Mission: Blackguard Conspiracy

by V. A. Jeffrey

  “Has she exposed the people running these companies?”

  “She's tried and failed. Attempts have been made on her life because of it and these attempts will intensify. What we need is a way to expose them on the world scene. This convention might be it for us. If we can't expose them there we may never get the chance again.”

  “But how can we expose them?”

  “There is a substance mixed with the plasma fluid being used to fuel the gate that can dissolve bio-engineered human flesh. But I'm sure you see the problem with that.”

  “The humans there could be injured in the process.”

  “If we can get inside to study and look at the actual gate itself, we'll have to figure out how to prevent humans from being on or too close to the stage when we disable the gate. Pay special attention to the particular files containing the names of companies that may have been taken over covertly by aliens as these companies will also be represented at the convention this month. They also contain names of the possible alien spies hiding in human drag.”

  Human drag. Those words struck me hard. I suppose that's what we were to them. Drag. How depressing.

  I took the drive from him and pocketed it.

  “Another thing you should know. You're being shadowed by someone. I was set on your tail to protect you. I've noticed others who don't share the same agenda who are also watching you and your family. There were two of them. One is gone. I took care of him. The other one is far more slippery. So far, that one has disappeared.”

  “Were you the one I saw at the park?”

  “Me and another, whom I've already dispatched. Those other two were loyalist alien spies.” I felt a cold knot grow in my belly.

  “Vartan will send around-the-clock security for your family.”

  “She's already informed me. Where can I reach you if I need to contact you?”

  “Give me a line through the Dappa network. My name there is blackshield2. You can message me there.”

  “I was wondering. What's St. Anthony like?” I asked suddenly.

  “Safe. Clean. Not yet overrun with loyalists. There aren't very many of us U-net agents but we've established ourselves there and so far have uprooted and eliminated most of the hidden loyalists. We intend to keep it that way.” I wasn't the lone fighter I imagined myself to be and I felt better about that. Much better.

  “Do you know any of the sentinels and rebels on Mars?”

  “Of course!” His retort was terse and he gave me a quick, stiff salute. “Always,” he said and then he turned and left as swiftly as he'd come, disappearing down the field into darkness and shadow.

  . . .

  The next thing I did on my way home was call Ellen Vartan and set up an immediate plan for bodyguard security protection for our home. Whether or not Pam would approve was beyond the point. When she came to her senses she would realize that I was doing all of this because I loved her and my kids. In the meantime, I would have to explain the changes that were soon to come. It might actually lead the way back to family harmony.

  That night Pam and the kids were already in bed. I went to my office, bringing my pajamas and blankets with me. Might as well get to work.

  I put the hard drive into a bay in the computer desk and started my examination. I searched for the files marked in red. I sent a message to Chip, copying the alien code in a new file to send to him. If Chip himself couldn't make any sense of it, he might know someone who could decipher such code. I remembered with trepidation Genevieve's recounting about her boyfriend Jason and his friends who had encountered this information, deciphered it partially and the bad end that came to them because of it. Jason had never been found. It had fueled Genevieve's desire to become a sentinel. I could still remember the haunted look on her face as she retold that dark memory.

  The next thing I did was look up all the important folks who would be featured at the Sci-Tech convention. The speakers and hosted guests. And then I matched all of their names with what I found in the files of those who were actually alien loyalists. Every single one of those who would be speaking or featured on the first day of the convention were, according to the information I had from the Blackguard Files were alien. And they intended to activate the gate on, Thursday, the first day. Which meant that we had to kick things into motion on Thursday. We couldn't afford to wait until Friday.

  One of the files caught my eye. As I moved my finger along the screen a menu of its contents appeared. It wasn't a code file but a holo-vid file with schematics. I opened it. To my amazement, I found an image of a black metal cube exactly like the one I'd brought home from Genevieve's hideout. There was also a map of the layout of the cube itself along with a stargate, presumably the one that was built and ready for display at the convention. As I studied the initial files displayed before me it seemed that the cube was an object that could be inserted into the gate's outer rim in a small cube-sized bay.

  This excited me but it was also puzzling. What was the purpose of this cube? The stargate, like the original solar gate before it was round, looked to be about the size from what I could read from the measurements of a medium-sized, modular house. There were numerous illustrations and digital photos of both the gate and the cube that I opened up and studied in 3D space. I was stunned at the silent revelation and studied the illustrations and the photo and the schematics closely. And what I found was that the metal cube was most likely a type of key.

  Some of the language used in the schematics was alien and the glyphs and symbols across the expanse of the gate itself were all of alien origin. I studied an identical gate illustration of the symbols and letters on the gate that translated some of these. Not all had been translated it seemed but enough had so that I could understand some of it. Committing them to memory was another matter.

