Chapter 35

Barnabus should have found a way to invade Kaesare’s ship. It had better systems to work with than the Sequi. However, Kaesare wasn’t a Cytran and couldn’t be commanded by loyalties to a world she believed to be a figment of the imagination.

Earth had never imagined Backworlders when it sent off its seedships. From the data downloaded into the box in which he had traveled to the Foreworlds, Barnabus knew Earthlings had envisioned a paradise, a future where people evolved to their full potential, a future where new ideas and sharing weren’t feared. Instead, people continued to be people.

“It’s just another form of programming,” he said.

“What?” Una peered at her sister Prezsha.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“He’s in my head. I know he is. Get him out. Do whatever you have to, to get him out.”

“I think that’s guilt.” Prezsha studied the console before her, tracing its contours with her chrome finger. “He’s dead, Una. You killed him. Underneath the new programming, you’re still Rainly.”

“Sometimes I feel strange. Is that what you mean?”

“Don’t be coy. It doesn’t suit you no matter your protocols.” Prezsha rolled her shoulders and brought up the engine schematics on the largest monitor. “You’re sure the specs you received from Kaesare will increase speed and not blow up the ship?”

“Wef sent her the modifications to upgrade the Lepper drive into a photon burst drive. If he said it’d work, it’ll work.”

Barnabus retreated to the darkest recess of Una’s mind. It’d be best to let her be for awhile. She didn’t need prodding to reach the other Cytrans as quickly as possible.

Being less than a brain in a box, reduced to code, brought on a case of melancholy. Perhaps because he was technically dead. Was he sad about it? He picked at his sullen mood and decided his physical death wasn’t the source. The time to be reborn would come. He had no doubts on that score. So where did it come from?

Roaming around in the databanks of the Sequi, he found the archives of Earth he had downloaded from his box. Blue skies and rolling hills beckoned. At first, he ignored the crumbling cities devoid of humans, but eventually soaring towers glittering like jewels in the sun lured as strongly as the endless blue of the seas. The memories of his former life as a brain in a box roared with more substance than they deserved.

How could he miss a virtual world filled with virtual people? His so-called family and neighbors had aggravated him to no end when he had lived there. They refused to acknowledge the reality of their existence: brains in boxes plugged into a fake world. Yet, he missed them. Had they noticed his absence? Or had the Keepers erased any memory of him?

He wished with all his heart he could send a message home.

Una sat down at the captain’s console and flicked the communications icons. “Cytran Una sends greetings. Barnabus serves you well.” The coordinates she punched in belonged to Earth. The message would take years to arrive. A reply would take more years.

Barnabus hadn’t meant to prompt her, however, if he stopped her, she’d know her hunch about him was correct. He had to control his emotions better. They tumbled as wildly as they had when he had struggled to learn the truth of what was beyond the coding creating his life on Earth. He had felt stifled then. He felt just as frustrated now.

Did he fight a cause just as unwinnable as that of the Foreworlds? The Quassers wouldn’t be defeated by their technology. The Foreworlds needed to find the Seuks for the answers. Had anyone gone in search of the Seuks?

“Has word come in from Talos?” Una asked her sister. “He went to find the Seuks, didn’t he?”

Scolding himself, Barnabus retreated inside the cloistered protocols of Rainly. With any luck, his thoughts would remain as walled off as hers. Barely a pulse emanated from the Rainly personality.

Prezsha’s gaze narrowed at the schematics before glancing briefly at Una. “I hid nothing from you. Your friends hid nothing from you. You needn’t worry. Our only worry is on the upgrades to the ship. Something you made a living at on Pardeep Station. Can’t you at least tap into the knowledge without being Rainly?”

“No.” Una slouched in her chair. “You said Dactyl worked on ships with me. Let’s call him.”

Prezsha reached for Una’s hand. “More of Rainly is here than I thought. I would gladly ping the Olvis, but we’re out of range. The alliance hasn’t progressed to allowing communications to pass between Backworlds and Foreworlds territory yet.”

“Humans shouldn’t bicker so. It’s a pity.”

“It is.” Prezsha squeezed Una’s fingers. “For now, we have the math and the schematics. You’re more than capable of checking the accuracy of the improvements to propulsion from those. So am I. Together, we will see to the future.”

For a long moment Una sat still, just sitting. “Why do I feel so sad? I” Her protocols searched for what she missed, but didn’t find the recess where Barnabus and her Rainly self hid.

By concentrating on the vision of the Cytrans transmitted by Fio, he distracted Una from his sadness. She rose and pulled Prezsha to her feet. “Let’s get moving. I’m so excited to meet our sisters.”

“So am I. My heart sings.” Laughing, she jumped to engineering two decks below.

Una made to follow, but a high number of pings with incoming news kept her rooted to the console. She rapidly sorted the reports, stuttering on a newly-sanctioned mission by the Foreworlds containing the coordinates of the Cytran solar system. Her heart somersaulted and she leapt down the passage to engineering.

Breathlessly, she spoke to Prezsha. “The Foreworlds are going after our sisters and the Civil Senate suspects the Backworlds and Quassers are already on their way. We must get to Fio first.” She grabbed the schematics from Prezsha, tapping them into her tab.

Barnabus couldn’t agree more. He traveled down her fingers into the data then into the Sequi’s systems. With his assistance in manipulating the programming, the job was finished within two hours.

Una wiped sweat from her brow, eyeing her sister. “Do we dare try the photon burst drive?”