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«Let's get your skeleton crew fixed first. To do that, I need a genetic map that will act as signature. I'm sorry to say you all look so similar I would think you are clones!"
«Clones?»
«Clones are individuals who share the exact same genes. Like identical twins, or triplets.»
«Then we are clones!»
«That's impossible! Otherwise, you would have caught the sickness that put them in cryogenic stasis!» Francesca said.
«Although Healer Francesca is technically correct, let us not discard what Rockhook says. Let me get the proper material to collect samples from your family and compare them with your own genetic material. I need a big room that we can sterilize. The ship's galley should do. Are these cryogenic chambers mobile?»
«Yes. But their autonomy is limited, no more then a rotation of the planet. They are already on autonomous oxygen for confinement reasons. The gaseous exchange is done in two steps. The first step is precipitating the carbon from the exhaled gas. It is then burned in a high-oxygen atmosphere; the oxygen is combined with hydrogen in the same manner. Both methods are high-temperature reactions and effectively sterilize any gas exchange.»
«Why not use photosynthesis?»
«The spacecraft could when we were in space. It was easy to move close to a star to gain enough energy to do so. But since we crashed here, it has been impossible. The plants that came with us were unable to adapt due to the low light level. They all died.»
«But you seem to come from a bright star?»
«It is true that our planet was considerably hotter then here, but how did you come to that conclusion?»
«Your skin is dark, which is a protection mechanism against excessive hard radiation.»
«Our planet was also much wetter, and the atmosphere somewhat thicker. The area we planned to land into was lower, further down the mountain range, but due to circumstances out of our control, we ended here. In all bad things, some good may come, because we ended up in this isolated valley and, given the behaviour of the natives, it may well have saved our lives.»
«Ok, I need a sample from you. Can you rub this on the inside of your cheeks?"
As the Alien was getting ready to put it in his anus, Francesca stopped him.
«When I said cheeks, I meant the inside of your mouth, Rockhook.»
«Even telepathically, your language is confusing!»
«I think it was a prankster of ill repute that fed you that image!»
Ian blushed, but the Alien couldn't figure the meaning of the sudden change in colour. Meanwhile the Alien rubbed the cotton swab inside his mouth, and placed it in a sterile package, which Francesca labelled before storing it away.
Meanwhile, Paschal had studied the power requirements of the four chambers, and decided it would be easier to add a derivative line from the main stasis level to the hold rather then install an independent power supply. He materialized four cables with the proper male and female connectors, and the power sectioning that would reduce voltage and amperage according to the Alien stasis chamber design's specifications. Once the lines were set, he tested the power output, the voltage polarity, and amperage. A few spikes proved the power was slightly unstable, and the issue was traced back to a badly insulated feed from within the spaceship. Apparently the cable Paschal had selected had been damaged during the landing, but having been unused, had not been repaired by the skeleton crew. After exposing his discoveries to Rockhook, the Alien came back with this laconic comment:
«That cable was part of the power feed to the slipstream drive. It was damaged during our last jump. We had several catastrophic power failures during that short burst, and several fires erupted. Only by evacuating part of the atmosphere into space did we manage to put them out. Luckily, we had put our spacesuits. The sudden explosive decompression of the atmosphere added to the instability of the ship. We re-pressurised only the essential crew quarters for the rest of the trip. The stasis chambers were on a totally independent power source and were in their own core hold. You certainly noticed the quadruple bulkhead we need to cross from the outside of the ship to the stasis chambers holds. The ship was designed to protect its cargo against just about anything. Everything could be ejected should the need arise. That is what happened to the slipstream when it failed. We spent some time repairing things during our glide in space, but even with all the time in the world, we had to set priorities: maintain the stasis chambers, maintain the life support; survive ourselves, and do navigational adjustments to reach our destination."
"I see. I replaced the cable. It was shafted, and the insulator showed burns along the way, probably due to the fire you mentioned. By the way, is my pronunciation correct?"
«I can't tell, because it has been so long someone spoke our language. But I do understand you. I will try to answer the same way.»
"Raja, Hildegard, Xianathan, and Edwin, come with me. I'm going back to the bridge to begin disconnecting the stasis chambers. As soon as one is disconnected, move it here. Ian and Colibri! Make sure everything's clear and help position the stasis chambers so they are aligned with these markers I just added. I've looked at the passages, and the only way to bring them in here is through that service lift. Unfortunately the motor is dead, so we will have to levitate them down. Rockhook, you connect the power on each one as they are put in place by the delivery team."
The transfer from bridge to hold of the stasis chambers took an hour of arduous work, but it finally came to an end.