  Another thing marked for my attention was a blueprint of the convention center. This was interesting because it seemed very old, as if from the previous century. I noted in the blueprint that there was one freight elevator, its location marked in red, that was no longer in use. It could be reached by an opening in the ground, a metal door at the ground floor of the convention center in the orange section parking lot. A note was written here by Darkman:

  The locks to the doors in the ground have been severed. Beware, as these doors are extremely heavy. You'll need a flashlight to see once you get inside. This is the best way to get to the gate which extends from the platform on the main ground floor down into Level Underground 1 without being seen by security. One agent was sent to investigate how to get to the underground floor 1 and the disused freight tube attached to it and we have not heard from this agent since. This was four weeks ago. The way may be more dangerous than anticipated but it is the only way to escape the notice of security until other measures are found. Whether there is a blocked or locked entryway into floor U1L remains to be seen. The best way to find a way to this floor from the lift is to study the blueprint. Once you get inside from this lift, it shouldn't be far. There is a security code for the way into the Lissler Room, where the bottom half of the gate is stationed. It is 10011001.

  The thought crossed my mind that if I was going to be breaking and entering into abandoned lift shafts I would need some small but powerful tools to get in and out. Like a digital jack. I made a mental note to visit the hardware store later.

  I read the message again. An ominous feeling washed over me. What happened to the previous agent that had been sent to pry open a way in? I studied the blueprint closely where the path of the freight lift originally traveled. It was indeed rather close by the floor I needed to get to if I were to break in. In fact, only one level down from the ground floor. But how things looked in blueprints and how they looked in real life on the ground were two different matters.

  Still, this seemed like our only chance to stop this plan. I just worried about what I would find there once I got inside before I got to the gate.

  I decided to focus my attention on the cube bay. I brought a holo-vid close
r to see and read the written explanation. It said that once the cube was inserted inside the bay while turned on this object had the ability to shut down the gate. I unlocked one of the hidden drawers in my desk and took my cube out and looked it over. It was a hidden, veiled thing to me, something that carried secrets. It had to. The cube in the schematics and holo-vids looked different somehow in that it looked. . .activated. I studied them closely. It looked exactly the same in its looks and markings but the cube in the illustrations looked as if it had been turned on. It was lit up in green and yellow light. Mine merely blinked with a tiny green light every few seconds.

  I'd noticed another thing. The fingertip indentations on the cube had a specific pattern in which they needed to be touched. The pattern was right there in an illustration. Perhaps I could open it right now! But what would happen if I did? Would it blow up?

  I had not so far been able to open it or work it, nor did I know what it really did or what purpose it served in the past. But now I had some inkling. It was connected to this stargate technology stolen by the aliens, or maybe the solar gate was originally made by them. Who knew? Alien and human technology and relationships were becoming blurred on places like Mars. As human technology made its way into alien hands, their technology was also making its way into ours. A heady and possibly dangerous territory with unimaginable possibilities. And consequences.

  When I pondered on this for too long it became overwhelming. As I continued looking through the files marked for my attention my mind shifted toward thoughts on the cube and how to decipher its secrets.

  5

  At work things were going smoothly. I even had a nice chat with Fred, whom I hadn't seen in ages. It turned out that Fred was part of a new team that was involved in an important new project; the creation of two, brand new types of courtesy mechs for traveling and living on Venus. These were still in the beginning stages of the design phase.

  The first type, industrial labor mechs, according to water cooler gossip, would be even more powerful than the ones already working in the Venusian mines and would be able to better stand the hard pressures of Venus. This first type had a crab-like design. Groups of workers would also be able to climb inside of these mechs and travel from mine to mine or work-station to work-station. As for the second type, they would be made specifically for the new Venusian cities that were being built, such as Vepaja, and its brand new capital city, Cythera, within its highly advanced biospheres. Most of these mechs would be built to resemble the Venus de Milo for those wanting female-looking mechs and Giuseppe Mazzuoli's Adonis, for those preferring male-looking ones. I wondered what other functions these special mechs would be performing for travelers with less family friendly proclivities.

  But, I digress. . .

  There were already basic, simple mechs built for the Venusian atmosphere that toiled as laborers outside of the pressurized buildings, arenas and cabins, or worked in the mines. They were building the planet up, city by city, into a verdant paradise, inside of pressurized, highly advanced system bio- domes. Even these courtesy mechs would purportedly be hardier versions of the usual courtesy mechs on Earth, the moon and on the various stations throughout the solar system, in case they might be required to go outside the bio-domes for any reason.

  After my conversation with Fred, instead of catching lunch with him and the rest of my friends, I decided to visit Chip, who was on a different schedule from the rest of us this week. However, he and his team of engineers were busy performing wind tunnel testing on a new model of small aircraft to be used for travel throughout Venus that had already gone through many rounds of CFD testing. He was out of the office for now.

  So, I decided to visit Odd Parts Lab. I called for my replacement, feeling like a complete slacker, but, hey, I was on a secret mission.

  Odd Parts Lab was supposed to have been mothballed years ago but for some reason no one could find the time to close it down and transfer everything into Recycling. I got the feeling that Chip and his team in engineering may have been behind its eternally slow demise. It was one of those mysteries that lived on just under the surface of true scrutiny at Vartan Inc. And no doubt, Ms. Vartan supported this effort for some reason. That was my assumption, anyway. Chip often loved wandering the lab and finding stuff for his home projects, if the resident machinist there was in a good mood.

