Timestamp: Approximately 1:00pm June 25, 2186
Location: BETA Mountain Complex, Arizona.
Commander Joseph Walsh entered his office while reading a set of disturbing reports on the pad in his hands. As the door swooshed closed automatically behind him, he made his way to his desk then behind it to his chair without taking his eyes off the pad.
Unlike others inside Beta Mountain, his office was mostly spartan with very little in the way of decoration or ornamentation. There was just his simulated oak desk and time worn chair along with two simple, although comfortable, chairs for visitors to sit in. A picture of his wife sat on one side of the desk in a simple frame that he updated once a year. On opposing bright white walls hung two pictures, one was of the Beta Mountain Complex and the other was the Beta Space Station that had the Earth displayed prominently in the background. With its minimal decoration and its single solid color the office had been compared to a torture chamber at times, and for some that comparison would be accurate when coupled with the cool, almost icy demeanor that Walsh displayed at times; like now.
Reports had been coming in from some Andorian and Kirwin outlying colony worlds that didn't made sense. The colony worlds were reporting that their explorer ships were finding entire whole planets were either being destroyed or disappearing out on the far side of the Galaxy's rim in mostly uncharted space. There were also some spotty reports of the same happenings in the sectors of space that separated the League of Planets from Crown Space.
He had been trying to keep up with the reports as quickly as they came in. In the past, The Queen of The Crown had been known to destroy whole colonies before, but never to the point of totally destroying a whole planet till nothing was left but asteroids and dust particles or even less.
The reports, for the most part said the exact same thing; that mostly uninhabited planets were suddenly disappearing or were being destroyed. The reports also said that the scout ships were also finding that some inhabited worlds had suddenly developed strange markings found on a planetary scale that could clearly be seen from orbit. A few reports said that where a planet had been destroyed, and there were debris was left that was bigger than dust particles, parts of the same, or very similar markings could be found.
Based on the images that had been sent with the reports, the marks looked like they were either stamped into the ground like someone burning decorations into leather or they were dug or carved into the ground like some kind of engraving on metal… only hundreds of times bigger. The markings appeared to be shaped like large "V" or a "W" with the center separated and hovering in the center. The ends appear to be dripping like candle wax or blood running down a wall imposed over what might be a sword.
He still wasn't sure how the markings were created but suspected that it required immense amounts of power that was completely controlled like a painter manipulating a paint brush. Either way, the damn markings gave him the creeps. It was like a stain that one couldn't get out of a shirt and spread after you washed it. And then to top it off you had to wear the shirt anyway much to your own embarrassment. That was a feeling he didn't like. No, he didn't like that at all.
Someone or something with the power to leave those markings on a planetary scale and make them big enough to be seen from orbit was a force that he needed to know about and know as much as he could as fast has he could. Unfortunately everything that came in right now was a day late and a credit short.
And as if that wasn't enough while digging into the information that he had he found something oddly disturbing. Of the worlds that had been mysteriously attacked, only those that had a humanoid population had been totally destroyed… a humanoid population that very closely resembled Earth Humans. Otherwise, the population basically woke up and found the strange markings all over the planet. Another was that the planets in question appeared to form a direct or mostly direct line… a line that if it was extended outward and onward lead directly to the Sol system.
Directly to Earth.
The newest reports weren't helpful. The latest planet to have been "visited" by this unknown force had had a mix of races living on it, mostly alien and mostly non-humanoid. There were some reports that said a couple of ships that had been in the sector reported that their scanners had detected a very large number of unknown spacecraft in the area.
Deciding that he had to have more information and that that data had to come from a source that was not third or fourth hand at best, Walsh put the pad down and started reaching across his desk to activate his terminal when it activated itself. Immediately he knew this was not a "good thing".
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
He sat back and just looked at the terminal like it had suddenly sprouted legs and started to dance. The image of Buzzwang suddenly sprang into his mind. Buzzwang was the only android Ranger and was known for his habit of dancing at odd times. And do to his fascination with the past; the years of 1975 through 1995 most of the time, those dance steps could be a bit odd. He remembered Doc Hartford telling him that the dances were a combination of things called "Break Dancing," "Disco," and something called "Moonwalking," whatever that was. It could be that one of Q-Ball's newest inventions, combined with Hartford's programming could quite truthfully have the terminal sprout legs and start dancing. Why that image or fact came to mind didn't make any sense at all. "I've got to get out of this place for some fresh air one of these days," he said under his breath.
