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**OldCodger** · June 15, 2000, 09:27

CHAPTER 21 - You Can't Go to Heaven on the 4:30 Bus

Sister Miriam Godwinson and Brother Abdul Al'Saleem were sitting in her office enjoying a quiet cup of tea during Abdul's weekly intelligence briefing. Brother Abdul had a particularly sharp mind and was especially good at ferreting out all sorts of interesting information out of the myriad of reports he received from Believer probe teams operating throughout Chiron. This ability made him extremely valuable to Sister Miriam.

There hadn't really been much to report at this week's briefing. There had been some signs that the Manifold Caretakers were gearing for an attack and had suddenly decided to shut it down. They were up to something, but it was impossible at this point to see even a hint of what that something was. The Cyborgs--an abominable blend of the human soul and machinery--seem to have concluded a pact with the Hillbillies. Apparently this pact was sealed by a marriage agreement. This was in keeping with one of the oldest human customs for arranging alliances. The contemptuous, idolatrous Cha Dawn had calmed down considerably since his cure and return from New Appalachia. He was still a terribly misguided soul, but at least he wasn't doing all that macho posturing he was so famous for in the past. The godless University and godless Morganites were just as misguided and godless as they had been last week, or perhaps slightly more so.

As had become customary for the weekly briefing, the more mundane stuff was discussed first and then attention was focused on the more interesting issues. Perhaps not surprisingly, these issues all centered on New Appalachia.

"So, what's happening in New Appalachia?" Miriam asked.

Abdul took a sip of his tea and replied. "No major changes, but the situation is still a bit tense. Nearly every human faction has probe teams operating on the periphery of New Appalachia, but nobody seems inclined to take any direct action. Alliances are changing so rapidly that it's difficult to know from one moment to the next who is an ally and who is an enemy. If somebody panics, there will be a major covert war going on near the borders of New Appalachia. Our probe teams are armed and prepared for that possibility, so we would likely come out ahead. However, in accordance with your orders, we will not be the ones to start such a conflict."

Sister Miriam took a sip of her tea and said, "Very well. Just keep a close eye on things and let me know immediately if anything changes or anything significant happens."

Brother Abdul smiled slightly and nodded his head. Those were the same instructions Sister Miriam had given him last week. She would probably give him the same instructions next week as well.

Miriam looked at Brother Abdul for a moment, smiled slightly, and then asked, "How is our cultural exchange program going?" She was apparently expecting good news.

This is where Brother Abdul began to feel uncomfortable. He had been afraid Sister Miriam would want to discuss this topic and the news wasn't as good as he would like. However, honesty was the best policy when dealing with Sister Miriam, so Brother Abdul chose that path.

"Our cultural exchange program in New Appalachia hasn't gone as well as we had hoped."

That got Sister Miriam's attention. The Believers had been very successful with this in the past.

"What do you mean by that? Why hasn't the program been successful?"

Brother Abdul wasn't certain how to answer her, but decided to continue with the path of honesty.

"I'm not sure exactly why our missionaries haven't been successful. The setting appears to be nearly perfect, but the people of New Appalachia have unusually strong opinions and beliefs. We are getting some conversions, but they are not coming as quickly as they have in other factions. Also, it appears that CEO Morgan is attempting to have a major influence in New Appalachia and is having more success than we are."

Sister Miriam found that thought to be puzzling. Believer missionary teams had had considerable success in converting Morganites. "We've never had that much trouble converting materialistic Morganites. Why the sudden difficulty now?"

"Again, I'm not certain." Abdul replied. "But, I think it may be a combination of their own stubbornness coupled with easy access to newly discovered materialistic goods. Spiritual concerns often get choked out by the pleasures of this world."

Sister Miriam thought about that for a moment and then said, "That is an unfortunate truth. See if any of our missionary teams are having particularly good success rates, and then find out what they are doing differently. If something substantial surfaces, make sure the other teams are made aware of it so they can incorporate it into their own efforts. Now, I understand that we have received guests from New Appalachia. Please tell me about them."

Brother Abdul was relieved to move off that unpleasant topic. "Today, we should have a singing group from New Appalachia arriving at New Jerusalem. They are an all-female group called the Appalachian Sweethearts and specialize in a form of music that is very popular in New Appalachia. They have been very popular with the people of New Appalachia."

Sister Miriam thought about that for a moment, then said "That could be useful. If we could convert them, they would be useful as role models for others in New Appalachia. Let's invite them to church services next Sunday at the Great Cathedral. Invite them as my personal guests. We'll get to know them a bit and then see what we can do."

Sister Miriam seemed to really enjoy the possibility of converting a popular music group.

* * * * *

The Appalachian Sweethearts were amazed, impressed, and stunned all at the same time. Prior to their arrival at New Jerusalem, the biggest city they had ever seen was New Nashville and then only when they were playing at the Grand Ol' Hee Haw House. They hadn't been there for a good while, which made New Jerusalem seem even more impressive than it actually was.

The Appalachian Sweethearts had arrived at New Jerusalem earlier that day after a long trip via transport foil. The Lord's Believers had provided both the transport foil and two escorting warships. The Appalachian Sweethearts had never seen ships that large before and asked what the escorts were. One of the deck hands on the transport explained that the fastest way to New Jerusalem passed through the New Sargasso Sea, and the warships were something called "Empath warships" that would insure that the transport made it through that area okay. Apparently, there were a couple of native life forms in Chiron's oceans that could be a bit on the nasty side.

The trip to New Jerusalem had been otherwise uneventful. When the transport foil arrived at New Jerusalem, the ship docked at one of the smaller piers. The Appalachia Sweethearts had been greeted by a man named Abdul Al'Saleem, who welcomed them to New Jerusalem and seemed genuinely pleased to have them there. This added even more to their considerable excitement. They were taken to a large hotel near the center of New Jerusalem and each member of the group was given her very own room. Even the roadies were all given individual rooms.

The hotel was far more luxurious than anything any of them had ever seen before. Even a Morganite would have found this hotel tolerably comfortable. The dining room was large, opulent, and featured lots of things that the Hillbillies had never heard of before. Anna Maria Teresa Lopez tried the enchiladas and found them different from what she was used to, but quite delicious nonetheless.

Once his guests had been settled into their rooms and were fed, Abdul Al'Saleem invited the entire band to attend church services next Sunday at the Great Cathedral of New Jerusalem as the personal guests of the Believers' leader, Sister Miriam Godwinson. While a couple of the Appalachian Sweethearts weren't comfortable being on the same continent as a church building, this was an invitation that was impossible to refuse.

Abdul seemed pleased when they readily accepted his invitation. He told them that they would have a couple of days to rest up and maybe see some of the sights of New Jerusalem. If they needed anything, they were to call his office and it would be taken care of for them. Finally, Abdul told them that they would be contacted sometime early next week by someone in charge of entertainment to arrange for a public performance of their music.

Their excitement at that bit of information was almost more than the Appalachian Sweethearts could control. Abdul thought they were as excited and giddy as schoolchildren.

This was almost too easy.

* * * * *

Church services in New Jerusalem were nothing at all like church services back in New Appalachia. Nobody shouted "Amen!" or "Hallelujah!" or "Preach On, Brother!". Nobody shouted or said anything at all. And everything was organized from the beginning to end. They knew what songs they were going to sing. They knew who would do the praying and who would do the preaching and what the topic of the sermon was. They even knew when the service would end. It was way too organized for the Appalachian Sweethearts and their entourage. In short, they were bored out of their skulls by the complete lack of spontaneity. They weren't even all that impressed with Sister Miriam Godwinson.

To the Appalachian Sweethearts, Miriam Godwinson was a plain, mousy-looking, dreary red haired woman who obviously didn't know the first thing about how to dress to accent her best features and didn't know how to use a lick of makeup. She seemed to be nice enough, but just didn't have much of a personality.

The ever-vigilant eyes of Brother Abdul had watched the Appalachian Sweethearts and noticed their apparent lack of enthusiasm for the church service. He found this rather odd since he had found the service to be quite uplifting and joyous. They didn't seem to be all that impressed with Sister Miriam, whom Abdul thought was one of the most intelligent, compassionate, and humble individuals he had ever met. For some reason, that bothered Brother Abdul more than their boredom with the church service.

However, Brother Abdul did have a surprise waiting for everyone. He had arranged for the minister to ask Sister Miriam to sing a solo during the service. Sister Miriam was unaware that this was coming, so it would be a surprise for her as well.

A lot of people had thought or said a lot of different things about Miriam Godwinson over the years; some of it nice and some of it downright mean. But everyone who ever heard her sing all agreed that she had a lovely alto voice. The particular hymn she would be asked to sing would be one of her favorites, an arrangement of "The Lord is My Shepherd" that had been written about 100 years ago. She had always been particularly fond of that one and she always sang it especially well.

Abdul Al'Saleem rather enjoyed the look of surprise on Sister Miriam's face when the minister asked her to sing the solo he had selected. She blushed a bit and then glanced briefly at Abdul, who was making considerable effort to look both innocent and surprised. However, Sister Miriam was not fooled. Abdul also noticed that the interest level of the Appalachian Sweethearts had perked up quite a bit.

Sister Miriam moved to the pulpit and opened a hymnal. The organist played the opening refrain softly so she would not drown out Miriam's voice. Sister Miriam began to sing. Brother Abdul had heard her sing in church many times, but even he had to admit that this was the best she had ever sang. It brought a tear to his eye. Abdul then glanced at the Appalachian Sweethearts and noticed that they too were completely captivated by Sister Miriam's voice. As he watched the Appalachian Sweethearts, they became visibly excited. Brother Abdul misunderstood their excitement and thought they were suddenly enjoying the church service, or possibly even having thoughts of a religious conversion.

Brother Abdul was incorrect in his interpretation. The Appalachian Sweethearts had just discovered their missing sound.

* * * * *

After the service was over, the Appalachian Sweethearts were conversing excitedly over the possibility of persuading Sister Miriam to sing with them for a bit. Her voice would be the perfect addition to the group and would make their planned gospel album a guaranteed success back home.

Of course, there were a couple of small problems. Specifically, Sister Miriam was a little bit on the "chunky" side and she didn't know a thing about how dress up or use makeup. But the Appalachian Sweethearts were all country gals. This was a project they could easily handle. They decided that Miriam just needed a little instruction on how to make herself look good on stage.

"Her red hair is perfect, but we need to put some curl and some body into it."

"She has really nice cheek bones. If we put a little color on 'em and maybe worked on her eyes a bit to make 'em look larger, she could look real purty on stage."

"I think she would look great in a royal blue, floor length dress with silver sequins. It would really highlight her eyes and look stunning with her red hair."

"Yep, and the length would make her look thinner too. Of course, once she starts rehearsing with us, she'll lose a pound or two from that."

The Appalachian Sweethearts knew what they needed to do. Now they had to convince Sister Miriam to join them. If they could get her to join them one time for practice, they figgered they'd have her; hook, line and sinker.

So they complemented Sister Miriam on her solo and invited her to join them later that week for a rehearsal session.

Sister Miriam was somewhat hesitant to accept their invitation. First, she wasn't sure she could sing well enough to fit in with a group of professional musicians. Second, Sister Miriam had a faction to lead and it took a considerable amount of time to do that. Third, the Appalachian Sweethearts wore flashy, skimpy clothes and used way too much makeup. Miriam secretly thought that this is how the biblical Jezebel in the Old Testament of her Conclave Bible must have looked. However, a little sincere praise and admiration won the day, and Sister Miriam finally was persuaded to join them and give it a try.

* * * * *

The first rehearsal with Sister Miriam went surprisingly well. Out of respect for Sister Miriam, the Appalachian Sweethearts refrained from the use of foul language and had no "creative differences" among themselves. For some odd reason, this seemed to enhance the rehearsal for them as well.

Sister Miriam's voice did in fact fit in quite well with the group. She was strong enough to carry a solo and sounded particularly well when singing a duet with Barbie Mattel. Miriam Godwinson actually enjoyed the experience so much that she agreed to rehearse with them again two evenings later. After the second rehearsal, she agreed to rehearse with them twice the following week. From there, it was a simple thing to persuade Miriam to join them in their premiere performance at the concert hall of New Jerusalem.

* * * * *

The Appalachian Sweethearts were nervous and excited as they concluded their final preparations for their debut performance at New Jerusalem. They were on the stage, behind the closed curtain, doing their final equipment checks and tuning their various instruments. They could hear what sounded like an enormous crowd on the other side of the closed curtain.

This was a brand new audience for the Appalachian Sweethearts, and a chance to win new fans. They decided to open the concert with a few of their earlier hit songs and eventually work their way into their set of gospel songs.

Barbie Mattel smoothed a non-existent wrinkle from her floor length gown and checked her microphone one final time. Then, she looked at the other members of the group and asked, "Is ever'body ready?" They did this before every concert.

All heads nervously nodded an affirmative answer. Barbie smiled and said, "Alright gals, let's light these folks up an' show 'em a good time!" She turned to face the audience, nodded her head in the direction of a stagehand, and the curtain began to open.

The concert hall had looked large when it was empty. Now, it was filled to capacity and looked huge. This was a whole lot bigger than the Grand Ol' Hee Haw House back in New Nashville.

The Appalachian Sweethearts opened the concert with an old country favorite, "If You Got the Money, Honey, I Got the Time". It was an easy song that usually got the crowd involved a bit. After the song, the applause was polite, but lacking in enthusiasm. This puzzled the Appalachian Sweethearts a bit, but these gals were professionals and knew a thing or two about winning an audience over.

The second song was a recent hit back in New Appalachia entitled "Love Me Tender or I'll Break Your Skull". This song featured the evening's first fiddle solo and should have warmed the crowd up a bit. After the song, the applause was once again polite, but not enthusiastic. They followed this with "Lullaby for Momma in Prison", "I May be Drunk, but Yore Still Ugly", and "I've Been Flushed From the Bathroom of Yore Heart". The crowd started getting noticeably restless.

The Appalachian Sweethearts knew a thing or two about courting an audience, and could see that the current plan wasn't working. However, they didn't make it to the top of the country music charts back home without knowing what their audience liked. Since the usual material didn't seem to be working, they switched to "Plan B".

Barbie Mattel looked at the crowd and said, "Thank you so much for your kind attention. Now, we want to introduce somebody to you all that you already know, but probably have never seen like this before. She's going to join us for the next few songs and her name is Sister Miriam Godwinson! Come on out Sister Miriam!"

Sister Miriam Godwinson nervously walked onto the stage. She was wearing a royal blue evening gown with silver sequins. Her hair had been done up in large, wavy curls and appeared to be twice as large as normal. Her cheekbones had been colored and highlighted and her eyes had been shaped and accented.

She looked stunning.

For the opening song of their gospel set, the Appalachian Sweethearts chose an arrangement of one of Sister Miriam's favorite hymns, "The Lord is My Shepherd". Barbie Mattel sang solo on the first verse and Sister Miriam joined her for the chorus. Then, Sister Miriam sang solo on the second verse and Barbie joined her for the chorus. Anna Maria Theresa Lopez then played a fiddle solo. Normally, Anna Maria's fiddle solos were exercises in fire and raw power. But this time, she seemed to gently coax the notes out her violin. After the fiddle solo, Barbie Mattel and Sister Miriam sang a duet for the final verse and then sang the chorus and the song was completed.

