NanoSymbionts

by Joseph Philbrook

  “Now that you can hear me Dave,” Cindy spoke up. “I thought I'd introduce my friend, Stephanie.”

  Dave smiled, looking Stephanie in the eyes.

  “I always wondered what your name was,” he said. “It suits you.”

  Cindy frowned for a second.

  “Have you two met before?” she asked.

  “Maybe once or twice,” Stephanie admitted.

  “Your voice is as beautiful as I imagined it my dear,” David gushed. “And it was four times by my count.”

  “Wait a minute,” Cindy sputtered. “If you've seen each other four times already, why would you have had to imagine the sound of her voice?”

  “Jump each other's bones, yes,” Dave began.

  “Speak to each other, no,” Stephanie finished.

  “It was five years ago, next month,” Dave said.

  “You know how much I like hiking Cindy,” Stephanie explained. “Well the first time I saw him he was sunbathing beside the stream here.”

  “This was just before I rented the backhoe to dig out the swimming hole with,” Dave interjected.

  “That's right,” Stephanie continued. “He was half asleep and hard as a rock, as I recall.”

  “Suddenly I woke up to the sight of a blond vision placing her finger on my lips as she lowered herself down on me.” Dave finished.

  “I've come back on the anniversary of that occasion every year since.” Stephanie concluded.

  “And in all that time you never spoke?” Cindy asked.

  “Not a word,” Dave confirmed. “So what brings you two beauties here today?”

  “Don't ask me,” Stephanie remarked. “Cindy wanted to go for a run in the woods. I just tagged along.”

  “Oh really,” Dave admonished sarcastically. “So this is how you two usually dress for a run in the woods?”

  “As often as not David,” Cindy replied. “Why? is there something wrong with that?”

  “Not from where I'm standing.” Dave said as he pointedly stared at the girls tits.

  “That's good,” Stephanie said. “Because these are also our favorite exercise outfits and I'm wondering if you might like to sexercise with us.”

  “Alright,” Cindy interrupted. “I'll confess, ‘that’ was my plan all along. But before we get down to the nitty-gritty. I wanted to ask how things turned out after Jake and I left?”

  “Oh that,” Dave replied. “Well it all worked out OK. I mean everybody else stayed through the end of the week. Though things slowed down a bit after you two left.”

  “You mean sexually?” Cindy prompted.

  “Yeah, actually,” Dave admitted. “That's not to say it all suddenly stopped or anything. But to tell you the truth, I think Arnie got uncomfortable with the fact that he actually liked watching Karen do me. I think he thought he'd been drugged or something. But that didn't stop him from telling the girls to make a show of wearing me out, just before they left that Sunday. But I haven't heard from him since.”

  “What about Suzy?” Cindy prompted.

  “Yeah Suzy,” Dave said with a smile. “Well she wasn't uncomfortable with any of it. I'm pretty sure Suzy just likes sex, with anybody.”

  “You got that right,” Cindy confirmed. “But to tell you the truth, Jake had wanted me to invite her to join us. Because he was hoping you two might hook up or something. I mean he thought you were spending too much time alone. And we knew that Arnie would never be able to keep her to himself anyway.”

  “Well that part of the plan kind of worked I guess,” Dave said. “At least she has been back up here every weekend since. Could we talk about that later? I mean, at the moment, I'd really rather show you girls a good time.”

  Chapter 24 A Meeting With The Professor

  The massive artificial world ‘University’ was a tribute to guild engineering. The innovative use of gravitational optimizers to reduce it's effective gravity down to just one galactic standard gravity, was considered impressive. That it was done so smoothly that not even the most sensitive guildsmen could feel any indication of the suppression of so huge a gravitational force. Was a source of wonder throughout the guild but few knew just how great a feat of engineering it actually was.

  Even Questor found the magnitude of the gravitational conversion impressive. It wasn't actually just the hundred to one reduction in the effective gravity, that most visitors believed they were experiencing. The task the gravitation optimizers were actually doing was much greater than that. For University was actually a hollow shell. The inner most layer of which was less than a hundred arms above the event horizon of the black hole within it. The singularity would, should the optimizers ever fail, cause the artificial world to implode. Contained as it was however, the black hole provided University with considerably more power than the entire radiated output of the star it currently orbited.

  Questor's business at University shouldn't take long. He hoped to return to the Resonance before it departed the vicinity. Even though the Resonance would take less than an overcycle to unload the multitude of cargo pods consigned to University. Then loading the few pods of outgoing freight would take less time than that. That total again would have been more than enough time to follow up with a passenger transfer of several thousand. Though on this trip, there were just 32 passengers disembarking and only 15 new passengers were scheduled to be picked up. Nonetheless, Questor had arranged for his personal shuttle to be launched before the Resonance had even established it's parking orbit.

  A robot was waiting for him when Questor stepped out of the airlock into the reception chamber. It spoke in an obviously mechanical monotone.

