by Barry Solway
“That brings me to my second point,” Anna said. “The repairs aren’t going to be cheap or quick. We need to completely replace one engine. And there will be a premium to keep it quiet. The best option would be to have it removed in pieces, probably with an arc laser, and dispose of the pieces individually with different salvage houses. That should reduce the chances that more than one or two people know we were hit by a missile. But it’s going to add to the cost.”
“How much?” Mel asked.
“On Earth, it would be millions of dollars. This vessel would be worth eight figures, easily. Low hundred millions. Well, that’s relative to the currency in the Order. The vessel would probably be worth hundreds of billions of dollars on Earth, for the technology alone. But you get the idea. We need to become millionaires to fix the ship that can’t get us back to Earth anyway.”
Mel rubbed her temples, feeling a slight headache coming on.
“Hmm,” Anna said. “I’m into the local police database. Searching for info on Jon now, give me a second.”
Anna went quiet, her holo-image staring motionless into the air. Mel swiveled to face Riley. “What do you think?”
“About what?”
“Any of it. I feel so out of my depth,” Mel said.
“Roger that. This is all crazy, Mel. We have no business trying to steal a ship or hopping around the galaxy. Honestly, it’s silly I even have to say that. At some point we have to recognize the odds are stacked against us. We probably won’t, probably can’t, get home.”
“You think we should give up?” Mel asked in surprise.
“Never said that. Give up and do what? Open a pancake cart?” Riley laughed. “Getting home is as good an idea as anything else. I’m just saying we’ll probably fail. I think if you can embrace that idea, it might take some of the stress away.”
“The stress keeps me going,” Mel muttered, turning away. “Anna, give me something. Anything. The wait is killing me.”
“This is confusing. I’m following two threads. One is Jon. I found him and I can tell you where he is, but that’s not important right now. The second thread is very interesting. There are Order agents that landed fifteen minutes ago. Right around the time of Jon getting captured. It doesn’t seem related and they don’t seem to know about Jon yet, as far as I can tell from the radio chatter. But they’re asking questions. About a white Maneshee, for one. And there’s an internal memo that references an Asadharan with odd facial features. That has to be us. Well, you, Riley and Jon. Eventually, they’re going to find out that Jon is in prison here.”
“So, they’re asking about Beats. Do you think they followed us?”
“No,” Anna replied. “It could be random. Or they sent a few agents to every moon base, space station and planet to poke around. They know we were hit and need repairs. I estimate we have a few hours at most before they find out about Jon. If they start asking around in the shopping district, they might find someone who remembers Beats. Not sure that will bring them back to us immediately, but it will tell them we’re aboard the station. And then they can reference ships that have landed in the last half day. Chances are they’ll find us by tonight.”
“Jon really stepped in it this time,” Riley said.
“Maybe not,” Mel said grudgingly. “The Order agents would have come regardless of Jon. They still might have heard about Beats. And one woman at a food cart commented on my face and asked what race I was. It may have taken longer, but they likely would have pegged us anyway. If Jon hadn’t been captured, we might not have known they were here until it was too late.”
Riley grunted in reluctant agreement. “Fine, but if we get Jon free, don’t tell him that.”
“Anna,” Mel said. “Can you break into the records systems and change the arrival time of our ship? Make it a week ago or something. That should throw them off a little bit.”
“Yes, I should be able to do that. I’m trying to pull up specs on where Jon’s being held.”
“Are you thinking of breaking him out?” Riley asked in surprise.
“I’m looking at legal regulations for getting him out. There may be bail or something similar. But yes, a prison break isn’t out of the question.”
“That’s going to draw some attention.” Mel sighed as a strange sound came over the speakers. Mel thought Anna was choking, except she was an AI, so that was impossible. “Anna? Everything okay?”
“I’m running a dozen simultaneous search routines. I had one that was searching for the Viro Kara group I told you about. They have a base of operations on the planet. I just got something back, but… that’s impossible.” The sound of disbelief in Anna’s voice was palpable.
