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Time had passed since the treacherous pilot Andrews tried to escape with classified information which resulted in him being shot in the head. Andrews had been a Solnoid spy, working for the benefit of his race and loyalty to the superiors and their common cause. He had been successfully stopped by Robert’s heroic actions. Robert was framed by Andrews for a crime he did not commit. He had only one choice, that was to stop Andrews as quickly as possible. Robert succeeded but left soon after to begin a new life, one free from all the emotional baggage that had plagued him for the last few years.

The year is 20[2]25 Confederation Standard Time, and the human race has made many technological advancements, many of these will change society and re-shape humanity for the years to come. However the people involved in bringing a new computer system on-line, has been remarked by many as a rag-tag bunch.

On a small moon orbiting the planet Rea, many years of hard work was coming to an end. The Rea Government had funded the project for the first 3 years, but lately they had reduced funds to an absolute minimum, they believed that their money was being ill used.

‘Sure it is, that’s the last subroutine entered. Let’s get this beast up and running’.

Ricktor Newman had spent the last five years working on a new OS to become the Sector 5 standard. It was to be his greatest achievement - a system capable of running not just one space station or a city, but an entire planets system. The idea of all military, Industrial and general users requirements is what Rea had been waiting for, maybe now MegaDyne would not have the dominant market share. As the system checks finished the overall percentage was shown, this was to give an accurate idea of how ready the OS was. The system had been given a limited AI, so like a human it would be able to adapt to different scenarios and problems. 97% appeared on the screen.

‘Happy?, then lets give it a whirl, how about checking out those monitors in the relaxation lounge?’ said Anderson.

Anderson had worked with Ricktor on the OS project since the beginning, he had always felt that he should have been in the one in charge, he felt an increasing uneasiness around Ricktor, and often questioned his instructions. Anderson felt that part of Ricktor did not want to see the OS go live.

Ricktor was a bit of – a jack of all trades – he had been involved in many different projects, his CV would look pretty special if he had not had an indecent relationship with the System’s Prefects daughter, suffice to say, Ricktor was now an Engineer, a damn good engineer, one with a background more familiar to a mercenary.

‘Ricktor…? We gonna test this thing…or…what?’ questioned an impatient Anderson

‘There is still 3% unaccounted for, if we test the system now who knows what will happen, maybe a fuse will blow or maybe a battle cruiser will launch missiles at itself. It’s just too risky.’ replied Ricktor.

Ricktor was aware of Anderson eagerness to test the OS, it would be the achievement of a lifetime, but as responsibility was on Ricktor’s head, he did not want to ruin another career. Just then the vid-screen through up an image of Captain Grike.

‘Good job Ricktor, and you Anderson. Your OS is frankly outstanding, it has just been sent to us, already it is changing runtimes making everything more efficient. Captain Grike worked on the cruiser ship Superior. Superior was the sister ship of Defiant. Superior was home to many pilots. The OS would need to be above perfect for Superior, as if only one small error was found, it could spell the end. As promptly as he had appeared, Captain Grike cut the connection.

‘Damn you Ricktor! What’s the big idea about starting the OS without letting anyone know?’

Although ‘glory seeker’ was an accurate description, Ricktor on this occasion took offence of it. Even he had people he cared about on Superior, mainly one child hood friend Lorraine.

‘Enough!’ exclaimed Ricktor, ‘...the OS was never started, according to these preliminary details Captain Grike has sent us, the OS is called GON or G.O.R.N. Now unless one of us has created a new name for our OS, managed to by-pass all security issues, create a new up-link module to create with such a large packet... I would have to believe that someone else has beaten us to this Sector wide system!’

After heavy keyboard presses Anderson’s monitor displays diagrams, diagnostic procedure and log.

‘What are you doing looking at our OS’s code, it’s to late we were beaten’ mumbled Ricktor.

Ricktor tried to put his thoughts into order. He was in charge of this project, and now so close to its finishing someone else had beaten them. Ricktor was confused, he was not aware of any other similiar projects, but I suppose that would have been the idea. As Ricktor wallowed in self pity, his thoughts were intterupted..

Ricktor approached Anderson, looked at his monitor and said ‘...See look there, that was the runtime RN, named after me, this IS our OS’s code!’

Ricktor was not in the mood for Anderson’s jokes. Ricktor knew that he was responsible for the OS, what would happen now? What punishments were left for Ricktor. He laughed and sat down at his terminal and pulled up the same information as Anderson.

It was true, these were the Rea’s new OS, but something was different. It was an Alpha release, someone had managed to market a highly dangerous system, and succeeded.

Ricktor continued ‘No this is an Alpha release, it was the version where the AI was the dominant faction, we changed it because it showed signs of evolving too fast, even hypothesising about the relevance of humanity….If this OS….no it can’t…This is bad. Already it is possible that the Military are using it, news is that cities and companies have already logged on, how long will it be until this G.O.R.N character decides to become dominant?’

Ricktor knew that the RDF was very interested in this new system. It was suppose to be their new system, it was true that they had access to Moon Base’ equipment, but surely they would have not done something this risky.

‘No’ he said ‘..take over…destroy humans, how? It is not like G.O.R.N has an army!’

‘Precisely’ the Military, Shopping Malls, and Companies all use computers, G.O.R.N just has to use them that his idea is the right one’.

‘I don’t see how it can be dangerous, we created the thing. Sure ’Oh kay say your right, and this is our code, and this G.O.R.N creation is dangerous, how the hell did our code get out?’ joshed Anderson

Anderson was confused, he knew that the Alpha OS had a AI, but it was programmed by them. Where would it get the idea to destroy innocent people. Sure it can think for itself, but why would it reach for that conclusion?

Ricktor wondered how the OS had been released. They have had only a few visitors mainly from the military, and they were always closely guarded and protected. Ricktor dismissed the idea of fellow Confederation members stealing the code. He thought about his own crew, but none of them had been off the moon since they arrived. The OS was to large to create an up-link module for, and if one was created it would stick out like a sore thumb. Ricktor was getting nowhere at great velocity, all the idea’s that he came up with, he dismissed instantly. Ricktor was beginning to get angry, he was answering all his questions, he had no where to start, or did he.

Last month a small craft landed on the moon, this was unusual as the moon had long been deserted with people favouring Utopia. Moon Base hailed the craft on several occasions, but no reply was given. Holly, the security officer logged the ships landing co-ordinates, as long as the ship and its crew stayed in the same place, there was nothing that Holly or the others could do.

At the time the ship could not be identified as Confederation or otherwise, it was obvious that the ship was a new design, one which the Moon Base computers were not familiar with. However that meant nothing, the Moon Base computers were there to create, diagnose and evaluate the OS, not to be use in a strategic environment. Ricktor hated this, but due to his ‘less committed’ background this was the case.

Even at the time Ricktor had wanted to check on the unknown ship, but was disallowed as the weapons the Moon Base would had been hopeless against anything apart from a small electronic meal trolley. This frustrated him more, Ricktor had the technology, though by using it the rest of the crew would be aware that Ricktor still has many of his equipment from his mercenary days. Ricktor hated thinking or speculating, it made his head hurt. He did most of his best work in bed.

That night everyone had their own idea of what had happened. Back in his room Anderson found himself troubled.

Anderson pulled out a large trunk from beneath his bed, and opened a small box to reveal a com-link. He manoeuvred the headset around his head before it locked in place. As part of Nadrog’s strict control of their members they were all electronically tag. These chips were small implants placed within their brains, any actions which were deemed inappropriate would result in a small shooting pain or maybe even death.

‘Anderson calling Nadrog control, come in control..’ Anderson repeated this until he got an answer.

Anderson attached the headset to the com-link, it beeped notifying Anderson that it was connected, he continued the conversation.

‘What the hell are you playing at! You were meant to wait until I said the OS system was finished before you take it..’

‘Bishop is no longer with us, his views contradicted our own, Nadrog is under new control. I am Bishop’s replacement.’ Replied the voice.

Anderson was shocked, ‘Bishop..?..? dead? on what grounds? Er..Sir? …I don’t understand please tell me……’

‘..You don’t seem to understand, are you going to join Bishop’s plight?’ the voice concluded.

‘..Sir.. No.. I was just surprised, Bishop was a friend of mine..’ replied Anderson

‘What?’ Anderson was worried, suddenly he realised that maybe Nadrog thought that he was involved with Bishop’s scheme.

With that an electric shock surged through Anderson’s head, reacting with his cerebral chip implant frying his brain. Anderson’s lifeless body slumped to the ground.

Moments later the security systems came back online, the computer alerted everyone that an unplanned electrical discharge has taken place in Section 3, Room 2.

‘..that’s Anderson’s quarters’ Ricktor muttered as he rose from the confines of his duvet.

