by Simon E Bond
“Sir… Sir…?” said Richard after he had lost the signal for the apartment.
“Charming; I take it we will see each other tomorrow.” Richard frowned as he slowly detached the data tubes from the back of his skull. Looking up towards the screen in front of him, the countdown had reached zero to indicate that the download was complete so he shut down Until Charlie would call on him again.
Charlie was finished with what he needed to do in his apartment. All the data had been transferred so he still had a bit of time to sit around and do nothing until it was time to leave. Scratching his head, he decided there was some hacking that had to be done—his favourite hobby.
The amount he had gained over the years would have surely bought him a way out of his crummy apartment, but he had debts to pay off. He owed money to various gangs back on Earth; they had been his ticket to survival. .
Over the years overdue payments to gangs back on Earth started to add up, if he had not escaped he would be with the others out there, powering the furnaces day and night or even worse.
Charlie was smuggled on board a ship with others carrying atmospheric equipment. It had stopped for refuelling on a tanker rig; he had paid someone off to get him on-board their ship and a passage to the Krone system and was lucky to get away with it.
“Right; let’s make some money,” said Charlie as he brought the holographic screen back to life.
“Anyone got some tidy accounts around here? There must be some rich pickings,” said Charlie, growing impatient—it was his greatest weakness.
After a couple of minutes he noticed a weak security connection on the screen. It was not coming from this planet, but the signal emitting somewhere from up in space. The connection became weaker as Charlie struggled to lock onto it.
“Come on, you should be an easy target,” said Charlie confidently.
After a couple of minutes he had finally located his prize and the information was feeding through onto the screen fast. Charlie was not in for much luck today, there was not that much data traffic floating about with a decent credit balance apart from this one. He leaned forward as he tapped the keys in front of him. After a few moments he finally got to where he wanted to be—the victim’s credit balance.
“Bingo, gotcha,” Charlie said excitedly.
“Yes, fifty thousand credits in that balance; that should do just fine.”
The account did not belong to your average space pilot, or even a rogue, but someone with a much higher income take. Tapping away at more keys with his fingertips he locked onto some more dialogue and Charlie decided to take a closer look.
Doctor S Johnson,
Chief Medical Personnel,
HMS Liverpool
“A doctor… and British,” said Charlie laughing. Charlie had been born in the UK and had lived there for a couple of years but then moved overseas before leaving Earth.
Moving the cursor up and down, Charlie started to break the pieces of information so he could pinpoint the exact position for the hack. Whoever this doctor was, the security at the other end was poor. It could well be a medical frigate up there but Charlie had no need for drugs, just credits.
Charlie began to tap in the code and found it easier than he thought it would be.
“Easy does it. I should be fine, got a three minute window of no security before his firewall kicks in again,” said Charlie; his thumb hovering eagerly over a key and ready to strike.
He went for it. It took less than a minute to drain the credit account of an unknowing victim and transfer the funds to his own account. Charlie had to lose the connection fast and send a dummy decoy to a location that was not his. Quickly tapping his fingers onto the keyboard he punched in some coordinates. The signal had disappeared from his location. However, the local security police at the other end had been alerted by the breach as the star system was known for fraudulent activity and there was a clamp down on it at the moment. The security police quickly located the fake signal attached to a random person on an unnamed planet and they would soon pay a visit.
“Suckers, someone will be getting a nasty surprise in a couple of days,” thought Charlie, delighting in his work.
Filling up his travel bag, he got ready for the nine month outing. He had to leave and make his way to the docking bay. Richard would be waiting for him there and his downtime would be over. Walking over to the balcony windows, Charlie tapped on the glass and an atmospheric neon notice appeared in front of him. It stated the cancer risk had been lowered from high to medium, but Charlie did not want to take any chances. So he decided to get undressed, pack his coverall away into his travel bag and grab his protective atmospheric suit.
The suit was a marvel in modern design. It had integrated food sensors built in it; one tap of the arm and you could digest almost any meal you wanted. The protective suit cradled Charlie from the elements of extreme skin damage caused from outside with the burning heat. When the suns set on Krone, the extreme freezing temperatures would hit the planet’s surface and the suit did its job with the cold element as well.
All dressed and ready to go, Charlie packed the last bits he needed—including protective night vision goggles—into his travel bag. He approached the door to his apartment, and tapped some keys into a console on the wall to set the alarm. The paint die canisters were activated also; as a hacker, he could not take any chance of someone breaking into his apartment—the evidence would need to be destroyed if it ever came to that.
Closing the door behind him, he swiped his card into the lock and pulled it away quickly. The door sealed shut and air tight. The corridor outside was long and narrow, the sun shining through from outside lit up the area. Charlie decided to take the quickest route towards the docking bay and opened an emergency door at the end of the corridor then slammed it shut behind him.
The steel staircase attached to the side of the high rise unit seemed to carry on forever, he thought as he looked down. He must have been at least ten storeys up and, lucky for him, he had a head for heights.
