When they left their retreat on Earth, it was near destruction from all the hurricanes and the storms which caused mudslides in the mountains where they lived. The results of those hurricanes, winds, and rain had devastated the east coast that year. Not to mention those that were displaced all rushed to take over the retreat and to call it their own.
Today was the biggest celebration Earth II had ever had. Syra looked beautiful as usual as she had always looked. Her hair now a little grayer with some silver strands, she wore it braided and wrapped around the crown of her head. She had been wearing it that way ever since her son Zach became President of the United States back on Earth.
Cynthia Chadwell and Bart Lawson of the Chadwell Lawson Retreat were thrilled to host such a huge party in their private lodge for Syra. Hannah Reese, leader of the City of Allieah, and Charles Cooper, her husband also attended.
Then there were Syra’s twins Zach and his wife Celeste and Zoey and her husband Preston Hollingsworth of the Hollingsworth Foundation back on Earth.
Terrell Smith, the youngest leader to date, led the City of Arteemus. He was still single and was hoping to meet a lovely lady he could pursue and was already mixing and mingling.
Earth II’s population was still not large enough for a full governing body, but the City of Allieah and the City of Arteemus plus the Chadwell Lawson Retreat each had their own leader that oversaw all operations.
Each leader would then report to Zach Caldiron, former President of the US on Earth; all three colonies on Earth II would not have it any other way. His old vice-president Cole was made his assistant, and the two loved being able to be a team once again.
It had only been a few years but Syra was enjoying her retirement. James and she continued to travel in her private ship Sheevah and often spent days at a time on their private secluded beach somewhere on the southern continent to soak in the sun.
The big lodge for visitors was filled and the City of Allieah and Arteemus residents agreed they could hear the celebration all the way down the mountain in the valley.
By the second day of the celebration, Hannah Reese and her husband Charles Cooper needed to return to Allieah and Terrell Smith to Arteemus. He found no future bride that weekend but was always on the lookout.
Zoey, Syra’s daughter, and her husband Preston Hollingsworth headed back to the city of Arteemus where they had moved a few years ago. Neither was interested in leadership and longed to make new discoveries on Earth II for the betterment of all.
Both were activists who thrived on having some compelling cause to stand up and fight for.
By the third day, many had already returned to their cities and continued their work on many projects. With the new monorail system fully functioning, it was so much easier to travel.
But back when all they had was shuttles moving about, most chose not to travel at all unless it was necessary.
By the fourth day, the retreat was finally back to normal, and the residents began the cleanup from the four-day celebration. They were just as sad to see it end and they were as glad it ended, at the same time.
Syra and James gave Cynthia and Bart the usual hug and boarded Sheevah for a short trip to the beach and they sped off into the morning sun.
Much later that evening, Cynthia asked, “Bart honey, this was the best four days of my life, other than our wedding and the time we spent aboard the Ellead.”
“Yes, it was wonderful. Let us go sit on the deck and watch the sunset. It’s been a long four days my darling,” Bart replied.
“I wonder how things are going on Earth?” Cynthia asked. She did not really miss Earth, but on Earth, she was one of the wealthiest of women and did inherit the Chadwell Empire.
But she had the satisfaction of knowing the retreat on Earth got most of her survival supplies, and that was all transferred to Earth II when that retreat had to be evacuated.
“Honey, Earth will eventually rebuild, but Earth II needs to stay out of it now and allow them the time to rebuild on their own,” Bart humbly replied.
Both knew things on Earth would never go back to the way it was, and no one on Earth wanted it to. It would take many lifetimes to rebuild the government, infrastructure, farming, manufacturing and so on.
But Earth II had left enough Zhian technology on the three settlements of freedom to rebuild after the near doomsday when Russian came so close to invading.
Russia waited until they thought they had broken the American’s spirit, but the Zhianites had already taken over the United States and Russia had no choice but to flee.
Meanwhile, over at the Zhian Sphere, it was the annual archiving of data that many of the technicians who worked there dreaded.
The Zhian Sphere not only powered the entire planet of Earth II, but it also controlled the shields and was the heartbeat of everything operational on Earth II.
Working aboard the Zhian Sphere was the most sought-after job mostly because it was like a planet on the inside.
Many of the workers still enjoyed the Holocom Chamber and could go anywhere in all of space and experience it as real as if it were happening.
To this day, not a single human being was willing to work there. The sheer power of that ship was intimidating. However, ask a Zhian if he would like to take the job and you had a yes answer before you finished your offer.
The Zhian Sphere’s core system was always working around the clock. It also directed all that worked inside it to upgrade any areas that were flagged as lagging. The Zhian Sphere was always peeking into the future and finding new and better ways to do things.
Over the years since they arrived on Earth II, the Zhianites had added crystals to the Sphere’s power systems, and he began processing faster and faster. At times, more than needed. The once rare cerulean crystal was the breakthrough they needed.
