“Fleetcomm at Althaea Base… who is this?” demanded a voice.
Maddi raised an eyebrow. This will be interesting…
“This is the Crater Zero Zero Zero Two cybernism in Major Colonel Vekta Rentclifv’s personal residence at Base Temporaries,” Prater explained. “The start of a transmission came through the Fiftheye from the Nexus, but it was cut off.”
“The… who, the what? Er… yeah, that’s what it looks like here, too,” the person replied.
“Who is this?” Cory demanded, hands on her hips. “You have to get that connection back to us!”
“I beg your pardon?” the operator said, surprised. “And by the way, what is a cybernism? Who are you?”
“Apologies,” Maddi said quickly, forestalling another Cory explosion. “This is Lieutenant Hewett of the Amaterasu, currently guardian to the Colonel's twin children. You may think of a cybernism as a fancy computer. The other speaker is Rentclifv’s daughter, Velcor Rentclifv. The children are distressed because they heard their father’s voice.”
“Oh, I see,” the operator murmured, sighing heavily. “Well, the transmission wasn’t even for you. It was diverted accidentally. In fact, it was for the ComGen. We received a bit more but I cannot reveal that to you, of course. I apologize for the mix-up.”
Maddi pinched the node closed before either of the twins could speak. “See, it wasn't for you. I'm sure he'll call soon.” She sighed deeply and walked away. I wonder how long I have to put up with these brats, she mused as hissing sounds ensued behind her.
The twins let her go, but as one, they decided to camp out near the fixed node, fully convinced their father would be calling back any second.
You have displeased the gods, O Marduk, and you shall be punished severely, Cory thought blackly, but she couldn’t remember where she’d read that. Mythology of Persia or Babylon? Darn, Crater would know! The twins had lived with the original cybernism, Crater 0001, for six months.
Incompetent, that lieutenant person, Story was thinking, then muttered aloud to qer sister, “It'll be any moment. After he talks with the Commander General, he'll call us.”
No one spoke for a minute. The twins were busy practicing what they called “furious thinking.” They also expected Prater to evaluate the situation, though they didn’t have any confidence in its thought patterns. And to their estimation, Lieutenant Maddi Hewatt, wherever she'd gone to, had never shown them any evidence of ever having a useful thought.
“He will call,” Prater echoed.
The twins as one nodded, even as they continued to scowl. But they had calmed down, had forgotten about the operator, and now considered their options carefully. Maybe Bapa didn’t mean to call us, they thought together through their twin-bond. Maybe there’s some trouble he had to tell the General about and couldn’t tell us. Yeah, that’s it.
“I think maybe he won’t call back,” Cory said aloud, frowning. “Something really bad happened out there and he couldn’t take time to call us. He accidentally keyed our sequence, then cut it and re-keyed for the Commander General.”
Maddi — having returned to the doorway of the common room — shifted her weight to the other foot. “How do you know something bad happened? It could have just been a report.”
“We know,” Story snapped. “We feel something wrong.”
“You’re guessing!”
“No, we aren’t,” Cory insisted, taking a threatening step toward the woman. “We can sense it!” Both eleven-year-olds drew themselves up defiantly.
“You can’t sense any such thing. Colonel Rentclifv is dozens of light years away,” Maddi pointed out, already in a losing battle. The twins could be fiercely stubborn and had been known to readily abandoned reason whenever they felt like it.
“We can too!” Cory retorted, stabbing her finger in the air at Maddi. “We have telepathy and we can—” Too late, she remembered that the Fleet officer did not know they had developed their telepathic powers. She clapped a hand over her mouth.
‘Oh, Cor,” Story muttered, sighing.
“You what?” Maddi screeched at them indignantly. “How do you even know about… why do you think… what’s going on here?” She came away from the wall she’d been leaning on, hands on her hips, confronting the children.
“We know, we know, all right?” Story countered, pulling down Cory’s still stabbing finger.
