Chapter 82

My trip back to 'zombie land' wasn't actually out of the blue. I had been following Nimue's progress ever since I'd left the other Earth and I knew that the cloning procedure had been a complete success and that Dr. Gruber had grown a new arm for Nimue. I also knew that Nimue had been out of bed for at least a week and that she had been involved in an extensive physiotherapy program trying to rebuild muscles and coordination with her new limb. According to Hope that program could be completed anywhere and that if I wanted, I could bring my mate and my people home. I'd left it be while I was screwing about in East Africa, not wanting to drag my people into danger again but the presence of robots and possible network people on Game World changed everything.

I left Suzy in command and then I had Hope teleport me from where we were to the complex on the island in Hawaii. When I got there I went and took a nice long shower and then I put on some clean clothing that Hope had provided for me. It actually felt nice wearing something that didn't have a month's worth of dirt and grime embedded in it. Naturally I thanked Hope for providing them for me. I always remembered to be polite to her.

Once I was dried and dressed and properly groomed I headed to the entertainment floor and the bar. There I sat down and had a nice cold beer courtesy of Hope once again while I chatted with Hope about our current problems. Since I was on the alternate Earth I included Miranda Scott into the conversation. She showed up half an hour after I got there and as you'd expect, she had lots to tell me. I just put up my hand and silenced her.

"Later," I told her in no uncertain terms. "For now I want you to listen to what I have to say and then if what you've got to say is anywhere near as important as my news, then I'll give you a chance to chat with me before I go and extricate my people off of that other Earth."

Miranda accepted my terms willingly. She sat down in one of the chairs in the room across from and she made herself comfortable. At my offering she had herself a glass of white wine while she listened to what I had to tell her. I took a good thirty minutes to bring her up to date about what I had found in the deepest, darkest part of Africa and from the expression on her face I could see that it took her totally by surprise. It actually left her speechless and that was when I directed my attention to Hope and I started asking her questions before Miranda could get a word in edgewise.

"Okay Hope," I said pointedly, "I'm going to ask some blunt questions and I hope you don't take offense."

"I'll try not to Charles," Hope replied in a tentative manner.

"Thank you," I responded before going on. "Now to start things off I want to talk about Ali's main camp. From all appearances it had to have been built a few years ago and it certainly wasn't built by locals. The materials all had to be imported from other Earths and it had to be assembled by professional construction workers, which makes my first question this: how did you miss this fact once you were free of the control of the corporation?"

"Information overload," Hope responded in a manner that implied that she was sighing. "Once I was functioning independently, I had to absorb a vast amount of data in order to respond to questions and tasks that you asked of me. One of those tasks was to locate outworlders on Game World for you to rescue and another was to find an alternative Earth where your mate could be treated. At the same time I was dealing with numerous day-to-day activities that were required to sustain this planet. While I have been designed with a massive capability for crunching and responding to data input and I do have the ability to task myself independently so that matters that haven't been detected by a human supervisor can be addressed before that problem becomes critical, I do have limitations. In this case, it was primarily too much information coming in and too little time to sort through the minutiae. However, now that a problem has been identified I have begun correlating data and I do have some preliminary answers for you Charles."

"Such as what?" I asked with interest.

"Such as how the complex on Game World was constructed," Hope replied, "and where the network people came from."

"All right," I muttered in acknowledgement, "those are two of the other questions I was going to ask you, so let's start with them. In particular I want the second question answered first. Where did the network people come from?"

"Another Earth," Hope said in a matter of fact tone. "This took a little doing because Sahara Network was one of the networks that sabotaged their teleportation systems when your troops moved in to put them out of business; however after recovering the bulk of their archived data I was able to review their teleportation logs for the past few years. My analysis had discovered that a group of middle management personnel from Sahara Network were able to teleport from this Earth to another Earth before you were able to shut them down. Regrettably I must report that Sahara Network was not the only network to do this although my preliminary analysis shows that they were the most prepared of the networks that fled this planet. Unfortunately at the time of your invasion you were limited in your ability to respond and while you focused on what you saw as your primary targets, others used your distraction in order to leave."

"Fuck," I cursed aloud interrupting Hope in her report.

"Yes," Hope agreed before picking up where she'd left off, "fuck indeed. However in regards to Sahara Network, a complete study of the records I was able to locate both in the form of teleportation logs and internal corporate communications shows that they have been going to one particular alternate Earth for the last couple of centuries and that a large quantity of resources have been sent there. I have yet to send a probe there as I must build on first but when I do, I suspect that I will find a large community there."

"All right then," I muttered in response, "I'll be looking forward to your report once that probe has been launched. In the meantime you stated that other networks also fled during my invasion of this world. Did they all go to the same alternate Earth?"

