by Frank Carey
He leaned back in his seat. "Those fools. Those egotistical fools."
"Yoh, Orsi! Care to share with the rest of the class?" Jenna asked.
"The Sokuhl and the Basili weren't two separate species who codeveloped on a planet. One was a mutation of the other, like the mountain and river Storens, though the differences are much more striking for the Basili/Sokuhl mutation."
"Which one was the source and which one was the mutation?" Tannith asked in a hushed voice.
"The Basili was the source; the Sokuhl were the mutation. I don't think the mutagen was an attempt at a cure for a disease."
"Then what were they trying to cure?"
"The lack of wings. The mutagen wasn't a weapon. It was designed to change a Sokuhl into an enhanced Basili--greater strength, hotter fire, more agile in the air, that sort of thing. Something went wrong and it killed whoever was exposed to it, Sokuhl and Basili alike."
"Not deliberately?"
Orsi shook his head. "No, it would be safer to just use a blaster. No, this beast got out and started killing people, lots of people."
"So, how did they stop it?"
Orsi thumbed through the notes. "The translation is going slow. So far, there is no mention of a cure of any kind. No cure, no vaccine, nothing. It gives a final death toll of twelve million, but stops there."
"And it’s deadly to both Sokuhl and Basili?"
"Yep. Hell, it might be deadly to any reptilian race whose ancestors flew or breathed fire.
"So, why did it stop?"
"I don't know. By all rights, Sokuhl should be a grave."
###
"Go for Tannith!"
"Doctor, it's Alex. Any news?"
"I was just going to call you." She proceeded to explain what she and Doc had surmised. "Alex, it wasn't a weapon. It was a genetic enhancement that went horribly wrong. The particulars should be arriving on your desk as we speak."
"Thank you, Doctor. You have given us a great deal to think about" He killed the link to Tannith, then sat back to collect his thoughts. "I have to warn Kel and his team. Computer, open a channel to Felicity Zarn."
"Working..."
"Go for Felicity..."
"Fee, Alex. I’m sending you a file containing everything we've uncovered about the Basili and what happened to them. I need you to compress it and send it through the gate as a data burst."
"Copy that. Wait a minute... Sir, sensors have detected two Protector-class cruisers materializing near Dawn. They are IFF silent and one is taking station close to the asteroid."
"The SIS has arrived. Warn the AIs, then end the burst. When you’re finished, go to monitor mode. Let me know if anything happens."
"Aye, sir. Felicity out."
"Computer, Get me Patriarch Hardy on a secure channel."
"Working..."
"It's time we show the SIS how we do it in Elf Town!"
###
"Wings? Really?" Bob exclaimed. "What a waste. Twelve million dead all for something as frivolous as wings. What the hell happened and why is this Agent Sage so intent on destroying the League?"
"Why don't you ask him?" Jenna offered.
"What?" both Kylie and Bob replied.
"Ask him. Agent Sage is aboard a Sokuhl ship which should have linked to our InterWeb the moment they arrived."
"Can you check?" Bob asked.
Jenna nodded, then closed her eyes. "Yep, they're there. Why don't you give them a visit and ask him what the hell is going on."
Bob shrugged. "I'll be right back."
###
Agent Sage sat in the lounge nursing his drink when Captain Mike, space ranger, appeared out of nowhere and sat down across from him. The bartender hit the panic button before running out the door. Once he was clear, Mike raised his hand, causing the door to close and lock. He turned and found Agent Sage drawing down on him with a blaster. "Who or what are you?" the agent demanded.
"People have called me many things, but Bob will do for now. How ya'll doing, Agent Sage?"
"How do you know my name?"
"I know many things. Like I know your actions are about to send the League into a war. I also know you lied to a lot of people, including Drs. Minty and Hardy. Why?"
"You can't possibly know... What do you want?"
"The truth. What happened to the Basili and why did your organization go to so much trouble to cover it up?"
"They died."
"Good! We're making progress. Now, why did the mutagen stop killing?"
"That's classified."
