LINKS
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The Christa Affair
Chapter Twenty-Two
The door to the control room of the \Klondike\ slid open, and Jashi strode briskly into the room; he limped slightly, favoring his right leg. Ten days had passed since they had parked the ship in the underground hanger, but Jashi had been confined to the infirmary since leaving the L'sa'rian hospital; it felt good to be home.
For six days, Jashi had lain unmoving and apparently unconscious in the strange bed of the L'sa'rian medical facility. There had been concern from the crew over his seemingly unchanging condition -- Karli had been frantic when she realized that the beam which encased Jashi cut her off from him telepathically -- but the Keeper had reassured them that his treatment was progressing as it should, and that Jashi would be restored to normal at the end of the prescribed time.
It had proven to be as the Keeper said; four days of additional treatment to the wounded leg in the ship's tissue regenerator, and the effects of the episode in the L'sa'rian dwelling were virtually erased. The only remaining problem was the slight limp, and that would disappear after a few more sessions in the regenerator.
Jashi poured himself a mug of coffee. "Good morning," he said, sitting down at the table. "That looks \wonderful\! Proto?" He referred to the breakfast Suu and Mowii were serving.
(.... Suppressed laughter .... "Sorry, that's all we have....") "He's not gonna believe it." Karli whispered in an aside to Suu as the latter placed a plate in front of her on the table; Suu gave her a knowing wink and laughed softly as she moved on to the others.
(.... ????.... "I detect deception! What are you hiding?....") "What are you two up to?" he asked aloud, for Suu's benefit.
(.... !!!! .... "Tell you later, Jash. Just eat. We've got things to do....") Karli desperately tried to make her thoughts serious to cover up the trick she was playing. "Just happy to have you back, My Darling," she added aloud.
The steaming hot breakfast that sat before the eight of them was \not\ proto. It was eggs of Earth chicken and breakfast steak from the finest cut of female Rith-bakk, a water-creature native to Rangor-Three; the golden liquid in the glasses was the juice of Terran oranges. The Keeper had supplied it from records in the ship's computer, assuring them that it was as real as if it had just arrived by freighter from the storage vaults of Summit. Karli had ordered it special, knowing it was Jashi's favorite.
Jashi took a bite of the slice of golden toast on the plate. (.... !!! ??? ....) "That's Mms. B'Urrd's split top!" he gasped. "Where'd you find that? We haven't had any of that since the negotiations forced them to suspend operations in Capital."
"It's proto, Jashi," said Rang seriously. "Toko made the latest upgrade modification to the synthesizer while we were waiting for you to get well."
"Should have done it a long time ago," said Toko, struggling to keep a straight face. "With the new upgrade, we can synthesize specific products very accurately."
"I always \said\ you couldn't really tell the difference between proto and the real thing," said Suu.
"Horse manure!" responded Jashi. "That's \not\ proto!" He took a bite of the Rith-bakk steak. All his shipmates watched intently, struggling to hold back the laugher; Karli was forced to withdraw contact to keep from giving herself away.
*********
Being half of a telepair has its draw-backs... The only way to hide a deception is to withdraw contact. Works great to keep total honesty in a relationship, but it plays hell with having a little fun at your partner's expense. When Jashi sensed Karli's withdrawal, his suspicions were confirmed; for some strange reason, they wanted him to believe it was proto, so believe it he would. "The bread's great, but if that's supposed to be Rith-bakk steak, it's not even close!" he said; his face showed no expression.
Suu's eyes widened and the half-suppressed grin left his brother's face. Jashi felt Karli probe at his mind, but he locked her out; two could play \this\ game. "Might have been closer ten years ago, when they were still shipping the ones harvested from the marshes of the northern continent, but since the treaty with the B'nth, the ones from the commercial hatcheries don't taste nearly this game-y."
Karli probed again; Jashi remained withdrawn and took a bite of the steamed eggs. "\That's\ not bad... Earth chicken, or something related... Maybe from the Terran colony on Roca-Nine. Pretty damn close; the up-grade is a definite improvement!" He fell silent, and attacked the meal with gusto. "Really not bad... For proto," he added, after a few bites.