Walking with the bag over his shoulder, he was blinded by the red sun shining onto the side of the building. The grey dunes outside in the distance did nothing to diminish the glare of the light; Charlie decided it was best to put on his goggles as his eyes may begin to suffer from the blinding rays. He decided it was best to walk down the east side of the building as it would get him to the docking bay a lot quicker. He had to get a head start on this job, as there would be other diggers out there on the hunt for Kromtic as well. He prided himself on being the best digger in the trade, and that was something he would often boast about. Some diggers had been known to go missing whilst searching amongst the dunes for their prize, sometimes a body and vacant ship may be found by robotic scouts, other times they would become victim to the storms and all trace was gone.
“Morning, how are you today?” said Charlie as he gave a nod and a salute as he passed an apartment window. A woman freshly showered was wrapped in a towel and stood staring straight at Charlie shaking her head. Charlie carried on walking; she must have thought he was mad risking himself in the sun but Charlie would be okay he was wearing the protective gear.
Finally he reached the bottom of the stairs.. As he looked up towards the sky, he could see various low clouds forming above the high-rises. A black dust storm was starting to build in the distance, the various holographic warning signs started to spring to life over the lunar space highway intersections. This outpost was a raw unforgiving environment. Charlie continued walking until he reached the first of the various checkpoints he would encounter..
“Can I see your credentials please?” asked a border guard and Charlie stopped dead in his tracks.
“Here you go,” replied Charlie handing the documents over.
Shifting through them, the guard was in no mood to be talkative. The wind was really starting to pick up as Charlie stood at the front of a queue waiting to enter the docking bay area. Huge metal gates towered abo
ve him; security was tight here as smuggling in and out of the outpost was also a big problem.
After a couple of minutes the guard handed the documentation back to Charlie, a buzzer sounded on the gate, and Charlie started to make his way through the turnstile.
“Nine months, what are you expecting to find out there?” asked the guard.
Having been given the all clear, Charlie stopped and turned around to just smile to the guard as he carried on his way through the entrance of the spaceport.
The area inside was huge; rows and rows of space ships and lunar vehicles were scattered around inside the hanger. Some in no fit condition to operate and most were being worked on by mechanics.
The spacecraft were a mix of corporate transporters, cargo ships, and the odd lone craft. Charlie was looking to see where Richard had parked their digger transportation unit but there was still no sign of him. For an android, he was seldom on time.. The hanger was busy, people moving back and forth, the sound of ships taking off in the distance, and the general rumble of trucks transporting goods to their craft.
“I am over here,” shouted a voice behind Charlie; he looked over his shoulder and could see the small frame of Richard walking down the ramp of their digger transporter. The transporter was large. It was comprised of four engines attached to each wing, large tracks underneath the actual rover itself, and could withstand most elements.
Richard walked down the ramp and stopped at the feet of his master.
“Miss me?” he asked.
Chapter Two
The heavy industrial tires of the rover rumbled over the razor sharp rocks and trailed huge marks on the surface. The rover was heading due west at full speed and a dust storm had already started to pick up around them. It was night time and darkness had fallen quickly, coating the landscape in a black blanket. The two moons shone bright so they had good visibility, but the view was becoming diminished by the dust being kicked up from the surface of the planet.
Razor sharp bits of grit hit the wind screen of the control room as Richard pressed a button beneath his chair to give him a better view from the inside.
“Seems like an under estimation on my part,” he thought looking on with concern before he turned to glance at the rovers sensor screen. He ran a quick report to check for any damage and when the readings started to print out the data; Richard got out of his chair and looked at the report.
The rover’s roof was starting to get cut up a little with the debris from the ground outside when suddenly; Richard was knocked to the floor as a gust of wind hit the side of the ship. “Oh dear, I better get back to work then,” he said dusting himself off and showing no concern for his own welfare.
Charlie had been relaxing in the cleaning facilities at the rear of the ship when the rover lurched. He grabbed hold of the shower curtain tightly just as the force of a second knock from outside had hit hard.
“Richard! What's going on up there?” shouted Charlie into the intercom, the soap stinging both of his eyes.
“You okay sir? Just a little dust storm, we should be fine. We will need to deviate from our course a little,” replied Richard, his fragile body now strapped into his seat.
“Bullshit, we can't lose time; we’re not changing any damn course,” Charlie snapped.
Quickly grabbing the controls, Richard noticed the wind had picked up even more; causing the rover to rock from left to right.
“Jesus, Richard,” shouted Charlie as he turned the water flow off in the shower head above him. “Are we running on full speed through this wind shear?”Richard decided it was best to punch the damage report through to Charlie so he could see it for himself, Richard would not say too much as he loathed confrontations with his master.
Pushing the keys on the ship’s main control panel, the report started to trickle through. Charlie started to dry himself off with a towel as it came through and he started to read it.
“Okay you win, change course a little. Two hours behind, damn it,” said Charlie throwing a bar of soap out of frustration with the whole episode.