"I feel we've stopped making progress. Why the cover up?"
"Classified. My turn. Who the hell are you?"
"I told you, my name is Bob. I'm an AI."
"Wait, the AI from the Cube? What the hell’s business is it of yours what we're doing in this quadrant? Get the hell... Grgh!" Bob had reached over, grabbed the agent by the throat, and lifted him off the ground.
"Listen, you little pissant. I was wrestling saber tooth tigers when your kind was still trying to figure out how to take a shit. Your little sewing circle killed twelve million sapients and my daughter is somehow involved, so unless you want a lightning bolt shoved up your ass, I suggest you tell me what I want to know."
"Let go of me," Sage squeaked out. "What you ask is classified."
Bob dropped him, then knelt down next to him. "Don't come to Dawn. I will not be nearly this pleasant if I see you again."
The door burst open followed by a dozen armed guards. All they found was Sage sitting on the floor while attempting to catch his breath. "What the hell happened here?"
A visibly shaken Sage got off the floor and straightened his uniform. "Nothing. Just get me to Dawn."
###
Bob appeared next to the platform in the cave. Off to the side was the communications array he had traveled through. "Damn, that beats the hell out of a chariot," he muttered.
"Hey, Boss, get anywhere with the agent?" Jenna asked as she walked over from where she was examining a statue.
"Sort of. He knows what happened, but he's hiding behind a thin veil of secrecy. He knows."
"What now?" Kylie asked. "Did you threaten him?"
"Yeah, but he knew I was bluffing. Maybe if I had exposed the room we were in to space..."
Kylie touched his arm. "You always had a soft spot for these mortals, regardless of species."
"Yeah, I have. I see Alex had the troops wire this place to blow. That will be spectacular considering how much nisium is stored behind that wall. I have to talk to Red."
"If you go, you could end up trapped on the other side," Jenna reminded him.
He shrugged. "Maybe I can help them like I helped the people at the Cube." He turned toward the platform, but stopped when he saw his companions following him. "Where are you two going?"
"With you, of course." Kylie said.
"Can't do much here," Jenna reminded him. "But we can help find this realmoria delivery device and make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."
"What about your jobs, your families?"
Jenna shrugged. "I can do a better job keeping my crew safe from the other side."
"If I stop a war, I keep my kid and grandkid safe."
"You know, after thousands of years, I suddenly feel alive again," Bob said as he stepped onto the platform and into the light.
"Damn skippy," Jenna said as she and Kylie followed. Moments later, the room was empty except for the statues.
###
The Tracker slowly approached Dawn while the Sun Fall kept station a hundred clicks away. "First Officer, status," the captain asked.
"No life signs. The docking facility is gone. We'll have to land and hoof it across to the airlock."
"We don't have a shuttle that can connect directly?" Agent Sage asked from his position next to the captain's chair.
"No, but we might be able to take an astrocoupe if the airlock is big enough."
"An astrocoupe?"
"A small vehicle used to ins
pect the ship. It can operate in space or an atmosphere and seats six with enough storage for weapons and supplies. If we can get inside, we could drive it right through the gate and use it to get around on Arctillus."
"Good." Sage reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that he handed to the comm officer. "Scan this frequency. I'm looking for a beacon matching these parameters."
"Aye, sir. Scanning. No beacon."
"As I thought. It shut down to conserve energy. Can our comm system send this?" he asked while pointing to the lower half of the paper.
"Yes, sir. Easily."
"Captain?"
"Comm, send it."
"Yes, sir." He pressed a few buttons. His efforts were rewarded by a beep. "Message away, sirs. We are now picking up a beacon matching given parameters."
"Excellent. Well, Agent, are you ready for some sightseeing?"
"Of course."
"Seer, have a team of four commandos meet us in maintenance bay two. You have the bridge."
"Aye, sir. Good hunting, sir."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Kel flew over the tree tops on his way back to the forest. His scanner suggested a low approach to avoid the sensor grid protecting the city. Though not as advanced as modern day Sokuhl, the technology of Arctillus was formidable in its own right. He was being careful not underestimate it.
