Blood and Profit: Chapter 24

Three days in the group of trainees had shrunken considerably. The vomit comet alone caused a third of them to quit. The ones who were left had logged nearly ten hours of simulator time a day. Toll got them into their real planes on day four. With eighteen trainees and only fifteen planes Toll decided to break them up into squads of three, sending three squads up at a time and overseeing their tests and mock combat trials. By the seventh day Toll was very nearly a zombie and his trainees were lucky to have avoided serious injury or death by the end of the week. He sent a message to everyone giving them the day off.  He knew that they would do wild and crazy things like sleep for more than forty five minutes at a time and possibly even eat full meals or take showers. He finished sending the message out and placed his phone on the bedside table. Toll shut his eyes with every intention to sleep through the next twelve hours of human history.

Which is why there was a knock at his door. He opened his eyes in defeat and shuffled across the room, hitting the keypad revealed Carter. He was leaning against the door jam. His nano inhaler permanently attached to his bottom lip. Toll glared at him. “How much time in a day do you spend trying to look like a heart throb from the 1950's?” He asked while moving out of the way to let Carter in.

Carter stood up full and turned away from the door. “How much time does the sun think about trying to set in the west?” He asked. “We've got a meeting.” He said walking down the hall.

Toll left his room and trotted down the hall to catch up to Carter. “Is this a talking or a listening meeting?” He asked.

“As long as it's not a snoring meeting you can do as you please.” Carter offered.

“Donuts?” Asked Toll.

“That is the German word for meeting.” Carter replied.

“You're in a mood.” Toll pointed out.

“I'm a scientist, this wannabe junta stuff makes me uncomfortable.” Carter muttered

“So why do it then?” Toll pried.

“Because if me being uncomfortable keeps septillions of people alive then i'll gladly be uncomfortable.” He stated. Toll nodded. Cater glanced at him. “You look like hell by the way.”

“That's it, I wanna break up.” Toll snapped.

“Eh, I only asked you out in the first place because my friend bet me I couldn't turn you into the prom queen.” Carter shot back. He opened the door to the meeting room. Toll followed him in.

                                                                                                                                                        

“Always with the maple bars! Who the hell likes maple bars!” Toll yelled as the door slid shut.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 23

The tunnel let them out onto a small coast air strip. They drove by a small collection of civilian air craft and carter weaved around plane after plane. Carter stopped the cart next to a single seat zero G fighter. It looked old and was clearly second or possibly third hand. The original corporate ID tag had been hastily scrubbed or scraped off. Carter turned the key and shut off the cart. “it's not much but it's all yours. Whether you -”

“shhhh you're ruining the moment.” Toll said, holding up his hand to quiet Carter. Carter stayed quiet. “She's beautiful.” Toll stepped out of the cart and walked over to the ship. Running his hand along the side almost lovingly. “Why give me the plane first? What's the job?'

Carter got out of the cart. “The job is why I showed you the plane first. We have fourteen more just like this one. There's only one problem.”

Toll turned to face Carter. “There's not one combat pilot among this nation of egg heads.”

Carter smiled and took a draw off of his stick. “There is one, I'm hoping he can turn out fourteen more.”

Toll looked back at the plane. “You want me to take fourteen completely green pilots and train them as a unit for a mission that happens when?”

Carter smiled awkwardly “two weeks.”

“Two weeks” Toll kicked at loose concrete jutting from a crack in the runway. “you were smart to show me the plane first.”

“I am one of the smartest people on the planet.” Carter tipped an invisible hat.

“That was probably a more intimidating statement before humanity colonized the stars.” Toll shot back.

“How hard is it to shut up and be intimidated?” Carter asked as he sat back in the drivers seat of the cart.

“If I admit that you don't intimidate me, can I still keep the plane?” Toll asked as he pushed an old yellow rusty stair case toward his plane's cockpit.

“Yeah I guess so.” Carter sighed, slumping into the drivers seat.

“Give em two hours to check this thing out then have my unit gathered. We don't have much time to waist.” Toll said as he started his climb up the stairs.

Carter pulled a phone of out of his jacket pocket and typed furiously on the screen. “Toll hold on a second.” Toll stopped a few steps up the ramp and turned around just in time to catch the phone that Carter had tossed at him. “That's yours. Contact information for everyone you want to talk to is already in it. There's another cart parked next to the security station a few hundred yards back the way we came. You're cleared for flight as soon as you're ready to go. Anything else?”