"No," Hope responded, once again making a sighing sound. "My initial analysis has shown that those persons escaping from each of the other networks picked a different Earth to go to. Currently I have not completed an in-depth analysis of their logs or corporate electronic data however I do suspect that we will find almost ten groups hiding out on other Earths."

"Great," I grumbled in response, knowing that I would have to go and deal with each of them. Then I asked her about Ali's compound.

"It appears," Hope continued, "the Sahara Network had a very close relationship with Ali Armin and his forces. Since they introduced him to Game World he has been a major rating draw and because he has been, the network provided him with resources far above what most networks normally did. The rifles held by Ali's men are one of those resources. Instead of just dumping vehicles at random in that region of Africa, the Sahara Network plopped them down on his doorstep so that he could salvage them. Naturally many of the vehicles contained firearms and ammunition."

"So Ali was Sahara Network's favourite boy," I muttered thoughtfully, "and they rewarded him with a ton of stuff that nobody else on Game World ever got. Now my question is what can we expect to find at the camp if we raid it? We know he has sixty or so security robots on site, but does he have something else? You must have video feed from the complex, so you should be able to give me some intelligence."

"Yes Charles, I do have video feed from the complex that you can access as you like," Hope responded without hesitation, "In addition to that live feed I have found in their electrical archives that there have been a few interesting objects teleported into the complex over the last three years. I've found that a small fusion power plant was delivered there two and a half years ago. There has also been a medium size replicator sent there that could easily support a community of several hundred people on a daily basis. In addition to those items and a wide range of electric devices and power generating units, I've located teleportation records that indicate that components for a single teleportation unit were sent there."

"So Ali probably has a teleporter," I stated with a look of disgust on my face. "That's just great. So how did Sahara pull this off? Where was the World Entertainment Review Board while this was going on?"

Miranda looked embarrassed when I asked that but she still was able to give me an answer. It wasn't a great answer but it was an answer.

"I don't know how they did it, my lord" Miranda confessed hesitantly, "but I can guess. Just like Hope I've been dealing with information overload myself ever since you put me in charge of running my Earth. I've found out that a lot of things occurred on a routine basis that shouldn't have occurred according to the rules. Basically the network executives and the politicians were allowed free reign to do whatever they wanted in return for a few favours to the senior executive of the Review Board. That means that Sahara Network probably paid somebody off to look the other way."

"Great," I muttered once again, this time shaking my head as I did. "That's just fucking great. Again it means that we don't know what has been going on behind the backs of your old department and that could be very dangerous for us."

"You're right," Miranda admitted, "but there isn't much I can do about it. I'm in the middle of rebuilding a government that can actually lead my people out of the morass that we're in and I'm understaffed and overworked and while I've been adding people to my core team, the selection process has been slow. It's going to take a while to sort this out."

"I know," I said recognizing that Miranda was right, "but it still doesn't make me happy. I'm going to have to deal with the Sahara Network first and then we're going to have to figure out how to get you more help. I'm certain that once Hope has sent probes to all those other Earths that she will be presenting me with more problems to solve."

"I would agree with that assessment," Hope chimed in, "and I would state that it will probably happen sooner than later."

I sighed at that thought and then I paused to reflect on what I could do in the meantime to help Miranda out. A solution popped into my head and I decided to put it out on the table.

"Look Miranda," I said to the woman, "I know I've laid a heavy burden on you and that I've thrown up a lot of barriers that haven't helped you out. A big one has been the fact I wanted you people to solve your own problems without any outside help. I've just reconsidered that decision. Given the fact that you're getting buried in paperwork to the point that you're not getting anything accomplished, I think you need staff right now instead of in a week or a month that can do the job and that you can trust. I think I should send you a few outworlders to help you out."

My suggestion took Miranda by surprise and she blinked a few times in disbelief before she finally responded.

"Can we trust them?" Miranda asked tentatively.

"I think so," I stated with a little confidence. "We'll have to be careful who we pick out to work for you but I'm certain that I can find a few dozen volunteers who'd like to get away from Oak Hall for a bit. In fact I know a guy that I just liberated from slavery who'd make a great personal assistant. His name is Frank and he'd been a house slave for decades. He had the balls to face me down in a dangerous situation so I think I can guarantee that he can be trusted."

Miranda and I talked about Frank for a minute or two and then about some of the people back in Oak Hall who were sitting around wondering how they were going to fit into a world that was so primitive compared to their own. I was certain that she could find a couple of secretaries or clerks in the bunch, and a few thinkers who could help her out sorting through the day-to-day stuff that was piling up on her. She might even find a couple of personnel officers who could help her sort through all the personnel records that we'd seized after take the networks down. It was from those records that Miranda was hoping to find people from her own Earth who could help rebuild it. I promised her that I would talk to Elsa and Josh.

