Chapter 8: Playback

Ratchet pushed himself away from the desk with an extremely contented sigh. He had been living for days on the Nutrastix in his manifestor, and a combination of Galaxy Burger and whatever he could grab on the run for weeks before that. This meal was a feast to the lombax, and he showed it a healthy respect. Between himself and Petrov, the two lombaxes had finished almost everything in sight, leaving only half a platter of "vegetable matter", the unopened box of Stylus Shavings and two pteradon drumsticks. The pteradon Petrov put into the kitchen cooling unit for later snacking. Ratchet tucked the Stylus Shavings into his manifestor 'for an emergency'. They were about to clean up the debris when they heard a rocket sled outside. Ratchet looked up quickly - it sounded like there was something wrong with it. But the thrusters cycled down before he could place it and then there was the sound of footsteps approaching.

Walking across the compound was a lombax about the height of Gaiden, but stockier and more athletic. Unlike Gaiden's approach, the newcomer seemed very at ease with his surroundings. He appeared to be about Petrov's age, wore heavy work boots, well worn jeans with a number of what might have been thruster burns on them. The lombax wore a vest of what looked like some kind of animal skin (possibly leviathan), his arms bare and his fur blowing around in the steady breeze. A large chain of some type of metal (perhaps raritanium, but Ratchet could not tell from this distance through the distortion field) dangled from the right pocket of the vest. His ears were sticking out of a leather cap very similar to Ratchet's with the exception of two parallel rows of small crystals on it running front to back, scattering the sunlight across the compound. The newcomer's left ear had a scar as though some kind of turbo blade had taken a chunk out of it at one time in the past. There was no sign of his tail, and that void seemed very obvious after spending some time on New Fastoon.

The stranger approached the compound and stopped a few cubits from the door. He looked to the side. "Spiff? Minister Gaiden? What're you doing here?"

"Mr. Prime Minister, sir." Gaiden almost spat out the words. It was clear from the tone in his voice that he held the official in complete contempt. "I am here at the orders of Regional Minister Neutrino. I am ordered to remain here as an honor guard for your arrival, and I am to stay until dismissed. Permission to withdraw, sir?" The voice was livid and the titles loaded with plenty of Leviathan venom.

The Prime Minister looked down and covered his face with his hand for a second, took a deep breath to steady himself and said, "Permission granted. Go home and grab something to eat or ... whatever."

"Sir, I need your authorization code, sir." Gaiden wasn't letting it go. "I was bound here with a level seven protocol."

"Damn! Okay, fine. Permission granted. Code gamma eight."

"Thank YOU, sir." Gaiden said sharply. He stomped off across the compound and summoned a hovercab. Within seconds, he was gone.

"PETROV!! What in the name of Fastoon do you think you're doing!!"

Listening to the exchange, Ratchet, Clank and Petrov hastily cleaned the remains of the breakfast containers. Following a gesture from Petrov, the pair sat down on the unmade bed in the second alcove. "Lemme talk to him first," Petrov said. "I probably need to calm him down a bit. And whatever you do, don't draw any weapons. He may not look it, but he's extremely fast and a helluva good fighter."

"Do not worry, sir. We do not want to make this any more difficult than it already is." Clank replied. Ratchet nodded, and his eyes were draw to the cover of book on the nightstand. With a faint "oooh!" he picked up the book and began to flip through it. Great diagrams, but it was written in lombax. He thought to himself that he really needed to sit down with Clank and brush up on the language one of these days.

When he was sure that everything (and everyone) was in the proper place, Petrov waved his hand and lowered the field. The Prime Minister stalked in quickly, his clear, dark brown eyes narrowed with anger as he went straight for Petrov. He did not even notice Ratchet and Clank in the alcove. The force field sprung up again, but neither Ratchet nor Clank saw any gesture on the part of Neutrino.

"What'd'y think you're doing?" The Prime Minister's voice was loud and angry. "YOU'RE the one that didn't want the added authorization codes. YOU'RE the one that said you'd never use 'em. YOU'RE the one that keeps talkin' about 'patience' and 'caution'. YOU said you wouldn't use it except in an emergency! YOU'RE the one that's gonna have to pay the price!" He absently reached his gloved hand behind his back and unfastened something with what sounded like a metal snap. The Prime Minister's tail sank back to its proper place behind him. Ratchet noticed that part of the tuft appeared to have been burned away some time earlier and was just now starting to grow back. His eyes widened slightly - that was a great idea! He had already burned his own tail tuft a few times when it had inadvertently blown into the stream of thruster exhaust from his sled; it was rather painful and took weeks to grow back properly...