Toll looked around the airstrip. “This isn't our only airstrip is it?” he asked as he finished climbing into his plane.

Carter shook his head. “This is an old hobbyist airstrip.” There's an actual airport about sixty miles north of here.”

Toll had situated himself in the seat and was buckling himself in. “Good because this is hard enough by myself. Overseeing fourteen others without ground crew would’a been a nightmare.”

Carter smiled. “Your nightmares haven't even begun yet. I'll see you in a few hours.”

“Thanks for reminding me.” Toll said reaching up to close his cockpit.

“Enjoy your flight.” Carter yelled as the cover latched closed. He turned the cart back on and spun it a hundred and eighty degrees to head back toward the tunnel.

The conference room was filled with a motley crew. Thirteen humans and one Baceten. Carter opened the door and let Toll into the room.  Toll took a quick survey of the room immediately noticing the Baceten. “Ok first question. How many of you have any kind of flight experience at all?” Two hands went up, one of which was the Baceten. “All righty then. Before we get to learning things like names and playing team building games were all headed to the simulators because if you can’t keep from crashing we can’t bond into an incredibly unlikely feed good team of misfits that beat the odds and become a crack team of colorful hotshots. On the off chance that any of you have any questions, my name is Toll and until each of you have two hours of simulator time none of your questions actually matter. So, everyone stand up and follow me.” Toll exited the room and the rest of the group followed him out and down the hall. Leaving Carter alone in the room.

“Well, at least he's not bored anymore” he said to himself as he left the room.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 22

Three weeks. If took three weeks for Toll to go completely stir crazy at the San Pedro Shelf Command Compound. The first week was easy. Rusty had fallen in with the group of scientists attempting to use the ring system for long range communication. Toll watched old videos from the pacific free zones data network. The second week was harder, the movies no longer held Toll's interest. Rusty had begun sleeping in the lab space he was using to scour the code that operated the rings. Against his better judgment Toll asked if there was something he could help Rusty do. This led to easily the worst two hours of his life. Scanning lines of code for specific command prompts. At 96 minutes he went out for coffee and never came back. He roamed the compound often enough that members of all three guard shifts knew his name. By Thursday of week three he was beginning to contemplate stealing a sub to go on a joy ride. Instead he went back to Rusty's office. The door was locked, he tapped the door chime. There was a crashing thud followed by a groan from inside the office. Another moment and the door opened revealing a barely awake Rusty.

“Toll, whats up?” rusty asked while wiping the sleep from his eyes.

“I'm bored, entertain me.” Toll demanded while trying to look as pathetic as possible.

Rusty shook his head. “Sorry man, I got work to do.”

“Yeah, I've seen your work, I don’t blame you for falling asleep.” Toll leaned back against the far wall.

“I don’t know what to tell you dude. Why don’t you see if Carter or Ophelia need any help?” Rusty asked.

“Because they’re both super busy with super important sciency ambassadorial importantness.”

“I'm busy as well Toll.”

“Yeah, busy sleeping.”

Rusty stooped leaning in the doorway. “Unless you want to help me look for specific segments of code, I’d suggest you go annoy someone else.”

Toll stood up off the door way, “Yeah fine i'm going, I’m going.”

Toll set off down the hall toward the main labs. Attempting to run into Carter was as good an idea as any. He knew the command level of the compound was restricted the same as most of the labs that Carter spent his time in but it was entirely possible that Ophelia would be able to get him temporary access or possibly let Carter know that Toll was looking for him, Or maybe Ophelia would have something for Toll to do. Toll turned the corner and nearly ran right into Carter.

“I was just coming to see you.” They both spoke at the same time.

“What did you need?” Toll asked.

Carter took a deep breath from the nano printer hanging from his mouth. “Word on the street is that you're bored.”

“We're under water.” Toll replied.

“What?” Carter asked, caught off guard.

“There's no streets under water.” Toll explained.

Carter pinched his nose between his thumb and forefinger to relieve the pressure of the randomness. “Not that it matters but it's slang.”

“Of course it matters!” Toll exploded. “You're a person of great importance, you can't just go babbling about under water streets and not expect people to wonder if you've lost your mind.”

Carter held his hand up to stop Toll. “do you want the job or not?”

Toll's shoulders slumped. “Yes please.”

Carter turned and headed back down the hall. “I thought so. Follow me.”

Toll trotted to catch up. “Where are we going?”

