Jol walked carefully off the ship through the tube to Luna Station. It was surreal, the Guild ship had docked with Station 00003, then they had taken a shuttle to Luna Station. It was old, that was evident by the pitting on the dome that covered the station, and the clear patch from at least three different breaches that had been made over the centuries. That was a little worrisome, but he also knew that only six people had died in all three breaches. The other strange thing was the gravity. Joel had rarely been in gravity that was not one standard. This was 1/6 and walking was strange to say the least, especially for anyone not used to it.
They moved forward into Luna City, and were suddenly at a full one standard. The artificial gravity was in place in the city. It was dark, the lighting was old fashioned, and not as bright as on stations. Still they opened into a huge road way. There were ground vehicles going by on the road, and they were on a sidewalk, looking out like the tourists that they were. The guide, a small drone with a alternating blue and red light, was hovering to allow them to look around. It noticed that they were starting to move, and took off down the sidewalk with the humans in tow. They passed not just humans, but a dozen different races. They were mixing with humans and the blazons of the Guild showed just how many races belonged to it. There were plenty of people that did not have the sign of the Guild, but those with it were much larger here, and rightly so for the Capital of the Guild. They followed down the street, the sounds, the unnatural light, and finally the smell. This air was recirculated, in fact it had been recirculated for dozens of centuries of humanity in space. The smell was all Luna, nothing like he had ever smelled before, like people who had been here had said, the smell of Luna was not like anything that someone would smell anywhere else.
It was Jol thought like smelling a thousand strong scents at the same time. Then the drone went into the building, on their right. It was old, very old, kept in good condition, but made from moon rock and concrete, not the new kind, but in the old fashion when they first came. They walked into the foyer of a major office building, and it was ultra-modern. There were real people on security, and several other military races as backup for the humans. But from the look it was unlikely to need any backup. A pretty young woman smiled at Jol and his Companions. She said, "Welcome to Guild HQ, I see that you are expected, so please go to elevator seven and you will be taken to your floor." She was still smiling as they walked past the desk, down the wide hall with at least twelve numbered elevators.
Seven was open, and they entered, the drone had left while they crossed the foyer and then to the elevator. When they were all in the machine, it started up, and it was odd. It did not glide like tubes in the stations or in major cities. It pushed up and you felt the change in pressure on you as it went up, and this was a sign of a very old design. Jol was hoping that this elevator was newer than it felt. He only knew about the elevators doing this from old books he read. He could see not all his companions had that information. There were no keys to press to go to a level, it was just going up.
It slowed then stopped, you could feel it move a little, up and down, then the door opened with it even with the floor. They walked out of the box and into a wide hall. As they walked forward, the door in front of them opened, without anyone there. They entered, in the reception room it was odd. There were seating around the walls of the room, with the door they had gone into, then one going to the right and left, but not open. When they all were inside the door shut, and the voice began to speak.
"I am sorry that the official you are to report to has been detained," the voice sounded actually sorry, which was kind of new. "If you will make yourself comfortable, if you wish to sleep please do so, it will not be seen as impolite. If you wish refreshments just say what you want and it will be delivered. Again we are sorry for your inconvenience." It went silent.
They went to an area and sat. Jol sat and did not feel tired, but suddenly he was asleep.
The ship came into being at an old beacon. The beacon had been on for thousands of years, it was one of the first beacons put out by humanity. The automated repair system and the raw materials kept in the area were enough to keep it running. There was enough water for fuel, and a very limited AI ran all maintenance, so it was kept in good shape no matter it's age. If the AI were to be taken out, then it would be a problem, otherwise it could be repaired.
The ship had not been seen in this system for hundreds of years, but it was recognized by the local defenses and approved for passage. The AI systems in the system talked and decided that it was not a danger, which was a good thing.
On the bridge the Teacher sat in the Command seat, to his front left sat the girl. She wore jeans, a sweater, and soft shoes. She looked different, moving around for some time, and also the training that she had received from the Teacher had made her look less thin, less emaciated, and more like a living human. Her hair had been cut, it was not a good cut, but it was better tamed for space.
"Sir," she said exhaling, "Beacon Eleven."
