Phantasy Star: Mechanical Error
Chapter 8
Written by Sarah Schoenlaub
Feria nodded slowly as Wren explained the theory that he and Mune had come up with. Laurie was thinking hard about it. "You mean, the Profound Darkness may have produced an artificially intelligent copy of itself?"
Wren nodded. "Mune and I are quite unsure about this theory, but it seems to be the case. Whatever is in the Edge is causing Black Energy Wave poisoning as we speak. It's a difficult situation to remedy."
Laurie only nodded. Suddenly, Wren's comm buzzed. "What is it, Trisha?" he asked.
"Well, you'll be happy to hear we found a live Threegen up here, perfect, too. Kory's friend Dara. She seems a little dazed and we are monitoring her now, but it looks good."
Wren nodded. "Excellent news. Any messages from Dezolis?"
Trisha looked slightly puzzled. "No, none I've heard."
"Well, thank you." The screen slid back into place in Wren's arm.
"Well, we should evacuate the contaminated areas, right Wren?" Laurie said.
Wren shook his head. "Evacuating the areas will only make the gaps between Algo and the Edge widen. It could cost more lives than it saves."
"Maybe we should go to where the Garuberk tower used to be and see if we can go into the Edge," Demi suggested.
The others agreed, but Wren and Mune both fiercely disagreed. "It would cause corruption or poisoning to go into the Edge with no protection."
"But to get protection we'd somehow have to go to Rykros!" Demi exclaimed.
"I am stumped in this situation as much as you, Demi." Wren entered the spaceport. "We should go back to Zelan. We should get Kory, Dara, and Trisha. We should also activate Kyle," Wren said to Laurie. "He may be our greatest help."
Laurie nodded. They all entered the spaceship and Wren flew toward Zelan.
* * *
Kyle, Laurie's new android design, stood in all his glory in the lab, his dark brown eyes dim. He looked startlingly human, other than the audio sensors on the sides of his head. Laurie carefully removed his chest casing and tapped in her ID, accessing his system. It was dormant, only waiting for the one command that would bring him to life. With Wren behind her, Laurie typed in the command and Kyle's eyes blinked to artificial life.
The android looked around for awhile, trying to get an idea of his new surroundings. Wren sent huge amounts of data to him, educating him on everything he'd need to know. Kyle nodded and smiled at Laurie. "It's good to be here."
Laurie burst out laughing, overcome with joy. This was her creation. Her android.
Wren, of course, wanted to get back to the situation at hand. He was about to say something when he paused and frowned. "The comm's buzzing in the main room," he said.
"Glad you can hear it, cause I can't pick it up from that far," Erick said in a slightly sarcastic tone. Feria shot him an angry look and he shut up.
It took Wren a few seconds to transfer the message to his own comm. "It's from Meese," he explained. "Black Energy Wave poisoning has hit full force."
Feria cursed. "What can we do?"
Everyone looked at the floor but Wren, who stared expectantly at Mune. Mune saw his gaze and they exchanged a quick nod. "I think some of us should go to Dezolis. We can probably find help in the Esper Mansion."
* * *
Mune made sure everyone had rooms. Feria, Erick, Kyle, Wren, and Laurie were all there. Demi had stayed with the others back in Zelan. Once the rooms were set, Mune went to Laurie and took her hand. "There is something I must show you," he said.
At first, Laurie was a bit shocked. His grasp was gentle and caring, his eyes dark and serious. She finally nodded. Mune carefully led her through the halls of the mansion.
"You know, you're a legend around here," he said softly, his very whisper echoing through the empty hall. "Espers aren't usually known as famous leaders in Zelan."
Laurie laughed a little. "My mother certainly didn't agree with it," she said. The thought killed her laughter with sorrow. Just the thought of her mother…
Mune looked at the floor. "She was so proud of you, Laurie. I know you may not know that, but she was."
"Yeah…"
They reached a guarded doorway. Laurie had never been inside the door, but the guards parted easily for Mune. Laurie began to realize they were going toward Lutz's quarters. "We're going to see the reverent Lutz?" she asked.
Mune nodded. They entered an outside courtyard through the door.
Laurie shivered a little. Lutz was a man esper legend was made of. He was like a god to them. And now she would be meeting him. They reached a small building inside the courtyard, and Mune led Laurie inside.
