Part 12 (2/2)
”I don't know. I'd have to ask.” I paused. ”But before doing that I'd like to know more about what happened inside the castle today.”
Corel stopped pacing and fielded the question. ”As you know our intentions were to find out about the woman and child, who they are and why Gaza is so interested in finding them. But we learned more than we bargained for.” She shook her head in disbelief. ”Rath is holding the woman and child in his dungeon. Gaza doesn't know this. And it looks like Kric' tu is calling the shots. We don't know why he doesn't want Gaza to have the woman and child but Rath has been given strict orders to hold them. We can only a.s.sume that he wants wants Gaza to go through with his threat.” Gaza to go through with his threat.”
I let this new information sink in for a moment, then added, ”Humphrey said the two may be replicas of Gaza's wife and daughter. They died in his last existence and he has an unnatural preoccupation with them. Kric' tu may be aware of this but what doesn't make sense to me is, why would a character of this world want to destroy its home?”
Armadon interjected. ”From what we know Kric' tu is the creator of chaos. It would make sense for him to destroy governments, or cause upheavals. Maybe destroying this world is not not his main intention.” his main intention.”
”Good point,” I said. ”He could be stirring things up a little to get us to play his game.
”A little?” Corel said. ”He's already stirring things up a lot. a lot. The question is how do we stop him?” The question is how do we stop him?”
I stepped back and looked at them. ”Well, let's ask Dr. Solomon. Are you ready to meet the man in charge?”
Both nodded.
I brought up the web and followed the steps to alert the doctor of my presence. ”This might take a second.”
Armadon stepped over and looked at the stretched-out strand. ”That's the program?”
”Yes.”
”How did you find it?”
”By accident really. I had time to kill and was examining the web to better understand how it worked.”
He leaned in closer. ”You understand that stuff?”
”Supposedly I'm some kind of programmer, at least that's what they told me. I can read it as easily as you can read English.”
The thread buzzed and came to life. ”Robert?” came Dr. Solomon's voice.
”Yes, I'm here, and I have two of the others with me.”
I glanced at Corel. She looked confused. ”Who's Robert?” she whispered.
”Hold on a minute, Doctor.” I turned toward Corel. ”Robert Helm is my real name.”
”Oh. --What's mine?”
”Can you tell them who they are, Doc?”
”I'm not sure. I could take a guess but I might not be right. It's complicated. You see, you are writing portions of the program we aren't able to read yet. We've been working frantically to understand the code but there's so much of it. The system was open-ended and we had no idea how to simulate an internal environment. So we let you come up with one on your own.”
”I thought you said you you created this world.” created this world.”
”I did. We did. Well, we made the framework, but you've changed it and adapted to it. There isn't much left of the original program.”
I was puzzled. ”Well then, how did you know who I I was?” was?”
”You're the only programmer in the system so we knew if anyone responded to our message it would have to be you. But we have a complete personality profile on each of you so perhaps if you tell me something about the other two I might be able to figure out who they are.
Corel interjected. ”I like to explore, I'm into climbing, and I love nature.” Her eyes shone with excitement, like I hadn't seen since her reunion with Kitaya.
Kitaya. My mind drifted to that place which held the memory of her. When I was with her I'd felt less alone-- she had given me peace for a time. I wanted our relations.h.i.+p to go further but time had been so short. There was so much I wanted to tell her. I missed missed her. her.
”Hold on, I'm checking our dossiers. Ah, here we are. Most likely you are Helen Vandergraten, biologist, age 43.”
Corel was silent.
”How about the other?” asked Dr. Solomon.
Armadon spoke up. ”I don't do much of anything.”
”You do a pretty good job of fighting this war,” I said.
”Yes, I do seem to have a lot of knowledge about tactical movements.”
”Say no more. There's a pretty good chance you are Major Ben Kendrick, age 36. You have an honorable discharge from the United States Army.”
”Why don't I remember any of that?”
”We don't know. Amnesia is a strange creature.”
”Well let's get back on track,” I said. ”The reason we contacted you is to see if you can lend us a hand. One of the characters in here has gone out of control. You said you can't locate us but can you locate the simulated characters?”
”Do you have a name?”
”Kric' tu.”
”We can do a search and try to find a path for that name but it's going to be extremely difficult. The computer has a.s.signed a number to each of the people in there including you. We would have to locate a text reference, something that was written about him, and then cross-reference it with location data stored on our time line. I think we can do it but it'll take awhile. Today for the first time we stumbled onto the text references and we're learning a great deal. It's quite fascinating.”
”Yes. Well, do what you can. I'll check in periodically to see how you're progressing.”
”I'll get right on it. Good luck, Robert.”
The thread went limp and I let the web fade away. ”Doesn't look like they're going to be much help at the moment.” I looked at Corel. She seemed preoccupied. ”You all right, Corel?”
She turned away from me. ”Yeah, I'm fine.”
”I realize it's a lot to swallow. Are you going to be okay?”
”Yes!” She snapped. ”It's just... I'm not sure how to feel about all this. I just want to wake up from this nightmare.” nightmare.”
”We all do,” I said gently. ”But until we figure out how we need to continue with what we're doing. Kric' tu must be stopped.”
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