As the chapter title suggests, this is a kind of interlude chapter in-between situations. Inez makes a reappearance, and Tehran and his gang are working at restoring Cyantis while they wait.

11.

Interlude

Jackie sat at a table in the control room alone, fiddling with a coin she had found in her pocket. She was currently alone, as everyone else had left to go do other things. Matt, Lara, and Peter had all succumbed to the need to have some lunch, regardless of the situation. Jackie, however, was perfectly content to go hungry. Hardson had other matters she wanted to address in preparation to the proposed meeting with Tehran, and had returned to the CSC. And Motherboard was currently networking with members of the Grand Cyber Council and informing them of the plan, and her face was currently absent from her screen.

But then, with a sudden burst of static, Motherboard's face reappeared. "There." she reported. "I have contacted the Grand Cyber Council of the situation as requested, and they are now en route to Control Central to await further commands. They will all have arrived by Major Hardson's deadline."

"Whoopie." Jackie muttered flatly, still fiddling with her coin, and not turning to look at Motherboard.

"You are depressed." Motherboard noted.

"Didn't take a genius to figure it out, Mother B." Jackie pointed out, casting a glance at Motherboard. "But yeah, I kinda am depressed. I'm just worried about this whole situation, wondering if everything will work out in the end."

"As do I, Jackie." Motherboard assured her. "But there is an upside to this situation. We now have evidence that suggests Inez could still be alive."

"Yeah." Jackie said, making her coin spin on the tabletop. "But, not to say I don't trust Matt, but I'd kinda like to see it for myself."

"Presuming Matt is correct, then it is quite likely Inez will attempt to contact us again." Motherboard said.

"Yes, but when?" Jackie asked.

"I cannot say without knowing more information about the situation." Motherboard said. "It could be anywhere from days to..."

"Testing, one, two, three, testing..."

Jackie and Motherboard turned to look at the far end of the room. Standing there, with her back turned towards them, was a very familiar looking figure, looking around at her immediate surroundings as if to get her bearings.

"Inez." Motherboard remarked, sounding surprised.

Inez turned, and grinned at the sight of them. "Jackie, Mother B, good to see you again!" she said happily.

"Inez!" Jackie squealed loudly, jumping up from her chair and running forward to give her friend a hug. But she merely passed right through Inez like she didn't exist, stumbling to a stop on the other side of Inez, her arms wrapped around herself and not Inez like planned.

"Yeah, uh, I'm not really here." Inez said, turning around to follow Jackie. "I was hoping Matt would've explained this by now."

"Oh, he did, but I just forgot in all of my excitement." Jackie said, turning back around to face Inez. "Inez." she said, shaking her head. "It's so good to see you! We thought you were dead!"

"Yeah, I know, I've seen the memorial." Inez said sheepishly, gesturing with her head out a window, although the memorial currently couldn't be seen from there. "Kind of flattering, really."

"We are of course glad to see that you still live, Inez." Motherboard said.

"So I am, Mother B." Inez said. She looked around the room to see it was mostly empty. "Where is everyone else?"

"Elsewhere, we've been keeping busy here." Jackie said.

"Oh great, I picked this spot hoping you'd all be here so I could do some more explaining and only have to do it once." Inez remarked, annoyed. "But there goes that hope."

"Well, Matt said you had figured out a way to monitor what was happening in Cyberspace, couldn't you have used to see how many of us were here?" Jackie asked.

"Yes and no." Inez admitted. "See, my 'monitor', as you put it, directly ties in with the technology I'm using to create this holographic projection. I can't use both at the same time. Plus, as I'm sure Matt told you, this projector consumes a great deal of energy, and takes a very long time for it to recharge. I didn't give it enough time to recharge fully, so I didn't want to waste power checking to see if anybody was here. Even then, I'm going to have even less time to talk than I did with Matt, so I better get down to the point." She sighed before continuing. "Look, I was going to tell Matt this, but I got cut off before I could. There's a ship that's heading towards Cyantis, and on it are..."

"We know, the ship's already arrived and the people on it have revealed themselves." Jackie said.

"They did?" Inez said, looking worried. "And what did they do then?"

