His ship was so delightfully automatic! It automatically measured the gravitonic wind from the nearby star, calculated the most efficient path, reconfigured the sails to catch the 'stiff breeze', and moved off swiftly along. He could, of course, slide direct control rods out of the arms of his command chair, and take over manual control. This was always necessary when entering a black hole. But, usually, Jason enjoyed and took pride in the ability of his sophisticated, modern sailship.
After a quarter hour, the primary star swung past the ship, and was left behind. After an hour of travel the ship alerted him that they were converging on the big gravitonic current. He made some final adjustments in the operating program he had just set up, then initiated it. The computer automatically swung the ship about, drifting on the last few wisps of gravitons from the star, and into the wide, tubular, gently meandering current that seemed to go on for many light-years.
Tremendous waves of medium speed gravitons caught the sails, and the ship sailed off at many, many times the speed of light, but with no slowing down of local time flow since it moved by probabilistic-shifting instead of the more widespread action-reaction propulsion (which increased a ship's time-slowing kinetic energy, and prevented it from traveling faster than light). He instructed the computer to warn him if there was trouble, or if the current dissipated too much, or radically changed course. It seemed steady enough, though. Hopefully, he could follow it for days. He set the ship's automatic lighting to mimic Infinity City's day cycle, since that was what his circadian rhythms were currently synchronized with.
Jason now felt very tired. It would be late night back on Infinity City. What a day this had been! His parents party, the strange tape, the WELL, seeing Van Gogh one last time, that kid at the gold souqs, and best of all, a thrilling launch into space. He heaved himself out of the command chair, kicked a wide button near the hatch in the deck of the pilot room, and the hatch slid away. He was too tired to go down the ladder, so he called for the elevator. The floor of the central chamber quickly lifted up until flush with the pilot room deck. He stepped onto it, stood straight with his arms safely at his sides, and was lowered quickly down to the deck at the bottom of the chamber.
He opened the door, on the opposite side of the central chamber from the cargo hold. Inside, was the living area.
Galley, entertainment, laundry, medical machines, toilet, exercise machines, storage for personal effects, and everything else not related to business.
The room smelled good, too! This was the hardest room to keep clean, and free from bacteria and spores.
He told the computer to lower the bed. With the hiss of pneumatic pistons it slowly swung down from the ceiling, suspended by four cantilevered beams. He whipped his clothes off, tossed them to the floor, crawled into the bed, and commanded, "Kill the lights, sweetheart!" Ah! the comfort of his familiar, custom-crafted bed. That wonderfully inevitable feeling of sleepiness enveloped him, and he drifted off.
The conditioning at the Militia Guard academy was said to last forever. Officers of the guard were trained to awaken at any indication of threat. Jason awoke to the click of metal. He did not move right away, or even open his eyes. His mind cranked up to speed, and his first impression was of some minor mechanical problem that the computer did not think important enough to awaken him. Then he heard it again, coming from the direction of some storage cabinets. Jason slowly turned his head in that direction but could see nothing with the lights out.
When he slept, he liked it pitch black, and allowed not a single stray photon.
He heard the sound again, and this time, an eerie feeling made the hair on the back of his neck rise. Then, he heard a soft scrape.
He whispered as quietly as he could, "COMPUTER, LIGHTS ON 1%
SLOWLY." And then he waited. Lights at the top of the walls slowly began to glow, and in their barely discernible light, he saw the dark silhouette of a person creeping slowly out of one of the storage cabinets. He whispered, "LIGHTS ON 30%." The lights snapped up immediately to 30%. Not enough to hurt the eyes at night, but enough to see a young boy frozen in a crouch, with one foot behind him still inside the large storage cabinet.
Jason sat bolt upright in bed and yelled, "Who the hell are you?! Computer, have the nearest robot grab this guy!" A small cleaning robot burst out of its storage chamber, and rolled toward the boy extending a manipulator arm menacingly before it.
The boy gasped, and quickly ducked back inside the storage cabinet, his bare foot disappearing inside just as the door slammed closed.
