Part 1

"And I mean it. Stay on that diagnostic table or I'll break your legs."

Coming from anyone else, the threat would have been empty. But coming from Ril al'Tana, it was a statement of fact.

Susan Gwyndel sighed, staring at the ceiling. "I'm just not cut out for this," she muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, I'm just not cut out for this." Susan gestured vaguely, trying to convey the feeling of helplessness as she lay on the diagnostic table. "I seem to be the one most people pick on when they want a guinea pig."

Ril glanced at the small jar that held a tiny piece of bioplastic. "That what you mean?"

"Obviously. And I'm sure you noticed how everybody stays at least three feet away from me ever since that.... incident. And another thing." Susan sat up. "Guess what I found out yesterday. Kathy asked for a room transfer. A bloody room transfer!"

"Susan....." Ril said placatingly, but it didn't seem to have any effect.

"And Nick keeps avoiding me for some reason. I don't know, everybody seems to be avoiding me as well. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'd swear that everybody thinks there's something wrong with me."

"Well," Ril said, "judging from the results, I'd say nothing's wrong with you. A bit of aberrant brain patterns, but maybe that's because you're agitated."

Susan sighed. "Yeah, or maybe it's this splitting headache I have."

"In any case, I think you should go back to your room and rest. You're officially excused from classes for the rest of the month, so there's nothing to be worried about."

"Except maybe how to occupy myself. I think I'll take your advice, though. This migraine is killing me." Susan stumbled out of the medbay.

Ril watched her go, then checked to make sure she was out of earshot. Then she exited the medbay by another door.

Kathy and Peter were waiting. "Well?" Kathy asked.

Ril shook her head. "Brain patterns match previous readings only vaguely. On top of that, she's getting paranoid and slightly schizophrenic. Yet I can't detect any significant brain damage."

The apprehension was clear on their faces. "So what now?" Peter asked.

"Best case and worst case? 'Cos that's about all I can say right now."

"Why not."

Ril shrugged. "Best case, this's only a temporary problem, and she'll be fine in a couple of weeks. Worst case, it's a blood clot we can't detect, which means that it's inoperable. And there're a million possibilities in between. Not to mention her headaches. It may be a real symptom, but then again, it may not."

Kathy bit her lip. "Anything we can do to help?"

Ril shrugged again.

Peter sighed. "I don't think even the Dark Sentinel can help us this time."

Kathy looked at him. "That's the second time I've heard about the Dark Sentinel. What exactly is that?"

"This isn't exactly the time to tell stories," Peter said.

"Then when is?"

"She's got a point," Ril said dryly.

Peter sighed. "The Dark Sentinel is an old sprite legend. Myth, actually. It dates back to pre-human days, when viruses and Web Creatures were the order of the day. The Dark Sentinel was said to show up in times of need. Rumour has it that the Dark Sentinel was also seen in recent times, during hate attacks on defenseless systems. Nowadays, it's a joke of sorts." Peter smiled sardonically. "When your hovercar breaks down, call the Dark Sentinel."

"A bit like the human story of Superman, then?" Kathy asked.

"A bit, yes."

There was silence for a while. Then Ril said quietly, "Should we tell the Prime?"

"Excuse me?"

"About Susan."

"Tough question," Kathy said. "If we don't tell him, we'll be disobeying a direct order. But if we do tell him, Susan can kiss her chances of Guardianship goodbye."

"I think we should ask the others first," Peter suggested. "Sarah, Crysta, Kavi, Nar, Nick.... by the way, where's Nick? I haven't seen him for a while."

"Last I saw him, he was in the library," Kathy said. "Still deep in his guilt trip."

"'The sins of the father are visited upon the son'," Ril quoted.

"I think 'sins' is too hard a word," Kathy said. "After all, Dr. Cochrane had no idea the implant could do what it did. And from what we could dig up on him, he was the best brain surgeon there ever was."

"Then let's hope we can find him," Peter said, "and tell him to give us back our Susan."

"Let's hope."

Ril looked helplessly at Nar. "That's not very reassuring. I'd prefer it if she trusts everybody."

"I thought she hated non-humans," Kavi said.

"Not hate, Kavi. Mistrusts. Apparently, this is an exception."

They all glanced at the door as Kathy entered. Kavi raised an eyebrow.

"Sleeping like a baby," Kathy reported. "Even when my alarm clock went off accidentally, she didn't even move. I had to check three times to see if she's still breathing." She counted the number of people in the library. "Where's Nick? I thought he'd be here the whole time."

"He left after we arrived," Crysta said. "I swear, he's got a mad look nowadays."

"Desperate is what I'd call it," Peter put in. "He blames himself for Susan's condition, and thinks that the only way to save her is by finding his father."

Kathy looked around again. "And where's Sarah?"

