Chapter 7

Ooryphyon

It is so easy to travel on Charassa. We went from Nobatia, where we were, to Senna the capital by portal instantaneously. It was about 500 miles away. We had breakfast with Ouma Chatzke and then we went to the hospital.

The doctor was relieved to see us.

“Ooryphyon is upset and is crying piteously. She believes her parents are dead. She repeats her regret over and over to everyone who will listen. She says they should not be dead. We cannot reassure her and I don’t want to sedate her unless I have no other option. We should begin her rehabilitation as soon as possible and she must exert herself fully.

“My Lord I will take you to her, she cannot speak, but her telepathy is powerful. We fear she will have difficulty in rehabilitation as she has not moved her limbs normally for such a long time.”

Grandpa and Lisirra went off to the Ward. I sat and talked to Annie, about this and that.

Her mother got on very well with mine and was very supportive of mum. The Gromelix had fought in many wars and lost many people. Her mother had lost a son and a daughter to war before Annie. Annie said she talked with mum after I went to bed.

Annie believed she had a method to make a very small amount of antimatter, the size you could use to kill a single person. It was very simple, and I was itching to try it. I was just starting to worry about Ooryphyon when Grandpa came and called us.

“She can hear both of you and I think she found the conversation very interesting and wants to meet you. She tells me she has never heard of anybody who has powers of the kind that you do.

“We did manage to get her to calm down, it was not easy,” he said.

“She tells us she can feel her people and she knows where they are. It is the same place Ship says that she knows about. It has evidently moved a lot from where it was. She says she knows they are being slowly killed by creatures that sounds to me like the Destroyers. She doesn’t know how. She believes her parents died recently. I told her I thought we had a reasonable chance of bringing them back as we did with her and I told her of Merken,” said Lisirra.

“She is a lot better but is resisting the rehabilitation. She wants to go to save her parents, they are below the ice on an ice moon,” said Grandpa. “That, people, is our dangerous mission exactly as Merken predicted. That woman is amazing.”

Grandpa told us to walk down the passageway and enter the third room on the right-hand side. He pointed back the way he came.

When I saw Ooryphyon in the pod I felt very sorry for her. I immediately went and held her hand. Annie went to the other side. I could feel her tentatively trying to enter my mind as did Annie. I allowed her in and she encouraged me further into her mind. She seemed to do the same with Annie at the same time. Annie and I met up with her in her mind. It was huge and I had the feeling of being in a banquet hall that seated tens-of-thousands. There were all kinds of interesting things all over the place and I was very tempted to browse. She was very playful like a teenager and I wondered if she had returned to an earlier stage of development in order to move forward again past all the trauma she had experienced. I learned that sort of stuff in the psychology lessons I was given by the octagon. Then I remembered her brain still had some developing to do and the doctors did not know how long it would take.

“Yes, the doctors did tell me that. I was shocked to wake up in this pod, I thought the nightmare had not ended and I was in a different trap. The Emperor and Lisirra are wonderful. I was so relieved when I saw them. I am terrified of the rehabilitation, because so many of our people may die and there are only nineteen still alive. All the soldiers who were guarding them are dead. All the technicians who maintained the machines are dead. The people are so weak.”

I described the prophecies in detail. For her people’s wellbeing, it was essential to make an effort in her rehabilitation. Otherwise her people would be no more and the Emperor and all of us would die. I told her I could see little pieces of a big battle. I would need her to be alert, capable and physically able and I would need her decision support. I was only thirteen going on and all of this was real scary to me. We would visit her every day but if she didn’t put in a full effort she would have me to answer to. Chuck gave her a kiss on the cheek and said I was a meanie and not to worry about what I said.

She had a lovely giggle. “All right as long as you come and visit every day I will push myself as hard as I can. I have to be strong to carry this big head. The Teokraeus were used in battle to help make complex decisions. For some reason we can calculate chances of outcomes in complex situations faster than any AI. I had the feeling I would be assisting the Emperor and that was my destiny. In this case you may be the one in charge. The Emperor is very also very powerful, but he does not have his full power. He is like me, if you are rebuilt you slip back in some ways but when you finally go forward you are much better.

