Lockfreedow’s eye remained mesmerized while zeroing in on the object the Captain still held up to Lockfreedow’s face. “This a technology beyond the grasp of the Agents of Ea may be. They mostly a Negolim group that to steal whatever advanced technology they from Eagolim have have are.”
Captain Mynervood seemed to agree while at the same time finding Geben’s comment somewhat naive. Captain Mynervood, in his illustrious history among the principalities and powers of this galactic empire, knew there had been more to the Agents of Ea than a bunch of ideological Negolim terrorists that were opposed to evolution. Captain Mynervood knew of one group in particular that had been the inner circle of many groups like the Agents of Ea. It called itself the Council of 32 who tried to control and pull all the strings of this whole cluster of stars. Captain Mynervood himself never wanted anything to do with their obsession with domination. He had always been more intrigued by the adventure of discovery to be had as a merchant Captain of starships who traveled among the stars like the very life’s blood of this newly born galactic empire.
Lockfreedow had placed the physical form of Begalius under the quanta-nanocode scope. It looked like highly advanced Pripican technology that would have been difficult for any Nephrican to get their hands on. It suddenly dawned on Lockfreedow that this had been the physical form of the only kind of technology that could juggle quantum-bits the way his quanta-optic-nanocode discovery did.
“You before that The Beyonder a friendly ghost in its machinery has said have. I Captain that you that ghost have found think. This a quanta-nanocoded Binary Electromagnetic Artificial-intelligence Thought program that probably our virus deleted is. We it in, (or maybe outside,) of this physical form right now should secure.” Then Geben Lockfreedow placed the physical form of the quanta-nanocode being Begalius in a device that suspended it in an electromagnetic field.
Slowly a cube of clear nanocode resistant material formed around the physical form generated by Geben’s 3-D molecular replicator. “Until we this it in or out will keep make contact. It not in or out of this physical form that to its sub-atomic center of consciousness is quanta-synchronized can move, but it us on whatever frequency it to use wants can contact. It able to us now hear should be.”
Captain Mynervood remembered the suspicious Pripicans that followed him and his wife back on Holdus-2. Perhaps they left a quanta-nanocode spy behind. It had been a day and age when Pripican lived in peace with Nephrican, but still there always had been an undertow of rivalry, espionage, and intrigue between the two species. Captain Mynervood however, for quite a while now, had considered the Pripicans friendlier towards him than his own Nephrican species. “I to this around with me carry want. This a quanta-nanocode good luck charm is, and I this an ally is think.”
Geben Lockfreedow shrugged his shoulders after securing the object in impenetrable coating. Then he used a special drill to displace a hole in the clear cube now surrounding the physical form of Begalius. This would become a point where they could make an opening if they decided to release a quanta-nanocode being from this confinement. “Hopefully we an ally here who to the ship won’t be threatening have. If it outside this physical form it all kinds of harm to the ship can do is, but not the ship harmed has.”
The Captain fixed the object to some string and hung it around his neck as a kind of Schrodinger’s Cat quantum good luck charm. “Perhaps we not long for the consequences of this wait have shall. I this being to contact will try.”
*
Begalius had retired to its quanta-optic-nanocode replica of its own city based on the ancient planet Pripica, which existed deep within its physical form. It had stayed very busy through much of the hyper-acceleration towards the 401,760,000 miles per hour achieved with this form of space flight on The Beyonder. It had compiled information on most of the crew of The Beyonder who now occupied a mostly empty cruise vessel bound for the far off low-burning star named Yat.
Now Begalius had become done with its work as a spy for the Pripican Empire. It now just wanted to retire alone with its latest female girlfriend Companion74. It had been studying some old Pripican erotica video footage and felt a compelling urge to try some of those sexual acrobatics with its female companion.
Companion74 opened the door already in a light alluring see-through outfit made only for the sake of arousal. “Hi there Windock. Let me get you out of that clothing and into something more intimate.”
