The Yellow Brick Road
Earth colony world Terra Six has been damaged by a storm. Rescue and recovery teams work to save lives and restore order.
Meanwhile, in the not so merry city of Oz, Dorothy and her old friends hunt a murderer, her missing father and the answer to a mystery that will surprise them all.
Copyright 2010, Gwendolyn McIntyre, All rights Reserved
Chapter One
Having spent several months in the southern coastal and out-country regions treating wounds, illnesses and helping to re-establish basic services like safe drinking water and housing that was more permanent than the make-do shelters and tents that survivors had lived in for more than three months, my team was granted a reprieve by way of being sent into one of the larger inland cities in the north of the country.
There, we were told, we would be coordinating public health issues and concerns with the central government. It would mean, the officer told us, that we were to work shorter hours in better conditions. To most members of the team that meant several different things, all which were simultaneously expressed;
Civilisation, hot baths, real food, a really good stiff drink, clean or new clothes, having ones laundry done, etc...
So it was with happy hearts and minds that our personal belongings, along with the remnants of our supplies and equipment were packed and taken down to the LZ to meet the lifter that would haul us to our new home away from home.
The first surprise was that the unit sent down to pick us up was larger than we had thought needed, but loaded as it was with fresh equipment and supplies, we assumed that they were the replenishments we had requested finally catching up with us. It was also a military unit rather than one of our orange and white rescue models , though this one was being flown by men who were dressed in civilian rescue attire; white flight suits with the red cross emblazoned on the back. It was, as one of the crew explained when asked, a 'loaner' from the government.
As we flew high over the countryside it was hard to believe that the entire country had been ravaged for three days by massive quakes and tidal waves, but the seemingly regular appearance of normal life was, as we well knew, deceiving. The lines of vehicles on many of the roadways were in fact abandoned and not moving. The only ones that we saw moving were the white transports and hover units marked with their telltale red crosses. Flags that seemed to proudly fly high on their telescoping poles were in fact route markers showing the marked 'hot' zones that were considered unsafe or far too contaminated for occupancy. These areas of the country had been cleared; the population resettled in safe areas near the sea or on the low lying lands like the area we were departing.
It was as we flew farther north that I began to notice the changes. There were less and less hot-zones and more traffic on the roads. Much of that traffic was not the white emergency response vehicle type but camouflaged military vehicles. Most of them appeared to be heading inland to the northeast. Away from the settled part of the country, something I thought odd at the time when every hand was needed to help.
What I'd not know until much later was that those men in those combat marred vehicles were to turn out to be 'the good guys' in all of this. At the time, all I knew was that our pilots got very excited when they saw them. While our pilot suddenly turned our craft farther to the west and gained altitude, the co-pilot was busy typing on a keyboard that swung out from a panel to his right. Whatever he was typing was encrypted, for the only thing that appeared on the small display was a series of grouped numbers. I wondered about this but since it was not within my purview I let it go with only a mental note to myself to find out more about the situation on the ground.
After awhile we resumed our original course and soon before us what appeared to be a large city, a brightly polished dome rising high into the air from its centre.
My mind suddenly filled with dread. Why had the orders not said where we were going? Then again, if I'd known, what could I have done about it? Nothing; I could have done nothing at all.
It was still a beautiful sight, until we got closer and we saw the reality of the scene on the ground. Past the outskirts of the city to well into it's centre there was little still standing. Tall, massive piles of rubble lay where once great houses, theatres and museums had stood along the great 'yellow brick road,' so named for the golden coloured road bricks that had been laid out, spiral fashion from the city gates to the city centre where the presidential palace stood.
The city had been rebuilt in 6834 to allow for a larger population after massive volcanic eruptions and quakes had decimated much of the then habitable land. it had been decided on a whim by the then 'president' to rebuild the city in honour of an old classic movie called the Wizard of Oz that had been made on the planet now known as Earth One back in the middle of what they called their twentieth century.
Seeing the city as it was now, it reminded me of the images of the Earth City of Dresden, Germany after the fire bombing of that once great city during a war in the middle of that same twentieth century; scorched, burned, and decimated. As we came over the city we saw pockets of land and buildings that seemed untouched by the devastation around them, but as we lost altitude we could see that they were in fact severely damaged. Some had large holes in them that had been hastily covered by netting that seemed to draw the image of what remained on either side of the gaping holes into it and thereby reflect the illusion of a whole structure.
I was more than simply familiar with the stuff; our team having used tens of thousands of miles of it countless times in the fabrication of temporary structures because it tended to take on the consistency of the materials it came into contact with in any environment. Using it in a wooded area gave us shelters that seemed as cool inside as standing in the midst of a stand of shade trees. In the hot and humid, insect infested areas we'd been working it was important to stay as cool as possible. Here though, in the north where it was cooler, it's use would seem superfluous unless those buildings were still occupied.
Here and there what seemed like whole, untouched structures turned out to be facades; the only portions of the buildings that had remained standing while the rest of the buildings were little more than piles of rock and rubble and twisted metal. After examining the view for awhile I realised that it was the precision of the destruction that amazed and concerned me most. It was as if the damage to the city had been purposely and surgically performed. But why, and by who?
To my amazement there was, save for the occasional relief structure, nothing for a circle nearly three miles wide, save rubble and bent metal laying twisted like demented art sculptures made by mentally deranged artists. Our craft was slowing, loosing altitude and then suddenly on the other side of that swath of destruction was 'the last mile' of the yellow brick road surrounding homes and gardens and the presidential palace. It seemed as pristine and beautiful as I'd remembered from my childhood, although something seemed very odd about the scene. It ticked off a faded memory that refused to focus in the camera of my minds eye. It was something my parents had once told me; a children's tale of the last mile.
It had been a long time since I'd left here and I had been adamant in my refusals to return, but a storm in space had caused massive tidal waves and quakes that had devastated much of the planet. Our fleet had been diverted here to establish rescue and recovery operations. Looking at the scene below I wondered idly whether our family home still stood as it had on the far side of the park that surrounded the palace and whether the single golden brick still lay in the centre of the tiled floor of the entrance to the house.
I shook off the odd feelings when I realised we were landing in a clearing near the edge of the circle of destruction. Next to the LZ, a prefab emergency shelter stood rigidly still on it's lifter pallet, the units APU being used to generate power for the equipment inside after being flown down from one of the supply ships parked high in orbit around Terra Six. It's shield panels had long since been removed and stowed away for later re-use.
As we disembarked, a crew of workmen in red jumper-suits with the words 'Cargo Management Specialist - Transport Oryen' stencilled across the backs of their suits busied themselves with unloading our vehicle and transferring it's contents onto two separate hover trucks. One of them was loaded, save for six of the bright yellow cases, with the supplies that had already been on board. The six cases and what we'd brought with us where quickly loaded onto the other vehicle.
I watched as the other truck arose from it's parked position to a height of no more than two feet from the ground before turning and heading straight across the pristine roadway to the entrance gate to the last mile. It started to move forward and then with a blinking shudder it seemed to vanish, but almost immediately it appeared again inside of the gates, following the winding roadway as it gained speed.
"Come on Dorry, we're waiting on you," said Kal, my medical technician and the only member of my crew that I'd known for more than the few months we'd been on the planet. I nodded my acquiescence and pried my eyes from the site of those gates.
"Old memories?"
"Uh Huh," I replied somewhat woodenly.
"That's what I love about you, Doc. You're such a great conversationalist."
His reply snapped me out of my reveries. I laughed, shaking my head in false dismay. "Yup. That's me."
We entered the cab of the transport and got ourselves settled. The rest of my team, except for Embic and Amy were already seated and strapped in. Embic and Amy, the two 'intelligent life' medical droids had settled themselves in the docking sleeves at the front end of the cargo deck, just behind the cab. Now plugged into the vehicles systems, they would take advantage of the APU to grab an extra charging cycle while they exchanged telemetry and uploaded recorded data to the computers of our ship in high orbit. Through the temporary command-link implant in my right ear I could heard them beep and burble happily in the unintelligible audible signal code they used to communicate with each other and many of the systems we carried with us. I lowered the volume via the console I wore on my belt and set the squelch level high enough so that only voice calls would break the silence.
Our vehicle went west around the outer perimeter of the inner city and arrived at a site about a half mile from it's northern gate. The buildings in the area , which was six city large blocks long by four blocks wide, all seemed to be intact. Our transport stopped in front of a five story brick front building. The sign, high up between the second and third floors read 'Medical Office Building' and sported an ancient 'neon' sign that had the words 'Emergency Medical Care' wrapped around a glowing red cross. This was to be our office, field hospital and triage centre.
When Amy unplugged herself from the vehicle, the noise triggered the audio from the implant and she burbled something at Embric, then pulled up short next to me.
"I am ready, Doctor."
I glanced at Amy's glowing panel and nodded. "I wish you could call me Dorry like everyone else."
"Yes Doctor. Waiting for instructions."
I sighed then spoke. "Scan structure and environment. Check supportability matrices one through four. All floors and rooms."
"Yes doctor," the hovering droid replied and entered the structure through the doors that had been left open by the men unloading our equipment and supplies. Once everything had been taken inside, the man who had been waiting for us came to me and handed me a slim pocket sized device.
"Doctor, I'm Lane Proth, the communications and resource manager for the planet. This is your Terra Six network communicator. We don't have the band adapters to fit the universal network yet, so we stick to the old tried and true. Your pad will give you access to all but level seven. I'm on level six under directorate. Your team have been issued pads that work level one through four, and your node here for the clinic is on level four as well."
I looked at the slim device and nodded. "I remember these. They were brand new two years before I left. New network, multi-protocol, if I remember correctly. Class four encryption only except for level seven. The system used to crash five times a day, more if there was too much lunar interference or if the satellites drifted in orbit."
Lane laughed. "Well, the satellites don't drift any more because with those three behemoth floating communications tugs up there in orbit we shut the satellites down and hauled them in for rehab. The lunar interference problem was solved a few years back by parking radiation deflectors in sync orbit around the old piece of rock. It also lets the command unit live up there for more than six days at a time."
I smiled. When I was very young I earned myself a reputation for all the hacking I did on the tech nets and a nickname as well. He was looking at his pad and then at me and he laughed.
"You don't remember me, do you."
I shook my head. "Sorry. Too many years, too many planets. After awhile they all look the same to me." I grinned.
He nodded. "I figured you'd forget the old gang, Dorothy."
