Chapter 15

The world went black, the hiss rose to the level of crackle, and a pinpoint of white light appeared in the middle of darkness. Yakhir blinked and the pinprink expanded into a colorwheel of every shade he could imagine, until his entire view was a static picture of color. The intensity, the brightness, almost hurt his eyes. The color faded into a blue screen with a ruby rotating on its axis in the upper right hand corner.

In the upper left hand corner, words in Neo-Europeno appeared: "Accessing Source" and then "Source Offline - Accessing Backup Source."

Yakhir held his breath. He read the phrase "Synchronization complete" and had no clue what is really meant, but he assumed that it was good.

"Welcome, Martell," a female voice cooed in his ear, "Awaiting command."

"Ah, what are you and where am I?" Yakhir said aloud.

"Accessing," the screen read. "You are accessing MAR2-3.2 and you are located at port designated as Martell Secure Repository," the feminine voice whispered seductively.

Yakhir refused to let confusion take over his thoughts. Something was working if he could master more of the language and get a handle on what concepts were assumed. 'Repository' was a word he understood but the letters and numbers meant nothing. There was no other way but to ask.

"What is MAR2-3.2?" he probed.

"MAR2-3.2 is tertiary backup to Ruby Initiative 2.2. MAR2-3.2 was reserved offline on standby and is now fully linked as primary source. Two links to primary source are active at this time."

Yakhir was stumped for a moment. "Primary Source" could to mean "the first beginning", which didn't make sense or it could mean "central hub" like the center of a wheel to which the spokes were connected. He was certain he was at a hub of the Neural Net.

"Am I one of the links?" he asked, to confirm his hunch.

"Linkage confirmed," the voice answered.

"Where is the other link?" Yakhir continued with a little more confidence.

"Second link is 5-node connection to Martell Laboratory Archology."

Yakhir wanted to dance for joy; he could go somewhere and it sounded important, a Martell place, even if he didn't understand the words.

"Can I go to this connection?" he queried.

"Signal is confirmed, but each node requires transfer. Do you wish to begin transfer?"

Yakhir took a deep breath, "Begin transfer."

There was whirling in his ears as the screen momentarily went blank. The screen returned as Yakhir looked out upon a great globe with the deepest black surrounding. The blue of the globe was sumptuous and interspersed white glowed with a clear brilliance. "GeoStat 102 at 45, transfer in progress" a different voice whispered in his ear.

'That is the planet' Yakhir realized with rising adrenaline when his screen went blank again.

"Weapon platform 23 transfer in progress. Please hold," another stilted voice declared. Yakhir looked out at the planet again, this time with a maze of lights with titles at the bottom of his vision. Most of them showed red. Only one showed light green: Comm 2. Then the screen went blank.

A moment later he had another view of the planet and the same maze of lights. "Weapon platform 45 transfer in progress. Please hold." He had time to glance at another title, this one above the red lights: Grazer Readiness, and his world went blank again.

The next vision was an empty room with chairs and banks of consoles. "Achilles Archology, secondary freight overflow intake. Transfer in progress." A male voice spoke in his ear.

The emptiness was almost frightening to him. He waited several seconds, much longer than the other transfers. As he waited, he confirmed to himself that a node was where he moved from one road, for lack of better word, to another road. The screen went blank finally.

The new tableau before his eyes was a wall with a door in it, but the door had no knob or handle. There was a small round object next to the door in the wall, not unlike the button on the light torch that Adilah had found.

He reached with his hand to push the button, but thought that was silly. His body was in the back of Shaft 1. As he lowered his hand he recognized an image of his hand in the lower right hand corner of the screen. "Odd. Interesting," he mused.

He raised his hand again and pressed the button. Nothing happened. He waited, counting in his head to twenty and then he pressed the button again.

The door slid open into the wall and a man with disheveled brown hair started yelling from the other side of the doorway. "I expect my employees to find me when I need them. How long did you fucking expect me to wait? The lab locked me down in suspension mode because you took so damn long." The face looked up, "Who the fuck are you?"

The archivist spoke automatically in Neo-Europeno, "Yakhir Al-Taquir, master archivist. I ask the same question of you."

"Why are you wearing grandfather's moniker, Yacky Takey?"

Yakhir was not amused, "I found this helmet hidden in the back of Shaft 1 of the Martell repository."

"So that's where grandpappy hid the prototype, that sneaky bastard. That damn thing is ancient," he snipped. "Hey. Why aren't you using your neural chip? Are you a fucking felon? Do I need to call security?"

"I am not a criminal," Yakhir huffed. "No one in the Tribe wears a chip. No one on the globe has worn a chip in 250 years. Those who did all died in the Great Burn."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" the man stared at him.

"I don't have time for this," Yakhir stated flatly. "I am in great danger and I need help."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" the man repeated, "I get chased into my lab. I send out distress calls and none of my family or staff responds. I get thrown into suspended animation only to find a beggar at my door instead of my assistant."

Yakhir stared back in disbelief wondering if the man was entirely sane as he correlated the term 'grandpappy, ' in Neo-Europeno, "You are a grandson of Martell?" and the man nodded. Yakhir calculated his next words, then decided that a direct approach was the only reasonable chance to gain help from this man.

