~
Something had lodged itself in my mind the night before and only this morning, once my poor befuddled brain had shaken off last night’s sleep, did it suddenly occur to me what it was. So after helping myself to various fruits and cereals I sat next to Serinae who had obviously already eaten her breakfast and was sipping a hot cup of tea.
“Good morning Mini,” she said,
It was she I wanted to talk to and encouraged by her cheerful greeting I responded similarly and asked if the tea here was to her liking. I knew she was quite fussy about her tea, a favourite drink of hers and I wanted that enthusiasm to aid me in opening up a conversation that I felt I must have.
“hmmm fairly good actually,” was her response.
“But not as good as that served back in Corbond,” I suggested.
“Ah no, no, the tea there is a favourite variety of mine, the monks have had the time to experiment with the flavour and blends to absolute perfection.” She closed her eyes obviously relishing the remembered flavour.
I giggled, she was distracted so I thought I’d ask the question that would get this conversation going in the direction I wanted it to take. “Does Tezrin love tea as much as you?”
“Oh no,” was the reply, then suddenly she opened her eyes and looked at me sideways, “ok Mini, tell me what’s on your mind?”
I was hoping that my line of questioning wasn’t going to be quite so obvious. I shrugged and made my point. “It’s just that yesterday when we were talking to the king and Tezrin or Rintez’s name came into the conversation you hinted that Tezrin and you had a history, you said you knew of this other name he used from the past.”
“Ah,” she said, “so that’s it.”
I expected harsh words telling me to mind my own business, or a silent response, perhaps an attempt at changing the subject. But I was surprised at her response.
“Well yes I have known Tezrin for a long time, in fact we go back a long way to when we were childhood friends living in Ter’Fin’Ealle.”
“Goodness,” I said, I was shocked, for I did not expect this reply. In an attempt to cover up my shock I said the first thing that came into my mind. “So you were friends then.” Only after did I think how lame my question was especially as she had already answered it before. I frowned and felt embarrassment rise in me. I blushed.
She giggled. “Yes, we were friends once. Our friendship originally stemmed from the relationship between our parents, you see our two sets of parents were friends, in fact Tezrin’s mother T’enia’vel was my mother’s best friend. We used to see a lot of each other especially during our learning years.”
She seemed then to focus on something far away, a memory perhaps of something long ago and long remembered. I used her silence to get my thoughts back under control, to my great surprise Serinae was being very open this morning so I ventured to ask the other question that was in my mind.
“So what happened then, I mean you seemed more like enemies than friends back in the Wild Boar Tavern that first evening when you came in looking for Tezrin.”
She shrugged, “Happened? Nothing happened we are still friends.”
I frowned feeling a little foolish, she was toying with me and I started to feel a little angered, how could she say such a thing when she had so blatantly threatened Tezrin with the blade in Corbond and also called him a thief and a rogue? But before I could think up a suitable reply she turned away and looked over my shoulder, “ah look fresh tea has arrived.”
She stood and went to greet the Pnook servant who had just come into the room with a fresh pot of tea. I sighed thinking well that’s that then, just when I thought she may tell me what I wanted to know she managed to find a way to end the conversation. I resolved however that I would try and dig a little deeper about Serinae and Tezrin at another time.
I found myself brooding over Serinae’s response as I ate, but I found I couldn’t stay angry after all I was prying into something that was private to Serinae, I had no right to expect her to answer my questions on the subject so eventually I decided to wait and see if I could broach the subject again at some time in the future. Anyway my curiosity took a different direction as after breakfast a rather official looking Pnook appeared before us. The king had sent a messenger who delivered a request asking us to accompany him as soon as was convenient. The messenger insisted that Tnie would be better off staying behind as it would be unwise to have him seen walking freely about the streets of Scienocropolis as he was after all supposed to be under house arrest, to our dismay no amount of complaining would dissuade him otherwise, instead he told us that he was just following the king’s orders. After reassurances from Tnie that this would be acceptable we agreed to go with the messenger. We were led through the city using the same CaRTS transport system as the one we had used the day we arrived. But this time we were taken to a completely different area of the city.
