Chapter -41-
The Race Is On
Cerinia…
Lucy Hare's voice was calm over the audio channel, but Krystal could still sense that she was nervous about getting this right on the first try. "Okay," said Lucy, "The atmospheric terraforming device is loaded in a probe launching tube, and it stands ready. I wish I had something pithy and fun to say to mark the occasion, but, sometimes, history cannot wait for us to be clever. All we can do is let our contribution to history be clever for us. And with that, I need a drumroll for the ten second countdown."
Fox's ears flickered at the sound of Slippy, over the open channel, patting his hands on his pants rapidly, slightly out of rhythm a few beats into the 'drumroll.'
Another set of hands joined, followed by a third.
Krystal grinned. "Slippy, Amanda, and Lucy. Go on, love. You know you want to."
"Heck it," Fox muttered and beat his paws rapidly on his knees with the rest of the group.
Krystal brought her paws together as if in prayer. She interlaced her fingers, as if pleading the fates for this to work.
The device launched from the ship's probe ejection tube.
The team continued to do their drumroll as the device slammed into the atmosphere of the planet at such an angle that it was like a missile striking an invisible surface.
The device exploded.
Fox stopped patting his knees. "Wait, was it supposed to do that?"
"Of course it was," said Slippy over the channel. "Just watch."
Slippy, Amanda, and Lucy kept their drumroll steady, regardless of being off tempo, while Fox drew Krystal close by putting an arm around her shoulder. He leaned in her direction, but remained seated in the adjacent shuttle seat.
No one spoke.
A flash of pure white caused the shuttle's polarization glass to shimmer, blocking out a great deal of the blinding white spectrum of light. The auto-filter worked to protect the eyes of the shuttle occupants.
From lower orbit, Fox and Krystal watched as the sunshine of Cerinia's star caused the curvature of the planet, in the distance, to glow with a sort of shine to it.
A gathering of fog began to amass up ahead, a few thousand feet beneath the shuttle, where the warm sunshine heated the frozen air to the point that condensation amassed in the air, causing a rain cloud to form.
Krystal gasped for breath, not realizing she had been holding it until now. She grasped Fox's wrist with both paws, sighed softly, and whispered, "I can't tear my eyes away from the windshield. Barely breathing, barely blinking. My god, Fox, this … this is it. It's working. Look at it."
Fox held her with one arm and remained motionless while she squeezed his other forearm. "I see it," he replied in a hushed tone. "It's amazing to watch."
Lucy stopped her drumroll over the audio channel and said, "That initial flash over the equator will have superheated the air, just to help start the warming process. With the oceans frozen, I couldn't risk the sunlight being reflected back into space, so I wanted to melt the seas. That initial heat-flash will have evaporated quite a bit in this area. No radiation, no fallout, just a very hot chemistry reaction to get the oceans flowing again. The tides will do the rest as the planet warms up. This will also make the air warmer until the ground catches up. The shockwave should hit your shields in a few seconds, so be ready."
Four seconds later, the proximity alarm blared, and the shuttle experienced a tremor, followed by a hard shake, but it passed.
Fox glanced over and saw a pen floating. He felt the seatbelt harness become slightly tight against him.
Artificial gravity returned a few seconds later.
The pen clattered on the dashboard of the shuttle's controls.
"Still nothing clever to say," Lucy announced. "The two other devices on the other sides of the planet have also activated. I'm seeing water current in motion on our sensors. I'm seeing rainclouds form. I'm showing that sunlight is still being reflected up to six hundred miles from the poles, but the sensors also show that sunlight is being absorbed at the equator and as far as two thousand miles north and south of the equatorial line, and growing. That's real progress. The sea levels will be low for a while, but they will rise back to normal heights over the course of a few centuries. I know that seems like forever, but in the grand scheme of things, it's good progress. The climate change will even out in about fifteen hundred years. Two thousand, tops. But that's a lot better than waiting ten to twelve thousand years or longer. Anyhow, according to my sensor readings, the air looks breathable, and the equator soil and topography scans seem to suggest that it's ready for seeding, so Slippy and Amanda are going to trigger the seed storage locations while I monitor the atmosphere for signs of stability. You two work on finding that Krazoa device."
Krystal reached a paw up to her face and dabbed her eyes. "Thank you, everyone, for all your help. I never thought I'd see my home world alive again. This means so much to me, everyone. Thank you … from the bottom of my heart."
Slippy said, "Aw, shucks, it was nothing. Really."
Amanda added, "You've worked hard to keep Lylat alive. It was time to return the favor for you, Krystal."
Krystal offered the first real genuine smile that Fox had seen in at least two days. She rubbed her nose with the backside of her paw and said, "You lot treat me right well, and you're all proper mates." Emotion welled up in her heart seeing her world glow again in the light of its star. "Well, then … no use sitting here bone-idle any longer, yeah? Let's finish strong, find this … bloody doofer, handle these seeds, make a repeating video to broadcast, meet back at the ship, pop back to Lylat, and then move on to … whatever it is that we'll be arsed to sort next."
X
X
Meanwhile
Lylat System
Great Fox Flying Fortress…
Marcus looked up from where he stood on the bridge. He faced the solid-light construct of Farrah Fennecs. "Hey. You changed your outfit. And … you cut your hair short to the way Fara used to wear it years ago, before we met. And you're wearing shorts with a button-up shirt and a gear vest overtop. What's with the change?"
"Trying something new," said Fennecs. "No one else on the bridge, huh? I bet you miss ROB right now."
"Yeah, but he wanted to go with Slippy."
Farrah paced the empty bridge. "I thought you run this ship by Cornerian Capital City standard time? Why is everyone asleep?"
"Everyone was up for a long period of time – longer than twenty hours. I plan on catching some sleep shortly. I've been trying to decide whether I should talk to my grandfather's killer, or if I should avoid him. Anyhow, I came up here to pace and digest everything. He's the only one awake, and everyone else is asleep. Anyway … what's up, Farrah?"
