by JK Stone
It took a few minutes, but Terrah was finally able to concentrate on erecting the mental barrier to block out the voices and emotions that had engulfed her.
“Alright now focus like you were practicing, and try to build a mental wall to protect yourself,” Calia had said that to Vellia.
About ten minutes later Terrah and Saleria were standing without support, but it took another few minutes before Vellia was able to come around completely, and when Vellia finally said she was alright, they made their way into the TDS 5 control room, and Terrah sat back and stared disbelievingly at the planet on the monitor as everything seemed to go on around her in slow motion.
Earth looked scorched in some places. The land masses looked different due to the risen water from the complete melt off of the polar caps, and the display was tracking extremely high radiation levels that seemed to swirl and streak around the globe.
Jason barked out, “What the hell happened?” and Terrah looked over to see what Jerren had to say.
Jerren looked around and motioned for them all to gather closer, then he explained the mission he had just completed. “Anyway, Spatium told me he heard a message from Earth informing them that the planet was no longer a banned planet, so after I dropped he and his sisters off, I had Jason track the signal.
“I came back here and we launched a probe to isolate any damaged or nonfunctional redirecting beacons to repair or replace them, then we time jumped to this point in time to get the results.
“Our probe wasn’t where it should have been and after locating the probe and analyzing the results, the findings led us back to Earth. I had Eneria launch another probe to see when and where this all originated, thinking it may be the consortium to blame, but Eneria found this satellite had been launched from Earth, and I didn’t think anyone on Earth had the capability to launch anything that fast,” Jerren nodded to Eneria.
“I performed the scan of the CEMPS,” Eneria said as she looked around the group and explained, “It is a Cloaked Electromagnetic Pulsing Satellite. Anyway, it confirmed what Jerren suspected. These Earthlings did not make it.”
Terrah wondered what Eneria meant by that, and she was about to ask when Jason beat her to it.
“What do you mean these Earthlings?”
“That is actually a misnomer, the people of Earth now are referred to as Earthlings, and this CEMPS was created by one of the prior civilizations back when the planet was called Terra.
“The technology is from the ancient city of Aekaetum; their civilization fell due to a hemorrhagic pathogen they released. Very few people survived it; I believe they called it Elyon’s madness. Anyway, it looks like eighteen months linear from our current location, the CEMPS was launched. It appears to have wiped out the technology base along with destabilizing the planet’s magnetic core, and it looks as if most of their nuclear power plants had their cores melt as well as increasing volcanic activity.
“There are extremely high radiation levels around the planet, and the thermal variant added to the already warming planetary conditions. That is why there is no ice left on Earth. A similar event happened after Lantis was destroyed; only there was no radiation, just a severe thermal event. Anyway, Jerren wanted us to go back and destroy the CEMPS as it launched, and that is when Inola said ‘NO!’”
Jason moaned and drew Terrah’s attention. Looking at Alise, Jason said, “We allowed this, by fixing the event horizon.”
Alise shook her head and said, “If we hadn’t stopped the event horizon, this planet would have been destroyed along with Antilles.”
Jason sighed and said, “You’re right, but what do we do. Inola didn’t want us to fix it, why?”
Eneria turned and must have reversed the probe and accelerated the time because Terrah watched as the planet went through some nasty weather changes. The images seemed to shift between Earth as it was on the monitor when they arrived, to looking blurry then to the planet looking as if it were nothing more than a debris field, then in a clear image about twenty-five years later the CEMPS just exploded, and Eneria reversed the probe and Terrah watched as another satellite had locked onto the CEMPS and destroyed it.
Terrah watched in wonder at what she was seeing and asked, “Who launched that?”
A moment later Eneria said, “This is strange, the technology in that satellite hunter is from Hedal.”
Terrah was confused and wondered if she was supposed to know those names when Eneria explained it to them.
“Hedal was the Great City that the people of Aekaetum tried to kill off with that plague.”
“OH MY…” Alise exclaimed. “Terraneu… That is where I remember the names Aekaetum and Hedal.”
Terrah looked at Alise and Jason asked, “The people we sent our cousin too?”
Alise just nodded in apparent bewilderment.
“What about Terraneu? And what cousin?” Saleria had asked.
Alise explained, “Jason and I sent a distant cousin of yours through the portal to prevent Enyali from killing her. I had been on Terraneu with my commander from that time, nearly two hundred years from now, and that is where I heard those names. The men there had fled from Terra in an attempt to locate a relocation colony when Aekaetum started the war. They were dying out and Amber was the key to their survival.”
Terrah noticed Eneria was moving the probe in time again. About a hundred years further she saw new activity in orbit, the image was shifting between blurry, clear, and the same debris field as before, then back to Earth looking like an eradiated mess, then back to ships in orbit. In the clear moments, she could make out specific activities. It appeared as if ships were flying through the upper atmosphere dragging nets of sorts, and she wondered if they were removing the radiation from the planet.
Time passed another twenty years and when the image cleared to show Earth, Terrah saw that there were ships of all sizes and shapes coming and going, and coming into clearer focus Terrah saw a massive space station in Earth’s orbit, but that soon changed back to a massive debris field, and Terrah had a sneaking suspicion that what she was seeing was the probe shifting between possible futures.