“What’s impossible?” Riley asked.
“What? Hold on. We have another problem. Damn, we have three more problems. Why does everything always happen at once?” Anna grumbled. “Bad news number one is that I’m keeping tabs on everyone I’ve talked to. The guy I discussed repairs on the engines with was just approached by one of the Order agents. Good news is I was able to tap into the system and change the registration documents to say we landed eight days ago. So that’s done. The guy I talked to doesn’t know where our ship is berthed, but knowing someone was asking about swapping out an engine is going to be one more piece of evidence we’re here.
“Second piece of bad news is that there is no bail for Jon and they’ve upped his security status to high. The police have flagged him as a person of interest with regards to the Order request for information on strange aliens. They haven’t reported anything back yet, but there are people in the local police force asking about who and what he is. Sorry, but there’s no second set of good news.”
Anna paused, and Mel cut in. “You said there were three problems.”
“Correct. A recent update on the order from, uh… the Order… is telling local police to look for an Ankhen with… never mind, there’s no English word for it. It’s a medical condition that makes them look sick, even though they aren’t. An Ankhen with that condition would definitely stand out, even to someone who isn’t Ankhen. It’s pretty noticeable.”
“And Gorgeous has it,” Mel said. “But it’s no worse than Beats being eight feet tall. We’ll just have to hide in the ship until we figure out what to do about Jon.”
“That wasn’t the bad news,” Anna cut in. “I was just giving you context. Gorgeous took a walk after you came into the ship. She was just taken by local police near the tram station.”
Chapter 6
Riley swore loudly and ran out of the cockpit. It took a moment for Mel to realize she was laughing, bitterness mixed with a strange admiration at the humor of the universe.
Riley returned a moment later. “Yeah, Gorgeous is gone.”
“Thanks,” Anna said. “I appreciate the confidence.”
“It’s not lack of confidence, Anna,” Riley said. “You’re clearly way ahead of the rest of us. It’s just… disbelief. Everything was going great until fifteen minutes ago, and now it’s all heading down the toilet faster than I can keep track of. And Mel, you really need to stop giggling, it’s freaking me out.”
“Sorry,” Mel said, trying to keep a straight face. “I know this is serious, but I can’t help it. If I don’t laugh, I’m going to start crying. Anna, any other imminent disasters we need to be aware of?”
“It’s not a disaster, so that can wait,” Anna said. “Jon is okay for the moment, Gorgeous is en route to the police station and we have three Order agents poking around. We need to come up with a plan, and fast.”
Mel straightened herself out and forced the crazy person inside her head, who wanted to break out in maniacal laughter, to go away. “Right. So, we need a plan to break Jon and Gorgeous out of prison. We need to get off the space station. And we need to make sure the Order agents don’t find us until we can get away. Ideas?”
“I’m working on an escape plan for Jon and Gorgeous,” Anna said. “I’m going to put some of my other background tasks on hold for
now.”
“Good idea. And here’s another one. We have to stop with half measures. If we keeping playing it safe, we won’t get Jon and Gorgeous free, and we’ll likely all be captured. Gorgeous said earlier that she and Beats were probably safe, even if we were captured, but I wouldn’t bet on that anymore. We don’t know what the Order will do, and I don’t trust anyone right now. So… we need to create a distraction. A major one. Something to keep the police busy and not focused on Jon and Gorgeous. Something that would point the Order away from us.”
“What are you thinking? Like an explosion or something?” Riley said.
“I would ask if you’re serious, but I already know the answer,” Beats said. “I’m not going to hurt innocent people. And the more trouble we make, the more trouble we make for ourselves. Maneshees call it
Mel closed her eyes. Beats was right. Every step was taking them deeper and deeper into a web that they might not be able to get out of. But she didn’t see any other choice.
