by Jeff Sims
Victor answered, “Well, not everyone wants to be a pilot. So, I created the full schematics of a fighter and a cruiser. Now, you can be a captain, a weapons officer, an engineer, a mechanic. You can load and fire the ship based missiles. I have also created hundreds of simulations for an Alliance cruiser crew. Something breaks and they have to fix it. They have to fly somewhere and get stranded. They can fight enemy ships or even other Alliance cruisers if they so desire. They can rerun existing missions, but this time they can simulate the crew on cruiser as well as the fighter pilots.”
Amy said, “More unbelievable.”
Victor said, “Yes, the best thing is that they will need to purchase add-on packs to perform any of the above mentioned roles. You can charge $10 for every role, and since there are 8 unique roles aboard a cruiser, we can collect an additional $80 from every gamer.”
“Anything else?” Amy asked.
He responded, “Actually there is one more thing. Please work with payroll. I want to give everyone a $250,000 bonus, a 3 day paid weekend next Friday through Sunday, and a two-day pass to Cedar Point as a going away present. I want you to go as well, so that everyone gets used to seeing you as the leader of the company.” He thought it sounded magnanimous, but in reality, he simply wanted the place empty so that no one would see the 20 pilots enter.
Victor took Amy to the bank and the law firm. He informed both firms that he and Crista were taking an extended vacation and authorized Amy to handle all company business affairs.
Victor had stopped all production on Wednesday and Thursday. They would miss a shipment next week, but that was the least of Victor’s concerns. Instead, he had the entire plant focus on building the new full body flight simulators. He told Amy it was critical to ensure they could build them properly before he left. The production team was able to build four units.
Victor gathered all of his employees. He thanked everyone, announced that he was taking a sabbatical, and introduced Amy as the new CEO. She gave a short speech describing the three new products the company was going to introduce, and ended by giving everyone the bonus checks and the amusement park passes.
The long awaited Friday had finally arrived. They started the day by loading the four new full body flight simulators into the freighter. Now, they will have a total of eight simulators for the pilots. They were fairly sure building the simulators on Earth and transporting them to Alliance space was illegal, but they had no intention of getting caught. As long as they arrived on Advranki Prime with only the four original simulators that were loaned to them, they figured they would be fine.
Carank reattached the steel cage and hid it behind a temporary partition. Then they moved the mini-freighter forward into the hanger so that the secret passage from Victor’s office led directly into the hold. To the casual observer, or excited pilot, it would appear as if they hadn’t left the office building.
Crista rented a van that could hold 10 people. The arrival times had aligned nicely such that she and Victor would only have to make two trips to the airport to get everyone. They had everything in place, so Victor and Crista left to get the first batch from the airport.
Jim Donovan was the first to arrive. Jim had eschewed his limo ride for later that day and had his sister drop him off at the facility. Fortunately, everything was in place for his early arrival. Well, almost everything. There were no Solarians to meet him. The lights in the office were on though and the door was unlocked, so Jim entered and wandered around. He found Victor’s office and saw the now open doorway. It had a sign overhead stating ‘Welcome Gamers’. Jim entered and began walking up the passageway.
…Alert, Alert, Unauthorized entrance detected. There is a human approaching…
Lorano was trapped. He didn’t have time to escape through the second hold and reclose it before he was detected. Further, he couldn’t go into the ship because the entry way had just been welded shut. Lorano hailed Carank and screamed, “Carank, grab a beam weapon and get here now! One of the human pilots has arrived early!” For once, Lorano actually wanted Crista to be near him.
Lorano said, “Computer, open the cargo door to the second hold.” Carank would have to grab the weapon, exit through the walkway by the control room, run halfway around the ship to the entryway at the second hold, and then go through the passageway to the main hold. Lorano thought it would take Carank about 10 minutes to get here.
…2nd Hold cargo door is now opening…
Lorano then said, “Computer, prepare sleeping gas on my voice command.”
…Gas is ready. Verbal command for activation is Candlestick…
Lorano sat down on one of the couches. There was little else he could do except greet the gamer coming up the hallway.
Jim came exited the hallway and walked into the hold. He was carrying his overnight bag. He saw Lorano and dropped his bag.
Lorano looked at him and said, “Hello human, my name is Lorano. It appears your ability to solve the simulation has not translated to your ability to tell time.”
Jim responded, “You’re an alien. The Altian from the simulation I believe. Why is it I can understand you?
Lorano responded, “Because I am speaking English to you.”
Jim was not to be deterred though. “How did you learn English?”
Really, Lorano thought. This is the human’s first meeting with and alien and all he seemed care about was semantics. Oh well, he thought to himself, just be nice to him for a few more minutes and Carank will be here.
Lorano responded, “I learned it in school.”
Jim asked, “How is that possible?”
Lorano finally understood the real question and answered, “I technically studied Alliance basic in school. It happens to sound quite a bit like English. The nice thing is that all races can speak it.”
Jim said, “So, you based your universal language on ours.”
