Enlightened Ignorance

by Michael Anderle

  “They must have never planned to pilot it,” Jia suggested, holstering her pistol. “They were depending on the virus. I assume they only killed the pilots to make sure they couldn’t change course or figure out a way to call for help.

  “Someone was going to come and pick them up,” Erik insisted. “That’s the only explanation, but if the pilots are dead, how do we avoid that?”

  Jia laughed and shrugged. “I don’t know how to fly a transport, but I’m sure we can turn on the autopilot.”

  Erik pulled Emma out of his pocket as he looked around. Pushing a pilot to the side, he located an IO slot and shoved her in. “Go ahead and do that. The longer we’re off-course, the greater the chance more trouble shows up.”

  “Give me a moment,” Emma replied. “This system isn’t totally insecure, despite this viral nonsense.”

  “We also need comm access,” Jia suggested. “We have to report this incident. The terrorists might not have made their demands yet, and even if they have, no one knows we’ve captured them.”

  “Another issue has arisen.”

  “Dammit!” Erik leaned against the cockpit wall. “What now? Leem assassins are opening person-size HTPs and pouring into the ship?”

  “The gun goblins’ virus wasn’t controlled, even in the main system,” Emma explained. “There is extensive damage to most of the subsystem code. Communications are heavily damaged. The autopilot subroutines are all but nonexistent. At this point, I don’t know if it could do much more than slowing in the event of a direct and imminent collision.”

  “Can’t you do anything about it?” Jia asked.

  “Not without purging the entire system and attempting to reconstitute it with clean code that I don’t have access to,” Emma replied. “And if I purge the entire control system, every subsystem on this transport will die.”

  Erik scrubbed a hand down his face. “Dead pilots, terrorists who don’t know how to fly, and a ship heading somewhere unknown, probably to meet more terrorists. Fantastic.”

  “That would be an accurate summary of the situation, Detective.” Emma sounded happy, which made the next part even more disturbing. “To be clear, the virus resulted in many systems malfunctioning in unfortunate ways. I’ll spare you the technical details, but life support will completely fail in less than twelve hours. The long-range comms are dead, too.”

  “The terrorists might not have been able to smuggle heavy weapons onto the transport, but if they’ve got friends with their own ship, who knows what they might have?” Jia mused. “We might not be able to beat them with stun pistols. We have to change the course of the ship. We can’t wait to be rescued if life support’s going to fail, and if we put everyone on escape pods, the terrorists’ friends might show up.”

  “Manual controls are still active,” Emma reported. “Many sensors are down, but not all of them. The escape pods are an irrelevant consideration because the magnetic clamp subsystems are frozen in place. I don’t know if you could even board them without risking a dangerous incident.”

  Jia offered Erik a sheepish smile. “Come on, you were in the Army for thirty years. You picked up how to fly one of these things, right? It’s got to be like a toy compared to a Fleet ship.”

  Erik let out a harsh laugh. “I was Army assault infantry, not Fleet. I can’t fly this thing, or not well enough to feel good with all the civilians on this thing. You might as well let a monkey fly it.”

  “Might I suggest another possibility?” Emma interjected.

  Erik shrugged. “Not like we have any other great ideas.”

  “The autopilot routines are destroyed, but I can access the direct manual controls, and I can update my reactions based on the limited sensor data still available,” Emma crowed, pride coming through in her tone. A holographic form of her appeared wearing one of the gray pilot uniforms of the Dandelion line, except she’d added a mid-calf skirt. “I wanted to test out a larger body anyway. This is an excellent opportunity.” A moment later, a cute gray cap appeared on her head.

  Jia laughed. “This doesn’t have all the armor and guns you talked about.”

  “It’s still an interesting experience,” Emma insisted. “It’s unfortunate that the virus has ravaged the system, but it’ll be useful practice.”

  Jia eyed her. “For what? You think Erik’s going to buy a transport?”

  Emma shrugged. “I’ve long since stopped trying to guess what Detective Blackwell might do in the future.”

