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of the monitors waiting for commands to be given. "Fireblast, and only he
would know the codes to turn it back on."
"Indeed, and it shall be most difficult to get them now, since you so
permanently removed his head," Doc observed, twirling his stick.
"Wouldn't have told us the truth anyway," J.B. growled.
"Let me have a look," Doc suggested. Moving from console to console, the old
man studied the comp screens intently. "This one seems to be the master," he
declared at last. "All of these bases have similar setups, and this is usually
the screen that lights up whenever we arrive."
"Got an idea?" J.B. asked, coming closer. "Let's hear it."
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"I am going to try a hard reboot," Doc announced, opening the access panel to
each console. Wiring and circuit boards were exposed in an endless array. "I
shall just turn the whole system off, then back on."
"Won't that crash the system permanently?" Dean asked in real concern.
"It does not work now. Do you have an alternative suggestion?"
"Nope."
"Anyone else?" Doc asked, his hand resting on a keyboard.
The companions mulled over the plan, but couldn't suggest a viable
alternative.
The matter settled, Doc continued to open the access door to each console
until he found the main power switch on the surge protector. The insulated box
was in plain sight under the first console, nothing more than a simple toggle
switch with a glowing indicator.
"This should kill the entire system," he said, placing a finger on the switch.
"Ready?"
"Hit it," Mildred said. "The sooner we know, the better."
Doc flipped the glowing red switch and stepped back. The panel lights died
instantly, and the control room grew silent as the comp hum died away. Only
the ceiling lights remained bright, as those used a different circuit. Doc
waited a few minutes for the capacitors to fully discharge, just in case the
comps had crash protectors, then hit the master switch once more.
A dozens beeps heralded the return of the indicator lights, whole panels
becoming illuminated. Every monitor brightened as the screens began to crawl
with diagnostics as the system rebooted, then the comps did a systems check
and began to scroll command codes.
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"Work?" Jak asked, craning his neck to see over the others.
"Yes and no," Doc said hesitantly. "It looks like the unit is fully functional
again, but we are still not going anywhere. It is asking for a password."
"Never did before," Dean stated.
J.B. shrugged. "It was a good try."
"We're not finished yet," Mildred said, biting a lip. She reached out for the
keyboard, then withdrew her hand. "How long a code word is it asking for?
Maybe it's the code for entering the redoubt."
"No, madam, this has six astrix in a row to fill," Doc mused. Then he narrowed
his gaze and stared at Ryan.
"No," he muttered, "It couldn't be that easy."
Ryan blinked. "What?"
"There is only one way to find out." Doc typed in a name and hit the Enter
key.
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The comp hummed to itself for a few seconds, before coming alive, every screen
in the room flashing DOS commands with a library of numbers scrolling by at
unreadable speed. Then the monitors slowed their wild displays and resumed
their usual appearance.
"Did it work?" Krysty asked.
Ryan grabbed a chair. "Let's see." Going into the mat-trans unit, he placed a
chair inside and closed the door. Instantly, there was a telltale hum of power
flowing to the machinery and they heard an unmistakable noise of the mat-trans
unit working. Ryan waited a few moments before opening the door and there was
no sign of the chair.
"Yee-haw!" Jak whooped, throwing his arms into the air. "We back on-line!"
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Tilting back his fedora, J.B. whistled. "Used your name as the reboot
command,"
he said. "Man, did Silas hate you, Doc."
"And I him in return. I plan to celebrate his demise every year, and drink a
toast to the man who did the job." The old man took Ryan by the shoulders and
looked hard at him. The frank emotion on the time traveler's face was
embarrassing, but
Ryan understood.
"There are three things that I must do in this world," Doc said slowly. "And
now that Silas is dead, thanking you is the most important."
"Happy to do it," Ryan answered truthfully, slapping the man on the arm.
"What's the third thing?"
Doc released his friend and turned away. "Going home to my dear Emily," he
whispered almost too softly for any of them to hear.
Suddenly, a low whining noise could be heard among the comp, closely followed
by a familiar voice. "Greetings."
The companions spun. There was nobody in sight.
"Check the corridor," Ryan directed, drawing the SIG-Sauer.
"Oh, God," Mildred gasped, pointing at a comp monitor. "It's Silas!"
Astonished, the companions gathered around the glowing screen. It was
unmistakably the dead white-coat, but not as they remembered him. This Silas
was razor thin, with gaunt eyes and hollow cheekbones. A nervous tick jumped
in his face, and his hands were those of a corpse. The picture stayed on the
screen doing nothing, not moving or breathing.
"It's a recording," J.B. said in relief, releasing his grip on the Uzi. "Must
have set it off with the reboot."
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"Why isn't it talking, then?" Dean asked.
"Computers are brilliant, but stupid," Mildred said, walking to the keyboard
and tapping a key. "We have to tell it we're here."
The still shot of the scientist flicked, then spoke again. "Greetings," Silas
said in a harsh voice. "If you are hearing this, Major Sheffield, then I am
dead and have finally given you the entry code to the redoubt. I held off for
so long, Major, because I knew that once you had the code I was no longer
needed. You can operate the Kite and dish now, and as the chief of my sec men
you know the details of my plans." The picture smiled, as lovely a sight as
the grave of a child.
"Sheffield," Ryan muttered, filing the name away.
"An advisory note. There is a pistol in the CO's office. Do not use it for the
obvious reason. And do not use the door in the bottom level. The predark
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tunnels are full of savage muties, but light scares them away. Well, most of
the time."
"Thanks for the info," J.B. muttered.
"If it's true," Mildred warned.
The screen crackled for a moment. "The mutie outside the redoubt is for Ryan
and the others. Hopefully, it will kill them as painfully as possible. If
possible, I'll cage a puma in the art vault as a backup trap. Certainly there
are lots of them to capture in the nearby woods. If there is time, I will also
have the machines haul over more supplies and weapons from redoubt #5. The
code for gaining access to the main armory is tattooed on my leg at the hip.
Simply reverse the numbers, or else the sec hunter droids will attack."
"Crafty old bastard didn't trust a soul," Krysty observed.
"Except this Sheffield," Ryan commented coldly. He was listening to the vid,
but also paying close attention to the room behind the man. It looked like a
tech lab, with lots of comps, and a stack of rainbow disks was visible in an
open desk drawer. There was a window covered with iron bars and the silhouette
of a man
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holding a longblaster. This was inside the Complex they had seen before, the
old bastard's private rooms.
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