Leiara emerged from the shower wearing only a robe. She entered the kitchen to refill her tapcaf. Brno, clad only in a pair of shorts, was typing away like a man possessed. As soon as she noticed Brno's frustration, the woman had to come over and shoulder-surf.
"Are you getting anywhere with this?" she asked as she stared at the screen.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to hit a moving target? There must be over a dozen secondary computers in each tower alone!"
"I told you, Brno, nothing you do must harm the agents."
"Pfft," he forced out his breath; "You're handcuffing me. I'm trying to catch a write to their system logs so I can access them, but the processes that do that keep getting swapped all over the place and use an addressing protocol I can't follow!"
Brno's efforts stopped cold as the smiling faces of East and West appeared on his screen. He stood up slowly, frowning, and mumbled, "I am soooooo busted."
"Leiara, Leiara, we know you're out there. Turn on your netcam so we can see you."
Surprised as she was, she took Brno's seat and complied. "Hello, boys," she mumbled as the device powered up, "Uh, fancy meeting you here."
"Well, Brno left the door open, so we decided to drop by," said East as the man retreated.
"Biku wants us to practice running remotes, so we decided to come here to talk to you," said West.
"You're the only one who ever calls us just to talk," said East, "Others only want us when they need something."
Leiara leaned back, a puzzled expression on her face, "I thought that was what you were there for."
The brothers glanced at each other. West shrugged and said, "Well, yes, and it feels good to be able to help, but we have needs too."
"You're the only one besides Biku who treats us as individuals," said East.
"And right now we're nervous. Biku wants us to take on new roles, like recruiting for the colony."
"He wants us to send our icons over the network to reach people directly, and this is only the beginning."
"I remember when our biggest concern was finding a large enough block of time to assemble the baseline figures for our structural integrity test profiles. I guess we're maturing."
"Can't say 'growing up'. We're about as 'up' as anyone can get."
Leiara giggled, noticing that the motion was causing her robe to slip open more. Would they even care? She pondered this, and the fact they were only seven years old. Nothing was really showing, so she left it.
"It's never easy leaving the carefree days of youth behind, especially when you've had so few of them," said Leiara, "but it is something we all must go through."
"Gell did not warn us of this," said West, "Can you help us?"
"I'll try," she smiled, "but you are a different species, perhaps the only ones of your kind."
"What do you know of the Force?" asked West.
"Do I look like a Jedi?" replied Leiara, who then looked down at herself, "Oh, maybe I do, a little, but they usually have something else on under the robe. Why do you ask?"
"I was thinking back to the last time we were with Gell. He said he was proud of the progress we were making, that because of us, his years here had meaning, and he was beginning to feel the Force had brought him here just for that purpose."
"Biku had told us about Kelvan Tarrason, the colony's founder. We've looked up his teachings. He was never trained by the Jedi but he claimed that the Force had direction, a manifestation of a great plan no single mind could perceive. Kelvan felt the direction to the point where he could see ahead in time. That's how he knew Querylwan was here. Gell never had that much ability, but after living here for years, he began to sense that all was right with the Force. He cast aside his bitterness and regrets and put his energy into creating us. He stopped resenting the machinations of Ordin and Bey, and named our complex for Kelvan."
"The last time, Gell said he thought the Force was beginning to flow in us. We asked how, since we are not living beings as you are. He came up with what Kelvan said just before he died. 'Your forefathers are four fathers, three are promised you, two unlike any before, one new world to lead.' We thought Gell was reaching. He said the Force is not always something you know, but always something you feel. At that point, we stopped trying to understand because his reasoning was going to cause some of our secondaries to crash. Do you understand?"
"Is that possible?" asked East.
"Perhaps," Leiara said after some thought, "I would even say you are living beings, albeit made of different materials. You're in constant contact with us...could hold a quarter-million of us in the whole complex, I suppose...and that plague...all those people dying...all that energy had to go somewhere. I can't say for sure. The planet as a whole is lush and full of life. Could it rub off on or permeate you and take hold because you're intelligent? Maybe."
The brothers looked at each other, realizing there were no easy answers to such questions, so they brought up one that did have an easy answer.
"So, what was Brno thumbing through our processes looking for?" asked East.
