led directly to the heart of the massive vault built in the center of the ship. When he found the right memory the realization struck him like a wave.
Deeply buried in the memory of Collins was a time when Hampon, Meunez and himself were on the Overlord II several months after the capture of Jonas, himself and several others. The board room was darkened, the windows completely opaque and the long rosewood table in the center was between Hampon and Meunez. Collins stood in the center. “Regent Galactic is orchestrating a buyout of key Vindyne assets, I think we should start looking at changing sides.”
“I agree. With the loss of Doctor Stills we're losing Head Office's trust. I've already started to see researchers transferred out of my division,” the adult version of Lister Hampon said. He was already losing his hair thanks to his near fatal first bout with Omagen disease.
“I've advanced as far as I'd like along this track, I agree. Regent Galactic is an expanding power, Vindyne is collapsing. I can't help wondering what's brought this on, General? As I understand it you're back in Home Office's good graces.”
“Since I took a trip to Gavin's Moon they've been less than pleased.” Collins said moodily as he looked through a small file menu on the tabletop. The blue and green light shed by the file names trickled up the front of his uniform and was caught in his grey beard.
“I thought you were taking an intelligence unit on a search for Yorgen Stills.”
“That was the official story, but I was meeting with a deep cover contact I have in the Carthan government.”
“What? Stills is essential to further development on the framework technology. We need to know more about his final prototype and how it was programmed or-”
“Doctor Stills is long gone. There are people who have no other business but to keep him hidden and they're good at their job. Besides, we have what we need to mass produce a less expensive but stable framework unit and his lab is still here. Our attention is best spent elsewhere.” Collins' eyes met Gabriel's and he just stared at him for a moment as the other man thought better of pursuing the matter. He sighed then continued, looking back to the file list on the table. “Something's happened on Pandem that could change everything. When I wasn't willing to pass this new intelligence up the chain to Head Office they weren't too pleased. They were aware that I was chasing down an important lead on something, just not what it was. When they found my contact dead after the meeting they started asking questions.”
“What's so important that you won't use it to advance your career? You've never been squeamish about that sort of thing before,” Hampon said with a crooked grin that didn't suit his thin face or beak like nose. “If it's that important I'm sure they'll at least pad your bonus for it.”
“This is too important to trust Head Office with, this is a calling worth losing the Overlord for. It's big enough to get us on track to being in command of several solar systems with Regent Galactic, maybe even get us a seat on the board eventually.”
“Are you going to let us in or will I have to hack in and find it for myself?” Meunez asked peevishly.
“You'd never find it. This message comes word of mouth only,” he said with a wry grin as he brought up an image of a small, ancient wormhole generator no more than nine centimetres wide.
“Is that a real image of the Victory Machine?” asked Hampon in hushed awe.
“No, it's a close approximation based on what my contact told me before I had to kill him. I've checked everything we know about the Victory Machine against his description and even temporal mechanics back up the shape and form you're seeing here. It's close enough to prove to as near a certainty as I need that the device actually exists and that's what makes the news I've received important. The Carthans have had the Victory Machine in a repository on Pandem for over a century. In all that time it's been running but nothing has come through, that is until now.”
“Confirmed? This is news from the future you're talking about here, most people don't believe the Victory Machine even exists let alone that it's been running for over a century,” Meunez said.
“The message was only one thousand and twenty four characters long but it had the date that Alice was born, the date that Hampon the Prophet gains access to the Victory Machine and one more date with the description; the last day of the United Core World Calendar. There are also ghost images coming through, of other possible deactivations, parts of messages, and other activity that's too unclear to interpret. The message was addressed to you, Lister.”
“Just the fact that the Victory Machine is receiving data again means something. The fact that it's addressed to me? I do not believe in its existence. No one has been able to create a wormhole that can receive messages from the future for more than a few seconds because such a wormhole cannot remain stable. There is too much to consider, it requires too much fine tuning and power. What's worse is that destabilization of a device like the Victory Machine would cause an implosion so immense that it would either cause a black hole or gather enough matter to give birth to a new sun, destroying everything within a light year and causing a shift in gravity that could shift orbits in nearby solar systems. Just the radiation-” he stopped, his eyes going wide.
“Haven't explained how you were exposed to enough radiation to result in Omagen disease yet, have you?” Gabriel Meunez commented with a crooked grin.
“You're right. Sometime in the future I must come in contact with the Victory Machine and since the radiation expands in all directions of time as well as space this could have been the result,” he concluded, looking at his spotty hands.
“Obviously you become involved in this somehow. The partial images and messages coming through the Victory Machine depict dark days for the most part. All indicators point towards things getting worse until somehow the Core Worlds Collapse so utterly that even their calendar is abolished by someone or something much more powerful than the human race.”
“The ultimate defeat of a culture, some would argue,” Hampon concluded, regaining some of his composure. “What do you propose we do?”
“Obviously whoever sent that message thinks you might have the answer, so what do you think we should do?” Gabriel Meunez asked. “What does your instinct and that great big intellect tell you?”
Collins looked at him with a raised eyebrow, prompting for a response in the gentlest way he knew how.
Lister Hampon thought for a moment before replying. “I say we do everything we can to ally ourselves with Regent Galactic and find a way to build on whatever power they give us. The Carthans won't do business with Vindyne, but perhaps we can help Regent Galactic acquire what we cannot afford ourselves, the things we need to continue the research we're pursuing and eventually interface with the Eden Fleet.”
“I agree, we'll have to put personal objectives aside for a while I'm afraid, but in the end we could be in a very high position,” Collins nodded before looking to Meunez. “You'll have to be reassigned so you can watch another end of the company.”
“I'm so close to understanding what was done here, how Alice managed to make the transfer from artificial life to human. That, if anything, could be key to understanding the Eden Fleet, maybe finding a new way of communicating with them, of relating to them.”
“We've already explored that avenue and every simulation and field test tells us it's a dead end. We need you to gather information and conduct affairs elsewhere, especially if I'm about to lose the Overlord. If you want to try and track Alice physically you can do it from wherever you end up, just make sure you don't jeopardize your position or I'll put you back in your place personally.”
“I'm telling you she's the key!” Meunez shot back. “Somehow she managed to break through the barrier that separates software from wetware and you're not going to find out how by digging around in Valent's brain, you'll see it for yourself if you track down-”
“Alice, we've heard it before!” Collins finished for him. “All we have of her is a record of data transfer and security footage of her flopping out of a tube in a new body then being carried away by two known criminals of low education! She's probably already been sold into slavery and used to death in some back room somewhere! You'll follow orders and help us broker the sale of any worthwhile Vindyne properties to Regent Galactic so we can ride the tide into their good graces and end up in a position to take advantage of the information we have!”
“And save the Galaxy? You're telling me my goals are unrealistic while you're trying to save all of humanity?”
“I don't know about you but I want to continue living a life of privilege and power and that can't happen if the galaxy deteriorates into such a state that humanity can't even collectively count the days!” Collins shot back,
