by BP
“This where Chain Reaction Device is?” Nou asked skeptically.
“Not RIGHT here, but yes, here.” Galdur explained. They stood at the mouth of a large cave. “Deep inside this cave lies to key to defeating Flyte’s army.”
“Is dark in cave?”
“No, Flyte likes things well lit. Ironically.”
The trip to the cave had been relatively short, but very intense. They both knew that a lot depended on their success.
“Nou not like leaving Postmaster by self!”
Galdur shook his head. “Nor do I, but we don’t have much choice. If we don’t get that Chain Reaction Device, the Postmaster can’t send it to Beth. Then…” He trailed off.
“Then Flyte wins.” Nou finished, unusually grim.
“Then Flyte wins.” Galdur repeated, nodding. “Well, we better get going.” The pair headed into the cave, Galdur leading. “Flyte will have extensive measures taken to ensure the Device is safe.” He explained. “The specifics of those defenses he hasn’t told me-or anyone for that matter. I do know there aren’t any security cameras, which worries me almost more than not knowing what to expect.”
“No cameras?” Nou repeated. “Why no-”
Galdur stopped walking abruptly, nearly getting run into by Nou. “That’s why.” Galdur responded, pointing ahead.
Nou peered out from behind Galdur.
The passage broke off into at least a dozen paths, each one winding in a different direction. “Why pay for cameras to monitor the place when any intruder would get hopelessly lost?” He sighed. “This…is going to be difficult.”
Nou took a few steps forward, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “We go this way!” He declared, pointing to a craggy eerie looking path.
“Why that way?”
“Nou just have feeling…”
“I hope it’s right. We’re working on borrowed time.”
The pair headed into the path. Galdur had to stoop to fit; the passage seemed the perfect size for Nou.
“So. What dimensional hole like?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I never see much of the actual hole. Mostly just the base.”
“What it look like?”
“Clean, industrial…efficient. For all his short-comings, I will give that to Flyte: he’s efficient.”
The pair came to another crossroads. Galdur motioned for Nou to choose their route.
After they had been on the new path for a minute or two, Nou spoke. “What else Flyte like?”
Galdur frowned. “He’s secretive and ruthless, and you can’t always tell if he’s being serious or sarcastic.”
“Keep going.”
“Why do you want to know so much?”
“Flyte our enemy. Nou want know as much as can. And Nou’s friend in big trouble and Nou trying not to panic.”
Galdur smiled slightly. “Flyte is also intelligent. Brutishly so. He can read people like they were open books…”
“That why Galdur so nervous about Flyte?”
“Yeah…”
“You think…he find Postmaster because of you?”
Galdur looked over at Nou, surprised. “What? Yes, but…how did you figure that out?”
Nou shrugged. “Nou just having lucky day.”
Galdur shook his head. “Yes, it worries me. But if he has me under tracking, he’d put two and two together and figure out what side I was really on. But how else could he know where to find the base?”
“Could have had Nou or Beth or anyone followed! Not Galdur’s fault. Can’t second guess own side. Give Flyte an advantage..
“.. you know, Nou, you’re right. Sorry I’ve been so morose about it.”
“Galdur not apologize! Galdur have understandable problem. Oh! Nou have question for Galdur.”
“Shoot.”
“How Postmaster lose signal when you go in dimensional hole, but Flyte no lose signal?”
“Dimensional radiation. Flyte built the com specifically to function under dimensional radiation, so he can keep the signal. The Postmaster is, in most senses, conventional equipment, and thus unable to keep the signal when dimensional radiation enters the equation. And that means…well, Flyte could be monitoring my signal as we speak. He could know what we’re up to.”
“No use making place scarier! If dimensional radiation such big problem, how Postmaster send Beth to Flyte’s computer?”
“The internet still functions in a dimensional hole, it just has a few extra catches. Think about it. Try to get broadband in a place that exists in a tear in the fabric of reality. It’ll be pretty wonked out. The Postmaster was only able to send Beth into Flyte’s computer because he used the return-trail of the fake-wakers. Even under optimal conditions, I’m afraid that’s all he’d be able to do.. But…provided Flyte doesn’t catch on, the Postmaster will be able to continue using that pathway into Flyte’s computer. Hypothetically, he himself could follow the trail and…well, I don’t know. Take care of business.”