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
As he started to stand up, the terminal's screen suddenly activated and lit up. On the screen were three letters in dark and lighter shades of green, the second letter was slightly lower then the first and the third slightly lower then the second. Around the letters was band of green in an elliptical shape. The letters started to spin slowly one way with the circle around them spinning the other.
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
He watched as the letters made a complete circle then he reached out with his right hand and touched the screen…
nothing happened.
Removing his hand, he moved it to the right hand corner of the desk and pressed a hidden button just under the desk top lip. The corresponding corner of the desk top noiselessly slid aside to reveal a hidden compartment.
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
From inside the hidden compartment a wand rose up along with a headset. He picked up the headset and put it on. Then he plugged a small cord from the headset into the wand and pressed a series of the buttons on the wand and heard a number of faint clicks over the headset.
The wand had been giving to him when he was given Command of Wolf Den and the Supertrooper project years ago. It had given him complete control of the Wolf Den Complex, including all its defense and offensive weapons along with its commutations facilities. When the Supertrooper project had failed so spectacularly, the government wanted to sweep it under the rug along with all evidence that it had ever happened and never speak about it again. However, there were a few odds and ends that had to be sorted out for the Suptertrooper project to "disappear" and most of them involved him.
He had been given command of Beta Mountain and the Rangers, reporting only to the Board of Commissioners…for the most part. His first actions had been the creation of the Series 5 team and having the wand modified so that it could control the systems in Beta Mountain as a system override control. He placed one end of the wand into a recess on the terminal and heard another set of faint clicks over the headset.
The green letters and their elliptical circle faded slightly as the Beta Mountain logo appeared on the screen behind them.
"Command Center," he said into the headset.
The Beta logo disappeared and was replaced with an image that showed a man standing in what appeared to be some kind of control center. Behind him were a large number of screens that had people stationed in front of them, and all of them looking like they were quickly trying to do something as every screen was displaying the same thing… the same three green letters and their surrounding green elliptical circle.
Before the man could say anything, Walsh spoke up.
"Let me guess Lt., there something strange going on with Beta's computers?"
"Yes Commander."
"And it's affecting all of Beta's computer systems?" he asked.
"Based on reports, it would appear that every computer screen in the whole mountain is displaying the same thing: The letters TPF in two shades of green inside an elliptical circle that is also green."
Walsh looked at the young faced Lt looking out at him from behind the superimposed image on his screen then asked, "Is it damaging the systems?"
"No Commander, at least not yet anyway. It's just superposing its self over everything and being a nuisance in general. We are trying to reach Q-Ball or Ranger Hartford, but so far we have not heard from either of them."
Nodding his head, Walsh told the Lieutenant that he was on his way then the young man disappeared from the screen but the green letters and their elliptical circle remained.
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
Walsh removed the wand from the terminal and unhooked the headset from the wand. Next he replaced the headset onto its holder and slipped the wand into a hidden pocket that was part of his pants then pressed the button and watched the empty holder and headset lower back into the desk and the cover close, completely hiding the compartment again.
Once the compartment was closed, Commander Joseph Walsh made his way around his desk and was outside his office with the door closing behind him and on his way to the Control Center.
The alert message repeating over the complex's speakers.
Walsh shook his head as he muttered under his breath "Why doesn't someone just turn down the volume control damn it!"
-xx-
Souladar Flyton was telling her story about the odd acting android for the third time to a third human.
"Yes I understand that it's unlikely but it did happen. The Android suddenly stopped in mid motion and started saying the same thing that the speakers here are saying now." She paused as she had timed this telling to match the pattern that the speakers had been repeating the same message that she heard at the android repeat at the bus.
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
As the message ended an unknown door that connected the lobby to the museum opened and Arthur ended the lobby. Souladar watched as all three humans moved toward the android when it stopped moving. The android just stood there for a few seconds as if it could not figure out where it needed to go.
Just as the humans got close the speakers once again repeated the message and the android joined them.
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
The android then turned to face a hallway off to one side that had a sign hanging from the door fame that said no one was allowed beyond this point without an escort and started toward it. It had taken three steps before the three humans were in front of it, blocking its path. The android paused for a moment as the men started giving it commands that should have stopped it and deactivated it as well, then it used the hand not holding a small blue device and pushed the nearest human hard enough to force him off his feet and onto his butt with enough energy left over to slide him across the lobby and against the wall. Before the other two could react, they found themselves joining their companion at the wall as the android and the speakers repeated the message again then the android started down the hallway.
"What just happened?" one of the humans asked, rubbing the back of his head as another said "That was odd" as he held his lower back.
Souladar shook her head as she moved over to the humans to see if they were alright.
