SWEET HOME ALLE BAMMA (SOLBIDYUM WARS SAGA)

by Musser, Dale

  Suddenly, the image on the screen froze its ears attentively in one direction and then quickly fled from the camera and around a corner just as crew members came into view. Kerabac continued, “The oddest part is that he disappeared into a long corridor that’s basically a dead end. There is one outlet that loops back to tie into the central corridor; but we have another camera there that didn’t show him coming out, so he’s got to be back there somewhere.”

  “So far there is no evidence of him doing any harm to anything or anyone on the ship,” added the captain. “If he’s up to something, he hasn’t showed any signs of attempting anything destructive. Repeated attempts by the crew to locate and capture him have been unsuccessful.”

  I turned to Marranalis. “You’re in charge of my security operations, Marranalis. Locate and catch him, but I don’t want him hurt. No one is to take any forceful actions against him, unless it’s in self-defense, understood?”

  “Understood,” he repeated. “I’ll get right on it.”

  Right after Senator Tonclin and his daughter left the ship Captain Stonbersa gave orders for the NEW ORLEANS to return to Megelleon to deliver the reactor and solbidyum. Up until this point we had not opened the real solbidyum container. It remained hidden within a compartment behind a wall on the NEW ORLEANS, while a fake container constructed by Lunnie had been turned over to the rebels on the DUSTEN during the recent conflict. Instead of holding the solbidyum, the fake container hid seven troopers and me inside so that we could get aboard the DUSTEN to reclaim the ship and free the hostages. Now that we were ready to commence delivery of the solbidyum and the reactors we needed to gain access to the real solbidyum container once more.

  Only the admiral and a few highly placed individuals in the Federation had access to code that opened the container without activating the lethal booby traps that protected its contents. For the first time since I met the admiral I actually saw him sweat. His hands trembled slightly as he punched the codes into the keypad on the container. I don’t think any of us had a clue what to expect, since it had been over 500 years since the container was sealed. I suppose we all anticipated the unlocked container to open at the top like a jar, leaving us to stare into a large container full of something that resembled sand. Instead, we heard a slight hum and a click before a small door opened about waist high below the key pad. The container apparently worked like a dispenser. In this small space was a capsule about the size and shape of a typical medicine pill used on Earth.

  The capsule was clear and inside was a single sparkling grain of quartz-like sand. An astronomical number on the small digital display screen by the key pad decreased by one and below it in a new row appeared a value of one.

  The admiral sighed in relief and picked up the small capsule between his two fingers, peering into it at the tiny crystal. “It looks like it dispenses just one grain of solbidyum at a time. That certainly simplifies things.”

  He nodded to one of his staff who stepped forward with a small metal case lined with foam padding. The admiral carefully placed the capsule in the center of the case and closed the lid. He then entered a code into the keypad on the box after which the aide and four armed troopers left the area with the case and boarded the shuttle that was to take them to the reactor location on Megelleon. Since no one outside a handful of people aboard the NEW ORLEANS knew anything about the delivery of the solbidyum and since we were certain of the loyalty of the personnel involved in the transport, we felt relatively secure in the delivery.

  Our precautions and efforts were rewarded a few hours later when a coded message arrived for the admiral saying that the reactor had been installed and commissioned and that the system was now successfully distributing power to the planet. A cheer erupted in the High Command conference room when the admiral made the announcement.

  It had been decided that public statements and press releases would be withheld until the system was also operational on Nibaria, in order to demonstrate to citizens on other planets that the solbidyum was not being hoarded and that deliveries were underway. By the time word reached most planets, subsequent deliveries would already be complete, resulting in a chain of reports that additional power plants were also online. There were bound to be planets that felt they should have received their shipment as a priority; but by the time they would be prepared to issue a formal complaint, their deliveries should arrive – at least that was our theory.

  Megelleon’s reactor site was actually located under the middle of the capital city in an area which had once been part of a planned underground transit system that was abandoned after a fault zone discovered in the path of the system brought an end to the project. The area where the reactor was located was solid and remote from the actual fault zone by many miles, so it was deemed safe and structurally sound. The site was surrounded by solid rock and accessible by only one tunnel. Sensors were installed in the surrounding rock that would detect any attempts to excavate other passageways long before reaching the reactor chamber. The reactor itself was hauled on an open flatbed transport in a common crate marked as Ventilation Fans and the grain of solbidyum was concealed in a small container made to look like a standard bolt, which was carried inside a worker’s toolbox. By the middle of the second day the reactor was installed and operating.

  Our second day in orbit around Megelleon was the day that the FSO trainees were due to turn in their spying results for evaluation. Nearly all the individuals and teams were disqualified when their spy bugs were detected. Three teams and two individuals managed to avoid detection; but of those three only two actually obtained any information. I was a bit surprised that our chameleon candidate had failed; in fact, he was one of the first to be detected. Of the two remaining candidates the first managed to glean some information from the admiral’s staff headquarters on the ship that certainly would have been useful if it had been information gained from reconnaissance of a hostile source. Even so, it was nothing in comparison to what the remaining candidate collected. What he revealed was the entire conversation that the admiral and I had with Senator Tonclin over dinner regarding the delivery of the solbidyum, as well every other conversation that took place in the dining area that evening. A complete sweep had been made of the dining room before, during, and after the meeting while the senator was present and nothing was found; so we all were quite eager to know how he had achieved this feat.

