by Frank Carey
Taliss turned away. “I honestly don't know. He and I had never talked. I…”
I raised my hand. I had heard enough. “Did Hiram know all this?”
“Hiram felt it was his mission in life to teach Peter and Natalia that every being they encountered was a person and deserved respect. When Natalia changed and Hiram saved Peter's life, Peter, and everyone else at the party, transformed. Hiram put his life on the line to save a bunch of bigoted, self-centered, narcissists from a creature who had once been one of them. I don't think Hiram would have introduced you to the old Peter.”
The train began to slow. I looked at the map and saw the dot representing the train almost merged with the dot representing the station. I turned back to Taliss. “Hiram is damn lucky to have you and your mate as parents. I promise you that when this is over, he and I are going to work all this out, dammit.”
Taliss put her hand on my shoulder and said, “I know you will. Talick and I will be there to help in any way we can.”
The train came into the station and slowed to a stop in front of a wall of glass doors. The doors opened, and we stepped out onto a platform like the one we left back at the spaceport. I swear this one was even cleaner than the first.
We proceeded out of the station and found ourselves in a modern University campus. I took out my scanner and panned it upwards. “We're two hundred feet below ground level,” I said. “No wonder the Tailtiu had trouble finding this place.”
Surrey pulled out her commlink and tried to contact the ship. “This is Team Five. Do you copy Tailtiu?”
“This is Tailtiu. We've got you, but only barely. Where are you?”
“We're standing in the University, about two hundred feet below ground level.”
“What condition is it in?”
“Ever read about the Marie Celeste? I keep expecting classes to let out.” I got a chortle out of the captain. Hiram once told me of a ship they towed into Station One. No crew, life pods were still in their ejectors, and there was a half-filled cup of coffee sitting next to the captain's seat on the bridge. They had to pay a crew triple time just to board her. As Hiram likes to say, “Shit happens.”
“Tailtiu, any word from Team Six?”
“Negative. Gabe is preparing a crate of ratbots for release.”
“Copy that. Keep us posted. Surrey out.”
Everyone stared at her. “We need to focus on the task at hand. Tailtiu will keep us posted. Shanna, which way to the Library?”
I pointed down one of the paths. “That way, one hundred yards, second building on the right.”
We proceeded down the path and found ourselves in front of an odd structure emerging from the ground. We walked up and found a quadruple-wide stairway leading downward. I stepped on the first step and the stairway lit up. We headed down into the ground once more.
At the bottom of the stairs, we found ourselves standing at the edge of a vast open space populated by viewers, each four feet wide, and eight feet tall. Placed around the screens were one or more seats. I walked over to a seat and gave it a push, causing it to roll across the floor before coming to a stop next to a console.
At the center of the room was an octagonal tower, surrounded by seating, which stretched from the floor to the ceiling, twenty feet above the room's floor.
Smithfield and Fenstra took out their scanpads and aimed them first at several of the freestanding screens then the central column. “It’s some type of data retrieval system. The column seems to be the main computer while the screens are terminals, perhaps touch- or voice-controlled,” Fenstra said.
“I'm reading a lot of equipment below us, all of it powered but operating at a low level. It may be sleeping,” Smithfield said. He walked over and tapped a nearby screen. It beeped, but remained blank.
“Maybe it doesn't like Tralaskans,” Fenstra said as he tried tapping it. Again, a beep, then nothing.
“Let me,” I said. I walked over and tapped it. It lit-up, as did every other screen in the space. I looked over at the column and saw it light up like a Christmas tree. “Try it now,” I said. Smithfield reached over and tapped the screen, causing it to change. The others tried it and they too could control it, even Doc.
Doctor Surrey's commlink beeped.
“Go for Surrey,” she said as she activated the device.
“Jacks, this is Nelson. What the hell just happened down there?”
“We activated what we think is the University's central library computer, why?”
“All hell broke loose up here. Something powerful just scanned the ship. Now Ule is offline. Hell, her hamster ball has gone dark. I'm running every diagnostic I can think of...”
“That will not be necessary,” a voice said from near the central computer. As we watched, a Venlanten woman emerged from behind the tower and joined us. “My name is Mykla, and I can help you find anything you need.”
Taliss scanned her. “You're a hologram?”
“Yes. I am a visual representation of the artificial intelligence that runs this data facility. I was activated when Dr. Syron touched one of my interface screens.”
“How do you know my name?” I asked
“When you touched the panel, I performed a bioscan of you. You are a Venlanten royal, something not seen for over three thousand years. Not knowing if you were friend or foe, I ran a more detailed scan of the area, including the spaceport where I found the Tailtiu and Ule. With her help, I assimilated all the information contained in the Tailtiu's memory banks. When I finished, I assimilated Ule as well. She is part of me now.”
I looked over at Jacks and saw her speaking rapidly into her commlink. I assumed she was briefing the Tailtiu, so I kept going.
“Mykla, or should I call you Ule?”
“Mykla will do.”
“You said something about friend or foe. Which are we?”
“Friend. Ule has been most helpful in showing me your intentions are not hostile.”
“And if we were determined to be a foe?” Fenstra asked.
