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	Re: The NeverEnding Story
	Posted By: Yossarian	Date: 6/1/05 7:40 p.m.
	In Response To: Re: The NeverEnding Story (duality) : Chapter 2 : Ralph was lost in a maze of green shrubs. Though he could not quite remember : how he got there, he felt as if he knew exactly where he was. He was sure : he would find his way. He had been walking through the maze patiently for : several minutes when a pink flower caught his eye. He walked toward it and : saw another. Soon he found himself following a trail of flowers. He turned : left and walked under a silver arch into a final clearing. There she was, : Eve, on the other side of a fountain. She had been waiting for him. Her : eyes enchanted him and he did not care that the fountain was dry, and the : shrubs were deteriorating. The garden had been untended for some time. But : it didn't matter to him. He gave her the flowers he had found and she : opened her mouth to tell him-- : BUZZZZZZZZZZZ! : The alarm next to the bunk took Ralph off guard. This was one of the : recurring dreams he had been having lately. There seemed like an infinite : number of memories that he shared with Eve, and only Eve, that existed to : torment him every morning. This one, he remembered, was of one trip to San : Rodillon park where she had told him a secret. The thing that bothered : him, was that even though her face was clear in his memory, and he could : recall so many details, he couldn't remember what she had said. : BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ! : That wasn't the alarm, it was the intercom. Ralph clicked on the speaker. : "There's been a slight change of plans, we're going to rendezvous with : the Maria-Jose Clark ; Apparently, it seems that while we were gone, the : security codes for Project Marathon Base HQ were changed, and we need to : retreive a copy of the chip from another ship. It's a good thing they : hailed us, or we would have been destoyed on sight." : Security codes? What was such a secret that the security codes had to be : changed without the officers being notified? Still, he didn't feel it : constituted his rude awakening. : "So why did you have to wake me up?" : "According to protocol, there has to be someone left behind to activate : the self-destruct on the ship in the case of it being compromised. There : was an incident a few months ago where terrorists took over a ship and : were able to board three more cargo ships because they had attained a : friend or foe identifier from a UESG ship. Normally Michael would take : care of this but he has to come with me to retreive the data from the : chip." : "Great, so you're willing to sacrifice you're favorite ship : builder?" : Ralph was more disturbed than he was letting on. : "No, I have something else to tell you. I'll tell you when we can talk : face to face. Even Michael can't know about it..." Ralph rubbed more of the sleep from his eyes, continuing the conversation but not fully understanding it. "Something else? I still don't understand a goddamn thing about the first part of this conversation..." "I'll explain when we get back Mr. Cameron. We'll need you to make your way towards the bridge and hail us back in about 15 minutes. By that time we should be finished making Michael transportable." "Okay, 15 minutes, I'll be there." Ralph put on an old work shirt and his boots, thinking about the AI's and what they had done to revolutionize shipbuilding and ship operations. Some of the old-timers in the ship building circles were very distrustful of the machines, but Ralph didn't really have an opinion either way. He'd never met an AI he could say he didn't like, and if they made the ship run better, faster, and more effecient, what could possibly be the harm? Ralph finished lacing his boots -- the only shoes he ever wore -- and swaggered out of his cramped and uncomfortable "quarters". Though not top of the line, for the size of the Archangel Michael Bravo they were respectable digs. He tried to clear his head during the 30 second walk to the bridge. Had he finished that entire bottle? The fact that he couldn't remember meant he probably did. He slipped into the commander's station and made himself comfortable. He scratched at the stubble growing on his face and gazed out towards Mars. The Maria-Jose Clark took up much of the view to the right of him. On the monitor he could see the spook (who's name he was told was "Maynard") and the ship's engineer getting Michael ready for transport while Captain Griffin looked on. It was four of them on the ship, (five with Michael) and Ralph was going to be the sole occupant for