“To show you you're new job.” Carter offered with no further explanation.

“Fine keep the mystery alive then.” They walked down the hall for a moment in silence. “Hey Carter?” Toll asked.

“Yeah?” Carter sighed.

“I'm pretty sure that 'word on the street' is a colloquialism not slang.” Carter pressed the pad next to a door and it opened with a hiss, revealing a small two man electric cart sitting on a road that headed up a large tunnel. “Or there's a literal street and I need to shut up.”

Carter sat in the drivers seat of the cart. “And get in the cart.” Toll nodded and scrambled to get into the cart before Cater took off.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 21

Near midnight Toll returned to the room that he and Rusty had been assigned to. Rusty was still awake, looking something over on a tablet.

“Thanks for not warning me at all about Third's sense of humor.” He smiled as he shut the door.

“Thanks for dragging my ass over two million light years from home.” Rusty replied, putting his tablet down.

Toll sat on his bunk. “Punishment accepted.”

Rusty looked out the tiny porthole window by his bed. “That wasn't your punishment.”

Toll looked shocked. “Seriously? That robot isn't even remotely funny and that story took like five whole minutes to tell. If that wasn't my punishment please get it over with cause, damn.”

Rusty put his feet on the floor. “You know we're never going home, right?”

Toll looked skeptical. “Of course we're going home. And I'm going to take the blame for everything.”

Rusty shook his head. “Damn right you would, but we're not going home so you're off the hook.”

Toll stood up. “I'm not off the hook until I say I'm off the hook. And why do you have to be so defeatist? We're going home, trust me.”

“Well that seals it. Now we're definitely never making it back home.” Rusty laid on his bunk dejectedly.

“What makes you so sure?” Toll asked.

“When you say 'trust me' it pretty much means 'I have no clue what I’m doing right now but as long as I keep doing it then hopefully everyone will forget this was my idea in the first place.'” Rusty turned off the light above his bed.

Toll stared at the ceiling in the darkness. Unable to deny his friend. He rolled on his side. “We're getting on that ship and we're going home.”

Rusty sighed. “That’s a better plan than I've got so sure, why not.”

Neither of them fell asleep, they just laid silently in the darkness. “What do you think their doing back home right now?” Toll asked.

“Nothing. Things are as blissfully dull and slow as they have always been. They probably had a party to celebrate getting rid of the two biggest nuances in a generation but then happily went back to their quiet boring dull lives.” Rusty rolled over, his back to Toll.

“Sounds nice.” Toll remarked. There was silence for long enough that he wasn't sure if Rusty was still awake.

“Yeah, it does.” Rusty finally offered.

It wasn't much longer until they had both fallen asleep.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 20

Rusty had lost track of time. At first he let his mind wander from fish to fish as the swam by the window he was parked at, then a maintenance worker appeared to work on a piece of pipe. The bright light of his welding torch blinking on and off. Far from bored, Rusty felt himself relax both physically and mentally.

On the other side of the hallway, the conference room door opened and Ophelia appeared along with a member of the Baceten. “Rusty i'm sorry we took so long.” She said entering the hallway. Rusty refocused and turned to meet Ophelia He was not expecting the android. “Rusty this is The Third Guy. The Third Guy, this is Rusty.”

The pair shook hands. “I've never met an android before.” Rusty stammered. The Third Guy smiled.

“She told me to tell you that I have never met and extra terrestrial before. But that is not true.” The Third Guy let go of Rusty's hand.

Rusty glared at Ophelia. “She thinks she's funny.”

Ophelia stuck her tongue out at rusty. “I am funny.” She spat.

“I have yet to ascertain why she finds what she finds to be funny. It is, perplexing.” The Third Guy offered.

“Humor isn't something I would have expected an android to be even remotely interested in.” Rusty offered.

“On the contrary.” The Third Guy corrected. “The Baceten encourage pursuits in any and all areas of personal growth. Laughter is very rarely a pre meditated action. It is not controlled by the active mind. I have found that I enjoy eliciting genuine autonomic responses from an audience. For instance you may have asked yourself why I have such an unusual name.” He turned his head ever so slightly indicating that he was waiting for Rusty to ask the question out loud.

“Why do you have such an unusual name, The Third Guy?” he asked.

