Chapter 86

"My name is Wolfgang Harding," the man informed us, "and I was a program manager for Teutonic Network."

By then we'd moved from the lobby of the resort to the upper dining room so we could chat. The other man had been taken off in restraints to be dealt with later. For now I was interested in talking to Wolfgang. I ordered coffees for everyone and then waited for them to be served. Dork and Nimue were still with me and we all sat in silence until the waitress had finished serving us.

"Tell me why you were a prisoner of that man?" I asked Wolfgang once the waitress had left.

"Gauliter Berman was using me as an advisor," Wolfgang replied as he picked up his coffee cup to drink from it. As he did the shackles about his wrists clanked. The man looked embarrassed for a moment and then he just shrugged his shoulders and he took a drink. He sighed with satisfaction as he took the cup away from his lips. Smiling he said, "That is very good."

"From the look of it," I decided to point out, "you weren't with him as a willing advisor. Does this mean that the people who fled Teutonic Network ended up somewhere less than hospitable?"

"Yes," Wolfgang admitted freely. As he did, he put down his cup of coffee and frowned. For a second or two he said nothing more and then after letting out a sigh of resignation he decided to continue. "It was my boss's fault. The man had a fixation with the alternate Earth that Berman is from. That world was ruled by a militaristic, charismatic dictatorship and my boss was hooked on the culture. Over the years he studied it in private. For the most part we had never borrowed anyone from the world since most of the people were slaves to the ruling population and almost every member of the ruling population carried firearms. It made borrowing someone difficult."

"I imagine," I stated sarcastically.

"Yeah," Wolfgang muttered after taking another sip of his coffee. "In any case when things started to fall apart on our Earth, my boss suggested fleeing to this other Earth. To most of us it sounded like a good idea. I mean the culture there was Germanic and people live relatively healthy lives and the planet had better than average technology. How were we to know that the ruling class was extremely xenophobic?"

"Ah," I said in an understanding manner, smiling knowingly over to Dork and Nimue as I did. "I understand now completely. The ruling government wasn't as welcoming as your boss made out."

"No they weren't," Wolfgang admitted with another sigh of resignation. "They arrested us all and they started torturing us. They killed off my boss and three other people before they got to me. I decided to cooperate with them. It made things a little easier for me."

"I imagine that it did," I muttered in agreement. "So what did you give them so that they wouldn't kill you?"

"I gave them teleportation technology," Wolfgang stated tentatively, "and the location of this resort."

"Tell me all about it," I told the man sternly, "and don't leave anything out. I will be asking your friend Berman all about it when I get around to speaking to him."

Wolfgang sighed in response and then nodded his head in understanding. For the next hour he spoke to me and my companions about how Teutonic Network had slipped away from the alternate Earth even as my forces began to strike the headquarters of Bronze, Gold, and Onyx Networks. To my amazement I learned that over five hundred persons from Teutonic Networks were able to get away, including the dependants of many of the executives who had been at the resort and whom I had dealt with before leading my attack. In addition to those people, many of those that escaped had been technical personnel with a handful of service robots. Considering the fact that they were essentially refugees trying to find sanctuary on another Earth, these people and the robots were the most valuable asset or so Wolfgang's boss had hoped. More significantly and just as valuable as the technicians and robots were, the group also brought along some high-tech technology that they had hoped would sustain them in their new home. This technology included components for a small teleportation system, a replicator unit, a portable power plant, and a computer system capable of managing all three items.

Unfortunately for many of the refugees they were not received warmly. As Wolfgang had already told us, his boss and others were tortured to death. He also told us that most of the older people, those who had been dependants of the former executives running Teutonic Network, had been sent off to a resettlement centre while many of the younger members of their group were sent to work camps. In the end, fearing for his life, Wolfgang betrayed all his fellow companions to the rulers of Reich. In exchange for his life Wolfgang gave his cooperation to the Reich, bestowing on them the technology that the network had brought with them and he had assisted them in learning how to use it. Then in an act of desperation, Wolfgang had told the leaders of the Reich all about Game World and more significant to us, all about the resort.

"Why?" I asked pointedly, looking coldly across the table at the man.

