 |
|
Andrew reporting.
"I don't understand, Daniel. Why do you do these things? You knew that we are shortly
going to be involved in an encounter with Amphibian hostiles. Neverheless, you went
ahead and altered something in the ship's computer. Or maybe I should say, sabotaged the computer.
"What do mean, 'necessity for the One'? What has this One got to do with computers and
guidance systems? Isn't it just some airy metaphysical concept that you keep
nattering about?"
Oh, this is just great. He's calculating the value of pi.
There is no gravity in the Guardian-of-Younger-Nestbrothers any longer. Nelson says
that it must be removed before they can maneuver outside of Hyperstate. He says we
are in regular space, the way we were when we were launched from Earth, but that the
Ipsolstai can move much faster. I agree, we have been under acceleration for some
time now.
Necessary it is fighting do we the amphibians.
Our anchors invading they do sometimes acheive.
Difficult, rare. Anchor must they be planting new our worlds on.
Sending this ships doing do they. Stopping we do they.
Many times advance much seeing we do them. Not time this.
Guardian-of-Younger-Nestbrothers, Nest-Enveloping-Eggs, ships closest only.
Amphibians ships having six they do. Having two do we. For the Imperium.
Not enough. Look.
Then he touched a control. A screen near to me activated and began to display a readout.
Nelson touched a few more controls and the view changed quite a bit. Here, take a look.
The display changes slowly, the characters seem to shift consistently, occasionally
repeating themselves. Those must be Amphibian ships, like the Guardian-of-Younger-
Nestbrothers. I asked Nelson what is going to happen.
War. Killing do them we, or us they.
Failure planting will they an anchor theirs colony ours.
230 million brothers there living dying our failure being if.
Happening not it must.
For the Imperium,
dying we may be.
I'm scared. There are two Ipsolstai ships and six Amphibian ships. Now I know why
Perry didn't want to come see Andrew, he's scared too. I don't normally think of
the Ipsolstai as being afraid, but I think they are. We've fought other probes and
Amphibians and even the Ipsolstai, sort of, but this is new. This is war.
"Gail, we went into a cave. Maybe we will find Commander Fitzgerald that way, We went further into the rising tunnel and reached a plateau that levels in front of I stepped back to that plateau, where Elder Brother and Zachary were waiting. EB "Gail, if you get any contact with Commander Fitzgerald, please ask him if there
JASE, I am planning a very good test for Miss Chang. It will definitely be conclusive. JASE! I feel a rumbling, grinding noise! The walls of this side tunnel are shaking. Enoch, Zachary, help! It's a big ugly Ipsolstai EME tearing big chunks out and making "Don't tell me to be calm, Theresa, we're going to be captured and...What, Theresa? "Hi, Commandant Fitzgerald."
Sojourner came up with his analysis. The green liquid consists exclusively We decided that Elder Brother will remain in the basis camp, and that "Gail! What happened? Calm down please! What? Oh, you really We started our expedition. We went over that step and down that slope. It's We are busy mapping that hall at the moment. Enoch started on the other "Hey Enoch! Did you see that!?"
Transmission from ENOCH
"Gail, I think your are getting something mixed up. It wasn't the Gen probe
that destroyed poor little Lucy. It was the first C-probe that arrived at our
plains. Please, don't worry about Gen. Elder Brother has reprogrammed
it. It's not a sentient probe, and it's fully under our control."
though I'm not quite sure about that anymore. However, we will keep on exploring."
a steep step. I went up that step. There is a slope behind it that leads steeply down.
The structure of the tunnel is radically different there. I won't call it a tube anymore.
It looks more like a natural cave now.
said that this place is ideally located to become the base camp of our expedition.
He ordered his three warriors to face in direction of the exit. Zachary gave some of
that green liquid to Sojourner. It should come up with some analyses soon.
are still Amphibians around, and please, take care of the eggs."
Transmission from GAIL
"Enoch, I don't care if it was the J-probe or a C-probe that attacked Lucy, don't trust
any sub-sentient mechanism if it points its projectile tube in your direction. Maybe
Elder Brother didn't finish its re-programming, you can't tell."
I got a little bit worried when she told me to dissect one of Burn's eggs, but she
was really insistent. What if I just preten...
They are starting to crumble! Something is breaking them up! JASE, I can't get out,
I can only move one foot a little bit. Theresa is trapped in front of me because I
am blocking her only exit. Dust and little pieces of the ceiling are falling down on us!
It's dark and I can't see very much and something big and noisy is coming through the
wall and it's going to get us!
a new tunnel. I think I can see a big Ipsolstai just behind it. Caleb's gang has found
us and we can't escape! Andrew, help!
What do you mean, it's all right? Oh."
Transmission from ZACHARY
of carbon based macro molecules, mainly chains of amino-acids. Sojourner
says that the green color is because of a high rate of copper-oxide. Koala,
that's about a general chemical and spectroscopic analysis. If you want us
to make more specific tests, please tell me. Elder Brother will supervise
Sojourner concerning that.
Enoch and I will move on. So, our six will be covered. Later the basis
camp can be transferred deeper into the tunnel.
frightened me. Take care! It's not yet confirmed that he is our friend."
a big hall that we are in now. An enormous dome, extremely high and nearly
endless in it's dimension. There is gravel at its bottom and a lot of rocks are
laying around. It looks quite messed up, as this hall collapsed once. What a
kind of a Marsquake.
side of the hall. Several side tunnels are leading into this hall guarded by
rock towers and columns.
