Chapter 296.5 (2/2)
”Do not be weak,” the leader said and closed her hand.
The lightning on the one still on the ground suddenly snuffed out and the girl hitched a deep breath, her eyes cooling to amber.
”What happened?” Brentili'ik asked. She'd noticed the lightning, the static, the changes in Terran's eyes, and other odd occurrences around Terrans.
The girl was standing in line now as another climbed up. She was fourth in line and stood there with her head hanging down for a moment. Another girl touched her arm and they began talking.
”She couldn't control herself,” Colonel Harvey said. ”So they did it for her,” he shook his head. ”Before this, it was all subconscious, there wasn't any outward effect. Now, something changed.”
”Case Omaha,” Brentili'ik guessed.
”Maybe? I don't know. The eye thing is new,” Harvey said.
Brentili'ik looked at him in surprise. ”New? It's been as long as I've known you Terrans, almost two years. All of your eyes change color depending on your mood.”
Harvey frowned. ”Really? Not just the cyber-eyes?”
Brentili'ik shook her head. ”No. All Terran eyes.”
”Huh,” Harvey said, filing the information away.
The girl that had landed on her back was laughing with the others, the insult and injury forgotten or no longer mattering.
”What will you do if the Lanaktallan achieve victory in their attacks?” Brentili'ik asked. She had been briefed on ”The Bag Scenario” by Terran Confederate Military Intelligence as someone 'In the Need to Know' about the security measure.
”It won't help them. Those forces are gone. Either they are defeated in the bag, or they're just gone now,” Colonel Harvey said.
”So what will you do?” she asked. ”What does this mean for your people?”
”We'll keep fighting,” he said. He nodded to where the girl who had landed on her back was now taking her turn climbing up.
Brentili'ik had figured out the rules. You imitated whatever the one on the highest bar did or you got down. If you landed badly you either got to your feet and climbed back on or went to the back of the line. She wasn't too thrilled with the public humiliation of being forced to go to the back of the line, that the girls who had completed the maneuver would sneer at the other for weakness when they failed, but she noticed that very few of the girls had red eyes.
The leaders burned a cool amber as she surveyed her domain.
”She wouldn't quit. Before she was on top she undoubtably fell again and again until she got it right,” Harvey said. His voice got soft and quiet. ”If we're gone, if the Lanaktallan have managed to begin the eradication of humanity, we'll drag them to Hell in our jaws with us so they can never do it to anyone else.”
Brentili'ik didn't know what to say.
She just sat and watched the littles play.
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Herod shook the thick piece of woven fiber that was tufted on one end. The little ball of fur, a feline that had been extinct for over eight thousand years, batted at the tuft with all four feet, scrabbling at it. The little bar of fluff made squeaky growls as it did furious battle with the tufted end.
”It is pleasing to watch,” Torturer said from where he was sitting in a chair. ”It pleases me to see it happy.”
”You? Happy?” Vanishing Point said, raising their eyebrows. ”You?”
”It is a strange experience,” Torturer admitted, shrugging. ”Just the mere act of observing the creature, the kitty, is pleasing.”
”Why isn't Sam-UL caring for them?” Vanishing Point asked, looking around. Flowerpatch was playing with the goodboi, who had one end of a cord in his mouth while Flowerpatch tugged it.
”He left the Do Not Disturb icon on his message service and his doors,” Flowerpatch said without looking up, pulling on the cord and pulling the goodboi toward her. It was wagging its little tail even as it gave a tiny growl.
Herod handed the piece of woven fiber to Vanishing Point. ”Here, just dangle it. The kitty will play with it.”
”Where are you going?” Vanishing Point asked, taking the cord and emulating Herod's movements.
”To check on Sam-UL. He has been quiet for very long and is not answering communications requests,” Herod said. He pinged Sam-UL again, but got no reply.
”I do not trust him without Legion around. He is a criminal,” Vanishing Point said.