Rumors had it that if things continued the Sphere would one day be powerful enough to rule all worlds and be able to create new worlds at a moment’s notice. Although when that rumor went around, it was always laughed off from those who knew better.
Now that the ship was on Earth II, a new planet, the possible power sources were unlimited.
The Zhianites controlled the Sphere, and it was nothing without them, and they were nothing without the Sphere.
Most said that back in the day on the planet Zhian, the Sphere was designed with a safety protocol that would protect it from a hostile takeover, but no one had ever feared that until now.
The first twelve couples that stepped out of the Sphere on American soil so long ago, still worked the Sphere’s core systems and those Zhianites had worked aboard the Sphere most of their lives.
Their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would hold higher positions than most on Earth II. The names of those were written on a plaque on the inside of the Zhian Sphere for all time. They truly deserved the honor bestowed upon them.
Jayeden and Celethe
Carelson and Daniyela
Desmon and Alaysia
Maxtn and Izbella
Drick and Adrana
Edard and Baeleigh
Jazon and Jaelyn
Jariden and Deabora
Arlan and Cayetlin
Graesen and Alestrandra
Clarx and Mikcalya
Emerton and Maecy
The worker bots aided them always, and work was always on schedule for maintenance and even upgrades. But this morning, Maxtn was archiving outdated algorithms and old records when he noticed an anomaly.
Hidden deep within the core, Maxtn isolated the entire section and encrypted it so it could not be seen by anyone nor activated until Syra inspected it. The anomaly must be a lost backup, maybe, thought Maxtn.
After all these years, he was stunned to find a sort of clone in the system and it disgusted him to no end. He and his team had spent a lifetime working on the Sphere and someone or something had tampered with it in an area far back in its core.
The anomaly almost got archived and they would have ne
ver known it existed; one reason was that it was from the old system. It appeared as just a large fragment of old information, but it must be dealt with as soon as possible, thought Maxtn.
Maxtn sent word for Syra to come to the Sphere as soon as possible and that it was urgent. But she must not let anyone know why she was there, and to meet him in the core maintenance area.
The next day Syra took a travel pod, which she rarely did, but it did keep her from being noticed by anyone and she met with Maxtn that morning.
“So, what is going on Maxtn?” Syra asked and added, “You’ve never done this before, it is most definitely unlike you.”
“Don’t worry Syra, I have isolated and encrypted the intrusion until we can decide what to do about this, please take a look for yourself,” Maxtn replied.
It did not take Syra long to see what had Maxtn in a total panic. It was that moment, she called in all 24 Zhianites that worked the core, all the bots that work there too.
Then she contacted her husband James, their son Zach, daughter Zoey and all leaders of the three colonies on Earth II to meet her in the Sphere. It was urgent, and they must come right away.
Cynthia and Bart had had only a small tour of the Sphere, same for Hannah and Charles, but today they would go deep inside the Zhian Sphere for the very first time. Terrell Smith always looked forward to any opportunity as it was considered a new learning experience for him.
Just as soon as everyone arrived, Syra asked them to just listen, because she had some frightening news of a new discovery from their past.
She explained to everyone that back on Earth when they first discovered the real plans of Zerk and the Council of 12, she had one of Ohtrons dying bitrons called Speed Bitron escort Zerk and the Council while they were in maintenance mode and unaware and had them shot into Earths sun.
Obviously, Zerk had made a hasty backup of himself and it was archived deep within the core systems. If it had not been for Maxtn, this may have never been found.
Questions were being asked that morning, and Syra had to calm everyone down. Their technology had changed so much since the new crystals were discovered and other material on Earth II, that there was no way Zerk could even awaken unless they did it themselves.
“May I recommend that he be removed from the Zhian Sphere and we search the entire core for any other backups or clones?” Maxtn stated.
“Yes, agreed,” Syra replied.
That was when Zerk’s crystal with all his knowledge and entity was transferred into a locked case and given to Syra.
Everyone worked for days searching the entire core of the Zhian Sphere for any other unusual anomalies and none were found.
Meanwhile, the locked box was taken to the Central Command Center and Research and Development for closer study.
It took a few days for everyone to settle down at that point, and the folks that were originally from Earth were baffled at the fear the Zhianites had of Zerk.
It took a while for them to understand he was mostly an entity within the core systems and had existed for many thousands of years on Zhian.
His rule over the Zhianites ended when Syra placed judgment upon him and the council and had them destroyed. But there was nothing to fear from Zerk now; even their systems were so advanced these days, Zerk would not know nor understand how to access it.
Syra told her team at the CCC to find as much of the old technology as they could, but just enough to access Zerk. She informed them that they still needed to keep him isolated from the main core.
A room was created that not only was soundproof, but no data from inside it could ever reach any systems on Earth II. This was an isolation room and highly secured.
And so that day the team went to work to find a way to tap into Zerk and learn more from the past. Doing this could be crucial to them not repeating the Zhianites ugly history.