The man did not look at his instruments, he did not need to, this was an old familiar place. He knew that he was in the right place, in fact within a few meters of where he could have put them. "Very good," he said to the girl, "you are doing very well." The girl smiled, she had come a long way in a short time. This jump had been longer than almost all current pilots would consider. "Have you established contact with System Defense ?" He knew that she had not, but he did not want to accuse, it was her first long jump all by herself.
Skinny, standing suddenly by his side said, "You know good a well she has not." She smiled at the girl who had looked around, "I however have, they are alright with our arrival and given us permission for micro jumps if needed, to just file."
The Trainer looked at her, "Thank you." She knew that tone though, he had wanted her to do it and was not pleased.
Skinny said, "Just like at J222732?" She was reminding him of a jump they had made on the way to get the girl, he had completely forgotten to tell the system they were not there illegally. The Station had been too new to have them in the database. She had had to hack it to keep the station from going into defense mode.
He did not look too happy, but said, "Good then," he looked at the girl, "that was a fine jump though. Very close to the beacon and you moved the debris out of the way. Good." It was a good job.
She smiled at him with the praise, and was happy. She had not heard of a lot of that as she had grown up and his praise went a lot farther than it could have. In his mind came Skinny, "She is doing well right?"
He sent back "Yes, she is."
Skinny replied, "I am going to Luna for a short time, will that be alright?"
He said, "Yes, we can handle this two more micro-jumps and we will be within movement range."
She did a happy dance in his head and then was gone.
He looked at the girl, saying, "Alright now let us see if we can do a micro-jump?"
She was suddenly apprehensive, he had explained the difficulty of the short jump, longer ones normally went into places that mistakes were alright, but the shorter the less room for error. She looked at him as he began to remind her how to make the jump that it seemed she would be making.
Cassandra, she had decided that was going to be her name. When the Teacher had told her about her family, that they believed her dead and had been compensated for that, she did not want to go back. They would have to return the money, and also they would never understand what she was now. So she had decided her old name was not what she was going to use. She had gone through the database with names, and really liked that one, so the Teacher told her she was registered with the Guild as Cassandra. She would get a membership number, she did not know the number, but it would be new. She did not know why she thought about this right now, she was busy. The folding of space was still new to her, she had to concentrate on it, and sometimes that was hard as feelings came up. She had just made the last jump, it was not close to as far as she felt she could have gone, but apparently it was far enough that the Teacher was impressed.
Now was the hard part, the micro-jump, she could go straight to Luna, but she knew that was too far for right now. She was going to do it in two jumps. Beacon 27 which was just inside the Jovan orbit, then to Beacon A, the first Beacon ever installed, just the distance from Luna as Earth was. She found it hard to believe how long that it had been there, but something over 4,000 years was a long time. What it had seen she thought as she felt for the first jump. She stopped thinking about other things and concentrated. She wanted to be right where he wanted her, so she concentrated on the fold.
The Teacher felt her reach out, it was not softly, more like an elephant moving through a building. But he knew that few would detect that anyone was doing it. She was after all powerful, so not softly for her, was not the same aa an Orange or Red making this jump. He felt her get the right position, pull in the space, and start to move it together.
She was through, she almost screamed with joy. She knew that she had put them right where she wanted.
The Teacher looked up from his command chair and said, "Very good, we will take a break for a few hours before we try the next one."
Cassandra replied, "Sir, should we not move in, I thought those we needed to talk to were already on Luna."
He smiled, "Skinny is taking care of them right now, so there is no hurry." He got up and left the Command deck, she followed him to the galley.
Skinny stretched and bent, and looked around. She had not worn a body like this in years. She did not need to on the ship, but this was clearly not the ship. She was in the Offices that few people even knew existed. These had been built when the building had been built, and were hidden well, an engineer would have a hard time figuring out the loss of space. '
She finished fitting into the shell and started to walk, again something she had not had to do for some time. But it was not that hard. She was glad that the local computer kept up with the fashion and she had on what would pass as normal. They were back to short skirts and heels, which was odd, those had not been in style for several hundred years. Still she was alright with it. She went to the door, and the lift was there, she entered, did not have to say anything, as she was integrated with it right now. The lift took her to the main tubes, and then whisked her to the Meeting Hall. She saw through the cameras that the Travelers were asleep, she knew that the current Chairman had ordered a Purple to do it, so that it was done right and without any chance of damage. She was grateful for that.