“Have either of you seen a probe behave this way before?” Eneria asked.
Alise and Calia both shook their heads in silence, as they apparently studied the monitor while the images repeatedly changed from blurry to clear.
A few minutes later Alise let out a hum then said, “It looks as if the planetary reset advanced their civilization, you see those ships there,” She pointed out a few of the larger ones that shifted into focus. “Those are Esulan ships. The Esulan swore they would never have dealings with Earth again after the Roswell crash.”
“So, we’re to do nothing?” Terrah asked a bit shocked at the thought.
Everyone must’ve been contemplating the situation in silence a moment, then Jerren sighed. “It would appear that way,” he said, not sounding any more amused by the idea than Terrah felt.
Jerren could be heard sighing as he turned around and said, “We still have a lot of other things to rectify, starting with Abnearu and TDS 2,” Jerren looked in Terrah’s direction and asked, “Terrah, how long until you’re ready to head out?”
Terrah was a little floored at the prospect of leaving Earth in this condition but turned her focus to her ship. She considered Jerren’s question and she said, “My ship is still a mess and not working like it’s supposed to. We’re almost finished cleaning it up though.”
Jerren closed his eyes a moment and the stars passing by indicated that he got the ship moving.
Jerren turned toward Eneria and said, “I set course for Daregon. If we all pitch in maybe we can figure out what’s going on with her ship.”
Jerren seemed to lose himself in thought a moment then he asked her, “Terrah, have you performed the major diagnostic on the ship yet?”
Terrah wasn’t sure which diagnostic he was referring to but she had performed quite a few, and she was about to say as much when he continued.
&
nbsp; “I activated a major diagnostic on TDS 5 when it approached Earth; the monitor in the master control room showed it could only be performed once every ten thousand years. If you…”
Terrah had heard enough, she knew she hadn’t performed any diagnostics from the master control room, and hoping that is where she would find the answer to her ship’s issues she bolted into the engine room and through the archway before Jerren could say another word.
Chapter Nine
Terrah was in the master control room, she approached then brought up the console for TDS 4, and she was a little startled when she read,
TDS 4
Comprehensive System Diagnostic activation (Yes) or (No).
Upon reading the console, Terrah selected yes. The lights dimmed briefly and the diagnostic program immediately began running.
Terrah was following the progress intently and jumped a bit startled when Saleria asked, “Did it work?”
Terrah saw that Vellia and Saleria had followed her into the master control room as well, and she replied, “Oh… not yet, it has just under a minute to go,” Terrah said as both of her sisters huddled in to watch, and she jumped once again when she heard Justin’s voice soon afterward.
“How’s it going?”
Terrah had to laugh this time, she was on edge and looking over at her brother, she replied, “Less than a minute,” And a few seconds later the monitor began displaying results.
TDS 4.
System optimal.
AL Datalink disconnect reintegrate AL program. (LKL UBD TDS 4).
Commander Viable.
12 Sequential Anomalies AL Already exists.
36 System errors Unable to remove AL
Terrah was confused and asked, “Calia, do you know what this means?”
Calia came up behind her and hummed. Then drew in a quick breath saying, “Damn… How many times did you try to reset the ship?”
Terrah shrugged and said, “I don’t know, a lot, why?”
“If my suspicions are correct, then all of your ships issues are being caused by one thing. Your ship appears to be working normally, and your AI is still onboard,” Calia said sounding excited.
Shaking her head, Calia seemed to mutter, “Why didn’t I realize that earlier?” and she shrugged her shoulders in apparent bewilderment.
“Why couldn’t we find the AI? Or why will it not show its self if it is on the ship then?” Terrah asked imploringly.
“Because it cannot. See there where it says AL Datalink disconnect and LKL UBD TDS 4? That means that the Last Known Location was an Upload to the Binding Disk, and it shows that TDS 4 was the last physical location.”
Terrah nodded. “We already knew it uploaded just before the ship went offline. So, if that’s correct and the commander didn’t transport off of the ship at the last moment as we thought, then why can’t we just reactivate the AI?” she asked.
Calia furrowed her brows and explained, “If the AI is in the binding disk when the commander dies, the ship sends out a beacon to one of these ships to rescue it. If the beacon indicated that there was no replacement commander chosen, we would usually collect the disk and apply it to a new host, but if the signal indicated that they had a replacement commander chosen, we would send the disk drifting in space toward their ship.
“Once the binding disk makes contact with the ship, the AI will reintegrate and if the prior commander had a replacement commander chosen, the AI would collect them. But it looks like your ship went offline before the host commander died, so the ship didn’t send out the beacon. When you got your binding disk, the old binding disk was deactivated with the AI still inside of it. I’ve no idea why I didn’t realize that earlier.
“Anyway, all you should have to do is get the disk and re-integrate it with the ship. See there? Every time you tried to reset the ship the error would occur. Apparently, the ship wouldn’t allow you to destroy the AI program. That means the disk is still in the prior commander’s body and that is aboard your ship somewhere,” Calia stated excitedly.