“Oh, Rentclifv… what have you dumped on me? You really couldn’t have warned me about this?” Maddi muttered under her breath, sighing. When the scowls deepened, she hastened to say, “Well, you’re twins! I’ve heard twins seem to know what the other is thinking. But that doesn’t mean you’re telepathic. What a crazy idea! Honestly, sometimes your imagination—”
“Bapa knows,” Cory broke in abruptly, lifting her chin in determination.
“Oh, I’ll just bet he does,” Maddi said, smiling tightly. “Commander of the Far Stars Force, right?” She’d heard them playing their favorite fantasy game before.
Impatient, Story said, “This isn’t getting us anywhere. We’ve got to do something!”
Maddi blinked at them. “Do something about what?”
“You forgot already!” Cory yelled, rolling her eyes to express what a hopeless case she thought the lieutenant was.
“The bad thing,” Story explained patiently. “The reason why Bapa was trying to contact the Commander General. We need to contact General Cenntl to ask him about his message from Bapa.”
“And setting aside the fact that you don’t even know if anything bad has happened, how do you kids think you’re going to speak personally to the Commander General of the Perseus Defense Agency?” Maddi failed to suppress a smirk.
“Watch it,” Cory said in a low voice, eyes narrowed.
“Oh, I don’t think we have to speak to the General personally,” Story said, glancing over to the Crater 0002’s viewport.
“We don’t?” Cory asked, surprised.
“You don’t?” Maddi asked, suspicious.
Story yawned. “Someone else has a direct line to someone close to General Cenntl.”
“Oh,” Prater said suddenly, and the twins were gratified to hear that the cybernism actually sounded surprised. “There is a direct connection with a computer design inspector in Headquarters because Crater-class cybernisms are still classified as an experimental design.”
“Some inspector… so?”
“The inspector is the senior aide to the Commander General from the Perseus Guard,” Prater explained. “Starguard Maritza Litzer.”
In moments, the cybernism had contacted Cenntl's office, requesting to speak to his aide on behalf of the Rentclifv twins.
“Interesting,” the Starguard murmured when she called the twins after Prater had relayed the message to her. “The aborted call from your father came to you first… and you believe something terrible happened and that it concerns you? Let me talk to the ComGen and see when he can meet with you.”
“He’ll have time for us?” Cory asked timidly, in awe of Starguards even though her father had been one. Though she and Story had met several, they knew enough of the dangerous work of the Guard to hold them in high esteem. The Perseus Defense Fleet, after all, might be responsible for the security of the United Star Communities, but the smaller Perseus Guard had laid the groundwork that made the Fleet’s success possible.
Maritza Litzer said something that the twins would long remember. “He’ll see you. You’re Vekta Rentclifv’s children.”
The twins nodded soberly.
2. ComGen
When the connection closed, Maritza turned to her boss. “Did you decide something yet?”
Peter Cenntl stood and ran nervous hands through his short, light brown hair as he came around from behind his desk to join her. “Oh, I’d forgotten how I hate when Rentclifv does these things to me! You’d think after all these years I’d get used to his audacious… but no… All right.” He halted. “Vekta’
s stayed behind for some crazy reason at Gozgazel with just Novella Aurand to help. Two Level 8’s with no other telepathic backup… and now Aurand’s telling me that he’s sending his starship — no, let’s call it the Fleet's experimental starship — back home. We don’t yet have an estimation on when the Andromedea will arrive. And no word on the Sdaldi or even any Taree, no word on whatever is keeping him there.”
Maritza gave him a little amused smile, glancing over at him. “Vekta’s still a Starguard of course. Did you think the Fleet navy blue would change that?”
Peter blew his breath out in frustration, then pointed a finger at her. “Don’t you start! Fleet General Staff will crawl all over me if Rentclifv manages to get himself and Aurand killed. Can you see it — the USC’s premier pair in cybernetic design and constructed intelligence lost because of a crazy Starguardian stunt? You know Rentclifv’s the only one who understands his Crater design, right?”
