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Chapter 69
By AC
"But- But that's what Dalasius wants!"
Ven stopped, ice tearing his gut. Dalasius was a tightly-held secret, known only to the police, the Ministry and the now-defunct organization TracerCo. That an alien should know about him...
He turned and pinned Paula with his stare. "What do you know of Dalasius?"
"I-" Paula looked a little off-balance. "I saw him. He had taken control of Cisia for a moment. Anika filled me in on the rest about him."
"Dalasius is dead."
"No he's not! He's embedded himself in the planetwide Ether flows. In that state he's very much alive. Look--" She started to move towards the desk --
--where the "quancomp" sat.
Ven brought up the stunner. "Hold it!"
But he was too late. Paula touched a spot on the card-sized artifact.
A full-colour holographic image appeared in the middle of the room. An image of a thin man seated at a chair. The chair and uniform were unfamiliar to Ven.
Ven put down the stunner. He looked at Paula, who had a relieved expression on her face, and back at the strange man. "What- Who is this?"
Paula straightened. "I'm bringing the mountain to Mohamet, so to speak. Master Ven, I would like to you meet my commander, Raoul Caarter. It's time we gave you the proof I told you about."
Deep in the quantum nodes of the Izumi's central computer, the artificial consciousness of the same name was pondering courses of action.
The human crew was, for the moment, on their own. Compact Capital had not yet responded to the explosive report Rauol had delivered to them. At this moment the Compact Governing Council itself, a collection of humans, dolphins, and sentient machines, was in emergency session.
The only clear action the Compact had performed was to dispatch a Gaurdian ship to the Izumi's location. Whether it had orders to apprehend or to assist was not clear.
Communication. Everything about this problem seemed to depend on communication. "Izumi" considered this.
Human communication was too slow, but for the human factor it was all Izumi had. The planetary mind, however, was a factor closed to her... or was it?
Izumi began modifications to her communcations arrays. Producing Ether was a simple task, and within milliseconds thin Ether pulses were traversing down to the surface. Modulating the pulses was more difficult but Izumi had analyzed the natural Ether modulations enough to repeat the process.
Izumi now had a means to transmit. All she needed now was a message. Intelligence anywhere would recognize mathematics as a common language, the SETI protocols stated. So Izumi transmitted a sequence of numbers.
1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11...
Izumi waited for a response, then transmitted the prime numbers again.
This time, the ether pulses responded with signals from the planet: 13, 17, 23, 29... The prime number sequence continued. Contact had been made.
Izumi started transmitting more complex signals along the artificial Ether flow, establishing basis for more complex communication. As she did so, she hoped that she had contacted the Planetary mind, instead of a certain viral intelligence known as "Dalasius".
Even so, she activated her antiviral protocols, hoping they would be enough.
The van arrived at the Core, and was ushered into a garage. Within seconds the doors were secure and gaurds circled the van.
Cisia watched all this with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was a little comforting to be back in familiar surrounds. On the other, she wished to be anywhere else but here.
At least Phoenix got away. While he's out there, free, there was hope.
Lydon opened the doors in the van, and stepped out. Two gaurds and a technician surged forward, grabbing Cisia and pulling her out, strapping her on to a gurney.
A door was open, leading to the interior of the Core. Part of Cisia longed to go through it, to the reactor...
She shook herself. These weren't her thoughts.
"C'mon", said the tech. "We got to hurry. Parrel collapsed a few minutes ago; we got to get Cisia into the reactor, pronto."
"You can't do that," Anika said, lunging forward -- to be stopped by a third gaurd holding a semiautomatic.
Cisia wanted to tell her that it was all right, that soon she would get revenge--
/What am I thinking?!/ Something was pushing in on her mind from without.
/Life, or whatever you call yourself, is that you?/ she thought hopefully.
The answering thought made her convulse with terror.
/The planet's not here, daughter. Just me.
/ Cisia shook her head.
/Just relax, kid. Soon we'll all get what we deserve.
/ /No!/ Cisia's protest found voice. "No, no, no, NO, NO!"
"Cisia!" Anika said, while the tech muttered something about preparing a sedative. "What is it?"
"It's HIM! Dalasius is waiting for me!" She craned her neck, her eyes wide, staring at Anika. "He wants me in the reactor, Anika! Help me!"
Lydon was looking at her with a confused expression. Anika and Nakano were the picture of shock. Even the gaurds were a little taken aback.
Nakano saw his chance. He lunged forward and butted one gaurd with his head. Anika recovered next and kicked a second gaurd, sending his gun flying.
The tech swore. "Let's get her outta here." He produced a syringe.
"No!" Cisia tried to break free but the straps were too tough. The syringe went home, and Cisia found herself falling into an abyss as the drug did its work...
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