Princess Grace of Earth

by A K Lambert

  ‘Two down outside. The boy has assistance we didn’t pick up. Samson said he caught a glimpse of a quadbike. They can’t get too far.’

  ‘Idiot,’ said Karter. ‘They must have something else waiting. Get someone in the air. Now!’

  Bess skidded to a halt in a small clearing. Major Tang and three soldiers were waiting for them by a CUV. A two person pursuit jet was primed and ready for takeoff.

  Tang instructed two of the soldiers to jump on the quadbike, and they left immediately in a cloud of dust, heading back towards the old town in an attempt to draw off any pursuit.

  ‘Get in and go,’ Tang barked at Grantham and Bess.

  Within moments both the CUV and the jet were blazing away from the clearing.

  Grantham agonised over his decision to open the Envogram, even as Bess was carefully attempting to do it without setting off any of the sensors that would destroy the contents. A rare skill without the correct scanning key, but it had been one of the reasons Pilz wanted the twins on this mission. Grantham, not afraid of making a tough call, and Bess able to carry out everything else that came under the heading of tough.

  A little click and they both breathed sighs of relief. Bess opened it and handed the small oblong message screen to him. ‘Last chance to change your mind,’ she warned. ‘I wouldn’t do this.’

  ‘Thanks for the support, dear Sister. What else can we do?’

  They sat in the CUV, about twenty miles outside of the outskirts of Santraneed. They were off the main highway on a remote track and were, for the time being, safe from detection. The Clandestine Utility Vehicle was in stealth mode. Unseeable and undetectable. This particular military vehicle was thought to be entirely superfluous in a country not keeping secrets from itself, or even its enemy. But a handful had been developed and then put into storage many years earlier—for a rainy day. Bess had laughed at Grantham’s face when Tang shuffled them into the CUV.

  Tang’s pursuit jet, although seeming the obvious choice of escape vehicle, would have been tracked easily and eventually picked by the Air Space Police. The ASP would have escorted them to the nearest military or RG base, where the stratagem would make or break, depending on the allegiance of that base. With no message onboard, the risk didn’t exist.

  ‘We open it. Read it. Memorise it and destroy it. We become the message and get ourselves back to the Supreme Commander. Simple.’ Grantham tried to smile at Bess. He switched on the reader.

  He read it three times, then passed it to her. She read it.

  ‘Have you got it?’ he asked. Bess nodded. He stepped out of the CUV, placed the reader on a rock and vaporised it with a short blast of his sidearm. He discarded the now inert Envogram container behind some boulders, and got back into the CUV.

  ‘What now,’ asked Bess. ‘All the way back to Allacrom in this thing? We’ll be wasting time that may be precious to the Supreme Commander.’

  ‘I agree. The contents of this message change everything. The Supreme Commander being in this sort of danger. We need to alert him.’

  ‘Secure communications compromised. The Reticent Guard is turning on us. And the Sestapol closing in on our boss.’ Bess paused. ‘All the rumours must be true. We’re facing a civil war, and for what?’ Her country turning in on itself was beyond her comprehension. She reached for her brother’s hand; a very rare moment of weakness for the one others had always perceived as the dominant twin.

  He put his arm around her. ‘Don’t worry, Bess. We’ll get through this.’

  Chapter 26

  The Watcher

  Earth & Space - The Republic of Ireland - 2011

  * * *

  Janet Kilkenny woke up slumped in her chair. Oh crap, I’ve fallen asleep again, she thought, rubbing the muscles in the back of her neck. She opened the curtain to reveal a cold white blanket outside. Had nobody told the weather that spring was nearly here? Her mind wandered a little more before remembering what she’d been doing the night before.

  She switched on the TV for the local news. There was nothing out of the ordinary. She wasn’t expecting anything, but worth checking. She rebooted her computer and started searching some of the more credible websites that watched out for these sorts of things. Nothing. She wondered if her ex-work colleagues had seen anything.

  She sat back, recapping the events of the last few weeks. She needed to find out what it was she had been monitoring.

