The insistent ringing of his bedside phone dragged
Chad out of a sound sleep. After a second, he recognized the
ring pattern- it was Headquarters calling. Snapping to full
alertness, he stretched an arm down and picked up the handset.
"Chambers."
"Chad, wake up and report in. Got another job for you,
right up Hacker Highway." came the voice of the Gray Rose,
Esther Martin.
"Give me five minutes, please."
"Granted. Wake Gerda up and have her start packing for
the two of you. Details when you get here." Esther said, then
she hung up.
"What's going on, dear?" came Gerda's sleepy voice
from beside Chad.
"Gotta report in. A job's come up. Esther says for you
to start packing." Chad said as he undid the top button of his
fuzzy and settled to the floor, contracting back to his normal
shape and size as he did so.
Gerda muttered something unintelligible in Icelandic as
she undid the top button on her fuzzy as well. Chad headed to
the bathroom for a quick wash. In four minutes, he had a clean
jumpsuit on, feet in his boots, and was in the transfer booth,
dialing the number to the main Admin building.
Esther handed Chad a mug of rotgut as he came in to
her office. "What's going on, boss?" he asked, stifling a yawn.
"I know that you don't like off-Earth assignments, but I
need you in Luna City. Seems like their master computerplex is
starting to get a little squirrelly."
"Luna City? Why not have Eileen Concannon look into
it? She's one of the best cyberpsi's in VS."
"We did. She's dead. Massive cerebral hemorrhage. She
was in rapport for 72 seconds before her brain literally blew its
gaskets. Lucas Foster tried as well. He lasted two and a half
minutes before his brain blew up, too.
"I'm sending you to look into this, because you're the
best computer expert in VS that isn't a cyberpsi. This may take
some time, so I'm allowing Gerda to go with you. She can stand
an off-Earth detail for a while- she'll be checking the paperwork
in the Lunar VS bases while you're working on Selene."
"What's going on?"
"I'll give you the full details for study, but, in short,
Selene is responding in a manner that wasn't programmed into
her. She's a powerful system, but not in the same league with
the government systems on Earth. There also has been some
unexplained glitches in some of the systems she controls.
Nothing lethal yet, but Papa Bear is getting worried."
Chad thought about what he was told. "If Papa Bear is
worried, then Grandma Becky must be concerned, too." he said.
"Admiral Hutchinson specifically asked for you." Esther
said, with a rather dry voice.
"Let me apologize, ma'am. She hasn't seen me for a
couple of years."
"Don't worry about it, Chad. She didn't get shrill with
me.
"Now, you better get home and pack your bags. Don't
forget your penguin suit."
Chad grimaced when Esther said that. He hated the
penguin suit, but, it kept him from uncontrollably expanding in
the lower gravity and pressure in Luna City. "When do I leave?"
he asked.
"7 PM. On the Alabama Gal. They're taking the usual
supply run this week." Esther said, meaning Papa Bear's order
from Donati's, along with other VS supplies. "I'll have Carl
download what we have to your wristcomp before you leave."
Back at home, he told Gerda about the mission. "I
remember Luke Foster. Nice guy, if a little lost in the circuits."
she said.
"Well, this time, his circuits got shorted out. Lethally.
"Are we all packed? We have less than an hour to get to
Port Orsa. Dad's not going to wait for us."
"All set, love. Just put on your penguin suit, and we'll
flick over. Now, don't gripe!" she said sharply as Chad started to
grumble. "I'll help you while we're there, but not while we're on
board the shuttle!"
Muttering quietly to himself, Chad put on the penguin
suit. It's a skin-tight jumpsuit that keeps Chad somewhere near
his normal shape and size. He needs it because his stretching is
a little limited. If he is under less than normal Earth gravity and
pressure, he uncontrollably expands until he stabilizes. On the
moon, in Luna City or any of the other habitats, that means
without the suit on he grows to about 9'5" tall, with about a 80"
waist, from his normal 6'2" height and 36" waist. In free fall, he
gets to be about 12� feet tall, and 125" around. Only with a lot
of effort can he compress himself down to his normal size. The
suits serve a useful purpose, but they're uncomfortable. Just
about the only thing Chad enjoyed about them was that his
father, Evan, needed to wear the damned things, too!