Leiara looked over her shoulder. Her partner was in the kitchen making himself a snack.
"He was trying to access your system logs."
East smiled, "See, you have given us a reason to trust you."
"If he was looking for a specific event we can re-post the relevant data. He can't read it directly. Our system logs are custom-formatted for our purpose," said West.
Leiara looked down at her lap, then swiveled in the chair to face Brno. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Brno's jaw dropped as she swiveled back.
"He was after your command codes, trying to take control of you."
The brothers turned to face each other again.
"Don't get mad at him. It was my idea. I know how you said we could live comfortably as venture capitalists but this was just greed. Plain stupid greed. I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't cut out to be a real estate mogul. It won't happen again."
The brothers were silent for some time, just staring at each other. Brno grumbled under his breath, "They're running a remote on our system. I had 'em where I wanted 'em."
Finally East spoke to her, "You're already something far more valuable than a real estate mogul," he said in a voice so smooth it brought tears to her eyes again, "You are our friend."
Brno tossed the dishtowel in the sink and left for his room.
The brothers stared at each other for another three minutes, which seemed interminably long to Leiara, used to their snappy comebacks.
"We must apologize too," West stated at last, "Your mention of command codes prompted a search through our records. We are now double-checking archives. No matches were found. We cannot recall them."
"Brno?" Leiara summoned him again.
"We know it has been a while since Gell accessed us through them," said East, "We can even remember the experience of Gell working with us and on us, but of the codes themselves...it seems we cannot recover them."
"Did Gell ever change them?" Leiara asked.
"No, not to our knowledge. They've been the same since we've been running."
"Would you recognize them if they were used?"
The brothers stared at each other again for some time.
"We...we are not sure," West admitted, looking scared.
"How could you lose your own command codes?" asked Leiara, checking Brno.
"Don't look at me," said the man, "Couldn't have been anything I did. I never got that far."
"We are running a system diagnostic. So far, there is no evidence of physical damage."
"That is a potential security hole if anybody else finds the codes."
"There is no trace of software problems either," East cried, "We just don't have the codes."
"And this has nothing to do with running remote like this?"
"No. We're sure of that. East broke his link long enough to scan," said West.
"Okay, boys, calm down. I'm sure there's a simple explanation for this. You'll have to talk to Biku."
The twins looked at each other again before nodding, "Okay, okay. That's logical."
The Bothan rested his elbows on his desk in the Management Office, staring at the four figures in front of him, two Human and two holographic humanoids, his fur bristling until it was on end.
"So stop me if this makes any sense," he said in a low, growling voice. "You two," he pointed a clawed finger at Brno and Leiara, "have been trying to break into my computer to steal the command codes for Tarrason Central and failing miserably, so you ask the agents." He shifted his finger to East and West, "for their assistance in gaining control of them. They claim they have mysteriously forgotten the codes when they can remember who changed the lighting elements on the fourth floor of Building 6 two and a half years ago along with which parts batch they drew from and what kind of hoverlift they used. So all of you show up here and decide to ask me flat out what the codes are for our own good."
He glanced back and forth between the pairs, his eyes narrowing.
"I realize this all seems pretty strange -" Leiara ventured.
Biku dropped his face into his hands and took a deep breath.
"Our loyalty is unchanged," said West, "We wish this disturbing matter to be settled and put behind us, so we can focus on expanding the team and preparing for the future."
"Expanding the team? To include these two who admitted trying to take you over?"
"That was attempted in ignorance," answered West, "They have pledged to change and apologized for their misdeeds. They will not harm us."
"Well, I've got news for all of you about the command codes," Biku stared into the eyes of each individual before him, then spread his arms with palms upward, "I don't have 'em!"
"What?!?" Brno gasped.
"I have Manager's Access Codes, for this workstation, the ones in the Control Center, and the one at home. They open up a separate data stream direct from the agents without bogging them down. I can monitor what the agents are doing, view the status of the complex, access certain systems like the P.A., and assist them in troubleshooting, but I can't override or edit them. I never could. That was Gell's prerogative."
"Gell never gave them to you?" Leiara asked.
"Duh," Biku shrugged, "No."