“On this occasion he needs you and all of the younger ones who have learned much in the universe they explored. Sin ce you talked to me I can feel Merkin and hear her thoughts clearly. Her mind is pure and pristine. I can speak with her and she is telling me much. Please tell the doctors I am ready to push on with the rehabilitation. Chloe, I will not let you guys down. The rehabilitation team have allocated two people to help me go through the process who have done it themselves. The Emperor told me the same was done for him,” she said.

Grandpa said he did the rehabilitation in the insect form which was easier, but Ooryphyon was so complex the doctors did not want to meddle with her DNA. They knew they could do the conversion, but it would take some time to get it right and the priority was her survival. They would give her other forms later.

The doctor approached us and asked how our visits had gone.

I told the doctor she agreed to the rehabilitation and promised to work on it.

We called in the other Gromelix to have the conversion to insect, cockroach, human and even to Orc and Tyrannosaurus. Grandpa also offered the same to the children from the estate so they could get all the conversions and not be left out. I was so jealous, I never had Dragon as a possibility before. It was a new conversion.

I was so happy when the doctors told me we could add in Dragon to me and to Chuck as well. Grandpa decided to do the same. The doctor asked if we wanted to add Orc in as well. We all thought why not, just add it to the carousel. Before we left, we changed into small Gromelix and Orc. We went back to our usual form before we went home. All the Gromelix went home as bugs. The bugs went home as Gromelix. As Ouma Chatzke has often said the insects are always bigger and fatter in someone else’s sky.

That afternoon we all got serious about speeding up our flying and improving our maneuvering. We had some pretty good sessions from the Gromelix. We then had races across the cavern that we were in. It looked about 7 miles wide at its widest. We decided we would race the full distance there and back. We all changed to small Gromelix form. There was less wind resistance with the smaller wings. The Gromelix raced ahead after the first 3 miles. I was beginning to feel pretty tired by the time I reached the halfway spot. By the time I got back I could barely keep myself in the air and push forward. I felt almost as tired as I did after the simulation on the new ship. We had a break and I drank a gallon of fruit juice. The Gromelix looked like they had gone for a Sunday stroll in the park. We dragged ourselves back home.

Sheila was there! I really like Sheila. She is a fine person, friendly and warm and much more mature than Porquenta. I do like Porquenta, but in a different way.

“Sheila! I am surprised it took you so long to get here. Porquenta must be beside himself with curiosity about the new ships and weapons,” I said.

“Yes, he is and he kept nagging both me and Colette. We were buried in work helping the next stage of the renovation of Nuswa”

Nuswa is the mother of all planet based AIs from another ancient people. She is based below the palace of the Coven Emperor. She is much more mature than Porquenta and sees herself as mother of all the other planetary AIs of her people. She is also the biggest AI of them all, is very old and needed a lot of work.

Sheila continued speaking.

“I spent the afternoon on the ship. It is beautiful and very impressive. I uploaded the next generation of education to Porquenta, but I found he has it all already and is going through it. Those Uzliumbax, elite planetary AI guys, have done a great job!

“Your Grandpa was talking to Ouma Chatzke, she was in the waiting room minutes after you left. She offered to send Marines to his planets to help guard the emerging Uzliumbax. Your Grandpa was already arranging something with his own AIs and had spoken to the advanced ones to increase their numbers to do the same and add to the forces. He is worried after he heard Merken say they are being poisoned. Cassius and Felix offered to send marines as have the Orcs. Your grandfather intends to investigate the kings and queens as soon as he can. We convened intelligence people from all the allies to contribute to the effort. We are preparing Gates to the hubs of Uzliumbax planets. Everyone is making gates so it is going to go quickly.