Marlon sat forward. "It's what was programmed on the fah'ti. We assumed it's code."
"I did, too. But it's more like a manual."
Marlon's hand shot out to type into the terminal and he pulled it back quickly, remembering his punishment. "Crap. Get us back to the top. Go from the top down."
I did. He asked me to read the opening line. "In the year of the gods twelve seven seven, there was a visitation from a...messenger? Yeah. Messenger. This messenger gave to the Qitani people the power of the skies of the far worlds... Oh. I know this story. It's how they took to the stars. I should have recognized it right from the beginning."
"Damnit!" Marlon slammed his hand on the desk and made me jump. "It's not a code at all! No wonder we can't make it work. It's just a fricken history lesson." He sounded absolutely disgusted, as if he'd been tricked or something.
I ignored him. There was more. Mother would not have put her own spin on their lore. There was more here, and I told Marlon as much. I gave him the basic tale that every Qitani child learns. They were not the inventors of the fah'ti, not the first to travel. "Mother was always trying to get the coordinates from Morhal," I said. "Imagine how great that tribe must be! But Morhal would never give us that information."
"You don't say," said Marlon with bitterness in his voice.
"Morhal always said we weren't ready. Mother begged but..."
Marlon gave a humorless laugh. "I'm on blackout for a frickin' fairy tale?"
I sighed. It wasn't a fairy tale, it was their history. But, it was their history with some of ours now blended in. I kept reading until I got to the first thing Mother added. "They knew about us for about five of our years before they made contact."
"Fascinating." Marlon leaned back on two legs of his chair and bounced. It was clear he had decided to write this whole thing off.
I sent him a glare. It was fascinating. We didn't know about them at all. "We couldn't detect them. We had no idea they were there until they invited us."
"So?"
"So that means their equipment picked up ours." He gave me a bland look. Really, I wasn't seeing the genius Lynette claimed he was. "If they can monitor us through our own equipment," I prompted slowly and deliberately. "Then they can read the signals. Which means their codes..."
Marlon slammed the legs of his chair back on the floor and leaned forward. "Already know how to read ours."
Aha. That got his attention. "Exactly." I read through the mix of history and Mother's inserted explanations. I told Marlon what I thought were the important parts.
"Read it all word for word."
I scoffed. "Do you ever listen? I. Can't."
"Have it your way."
My way! As if there was a choice. I shook my head and read. They got into the history of their own technology development based on the gift of the first fah'ti, then it began to talk about what they had to do to get it to jibe with ours. That's where Mother really began to insert her instructions.
"What's it say?"
"Oh wow." The more I read, the more I understood why Mother put parts in. She was saying that it was up to the fah'ti to decide. It was preset with specific parameters that would lock out interference from humanity. We'd have no choice to recode it for our uses.
"Well?"
"Shh." It was protected. Or, if not protected, kept secret from humans. Morhal was serious when she said she would not allow us to reach the other races. "When we are ready, we will know them." It seemed that the fah'ti would determine when were were ready by Qitani standards.
Marlon could see my interest and got more impatient. "What?"
"Shh!" So it was intentionally designed to keep us out, at least for the time being. They are paired, always two are made, one synced with the other. The fah'ti we had would only work in tandem with the other. Even if we could duplicate the technology down to the last wire, the only other place it could possibly take us would be to the other fah'ti, the one Ralph and I jumped through. I had to smile. Yes, we were the "big, bad, advanced" race. Sure.
Marlon grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "Tell me what it says or you're toast!"
"We can't hack it!"
He stopped shaking me. "I can hack anything."
"No, you can't. Not this."
"Why not?"
"It doesn't work on math. It's not really a code, not one for humans. And we'll screw it up if we keep trying."
"Why?"
I jumped up. "I have to get to Reginald."
Marlon stood face to face with me, poking me in the chest. "You get me up in the middle of the night and drag me in here to tell me fairy tales and then as soon as you figure it all out, you take off without telling me why? Bull."
"Then follow me. I need to get to Reginald now."
"I'm not allowed!"
I didn't listen. He'd follow or not. His choice. I ran out and down the hall to the elevator. Al yelled at me for running in the dorms, but didn't come after me. Right before the elevator door closed, Marlon slipped in, panting.
"I hate...running."
"Thought you...didn't want...to get into...trouble..."
He shrugged. "I'm already in....trouble."
"Where's Reginald?"
Marlon shook his head, catching his breath. "I don't know how to get to his office."
The doors opened and the guard I pulled rank with was still on duty. I had a thought. "Follow my lead. You!" I yelled to the guard.
"Mr. Cosworth," he said as he quickly approached. "You find it okay?"
"Yes. Do you know the way to Re...Mr. Luckston's office?"
He nodded. "Sure do. All us security do rotations in the North building."
"Good. Take us."
He looked around quickly. "I'm on duty..."
"It's a matter of critical importance."
He snapped to. "Yes, sir, Mr. Cosworth. Right this way."
Marlon gave me a look like he was impressed and I couldn't help but grin. In a dignified and highly important manner, that is. An aristocrat.
We followed the guard through a series of quick twists and turns, long, featureless hallways, some back elevators I hadn't been in, until we finally found ourselves in the wood paneled offices. It was very quiet. "No one's on duty yet," the guard explained. "Favorite time of the day."
"Carlson! You're on dorm patrol." Another guard, this one with a slightly fancier uniform, came out of nowhere and was on us in seconds.
"Sir, this is young Mr. Cosworth. One of the Cosworths."
He looked at me. "Key."
I clenched my jaw and stood as tall as possible. I took my key out and handed it to him, hoping I looked like I was an offended person of importance and not just some ticked off kid. He ran my key, then handed it back to me.
"You left your post."
"It's important, like I said."
I stepped in. There was no reason the guard should get in trouble on my behalf. "He is acting under my command. I take full responsibility for his actions."
The guard looked like he wanted to argue, but I must have been convincing, because all I got for reply was him stepping back out of our way. I passed and couldn't help but give him a dirty look. Marlon didn't even try to suppress his snort.
As soon as we reached Reginald's office, our guard said something to the guard on duty at the front desk. They whispered back and forth for a minute before Christophe opened the suite door and stepped out. "I've been expecting these gentlemen," he said to the guards.
"Yes, sir," said the guard at the desk.
Christophe motioned to the guard that helped us. "Your key, please."
"He didn't do anything wrong," I said quickly.
The guard handed over his key and Christophe punched something in. "Thank you for escorting these young men. That should take care of any trouble it caused."
He nodded. "Thank you, sir."
"Head back to the dorms. I've got it from here."
"Thanks, Mr. Venderi." The guard nodded to us, then hurried down the hallway.
Christophe looked at the two of us. It was barely five in the morning and he was already dressed and perfect for the day. I was still in the same clothes from the night before, and Marlon was in his bath robe. I suddenly felt very out of place.