The mention of my old nickname startled me. I looked at him again, trying to erase the years, imagining a skinny kid with ears too big for his head and wearing old fashioned optical correction implants with the distinctive metal tube that ran from eye to eye over the nose. Then I saw it; the almost transparent lines, the telltale micro surgical sensor implants and the base of the optical coupler and it's almost invisible iridescent scanner. The ears had been reshaped but using on-world techniques instead of off-world. The scar lines, though mostly faded, were still visible to a surgeons eye.
I almost giggled. How earth girl of me. "Toto?"
His face lit into that goofy smile I remembered so well. "That's me. It is so good to see you again. Wow, and a surgeon too."
We stood laughing and chatting until my new pad beeped. He invited me to dinner if I had a free evening, and I said I would. We hugged briefly and then he was stepping into a small official lifter and driving off. I waved and then answered the call.
"Dorry here."
"Hey Doc. Going to come help us unpack the dishes?"
Kel, of course. It would be Kel who would have been up there on the floor with the windows overlooking the street below and watching the exchange between myself and Lane.
Kel and I had had a short-lived relationship back in medical school before he washed out and transferred to the medical technologist programme running parallel to mine. As two of the handful of true earth humans in the programme, even if we had been born and raised on off world planets, we'd clung to each other for support. After graduation they'd let us team together for our residencies, and we'd been together ever since. Seven years, thirty planets and counting. I closed the channel and looked up to see Kel grinning back down at me. I very surreptitiously signalled him with an old rude earth gesture I'd learned from a friend while at university in San Francisco. He was still laughing by the time I reached the second floor and looked about in total dismay.
* * *
Someone had, in earth parlance, trashed the place. Embric and a small army of maintenance androids were busy putting it back together and cleaning their way across the room as they did so. Broken furniture simply disappeared, though I knew that the unit on the roof would soon have fabricated replacements corresponding to the time period and the droids would have the place looking like new long before an army of humans could.
"Top floor is the surgical unit. Third and fourth are wards except the back of four. That's the isolation unit. Second floor is admitting and offices and the first floor is waiting rooms and reception stations," he reported, "and on the far wall there are three little cubicles of a kind I've never seen before."
We walked to where they were. When I saw what he was pointing at I nearly doubled over with laughter. I walked over to the panel on the wall and experimentally pressed the button on the panel marked with an upward pointing arrow. A light came on in the button that illuminated the arrow followed by the single chime of a bell.
"Step inside," I invited and entered the chamber. As he followed me in I pressed the button for 5 and the door closed.
Kel looked panicked, so I took him by the hands and explained. "It's called an 'elevator', or a 'lift.' The one at the far end is probably big enough to hold an old fashioned wheeled 'gurney,' a kind of bed on wheels. They were used to 'lift' people from floor to floor."
As if the box had heard me finish my narrative, the bell chimed again and the doors opened. As we stepped out I noticed the lockout keys for two floors. One was marked 'LL' and the other 'PVT.' That there might be a lower level under he building where machinery, plumbing, and the pieces of the devices that provided heating and cooling might be found indicated there might be space for storage as well. Where the other 'floor' might be was a mystery. They might also have simply transported the lifts from earth and there was nothing else below, but I had my doubts.
As we explored the surgery units, Amy came floating up next to me, her 'caution' indicator flickering even as she reported all satisfactory on the inspections.
"Amy. Explain the caution indicator."
"Human biological hazard in surgical three, Doctor. It has been contained."
Still, the light continued blinking. Kel and I walked to the door and looked inside the room, but could see nothing.
"Amy. Inner or outer chamber?"
"Inner chamber, Doctor."
I looked at Kel. "We've really got to teach them to stop being so polite all the time."
He winked but his eyes were on the windows that gave a view of the inner surgical unit. Not wanting to continue unprotected, we sent Amy down to locate our 'safe-suits.' Environmentally neutral, the suits were impervious to all known biological-hazards. The power pack also had enough 'kick' to fire the surgical lasers built into the suits.
Amy returned with Embric, each carrying a long orange 'suit-case' with a green seal wrapped securely on each cases seams. We examined them to make sure that the seals were not broken and that the diagnostic units inside the cases were operating correctly before allowing the droids to open them and help us into the suits.
Once we were powered up and safely sealed inside, we stepped into the early-twentith century style surgical prep chamber and looked into the surgery itself. There on the operating room table lay a body with a very large and wicked looking knife sticking out of it's head.
At this point I was thankful that I had already taken the PAD from my pocket and plugged it into the suits communications interface. Indicating we needed to go inside the O.R. I stepped on the pedal by the door and the old-fashioned sound of a compressor coming to life resounded in the prep room. There was a hiss of escaping pressure and the doors swung inward into the surgery.
Kel and I looked dispassionately at the dead man. He had no discernible markings on him, no identity card or PAD. His pockets were empty. The only identifying thing about him, other than that he'd been bludgeoned in the head with a very nasty looking weapon, was the greenish blue glow coming from his eyes. Another man who wore a digital-optical upgrade to compensate for failing eye sight. As I voice keyed my PAD, I wondered vaguely who had been performing all of these surgeries.
"Hi Dorry. Did I forget something, " came Lane's voice. He looked confused because although he was seeing an image of my face, it was up in a corner while the rest of the view was of the room as I was looking at it. I'd purposely looked up toward the surgeries observation gallery when I'd called him.
"Hi Lane. We've got a problem in surgical three. Someone left us a dead body as a welcoming present."
He gasped involuntarily. "Do you know who it is?"
"No, because there are no markings, no ID, no PAD and its pockets are empty."
He nodded. "Okay. can you send me a facial scan? I'll link it to security and have them dispatch a team."
I nodded, put Lane's channel on hold and then lined up for the scan. It took three tries but with Kel's help I finally got a good one, then uplinked it to Lane. I didn't need to ask him if he got it because he let out with a sharp gasp.
"Lane? What's wrong?"
Quiet followed. When he spoke, his voice was broken as if he were in pain, and in his eyes I saw fear. "I'll dispatch a unit right away. Keep a containment field around him until they get there."
"Okay, but Lane? Is it someone you know?"
He nodded. "We both knew him. Dorry, be careful. Someone's just killed the Cowardly Lion."
As he signed off I backed away from the table in a hurry. Kel saw my panic and helped me get to the doors, then stopped, a look of helplessness on his face. I took a deep breath, grabbed him by the arm and walked him back to the pressure plate in the floor. As I stepped on it the doors hissed open and I led him into the outer chamber. Once the doors had closed I pressed the suit cleaning combination into the wrist pad on my suit and watched to make sure Kel did the same.
When the safe light came on I walked out into the room beyond where the two droids assisted us in removing the suits. Packed away, we let them haul them off to where the they would be rechecked, sealed, pressurised, and the power module recharged. I sat down and sucked the air in the room into my lungs and nostrils, clearing away the odd smell the suits always gave to the air one breathed inside of them.
Kel did the same for a few minutes, giving me the quiet I needed but didn't want before asking,"You knew the dead man?"
I was sitting at a table with my elbows resting on it, my forehead in my hands. I sighed and then nodded. "I used to know him. Linus, Lane and I grew up as kids together on this rock."
Kel nodded, but I knew he'd come back for more answers later. I'd never really said much about where I was from in all the years we'd known each other. What had happened here on Terra Six was not something I wanted to share with outsiders. For now though he had other questions.
"What kind of knife was that?"
I sat back at looked at the ceiling. "In the bad old days on Earth it was known as a 'Bowie' knife, a hunters knife. You could use it to kill and then skin an animal and cut it up, bones and all. A very useful tool; just like a surgical laser scalpel. Sharpen the blade enough and I could probably use it to operate with and save a life."
"Or take one," said a voice from the hallway. "Hi Dorry. Long time no see."
I looked up at the sound of that voice and caught sight of a tall slim but well muscled man wearing a uniform and an old-tech sidearm. Though we hadn't seen each other in years, he brought back another memory. Stan Bucher had been another of our comrades. In those days he was tall, skinny, with dark emerald green eyes and straw coloured hair, and like Linus, he had been aptly misnamed.
I stood and waited until he walked up to me and enfolded me in his arms. I hugged him tightly. "Hello Scarecrow. It's been awhile."
He nodded, his body tense but I saw the sadness in his eyes caught as they caught mine. " Dorothy." His voice broke. "They got 'the lion', he whispered."
I nodded numbly, knowing there was only one other thing I needed to ask, but he shook his head and then spoke quietly for my ears only. "Tin-man is okay, He's off world right now."
"And the wizard?"
"Let's talk later. I've got to get this investigation going. Up for some questions while my forensic team does their sweep?"
I nodded and he led me back to the table where I did the introductions.
Chapter 2
Stan looked at me. "Any idea how long he's been dead?"
I looked over to where the androbot hovered as the technician downloaded a copy of it's memory. "Amy?"
"Yes Doctor?"
"Statistics on the deceased humanoid biologic, including estimated time of death."
She beeped and burbled and the machine to which she'd been linked dropped off-line. "Life functions ceased within 12 minutes of my arrival on this floor of the structure."
"Which means that he was being killed at the time we were getting out of the transport downstairs," offered Kel.
I shook my head. "That is not possible. There was no blood."
"Then how?"
"Amy, did you detect the presence of a stasis field around the body?"
"Yes Doctor. Containment was initiated when residual from stasis field removal was detected."
"Amy, did you analyse cause of death?"
"Yes Doctor. Neuro-chemical disruption initiated in digital interface."
Stan looked confused. "Which means what?"
Kel stood, walked over to Amy and removed a panel connected to the 'androbots' side. The Fibre lines
glittered with light pulses as he brought the panel back and laid it on the table. His fingers danced quickly across the symbols displayed there while he read the panel before pressing another sequence, then said, "Look."
The symbols on the function panel were replaced by the image of the deceased over which was laid what appeared to be a function diagram showing micro servo-motors, a complex neural network and a small core power-plant. Amy's diagnostic showed the plant had been scrammed via the nuero-optical interface.
As Stan looked at the images on the screen, I explained. "That is not our friend, Stan. It is, or rather was, a non-sentient artificial life."
He looked shocked. "Linus was a machine?"
I smiled at him and shook my head. "No, but someone wanted us to think that."
I stood and looked across to where Stan's team was suiting up in preparation to enter the surgery. "Ask them to wait."
Stan stood and walked over to where he team stood and had a short but animated discussion with two of the team members. He looked over and said, "Now what do we do?"
