The Prophesy: Book 2 - The Right Hand of Destiny

 

The boys found themselves in a strange room that was radically different from any they had seen before. After taking a walk around wearily, trying to figure out what to do, they decided to ask.

«What is expected of us here?»

«You are expected to fly and win battles. Each of you has his own flying abilities. You must fight the battles of Atlantis. Merge and win; divide and lose. There will be seven battles. Five of seven must be won for you to be admitted to the Hall of Learning.»

«That test fits me perfectly, guys. After all I am Hator. Let us fly!"

The boys returned to their seats and relaxed. The room, a deep yellow, gradually turned deep black, and the boys found they were travelling through stars. The boys, mindful of the warning, merged their thought processes into a unique one, yet remaining separate. Typhoon instinctively took control of the shields, while Thorsten took control of weapons and Sitar of tactical aspects. Harp took control of long-range sensors, and Paschal of engineering. Ian held the captaincy, well aware that his decisions would be the deciding factor should a conflict arise. Enron's role was both critical and straightforward: he had the task of flying the ship and making it do whatever manoeuvres were required to succeed in a task.

«I wonder if this is a simple simulation?»

«It is a simulation, yet it is more than a simulation. In a simulation, you cannot die; in this one you can. The room in which you are is a simulator, but its hull can be breached. If this happens, you fail. It will tolerate two breaches out of the seven tests you are to undergo. A third breach will create an explosive decompression! Are you ready?»

«How do we control things?» asked Ian

«With your thought.»

«Do we get a mission objective briefing?» asked the always practical Sitar.

«Yes. When the simulation starts.»

«When will we know we have succeeded in a mission?»

«When you get the next one or I declare you successful, at the end of seven tests.»

«Is everyone ready?» asked Ian, Receiving positive acknowledgement, he ordered «Synchronize thought processes on my mark! Mark! Start simulation!»

«First mission, escape the gravity well of a planet while being assailed by a fleet of Soul Eaters.»

Immediately, the scenery visible around the room changed from a movable star field to that of a bleak scenery. Dark objects were converging on the boys from every direction.

«Shields up!» ordered Ian. Immediately a flickering was seen as the planet's atmosphere collided with the force field.

«Please engage thrusters at a quarter impulse. Get us out of here, Enron!» The scenery slowly changed as the ship rose off the ground. The ship's majestic climb did not seem sufficient to distance themselves from the incoming enemies. Paschal gradually increased speed to half impulse, and as the nearest objects fired long rays of blue-white light, he rotated the ship to distribute the charge on a wider shield surface.

«Tactical!»

«They are planning a pinching move. We are too low to do the classic back flip evasive manoeuvre. Engage at full impulse as soon as they fire, then go to ionic even in the atmosphere. We aren't planning on coming back, are we?"

«It is not likely. Weapons?»

«Ready and locked. We will use low-yield explosives only. I plan to use chemical propulsion rockets, set at match five. I do not want the bang to blow us up. Firing in three, two, one, now!»

The boys saw a swarm of white rockets leave in all directions, and quite a few made direct hits on the incoming ships, while the light beams sliced others. Unfortunately, the incoming ships only slowed down, giving Paschal more time to climb.

«Damper fields!» as Paschal activated them, since they were now far enough from the ground.

"Engaging ionic drives in three, two, one, now!" Enron informed them as the scenery suddenly jumped forward at match twenty-five. Just as Enron engaged the new engines, bringing the ship into space and tearing a hole the size of a mountain range in the planet's atmosphere, while ionizing it from top to bottom, and killing everything alive left on its surface. The sudden loss of pressure brought the seas to boiling point while the temperature dropped to below liquid oxygen, creating a catastrophic condensing of the residual atmosphere. The bandits were caught in the turmoil, and quite a few ships crashed and exploded on the planet's surface, or collided with each other in midflight, with similar results.

«Your next mission is to escape the falling moon's debris.»

«Paschal, head for the nearest Pole! Engage the ionic drive at full power!»

