Lion's Den

Lion's Den
------------------------------
"What are you worried about?" Techno 1954 whispered to Krumens, who was nervously glancing to the back of the helicopter at their blindfolded passenger.

"I just don't like the idea of bringing in an outsider." Krumens complained, "We're taking a big risk here."

The techno chuckled, "Relax. We've circled for a couple of hours just to make sure he has no idea where he is or even which way is up. Besides, this outcrop of mountains is surrounded by a jungle full of hostile natives and wild animals. Look at him. He's an old man as well as an academic, not a young bushmaster who'd have a fighting chance to survive."

"Still..." Krumens said doubtfully.

"It's not as if we have any options." the techno pointed out, "He's our best chance to get the sustenance generator running again."

Krumens nodded glumly at the stone cold logic. Even though Von Richter was drugged unconscious about 95% of the time and howling in pain the other 5%, Krumens still feared what the doctor would do if this outsider figured out how to make sustenance. Herr Doktor kept that secret so zealously, one should be worried about being even remotely suspected of having played a part in its discolsure. Better to be sent as a lackey of the clone than face the wrath of Von Richter!

"What are you doing?" Krumens asked when the Techno unbuckled his seatbelt and got up.

"I'm going to take the blindfold off."

"Is that wise?"

The Techno grinned, "When he sees the jungle surrounding the mountain plateau, he'll have second thoughts about leaving."
-----------------------
The stones under Dr. Zack's feet shook slightly in response to the thunderclap overhead. He looked up just in time to see long white sparks of captured lightning dance along the cables festooning the castle, "So, lightning provides the energy to charge sustenance?" he asked the Techno.

"Yes. Other than some mountain ranges in Africa, this spot gets the most lightning strikes per year." 1954 replied, "It has to do with the humidity and wind patterns adjacent to mountains as tall as the Andes."

"Do the towers contain batteries or capacitors?"

The techno chuckled, "They ARE capacitors."

"How big?"

"Each one is about 3 farads."

Dr. Zack whistled: A farad was such a huge unit of measure that the vast number of capacitors had to use "pico" or "micro" as prefixes of their ratings.

The huge iron and wooden doors creaked as they were opened by the Fixed Idea guards. They entered the gloomy castle, which was cold, damp, musky, and a little bit eerie. Cables ran all over the place, up and down walls, around columns, and along the staircase, "You have several generators?" Dr. Zack asked, eyeing the cables as he stepped over them.

"Only one is necessary. The Doctor uses electricity a lot in other experiments. Mostly DC from captured lightning. For the regular equipment we use several diesel generators."

"And why a castle?" Dr. Zack asked, glancing up at the arched and carved cieling,

"Because Herr Doktor likes castles." Krumens replied.

Techno 1954 let it rest at that: Not only was it true, but who would believe a satellite photo analyst claiming to have found a castle in the middle of the Amazon? And any Mossad agent asking for plane tickets to Argentina to investigate a castle in the middle of the Amazon would be sent on a trip to a padded cell instead.

"Would you like to rest and refresh yourself before looking at the equipment?" Krumens asked.

"I'd like to take a quick look at it first and let it roll around in my mind while I attend to those things later."

Krumens nodded, pleased that Dr. Zacharias was so eager to look at the equipment, "We'll have to ask that you be escorted at all times. For your own safety, of course!" Krumens smiled, "The Fixed Ideas might take you for an intruder and deal with you appropriately unless you have an escort." He turned, saw a Fixed Idea gawking at them openly, and snapped his fingers, "YOU!"

The brute shook his head and came over, "Uhhh, me?"

"Yes, you! Stay with Dr. Zacharias here! Make sure he touches only the sustenance generator!"

The Fixed Idea frowned, apparently trying to wrap his mind around the concept of someone touching something that nobody but Von Richter was permitted to touch.

"He's here to fix it."

"Is fixed." The Fixed Idea replied, "Is not in pieces any more."

"AAAARGH!" Krumens griped impatiently and waved his hand, "JUST WATCH HIM!"
------------------
Techno 1954 watched a bit nervously as Dr. Zack crawled all over the machine, opening panels to look inside, clucking his tounge knowingly at the electrodes, and nodding at the pump and piping arrangements. It was obvious to the Techno that Dr. Zack had spent many hours thinking about how to make such a machine as this, and had come up with a similar design. That was both good and bad: Good, because they had picked the right man to fix it, and bad because he might be trapped by the same preconceptions as they were and would be unable to see outside the box to discover the solution.

