by Tony Corden
Gèng didn’t answer immediately. After maybe fifteen seconds Gèng replied, “I reviewed the different neural patterns for your spell casting over the last four weeks. I also examined both sensory information logs, that applied by Dunyanin, and that uploaded and applied by me. To an AI, the spells were not simultaneous, each one was applied sequentially. My initial read of the neural patterns is that you cast them simultaneously, the limiting factor was Dunyanin’s coding, which only allows sequential data, so it applied them sequentially. I doubt the AI would report the anomaly, but I’m sure a human reviewing the data would start to ask questions. I believe it will pass unnoticed as you received messages during both spells regarding the speed of your casting. The messages acknowledge you have two new skills. One is called Multi-tasking, the other Time-dilation. In the handbook, these skills are catalogued either under the Fae, Dragons or the Gods.”
“Does that mean, or suggest, I will not come under scrutiny?”
“Yes. I suggest though, that some entity within Dunyanin is helping to keep your abilities secret. I searched several of the handbooks from earlier versions of Dunyanin, and these skills do not exist. I believe one of the World AIs added these skills after you evidenced the ability. It could be the side-effect of a fuzzy logic algorithm. It could be the result of a problem-solving AI making changes to ensure the smooth running of the player’s experience, or it could mean you have an active ally within Dunyanin. I do not believe the source is human as the messages about new skills arrived immediately after you evidenced the additional neural ability. You must be careful as the other worlds may not have similar algorithms nor allies.”
“Thank you. The explanation allays some of my fears. I’d best hurry if I’m to get to meet Thad in Pneumatica then get to Cosmos Online on time.”
PNEUMATICA
Leah hurried to the Pneumatica portal and stepped through and into her private bedroom aboard the Tempest. She checked her outfit and then discarded her uniform for clothing more suitable for sneaking into the Pyranthian stronghold. Making her way from her room, she found they were at the Nest and that Thad had arrived. After checking in with Captain Baker, Leah was escorted to Thad’s ship while a steward transported her private effects.
Thad’s ship looked to be constructed almost entirely of Maxwellian Bronze and was powered by a Lorentzian engine. It was aerodynamic and shaped like a flattened teardrop lying on its side. As Leah approached the ship, Thad was walking down the access ramp. He came to attention and said, “Commodore Charlotte, I’m glad you made it. Let me show you around the latest addition to your fleet. It was built as the personal yacht for a disgraced Lord. It was only finished this month and was never used. It has been renamed the ‘Wilbur’s Cavaticus’.”
Chuckling quietly, Leah came to attention herself and said, “Thank you, Lord Emerson. I have not the time at present to have the full tour. I would, however, appreciate an opportunity to sit and talk for several minutes before I must leave.”
“As you wish, Commodore.”
Thad showed Leah to her cabin, and they spend some time catching up on what was happening in their lives. Thad was enthusiastic about Atherleah action figures but wasn’t sure about people knowing he was her boyfriend. He personally didn’t mind people knowing, but he was wary of the additional publicity. Leah enjoyed catching up and became very relaxed as she curled up against Thad’s side. Finally, however, she said, “I have to go. I’ll be back here in five virtual days although I hope to have you over to the Tower before that. I have to get to Cosmos Online and meet with Wisp.”
“I’m still getting my head around the Pod facility and the role you have for me there. Kate is a great help and it’s good to have someone to discuss the family stuff with, even though it sometimes starts to overwhelm us both. I’d love to come visit, and somehow I want to meet up again in Dunyanin.”
“I’ll hopefully have an idea in a few days where I’ll be ending up. When I know, I’ll let you know. The next part of the Merkize challenge involves lost cities, climbing mountains and visiting the other continents. Maybe we could meet and work on some of the clues together. I also have several new friends who might help make up the final team.”
HOME - REAL WORLD
Leah gave Thad a kiss, then headed for her bedroom where she logged out to the Tower and then to the Pod. After the lid opened, Leah lay there panting from the sudden flood of pain which rushed over her neck and shoulders and travelled down her arms and back. Jen was waiting in the room. She took one look at Leah and said, “Stay there while I get someone to help get you out and send for Kevin.”
Leah lay there, trying hard not to move. It felt like ages, but less than a minute later, Jen re-entered the room with a bald Marie. Leah forced a smile and said, “I love the new look.”
“Believe it or not, but it is becoming quite popular. Apparently, some schools in the more affluent suburbs have banned what is called, the ‘Atherleah’ cut.”
Leah was still processing the statement when Marie and Jen reached in to help her up and out. The parts of the brace Leah could see were soaked in blood. Marie said, “Jen, after we get her in the bathroom, can you please go tell Kevin what Leah looks like? I’ll stay and help her in the bathroom.”
Jen and Marie almost carried Leah to the shower cubicle where Marie had to help hold Leah up while she rinsed off the small amounts of gel that stuck to her. The brace Kevin had made was constructed from sanitary pads, and these soaked up the water and pulled on the wounds, so Marie carefully unwrapped the brace before towelling Leah dry. Marie said, “Leah, you can’t keep doing this. I know you feel you have to, but this looks bad.”
