James’s father: Pink came into the kitchen and grabbed herself a big bowl of sugary cereal plus milk. Her digestive system could handle just about any food plus things that were not normally considered to be foods at all. At a pinch, she could eat leather, or even paper. But her taste and smell were fully human. So she indulged herself as much as she liked. "Yummy, these sugar fruit pops are delicious!" she said as she munched through a large bowl of them. "Argh. If I ate all of that carbohydrate..." said Blue. He made himself some scrambled eggs to go with his bacon. Martha came in, and settled for some fried tomatoes and a single boiled egg. Followed by James's father, Jay, who had what Blue was having. Why was James's father here? Well, he had started meeting with Martha, and one thing led to another, and, you know, the birds and the bees, and so on. So he had slept over in Martha's room the previous night. He and Martha made sure to separate into two streams their radio link conversations. Those meant only for each other were kept strictly private, away from those suitable for broadcasting to everyone else, including James. As he had explained to his son on a previous occasion. "I'm your father and you're still a teenager. Thus, I consider I have a right to keep track of your love life, at least to some degree. And this thing about turning off your libidos I thoroughly agree with. Whereas, you have no need for any more information about my love life than the simple fact that I going out with Martha. Any problems, son?" "I suppose not." James had said. James and Rebecca: [When will we get to turn our libidos on?] James had said privately via the link to Rebecca. [Not yet, buster!] Pink and Blue: Rejoining the normal human condition It was a school day, so Pink and Blue were in their school uniforms and ready to go. Time froze. Martha was caught, mouth opened wide, just as she was about to take a fork full of tomato. Jay was in mid gulp, drinking his coffee. Esmeralda appeared in front of them, looking sorrowful. "Hello Pink and Blue. I'm awfully sorry to make this announcement, but my quota for violating the normal free will of humans has just run out. I promise I will be back, but for now, you will be on your own. None of my borrowed powers will be available. I deeply regret this, sorry." She regretfully faded out. Time resumed flowing. Pink dropped her spoon full of milk and cereal, making a minor mess on her school dress. Blue stopped chewing his bacon and had to spit it out when he almost choked. "What's with the two of you?" said Martha. "Our angel granted powers have been taken away." said Pink. "Esmeralda is taking a holiday from the business of overriding the free will of humans." said Blue. "So we have just lost our number one super power." said Pink. "What the hell do we do now?" said Blue. "Well, that is alarming, I'm sure." said Martha. "True," said Jay, "But on the other hand..." Martha and Jay simultaneously started giggling. "Huh?" said Blue. "It's like this," said Jay. "Blue, welcome back to the normal human condition. And, I suppose it's: Pink, welcome to the normal human condition." "Er?" said Pink. "Normal humans don't have angel derived powers. So you're back to being normal mortals." said Martha. "It's a shame, but that's the way it is." Pink and Blue looked at each other, and had a private conversation. [They're right. After all we, well, I, was just a normal human teenage boy a few months ago.] said Blue. [Yeah.] said Pink. [And remember, you are still not quite normal, you, as well as the others, have Horatio and the radio link.] Speaking to the others. "It's a bit of a shock, but we will have to get over it." said Blue. They cleaned themselves up and went to school. At lunchtime they sat on their favourite park bench, overlooking the river and the primary school kids playground. They had lunch and discussed the latest news with Prime. In situations like this, Horatio would refrain from making an appearance, since it was all too easy for either Blue or Pink to lapse into speaking aloud to him. Which tended to confuse any passersby no end. [So, you can no longer read anybody's soul. If you want to work out what sort of person they are, you will have to rely on the old fashioned, somewhat unreliable, technique of actually talking to them.] summarised Prime. [Yes. We shall have to rely on our own innate abilities.] said Blue. [Hmm...] said Prime. [Actually, that brings up a good point. You can always rely on me, but, looking ahead and extrapolating from what I know about you humans, your society is probably going to be entering a stage of instability. In other words, things could get nasty. The suitcase bomb is only one symptom if that. So, I'm thinking, it won't do you any harm to try to rely on your own resources, before calling upon mine. Blue needs to refresh his memory about how it was, when he was alone in his skull, how it felt when he didn't have me or the others just a radio link call away. Not all the time, mind you, but occasionally.] [Oh. Right. I need to practice not having a direct link. Sometimes.] said Blue. [And, Pink, there could be a possibility of problems in the future. As you