The Search for Cleo

by Aaron J. Ethridge

  “You've eaten snails and I kiss you,” she shrugged. “It's just food, Morgan.”

  “I'm glad you feel that way,” he nodded. “Because, worms or not, they're good.”

  “They are,” Doc agreed. “In fact, I may order some to go before we leave.”

  “To go is a good idea, Doc,” Robert said, taking another sip of his wine. “I'm glad you thought of it.”

  “If we can't just hang around here,” Morgan said, “what are we going to be doing during the next few days?”

  “We're heading out to deep space where we can stay out of the way of time,” Robert said. “Then, as soon as Cleo has let us know where she is, we're going to work out a way to get her back. You can be sure Sturm's not just going to throw us the keys and wish us luck.”

  “In that case,” he said, “do you think it will break the future if we order a week's worth of take out?”

  “It won't keep a week,” Robert pointed out. “But, with luck, we might be able to find a place that sells some kind of MRE.”

  “I never thought I would say this,” Celeste replied, “but, I could really go for that. As strange as it is to hear myself say it, I miss the occasional MRE.”

  “That's not surprising, Mama,” the traveler said with a smile. “They grow on you.”

  Chapter 16: To the Rescue

  “There she is!” Robert cried, sitting up so quickly he almost threw his basically-MRE to the floor before beginning to frantically press buttons. “Just tell me where you are, dear, and Daddy will save you.”

  “Sometimes you are really bizarre,” Morgan opined.

  “Sometimes he is,” Cleo agreed, wrapping her arms around him from behind, “but this isn't an example of that. Where is she, love?”

  “In the middle of nowhere,” the traveler replied. “Which is exactly where I would have hidden her. It looks like it's one of the many places in the universe where essentially nothing ever happened.”

  “That's common, is it?” the young man asked.

  “The universe is a big place, Morgan,” Robert pointed out. “It looks like that's all we get. She sent us everything she safely could in one data burst. Now, we just need to crawl through it while we're on the way to where they've taken her.”

  “How long will it take us to get there?” the young man asked.

  “A few more days,” he replied. “Which should give us the time we need to get ready; provided we start working on it now.”

  That's exactly what they did. Due to the well-hidden modifications they had made, the ship had been able to collect a great deal of data. Not only had it determined exactly where and when it was, it completed a passive scan of the area before it contacted The Morgan-mobile. It also took the precaution – as per Cleo's programming – to wait ten minutes before it sent the message. As a result, Robert and his companions could be sure that they had at least that long to recapture it before it was moved again – if it ever was.

  During the ensuing days, Robert, Vox, Azure, Cleo, and even Morgan poured over this data; each applying their particular skill-set to the upcoming mission.

  “I think I can safely say,” Robert said after he had gathered his crew in the saloon for their last pre-rescue meeting, “that this will not be a piece of cake. Sturm seems to be taking the idea of us being able to recapture The Cleo very seriously.”

  “Which is why we should probably just run back to Never Never Land with our tails between our legs,” Morgan asserted.

  “What kind of sportsmanship is that?” the traveler chuckled.

  “The kind that doesn't needlessly risk our lives,” the young man replied, “or get either of the two of us corrected.”

  “When have I ever corrected you?” Azure asked. “I mean; other than that time I thought you had cheated on me.”

  “You hang out with Cleo constantly,” he pointed out. “I figure it's just a matter of time.”

  “He's right,” the green maiden smiled.

  “I know I'm right,” he nodded. “We need to head back home while we can.”

  “I don't mean about that,” she replied, shaking her head. “Rob's right about us taking our ship back. Doing that isn't the dangerous part of all this. Sturm isn't trying to kill us; just stop us.”

  “He could accidentally kill us,” Morgan observed. “The ship is crawling with robots and clones.”

  “I'm glad you brought that up,” Robert said. “Were you able to get exact numbers?”

