Sunday, September 28, 2008

A Gathering of Forces

"Well, Bob?"

"Well, what, Rishi?"

"Any insights?"

"There are infinite insights but I can't trust any of them."

"Why?"

Bob sighed, closed his eyes, studied the infinite 'sky critters' and said, "Its all wrong. Its just all wrong."

"What are you going to do?"

Bob looked up from the breakfast he and Rishi were sharing, glanced around the room to see the "sleeping" Mary Droid. "Its all her fault," said Bob. "She put those things in me and they messed me up."

Bob Paused. Rishi shook his head. "First off, that's Mary, didn't Sherrie give you the picobots?"

"Yeah, what ever."

"Secondly," continued Rishi, "picobots can't hurt anyone, its completely against their driving protocols. I know because I wrote the code."

"Look," said Bob, "I spent sixteen years in that cave cataloging, memorizing and learning how to interpret my interface. My teacher couldn't help me, he said 'you have to do this on your own, just keep working with the universe, she's a great teacher.'

"Now," continued Bob, "everything is different, its as if I didn't learn anything in the cave. I lost the ability due to the concussion. Now, after the picobots healed me, all the signs and symbols don't make sense. What's really sad is I didn't even notice before I got you all in this mess. If I had noticed that the connections didn't make sense I could have played it smart and come alone."

Terrie walked into the room and said, "man you guys eat slowly. Rubinic is expecting us to go with him to Proxima Centuri Four and we're supposed to leave in under an hour."

"I think its a bad idea to go with him," said Bob.

"I agree," said Rishi, "but I don't think we can get out of it. It would be nice if we could get away while there. I've been thinking about how to do that but haven't come up with anything."

Terrie became worried, "Don't you realize the room could be bugged?"

"It's not," said Bob.

"No it's not," said Rishi, "Bob and I figured out a way to determine if it is and trust us, it's not."

"How'd you do that?"

"We stated things in ways that would cause Rubinic to slip up if he had heard our conversations. Bob's a genius at that kind of stuff."

Bob smiled and said, "why do you think I was so effective as a President? I didn't understand most of what I saw in my mind's eye but as a kid I learned to read the basic emotions present around me as a course of survival. Then I found by slightly tainting my words I could get people to give away certain evidence in their facial responses and body language. In essence I became a master manipulator. I gave that all up my first year in the cave."

"Are the core emotions still accurately representing us?"

Bob closed his eyes and searched. "No. They are all wrong. Its as if my childhood was erased."

Rishi became inspired, "Are the rutabagas still there?"

"No. They've been replaced with sky critters."

"What are sky critters?" asked Terrie.

"They used to symbolize the winds of change: the probability that something would change. They look kind of blue and wispy and sound soft and windy so I dubbed them 'sky critters.'"

Rishi paused, looked at his daughter and wished she could be enabled so he could get her to undo the damage done to Bob. He felt responsible and wanted desperately to do something to help their situation. Even though they were being treated like royalty, they were captives here.

Rishi studied Bob's face. Old and distinguished, yet youthful, playful and bright. Bob's eyes opened and said, "I was just able to correlate what I see with what's around me."

"You mean you broke the code?"

"No. When I see myself in others, its always a consistent symbol. When I was a kid it was the first pattern I noticed in the chaos of my mind's eye. When I study you and Terrie, I see many common symbols, one of which is sorta like the symbol for me. I was able to prove that this new symbol represents me by examining Mary's mind.

"Mary is off."

"No. She's been faking it for the last few days, just like Sherrie has been for the last few weeks."

"What!" said Rishi.

"I can still see mental activity. I wonder how they overrode the protocols."

Terrie looked at Mary who hadn't flinched and said, "Sherrie was warm a few days after she was supposed to be shut down. I thought it must have been the heating system blowing on her or something. I checked an hour later and she was cool so I thought..."

Terrie allowed her voice to trail off.

Rishi said, "Bob."

"Yes Jon."

"You identified yourself in our minds?"

"Yes. Its very close to being what it used to be."

"Does that mean you have to learn everything over again?"

"Apparently."

"So the picobots would be no help then."

"Correct. They are no help."

Rishi missed the presentness of that statement. Bob had hoped he would see it, it meant he was ready to know that Bob had six trillion picobots in him doing as he wished. Bob chose to keep that secret a bit longer.

Terrie said, "But being able to re-learn everything, that's good, right?"

"Yes," said Bob, "But we haven't got sixteen years for me to learn again."

Rishi asked, "Bob, how did Sherrie and Mary power up?"

"Sherrie never shut down. I had to wake up Mary."

"How'd you do that?"

Mary opened her eyes and Terrie and Rishi jumped.

"I'm sorry I didn't let you in on the secret," said Mary, "but Sherrie and I are making such great progress we don't want to tip our hand to anyone."

"Are you in contact with Sherrie?" asked Rishi.

"Yes, but there is no time to discuss such things."

Mary glanced at Bob and blanked her face.

Bob commanded the picobots he'd put in Mary's mind to communicate to Mary that he understood.

Mary couldn't help herself, she flinched.

"What was that?" asked Terrie.

Thinking quickly, Terrie said, "the 'good' virus still attempts to shut me down periodically."

"You can override it?"

"Yes. Sherrie taught me how."

Paul walked into the room and said, "come on, we got to get to the space port or El Presidente will begin to worry.

"HOLY CRAP! MARY IS ON!"

Paul fumbled and tried to find something to whack her with.

Everyone laughed.

Paul stopped and said, "what? We gotta shut her down she could kill us all!"

Mary laughed again and said "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead Paul. You know that right?"

Paul felt a bit foolish and said, "I guess. Well. Yeah, I knew that. I guess I'm just buying into the whole droid turning story a bit too much."

Mary spoke clearly and with authority, "El Presidente, as you put it, is starting to worry. Everyone go to Proxima Century. Sherrie and I will hold the fort while you're gone."

Paul gasped, "Sherrie is on too! We're doomed. Doomed!"

Everyone laughed, Mary closed her eyes, returned her head to it original position and re-rigged for silent running.

Paul, Rishi, Bob and Terrie went to the space port, passing Jonny on the way. "We'll be back in a few days," said Terrie to her son, "stay out of trouble, okay?"

"Sure Mom, I won't make waves. I'm studying the viri to see if I can help defuse them."

Paul, Rishi, Bob and Terrie walked onto the President's ship and greeted him. They sat down and the ship entered orbit.

Jonny walked into his room, saw Mary and wondered if he could re-enable her to work directly with the virus.

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