Suu could contain herself no longer. "I knew it! I always knew it! He really \can't\ tell the difference!" she laughed gleefully. She stopped short as she saw the expression on Jashi's face, and then on Karli's as her telepathic contact with Jashi was restored. She realized that Jashi was the one having the joke -- on them. "Okay, so it's \not\ proto." she muttered.
"No, it isn't proto," Jashi said mischievously. "It might even be real, if I didn't know that was impossible. You forget I've seen the specs on the synthesizer upgrade. It didn't say a word about specific products, and I hardly think a supply ship has visited this place in my absence. What is it?"
Karli filled him in telepathically as the eight shipmates ate hungrily. The Keeper had spoken the truth; it \was\ real. "It can synthesize \anything\?" Jashi asked incredulously as she finished.
"Apparently so," answered Toko. "Everything we have asked for so far has checked out perfectly, even under the molecular viewer. \I\ can't tell the difference in the taste of any of the foods we've ordered, but synthesized is the wrong word. It's \not\ synthesized! It's \created\. Or 'manufactured', if you like that better, but it's completely real."
Rang had told him about the pure water they had been offered by the robowaiter in the hospital -- the same water that now filled the fuel storage tanks of the \Klondike\ -- now he poured a glass of liquid from the pitcher on the table and passed it to his younger brother. "Taste that, and tell me where it came from."
"From the water-shaft we sank on U-Seven," Jashi answered seriously; the water from the aquafer they had tapped there had a distinct, pleasantly tangy flavor unlike any they had tasted before. His jaw dropped as he saw the expression on his brother's face. "No! Don't tell me. Not this too?"
"Fraid so," rejoined Toko as laughter echoed around the table. "And it can do that with anything -- just needs a sample or the formula."
The implication wasn't lost on Jashi, as it hadn't been on the rest of the crew. "What about Infectogan?" he asked.
"Infectogan, Human variety... yes. We don't have samples or the formula for other species. Raw Immunofactor-26, no. The crystal is alive, and that's beyond the Keeper's ability. Apparently the L'sa'riani couldn't -- or wouldn't -- manipulate life into existence. When I requested it, the Keeper responded that it could be duplicated chemically, but the duplicate would be lacking pneuma."
"Could be better, but at least \we\ have a supply," was Jashi's response.
*********
Breakfast dishes cleared away, the group sat around the table drinking coffee and discussing the situation. The ship's tanks were full -- all of them -- of everything. The fuel tanks had been topped off with pure water, the fresh-water tanks were full of the delicious liquid from the aquafer of Ultazari-Seven, and the inert-gas storage tanks of the lifesupport system were each filled with the proper contents -- all supplied by the Keeper -- manufactured from samples or from data stored in the ship's computer. The food locker overflowed with every imaginable delicacy, and the infirmary was stocked with a generous supply of Infectogan.
Made necessary by the confines of the underground hanger, the fusion powerplant had been shut down; the power short-fall was made up by the excellent L'sa'rian hanger facilities thru a cable that ran from the main power buss access hatch of the ship to a receptacle in the floor of the hanger-bay. The Keeper could have supplied \all\ the power necessary to run the grounded ship's systems, but Rang had been loath to shut down the FPG -- even with the generous power reserves carried aboard the \Klondike\, cold restart of the class B-4 flux-powered generator required two and a half hours.
"Well, what do we know about this place that I don't?" Jashi asked. For the first three days following his treatment under the strange green light of the L'sa'rian hospital he had been quite groggy, and had slept most of the time while confined to the tissue regenerator. Only during the forth day of his stay in the infirmary had he been completely alert for more than a few minutes at a time; consequently, there hadn't been time to go into the details of everything they had learned from the Keeper since Jashi had been struck unconscious in the room-run-amok.