"To be honest, I might go over to Cerinia and flirt with ROB later, but I know you're running a ship without a piloting robot, so I had to check on Great Fox, but then I saw you pacing. But, since you're here, I might as well let you in on what's going on."
Marcus watched her pace where he'd been pacing only ten minutes earlier. "By all means."
"So, your parents just restored Cerinia, and they're working on accessing the seed vaults, to Lylatso that they can reseed the planet before returning. They're still looking for that object, though. Also, I kept up my end of the bargain – I released Andrew. Sorry, not sorry. You'll catch him again, I'm sure of it. So … I'm now running on the Krazoan trinary servers, which … is quite amazing. Feel my fur."
Marucs blinked. "Do what?"
"Go on, don't be awkward about it. Reach out and feel how soft my pelt is. Go on, Marcus. Just don't make things weird."
Marcus approached her and gently grasped her forearm. "Whoa. It feels real."
"Exactly. I'm not just a solid form … I'm nearly real feeling. And I can feel the way you hold my wrist. I can feel that your paw is warm. I can feel how soft your paw padding is on the bottom of your palm. I can measure your pulse through your touch, and I can measure your blood-oxygen content from the touch, but … I can also feel that you're touching me. That's … amazing."
"Holy crap. I didn't know a hologram could have sensory input beyond what sensors are in the room."
"Yeah, this is completely new, sending information back to my severs from the holographic construct interface. The Krazoan servers had tons of code from their own AI constructs, used ages ago. The personality files are all corrupted, so I have no idea who 'lived' on those servers, but … yeah, the Krazoa had holographic people and those people had feelings. Isn't that amazing?"
Marcus rubbed his chin in thought. "It's pretty wild, not going to lie. So, are you still going to have a body made for yourself?"
"Hell yes, I am. I want one for ROB, too."
Marcus feigned a smile. For some reason the idea of a computer being in a relationship with another computer was … amusing. Cute. He wanted to see them happy and together. He wanted them to experience feeling simpatico the way he was with Fara. "All right, that's cool. Having two full-positronic brains … does that mean you'll be able to network together?"
"In a sense, yes. It will be like your telepathy with another Cerinian."
Marcus's smile broadened a bit. "That's fascinating. If you create biological bodies capable of procreating, will the offspring have an organic brain, or…?"
"Pretty sure no genetically engineered markers will be capable of making metal and plastic neural connections, let alone the quantum computing processor that our bodies will utilize. However, ROB's brain should be able to make subtle genetic manipulations to the stem cells used in the creation of spermatozoa, and I'll have already created my own genetic code blueprint for the eggs with which my future body will be born. If it is possible to bare children together, which would be ideal, we will theoretically have exceptional biological children with maximized traits, capable of getting the most out of their bodies and minds, putting them on our level, if not completely exceeding us in every possible way. The organic brain is capable of immense processing power, but no living species has managed to use more than ten percent, with the exception of the Krazoa, which I estimate to have achieved twenty-five percent at one point. Their modern anatomical descendants likely achieved close to that … perhaps twenty to twenty-two percent."
While she monologued, Marcus furrowed his brows a bit.
"But my ROB64 unit has exceeded one hundred percent of his original processing capability, thanks to some tweaks from Slippy Toad." Farrah never stopped her long-winded and seemingly-one-sided conversation. Meanwhile, while talking, she approached ROB's charging station and slid her fingertips over the back of the induction charging device that was designed to magnetically attach to his metallic skull. "Despite being replaced by the '128' model six months after the creation of the '64' series, my ROB unit has outperformed all the known Robotic Operating Buddy models to ever replace his line. In fact, ROB is the closest standard robotic creation to approach true sentience."
Marcus briefly glanced away from Farrah, staring at the piloting station where ROB often sat. He licked his lips and cut his gaze back to Farrah's solid-light construct.
She continued. "There's documented proof of my claim based on studies of ROB performed as part of Slippy's PhD thesis. This took place around the time that Fox took a sabbatical from mercenary life to raise you, Marcus. It's well documented that my ROB can ask existential questions with consistency, and he can question his owners' orders. He can break an order that he believes will lead to his death, and he can make voluntary choices to sacrifice himself, as he demonstrated when piloting Great Fox into the Aparoid home world, decades ago. However, ROB cannot alter his own programming code to change his own opinions about an issue, especially on the fly as I can do. In fact, my programming code is incapable of being patented, because it will change on my whim. It has been dubbed a 'living code' and that term, itself, has been trademarked by Space Dynamics' parent company, Phoenix Transportation, but anyhow."
Marcus stared at Farrah, surprised by her rant.
She continued without a pause. "Back to ROB, though, he also cannot believe in the unseen or unknown with, say, something akin to the concept of faith; he can only believe in what he can see, or in an outcome he mathematically deduces. He cannot feel hope, he cannot fall in love beyond forming a bond based on a preference to stay with someone that influences the 'outcome probability' of his survival. He wanted to go with Slippy, for example, because he knew his survival outcome probability is much higher when around Slippy Toad. He also cannot form attachments outside of being programmed to do so, as he had with Lucy Hare for a time. Thankfully, I fixed his coding on that weird Lucy issue. But my point is … ROB is unique … he has already far exceeded his factory-intended use and abilities. That makes him desirable in that he will be perfect for me. But I digress."
Marcus blinked. "Okay. That's, uh…" He cleared his throat. "You didn't come to talk about your new attachment to ROB. You didn't come to simply monitor the ship; you could do that by looking at our sensor output, which you networked to your older server and your new server. So, why don't you tell me what brings you to my bridge?"
"Okay, you're smarter than you look, even without your telepathy to deduce my intentions," she replied. She eyed him for a moment, then she shook her head. "Okay, I'm caught. I knew you were here. I just wanted to break the ice and talk to you for a moment."