know, your body has to be renewed every month or so. If it isn't, then in about two or so months it will have degraded sufficiently to cause noticeable problems, and it would die within about three months. And Blue, once that happens, her brain dies too.] said Prime. [Also the three month limit is assuming she can get all her energy from the electric charging mat. If she has to rely exclusively on food, the extra strain of running her digestion system will shorten her life even more.] Gulp. [Oh. I didn't know it was so bad.] said Blue. [It's because, while her body has plenty of nanomachines in it, they aren't designed to repair it. I couldn't pack everything into a single human sized volume, so self repair had to go. So, all of the tiny errors and damages that occur in the normal course of life accumulate in Pink. Unlike, for example, Blue, where his cells repair themselves. I'm going to make some changes and try to alleviate this, but the basic problem will remain.] [I already knew all of that. As long as Earth Watch Prime can get to me, I'll be all right.] said Pink. [Unfortunately, if things go really wrong, getting to you may become difficult.] Having giving them plenty to think about, Prime bid them good day. [Damn, this means that when I do the books for the school council, I'm going to have to add them up the hard way, all by myself!] said Blue. [Yep! Or call on me, after all I do have the innate ability to do complex arithmetic.] said Pink. [Show off. Actually, I can do it the hard way, then get Prime to do a quick check. The best of both worlds.] said Blue. The premiers: The two premiers still felt annoyed at Pink and co. Really annoyed. And the official investigation team still could not reach any coherent explanation on what had happened. Premier Watson was reduced to a bit of petty retaliation. Which he did in utmost secrecy, he certainly did not want the population to know that he had any animosity towards them. Pink and the others: Soon to be homeless An evening soon after. For once, Molly was home reasonably early (she was going out again to several evening meetings). All of the other normal occupants of the house were also present. Martha gave Pink her latest snail mail letters. "Oh." said Pink, upon opening one of them. "We're being evicted from our house." "What!" said three other voices. Prime did not bother acting surprised, although he did not know what was happening either. He materialised himself as Horatio, sitting at the table with the others. "According to this letter, this house is condemned because the services will no longer be maintained, and the land is going to be resumed by the government for developmental purposes." said Pink. "That's an outrage!" said Blue, "Horatio, do you know anything about this?" "No, I don't. It's all a surprise to me too. On the other hand, the reasons given are somewhat plausible. I shall have to research this, but at the moment it does sound a little fishy." "We should fight this! Why should Pink be evicted from her home?" said Martha. "Yes, this is my home! And has been ever since I was created. And the people I care for the most live here with me!" said Pink. "Ah, perhaps we should think about this?" said Horatio. "After all, what is it that really makes a home for you?" "Ah, but, well, I suppose, it’s not the house or land, it is the people I live with?" said Pink. "But why shouldn't we fight to retain her house?" said Blue. "Because, I believe that there are other fights coming up over the horizon. More important fights. Also, it is perhaps time for Pink and Blue to become more engaged in the community, move out and meet more people in different circumstances. Martha is happy as long as she can see Pink on a regular basis, and Molly is happy to be anywhere, as long as she can continue her work." Some grumbling from the two teenagers. But they were forced to the conclusion that Horatio might have some valid points. "So, how soon do we have to vacate?" said Blue. "Hmm, according to this, by the end of the week." said Pink, turning the page over to see the conclusion of the letter. "Huh?" said Blue. "Now that is suspicious. But, remember, you have a lot of friends now." said Horatio. They contacted the other adults, and together they produced a public announcement of the soon to be homelessness of Pink and Blue. Molly was fine, within half an hour she had arranged her own alternative accommodation. Martha was fine, she was going to be moving in with Jay. Horatio released the news item to the public via the web. By tomorrow morning, before going to school, they already had hundreds of offers. "See, I told you that you had a lot of friends." said Horatio. "It's a pity the James’s house wasn't bigger, we could have stayed there." said Pink, somewhat wistfully, since she could have lived with Martha in that case. "Never mind. We can always work out something in the future. In the meanwhile, I suggest you leave it to me. And we'll pretend that Molly's office, in other words Martha, is doing the hard work of selecting an offer." said Horatio. At teatime. "I have a good place for you to stay at," said Horatio. "Although you might have some quibbles... It's a separate