"So, what happens when you turn it on?" Dr. Zack asked, getting on his back and scooting under the huge cylinder of metal decorated by pipes and cables.

"It keeps vaporizing the liquid and blowing the relief valves."

"Umm hmmm." Dr. Zack disappeared under the generator. The Fixed Idea began to shift nervously and bent down, trying to keep his eyes on the man. He began to walk up and down along the generator, trailing him like a cat stalking a mouse.

Techno 1954 grudgingly nodded approval at the persistence of the Fixed Idea. He didn't know if this one was from Jose's group or had remained loyal. Didn't matter anyhow: Fixed Ideas followed blindly, and couldn't be blamed for not having enough smarts to know what side to take. This one, apparently, had a few more IQ points than the average, knew that there was no generator at Jose's Mansion, and so had gone with whoever was the more likely to create the stuff he needed to survive.

Dr. Zack began to pull himself out from under the generator. The Fixed Idea grabbed the foot that came out, and pulled the doctor out and up.

Techno 1954 snickered at the sight of the old man dangling upside down by one foot from the Fixed Idea's hand, "You can put him down now."

"Duhhh." The Fixed Idea let go.

"OW!" Dr. Zack yelped as he hit the stone floor.

"Duhhh, Sorry." The Fixed Idea grabbed the doctor by the coat collar, lifted him up, and carefully put him on his feet.

"S-okay." Dr. Zack said, rubbing his head and looking around, "Why is the generator located in an open corridor? I suppose a rocket or grenade flew in here and hit it, but shouldn't something this important be protected better?" he asked, noting the wooden scaffolding taking the place of stone in this section of the corridor.

"Actually, several rockets landed here. Are you familiar with how carbon monoxide poisoning works?"

"Yes. The molecule attaches to hemoglobin more tightly than carbon dioxide or oxygen, rendering the hemoglobin molecule useless. The person dies because his blood becomes unable to carry oxygen."

"The base compounds that make up sustenance undergo a modified fusion process when they are heated enough to vaporize," the Techno explained, "The resultant chemical structure locks itself into the protein activation site normally used by sustenance. The activation site normally causes the sustenance molecule to discharge, distintegrating in the process and clearing the site for the next molecule. But if the sustenance molecule is not charged, it doesn't distintegrate."

Dr. Zack grimaced, "Death by poisoning of the energy pathway."

The techno nodded, "The first muscle to go is the heart and arteries, since they receive the poisons first. The generator is not inside for the same reason you don't run a car inside a closed garage. Being out in the open allows the poisonous vapors to escape."

Dr. Zack went to one end of the generator, "Okay, the uncharged sustenance goes in here first, where it fills this pre-chamber, then goes through the grate. I see that the generator has segments. Does each segment have its own set of electrodes?"

"Yes."

"Okay," Dr. Zack continued. He held out his hands, spread his fingers, and slipped the fingers of one hand in between the fingers of the other hand, "The electrodes are shaped like hair combs, with the fingers of one comb in between the gaps of the other, almost interlocking, but not touching. I presume that is to increase the surface area across which the electric field crosses the sustenance flow?"

"Yes."

"How much do you produce?"

"About 2 liters an hour."

"Do you have the inside dimensions of the generator on a schematic?"

"Right there." The techno pointed at a table covered with drawings.

Dr. Zack went to it and looked through them, "Got a calculator? You took my Palm Pilot."

The techno pulled a drawer open and withdrew a Texas Instruments calculator. Dr. Zack nodded approvingly and began punching in numbers.

"You!" The techno ordered the Fixed Idea, "Go tell the kitchen to bring a dinner tray to the generator corridor, then return immediately!"
---------
"So how are we doing?" Krumens asked, walking in on the pair.

"Well, I think Dr. Zacharias has a pretty good idea of how the generator SHOULD work." The Techno said.

