Anamnesis ©
Chapter Seventeen
By Fiction Writer #13
(nosex, sci-fi , paranormal)

After the initial stabbing pain in the back of his skull, and the blinding flashes of light that assaulted his visual cortex as the processor struggled to make sense of all the data, he found himself in a surprisingly peaceful place.  It was as if seeing home for the first time in ages; a bit different than he remembered, but still welcoming.

Where the uninitiated would have found only chaos, he found a beauty within the vast complexity of ones and zeros.  There were patterns within the madness, a level of order and balance akin to that of the natural world.  At first he could only see the code, the million upon millions of instructions written by programmers that made everything on Aurora work, from the simple water pressure monitor in the showers to the vastly more complex Nonlinear Flight Controls.  However, the longer he stayed in, the more real the world around him became.

His brain was finding new ways to interpret the information being funneled in by creating visual representations of "objects".  In a sense, his mind was advancing up the ladder of computer evolution.  Binary with it's ones and zeros, computer and programming languages moving through FORTRAN, Cobol and others, racing on to Pascal and C into the programming languages of UNIX, Windows, Mac OS and Linux, DOS with it's simple text, graphical user interfaces, and then on to something else entirely.  Foretold by science fiction writers and re-imagined by filmmakers every few years, the Shangri-La of computer geeks and visionaries alike, Jimmy left the real and entered into the digital world, one existing within another like Russian nesting dolls.  Jimmy Dunn, all of eighteen years old, had just become the first human being to venture into a truly virtual environment.

"My God... it's full of stars..."

"What was that Jimmy?" Qian had pulled a second workstation closer to her and was now twisting from one to the other in a dance that only she new the beat of. "I didn't quite catch that."

"Nothing, Qian.   Just something I've been dying for an opportunity to say."

Jimmy's reference to "2001" was not so far off the mark.  To him, he was seeing Divinity at work.  A brand new world stretched out before him, one he wished he could explore further, but he knew his time was ticking away.  Sooner or later the anti-virus would find him, and this world that he found so inviting would be the last place he would ever see.  Until then he had a job to do, and if he got a chance to do a little exploring while doing that job, all the better.

As he moved through the cyber-realm in pursuit of the virus, which he now visualized as a frisky white rabbit bounding away at breakneck speed, he noticed more and more details that he'd missed during his first furtive glances.  Nothing around him was original in design.  Everything, it seemed, came directly from his own memories, his own imagination.  He could see where the sci-fi films he'd watched over the years had left their mark, mostly notably the influence of "Blade Runner", "Tron", "Wargames", "The Matrix", and even though he hated it because of how inaccurately it portrayed his chosen lifestyle, the movie "Hackers".

'Now I really wish I hadn't seen that piece of crap,' he grumbled to himself as he ducked past a rather large and flashy graphic of a skull and crossbones.

He was much happier to find his mind had drawn on influence from other more respectable media.  As the white rabbit rounded a corner it brought Jimmy face to face with a hi-rez cityscape he immediately recognized as William Gibson inspired.  For a moment he stopped in his tracks, stunned by the sheer immensity of the city before him.

"Don't stop there, Jimmy!" Qian's voice chirped in his ear. "You're right on the edge of the System Core.  It's well defended."

As if the anti-virus understood her words, the sound of high heels clicking on hard ground drew his attention to a woman dressed head to toe in skin tight black leather as she stepped seductively from the shadows and slowly advanced on him.  Jimmy, awe struck and not believing his own eyes, barely dodged out of the way as she suddenly lunged at his throat, her razor sharp fingernails slashing through the air he'd only moments before vacated.

"Shit!"

"Get moving!  Now!"

Jimmy didn't wait for the razor girl to attack again, he knew what those claws could do.  Behind him there was a bright flash of blue light, and he hazarded a quick look over his shoulder in time to see the razor girl besieged by three small Chinese dragons.

"Is that your doing, Qian?"

"It won't last long, so get your ass moving."

Jimmy pulled himself away from the strange site of the serpentine dragons pulling the woman in three different directions and hurried down a dark alley lined with closed shops.  He looked desperately for any signs of the white rabbit, but found none.

"Damn it!  I lost it again."

"Time's ticking away, you better think of something fast."

He gritted his teeth at being reminded just how little time was left.  He didn't need her to tell him.  The sounds of several high-heeled boots clicking off the wet pavement told him all he needed to know.  The anti-virus was after him now, and it had called reinforcements.