"The next step is to seal this room. Everyone gets out except Francesca and I. It is no use to risk anything happening."
Everyone left immediately. Paschal installed a powerful containment field around the room and materialised bio-suits. He had to explain to Francesca the way to put it on. Half an hour later, both were ready to do the samplings.
The stasis chambers were first deactivated, and once the bodies had warmed enough to allow blood flow, a needle was inserted in the arm vein to get about an ounce of blood. The samples were immediately frozen, and the reanimation process was aborted, re-cooling the body to just above freezing. The four hazardous samples were then put into a sealed container, ready to be transported to Thebes' high-security biological hazard laboratory.
Paschal then activated a powerful ultraviolet light source after supplying Francesca and himself with proper eye gear. They stood on a rotating drum for an hour as the hard light killed any germ in the room, and created enough ozone to give the impression a terrible thunderstorm had been unleashed. The cleanup completed, Paschal and Francesca banished the two bio-suits into the sun, thus finishing the securing of the area. After everything was done the force field was collapsed.
"It's done. Francesca and I will go to Thebes with the container and analyse the samples."
"What's that strange smell?" asked Rockhook.
"It is ozone. It kills any infectious agent that is oxygen-dependent for its gas exchanges. It is the case with smallpox. It's a bonus from having flooded the area with ultraviolet for over an hour. Do not worry, I checked on your covers. Their two glasses are polarised in such a way the image you see is a projection, not the real person. No light gets in."
"Oh. I never looked into the design of these things except to repair the electronics."
"It's all right. I'm inherently curious about anything technical, especially when it comes to alien technology. You might have things to teach us. Anyway, Rockhook, I hope to see you soon in Thebes. Ian, I'll be informing dad personally of your latest addition to the rescue, if Harp hasn't yet. Expect a visit!"
Paschal took hold of the sample container and popped back to Thebes, followed immediately by Francesca.
***
The high-security laboratory was in turmoil when Paschal popped up. His calm voice giving orders around brought order to pandemonium, as Francesca put the container on a workbench.
"We have five samples. The four samples with a red tag are highly dangerous; the yellow tag is undefined. First, let's deal with the yellow-tagged sample. Put the others in cryogenic stasis!"
The first task was extracting the genetic material from the sample supplied by Rockhook. The twenty-eight chromosomes were then sequenced, and compared with the data stored in the Pyramidal memory system. The results were surprising. There was a number of anomalies on chromosome pairs eleven, thirteen, and twenty-two.
"I thought he said they were clones?" said Francesca.
"I heard that too. Let's see what the others have to reveal. First, we must determine the signature of smallpox and these aliens. Let's split the samples in four. The first part will be used to establish the aliens' signature; the second part will let us establish smallpox's signature; and the two others will help us validate our extraction procedure. Francesca, divide sample one again in two, then apply centrifugal fragmentation to sub-sample one, and electrophoresis on the second. I'll deal with trying to extract smallpox virus out of there."
After extracting the smallpox virus from the blood serum using a centrifuge, Paschal began extracting the DNA from the agglomerate. The DNA was purified, replicated, and then fractured for a complete sequencing. After spending a week on the job, the laboratory had finally established a smallpox signature and variants.
«Harp, I need you for high-precision magic.»
Harp did not bother replying, he simply popped into the laboratory.
"What's up?"
"First, did you talk to dad about Ian's latest recovery efforts?"
"No. What would it change? Remember Ian's call with the Seraphrims. I think it would take the galaxy blowing up for that call to be reversed."
"You have a point. Have you sent additional support to Ian for the transfer?"
"No. He says to hold until we can ensure that the aliens will not catch anything from us."
"I didn't think of that. But he is right. They might not be immune to quite a few benign things, such as the simple cold."
"Anyway, why did you ask for my presence?"
"I want you to extract this signature out of that blood sample. Put all examples in that glass vial."
"What's that signature?"
"Smallpox."
"BRR!"
"Yes, you have that right. Four of the aliens have it."
"Out of?"
"Five."
"So, all this mess for five aliens?"
"No, twelve million. The five were the skeleton crew, and they caught smallpox, all five of them. But one is immune, and the next step is finding out why he is and the others aren't."
"Twelve million? You never mentioned that number! Now I understand why you wanted me to talk to dad! You didn't have the balls to do it yourself!"
"Let me deal with my ball issues. Do you think you can extract those viruses from the whole blood samples without porting the samples?"
Harp concentrated on one sample. At first nothing seemed to happen, but, gradually, a thin veneer made the sterile receptacle gain a yellowish hue.
"The first sample is cleared up."
"How many did you extract?"
"The viral load was at twenty-five million per cubic centimetre. That is quite a number."