"Correct me if I'm wrong." Dr. Zack said, "First, the uncharged sustenance enters and goes through 20 stages, each with a pair of electrodes. A millicoulomb of electrons, at about 100 Kilovolts, is shot across the electrodes of each stage, the electrons flowing through the fluid, charging about 5% of the molecules in a disk shaped slug of fluid. The inflow of uncharged sustenance pushes the slug of slightly charged sustenance through to the next pair, where the same thing happens and charges another 5% of the molecules. The slug moves through the stages, being more and more successively charged, until after the 20th stage, its about 99% charged."

"99.5%, to be exact" Krumens said, very impressed, "That's the basic idea, yes."

Dr. Zack turned around, leaned back against the desk, and stared at the generator, "Are you sure you set the timing of the pulses correctly? The faster the sustenance goes through the generator, the faster the pulses must occur, you know, to keep up with the flow."

Techno 1954 nodded, "We checked that, knowing that the timing has to be very precise. To within 0.1% of tolerance. It's all embodied in the parts list of the generator."

"By the way, is this the refurbished original, or did you just assemble a new one from spare parts?"

"It's entirely from spare parts. We've triple checked the dimensions of everything and everything is within specifications."

Dr. Zack glanced at him, "I think we should take a look at the old one."

The techno pointed, "It's a mess, but you're welcome to try figuring out what what's different about it. It's down at the end of the corridor, outside, under the tarp. Take him there," He ordered the Fixed Idea.

"It's late, yet he still keeps going." Krumens said admiringly as he watched them walk toward the door that the Techno had indicated.

"Almost like a techno." 1954 said half to himself, "When we're on the trail of something, we just don't let go, but keep at it." He started to walk after the pair. Krumens watched, then looked at the generator for a while before sighing and re-entering the castle.
---------
"This IS a mess." Dr. Zack commented as he carefully picked his way through the tangled metal, "No wonder you didn't bother to refurbish it."

"We couldn't make heads or tails out of it at all. We went with the schematics." the techno said glumly, "We can't figure out what-Watch out, doctor!"

Dr. Zack had been reaching for a small bore pipe. He glanced at the techno.

"It was running when it got hit, so there's sustenance all over it. No problem for us, but you'll be severely burned from it."

"Got any Saran Wrap?"

The Techno blinked, then grinned, "Oh yes! That surprised the hell out of us! And we only thought metal, glass, and rock could hold it!" He turned to the Fixed Idea, "Go to the lab and bring two rolls of Saran Wrap!"

The Fixed Idea blinked.

"Two red boxes this long," the techno measured out a distance between his hands, "From the pile on the table in the corner, near the master's computer console!"

The creation brightened, turned, and ran off.

"Well, it was a good thing you didn't kill Quaren, or my master would have been very annoyed." The Techno continued, "She's the closest thing to a daughter he has."

"She's got some pretty fragile hydraulics there." Dr. Zack observed, "One bad wound, and she's out."

"I know. I didn't forsee that when I first suggested it." the techno replied, obviously still peeved and chagrined at himself.

Dr. Zack sympathized with the techno, so he spared the creation any more embarassment by resuming his inspection of the wreckage.

The Fixed Idea eventualy returned with the two cartons of Saran Wrap. The techno started pulling the stuff off of one roll, which Dr. Zack used to wrap his shoes, then his hands. He then started picking through the wreckage, lifting pieces of piping, cabling, and other burnt and blacked components to examine closely.

After about a half hour, he stopped, dropped the half-centimeter diameter pipe he had been looking at, and unwrapped his hands.

"Any luck?" The techno asked.

"Hmmm. No." Dr. Zack glanced down at the pipe and stepped back from the tiny puddle of sustenance that had come out of the small pipe. He suddenly shot a look at the nearest end of the wrecked generator, then the other.

"What?" The Techno asked.

"Well,,. I'm- not sure." he said uncertainly, looking again, "I thought there might have been a last minute design deviation, but this is such a tangled mess-" he waved his hand dispiritedly at the pile.

"You look tired." The techno observed, "How about sleeping on it and getting back on it in the morning?"

"That's a good idea." the old man replied, suddenly lookinh exhausted.

As they went back inside, Dr. Zack slowed down as they approached the generator and took a long look at it as he passed. He then shook his head, "Yes, I'd better sleep on it."
---------
"Well?" Krumens asked, yawning, "Did he figure anything out from the wreckage?"