"With the Prime," Nar informed her. "There's been a series of hackings into the Supercomputer's databases. We were all given strict warnings not to even attempt to hack anywhere."

"Does Nick know that?"

"I told him, but I don't know if he was listening."

"Nick's an inveterate hacker," Kathy agreed, "but I don't think he's got that little sense. As you were saying, Sarah's with the Prime?"

"They're busy setting up security nets all over the databases. They've been at it since this morning. Hopefully they'll be finished by fifteen hundred hours."

"It's almost fifteen hundred hours now. Are you sure-"

"Yes, he's sure."

Kathy jumped, and swiveled around to face Sarah. "Don't do that."

"Sorry." Sarah tapped the cover of her laptop. "I patched in a link to the database. If anyone tries to hack in, we can find out the location and the target. At least theoretically, we will."

"The problem with theories," Kavi said dryly, "is that they seldom correspond to real life."

Sarah cleared her throat. "In the meantime, we'll be in charge of monitoring the database. The Prime's called in quite a few computer security experts, and they'll be busy setting yet more traps and anti-hacker defenses. By the time they finish, I don't think even Nick will be able to get through without being spotted."

"Why're we monitoring the database?" Crysta wanted to know.

"Well, the security experts can't check to see if anyone hacks into the computer while they're busy programming all those security systems. So until fourteen hundred hours tomorrow, we'll have to make sure nobody attempts to hack into the Academy's databases."

"What was that again?"

They all turned to see Susan leaning against the doorframe.

Ril's voice was mildly disapproving. "I thought I told you to go rest."

"I'm feeling much better now," Susan said. She paused. "Did I act like a total asshole just now, in the medbay?"

"A bit," Kathy said carefully.

"Well, I'm sorry. I had a headache then, but it's gone now."

"What we were saying," Sarah informed her, "was that we're in charge of monitoring the Supercomputer's databases for the time being."

"Good. I needed something to do during my month-long break."

"Why don't we divide ourselves into shifts?" Kavi suggested. "It's much easier that way."

"Okay," Nar said. "Seeing as Nick's not here, we'll just hope that he'll stay out of trouble and the databases. I'll do the first shift with Sarah, Peter's with Crysta, Kathy's with Kavi," he shot a significant glance at Ril, "and Ril's with Susan."

"Okay," Ril said, though her tone hinted that she didn't think the arrangement suitable.

"We have 23 hours to burn. So each shift should do about 6 hours or so."

"And what do we do when we're waiting for that hacker to strike?" Kavi inquired.

Sarah shrugged. "Read a book. That always works for me."

Kavi glanced up from his bookreader. "Don't get what?"

"Susan. She's acting rather weird lately."

"What, you noticed that only now?"

"No, it's just that..... you know how she accused me of trying to get a room transfer?"

"Yes...."

"The thing is, I didn't. I only thought about it. I considered it, then rejected the idea ultimately. So I have no idea how she knew."

"Coincidence? She was a bit paranoid....."

"Maybe." Kathy sighed. "At least, I hope so."

"Shift change," Ril announced, coming through the door.

Kavi stood up, stretching. "Good. You have no idea how boring that gets."

"I have a feeling we're about to find out," Susan said, coming in after Ril.

"Brought a book?" Kavi asked.

"Brought five." Ril said.

"Then you should have no problem." Kavi turned to Susan. "And you?"

"Nope. Didn't have any good books. But I did bring some aspirin." Susan smiled sardonically.

Kavi grimaced, and left the room.

There was silence for the next fifteen minutes. Finally Susan asked, "Ril?"

"Hm?"

"Do you love Nar?"

Ril lowered her book. (Susan was amazed that there were paper books left, let alone Ril's interest in them.) "What makes you say that?" she asked cautiously.

"Just purely as a social question."

"Of course I love him. We've been together as far as we can remember."

"And that makes for love?"

Ril felt her temper begin to rise. "What's your point?"

Susan sighed, apparently oblivious to Ril's anger. "When I really looked closely at Nar, I could see something in his body language. I'm not sure, but I think he's hiding something from you."

"That's impossible," Ril said flatly. "Nar would never do something like that."

"Well, you never know, do you?" Susan grimaced, and brought her hand to her head. She opened the bottle of aspirin, and tossed back two pills. "As I was saying, there's always a first time for everything, isn't there?"

Ril was about to prove that point by giving Susan a good one in the mouth, when the computer emitted a high-pitched sound.

"Damn," Ril said, forgetting about her previous anger. "Someone's trying to hack in. Location in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Hell's bells! It's right in the Academy!"

The two of them raced down the hallway, towards the source of the hacking. It turned out to be an abandoned computer room. Without stopping, Susan kicked down the door and pointed her gun-mode keytool at the figure sitting in the chair. "Freeze!"

"Susan!" Ril shouted in horror, just as Susan herself jerked up the keytool. "What am I doing!"