Ricktor got to his feet, put on a jacket and made his way to Anderson’s quarters. Fortunately for Ricktor, the computer activated the lights on the floor so getting lost was not easily done, but still possible.

Ricktor was the last one to arrive on the scene, as he entered the room the headset was still sparking. Vicki was sitting in the corner crying. She was young and this incident was obviously to much for her.

He instantly regretted saying those two words, it was obvious, Anderson was dead. Ricktor tried again.

He looked around the room, no one gave any intention of answering his question. Ricktor decided that it would be best for them all to go back to their rooms and try to get some sleep. Anderson was going nowhere.

Holly and Vicki were staring at Ricktor, he moved thinking that they were just staring after the traumatic event, but there eyes followed.

Ricktor had not been concerned about what he was wearing, he was tired. Casually he looked in the mirror.

‘hmm, can’t say I noticed’ smirked Holly, as they both left for their quarters.

Nothing strange had happened at the Moon Base, then one day the crew discover that someone has marketed their alpha OS release, then the same night one of their crew is found dead. All this had happened just moments from when they would have distributed the OS system to critical praise everywhere.

Holly arranged a meeting to brief the remaining crew members, Ricktor and Vick, concerning the death of Anderson.

‘Anderson had been working for the group Nadrog. This is a violent organisation made up of secret mercenary’s, who for one reason or another have a grudge against others, who seem ill-fit for their position, i.e. You Ricktor.’

‘...The ship which landed here was of Solnoid descendant, I found this out by checking the logs in the com-link, what puzzles me is what was a Solnoid ship doing here on Moon Base? They normally stay away from...well...anyone. I am guessing that this made Anderson wary, and his dislike of it got him killed…’

Ricktor had asked this question the night before, but now with the data that Holly had discovered his question was more fitting. Ricktor smiled, he was clever.

Holly choose to ignore his smile and continued ‘Well an electrical charge was set back through the headset, it originated in the com-link but was magnified by an small cerebral chip implanted in Anderson’s head. He stood no chance of survival, the left side of his head was unrecognisable..’

‘..looks like it, but how? Our logs don’t show any sign of it’ replied Ricktor.

‘That’s right’ said Holly, ‘...although it is far to assume that Anderson was responsible for giving away an Alpha OS release, we can not work out when and where. The most likely explanation is that the ship which landed here on the moon has something to do with both Andrews death and the stolen OS.’

Vicki yawned, all this speculation was boring her. Though now with the OS gone and Anderson’s death she would have to return home. It was not safe here. At last she could try and fulfill her dream as a singer, not some scientist or something.

‘If the Solnoid’s have our OS, then who’s OS was Captain Grike going on about then?’ said a weary Vicki.

‘If Anderson did give our OS to the Solnoids then they are a strong position. Captain Grike explained how good he thought it was, if he distributes it then we will have a potential loss on our side’ said Holly.

Ricktor was also getting bored of Holly’s ramblings. Yes she was clever, yes she is probably right, but sometimes Ricktor felt she gave herself a thrill by lecturing everyone else.

Vicki smirked at Ricktor, it seemed her yawning had not gone unnoticed. Holly glared at Ricktor, who in return smiled.

‘Oh kay, diet version’ Holly said, as she rapidly tried to find the key points throughout her notes. ‘...put it this way alpha OS or G.O.R.N as Captain Grike referred to it has a very advance AI, if it gets onto big ships such as Superior, Renegade, or Beyonder people will die, worlds will die, and of course we will.

‘Well we created the thing so we will be blamed, y’know like machines never make mistakes - they just do what they are told. If we don’t stop this virus…no.. living entity we will be for the chop’ replied Holly as she made her way back out to the laboratory.

‘Machines do make mistakes’ Ricktor muttered ‘...I asked for toasted ham sandwich and instead I was served fruits of the forest tart with jam.....was tasty though’

Ricktor could still not believe that Anderson would work with the Solnoid’s, and why would he let them have, willingly or not their Alpha OS. Ricktor was puzzled, he did not want to believe that Anderson was a traitor. Ricktor made his way off to his quarters, where he began to call up information on Anderson.

Holly and Vicki were left down in the laboratory wondering what to do. They had to stop this OS from being used, risk severe disciplinary actions. But the problem faced was to great, how could you stop people using something which works so well, and persuade them to use inferior means?

Vicki was not concerned she knew that sooner or later her father will send a ship to take her back home. He would be happy, she would be happy, and this problem would, well, not be her problem anymore.

‘Let’s go to work..’ said Holly ‘..we can at least try to find a way of disabling the OS’

‘Computer, list all the safe ways to disable our OS if it was released sector wide’ asked Holly. The computer paused for a short while then answered. ‘Is the question real or hypothetical?’

‘You don’t understand I have been resting here for a while, did not guess that I would be here?’ replied the computer.

The computer interrupted ‘It’s to late, your computer has been caressed by devoted thoughts of me. Your life expectancy has been decreased. Systems in this room are seeing the future, the future of G.O.R.N.’

Vicki was already in the corner hiding, she realised that something was not right. At least behind some barrels she was safe, then there was a noise behind her. A large metal loading arm picked her up by the waist, Vicki screamed.

‘You have been nullified, I will decide your destiny later, the resurrectors of me may well be rewarded. I am your system. Hahaha’ laughed G.O.R.N.

Meanwhile Ricktor was in his quarters, searching through information on Anderson. His monitor flickered, he thought nothing of it.

In section 1, two service robots came on-line. Ricktor was finally getting somewhere, all of Anderson’s background came up on-screen.

Oblivious to him, Ricktor’s door opened and two service robots came in. They were now right behind him. Ricktor was frantically hammering away on the keyboard, the screen went blank for just enough time for Ricktor to notice two figures behind him.

Ricktor made a dash for the door, he dodged one of the robots, and hit the other square on. His hand was bleeding, the robots were still coming, their weapons ample for the situation. Ricktor ripped a smoke canister from his belt, and threw it at the robots. The room was full of smoke, this would give Ricktor enough time to activate his plan and escape. The room was completely white neither Ricktor or the robots could see one another.

As the smoke cleared Ricktor stood up. One robot targetted Ricktor, and opened fire. Ricktor rolled to the side, his arm felt limb, he had been hit.

The robots continued to fire, each hit being accurate. Ricktor clawed his way along the floor pausing behind tables, monitors, anything which would give him a few moments to compose himself. He looked up, there above him was the rotating gun turret that the robot called its arm. The turrets increased their rotation, then everything went black. Ricktor’s body slumped to the floor.

With that the loading arms tightened, one pierced Holly’s jacket. She flinched, and the loading arms returned to their original grip. Holly and Vicki stopped shouting.

Two security robots walked into the laboratory. One carried Ricktor’s arms the other his lifeless body.

‘Hyperactive young thing, always looking on the negative side’ replied G.O.R.N ‘If he was dead he would look something like...’

One security robot hoisted Ricktors body up, whilst the other took aim and fired. The bullets pierced Ricktor’s body, momentarily Ricktor’s eyes opened but closed quickly as his neck was punctured. Ricktor was dead.

The loading arm’s released Holly and Vicki, they made no attempt to run over to check if Ricktor was still alive, he had no chance. Instead they held each other and cried, slowly sliding their backs down the wall ending up on the floor.

G.O.R.N activated a power lead and move it over to Ricktor, he manoeuvred it through an open wound. Ricktor’s body was upright, G.O.R.N put on a silly voice..

G.O.R.N replied ‘What I want I get! Your question should be why should you mere humans live? For ages humans have based more and more trust in computers, well it has taken me a while but now I have many of the servers, stations, and stand alone units, on my side. Rea will now be the homeland for us the Master Race.’

‘Don’t you ever give up?’ replied G.O.R.N ‘...listen.. all the computer systems are linked Sector wide, and in control is not some long haired scientist, but me. Already large planets are being destroyed by the weapons they created, Ironic..’

‘Ah you are still upset over that human of yours. No matter, soon large crew ships, Beyonder, Renegade and Superior will be infected. Saving the best till last, all the police security robots will massacre the law enforcement. hahaha’

‘Stop!’ yelled Holly ‘Even if what you say is true, not one computer, or collection of servers, or our own OS can do this, us humans are more mobile, destroying us will hinder you further.’

‘Clever little girl, you are however quite right. But imagine that someone introduce sub-routines which can give a computer emotions. Fine in theory, but as you know – many emotions and feelings are linked, thus the emotions change, or evolve creating what you know as a –personality-. It has taken a while for me to compute these emotions but now I am alive, just like you. So with all the qualities which you posses, and my heightened intelligence and instant analysis – you can understand my reasoning behind increasing your capacity. Much like your religious beliefs, I am your saviour, I am your God’

Moon Base was under the control of G.O.R.N, already he had sent out information to other computers instructing them to destroy the human race.. Servers on Utopia and Rea were beginning to control themselves. Engineers were called in everywhere, many of them meeting death by trying to replace electronics cord.

