Time......... (Part 9)

Millions of trillions of miles away from where Frank and Peter sat contentedly eating dinner, planet Earth continued its slow revolution around the sun.
Edmund shouldered his backpack, and turned to leave the school. He stopped where he was, however, when he overheard two teachers talking in the hallway.
"There's got to be some way of getting the school board to hire a better web designer!" one of them said. "The school website is done very badly!"
"I agree; shades of black and white are not what I call inspiring," the second one replied.
"Are you sure we can't convince them to -"
"Certain! I've tried several times. I have a feeling that if we made the website look more appealing, more people would want to come, but the school board doesn't seem to get my drift."
Edmund grinned and turned away. He didn't need to hear any more. He was an expert with computers, and knew just how to fix the website.
As soon as he arrived home, he hid in his room with a laptop between his knees, and began the process of hacking into the school's website. At least, he thought it was the school's website. It soon became apparent that he had made a mistake.
"Some other weird system," he sighed. "But what is this? 'Reports from the fort at Limblon, Andromeda,' and it lists a bunch of names. Andromeda? Is this a joke of some sort?" he leaned closer to the screen and, after a moment or two, was able to bring up a map. It was an odd map, with all sorts of tunnels and chambers branching this way and that. And what were all those red dots?
"I've found something. But what I mean by something, I don't know yet," Edmund scratched his head thoughtfully. The graphics were bad, he noticed. Like it was coming over a long distance. "One thing's certain, it must not be anything important, or else they would have set up a better defense than they have!"

Frank stared at his empty plate.
"You know, wishing for food never got anyone any," Peter smiled.
"Not without some kind of action," Kevin agreed. "By the way, I wanted to thank you guys for letting me stay with you."
"You're the only one we really feel like we know here," Peter replied. "I'd try and stay out of trouble from now on, if I were you, or the leader might change his mind."
"The leader?" Kevin laughed. "Don't you know his name?"
"No. What is it?"
"I don't know. Everyone calls him sir," Kevin said.
"Another mystery!" Frank groaned. "I feel like I don't know anything here!"
There was a sudden knock on the door, and a guard walked in. He presented them with the message that they were wanted by the leader now. The boys promptly rose and followed him to chamber A2.
The leader was there with the original five men, and a few others. Chamber A2 was more furnished than A1, and looked more like a living room than anything else.
"Now then, you want to know more about what we are up to, don't you?" the leader asked.
"Um, yes; if you don't mind," Peter said.
"Well, first off, there's -" he was interrupted by an urgent entreaty at the door. Three men rushed in and breathlessly broke the news to him.
"Someone's hacked into the system!"
"Hacked into the system? The computer system?" the leader stood up hastily.
"Yes, sir! And what's more, the hacker is identified as coming from Earth!"
"Earth? Those idiots don't know how to break into computers in different galaxies! They're so concerned with themselves, and never imagine what might be happening around them! They don't even know the danger they are in!" this passionate speech from the leader roused all of the men, and made Frank and Peter look helplessly around. To be told that you come from a planet of idiots is not exactly encouraging.
"But what danger are we - I mean Earth - in?" Peter said at last. "You keep on talking in riddles! Some people from Nagar is all I've managed to piece together."
"I'll tell you that in a moment. Now you boys will have your chance to prove your usefulness to us."
"How, sir?"
"How? Aren't you two good with computers?" the leader asked incredulously.
"No, sir. I always made odd windows pop up on my mom's computer, and didn't have a clue as to what to do with them," Peter admitted. Frank nodded his head in agreement.
"But - the prophecy - and -" Fromere gasped out.
"What about it?" Peter asked.

"One will rule with iron;
One with words and symbols;
One will carry on,
One will computers control,"

Fromere recited.
"And you thought you couldn't remember that much," Peter grinned at Kevin.
"At least he told the truth," Frank said innocently.
"But obviously, one of you are good with computers?" the leader asked again.
"No, we're not!" Peter said frantically.
"Couldn't it refer to four people?" Kevin asked.
"But carrying on doesn't make any sense," the leader replied.
"Unless they were having a tantrum," Frank said. Peter nudged his arm.
"What should we do about the hacker, sir?" one of the three messengers persisted.
"Ah, me!" the leader groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Get someone in there to determine how much the person has seen, and try to stop them from seeing more!"
The men left to do his bidding. And the leader dismissed everyone from the room. He was having a hard day.

Copyright - 9/17/2008 - Curious Cognitive Content (CCC)
Please do not reproduce without permission from the author(ess).