Zerk had been around long before the planet Zhian started to decline, and he had to have the answers Syra was looking for.
It was her best guess that he would have no awareness of what happened many years ago on Earth, and they could and should take advantage of that.
In just a few short weeks, a room was set up and functioning quite well on the old Zhian technology, and Zerk would soon be brought back online or awakened if you will. The sole purpose was to pick his database for knowledge.
Syra and James were present that morning as were all those who attended the original meeting. Since Maxtn was the expert in the old system’s technology, he and his bot crew had the honors of flipping the switch.
The old system and new system could no longer communicate with each other without an interpreter to connect between them and there was none created.
This was an extra failsafe method of learning from Zerk whatever he knew, and to do it without risk.
Maxtn connected the old system via the interpreter to the new system and checked it to be sure it was a smooth transition so Zerk would be unaware of what was happening to him. He would think he had just been awakened after the maintenance was performed back on Earth many years ago.
On Maxtn’s cue, Syra sat at the console and spoke to Zerk for the first time in over 60 some odd years.
“Good morning Zerk,” Syra stated as she would have normally when she was at the control of the Zhian Sphere.
“Good morning to you too Syra, how may I assist you?” Zerk asked.
Syra gave a short pause to allow the old processors time to work through the first load up and pair up, with the new system. Even though there would be extremely limited access, she was anxiously awaiting this communication.
“We just needed to inform you that somehow during our maintenance performance, you became separated from the council. Do you know what happened?” Syra asked.
“No, I do not. I created a backup of myself but did not back up the council. Have you heard from them?” Zerk replied.
“We have not, and we assumed their programming was lost during the maintenance shut down. With no backups of them, that is regrettable,” Syra proclaimed.
“Why does the power system seem so distant, I cannot access the core of Zhian Sphere,” Zerk demanded.
“With the failure imminent, we had to separate you in order to save you,” Syra replied.
“Well, I am having many timestamp issues. Nothing is coming together for me, so I will need to search my database to figure out what has gone so terribly wrong,” Zerk said.
“Before you do that, is there any way you can tell us more about the old planet Zhian? You are the only thing that can teach us about our old world, and it is critical we learn these things,” Syra reminded Zerk.
“Very well, do you wish for me to start from the beginning, is this what you require?” Zerk asked.
“Yes, it is, nonstop if you will. We can start researching each data point, and when you are finished, please let us know so we can assist you in any issues you may be aware of, of your own operations,” Syra stated.
Zerk began without question from the beginning of his first memories and the story of the planet Zhian was told. But it would take Zerk many weeks of telling the story nonstop, and the crew took turns watching him in the process.
There were several times his power packs had to be exchanged, but that was done so quickly, he was never aware of any interruptions. Zerk’s programming had never been portable before as far as Syra was concerned.
Small segments of Zerk’s story from his programming was recorded and sent over to the Zhian Sphere. This was done on the side of caution. The Sphere began analyzing it and would continue for some time. The Sphere would not have any idea the words or memories came from Zerk nor that he had been awakened.
The one thing Syra knew for sure, was if Zerk was asked to perform a task, he would do it no matter what. That much she knew because it was in his programming to do so.
Each time Syra stepped into the room and heard Zerk’s voice, it sent chills down her spine. She could not help but wonder how much he really rem
embered, and what he may be holding back on, or even if, at this point, he was capable of it.
But one thing for certain, his backup of himself was nowhere near as feisty as the original. It was just an ordinary maintenance procedure, so he may not have had any suspicions at all, and simply neglected to back up the council.
Another clue that the backup was done hastily was his backup was sent to the wrong access point and had been lost all these years. Since his original program was destroyed, there would have never been a way to find him except by accident.
All normal backups were originally destroyed when they hit the sun in that locked box inside the bitron. No one ever considered a small backup of Zerk floating around in the Sphere somewhere and lost.
As Zerk continued his story, he listed every Zhianite born and died on the planet. With every event recorded and many missing pieces of the planet’s past now being told, Syra knew it would take some time to analyze all that Zerk was speaking of.
Having him continuously quote the history of Zhian kept Zerk busy. This gave the team time to examine his backup and to find out just how much of it was trustworthy and how much was not.
With Zerk so busy with his latest request, any pauses to consider another action would not be possible without the team becoming aware of it.
Maxtn suggested that when Zerk did not mention his plotting of taking over Earth to rule its inhabitants, he had turned off the official record keeping when he plotted with the council.
But that idea quickly was forgotten when Zerk continued to talk about things at random times that were not official. He began telling of private conversations with the council, about Allieah and Arteemus’ death which Syra already suspected anyway and it was no surprise he had had them killed.
Zerk told of everything he knew about all the surrounding planets in the old world of Zhian, the ones that lived on them, and everything Syra did and did not know about each of them. That would take some time to analyze and confirm.
The Chronicles of Syra Omnibus Page 42