The concert hall exploded into a thunderous ovation. People were standing and shouting.

The Appalachian Sweethearts knew how to work an audience. It was a matter of finding what the audience liked and wanted, and then give 'em a big dose of it. It would take a bit for this audience to calm down enough to take their seats again, but that was okay with the Appalachian Sweethearts. They had this audience in the palms of their hands and could work it all night if they wanted. It felt good to be back on top.

Sister Miriam Godwinson had never experienced anything even remotely like this before in her life. The crowd seemed to genuinely love and adore her! As leader of the Lord's Believers, her people had respected and maybe feared her, but that was nothing like what she felt from them in this concert hall at this very moment. The feeling was so overwhelming that a single, solitary tear escaped from her right eye and gently rolled down her right cheek. Another tear escaped from her left eye and made a similar journey down Miriam's left cheek.

The conversion of Sister Miriam Godwinson was now complete.

**OldCodger** · July 5, 2000, 14:27

CHAPTER 22 - I'm So Happy I Could Bite Off Yore Leg

CEO Morgan was enjoying this week's meeting of the economic counsel even more than usual, and he usually enjoyed them enormously. Most of the news up to this point had been good. First, there didn't appear to be any active vendettas on Chiron. CEO Morgan knew this wouldn't last, but it would be very good for business for however long it would endure. Second, things seem to be going well in New Appalachia. Profits were soaring and business was growing. It was only a matter of time before he had the Hillbillies completely under his control.

To add to the good news, the Hillbillies seemed to have a knack for building relationships with other factions. They had recently become pact mates of that strange Cybernetic faction, and had apparently won the friendship of Miriam Godwinson.

Miriam Godwinson and her fanatical faction were almost universally seen as a colossal pain in the posterior of every human and non-human faction on Chiron. There was no getting along with them. They accepted no political system but their own. Under normal circumstances, they would have been viewed as a backwards-thinking, pathetic bunch of miscreants. However, the Believers were one of the largest factions on Chiron. They also had highly effective probe teams, excellent propaganda methods, and knew how to fight fiercely when aroused. Plus, the arousal part was easy. Just about everything seemed to tick them off.

All of this made the Hillbillies even more valuable targets for CEO Morgan's plans for economic conquest. The Hillbillies could continue their peculiar skills at building relationships, and the Morganites would control these factions through the Hillbillies. Things would calm down, business would grow, and humanity could get on with the essential business of making life more safe and enjoyable for every single human on Chiron.

CEO Morgan's mind left its momentary reverie to rejoin the weekly meeting. Gayle Storm was just winding up her report on probe activities within the Morganites nearest neighbor, the University of Planet.

"The University recently completed research on the construction and guidance of sub-orbital ballistic missiles. We have, of course, obtained this research and it has opened up several interesting possibilities, primarily in military applications. We can now construct a missile, place a standard warhead on it, and deliver that warhead to a target with a high degree of accuracy."

CEO Morgan noticed that Gayle had said "standard" warhead. Perhaps other things could be carried as well. However, he would not discuss these in this particular setting. He made a mental note to give Gayle a call later this evening and discuss this further.

Gayle continued her report.

"Moving on to New Appalachia, we are starting to encounter some odd resistance to our economic development plan. Specifically, some of the miners who are working in our mines in New Appalachia are wanting to alter our production methods to reduce environmental damage."

CEO Morgan interrupted Gayle and asked, "Any idea where they came up with those thoughts?"

Gayle responded, "Probably from the Cult of Planet. The types of changes they are asking for are similar to the mining techniques employed by the Cult. They do in fact reduce most of the environmental damage, but the cost is extreme. Thus far, we have not incorporated the techniques we use on our own mines within our own borders and perhaps we could offer those as an alternative. They're much cheaper and almost as efficient as..."

CEO Morgan interrupted again. "We will offer them nothing. The output of those mines is nice, but virtually irrelevant. They exist primarily to employ the people of New Appalachia and give them a modest income that we can in turn take from them when we sell them various products. This makes them dependent on us for their source of income and their source of products and services. That is our goal."

Gayle Storm was a bit nervous, but decided that she had to discuss this further. Nwabudike had chosen to deliver his instructions in a public forum, so she had no choice but to continue pursuit of it here.

Gayle asked, "What about the mindworms? The level of ecological damage these mines are producing virtually guarantees a major infestation. People will be hurt and possibly killed when this happens."

CEO Morgan looked at Gayle for a moment and wondered if his favorite assistant was getting too soft. It might be time for another reorganization. He answered her question.

"What of the mindworms? The people of New Appalachia keep the disgusting things as pets! Perhaps they can make pets out of these mindworms, or perhaps they will suffer some minor hurt. If they do come to harm, we can sell them some of the equipment and training we use to control these infestations within our own borders."

Gayle didn't like the thought of people getting hurt, but saw that there was nothing to be gained by further argument. She surrendered, "Very well. I will instruct the managers of the mines that all requests for improvements designed to reduce ecological damage are to be denied. Does that meet with your approval?"

CEO Morgan responded, "Very much so. If and when the infestation occurs, we should have control teams on standby to minimize the damage to the mines and the local populace. I think a good scare could prove useful, but we don't want to lose our workers and customers. Besides, this would have the added benefit of further increasing their dependency on us. In fact, let's start moving some control teams into the vicinity of the mines in preparation for this. This could prove quite beneficial in both the short and the long term."

Gayle didn't know if CEO Morgan was offering a compromise or some form of olive branch, or was moderately concerned with the people that were about to be hurt, but she gratefully accepted his plan.

CEO Morgan saw that his plan met with Gayle's approval and decided to move on with the meeting.

"What else is happening in New Appalachia?"

Another member of the economic counsel spoke up. "We've received an interesting business proposal from an individual in New Appalachia that might prove profitable. Apparently, an individual named Samuel Morgan has approached the manager of the holovision cable company in New Nashville with the idea that he would like to purchase his own holovision channel."

CEO Morgan perked up at that. "What does Mr. Morgan have in mind?"

"Mister Morgan is familiar with the various forms of entertainment that people in New Appalachia enjoy and would like to operate a holovision channel that caters to their particular interests. He would like to broadcast some of their musical performances from something called the Grand Ol' Hee Haw House in New Nashville. He would like to have a couple of talk shows that interview various musical performers. He is particularly interested in having Miriam Godwinson interviewed on one of his shows. Apparently, she has become a big hit among both the Believers and the Hillbillies because of her recent concert tour with a New Appalachian musical group. He also wants to do shows on a form of recreation known as fishing and is particularly interested in broadcasting races."

That last term confused CEO Morgan. "What does he mean by races?"

"From what I was able to gather, Hillbillies seem to particular enjoy races to see who is the fastest over some long period of distance. They race rovers, boats, something called swamp buggies, and even animals such as horses and sheep. Mr. Morgan has presented rather crude marketing studies that do in fact suggest that all of these would be enormously popular in New Appalachia and therefore quite profitable to us as well."

CEO Morgan started to chuckle. "Quite a bit of business savvy from an individual with no appreciable training. He must be a distant relative of mine."

That drew obligatory laughter and chuckles from everyone else at the meeting.

CEO Morgan thought for a moment and then said, "I think we should give Mr. Morgan his chance. Help him procure a broadcast studio and lease him the necessary equipment, and don't cheat him too badly. I'm curious to see how this particular enterprise turns out. If it becomes popular in New Nashville, perhaps we'll have Morgan Entertainment offer it as part of their basic service to other factions as well. Does Mr. Morgan have a name for his holovision station?"

"In fact, he does. He wants to call it 'The New Nashville Network'."

* * * * *

The establishment of the new network link between the network node at New Nashville and the University's network node at Budishii Dvor opened up an entire new world to the Hillbillies, the world of "cyberspace". For the first time since Planetfall, Hillbillies could easily and quickly communicate with people in other factions located throughout the entire planet.

Of course, this required the purchase of an optical personal computer with the appropriate networking options. Fortunately, these were readily available at local J-Mart stores. Unfortunately, these also broke down rather quickly like most other things purchased from J-Mart. However, this inconvenience drew the consider ire of Nathan and Irene Mombassa, who resolved to figure out how to make a better optical PC. Not long after, they were successful and contact with the outside world improved considerably.

In addition to the networking possibilities, optical PCs could be used for many other things as well once the appropriate software was purchased and installed. Documents could be published, budgets could be balanced, data could be kept and organized, and businesses could be run more effectively.

And games could be played.

The use of optical PCs for gaming proved to be as enormously popular in New Appalachia as it had been elsewhere on Chiron. Games could be purchased and played by oneself on one's own optical PC. Games could also be purchased and played with other people over the network. Most of the really good games could do both. As games were purchased and played, some proved to be particularly good and gave birth to network sites or forums where people could come to discuss their favorite games.

For example, the Raging Mouse Software Company produced an enormously popular game called "Return to Sol". The setting for this particular game was what would happen if the factions on Chiron united long enough to build an interstellar vehicle and sent it back to the Sol system to determine what happened to earth and begin the process of recolonization. However, things didn't go as planned on the trip back. The ship crash landed and the player would get to assume the role of leader of one of earth's seven major political entities, the European Commonwealth, the African Empire, the North American Combine, the South American Dictatorship, the Middle Eastern Brotherhood, the Republic of the Southwest Pacific, or the East Asian Hegemony. The object of the game was to raise one's nation to the dominant nation on earth via a variety of possible victory conditions.

This game proved to be enormously challenging, fun, and popular. It was fun to play by oneself and fun to play with others over the planetary network. It evened spawned its own network forums where players could go to discuss strategies, options, or even read or write stories based on the "game universe". Some of the stories proved to be quite good.

The game was so successful that the Raging Mouse Software Company announced that they were releasing an expansion pack that would make the game even more enjoyable. The expansion pack would add five new human political groups and two non-human groups. Rumor had it that the non-human groups were actually from earth's past. Apparently, not all the dinosaurs had actually become extinct. The tyrannosaurus rex and velociraptor species both were intelligent and at odds with each other. Both managed to develop interstellar travel vehicles and left the earth to extend their conflict among the stars. The surviving remnant of both finally decided to return to earth and, when they arrived, discovered that things had changed somewhat in their absence. Apparently the other dinosaurs had died out leaving mammals in charge, and the mammals had left the planet and managed to blow everything up. Now, the mammals had returned to do it all again, and neither the tyrannosaurs nor velociraptors were particularly pleased with the prospect. Neither of them had believed that mammals were a good idea to begin with and this pretty much clinched that belief for both of them. The tyrannosaurs and velociraptors decided that this was a good time to fix that particular error.

The increase in network traffic due to the popularity of "Return to Sol" put a slight strain on the network node at Budushii Dvor. However, other games, hobbies, and topics of interest were also new to the Hillbillies and this further added ever so slightly to the load in the network node at Budushii Dvor.

Too bad nobody noticed the increase in traffic.

* * * * *

Paula Forbes' plan for freedom was coming together nicely. Soon, she would have everything in place to make her flight to New Appalachia. Now, it was time to put the final piece in place.

Paula Forbes was going to take a lover.

At least, that was what it was going to look like to whatever surveillance team might actually be watching her. Plus, it had to be done now well in advance of the actual flight for freedom so that the probe teams could get used to the idea. When she made this change in her routine, they would increase their surveillance for a couple of weeks until this too became part of her routine. Then, she would lull them into complacency and then make her run for freedom.

Her plan was fairly simple. The "Queen of Darkness", her foul-tempered supervisor, had turned over all of the purchasing for the recycling tanks to Paula and had further gotten into the habit of leaving work early on Friday afternoons. Paula would use this time period to establish the appearance of "having an afternoon tryst" that would in fact be the cover for her flight out of the Morganite capital.

She was under no illusions. She knew that this cover might buy her three or four hours of lead time at most, but it would do so at a time when everyone was winding down the work week and settling in for the weekend's activities. The strategic timing of her flight would buy her some time, but she knew they would come for her life with the best they had once they were certain she had fled.

She had already picked out her "accomplice" though he was not aware of his actual role. All he saw was that his boss was an attractive woman--defined basically as any female who paid any kind of attention to him--and seemed to be showing signs of interest in him. He was the most "attractive" candidate in terms of appearance, intelligence, personality, and the general sense that his loyalty could be bought for a fairly small price.

He might not be willing to settle for appearances and a small sum of millicredits, but Paula wasn't too worried. She had earned a lavender belt in the Cult of Planet's martial art form "Slam Dhood Hed" and was reasonably certain she could adjust his priorities and interests to something more savory.

* * * * *

After that afternoon's economic meeting, CEO Morgan had changed his mind about calling Gayle Storm about his idea for a possible use of newly acquired ballistic missile technology. Maybe she was getting stressed out or soft. She had been a valuable and brilliant assistant, and he really didn't want to lose her. But both times and people change, and maybe it was time. He would keep an eye on her and see.

Instead, he set up a three-way call on the titanium communications system with General Wannabee and the head of Morgan Laboratories. He would need the involvement of both for this particular plan.

After an exchange of social pleasantries, Nwabudike Morgan got down to business.

"I have an idea on a way that we can use this new sub-orbital ballistic missile technology in a way that will make us the dominant military faction on Chiron."

General Wannabee was obviously excited about that. "What do you have in mind, CEO?"

"I think we should construct a planet buster. In fact, I think we should build four of them."

General Wannabee was almost beside himself with joy.

* * * * *

An hour later, in a secure vault in New Jerusalem, Abdul Al'Saleem read the decrypted transcript of the conversation. He became very pale and dropped the transcript. He would have to interrupt Sister Miriam's tour and inform her immediately.

Her nightmare scenario was about to come true.

**OldCodger** · July 27, 2000, 00:58

CHAPTER 23 - I Think I Got a Flat Tire on the Road to Happiness

Guardian H'minee was sitting at the head of the council chamber awaiting the arrival of the Head of Caretaker Research. She had sensed his excitement earlier that day and anticipated good news from him. Unfortunately, the head of research had spent too much time in the company of humans and was deliberately being late to the meeting in order to stage a "grand entrance". According to some of her sources, the human CEO Morgan was notoriously famous for doing this sort of thing. However, if the news was good, Guardian H'minee would overlook the affectation.

The Head of Caretaker Research practically burst into the council chamber accompanied by three of his top assistants. Their auras were so excited even a human could have sensed it. The head of research moved to a position immediately in front of Guardian H'minee and began to alter.

"Emotion: Excitement. Research: Completed. Technology: Singularity Mechanics. Application: Sub-space Beacons."

This was probably the best news Guardian H'minee had received since their arrival on Manifold Six. For the first time since their unplanned exile on Manifold Six, the Caretakers had an opportunity to finally communicate with other members of their own species who shared similar views. They would be able to summon their own fleet and cleanse this planet of the human interlopers and prove their final superiority over those arrogant, misguided Usurpers.

In retrospect, it should have been obvious that the Caretakers would triumph over the Usurpers. The intention of the Usurpers to alter the development of planetary sentience to their own purposes had been fundamentally flawed from the beginning. How could they possibly hope to somehow "harness" an intelligence the size of an entire planet? Even worse, there was evidence to suggest that some of the humans were investigating the very same possibility.