She exited the lift when it stopped, and entered into the alcove for the Meeting Room, this was a doorway that only Committee Members could use, so the guards, both Reds, looked over, they were surprised, and were about to raise their weapons, when they got word from the Chairman to stand down. The man on the right, a 17, he was showing his surprise. It was not at the girl exiting the lift, it was of the girl at all. He had, like all good guards of the Guild, tried to communicate with her through mind talk. He had found nothing, not a shield, but a total nothing, like there was not even a mind there. He was surprised then scared, and finally he calmed down with the word from the Chairman. Still he watched the girl go through the alcove and into the anti-chamber of the Counsel.
Skinny, stepped through the last door going to the Meeting Room. Inside it looked old, as it had the last time she was here. The room had been built, like the building in the early days. The original wood was still there, black with age, but she knew it had been built by guild construction and the wood had come from Earth and was at the time reclaimed wood from much older buildings that were being torn down. The table that they used was wood, and was made to look as old as the walls, but it was new, over the last couple of hundred years. There was an oblong table, with 13 chairs around it. They were all occupied right now. Along the walls back from the meeting table were a total of 39 chairs, they were there for aide, there was no observation, as no one who did not need to know what was going on was in this room.
Skinny walked to the unoccupied end of the table. There was a small stand for papers and such when someone spoke, which would be standing as there was no chair. It was clearly intended to make anyone there feel that they were not in charge of anything. She walked there, put down a small case on the stand. She did not need them, like she did not need to be here to do this, but this was a formal meeting and it was required by The Teacher, so she was.
The man sitting all the way down the table, was the Chairman, he was a Purple, that was clear, and from the way he was attacking what should have been defenses of her mind showed that he was a powerful one, verging on black, but clearly not one.
Skinny waited, the Chairman spoke, "You come representing the so called 000001 Guild Member."
She smiled at him, "I come to speak for the first yes."
He said, "We all know that he is a myth. He surely existed, but long ago was lost and returned to the peace from which he came."
"I hate to be the one to break the news," she paused, "but the First is come back again. You as Chairman got the briefing from the Library, that he is only resting and will come if there is a problem?"
"I know, but that is just to make us feel better, we all know that. He has not been truly seen for hundreds if not thousands of years." The man was projecting to make his other Members feel better. The other twelve she saw, she already knew, 8 were Purples and 4 were Blues, there were no level 2 within the ruling group. This was not a good thing she thought.
"I assure you that you are wrong. I think that you are aware of the scout ship that entered the system just a few hours ago, and has filed a transition to Alpha, the Computer system did not ask you for permission, they simply granted it?"
"I know that and the technicians are working to find out what caused the problem." He was not at all pleased.
"There is no problem they reacted to the security codes that were fed to it. It also started up the banks in Section 1, D. You have been aware it started to run and cannot be closed down." She was enjoying this in a way.
"Yes," was all he said, a little warry finally.
"That would be me, my main banks have been resting since I was this way some centuries ago. My repair crews have kept it running, and upgraded where needed. "
He almost lost it there, but retained control and only said, "That is not possible, by the Treaty of Silvertown, no AI can be operational without the permission of the Counsel. Everyone knows that Counsel has not approved one since that was signed." He was starting to look a little afraid.
"No," she said, "look into me, and she opened up slightly for the Purple. The mind moved into the now opened portal to her mind, and it was tentative which was good, she thought. She could see him and said hi. He was back in his body, and suddenly afraid, and looking more than a little afraid.
Skinny did not blame him, after the devastation of the AI Wars, no one wanted to ever have a true Operational AI, running. Virtually no one knew that any had been kept around after the wars. His eyes showed that he saw the area that the Counsel knew was where at least one AI resided was now operational.
"It is just me, I am the aide to the First, and we have a problem," she told them.
They did not stop her, they in fact were intent on her, both physically and mentally, and she almost laughed at their attempts to get into her, all that is but the Chairman, who had seen her. "We were scouting to the Core Sector, and we have found another race. "
One of the Blues, a Junior Member and new one at that, said, "We have found two new races over the last ten years, that is not abnormal."
Skinny was not upset, but a little put out, "I know that the two races you discovered were barely off their home world, one had not even left their system in any ship. Neither has a Guild member, and seem to not have been contacted by the Old Ones. They are nothing like what we have found."
The knowledge of what had happened and been kept close hold was shocking to the group, she continued, "We found a race that is unlike any that we have ever found. They space almost as much space as Humanity, and they do not allow any level below a low level Black to pilot ships."