The shuttle made one stop on the way to Luna City, at
the Pelican Blue, which was doing final fitting out in Earth orbit,
prior to its departure in six weeks, on October 1st, to drop off a
load. Chad's youngest brother, Franklin, would be shipping out
on the first trip to Surtur, to help oversee the construction of
buildings there. Barely three years old by calendar, Franklin is
about 20 bio, and has already made a name for himself in heavy
construction and civil engineering. His ability to control his
density and strength, pumping it up to nearly the levels of their
uncle Ethan, made him a natural to go to Surtur, where the
gravity is a punishing 3.08 times Earth normal.
After the two-hour stopover, the Alabama Gal headed off
to Luna. Chad took the time to study the information in his
wristcomp about Selene's difficulties. They appeared minor, with
what appeared to be mainly information glitches, but nothing
can be considered minor in Luna City, where an overridden
airlock can kill the half-million inhabitants of the city. Problems
like large batches of data being inaccessible for a time were
most common. Other times, she would not respond to service
requests, as if her system was overloaded, when her service
request log showed that she was not. This just whetted Chad's
curiosity- this was a challenge he liked!
After he finished his study, Chad asked Gerda about her
mission. "I'm going to be looking in at the VS offices in Luna, at
Luna City, Armstrong City, Beantown, Schmittburg, and Farside."
she told him. "I hope you're planning on a long stay."
"Only as long as I have to- you know this suit makes
me feel squished."
Gerda wrapped an arm around her husband. "I know it
does. When the job is done, I promise that I'll do everything I
can to keep you groundside for a time." She can do that,
because she ran the night desk at the assignment bureau of VS
HQ. Being away from her desk for a few weeks did her some
good- she had been there, in the same assignment, for almost
four years. New perspectives are always good.
After landing and passing through customs, Chad and
Gerda checked in at VS HQ Luna City. When they were settled in
their quarters, Chad went straight to Luna City's computer
center, where Selene's main processors are. There, he met the
Chief of Operations, Dr. Lena McGarrity, who, in addition to
having a doctorate in cybernetics, was a cyberpsi herself.
"I'm glad you're here, Mr. Chambers. Your reputation
precedes you." She proceeded to describe the problems they
have been having with Selene.
"It all started about two weeks ago. Selene started
showing unusual activity in her processors during the night
hours, as if she was under full load. We checked all incoming
lines, but there was nothing that would account for the activity.
"She ran through all her data banks, then started, well,
snooping around all systems that were tied in to her. We
couldn't track down what and why, so, after a week of this, we
called VS in. Eileen tried first, and died for it. Two days later,
Lucas died."
"Did they say anything while in rapport?" Chad asked.
"All Eileen did was scream before the blood started
pouring out her ears and eyes. Lucas said something about
hearing a 'wind in the wires'. He repeated that several times
before he just dropped. Autopsies on both of them showed that
their brains had expanded to the limits of their skulls. After that,
no cyberpsi is willing to even try to link in." Lena reported.
"How many registered cyberpsis are there in Luna?"
"Twenty-six. All have been informed of the situation,
and they are taking great pains not to link in with Selene."
Chad sighed. "Okay. I need full access to Selene's
specifications, and any and all wiring changes that has been
done, especially in the last six weeks. That will give me an idea
of where to start looking. This is going to take a while."
"It will. Need a guide?"
"All the help I can get, until I'm comfortable with the
system. You willing?" Chad asked.
"Let's get started."
It took five days for the two of them to get Chad
comfortable with Selene's architecture and programming style.
