Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners, particularly the characters taken from the animated series, Code Lyoko. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
The next morning, Friday, Aelita was sitting at her workstation, in conference with Zoe, Takeo and Suzanne. When they spoke yesterday afternoon, Suzanne had reported that she had found what the problem was, but needed to discuss the matter privately.
"Like I said last night," Suzanne said, "I found out what the design flaw was. It is not in the chip itself. It also isn't in the quantum circuit the chip generates, at least not the one I know about. What I found out yesterday was that the chip generates a second circuit, one hundred and eighty degrees out of phase with our reality. The flaw is in that circuit. Now, this is a secure channel, and I know we all have privacy at our respective locations, so what I want to know, Aelita, is this: what does this second circuit do, and why wasn't I told about it?"
It was Friday afternoon, and life was good. Emily didn't have any homework for the weekend, and that was a blessing. She could spend as much time as she needed to find out what was down in the basement.
She walked in the door of the Belpois house to a conversation. Jeremie and Aelita were in their office, talking. The girl quietly crept close and listened in.
"Jeremie, she's found us out," Aelita was saying.
"No she hasn't. All she's found out about was the second circuit. Did you say anything more?" Jeremie replied.
"No, not without talking to you first. What she said about her findings makes me wonder if that's related to what we've been seeing on New Lyoko."
New Lyoko? What was that? Emily thought.
"Maybe it is. What does Zoe have to say about it?"
"She grants that it may be a possibility. She and some of the others are going over the design now. But that's not the real problem. Suzanne threatened to quit if I didn't tell her. She said that since she didn't know what the other circuit was for, then it could be for anything. If I don't tell her what's going on, she'll resign and contact the government. I don't know if we can withstand that kind of scrutiny."
"Aelita, we aren't doing anything illegal," Jeremie said, "we just don't want too many other people in our business. We can tell her about New Lyoko, since that is what this is all about."
"We can't tell her about New Lyoko without telling her about Old Lyoko, everything about it. You know what that means."
"That means that one more person will know what we've done," he said, "one more person will know just how great a man your father truly was. The danger's past, Aelita, there's no way XANA will ever get reconstituted, and we're keeping a good eye out for its followers in case they try something stupid. We've just been keeping these secrets out of habit; maybe it's time to be a little more open, I don't know. But I certainly don't have a problem with Suzanne knowing, or Jim for that matter. We can say it's covered under the Official Secrets Act and bind them to silence. They're good people, and this has touched their lives. Tell her, Aelita, and we'll worry about the consequences later."
"Not without at least asking Odd and Elizabeth first," Aelita replied.
Emily backed away from her listening post, and quietly went upstairs.
So, the Belpois have a secret, she thought as she flopped on the bed, and it's a Government Secret too. Wow, maybe Jeremie is a spy after all! Who would have thought it!
The girl paused. Maybe that thing in the basement is part of the secret. Maybe it has something to do with this 'New Lyoko' they were talking about. Oh, I have definitely got to find out what it is now!
"Emily! Are you home?" Aelita called from the main floor.
"Yes, ma'am! I'm in my room!" she called back.
"Okay, just so you know, the Della Robbias are coming by this evening, and they're bringing their daughter along."
"Okay! Anything I can do to help?"
"Sure! C'mon down and we'll get started!"
Dinner arrived and so did the Della Robbias. They both kissed Aelita in greeting, then Mrs. Della Robbia kissed Jeremie. Then Mr. Della Robbia turned to Emily.
"Hello, Emily; I would like you to meet our daughter, Cecilia," he said, indicating the three year old limpet mine attached to his leg.
"Hi, Cecilia, I'm Emily. Would you like to play?" she replied, clearly knowing her role for the evening, not that she minded.
The little girl shook her head no. She was a cute little thing, with dark hair like her mother. She was thin as a whip, which reminded Emily somewhat of her father. She grabbed her father's leg tighter and buried her face in his pant leg.
"As you can see, she's a little shy around strangers," Mr. Della Robbia said, "but she'll warm up to you eventually. C'mon Sissi, let go of daddy's leg. Emily's not going to bite, and if she does, I'm sure she's had her shots."
He bent down and picked his daughter up, who promptly wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. The group walked into the family room, chattering on about the events of the day.
Cecilia did warm up to Emily after about a half hour, and they spent the rest of the evening playing together. Aelita had magically pulled out a box of toys and set them before the girls. Cecilia squealed and pulled out a little doll and began playing with it. Emily got her own and started playing too, slowly drawing the little one out of her shell further. By dinner time, the two girls were running back and forth, playing chase.
