Dead Planet by R A Nargi

Author:R A Nargi [Nargi, R A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bogwood Press
Published: 2021-12-17T05:00:00+00:00

The Sean bot had a million questions. Iniya had a million questions. Uncle Wallace had a million questions. I pushed them all aside until we were all back in the Lowrey.

I handed the HDD block to Iniya. "Load this up and see what's on it."

She used an isolated portable workstation to access the block while we all huddled around her display.

"It's a video file," Iniya said.

"Anything else?"

She checked. "Nope. Just the single video file. Judging by the size, it's not even very long. Should I play it?"

"Of course, play it!" I said.

Iniya looked over at the Sean bot for confirmation---which pissed me off. The Sean bot nodded and Iniya pushed play.

An image of Denn Jerue---the real Denn Jerue---blinked as he stared directly into the camera. He was much older in this video, and he did not look good. His skin was pale and yellowish and appeared paper thin. His eyes were sunken and his face was extremely drawn. He blinked again as if his rheumy eyes were having trouble focusing.

"To whom it may concern..."

The Sean bot told Iniya to freeze the video. "Hold up. Do we know where that is?"

It looked like Denn Jerue was in some sort of engineering lab or workshop. Behind him stood some sort of rack with vats of putty-colored liquid and what appeared to be an exoskeleton.

"That's not our old office," Uncle Wallace said. "I know that."

"Based on the temperature of the light, I would venture to guess that this video was recorded on the station we just left," TenSix said.

"That makes sense," I said. "I only saw a small part of the station. There was plenty of room for a lab like that."

"And judging by how ragged the old man looks, I'd wager he recorded this right before he croaked," Uncle Wallace said.

"Show some respect," the Sean bot growled.

"Sorry."

"Go ahead, Iniya."

She un-paused the video.

Denn Jerue said, "If you're watching this video, it means that you were judged worthy by the powers that be. Namely me. Or is it Thalatea?"

He winked at the camera. Which struck me as a little disturbing. Then he had a short, but violent, coughing fit.

"What's he going to do, croak right here on camera?" Wallace quipped.

The Sean bot elbowed him and actually displayed a lot of self-control by not breaking Uncle Wallace's ribs.

"I better get to it, then," Denn Jerue said, his voice now hoarse from the coughing fit. "Not much time left."

"So far, he's wasted twenty-nine seconds with this preamble," TenSix said.

"Not you too," the Sean bot said.

"Sorry, sir."

"The topic is the location of the Aanthangan clone bot factory," Denn Jerue said.

We all crowded in closer to the display.

"For information about how I discovered the location, please reference the third video in this series. It's actually quite fascinating."

"Just tell us, for Dynark's sake!" Uncle Wallace said.

Denn Jerue had another coughing fit, which caused him to start and then stop this next part of the video several times. But eventually he got going again.

"The factory is on Vinaoth, a dead planet---"

"Wait a second," Zeno said.

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