"Will it take as long to clear up the rest?"
"Actually, no. I took my time rather then miss a single virus. Now that I'm sure the virus has a restricted variability, I can extract it rapidly from the same individual. I do need to see if the map will hold for the others."
"Let's do that right away. The other samples are in these containers. Francesca, have you managed to verify the genetic maps of the four infected individuals?"
"Yes, I just completed the fourth one. The genes are identical. We have quadruplets."
"So, Rockhook was right, they are clones."
"Except for him. We have to figure out what happened."
"The only way would be to talk about reproduction with Rockhook. Something must have happened when he was duplicated," said Harp. "I suggest we visit the alien and ask questions."
"It's as if you think he was conscious of his birthing circumstances."
"Maybe not Francesca, but what else do we have to look at?"
"What do we do?"
"Francesca, you go take a break. Thorsten is coming here to proceed with the next phase, that is, try to implement Rockhook's genetic modifications within the samples and test if that alone will solve the issue in a cellular culture. He's coming with Typhoon and Enron."
"Why not me?"
"First, your shaky hands show you are tired. You almost dropped that last sample. Second, Thorsten and Typhoon have a finer magical control then you do, and implementing long chains of nucleotides is not going to be an easy task. I've also asked for Enron. His sixth sense with biology is stunning, and maybe he will see some things Thorsten and Typhoon will miss. Now, scoot!"
Francesca had to admit she was feeling dizzy, and yet she felt insulted by the dismissal.
"I'm the healer, they aren't!"
"Francesca, you may be the healer, but you still have a lot of catching up to do to even match Enron, Thorsten and Typhoon! They have been doing a lot of research with me over the last two years, while you were either under therapy, or licking wounds that you inflicted to yourself because of your egocentrism! Ian told you to get over your self-pity. I'm telling you get over your belly-button mentality! You are a valued addition to the team, but you are not the team. Get it?"
"Prince Paschal, I have never been so insulted in my life!"
"And I've never seen such a stubborn Ass! You are tired, you need rest, and there are others that can do the job better then you, even when you are in top shape. Do not push your luck, Francesca. I am getting tired of your attitude and I may not be as accommodating as Ian!"
Francesca was getting furious, and suddenly, she found herself in an ice block in the Antarctic.
«You will stay there until you start using your brain again! It has been the second time you have acted irrationally. The third time will cost you your life! Have I made myself clear?» thundered Paschal. «We cannot put up with temper tantrums from someone with magic, Francesca. Grow up, as Ian said.»
Francesca was fuming, but however hard she tried to escape the block, she could do nothing about it.
"Don't forget to log the signature of the magic field, Paschal. Given what you did, not even I could get her out of there," said Harp, who had popped in the laboratory at the end of the discussion, along with Enron, Thorsten and Typhoon.
"Don't worry. I've used my personal magic signature to encrypt the containment field. She'll either get over her temper or freeze to death."
"She is quite a piece of work," noted a technician. "She has one bitchy temper. No one wants to work with her."
"That temper will cool down one way or another. We cannot afford that kind of attitude, especially now," said Enron, who approved of Paschal's intervention.
"Let's go join Ian. I wonder what he has been doing."
***
Harp and Paschal popped to the bridge of the alien spaceship. They found it empty so they moved around the vessel, looking for Ian and his team. They found them in the cloning room, looking at the mechanism used by the aliens to create clones. After the proper presentations were done, Paschal asked what they were looking at.
"It is the cloning machine." Rockhook informed the new visitors with a high-pitched voice.
"Ok. I was going to ask you some question about reproduction in your species, but the fact that it is a machine will make it a lot easier," said Paschal. "So, how does it work?"
"We supply it with liquid, and it combines them to make one of us."
"That isn't very clear. And it doesn't explain why your genetic material is so different from those of your four other colleagues," said Harp.
"I'm different?"
"Enough to be awake while the others are in suspended animation by means of cryogenic stasis," noted Edwin.
"Rockhook, is there a record of how you came into being?" Paschal asked.
"There is a record of donor pair. However, the data is locked into the memory of the machine and it does not have any power. It is power-hungry and would require diverting energy from maintaining the stasis chambers."
"Paschal, look at power requirements. We can supply it with a temporary energy source," said Ian.
"I'll look into this Ian. But Rockhook, why did you need a machine to reproduce?"
"Do you not? You look quite evolved to reproduce by parthenogenesis!"
"We reproduce sexually, Rockhook."
"Sexually? What does that mean?"
"We seed the egg-bearer member of our respective species, in an act called sexual reproduction."
"I don't understand?"