I touched the place behind my ear where the com-link implant was settled just under the skin. Amy's display blanked and a set of functions appeared then flashed. At length the display cleared again and we were looking at the face of a small balding man with dark bushy eyebrows and an odd-looking moustache. He was wearing another pair of the ancient wire-framed glasses that he was so fond of. Today's appeared to be simple gold frames with no adornment, and the lenses were circular in shape. He looked distracted and perturbed that I was 'bothering' him, distracting him from one of the many other more interesting 'projects' he was working on.
Well, I thought with a certain glee, just for once you're going to be interested in something I found.
"Hello Dorry. What do you need now?."
"Hello Gonzo. Good to see you too. What I need is you and that box that was found on Ciclos."
His face transmuted as the look in his eyes changed suddenly to one that was all attention and interest.
"You have one?"
I nodded. "I believe so, although the circumstances by which we found it are 'curious'."
"Send me the co-ordinates. I'll 'ring' down."
"You can't come down where we are. Wait a second."
I turned to Stan. "Is there a stable receptor site around here?"
He pulled a device from his pocket that looked like an ancient pocket watch but with a series of knobs around the rim. He turned several in quick order and then rattled off a series of numbers.
I looked at the screen. "Did you get that?"
He nodded in the affirmative. "On my way," he said and then the picture blanked and Amy's function display reappeared.
Stan was talking into his PAD. When he was done he spoke to his team, several of whom seemed very excited. They kept glancing at the body in the operating theatre.
"So," he began. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to let 'Dr. G' examine our 'friend' in there. I believe we have the hardware for it onboard."
He nodded thoughtfully. "If that isn't him, then where is the real Linus?"
"I don't know, but maybe our friend in there can tell us."
As Stan stood there looking thoughtful, Kel reinstalled the interface console on Amy then came to stand by my side.
"Dorry," he whispered. "What's going on here?"
I shook my head. "Later, Kel. I'll explain later."
* * *
Dr. Alexander 'Gonzo' Prin, our resident genius-on-board could un-ravel scientific mysteries with the same ease at which he could find cures for the most obscure diseases, or play any one of eighteen different musical instruments as if he were a virtuoso. Despite his balding head and his sometimes distracted manner, he was in excellent physical condition and could charm the pants off any woman he might choose to. The stories about his prowess as a lover were not exaggerated; I should know. We were an item for almost two years, which had been a record for both of us.
Even now, the thought of him could do the most amazing things to my body, and the sight of him walking in off the elevator and looking for all the world like a kid who'd just been given the keys to the sweets shop and told to have fun made my knees weak. In his hand was a small, thin rectangular device.
"Hey Dorry."
"Hey yourself, Alex."
He glanced around the room, noting the various other people standing around looking curiously at him. He acknowledged Kel by nodding to him, then looked toward the others. I introduced Stan and then told him what we knew so far.
He smiled at the description, then looked over his shoulder. "Come on, MDA3257, Lets go take a look, shall we?"
For reasons of his own, Gonzo refused to call the androbots by anything except the device designators they had come with, but Amy responded to his commands with a surprising, "For you Alex, anything," then moved to hover at the outer door to the surgery.
Alex turned to look at me. "Coming? It is your discovery."
As I caught up with him I spoke into his ear in the most sultry 'dripping wet and ready for sex' tone of voice I could produce. "For you Alex, anything," I oozed, and then watched in delight as he blushed.
I went ahead and depressed the inner door activator. As he and Amy entered the unit I looked back at the others who were starting to follow and held up my hand.
"The last time someone tried to reactivate one of these things it blew up. Please stay outside of the shield zone that Amy is going to wrap around this room."
I stepped into the inner O.R. and as the doors closed I pushed the armature that disabled the treadle mechanism in the room outside. By the time I reached the 'patient,' Alex had removed the artefact from the machines 'head' and was examining it closely.
"Museum piece?"
I nodded. "Frontier museum. There's a laser sub-etch on the inside of the blade guard. Amy's scan caught the tag, but there's no identifying DNA or prints on it, so the wielder must have used a 'WIPE' on it."
A 'WIPE' is a device that can remove all surface contact contamination. DNA, fingerprints, residual particles from clothing, anything not part of the object except the museum tag had been removed. It was another piece of the puzzle.
Alex nodded patiently and set the knife aside. He took the device he had brought with him and laid it on the edge of the table, then removed from a small side panel a long odd looking glowing cable that had what appeared to be two suction cups on the end. He pressed one over each of the androids eyes, then pressed a couple of buttons on the rectangular panel. After a moment he looked up at me.
"It's powered down."
"Yes. We found it in this state. I was concerned that if we tried re-powering it we might trigger the self destruct like we did on the last two we found."
"Well," he began while still looking at what was for certain a programming device, "as far as this one is concerned, not only is it not going to blow-up, it's not going to tell us much of anything."
He turned to face me. "Whoever did this totally disabled the control and safety circuits with the blade of that knife. The perfect tool to fry the mnemonic memory module. The processor array is intact so there might still be some residual data in the internal storage, if they didn't wipe it too thoroughly."
He turned toward the table. "Help me turn it over."
Between the two of us we barely succeeded in getting it turned face down. As we stepped back he looked at me. "Who was 'it' supposed to be?"
"Someone I grew up with. Name of Linus Glavin."
He stepped back and looked at me as if I was teasing him. "Are you serious?"
When I nodded he shook his head in disbelief. "This android, or at least the technology in it was created by Linus Glavin. Most of the computers on our ships are his designs."
I shook my head in disbelief."Then that still leaves me with the question of where the real Linus is."
He nodded, frowning. "That, my Dear Dorry, is the question that I was puzzling when you rang earlier."
Alex stopped talking as he withdrew a cloth from one of his pockets. Within it were wrapped two very slim rods that looked for all the world like old-fashioned hypodermic syringe needles. He offered them to me.
"Touch only the insulated ends when you do this. There, and there, under the skin at the edge of the artificial spine are two grooves. Slide those in perfectly straight and the self destruct module will eject itself. Touch the sides and we might blow up anyway."
I used a finger to feel for the edge of the notch on each side, surprised by how real and natural the skin felt, even if it was 'dead.' I started to extract the first rod from the wrappings, but Alex stopped me.
He spoke very quietly. "You need to do both at the same time or it trips some kind of a fail-safe."
I nodded, took a deep breath and withdrew both rods from the packet, then positioned myself over the place on the spine which I was targeting. As I did so I thought of something and stood back.
"Amy, targeting hairs. Triangulate."
The androbot extended an 'arm' out over my head. From it glowed two targeting reticules. With practised ease I located each socket as she homed the centres. I held the rods over the socket locations and watched the targeting lines on the reflections as they showed me the angle I held the rods at. I moved them until they were perfectly aligned, then pressed downward.
There was no sense of resistance as they slid easily through the outer 'tissue,' so I continued inserting them until they both came to a stop. There was a quiet click and a panel rose up, guided by the rods. In the centre of the panel was small round device with tiny silver dimples all over the surface.
Alex reached across with now gloved hands and pushed it out of it's carriage with a finger from the back side. As it rolled out it fell into a small half round cup he was holding in his other hand, then backed away, placing a cover on the cup and stowing it in a carrier I hadn't noticed he'd had over his shoulder.
"Nasty thing," he said, then reached over and pulled the two rods out. As he did so the panel pulled downward and locked into place. There were no puncture marks to show where the rods had been inserted. As he put the rods back in their pouch and slipped it back into his pocket he looked up at me.
"That sphere is the things power supply. Those silver dots are thin metal rods that shoot out and come into contact with the explosive manufactured into the body parts. The power inside of that little sphere is enough to fry anything, but this is the first intact one we've been able to retrieve."
After we turned the body over he disconnected the coupler from the eyes and stowed it back inside the programming device.
On it's back and with no power available to it's internal components, it was just a semi-harmless carcass. Still, we needed the memory modules, so I signalled Kel and went over to the doors.
"I need a chest scalpel."
Kel nodded and went to one of the drawers in the prep room . From it he removed an old fashioned scalpel sealed in some sort of plastic wrapper and slipped it under the door. I retrieved it, gave him a nod of thanks and returned to the surgical table while removing it from what I noted was in theory a sterile wrapping.
Whether it was or not seemed immaterial to my 'patient.' Following Alex's instructions, I opened a flap where the heart should have been. The 'rib cage' bent easily, and I reached in and removed two small caged boxes, for which Alex provided an antistatic 'carriage.' Done, I stepped away and went to re-engage the treadle at the door.
"I knew it would take an exceptional surgeon to pull this off," said Alex from behind me. "Thanks."
I smiled to myself. "Glad to help."
I'd barely time to move before the doors came swinging open and Stan and Kel came in. I nodded toward the table. "It's a dead carcass now, but be careful. The body parts have an explosive charge moulded into them.
Stan nodded and gave orders to his team. They rolled in one of the old gurneys and lifted the body onto it then departed. Stan stopped long enough to collect the knife before turning to me.
"Get yourself and the rest of your crew settled in. There's a hotel across the street called The Algonquin. Nice place, good food. I'll call on you there later, okay?"
I nodded. A hot bath, a stiff drink and and clean clothes sounded wonderful.
Chapter 3
The area we were in was reminiscent of the earth city of Chicago during the early part of the twentieth century. It's buildings were made of wood, brick and mortar, it's streets paved with bricks. When we'd arrived I'd noted that parts of the road surface had been covered with black surfacing material.
The area had been part of the original structures built back in 3210 when the earth community had established a sort of living museum on the planet. Each city on the planet had been built according to the style of some certain period in earths history. It had been intended to be a sort of "vacation" planet, but planetary disasters elsewhere forced the central command to populate the cities with the survivors of those disasters. By 3950 the planet had a thriving population with it's own central government.
Back when the original segments of the cities were built, they were constructed on-site. The builders had used some sort of shield technology they'd discovered on the planet to protect the cities from damage and the ravages of time. Whatever had happened here, it had not touched the old 'Embers City' anymore than the planetary quakes had. I wondered vaguely if it was the same reason that the last mile and the palace still still stood, and if other cities on the planet had fared as well.
Walking into the lobby, I paused to note how little it had changed. I had fond memories of coming to the Algonquin for dinners with my parents when I was younger. After we received our room keys, Alex followed me upstairs. The room was bright, cheerful and airy, and someone had already put the trunk with my belongings on the stand next to an armoire in the corner.
He made directly for the small bar in the corner of the outer room that served for entertaining guests. When I returned I found him on the couch, a glass in hand and another setting on the table. The bottle was a vintage they could not have possibly had on this planet.