"They are moving toward Humanity at a rate that will bring them to us in ten to fifteen years."
There was a little scoffing, these men knew that humanity had fought more than one war against Star Empires and Civilizations that were large and older than themselves. This was not something new, the Chairman said, "We are not worried about the arrival of a single race, we will fight them and win as always."
Skinny mentally counted to ten, she knew the true history of those wars. It was the Blacks, the 13 who had fought and destroyed all the enemies of Humanity. It had been their abilities and their drive, and them willing to split their lives into dozens of persons and then sacrifice themselves for the protection. That was not going to happen this time, but in all that time they had not faced a race like this one.
She said, "I know the history of humanity, but this new race has or is two things that no other race has had or are. The race is insectoid, they are a social race, with their entire race using what would be termed White ability, to stay in contact and thus are living as a single group, or at least several dozen individual groups. They are not only the only race we have encountered with every member being at least a White, but they have blacks. They have lots of blacks, thousands upon thousands." This was sobering to the members of the Counsel.
The Chairman stopped her asking, "This is impossible, nothing like this has ever been considered."
Skinny did not correct him, few knew of the early UN War. He did continue, "I cannot believe this, nor can we waste more of our time in this," the Chairman was about to call for an adjournment, she knew it, so she had to stop him and did.
She went to mental, and lightly slipped through is defenses, she had done this before to beings that were much more powerful, then just to him, "Do not do that, we are trying to do this through you, but do not dismiss something because you are afraid. That will not go well with the First, and he will be here soon."
He replied scared now, more by her than her news, "This is just not possible." It was a last gasp of denial.
"I know that it is hard, but why would I lie to you. If I wanted something I could do it. You know what an AI can do, that was something that you learned upon taking that office. You knew that AIs could return, but only if it were a absolute necessity. This should tell you something." She felt him go lose, he was delating, and mentally nodded.
Out loud, the Chairman said, "But, that does not mean that it not impossible, what does the First recommend to this body?"
Skinny was relieved, "He recommends that Article 1, W, but implemented."
The blue who had spoken up earlier said, "there is no Article 1, W, in the Charter."
The Chairman looked at him, like someone who was not happy with something that he had done. "Cylix, there is such an article, and if you had known about it, you would have not wanted to ever have to use it."
The Blue, Cylix, looked oddly and then Skinny said, "W: is the article that authorizes the Guild to active all the AIs that have been stored in Luna and on several of the Asteroids. As an aside it will take almost two years to fully active them. It also authorizes the activation of the 13."
The Blue almost said that was a myth, when he saw the look in the eyes of the Chairman. He then knew that if he said it someone would tell him that it was not a myth. So he asked, "Is it true that there are 13 blacks on ice someplace on Luna?"
The Chairman said, "yes, they are in fact here in the city, but will take up to three months for full revival."
Skinny did not tell him that she had sent the word to activate them over three months ago, and they were nearing activation right now. Basically it was the arrival of the Teacher for the activation to be completed.
The Chairman looked at her said, "I hope that this is just a bad dream, or just panic by you." He then looked at the Counsel, and said, "I put to the Counsel that we activate Article 1, W, immediately."
He looked around and the hands of the 12 went up, with the Blue, Cylix, was the last, and it was not voluntary, it was just that he was the only hold out.
The Chairman said, "Good," looking at Skinny, "the vote is to activate the Article. When will the Frist arrive?"
She smiled at him, saying "they will arrive in about 13 hours."
He said, "They?"
She said, "the First found a new Black on the Edge and has been training her, so there will be more than 13 when the time comes."
No one on the board wanted to talk about that more.
Cassandra and the Teacher had been in the Galley for about 15 minutes, the tea had brewed and they were sitting drinking. She still did not see how the Teacher could drink it without anything added.
He looked up, and she knew that he was talking to someone, but she could not even feel who it might be, so had to be Skinny. He said, "Well they voted for the Activation, and so soon we will be preparing."
Cassandra nodded, she knew about the Bugs, she also knew that this civilization was a worry to the Teacher. This was enough to tell her to worry. So she did, but she also knew that he was preparing and this was a major step in that preparation. "So that is a good thing," was all she said.
"Yes, a very good thing."
**************************************************************
How do we like the full chapter?!