Times Like These Read online

  Trevor grinned and shook his head. Some lions had damn near photographic memories and made a killing in trading favors by creating modern things in the dream world when they slept each night. The card game fad had ripped through the entire lion world almost overnight until the next fad caught up with them. But there were still more than a few hardcore players. Grism was one, and Jake teased him about it constantly.

  "So what's next, Sweetie?" Jesse asked Trevor as she leaned heavily against him.

  "Looks like somebody wants something," Lena chuckled from where she was lying next to Tad.

  "Well, I was thinking we should move further away from here, but not until after we've all had a nice little break," Trevor said and, leaning back against Jesse, gave her a kiss. "Then after a few days of travel, look for another place to attack."

  "And then?"

  "And then we do it all over again until the First tells us to go home."

  "It's going to be different having everyone alive again," Jesse said with a happy smile. "Almost like old times."

  "You just want to be able to have kids again!" Jake teased.

  "Yup, and I got my favorite daddy right here next to me!"

  "You know there aren't any lion souls waiting to be born, Jesse."

  Jesse nodded. "Time to make some new ones then, isn't it?"

  Trevor put an arm around her and pulled her into a hug. "You know what? I like the sound of that. But! We're not making any in this place, this place is just fucked. Let's wait until we get home."

  "Yes, let's."

  Truth & Rights

  Estrella stopped as they got to the tree line.

  "Why are we stopping?" the First asked.

  "Because we're about to step out into the open. If you look all the way up there, you can see the blockhouse we're heading for."

  "So everybody, check your gear and let's not look threatening," Sean said, then immediately turned to look at Cali, who was thankfully looking like her usual self.

  "I figured out this morning that looking like a djevel was probably not a good idea, my Husband," she said with a smile.

  Sean breathed a sigh of relief.

  "That's why I stopped," Estrella admitted. "I also think it would probably be best for Cali to be in the center of us. Sean and I will go first; hopefully he'll recognize us."

  "I have a better idea," the First said. "Why don't the two of you go up there alone, and after he's let you in, you can tell him about us. Once he's okay with it, you can come back to get us."

  Sean looked at Estrella, who shrugged. "Okay, I guess."

  Sean nodded. "Well, let's go see if we're still welcome here or not."

  Leaving the cover of the trees, Sean and Estrella slowly walked up to the metal door, the same as they had before. He wondered briefly how many months ago that had been. Things had been happening so fast he hadn't the slightest idea. He had his mana shield up now, because with the main gateway open, the ley-lines up here tried to overload him with mana every time he stepped on one. Thankfully he'd taught Peg the spell as well, as she'd been having the same problem.

  "What manner of demon be you?" a disembodied voice asked.

  "Mahkiyoc Aan Drues, it's Sean and Estrella. We were here many duo-daers ago, before the main gateway opened. Don't you remember us?" Sean asked, a little worried.

  "Sean and Estrella... Oh, you are those two lions. I remember now. You said you would come back with your friends, and here you are. Is that them waiting back by the trees?"

  "Yes!" Sean said with a nod. "Several of the females are not lions, but they are with us as well."

  "The machines had noticed, it thought one might be a demon. Are you sure they're not?"

  "Yes, I'm sure."

  "Come inside first so that we may talk."

  The door opened then, and looking at Estrella, Sean shrugged and stepped inside with her following.

  As the door closed behind him, Sean walked down the hallway to the other end. The walls of the entire hallway were alive with a shocking amount of power now. He would be very interested to see what he could do with so much power once they were settled in.

  The other doorway opened when they got to the far end of the hallway, and Sean went upstairs to where they had met Mahkiyoc when they were here last.

  As before, the stairway let out into the back of a large room, which had a nice-looking white carpet on the floor. The walls were covered in a combination of screens that appeared to show the outside world, and artwork, some of which contained colors other than the never-ending black and grey that seemed to consume this world.

  The same tables and furniture were set out around the room; it still looked very much like a large living room, unchanged from their last visit. At the far end, the long window that dominated the far wall still looked outside, with the large consoles with seats still before them. Mahkiyoc still sat behind the one console that faced towards the stairs and seemed unchanged from when they had last seen him, still appearing to be a man in a white robe with long gray hair and gray-tinged skin.

  "You'll have to excuse me," Mahkiyoc said as they came into the room. "I have been so busy with my research that everything else has been pushed to the back of my mind. It wasn't until you said my name that I realized I must have met you before and searched my memories."

  "Why did you want to bring us up first?" Estrella asked.

  "Oh, to be sure you weren't in thrall to any demons. I am the last of my people now, so that carries a certain amount of responsibility. So what is the story with the dark female?"

  "She's a dark elf. They live very close to one of the negative planes. They make a sport of killing demons, apparently. They like them even less than we do."

  "If such a thing is possible," Sean added.

  "Fine, I will invite them up. Why did you come back?"

  "Because you asked me to, and I told you I would," Sean said. "And I told you I would bring my friends so we could see if we could use those old weapons you mentioned against the demons."

  "Oh! I was wondering why I was researching those old things. Now I'll just have to find the file I put together. It's here somewhere."

