by Karl Morgan
“Mantarcus, we have felt the death of Zeet of The Accord even in the Cloud,” a voice said. “We offer our condolences.”
“I appreciate your thoughts, Master Vanda,” Mantarcus replied. “But I am more concerned about the weapon used by the attacking creatures. Do you believe such a device could harm more of our Friends?”
“That is a risk, Friend. At this time, we think it would be wise to delay any further incursions into that galaxy. It will take a period of time before we can ascertain the threat level,” Vanda said. “We know it was your suggestion that we expand and I wanted to let you know what we’re thinking.”
“Clearly we must consider this new threat,” Mantarcus replied. “As you know, Zeet was new to The Accord and probably acted rashly. I warned him to stay on Bandabar and help build devices for the other Friends of The Accord. It would seem his newfound powers and thirst for dominance got the better of him.”
“Perhaps you should spend more time with any new Friends, Mantarcus,” Vanda said. “We recognize that will affect the speed of our expansion, but we may avoid future such incidents. When will you arrive in The Accord?”
“It will take ten more spans to arrive, Master,” Mantarcus said. “In the interim, I am continuing to scan the spiral galaxy for promising planets. I was surprised to find how much semi-intelligent life exists there. We should be able to recruit many new Friends into The Accord. Most planets appear to have large supplies of metal for our needs as well.”
“That is great news, Friend. But as I said, let us take our time. If that new weapon is widely used, we may choose to avoid that galaxy altogether. We want to grow, not commit suicide,” Vanda said.
“Agreed, Master,” the other replied. “How much longer can our Friends survive in the Cloud?”
“Perhaps a million spans,” Vanda said. “Then we will run out of metals to harvest. If that happens, The Accord may collapse and turn to cannibalism to survive. We must find a solution before then.”
“Is there another way, Master? Mantarcus asked. “What about Eon and his solution?”
“You would do well not to mention Eon to me, Mantarcus,” Vanda snarled. “His dreams of evolution were foolhardy. There is no evidence his plan succeeded. As far as we know, his experiment killed him. Is that what you want?”
“Excuse me for mentioning him, Master,” Mantarcus said. “It was not my intention to upset you. I was just hypothesizing about an alternative to cannibalism.”
“Okay, let us put that behind us, Friend. He was a very old friend of ours before he ventured on his own and died. I will schedule a conference of minds for when you arrive. Take care and we shall see each other soon,” Vanda replied.
§
Dave walked into the shuttle bay and headed directly toward the waiting vessel. He could see Darlene and Charlie already strapped inside. He rushed up the ramp and sat next to his wife, kissing her softly on the cheek. She smiled at him and put her hand on his knee. A tone sounded on his com-link and he tapped the single button. “Yes, Lia?”
“Admiral, the tekkan Hive reports they have isolated a planet in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud that would be a good target,” the communications officer replied. Dave thought of Lia fondly. He had first met her when Charlie brought him to visit the thirty-second century so long ago. Lia was the assistant to the mayor of San Diego then. Now, she had been with him on his ships for a long time. He knew her time to leave and help her mother in the Golden Dawn system was coming. So far, she was content to join the adventure that had taken them to the Andromeda Galaxy and through many battles.
“Thanks, Lia,” he replied. “Please ask them to send me a full report and I’ll review it tomorrow morning. Have a good evening. Brewster out,” he finished as he tapped the button again to close the connection.
“What is it, honey?” Darlene asked as the shuttle dropped out of the shuttle bay and into open space. The Bandabar ship was only a few hundred miles away, so the trip would be quick. At this distance, it was a shiny spot above the planet.
“The Hive has found a planet for us to visit,” he replied, taking her hand in his. “I guess we’ll be going soon.”
“Who exactly is going on this joyride, boss?” Charlie asked.
“That’s a good question,” Dave answered. “Ideally, I’d like to take the three of us and a security specialist. My big concern is having enough Universal Power to pull us all out if worse comes to worst. I couldn’t live with myself if someone was left behind.”
“Well, while you were hanging out on Solander, I spent a lot of time on Zulanan helping Odo Pak with the locals,” Charlie began. “I’d like to think I’ve become pretty grounded in the Source.”
“And you didn’t bother to tell me about this until now?” Dave asked.
“Buddy, you’ve only been back in this century for three months!” Charlie laughed. “I didn’t think it was that important in the scheme of things. And Frake Landres, the Nightsky weapons officer actually took A-Nak-Fla lessons from De-o-Nu there last month. Didn’t you notice he was gone?”
“I guess I thought he was on vacation or something,” Dave replied. He turned to his wife and said, “What do you think?”
“You’re really sure about the risk from The Accord?” she asked.
“Yes, sweetheart. Both times we faced Zeet, we were damned lucky to survive. It was a fluke that Jon came up with the singularity idea in the heat of battle. If it took even a minute longer for him to think of that, Zeet would have won, or at least still be alive and well on this planet.”
“I guess we have no choice then,” she replied. “But I’m surprised the various futures that the Temporal Command visited didn’t say anything about this. I know it was long ago and many things have changed, you would think a threat as great as The Accord would have shown somewhere.”