"I knew that eventually I would become useless to them," Wolfgang replied, lowering his eyes as his face coloured with shame, "and I knew they would dispose of me when that happened. I decided that it would be better to get them on Game World so that you could deal with them."

"Me?" I muttered in surprise. "You brought them to Game World because of me?"

"Yes," Wolfgang answered nodding his head, but still not looking at me. "I thought that you could stop them and rescue me."

I shook my head and then I looked over at Dork and Nimue. They didn't look as surprised as I was. In fact both were nodding their heads in understanding.

"It makes sense," Dork stated in a detached manner. "You have continuously stolen victory away from superior forces by finding unique solutions to what you were up against."

"Still he's talking about an Earth," I exclaimed, "that is dominated by a militaristic regime that has not only the resources to wage a global conflict but the willingness to do so. We're not in the same league."

"Well," Nimue asserted with a frown on her face, "we're going to have to figure something out and we're going to have to do it soon because these people are only a day or so away from us and from what Wolfgang here has told us, they intend to capture the resort and kill us all."

"These people aren't that much of a problem," I stated immediately in an attempt to reassure Nimue. "I can engage them today from the air. A few missiles will quickly whittle them down to the point that our ground troops can mop them up. The same goes for the force coming from the north. What I am more concerned about is the capabilities of the Reich back on their own planet. That is the real threat and before I can do anything to respond to that I'm going to need a lot of intelligence."

"So we're going to have to chat with the Gauliter that we've got locked up," Dork said with a shrug of his shoulders, "and we'll have to make sure we leave a few of their soldiers alive so we can interrogate them."

"We'll also need to ask Wolfgang here a few more questions," I muttered glancing sternly in the direction of the man sitting across from us. "Hopefully he will be able to provide me with answers."

Wolfgang did have answers to many of my questions and he proved to be forthcoming when asked. With a refreshed coffee in front of him and food to nibble on, the man sat across from me and told me what I wanted to know. My first question was about the capabilities of their inter-dimensional teleportation system. I wanted to know how large it was and how fast it could be used to reinforce the battle groups we were facing. Without hesitation Wolfgang informed me that the teleportation unit was a small one and that it could only transport a single vehicle at a time. Thus it had taken the Reich several days to transport their two battle groups onto Game World. As for using it to reinforce the forces currently here, there was very little hope of that. Because I controlled the only communications satellite in the solar system, while the Reich could teleport things to Game World, they could not communicate to their own people to tell them how they were doing. That was the main reason for attacking the resort first. The Reich needed access to the teleportation system here so that they could establish two way communications between their Earth and Game World. I immediately saw the sense in that.

My second question to Wolfgang proved just as informative. The Reich while enjoying a high level of technical and industrial superiority over most people on their own Earth was not as technologically advanced as some Earths that the network had stolen from while they had ruled Game World. The Reich used non-renewable energy sources to power their vehicles and they used basic kinetic weapons systems. While they didn't have them with them here on Game World, they did have jet aircraft and they did have intercontinental missiles that could carry explosive and chemical loads. To my horror I did learn that the Reich did have nuclear capability although Wolfgang assured me that the forces we were up against didn't have any nukes with them.

That didn't reassure me. What it did tell me was that once we were done dealing with the forces heading towards the resort that I would have to lead an expedition to the other Earth so that I could destroy their capability to teleport troops and more significantly, nuclear weapons to Game World. Thinking about that prompted me to ask a few more questions of our new guest.

"Can the Reich build more teleportation systems?" I asked the man pointedly.

Wolfgang looked sheepish for a moment and I immediately knew that the answer was yes. Growling with irritation in my tone I told the man to answer me.

"Yes they can build more teleportation systems," Wolfgang said with a heavy sigh, "but it won't do them any good."

"Why is that?" I asked, pressing the man for more information.

"Building the teleportation systems is the easy part of the process," Wolfgang stated in an instructional manner. "The Reich has the material needed to construct the systems and they have access to technicians who know how to assemble them and a replicator that can manufacture the high-tech components that they would need to make the units work. Unfortunately they do not have the power source or the computer power that is required to operate the systems."

"They could build them," Dork snarled angrily at the man. "If they have a replicator and technicians who can construct a teleportation system then they can use the same replicator and technicians to build a power plant and computer that can control their new teleportation systems."

