Stowaway

by Z D Dean

  As soon as the medics completed the nanite injection, Samix could hear Zade’s breathing take on an easy regularity. As she looked at him, she could see his ugly bruises fade, and some of the smaller lacerations begin closing up. The medics did another scan and estimated that Zade would be back on his feet in the next couple of days.

  Samix wanted to be by Zade’s side when he awoke, so upon hearing his estimated recovery time, she stood and made her way out of the office. As she left, she informed her father that she would be returning to the spaceport to retrieve the location data for Zade’s home world. He reinforced his concerns about Unity security and made Samix promise to not transfer any relevant information about the core worlds. After some discussion, Samix was allowed to give Zade information on his home world, contested space and the rim planets.

  Chapter 17

  Samix headed for a quick shower before she, and her security team headed to the spaceport to retrieve the information for Zade. As soon as she set foot on the XES01, Mur was right beside her.

  “Is everything ok captain? Your stress hormones appear to be off the charts.” He asked, a genuine note of concern in his voice.

  Samix gave Mur a quick run down of the events that had transpired since the crew had disembarked. Mur held a particular interest in how Zade had been treated and whether or not he would recover. The AI had taken a liking to the human after his reboot. Samix wasn’t sure why, but surmised the AI was overcompensating for how his previous version had reacted to Zade’s presence. After she was done explaining everything, she told Mur about the information she needed to get Zade back to his people. Mur quickly found the information, but before uploading it to a fresh data core, asked for clarification.

  “The only restriction given by the chancellor was, no data on the core planets, correct?”

  After confirming the restrictions, Samix waited for Mur to transfer the data. At the AI’s signal Samix took the data core and pocketed it. She than headed to the command deck to reminisce about the times she and Zade shared aboard the ship. Hours passed before Samix broke from her reverie. She was going to miss Zade, but she didn’t have to leave him defenseless. After stopping by her quarters, aboard the ship, to grab a duffel bag; Samix headed to Zade’s lab to stuff it with his creations.

  As she dug through the different weapons strewn across the workbenches, she set the data core next to one of the terminals, and asked Mur to download all of the blueprints stored in the lab. Zade had spent months tinkering in the lab and Samix felt it only right that he took the fruits of his labor with him. With the weapons and data gathered, and both in the duffel bag, Samix headed back down the ramp of the ship where her security detail waited. Even though she informed them on the contents of the bag, they still searched it before allowing her to take it to Zade.

  Before leaving the spaceport, Samix found that Zade was staying at a hospital not far from where she was. After directing her driver Samix was standing next to, a still unconscious, Zade. She spent the next two days either at debriefings, press conferences or Zade’s bedside. As long as she didn’t expose Zade’s existence, the chancellor was content letting her spend time in the hospital.

  Just before nightfall on the second day after his run in with the chancellor, Zade stirred. The first thing he noticed was how extremely thirsty he was, and after opening his eyes to look for a water pitcher, he saw that he was back in a hospital room.

  Damn, I have to stop waking up this way. He thought to himself as he took a long draw from the glass of water on his bedside table. Thirst quenched, Zade sat up and scanned his room further. It was a standard hospital room, with the addition of Samix’s sleeping form on the couch by the foot of his bed. The sight of the blue woman set his mind ablaze and the memories of the past few days came flooding back. Memories of the abduction, the encounter with the chancellor, and the beating all came back to him. Caught up in his head, he hadn’t even noticed that the woman had woke until she embraced him in a hug.

  “I’m so sorry about all of this, about everything.” Samix managed to get out between sobs. “This is all my fault; I should have told you about my father before we landed. I just didn’t want you to think differently of me.”

  As Zade laid on the floor of that office, getting worked over, his life had flashed before his eyes. Every good moment, every bad one and everything in between. As he watched his life flash by, Zade had made a revelation; outside of the things that happened in the military, the worst times in his life were cause by either his temper or his ability to hold a grudge. Just before he blacked out he promised himself, if he had it all to do over again, he would work on his temper, the source of most of his regrets.