  The trainee’s name was Geston. He was a rather ordinary looking individual, the kind of ordinary that was perfect for spying.

  “So, Geston, how did you manage to get this information without being detected?” I asked.

  “Well, sir, I knew that any sweeps would reveal electronic devices in the room, so I decided to use an optical system instead. I placed a fiber optic lead through a wall and aimed it at a light fixture on the far side of the room. All sounds trigger minute changes in the surrounding light patterns as the sound waves pass through the room. That light fluctuation is then measured and delivered via the fiber optics to a computer that converts those modulations back into sound and records them.

  “An electronic sensor will not pick up a fiber optic lead,” he said with a smile, “and the computer is too far removed from the room for the sensors to detect it.”

  “Very ingenious,” I replied. I recalled seeing a demonstration years ago where a classmate achieved something similar by way of a flashlight and a photocell connected to a device he had built for a science project. “This is precisely the sort of ingenuity you will all need to have when you are on assignments. Stealth is of the utmost importance. Once a spying device is uncovered, your targets will be on guard and looking for you. As long as they’re unaware that they’re under surveillance, achieving your objective safely will be a hundred times easier. I want all of you to get with Geston and learn exactly what he did to successfully install and collect this information; and I expect each of you to build a working model of this device within the next two weeks. In the meantime, we will be going to the surface for
some survival training in the forest on my estate. Are there any questions?”

  “Yes, sir, I have a question,” replied one of the recruits. “What sort of supplies and gear shall we take with us?”

  I grinned and replied, “Nothing. Not one damn thing. You will all be dropped off – naked – in different locations about the estate. You will take nothing with you. Your assignment is to get to the lodge at the far end of the estate within three days without detection. You’ll obtain food and shelter from your natural surroundings by your own resourcefulness. You are not – I repeat – you are not permitted to team up with others and are to avoid all such contact. Anyone who doesn’t make it to the lodge in three days and has to be retrieved in the wilderness will be washed out of the program. When you’re released at the drop-off point, you’ll be given information as to your location on the estate. In the meantime, it’s up to you to obtain details regarding the layout of the estate, including locations of all relevant landmarks, structures and environmental factors that will influence your movements. Be at the hangar area in two hours for deployment to the surface. If there are no other questions, you’re dismissed.”

  The look of shock on the faces of these recruits would have been amusing, had it not been for the seriousness of the jobs they were expected to perform in the future. I wondered how many of them would opt out by deliberately not showing up at the lodge on time.

  After I left FSO training, I sought out Marranalis to check on his progress regarding our stowaway. I called him on my wrist com and he gave me his position within the vacant accommodations area. When I arrived, I found him staring dumbly at the wall, completely unaware of my presence.

  “Is this some new investigative method?” I inquired.

  “Oh… sorry, Tibby. I’m just puzzled, that’s all. I figured that, if our stowaway was using the food dispenser in this section of the ship, he might likewise be using one of the clothing replicators and cleaning units. I did a computer search of the units installed in this area of the ship. Since it’s supposed to be unoccupied, none of them should be in use; but the computer identified one unit that is being used almost daily back here…meaning right here,” he said emphatically while gesturing around him in the featureless end of a corridor. “I just can’t find it. Not only that, but there is supposed to be a food dispenser near it. The ship’s computer shows it as being inoperative due to some malfunction, which is no doubt why our stowaway is using the one at the other end of the corridor. The thing is… I can’t find either of the dispensers. According to the floor plans and every monitoring system for this accommodations section they should be right here,” he said as he stared again at the blank wall.

  “Interesting,” I said. “Does the computer tell you when and how long a dispenser has been in use and the frequency of use?” I asked.

  “Ah, yeah I think so. Let me look,” he said, lifting his vid tablet to input some commands. “According to the records, they’ve both been in use for nearly five months. The food dispenser has been out of commission only for the past two weeks though.”

  “If that’s true, it may mean our guest was residing on this ship before I bought it and that he’s been hiding all this time. He would have been onboard here when Galetils was still alive. I wonder if Galetils knew about this person’s presence on the ship.”

  “It’s possible, I suppose; but why would he be hiding, unless he’s a criminal or a fugitive of some sort? Maybe Galetils was trying to help him elude capture for some reason.”

  “I don’t think so. If he were a fugitive, the computer would have recognized his image. But as it is, the computer can’t even identify his race. So I don’t think he’s a criminal – at least not one wanted by the Federation.”

  “Well I’m open to suggestions,” said Marranalis.

  “Put your Special Ops unit on it. Make it an assignment for them to locate and capture him. Just remember – he is not to be harmed in any way.”