  “Easily,” the young man nodded. “The ship switched on all the cameras the moment it was boarded. It also fired off the 'clone brain' alarm. As it turns out, all ten of the 'living' pirates were clones.”

  “Pirates?” the traveler chuckled.

  “Pirates steal ships, Rob,” Morgan pointed out. “May I continue?”

  “Please.”

  “In addition, the boarding party had twenty of those war-droids along with them (at least, that's what I would call them).”

  “Do they all have the same specs as that first one?”

  “They do,” Morgan nodded. “The ship scanned them all, and they're all identical. So, whatever we found out day-before-yesterday applies to all of them.”

  “Do we have a solution, Vox?” Robert asked.

  “Cleo and I have come up with something that should help,” he nodded. “We can rig up our holo-emitters to make two of us look like the same model robot, complete with a false transponder signal. That should confuse them.”

  “What about the rest of us?”

  “They won't be able to see through our stealth-belts,” he said. “That will give us a bit of an advantage.”

  “If they can't see us,” Celeste said, “why don't we just sneak past them?”

  “We will where we can,” Robert pointed out. “But, for at least ten minutes after the ship gets there, the robots are going to be marching around the ship on patrol.”

  “Except for the four on the bridge,” Morgan said. “They'll just be standing there with two of the clones, keeping us from reaching the primary computer interface.”

  “At certain points,” the traveler continued, “it might be difficult for Vox or Doc to get past them without accidentally bumping into them. If we can't sneak around them, we're going to have to go through them.”

  “Which is when we'll need to use the holo-emitters,” Vox explained.

  “Also,” Cleo added, “we have to keep in mind that an active stealth-field on the ship will fire off an alarm. So, although they won't be able to see us, they'll know someone is there the moment we turn them on.”

  “No, they won't,” Robert smiled. “Me and Vox built a back door into the system.”

  “Was that wise?” Azure asked, turning her gaze to her captain. “It seems to me that, since you did that, we could end up facing cloaked war-droids.”

  “Only if they knew how to get around it,” the traveler smiled. “I sincerely doubt that they figured that out in the few hours they’ve had. Vox, how do the external defenses look?”

  “Not great, boss,” Vox said, shaking his head. “There are a number of small attack craft patrolling the area, and security scanners all over the place.”

  “Will our modified stealth-field keep us hidden?”

  “Up until we reach the ship, yes,” he nodded. “At that point, however, no.”

  “Why not?”

  “Sturm's got four satellites running non-stop active scans on the ship,” he explained. “They scan its entire surface every thirty seconds.”

  “Could we make it inside that fast?” the traveler asked.

  “Are you serious?” Vox laughed. “Land on The Cleo, open an external access panel, get us all inside, and get The Mogan-mobile out of the way in half-a-minute? No way, boss.”

  “Is there any way we could hide from the scan?”

  “Not without accomplishing feats we never have before,” he replied, shaking his head. “It's a high-energy active scan, Rob. It's going to detect any stealth-field it touches, no matter ho
w it's configured.”

  “Let me think about that for a minute,” Robert said with a sigh. “How much of a fight was the ship able to put up, Cleo?”

  “She did what she could,” the green maiden smiled. “As soon as the clones came on board, the ship reactivated its lockout. Unfortunately, they were more than ready for that. They had equipment with them to manually open the doors and brought a secondary nav-computer with them. They bypassed the ship's navigational system and forced it to jump into non-space.”

  “Hmmm,” he hummed. “Does the ship still have control of the stealth-generator?”

  “It should,” she nodded. “At least, they hadn't tried to override that as of the ten-minute mark.”

  “If the ship turned on its stealth-field, what would happen, Vox?”

  “The satellites would fire off an alarm,” he replied with a smile. “Which would obviously be a 'false alarm' under the circumstances. Plus, since the ship is fighting to escape, they may just think that it turned the field on all by itself.”

  “How long would it take them to turn the stealth-field off, Cleo?”

  “If the ship was doing its best to keep it on?” she replied. “Two minutes at the very least.”

