direction he’s afraid he doesn’t have time to convince us so he feels he has to do it himself but I’m more optimistic that we have enough time to be careful.”
“I’m worried that since he might be working from the default plans but we’ve changes a lot of things with our series of patches that he might destroy us while trying to protect us. I can’t be sure what or how much he’s already changed because he has whole command and control areas blocked off,” Icetop said.
“Knowing that he checked on how much and how fast things were going to bad while he was on the planet explains some of the odd signals we detected. They were his zerpy. He monitored us and was trying to fix things without sabotaging his own agenda. Doing that would have made his whole trip here a waste and wouldn’t have helped because we wouldn’t have believed him then either, not without seeing all the information he had collected with that super-zerpy of his,” Yelpam said.
* * *
The three producers moved quickly and quietly. The armory was part of the small storage room. The ship didn’t carry many weapons but the few that might be needed to maintain order or even to put down an insurrection were locked up here.
“Why do you have a key to the weapons cache?” Lacrat asked Feedle in a whisper but with a nervous need to know.
“Because I’m the one who won’t hesitate to take a strong stand if there are problems,” she said, giving him a hard look.
“It’s time for firm action and weapons are the reinforcers we need to be persuasive right from the start,” Hasley said. “You only have two options, Lacrat. Take a weapon and back us fully, or be the first to have a weapon used on you.”
Lacrat grabbed a weapon from the opened case.
Hasley closed the case, then stuck two more locking mechanism to the door. “We have what we need, we don’t want any of the others to have a fair chance against us. They won’t have a key to these add-on locks that will resist almost any attempt to remove them without the proper keys.
“We’re moving,” Feedle said and headed for the door.
* * *
Nerber checked the monitor when a signal tone sounded, then made an audio connection but kept the video off. “Tell me about it,” was all he said.
“Oh good, you’ve turned off the noisy interference so we can talk. We’ve looked at what you sent us and we see the problems you and your zerpy caught. Good going,” Icetop said. “We understand that you’re worried about things going critical before we can collectively review the changes that should get around the problems. We don’t see things going to too-bad-to-fix as fast you anticipate though. More to the point, since you went to the planet we’ve made a series of big changes to the control programs both to simplify the sequences and to cut around parts we’re afraid of. We’re worried that working with the old layouts you’re making plans without seeing things as they are now and that could doom us.”
“I understand your concern but Wowseyla didn’t do anything without checking the current layouts. It’s working on the fix based on the sequences that are in use, not the original ones.”
“We’re worried that your haste will lead to disastrous mistakes,” Yelpam said.
“And I’m worried that delay will allow disaster to happen.”
“Why do you think we’re almost out of time?” Icetop asked.
“So far what Wowseyla has shown me isn’t reassuring. Some of the changes you’ve made are speeding up the damage. The damage I’m seeing is caused by the original errors and by inputs I can’t explain for certain sure yet but suspect mean there’s another very advanced zerpy introducing signals into the ship’s sequences. Do you have an advanced zerpy that’s not connected into the systems but is monitoring things?”
“Oh, that. We found a zerpy that’s not on any of the equipment lists. We wanted to throw if off the ship but it’s glued itself to a wall,” Yelpam said. “It’s right outside the program edit room which was designed as a backup control room.”
�
�I’m checking on that right now,” Nerber said. “Yes, Wowseyla’s scan confirms it’s a design of about its own vintage, which is to say very cutting edge and probably still top secret. I’ll see what I can do about shutting that down and even getting rid of it when I have some time but right now I have priority concerns. The propulsion, life-support, and main control systems.”
“What is going on here? This is so mad I want to believe that I’m hallucinating it,” Yelpam said more to himself than anyone.
“So that you don’t misunderstand and get hurt, Eroder. We’re taking control of the ship and those who don’t move fast enough when we tell them what to do will be killed.” It was Feedle’s voice heard from across the control room.
* * *
The three producers had rushed into the control room as a group, intent on looming over Eroder and scaring him into submission with a display of unified power. They hadn’t considered that there might be others in there so by the time they saw movement off to the side Icetop and Yelpam were on their way out the second door.
Hasley promptly used the muzzle end of his weapon to push up the muzzle of Feedle’s unit as he said, “Too late, they’re gone but firing that will complicate things for no benefit but your aggressive satisfaction - and that’s not worth it.”
She gave him a dirty look and pulled away to get full control of her weapon back but she didn’t fire it.
Lacrat blinked a lot as he considered what almost happened. He hadn’t believed there would be any reason to use the weapons so he hadn’t let himself think much about the consequences of doing so. Now those considerations were unavoidable.
Feedle pushed a sequence of buttons on the console. She said, “Until further notice I decide who gets to see who is where in here. I know a few things about tactics.”
Far-out Show (9781465735829) Page 42