by Lea Tassie
These monks had kept the secret of what lay in the glass jar for hundreds of years, Seven explained. Then it stopped translating. It remained silent as the town elder spoke, and when he finished, Seven was still silent.
"Well, what did he say?" pressed Jillian.
Seven finally said, "They have the god fragment."
Since the Taskoids were all interlinked, every Taskoid on the planet was aware of this fact instantly, right to the Prime.
However, the humans of Neo Terra were not stupid; Charger had given them the strongest weapon humanity ever held: the ability and desire to reason with logic and compassion. No longer bound by superstition and fear, the people of Neo Terra did not rely on chosen individuals with hidden agendas to shepherd the foolish, possibly toward a cliff. They worked as with one mind, like the Taskoids.
Dayton had suspected that something might be amiss because, while the Taskoids had provided much history, some information was still missing, and some did not make sense. Also, within a few weeks of the Taskoids' arrival, Dayton had discovered a hidden signal in the computers that was entirely new. Curious, he traced the signal back to the Taskoids and soon became aware of all the Taskoid conversations.
It didn't make sense to reveal what he knew to the Taskoids. He hoped they would be more forthcoming about this hidden communication. Thus far they had not done so.
Therefore, as the Taskoids became aware of the god fragment, so too did the humans, with their ear implants linked to a different frequency.
With the discovery of the god fragment, chaos followed. The Prime ordered the instant seizure of this ancient relic. The Taskoids drew weapons and started forcefully trying to control the town and corral its people, as terror again gripped the monks. But, as fast as this started, it stopped.
Dayton, with other scientists, had designed and built a small handheld device programmed to shut down the Taskoids in the event of an emergency. Dayton activated his device, and everywhere, all across the planet, Taskoids entered sleep mode.
The voice of Jana, the prime minister, spoke through Dayton's earpiece. "Well, what do we do now?"
***
Neo Terra was a strange little world with two orbits. One orbit was around the sun in Earth's solar system, then it traveled through the cold depths of empty space for many years to enter another more radical orbit around a giant red sun that sheltered a small planet called New Eden.
Now that the Taskoids were incapacitated, Dayton tried to make a logical argument in their favor, in spite of their apparent treachery. "I believe, Madam Prime Minister, that the one known to us as the Prime reasoned accurately that we humans, based on our long history, could not be trusted."
"This may be true," said Jana. She was chairing an informal hearing in her office, a bright room rich in technology. "But we dare not reactivate the Taskoids until we have a plan of action. We do not want this situation to spiral out of control."
Genga sat quietly for most of the meeting, then finally rose. "Madam Prime Minister, I had plenty of time to observe and assess the logic shown by the Taskoids. They are truly a fantastic achievement in a technology vastly superior to ours. I cannot fathom any reason for such highly intelligent beings to be malevolent toward the people of the Valley of Shadows, or to any of us here today. I agree with the suggestion made by Miss Jillian earlier. We should simply go to the Prime and ask why these actions were taken."
The group agreed this was the best move. They needed answers before relinquishing control of the Taskoids. The five ships belonging to the Taskoids, four still in orbit, were also silent, due to the shutdown command. The fifth massive ship was in the landing bay. Home to the Prime, it occupied the entire space port.
Jana led the delegates, all unarmed and peaceful, into the Prime's ship. They proceeded toward the center and the room they had determined held the Prime. The first things they discovered were moving walkways which efficiently transported goods and personnel around the ship. They entered a walkway and were sent along to an intersecting walkway which carried them in another direction. Soon they found themselves in the Prime's main room. It was not grand or opulent, as leaders' rooms tended to be, but small and efficient. Like a computer motherboard, the Prime was centrally located, connected to the ship, and surrounded by other nodes that were part of the command structure.
The Prime itself wore no crown of glory, no trinkets or robes of purple, but looked like the other Taskoids. It was unaffected by the Taskoid shutdown command, due to its separation from the network and use of Taskoid aides. Quat III sat just outside the Prime's room, deactivated. Because the room was small, Jana decided to enter the space alone, leaving the rest of the group outside to listen.
Jana said, "I am known as Jana. I am the prime minister of Neo Terra; the place you once knew as Mahoud. Can we talk?"
Though she could see that the Prime was active, it did not respond.
Jana tried again. "We come to as delegates of Neo Terra, in peace and unarmed. Can we talk?"
The Prime simply sat in the center of the room, functioning, but not responding.
Jana turned to the open door where Dayton stood, hoping he might have a suggestion.
"Possibly it can hear us, but be unable to respond," Dayton said.
"If so, what do we do about that?" Jana queried.
"I can reactivate Quat III. We might be able to get answers from it," Dayton said. The group agreed and Dayton pressed the button on his small handheld unit to reanimate Quat III. It surged to life, drew its weapons and lurched toward the group.
Then suddenly it lowered its weapons and stopped moving. A voice different from the standard Taskoid's spoke. "You have a weapon!"
The group looked to each other, puzzled. "I can assure you," Jana said, "we came in peace and unarmed."
"You have a weapon!" repeated Quat III.