  ‘Janet!’

  Oh crap, again. ‘Yes, Mother. I’m coming.’

  Up until three months ago, CIA Technical Intelligence Officer Janet Kilkenny was on loan to NASA studying NEOs—Near Earth Objects. She was the lead on the LINEAR project, a NASA and Lincoln University joint venture. The LINEAR (Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research) project’s goal was to discover and track NEOs to see if their orbits were a threat to Earth.

  At thirty-five she was flying high in the Agency and was expected to be the next Assistant to the Deputy Director of CIA for Science & Technology. Then her world had been turned upside down when doctors diagnosed her mother with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a particularly aggressive blood cancer. The prognosis was not good. She had made the decision to go back to Ireland to spend what time she could with her parents. The outgoing Assistant to the Deputy Director of CIA for Science & Technology had told her he would hold off on retiring until she was ready to take the helm.

  Janet’s parents had moved to the USA a couple of years before she was born, but four years ago they made the decision to retire in Ireland. Although Janet had never lived there, she’d grown up in a small, tight-knit Irish community and had an excellent Irish accent when appropriate. On the whole, her mother was in good spirits, but occasionally her reaction to the chemotherapy left her entirely wasted.

  ‘Hi Mum, how are you feeling today, my darling?’

  ‘Not too bad, thanks.’ It her mother’s stock reply, however she felt. ‘Where’s your father?’

  ‘I’m here, sweetheart.’ Janet’s dad walked in, still in his pyjamas, rubbing his weary eyes. ‘Tea anyone?’

  An hour later breakfast was finished. Her dad was on his way to the local golf club, and her mum was settled in the lounge watching daytime TV.

  Janet returned to her musings over the the events of the last few weeks.

  When the Trun Spies arrived in the solar system, they latched onto a small asteroid about fifty million miles from Earth.

  For Kean, it had been an arduous twenty-month journey. His two travelling companions were, to say the least, uninspiring company.

  Tray was a very insular man. When not piloting the ship or carrying out any of his official duties, he would be reading books on early Trun philosophy and literature. Whenever Kean tried to strike up a conversation it would always fizzle out into an embarrassing silence.

  Sonia was even worse. She blatantly refused to have any interaction with either of them and would often lock herself in her sleeping quarters for weeks on end, not answering any communications from her shipmates.

  The remaining duties required for the operation of this intergalactic space vessel, were done by androids. Most were now deactivated. The only one still functioning was a simple food processing droid—or Gobbler as Kean had nicknamed it. To kill time early in the trip, he had installed a small but sophisticated voice recognition and response program in the droid, and the tiniest of mini-brains. He had found a great little domestic worker program that he’d integrated into the software, but the combined result of this mishmash amalgamation was something much more akin to a sarcastic vending machine. He had at least created a travel companion that was infinitely more interesting than the other two.

  But now they had reached Earth, he had plenty to occupy him.

  Kean’s first task was to find the probe the Vercetians would most likely have used to access the Earth’s information sources. It was highly likely it would have been abandoned in space, and its contents would save him considerable time. And it would be far more comprehensive than anything he would be ab
le to put together.

  ‘Gobbler. Where are you?’ Kean muttered, busily trying to upload a scanning algorithm into his search probe that was now in orbit around the Earth.

  ‘Here, Captain DeMancer. Where else would I be?’

  ‘Cut the crap and promote me to admiral, please. I’m hungry. How are you getting on with the Earth food project?’ He decided he would need to redesign its outer casing if he was going to take it with him.

  ‘Scan inconclusive, Admiral Captain DeMancer, Sir. Need superior data uplink connection.’

  ‘I’m working on it. You must have something.’ He completed the upload and initiated the scan. ‘This shouldn’t take long.’

  ‘Expensive menu or inexpensive—also known as junk food.’

  ‘Junk.’ Kean watched the screen impatiently.