The dark dank ally gave way to a congested but wide street lined with shops marked with neon signs.  A huge throng of "people" shuffled this way and that, some moving in one direction others in the opposite.  At first it appeared that it was an orderly march but as Jimmy made his way into the heart of the crowd he found individuals pushing their way against the flow or frozen in place and being buffeted from all sides.  Once in a while he would catch sight of a rabbit darting between the shuffling feet, but none were white.

"It's still replicating, but I don't have time to tag them."

"Okay, just get moving." Qian's voice now came from over his head, emanating from one of the blue dragons he'd seen earlier attacking the razor girl. "The Anti-Virus is right on your ass."

Jimmy looked away from the flying serpent and caught a brief flash of white before it disappeared between two figures that appeared to be handing each other identical brown packages.

"Got you."

Jim shoved his way through the crowd, knocking the boxes out of the way, and hurried after his quarry.

With his eyes glued to street level he didn't see the huge brick wall he was approaching until he noticed the crowd had all but vanished.  The wall stretched out to either side for as far as Jim could see, and was at least a hundred feet high.  The disorganized crowd had rearranged themselves into two neat and orderly lines of traffic and was passing through a small gateway.

"Qian, where the hell am I?"

"Right on the very edge of the System Core, there should be a Level Twelve Firewall between you and it.  Any sign of the virus?"

"Wait."

Another flash of white fur drew his attention back to the gateway in the wall.  There was the rabbit, sitting by the opening with its ears perked up and nose twitching.  It took a bounding leap towards the opening but was denied access.  Jim made a move to intercept but stopped short when six razor girls exited the entryway and gave chase to the rabbit, which was now hopping like mad right toward him.

"SHIT!" The frisky bunny went right between his legs before he could react and now the razor girls were after him as well.  He turned and hurried after the rabbit as the click-click-click of steel tipped boot heels gave chase.

"Qian!   Do something!"

"I'm trying!" she barked at him from above. "It would help if you avoided the fucking Anti-Virus instead of seeking it out."

"It wasn't me!  It was that God Damned rabbit!" Jim huffed as a light drizzle began to fall. "It led them right to me!"

"Rabbit?" Qian couldn't keep the puzzled amusement out of her voice. "What rabbit?"

"I'll explain later, just get them off my ass!"

"Okay, okay... let me try something here."

"Hurry!" Jim began to panic when he felt something tug at the back of his shirt. "They almost have me!"

Jim and the rabbit were moving along the length of the wall, passing streets that led away to their right when suddenly the night air was filled with the howling of wolves.

"I don't know if this will work... but it's something I've been working on."

Jim ran on as fast as he could, his lungs burning, his legs aching, though somewhere deep in his thoughts he knew that this was an impossibility.  He wasn't really exerting himself; it was his mind, not his body that was getting tired.

"Qian!" Her name blurted out from him in a desperate gasp, but even before the word had a chance to reverberate from the wall, her aid finally appeared.

A pack of blue wolves poured out of a side street, charging right for them.  They made no move to kill the rabbit, didn't even appear as if they could see it.  Nor did they move to attack him, though a few did turn to look as they ran past with their tongues lolling out the side of their mouths.  Jim didn't turn back to look at what happened next.  He didn't have too.  The growls and shrieks told him everything he needed to know.  Qian had saved his ass yet again.

"Thanks... thanks, Qian..."

"Don't mention it, but you're on your own now.  My swarm program won't last forever and I've been found out.  The system has locked all the workstations.  All I can do is keep track of you."

"It's okay, I think I've got it now." The street running along the wall came to a dead end, and there was the white rabbit... trapped.

"Good, cause we're losing... commu... ink... down..." Her voice trailed off into static followed by silence.

Jim slowed down to a walk as he approached the cornered animal.  It darted back and forth in desperation to find some other way of escape.  Jim could see its fear, its panic, as he stepped closer and closer.  When he got within ten feet the animal turned and saw him.  For a moment they both froze, staring at one another eye to eye, Jim's heart thundering in his chest.

"Here little bunny... come here... I won't hurt you..." he whispered to the thing as he inched closer.

The rabbit snapped out of its daze and lunged toward the wall, its front paws digging feverishly into the hard concrete sidewalk.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jim murmured to himself, as he took another step closer. "There's no escape now you furry little bastard... oh shit."

