The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse

June 29 - Location Classified

"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." - Winston Churchill

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It was a charming place. One you might imagine coming to for your holidays. But the seaside village was one of those places that doesn't appear on a map.

During the war, senior officers injured in combat were sent here to recuperate under the warm sun, in the cool sea air. After the conflict, it was retained for government purposes, serving, in part, as a retirement community for civil servants with secrets too sensitive to trust to the outside world.

At the edge of the village sat a tall stone lighthouse. Isolated from the rest of the community by a long wooden causeway, it was free from onlookers. The crashing of the waves made any listening devices virtually useless.

A secure, silent tower in a place that didn't exist.

It made an ideal spot to meet.

I made my way to the water's edge.

Guards posing as fishermen repaired their nets. If they noticed me, they showed no sign.

As I approached the door, I peered into the window. The lower floor was cluttered with the distractions of a scientific man. Weather charts. Soil samples. A computer or two. Some souvenirs of a life well lived. Anyone who happened to stop by would think the apartments here were occupied.

"I am at the top," called out a voice.

Once inside, I pressed a button on a small podium and waited until an ornate brass cage descended through the central shaft.

After a brisk ascent to the top of the tower, I stepped out of the cage and into a small featureless room with an archway on one wall. I took a deep breath of the refreshing sea air.

"Up these stairs here," called the voice.

I followed the voice and came to the topmost platform

To one side, a brass telescope peered out at the horizon. An open fire burned in a central pit. A covering sheltered the whole assembly.

Standing next to the telescope was Colonel M_________, Union of Allied Planets, Special Projects.

My commanding officer.

"Hello Colonel," I greeted him.

"Major," he answered, "glad you could make it."

I gave him a warm smile, "A lovely location."

"I fought the temptation to enjoy myself," he replied, "I lasted 10 minutes."

"Thank you for meeting me," I began, "I have a few items to report."

"There has been a lot going on," he acknowledged, "this was probably the safest venue to meet. I know you have been withholding information on reports for security concerns."

"Yes Colonel," I admitted.

Time to jump right in.

"I have salvaged the Colchester."

"Amazing," remarked the Colonel, "Was it intact?"

"Yes. We have retrieved Professor Aurotharius. He is in stasis. There is evidence of three persons who boarded the ship ahead of my team."

"He was alone?"

"Alone?" I asked, "Why yes. Who else would have been with him?"

"A woman he was closely associated with who had also been missing. And the remains of his daughter."

"I see," I replied, frowning as I turned this information over in my mind.

"Tell me," I continued, "was he a friend of yours?"

The Colonel answered with a question of his own. "Do you know what a National Security Letter Suppressing Disclosure is?"

"Yes I do. Sometimes when a project is cancelled and files expunged, confidentiality statements are sworn by the staff involved."

"A gag order," he said simply.

I nodded.

"I have limits on what I was able to say," he began, "but you found this in the normal course of your investigation. I would be a General now if it were not for Wylder. I was a full lieutenant and assigned as a liaison for the Aurotharius Project. Two years with no staff or support."

I smiled a bit. Nothing new under the Sun. Everyone's always stretched too thin.

"Meanwhile the best corporate espionage in the 'verse was raiding classified information," he added.

"I found your picture... with Wylder and a few others."

"May I see it?" he asked.

"Of course." I offered the Colonel a photo showing the picture as found on the Colchester. "That is how we found it. Over the stasis chamber...the last thing Wylder would see as he fell asleep."

"That's me as a lieutenant," he indicated. "The man in the back is Wylder. The girl with the pig is Mercedes."

I bit my bottom lip and shook my head, "I thought so."

"It was a happier time," observed the Colonel, "before his daughter fell ill."

"And Audrey?" I asked.

"The red haired girl is Audrey," he replied.

I nodded.

"This is Doctor Qui and his father. And that is Constance to the side. And that computer mainframe is where the Ardra program was born."

Okay, I thought. We will take this point by point.

"Qui ... he is the professor that has been visiting Al Raqis."

"Elitist tenured....." muttered the Colonel.

"And his father?"

"I have not heard from the senior Qui in some time. I don't think Mercedes has either."

"Mercedes?" I asked.

"Mercedes Celestalis nee Serendipity. Celestalis is her married name. Qui's daughter."

I sighed. "Well, quite a photo then."

"Mercedes was a sweet kid."

I laughed a bit harshly, "And what happened there?"

"We totally underestimated how Audrey's death affected her," he answered, "Audrey was her only friend until college."

"And Audrey," I said, "how can I say this? I think she has been revivified and is the human side of Ardra. The Ardra I have spoken with has told me stories of when she was a girl."