“I am glad you asked, it is a funny story. Nearly a thousand years ago, there were three scientists on earth, actually there were many more than three but this story pertains to three individuals so for the sake of brevity I will refrain from giving the actual number of men and women engaged in scientific pursuits at the time.” Rusty snorted a laugh and Ophelia hit his arm. The Third Guy continued undaunted. “Sir Arthur Eddington was incredibly skilled in the area of physics and specifically the scientific theory of relativity hypothesized by another scientist named Einstein. When approached by a third gentlemen named Silberstein at a meeting of the minds, he was complimented as one of the three minds who truly understood the theory. He remained silent as Silberstein was fishing for a compliment in return, Silberstein demanded that Eddington not be so modest to which he replied “who's the third guy?” Hence my name.” The Third Guy. Because I understand the theory and it is funny because Sir Arthur Eddington could not have been referring to me.”

Rusty nodded slowly. “Kind of a long name though, don't you think?” he asked. The Third Guy nodded.

“You are correct. In order to create a greater sense of ease among my human companions I respond to 'Third' which is also funny because it is one third of my full name.” He smiled, pleased with himself.

Ophelia's tablet beeped. She opened the note and then entered into the conversation. “The boys are back from their sub trip. I gather there was a bit of a commotion.”

Third nodded. “Yes I received notice that your friends were rescued from a combat situation almost fifteen minutes ago. I am quite glad to hear that no harm came to them or your property.”

“Third, is comedy something your entire race was programmed for?” Rusty asked.

Third shook his head. “None of us were programmed for comedy. It is a passion I pursue of my own volition. It is a rare and often unappreciated skill set among my people.”

Rusty nodded. “In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.”

Ophelia led the pair down the hallway toward the submersible launch bay. “Ophelia, Rusty think's I am funny.”

“Shut up Third.”

“He does not think you are funny.”

“I hate you both.”

“You're making her mad Third.”

The trio turned the corner at the end of the hall.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 19

Back in the meeting room Rusty and Ophelia were lost in conversation. “So how do you keep it all straight?” Rusty asked. “My planet hasn't even been around three hundred years, we've had one war and I can't even remember who led which side.”

Ophelia shook her head. “It's not about 'keeping it all straight.' History isn't like math or computer code where you do equations and it comes out the same every time. It took us hundreds of years to figure out how to learn from our history. Names and dates don't do anyone any good - knowing why certain pivotal points played out the way they did makes history worth knowing. It used to be the five W's. Who, What, Where, When, Why. But 'why' is the most important of those questions by far. Why did a non violent scientist, who discovered the laws of energy, help create a bomb that wiped out two cities and leave the planet with the stigma of nuclear power? Why did men get together and form an organization that belittled and marginalized women for over two thousand years? And why did that organization almost lead us to the end of civilization three times? Why did the oldest and most powerful nations hand themselves over to the corporation? Learning from history is learning to ask dangerous and difficult questions; and you begin to see the path of humanity, and just how easily we allow it to be manipulated.” She was pacing back and forth, stopped and looked at Rusty who was entranced.

“Well, I picked the wrong profession.” He leaned back in his chair and glanced at the changing slide image on the wall. The space statue popped up. “What questions should we be asking about them?”

Ophelia looked at the image. “Why don't they actively seek out any of the colonies they could easily reach? Why when they do run into a ship or a settlement do they not even slow down? They leave a wake of destruction and nothing anyone has done has even come close to stopping them.”

He looked at the map of colonies that had been wiped out once it popped up. “So every encounter with the statue is due solely to the fact that it has an unchanging course and these colonies basically got in the way?”

Ophelia nodded. “If we didn't have proof there is something alive inside of it, I would assume it was floating dead through space.” She sat on the table while Rusty got up to look at the map of the galaxy.

“Can you keep this image up for a minute?” he asked. She nodded and pressed a button on the remote. Rusty began mapping out the course of the statue on the larger map. “I was never a 'why' person. Growing up I was always focused on 'how'. How can I erase the history of Toll downloading vid's on my dad's computer. How can I build a mainframe out of junk, How can I hack into a transit ring. Why wasn't a question I ever had the luxury of answering.”

Ophelia looked at the map trying to figure out the point he was trying to make. “What 'how' are you trying to work out right now?” she asked.

He took control of the keyboard and quickly acclimatized himself to the map programs commands. The red line that showed the statue ship's path extended out into it's future course, never curving or diverting. The Galaxy map widened until Earth was visible and the red line ran right into the planet.

“I'm trying to figure out how we're going to avoid extinction.” Rusty answered Ophelia's original question, sitting down hard.

