Something about this building would not let me go on. I don't know if I should go in, or if I am waiting for something. After some time of just staring, I hear Berg say, “What is wrong?”

“I don't know,” I say, “It is just something about the building that won't let me pass.”

“Is it Grass or memory?” Peth asks.

“It is not us,” Grass replies. “This is just a residence. Nothing any different then the rest. The only anomaly is that the desperation clause sent out a command we were unable to follow. It actually erased its tracks in the computer. We were attempting to predict its path, but were unsuccessful.

We find it strange that a part of the computer would erase part of itself. The whole purpose of the main was to record everything, not erase. We find it extremely suspicious that it activated just before you stopped.”

“Is there any way to see if the clause did something to me?” I ask, still unable to remove my stare from the building.

“We are unable to follow its course in the computer and there is no way for us to detect any mental change in you.

We are always keeping an eye on you, but we didn't see any change in you. Physically you never change. Your thoughts did not alter in a way to be suspicious. In other words we did not see any change in you, prior, during, or after the clause done with its erasing.”

“Just what we all need, another anomaly,” I say disgusted, “Well I guess we go in. I can't stand here all day. I don't feel like being a tree today.” I say and hear a chuckle from behind me.

“Well off we go,” I say and head to the strip, that indicates the door location.

I enter the residence without even a flinch at the door. I can't figure out where my attention exactly is, but I know it is in the building.

I enter a short hall with stairs. I don't even hesitate when I head up the stairs. I never understood people saying they felt drawn so much it was falling. I now understand that feeling.

It feels hard for me to stand still. It's like gravity has reversed and it is easier for me to walk. I take two or three steps. Then feel as though if I don't get there faster, I will miss something.

I go level after level up. The farther up I go the more I get pulled. I don't know where the others are and at this point I don't care. I just know I have to get there. Where, I don't know.

I get to the top of the stairs and head down the short hall. At the end I don't even hesitate. I walk on. I don't even check to see if there is a door. I know on some level there is.

I enter what looks like a living room with a couch, a few table blocks, and a few chairs. Everything in the room is made of eternal stone. I can't be sure what else is in the room, because I walk past it all to a door on the far wall. How I know there is a door, I don't know.

On the other side is a large room. On the far wall is a desk. Solid stone tables are scattered around the room. I am still pulled, so I head to the desk.

I stand at the desk almost like I expect someone to be in the chair to talk to. Then with a rush the feelings leave me. I stand at the desk empty and uncertain what to do.

I hear huffing and puffing getting closer. I turn around to see Cliff and Tieth just catching up to me, “How did you move so fast?” Tieth asks between gasps.

I look at myself realizing I am not even breathing hard, “I don't know, maybe I am still charged by transformation. Sorry I just felt I needed to be here.”

“Okay, just hard to keep up. Told to tell you Berg and Peth catch up,” Cliff pants trying to get it all out.

I look around in shock, “Oh crap are they okay? I didn't know I was going that fast.”

“Fine,” Cliff says, starting to get his breath back, “Just want you to wait for them when you stop.”

“Oh, okay no problem, Sorry,” I say and hear worry in my voice.

“It's okay, I'm just not going to race you,” Cliff says and laughs. Tieth laughs with him.

I look at the desk, “Well not when I am drawn to an empty table,” I laugh and look back at them.

They are both on the floor trying to gasp for air from laughing so hard. Both of them are holding their stomachs, “It hurts,” and Cliff laughs harder.

“Yep kind of a funny twist huh? That is where our saying, 'It hurts to laugh' comes from.”

“Stop, I can't stop,” Tieth gasps between laughs.

“Just try to clear your mind and relax, you will eventually stop,” I say remembering the feeling the first time it happened to me.

They both are just about to stop laughing when Berg and Peth enter, “Is everything okay?” Peth asks.

“Yeah just racing to an empty desk,” I say and Cliff and Tieth start laughing again.

“What is going on?” Peth asks, concerned.