When they reached the inside of the chamber, Laurie just looked around it. It was beautiful, with heavily engraved walls and a pedestal in the center. Above the pedestal hovered a little orb, held on an almost invisible wire base. But Laurie saw no one else in the room. "Where is Lutz?" she asked.
Mune walked over the pedestal, looking at the little glowing orb. "Tell me, Laurie, from a scientific standpoint. What do you think of the esper legends about Lutz? They say he has existed since the earliest days in Algo. That would make him much, much older than Wren. And even Wren would have been gone by now."
"What are you saying? But I saw Lutz at ceremonies! Though it is scientifically impossible for him to have lived so long, I always supposed it was some kind of magic."
Mune shook his head. "Lutz is long dead, Laurie. But he has heirs to his high position. You see this orb? His memory, and the memory of all of his heirs, is stored in here. Each new Lutz inherits all the knowledge of the one before."
"But… then who is the current heir?" Laurie looked at Mune, and then her eyes grew wide with shock. "It's… it's you, isn't it," she said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Mune nodded slowly. "I'm sorry. I know it ruins the whole magic behind Lutz, but it's the truth. This orb is called the telepathy ball. When a new generation is chosen, the person gets all of the memories of the past generations through it."
Laurie looked at the orb for a moment. "Why not just tell the whole esper population? Surely they would catch on."
"I doubt it. Most of them are so deeply rooted in tradition that they don't care to question what legends are made of. You may have caught on, but you were always different, always more inquisitive." Mune stepped in front of Laurie, looking into her eyes. His own blue eyes were darkened with seriousness. "If we had more espers like you, it would surely be different."
"How long have you been watching me, noticing my curiosity?"
"All my life, until you went to Zelan. Something always told me you were special."
Laurie was silent for a long time. She looked into his eyes a moment, then tore her gaze away and walked slowly around the little room. "So, Lutz, what should we do?"
"We have to get a set of rings. The earlier protectors got them from Rykros. They are now stored in a place called the soldiers' temple on Motavia. We must get them, then go to Rykros."
Laurie nodded. "What's on Rykros?"
"Our strongest connection to the Great Light can be found there. The guardians of Rykros made the rings and infused them with the ability to absorb the Black Energy Wave with little damage to the wearer. The Black Energy Wave harms everyone and everything, even androids. I'm surprised that Wren's circuits haven't been effected yet."
"Wren hasn't had any problems with it," Laurie said with a look of concern.
Mune nodded quickly. "Better that he not have problems for a long time."
* * *
"In Meese," Wren reported, "We have almost 300 sick and 50 that have died already from the poison. The espers are in full force working there. Please remember that the population of Meese is little over 400, so it is across the whole town."
"Was my brother there?" Laurie asked.
Wren nodded. "He's been working quite hard. However, none of us should enter the town of Meese because of the risk involved. Most espers have a lot of protection from poisoning, but there is always a possibility."
"Mune has a possible solution to our problem. He says that a set of rings that can protect us is located in the soldiers' temple on Motavia. We can also try to get to Rykros," Laurie reported.
Mune nodded. "Wren still has the Rykros coordinates in his system, but it won't be easy since what we're looking for is invisible until we are landing and it's on an elliptical orbit."
Erick narrowed his eyes. "How do you know so much?"
"Erick! Don't be nosy," Feria said.
"No, I want to know how this esper guy can know so much."
Wren answered for Mune. "His memory has been around far longer than any of us have lived. He is the current generation of the esper legend, Lutz."
"What?" Feria asked. "You're Lutz?"
"Yes, I am. I was hoping you already knew about Lutz from your family."
She nodded. "Chaz passed that information on through the Ashley family."
Erick nodded, too. "That explains a lot," he said honestly.
Wren looked to Mune. "Shall we go to the spaceport?"
"Of course."
* * *
Wren explained that there was a cave that led up to the soldiers' temple. "If you meet any people there, be on guard. Trust no one. If you feel like something isn't right, kill them. We had trouble last time we went to the soldiers' temple with a person we foolishly trusted." Mune nodded at that. He had it stored in his own memory. A man claiming to be an archaeologist nearly killed the protectors when he became a Dark Force. Wren had been suspicious at the time, but killing the man with no explanation wouldn't have been a good idea.
