A white cat required

This one took some getting I was nearly caught by the DRC I have no way of knowing if it was an Oran within the DRC or one of their ordinary guys either way I am going to have to be more careful at retrieving these notes.

When the cone appeared in the bear pit there had been a note attached. It had almost been destroyed by the spikes, without thinking I had placed it in the back pack. As I watched over R’Linda in the infirmary I had time to try and piece it together. The signature was damaged beyond repair it would seem that the note had materialised on one of the spikes and the signature was lost forever.

I had torn the note retrieving it but in a desk in the infirmary I found the remains of a roll of medical tape. There was just enough to stick the remains of the note together. This Gibso… guy whoever he is has been resourceful he has set up a system so he can get to the platform. From his note I have figured out he does not want loads of people trying to find it. Not only is the platform unstable. There is also a risk that the remaining Ohran may also find it if lots of people are looking.

He has set up a website to follow my progress and believes Ohran members of the admin staff are actively trying to restrict access to my story. He warns of a hidden agenda. It looks like the Ohran may have been responsible for the collapse of the DRC.

This guy sounds like a real conspiracy theorist but I can not complain at the moment he is my lifeline. I suppose I should say you are my lifeline because you clearly are the person retrieving these documents.

R’Linda has been running a fever. I think she may have contracted a local version of influenza. I gather from the city penthouse data point, that they experimented with inoculation here and had some tragic results. They did succeed with one trial and smallpox has been eradicated here. Just like back home. But their understanding of the immune system leaves a lot to be desired.

Getting into the lab we intended to use for the clone proved easier than I thought it would. It had a floor all to itself. I used the avatar approach the first time and discovered a locked door that Eric assures me is not a problem. I did some snooping around and it looks like a significant chunk of the hardware has been removed. Eric assures me that standard equipment can be diverted from other sites and we will trace the unique stuff and if necessary steal it back. The hard bit will be equipment that does not exist here equipment available on earth like stuff used to build gene therapies.

There is a transport cabinet that needs an upgrade. It relies on a cartridge system. All living things contain some trace elements. Things like minute quantities of iodine etc. The machine is connected to a second box inside this box are three cartridges, and a reservoir. The reservoir draws carbon and all its gasses from the air. It makes water from the air let’s face it water is hydrogen and oxygen. For the heavier elements it uses the cartridges.

I remember an old rhyme about what you need to make a man. It starts “Enough iron to make a nail” and goes on to list a load of elements that contribute to make a human body.

The box can replicate most things but it can’t make them live.

Eric and the Mettanic asked me over to the hangar I was reluctant to leave R’Linda but they assured me the automatic systems would inform us of any change. They asked me to put my KI it in a machine they produced it downloaded the cloning data Corvid had uploaded. They took some of my blood I did not feel a thing

I asked for a cup of tea and a biscuit. Eric got extremely perplexed. I spent an age explaining how and why we give blood and how back home you get a cup of tea and a biscuit when you do.

This then went into a long explanation about tea. Even the simplest statement can degenerate into hours of explanation.

They were complaining about all sorts of strange things they separated from my blood I asked for a small bottle of the altered blood back they said they had purified it they were highly confused when I asked them to put all the rubbish back. There were things in my blood that would scare the Ohran senseless. Puzzled but compliant they provided the sample.

Eventually R’Linda recovered but our problems were just beginning. We needed to get into the Lasha gate site this was the bear pit. Our first aim there involved getting R’Linda a Mk12 KI. Without destroying her old one. The second to try and reset the bear pit trap. If we have time I intend to visit the island and try and retrieve a set of scarabs from the link machine Eric told me about.

R’Linda and I had discussed the options as she recovered. She was doubtful if she could reset the bear pit with a Mk12 KI. She knew that there were interlocks that were dependant on her original KI that had been modified in the machine on Gahreesen. We were going to need to recover that as well.

We did agree it was worth a try as we would be there anyway. We had to take the tunnel system as R’Linda had no KI. I had an idea to the use the barrow as a central location, but R'Linda would have to gain access by finding the markers in the area around the site.

Eric did come up with a good idea, on the floor with the isolation unit where they were going to keep R'Linda. They had a room full of biohazard suits. These would allow was some degree of cover while walking around the site, ideal camouflage. Everybody else there was now wearing the same.

Eric also suggested that I stay in the barrow. It also had an avatar box that behaved like the beds that they had in their facility. I had assumed that this avatar box was a broom cupboard the first time I saw it. This only shows how mistaken I can be. The biohazard suits were not as bulky as those that we had on earth. We were able to get two into the small backpack I was using.

The trip to Lasher was uneventful. Just before we got to the final hub we stopped and put on the biohazard suits. R'Linda had no problems getting into the site, but she could have problems getting out.

We came out of the tunnel system at the Apple Wood I hardly recognised the place. Ostrachicken nest had been cleared and all the wood had been removed around the doorway. They must have fixed the sensor on the inside, because the doorway had opened automatically as we approached it. It was just like those wonderful turbo lifts on Star Trek. On the platform outside there were two people with bushes cleaning up. They just ignored us as we got out of there.

I took an old standard out of the backpack. One I had made earlier. A clipboard whenever anyone came near we mumbled to each other and one would point at the clipboard. It is amazing how well that works.

The barrow door code had been reset when I entered. So R’Linda had to go around again and collect the new markers. The beach, the signpost, the monsoon hut and the tunnel end were simple. The hard one was going to be the one on the steam vent above the barracks. I offered to use the /spawn command but R’Linda recommended against it as she was sure they would be monitoring.

Collecting the monsoon hut and the beach marker were by far the easiest as we saw nobody on that trip. We passed three or four people on the way to the signpost R’Linda said this was called a trawler and could be translated as way-marker.

She showed me a trick with my KI if you looked underneath there was a recess. Place your KI in the recess and the top now displayed a local map. Her farther told of checking trawlers for lost KI’s when he was a child, the story had made little sense to her till she saw a trawler in real life. It was fairly easy to see how you could put a KI in the slot and walk away without it.

Trace a route on the trawlers map and give it a name and you could use your KI as a GPS to follow the route. You could also dot the route with way points. This looked like the technology the D’ni had given to the Ohran and it looked like it was developed from the marker calibration. Eventually taken on by then DRC and made into the marker hunts.

I wondered if the Ohran on earth were responsible for the invention of the GPS the technology looked so familiar.

This map tracing method would assist in navigating a route in the dark or through a forested or a built up area. Particularly as you could lay the markers with a map rather than walk around placing them. Also someone else could lay a set of markers and transmit them to you just like you could send someone a marker mission in the cavern.

The ornamental bridge was occupied by a couple that appeared to be an item. I said that biohazard suits were definitely pro safe sex. Whatever they were doing they did not notice our passing with or without a clipboard.

With the /spawn option off the options list. We had to find a new way into the site to get the steam vent marker. Once in we might as well try and get R’Lindas new KI.

My stone door stop had been removed from the spike room and it now had a guard. He was a lot bigger than my door stop and looked like he would be a lot harder to remove. My impromptu graves were surrounded by barriers R’Linda translated a sign as biohazard. They were taking no chances for now.

When we went down to the lake shore there was a group of tents between the path and the moon pool cave. There was a lot of activity around the tents. It looked like this was a base of operations and there was another biohazard marker between the tents and the moon-pool cave.

I told R’Linda about my /boat option and the mini piranha. We considered the options and decided to kayak around the headland and enter the moon pool from the far side. There was one problem the /boat would not work if I retained the biohazard suit. I would be able to tow R’Linda in her suit. She was of the opinion that the piranha would not detect her as food through the suit material. We decided it was worth a try but we would wait till nightfall.

The lake was still shrouded in mist but I favoured a night trip in the dark we would see their lights but they would not see us.

We holed up in the training area R’Linda showed me some of the puzzles that she had been shown as a child, and I was able to show her some of the ones I had figured out. As dusk fell we worked our way back to the beach, if the lovers were still on the bridge we could not see them in the dark.

Back at the beach there appeared to be a briefing going on in the tents with all the activity at that end of the beach. I removed my biohazard suit I was really pleased it was so hot and uncomfortable. I set up the boat option and I showed R’Linda how to hold the front of the kayak I took a long route the light from the briefing working to our advantage. Not only was it a good marker for their position, It allowed me to take a wider arc than I had previously planned without loosing my bearings.

I had actually taken a very wide arc wider than I anticipated and we ended up at the submarine pen entrance. The massive doors were open but the dock was a mass of activity with dozens of people in Bio suits. We could not risk entering that way the only stairs were too visible. I was able to manoeuvre to one side where we were able to hear them talking.

R’Linda said she recognised the old language. The KI translating made it all sound English to me. It sounded really strange because the sentence construction was still in Ohran. A bit like mat cat sitting upon the. In place of The cat sat on the mat. Ohran is a poetic language and on her advice she showed me how to disable translation on my KI. I have to admit it did sound almost musical.

We worked our way back along to the moon pool there was a silhouette of someone standing in the entrance way. At first it was unclear if he was facing in or out. What was clear was his lack of a bio hazard suit because he was smoking a cigarette.

R’Linda was as shocked as I was. She had swung round on the front of the boat and was holding my paddle and the plants growing on the cliff with the other hand. R’Linda was positive that it could not be tobacco the Celtic cleft had been out of regular use long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic and was not available till Raleigh brought tobacco to Europe. There was the possibility that this was a parallel development. But she was more shocked by someone of the Ohran not wearing a biohazard suit.

I speculated that tobacco may have entered Ohranic culture via the New Mexico cleft. R’Linda dismissed this as improbable as that link had not opened up till a period just before the fall of the D’ni. My argument was also shot down in flames when R’Linda pointed out that there was no evidence of smoking in Ae’gura. Where were the no smoking signs and ashtrays?

As we waited he finished the cigarette flicking it into the water this made it obvious he had been looking directly towards us. He turned and walked back into the moon pool cave and out of sight. We waited about ten minutes then had a hushed discussion about the moon pool as an option. We both agreed that at this time it was still a little too risky.