Begalius analyzed the thrilling response its thinking circuitry experienced after her comment. It studied the lines of her fur that he could see through her see-through outfit. It had programmed her to do exactly that, but still Companion74 had a way of pouring a spirit of enthusiasm into its instructions that, in the opinion of Begalius, far exceeded previous companions. Begalius thought Companion74 did this kind of thing better than Companion73, Companion72, Companion71, probably all the way back to Companion69 who it thought also happened to be a very creative sexual partner.
Before long they were both stripped down to their furry four-legged bodies with their arms wrapped together in an insatiable embrace. They both began rubbing their arms around each other in universal gestures of intimacy. Companion74 breathed with sighs of blissful sensation as Begalius/Windock kissed her neck.
Begalius needed her to be programmed to act as if she experienced the bliss observed in ancient Pripican erotica. Begalius had been into trying to replicate these experiences itself in its own programming. It had just really been curious, perhaps to the point of obsession, about what that sex act between organic beings had really been like. Then it felt as if it became pulled away from her while still holding her right next to him. Begalius became fascinated by the sense of vertigo being reproduced by this quanta-optic-nanocode sex.
Begalius continued becoming aroused. It mounted her doggy style and she bent her backside to help her partner find what he sought. She felt a similar vertigo, and began to wonder if some giant relativistic being that she had heard so much about currently carried the universe she knew away.
Begalius and Companion74 made love as observed in ancient movies with an artificial curiosity alien to sex. They seemed to enjoy it like two children in a new playground of amusements.
The moment arrived when Begalius decided to release its orgasm program, which it had worked so hard on to compile. Companion74 had been more than ready to see an end to the repetitive exercising that Begalius had poured so much enthusiasm into. She egged Begalius on as it produced its exploding program of phallic release. Companion74 thought it had been more sensational than all those minutes of pleasure building up to it, and made noises appropriate to those sensations.
It made a noise, and the noise continued even after Begalius slowly withdrew and listened to the unexpected noise while pondering all the other unexpected sensations that resulted from the experiment. Begalius began to identify the buzzing monotone noise that remained long after the orgasm program completed and both Pripican-like beings collapsed in each other’s arms.
Then came the moment Begalius realized the noise had really been a sub-atomic powered molecular displacement drill putting a hole in some impenetrable material that now surrounded its entire physical form way far away out there on the dimension of relativistic physics. Begalius lay next to its quanta-optic-nanocoded construct girlfriend realizing it now had become a prisoner here, unable to penetrate the material out there in the relativistic dimension now surrounding its entire quarter shaped physical form.
* * *
On the planet Caleb orbiting the star Yat Beatariel had returned to the research facility in the all-terrain vehicle to once again report to Prospero that it had failed to capture or kill the other Pripicans. It had still not even managed to find the virtual particle craft they had used to land on the planet. Prospero would not be pleased. Prospero tortured Ferdinand to an inch of his life before concluding that he knew nothing about the three or four other Pripicans that survived the crash of the Pripican spy craft.
Ran
da caught a glimpse of Ferdinand after Prospero got finished with him. She knew he wouldn’t do such things to her as she confronted the monster that her father had become. “You to the point of obsession are cruel, and I you to stop want.”
“Child silence! You not the adult world I conduct do understand!”
“Ferdinand the only being I ever other than you father met is. He like me with extra fingers and extra eye is. I cruelty to my kind do understand!”
Prospero had suddenly been relieved to have Beatariel’s disappointing report interrupt them through the intercom system of the research facility. “I have returned again master from the hunt for the other Pripicans. They have left tracks that I calculate belong to 3 of the Pripican species of alien. They cannot remain out there forever.”
Prospero had a new object worthy of his cruelty, but there had only been so much that could be done to affect a quanta-nanocode being that had failed him. “Idiot you! I they to the safety of this research facility will be coming know! That I you to them before they here why attack capture or kill want is!”