What an arrogant species these humans were! They did not understand the fundamental design and intent of the Manifold Experiment, yet they sought to somehow control it and maybe even become part of it! Soon, they would know how foolish they actually were. Well, maybe for a little while, right before the very end of their species on this planet. If what the humans believed to be true about them being the last surviving refugees of their own kind was in fact true, it would be the end of their species in the universe. They were too ugly to let live anyway.

Planning for the completion of the sub-space beacons could begin at once. Planning was something the Progenitor species was very good at. Guardian H'minee decided to ask a question of the head of research.

"Interrogative. Response: From Head of Research. Demeanor: Polite. Emotion: Excited. Question: How many sub-space beacons?"

The Head of Caretaker Research paused for a moment as if he were considering Guardian H'minee's question. The truth is that he already knew the answer and had anticipated this very question. However, he was enjoying his moment in the limelight and it didn't hurt his reputation and social stature to appear to be thoughtful and considerate. After a moment, he answered.

"Distances: Enormous. Power Requirements: Similar. Signal Coherence: Essential. Answer: Five beacons minimum. Recommended: Six sub-space beacons."

Guardian H'minee thought about this response for a moment and had to agree with his assessment. Five sub-space beacons might work okay, but six would provide a backup in case something went wrong, but without a huge increase in cost. Humans were around, so things would definitely go wrong somewhere, somehow. She made her decision.

[/]"Deployment: Six beacons. Planning: Commence."[/I]

Planning would now begin for the deployment of six sub-space beacons. The thought of seeing her fleet in space above Chiron coupled with the surprise and shock of the Usurpers and humans caused a quiver of joy to shimmer in Guardian H'minee's aura.

It was a good day to be a Caretaker.

* * * * *

Contrary to CEO Morgan's misgivings, the state of no active military conflicts on Chiron did in fact continue for several months. Of course, the non-military conflicts continued at full bore.

And the Morganites appeared to be winning.

However, it is regarded as a fundamental axiom of military conflict that no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy unscathed. Such was the case with the Morganite battle plan.

Had Nwabudike Morgan asked, Melvin Higgins could have told him that Hillbillies were strong willed and contrary. But CEO Morgan didn't ask, so he had to learn it the hard way.

A number of odd things began to happen. First, the problem with the Hillbillies wanting to improve efficiency and reduce pollution at the Morganite mines did not go away simply because CEO Morgan commanded it to. When CEO Morgan turned down their requests to implement various improvements, the Hillbillies basically went into a work stopage.

The Hillbillies showed up for work, but nothing seemed to get done. Things "broke". Veins of ore seemed to be "played out". For every solution the Morganite managers tried to offer or implement, there suddenly seemed to be an insurmountable problem attached to it. The payment of salaries coupled with the drop in production meant that the mines were operating at a deficit. This was unacceptable to the Morganites, who believed it was basically a sin to lose money on anything.

Of course, the Morganites had a contingency plan for this type of thing. First, they locked the workers out of a few of the mines that were having the most problem meeting quotas. Second, they cut off the credit for the miners at these mines at their local J-Mart store. Third, they started insisting that these miners "get caught up" on their outstanding credit balances at their local J-Mart stores.

As expected, this caused considerable concern on the part of those miners who had been locked out of their jobs. They had enjoyed the products they had purchased at their local J-Mart stores--at least for a while until stuff started breaking or wearing out. But Morganite marketing had been shrewd. They understood that today's "convenience" or "luxury" was tomorrow's necessity. Thus, folks who had for decades lived without many modern conveniences suddenly became dependent on those conveniences and sought to replace them.

Only now, they could no longer do so. The J-Mart stores had cut their credit lines and, even worse, were starting to hound them for payment on outstanding balances. Worse, the miners who had been locked out no longer had the income to either pay cash for their purchases or even to make payments on their credit balances.

It was a tough situation and exactly the one that the Morganites had intended all along. The miners could either go back to work in Morganite mines on Morganite terms, or they would no longer have access to Morganite products. It was that simple.

Then an odd thing began to happen. "Cottage industries" began to spring up all over New Appalachia. Shoes, good shoes that fit well and would last a while, could be purchased from a family near New Nashville. A couple near Bugtussle who had previously specialized in marital discord were getting along a whole lot better now that they were selling better cookware to their friends and neighbors.

Having figured out how to build a better chain saw, Running Vulture Labonski opened his own chain saw factory out of his pole barn. At first, all he did was repair broken chain saws and add a few improvements to them to make them better. After a couple of months of that, he had to get a couple of his kids involved because he could no longer keep up with the business. Then, he started buying broken chain saws, rebuilding them, and then selling them under the label "Running Vulture Chain Saws". They were good chain saws and everybody seemed to want one. Running Vulture Labonski couldn't keep up with the demand, so he had to figger out how to build one. Running Vulture Labonski was not an idiot by any means and clearly recognized that opportunity was beating him about the head and shoulders with a very large stick and maybe he ought to pay attention to it.

Running Vulture Labonski had no prior knowledge of what it takes to set up and run a business, but he was certainly willing to learn. He had to make a number of important decisions such as how many of the chain saw's components he wanted to make versus how many he wanted to purchase. This would affect his entire production. He had to find out what was available in the way of components. He would have to set up some sort of bookkeeping system. He would have to organize his production lines. There was a lot to do and to learn, but he was willing to give it a go.

He bought a small computer off the Mombassa twins and used it to surf the planetary network to try to find out some answers to these things. After doing some research and basic legwork, he negotiated a deal for more powerful, efficient engines with a Gaian manufacturing firm. He made a deal with the Spartans for a particular kind of chain that had previously been used by the Spartans in one of their obsolete lines of assault rovers. The chain was more difficult to manufacture--the Spartans had always had problems in that area--but the chain was one of the weakest components in the chain saws purchased from J-Mart and Running Vulture wanted a tough chain in his chain saws. The Spartan chain was far and away the toughest of all those he had tried. The Spartans were able to modify it to meet Running Vulture's needs. Running Vulture was able to obtain a production control database system from a small Morganite software firm that was just starting up. The Cyborgs provided him with some tools and helped him design his production lines to run at maximum efficiency. A Believer "venture capitalist" provided some startup money at surprisingly reasonable terms to help get things started. This was actually done as a "favor" to Sister Miriam who decided that she wanted her new found friends to have an opportunity to succeed. Plus, it would really annoy CEO Morgan.

Running Vulture Chain Saws was a smashing success, first in New Appalachia, but soon spread throughout all of Chiron. They were powerful, quiet, efficient, and almost indestructible. Running Vulture Labonski was faced with all kinds of problems such as how to expand his production capability in a sane, controlled fashion. Where would he find more workers and managers for his production facilities? Could he manufacture smaller saws suitable for brush cutting or pruning? Could he manufacture larger saws for bigger applications? Could he make a saw that cut metal? Could he get rid of the chain altogether and use something like the new chaos technology in a safe manner?

In the meantime, sales of chain saws and several other items at the local J-Mart stores began to plummet. Hillbilly owned and operated retail outlets began to spring up, carrying higher quality merchandise and reasonable prices and offering reasonable credit terms. You could not run up as big a credit line at a Hillbilly retail outlet as you could at a J-Mart store, but you get most anything you wanted or needed if you were somewhat sensible.

The economic counterattack against the Morganites had hit them in the most sensitive area possible; right square in the wallet. There was no way the Morganites could allow this to go unchallenged.

* * * * *

As Samuel Morgan's marketing study had shown, The New Nashville Network, or TNNN for short, had proven to be enormously popular in the region of New Appalachia. Hillbillies loved to watch holovision performances of their favorite country music performers. The Appalachian Sweethearts new "gospel" sound had proven to be enormously popular and restored the group to the lofty height of popularity that had enjoyed in previous times. Hillbillies also enjoyed talk shows that featured interviews with their favorite performers, especially when their favorite performers made an effort to appear to be humbled or awed at their own success. They also enjoyed watching shows about fishing and, as a result, a boat manufacturer in the southwestern portion of New Appalachia who had designed a boat particularly well suited for fishing was making some serious sales and profits.

TNNN was not just about country music and fishing however. They also had shows about racing, which proved to be highly popular as well. In fact, races were so popular that Samuel Morgan had to organize a major race for almost every weekend just to be able to broadcast the race on TNNN. The rover races featuring the Gordons, Pettys, and Earnharts proved to be extremely popular and an association was formed to just to manage these races, the New Appalachian Stock Car or NASCAR circuit was formed to handle these. Other things were raced as well, but NASCAR races were far and away the most popular.

TNNN also offered programming for children. Their most popular program was a show entitled "Teenage Mutant Power Yorkshires". This show was about a bunch of teenage, crime-fighting pigs with super powers and rather lame senses of humor and basically reran the same plot every show (different evil opponent, but same basic threat and resolution). But the kids really loved it. A small manufacturing firm near Nutsville started making "action figures" and other toys related to the Teenage Mutant Power Yorkshires. Their production capability was quickly overwhelmed and the proprietor really wasn't all that interested in increasing production since that was too much like work and she already was doing more of that than she really wanted.

TNNN did so well in New Appalachia that the Morganite Cablevision Company decided to test-market it elsewhere on Chiron. It did well in some places; the Believers seemed to enjoy it and, somewhat surprisingly, so did the Spartans. As might be expected, the University didn't care much for TNNN, nor did the Cyborgs, who didn't care much for entertainment in general.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was how much the Morganites seemed to enjoy TNNN. Many of them watched the channel at first because it was something new and it was fun to make fun of the "hicks". However, as they returned to the channel, the became engrossed in the races, fishing looked like it might be fun, and the music wasn't so bad once you acquired an ear for it. Their kids absolutely adored the Teenage Mutant Power Yorkshires and starting nagging their parents for the action figures and other accessories. Of course, these were hideously difficult to find, but Morganites tended to "spoil" their children anyway and thus began The Quest for Yorkshire Toys.

This particular quest proved to be very time consuming and ended up having a significant and adverse effect on the productivity of many Morganite parents. In some areas, this drain on productivity proved to be rather significant and therefore unacceptable to Morganite managers. Something would have to be done about that.

Country music bars and clubs began to spring up in various Morganite cities. At first, attendance at these was sparse and basically for the exact same reasons that people first tuned in to TNNN. However, liberal quantities of relatively cheap alcohol encouraged a certain class of patron, and soon many of these bars and nightclubs established a regular clientele. Of course, this class of clientele tended to be somewhat aggressive and combative and lacking in the social restraints they normally had when less intoxicated, so conflicts were inevitable. The addition of mechanical bulls at some of these nightclubs opened up another whole new area of entertainment; specifically, watching other "well lubricated" individuals attempt to ride these things and avoid serious injury. On the plus side, the emergency rooms at various Morganite research hospitals tended to get quite a bit of interesting business around "closing time", particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. On the negative side, more productivity was being lost as the participants in these various festivities found it necessary to miss their normal work activities while their bodies recovered from various injuries.

Again, this proved to be unacceptable to Morganite managers and something was going to have to be done about it.

The third impact that TNNN had on Morganite society was much more subtle and therefore potentially more devastating. It was advertisements. Hillbilly cottage industries quickly discovered that in order to sell their products or services, people had to know that these products existed. Further, advertisements or commercials were a good way to let people know about this. As a result, Morganites became aware of Running Vulture Chain Saws, Billy-Bob Bass Boats, and many other products and services.

In yet another shrewd business move, Samuel Morgan saw yet another opportunity to make a few credits: tourism. The region of New Appalachia was blessed with an abundance of natural beauty. However, Samuel Morgan had been to Morganite cities and stayed at Morganite hotels, and knew that New Appalachia had nothing even remotely similar to the kind of accommodations Morganites, and perhaps others, would expect if they were to visit the region. Samuel Morgan decided to make this into a strength.

Samuel Morgan arranged to have several small facilities either built or contracted with local people to use their houses as guest lodges. Samuel then started an advertising campaign that extolled the natural beauty of New Appalachia and invited others to come enjoy its "rustic charm" and "country hospitality" as they "got back in touch with nature".

It worked like a magic love potion. People from lots of other factions decided to visit New Appalachia and did in fact enjoy its "rustic charm" and "country hospitality". Of course, any actual contact they made with nature was mostly superficial, but it was something different and they seemed to have a good time. Plus, they spent money while they were in New Appalachia. Again, Morganites in particular seemed to enjoy this since New Appalachia was "next door" and thus this represented a fairly low cost vacation for them.

The thing that made this so devastating was that, for the very first time since business relations had been established between the Hillbillies and the Morganites, the Morganites were beginning to experience a trade deficit.

Something would definitely have to be done about that.

* * * * *

Nwabudike Morgan was not enjoying this particular meeting of the Morganite Economic Council. He had not enjoyed last week's meeting. He probably wouldn't enjoy next week's meeting either.

There was some good news in the midst of all the current gloom. No new military conflicts had erupted--very untypical for the state of affairs on Chiron--so trade profits were still booming. However, things weren't going as planned in New Appalachia and that bothered CEO Morgan far more than any good news on any other front.

Over the course of human history, military conflict had evolved into an effort to engage the enemy in a decisive battle at a decisive location in order to achieve some decisive purpose. What made a location "decisive" could be any number of things: resources, a particularly defensible location, or simply the fact that the enemy was weakest in that area. What made a purpose "decisive" was often variable as well. Again, it could be a need to procure resources. It might be to cut off and kill an enemy army or navy. It could be to use as a staging point to launch an assault to achieve the next decisive objective. Sometimes the winner and loser of the decisive engagement were not immediately obvious. There was no doubt that the Japanese had scored a major tactical victory at Pearl Harbor back on earth during the beginning of the conflict known as World War II. However, in doing so, in a strategic sense the anger and outrage they incited ultimately lead to their defeat in that particular conflict. The wisdom in all this came in understanding what made a location or purpose decisive enough to be willing to fight for it, and when to avoid a fight.

While CEO Morgan was not a military man, he understood that these same principles applied in economic warfare as well. His decisive location was New Appalachia. His decisive purpose was to control this region economically and use that control to leverage his control over all of Chiron. His decisive battle was being waged to bring this region into economic subjection.

And that battle wasn't going very well at the moment.

First, the lockout at the Morganite mines hadn't had as much effect as they had hoped. In fact, workers at most of the other mines simply walked off the job in protest for the lockout. Morganite Mining was in the middle of a full-fledged "wildcat" strike. Even worse, Gayle Storm was sitting there with that insufferable "I told you so" smirk. She had wanted to offer some compromise to the miners but CEO Morgan wouldn't hear of it. She had been right and CEO Morgan had made a bit of a mistake in not listening to her. Still, it would be most satisfying to reach across the table and smack that smirk right off her face.

Second, denying further credit at J-Mart stores had the major impact of killing profits. Many of the stores were now operating on a deficit. While CEO Morgan had expected both some of the mines and some of the J-Mart stores to encounter this particular condition, he had not expected the problem to be near as severe as it had become. Worse, competition had sprung up and was growing in strength almost daily.

Third, factional productivity was down 1.2 percent! In a faction that prided itself for its "busy-ness" and productivity, this represented a substantial loss. Worse, there was evidence that it was growing. The loss seemed to be attributable to newly acquired inefficiencies. There was no single cause, but things just weren't getting done as effectively as before.