"Well, one member, the male, produces liquid which gets transferred into a special organ of the other sex, the female, that contains an egg. When the egg is fertilised, it begins dividing, and becomes a baby that is born."
"You mean that your machine is so advanced it can do it without consuming too much energy?"
"It is not a machine. As for not consuming energy, I wouldn't say that!" said Ian.
"How about explaining how you do it, Rockhook?"
"I haven't done it much, we tried to restrain the number of births. The last time dates from when we had to run off from our Enemies, and their last attack had killed about twenty-five hundred of ours. We decided to produce replacements. I seeded for five hundred, and I combined with all four members of the skeleton crew. We took our time, since we had only one functional machine for that and energy was already at a premium."
"How does this work?"
"We put our organ in there, and it produces a special liquid after stimulation. The feeling is very nice, but we get so tired after we have to sleep for five cycles after."
«Annabelle will say this is typical male attitude after sex: do the deed and fall asleep!» said Harp. The others barely managed to hold back their chuckles.
"And then?" probed Ian.
"The machine takes over, combines the liquid from the two donors, and some three hundred fifty days, as you call your rotation of this planet, the new entity is ejected."
"Is the new entity full-grown?"
"No, he has to learn a lot of motor skills. A new entity takes a lot of work. I remember having to help a dozen reach maturity before we had to leave our last shelter. The new ones are also stored in chambers, classified by size."
"I gather that, somewhere in that ship, there is a nursery."
"A nursery?"
"A place dedicated to the undeveloped ones."
"Yes."
"How many duplicating machines are we talking about, if all were functional?"
"There are about a thousand. We wanted to have enough to make a colony viable."
Ian had been examining the machine and noticed it had two holes in the front at about the height for the alien's penis, and a much bigger one leading to a flat surface.
"I gather you need to be two for this to work?" he asked.
"Yes."
"I wonder why, since you are clones?"
"I do not know. It always has been like this."
"I think we can supply it with energy for a time. It requires two thousand amperes to run, at four hundred volts, for a total power consumption of eight hundred kilowatts per hour. I admit this is a power hog! I'll need to redesign it completely. But the important part is the computer, and it consumes about five hundred Watts per hour. That place must have been hot when this machine ran."
"I see nothing hot in having sex with a machine!" said Ian.
"At least, after you are done, Ian, you don't have to hold a conversation!" piped up Enron.
"And it never complains of having a headache to get out of the job!" added Paschal.
After a couple of chuckles, Harp and Paschal sat on the floor, and began drawing quickly on a big sheet of paper. Twenty minutes later they had the interface between a portable generator able to produce about one kilowatt and the machine. Paschal ported back to Thebes to assemble the generator in his machine shop.
"I'll be back shortly. Meanwhile, Harp, can you look at their other computers? There must be others, if only the central core unit."
Before Rockhook could reply, Paschal had moved back to Thebes.
"You were going to say, Rockhook?" asked Harp.
"The central core computer is locked up in a vault, deep within the centre of the ship. We do not have enough energy to open the door."
"Get me there. But first, what do you know about the atmosphere of the room where the core computer resides?"
"It is not breathable. It used to be exceedingly cold in there, but since the core computer has stopped working, having lost all uses since the crash, we have halted its activity and deactivated the cooling system."
"Did you divert the energy to other uses?"
"For a while, until we had the alternate power set up."
"So, we could restart the core computer if necessary?"
"Yes, after feeding it the energy. That would take some time, because the process is complex. There we are. Behind that bulkhead is the computer. The door is as thick as the one separating the stasis chambers from the outer ship."
"OK. Let me get suited."
Harp created a space suit with a two-hour compressed oxygen tank on his back. A miner's light was on his forehead.
«I won't be gone long. I just want to make sure it's not been damaged.»
Harp ported on the other side of the bulkhead and found himself in a narrow passage. Walking along the hallway, he reached a door that opened into a sphere. Below and above him were rows upon rows of dark objects. Examining one of the components that were right beside the door with magic, Harp concluded rapidly that the circuit was holographic memory, much like the Pyramids. The core computer had processing power, but it was microscopic compared to the power of the Pyramids. He wondered if it had reached conscience level before being put to sleep.
After realizing the nature of the components he was seeing on the wall of the spherical room, Harp figured this was only the memory. Something was missing. Where was the central processing unit? However hard he looked around, he could not find a trace of it. Harp returned to the waiting away team, and removed his space suit.
"Rockhook, this is only the memory room. Where are the data processing units?
"They are distributed across the entire ship. We figured that what mattered was the data upon which the processes were run, so we protected the data first and foremost. Processing is done by millions of small units that team up to run the ship. For instance, each stasis chamber is equipped with an independent processing unit, but they talk to each other all the time."
"What happens if a link is lost?"
"There are six links; if one is lost, we get notified, and we repair it."
"And what happens if a processing unit is lost or faulty?"
"Its task is distributed across the six closest processors, we get notified, and we replace the faulty processing unit."
"Was it the same with the reproduction machine?"
"Yes, until we could run only one."
"How many were running when you were produced, Rockhook?"
"I have no idea."
"I am having a feeling that something happened that the designers of these machines had not envisioned," said Edwin.
"What do you mean?" asked a worried Rockhook.
"Let's assume that, initially, your species had similar reproduction methods as life on Earth, sexual reproduction. That would have led to an important genetic diversity, and an ability to adapt to changes, including environmental changes, and to develop, by natural selection, immunity to diseases typical of your planet. Don't look so shocked, Rockhook. You told us you had been forced out of your planet so long ago you no measure of the elapsed time. Many things can have happened during that time."
"What makes you think it was the case?"
"Your anatomy. You have the genitals of the male of our species, and even the characteristics of mammals. I would suspect your species once had females and they used to be the ones bearing children, or what you call the little ones."
"That is fascinating. Continue?"
"For a reason unknown, the females of your species did not survive space travel. I suspect it was due to the excessive presence of hard radiation in the beginning of your travels, which led to the realisation that children born naturally on a spaceship contained too many genetic defects to be viable. Your species was headed for extinction, but your engineers designed this machine, which could replace the female body and protect the unborn child from hard radiation. It is apparent it is one of its roles, given the presence of considerable amount of lead encircling the gestation chamber."
"Oh?"
"The next role is supplying an egg. Now, there being no females to do so, the next best solution is taking a cell from the ejaculate, which contains not only sperm but also stem cells. The stem cells get its DNA removed, the two sperm fluids get their DNA extracted and injected in the now empty nucleus of the stem cell, and it is placed in an incubation fluid, with the proper flux of hormones. A new life is born and grows. Stem cells are a lot smaller then the egg, but still millions of times bigger then the sperm cell, so there is ample room for the genes to set in. For some reason, the expression of the genes leading to the female body is suppressed or the chromosome was removed, so only males are conceived. The later is unlikely. I think the engineers hoped to reverse the procedure once your people found a safe heaven, and removing the female genes would have made it a lot harder to reverse the process."
"Your hobby in artificial wombs pays off, Edwin!" piped up Ian.
"Edwin's description fits the data, Rockhook. As for why the females genes get inhibited, I think it was considered a loss of resources to have females since they could no longer contribute to the reproduction cycle," added Harp. "You stated earlier that resources aboard the ship were limited."
"Yes, I did."
"If the female genes are still present, it could be possible to reverse the lock, and get your species back on the main reproduction path," added Edwin. "We need to wait for Paschal to be back with the power source to find out more."
"It still does not explain why Rockhook has immune resistance while the others do not?"
"I think that the engineers went too far, Ian. They so wanted to protect the genetic data that they had each machine check on each other's work. The machines saw the genetic variability and interpreted it as faulty data. In the long run, there was only a limited variance, leading to virtual clones. Once there was only a single machine left, it could no longer check its data against the others, and variance began to grow anew. It could take not only Rockhook's donors in consideration, but also the need for a powerful immune response on a planet. It not only recombined their sperm, it added the necessary changes from its own data bank to ensure survival in a hostile environment."
"But why him and not the others?"
"And the genetic data of the species is kept in the core computer, not in the reproduction machine," objected Rockhook.
"I suspect two events occurred: first, Rockhook, you were conceived when there was only a single machine available due to restrictions on energy. Second, the machine, unable to compare with other machines for verification, accepted the override from the core memory and implemented the genes you now possess. I suspect the core memory contains the full extent of your species' variability, and that the situation now at hand, where your brothers are virtually identical, is a fluke due to bad logic. As I said, the engineers went too far; they should not have allowed the reproduction machines to override the changes proposed by the core."
Colibri had been listening to all this with ever-wider eyes.
"Are you telling me you have sex with that?" he said, pointing at the reproduction machine.
"Yes."
"Eww!"
"I can return the comment, the idea of sex with a female makes me feel sick."
"At least you could do it with "
"Colibri, get off the poor guy," said Ian.
"He is not on me, and I'm curious as to what he was going to say?"
Colibri looked at Ian with a smirk.
" With the other ones around?"
"We did that until they fell sick. It passed the time, and it was fun too, but we never managed to produce a little one however hard we tried!"
That was too much for the others: They exploded in laughter. Rockhook had learned this meant that something funny had happened, but he couldn't guess what. His very venerable and serious face looked perplexed, which added to the funniness of the situation.
"Anyway, if Edwin's analysis is right, there must be at least five thousand individuals showing some variability in their genes, and probably a lot more," commented Ian. As Rockhook looked at him sceptically, Ian continued his reasoning.
"See, you contributed to five thousand births. You are different therefore your children are different. Now, given Edwin's hypothesis, we can suppose that you were the first and that all births following yours received the data from the central core. Apparently, the four in sick ones were conceived and born before the need arose to keep the energy consumption minimal, and you were born after. It is the rate of birth and the interval that will tell us how many Goblins are like you."
"And we can get an exact count when we move everyone to Thebes, since we will need to make sure each Goblin has a viable immune system. For now, your brothers are like bubble babies of the Ancients: almost non-existent immunity to sickness. It worked fine within the confines of a controlled environment like a spaceship, but it sure will not work in Thebes," added Edwin.
"How come they survived so long if they had no immunity?"
"I didn't say total absence, you know."
"Edwin's comment is right, but he forgot to take into account your innate magic. It probably fought diseases with all it had, and when it met with the smallpox virus, it was too weak to fight it back effectively. You, on the other hand, had a good immune system, and your magic only boosted it," explained Harp.
"I understand better now."
"So do we."
***
Paschal returned with a miniature generator, and five jerry cans of fuel supplied by the Dwarf chemists. After connecting the generator, he started the power supply and watched as it stabilised before inviting Rockhook to do a diagnostic on the internal circuits of the oily bitch, as Ian had so delicately dubbed the alien contraption.
The diagnostic protocol was complicated, and would take a couple of hours. Meanwhile, Ian and his team talked to the others about what they were planning to do.
"Harp, I don't think we should wait much longer to resume our extraction of the other tribes. Paschal says he has more then enough space to store everyone, and I see no reason to delay the progress further. We are going to go down the river, finish off the immediate area, and then begin our trip back to the sea, doing the other side of the Amazon. Then there is the search for Brasilia."
"What about Rockhook?"
"I don't need to be here to direct anything. Assign an away team to help out and get them to Thebes. It's about time Viola took a more hands-on approach to managing a project. Put him in charge. He has a Centurie; push him, give him a Legion! We have enough to go around."
"Ok. I wasn't sure about that aspect, but if you say so, I have no objection. A Legion will do nicely. And I think we have another five Centuries of Mages available around. It should be feasible to port those in the stasis chambers to Thebes, as soon as Paschal and I have calibrated those in Thebes so parameters match."
"Fine, but do not forget to port as many incubators as you can to Thebes. We have a Goblin population to restart, and that won't be done with a single incubator."
"Aren't you even slightly interested in knowing what that machine will reveal?" asked Paschal, as he kept an eye on it with Rockhook.
"Not in the least. Contrary to some, I'm more worried about the timetable then anything else. We are at minus six months and counting and there is still a lot to do."
"I know. I was teasing," replied Paschal.
"Paschal, we need the information in the core, but not the spaceship. Transfer everything necessary to access the data to Thebes, including a functioning interface, but leave the rest behind. Move the plants and animals in stasis as well as the Goblins. Harp! Prepare tessaract thirty for their exclusive use. Make sure the life forms of their planet does not contaminate ours or ours theirs. Keep the tessaract sterile until we have fixed those who have low immunity potential."
"What about the stuff they have installed outside the spaceship?"
"Port everything, including the aqueduct. It may be useless, but it is a marvel of architecture."
"You forget that suspended rope bridge, Ian. I've never seen something so delicate," said Edwin.
"And the rope bridge, then."
"Ok, Ian. I'll get Sitar to handle security while we proceed to the move. Make sure to mark the ecosystems for displacement when you leave."
"No, put Timor in charge of security. Sitar has enough on his plate as it is. We will have three million Goblins coming in per month, plus an as yet unknown number of Orcs, depending on what Yamato finds. The Ark and Eden projects are running at full capacity, and by the end of the month, we begin massive ecosystem transfers to complete the task within four months, with a month to spare before things become interesting."
"As if they weren't already," noted Paschal.
"Do we have adapted cryogenic chambers yet?" asked Ian.
"I left Thorsten and Typhoon in charge of that, along with Enron. The three of them should be ready shortly, given their discipline and dedication."
"Why not Francesca?" wondered Ian.
"She was too tired, she almost dropped a dangerous sample. I had to send her to cool off in an iceberg in Antarctica."
"With a very clear warning: shape up or else!" added Harp.
"I thought I had made it clear already?"
"Apparently, she is the kind of person that does not take to warnings kindly."
"She better change, or I'll send her to be recycled in history!" said a furious Ian. "Anyway, I'm off. I need to blow steam after that revelation. Raja, you handle Colibri, I'm too pissed off to be trusted with handling him. Xianathan, would you mind handling the rear guard? Edwin, you handle the left side, and Hildegard, handle the right side. Once we are out of the spaceship, we fly to our trimaran and recover it. Let's get moving."
***
The analysis of the data stored in the incubator did not reveal much about the timeline, much to the Atlanteans' frustration. It had not kept a log of changes.
"To be honest, Paschal, I did not expect much out of this. These machines are sophisticated incubators, nothing else. Once they have done their job, I expect they flush their memory to the core," said Viola.
"So, what you are saying is that the history is in the core, not in the machine?"
"Yes. It would make better sense."
"Ok. Rockhook, do these machines have identifications of sorts?"
"They have a production number, if that is what you mean?"
"That or anything else. What we will be looking in the core is a trace. Hopefully, the logs will be in the core, and will carry the sequence and let us associate change to it."
"I have a question for you, Rockhook. Have you used the incubator since the core computer was deactivated?"
"No, we were too short on energy. We tried, but it never did make a little one. In fact the mass that exited was non-viable and died within minutes."
"Ok. That happens with natural births too. It is called stillbirth. I gather it was not a common occurrence?"
"No, it was the first time in memory."
"We can't supply enough energy to run the core computer with standalone power supplies, Harp. I was hoping to treat the sick ones here, but apparently, it won't be possible. Does anyone have any suggestions?"
"Harp, how about we do this in two stages? First, you rid the four sick ones of the viruses; port them into a sterile environment, flush their exterior with a powerful antiviral agent, and finally port them into a stasis chamber in Thebes? After all, they are sterile. We can resolve their immunity problems later."
"Timor's body may be overheating, but his brain is functioning perfectly. That sequence is feasible," said Harp.
"How long for each one?"
"About a day, and we are lucky, the stasis has halted the viral multiplication so I can work by segment. I will need to rest an hour every hour, that is why it will take that long."
"Can we help?"
"I wish, Viola, but no one has the fine control required except me. I'm trying to get everyone there but it takes time for you guys."
"Timor, let's go take a walk while Harp does this. I doubt he needs our distraction. Paschal, Rockhook, how about joining us?"
"I'll be busy porting incubators to Thebes, Viola," replied Paschal. "I'll be getting them disconnected here, port them into tessaract number thirty, reconnect them to Thebes' power grid, and start their diagnostic. At sixteen a day, I'll be damn busy."
"That's two months! Have you finished fixing Thebes?"
"I'll be going to the Cave every day to check on progress, and the technicians can resolve ninety percent of the issues; they have enough to repair just about everything. We should be fixed in a month anyway."
"Ok. Just don't burn the candle by both ends, Paschal. We still need you!"
"Thanks for the consideration, Viola. I've been burning the candle by both ends for years. Believe me, I am waiting for a break!"
"Anyway, train a couple of Elves on the connection issues. I'm sure there are some available."
"I'll think about it, but you know our philosophy: never better served than by ourselves."
"I know. And you Rockhook, Are you coming with us?"
"Yes. I have to collect fruits. They should be mature by now."
"Just in case you are unaware, Rockhook, fruits are the female products of plant."
"Are you trying to make me sick?"
"No, just bringing you to the reality of natural reproduction!"
"But "
"Flowering plants do have male organs too, the long, thin, stamen and the anthers that produce the pollen. The pollen is captured by the female organ having been blown away by the wind or getting stuck on insects or honey-seeking birds; it fertilises the eggs, that produces seeds, and the plant envelops the seed in a fruit to either feed the seeds' growth later or to protect them, or encourage dispersion by enticing fruit-eaters to carry the container elsewhere."
"That is complicated!"
"It is, but it ensures maximum variability, maximum dispersion, and maximum probability of survival of the genes. And that is all that matters."
"You got lessons from Edwin in the art of explaining complicated stuff in a single sentence?" asked Paschal, as he laughed at the amazed look Rockhook showed.
"No, a long stay in the Pyramids gave me cause to think a lot."
"Where did the six others go?" asked Rockhook as he suddenly noticed the absence of Edwin and the others.
"They left to complete their mission. You were distracted by all the arrivals. You will see them in Thebes when you move there with the last Goblin in stasis."
"What will happen to this ship?"
"We move everything recoverable, and then trigger the collapse of the antimatter chamber once we are sure we won't be blowing ourselves up. We will not leave anything useful for a potential enemy, even such a thing as an indication of your presence. The less they know the better."
