Spark stopped instantly and sat quietly waiting. Mencari looked around, wondering what was going on. This whole thing was so odd. Maybe trying to meet Toriko wasn’t a good idea. Mencari didn’t know anything about this world, much less expect to go on a trek deep into who knows where. But he knew the only way to assess whether she was telling the truth—and was really a skilled tech—was to talk with her directly.
Otherwise, it was back to the Trading Post to stare at lists of techs not readily available for a long time.
A clinking of metal feet drew his gaze down the corridor. He listened carefully with growing anxiety. It sounded like there was more than just one person approaching, and Daleron didn’t say he was coming with friends. Even Spark stood at attention, gazing down the hall. It wasn’t until Spark crouched down and digitally snarled that Mencari began to worry.
“Let’s find somewhere safe, Spark,” Mencari said. “Come on, boy.”
He turned and ran in the opposite direction, with Spark following close behind. The metal clanking grew louder, and seemed to follow them despite the many twists and turns Mencari took. His heart sank as he turned a corner and ran into a narrow corridor that ended in a cave-in of rock and debris that blocked the passage before them.
“Okay, then,” he said tapping his wrist phaser, activating it. “I guess we do this the hard way.”
Spark whimpered.
A boom echoed down the hall, followed by the distinct zip of laser fire.
“Come on, Spark,” Mencari said, creeping cautiously back. Peering around the corner, he saw a small troop of nearby droids blasting it out with at least two attackers. Instinct guided him as Mencari took aim and unleashed his own volley of fire from the side, taking the droids by surprise. Disrupted, the droids hitched and bleeped poorly adapting to the new dynamics.
In moments, they were smoking piles of scrap metal.
“Mencari?” a familiar voice called.
“Daleron?” he said back.
A remarkably tall cat-man emerged from a breach in the wall, placing his weapon inside his trench coat. As he made his way towards the smoldering piles, a second, more rotund figure emerged from the shadows.
“Thanks for the help,” Daleron said. “Good work, too. Those droids can be a pain.”
Picking up one of the robotic heads, Daleron pried it open and pulled a large pink crystal from the innards.
“Is it intact?” the rotund one asked.
“Indeed it is, Palo,” Daleron said. He looked at Mencari, then back at his companion. “Perfect condition. Toriko will be happy.”
“This is huge!” Palo said. “They’re usually fried. Mencari must have surprised them before they could self-destruct.”
Mencari shifted his weight nervously, still unsure of the whole situation. “What is that?”
“Command crystal,” Daleron said flatly. “Should provide us with some useful information--maybe. Toriko will let us know if it’s of any use.”
Daleron pocketed the crystal and paused. He looked down at Spark and spoke to the mechanical dog.
“Toriko, we’re coming back with Mencari. I think he’s okay. Had he been one of them, we wouldn’t have secured an intact crystal like this.”
“Yaay!” she said through Spark. “See you soon!”
* * * * *
“You’re back?” Toriko said excited. In turning to meet the group, she lost her grip on the holographic cube before her. It tumbled like a solid object to the ground where it shattered into a shower of light.
“Oh no!” she cried. “It will take a whole cyber-minute to remake that!”
“What was it?” Daleron said.
“The final interface piece, but I can remake it,” she waved it off, then looked with embarrassment to Mencari. “I’m really sorry about all this.”
“It’s okay, it’s nice to meet you,” Mencari said.
“Look what else we brought back,” Palo said grinning.
Toriko squealed as Daleron pulled out the crystal. “Are you KIDDING ME?” she cried running over to it. “A real, live command crystal!”
Daleron handed it over to her, and smiled as she clutched the gem like a child with a coveted toy. “This changes EVERYTHING!”
“How so?” Mencari asked.
“I don’t have to hack through different ports and nodes,” she said elated. “This baby should tell me exactly where the main command services are located, and how to go right in!”
