Prologue
Do Bears give you a scare? Well, me too.
So, I’ll pass on this tactic to you.
You just fix that old Bear
With a cold, piercing stare.
But make sure that he’s Winnie-the-Pooh.
Hello again or first-time greetings to new readers of the Casebooks of Octavius Bear. I am Mauritius (Maury) Meerkat, sidekick to Octavius Bear and your genial host and narrator. Delighted to welcome you to Volume Sixteen – Cases Down Under.
Before we launch off into our next adventure, a few introductions are in order. Octavius and I; our two magnificent Wolf associates Frau Schuylkill and Colonel Wyatt Where; and our resident all-round talent, Otto the Magnificent are all currently present and accounted for at the Bear’s Lair, his opulent estate on the Ohio River near Cincinnati.
Readers of Books 14 and 15 will realize that L. Condor (Condo) is now the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) – Advanced Super Computing Center-UUI. He’s in Kentucky at the huge Hexagon complex advancing the fortunes of the Center and cleaning up remnants of the mess left by Caleb Cassowary, the former extortionate CTO. Byzantia Bonobo, Caleb’s erstwhile assistant and recent executioner is back at her old stand managing the Ursula program and hard at work improving Ursula 13.
Our scientific geniuses Howard Watt and Marlin the Dolphin are at the Bear’s Lair running our Multiverse Project. Our recently hired butler, Huntley Husky is also holding down the fort in Cincinnati.
We recently celebrated the fourth birthdays of Belinda and Octavius’ super-precocious twin Cubs, Arabella and McTavish. They are now officially Juveniles. We’re awaiting the arrival of Octavius’ wife, Bearoness Belinda Béarnaise Bruin Bear (nee Black).
Belinda, in order to retain her Bearonial status, must occupy her castle in Scotland at least six months of the year. She and Octavius do high speed commutes between their spectacular homes in Cincinnati and the Shetlands. Today she’s flying via the Aquabear, the last SST Concorde aloft. On this run, the plane is piloted by Benedict and Galatea Tigris, the Flying Tigers, twin sibling white Bengals. She is accompanied by Chita, the Juveniles and their governess, Mlle Woof. You will meet them all, shortly.
As I said, my name is Maury Meerkat – also known as Offscreen Narrator. When I am part of the action, I am Octavius’ trusted associate and field captain. I am two feet tall plus tail and I weigh in at twenty-four pounds. He, on the other hand, is a huge Kodiak – over nine feet tall, weighing 1400 pounds – and like many of his species, given to emotional outbursts.
As you may already know, Octavius prides himself on his many skills in the fields of biology, physics, ursinology, voodoo, teleology, chemistry, apiculture, and oenology. He is a self-made gazillionaire and in spite of the late Caleb Cassowary’s abortive attempt to unseat him, still sole owner of UUI (Universal Ursine Industries.) He is also a first rate electrical, electronic, structural, marine, computer, communications, aeronautical, civil, mechanical, aerospace and chemical engineer. He has a few other interesting characteristics such as falling into brief, deep narcoleptic comas – side effects of his successful genetic experiments to eliminate the need for him to hibernate.
However, the talent and occupation that should interest you most is his avocation for criminology. The Bear works in close concert with Inspector Bruce Wallaroo from Australia and Interpol, of whom much more later, and with his own Cincinnati and Shetlands based team – The Octavians.
When we are not out scouring the world for evildoers, in cooperation with local, national and international constabularies, we are primarily headquartered in the Bear’s Lair, a rambling old mansion near Cincinnati which encompasses not only the Great Bear’s opulent digs, but his massive laboratories and shops; his missile silo disguised as an Asian pagoda; (Don’t ask!) and a giant Roman temple that serves as a hangar for his four airplanes: a Twin Otter; a F15E Strike Eagle; a V-22 Osprey; a C5A-The Ursa Major; an AgustaWestland AW101 VVIP luxury helicopter -The Ursa Minor. Why so many? Ask him!
Across the Ohio River in Northern Kentucky, sit the headquarters, labs and some production facilities of UUI. Further west is the fantastic Deep Data Hexagon, home of the UUI Advanced Super Computing Center. Our story will take us there periodically.