*
The centaur-shaped alien collectives that were composed of microscopic intelligent silicon life forms trotted down the ice crevices like crude clay-mation animations, which had led Ceres, Antone, and Gonzal down the harder to identify crevasses of the planet. Antone held a communication device allowing for communication with these multi-organism collectives that behaved like shape-shifting organisms while imitating the four-legged Pripican anatomy of the alien visitors. Antone’s equipment also shielded the survivor’s heat signatures from direct scans of Beatariel’s attempt to capture or kill them.
The crevasses that surrounded them eventually opened up to an army of these alien collectives in different shapes, some four-legged and some two legged. Some had legs that supported gigantic buckets filled with ice rocks, the silicon life form’s current low-tech weaponry. Some collectives were practicing how to throw these rocks at different methane snow targets. They were like clay of silicone-based substance that could collectively agree to take any shape mutually agreed upon by the collective. They were like little cells of intelligent life that, like actors in a giant production, could imitate a multi-cellular organism. They had been amassing an army of collective constructs for the sake of defending their kind from the hostile actions of Prospero.
Ceres became impressed. “Antone! We cannot allow these beings to carry out this attack. They don’t stand a chance against Prospero’s technology.”
Antone agreed. “I have communicated that message to them in as many ways as I can. It only seems to divide them again into those that don’t want to attack, and those that want to with even more determination. We can’t make them unlearn what we have told them about Prospero’s intentions.”
Gonzal shivered in his still working environment suite, probably only with fear of the cold. “Well we can use the help if we are to assault that research facility and gain the means to survive. These beings are accustomed to this planet, but we are sure to perish in another planet rotation, or two rotations at best.”
Ceres had been a warrior at heart. “Well I am prepared to help these aliens defend their planet. I guess we cannot talk them out of this. They already realize they fight for their very existence.”
It had been too late to stop the army of rock-throwing creatures from beginning their march to the alien research facility put there by Nephrican alien invaders.
*
Prospero still yelled at Beatariel over the recent failure when the battle for Caleb began. “I you back out there with the armed vehicle and your robot form the Pripicans to kill with am sending!”
“Yes master.”
Prospero really just dragged this out to hear the ‘yes master’ responses. He did find it therapeutic to listen to Beatariel say that. “Back when you me they are dead can tell come!”
“Yes master. … Master, there are surveillance alarms going off. Monitors are showing hundreds of animated objects approaching this research facility right now.”
Prospero waddled over to an observation portal while still yelling at Beatariel. “That only some kind of rebellion by the silicone constructs can be.”
Prospero saw hundreds of clay-mation-like beings breach the horizon line of ice rocks to approach their suddenly vulnerable oasis of Nephrican-supporting environment on a planet plagued by the oblivion of sub-zero temperatures. Some had two legs, and some had four confirming for Prospero that the Pripicans had made contact with them. Others were three-legged like himself, probably in imitation of Prospero from his encounter with it. They used other constructs that looked like giant bowls with legs to carry rocks, which they threw with precision as multi-cellular life forms collected together like giant clods of living clay. Prospero still refused to credit the phenomenon with any more intelligence than an imitative form of plant life.
“Beatariel!” Prospero only started ordering Beatariel to get out there when he saw the robot body running outside to get into the vehicle. Then the vehicle started driving into the approaching alien army.
*
Gonzal and Antone were both trotting next to each other to keep up with the silicone life forms that trotted toward the facility like Indians attacking a nuclear armed General Custer, which may yet be a worthy analogy.
“Antone! Do you have ready the equipment that might unlock the airlock?”
“Yes Gonzal, and I understand it is our only chance to gain access to stop Prospero’s diabolical plans. No need to repeat that again.”
Just then a blanket of silicone life form came up behind Gonzal and Antone enveloping both of them like Jonah’s whale to swallow them whole. Then the construct of silicone life forms that swallowed the two Pripicans shaped into a sphere, and began rolling toward the facility, passing right by Beatariel’s vehicle that had just came into view.