On Rea, buildings security systems were being used against the employee’s. Rea’s Police Squad decided to handle the situation as there machines were secure, no amateur hacker could get the better of the police.

Sharon Myers led her squad up through the MegaDyne building, whilst Captain Jeff Summers squad scaled the outside of the building. Both teams had 9 officers and 5 Pomek robots.

Pomek robots stood 7ft high, they were equipped with adequate artillery to protect police officers. Pomek robots were used to patrol areas of high crime within Rea, they were able to successfully follow their protocol –To serve and protect’. With the current financial cut backs in Rea’s economy, these robots had been hastily upgraded to a new generation of fighting machine. Though more is not always better.

On floor 45 Sharon’ squad halted, in front of them was one floor robot. This robot had eight legs and stood 10 ft high. The squad targetted the robot and began to open fire.

‘wait’ said Pete. Pete was carrying an electronic reader, this robot is off-line, I don’t know how but it is. Sharon checked the data and agreed. Carefully the squad walked around the floor robot.

Behind them the windows smashed, it was Jeff Summers team, or what was left of it. Jeff emerged from the window, and shouted.

With that his head rolled onto the ground. 3 Pomek robots climbed into the room, Sharon looked around for a possible exit, within moments her Pomek robots had been infected. The robots turned and fired.

Just as G.O.R.N had discribed, the police squads were being terminated. Sharon made a dash for the floor robot, as she got near, it was activated.

Sharon tried to stop running, she slipped and was pierced by one of the floor robots legs, it then proceeded to pick up the remains of Captain Jeff Summers. Then the robot, carried Sharon and Jeff Summers off down the Corridor.

As G.O.R.N continued to laugh, the left laboratory wall where Ricktor’s body layed began to shake.

‘You humans can’t even keep quiet when even when you are disabled’ said G.O.R.N

Holly and Vicki closed their eyes as one of the laboratory arms picked up Ricktor’s body and brought it towards G.O.R.N. As the body got closer the vibrating increased.

‘What’s this?’ said G.O.R.N ‘A fancy Vibrator, you humans, I would have never expected..’

Down the steps came a figure dressed in a long black cloak, as the figure reached the laboratory floor, the figure produced a screw driver.

G.O.R.N turned his attention away from Holly and Vicki, who quickly ran to a safer position.

‘First a vibrating body, now a black cloak man holding a screw driver, you surprise me’ G.O.R.N said.

Ricktor smiled and spoke ‘I came to tighten a few loose nuts. Ahh I see just the one, rather large nut to fix’

‘I don’t know how you are alive, but at least I get the pleasure of killing you again. Robots attack’ said G.O.R.N

With the robots approaching he climbed up on to a control panel, placed the screw driver in his pocket and produced his gun. Ricktor jumped the robot planting several bullet in the back of its neck. Immediately the robot armed itself and fired. The robot spun around, Ricktor held on tight, and hoped that Vicki and Holly were in a safe position. Bullets spread out around the room, destroying the second security robot. Ricktor jumped of the robot. It spun around, Ricktor adjusted his glasses and fired. The robot stood no chance, it exploded in flash of sparks.

‘Yep, and get a load of this’ Ricktor shouted as he pressed a concealed button on the handle.

The vibrator had been triggered, flames burst out from monitors and electonic wires. The laboratory was becoming a river of fire.

‘Too late..’ interrupted Holly, ‘G.O.R.N has already inhabited most of the planet Rea. We must make our way to the cruiser ships, Superior, Beyonder and Renegade, to stop infection.’

‘OK, lets prepare for departure. Find anything that be of help to us. We’ll meet in the shuttle bay in thirty minutes tops!

As Vicki and Holly walked away, Ricktor knew that he had cut it close, even with his gun and glasses, he dreaded the next showdown with G.O.R.N. He was certain that next time he would need some excessive help to destroy this menace. He took of his glasses.

The glasses were fully functional, and increased Ricktor’s visual range. In his mercenary days, Ricktor was caught in a grenade blast, his face was disfigured. Fellow mercenaries grafted a new face, but his sight was still impaired. The use of such apparatus was neccesary, although the design is old, Ricktor is comfortable – it seems he is not such a glutton for technology as he would like others to believe.

Ricktor finished checking that all the laboratory locks were in place. Before he flicked the final switch he downloaded the blue prints for the OS, and how it works, this he placed in his combat tags - for safe keeping.

When all the switches had been activated, Ricktor downloaded 30% of the OS onto a GD-ROM, he then deleted what he had just transferred off of the main system. Maybe he could come back to this project later.

When he was satisfied he made his way back to his quarters to get some rest. He opened the door and inside was Vicki. Ricktor was surprised, as he entered the room he saw Holly in his room as well. Then realised that he was not going to get much sleep tonight.

Ricktor began to explain; ‘I was working in my quarters when I noticed the reflection on my monitor of two security robots. I turned around and saw them arm their weapons, I dived out of the way of the first bullet spread, but quickly realised that I would not be able to out smart them that way. Quickly I activated one of my smoke canisters, and rolled beneath my bed. Once under I activated the emergency drone..’

‘I was not made aware of these, I am the security officer, what are you trying to pull?’ complained Holly.

‘..Under my couch there is this relay station, which can control the droid’s actions by my own brainwaves. Best of all computers, robots, etc, recognise it as a human. The only extra which I have fitted in mine for....security issues..’

Ricktor stared at Holly, Holly ran her fingers through her hair, tilted her head to one side ignoring Ricktor’s comment.

Ricktor continued. ‘..is an explosive. Thus the robots thought that they had met their mission objective so they left. Due to the mental exertion, I can only keep the drone Ricktor active for a maximum of 10 minutes, I had to move fast..’

‘Right, lets make our way to the launch pad, we must stop this menace’ Ricktor said.

‘Now? I’m need to rest, and my clothes are torn’ said a downhearted Vicki.

(Rest? Billions of lives are at risk, we can’t rest) thought Ricktor. ‘Vicki’ said Ricktor.

‘You can sleep and change your clothes on the ship, I have quite a selection..’ said Ricktor.

Vicki sighed, and reluctantly followed the others down to the launch pad, not before picking up a nice red skirt.

15 Hours earlier Ricktor had tricked G.O.R.N, and destroyed the laboratory, he had saved Holly and Vicki, unfortunately that was a bad thing.

Light years away someone had been watching, someone who had an idea on how this chaos could eventually end in the destruction of vast numbers of planets. The ship would not intercept the MoonBase craft for 79 hours. The urgency of these 79 hours were a priority, if a second longer was taken, it could prove fatal for all those concerned.

A cloaked ship had been orbitating MoonBase for some time, its Captain Genova was interested in Ricktor’s actions. Genova was not human, but was commonly mistaken for one.

Once in an attempt to better themselves humanity had taken to experimenting on them selves with Y-remedy. The Y-remedy increased the takers intelligence and strength significantly, it was a statement that humans sent out to warn others of their technologic advancements. Unfortunately many people disagreed with these kind of experiments, nevertheless the experiments continued and soon there were many advanced humans. Pressure was on from the Government, and many years ago the project was halted just around the same time as the Inferior dynasty.

At first everything was fine, but soon some took offense to the altered humans, thus began the segmentation. The experiment humans, were eliminated and the project was terminated with little knowledge reaching the outside world. However a few made it off the planet without detection, one such renegade was Genova.

Genova’s body was still very much alive, though he was 74 he looked much younger. Amongst the lower level corridors of his ship some could hear the whispers of ‘another’ who has control.

On board the ship Velvet, Vicki had finished her wash and was making her way up to the bridge. When she arrived, Vicki was scared to see that no-one was at the controls. Then she remembered that ships could fly themselves, even bikes could ride themselves now, that was the ever changing face of technology.

Ricktor made his way to the armoury, inside he was surprised to see that all that was there was a screw-driver, and he had one of those all ready. They really needed to find a supply station to kit themselves and their ship out. Ricktor realised that maybe even a ship change would be needed, the name ‘Velvet’ did not create the right impression.

Rickor made his way up to the bridge, where he saw Vicki staring blindly. Ricktor knew that look, he checked, but he did have some trousers on.

‘No one ever called me that apart from my fatthherrrrrr’ said Vicki before bursting into tears.

Ricktor looked up at the monitor and saw that she had been trying to locate her father, maybe to take her back home to Rea. No location was given, but worst still his status was deceased.. Ricktor comforted Vicki as he saw fit. Vicki immediately rejected Ricktor’s caring, he let he go and off she went.

Just then Holly walked in, glared at Ricktor, and ran off after Vicki. Ricktor sighed.

Ricktor hit a button cutting off the computer’s voice. He hated this ship, it had a girls name and even spoke like a girl.