"It was an emergency," Petrov replied. "Spiff was tryin' to take control of this station, and I couldn't permit that until you had a chance to meet my guests and hear me out."

"Guests?" The Prime Minister looked around the room and spotted Ratchet and Clank. Ratchet still had the alpha cannon book in one hand (upside down) and lifted it slightly in the Prime Minister's direction in acknowledgement. Clank gave a small wave. Absent-mindedly, the Prime Minister looked at them, waved a gloved hand back with a practiced half-smile and said, "Hi." He turned back to Petrov and said, "Look. You said it was important. But Spiff's not gonna let this go. He's gonna find out why you have the extra access. You won't be able to stay here - if they remove you from office, they'll put you on the council. I thought you didn't want that."

"I don't, but sacrifices have to be made, and this was worth it. Allow me to introduce my guests. Ratchet, Clank, I'd like you to meet Prime Minister Reginald Solstice. Reg, I'd like you to meet Ratchet and Clank, the two infiltrators from Fastoon."

Minister Solstice was moving forward to shake their hands when "infiltrators" came out. He stopped cold. He looked them over. Twice. Keeping a careful eye on the pair, he said to Petrov, "You're yankin' my tail, right?" Ratchet bristled and Clank poked him in the ribs. "Serious, Reg. These two took down two dozen femto-fighters, four missile array drones and the entire local squad. Without significant injuries, using non-lethals. The only way we were able to nab 'em was by gassing the entire block and having what was left of the squad rush him to rip his O2 mask off."

Solstice eyed the pair again, looking them over with a new respect. He finished his original gesture and offered his hand to both in turn. "Impressive! Petrov keeps his deputies in good form, too, unlike some of the regions. Nice to meet you. Now, how'd you get here and why?"

"I've done that already," Petrov replied. "I've interviewed them with the BetaTex. You must see this crystal. When you do, you'll understand."

"The BetaTex?" He looked over at the machine in the adjacent alcove, and then back at Ratchet. "You let this maniac," gesturing towards Petrov, "hook you up to that thing?" Ratchet did not reply.

"We did not have much alternative at the time, sir," Clank replied.

"Did he at least turn the failsafe on this time?" Solstice asked Clank. "Last time he used it, he forgot. The poor dude hit 84 on the meters and was asleep for hours afterward!" Looking at Petrov, he added, "I still don't remember anything that happened that night, you know."

Clank recalled the failsafe switch - the one that was never engaged. "What is the failsafe mechanism for?" he asked.

"The failsafe is an emergency cutoff. If the stress readings get above 80, a warning triggers and the failsafe kicks in. It disables the probes from scanning any deeper, calms the lombax down and returns him or her to a relaxed state. It's to prevent burnout and over-stressing the neural systems. Without it, you get caught in a loop, deeper and deeper, until... well... you don't want to know... Let me guess; he left it off didn't he?"

Clank did not respond.

"Idiot," Solstice mumbled. "How bad was it?"

"Aw, come'on Reg," Petrov started. "It was important and we needed irrefutable proof for the council..."

"A number, Petrov..."

"91..."

The Prime Minister looked at Petrov in horror, and then at Ratchet. He slipped to one knee in front of the seated lombax, shook his hand once again and said in a well practiced tone, "On behalf of the governing body of New Fastoon, I would like to offer my most sincere apologies for the callous mistreatment of Regional Minister Petrov Neutrino. The stupid git!"

"Reg, you need to see this recording." He held the padded box in his hand. "Tachyon's dead. Ratchet and Clank took him out, and a lot of others like him. It's all here. And," Petrov's voice dropped to a whisper even though the force field protected their privacy, "he might be the Keeper's son."

Solstice fell silent. He looked very closely at Ratchet. He looked at the box in Petrov's hands. After a moment, he said heavily, "Okay. But not here. Your prank on Gaiden'll be costly - he's probably already gathering the council to remove you and take control of this building. And I certainly don't want you at the controls of the BetaTex for playback."

"Aw, come'on. You were at the controls for my training session."

"Two words: 'fail' 'safe'. No way I'm lettin' you near the controls. And that machine looks like a relic from the Great War."

"Who, then?"

"Doc Tesseract. He's studied the prototype dimensionator's designs and was one of the lead engineers during the Flight. And unlike you, he knows something about neural activity..." Clank chuckled at the double-meaning. Ratchet and Petrov did not notice. "I'm glad somebody got it..." Solstice muttered. "Let's get this over with."

Without warning, a teleporter pad appeared in the center of the room. It had not been there a few moments ago. Petrov chuckled, "Reg, you've got to get me one of those things." "Aw, shut up," Solstice grumbled as he snapped his tail into the restraint behind his back. "You know how much I hate teleporting. It gives me the creeps."

