LINKS
____________
The Christa Affair
Chapter Twenty-Three
"It is as I suspected! You have deceived me !!" The Keeper's voice roared from the speaker, echoing about the control room and throughout the ship. "You are not the one for whom the Sphere was intended! The mistake must be rectified! The deception must be avenged!" The Sphere popped from its receptacle and flew across the room with deadly velocity -- straight at Rang's head.
"Oh God! We're all going to die!" screamed Mowii, as Rang ducked to avoid the deadly missile. "I \told\ you we should have gone home! Why did we ever come to this crazy place anyway?" She stood up and threw her coffee mug at the projector. The Sphere imbedded itself in the wall behind where Rang's had been only a moment before.
Suu's needlegun was in her hand; she fired at the Sphere in a attempt to destroy it before it could make a second murderous pass. The beam of the weapon split into dozens of small pulses of energy as it struck, each ricocheting about the room, sending sparks flying everywhere.
"That will do you no good!" responded the Keeper ominously. "You have deceived me! You must all die! All intruders must be destroyed! Unauthorized entry is forbidden! All who attempt it must be terminated! That is the Hegemonic Injunction."
Jashi drew his needlegun and fired. Holding down the trigger, he torched first the computer console, then the speaker above the flight console; both erupted in small explosions as the circuits within were fused by the pulsed beam of the weapon. Lights in the control room flickered and went out; the emergency lighting came to life.
Mowii picked up the pot of hot coffee and threw it full into Rang's face as he tried to calm her. "It's \your\ fault, you stupid son of a bitch! You're my bondmate! You swore to protect me!" She crumbled sobbing to the floor.
"Your resistance is futile!" The Keeper's voice seemed to come from everywhere. "You must all be terminated!" A purple mist began to ooze from the ventilation duct. Toko tried to seal the control room, but the controls were frozen; Roi ripped the cushion from on of the chairs and began stuffing it into the duct. Already their eyes were burning and breathing was becoming difficult. The mist swirled and formed into the shape of an Estarani.
"Pressure suits!" yelled Toko, starting for the door; it slammed shut just as he reached it. Unable to stop his headlong rush, he rebounded from the door and crumpled to the floor.
"Unauthorized entry is forbidden! All who attempt it must be terminated!!" The Keeper began to laugh -- an ugly, mirthless laugh that bounced back at them from the walls of the room and echoed on and on.
* * * *
Karli sat up in the bed screaming hysterically; she was drenched with sweat and shaking uncontrollably from the nightmare. Realizing it had been only a dream, she stopped screaming and turned to Jashi for comfort; the mattress beside her was empty. She sat on the side of the bed for a few moments. Slowly the shaking subsided as rationality pushed aside the lingering after-effects of the dream.
At last she was calm enough to probe for Jashi telepathically. She found him in the control room, deep in thought, and quickly withdrew without disturbing him. "Gods of the Fourteen Planets! What brought that on?" she muttered to herself as she hurriedly slipped into her flight-suit without bothering to put on anything underneath.
As Karli strode briskly down the corridor toward the control room she replayed the dream in her mind, wondering at its strong divergence from the actual events immediately following Jashi's insertion of the Sphere into the newly-formed receptacle. It had been a real anti-climax -- the Keeper had said simply, "The mistake has been corrected. There was no damage."
"Could the dream be some kind of warning?" she wondered. "Is the Keeper deceiving us after all, or am I just under that much stress?" She shrugged the thought aside as she keyed the entry code into the door and entered the control room.
Jashi was sitting at the computer console; he turned as she entered and she crossed the room to the comforting circle of his arms. "You're trembling, Karli. What's wrong?"
She told him about the dream, then hesitantly about the feelings of distrust it had induced. Jashi's quiet reassurance diminished them somewhat; after all, the Keeper's demeanor had been benevolent, if indeed a little strange.
The Keeper had made one more assertion. "Rang, the Sphere was not intended for you, but rather for your sibling, the one called Captain-Jash-Jashi. There are instructions... Because of the error, they have been corrupted; reconstruction will require time and my full attention." With that, the Keeper had withdrawn, cutting the link with the ship's computer without warning.
"Sorry I wasn't there, Kitten," apologized Jashi. "I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd see what I could get out of the computer while the Keeper is disconnected. From some of the tests I've run, I'd say this thing could almost be called Keeper Junior. It now seems to know a lot about the layout of the city, but everything is in the language of this world. I just instructed it to translate what looks like a map of this level; should take about twenty minutes. Want something to eat?"
Before Karli could answer the computer spoke. "It is done, Exalted Captain." On the main display screen a map sprang to life; the writing was in Federation Basic. "You are here," the machine added as an indicator winked to life in one corner of the area labeled "starship docking".
(.... !!!.... "Impossible. It \can't\ be that fast!....")
