We have been watching your progress for quite some time now, but your signal grows weaker.
We are not sure if this is because of lack of technology or technology greater than ours?
We have been to your Zhian homeworld and have seen it consume itself.
You left hardly any crystals to be harvested and abandoned many towers and bots. We assume you left in a hurry. A few of your once great towers still hovered above the ground, but many had already crashed into the surface and lay as ruins.
We wish to know where you took your people, they are not with you now. Your population is so small in a universe so big.
Please open a dialog with us, we seek nothing more than to find out what happened to your once-majestic world.
Once the message went through the Sphere it was analyzed and the biggest concern was the sheer number of times the message referred to, we.
The Sphere core suggested they replace the we with “I” and then you can see their true intentions as a threat. He was using the word we, as a form of friendliness that is not friendly.
To ask for Zerk specifically means Arzaitus had embedded himself into his own system to give himself eternal life just as Zerk had done many eons ago.
Syra received the analysis and agreed it was correct. “This message read more like a specific person had very personal interests and demonstrates a lot of curiosity in our exodus of Zhian,” Syra exclaimed.
“Then we need to find out what Zerk knows about this Arzaitus character,” James said.
With everyone on board analyzing the message the observatory received, they started to search Zerk’s history of Zhian he had been providing in fragments of information caused by his hasty backup before he was destroyed by Syra.
Once they could produce specific questions to ask Zerk that would not tell him much of what was really going on, they would then approach him.
Meanwhile, Syra visited the Zhian Sphere to check on all the upgrades and to see how far they had advanced.
She was quite pleased with everyone’s progress and urged them to work harder because of the latest contact from Xnaethea.
No one was sure if they were on their way to Earth II, but Syra warned everyone that there would be absolutely no reason for them not to be speeding their way there right now. The crew working on the Sphere felt her urgency by the sound of her voice and went straight back to work.
When all the Xnaethean technologies were removed from the Sphere in just a matter of days after Syra visited, they contacted the Central Command Center for suggestions on what to do with all the parts they had removed. There would be no more use for them now.
Syra suggested Ellead take all the parts outside of Earth II’s shields and make sure to shoot all of it out into space as far and as fast as he could sling it.
It was Syra’s belief that if they sent the scraps in the direction the Xnaethean signal had come in from, it would be possible to distract some of their ships to follow the pieces thinking there had been an explosion of some sort.
All the old power packs had some Xnaethean technology within them and they too were packed into Ellead. Ellead had not been called to duty in a while, so this was a mission he would look forward to.
Ellead docked close to the Zhian Sphere and for several days he was loaded with many pieces and parts not just from the Sphere, but from all ships, and any equipment used was now clear of anything remotely resembling Xnaethean technology.
It was early the next morning when everyone was anxious to see Ellead liftoff. He had a dozen bots at the ready, so they could load his bay ports continuously. The junk could be shot out into space at a different point to mimic an explosion if planned correctly.
Everyone watched as the shields opened momentarily to a point of exit for Ellead, and he was gone.
From the Central Command Center, everyone watched from Elleads viewer of the explosion of parts and junk spewing out into space.
The crew continued to work on upgrading the Sphere and that work would continue for some time.
Meanwhile, Syra and James was more than eager to question Zerk again and would do so first thing in the morning.
Everyone was ready and as usual, none let on that it was a different day since Zerk’s timestamp was not functioning properly and he was freely talking about the history of Zhian in fragments.
“Zerk, this is Syra, how are you?” Syra greeted him as if no time had passed since she last spoke to him.
“I am ready to assist you Syra, what do you require of me?” Zerk replied.
“Please search through all of your programmings for me and look for any information on a particular Xnaethean that went by the name Arzaitus?” Syra requested.
“Well, this will take a little time, may I get back with you?” Zerk asked and Syra sat and waited.
Syra knew Zerk’s timestamp was not working and time was standing still for him, so this could take some time.
It was risky as it was. If Zerk knew he was only a backup and did not have total access to the Zhian Sphere’s core, he could just simply self-destruct his programming. It was best to keep him distracted and busy and that was easy to do
That was something Syra did not want or need and did not push Zerk into giving her information in a hurry. Then, just as she started to exit the room Zerk replied.
“Syra, it seems that part of my programming memory is very fragmented, I am flawed. Do you still wish to hear what parts of his memory I still have?” Zerk asked.
“Yes please,” Syra replied.
“He was the leader of Xnaethea. He was a real living being many thousands of years ago, just as I once was,” Zerk paused for some time as he desperately searched for more information.
The console lit up once more and he continued, “Arzaitus, was once my living brother. I do not believe I was ever from Zhian, but unfortunately, I am missing information. This is most confusing,” Zerk paused and searched his database for a long time trying to understand how he could have been a brother if he had never lived on the planet Xnaethea.