That is the problem with a free market economy, thought CEO Morgan. It always did something weird and unexpected.

The J-Mart stores were hounding their customers for payment of their credit balances, and the Hillbillies were making an effort to do so. They seemed to be remarkably honest, but the interest rates being charged were high and closure of the Morganite mines meant that overall income in the region was still severely hampered, so it would be a long while before these balances were paid off. At least that part was going well. But, it wouldn't be too long before something else would need to be done or these stores were going to start to wither and die like victims of some virulent plague.

The topic currently under discussion was how to restore the economic state needed to continue the battle. CEO Morgan wasn't saying anything at the moment; instead he was listening half-heartedly to the various options being discussed.

"We need to get the mines and the stores operating again. The cash flow between these two was a major part of our effort and has to be restored."

"What if the workers and customers won't come back? The mines have tarnished their public image and our former customers may not be so willing to come back. Our credit terms are excruciating. They may have learned a valuable lesson."

"Besides, they can get products of better quality elsewhere. We're even buying some of their products."

That comment got CEO Morgan's attention. The germ of an idea was beginning to form in his mind.

"We may have to start to sell some of their products in our J-Mart stores if we want to get our customers back."

"Are you deranged? That would completely reverse the desired direction of cash flow! We need those credits coming here, not staying in New Appalachia!"

"We need to go back to the root cause. We refused to improve the inefficiency of our mining operations and that lead to the lockout, the strikes, and the resultant loss of sales at our J-Mart stores. We're going to have to fix that before we can fix the rest of this chain of events."

The last comment brought CEO Morgan out of his thoughts like a sharp blow to the head. First, Gayle Storm had not been the one to offer the comment. Second, the comment was openly critical of a decision he had made many months ago. That never happened, unless things were really serious.

Things must be really serious.

CEO Morgan cleared his throat, indicating that he was about to speak. All other discussion immediately ceased.

"You are correct in understanding that we need to get the credit flow reestablished between the mines and the J-Mart stores. In addition to our overall goals, we have major investors in both operations and they would expect no less. You are also correct in your understanding of the problems presented by a perceived loss of reputation in both our mines and our J-Mart stores. However, reputation is a commodity that can be bought, sold, or re-created given enough time. We can deal with that.

"Your solution about how to restore that credit flow is completely incorrect. Every option you have discussed ultimately has the same shortcomings. First, they require compromise of some sort. While compromise isn't necessarily bad, in this case it involves running counter to our long-term purposes and would cost a large number of credits. Plus, the Hillbillies would now be convinced that they possess the power to influence the eventual outcome and we do not want them to entertain that thought even for a second. Second, it requires reestablishment of our previous relationships as both employer and merchant. Again, this takes both time and credits. Third, and most condemning, is that fact that there is no guarantee of success. If the Hillbillies have a choice, we may never be able to reestablish these relationships no matter how long we try or how much we invest. Given what is at stake here, can we afford that possibility?"

CEO Morgan paused for a moment and let his words sink in to the other members of the council. Then he continued.

"There is another way to achieve the goal; we simply leave them no choice. And the way to accomplish that is to eliminate all other choices."

CEO Morgan looked around the room at each individual member of the council. The old "fire" was blazing in his eyes. He continued.

"The way we eliminate all other choices is to crush the competition. Completely. Convincingly. Now, we can do that by improving production, undercutting prices, and establishing local monopolies in key industries, but that would take time and again suffers from the possibility of failure. I'll give the Hillbillies this much: they have proven to be remarkably clever and resourceful. They may actually find ways to counter our efforts. What we need is a way to deliver a swift, decisive blow that they cannot possibly hope to counter. It needs to be a blow unlike anything they've ever seen, and I have just the tool in mind.

"The competition for products and services is fundamental to a free market economy, so it should not be a surprise to anyone that this has occurred, especially given the deliberate lack of quality we have been providing to the Hillbillies. What you have all failed to realize, however, is that those products and services were originally developed by Morganite companies and these same Morganite companies hold patents on key components of those products and services."

As CEO Morgan looked out at the members of the economic council, he could see that they were starting to realize where he was going. He smiled and then continued.

"In developing competitive products and services, these Hillbillies are infringing on our patents without paying a suitable fee. We will, of course, require punitive compensation for this along with fees. Of course, while these legal issues are being discussed, the Hillbillies would naturally have to stop manufacturing any products or providing any services that are directly or indirectly violating our patents. Thus, the population of New Appalachia will be forced to return to our J-Mart stores and other enterprises to obtain what they want. In addition, many of our J-Mart customers are not fully conscious of the ramifications of their credit lines. Prudent legal counsel could make them more fully aware of their obligations. Properly motivated, they would have no choice but to return to work at Morganite mines."

CEO Morgan looked around the room again and then smiled. He was about to release the very hounds of Hades on an unsuspecting and naïve victim. CEO Morgan then looked directly at the head of Morgan Legal Services, Inc., and spoke.

"Send in the lawyers."

**OldCodger** · August 8, 2000, 14:56

CHAPTER 24 - That Sharp Pain in my Posterior Must Be You

Melvin and Wallace Higgins were sitting in their chairs wishing they were both dead. They hadn't started the day feeling that way; it had sort of snuck up on them. Death by unpleasant and violent means would almost be preferable to their current situation.

Melvin and Wallace Higgins were sitting at the table of their new conference room that had recently been constructed at their new headquarters building in New Nashville. Successful completion of the new headquarters building had been difficult and painful, but was necessary to wrestle with the unbelievable complexity of trying to run a faction. The furniture in the conference room was a gift from the Cult of Planet and was probably the most beautiful wood that the Hillbillies had ever seen. The Consciousness had provided several systems for display of information in a variety of customizable formats. Sixty feet below the surface of New Nashville was a fully integrated military command center that had been a gift from Corazon Santiago-Maynard. Melvin Higgins wasn't exactly comfortable with all this new luxury, especially the command center or the fact that he might actually need it one of these days.

The other occupants of the conference room had been a "gift" of CEO Morgan. They had contacted the Hillbillies a week or so earlier and insisted on seeing Melvin Higgins at the earliest opportunity and requested an entire day of his time. Only Melvin's complete and total ignorance had caused him to grant their request. Now he was being "educated". It was a lesson he would never forget.

Things had started out innocently enough. But then, lots or truly awful and painful things start out the same way. Melvin and Wallace had entered the conference room and took a couple of seats and then these Morganite folks were let into the room. There were sixteen Morganites in all; ten men and six women. All of them were well dressed and carried large briefcases. They appeared to be strong, healthy, and in their late thirties to mid-forties.

Their introduction had begun innocently enough.

"Good morning, Mr. Higgins. My name is Ian M. Shyster, senior partner of the law firm I. M. Shyster and Associates. We are here on a matter of grave urgency to address a serious matter of patent infringement. Once we've had an opportunity to present our case, I'm sure that you will agree that serious financial harm has been inflicted on our clients and will be fully cooperative in seeking appropriate forms of redress and protection of intellectual properties."

Things pretty much went down the tubes after that.

Melvin Higgins found communication with this bunch to be incredibly difficult. First, Ian M. Shyster never shut up. Second, Ian M. Shyster was completely incapable of using words of less than four syllables. Third, every time Ian M. Shyster said anything, fifteen heads would bob up and down, nodding their agreement with the point being made. Melvin figgered that if Ian M. Shyster had picked his nose, fifteen heads would have bobbed up and down in agreement that Ian M. Shyster had mined the finest booger that had ever been found.

Asking questions helped only marginally as it tended to launch another multi-syllabic monologue. But eventually, after several tedious and painful hours, Melvin and Wallace Higgins were able to figger out what this was all about.

Apparently, whenever somebody figgered out how to make something or do something clever or useful, that somebody could file for something called a "patent" on whatever they had done. A "patent" meant that if somebody else wanted to make or do that same thing, they had to pay a fee to the first feller who figgered out how to do it. Of course, patents were only good for so long, usually a period of several years, and then anybody could make or do that thing without having to pay for it.

The fact that the Hillbillies had mostly made "improvements to products of inferior quality" didn't seem to matter to the Morganite lawyers. Instead, they were informed that they could of course file patents on their own ideas and the patent system actually moved fairly quickly. After an appropriate review and search, they would receive their patents within three or four Chiron years.

Ian M. Shyster and Associates had brought hundred of pages of documents all stored on optical data crystals that identified key patents and the patent holders, established legal precedents, and containing legal "briefs" (clearly an oxymoron; there was nothing "brief" about them) indicating the various complaints, damages sought, and penalties to be accrued.

The amount of information was overwhelming, as it had been intended to be.

* * * * *

Ian M. Shyster looked at the two country yokels sitting across the table from him. He could see that they were in way over their heads. This was exactly what he had intended. Part of his presentation had been truthful. Morganite businesses did in fact hold several patents that had been violated by the Hillbillies. Patents were in fact a time-honored mechanism for the protection of intellectual property and did help encourage development of new ideas.

However, part of his presentation had also been fictional. There really was no organized planetary judicial system with any real jurisdiction over these matters. The planetary court system actually had no way to enforce anything. However, it would take these bumpkins years to find that out. By the time they did find out, it would be too late to do them any good.

CEO Morgan's instructions to Ian M. Shyster had been short and specific: Make them stop production on all fronts. If possible, extort large quantities of credits out of them. Other legal teams would be sent in to contact and harass customers of the J-Mart stores about paying off their credit balances, but Ian M. Shyster and Associates were the lead elements of the attack. Success would hinge on what they could accomplish.

After six hours of intensive "discussion", Ian M. Shyster saw that he had virtually paralyzed the head of the Hillbillies faction. He had them now. Even if they had actually understood what was happening, they had no idea how the game was played. These guys were so dumb that they had actually showed up at this meeting without their own legal representation! Ian M. Shyster had a whole network node full of additional briefs, findings, motions, and appeals that he hadn't even tapped into yet. He could literally tie their hands up for at least 20 years and drain several hundred thousand credits in legal fees out of these bumpkins.

A small smile appeared at the corners of Ian M. Shyster's lips. To those who knew him well, this was a flagrant display of emotion.

It was all too easy.

As Ian M. Shyster watched, the two overmatched Higgins' whispered and conferred quietly for a brief moment. Suddenly, a big grin appeared on the face of Melvin Higgins and Wallace Higgins started to chuckle a little bit.

Ian M. Shyster wondered what they could possibly find in all of this that was so amusing.

* * * * *

Wallace Higgins leaned over and quietly asked his pa a question.

"Pa, I don't understand this at all. These Morganites come in here and sell us a bunch of junk that don't work right or last long, we figger out how to make it useful, and now they think they have a right to git mad about it. That just don't hardly seem fair or right to me."

Melvin thought about that for a moment and responded.

"I know, Wallace. But I can kind of see their point. It ain't exactly fair to let somebody else spend a lot of time and money figgering out how to do something, and then simply use that knowledge for free. However, I don't think that's really what this meetin' is all about."

"What do you mean?" asked Wallace.

"I don't think they are as concerned about patents as they are that we stop doin' what we're a-doin'. They want us to stop making better products than what they are sellin' to us. The thing I want to understand is why this is so important to them. Them Morganites are runnin' some kind of game on us. I don't know what it is, but I'm pretty sure I don't like it none. We need some way to throw them off balance for a bit so we can get some time to try to find out what is really goin' on. Heck, it would take us years just to understand what this bunch is sayin' let alone deal with it on their own terms. We can't afford to play that game with them."

There was a brief pause in their conversation, and then Wallace whispered to his father.

"Pa, I got an idea on how we might throw them off balance and have a little fun at the same time."

Wallace whispered something else to his pa and Melvin started grinnin'. Wallace started chuckling a little bit.

Melvin Higgins looked at Ian M. Shyster and began to speak.

"Mr. Shyster, I reckon I appreciate you folks droppin' by to discuss this stuff with us. As you are probably aware, this is all new to us. I'm not real experienced in dealin' with this sort of thing. However, I am about to invite my own legal staff to this meeting and perhaps they can lay down the law, or discuss the legal ramifications as you put it."

Ian M. Shyster began to get a little bit excited. Now the real conflict would begin. The Morganite legal team assembled in this conference was the very best legal team on Chiron. If these Hillbilly attorneys were anything at all like their leaders, this would be short and sweet.

Melvin Higgins leaned over the conference table, and pressed a button on the intercom. The intercom was a particularly nice and useful thing to have around. He spoke to the intercom.

"Glory Ann? Are you there? Could you do me a big favor? We're in the conference room with some Morganite attorneys and we need some legal assistance."

Glory Ann Parsley, Melvin Higgins' secretary, responded immediately.

"Sure, Melvin. Who do you want me to fetch for you?"

"Could you send in the Maynard boys?"

* * * * *

Melvin and Wallace Higgins sat in two chairs in the now wrecked conference room. Both of them were grinnin' in spite of the fact that both had several minor bruises and scrapes. Things were definitely looking much improved. Much of the fancy equipment that had been given to them by the Cyborgs was damaged, some of it to rather small, constituent components. The Cult of Planet made particularly strong furniture however; little damage had been done to the table or the chairs.

Melvin had to admit that Wallace's idea had worked out pretty well. Many months ago, Gerty Maynard had pretty much appointed her six remaining sons to keep an eye on the Higgins family and make sure that nothing happened to them. Gerty figgered that somebody else might figger out that Melvin Higgins was real important to the Hillbillies and then decide to move Melvin on out of the way. Melvin realized it would be much less painful to keep the Maynard boys around than to try to get them to go on home. So they stayed.

The Maynard boys were not exactly the brightest of Chiron's children, but they had been very effective in the task their ma assigned to them. This was due in large part to the fact that one good look at the Maynard boys tended to dissuade any thought of attempting to harm one of the Higgins family members. However, the Maynard boys had been somewhat frustrated by this particular duty.

In spite of the fact that the Maynard boys had met lots of folks from lots of different factions, they never actually got into a good scuffle with any of them. They had had particularly high hopes when that Cha Dawn feller came a-callin'; some of his bodyguards looked pretty tough. The Maynards had looked forward to a particular good session with the Sarim, and then the Higgins had to go and cure that little Cha Dawn feller and that opportunity quickly evaporated.

When the Maynards had first entered the conference room, they were quickly and easily confused. Melvin Higgins had introduced them as his "team of legal experts" and they had no idea what that meant. Melvin introduced each of the Maynards one by one, and then that other feller, Ian M. Shyster, introduced his folks one by one. Ian M. Shyster then asked them where they had gone to law school at, which was really confusing since the Maynard boys hadn't had much formal schooling. Melvin Higgins then jumped in and said that the Maynard boys had gone to the school of hard knocks. The Maynard boys didn't know where that particular school was either and were reasonably certain that they hadn't actually attended it.

All their confusion quickly dissipated when Melvin Higgins looked at Billy Joe Maynard and said, "Billy Joe, would you and yore brothers please 'lay down the law', Hillbilly style, for these fine ladies and gentlemen?"

All six Maynard boys broke into big grins. This was something they clearly understood.