I came up with another idea and we proceeded to climb the plants growing on the rock face. There was an awkward moment when I was using the /noboat command and R’Linda did find it difficult climbing in the Biohazard suit but she had no place suitable to change.

The barrack blocks appeared deserted. Recent observations led us to believe this was a small compliment of men. The main part of the complex appeared overly quiet and I was beginning to wonder if it was a trap when we discovered one of the reasons. Ostrachicken! It was very large and only just able to run in the corridor. We managed to duck into a handy side door that turned out to be the power distribution room.

The Ostrachicken was followed by two men in bio suits they failed to see us as they chased after the beast poking at the bird with sticks like cattle prods that only served to annoy it and keep it on the move.

I explained to R’Linda how I had spent a day in this room balancing the tube flows. She was impressed her father had told her only to do specific tubes to establish various functions on the base.

She also explained how the Ostrachicken could in extreme conditions metabolise certain frequencies of light and how my tinkering with the power grid I had fed this beast to its present size. Normal sunlight and predators prevented them normally becoming a problem, but my fiddling had at least provided a diversion.

This was probably the reason for the Ohran using tents on the beach rather than the main accommodation. I thought about why they had not killed it. This was all to do with this light thing. If they grow too quickly they become extremely tough and almost impossible to butcher. This meant trying to get this bird out of the tunnels without killing it and having to cut it up. They were exercising it to get it down in weight exercised and tenderized it could well become dinner.

Ostrachickens had been tried in the cavern but the light there was the other end of the scale and one enterprising D’ni had created an age and tried to farm them. It would have worked if they had been able to catch them. The eggs had proved popular for a while and it was one of the ages lost in the fall.

We skulked about the passages till we could make it to the KI machine. R’Linda used it and did not black out. I felt relieved. If she had I would have had few options short of barricading this room and staying till she came round. But thankfully it never came to that. We went to the upper observation room and in the early dawn took a KI picture of the steam vent.

We made use of the facilities and had a decent meal. We were discussing what to do next when we heard footsteps and voices from the stair well. I suggested I could open the door from the upper platform and she could hold it while I came down and we both escaped.

R’Linda pointed out I had never confirmed that this did open the exit. At the last minute R’Linda dashed to the upper level beckoning me to follow. She pointed to my relto book and signalled frantically at the share option.

I followed her just as the stairs creaked and one of the guards climbed into the room.

At my relto my roof was damaged again but not as badly as the first time R’Linda explained she would need to recover her D’ni KI if she wanted to get back to her Relto without damaging it. My relto already had wrecked books and links. So mine had been the only option. We repaired the roof a much easier task with two pair of hands.

She also showed me how to transfer links from my KI to hers. Each link took hours to set so we only transferred two the barrow doorway and the Mettanic base that way we could take the two-step /spawn back to the Mettanic.

While we waited she filled me in on some of the detail about her arrival back at Ohran. The Celtic cleft had been left with a warning alarm that had triggered when she arrived. The entrance was in a desert region not to unlike the New Mexico cleft. Only you exited from a fissure in a cliff face.

Corvid had sensed the alarm and silenced it but it was too late. Corvid had concealed himself in the fissure and R’Linda had sat it out and waited for someone to come. There was a chance that it could have been one of the old guard. It was not. It was a military officer and a dozen troops, who had cordoned the site despite the lack of anything for hundreds of miles.

Eventually they realised she was from the cavern and a full scale panic ensued they all suited up. When she became ill they decided to bring in that time dilation vehicle. They have a few and they had one stored reasonably close to the Celtic cleft entrance for just this sort of event.

They had to fly in the dirigible but that was a fairly quick operation.

Out of fear that this officer and his men had contracted this disease they were all isolated with a medical team inside their own cordon. R’Linda had become progressively worse till she had blacked out. The rest I already knew about.

R’Lindas KI had been taken by this officer since he and his men had already been exposed to any pathogen. It was decided they should work on the equipment they had removed from R’Linda.

Her KI was a special it was keyed to her DNA so there was little chance of them getting data from it. It was essential that it should be recovered.

When we returned Eric told us they had sorted the method of increasing the power to the Soval gate, their name for the Celtic cleft. This would significantly increase its capacity and cycle time. The downside would be that it would speed up its degeneration.

If we could get someone else to follow through that entrance they would have the opportunity to get in and launch a surprise assault. Corvid had disabled the alarm. The problem would always be co-ordinating any breach by that route. We also had no way of knowing if they had detected the disabled alarm and repaired it.

Eric also had some news. Information was sparse as the Ohran were using secure channels for communication. Our use of the KI machine in the base had been detected and they now knew someone had an upgraded KI but they did not know there were two and they had been unable to retrieve any personal data.

The Ohran had a base like the fabled area51 only theirs was called base47. These people had to be human in origin. What is the likelihood of two totally independent cultures both having a secret base with a generic name and a number. Once the Mega Vehicle had dropped R’Linda in the city they were planning to return the Mega Vehicle there. At some point after that they would also be moving the original team from the Soval gate.

We decided our best chance to retrieve Corvid was to get back onto the mega vehicle before it reached base47. The Mettanic had analysed the data supplied by Corvid and it looked like they could build the clone with my genetic material.

They could artificially accelerate the gestation period but they did not have the technology to accelerate the period from birth to adulthood. Mettanic know that the Ohran worked on a device on base47 that would allow things to age quickly.

I commented that it would be useful for cheese and we ended up in another two hour explanation.

From the documentation they had there were two gateways you went through the first selected an empty chamber from an array. Placed your package inside where you could connect it to a power supply you then locked the door with a puzzle lock code and exited by the gateway you entered. There was a specific warning not to leave via the second entrance.

Then enter via the second entrance and re-open your selected chamber where seven year will have lapsed. If more time is required repeat the process using another chamber. Under no circumstances are you to try and open an earlier chamber. The paradox consequences cause untold problems.

Eric maintained that our best option to move the clone would be the scarab devices. That meant another trip into the lions den.

As I have written these journals I have kept a copy on my KI. R’Linda asked if I would transfer them to her so she could read through them. Now she had a Mk12 there was no difficulty in transferring these notes.

She was not happy that I had read her mail but conceded that if I had not whe would still be a captive.

It was after this that she suggested I transfer the spawn points for the island to her new KI That way we could both go directly to the island inside the maze and retrieve two sets of scarab devices. Here would be an added advantage because one could watch the entrance for the other, while they sorted a set of scarabs each. It took a while to transfer the spawn points. It was a worthwhile project R’Linda and I got reacquainted again while we waited spending a lot of time on the top of the Mettanic hangar.

The local weather was like an Indian summer and we took our meals in the pleasant sunshine and I spent a lot of time re-telling my story and clarifying points from my journals. The Mettanic were gathering materials and equipment for the cloning, and researching where we would need to go to retrieve those parts that were non standard.

Getting onto the island was no big deal we went to my relto and used the two stage spawn from there. Eric was confident that a spawn from relto into the barrow and then to the island would be harder to detect. A single spawn within any given age shows as a finite event. And spawns within an age produce a stronger signal. Relto is outside this age and the combination weakens the signal of the second step.

We linked in at the top of the glass maze and I guided R’Linda to the control room. I had a feeling that there was something different. One of those times when you cannot quite put your finger upon a reason.

The office door puzzle was frustrating I had tried several times and it felt like the rules were changing as I did it. I called R’Linda up as there appeared to be no activity at the maze.

She tried and came to the same conclusion. Something was changing the combination as we did the puzzle. R’Linda suggested that we look around for the scarab machine we could have another go at this lock with a fresh outlook later.

We found the scarab machine in a side room it was surprisingly easy to use just like receiving a KI. Put your hand in the slot and retrieve the box of goodies just like a vending machine. I tried to retrieve a second one for myself but it would only give one set per KI. R’Linda retrieved a set and we returned to the office. R’Linda made another attempt at the door while I read the instruction file that had been added to my KI when I received the scarab devices. They were beautiful like ornate pieces of jewellery. The scarab name appeared to have the same origin as the Egyptian scarab beetle brooches. These did not have legs but appeared to stick gently but firmly to whatever surface they were placed on. Like a firm magnet they were quite secure even on flesh or fabric.

There was one red two blue a green and two purple the colours signified usage. The purple were going to be our first trial these were doorway scarabs. Attach to a door or wall the device will then disappear, walk through the wall or door retrieve the scarab from the other side. Two purples per set one to get in one to get out. One person per scarab per door. R’Linda insisted she would go first and placed her first scarab on the door. It disappeared fairly quickly and she stepped through the door as if it was not there.

I decided to give the wall a try. I placed the scarab on the wall to one side of the door and stepped forwards. It hurt a lot the scarab had not disappeared walking into a solid wall is not recommended. I removed it and replaced it, it failed again. I tried further over and this time it did vanish I stepped briskly through. It was like sinking into a swimming pool of syrup slowly descending. Then pop at the surface suddenly. It was totally dark. I looked behind the scarab was on the wall behind me a glow fading slowly I plucked it from the wall and placed it in my pocket. I used the /lite command I was inside a cupboard or a wardrobe or something. I pushed at the door it would not open.

I called out to R’Linda quietly at first finally banging on the door and shouting. The door opened and I was facing a stranger in uniform. He had a weapon of strange design in his hand and he was not wearing a biohazard suit. He flicked the muzzle in an upward motion that appeared to indicate I should put my hands above my head.

I looked over at R’Linda she was in a similar position. R’Linda spoke “Put your hands above your head. The weapon is a neural block it will not kill you but it will totally incapacitate you, and leave you in an extremely embarrassed position as regards body fluids”. “This is Zovak Drillar he is the commander of the unit that took me the first time.” “Zovak is a military rank use it when you talk to him it will make things easier”.

“Does he talk?” Yes but his translator will not handle English till he had received enough of the language. I have the situation partially in my favour I talk to him in the old tongue. I speak to you in Spanish your KI translates to English. He thinks I am teaching his translator your language by talking to you. It will take about twenty minutes of dialogue for his translator to learn Spanish then we revert to English unless you know another language.

