Loka told Lucy we’d be back. She figured two months, barring problems. Three at the most. I told her more likely six, as the modifications to the Helicopters alone would take a month after the parts are made.
“I will have communications with you through the earpieces. A word of caution: if you come under duress or they are going to take the pistols and other things from you by force, I need you to just whisper, ‘Earth 2’, that is all. I will go into a surveillance mode then and I can remotely destroy most of the equipment if needed,” she said.
“We are off,” Loka said, and took my hand. The Lucy robot went with us to the ledge. We secured our lines and slipped out and over the ledge. We waved goodbye to her and she said, “I am still right here,” through the earpieces.
~~~
After several days of carefully climbing down I found the remains of one of the little planes we took with us. It slammed into the mountain, far from home, and useless.
We made good time going down, and finally hit the top of the face and camped on the ledge. These tent things were fantastic, as they kept very close to a warm 70 degrees, even in the vicious mountain storms.
We tackled the face after two days of fresh storms blew through. I would let Loka go down and swing left or right until she found a place to install fresh pitons or found some of the old ones. She would hook in and set the second line, then I’d repel below her and I’d repeat what she did. We leapfrogged down the face rather quickly and finally we were heading across the mountain valley to the little town that served as a lookout and jumping off site.
Lord Pitviper and the entire Council of Elders were soon notified, along with everyone who was anyone. We had returned and had found something.
I inquired of Cullves and was told she made it down alive and was in the capitol, as were the mysterious planes we sent.
A few hours later we left the quiet little village of Vorfang behind as a helicopter arrived to transport us to Lord Pitviper’s private estate.
He was head of council, and was quite wealthy in his own right, his grandfather had developed the jet engines used for so many applications around our world now, and his family held the rights to them for a few more years.
He was always a history buff, but when he started on the Gods-Cut project he was ridiculed by most of the council. When the first few teams never returned, then the one was seen falling, he faced almost a rebellion, especially from his rival, Lord Seacodent, of the southern state of Highrealm. They also claimed they were the original seat of the humans. Castle Gods-Cut was a myth and Lord Seacodent swore that Cut didn’t mean origin as we were told, it meant foolishness. He wanted to bring charges of willful murder or at the least incompetence resulting in the death of innocents. Both of which would remove my Lord from the council, and move Seacodent into the Chairmanship.
I had Loka put on her belt and I did the same. This Lord was dangerous and it was even rumored he may have sabotaged a couple of the teams going up the mountain, though I saw no indication of it—two teams, a four and an eight, were still unaccounted for.
Citizens normally did not carry arms, though it was not strictly forbidden. We were still what Lucy called a rural planet as they went, and a lot of us hunted for sport and food. Our particular weapons were unusual though—we hoped we wouldn’t require them.
The helicopter landed on the pad behind Lord Pitviper’s mansion and a little electric powered cart waited for us. We just had our packs and weapons belts—we left the climbing gear and clothing stored at the inn in Vorfang.
Lord Pitviper was waiting with his wife and, to my surprise and delight, Cullves stood by them as well.
As we approached I spotted it right off. Cullves was missing her right hand, a little above the wrist; she was wearing a hook thing.
They waved as we pulled up; our driver stopped and unloaded the packs. Lord Pitviper shook both our hands vigorously.
Cullves kissed Loka and I and smiled. “We are credited with finding the origins of the humans, and I read over all the information you sent by the strange planes. Is it true? A computer that thinks?”
I started to say something but Loka squeezed my hand hard so I let her speak. “There are a few strange things we have found, some wonderful, some not, all in good time dear Cullves. First, your hand?”
“Oh, lost it two days from the bottom. I was tying off a new piton and fell, the rope was wrapped around my hand and I was knocked out when I slammed into a rock outcropping. Hanging there for the better part of a day I think. Anyway, when I recovered and managed to untangle my mess, my hand was useless. By the time I made it down it was black and dead and they said gangrene would set in so they whacked it off and gave me this pretty little hook.” She tried to smile but it didn’t come off right.
“Come, we will get some coffee and you can fill my husband in on all the happenings,” his wife Jasmin said.
Over the next several hours we filled them in, the robot we left on the mountain, the need for troops, and the very dire scenario we had been given of earth and our galaxy at large, from the scourge called the MKs.
We were given a set of rooms and let the weariness of the past eleven months seep out. Relaxing for the first time in a long time. Loka helped me go through the packs to get all the different things we brought down arranged into a semblance of order. Lord Pitviper made sure we had food and pretty much ensured we were left alone for a few days rest. I knew half the Council had been by asking questions and he told them that information would be provided in good time.
Lord P set up a meeting with us, his wife, Cullves, and two others that helped fund the various expeditions up the mountain, along with a few of the Council members science advisers. All in all, around forty people were packed into the Lord’s large conference room to hear our story.
The Lord, and Cullves, as defacto head of our party, did most of the talking, just getting validation from us on sticky points.