Syra desperately needed to know more and was extremely cautious of pressing Zerk at this point. She had told him to please take his time, and just speak as he remembered.
Zerk then immediately began processing a lot of data and pulling fragments together that he believed would clarify more and would call for Syra when he was finished.
Meanwhile, it was time for Ellead to return from his journey and the results were outstanding.
Syra and her team could now begin to monitor the space junk to see if it is picked up as scrap by anyone. If so, they could then track that ship back to their own planet or even to Earth II.
The parts and pieces of Xnaethean technology had been shot out to had burn marks and would become twisted pieces that truly appeared as scrap parts from an exploded ship.
Then Syra, James, and Zach sat in while Zerk began telling the story of his life as he understood it. They all three sat and listened, especially Zach since he now holds the position of leader of Earth II.
Zach tried harder these days to get his mother to slow down. She was always known to be one who worked every day and rarely took time off for leisure.
Many times, he would come into his office and his mother would be there working on the old spare console he once worked and trained on.
But Zach knew there was not much he could do because his mother was a natural leader. With all the new things happening at once, she would be there daily, and Zach had to plan accordingly.
His father James was always by Syra’s side, so most of the time Zach had both parents underfoot. However, his mother was gaining much-needed knowledge from Zerk only she could get.
Syra decided it was time to make a copy of Zerk and work on his programming so they could repair the damage from the rushed backup, James and Zach agreed that would make more sense than them getting all these bits and pieces of information.
When Zerk was told they needed to try to repair the timestamp and
fragments of information, Zerk happily paused his system.
A copy of him was then transferred to the newer system they now had, which was isolated back at the Zhian Sphere until such time he would be needed again in the future.
It would take some time to fix Zerk’s timestamp and his fragmented memory. This process would continue as well as improvements and then complete control of Zerk could be carried out.
The new system in the core at the Sphere was so well protected not even Zerk could open his own programming without Syra directly giving it permission or calling upon him.
Meanwhile, Zerk was once again awakened in the CCC and he continued to discuss the past of Zhian and parts here and there of his own past.
This was mostly done to keep him active and analyzing. There was always the chance they could learn something new from him while his programming was under serious repair at the Sphere.
The next day, Captain Zee sat in the meeting with all those connected to the project and discussed how to best handle the threat that was sure to be on its way from Xnaethea.
Captain Zee suggested that once Zerk’s repair was completed, that he could be installed on the Ark Royal. Of course, not ever letting the flawed one know that he was currently running in the CCC.
Since the newly repaired Zerk would know everything there is to know about Arzaitus, all the way back to even Zerk’s childhood it was a great idea.
Even though no one yet understood the real relationship the two had, the captain knew he could have the upper hand on Arzaitus.
The one thing everyone agreed on was that first contact message was meant for Zerk. If there had been no backup of Zerk discovered by the time a battle would ensue, it would have been much tougher to confront that old enemy.
But now, they had the upper hand on Arzaitus no doubt, and all had agreed to the install.
The next day, Zerk’s repaired copy was sent to the Zhian Sphere for some serious repair. This would take some time and once it was completed, he would then be installed on the Ark Royal as part of strategic command when faced with an enemy from Xnaethea.
BOOK THREE
chapter five
Terrell Smith, leader of the City of Arteemus, was ready and extremely excited to attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the new Thomas J. Smith III University named after his grandfather. He was a well-known educator from Earth who passed on not long after the plans were drawn up for the university.
Terrell knew the actual construction would not take all that long with the new replicators now available for each city. He would be directly involved in every step of the building of the university.
Terrell stood there looking in the mirror that morning and thought to himself he would not even have time to court anyone anyway.
He found himself concluding that life as a single man was his destiny and running a city, which was very demanding of his time, was the most important thing in his life anyway.
In his early thirties, he still sought out a wife and wanted children, but because he was so ambitious, he had just kept putting it off.
He finally just stopped thinking about it, and just decided that his destiny was to lead. He also enjoyed having people look up to him for leadership and he thrived on the responsibility and loved the attention.
And so, he brushed his hair once again and checked to make sure he had not forgotten anything. But he had spent the night practicing his speech until he had nearly lost his voice.
A panic set in and he searched for his grandmothers’ old recipe of gargling with warm salt water and then drinking down a cup of hot tea with honey, ginger root, and a dash of bourbon.
Terrell had never had bourbon before until that one party at the retreat when Bart Lawson introduced it to him. It was back when they had celebrated Syra’s birthday a few years ago. He now enjoyed his bourbon in the evenings after work.
He had changed his grandmother's old remedy and was proud of the end results. He was feeling much better in no time at all and boarded his travel pod.
His travel pod, like all the others in the tower, all fit neatly into a docking port. This was a morning he would not want to have to navigate and so he set his controls to auto-pilot.