The cave was empty. It was quite cold, with pools of water around. Wren knew the way quite well, so he led the group. Laurie stopped on the second floor. "Wren, wait," she called out. "Something doesn't feel right."
Mune nodded. "Laurie's right. Get your guns ready."
They crept along, guns ready. Wren was in the lead, his grey eyes watching every inch ahead. Laurie hovered just behind him, her eyes alert and her gun ready. Kyle brought up the rear, watching behind the group. Feria stayed near him, her slashers gripped in her hands.
Wren stopped, and Laurie nearly ran into him. "What is it?" she asked quietly.
"I see something up ahead. It's moving toward us." He lifted his plasma rifle, firing at the thing. Laurie still couldn't see it.
"Where is it, Wren?"
Mune finally spotted it in the distance. "There. It looks a bit wounded. Kyle, come up here."
Kyle and Wren took the lead, firing every few steps. Laurie could hear the creature growl. Suddenly it shot black liquid through the air.
Kyle jumped back, pulling Laurie and Mune away. Wren took the Black Energy Wave hard, wincing as it hit his chest casing. He kept firing his rifle as he fell to his knees with an awful clang. Laurie fired over his shoulder, and Mune used the magic Legeon, firing huge bolts of light at it. Kyle knelt by Wren, checking Wren's system through data transmissions. To Kyle, things weren't looking good, but Wren shook his head, stood, and fired a Positron Bolt directly at the face of the massive, pulsing, tentacled creature.
A final growl, then there was silence.
Laurie went over to Wren. "Are you okay? That hit you badly…"
"I'm alright," he assured her. "We have to hurry and get the rings. Follow me."
* * *
They had the rings and were back at the spaceport within minutes. Laurie sat in front with Wren, who was piloting. She looked at the rings in the box. "They don't look like much."
"They won't do much until we can get them to Rykros," Wren explained. But something in his vocals sounded funny.
"Are you okay? There's a buzz in your vocal system."
Wren tried to speak, but as his mouth opened, his system locked up. His sensors told him his arms were stiffening, and he could no longer move them or his legs. His head tipped sideways and he almost fell out of the seat, but the seat belt held him.
Laurie unsnapped the belt and pulled Wren to the back of the ship with Kyle's help. Kyle took the wheel of the ship as Laurie began to assess Wren's damage. Wren tried accessing his recovery system, but he could not. His reserve power was dropping, so he did not try to signal Demi. He could let Laurie do that.
Laurie was screaming into her comm. "Demi, listen, we have a serious situation here. I need every type of repair kit you can find that is Fuoren specific. Get it in the port where we're docking. Wren's dying on me here."
Laurie impatiently brushed hair out of her face, unscrewing the chest casing. Feria and Erick only watched in silence. They could do nothing else.
Not a moment after the safety light came on in the airlock was Demi there with plenty of tools. Laurie grabbed a keyboard and monitor and hooked them to Wren's main processor. The monitor lit up, and Laurie franticly tried to find out what was wrong until a window came up.
Laurie, stop, it said simply.
Wren? She typed in reply.
It's Black Energy Wave poisoning. Normally I can filter it out of my system, but my processor and recovery units are too old. My reserve power is at 10% and is dropping. I am going to eject my main memory units and a third disk, which has something you need to see.
Laurie read in silence, tears dripping down her cheeks.
Death is something that comes to everyone, even artificial intelligence. I have watched over Algo for nearly 2000 years. I want you, Kyle, and Demi to do that now. I know you are sad. You are probably in tears as I say this. There is nothing you can do now to bring my systems back.
Goodbye. You were always one of Zelan's finest.
The monitor darkened as Wren's power supply stopped. Laurie slowly disconnected the wires and removed the memory and the disk Wren had provided. There was nothing but silence until Laurie began to sob. Demi ran to her, holding her and letting her cry. Laurie sobbed on Demi's small metal shoulders at the loss. If Demi had tears, she would have cried as well.
Feria was crying, and even Erick was wiping tears from his eyes. The loss was one that devastated everyone. Fuoren, one of the greatest androids in Algo's history, was destroyed.