Far from being shocked Ophelia smiled warmly at him. “We already knew it's ultimate destination... look, it's been a long trip for you, a lot of stuff completely outside your control has happened to you and I imagine that everything has you pretty much totally overwhelmed. But it's  no longer just you and Toll vs the universe.” She held back the urge to hold his hand.

“I just want to live long enough to go home, you know?” His eyes had not left the map.

 Ophelia was distracted by her tablet alarm going off.

“oh!” she shut off the alarm and got up off the desk. “look there's no point in driving yourself mad worrying about this right now. Why don't you come with me? I think you'd enjoy my next meeting.”

Rusty let her grab his hand and lead him out of the room. 

Blood and Profit: Chapter 18

The submersible launch bay was a surprise to Toll. He had expected a large affair, with rows of subs ready to deploy like jet fighters, but instead they entered a room not much bigger than the launch bay at the recycling station he had worked at before he hijacked the gate.

“Only two subs?” He asked.

Carter nodded. “This isn't much more than an airlock for research runs. We have emergency escape pods located all over the base and mass transit bays are centrally located.” Toll laughed. Carter cocked his head to the side. “What are you laughing about?”

“You sounded like a tour guide just then.” Toll said while taking a pressure suit and helmet from the wall.

Carter shook head and smiled. “Well then, prepare to laugh your ass off because, in the event that your submersible looses pressure containment or becomes immobilized, your suit acts as a floatation device. Just press the red buttons on both wrists cuffs at the same time and your suit will auto inflate taking you to the surface. Your suit has a re-breather system that filters air out of the water insuring that, regardless of depth, you will never run out of oxygen.” Carter pointed to a stall door. “Change in there.” Toll nodded and entered the stall to change.

A few minutes later Toll exited the stall wearing the clingy pressure suit and carrying the helmet. He stopped at the closest submersible. “How do these things work?” He asked.

Carter knelt down next to the submersible and opened the cockpit hatch. “Exactly like every star fighter you've ever flown, with one huge difference. You don't move through water like you do through space.”

Toll laughed. “I'll figure it out. Let's go see this squidputer thing of yours.” He put his helmet on and it sealed the connection to the suit. He then dropped into the cockpit of the sub.

Carter spoke to Toll using the communication system built into their helmets. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but these subs cost about two million credits apiece so, please, show a little self control.” he could see the color drain out of Toll's face. “Relax you big baby! I'm not going to make you buy another one; just try not to crash into a coral reef or anything.” Carter dropped down into the seat of his own sub and put his helmet on.

“Oh sure. Take away all my fun.” Toll snapped.

The attendant in the control bay spoke into a microphone on his console. “Ready for launch Doctor?”

Carter nodded “Yes, and don't call me doctor.” The attendant flipped the switch to release both subs allowing them to sink into the water and out of the bay.

Blood and Profit. Chapter 17

Toll followed the pair of excited nerds at a respectable distance. Regardless of the fact that Rusty said he had made the choice to come along, so far the trip had contained very few pleasant surprises and Ophelia was quickly turning out to be one of them. At first Toll was pretending to be interested in the seemingly endless hallways, but now, nearly ten minutes into their walk to an unknown destination, Toll found himself genuinely shocked at the size of the underwater facility. Each window gave him something new to investigate. He almost missed it when Ophelia took a right and led Rusty into a meeting room. He finished watching a shark casually swim by and followed the pair in. Ophelia was setting up a presentation of some sort on her computer, which had its display projected onto the wall. Toll flopped down into the nearest chair.

“So what do we need to know that we don't know already?” He asked. Ophelia smiled as she worked on her machine.

“That depends on what you think you already know.” She fired back.

“Seems pretty straight forward. Earth and all its colonies are property of one, possibly more, corporations. The Pacific Free Zone is like nerdy freedom fighters that grow computer squid, because...um...computer squid don't really need an excuse. And we're from a super old colony and everyone wants us dead, because we're a reminder that you can successfully revolt, or rebel, or fight the power...Rusty you got anything to add?” Toll asked. Rusty shook his head.

“What could I possibly add to that?” He asked.

“My thoughts exactly.” Toll looked to Ophelia. “How'd I do teach?” Ophelia shook her head, a smile on her face.