On arriving and stepping out of the CaRTS station into the sunlight I could see that this district of the city appeared to be a commercial area of some kind, most of the buildings seemed to be corporately owned, not by private individuals but by organisations. From Serinae’s translations I assumed that the large insignias above the entrance doors to these buildings depicted the names of each organisation housed within. Most names were meaningless having no real indicators as to what lay within, but all seemed to compete for the biggest and most colourful signs.
Eventually it was outside one of these entrances that we found ourselves. The proudly displayed sign above, announced the building as belonging to the ‘Netli’ organisation, at least this is what Seri told me was the translation. In typical Pnook architectural style the building constructed in silver metal and glass, completely devoid of any natural texture or colour, purely artificial, I shuddered for I was reminded once again of how uncomfortable I found this city environment, it seemed so cold and lifeless. I desperately wanted to walk beneath trees and see lakes and snowy capped mountains once again, experience the warmth of the many natural cycles that made up my world, not this unnatural artificial environment devoid of nature and most probably of any seasonal changes. The city didn’t even smell natural; there was a manufactured sterility about the place. The city had no rain and no trees, not even any soil below my feet, so the natural scents of the world were non-existent here. I couldn’t blame the Pnook however, here there was nothing, the desert was devoid of everything apart from the red dust. They had to create everything themselves and like anything created from the hands of beings upon this world it felt like it had a fragility about it and could be smashed like a glass vase at any careless move.
We were invited to enter the Netli Organisation building and immediately found ourselves in a surprisingly small reception area. My eye was caught by another of those silver metallic trees positioned in the centre of the room, alongside was a silver dish shaped object that contained water and a small spout like device that spouted water into the dish. I felt drawn to this as the sound was pleasant to my ears even though the cause of the sound was manufactured to.
A Pnook woman in a smart uniform sat at a desk looking very official with a smile that looked sort of permanent or manufactured like our surroundings. She enquired as to our purpose for being there and the king introduced us. She pressed a button on the desk in front of her and asked that we kindly wait. Eventually a door opened and in stepped several Pnook men. At their head a face I recognised immediately and were surprised to find ourselves greeted by King Tuines. The king wore a smart dress suite identical to those worn by the other Pnook that paraded through the door and stood to either side of him, these other Pnook looked very dignified. The king introduced us to each of them in turn, apparently these Pnook were the board of directors of the organisation that owned the building we were in. When the introductions had been made, the king explained that there was some information that may be of use to us to be heard. He asked one of the directors to relate a story to us.
The dire
ctor stepped forward and bowed low and he began to tell us about an event that had occurred. We were told that Tezrin, or Rintez, had approached this director, whose name was Master Trenly. He explained that he had met Rintez, he was cagey about telling us were, but with encouragement from the king he just said they had met in a downtown bar. He said that Rintez as he kept referring to his T’Iea visitor, had shown a great interest in the Netli organisation and over a period of a couple of days had eventually asked to see how chips were designed and made. The Netli company was one of, if not the major manufacturer of such devices, it seemed that Rintez through this director had little trouble getting an audience with the appropriate people to satisfy his curiosity. Somehow I could well imagine Tezrin oiling his way around the Pnook here, using all kinds of seemingly innocent flattery and perhaps even financial incentives to get what he wanted.
After this tale had been related to us, the king nodded to Master Trenly who led us out of the reception area through the same door that the king and the other directors had come through earlier. We were ushered down a long corridor and down a flight of stairs where we were shown into a very large room in which many people feverishly worked undertaking activities that were way beyond my imagination. Here we were introduced to a Pnook with the grand title of the ‘Head of Biplextor Engineering’, a character who went by the name of Master Letin. At this point Master Trenly took his leave after giving a full and lengthy bow, he said he was anxious to return to the other directors and the audience with the king.