She ran to the makeshift desk, gently set down the gem, and waved her hands to summon a new holographic cube. A nearly overwhelming sense of excitement surged within her. Finally she had some tangible component she could use from those alien creations. With every hand gesture, she injected hundreds of prefabricated lines of code into the holographic interface, extending its functionality. She loved this holographic, visual interface. Not only was gesturing fun, it was faster than typing out all those code segments.
“There!” she sighed happily. The cube floated over the gem, then engulfed it. Small beams of light appeared to exchange between the cube and crystal. “Almost there. . . Almost there . . .” she said, gnawing on her lip.
Light radiated like a geyser from the gem, projecting a panel with the Bansa name and logo displayed. “YATA!” she cried.
Suddenly the panel filled with red, and a new logo splashed across the display. “Not again!” Toriko said frustrated.
“Nukari,” Mencari said through gritted teeth.
“Nukari?” Daleron said. “Who are they, because they’re like a virus—everywhere.”
“Yeah, like we were rooted!” Palo added.
Mencari was shaken. “The Nukari are an alien race from beyond our own galaxy,” he answered. “They are violent, aggressive, and stealthy. They’ve already attacked my people. In fact they wiped out an entire space station, including my family.”
“Your whole family?” Toriko looked concerned.
“That’s why I’m here,” Mencari said looking at Toriko, then at Daleron and Palo. “I’m trying to find more information about them, and learn how to stop them.”
“Well, they’re not using a fleet here,” Daleron said. “It’s worse, they’re using Bansa—who runs everything on our world. They can now touch every aspect of our lives!”
“They’ve even convinced my sister Maro to work for them,” Toriko said remorsefully. “And the Professor FX . . .”
She felt tears welling in her eyes. It wasn’t the right place or time for this, but she couldn’t help it. Everything was so frustrating, and she worried so much.
A gentle hand touched her shoulder. Through her blurry eyes, she saw Mencari standing close behind her, his presence radiating an invisible strength. “We’ll save them. Let’s focus. What can we do right now?”
She nodded, knowing she couldn’t let herself get overwhelmed. Looking back at the screen, an anger welled inside her. “I can crack that,” she said forcefully.
“Go get them!” Palo cheered.
She gestured, summoning two more control cubes. The world seemed to disappear around her, as her mind wrapped around the puzzle of security codes and encryption schemes. All perception of time escaped from the room, as Toriko gestured wildly, modifying her hacks to stay ahead of an advanced and rotating defense protocol.
It took every ounce of her focus, and was far more complicated than she anticipated. As time passed, fatigue began to settle in. If she didn’t change tactics soon, her tunnel hack would collapse.
This wasn’t going to work. She had one ace up her sleeve, but was it ready to be used?
“They’re good,” she said biting her lip.
Daleron encouraged her. “Hang in there. We may not have another one soon.”
She knew he was right. There wasn’t another choice, regardless of risk. With a final gesture, Toriko activated the virtual reality integrator. Her body shuddered as it interlocked directly with her mind. Her hands and feet went numb, a sensation that quickly swept her body, and passed over her face.
> * * * * *
When Toriko opened her eyes, she found herself inside the vast computer network known as the interweb.
“It works!” she said, her words visually rippling away in colored waves from her digital body. “It really works!”
Her time for celebration was cut short, when she noticed sections of her data tunnel begin to glow a burning red. Defense protocols were already eating at her way in. She had to work fast.
* * * * *
“What did she just do?” Palo asked, checking to make sure Toriko was still breathing.
A new projection appeared before her body. Mencari saw an avatar of Toriko moving with blurring speed, reinforcing and building out a tunnel.
“Looks like she’s in there,” Mencari said.
“What?” Palo said confused. “Can she do that?”
“Guess so,” the cat-man shrugged. “Now we know why they wanted her and her sister so badly.”
“What do you know about all this?” Mencari asked, hoping that he had thrown in his lot with the right people.