“It’s healing, Marie. The flesh is torn, but the underlying structure is stronger than it ever was. I know we aren’t going to talk about what you saw me do, but what made that possible saved my life when the bullet struck, and I’m healing rapidly. A few more days and the flesh will be protected even more than before.”
“Is what’s happening safe?”
“I’ve no idea. All I know is Mum would be dead, or worse, and so would I.”
“What does Kevin say about whatever it is?”
“John’s been really strong on the ‘You aren’t seeing anything, so don’t ask questions no one will answer’ routine.”
Marie ended the discussion and Jen entered, followed by Kevin. He hardly said anything as he restitched several of the wounds and applied different creams and bandages. When he’d finished, he said, “Leah, I’ve just come from checking on Lin. She’s not in pain and has no recollection of you. She knows something happened but not what. I know you said not to worry, but I do. I’m very sorry for what happened. But if I put all that aside, then you need to hear this from ‘Kevin the doctor’, not ‘Kevin the drunken loser’. You can’t keep doing this to yourself. Even with the whatever you have that I can’t see, your flesh can’t recover without rest. You need to find another way to reduce the neural stimulation or the healing will slow down or regress.”
Leah looked up and said, “Kevin, Coats, or whatever you end up being called, I have never thought of you as a drunken loser. It’s true, I doubted that the Coats I knew was a sane choice to operate on me, and I hadn’t seen you sober, so drunken was a given. I didn’t think, and I don’t think of you as a loser. Honestly, some people are. They make life miserable for themselves and others with no regard for the outcome. You were careful to keep your misery to yourself. I say all of that, so you know I will try as much as I can take your advice. John’s already sent reports of the good things you are doing on this compound and in the Switch. Don’t belittle the good you do because of a mistake. If people ignore your advice, then that is on them, it’s not on you.”
Kevin looked up and slowly nodded. He said, “I understand. I really do. It’s just that I needed to hear it again. I’ve spent years telling myself a different truth and it’s hard to hear an alternate one.”
Leah smiled but didn’t say anything else. After Kevin left, she
tried to eat, but Jen ended up feeding her. When she’d eaten, Marie helped her to shower and get back in the Pod. As the cover closed and gel filled the Pod, Leah smiled as the pain faded.
49
Chapter 49
December 17, 2073 - Afternoon - Part 2
STORK TOWER
Back in the Tower, Leah said, “Gèng, I’m going to finish working on decoding the message and then I’ll head to Cosmos Online. Can you check when Wisp will be ready?”
Leah reviewed the material from her previous work at deciphering the message and then began attacking it from various angles as she also increased the speed at which she processed information. After what seemed like an hour to Leah but was not even two minutes of real time, Gèng said, “Wisp will be ready in five minutes of virtual Tower-time.”
Leah nodded and kept working. Using the previous work, she was able to decode the message with a minute to spare. Although Leah doubted she had the complete translation matrix, she was satisfied she had enough to decipher the message and uncover the code into the control room. She checked her solution twice and then stepped through the airlock into one of her Cosmos Online avatars. Wisp was waiting. Both of them were still wearing the inner layer of their Black Hole armour.
COSMOS ONLINE
Wisp stepped over and embraced Leah saying, “You were amazing today. I know you didn’t win, but you gave every one of the people you fought a scare. How are you feeling? It looked like you were in pain.”
“Let’s just say I’m feeling much better with the minimal neural stimulation I’m getting at the moment.”
“That’s good. How did you go with the code? I’ve decided it’s probably phonetic with the consonants the larger circles and the smaller markings representing vowels and punctuation, but I didn’t get much further than that.”
“I found the same thing and was able to use the frequency of the markings to make some guesses as to what the symbols were most likely to be. From that, I made more guesses. I think it's close, if not correct.”
“So, what did it say?”
Projecting an image for Wisp to see, Leah said, “I think this is the English translation.”
Gravity Projection Device
This system was once a member of the Abugida Alliance. Three thousand years ago the facility was vacated when rebellion broke out on the Abugidian home world. When the system was vacated the large number of transitions overheated the power system tripping the main failsafe of this spinal gravity collector. To reset the collector the trip mechanism must be returned to the ‘on’ position. The mechanism is at the furthest most part of the collection tower.
Care should be taken when ascending the tower as the tower’s guardians died and their offspring have reverted to the pre-domesticated state of their ancestral home. Once you enter the collector’s control room you have nine hours to reset the mechanism, find the station control room and claim the station and surrounding system.
Code: one five six three eight nine eight one zero zero five
Wisp read the message then Leah quickly showed her the assumptions she’d made. Wisp said, “Amazing. I knew you were smart, but to do that with so much else on is brilliant. Shall we work together or separately? I mean one of us here and the other work on finding the control room?”
“We couldn’t find any other keypads except this one. Across the cavern was just as lifeless when this room lit up. I think we should go together.”
