Information

IQ has a minion!

Mark the Spudd

IQ
Legacy Name: IQ

The

Custom Common Terracoon
Owner:

Faber

Age: 8 years, 8 months

Born: August 15th, 2015

Adopted: 5 years, 9 months, 1 week ago

Adopted: July 5th, 2018

Statistics

Level: 3
Strength: 16
Defense: 10
Speed: 10
Health: 11
HP: 11/11
Intelligence: 96
Books Read: 87
Food Eaten: 0
Job: Candy Maker

Birth name: Ichabod Queen
Call sign: IQ
Stationed: Messina Moon Base 4
Specialty: Interstellar communications

» hey IQ, you there?

The message appeared in IQ's ansible chat log with a faint ping that woke him up. He'd fallen asleep at his terminal again.

»» yeah, what's up, Tank?

He typed, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

» are you seeing this?

IQ reached over and flipped a switch on his control pad that turned on the screens behind his desk. All of them were blank. Network error. That was strange.

»» vids are down?

» there was an attack. IQ, man, I'm so sorry.

A cold feeling sank in IQ's stomach. He typed in a command to pull up his base security cam feeds. The screens flickered, then showed something that made his chest go tight. He spun a dial on his control pad back to rewind the feeds. He didn't have to go back very far. As he watched, from multiple angles and in high definition video, the planet IQ's moon was orbiting, looking peaceful and normal one moment, and then in one sickening instant the largest city wiped off the planet's surface in an explosion like none IQ had ever seen.

»» that's not home, is it? it can't be.

He typed with shaking fingers. He already knew the answer to his question, but he had to ask it. There was a delay of several seconds that seemed to last forever.

» it happened an hour ago.

The cold feeling that had settled into IQ's gut grew and overtook his chest until his heart was racing and he found it hard to breathe. He grabbed the headset from its holster on his monitor and typed in the practiced command to dial his parent's estate. There was a pause and then a voice said "We're sorry, but the server you are trying to reach cannot be found. Please check your settings and try again."

He hung the headset back up. There was another faint ping from the ansible.

» whoever it was took out all our early warning satellites so we couldn't see it coming. no one knew anyone could do something like this.

IQ ran a system's diagnostic, more out of habit than anything. It didn't tell him anything he didn't already know. All communications from home were down. All communications with the satellite network were down. The only signal of any kind IQ's base was able to pick up was the private link between his and Tank's ansibles.

» what do we do?

IQ stared at the question on the ansible. He knew Tank was just as lost as he was right now.

»» I don't know yet, let me think.

He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream, but he knew that wouldn't help them. He stared at the replay of the destruction again and again on the screens and tried to think of what to do next. At least he wasn't completely alone.

»» are you still stationed near Adina?

He typed to Tank.

» yeah. it's quiet here, communications are down, but Adina wasn't attacked so it's probably just the emergency protocol.

IQ felt a little relief at that. His home planet, Messina, had been the base for technology and government for the two planets, but Messina's sister planet, Adina was the base for agriculture and education. If Adina was still standing, their people still had a future.

»» does your little brother still have that ansible you bought him?

» yeah. he wished me a good night a few hours ago, he's probably still asleep.

»» ping him. there's someone on Adina who might be able to help.

» I'll switch him over once I wake him up. what are you going to do?

IQ took a deep breath and pushed his emotions aside for the moment.

»» I'm going to reach out to a few friends and call in a few favors. we're going to find out who did this.

» you sure you know what you're doing?

»» no. but I have to try.

fin

overlay by User not found: alphys, profile art by Lavabeast and Spirited, story/profile by Faber, background from pexels