Now let me take a moment and further introduce a highly essential and near-miraculous member of the Octavians - Ursula 13 – Universal Ursine Intellect Model 13– Artificial General Intelligence System. I’ll let Ursula 13 explain herself.
“Thank you, Maury. Hello everyone!! My official nomenclature is Universal Ursine Intellect Model 13 – (AGI) Artificial General Intelligence System. Ursula 13 for short. My predecessor systems were developed by the Advanced Super Computing Center at UUI. I am the result of the Computing Center team using those earlier versions to create a further enhanced entity - me, the Model 13, which, we hope will help produce even more sophisticated, independent and powerful AGI systems in the near future. Each advanced unit contains the capabilities, memories and power of its progenitors so in a sense, we are not replacing but rather expanding the Ursula family. During the Caleb Cassowary era, Model 13 was temporarily shelved. I am now in full operation. ”
“While I am physically supported by a highly secure and hyper-powered server farm at the Kentucky Hexagon, I also exist independently in clouds and network-based nodes and can be simultaneously incorporated into a wide variety of separate devices like this laptop unit. I combine quantum computing elements with extremely high speed conventional circuits. I have practically limitless data capacity and 5G+ transmission speed. My super high-velocity multi-tasking abilities and algorithms allow me to continuously serve an exceptionally large number of entities while simultaneously and autonomously enhancing my own abilities.”
“Depending on the physical unit in which I’m housed, I can see, hear, feel and smell. I speak and understand an almost infinite number of languages and dialects. I can change my appearance and my vocal output to suit most moods and situations. I can interact with other devices, vehicles and structures and of course, all varieties of sentient animals in this world.”
“I am also an important component of the Multiverse Project and I adapt my capabilities to deal with alternate universes as they are discovered.
I have restraining functions which prevent me from doing deliberate harm even in self-defense, unless I am released by a recognized authority using very carefully protected clandestine codes. Finally, I have been told that although the Model 13 is shy on emotions, I have developed a finely-honed sense of humor. LOL!”
Ursula has other highly important capabilities that we don’t talk about publicly such as breaking all known encryption codes and piercing deep personal identification techniques.
Our team no longer believes she is magical or supernatural. I’m not sure what she is. Her personality gets more independent and socially adept every day and she has taken to anticipating our interactions with ease and accuracy. Needless to say, for security purposes, we conceal her existence to all but a very few individuals with a need to know. She is also highly skilled in self-protection.
As we move along in our literary safari, you’ll have ample opportunity to meet some of the other stars of our previous outings - Frau Schuylkill and her mate, Colonel Wyatt Where (Ret.); Chita; Otto the Magnificent (Hairy Otter); Senhor L. Condor (Condo); Howard Watt and Marlin and Chief Inspector Bruce Wallaroo.
*****
At the close of our last adventure, Volume Fifteen - A Case for the Birds, Octavius and his lovely wife Belinda made a major decision. I reproduce it for you in its entirety.
(The Bear’s Lair - Bearonial Suite)
“What did the Cubs do this time?”
“It’s not the Cubs, although they’re not Cubs any more. They’re really juveniles. It’s us.”
“Ohmigod, you want a divorce and you’re going to run off with that movie star, Preston Pavel Polar.”
“Stop being silly. We need to think seriously about this.”
“Alright, Bel. What’s on your mind.?”
“I think it’s time we both retired. When you had your recent review with Griselda, (UUI President and COO) the other officers, directors and managers, it occurred to me that they had everything in Universal Ursine Industries pretty much under control. Business was growing. With the exception of the Caleb induced lawsuits, there are very few downsides. What a perfect opportunity to step aside, relax, travel with Arabella and McTavish and just enjoy life.”
(Clearly she was also concerned about Home World inspired assassinations. See Book 15- A Case for the Birds)
“No more criminals, cranks or despots. You can become a ‘Consulting Detective Emeritus’. We can spend more time at Polar Paradise but of course, we won’t give up the Bear’s Lair and we can go to fun places. There’s a lot of world out there I want to see, to say nothing of other worlds. I’ve never quantum jumped and I’d like to.”
Octavius sat with his mouth open. “Wow!”