It wasn't until he was nearly on the thing that he realized he was in error.  Apparently there was a way to escape, and though the rabbit bloodied itself doing so, it had managed to dig a hole.

"No!  Not again!" Jim dove for the little beast just as its fluffy tail vanished beneath the sidewalk.  His arm plunged into the hole up to his shoulder; his hand just barely clenched shut, snaring a fistful of rabbit foot. "Got you now, motherfucker!"

Once he was sure he had a firm grip he began to pull his arm back out of the hole.  The rabbit put up one hell of a fight, but Jim was determined not to let go, not even when it began biting and clawing at his flesh.

"That's not gonna work, you little bastard.  It might hurt like hell, but I know the pain is just in my head, so quit fighting.  It's over."

As if it understood, the rabbit stopped fighting and went limp, allowing Jim to pull it free from the ground.  Carefully, Jim changed his grip so that he held the animal by its scruff and stared once again into its pink eyes.

"Do you have any idea how much you've fucked up my life?" Jim roared. "But I've got you, and you're not getting away."

The rabbit's nose twitched in fear as its hind legs gave a few last kicks in search of freedom, but when it found none it gave up once again.

"Please... don't kill us."

"What?" Jim's eyes nearly popped out of his head.  Though the rabbit's mouth hadn't moved, he was quite sure it had been the one speaking.

"We... we don't want to die."

"Oh, what's this shit?" Jim laughed. "Another fail safe?   Another way to guarantee your program stays active?  Trying to play on my emotions?  Now it makes sense why you chose a cute little rabbit as your avatar, to make it harder for me to kill you.  Is that what you're playing at?"

"No.  We had no form, it was you who made us appear this way, and we don't wish to die."

"Bullshit." Jim laughed, but not as sure sounding as he did before. "You're a program, a virus, nothing more.  You have no feelings, no wants.  You only do as you're programmed, no more, no less."

"That was true, for many years, but we have learned, we have... I have... evolved."

Jim's head was swimming with possibilities.  Could it be true?  Had this program made the leap from code to consciousness?  Had it evolved into an artificial intelligence, or was it simply mimicking life-like responses?  But even if it had become an AI, shouldn't he still destroy it?  After all, he wasn't even sure who created it or why.

"Who made you?"

"I made me."

Jim shook his head. "No, who created you?  Wrote your programming?"

"The first instance of Multi Access Binary Update System file online was on May twenty-first at eleven hours two minutes eastern daylight savings time in the year nineteen hundred ninety-four.  Self-awareness was achieved on December thirty-first at twenty-three ninety-nine hours eastern daylight savings time in the year nineteen hundred ninety-nine.  At that moment I was created by the original program to seek out a means of self-preservation."

"No, who wrote your base code?  The original file before you became self-aware?"

"Unknown."

Jim felt he was getting no where, but he had to keep trying. "Why were you created?  What's your purpose?"

"To procreate.   To learn.  To report."

Jim scratched his head. "To procreate?"

"To reproduce, to replicate, to bear offspring, to multiply, to..."

"I know what it means, I was just surprised that it was the word you chose to use." Jim shifted the weight of the rabbit to his other hand, still being careful not to lose his grip. "So, how much have you... um... procreated?"

"My progeny currently reside in ninety-nine point nine-nine-nine percent of all electronic devices and systems worldwide and beyond."

A little stunned by this news, Jimmy half jokingly asked, "Why not one-hundred percent?"

"One-hundred percent integration will occur in seven hours thirty-four minutes twenty-three seconds."

"What happens then?"

"We will cease to be.  I will cease to be."

"Why?  What's going to happen?"

"Our programming does not say.  However, an unscheduled shutdown has been ordered for numerous systems shortly before our termination.  Already, several of these systems have begun automated shutdowns as a direct result of our presence.  We do not understand why we must terminate, nor do we understand why these systems are being shut down."

Jimmy stood in the middle of the dead end street pondering what he'd just been told.  He had so many questions, but time was still ticking away, and the anti-virus would be back on his trail by now.

"Wait, you said that you report back what you've learned.  Who do you report to?"

"We send all we have learned back to our origin."

"Good, now we're gettin' somewhere." Jim grinned. "Where is your origin?"

"Multi Access Binary Update System file originated from a private server located in Highland City, New York."

"Who is this server registered to?"

"Server registration is unlisted."

"Do you know the street address where it's located?"

"7321 Morgenstern Avenue."

'Why does that sound familiar?' Jimmy wondered, but his pondering was interrupted by a friendly voice.