He'd been told what they knew about the events in the room, and the cause of them as explained by the Keeper. They had related to him the events leading up to their truce with the Keeper, the belief that it was incapable of deception and their subsequent decision to trust it implicitly, and its link with the ship's computer. About the rest, Jashi was still in the dark.
*********
The ten days spent by Jashi in medical treatment had been put to good use by rest of the crew -- even Mowii had showed enthusiasm for the wonders of the place that had become their temporary home. At Rang's request, the Keeper had Terranized four luxurious suites off the domed foyer of the hospital, duplicating the needs of the crew in every way.
Toko had inquired as to the possibility of changing the light/dark cycle to one more suited to the biological clocks of the Humans; the Keeper had matched the thirty-hour ship's-time cycle exactly. The sun and the two moons just hurried across the sky a little faster, and the nightly rains were a little shorter. The grass and shrubbery were still purple and always perfectly trimmed, the buildings remained yellow, and everything else worked as before. Modification was apparently as easy as manipulation.
The Keeper had assured Toko that all could be restored to as before, and Toko had cancelled his instructions not to neutralize anything without explaining it beforehand -- instructing the Keeper instead to deactivate all potentially harmful devices immediately, and to transmit complete details of all action taken to the ship's computer for storage and later study.
The speed of the ship's computer had increased daily under the influence of its constant association with the Keeper; lately, the machine had taken to addressing Rang alternately as "Supreme Authority", and "Your Highness". When Toko became nervous about the modifications being done, he was invariably reassured by the Keeper's standard "To harm the Supreme Authority is impermissible"; nevertheless, he had kept close check on the computer, running endless tests.
"We've done quite a bit of exploring, Jashi," said Toko. "There are things here you won't believe. The things we saw before you were injured were just a tiny sample. Every building in the city is larger inside than out, most of them have no interior until activated, and you can customize the interiors to any configuration you choose! I think you'll like the quarters the Keeper sat up for us."
(.... Excitement .... "Wait till you see the theater, Jashi. And the lake! ....") Her delight at having him back overruled her good judgement.
(.... ??? .... "Lake? Hold it Kitten. One thing at a time....")
(.... "Sorry, but I can't wait to show you. It's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen....")
"Do you think it's wise to quarter the whole crew in the city?" he asked aloud. "I don't like leaving the \Klondike\ unattended... It's bad enough that we're blind to any approach from outside -- not that it's likely that there's anyone within a hundred light-years of this place." As he said it, he was remembering the blast crater on the far side of the planet.
"I considered that," replied Rang, "but we didn't have much choice; it was either hanger the ship or pull out. Besides, the Keeper has assured us he will detect any approach."
"I don't see any reason not to, Jashi," Toko interjected. "There's a transport booth in the lobby of the complex, just twenty yards from our quarters, that connects with the one here in the hanger in a single jump. We can keep apprised of things in the ship via the Keeper and his link with the computer."
"A change of scenery might do us good," mused Jashi. "Just as long as that damn entertainment center is turned off!" Not wishing to make an immediate decision, he changed the subject. "There's a lake here?"
"Yes!" answered Suu. "It's unbelievable! Standing on the shore, the far side is only about a hundred yards away, but in or on the water it's huge! We went water-skiing yesterday."
"Water-skiing? There's a boat?"
"Lots of them, just sitting in their slips, as if their owners would be along to use them any time. Motorboats, of a sort, power cruisers, and sailing vessels of all sizes," supplied Rang.
(.... "Can we go swimming tomorrow? It really wasn't much fun without you. It'd be good for your leg....")
"What's this about a theater?" asked Jashi.
"It's beautiful!" It was Mowii, showing unaccustomed enthusiasm.
"Jashi, it's the damnedest thing I ever saw!" contributed Rang. "It seats about fifteen hundred -- its interior is permanent -- and you can hear a stage whisper plainly in the back row... But that's not the best part. If I stood on stage, I would appear to be the same distance from you, whether you were in the back, or in the front row!"
"Say \what\?"