For their part, the Morganite lawyers put up a surprisingly good effort. In typical Morganite fashion, all sixteen Morganites followed strict longevity regimes and excercised quite faithfully. Several of them had also taken classes in one or more of the more popular martial arts forms. This, coupled with the fact that they outnumbered the Hillbillies two to one, allowed them to engage in a pretty good fight. However, the inevitable has a way of being, well, inevitable.

The element of surprise was clearly on the side of the Hillbillies. The Morganite lawyers did not fully understand the nature of "laying down the law, Hillbilly style" until Billy Joe Maynard cuffed Ian M. Shyster, attorney-at-law, up side the head and knocked him completely out of his chair. Having witnessed the assault on their leader, their individual survival instincts kicked in and they started trying to kick a little Hillbilly butt themselves.

Their physical conditioning and martial arts training allowed the Morganite lawyers to get in several good licks of their own. However, no amount of conditioning and training could adequately prepare one for the kind of eye-gouging, hog-wrasslin', and name-callin' kind of fighting that the Maynards engaged in. Attempts by the Morganite lawyers to name-call and cuss were particularly pathetic.

Even though the Higgins boys were not particularly noted for fightin', Melvin and Wallace both entered into the fray with much enthusiasm. Wallace had gotten into a scuffle with one of the female attorneys. He managed to pin her to the floor, and then he gave her a little kiss on the cheek and said, "How 'bout a little sugar, love muffin?" This earned him a split lip and a couple of loose teeth when she hammered his mouth with her forehead. He also received a sharp blow to the left ear and good kick to the sternum that knocked the wind out of him.

Realizing that their continued presence in the conference room was not to their advantage, the Morganite attorneys attempted to make a hasty, but battered, retreat. In doing so, they made the collective decision to abandon their fancy briefcases, overcoats, laptop optical computers, and several inidividual shoes and miscellaneous garments.

As the Morganite lawyers withdrew from the conflict, Wallace Higgins could not resist one parting shot.

"Give me a call next time you're in town, love muffin. We'll do lunch and have a good ol' time!"

* * * * *

As the victors surveyed the wreckage in the conference room, Wallace looked at his pa and said, "That was surely interestin' and, I'd have to say, downright fun!"

Melvin looked around a bit and said, "I reckon you had a pretty good idea. Those Morganite lawyers never saw it comin' and never had much of a chance. They'll think twice a-fore they try somethin' like that again."

Melvin then looked at his son and said, "Wallace, do you know what they call 200 lawyers on the bottom of the Freshwater Sea?"

"Nope. What do they call that?"

"A pretty good beginning."

**OldCodger** · August 14, 2000, 15:38

CHAPTER 25 - Why Don't Everything Just Blow Up at Once?

Nwabudike Morgan, CEO of the Morganites, was just about as angry as he had ever been in his entire life. The finest legal minds on Chiron, the law firm of I. M. Shyster and Associates, had been physically assaulted and defeated by the Hillbillies! Worse, some of the lessor legal teams that had been sent into New Appalachia to harass the Hillbillies into paying on their J-Mart bills had suffered a similar fate.

The weird thing was that the Hillbillies were still making their J-Mart payments as best they could. They were determined to get out of debt--rather difficult given their current lack of income with most of the mines shut down. They just weren't going to take any guff off of a bunch of lawyers. The net result was that all legal teams had made a hasty withdrawal from the region, and were now "unavailable at this time" to continue the legal harassment that CEO Morgan was so looking forward to. Nwabudike Morgan found it both amusing and astonishing that the survival instinct of Morganite lawyers was actually stronger than their greed.

Even weirder, General Wannabee--who had so desperately wanted to invade somebody to erase the Morganite reputation for military wimpdom--had not the slightest interest in invading New Appalachia. Perhaps the location of the Spartan Third Corps near the border of Morganite terrority, New Appalachia, and Sparta had something to do with that. The Third Corps was under the command of one Over-Major Velmon O'Cyrix who was noted for being a particularly canny commander. If Morganite military forces invaded New Appalachia, the Spartan Third Corps was in a position to out-flank Morganite forces and cut their supply lines. General Wannabee wanted no part of O'Cyrix or his forces.

Well, there were other things that could be done to even up the odds somewhat. CEO Morgan had other military and economic options that would become available in the future.

* * * * *

The success of the Raging Mouse Software Company with their "Return to Sol" game--and others like it--caught the attention of a Hillbilly named Delbert Brilliant. Delbert Brilliant liked playing games and thought it might be neat to write a game of his very own.

Delbert had written a little bit of software before and figgered that writing a game wouldn't be that big of a deal. He could farm some of it out to some other programmers he knew and then put it all together himself. The new network connection to the rest of Chiron would allow him to receive instance feedback--and especially praise and admiration. Delbert figgered that maybe somebody would even set up a bulletin board forum like the one for "Return to Sol" where everybody could gather to discuss tactics, strategy, and maybe even write some fiction set in the Dreadnought universe.

It was all too easy.

The name of Delbert's game was "Dreadnought 3000 AD". The game was about a large, powerful spaceship that patrolled a region of the galaxy and fought invaders, pirates, and other large, powerful warships. In concept, the game sounded promising. During development, Delbert was a frequent poster on various forums and newsgroups where he discussed some of the features of his game and talked about what a fine game it was going to be.

It was dead out of the box.

The first release of the game had more bugs than a fungal tower has mindworms. At first, Delbert accused everyone who complained about his game of being colossal idiots. Then he told them to "Read The Infernal Manual". Next, he blamed it on the publisher for releasing the game too early. Eventually, the weight of evidence was clearly overwhelming and clearly indicated that the game was a total dog.

To his credit, Delbert attempted to release patches to fix some of the most severe problems. The first three patches fixed a few problems, made others worse, and introduced some more problems. But it was too late.

The planetary network on Chiron erupted into its first severe "flame war". At first, the flame war was restricted to Delbert and a few of his detractors. As insults and recriminations flew, Delbert picked up a few supporters and the number of detractors started to grow. At this point, various "voices of reason" attempted to intervene, pointing out that it was "just a game" and there was no reason for people to behave so maliciously. Others were somewhat incensed that their favorite groups and forums were being filled with this stuff, but it was like waiting in traffic at a severe rover crash. Everybody complains about "gapers and gawkers" until they get up close to the crash, and then figures that as long as they're close, they might as well have a look at it too.

The flame war had other ramifications as well. First and foremost, people lost track of the fact that there were other human beings (and possibly Progenitors) on the other end of their messages. That fact that communications were much more impersonal meant that some folks felt they could be as nasty as they wanted. As a result, lots of different flame wars for a variety of different reasons erupted at various times and places across Chiron. Rather than walk across the hall to discuss a disagreement in private, people flamed their coworkers on the planetary network. For some people, on-line rudeness became a way of life.

The Great Dreadnought 3000 AD Flame War had another unpleasant side effect. Delbert Brilliant was a Hillbilly. All network traffic into and out of New Appalachia went through the University of Planet's network node at Budushii Dvor. As the flame war heated up and new participants were added, the amount of traffic grew exponentially. The growth was so rapid that the network monitoring and control software failed to detect the growth in traffic and therefore failed to apply enough traffic regulation.

The network node at Budushii Dvor collapsed, erasing several years of accumulated research.

Even worse, several of the network nodes at other University cities collapsed in a magnificent cascade failure, erasing other research data. The collapse was rapid and spectacular when it occurred, and University administrators were actually quite fortunate in that they isolated the cascade failure to only two sub-nets or a total of eight network nodes.

* * * * *

Proctor Zhakarov was as angry as he had ever been before, which was plenty. First, he had been awakened in the middle of the night. Proctor Zhakarov needed his rest and did not appreciate this in the slightest. Second, and more importantly, was the reason he had been awakened.

The network node at Budushii Dvor had collapsed and triggered a cascade failure that took out seven other network nodes. Years of accumulated research had been lost. Records were in chaos. It was another administrative nightmare that he would be forced to grapple with.

Proctor Zhakarov was a brilliant researcher; probably the most brilliant researcher on Chiron. He had an absolutely uncanny knack for finding the odd reading or peculiarity and then exploring that phenomenon to achieve a new and profound understanding of some aspect of the universe.

However, Proctor Zhakarov was not a brilliant diplomat or a brilliant administrator. In fact, one of the deep-seated causes for his legendary temper was the fact that either diplomacy or administration kept interrupting his research and usually at some absolutely crucial time.

Like now for example. He had been working on a new super-string theory that suggested a way to harnass a quantum waveform that could in turn be used as a new energy source. In fact, he had been in the process of designing several new experiments that would be conducted as soon as the new Supercollider was completed at University Base. Zhakarov had lead the team that designed the Supercollider and it promised to greatly enhance the University's already prodigious research capability.

Of course, that research capability wasn't going to do much good if network nodes kept collapsing and destroying years of research. So now, he had to put the design of those experiments on hold while he dealt with this painful event. Who knows when he would be able to get back to his work.

There was a possible solution to all this. Proctor Zhakarov had recently received diplomatic overtures suggesting a pact with the Morganites. While Zhakarov did not trust CEO Morgan, a pact did have a certain appeal to it.

First, the University and the Morganites were two of the largest human factions on Chiron. Together, they would be a formidable power block, even bigger than the Caretakers. Zhakarov might not be a brilliant diplomat, but even he understood that a large, powerful coalition tended to get its own way a lot more often than a small, weak faction did.

A second advantage was a sense of stability. Everything was going along fine on Chiron until the Spartans discovered those wretched Hillbillies. The Hillbillies had broken up his alliance that was going to defeat the Usurpers, beat the Usurpers into submission, and then started forming alliances with all sorts of other human factions. Now, they had crashed eight of his network nodes. The Hillbillies had to be dealt with. There was no other way.

The third advantage was the deciding factor. The strengths that the both the University and the Morganites brought to the relationship were nicely complimentary and would amplify the power of both factions. The truth was that Zhakarov was not totally surprised that his network nodes collapsed. For the most part, the people of the University of Planet were so preoccupied with research, research, and more research, that a lot of the administrative, diplomatic, and military needs of the faction tended to suffer. Zhakarov knew his faction was particularly vulnerable to covert operations. His faction was also vulnerable to administrative gaffs as well.

On the other hand, Morganite covert operations and security were among the best on Chiron. Plus, if there was money to be made, Morganites would gladly work as administrators for the University and do a much better job of protecting the network nodes than Zhakarov's people could ever do.

If the University could free itself from some of these tedious tasks, it could better focus on its strength, its research. From its research, it could develop lots of new technologies, including military technologies. A few years of solid research coupled with Morganite resources and production could yield an impressive military machine that could conceivably dominate Chiron without firing a shot. While Zhakarov did not favor military force, it would be nice to have it as a viable option for a change.

Maybe, if CEO Morgan would cough up the cash, Proctor Zhakarov would consider entering into a pact. And the cash would allow him to finish his Supercollider.

* * * * *

CEO Morgan was sitting alone in his office, sipping a glass of iced tea (a non-alcoholic version since he was not at home), watching the latest MNN broadcast announcing the signing of the pact between the University of Planet, the Morganites, and the Peacekeepers. The holovision was showing the signing ceremony that had been held earlier that day in University Base. He saw himself smiling and looking regal as Pravin Lal signed the document and again as Proctor Zhakarov signed the document. All three faction leaders then made short speeches. Nwabudike didn't remember anything that was said, not even his own speech. It was the usual "dawn of a new era of peace and prosperity for all mankind" sort of stuff that everybody says at these sorts of things. Nwabudike had then attended the reception and then caught a needlejet back to Morgan Industries.

This particular pact had been somewhat costly. Pravin Lal had insisted on a number of technologies and a large payment, but didn't get either one. The truth is that Lal the Unstable had offended so many factions that he was actually tickled to have a pact with anybody. He was given one minor technical advance and a few credits. Many of the larger casinos at Morgan Entertainment were offering pretty good odds that the pact with Lal would not last. Nwabudike decided to accept the odds and place a few bets, anonymously of course. He expected to make a tidy profit.

The real cost of the pact had been paid to the University of Planet. CEO Morgan had given them one key technical advance and 1500 energy credits for the pact. CEO Morgan was also obligated to act surprised and pleased when Zhakarov gave him the specifications for fusion power. The Morganites had stolen those specifications several months from the University.

Nwabudike decided that the cost was well worth it. The Morganites and the University were two of the largest factions on Chiron. With the Peacekeepers thrown in, they were about the same size as the Hillbilly's power bloc. The Hillbillies had more factions, but they were a lot smaller, except for the Believers. Both power blocs were now significantly larger than the Caretakers. The Peacekeepers were added at the last second because they offered a base of operations near both the Believers and the Caretakers. Covert operations could begin immediately. If the alliance held together long enough, Peacekeeper territory could also be used for military or economic operations as well.

The only remaining human faction that was left to choose a side was the Gaians. The Gaians were not as large as the University, Morganites, or Believers, but they were still significant. They had been relatively isolated and peaceful, but had offered stiff and effective resistance many years earlier with the Spartans had attempted to invade and then again later when Nwabudike had launched that unfortunate military campaign. Nobody wanted to mix it up with the Gaians after that.

Dierdre Skye had been smart. She had carefully brokered herself into a position where the two dominant human coalitions would be forced to come courting her favor. Nwabudike had always known she was intelligent. Had Dierdre Skye had any economic sense, CEO Morgan would have courted her favor long ago. Still, there were things he could do in that arena to perhaps sway her to a more favorable position.

As Nwabudike Morgan finished his tea, turned off his holovision set, and got ready to go home, he wondered what Zhakarov was going to do with all those credits. Two months later, when the University announced the completion of the Supercollider project, Nwabudike Morgan found out.

CEO Morgan was most displeased, both by the fact that the University completed the project well ahead of his own researchers, and by the fact that he was not even aware that they had started it.

**OldCodger** · August 16, 2000, 15:39

CHAPTER 26 - All This Worryin' is Drivin' Me to Hurryin'

Guardian Lular H'minee was a very worried and displeased member of the Progenitor species. Things were not going well at all.

When the two Progenitor factions had crash-landed on Manifold Six, they both had easily and effectively eliminated two human factions each to make room for themselves. At that time, elimination of humans was amazingly easy due to the technological superiority the Progenitors possessed. Then the Caretakers and Usurpers made contact with each other and resumed their ancient and bitter conflict. A condition of bloody stalemate ensued as each Progenitor faction attempted to achieve dominance over the other.

In retrospect, perhaps that had been a bit of a mistake.

Now, many decades later, the Usurpers had been beat into submission by the humans. Human scientific researchers were closing the technological gap between their species and the Progenitors. Worse, humans had spread across the surface of Manifold Six like garbage bugs or some sort of viral infection.

The Manifold Caretakers were now isolated and outnumbered. If the humans choose to combine their efforts, they could quickly and easily eliminate the Caretakers. This would mean that the Manifold Experiment would fall into the hands of a species that had no idea what they were dealing with. Even worse, it was not necessary for the humans to combine their forces. The recent announcement of the pact between the Morganites, the University of Planet, and the Peacekeepers effectively divided the humans into two major power blocs, the other being lead by the Hillbillies. Either power bloc now had the capability to do great damage to the Caretakers, and possibly even conquer them. All they needed was for the other human power bloc to simply do nothing to interfere.