The robot came to a stop, and said, "Target pattern no longer detected. Immediate program now in endless-loop."
Jason muttered "Acknowledged," to keep it from repeating its message. He sat there staring at the closed storage cabinet. He still felt quite sleepy. Had he dreamt this? No way. That was the kid from the gold souqs. He'd evidently gotten into Jason's sailship using Jason's key to the ship on the rent-a-car key-ring. But how had he found Jason's ship so quickly? And, why had the ship's computer allowed him, a perfect stranger, entry?
The computer should have alerted the port authorities, or had a robot grab the kid.
But wait a minute, he thought. He had never actually sat down and programmed the computer to react in any of those ways.
He had naturally just always assumed that the manufacturer of the ship had done that. "Computer, why did you let this kid in?"
"There is no child on board."
"Well, then, who is in that storage cabinet there??"
"Jason Jason."
"That's me! Who do you think I am, then?"
"You are Jason Jason."
"Computer, you sense TWO Jasons?"
"Yes."
The computer thought the kid was him! That's why it didn't do anything. But WHAT made the computer think the kid was HIM?
Whatever the answer, the big question was: What was to be done with the kid?
Turn around, and head back to Infinity City? He'd have to go through the damn black hole again. And entering was a very rough ride, hard on his ship, sometimes even resulting in costly damage. It was to be avoided. And the landing fee the space port charged! Then, there would be an official inquiry. And the kid's parents! What if they accused him of kidnapping, or worse?!
Or, he could toss the kid out into space. An amusing idea, but he would never do that. Maybe he would TELL the kid he would do that, though. What a problem this was going to be!
He groaned, crawled out of bed, and pulled on some clothes lying near his feet. Then, he went over to the storage chamber.
"Hey, kid! Open up. I won't hurt you..."
Nothing.
"Hey, kid. Can you hear me?"
Nothing.
Jason shrugged, squatted down, grabbed the handle, and pulled open the door. Suddenly, there was a hiss from the darkness within, and deodorant spray blasted up into his face.
He jerked back cursing, lost his balance, and fell over backward.
The boy jumped out of the cabinet, and raced toward the door, long black hair flying. Jason jumped up to follow, but the cleaning robot had rolled over, and now, deciding Jason was the intruder, grabbed his leg in a painfully tight grip with its manipulator arm. The boy opened the door, and jumped to the stairs leading up toward the pilot room.
Jason weaved back and forth trying to maintain his balance.
The little robot (the green one, most stubborn of all) clung to his leg, trying to pull him over to its storage chamber.
"Computer, tell the Green Robot to let go of my leg!"
"Acknowledged." Green Robot let go. Jason went toward the door shouting, "Computer, lock the pilot room!"
Jason entered the central chamber just as the boy reached the top of the stairs, and started pushing at the hatch. Now locked, it would not open. He cried in a high voice, "Computer, open this hatch!" To Jason's astonishment the hatch opened for him!
Jason put his hands on his hips, and thought, THE COMPUTER
STILL THINKS HE'S M
E, TOO! He stroked his chin in concentration.
LET'S SEE. WHAT'S THAT MASTER COMMAND PASSWORD? OH, YEAH...
"Computer," he spoke aloud. "Acknowledge master password: Jason four Jason three Jason two Jason one Infinity City!"
The computer responded! "Master password acknowledged.
Associated identity is Jason Jason, birth place: Infinity City, birth number: 55437, birth date..."
"Cut!", he interrupted. "Lock off all pilot room controls!"
The computer acknowledged. WHEW! NOW THE KID COULDN'T HURT
ANYTHING.
He said wearily, "Computer, lift me to the pilot room." The floor began to rise, moving Jason upward. He looked up. The kid had closed the hatch! He said, "Computer, open the pilot room hatch."
The computer reported, "Cannot. An unidentified person is standing on it. Hatch drive servo lacks required torque power."
The elevator brought Jason within reach of the hatch, then came to a stop. He reached up, knocked on it politely, and asked with mock sweetness, "Hey, kid, may I come in?"
Nothing.