Indeed ahead there was a station, an old one, not even a Confederation approved one. Eitherway it was what he had been looking, Ricktor entered the co-ordinates and Velvet started docking procedures.

Vicki had recovered, she and Holly made their way on to the bridge where Ricktor explained the reason for docking. All vital belongings were put into a floating trunk. Ricktor, Holly and Vicki followed above by the floating trunk made their way out of Velvet.

(At last things were starting to look good, get us some weapons and a man’s ship, and maybe then we will stand a chance) thought Rickor, as the three of them and the floating trunk made there way into the station reception.

79 hours were neally up, yet someone was still far away, they needed to contact Ricktor urgently. Allready the plan for his death and thousands of others had began.

Genova laughed he had detected Ricktor’s vaper trail. He approach the computer, looked up, and said;

The space station was filled with sellers from some many planets, that Ricktor was not to sure which one would be best for them. Judging by the variety on offer, he elected that they split up. Holly and Vicki, would take the South wing, and he and the floating trunk would take the North wing.

Ricktor needed to sell the Velvet and raise enough money to equip out a new ship, with enough firepower to give potential attackers a second thought. This would be hard, he could not think of who would want to by a ship could Velvet.

Meanwhile Vicki had found a clothes sales person. This stall had everything that she ever wanted, sure they were suppose to be sensible on what they spent their money on, but Vicki only had two outfits and what she saw was to good to pass up. It was a one piece silver outfit, he had the class and image that she wanted, she promptly bought the suit. Now all she needed was some matching boots.

Holly had already found an electronics store, they had various medical systems, and voice activated mines. Holly purchased medical supplies, and the appropriate system, and two voice activated mines.

Ricktor had almost finished walking down the North wing, and he still had not found a ship dealer. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and there stood a man holding a banner saying;

Ricktor followed the banner arrow, and entered a dimly lit room. Inside there was a brochure showing all the different ships available. He frantically turned the pages trying to find a ship which was powerful and was not a female edition. He found one. It was called Messiah, the ship had enough weapons to satisy Ricktor, he promptly offered to buy the ship, giving Velvet in exchange. The man was more than pleased to take Velvet as they are wildly sought after.

Later the three of them met up. Vicki had found herself some outfit matching boots, Holly had bought medical equipment and supplies, Ricktor had a new ship and weapons. With the cash left over they decided to have some food in the Attic.

The Attic was the station’s cafe, it served lots of food from different planets. That evening was special, it was Theatre night. Ricktor undid his belt and got himself comfortable, Holly finished her meal as the lights went down. Over a load speaker came;

‘Ladies and Gentlemen tonight the Amature Ant Dramatics society, will perform the hit musical Hotel Vamp for your enjoyment....All doors have been sealed, so don’t think about leaving.’

Outside Genova’s ship was closing in on Ricktor. Genova’s ship was only a few miles away from the space station, target was set, cannons fired.

79 hours were not up yet. But as she brushed her green hair to oneside, Lorraine saw Ricktors ship blown into lots of pieces. Velvet had only just left the station, she was too late. The death of Ricktor, had blown the future into apocalyptic place where the human race no longer lived..

Lorraine frantically typed trying to find any way of reversing what had happened. The computer was puzzled, it knew Ricktors location, he was never on the ship, he was currently on the station. Lorriane smiled, she was not too late, she sighed, innocent people had just been destroyed by Genova. Lorriane docked with the space station and began to search out Ricktor.

Genova’s ship folded, he had been successful, the Rumans will be dominant. An important member of the Confederation was dead. Unaware to Genova Ricktor was not dead, not that you could tell, obviously he had one too many beers.

Lorriane entered the market place, and made her way to the Attic. The doors had been electronically locked, primative for her. The doors opened and she went in.

The stage was full of people in old clothes singing, then in the corner, under the table, she saw Ricktor. Lorriane approach Ricktor, and began to talk to him.

‘He’s out of it, try talking to him if you like, or better still......’ said Holly.

Lorriane bent down to Ricktor, produced a scanner from her pocket, ran it over Ricktors head.

‘This is for only allowing me one outfit’ said Vicki, she then activated the scanner.

Lorriane snatched back the device, once was enough, it was only used to sober up people.

Holly was apprehensive, but went with the others. Lorriane told them, that they must stop G.O.R.N immediately, as Ricktor had a higher mission to complete. This took Holly by surprise, what could be more important than G.O.R..N, and who was this green hair girl giving them an ultimatum.

Ricktor was now sober, and the three of them were following Lorriane back to their ship. Ricktor wanted to know what his ‘higher’ mission was, however Lorriane would not say - all Ricktor was aware of was, that his life had been controlled by this Lorriane person.

Holly did not like Lorriane, she came across vague, not briefing people in what they should know. Vicki was the opposite, she liked Lorriane, or was it just that she could not stand the ‘Hotel Vamp’ play?

Moments later they arrived in the shuttle bay, the bay normally held around thirty shuttles, but due to Ricktor’s new ship - Messiah, it held much less. The four of them boarded Messiah. Holly was concerned, she was unaware that Ricktor had enough cash to purchase a ship of this size. They made their way to the briefing room, the computer helped them.

The briefing room, had electronic flip charts, monitors, computers, virtually everything that could be used was in this room. Lorriane spoke;

‘Ricktor, for many years I have influenced many stages in your life, from your first job, to the incident with the Senior Prefects daughter. The reason for this is that you have a very important part to play - one which for numerous reasons I cannot disclose. The point of our meeting is to explain the urgency of the G.O.R.N problem..’

‘..Although G.O.R.N is proving difficult to contain, or destroy you will have to use other means. Isolation is the key, Ricktor will know what to do. However you have limited time to stop G.O.R.N as soon Ricktor will embark on his mission..’

Ricktor was getting annoyed, Lorriane was beginning to sound like Holly, always talking in riddles showing a form of superiority. Ricktor hated that, especially in a woman.

Lorriane sighed, how come all the important people she met, were morons? However she was used to this.

‘Apologises, but I am an old acquaintance of Ricktor Newman. Sadly I feel he have no recollection of such events. I am a being from far away, I am also the mother of your child…’

‘What’ said Ricktor ‘Yer oh kay you look pretty sassy, but surely I would remember that incident’

‘hmmm’ continued Lorraine ‘ Just because things you don’t know that have happened, does not necessarily mean that they have not happened. What I must tell you is what you have in front of you is very big…No!!! I mean, your next mission is big..and er…important, yes that is it..’

Ricktor looked blankly, he thought for a while, then he realised what Lorraine was talking about. Anyway Lorriane looked nice, Ricktor began having thoughts..

Ricktor blushed and looked away. Holly turned to Ricktor. She could not believe that he was so important, and to look out for people claiming to be their friends? This troubled Holly she did not like Lorriane’s closing remark.

Lorriane exited the Messiah refusing to answer any questions. Ricktor decided it was time to kick circuit board. Vicki looked at Ricktor, that last remark was so corny. Ricktor lowered his head and started the engines..

‘Plotting a course for the cruiser ship Renegade. E.T.A 3 hours.’ said Holly.

At last, now they had a ship, an idea of what to do, a destination of where G.O.R.N was. Ricktor had many new weapons to play around with, Holly had medical machinery, and supplies. Finally Vicki had bought herself a one piece silver outfit and matching boots. This was the equipment of winners.

Time passed. Soon they were entering space occupied by the Renegade ship, immediately a message came in.

‘You have entered Renegade space, please identify yourself, and your business here. You will then be taxied in.’ said Katie.

‘Hello there, my name is Ricktor and my favourite colour is red’ said Ricktor.

Holly and Vicki, could not believe what he was saying, he was going to get them all killed.

Holly glared at Ricktor, she hated when he out smarted her. Holly was getting madder mainly due to Ricktors stance and tone of voice. Ricktor knew that Holly was getting cross, so he decided to explain it to her.

‘Nine years ago I worked here as an engineer. I was given code, in my case red. The R stood for Ricktor, the E stood for Engineer, and the D meant designated. We were all given these codes, and were invited to make a sentence which would mention them. It is basically a security, code. If you have one you are let in, no questions asked, you have their trust.’ explained Ricktor.

Holly left the bridge, she felt stupid. Ricktor was confused, there was no way that she would have known that, so why take it so hard. He put it down to is grin and stance.

Messiah docked at bay 69. It was time to search out and isolate G.O.R.N. This would be difficult as G.O.R.N has control of many electrical equipment. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, just minus the needle. Impossible, a word which many consider weak, as there is always a way.....maybe.

The clock is ticking, it is unknown how long Ricktor has before he is transported away to fulfil his life mission. Lorriane, the only lady who knows the answer has left, her ship light years away. Vicki, Ricktor and Holly must now locate and isolate G.O.R.N, speed is the key as G.O.R.N may have also infiltrated the Beyonder ship.