Guardian H'minee believed there were two factors that prohibited such an action on the part of the humans. First, the Caretakers did possess a few technological advances that the humans did not possess. This would make an attack on her faction costly and might weaken the attacker to the point that they would be vulnerable to attack by the other power bloc. Second, was the sense of distrust between the two human power blocs. Guardian H'minee believed that one human group would not allow the other human group to gain access to new and powerful technologies without a fight.

Having one's security depend on the mutual distrust of others was an unacceptable policy, especially when those "others" were so highly irrational and unpredictable. It would eventually dawn on those obtuse humans that they could make enormous gains if they united together and eliminated the Caretakers. From the human perspective, they would believe this to be justified by what the Caretakers had done to the Data Angels and the Nautilus Pirates. Both of those factions had been large and powerful by human standards.

If the humans ever found out that specially processed human flesh was still served at meals on special occasions, they might decide all the more quickly to eliminate the Caretakers.

The sub-space beacons were the key now in these uncertain and unpredictable times. Something needed to be done to improve production of these. Guardian H'minee would convene the Council of Lords to discuss this matter.

* * * * *

Guardian Lular H'minee sat on the elevated chair positioned at the base of the elliptical table. From this position, she could sense the worry and concern in the auras of all of the other Council Lords. They had read her briefing for the meeting and were in agreement with her problem statement. The fact that the worry was unanimous was a good thing in the sense that it validated Guardian H'minee's own analysis of the situation, and it meant that the meeting would be efficient and productive. The fact that the worry was unanimous was also a bad thing. There was no dissent, which clearly meant that the threat was very real and very severe. Maybe they could come up with a plan of action.

The meeting began with a situation report from the Lord of Intelligence.

"Current political situation: Marginally stable. Human power blocs: Two. Relationship: Hostile. Level: Subliminal. Possibility of hostilities: low. Reason: Equity. Mitigating factor: Gaians. Current status: Irrelevant. Alteration: Alignment. Outcome: Imbalance. Possibilities: Unpredictable. Error margin: Low. Confidence: High."

There was a momentary pause as the various council Lords thought about the ramifications of the current situation. The current human political situation was stable, but only marginally so. The situation could become unstable in some form very quickly and easily. The humans were divided into two basically equal power blocs that were in opposition to each other. They were not currently in open conflict and the likelihood of such appeared to be low at the moment. However, the humans known as Gaians were not aligned with either power bloc. Currently, the Gaians were therefore irrelevant, but that would change if they chose to align themselves with one of the two groups. This would alter the balance of power between the two human factors, which would in turn open up a wide range of possibilities. Should this occur, there would be very little room for error. Unfortunately, the Intelligence branch had a high degree of confidence in their current assessment. History showed that they were usually pretty accurate when their confidence level in their own analyses was high.

The Lord of Intelligence had used the "U" word, "unpredictable". The Progenitor species hated the "U" word. The Progenitors were planners at their very core. They liked their world to operate in an orderly, predictable fashion because it made planning much easier and the results more predictable. The more unpredictable things were, the more one had to be concerned about unexpected things happening. This meant that one had to have contingency plans. If things weren't too terribly unpredictable, the need for contingency plans could be managed. How could one effectively plan for the impossible and unthinkable?

One need only look at the humans for proof of this principle. When the Progenitors crashed onto Manifold Six, the humans had no plan for dealing with the arrival of an unknown alien species, and it had resulted in the loss of four factions and thousands of human life forms. All this occurred because they had no contingency plan to deal with what for them was an unthinkable event. The Caretakers would not have made the same mistake, even though they currently didn't have a plan for dealing with the arrival of an alien species either. The difference was that they knew where the nearest other space-faring species was and that this species was nowhere near Manifold Six. They would not be arriving here anytime soon and thus no contingency plan was needed. Any other species that developed the ability to come to this planet would be too primitive to present a major threat to the Caretakers.

While all that was a fine analysis of prior history, it did little good in the here and now. The problem was to develop and implement a plan in an environment where planning was difficult. The Progenitors detested having to do that.

The Lord of Military Operations began to alter.

"Query: Military Option. Target: Assessment. Option: Viable."

The fact that the Lord of Military Operations would ask this council if a military option was possible and what would be an appropriate target almost stunned Guardian H'minee. This was an open invitation to allow other Progenitors within her organizational territory! Were things really that bad?

The Lord of Intelligence thought for a moment and responded.

"Military Option: Possible. Objective: Very Limited. Probable result: Hostilities with human power bloc. Probable outcome: Defeat."

Under some limited circumstances, a military option might be possible provided that the strategic objective was very limited. However, this would probably result in open warfare with one or both human power blocs, with the probable outcome that the Caretakers would eventually be defeated. The humans were simply too strong now.

That was a rather grim assessment of the possibility of a military option, but Guardian H'minee had to agree with it nonetheless. She decided to focus the meeting on more productive alternatives. She began to alter.

"Key asset: Sub-space beacons. Query: Leverage."

The sub-space beacons currently under construction by the Caretakers were a key asset. The question was how to leverage this asset into a favorable resolution to the current situation.

The Lord of Civic Planning altered a comment.

"Asset: Non-realized. Value: Potential. Alteration: Completion. Result: Resolution."

This was a true statement. Since the sub-space beacons were no where near completion, they were not really a usable asset. Instead, they were a potential asset. However, this situation could be altered by completion of the sub-space beacons. This would result in summoning a Caretaker fleet to Manifold Six and the current unstable situation would be resolved permanently by the subjugation of the Usurpers and elimination of the humans.

Guardian H'minee altered a question toward the Lord of Research and the Lord of Civic Planning, who were jointly heading the production effort for the sub-space beacons.

"Query: Completion of sub-space beacons."

The Lord of Civic Planning responded.

"Current scheduled: Maintained. Anticipated completion: Three years."

The project was currently on its planned schedule (that was not surprising) and would be completed in three years.

Another Lord, the Lord of Nutrient Extraction, altered an interruption.

"Response: Appreciated. Result: Unacceptable. Completion: Too long. Unpredictability: Too high."

Many of the Lords at the council table altered their agreement with that assessment. Three years was too long to wait in the current unstable situation. Too much could happen or go wrong in that time period--it had in the past because of those vile humans--and it would be impossible to plan for every contingency. The Lords also appreciated the courtesy that was extended by the Lord of Nutrient Extraction. She appreciated the response that the Lord of Civic Planning had given, she just thought the answer was unacceptable. This would avoid a territorial display on the part of the Lord of Civic Planning.

Guardian H'minee altered another question.

"Query: Early completion. Timeframe: Best Case.".

If the Caretakers wanted to complete the sub-space beacon project early, what would be the earliest possible time they could do this in.

The Lord of Civic Planning had already thought about this and responded.

"Timeframe: Six to eight months."

Everybody resonated their pleasure at that answer. Being able to resolve the current uncertain situation in six to eight months was much better than grappling with unpredictability for three years. The question was how to achieve that much improvement.

Guardian H'minee altered another question at the Lord of Civic Planning.

"Query: Available resources."

"Materials: Available. Labor: Insufficient."

The material resources for construction of the beacons were available or could be obtained quickly. Unfortunately, the labor pool was too small. Guardian H'minee altered a question at the Lord of Military Operations.

"Query: Military personnel. Subject: Availability. Usage: Construction of sub-space beacons."

A hint of mixed worry and displeasure wove through the aura of the Lord of Military Operations.

"Level: Conceptual. Personnel: Available. Security: Diminished. Risk: Increased. Outcome: Unpredictable."

At a conceptual level, sufficient military personnel could be made available to augment the labor resources needed to construct the sub-space beacons more quickly. However, this would greatly reduce the ability of the military to protect the Caretakers and make them more vulnerable to military operations. If this were detected by the humans, it may increase the likelihood of a surprise attack. There was no way to predict the outcome of such an event. It would definitely disrupt development of the sub-space beacons.

The Lord of Economic Policy resonated a desire to offer a suggestion.

"Labor Pool: Available. Source: Human. Method: Employment. Employment: Human Economic Concept."

That was certainly an odd idea. Use humans to provide the labor pool for construction of the sub-space beacons? And what does it mean to "employ" them?

It took the Lord of Economic Policy about fifteen minutes to explain the concept. Human economic concepts were very different from Progenitor concepts. Humans would provide goods or services in exchange for economic considerations, which they could in turn exchange with other humans for other goods or services. The economic consideration was symbolized by energy credits or what the humans called "money".

The other council Lords found the entire concept quite repulsive. It was no wonder the humans were so irrational and contrary! Allowing individuals to exercise control over economic policy at even a microscopic level was tantamount to chaos! Many of the Lords started to show hints of suspicion in their auras that somehow suggested that perhaps the Lord of Economic Policy had spent far too much time in the presence of humans and was developing a tendency towards perversion. The Lord of Economic Policy hastened to add the fact that human economic principles were taught at broodling academy as an example of how not to run a well-ordered economic system.

Guardian H'minee was able to look beyond the emotional unpleasantness to see a larger opportunity. There were several problems that would need to be resolved and much planning to be done. If they "employed" these humans, what would they use for "money"? How would they house and feed them? Humans could not eat Progenitor foodstuffs. They didn't like as much nitrogen in the atmosphere as Progenitors needed. Most important, the humans could never be allowed to know what they were building or why they were building it.

The meeting of the Council of Lords went over two hours beyond its scheduled end, which was highly uncharacteristic of the Caretakers. However, when the meeting concluded, the Caretakers had a workable strategic plan for "employing" human laborers to help them speed up production.

Various human organizations that distributed information to humans would be contacted to notify humans that their services were desired and would be rewarded. Like the Progenitors, humans used energy credits as a medium of economic exchange, so "money" would be no problem. Humans would be housed in facilities outside the cities where the sub-space beacons were being built. Human foodstuffs would be purchased from places that had abundance (what an odd concept! Why didn't humans simply transport excess food to locations where it would produce the most benefit? Why was the excess in the wrong location in the first place?).

The hard part would be operational security. Deception would be necessary. Progenitors were not particularly good at deception since it showed up in the aura so easily. However, humans could not sense Progenitor auras, so they would not be able to directly detect the deception. Their "cover story" would be that the Caretakers were building a new, more powerful energy generator. Humans would only be told what they needed to perform a specific task. Besides, once construction was accelerated, the steps required to defeat the Caretakers were three-fold. First, somebody had to figure out what they were actually building. Second, that information had to reach somebody who could actually do something about it. Third, that same somebody had to be able to prevent the completion of the beacons within an increasingly smaller time frame.

If necessary the Caretaker military was certainly capable of holding off invaders long enough to complete the project. Their window of vulnerability would grow smaller with each day of production.

There were a number of details to be planned, but the concept was brilliant. Use the humans to complete the mechanism of their own destruction. A sense of contentment, even a touch of pleasure, wove throw the auras of many of the Caretaker Lords; Guardian H'minee was particularly pleased. She began to alter.

"Times: Extreme. Situation: Extreme. Methods: Equally extreme. Concept: Wise. Irony: Delicious."

Most of the Lords altered their assent. Extreme times and situation did in fact call for equally extreme methods. Their strategic concept was more than wise, it was brilliant. The irony of using human labor to destroy the human species was quite palpable and felt good to the aura.

In all their brilliant planning, the Caretakers should have planned their own defeat. They were going to need it.

**OldCodger** · August 23, 2000, 09:46

CHAPTER 27 - Where, Oh Where, Are You Tonight? Why Did You Leave Me Here All Alone?

Sister Miriam Godwinson awoke with a start. It was cool due to the onset of Chiron's version of winter. Chiron's winter was not as severe as earth's winter because the planet did not have as much ""tilt" on its axis. However, one could still notice the change of seasons at New Jerusalem's latitude.

Sister Miriam was cold because she had apparently kicked her quilt off again. But that is not what woke her. She was actually covered in a cold, clammy sweat; the kind one gets when sick or worried about something in the middle of the night. But Miriam was not sick or worried.

Sister Miriam Godwinson had a dream, an important dream. The kind of dream that alters the course of one's life.

Actually, Sister Miriam had had two dreams, both of which would alter the course of her life. The first dream involved one Abdul Al'Saleem and would be classified by polite people as "colorful", "interesting", or "particularly vivid". Sister Miriam would have been very embarrassed had Abdul Al'Saleem ever found out about her frequent dreams involving him, just as Abdul Al'Saleem would have been equally embarrassed had Sister Miriam found out about the dreams he had been having about her. However, the next generation of the Lord's Believers would have to come from somewhere, and human nature would eventually take its course in this matter and alter the lives of both Miriam and Abdul. They didn't know it yet, but in about three years, they would eventually be married and, about two years later, she would give birth to their first child.

But this wasn't the dream that had awakened Sister Miriam. The dream that had awakened Sister Miriam would have less impact on her life than the one she had been having about Abdul, but would have much more impact on the future of humanity on Chiron.

After the vapors of sleep cleared from her head, Sister Miriam Godwinson believed she had been given a Divine revelation.

The essence of this dream is difficult to describe. Unlike Sister Miriam's dream involving Abdul Al'Saleem, there was no visual component. In fact, there was no sensory input whatsoever. In her dream, she saw nothing, heard nothing, and felt nothing.

She just knew.

At some point, and in some unfathomable way, she was given knowledge. Actually, it was more like she was given purpose.

Unlike the unbelieving and ignorant human faction leaders, Sister Miriam clearly understood that Chiron was humanity's second, and possibly final, chance. The Creator had given humanity a perfectly good home on earth and humanity had squandered the chance to be good stewards of what they had been given, to be blessed, and ultimately to be happy there.

Instead, humanity had plundered their own home world, hoarded its resources and wealth to the detriment of others, and had apparently blown the place up to finish their work. All this was done in the name of humanity's new false gods: Wealth, Comfort, Convenience, Sensuality, and Power--to name but a few.

Of course, Miriam wasn't absolutely certain that humanity had actually blown itself off of earth, but the fact that almost 200 years had transpired since the Unity crashed on Chiron with not one single message from earth in all that time did tend to suggest that conclusion.

Sister Miriam had always thought of the Unity as Noah's Ark for a new age. In the book of Genesis, Noah's ark was the means by which humanity and all animal life had been spared during the time of the flood. The Unity had been the means by which humanity had been spared yet another judgement.

Even if the other human faction leaders denied this truth, Miriam understood it. Nobody knew for certain what the two Progenitor factions believed. Miriam dismissed their beliefs as irrelevant.

Just as Miriam believed that humanity had been given a second chance to avoid destruction, Sister Miriam believed she had been chosen to be humanity's unifier and leader. Her dream or vision or revelation told her in very clear terms that she was wrong. She had not been chosen to be humanity's unifier and leader. That role had been given to another, a man named Melvin Higgins.

When the name of the one who had been chosen to unify and lead humanity was given to Miriam, she marveled at the Divine Wisdom in that choice. Sister Miriam's Conclave Bible said that the meek would inherit the earth. Sister Miriam had a proper understanding of what the word "meek" actually meant. This was not a weak, defenseless word, but a strength of character or will bound by humility, love, and gentleness. Sister Miriam clearly saw all these in the person of Melvin Higgins, and had to admit that the Divine Choice was the wise one.