  “Welcome to University,” the robot began. “Please present proper identification documents at this time.”

  “I am a questor,” he replied. “And as such proper identification documents do not exist.”

  “Identification protocol requires documentation,” the robot insisted.

  Questor was rapidly becoming irritated.

  “Is University not an alpha rated guild facility?” he began. “As such it's procedures should comply with guild protocol which do not allow individual questors to be identified by mere documentation. It is required that such guild facilities use a scanner based identification process.”

  The robot's visual receptors began to glow. Questor's nanosymbiont unshielded it's networking base signal, allowing the robot to detect the unique resonance value that was, in part, based on Questor's genetic code.

  “Identification scan complete,” the robot stated. Then from a slot in it's chest, it produced a plastic card which it presented to Questor. “You are required to keep this identification document on your person at all times.”

  Questor's nanites scanned the data card. They reported that it did accurately specify which questor he was. Suddenly Questor was angry. Such documentation was tolerated at sub-guild facilities that didn't have full access to the guild's questor database but for several billion years, it had been absolutely unacceptable for any alpha rated guild facility to use such documentation to identify any specific questor.

  This was because any questor could easily modify such documentation to match a different questor's identity. It wasn't something that most questors would even consider doing. Nonetheless any circumstances that required a questor's individual identity be recorded at an alpha grade guild site, was supposed to base that identification on a live scan against the guild's questor database.

  It especially bothered Questor that it was happening at University. Where the primary copy of the questor database was maintained.

  “This is a prime violation of guild protocol,” Questor proclaimed. “It shall not be allowed to stand.”

  As he said this Questor's nanosymbiont launched three nano-pod strike teams. One of which expended itself vaporizing the offending data card. Another shorted the power circuits in the robot's card maker. Rendering it incapable of generating a replacement for the offending documentation. The third began an infiltration of U
niversity's internal communication system. To deliver a message to the Professor, alerting him to the procedural conflict.

  Even as an assault team of military robots arrived, a holographic representation of the professor appeared and instructed them to abort their mission. Then the Professor's holographic image turned to face Questor.

  “Why must you be so difficult?” the Professor's image said.

  “Because, it is a matter of ‘guild honor’,” Questor replied. “You know very well why this method shouldn't be used to identify a questor.”

  “But the current security procedures were adopted for very good reasons,” the Professor's image insisted. “And have been accepted by nearly one hundred questors, so far.”

  “Then nearly a hundred questors have failed to honor the terms of their primary oath,” Questor stated as a mater of fact. “I have something which should interest you but if your security robots insist on enforcing this protocol. Then I'm going to have to leave before I can show it to you.”

  “Oh very well,” the Professor conceded. “I'll arrange an exception to the protocol”

  Questor just stared silently at the holographic projection for a full subcyclet before he replied.

  “I'm afraid I'm unable to settle for a personal exception on this issue Professor,” Questor explained. “You of all people should remember why I feel so strongly about it.”

  The Professors hologram sighed, then spoke in a much kinder tone of voice.

  “Of course I remember Questor,” the hologram said. “It was this very kind of dependence on mere documentation that nearly had you branded as a renegade by the council. I well remember that the council only relented on the strength of ‘my’ testimony that we had been in an unadvertised conference, at the time someone purporting to be you, destroyed the galactic library planet.

  Very well, I will have the security protocol modified to accept a generalized questor identification document that doesn't in itself specify which questor is present. Will that suffice?”

  “Yes, that will do,” Questor replied.

  The professor's image vanished. The robot didn't appear to notice that it's chest was still smoking when it resumed speaking.

  “I am instructed to escort you to the Professor's office Questor,” the robot asserted in a steady monotone. “But first I must ask you to respect University's dress code. There are suitable garments in the closet behind you.”

  “Will this do?” Questor replied as the nano-morphic material of his translucent blue space suit obeyed a command from his nanosymbiont.

  It became an opaque metallic blue and a little less formfitting in the vicinity of his crotch. The robot looked over it's shoulder at him as it approached a wall mounted identification system, from which it extracted another identification data card.

  “Yes Questor,” the robot answered as it presented the new card to Questor. “That will suffice. There has been a slight change in the identification protocol. This data card only identifies your status. It is not capable of certifying your personal identity. You are required to keep it on your person at all times.”

  “Then I shall comply,” replied Questor.

  As he sent another small task force of nanites to repair the assorted damages the robot had sustained when Questor disabled it's data card maker.

  “Please follow me,” the robot said. As it proceeded to lead the way down a maze of corridors. They hadn't walked far when the robot continued. “I have detected functionality returning to my damaged components. My logic processor suggests a high probability that Questor has initiated a repair sequence as an act of kindness. Please be informed that you are not required to be kind to robots.”

  “Perhaps not,” Questor replied. “But if it were an obligation, it would no longer truly be an act of kindness.”

