D'Mok Revival 1: Awakening (36 page)

“What’s that beam?” Mencari said.

Tenrl replied, “We think it’s a high-intensity radiation blast.”

Mencari looked down at Allia, whose eyes bugged out in understanding.

“Maybe Ichini was reacting to the radiation,” the small girl said. “Maybe that’s why he couldn’t transform.”

Mencari nodded, then returned his attention to the display. A marking on the side of the attacking ship made him grit his teeth. “There,” he said, pointing at the symbol. “Nukari.”

“This is the first time we’ve seen them pull out their fleet since the Coalition attack,” Eyani said. “No telling how long it will be until it happens again, regardless of how covert their operations have been lately.”

“I have a proposition for you, Mencari,” Tenrl said in a quiet but serious tone. “We’re doing our best, but even with our resources we can’t be everywhere, and do everything.”

Tenrl paused, looking across the group, before fixing his gaze on Mencari.

“Your team has already demonstrated its skill, and capabilities,” Tenrl added. “Work with us, and together we’ll stop the Nukari.”

“Become part of Eden?” Mencari asked.

“No, you can keep your autonomy,” Tenrl explained. “We’d be allies. Sharing information, technologies—move and act together.”

“I can’t imagine Osuto would object to this,” Mencari said extending his hand. “Allies, then.”

“Good,” Tenrl said as his long, lanky fingers wrapped around Mencari’s hand.

“Bob will relay all the information you need to access our systems,” Eiani said.

“If there’s any problems, I’ll have Toriko contact Eyani,” Mencari said.

“There is something you could help us with immediately,” Tenrl said calling up star charts, and projections of satellites. “We’ve been searching our quadrant of space with probes, looking for the Nukari—and other activity. It’s a slow process, one your team could expedite.”

Mencari glanced at the others. “We’ve already been working on that ourselves. How can we help?”

“Eden can extend our technology to you, give you a section of our quadrant grid to search. You can upload your information directly into shared data store between our bases.”

Mencari considered this. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Excellent,” Tenrl said. “Bob will upload the necessary information for this as well, then. The technology’s quite advanced, so I trust you’ll keep its existence in confidence.”

Mencari nodded. “Of course.”

“Our crew will have the hardware ready for you to trailer back to your base.” He smiled. “While advanced, it’s also quite bulky at present.”

Mencari nodded.

“I can’t tell you how much this will help,” Tenrl added. “You have our deepest gratitude for the assistance.”

Mencari looked at the projections depicting the technology, then back at Tenrl, grinning. “Considering what limitations we’ve been working under, I could say the same.”
       
       

* * * * *

“
Bulky technology
, he said?” Mencari grunted, easing the last component from Eden down with Naijen. “Bit of an understatement.” He groaned, standing erect, then shaking his arms out.

“It’s beautiful to me!” Toriko said, eyes gleaming, as she strode over. “I can extend our ion tracking grid using Eden’s systems!”

“No geek talk,” Naijen said, reaching around and rubbing his back.

She grabbed her toolkit and dove toward an access panel. “I’m gonna start installing it.”

Mencari winced. “Now?”

“It won’t install itself,” she said, grinning roguishly.

He rolled his eyes as a tension crept across his chest. Toriko had to be told what happened to Professor Xabier. He knew what he had to do, though he dreaded the thought.

Maybe Osuto could do it?

He found himself fidgeting with his wedding ring, as memories of his wife and son filled his mind. Knowing his family was gone didn’t make him feel better, but it gave him a new starting place, a way to move forward. Sometimes living with waning hope is worse than having a clean finality to a situation, even if it resolved with a death. Didn’t Toriko deserve that? Anger welled within him for his cowardice.

A little rest, that’s all he wanted. He just needed to collect himself and his thoughts. Then he would tell her.

Yet, putting it off wasn’t going to help, or make it any easier later.

“Toriko…” he said hesitantly. He glanced over at Osuto, who nodded approvingly.

“Yes?” she said with her usual exuberance.

Mencari cringed inwardly, as he watched her eyes twinkling with youthful wonder.
This is going to crush her
, he thought.

No, he couldn’t do it. Not right now anyway. Part of being a leader is knowing the right thing to say at the right time to keep your team mates strong. And all he knew was that the hollowness inside was threatening to swallow him.

“Don’t stay up too late,” he said, faking his best smile.

“I’ll do my best!” she said. “But I can’t promise anything.”

Mencari noticed the disappointment in Osuto’s face.

“I’m going to get some rest,” he said, waving and heading down the corridor.

* * * * *

Toriko had been working for hours carefully installing the new hardware, when a single though invaded her mind. Shocked by the enlightenment, she sat up quickly, forgetting she was bodily embedded inside the command consoles. She smacked her head hard, causing her to see stars. Spark pawed her leg caringly while she rubbed her head.

“I’m okay,” she said wiggling her way out of the panel.

“Access to everything Eden knows,” she said, still wincing.

What if they had something about her professor? Sure, she didn’t have permission to look for that information. “This is a need-to-know situation!” she whispered.

Besides, they’d been so busy since she came to work here, Rhysus might have even forgotten about helping her find out what happened to her professor. No matter what, she could never forget. When she tracked that strange beam and told the professor about it, she had unwittingly put him into danger. His disappearance was her fault.

“I got you involved in this, and somehow, I’ll get you out,” she muttered.
And if it takes all night to get the interface working, that’s fine. I’ll work all day tomorrow for Rhysus.

Her fingers twittered as she manifested her holographic cube. She tossed it, and it exploded into a virtual console. Quickly accessing the information transmitted from Bob that allowed access to the Eden systems, she opened up a communication port and patched in. After a few moments, a new display appeared.

She grinned. “Thatta boy.”