“You would all be dead now,” she said, as if she were ordering her eggs over-easy.
“Have you done that in the past?” I asked.
“No. In the three thousand years since the Great Diaspora, you and your group are my first visitors.”
“And you're the university’s library computer?”
“Yes, though my mission parameters tend to be rather broad in scope.”
“Mykla, we have several other teams exploring other sites,” I said.
“Yes, Doctor. Any member who attempts to activate a terminal will be given full access to the system. Unfortunately, not all your teams have access to a data terminal.”
“Shanna, a moment,” Surrey asked as she took me aside while the others stepped in to talk with Mykla.
“Jackpot, Doctor. While the rest of us try to find the answers we came for, I want you to talk to Mykla and find out what the hell happened here and what she means by the 'Great Diaspora'?”
“Okay,” I said as the screens around us lit up, each displaying instructions in Standard. We all got to work.
CHAPTER TEN
“Oh, stop the pain,” I said as I opened my eyes. “Dammit.” I sat up and looked around while trying to ignore my headache. I didn’t like what I saw. “Hiram Jones, this is a fine mess you've gotten yourself into.”
I was sitting in a stonewalled room about twelve feet square with a ceiling perhaps ten feet above the floor. At the center of the ceiling was a single spotlight, which created a pool of light in the middle of the room. Opposite where I sat was a handle-less and featureless steel door. I looked at the floor and saw a single drain at its center while in the corner sat a steel combo sink-commode unit. For a moment, I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing, increasing my aural acuity. “At least they’re pumping in air,” I commented as I detected a small breeze coming from the dark ceiling.
Getting up off the cot, I slowly walked over to the combo unit and tried the sink--it worked,
then the toilet--it worked too, so I got a drink. The water tasted like water I’ve had on a dozen other planets.
Having quenched my thirst, I strolled over to the door and ran my fingertips over it. “Wow, it’s a door,” I observed before pounding on it and yelling, “Screws! I want my mouthpiece! Screws!” I loved early twentieth century animated shorts. Bugs Bunny rules.
When nothing happened, I sat back down on my cot and took inventory of my vest. It was empty.
“I want my betties back!” I yelled to the empty room. It seems my captors had emptied my pockets while I was asleep. “Those are Elven Industries Mark One picks!”
Still no response, so I leaned back and started to sing a jazz standard from mid-twentieth century Earth. I’d gotten only a few bars into the song when the room was thrown into total darkness.
“I’m not that bad, dammit!” I yelled while continuing to sing. I heard the door open, then close, so I stopped and listened as my danger sense started to sing an aria.
“What are those sounds you are making? Are you in pain?” a voice asked.
Great. A music critic. “It’s called singing,” I replied. “Hiram Jones at your service.” The voice sounded interesting. Not as interesting as my mother’s professional voice, but what was?
“What is singing?” the voice asked.
What is singing, really? I thought. “Singing is an expression of emotion using structured or unstructured vocalizations. Don’t you have singing?”
“No. It may be due to our not having emotions,” the voice said. It had gotten closer.
“your loss. Welcome to my humble cell.” I quipped.
I heard someone breathing next to me, so I slowly reached out, but stopped when I felt something like scaled leather. I ran my fingertips over it until I felt something resembling an anatomically correct breast. Damn detailed bodice, assuming she was wearing a bodice. The other possibility was, well, frightening. He felt the body he was touching pull away. “You are human? From Earth?”
“Guilty as charged. Born in London and raised all over the League. So, tell me about yourself. Do you have a name?”
The sound of movement. “I am called Max,” the voice said. Her voice, her scent--jasmine with a hint of nutmeg, and her anatomy, told me I was dealing with a female.
“Would it be possible to have the light turned back on?” I asked in the nicest voice I could possibly muster under the circumstances.
Footsteps then three knocks on the door. The light came on, and I found myself facing a living breathing guardian. Max was about my height and had the whole guardian package down to the prehensile tail. She was wearing a scaled bodice (thank God!) and scaled leather skirt. Her feet were clawed and unshod.
“So, what do you think?” she asked. “You don’t seem shocked. Have you seen one of my kind before?”
“Not alive. There were several deceased ones aboard the arkship we found on Earth.”
“They were all dead?” she asked.
“Killed when the ship crashed.”
“Why aren’t you afraid of me?”
Good question. The way my danger sense is singing, I should be crawling up the back wall. The problem was I came with a bunch of people who seem to be missing. I had a distinct feeling that I needed to be completely honest with Max. This whole situation reeked of being a test of some kind.
“Max, I’ll be honest with you. I’m scared shitless, but my fear is being overcome by my concern for the well-being of the people I was with. Do you know where they are? Can I see them?”
“Some of your people are Venlanten royals.”
Ding, ding, ding! Emotionless my British ass. Max had flared, not much, but enough for me to notice. Okay, this was not good.
“They're friends of mine. I don’t know what issues you have with the Venlanten royal caste, but these are good people. Please, let me see them.”
“They fed on your kind.”
How in the hell does she know that? Hell, let’s see what else she knows. “Yes, they did, but now they don’t.”