"Silly humans," she muttered under her breath so low that they couldn't hear her. "It's a machine for crying out loud."
-xx-
Commander Walsh entered the Control Center and found himself in a place of semi-controlled chaos with technical personal scrambling to find out what had caused this to happen in the first place.
"I think this will get it," said a tech bent over one of the consoles, buried up to his waist. With those words, most of the lights in center blinked out.
"Guess not," he said as the lights came back on and he stood up, his face covered in dust and small electrical burns.
"Report," Walsh called out to the room in large.
"Sir, we still have not found out the reason for the repeating message. But we have learned that it's not a standard Code Red" said the Tech that had his head stuck in the console.
Walsh was glad to hear that, as a standard "Code Red" meant some planetary emergency.
"What we do know is that it appears to be coming from somewhere deep inside the Beta Mountain complex."
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
"Get Q-Ball and Doc Hartford in here now." Walsh said, his tone serious. "And see if you can turn down the volume too!"
"Q-Ball is in route now Commander and Doc Hartford is currently with Captain Foxx's team. They are in transit from Tortuna and have an ETA of over two hours Sir."
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
After that last repeat, the doors slid open and a man hurried into the room. He was dressed in a white lab coat over white pants and black shoes. His head was bald and around his eyes he wore what looked like a combination of goggles and glasses with a slightly yellow tint to the lens.
"Q-Ball," Walsh said as he watched the thin bald man make a bee-line straight for the consoles.
"Give me a few moments Commander," Q-Ball said as he took a seat and let his fingers start flying over a number of keyboards.
On the screens, the three letters and their circle continued their predominance. Q-Ball worked for three minutes, never saying anything, then with a flourish he struck a single key with an outreached finger.
The screens went blank for a second, and then displayed the logo for Beta.
"It's a simple algorithm that somehow managed to get into the system. It's perfectly harmless, but a bit annoying. I've trapped it into a subroutine and locked it off until Hartford can take a look at it. I think he will find it interesting." Q-Ball said with a bit of a smug look on his face.
The look vanished in an instant as every screen suddenly placed the three letters and the circle over the Beta logo and the speakers sounded out again.
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
This time however, the message repeated in one continuous drone.
"Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep De Beep… Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red."
Walsh looked at the goggled man and rubbed his face with one hand. Rolling his eyes, Q-Ball's smugness vanished into instant nothingness.
"I don't understand how it could have escaped from the subroutine. It's just a repeating audio file coupled with a repeating video file. I double checked the algorithm; it's not trying to rewrite any code or hacking into any systems. It's just irritating."
The genius paused for a moment as the Red Alert message kept repeating continuously then went on.
"Give me a little more time Commander Walsh and I'll get it stopped. Hartford is on the way and if I can't get it stopped, he should with one of his tweekers."
The message kept going, "Beep Beep De Beep. Code Red, repeat this is a Code Red. Beep Beep…," then just stopped cold.
Around the room, techs stared and Q-Ball dove back at the keyboard. On the screens, the three letters and their encasing circle flared once then moved from the center of the screen to the lower right hand corner. Replacing the letters in the center of the screen, an image of a dark skinned young man appeared.
"Commander Walsh?" the image asked.
"I'm Commander Walsh," Walsh replied as he stepped into the center of the room and looked up at the image on the largest screen in the command center.
"Sorry Commander, but I need to be sure," the image said as the door opened again and an android entered carrying a small blue device in one hand.
The android moved into the room then stopped when it was in front of Walsh and held the device up. A bluish green light emitted from the device and the android moved the device upwards until the light was just above Walsh's head, then slowly lowered the device making the light travel down Walsh's body all the way to his boots. As the android lowered the device, Walsh managed a good look at it. It was small, had what looked like a circle of buttons on it with a single button inside the circle off to one side, and a screen that took up most of the upper half of the device. On the screen, what looked like a deoxyribonucleic string was on one half of the screen while the other half said "SCANNING."
When the light reached his boots a second deoxyribonucleic string replaced the word "scanning" and over them both appeared the words "analyzing and comparing" with a small bar graph under them. Walsh could see the bar moving from the left to the right. When the bar reached the right side of the screen, Walsh watched the display on the little device change to show his picture with his name superimposed over it along with "Id Confirmed."
The young man on the screen seemed to be relieved at the device's findings.
"I'm sorry I had to do that Commander, but I had to make sure. Kim left me very strict instructions. I was to find you on June 25, 2186 after approximately 1:00pm. If you will give me a moment, I'll explain everything the best that I can."
With that, the man's face took on a look of intense concentration. When his face returned to the look it had earlier, the android moved.