  “That is logical,” the robot acknowledged. Then the robot stopped beside a doorway. “You are requested to enter. The Professor will be with you momentarily.”

  The office was designed to impress. It was a large room. What could be seen of it's walls, like the floor, appeared to be made out of wood. Most of the walls surface was covered with an assortment of tapestries, paintings and shelves of books. The entire ceiling glowed gently with blue light, except for a few spots like the one over the massive wooden desk at one end of the office, from which a cone of bright white light shined down on the desks surface area.

  Each of the other four bright spots highlighted a display case which contained artifacts from various Kindred ruins. Questor looked at the displayed artifacts. He had seen most of them before but wasn't surprised to find a few new items. The professor was well known for his interest in Kindred artifacts. Especially those containing the symbolic markings that he sought to translate.

  The Professor arrived two cyclets after Questor entered his office. That is to say, a human form robotic body resembling the appearance the professor had when he was a young man, entered the office from a concealed door behind his desk.

  “Welcome to University,” the human form robot said in a very lifelike voice. “What brings you to civilization this time?” As he spoke the Professors robotic body sat down behind the desk and gestured towards one of the chairs in front of it. “Please do sit down and tell me about it.”

  Questor wasn't particularly surprised that his nanites couldn't detect the control signal that the Professor used to link with the robotic body in front of him. He was after all inside University.

  “Two things sir,” Questor began. “One is a disturbing security issue. I was recently ambushed by 5 suicidal cybernoids who managed to radiate high levels of energy on 5 distinct, but overlapping carrier waves frequencies. Each of which was close enough to my nanosymbiont's operating frequency as to disrupt it's higher functions.”

  “That is disturbing Questor,” the Professor's robotic avatar said. “To be sure it's alarming enough to think they have a clue how to disrupt a nano-net. But to do as you describe with only 5 signal sources suggests that they have acquired some detailed intelligence about yours in particular. They would have to have gained access to information that I would have thought beyond their reach. It can only be hoped that they don't have everyone's operating frequency. I will begin an investigation immediately into how such information might have leaked.”

  “That's what I'd hoped you'd say,” Questor said.

  Then he showed the Professor the crystal disk he had acquired on XenDar.

  “Does that symbol mean what I think it does?” he asked.

  The Professor's robotic avatar stopped moving. The ceiling reconfigured into a full spectrum scanner system which focused a low intensity beam, which rapidly increased in strength until Questor's nanosymbiont began to initialize a defense screen. Then with a loud click the ceiling returned to normal and the robotic avatar reanimated.

  “That depends, on where it was and what was found with it,” the Professor's avatar said. “But it is certain that it's made of a rare form of crystal that has so far been found only at the very best Kindred sites.”

  “It was associated with these.” Questor replied as he transmitted an image of the two disks BillSong had retained.

  “In that case the symbol on your disk refers to the Kindred's homeworld.” The professors voice emanated from the communication unit on the desk, as the avatar once again stopped moving. “Tell me, where did you find it?”

  “On a delightful planet with a fragile balance between it's unusual ecology and the human colony that claims it,” Questor replied. “There are 360 more unique crystal disks. Along with several ancient writings and drawings I'd like to show you. But first I need assurance that you will avoid causing the exploitation of the place by declaring it an official Kindred site. I want the delicate balance of the existing colony to remain undisturbed. The location needs to be treated as an omega class secret.”

  The Professor was silent for two subcyclets. Then he reanimated his avatar.

  “If you were anyone else I'd think you must be jo
king,” the avatar informed him. “You must know that any place where even just the three disks I've seen were found together would be the most significant of Kindred sites. How could I possibly justify keeping it's existence a secret?”

  “Not it's existence,” Questor sighed. “Just it's location. And I'm not asking for a commitment to permanent secrecy. But I'll need time and your backing. To establish safeguards to protect both the site and the world in which I found it. From the predators who would ravage the whole place to walk away with just one of these disks. Besides, there is enough written material on the walls of the entrance tunnel to keep you busy for years. Then, by the time your ready to actually publish your results, we should have the necessary protective measures in place.”

  Chapter 25 Saddle Sore

  The Ferry ride across the small lake had been short. They had opted to accompany Sue and Donald Elderberry to their horse ranch. Instead of riding a riverboat all the way to David Millers estate.

  Sue had suggested that she could offer them a scenic horseback route, which would be somewhat more direct than the winding course of the upper Midway river. She had to deliver a few riding horses to a small township that bordered on prime Miller's estate anyway. If they went along she wouldn't need to leave the ranch shorthanded. They didn't have to decide until tomorrow.

  Jake had asked Mary to discreetly purchase passage on one of the riverboats anyway. He said that it was worth the expense to him to know they had a private cabin reserved. Just in case they decided against the horse trail. She had confirmed that they were scheduled to board the ‘Scuttlebutt’, a sternwheeler, at dusk the next day when it made it's scheduled stop at the docks near the Elderberry ranch.