---Chapter 5
“I wonder if we’ll get to see the dragon. That would be so cool!” Jax whispered to Amber, falling into step beside her. “You saw it last time. How big was it?”
“Too big.” The girl gave a little shiver. “And don’t be silly. If it’s an enemy now, we don’t want to meet it. I have to admit, even when it was friendly it frightened me.”
On the opposite side of her, Raggsy bared his teeth in a soundless snarl. “Don’t worry, Amber. I won’t let it get us. All animals is just meat, walkin’ around, and the bigger the animal, the more meat it is.”
Falling in with them like a silent shadow, Dansei said quietly, “how great a chance do you think it is that this guide will betray us?”
“Why, none.” Amber gave him a surprised glance. “He is our friend.”
“There is always a chance of betrayal, even among friends. How do we know that anything he said is true? If the ‘Power Core’ of this world turned against us, why would his servant speak of it? I simply wish to be ready for anything.”
“You’re right there, Ninja,” Jackal agreed, also falling in step with them. “Look what the last controller did to Lenny. But it doesn’t matter, much, at this point. Whether it’s dragons, traitorous guides or maddened controllers, there will be something on this world after our blood.”
He held his long gun in both hands, angled across his chest, as he spoke. It was evident that he was ready for any chance that came along. Both Patch and Lenny were walking up further, next to Leaflow and did not join in the conversation. Soleeryn on the other hand was trailing a little behind, walking carefully and looking at everything in the woods. She showed especial interest for the Greenfang mushrooms that they met along their way, though she was careful not to touch them.
No one even brushed up against the vines that they met, Leaflow leading the way around larger patches of them or warning them of ones on the ground with a gesture of his gloved hand. Soon they fell into silence, traveling through the stunted oak woods, out into a clearing of low, lawn-like grass and across a sleepy, trickling stream. They had not come into the world at the same place as last time, since the Di-jump was somewhat random in its landings and they had not left from the same co-ordinates. They did pass through a pine grove with dead needles piled on the ground and strange, soft-voiced birds calling in it, but they did not see again the clearing with the oddly humped hill sporting a single pine tree. Every once in awhile their guide would pause as if listening, his eerie eyes cutting the dark to either side. Once they heard, far in the distance, the sound of muffled roars and growls.
“The dragon is fighting the tiger,” their guide murmured, before hurrying them on through the trees.
The black, angled forms of ruined towers raised up now and then, marked with corrupted streaks. At one place they walked down a road overgrown with moss and vines, only small bits of the pavement peeking out. It had towers on either side more thickly, as if they still remembered being a city. Past this, they entered another pine forest, before finally seeing the yellow, homely light of the house in the tree up ahead.
They had come at it from a new direction, off to one side, so their guide led them around the giant oak until they came in front of the door. It was still painted with a purple cross, warning everyone that the corruption had struck someone who lived inside.
The many-paneled glass window beside the door spilled glowing warmth onto the steppingstone path, highlighting every blade of grass beside it. Overhead, the enormous limbs of the tree swayed softly in the breeze.
“The door is no longer locked,” Leaflow’s ambassador told them, “you may go in.”
“Aren’t you coming?” Lenny asked him.
“No, I’ll wait out here.” He stepped back, out of the light of the window and into the shadows. With his head turned away, he was only a deeper darkness in the night. That was the last time they ever saw him.
Lenny glanced at his companions. “Well, is everyone else going to come?”
There were nods and words of assent from all around. This time, no one was going to go alone or get left behind. Amber was excited. She had always wanted to have a house in a tree like this and now she got to see the inside.
Lenny stepped up on the large root which curled out in front of the door and was worn from boots tramping over it. Cautiously, he reached up and grasped the brass knob, which was just above a fancy, old-fashion knocker. He remembered how the knob had been stiff and immovable so many days ago, when he and Amber had come there looking for a cure for Jax. Now it turned easily, the door swinging inwards with a well-oiled silence. He went inside, closely followed by the others.
A plush, ruby carpet covered the floor, with a round table in the center of it. Over against one wall, a fire burned low in a brick hearth. Large arm chairs stood about, conveniently placed near book cases. Everything was homely, comfortable and oddly quiet. A set of wooden steps led up to the second story from the back of the room.
“Gosh, there’s even a ticking clock,” Jax whispered, pointing out the round-faced clock on the mantle. It felt like you had to whisper in that room, though they could not see anyone occupying it.
“Let’s go up the ladder and see who the captain is,” Patch suggested with a touch of humor, pointing out the staircase. He felt like they were on a mission to raid a mayor’s mansion or steal royal jewels, because of the silence. It noticeably affected the way he spoke and gazed about him.
Lenny still led the way as they started up the stairs, the S.B.C held ready in one hand. The steps thumped gently under his feet, only a few of them creaking the tiniest bit. At the top, the steps led directly into the second story with no door intervening.
This was a bedroom, with a dark green rug and a thick, comfortable bed covered in mahogany velvet. There was a writing desk against one well, set facing the staircase. In the chair behind the desk sat a cloaked figure. His hood was bowed forward, hands clutching the hilt of a sword which lay across the desk in front of him. There was no green eyes visible and his cloak was of a slightly lighter shade of black, but other than that he looked much like the Leaflow they had known before.
Lenny advanced into the room, footsteps muffled on the rug. He thought that either the personage at the desk did not hear them come in, or he was asleep sitting up, because his hood stayed bowed and he did not move. But his gloved hands on the sword were tight, so tight that the knuckles would have been white if they could be seen.
“Er, Mr. Leaflow?” he said, forcing himself to speak above a whisper, “are you awake?”
There was no sign of movement from him.
“Is he alive?” Soleeryn asked. She was less spooked by the brooding silence of the place than the others, though she had not liked the thought that the Leaflow down below was only an illusion. Moving forward, she made as if to draw back the deep hood which concealed the Keeper’s features. Just before her fingers brushed the cloth, one of the hands came up off of the sword and gripped her wrist. She let out a little gasp of surprise. The hooded head tilted up and green eyes flashed out at her.
“Don’t. Just cut the beams.”
Then he was back in the same position as before, so swiftly you would not have noticed him moving unless you watched the whole thing.
“Maybe he is concentrating on his fight against the Power Center,” Amber suggested tentatively, “it might take up all of his attention.”
“You’re probably right, Amb. Come on Len, let’s see what we can do with Grummage’s new toy.” Jax stepped up eagerly beside Lenny, so that he could look over and see the display on the Sissionbeam-cutter. They both stood next to the desk and pointed it at the passive form of Leaflow, switching the power on. Lines began to appear on the graph, forming bars that were thicker in the center of the screen and petered out on both sides. They fiddled with the knobs beneath the graph until the bars in the center were a bright color and thickly spaced.
“Is that how it’s supposed to look?” Jax dabbed a finger at the screen.
Lenny nodded his head. “I think so. Shall we give it a try?”
“Power up, man.”
Taking that as an affirmative, Lenny pushed the button to activate the cutter. It began to hum, vibrating softly in his hands. A light glowed at the front end of it, incandescent white. The box started to warm up, heating until it was almost too hot to hold comfortably.
“Is it doing anything?”
“I don’t know.”
“Watch Leaflow and see what happens.”
Suddenly the humming and vibrating came to a head and there was a flash of light in the room so bright they all blinked. The Sissionbeam-cutter went dead still. A strange force seemed to sweep through the room like an invisible knife. The world began to rip and crumble around them.
The change was more intense than either of the times they had defeated a Power Core before. The whole world seemed to shift and change before their eyes, shaking so that they could hardly keep their feet. The plump bed, wooden walls and verdant carpet shattered away, to be replaced with a brick wall poorly covered in crumbling plaster, a planked floor that was worn and warped in places and a small fireplace that had long since gone out. Old furniture stood around them, wooden cabinets and dressers polished with age. Puffy and threadbare, a small couch lay near the fire. An equally small window looked out across a dark, gleaming city of black towers. Leaflow sat on a low stool by the hearth, sword balanced across his knees. His glowing green eyes were watching all of them.
“Thank you,” he said, once the world had settled out again.
Lenny gazed out of the window, blinked and looked down at him. “I owed you one. Besides, we want answers.”
“And ye could start,” Patch put in, leaning on a dresser to get a better glimpse out of the window, “by explaining why your whole world just shifted colors.”
“That is simply answered.” Leaflow stood up and sheathed his sword at his side with a little jerk and flick of his cloak. “This is my home town. It didn’t disappear, it was there the whole time. The world you first landed at and found me in was made up. I created it with the powers granted me as a Power Core and in doing so managed to mostly keep Ex-2 from getting a grip on the real planet. My imaginary world blocked him from seeing the real one.”
Everyone stared at him in surprise.
“You mean you made up that whole world and kept it running with only your mind, but we could walk around on it, touch the trees, eat the mushrooms if we wanted, get eaten by the dragon?” Jax finally voiced the thought that all of them had.
“It was superimposed on the original so, no, I did not hold the whole planet in my mind. And it was really much smaller than it appeared: you had explored most of the generated world by the time you released me.” Leaflow shrugged. “I don’t see what is so difficult to understand. People live in a world of their own all the time. Artists manifest that world physically. I just happen to be an artist of the mind.”
He strode over to the door past them and opened it, looking up and down a seedy hallway outside. It seemed that they were in an apartment house of some sort, but one that was run down and almost derelict.
“Can all Power Cores do the same thing? Does this mean that the worlds we go to will be twisted, altered and perhaps deadly because the Core is making it up to stop us?” Soleeryn asked him, her oddly dark eyes seeming to see her own world remade in an evil image.
Leaflow shut the door and turned back quickly. “They could if they have the willpower and mental strength to do so. Quite honestly, few do have enough of either to change their world as much as I did. They use Ex-2's energy to shift things more to their liking, add creatures to serve them and perhaps alter a few physical items around them. But most of them will, I believe, be his pawns to take over the worlds in his own way. We will have to wait and see how every world is different.”
A few of the travelers were nodding agreement and understanding. Others crowded around the window to look at the gloomy city rising outside. It was like the broken towers in the woods, rebuilt and populated into a living world. Lights could be seen moving, from cars driving in the streets or changing in the tower windows.
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“It’s like my home, when I was jus’ a ratling,” Raggsy commented, laying his thin claws on the window sill.
Patch put a hand to his own forehead. “It’s another of these big cities that makes my head spin. When will we lay anchor on a decent world with plenty o’ skyline, I wonder?”
But Lenny was still intent on getting his answers and Jax was with him. Lenny leaned on a cabinet and looked at Leaflow levelly. “You have strange powers and use them well. But I still want to know more about EX-2. We need to know some things before we gone on. What is EX-2 and where did Dr. Devi build it? Why is it corrupting the worlds and how do we stop it? Also, will it really leave worlds alone once the Power Core is taken out, or will it try again to retake them? You seem to know the answers to many of these questions. We can’t force you to tell us, but it would help us in our quest if you did.”
“Do you know, I hate having to answer questions. Especially having to answer them straight.” Leaflow met his gaze with an ironic green one. “But, as I do intend to help you and answers are what you need at the moment, I’ll try to accommodate you. Shall we start with the last question first?”
Making himself comfortable, Lenny gave another nod. Jax threw himself full-length on the couch, sitting up and moving over when he saw that Soleeryn wanted a place on it as well. The others ranged themselves around the room, some to listen and others to see what they could find in the old furniture. These last were represented mostly by Patch and Raggsy, though Dansei also helped them on the sly.
“So, how long will it take for Ex-2 to retake a world that you have destroyed or freed the Power Core on?” Leaflow paced up and down once, before settling back on the stool with one leg crossed over the other at the knee. “It will vary, to some extent. But he will try to retake the worlds now that he has owned them once. Being connected to him, even as a slave, I sensed some of his intentions. He wishes to have those universes and, what’s more, force them into being not separate worlds, but all one that is his own. The longer time goes on, the closer together the conquered worlds are being drawn. Eventually, there will not be lines between them.”
“To find a new Power Core and institute it will take him at least seven days, or somewhere around one hundred and sixty-eight hours, I should say, as all of the world’s days run on different schedules. Which gives us our working margin. After that, we might have to start re-taking worlds a second time.”
“Phew.” Jax made a face. “That would be some trouble. Because if it took us too long to re-defeat a Power Core, the next world over might get a new one also. And the power center would go on getting smarter about our tricks the whole time.”
“Even just this first time around, things aren’t always going to be easy,” Jackal pointed out, leaning against the wall with his rifle beside him.
Raggsy looked up over an old desk. “Heh, I have an idea. If we start running out of time, we can build another Di-jump and split up into two teams. That way we would get them done twice as fast.”
“But it would be twice as dangerous,” Lenny pointed out skeptically, “besides, we would have to go back to Jax’s world to have Grummage build a second unit. And who knows how long that would take? Another day, at least.”
“But it’s not a bad idea, if we do get pressed.” Amber twirled a finger in her hair thoughtfully. “The day or two lost in getting another Di-jump would be quickly made up in how fast the worlds could be traveled to. In the cool-down rate alone.”
Jax frowned. “I would prefer if we all stuck together. The whole point of having one person from every world, nine of us, was that we could be on equal terms with all of the Power Cores if they ganged up on us.”
“The more we defeat, the less there would be to gang up,” Raggsy said with a shrug, “but if’n you don’t like my idea, that’s fine. Can we get on to the next answer for the other questions?”
Leaflow nodded, putting an end to the discussion. “The other questions can all be answered in a short history of EX-2. What I know isn’t all of the answer, of course, but from my own experience here is what happened and how it works...”
---
Some time in the past Dr. Devi discovered, like Grummage, the fact of ‘Sission beams’ and how they connect multiple realities together into a galaxy of universes. He also began to play with creating powerful computers with strong artificial intelligence. His first experiment was one of the most powerful computers in any world of the known galaxies. He called it EX-1.
But in many of the cities in that world, Lenny’s, attempts to further technology are regarded with suspicion. It seems strange, in a place with such advanced AIs and discoveries like Stato-drive for vehicles, but you can understand this in their banning of cybernetics. They are afraid of losing their humanity through their own creations.
So Dr. Devi deconstructed Ex-1, which he was not fully contented with anyway, and built himself a form of Di-jump instead. Unlike the one Jax carries, it required a large structure of its own to function. It was not hand-held and portable. But it was very powerful, and with it he began to search for an empty world in a nearby universe. A planet that was empty, but habitable enough to work on.
I don’t know how many planets he visited unsuccessfully. At least a few. Finally he found a world to suit his intentions.
There he began building a new experiment, a grand one. It was to be a computer that not only was as intelligent as a human being (minus such important bonuses as subconscious, imagination, conscience, ect.) but had the ability to use the Sission beams on its own planet to change the structure of things around it. Alter reality, some might say.
There is much about the construction and creation of this computer that is lost. It was, and is, undoubtedly a work of genius. But when it was finished, it could do everything that Dr. Devi had planned. He called it EX-2, the second experiment. He never made a third in that direction and in fact as you know, Lenny, afterwards denounced working with AI of any sort.
To cut a long story short, the machine went bad. It had no conscience to keep it from doing bad things, but it had enough of a mentality to work out the simple equation: Logic= self preservation + seeking of self actuation. Available power is > creator’s abilities.
Add these together and you get the answer; I Need More.
More everything. Territory, power, humans under its control, more of itself. I’m guessing that at some point, Dr. Devi realized what he had created, became afraid of it and fled. Returning to his home world, he either destroyed or hid his Di-jump, moved to Belltoh, buried himself in other works, including that of Lenny, and tried to forget it all in hopes that EX-2 could not leave the empty world to hurt anyone. The problem was that he had built EX-2 with the power to harness Sission beams. And EX-2 wanted to find Dr. Devi, to force him to build more on to EX-2 so that it could have more power, do more, so on.
The computer began to search for the doctor, in its own fashion. Reaching out along a Sission beam like a giant octopus, it would drew a world in close, take over a person to use as an anchor point or 'Power Core’ there, and begin to crawl through everything with its power in the form of purple smears, looking for Devi.
I was caught myself, when on a visit to my home town of Ti-Gallin, and at least partially put under his sway. But it became a battle between us and, as the old adage says, 'know thine enemy’. I learned a lot, while plugged into EX-2, and had at least some access to his wider field of view across the universes. I know of his computerized glee when he finally found Devi, how he enslaved the doctor and how Devi gave up quickly, almost glad to see his old creation again and share in its power.
EX-2 could build upon itself to some extent, but materials and knowledge were lacking. Devi has upgraded him more since he was found. Now, EX-2 is not merely looking for Devi, like he was when he took over the worlds at first. Now, he is a conqueror taking worlds for his own pleasure.
---
Leaflow stopped talking and looked around at the congregation in his room, meeting each of their eyes for a least a moment.
“Now you know more about EX-2 and, perhaps, can make plans for how to defeat him. I know of no quick and easy way myself, or else I would have found a way to implement it before.”
During his narration, Lenny had come to understand many things he had wondered about before. Dr. Devi’s previous life had always been a mystery to him, though the doctor had seemed to walk under a cloud of unshakable gloom. He was guilty but, originally, only of letting his works run away with him. He had not made EX-2 with any ill intention and had even tried to isolate the computer from the rest of the worlds to protect them. But Devi had failed and, in doing so, had created a menace that led to his own demise.
“Wow, it’s like something out of a Sci-Fi film!” Jax exclaimed enthusiastically, “‘the computer that ruled the world’. But there is one good thing about it not being human.”
He looked around, but no one asked him, so he supplied the answer for free. “We can have no compunction about destroying it when we reach it!”
A rifle against the wall, a cutlass in its belt and a pair of cold gray eyes all questioned if some of the travelers would have had conscience trouble anyway.
“If a Power Core is disconnected, they obviously lose all control over the world, and so does EX-2,” Lenny mused, “but won’t he find you again more quickly, now?”
Leaflow thought on that for a moment before replying, “possibly. Though he still has to reach out to the world for a second time. But that is another good reason for me to come with you until the end of the quest. He cannot use me as a Power Core as long as I am not in my home world.”
“Which means we must find another piece of iron here to stand on for the traveling.” Dansei was perched on top of a cabinet now, where his head brushed the ceiling.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Amber, “and I had an idea.”
“For where to find more scrap metal?” Jax gave her a teasing grin.
“No,” she laughed back at him, “for how to do without always finding it. Look, the train was grounded by its tracks or wheels. But they didn’t get left behind, except for the tracks when we made the jump to dead space. I’m supposing that this is because the Di-jump was connected directly to the train, so to the ground without first going through us. That means we need to hook the Di-jump to both the ground and something for us to hold on to. Then, as long as we are touching some part of the metal, it should take us with it.”
“Makes sense.” Jax nodded his approval.
“But ye’ll have to make sure this vessel doesn’t get left layin’ around where people can swipe it, or use it to track us,” Patch pointed out, “whatever it is, we’ll either have to carry it with us or stow it out o’ sight. As me ol’ captain used to tell the first mate about his boots.”
Amber nodded agreement. “That’s where I had another idea. What if we made it something that could fly?”
This suggestion brought down a rain of comments, arguments and encouragement, all at once.
“Great idea!”
“Heh, only birds is meant to fly.”
“What would it use to fly with?”
“Who would pilot it while we were away?”
“That would make me sick, I think.”
“And couldn’t it still be easily seen, up in the air?”