Finally the floor was opened to questions. A science adviser to someone from Ramedon, a state further to the west, said, “The air is too thin for even our best helicopter to get that high with only a pilot, never-mind a full crew!”
“The robot, Lucy, assures us it can be done with a few upgrades, the information will be provided as required, sir, something to do with air compression in the current turbine design and a different type of rotor blade for lift,” Cullves answered.
A small man, clearly some dwarf in his genes, stood in the back and was recognized by Cullves to speak. He cleared his throat, “I am Darklot, Karl Darklot, Science Adviser to Lord Seacodent. All I have heard so far is a fantastic story that, for all we know, was dreamed up while they camped on the side of a mountain drinking coffee. Are we to believe this tale? And even if it were partly true, why should we risk ourselves to help this robot?”
I saw red and stood up, hand on the pistol, but was pulled back down by Loka and one of the Lord’s guards. He addressed the man, “Sir, you slander the character of our teams, many lying dead at the top of the mountain, then you question the facts before they are even presented? I say to you, sir, you are no science adviser, you are but a disruptive ruffian sent to muck the waters, and you will now leave.” As he said that two guards had moved quietly behind the man. As he jumped up to protest the remark a guard grabbed under each arm and lifted him off the floor, carrying him out while he was protesting that his Lord would hear of it.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I will broach no more crap like that. When all the information has been presented and our position stated clearly, then you may bring up valid arguments for or against, as you feel is best. I wish to apologize to our climbers for the terrible remarks associated with a member of Lord Seacodent’s team, and I suspect he will be as upset at that person’s remarks as I was. Now, if we may continue?” He sat down. Such is the world of politics, I thought.
There were a few questions about the dead teams we found. I tried to explain it. I knew we had started into the realm of radiation studies, s
o it wasn’t totally foreign, just far deadlier and more complicated than originally thought.
Loka stood. “We were going to save this for the full Council, but I think we are better served with the scientists and other esteemed people assembled to present it here, with Cullves’ permission of course?”
We had not seen what Lucy had made up for them yet, just getting a small generator converted to do the 240v AC we needed took several days. We used 80v AC for normal work and 400V for industrial.
“Well, I don’t know, Lord P?” She looked to him.
He stood. “Okay, but under our discovery laws and funding rules, myself and my partners reserve the right to control any developments directly related to the finds of this and the deceased teams such as is reasonable and within the rulings of Council.”
As he spoke a servant went outside and started the generator and returned with an extension cord with one of the special plugs Lucy gave us.
“This is their version of our monitor and computer which they call a ‘viewer’. They use information sticks similar to ours and the robot we spoke of has programmed a series of them for us. She said number one was general info on the why, and numbers two through four are packed with information and plans that have been converted for us to understand,” Cullves explained. Loka had briefed her before hand, her husband died helping find this, and he and she both deserved as much credit as possible.
“As you know, Lord Seacodent has blocked Council attempts at starting work on anything from the planes sent to us, fearing some grandiose scheme or plot against our world. Let us see what this thinking robot says.” Cullves was doing well at playing politics too.
After it was plugged in she turned it on and stood back. The fold up screen was a field exciter, according to Lucy, and different particles were fired up into it from the base, producing a full colored, 3D imaging system. As the image of a beautiful girl came up, it told everyone, “My name is Lucinda, everyone calls me Lucy and if alive, this is how I feel I would want to look. You call it a human. I am an A.I. Robot or computer, as you wish.” She slowly turned a full 360 as people in the audience ooo’d and aaa’d. “Your team saved my existence at the risk of their lives and we have developed a bond of friendship.”
She flashed pictures of us all, even Cullves’ husband, which I felt was very gracious of her.
“I have about an hour’s presentation here for you but first, the head scientist from team GMT2 will show a short on the honor gates.”
Up popped the woman that Loka swore was almost speaking our language. She was holding a book in her hand, the cover showed the now familiar GMT2 logo across it, and she turned left and right to address the audience. She spoke as before, total gibberish to me. I heard someone in the back holler, “It’s HER! Our first Queen, Diboca Honor!”
“Calm down please!” Lord P demanded.
“But it is her!” he said again.
“Yes, sir, we are aware of that, thank you. Please sit and quiet down?” Lord P asked, and smiled.
She talked a few minutes and Lucy came back on and said, “That is the original, recorded thousands of years ago. This equipment is really, really old, you know?” She snickered, we caught the joke. I doubt anyone else did. “Now, translated.” It reran with an artificial voice overdubbed. It was the brief history of GMT2, how they left earth for the stars and after setting up several gate systems the whole team had became sick, deathly sick, some died.
“It took her a year to identify a virus they picked up from a planet they named ‘Folie’s Folly’, after the scientist that discovered its origins. They were afraid to go home and spread the virus, so they made one more set of gates and intentionally left it unrecorded. If they found a cure, maybe they’d go home,” Lucy said, as she let the video run. It told how they found a semi-developed culture here and they introduced both themselves and some basic technology to give it a kick-start. A cure was later found but some unknown troubles with the reactor prevented their return to earth. They moved in and took over, not by force as we had been told in our legends, but by being almost gods to us, healing, curing, and even mating. They and we became Olgreenders and our true history had been found. Yes, the woman was our first recorded Queen.