He smiled. "I brought you a house warming present."
I sighed, sat and picked up the glass of the perfectly chilled white wine he knew I loved. I took a grateful sip, then held my glass up to his. "Cheers," I toasted. As the glasses clinked together we both laughed. Defusing the explosive device had been a nerve wracking experience and we both knew the other too well to think that we hadn't thought about dying. We sat side-by-side and drank in silence for a bit, then he reached into his pouch and handed me a small device that looked very much like the PAD that Lane had given me. His voice was barely a whisper as he spoke.
"This one is very like theirs except it has all of our channels and encryption ability. It also has the ability to scan and break heir codes, should the need arise... Dorothy."
I looked at him in surprise for a moment. "Where did you get that name?"
He smiled. "I had a visitor on-board just after we first arrived and your team came down. Fellow by the name of 'Tin-Man.'"
I nodded. "Timothy Alexis Brille. Always wanted to be a space ranger when he was young. i don't suppose he got his wish?"
Alex nodded. "Of a sort, I guess. He does carry a badge."
I looked at him curiously, then my eyes got bigger as the disbelief set in. "The sheriff of OZ?"
He nodded solemnly. "I suspect the good sheriff to be more like..." he squinted his eyes as he tried to remember something.
I had a feeling I might know to whom he was trying to refer and asked, "Robin of Loxsley?"
He smiled and nodded. "Yes, I remembered the story from that book in your collection. Most intriguing, those old earth legends." He looked at me, then down at his wrist and suddenly stood. "I've got to get back to the ship."
As I stood he stepped forward and put his arms around me. I expected him to kiss me and turned my face to meet his but his lips were already at my ear whispering. "There's a locked file on the PAD. Tin-man said you'd remember the code."
As I nodded, his lips arrowed to mine and he kissed me. It was one of those soul searching kisses, but before I could return it his lips were near my ear once again.
"Be very careful. There's something very wrong down here," he whispered. He darted in with another kiss, this one fast and chaste, and then he was out the door.
==
I bathed, washed my hair and dressed. The dining room of the hotel was 'formal,' so I'd had the clothing synthesiser make me something from the time period. When i saw the result I was thankful I'd specified nothing too gaudy or naughty. I had a feeling I might find myself 'stepping out' later in the evening. With our BOT on guard duty across the way, the rest of my team was relaxing in the lounge. We moved as a group to the dining room and enjoyed an excellent dinner. Over coffee I debriefed the team and filled them in on what I could of the happenings of the day.
Having given out assignments for the next day, the group broke for the evening. Kel and I remained for one last coffee when Stan entered the room. I was surprised to see him out of uniform, but noted that he looked very handsome in a tuxedo of the period. He came to the table and greeted us, then teased Kel, just as I already had, about the plaid suit he was wearing.
"But I like plaid."
"Yes, but..." Then I remembered. "Search the earth history archives for what was known as a 'used car salesman.'"
He nodded then looked across at Stan. "Plans for the evening?"
He smiled. "I'd hoped to invite Dorry to the theatre," then looked at me. " I promise not to keep you out too late. I know it's been a busy day."
I smiled across the table. "I'd love to."
I turned to Kel. "Check up on the Night Watchman, will you. You know how they can get to Sixes and Sevens if someone doesn't keep an eye on them."
He nodded, having caught the inflections in my voice. "Technology. Ain't it grand?"
He stood. "Don't keep her out too late. She's got school in the morning."
We laughed and both replied in good humour, "Yes Mother," as Kel slipped out of the dining room. He had the channel and code to scan for, the one I'd pre-set on the PAD that I'd key in case of emergency. Embic would be able to triangulate me in milliseconds and send reinforcements if needed.
As Stan helped me with my cloak and led me from the dining room, he laughed. "You shouldn't tease your second so much."
I nodded, but when we stepped outside I had to laugh aloud. There stood Kel with his mouth open, starring. I half expected him to start drooling over the old Model-T motorcar, but when he saw us approach he blinked and pointed. "Is that what I think it is?"
Stan went to speak with him while I walked around the antique sedan. I stopped cold when I saw the 'license plate' that still read WIZ-ONE. He nodded when he saw the aggrieved look on my face. He walked over to me with Kel still in tow, explaining as they walked.
"It was in storage far too long, so I had it pulled out and overhauled. We no longer use hydrocarbon fuels, so the 'motor' was replaced. Tricky job to gear it so the transmission still works with the new hardware."
When they reached me, Kel nodded politely and excused himself, heading for the clinic. I looked at Stan, shaking my head. "Why did you have to bring this one, of all the..."
"I am sorry. I thought it would be a nice surprise. Didn't think you'd react this way."
How could I explain to him that the last time I saw my father was him driving off in this very car early the morning that he disappeared. It had been found abandoned near the old fleet repair hangers at the aerodrome. Another of the structures that had, like Embers City, survived being decimated several times now.
"No, that's okay, it's just that..."
"It was your fathers car. I know what happened Dorry. Remember? We were all with you when the word came."
He was right. I had almost forgotten.
Our 'gang' had been up in the loft above the garage. We were hanging out as we usually did after school when I'd heard mother scream. We'd all dashed down the stairs and across the yard to where mother lay in a heap. Several uniformed men were there, helpless to help and seeming all the more ineffectual for it. They departed after telling me what had happened.
I remembered again the days and weeks that had dragged by and the useless daily reports of the search efforts.
Mother had taken to her bed and would rarely leave it, much less come downstairs. Then, three months later, almost to the day he'd gone missing, mother left her bedroom and announced we were leaving. Within a week it had all been arranged and a month later we were packed and gone on a star-liner; destination Earth. They settled us in a district of San Francisco reserved for the out-land government representatives and their families, but after awhile even that felt wrong to her, so we moved again. This time it was into a fanciful home that looked like something right out of England's Elizabethan era that had been built in the hilly country far north of the city.
There I'd learned to be a country girl, to ride horses, to fish and swim, and how to dance. I made new friends, fell in love several times, and went on to university in San Francisco. When my applications for medical school came back approved, I decided to attend one off-planet. Time to get away from mother, her nightmares, panic-flights, and her itch to move yet again.
Dellav-VI was a transit centre about as far away from earth and it's colonies as one could get and still be inside the protection of the Federation of Earth-Communities laws, and it's fleet. It was there, on orientation day that I'd met Kel.
==
"Listen, I'll understand if you don't want to go tonight. It's been a long day for you."
I must have sounded almost demented when I laughed, but he stood quietly by my side. When I finally found my voice it was dripping with sarcasm.
"What? On a planet whose day is 35 earth hours long? I'm just getting started."
Stan laughed and held his hands up as he stepped back from me. "Okay, you win."
I took a deep breath. "No," I sighed. All the pent up anxiety, frustration and drama of the day seemed to fade. It had been a long time, and who knew what had been going here after all these years, but it was still my home. As Stan had reminded me, it was still 'our turf', as the gang used to refer to it. I smiled at him as I looked up.
"No, I'd like to go, with you. I think, more than anything that what I need is a pleasant distraction."
He nodded, opened the passenger door to the car and offered me a hand. Once inside the old 'tin lizzy' I relaxed, but I startled when he started the engine and it sounded exactly as I remembered it until he pressed something and the engine noise died.
"There's a second floorboard starter switch down there by my foot. The tech-heads in transport maintenance managed to build a piece of hardware that's chained to the drive link. Sounds like the original, doesn't it?"
I nodded as he put the car in gear, grinding them slightly as he let the clutch out just a bit too quickly. I glanced over at him and teased, "Drive much?"
When he laughed, it was the same laugh I'd remembered from when we were young. It had always been easy; well at least for me it had been.
As we turned at the first corner and headed slowly east along the length of the six block area, Stan started to talk.
"They added a lot of city to the surrounding area after you left. New buildings; all in the same style and general look, but none of it was built the way this area had been. Pre-fab modules they dropped in-place, almost intact. Tore up a lot of the ground, uprooting trees, diverting the water flow. Area went unstable after awhile and the buildings started to sink. Instead of worrying about why, they just dropped pilings down, put up a fabricated superstructure and rebuilt right on top of it."
As we reached the last block of the area he turned right and pulled into a parking lot next to one of the four theatres that had been here when I was growing up. As we got out of the car, he offered me his arm and led me around to the front of the building. On the overhead marquis were the words;
Now Playing
The Wizard of OZ
Although the lights were on, there seemed to be no one else about save a man who was dressed in a long, almost ground length silver-blue coat with gold braids on the shoulders and across the hat he wore, and the two-toned shoes and spats; he looked the very essence of the theatre doorman. The young man in the 'box-office' looked his part as well. Stan slipped a pair of silver coins from his pocket and in turn received two paper tickets. The doorman told us to enjoy the show and held open the door for us.
Inside the theatre, another attendant, this time a girl with shoulder length brunette hair wearing white socks, two-toned shoes, a knee length black skirt and white blouse with a red bow at the neckline took our tickets and led us into the theatre. A small band in the pit in front of the stage was playing tunes from the era that this town represented. Several dozen couples dressed much like us were on the stage or in front of the band box dancing to the music and chatting amongst themselves.
We took our seats, watching the couples and reminiscing about the days when we used to sneak into the theatres to listen to the music or dance until the movies or shows started, then sneak out the back-way before the ushers found us.
The sudden quiet made me notice that the music had stopped. The band was gone and the lights were dimming as the screen illuminated. The old countdown numbers began to flicker as the projectionist focused the lenses until the picture was clear.
As was tradition in those days; the movies were preceded by a news reel, and often a cartoon. Tonight it was to be an old cartoon, and I laughed as I remembered the one being shown because it had been one of my favourites. The cartoon ended and the 'Movietone Newsreel' began with it's usual canned footage, but there the resemblance ended.
On the screen before me were images of my friends and I as we had been just before I'd left the planet. One by one they resolved to more recent pictures. A couple of them I almost didn't recognise until a voice began speaking, identifying each of us.
"Dorothy, Toto, Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, The Good Witch, The Wicked Witch, The Wizard."
I was sitting bolt upright now and nearly leapt out of my seat when a voice behind me said, "Hi'ya Dorothy."
"Damn it Lane," I hissed, "What's going on."
"Just sit back and watch the show," came his reply.
On the screen, a series of video images played. First was Linus stepping from his house, stopping to turn and speak to someone off screen and then being pulled into an unmarked enclosed vehicle that had no business being in the city. It belonged in the New New-York city of the 1990's. The vehicle seemed to shimmer and then it simply vanished from view.