Dinner was a riot. Cecilia had definitely decided that everyone was okay, and was squealing and chattering up a storm. Mrs. Della Robbia had her hands full, trying to feed her daughter and hold up her end of the conversation, but she managed like she had been doing it all her life.
After dinner, Aelita turned to Emily and asked, "Emily, could you take Cecilia and go up to your room? We need to discuss some things privately with the Della Robbias, and Sissi would be a distraction."
"Sure," Emily said, "c'mon Sissi, the grownups want to play. Let's go upstairs and see what we can find on the 'net!"
Emily took the child and went upstairs to her room. There, she logged on her workstation, and started surfing the web for something that would entice and entertain a three year old.
"Sissi, is there someplace you like to go to?" the teen asked her charge.
"Big Bird! See Big Bird!" the three year old shouted.
Emily sighed. She should have just gone to Sesame Street in the first place.
While trying to open up the activity site and juggle Sissi, Emily's hand slipped and started another program, the conference program. Suddenly, several windows opened up. In one, Jeremie, Aelita and the Della Robbias were displayed; in another, a Japanese woman and a European man. The last was a woman that Emily had never seen before. She looked Japanese like the one woman, except for the greenish cast to her skin and her pointed ears, making her look like a Vulcan.
Somehow, Emily had started the program in such a way that she could observe the conversation, but not participate in it. And it seemed that the adults didn't know she was watching.
"I'm sorry to pull everyone away, but we have a situation," Jeremie was saying. Emily had to shush Sissi so she could hear.
"Suzanne Moralés has solved our problem with the latest quantum chip," he continued, "however, in the process, she found the second quantum circuit that the chip generates, the one we're using in the New Lyoko project. Suzanne confronted Aelita with the information this morning and threatened to quit if we didn't tell her what was going on. Aelita managed to put her off, but that won't last too long. I'm personally of the opinion that we tell Suzanne everything, along with Jim. That's why I called you together. What do you all think?"
"How critical is Suzanne's participation in this," Mr. Della Robbia asked, "I know she's been a great help so far, but would we be better off without her?"
"I would rather not," Aelita replied, "she has been a great help to us in getting these circuits designed. And I don't want to lose a friend over all of this."
"Do you think she could be an asset in completing New Lyoko?" asked the European man next to the Japanese woman.
"I'd like to think so, Ulrich," Aelita replied, "she and I work real well together. She also works well with Zoe, and your father-in-law thinks very highly of her too."
"I certainly wouldn't mind if SuzanneMoralés knows more about the project," the Vulcan replied, "I have always had a problem with hiding the truth. It 'leaves a bad taste in my mouth;' at least that's how you humans put it. It might be useful to have another individual working on the computer design with us. The current instantiation of New Lyoko will collapse within the next seventy-two hours, according to my calculations. She could be a huge benefit in the next design iteration."
"Thanks, Zoe," Jeremie said, "Yumi, you've been awful quiet. What's your opinion?"
"Tell her, plain and simple," the Japanese woman replied, "I also think you need to tell Elizabeth's father too. We've been keeping this secret far too long, way beyond what's necessary. Personally, I think we ought to call a press conference and spill the whole thing. XANA's gone with no hope of resurrection, and maybe publicizing everything will drive what's left of XANA's followers underground and out of the way."
"I'm not ready to call the press just yet," Jeremie said, "I don't know how they'd react if they found out that every Hopper computer in existence has a secondary purpose of driving a quantum computer to maintain a fully functioning planetary system."
Emily was rocked by that statement. A planetary system?
"It's only necessary for the computer to generate the system for a short period of time," Zoe added, "once the final parameters are in place, we can move my children to New Lyoko then launch the final routines to separate that world from yours."
"That won't be for a long time, Zoe," Jeremie said, "and it won't happen at all unless we get the bug worked out of this latest chip. So, does anyone have any object..."
Emily was interrupted by Sissi's crying. The girl reluctantly closed down the conference, not hearing how it would turn out, and surfed over to Sesame Street.
"There you go, Sissi," Emily cooed to the child, "there's Big Bird. Just a little diversion on the way to Sesame Street."
She clicked on an activity icon, and Burt and Ernie went into a song about pigeons and oatmeal.
As the three year old sat in her lap, entranced, Emily thought about what she had heard.
A quantum computer generating a planetary system. A world and a sun, at least. And they're working with aliens to do it. What have I gotten myself into?