“No one could steal it, though.”
When she was finally able to get a word in, Amber explained that she had been thinking of something like a hot-air balloon, or a blimp. Below it could be slung an iron frame with room for them to sit or stand, as well as a place for the Di-jump to be fastened.
The one problem with that idea, as Jax pointed out, was that it would take a long time to build one and be hard to find the supplies. If they could find some sort of machine or at least frame that was already built and change it to suit their needs, it would work for them much better.
“I do have a car,” Leaflow submitted, “but it’s not meant to carry nine people at once. Five or six is a squeeze.”
They discussed the merits of trying to make it into a flying machine, and Jax even insisted on Leaflow taking him down to look at it, but in the end they all agreed that it was too small for them to fit in. This led to someone suggesting that they find a bigger vehicle on that world and fit it out as they needed.
Amber had been thinking deeply through most of this conversation and now spoke up, “what if we wait and find one on my world, instead? In fact, I think I know where we can get a flying machine that is already built, on my world. We would just have to use the disposable sheet metal way once more to get there.”
“An’ fight Mendo Drann again when we get there.” Raggsy made a face of disgust at the memory of their first run-in with the Power Core of Amber’s world. But as that would not change no matter how they traveled, it was no real objection. After a little more discussion, everyone decided that it would be the best way to go. Raggsy still averred that people weren’t meant to fly and the Ninja thought that it would make him dizzy.
The Di-jump was still too warm to allow them to make a jump right away, and they had to find a piece of metal for making the jump to Amber’s world. Jax, Lenny and Leaflow volunteered to do this, using the car to find and fetch the metal. Meanwhile, Raggsy and Soleeryn were to get a fire going in the grate and cook dinner from the Ratperson’s bag of supplies. The rest were left to do as they wished, though Leaflow warned them about wandering far from the old apartment house.
“This city isn’t exactly friendly to outsiders,” he explained, “there is rather strict laws that have been recently implemented about who can walk the streets and who cannot. I wouldn’t want anyone to get caught up in the legal system at the moment. It is best that you stay here and don’t answer the door for anyone but us.”
“We won’t talk to strangers,” Jackal agreed grimly, still leaning against the wall with his gun beside him, as if he had decided to stay in that position until they left the world.
The two young men and Leaflow left the room by the door in the hall, following it to a set of steps and an empty elevator shaft leading downwards. The building, Lenny soon found, was an abandoned one on the half-forgotten outskirts of the city. Leaflow had lived there on and off (mostly off) in between going on adventures to distant planets or even other dimensions.
“So, the other Leaflow, I mean your avatar, how much of him was you?” Jax asked as they stepped out of the old reception room onto a cracked sidewalk outside.
“You mean, were his memories mine and personality the same?” The cloaked man went over to the car sitting beside the walk, moving around it to the driver’s door. It was a convertible, with its hood down and a handful of fallen leaves laying on the seats. Lenny saw that it had rubber tires on metal wheels, an old-fashioned shape and an air of having survived many years, perhaps sometimes by a hairline margin. But at the same time, the sky-blue body was almost unscratched and had very little dings on it. It was a vehicle that had been much-used and was much loved.
Once they were inside it, comfortably arranged on the leather seats, Jax went on, “yeah. He said that he had been to many worlds before, but that meant you and not him, right? But some of the other things he said I’m not too sure of. Like saying that he ate Greenfang mushrooms but you cured him before they killed him.”
“Very foolish of him.” Leaflow slammed the door shut and turned the key to start the engine. “Though I suppose I’ve committed equivalent follies in my youth, and he was only a little less than a month old.”
“But the memories?” Jax insisted.
The glowing, pupil-less eyes looked at him for a moment, weighed between amusement and mockery. “Mine. All the long-term ones. Though, as you saw, he did have a will of his own, to some extent. Despite being manufactured solely to find someone to set me free, he almost chose not to, so that he could live his own life. Rebellious, wouldn’t you say?”
“Somehow I get the feeling he came by it honestly.”