The next was Lydia, who had been The Good Witch in our gang, The shot was surveillance video from the palace. It showed her sitting in one of the many office blocks inside the city administration zone. A time crawl ran at the top of the video as she worked the keyboard and display unit in front of her. She began to glimmer and then she too was gone.
Next on the apparent hit parade was our friend Loreli who had been The Wicked Witch. I recognised the survey department and the 'live-maps' that lined the walls. She was speaking alternately to someone off-screen and also into one of the old fashioned desk phones while pointing at something on one of the off-screen maps when she too just seemed to disappear.
Lastly was Anthony, "The Wizard" in our little circle. We'd named him that because of his ability to hack networks and systems, bypass almost any kind of alarm or security device, and make or fix almost anything electronic or mechanical. He had already been considered a 'genius' at the age when he'd joined our group. The other kids in the city saw him as an aberration because of his quick mind and quirky behaviour, but to us he was just another outcast like ourselves. We'd welcomed the shy wiry haired boy with open hearts and arms.
The video showed 'Tony' in a setting I'd seen only twice. It was the government forum centre where policy was discussed and made. Older, with shoulder length hair, a nearly full beard and dressed in a suit, he was explaining something to someone off-screen, the panel in front of him filled with mathematical formulae and small vector diagrams. Just as the display behind him began to resolve into some kind of an image, Tony began to shimmer. When he vanished the display behind him seemed to explode and the image went blank.
The screen stayed blank and dark for a moment, then the lights came on again. For a moment I found myself sitting alone in the middle of the theatre. I looked about for Stan and found him leaning on the rail that separated the pit from the band box. I stood and walked down to meet him.
"What is..." I began to ask him, but he held a finger in front of his lips, the tip touching his nose. The old signal for quiet. I heard a buzz and suddenly the door in the back of the bandbox opened. He turned, seemed to signal someone and then slipped under the rail, motioning me to follow.
We slipped through the open doorway, then just as the door began to close I heard the strains of the orchestral opening for the movie and the subdued voices of whispering couples in the audience. Stan pulled me through and the door clicked closed. He motioned me to follow and led me through the small room under the stage to yet another doorway, which led to an open freight elevator. As we stepped aboard, the gate closed and we descended. When the elevator stopped, the doors opened and we stepped out into one of the most amazing sights I'd ever seen.
The area had been part of the original structures built back in 3210 when the earth community had established a sort of living museum on the planet. Each city on the planet had been built according to the style of some certain period in earths history. It had been intended to be a sort of "vacation" planet, but planetary disasters elsewhere forced the central command to populate the cities with the survivors of those disasters. By 3950 the planet had a thriving population with it's own central government.
Back when the original segments of the cities were built, they were constructed on-site. The builders had used some sort of shield technology they'd discovered on the planet to protect the cities from damage and the ravages of time. Whatever had happened here, it had not touched the old 'Embers City' anymore than the planetary quakes had. I wondered vaguely if it was the same reason that the last mile and the palace still still stood, and if other cities on the planet had fared as well.
Walking into the lobby, I paused to note how little it had changed. I had fond memories of coming to the Algonquin for dinners with my parents when I was younger. After we received our room keys, Alex followed me upstairs. The room was bright, cheerful and airy, and someone had already put the trunk with my belongings on the stand next to an armoire in the corner.
He made directly for the small bar in the corner of the outer room that served for entertaining guests. When I returned I found him on the couch, a glass in hand and another setting on the table. The bottle was a vintage they could not have possibly had on this planet.
He smiled. "I brought you a house warming present."
I sighed, sat and picked up the glass of the perfectly chilled white wine he knew I loved. I took a grateful sip, then held my glass up to his. "Cheers," I toasted. As the glasses clinked together we both laughed. Defusing the explosive device had been a nerve wracking experience and we both knew the other too well to think that we hadn't thought about dying. We sat side-by-side and drank in silence for a bit, then he reached into his pouch and handed me a small device that looked very much like the PAD that Lane had given me. His voice was barely a whisper as he spoke.
"This one is very like theirs except it has all of our channels and encryption ability. It also has the ability to scan and break heir codes, should the need arise... Dorothy."
I looked at him in surprise for a moment. "Where did you get that name?"
He smiled. "I had a visitor on-board just after we first arrived and your team came down. Fellow by the name of 'Tin-Man.'"
I nodded. "Timothy Alexis Brille. Always wanted to be a space ranger when he was young. i don't suppose he got his wish?"
Alex nodded. "Of a sort, I guess. He does carry a badge."
I looked at him curiously, then my eyes got bigger as the disbelief set in. "The sheriff of OZ?"
He nodded solemnly. "I suspect the good sheriff to be more like..." he squinted his eyes as he tried to remember something.
I had a feeling I might know to whom he was trying to refer and asked, "Robin of Loxsley?"
He smiled and nodded. "Yes, I remembered the story from that book in your collection. Most intriguing, those old earth legends." He looked at me, then down at his wrist and suddenly stood. "I've got to get back to the ship."
As I stood he stepped forward and put his arms around me. I expected him to kiss me and turned my face to meet his but his lips were already at my ear whispering. "There's a locked file on the PAD. Tin-man said you'd remember the code."
As I nodded, his lips arrowed to mine and he kissed me. It was one of those soul searching kisses, but before I could return it his lips were near my ear once again.
"Be very careful. There's something very wrong down here," he whispered. He darted in with another kiss, this one fast and chaste, and then he was out the door.
==
I bathed, washed my hair and dressed. The dining room of the hotel was 'formal,' so I'd had the clothing synthesiser make me something from the time period. When i saw the result I was thankful I'd specified nothing too gaudy or naughty. I had a feeling I might find myself 'stepping out' later in the evening. With our BOT on guard duty across the way, the rest of my team was relaxing in the lounge. We moved as a group to the dining room and enjoyed an excellent dinner. Over coffee I debriefed the team and filled them in on what I could of the happenings of the day.
Having given out assignments for the next day, the group broke for the evening. Kel and I remained for one last coffee when Stan entered the room. I was surprised to see him out of uniform, but noted that he looked very handsome in a tuxedo of the period. He came to the table and greeted us, then teased Kel, just as I already had, about the plaid suit he was wearing.
"But I like plaid."
"Yes, but..." Then I remembered. "Search the earth history archives for what was known as a 'used car salesman.'"
He nodded then looked across at Stan. "Plans for the evening?"
He smiled. "I'd hoped to invite Dorry to the theatre," then looked at me. " I promise not to keep you out too late. I know it's been a busy day."
I smiled across the table. "I'd love to."
I turned to Kel. "Check up on the Night Watchman, will you. You know how they can get to Sixes and Sevens if someone doesn't keep an eye on them."
He nodded, having caught the inflections in my voice. "Technology. Ain't it grand?"
He stood. "Don't keep her out too late. She's got school in the morning."
We laughed and both replied in good humour, "Yes Mother," as Kel slipped out of the dining room. He had the channel and code to scan for, the one I'd pre-set on the PAD that I'd key in case of emergency. Embic would be able to triangulate me in milliseconds and send reinforcements if needed.
As Stan helped me with my cloak and led me from the dining room, he laughed. "You shouldn't tease your second so much."
I nodded, but when we stepped outside I had to laugh aloud. There stood Kel with his mouth open, starring. I half expected him to start drooling over the old Model-T motorcar, but when he saw us approach he blinked and pointed. "Is that what I think it is?"
Stan went to speak with him while I walked around the antique sedan. I stopped cold when I saw the 'license plate' that still read WIZ-ONE. He nodded when he saw the aggrieved look on my face. He walked over to me with Kel still in tow, explaining as they walked.
"It was in storage far too long, so I had it pulled out and overhauled. We no longer use hydrocarbon fuels, so the 'motor' was replaced. Tricky job to gear it so the transmission still works with the new hardware."
When they reached me, Kel nodded politely and excused himself, heading for the clinic. I looked at Stan, shaking my head. "Why did you have to bring this one, of all the..."
"I am sorry. I thought it would be a nice surprise. Didn't think you'd react this way."
How could I explain to him that the last time I saw my father was him driving off in this very car early the morning that he disappeared. It had been found abandoned near the old fleet repair hangers at the aerodrome. Another of the structures that had, like Embers City, survived being decimated several times now.
"No, that's okay, it's just that..."
"It was your fathers car. I know what happened Dorry. Remember? We were all with you when the word came."
He was right. I had almost forgotten.
Our 'gang' had been up in the loft above the garage. We were hanging out as we usually did after school when I'd heard mother scream. We'd all dashed down the stairs and across the yard to where mother lay in a heap. Several uniformed men were there, helpless to help and seeming all the more ineffectual for it. They departed after telling me what had happened.
I remembered again the days and weeks that had dragged by and the useless daily reports of the search efforts.
Mother had taken to her bed and would rarely leave it, much less come downstairs. Then, three months later, almost to the day he'd gone missing, mother left her bedroom and announced we were leaving. Within a week it had all been arranged and a month later we were packed and gone on a star-liner; destination Earth. They settled us in a district of San Francisco reserved for the out-land government representatives and their families, but after awhile even that felt wrong to her, so we moved again. This time it was into a fanciful home that looked like something right out of England's Elizabethan era that had been built in the hilly country far north of the city.
There I'd learned to be a country girl, to ride horses, to fish and swim, and how to dance. I made new friends, fell in love several times, and went on to university in San Francisco. When my applications for medical school came back approved, I decided to attend one off-planet. Time to get away from mother, her nightmares, panic-flights, and her itch to move yet again.
Dellav-VI was a transit centre about as far away from earth and it's colonies as one could get and still be inside the protection of the Federation of Earth-Communities laws, and it's fleet. It was there, on orientation day that I'd met Kel.
==
"Listen, I'll understand if you don't want to go tonight. It's been a long day for you."
I must have sounded almost demented when I laughed, but he stood quietly by my side. When I finally found my voice it was dripping with sarcasm.
"What? On a planet whose day is 35 earth hours long? I'm just getting started."
Stan laughed and held his hands up as he stepped back from me. "Okay, you win."
I took a deep breath. "No," I sighed. All the pent up anxiety, frustration and drama of the day seemed to fade. It had been a long time, and who knew what had been going here after all these years, but it was still my home. As Stan had reminded me, it was still 'our turf', as the gang used to refer to it. I smiled at him as I looked up.
"No, I'd like to go, with you. I think, more than anything that what I need is a pleasant distraction."