  ‘A hamburger? Should be right up your street, Admiral.’ The little machine beeped twice, then a red light activated and it chanted, ‘Warning! Warning!’ It beeped twice more. ‘Only joking Admiral, excessive amounts of chemical additives detected. Shall I reduce to safe levels?’

  ‘Yes, yes, whatever you think.’ Kean was more interested in the results popping up on the screen. ‘Got you.’

  Gobbler hovered to the food dispenser and extracted all of the ingredients it needed, then set to work. A couple of minutes later, it presented Kean with a hamburger on a small tray held by it’s tiny mechanical arms. ‘Your hamburger, Admiral. Enjoy.’ It waited a moment, then added, ‘Shall I prepare something for stomach cramps?’

  He grabbed the burger, ignoring the droid’s wittering and began downloading the data and transferring it onto tiny knowledge disks. These would provide everything they would need for integration into Earth society. He bit into the hamburger, chewing ravenously. ‘This is good,’ he told the droid.

  ‘Oh joy,’ Gobbler replied.

  Kean set to work on the appearances they would be adopting. The standard holographic program reproduced a human based upon Trun characteristics. Kean, a handsome young Trun, was pleased with his new human form. But he wasn’t able to get the level of definition he needed. Sonia could assist with that; he’d been told before they had left.

  ‘Finish what you’re doing then leave the rest to me,’ she said. ‘I’ll work on something for myself, so start on holographics for Tray.’

  Kean thought that was strange but didn’t dwell on it. Before Sonia carried out the facial colour refinements, he had to choose hairstyles for them. Hair was a strange concept to him, requiring much consideration. He had a head cap - a much simpler head adornment - a raised thick layer of skin running from the forehead around the side of his head and running down through the nape of his neck. Within the depth of the skin surface were intricate patterns. No two Trun head cap designs were the same, though some similarities were hereditary.

  He accessed his knowledge disk. The choice of hairstyles were overwhelming. He eventually settled for the rather unkempt look that mountain bikers tended to have. That was where he intended to spend most of his time he mused. He chose a mousey blond colour, which he thought looked quite good. For Tray, he went for a crew cut. A bland hair choice for a dull companion.

  He let Sonia know that he’d finished and left her to access the files and add the definition they still needed.

  Janet Kilkenny had set up a casual ongoing search program to find and track NEOs from her parents’ house. She would eventually be back to work in an entirely different role. This was her last chance for stargazing. Besides, this research was her passion.

  NEOs consisted of NEAs (Near-Earth Asteroids), NECs (Near-Earth Comets), other meteorites, and human-made satellites, all with orbits that brought them in the proximity of Earth. Satellite surveillance was the primary interest from the CIAs viewpoint. The majority of natural foreign objects came from the Asteroid Belt, ejected into the solar system by interaction with Jupiter’s gravitational pull. There were thousands of these in the vicinity of Earth, many well over 1 kilometre in diameter. The largest so far discovered was 1036 Ganymed, which, at 32km, was due to flyby Earth in 2024.

  Janet did her own tracking now, looking for an asteroid or meteor that could be the next threat to Earth. If she found any satellites that weren’t supposed to be where they were, then that would be a bonus. Her set up in the attic of her parents’ home in the village of Carhoonahone, County Kerry, was pretty nifty. She had a very respectable wide field telescope and could take time lapse photos for downloading onto her home computer—a computer augmented with a powerful RAM, and processors obtained using her network of friends “in the know.” Being on the foothills of Carrauntoohil, the highest peak in Ireland, meant that the clarity of the night sky was pretty good.

  About four weeks earlier, she had been tracking an asteroid, and as usual was recording notes on her dictaphone.

  ‘Feb 26th. Day three tracking ‘Daisybell.’ Asteroid measures approximately 0.25 km in diameter. You’re a bit of a lump, Daisybell, but there are much bigger boys and girls flying around up there. I’m pretty sure now that I’m the first one to be following you. And, young lady, in today’s photo 26/2-16.30, you’ve developed a blemish. A big black spot. You need to wash more. Your orbit is becoming clearer. A few more days and I’ll know where you’re heading.’

