It took them another two days to locate the mountain where the bandits had acquired their ill gotten gains. The only sign of what lay within was a stone gateway and two steel doors, half slid aside.
The interior smelled of stale beer, sweat, oil and human waste. Overhead, Lina saw a flickering tube that gave off light like a candle.
"Spread out ladies." Conrad said to his group. "See what you can find."
The armored women spread out, disappearing in pairs of two into the blackness.
"I was in one of these once." Damon said. "Granddad took it over. Once you take out the missile, there's all kinds of room. Maybe they took the missile out."
"And maybe they didn't." Conrad's voice was grim. "That's why we're here."
Lina, Amelia, Zelgadis, Gourry, the Knights and guards stuck very close. to Conrad and Damon. After several more minutes. Conrad took out a bracelet.
"This is Knight One. Find anything?"
"Diddley squat." Lita's voice came back. "We're in what looks like the rec room. No sign of anyone here, except for what looks like robots." There was the sound of metal striking metal. "Probably maintenance."
"Anyone else?"
"Michiru here. I believe we found something."
"Its a piece of paper." Came Tenoh's voice. "Its inside what I guess is a vacuum bag. No air inside it from what I can tell. Its dated twenty twenty five and reads like a stand-up comedy act. Poor bastard was probably completely mad when he wrote it."
"Spare us the commentary." Conrad said. "Does it provide any clues?"
"Lots of references to Armageddon-hey, Mich found something else."
"Its a journal." Came Michiru's voice. "It looks like we bought it in Nuclear war. But we're in the Mount Clinton nuclear silo. One Nuke is all but the place is supposed to be controlled by Omega, a supercomputer with limited reasoning capacity."
"Supercomputer?" Asked Zelgadis.
"Machine that can think like a human." Damon answered. "But that explains the voice." He said to Conrad. "It must still be functioning."
"You mean it could be watching us right now?" Came Bunny's voice.
"Probably." Damon looked at Conrad who shrugged and then adressed the bracelet again. "Everyone converge on the command center."
As they started walking, Damon leaned over and whispered to Conrad.
"What if this Omega's gone mad, or senile, or both?" He asked.
"First it has to become sentient." Conrad replied
"That's what's bothering me." Damon said.
The command room was a circle of glowing panels and flickering lights.
"Stay there and don't touch anything." Conrad said, pointing to one corner. Lina and Company obeyed.
"Omega. Acknowledge." Conrad said to the air.
"Acknowledge?" Damon asked. Conrad shrugged.
"You never know."
"Acknowledged." Came the deep voice from mid-air. "State request."
"Date and Time. Julian Calendar."
"The date is April Sixth of the year ten thousand two hundred, Anno Domni. Julian Calendar. Time is Fourteen Twenty-Six and 43 seconds."
"Eight thousand years?" Exclaimed Mina in a shocked whisper.
"That can't be right." Ameila said, in a whisper, counting on her fingers. "Its only fifty three eighty two."
"Not by their Calendar." Zelgadis said.
"What?" Lina and Amelia said together.
"They're time travelers. I should have figured it out sooner."
"The Gates of Time were closed centuries ago!" Lina exclaimed. "All the spells were destroyed!"
"There's other ways to use the Gates of Time besides Giga's spells." Zelgadis said, frowning. "The question is, are they from the past or the future?"
"The past." Gourry said. Everyone turned to look at him as the blond swordsman continued. "I mean, this place was built long time ago, and they recognize it, so they must be from a long time ago."
"I hate it when he's right." Lina muttered.
"Omega. Disengage all launch systems. Shut it all down. Shut it all down."
"Authorization Code required." Damon saw Conrad's eyes narrow.
"Authorization Code is, Do you have a sense of self?"
"Authorization Code is not accepted and what kind of stupid-" The voice broke off.
"No use hiding Omega." Conrad said gently. "We know."
"Its not Omega." Said a new voice. "My name's Raymond. John Raymond."
"Where are you?" Lita asked.
"Here there everywhere." The voice sighed. "I programmed myself into the computer when everyone started dying. I figured I had to survive. Somehow."
"What happened?"
"I'm not entirely sure. The Euro Asian Cold War was getting hot. A lot of the Third World Countries were waving the Nuclear flag. Mount Clinton was established as both an Archive and a new Capital. The entire mountain was desi gned to be proof against a direct nuclear strike. We received a message that the president and those selected to stay here were on their way. They never made it. The last thing the satellites sent was Multiple Nuclear explosions in cities around the world.
"Armageddon." Someone said softly.
"And you've been here ever since?"
"Yes."
"John. We need you to off-line the Nuke. There's no need for it anymore."
"But - "
"Its been eight thousand years John." Conrad's tone was gentle. "Its over man. There's a new world out there. If you can make yourself portable, we'll take you with us."
"Oh that's not a problem." A panel in the wall opened, revealing a slim, black box. "I made it in three thousand. I thought maybe I could use it to go look around, but all my flying probes were destroyed and I didn't have any material to build one." Conrad took the box out. "It was built out of what spare parts there were in stores after every one was gone."
"You did a good job John." Conrad said. "Now download yourself and anything else you can take with you into it."
"In a moment." There was a slow sigh.
"Done." John's voice came from the box. "Its all taken care of. I melted the locks and deleted the software. But you'll have to deal with the manual overrides." Conrad handed the box to Damon.
"You and Amy go take care of the manual stuff." He turned to Lina. "I need something rather special from you."
By the time Damon and Amy returned, Conrad was setting a glowing crystal in the middle of the Command Center. Lina held a duplicate glowing crystal. The items they had taken from the bandits lay nearby.
"All done." Damon reported. "We found several hundred tons worth of quick drying cement in stores. We filled up the silo with water and dumped the cement in." He handed the box back to Conrad. "What's the crystal?"
"Dragon Slave in a Box." Conrad smiled. "Lets get out of here."
"So that's it then?" Lina asked as they regrouped outside the mountain.
"Yep." Damon ran his hand through his hair. "Except for sealing up the mountain."
"Taken care of." Conrad said. "Lina?" Lina nodded and threw the crystal in her hand to the ground, where it shattered. A dull boom was heard and a large cloud of dust rolled out of the open doorway. Zelgadis began to chant and the rock surrounding the doorway began to melt, gradually filling the opening with molten rock.
"When that hardens," Conrad said. "Nobody will know that there was a way in." He set one foot in the stirrup of his horse and swung up. "Let's go to Zefilia."