Closing the door behind him, he entered into another room, quickly dressed himself, and then unlocked the door to the mess hall. The rover was still being knocked around from the severe weather outside. Dirty cutlery Charlie had left after his meals today were moving all over the place on a nearby table.
“Damn shit hole,” said Charlie holding onto a wall to steady his balance but was it futile as he started to lose his footing.
Glad to be out of the kitchen, Charlie sat down into the co-pilot seat.
“Struggling a little, sir, but I have slowed the speed down somewhat. The ship was taking a beating and I could not risk anymore damage,” replied Richard.
Charlie looked a little concerned and decided to grab the controls.
“You okay, sir?” said Richard looking at his struggling master.
“What do you think? Should we lower the speed some more?” asked Charlie.
“Erm, okay sir,” said Richard. Richard reached for the controls when one of the sensors started to flash and the alarm sounded—one of the battery stacks was damaged and the power was draining fast. It was a huge issue; if the engine died they would be stranded and if the dust storm kept up, it could be days before a search scout may come looking for them.
“Plug me in, sir, I’ll need to keep the battery going until we can get some cover,” said Richard.
“We can't risk it; remember last time? You were off line for nearly a week and I thought I would never get you back,” replied Charlie.
Richard looked up at him and gave a disconcerting shake of the head; it had to be done and there was no time for arguing.
“Right you are then,” replied Charlie. He unbuckled himself and walked around the back of Richard. Unzipping Richard's coverall he opened up the switches on his metallic skin. Two mini compartments flicked open and Charlie removed the tubes inside. The battery was underneath the main control panel so Charlie extended the tubes and slotted them into the battery slots.
“Well done, sir. We should be fine; the power should feed the panels outside. They will hold out,” said Richard, still struggling to keep the rover level.
After a little while, they had started on the new course they had plotted. The wind outside had calmed down somewhat, both had made the right decisions and the damage to their vehicle was minimal.
Another week had passed and another storm was forming outside. They had been stuck on the same course for longer than they had wished and Richard had been on downtime for just over a week, his battery situation taking its toll just like Charlie thought it would.
The mess hall was a lot cleaner now, the last couple of days left Charlie with not much to do apart from cleaning and checking the auto-pilot. Standing in the mess room feeling annoyed, Charlie had missed the bulls-eye on the dartboard after clocking up a good score. He looked around and noticed the metallic body of Richard walking slowly towards him.
“It's amazing what a good old oiling can do; these joints feel a lot better,” said Richard looking revived.
“Rough down time then?” replied Charlie.
“Yes; pretty bad. Hooking up to those batteries has never brought out the best in me,” replied Richard.
“Well, we’re miles behind schedule and we are not even heading north-west anymore; I lost track a few days ago,” said Charlie.
“We will get back on track, sir; I can promise that. This is only a temporary measure, the course will revert back to the original soon,” replied Richard confidently.
Charlie walked straight past him and stopped to look out through the window facing the moving landscape. It was daylight and the sky was a dark blue. The surface below the rover felt smoother than it had the last couple of days. There was not many craters outside, the change in direction had given them a smoother surface to drive on, it was a good move. Charlie stood with both hands pressed firmly against the glass and his head bowed towards
the floor, unsure where to go next. He felt the touch of a gentle steel hand tap his side, looking around Richard gave out a weary smile.
“I am sorry, mate, it's not your fault. I have debts to pay, that’s all, and it stresses me out,” said Charlie tapping Richard on the shoulder.
“Let's watch a movie,” said Richard after a brief pause.
“Yeah, what the hell,” replied Charlie in agreement.
They both walked out of the mess hall, and the lights dimmed behind them as the door slammed shut. The corridor was small and most of the lights were turned off; they had to preserve the power supplies due to the change in course. The heat outside was at least fifty degrees and climbing.
Charlie and Richard sat down in their seats as the lights dimmed around them in the small theatre. Charlie had done a makeover in the spare recreation area and turned it into a home theatre and was proud of his little achievement. He wasted a lot of credits on past projects, but this was where he and Richard could relax together.
“So a thriller or Kung Fu flick?” asked Charlie.
“I do not mind, sir; something to distract from the setback I suppose,” replied Richard.
Charlie flicked the controls on the side of his chair after inserting the mini disk into a small opening and the movie started to play as they both sat back into their reclining chairs to escape for a little while.
Chapter Three
Slowly moving in orbit above the planet, the large ship slowed down to a sudden halt, inside the dimly lit interior of the main bridge area a door slid open.
Volax Stout entered the room in his wheelchair and moved past the unmanned control hubs. He turned the wheelchair to face the main window overlooking space and viewed the planet below. Deep in thought he slumped forward in his chair and the fat rolls of his stomach spilled out from underneath his black vest. The sweat was pouring from his bald head while his grubby hands wiped saliva from his rotten mouth. Next to him, metal shelving stood in rows with glass tanks displayed all along. Within each tank contained various small reptiles and venomous insects that Stout had collected over the years from various planets and systems.