I answered in my holiday Spanish. Only one and it is best I do not it is a language that’s related to the other cleft. R’Linda nodded. We were directed to a sofa. We sat down. “Kovak Drillar is prepared to leave us with our KI’s to aid interrogation. For all that is a non lethal weapon you do not want to be hit with it. They have a /spawn trap erected around the outside of the island our only way out is your relto or mine via my old KI. He appears to be unaware of the relto books.

My old KI is on the desk we really need that back. “Very good Ms Kassn” I started laughing. Both R’Linda and the Kovak looked at me as if I were demented. It took a while for me to regain my composure. Every time I tried to reply I had a mental picture of a man stroking a white cat and collapsed into apoplexy.

Eventually I was able to blurt out in my bad Spanish Senior Blowfeld needs a white cat and collapsed laughing again. R’Linda started to laugh trying to restrain herself. We must have looked ridiculous I was laughing so hard the tears ran down my face. Laughter is infectious and soon he was also laughing I fell off the sofa and was unable to use it as an opportunity for escape I just couldn’t stop laughing.

R’Linda tried to explain to the Kovak but concepts like cinema and James Bond were alien to him every time she got close to the explanation she would start giggling and we would start all over again. In the end he decided to enforce a translation using R’Lindas old KI. Our hands were tied to the wooden arms of the sofa both of mine to the right and both of hers to the left.

Kovak Driller activated something on R’Lindas KI and then placed her old KI on her other hand. They both spawned. I did not know if it was something Kovak Driller did. But from the look on his face it was not. I twisted around and was able to reach my relto book and escape. When I arrived on my relto my hands were still tied. The arm of the sofa was no longer in the loop and the rope fell from my hands.

I went back to the Mettanic base R’Linda was waiting with an unconscious Kovak. She had set up a command in her new KI so that if a forced translation command anyone touching the KI’s would warp to her relto.

Because they had warped into her relto it had kicked off the protection protocol. Just like the earthquake that had almost destroyed my relto. R’Linda was prepared. She had struck out at Kovak Driller knocking him out cold. She was livid his actions had ruined her relto. The walls of her relto had been reduced to rubble. She had removed her old KI and tied his hands together linked her KI to his and spawned back to the Mettanic base, where she had removed his KI before he regained consciousness.

Kovak Driller was seriously bruised R’Linda was not a happy bunny. Every time she mentioned the state of her relto she kicked him. This man was getting some serious hurt. I felt sorry for the guy he had not known the consequences of his actions. I persuaded R’Linda to let me secure him in one of the rooms in the infirmary. Without his KI and locked in we could use an isolation hatch to feed him and even without his KI R’Linda would be able to talk with him in the old language. My KI would enable me to understand them both. R’Linda and I would have secure communications because he would not understand English.

One thing was certain if we were going to play good cop, bad cop interrogating him. I was the good cop and R’Linda was the bad. Kovak Driller had the bruises to prove it.

Walker

Ouch!

Gibson

The Mega Vehicle

I have picked up another transmission from Walker it sounds like he's having fun. The journals are not just coming through in the city now like this one tuned up in one of the guild pubs.

The ground vehicle approached the dam below me and crossed as a wall of water surged down the lake and washed over the top of the dam. The wave dropped back but the general level continued to rise.

My head up display cleared. Corvid told me the ground troops had been told to withdraw, as the civilian they had spotted would not be able to follow on foot. That civilian had been me. They were considering me a random contact. As they were moving along at a reasonable pace, they figured that on foot I no longer represented a threat to their mission.

The initial surge down the lake had drained from the top of the dam and the foot soldiers were able to run across it and climb into a ground vehicle that then linked away. I have to presume it ended up in either the ground vehicle or the dirigible.

Corvid flew off sending a final message as a data burst. He would fly down to the bridge and his long dead ranger and wait for the convoy. My task was to get my KI back to the Mettanic and start the ball rolling on the cloning project.

I waited till the convoy was out of sight, broke cover, and walked down to the dam. The troops had closed the door to the facility and locked it actually they had more than locked it there was a bar welded across the door.

The spillway on the dam was struggling. Even though the rain had stopped, the run off water from the hillside continued to run into the lake. The water level continued to rise and was already almost up to the road surface. There was a loud banging. The noise shuddered through the dam. I was looking over the side trying to figure out what was causing the banging when all the windows in the control centre popped. There was water pouring everywhere.

The flow of water from the offices quickly subsided. I ran to the control room roof and looked over. I was able to swing over and drop through the smashed window. Looking around I could see through one of the other broken windows. One of the control gates was trying to open, but dropping back, time and again. Each time it fell back the dam shuddered.

I ran down through the galleries, awash with broken timber and debris. I found a manual pump room with some equipment that looked like it was a mechanical hydraulic lifter for the control gate. Thousands of gallons of water were spilling into the generating hall through ventilation ducts and abandoned corridors. Most of the water was exiting through drains in the floor of the generator hall. But the water level was still slowly rising.

I found the control to open the gate on the spillway and pumped like crazy. As the overspill emptied down the spillway the generator hall remained flooded but the water was not getting any higher. All the water that had flooded the maintenance and administration levels was either pouring out through broken windows or was running through those internal galleries down to the generator hall.

I figured I would need to get at least one of the generators running if I wanted to start pumps so I could get down to the tunnel system.

The turbine control room was a washout. The force of water had ripped the control desk from its mountings and smashed it against one of the walls. I went down to the valve room and found the manual over-ride. These valves had not been used in years. I have resolved to find out why this plant was shut down but not de-commissioned. When it comes to having clean power, there is little to beat hydroelectric. Ok, there is environmental damage and a change to river flow but it is the cleanest of clean power after a wind turbine.

With one of the turbines running, the load eased on the overspill and the level in the generator hall appeared to recede some. It was looking like the pumps had been left on automatic and just needed the power restoring to get them to kick in.

I found the crew facilities while the water levels dropped. The rest room had been stripped but I found what looked like the night shift bunkroom. The bed had no mattress, but the surface that the mattress would have lain on was a fabric web that was reasonably comfortable. The room had even stayed dry with only one door in and no windows the pressure of water had kept the door shut. I wadded up my jacket and maintainer suit and used them as a pillow and slept the sleep of the just.

My KI woke me up. It was Corvid checking in. He was back at his second hand KI and was waiting on the convoy. He estimated he was at least a day ahead and wanted to know my situation. I told him about the dam and he used the KI to find out about its status. It was built to service a medium sized town with an industrial complex. Both had been totally wiped out in the plague. They had shut down the power systems and walked away. The town was a day’s walk away. This was just another tragedy in a world of tragedies.
There was also a power tap for something else that was not altogether clear.

Corvid signed off saying he would check back with me when the convoy got a lot closer.

As I went to get up, the webbing I had been sleeping on gave way. I was left in what can only be described as folded position across the bed with my bottom poking out of the bottom. This whilst comical was a problem. Then it got worse. As I went to push myself up both hands went through the webbing either side. I was trapped effectively tied to a broken bed. With my hands stuck in the webbing I could not operate my KI.

It took the best part of an hour of thrashing about to get myself free. The bed was a pile of broken parts and torn webbing. I was bruised, tired and embarrassed. In frustration, I kicked the remains of the bed sending a lump of the frame bouncing off the wall. The rebound gave me another bruise for my collection, springing back and hitting me on the shin.

I limped back to the generator hall. It was dry and strewn with branches and timber washed from the lake. The pumps had done their work and the water was down to a few deep puddles. When I went to the tunnel system, it was closed down. The entrance was a smooth rock surface. It must have triggered an automatic lockdown when the water level started to rise. I contacted Corvid. He was still at his look out point. The convoy was still well out of sight. He suggested I follow the power lines from the dam to find the town. He said it would have at least one tunnel point. It should also have power now that I had started the generator.

I made myself a breakfast using food dispensing machines in the dam these were also working now there was power. I ate sitting on the floor. I found toilets with separate wash and shower rooms, so I took the opportunity to clean myself up. Then I went for a walkabout in the dam offices.

I eventually found a visitor centre with a model of the whole facility. It was a really cool digital model. Various buttons showed the stages of the dam construction. The model could also zoom out to a view, which showed the surrounding countryside.

Linking technology had made building the dam easier than it would have been on earth as they were able to link in interlocking stones. The surface finish was a liquid pour that looked like concrete but the core was constructed as if it had been built from children’s interlocking building blocks.

The canyon was a twisting cut across a wide flat plateau. The surrounding area was scrubland with little, or no, vegetation. The power lines branched off in three directions. One ran down the canyon and vanished off the model.

One line ran away in the plateau at right angles to the dam. This one appeared to vanish into the ground before it reached the end of the model. This point had a downward pointing arrow with a name that translated as “Lost Dow Foundling.” I figured this was just a name rather than a description.

The third line ran up a ridge parallel to the side of the lake. It had a track to one side and both appeared to cross a small river that joined the lake halfway up.

The power lines eventually reached an area at the head of the lake that was coloured in blocks like a street pattern. A second road left this town and followed the ridge on the other side of the valley. This eventually joined the road from the far side of the dam, some distance down stream.

The power lines were substantial and were easy to follow using the track, which was more like a service road for the pylons supporting the cables. The track was in good condition considering the flood that had hit the lake area.

When I got to the river, it was a washout. The rain had undercut one of the bridge supports and there was no way to cross. I worked my way back to the dam. Given what I had seen, I had two options. I could cross the dam and follow the convoy, eventually back tracking up the other road. Or I could use the /boat command on my KI and paddle up the lake. Of course it was no contest.

I did a sea launch from the top of the dam, a run of about twenty yards. I have not had a launch like that in years. I wanted to get back onto the dam and do it again. I knew I had to make it to the town as soon as I could so I refrained from surrendering to the temptation to do it again.

The paddle up the lake was refreshing. I paddled up the river as far as the broken bridge. The wreckage on the side nearest the town made getting ashore on that side impossible. On the dam side, there was a track that led to a tunnel that looked like it may have been cut through the cliff to provide access for those who built the original bridge.

