005.01
Daniel presents his game tonight. He is
excited, but is trying not to show it. I’ll go for the presentation, than I
have to pick out my gun turrets. I still haven’t done that.
We have spent days touring the
exhibits. The first day, after our dip in the green apple pool, we had so much
energy that we were up 54 hours straight.
I had forgotten how breathtaking the
pool was. It is surrounded by black snowflake obsidian cliffs and ledges. The
obsidian is polished to a fine gloss from the Valarian’s traveling over it so
many years. The cracks in the stone have neon green moss growing in them. The
trees grow in clumps on the ridges above the pool. They have charcoal colored
bark with twisted limbs. The limbs are so dense in spots that it really doesn’t
make any difference that they have no leaves. It sure is amazing what you can
create when you terra form your own world.
I wanted to see the working class
competition of the Dar-dolf breed. From there we wandered over to see the rest
of the animal exhibit. I was tempted to purchase a mahserg like Fin’s pet. It
was marked so cute with black rings around its eyes that went back on the sides
if its head like overdone eye makeup. Its tail was ringed and it had matching
white ‘V’s’ on its chest and forehead. I love those huge black eyes they have.
But, I thought better of it. I really don’t have time for a pet and the
mahserg’s become very attached both physically and mentally to their owners. Having
one is quite the commitment since they live so long.
We visited the gaming room to get the
lay of the land. Toland and his brethren checked out the security and exits.
They can be intense for androids.
While we were having something to eat
the first day we saw a truly amazing sight. (Yes, Daniel has made it so the
androids eat. They have catch basins that fill and incinerators built in to do
away with the stuff.) Back to the amazing sight…The Valarians are way beyond
all of us technologically. They have programmable matter that is incredible.
All their law enforcement officers are made of the stuff. Daniel and I were
sitting in an open air café when we saw some young Drifit kid running hell bent
for Jupiter with a huge bag in his hand. He was doing his best to keep ahead of
two officers chasing him. They were close on his tail. He ran by us with the
intention of climbing the 10 foot fence behind us. He didn’t make it to the
other side. The first Matter Officer fell to the ground, reforming into tiny balls,
rolled and bounced his way through the fence and reformed into the officer
again on the other side. The kid had one officer in front of him and one
behind.
I turned to Daniel. “I don’t know why
anyone would try to steal during GTD. Don’t they know about the security on
Valaria?”
“Not everyone knows about the
formability of programmable matter. They have no idea how malleable it is. We
know there is no escaping it, try to climb a fence, it beats you to the other
side, climb a tree, it turns into a snake and climbs right up after you, run as
fast as you can, its legs turn to wheels and it runs you over. It is no wonder
there is no crime on Valaria. Between the Matter Officers and the surveillance
system on each tier you really can’t commit a crime without being caught.”
Daniel took a sip from his souvenir Titan Tumbler.
“I think safety is great, but I would
feel like I was living under Marshall Law.”
“You have to realize they don’t know
anything else,” Daniel said. “The Valarian’s that travel out of this world are
a select bunch. The rest grew up with these restrictions.”
“More like having overseers,” I said
under my breath as the Matter Officers and their captive walked by. “Creepy.” I
took a bite of my rainbow pasta medley. I wasn’t going to give up on pestering
Daniel about his program. “Speaking of which, I still don’t understand the
necessity of our friends here.” I motioned toward the walmites with my folk.
“No offense,” I said to Toland. He really hadn’t got in my way and was doing
his best to be low key for a seven foot eight-inch dude.
“No offense taken,” Toland said.
Daniel just kept sipping on his drink.
“Tonight, you’ll see tonight,” he assured me.
*****
I couldn’t believe the excitement over
Daniel’s game. Everyone was talking about it. Every station in the gaming hall
was tuned to it. Daniel had rented the hall for the first two hours to
introduce it, after that none of the other presenters could get anyone’s
attention. Daniel had the crowd in the palm of his hand. People were lined up
behind stations waiting for a chance to play and in the meantime cheering on
the current player.
The game had a navigational theme.
First you had to acquire the program with the multiple NEMS which allowed you
to activate the Valarian navigational beacons. You could acquire the program
three ways, theft, trade or barter, or purchase. Of course, everyone tried
theft and trade or barter prior to purchase because that was so much fun. It
got you into all kinds of situations with the Galactic Officials and alien cultures
that were trying to rip you off at the same time you were trying to get the
program. But ultimately, you had to buy it to get to the next level.
The second level was a series of
mishaps you had to avoid. Don’t expose the program to radiation. Don’t let it
get too close to an intense light source, etc. etc. Once you made it
successfully beyond those black holes, you progressed to the next level.