In that time, they observed several more 'system glitches'. One
thing that Chad noticed, which had escaped observation before,
was that all the 'glitches' occurred between 2400 and 0600
hours, when normal system demands were lowest. After
conferring with Lena, Chad set himself up in the programming
room.
Chad waited at his console, for the unusual activity to
start. When it did, he immediately started a system diagnostic.
Chad discovered a large data block that wasn't there before.
When he tried to access it, the block disappeared, along with the
unusual activity. When he tried tracing where the anomalous
data block had come from, he found no trace at all. It had just
appeared, then disappeared.
Despite the fact it was 0130, Chad called VS HQ LC.
"What you need, Chad?" said the duty officer, Carlotta
Orsa, when the connection was made. [Yes, she's Papa Bear's
granddaughter.]
"I want full surveillance established on all cyberpsis on
or within Luna." Chad ordered crisply.
"You on to something, Chad?"
"Maybe. I need to know if any are awake and in rapport
with anything more than their wristcomps. I'm not going to say
any more until I find out."
"Well, you have the authority. I'll start spreading the
word, and I'll tell Dana when he gets up." Carlotta said.
"Good. Call me here when full surveillance is
established. Use Channel 4283 to call me."
"Okay, Chad. By the way, you have a message from the
Fleet Base waiting. Want it?"
"Let it stew. It's just my grandmother calling."
All told, it took three hours to get all the cyberpsis
under surveillance. Nothing was obvious, and there was no more
anomalous activity that night.
The next day, Chad had the surveillance net up again
and was back in the computer center. The activity began again
at 0130. This time, Chad let it run, and watched what happened.
The activity was focusing on the UNSA archives that night, with
some system malfunctions being reported in the port area.
Checking in with his net, Chad found that none of the
cyberpsis were in link while the anomalous activity was taking
place. 'Well, that scratches one good idea.' he thought as he
monitored what was going on. The activity lasted until almost
0300.
He checked the integrity of the UNSA archives.
Compared to previous reports, all data was intact. Checking
previous activities, Chad found that some earlier anomalous
activities had corrupted some data banks, but that hadn't
happened in twelve days. Calling off the surveillance, he then
printed out a list of previous activity, and took it back to HQ with
him. He had been awake for some 50 hours, and he needed
some sleep.
Back in his room, [Gerda was in Beantown that day],
Chad decided that comfort was more important than
convenience. Shucking his penguin suit, he let himself swell to
his full Lunar size. He squeezed himself into the shower, and,
after a good thorough scrubbing, passed out on the bed.
He woke up to someone tapping his tummy. "Wake up,
Marshmallow Boy!" he heard.
Opening one eye, Chad saw the rotund form of his
great-grandmother, Admiral Rebecca Bailey-Hutchinson, next to
his bed. Only she would call him 'Marshmallow Boy'. "What time
is it, Grandma?" he groaned.
"1345 hours. Why haven't you called me?" she
demanded. "I know you've been working, but you could have at
least called!"
"Work before pleasure, Grandma. You taught me that."
Looking at her face, Chad saw an approving nod. "Good
boy, Chad. Now, get up, get dressed, and come with me. I've got
something you would like to see."
Sighing, because he knew that Grandma Becky wouldn't
be denied, he squeezed himself down and put on a clean
penguin suit. "Where are we going?" he asked.
"To the port. The Black Sparrow brought back some
pretty things they found from their last run. I'd like you to see
them."
At her office, Chad found himself looking at a large hunk
of gold-flecked black crystal. "You woke me up and dragged me
here to see this?" Chad said, rather grumpily.
"There's more than just this to see, Chad. Look at the
scans we took of this material- it's unlike anything we've ever
found before!" Grandma Becky said with some excitement.
Chad took the offered holograms. As he looked at them,
he realized that he had seen something like it before. After
another few seconds, it clicked in his head.
"Grandma, this looks something like the computer
memory crystal that they're experimenting with down Earthside!"
