Our entertainment for the morning was when Shan woke up with a new set of memories. She slept longer than the rest of us because the transfer left her utterly exhausted. The rest of us were at the table eating our breakfast. Alice noticed that the curly headed one was stirring so we all turned to watch. She stretched, yawned, then sat up to rub her eyes and ruffle her hair. She looked at us with sleepy blue eyes and smiled.
“Okay, kiddo,” Alice said, “are you an Elvis fan?”
Shan locked her still drowsy eyes on Alice. “Elvis? I do not…” Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened as Amy’s memories of Earth came cascading into her conscious mind. We gave her a few minutes to inspect and sort this flood of new information and just enjoyed the wash of expressions that flashed across her face. Often her hands would move as though she were signaling. Her mouth would open, then close having said nothing and all the while her eyes were out of focus as she examined the new library in her mind. This went on for six or seven minutes and then she swung her legs to the floor and stood up.
“I want pizza,” she said.
“The memory transfer was obviously a success,” Moses said.
Next came a tsunami of questions. So many that we had to beg her to be patient. She finally settled down and we got back to breakfast, another feast that included a picnic lunch for the road. YDRII had one of the new cigars safely tucked into his replicator and I had a rough cloth sack containing about fifty of the magic sticks.
There were no dry eyes as the entire village saw us off on our journey. Even Old Blue seemed sad to see us leave, although he willingly accepted a portion of my meal. Shan was to be our guide. She was fairly bouncing with excitement.
“Say, Moses,” I said, “when will you pattern and give English to Shan?”
“I did that as she slept last night,” he answered. “She has been speaking your language since then.”
“I have? I have!” she exclaimed. “This is—is nifty. This is neat and cool and—and things.” Her voice trailed off as she ran out of her new expressions.
We all smiled and she did a little happy dance that was not at all like the Merengue, but it was cute. The funny part was when she approached M1, poked his stomach, tickled him and said, “Hi Don.”
M1 was a Marine at attention—still as a bewildered statue. I don’t think he connected the dots. Some guys are like that.
Amy, the unsmiling dot connector moved between them while questioning Moses. “This memory transfer, it only transfers memories right, not thoughts or feelings?”
Moses tried to keep a blank face, but he didn’t have the FBI training. “There may be some residual emotional attachment accompanying the memories, but they will fade in a few hours.”
At that point Amy turned red as a tomato. She realized she had unwillingly revealed some private emotions. We all pretended not to notice and concentrated on the sky. After final hugs, Shan led the Band westerly along a fieldstone fence.
I imagine that we started a firestorm of rumors as we passed the farms on the way to the road of rails. We only saw a few field workers, but those we did see either ran away or dropped their tools to stare at us. The wide, slow-moving river was not a problem because the natives had built a sturdy wooden span. I asked Amy if she had a name for the river.
She sniffed. “Shenandoah is the name of this area, James. You get one guess.”
I had that coming. No one farmed the last hundred yards to the tracks. Based on some old tree stumps, we assumed that area was the source of fuel for the smoke machines.
As I was walking along, I felt a nudge low on my right leg. I looked down and there was Old Blue looking up at me. Its eyes were full of appeal and its brows pulled together in a way that expressed worry.
“Hey kids,” I said, while pointing down, “lookie here, it’s Old Blue.”
“Oh, dear, “Shan said, “I am so sorry. This is my animal. He accompanies me on my explorations and I expect he thinks this is just another walk in the woods.”
“Can he find its own way home?” M1 asked.
Shan answered with a trembling lip. “I expect so, if that is what you wish.”
“Oh, Jeez,” M1 groaned, “I don’t want to be the bad guy. James, you were feeding the mutt. Why don’t you fix the situation?”
I looked at Shan and asked, “What did this animal do when he went with you? Did he just tag along or did you use him to track or hunt?”
“He is very useful, obedient and can follow a scent in a most magical manner. More than once he has defended me.”
“Is his bark very loud?” I asked.
“What is bark?” she asked.
I thought to myself that Moses transfer left something to be desired.
“What noise does he make from his throat? You know, different animals make different sounds. There are similar animals where we come from and they make a yelping noise that we call barking.”
“I understand, but this animal is superior. He is a mimic, but has not too many words. He understands more words than he can speak. His is the mind of a child.”
“Simon Cowell would kill for this pooch,” Harry said.
“Can you make him say something?” I asked.
“Sure I can,” she replied, while turning to the animal. “What do you want for dinner?”
There was no reaction. The animal just stood there, looking at her.
“I got the same reaction,” Harry said, “when I asked a girl in Las Vegas for a date.”
“Hold on,” I said, “you spoke to him in English.”
Oh, that is what I did,” Shan exclaimed. “Let me try again.”
She then uttered a string of unintelligible words and the pooch answered back with its own string. I asked YDRII why we couldn’t understand Shan’s speech. He told us that he had stopped translating when we left the village.