Even so, Sister Miriam did not try to hide her disappointment at not being the chosen one. She also expressed her sorrow at her own arrogance for having assumed the role would be hers and for proving to be unworthy of it. Her vision assured her that she was not being punished or rebuked. Instead, she was being prepared.

The Chosen One would need help in his task. He could not do it alone. He would need a forerunner or somebody to prepare the way for him. She had been chosen to be that forerunner.

Again, Sister Miriam saw the Divine Wisdom. Just as the Christ had a forerunner named John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Savior, she would prepare the way for Melvin Higgins.

He was going to need the help. The foes were many and strong. The way was long and hard. The Chosen One was not aware of his destiny, nor was Sister Miriam permitted to tell him as the knowledge might make him proud and ultimately unfit for the service he was to perform.

A tear of gratitude rolled down Miriam's cheek. She gratefully accepted the role she had been given.

"Thy will be done."

* * * * *

Gayle Storm awoke with a start. The pager on her right thigh was vibrating. Something significantly annoying was going on somewhere and she was going to have to tend to it immediately.

Actually, Gayle wasn't supposed to be asleep. It was Friday and nothing significant was happening in the office, so she had left a little early. She had planned to go home and actually cook dinner--from basic ingredients no less. She would cook a couple of her husband's favorite dishes, slip into something slinky and comfortable, and then seduce him (which wasn't all that hard to do, but enjoyable nonetheless). He had done something similar for her a few weeks ago and she had enjoyed the attention immensely. She had managed to implement steps one and two of her plan, but then both of them had fallen asleep before step three was even started.

It had been a long, tiring week for both of them.

So, when that annoying pager started to vibrate, it was still relatively early in the evening. Gayle grabbed the stupid pager and wanted to hurl it into the fireplace in the belief that it would have clogged the toilet had she hurled it into that preferred location. Instead, she looked at it and saw the single code word "congruent". That meant that a high priority internal event had occurred and she needed to respond to it immediately. She was immediately alert and clear-headed. She picked up a nearby robe, put it on, and quietly went to her study. She had the blue console connect her directly to the director of the Covert Operations center in Morgan Industries to find out what was going on that needed her attention.

"This is Gayle Storm. Summarize the situation."

"Paula Forbes has fled from Morgan Industries."

That surprised Gayle Storm. Paula had seemed to settle in at her new assignment at the recycling tanks and seemed to be doing a good job, at least the last Gayle had heard about her several weeks ago. While Paula would probably never rise to the heights she had fallen from, she could still have had a good career and reap the benefits of her success. There had to be some mistake.

"Did you just say that Paula Forbes has fled the capital?"

"That is correct."

* * * * *

When Paula Forbes arrived at work, she was even more certain that today needed to be the day she got out of Morgan Industries. Everything was in place, at least as well as she could make it be in place. She had been careful, but she would inevitably make mistakes. If they ever had even a hint of what she was planning, she would never escape at all. She hadn't seen much signs of recent surveillance, but this would be the day when they would change probe teams if they were still watching her.

In fact, they were still watching her, especially on Friday afternoons. A holo-camera had been placed in an obscure location near Paula's "love nest". The camera was connected to a remote location where two brand new probe operatives were watching. They were watching the holo-monitor.

"What time is it?", asked one of the operatives.

"It's getting close to three o'clock.", said the other.

"According to this report, it's getting close to time for her weekly session with her boyfriend."

As he watched another moment, he saw Paula Forbes walk hand-in-hand with one of the workers from the recycling tanks. They entered a room and closed the door. According to the report, they would be in there about an hour or so.

"She's not a bad looking woman. She could do better than that.", said one of the operatives.

"Not smelling like she does, she can't."

Both of the operatives had a good laugh at that.

"They're going to be in there for a while. You want to go get a cup of coffee?"

"Sure."

The two operatives left the surveillance room to get coffee. They returned about thirty minutes later. Nothing appeared to have changed. About 4:30, they started getting a little worried. About 5:15, they become concerned. They mounted a new recording crystal and did a rapid search on the previously recorded crystal to see if Paula and her paramour had left early. They hadn't. At 5:35, they went to the room. The door was locked, so they used a special password to bypass the locking pad. Inside, they found the man they had observed earlier. He was tied up on a cot with a rag stuffed in his mouth. There was a table with two partially full glasses on it. There was also a large air duct that had had the cover removed.

They untied the guy on the cot, who told them that Paula had given him something to drink and he had fallen asleep. When he awoke, she was gone and he was tied up on the cot with a rag in his mouth. He also hoped that the rag was clean because it sure tasted awful (it wasn't).

The two probes were in a near panic. This was their very first assignment since training and it was supposed to be easy. This was not going to cover them with glory. One of the probes went into the air duct to see if he could follow her trail. The other started running around the tanks trying to see if he could find her.

The open air duct grill was, of course, a false trail. Several weeks ago, Paula had another air duct re-routed to pass near a corner of this room. She had also had the room renovated with a new floor, new ceiling, and a fresh coat of paint. In the process, she had conveniently added access to the re-routed air duct from the corner of the floor of the remodeled room by means of a hidden, false floor tile.

The two probe operatives, being basically green, cocky, and idiots, were of course unaware of this. They both ran all over the place for at least 30 minutes before it dawned on either one of them to pull up the engineering drawings on the computer to determine where things were located so they could focus their effort in some area Paula might have actually gone to. When they accessed the computer files, a latent virus scrambled the drawings and replaced them with the drawings for one of those new country-western nightclubs that had recently opened in Morgan Industries. It took at least another 30 minutes for the two probes to realize that the files they were working so hard to understand had nothing to do with the recycling tanks.

After several more minutes of sorrow and panic, they finally decided that they had better call somebody and let them know what had happened. Privately, both of them decided to make a career change. This job was too stressful. Shortly after eight o'clock, they called their supervisor and notified her of what had happened.

Their supervisor asked them a few questions and then went ballistic. She took a few more moments to offer some colorful counseling to her young subordinates and then disconnected the comm channel without even saying good-bye.

A career change was definitely in order.

* * * * *

Since it was Friday evening, it took about an hour for the operations supervisor to assemble a team to begin investigating the whereabouts of Paula Forbes. However, once they arrived at the recycling tanks, they were quick and efficient. They quickly discovered the virus that had scrambled the drawings and the fact that the air duct was a false trail. It took them only slightly longer to determine the actual escape path. While all this was being done, they were also examining job orders, purchase orders, and other information about what Paula did on her job and how she did it. They detected another virus that was intended to scramble all these records and easily disabled it before it could do any harm. Other operatives were viewing surveillance recordings to search for particular patterns of behavior and to build up a psych profile on Paula Forbes. By around 10:00 PM, they had enough information to make an initial assessment.

Paula had definitely fled Morgan Industrial and had been planning this for quite some time. She had positioned identical supply caches along six different routes. Two lead to Spartan territory. One lead to University territory. Two lead to New Appalachia. One lead to the harbor.

But Paula Forbes wasn't fooling anyone. She was headed for New Appalachia.

* * * * *

After hearing a summary of the events of the evening, Gayle Storm was visibly angry. Very few people had ever seen her in that emotional state. It's rarity made it all the more intense and uncomfortable, especially when one was the target of that anger.

Gayle curbed her desire to go into a rage and began to issue orders.

"First, those two imbeciles that messed around for so long before notifying anyone of the situation and allowed Paula Forbes additional time to escape are no longer probe operatives. They now have new jobs working in the recycling tanks. See that they are placed on the biological wastes line. Or even better, on the medical wastes line.

"Second, we need to deal with Paula Forbes. What is the best team currently on standby-operational status?"

The director of the covert operations center paused a moment to pull up a report and then responded.

"That would be the EdgeCrusher team."

"Excellent. The EdgeCrusher team is now code blue. Their assignment is to locate Paula Forbes and terminate her. Authorization for termination is Chi Typhoon 36 Gimel. Contact our probe teams in and around New Appalachia. Place them on alert level 3 with the same assignment. That stupid young twit has just cost herself her life."

Gayle terminated the connection to the covert operations center. She paused for a moment to get herself under control and then turned to her titanium communications console.

"Activate titanium channel alpha. Authorization blue chameleon six."

The machine answered, "Connecting." There was a brief pause and then the machine said, "Connection established. CEO Morgan will be with you in a moment." A few seconds passed and then Gayle heard CEO Morgan. The video was off, which was pretty typical for CEO Morgan.

"Good evening, Gayle. What can I do for you?"

"Good evening, CEO. I apologize for the interruption, but I was just informed that Paula Forbes had fled Morgan Industries and is probably headed for New Appalachia. Given what she knows, I have ordered the EdgeCrusher team to code blue and authorized them to intercept and terminate Paula Forbes. I've also placed our probe teams in and around New Appalachia on alert level 3 and authorized them to apprehend and terminate her as well. I know you don't particularly care for termination, but I think this case warrants extreme action."

That news surprised Nwabudike Morgan. Ever since that outburst by Paula Forbes when he had outlined his plan to subjugate the Hillbillies, he hadn't thought too much about her. The fact that he hadn't heard anything about her at all seemed to indicate that that particular little problem had been solved.

Apparently not.

CEO Morgan paused for a moment to think and then he responded.

"Under the circumstances, I have to agree with you. The knowledge she has about our plans could be used against us. The fact that she has fled toward New Appalachia indicates that she is going to use that knowledge against us. Her clear intent to damage our efforts calls for an extreme response."

Had Gayle been able to see Nwabudike Morgan, she would have seen him smile slightly, and it woud have confused her. But CEO Morgan was not smiling about the circumstances; the current situation had the potential to be devastating. CEO Morgan was smiling because Gayle Storm had been tough, decisive, and effective.

CEO Morgan had been wrong about Gayle somehow getting soft. She was still the same intelligent, efficient business associate she had always been. Sometimes it just took extraordinary circumstances to bring out a person's strength. CEO Morgan spoke again.

"Let me know when Paula has been found and terminated. I know this is unpleasant business, but you did the right thing, Gayle."

After bidding Gayle goodnight, CEO Morgan terminated the channel.

It was good to have the old Gayle Storm back.

**OldCodger** · August 25, 2000, 09:31

CHAPTER 28 - I'm Going "Dear" Huntin' and I'm Huntin' You

The comm channel buzzed, waking Brother Abdul Al'Saleem from a rather deep and pleasant slumber. He had been in the middle of a "colorful" and "particularly vivid" dream involving Sister Miriam that would have been extremely embarrassing if she ever found out what he had been dreaming.

A small degree of coherency stabbed through his mind and he was able to active the comm channel.

"Abdul here. What do you want?"

"The is Belladonna. Mother has a fever. Perhaps you'd better come quickly."

That woke him up completely.

"I'm on my way. Send a rover and I'll be at the door in 10 minutes."

The channel disconnected.

The titanium channel surveillance team had decrypted an intercept that appeared to be very important. They had classified it as "Visual Only" and would not send it out over even a secure channel. This particular message required his immediate attention and he had to go to the covert operations center in New Jerusalem to read it.

Brother Abdul got dressed, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and was at the front door in a little over 12 minutes. A rover was waiting out front to take him to the covert operations center. Since this was the middle of the night, there was little traffic on the streets and they arrived at their destination in fairly quick order.

Brother Abdul got himself a cup of coffee. It was the really strong stuff commonly referred to as "covert coffee". It had a serious caffeine kick, which is exactly what Abdul needed. He took a quick sip of his coffee and then headed toward the office of the surveillance team manager. When he arrived, he found the surveillance team manager, the operations center manager, and his deputy director of field operations already there.

This told Abdul that whatever they had intercepted was really big stuff.

Abdul looked at the surveillance team manager and asked, "What do you have?"

"About 20 minutes ago, we decrypted an intercept from Morgan Industries. It was a message from Morgan's director of covert operations, a woman named Gayle Storm, advising the CEO that another individual named Paula Forbes had fled Morgan Industries and was probably headed for New Appalachia. Storm has activated the EdgeCrusher team and authorized them to locate and terminate Paula Forbes. She has also placed all of the Morganite probe teams in and around New Appalachia on an increased alert status with same mission of finding and terminating Paula Forbes."

Conversation paused for a few moments while Abdul read the intercept and digested the meaning. After a couple of minutes, Abdul looked up from the intercept.

"The most immediate concern is the increase in the operational status of Morganite probes teams near New Appalachia. If their teams make some sort of aggressive move, it will likely trigger responses from the probe teams of other faction. If that war goes hot, there will be a lot of noise and mysteriously dead people in the region of New Appalachia. What are our assets in the area and what can we do to prevent a covert war?"

The deputy director of field operations answered the question.

"Right now, we have 15 operational teams in the area as compared to eight Morganite teams. We have made the appropriate signs of our presence there, but I believe the Morganites do not know how many teams we actually have in the area. Most of the other factions have multiple teams in the area; possibly as many as 30 percent of Chiron's entire number of human probe teams are operating in and around New Appalachia. If a covert war breaks out, things will get real ugly real fast."

Brother Abdul nodded his understanding.

"We need to do something to prevent that. Paula Forbes may be the key. What do we know about Paula Forbes? What does she know that would be sufficient cause for the Morganites to want her dead? They tend to be more interested in commercial espionage and not assassination. Apparently, it's enough for them to send in the EdgeCrusher team."

The deputy director of field operations responded.

"We're putting together a full profile on Forbes now. What we've learned so far is that she was a "rising star" in Morgan Enterprises and, several months ago was assigned as Gayle Storm's aide. Apparently she was at one of the early strategic planning meetings where CEO Morgan presented his plan for New Appalachia. Other evidence indicates that CEO Morgan is attempting to subjugate New Appalachia by economic means, but we don't have specific details and timetables to see what their actual objectives are or how far they've progressed. Apparently, Forbes said or did something displeasing at this meeting and shortly thereafter was assigned to the position of a line supervisor at the recycling tanks at Morgan Industries. That particular facility is one of the oldest such on Chiron, so I'm guessing that the technology is obsolete and it probably smells pretty bad. The Morganites use this facility for punitive action."

"Kind of like prison without the bars?"

"Exactly."

"Do we know what she looks like?"

"We have several pictures taken from standard Morganite news sources and trade journals. She'll probably make some effort to disguise herself, but trained operatives will know what to look for."

Abdul thought for a moment and then said, "We need to intercept Forbes before she gets anywhere close to New Appalachia and before the EdgeCrusher team finds her. What assets do we have available?"

The deputy director of field operations responded. "We have four elite teams we can move out of New Appalachia and not compromise our surveillance of other probe teams. We also have at least three ferret class sleeper teams in Morganite territory that we can activate if needed. We have several more teams with different operational capabilities, but I would be reluctant to activate them because we are likely to need them in the near future."

Abdul thought about that for a moment. That was a lot of resources to commit to saving one person. But that one person just might be worth it.

"Very well, set up the operation from here. Activate the three ferret teams and have them sniff out Forbes' trail. Once they've caught her scent, move the four elite teams in to intercept. I'm sure everyone understands this, but let me say it anyway to be perfectly clear. We want to take Paula Forbes alive and unharmed. She probably knows things that we need to know. Also, it will really hack off CEO Morgan."

