Herod kept pacing back and forth in his little digital space. He stalked across the wet sand, kicking pebbles and shells and tiny chunks of Lossglass back into the stormy ocean as he walked up and down the beach between two massive chunks of jagged rock that hid the cliffside beach from sight. He kept going over and over in his mind the problem.

They'd done something weird, those ancient scientists. They'd taken the particles they'd known about, taken the subatomic particles they had discovered, and somehow twisted them to do what they needed them to do to make the impossible happen.

He knew the information was all right there. That he had all the clues. He had all the information, he had all the data the ancients had possessed. Hell, he had MORE then they had possessed.

But like Victor told him, just because you have the lime, the stone, and the ash, doesn't mean you know how to make concrete that endures seawater. Sure, you know how to make modern Portland Concrete, but now make the older stuff that can even take a railgun round or two.

It was driving him crazy. He'd examined the repeater over and over and over. They had one that as soon as it was turned on it synched up and immediately started moving volumes of traffic. Whole petabytes a millisecond of data just streaming in and out.

But that was the problem.

He couldn't see what was streaming in and out. The data stream, whatever made it up, was as invisible to all of his instruments as radio waves were to the human eye. He knew it depended on large scale quark strange-matter on a bizarre frequency that should have made the artificially jammed together particles disintegrate, but no, it just made rapid pulses.

Herod had examined the unpowered repeater and found that the strange matter violated a basic law.

It didn't vibrate. At all. At room temperature there was no atomic movement. It was a lump of sub-atomic strange particles that just sat there like a lump.

In the powered one, it vibrated so fast Herod was surprised it didn't burst into flame and convert into radiation.

But despite the vibration being obvious by direct examination, there was no output from the vibration that he could detect.

Worse, and even weirder, is that the 'lumps' defied another basic rule: 'Observing the state of a sub-atomic particle changes its state' was completely ignored. Not matter who observed it, with what instruments, as many at once, the states never changed.

Herod kicked a chunk of seaweed hard enough to send it sailing over the virtual horizon.

What was that matter, why did it act the way it did? It was obvious that it was the transmitter/receiver, but transmitting and receiving what? Someone had suggested maybe the particles were paired, causing the other half of the pair to vibrate the same way.

Which meant it was glorified binary code.

It made sense, until Victor had pointed out that new repeaters could be manufactured, but that meant that it was not connected to a pair.

Herod had examined the manufacturing process for the repeaters, and all he got out of it was a headache. It used strange-matter production, which was bad enough, but when he looked up the SolNet archives on what exactly that matter was, all he got was scientific paper after scientific paper examining the clump and coming up with "We have no clue."

One paper was summed up with an ancient image macro of a weaselly looking man saying "It Just Works" that the smug expression on the long dead man made Herod want to invent time travel just to go back and kick that man in his testicles.

Growling he pulled a comlink out of his pocket and dialed Victor's number.

"Yes?" Victor picked it up before it could even ring.

"Do you have a moment to talk?" Herod asked. "Not one of your clones, you."

"I'm in the lab. Here, you can rez into the hallway outside the lab and come in," Victor said and closed the connection.

Herod dismissed the eVR scenery and appeared in the hallway, moving up to the door and touching it. When it opened Herod went in, still mulling over the problem.

What was the particle, what was the particle cluster, and why did it vibrate the way it did?

Herod was slightly surprised. The only version in the lab was the bearded one, who was sitting in a chair, staring at four stasis cubes. The room was slightly chilly and dimly lit, the light coming from actual emitters in the ceiling rather than light emitting nanites that made the illumination come from everywhere and nowhere.

"Come in, Herod," Victor said slowly, his voice hushed.

Herod frowned as he went inside. When he got close enough to see what was inside the slightly tinted stasis cubes he stopped.

Two of the blocks held dogs, one held a gooboi nervous system with attendant organs, the last held what looked like a human-dog crossbreed.

"Where did you get those?" Herod asked, keeping his voice low.

"Another Black Box," Victor said, leaning back in his chair and stroking his beard. "They're part of why I'm in here."

"Is there another team working on this like we're working on the SUDS system?" Herod asked.

"No. Just me," Victor said. "Almost all of me."

"What's the hybrid? A biological sentient?" Herod asked.

"Allow me to introduce you to them," Victor said. He pointed at the one on the far left. "That is Rex. He's a Eukarya Animalia Chordata Mammalia Carnivora Canidae Canis lupus - Black labrador retriever, of the St. John's Water Dog line."

He tapped the dataslate in front of him on the far left. "He was owned by Molly Tibbert, of Lewiston, Washington State, United States of America. His owner, who was nine at the time, brought him in to be put in stasis when he showed initial symptoms. She cried as he was put into stasis normally used for astronauts."

He pointed at the second one. "That is Beau. Beau is Eukarya Animalia Chordata Mammalia Carnivora Canidae Canis lupusnobilis - Black Labrador retriever, of the St. John's Water Dog line."

"Wait, nobilis?" Herod asked. "Why nobilis?"

"Because he could talk. He's uplifted," Victor sighed again. "Our oldest friend, and the second species we uplifted. It was a little more difficult than the dolphins."

Herod just stared. The dogs looked almost identical, Beau just missing white socks.

"His best friend was Kyle Lymner, of the city of Fulda, the country of Germany. Kyle was twelve and Beau was six when Beau started showing symptoms. Kyle's parents had him put in stasis in hopes that a cure would be found," Victor continued. He tapped the dataslate. "That was over eight thousand years ago. It was a vain hope."