Nick looked calmly back at the two of them.

"Careful where you point that thing," he said. "You might hurt somebody."

Nick was charged with several things, the actual hacking being one of the minor ones, strangely. The prosecution had dug up several bits and pieces of Nick's past, including the various small hacking stunts he had pulled. Susan herself was frankly amazed at the sheer amount of computers Nick had hacked into in the past ten years. And those were only the ones the authorities had discovered.

The sentence itself was a surprise as well. Susan could only stare in disbelief as the court ruled that Nick was to serve ten years, without parole. He was also prohibited from using a computer of any sort at all for the rest of his life.

Nick was also stripped of his ever-present goggles. Without them, he was almost unrecognizable. The change gave his face a very open and surprised look. Then again, Susan thought, what had just happened to him would make anyone's face look surprised.

Now, Susan was standing in front of Prime Jenning's desk. The Prime was looking at her calmly.

"No, Cadet Gwyndel," Prime Jennings said. "I cannot go against the law. Cadet Connelly has brought this upon himself. I cannot interfere. To do so would imply favouritism, and that would not reflect well upon the trustworthiness of the Guardians."

You mean it would not reflect well upon YOUR trustworthiness, Susan thought sourly. Even so, she persisted. "But Prime Jennings, Nicholas Connelly has done much as a Guardian. Can't you at least use that as a mitigating factor? Who knows, in light of all the good things that Nicholas has done, the judge may even let him off."

"That is highly unlikely, Cadet. Even so, I'm sure the court has already considered that fact. You are aware of the usual penalty for hacking?"

Susan nodded grimly. In comparison, Nick had gotten off fairly lightly as it was.

"Then I take it the matter is closed," Prime Jennings finished. "You are not to concern yourself anymore with former Cadet Connelly. Do I make myself clear?"

Susan saluted stiffly. "Yes, sir. Clear as day." She marched silently out of the room.

Prime Jennings watched her go. Then he pressed the intercom to his aides. "Cancel my appointments for the next two days until further notice. I have something to do."

He tapped a few keys on his desktop console. The security cameras in the room went offline immediately. He had done this often enough, usually when he needed to go out without being noticed. The security staff would not give it a second thought.

Then he reached into his desk drawer and pressed a hidden button. A panel opened.

When the security cameras went back online, the Prime's office was empty.

Kavi didn't look up. "I'm checking the logs of the Supercomputer's database. Don't worry, it's legal. I just wanted to know what Nick was doing when he was hacking into the system."

Peter sat down at the console beside him. "Mind if I join you?"

"Feel free." The two of them worked in silence for a while. Then Peter said, "Kavi, can you have a look at line 40291?"

Kavi scrolled to the specified line. "What about it?"

"I'm not sure, but something about it is definitely bugging me." Peter tapped a few keys. "I'm going into the code."

"The code? Are you nuts? That'll take forever."

"Trust me." Peter began typing furiously.

"You think the logs have been tampered with?"

"Uh-huh. If I were a hacker, that's what I'd do. And this line definitely looks fishy."

"Why don't we use that undelete program Sarah found some time ago?"

"Nope, we don't want to bring back last year's logs. That'll be too much work for us to clear out."

Kavi cleared his throat. "I think you should know something."

"And that is?"

"I got permission to look at the logs. I didn't get permission to look at the code."

"Ah, to the Web with them. Here we are." Peter had gone into the binary code of the logs. "I knew there was something suspicious about it." He pointed at a digit. "It's been zeroed."

"Zeroed?"

"You know, an extra zero added. Has the effect of putting the thing through a shredder."

"I know what it means. How do you know it's been zeroed?"

"Trust me. I've seen this before. Take away that zero and...."

The screen filled with words.

The two of them stared at it for a while.

Finally Kavi said something that summed up the situation nicely. "Aht-serat."

Peter shook his head in disbelief. "You said it."

Kavi quickly re-read the words on the screen. "According to this, there were TWO break-ins into the computer at the time. Nick was one of them, and.... the real hacker was the other."

Peter sighed. "But it still doesn't change the fact that Nick broke into the system."

"Yes it does. This also tells us what Nick was trying to do."

Peter peered closer at the screen. "The same thing as us. Checking the computer logs."

"It is his duty as a Guardian. So, I think we can clear Nick's name with this."

"Excellent."

The two of them whirled around. The voice had sounded like it had been processed through a voice-encoder. Only those who wanted to remain anonymous used that device. And usually, criminals were the ones who wanted to remain anonymous.

The figure standing in the doorway was dressed in black. Not just normal black clothes; it was the sort of black clothes ninjas of old Japan had worn. It would be hard for anyone to notice this person in the dark.

Peter recognized him immediately. He had seen enough pictures of him before.

"The Dark Sentinel......"