Abdul looked at the other three individuals in the office to make sure they understood. They did. Then he began to smile slightly and said, "I also want us to get a fix on the EdgeCrusher team if we can. There's a good possibility that we can neutralize them if we can surprise them. They may not be aware of our interest in Forbes and so they may be vulnerable to a counter-op. Capture would be preferred, but any form of neutralization would be acceptable."

The other three individuals thought that was a rather daring plan, but the potential payoff for success would be enormous. The EdgeCrusher team had been more than an annoyance on several occasions.

"Finally, see how many additional probe teams we can get into the New Appalachia region. If that covert war goes hot, I want us to be the winner. Start putting tracers on Morganite, University, and Peacekeeper probe teams. Keep an eye on everybody else too, but those three will likely become the enemy if this situation gets out of control."

Abdul then looked at the operations center manager and said, "I believe I should discuss this immediately with Sister Miriam. Place a call to her residence and inform her that I will be arriving there in about 30 minutes. Copy this transcript to an encrypted data crystal and give it to a properly certified courier. Get two armed, covert escorts and an armored rover to take the courier and myself to Sister Miriam's residence. Then, all three of you should remain available here in the event that she decides to change the instructions I've given you."

If Abdul couldn't dream about Sister Miriam, he might as well pay her a visit.

* * * * *

Dmitri Anakoulis, the current legal identity of the leader of the EdgeCrusher probe team, was in a bit of a foul mood. He had been in the process of actually enjoying himself, when he received a signal on his implant pager that his team had just been activated.

EdgeCrusher had been at the recreation commons of Morgan Industries, attending a concert of his favorite holo-chaos band, Flaming Rat Droppings. Even better, he had been in disguise as a "chaos-banger", and therefore the entire evening qualified as a training exercise. He was going to turn the cost of the evening--tickets for Flaming Rat Droppings concerts were horribly expensive; not to mention dinner, transport, and other niceties--in on an expense voucher. He was going to have a good time and stick his employer with the bill.

Except now he wasn't going to finish his evening. Instead, he was sitting in a chair at a table at the recycling tanks of Morgan Industries getting briefed about his current assignment, a "find and terminate" mission on some woman named Paula Forbes. The briefing was currently at the point where the head of the investigative team was filling him in on what they had discovered thus far. Her team had done a reasonably good job with the initial investigation. However, this mollified EdgeCrusher's considerable annoyance at the situation only slightly, and was effectively countered by the fact that the entire facility stank.

She continued her briefing.

"We had been monitoring Paula Forbes with small teams of individuals who had recently completed basic covert training. We knew, of course, that she would probably detect the surveillance, but believed that the fact that we were watching would be enough motivation to keep her in line. Instead, she attempted to establish behavior patterns that would lull inexperienced teams into a sense of security. She was fairly successful in this.

"From our interrogation of the man she rendered unconscious and then tied up, she was using him to establish the appearance of a weekly tryst, when in fact all that was happening was that she was paying him for the appearance. They went into the room and sat there for an hour while she worked on reports or purchase orders, or simply read a book. He could do whatever he wanted as long as he made no effort to touch her. At first, he made some effort at more intimate contact and she nearly broke his arm. For this, he was paid 100 millicredits per week.

"Also, she used her position as purchasing agent to basically embezzle credits from the recycling tanks budget, which she laundered, invested rather shrewdly, and then re-laundered. It will take several days to work through the various receipts, but right now we estimate that she may have well over 100,000 credits in her possession. She also planted at least three computer viruses to erase records or other key information. One of them was successful, but we detected and disarmed the other two. However, there may be more to be found.

"From what we have detected thus far, she had attempted to prepare several different supply caches along at least six different routes in an attempt to confuse her trail. She's also hit three of the starting points in an effort to further confuse us. We will, of course, pursue all six alternatives, plus any others that we may discover, but we are reasonably certain she will head for New Appalachia along this approach right here."

A holo-matrix projector was activated, showing a map of Morganite territory with five superimposed blue lines and one yellow line. The yellow line headed in the direction of New Appalachia.

EdgeCrusher looked at the map and then asked, "Why would she be heading to New Appalachia? Any particular reason?"

"I'm sure there is, but the information is privileged and I have not been made aware of it." Her words said that she didn't know, but her body language told EdgeCrusher that she did know. She just couldn't say it since she wasn't supposed to actually know it. His estimation of her capability went up a notch. Of course, EdgeCrusher had known the background about the Paula Forbes situation, but he wasn't supposed to know that either. It was simply better to ask the question and leave an appropriate appearance for his employers.

The Director of the covert operations center in Morgan Industries took over the briefing at this point.

"Our operational security on this one should be intact. Nobody knows that we're after Forbes and nobody is going to care. However, we would like this matter settled well before she reaches the vicinity of New Appalachia. We have our teams near New Appalachia on level three alert, but would prefer that they not be involved in this in any way. Most of the factions have multiple probe teams in that area and we do not want to accidentally trigger a covert war."

That made sense to EdgeCrusher and also told him why his team had been selected for the assignment. They wanted this done fast, so you sent for the best.

The EdgeCrusher team specialized more in information extraction than assassination. They were also good at a number of covert operations specialities. EdgeCrusher didn't particularly like assassinations. He had moral qualms about killing people plus it jeopardized his own team's safety. Once that can of worms was opened, everybody got involved and there was no going back.

However, his employers were not concerned about EdgeCrusher's morals or politics. They paid him to do difficult jobs for them and they paid him well. He looked at the woman who had been briefing him on the current situation and said, "Paula Forbes has done pretty well for an amateur. But she's still an amateur. It shouldn't be too difficult to track her down and eliminate her."

**OldCodger** · August 28, 2000, 13:23

CHAPTER 29 - Just What Will I Find When I Finally Find You?

Paula Forbes was literally fleeing for her life. She had no idea where her pursuers were or when they would actually get to her, but she knew they were coming nonetheless.

She didn't know how much confusion she had actually caused when she made her break from the recycling tanks at Morgan Industries. She had tried to construct several false trails and planted five computer viruses to make things more difficult for her pursuers. However, she harbored no illusions of long lasting success. Morganite probe teams were among the best on Chiron. All she could really hope to do was to buy enough time to get away and find a safe hole to crawl into. The "safe hole" part of her plan was pretty tenuous; nobody in New Appalachia was aware of who she was or the fact that she was coming. Nor was there any indication that they could actually protect her. Perhaps she should have planned that part a little bit better.

Still, there was some reason for optimism. She had placed access tracers on a couple of the more obvious bank accounts that would let her know when their assets had been frozen. Those accounts had been frozen a good three hours later than she had originally expected. Apparently the pursuit had even more trouble getting organized than she had originally hoped.

They probably also underestimated the total number of energy credits she escaped with. It would take them several days of hard work to learn that she had over 500,000 credits at her disposal. If she lived another two days, she might be able to put that to good use.

Paula had just entered the city of Morgan Robotics. This was the last really large city before she entered the foothills of New Appalachia. There were still two smaller Morganite towns on the path that she had chosen, but they were relatively new. Morgan Robotics had been around long enough to have most of the standard Morganite comforts and conveniences, i.e., everything required for gracious living. It was also large enough that Paula had some hope of remaining anonymous. Her plan was to pause here briefly to check an anonymous network account for any messages indicating that her pursuers were tracking her. Paula had managed to hire a few "less than savory" individuals to watch her back trail as she passed through to see if she was being followed. If she was, there would be messages posted at an anonymous network account.

There was one message from one individual. The message indicated that she was not being followed as of yesterday afternoon. This was not good. Her hired eyes were supposed to send one kind of message if they detected pursuit and another kind of message if there was no pursuit. The fact that only one individual actually sent a message indicated that either the others had simply taken the money and ran, or they had been caught and were unable to send a message.

Paula checked the address of the single poster and then cross-checked that against her notepad. There was a least one other observer who was closer to her current location than the single poster. He should have reported by now, but had not done so. Her pursuers could be very close.

That was not good, but there was nothing to be done about it except try to get away. All she could think of at this point was to follow her plan. She would go to the local recreation commons, change her disguise again, and then pick up her rental rover. From there, she would head northwest up the main highway to Morgan Entertainment, and try to make it there by nightfall. She had arranged a room in a local flophouse that she hoped would allow her to rest a bit before making the final push into New Appalachia.

She disconnected from the anonymous network account and walked the two blocks to the recreation commons. She went into the restroom to change her disguise.

* * * * *

As Paula Forbes entered the restroom at the recreation commons, a pair of eyes saw her. This particular pair of eyes had been following her for about an hour and was waiting for an opportunity to do something decisive.

That opportunity just presented itself.

The owner of that particular pair of eyes was known as a "ferret" class probe operative. Ferret operatives specialized in finding things. This ferret had received a tip from another ferret who happened to catch a break and learn much of what the Morganites knew about where Paula was heading not long after activation. The ferret had done his job. Now it was time for others to do their jobs. The ferret concentrated very hard on a series of code words. There was supposed to be an empath nearby who would eventually pick up on the ferret's thoughts. The ferret repeated the code words in his mind for several seconds, and then received an acknowledgement when he was suddenly overcome by the urge to go to the bathroom. He barely made it.

Some empaths were noted for particularly perverse senses of humor.

* * * * *

The empath smiled to himself at his little joke. However, there was still work to do. The next part was too delicate to rely entirely on empathy. First, they needed someone to check out the bathroom to see how many occupants it had. Then, they needed to isolate Paula Forbes very quickly. The empath activated his implanted comm link and directed a nearby female team member to enter the bathroom at the recreation commons. It would take a few moments for her to arrive. The empath focused on the bathroom to see if anything could be detected. There appeared to be at least three people in there, one of whom was trained to shield. That one was probably the target. It was difficult to be certain, so the empath focused his effort on making all three feel a little nauseous and dizzy. That would keep them there for a bit.

The empath suddenly felt dizzy himself. Being an empath was not particularly easy. It took talent, a lot of training, and massive amounts of energy. This empath had drained his physical energy reserves and was in danger of becoming unconscious. He quickly applied a hypo-spray full of glucose.

* * * *

Paula Forbes was sitting in a stall in the bathroom of the recreation commons allegedly using the facilities as they had been intended. In fact, she was in the process of changing her disguise. She had saved the best for last. When she emerged from the stall, she would look like a woman in her mid sixties who was probably due for another longevity treatment in the near future.

Paula had been taught basic mental shielding, so the wave of nausea that overcame the other two women in the bathroom did not affect her as dramatically. She struggled for a moment with her uncooperative stomach and then realized what this meant. The sudden sickness of the other two women had been too sudden and too simultaneous with her own nausea to be a coincidence. There must be an empath nearby.

They were on to her and they were very close. They were trying to slow her down to pick her up right here and right now. She had to get out of here or she was dead.

She had only managed to change her clothes. The facial portion of her disguise would have to wait. She gathered what she could and struggled with the door to the stall. She staggered out into the open area of the bathroom and headed for the door. Just as she got to the door, it opened and another woman entered the bathroom. The other woman took a quick glance around the bathroom and saw that the other two occupants were occupied with their own problems and weren't aware of anyone else in the bathroom. Then, she looked directly at Paula Forbes and smiled.

Paula knew it was over.

She made some effort to use her martial arts training to disable her pursuer, but she was quickly rendered unconscious by a single, quick blow. She lost consciousness so quickly that she didn't have time to even wonder what death would be like.

* * * * *

The EdgeCrusher team left the safe house in Morgan Robotics to move toward the center of the city to find and capture their quarry. Termination of the life of that quarry would not take place in Morgan Robotics. If somebody happened to see that, the local authorities would get involved and there were just some things they were better off not knowing.

The EdgeCrusher team had tracked Paula Forbes to Morgan Robotics in spite of her best efforts to conceal her trail. It had only been mildly difficult to do so. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that somebody else was operating in the area.

One did not survive long as one of the best probe teams on Chiron without developing an instinct for survival. And right now, that instinct was warning EdgeCrusher that something was wrong with this whole setup. EdgeCrusher understood his own instincts and relied on them. However, he had been in similar situations before and their was no need to hit the panic button yet. They were close to the target now and he believed he could get in, snatch the target, and get out before his pursuers managed to fully organize themselves.

They had done it before and now they would do it again.

A local ferret team had observed Paula Forbes enter a restroom at the recreation commons and then emerge several minutes later wearing a new disguise. From there, she had proceeded to a nearby "Rent-A-Rover" office where she rented a late model rover and headed northwest out of town in the direction of Morgan Entertainment.

Morgan Entertainment was a small town and the road to it was not heavily traveled yet. It would be an excellent place to make the pickup. EdgeCrusher estimated that they were only 20 or so minutes behind the target, so it should be possible to catch up to her very soon. EdgeCrusher had already sent his point team out to acquire the target. When they had her location, the rest of the team would then move in for the snatch.

As the bulk of the EdgeCrusher team passed through the center of Morgan Robotics, EdgeCrusher began to feel more uncomfortable with the whole mission. He started scanning the nearby area for signs of observation or pursuit, but he couldn't detect anything. However, the closer he got to his quarry, the more his instincts were warning him.

As the EdgeCrusher team was leaving the city, the point team reported in that they had found the rental rover. It had apparently broken down a few kilometers outside of town.

That was unbelievably good luck. They could snatch the target and get out before whoever was on their tail had time to react. EdgeCrusher ordered the driver to hit the accelerator. It would be best to get in and get out as quickly as possible.

The point team reported that they had arrived at the rented rover and nobody was there. Tracks lead off into the forest and the team was going to send two team members in pursuit. The third member would remain at the location of the two rovers.

As his team sped toward their target, EdgeCrusher began to get even more uncomfortable. This had been too easy. Something felt wrong about the whole thing. He made an effort to contact his point team, but there was no response.

EdgeCrusher immediately turned to his driver.

"Abort the mission. Now. Turn us around and get us back to Morgan Robotics. Comm, send the code word 'banshee' on the secure channel. Somehow, we've been compromised. Everybody, be alert."

As the driver slowed down to turn the rover around, he suddenly felt the steering go "squishy".

"Somebody just shot our tires out.", he reported. The rover would be impossible to drive at high speeds. On the road in front of them, they saw that the road was blocked by what appeared to be an armored terraformer. Their path of retreat had been cut off. EdgeCrusher started giving the necessary orders.

"Arm yourselves people; this is going to get ugly. Bail out of the rover and scatter into the forest on the north side of the road. There's good cover there and we can use it to make an orderly retreat. Help is on the way."

As the rover doors opened and the team started to bail out, canisters of soporific gas landed near their position and started hissing as they released their contents. EdgeCrusher cursed silently. Nobody had nose filters installed, so the gas would slow them down quite a bit.

As the team tried to retreat into the forest, EdgeCrusher heard the sharp whine of a charging chaos weapon. Since his team was only packing shredder pistols, it had to be somebody else's. As EdgeCrusher looked around to identify the source of the sound, he heard a voice.

"I have you covered with six chaos rifles. You can either drop your weapons, surrender, and live, or attempt to fight and die. You have five seconds to decide."

**fluffy** · October 18, 2001, 11:01

bumped - thought this deserved a chance of being discovered by a new audience...

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The Forgotten Faction - Volume 2

The Forgotten Faction - Volume 2

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