Gonzal and Antone could be heard screaming inside the rolling sphere that swallowed them. Ceres watched the whole thing, and stopped trotting to aim her pistol at Beatariel’s vehicle. She saw it also aimed a weapon back at her, and the moment became either it or her. She had been too slow, and Beatariel fired a plasma rifle first straight at Ceres just as a wall-like life form with four legs ran between Ceres and her target. The life form evaporated before her eyes into a puff of sacrificial steam, and then she just ran immediately in response before Beatariel could take aim once again.
The sphere stopped rolling toward the facility near the entrance by the launch pad. It turned into a large animated blanket that spit out Gonzal and Antone onto the ground. Then both wobbled on all fours for a couple dizzy seconds figuring out what had happened.
Antone figured it out first. “Thank you Calebites!” They had named the life forms Calebites after the name of their planet.
Gonzal produced his weapon while the silicone based being became a wall that surrounded Antone for protection. Antone held a scanning device over the airlock controls. Gonzal watched in horror as Beatariel’s vehicle just melted the Calebite armies in the distance with blazing plasma. Many hurled stones at the facility walls and windows, but it really had very little impact on the fortified facility. Perhaps it had just been to make a noise inside that exclaimed that they existed.
Gonzal just had to express his sadness. “I feel embarrassed as a species that as soon as we show these beings how to look and move like we do they comply by immediately going to war just like us.”
The Battle for Caleb.
*
Prospero couldn’t pass up the opportunity to yell orders at Beatariel on the dash monitor screen of its vehicle. “Beatariel! Into the thick of them shoot!”
Beatariel already had been doing that. Then it saw Ceres again shoot at its armored vehicle with a laser blast that also had very little effect on this armored all-terrain behemoth. On the other hand, the plasma cannon on the vehicle would definitely extinguish the life out of the Pripican alien that now ran away.
Beatariel pointed the vehicle’s cannon
at Ceres and the vehicle started chasing after her. She easily trotted as fast as Beatariel risked taking the vehicle on the crevice-covered ice. She tried to cross a plain of solid ice, which according to Beatariel’s calculation it could overtake her on.
The cannon on the vehicle had been ready to fire on Ceres, and she even suddenly at that moment stopped, and turned around to greet her death. Beatariel calculated it to be probably some kind of Pripican honor tradition as it started to fire the cannon. Then the ground suddenly gave way below revealing that it had been a silicone construct covering a deep crack on the planet. Beatariel plummeted as a plasma blast shot out the hole harmlessly into the sky.
*
Gonzal kept looking around the hind end of Antone to see how he had been doing. “Is the code going to break Antone?”
“Yes Gonzal. I’ve almost got it. … I’ve got it. Let’s go!”
Both Gonzal and Antone disappeared into the airlock leaving behind the wall-shaped silicone life forms. Tiny cell-like beings looked at where Antone and Gonzal had disappeared, and could tell that even the doorway steamed with temperatures that would melt them out of existence.
Gonzal led the way through the hallway with a pistol similar to the all-purpose pistol weapon carried by Ceres. “Careful, we don’t want them to catch our scent.” Antone gave Gonzal a look through his helmet, and he looked back at Antone as if to say it had just been a figure of speech.
Antone scoffed. “Nephricans don’t have any sense of smell.
Nephricans actually don’t have a sense of smell, and instead have evolved a second brain-like stomach in the snout that just began to evolve beyond a primal purpose of analyzing substances to determine edibility.
“This way I think! Prisons like to be down stairs,” Gonzal said as they entered the facility.
They trotted pretty much straight to the locked door that held their 2nd generation Eagolim friend Ferdinand. “It is locked.”
Then a voice came from the other side of the door. “Gonzal! Is that you?”
Gonzal pointed his pistol at the lock. “Stand away from the door Ferdinand! It is I, Gonzal with Antone here to rescue you!”