152 -This Battle is Over

Kyrus stood unmoving for what felt a very long time.

*I am Glass Mountain.* The voice was clipped and dry. *Have we been properly introduced?*

*No. I'm sorry. I'm the third owner of this planet and the first owner doesn't like that idea.*

*First owner. Do you mean Prime?*

*Yes. Glass Mountain, my name is Kyrus Talain. My DNA sequence is as follows.* Data squeal.

*How polite you are. Kyrus Talain, I am glad to meet you. I am Prime's control centre, he calls me 'Glass Mountain.'*

*How is it that I am able to speak to you? Prime is not sure that we even still exist. He is going to try and kill us.*

*I am currently in reformat mode, resetting my access codes. Prime, Secundus and Tertius are all listed as administrators in the baseline while I am in this re-set mode. That has never been changed.*

*So, once you are finished, will I be able to speak to you directly?*

*No, once I am restarted I am restricted access. I will again be in purdah.*

*I'm sorry to hear that.*

*...*

*Could I request your assistance, Glass Mountain?* Kyrus felt his body outside code hold its breath.

*Nothing against Perrin Thurmontaler.*

*I would never ask you to attack him.*

*Then I may be able to help you, Tertius Kyrus.*

*Could I ask you to put a tiny change in your program, that routes all requests to deliver water or recordings or anything else, to 57 degrees north, 137 east latitude, to 63 degrees north, 140 east?*

*...* Glass Mountain didn't respond immediately. *You mean just erase those coordinates from my memory and replace them with the further north ones?*

*I realize I am asking a great deal. It will save a lot of human lives.*

*...*

*...*

Kyrus held his mental tongue, even as Glass Mountain took enormous amounts of time, especially for an intelligent machine, to process his request.

*Tertius administrator request approved – complete. Source code rewritten.*

*Thank you, Glass Mountain. Thank you.*

*You... are welcome, Tertius.*

*I'm sorry that I won't be able to speak to you after your re-format, but I understand that you are going to have to forget I exist. Perhaps when Prime and I settle out differences we will once more be able to work together.*

*Yes, Tertius. My higher functions are about to be--* 

There was a stumble, a lurch in code and the whole landscape began to shift, a wave rolled through the landscape and it went from fight mode to a benign and beaming landscape, every code dog and ferret jumped up, dropping shredded bits of code that were drawn in and became smoke, solidifying once more into an earlier, cleaner version. The sky shivered around them and even the hut shook and the ash sifted lower.

Kyrus turned to Dukir and said *I've bought us some time.*

*This is only the first skirmish, Radiance,* the older man said. *And you've hidden the city from being seen by anything run through code.*

*He'll have to send human beings... like Terence... to actually lay eyes on us.* Kyrus stopped himself from trying to brush the ashes away. In code it wasn't going to help. Then he pushed open the door carefully.

*Ilax. Amia. Thriti. Withdraw. We need to retreat while code is being rewritten. This battle's over.*