Serinae whispered just so I could hear, “I bet he is!” She smiled and then approached Master Letin and asked that he tell us exactly what Rintez had requested. It quickly became obvious that Rintez had indeed taken particular interest in the programming machines that were used to read the contents of the Biplextor chips. He also confirmed that these machines could also be used to put new or modified content or 'instructions' as Master Letin called them, into any the chip placed within them. Rintez apparently seemed to take an acute interest in a particular programming machine that was used with a certain older type of chip. This machine was no longer used for not many of this type of chip existed in the present day. Master Letin said that Rintez was a quick and able learner picking up the intricate functionality of the machine in a couple of days, to the extent in fact that after a day or so Master Letin had completely trusted Rintez to be allowed to use the machine unaided.
At this Serinae raised an eyebrow. “But surely the security issues of allowing a complete outsider such access and knowledge was a risk?”
Master Letin just replied that he didn’t think so, the chip and the machine was so old and out of date it was never used anymore. Every machine in the city used a more modern type of chip that used a different instruction set and anyway this old chip wouldn’t be compatible either physically or functionally with anything that was now used within the city. Therefore he didn’t see any problem with Rintez experimenting with the older device. He assured us that he would have taken a much stronger position should Rintez have asked to use one of the newer, ‘current’ programming machines.
Serinae frowned but did not elaborate on the security issues. Instead she asked. “Is there any way we could understand what Rintez did with the machine whilst he was using it?”
Master Letin thought for a while, then he explained that each of the machines automatically saved an original copy of the coding of each chip that was placed into it. This was an automated feature and was the first function of the machine every time a chip was inserted. This code was automatically saved as a ‘read-only’ file so that an original version of the coding could always be retrieved. This ensured that if any mistakes were made, or if any code was misplaced the operator could always revert back to the original code. He went on to say that it was possible the chip signature being scribed by Rintez could be retrieved especially as this particular model of machine was never used these days and as far as he knew had not been used again since Rintez had been allowed access to it. So it was quite possible that the original code set of the chip in question was still held within the memory banks of the machine.
Master Letin said, “the easiest thing to do is to take a look.” He beckoned us forward so that we might first see the machine and then see if t original code was present, thus enabling us to discover what the last chip inserted could have possibly been used for.
We walked through the large room, past rows and rows of people all sitting at odd looking desks tapping away at buttons that lay in front of them. Eventually we came to a little glass walled room that stood in the centre of this larger room full of hard working Pnook. Within the glass walled room were three similar machines to those outside on which the Pnook toiled, but these three looked far larger and to my eyes a bit more antiquated in their design than those outside the glass room. Each of the three machines had a chair in front of it and a shelf sticking out towards the chair that looked like a small writing table or desk.
We followed Master Letin inside after he unlocked a glass door. I shivered for the temperature in the room was colder than outside and I could feel a very cool breeze blowing across my face from somewhere above. He told us that these particular machines had been brought by the Pnook across the desert from their original city in Dahl’Ambronis. The machines were very old and required special environmental conditions to function properly, hence the reason they were installed on their own within this glass room. He said they had been kept because the Netli organisation was the oldest chip manufacturer and the original chief engineer centuries ago had created a legal writ that did not allow these machines to be destroyed or even moved from this room. When Serinae enquired as to why, Master Letin said he had always thought they had been kept as a historical legacy to the company, a sort of museum piece.
I looked at the machine nearest me, it was taller than me and had a sort of desk protruding from the front with many small buttons inset into it. On the top of each button was a character which I recognised as part of the Pnook written alphabet. There were also many other buttons on which I did not recognise the symbols, or what they meant. In front and above this raised area with buttons was a black shiny surface, slightly domed. Something was written across this surface, but I could not read it as it was in the Pnook language which I did not understand at all.
Serinae however looked at the words and said slowly under her breath. “No Biplextor device present, unable to decipher, insert Biplextor device or choose alternative option listed below. Once selection has been made press ∂.”
Apparently there was no translation for the final character so she looked at me and shrugged.
Letin sat himself on the chair in front of the machine and started to tap the buttons on the raised platform in what looked like a totally random order to me, this went on for some time and I cannot describe in words what he was doing, but eventually he sat back and watched as thousands upon thousands of Pnook characters raced across the dark area in front of his eyes. Secretly, I hoped that he wasn’t able to read the characters as they whizzed by, for if he could, I felt that would make me feel very inadequate indeed.