I considered exploring the tunnel, but decided it looked like a leftover from the dam construction rather than a new exit.
I returned to the lake and paddled on to the town. On the edge of town there was a small jetty and a launching ramp. Both the ramp and the jetty were only suitable for small craft. There appeared to be nothing suitable for larger vessels. Here was a sunken boat similar to the ferry in Ae’gura, It was in better condition but no more seaworthy.

The town was a lot smaller than I expected. The buildings were a mixture of timber frame and local stone and all stood alone in their own grounds. There was a hill behind the town, which gave a good viewpoint. I quickly found the industrial site using this high spot. Searching through the town I failed to find any tunnel points.

The industrial complex had a rail loop feeding one end of a long building. The rail lines ran up to and into a tunnel. I explored this but it led to a dead end. This tunnel must have been shut down when the plague hit the town. There was a maintenance shed and a stores building. I established their use by translating the signs above and on the doors using my KI. Both of these buildings were locked up tight.

The main building had the look of continuous process. One of those places where they feed raw materials in one end and get finished product at the other with no stopping in between. There were no doors at the top end, and just inside a strip curtain kept out the worst elements of the weather.

The rail line passed over a device that automatically triggered a shutter on the bottom of the trucks. The rail trucks then emptied into a hopper. There was some material trapped in the mechanism of the hopper. It looked like raw wool.

The material was passed through a tank that looked like it had a scum floating on the top. I figured this was the washing tank and contents had stood too long to be healthy. The smell was unbelievable. As I worked my way down the line, it could be seen that this was a fabric mill. There was a device that allowed for various patterns. The finished product was a fine green material with an embossed finish. Looking through the patterns, I recognised a design I had seen in the complex where they were planning to hold R’Linda.

The production line finished with a huge roll of fabric. The mechanism on the end of the production line looked like the roll simply dropped off of the end down a chute.

Ok, it was pure guesswork, but if this was a site manufacturing raw fabric, the chute at the end should lead to a new manufacturing location. In an effort at experimentation, I climbed onto the machine and dropped into the end hopper.

Nothing happened. After climbing out, I examined the roll of fabric on the end of the machine. It looked too big for the hopper. It did have a device that looked like a flying knife. That’s one of those devices that can zip cut across a moving strip. It was buzzing. I noticed a lump of material jammed in the machinery. When I pulled it free the knife sped across the fabric. The roll was released and it dropped and rolled into the top of the chute where it stuck. The chute was now humming gently.

The machine had a core for the next roll automatically warped in to replace the roll of fabric that had just dropped off. Mechanical hands grabbed the free end of the material and bonded it to the new roll core. The core turned and took up the slack from the material coming off the machine. I went to the chute. The oversize roll was blocking access. There was a gap at the sides that was too small for me to fit through.

As I walked back into town, Corvid contacted me with an update. He had been researching the ground vehicle. It was remote controlled from the airship. The stasis device had strange effects on living tissue resulting in organic time compression as you got closer and closer to the power source. The core of the machine was a device that behaved like a mini singularity held in a magnetic bottle. In reality it was an open link to giant singularity a black hole.

As you approached the device your personal time slowed from your viewpoint. The rest of the world speeded up. It would not affect Corvid because his processing was based on optical logic. It would also affect other materials but only at the atomic level.

When R’Linda had fallen unconscious, victim to a disease the local scientists thought was the plague, they used a remote control device to place her close to the core of the machine

Her personal time was slowed to a crawl and the disease was arrested. This gave them plenty of time to move her to the medical facility where they could establish the cause of her disease once and for all.

Corvid was of the opinion that we could rescue R’Linda from this vehicle much easier than we could from the medical facility. So it was time for me to play catch up.

Corvid told me to look for a striped building and that I would know it when I saw it. This would be the local equivalent of a police office. It would have a garage and a vehicle. They were called civil officers but the nearest translation was police.

I wandered around frantically searching till I sought the high ground again. Corvid was right. The stripes were obvious. Colours changed region to region but it was green and gold here. The vehicle was odd. It was a tricycle arrangement with the single wheel at the back. You sat low and steered with two-foot pedals. I was glad of the gliding lessons I took as a teenager. Using this pedal arrangement was very like using a rudder bar on a plane.

The speed was controlled by a hand throttle like you find on a motorbike and the brakes were buttons on a keypad. There were other controls, manual gear changing, and automatic steering. Corvid advised me to keep it simple. Put the machine into gear and accelerate till I was comfortable. If I wanted to try a higher gear then I should stop, select a different gear, and accelerate again. The procedure to change gear while moving was an acquired skill similar to using a manual gearbox without a clutch.

Not changing gear would give rubbish fuel consumption. If I tried to cover any real distance I would run out of fuel, but I only needed to catch the ground vehicle. He did describe a blue button with a black triangle. I would need this when I caught up with the ground vehicle.

There was also a red button with a black criss-cross pattern. This was only to be used if I had driven off a cliff. This was the crash net. It would wreck the vehicle but save my life. It was a bit like the airbag system that had been used on the Mars lander, the safe option of a nice soft landing in a totally wrecked vehicle.

The early part of the drive was frantic as I re-learned how to steer with my feet. I had to stop twice to retrieve my hat. In the end, I put it in my backpack and rode with the wind in my hair, what there is left of it. I should probably say wind in my stubble that was growing back slowly after the Mettanic had shaved my head.

It took me the rest of that day to get to the point where the road from the town met the road from the dam. I then spent most of the next morning back tracking to the bridge where Corvid was holed up with his dead ranger. I took some rope from the vehicles storage locker, tied it on, and repelled down to where Corvid was. I had to cut off the victim’s hand to remove the KI and I then hung the KI over Corvid’s neck.

I found cutting off the hand one of the most revolting things I had done since I had fallen from Ae’gura. That included burying the bodies at the first site.
I made another resolution. I would find out what happened to this ranger and sort out a proper disposal for his body. His death had helped me a lot. I felt at least he deserved a decent burial.

Did I ever mention I was rubbish at climbing ropes? Well rubbish is probably an understatement. Repelling or abseiling as we call it is easy going down. Going up a rope without an ascending device was a problem. It took me ages to get up the nerve. In the end I swung over to the cliff face and climbed. I was terrified but it was the only way. My consolation was a drop that would give me plenty of time to relto out. Unfortunately, it would also put me back at relto with no way of getting back quickly.

When we reached the top, I rested and then followed on the road. Corvid flew ahead, able to take a direct route, truly as the crow flies. The delays in recovering a KI for Corvid had put us well behind and it was getting dark.

On Corvid’s recommendation, again we stopped and I wore the maintainer suit to stay warm. Corvid had a plan that was best served by me arriving at the mega vehicle around sunset. The vehicle was still three to five days travel from the next built up area.

At first light the next day, I could see the dirigible on the horizon. Corvid wanted me to hang back so that we would arrive at the ground vehicle as it was approaching dusk.

The only person on the ground vehicle would be R’Linda. The vehicle would be controlled from a dummy cockpit on the airship. This would isolate the driver from the time dilation on board. Just before dusk, the air support would land one at a time to refuel. With only two in the air it would be easier to approach.

The plan involved getting under the body of the ground vehicle and hitting the blue button with the red triangle. This would cause a ramp to descend and I should be able to drive on without the vehicle stopping. Corvid would fly in and activate the closing switch. Provided we were quick, the crew hopefully would put any warning signals down as a sensor glitch.

They may not even see it. Things were very busy around refuelling time. They also had no reason to suspect that anyone knew or wanted to contact R’Linda. They also doubted anyone was prepared to risk catching what they believed was the D’ni plague.

I spent the day keeping in range but out of sight. At one point the whole convoy appeared to stop. It came as a relief. I found some rations in the storage locker. They were horrible but Corvid assured me that they were probably ok. Emergency rations usually tasted terrible but were nutritious. I found a stream and was able to top up my water.

As the time approached for our assault, one of the aircraft flew off. There was no obvious reason but we took the chance. We were able to catch up using the cover of the dust kicked up by the mega vehicle. I kept my maintainer suit on. This protected me from the dust and enabled me to hide under the moving vehicle.

The vehicle had eight pairs of double wheels twice the size of the biggest earthmovers I had ever encountered on earth. The vehicle was only travelling at about thirty miles per hour but the ground trembled as it moved.

I hit the blue button and a ramp came down nearly striking my vehicle. The surprise nearly had me under one of the wheels as Walker puree.

I drove up the ramp flat out and a crash web caught me at the top. The ramp closed behind me as Corvid hit the control. The room was like the hangar deck of an aircraft carrier. We put the vehicle in one corner. Unless you knew where to look it was invisible in plain view.

Corvid explained that as I approached the stasis chamber my personal time would slow. Time for anything mechanical or optical would remain the same; that included him. He would slow his communication to match my personal time. He had tapped into external sensors of the escort team. He was monitoring their communications traffic. They had noticed the hatch but had put it down to a sensor glitch as he thought they would. He would remain in the vehicle hangar. I would deal with R’Linda. He could communicate over the KI and maintain real time links to the outside.

Corvid set up a program on my KI to produce a regular mechanical click. As I got closer to R’Linda the clicks would get closer together till they became a buzzing. At some point he would need to adjust the frequency like changing gear.

As land vehicles go this was big. Inside it felt like being on a small ship. As I got nearer and nearer the stasis chamber, my KI started to sound like a Geiger counter entering a hot area. The whole vehicle swayed gently but these movements became more violent. Corvid explained that this was my time compression. My time perception was based on my slower rate but the vehicle continued to move in normal time. Things became problematical. I was finding it difficult to balance. Corvid suggested hands and knees. While I could understand this being safer, I questioned my ability to do any useful work when I reached our goal.

My KI click had become a whine and was changing pitch. With each step it had almost passed beyond my hearing when suddenly it became a click again. Corvid explained he had reduced the frequency by a factor of thirty. I was seriously worrying about the shaking when it suddenly stopped. Corvid shocked me saying we had stopped again and I had been in the vehicle a complete day. The vehicle had stopped for the night while I was parking the police tricycle and the first vibrations had been the next mornings start.