granny flat, at the back of a house that is close to James’s house, and thus also close to school." "Sounds good. So, what, exactly, will we be quibbling about?" said Blue. "Ah, well, you see, it's Jeffrey's house, you know, Jeffrey from your class." "Oh. But..." said Pink. "You really do need to make more social contact with people who are just a little out of your comfort zone. And, also, you know that Jeffrey is showing signs of changing his behaviour." said Horatio. "Ok, Ok, I get it, Prime." And with that, they moved into Jeffrey's father's granny flat. And also with that, Earth Watch Prime moved forward his plans to maintain continual surveillance of the premiers and all other important officials. Using the wonders of his advanced nanomachinery technology, he was going to be able to watch them 24/7 and they would never know it. Setting this up was going to take some effort, which was why he had not allocated the resources to do it up to now. But, he now judged it was time. It is a pity he didn't do this a little bit sooner, as there were some important little pieces of communication between the two premiers that he missed. On the political front, things continued to get serious. That morning Pink and Blue walked out of the granny flat, to find Jeffery also setting out. [I suppose we should say hello.] said Pink. Over the radio link, of course. [It would appear rude if we didn't.] said Blue. [And then we have to walk with him to the school...] Sigh, went Pink. Out loud: "Hello Jeffery. Another school day?" said Pink. It was somewhat overlooked by Pink and Blue, but Jeffery was also running the same sort of comments through his own head. "Yes, ah." By default, they ended up walking together. [Prime! Where's Rebecca and James?] said Pink privately. [Three blocks away, also going in your direction.] said Horatio. "If we turn here, we can meet up with Rebecca and James." said Blue. Jeffery looked puzzled, no doubt wondering how they knew that bit of information. So all five of them came to the causeway at the same time. Only to be confronted by a checkpoint, with a small queue of cars waiting to pass through. "Oh, that's right, I remember from the news last night, they're putting up check points on all the river crossings." said James. "Stupid thing to do." General agreement all round. "And, of course, since there is the school on the island, they have to have two check points on this crossing. One either side. What a waste of effort." said Blue. The officials at the checkpoint were courteous and professional. They checked their student identifications, and ushered them through. By chance, a police car approached. It just drove around the checkpoint and continued. "Hey, that's Charlie!" said Blue, out aloud. Via the radio link, Pink and Blue said hello. [This checkpoint business is a bit of a lark, don't you think?] said James to Charlie. Charlie drove his car to the station and parked it, while talking to the teenagers. [Humph. It's not really funny at all, and not just because of the nuisance value. Once you start taking this route, of forcing a segregation between people, it can easily ruin the trust and well being of a society.] he said. The emotional colouring accompanying this was bleak. [But, never mind, you students don't need to worry about this. Ah, actually, the students in general shouldn't have to worry about this. Judging by past performance, you four will probably find some way to get into trouble...] [Sorry, I'm being a bit negative. Please try to ignore this cranky adult and enjoy your day.] finished Charlie. They walked over the causeway in silence for a while. "I suppose it is getting serious, isn't it?" said Rebecca. There was general agreement about this also. Also, Jeffery had noticed strange gaps in the conversation between the four others. He decided to put this down to the awkwardness of them dealing with him. Pink and Friends: That afternoon, Pink, Rebecca, and Teresa made a plan to go shopping over on the other side of the river. They decided to walk there, and then Rebecca's father was going to give them a lift back. Rebecca had to pretend to use her phone to make the arrangement with her father, just so that Teresa did not have a chance to be puzzled by Rebecca making on the spur arrangements involving her dad without any visible means of communication. Naturally, they had to go through the checkpoint on the other side. Which triggered a little plan that had already been set up before hand. Pink was a little in front, as the three walked up a particularly steep road which was on the way to the stops. Pink, having strength and endurance aplenty, had charged ahead without realising it. [Pink! Stop galloping ahead - hmpf] said Rebecca. Puzzled by this extraneous ending, Pink looked around, to see two very tough looking men grabbing Rebecca. Another two were lifting Teresa off the ground and getting ready to stuff her into a van that was ever so conveniently parked by the side of the road, its back door open. And two more were fast closing in on Pink. "Don't do anything funny and your two friends won't get hurt." said one of the men reaching for Pink. The four holding her friends did look vicious and