however long Maynard's expedition would last. The stars shone bright as background beyond Mars and its moons, and Ralph finally came to realize he was getting closer to the place where Eve had died. The planet hung lazily, bleeding the sky, painful to the sight and looking painful to the touch, a sore, a hurting heart, and a burning ball of sadness and grief, what love gives in the red of passion and promise so it continues in the crimson of a wounded and weeping heart. Maroon and marooned. Scarlet with rage burned and and turned to ashen emptiness. So is it better to have loved than to never have loved at all? Better to live forever with a tint of red to the vision, as blood on the hands of Lady MacBeth? See her color pale and brick, like a bloodstain on a sidewalk covered in broken glass and open to vacuum. Bleeding, vile, and yet given transfusions still. Depending on whether the CRISTS were operational or not, the people of Mars were subject to either the smothering oppression of the U.E.S.C. or the intimidating rule of the Martian insurgents. Atrocities were easy to commit on Mars, the blood just faded into the background... "Cameron? Cameron, are you on the bridge yet?" Ralph snapped out of it. "Yeah, I'm here." "Good, we're ready to go. I don't think I need to go over the self-destruct sequence with you. The Jose-Maria Clark has completed docking and will be transmitting the door authentication codes. Since I've got Michael here we'll need you to process the codes and open the airlock from up there." "Roger that." From the monitor and microphone in the bay below he could hear the docking tube pressurizing. The communications computer beeped to life and a series of codes came over from the ship that had docked to them. Ralph reached to open the airlock and stopped. The codes should have been transmitted on a secure Military band frequency, but they had been sent over regular voice channels. Either someone on the Jose-Maria Clark had messed up- "Cameron, you've got the codes, please open the door." -or whoever was sending the signal didn't know the protocol, or couldn't access the secure lines. With the current climate around Mars, no one would have transmitted unencrypted door codes. "Hold on. I'm still processing the authentication." Maynard and the captain and engineer, and Michael in his case waited impatiently for Ralph to do his thing. Something was not right here. Something was... Ralph opened a channel to the Clark. "Archangel Michael Bravo to the Clark." "Clark here. Lieutenant Gilliam speaking." "Gilliam, if I asked you, 'who bears the weight of liberty upon the hand that rules the stars,' what would you tell me? Ralph could see Maynard tilt his head on the monitor. "Who bears the weight of liberty upon the hand that rules the stars; none other than the faithful, the true, the sons of Mars." So goes the little-known motto of the Martian insurrection. He knew this because Eve knew this. "I..." Ralph recognized the pause as one of apprehension, not confusion. The Jose-Maria Clark had been compromised, and her crew was probably dead. Ralph closed the channel to the other ship and punched the com button to the loading bay below. "Hold on." Ralph brought the Archangel Michael Bravo under manual control and psuhed the thrusters hard to port, ripping away the docking tube from between the two ships. Air streamed from the exposed hull of the Clark as Ralph tried to put as much distance behind him as possible. Half a minute later Maynard and Griffin popped in behind him as the bridge door slid open. "That was some fast thinking, Cameron." Capt. Griffin remarked as he slid down into one of the stations. "Looks like she's coming around behind us. And she's...opening a channel?" "You should have stayed with the CRISTs Cameron. You'll never live to see what the U.E.S.C. has got in store for you and all of-" Maynard cut the transmission. "I'm requesting an emergency landing on the nearest secure dock." Ralph was confused. "I thought you said they'd blow us out of the sky!" "They might, but trust me Ralph," Maynard turned to look him in the eye, "they're not going to, not with what-and who-we've got on board." "Incoming!" Warned the captain, "Missiles from the orbital batteries!" "Shit!" "Calm down, they're not for us. Speed this bird up, we've got to get more distance between us." Ralph pushed the ship to her limits, the engines screaming and already tired from the long voyage from Earth. "Keep it up baby, keep it up..." Ralph never underestimated the power of sweet-talking a space vessel. They careened toward Mars with the Clark in hot pursuit. The planet loomed larger and larger as the