“Shanna almost fed on you,” Max said, her four steel grey eyes watching me, trying to gauge my reactions.
Either she's interrogated the other team members or she's accessed the Tailtiu's computer system. I decided to play along.
“Yes, she did, and that’s between me and her,” I replied, refusing to allow her to bait me. I must keep reminding myself that a young life hangs in the balance.
She pounded four times on the door. It opened and two more guardians waited outside, both female, and both heavily armed. “Follow me, and don’t try to escape. My guards have orders to cut you down if you try to escape.”
I followed her out the door, but paused long enough to poke one of the Guards. She growled in response. “Sorry. Damn, you grow them big in these parts,” I said to Max as I caught up to her.
“Yes, and hungry too,” she replied while continuing to walk down the corridor.
I hope she was kidding.
###
Max stopped in front of another cell door and motioned to one of my escorts. She--I haven’t seen a he yet--walked over and stuck a claw into a hole in the doorjamb. The door opened as she withdrew it.
“Nice. Don’t have to worry about losing your keys,” I said to the guard. She glared at me and said nothing.
“Why does she dislike me,” I asked Max as she and I walked through the door. The guards, meanwhile, took flanking positions on either side of the door.
“She has her reasons,” Max said as she stepped aside. Inside was the rest of my team, except for Joshua, who was nowhere in sight.
“Hiram!” they yelled in unison as they ran up to hug me and shake my hand.
“I must leave you for a few moments. We will talk when I return,” Max said. She walked out and locked the door behind her.
“Where’s Joshua?” I asked the moment the door locked.
“We don’t know. We woke up in here sans Joshua. Max came in and talked to us, then left. She refused to tell us where Joshua is,” Rex, the geneticist, said.
“Or what the hell they want with us,” Ruby added while extending and retracting her claws out of frustration.
“Ruby, you’re doing the Tyen thing again,” Susan, our engineer, said.
“Sorry,” Ruby replied as her claws went normal length. “What the hell do they want with us?”
“I honestly don't know. How long were you out?” I asked.
“They let me keep my watch. According to it, we were out at least five hours,” Ruby said.
“That means we‘re late for our first check-in. Does anyone remember anything happening during the time we were out?”
“Come to think of it, I remember being strapped onto a table with mist flowing around me. It could have been a dream, though.”
“Wait a minute, I seem to recall something similar happening to me,” Rex said. “I thought it was just a dream.”
“Ruby?” I asked our Tyen security guard.
“Nope. I only remember waking up.”
“Same here,” I said. “Rex, you and Susan are royals, right?”
“Yes, I am, though I don’t like to talk about it,” Rex replied. “Too much bad history for my taste. And then there’s the relapse thing.”
“Same here,” Susan said. “Why?”
“Something Max said during our talk,” I explained. “I get the impression she doesn’t like the Venlanten royal class. I'd really like to know why.”
The door opened and Max walked in. “Follow me, all of you,” she said. We fell in behind her and walked out into the corridor.
After much twisting and turning, we found ourselves in front of a pair of ornate doors that she opened with a push. We stepped inside a large room, with what could only be described as a throne at the far end. Around us torches flared as the main lights dimmed. I looked behind us and saw Max had left, closing the doors behind her.
“Ruby, defensive positions,” I whispered. Ruby nodded and the two of
us walked to either side of our two Venlanten friends.
“What’s going on?” Rex whispered.
“I think the shit is about to hit the fan. No matter what happens to Ruby and me, you two need to get out of here the moment an opportunity presents itself. Get back to the shelter and hit the master EPIRB.”
“What about you two?” Sue asked as she looked around the edge of the room. I could see her claws were out as were Rex’s.
“We’re expendable,” Ruby said as she went full Tyen, her fangs and claws at full extension.
“Screw that, sister,” Sue said as she went full hunter.
“Copy that,” Rex said as he too unleashed all his defenses.
Okay, now I was impressed. I had just gone from protector to severely unarmed human surrounded by alien death machines.
Doors opened and guardians walked in, taking up positions along the wall. Each guardian carried a wicked looking spear, short sword, and knife. They took up positions under the torches as the doors closed. They stood there looking at us.
“We are so going to get our asses kicked,” Sue joked.
“What did my grandfather use to say? Something about today is a good day to die?” Rex countered.
“Amen,” Ruby said. “Mine kept running out of bubblegum.”
I am so going to take these three out to dinner when we get back to Earth, assuming, of course, we survive.
A door behind the throne opened and a woman wearing a simple crown, and what I would call a battle dress, walked in and stood in front of her throne. Other guardians streamed in and took up positions on either side of her. I looked closely at the one with the crown and realized it was Max. Damn, she cleaned up nicely. “Guys, Max has returned,” I said, nodding toward the throne. The others grimaced as they returned to watching the guards.
“They’re all women,” Rex noted. “Where are all the men?”
“The women probably figured out they didn’t need them,” Sue said with a smirk.
“Wait a minute,” Ruby said as the last guardian walked in and stood next to the throne. This one was male. “We spoke too soon.”
“Guys, we’ve got a problem,” I said as my jaw dropped.