The four of them climbed onto the venting pad, with Solstice standing rigidly with his eyes closed in the very center of the platform. The scanner arms rose up and in a flash of energy, they were gone.

Doctor Sherman Tesseract was lounging in his study. His bare yellow feet were propped up on an ornately carved desk. He wore a set of green surgical scrubs that were heavily wrinkled from having been slept in. Repeatedly. The white lab coat also showed signs of long term wear, with a dried ink stain just under the empty breast pocket. The lombax's fur was a combination of yellow, orange and brown, but something was off. A close inspection would show that there was no hint of silver anywhere, unusual in a lombax of his advanced years. But the stripes were a solid color with no natural variation at all, as though they had been painted on. Even the tail tuft was one orange blob, with the hairs caked together. The doctor was the apparent recipient of a very obvious, low quality dye job...

Doctor Tesseract, or simply "Doc" as he preferred to be called, had an open book (Time Dilation and the Status Meeting) lying on his chest, one hand still holding it by the spine. His eyes behind the thick lenses of his spectacles were closed, and a grating snore issued from his open jaw. The desk his feet were resting on was scattered with dozens of papers, a hyperband display tablet, a few drinking vessels (some with dried black sludge in them, others stuffed with writing implements), some stray books and holovids. Shelves lined the walls of the small room, stacked high with more books and holovids. Most were covered with a thick layer of dust, as though very little in this room ever actually moved.

There was a flash of energy as the teleport completed. Ratchet, Clank, Petrov and Solstice were standing next to the sleeping scientist. They looked at each other, listening to the lombax snore. Solstice whispered to Ratchet and Clank, "Whatever you do, don't say anything about his fur. He's real sensitive about it." Petrov chuckled, motioned the others to be silent, and bellowed "MEDIC!" at the top of his lungs.

Tesseract jumped, his jade green eyes popping wide. His feet swept to the floor, knocking one of the stacks of papers, the display tablet and a cup full of writing implements to the floor. The book was thrown directly at Petrov, and caught him right in the chest. The lombax glanced around rapidly, stood and turned to face the intruders. Ratchet noticed that here, finally, was someone approximately his height. He was getting a little self conscious about looking up at everyone all the time. He looked down at Clank standing on his right. At least Clank could go into giant mode any time he wanted to...

"What do you want? Don't you people ever knock?" Tesseract said testily. "I'm trying to finish some important research for the Prime Minister..."

"You can give it to me later," Solstice said.

"Reg? What brings you here? And Petrov?? Oh, by Fastoon - the two of you in the same room at the same time?"

"Hey, doc," Petrov said in greeting. "Oh, here's your 'research', by the way." He held the book open and handed it back to the doctor. A pamphlet for fur replacement was lodged in the book at the open pages.

"Thanks," Tesseract muttered. He looked at Ratchet and Clank. "And who are you two?"

"I'm Ratch...", Ratchet started, but was immediately interrupted as Solstice put a hand on his shoulder. "Not just yet. We can save a lot of time here. Doc, we need a favor."

"Like I never would've guessed that one," the doctor joked sarcastically. "It must be a big one for the two of you to show up like this. Unannounced... ...Through my defenses..." He looked at Solstice. "Did you teleport in?" Solstice nodded. "Wow. You're serious, aren't you. What'd'y need?"

Solstice replied, "I need you to run a BetaTex playback for me..."

"That's harmless," the doctor replied. "You don't need me for that. I mean even Petrov..." He stopped mid sentence, and stared at Petrov. "I understand. Let me guess: failsafe?" Solstice nodded. "Typical... Follow me."

The doctor led them out of his study and down a narrow hallway to a workroom. It reminded Ratchet of Big Al's shop back on Kerwan. There were crates and parts everywhere, scattered in a seemingly random fashion. There was a central counter where half assembled machines and gadgets vied for repair. Soft music was playing from a small portable receiver buried somewhere under the debris.

Moving through the workroom, he came to an alcove hidden behind a maroon curtain. Pulling the curtain aside revealed another BetaTex system; but unlike the one in the regional office, this system appeared to be well cared for. All of the wiring was hidden in carefully wrapped bundles, the equipment was clean and hummed with activity. The monitors appeared to all work properly without percussive encouragement. But in spite of all that, Ratchet still felt a chill looking at the chair. Especially seeing those weblike straps...

"I really don't want to go through that again," Ratchet said. "I don't remember much of it, but just lookin' at that thing gives me shivers."