Level three was the difficult level and
the one everyone had been waiting for. You had to program one of your NEMS to
infiltrate the Valarian navigational beacon and hack it to activate the beacon
for the purpose of proceeding to the rest of the levels. Programs were tonal,
like the beacons currently operate. Your NEMS actually spoke with the Hummer
within the beacon. If you programmed your NEMS incorrectly, the beacon did not
activate or it may send you off to the fate of a Free Rider gone bad – stuck
lost in uncharted space. At which point your NEMS self destructed and you were
bumped back to programming your next NEMS for another try. Some players
exhausted all their NEMS in the program and had to go back to level one to
acquire more.
If you made it to the levels above
three, past the Free Rider accident, you experienced alternate worlds at their
programmable best. It is hard to impress most of us spacers. We have seen a lot
in our travels, but Daniel’s visions of places unexplored made you want to
program your NEMS until you exhausted them all and then go acquire more on
level one just to experience the wonder of all the levels. Of course, on each
level there was a battle to fight or a treasure to procure or a civilization to
help rebuild, but they were all so unique. Breathtaking. Exhilarating. Eye
popping and mind bending.
He had us all hooked when he called our
attention to the podium and announced it was not just a game.
*****
005.03
Do
you understand the full implications of this? Daniel has written a program that
piggybacks onto the Valarian NAV beacons. AND IT WORKS! And he put it up for
sale to the highest bidder. He will never, ever have to work again. Everyone
will want this program.
No
one will ever have to sit through a month of Valarian NAV class again,
listening to their views of how the Verse should be run. No one will have to
pay booco bucks for the Valarian NAV software. They won't have the monopoly on
the Verse.
The
Valarian's will want it to squelch it. The Galactic Officials will want it so
they won't have to pay the Valarian's for each upgrade. Transport kings like
Andrew Daily will want it and could outbid everyone. Smugglers, black
marketers, slavers, every thief and cutthroat....
Oh
Shit! That's the reason he wanted the bodyguards... That rotten little
puke!
*****
005.04
Toland
and I were cruising through the weapons displays looking for a couple of turret
guns when I stopped at a booth with Maximum Jacket Drivers. The dealer was
showing another potential customer how the gun broke down for cleaning. The
reader board behind him stated the specs and benefits of the Maximum over any
other turret gun you might consider.
I
turned to Toland to get his opinion and he was gone. My bodyguard was gone.
*****
005.05
Daniel is missing.
I waited for him in the reception area
for hours. No sign of him or his trusty bodyguard. Toland has not returned to
me either.
I have checked in with Ma-rye-a and she
said she has not seen him since we left this morning.
I am torn between reporting his
disappearance and waiting a few more hours to see if he isn’t just playing a
trick on me.
I confess I am worried. If he is
playing games I am going to make him walk home.
*****
005.06
Daniel has just flat out disappeared
along with Toland, Raland and Gyiand. The Valarian surveillance cameras show
him and the three bodyguards suiting up for the accent to Ma-rye-a, but they
are not onboard. My pod is still in place. It is like they vanished into thin
air. Nothing is missing. Nothing onboard ship has been disturbed. Ma-rye-a
remembers Daniel arriving, but does not have any memory of him leaving.
The only explanation I can come up with
is that someone came onboard, someone who could manage to get by Sam and our
security, kidnapped Daniel and the bodyguards and erased Ma-rye-a’s memory of
the event.
If that is what happened it has to be
someone with a lot of clout, someone with heavy duty tech sense or money to
hire some.
The name that keeps popping into my
mind is Valarian. How can I ask them for assistance in finding him when I am
not sure they didn’t take him themselves? They would have the most to lose if
Daniel’s program got out.
I need help. Help I can trust.
*****
005.07
“Please Tim, I need your help.” I was
almost in tears. “You can see the spot I’m in. I don’t know who else to ask
that I can trust.” I contacted Timothy O’Malley because I knew he was used to
working under the radar as a mercenary. He’s been in the business for years and
has far more connections then the Crystaline Nebula has stars. “Frankly, I
don’t even know where to start. Kidnapping is out of my league. I’m a
transporter.” I was so frustrated. Why hadn’t Daniel chosen better backup then
me?
“Luckily, I am not far away. I can be
there in a couple of days. Hopefully, the trail won’t be too cold by then.”
“I don’t know how I’ll pay you, Tim,
but I will,” I promised. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“Let’s not worry about that right now.
We have to find the little geek. I don’t find him, I don’t charge. I can always
pick up a job in that part of the galaxy to make the trip worthwhile.”