He nodded, opened the passenger door to the car and offered me a hand. Once inside the old 'tin lizzy' I relaxed, but I startled when he started the engine and it sounded exactly as I remembered it until he pressed something and the engine noise died.
"There's a second floorboard starter switch down there by my foot. The tech-heads in transport maintenance managed to build a piece of hardware that's chained to the drive link. Sounds like the original, doesn't it?"
I nodded as he put the car in gear, grinding them slightly as he let the clutch out just a bit too quickly. I glanced over at him and teased, "Drive much?"
When he laughed, it was the same laugh I'd remembered from when we were young. It had always been easy; well at least for me it had been.
As we turned at the first corner and headed slowly east along the length of the six block area, Stan started to talk.
"They added a lot of city to the surrounding area after you left. New buildings; all in the same style and general look, but none of it was built the way this area had been. Pre-fab modules they dropped in-place, almost intact. Tore up a lot of the ground, uprooting trees, diverting the water flow. Area went unstable after awhile and the buildings started to sink. Instead of worrying about why, they just dropped pilings down, put up a fabricated superstructure and rebuilt right on top of it."
As we reached the last block of the area he turned right and pulled into a parking lot next to one of the four theatres that had been here when I was growing up. As we got out of the car, he offered me his arm and led me around to the front of the building. On the overhead marquis were the words;
Now Playing
The Wizard of OZ
Although the lights were on, there seemed to be no one else about save a man who was dressed in a long, almost ground length silver-blue coat with gold braids on the shoulders and across the hat he wore, and the two-toned shoes and spats; he looked the very essence of the theatre doorman. The young man in the 'box-office' looked his part as well. Stan slipped a pair of silver coins from his pocket and in turn received two paper tickets. The doorman told us to enjoy the show and held open the door for us.
Inside the theatre, another attendant, this time a girl with shoulder length brunette hair wearing white socks, two-toned shoes, a knee length black skirt and white blouse with a red bow at the neckline took our tickets and led us into the theatre. A small band in the pit in front of the stage was playing tunes from the era that this town represented. Several dozen couples dressed much like us were on the stage or in front of the band box dancing to the music and chatting amongst themselves.
We took our seats, watching the couples and reminiscing about the days when we used to sneak into the theatres to listen to the music or dance until the movies or shows started, then sneak out the back-way before the ushers found us.
The sudden quiet made me notice that the music had stopped. The band was gone and the lights were dimming as the screen illuminated. The old countdown numbers began to flicker as the projectionist focused the lenses until the picture was clear.
As was tradition in those days; the movies were preceded by a news reel, and often a cartoon. Tonight it was to be an old cartoon, and I laughed as I remembered the one being shown because it had been one of my favourites. The cartoon ended and the 'Movietone Newsreel' began with it's usual canned footage, but there the resemblance ended.
On the screen before me were images of my friends and I as we had been just before I'd left the planet. One by one they resolved to more recent pictures. A couple of them I almost didn't recognise until a voice began speaking, identifying each of us.
"Dorothy, Toto, Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, The Good Witch, The Wicked Witch, The Wizard."
I was sitting bolt upright now and nearly leapt out of my seat when a voice behind me said, "Hi'ya Dorothy."
"Damn it Lane," I hissed, "What's going on."
"Just sit back and watch the show," came his reply.
On the screen, a series of video images played. First was Linus stepping from his house, stopping to turn and speak to someone off screen and then being pulled into an unmarked enclosed vehicle that had no business being in the city. It belonged in the New New-York city of the 1990's. The vehicle seemed to shimmer and then it simply vanished from view.
The next was Lydia, who had been The Good Witch in our gang, The shot was surveillance video from the palace. It showed her sitting in one of the many office blocks inside the city administration zone. A time crawl ran at the top of the video as she worked the keyboard and display unit in front of her. She began to glimmer and then she too was gone.
Next on the apparent hit parade was our friend Loreli who had been The Wicked Witch. I recognised the survey department and the 'live-maps' that lined the walls. She was speaking alternately to someone off-screen and also into one of the old fashioned desk phones while pointing at something on one of the off-screen maps when she too just seemed to disappear.
Lastly was Anthony, "The Wizard" in our little circle. We'd named him that because of his ability to hack networks and systems, bypass almost any kind of alarm or security device, and make or fix almost anything electronic or mechanical. He had already been considered a 'genius' at the age when he'd joined our group. The other kids in the city saw him as an aberration because of his quick mind and quirky behaviour, but to us he was just another outcast like ourselves. We'd welcomed the shy wiry haired boy with open hearts and arms.
The video showed 'Tony' in a setting I'd seen only twice. It was the government forum centre where policy was discussed and made. Older, with shoulder length hair, a nearly full beard and dressed in a suit, he was explaining something to someone off-screen, the panel in front of him filled with mathematical formulae and small vector diagrams. Just as the display behind him began to resolve into some kind of an image, Tony began to shimmer. When he vanished the display behind him seemed to explode and the image went blank.
The screen stayed blank and dark for a moment, then the lights came on again. For a moment I found myself sitting alone in the middle of the theatre. I looked about for Stan and found him leaning on the rail that separated the pit from the band box. I stood and walked down to meet him.
"What is..." I began to ask him, but he held a finger in front of his lips, the tip touching his nose. The old signal for quiet. I heard a buzz and suddenly the door in the back of the bandbox opened. He turned, seemed to signal someone and then slipped under the rail, motioning me to follow.
We slipped through the open doorway, then just as the door began to close I heard the strains of the orchestral opening for the movie and the subdued voices of whispering couples in the audience. Stan pulled me through and the door clicked closed. He motioned me to follow and led me through the small room under the stage to yet another doorway, which led to an open freight elevator. As we stepped aboard, the gate closed and we descended. When the elevator stopped, the doors opened and we stepped out into one of the most amazing sights I'd ever seen.
Chapter 4
We were standing in what was nothing more than a huge hanger. In the middle of it, either half assembled or disassembled, depending upon you point of view, was a dirigible. The girders of the frame of the massive ship filled most of the space. Four huge, old-fashioned propeller driven engines hung from a latticed network slung below the undercarriage, their covers laying on the hanger floor. Forward of that was a long passenger compartment that extended up into the frame that normally held the giant bladders of lighter than air gasses that were used to lift the behemoth into the sky.
"Where..." my voice failed me.
"We don't know. Tony and Lydia found it one day when they were exploring some other oddities. Come, there's more."
At the far end of the hanger there was another elevator door. This one looked like the smaller ones in the clinic. From his pocket Stan produced a key and inserted it into a lock in the middle of the plate where the call button should have been. The door opened and inside sat an elevator that looked for all the world like a fairy-tale carriage, a basket woven of gold and spun silver with the handle arched overhead. It descended quickly and quietly for what felt to be another four or five floors before it stopped and the door opened upon a place I was sure could only have existed in a dream, or a movie set.
I could feel a breeze blowing as we stepped out onto a pebbled walkway. The smell of spring grass and newly mown hay filled my nose. There in the middle of a well manicured lawn sat an impossibility; a three story, wood framed, clapboard house with a picket fence surrounding it. The entire place was painted white with pink trim. I managed to suppress the giggle waiting to pop from my throat as Stan opened the gate in the fence; as if nothing irregular were happening. I could see the lace curtains in the windows and the antique lamps that sat framed in them. They were not illuminated, for it seemed to be daytime here in this land of magic and fantasy.
I was standing at the gate to Dorothy's house.
Not the Dorothy from the movie but our home, my home. The only thing missing was the garage. I expected a little dog to come barking playfully from the house or the barn behind it, from which I could smell the scent of manure and horse sweat. I heard the clang of a cow bell and a playful moo of contentment come from an animal within that structure; answered by the whicker of a horse. No dog, but the door of the house opened and a very familiar face stepped from within.
"Hello Aunt Emily," I said. The woman looked to be no more than fifty but I knew she was well beyond that. She smiled and came down the steps, stopping a few paces in front of me. "I thought you were dead."
She nodded politely, her face expectant and her hands wanting, needing, to reach out and hug me. I don't know why, but the mere thought of it seemed like it would be a wonderful thing just about now, so I stepped forward and put my arms out. In a flash we were hugging each other and crying. When I thought I could take no more, she stepped back and offered me a tissue to dry my eyes with.
Aunt Emily always had a pocket full of them for wiping away tears, drying runny noses or cleaning dirt smudges from my face. When I was done, she took me by the hand and led me toward the house. Inside it was very much like the house I remembered; then I saw it.
There in the middle of the entrance way was 'the brick'. Unlike the gold coloured stones that lined the yellow brick road, this one shined. It had a small irregular indentation in the centre that would reflect light in a strangely mesmerising way when the sun hit it at just the proper angle, as it was doing now.
Without asking permission. I ran up the stairs to the third floor. I hurried around to the back of the house and opened the door to my room. In the back of the room, behind a secret panel in the bookcase, sat a small yellowed plastic folder. Inside, still tied with string were all the letters that my father had ever written to me. I'd forgotten to take them when we'd left the planet, yet there they were.
Everything seemed as I'd left it, the treasures of a young girl preserved out of time. I turned to see Stan looking in the doorway, a bemused smile on his face. I slipped the letters into my hand bag, walked past him and down the stairs to the kitchen. There, at the table, my aunt was busy pouring tea.
"I suppose you wonder how it is I'm still alive, and why our house is here in this strange place."
I nodded, accepting the tea and taking a sip. Meanwhile, Stan had joined us at the table.
"The rumours of my death were just that," said my aunt by way of explanation.
When I gave her a confused look, she glanced at Stan, the left eyebrow arched in question. "You haven't briefed her?"
He shook his head. "We were interrupted. Had to shift the alternates into play in the theatre. They're watching us watching the movie right now."
As he said that, I had pause to wonder about what I'd seen upstairs. "So there's a pair of..."
He nodded. "There's a pair of those AI machines, like the one you found in the clinic, that look exactly like us. They're watching the movie while a pair of agents are watching them."
I was wary now. "Whose agents?"
It was my aunt who answered the question. "The man who tried to kill my son."
For me, at that moment, the world seemed to stand still as my memory of that day came flooding back.
"What do you mean, tried to kill your son? My father is dead!"
My aunt shook her head. "He was unlawfully imprisoned by his enemies. The whole thing, your fathers disappearance, the searches, all of it was a sham. When you and your mother left the planet, you were followed for a few years, then forgotten. They thought they were safe, that their 'purge' wouldn't be scrutinised. They never expected you to come back any more than they expected 'Dorothy's' friends to start asking uncomfortable questions."
