No Guardian, I

Part 20

They all stood completely still, feeling rather than hearing or seeing the defence systems of the old research facility coming back online. It was like sneaking around in the den of a big, ancient predator when the beast wakes up suddenly and flexes its muscles, lazily regarding the unexpected morsel that walked neatly into its maw.

"Please, identify yourselves," repeated the voice. "I have no intention of harming you, since you have activated the reactor and used correct codes to gain entry; however, I need your names and/or identity cards in order to create appropriate log entries."

Alyona breathed easier.

"It's a Librarian-pattern AI. Thank the stars." she said, and then raised her voice. "I am Corporal Alyona Kamneva of the Russian Federal Bureau of Aeronautics, Facility Defence Division. With me are Jasker... what's your family name?"

"Marlyn," prompted Jas.

"...Jasker Marlyn, civilian, and Yaltrik, exo-terrestrial life form, self-name Eliksni. You have been reactivated by this little mechanical intelligence here, self-name Ghost."

"Thank you, Corporal Kamneva. I am Grigoriy-4, custodian and research assistant AI for the Inheritance Project. My instructions before entering conservation have been to expect to be reactivated and provide a set of information and schematics to the person bearing the correct codes. I assume that your group contains this person, Corporal Kamneva?"

"Jas, he's talking about you," said Alyona. "He says he has something for you, something left from when he has been deactivated."

"Thanks, I got this much," answered Jas. He made a step forward and said, in his very broken Old Russian "That is me."

"Very well," said the AI. "Please follow the blinking lights to the library room. I will prepare a terminal for you to access there. May I inquire, what will happen once you leave? Am I to initiate conservation again?"

Alyona paused for a second, as if remembering something horrible.

"Why do you think we will leave?" she finally asked. They were already following the path indicated by the AI, past now-closed doors.

"Humans always do," replied Grigoriy. "And measuring time by the ticks of a processor running on minimum power is so very boring."

"What do you mean - humans always do? Haven't they left you just once, when sealing this place?"

"I have been roused a few centuries back. I have imparted the same information you are about to receive to a group of seven people. Now that you have reminded me, one of them is logged as Marlyn, Aloise."

Jas stumbled and nearly fell.

"She is an ancestor of mine," he said. "Grandpa told me that she was the one who brought the family to the City."

"And before that, before my first slumber, I have assisted Doctor Guillaume Marlyn in his research on the Traveler. He was the one who initiated the conservation. Strange. I do not seem to remember the details of his research. Only that we used powerful etheogenical fields to create resonance patterns in humans in order to enable them to tap into the Traveler's energies. Oh, I must have spoiled the content of the files. Anyway, it's very nice to have someone to chat with. I have begun to create simulations of atomic movement and repeating the two-slit experiment in my imagination."

"He's awfully talkative," said Glazok. "For an AI."

"I detect a speck of the Traveler's energies in three of you. We have long theorized that the Traveler can actively involve itself if it wishes to, but most of the time it chooses not to. Could you please fill me in on what has happened? The previous group was very limited in their knowledge of history. They said that the entire system collapsed and only Earth was still harbouring humans. Is it true?"

"I'm afraid it is," replied Alyona. "And I am in the same position as you are, Grigoriy. I have been revived by the Ghost here."

"Oh, that's simply marvelous! I wish Doctor Marlyn was here. He has also theorized that Light - we called that the Traveler's energy - could reach out to ontologically impossible places and return beings to life. He would have been so glad his predictions were true!"

"We still call it Light, you know," said Glazok.

"I would have liked to hear everything about it, but, I'm afraid, we're already here. Please step through."

A large door in front of them slid open, revealing a room clearly dedicated to information storage. Multiple computer terminals sat along a glass wall, behind which long stacks of solid-state and quantum-cube drives went out into the distance, flanked by massive coolant units. The terminal nearest to them blinked on, and spat out a bracelet-band which supported an assortment of holographic cubes that floated along its surface.

"Here you are, Mister Marlyn. Please note that the information is encrypted. The datachip containing the codes will serve as the key. I find your presence here to be more than a simple coincidence, and wish I could come with you. After all, I have spent a good twenty years working with your ancestor. Those were very fruitful years, I may add. It would be so good, to expand on the knowledge we acquired then. For instance - how did your four-armed companion's race come to be here? Have they encountered the Traveler before? Alas, I am bound to this place."

"We could always download your consciousness onto a mobile platform," offered Jas. Alyona looked at him in mute horror.

The AI was silent for some time.

"That... is a very interesting idea, Mister Marlyn. Your family always had a knack for finding simple solutions to complex problems. I even had a suitable anthropomorphic frame, intended for conducting repairs. But... what about the data? It would never fit into the frame's memory banks. Although... there was this prototype flier that we finished just before the slumber. A pet project of Doctor Holliday's. I believe it should be still intact, and if scrubbed of the operating system, its memory banks would accommodate both my consciousness and most of the research logs. I will omit only the least important bits, like maintenance logs and other pieces of redundant information. I will, of course, set the site to conserve itself again and engage the defences to automatic response. Please follow the lights. I would offer you to resupply, but you have already helped yourself to the only things that were still not expired."

The lights led them to a large cavern that served as a landing bay for cargo fliers, from the looks of it. A ship, shaped like a rusted in places, extruded maple leaf, sat there on its landing struts. A Frame, painted in yellow and black stripes, pulled a thick cable to its rear.

It connected the cable to a port and turned to greet the party, its motions chopped and forced, as if its joints were in sore need of a lubricant.

"Hello again," it said. "I am, still, Grigoriy-4, and this is now my body. The ship will be ready in four hours, once the data will be transferred entirely and the energy banks will charge. Where do we go to once we leave?"

Jas looked at his rag-tag companions. Alyona, having taken off her helmet, flashed him a smile.

"I'd like to see your birthplace, the one I've heard so much about," she said.

"It's the only other place where we can decode the data," added Glazok. "And who knows what we've attracted by activating the reactor."

"What about Yaltrik?"

The Ghost flashed him a few symbols. He whooped and made a devotional gesture.

"He wants to see the Great Machine," translated Glazok.

"You know, I started to miss home a long time ago," said Jasker. "We're going to the City."

***

//Contact bearing 11-83, please identify yourself.//

//Control, this is Ghost-3547. I am bringing in a new Guardian. Two new Guardians, actually.//

//Ghost-3547, please identify your ship.//

//static//

//Ghost-3547, please respond.//

//Control, ship identity from now on will be "Inheritance". Repeat, ship ID is "Inheritance".//

//Inheritance, please land on Tower-2. Corridor now clear. Don't forget to report to the Speaker in Tower-5. Welcome home.//