Victor pointed at the upright looking one. "That's Lance Corporal Robert-44824 of the United States of America Marine Corps, he's a Eukarya Animalia Chordata Mammalia Carnivora Canidae Canis lupusnobilis erectus- black labrador retriever, of the St. John's Water Dog line. A K-9 Trooper AKA 'dog-boy' of the then current slang. Genetically altered to stand upright, talk, and have closer to human problem solving and intelligence. He was put in stasis upon confirmation that he was sick."

"I've never even seen one," Herod said. "Why not?"

"If I was to remove him from stasis, he would be in great pain for a day to a day and a half and then would die in agony," Victor said. "He'd probably reach out to me for succor, in hopes I could heal him so that our time together would not end. He would love and trust me almost immediately, without reservation or hesitation, even though he's never met me before. Even as he is dying he will be worried about how I feel about his death."

"The Friend Plague," Herod said, his voice low.

Victor nodded. "There were, according to what I learned in the creche-school, six hundred million Canis lupus nobilis erectus on Earth when the Friend Plague arrived. Within a year, there were none unless they were in stasis like Robert here."

Herod gulped, shivering slightly even though he couldn't actually feel the cold.

"Now, ask me why we didn't just remove the disease once we had tissue samples and some of them in stasis," Victor said, his voice menacing despite its softness.

"Because the disease is already in every tissue cell and is impossible to remove without destroying the cell and the DNA/RNA of the cell," Herod said.

"A crude explanation, but I won't give you any demerits for its crudity," Victor said, still staring. He pointed at the goodboi. "Meet FIDO-14364235, Eukarya Animalia Chordata Mammalia Carnivora Canidae Canis lupus mechanica. He's one of the first created. There's only one as old as him in existence, but I'd have better luck scooping plasma from a star with my bare hands than getting any sample from that one."

"Am I disturbing you?" Herod asked, kind of hoping he was so that he could slowly back out of the room.

"No. I come in here when I need reminded that I'm not omnipotent, that despite all my advantages, I'm human even though there's no such things as only human, I'm human, and thus prone to all the pitfalls and paradoxes inherent in humanity," Victor said. He turned around in the chair, facing Herod. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm stuck," Herod admitted. "What is the group of particles? We can obvious manufacture them, I've looked at the manufacturing process, but I can't figure them out."

"You and every other researcher," Victor said, stroking his beard. "There's one thing that should be obvious but is overlooked by everyone. Hell, I overlooked it, if I remember right."

"What?" Herod asked, feeling digital goosebumps at standing in what was basically a morgue.

"You can only create those particles in a gravity well of at least point eight two G to a maximum of three point five gee with a electromagnetic field with a strength of point two eight Gauss to point seven one Gauss," Victor said.

"You mean, they can only be made in a planetary gravity well?" Herod frowned.

"Well, or one like the Black Box has, or if you use an artificial singularity with the proper spin on it," Victor said. "Otherwise the particles not only won't form but they won't stick together. In nearly sixty-two point three eight percent of the attempts the particles will undergo particle swapping and end up as anti-matter type three AM-Iron atoms."

Herod just stared.

"The real question is, where does the signal go?" Victor said. "I never figure that out, what I figured out was much much different. Unfortunately I got planet-cracked, an event that has somewhat of a adverse effect upon one's memories."

Herod laughed before he could stop himself.

"So what did you figure out?" he asked.

Victor stared for a long moment.

"Two things. Two things of such import that the news that it had ever happened would cause massive riots across of all of Terran Descent Human Space, but two things that I guess are going to be discovered here," Victor said.

Herod felt as if a cold breeze had moved through the room.

"Two species were wiped out by the Fried Plague, AKA the Andromeda Strain," Victor said.

"Felines and canines," Herod said. He paused. "You figured out how to restore them?"

Victor nodded. "But that, that wasn't what created the catastrophe known as the Crusade of Wrath. What I discovered, what the Imperium destroyed with a planet cracker, cause the Crusade of Wrath."

Herod frowned. "I thought the Crusade of Wrath happened because of the death of the Digital Omnimessiah."

"Is that what they teach now?" Victor mused, turning his chair around. He pressed a button and the stasis cubes retracted into the wall. There was more whirring and additional panels opened. Robotic gantries moved out stasis cubes, six of them, all with dimly seen naked humans inside.

"What... what... are you claiming you restored a Sleeping One?" Herod asked, stepping back.

"Not one. Two. A mother and her child," Victor said softly.

Heresy... bubbled up in Herod's mind, even as he backed up.

"I freed them from the horrors of the Glassing. Undid the Omniqueen's injury to them. Restored their sanity without damaging their minds. I freed them from eternal dreamless slumber," Victor said, slowly standing up.

Hector blinked as he saw, with more than just his eyes, purple and blue lightning beginning to crackle around Victor's clenched fists, the sparks popping in the human's hair, the electrical arcs buzzing around the human's feet.

"I did it. I managed to accomplish something that nobody thought could be done, and those prideful idiots of the Crusade of Light fucking planet-cracked me right to my face the same day I managed to do the impossible. Planet-cracked me just I repaid a brother, reached redemption after my Fall."

Herod could feel the stress on the words as he realized that the Black Box had suddenly locked down the room he was in. He was loaded into the local buffers, access to escaping cut off as the hardwired lines themselves were suddenly cut.

Victor turned around, his eyes full of purple fire, purple arcs of energy crackling across his teeth.

"And now I can't remember how I did it!" Victor, no, Legion, snarled. He inhaled as if he was about to continue talking, or maybe just scream, when his eyes suddenly focused on his upraised fist.

"Oh. Oops," he said. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.

Herod had backed up against the door.

When Victor opened his eyes the purple fire was gone.

The door opened and Herod half fell through, vanishing into the data stream as soon as he could, fleeing for his room.

He'd never believed the tales and the legends and records.

Now he did.

It was when he missed lunch that Flowerpatch came looking for him, finding him hiding in his bedroom, under his bed.