Terrah groaned inwardly at the thought of finding the commanders remains and having to extract the disk. Looking at Calia, Terrah asked, “How do I get the disk out once I find it?” Terrah grimaced as the realization of what she needed to do hit her, then she said, “never mind I know what I need to do,” and she shivered at the thought.
“We’ll come over and help you— Calia began.
Terrah shook her head and said, “No, I’ll do it. Once I find the commander’s remains, I’ll contact you. I have a feeling I need to do this alone.”
Terrah looked at her sisters and saw they were about to protest and she reiterated what she’d just said, “No, I’ll call for you if I need you. I need to do this by myself. Could you bring Pops back to TDS 3 for me please?”
Saleria and Vellia both nodded, though they didn’t look happy about it, and they followed her into her ship.
*****
Terrah searched the bedroom first, and being unsuccessful, she returned to the lower level and moved the debris around until she was able to make it all the way through the inner and outer corridors. She’d sifted through everything on the lower level and was at a loss for where to look next.
Getting frustrated Terrah called on Calia. “I’ve searched all three levels and I haven’t found the commander’s remains yet. Do you have any ideas?”
“Have you looked on the Observation level yet?” Calia asked sounding puzzled.
Terrah didn’t recall anyone telling her about an observation level, and if they had she must have spaced it. Grasping for hope, she replied, “Not yet, how do I get there?”
“Go to the bedchamber and stand in the middle of the room, then ascend to Observation. If it’s too dark in there you can make the walls transparent, or raise the ambient lighting and the walls will glow. If you need anything else don’t hesitate to ask.”
Sighing Terrah thanked Calia and headed back to the bedroom. She was standing in the middle of the room and her heart began racing as she said, “Ascend Observation.” Then a moment later the sense of weightlessness engulfed her as she floated to the uppermost level.
Calia was correct in thinking it would be dark in the room. Terrah closed her eyes and thinking, make the walls transparent, she opened her eyes to see the sunlight from Mintaka was slowly increasing the visibility within the room.
Terrah found the commander. His remains were laying in the corner in a fetal position. The lack of oxygen and whatever temperature he was exposed to had transformed his corpse into a mummified husk.
Terrah approached and knelt down studying him solemnly. He had died alone and unable to call for help. Somehow, she felt great sorrow for him even though she had no clue as to his personage.
Terrah examined the commander’s remains further and noticed some damage that appeared to be recent, if the scattered remnants were any indication. She rolled him over and saw his skull had been cracked, and figured it must have happened sometime over the past few day’s travel to Daregon.
Terrah looked closer and found what appeared to be a shiny silver thread protruding from the fracture site, and she pulled on it.
To Terrah’s surprise, upon touching the thread, a static arc zapped through her fingertips, and a moment later the thread fell and dissolved into the metal floor.
Terrah felt a strange sensation course throughout her body a moment later, and closing her eyes she thought Reactivate Artificial Intelligence. To Terrah’s relief, she could feel that it had worked. The AI’s program was reintegrated with the ship and Terrah called out, “Hello, I’m speaking to the Artificial Intelligence. Can you hear me yet?”
Chapter Ten
The Artificial Intelligence was confused. It knew what had happened to it but was at a loss for how it was reactivated. It had been disconnected from the ship for a very long time, and at the end of that period the AI’s program had shut down. It heard a voice and tried to speak, but its program was still reintegrating with the ship, and it
s upload prevented any response. The voice called out a few more times before the AI was finally able to respond, “Hello, did you reactivate me?”
*****
Terrah was dejected, she could feel the AI had been activated again, but it wouldn’t respond to her repeated attempts to communicate. She was completely exhausted and just wanted to rest a bit. She felt her emotional state diminishing with not discovering the problem and was about to leave and get some rest before attempting to resolve the ship’s issues when she awoke, then the AI finally responded to her with a question of its own.
Sighing in relief, Terrah said, “Yes…Yes, I did.”
“How did you upload my program?” the AI asked her.
Terrah let out a sigh before answering, “Your binding disk needed to be in contact with the ship. Once it did you uploaded. I was worried there was still something wrong because you didn’t answer me after you went online.”
“I could hear you talking but my verbal communication program only just came online. The upload is not complete, there are still a few programs uploading. I am unable to project into a body at the moment,” the AI said sounding a little feeble.
“That’s alright, there’s no rush. Can you sense who I am yet?” Terrah asked nervously.
“Yes, I can sense that you have an active binding disk. You are the new commander of this vessel. If you would like me to begin the bonding process, we will have to wait another three minutes for my program to fully come online.”
Terrah thought about it a moment and said, “That’ll be fine.”
Terrah looked down at the prior commander’s remains and asked, “Did the last commander have any final requests?”
“He had many requests over thousands of years,” The AI stated.
Terrah shook her head, the AI misunderstood her, so rephrasing her question she asked, “No, what I meant to ask is, was there anything special he wanted to have done with his remains?”
“Yes, Baelac was unsure if he would make it out alive but if he did not then he asked that if at all possible, he would like to have his remains set to rest at the Henge on Terra during the solstice.”