"That's why we're here!" Leiara pleaded. "Nobody has them. It's a security hole!"
"If the agents can't remember the codes, what am I supposed to do about it?"
"Go through Gell's stuff, everywhere he's been. Maybe he kept copies somewhere. I don't care if I never got those codes. Just protect the agents."
"You don't think I've been through Gell's stuff? These two didn't even come with an instruction manual much less command codes."
"He must have left a hint, a backup somewhere. He wouldn't leave the agents vulnerable."
"Maybe he didn't. Maybe there's a reason why they can't remember the codes. Boys, do you remember when you last remembered the codes?"
The brothers looked at each other and then back at Biku, "You've got to be kidding."
"Okay, a more rational approach. Think back to the last five incidents where you had contact with Gell in private surroundings."
Both agents briefly closed their eyes. "Yes?" they said together.
"Do you recall him accessing you in that manner?"
"Twice," said West.
"Any system file alterations made?"
"Not to core elements, which is where command codes would be stored."
"Okay, when was the last time changes to core elements were made?"
The brothers looked at each other, then obediently printed the timestamp on Biku's terminal.
Biku gasped, "Gell was already dead by then! In fact, that was the day we found out he was dead."
Leiara added, "...maybe Ordin and my brother took a stab at it. Didn't they make it to the Control Room?"
"That's an easy one," Biku said to the twins, "Timestamp of when you called security to the Control Room?"
Without thinking, the two displayed it.
"No. No, that's too late...but before that all we were doing was hanging out at the office," Biku playfully twirled a lock of fur with his index finger.
"Well, at least we know what files to retrieve," said West, closing his eyes.
When he opened them, it was to look at his brother. The pair silently bowed their heads in unison.
"We have found a matching timestamp," announced West, who gestured to Biku's screen.
Gell's last will and testament was already playing. The camera view showed the top of the back of Biku's head, the blurred hologram of Gell, which was out of synch with the local imaging, the much clearer holograms of East and West, which were in synch, the three robed magistrates, and Bey and Ordin. A second timestamp ticked away over the original timestamp on the lower-right corner of the screen.
"Since I never got to have children of my own, with my dear friends interfering with my every attempt; don't think I didn't notice, Ordin and Bey, and since most of my family fortune went into the construction of Tarrason Central, disposition of the remainder of my fortune will be a simple matter. All of my money will go to my only true heirs, East Tarrason Selardin and West Tarrason Selardin."
At that moment, the two timestamps matched exactly. The screen froze, displaying flaws in the agent's holograms that were so brief they were undetectable by the naked eye. They had dimmed and blurred, losing synch in that moment as the agents' resources were shifted away.
"So that was his plan," said Biku, "The second he gave you his name, the command codes self-erased, a secret part of your inheritance, making you truly his next-of-kin."
"They don't have command codes at all then," noted Leiara.
"I guess not. It means I really can't control you, but it also means you're on your own. If something crashes or malfunctions, unless you can trace it to specific hardware or a software module that can be easily changed out, I can't help you. You've got to deal with it. I can't override your will, but I also can't perform the adjustments Gell did for you, or prevent the consequences of your decisions from happening."
Suddenly, to East and West, the weight of the 150 floors of their towers on their foundations seemed as nothing compared to the new burdens of responsibility on their young lives. They stepped closer together, leaning on each other for support, twining East's left and West's right arms together chain-style at the elbows.
"I'm not going anywhere," said Biku, "I'm still here to advise you. I just can't edit you or add additional modules directly."
Leiara approached the terror-struck pair, with the expressions on their faces a reflection of their orphaned status.
"You two have no reason to be scared," she cooed to them, "You're doing fine, and seven years is more than enough to get all the glitches out. No more than a safety net has been removed. It is like a landspeeder being taken off its training settings. You are ready for the real deal. Gell believed in you, now believe in yourselves."
The twins looked at each other, then at Leiara. She smiled warmly at them and though they weren't quite ready to smile back she could see in their eyes and slackening body tension that their anxiety was lifting.
"Leiara," the voice came unexpectedly from behind her. It was not East's or West's, but Biku's. His furry tresses were down, relaxed, and his fingers were interlaced, "Welcome to the team."
Even Brno smiled at that.