"Then I am here to inform you that the entire Neural Net and all the people connected to it died 250 years ago when the orbital weapons seared them to death and the flying needles attacked them. Only my tribe survived as far as we know. Your family is dead 250 years, Martell ibn Martell," he flatly declared.

The man's eyes seemed to burn.

"Don't take my word," Yakhir offered, "Check for yourself."

The man shook his head in denial or disbelief, "I can't. That fucking dragon will lock on me again if I turn on my remotes. The damn thing will try to kill me like he did the first time."

"Dragon?" Yakhir's interest was peaked and he couldn't help himself.

"You know, one of them Chinese dragons with the claws, the long tail and teeth things," the man seemed jittery.

"Did it have diamonds in its eyes?" Yakhir thought aloud, fearful of what he may have discovered.

"Yeah. Now that you mention it, its eyes were faceted like a diamond's face."

"You tripped the Diamond Initiative; the dragon is the symbol of diamond," Yakhir surmised.

"Bullshit!" Martell shook his head, "Diamond is about fascists and dictators and psychopaths trying to attack people over the Neural Net. I'm fucking chair of the fucking Martell Corporation."

"Then," Yakhir acting as the investigator he was groomed to be, "what were you doing when the dragon attacked you?"

"I was taking a fantastic leap in Neural Net technology out on the Net for a spin. Are you sure you're not a spy, Yacky-Tacky?" Yakhir shook his head as the crazed man gave him a paranoid look.

He continued, "My invention allows access to the Net without a microchip embedded in the brain. Just touching the body, this little chip can access brain waves; this is mother-fucking powerful."

"And apparently a danger according to the Diamond protocols," Yakhir pointed out with a dry throat. "How did you escape the dragon?"

"The solution was fucking brilliant once I thought of it," Martell crowed. "I replicated my signature thousands of time over and sent them scurrying all over the Net. The dragon started chasing all of the copies and I escaped to the lab where I could cut off primary access and escape the nasty bastard."

"You sent the dragon chasing your copies across the Neural Net?" Yakhir swallowed in amazement.

"Yeah, brilliant idea if I say so and I can, because I'm in one piece," the man gloated. "Now cut the bullshit and tell me where everyone is."

"I need a weapon to defend myself against my enemies, who are armed with rifles while I am trapped underground in the Shafts. If you can help me, I will help you," Yakhir offered as if he was in the marketplace.

"You are some work of art for a thieving begger. If you found the helmet, my paranoid grandpappy would have stashed something to protect his precious hide in the same place. Just look around," the man sneered. "Okay, you got your answer, Yakey Takey. Let's start with an easy one: if the Net is down, how the fuck did you get to my doorstep?"

"Thank you for your help," a relieved Yakhir bowed. "I accessed a source that was on standby, if that is the correct word, called MAR2-3.2, which claims that it had access to two links, your's and mine."

Martell ran his hand through his hair, "MAR2 was three iterations ago, grandpappy's time, and 3.2 version didn't exist, I don't think. Wait here," and the man walked back into the lab.

He returned only a moment later, "the records show a 3.2 that never went online. Grandpappy must have wired a secure lifeline back to the inner sanctum. Where is everybody and don't tell me a fantastical story that everyone died 250 years ago."

Yakhir concluded that he was looking into the face of madness, "I suggest you follow me and gaze out through any of the nodes through which I must return. They are the only functioning links on or around the Earth. The archology is empty and the two weapons platforms have no power."

"Can't leave," the man said with a shake of his head. "The lab sustains my self as long as I stay within its boundaries. If I leave without a tether back to my body, then I disappear in a digital poof. I'm waiting on my staff to return with a tether."

Yakhir gave the man a blank look, "I'm sorry, but I know not of such things as 'tether' or a 'digital poof', but I assume you mean you will die if you leave. I must return but I swear by all that is dear to me, all that you knew was destroyed 250 years ago. Martell is only a three room collection of crates gathering dust. If I can, I will return to you when I and my betrothed are safe. Goodbye."

Yakhir turned tail and fled, calling the voice to return him to his link. He never looked back and Martell never even returned his farewell. The travel back through the nodes was the same; he caught a few more titles and got a better glimpse of the planet beneath him.

Yakhir lifted the helmet off of his face and smiled weakly at Adilah, "You will never believe..."

"I heard half of the conversation. You talked loud enough to wake the dead; now, drop your voice," she insisted.

"Turn your torch on the crates and see if any of them have markings," he ordered.

The bottom crate at the other end had numbers in white facing them. Yakhir peered at box and then grabbed the torch from the now composed woman. He ran the beam around the edges and hissed a "yes" of success. He handed the torch back to Adilah and flipped back the hidden catches. The whole side opened up banging both of them, and they had to squirm out of the way to gently lower the door to the ground. Inside were rifles, the likes of which they had never seen. The material was neither wood nor metal and the dull black color was unique. However, a rifle it was with a barrel, a trigger and a bulbous stock. There was a dial on it as well. Yakhir pulled one out and when he put his finger on the trigger, a soft green light appeared on the inside of the stock.