  After kissing the top of her head, he gently pushed Samix back so he could look at her as he spoke. “Samix, all is forgiven. I’m back to healthy. I don’t think this whole situation played out like either of us wanted but, more importantly, I don’t think you intentionally hurt me.”

  His words elicited another round of wracking sobs from Samix. She clung to him like a drowning man to a life preserver. Zade just stroked her back as she slowly regained her composure. The sound of Samix sobbing must have alerted the guard outside the room because he promptly looked in the room. After noticing Zade awake, he walked over and handed him a sealed envelope, after which he retreated back out of the room. While still holding Samix, Zade quickly read the letter.

  Mr. Zade, my daughter’s interest in you is the only reason you are still alive. It was her desire to see you healthy and back on your way home. I cannot have you interrupting my plans here on the core planets. There is a ship waiting for you in private hanger 062. You have one week to vacate Unity core system space, after which I will declare you an enemy of the Unity. -The Chancellor

  By the time Zade had read the letter for the third time Samix had calmed enough to wonder what had drawn his attention away from her. Seeing the envelope with the official chancellor’s seal on it, on the bed next to Zade, she quickly grabbed the letter from his hands and read it through.

  After giving Samix time to finish reading, he spoke up. “It seems that quite a bit has happened since I’ve been out. Care to fill me in?”

  Samix quickly launched into explaining the events that had transpired between her and her father since Zade had been recovering. Neither the news on how much time had passed since the XES01 left, nor the new about his new thousand-year lifespan got the reaction from Zade that she had expected. The news about having his own ship caused Zade to light up whereas, the thought of him leaving on it crushed Samix.

  Before the unshed tears, gathering in her eyes, could fall, Zade spoke up. “This is the way it has to be. I don’t even know if earth still exists, but I have to try to get home. I plan on helping anyone who needs it along the way. Helping people, who can’t help themselves, is the reason I joined the military. It’s who I am.” He quickly gauged her reaction before continuing. “You on the other hand, are needed by your people here. You are destined to be the next chancellor, that’s who you are. Now, I really want to stretch my legs, and I can’t think of a better place to do that than on my new ship. You coming?”

  Samix wanted to argue about Zade’s impression of who she was. She was more like him in the sense that all she wanted to do was help the oppressed peoples of the galaxy. She never wanted to be a politician; that was her father’s dream for her. She joined the Academe to be a trooper, so she could go fight and help people. Her father pulled some strings to get her in the command course, which looked better on the resume. She wanted to tell Zade that they had more in common than he thought but knew that would make it harder for them to go their separate ways.

  As Zade changed, out of his hospital gown, and into his, recently laundered, fatigues he noticed the look of consternation on Samix’s face. He really wanted to know what was bothering her, but if she wasn’t talking, he wasn’t going to pry. When they left Zade’s hospital room, Samix’s security detail fell into formation and escorted the pair to w
aiting vehicles. After a brief drive, the two were standing in front of, a closed, private hanger, the numbers 062 painted across the doors.

  For whatever reason, the security detail felt comfortable enough to let the two enter the hanger alone. Zade knew the space was gigantic from the outside of the building. The interior was pitch black except for a small cluster of work lights focused on the nose of the ship. After fumbling around, unsuccessfully, for a light switch, Zade made his way to the nose of the ship. The darkness of the hanger concealed most of the ship, but from what Zade could see illuminated by the work lights the ship was a decent size. He approximated it to be slightly smaller than the XES01, but just so.

  Around the nose of the ship was a mechanic, wiping his hands and putting away his tools. So not to startle the guy, Zade knocked on the side of the ship before speaking up.

  “So, taking care of my new ride?”