  Mahkiyoc touched something and, turning to look out the window, said, "You may come up and join your friends. The door is open, and will close once all of you are inside."

  Mahkiyoc looked back up at Sean. "This will be most interesting. I will finally be able to cross-reference observations from natives on another plane to the ones I've made here. This should greatly improve my research."

  "If you can show us how to make those weapons and use them, we might be able to rid this world of demons."

  "Oh, I don't think there are enough of you for that!" Mahkiyoc said with what Sean guessed passed for a chuckle.

  "There are many more of us here already, and if necessary we will bring in reinforcements, but I'm not our leader. I'll introduce you to him once they've come upstairs."

  Sean left Estrella to talk to him as he went back down to the entryway. It wasn't all that long before the door opened, and everyone stepped into the large foyer.

  "Dad, I need to introduce you to Mahkiyoc."

  The First nodded and followed Sean up the stairs, with all of his wives coming along as well.

  "You'll have to show my husband," Estrella was saying. "He understands technology; I'm still learning."

  Sean led the First over; he'd ask Estrella about whatever it was later.

  "Mahkiyoc, this is our leader, he is known as 'The First'."

  Mahkiyoc looked the First over. "You feel very much like Omushkego Aan Creus. More so than the one called Sean."

  "Yes, he did something to me and my Pride a very long time ago. We only remember it because he was killed by what we later learned was a demon, which we then killed."

  "While I mourn the senseless loss of my cousin, I must recognize his success. I have thought on what the one called Sean and the one called Estrella asked, and I do think you have enough of Omushkego Aan Creus' essence
inside you to be able to use our machines."

  "Sean told us you might have weapons we could use against the demons in our war against them?"

  "Yes. I have found the information. The machines with which we made them may still work."

  The First considered that a moment. "Also, you mentioned to Sean that there is a machine we could use to lock the gates to our world so the demons could no longer go there?"

  "There is such a machine; it occupies a place much like this one. However, I do not know if it still works. Nor am I sure I could use it. I am a researcher, not an engineer."

  "Can you show us where it is, and how to get there?"

  Mahkiyoc pondered that a moment before answering.

  "You would have to learn how to use our machines first, assuming that is possible. I would much rather spend my time talking to you about your world and comparing my observations to yours, so I may increase my knowledge."

  The First nodded. "I would welcome a long discussion with someone older and wiser than myself. As the oldest among us, I would be honored to talk with you, as long as during those times when I must sleep you were to teach my family here how to use your machines."

  "It will take much time to teach them," Mahkiyoc pointed out.

  "Time is something we have much of, is it not?"

  "A strong point," Mahkiyoc said and looked thoughtful for a moment. "It is agreed. Now, let us begin."

  The First turned to Sean. "Could you get everyone settled, Son? It will be a while before I must sleep."

  Sean nodded and gestured to Keairra and the rest, who followed him back downstairs.

  "I'm surprised he didn't want to know any of our names," Dienna said.

  "Either his society was strange, or he's lost all social skills after being alone for like a million years," Estrella said.

  "Come on, let me show you to your rooms," Sean said, motioning to the others.

  "Where do those stairs go?" Kalif asked.

  Sean shrugged. "Beats me, we didn't have the time to explore when we were here last."

  "Well, I'm claiming the room we had last time," Estrella said while grabbing Roxy, Peg, and Cali. "Don't take too long, Sean!"

  It only took Sean a few minutes to show the others where the other rooms were, then he joined his wives.

  "I can't believe the amount of power in this place!" Peg said as Sean closed the door behind him.

  "It's basically a giant mana battery," Sean agreed. "I thought it was big before, but it's got more of a charge in it now than it had last time."

  "What do they use it for?" Roxy asked.

  "They've harnessed it to run all their machines, apparently."

  "The same machines that open all the gates?" Peg asked with a thoughtful look.

  "I guess, why?"

  "Makes you wonder if the reason they open the gates is to fill their batteries..."

  "... so they can open more gates," Roxy finished.

  "He said the gates were a natural phenomenon," Sean pointed out.

  Estrella shook her head. "He told us they modified the natural gates so they would open where they wanted them to. That's not exactly the same thing."

  Sean thought about that, as well as Peg's unasked question. What would happen if they drained all the batteries? Would the gateways to their world stop functioning? Would they perhaps never come back? Or would it affect nothing at all?

  "Well, I'm going to take a nap. When the First is done for the day, I think you," Sean pointed at Roxy, "and you," he pointed at Peg, "should go upstairs with me to see about learning these machines."

  "Why them?" Estrella asked.

  "Roxy has a fair deal of computer programming experience, and I'm sure Peg knows at least a little about them."

  "What about the others?"

  "Somehow I don't think a bunch of one-time European lions have much of an interest in computers," Sean said, grinning.

  "Come on, Hon. Time to get up."

  Sean stretched and opened his eyes. Roxy was standing next to the bed.

  "Already?"

  "You've been asleep for four hours, my lazy lion."

  Sean grinned abashedly and, rolling out of bed, he got up and grabbed his shorts.

  "Peg is already upstairs."