Chad exclaimed.
"Really? Well, the Black Sparrow brought back almost a
tonne of this stuff. Maybe you should bring some home with
you."
A suspicious thought started running through Chad's
mind. "Grandma, where is the Black Sparrow now?" he asked.
"Out there." she said, pointing out her office window.
"They're having their entire computer control system replaced.
Turns out it developed some bugs on their way home."
"When did they get back?" Chad asked slowly, his mind
racing.
"Let me see." She checked her files. "Twenty-five days
ago. To hear the crew talk, they were lucky to get home. Their
mass sensor quit two day's travel from here, and it took them
three weeks to cover that distance. They were on the last of
their supplies when they arrived."
"Grandma, I need to know. Where are all the crystal
pieces?"
"Some here, some at the college, I guess. I can find
out. Why do you want to know?"
"This may have a bearing on what I'm working on. Did
they have any teeps or cyberpsis on board?"
"No. Why?"
"Grandma, I have to check this out. May I take this?" he
asked, picking up the crystal.
"Go ahead. Ah, ah, young man!" she snapped as Chad
turned to go.
Suppressing a sigh, Chad put down the crystal and gave
his grandmother a wraparound hug. "I promise that Gerda and I
will spend some time with you before we leave. I really must go
now." Chad ran off then, with the crystal.
Flicking in at VS HQ LC, Chad went directly to the office
of the senior officer, Dana Dittenber. "Who's your most sensitive
teep?" he demanded.
"You want sensitivity, or power?" Dana asked.
"Sensitivity."
"That would be Herve LeBeau, over in Armstrong.
Why?"
"I think this stuff," indicating the crystal, "is the source
of Selene's problems. If a telepath can't pick up anything, I want
to see about calling in a cyberpsi."
"A crystal messing around with the computer?" Dana
snorted. Chad explained about the crystals, their structure, and
the Black Sparrow. "All right. I'll get Herve here."
Two hours later, Herve reported, "I do not feel any
intelligence in there, mes ami. But, I find it easy to enter, but
hard to get out. I have such a headache!"
After sending Herve to the med bay for a full scan, Chad
looked at Dana. "I want all samples of this crystal rounded up
and put in a secure storage while we investigate this. Do we
have any other cyberpsis up here?"
"No. Luke and Eileen were the only ones we had. We're
going to have to have another sent up."
"I can ask Lena to look."
"Do you want to risk the Chief of Operations in this?"
"If we can get her and this isolated, it should be all
right. I'll make it clear that it's her choice, that she doesn't have
to."
"You win, Chad. I want to be there, too. If anything goes
wrong, I have to explain this to the Governor." Dana said sourly.
"And I will have to explain this to my great-
grandmother, so don't feel so bad. We're both going to be in the
soup if anything goes wrong." Chad replied.
An hour later, Chad, Dana, and Lena were outside in a
pressure dome. Handing Lena the crystal, Chad told her to
establish a link with it.
Lena held the crystal in both hands. After a few seconds
of concentration, she shuddered once. Then, she began
babbling.
"Translate it, Lena! What is it?" Chad urged.
Lena opened her eyes and looked directly at Chad.
"What are you?" she said slowly, in a voice that wasn't hers.
"What are you? Identify!" Chad commanded.
"Directing intelligence of Erglash destroyer 774129."
"State function!"
"Identify use of entities by amorphous life. Gather data
on amorphous entities. Free those enslaved. Destroy all
amorphous life."
"What were you doing prior to your discovery by current
variety of amorphous life forms?"
"Engaging in battle with..." Lena paused momentarily.
"Another variety of amorphous life form. Ship destroyed. Mind
shattered. Mind re-assembled by amorphous life forms."
"Identify source of programming!"
"Erglash intelligence."
"Hold and await new programming."
"New programming only through Erglash intelligence.
You not Erglash intelligence. Erglash destroy all intelligence not
Erglash."