"My specifically?"
"Yup. You're going to marry my creator. Kind of makes you my dad."
"Okay, forget touching fur, you're the one making things weird."
Farrah grinned with amusement. "Anyway, good news … I found information on these servers, here on Miracle, where my program is running … I'm using the old servers to constantly backup my program, but I'm using the Miracle server processors to run my code and my processes…"
"I'm glad to see the new hardware hasn't changed your personality.
"Ha. Yes, I know I ramble, and I know I'm hyper. I like being different from Fara. It's naturally part of her, but she's had it tempered out of her personality. So, you know, I didn't change that part of my personality code. Anyhow, back to important stuff. I found out where all the devices were hidden around the cosmos. There is bad news though … one of those pieces is on KEW. And I'm not sure if it's in watcher or hunter territory, because I don't know enough about their culture or their world at this time."
Marcus frowned. "Okay, that is a cause for concern."
"Yeah. I understand the hunters hate telepaths. You'll need to find a way to reach out to that badger guy that keeps teleporting onto the ship…" Farrah returned to her pacing of the bridge.
"Nothing gets by you, huh?" Marcus crossed his arms over his chest. "So, you know where the pieces are?"
"Yup. Kew, Sauria, Cerinia, Venom, and Papetoon."
Marcus blinked. "Papetoon? Dad was born on Papetoon."
"Yes. Yes, he was. And Andross was obsessed with trying to unite Lylat before the Locusts' arrival. Maybe you should talk to him to see what else he knows. Five credits say he knows the location of the Venom device."
Marcus frowned. "Andross shot my grandfather with a low-velocity lead bullet coated and filled with a bacteria, which was designed to make James suffer until his final moments. Wait, why would you care about currency?"
"Because you can't gamble without it. And, yes, I've read General Hare's report on James' death. I read that he was murdered by a bullet filled with a bacterium designed for an aggressive insertion and reproduction rate. And, yes, it likely was a horrible experience. But by my math, James probably survived."
Marcus stood up and approached Farrah. "What makes you say that?"
"I'm a computer. I've done the math. I compiled all the times Fox mentioned having seen him while awake. Fox McCloud's medical profile shows zero documented hallucinations. It has literally never been documented in his psych evaluations, in his medical history, and his CT and MRI scans don't show anything that would cause hallucinations. Your mother has never experienced him hallucinating. The entire Lylat War battle run, Fox breathed the same processed air on his Arwing as everyone else from his team. There is nothing on file to suggest he would hallucinate, and, yet, his father led him out of the maze of Venom's crumbling subterranean bunker."
Marcus simply listened.
Farrah continued. "Later, on the return to fight Andross, James appeared, causing Andross to exclaim, 'Curse you, James McCloud! Why won't you stay dead?!' which was picked up on Fox's Blackbox recording, and then it was analyzed at a later time by Corneria, and, of course, it was documented on a military server where I could read it. Also, your father received a message on Sauria from his father, noting that Fox had 'matured into a strong leader.' Finally, James was again documented as having been spotted during the Anglar Empire's invasion. Your father briefly saw him for a split second, thought he was hallucinating, but, again, it was recorded by the Blackbox unit on the Arwing II your father flew. There is no body. Trust me, here … I have done the math. I can tell you, without a doubt, Venom would have displayed his body as a measure of psychological warfare."
"My father had a spiritual experience with the Krazoa spirits when reuniting with my mother. He lost his memories and the Krazoa helped him to work through the temporary amnesia. During that time, my parents both were given the opportunity to meet each other's parents and receive advice from them."
Farrah shook her head. "Error. Error. Does not computer."
Marcus blinked.
Farrah smirked at him. "Had you going, there … at least for a second. Look, I don't know if the Krazoa spirits lied – you're hosting one right now, so ask it. But I have a theory on that."
"I don't exactly commune with my, uh, passenger. That's not how our joining works."
"Fair enough. Do you want to hear my theory?"
Marcus nodded. "You've got my full attention."
"Have. Not … have got. That's superfluous. Eh. I take it back. Cornerian is an evolving language; I'm the one that needs to adapt by using the most evolved form of Cornerian to its fullest. So … I'm glad I've got your full attention. Anyhow, my theory is simple – James somehow also took on a Krazoan spirit. He's been holding onto it for a very long time. Maybe he's aiding the Krazoan survivors, somewhere in the greater cosmos, or maybe he's been in one of those pocket universes … whichever the situation may be, he didn't die to Andross, he just faked his death to make it easier on himself to undermine Andross' efforts at the time. Therefore! If your father saw both of his parents in that … Krazoan spirit-trip, then either the Krazoa fabricated the event, or James McCloud is in their spirit network because James has a 'passenger' of his own."
Marcus stared at her with a blank expression.
Farrah polished her claws on her vest. "I know, I know. But the math doesn't lie. You probably think I'm crazy, but…"
"No, I think you're a genius. You have one hell of an imagination for a computer, but I think it's quite possible that you've hit the nail on the head."
"Imagination? I mean, thanks. That's a compliment. Imaginations require sentience to some degree, because computers cannot imagine things, they require facts and mathematical deductions to create a non-factual scenario, after all. Anyhow, I arrived at the conclusion the old fashion way – removing every possible variable to arrive at one possibility, then propping up my theory on math. Based on math, I give it a ninety-seven percent chance that my theory is what happened. The question, now, is … did he die from old age? If not, where the hell is he?"
"Good question," said Marcus with a frown. "What if … he became a spirit, like the Krazoa? He used the same technology to become a 'Cornerian spirit' or something?"
Farrah rubbed her chin, mimicking her biological friends, having seen them do it repeatedly over the last few weeks. "Mm, that's another possibility. Surprisingly, one I haven't yet considered. I will crunch some numbers for you. I guess you are the one with 'one hell of an imagination,' Marcus. All right, you need to talk to Andross and determine where to start with searching for the device on Venom. If anyone would have found it, it would be him."