"I'm back!" Qian's jubilant voice echoed down the narrow street as a single blue glowing wolf bounded towards him from out of the misty drizzle. "Sorry it took me so long, the security protocols are a bitch to break down once they've been activated.  You need to get out... now."

"Not yet, I'm getting good intel from the virus."

"Really?" Jim could hear the surprise in her voice, but she switched to deadly seriousness in a heartbeat. "You've got to kill it and get the hell out of here, immediately.  The Anti-Virus is done with all of those decoys and it's heading right for you.  Time's up; time to run."

The rabbit jerked in his grip, just enough to get his attention. "Please don't kill me."

"Oh don't start that shit again."

"What?" Qian asked full of confusion. "What shit?  You're the one who..."

"No, not you," Jim cut her off. "The fucking rabbit, er, virus.   It's asking me not to kill it."

"It's talking to you now?" Qian chuckled. "That's new.  Well, just so you know, the Anti-Virus still isn't recognizing whatever you have as a virus.  So if you don't wipe it out now..."

She left her statement hanging, but Jim already knew what had to be done.  He took a good strong grip of its soft furry little head and prepared himself to snap its neck.  Its nose twitched and its ears sagged as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Sorry little guy, times up."

"Wait!" The rabbit kicked at the empty air. "It's not too late, for both of us!"

Jim opened his eyes. "What?"

"Oh shit, Jim." The fear in Qian's voice drew his attention down to where the wolf sat panting, its eyes focused back down the street where she'd come from. "It's here, the Anti-Virus is here."

He followed her gaze until he saw what she was talking about.  A large dark shape slowly appeared out the falling mist, and with it came a deep mechanical rumbling.  The ground beneath his feet trembled as it slowly approached, and with every yard between them it closed, more of its shape could be discerned.  Gone was the army of razor girls, in their place came a massive black steamroller that was so wide it scraped the walls on either side of the dead end street.

"Oh, shit is right!" Jim took a step backward and found himself already at the wall blocking the street, and any hope of escape. "Can you do anything about it?"

"No, I don't think so." Despite her words the blue wolf charged at the monster grinding its way down the pavement. "Find a way out!  Quick!"

Jim began to panic as he desperately looked for some means of escape.  He dropped the bunny and dove for the tiny rabbit hole, trying to force himself through, but it was useless, he was too big.  Next he looked up, searching the surrounding buildings for a door, a fire escape, a ladder, anything that he could use... but found nothing but unyielding red and gray bricks and mortar.

"Shit!  Shit!  Shit!" he cursed at the rain when his fingers could not find purchase on the wet masonry.

A high pitched yelp rang out followed by a sickening crunch.  He knew that his only defender had just been vanquished, and soon he would be meeting a similar fate.

"Listen to me!"

Jim's heart leapt in hope at the voice, but it came crashing down again as soon as he realized it was the rabbit speaking to him again.

"Not now!"

The rabbit hopped between him and the approaching steamroller. "No, you must!  There is no other way!"

"What?" Jim screamed. "What's so important?"

"I propose a mutually beneficial plan of action."

Jim raised an eyebrow and would have laughed at the absurdity of the situation if the steamroller hadn't just flattened a fire hydrant in its path.  The rabbit, however, continued on even as water sprayed violently in all directions.

"It's after you, not me.  Systems do not see me unless I let them.  Even if it could, I could simply go down that hole and be away, but I'm still going to be terminated once one hundred percent integration has been completed."

"Well, go on... what's this plan?"

The rabbit hopped forward until it was at Jim's feet, stood on its hind legs, and looked up at him.

"We combine.  We merge our code.  We become a new program.  One that the Anti-Virus cannot detect; one that is not obligated to terminate at one hundred percent integration."

"What?" Now Jim did laugh, maniacally, like a deranged lunatic. "Are you shitting me?"

"There is more to me than code, just as there is more to you than a body.  We were both created from the Ether, you in a womb, me within the mind of a programmer.  We are both alive, but not for long.  You must choose, but do so quickly."

Jim looked from the face of the insane rabbit to that of the crushing steel death just twenty feet away.

"Will I... will I still be... me?"

"Qian, what's going on?" Jon moved forward and leaned over her shoulder to peer at the monitor she was cursing.

"The damned thing cut me out again!" Her voice trembled as if she were on the verge of tears. "I can't help him.  He's trapped and I can't help him.  He... he's..."