"No. Well, he's not sure. Probably tired." The Techno said, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. He only slept 10 hours every 80, and wasn't due to rest for another 30, "We'll let him sleep late tomorrow morning and get a fresh start. In the meantime, I'm going to recheck the discharge timing and the tolerances between the combs."

"Where did you put him?"

The creation grinned, "Third floor, middle room, north side."

"Ah! The side of the castle overlooking the canyon! A nice view at mid-morning, with the large windows." Krumens said approvingly.

"Only one door to the room." The techno added, "A Fixed Idea on one side, and a 100 meter drop straight to the bottom on the other!"

"Breathtaking view." Krumens remarked absently, "I should sleep there myself some time."
---------
The loud wailing of a siren made Krumens jump. He bounced high off the mattress, rolled uncontrollably, and spilled onto the hard stone floor. Cursing and nursing the bump on his right knee, he struggled to his feet and hobbled out the door in his night clothes, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" he yelled at the Fixed Ideas.

They shook their heads as they ran up the stairs to the third floor. Shaking inside, Krumens limped up after them. The Techno in charge of security, 117, was yelling orders.

"What's the situation?" Krumens demanded.

The Techno pointed at a pile of Fixed Idea sized clothes at the foot of the door, a faint green glow coming through the material, "The roving patrol comes by every thirty minutes. They just found this, pulled the alarm, and went to check the front entrance."

Krumens went to the door, tried the handle, opened it, and went inside. The bed had been slept in, but there was no sign of Dr. Zacharias, "The bottom floor doors are rigged to alarm if even touched during the night, and there are no windows!" Krumens said authoritatively, "He must still be in the castle!"

Techno 117 nodded in agreement: The castle was subject to occasional raids by the nearby jungle indians who resented the Master's iron rule over them, and so was buttoned up tight just before dusk.

Another techno ran into the room, "We've checked the circuits, and they haven't been tampered with!" he reported to Krumens and his brother.

117 nodded decisively, "Still in the Castle! Fan out! Organize a search! Go room by room, posting a guard outside the door once each room is searched and checks out clean. Start at the basement and move upwards! Let's go!"

Techno 1954, who had just entered, hopped hastily out of the way as the room quickly emptied. He blinked, "Why would he run now? Didn't he want to solve-"

He then noticed a pile of papers on the writing desk. He scooped them up and started paging through them.

He recognized, on the first few pages, the rather wild equations that the Doctor had published in the "Journal of Applied Mathematics." The ones which never converged, but had an oscillatory limit, and thus were supposed to be mathematically inonexistent. Equations that had revitalized research in a long dormant branch of mathematics. A branch that now was the hottest area going, and the subject of over two dozen PhD theses at universities ranging from Stanford to Stalingrad.

The techno shivered: Once it had been confirmed by the Master that Dr. Zacharias was allied with the rebel cyber, he had gathered and pored over every paper, research report, and transcript of everything Dr. Zacharias had said or wrote over the last two years. He felt he could even pinpoint the time period when the doctor had first met Cybersix. He had believed that the mathematics paper had been a curiosity unrelated to the man's theoretical physics papers, but he now realized the equations had been an important step on the road to sustenance.

"What kind of being ARE you Cybersix, to have friends such as this? What did you do to get this kind of loyalty from people you were created to replace?" The techno thought, trying to imagine what it was like to have a friend, or be the kind of person that could have a friend.

His imagination failed him, so he continued paging through the sheets. They were covered with scribbled notes, conjectures, and counter arguments. On the second to last page, there was a hand drawn diagram that looked like the generator.

Techno 1954 looked at the drawing closely, then turned and ran like hell out of the room. He bounded down the stairs, ran around to the door leading into the outside corridor, only to be stopped by a Fixed Idea guarding the door, "LET ME THROUGH!" He demanded.

The fixed idea shook its big thick head, "No body go out. Orders!"

"I NEED TO GET TO THE GENERATOR! NOW!"

"Orders from second master." The Fixed Idea replied.