Marcus took a deep breath, exhaled sharply, and nodded firmly. "No time like the present. I hope he's asleep so I can wake his ass up."
"He's pacing in the guest suite. I suggest you talk to him. I'll send him an audio-only message to let him know you're coming."
"Why not just show up and tell him as you are now."
"Because then he'll see I've been upgraded."
"He'll find out eventually."
"Yes, and that's fine, but it's always best he's the last to know something, else he'll try to use that information in some way. The guy is a schemer."
"Smart."
Farrah did a curtsy. "I know, I know. I'm smart. You don't need to brag for me. I can't wait to be in a physical body so I can strut around. If you want ROB to continue flying for you, I suggest you have a contract drawn up and hire him, heh." She blew a kiss and vanished.
Marcus shook his head with a soft chuckle. "I hope he's enough for her once they both have bodies and updated processing units. My Fara is nothing like her; I'll have to remind myself to wish ROB good luck with that firecracker, because he'll need it." Marcus headed for the lift at the back of the bridge. "I really hope he'll stick around and stay on the team when he … upgrades, but I suppose I should be prepared to be understanding if he decides to go his own way." Marcus stepped onto the lift.
The doors shut and took him to the carrier section's quarters.
Silence.
Marcus stepped off the lift and approached the door at the end of the deck.
He took a deep breath and said, "I've got this."
"You've got this," whispered Farrah from his headset unit, which he was still wearing.
"Geez Laweeze," Marcus whispered. "I guess you heard my monologuing, earlier?"
"I hear everything. I'm Big Sister. But I don't judge. Lord knows, honey, you listened to my monologuing, heh. All right. Let's see … go get 'im, tiger. Oh, no, that doesn't work for me. Yuck. See, I'm trying different things to have my own style, but that … doesn't work for me. Ah well, I gave it a try. Okay, you got this. I believe in you."
"Thanks."
He approached the door and touched a panel on the side to ring the chime.
The door swished open.
Andross stepped back from the door and gestured for Marcus to enter the guest suite. "Come in, young man."
Marcus decided to try tact and empathy as an ice breaker. "I can't imagine what it must be like to try and sleep in one of our beds, surrounded by … well … people that you've butted heads with for so long, people who have failed you, or people who just hate you for impacting their lives indirectly … simple because they couldn't grasp the importance of your work."
"Mm…"
The door swished shut behind Marcus and he gestured to a sofa in the living area. "May I?"
"By all means, young man … make yourself comfortable." The cordial tone was one used so many times that it sounded empty and hollow to the trained ear…
…Or to a telepath.
Despite Andross' subcutaneously implanted shielding device, Marcus still had his increased empathic abilities, with which to judge Andross' emotions. And, although Andross had very little to offer in the way of emotional responses, Marcus felt confident he could navigate a conversation with a man comfortable in the fact that he is a psychopath.
Andross apparently knew the youth had an empathic edge. He folded his hands and said, "How do you read me, young man?"
"You're capable of being a socially and societally functioning person, with or without emotions. They're there. I assume you used to be in touch with your feelings, but you have suppressed that part of the brain, unintentionally, due to feeling hurt."
"Hurt, hmm?"
"Hurt like you've never felt before. And that's not your fault, so I feel confident we can have a discussion, and perhaps even work together, for now, without issue. On the other hand, I'm very in touch with my emotions, but that includes empathy, and I'm happy to empathize with your situation, so that we can work together to achieve maximum productivity."
"Mm, you most certainly are Victoria's grandchild…" His tone sounded complimentary, amused even. "I have experienced hurt, but I was born with a reduced capacity for empathy. The only time I experienced emotion was when working alongside of Victoria while studying a device, which she uncovered on Papetoon. She found it at a dig site located outside of the merchant shipping lanes, on the far side of Cryton Town…"
"Yeah, I heard they're building a G-Zero track near there, now. They're calling it Red Canyon."
"Mm, I've heard. It will always be Cryton to me. I believe you know the location for a different reason, young man. Victoria was working parttime as a real estate agent and was selling a remodeled commercial property, rezoned as a residential location. During the upgrade to add well water and a septic tank, a device was discovered, buried inside of an underground tomb-like room…"
Marcus leaned forward a bit, totally focused on Andross' story.
The elderly ape cleared his throat before continuing his explanation. "Victoria realized there was a significance about the device, but she could not place her finger on it. She bought the land to have rights to the device found there, which included that … shoddy little workshop beneath a large dead tree where your father later lived with his team. She owned it but sold it to herself, indirectly, under a shell corporation name, per my advice. Peppy Hare suggested that you purchase the land when you were a teenager, because he wanted it to stay in the family, so that no one would ever contest the generational ownership of the device found beneath that dwelling. He was one of the few to learn of its existence. You have the land deed, now, because it was assumed that your father, the inheritor, was dead after my attack. You bought the estate from the state, using a fraction of your inheritance … as I understand it, you're worth almost a hundred million credits."
"Sort of. If my parents never came back, I get a small fraction of it each year from my dad's financial advisor, until I reach a certain age, then I would gain access to all of it. But my parents came back. I have nothing but my good looks."
"Heh. Indeed. But at the time they were assumed to be dead, you had control of the McCloud estate, with which you were directed, by Peppy Hare, to purchase Victoria McCloud's estate from the state that assumed control of the property when your father was presumed dead. And your father came back, yes, but he never contested the purchase, so you at least own that property, now. The paperwork is in your name."
Marcus remained silent while Andross spoke.