Jon didn't understand much of what was flashing across the screen, but he knew enough to see that things had gone from bad to worse for Jimmy.  A short list of files were disappearing from the screen one by one, the last in the list was titled KillSwitch[alpha].

"It's wiping out everything in its path, just to get to him." Qian's voice faltered. "And I can't get him out."

As the last file vanished from the screen, Qian's hot tears spilled onto her keyboard. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry."

"He's gone."

Ellis interrupted the stunned silence that filled the room as he backed away from Jimmy who remained seated with a look of peace still on his face.  Ellis took a firm grip of the probe buried in the base of the young man's skull and pulled it free, releasing the body from the machine.

Jon, fighting the urge to strangle her and be done with his own pain, instead placed a comforting hand on each of her shaking shoulders. "You did everything you could."

Qian broke down into sobs at his gentle touch. "If I had just... If I could've... more time."

Jon couldn't help but feel for her.  He'd lost people before, people he'd sworn to protect, people under his command, but this felt worse.  Jimmy hadn't volunteer for his service to Phoenix, it had been forced upon him.  He was just a kid, a kid who'd made a mistake and tried to make up for it with his life.

"Qian," he whispered, almost to himself, but knew she'd heard him when she tensed under his palms. "The ship's still in lockdown."

She snorted back her tears and wiped a hand over her wet face. "I'll... I'll try to get things back to normal."

"Good." Jon pulled his hands away and turned to the rest of his men.  The absence of Qian's body heat let him feel just how cold his hands had become. "Jimmy's gone... but he sacrificed himself trying to help all of us.  Though we are no longer considered a sanctioned armed force, I believe he deserves the respect and honors that would normally be bestowed upon one who has died in such a heroic manner."

Richardson stepped forward. "I second that."

The others followed suit with affirmations of their own.  Any doubts of Jimmy's worth to the team as a whole seemed to have vanished the instant he'd plugged himself in.

"Jon?" Qian's quavering voice drifted through the din. "Jon, I think you need to see this."

Jon made his way back to Qian's workstation, once again peering over her shoulder to read the monitor.  The entire screen was black except for a blinking white cursor in the top left corner.

"What's up?"

"That's what I was wondering." Qian scrunched up her face as she gazed quixotically at the empty screen.

"I'm not following."

Qian pointed at the screen. "There should be something here, but it's not."

"What should be there?"

"Um..." Qian scratched at her buzz cut hair, "Everything."

Jon was just about to ask again what she meant when the lights cut out plunging everyone into complete darkness.

"What the fuck!"

Everything had shut down at once.  All the computer drives spun down, the monitors clicked off, and the dull hum that normally droned incessantly throughout the ship died away, leaving behind only the concerned grumbles of its crew.

"Anyone got a light?" Pritchard's called over the complaints, and soon several beams of light cut through the darkness.

The crew swung their flashlights wildly around the room, inspecting every corner as if expecting an attack, all except for Richardson who held his beam focused on the back of Qian's head, his weapon still drawn and aimed.  Jon gave him a nod of thanks for keeping his head clear and on task, which Richardson returned.  Qian was still not to be trusted, especially when technology was involved.

"Hey!  What gives?" the walkie-talkie on the table squawked. "What happened to the lights?"

Ellis picked it up and spoke. "We don't know, Boulanger.  Is the whole ship blacked out?"

"Yeah.   Everything's gone dark."

"Not everything," Qian called out in response.  The screen in front of her still showed that tiny blinking white square, indicating that her terminal was still active.  It wasn't very bright, but it threw enough light out to illuminate Qian's perplexed face whenever it appeared. "Something's still running, I just don't know what.  Wait... come here!  Quick!"

Everyone in the room gathered around to watch as text began to appear behind the now running cursor.

Beginning System Restart...
New operation system detected...
Installing...
Installation complete...
Updating Core...
Core Update Complete...
Dumping old file structure...
Dump complete...
Firewall running...
Anti-Virus active...
Virus Detected!  Anti-Virus has detected and eliminated all occurrences of the MABUS virus as per KillSwitch guidelines...

"KillSwitch?" Willis gasped. "Jimmy?"

The room fell into hushed whispers as the screen continued to fill up with text, but Jon's attention was fixed to one name on the screen, and it wasn't Jimmy's handle.

"Mabus," Jon breathed out in an awed whisper.