"They have laid siege to the site, taking the people on the site captive, and cut off Cyantis from the rest of Cyberspace." Motherboard replied. "The leader, a cyborg named Jacob Tehran, is demanding that he meet with the Grand Cyber Council at a location of his choosing immediately. The CSEDS has ordered that we meet his demands and try to resolve the situation as peacefully as possible."

"It's a trap." Inez said instantly. "I just know it."

"That's what we said, but Hardson's in charge now, and she's overriding us." Jackie said. "We kinda have to go along at the moment."

"Matt indicated you have more information about these cyborgs than we do, however." Motherboard said. "Perhaps you can relate us some more information."

"I can, somewhat." Inez said. "First off, you should know that these guys really are Founders of Cyberspace."

"We wondered that already." Jackie said. "But Inez, if they are Founders, then how did they get like how they are now?"

"I'm not sure on the details." Inez admitted. "Something about a dispute within their own numbers and a long hard journey. But they know Cyantian technology inside and out, much better than we do. They'll use it to their advantage in any way possible."

"Do you know what their plans are?" Motherboard asked.

"Not in full." Inez admitted. "I knew that they were going to arrive and then take siege of the site, and that their plans aren't friendly."

"Do you know what it is that Tehran wants?" Motherboard asked.

"Kind of." Inez said. "I'll tell you what I do know, but you aren't going to like it. Tehran wants to take..." she was cut short suddenly when her image suddenly flickered and wavered for a moment. Inez cursed. "Dang it, I'm already running out of power again! I can't explain the details, but know this, Tehran isn't to be trusted! Now I call back next chance I get, I promise."

Inez turned around again to face something she could only see on her side. Her image flickered for a moment, and then vanished once again. Jackie stepped into the spot Inez had once stood and looked around sadly.

"She's gone again." she announced sadly.

"But she will be back again." Motherboard reminded her.

Tehran dragged Marbles roughly across Cyantis as the other prisoners on the site were sudued, followed by his personal guard. Several of the cyborgs from Tehran's ship had already arrived on the site and had headed straight to the underground data core room, moving from console to console, activating systems that the Cyantis Expedition hadn't ever found in their examinations.

"Partial power restored to the site." a female voice reported through a radio Tehran had on hand. "You should be seeing the effects now."

As she said this, lights all over the site flickered on, casting a warm yellow glow over the ruins of the site.

"Good work, anything else to report?" Tehran asked into his radio.

"I figured out why the automatic repair systems failed to keep the site maintained while we were gone." the voice replied.

"Oh? What happened?"

"A control circuit down here burned out. Probably due to a passing cyberstorm. We've since fixed it, and have restored power to that portion of the site. Someone's going to have to manually go and restart the generator, though."

Tehran stopped to get his bearings for a moment. "We're in that general area, we'll do it." he said. "Keep me appraised of any new developments. Over and out."

He then changed directions, pulling the frustrated Dr. Marbles with, his two guards following him.

"So where are we going now?" Marbles asked flatly as they headed towards a building, this one having managed to stay intact better than some of the others.

Tehran gave the scientist an amused look and didn't reply right away. "What if," he began finally, as they approached the entrance to the building, "I told you I had a means of restoring this site?"

"We already figured out it could be done, and had plans to do just that before you came along." Marbles muttered.

"And how long did you think it would take to do that?" Tehran asked, as they headed up a crumbing set of stairs.

"A matter of months at best, why?" Marbles asked.

"What if I told you that my means would mean I could have this site fully repaired and completely operational by this time tomorrow?" Tehran asked.

Marbles blinked in surprise, but then his eyes narrowed in disbelief. "You're lying." he said. "That's not possible, even with Cyantian technology. It would take too long to build the replacement parts you're going to need."

"Oh, but it is possible, Doc." Tehran said, stopping at one floor and walking down a short hallway to a door. "Because we Founders of Cyberspace had something you've only experimented with at best."

"And just what is that?" Marbles asked.

Tehran didn't reply right away as he entered the room on the other side of the door and flipped the light switch. The lights came on, lighting the room and the sole item it contained. Marbles's eye grew wide as he recognized the device instantly.

Tehran grinned as he approached the portal generator. "Just a little thing we like to call neutramatter." he said.