  Erin grinned. “This could work. We’ll just lie and say it was the autopilot, with me helping out on occasion. If anyone checks later, they’ll just assume the virus fragged most of the data.”

  “I’ll go ahead and add some fake records to enhance the deception. Leave it all to me, Detectives,” she said.

  “I’ll get you to the Moon.”

  The blinking red display indicating imminent oxygen shortage didn’t help Erik concentrate as Chang’e Spaceport Control shouted at him.

  The moon loomed large underneath them. It might have looked like a window, but it was a trick via external cameras transmitted to the cockpit to provide the illusion of direct vision. Emma had managed to reroute some of the systems to give external camera access.

  “Just repeat what I told you,” Emma insisted. “We don’t have full comm, but the shorter-range laser comm is sufficient for this task. I’d fake your voice, but I think you’ll sound more convincing, given your basic fleshbag fear of suffocation.”

  “Can’t you do anything else?” Jia pressed. “Like get us down faster?”

  “Not if you prefer to survive the landing, Detective. The virus damaged the thruster controls. I can compensate for it, but even with superior abilities, I can’t change the laws of physics.”

  Erik almost would have preferred a drop pod at this point. He took a deep breath. “Chang’e Spaceport Control, this is Detective Erik Blackwell on Dandelion flight 6723. I repeat, we are coming in for an emergency landing. We request emergency crews on standby. Terrorists have infected the primary systems with a virus and killed the pilots. I don’t understand all of what I’m seeing, but an automated warning has informed me there might be thruster problems. The autopilot still seems to be mostly working, but I’m going to have to help it in.” He chuckled under his breath. “I picked up a few things during my time in the service,” he lied. “I’m not a pilot, but I can bring us down. It’ll just be a bit rough.”

  “Negative, Dandelion 6723. Abort landing sequence. You’re not cleared to land. You will stand by for Lunar Militia intercept.”

  “We don’t have time,” Erik growled and spat out a few profanities. “Our life support is already critical. If we sit around waiting to play this safe, everybody on board this ship is going to die. Give us a landing location, and we will bring this transport down in one piece. That I can promise you.”

  Spaceport Control didn’t respond for thirty seconds. “Transmitting landing data now. Good luck, Detective. I hope we are all not making a huge mistake.”

  “I’m the one on this thing.” Erik looked at Emma. They’d cleared out the bodies of the pilots hours ago. Jia and Erik were strapped into the pilots’ seats and Emma stood off to the side, her form halfway through the wall.

  She nodded. “Their data is sufficient to initiate a landing sequence.”

  Jia tapped her PNIU. They had at least restored the internal comm.

  “This is Detective Lin to all passengers,” she announced. “We’re about to perform an emergency landing with the autopilot. Everyone strap yourself in if you’re not already. This will be bumpy, but we’re in communication with Chang’e Spaceport Control, and they’ll be helping guide the transport to the ground.”

  Emma let out a noise that was suspiciously close to a moan. “You don’t understand what this feels like. The MX 60 is sleek but so small, so limited. I wish I could see more.”

  The moon grew in front of them, taking up most of the forward display. The gray of habitation domes grew from dots t
o full shapes. A few sleek Lunar Militia craft circled around them.

  “Just like old times.” Erik laughed. “It feels like I’m on a Fleet ship, getting ready to drop into a hot landing zone. Take us in, Captain Emma.”

  The transport pitched up, landing thrusters firing in earnest. The uneven thrust rattled the ship. They closed in on the exterior of the spaceport, gliding over the flashing lights to line up with their final docking location. A hangar dome stood open, waiting to receive them. Dozens of emergency vehicles surrounded their docking circle.

  “It’s sometimes difficult to express how unique I am,” Emma declared. “I often think my talents are wasted because of the scope of your current level of investigation.”

  Erik let out a quiet grunt. Emma sounded a lot like Alina. Maybe the two were related.