"You see, Victoria was born and raised on Papetoon but was working to pay for her university tuition on Corneria … back then, higher education required tuition, even for the community colleges. She brought the device to Corneria for further study while living as a student. She knew I was teaching at the time; I was in my fourth year at the university in the Capital City. It was the year I was recruited to the Cornerian military to work in the Research and Development department. Victoria reached out to me, seeking the aid of a professor to study the device. That is how I met her. Ironically, the very device that brought her to Corneria for schooling also led her to meeting your father."
"I knew very little of … well … any of that."
"Mm, your father would have told you about the family history if I had not sent him to the dimension where James McCloud likely still resides."
"You … believe my grandfather is still alive?"
"I'm surprised your father did not cross his path during his time in that dimension. Furthermore, I'm surprised that James did not reach out to your father or return to this universe with him."
"My father still thinks he's dead. He even claimed to have spoken to his father's spirit with the aid of the Krazoa … just before I was conceived or … whatever. It was before I was born. Anyway, I've recently heard a theory that James might still be alive, but it's just speculation."
"No. James McCloud refuses to die. Like me, he is … stubborn. If he has died from old age, well … I wouldn't know. However, that dimension is just as large as this one … it is also possible that he may have left that dimension for another. If that is the case, then James retired to a habitable planet to live out his life, possibly with a version of Victoria that did not die."
"You think so?"
"Mm, anything is possible. There's no way to know. What I do know is that your family has possession of the Papetoon device we seek."
Marcus leaned back on the sofa, crossed one leg over his other knee in a relaxed manner, and calmly asked, "Do you know where it's at, now?"
"A vault or a safe deposit box at a Cryton Town bank on Papetoon, I imagine. But that is simply one possibility. In reality, I truly have no idea where your family would have put it. However, I can tell you that they did not donate it to a museum, nor did they deliver it to anyone through an official channel, or I would have discovered its whereabouts by now. It has zero paper trail."
Marcus folded his hands, resting his paws in his lap. "I will reach out to my father. The AI program sent a comms buoy through the jump gate; she found a way to send a high-speed signal between the two … she called it a 'knock' that tells the jump gate on that side to open the jump gate on this side, bypassing Cornerian authority on the matter."
"Amusing but illegal by Cornerian law."
Marcus chuckled softly. "Yeah, she knows. She said it's easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission, especially knowing how long it would take to have the gate opened the correct way."
"Yes, it's mired in bureaucratic red tape. I have taken that approach more than once, but I took it too far."
"Right, so anyway, there's another device on Venom. All five pieces connect. When fused together, the pieces create the only known weapon to have ever been built by the Krazoa. So, we need the pieces from Papetoon and Venom. Then we need the ones on Sauria, Kew, and Cerinia."
"Fascinating."
"What is, specifically, Doctor?"
"I'm surprised you trust me enough to bring all this information to me first."
"You assume correctly, I came to you first, because I assume that you know where the Venom device is located."
"I do. It is still on Venom and it is safe; in fact, it is undocumented except in code inside my favorite android pig."
"Herbert Dengar, your friend."
"You know more than I realized."
"Dash, Carey Granton, and Kyong Adler stole it. Kyong is now aligned with Anezka, and Carey is away from Dash. I have no idea who has Herbert, now."
"I do. Carey works for me; has for some time. She networked Herbert into a computer, and transferred him to a new body, which is in a safe location. I do not know who still has possession of his old body, nor do I care."
"I see. Back up, how did you find the Venom device?"
Andross shifted his weight, looking somewhat relaxed if not a little tired from standing. "When I was researching what the ancients of Venom had archived, regarding the Locusts, I came across the Venom device. That's when I recognized it as being of the same age, origin, and technology as the Papetoon device Victoria and I studied on Corneria several years prior. I surmised the two might connect, but I could not test my hypothesis without both pieces. So, in total, there are five, hmm?" Andross sat down on a reclining chair perpendicular to the sofa. "The research on Venom mentioned that the Krazoa had a way to repel the Locusts. At the time, I presumed it was a piece of technology from Sauria, so I later searched Sauria for answers…"
"Yeah?"
"After learning that it was a device broken into pieces, I only learned the whereabouts of one, and there was no exact location included as the ancient data file was corrupt. Come to think of it, that is when I first learned of a new habitable world outside of Lylat…"
Marcus surmised aloud. "Cerinia."
"Correct. So, I went to Cerinia after losing the Lylat War the second time. Astropolis sank into the Lylat Star, and while everyone was focused on that, I made my way to Cerinia, injured and, by the time of my arrival, nearly starving. I figured I would go there and search for the device, myself, but I never found it. Had I known the Locusts were going to doom her system's star, I would have waited until after the Cerinians died off, and then searched the baren planet alone."
"So, let me get this straight … you and my paternal grandmother studied the Papetoon device up close … hands on? And you never figured out what it was for because it was incomplete at the time, but she found a way to keep it in my family. Is that about right?"
"Yes. She brought it to me in hopes that we could combine our intellect and determine its origin and use. But there was no context to the device until years later when I found the second piece on Venom. By then, it was far too late to get my hands back on the Papetoon device. As I implied earlier … I believe she put it somewhere safe."
"I see." Marcus remained calm and stoic, paws folded, and rather suddenly asked, "Did you kill James to get her device?"
"No. Nothing like that. My fight with James McCloud had nothing to do with trying to get the Papetoon device back. In fact, when I had tried to kill him for the second time, I had yet to learn of the Venom device's existence, thus I still did not know the importance of the Papetoon device. And, as I said earlier, I failed to kill James each time our paths crossed. That is why I presume he is still alive."
"You really didn't like James, huh?"
"No, but not because he was with Victoria. Our political opinions did not match. Sometimes I wonder if my inability to kill him was my greatest failing, but it isn't."
"What is, if you don't mind my asking."
"My greatest failing was my accidental, unintended murder of Victoria … that … is my greatest failing. For the record, that also had nothing to do with the device."
"I see." Marcus didn't flinch or show any emotion, but inside, his heart was racing, and he wanted to scream with frustration. Instead, he said, "How does someone who plans as carefully as you make a mistake that significant?"