“I don’t have an answer for that question,” Dave said. “All I can think of is that Muncie and Aria went looking for specific things, like my name. And they didn’t spent a lot of time in the future, so the other stuff probably didn’t stand out. The good news is they didn’t find Earth run by one of those monsters like Zeet. Maybe that means our mission will succeed.”
“Or maybe it means something else has changed along with way and the precise futures they saw will never exist,” Charlie replied.
The shuttle flew into the bay of the Bandabar star cruiser Na-ka-a and settled down on the landing marks. The bay door slammed shut and the area was pressurized with atmosphere. Upon receiving a signal, the pilot opened the shuttle doors and the three humans walked out of the ship and toward Admiral Veek Alar and Colonel Nik Paka, who were waiting for them. After exchanging pleasantries, Veek led the group out of the bay and down a long corridor. At the end, a door opened to reveal a conference table where two other Bandabar were sitting, who rose when the others entered. Trays of foods and drinks covered a number of credenzas on both sides of the room.
“Admiral Brewster, Ambassador Brewster, and Commodore Watson, please let me introduce you to Major Bik Falor and Kak Nifas,” Veek said as he introduced the other two. “Major Falor has been leading our reconnaissance on the planet, and Kak is a leader of the resistance on Bandabar. Please grab any food or drink you like and let’s get down to business.”
Bik told the group his teams had covered more than half of the planet in their first day after the defeat of Zeet of The Accord. Three hundred other robots had been found similar to the one Veek had killed in Zeet’s chamber. One was captured alive, while the others had to be killed to protect the soldiers and locals. Each brain-robot appeared to be in control of slave camps used for farming, mining, and as food for the robot brains. At least five million Bandabar had been freed that day, and they hoped to achieve similar success on the following day. All robots encountered, other than the brain-robots and their single massive defender, appeared to be dead, frozen in place with their heads turned up and to the left. Ten thousand Bandabar were liberated in the jails inside Zeet’s fortress. Those
people told his troops that five or more were slaughtered each day to feed Zeet and the other brains in that compound. The last camp they freed was near a large forest at the edge of a massive open pit mine. As the Bandabar soldiers flew down to attack, a large mob emerged from the woods and joined the battle. The leader of that group was the old woman, Kak Nifas, sitting with them at the table. Tears poured down her cheeks as the soldier reminded her of the horrors their planet had been through since Zeet came to power.
“I remember Zeet Nabo very well,” she began. “He was a quiet boy from the same city where my family lived. He attended school with my own children and visited our home to study and play a number of times.”
“How long ago did he become of The Accord,” Dave asked.
“It’s hard to remember sometimes,” she replied, “but I think it must be twenty years or so. We have been living in caves and trees for so long, hoping to find some way to strike back, but the robots were too powerful. There was no time to count the years or days when many of us were captured each day. We began to focus on ways to free our brothers from the camps. Freeing an entire camp was impossible, but from time to time we found a small work party with little or no supervision. On those occasions, we might rescue one or two.”
“Were you ever able to disable any of the robots, mother?” Veek asked.
She smiled and said, “Admiral, it’s been so long since anyone called me mother. Thank you.” He nodded and smiled back. “Yes, we did have some success against the smaller robots early on. Zeet’s compound was far from our forest. His communications network must have been new then, as it would take a small guard robot a few moments to respond to its environment. When that would happen, we would smash its camera head and chop off the arms and legs with crude axes. We melted down those robots to make the firearms we still use today. Eventually, Zeet had enough metal to create the brain-robots for some of the other traitors who chose to join The Accord. Once they took over local control of the camps, we were helpless again, until the Major liberated us all.” She put her arms around Major Falor and hugged him. “Thank you again, Bik.”
While Veek poured brandy for everyone, Charlie asked, “Mother, what can you tell us about what happened when the other arrived?”
She smiled and chuckled. “There was a great celebration that day. It had been a long time since our people reached out to the stars. None of us could have ever imagined our people would end up in another galaxy. As more Bandabar left this planet to explore, our society calmed down and became very intellectually and internally focused. Over time, we lost the connections to our other worlds and eventually only the ancient texts reminded us of those days. It was a calm morning here when the ship appeared in the sky. I can’t say it orbited Bandabar because it was larger than this planet and jet black. It just hung in the sky for hours.”
“The vessel was larger than this planet?” Darlene gasped. “That’s amazing and somehow familiar.”
“You’re thinking of Hive 1008, aren’t you?” Dave asked. He turned to Kak and said, “Please go on.”
“Everyone on the planet was celebrating the arrival. In our hearts, we were confident it was our brothers from other planets coming home,” Kak continued. “We only hoped we would fulfill their expectations of their home world. After the first night with no contact, our joy began to change. Perhaps this giant sphere was not full of proud Bandabar. Our armies were put on alert. Planetary defense satellites were armed and readied. Still, after two more days, there was no contact. People began to panic and riot in the streets. On the fourth day at noon in our capital city, thousands of robots left the black planet and landed all over Bandabar. The robots were shaped just like us! The other had used that time to understand our languages and our physiology. They landed all over the planet. One landed only a mile from here or so. People crowded around to see the metallic Bandabar warriors and talk to them, but they remained silent for yet another day.”