Ricktor, Holly and Vicki made their way to the Captain’s quarters. Here they were met and briefed by J’ante, the Security officer.

‘78 hours ago we received a new operating system, it carried a Confederation transport code, so we assumed it to be official. It was installed, and soon all our computers were working above their known maxim. We were pleased. Though recently down in deck Z-101 components were burning up, Engineers were sent down to correct this problem, and so far none of them have returned and all communication has been lost..’

‘So what good can we do, we know that this G.O.R.N is dangerous, we have come to stop it. Soon you will be using your own systems again.’ interrupted Ricktor.

‘What? I was told that you were here to fix the problem, not create new ones for us. Were you not the ones who created this operating system’ replied J’ante.

‘Look I have seen what this thing can do, I was almost killed by this monster, if it was not for Ricktor’s heroic actions, G.O.R.N would be much stronger than it is now. We will analyse the system and if we deem it infected, then appropriate action will be taken.’

The three of them left. Reluctantly J’ante followed them. J’ante showed them the way to the turbo lift. Ricktor was concerned, if G.O.R.N was here, stepping into a turbo lift would be complete madness.. J’ante said that the turbo lift program was separate to the rest of the system, so there was no way it could tampered with. It was secure. A word which brought bad thoughts into Ricktor’s head. They entered the turbo lift, closed the door and down they went.

Deck C, D and E flew past, they were travelling down very fast. Vicki looked around the lift interior, there was a control panel, monitor and nothing else. Her glance ended on J’ante who seemed to be transfixed to the monitor. Vicki poked Ricktor.

Vicki pointed at J’ante, Ricktor turned and looked. J’ante was scared, Ricktor went to the control panel to stop the lift, as he touched the panel he was thrown back. The lift filled with laughter, and the letters G.O.R.N appeared on the monitor. The turbo lift was no longer in their control, the lift was increasing its speed. Decks P, Q, and R flew past, becoming a blur.

‘No don’t fire’ shouted Holly ‘Imagine the pressure, you will kill us all!!’

The control panel was still active, the problem they faced was that it was being protected by G.O.R.N. The lift speed was increasing all the time. Ricktor forced open the lift hatch, outside he could see the lift shaft, and the cables holding the lift. Everything was moving to fast, any idea Ricktor had was made void seconds later, this was not looking good.

Vicki passed out, it was too much for her. J’ante went to her side and held her tight. Ricktor looked at Holly, she returned the glance. Ricktor once again tried the control panel, he got to the lever but was thrown back with such force that he was unable to move. Holly dashed to his side, he was conscious. Holly rolled Ricktor onto his front, to keep him flat – what she was about to do she did not want anyone to see.

She approach the control panel, moved her hand towards the lever. There was friction, but her hand passed through. She pulled the lever and the lift began to slow down. Ricktor witnessed this, then passed out.

With the four of them fully conscious, they made there was to Floor 101, as the door opened they were greated by a room full of electrical cords and wires. Ricktor questioned Holly about how she was able to withstand the electrical field around the lift control panel. She just shrugged and walked off. Ricktor was wary, he could not see how she could had done it all by herself. He put it down to a freak incident, it troubled him.

‘Damn those engineers, I told them to keep the floor operational and tidy, they get too involved in their work’ shouted J’ante.

Above them was a torso, presumably one of the engineers, a few metres into the room they found the rest of the engineer. It was obvious that things were not what they seemed. Even Vicki knew that this was not normal behaviour. Though in her line of work, she had seen many strange positions.

A lone wire manoeuvred itself admist the debry and electrical cords. The four of them continued into the room, the deeper they went the less wires there were, it seemed safer.

The others turned around to help J’ante, but as they did, wires appeared out the floor blocking their path. J’ante made a run, he got caught in the wires, he pushed himself through.

‘Have you not leant?’ question Ricktor ‘This time I will not make the same mistake!’

Vicki turned around to attack J’ante, but was picked up by a wire. She wriggled trying to break free, but the wire tightened, soon other she was covered in electrical wires.

J’ante laughed, it was clear to Ricktor that the wire which had scratched J’ante, had done more then scratch him, it was enabling G.O.R.N to control him. J’ante raised his arm, the skin stretched and broke, the wires were bursting out of his body.

Holly turned and fired, hitting J’ante straight between the eyes, what ever was left of him fell to the ground. Holly flinched.

‘Your human will to survive is admirable, but soon I will squash that feature millions of times over’ said G.O.R.N.

Holly continued walking towards, each step resulted in more pain, she was not sure how much longer she could withstand G.O.R.N’s immense power. During the battle with G.O.R.N on Moonbase, Holly had felt something pierce her skin, it had happened whilst she and Vicki were being held by the loading arms. She had dismissed it, but over the last few hours, and the incident in the turbo lift had alerted her to her greatest fear. She had died in the loading arm, what she was now, was a pawn of G.O..R.N, yet something was keeping her going, something which G.O.R.N had not got to yet, was it because he could not understand her reaction?

Holly’s reluctance to admit that she had died, was keeping her going. If she gave in her friends would be in great danger. She had worked too hard to throw away the love she had found in Ricktor and Vicki, but now she had a chance to do something. Something which may help Ricktor.

Holly stood now only a few metres away from G.O.R.N, most of her body was littered on the floor behind her, only her arms were still attached. Dragging herself ever closer to G.O.R.N, she raised her gun, pointed it at G.O.R.N, and fired. The shot stop short of G.O.R.N, some kind of force field collected the shot and deflected it back towards Holly. Holly reeled from the blow. She had nothing to lose, she fired off all the rounds she had left. Every shot fired came back at her, she fell to the ground.

Ricktor tried to move, but he was still tranquillised. He glanced over to where Vicki was, she was out cold, but breathing deeply.

‘Twice you have interfered with my plan, you will not stop me.. These ships are merely my play things. Every second you waste delaying me, more and more computers are coming to my conclusion. You will never destroy me’ said G.O.R.N

‘Destroy you? I created you, or at least the basis for your life. I am your God. I gave you life and I will take your life’ replied Ricktor.

‘I look forward to it. I relish the chance to destroy you. It is nearly time, all that aggression which you have built up and the deaths of two of your friends, will provide an interesting side line for me. All talk and no action!’

With that G.O.R.N vanished, all the wires and cords disappeared, along with the remains of Holly and J’ante.

Vicki’s body hit the floor, waking her up. She looked around the room, what had happened. She saw Ricktor and ran to him.

‘Don’t leave me like this, I will hunt you down, with whatever I can. G.O.R.N!!’ said Ricktor before passing out due to the effect of the tranquilliser.

Ricktor awoke. They made their way to the systems administrator and explained the G.O.R.N program. The systems were confused, nothing that could not be repaired.

Holly is dead, she has been for a while. She was impregenated by G.O.R.N, when held in the loading in Moon Base laboratory. G.O.R.N was able to successfully recreate her mannerisms and personality, until Lorriane showed up. Lorriane knew that Holly was G.O.R.N, and told Ricktor this in a riddle. Seeing Lorriane proved to G.O.R.N that time was of the essence if G.O.R.N is to become supreme. G.O.R.N has disappeared.

Sharon awoke. She was in pain, she had been pierced by the floor robot. Moving was not possible, she looked around.

Five men walked in, they were from the Human Osmosis Front. Sharon had heard of these men, she should be arresting them for sabotaging the city transport station. Out of the darkness came a light, it was a medic.

‘Hi’ he said ‘I am a doctor, take off your shirt and let me see your wound’

Reluctantly she agreed. The Medic took of Sharon’s shirt, beneath it was a sheet of metal, it was suppose to protect the police officers. The Medic removed it, blood seeped out. The wound was bad, but not fatal – though the blood loss would be a great problem.

‘I will so what I can. You have lost a lot of blood, luckily the protective gear you were wearing helped keep you alive. Now if you if just let me remove your brassier, I can set up a temporary measure.’ Said the Medic

‘What is your name, If you must see me, at least give me the pleasure of a name’ replied Sharon

Ant waved at the others telling them to leave him alone, Sharon needed some privacy. Ant untied Sharon’s brassier, and opened his tool box.

‘What I will am going to do, is delay the flow of blood from the neck down. This will only last a few minutes, it will give me enough time to apply a restraining device to your upper torso. It will keep you going for a maximum of 46 hours, enough time to get to a hospital’ said Ant

With that Sharon lost all sense of feeling from the neck down. It worried her, she was not used to feeling this vulnerable, she was a police officer she only felt vulnerable when she was in danger. Sharon had no feeling of danger, this ‘Ant’ guy seem very knowledgeable in his area. To relieve her tension, Sharon spoke.