Seemingly satisfied he pressed another button and I turned, suddenly startled as a loud clicking, buzzing noise started behind us. Against one of the glass walls I noticed another smaller machine sitting upon a desk. This machine was drawing sheets of parchment into itself, only to spew the parchment back out of another of its recesses into a tray obviously positioned to catch the parchment as it fell. I walked across to take a look, the parchment coming out was covered in similar characters to those racing across the dark area in front of the other machine. Master Letin explained that the characters moving across the machine and being printed onto the parchment were a ‘dump’ of the contents of the last Biplextor device placed into the machine. He also confirmed that this last device was likely to be the one Rintez had placed there seeing as no others had been used in the machine for as long as he could remember.
Soon both machi
nes seemed to stop and fall silent and Master Letin walked across and picked all the parchment, of which there was now a thick pile, from out of the tray. He pulled down a set of spectacles that had been sitting on top of his head and started to read. Serinae came to stand by his side.
After some minutes Master Letin said, “hmm,” then “hmm” again, followed by “hmm, he seemed to be getting more and more excited.
He looked at all of us and said, “the output of the Biplextor device is like nothing I have seen before. I cannot relate it to anything that we use today.” He pointed at the parchment. “It seems to hold much data, not any command lines just data, I suspect it is the contents of some long forgotten database. I would need to study this very carefully before I could tell you the exact nature of the data and therefore its probable use, please follow me.”
He led us to an open office area an annex of which led another room that contained soft chairs and a machine that we found made various drinks and beverages. Master Letin politely asked us to wait here for him and to feel free to help ourselves to any drink from this machine, no payment was required.
Without Tnie with us, Serinae was the only one of us that had any real insight into the written Pnook language so she did her best to translate for us as we gathered about the machine. After instructing the machine to make tea there was a whirring noise and a cup fell from the machine, in the bottom was a black powder, hot water then poured from the machine into the cup, the powder dissolved into the water and the cup filled with a brown liquid. Serinae retrieved the cup from the machine and sniffed at its contents suspiciously. She turned her nose up at the tea it had produced and placed the cup on a table next to the machine.
When it came to my turn I pushed the same button as Serinae and duly the machine dispatched my tea. Taking the cup and sniffing at the contents I took a sip, I thought it was ok, but then Serinae was our resident tea connoisseur after all. We sat around chatting and I amused myself with playing with the drink dispensing machine. I tried many of the drinks some were better than others. I had collected quite a few cups which I had lined up on top of the table next to the machine, some were empty, others partially empty and one or two still contained the liquid I had tried but rejected. I had just poured another of the drinks and was about to take a sip when I felt an unpleasant pounding in my temple and I found that I could not bring myself to drink any more. So placing this last cup with the others I turned and with a frown and sat down beside Serinae. I rubbed at my temple and closed my eyes.
Seri said, “hmmmm to much of a good thing I think Mini, or maybe a bad thing eh?”
“I think I may just stick to water in the future,” I said.
After half an hour or so Master Letin re-entered the room and turning to all of us he said very excitedly, “well I haven’t had time to decipher all of the chips content, but what I have found is reams of information about this worlds natural phenomena. There is much information about its weather systems and geological makeup. But the real interesting thing is there are reams and reams of information about the position of this planet in relation to other heavenly bodies, it’s almost like a map of the solar system, further than that it contains information that relates to this solar systems position within the galaxy.” He looked at each of us and then said, “even more interesting is that there is a lot of information relating to the position of the galaxy within the greater universe beyond, there are maps that give detailed information on many other galaxies’ far beyond the visible spectrum available to us here. Each galaxy that I looked at can also be broken down in great detail. There are star systems on the map I have never heard of.” He looked at us with great excitement. “I only looked at a tiny portion of the information available, perhaps less than zero point zero one percent. There is so much information held on this chip it would take many Pnook thousands of years to go through!”
He remained silent for a while before he continued by saying, “there is also some new information in the chip, something that has been added, or modified in some way recently, by Rintez I assume. This new information is somewhat disturbing for it contains data, I assume theoretical data, concerning modelling and calculations about what would happen to this world and its surrounding effect on the other bodies in the immediate solar system. There are several models relating to what would happen should this world move from its present path or orbit around the sun.”