"You don't have to," the Prime Minister replied. "This one's for me. But at least I'll have someone competent at the controls." He climbed up into the chair and closed his eyes. Petrov fixed the straps into place, tightening them closed with a sudden jerk. "Hey! That hurts, you know!" Solstice said. "Yeah, I know," Petrov replied with a slightly sarcastic grin.

The doctor looked at Petrov. "I know you forgot the failsafe. But I need to know what the maximum stress level was so I can calibrate accordingly." Petrov looked down and muttered something inaudible. "What?" "91!" The doctor glanced at Ratchet. "I suppose he was the victim for that debacle. No wonder he doesn't want to repeat it. Can't blame him a bit. I hope you at least gave him a good night's sleep after." Looking over to Solstice, he whispered "Wise move coming here."

Petrov opened the both the storage box and the glass panel. He placed the cube inside the open recess. It floated in the cavity and began to spin, picking up momentum from the energy fields that held it in place. The lasers flared and started to scan the crystal surface.

Petrov looked at Ratchet and Clank. "Uh, Doc, is there somewhere they can go that's safe?" "Don't worry. I locked down the house with a force field as soon as we arrived," Solstice said. "We won't be interrupted." Petrov looked down. "I don't mean that. The session was a bit 'extreme', especially towards the end. They don't really need to watch a repeat, do they?" He gestured to Ratchet and Clank. "There's no need to put 'em both through that, is there?"

Solstice opened his eyes and looked at the pair. "Doc, what'd'y think?"

"Well, why don't they return to my study. There is a lot of good reading material there, including my notes on the original dimensionator prototype..."

"Works for us," Ratchet said. "Come'on Clank. I can't watch this."

"I will be right behind you," Clank replied. Ratchet looked at the chair one last time, shuddered and withdrew. Clank looked at the Prime Minister. "Thank you. From what I have seen, I know that this must be a very difficult process for you. We both appreciate your interest and hope that this information proves useful to your people."

Solstice looked at Clank. "I'm still not 100 sure what this is all about. But Petrov wouldn't have done this without a really good reason. And even though he's an idiot," Solstice glared at Petrov briefly, "I'd trust him with my life. This must be important. I hope he's right. But, if it makes you feel any better, it's a lot easier with the failsafe on, and experiencing a playback is far less unpleasant than being recorded." He closed his eyes. "I'm ready."

Doctor Tesseract pushed the green button. Clank watched as the labels all turned to a solid green. The doctor threw the failsafe switch, which illuminated with a pulsing red light. Clank looked at the gathered lombaxes and their equipment. He turned to return to the study and to Ratchet. Tesseract's voice followed him, "Playback commencing in three... two... one..."

On his way out the door, Clank could hear Petrov's voice emanating from a set of speakers next to the vision display: "Don't worry. It's just a loose bulb..."

Clank returned to the doctor's study to find Ratchet hacking into the display tablet. Watching Ratchet work the device, he could tell that there was something wrong - the lombax seemed distracted and was not performing at his best. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Ratchet put the hacker and tablet down and looked around the study.

"Well, Clank. What'd'y think of New Fastoon?"

"I believe that the Prime Minister will be sympathetic to our situation. While I do not know if the lombaxes will return to Polaris, at least they have been informed that Tachyon's threat has been eliminated."

"Yeah," Ratchet replied. "We gave 'em the message. What they do with it's their problem." He fell silent for a few moments. "Clank, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't've dragged you into this. I wanted to let 'em know it was safe; that they could come home. I never thought it'd be like this..." His voice faded to a low growl.

"Ratchet, be reasonable," Clank replied. "It has been nearly twenty years since the lombaxes fled Fastoon. They have built a new home here. We have done everything we set out to do - we told them what they needed to know. And you should be pleased with that. Beyond that, there is nothing more that could have been gained from this mission."

"Yeah," Ratchet said in a distracted voice. "Nothing more."

Clank looked up at his friend's drooping ears and tail. Even if Ratchet's ears could not hear the BetaTex playback in the work room, he still could. And while Ratchet may not remember the interrogation, one thing had been made very clear to Clank: the lombax desperately needed to know of his own origins. Even though he may not consciously know it himself or willingly acknowledge it, the same powerful curiosity that drove the lombax race to create and explore the universe was forcing Ratchet to search for answers. In this, they had not succeeded.

Wanting to distract his friend, Clank scanned the holovid collection. "Ratchet, I have found something that may be useful. It appears to be compatible with our technology." Using the heli-pack, Clank floated to the second shelf above their heads. He selected a holovid case and returned it to the Ratchet. Ratchet looked at it and recognized the familiar logo, but his ears drooped even further. "Clank, what does it say?" he asked in a defeated voice. "I can't read lombax. I'm a lombax and I can't even read the language..."