"Yes and no," Wolfgang admitted with a nervous look upon his face. "They can try and do it and I know that they will probably do it soon but they will not succeed. The problem lies with our current computer system. While highly advanced and capable of processing a significant amount of information, particularly when it comes to supporting the replicator, its data base is limited in what information it contains. The fact is that the computer does not have information related to the power plant within its data base, thus it couldn't replicate the parts."

"What happens if your power plant fails?" I inquired out of curiosity.

"Each of the units has a small emergency power cell built into them," Wolfgang informed me. "If the power plant failed the computer would switch to the emergency power cell and then a technician would identify the broken or failed component in the power plant. The technician would then remove the component and place it in the replicator. The replicator is capable of scanning the broken component and identifying what would fix it. It would then disintegrate the old component and recreate it. The new component would then be installed in the power plant and the power plant would be reactivated."

"And the first time you and your technicians did that," I pointed out sternly, "the Reich would realize that they could build power plants by doing that."

"It's possible," Wolfgang admitted looking a little pale in the face as he did, "but the power plants and all the other systems are designed not to fail. It would be many years before the Reich figured that out."

"Perhaps," I noted in a thoughtful manner, "but it isn't something that I'm willing to bet the lives of my people on. I'm definitely going to have to take the fight to the Reich."

That realization forced me to take our conversation up to my suite so I could include Hope in it. I dragged Wolfgang along just in case Hope wanted to speak to him. The man was suitably impressed when he found out who and what Hope was. I just told him to take a seat and then I turned my questions on Hope.

"Hope," I said calling her attention to me, "I need some help here."

"Of course Charles," Hope responded, causing her digital image to smile, "I'd be happy to help you in any manner that you need."

"The first thing I need help on is a security issue," I informed the sentient computer. "While we've identified the two threats in our area I'm worried about our other bases and facilities. Can you check each and every one of our towns, villages, and complexes for sign of other threats?"

"Immediately Charles," Hope responded with a smile.

"But," Wolfgang piped up from where he was sitting, "the Reich only sent the two forces to Game World."

"And I'm just making certain that you're telling me the truth," I snapped back at him in an angry voice. "I'm also aware that your band of people isn't the only one out there who might want to cause me trouble so I'm just being extra careful. I don't want to be in the middle of another invasion and find out somebody had the same kind of idea but against me."

"Oh," Wolfgang muttered in response. "I hadn't thought about that."

"Well Charles did," Dork growled back at the man, "so shut up and sit there until we need something from you."

Chastised by Dork the man sat back in the seat he was sitting in and shut up, looking very nervous as he did. Fortunately for him Hope started to report and that drew our attention away from him.

"I've completed my scans of each location," Hope stated, "and I have detected no identifiable threats out to two hundred miles from any of your towns, villages, or complexes. For now you are safe."

"Good," I declared firmly in reply. "That takes care of that. Now I want to know if you can get a probe to this Earth that the Reich is on. I think we're going to need first hand intelligence on what to expect to find before we head there."

"I've just completed the construction of several probes," Hope told me without hesitation. "They were going to be used to look for the network personnel that had fled to other worlds. I will immediately begin searching the data banks of Teutonic Network for the dimensional coordinates of the Earth in question and once I have that information I will dispatch two probes there to begin collecting intelligence for you."

"Good," I said again, pleased with Hope's response, "and while you're doing that, I'm going to go to war."

I left Wolfgang in the hands of some of my troops. I had him put in a room and watched while I got back to the business at hand, which was mobilising my forces and attacking the advancing enemy battle groups. For the time being I intended to treat the man in a kindly manner just in case I needed more intelligence from him. However, once this new crisis was over, Wolfgang was in for a surprise. I could appreciate that he had done what he had done in an attempt to save his life, but in doing so he had endangered my people and I didn't appreciate that at all. The man would soon find himself paying the price for making my day even worse.

"So who do you want to engage first?" Dork asked as we rode down in the elevator from my penthouse suite.

"The force to the south of us is closer," I said shrugging my shoulders, "however the force to the north contains missiles and heavy weapons that could endanger our people if they got within range of the resort. Personally I think we should hit the force to the north first and then deal with the group to the south."