Ch 19

Urr was the breaker of cycles. She was the bringer of anarchy, of hunger, of loss. She brought the plague to the plains and caused the crops to fail, that tipped the cycle toward death. She brought the miasmas in the night that brought sickness to the young, that tipped the cycle toward death. She brought envy to the weak, that drove them to break covenants that tipped the cycle toward death. She brought fear to the small spirited, that drove them to dominate others, that tipped the cycle toward death. - the Urr concepts (revised edition)

As she exited her building, Liuani noted that there weren’t too many people around the campus grounds. Though it being in the middle of a rainy period probably had a lot to do with that. She was not really a fan of using the walking paths, but unless she wished to get wet, that was the only way to move around the campus.

The weather today was scheduled for regular periods of hard rain, the least enjoyable form. She understood that the ecosystem needed this to stay in balance, but that did not mean she had to like it. It did mean that the smell of the wet soil competed quite aggressively with the usual smells of the flowers from the flower beds that were spread around the grounds.

During her lunch, she had gotten lucky, the rain had stopped and she had been able to cut across the grounds to go to Lysal’s building directly, but she heard the rain falling before she even exited her building, so she knew she would be sticking to the paths this time.

The clouds were an unpleasant grey, and oppressive, so she kept her eyes on the path, making sure none of her stuck out through it. Thankfully, the paths being a couple meters across meant that individuals could pass each other comfortably and still not have to get too close to the sides. The lack of dust in the air made her nostrils twitch unpleasantly.

This was probably the peak of this rainfall, as it was coming down rather hard now. Between the barrier around the paths and the rain, she couldn’t see any detail beyond a few meters off the path. She was surprised to see what looked like someone walking across the courtyard, off the paths. She could barely make out their outline. They weren’t even running, just a smooth walk. She didn’t understand individuals like that.

Liuani quickly closed the distance to the labs, entering the building with a sigh of relief as the environmental controls in the building cut off the moist air, keeping it from entering with her.

Liuani noticed that her AI was notifying her that there were more aberrations in the data than had been identified previously. The AI was still parsing the data using the search parameters that Liuani had defined, for her personal research.

A cursory glance showed that the AI had identified two, and possibly three, different religious groups within Humanity that had references that fit within the defined search parameters, but that they all showed differing levels of being aberrations from the norm that she had used as the baseline for the search.

She had gone down to Rysal’s lab so often that Liuani didn’t need to think too much on where to go, this let her take a quick look at the results her AI had dug up so far. She was surprised to note that two of the religious groups were listed as some of the dominant religious groups for the whole planet. Usually the references were in obscure, or no longer practiced religious groups.

Liuani was slowing her walking as she focused more on what the AI was showing her. She had the AI bring up the reference with the strongest correlation to her search, but still classified as an aberration. The text was written in a fashion that she recalled was more of a style several hundred cycles..years, to humans…past.

Liuani came to a stop.

‘…he was cast to the earth…’ that piece of text held her complete attention. That had never been seen before. She could feel her breath getting faster, this was new. She would never have expected this deviation from all of the other observed races. She needed to look into this.

Liuani had the AI identify the change in action as identified in the text, and use this as a reference to go over the texts again, looking for any other references to this action. The AI confirmed it understood that she was trying to identify a specific issue with the texts.

Liuani realized she had come to a stop, and started moving again. She was looking forward to getting the time after the project to sit down and more thoroughly go over the data to analyze these passages. She only hoped they were not the result of a misinterpretation by the AI. She would definitely have to have Cswir take a look at the specific data references to ensure the translation was done correctly.

Liuani was still thinking on this when she reached Rysal’s lab. The portal to the lab recognized Liuani’s AI and opened to let her in. It took Liuani a few seconds to realize that Rysal was not alone. There was a security technician with her. All thoughts about the text disappeared, she hoped nothing had happened.

Liuani stopped just inside the portal, not wanting to interrupt them. The security technician glanced in her direction when she walked in, but otherwise was paying attention to what Rysal was saying.

“No there was nothing wrong with the scan that was done on you previously. It did show some unusual anomalies and I am hoping that a more detailed one will provide some context for the aberration.”

“I am happy to help, but I can’t be off my schedule for too long. How long will this take?”

“I would like to be able to do the scan for at least an hour, can you do that?”

The technician gave it some thought, Liuani noticed he did not seem to have an AI, or he likely would have just had it notify his supervisor.

“Ok, I can do that. I am on a break period at this time, and I can stretch it that far.” His tone of voice, to Liuani, sounded like he did not mind it.

“Good, I would like you to go stand on the pad please.” Rysal was quick to respond. She moved over to a desk and activated the interface there.

He moved across to the pad. Liuani noticed that the human subject was still in the lab. He was currently in stasis on the pad farthest in the back of the lab. She didn’t know if it was an effect of the stasis field, or the lighting in the room, but the scars present on his left side were standing out vividly at this time. Their presence creating jagged discolorations to the surface of his skin.

For a second she considered that while she was an active simulation player, this human had actually been in a real combat situation, where his life was in danger, and he most likely tried...or even succeeded...in killing another being.

She wondered briefly what he thought when he saw the scars in the mirror. Was he proud of them? Did they still cause pain? Did he hide them? She knew that Humanity was still in a very combative phase of their evolution, and he provided a very graphic visual to what the Sel must have been like three to four thousand cycles ago.

Rysal’s voice brought her attention back.

“I will be putting you in stasis this time security technician Hluwynor. To you this should be over in almost an instant. Please be patient while I configure the scanner for the detail I will require. Try not to move on the scanner, as that will delay the calibration.”

The security technician, after getting onto the pad, was taking repeated glances at the human subject suspended in the air beside him. The two of them side by side, made it more clear just how much larger Humans were than Sel.

The security technician was certainly average for those in that field, so that meant he was in very good shape, certainly bulkier than Liuani. But the human’s obvious muscle bulk, combined with his height difference, would make him significantly heavier, and more massive.

“Why are you here?”

It took Liuani a few seconds to realize that Rysal was speaking to her.

“Sorry...I wanted to come by and see if I could convince you to come out tonight, get away from the lab and just relax for an evening.” Liuani managed to reply, moving over to where Rysal was inputting settings.

“Why would I want to do that?” Rysal replied absently.

Liuani felt that was more of an unconscious response on Rysal’s part. She doubted that Rysal had actually really heard what she had said. Liuani wasn’t going to give up that easily.

“Rysal, I know that this is a big project for you. But let me ask you a few questions. Have you been acknowledged as the primary researcher on this project?”

“Yes.”

There had been a slight delay before her reply, but Liuani took it to mean, Rysal was at least putting some attention to her questions.

“There is only one Human subject available at this time right? And you have already been given priority time in accessing him while he is here, right?”

“Yes.”

Rysal was only answering in monosyllabic replies, but Liuani figured this was what she had to work with, and it was better than being ignored.

“You have been spending all of your free time either collecting data, analyzing data, or organizing the data. If you don’t take some down time soon, your AI will decide you are being obsessive and force you to take an extended break on mental health requirements.” Liuani paused for affect here.

Rysal’s hands stopped moving on the interface and she turned to give Liuani her attention.

“That is ridiculous. My AI is very aware of the gravity of what I am working on and is in complete agreement with my activities.” Rysal did not display any doubt in this statement.

Rysal’s hand moved slightly and Liuani noticed the colour change on the pad the security tech was on to a light orange, indicating the stasis field had been enabled.

“I think that if you were to tell your AI what would like to do...”

The flickering light from the pad distracted Liuani, causing her to glance over to it. She did not expect to see the security technician stepping away from the pad toward her and Rysal. Rysal obviously noticed something on the interface as well, as she was the first to speak.

“Why did you step off the pad? Is something wrong?”

The security technician just kept on walking, not replying to her question.

Liuani felt the urge to step back, to put something between her and the security tech. As she started to move, she realized what was putting her on edge. His central eye was wide open.

“Something is wrong with him Rysal!” Liuani glanced at Rysal as she spoke, but quickly looked back at the security tech. “Can you hear me? What do you want?”

He didn’t show any sign of even hearing her questions, his eyes were locked on her now, the two outer ones were half closed, almost slits. He was moving at a walking pace, apparently not in any hurry.

Liuani received notification from her AI that it had sent an emergency summons to the security administration. She moved more behind the console, to put as much of it between her and the security tech as possible.

The flaring of his nostrils was all the warning she got before he leapt the console. For just a fraction of a second, when it happened, she didn’t recognize what she was seeing, but it looked so familiar. It came to her in a flash...the game. That same thing happened to the Sel avatars in the game before they would do a spring, or lunge type attack.

So inspite of her recognizing what was happening, her delay meant he was over the console and reaching for her before she had a chance to move.