Over the next ten minutes of my subjective time, I found the chamber entrance and entered. As I did I felt a shudder and heard a heavy buzzing. Corvid explained we were moving again. I thought we must have been hardly moving but the explanation was even weirder. The movements had become so rapid that they had become a vibration. Corvid recommended we move as quickly as we could. Time compression this far into the vehicle was using my real time at a phenomenal rate.

Corvid had me take a number of KI pictures around the room and to then transfer these to the KI he was now using.

R’Linda lay on a bed that looked the same as a Mettanics bed only horizontal. Over the top she had a shimmering field in an elongated dome. Corvid told me this was just a medical barrier and that I should just reach through it. On one side of the room was a transport cabinet just like the one I had found at both sites. This one was empty.

Corvid had me place R’Linda in the cabinet and activate a transport to a location code he gave me. I just did not understand. This would make a copy of R’Linda at the destination, but that copy would be dead. I just could not see the point. Corvid insisted and then told me to retrieve R’Linda and place her back on the medical bed. Then I needed to make best speed back to the vehicle hangar where he would explain a plan that was audacious and a work of high cunning. This is not his description but mine.

On my way back, I nearly fell. Corvid reminded me to be cautious for all my time frame was slowed. An injury could be fatal. Even a few minutes of unconsciousness in this time frame would hand days to the crew outside.

When I got back to Corvid, he explained that he could detect a dynamic spawn point beyond a wall in the cockpit of this vehicle. This cockpit was only used when the vehicle passed through a tunnel and the airship could not maintain visual contact. The cockpit was hermetically sealed from the rest of the vehicle to isolate any drivers from medical contamination. The occupants would suffer some time compression but nothing serious. The cockpit was placed as far away from the time source as possible.

This spawn point in the cockpit could only be mapped when it was stationary relative to the network. Corvid’s idea was astounding. I spawned to the Mettanic base where I found R’Linda’s body in the transport cabinet. I transferred this dead copy back to the cabinet in the vehicle. Corvid had used the pictures I took in the stasis chamber to get the address of the transfer cabinet inside that chamber.

We now waited for that nights stop. Corvid mapped the spawn point in the cockpit and sent it to me. The Mettanic moved the spawn point ten yards, putting it inside the hangar space where I spawned in. I now went back to the stasis chamber as fast as I was able. I was quicker this time knowing where I was going. While I was away Corvid had the Mettanic move the spawn point back where it belonged.

I removed R’Linda from the medical bed and placed her copy I now found in the transport cabinet on the medical bed. I put R’Linda into a fireman’s lift over my shoulder and worked my way out as fast as I could. I was not long out of the stasis chamber when the Vibrations started again. I had managed the switch in one night of real time but the sudden start to the movements nearly grounded me. I was still at a loss how we would get R’Linda away she was clearly in some sort of induced coma.

But here Corvid struck again. He would remain. We would put the KI recovered from the ranger on R’Linda and Corvid would link it to my advanced KI so it would follow me. I would spawn back to the Mettanics and R’Linda would follow me as soon as I stepped off the spawn point. Corvid would hide in the police tricycle till the authorities opened up the vehicle at its destination. If they kept it locked I could recover him later in another daring rescue mission.

The authorities would find R’Linda’s duplicate body in the stasis room at the destination and with luck they would assume she died in transit from the plague. Hopefully their normal paranoia would kick in and they would dispose of the body as soon as possible leaving a cold trail.

Back at the Mettanic base, I moved R’Linda to the medical facility. I started my search for antibiotics in the hope that what she was suffering from was a bacterium based disease.

The Metannic had me remove the duplicate R’Linda body from the cabinet and place it on the spare bed in their facility. They warped this to their space ship where they analysed her condition from this duplicate. The beds here had always had this option, but only linked to their matching beds on the vessel at the lagrange point.

They downloaded the information from my KI and established what would be needed for the clone that Corvid required. The KI that R’Linda had used to escape was damaged. Heaven knows how long it had been exposed to the elements on that ranger or how much damage had occurred in his fall. The last straw had been the linking upload Corvid had performed that allowed R’Linda to follow me out of the vehicle.

Walker

I will post the next journal stuff as soon as I get it like I said at the start the locations are becoming more unusual and I don't like retrieving them when there's anybody around.

Gibson

The Corvid meeting

I found the place where Walker broke through I stuck a note to a cone tied to a piece of cord I just kept throwing it in till it linked I was going to try again but my spare cord linked out with the cone. I am keeping the ledge a secret I have a climbing rope I carry with me and an ascender that I found that way the location can’t be stumbled on to accidentally. At least I now know he got the note.

I’ve also found an old travel scrabble set next time I meet him on the balcony I will be able to ask him questions. I should be able to get yes/no answers immediately because I will be able to see him nod or shake his head.

I’ve traced his next document here it is.

Over the next few days I expanded my working knowledge of the tunnel system. The Mettanics were able to update the map in my KI so I could mark tunnels that no longer worked. Tunnels I had looked at changed colour.

They also set up an option so I could update promising routes. There were lots of places within the zone that were open but the surface had fallen into such disuse that there was no point in investigating.

Following a request, the Mettanics were able to reset my KI. Now I could mark these stations so that the station marker no longer illuminated.

Eric suggested that at some point it would be an advantage to go back to the island and find a scarab link machine. I would need to go personally as the machine required a KI energy signature. It would give me a box of six devices. Each one was a single operation but the devices could be re charged in the machine on the island. The machine would be in a password-protected compartment and would look like a small pillar with a slot for your hand. From the description I imagined something that looked like the linking pedestals in Ae’gura.

All of the Ohran that went to Ae’gura will have taken a set, but without a recharge machine they would have fallen from use or kept for a real emergency.

I did find one city of great beauty. I saw small streets, tall spires and little shops but the city was completely deserted. This had been one of the main regional capitals completely wiped out by the plague. A local magistrate here had solved the problem of dead bodies. A vehicle was developed with a warp point. It was set so that re-materialisation was in outer space at the edge of the suns gravity well.

The quick removal of cadavers was seen as one of the keys to stopping the disease in its tracks. This was the Ohranic version of a man pulling a cart, shouting, “Bring out your dead”.

I was learning my way around and I felt I was getting somewhere. I called in with Eric to touch base. He told me the Ohran were moving R’Linda to a new base. This was a more ominous case. The base had a fixed stellar drop off link like the portable one in the city I had investigated.

I was curious if they thought Corvid was their missing compatriot why had they not been in touch. His answer was a surprise. Corvid would remain in cover. He would be unaware of the current status of this cell. Contacting him could be dangerous for both Corvid and R’Linda. The best way to recover Corvid would be to rescue R’Linda. That rescue was becoming imminent.

Eric came up with a new surprise. Apparently this cell could jump its connection between hubs. They had found me rather than the reverse. Their connection could only stay within the exclusion zone. Fortunately the Ohran were moving R’Linda to a location that bordered close to the zone. A portion of the zone on Asma, the second planet, was within reach but I was told to return to the officer quarters where I had been sleeping. Not only would the relocation be uncomfortable, the move to Asma would involve exposure to a new gravitational constant. Asma was a slightly larger planet and it would take a few days to acclimatise.

I do not pretend to understand everything Eric told me but I was unprepared for the move. I have often used an old joke that states the cure for sea- sickness is to sit under a tree. The move induced an extreme travel sickness. For the first hour I thought I was going to die. The second hour I was frightened I was not going to die. By the third hour things had started to ease, but I could not stand up. I crawled on hands and knees to the hangar and was unable to open the door. I could not stand to touch the contact point.
I crawled back to the medical facility it was closer. Inside there was a small pool in a hydrotherapy unit. I dragged my self in and let the water support my weight. Over the course of the next two days I became accustomed to my new weight. By the third day I was walking normally. Running was still an issue but function was returning with time.

Eric was not sympathetic. Apparently it was an issue that was only felt when you moved a node from a low gravity to a higher one. It was also proportional to how long you had been exposed to the lower gravity. Moving a node from free fall to anything like a normal planetary gravity, now that was, as he put it, “spectacular.”

Eric was of the opinion we should check out the area around R’Linda’s proposed prison. The method was unusual. I was asked to stand in a box and was scanned. The machine then shaved my head and coated my scalp with gel, a not totally unpleasant experience. The next sensor I was told was a magnetic map of my mind. After this when I returned to see Eric, one of the machines on the bed attached to my scalp. I panicked initially but Eric reassured me I would enjoy the experience.

The Mettanic were pleased my physiology was almost fully compatible with their equipment. When I stood up to get off the bed it was a real out of body experience. I looked back and there I was lying peacefully. My clothes had not joined me, nor had any body hair. I felt strangely exposed. I was directed to a room that was like the relto closet, only with more choices including hair. A disembodied voice guided me. When I left this wardrobe I felt a little overdressed.

Eric said I would investigate an occupied city. In this form I would be visible but unable to touch things. I would only be able to speak to people wearing an interface device. I took this to be a KI. Most of those would be unsafe to talk to because they would probably be security.

Eric recommended I walk to the city via the tunnels. This would accustom me to walking around things I could not feel. I was shown a sign to make if someone spoke to me and they were not wearing a KI. Using one hand (either would do), I was to place my fingers of that hand flat against my ear. This is apparently a universal sign that indicates that you do not know the speakers language. The interface device would allow me to hear and understand everybody.

I had to wear gloves to cover my KI. Most of the functions would still be available but standing in the street tapping the back of my hand would draw attention. Eric maintained a presence. He could accompany me as a disembodied voice but he would be invisible to anyone we encountered. Others would also be unable to hear him. So if I talked to him people would think I was talking to myself.

This new city was moderately busy and I was told this was extreme. A local holiday started tomorrow and people were getting in last minute supplies before everything closed.

I was guided through parks and galleries that seemed unusually quiet given the numbers on the street. This was another result of the pending holiday. There were some people in the park putting up streamers, flags and bunting. I thought it was nice how some things are universal.

Eric guided me to a huge edifice of a building. At the end of an alley that ran down the side of this building, stood a double strip of flame barriers. Behind the building looked like scrubland. Apparently this was the largest city affected by the isolation device. The city had been cut in two and the spaces beyond were highly dangerous and unstable.