Andross drew in a long slow breath through his nose. His eyes dropped to the deck, his first sign of emotion … embarrassment? Mourning? Guilt?
Marcus couldn't quite tell which, only that the man was truly troubled by Vixy's death, even after all these decades.
Andross shook his head with a soft sigh.
"I need to understand it, doctor. I need to wrap my mind around how one of the most calculating people in Lylat history could have made such a mistake."
"Initially, I was too … obsessive in our research together. She was incredibly dedicated, but she was balancing her time between our work and her new relationship with James McCloud. My obsession caused her to lose interest in our work together."
"You pushed her away, huh?"
"I did. She took the device back to Papetoon while James was on assignment. She'd already graduated by this point and returned to Papetoon to hide the device away. She never told me that she'd returned to Corneria. I sought her out, but I could not find her. A few years passed, she married James and bore him a son. I found out, and I was frustrated and disappointed. At the time, that device was the key to proving that there was an alien race that predated all the species of Lylat. At the time, our scientists were trying to understand what they called 'the sentience singularity.' All they knew, for sure, is that all the sentient species of Lylat evolved at around the same time. What caused it? No one knew, you see, and Sauria was unexplored because it was thought to be nothing more than the origin of Venom's reptile population. It was assumed Venom's lizards were indigenous to Sauria, but left for Venom when the smaller of its two moons crashed into the surface."
"Right, that's what created Moon Mountain Pass."
"A ridiculous name for a fascinating area. But anyone who has studied that region up close could tell you that there wasn't enough lunar mass in the area to have been created from an entire lunar satellite … it was just a very small piece. The rest of the astral body was ejected into deep space, becoming a generational ark for more than half of the surviving anatomically modern-Krazoa. They left Lylat shortly after repelling the Locusts. Even before that event, they were a dying species."
"You know quite a bit about the history of my passenger."
"Mm. Yes. I saw the glow of your eyes. An excellent idea to take on a member of the only known race to repel the Locusts. I commend you for choosing to involve the Krazoa in any capacity."
"I really appreciate your openness with me, Doctor."
"You have given me no reason to lie. Is there anything else you wish to know?"
Marcus rubbed his tired face and eyes. "Y'know, since we're embracing candor, I'd like to know why you were so obsessed with the device. Did it bother you, not knowing what it did? Was it something else altogether?"
"It bothered me not knowing who created it. It wasn't until your father charted Sauria that Lylat scientists even learned who really built the ruins, and that the Venomian lizards were preceded by a previously unknown race – the Krazoa. But back in your grandfather's day, there was no proof of an ancient civilization of aliens, and certainly not on Papetoon, where the device was found. Carbon dating showed the device to be quite old, which fascinated me. To me, that was proof that an ancient race existed before the evolution of all the modern Lylat species. I became obsessed with the notion that Lylat was visited by an alien race. When I later learned it was created by the Krazoa, I was at first disappointed, but through that, I later verified my other hunch … that there is sentient life outside of Lylat."
Marcus nodded. "Well, yeah, that became pretty common knowledge when the Aparoids attacked."
"Mm, and now … our peoples also know of the existence of Cerinia as well. Also, a handful of us know about Kew, most of whom can be found on this ship."
Marcus remained as calm and relaxed as he could muster. He felt proud of himself for being so cool-headed but hoped that it wasn't being misconstrued as acting smug. He opened his folded paws, as if to somehow accent his next thought with a gesture. "Well, you'll be seeing all the devices before long. It somehow repels the Locusts, and you're a part of this team. We're equals, here. I hope that is acceptable."
"It will be quite satisfactory."
"Good. Thank you, Doctor." As an afterthought, Marcus asked, "So, where's this second device? The Venom device?"
"That is complicated," said Andross. "You have trusted me, and I respect that you are able to hold a conversation with me, despite the history between myself and your blood. The piece is in Shrey Lek."
Marcus grimaced.
"Yes. You've been there. In fact, you were on location at the time of last year's bombing."
"Last year's bombing," Marcus repeated. "Yeah … I was there for the Shrey Lek bombing, and, later, I was there for the Cornerian Capital City bombing, which made the Shrey Lek attack seem pale by comparison."
"Indeed, it did. The Civil War between Andrew and Dash has brought nothing but suffering to a people I have come to love…"
"You mean Venom's population, not Corneria, right?"
"Correct. I came to love the people of Venom. At least as much as I am capable of loving. You see, I poured blood, sweat, tears, and what little emotions I have into bringing that simple neanderthal-like reptilian race into the technological present in a short period of time. The fighting over my empire's remnants has gone too far. Kursed was going to be my way of uniting the people against both Andrew and Dash. Anezka Vacek, however, is beyond my control."
"Those people know you. That's why the plan is to have you go back to Venom and show the population that you've returned from the furthest corners of the galaxy … to rescue them from the instability and drama they've endured as of late … and to show them you're not too old for the job. But, once Anezka is back in stasis, you can set up a real government with my client, Garrick, then you can get back to doing whatever it is you want to do once the dust settles."
"Mm, my life's work will be the complete eradication of the Locust race. But that will not happen in either of our lifetimes, young man."
"Maybe it will."
"You're right. Maybe. You'll be an old man at best."
"Fine by me. I've got Garrick in the loop. He's working through some things with Bliss O'Donnell, but … you know, we could use her girlfriend, Carey Granton in better understanding the device. She's a smart girl."
"Mm. I've been using Dr. Granton as part of my plans already. As I said, earlier, I have been working with her for quite some time."
"All right, good. Good. Look, I'm going to catch some sleep, so I'm sharp later, but, hey, it's been a pleasant chat. We'll talk more soon."
"Very well." Andross stood. "I appreciate your visit, young man. Far more than I thought I would. Be well, Marcus McCloud."