The console is just over 2 meters wide and about a meter across. It is about .8 of a meter high, so waist height for her. The security tech used his left arm to brace as he came across the console, his right arm reaching out to her before he even landed.

Rysal gave a hissing squeak of surprise and stumbled back, too shocked to do more than just try and get away.

Liuani instinctively did a cross body block, attempting to knock his arm to the side. She continued to step back, trying to slide around the console once more, but determined not to show her back to her attacker.

Her mind was strobing between panic and trying to remember what she would do in the game. The block was a basic defensive move for the game and felt right now. But she had no illusions that she was better trained than a security technician when it came to close quarters combat. She just hoped she could keep his attention. Better he focus on her than Rysal who had no practice at any form of self-defense.

The technician had continued to spin with the force of her block. Liuani had no desire to attempt an attack as his back started to come around instead using the time to continue her move. So when his tail slammed into her leg from under the console, she was totally caught by surprise.

The sudden hit had her reaching for the console to keep her balance for a few seconds, she saw him turning back around now, arms coming up again, as she got her feet under her once more.

He barely paused before pivoting over the console again, causing Liuani to stumble back, away from the console. Now there was nothing between them. She was trying to back up when her left foot banged into something as she tried stepping back, causing her to stumble.

Liuani realized that she had just backed into the pad that the human was on, as his form appeared beside her, suspended in mid air.

Hluwynor was only just over a meter away from her at this point. She was beginning to wonder why he hadn’t tried different tactics instead of always just coming straight at her, when he launched himself at her.

The leap was a complete surprise. She tried to move sideways, to put the human between them. Not quite fast enough, his foot caught her in the hip. It wasn’t a good hit, but it was enough to push her off balance and cause her to sprawl onto the floor.

Liuani was just glancing back, even as she continued to try and scramble to put the floating human between them, but he was too close and still standing. Hluwynor dropped on her, pinning her to the floor. He was immediately reaching for her throat.

Liuani stopped trying to escape and sprawled out on her back, spreading her legs to try and get some leverage. She managed to grab onto his forearms and had managed to keep them off her. She could feel that he was stronger than her and she did not know how long she could hold him off.

This close, she couldn’t help but look into his eyes. Her own central eye was open now as well, giving her extreme awareness of his face. She did not see any emotion in his face. It was like he was focused on an everyday thing, instead of trying to kill her.

She tried using a hip roll to get him unbalanced, but his body responded to keep himself on top. Liuani could feel her arms being pushed back by him. He had straddled her abdomen, sitting high enough to keep her from being able to use too much force.

Suddenly his head jerked to the side and Liuani saw Rysal standing behind him. It looked like Rysal had slammed her portable control interface into the side of his head. Whatever she did, it caused him to immediately stop trying to reach for her.

This time she was able to topple him over, knocking him up against the feet of the human. He still had his legs around her, but he wasn’t able to keep her under him. Liuani could feel him already trying to wrestle her back down.

He had grabbed her forearms this time, holding her in place. She felt his body twitch and Rysal abruptly dropped to the floor with a grunt. Liuani tried to use the distraction to move him again.

He was stronger than her, but not by a lot, and this time he wasn’t in quite as secure a position, so she was able to get the leverage and force him up against the human. The force of the movement was enough to shift the human a little.

It was a contest of wills now, she had him as unbalanced as she could and he was trying to get her back under him. The whole time, she was pushing him against the human, keeping his head and upper body in the field the pad was generating for the human.

Yes! It was only a few seconds, but the pad had finally tripped its safety protocols and deactivated, the movements of the human exceeding its safety parameters. With the field off, the body dropped, dead weight, right on top of both of them, but as she was keeping him right at the feet of the human, the security technician got the brunt of the impact.

The mass of the human felt exactly as she had expected, he was heavy. The sudden impact and body dropping on him had caused the security technician to stop fighting with her and start trying to shift the body off of him.

This gave Liuani time to get out from under the human’s legs and scramble back, away from the pad. Rysal had gotten up after the trip, and ran over to her, trying to pull her to her feet.

The door to the lab opened, admitting another security technician, followed by a drone.

Liuani pointed to the security tech, just getting out from under the human now. “He tried to kill me!”

The new security technician was speaking even as she spoke.

“Double dose, chemical suppressant!”

There was barely any delay from his order and the drone firing on Hluwynor, a soft, barely discernible ’phht, phht’ sound coming from the drone. The effect was immediate, he dropped bonelessly to the floor, completely unconscious.

Before Liuani could relax, she saw that the human’s head move...he was waking up.