"I agree. Let's go to my farm. I will be sad to see this disappear."
"You were not paying attention, Rockhook. We save all life, and that will include your farm. It will be moved to our Eden project, in the ecosystem segment. That will also include the valley where you met Ian and his away team. We may even reproduce the entire environment, including the rivers, the mountains, the dry riverbed, and the aqueduct and rope bridge with the stream below. We just need your ok, and tessaract thirty will have it on a one to one-thousandth scale."
"Are you serious? That must require a lot of energy!"
"Creating does; translocation takes a lot less, and we see no reason to leave behind resources for the soul-eaters or anyone else. We only regret we will not be able to move the entire planet, but it's not for lack of trying!"
"What my friend Viola is saying is that the next part of the Ark-Eden project is much like skinning an orange, minus the rotten parts, namely the contaminated areas. We will move as much of it as possible, recover as much water as we can, and all that. By the end of the process, the planet will be dead to life, but its viable segments will be stored on the spaceship."
"I do not understand how you plan to move such a giant spaceship?"
"It's not that big due to the tessaracts. I see from your wide eyes that you have no idea of what I'm talking about. Harp, can you explain while we walk, I am out of my depth here."
"Certainly, Viola. What do you know about magic and this universe?"
"We practice it, but isn't it natural for everyone?"
"No. Many life forms have not mastered magic, and certainly not to the level we Atlanteans have, so far as I know. Where to start? Ok. A tessaract is compressed space; it packs up space in a smaller volume. By proper use of string theory and other dimensions of space-time we are able to neutralise the mass and density variables up to a certain point. Space, time, matter, and energy are all expressions of strings vibrating along eleven dimensions. Let me show you how this works with this two-dimensional vibrating string."
Harp created a thin wire strung along two poles.
"The length is what determines the base frequency. A string's base frequency is its fundamental wavelength. It is always a whole number, one. Now, a string can vibrate at one wavelength, its base frequency, but also at half, or a quarter or an eight and so forth of its base wavelength, giving it harmonics. Each harmonic is an integer multiple of the base wavelength: 1, 2, 4, 8, and so forth. Note it gives a richer sound, but always on the same fundamental as the base length. Now, if you change the length of the string, the base length changes and so does the sound you hear. If I press at special places along the string as it vibrates I get different notes. Again I can have a simple base frequency, but also a lot of harmonics, as you can hear. There comes the interesting part. As I shorten the string, the sound becomes higher, because the energy that makes the string vibrate has a shorter distance to travel from one end to the other and back. The shorter the string the higher it becomes because it vibrates faster. Note that all these states are defined by quantum physics in a way. It is possible to be off-tune but somehow, well, it just does not sound right. When the string is the right length, energy will make it vibrate according to quantum physics. Now, the string we see here moves only up and down as energy travels through it; for space-time the string moves along eleven dimensions, and all these dimensions are binded by quantum physics, the same rules that bind the movement of that string there."
"Wow!"
"Now, a tessaract applies the same rules I did when I pressed on that string to shorten it; it changes frequencies, and moves things to a higher-frequency. By changing the proper frequency in one or more dimensions of space-time, I shorten the length of the strings of normal space, creating tessaracts. Magic is applied quantum physics on dimensions other then the normal space-time dimensions you are familiar with. That is why not only I can manipulate space but also manipulate time as well. I can slow it down, speed it up, expand space or contract it by pressing on the proper strings in the other dimensions."
"Can you go back in time?"
"Paschal has created what he calls collectors. They are currently travelling back in time in an effort to recover everything lost to its implacable walk, including genetic maps of long-lost species. I can see where you are going with this. There is a reason why it is machines that are doing it. They have to travel at the speed of light to backtrack in time, and no one of us can survive that. You need not worry. If your planet survived to this day, we may be able to collect your people's original gene pool and also the planet's ecosystem map. But that is if it is still around. If not, it's lost."
"What happens when they have finished with their mission?"
"They stream back to us. According to magic theory, the moment they have accomplished their job, they release the time string and rebound right back to us. We have already recovered a dozen so far; some were tracking Human activity and met their end of mission barely four point five million years ago, when men had yet to discover fire. Canine trackers were back not too much later, as well as Equines. The others will travel to the birth of the first Dragon, some time before the first continental crust formed. That should be the last ones to report mission accomplished."
"I wonder how you manage to do all that."
"We are musicians of the magic instrument. Have you ever heard a violin? No? Let me show you how it is played. Consider all its strings as dimensions in the universe and listen to this."
Harp played the Flight of the Bumblebee, much to the delight of Rockhook. As the song came to an end, he realised the birds in the fields had begun singing to accompany the violin.