Wisp nodded and said, “Honestly, I like that answer. Wandering around a mostly lifeless station is giving me the creeps.”
Leah took a deep breath, turned to the door and entered the code. When she typed in the last number, the whole dome was lit from within by a bright light which slowly dimmed until it was easy to look at and then the hatch flashed green and began to open. Both Leah and Wisp stepped inside only to find they were in a small airlock. The outer door closed and flashed green before the airlock started to fill with what their suits registered as a breathable mixture of nitrogen, oxygen and various other trace elements. Leah palmed a small pistol which shot miniature explosive needles as the inner door opened into a large circular room twenty metres across. The room was filled with two concentric circles of consoles which looked like work stations. There was an airlock in the centre of the floor.
As Leah stepped inside the room, there was a chime, and she felt what she had been thinking of as the floor begin to exert a gravitational pull on her. An identical chime sounded as the pull stabilised. Leah unclipped her helmet and began looking at the consoles. Each console looked identical, with a large screen and a clear space where Leah would have expected a keyboard or data entry device to be. As Wisp checked each of the airlocks and examined the room, Leah moved to one of the consoles in the inner row and sat down. When nothing happened, she moved her hand over the clear space and then touched the screen. When she touched the screen, it lit up with a list of what Leah imagined were possible functions. She quickly decoded them and then pressed the one labelled ‘Tower Structure’. As she pressed it, a three dimensional model of the spire appeared in the clear space in front of the console. The spire was almost entirely filled with what looked like a pyramidal honeycomb-like structure.
Leah brushed her hand along one edge, and a point lit where her hand touched. Then a red line beginning at the centre of the pyramid wove its way along a flat plane through the pyramid until it reached that point. The plane cut through the point and the centre. As it did, the wireframe collapsed into a two-dimensional model showing what Leah could only imagine was the path to the chosen point. Two icons appeared on the screen. One looked like a circle with an arrow on its circumference, and the other was a thin rectangle. Leah pressed the circle, and the three-dimensional wireframe reappeared.
Leah reached out and touched the very top of the spire. The red line traced a path through the spire and once again flattened to show the two-dimensional map. The red line stayed toward the centre of the pyramid and spire. Once again, the two icons appeared. This time Leah touched the long rectangle. The two-dimensional map discarded some of the unnecessary areas and then separated to show two separate rectangular images. Leah touched the first image and a long thin sheet extruded from the top of the console. Leah touched the other image, and a second sheet was extruded. On the screen was only the circle with the arrow and she pressed this twice to return to the menu screen.
Wisp had been watching Leah and trying to decode the menu on the console to Leah’s left. She said, “Leah, on the main menu screen there is the system logo at the top which I thought was just a logo. I thought the fourth planet was lit because this spire is for the fourth planet. What if we unengaged it? I’m hoping we might get a map to the control room.”
Leah nodded and said, “Give it a push. I’ve just been trying stuff.”
Wisp reached over and pushed the backlit planet. The screen seemed to zoom out, and the icon of the system filled the centre of the screen. It was surrounded by three rings, the first of which was backlit. Wisp looked across at Leah, who shrugged her shoulders. Wisp said, “I’d rather you make guesses than me.”
Leah reached over and touched the middle ring, and nothing happened. She touched the inner ring, and the backlight on the ring disappeared, and the system icon disappeared, leaving the three rings. Leah touched the middle ring, and it lit this time, showing an icon of the station. It was a disc with nine spikes. Leah touched the image, and a menu appeared. Leah pressed the menu tab labelled ‘Station Structure’, and a three-dimensional wireframe of the station appeared. This time the major features were labelled.
Wisp reached over and using the common motions used to enlarge an image, she zoomed in on the city and then to the central building. Leah began decoding the labels then said, “Gèng, because I know how to do this, can you decode them or do I still have to?”
“I am permitted to decode them and change the image to English labels.”
Leah nodded and the labels changed. This made it easier to fi
nd the area at the centre of the building and under its base which was labelled ‘Control Room’. Wisp touched the label, and the room lit up from within. Leah shrunk the image and as she did a line formed showing the path to the control room from where they were. The screen showed the options again to return to the previous screen or to print the map. Wisp was reaching for the print button when Leah said, “With normal maps, there is an option to change the starting point. We don’t want to come back here through the whole maze if we don’t have to.”
Wisp nodded, then holding her finger at the end of the line where they were she dragged it to the end of the collection tower where they needed to go first. The redline disappeared then reformed along a different route. This route was more direct and ran along the outside of the spire in a straight line. Leah gave Wisp a light punch on the arm and smiled before reaching over and pressing the print button. Three sheets needed to be printed. While Wisp printed them out, Leah used the original console to see what was shown on the outer ring of the main screen.
This showed an icon of the portal. Pressing this, Leah came to the screen with options which were now in English. She could see the options which looked duller than the rest which should give her access to the power room on the portal. She said, “Wisp, once we can turn on the power and claim the station I think we’ll also have control of the portal. That’s what it means by controlling the system.”
“Good! We have just over eight hours and a half left, so let’s get going.”