Herod shrugged. ”It is not our concern. Legion is the project coordinator, he makes the decisions.”
”But he is not here,” Vanishing Point protested, keeping open a communications thread to keep talking to Herod as Herod left the room and physically began to walk down the hallway.
”Yet his orders remain and the Confederate Intelligence Agents keep watch,” Herod said. ”Mind your job and your entertainment, let other departments carry out their work.”
Herod's com program clinked and Sam-UL's icon appeared next to the request for a secure communications link.
”I'll talk to you later, Point,” Herod said, switching links. He raised one eye at the level of encryption that Sam-UL was using inside a Black Box. ”Herod here.”
”You're our particle expert, right?” Sam-UL asked. His voice sounded strained.
”Yes,” Herod answered.
”I need you to bring a strange-matter Class XIV nano-forge, three Class XII graviton power generators, and two Class XI zero-point difference reactors to my main work space,” Sam-UL said. ”Here's the passkey to get in. It'll only work for you and only for the next hour. Wear your physical interaction frame, don't come in a nanite field or as a hard light hologram.”
”OK, but what's this ab...” Herod started, but Sam-UL had already cut the link.
Frowning, Herod went and retrieved the items. He loaded himself into a physical frame, which looked more like an evil chrome robot than anything else, then gathered up the items into a small satchel. The nano-forge was barely larger than a softball and the reactors were the size of limes. He carried them to the door to Sam-UL's lab and touched the door.
The door checked the encryption key three times, pinged Sam-UL twice, and then, almost resentfully, opened.
Beyond was computer equipment liberally strewn everywhere. There were live power cables on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling, sometimes in loops, with step up or step down transformers all over the place. There was high level EM shielding coating the walls, the ceiling, the floor, even in strips down from the ceiling. Sam-UL was kneeling on the floor, arranging a piece of equipment with a laser pointer. Next to him were two armored vacuum suits with strange additions. One of the Confederate Agents stood near him, perfectly calm, her feet shoulder width apart, her hands one over the other at waist level, her sunglasses hiding her eyes.
”I'm here,” Herod said quietly.
”I'll need you to come with me,” Sam-UL said. ”Close the door, shut down your comlink subroutines.”
”All right,” Herod said slowly, looking around. There were lines drawn on the floor. A set of computers on a desk had a circle around them. The crude quantum computer had a circle around it and heavy EM shielding around it. ”Are we going somewhere?”
Sam-UL looked up and Herod almost stepped back from the burning madness in the other Digital Sentience's eyes.
”Yes,” the young DS said. He made a connection and the frame began to hum. ”I need certain strange matter particles, in a certain configuration, to synch this to, and then we will be going,” Sam-UL pointed at a cleared patch on the floor with a circle around it and heavy EM shielding. The two modified armored vac-suits were in the circle, connected to a pair of crude dataslates. ”Get the stuff out right there. We'll be using the reactors ourselves, we'll be wearing the suits once you coat them to my specifications.”
”Where?” Herod asked, moving over and unzipping the bag.
”Afterbirth,” Sam-UL said, as if that explained it all.
”What? That's disgusting,” Herod said, imagining placenta lining.
”Define Afterbirth,” Sam-UL said to mid-air.
A hologram of a human appeared. His skin was brown, his hair brown, his eyes were flashing fire. He was wearing archaic armor that was battered, rent, and bloody. In one hand he held a set of scales, in the other he held a book. The human male hologram was stern looking.
Herod saw his name, his creche number, and his hash algorithm on the cover of the book.
”Afterbirth is the colloquial name given to the Sentience Upload/Download System Maintenance Facility,” the figure said.
”Herod, Michael, Michael, Herod. He'll be coming with me. Please log him as a Strange Matter and Particle Technician Class I,” Sam-UL said, not looking up.
”I see you, Herod,” the hologram said.
Herod, to his credit, managed to hold his hash.