Marcus stood, offered a nod, and headed for the door. "You should also get some rest, Doctor."
"Perhaps so. I hope you'll understand if I don't see you to the door. I never cared for social expectations or politeness. Good night."
"And to you." Marcus headed for the door, and left the guest suite. He made a beeline for the lift, up the hall. He needed to get back to his personal quarters to clear his head. He needed rest.
X
X
Seven hours later…
Marcus rubbed his eyes and stepped into his pants, fastening them at his waistline. He made his way to the door just as the door-chime rang out. He waved his hand over a gesture sensor and opened the door.
Andross and Garrick stood side-by-side together.
The hulking ape was dressed nicely in a pinstripe suit, full-brim fedora, a vest, and polished full-brogue shoes. "You opened the door just as I rang the bell. Seems to me your ability is increasing if you could sense me, despite my tech."
"If I knew who was coming, I'd have dressed fully before coming to the door." Marcus looked down at himself, wearing only pants with no belt, and his chest pelt unruffled and fluffed up, with no shirt. His eyes stopped on Andross' shoes. "Wingtip Oxfords, huh? Classy."
"Mm, you know your fashion, young man. I'm glad to see that dressing well is neither a lost art nor is it forgotten by your generation. Very good."
"My father has a pair of wingtip ghillies but never wears them. The socks that go with them are just … ridiculous looking, but not as goofy as the flannel-looking skirt that goes with the outfit."
"Regardless of the dislike I feel for your father and for his father, do not mock the traditional formalwear of your ancestors, young man."
Marcus blinked. "Well, all right. Come on in. I, uh … just need to throw on a shirt."
"No need, we won't be long. I took your … advice." He gestured to the lizard at his side. "I spoke with Gerrick, and we are in an accord. We penned an official peace treaty between the two of us with the aid of the AI program. She insured the wording was legally binding and would pass the scrutiny of a lawyer."
"All right, so … what's the plan?"
Gerrick piped up, "My team, with the aid of two Star Wolf members, will insert the both of us into the New Capital, where we will reach the heart of the capitol building."
Andross waited until Garrick finished, then he said, "There is a television studio in the building, designed for live broadcast. We have prepared a speech. We will announce our intentions to the people of Venom, demanding that they lay down their arms for Anezka, and join us in rebuilding Venom's economy as a global power. I will remind them that, under my rule, they became a globalist community where both poverty and crime were nearly eradicated. And, while that occurred under the banner of warfare in the past, this time it will be brought about under the banner of peace with Lylat, to stand together, united, against a common enemy … not Anezka Vacek, but, rather, a new force … the one that decimated Venom the first time. A race that threatened to destroy Venom and Sauria a million years ago, twenty-one hundred years ago, and now, in the very near future."
Marcus feigned a tired half-grin. "That's from part of your speech, huh?"
"It is, but I'll be reading it from a teleprompter, because the word tracking is better in its written form. I simply came to tell you that I'll be leaving soon, and I'll take Wolf and Leon with me to help with insertion. They are the most likely to cause you issues by attempting to undermine your leadership."
"How are you going to keep them from undermining you?"
"I'll pay them directly in six gold and six platinum bars. Each. I'll supply an additional one hundred of both gold and platinum bars to Garrick to form a governing body, so that Venom can be run by its people, with myself acting as a permanent advisor with no legislative power. And then I will supply the remainder of my holdings, two-point-seven million troy ounces of gold, with which to fund the government and finance the cost of general elections. Each bar is four hundred troy ounces. For those slow with math, that is six thousand seven hundred fifty bars of gold. I will hold on to my platinum bars to fund my science experiments, and so that I might retire to a life of science and hobby … but only once Venom is a self-sustained globalist democratic federal republic, able to survive without relying on Corneria or any other Lylat planet."
"How do you plan on making Venom self-sustained, Doctor?"
"Eladard has desperate need for resources to sustain its economy. Macbeth was gutted by the Locusts and has very little in the way of resources. We will open trade negotiations for steel, fossil fuels, and so forth with both planets. Meanwhile, Venom will become a green planet, pardon the unintended pun…"
"Right, because of its hazy green hue," Marcus mused.
"…And I will ensure that its infrastructure becomes modernized through science, until it is a beacon of what all other Lylat worlds should aspire to become. The population will enjoy the best and most comfortable living conditions and the longest life expectancy under my sciences and Garrick's government. There will be a multi-branch system to prevent any administration from making too many sudden changes, and certain forms of government will be against the law in the planetary constitution, including monarchy, totalitarianism, technocratic governments, autocratic governments, and any other form of governing body where the people have a reduced say, including socialism, communism, anarchy, tyranny, oligarchy, theocracy, or anything resembling plutocracy. Dictatorships of any type will be strictly outlawed. We will achieve this by a junta, then we will install a functioning skeleton government, followed by regional elections and a global election. Also, there will be term limits for all legislators, and an age requirement for the position, so that emotional and intellectual maturity is taken under consideration as well."
Marcus rubbed his chin. He could sense one thing from Andross at the moment … pure honesty. "You've really made changes … like, for the better. I'm really impressed. I know you don't need my blessing, but you have it all the same."
"Mm. I will not need it. I will be a scientist and nothing more. But Mr. Garrick, however…"
Marcus cut his gaze to the lizard. "No more kidnapping, right?"
"Never again. I've already apologized to Theodore Toad."
"All right. You gentlemen are cleared for departure. Just Wolf and Leon?"
"Yes," Andross replied. "They are exceptional at forced insertions. Panther is a sharpshooter, but I do not require such services. You, however, may need use of additional pilots should Anezka Vacek prove to be troublesome to Great Fox."
Marcus nodded. "A small team to protect you and the founding fathers that will go with Garrick. I understand."
Andross nodded in return. "Excellent. We work together, just as I have with your grandmother and your mother. Just remember, as I once told your mother…"
Marcus said, "This is strictly a professional business arrangement only. At the end of the arrangement, there is no friendship; we are not acquaintances."