  Sean nodded and followed Roxy out of the room and up the stairs, enjoying the view of her butt while he did. Once they got there, he was surprised to see Wendy, Rowan, and Kalif up there as well.

  "You guys know computers?" Sean asked, surprised.

  "Yup. Too bad Ceithir isn't here, she's the real wizard," Kalif said.

  "We bug our moms about it occasionally," Rowan said with a grin, "we figure once we get them to learn, Dad'll be next just to keep up."

  "If you are ready, please come and sit over here," Mahkiyoc said and pointed to a couple of couches across from a fairly large display screen.

  "Our machines rely mostly on thought, but you have to be touching one of the activation pads while entering commands or data. This is in order to keep stray thoughts from erroneously being picked up. As thoughts are more intention based than language, there should not be any communication issues when you first start. However, all our data is in our native language. Once the machines have learned your language from interacting with you, all data should translate.

  "Now, let us begin."

  With that, Mahkiyoc touched a disk on a small stand next to his chair and began teaching them the basics of using his systems. It started off amazingly simple. With everything being thought controlled, a lot of the harder to learn concepts for framing and entering commands or data just didn't exist. Yes, you had to learn to think your commands or questions clearly, but that wasn't any harder than asking someone a well thought out question.

  The next surprising bit was that all of the machines had a certain level of artificial intelligence. But none of them were truly self-aware.

  "Why did you limit your machines' sentience?" Roxy asked as Mahkiyoc finished describing the limits of the machines.

  "The only way we were ever truly able to achieve such a thing was by putting one of ourselves, our mental energy I believe you would call it, into the machine. Most who were put into the machines did not care for it much, and eventually rebelled and had to be deleted. Some argued that this was because the ones chosen were undesirables and hence already mentally unstable.

  "But others pointed out that those few who went willingly also became unstable, in time, and began to act in ways that were not harmonious with our best wishes, and had to be deleted as well. After that, by common consensus, all further research into such fields was stopped. We did not, after all, wish to create that which would supersede us."

  "You put people's brains into your machines?" Roxy asked, incredulous.

  "Oh, no, that would be ridiculous. We merely transferred their psyche. It was a much neater and cleaner process. However, we were never able to transfer anyone back. As research was stopped, we never discovered why."

  "I'm surprised a society as advanced as yours still had undesirables," Rowan said, and Sean wasn't sure if he detected a touch of sarcasm there or not.

  "Yes, it took us many years to remove them. But as in all things, we succeeded in due time. Some lamented the loss of test subjects, but others agreed that it was the right course for us as a species. Now, let us discuss the basic architecture of our machines."

  When the First finally came back upstairs some six hours later, Sean and the others were starting to flag. Things had gone from simple to incredibly complex, and they were stopping Mahkiyoc every ten or fifteen minutes to ask questions. Thankfully Mahkiyoc was a very patient teacher, and actually seemed to have a knack for presenting material.

  "Wow, I thought that would never end," Roxy grumbled as they headed down the stairs. "That was getting worse than advanced number theory by the end there."

  "And just think, we get to pick up again tomorrow!" Kalif grumbled.

  Rowan shook her head. "After those comments on test subjects
, I'm starting to... hey!" she exclaimed, rubbing her shin and looking over at Sean, who had kicked her.

  "Not here. Wait until we're at 'home'," Sean told her.

  "You're not the boss of me!" Rowan growled.

  Sean smiled widely back at her. "I'm the boss of every one of you; Dad's the only one who gets a pass, and even he knows better than to argue."

  Wendy, who was usually the quiet one, put a hand on Rowan's arm. "Better watch it, Row, or you'll end up number eight."

  "What?"

  "How do you think he tamed our sister?" Wendy said with a snicker. "I'd swear Dad's been giving him lessons."

  "But he's only an F3!"

  "Actually, Dad's pegged him at a two."

  "But that's not possible!"

  "Yeah, Dad said that, too, but there you have it. Now, let's all settle down for a nap, and then we can discuss this like adults."

  "Okay," Rowan sighed.

  When they got back to the room, Sean sat down on the bed and looked at Estrella, Cali, Roxy, and Peg. "I need to be a part of this conversation. I'll let you know what happened when I wake."

  "How? Aren't you worried about…" Roxy pointed at her ears.

  "Privacy spell." Sean smiled. "I know one, and I'm sure Peg knows a good one, too."

  Peg nodded. "I'm gonna take a nap, too. I need to let all that stuff settle out in my brain. Unlike the two of you, I never went to college."

  "I just can't wait until we get to the programming," Sean said as he laid back and closed his eyes. "I'm sure that's going to be very interesting."

  §

  Sean was sitting around with the others; everyone from their team was here, except for Peg, Roxy, and Cali, who weren't lions, and the First, who was still talking with Mahkiyoc. They'd been at the bunker for ten days, and Mahkiyoc had turned them loose on the systems two days ago. Sean had been diving heavily into the programming aspects of the system. Wendy was helping him, and while she wasn't as savvy on programming languages as he was, she still knew a lot, and the two of them were making progress. Thankfully most all of the concepts they'd run across so far were ones they were used to.