Eric told me to go beyond the barriers. I did not fall. Over years the Mettanic had been edging the barriers forward and there was a substantial space beyond invisible to the general public.

Eric appeared as if linking in. This would be the only place in the city where Eric could actually show or demonstrate things. The large building was the security centre almost certainly where they would bring R’Linda. Walking through the sidewall behind the barrier would put me in one of the buildings lift shafts.

Almost everybody in this building, even janitors would use a KI. This called for a higher level of caution.

The local dialect was unusual provided I spoke clearly, my lip-sync error would go un-noticed.

The records had been changed so I would be able to pass for a D’ni language expert. This was a neat cover to enable me to get close to R’Linda. Moving around in the building was ok as long as I faced automatic doors. Eric would trigger an open signal as if I was physically there. But manual doors became a farce. I could not be seen just passing through. I had to wait till someone else passed. Once the door was opened I had to slip through before it closed.

Using my KI to rise between floors was useful but I needed to do it unobserved a body rising between floors would draw attention so I was going floor to floor by slipping into a janitor’s cleaning room then rising until I was a head poking through the floor of the cupboard above.

This worked well till I came up inside a bucket being refilled by an industrious cleaner. His reaction to seeing a disembodied head in his bucket was panic. I jumped to the floor above where I was in a totally dark room. Unable to see, I tried to use my KI to create light. Eric’s voice told me my real body on the bed back at the base was glowing. I explained the situation. The light came on automatically. I discovered why the room was dark. It was a photographic darkroom. For some reason they still needed to produce photographs the old way. They had converted a janitor’s room for the purpose.

There were strips of film and photographs hanging from clips all over the room. Amongst them were my doings at the bear pit. I tried to remove them to get a better look only to have my hand pass straight through. You would think that the ability to pass through solid objects would make clandestine operations easy. It was proving to be the opposite.

I had Eric warp me back to the alley and we discussed the matter. The options were adjusted on my KI so I could engage a limited invisibility. It was only about sixteen seconds but it was enough to look through a door or floor to see if the coast was clear. My second attempt at infiltration was more successful. While I still had to exercise caution, my progress was a lot quicker. I was still hanging around till I was sure there was nobody looking. If it was clear on the side of the door I was on I could look the other side to see if it was clear there.

The biggest shock was the janitor who saw my head in his bucket. I felt sorry for the poor man. I entered a corridor and he came in the other end. He saw me, recognised the face, and ran up to me. When his arms passed into my chest he fainted. While he was out cold, Eric did a quick change to my appearance adjusting my build and giving my face an older appearance removing my hair altogether. It was definitely the fastest haircut and shave I have ever had. R’Linda always said I could do with gaining a few pounds.

I was keen to look at the computer terminals but I could not connect. Eric was adamant that I would be able to access that data from my KI when we returned. We eventually located the secure wing. The two guards in biohazard suits on the airlock were a give away. I found an open office on the floor below and rose to the occasion. R’Linda was not there but Eric assured me that she was still in transit. Given the need for bio-security by the Ohran, they were transporting her by vehicle.

The Ohran had a strange mix of technological understanding. Some knowledge had survived the collapse. Other things like getting hard copy pictures from a KI and the intricacies of the tunnel system were beyond them.

I was looking round the isolation suite for access points when Eric came back to me. He sounded agitated. “Walker your physicality is behaving strangely.” It took me a while to realise he was talking about my body. I was warped back to the base expecting to arrive either at the beds or the hot spot. I arrived on top of the hangar. The hotspot here gets relocated when the unit does a re-attachment, particularly when that move takes it to the second planet.

Eric recommended I walk. Warp type moves this close to origin can be tricky. When I got to the bed there was a moment of disorientation where I was looking from both directions. I was aware of my avatar looking at myself on the bed and myself looking back at the avatar. The illusion faded with the avatar.

I was not long back in my body when I realised the problem. My stomach was rumbling. The Mettanic were fascinated. They had dispensed with eating and drinking by using machines to directly feed the blood externally. It was at this point, I realised their bodies appeared to be moving but only just. They had almost dispensed with breathing.

I excused myself and went to the dining room. I had three meals to catch up on. While I was eating I thought about getting into the isolation section.

At our next meeting in the hangar, I was adamant we had to find another way to rescue R’Linda. There was no way they would risk bringing R’Linda through the city and risk potentially exposing everyone in the city to pathogens they had no immunity to we may not have the D’ni plague but we well have other diseases that the locals had no immunity to . If it was my decision I would have a spawn point inside the lab and bring anything in that way. It would be inbound only. The airlock was for leaving. There would be a second point in the lab that linked to a star. This would also be one way, but only because it is difficult to use your KI when you have been atomised by the heat of a star.

I would not be able to enter the lab and leave twice. This was a one shot rescue. If I wanted to rescue her from here, it would only be as a last resort. One shot in and out. It would be a better idea to take her from the transport.

The Mettanic confirmed the presence of rare surface craft, owned by the extremely rich ruling class of the Ohranic pair.

There were some civil authority vehicles in remote districts used by the local equivalent of police or rangers. I was lost for answers without access to a terminal. The Mettanic were data rich and information poor. The city was the answer.

Eric was able to assign me a vacant penthouse suite with a terminal. It had its own exclusive spawn point and a matter transfer box. I moved in and resumed a hobby as a computer geek. Searching the local equivalent of the Internet, I researched anything and everything. I had Erick pass me feeds from weather satellites. Their formidable skills eliminated all visible transport that could be accounted for. We were left with one small group of vehicles. The group consisted of a giant ground vehicle being escorted by three small flyers and shadowed by a large dirigible. This had to be the transport they were moving R’Linda in.

I suspected she was in the ground vehicle and the airship was support and emergency cover. They were only travelling in daylight so that the dirigible could maintain visual contact with the ground vehicle. At night, the airship would remain overhead, holding station tethered to the giant machine, watching the surrounding area with infrared sensors.

My avatar movements emitted a minimal heat signature less than the local wildlife, so I would remain undetected at night. It looked like a good opportunity to evaluate the situation.

We decided it would be a good idea to contact Corvid and assess his situation so I sent the “hello” message. Eric recommended we give Corvid a couple of days to respond, as it looked like the convoy was taking a roundabout route avoiding areas of population. Corvid responded the next day. Corvid had found a KI with a dead body. The user was an area officer in a deserted region and had died of natural causes on a field trip. Corvid said that local conditions would mean that the convoy would have to take a wide diversion because of ground conditions that he would be able to avoid.

Corvid recommended I use a full presence and not the Avatar. If a situation presented itself I could intervene. As an avatar I would have been limited to observation.

The ground vehicle they were transporting R’Linda in contained a machine that would effectively put R’Linda and any disease she had in stasis a situation where she would exist outside of time. This machine required enormous amounts of power. This power was generated in the vehicle but it made the vehicle too massive for air transport and beyond the scope of most bridges and the tunnel system. Their route meant they had to bypass a light bridge over a canyon. The diversion took them up stream where a dam had been built across this canyon. While it was no longer used for power production the dam was massive enough to take the weight of this giant ground vehicle.

We tried to see if we could recover Corvid via the tunnel system but he was well away from any useable locations. The KI did give us some time to establish an exchange of information.

Corvid was the eighth Mettanic and he had a solution to his lost body. Whilst on earth he had absorbed a great deal of information on human physiology. The mapping of the human genome project had provided masses of data. Corvid was confident he could create a human body that would support his consciousness.

Given the nature of Mettanic physiology and a lack of internal organs, a Mettanic construct was not an option if the body was to transfer between worlds. It would need human innards to support eating and drinking and the less pleasant bodily functions.

There was a risk that the mind transfer might take time to adjust. Creating a body from some of my body tissue would take only a few weeks. There were problems the Mettanic had foreseen but they were bridges we would cross later.

I expressed an objection to having a cloned twin, but Corvid insisted that some of the changes to the genome to support his consciousness would mean that the features would have a family resemblance but not an identical twin.

The transfer would also involve a substantial risk to Corvid. The mind support structure of the mechanical entity he was currently occupying would be destroyed in the transfer. It would be a one-way trip. Some twists in the DNA would give him some longevity but the net result was a significantly shortened Mettanic lifespan. There was an outside possibility he could move onto a second cloned body. This was not by all means certain.

The diversion the vehicle was taking gave us three days and a meeting point for Corvid. The old dam was on the tube system. As we were able to track the convoy from satellite observation we could time our trip so we would all be at the dam together. Corvid would be travelling just ahead of the convoy and we would meet on top of the dam structure.

The tube-way came out in a room below the generator hall. The massive machines were silent and brooding. It took me ages to find my way to the upper chambers and eventually to the gallery that led to the entrance on top of the dam.

I was early. Corvid got well ahead of the convoy and it looked like we would have a local day possibly two to sort some things out before the convoy arrived. Corvid had been V’Erik’s pet crow, and he was a lot bigger than I remembered. He interfaced with my new KI and told me the body plan was an oversized Raven to accommodate added equipment, most of which was memory.

Corvid’s life program would have originally fitted into one of the newer Mk 12 KI’s but over two hundred years of earth data had pushed his capacity. There was a mass of offline storage left on earth secreted in shards on servers all over earth.

In his years on the surface Corvid had hacked his way into a myriad of systems secreting away little bits of code that enabled him to exist in close contact with the internet and all its data.

Corvid proceeded to upload a mass of data to my KI. Sending this much data over the network would have drawn attention and he wanted the Mettanic working on the data as soon as possible. The plan was for Corvid to remain with the convoy and check in whenever he could. I would have to trace and break into another lab to start the cloning process.

This had to be my job because the machine would need to draw fresh DNA from my body as a baseline. They would need me around to move the clone back to the facility. There was a disused lab in the same building they were taking R’Linda. My biggest problem would be getting that machinery on line.

The data transfer took time as the hardware in the Crow body was limited and required using an old protocol. I hung my KI over Corvid’s neck and went exploring the local terrain with Corvid tucked underneath my arm. Corvid was surprisingly light. The feathers were real and had been renewed regularly over the years using road-kill as a source of new material. The bird was not moving but the activity on the KI showed the download in progress.