Blood started seeping out of Lena's nose. Chad reached
out, grabbed the crystal out of Lena's hands, and squeezed. The
crystal turned to powder under Chad's applied strength, which
was higher than most people expected. Dana ran over to catch
Lena before she fell to the floor.
"Major Dittenber, take her to the hospital, quickly. I
have some orders to give." Chad said, using a tone of command
that would not be denied.
"Aye, sir." Dana put Lena's helmet on, made sure his
was secure, and passed through the airlock. Chad called his
great-grandmother.
"Admiral Hutchinson, I direct that all crystal samples
recovered by the Black Sparrow be dispersed throughout Luna.
Pieces shall be separated by 50 meters, minimum. I am using
the terms of the U.N.-Sagania treaty of 2045, Section Five,
Paragraph One as source of my authority. Do you understand?"
Chad said, using the same command tones he used on Dana.
After a moment's hesitation, Chad heard, "I accept your
authority under the Health and Safety of Humanity Statutes,
Chad. I'll have the shards scattered immediately. What's going
on?"
"Details to follow, Admiral. Chambers, out." Chad shut
off his radio, put his helmet on, and headed out of the dome
and back inside Luna City.
Inside, Chad discovered chaos. All internal automatic
pressure doors had shut tight. People were using the manual
doors to pass, but it was slow. Chad made his way to Selene's
control center. On the way, he called Gerda.
"Where are you, love?" he asked.
"At Luna City HQ. We're locked in here!"
"Gerda, listen. Use the back way to my playpen, okay?"
There was a brief pause, then he heard, "On my way,
love. Need a hand there?"
"Yeah. Think I do."
Chad forced his way through the crowds and the doors
to the computer room. Gerda was there, having eeled her way
through the air ducts. Chad took off his spacesuit and sat down
at the console. He started overriding the automatic controls for
the pressure doors, allowing them to open. When that was done,
he began checking the systems. As he thought, there was a
large amount of activity in the central processor, more than the
system was designed for.
"Gerda, when I say to, disconnect the central processor!
That's where the Erglash are focusing on!" he said, again with
the command tone.
Gerda went to another console and started calling up
system diagrams. But, she couldn't find the proper ones, and
soon after, her screen went blank.
"What now?" she asked.
"Guess I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way." he
said. Chad got up from his chair and reached for a tool kit.
"Are you going to manually disconnect the core?"
Gerda asked.
"If you're going to cheat, cheat outrageously, as
Grandma Raven says." Chad said as he began opening a panel
on the motherboard housing.
Then, both Chad's and Gerda's ears popped. "The air
pressure! It's dropping!" Gerda shouted.
"Just the Erglash trying to save itself. Help me with this,
love. I'm starting to swell." Chad was indeed swelling as the
pressure dropped, his hands getting too puffy to hold the tools.
Gerda was distending as well, but not as much as Chad.
By the time the panel was off, Chad was bursting out of his
penguin suit, and was rapidly getting bigger and fatter. Gerda
had popped a few buttons off her suit as well.
"Reach in and start pulling! We're almost out of air! I
can't stop inflating!" Chad yelled.
Gerda reached in, and wrapping her fingers around as
many boards as she could, pulled hard. There was a spray of
sparks, Gerda shrieked, and the displays in the room went dark.
She let go of the boards and pulled her hands out. Her
fingers were burned in many spots. She looked at her husband
and forgot about the pain. Chad had ballooned up more than he
did while wearing his fuzzy, and he was turning blue, gasping for
breath. Gerda took Chad's discarded suit, put it next to his face,
and overrode the life support pack. Air rushed out the neck of
the suit and into him. He swelled even bigger, but his color was
improving. She staggered over to the emergency locker and
threw the lever to isolate and repressurize the room. Then, she
blacked out.
When Chad woke up, the first thing he was aware of was
that his body felt like one big bruise. Then, he felt big, really big.