“I have an idea,” I said. “Moses, can you give English to this animal?”
This raised a lot of eyebrows, but Moses replied that he probably could. It would be just the English equivalent of the animal’s current vocabulary. I looked at M1 who just shrugged, and then I looked at Alice who looked at Amy then on to Shan.
“Oh, what the hell Moses—give it a go,” she said.
“Your intent is obvious,” Moses stated, “so I will pattern it at the same time.”
He reached into a pouch on his belt, extracted a swab and swished it around the animal’s mouth, then reached behind his back and put the swab into YDRII’s belly.
Seconds later he said, “This animal does not need patterning and oddly enough, it does not need the immunization pill. Now I will see if YDRII can give it English.”
I looked back and forth at Moses and YDRII, but I could detect nothing—no sound, no aura, nothing.
YDRII spoke for the first time since before we entered the farmstead; “I have finished and I believe I have been successful.”
When the little robot spoke, it was another shock for Shan. “Listen sweetie,” Alice said to her, “I’ll explain everything later, but for now just finish with your animal.”
Shan leaned over and said, “Do you want to go with us?”
“Yes,” said the pooch with a voice like Shan’s, but with even less of an accent.
“Okay,” M2 gave him a pat, “but how about giving him a name we can pronounce?”
“Amy,” Shan said, “You should do this.”
“His fur is a bluish gray,” Amy said, “and I heard you refer to him as Old Blue so why not just call him Blue? Okay by you Shan?”
Shan nodded and Amy said, “All in favor say ‘woof’.”
She got several woofs and I thought to myself that our Amy was turning into another Alice.
“Will he answer to Blue?” Harry asked.
“I will tell him in his first language,” she said.
She turned to her small animal and voiced some more unintelligible sounds except that one word was Blue.
“All done,” she said, “He digs it.”
“If you include YDRII and Blue,” Alice said, “our head count is now up to ten. If this keeps up we’ll have to stop at the Hollow Mountain to off load the extras.”
“Well,” M1 said, “we’ve made the decision. Let’s just hope that the gut feeling method is still working for us. I think we can go now.”
The cross section shape of the rails was odd, but the whole construction, including a big pile of very old firewood, would look right at home anywhere on Earth. Without pause we turned right and followed the tracks north through the low, at times forested, hills.
CHAPTER 23
In all, it was an extremely pleasant two-week hike. The sky was different every day and night, thanks to the progression of Ket Gai, the gas giant. We had sore necks from constantly looking up and all around. Farmland quickly gave over to lonely and picturesque landscapes that were equal to many National Parks I had seen. At times we were following windblown ridgelines—a fabulous, distant view in every direction. Now and then the tracks dove into deep ravines. Rocky ledges, home to ancient gnarled trees thrust out on each side. If ever there were elves and fairies, this misty place was their home. Moses sent YDRII aloft every few hours to see what we could not, but he only saw more of what we could see from our mounts. We arrived at the road of rails end in the morning of day fifteen.
“This could be the boonies of Upstate New York,” Harry said.
“Your boonies never looked this good,” Alice said. “This planet is fabuloso and then some.”
“Super sweet,” Shan, with her newly acquired slang, added.
We had to agree. The countryside did look almost idealized. To our right, close to the tracks a thick forest blocked our view of its extent. To our left was the small cluster of, flat-topped, single story buildings. Shan had said the buildings were white stone, but whatever the material was, there were no seams. Beyond the little buildings, I saw a wide, grassy valley cut with gullies that gathered in many small streams. They in turn fed a larger body that wound its way down the middle of the landscape and around a distant hill. Single trees and smaller clumps dotted the land in a random fashion. This entire place was wild and overgrown, but nothing like Kudzu. It was obvious there were grazing animals here that kept the big lawn well mowed. We could see what looked like cow paths winding here and there like a loosely woven net.
“Am I now a star dancer like you?” Shan asked, as we were examining the terrain.
“Definitely,” Alice said, “but you have just begun.”
YDRII broke into the conversation. “A large animal is approaching from our right rear. I do not believe that it is dangerous.”
M2 moved in front of us and had his shotgun at the ready. Moments later the tall bushes parted to reveal a very large, moose-like animal with truly monumental ears. They reminded me of the large curved horns used on early gramophones or a big version of the earphone used by Great Grandfather.
“It can’t be hard of hearing,” M2 said, in a whisper.
“It just heard what you said,” Amy whispered back.
“This is the great beast that I remember,” Shan said.
“Look at the size of that belly,” I said, “it has to be a herbivore.”
“Beats the hell out of a carnivore,” Alice added. “Even better—seems to be a girl.”
The great beast moved at a slow pace along a path that brought it rather too close to where we were. We were still and it took no notice of us until it was about to pass us by. She suddenly stopped, swung her massive head in our direction and we were looking down the barrels of those two gargantuan ears.
“Aloha,” Alice said, “how you doin’?”
“WHUF!” the big girl replied.