capable of hurting them. So Pink momentarily froze, which gave the two men time to grab her and rush her to the van also. Earth Watch Prime had been instantly alerted when the trouble started. He had agreed with Pink's evaluation about not causing any trouble, so he did not contradict her. Just as Pink was also shoved into the van, he got enough visual evidence to recognise the type of van. [Pink! This van is one used for carrying prisoners around. It's shielded against radio -] and at that the radio link between him and Pink and Rebecca died. At the exact time that the van's door was closed. "Just remain still." said one of the guards holding Pink, "and your friends will remain unhurt." Maybe they had some suspicion that there might be more to Pink that what was easily seen. The four men holding Rebecca and Teresa were in the front of the cabin and between them and Pink was an already closed steel mesh door. Which looked very strong and solid. Pink doubted she could break through in any hurry, and if she tried, the four men had ample time to hurt her friends. So she remained passive. [My god what's happening?] said Rebecca over the radio link to Pink. The link was still working between the two of them, but the quality was poor. Most of the emotional overtones were gone, and the speech was monotonic and flat. Pink could barely recognise the voice as Rebecca's. [I don't know. This van is shielded, so we have no radio contact with Earth Watch Prime. So our links to the outside world are down, and between ourselves, the link is degraded. But at least it is working somewhat.] Pink was extremely annoyed and frightened, mostly for her friends. She did not have too much fear for her own situation, since she was a very tough little robot after all. Rebecca was frightened, but at least she could talk privately to Pink. Teresa was terrified. Pink, noticing this, said to Rebecca over the link [Try to hold Teresa's hand, you're being held next to each other anyway. She has it the worse.] Teresa felt Rebecca hold her hand, and was somewhat calmed. What was going to happen next? Earth Watch Prime: Earth Watch Prime trained all available optical sensors down, just in time to see the van turn a corner and disappear into some sort of underground car park. He immediately broadened his viewpoint to everything within a five-kilometre radius. They had to come out somewhere, and he was not taking any chances. The van went into the underground parking area, drove to the back and approached what appeared to be an expanse of ordinary wall. However, this wall had a concealed door in it. It smoothly hinged outwards, giving plenty of room for the van to go through, and it then closed behind them. At about this time, after hastily cracking various databases and computer systems in the city, Earth Watch Prime had come to the realisation that this was some sort of semi secret military establishment. An innocent office block sitting on top of a hidden underground complex. Damn said Earth Watch Prime to himself. Or whatever the equivalent mental gesture was for a member of an alien data species. This might be getting complicated. He notified the other humans on the radio link network. Except, for now, he refrained from telling Rebecca's parents as they were both in the middle of medical procedures and couldn't be interrupted without causing problems. Blue and James: Blue and James were walking home, accompanied by Jeffery. Everyone was making an effort to hold a reasonably civil and relaxed conversation; although admittedly Blue was struggling just a little in this endeavour. And then, from Jeffery's point of view, the other two just stopped dead in their tracks and appeared to be thinking hard about - something - without saying a word. [What can we do?] said Blue over the radio link, with more than a twinge of panic and fear. [Yeah, surely you must know where they are?] said James. Who was catching some of the panic and fear from Blue, and amplifying it. [They are in an underground military complex which has several disguised exits, each several kilometres apart, and each has a far amount of traffic on it. If they make an attempt to hide the girl's transport, then I'm left with the unenviable task of tracking a hundred or more vehicles over the next few days, trying to work out which one they might be on. Or they might remain in the complex, which from our point of view is the best option. The whole thing is shielded from radio, however, give me a few days and I can, by using various devious nano technologies, put my own radio repeaters in.] said Horatio. Blue and James started walking again, and Jeffery tagged along, wondering what weird thing was going on. Blue spoke aloud "But can't you just get the police to save them?" [Unfortunately, the police can only deal within their own authority. The state can override them; the police are out ranked by the military and national security.] said Horatio. [Of course, the police can still kick up a fuss, and once this gets to the public, the public will really be stirred up. But all of that is going to take a few days.] [That's right,] said Janet, listening in as she sat at her terminal, going through her