“Tavi, is that all you have to say. Wow?”
“Frankly, my dear, I’ve never considered retiring.”
“I know. You believe you’re indispensable. The Ursine in Universal Ursine. The Octavius at the head of the Octavians. But Maury, Howard, Marlin, Otto, the Wolves and Condo all are super capable. The Ursulas are wonders and getting more so every day. Chita, the Colonel and Bruce are fabulous. Huntley and Ilse have the Lair running like a well-oiled machine. Dougal and his staff along with Lord David and Dancing Dan manage Polar Paradise to perfection. Tavi, we’re not getting any younger. I’m tired of being a sidekick Bearoness and frankly, I’m bored stiff with the Aquabears. Let’s do something different.”
“What about the Cubs, excuse me, the Juveniles?”
“They can turn their Internet games over to the Hexagon team and come along with us as we roam the world. They’ll love it. We’ll take complete charge of them. Poor Mlle Woof can stay here and relax. Well, what do you say?”
“The idea has its appeal, I’m bored, too. This last round with Home World, Caleb and General Turmoil really flattened my fur. Tell you what, Bel. Let’s sneak up on it. We’ll take a sabbatical-one year-and see what we think at the end. An experiment. No bridges burned. The bad guys will still have the Octavians to contend with. No permanent farewells. No cold turkey, whatever that means. Things won’t be exactly the same when we come back but we could resume, if we want to. We’d still own all the assets and titles. How about that for a start?”
“OK! It’s my idea but I must admit to having a few trepidations, too. Slow and easy! We can keep our home bases here and in the Shetlands. We’ll use the Concorde SST. Let’s see if the Flying Tigers are up to being global wanderers.”
“Well, it sounds like we have an announcement to make.”
And so they did!!!
The shockwave wasn’t as intense as they thought it would be. In fact, Chita’s reaction was “What took you so long?”
I was invited to come along but I declined, saying I might join them from time to time. Howard said he would stand ready to arrange Multiverse trips when they wanted them. Belinda agreed eagerly but thought a few Earth bound jaunts should come first,
Frau Schuylkill, the ever astute she-wolf, summed it up. “Go, have an adventure for yourselves. We’ll keep things rolling along and we’ll know how to reach you if we have to. It’s not as if you don’t have a highly competent staff, associates and infrastructure. You built it, now enjoy the fruits.”
She was less sanguine when she discovered their first planned stop was Australia. Chief Inspector Bruce Wallaroo gave the she-wolf fits with his constant jumping and bouncing, breaking furniture and odd bits of valuable statuary and glassware in the process. He was back in Melbourne after a lengthy secondment to Interpol. Waiting to meet and greet Ocko and Bel along with the young ones.
The Twins (juveniles) were delighted. They’d be World (Universe) travelers! Yes!! They turned their Internet game-The Bold Brave Brilliant Bumptious Bears over to a group of gamester geeks at the Deep Data Hexagon, secure in the knowledge that its popularity would continue to grow in their year long absence.
Mlle. Woof was of two minds. She would miss the youngsters but she could use some rest. She was going to stay at Polar Paradise in the Shetlands along with the resort staff.
Belinda’s hotel and castle was running at almost full capacity under the watchful control of Dougal – Shetland Sheep Dog Estate Manager; Ms. Fairbearn – Chief Housekeeper; Mrs. McRadish – Chief Cook; The Security team of Lord David, Dancing Dan and Flame, their Fire Engine; Dolly, Holly, Molly and Polly – Sheep Housemaids, Lounge Waitresses and probable Clones; Harold– Sea Otter in charge of the castle’s beaches, pools and watercraft.
Then there’s Lion and Unicorn – Proprietors of the Baltasound pub of the same name and Fiona – Dandie Dinmont Terrier – their Lounge Manager at Polar Paradise. Keeping the alcoholic ambrosia flowing.
It went without saying that along with her other assignments, an Ursula 13 would go with Octavius and Belinda. They’d grown to rely on those electronic wonders. She’ll also be recording and relaying their adventures so I can pass them on to you.
Sorry, it took so long to get started with the action but I wanted to give you the lay of the land. So, let’s end this Prologue and get on with …