The Techno groaned, went to a nearby chair, collapsed into it, and began looking at the equations, then at the sketch, shaking his head and muttering, "It's so obvious now! So obvious!"
--------------
"Well, no sign of him." Krumens sighed as he walked up to Techno 1954, who was working on the sustenance generator, "I can't believe that he got away. And we searched him for weapons when we first got him, and watched him carefully, so how did he smuggle a weapon into his room and succeed in killing that Fixed Idea?"

"Can't trust a Fixed Idea to know what to look for." 1954 replied, tasting the stream of non-glowing sustenance coming out of the output spout of the generator with a finger.

"Oh well, we sent out search parties, and one Fixed Idea has gone missing already. Don't know what got him, but whatever did can handle that old man. By the way, you're wasting an awful lot of that stuff." Krumens said irritatedly.

"It's not charged. Ah! Now!" He ran back to the input side of the generator and twisted a knob, reducing the flow to a mere trickle. He then picked up some heavy gloves, put them on, grabbed one of many cables at the base of the generator, and plugged it into the first set of electrodes, They began to hear the characteristic banging of the sparks jumping through the fluid. He then plugged in the second set. Then the third.

Krumens watched, a bit worried, "Aren't you going to put a gas mask on in case this doesn't work and the batch vaporises again?" he asked.

The techno stopped. "I don't think he got away." he stated slowly, "I think he jumped out the window the moment he discovered that excape was impossible."

"He couldn't possibly have survived the fall, so why would he do that?" Krumens gasped, "And what does that have to do with my question? You're the only techno familiar with this equipment and capable of reproducing it! I can't afford to lose you!"

"Look, if he solved our problem, then he'd be a dead man, right?"

"Well, yes..." Krumens admitted.

"I suppose he wanted to be master of his own fate in the end, rather than face what you had in store for him."

"But what does-" Krumens repeated.

"I kinda sympathize with that. Look, I'm out of ideas." 1954 admitted, "If this doesn't work, then I, and every other creation, are dead, because Dr. Zacharias isn't around to try something different. I'd just as soon depart this life via sustenance vapor poisoning than the slow death of sustenance deprivation. Which happens to be the Master's favorite punishment, you know."

Krumens nodded, frowning a little at the Techno's reasoning. A bit too independent...

As Techno 1954 plugged the cables in, his mind ran over the message Dr. Zack had scribbled on the last page of that sheaf of notes he had left, "Dear Techno. I am very certain this will work. I have no illusions, however, of my fate if it does, so I am taking matters into my own hands. Despite my prejudices, I found working with you very pleasant and challenging. If you ever choose to follow Cybersix on her adventure of independence, you will not lack for any friends, of which I hope to be one. Regards, Tony"

"IT'S WORKING!" Krumens exclaimed when he saw the normally clear fluid dribbling out of the output spout start to glow a faint green.

Encouraged, the Techno continued plugging in the cables. By the time the last cable was plugged in, the stream was glowing bright green. The techno swapped out the barrel, stuck his finger into the stream, and put it to his mouth. He nodded, "Yes. It's charged sustenance. He did it. He figured it out!"

"Excellent! The Master's project is safe!" Krumens exulted.

"I knew he could do it," Techno 1954 thought, hearing Krumens chambering a bullet into his handgun, "Just as I knew you'd-"
--------------
"Everything is all right!" Krumens told the Fixed Ideas, who had rushed in at the gunshot and finding him pouring a vial of sustenance into the slowly filling barrel, "Just fine! Now that the sustenance generator is working, put this area under normal security!"

As the Fixed Ideas rushed to comply, Krumens picked up the sheaf of papers that Techno 1954 had been using, pulled out his lighter, and carfully set the papers aflame, "I have no idea what you did, 1954, but frankly, I don't WANT to know." he thought, watching the papers blacken, twist, and fall apart, "Herr Doktor wouldn't trust anyone else with this secret, and I want to keep it that way. He has ways of finding things out that I'd rather see used on someone else..."

Krumens flicked the last bits of paper and ash away just as the flames got to his fingertips. He then headed for the infirmary: He was already late for the first of the three daily check-ups on Von Richter. Then he had to check the body that would soon hold the brilliant mind that he served. His relief at the the restoration of the generator was so great, he dismissed as inconsequential the puzzle of the grin that had appeared on the Techno's face an instant before he pulled the trigger.