emails. [Right now, we can't do a thing, since we have not had any official complaint.] "We must do something!" said James, also aloud. [I've already started.] said Horatio. [I've taken the visual record of the girl's abduction, as seen through their eyes, and I have faked up a video. This purportedly comes from some bystander, who just happened to have his mobile out taking a video of some butterflies, and caught the whole scene. I'm now emailing it to Janet's police station. Complete with a fifty-second header showing two rare butterflies sitting on a flower.] [Right, I have just received it now,] said Janet. [Now I can do something.] [And I am now busy producing some nanomachinery to put radio repeater links in the complex. It'll be delivered tonight. I'll need Blue and James to deliver it. So, boys, please compose yourself. Panicking won't do the girls any good.] Somewhat abashed, James and Blue agreed. They became silent and kept on walking. Jeffery: How are they aware of all of that? After a little while, Jeffery decided to overcome his nervousness and ask: "Err, who do you want the police to save?" "Oh" said James and Blue, simultaneously. They had completely forgotten about Jeffery's presence. Prime had not. He could have overridden Blue's initial spoken outburst, but he was hesitant at doing such things unless it was really needed. And it had occurred to him that Jeffery had potential. So he had decided to let things unfold in whatever direction the humans took it, without interference. "Hmm, well, err, we just remembered some bad news." said Blue. Over the radio link: [That's pretty lame.] said James, [However I can't think of anything better.] "So let's keep walking home?" said James. "Huh, Ok." said Jeffery. And there goes another of those strange gaps in conversation. The news gets out: By the time they got to Jeffery's house, they all had their mobiles out and were pursuing the latest news. Which, for them, was mainly about the kidnapping of the three girls. Once Janet had received that email, she wasted no time in dealing with it. And this included sending a copy to Rebecca's and Teresa's parents. Of course, by then Rebecca's parents had already been informed by Horatio. To say they were hopping mad would have been a vast understatement. More like volcano erupting mad. A large volcano. Once they received the email, they started furiously working every last one of their contacts, in a bid to get in contact with as many officials as possible, demanding that the girls be found and retrieved immediately! Martha was as one with Rebecca's parents; her anger was white hot and could have melted rock into lava all by itself. Sadly, she didn't have any contacts to work. Molly, however, did have contacts. Lots of them. She began to carefully consider who might be the most useful. All of this was only fifteen minutes after the kidnapping itself. Jeffery: Jeffery read the headlines and calculated the times. "So this is the bad news that you got while walking home?" he said. "Ah, yeah," said Blue. He was busy checking news articles and comparing them with what he already knew. "But, you didn't have your mobiles out before. So how did..." said Jeffery. "Never mind that," said James. "I've gotta go home and get ready for, err, something." "So do I. See you Jeffery." said Blue. Blue went to the granny flat. James kept walking to his house. Jeffery went through his front door, a puzzled frown on his face, and the latest news on the screen of the mobile in his hands. He went to his bedroom and did some homework. When his father came home he greeted him, then they had tea. He went back to his bedroom and sat at his desk, watching the shadows lengthen and the darkness fall in his back yard. So Pink, Rebecca, and Teresa have been kidnapped, probably by some semi official but secret authority. He felt his face blush with shame as he remembered teasing Teresa about Jennifer. And Rebecca and Pink had gone out with Teresa to comfort her. He sighed, and was about to turn on his light to start some more homework when the shadow of someone walked past his window. Now what's Blue doing going out tonight - say didn't James say he was getting ready for something? A minute later Jeffery was out of the window and following Blue. And also feeling extremely embarrassed. Sadly, there were no great revelations. Blue walked one block, turned a corner and got into a waiting car. The car drove back down the road, past Jeffery as he stood next to a tree. He got a momentary look inside it. Blue and James, being driven somewhere in a police car. Must be something to do with the kidnapping, but what?" He went back to his homework. Earth Watch Prime: Prime, looking down with infrared sensors, had seen all of this and had no trouble working out who was following Blue. Horatio was the human aspect of Earth Watch Prime, and was just a small part of the much bigger entity. So, while Earth Watch Prime as a whole, and Horatio in particular, might have been extremely worried about Pink and co, there was still more than enough capacity left over for him to simultaneously enjoy a bit of absurdity. He was amused by the antics of Jeffery. Also hopeful that Jeffery would