"What the hell happened here?" Kel asked out loud as the wind whipped his hair. "Why did you come here? Hell, how did you get here? And why is the SIS so interested in you?"
He looked down and saw the city below him, its population unaware of his passage even though he was just over the building tops. "Such ground dwellers," he said as he flew over. One he had taken his first flight after his wings and tail grew in, he was acutely aware of the environment above him. Birds, insects, planes, aircraft, anything that past overhead was noticed and cataloged by parts of his brain which had suddenly activated. It was as if his awareness had expanded a hundred-fold. He found it helped him with his work. "Scanner, what's our ETA?" he asked as he got back on task.
"Twenty minutes at current speed. Sir, I have just detected an RF chirp on an abnormally low frequency."
"Point of origin?"
"The gate."
"Is it a League signal?"
"No. The pattern is unknown."
"Great. Keep monitoring. Scan ahead. Any indication that we've been noticed?"
"No, sir."
"Scanner, are there any tall buildings with an eye line toward the Fortress?"
"Yes, five."
"Change heading to tallest and display vector."
"Working... Displayed."
Kel Changed course. Twenty minutes later found him perched gargoyle-like on a hundred-story skyscraper. "Now this is a view," he said as he looked down at the crowds below. The rising sun revealed thousands of city denizens going about their business in the streets below. Kel sat there, perched, as he sniffed the air. The scent of millions of Basili and Sokuhl rose from the warming streets below, mixing into a miasma of smells. "Damn, I could go for a percha-berry pie right now, just like the ones mom used to make. Thank God the Martok brought that fruit with them when they went into space."
He heard a buzzing noise and froze in place, trying to blend into the parapet he was on. He moved his eyes and saw a drone fly past, ignoring him. Yes, little device, I'm nothing more than a piece of carved stone, he thought to himself as the drone passed out of sight.
"Sir," Scanner announced, "I am receiving a data burst from Alyson."
"Display, please."
A hologram of a message formed above the device. Kel read it, his expression going from curiosity to annoyance. "Great, we're to expect visitors, shortly. Let's see... He stopped talking to himself as he read the parts about what Tannith, Doc, and Bryntana had found concerning the SIS, the ancient Basili. He sat there a long time, reading in disbelief the reports and data Alex had sent him. What the hell is Nest and what does it have to do with all this? He quickly read the rest of the data he had been sent.
Kel's musing was interrupted by his favorite muse. "Yoh, Big Guy, we're waiting for you. Where the hell are you?" Clio said over the sub-audible comm link.
Shaking himself back to the now, Kel looked down and saw her conveyance parked in a side-alley across from the front of the Fortress. "Hey, I can see my house from up here."
She looked up and waved. "Damn, that would scare even me. Are you ready?"
"As ready as one can be. Recap: You blow the buildings, I get in and plant the virus, disabling the alarms and unlocking the doors. I then go and find Jorgan."
"Yep. You get lover boy, then blow this popsicle stand while we get the data."
"Copy that. I'll see you back at the Aerie."
"Be careful, Dragon. I'd hate to have to break-in a newbie."
"Push the button before I get bored up here."
Down below, several building exploded, filling the area around the fortress with dense smoke.
"It's show time!" Kel said as he leapt over the parapet.
###
Clio looked at Kenta. "Push the button, sweetie."
Kenta pushed the detonator trigger and all hell broke loose as a half-dozen buildings exploded around them, flames and smoke belching from every window and opening. Instantly, the area around them filled with smoke, obscuring everything. That's when they heard a high-pitched howl from above them. The looked up and saw Kel falling through the sky, his wings folded for speed. "What the hell is that moron doing?" Clio asked as they positioned themselves for the run across the street.
"Dammit," Sheila said as she scanned the building. "There's a dozen lifeforms waiting around the roof access. His scanner must have picked them up."
"So?"
"He's taking a more direct route into the building," Sheila explained.
They heard the crash moments later as three hundred pounds of dragon hit the roof at over a hundred miles an hour, passing through the rooftop as if it were tissue paper.
