Chương 170: Chapter 168– System Updates

"Alex if you wouldn't mind, I require your assistance for mere moments," Shirley said flatly.

"Of course, what is it that you need me to do?" Alex asked, turning toward the monitor.

"Could you please access the command prompt and enter a sequence for me? I would like to begin updating your teleport system so the changes will be ready for the various departures in the morning," Shirley said, in her synthesized voice.

"Please let me know when you are ready to begin." Alex sat down in front of the keyboard.

"Okay Shirley, ready when you are."

"Alight…" she paused as if thinking, "The sequence is…Alpha-Tango-7-4-9-Echo," she said, her voice seeming to lack the normal personality she had been known to exhibit.

"For accuracy will you please repeat the sequence I just gave you?"

"Sure," Alex began.

"Alpha-Tango-7-4-9-Echo." He repeated.

"Okay now, Foxtrot-Foxtrot-Tango-Umbrella-Sierra-2-8-9-3," Shirley chimed.

"Please verify."

"Foxtrot-Foxtrot-Tango-Umbrella-Sierra-2-8-9-3." Alex replied.

"You may hit the enter key now and that will initiate the recalibration sequence. It will take approximately fifteen minutes to complete, during which time I will be unavailable for conversation. Please feel free to discuss amongst yourselves," she said, still in an oddly mechanical voice.

"Was it just me, or did Shirley sound off?" Alex asked.

"I am in program mode currently, no cause for alarm," Shirley chimed in, causing Alex to jump at the unexpectedness.

"I thought you were going to be unavailable," Alex asked, confused.

"Auto shutdown, commencing in Five… Four… Three… Two… One," the voice said automatically. The room fell silent as each of them looked from one to the other. It was Regina who finally broke the quiet.

"So, Shirley says Thai has powers and needs training to control them. What if she can't control them? What if she's a danger to herself or others? Are we just supposed to take Shirley's word for it that everything will be fine?" she hissed, standing up and beginning to pace.

"How are we supposed to protect her, especially if we are worried about protecting ourselves from her?" Roxie interjected.

"I mean don't get me wrong, I love the kid, but we don't have the slightest idea what we're dealing with here."

"Right?!" Regina replied.

"I have the warm fuzzies for the kid too, but if we piss her off is she going to make our heads explode or something?"

"Come on Regina!" Seraphina chimed in.

"This is still Thai we are talking about. She hasn't hurt anyone…"

"Yet," Regina interjected.

"Seraphina, you don't have a clue either so, your but it's just Thai logic doesn't fly… not right now anyway."

"Seraphina's right Regina," Elena said, standing up and walking toward where Serpahina was seated.

"Logically, if Thai was going to hurt someone she would have done it by now. This is our girl you're talking about."

"If I may add my unsolicited two cents," Mikale began, "I don't really know the kid, but I'm with the fairy on this one, if Thai was going to hurt someone it would have been when she was out of her mind with fever." Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"How about instead of everyone getting their knickers in a twist, we wait until Shirley is finished doing what she has to do and ask her point blank about it?" Alex asked, turning to Celestia.

"I'm with Alex on this guys," Celestia said, nodding her head.

"We can sit here all night speculating as to what Thai's abilities are and if she poses some kind of threat, but it isn't going to give us answers." She sighed, "we are just going to have to sit tight and ask."

"Why are you all talking like my daughter is suddenly someone or something that needs to be managed?" Rowan asked from the back of the room, his arms folded, looking genuinely hurt by the conversation they were having.

"Rowan," Sheraphina said, looking over at him as the room fell silent.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough Seph," Rowan said, huffing as he made his way further into the room and took a seat.

"Someone want to clue me in as to what the hell has been going on in here?" The room looked at one another awkwardly. Celestia shook her head and stood up.

"Rowan, while you were gone, we learned a few things. First, Shirley's system is incredibly complex, using both technology and something akin to magic. Second, the teleport system wasn't originally designed for interdimensional travel, but as a last-ditch escape from a dying species. We also discovered that the Blackwood family has a long and disturbing history of control and manipulation, stretching back centuries, without so much as a fork in the family tree for generations," she said, before shuddering.

"Eww, gross I know. Anything I missed?" she asked the room. Elena turned to Rowan.

"Celestia's got some of it, but there's more. The teleport system was developed as part of Project Exodus, a desperate attempt to escape a dying human realm. Rachel Sisson documented the whole thing in her video diaries. The environmental collapse, the government's suppression of science, the whole mess." Rowan looked from one to the other, unsure what to say.

"And Shirley, is he one who shared all this with you?" he asked, confused.

"I don't understand how this, or what happened between that…that thing and Thai." He said, running a hand through his hair.

"How is this…any of this even possible?"

"The thing that they did not mention is," Alex began, "basically, we've discovered that certain people are... linked to Shirley, in a way. Take Elena and I, for example. We were able to unlock certain types of information about Shirley and the teleport system that others couldn't," he said, standing up and heading back toward the computer.

"Seems, Shirley is…I wanna say alive, but that's not quite right either," Celestia began, then shrugged her shoulders.

"She can actually tell you who is sitting in the room by scanning their energy or something like that. Turns out the fairy God Janus was just some guy named James. He made her." She sighed.

"Turns out Janus is short for Just Another Notoriously Unfinished System. It was a joke between him and his wife. Turns out our whole existence has been a lie," she said, looking down at her feet. The room suddenly fell silent with eyes darting to and fro. A peculiar rhythmic sound emerged from seemingly nowhere but everywhere at the same time. It could only be described as something between a wheeze and a growl. It rose and fell in a steady pattern, like a broken bellows or a malfunctioning steam valve.

"What is that?" Elena asked.

"Is it the furnace again Alex?"

"I hope not, if it's sounding like that it may be on its last leg," Alex said, standing up and heading to the utility room. The noise grabbed their attention again causing Alex to turn around.

"Well the noise isn't coming from anything in here," he said, shutting the door. Rowan stood up, his elven sense of hearing enabling him to hone in on the source.

"I think it's coming from over there," he said, pointing to the conference room.

"You don't think some animal wandered in do you?" Celestia looked at him wide eyed as the group began standing up to take a look. Mikale, being the closest, stood up cautiously and headed toward the door, reaching a hand in first for the light switch. As the lights flickered on, the group found Jasper slumped in a chair, head tilted back at an awkward angle, producing this strange symphony through his partially open mouth.

"Well alrighty then," Seraphina whispered.

"We're out here trying to save worlds and he decides to take a nap, go figure," she said, shaking her head and turning to resume her seat.

"The teleport system has been fully integrated into my system and you will now be able to travel at will," Shirley said, springing back to life. The group all turned, surprised by her sudden reemergence, rushing to make it back to the computer.