We were outside on the hillside above the dam when we caught our first sight of the convoy down stream of the dam. The first vehicle was the dirigible, then two of the escort flyers. I didn’t see the third till it was too late. It came from the other direction, flying down the lake, directly over-flying our location.

Caught in the open, we had definitely been spotted. I ran for cover. I had seen some mine workings where they had recovered some mineral probably during the construction of the dam. I hid here hoping no wild animal had done the same. Not long after, Corvid sparked into life. He told me the download was completed. With the KI around his neck Corvid was able to use the KI to simulate a voice. I nearly died of shock. I was not prepared for this disembodied voice. It sounded very strange.

Corvid had a large library of recorded sound like a massive MP3 library. He had loaded them into my KI and was making sentences by clipping words from the recordings. This procedure was quicker than simulating a new voice from scratch. It sounded like the audio equivalent of one of those ransom notes made out of newspaper clippings.

Corvid informed me that the dirigible would have infrared sensors that would pick up my body heat. If I could get my heat source underground they would not be able to detect the hot spot. When they got closer they would put down ground troops and would follow the trail with hand held sensors. Until that time I should take cover in the mine workings.

Corvid also told me to put my KI back on. The voice synthesizer within the KI stopped working and Corvid’s messages reverted to type on the head up display. There was no way for me to get back to the dam as the airship closed in. I could see ground troops repelling from the airship as it hovered over the dam.

Corvid flew to my wrist and placed his head near my KI. There was a sharp buzz and my KI and the head up was suddenly a mass of lights. It got dark as if I was blacking out. I did not feel faint. Then I heard the first thunderclap. I had not been fainting. The weather had suddenly been closing in. It had actually been getting darker and a massive thunderstorm rolled over the hill behind me. The downpour was incredible, a true desert storm. I was safe in the entrance to the workings but the troops were forced back down the slope by a wall of water and scree tumbling down the slope like an avalanche.

Got to go Walker.

There is a story around about the fall of D'ni It tells how the plague was spread amongst the ages I am trying to reconcile this with what Walker is telling me I mentioned this in the note I sent him hopefully he may be able to find answers that end of the link.

Corvid

Another message from Walker it looks like he solved his journal problem.

I do not know who or what Corvid is. The name has a root in Latin that relates to the crow family of birds. R’Linda's brother V’Erik had a pet crow he called Corvid. R’Linda said in her letter she was taking Corvid with her.

I can understand why she might take Corvid along as a pet. R’Linda implied that Corvid could help her retrieve data. She also implied that Corvid might work with a mark12 KI data core.

This was confusing when I read it. I have always assumed that Corvid was a common crow. The more I think about it, as crows go, he did seem to be large for an ordinary crow.

I became more perplexed when I retrieved a KI message claiming to come from Corvid. I am putting it here in full. It is short.

“Walker

I am, as you can see from my contact details, Corvid. I am in Ohran. I am aware of your messages. The ones you have sent to the cavern. You have met me but will not be aware of my existence and status. R’Linda is here. She cannot contact you directly. We are in need of your help.

You appear to have figured out that Ohran consists of two habitable worlds. At the moment you need to know we are on the other planet. This is not as big an issue as you may think.

The Ohranic pair survived the plague that destroyed the D’ni. When I say survived it is a relative statement. The society suffered a severe setback from a twenty percent drop in population. This is massive beyond any earth pandemic.

At this time I am limited to short messages and I must close now. Expect further messages later. For now, please do not reply. Your signal may compromise my position.

Corvid”

This is one of those communications that answers nothing. It is a message that just poses more questions. Things like, “This society has been decimated.” “A society that stretches over two planets.” Corvid is self-aware whatever he she or it is. I am going to assume that the tunnel system does cover both worlds. That is why Corvid believes being on the other world is not an issue. The name for the people here has been clarified as Ohran.

I hope Corvid gets in touch soon. Meanwhile I will just keep on exploring and trying to solve the puzzles in the training area.

Two days later I received another message from Corvid, it was a little longer. It was positively more revealing.

“Walker

R’Linda is being held in isolation. The authorities here believe she may be a carrier of the D’ni plague. I am free to move around and can send messages to you when I encounter what you call a KI. The devices are less common in general society here. The Ohranic council must not become aware of my position. All of my operations must remain clandestine.

You must get away from your current location. The last communication I am aware of, you were speculating about the training area and the tunnel system.
These two are linked. In the training area you need only the most basic of promotions to get into the Lasha city this is the nearest hub to your present location.

You need to get into the tunnel system proper if you are to avoid capture. For now your greatest asset is the Ohranic paranoia. You are perceived as a serious biohazard, the ultimate Typhoid Mary. We both know you are no such threat, but they do not. The members of this bi-global society live longer than what we can consider standard humans like you. The D’ni plague happened before the advent of Jenner and inoculation. However, this society had instantaneous travel. Consider how the humans on earth have speculated on the dissemination of influenza pandemic spread by airline based travel. Now transpose that onto a society that has the instantaneous travel experienced in the tunnel transit system.

The people here had only one means at their disposal, isolation, shutting off vast sections of the population. They had already made large areas depopulated as a side effect of cutting off access to Ae’gura. The people here have since discovered vaccination and anti-viral drugs. Another bi-global pandemic is less likely but still feared. They do not have the confidence in their discovery. They are as yet unaware of why it works.

The Lasha City hub will be the only hub you can get to beyond the training area. This will look like a wheel with a series of mechanical gates. As long as you remain in the training area they will be able to detect your /spawn movements. You must find a hot spot outside the hub gates.

On the end of this message I have provided a user code and address. Put the user code in your buddy list. Send the word “Shorah” when you have a hot point outside the hub. Stay on the Ohranic pair till you get a reply. I will only be able to contact you live and I will not be able to reach you at your relto.

If you have been to your relto you will have fired the closure protocol and will be restricted to it and the Ohranic pair. If it is still working completely, you will now be totally isolated from Ae’gura.

You will be able to /spawn back to the barrow, as you call it, and then to your new location outside the hub. You can create a new command by combining these two /spawn commands.

If you call your new hot spot “escape,” then use the command /spawn door escape from your relto, it will take you from relto to the new location outside the hub in one step. Security will see a blip on their screens but your destination will be unreadable.

I will contact you again on receipt of the word “Shorah,” not before. Do not send me any other communication, as they will put us both at risk. Send nothing more than the one word.

Corvid”

On Corvid's advice, I stepped up research in the training area. I solved five puzzles and activated code inputs on my KI at the end of each task. On completion of each task, I had a symbol light up which corresponded to a station in the local tunnel network. As I found each station, the matching symbol glowed on the wall like those below the tree in the cleft.

I had found five and was getting nowhere till I touched one. This opened a door to an elevator. As I searched, I found some were stairs, others ramps. On the surface, I was in a set of walled walkways that matched the layout of the training area. Each location with a puzzle in the training area had a corresponding model on the surface above the station.

I was struggling at this point till I discovered each model had to be turned, pushed or twisted to open a door in the pedestal. The door was a KI slot and the code for the puzzle was changed. The corresponding door to the station was closed.

I spent two days wandering around the surface. I slept on the ground. I was resisting the urge to use relto to escape and I knew I had to find an answer. I was also not using the /spawn command as this was another way of reducing detection. In the end, I must have wandered into one of the barrier-protected stations.

Falling.

I used the panic button and I was back in relto. When I returned to Ohran and the training area, the puzzles I had solved had been reset. I was beginning to worry. From the viewpoint above the barrow, I saw people in full body biohazard suits. I warped to the hub and ran to the exit.

Whatever I had done on the surface had activated my KI to open the gate in the Lasha City hub. I ran through the tunnels, always taking right or straight on. Eventually, I found a hot spot and tried to name it “escape” as Corvid suggested. I was tired, dirty and not thinking straight. It took me half an hour to realise I was trying to use a six letter code.

I would have used a seven letter word “pillock,” a fine old Anglo Saxon word for “idiot,” but it was seven letters. I eventually decided on “free”.

I was clear of the base and the men in biohazard gear. I had a way in and out of relto. I was cut off from a comfortable bed and a source of food and drink. I still had my water filtering pack so I had drinking water, but no Mocha and no beer. I sat dejected and sent the word “Shorah” to the Corvid contact in my buddy list. Then I waited uncomfortably hot and sweaty for a reply from Corvid.

The reply, when it came, was not what I expected. All it said was, “Run randomly! They are on to you!” I was running again. I ran until I was fit to drop. I ran through tunnel after tunnel, not looking at my KI once, relying on random chance. I eventually ended in a new hub. I knew it was not one of the originals as it was smaller. It only had twelve exits. When I consulted the KI, I found one exit that appeared to lead away from the tunnel system.

Unlike the first one at the training area which had its own maze of tunnels this led immediately to an automatic set of doors. If the first base had been big, this was the opposite, having no more than a dozen buildings. One was big like an old aircraft hangar. The remainder were no more than small office blocks or administration buildings. There was what appeared to be a medical centre. I found a small canteen by recognising the food dispensers. There was a small accommodation centre big enough for about thirty enlisted men. I say men; they could have been either gender. Enlisted is also a moot point. I guessed these were other ranks, not officers. There were four separate accommodations that looked like officer areas.

There was one building sealed tight. It had no windows and a very solid door. Given that it was surrounded by a blast wall I took this to be an armoury or a bomb dump. There was a communications centre. It was a building with eight of the machines I had used to communicate with Ae’gura. In the corner of this room was a man sized metal chest attached to the wall. It was joined to a separate box with a pad and screen. Inside the box there were copies of some of the DRC books I had found in the mound storeroom. Apart from the pad on the outside it was identical to the chest I had found in the storeroom.

I found a well equipped but small engineering workshop. I borrowed some tools and used them to break into one of the officer quarters. The bed was easily as comfortable as the one in the base at the first site.

There was a terminal in this accommodation but I ignored it for the time being. I sent another Shorah message to Corvid and lay on the bed for a well-earned rest.