“We’ve been watching the Purg sisters for some time,” Daleron said.
“Especially after the parents were killed,” Palo added.
“Killed?” Mencari said.
“An accident, at least that’s what it was made to look like,” Daleron said. “If you track what happened next, you know it was anything but. What’s important to know is they’ve made many moves to push the two Purg girls into joining them. We even noticed a number of communications from Bansa blocking Toriko from employment in other firms, probably thinking that would bring Toriko to their doorstep. It appears they also kidnapped the Professor Xabier.”
“But they probably did that to shut him up too,” Palo said. “He was talking to too many people about what he and Toriko found.”
“What did Toriko find?” Mencari asked. “She alluded to something a few times.”
“A beam of energy, although only Toriko could see it,” Daleron said. “Apparently she has some remarkable gifts—seeing transmissions, energy signatures, etc. It turned out to be a Nukari transmission beam coming from the Ninth Version, sent out to a space communications relay.”
“So they’re talking to others off world?” Mencari said.
“Exactly,” Daleron said. “But to whom, and where, we don’t know yet.”
Maybe it involves the contingent I ran into on Aeun, Mencari wondered.
A flash from the projection with Toriko drew their attention. The tunnel appeared to flood with data. Toriko splashed around joyously. A digital voice chimed through her suit. “I’m in, I’m in!”
Diving into the information, she entered a massive expanse filled with cubes of data floating about.
“OMG!” she cried. “There’s like. . . yotta-quads of information here! I’ve never seen this much before! Let's see how fast I can go through this . . . ”
Her avatar began to glow. Smaller clones emerged from the light. In moments, thousands of mini-Torikos were darting in and out of the cubes.
“Daleron, you won’t believe this!” her digital voice said. “The Nukari really are everywhere: inside universities, corporations, even the Methodology Council. It’s not just Bansa! Now we have proof!”
The myriad of clones suddenly stopped, frozen in place.
“Oh, not now!” she moaned. “Hold on.”
They waited and watched as her avatar produced a new control cube, working on patching the clone bug. Mencari noticed on the periphery, the cubes turning brown and shriveling away.
“Toriko—” Mencari said.
“One second . . . ”
As the moments passed, the phenomenon appeared to accelerate, collapsing in towards Toriko.
“Toriko, check your perimeter,” Mencari warned sternly. “What’s going on out there? Is that normal?”
“Got it!” she said, as the clones returned to action. “I think I’ve found some things on. . . ”
“Did you hear me, Toriko?” he said with growing concern. “There’s something happening with the data cubes.”
“What?” she said, confused.
Clones near the edge exhibited the same browning before shriveling away. He could see her look around nervously at the shrinking sea of data.
“Oh Eudora!” she cried. “They found me!”
“Get out of there!” Palo yelled. “GO!”
With a gesture the clones burst like fireworks, and the expanse extruded away, funneling into a single point. She was back inside the hacking tunnel, fleeing with incredible speed.
“I need to focus on what I’m doing,” she said. “I’m going to change the display so you can tell me if I’m being followed.”
“How do we do that?”
“Like this,” she said as the projection changed angles, as if sitting on her back, showing the tunnel behind her. A dark void with long tentacles ripped apart the tunnel behind her.
“Eudora help us!” Palo said flatly.
“Is it that bad?” Toriko said, attempting levity.
“Just keep going, and don’t look back,” Mencari added.
The chasing mass was closing fast.
“It’s gaining,” Palo warned.
“I have to keep opening new tunnels, it’s taking me too long,” she said panicked. “Have to slow it down.”
Pulses began to fire from her avatar. After traveling along the tunnel walls towards the chasing mass, they exploded into electric barriers, like big fishing nets. Despite getting snagged, the mass attempted to push its tentacles through, which were instantly vaporized in a cloud of zeros and ones.
“It’s working!” Palo cheered.
“Just keep going!” Mencari said.