“Not too far off actually.” Toll held up a hand and Rusty gave him a high five. Ophelia roll her eyes. “Lets start with filling in the holes and correcting some of your assumptions. First off, no one wants you dead. Everyone assumed Colony Six was gone forever. The rings sent with that colony ship were sent out before the PFZ started installing sub light communications systems into the rings.” Rusty raised his hand. Ophelia smiled. “You don't need to raise your hand you know.”

“I didn't want to interrupt you.” He offered as he lowered his hand. “So you're saying that our colony was presumed lost or destroyed but there are other colonies out there that you can communicate with even though they have their rings shut off?” Rusty worked through the thought out loud and Ophelia nodded.  He continued his thought train. “So our colony started a galactic war and we didn't even know it?” He asked. Ophelia shook her head.

“We're not at war yet.” She picked up a small remote from the table she was sitting on and pointed it at a projector which produced an image of the known galaxy and every planet colonized by humans. “It's a little more difficult than what you've put together, and by a little, I mean a lot.” She moved the presentation to the second slide. “Over the last three hundred years The Corporation has sent out forty eight colony ships to planets throughout the galaxy. These ships planted slip rings along their travel route and when they reached their final destination, the colonists on the ships were free to settle the planet and prepare it for inclusion to The Corporation.” The next slide showed that several planets had been shaded out. “Over the years, for a great number of reasons, several of the ships either never made it to their destination, shut off their rings when they did make it to their destination, or were wiped out by disease or other hostile threats. Today we're in constant contact with thirty seven colonies throughout the galaxy. The Corporation has identified eleven colonies as lost or destroyed. Of those eleven, six are still in contact with the Pacific Free Zone and consider themselves free and unaligned planets.” She moved the presentation to a slide showing a list of the other five planets, which included colony Six.

“What about the five you're not in contact with? I mean other than our planet.” Toll asked. Ophelia shrugged her shoulders.

“That is an excellent question. The corporation has sent scouting parties to take the slip rings as far out as they were placed. The last ring in your line let out in the middle of an asteroid field and there was ample evidence to suggest that the colony ship had been completely destroyed. Almost half the scouting party was demolished before they could travel back through the ring. One of the other planets sent a message that there was a disease that was incredibly fatal to organic life. They destroyed their ring and surrounded the planet with probes warning off anyone who might arrive at the planet. We lost ten thousand colonists in a matter of days. Two of the planets we're still not sure about. The rings stop in unoccupied space and there has been no successful communication to or from the ships or planets. New probes are still on their way to both planets. Lastly we have a bit of situation.” Ophelia paused for a second, and clicked the presentation to a slide that highlighted the fifth planet. “We were able to find the colony ship. There were no survivors but everything was still intact and functional. There were several video recordings and journal entries referring to an unidentified craft.”

“Unidentified craft?” Rusty repeated. Ophelia nodded.

“You mean alien in origin.” Toll clarified. Ophelia nodded again. “You've got evidence that aliens actually exist and everyone is excited about two random dudes from a human colony? That doesn't make any sense.” He sat back in his chair. Ophelia moved on to the next slide, where there were videos waiting to be played.

“It's a very difficult situation. One that will make a lot more sense once you see the videos. Ophelia clicked the remote and a video feed popped up. It was a feed from the ship's bridge camera; exactly what the captain and bridge crew had seen. And what they saw sent chills down Rusty and Toll's backs. It was impossible to discern how large the ship was or how far it was from the colony ship, but it moved with an unnatural silence. It appeared to be an impossibly large stone statue of a man with crossed arms, he was wearing a robe and his eyes and mouth were closed. The statue had no visible engines, but all the same, it passed by the colony ship under its own power. Toll found himself wishing the video would end and that he never had another reason to speak of the statue again, but the feed kept playing as the eyes and mouth opened. A swarm of ships poured forth like a never ending cloud of angry bees. They descended on the colony ship impossibly fast and the video feed cut out. Ophelia clicked to the next slide. There was silence in the room. Toll cleared his throat.

“What the hell was that?” He asked. Ophelia shrugged her shoulders.

“That's what we were hoping you might be able to tell us.” She said. Rusty and Toll looked at each other.

“We've never heard of or seen anything like that. And if we had, I doubt we'd be alive to tell about it.” Rusty offered. Ophelia nodded.

“Still, you are proof that colony Six still exists, and that puts your colony at the top of The Corporation's repatriation list.”

“Repatriation list?” Toll asked. Ophelia nodded.

“The Corporation has been preparing a battleship that is geared to make the trip out to the separated colonies and either convince them or force them to rejoin The Corporation.”