  “Is that enough time?” Robert asked, his eyes on his chief engineer.

  “That probably gives us ten or twenty seconds to spare,” Vox laughed.

  “Once we're on board,” he said, “it's just a matter of getting to the bridge and taking out the guards. After that, it'll be a...”

  Robert's statement was cut short by Celeste glaring at him.

  “A far less difficult task than it has been up to that point, Mama,” he smiled. “All we should have to do is turn off the lock-down and jump into non-space.”

  “Do we have to be on the bridge to turn it off?” Celeste asked. “It seems like it would be a lot easier to turn it off from somewhere else.”

  “It would be,” Robert nodded. “Which is why the lock-down prevents it. The idea was to keep the ship from getting captured in the first place.”

  “What it seems to have done, is make it harder to recapture.”

  “That was an unexpected side effect,” he admitted. “We could have actually altered it the last time we were on the ship...”

  “But that would have been extremely risky,” Cleo interjected. “If we left it open, any of the on-board computers could be used to take control of the ship. Meaning; we might end up fighting to keep control after we take it. As it is now, if we recapture the bridge, we recapture the ship. We can deal with the rest of the robots and clones while we're flying through non-space back to Never Never Land.”

  “I don't know that I like that idea,” Morgan observed aloud.

  “Would you prefer to fight them where they might be able to keep calling reinforcements?” she asked.

  “Good point,” he nodded.

  “So,” Robert said. “The plan is to drop into real-space as close to the ship as we can with our stealth-field configured so the passive scanners can't see us. Once we're in position, we'll have The Cleo turn on its stealth-generator. Seconds later, we'll land on the hull, extend our shields to create a bubble of air, and Vox will open an access panel. Then, we'll climb inside, close the panel, and send The Mogan-mobile some place safe. After we're on board, it's just a matter of making our way to the bridge and taking our ship back. Does anyone have any suggestions that might be an improvement?”

  “I do,” Morgan said, raising his hand. “Let's go to Never Never Land and get some help, instead.”

  “So that Sturm can hide my ship somewhere else?” Robert said, shaking his head. “No, Mister Harker, that won't do. Not to mention that cowardice under arms is an almost unforgivable fault in honor.”

  “Have it your way, then,” Morgan chuckled, before doing a fairly terrible Long John Silver impersonation. “By thunder, we'll capture their precious swag or die in the attempt, eh, Jim lad?”

  As he said this, he turned his eyes to Azure.

  “What?” the maiden asked.

  “Treasure Island,” he explained. “Well, sort of. That was my attempt at Long John Silver.”

  “Ah,” she nodded. “It didn't show.”

  “Well,” Robert said, clapping his hands and then rubbing them together, “as much fun as that was, it's about time to kick this pig.”

  “Kick this pig?” Cleo repeated.

  “Down Periscope.”

  “So it was,” she nodded.

  Kick this pig, they did. The entire crew did their very best to get as ready as they could to face, and hopefully overcome, their quickly approaching challenge. Although all of them felt confident that Doctor Sturm wasn't really trying to kill them, most of them (which is to say; all of them except Robert) realized that his machinations might still accidentally end their lives.

  Even if he didn't murder them by mistake, he still might just strand them in the past again (if he managed to capture them). Still, Morgan accepted the fact that Robert was the captain and that 'wheresoever Robert went, there also would Morgan go'. Unless, of course, it seemed very likely to get one or more of them killed or something, but the odds of that seemed relatively low in this case. As such, he just decided to do his best to defeat clones and killer robots or, failing that, to help Robert build The Mogan-mobile Two.

  Mere hours later, their current ship dropped into real-space not quite a mile away from their former (and hopefully future) ship. Although the area seemed to be filled with satellites made to detect adversaries, and teeming with fighter craft meant to destroy them, the companions' vessel remained completely hidden. With a few presses of just the right buttons, Cleo sent them flying toward their target.