continue to become a better person, and might even become an ally. So, for the time being, Earth Watch Prime decided not to mention this to Blue and co. James: As soon as it had gone dark, Earth Watch Prime's delivery rocket had landed in the yard of Pink's original residence. After extricating itself from the rocket, the articulated robot had walked down the driveway and deposited a small parcel just outside the main gate. So this was the first stop for Blue and James. Blue hopped out of the car, picked up the packet, and got back in. He unwrapped it and was left with what looked like two rubbers, the sort used to erase pencil marks. He put one in his pocket, and the other went into James pocket. "Ok, boys, duck down." said Janet, just before they came to the first checkpoint. Janet, being in a police car, just drove straight through without stopping. They remained down until they had passed the second checkpoint. Next stop, a factory site that was about a hundred metres from the underground carport which was the last known location of the girls. Janet parked the car right next to the chain link fence, somewhat away from the main entrance and the main lighting. "Right," said Janet. "This must be the location of the hole that was cut in the fence and reported to the police early this evening." She pointed to an unblemished expanse of fence. Upon which, James took out some wire cutters, and promptly cut a hole in the fence. "Yep," said Janet, "There the hole is." She took out her notebook and started entering the details. In the meanwhile, Blue and James had disappeared through the hole and were running across the yard. [Turn left around that shed. Then straight ahead. Up those stairs to the third floor.] Prime guided the teenagers on where to go. [Right, see those big exhaust flues? The one to the extreme left, separated from the others, is the one Blue wants. Meanwhile, James, go along this walkway. The intake flue is the one sticking up all by itself at the far end.] Each pipe was half a metre in diameter, and stood up in the air another ten metres. There were steel rungs, welded to the sides, going up. One was an exhaust outlet; the other was the air intake, for part of the underground installation. They were camouflaged to look like the other chimneys of the factory. James ran up to his designated pipe. He looked up at the pipe and the rungs, vanishing upwards in the dark sky. It looked a long way up. I'm doing all of this, and I haven't even kissed Rebecca yet! Oh well, Horatio, can you calm me down? Prime sent some commands over the radio link, and certain highly specific brain cells in James' brain got new orders. To James, it was as if his mind had been pool of water that was a foaming chaotic mess of conflicting thoughts and emotions, all competing for his attention. And then everything went still and quiet. The water became calm and clear. He had one thing only on his mind now. Climbing up the rungs and placing his packet inside the pipe. Nothing else was allowed to interrupt his concentration as he carried out his task. At the top was a large hood, to keep the rain out. James carefully poked his head up under it, and found himself looking over and down the top of the pipe. It was protected from entry by a thick steel mesh. Never mind. No one was going to try entry this night, anyway. Instead James took out the fake pencil rubber, and squished it against the inside wall of the pipe. Then, wasting no time, he got his head out of the hood and started climbing down. The rubber stuck where it was, then stretched and elongated and, like a slime mould, began creeping down the side. As it did so, a tiny piece of it was left behind. A radio repeater station. As it crawled its way down towards the underground complex, it would be leaving many small pieces of itself behind, thus making up a network of radio repeaters. Just as Janet had finished her leisurely filling out of her official report form, the two boys returned. Janet contacted the police operations centre over the phone. "Ok, I've collected my report. I'm coming back now." Half an hour later, the two boys were home. Taking out their homework and settling in for an hour's study. They still had their normal school work, after all. Janet and Charlie: Having a little philosophical discussion Janet sat in her office, having a little break. Charlie sat in his living area, watching a video with his wife. [Doesn't it worry you that we are, after all, no longer quite upholding our sworn duties as police officers?] said Charlie, over the radio link. [A little. But, you know, those kids, and Earth Watch Prime, did save all of those lives, so...] said Janet. [Yeah, I suppose so.] [And remember, the way the current political situation is going, the conflict between our officially mandated duties, and ones we believe should be upheld, will only increase. Even without the radio link and Earth Watch Prime, we would still have had to make a moral choice. And no matter what we choose, something has to give.] said Janet. [Yeah, yeah, I get it. Well, at least, I'm happy with my choice.] said Charlie. [So am I.] With all of that effort, it was a shame they were ten minutes too late.