We all remained quiet for a minute, I was trying to digest the information that had just been said, but found it so completely strange, unlike anything I had come across before. To me this world was all I had known, what did it have to do with anything else, it was all a bit much for my brain to take in especially with the dull pain in my temple.
Eventually the silence was broken as Jondris said, “so why would this world deviate from its path around the sun and what would happen if it did so?”
Master Letin looked at Jondris and replied, “well, please understand I am no expert on matters of astronomy, but according to the modelling on the chip, destructive forces would be brought into play that although imperceptible at first would culminate in a catastrophe of epic proportions, not only leading to the entire destruction of this world, but also the decline of orbital norms associated with other heavenly bodies in this solar system probably culminating in the destruction of this whole planetary system. Everything we know, every trace of our presence in the galaxy would be completely destroyed never to return, or even any hint remain that we ever existed.”
We all stood there completely shocked and numbed by what had just been said.
Jon then said more to himself than anyone else, “A Twist of Eternity.”
Master Letin looked at Jondris curiously, but before anything else could be said Serinae put her hand on Jon’s shoulder and said, “so what is all this information for?”
Master Letin shrugged, “I’m sorry, it is not apparent from what I have deciphered so far, I will of course work on this further with some urgency.”
He then looked at each of us, “there is something else, two things in fact,” at this he paused and removing his spectacles he wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve. “Most of the information contained on this chip is knowledge unknown to us, it is beyond what we have discovered about our own galaxy and the universe beyond. There are also very detailed graphical representations of the interactive arcane forces present across the universe. The majority of the information held on the chip could only have been gained by travelling across the stars and being able to visit other solar systems far beyond our galaxy”
I could see the look of wonder on his face.
“Two things,” I said, “you said two things?”
Master Letin looked nodded. “Yes, also contained within this Biplextor is information about the biological complexities of the life forms of this planet. Not the different forms of life but the basics of life, the very building blocks of life itself. There are details of chemical and biological makeups of many creatures.”
Here he paused before looking at Jondris and saying, “including much information on human kind. The biological basics of construction, the very building blocks of human life.” He sighed. “But curiously nothing, not a single scrap of data exists for Pnook, T’Iea, or Grûndén, not even for the Ognods or the Keepers for that matter, there is nothing pertaining to any of the elder races.”
He immediately turned on his heal walked across the floor to the room containing the chip decipher machine and closing the door.
On returning to us he said, “there have been significant re-writes of the information relating to human biological data, the reason for this I do not know, I would have to look deeper into the changes to try to discover what effect they may have, I would probably have to consult with others who have the appropriate scientific expertise. But these rewrites look to have been experimental.”
He looked at Jondris again and said, “I would say that someone is trying to play a dangerous game, I don’t know wh
at kind of machine would use this Biplextor device or even if such a machine exists, if indeed that is its purpose. But if such a machine did exist then maybe, you understand this is pure conjecture on my part, then maybe someone is experimenting in the belief they could create beings like human men, or worse, men that have been genetically modified for some special requirement.”
A hush fell across the room, I think it took at least several minutes for each of us to digest what we had just heard.
Master Letin asked that we not divulge this information to anyone else for the time being as he needed to make a complete investigation into the chips content, he also asked each of us to promise to keep this to ourselves for the foreseeable future as he would need to make a report to the appropriate people before anything became common public knowledge. Master Letin didn’t want to arouse suspicion by placing a guard outside the room, but he stressed in no uncertain terms that he would not allow anyone else near that machine. At this Master Letin led us out into the larger room. Then locking the door of the room from the outside he accompanied us back to the reception area at the entrance to the building. By this time the king and the directors of the Netli Organisation were no longer there but the messenger who had brought us remained waiting to I supposed to escort us back to where we were staying. As we prepared to leave Serinae excused herself and said that she needed to have a few words with Master Letin, the messenger started to complain but she shouted over her shoulder that she would catch up with all of us later. The messenger seemed quite upset and muttered to himself, he was obviously looking forward to relinquishing his duties as baby sitter to us. Eventually after an hour or so of waiting Serinae and Master Letin returned and after saying our farewells we all made our way out of the Netli building and travelled back to where we had our rooms.