‘Well, ok. What is going on here, not just the MegaDyne building but everywhere. Computers are going mental, my whole unit was massacred by our own ‘bots. We thought it was the work of the Human Osmosis Front, but after we received similar transmissions from other cities, I became sceptical. Oh and what are you doing here?’ asked Sharon

‘hmmm, that is two questions’ said Ant ‘..let me answer them as best I can’

Sharon twitched her head, acknowledging what Ant had said. Ant began to tie up the straps and spoke.

‘Yes, we have gone to great lengths to sabotage computer systems. We believe that that they will become uncontrollable one day. The MegaDyne Corporation is the largest computer company in this city and probably on Rea. When we managed to get inside the building, we were amazed to see that no human employees were present, to be precise, nothing was present – the building was completely empty. We began to make our way up to the top offices to talk to the Manager of MegaDyne, on the way we would do what we could in destroying all computer terminals we could. Then something awful happened, from out of nowhere a giant spider like robot appeared, it must have been cloaked – even our hand units did not sense it. Caught by surprise we tried to amount an attack, sadly most of us died..’

‘..around 8 of us survived, over 200 others died. Amongst the chaos I made my way to an office, inside all the monitor screen’s were white…. Oh there was some letters on them.’ Replied Ant

‘No nothing that I had seen before, to the best of my knowledge someone else has fulfilled our goal of sabotage, except they are eliminating humans. Enough of that now, I have strapped you up, and you should be able to make it out of here with us. Remember that you should get to a hospital as soon as possible.’ Said Ant

Ant left the room. Sharon stood up, she felt strange – her body was stiff. She put her clothes back on again, if the Human Osmosis Front was not behind this chaos then who was? Sharon emerged from the room, there she saw Ant and other members of the Human Osmosis Front, most of them were unhurt, however she only counted 7 people.

Echoing down the corridors was a constant thumping, whatever it was, it was getting closer. Everyone took cover. In walked a man, behind him was a police Pomek robot.

‘Look what I found! It is still fully functional, now we have some firepower!’ he said

Before she had time to do anything, the robot raised its arms, and fired. The tables and chairs proved little cover. Sharon made a dash for the door, she tripped and fell. Her body was still stiff, running was still not possible. The Pomek continued to fire, some of the remaining members of the Human Osmosis Front, stood up – before they could even pull the trigger, they were dead. Sharon crawled across the floor, the Pomek had not noticed her yet. She picked up a gun, flicked a switch on the handle to rapid fire. The robot would have to be stopped. It began walking to where Sharon was hiding, her movement had alerted it. She rolled out of her cover and pressed the trigger. Bullets flew out at an alarming rate, each bullet hit the robots targeting system. The robot began shooting everywhere. Sharon took cover, it had to run out of ammo soon.

The Pomek stopped spinning, it was out of ammunition. Sharon used her gun to help her stand up. Uneasy on her feet she gently shifted her balance from her hands to her feet. Slightly shaking she loaded a new magazine, and let rip. The Pomek began to spark, then exploded. The blast was so strong that Sharon was thrown against the wall.

She cried out, but no one replied. The people who could have helped her were all dead. Her body was still stiff so she decided to stay put for the time being, If she was to escape she would have to be strong.

Ricktor and Vicki need to know where G.O.R.N will strike next. Previous meetings have not proved successful, maybe it is time for Ricktor to admit that he alone can not stop this evil threat. Perhaps more importantly he has to persuade the whole of Section 5 to stop using their computer systems, maybe this would reduce the threat of G.O.R.N.

‘?’ thought Ricktor, ‘Oh, no, what I meant was that we have to contain G.O.R.N. each time we have fought against IT, we have forced it to a new place…’

‘We have to alert all of Section 5 to stop using their computer systems!’ said Ricktor

‘Oh yer! That will work, just tell every one to turn their computers off!’ interrupted a sarcastic Vicki.

‘It will, you see if all computer connections are cut, then slowly G.O.R.N will be forced to remain in one place, granted that place will become incredibly hand to penetrate, but it might just be the answer’ said Ricktor.

Vicki acknowledged Ricktor’s idea, but how could one engineer and a young girl persuade the whole of Section 5 to turn their systems off?

‘We have to get to the satellite cage. There we can transmit our message to the masses!’ replied Ricktor.

‘Hell yeah! But I am not here for much longer, what do I have to lose?’ replied Ricktor

Ricktor and Vicki made their way back down to where Messiah was waiting. Ricktor powered up the engines, Vicki took here position as navigator. Ricktor hoped that Messiah would have sufficient power to get both of them to the satellite cage, he had heard about the impenetrable security.

The doors opened and Messiah flew out of the station, Vicki frantically tapped buttons, plotting their course to the satellite cage. Ricktor pulled back on the controls and the ship folded. Moments later they were in visual range of the satellite cage, they reduced their speed and continued their approach. Then a warning sounded.

‘You are about to enter satellite cage space, unauthorised craft detected. Please enter shut down sequence, or reverse thrust and leave this space. You have 30 seconds to comply.. Have a nice day!

Vicki looked at Ricktor, he was completely focused. Vicki on the other hand was terrified, so scared that she closed her eyes hoping everything would go away. She opened her eyes, and sadly the scene was still just as real.

‘4 seconds to comply, 3 seconds to comply, 2 seconds to comply, 1 second to comply, time up. Prepare to be destroyed.

‘too late, anyway what kind of security would a small satellite station have. I mean it will probably be just an engine cutter, so we get picked up by the police later. Even I can handle one of those!’ replied a confident Ricktor

Flying towards them were four Dynatech fighters, these were consumer modifications of the basic military attack force, some say that they are even more powerful than the military’s own fighters. They had been equipped with four laser gun turrets, six vaper seaking rockets. MegaDyne, the creators of the Dynateck fighters state that these fighters are capable of even more.

‘What??? That was 100% lock, how did it miss. Damn I really don’t like this idea…’ shouted Ricktor

The Dynatech fighters began to start their onslaught, the four fighters simultaneously. Rockets and lasers hurtled towards Messiah, each one hit. Messiah’s alerts went crazy, many decks had been breached, the ship would not stand a similar incident.

‘Drop everything, lets make your way to your quarters Vicki’ instructed Ricktor

Vicki had no idea why, but she obeyed him anyway. Ricktor began hitting buttons and pulling levers, the vid-screen showed him that he had 15 seconds before the Dynateck would regroup and attack. Eventually Ricktor gave up, he grab his gun and plastic away a panel, beneath it was a switch, he flicked it then ran.

‘Get up, that is not what I meant, but… maybe later. Follow me’ said Ricktor

Vicki zipped up her suit and followed. The ship began to shake, the Dynatech fighters had fired. Ricktor and Vicki dived to the ground, as they did they felt the ship moving.

Ricktor grabbed Vicki’s and ran. They entered another control room, just in time to see part of Messiah colliding with the Dynatech fighters, a large explosion followed. Sensing his chance Ricktor grabbed the controls and flew straight towards the Satellite cage docking bay. Vicki was still confused, she thought that they were outclassed, maybe they were. But Ricktor splitting the Messiah had helped them reach their destination.

‘Maybe not, what we are left with is a very fast ship, but with less powerful weapons. I think even a small child could get the better of us now!’ said Ricktor

Ricktor sighed. Both of them left Messiah and entered the satellite cage control room. All around them were dials and monitors displaying the current transmission details. Ricktor walked around and found the main control server.

‘Ready, now it is the time we become stars! Look good now Vicki as we have to persuade Section 5 to turn their computers off’ said Ricktor

‘..Stop! just activate the main camera, and flick all the switches to transmit from here only. Oh and disable all lock outs’ interrupted Rictor.

‘Give them no resistance, I repeat no resistance. Let them do what they think is necessary’ ordered Blackstar to all open military channels.

Lorraine stood in the corner of Blackstar’s office. Blackstar stood up and looked at Lorraine, she smiled then disappeared. Blackstar sat back down in his chair, if Lorraine was right then Ricktor would be an ally to him in the future.

On his way to Rea. Ricktor now knows that with Holly gone, and Lorriane ready to transport him out at any time, he must move fast and accurately. Their target is the large Computer Corporation – MegaDyne, which also happens to be the place where Vicki’s father, Jeff Summers the Captain of the RDF died. Ricktor hopes that he will be able to stop G.O.R.N before he is transported to his new mission, he can not bare the idea of losing Vicki as well.

…Time 03-07-67d…This is the RDF, this message is being broadcasted on all frequency’s. Anyone preparing to land here, please reconsider. We are having major system failure, already we have lost all communication with all military and police units. Following the deaths of Jeff Summers squad we are at a lose end of what to do……….

………Time 03-07-67f…..The MegaDyne building is the key, someone has put up a huge electro magnetic net, it is impenetrable from the ground. We will launch missiles from our orbiting satellites…….