  The ship wobbled. More displays flashed red, with warnings popping up in English and Mandarin. The transport slowed as it descended. It cleared the roof of the dome and passed through the invisible oxygen field that kept the atmosphere inside. Once the ship cleared the oxygen field, the massive panels of the dome began to expand to seal the structure. An oxygen field was a temporary solution, too energy-intensive and unstable to risk for long periods, and it did little to protect anyone from the many other harsh conditions that defined space.

  “The landing struts stubbornly refuse to extend,” Emma reported. “This isn’t a surprise since I’ve been attempting to fix that problem for some time. I don’t anticipate it having a serious impact on our landing. See what I did there?”

  Jia shook her head. “This is what I get for my first space trip—terrorists and a crashing transport.”

  “I’m not crashing, Detective. I’m landing with less than optimal grace.” Emma set the transport down, and a resounding crunch sounded through the entire transport. The detectives grunted as their bodies pushed against their restraints for what seemed like minutes but was probably seconds. A moment later, the pressure stopped, and the two of them paused before breathing in the joy of success.

  “We’re not dead,” Jia noted.

  Erik shrugged. “Yeah. Any landing you can walk away from and all that.” He pressed a button on his PNIU. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Detective Blackwell. Welcome to Chang’e Spaceport.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Erik and Jia sat at a table in an interrogation room in a police station attached to the spaceport. They’d been there for several hours, giving their statements.

  After the local police conducted their interviews, they told the detectives to wait for a CID representative.

  From what they had heard, there had been only a few minor injuries upon landing, mostly to the terrorists. No one had bothered to strap them into their seats, but no other passengers had died. Their first aid, combined with the passengers’ efforts, kept the first security guard alive long enough to be taken to the hospital, but the others were DOA.

  The interrogation room door slid open, and a huge Asian man with dark buzz-cut hair strolled in. His suit strained over his muscular form. He settled in the chair in front of the table with a huge smile on his face.

  “I’m Agent Cheng Zhou of the CID,” he announced. He leaned forward. “Nice of you detectives to…” he waggled his eyebrows, “drop in.”

  Jia stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out why he was waggling his eyebrows. Her response wasn’t the height of cleverness. “Huh?”

  “You know, you crashed a ship onto the Moon. You dropped in.” Agent Zhou mimed a ship crashing into the table. “Get it?”

  “Oh, it was a joke.” Jia managed a pity laugh. There were some terrible comedians at the 1-2-2, but Agent Zhou was painful in comparison.

  Agent Zhou smiled. “Exactly. I like a good joke, don’t you? In our line of work, it helps to laugh. I’m not going to make you repeat everything you told the police. It’s a shame most of the security guards died, but if it weren’t for you two, we might have had hundreds of hostages. We grabbed some Digital Forensics guys to pull out the flight information you mentioned and sent it on to Fleet. They’re chasing down an unregistered craft as we speak.” He drummed his hands on their table. “Guess you could say they’re running scared in the dark.”

  Jia forced another laugh. No reason to antagonize the friendly CID agent.

  “What about these terrorists?” Erik didn’t bother with a pity laugh. “What’s their deal?”

  “They’re an anarchist group who hates all forms of government and likes to blow things up. The CID’s been following them for a while. We knew they were up to something significant. The guys you captured already admitted they were planning to trade the hostages for leaders of theirs who are in prison.” The agent shrugged. “They got lucky because they managed to recruit that flight attendant to their cause and got their hands on that virus. After this little incident, I’m sure a lot of people are going to be updating their transport systems damned soon. The truth is, these guys were lucky.”

  He laughed. “Or unlucky. They got that virus and had their shot, and they end up on a transport with you two. You should hear some of these guys. One guy was actually crying that you two were onboard. He said it wasn’t fair that the Obsidian Detective and Lady Justice were on the transport.”

  Jia snorted. “It wasn’t fair that two police officers disrupted his hijacking? What kind of twisted logic is that?”

  “That’s what he said. I tried to tell him all’s fair in love and war.” Agent Zhou sighed. “He didn’t even laugh.”

  Jia managed a smile, but Erik didn’t.

  “What happens to us now?” Erik asked. “I’d prefer not to spend my vacation writing reports for days.”