I look at Peth with a calm sincere look, “It's okay, they are just experiencing, for the first time, uncontrollable laughter. I've been told that it is good for you from time to time.”

“Okay if they are okay. Now what about you?” Peth asks.

Cliff and Tieth are calming down and getting up. I look at the desk then Peth. “I don't know. I had this unstoppable urge to get here. Then when I get here it is gone. I don't know what it is.”

“Put your hand on the desk, Ben,” Grass says. “There is a file protected with a level five clearance that has human DNA on its signature.”

I look at the desk, “What?”

“We can't explain it. Being level five locked, we cannot read it or scan it. We are unsure if the DNA is from the writer or a trigger,” Grass sounds a little desperate.

I put my hand on the desk waiting to run or duck at a moment's notice. For a moment nothing happens and I start to relax. Then the desk starts flashing, “What the?” I ask.

“We don't know the file is flashing random stuff on the desk from Oranian's history,” Grass says.

“Why would it do that?” I ask thinking very strongly of removing my hand.

“It is looking for something.”

“What?” I start to pull my hand away.

“We don't know, it will not reveal the source. It is still under level five lock. And you can take your hand off if you want. It is already active, removing your hand will have no effect on it.”

I remove my hand and watch it continue to scan through Oranian history. I try to see if I can catch anything in the flashes. Unfortunately the images are flashing by too fast.

I gather it is going through almost all the history, because I see things are expanding as the images flash. I lose track of how long I watched the images. I glance up to see the others have gathered around the desk.

Finally the images stop and the desk goes blank. “Grass?” I inquire.

“It's still doing something. It has accessed several transportation units, but nothing is activated. It is now in a level five secured area of the city.”

“How can you tell?” I ask.

“Because this one is not erasing its tracks. All programs leave a register of what and where they access. We can read the access file to see where it has been, and where it is going.”

“Wouldn't that file be part of the original, so under security lock?” I ask.

“No its record needs to be accessed by other programs that don't have level five access, so its location file has to be outside five secure access.”

“That makes sense I guess. Is it still working?”

“Yes it is going from level five secure locations and file to the next. We do not know what it is doing since it is blocked from us.”

I look at the others, “You all like to be sneaky don't you?” I ask jokingly.

“No, I am not sneaky,” Peth says defensively.

I look back at the desk waiting for something, “Oh I know you all aren't. I was trying to make brevity in a tense situation,” I say. Tieth attempts a halfhearted laugh.

I look at him, “You don't have to laugh unless you want to. I doubt it was really funny, just a bad attempt.”

“I was trying to laugh to help me from worrying, but it didn't work,” Tieth responds.

I look back at the desk, “Yeah I know that feeling. Done it many times in futility. But it is always worth a try,” I say attempting to sound confident.

“Grass?” I ask.

“Nothing yet sorry. This file is frustrating us. It is staying behind the level five security. It might take it a while to finish. You can head to the memory center,” Grass says, distracted.

“Would love to, but something keeps me from leaving. I guess we need to wait for it,” I respond.

“So what do we do till then?” Berg asks.

“Don't know, wish we had a TV to watch,” I say.

“Actually they do. I will start it and find something for you. If the program finishes I'll have it set to play the info on the TV.”

“Thanks Grass, you are a lifesaver,” I say.

“Yep and don't you forget it,” Grass says sarcastically.

I chuckle, “Of course,” I go to the living room. I find a chair and tentatively sit in it. I expect to sit on a hard surface. Instead I find it is soft.

As I shift to a comfortable spot the chair forms to my body shape. It is almost like the thing is learning my comfort level. When I shift because the form is too uncomfortable, the chair responds correctly. To think I grew up in a static chair.

The others have picked a spot and sit looking at the side wall like me. The center area of the wall lightens up. Then a screen of some insect looking creature is in a small room.

As I watch, the insect pops around the room. Then objects would slide out of the floor. The creature would teleport next to one wall that appeared, then it would look at the ceiling and port on the other side of the wall.