“Hypothetically.”
Galdur nodded. “It’s really quite ingenious. Set up shop in a dimensional hole, and no one can touch you. Unless you strike first. Perfect way to build your forces until resistance is impossible, and then…we can’t let that happen.”
“And we won’t! Nou and Galdur find device, kick serious butt!”
Galdur chuckled. “Indeed we shall, Nou.”
Nou stopped walking.
Galdur looked around, frowning. “A dead end?”
“Not possible! Nou positive something here.”
“But there’s no where to go.”
“There ALWAYS somewhere to go.” Nou walked up to a section of stone wall, staring at it intently. “This not possible! Nou know there something here!” Out of frustration, Nou kicked the wall.. “Waah! Galdur, help!” Nou’s foot appeared to be stuck in the wall.
Galdur frowned. “Hang on a sec…” He reached forward, touching the wall. His finger sunk in several inches. He grinned. “Nou, you’ve done it! This is a gateway! You found the entrance to a dimensional hole!”
“They always this big?”
“Oh, no, sometimes they’re very small-you can imagine the energy required to open them up big enough to gain entrance to. The ones in space are really different. Some of them are so small you wouldn’t see it if you were right on top of it. Some of ‘em have even been mistaken for black holes. And then there are dimensional tunnels…” Galdur shook his head. “I’m rambling. Let’s go, I’ll tell you as we travel.”
“Go? Through wall?”
“Yep.” With that, Galdur stepped through the stone wall.
Nou’s eyes went wide. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and followed Galdur. “So. We in hole or tunnel?”
“Tunnel. It’s brilliant. Any intruder would have wandered aimlessly, getting hopelessly lost, while none of those tunnels even led to the goal!” He looked down at Nou curiously. “And that’s gotten me wondering…Nou, how did you know to which way to go?”
Nou shrugged. “Felt right.”
“Did you notice anything? Any out-of-the-ordinary feelings?”
“Well…when Galdur mention it, maybe was one. Like…static ‘lectricity.”
“And this intensified the closer we got to the dimensional tunnel, right?”
“Yup.”
Galdur grinned. “Nou, I think you can sense dimensional radiation.”
Nou started. “What? Oh! So Nou like one of those…” He squinted, trying to recall the word. In the end, he was forced to attempting to mimic a Geiger counter.
Galdur chuckled. “Yeah, like a Geiger counter.”
“Is radiation bad for us?”
“Nope. Perfectly harmless to organic material.”
“Ah.” It was then that Nou began to fully take in his surroundings. “Oh, wow! Is weird…”
Galdur nodded. “This answer your question about what a dimensional hole looks like?”
Nou nodded vigorously.
The dimensional tunnel was an odd color, seeming at any one moment to be any color in the spectrum. It fluctuated between giving off light and taking it in, turning Nou’s and Galdur’s shadows into bizarre flickering creatures.
“But Flyte’s hole can’t look like this! This…pretty.”
Galdur nodded thoughtfully. “It isn’t quite like this…it’s…tenser. It feels like something is in the air, in every fiber of the place. Like something is exerting immense pressure. You know those days when you wake up and just have a really bad feeling? And that feeling you get when it gets dark really fast, and you know it’s only because a cloud passed over the sun or something…but it never gets light again? Am I making any sense?”
Nou nodded. “Nou get it.”
“Good…ah! There. That has to be the exit.” Galdur pointed to a section of the dimensional tunnel.
Nou squinted at it, trying to make out what Galdur was seeing. At length, he made out a thin, black, shapeless outline. “How we get out? Same way as in?”
“Pretty much. Try to keep your feet. Going between dimensions can make some people a bit dizzy.”
“Got it.”
They reached the outline shortly after.
Galdur smiled. “Bottoms up!” He stepped through the outline, followed closely by Nou.
Nou looked around the new surroundings. “Galdur?”
“H’m?”
“Where are we?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well that great.”
--
“So. Where in the memory banks would a cure to the virus be?”
“Pretty deep. Important stuff is kept deep in the banks. It’s a precaution against intrusion attempts.” Defcon grinned. “So technically, you ARE a virus now.”