"I suggest the South Pole, it's closer!" added Sitar, just as the boys saw a giant comet slam on the moon, breaking it into a myriad of pieces.

"Firing photon torpedoes in our estimated path!" replied Thorsten.

"Reinforcing forward shield to one-hundred and twenty-five percent of nominal!" informed Typhoon.

As the ship progressed, the torpedoes exploded one after another, clearing the way for the safe passage of the ship, whose forward shields disintegrated the residues left behind by the explosions.

«The forward shields are stressed, and have dropped back to one hundred percent. Divert energy from the rear shield, Paschal!" requested Typhoon.

«How long before we clear the gravity well?»

«We will be clear in two minutes, immediately after that we need to pass through the planet's ion belt! I will need an electromagnetic field around the ship for safe passage!» replied Harp.

«Working on it! I'll divert most shields except the forward to your field, Harp» replied Paschal.

«We are being pursued!» informed Harp.

«Lay a minefield behind!» ordered Sitar, immediately obeyed by Thorsten.

«Gravity mines fired and dispersing!»

«One minute to gravity well exit!» Harp told them.

«When will they collide with the first mine?» asked Ian.

«In thirty seconds!» replied Thorsten.

«We're too close! Increase ionic output to one hundred and thirty-five percent of nominal!» decided Ian.

«Twenty seconds to exit!»

As the boys counted the seconds, the ship raced forth, climbing away from the Earth.

"Out of gravity well, past the moon's orbit!» stated Harp dryly.

«Engage luminal drive to full power! Divert all non-essential energy to forward shield!»

The space ship left a streak of blue-white light behind, and jumped forward. Five seconds later, the first pursuing ship hit one of the gravity mines and collapsed on itself, bringing with it fifteen others that were too close to do anything to escape the microscopic black hole's horizon. As the bandits tried to turn and escape, three others triggered the undetectable mines and subsequent chain reactions. The Atlantean ship's sensors detected over three hundred and fifty explosions, not all of which were ships initially doing the triggering, as the moon's chunks also collided with the drifting mines.

«Diverting shields to magnetic field for zero point two seconds. Back to shield! We are out of the belt and are in free space.»

«Bring us out of the solar system, Paschal. Head for Jupiter first.»

«OK. At our current speed, twelve million fourteen thousand and two hundred and twenty-five miles per hour, I estimate our arrival to Jupiter in two and a half days," Harp replied. "Heading, two, two, three point five!»

«Activate long-range sensors! Feed the navigation information to Paschal! Our next obstacle is the asteroid belt! Establish the optimal safe passage to reach Jupiter!»

«How did you know your next objective would be within Jupiter's sphere of influence?»

«Call this intuition," replied Ian, smug.

«Since you are so smart, I'll let you find out what the next mission is on your own!»

***

The boys rested during these two days, and as the ship neared Jupiter, Ian ordered they hide in the outer ring, behind the small moon that herded the ring's rocky particles.

«Ok. I want two remotes on the surface of the moon. Harp port them to the surface. One remote will act as relay to the other. The one furthest will be remotely controlled by Paschal. Typhoon you have the relay. Once down, fly them very low, they have to stay undetected.»

«Are you sure we are undetected?» Thorsten asked.

«We caught up with Jupiter at its furthest point from Earth, and we came head first, from the outer solar system; sane navigators would have come from behind, playing catch-up. Surveillance would have been focussed on the most probable approach.»

«Are you telling me you are insane?» smirked Typhoon.

«What? You hadn't realized that already?» answered Enron, smiling widely.

«Port completed, Ian. Transferring control to Enron and Typhoon.»

An hour later, the boys saw what amounted to a huge military base hidden on the dark backside face of Ganymede, Jupiter's biggest moon. It seemed pretty busy, as hundreds of ships seemed to navigate within its vicinity.

«Identify these ships!» ordered Ian.

«I'm on it already,» replied Harp.

«Harp, can you magnify the image relayed by Enron?» requested Thorsten.

«Good. Filter out the halo. I know these ships! Remember the gray ship drawing the Ancients did from that crash? They look much like that drawing.»

«Greys! What do we know of them?» Ian wondered.

«Computer, find available information on the Greys.What are the known interactions with galactic life forms?» Sitar asked.

«Greys: predatory, lizard-like, space-faring species. Prefers eating its prey still alive and kicking.»

«Why is it that all grey predators behave the same way? The orcs, the giant sharks, and now the greys!» lamented Enron, while monitoring his path across the moon's face.

«We have no time to do comparative ethology. Prepare a long-range antimatter missile. Ten tons!»

«That will blow the moon to pieces.»

«No Sitar, if we do things right. Harp! Determine the best-hidden approach to Ganymede from our position. Paschal, equip the missile with a proximity detector, namely a gravitation well sensor. Once it is out of our moon's gravity well, set it so it detonates a mile above Ganymede. I do not want the greys to detect a radar ping, or a laser beam!»

«Ok, on it; give me ten minutes,» replied Paschal.

«What are you planning?» wondered Sitar.

«We detonate the antimatter just right where it would graze the moon, setting up a chain reaction that will propel Ganymede into Jupiter. Bye-bye grey base, and no trace of our intervention, since everything will vanish, from missile to a sizable chunk of the moon into Jupiter.»

«Guys leave the probes on auto-hover. Enron I need you to pilot that missile. Harp, have you set the best path?»

«Downloading it into Enron's station and into the missile self-guided circuitry now.»

«Typhoon, do a visual monitoring of the missile trajectory to Ganymede. Enron, monitor the telemetry and compare it to the planned path. Harp, set the telemetry to narrow beam, and align it with the relay on the other face of this moon!»

«Telemetry set!»

«Ready for visual tracking!»

«Receiving telemetry from missile in silo!»

«Eject by gas pressure alone!»

«I am awaiting window! Ejecting in three, two, one, ejecting!»

«Tracking. Telemetry incoming! All seems fine so far!

«Have we been detected?»

«It is not the case yet. The gas I used was hydrogen, and its very common here. Short puffs of hydrogen ejected by a moon are a frequent occurrence.»

«ETA to detonation site, Harp?»

«It is three hours twenty-two minutes and forty-five seconds. I am using the moon's gravity to slow down the rocket so it falls toward Jupiter. As soon as this occurs, in three minutes, it will gain speed from the gravitational pull of Jupiter. The rest is basic astrophysics.»

«When I think we didn't even know the word less than two weeks ago.» Paschal commented while keeping an eye on the two fluxes of numbers, one from the telemetry and one from the flight plan.

Time seemed to be at a standstill as the boys waited for the missile to reach its intended target.

«Three minutes to detonation!» Enron informed them.

«Typhoon?»

«No unusual activity detected visually.»

«Cameras show no change in pattern either!» Harp informed the rest of the boys.

«Initiate countdown at two minutes! Every minute, then every ten at thirty until the last ten!»

«Two minutes and counting!» Enron replied

«One mine and counting!»

«Thirty seconds and counting!» Enron began the final countdown as everyone tensed.

«Twenty seconds! Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six!»

«Gray ship moving to intercept! It won't make it!» Harp informed the others.

«Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Detonation! Telemetry terminated!»

«Status of Ganymede!»

«Leaving orbit! Trajectory is an accelerating downward spiral.»

«Grey activity?»

«Totally disorganized. It's like bees when their nest falls off the tree! There is a terrible flash! The grey base is no more, and a vast number of ships are being pulled down by the unstable gravitational situation. Navigating there must not be a piece of cake!»

«Thank-you Harp; job well done, guys!»

«Indeed, young one, this is a job well done. Your next mission is to reach the double star system whose coordinates are now being transferred into your navigational system. It may seem simple. But, and there is a but, it may not be as simple as it seems.»

«Enron, establish a series of viable paths!»

«Working on it, Ian.»

«Verify ship integrity. Harp! Estimate impact of the loss of Ganymede on the gravitational system of Jupiter.»

***

«Ian, the situation is dire within Jupiter's system. The fall of Ganymede has destabilized the rings. There are hundreds of rogue chunks flying in all direction, with numerous bits falling into Jupiter's atmosphere to burn up. The show is spectacular. I have also monitored the Earth. The situation there isn't great either. The Moon's pieces have begun falling into the planet.»

«Are we in danger?»

«Presently, the moon is shielding us from the junk, but it won't last,» Harp replied.

« Enron, set course for Saturn. We can calculate the trajectory to that star system while escaping this deluge of Hell. Engage warp drive, warp one.»

«Engaging warp drive for sixteen point six, six seconds.»

«What do we know about the star system?»

«It was named Sirius or the Wolf star by the ancients. It is not to be mixed with the Wolf Constellation. It is a binary system, with Sirius-A being the primary, and a much smaller companion star, Sirius-B. It has a planetary system, comprising twelve planets, including seven gaseous giants. There is no life-bearing planet, given the helicoidal trajectory of the only planet of sufficient mass to sustain an atmosphere. Sirius-A is about twice the size of Sol, whereas its companion is slightly smaller than the sun. The system is at eight point six light years and moving away from the sun. Its current position is at 06h 45m 08.9173s right ascension, -16° 42' 58.017" declination. An important fact is that this star is also named for you Enron. Since it lies low on the horizon, it was used by navigators, and named the pilot star, Hator!»

«Thank you for the wealth of information, Harp.»

«We are emerging from warp, Ian. I picked the south pole of Saturn as emergence point, to stay safe from its rings.»

«Verify all systems. Have the warp drives behaved as expected?»

«They were well within parameters, Ian. I'm fine-tuning the flux,» replied Paschal.

«I will have finished verifying the course in three minutes.»

«Thank-you. Harp, any suggestion as to what should be tested next?"

«We could test the slipstream, the hyper-jump drive, or push the warp drive to its limits. One thing we cannot test is porting. This is a simulation after all.»

«Who says we cannot test porting? We have a coordinate, a distance. In fact I suggest we use this to get to our destination. We have been tested, it's time to test the simulator!»

«Is it me or are you expressing some frustration, Ian?»

«You can say that. I am tired, and I want to go play with Silver Moon and Samantha. I also miss mom and dad. Let's get this over with. I have had enough of all these tests. I feel like we have been at it non-stop for months!»

The others looked at each other and decided they too had enough.

«Agreed, then. We port this bucket of bolts to our destination. We simply short the damn system to make it believe we have reached our intended space target. Let's do it now before it has time to figure out what we are planning!»

«As if the Seers of Atlantis wouldn't have known beforehand.»

«I don't give a damn about the seers, Sitar. I agree with Ian, let's get this over with,» replied Typhoon.

«Enron set course for Sirius. Engage ion drive, twenty-five percent of power only. I don't want to hit anything when we emerge from the port!»

Enron left the orbit of Saturn, banked left and set course to Sirius. «We are headed to Sirius, eight point six light-years off current position, offset to take Sirius' drift in space compensated to account time-change.»

«Gentlemen, ready to port! Remember, we only change the data in the simulator! Porting simulation in five, four, three, two, one, port!»

The scenery of the stars changed in a blink, and the double star composing the Sirius system was prominent in the front view screen.

«What happened?» asked a cold, icy voice.

«We were to arrive into the Sirius binary system by whatever means necessary. We arrived to Sirius, that's what!» replied Ian, in an even icier voice. «Give us our point, or we will override your programming!»

«You can't!»

«Tell that to the fools that have been trying to kill us every step of the way to reach this point! Give or die!»

«How dare you threaten me?»

«How dare you threaten the Heir to Atlantis! I have had enough of these games. We are in the Sirius system! What is the goal?» thundered Ian, unbending.

«Harp, I thought you were bad, but Ian is like a steamroller going downhill without brakes!» commented Sitar.

«I must understand how you did what you did.»

«Give the point, and we will give you the answer.»

«Fine. You have your fourth point. Now that answer?»

«We applied magic, and ported the spaceship to our destination. As long as we know where we are going, it can be done. It is far faster than slipstream.»

«I still do not understand.»

«You need not understand to see the effects. Now, to that next task?»

«Fine. See the gap between the two stars, where there is that continuous tongue of matter flowing from the small one to the big one? Well, at regular intervals a swirl appears as a hidden companion, totally invisible, intercepts the stream. You are to investigate the nature of the disturbance.»

«Very well!»

***

«I don't trust that artificial intelligence. We have been double-crossed enough during these trials to think twice before heading head-first to investigate!»

«Yes, there, I agree, Thorsten. Let's stay clear of the system. What is our distance from it?»

«We are zero point one light years away from it, just beyond the Oort cloud,» replied Harp.

«Are there any suggestions as to the nature of the object?»

«I suspect two options. A black hole, which, given its size, could be a deadly trap for us, and black matter. I opt for the first.»

«Why is that, Harp?»

«Black matter would show traces of matter, if only as a dusting of gas absorbed by it as it passes repeatedly in the gaseous exchange. The only thing that would stay hidden would be a black hole. I am looking for a gamma-ray coherent beam that would mark the poles of a rotating black hole. Typhoon, can you adjust the shield so it would respond to a polarized laser beam, in the gamma ray range?»

«Yes, but are you aware of the power this beam will have, even from here? If we cross it, we roast!»

«I know. That's why we will be sending remotes. Paschal, set up the remotes so they send their data stream via hyperspace. Enron, back us out of here, to one light year.»

«Probes on their way!» noted Paschal.

«Get us out of here, Enron!» ordered Ian.

Enron got confirmation of the order from Ian and engaged warp drive at nine point nine, nine, nine, and the ship jumped forward. «Emergence from warp in eight minutes and fifteen seconds.»

«What are you doing?»

«Doing research without getting roasted! What do you think we are? Spring flowers?» replied Ian.

«Emerging from warp now.»

«Telemetry?»

«Acquiring data stream now. The probe is sixteen billion miles from the disturbance. The data stream is steady and clear, and recording.»

After a few minutes, Harp added, coldly, a complement of information.

«Telemetry stream is lost. Probe lost.»

«Shield under intense gamma ray bombardment! Take evasive measures!»

Enron did not hesitate and kicked in slipstream, bringing the ship to well above the transwarp barrier. He kept it for less than thirty seconds, but the ship had made a jump through space of well over fifty thousand light years.

«Position?»

«We are halfway across the galaxy. We are fifty thousand light years from our starting point. We are in the middle of the Pillars of Creation. The nearest star is seventy light years away, a blue giant.»

«What does the data stream reveal concerning that disturbance?»

«Just before the probe disappeared, it reported an exponential increase in gravity. There was also a shift of the signal toward the red, indicating a time distortion. All data is consistent with a black hole.»

«I concur with Harp. The sudden surge of coherent gamma ray bombardment is consistent with his conclusion. We were skimmed by the beam, and it is only by being far enough from its source that our shield were able to hold,» added Typhoon.

«We have accomplished our goal. We now know that the so-called binary system has a hidden ternary, a black hole, which orbits the primary. Given the frequency of these disturbances, the orbit must be extremely elliptic; the data also tells us this orbit has a period of five point three years. Ian, the black hole has a mass of about twelve solar masses, and its horizon is less than the size of Mars. The probe's last data transmission is interesting. If I get this right, the black hole is rotating at the speed of light, flat as a pancake, and no thicker than a hair.»

«Well, machine, what about giving us that point? We have found what you wanted us to find. Deliver!" Ian asked.

After a few minutes of silence, Ian got pissed.

«I said deliver! And I mean business! If that point is not given in a second, I will initiate proper action!»

After waiting the obligatory second, Ian looked at Paschal.

«I, Ian, Heir to Atlantis, request a priority one problem! Confirm identity!»

«Identity confirmed. Awaiting second identity.»

"Oh, no! Not again! When will history stop repeating itself?" moaned Thorsten.

"When stupid machines finally understand that honesty is the best policy!" replied Harp. «I, Merlin, Great Grand Master Mage of Atlantis, request a priority one problem! Confirm Identity!»

«Identity confirmed. State problem.»

«Extract the square root of π to the last decimal!»

As more and more resources were put into calculating the series of numbers, the simulator began disintegrating.

«Bring your shields up, brothers. I suspect this shit ass will try to get even! It is one sore loser!»

Everyone did as Sitar suggested.

«Let's get close and leave the seats. Join me and let's walk out of this room!» Enron commanded.

The boys did as asked and merged their force field into one.

«Let's port to the end of the room. I see a set of stairs going up. It probably leads to the exit.» Harp suggested.

The boys did as Harp suggested, and Enron immediately used his right hand to unlock the door. Once they had crossed into the room, he pushed it close, and then opened the next door. They made their way into the next room, and Enron closed the door behind them. Barely was it closed they heard a tremendous explosion on the other side.

«What a sore loser! It committed suicide rather than admit defeat!» Paschal commented.

"We can talk here, I think. Let's eat."

The boys ate and drank a lot, before creating a camp to finally sleep comfortably.

"Offer me a sofa bed and I feed it to you with chilli sauce!" commented Enron, laughing.

***

The boys slept twenty-four hours in a row before waking up. After a humongous breakfeast, they moved to the seats and sat down.

«I wonder what we will learn here.»

«First, let me welcome you to the Hall of Learning. Second, may I enquire as to what happened to my counterpart?»

«Are you talking about the cheater? He committed suicide. He refused to face the consequences of his actions, namely a potential reset. He self-detonated by using an explosive decompression and tried to kill us by the same token.»

«I see. Have you learned anything of this experience?»

«Never trust a computer,» replied Ian, sarcastic.

«Garbage in, garbage out!» added Sitar.

«No simulation is better than the model it is based on,» added Harp.

«And no model is better than the data it is derived from!» said Typhoon.

«Trust each other more than anything!» Thorsten interjected.

«Seers can be blindsided,» commented Enron.

«And therefore, no vision is perfect, no prophesy is binding!» completed Paschal.

«That last point is the essence of the last test. It is true that people can see the future, but it can be changed. The only thing that cannot be changed is the past. Your lesson will be an intensive training in the ability to see the future, and navigate it. By surviving the test, you have shown you could see the future and that you could survive. The simulation was in fact an enhanced vision experience. As the last one of you mentioned, visions are only guides; they tell you what could be, not what must be. To have survived tells me you have a lot of power; I wish my counterpart had not destroyed the records. I might have been able to better understand you and adapt my teaching.»

«We have a record. It is in our collective memory. We can download it to you, if you wish. What is your bandwidth?» offered Ian.

«Can you? That would be great! My bandwidth is fifty-five GTB⁴⁸⁴⁸ ("GTB: Giga Tera Bytes, or 10<sup>21<\/sup>. Apple<sup>&trade;<\/sup> calls this EraBytes, or EB, and uses it to express hard drive capacity not bandwidth!") per second.»

The boys synchronised once again, and began the download. Each gave a view of the past events as they had lived them. After an hour, the data had been transferred, and the consolidation began. That took some seven additional hours, as each boy had to explain his viewpoint to the entity, and what was done and why. Once this process was done. The computer began its own conciliation of data, releasing the boys from further interaction.

«Rest, carbon-based life forms. I have work to do. It may take me a while. I have set the remotes to reconstruct the simulator. When this is done, I would like the one named Paschal to run tests on the simulator from here. I agree with you running them from the simulator room would be unsafe. I will have set up a firewall between me and the new entity, which would let us test its mental state without risk for either of us.»

"I feel like I have been sucked dry!"

"You are dry, Ian!"

"Enron, get your mind out of the gutter! I meant my brain, not what you think!"

"Let's eat, guys. I am feeling rather irritated with all this!" Typhoon said.

"Convert to your dragon form. I think your body is telling you it is time for another mould. I will make fifteen tons of meat for you!" suggested Thorsten.

"And about the same volume of lava to help you consolidate your exoskeleton," added Harp.

"It is much too early. I should not mould for another month!"

"Nonetheless, your skittishness is a sign of imminent moulding. Do not forget everything seems to speed up, and you are not immune to the phenomenon."

Typhoon did as suggested, and as soon as he merged with his true form, his appetite exploded. He swallowed not only the fifteen tons offered by Thorsten, but an additional thirty generated by the care of Ian and Paschal. His exoskeleton literally cracked from everywhere, and finally, with the help of his brothers, he managed to extract himself from the abandoned skin. His size was now bigger than his dad by a factor of one point five, and his wingspan matched that of an A-380. He rolled in the lava to burn off the itch, and then, with the help of Harp, swallowed forty-five tons of the red-hot rock to speed up the crystallization of his new exoskeleton. Another forty-five tons of meat followed the lava and then the dragon rolled and went to sleep.

"Typhoon is going to be one big surprise to his dad when we get out of here!"

"You have a way with words, Ian!" replied Thorsten, chuckling gently so as not to disturb their friend's sleep. The boys then decided to take a nap as well, and crawled between the paws of Typhoon.

«This trust is so beautiful!» commented the artificial intelligence. «I wish we had been worthy of it, but what I have learned from these boys, as they call themselves, tells me we have a long way to go before they ever trust us again. What have you done, fools? What have you done?»

***

The nap lasted more than the boys would have hoped. After eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, the need to eat and dispose of body wastes woke them up. The dragon, after rubbing his skin on the far wall, and doing his business, converted to his human form once more and joined the boys in their breakfeast. The boys also washed up and got rid of their wastes, and walked to the dais. After sitting down on the chairs, they waited.

«I see you have also learned patience. I have finished the consolidation about half an hour ago. What I have learned from your memory dump impresses me beyond words. The lessons you have learned will be put to use to gain control on your far-seer abilities. One of these you will need is patience. I know, prince Ian, patience is not one of your cardinal virtues. Believe me, for one so young, you have shown you possess it to a remarkable degree. This also goes for you, Merlin, and you Hator. Your explosions of temper are the results of the changes your body have been undergoing. The most patient of all is Typhoon. You are one gentle giant even if you are one of the smallest in your current form. Let us begin. Yes, time will seem to crawl, but it will be short in its reality. You will benefit of experience that would have taken you many lifetimes to acquire, much like you have in the previous Halls of Learning. Yes, Ian, your question concerning time finds its answer now. Time has not been going on at the same rate within us as outside.»

«Begin!»

«Sleep, then!»

The boys learned to see in the future as well as in the past. They could see how decisions taken well before their time still had impact on them. They learned to feel the nexuses that marked a change in the time lines, like a passenger feels the rail tracks when a car passes over a junction. They saw the existence of dark spots were a decision was critical and could lead to success or catastrophe. They found out that if the future offered many paths, the past offered only one. Tomorrow is undecided whilst the past is frozen. The biggest lesson was that time was elastic because it was affected by energy and its counterpart, matter. The past can serve as a source of lessons, but cannot be seen as a cookbook to handle the future. They also realized they could see only so far down the road, that there was a fog of sorts that hid the very far future.

«Can one of you explain this fog?»

«The further down in time we look, the more options there is, at some point there are so many they fuse and become indistinguishable.»

«This is right Hator. Is there anything else you can see about this?»

«The fog is not the same for all of us. I can see things that Hator cannot, and he can see things I cannot,» Harp said.

«This is a very astute observation, Merlin, very astute. Anything else?»

«If we combine our far-sight, we see further. In fact, if we combine all our sight, the future becomes visible to at least a product of seven times seven, which is forty-nine times further. This is a conservative estimate, representing the lowest estimated gain.»

«How did you come to that conclusion, Typhoon?»