“We had trouble finding something interesting. Most of the entertainment files are of subjects. There are a few soap operas, but this seemed the most appropriate,” Grass says.

“Good choice, I hate soap operas,” I say.

“What is a soap opera?” Tieth asks, unable to take his eyes off the screen.

“A soap opera is a show that follows people and all the things that go wrong in their lives. It is all made up so every day they all get themselves in some kind of trouble.”

“Oh,” Peth responds distracted by the wall.

I had been looking at them while I talked so I had no idea what was now on. I look back to see what looks like a huge plant bulb.

I see it shake and the room vibrates. After a short pause I see it shift and vibrate again. This time some loose dirt on a pedestal would just shake.

I watch this and wonder if I can focus the shakes direction. It had never occurred to me that it could be controlled. Since it was from an involuntary action, I figured it was just as involuntary.

After several minutes of the shaking bulb the screen changes to a small room. Inside the room stands an ape-like creature. Its hair color is more pink than anything else. The size of its hands could cover my whole head.

A young male walks into the room and turns his back on the creature. All I can think is 'Dead man standing'. The creature touches the man with a large finger on his shoulder.

The man turns around and then shrugs at the creature. The creature's shoulder slumps. The man leaves and the creature stands in the room alone. After what I think is about a minute, a short creature enters the room.

It is the height of about a medium size dog. It stands on two legs and its arms are so long that its fingers touch the floor. It is covered in dark coarse hair.

I can see no ears on it. Its head looks ill proportioned to its body. It is short and wide. It looks like a soccer ball that has been squished. There are no eyes to be seen.

The ape creature begins to shake and back away. The little creature just turns its back to the ape. You can see the ape wanting to get out of the room as fast as possible.

The ape then looks up like it is listening to the ceiling. It then looks at the little creature a little less scared. The ape very slowly reaches out and lightly touches it on the head. The ape immediately jumps back to the corner.

The little creature turns around to the ape. Well I figure it is its front. It jumps and turns to run. It was there then it was gone. I didn't see it move once it turned. You can see what looks like a smile on the apes face. It struts like it is the baddest thing on two feet. Again the screen changes.

We now see a large room with what looks like an octopus at the far end. From this distance it looks like it is purple, but it could be just blue. I count five visible tentacle-like appendages it is standing on.

Each appendage looks the size of the big end of a baseball bat. The body is the size of a large medicine ball. As I watch, one tentacle raises into the air and goes back down.

From the other side of the room you see baseball size blocks of eternal stone flying toward the octopus. As each reaches the octopus creature, it slaps a tentacle at it. As it taps every one of the blocks they disappear.

At one point there are at least five stones being thrown at it in succession. Then the stones are coming at it one by one, but very rapidly. The skill and speed of the creature keeps me fascinated.

“Ben.” I just about jump out of my seat when Grass speaks.

“What?” I ask a little more rougher and quicker than I meant.

Grass chuckles, “Scare ya?”

“Oh yeah, some of these are quite intense,” I stammer trying to get my voice control back.

“The program is waiting on you,” Grass comes back trying to hold the laughter in.

“Oh okay, how do I shut this off?”

“We'll do it for the poor confused man,” Grass replies, unable to hold in the laughter anymore.

“Ha, Ha,” I say as the screen goes black.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

A stout short man appears on the screen. His hair is short and gray. He looks sad and downhearted. His voice is low and you can hear stress in his voice.

“I am so glad to see you Ben. This is only an interactive recording. My scans show nothing of you since you have arrived, but that is to be expected. I had hoped you would have figured more out, but I was not expecting it.

I do not know how much you have explored yet, so I will just give you the background information this recording knows. I apologize for its lacking.

We detected the virus too late to stop it. Even in the host it appeared to be immune to our technology. We had hoped your planet had advanced enough to help. But since you lack access to all of our resources, I can only gather your technology is not like ours.

Since we could not find a way to stop the virus, we set up the desperation clause. We threw it together so fast, I'm sure it lacks in many areas of its function. We hope you will be able to figure out its underlying protocol. It was set to open everything up once an anti virus was found.

We register four others of our race with you, but the protocol still remains so I am unsure as to why the system has not reset. This recording does not have access to all the protected files and protocols, so it is limited on what it can deduce.

We register one other human that has arrived. It is calculated to be a relative of yours, but the local computer has lost his location.

This recording is limited on its answers, but it can answer some of your questions. We are sincerely sorry for what we have done to you, but we were desperate.”

I just sit there in shock. All I hear of the recording is relative and limited response. Why is this happening, and which of my relatives. That would mean that the person who the computer lost, is a relative of mine.

How far distant relative, and why just my family. What is it about us that we got singled out. If the clause was supposed to open when an anti virus was found, how am I supposed to get it.

“Ben.” I hear Grass yell in my mind and ears.

“What?” I ask, defiantly.

“Ask the program, it could answer your questions,” Grass responds softly.

I shake my head. “Oh, yeah.” I focus back on the unmoving figure on the wall.

“Do you know which relative of mine came?”

“Not definitively. But by the relative DNA and RNA alterations it is estimated to be two to three generations away from you. When age and time of presence is compared to your age, it is estimated more closely to be your Grandfather.

But this is based on estimations of age span of life and last known environment effect. The temple on earth still sends data and is immune to the level five lock. We found it necessary to leave its link open.”

“Why?”

“I'm sorry, but this program doesn't understand the question.”

“Why did the link to earth need to stay open?” I can't seem to focus on what is being said. Could it be my grandfather stuck somewhere in this city?

“Our hope and possible future lies on earth. We felt it necessary to keep its link open in case it was located and used.”

“Where is it?”

“Its location was set at one time many many years ago, your time. With tectonic and other disasters, it has moved and this program is not designed to locate it.”

Finally I snap and cannot handle it anymore, “Why me, why my family, what did we ever do to you?” I yell.

“I told them this would happen. They all thought you would be thrilled to help. But I tried to tell them that humans did not think that way.

I had witnessed many times on your planet how relocation had disrupted your lives. I tried to convince them that earth was not ready, but they refused to listen. This is why I created this program and your head band.

I hoped you would find it and activate it. I set it as level five clearance to keep the computer from eliminating it.” the man looks off the screen.

“I am also sorry Grass, I do believe they call you. I did not want to block it from you. But to hide it from the computer, I had to.”

“You know about Grass?” I ask.

The man looks back at me. “Yes for some time. I detected the roots in the computer. So I changed security to let it in.

I didn't know why at the time. It took a lot of work to hide the fact from the others. Luckily I used a lot of tricks I learned on earth.”

“Wait,” I say slowly coming to my senses, “How could you come to earth? This all happened before humans dominated earth.”

The guy smiles a little, “I could explain the details to you, but I doubt you would understand it all. Suffice to say I used a timing trick.

I put my body in the ship's memory, then timed the ship's space jumps to get to earth at a specified time of development. Then through some gravitational, and worm hole jumps, I traveled back in time to my planet.

I do not believe earth has the space flight knowledge to do that yet. And since none of your technology was able to detect the differences in our species, I was never detected.”

“But I am confused, you act like a normal person, but I know you are a program. And I may be reading the responses wrong, but I get you were not killed by the virus.”

“Very observant young man. I knew I picked the right family. I am in essence still me. What I was in life is what you see on this screen. My memory and my personality is here, but as you say I am a program. If your race survives it will eventually learn to do this too.

I am me, but yet I am not. The human part of me, as you would say, is dead. I registered my emotions digitally, but I do not feel them. I respond according to set responses.

And yes I did survive the virus. I had grown a natural immunity, like you, to virus attack. Took me on a rough road on earth. I was hospitalized for some time.

I was impressed though, despite the primitive health care of the area, they pulled me though. Your health care was actually better equipped to handle a virus then we were.

We had thought we had eliminated the need for a concern about viruses. In our race to be perfect, we forget the basics of survival. I hope earth never falls prey to that area of thought.”

The man looks to the other four, “I would hope that one of you, or maybe someone else at the town, are my descendants.. I would be a very proud super grand dad to any of you.”

I look over at the others. None of them move. They all have a blank surprised look on their face.

“Why didn't you go with the others? They could have used your knowledge.”

“I had hoped I wouldn't have to. I stayed in the city with a few others that survived. We worked nonstop looking for an anti virus. By the time we realized it was not possible with our technology, none of us were able to walk to town.

We all stayed here in shame and disgrace. In fact I made this program almost exactly one week before my demise. The computer registers me diseased in my bed.

I could have frozen myself in time in memory, but I could not bring myself to do it. I don't think I could handle being brought back this long after the fact of our almost demise. As all scientists of my time I was too proud.”

“You said you do not know why the desperation clause has not released anything.”

“Correct, it was set to unlock everything when an anti virus was found.”

“Then how do we produce an anti virus with no knowledge of your technology?”

“You mean you do not have one? Then how are there any descendants of our race?”

“They gained an immunity on their own, I guess. There are I believe thousands barely surviving in the town now.”

He looks to the four, “I did not expect that. I thought most would die from the virus and the rest from lack of genetic variety.”

“As all scientists, you never factor in the human spirit,” I say bluntly.

He looks at me with guilt on his face. “You are correct Ben. The human spirit can not be measured or tested. And I do believe that may be our lacking.”

“Well to the point at hand. What can we do to straighten this out?” I ask, changing the subject quickly.

“As I stated before, this program is limited so it is not able to help.”

“I think you have underestimated it too,” I say in a matter of fact way.

“How so?”

“This program is able to get into some of the locked files correct?”

“Yes, but it is very limited. Maybe just the outer conditions of the locked files.”

“It is also linked in some way to the crown right?”

“Yes it has full access to the crown.”

“And lastly, you said the band was not known by the computer, and the clause right?”

“Yes, but I do not understand the connection,” The program sounds confused.

“Well to begin with, your last statement is wrong,” I say remembering that everyone knew of the crown, before it was ever found.

“I am not wrong about the band,” the man sounds very defensive.

“Then how did everyone in the town know of it?”

“It was in storage there. Anyone could have seen it.” The man sounds thoroughly confused.

“I can see where you would think that, but they couldn't have seen it. Grass pulled the info on how many times the drawers in the hall were opened.”

“They were opened to put the items in, and then when we opened them for you,” Grass's voice even sounds a bit confused.

“That means that the ones sent to the town never knew what was in the drawers. When I told them of the rings they had no understanding, or knowledge of them. But when I showed up on the quest with the band, that looked like a crown, they knew it immediately.”

I look at the others in the room, “Where did you read the prophecies about the crown?”

They all kept staring at the screen except Berg. Berg glances at me quickly, then back at the screen, “Memory,” he says softly.

I look back at the man on the screen, “So how did they do that?”

The man was looking at Berg. He looks back at me then back at Berg, “I don't know.” he then looks at me.

“Is the desperation clause authorized to enter any file?”

“Yes,” the man says nervously.

“Now were you privy to the whole clause, and if so did you look it over?” I feel I am getting my point across.

The nervousness of the program could just be heard in its voice, “I don't know, I never looked at all of it. I just worked on my part.”

“Who was in charge of the final checking of the program, before it was deemed workable?”

“I don't know. I just know she was the best scientist we had at that time. She had innovated many things that prior scientists thought was at its best. We were devastated when she died, not too long after the program was finished.”

“Just out of curiosity, can you bring up her health file and read it?”

“Yes, why?”

“Can you look at her health history from the time the clause was started and tell me when she got the infection?”

“Sure hold on a moment,” the face on the man goes blank.

“That can be, Ben,” Grass says.

“I could be wrong, but I doubt it,” I say staring unemotionally at the screen.

“What?” Cliff asks, breaking their silence.