"Computer, open the hatch!", he ordered.
"Cannot. The same unidentified person is still standing on it."
"Come on, kid. Get off the hatch!", Jason cried. The computer repeated its previous explanation.
Jason temper suddenly exploded, "KID!!", he thundered.
"WILL YOU GET OFF THAT DAMN HATCH?!!"
OH, THIS KID!, he thought with irritation, grinding his teeth as he forced himself to calm down. How to get the damn kid off the hatch?! He could tell the computer to evacuate the air out of the pilot room! No, that would waste air... He could raise the temperature... COME ON, GET SERIOUS! he told himself.
Ah! A simple idea...
He grinned, "Computer," and he reached out and gripped the ladder embedded and running along the wall. "De-energize ship's gravity."
The ship's gravity was the result of gravitons pouring down over it, generated by special cells located here and there all over the maneuvering sails. Energized by an electric field with just the right alternating phase caused them to divert a small fraction of the surrounding gravitonic current down over the ship, providing it with artificial gravity. Normally, the computer automatically adjusted the controlling electric field to maintain a constant Earth-normal artificial gravity no matter how the strength of the gravitonic current fluctuated. The computer now cut the controlling electric field.
Jason felt himself suddenly go weightless, as if the ship had been dropped down a hole. WOW, WHERE DID UP AND DOWN JUST
GO?! His feet drifted off the elevator. He twisted his hand in the opposite direction against the rung of the ladder he was holding, and his feet drifted back to the elevator. "Computer, as soon as this hatch opens, re-energize gravity. Now, open the hatch!"
The hatch snapped open, and Jason looked up to see the bottoms of two bare feet just as the computer said, "Gravity re-energized."
With a cry the boy instantly fell down through the hole, landed on Jason, the two of them falling to the floor of the elevator in a tangled heap. To prevent them from harming themselves, the computer had slid the floor downward a ways as they fell on it lessening the impulse of their impact.
Jason disentangled himself, and stood quickly. "Whew! Kid, you need a BATH!"
"So do you!", the boy snapped back as he got up from the floor, and sprang up the ladder toward the pilot room again.
Jason snapped, "Close that damn hatch! Lock it!" The hatch slid closed again. The boy yelled for it to open, but this time, he was not Jason, and the hatch stayed closed. He looked back down at Jason from where he stood perched at the top of the ladder in the wall just below the hatch.
Jason looked up at the boy. "All right, kid. Start talking! What's this all about? Or, do I have to get rough with yuh?!"
The boy snapped back, "Eat dirt, beak-face!", glaring defiantly down at Jason.
Jason fingered his nose absently, and looked up at the skinny, mop-headed boy. He reminded Jason of an angry little elf. This was an absurd situation. Jason, in spite of himself, suddenly burst out laughing.
He then ordered, "Computer, lower the elevator back down, and lock all central chamber doors." When the floor reached the bottom of the central chamber, he turned toward the living quarter door. "Open this one, and close and lock it after I walk through." He looked up at the boy. "Good-night, kid. See you in the morning. Hope you like sleeping on a cold, hard elevator floor!" He walked through the door into the living quarter, and the door slid shut as he heard the boy begin to protest.
Jason turned to face the door, waiting. He heard the boy scramble down the ladder, and then begin pounding on the door, shouting, "Hey, I can explain everything! Don't leave me locked in here, mister! I'm sorry! Let me talk to you..."
"Are you going to behave?"
There was a pause. And, in a very calm, but still boyishly high voice he answered, "I will be completely cooperative, and happily submit to whatever decisions you make."
Hmph. That was better. Jason opened the door. The boy stood looked up at Jason, smiled, and stuck out his hand. "Good evening, sir! My name is Dalton. At your service!"
Jason took his hand automatically, shaking it slowly.
Something told him he was about to be "conned." Looking into the impish adolescent face, with the big grin, and the dark but twinkling eyes, Jason felt himself being charmed. Yep, that was his heart he felt warming up, all right. And, that was bad! But there was something familiar about this kid... He had the same peculiar feeling as at the gold souq. He just could not put his finger on it.