"I don't understand. We came to you unarmed, with the best of intentions, and in peace," Jana tried again.
"You have a weapon! You have used this weapon!"
The group remained silent for a moment, then Jillian suggested, "The device we have – could the Prime think that is a weapon?"
"I think Miss Jillian is correct," Genga added.
Dayton stepped forward and tried to explain as best he could without offending. "My team and I discovered that Taskoids speak on a hidden frequency and we can decipher your language because our city held records of it. We hoped you would be open about this, but you weren't. There are still blank spaces in our history and, when we asked about these, you spoke around the point. You haven't given us full answers and so we decided that you were hiding information because you don't trust us. For this reason, we thought it best to stop you and try reasoning."
Dayton continued. "This device I have is meant only to stop you, not destroy or damage any of you. Can this be understood?" Dayton put the device back into his pocket and held both hands up empty for the prime to see.
"You have a weapon. Release the weapon to me!" demanded Quat III.
The delegate group withdrew and conferred, then returned. They had decided to give the device to the Prime, knowing that it was only one of many such devices in different hands around the world. There could be no real trust, but there could be a first step, in hope that trust could be achieved. Dayton handed it to Quat III with instructions, and Quat III immediately pressed the button that reactivated all the Taskoids on Neo Terra.
The Prime spoke now. "Get power, find Charger."
"Charger? What's a charger?" asked Jana.
"Get power, command structure complete, power attained. Get Charger, command structure incomplete, no Charger exists. Decide… decide… Get Charger, kill Grays. Kill Grays not attainable, command structure fragmented. Decide… We are information; we have all information, decide…"
Confused, the people in the group wondered what was going on. Dayton suggested that this sounded like computer code in action.
"Command structure broken, seeking resolution, information fo
und; god fragment. New command: retrieve god fragment, kill Grays. End command structure."
Quat III had approached the group as they wrestled with the Prime's words. "The Prime does not function like we can. It is a base control unit and it processes the tasks we all do, much like you humans use a voice to speak and a brain to think. A brain does not talk," Quat II explained, "so the Prime has a limited speech pattern, whereas the rest of us have a more natural form for communication, like your own."
"I see. So can you explain what the Prime has been saying to us?" asked Jana.
"I can, but it will take some time. You have made a good first step in trusting us with a copy of the device you used. We have since deactivated all your devices and are willing to trust you now fully."
The group was shocked and nervous, but decided that logic and compassion had to prevail.
Taskoid and human delegates gathered back at city hall. Through their computing power, the Taskoids transmitted the proceedings of the meeting to people everywhere on the planet simultaneously. The meeting ran for hours as the Taskoids related the history which had been previously missing.
Now they knew that, after the destruction of all humanity by the Grays, one lone human survivor still lived and that one was Charger, who was responsible for Neo Terra's survival. A new task had now to be completed: the destruction of the Grays. The Grays had annihilated the dinosaurs long ago, had tampered with life and evolution on planet Earth, and then returned repeatedly until they destroyed all life.
The Taskoids knew this because they had all the data about the Dinosauroids, about the peoples of Mahoud, and about the humans. They had access to all communications ever made. They knew the history of everything that ever happened on Earth, including the hidden group of hominoids designed by the Grays.
They knew the histories of every human in the data base for as long as the data base existed but, until the code which gave the Taskers the ability to 'decide' was activated, they could do nothing with the information. The Grays were a plague and they would certainly return in the future to create chaos and destruction. The Taskoids had used logic to reach this undeniable truth. They reacted for the survival of humankind.
The Taskoids knew about Charger's abilities, thanks to the temporary link he had had with five Taskers in the past, and reasoned that, with him, they could learn to fight back. Now, with the realization that Charger had died some two hundred and sixty years ago, they had but one conclusion. They needed Charger more than ever. They also knew the god fragment could create life and they wanted to use it to bring him back.
They had known about the god fragment, too. A simple 1.0 generation Tasker found the fragment on a mining expedition to New Eden long ago and had brought it to Neo Terra, known then as Mahoud. However, the humans of Mahoud thought the fragment dangerous and hid it away. The monks living in the Valley of Shadows kept it safe for hundreds of years. Now that the Taskoids had found the fragment, it could lead them to the planet of the Grays and the other half of the god fragment, since the two pieces would always be attracted to each other.
And, of course, they also knew the history of the god fragment. The hominoids created by the Grays and sent to the center of the galaxy had torn a piece from a huge dark mass there. The small fragment arrived on New Eden with a few hominoids who were left there by their ship to explore and experiment. The hominoids did not survive. This small fragment lay silent in a cave until the Taskers found it.
Nevertheless, the fragment was not big enough for the Taskoids' purposes. It was merely a link to the other fragment they needed, still in the possession of the Grays. The Taskoids believed that with possession of the full fragment, they could resurrect Charger from the grave and, with him, finally seek revenge for the destruction the Grays had caused to humanity.