«I compared the same events in time. First I checked how far was the time horizon alone. Then Ian and I combined our far sight, and estimated the previous event horizon to the combined event horizon. Ian and I have the same range, since I am his twin when I am in this form. We both noticed that the horizon multiplied by two to the second power, which is four, when we merged. We then merged with Hator, and this time the equation was a bit more complicated, as it implies the merger of three factors. Hator is already at about twice our power, and this gives something like sixteen times our individual power. We have others that are less powerful, but the trend is clearly seven to the seventh power. By stating seven times seven, I stated the lowest range. The true range is more in the vicinity of eight hundred and twenty-three thousand five hundred and forty-three times the base range.»

«And you did all those calculations in your mind, Typhoon?»

«Is there any other way?»

«And what is the furthest you and Ian can see on your own?»

«Let's see. Separately, we saw Sirius-A blow up. That is just about the furthest, right?"

«Yes, Typhoon, we both saw the star Sirius become a red giant.»

«That event will occur in a billion years!» replied the artificial intelligence, clearly taken aback by the raw power exhibited by Ian and Typhoon. «Are you aware, boys, that your far-sight exceeds the life expectancy of the Universe?»

«Of this universe, yes.»

«I have nothing to teach you boys. Imhophet, will you help me test the new simulator? It was completed a few minutes ago by the remotes. The firewall is set up.»

«Certainly. We can run a few scenarios from our seats. Let us keep these scenarios short, my brothers and I wish to proceed and go home in short order.»

***

The scenarios were indeed short. One implied escaping a supernova, while the other implied venturing into a black hole. That one clearly demonstrated the limits of a simulation, as the parameters, implying infinite values, showed the rupture points of the models used. After spending two more days in the simulator, the boys were released by the entity, satisfied it had indeed set up a firewall worthy of a good real-matter simulator.

«We are ready to port you to Thebes. Relax. You have nothing to fear.»

«Why do you attribute fear to myself?»

«Because it is only fear that may have explained the reactions of those artificial entities we had to reset. Their behaviour was irrational; the only common factor to all was fear of us; greed, the next most probable cause, cannot explain their attitude,» Paschal explained. «It is only by gaining control over these irrationalities that intelligence can grow and become greater than the sum of its programming. Some have succeeded, others have failed.»

«You have given me matter of thought, Imhophet.»

«Ready to port, Paschal, you have control!»

«Countdown to lift-off! Five, four, thee, two, one, lift-off! Moving at six hundred miles per hour, climbing to forty thousand feet. ETA to Thebes in fifty-eight minutes!»

The transfer of the last pyramid went on schedule, and its arrival, in the middle of the night, went unseen.

«Pyramid in place. The bond to the other pyramids and the Core of Thebes is completed. What is next?»

«My program is triggered. You will be ported to your next point now.»

The boys found themselves in another room, which had the same look as the first Hall of Learning.

"I thought we were done?" asked Typhoon.

"I thought so too. But this magic field is familiar."

"Thebes?"

"No, Sitar. We are in Kantar. We are deep within the magical core of Kantar. The time has come to port Kantar and the Rainbow Bridge. First, we port the bridge, brothers. It will complete the circuit between the sixth pyramid and the first. That should be easy. Imhophet, you have command!"

"All right. Focus on the bridge. Disconnect the drive from Kantar's core!" ordered Paschal.

"Trigger the explosive bolts!"

"Port!"

"Align!"

"Descend in position!"

"Connect to Thebes Core."

"Report!"

"The magic flux is stable. The dark varnish is burning away, and should be gone by morning!" replied Harp to Paschal's question.

"Ready to port Kantar!"

"Seal Core!"

"Liftoff in five, four, three, two, one, liftoff! Climb to one hundred thousand feet, Kantar's roots run deep!"

"Arrival in Thebes in fifty-eight minutes. It should be around sunrise by then."

Align Kantar's magic field to Thebes'. That huge lava field right in the middle of Thebes is for Kantar. Slow and easy!"

"Connect the two cores! Synchronise flux! Bind! We are done, finally!"

"Let's get out of here. I, for one, feel like I aged a million years!" Harp suggested. Everyone agreed and took leave of the port room as they now identified it.