The interface led her into a maze of data pipes and security gates, but each one opened effortlessly. Her stomach fluttered as she approached the entrance to Eden’s knowledgebase, then gasped when she encountered a seemingly endless field of infoglobes.

“Okay,” she whispered. “I’m definitely gonna need help here.”

Spark’s paws clanked on the floor as he dutifuly stood at attention. Looking down at her hardy companion she shook her head. “Sorry boy, not this time.”

He wined softly as Toriko gestured. A small projection of herself appeared before them. “I’m here!” Mini-Toriko said. “Weeeeeee!”

“Mini-Toriko, I need you—”

“Of course you do, silly. That’s why you called me,” Mini-Toriko replied. “Anything for you! You’re the best! I’m so glad to be here for you!”

She laughed at how silly the ego-boosters she’d coded in sounded now. There was a time not so long ago, when no one seemed to understand or appreciate her. In fact, outside of her digital creations, no one seemed to be in her corner.

No one, except Professor Xabier, that was. He always believed in her. He made her feel like she really was somebody, that she really deserved to be respected and treasured.

But now, like her father before him, the professor was gone too.

Images of Osuto and Mencari drifted into her thoughts, and she realized how many times they’d thanked and praised her in the short time she’d known them. Even when she messed up, they continued to make her feel confident and worthwhile.

She felt lucky, lucky for the things she now had in her life.

Shaking her head, she refocused on the task at hand: to search every corner of Eden’s knowledgebase for any hint of Professor Xabier.

“You ready?” Toriko said to her tiny avatar.

“It’s a cinch,” Mini-Toriko said with a happy snap of the wrist. “And besides, I have
the
cleanest search algorithm the Methodology Council has ever seen! Remember?”

Okay, maybe too many ego-boosters in there.
After blushing in embarrassment, she added a note to herself to review every line of code she’d ever written, and rip out those crazy statements.

Mini-Toriko melded into the nearest infoglobe, then began to zip from sphere to sphere. Suddenly a second avatar appeared in the distance, then rapidly filled her view screen.

Her brow furrowed. “Bob?” she said curiously.

“Greetings and salutations, Tericonian Toriko Purg! I have a priority communication for you.”

Next to him an image of Eyani appeared, circled in green.

“Hello, Toriko. I noticed you’re probing our database,” Eiani said.

Toriko gasped. “I’m sorry. Am I in trouble?”

“No. Not at all. . .”

Before Bob’s avatar, a new infoglobe appeared.

“Follow these directions. And let me know when you’re done.”

Mini-Toriko zipped over and melded with it. Another holographic display appeared, displaying security protocols with highly specific encryption keys and new access routines. She bit her lip as she quickly followed the instructions.

The green circle around Eyani turned amber, and Bob chirped, “Secure protocol verified!”

“I’m impressed. Quick work,” Eyani said.

“Thanks!” Toriko said. “Say, you saw my access pretty fast. Are you sitting at the controls?”

Eyani laughed. “We are monitoring everything, all the time. Is there something specific you’re looking for? Maybe I can help.”

Toriko hesitated a moment, then nodded. “Actually, yes. There’s a close friend of mine, a professor from my university. . . His name is Francis Xabier. I’m trying to find out some information about him.”

Eyani hesitated, then said, “I can see what I can find and let you know. In the meantime, be sure to let Mencari know about your search. We’ve briefed him about what we know, and how our systems work. He may have some insights for you.”

“Okay if I keep searching the knowledgebase?”

“It’s completely open to you.” Eyani smiled with her violet eyes. “But if you would, please keep Naijen away from access.”

Laughing at the very thought, Toriko nodded enthusiastically, “No problem there. Besides, unless it’s something that can be used to kill, I don’t really think he’s interested. Thank you again, Eyani.”

“See you later, Terconian Toriko Purg!” Bob chirped happily.

The amber circle around Eyani collapsed, and Bob’s avatar obliterated into tiny pixels, each dot shooting in a different direction before disappearing all together.

She looked back at her digital creation. “Mini-Toriko, I’m going to keep the connection open so you can continue searching. I have some other work to do in the meantime. Let me know right away if you find any reference to the professor.”

“You can count on me! You made me, after all, and you’re so brilliant! But remember, anything worthwhile takes time!”

Giggling, Toriko returned to working inside the access panel. She tackled creating the needed interfaces to hook up their system with the other components Rhysus brought back.

Maybe by the time the others woke up, she’d have a lead on the professor.

Anything worthwhile takes time.
Her mom used to tell her that. But, how much time did the professor have? Was it already too late?

Pushing the worry away, she took a deep breath, picked up the next component and attacked the installation.

* * * * *

“Rhysus!”

A scream from the same nightmarish dream pulled him from his slumber. His lungs burned and his head pounded. Sometimes he wondered if it would ever stop. He knew better than to try to go back to sleep. He’d just have the same dream again. With a heavy sigh, his eyes wandered around the room.

Osuto, Ujaku, and Naijen were sleeping in their respective corners of the room. He guessed that Seigie and Allia were fast asleep.

Toriko? He had an inkling that she was likely still up and working. Despite the sleep, inspiration on what to say to her about the professor still eluded him.

His weary hands rubbed his temples. Everything was still so crazy. So much had happened, and so much more needed to be done yet. When Osuto told him there were others like him out there, with abilities that were like his, he didn’t actually think he’d find one, much less the group of them. In contrast, the Nukari seemed to be everywhere, making them far too easy to find. As scary a fact as it was, at least they had been able to make progress understanding this new enemy. The encounters were valuable, as they gained key information with each one. So long as they continued to survive them. He had to admit the odds were stacked against them, given their small numbers, considering the close calls they’d already had.