Chapter One

Inside the HX

Everything had gone wrong.

First, the party had penetrated deeply, even though the communications hubs were still not shaken out. It was a case of one interesting thing leading to another. Then, with our hinies deep, deep in HX, the Frizzies and the Daraks started arguing over a stupid supply box. Before I could find out why, shots were being fired. I headed for cover, and that's when we all heard the dreaded whine indicating HX security units were approaching. Everyone just disappeared in their own direction!

I hightailed it down three different corridors, then ducked into the first open room I could find, and here I am. Waiting in a bare room, bare just like most HX rooms are on a live HX. In the dead HX's we explore, these rooms are filled with stuff, so we know these rooms in the live HX are actively hiding things, but we don't know how, which is unfortunate. When we finish searching a room, it is broken. If we knew how to make these rooms spew their guts, we'd break less and loot faster. So, we're looking hard for that secret!

I'm waiting in my bare room for someone to send an "all clear" signal on Channel E, and send a map to my head's up display -- the way we talked about on the ship. But, hell, it's been five minutes and I haven't heard a thing. Maybe we should have waited for the comm center to shake out? Maybe those people forgot about us? Maybe I got the channel wrong? Maybe I ran too far off? I'm a Nervous Nellie!

I hear something moving down the corridor... it sounds like worker units: not a threat. The workers don't bother us, and we don't bother them... so I've been told. This is my first time on an HX, so, hell, how would I know?

I peer into the corridor with my fiber. There are three of them, HX units: two "regular", and one "large" unit. They are going into each room and doing something, briefly, and then coming out and moving to the next room. They must be cleaning, but I swear they are looking for something! It must be my nerves.

As they go into the room just before mine, I sneak out and slip quietly by the open door to go into the room they have just come from. It's another bare room, just like the one I came from.

I swear up and down they didn't see me! But instead of moving on to the next room, they come back to the room I'm in! I click the safety off, and stand rock still in the center of the room.

The two regular units move around the walls. They use an odd "hand" to push on places. When they do, things come out. When they push on other places and the things go back in, leaving the room as bare as when they entered. So... that's how these rooms are used! And I have it recorded! Gosh, that will be a tasty bit of information for home!

But wait, that "large" unit isn't doing the pushing and pulling. It's standing at the door... watching me?

The regulars leave a "table" out, and back off to the doorway. The "large" moves over to the table and puts some things on it, then goes back to the doorway. Then all three stop moving.

Three minutes pass. I could try to "fry" all three, then move on. But where would I go? And there's still no signal on Channel E. Carefully, without moving my suit, I glance at the objects on the table. They are interesting. They are colorful and sparkle. They are probably meant to be looked at.

Finally, the "large" moves again, to the table. He begins "playing" with the devices on the table. I watch surreptitiously. They are fascinating. They are clearly entertainment, not weapons. He turns to me and holds up one of the devices. Shit! He does know I'm here!

He holds up the device like a peace offering, and slowly, haltingly, moves my way.

I hear some tones on the radio in my helmet; I hear some tones floating through the air; I see some lights flashing in spectral colors on the unit's "head". It's trying to communicate! First time I've ever heard of anything HX trying to communicate -- like most things in the HX environment, native HX stuff either ignores you or tries to kill you.

What the heck, I turn towards it, point my blaster at it, and answer in regular old acoustic voice, using the suit speaker. I say, "Hello."

It cringes a bit under the business end of my blaster. The radio tones and light flashes cease.

I say, "Hello." again.

I hear it imitate, "Hello."

It puts the "thingy" on the ground and pushes it towards me a little then backs up, still saying "Hello." every so often. I don't do a thing. It moves forward and pushes the thingy a little closer, then backs off again. Clearly it wants me to take the thingy.

I hear nothing on Channel E, so I humor it, and pick up the device. It's a pretty little sculpture... sort of like one of those ancient plastic snowscenes. I put it in my bag.

"Thank you." I say.

"Thank you. Hello." it now says, and offers me the next device from the table. This device is a "battery" -- an HX power source. Batteries are something we're here to collect, although we usually have to rip apart a wall or device to get one. We go through the ritual once more.

"Thank you." I say again, as I pick it up.

"Thank you. Thank you. Hello." it says. It seems to think a while, then says just. "Thank you. Hello." It brings up the last thingy, but does not push it my way. Instead it pulls the thingy its way, and says, "Thank you. Hello. ...." a pause.