This revelation stunned both Rusty and Toll.

“Let me get the straight.” Toll demanded. “The Corporation knows for a fact that there are creepy nightmare aliens out there in the galaxy and their plan is to attack and subdue some colonies that decided to declare independence?” Toll looked to Ophelia and she nodded again.

“But only if they get their battleship, which they won't because we're going to steal it.” Rusty dropped his face into his hands.

“Toll, can we go home now?” He said from behind his hands.

Toll leaned forward in his chair while pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “That's why Carter is so concerned about the squid'puter? Because you're going to steal the ship it's supposed to be installed in?”

“I'm not stealing anything!” She stood up from her perch on the table. “The Pacific Free Zone has decided to take an incredibly dangerous action to benefit pretty much everyone but the Pacific Free Zone, including your colony, because if The Corporation gets their ship then you can bet colony Six is at the top of their list of places to visit.”  Rusty stepped in between her and Toll.

“Ok look, we get that things on this side of the ring are pretty intense. But you have to admit that stealing a battleship is a bit extreme. Once you get control of the ship, if you get control of the ship, there is no place you'll be able to take it that The Corporation won't be able to find.” He explained. From the doorway Carter responded.

“You're not the first one to point that out. But truthfully, it's do or die time. The second we saw what the ship was capable of we knew it could never become fully operational in the hands of The Corporation. It shouldn't even be operational at all, but at least we can use it to try and reach the colonies that we've lost contact with.” He stepped into the room and sat down on the table where Ophelia had been sitting.

“So, if you can successfully steal the ship, you're going to crew it for a very long term mission, and visit colonies that might be long dead.” Toll clarified.

“Exactly correct.” Carter smiled. “And don't think that was a plan that was easy to come up with. We've been working out the details for almost eighteen months now.”

“So what happens when everything about the highjacking goes wrong?” Toll asked.

“We have several contingency plans, and when those fail we have emergency backup plans.” Carter offered. “We're almost positive this won't start a three sided war.

“Three sided?” Rusty repeated.

“Between the Pacific Free Zone, The Corporation, and Laborite.” Ophelia offered.

“Who or what is Laborite?” Toll asked.

“The second largest company currently running. They make robotic laborers to do work that is too dangerous for humans.” she explained.

“They have quite a few scores to settle with The Corporation, but we're pretty sure they won't make a move, because if they do then the Baceten will be forced to get involved.” Carter continued.

“Who or what are the Baceten?” Toll asked, feeling a lot like a broken record.

“The robotic laborers created by Laborite started out partially intelligent in order to make decisions in the moment. Laborite used to own a small moon where they dumped the laborers that broke or failed to function correctly for whatever reason. Over the first five years of production they must have dumped a few hundred thousand of these things onto their trash moon, but not all of them were turned off or brain dead. So they started rebuilding themselves on the junk moon. When they had a large enough population and enough credit to get the attention of the arbitration guild they bought themselves an organization registration and made a claim to the forge moon where Laborite builds its robots. The guild denied their request so the robots claimed the junk moon as their home planet and called themselves the Baceten. They have been openly at war with Laborite over rights to the forge planet ever since.” Both Rusty and Toll sat quietly and took everything in.

“So, there are sentient robots, on top of the creepy aliens, which is in addition to The Corporation that wants to force the galaxy back under its control. What a wonderful world you guys live in.” He said as he sat back and massaged his temples.

“Already told them about the statue then?” Carter asked Ophelia. She nodded. Carter stood.

“Well then, sounds like you know everything about everything. Who wants to go swimming with a giant bio computer?” He asked forcing a smile on his face.

“I'll just watch thanks.” Rusty shook his head. “That thing honestly creeps me out a bit.”

“Does it help if by 'swimming',  I mean ride in a fully stocked submersible designed for high speeds?” Carter asked.

Rusty shook his head again. “Not really.”

Ophelia took a step forward. “I'm pretty sure I can keep him entertained. We could spend a few days just talking about the differences in our computer systems.”

“Cool, Toll you coming? I can't imagine you'd pass up the chance to pilot what amounts to an underwater fighter jet.” Cater offered.

Toll sat forward. “You had me at underwater fighter jet.” he said standing up.

Carter joined him. “That was at the end of the sentence.”

“It wasn't an easy sell.” Toll said as they headed for the door.

“Picky, picky!” Carter complained.