platforms and satellites came into view. "You've got to slow her down! The debris field around this planet isn't going to take kindly to the Bravo at these speeds!" Captain Griffin warned. "Just a few more seconds." Ralph and Maynard said in unison. With the missiles still incoming, the Clark exploded behind them. She must have tried to take out the smaller vessel by self-destructing. "I'll be damned. Oh shit, hold on!" The shockwave of energy and molten debris slammed into the little Bravo, heaving her around and tossing her about. The hull screamed and systems failed as the ship was flung out of its course, spiraling into the debris field around the planet. The bridge heaved and turned, yawing and spinning uncontrollably. "this is it this is it this is it this is it" said the part of Ralph's brain not totally gripped in panic. As he started to black out, he could almost hear the words that had left Eve's lips, the secret he could not remember, but before her sweet memory could remind him, he was snapped back to total conciousness by the Archangel Michael Bravo coming back under control. The ship slowed to a stop. The com sprang to life. "This is the TSEC. Status report, please, gentlemen." "You okay?" "Yeah." "I..I think I'm ok. Someone's got to check on Turner, we left him in the bay with Michael." "TSEC, this is Maynard. We're checking on the remaining crewman and the detached AI. Otherwise structural integrity will hold long enough for a crew to come get us." "Understood. Welcome to Mars, gentlemen." Some welcome, thought Ralph. Last night's bottle of whisley came back up and onto the deck of the bridge. Captain Griffin frowned. Wiping the bile from his mouth, Ralph asked "what does 'TSEC' stand for? That was an AI wasn't it?" Maynard looked at Griffin and back at Ralph. "It stands for 'Traxus Stabilized Experimental Construct'. You'll be working more with him...I mean...well, IT in the future. That's a topic for another discussion. Once we're all cleaned up I have a great deal more to explain to you, and I believe there is some that you can explain to me as well. ---- Ok, who's next?

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Replies:

	The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	4/2/05 9:55 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	blake37	4/2/05 11:05 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	4/3/05 4:49 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Yossarian	4/3/05 9:46 a.m.
	Keep going! I'll post this to the MaraFF in awhile *NM*	Blayne	4/3/05 3:31 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	4/4/05 5:33 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	blake37	4/4/05 11:50 a.m.
	Just a reminder about pre-FTL communication *NM*	Steve Levinson	4/4/05 12:31 p.m.
	Opps, your right.... Erm, crap :-\ *NM*	blake37	4/4/05 1:10 p.m.
	Re: Opps, your right.... Erm, crap :-\	D-M.A.	4/4/05 8:00 p.m.
	Correct - wanted to be sure others didn't slip up *NM*	Steve Levinson	4/4/05 8:19 p.m.
	Re: Opps, your right.... Erm, crap :-\	blake37	4/5/05 10:33 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	•M	4/4/05 9:45 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Forrest of B.org	4/5/05 8:02 a.m.
	Re: AMB	•M	4/5/05 8:13 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Yossarian	4/9/05 8:11 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Forrest of B.org	4/10/05 5:48 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story - note	Blayne	4/11/05 3:38 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	•M	4/13/05 1:42 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	4/18/05 5:25 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	duality	5/21/05 12:02 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Blayne	5/23/05 5:41 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	5/23/05 7:55 p.m.
	lazy baztardoz! *NM*	Johannes Gunnar	5/24/05 6:22 a.m.
	did it	duality	5/24/05 1:51 p.m.
	Re: did it	Blayne	5/26/05 12:34 p.m.
	Re: did it	duality	5/27/05 3:11 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Yossarian	6/1/05 7:40 p.m.
	Wow! Great job, Yoss. *NM*	Steve Levinson	6/2/05 3:56 a.m.
	Agreed! *NM*	D-M.A.	6/2/05 7:21 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	chotinai	6/22/05 9:07 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Yossarian	6/22/05 10:19 p.m.
	weirdest spam eVer mb?! :P *NM*	Johannes Gunnar	6/23/05 2:26 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Enkidu	6/23/05 4:20 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Blayne	6/26/05 12:03 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	12/2/06 9:52 a.m.

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