I do not know how long I slept but I awoke with my arm buzzing. It was Corvid he congratulated me on my evasions and told me to avoid any terminals where I was the only base occupant. Any data accessed from a terminal on a deserted base would flag my presence. If I wanted to use a terminal I would be best doing it from an occupied base or a location with people.

Corvid told me to keep to our “Shorah” protocol because it was vague enough. If I was asked questions that did not start and end with his name, I was to assume a reply was unsafe. My best procedure would be to only send the one word.
It was not a word that would be used on Ohran.
At this time my location was unknown to him. By that measure it would also be undetected by the Ohranic medical security team. Their communications traffic was open to Corvid at this time and they believed I was still in the area of the first base.

While they knew about R’Linda they were unaware of my status and Corvid himself was still under cover.

It would be helpful if I could locate a mass transfer device. From the description this was the metal chest I had found attached to the wall.

Apparently it was like a matter transport for organic matter. The mass transfer device created a copy of any organic non-living material. A destination code is entered in the box at the side an indicator light signifies a connection. Then anything placed in the box is duplicated at the destination.

Three factors, first it must fit inside the box. Second it must once have been alive. Third it must now be dead. Actually it could be alive but the created copy at the destination would be dead. The original remained unharmed only its structure was transmitted. The information in a body that constituted life was beyond the scope of the box.

If my new location had book transmitters and I could find Journals, I could and should transmit them to Ae’gura. Corvid considered it essential that I keep them informed of both my own and their status. I have assumed by “their status” he means R’Linda and himself Corvid.

I still have not figured out who Corvid is and how he got to Ohran.

Apparently, I have to find a terminal in an occupied area specifically not the first area. That location is under surveillance. I am to use it to get a D’ni locator code. This will allow me to pair a journal with its corresponding one in D’ni.

I went exploring the hangar. Like an aircraft hangar it had huge double doors at the end and a small door. The small door was locked and the large ones had a spindle that looked as if it would take a handle. Scrapes on the door marked a scribed circle around the spindle where previously a handle had rubbed the door repeatedly.

The hangar was one of those long tunnel type structures and was completely grassed over. The grass had not been cut in years if ever. I climbed up the side and along to the other end. This had a similar door arrangement but the door looked like it had never been opened. Grass and scrub was growing right up to the door and the spindle on this end had no circle of scratch marks around it.

The small door looked as if it had been painted shut several times because the paint was so thick. I went back to what I assumed was the front end. I searched around for some time and could not find a handle. I went to the workshops and used some scrap that was lying around to fashion a handle to open the big doors. I have not used welding gear for over twenty years and this was strange gear. If I say so myself, my handle was tidy and did the job.

With my manufactured handle opening the doors was surprisingly easy. I waited till it was dark and stopped when the gap was shoulder width. I considered opening them fully but that could have drawn attention. A shaft of sunlight would have alerted anyone inside. I need not have worried. I used the new KI /lite function. Inside the hangar was a conversion job, a building inside a building. Built inside a hangar it was a light structure. There was some sort of generator that hummed and glowed. Some sections of the floor appeared to glow faintly. I simply avoided those areas.

The inner structure only had windows in a set of double doors on one end. The glass in these doors was frosted but a narrow, clear edge of about three millimetres about an eighth of an inch allowed me to see there was nobody moving inside. I entered the building.

The room was filled with eight beds, each angled slightly steeper than forty-five degrees. The beds were arranged in a circle so they all faced inwards. The equipment attached to the beds made them look more like machines. On each bed there was a person. One was dead and mummified, although the machines at this bed appeared to be still running.

The others all appeared to be unconscious. They looked human but there were small differences that marked them out as something other. The heads were encased in a web of sensors with earpieces from headphones. If these were what they appeared to be, the ears were to far forward, almost at the temples. They also appeared to be too shallow. The five fingers on each hand were slightly too long, as if each finger had an extra joint the thumb was also longer giving each had six digits.

The fingers had no nails, but a small tuft of hair grew from each hand where the nail should have been. The skin had a colour that was slightly redder than it should have been.

I heard a noise so I hid behind some of the machinery. It was a robot device that looked like a mass of machinery put together by the proverbial mad scientist. It had at least five arms. It was hard to count they moved so quickly. It manoeuvred around the room on wheels and approached one of the inclined beds. The bed tilted to the horizontal and the robot proceeded to wash and tend to the bed-ridden figure. It was as quick and efficient as any nurse. When it had finished it went on its way and the bed returned to its previous angled position.

The screen above some of the patients lit up including the one that had just been given a bed bath. The face on each screen matched the occupant of the bed.

The mummified screen remained off. One of the faces the one that had just had a bed bath spoke. It was some incomprehensible language. My KI started a running commentary as a head up display subtitles.

“We have a visitor.” “It is a long time since someone came to visit us” come out and talk we are not in a position to harm you.” This statement had come from one of the others. I came out from my hiding place strangely confident.

My KI appeared to buzz and the language became familiar. But it was as if the KI was interceding because the lip synchronisation was out for the words I was hearing.

“You appear to be from the D’ni cavern but are not of the true D’ni. We are aware that someone has recently entered through the Soval gate. That was a female of the Ohran and is still on Asma. We must assume that you came through the Jall gate. We do not fear the D’ni plague as the Ohran do as we appear immune to its effects.”

I risked talking to them. “I see one of your people is dead.” “He speaks well if strangely.” This was a new speaker. I told them how the cavern was occupied now but not by D’ni and how I had become trapped by the very system designed to try and keep me out. While I stood the robot came back and cleared the mummified body it also removed most of the equipment from that bed.

All the bedding was changed it was a nurses dream. Once the body had been removed all the bedding vanished as if linking out and a complete new set appeared. The one that had been the first to speak invited me to rest on the unoccupied bed. A long conversation followed. I will summarise what I found out.

These are the Mettanic. The name is longer but I have used their shorter version. They are a space faring race that does work for hire in any society that can support them. They have had most of their body systems replaced by artificial organs like cyborgs without any super strength. They can secede of their consciousness into complex mechanical systems like wandering artificial intelligence programs. They need to re occupy their real mind space from time to time so their bodies are kept functional. This facility was built to service their physical needs.

Apparently the three screens that were not running were covering for those that were here. The mummified one had been with the Ohranic agents in D’ni at the time of the fall and because he had not returned to his body. It died. They had left the body feeling no need to remove it until now.

Whilst the body needed their consciousness they did not require being conscious. This virtual meeting was enough and they apparently swapped duties to ease some of the boredom. There were other sites but this was more like a family group. Some were hundreds strong. They were the smallest at seven, the only group within the isolation zone. The other groups have been planning to leave for over two hundred years. They all became trapped when Orhanic society collapsed to a stage where it was almost pre-industrial.

The Mettanic outside of the zone remain hidden to the modern Ohranic general population. Some of the ruling class, however, are aware.

One by one the screens went out till I was left talking only to the first one. I was told if I wanted answers to specific questions in the future I should come and occupy the vacant bed.

I was also told to take the handle I had made for the outside of the main door and close it from inside. At this point I would realise how they detected my presence.

Also the smaller door had been unlocked and would now operate for me if I touched it.

I followed the instructions when I closed the big door the lights came on. It was like a fridge in reverse. The lights came on when the door was closed not opened. The hangar felt bigger on the inside than it had on the outside once the lights were working. Large sections of the floor were transparent and pipe work and equipment could be seen through these sections. Small indicator lights on equipment in these sections had been the faint glow I had seen when I entered the hangar.

I had been awake for a good while when I left as I had waited for sunset before entering. I had a meal, wrote my journal, and went to bed. In the morning I searched for a hotspot but the site appeared strangely devoid. I eventually found one at the small door for the hangar. I gave it the name Mett. The association with the Mettanic should help me remember it.

Next day, I met with the first Mettanic. He told me this site was secure from the Ohran. It had no direct links with the tunnels. He also said that if I would help them they would try and find a way to refresh the power source for the Celtic cleft. This was the one, which they called the Soval gate.

He said he would be my contact and would speak for all of the members of this Mettanic cell. He told me his name and it sounded like a chirp of clicks and whistles. He told me was only a label and that I should find a suitable name and use that.

I have taken to calling him “Eric the red” because the colour of his skin was a reminder. When I told him the skin colour on the screen changed to green, as did his body. “The skin colour is arbitrary use the name it is as good as any. Apparently his skin colour is unfixed. But red is our rest state”.

We both agreed that rescuing R’Linda was a priority as she was my only hope of finding the exact location of the Soval gate. The group believed that Corvid may be the lost consciousness of their mummified colleague. He would be trapped within an artificial device. His major hardware left with the Ohran on earth. He would currently be in something self-mobile. He would be unable to return here to his life matrix. This was their name for his body.

Many of their people had ended up trapped like this. Some would choose a sort of suicide. They would enter a portable device and then remove the power source.

Some went crazy. This usually manifested itself as a catatonic withdrawal. Some escaped to a virtual world. This was held in their deep space transport.

It was parked at a LaGrange point for the two worlds of the Ohranic pair. It was a large facility like the one in the hangar but with space for thousands of Mettanic. When travelling, their bodies would be metabolically slowed and their consciousness would travel between the stars, occupying a virtual world.

When the Mettanic and the Ohran first encountered the D’ni, they believed the cavern might have been a virtual world like the Mettanic space ship. The art was perceived as nothing more than writing extensions to their virtual world.

This had been dispelled when Ti’Anna had entered through the cleft. Either she was real or an unthinkable event had occurred. The alternative was possible but highly unlikely. The program that was the cavern had become self-aware and had developed a way to rewrite its own code. This raised the possibility that the plague was also a manifestation of this self-aware code.

This also would mean that the art was nothing more than computer code written to generate new virtual worlds.

I found it hard to sleep that night. Eric had given me so much to think about. Was I a piece of code generated by the cavern? Are you a piece of code generated by the cavern? Who are we? Why are we here?

Walker

This one did not come by the usual means or at least not from the same location
I was still guided by notes in the message post script and I am keeping those to myself for now.

Gibson