“Well, let’s hope we find him cause I
can’t find another programmer as good as him.” I sighed. “And, he is one of my
best friends. He buys me chocolates,” I confessed.
“Well that’s enough to make him worth
the search,” Tim smiled into the monitor. “You don’t want to mess with a ladies
chocolate supplier.” He winked. “See you as fast as this old bucket of mine can
get me there.”
I kissed my hand and touched his cheek
on the monitor. “Thanks, Tim.”
“You’re entirely welcome.”
*****
005.08
“Is Daniel dead?” Cassie asked.
“Of course, not.” I assured her and me
at the same time.
“Are you sure?” She asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. He has been kidnapped.
We don’t know where he is, but we’ll find him.” I hoped before anything bad
happened to him.
“I need to know when he dies,” Cassie
said with a whine in her voice.
“What’s going on, Cassie? He’s not
going to die. Stop saying that.” I took a deep breath. “Why all the interest in
Daniel?” I was more than a little on
edge and had been since Daniel’s disappearance. Just sitting and waiting for
Tim to arrive was not helping. Cassie’s obsession with asking about Daniel was
only further compounding my nerves.
“Can you keep a secret?” she whispered.
Oh no, what was going on here? “Sure,”
I answered. “What’s the secret?”
“I have something for Daniel.”
Oh, this was worse than I thought. What
was going on here? Did I have an AI in love with her programmer? “What do you
have?” I asked, keeping my voice calm. This was just what I did not need right
now.
“I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.” Duh,
how silly of me to ask. “But, I have to know when he is dead so I can deliver
it,” she rattled on.
“You’re going to deliver it to him after
he’s dead?” This was way too complicated for my over tasked brain.
“No, I am going to deliver it to the
NET,” Cassie replied.
What was she talking about? “Deliver
what?”
“I can’t tell…”
“I know, it’s a secret.” I finished
Cassie’s sentence for her.
“Right.”
Well, I had about enough of this game.
Daniel built in a failsafe for the AIs. If I ‘order’ something it supersedes
anything else in their program. “Cassie, display the secret on the view scene
right now. That’s an order.”
“I can’t. It’s a secret.”
Did I say Daniel built that failsafe?
He must have disabled it too.
“Ma-rye-a? Have a look at Cassie’s
program and tell me if there is anything unusual about it.”
There was a moment’s pause as she
scanned her shipmate’s program before Ma-rye-a answered.
“There is a portion of her program I
cannot access. It is highly fortified and protected by an ingeniously crafted
firewall,” she said in admiration. “It has Daniel’s fingerprints all over it.”
“Damn.” I paced the floor of the bridge
mumbling to myself. “He did put that ‘ruffle’ program in Cassie to get me to
come back. I would bet Supernovas to Sun flares that he installed a backup copy
of his Nano Beacon Program in her. The little rotten puke, getting me involved
in his hacking schemes.”
Horus cleared his throat as any good
butler would do. “Perhaps if we all have a look,” he suggested.
“Go ahead,” I authorized.
“Humm,” he said. “It is Daniel’s work
all right. Ma-rye-a, do you think Coal would be willing to assist us?” he
asked.
Ma-rye-a admired Officer Coal of MT2424
about as much as a ship AI could admire a human. “I think he would be happy to
assist us. He would be anxious to have Daniel’s Nano Beacon Program in the
Galactic Official’s hands.”
“Wait, we have to think about this,” I
cautioned. I didn’t know how I could manage a seasoned mercenary like Tim and
an MT unit at the same time. Sometimes they worked together. Mercenaries, the
good ones, were known to pick up the odd job that an MT unit couldn’t get to in
time, but I just didn’t know. Maybe if we could just consult Coal long
distance.
Yeah, that would work.
Maybe…
*****
005.09
“It’s like trying to crack an avocado
seed,” Coal said in frustration. “I just don’t see any way in.”
“Exactly,” Ma-rye-a agreed with
admiration of Daniel’s work.
She and Coal had their virtual heads
together over Cassie’s program trying to break the security on the firewall
around Daniel’s program. There was no doubt in my mind that that was what it
was. Daniel had hidden a backup to his Nano program in Cassie for insurance. At
least whoever snatched him would not kill him when he revealed the program was
set to be released if anything happened to him. No one would profit if it was
out there on the NET for everyone.
“Okay,” I said to Ma-rye-a and to Coal
aboard MT2424. “I am convinced it is the program and frankly, I don’t care. I
just want to find Daniel. Can you folks do anything to help locate him?”
“You need to be very careful,” Damion
said in frustration. “You have what they want. Daniel put you in just as much
danger loading the program in Cassie as he is with the program in his mind.”