The Colonel interrupted, "I think you are a fine officer and have a lot of integrity...."

I stopped talking and listened.

"....so I am going to relate something that I have been given an administrative order to suppress. You will not repeat it."

"I will not repeat it," I echoed.

"If you can figure it out in the course of your investigation, so be it," he added.

"Just point me in the right direction," I asked.

He began, "Audrey had familial amyloidosis, an uncontrolled growth of amyloid proteins. It clogged every system in her body. Like Cancer and Leukemia and Lupus all at once. She was terminal.

"Wylder used his position and influence to attempt an illegal course of treatment. Among other things, it involved a massive infusion of the Mu Draconis Desert Spice. He was in a rush and didn't have time to make proper studies. He didn't know about the mutagenic effects in large doses. It mutated and mutilated her body.

"She spent her last days plugged into machines in terrible pain that no pain killer affected. Then she died. Wylder and presumably Constance took the body and left in the Colchester. Leaving me to explain. I have been on cleanup duty since."

"And what do we do now?" I asked, "Someone has restarted the Project."

"Defrost the troublesome man."

"He will need to be kept safe," I said.

"He knows a lot of classified information," answered the Colonel.

The Colonel walked close to the fire roaring at the center of the platform.

I followed him. The dry, intense heat on my face contrasted with the cool, moist sea air on the back of my neck.

"Tell me about Constance," I asked.

"The Quantum Mind Project," he replied, "A theory of the mind that fell out of favour. Research reached a dead end because of moral concerns. Readers. She studies them."

"Readers?" I repeated.

"The studies are inconclusive," he explained, "The Quantum Mind theory is that some aspects of consciousness are formed by quantum effects. It was thought that Reader's brains might possess a greater facility to identify the mechanism. Massive human rights violations followed. The program was shut down."

"Ardra mentioned something about harvesting the brains of Readers," I remarked, "I thought it was speculative."

"Sadly, no," replied the Colonel, "Constance worked with Qui to try and replicate the quantum effects mechanically. But AI went in other directions and it was abandoned. Qui returned to academia and occasionally publishes about the upcoming android uprising or the zombie apocalypse or other nonsense."

"The AI... the primary Ardra program?" I asked.

"There were two parts to the Ardra AI. One is the Overmind that resides in the mainframe and is distributed through the cortex servers. The distributed intelligence controls a series of semi-autonomous drones. The Ardra program was mothballed over 20 years ago. Qui freaked out when he heard that there was evidence that it was reactivated."

I nodded.

"He found out on his own," added the Colonel.

"And the biological component... the part that was human...that was Audrey."

The Colonel was skeptical. "One early attempt at true artificial intelligence was the Mind's Children. You create the program like a child and allow it to learn and hope for the best. One shortcut was to instill into the program the memories of a person. Use that as their life experience."

"So the Ardra Overmind identifies with Audrey," I suggested.

"That would explain it," he replied, "The reports on Ardra make her sound cyborged instead of purely mechanical. I have no explanation for that."

There was a natural pause in the conversation as I considered this information.

"What else did you recover from the Colchester?" asked the Colonel.

"Six data files, five books, several cases of minerals, many radioactive...the computer itself and it's components."

"Was it difficult to decrypt?" he asked.

"I have opened two files and decoded the labels on all containment cases," I reported.

"The Colchester was an asteroid surveyor," remarked the Colonel, "Strange to think that he actually did a survey."

"There is a report of a laser coming from Ardra's ship," I said, "This may be connected to the research we found on the Colchester."

"Do you think that Ardra needs that research and is only feigning sentimental interest in locating her alleged father?" he asked.

"I have still not discounted a biological component," I replied, "Her stories of modifications...these are not the words of an AI."

"It also doesn't sound like Audrey."

"Yes..." I allowed. It was indeed a riddle.

"Are you having Manda defrost Wylder?" he asked.

"I haven't assigned anyone yet," I admitted.

"I received a notice that Captain Westminster picked up Winterwolf's remains from the rogue Ticonderoga."

"His remains?" I asked.

"Yes," elaborated the Colonel, "Apparently he was delivered live, but left in a body bag. Two Alliance officers checked him out the local jail and delivered him to the Ticonderoga. His only injury had been a broken leg."

"And he died aboard the Ticonderoga..."

"We are not notifying Ishtari until after the autopsy," he added.

"Why wasn't he delivered to Silvermane?" I asked. She had the place under martial law.

"I have no idea," he replied, "I have no idea why the Ticonderoga is even there."

"This seems highly unusual," I remarked skeptically.