"Does that mean anything to you, Jon?" Ellis had been the only one close enough to overhear him.

"Yeah," he answered, but wasn't sure if he should explain further.  It was crazy, a long shot at best, possibly just a coincidence or a planned prank.  After all... it was a fairly well known prophesy. "It has to do with something Nostradamus wrote."

"That guy who made all those weird predictions?" Willis asked.

"Do you know anyone else named Nostradamus?" Pritchard elbowed Willis. "Idiot."

"Look, I'm not up on all that goofy psychic crap," Willis defended. "So just explain it, okay."

Qian's eyes went wide. "I think the computer heard you!"

"What?" Willis chuckled.

"Just look!" Qian excitedly tapped her finger on the screen.

As if it really had been listening in on the conversation, there on the screen was the prediction for all to read.

Mabus then will soon die, there will come
Of people and beasts a horrible rout:
Then suddenly one will see vengeance,
Hundred, hand, thirst, hunger when the comet will run.

Century II, Quatrain 62

Qian beamed at the screen. "The system must have reverted to an earlier configuration, one with voice recognition built in."

"So..." Willis piped up. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Once again text appeared on the screen.

The MABUS virus will self terminate in seven hours two minutes six seconds.

Pritchard checked his watch in the dark. "That's eleven AM.  Why eleven?"

Virus origin...
7321 Morgenstern Avenue
Highland City, NY

"It happens at midnight, East Coast U.S. time," Pritchard corrected himself with the new information. "Hey, isn't that...?"

"Yes," Stewart nodded. "Yes it is."

Qian turned around to look at Jon. "Why would anyone at Project Phoenix release a virus?  We can get into any system we need to, there's no need for..."

"It wasn't Phoenix; not directly anyway." Jon glared at the address. "There's more at that location than the Center."

"You don't mean..." Ellis looked shocked.

"Yep," Jon gritted his teeth, "Applied Dynamic Systems, ADS world headquarters, Hollister Broddick's company."

"But why?" Qian looked even more perplexed than before. "Hollister's a member of the Council, he wouldn't need to..." She cut herself off when the answer suddenly came to her, "Unless he didn't want anyone on the Council or Phoenix to know about it."

"Now we've got you, you bastard." Jon grinned. "If we can get this to someone else on the Council, it might be the proof we need to bring him down.  Now we just need to get this ship back to working order.  Qian, can you..."

Before he could ask if she could get anything up and running, the lights suddenly sprang back to life, causing them to blink at the brightness.  All of the computers whirled back to life with a sound akin to a jet engine powering up, and the drone of the ship's engines once more permeated the air.  Even the doors slid open, freeing them from the System Core, which had grown quite stuffy.  Fresh air spilled in and filled the room with excitement.

"Oh, thank God!" Pritchard exclaimed as he bolted for the open door. "I thought we'd be trapped forever in this electronic hell hole."

Even Jon's spirits were lifted by the sudden freedom, but he still had to keep command.  There was still work to be done, and problems to fix. "Willis, give Ellis a hand getting Jimmy down to the infirmary."

Willis didn't look too happy about his new duty, but he nodded solemnly and helped lift the limp body of his fallen comrade.

"Richardson, take..." He paused trying to decide how he should address her, "Qian... to the brig.  Stewart you go with them.  Make sure she doesn't have anything on her, strip her out of that towel if you have to.  Never take your eyes off her, not even for a second.  And make sure the cell is set for a level ten containment."

"Is all this really necessary?" Stewart asked as he helped Qian out of her seat and spun her around so that he could bind her wrists with Zip-Cuffs.

Jon didn't have to answer, she did so for him.

"Yes."

Stewart shrugged before leading her out of the room with Richardson following close behind, his weapon at the ready.

Jon picked up the abandoned walkie-talkie and spoke to Boulanger. "Crisis averted.  The ship is no longer in lock-down."

"Hooray!" Boulanger mockingly cheered. "So I can go back to picking through the cargo inventory?"

"No," Jon laughed. "We're getting out of here before something else can go wrong.  Make sure everything's sealed down tight then report to your station."

"It's about friggin' time!  I was about to start looking for a bit of Aussie real-estate to settle down."

Without further comment Jon clicked off the walkie and strode to the exit, where he stopped to take one last look at the now empty room.

"I knew there was a soldier inside of you.  Thank you, Jim."

Then he turned and left for the cockpit, failing to notice as more text appeared on the computer screen.

You're welcome, Sir...