  The mechanic startled at the intrusion but quickly overcame his discomfort. “Sure am. Just finished putting in the hydrogen scoop. Installed the new warp engine, and AI yesterday after we renovated the life support systems.” A brief pause ensued as the mechanic went through a mental checklist of repairs before he continued. “Not sure what you did to piss off the chancellor, but he saddled you with this rig. She might get you to the rim, but just barely.”

  Curiosity laced with concern raced through Zade’s mind, prompting him to aske the mechanic to turn on the lights in the hanger. He wanted to see his new ship in its full glory. As the lights came up both Zade and Samix’s mouths fell open. The former, because he was looking at his very own spaceship. The latter, because she recognized the ship.

  One of the Unity security teams came across it floating dead in core space. No one knew the origins of the ship, or the species that created it. The team towed the ship back planet side for researchers to examine. Researchers tried to gather information on the ship, and eventually deemed it no longer useful, assuming Unity technology had surpassed anything on the mystery ship. It had been sitting in disrepair, forgotten, in this hanger for decades. Her father must have given it to Zade because he could never get anyone to buy it from him. She was absolutely furious at her father for setting Zade up for failure. Nobody even knew if the ship could break into orbit, let alone make it into contested space.

  Samix spun on her heel and stormed back towards her waiting security detail. “I can’t believe this. My father gave you this hunk of junk, probably hoping you’d die on your trip. I’m going to talk to him.”

  Before Zade could respond, she was out the door. Zade simply shook his head and admired the jet-black ship, laced with green accents. It was a bit bulky like the cargo ships he had seen in the spaceport, but somehow still looked sleek. From the outside he guessed that the ship was sectioned into three main components. The back looked wide and cavernous, which Zade assumed was for cargo storage. Unlike the majority of the ships he had seen before, there was no ramp exiting the rear of the ship, rather a portion of the cargo bay floor dropped straight down below the ship. The front of the ship had a protrusion, shaped like the head of a snake, that was covered in windows. Zade assumed this had to be the command deck. Leaving the middle portion of the ship for quarters the galley and any other rooms. Zade did one full circuit around the ship, and when he returned to the nose he was addressed by the mechanic.

  “I am done here. If you don’t need anything, I’m gonna head out.” The mechanic said.

  Zade thought for a second, “I don’t think I need you to do anything right now. Could you tell me how to order parts for the ship, if I find anything I might need?”

  “Right over there is a terminal that allows ordering and control of the hanger functions. If you swipe your id card by it, you should be able to control everything. Anything you order for the ship will be delivered to the hanger within a day or so.” He said as he pointed to a screen at the far end of the space.

  “If you need more equipment installed, give me a call.” Zade quickly pulled his handheld screen from his pocket, and the mechanic swiped his ident chip over it transferring the data. After giving his instructions, the mechanic picked up his tools and retreated out the man door.

  After watching the mechanic leave, Zade looked back towards the ship that would be his new home for the foreseeable future. As Zade admired his ship a new plan began to coalesce in his mind. The reality was such that, with the time dilation involved in faster than light travel, mankind may not even exist when he returned to earth. If they did, he would need more than his lone ship to fend off some large galactic organization such as the Unity or Galactic Domain. Grabbing the bag Samix had brought to his hospital room, Zade jumped on the lift and decided to explore the inside of the ship.

  As soon as the lift gate closed, leaving an almost imperceptible seam in the floor of the cargo bay, Zade was greeted by the cold mechanical, yet somehow still feminine, voice of the ship’s AI.

  “Greetings Captain [please state name]. Welcome to [please state ship name].” The voice emanated from the newly installed speakers around him.

  You’ve got to be kidding me. Zade thought to himself. Samix’s impression that her father had greatly shortchanged him becoming much more plausible. He could only be disappointed at the fact that the personal digital assistant on his cellphone back on earth had more personality than his ship AI. The directives from the AI caught Zade off guard. He had assumed that he would be given a previously named ship and that his information would already have been transferred to the AI.

  “I am captain Alexander Zade.” He said, filling in the first blank.