This was not going as Clank had hoped. "It says, 'The Leonid Compendium of Historical Importantness: The Flight of the Lombaxes and the Keeper of the Dimensionator.' Perhaps it will have some information about the battle in the Court of Azimuth."

Ratchet looked up sharply on hearing the title, his ears perking. "Is there a holovid player around? As long as we're stuck here, we might as well try to find out what's going on." Clank scanned the room, the probe on his antenna pulsing. "Yes. In the middle left drawer of the desk." Ratchet opened the drawer to reveal a small, portable holoplayer. He inserted the media into the display unit, and Clank moved beside him to watch.

"Welcome to another depressing episode of The Leonid Compendium of Historical Importantness.

"This week: the Flight of the Lombaxes and the Keeper of the Dimensionator.

"After the treachery of self proclaimed Emperor Percival Tachyon was revealed, the remaining lombaxes gathered together on Fastoon. They realized that the Polaris galaxy would remain in continual danger while Tachyon and his drophyd forces sought out and destroyed every member of their race. In an effort to save Polaris from further destruction, Lombax Prime Minister Charles Neutrino issued a proposition to the Emperor. In exchange for the safety of Polaris, the lombaxes offered to enter a voluntary exile equivalent to what had been done to the cragmites. Tachyon agreed.

"Unfortunately, the dimensionator was still very unstable, and only operated under the strictest control of the Lombax Defense Ministry. During the initial phases of testing, and in the period of exploration following the Great War, many prototype operators experienced neurological problems ranging from headaches, disorientation, intense pain, unconsciousness and, in at least nine confirmed cases, death. These effects were later determined to be caused by a design fault, allowing energy to feed back between the rift inducer and the neural matrix. The symptoms were cumulative, and the severity increased with each exposure to the neural interface."

Clank paused the playback, "This would explain the problems you have encountered using the dimensionator. Every time you have opened a portal, you have experienced a progressively worse reaction, and were unconscious for an increasingly greater period of time."

Ratchet nodded. "Yeah. Last time around it was horrible... I don't like the sound of that 'confirmed cases' bit... But it explains a lot." He reactivated the playback.

"To minimize this risk, one volunteer was sought to act as a single operator for the device. He would open and maintain a single portal while the others passed through the rift to New Fastoon, a world in the Leonid Galaxy discovered during the dimensionator trials. Many of the younger pilots, military and general adventurers offered. The selection was made by IRIS via hyperband link based on criteria that would allow the lombax to evade Tachyon's forces: the lombax's agility, stamina, piloting skills, creativity, resourcefulness and mechanical talent. Sadly, all records and references to the Keeper's identity were destroyed in the attack on the Court of Azimuth and in the chaos surrounding the establishment of New Fastoon. This is the only known image of this individual. Anyone..."

Ratchet paused the holovid. The image of a single lombax pilot, unusually short for the species, stood leaning against his fighter. While the details of his stripes and fur patterns were obscured by his flight suit, the shape of his ears and the colorations on his tail were a very close resemblance to that of Ratchet. The pilot's eyes were a deep forest green, intelligent and had a somewhat mischievous sparkle. He wore a smug grin and held what appeared to be some kind of tool in his right hand. The ship he was casually leaning against looked very much like...

"Ratchet, that is Aphelion," Clank commented.

"I know," Ratchet said softly. "Somehow, I've always known..."

Clank looked up at his friend. The BetaTex had shown that this speculation was within Ratchet's mind, but buried rather deeply. Perhaps this would be of use to the lombax, and give him a sense of his own history. Ratchet stared at the screen for a long time in silence. His hand reached out to touch the display panel... Then he stirred, his ears perked up as he shook his head slightly, as though clearing away a dream, and he moved his reaching hand to resume the playback.

"... that can provide information on the identity of this pilot should contact the ministry central office or the Azimuth Memorial Museum. The Keeper, as this individual has come to be known, opened the portal to allow the lombaxes to migrate to New Fastoon. Rather than travel through the rift himself, the Keeper remained on Fastoon with his infant son, sealing the portal behind the Prime Minister, the last lombax to travel through the rift. It was later learned that the Prime Minister had charged the Keeper with a mission to erase all references to New Fastoon, and that Neutrino had provided the Keeper detailed instructions, including emergency access overrides for IRIS and the locations of all dimensionator development and test facilities.

"It is widely believed that the Keeper remained in Polaris to carry out those tasks, and then destroyed the dimensionator prototype. There has been no further contact from or information about the fate of the Keeper or his son.

"This concludes another depressing chapter of the Leonid Compendium of Historical Importantness."