It wants another word! We're trading. "Screw you." I say under my breath.

"Screw you. Thank you. Hello." it offers me the thingy. Man its hearing is good!

A message finally comes in on Channel E! I take the third thingy, and motion for the units at the door to move away as I advance on the door. They slide out of the way, and I race down the corridor for the rendezvous point.

Talking with Frizzies and Daraks is like pulling teeth even in the best of circumstances, and these weren't the best, so I didn't tell them about my chance meeting with a friendly HX unit, or my gifts. I would wait for debriefing with my human superiors back on the Chaldor ship.

Aboard the Chaldor Ship

The debriefing went routinely enough... except when I brought out device three, and we all looked at it. It was clear that it held a little monitor screen, and a button. This was odd, for HX technology does not display "buttons" as we know them. They are there, but they are devilishly hard for us to find, and they are not at all uniform. "Buttons" are a form of HX security, and this button was clearly not designed for HX users.

As soon as we realized we were looking at a screen and start button, the Frizzies when non-linear. "Trap!" they screamed, and scuttled from the room. "Destroy it!" they said through the speaker in the next room. The Frizzies are the most technically knowledgeable of our four races, but even they guess a lot.

"If this thing was going to blow, it would have done so long ago." I said.

The four races compromised by continuing the investigation of this device in the high security lab, which is well away from the main ship. It was fuss-and-bother for me because taking the time to investigate something in high security meant I would miss a penetration cycle.

The High Security Lab: on it's own course well away from the Chaldor ship

"Someone likes you over on that ship." said John Hansom, Chief Briefer, as we met in the high security lab lobby. "We've looked over your tape of the HX droids opening doors in the room. Based on what we've recorded elsewhere, the door opening sequences were happening at a tenth of normal speed, and were a tenth of normal complexity. This HX was showing you how to open 'Romper Room' doors.

"So... that Caspar the Friendly HX was showing you things designed for you to see, and giving you things designed for you to have, in exchange for a few words... Hmm."

"Now I can understand why the Frizzies were kind of touchy." I said. "What kind of Trojan Horse have we got here?"

"That's what we aim to find out." John grinned the grin of a bomb defuser. The HX world is still full of mysteries, and people are still destined to die unlocking them. We all know that. But no one wants to go out to a simple, stupid booby trap, the way John B. did. What a waste!

We proceeded to Lab D. The device was sitting on a table in the "device" part of Lab D... well separated from the operator part. As we were walking John continued, "The first device seems to be a bit of art work. We have it in Lab C, and so far it's done nothing special. We've looked at it from the outside in the usual non-destructive ways, and it does not seem complex, by HX standards. It is also not powered up."

"The second object seems to be a standard HX "droid hand device" battery -- which could power Device A. Some sort of 'primate test'?? Are you really smart enough to put Battery B in device A? Are you really stupid enough to do it? We don't know, yet. But it's in Lab C with Device A... should we want to be so stupid." He grinned.

"I presume you have a known, good, battery in there, too."

"Of course! And a known benign device as well. We can mix and match.

"Device C seems to be very simple. It is, perhaps, the simplest HX device we've encountered. Even more curious, it seems... how can I put this... understandable! It's a display device with memory, and little, if any, more, and we could see that's what it was within seconds of beginning analyzing it. We spent hours looking for more, but... that's what it seems to be.

"So, I suggest we start with C. And I suggest we push the button." John grinned kind of sheepishly. For all his skill, and his lab's skill, pushing the button seemed to be the best course of action?

As we reached the door to Lab C, he said, "You found it. So we will give you the honors." We walked into the operator room.

The operator room looked typically labbish. Video displays, keyboards, and microphones were scattered everywhere. Mixed among them were printers, speakers, sculptors and other kinds of output devices. There were three pairs of "remote hands" in the operator room ready to control hands in the sample room. In the sample room were over two dozen kinds of "remote hands" ranging from tiny to huge, and specialized. The sample room was small, so the hands did double duty and acted as lab robot as well. There were three people in the room when I arrived.

We did introductions, and George invited me to sit in front of the center set of hands. "When you're ready...." he said.

The control hands were straightforward, and powering human-sized hands in the sample room. It seemed ridiculously simple, but I powered up the control hands, and... pushed the button.

... It was the amateurishness of it that was, perhaps, the most chilling part.