“Can you hold on a bit, I need to know the answer to be sure. I will explain it,” I say after I look at him.

Cliff nods. I look back at the screen. It is about a minute till the computer responds. Shock appears on the man's face, “She had it before the program was started. How did you know that?”

“I took the survival factor into account. You said she was very innovative. That told me she was able to see possible future outcomes.

The clause seems like it can predict my every move. It was able to figure out what your band was. Yet it did not calculate a reason to reactivate it.

She knew she was dying when she started the program. You have shown a program can imitate a living person. You have shown to what extent you were willing to go to save your race.

I have thought for some time, this clause is thinking independent of the computer. When you showed up you confirmed my suspicions. And the only reason a person would do that, is if they knew they were dying. Thus I deduced she was already infected or got infected during the creation.

I do admire her, to be able to last the full length of time it took to make the program. She, to me, is a good example of human spirit. I think she understood the precarious nature of the situation, better than most.

What her purpose in it all, I still do not know. I bet though she anticipated other problems we have as yet figured out. And until we are able to alleviate her other fears, the clause will stay stuck.”

The man looks at me with pride. “I would have loved to call you a fellow scientist, if I had met you when I lived.”

“I doubt that I can be a pain at times, ask Grass,” I smile. I look at Cliff, “Did that answer your question?”

He looks at me with the same expression he had with the man on the screen. I look quickly back at the man on the screen, “Oh I just realized I am being rude. What is your name?”

The man smiles, “My name was Althoos, but it will not be necessary after this is figured out. The program can be erased.”

I look at him with pity, “I hope it is not set to do that on its own. Your knowledge will be needed to return your race to its former glory. Plus I know you are just a program, but to me, to delete you would be murder.”

“I correct my first assessment of you. You are exceeding my expectations,” he says with a smile.

“Speaking of your expectations, why did you pick our family?”

“I had watched your family for many generations. In fact it was your great grandfather who found me ill and saved me.

I had no way to pay him back, so I gave him a bit of our technology. It gave him the means to make a prosperous life for his family.

I asked him when he died to have the device buried with him. I told him the rewards would not show for many generations. He did just that.

The device gave us a location to focus on, to send the mutation gene. It is the technology we used to give those special abilities. I did not know how many generations it would take for the gene to show.

Those abilities are scientifically impossible to be able to do what they do. We began to see those strange effects when we vibrated the eternal stones structure at a specific level.

Some of us just wanted to know what made them possible, but the majority just wanted to control it.

But for some species, us included, it was way too unpredictable. Strange effects would occur, that would alter time and space around the individual. In most cases the subject would destroy themselves.”

I look at him in horror, “What?”

Althoos bows his head. “I am sorry Ben. I know it is not fair for us to subject you to that possibility, but we were desperate.”

“How long do I have?”

“When did your abilities start?” Althoos looks at me depressed.

“From a baby. I don't know the exact age, but I wasn't even crawling yet.”

Shock fills Althoos's expression, “How? It is not set to activate till all subjects are past puberty.”

“Uh got me. Like I had a choice,” I say sarcastically.

“I apologize. Of course you would not know. I cannot tell you how long you have. We have never had a case that young.”

I throw my hands up, “Great I am even more a mystery. Will this ever end?”

“I'm sorry, I don't know what happened. I am sure I checked all that.”

“Okay how can you be sure of anything, when you yourself said we are unpredictable?”

“Point taken,” Althoos says in defeat.

“One last question, that I can remember. What happened to the other two forbidden planets?”

“I cannot help you there, I was not sent to them. The volunteers to those planets, died in the first wave of deaths. Why do you ask?” Althoos asked curiously.

“Because the computer lost contact with the temples on those planets.”

Althoos laughs, “The computer interpreted stations as temple, how interesting. Any way, the only reason that would happen is if the planet were destroyed, or the stations were deactivated.”

“Well station does make more sense. Do you have any idea why a station would be deactivated?”

“No idea. There has been no station deactivated, that I know of.”

“So they are more than likely destroyed?”

