by DD White
Begalius re-checked all the star-door diagnostics. It smiled at an image of the entire star-door on a view screen seen from outside. The Eigalli were able to restore the partially melted outer shell to its near original brilliance. It just rechecked everything before the big re-powering of the star-door once the Sun Haflaxo rose back above the Goag Ralus orbital spike horizon. Begalius had become a big fan of Nephaprican technology because it had been a product of that same technology. It marveled at the Nephaprican creation of a being so large that seven stars orbited it.
Although curious, inquisitive, and full of personality, Begalius had not been a natural being, but a being made out of something called quanta-nanocode. Begalius had been made essentially as a program created to manage all aspects of the star-door, which it became intricately linked with. It served the purpose of a flawless operator since even the great Nephapricans recognized the flaws of mortal beings, and their tendency to folly. Many nuclear reactor incidents here on Earth could be traced back to the lack of a quanta-nanocode being intimately integrated with the components of the reactor who would know exactly when and how much to flood an over-heating core with water. Begalius appeared like a hologram, but possessed control of the virtual particle exchanges that define the lines between matter and empty space. It’s actually the phenomenon of virtual particle exchange that creates the illusion of solid objects in reality. If an object’s virtual particle emissions were not telling your hand’s virtual particle emissions to “back off” then your hand would simply pass through the object. Quanta-optic-nanocode holographic beings employed a similar virtual particle emission technology to produce the illusion of solidity. Therefore Begalius existed as a sentient hologram who could mimic being solid, which allowed it to flip switches and operate equipment. It knew this star-door because it was this star-door. It smiled with pride that the star-door appeared ready to go. Nothing could go wrong as far as it could see.
Begalius looked up from the controls after detecting a sound from behind. It embraced a probability that perhaps Goag Ralus had paid it a visit. It turned around only to be confronted by two lizard beings.
“Who are yo…” The sentence from the holographic mouth became cut short by a flash of lightening from a taser-like device in one of the reptile’s hands. Begalius appeared to exist no more, and the star-door control center had now become empty for the two reptilian intruders.
“Firsssst we mussst turn everything off from here. Then we dessstroy the controlssss and they won’t be able to turn them back on again. I’ve linked the quanta-nanocode loop program to an aux(sss)iliary power ssssource.”
Just then there were extra lights on in the room, which became filled with Eigalli guards. There had been little time for resistance from the reptilian intruders. Deliadre and Goag Ralus both entered the room. Goag Ralus looked around the place. “I don’t see Begalius anywhere.”
Deliadre approached the reptiles, now securely apprehended by the authorities. “What have you done with the quanta-optic-nanocode being who was here?” Her horn glowed yellow, as she appeared to await an answer.
“Your Eigalli mind trickssss will not work on me.”
The glow left the horn as her facial expression seemed to indicate the intruder to be right. One of the guards handed her the taser-like device. “He had this in his hand when we apprehended him. He may have shot Begalius with this.”
Deliadre looked at the device while the Eigalli Goag Ralus avatar walked up and down the controls tracing the work Begalius had just done before its disappearance. Then Deliadre began picking up some kind of telepathic answer. “It’s it’s it’s … B .. B .. B .. B .. B.. Beegallllllllllllius … s .. s .. s .. sommmmmmmmme kind of innnnnnnnnnnnnnfinite loop prrrrrrrrrrrrrrogram.”
“I hear a telepathic message! It’s Begalius! They’ve transferred its quanta-nanocode into some kind of infinite loop program. Its trying to psionically send me its linguistic neural patterns. It says it’s trapped in … in an … infinite loop program.”
Goag returned to the place at the control panel where Begalius had just been standing before being shot. “They were going to turn everything off, which would also break an infinite loop program. They would have had to link the infinite loop program to an auxiliary power source not far from here.” Goag noticed the auxiliary light blinking on a section of the controls and simply switched it off. Begalius suddenly blinked back into existence right next to the avatar of Goag Ralus.
“Thank you so much for the swift response to sabotage. I wasn’t aware such security was needed here, or even in place.”
“This is a rather unthinkable event,” Deliadre explained to the quanta-nanocode being. "You can thank Aquari for the swift response. I received a telepathic message from the Incaprican lands under Solkas warning me of the sabotage attempt. I can’t even send a telepathic message that far to thank her.”
The Golimechoid construct in the form of an Eigalli man, which served as the local avatar for Goag Ralus said, “I can send a message that far to another part of me. I’ve just told Aquari that the sabotage has been stopped.” The avatar approached the two reptiles that were beginning to be escorted out of the room. His chest expanded into their faces and his eyes blazed with a fearsome rage. “And for the likes of you! You have earned the anger of Goag Ralus, the very ground you have always stood upon! For you is the choice of rehabilitation or exile, and for your own sake I should hope your choice is rehabilitation!”
The young reptiles did indeed quake with fear as if in the presence of their own god and creator. This Goag Ralus avatar appeared in the form of an Eigalli, however the reptiles were only acquainted with Goag Ralus in his reptilian avatar form, yet they could still tell that the Eigalli avatar before them showed as the same great and terrible Goag Ralus. The weight of their espionage held their heads low as they were led off to incarceration, trials, and Eigalli justice. This would strain relations between Eigalli and Incaprican, which seemed to have always been the case anyway.