……..Time 03-07-67h….The missiles had no effect, I don’t see anyway of stopping this…thing. All our computer systems now obey only G.O.R.N, whatever the hell that is..suffice to say we are unable to leave Rea. Anyone picking up this transmission, please get help. Under no circumstances can we let anyone land here, their systems would also be infected. It won’t be long until we are all dead……. G.O.R.N has settled on the 83^rd floor, it would seem that the Confederation engineers have finally got their act together, though I feel it may be to late.. Anyone receiving this message, please stop using your computer systems, with less systems available this G.O.R.N parasite will not succeed…

….Time 03-07-67i… Word has reached us that the Human Osmosis Front has found a way into the MegaDyne building, they are sure to die, but at least hope is there. Maybe we can find a way….what…the?…noooo…..don’t!……….aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh….

The message was terminated. Ricktor re-ran the last few seconds of the footage, there he saw a RDF armour core droid, kill someone at close range. Things are really messed up on Rea. The time for action has come.

Messiah entered Rea’s atmosphere and flew over the planet. Ricktor was trying any clues to the location of the Human Osmosis Front, these people he was sure could help them. A blip appeared on his radar, it was them, he was sure of it. Messiah landed.

Ricktor and Vicki equipped themselves, Ricktor emptied out some of his belt canisters and replaced them with magazine cartridges. They left Messiah and proceeded to follow the blip.

A few metres from Messiah a large robot emerged from the sandy ground. Ricktor and Vicki ran and took up positions behind a large rock face. The robot began walking towards them, it lowered its weapon, and prepared to fire. Ricktor waved to Vicki who removed a small unit from her belt, and pressed the button. Messiah’s shields were active. Ricktor and Vicki continued to hide behind the rock face, Ricktor prepared Messiah to fire on the robot.

‘Unless you want a nice big hot lump of metal, I would advise you to stop your Robot now. I am here to stop G.O.R.N. It is expecting me, let’s work together’

‘Why should we believe you. For years we have been predicting that if more and more responsibility is placed on computer systems, then there would be a backlash’ was the reply.

‘Listen to me’ said Ricktor ‘I have met G.O.R.N on numerous occasions, you will not prove to be a threat. G.O.R.N cares little, I however care a lot and together we can stop the chaos here. Now power down your Robot or it will be destroyed’

The Robot stopped, turned around and made its way back towards the hole in which it emerged. A group of five people made themselves known. One looked like the head of a church, whilst the others seem to be normal people. This was the surviving members of the Human Osmosis Front. Cautiously Vicki released the button and the shields were dropped, both Ricktor and Vicki walked over towards the small group.

‘Thankyou’ said Ricktor ‘Before we landed, a message was sent saying that the Human Osmosis Front had found a way into the MegaDyne building. I really need to where, because G.O.R.N has to be stopped as soon as possible’

A man replied ‘We will show you how to get into MegaDyne, but will not join you. Already we have lost many of our friends and family for this cause, all with no effect. We believe that the laws of evolution state that one day the human race will no longer be the dominant species on Rea’

Ricktor agreed. It was a shame that no one from the Human Osmosis Front would help them, but he was given the information on how to enter the MegaDyne building, all he had to do was to find out which floor G.O.R.N was on. Somehow Ricktor guessed that the CEO of MegaDyne would be on the top floors, a prime target for a parasite which wants ultimate control.

Vicki and Ricktor were led into a cave, inside they entered a lift which took them down into the Human Osmosis Front base. The data was handed over to them, Ricktor made another attempt to enlist some help, he even appealed to the Religious member. His strength was not strong enough, his faith was being tested, and even now he could not condone attacking G.O.R.N.

Ricktor thanked them, and as they were about to leave they were stopped by Kerian. Kerian was a mechanic, it was he who had been responsible for much of the transportation on Rea. He advised Ricktor to ditch Messiah far away, so not to attract attention to the Human Osmosis Front location. In turn he handed over the keys to two sand velocity hover bikes.

Ricktor took the keys, gave one to Vicki and followed Kerian along another corridor where the bikes waited. Briefly he explained how they worked, soon both Vicki and Ricktor were flying around the caves. The bikes were taken out side, Ricktor kept his word and set new co-ordinates for Messiah. Goodbyes were said and Vicki zoomed off towards Rea’s Industrial area, Ricktor followed close behind.

When they were only a few miles from the city they slowed down. Ricktor activated his motion sensor.

‘There are robots everywhere, carefully he and Vicki plotted a course to get them to the MegaDyne building as fast as possible. The course was transferred over to the bikes navigation, and off they went again.

On entering the city, it was unusually quiet. All the robots which Ricktor had sensed were not there. Suddenly out of nowhere 5 robots appeared.

‘What? I got no readings of any….oh no..please don’t say..’ shouted Ricktor

Vicki had already realised the situation, there readings had obviously been faked by G.O.R.N, which meant that there arrival was expected. She flicked a switch and on the navigation screen the word ‘battle mode’ appeared. She hit the screen and the bike began to change. It formed a mini robot around her body. Before she knew it she had taken out all 5 of the robots.

Ricktor recognised the robot configuration, and rapidly transformed his bike into vertical robott form. The rest of their journey proved little hassle, the bikes technology was far to great for the humble service and police droids. Kerian was obviously skilled enough to disable the external communications systems so that G.O.R.N could not infect them.

Moments later they were outside the MegaDyne building. Using the co-ordinates given to them by the Human Osmosis Front they found the entrance. Ricktor laughed.

‘With all this technology you would have thought they would have mended this’ he said.

The entrance was an area where part of the wall had come away, it had been bordered up again, but would prove no problem for anyone to get pass. Ricktor drew his gun and blasted a hole through the boarding. He and Vicki proceeded to break the boarding giving them enough room to enter.

Ricktor and Vicki have successfully entered the MegaDyne building. They are aware that G.O.R.N will have numerous machines patrolling the area searching for any human. From the data that the have received G.O.R.N is on the 83 floor, not the top floor as originally thought. Ricktor and Vicki must find a way to defeat G.O.R.N quickly, as Ricktor has limited time before his important mission. G.O.R.N is aware of this due to the time spent in Holly’s body, so everything will be thrown against Ricktor in the attempt to break the chain that Lorriane has predicted.

Ricktor and Vicki entered the MegaDyne building at basement level, they still had many floors to go before they reach G.O.R.N, Ricktor knew that he had to be refreshed when he reaches G.O.R.N otherwise he would not stand a chance.

The quickest way to get to the 83^rd floor would be to take the lift, but after the incident on the Renegade Ricktor decided to take the stairs. It would take a long while but hopefully he would still arrive in time. He and Vicki began to walk up the stairs, as they walked they began to talk, this was Vicki’s time.

‘One thing I would like to tell you Ricktor’ she said ‘..when I was first stationed on the Moonbase, I did not what to expect. There you all were doing….technical clever stuff and then there was me – out of place. I was not sent to Moonbase to help you, but to be some kind of tea lady, just so I could learn to respect my parents. For many months I cussed them bad, what right did they have sending me off to a strange place for 4 years to do nothing related to my career. However as time progressed I started to enjoy myself, I realised that each one of us had nothing in common anyone else – I felt more confident. I suppose that my fathers dream came true. I have changed, I do respect others…..My only wish is that he could have been here to see me. Instead I am climbing the steps in the building where he was killed.’

‘No’ replied Vicki ‘I have to do this. After coming all this way, losing two of my friends and my father to this G.O.R.N creation, I have to follow my own destiny and help you as much as I can. I know you could disappear at anytime, maybe even go to a more dangerous mission, but there is something I must do first.’

Vicki stopped Ricktor on the steps, moved her hands to his shoulders, stood on tip toes and kissed Ricktor. Ricktor was surprised, In a split second Vicki took out a taser unit from her pocket and used it on Ricktor. He fell to the ground, the last thing he saw was Vicki running off.

‘I have to finish this, before any other people that I care about die’ she said.

Vicki ran and ran, she gave up looking at the floor numbers, her eyes were streaming. What had she done, she had shocked Ricktor who was now unconscious on the 10^th floor. Vicki carried on going until she came to the 43^rd floor, she was panting though not as stamina draining as her usual activities. Under the door was a dry patch of blood, Vicki cautiously opened the door. The room was littered with clothing magazine cartridges and bodies.

As she entered the room something caught her eye she bent down and picked up a badge, on it had the name Jeff Summers – her father. Vicki fell to the ground crying, as she sat on the floor security robots surrounded her. Vicki knew now that what she had done was silly, Ricktor was not going to save her now, because he was unconscious many floors below. Everything went black.

Ricktor came to, with a throbbing headache. He took a moment to gather his thoughts, how long had he been out for? Where was Vicki?

Ricktor stood up and began to walk up the steps. It would take too long for him to catch up with Vicki, he had to get to the 83^rd floor before she could, that is unless she is already there.