After that I suited up again and grabbed my assault rifle and I had Hope teleport me to 'zombie land'. I left her with one last thing to figure out. I wanted to teleport the spaceship from where it was lying in Lake Victoria and I wanted it moved to the beach by the resort in California. I left Hope with the job of figuring out how to shift something that large and that complicated. She told me she would.

I was met by a couple of my soldiers upon arrival and then I was ushered through the force field and then into the hospital facility. The first thing I noticed was the lack of zombie corpses ringing the place. I knew from my chats with Hope that Felicity had ordered in an excavator early in her stay here and one of the heavy equipment operators had dug a mass grave into the hill. After that, it took some muscle power and definitely enough people with strong stomachs; the bodies were shifted to the grave and the grave had been covered over. It made for a nicer look to the place and it certainly improved the smell. Once inside I ran into Dork and Rory who were waiting to take me to see my mates.

"Well finally," Dork grumbled upon seeing me. "You're back and from what I've been told, we're getting out of here at last. It's about time."

"I'm sorry," I said apologetically, looking up at the big guy as we clasped forearms in greetings, "but I did need you here."

"We know Charles," Rory insisted, giving Dork a stern look, "but it has been boring for all of us here. Other than stopping an occasional shuffler there hasn't been much to do at all. To be honest, I've missed Zahra and I'll be happy to get back to Oak Hall and to see her. She's already in her second trimester and I'm certain to get an earful when I get back to the keep."

"Oh, I'm certain you will," I chuckled in reply, "but if it will help you can blame things on me."

"It won't help at all," Rory said shaking his head, "but I'll still be doing it. Anyway you're here and from what I've been told we're going to be leaving today so I'm not going to complain. Instead I'll take you to see Nimue and my sister and Felicity."

I found my three mates working together in the facilities physiotherapy department. All three of them were working out on various weight machines, although Nimue's efforts were being monitored and controlled by a female therapist. On seeing me all three of my mates dropped what they were doing and hurried over to me.

"Charles," Felicity declared loudly, throwing herself into my arms, when she got to me first. "I've missed you."

"As have I missed you" I said in reply, pulling my dusky mate to me and giving her a deep passionate kiss.

"Charles," Caitlin cried out when I released Felicity and turned towards her. Again we both declared that we had missed each other and that we loved each other and we both kissed very deeply and passionately. When I finally released her, both Felicity and Caitlin stepped aside and they allowed me to pull Nimue into my arms for some of the same.

"My little elf," I whispered to Nimue in the Elven tongue, "I have definitely missed you."

I pulled Nimue to me and then lifted her up so she could wrap her legs about my waist and throw her arms about my neck. We kissed for sometime before I set her back upon her feet. When I did, I took her by her new hand and kissed it tenderly.

"You are whole again my little one," I exclaimed enthusiastically. "Thank the spirits and everyone else. How does it feel?"

"It feels fine my husband," Nimue replied tentatively, "although strange in some ways. The skin is new and softer than my old flesh and I am not as strong in that arm as I am in the other. It's going to take some time before I'll be wielding a sabre once again."

"Still you are better now," I said with confidence, "and you can now return home where you can see your sister and your sister-wives and where you can begin relearning how to use a sword or a bow or to guide a horse. That is all that really matters."

"Is it true then?" Nimue asked. "Can we really go home now?"

"We most certainly can," I answered her before giving her a kiss again and then doing the same to my other mates.

We did not depart immediately. Again I went to see Dr. Gruber and I tried to make her an offer that would see her and her people sent to Oak Hall instead of off to one of the places her government had declared a safe zone.

"You should come with us Doctor," I said to the woman bluntly. "My people have sent probes across your Earth routinely while my mates and friends have been here and the situation hasn't improved for the survivors at all."

"It doesn't matter," Dr. Gruber declared shaking her head in opposition. "My people could not live on your Game World. We cannot accept what you have told us as being truth. Please send us to a safe zone like you promised."

"The safe zones are not safe," I declared firmly, but with exasperation in my voice. "While the zombies can't get in, they can surround each of the safe zones and that is what they've done. With their numbers dominating all movement on this Earth the people currently in the safe zones are trapped. Not only are they trapped but they are running out of food and water and ammunition for weapons. Eventually there will be nothing left and people will either starve to death or they will try and escape and that option is not going to work. Worse, some of the intelligence that I've gathered shows that several of the safe zones are beginning to purge their population of anyone who they deem as being undesirable and a drain on their resources. Things have gone from bad to worse."

"You promised," Dr. Gruber insisted.

"You'd be better off staying here," I told her in response. "We can leave you one of the Crabs and you can use it to gather supplies from the town and the surrounding area to help keep you alive. We can even give you a replicator unit and teach you how to use it. If you stay here and keep out of trouble you should be able to live through this."