That evening we were again in the common room, curiously Serinae was not there, but I did not think too much on this, we were used to her doing her own thing a lot of the time. The rest of my companions were chatting wildly about all that we had learned today. The revelations centred around the contents of the chip from the programming machine was driving the main discussion. We all understood various links to what Master Letin had described earlier, the worsening environmental changes that Serinae had experienced. What if the world were indeed moving away from its regular path around the sun?
Then there were the revelations that Venetra had divulged, Jon had already voiced the prospect of A Twist of Eternity as Venetra called the various catastrophes that her race had knowledge of. Where we experiencing the early effects of such a phenomenon? Then also Venetra had hinted that they had provided some kind of protection for this world, so why then was that protection not functioning as it should. What if something had gone wrong? Perhaps this protection had been tampered with, perhaps instead of protecting it was now destroying. Then Venetra had also promised a gift of great knowledge, perhaps this knowledge could be used for evil purposes as well as for good. Perhaps this knowledge could be used to save ourselves from such disaster, the promise of salvation almost.
We concluded that maybe, just maybe, the promised knowledge that Venetra hinted at was contained in some Biplextor devices. We had already found out that the Biplextors were not necessarily originally a Pnook invention, but something that may have been around prior to the Pnook using them. What if the Biplextors were an invention of Venetra’s people, wouldn’t it make sense then that the promised gift of knowledge was in fact written into such a Biplextor device, maybe the very one that Tezrin had investigated. It was also quite conceivable that there was more than one, especially as Tezrin had possibly found two now, the one he used here in Scienocropolis and another he had hired Serinae to find. If this was the case, then why was Tezrin trying to find these devices. Perhaps in the interests of security we should be hunting for them also. All this thinking and speculation was starting to make my head hurt, I needed a break from it all so I left my friends to their discussions.
Eventually Tnie also pulled himself away from the talk and I found myself talking with him. I expressed my wonder at the technological marvels I had witnessed today, he just shrugged as if it was all just a normal thing to him, but I wanted some answers.
Tnie sighed and seemed to open up this time. “Well, I think you know that Don Trynacs’s sympathies lie with those who opposed the king on the destruction of the city, he has always been an astute politician and has always been extremely ambitious in his field. I suspect he may see this as a way to oust the king and for him to step in to the vacant place as ruler especially as the king’s family are now mostly gone and no clear descendant exists apart from the king’s son of course, but Prince Resen is famed as a military man and history has proven that our people are not sympathetic to any direct military involvement in the ruling of the city. This attitude dates back to when our people left Dahl’Ambronis and sailed to the great Rust Desert, the military is still held responsible for our defeat at the hands of the Ognods in ages past resulting in the great trials that followed our enforced banishment to the Rust Desert.”
“Where did the Pnook originally live then?” I asked.
“Well history tells us that once we once had a great city set upon the eastern plains in the far side of Dahl’Ambronis beyond the Great Spine. But tales tell of how it was completely ransacked and subsequently destroyed at first by the Ognods and then by others. There is reputed to be not a single brick or stone left of the old city, neither any hint as to where it was built.”
“What was it called, this ancient city of the Pnook?”
“It had many names in many tongues of old, but we named it Mechno Babaptruek, it was reputed to have been a great place of science and of learning.”
I did not recognise the name but was surprised that the Pnook seemed to have come from the eastern side of the continent, whereas the T’Iea and the Grûndén lived in the west. I asked him why this might be so.
He seemed to think about this for a time before replying. “I don’t rightly know, but there are stories that Mechno Babaptruek sat right over a great power source, some sort of natural phenomena that my people used to fuel their scientific discoveries, perhaps that is why we went there.” He smiled and looked at me. “You may find this interesting. It is also recorded that a great many of your people, the T’Iea, lived in the city to, but there is no record why, or where they went after the city fell to ruin.”
I was astonished, that meant that my people had knowledge of the eastern side of Dahl’Ambronis. But I had only known them to live in the west. What did this mean?