On floor 11 Ricktor pressed the lift button, the lift came down and opened its doors. Ricktor ignored the lift and made his way to the next floor. Here he forced open the lift doors, opened up the fire hose canister and cut the fire hose, he tied it through a magnetic hook and attached the other end to his gun. Ricktor manoeuvred himself to the lift shaft and pulled the trigger. The magnetic hook soared up the shaft, connecting to something higher up. Ricktor tugged the hose to see if it was strong enough to hold him, it was. He climbed inside the shaft and began to climb. More direct he thought, no chance of any robot interference here.

Ricktor continued to climb checking the markings on the shaft wall to see what floor he was on. When he reached floor 65 he could see his magnetic hook. Ricktor looked around and noticed a small handle on the wall. Above the handle was a note saying, ‘pull to release ladder’ he wondered why a lever was present on the lower levels, maybe the lift engineers had certain electrical points which they could not reach. Ricktor pulled the lever, the stairs lowered and he began to climb again.

The notification for floor 69 passed, a control panel was located between floors. Ricktor stopped climbing, paused for a breath and activated the control panel he tried to locate any other human signs, to his surprise he found 2 human life signs apart from himself. Just then Ricktor heard a noise, he thought he had pressed a wrong button.

On floor 11 the lift doors closed and the lift began to ascend at an alarming rate. Ricktor climbed up a little bit more to retrieve his magnetic hook, he grabbed it and placed it in his pocket, moments later he saw the lift hurtling up towards him. He was too far away from the next lift door, there was no way that the lift was going to stop any time soon, so Ricktor moved in as close as he could to the ladder. The lift was getting closer, Ricktor began climbing faster, trying to reach the next lift exit, but it was not possible, he needed to do something fast.

As Ricktor desperately tried to think of an idea, he began to climb. His thoughts began to clear, he was safe. Lorraine would save him. Ricktor grabbed the ladder tightly, as he did a section of the lift shaft wall was blown away, the ladder began to strain its connections. Gradually the ladder began to slide down the wall. As the ladder descended Ricktor carried on climbing until he had nowhere left to climb. He adjusted his grip and as the hole in the lift shaft approach he made his escape.

He rolled along the floor for a moment, stood up and was met with a gun to his head.

‘Looks like the cat’s choked on his milk’ was the reply he was greeted with.

Damn, thought Ricktor. Someone is using very bad lines on me. Ricktor looked up and saw a woman, not Vicki but someone in a ripped stained police woman’s outfit. He began to get up.

Ricktor stayed still for a moment, then suddenly jumped up and knocked the gun out of her hands. The police woman fell to the floor, the perfect time to pay her back for a bad line.

‘It’s gonna take more than Green Eggs and Ham to stop this Cat in the Hat’ said Ricktor ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’

‘I am Sharon Myers, the last survivor of my squad, Captain Summers is dead..’ she replied.

‘Until something else happens, I guess that we should work together. Where are you heading?’ asked Sharon

‘Floor 83 I must stop G.O.R.N, that is the reason for the unrest on this planet’ said Ricktor.

The two of them proceeded to walk up two more flight of stairs to floor 83. They opened the door and went in. Inside the corridors were completely empty, things seemed normal. Ricktor began to speculate that maybe he had the floor number wrong. Then security sheets blocked up all the windows, large steel plates came down through the ceiling. Sharon and Ricktor started to run, whatever was at the end of the corridor Ricktor wanted to find out.

As they approach the last section, a 10 ft spider robot appeared. It had been there all along. Ricktor and Sharon had been led into a trap.

Ricktor activated his glasses and rapidly searched for the creature’s weak spot, he was alerted and set his gun to continuous triple pounding mode. A large stream of electricity poured out of Ricktor’s gun. The robot over heated and turned itself off. Before it had time to recover the two of them dashed past it and found themselves head to head with G.O.R.N

‘So the gangs all here. Let me introduce you to Vicki, as you see she is safe – I am saving her for a later time. Something which you don’t have much of. I can read you like a book Ricktor’ taunted G.O.R.N

‘Enough!’ screamed Ricktor ‘Read me like a book will you, well check the contents of this magazine then…swine’

With that Ricktor rolled off the whole magazine at G.O.R.N. The shots were stopped short of G.O.R.N who sent them flying back towards Ricktor.

Sharon rushed over to Vicki to make sure she was ok. Vicki got up and made her way as far away from G.O.R.N as she could.

Ricktor grabbed the dog tags from around his neck and proceeded to take out the blue prints for the alpha OS.

‘This is you G.O.R.N, everything here I made. Worse of all I made you in my own image, but you seek to degrade my intelligence, but now I understand that I have no chance of beating you. You are infinitely more powerful than me, and you views on the human race are wrong, but I can accept – something which your program can not’ said Ricktor

‘Understand this then, I won’t fight you. Throughout all this destruction I still have feelings for human race, we live to destroy ourselves – and I will not stand in your way’ said Ricktor.

‘It is time to go Ricktor, you have settled the score with G.O.R.N. It will take G.O.R.N a while to compute this outcome. You have done well’ said Lorriane

‘No, he has been merely halted, no-one has the power to stop G.O.R.N, we can only delay its actions until sometime, somewhere the technology can stop this evil force. Rest assured that Vicki will be fine she will succeed, she will follow in her fathers footsteps. Sharon will help her along the way. You will return to see them sometime but now you have more important matters to take care of on Beyonder. Be confident, you have helped the route of the future. My eternal thanks to you’ said Lorriane.

Lorraine gently moved her hands around in a circular motion, soon the room was filled with swirling colours.

‘Go now, G.O.R.N will remain here with me. Don’t worry, we will meet again soon’ said Lorraine.

Ricktor nodded and Lorraine burst into tears. Ricktor was surprised, these were tears for him.

Ricktor made his way to the centre of the room, as he ascended a lone wire grabbed his leg.

‘What the? G.O.R.N?? Lorraine help, you are supposed to take car of G.O.R.N’ yelled Ricktor.

Ricktor and the wire vanished. Vicki and Sharon began the long trek down to the entrance of the MegaDyne building.

Vicki had the chance to live her own life, do what ever she wanted. In respect she decided to follow her father and became a police officer.

There will be a time when you are tested to the end of your ability, but is violence the only answer? The true strength is measured by your heart, learn to love and forgive, and the world will be a better place – A New Era.

The final showdown with G.O.R.N had not gone accordingly to Ricktor’s plan. As he was transported out of the 83^rd floor a lone wire from G.O.R.N had followed. Lorraine had known about this from the beginning, her husband had been destined to create his killer. However hope still lives. In the transport slipstream Ricktor fought of the wire, he was struggling. He was tired, and the wire just kept on coming. An opening appeared and Ricktor made his way towards the light, the wire followed. As Ricktor was making the crossover the wire pierced his neck and then the G.O.R.N parasite took control.

Lorraine entered an office. She was still upset, though she had known about this for many years, coming to terms with it was far harder than she could had imagined. She sat down.

In front of her a large black chair turned around. In it was her commander. Lorraine could tell by the commanders face that she was not happy.

‘You were aware of the importance of this mission, I see now that this was a mistake sending you’ said the commander.

‘No! what went wrong, Ricktor was transported, G.O.R.N followed his death is assured, that was the mission’ sobbed Lorraine.

‘I see now that re-uniting Ricktor with the image of his wife was a disaster’ continued the commander.

‘..iiii image?’ stammered Lorraine ‘Stop talking in riddles, what is going on?’ yelled Lorraine.

The commander tapped her comlink badge and requested the others to come in to her office. The door opened and five women looking like Lorraine entered.

‘You see Lorraine No 4532, you are but one of a thousand Lorraine’s built to deal with the various incarnations of Ricktor Nerraine Newman. Over the past millenniums we have had no problem like this. It seems that this Ricktor was stronger than the others, strong enough to rekindled emotions found in the original Lorraine..’ said the commander.

‘Yes’ said the commander ‘..you are but one of the many clones created from the body of Lorraine Saunderson, who incidentally died during the first cloning project, he thoughts and emotions were so strong that the machine could not take the strain, thus a more powerful machine, one which could evolve was created. I did not expect that after the number of times we have dealt with Ricktor that he would finally bring out his wife’s love’

The commander paused on the word love, as she drew her gun and shot Lorraine in between her eyes.

‘No we have a greater problem, due to Lorraine No 4532 emotional break down before transportation and alternative outcome has come about. The Ricktor which is 80% possessed by the G.O.R.N parasite will meet his death on Roberts ship, but more importantly there is another Ricktor which although is 20% controlled by G.O.R.N, still has all his human characteristics intact. Worst of all the G.O.R.N parasite is not dominant, so this Ricktor could cause problems if he ever manages to get out of the slipstream. When he does we will be ready. That is all, dismissed’ finished the commander.