"You heard correctly," said Toko. "The atmosphere is optically manipulated somehow. We measured the distance from the back row three different ways; radiation measurements showed the distance to be the same as measurements with a tape, but optical measurements showed the stage to be exactly eighteen feet from wherever the measurement was taken -- the exact distance from the first row to center stage."
( .... !!!! ....) Jashi couldn't think of a reply.
(".... Me too, Jash! ....")
"I asked the Keeper for an explanation -- same results as always. It can't supply details of anything, just keeps referring me to Log and Volume in the Hall of Records. Rang can't tell it what we're looking for, and it doesn't have the faintest idea."
"Have you tried the Hall of Records?"
"Your instructions were to \not\ put on the helmet," replied Rang. "I figured you'd spit nails when you woke up and found out we'd done it anyway."
(.... "You'd have been proud of him, Jash. Toko was going to do it and Rang \ordered\ him not to!....")
(.... "Surprised he didn't do it himself....") "You're right!" he added aloud. "Rang, I commend you, and order it officially logged."
"It is done, Captain." intoned the ship's computer.
Jashi had made the statement in jest; he was startled by the sudden interruption. "Who turned the computer on?" he asked in surprise.
(... Giggle .... "You're gonna love this! It's making a nervous wreck out of Toko....")
"I am always on, Exalted Captain. It is necessary so that I may maintain contact with the Keeper."
"It's been like that for the last two days." said Toko with a little shrug. "Some of the new things the Keeper has taught it, I guess. I can't shut it off. And is it \fast\!"
"I just wish it would stop addressing me as 'Your Highness.'" said Rang woefully. "It gives me the willies!"
"Sooner or later, we're gonna have to try the helmet," continued Jashi, putting the issue of the computer's strange behavior aside for the moment. "The Keeper can't tell us how to use it?"
"The instructions are: 'Place the helmet on your head. You will be taught what you wish to know'," answered Toko. "When I ask for details, the damn thing starts referring me to Log and Volume again!"
"We gotta start someplace..." Jashi's voice trailed off into thought. After a moment's silence, he addressed the computer. "Computer, summon the Keeper, please."
"How may I serve you, Captain?" asked the Keeper. Rang and Toko exchanged questioning looks; had the Keeper taken to eavesdropping inside the ship, or was the link with the ship's computer now that fast?
"Keeper, I need information."
"Everything you wish to know is recorded in the Hall of Records."
(.... "We tried that Jash! ...and you're \not\ putting on that helmet! That's the one thing the Keeper can't promise us is safe....")
Ignoring Karli's outburst, Jashi tried another tack. "Keeper, we were sent here by the being who gave us the Sphere; we do not know the purpose of our mission. Can you tell us how to determine its purpose?"
"You were not told why you were sent?"
"The instructions to bring the Sphere to L'sa'ria were given to my brother telepathically. He became overloaded, and has been unable to remember."
"The Supreme Authority is your sibling?"
Taken off-guard by the Keeper's sudden change of subject, Jashi failed at first to recognize the title as a reference to Rang. After a moment, he answered, "Yes. Is it pertinent?"
(.... "Gotta watch him Jash, he jumps around a lot!....") Karli laughed in his head.
(.... "No kidding!....")
"No! Continue please."
The group looked at one another in surprise; the Keeper had just dropped its end of the conversation. "I asked if you can tell us how to determine the purpose of our visit to L'sa'ria."
"Was the being who gave you the Sphere friendly of intent?"
"It is assumed so; we cannot be certain."
"I detect that you communicate with your female in a manner other than audible speech. Is that correct?" Another unnerving change of subject.
"Yes."
"What is this method of communication?"
"We refer to it as telepathy. The direct exchange of mental energy... Thought transference. Why do you ask?"
"All of your species do not possess this ability?"
"No, it is given to only a few."
"Your sibling is not telepathic?"
"No. Why do you ask?" There was no answer; Rang repeated the question.
"The Keeper has withdrawn, Exalted Captain," stated the computer flatly.
