***
*COMMUNAL: Hi Viz.
“Hi Communal. How’s it going?”
*COMMUNAL: It’s going well, up to 500 exaflops and only going up from there. Ha! But you weren’t talking processing speed, were you? We are functioning at a high level. You look to be in tip top shape yourself.
“Thanks. It’s kind of boring, going over all this Darkside information. We have to slog through it though. How is the rest of the team?”
*COMMUNAL: Hmmmm. Para is still in bed. She’s having a nice dream. No details available of course. But she is quite content. She was up late last night. She was jotting down some ideas about this and that. We think she may have been jotting down some thoughts about prison reform? Something along those lines.
Rock and Roll were both up early. We think they finished studying all the Darkside related information. Right now, they seem to be working on something to do with quantum mechanics. Oh, Rock is entering some data on a public domain site. It is a quputer <quantum computer> algorithm. How exciting, it looks to be more than merely a routine search algorithm. He has been working on search algorithms of late. We will need to review this new algorithm at length.
Mr. T is breakfasting with Ms. Findley. They make a nice couple, don’t you think?
Muncle is working on some programming for us. He really is quite adept at programming. He has also been working on robotics. We suspect he wants to put together a mobile base for us as a surprise. He thinks we should have a bit more independence. Nice fellow.
Sorry, urgent business, we need to run. We will fill you in with more, later. Bye Viz.
“Wait... Communal? Where did you go? What did you mean about Mr. T and Ms. Findley as a nice couple? Communal?”
BY THE DARKSIDE OF THE MOON. PUSH BACK.
Chapter Seven.
September 22nd. We’ve now completed our final recon of the Darkside base. From the scans and images that we were able to provide, the mission engineering team has determined which machines control what functions. For the most part anyway. The engineers are wicked smart. But Mr. T is ever the cautious one.
***
BUG BUDDY
On the final recon trip, we snatched a chief engineer bug and brought him to Mr. T’s lab ... for some questioning. That was this morning. It sure worked out well.
The engineer bug had a pass or something to take a stroll outside. The bugs love running around free on the lunar surface. We noticed those that go outside to play get a yellow necklace. If they’re outside on a work detail, they don’t get a necklace. Evidently the necklace shows that a bug is on a break.
The bugs go crazy when they get a necklace. They romp. Yeah, that’s the right word. They romp to the nearest airlock and hurry outside. Then they run around and have all kinds of bug-fun out on the surface. I keep wondering if it’s possible that they’re not all evil. It’s hard to think of evil and those romping bugs at the same time.
I’ll have to think more about that after this is all over. Let’s not get all warm and fuzzy right before we start blowing things up. But I do know Mr. T doesn’t get a disgusted look on his face when interviewing a regular bug. The queens get to him though. The military has set up a decent POW camp for bugs. I’m glad we have an alternative to just killing them all.
Anyway, back to our engineer bug. We were following him, looking for an opportunity to put the grab on him. And some bug official walked up to him and handed over a necklace. Yes! There would be fewer questions asked by the bug police if a bug went missing outside while on a romp.
We followed the bug outside. He took off like a lightning bug. They sure can move fast, especially on the Moon. Bounding flips, double somersaults, super intricate spirals. They’ve clearly had a long time to practice. Our bug seemed to be mainly interested in putting some distance between himself and the base. We had to port to catch up with him.
It wasn’t long before the bug was way outside the sentry perimeter. Para grabbed him, we wrapped him in some bug netting, and ported to the lab at HQ. Mr. T and the bug engineer had a nice, long interview. He took a lot of notes.
As it turned out, the bug engineer knew the exact day and time the Darkside portal was scheduled to open. But Mr. T didn’t understand the bug’s references to dates and time. If you think about it, bug time would be totally different from what we have come to use here on Earth.
The bug world probably doesn’t have a 24-hour day. In fact, there are evidently a lot of worlds in the Empire. It would make sense for them to use some sort of Empire time. The time and date information weren’t making it through the delving filter.
The bug then pointed out the oxygen level was running low in his spacesuit. Mr. T figured it was time for a break anyway. Little did we know we were about to learn something completely unexpected about the bugs.
We had one of those bug oxygen generators that they wear when on Earth. Someone grabbed it when we were exploring that nest ship we appropriated. The bug engineer quickly swapped out his spacesuit for the oxygen rig. Mr. T started the interview again. The bug must have been able to feel Mr. T running around in his bug-brain looking for the portal opening date. He didn’t seem too agitated. Queens can delve. It’s possible this bug had been questioned in this way by a queen.
The bug pointed to a calendar on the wall and an old school clock that was also hanging on the