"He's inside. Move!" Sheila yelled. The team ran across the street, then up the stairs to the doors. There they waited for the signal to enter the building. It came in the form of every door and window swinging open on its own.
"You heard the woman! Move!" Kenta yelled. They ran inside as doors throughout the building opened. Using Kenta's maps, they made their way to the computer center. "In here," Sheila said. Once inside, she and Kenta went to work extracting data. That's when her scanner's alarm went off.
"Report!"
"RF pulse received."
"Type and source."
"Non-standard, encrypted Sokuhl from gate bearing."
"Dammit. Full scan."
"Sokuhl beacon detected. Bearing one-one-eight by two floors up. Ma'am. Incoming Sokuhl vessel from gate bearing."
"That's impossible. We had days before they were supposed to arrive."
"They who?" Kenta asked.
"Members of the Sokuhl Intelligence Service. They're interested only in the realmoria. Nothing else."
"Well, they will never find it," Red said from direction of the doorway. Behind her were a number of heavily armed guards, their weapons aimed at Sheila and her team. "The realmoria and its contents have been hidden so that no one can ever use it to kill innocents again."
"Did you defeat its homing signal?" Sheila asked.
"What?"
Before she could answer, a member of the security force ran up and whispered something in Red's ear. "Take these people to holding!" she yelled running down the hallway, waving for several of the guards to follow her.
"What the hell was that all about?" Kenta asked as she raised her hands.
"It must be Kel," Sheila said as she surrendered to security.
###
"Here we are," Kel said as he ran up to the server room door. Ripping the door off its hinges, he hurried into the room and plugged the device into the closest port. The system lit up like a pinball machine before winking out completely. Out in the ha
llway, all the doors opened. Kel walked out and looked around. "Tsk, tsk. No one on duty. How lackadaisical. Scanner, scan for Malroth life signs."
"Working... Bearing 270, distance 50 feet. Third door on left."
"Guards?"
"None present."
"Cool. Once we get Jorgan, I can go find this realmoria."
Kel walked down the hallway. Reaching the designated door, he ripped it off its hinges and threw it down the hallway. Inside, a young Malroth male sat staring in astonishment. "Are you a Basili?"
"Yep. Are you Jorgan?
"Yes. Have we met?"
"No, we have never met. My name is Kel and your mom sent me to bust you out of this prison. Can you walk?"
Jorgan got up while continuing to stare. "You have wings. No Basili has wings."
"Long story. We should get going. Your mother seems to be the type who doesn't like to wait."
"Something like that."
"Come on, we have to make a stop first."
Kel checked his scanner before walking out into the hallway with Jorgan in tow. After a few twists and turns, he stopped in front of a blank wall. "Interesting," Kel said.
"It's a blank wall," Jorgan noted.
Kel scratched an "X" into the wall before plunging his fist through it. Withdrawing it, he looked inside the hole he had made. "There's a room on the other side of this wall.
After tearing out chunks of concrete as if they were Styrofoam, Kel and Jorgan walked through the opening Kel had made in the wall and found themselves in a library of sorts. The walls around them were lined with shelf after shelf of journals, each one labeled and dated. One shelf had a set of laboratory notebooks arranged by date. At the center of the room was a cylindrical table made from black, translucent stone, featureless except for a dragon glyph at its center.
"Jorgan, do you recognize this symbol?" Kel asked as he pointed at the dragon.
"Nope. All our dragons have six wings."
Kel pulled out a random journal and thumbed through it at an impossibly high speed. "Interesting," he said as he put it back.
"Lots of pictures?" Jorgan asked.
"No, no pictures, just words. It is a log of what occurred just before the century ship left Sokuhl. The Sokuhl and Basili were planning to colonize a distant star system using century ships. These ships held thousands of colonists in cryosleep capsules. Red was helping the government test the sleep chambers using both Sokuhl and Basili volunteers when the accident occurred. According to this account, she was hundreds of miles away when the shit hit the fan."