He hovered over the area and could see where they had already broken ground and laid out the foundation for the administration building, dorms, and all the others. Even the landing pad and travel pod storage hangers were in place.
Terrell had never seen so many folks there for a ground-breaking ceremony and he knew the grand-opening would be the ceremony to not miss.
The construction crew had already started a loading and unloading area for those who wished to take the monorail system. It was favored by everyone but those who served in higher ranking positions.
Terrell was part human and part Zhian. He was born on Earth II and his mother was half Zhian and his father full Earthling. But the genealogy thing just bored him half to death and many times he gained a migraine trying to figure it out.
He loved watching the old films of Earth, its transportation methods and the big cities were just terrible with all the smog. But there were no fossil fuels used on Earth II.
He had never really seen a car, but somehow his travel pod just felt natural to travel by. That had been and always will be his choice of transportation.
A record was held of unions of couples on Earth II, in order to determine if it was an even mix of those Zhian and Earthlings, but there was no preference one way or the other.
Almost every person alive on Earth II now shared DNA from both Zhian and Earth. The ones who traveled from Earth to Earth II were now great-grandparents, and those generations had merged with Zhians and it was believed that in a few more generations, every living being on Earth II would have Zhian DNA.
Terrell often thought about marrying a full Zhianite. One reason was that he knew his children would be the ones to inherit the advanced genetics that would prolong their lives.
But he wanted to fall in love first, and then find out the genealogical information. He was just not one to ask such a question in advance, ever.
His grandparents had taught him of the different races on Earth and how it divided everyone. But on Earth II, shared DNA was critical because of the benefits. So, there was no such thing as a race of people, and he was so glad of that.
Terrell’s grandparents had also taught him that bringing those from Earth to Earth II was most importantly about saving humanity. Many citizens from the United States had roots in China, England, Great Britain, Scotland, and Ireland.
Earth just sounded so complicated for Terrell to understand, but it would be one of the most important classes at his university.
With the crowd gathered close to each other, Terrell gave his short message to introduce each area of the university and where they would be located.
He also reminded everyone that the grand-opening would be seen by everyone on Earth II.
“So, dress your best,” he exclaimed to the crowd as they cheered him on.
When everyone had left, Terrell headed back to his home, which was located in a tower near the center of Arteemus allowing him to see most of the city all in one 360 view. The perfect was view blocked only by one port for his travel pod. That was what he loved about that building.
When Terrell got back to his apartment, he knew he had no time to waste.
Terrell packed everything he would need and was looking forward to spending some time at the Chadwell Lawson Retreat.
So many of the citizens his age were hanging out there when they took time off from work, other than a few beaches that were also favorited by most.
With his pod packed, he would enjoy at least two weeks away from the city life while the university construction was in full bloom. His assistant would run the city just fine without him.
Terrell was a lot like his mother because he would check everything in his living quarters over and over before leaving. He had to just finally turn the lights out and left.
He loved the idea that he could fly his travel pod from the front or back end and had room for at least 6 passengers.
As far as he was concerned, it was simply perfect for a wife and a few kids, he thought to himself. He fancied the idea as he undocked and flew away to the retreat.
It was a beautiful flight and Terrell enjoyed the scene from above so much. Within minutes though, his trip was over, and he could see the landing pad and was docked.
Before he even knew what was happening, he was mobbed by almost everyone he went to school with; they were excited he would get the very first University on Earth II named after his great-grandfather.
Cynthia and Bart saw all the commotion but were already prepared for Terrell’s popularity. They had ordered his personal things taken to his room in the lodge as quickly as he opened the doors to his pod.
Cynthia asked Terrell to join her and Bart at the bar. At one point, Cynthia had to ask everyone to give them some space and they went inside the lodge.
“Terrell, you are such a popular guy. Why on Earth have you not taken on a partner now that you are already in your early thirties,” Cynthia asked.
“Oh, my goodness wife of mine, you aren’t going to play matchmaker, again are you?” Bart exclaimed with a smile.
That was when Cynthia and Bart completely forgot about Terrell and got into a deep discussion about how popular he was with the ladies but just needed a little boost.
The music had started, and the lights were down low and dancing shadows of color filled the room when Cynthia looked around and Terrell was nowhere to be seen.
Both Cynthia and Bart looked around the room and lo and behold they saw Terrell over by the bar chatting with one of the most beautiful girls on Earth II.
The both immediately jumped up and went to the bar to apologize for boring him. They had bored him to the point he had to drift off and get away from the two old matchmakers. And unfortunately, that had been their nicknames of late.
About halfway to the bar they just simply stopped, then turned and walked away. Terrell and his new friend were so into each other they would not notice them anyway.
Terrell had gone up to the bar and had asked if the seat was taken and the girl of his dreams said yes, it was reserved for him and she invited him to be seated.
The Chronicles of Syra Omnibus Page 45
