Dr. Frost led the couple to his living quarters and they all settled comfortably with a drink.

"I suggest we take a breath, sip some of this excellent brandy and begin again . . . calmly."

Hunter rubbed his eyes and sat back, expelling a long breath. "I have learned through various sources the Vatten Industries sent a ship to Galapagos long before you began your arrangement with them. They used archived statements and logs from the HEEP files to find and bring back samples that were collected on that last outing by the HEEP team. The same samples that slime came from."

"Is that possible, Diane?" Frost asked.

"I don't know. I didn't know Vatten even had a ship capable of that trip." She stared at Hunter.

"I meant collecting the same samples."

"Sure, why not? If they had the information Hunter says they had then yes."

"But what about the- the uh, slime?"

"That only happened when Peter dropped the container and it spilled as far as we knew. If it's sealed I- maybe it's safe. I don't know."

"Why would they even do that?" Hunter asked. "And something else I found out. The military razing of the site and surrounding area never took place. Everything is still there as we left it."

"That had to be an Empirium decision. No military commander would disobey an order like that." Frost refilled his glass and swallowed most of the contents.

"Which means the Empirium is in cahoots with Vatten Industries." Go easy there, Doc that's a strong drink.

"To what end?" Frost snapped back but set his glass aside.

"To create a weapon." Diane said ominously. "The very thing Dr. Cusack and I tried to avoid."

"Okay but how? I don't get it."

"Devilishly simple, Hunter now with our discovery,. They can condense the samples to even miniscule sizes. Transport it anywhere and store it for as long as they wish before using."

"But they need equipment and your code for the transition stage don't they?"

Diane and Frost exchanged worried looks. "Alice!"

********

Arlen grinned as Horace paced his office, muttering complaints and threats mostly to the room.

"Why don't you just get your brains in the lab to hack into the code?"

Horace stopped and leaned both hands on his desk. "Do you think we're stupid, Downs? You think we didn't think of that?"

"So, what happened?"

"We ran into an impenetrable firewall that came with an onscreen warning that a physical breach of any kind would cause the entire program to self-destruct!"

"You mean delete itself?"

"I mean blow up, Arlen! We have already begun preparing samples for the first stage. If we can't have control of the transition then they're useless!"

Horace straightened up and clutched his head. "I need that damn machine they have and I need it before the Empirium has my guts for garters!"

********

'Good morning, Dr. Sommers, Dr. Frost.'

"Hello, Alice. We need to ask you some questions."

'Certainly. How can I be of assistance?'

"We know you altered Diane's coding in the transition stage at Vatten Industries. Could you please explain?" Frost asked.

'I was aware of the security you desired by creating the remote machine. I merely ensured that it was completely secure.'

"How! Diane blurted. "I mean can you tell us how?"
'I installed a self-destruct command should anyone but myself attempt to breach the code.'

Diane's face paled. "What if I wanted or needed to make changes?"

The lab was silent.

"Alice?" Frost spoke.

'That could be discussed.'

Frost removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alice, Dr. Sommers has discovered this procedure to help in the research of millions of ongoing projects that will aid in the creation of new medicines and vaccines not to mention a myriad of other uses. It is imperative she has complete access to her own work."

'I would require considerably more input before considering that conclusion, Dr. Frost.'

"Alice," Diane spoke up. "What prompted this action you've taken?"

'The demonstration that you performed at Vatten Industries.'

"Precisely, please."

********

"You're telling me this artificial intelligence thing made a proactive decision on its own that you can't change!"

"I know what it sounds like, but Alice has evolved beyond simple AI. Any changes I would wish to make must be done in her presence - in the lab - and in there she can be in my head, which defeats the purpose."

"What, so now she's in charge?"

"For the most part." Frost agreed sadly.

The trio sat silently, each wrestling with their new dilemma.

"Alice learned that Vatten . . . Horace actually, has designs on using Diane's equipment for his own purpose. That being a joint operation with Empirium to develop the very weapon she has tried to prevent."

"She picked that up from your remote thingy?" Hunter said.

Frost nodded.

"So she's actually protecting your wishes."

"Yes, but also controlling them." Diane said remorsefully.

"Now what?"

Hunter's question hung over the room like damp wash. There was nothing to do but wait to see what, if anything, happened.

"Anybody interested in eating?" He ventured.

"You and Diane go along, I want to think quietly for a while about Alice. There must be a solution to modifying her core coding outside her influence."

"I wasn't thinking of eating--"

"Go on, being with Hunter will get your mind off this for a bit."

Hunter looked down, keeping a straight face as Diane flushed and gathered her things.

"Anywhere special?" He asked, the grin surfacing just enough to make her blush harder.

********

Horace watched as his engineers ran a random sample of a small domestic plant through the machine they had built. Each stage worked perfectly and when the final stage was reached all they could do was watch as the encrypted coding Diane had introduced performed the transition.

A cheer went up as the monitor revealed an image of the original specimen and the sensors indicated all biological characteristics were identical to that original. Horace had a faraway look in his eyes as he contemplated of just what his machine might be capable.

"I want tests run on a variety of materials both organic and inorganic and in a range of sizes to determine the equipment parameters."

The plant had been reduced to the size of a small sugar cube with the condensed water from the plant being about seventy-five percent of the original weight. A hasty calculation told him that the condensation chamber was large enough to hold the water from a sample he had in mind weighing roughly two hundred pounds.

In his office he made several calls to his Empirium contacts confirming the success of the tests and omitting the fact that Diane had retained essential coding for the transition stage. Plans were made to begin processing the samples they had retrieved from Galapagos.

He needed that code or the machine Frost had used.