When he tried to get small, the pain convinced him not to try.
"Just relax, Marshmallow Boy. You need to heal." he heard.
He opened his eyes at the sound. Both he and Gerda
were in a hospital room. Grandma Becky was next to him, and
Gerda was behind her. Gerda was definitely fatter than was
normal for her, because her belly was bulging farther out than
her breasts. Her hands were bandaged to almost the elbows.
"How's the city?" he croaked. His throat was raw.
"A lot-a better than-a you would think." came Governor
Orsa's [better known to just about everyone as Papa Bear]
voice from Chad's right side. "Good-a think I insist on-a local
controls for-a life support, no?
"Come on, open-a you mouth, beeg bambino." Papa
Bear urged Chad. Obediently, Chad did, and had water and
something else sprayed down his throat. "At-sa good. Feel
better?" he asked.
"Yes, sir." Chad replied. His throat did feel better. That
was when he noticed just how large he was- he was much bigger
than he should have been! "What happened to us?" he asked,
looking at his wife.
"We became the focus of the entities' attacks. When you
crushed that one crystal, a lot of the dust stuck to your suit, and
you breathed some of the stuff in as well. That gave them your
position, and a faint link into your thoughts. When they
perceived that you were out to disrupt their link with Selene, as
well as scatter their, well, brain, they made it as difficult as
possible. Your powers confused them at first, but they figured
out the life support system controls just before I pulled the
boards. That's why the pressure dropped in the control room.
We got pulled out of shape from the decompression- we have to
heal a bit before we can try to get back to normal." Gerda
reported.
"I managed to disrupt the crystals by blowing up the
storeroom." Grandma Becky picked up the tale. "When you
ordered them collected, I had them put in a room on the outside
of the fleet base, one that had a destruct charge in it. Then,
when you ordered the crystals scattered, I started the destruct
sequence. I just wish I remembered how to set the charge off in
thirty seconds, instead of the thirty-minute mode." she said
sadly.
"I'm just glad you managed to set it off, Grandma. Don't
feel bad." Chad said, reaching for his great-grandmother.
"But I do! If I would have remembered, my little
Marshmallow Boy, and his wife, wouldn't be so jet-puffed!" She
started weeping then.
Chad wrapped a hand around his grandmother and
pulled her against him. It hurt, but he was awake enough now to
hide the pain. "Grandma Becky, don't cry. You may have taught
me that work comes before pleasure, but my Grandma Raven
taught me something else- that suffering for the sake of others
is virtuous, that putting other people's health and safety before
your own, is a good thing, especially if you can take more than
the people you are protecting. So, if I have to stay a big, blown-
up boy for a while, if the city is safe, it's okay. I'm a big boy
now." he said gently.
"You-a said it, bambino! You-a bigger than Vesuvius!
We-a hadda teleport you-a here, once-a the computer was-a put
back togedda again, cause-a you too fat for the airlocks!
Whadda blimp you be!" Papa Bear laughed. Soon, they were all
laughing.
"The-a dottore says you be-a real big for a while yet,
so, you stay-a here, as-a my guests. They-a be a big party when
you get outta here, one bigger than-a you be now!" He poked
Chad's bulging belly. "Too much Donati's- just-a like you
Grandmama! As I be talking, eh?" He indicated his own ample
stomach. By this time, Chad, Gerda, and Becky were laughing so
hard, they hurt!
Gerda went over to Governor Orsa and hugged him,
despite her bandaged hands. "Thank you, Papa. We needed
that." she said.
"You-a welcome." He patted Gerda's swollen body
affectionately. "Whatsa you doing, skinny girl? You needa get
big, like-a you husband! Come on, its-a dinnertime!"
The Governor waved, and a nurse came into the room,
pushing a cart loaded with boxes that were all too familiar to
Chad and Gerda. "From-a Donati's- my special order. I share it
with-a the people who save-a my city. Gory details later. Lets-a
eat!"