I started to speak, but she held up a hand. "Let me get this all out, then you can ask what you like."
I nodded and sipped my tea.
"Their plan was to tear this house down. They were going to go through it brick by brick and board by board in order to find where your father hid the files that proved his allegations. After you and your mother left, they got complacent and forgot about it. I was still living in the house at the time.
"Shortly after Tony and Lydia found this place and he figured out how it all worked, your friends intercepted word of fresh plans to deal with me and the house. So, on this platform, your 'Wizard' created a copy that was close enough to be convincing."
Stan stepped into the conversation. "After we'd tested it enough to know that it would work, we 'swapped' the houses one night. When the copy exploded and burned, it was attributed to a furnace fire. The body was burned beyond recognition and identification, but because Emily disappeared, they simply assumed it was her."
"Whose body was it?"
Stan nodded. He understood my concern. "A body that met the criteria for gross mass identification."
He meant it was the same age range, female, with similar if not identical bone structure. Any previous physical injuries had been carefully replicated just in case. If the fire was 'hot' enough, the body would be so badly burned that the bones would bake and become little more than dust, but a DNA analyser would, after eliminating the contaminants, still come up with a match close enough to appease their concern.
I shrugged. "So, the house was saved. I guess the garage was lost?"
Stan smiled. "No, it's still where it was. Somehow, it survived the explosion. They looked everywhere inside and out, but found nothing."
"What about that little picture show we watched upstairs?"
Stan looked scared. "The disappearances were devastating to us. Oh, there were more around the planet. Most of them were your fathers friends and people who could corroborate the data your father had. Unfortunately, someone got wise to our snooping and some of us were caught."
Linus's invention had helped to save most of them. He'd switched the prisoners with his AI clones, and since the jailers didn't really care whether any of the prisoners lived or died, no one had yet inspected the occupants of the cells too closely.
"How about my father?"
"He's well enough. They're holding him in a special set of security suites. He has anything he wants, except his freedom. The closest we've been able to get to him ..."
"Is me," said a voice from the doorway. It was Lane, or rather it was Lane but not the same one I'd met earlier. This one had had no surgery.
"Let me guess," I said. "I met your clone earlier today."
He smiled and nodded. "Shortly after you reported the 'death' of 'the wanted criminal', they took 'me' in as well. I'm afraid I'm out of circulation. We can still monitor but we're going to need to find another way of keeping in contact with him."
Aunt Emily smiled, offered him a seat and poured him a cup of tea.
"That's okay Lane," said Stan. "We can use you in the other sector. The 'bugs' still in place?"
He grinned. "Even if they trap out the most obvious, they'll never find the primaries unless they replace the whole system, and that would take them years."
He looked at me. "One of the reasons it's so hard to change the nets is that this planet has too much dependence on physical cable."
"Can't they just abandon it and go to an extra-planetary system?"
He shook his head. "Can't afford it, and especially not since the tidal wave. Even with league assistance, it's going to cost OZ most of the treasury just to recover the planet and make it liveable again."
I knew there was something more to it than what he'd just said, but I didn't want to press it right now. Besides, I had another, more pressing question. I looked at all of them.
"The destruction around the core city. It wasn't done by the tidal wave."
Stan looked at me. "How could you know for certain?"
"Too many experiences on war zone planets."
I explained what I'd observed on the way into the city. When I was done speaking he was frowning.
"That's why they originally refused the military assistance. They knew it would be far too obvious that it was an 'inside job'." He looked at me, his eyes asking the question before he even asked it.
"No, I've said nothing, but I'm sure Alex won't miss it from the scans that Amy ran on her way in with us. The real question is why?"
Lane sat up straight in his chair. "That's what we'd all like to know, your father included."
I wanted to ask more, but Stan's wrist pad began to beep. He stood. "We've got to go. Twenty minutes till the end of the movie and then we've got to pull the 'switch'. Our watchers are settled in for the duration. Guess they're film buffs."
I stood and so did my aunt. We hugged.
"Don't worry about me. I'm safe enough, but you be careful. Go do the job they sent you to do and leave the intrigue to others."
I nodded, then Stan led me back to the elevator. As we walked across the blimp deck I looked over at him. "Who built this platform that were on?"
He shook his head. "We're not sure. None of it is earth tech. We think that someone used this planet for deep space launch and repair."
I nodded. "Are there more of these 'platforms' on the planet?"
"Twelve that we know of."
"Who knows about them?"
He looked askance at me. "Besides myself, all the members of our group, your father and now you. Why?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's just a feeling."
He nodded. Up the freight elevator we went, then under the stage. This time we did not go into the band room. Instead we followed another passage that brought us out into a narrow walkway. Here I was forced to walk behind Stan as we made our way to the end of the passage. Once there, he turned and whispered to me.
"Our doubles are going to open the side door. When they do, they're going to step into a hollow box. They'll appear to go outside but instead the box will drop down to the shelf below us." He pointed to another catwalk underneath.
"When that happens, the panel in front of us will open and we'll slip outside. Once we do, the false door will close and slide away into the wall where we're standing. Be quick and very quiet."
We didn't have long to wait. We heard the inner door open and saw the box drop. The panel in front of us disappeared below with it and we stepped out into the night, hand-in-hand as our clones had been. We walked quickly to the car and Stan helped me into the passenger side; just as he'd done before. As he was starting the car my PAD beeped. I opened it, looked at the screen and saw a message was waiting. I accepted it but found myself starring at an encrypted message. I stored it and put the device away.
Stan had turned on the 'motor noise,' over which he was talking about the movie. Having seen it so many times I had it memorised, so I fell into the the game with him. We kept it up until we reached the hotel. At the door, he came around and helped me out. As he took my hand I felt something slip into mine from his. I nodded and we kissed each other on the cheek.
"Thank you for a lovely evening, Stan. It was fun."
He smiled. "Remember, tomorrow you're to meet with the council. They should have transmitted the agenda to you by now."
I grinned. "Good Night."
He walked around the car, hopped in, waved and drove off, purposely grinding gears as he did so. I cringed, shook my head and went inside. There was an official looking envelope waiting for me at the desk. I accepted it and a message to call Kel, then went up to my room. As I reached for my room key I looked at what Stan had palmed to me. It looked like an old fashioned key ring tag. I knew I should wait until I was somewhere safe to look at it again so I slipped it somewhere I figured no one would look. Good thing, because as I stepped off the elevator on my floor and reached my room, I found the door open. I stepped inside expecting to find visitors. I wasn't disappointed.
One of them was in the bedroom rummaging through the drawers and the closet. The other one was trying, unsuccessfully, to break into my surgical kit. I stood in the open doorway and silently keyed the security code into the fleet channel on the PAD Alex had given me while I waited for the intruders to notice me.
The one in the bedroom came out, intent on finding his partner but instead saw me standing in the doorway. His eyes and hands twitched as he tried to decide whether it was going to be easier to go out the window or through me. He said "shit" and headed for me, but I'd keyed the code, stepped outside the door and pressed the arm key. Two things happened immediately; the room filled with a dark red light and the two men were suddenly frozen in mid step.
Because the location of the transport platforms was outside the grid shield, it took fleet security a record twelve minutes to arrive at my door. The officer was known to me as was one of the men with him. The others were there as backup and pooled by the elevator door. The time that it takes for most people caught in a stasis field to recover their wits and ability to move is about ten minutes, but when I dropped the field these two were still in full flight mode. That was Unfortunate for them for their bodies and minds weren't yet in sync and they both fell flat on their faces. Ships security had them banded and searched before they knew what had happened to them.
The small pile of my personal things said that these were simply thieves looking for anything valuable to steal, but the quality of their clothing and equipment argued for professional... except that neither acted that way. They'd been slow, stupid and had no way of being informed that I had returned to the hotel.
The security team did a bug sweep and found four new ones, including a newer technology video feed in the main room. They also found an ancient induction coupler tap in the wall jack where the house phones were connected. All were neutralised and removed.
Just as the prisoners were about to be led away, Sergeant Kemp walked up to the one who'd been in my bedroom and gave the man a hearty slap on the back. A small smooth object popped out of his mouth. When opened, it contained several personal keepsakes, including items that had belonged to my father. A quick repeat with the other man produced nothing, but insisting he might have swallowed his, orders were given for a full scan of both men when they arrived onboard our ship.
"Where..." my voice failed me.
"We don't know. Tony and Lydia found it one day when they were exploring some other oddities. Come, there's more."
At the far end of the hanger there was another elevator door. This one looked like the smaller ones in the clinic. From his pocket Stan produced a key and inserted it into a lock in the middle of the plate where the call button should have been. The door opened and inside sat an elevator that looked for all the world like a fairy-tale carriage, a basket woven of gold and spun silver with the handle arched overhead. It descended quickly and quietly for what felt to be another four or five floors before it stopped and the door opened upon a place I was sure could only have existed in a dream, or a movie set.
I could feel a breeze blowing as we stepped out onto a pebbled walkway. The smell of spring grass and newly mown hay filled my nose. There in the middle of a well manicured lawn sat an impossibility; a three story, wood framed, clapboard house with a picket fence surrounding it. The entire place was painted white with pink trim. I managed to suppress the giggle waiting to pop from my throat as Stan opened the gate in the fence; as if nothing irregular were happening. I could see the lace curtains in the windows and the antique lamps that sat framed in them. They were not illuminated, for it seemed to be daytime here in this land of magic and fantasy.
I was standing at the gate to Dorothy's house.
Not the Dorothy from the movie but our home, my home. The only thing missing was the garage. I expected a little dog to come barking playfully from the house or the barn behind it, from which I could smell the scent of manure and horse sweat. I heard the clang of a cow bell and a playful moo of contentment come from an animal within that structure; answered by the whicker of a horse. No dog, but the door of the house opened and a very familiar face stepped from within.
"Hello Aunt Emily," I said. The woman looked to be no more than fifty but I knew she was well beyond that. She smiled and came down the steps, stopping a few paces in front of me. "I thought you were dead."
She nodded politely, her face expectant and her hands wanting, needing, to reach out and hug me. I don't know why, but the mere thought of it seemed like it would be a wonderful thing just about now, so I stepped forward and put my arms out. In a flash we were hugging each other and crying. When I thought I could take no more, she stepped back and offered me a tissue to dry my eyes with.