“Tell me about it,” Maritza agreed, sighing. “He left me responsible for the Trizero-Two, but it’s not like I can even understand the design symbology!”
“Invented a new symbology!” Peter retorted, nodding. “It’s not like a code that can be cracked. Someone else needs to understand what makes that HAGE thing tick. Human Analogue Generative Element, he calls it, the core of what makes a Crater this rare new thing he calls a cybernism. And only a Crater can operate Austine Tauscher’s new stardrive. FGS, no, the Communities Congress wanted that Starlock badly once Tauscher convinced them it would work. I want it! By the way, how is the Trizero-Two doing anyway?”
“Ohhh… that.” Maritza crossed her arms over her chest, leaning her weight back on one heel. “I think it’s just too new yet; the HAGE hasn’t had time to really develop its personality. No, his personality? Qer personality? Eh, I'm going to use 'it' since the unit hasn't made any choice in any direction.”
“One of the twins is a qild, correct?”
“Yes – Vestor. I understand that with qomen, it's their choice, a decision to express neither of the dominant biological Human genders. The Trizero-Two hasn't decided anything. Really, it’s not manifesting as any gender in particular, according to Lieutenant Hewatt. Gender assignation in a Crater is not part of the initial hardwiring. Once activated, if I understand correctly, a Crater just manifests characteristics of whatever gender seems to fit the directives given to it. Pronouns, pitch of the voice. No idea how that even works. I wonder if the Trizero-Three will be female when they develop it?” She chuckled. “If Rentclifv talks Aurand into working with him on the Crater series, I’m sure she’ll have some influence there, heh.”
“So the Trizero-Two — Prater — doesn’t have much of a personality?”
She shrugged. “Not really. You know, I’d met Crater at about this stage, right after its completion and before Vekta took the unit to Orbglen for installation into his family apartment there. Already at that point the Trizero-One was a voracious consumer of data and interested in a vast array of subjects, including medicine. Medicine, can you believe it? I always thought that was really bizarre, but there you are. Crater has a well-established and strong personality. On the other hand, Prater seems content to merely exist in support of the twins. I’m not sure it’s taking the same path of development as Crater did. But I don’t know if that’s a problem with the HAGE or just a stunted development so far. Maybe it won’t turn out to be so assertive or adventuresome.”
“Hmmm, not a good trait, given that it’ll be also expected to handle the Starlock on a Defender,” Peter considered thoughtfully. “Well, maybe Prater could be a better fit for another commander, then. Interesting.” He couldn’t help but think of the difficult General Ria Vorclif. Whoa, a Crater to get along with her… can’t see that happening!
“So… about the twins? What do you want to do?” Maritza asked.
Peter had continued to wander around his office as they’d talked, and now had ended up in front of a large, frilly Freen that owned one corner of his office, gift of the governor of Alsafi Community. The plant did not immediately respond to his presence; he was no Dracon. He kept it on behalf of Dracons from both Alsafi and Chidrac who might visit his office.
It was a constant reminder of his most delicate task: handling the High telepathic minds under his care in the Agency. He himself was in no way telepathic, registering as the lowest Level 1 according to the testing standards established at the Eucleandor Halax Center on Draco. But he’d won his way to the top of the Agency in part by securing the respect and trust of his telepaths, who held him in high regard because of his adamant support in the largely nontelepathic Agency and in Fleet General Staff. He trusted them, a remarkable feat for one who had no way of detecting the presence of another mind within his or of preventing any interference.
That his own brother Jaime was a High telepath, had of course made that trust easier. Yet it was not without its price. He’d had to surround himself with telepaths of proven, impeccable morality and integrity to ensure the protection of his own mind. Hence the odd fact of having a Perseus Starguard as his personal aide. FGS, too, possessed some High telepaths who had over the years become his personal friends and protectors. Most of these naturally were Dracons such as Elzan Macney of the Defender Atatlanta. Yet in FGS there was tension for this very reason. Dracons — a wholly telepathic subspecies of Humans — were held both in awe and in suspicion in the USC.