"I spoke to Colonel Silvermane," he said, "She was very professional about it. She says that the Ticonderoga was a rogue ship. I can't make it my concern. They cooperated with Westminster easily enough when it suited their purpose."

There was that word again. "Rogue....then someone should shoot it down," I said flatly.

"I would think so," he replied.

"This is all wrong," I announced. It all felt wrong.

"All secrets require lies," he said patiently.

I took a deep breath, "Yes."

"Where you find lies, there are secrets. There is more going on."

Was he still talking about the Ticonderoga? I cycled back to Ardra.

"The burn order Blue Sun put out on Ardra..." I began.

"2506." He gave the year.

"Against an AI?"

"Audrey would have been 15...." he answered.

"There is more going on there too then," I concluded.

"...not even old enough to drive," he added. "You have three links. Umbrella, Blue Sun and the Angels of Mercy. Angels of Mercy has an obvious history with Audrey. She died there."

"Umbrella," I said. "that's Mercedes."

"Yes," he replied, "recruited her and Manda before they even graduated from University."

"And when did the Ardra Overmind come on line?" I asked.

"New Years Day, 2500."

Wait. Backup.

"Excuse me?" I said suddenly, "Manda was recruited by Umbrella?" A heartbeat. "Why was I not informed?"

"It should be in her file," replied the Colonel, "You have clearance for that. We recruited Manda at the same time. To get an inside on Umbrella."

There was no such entry in her file. "I will have to have a little chat with our Captain..."

"We figured they wanted Mercedes because of her link to Project Aurotharius.... You don't socialize with your team do you?"

I picked my words carefully. "I'm used to working alone."

"You should do enough to be acquainted with them," he advised.

"There was nothing in her file about Umbrella," I answered darkly. Incomplete files. I'm going to pin someone to a wall somewhere.

"I will get it sent to you myself. I don't know who messed with her personnel file. We assigned her to you BECAUSE she had a link to Mercedes and Umbrella. It is supposed to be a valuable asset for you to utilize."

"I will get to the bottom of this..." I managed to say.

The fire roared.

I cooled down.

"I will start the defrosting of Professor Aurotharius." Then as an afterthought I asked, "Oh...tell me, did Audrey get any modifications on _________?" I mentioned a planet, the same planet where Ardra was said to have received her cybernetic work.

"Not modifications," he replied, "Life support, a few things to give her mobility and relieve strain on her body. She couldn't even stand or sit up. We had to move her to a microgravity environment."

I nodded. This fit with what Ardra said of herself. She cannot even stand in normal gravity without mechanical assistance.

"And the woman Wylder was closely associated with who had also been missing...that you asked about in connection with the Colchester, who was she?" I asked.

The Colonel had another point to make first. "It might be important enough to send in a recon team to get some intel pictures on that Liner over Mu Draconis."

"I plan to go myself," I replied.

He continued, "We might not be able to trust CI5 to not filter information.. But we should still make the intel exchange agreement."

"Agreed."

"But do your recon before you formalize the agreement," he advised.

"Very well."

He then answered my question. "Constance, the other woman in the picture. They were close after Audrey's mother died. She looked out after Mercedes and Audrey during cloister times. She helped Wylder take the body and load it into the Colchester. We presumed she was with him."

"I will have a chat with Qui as well. Is he close to his daughter?" That would be useful to know going in.

"No. Quite estranged. He didn't want her to go work for Umbrella."

"Fair enough," I replied.

"He thinks they will be the cause of the 'Zombie Apocalypse'. You will see. He will help you be able to understand the data files."

"Good," I replied. I could use the help.

The air was turning cooler.

"If there is nothing else Colonel, I should go."

"Minor matters," he replied, "The relics."

"They are secure."

"Have you authenticated them?" he asked.

"I will engage with Bihar Sanctuary staff," I replied.

"They are qualified."

"I am a bit troubled however," I continued, "Ardra mentioned having employers in connection with the relics."

"There is nothing to indicate that Ardra has any interest in Alliance or Zenobian politics. Someone must have hired her."

"Exactly," I agreed.

"Have we determined when the relics were originally switched?" he asked.

"I will look into it."

"Last item," he said, "I spoke with Mr. Woodhen."

"Yes?"

"We are going to have the court appearance for Matthew and Michala on Paquin."

"Good," I replied. It will be safer for them than bringing them into the Core.

"Lordhunter and Arcana are going to see about arrangements. You might want to see what security arrangements you want for the escort. No guns on Paquin. Prepare yourself accordingly."

"I will send a special team," I answered.

Besides, I was on good terms with the new police captain.