LateNightHacking Louis My Writing

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Previous Part
revisions: 2003-03-30, 2003-07-05

The hallway spilled out into a large, high ceilinged room. The room was semi-circular and tiered. The round wall was segmented into may display screens. There was a wide walkway, and then a row of workstations. Further inward was another tier of workstations, and above that, a final wide platform that served as an overlook. There were little humans everywhere. They had various colored uniforms - red, green, teal, purple - but they all had that outrageous mop of yellow hair. Many of the workstations were manned with humans tapping away at keyboards. A few seemed despondant, leaning on their desktops with heads in their hands. Part of the front walkway was blocked by a huge pile of computer print-out. In the middle of the loops of continuous feed paper were two technicians arguing heatedly, while a printer from the first tier continued to add to the pile.

"Excuse me," came a voice from behind them. A messenger pushed by from behind them, taking no particular notice of them and hurrying up the ramp to the top tier. Hallways led from the sides and back of the large room, and messengers came and went frequently, carrying books, binders, and stacks of print-out.

Nutsy looked at the displays along the wall with interest, but was disappointed. There was nothing that he could recognize. No pictures, just lots of numbers and cryptic abreviations. One screen had rapidly but irregularly scrolling text, and a technician stood in front of it, reading and attaching an appropriate swear word to each line as it appeared. Another screen did have a diagram, but it was too abstract for the squirrel to make any sense of it.

Moira calmly walked up the ramp to the center tier.

"Good to see you, Moira," said a human wearing a purple uniform when they reached the top. He was standing next to the dark hardwood railing that ran around the front edge of the tier.

"Captain Pender," replied Moira. "What's going on?"

Nutsy thought Captain Pender looked like one of those people to whom authority came naturally. The squirrel noticed that while all the other little humans seemed to be in panic or shock, Captain Pender was was a pillar of calm with only a slight scowl from time to time. He stood tall and confident, arms crossed across his chest. The other humans kept glancing up at him from time to time, as if seeking reassurance. The Capitan was dispensing it liberally, for every questioning eye that caught his eye recieved a nod of confidence in return.

"The situation is grim," answerd the Capitan. "The antenna has been shattered. We are recieveing almost no signal from the real world."

Nutsy saw that Moira was clearly startled by the Captain's news. Her eyes opened wide and she leaned back, almost as if trying to escape the news. She clutched her staff with both hands.

"How can that be? That's . . . what does that mean?"

"We're not sure. The Mind is unconscious, that we know."

Moira closed her eyes and shook her head vehemently. "It can't be! If the antenna was destroyed, we'd all be dead. I mean, the Mind would be dead and the entire Realm would cease to exist."

Captain Pender nodded. "So we think, but considering it has never happend before, we can't be sure. However, we don't think that the antenna has actually been destroyed. My team believes that the antenna was shattered and the fragments scattered." Moira stared at the Captain while she tried to digest what he told her. He smiled. "Perhaps you should introduce me to your associates."

"Oh! Yes. Captain Pender, this is Nutsy, and this is Josh," said Moria, indicating the friends in turn. "They seem to be visitors from the real world."

The Capitan's eyebrows went up. "I thought you two looked familiar."

Nutsy was suprised to hear the Captain, whom he was sure he had never seen before, suggest that he recognized them.

The Captain studied the raccoon and the squirrel for a moment, as if trying to decide. Shortly, he nodded. "Welcome to Command and Control. This domain is responsible for monitoring the Mind and how it interacts with the real world. We keep track of the influences of the real word on the Shadow Realm, and make sure that the resources of the Realm are available to the Mind when it needs to draw upon us." Captain Pender continued, "I wouldn't tell too many people around here about your origins, or you'll be stuck answering questions for ages. Everyone on my team would love to meet someone who has actually been in the real world and then pump them for information to support their own pet theories on real world interpretation." He chuckled. "I bet this is all very weird to you."

"You can say that again," grumbled Josh.

"I suppose the best thing to do next is to show you what's left of the antenna," said the Captain to the whole group. "Commander Brelin was on duty at the time. I'll have him tell you what he saw himself." Glancing downward, Pender tapped a badge pinned to his uniform. "Commander Brelin, please report to the Antenna Bay immediately."

"On my way, sir," came a small voice from the comm badge.

"Very good." Pender looked up at Moira, Josh, and Nutsy. "Please follow me." He led them down the ramp from the high tier and out one of the side doors. They walked quickly down one of uniform hallways, the Captain in the lead, followed closely by Moira. Nutsy and Josh followed behind, walking quickly to keep up. At each intersection, the Captain chose a new direction with barely a glance at the small signs labeling the corridors, and Nutsy quickly felt lost. Soon, they reached their destination. The closed door at the end of the hall slid open at their approach.