Maritza Litzer was not a Dracon, though she was a Level 7 High telepath. She’d worked for the Commander General for four of his nine years holding that office, becoming a valued confidant as well as his personal mental shield. As a Starguard, she was actually his equal rather than a subordinate. Due to the critical nature of their work, Starguards enjoyed supreme authority in the Agency. Peter Cenntl had fought to ensure that.
The Freen, a spectacular specimen of Hooperia frocilis draconis, leaned slightly toward the Human who’d come near it. The action was an unnerving habit to which Peter could never quite get used. The plant seemed to sense that about him, for its waving tendrils were careful to avoid actual physical contact with him. They never touched him unless he reached for their softness first. He’d often wondered if the fronds held some sort of sensory abilities that bordered into the empathic. But of course that was a ridiculous notion to entertain for a plant, a nonintelligent life form. Even so, all Dracons wanted the Freens around them as much as possible, whether on their home planets Draco or Chidrac — or in pots on starships.
Peter reached to finger the lacy silkiness of the nearest frond, thoughtful. It purred, but not at a frequency normal humans could hear, the frond gently folding around his thumb. “The twins… ah, better get them in here now. If Vekta gave specific instructions concerning them, it shouldn’t wait. I owe that to him. Bring them in, please, Maritza.” He shook his hand free gently.
*
A half hour later, the Starguard gestured for the two children to enter the office of the Commander General behind her. Entering, they were not behind her long, for both twins spotted the massive Freen in the corner of the office.
“Ultra!” Cory exclaimed, and not heeding the main occupant of the office at all, rushed with her twin over to the huge plant.
Blanching at the children’s blatant lack of decorum, Maritza Litzer started to go after them, but her boss’s hand was on her arm. He shook his head, then grinned as they watched the encounter.
The Freen of course responded immediately to the presence of Dracons, eagerly extending frondiles and the long, tentacle-like probes, which upon contact, slipped around the waists of both children in a welcoming hug. Cory giggled, and even Story smiled. “You’re so big!” the more reticent of the two murmured, qer fingers already fondling the lacy softness of the fronds.
“Not even a reunion, but already hearty friends,” Peter Cenntl murmured, sighing. “This never ceases to amaze me. Is it symbiosis, do you think?”
“Hmm?” Maritza started, realizing her superior was talking to her. Wi
th her Level 7 senses, she was aware of more going on. While of course the plant was nonintelligent and therefore functioning in the mental state called consci0, on the empathic plane it was classified as a startling emsen3, the designation that surpassed even most social animals that had developed in emotional symbiosis with Humans. “Did you ever have a dog, General?”
He blinked. “Oh, a canine pet? Hmm, yes, as a boy… oh, so it’s like that? But the Freen is a plant.”
Maritza shook her head, still watching the children playing with the massive plant. “It has no mental capability but it has an emmind, did you know that? The Freens register as operating in emsen3, which is the highest designation allowed to non-sentient entities such as dogs.”
Peter widened his eyes, surprised at the assessment, glancing over at the plant with renewed respect. “So why do I have one of these myself? Should I be concerned?”
Maritza shook her head again, grinning.
Cory laughed, bouncing on the balls of her feet in delight. “Her name is Mother!” she declared happily. She looked like a Freen herself, for there were pieces of the plant twined about every part of her.
“She has a name?” the adults said together, startled.
“No, no,” Story said, waving a hand in negation. “I think Cor just named her that.” Then qer face transformed as qe noted the two adults. “Oh!” Quickly but very gently qe disentangled qerself from the tendrils and frondiles which were wrapped around appendages and even playing with qer hair. “Sorry, Mother, we’re being rude… play with you later.”
Only Maritza, the Level 7, heard the inaudible chirp — heard only on the empathic plane — of regret from the Freen as it disengaged from the two children. “What the…?”
Eye of the Gazelle Page 2