“We have karma on Earth, too,” Mel said. “You’ll have to decide for yourself, Beats. I won’t be captured by the Order. And I won’t let Jon and Gorgeous rot in prison. There’s no choice for me. It’s either get home or die trying, and I don’t see the Order helping with the first choice. You can get off the bus anytime you want, just let us know.”
“That’s harsh, Mel. Beats is just trying to help,” Riley said.
“I understand what you are saying, Mel,” Beats replied. “But I won’t hurt innocent people.”
Mel nodded. “I can agree to that. Except maybe for the Order. No guarantees there. So, how do we create a distraction that will pull the police and grab everyone’s attention without hurting anyone?”
“A flood,” Riley said.
“Flood what?”
“The aquarium,” Anna replied. “You saw that when you were out? That would be epic. It’s going to kill some fish, though. Are they part of your ‘no one gets hurt’ ethos?”
“Not mine,” Mel said.
“The fish didn’t hurt anyone,” Beats said.
“The fish are being held captive,” Riley said. “We’re just setting them free.”
“Free to die in the street?” Beats asked, his voice rising in pitch.
“Beats, come on,” Mel said. “They’re fish. We’re trying to save Jon and Gorgeous and the rest of us from life in prison.”
Beats frowned, but finally shook his head in a figure-eight pattern, meaning yes. “Okay. I don’t like it, but I’ll help. Poor fish.”
“I’m glad we have that settled,” Anna said. “Mel, I can give you instructions for a small explosive that will burst the tank. It should flood the entire lower shopping district. Should be the most fun they’ve had here in years.”
“How do we make sure the Order doesn’t find our ship? Any idea how close they are?”
“Not really. They paid a visit to the repair facility I talked to, but they didn’t know which ship was ours. I’ve already scrubbed the tracking info on the call I made, so they can’t trace where it came from. I haven’t talked to anyone else.”
“How about all the searches you’re doing?” Mel asked. “You’re accessing some kind of network, aren’t you? In the movies, they track the bad guy hackers that way, right?”
“This isn’t a movie, Mel,” Anna said. Mel had the distinct impression she was rolling her virtual eyes. “I suppose that with time, they could trace back the traffic from the network access point I’m using, but that’s not going to happen in the next few hours. I’ll start disbursing my access requests across multiple nodes. Maybe see if I can go back and modify network logs. It won’t be a problem.”
“That makes me feel better,” Mel said. She didn’t want to say it, but it actually didn’t help at all. All it took was one mistake. One moment of thinking you could let your guard down, for everything to fall apart. They had been too naive since arriving on the station. From now on, they would have to anticipate every movement of their adversaries and have multiple responses ready. It was like being in the gauntlets all over again, but instead of facing a team of six people in the confines of an abandoned city, they were fighting an entire secret government organization across a field that spanned a small portion of a galaxy.
“Do you have those instructions for the explosives ready?” Mel asked.
“Yes, but we have a new development,” Anna said. “I’m really trying not to call these things problems. Anyway, I’m trying to track the three Order agents. One of them just boarded a tram and is heading to the docks. I don’t know if he knows we’re here or if he’s just checking things out, but we need to intercept him. He’ll easily recognize the ship by sight.”
“Beats and I can get him,” Riley said.
“I don’t know how smart that is,” Mel replied.
“If he’s on the tram, he’ll be here in less than ten minutes. We can’t hide the ship. What other choice do we have? Here’s an idea. We can use Beats as bait. Have the guy follow Beats somewhere away from here. Then I’ll sneak up on him and take him out.”
“Will he be able to notify the rest of his team? If he does, we’re screwed,” Mel said.
“It might be the best we can do,” Anna said. “There are only three agents. That means they don’t know we’re here. If we take these three agents out, it will take them some time to get a larger force.”
“How long?” Mel asked.
“There is a military base planet-side. Say, half a day to coordinate and deploy. So sometime tomorrow morning.”