  “Nothing happens. You guys did great. Sure, you’re bringing some of that downwell Neo SoCal trouble to Chang’e, but don’t worry. We’ll keep the media out of your hair.” Agent Zhou rubbed his own hair to demonstrate. “Everyone here appreciates what you guys did. You are a two-person TPST all by yourselves.”

  “We do all right,” Jia admitted.

  “Could you tell the media that it was all the autopilot?” Erik suggested. It was technically true; Emma was an autopilot of sorts. “I don’t want a bunch of extra attention right now.”

  Agent Zhou bobbed his head. “Sure. We’ll tell the passengers to keep their mouths shut about what happened because we’re still doing an investigation. I get that you came here on vacation, and I’d like it to be restful after what you just went through.”

  Jia smiled. “We appreciate that, Agent Zhou.”

  He extended a hand. “Call me Cheng. All my friends do. Or they would if I had any.” He snort-laughed at his own joke. Jia shook her head.

  Erik and Jia both shook his hand in turn.

  Zhou stood and straightened his lapels. “Welcome to Chang’e City, Detectives. Thanks for bringing trouble. Now I have to do reports, but there is one good thing about that.”

  Jia didn’t want to ask, but some horrific curiosity pulled the question out of her. “And what might that be?”

  “Now I don’t have to do any real work!” He waggled his eyebrows again.

  Remy yelled and upended a table. The guns and magazines lying on top clattered to the ground, and several men rushed into the room. They looked down at the spilled weapons and then at Remy, questions in their eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” one man inquired slowly.

  Remy gestured to a data window displaying the news. “Everything.”

  The chyron said everything they needed to know.

  POLICE AND CID ON HIGH ALERT AFTER ATTEMPTED TERRORIST HIJACKING OF LUNAR TRANSPORT.

  “Oh, yeah, I heard about that,” the other man offered. “What do you care? Those United Freedom guys don’t have anything to do with us. They’re just some idiots who picked the wrong transport to hijack.”

  Remy hadn’t traveled halfway across the galaxy for nothing. His help needed to understand that.

  “We’ve spent months planning this. We’ve gathered our people
carefully to stay out of the government’s eye.” Remy kicked the downed table, denting it. “We spent all that time finding Barbu and setting up the deal and making sure the right bribes ended up where they needed to go to keep the cops looking the other way, but those anarchist morons have stirred up everyone. Now the cops and CID don’t have any choice but to keep an eye out, and those damned cops from Neo SoCal are here on vacation.”

  “But that’s a vacation, and they are just two cops. I think all that stuff about them being supercops is made up. Propaganda, you know?” The man shrugged and scoffed. “I doubt that Blackwell guy was even in the military.”

  “You’re right.” Remy took several deep breaths and rubbed his temples. “They are just two cops. They’ve got nothing to do with this. Yeah, yeah...okay. It doesn’t have to be a big deal.” He pulled the table upright and set one of the fallen guns on it. “Propaganda. You’re right. This is an opportunity. When we pull off our mission, the cops might get caught up in it. If we kill them, we kill a big UTC government symbol, and even if we don’t kill them, we make them look weak, just like all government dogs.” He tossed some magazines on the table and looked around for a moment.

  “This could work out even better than I imagined.”

  Jia and Erik strolled down the street, heading toward their hotel. Erik pushed their luggage on a hoverdolly. Alina’s briefcase was stacked on top.

  They had registered for their hotel rooms under false names.

  After finishing up their interrogation, Cheng had expedited the recovery of their luggage. Once they’d left the spaceport, they’d put on Alina’s disguises. They didn’t look like themselves anymore.

  Well, mostly.

  Erik didn’t plan to wear the disguise for his entire trip, but it would help to blend into the background after their high-profile arrival.

  He glanced at Jia.

  She craned her neck back and forth, taking in the city with a frown. Mini-flitters zoomed by in dense clusters. Unlike in Neo SoCal, cargo drones were some of the few things high in the sky. The pair had already passed multiple train stations, something not common in Neo SoCal.