The scene opened, without introduction, onto three people. THREE HUMAN PEOPLE. A fourth walked in, as if he had been setting up recording equipment and now wanted to be in. They waited for him before talking. The spokesman then, looking nervous, said, "Hi there."

"I'm... John Hanscomb, grandson of Willie Hanscomb. This is," and he began pointing, "Milly La Farge, granddaughter of Merle La Farge; Ben Sloan, grandson of Johanne Sloan and finally Jackie Chan, son of Charles Chan." Each waved "Hi."

"Our grandparents came from the ship Delphi's Fortune, and were caught in a... "blip" in... 2234. They survived, and the HX helped them."

"We," he indicated all of them, "live and work with the HX."

Then looking somewhat confused, "We understand that you who are going to see this, do not."

"We just want you to know that we are alive, happy, and doing fine. And if the HX want to talk with you, it would probably do you well to listen."

Then, as if they had forgotten that someone had to turn off the recorders, three said "Bye. bye." as number four got up and ran off screen to turn off the recorder.

And that was the end. The screen went dark.

We all sat stunned.

John finally said, "Do we have a recording of that? Lets watch our recording of it, first, before we do anything else with the devices. Is a copy of that off ship?" There were various nods of agreement from around the lab.

Almost mechanically, we watched two more times. It was just too strange a thought to bring any snap judgment to. People alive after an HX blip? Alive and thriving? Sure there were lots of fantasies and even some religions built around that idea. But up until now they were as real as stories about vampires and zombies.

"Hoax?" said John, finally.

"I know where I got that device from." I said, "That's all I know."

One of the technicians started rattling off alternatives, "An HX droid getting a recording of humans from a human ship and giving it back to us?"

"A psuedo-HX droid on a real HX ship giving us a recording from a human source?"

"A... A.... A phony HX-ship with phony HX-droids...."

He shook his head, "They all sound even more preposterous." he shook his head again.

John nodded, "We'll of course have to check out hoax possibilities...." It was clear he wasn't thinking hoax, either.

Silence again.

The technician blurted, "Jesus! Can we get to these people?"

Then the excited babbling as a thousand questions and thoughts came rushing out.

"Grandchildren! They are thriving!"

"What were they wearing? What was that dialect?"

"How did the HX get a copy to 'our' ship? Why our ship?"

"Where are they now?"

"Where are their parents and grandparents? Why aren't they in the recording?"

After a minute everyone was panting and looking at each other.

John finally said, "OK. Lets try to prioritize: First, who hears about this, and when?"

"Do we continue our investigation of this object?"

"What do we do with the other objects?"

"Clearly the answer to those last two is, 'yes'. That's what we're here for. There's no place better to investigate. If there's trouble -- a bomb or a plague -- we want to find out here next to the HX, not on a home world."

As to who to tell, and when... Lets not tell our alien friends just yet. This is a human affair. And lets hold off on the preliminary report until we have investigated the other two objects. This is earthshaking news, but not urgent. We can wait for a full preliminary report, before we send news. This will give us all time to cool a bit and think straight.

Hansom looked at me, his eyes narrowed a bit.

"Son, if I was prudent. I would keep you here... put you in Sample Lab D so you couldn't make any mistakes and screw things up."

"What?" I said.

"You got those do-hickies. An HX droid picked you out and gave you these goodies. Maybe that was pure chance, maybe not.... Yeah, I should put a specimen tag on your toe and put you in a freezer, but I'm not going to do that.

"Instead I'm counting on you to act as you have been trained, and as you and your family have always acted in the past: as a heads-up human. We don't have enough good people around here to just be putting a person into cold storage because of 'coulda, shoulda, woulda's.'

"I'm sending you back to the main ship, back on normal duty. With the understanding that you talk to NO ONE... I MEAN NO ONE about this. This includes the captain. NO ONE! The only ones who know about this now are the five of us, and we are going to keep it that way for the time being."

He looked at the technicians, who cowered a bit. "Yes, I mean you, too. Everyone goes on as if this was a 'usual' HX find: totally indecipherable at present, and testing will continue."

He looked around. "You all have that? Nothing decipherable came from our session today!"

He looked around. There were nods of agreement from all of us.

He looked a bit more relaxed. "This gag applies for forty eight hours. If you haven't heard any more from me by then, something has gone seriously wrong, and you may, and should, spill the beans to anyone who will listen. In the meantime, I wouldn't make any new long-term commitments that relate to being aboard this ship." He grinned widely. He started laughing... and soon we were all laughing.

This was huge!