“Cut that in half,” Mel said. “Six hours. Can we get Jon and Gorgeous out in that time?”
“Yes, but we have to move fast. We have six minutes before the one on the tram gets to the docks. Riley, you and Beats need to head down there now. I can patch into the translators through the network.”
“Really? You can do that? Why didn’t we do that before?” Riley asked Anna with obvious surprise.
“I forgot,” Anna said. “Sorry, there’s been a lot going on. But get going, or you’ll miss the target. Mel and I will handle the explosives.”
“Gotcha. C’mon Beats, time to save the world.”
Beats grunted, clearly not happy with the plan, but he followed Riley anyway. Mel sat in the chair, staring at the ceiling. So many things that could go wrong. And everyone’s life at stake.
“How’s that plan to rescue Jon and Gorgeous coming along?” she asked.
“I know what we need to do,” Anna said. “You’re going to love it.”
***
The process was almost the same as what Evan had demonstrated to her weeks ago on Kathor’s ship. A demonstration that had led to a horrible accident where Mel got caught in an explosion that badly burned her. That accident had forced Kathor to create a clone of Mel and transfer her mind from one body to the other, in effect bringing her back to life. And that had been the second time he had done so. The memories of it cycled through Mel’s mind, deepening her confusion about who she was and whether they were on the right track.
In the end, they synthesized a mild explosive. Mel had to disassemble one of the small electromagnetic pistols the architects had on the ship and use the battery as a detonator. Ten minutes later, she had packed the device into a small satchel she found in one of the cabins and left the ship to head to the shopping district.
As she boarded the tram, she hid her mouth with her hand and whispered to Anna. “Anna, can you hear me?”
Mel heard the response in her head, more of a thought of Anna’s voice than actual words. Yes. You don’t need to talk out loud. Just sub-vocalize. The translator can pick up on explicit, high-level thoughts, Anna said. Mel knew this, it was how Kathor and Anna had monitored all the prisoners on the ship. She wondered if Anna had forgotten about it or just hadn’t wanted to remind everyone that she could basically spy on their thoughts.
We need to have a conversation about these translators, Mel
sub-vocalized. But later. Any word from Riley and Beats?
They’re good. Beats planted himself at the tram station and headed in the opposite direction of our ship. The agent saw him and followed. Riley is tracking him. I’ve given them a secluded area to lead the agent to so they can take him out. They should be done in the next few minutes.
Any idea if he was able to contact anyone?
I didn’t see any sign of wireless or network communication from him, but I can’t monitor all the traffic. I don’t think he has yet. He doesn’t know for sure that Beats is who he’s looking for, so maybe he’s waiting to see where Beats leads him.
Okay. I’m a few minutes out from the shopping district. I’ll let you know when I’m in place, Mel said. She wasn’t totally comfortable having Anna in her head like this, even if it was good to know that she could communicate with her from a distance.
Mel, there’s something I should tell you.
Something in Anna’s tone told Mel it was serious. What’s up? Another ‘development’?
Kind of. I’ve put most of my background tasks on hold, but one was about finding a way to get back to Earth. When I get a chance I’ll pick it back up, but honestly, I may have come to the end of the line. I can’t find any reference to ships that have built-in hyperdrives. According to all public records and lots of classified records, they don’t exist. The only way to do interstellar travel is with a hypergate. The records say that to discover a new star system requires a vessel traveling at sub-light speeds to go to that system and set up a hypergate. And it takes hundreds of years to travel between even close solar systems at sub-light speeds. There’s no record of ships that have the capabilities of Kathor’s ship.
They had all assumed that the interstellar capabilities of Kathor’s ship were common technology. What about that military ship that chased us?
We don’t know for sure that it has a hyperdrive. I still think it must have, given where it came from, but maybe it was just bad luck that it was already in the system. But there’s no record of it, anywhere I can find. Not even rumors. If it does have that ability, it’s highly classified.