“Possible, but not likely. One of them was as young as earth was. So since earth is still okay, I would think it would. Unless it was hit by a very very large asteroid, or rogue planet. Well there is the rogue sun too, but all are one in billions.”

“Okay just curious. How are we able to access you if we need you again?”

“Grass can pull me up anywhere for you, like he did here.”

“Good. Should we deactivate you or something?”

“No I can deactivate the program, I just can't reactivate without Grass.”

“Okey Doky. Well I guess we are off then. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Not really, but memory or the last location of your relative.”

“Why my grandfather?” The thought intrigues me.

“He was tempting to unlock the lock down. I'm not sure why he went to the port, unless he was trying to get home.”

“Okay thanks,”

“You are welcome.” The screen fuzzes and eventually clears and all that is left is the blank wall.

I look at the others, “Which do you all suggest?”

They look at me with blank stares. I wait for a response. Eventually Tieth speaks, “I don't know. We can go to the port to try and find your grandfather.”

“As much as I would love to say sure. We have to look at the larger picture. Even if I was to find him, we are still stuck here.

We need to figure out this desperation clause. Without it everything is at a stand still,” I look at Peth, “What do you think Peth?”

She glances around, then back at me, “Why do you ask me?”

“I see it this way. You have dedicated your life to save and keep everyone healthy. That is why this scientist was doing. If you were in her place, what would you do?”

“I don't know,” she replies desperately.

“Peth, I am sorry I have to put you on the spot, but you may be everyone’s only hope. You would think very similar to the scientist. She wants her race to survive, and so do you.

She may know more about the city's workings, but the end result is still the same. What else would she want to insure everyone’s survival? Obviously simply being immune to the virus is not enough.”

“Let me think,” Peth says and her face goes blank.

We all sit in silence for several minutes while she thinks it though. Then she says, “I would not be satisfied with just having the virus be around. I would want a backup plan.” She focuses on me.

She continues, “This happened once, then it can happen again. I remember that it was said that the virus is immune to their technology. That would allow this virus to freely mutate. I think that is the word you used.

I would want an alternative to allowing the virus to make the people ill. I want to find a way to eradicate it like all others.

I do see your point to allow the virus to take its course. But seeing the pain and distress of it, would not be worth it to me. I would want a way to alleviate all pain and discomfort.”

“You do know that is impossible, don't you?” I ask hoping not to upset her.

“Yes, but you asked what I want, not what's practical,” she responds in her calm voice.

“Point taken, and I think I understand. This scientist may have some ideas of how to do this. She has been thinking about it for a very long time. And just like you, I am sure she will not expect anything but the best,” I say and Peth nods.

“I am guessing that she feels I have the capacity to figure it out. Otherwise she wouldn't have sent me straight here. Now correct me if I may be wrong. But she would not allow false hope to come through her people, being the town?”

“I believe so too,” Peth responds.

“Okay she has let just enough information out that allows us to progress, but not too much to confuse us. I at least believe she is directing the computer in the background. What do you think, Grass?”

“That would make sense,” Grass responds, “It would explain the anomalies in the computer's actions.”

“Then what am I missing? There has to be some clue she has left, that I missed. Okay she let my grandfather get to the port, but would not let him leave. Okay let's start there. Grass what did my grandfather search that might be of use?”

“He searched a lot, so it will take a bit to filter through it all.”

“Not a problem, not like we have any place we have to be.” I look at Peth, “Now this may be harder for you. But if you wanted us to get a clue on what to do, but are unable to do it yourself, where would you leave the info?”

“I don't know. I don't understand how things were done back then. But I would put it where I would think everyone would eventually have to go.”

“Good point. Where in a city would one of you go first to try and get things going again?”

“The main council's home or gathering place,” Tieth blurts.

“Right, lets try the head of the city,” I say doing the gotcha one finger motion.

“Done,” Grass says, “Line outside.”

“On the ball as always Grass. Let's go,” I point to the door. I reluctantly get up and go out the door.