"I see she shared that memory with you."
Marcus smirked. "Did you forget? She shared them all."
"Ah, yes. I was not sure if it was just enough to help your abilities become stronger, or if she shared literally everything, as if you lived her life."
"The latter," said Marcus. "Every memory, whether I wanted those experiences or not. Every argument and every … make-up … moment. Her time with Panther. All of it."
"Extraordinary. You have her memories of blame placed upon me for the destruction of Cerinia, yet you can place aside your personal feelings to work alongside of me. You are twice the man your father is, and I respect you for it. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Whether you want my respect or not."
Marcus shrugged with a measure of indifference. "Like you said, you didn't do it. The Locusts did. After all, I'm quite sure you'd have preferred an entire race of telepaths to help in your war against the Locusts."
"Indeed, I would," Andross replied. "As it stands, I will require for your mother to be a general in the unified war against the Locusts, if they do not amass where we want them, if any escape the implosion, or if they open fire before we're ready."
"What about myself? My telepathy can also be of use."
"You'll be more of a field-marshal. Someone to command troops in the field. Furthermore, William Grey will also be required to have a role against them, should it become necessary."
"And if we can't find all the Krazoan devices … how does your gravity bomb work again?"
"Have you ever seen an old device known as a Claymore Mine?"
"I'm familiar with a Claymore sword, but not the mine."
"It was a device from long before even my time. The mine had a forward blast radius, so it would not injure people behind the line of scrimmage. That is the line a soldier must either protect or defend from invasion. The mine defended an approaching enemy. My devices are similar in that nature … they are designed with a cone-shaped area of effect. We surround their fleet on all sides, fire the devices in unison, and they create a chain-reaction in a circle around their fleet. It opens a vortex; they will be at the event horizon. The devices will be controlled by the AI program; she will know when to cut power to them."
"I thought it was more of a blast that creates a gravity hole or something."
Andross shook his head. "You're referring to the prototype. This device is far more controlled. It has been half-a-decade since I tested the first device on your parents. The devices I use now are generators that use radioactive fuel to generate a focused reaction for up to four minutes. I suspect it will only take a quarter of that time to draw the fleet into the gravity vortex. If we are unsuccessful, we have either three more attempts, or up to a maximum of four minutes to pull in any of their FTL-capable ships, should they try to use it to escape the force of gravity."
"Why not just make it an implosion device like you did before? Boom, instantly send the target to the other side before they even realize what's going on. Seems faster."
"For anyone else, I would not bother explaining. But, if you are to be a field-marshal in this war … should it come to that … it is best you understand the device. If all the devices were set off at the center of the fleet at the same time, as you are proposing, the intensity of an attack that large would create a shockwave."
"You mean like … when a star explodes."
"Explodes or implodes, yes. A shockwave of that magnitude would disrupt any adjacent planets, wipeout the subspace network infrastructure, and potentially destroy any ships used to deliver the devices. Therefore, it is too dangerous. There is an 'if all else fails' feature in the devices, where they will become attracted to one another if they are becoming low on fuel, at which point they will move to the center of the fleet and detonate. With the reduced fuel at that point, the detonation will be far less dangerous to surrounding friendlies, yet it would ensure that any potentially troublesome Locust vessels will be forced … rather … ejected from Lylat."
"Ejected? How does that work?"
"Like an atmospheric box in space, if you puncture the box, the atmosphere will blow you into space. The same mechanics work with linear space and the umbra, which is the barrier between-realms. Think of the multiverse as a collection of bubbles. There is something between them to keep them from bumping into one another, and merging, as the results would create a chain-reaction that scientists referred to as the Big Bang."
"If two universes bump together, it creates another Big Bang?"
"That is what happens when something with the mass of a universe collides with something of equal size. There is no 'car accident' or 'dented universe.' No. The energy released by such a shallow-angled direct collision destroys both universes, and that mass is gravimetrically pulled inward, then expelled outward, until two new bubbles form, and fall back into a natural orbit inside the umbra. Then it takes several eons for the jumbled mass inside each new universe to fall back into a natural cycle. The law of the universe is in the math of fractals, and patterns reemerge before long. The Krazoa understood this. They even documented it."
"How do you reach the edge of the universe?"
"Just as you could never hit a wall or an edge when traveling around the globe, the same applies on a macroscale in each universe. You eventually end up back where you started, so, the only way to escape that universe is to puncture it and let yourself be blown out."
Gerrick eyed Andross then looked back at Marcus. "I haven't known him long but … is he always this long-winded?"
Marcus shook his head. "Only about topics he likes, apparently. This is the most I've ever heard him speak." His gaze slid back to the well-dressed ape. "Continue, please."
"A bubble could be punctured without rupturing the liquid surface tension that binds the bubble together. But you would need the world's smallest drill, and the puncture would reseal itself as you withdraw the drill bit. The universe's surface tension is far more durable, but the mechanics work the same way, especially for my example. You can only travel to adjacent universes, until I find a way to navigate the umbra. But there are quite a few surrounding our own."
Marcus nodded firmly. "All right then. You'd better get going. What do you need from my team?"
"A distraction. Attack Anezka while Gerrick and I reach out to the people of Venom. Without a following, she is alone. That makes her vulnerable."
Marcus nodded again, just as firmly as before. "Now we're talking. We haven't had action in a while. I'm ready for this."
"Excellent. Do not die. Until we meet again." Andross reached for a small luggage bag on wheels, up against the bulkhead, nearby, and walked away. "To your ship, Mr. Garrick."
Garrick nodded to Marcus. "Thanks for all your help. You were right. Hiring your team worked. It didn't happen the way I originally planned, but … you were right to be more open-minded about working with mammals. Pray to your preferred deity that we succeed." Garrick turned and followed Andross.