Beth rolled her eyes.. “Why are you so set on tagging me a virus?”
“’Cause ya are one!”
“Oh, whatever. So where in the deep memory banks?”
“It varies by the system. Once we get into the memory banks, we should be able to find out based on the information tags.” Beth sighed.
“Sounds time consuming.”
“Not really.” Defcon said brightly. “Follow me. I’ll show ya how we viruses roll.” He headed into the memory banks, tugging Beth along by the wrist. The memory banks were a huge black labyrinth, stretching into the sky like ominous monoliths.
Beth shuddered as they entered the labyrinth. “Did you feel that?”
“Yeah…it’s been happening in a lot of places. The immense pressure…the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach just by being in a place…”
“Is it connected with the corrupted netscape?”
“Probably…well, no sense in thinking about that now. We have a cure to find.” He stopped, studying a section of wall. He ran his fingers over it, frowning thoughtfully. “Well, we won’t find it here. I suggest we head…that way.” He took a right turn, running his fingers along the wall as he went.
“Why…?” Beth began.
“Data tags. Anyone can read ‘em, you just need to be in contact with the system for it to work. They basically just float on the surface, help the bank librarians organize data.”
“Uh-huh. So they’re like keywords?”
“Guess you could say that.” Defcon turned left. “Trouble is, only the really big systems have data tags. With a normal sized one, there isn’t enough info to worry about tagging it.” He smiled. “So I guess we’re lucky Flyte has such a big memory bank.”
Beth shook her head. “But we don’t have enough time to just wander through here!”
“We’ll have to make time. Don’t even think about trying going through the walls again. Without your armor, you’d get totally trashed.”
“You don’t even know if I was thinking about doing that...”
He smiled mischievously. “We may not have known each other for very long, but ANYONE could have figured out you were thinking about it.”
“Whatever…”
“So, um…you really think the Postmaster will give me a full pardon?”
“If you help save his life? Well, yeah. He’s really not that bad, you know.”
“Says you…”
Beth shook her head. “If you won’t listen to reason, I won’t try to get it through your blue head.”
“Hey, slam on my energy level not necessary! Sheesh, you say you’re not a virus but you sure as heck act like one.”
“Ah, go short circuit yourself.”
“See? That’s very virus-y!”
“How close are we?”
“What? Oh, uh…hmmm…” Defcon paused, frowning thoughtfully. “Ah. This way.” He made a right turn. “We should be pretty deep in the banks by now. In fact, we should be coming out into the bank core right about…oh.” He stopped abruptly.
Beth moved to his side, studying the large chamber, on whose threshold they now stood.
“So I assume the huge swarm of guards was unanticipated.”
“Pretty much.” Defcon said bleakly.
The room was long, and lined with data shelves. At the very end, a small white cylinder sat atop a pedestal. At least a hundred AV’s patrolled the room, their bodies throwing off a menacing purple glow.
He leaned against a wall and sighed. “Well, we’re done. There’s no way we could ever get through all them. I mean, this is hopeless.”
Beth frowned. “You can’t be serious. After all you just did, you’re going to give up now?”
“Hey, technically, all we did was bust out of jail and get landed here. You never said I’d be fighting a whole platoon of those guys.”
“So you ARE just going to give up.”
“Yep. It’s worked pretty well for me so far.” He straightened, turning away from the room. “I’m sorry. I really am. But…heck, I don’t want to die. It’s that simple.”
Beth scowled at Defcon, clenching her fists. “You disgusting little coward.”
“Yeah, but I’ll be alive.”
“I thought you were on my side! Is that really all it takes to break you? You see a challenge and you bail out.”
“Hey, I’m not denying any of that.” He sighed, shaking his head. “You don’t have to do this, you know. You don’t have to jump into that deathtrap.”
“Oh, and I suppose you want me to just run off like you? Fat chance, fat head.” Beth shoved past Defcon roughly, standing at the edge of the room. “Have a nice life, coward.” She spat, without turning to face him “I really thought you’d come through, Defcon. I don’t care if I get so shredded in there that I can only hold myself together long enough to get back to base. I have a mission to complete.” With that, she took a deep breath and darted into the chamber.
--
Comment options: