It's My Party

"I've got a pretty good idea for some of it," answered Charles from Wobanakik. "Jenaro was pretty much computer illiterate beyond running his Facebook site. Ricardo though, I knew some people that were taking a programming course with him. It's Ricardo who wrote the override code. He drove his instructor nuts. His teacher called him bright but a daf programmer."

A voice in the media room chirped up. "Uh, this is Holly. You mean daffy?"

Charles laughed. "No, I mean D.A.F., Deploy And Forget. It was Ricardo's great weakness. He was blindly overconfident in very code he wrote. Once it compiled and ran a few test cases okay, he would just turn it loose and never check it again."

Mark replied with a worried voice. "Maybe that's what saved us here, but it won't happen again. The interface nailed Ricardo on a very minor error. One trivial change and I think Ricardo would be our god now. And we have to assume all this is blindingly obvious to him."

Cassidy was sitting nearby and said, "But we still hold a lot of good cards too. Ricardo knows so little, nothing about us, almost nothing about the surface or the spiral arms of the Mall, nothing about Wobanakik."

Mark looked grim. "But he will, once he can appoint himself Security Director. He'll know everything we do, and probably a lot more."

Cassidy frowned for a moment. "Charles?"

"Yeah?"

"Jessica and Ricardo are alone in the long building complex, and Jessica is two kilometers from Ricardo's position. What does that suggest to you?"

Charles gave a small gasp. "Yes! Great thinking Cassie. Everyone, do you see what Cassie is saying? Jessica has escaped from Ricardo. She's hiding from him. It's the only explanation. That guy is so paranoid, he'd never willingly turn her loose like this."

"This is Oona," spoke a voice from Wobanakik. "Will one of you presenters please tell me how bad it would be if Ricardo got the security authority he was trying for?"

Aggie locked eyes with both Mark and Emily and then spoke up. "I'll try to answer Oona. It would be really bad, bad enough that we have to evacuate the Great Hexagon. We're hoping his security authority wouldn't cover the whole planet, but we just don't know. To be safe, we might have to evacuate all Kappa Alpha facilities, go native as Kelly and Laura's teams did, hide on the continent of Africa and hope our children can remain hidden until Ricardo dies. I know this sounds gruesome, but it might come to this."

"What about us?" asked Oona. "We can't evacuate."

Aggie gave a soft wail. "I know it! I don't know what to say. We've got till the winter solstice to find a way out for you. It should be our highest priority. I think our next highest should be to prepare for everyone to migrate to Africa. I mean everyone that can. Kelly's and Laura's groups have shown us it's possible to go native and survive there. We owe them a world of thanks. If we can't eliminate the threat of Ricardo by the end of the year…" Aggie grimaced and said no more.

Eventually Charles spoke. "I'd like to bring up another issue. I know we've talked about this before, but the situation's changed. I want to suggest again that we make contact with Diego."

Fatima nodded. Months ago she had decided to let the majority of opinion rule on this issue, and driven by a large voting bloc from Party #5, by a narrow margin the Society had so far maintained its surveillance of Diego from the orbiter but had not initiated any form of contact.

But the issue with Ricardo had put the question of contact with Diego into a new perspective. After a half hour of very frank discussion, Fatima called for a vote which resulted in a 43 to 7 vote in favor of contacting Diego with an observation balloon. They could have a two-way conversation without the risk of losing someone as they had with Brandi. And fortunately the three-story building to the south of Ricardo's position would shield the balloon from observation if they approached Diego from the Green Mall surface area and kept the balloon low. It had not gone unnoticed that in all the satellite flybys, Diego had never once put himself in a position to be seen from Ricardo's building.

The meeting lasted until well after 11 PM. By the time they dispersed, they had agreed on three top priority goals for the sixty-three days before the winter solstice:

Firstly, stockpile non-perishable food and survival supplies somewhere in the forests of the southern hemisphere of Africa, perhaps on the order of a hundred kilometers from the equatorial pyramid. It would be mid summer in the southern hemisphere when the evacuation occurred. Of critical importance was whether the stair-climbing cats could handle natural terrain. At five meters per second, the six cats could conceivably make two round trips a day to a deep forest destination, delivering 900 kilos of goods on each run. Their upcoming sixty-three day window might be their one opportunity to stockpile supplies for generations to come.

Secondly, continue searching for an escape route from Wobanakik.

Thirdly, stop Ricardo by any means possible.

There were also a number of important secondary goals:

Continue the search for the lost members of Parties #3 and #6. paying particular attention to finding other trapdoors that might connect to other continents and islands.

Communicate with Diego via observational balloon.

Continue to monitor Jessica's position.

Most people retired to bed exhausted after the meeting. The realization of all the technology around them could be used to hunt and enslave them was slowly sinking in. Sleep would be difficult but it was also a necessity. Tomorrow would be a very busy day.

Time: Saturday, August 9, 2019 12:13 AM GHT

The cylindrical night sky above Manhattan was ablaze with a close-up image of the horseshoe nebula, the beautiful red light quite noticeable on the small park grounds. Mandy and Charles had taken a double sleeping bag and were sleeping outside about a dozen meters from the south-eastern vertex, opposite the boathouse and the closest position on the island to the incoming flow of the river. The sound of the churning water made a sound soothing and peaceful.

Mandy gave a deep sigh and tried to relax. Her head was resting on a pillow, and Charles' hand was petting her head. His other hand was resting on her hip, occasionally stroking the side of her body but mostly just holding her in an affectionate embrace.

"Going to be a hell of a day tomorrow," Charles mumbled, "so different than before. Everything has changed."

Mandy sighed again, nodding but also trying to forget their troubles for a while. "Oh look. The moon has left the nebula. All the silver light with the red, this really is so pretty." Ever since the April 1, the day of the previous reset, the moon had been on an exact 28-day cycle, "rising" at 9 PM at the southern end of the cylindrical sky and setting six hours later in the north. The underground world would experience nine lunar cycles each Wobanakik year, and tonight was the night of a waning quarter moon. And as an extra treat, the moon had briefly transited the much larger cosmological feature on display tonight.

Everyone who lived here enjoyed Wobanakik's night sky. The moon in its phases was very predictable, but the sky behind it, what variety and delight! The display would vary greatly one night to the next. No one ever knew what to expect. Perhaps a third of the time, it was either a familiar night sky from some position from old Earth, or a display that might have come from the Hubble telescope. Other nights though, the sky would show sights that were obviously never seen from Earth. Mandy thought the displays quite beautiful. She leaned over to give Charles a sleepy kiss, and then snuggled up against him, loving the feel of his warmth and its contrast to the cold wind blowing off the frigid river.

And the nights of the new moon held special treats. Their first experience with this was on May 1st, a half lunar cycle after the April 1st reset. High above Manhattan was the old familiar planet Jupiter, and it was enormous. From the visual data sent to the surface, Mark estimated the view might have been from Io, the innermost of the four largest moons known since the time of Galileo. Imagine the moon with its apparent diameter enlarged by more than a factor of forty. The planet Jupiter filled the sky, and the habitants of Manhattan spent hours outside that night, just staring up and admiring the view.

The second new moon occurred on July 1st, and the display was of the inside of a stellar nursery. What would the show be for September 1st? Sleepy Mandy tried to imagine what it might be in an effort to forget the worries of the day.

Charles turned and kissed her forehead, and then the hand resting on her hip moved up and cupped her breast through her flannel pajamas. Mandy gave Charles a pat on his thigh in return. "Oh, I wish…" she mumbled sleepily.

"Hmm? Wish what?" Another kiss, this one on her cheek.

"I wish…" Her eyes were closed, her mind half asleep. "I wish our first month together never happened. I wish I only knew you as Charles, never Chico."

Mandy felt her lover stiffened and her mind snapped briefly to full awake. "Oh, I'm not trying to resurrect anything Charles. Please don't feel guilty. It's over and done with, and I really do forgive you, forgive you for everything. I just wish… I wish I could offer you my body for the first time." She gave a big sleepy yawn. "It's something I miss." She felt him trembling. "I do love you. I wasn't trying to embarrass you."

"I know," he whispered. "I feel so…" The words just wouldn't come.

"Go to sleep my love," Mandy whispered back, and she turned lazily and butted herself back into him. She fell asleep shortly afterwards, much sooner than Charles. He stayed awake and held her sleeping body for a long time, his mind pondering the irony. In their initial time at Black Mall, their relationship was full of forced sex and devoid of love, such a change from now. After months together in Wobanakik, Mandy had a few days ago finally accepted Charles as her lover and mate, and to his horror Charles found himself impotent with her.

It happened just a few nights ago. A lingering kiss by Mandy's bedroom door evolved into Mandy disrobing for him inside her room, and as she started playfully to tug off his clothes, Charles was hit by unexpected waves of shame. The sight of her nakedness had brought everything back, Mandy the fuck toy, Mandy the hoof pussy, Mandy of the forced slurpy blowjob when Chico was too tired to mount her, Mandy the frightened whore when Chico would fantasize and tease her about fucking her in the butt.

And there she was in her bedroom a few nights ago, smiling and playful but her nakedness bringing back so many awful memories. Charles' erect penis had suddenly become Chico's penis about to rape hoof pussy Mandy, and almost in an instant Charles became completely limp. He lay down on her bed and sobbed.

Mandy was sexually aroused but perceptive enough to realize what had happened. She wound up sitting on her bed petting his head in her lap, telling him over and over again that all was forgiven. Her breasts were within suckling distance of his mouth, and as Mandy would lean down to hug him, her nipples would often brush his lips. But her offers for sexuality went unnoticed. Charles was lost in his despair and humiliation.

It was different now, lying with her in the sleeping bag. Mandy was so beautiful in the red and silver light of the night sky, and it felt so right to hold her and have her by his side. Charles gave a small gasp as he realized his penis was fully erect, and he backed up a bit so he wouldn't be pressing it into the crack of her ass. Mandy murmured in her sleep and wiggled back into him. Charles sighed deeply. His heart was at peace, and he thought his impotence problem might be over. He had finally accepted her forgiveness, and that thought allowed him to relax. From across the wide river, the night sounds of the forest carried over to the island. A short time later a big cat announced that it had successfully hunted, but the distant roars went unnoticed by Charles and Mandy both.

Chapter 97.

The next day.

Time: Saturday, August 9, 2019 5:45 PM

Unknown to the man formerly known as Diego, his current position was almost exactly four kilometers due north of Hex Hall, the geometric center of the Great Hexagon. He also did not know that the barrier wall to his southwest continued onward, and that the nearby southernmost point was really a three-way junction point between the Black, Green, and Yellow Malls' surface areas. What Doug did know was that he was approximately two kilometers north of the junction where two great walls met. He also knew not to attempt to cross the barriers.

Oh yes, he knew that. Many weeks ago, just after his first few days of surface wandering, Doug had stood on the boundary between the red and yellow cobblestones and had tested the ivy moats by throwing an empty food package filled with sand. Seconds later he turned and tripped as he fled across the yellow cobblestones, managing to stay only a few meters ahead of the seeking tendrils of the aroused plant. The experience still gave him nightmares, and he had a pretty good idea now of how Neto and the others in Gilberto's posse must have died. Pistols would be useless against such a creature. Doug didn't know the full destructive power of the plant, but he had no doubt about the sharpness of the thorny vines. He would be hard pressed to imagine a more horrible way to die.

Doug paused and took a deep drink, fully satisfying his thirst with the last of his water bottle as considered what to do next. It had been a typical day, the temperature peaking to just over 30C in mid afternoon and holding there for the last several hours. He clipped his empty bottle to his belt and then slowly stretched his arms, glancing at his watch as he did. Although darkness was making a comeback, the world was still a world full of light. The sun had risen at 3:35 AM this morning and he still had several more hours to wander before bedding down for the night.

But he was out of water now, and it made sense to replenish. Doug stretched again and sighed at his fate. He had accepted weeks ago when his food ran out that his wanderings no longer had purpose. There was no food available in the open areas, and Diego would not risk being trapped in a sterile building somewhere. He would die under the sun and stars. The hiking was just busy work, something to enjoy before starvation took away his ability to walk. At least he wouldn't dry of dehydration. Doug was sure he wouldn't like that. He figured he still had many days of walking ability left, maybe even weeks. Life was still worth living.

Doug turned southwest to admire the great orange sun, and for a moment he cracked a rare smile. For some unknown reason, he felt the sky was looking back at him. Shaking his head at his fantasy, he began walking into the sunset at an easy pace, heading towards his favorite watering hole. It wasn't far, perhaps two kilometers and a bit along a very twisting path. There was an open-air veranda near the fountain. It was one of the better places to bed down for the night.

Meanwhile, 4 km to the south and 1.5 km below.

Down in Wobanakik it was the second day of autumn, the sun having risen at 6:15 AM this morning and setting in slightly less than a half hour. Lynn and Charles were currently the only two inhabitants of Manhattan and would remain so until Jada's party of five returned late tomorrow afternoon. Early this morning the complete group of seven had a long planning session that started over breakfast and continued for almost an hour. At the close, they reversed an earlier decision about the entrance rooms and agreed to keep Manhattan as their primary residence.

The two consoles in the library there were just too valuable to give up. They could be used to control observation balloons at Wobanakik, across the surface of the Great Hexagon, and perhaps anywhere on the planet. The Society had plans tomorrow to risk one of their balloons on long-range reconnaissance, evaluating sites south of the equatorial pyramid as possible sanctuaries from Ricardo. Satellite imagery had already suggested several promising areas that were worth a ground-level look.

Fatima had a large calendar prominently displayed on a wall at the Hilton conference center with the date January 1, 2020 shaded in red. It was the date for the winter solstice both on the surface and for Wobanakik. It was also the date they might all become puppets of Ricardo, alive only until the evil puppet-master decided to cut their strings. Underneath the awful deadline, Fatima wrote a note that said, "Warning: Dates on this calendar are closer than they appear!" The Society had perhaps sixty-two days before their world lost all of its goodness.

Back at Wobanakik, Jada, Thara, Mandy, Oona and Abit were currently leaving the boathouse at the southern lake and heading to the entrance rooms. They had spent the day kayaking upriver and investigating two locations in the western highlands that Sandra and her team had originally planned to investigate today. Meanwhile Sandra, Parni, and Sachi were beginning their eight-day boost at the Bee Park, and keeping with tradition, Peggy and Alexis from the last boost team would stay with them as mentors for the next few days.

And at the central island of Manhattan, Lynn was controlling an observation balloon from her library console, having it hover a hundred meters above the boathouse and providing aerial support for Jada's team below. It was easy work in the open area around the lake and Lynn was also having a friendly conversation with Alexis at the Bee Park. She would be lowering the balloon to ground level when Jada's group reached the entrance rooms, and that's where the balloon would spend the night.

Meanwhile Charles had a somewhat more complicated job. He was piloting an observation balloon between buildings in the southern Black Mall area, hopefully on target for a meeting with Diego. It had been a difficult choice for Jada to leave Charles at Manhattan. He had far more experience with pistols than Madison.

But Charles had proven to be a master in controlling the observation balloons, perhaps from his vast experience with game controllers, and last night the Society had agreed to contact Diego only if the balloon could absolutely not be seen from Ricardo's complex. Charles was the best person to fulfill that promise, and he was also the person that knew Diego best from their time back at Burlington.

Charles studied his displays intently as he guided the balloon. For a few minutes he had real-time satellite imagery of the Black Mall area and the location and direction of Diego established. In a second window on his monitor, Charles had the real-time video from the observation balloon. It really was a perfect set-up. The winds were very mild today up on the surface. Lynn had commented several times this afternoon what an easy time Charles was having compared to how her own balloon was being buffeted.

Charles felt very confident he knew were Diego was heading, the large fountain area in the southernmost region of Black Mall. And even though linear sunset was fast approaching down here at Wobanakik, back on the surface there was still lots of daylight left. Perfect.

Charles rocked his neck back and forth to stretch and guided his balloon with an easy hand, maintaining a steady two-meter separation between the ground and the bottom of the assembly. Just the slightest touch on the controller, and the balloon went exactly where he wanted it to go. In his mind Charles rehearsed what he wanted to say to an old friend.