  Just seconds before they encountered one of the high-energy scans that was keeping an eye on Sturm's prize, the maiden sent a signal to the ship (using a very clever and nearly-undetectable method) that requested it activate its stealth-field. Instantly, The Cleo obliged them and vanished from sight. In spite of the fact that there were no external indications, Robert assured them that 'the alarms are going off like crazy'.

  Cleo landed one craft on the surface of the other as quickly as she could, while Vox manipulated the shields and stealth-field in order to keep them alive and hidden as they completed phase one of their task. The moment The Mogan-mobile touched down, the crew flew from the bridge, down the gangplank, and to the access panel. In roughly ten seconds, Vox had it opened. Cleo and Azure instantly leapt inside, followed by Celeste.

  Due to random chance, Doc was next. This was where the mission encountered its first hiccup. Doc was slightly larger than the hole in the hull. Because of the rush they were in, he didn't observe this fact until he was really stuck.

  “We kind of need to hurry, Doc,” Robert said, glancing up at the attack craft that was flying above them at the moment.

  “That thought had occurred to me, Robert,” Doc replied, doing his best to free one of his wings. “Why did you make these holes this small, Vox?”

  “When's the last time you helped me do any maintenance outside the ship?” he asked.

  “Good point,” Doc said before beginning to chuckle.

  “What are laughing at?!” Robert snapped. “Are you losing your grip?! We've only got seconds left, brother.”

  “I can't help it,” he explained, still laughing. “The girls are hanging from my legs.”

  “If you don't hurry,” the traveler said, “I'm going to start jumping on your head!”

  “That might actually help,” Doc said, finally managing to pull one of his wings free.

  His second wing quickly followed, and Vox grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him inside. This done, he dove through the hole head first. Morgan handed the generator-sized holo-emitter (which Robert insisted they bring with them for some reason) to Vox, and then dropped into the ship. Robert pushed a button on the watch-like device on his wrist before joining his companions.

  Although The Cleo was once again visible before the panel was
closed, Vox assured them that they had made it in time.

  “You hear that?” he said, pointing toward the ceiling a short distance down the narrow (and low) maintenance shaft. “That's one of the scans. So, we can be pretty sure we weren't spotted.”

  “You can hear the scans?” Morgan asked.

  “No,” Robert replied. “You can hear the reverberation they cause in the hull. At least, you can if you're Vox. Let's go.”

  “Shouldn't we turn on our stealth-belts?” Celeste asked.

  “Not yet,” Robert replied. “We need to reach a computer console first.”

  “Shouldn't we turn on our shields?” Azure added.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “We should.”

  The companions did this before falling behind Vox as he began making his way in the direction of the nearest computer. Unfortunately, when they reached the pressure door that led to the ship's interior, they heard an odd, metallic sound echoing through the adjacent hallway.

  “What is that?” Morgan whispered.

  “If I had to guess,” Azure said softly, “I'd say it was a war-droid marching down the hall.”

  “It's two of them,” Robert said with a sigh. “Which makes sense, considering the fact that the access panels are a good way to break into the ship. So, guarding the hallways they connect to is pretty much a necessity if you want to keep pirates out.”

  “Why aren't they patrolling in here, then?” Morgan asked.

  “I can barely fit in here,” Doc pointed out quietly. “There's no way one of them could.”

  “On top of which,” Robert added, “there's not much you can do in here.”

  “If we time it right,” Vox said with a smile. “We should be able to take a quick look though.”

  “If we open the door...” Cleo began.

  “Which is why we won't,” Vox interrupted with a wink, lifting the MCB in his hand.

  For almost a minute, he stood with his ear pressed against the wall. Then, in a flash, he made a two-inch horizontal cut, followed by a second that was centimeters above the first. He then made a tiny vertical cut on each side of these. The angle at which he had made the bottom cut caused the small sliver of metal he had freed from the wall to fall into the maintenance shaft. This he managed to catch in his left hand before it hit the floor.