"Where am I?" it asked.
"I'm sorry Arthur, but I needed help in finding Commander Walsh. The only thing I had to go on was the DNA sample Kim left for me and a picture. I needed to find a match and couldn't trust the records in the Beta computer systems. So I used you to scan the Commander with the only scanner that I knew I could trust."
Arthur looked at the device in his hand then up to the image of his friend on the screen.
"If you would give that to the Commander, I've already made an appointment for you with the Maintenance department to check and make sure you're ok Arthur." The image on the screen said.
Walsh watched as the android, Arthur, held out the blue device to him. He took it and Arthur turned to the door.
"Wade-A, to quote one of Kim's friends: "you got some 'splainin to do!""
"I will my friend, I promise" Wade-A said as Arthur walked out the door. Once the android was gone, the image focused his attention on Walsh.
"I guess I'd better introduce myself Commander. I'm Wade-A."
"Some kind of AI I would guess" Q-Ball spoke up as he got up and stood beside Walsh. "Similar to Sandi that runs the day to day operations here in the mountain, but not as complex."
Wade-A managed to not show any reaction to the man's comments while thinking to himself 'If you only knew that your so-called "sophisticated" AI and I have been married and running around together for over 100 years.'
"I'm the AI that ran the Team Possible Foundation computer systems from the inside while my creator Wade Agamemnon Load ran it from the outside." Wade-A smiled.
"You're the AI from the Team Possible exhibit at the museum." Q-Ball said as he snapped his fingers.
'Dear Lord, we may be in trouble' Wade-A thought at Q-Ball's response and laughed to himself as it reminded him of a certain redhead's father. He quickly accessed Beta's files on this "Q-Ball" and saw that while he was super brainy, he could be a bit slow at times. Just like a few other people he had known long ago.
Walsh remembered the exhibit. He had thought it fitting that the world never forgot Team Possible, especially after he had read their histories. Suddenly, everything seemed to click in his mind.
"Team Possible Foundation… This was totally your doing then." Walsh said, a look that was not nice on his face.
"Yes Commander, I'm afraid so. Kim told me that this might be the only way to get your attention. She said that all I had to do to find you was to mess around with the Rangers or Beta communications and you would show up. She said that you were very protective of your teams and pretty hands on with them. That you kind of treated them like they were you kids… especially Captain Foxx's team." Wade-A's smile really got big as he used the sensors in the Command Center to watch Walsh and see the blush that flashed across his face.
Walsh looked at Q-Ball and saw him trying to hide a smile.
"And would you like to tell me why you just disrupted the whole mountain to find me?" Walsh asked.
"Like I said Commander, Kim said that it was the only way to contact you quickly." Wade-A said then the image on the screen changed to show the same young man, but this time he was sitting behind a desk that had a number of stacks of paper on it. Wade-A shuffled though a couple of stacks and then with a smile pulled out a folder.
"I'm willing to bet your next paycheck Commander that you have been getting some troubling reports from the outer colonies in the past few weeks, it not longer. I'm also willing to bet Rufus' secret stash of aged smoked Gouda and a wheel of prime English Cheddar that inside those reports is an image that looks vaguely like this" and with Wade-A removed what looked like a piece of paper from the folder then made a throwing gesture with it. The paper flew to the bottom left corner of the screen away from of the TPF logo, and a image appeared there.
Walsh almost gasped at what he saw…
The image showed strange markings that appeared to be either burned into the ground like someone etching decorations into leather or they were dug or carved into the ground like some engraving on metal… only hundreds of times bigger. Markings that appeared to be shaped like large "V" or a "W" with the upward center separated and hovering in the center. The ends appear to be dripping like candle wax or blood running down a wall imposed over what might be a sword.
"Look familiar Commander?" Wade-A asked.
Walsh did his best to not let anything show on his face as he looked at a copy of the images from he file. That file and its reports was known to only three people in the complex and he would like to keep it that way.
Wade-A watched Walsh's face. A human would most likely not have noticed the small twitches, but was something different.
"I want everyone out, but you Q-Ball. Assign some personal to check over the computer systems and insure that this little prank was harmless." Walsh said then watched as the room cleared quickly. Q-Ball called out two names and told them to run a complete diagnostic on the whole complex's computer systems.
Once the room was cleared of personal, Walsh and Q-Ball turned their complete attention to the AI on the screen.
"Explain how you got into Beta's systems, how you arranged to interrupt the whole damn system, and why." Walsh said.
"Then if I were you I'd get comfortable Commander. This may take a while," Wade-A said with a smile.
To be continued…