Lorano responded, “Possibly.”
Jim said, “So Alliance basic was the language that Karen, the Advranki female in the full body simulation was speaking. I think it says something for humanity that aliens based their language on ours.”
Lorano responded, “Yes, we figured we would speak your language because you are too stupid to learn ours.” Dang, he thought, it is really difficult being this polite.
The answer seemed to have mollified Jim, for he changed the subject. He sat down on a couch across from Lorano and asked, “What is the solution to the battleship simulation? We always die. There has to be a way to kill the destroyer and still make it back to the cruiser.”
Lorano thought to himself, yes, I specifically designed it to have the pleasure of watching you die again and again.
Lorano actually responded, “That simulation, like all the others, is trying to teach to you a lesson.”
Jim asked, “Okay, what was the lesson?”
Lorano immediately thought to himself, the lesson is that I think you are all smart asses and needed to learn a little humility.
Lorano actually responded, “There are three lessons to be learned. First, if you work together, you can blow up a destroyer.”
“I already know this. Second,” Jim prompted.
Lorano continued, “Second, battleships are to be avoided at all costs.”
“I have already learned this. And third,” Jim prompted.
Lorano struggled for a moment to think of an answer. After a moment’s pause he said, “There are actually four lessons to be learned from this simulation.”
“Okay,” Jim prompted.
Lorano continued, “Third, Alliance cruisers will leave their fighter wing behind if they are in trouble. This is your role, your job, to sacrifice yourself when required. Sometimes, you don’t win or perhaps better stated, sometimes you have to define victory differently.”
“And last,” Jim prompted.
Lorano gave a wide grin. He wasn’t that good at lying, but he figured the human wouldn’t be able to tell. To his knowledge, there was no possible way to land on
the cruiser after killing the destroyer. In fact, he had specifically programmed it that way.
Lorano answered, “Sometimes you simply have to find a way, especially when the solution isn’t obvious. Sometimes you have to ask for help.”
Jim said, “I just did, ask for help I mean.”
Lorano didn’t respond, so Jim said, “So you’re not going to tell me.”
Lorano immediately thought to himself, I would if I could.
Lorano actually responded, “I already did. You have already learned everything you need to know.” Lorano chuckled to himself. He figured that the cryptic response should make the human think for a bit.
Jim thought for a moment and said, “So, what do we do…” He didn’t quite finish the sentence because Carank shot him from behind with the stun gun.
Carank looked at the human’s unconscious body and asked, “So, what do we do now?”
They dragged the body to the bedroom area and laid him down on a cot. Carank went back to the living area and grabbed the overnight bag. Carank said, “How did you manage to survive that long? I thought for sure you would be dead by the time I got there.”
Lorano answered, “I simply outsmarted him. It wasn’t difficult.”
Carank laughed and said, “Perhaps you should greet all of the humans when they come aboard.”
Lorano said, “Um, no.”
They cleaned the area, verified everything was in place, and left though the cargo door. They resealed the door and entered the main part of the ship. Finally, they went ahead and had the computer spray the sleeping unit with sleeping gas. They didn’t want the human to wake up before the other pilots arrived.
Victor and Crista had little issue collecting the pilots from the airport and transporting them back to the office. Victor gave everyone a quick tour of the facility, apologized that the facility was down for the weekend, and led the men into the hold. He showed them around the area and explained that they could sleep here for the weekend; that it would be easier than shuttling back and forth from the hotel.
Crista had them fill out a form listing their telephone number and email address. She also had them list their next of kin. Upon completion of the form, Victor showed them the full immersion flight simulators. After that, nothing else seemed to matter to the humans.
They repeated for the second group from the airport and for the two that arrived by limousine. Victor was exiting the hold when one of them stopped him and said, “Hey, there are only 19 here, where is number 20?”
Victor responded, “Oh, he arrived earlier than everyone else. After his run in the simulator, he felt tired and went into the sleep area to take a nap. You could wake him when you want to try a group mission.”
He waited until no one else was looking and exited the main hold. He closed and locked the main hold. The humans were trapped in the hold; they could not get out if they tried. Fortunately, they hadn’t realized it yet. With luck, they wouldn’t realize it until after they launched.
They had one final errand. They returned the van to the nearby rental agency, picked up their ground car, and returned to the hanger. They left the vehicle at the back of the Victory Games parking lot and entered the hanger. They took a final look around the inside of the hanger. It was completely empty, well save for the mini-freighter. They walked up the gangway and entered the ship.
Carank and Lorano were waiting for them in the control room. Lorano was just completing his final task on the planet. He hacked the airline database and removed each human’s flight from the computer. It would appear that the seat had been empty. He also hacked each gamer’s email account and deleted all interactions from Victory Games.
Victor opened the hanger door, activated blimp mode, and maneuvered the freighter through the door. He headed the ship back into space. Crista brought up the monitor to view the humans in the hold.
