The Rammor
MMIofT – 223,323,497,856 - 10,000 Years Ago
THE CAST
Soulinna Rebutti, Crabber Cammaggama, Crocchi Accett, Solari
Crabber Rebutti, Soulinna Cammaggama, and Crocchi Accett gathered in the corner of the PowerCentre: the enormous energy conversion nucleus that fed the Ascension City of the Rammor. Around them, droids attended to the maintenance tasks necessary to keep the city operational. They were the three Zerot currently responsible for the droids’ upkeep, but many years earlier they had reconfigured the mechanical workers to accept their commands. Today was a pivotal day in the plan they had been hatching for the last hundred years.
‘All is ready,’ whispered Crocchi. ‘The droids are primed to carry out the task.’
‘Good,’ approved Crabber. ‘Are the last of the Rammor in the Point of Ascendancy, Soulinna?’
‘Not yet,’ the female replied. ‘Nothing happens quickly here, but they will be by the close of the day. And then we can begin.’
The moon orbiting Rammor was a receptacle for the power directed to it by the system’s sun. Thousands of capture globes spread across the face of the satellite, diverting the energy to the master anti-prism, converting it, and beaming directly down to the PowerCentre. The beam was funnelled into the absorption chamber, a large spherical storage vessel, then distributed throughout the city. The largest of the power conduits fed the Gateway Mechanism, keeping open and allowing passage to the Point of Ascendancy.
Today was the penultimate assembly of all the Rammorians for the dress rehearsal of the Binding Ascendance Cortège – the act that would irretrievably seal their spiritual future. Only a handful of Rammorians would remain to close down their city, hiding their prior existence from any future visitors to their world, and ensuring the Zerot helpers’ departure.
A thousand years of planning was now coming to fruition.
Solari stopped to speak to the three lead Zerot. He descended to his corporeal form to oversee the Binding Ascendance Cortège rehearsal. The Zerot had been slow to finalise their departure. They had been useful for the last two hundred years, attending to low-level maintenance and other tasks for the Rammor, but now it was time for them to leave.
‘Crabber, how are the arrangements for the BAC rehearsal?’ he asked the Zerot in charge of the droids.
‘Excellent, my lord,’ Crabber replied, avoiding eye contact with Solari. ‘All is ready for the rehearsal.’
‘Good, good,’ said the Rammorian. ‘And Soulinna. Are your vessels ready to depart?’
‘Nearly, my lord,’ she replied. ‘Deepest apologies for the delay, but all will be ready. You have my word.’
‘Very well. We look forward to saying our goodbyes and thanking you. We have some gifts you will find of great use in your spacefaring endeavours.’
‘Thank you, my lord,’ Soulinna said. ‘You are most generous.’
Crocchi, the leader of the Zerot, hunched down behind the other two, only coming into view when asked. Solari didn’t trust him. He would be glad to see the back of Crocchi – all of them, if the truth was known. The whole ascension process was wearing on the Rammorians. The irony wasn’t lost on Solari: the very point of making the crossover to a serene spiritual existence involved an excessive amount of stress.
‘Crocchi, can I speak to you alone?’ he asked.
The other two backed away, leaving the Zerot leader. Crocchi straightened up and smiled, sharp pointed teeth exposed.
‘How may I help you, my lord?’
‘I want no problems with this ceremony. Everything needs to be perfect. Are all of the backups in place?’
‘All four backups are in place,’ Crocchi said. ‘If the conduit from the Absorption Chamber were to fail – and when has that ever happened – the ion battery would hold the Gateway Mechanism open for the time required to activate any one of the alternate power sources.’ Crocchi shrugged. ‘But we tested all of this three days ago, with both backup computers audit trailing. Nothing will happen.’
‘I know, Crocchi,’ Solari said, ‘but it is such a vulnerable phase.’
‘Power audit trailing, my lord. Need I say more?’
‘Thank you. By late afternoon we will have completed the transfer, and the mock ceremony will begin.’ Solari’s face didn’t reflect the confidence he was trying to project.
‘Brocchi, this is the point of no return,’ Soulinna warned. ‘Activation will seal our fate. She will find out.’
‘Stay strong, Soulinna,’ replied Crocchi. ‘We are in control of the destiny of our race. The names of Rebutti, Cammaggama, and Accett will go down in Zerot history as the saviours of our species.’
‘Activate,’ commanded Crabber. ‘Set our plan in motion.’
Soulinna inputted the activation sequence, closing the conduit to the Absorption Chamber. The instantaneous loss of solar energy signalled the ion battery to hold temporary power, but with a sabotaged interface, the supply to the Gateway Mechanism ceased. The backup systems were impotent and the gateway closed.
‘They are trapped for a thousand years,’ said Crocchi. ‘Come. We must oversee the droids with the capture of the remaining Rammorians.’
‘I’ll just finish my work here and be with you soon,’ Soulinna said.
Once the males were out of sight, she reopened the control screen and accessed a hidden sub-routine in the program used to overwrite the system. Within moments she was done and procedure concealed.
‘The thousand years is now forever,’ she muttered to herself. ‘I wonder what my reward will be?’
Soulinna caught up with the other two and joined the rest of the Zerot who were stuffing the incapacitated Rammorians into stasis pods on one of their long-range vessels. She set the hibernation period to one thousand years and entered a course for deep space.
Later, as they watched the ship accelerating away from the planet, Crocchi couldn’t contain his emotions. ‘We’ve done it!’ he proclaimed. ‘A bloodless coup and access to all of this technology. We may finally be able to make our world whole again and atone for the sins of our leaders.’