The Grays no doubt wanted the god fragment to feed their own personal arrogance, for they sought immortality. The Taskoids wanted the god fragment to rid the universe of the Grays' destructive and menacing force, to spare humanity from further waste, but they needed the help of what remained of humanity to do that. The people of Neo Terra listened and watched as all this information was finally revealed. Their lives had been a lie, but their history was more amazing then they could ever have imagined. A great and mighty voice rose up. They were as one, now as never before. No longer willing to be oppressed by the demon Grays, they agreed to join as brothers with the Taskoids, their creation, and smash forever this looming oppression.
***
"So we are agreed then," Jana said to the representatives gathered from all points of Neo Terra. "We will join forces with the Taskoids and put an end to this menace?"
The group all agreed; there was not one dissenter.
"Fine! Bailiff, send in the representatives from the Taskoids." The door to the chamber of representatives opened and two Taskoids entered the room. "You are all that represent your group?" asked Jana.
"We only need one representative; Quinquaginta VII is my assistant and records-keeper," Quat I said.
"I must say, you Taskoids do have impossible names for us humans to pronounce," Jana said, with a smile.
"They are not names, but designations." Quat I responded.
The twenty-odd human representatives faced the two Taskoids across the table and began the long deliberations of how next to proceed. Genga asked, "So you have calculated what part of the solar system the Grays occupy?"
"Yes, we have," replied Quat I confidently.
"And you have projected this point in space to be some three hundred and fifty light years from our current home?" Genga continued.
"Yes, that is also correct," Quat I responded, again with confidence.
"Three hundred and fifty light years away! You do realize, I hope, that we humans generally live only a little over one hundred years, and that we do not possess the ability to travel at the speed of light?"
"Yes, we are aware of all this," Quat I replied.
"Well, unless you know some way to accommodate us humans, I can see no way for any of us to assist you in this endeavor," Genga said.
Quinquaginta VII set up a projector that displayed an image for everyone to view. Quat I said, "In 1773, a human known as James Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time. He and his crew discovered islands, but did not find the Antarctica landmass itself, though it is recorded that Cook was as close as a hundred and fifty miles to the mainland. This event inspired other humans to try to prove the existence of Antarctica."
"I'm sorry, but what does this have to do with our situation?" Jana asked.
The projector filled the room with pictures and Quat I went on. "In 1820, an expedition led by von Bellingshausen and Lazarev on the two ships Vostok and Mirny, reached a point within 20 miles of Queen Maud's Land and recorded an ice shelf at 69°21'28"S 2°14'50"W. That documented the Fimbul ice shelf. The crews claimed that the ice pack was so thick they could proceed no further."
Quat I paused. "The true story, found in an old Russian manuscript, was that they found a clear path to the continent, but chose not to land. They had spotted a massive object ashore, which they took to be a great spaceship. They had no idea what dangers it might offer."
Other delegates were now joining in with questions. Jana brought the room to order and said, "We still don't know where you're going with this."
Undeterred, Quat I continued. "The first landing was just over a year later in 1821. Captain John Davis, an American sealer, set foot on the ice shelf we know as Antarctica. He also reported a large unidentified metal ship beached on dry land. Entries in the sailing ship's log state that some of his crew explored the craft and found no way to enter. They reported that it appeared to be abandoned."
The delegates now patiently waited as Quat I continued. "In 1944, during World War II, the National Socialist government of Germany gave command of special submarines to Admiral Karl Dönitz. His rise to power seems suspect, and we have found evidence that he, and the leader of the National Socialists,
one Adolf Hitler, were in fact two of the hominoids developed by the Grays, for purposes I will explain. On August 17, 1945, the German submarines U-530 and U-977 surrendered in the Argentinean harbor of Mar del Plata."
Quat I went on. "These submarines were part of a group known as the 'Führer convoy' under the command of Admiral Karl Dönitz. It was an extremely secret formation, whose exact mission still remains unknown." Quat I paused. "The captain of U-530 spoke of an operation by the name of Walküre Two. His ship set sail from Kiel in Northern Germany to Antarctica two weeks before the end of the war. There, we believe, the Germans had a U-boat base built exactly where Captain John Davis reported finding the abandoned craft."
"In 1946, an American military fleet under Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd set off for the South Pole. We believe this individual was responsible for the damage caused to the spacecraft in Antarctica," Quat I said. "Aircraft reconnaissance began near Antarctica at the end of January 1947, mostly in the northern area around Queen Maud Land. Records contain a photograph showing what looks like an odd depression in the ice; we believe this to be the returned Gray spacecraft. The whole endeavor was abruptly stopped and the ships recalled. We believe they found and took a vital part of the spaceship's components."
Genga asked, "What does this history have to do with our present situation?"
"Is it not obvious?" asked Quat I. "The ship is still there."
"You said you would clarify this. How?" asked another member of the delegation.
"Early in human evolution, the Grays sent modified humans to the center of the galaxy to retrieve the god fragment that we now have in our possession," Quat I replied. "Admiral Karl Dönitz was one of many hominoids revived from stasis out of the craft at the South Pole and used by the Grays to manipulate and guide humanity toward their goals. General Harris was another of these modified humanoids under the Grays' control. His present location remains unknown. The reason Admiral Karl Dönitz had a U-boat base built in Antarctica was because he was from Antarctica; that was where the returned ship from the Grays' expedition landed."