  The second took him longer. He had assumed that ships, like the cars of his planet, should be named after women. He couldn’t just name the ship some common name, he wanted the name of his vessel to have meaning. Following his ethos of helping the oppressed he came across and righting injustices along his trip, Zade began to narrow down the list of potential names. The ship may see combat, shrinking the list further. Suddenly the name of a Sumerian goddess, learned in a college elective on ancient religions, came to mind. Ananna was the Sumerian goddess of beauty, war and justice. It was the perfect fit.

  His ship was beautiful, if in a state of disrepair. He would be trying to bring justice to the being he ran across, including mankind eventually. He had no illusions that his travels would be without bloodshed. Confident in his choice he spoke up again.

  “This ship is the Ananna. Where is your AI core located? I need to upload navigational information.”

  The AI informed Zade that an AI control terminal had been installed in the command deck of the ship and was connected to speakers that ran throughout. Zade moved through the ship, towards the nose where the command deck was located, exploring along the way. The ship had a pretty basic layout.

  The lower floor, connected to the cargo hold in the rear, consisted of an armory, galley and three large empty rooms. Although he could identify the purpose of the rooms, all of the equipment was foreign. The armory had, what appeared to be, weapons racks along one wall which were covered in dust and didn’t look like they could hold any of the weaponry he was familiar with. The center of the room had workbenches, equally coated in dust.

  The galley, he identified by the seating area in the middle that could hold roughly eight people. The backwall had equipment lining it but was nothing like he had seen in the galley of the XES01. On the other side of the lower hallway there were three empty rooms that Zade assumed were either special purpose rooms or storage.

  At the end of the hallway there was a stairwell that lead to the second deck of the ship. At the top, a right took you into the command deck, a left took you toward the crew quarters. The number of rooms matched the number of seats in the galley. There were seven modest quarters consisting of a bed, a desk, a bathroom and a storage area. The eighth room was much larger, better equipped and had a door leading directly into the command deck.

  Assuming the large room was the captain’s quarters, Zade set his bag on the bed
and grabbing the data core from it. He wasn’t sure how AI technology worked, but he hoped that the added capacity from the core in his hand would improve the performance of the ship AI. As he walked towards the command deck, he made a mental note to add linens to the list of things he would need to supply the ship, along with food stuffs.

  The command deck was laid out exactly like that of the XES01. The nose had wrap around windows that were currently looking out at the wall of the hanger. There were seven workstations arranged in a tiered fashion, giving each station a clear view out the windows, towards the front of the deck. Towards the rear was a lone chair, captain’s he assumed, with screens flanking either armrest. Next to the captain’s chair was a, freshly installed, pillar covered in blue lights.

  Figuring it was the AI controls, he moved closer to inspect it. Although the exterior of the pillar was covered in lights, there didn’t seem to be any place for him to insert the new data core. What concerned him more was the fact that the pillar didn’t seem to be connected to any of the control systems on the ship. The only wires he saw coming out of the pillar moved back towards the rear of the ship.

  Zade picked one of the wires at random and followed it, hoping to find its termination point. It was easy to follow, as it was the only silver thing in the ship. The interior of the ship seemed to be made of the same, green laced, black material as the outside. After a few minutes of following, Zade stood looking at the speaker in the cargo hold, from which the AI had first spoken to him. Undeterred he headed back to the command deck and followed each of the silver wires, hoping that at least one would be connected to the engines. Each led to a different speaker located around the ship, the last led to the speaker in the captain’s quarters.

  Zade stood, absentmindedly tossing the data core he held, from hand to hand, contemplating how the AI could control the ship. The thought that the chancellor had double crossed him caused him to momentarily lose focus and drop the data core. Zade watched in horror as the data core fell to the floor, praying it wouldn’t break. The core struck the floor, bounced a couple of times and rolled towards the bulkhead, apparently undamaged. Relief allowed Zade to release a breath he hadn’t even known he was holding. What happened next would change the course of history for the rim planets and the planets in the contested zone.