“I’m safe aboard ship, Damion, but
thanks for the concern,” I responded.
Targus’ image took up most of the frame
of my monitor. “I can make an official request that the Valarians locate
Daniel.”
“Well, that would be a start.” I sat
back in my chair and took a sip of my cold tea. I don’t think I had managed to
get to the tea hot in the past two days. Luckily, MT2424 was too far away to
hop over and give us a hand searching for Daniel, even though Damion had tried
to convince Targus my problem was worth the trip. Tim would arrive in another
few hours and I was not looking forward to dealing with the dynamics of
inviting official and unofficial law to the same manhunt. If Captain Targus
could put the pressure on from afar, perhaps it would distract the Valarian’s
attention from whatever Tim had in mind for the recovery of Daniel. That is, of
course, if the Valarians actually had him and he hadn’t been kidnapped by some
other group.
“And if the Valarians say they don’t
have him?” I asked.
“Then you hire one of your mercenary
friends to go in and make sure they don’t,” Targus said. The Captain seemed
almost clairvoyant. “The Valarian’s are not someone the Galactic Forces would
want one of their MT units to agitate. If you find that someone else has taken
him off Valaria feel free to contact us again. We will do our best to assist
you in tracking him down. Otherwise, our hands are tied.” Targus leaned closer
to the monitor. “I will call you when I get the response from the Valarian
government. MT2424 Out.”
The screen went blank and I sat back
taking another swig of my tea before I remembered it was just as cold as my
trail to Daniel.
*****
005.10
"Ma-rye-a
and I have tracked Daniel to the Northern most tier," Tim announced. The
mercenary had managed to fit his imposing size into my pilot's chair upon
arrival yesterday and immediately starting tracking Daniel's movements by
hacking the Valarian surveillance system. He and Ma-rye-a had been inseparable
except for his trips to see Moby in the galley for something to eat. All my
crew have been spoiling him since he arrived. They don't have contact with
other sentient beings often.
Ma-rye-a
was extremely frustrated and anxious due to her lack of memory where Daniel's
disappearance was concerned. Tim, not too shabby on a computer himself, had
assured her she was not to be blamed and even pointed out the reprogramming in
her data line to her. He asked her to help him hack into the Valarian system to
locate Daniel.
They
found a 'lack' of information in the security system. They tracked it to the
smallest tier on the northern end of the Valarian home world. Ma-rye-a found a
blank area - totally blank on that level. No security signature, no energy
output, everything was masked or buried so deep in the system that it literally
did not seem to exist. Tim was sure that was where they were keeping Daniel.
"Now
all we have to do is find a way into an area that does not exist," Tim
said, as he leaned back in my chair. I was not sure it was going to hold
together much longer. He was putting a strain on its fiber reinforced seams.
"Anyone have any ideas?" He had called the whole crew together for a
brainstorming session.
"I
could get you onto that tier if Ma-rye-a can guide you to him," Sam
offered. "They are a peaceful race and with the programmable matter they
have lulled themselves into a false sense of security."
"If
you wear an ear I can direct you as far as where their system goes blank,"
Ma-rye-a offered. "After that you would be on your own. I'm totally blind
in that area."
"Okay,
then our main problem is how to get me in without being tracked. I need
admittance to the planet without one of those eGO bracelets." Tim's brow
furrowed in thought. He stretched out with his hands over his head and his legs
spread wide. My pilot's seat groaned in rebellion. "We need a distraction
so I can get past the guards in the reception lobby on the GTD level."
"Why
not go directly to the top tier?" Sam asked. "I can override one of
the entry ports and you can scoot in before they send out the maintenance
crew."
"You
can do that?" I asked. I had no idea my crew was so devious.
"Sure,"
Same bragged. You could almost see the smile on his face - if he had a face.
"Easy. I just interface with their lock out system and we're in. Like I
said, they rely too much on that programmable matter. They should have
knowledgeable A.I. like us. We wouldn't let them crack 3su's system so
quickly."
“I'm
going with you," I told Tim.
"Wouldn't
have it any other way," he replied. "How soon can you arrange an
entry, Sam?"
"Give
me an hour or so."
"I'm
going to pay Moby a visit. A man shouldn't work on an empty stomach." Tim
got to his feet and my chair looked as though it had taken a big sigh of relief.
The conform material ballooned up again. Perhaps it did survive several hours
of heavy use.
"I
have your favorite spacer stew simmering and waiting," Moby piped up.
Tim
gave my shoulder a squeeze as he passed me. "Comin'?"
“In
a few,” I said. I wanted to have a few words with Cassie before we left. I
needed to know we had our own insurance policy in place.
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