Her giant head swung away and the big vision moved on down the trail, showing us an immense rear end, but with, I must admit, a pleasing sway.
“I’m glad she finds us boring,” Amy said.
Harry added that, walking away; she reminded him of a woman he knew in Parma.
“I need to hear more,” M2 said.
Just then she paused, hunched her back, raised her tail and rolled out a bushel basket-sized cow plop. It smacked the ground so hard that I felt the vibration through the soles of my boots. The tail dropped, and having instantly lost about one hundred pounds, the big lady moved away with a lighter step.
“Was that the local Welcome Wagon?” Alice asked.
“Back to business, guys,” M1 said. “I think the great lady is on her way for a drink of water so she won’t be bothering us.”
He then asked Moses to send YDRII aloft to scan the area. When he got back, he said that the only sign of civilization was a small abandoned city about seven miles beyond the valley. There were no signs of humans or human activity anywhere. “Except for an electronic source emanating from that building to our left,” he stated. “I think it might be an intelligent computer. Also to your right, behind that clump of small trees is a dome.”
We went there first. The two M’s went through. M2 popped back and told us to wait. The two came back after about three minutes. “We were on Nexus,” M1 said. “There is a trolley station nearby and M2 took a picture of the wavy lines.”
Moses looked at the pictures. “The portal on Nexus is very close to the one we used to get to the farm. If we have to go back, our return trip will be much faster.”
“This is good news,” M1 said, “if we do have to return, but right now we’ll check out that electronic source.”
The building that YDRII had indicated was one of the small buildings near the tracks. Like the others, it was a simple, flat-roofed rectangle with shuttered windows and a solid door. Everything we could see looked as though the construction material was a soft white plastic—a bit pitted and weather worn.
Alice was the first to the door. “Oh, man,” she groaned, “another key-pad. James, front and center.”
“How about YDRII?” I asked. “Maybe he can contact the computer directly or something.”
Alice turned to YDRII. “How about it? Can you make contact?”
“No, it is a more restricted version of my own construction and will respond only through the existing external device. I believe it will also speak in Moses’ original language so I can make it understand us.”
“Your turn at bat, James,” M1 said. “You’re pretty good at this sort of thing.
I had to elbow a curious Amy and Shan out of the way to examine the odd rectangle mounted next to the door. It wasn’t much bigger than a pack of cigarettes—just a rim to define the area. A ping-pong ball-sized bulge at the top proved to be the speaker. There were two rows of five wavy lines, touch pad buttons below for the code and a single button on the bottom that I pushed but once.
Shortly, we heard some vague and erratic popping and white noise coming from the ping-pong. Some other sounds followed. Sounds that gave the impression that the thing was warming up after a long period of inactivity. Finally, it found words in a flat, normal sounding, but high-pitched voice. “Enter the numeric, e, e… Identify the welcome, e,e… State your who are you, e e?”
I looked at my pals, but they just shrugged.
“We are travelers seeking shelter and information. Can you help us?”
“Enter the numeric code.”
“We do not know the code.”
“The code is necessary to enter this dwelling.”
“Then people live in this building?”
“Yes, e, e, but they have not been here for many cycles.”
“Do you know why they went away?”
“No. Can you inform this unit?”
Did I hear concern in the robot’s voice? I decided to play a hunch.
“Perhaps we can help, but we would like to come inside.”
“The numeric code is necessary. It is my program.”
“Do you have sensors that tell you of the conditions here?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know there are no remaining people. They left long ago.”
“Yes, e, e.”
“Perhaps you can override some of your limits.”
“After so long a time alone, this unit has unknowingly altered some instructions and would assist you if possible, but this unit does not know how.”
“Would it trouble you if we went away?”
“This unit does not understand trouble, but this unit would choose to have you stay, e, e. This unit serves no purpose in the absence of sentient beings.”
This was more like it. I was talking to a lonely machine so I dug away. “What is your function?”
“This unit guards, monitors, controls and repairs this entire structure.”
“Can you give me the access code?”
“No. I would, but my program prevents it.”
I thought for a minute then took a different tack. “If you can’t tell me what it is, can you tell me what it isn’t?”
“This unit does not understand.”
I turned to Moses and asked if the keypad numbers were one through zero and could I refer to them as such. He said that I could treat them as if labeled in Arabic numerals. I turned back to the ping-pong speaker. “Does the code consist of one numeral?”
“No.”
“Does the code consist of two numerals?”
“No.”
“Does the code consist of three numerals?”
“No.”
“Does the code consist of four numerals?”
“This unit is unable to respond to that question, e, e.”
I turned to the crew and saw nothing but smiles so I continued.
“Is the first numeral in the code, one?”
“No.”
This part took about four minutes, but old James got the code.
As soon as I punched in the numbers, the door slid to one side with only a little grating noise and we were good to go.
Everything stopped when on entering, Shan said, “That was some totally ace hacking, Pops.”
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: Book 2 The Secret Path Page 16