………………
The three human gamers that had spoken to Victor went into the sleeping room and found Jim Donovan on one of the beds. They gently shook him until he woke up.
Jim must have had a wonderful nap for he awoke well rested and with purpose. He said to the others, “Gather everyone, we need to have a meeting.”
The twenty pilots assembled in the entertainment / living area. Jim looked them each over. He realized that at age 29, he was probably 5 years older than the next pilot in the room. One looked really young, maybe no more than 16 years old. He noted that about half were in military uniforms, probably active service members.
He thought – good, if I can get the military people with me, the rest will fall in line. He quickly realized that if he seized this moment and told them he was in command, he would be accepted. If not, he would probably be ostracized for being older than everyone else and quite possibly, a worse pilot. With that in mind he said, “Ten hut.”
The command went as well as expected. The ten military men immediately stood up and saluted. The others looked strangely at those standing. Jim said, “Ten hut is an order to stand up and salute. Come on everyone, stand up.”
The remaining members stood up. The military men showed the others how to stand straight and hold their right hand against their right eyebrow. When they were all doing it properly, Jim said, “At ease, please be seated.”
Jim continued, “First, let’s introduce ourselves.” Jim gave his name, his age, his gamer alias, and his ranking number. He also added. “Since I was the first to solve the simulation, I was selected as the commander of this unit.” No one argued with him about the promotion.
They went around the room; each pilot telling a little about himself. Jim noted that all of the rankings were high. He wondered why some numbers had been skipped.
Jim had recognized several of the players’ names; most notably Russ Brand. Russ was the person who had discovered how link colors in his brain and to fly the fighter in manual mode.
The youngest player was also the last to speak. He was tall for his age, so Jim figured the aliens must have thought that he was older than actually was.
The young man said, “Hi, my name is Edward Williams. People on-line know me as Ace.” Several of the other pilots let out an oooh or an aaah. They knew that Ace was number one in the rankings, and that he held a sizeable lead over everyone else.
Jim had played missions with many of them. He was a little concerned with the maturity of several of the younger civilians, but overall they could really fly. He knew it was time to tell them what he knew. Jim took the one piece of information that he had learned, i.e. his conversation with Lorano, and guessed at the rest.
He decided to start with the simulation and end with the aliens. He said, “I had a conversation with the creator of the video game.”
Someone said, “Yeah, his name was Victor, we all met him.”
Jim answered, “No, Victor started the company, but he was not the lead programmer that actually created the game or the missions. I talked with the actual programmer about the battleship mission. He gave me several clues about how to solve it.”
“Really,” Ace drew out the reply to make the response seem to be a question.
Jim answered, “Yes. He said that we have already learned everything we need to know to solve the mission. He also said that we have to do things differently and that we need to ask for help.”
Ace answered, “Help. He actually said help. Who can we ask for help?”
Jim replied, “I don’t know yet, but as a team I am sure that we can figure it out.”
Billy Blaze spoke for the first time. He said, “Speaking of Victor, where did he go? Also, there is no one from Victory games here, just us.”
Jim chuckled and said, “I don’t think we will see him again.” He pointed toward the false panel. He took a deep breath; it was now time to tell them. He continued, “You may not have noticed, but we are moving.”
Blaze said, “I thought that was just vibration from the new flight simulators.”
He said to them, “No. Guys, let me be blu
nt. The video game was a ruse. Or more accurately, it was a recruiting tool.”
“Recruitment for what?” one asked.
Jim responded, “Well, the Alliance.”
Another said, “You mean all that malarkey about the Alliance. That there are three races called the Advranki, the Altians, and the Solarians. They are fighting the Hiriculans and apparently need our help.”
“Yes,” Jim answered. “It’s true. The aliens are real. Look around. There are no exits. There is enough food here to last months. Guys, we are currently riding in a space ship. My guess is they are taking us to a military base or a ship. We are going to become fighter pilots for the Alliance.”
Everyone reacted. They started walking around and looking for an exit. They quickly realized their initial entrance was gone. At the other side, they found the false panels and the metal cage protecting the entryway into a corridor. As they were looking through the doorway, they saw what appeared to be a shimmering wall of light a couple paces inside. They explored the rest of the hold, looking closely at everything. Ace summarized, “Well, if it is a spaceship, the aliens did a great job of decorating.”
Jim gathered everyone back into the room and said, “Gentlemen, we, and we alone, are soon going to represent humanity in outer space. We are going to fly fighters for the Alliance in a war the likes of which we cannot imagine. We may die in outer space and we will likely never see Earth again. We may seem primitive to them, but I know one thing, no one will say that we were cowards. We are going to fight!”
Everyone cheered and clapped and they all swore that they would represent humanity to the best of their ability. Jim said, “Now, let’s go solve that battleship mission.”
………………
The Vista cleared the atmosphere and headed away from Earth’s gravity. They again executed a micro jump to Mars. They could have jumped once the cleared Earth’s gravity well, but they decided to jump at the exact point where they launched the hyper charting missiles.