In horror, Mencari saw the barrier radiate, as if being superheated.
“They’re taking it down!” Daleron warned.
“I know,” Toriko said confidently. “I’m just buying some time, and seeing how well that worked.”
As the barrier fell, a stream of steady pulses blasted from Toriko’s avatar down the tunnel walls. With each pulse explosion a new barrier erected. Mencari’s stomach knotted as the chasing mass appeared to catch fire and accelerate towards her with great speed. This time the barriers didn’t stop it.
“The barrier’s aren’t working anymore!” Mencari yelled.
Small glowing orbs began shooting towards the chasing mass. With each hit, the mass shuttered, and recoiled. The flaming appearance even diminished.
“One. . . more. . . trick,” Toriko said, strained.
The walls of the tunnel began to fill with cracks of light. Streams of zeros and ones wept from them.
“What are you doing?” Palo asked concerned.
“This!” she said as the tunnel shattered and began to collapse behind her.
“Are you crazy?” Palo yelled. “If you’re consciousness isn’t back, that could kill you!”
“If they catch me, it will kill me.”
The projection began to break up, static lacing the display. Her avatar accelerated faster down the tunnel, trying to stay ahead of the collapsing section.
“Nearly there!” she said thankfully.
A vortex of light began to form just behind her avatar.
“Something’s on your tail!” Palo yelled as black tentacles reached through towards her.
“What?” she said, moments before the display disappeared and her body gave a tremendous shudder.
Then the room was quiet. Toriko’s body slumped forward, then was motionless.
* * * * *
Spark moaned sorrowfully.
“Toriko?” Palo said putting his hand on her shoulder.
No one was sure what they could do to help. They all waited for a response—any response. Even the fox ears on her headband seemed to droop sadly downward. Mencari’s burning lungs reminded him he was holding his breath.
“Oh, Eudora,” Daleron said, over and over. It sounded like he was praying.
“Toriko!” Palo said with a risi
ng tone.
Spark gently nuzzled her leg, but there was no reaction.
What just happened, Mencari wondered? She had said that if she was caught, it would kill her. He didn’t think she meant it literally. Could that really have been the case?
Mencari stared paralyzed. He knew they should check her vitals, but he somehow doubted it was worth the time. The Nukari were here, and they just claimed another life before his eyes. This group was far more insidious than the armada that attacked his station. These Nukari appeared far more cunning, infecting and controlling a world from the inside-out. He almost preferred a nice simple armada, an attacking force that could be engaged.
“TORIKO!” Palo screamed, now on his knees hugging her lifeless form.
Death of any kind was never easy to see. She seemed like a nice girl, maybe a bit crazy, but nice.
“Now what?” Mencari asked respectfully.
Small holographic cubes began to float above the table, each glowing with blue, yellow, or orange light.
Spark bellowed happily as a tiny gasp escaped Toriko.
“We . . . go and . . . get them,” she whispered in a raspy voice.
“Toriko!” Palo said, nearly in tears.
“You’re . . . crushing. . . me,” she gasped, as Palo released his vice-grip on her body.
“Right. Sorry.”
The very air in the room felt easier to breath. Mencari hadn’t noticed just how tense he had become until he relaxed his tight, aching muscles.
“What happened?” Daleron asked.
“Nasty sentinel. Nearly had me too,” she said, rubbing her temples. “Whoever made that was good--very good.”
“But you were better,” Palo said.
Reaching out with unsteady hands, she grabbed the yellow box as if it was a physical object. With a gesture it opened, revealing several smaller moving shapes inside. Mencari could tell the girl had not fully recovered yet. He didn’t like the strange panting and labored breathing from her. The experience clearly had left her weakened.
As she touched the smaller objects, holograms of text appeared, displaying the encrypted information and system codes.
“Can you read that?” Palo said.
D'mok Revival: The Nukari Invasion Anthology Page 11