Aunt Emily always had a pocket full of them for wiping away tears, drying runny noses or cleaning dirt smudges from my face. When I was done, she took me by the hand and led me toward the house. Inside it was very much like the house I remembered; then I saw it.
There in the middle of the entrance way was 'the brick'. Unlike the gold coloured stones that lined the yellow brick road, this one shined. It had a small irregular indentation in the centre that would reflect light in a strangely mesmerising way when the sun hit it at just the proper angle, as it was doing now.
Without asking permission. I ran up the stairs to the third floor. I hurried around to the back of the house and opened the door to my room. In the back of the room, behind a secret panel in the bookcase, sat a small yellowed plastic folder. Inside, still tied with string were all the letters that my father had ever written to me. I'd forgotten to take them when we'd left the planet, yet there they were.
Everything seemed as I'd left it, the treasures of a young girl preserved out of time. I turned to see Stan looking in the doorway, a bemused smile on his face. I slipped the letters into my hand bag, walked past him and down the stairs to the kitchen. There, at the table, my aunt was busy pouring tea.
"I suppose you wonder how it is I'm still alive, and why our house is here in this strange place."
I nodded, accepting the tea and taking a sip. Meanwhile, Stan had joined us at the table.
"The rumours of my death were just that," said my aunt by way of explanation.
When I gave her a confused look, she glanced at Stan, the left eyebrow arched in question. "You haven't briefed her?"
He shook his head. "We were interrupted. Had to shift the alternates into play in the theatre. They're watching us watching the movie right now."
As he said that, I had pause to wonder about what I'd seen upstairs. "So there's a pair of..."
He nodded. "There's a pair of those AI machines, like the one you found in the clinic, that look exactly like us. They're watching the movie while a pair of agents are watching them."
I was wary now. "Whose agents?"
It was my aunt who answered the question. "The man who tried to kill my son."
For me, at that moment, the world seemed to stand still as my memory of that day came flooding back.
"What do you mean, tried to kill your son? My father is dead!"
My aunt shook her head. "He was unlawfully imprisoned by his enemies. The whole thing, your fathers disappearance, the searches, all of it was a sham. When you and your mother left the planet, you were followed for a few years, then forgotten. They thought they were safe, that their 'purge' wouldn't be scrutinised. They never expected you to come back any more than they expected 'Dorothy's' friends to start asking uncomfortable questions."
I started to speak, but she held up a hand. "Let me get this all out, then you can ask what you like."
I nodded and sipped my tea.
"Their plan was to tear this house down. They were going to go through it brick by brick and board by board in order to find where your father hid the files that proved his allegations. After you and your mother left, they got complacent and forgot about it. I was still living in the house at the time.
"Shortly after Tony and Lydia found this place and he figured out how it all worked, your friends intercepted word of fresh plans to deal with me and the house. So, on this platform, your 'Wizard' created a copy that was close enough to be convincing."
Stan stepped into the conversation. "After we'd tested it enough to know that it would work, we 'swapped' the houses one night. When the copy exploded and burned, it was attributed to a furnace fire. The body was burned beyond recognition and identification, but because Emily disappeared, they simply assumed it was her."
"Whose body was it?"
Stan nodded. He understood my concern. "A body that met the criteria for gross mass identification."
He meant it was the same age range, female, with similar if not identical bone structure. Any previous physical injuries had been carefully replicated just in case. If the fire was 'hot' enough, the body would be so badly burned that the bones would bake and become little more than dust, but a DNA analyser would, after eliminating the contaminants, still come up with a match close enough to appease their concern.
I shrugged. "So, the house was saved. I guess the garage was lost?"
Stan smiled. "No, it's still where it was. Somehow, it survived the explosion. They looked everywhere inside and out, but found nothing."
"What about that little picture show we watched upstairs?"
Stan looked scared. "The disappearances were devastating to us. Oh, there were more around the planet. Most of them were your fathers friends and people who could corroborate the data your father had. Unfortunately, someone got wise to our snooping and some of us were caught."
Linus's invention had helped to save most of them. He'd switched the prisoners with his AI clones, and since the jailers didn't really care whether any of the prisoners lived or died, no one had yet inspected the occupants of the cells too closely.
"How about my father?"
"He's well enough. They're holding him in a special set of security suites. He has anything he wants, except his freedom. The closest we've been able to get to him ..."
"Is me," said a voice from the doorway. It was Lane, or rather it was Lane but not the same one I'd met earlier. This one had had no surgery.
"Let me guess," I said. "I met your clone earlier today."
He smiled and nodded. "Shortly after you reported the 'death' of 'the wanted criminal', they took 'me' in as well. I'm afraid I'm out of circulation. We can still monitor but we're going to need to find another way of keeping in contact with him."
Aunt Emily smiled, offered him a seat and poured him a cup of tea.
"That's okay Lane," said Stan. "We can use you in the other sector. The 'bugs' still in place?"
He grinned. "Even if they trap out the most obvious, they'll never find the primaries unless they replace the whole system, and that would take them years."
He looked at me. "One of the reasons it's so hard to change the nets is that this planet has too much dependence on physical cable."
"Can't they just abandon it and go to an extra-planetary system?"
He shook his head. "Can't afford it, and especially not since the tidal wave. Even with league assistance, it's going to cost OZ most of the treasury just to recover the planet and make it liveable again."
I knew there was something more to it than what he'd just said, but I didn't want to press it right now. Besides, I had another, more pressing question. I looked at all of them.
"The destruction around the core city. It wasn't done by the tidal wave."
Stan looked at me. "How could you know for certain?"
"Too many experiences on war zone planets."
I explained what I'd observed on the way into the city. When I was done speaking he was frowning.
"That's why they originally refused the military assistance. They knew it would be far too obvious that it was an 'inside job'." He looked at me, his eyes asking the question before he even asked it.
"No, I've said nothing, but I'm sure Alex won't miss it from the scans that Amy ran on her way in with us. The real question is why?"
Lane sat up straight in his chair. "That's what we'd all like to know, your father included."
I wanted to ask more, but Stan's wrist pad began to beep. He stood. "We've got to go. Twenty minutes till the end of the movie and then we've got to pull the 'switch'. Our watchers are settled in for the duration. Guess they're film buffs."
I stood and so did my aunt. We hugged.
"Don't worry about me. I'm safe enough, but you be careful. Go do the job they sent you to do and leave the intrigue to others."
I nodded, then Stan led me back to the elevator. As we walked across the blimp deck I looked over at him. "Who built this platform that were on?"
He shook his head. "We're not sure. None of it is earth tech. We think that someone used this planet for deep space launch and repair."
I nodded. "Are there more of these 'platforms' on the planet?"
"Twelve that we know of."
"Who knows about them?"
He looked askance at me. "Besides myself, all the members of our group, your father and now you. Why?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's just a feeling."
He nodded. Up the freight elevator we went, then under the stage. This time we did not go into the band room. Instead we followed another passage that brought us out into a narrow walkway. Here I was forced to walk behind Stan as we made our way to the end of the passage. Once there, he turned and whispered to me.
"Our doubles are going to open the side door. When they do, they're going to step into a hollow box. They'll appear to go outside but instead the box will drop down to the shelf below us." He pointed to another catwalk underneath.
"When that happens, the panel in front of us will open and we'll slip outside. Once we do, the false door will close and slide away into the wall where we're standing. Be quick and very quiet."
We didn't have long to wait. We heard the inner door open and saw the box drop. The panel in front of us disappeared below with it and we stepped out into the night, hand-in-hand as our clones had been. We walked quickly to the car and Stan helped me into the passenger side; just as he'd done before. As he was starting the car my PAD beeped. I opened it, looked at the screen and saw a message was waiting. I accepted it but found myself starring at an encrypted message. I stored it and put the device away.
Stan had turned on the 'motor noise,' over which he was talking about the movie. Having seen it so many times I had it memorised, so I fell into the the game with him. We kept it up until we reached the hotel. At the door, he came around and helped me out. As he took my hand I felt something slip into mine from his. I nodded and we kissed each other on the cheek.
"Thank you for a lovely evening, Stan. It was fun."
He smiled. "Remember, tomorrow you're to meet with the council. They should have transmitted the agenda to you by now."
I grinned. "Good Night."
He walked around the car, hopped in, waved and drove off, purposely grinding gears as he did so. I cringed, shook my head and went inside. There was an official looking envelope waiting for me at the desk. I accepted it and a message to call Kel, then went up to my room. As I reached for my room key I looked at what Stan had palmed to me. It looked like an old fashioned key ring tag. I knew I should wait until I was somewhere safe to look at it again so I slipped it somewhere I figured no one would look. Good thing, because as I stepped off the elevator on my floor and reached my room, I found the door open. I stepped inside expecting to find visitors. I wasn't disappointed.
One of them was in the bedroom rummaging through the drawers and the closet. The other one was trying, unsuccessfully, to break into my surgical kit. I stood in the open doorway and silently keyed the security code into the fleet channel on the PAD Alex had given me while I waited for the intruders to notice me.
The one in the bedroom came out, intent on finding his partner but instead saw me standing in the doorway. His eyes and hands twitched as he tried to decide whether it was going to be easier to go out the window or through me. He said "shit" and headed for me, but I'd keyed the code, stepped outside the door and pressed the arm key. Two things happened immediately; the room filled with a dark red light and the two men were suddenly frozen in mid step.
Because the location of the transport platforms was outside the grid shield, it took fleet security a record twelve minutes to arrive at my door. The officer was known to me as was one of the men with him. The others were there as backup and pooled by the elevator door. The time that it takes for most people caught in a stasis field to recover their wits and ability to move is about ten minutes, but when I dropped the field these two were still in full flight mode. That was Unfortunate for them for their bodies and minds weren't yet in sync and they both fell flat on their faces. Ships security had them banded and searched before they knew what had happened to them.
The small pile of my personal things said that these were simply thieves looking for anything valuable to steal, but the quality of their clothing and equipment argued for professional... except that neither acted that way. They'd been slow, stupid and had no way of being informed that I had returned to the hotel.
The security team did a bug sweep and found four new ones, including a newer technology video feed in the main room. They also found an ancient induction coupler tap in the wall jack where the house phones were connected. All were neutralised and removed.
Just as the prisoners were about to be led away, Sergeant Kemp walked up to the one who'd been in my bedroom and gave the man a hearty slap on the back. A small smooth object popped out of his mouth. When opened, it contained several personal keepsakes, including items that had belonged to my father. A quick repeat with the other man produced nothing, but insisting he might have swallowed his, orders were given for a full scan of both men when they arrived onboard our ship.