They entered a medium sized room. To the left there was a large equipment cabinet and a bench. There was also a row of hangers on the wall, holding devices Nutsy did not recognize. To the right there were two workstations, one of which was occupied by a human in a green uniform. In the front of the room was a set of large double doors. A human in a blue uniform was standing by the double doors, clearly waiting for their arrival. As the Captain entered the room, he stepped forward smartly. "Sir."

"Commander Brelin," acknowledged the Captian. "This is Moira, Nutsy, and Josh. Please show them the antenna and tell them what you saw."

"Yes, sir. Right this way." Brelin turned to the door and quickly tapped a short key sequence on the access pad beside the door. Three loud warning tones sounded, then the double doors slowly slid open with a grumble and a hum. Though the opening doors, Nutsy and Josh could see only blackness with pinpoints of light. Soon they realized they were looking at a night sky, or something very similar to one. There seemed to be no ground, though. A platform, edged with a hand rail, was sliding out from under the doorway, projecting out into the black space. Commander Brelin led them out onto the platform before the mechanism had even come to a stop. Josh was soon glad for the handrail. Their little balcony hung over an incredible abyss. The starry sky was both above and below them, as if they were standing at the edge of the world. Even though the sky was dark, Josh could see the people standing next to him lit as brightly as if it were day. To the left, right, above, and below extended a smooth, beige wall. Well, not completely smooth. About twelve body lengths away, there was a slightly protruding rim. Looking around, Josh noticed that there were a few odd chunks of concrete grey rock floating out in space in front of him. However, they were insignificant compared to the star scattered dome of space that surrounded him.

"Everybody please grab the hand rail. I'm going to adjust our attitude," announced Commander Brelin as he stepped up to a control panel mounted on the railing. He turned to the Moira, Nutsy, and Josh. "You may want to close your eyes for this," he told them with a look of concern before turning back to the panel. He tapped another sequence.

Nutsy yelped and Josh gasped as the balcony below their feet tilted and began to tip downward. They grabbed the handrail desperately to keep from sliding off into the yawning abyss. For a terrifying moment, the empty sky below them seemed to loom closer and closer. Then Nutsy realized he was not sliding off the balcony. In a disorienting shift in perspective, Nutsy realized it was as if the wall was tilting, not them. Still clutching the railing, he glanced around. Josh was crouching by one of the poles supporting the railing, holding on tightly and looking none too happy. Moira was standing with one hand grasping the railing and the other holding her staff. Her eyes were scrunched shut and the top end of her staff was glowing slightly. Captain Pender and Commander Brelin were standing calmly, politely ignoring the reactions of the other three.

The platform settled with a slight bump onto what was now a wide, beige floor. Josh stood up and Moira opened her eyes. The black sky was now a dome above them. The concrete blocks remained eriely floating in space above their heads. The raised rim made it seem as if they were standing in the middle of a giant saucer.

"Come this way," suggested Commander Brelin. "You can see better from over near the edge, and I'll tell you what I saw." Together, they walked over toward the edge of the great disc. Brelin tapped his comm badge, saying "Console, please," and a little podium rose from a panel in the floor.

"This is the antenna bay," said the commander, indicating the open expanse in front of him. "This is where the reality antenna is supposed to reside. There's not much left of it now."

"What is the reality antenna?" asked Nutsy.

"It is the manifestation of the Minds's consciousness in our domain. From it's shape, we can tell the state of the consciousness, and from listening to the signals it recieves, we can learn what's going on out in the real world."

"What do you mean, 'state of the consciousness'?" asked Josh.

"Well, from the shape, we can tell whether the Mind is alert, sleepy, concentrating, asleep, things like that. Here, let me show you." He waved them closer to the console.

Most of the console was being used to display a slowly rotating three dimensional model. Nutsy puzzled over the shape. The center of the object seemed to be made up of a cone. On either side of the cone were two halves of a spherical shell. They were arranged like shields, set outward from central cone but attached to the cone at its broad base. In the diagram, the shielded cone floated above the saucer like an enchanted teacup, the tip of the cone pointing upward and out into the stary sky.

"This is what the antenna looks like when the Mind is alert. When it is concentrating on something, the cone will grow and become more pointed, and the side receivers will shrink." Brelin tapped on the console, and the model changed to reflect this. "When sleep, the cone will settle back and become blunted. When sleeping, the point will reverse completely." Now the diagram showed a very odd cone which looked as if the top had collapsed, fallen inward, and was now pointing toward the base. The point was again blunt.