The starship Gabriel’s bridge, non-system space
The Gabriel had quickly jumped outside of the system as soon as the shuttle entered the port hangar. Ed and Andy gave Phil their thanks and a hug, then made their way towards the tube lift, glancing at the spot where the Cartella would normally be parked.
‘I’m going to miss that ship,’ said Andy.
‘You and me both,’ agreed Ed. ‘You don’t realise how much of an emotional attachment you have to something until you lose it.’
Andy went suddenly quiet as Ed realised he’d probably said the wrong thing.
‘Come on,’ he encouraged. ‘Let’s go and suffer the wrath of Linda.’
‘So, that went well then?’ she growled, the second they disembarked the tube lift. She was sitting bolt upright, glaring at them with her arms folded across her chest.
‘Actually, it might not be as bad as you think,’ said Ed, waving a finger in the air.
‘Is that a fact?’ she snapped. ‘Forgive me for not getting the whole picture then. I was under the impression you’d lost the Cartella and very nearly your own lives. Perhaps you’d like to enlighten us as to why that operation wouldn’t be considered a complete gang fuck?’
‘We have an important guest,’ said Andy, cheerfully.
Ed grimaced, as he knew being cheerful when Linda was in castigation mode wouldn’t end well.
‘Don’t tell me—you have a bug that wants to defect,’ she said, sarcastically.
Ed produced the data nodes and held them up.
‘No, but there’s someone here you’ll want to meet and can explain a lot of what’s going on.’
Linda sat back on her couch and waved her hand as if to say “you have the stage”.
Ed looked up.
‘Cleo, can you provide me with an interface for these, please.’
She appeared next to him and took the two nodes and inspected them closely.
‘Ah,’ she said. ‘I believe we’ve seen this design before.’
‘Indeed we have,’ he said. ‘Just make sure you have full authority over the contents.’
‘You want me to firewall myself and the ship from what’s on here?’ she asked.
‘For now, yes,’ he said. ‘All will become obvious in a few moments, but allow access to the holo emitters in here.’
She nodded and waved her hand. A small console appeared next to them. She inserted the two nodes, which began to glow and emit a low hum.
Ed heard Pol and Callon gasp as Pyriaeus materialised in the centre of the bridge. He glanced down at himself and then around the room, stopping at Ed and smiling.
‘You escaped the bugs,’ he said. ‘The end of the tunnel was clear?’
‘Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Pyriaeus the Fourteen,’ Ed announced.
‘You’re one of the Ancients,’ exclaimed Linda, all the earlier angry body language dissipating away.
‘Yes, I understand from your friends that is what the twelve of us are collectively known as in this time period,’ he said, turning in a circle so he could address them all.
‘In answer to your question,’ said Ed, ‘the tunnel did indeed come out amongst the remains of a large building.’
He nodded, his gaze settling on Andy.
‘Did you discover how long I’d been in stasis?’ he asked.
Andy held up one finger and produced the bone.
‘What the hell is that?’ Pol asked, pulling a slightly disgusted expression.
‘It used to be him,’ said Andy, pointing at their guest.
They all turned back to stare quizzically at Pyriaeus.
‘Hmm,’ he grunted. ‘A bit weird, I know.’
Andy approached Cleo and held out the bone.
‘Are you able to date this?’ he asked.
She took the proffered tibia and inspected it closely, her hand emitting a blue glow where it was in contact with the bone. She nodded and handed the bone back to Andy, before turning to face Pyriaeus.
‘I’m afraid you died approximately three hundred thousand years ago, although, you’ll most likely know that as chronia,’ she said.
He looked down at himself again.
‘Wow, I don’t think I look that old, do I?’ he said, with a smirk.
Everybody chuckled.
‘A god with a sense of humour,’ said Andy. ‘Earth could certainly do with one of those.’
‘Is that your home planet?’ Pyriaeus asked.
Andy nodded.
‘Well, let’s hope these bugs as you call them don’t find it,’ he said.
‘I’m afraid it’s too late for that,’ said Ed. ‘They already have.’
‘They’re on your world already?’
‘They came to steal things,’ Phil said, joining the conversation.
The Ancient’s expression became more studious.
‘What did they take?’ he asked, staring at Phil and then over at Ed.
‘Frozen human bodies and embryos,’ said Ed.
‘And Phil’s computer containing a lot of his races technology,’ said Linda.
Pyriaeus rubbed his chin in thought.
‘Tell me, was there anything on that computer pertaining to memory reprogramming or such like?’ he asked.
They all glanced at Phil, who nodded.
‘Why would you ask that?’.
‘We discovered some sort of a laboratory on a raid once,’ said Pyriaeus. ‘They seemed to be attempting to rewrite a human brain with one of their own.’
‘Did they succeed?’ Ed asked.
‘We didn’t think so.’
‘Bloody hell,’ said Phil. ‘They most likely will with the Theo tech they have now.’
It went quiet on the bridge for a few seconds before Pol piped up.
‘I don’t get what all this means,’ she said.
‘It means, they’re attempting to infiltrate GDA space with humans with bug brains,’ said Ed. ‘Can you imagine the sabotage they could undertake before an invasion?’
‘Oh, shit,’ said Pol, glancing around at everyone. ‘What do we do?’
‘You need to destroy that capability before they perfect it,’ said Pyriaeus.
He stepped to one side and glanced up at the holomap.
‘Is that Tessamaine?’ he asked, his intonation remaining sombre.
‘I’m afraid so,’ said Ed.
It remained quiet on the bridge for a few moments while they let Pyriaeus circle around the dead world that had once been his home.
‘Can I see Tessamaine City?’ he asked and after receiving a few quizzical looks, he added. ‘It’s the one you found me in.’
The footprint of the ruined city grew as Pol panned in. A shadow of deep sadness washed over the Ancient’s face as the completely barren landscape swept into close-up.
‘You were right,’ he said, dejectedly. ‘There’s nothing for me here anymore.’
Turning his back to the projection, he sighed and glanced at Ed.
‘You mentioned you were part of a group of human worlds,’ he said. ‘I will give you any help I can to try and prevent this happening to those. How many planets are there in your group?’
‘Over sixteen hundred,’ said Ed.
Pyriaeus’s eyes widened as he took in what Ed had said.
‘Really?’ he said. ‘Sixteen hundred worlds in just this one galaxy? My colleagues have been busy. But I suppose a lot can happen in three hundred thousand chronia. If they perfect that brain transfer technology, there’ll be no stopping them. You need to move quickly or all those worlds will be turned to dust.’