  If it appeared it would to pass within five million miles of Earth, she would give it her full attention and study it in more depth.

  ‘March first. Day six tracking Daisybell. Well, young lady, it looks like you may get as close to me as 500,000 miles. I’ll need to have a more detailed look at you.’

  The asteroid might still be twice the distance of the Moon away, but in astronomical terms, that was quite close. A call to her old colleagues in the USA might be in order.

  The shadow was still there. It had only been mildly interesting at first, but once the NEA flyby distance was established, she decided to zoom in as close as her “amateur” equipment would allow. The resolution was far from perfect, but the shadow was there to be seen, cast across the side of the asteroid, blanketing the small hills and valleys. It was definitely circular. The question was: what was casting the shadow? She was now a little more than mildly interested.

  With their transformation now complete, nothing was stopping Kean and Tray from heading down to the planet. A missing message globe would have been more than enough to guarantee the Vercetians departure from Harewood Hall. The Trun spies hoped they were still in The Republic of Ireland but were more confident of locating the Princess’s two friends.

  They waited for a new moon before leaving the relative safety of the asteroid. A direct route straight down to Ireland afforded them the best chance of remaining undetected. The sphere possessed some masking devices, but if anyone were looking for them particularly, they would see them. Their arrival would be at high speed, so any exposure would be brief and hopefully they would be assumed to be a small asteroid.

  Their target was a lake by Macroom. It stretched over a large area, and by targeting the farthest point from the town, they would be in a quiet and desolate area. The ships rapid decelerated, and entry into the water was anything but quiet, with a sizeable wave radiating in all directions. Soon, all was calm.

  Now the sphere rested on the bottom of the lake gently vibrating, about half of the ship still above water. The water appeared to shake as the sphere sank slowly into the mud and silt that made up the lake bed. A minute later, it had disappeared, and all was silent again.

  They monitored the surrounding area for any signs of life or anyone taking an immediate interest. There was nothing.

  Now their thoughts turned to becoming human.

  Kean ran both his hands through his holographic hair. He liked it. Sonia had made a good job of their facial colour refinements. He suspected he looked a real human specimen, but that needed proving.

  ‘What do you think?’ he had asked Gobbler.

  ‘I would have said fantastic if I had any optical equipment with which to view you, Admiral.’


  Over the next week, with Tray’s assistance, they worked on their language converter, playing about with all sorts of English dialects. They decided not to use an Irish accent, afraid the locals would see through them and chose a neutral English one instead.

  After eight days they decided their first proper taste of Earth could start. Two single rooms were booked at the Mayfield Hotel, where they hoped to eat and socialise with the locals. Sonia, who still hadn’t finished her own holographic disguise, would stay with the ship.

  They exited the submerged sphere via an air bubble, stepping out of it onto dry land and looking a little more dapper than their situation warranted. A trip to the London office would have been more in keeping with the sharp suits they were wearing. They thought nothing of the six mile walk to the town, even though it almost ruined the mock leather lounge shoes they had replicated.

  Tray was verging on sociable during the stroll. This adventure was obviously exciting him.

  ‘I can’t believe we’re about to enter a town on Earth and converse with the locals. How do I look?’ he asked, not for the first time.

  ‘You’re asking me? We’ll soon find out when we talk to the locals. If we’re that bad the local police will probably beat us up, take us to jail and throw away the key,’ said Kean.

  ‘Really? But the voice translator seems to be working correctly, and we’re wearing regular clothing. Why would they want to arrest us?’

  Kean sighed deeply. ‘Your disk has Earth humour, yes? That was supposed to represent irony, a form of humour. It is working, isn’t it?’

  Tray looked blank for a moment while he accessed his knowledge disk. ‘Yes, I see. Becoming human isn’t going to be as easy as I thought.’

  ‘It isn’t,’ Kean agreed. ‘But that’s why we’re here. Don’t forget to refer to me as Rob. Okay, Tom? We’re here now and here’s hoping.’