  “Right! Say, while you’re here, I heard you’re sending the FSO bunch to the estate on a survival exercise. Do you mind if I do that with my recruits? They also need that kind of training.”

  “I agree, but it’s going to have to wait. We’re headed back to Nibaria as soon as the FSO recruits are dropped off so we can complete the solbidyum and reactor delivery. I’m hoping that Tonclin will have some recruits ready from his planet by the time we arrive. Once we’re done at Nibaria, we’ll return here only briefly before heading out to deliver the next reactor; so your wilderness training will be delayed a bit, I’m afraid. If we had a competent instructor to leave with them, I would agree; but I need you with me and you’re the only one I trust to conduct their training at the moment.

  “By the way, find the bomb and explosive experts in your bunch and have them start training every one of your recruits. They’ll all need to have those skill sets, given the Brotherhood has already demonstrated a propensity for favoring explosive devices. Also, I want them to be able to swim the entire length of the main pool underwater in both directions without surfacing. It’s not going to be easy and it may take a long time before they can do it, but I want it done. Push them on it. Oh, and adjust the climbing wall, it’s too easy.”

  Marranalis looked at me with a crooked grin and shook his head, “Tibby, one thing is certain – when you’re done we’ll have the toughest bunch of troopers in the Federation. Either that or they’ll all be dead.”

  I felt like I hadn’t seen Kala in days, though in truth it was just the previous night that we had been together. It seemed that time crawled when our duties kept us apart. Most of the time we worked together; but on days like this one she needed to concentrate on instructing her staff and sitting through updates and briefings on events, while I attended to my obligations related to training and other Federation matters.

  I contacted Kala to see if she was available for lunch and was glad when she said yes. We met a few minutes later in an intimate corner of one of the atriums by a pool and waterfall. A small table had been set up near the water in advance and Piesew was present to see to our dining needs.

  Food in the Federation was, for the most part, quite delicious, though in my experience thus far it often lacked the variety of textures that I was accustomed to experiencing in foods on Earth. Food replicators did a superior job of creating the flavors of many dishes, but it didn’t seem to be able to duplicate the textures of things like fresh vegetables and certain grains and meats. On this particular day I was craving a good old-fashioned bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on toast. I was afraid of what I was actually going to get if I asked, but I thought I would give it a try anyway. I did my very best to describe bacon to Piesew. The tomato was not any easier and, while I could describe lettuce as a leafy vegetable, I couldn’t define the taste. Describing the textures was even more challenging and, in Piesew’s defense, he showed remarkable patience with my request. Kala made a few suggestions and comments to Piesew and he nodded his head. Describing mayonnaise was even more interesting. Fortunately, my grandmother made her own when I was a kid, so I knew the recipe; but the eggs that might be used in the process here was the wildcard.

  What Piesew brought me was close – I have to admit that much – but whatever the synthesizer spit out as a tomato looked quite artificial and was not at all moist like a tomato. The bacon came very close to tasting like real bacon, but it lacked the greasy quality that makes bacon so appealing. The lettuce, the one item I couldn’t figure out how to describe, was spot on. Piesew told me it was some plant he’d picked from the foliage in the atrium. The mayonnaise was perfect. The toast tasted more like rye bread than wheat, which was okay by me. I know all these terms mean very little to anyone who lacks my point of reference; it suffices to say that, while it wasn’t the best BLT I’d ever had, it did satisfy my hunger for one.

  I was pleasantly surprised when Piesew brought me a cold glass of afex, as I had not requested it; but it was the right choice. It was obvious that he had talked to Piebar. W
hen she saw the afex, Kala smiled and said to Piesew, “You know, Piesew, I think I would like an afex also.” Piesew nodded and retreated, returning almost immediately with a cold glass for Kala.

  “You’re quite the topic of discussion with the troopers in this sector of the Federation at the moment,” Kala began. “Many of those who went out chasing after that dummy transmitter you launched as a decoy signature for the TRITYTE are now starting to trickle back to base. They’re being briefed on the events that transpired in their absence. Most of them are pretty good-natured about it. They’re laughing at how you tricked the Bunemnites and they’re in awe of the tactics you employed to recapture the DUSTEN.

  “There are also a few who are not so happy with you, as they were sure they were going to achieve great wealth and fortune when they found the TRITYTE. It’s estimated that there are nearly a hundred ships from both the Federation and the Bunem System still out there searching that have yet to learn it was a decoy.”

  I had to chuckle. “I would hope at some point they give up. Captain Maxette told me that he hadn’t targeted any specific end destination for the decoy; so it will likely just keep going right out of the galaxy all together. How long before you think the last pursuers give up?”

  “When Roiax stole the TRITYE and everyone was out looking for him, there were people who spent their entire lives searching. It’s possible that some of the searchers now won’t give up and may never come back,” Kala said.

  I was a bit saddened by the thought that my idea to use a decoy could send some people on a wild hunt that would never end because there was nothing there to begin with. Still, it was a good plan that prevented a war between the Bunemnites and the Federation.

  “Kala, do you regret me coming here with the TRITYTE?”

  “What?!” said Kala with surprise.