He turned around, and gestured over his shoulder, "Come on in. Tell me your story. Computer, drop a couple of chairs."
Two shiny blue pneumatic chairs folded down from the ceiling with a hiss, inflating fully before coming to rest on the floor.
Jason collapsed wearily into one, bounced up and down a few times then came to rest. Dalton lowered himself slowly, and sat politely in the other, his hands folded in his lap.
"Dalton, you say? What are you doing in my ship???"
Dalton spread his hands, shrugging and grinning in embarrassment. He shook his head, "Gosh, I don't know what to say!" He suddenly dropped his hands, and hung his head. Then he slowly lifted it revealing the most forlorn look Jason had ever seen. They looked quietly at each other.
Jason rolled his eyes, and said calmly, "I won't hurt you...
But, why'd you sneak into MY ship, kid?"
He earnestly piped in his high voice, "I don't know, sir. I knew which ship was yours because I watched you land a few weeks ago. I was helping out with the loading of another sailship, the one next to yours, when you came walking over."
Jason, upon landing, had seen a familiar ship nearby, and knowing the captain personally, had walked over anxious to see a familiar face after having just spent many months alone in space.
Well, this explained how he had found his ship so fast.
"So you had seen me before. But, why did you stow away?
And," he frowned in puzzlement. "How did you get into my ship?
How in the world did you get the computer to think you were me?!"
Dalton brightened, and excitedly explained, "That was easy!
I'm always talking with these dumb sailship computers. They're so cooperative, it's easy to fool them. When I first entered the ship, after using the key I got from your car, your computer told me 'Stop, intruder!' or something like that. I knew your name, because I asked around after I first saw you... You made me think of... You seemed like... Anyway, I told your computer that I was you, and to reset its identity pattern."
"It didn't ask for the master password?"
"No! I asked about that. It said that you programmed it to assume that anyone using the key was automatically Jason Jason."
That was right! He had done just that. But, only so that in case of emergency he could get the ship activated as quickly as possible. Also, he hated going through the identity
check every time he entered his ship, especially during all the frequent entries he made while refurbishing his supplies.
Basically, it was his fault -- he'd made it easy for the kid to break in.
"Yeah, that makes sense... But why, uh, Dalton? You've stowed away on a SAILSHIP! Do you know how much trouble you're in? And me, too! Your parents will be very worried by the time we tack back up this current, and get back to Infinity City.
They may think that I kidnapped you!" But now, the boy was hanging his head again. Jason frowned with concern, and asked,
"What's the matter?"
Dalton looked sadly back up at Jason, his dark eyes welling up with tears. "I have no parents, sir. I don't have ANY family anywhere."
No family?!, Jason thought in amazement and pity. Infinity City was extremely family oriented. It always had been. Family rights were even specifically supported by the Constitution.
Especially, the rights of children. Families were the basis for the political system. Everyone had a family! Someone winding up alone would get themselves adopted into a family, no matter how old they were. Humans simply could not live in a black hole without the security, stability, and comfort of families running everything. No family?
"You have no family? Not even an adopted one?"
"No, Jason. Can I call you Jason, sir?"
"Yeah... sure, kid."
Dalton explained, "I can't get adopted. Nobody wants me.
My parents weren't from Infinity City. They weren't with me when I landed here, I mean, back there."
"You aren't from Infinity City?"
"No, Jason..." And Dalton proceeded to tell him the strange tale of his life, and how he had come to Infinity City.
Dalton said he had only come to Infinity City five years before. He had arrived with an Adventurer who had just dumped him off at the space port, abandoning him. Rejected, and deeply hurt, Dalton had wandered away to live out on the streets of Infinity City with the other misfit kids.
Every space port town around the Galaxy had its share of misfit space kids. Some were callously abandoned orphans. Some were runaways from abusive situations. Some were runaways from slavers! The SOCIETY FOR ABANDONED CHILDREN, an intergalactic organization of mercy, tried to find homes for these children.
Douglas Kendall Page 4