“And then?” Veek asked.
“At noon in the capital city’s time, each robot said, “I am Mantarcus of Skee Lotho and I am of The Accord. I offer friendship and tutelage to all sentient life on this planet. Our only requirement is that you agree to become of The Accord like I have.” We didn’t know what to do or what the robot meant. Then the robots explained it. Our brains would be removed from our bodies, which would then be liquefied and fed to us. We would be installed in a large robot, which would be our new body. Our brain would be given compounds that would rapidly increase its size until it was strong enough to manage a network of robots. Pieces of our brains would be sliced off and placed in other robots which we would control like our minds control our hands, feet, wings, and fingers. Of course, most thought the idea repugnant.” She smiled wryly. “But none of us were smart enough to ask what would happen if we refused. We had to learn that the hard way.”
“But why would this fellow Zeet Nabo agree to such a procedure?” Veek asked. “Why would anybody?”
Although tears flowed from her eyes, Kak was still smiling. “That poor young boy. I always felt sorry for him. He was very quiet and shy, and many of his classmates picked on him relentlessly. He became very unpopular and hung with a crowd of equally unpopular kids. I spoke with his parents many times, but they couldn’t seem to break him out of his shell. I can never know his motivation, but this was his chance to get revenge against his bullies and to be someone important. Zeet no longer had to live in the shadows and avoid others. He was in charge. If it were possible to identify the others who joined him, I would imagine most of them were just like Zeet.” She rose and walked over to the brandy bottle and refilled her glass, then turned back to the table. “I know I’m crazy for saying this but, in an odd way, I still feel sorry for little Zeet.”
Chapter 4
Dave sipped his coffee and looked at Zee Gongaleg on the viewscreen. “So tell me about this planet, Zee.”
The tekkan High Consul replied, “Dave, we’ve sent millions of agents into both Magellanic Clouds looking for The Accord and, as you can guess, we found them. As best we can tell, The Accord originated in the Smaller Cloud. Most of the available metals have been mined from the planets there, and the Beings in The Accord have since moved to the Greater Magellanic Cloud. Based on the number of Beings we’ve seen, it looks like they have another five or ten million years before they run out of metal there, if they don’t increase their ranks. When that time is up, they will either die out or move to another galaxy.”
“Which probably means here or Andromeda,” Dave guessed. “And we are a lot closer. But I guess that’s good news. Maybe Fa-a-Di is right and I shouldn’t be so worried about them now.”
Zee frowned and replied, “I’m not so sure about that, brother. The notes you sent on Mantarcus of The Accord may change our calculations entirely. If all of those monsters live in ten-thousand-mile diameter balls of metal, the time could be a lot shorter.”
“Have your agents tested that theory?”
“Frankly, something you said a few months ago has kept me from sending my people too close to The Accord,” the tekkan replied.
“What did I say?”
“When you were returning to our time from your imprisonment on Solander, you said you ran into Zeet. He was able to communicate with your spiritual energy directly and even felt your presence. Then your report today said Zeet was a new member of The Accord,” Zee replied. “If those Beings in the Cloud are even more advanced, they might be able to capture my agents while they are in Universal Power. I can’t even imagine the horror of that!”
“How could that happen? If that’s true, why haven’t they invaded the Source and taken the souls there?” Dave quizzed.
“Dave, I know how you and the priests from the Lagamar-Nan Alliance view Universal Power, but we tekkans are more pragmatic,” Zee countered. “It is a source of immense power and those Beings have immense power. It enables rapid transit through space, and those Beings move between galaxies. And it enables us to contact others. T
he Beings in The Accord communicate with thousands if not millions of robots under their control. To me, the coincidences are too great.”
“I agree with you completely, Zee,” Dave said. “That’s why you’ve selected a planet in the other Cloud that The Accord abandoned long ago. It makes perfect sense. But what can I learn from a dead planet?”
“The planet Stit is not dead, Dave. Virtually all the available metals have been removed, but there is a population of humanoids there with a fairly modern society. We studied their language and were prepared to upload it to the network when we found it was already there,” Zee revealed.
“That’s not possible!” Dave scoffed. “What language was it?”
“The ancient language of Nan, Dave,” Zee laughed. “You know what that means.”
“Stit could be a natural Hive,” Dave reasoned. “This changes everything. I wonder if Odo Pak would like to join my team?”
“When I told him all of this, he insisted upon it. However, with him along, you won’t be able to take anyone else this time,” Zee warned. “If it turns out to be a Hive, we can send as many as we need, but for the first visit, it has to be just you two.”
“Darlene and Charlie aren’t going to be happy about this,” Dave said.
“Let me talk to them Dave,” Zee replied. “If it turns out to be a Hive, Odo needs to be there. If not, he will return and we will send the others. We must remember that Nan are on other planets that are not Hives, like Nanda and the Lagamar worlds.”