The rest was routine information we had suspected but never knew with certainty. They kept the secret of the gates and the connection to the universe among themselves and, since it didn’t work right, it eventually died with them, leaving myths and legends in their wake.
Lucy came back on. “Now, to matters at hand.” She gave as eloquent and detailed a speech as any I had ever heard in Council sessions. Her plea for help was laced with knowledge of pain and suffering. She then showed videos from her ship files of ‘them’, the Morant Küchenschabe. ‘Those strangers who come to stay’, she translated. They had two small hands and two skinny little legs that all ended in three clawed fingers or toes. Out of the middle of the chest was an articulated, massive pincer arm. The little eyes were in sockets on the top and they clearly were exoskeletic beings. As close to the house cockroach as you could get, only they stood eight to twelve feet on their legs and had that pincer. She next showed them attacking humans who were trying to fight back—they were grabbed by the pincers and cut apart or just held while groups of the MK’s ate them alive. On some humans the pincers snapped off heads and some humans were cut in half, all graphic and gory. More than one person left to go outside for fresh air, in a hurry.
“They took Earth, they took hundreds of planets. How many? We don’t know, but they are in our galaxy, hungry, and looking for you!” Lucy said with emphasis.
She told them of their ability to learn, how they hunted fresh meat, their flights between stars in captured ships, looking for planets with life on them, they drive to destroy everything in their feeding frenzy.
Lucy showed several fights—at least we knew they could die.
Lucy added a few comments on the earpiece to us and both Loka and I repeated them to the assemblage.
A man in the back raised his hand. Cullves acknowledged him and he said, “I am Dwain Farslege, also of Lord Seacodent’s Science Advisory Group. First, I wish to apologize for the previous insolence, I assure you I had no idea he would be disruptive when I invited him along. I assure you all, he will be most severally reprimanded for his behavior.
“Let us assume what you say is all true. Should we not then assume we would be best served by taking her science information and quickly developing our own defense force while destroying this gate thing? It could keep us safe for hundreds of years that way.”
Lucy said in my ear, “Honest, you don’t have hundreds of years, a few dozen at best and…never mind…Loka, give Cullves your earpiece please?”
Loka told Cullves it was a talking device to the computer.
She balked at first but then excused herself a minute as Lucy filled her in on various statistics.
Finally Cullves said, “Dr. Farslege, is it?”
“Yes, that is correct,” he said.
“The computer in question has made a few calculations based on known data and suspected data. Both paint a dire picture. First, based on known facts, we all know we had humans among us almost two thousand years ago.
“Think. They were so far advanced to us then. Add more unknown years of progress to that. Now, in come the bugs, but not to Earth directly, but the outer fringes of our galaxy. They went from there to earth in 200 or so years. Earth, with its billions of people, fantastic technology, and these gates, and they couldn’t stop them from invading and killing and eating all the animal life on the planet. Think how far they were ahead of us when they were here, then add to that and they still couldn’t stop them. What chance do we have? Even if we had the few hundred years you think we might get, which we won’t by the way.” She was not smiling.
“All we have telling us this is some mysterious robot on a mountain to validate anything you, or they say, so I think I will agree to disagree with you then.” At that he stood up and
left.
“Any more spies for Lord Seacodent here?” Lord P asked after he was gone. That picked up a few laughs.
“Good, then listen up please?
“Ladies and gentleman, my company has already been hard at work testing the changes to make our engines run efficiently, even in thin atmosphere. These redesigned turbines and rotor blades are fantastic! Eventually they will be incorporated into the helicopters design itself. They are testing some of the other things this Lucy computer has been telling us. Some we haven’t built yet as we need to develop other technologies first, but I can assure you this, everything it has told us as far as advancing our knowledge and technology, has proven to be factual. I still have not had access to more than the data the planes brought with them but I eagerly wait to see what else we shall learn.” He said it with such confidence and enthusiasm I could almost believe he meant it.
“I have already talked to my board people and various confidants, and let me assure all here we shall only maintain control of these fantastic technological breakthroughs long enough to recoup my investments in the Gods-Cut research project, since, as you know, certain Council members refused to waste our money on such frivolous endeavors.” A lot of them laughed, all knew Lord Seacodent led the opposition while trying to fund his own group to study his area. Unlike Lord P, he refused to use any of his personal funds to do it. “We shall provide all the information to everyone if Council agrees to help. If not, then we shall keep most of it to ourselves, and release it as we see fit. All legal of course.” He sat down as the murmurs rose and fell among the crowd. It was true; he held all discovery rights and our Constitution gave him full protection under the laws since he only used his personal funds. It was equally true that he had put out large sums to equip each party and secure the services of us climbers. Many amateurs are killed every year attempting the mountains in this chain and, to my knowledge, none have succeeded to reach the three highest peaks without professionals leading the way. We don’t come cheap either.
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