  And this scheme served my purpose today. I'd gone there a handful of times and each time I was dazzled by the intricate, strange, wonderful and mainly useless, outdated machines there. OPL was actually in section C-30, technically section C-33, three floors beneath mine on the southern campus and it comprised six cramped rooms that sat behind two rather grand looking, old fashioned metal doors that were locked by a skeleton key! Don't ask me why because I didn't know why and neither did the machinist who works there. Believe me. Jerome from security asked him once.

  As I came out of the elevator lift and turned the corner I saw one of the huge campus maps that tracked where an employee was at any given moment in a brilliantly displayed holo-vid map. There I was, a moving, flashing green light on the map. A block of text popped up that said: You Are Here.

  Meaning, OPL.

  The machinist who ran the lab displayed two dispositions; he was either in a grumpy mood or a gloomy one, both which appeared to be the same mood to me. And he guarded the place as if the Holy Grail itself were hidden somewhere in there. Only Chip and his engineering team were allowed to “borrow” anything out of the place. However, I was here for a different reason. I had no interest in taking anything.

  I was on one of my random fishing expeditions again. Except it wasn't all that random this time. I felt that I had a starting point and a good reason for being here.

  The beaten steel doors were wide open and the passageway towards the lab was nearly empty except for the occasional labor mech hovering down the hall. Right on the wall in front of me in the main office was a huge sign on an old billboard with green-lit words that said:

  Odd Parts Lab (or in other words, Frivolous Engineering!)

  Hanging along the wall were several black and white prints mounted on white board of Rube Goldberg's Professor Butts. On the other walls hung old, faded framed engineering blueprints.

  Inside the office right behind the doors were numerous chutes and large bins where catty-wompus machines and machine parts and throw-away tech were on occasion thrown down, ending their lives in these bins. The office was stacked and crowded with so much minutiae that it seemed much smaller than it actually was. At a desk piled with blueprints, engineering drawings, tiny robots, metal shavings, wires and tools was a metal name plate that said: Edwin C. Steward.

  Edwin's name plate was dusty and rusty. His desk was piled high as usual with broken and random machine parts and old disks no one used anymore.

  “Hello? Hello?” I called out. I looked down to see an old fashioned desk bell. I rapped it twice, feeling the slight resistance and whir of its components as I rang it. It felt great on a primal level, I'm not sure why. Even the air in here felt different from the rest of the campus buildings. It was as if I'd landed into an early 20th-century room every time I came in here. Which was rare.

  I heard footsteps coming from one of the inner rooms around the corner. A loud thunk! boomed into one of the bins. I turned to see parts of an older generation holo-vid pad. One of the huge old ones that could cover an entire desk.

  “Can I help you?” growled the machinist.

  “It's been a while since I've visited this place,” I said pleasantly, looking all around and grinning like a kid. The machinist leaned against his desk, fixing me with a pained look.

  “Can I help you?” he asked again, his voice edged with irritation. “Look! Just because I'm surrounded by broken machines that people don't use anymore doesn't mean I'm not busy. Have you been here before? Do you have an appointment?”

  “Of course. Uh, well,” I stumbled, “I mean, remember that time a few years ago when I was here about the VPHILM that was
destroyed because of. . . well, uh,” I was at a loss to explain myself. He raised bushy eyebrows over his hard stare.

  “Which one?” he asked pointedly. The truth be told, there were several android projects that had been scrapped. Will was only the most recent. Chip and I had rescued him by copying the crystal chip containing all the information for his knowledge, processes and personality and recreated him on our own. He was dead and gone to everyone else at Vartan Inc. And after all, that was years ago. Why would he remember me?

  “Actually no, I don't have an appointment. But I'm in a quandary that I was hoping you could help me solve.” I took out the cube and held it out to him, thinking I had better get right to the point with this guy. Edwin's eyes brightened and grew wide, as if he were shocked that anyone would dare even make such a request of him. I wasn't sure how to take this but he soon eased my apprehension.

  “I am busy you know,” but he said this with some hesitation and with less curtness this time as he stared at the cube. I decided to push a little further.

  “Got a few minutes?” I asked, shaking the cube at him.

  “What is that?”

  “I'm not sure. That's why I'm here,” I didn't want him throwing me out for wasting his time by coming right out and telling him it was of alien origin. “Chip told me that you might have some idea.” This was bull cocky, as was emphasized by the funny look he gave me. Chip had told me no such thing. But Chip probably would have suggested it. I'm quite sure.

  “Hmm.”

  “I'm just looking to bounce some ideas off someone about it. That's all,” I said, setting it down decidedly on his desk next to a pile of metal cogs and shavings. The shavings and cogs began to tremble slightly around the cube. Edwin watched them patter around the desk with mild interest as did I and then his eyes slid towards the black cube again, its tiny green light blinking every few seconds. He reached toward it and then before touching it glanced at me.