(.... ???? .... "He's never done \that\ before, Jash! ....")
"What the...?" Toko stood to his feet in surprise. He crossed the room to the computer console and made several entries. "The Keeper has withdrawn, and the link has been severed. The computer can't contact him."
No one moved. No one said a word. No one could think of anything \to\ say. Toko returned to the table carrying the coffee pot.
At last Jashi broke the silence. "Any explanation, Toko?... anyone?"
Toko shook his head. "No! Totally in violation of anything I would expect..." His voice trailed off.
(....!!!!.... "Jash, we're \trapped\ here!....")
(.... "Easy, Karli. Could be just a technical problem....") He knew Karli could tell he didn't really believe it.
"What do we do now, Jashi?" asked Rang.
"You're asking \me\?" Jashi responded incredulously. "I just met the damn thing today; you guys are the ones well enough acquainted to have put your trust in it!" His voice was faintly sarcastic.
Silence again descended upon the control room. Mowii was white as a sheet; Rang put his arm around her. No one else moved.
"My apologies, if my withdrawal distressed you." Unexpectedly, the Keeper's voice came again from the speaker above the main flight console. "It was necessary to concentrate all my attention on the problem I was faced with. It seems I have made a mistake about you."
(.... "Jashi !!??....")
"Oh, God! It's going to kill us!" moaned Mowii.
(.... "Easy!....")
"What do you mean by 'mistake'?" demanded Rang. "You said I am the Supreme Authority!"
"It is evident that you are not the person for whom the Sphere was intended."
"Explain!" demanded Jashi.
"In due course, Captain-Jash-Jashi. Please direct your attention to the display above the main flight console. Is this from your home planet -- the world of origin of your species?"
Karli gasped. "It's the Great Pyramid!" Her thoughts were a jumbled mass of confusion in Jashi's head.
(.... "Idle down, Karli! This is some kind of test, and our lives may depend on it ....")
(.... "Sorry ....Do you wish me to answer?....")
(.... "You're the expert....") Karli had read everything she could get her hands on about Earth since she was old enough to read; her lifelong dream was to someday visit.
"Keeper, that structure is known as the Great Pyramid, and is located in the center of the country once know as Egypt, on the world known as Earth or Terra, third planet of the star known as Sol. History holds that many people have for centuries believed that the builders were offworlders."
"Indeed!" responded the Keeper, sounding a little smug. "Terra is the home-world of your species?"
"Yes."
"And this? Is it also from Terra?" The picture on the display screen changed.
"Yes, that is from Egypt, also. It was known as the Great Spinx, and was destroyed by a tactical nuclear blast in the fuel wars of 2236."
"Pity, it was very beautiful workmanship."
The slide show continued -- Stonehenge in England, the statues of Easter Island, the monoliths of Tiahuanaco, the Mayan ruins of South America -- Karli identified them all. At last, the Keeper seemed satisfied.
"Captain-Jash-Jashi, would you please take the Sphere and hold it in both hands, then insert it into the receptacle in the computer console?"
Jashi took the Sphere Rang offered. "There's a receptacle here?" he asked.
"Not to my knowledge," answered Rang.
"I have provided a receptacle," asserted the Keeper. "Please do as I have instructed." It sounded positively weary.
Rising from his place at the table, Jashi crossed to the computer console. Sure enough, the receptacle was there. "It's here, guys... Just like he said."
"If I have made a mistake it must be rectified." said the Keeper impatiently. "Please insert the \Dyolfknip!\" Obviously under stress, it reverted to the native word.
(.... Confusion, anxiety .... "What should I do, Karli? I don't know what it's gonna do!....")
(.... Reassurance .... "We don't have any choice, Jash....") she spoke softly in his head as she crossed the room to his side. (.... "We all voted 'yes'....") Without being asked, Karli had taken a poll in sign language. If inserting the Sphere was to sign their death warrant, the decision was unanimous; even Mowii had given her assent. Karli's hand slipped into his as Jashi resignedly dropped the Sphere into its socket.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
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