(.... "Toko said it was fast, but that's unreal!....") Jashi broke off the thought as a label in one corner of the complex containing the hospital caught his attention. "Look, Karli!" He pointed to the object of his excitement. "There's a star-map room. If we can activate it, we won't be blind to the outside anymore! And maybe there'll be some kind of hyperspace receiver; we can find out what's been happening in the last ten days. Wake Toko... No wait! I guess it wouldn't be wise to go prowling around without the Keeper... Besides, it's raining out. Wish I knew when the connection would be reestablished."
"The Keeper will return in precisely seven hours, twenty-three minutes, Exalted Captain," offered the computer.
"Are you sure? How do you know that?"
"The disconnect was for thirty hours, Exalted Captain... One cycle. Of course I am certain, I am incapable of deception."
(.... Laughter.... "I see what you mean. Sounds just like his Daddy!....")
"Why did you not inform me of this?" questioned Jashi.
"You did not ask, Exalted Captain. If I were to impart to you all the information in my memory banks, it would take two hundred twenty-seven years, eight months, two weeks, four hours and seventeen minutes. The information in your biological record indicates your brain would become overloaded and unable to digest further data after only one year, three months..."
"Okay, I get the picture!" snapped Jashi. "Do you have further information regarding the disconnect or the Keeper's intentions?"
"Negative, Exalted Captain. The Keeper will return in precisely seven hours, twenty-two minutes. Will there be anything else?"
"Negative! Notify me at once when the Keeper returns."
"Yes, Exalted Captain."
"Let's see what else we can discover," said Jashi.
"I have a better idea, Exalted Captain," said Karli teasingly, snuggling closer within the circle of his arms. "Tell it to translate all L'sa'rian printed material and let's go back to bed."
*********
*********
Breakfast was the same as the day before -- eggs, Rith-bakk steak, toast and orange juice. The eight crew-mates ate excitedly in anticipation of the return of the Keeper. The dishes had been disposed of, and Jashi was on his second mug of coffee when the computer spoke. "My contact with the Keeper has been reestablished, Exalted Captain. What are your wishes?"
"Summon the Keeper," instructed Jashi.
Without preliminaries, the Keeper came typically straight to the point. "The Sphere was intended for you, Captain Jashi. There is a second level of molecular coding that can only be accessed when certain elements of the first level match the genetic coding of the person possessing the Sphere. Those elements did not match the genetic code of the possessor at the time of the first insertion, so I was unaware of the second level. Your arrival was expected. The giver of the Sphere was in error... I do not know what caused the error." There was a short pause as though the machine were truly puzzled.
"I see your device has been useful with translations," it continued with one of its now-familiar quick-changes. "It was unnecessary... The orientation will teach you the language of this world. Are you pleased with what I have taught it?"
"Yes Keeper, we are pleased," answered Toko.
"What orientation?" inquired Jashi.
"Expected? By whom?" asked Karli.
"Captain, you must take the orientation at once... It will teach you all you need to know. Questions are unnecessary."
*********
The Keeper directed Jashi to the Hall of Records, in the square across from the entry chamber where they had first arrived in the mysterious city just a few days earlier. The entire crew went along at the Keeper's insistence; the hanger transport booth took them there in one jump. The fountain on the building sparkled in the early morning light, and the purple grass was well-trimmed and still wet from the night's rain. All was as it had been on their previous visit except for the door of the Hall of Records -- it stood wide open in welcome.
(.... ???? .... "I thought we closed that when we left, Jashi....")
(.... !!!! .... "We did!....")
"The door is open to you, as is every building in the city," said the Keeper, answering Jashi's unspoken question. "Those are the instructions."
(....!?!?!?!?!? ....) Jashi's and Karli's thoughts matched perfectly. Could the Keeper now eavesdrop on their telepathic contact?
The crew of the \Klondike\ pulled up chairs around the table to which the Keeper directed them. Following the Keeper's instructions, Jashi seated himself at the table. "I detect you are somewhat anxious," said the Keeper. "There is no need for concern. The code within the Sphere will control the booth. The Teacher will tell you what you need to know, and the transmission speed will be matched to your ability to receive. Please insert the Sphere to activate the Teacher... When the booth is stabilized, place the helmet on your head and touch the red control. Orientation will require approximately three and one half of your minutes. It is necessary that you break telepathic contact with your female before beginning orientation."
Jashi severed his contact with Karli, and inserted the Sphere into the receptacle; the field that constituted the booth sprang to life, blanking him from their view. It was the longest three and a half minutes of Karli's life; at last the field collapsed and Jashi sat before them, an expression of unfathomable wonder on his face.
For thirty seconds no one spoke; Karli tried to contact Jashi and was nearly overcome by his amazement and disbelief -- she quickly withdrew. "Wait, Karli," he gasped. Long moments later he spoke again. "Don't ask. Not yet... There's too much! It's as if I have lived here always. I wouldn't know where to begin."
"Do not be alarmed," said the Keeper. "The information will organize itself within a few hours. May I suggest you use the time to move into your quarters."
"Sounds like a good idea to me!" responded Jashi enthusiastically.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
This document maintained by JD Fowler --
Material Copyright © 1988 Dennis R.
Triplitt
Site Design Copyright © 2000 lordoftheflies.org
Company