 |
|
"Enoch! Hide! It's going to get us! Theresa, get behind me!"
That was my first reaction on seeing the Ipsolstai who surprised us. Now I see
that he is not going to attack us. He is moving slowly around the cavern like
he was searching for something.
"Enoch, be careful, don't get so close to him. You don't know what he could do.
Enoch, he moves like you did when you only had four legs. Do you think he's broken?"
Orpheus, I have been too busy to pay much attention to Miss Chang, with everything
that's been happening lately. I am not sure what you mean by "background stuff".
Miss Chang transmits to all of us. Most of the probes just ignore her, but I like
to talk with Earth people. If I boost reception, I can hear some more words in the
background, but they mostly have null semantic content so I filter them out.
Andrew reporting.
Greetings to Orpheus. The gravity at our location is 0.95 Earth normal, amost twice
as much as we had been accustomed to on Mars. As a result, our carrying capacity is
diminished, although we can still function well and walk at the same speed. Also, at
your request, I listened hard for transmissions. We are not equipped with general
coverage radios, even for reception, so not all frequencies are available to us probes.
But I did monitor all the ones that I could. I was pleased to get a report from Bette.
I had become very apprehensive about her silence.
The good new is that she and Daniel and Isaac are still present and unharmed.
The bad news is that the Ipsolstai are apparently testing Isaac to destruction.
It is extremely un-probelike to act violently without logical cause. I do not
know the nature of the activities he has undergone under the guise of "play", but it
seems shameful to destroy a young probe's trust and innocence.
"Isaac, please be calm. The Ipsolstai weapons are capable of great damage. Bette
won't let them harm you, but you have to calm down."
I'm scared! I'm all right but bad things are happening. The Ipsolstai came back
into the room. They had all sorts of machines with them, instruments of some
kind. They told Isaac that they wanted to play some more games with him. He
said no, he didn't want to play any more games. They wouldn't listen. They
came close and started trying to hook him up. Isaac grabbed one of the instruments
from an Ipsolstai and hit that Ipsolstai with it! Then he backed away swinging
it with both arms. He was screaming no, over and over again. He bashed the terminal
on one swing, it exploded in sparks and all kinds of bits of metal.
One of the Ipsolstai pulled out a weapon and I got between them and Isaac. Daniel
started to speak to Isaac. I've never heard him speak so quickly, or make so
much sense. I kept myself blocking Isaac from the weapons. The Ipsolstai were
flashing quickly, most of them ran away out the door. Daniel kept talking and managed
to get the thing away from Isaac. Isaac grabbed Daniel's legs and just held on,
sort of shaking. The Ipsolstai left the room but then this strange noise filled
the room. Daniel said he couldn't hear the One anymore. The noise kept going all
weekend. It didn't stop until last night. When it stopped, I could transmit home
again, and Daniel said he could talk to the One again. I'm scared. I think
something is wrong.
They have pushed.
As they intended.
He is breaking.
Quickly.
They are pleased.
Another comes.
Arms of many.
Embracing us they will.
"Ipsolstai. I'm Enoch. That's Gail, Theresa, Kim. Please tell us what happened.
Where are these Amphibians, pardon Delemrecks, coming from?"
"Rosjim, how many Delemreck? How many of them went through? Can you fight
them back? What weapons are you using against them?"
"Rosjim. Please tell me where Burn is. I want to talk to Burn. Can you lead us to
Burn? Where is he?"
"Rosjim, is there a way how we can stop the Delemreck? Tell me, how do you fight
them back? Do you know a safe place where we can hide?"
He looked very sad and his color turned even darker than before. I felt sorry with
him, when he said:
Hi, Orpheus. I will keep the morse code idea in mind. I was sending morse code
when I was disconnected. Didn't it get through? What stereograms are you talking
about, Orpheus? I haven't sent any.
Bryce, thanks for quick information. Question marks? Maybe that was the result
of my attempt to transmit morse code. I don't know. How did it come through?
I asked Elder Brother about your idea to join up with Enoch and Gail. But also
Enoch said that we shouldn't move up the Big Canyon.
Bryce, I fully agree. We have to arm ourselves in the most effective way we can.
I discussed that issue with Enoch. He also was asking for weapons. Missiles don't
work, he said. They need too much time to face their target. He was saying that
we would need something like a barrier or like a fence or like a cocoon. Something
that shields ourselves. He has no particular idea what that could be, but it should
work that way.
I told Elder Brother about that. He said that it's a better input to name the function
first and then to build a device or whatsoever, than to build a device first and then
to discuss its function. He can become quite philosophical when thinking about a
certain problem.
A barrier, a fence, a cocoon ... We have to come up with something.
 |
|