Tnie continued with his explanation of recent affairs. “But never the less, the king requested I leave the city for a while, he did not want me to become a scapegoat for Don Trynac’s sympathisers, especially as I was so involved in the plan to destroy the outer portion of the city. They, that is Don Trynac’s sympathisers are purposely relighting the fires in the minds of the people about yet another direct negative result of a perceived military failure. So the king gave me use of one of his personal air ships to allow me to leave and lie low for a while. But Don Trynac's even used this as a way to discredit me and possibly the king by claiming that I had stolen the airship and fled the city as a coward not wanting to face the consequences of my actions. The king did not want to reveal that he had given the airship to me for my personal use because of the damaging precedent it would set. So you see the king and Don Trynacs are locked in a political battle with each other for the hearts of the people. The difference is that Don Trynacs has everything to gain just as the king has everything to lose.
I dreaded to think what line Don Trynacs will take if he ever discovered the contents of the chip that Tezrin had, I could imagine him complaining that the king let all that knowledge slip through his hands.”
I told Tnie of my concerns and sighed saying, “that’s the other mystery, what is Tezrin's game, he obviously realises that the necklace is far more than just a valuable trinket, somehow I think he knew this bef
ore he and Serinae set out to recover it. He obviously had at least one other chip in his possession and knew what it contained, or at least he does now. I can’t help but feel that the necklace, or at least these chips, are key in all this, key to everything.”
“I think you are correct Minervar,” was the reply. “I feel that all our fortunes are tied to that trinket and the Biplextors. Soon I suspect we shall be going after it. I doubt the king will let it wander around hanging from Tezrin’s neck for much longer.”
“At least we know where Tezrin has gone, he has taken it with him to the Grûndén.”
At this Tnie grunted, “well they won’t have a clue what to do with the thing that’s for sure, but it does intrigue me to wonder what Tezrin is going there for.”
Łĩnwéé gave Tnie a rather dirty look.
Tnie smiled in response and said, “only kidding my friend.”
“Well I have some news on that front.” Turning I saw that Serinae had arrived back and was standing in the doorway to the common room, “you know I stayed behind with Master Letin to have a further word with him?”
We all turned to Serinae and nodded.
“Well I wanted to ask him something, I wanted to know whether or not he could make a copy of the information held on the chip that Tezrin has. An unmodified copy that is, in other words the original contents of the chip. It struck me that a copy was made into the chip machine just like Master Letin told us the machine would do, and so I wondered if a copy could be made the other way. I also wanted to know if Master Letin knew whether the copy was complete, he confirmed it was.”
She then reached into a pocket and slowly withdrew a small clear jar, inside the jar we could clearly see a chip, a Biplextor, she placed it on the table in front of us.
“So am I right in assuming, this chip in this jar is a copy, an exact replication of the chip that Tezrin had with him here in Scienocropolis?” Asked Jon, looking very excited.
“Yes, exactly,” said Serinae. “But without the modifications that Tezrin made.”
Tnie reached for the jar on the table and looking at Serinae said, “may I?”
Serinae nodded again and gestured that Tnie should take the jar which he did. After taking a look he returned the jar and the chip to Serinae who secreted it away in her back pack.
Then Tnie asked, “so this chip contains the original image, not the modified one with the additional data that Tezrin had written into the chip?”
“Oh, yes. I don’t believe the modified one to be of any real use, other than for the selfish reasons of the person wanting to make the changes. If we are going to need a copy, then I feel it is the original image we will need.”
She then leant forward and said, “I managed to persuade Master Letin to make me this copy, at first he was reluctant, but he seemed to realise that if Tezrin lost or destroyed the chip in his possession, then all the information on it would be lost and he understood that to have this happen may well be a catastrophe. He also understood that given the current political climate in Scienocropolis it would be wise to perhaps have a copy that was well beyond the reach of the powers that are locked in the struggle within Scienocropolis. But all of you please understand, I would not like anyone including the king to learn that we have a copy of this information, discovery will not bode well for us, for Master Letin or for the king I suspect.”
We all nodded in agreement and promised to keep this a secret closely within the members of our party.