by Aaron Frale
Kal looked at all the crew. They were nodding with Hayden in agreement. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. It was a wiser decision to put one of the crew at risk. If the technology did have a tracker, or if it alerted the Teristaque to their location, they could easily toss Hayden out of the airlock, strand him on a planet, or find another way to get him away from the crew. However, they stumbled onto the keys to an advanced ship. It was a risk that was worth taking, and Hayden knew it.
After a short discussion and a vote, it was decided. Hayden would receive the first implant. There was little point in discussing the next steps because they didn’t know if the implant required proximity to the ship to function. They also didn’t know where the ship was being stored so that they couldn’t plan its liberation. The only step involved giving Hayden the injection and hoping his brain didn’t get scrambled.
_______
The next day, they were all sitting around the mess hall taking a meal together. Maker wasn’t at the table, which wasn’t unusual. He would often skip meals because he was too curious about one topic or another and forgot to come to mealtime. During their first months as crew, Kal would send someone to fetch him, and he would always say he’d be there in a moment, and of course the moment never came because he would always be engrossed in his research. It was a rare occasion when Maker would eat with the crew.
Hayden seemed to be doing fine. He had injected himself with the implant the previous day and didn’t seem to be suffering any effects. He was eating a noodle dish Seayolar had prepared and was engaged in telling the crew about a story from his home world of Earth. The crew was always interested to hear about Earth. Since it was the heart of the Teristaque Empire, most had wild misconceptions about the place. Rumors like the city elite throwing bones to the lower populations weren’t true. However, it was a planet like any other interstellar government seat, mostly urban areas with very little natural world left.
Even though the crew’s misconceptions about humans were outlandish, there was some truth buried within. Earth was a monument to inequity. A very small percentage of the humans controlled all the wealth and used that wealth to influence the politics of the UPE. In some sense, the population of Earth was living off the table scraps of the elite; however, it wasn’t literal bones, and the population wasn’t living in squalor. It was just that most people didn’t have much, while the lucky few had everything. The average Earth citizen also felt disempowered to do anything about it.
Even though the UPE claimed to be a democratic society, it was one that was run by wealth and built to serve the wealthy. From what Hayden described, most politicians needed a lot of funding to get elected, so they almost always had to get the backing of large intergalactic corporate interests to get a chance at power. When worlds like Kal’s could serve those corporate interests, it was easy to see how a democratic society would create policies that ravaged her home world. It also explained why people like Makiuarnek were able to get away with heinous acts. It was easier to ignore injustice for large financial gains. What was one village compared to the wealth of an intergalactic empire?
It seemed like most of the UPE’s purpose was to generate more wealth. There didn’t seem to be any other considerations about the impact on the people these wealth-generating systems created. While Kal had no inherent problem with collecting wealth, it did give her and her crew incentive to innovate, create, and try to become the best damn thieves in the galaxy. She did take issue with generating wealth at any cost.
That’s why she never allowed her crew to take from those who had less than themselves. Crewman Nar was the first to learn this lesson on one of their first space station leaves. After they had escaped from the prison, they got a few odd jobs from Nar’s contacts. Nar was a pudgy bulbous creature with small eyes. He knew a human, a thin man with spectacles, who could get them work. Since they needed cash to get some more decrand because Dr. Feslerk didn’t keep the ship well fueled, they took the job.
It was during the job when Kal noticed that they were stealing crates of fresh vegetables from farmers, a valuable commodity for a space station where space was limited and farmed produce was at a premium. The farmers were a small community on a far off world. The crates were the farmer’s livelihood. If Kal had gone through with the job, they would have sentenced the farmers to death because they would not have been able to afford the basic supplies needed to get them through the winter. Because it was a small village, it hit too close to home. Kal knew they needed an honor code.
Luckily everyone agreed except Nar. He had torched the harvest so no one could have it. Kal left him stranded on the world and offered the farmers a lift to the nearest space station. In thanks, the farmers used their contacts to secure some decrand for Kal’s ship that would have been stranded at the station otherwise. Since Nar was most likely dead by winter, he served as a grim reminder of their honor code.
Kal was pulled from her thoughts when she heard a gurgling noise. Hayden looked like he was choking. Grannork did the Heimlich maneuver and probably broke Hayden’s ribs. The human began to flail and shake. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he foamed at the mouth.
“He’s not choking!” Kal yelled. “Lay him on the table.”
The crew tossed the metal dishes on the floor. They clattered to the ground and noodles scattered everywhere. Grannork lifted Hayden to the table.
“Somebody get Maker!” Kal yelled.
Rys ran out of the room to comply.
Hayden’s chest heaved, and his back arched. He breathed in large gasps, and his face was strained. The veins popped out on his forehead, and he cried out in pain. By the time Rys came back with Maker, the episode was over. Hayden remained unconscious and sucked in air in short bursts.
“What happened?” Maker asked, curious.
“Your damned machines are what happened,” Grannork said.
“I must remind you that they aren’t my machines, but rather a product of Teristaque research,” Maker replied.
“Enough,” Kal said before they got started. “Can you do anything to help him?”
“I should get him back to the lab. This could be a normal reaction to the installation.”
“I thought you said they were harmless!” Seayolar yelped.
“They are harmless. I think you confuse harm with pain. There is bound to be some pain when a device attaches to your brain.”
“You dirty, lying-”
“I have not lied.”
“Enough,” Kal said. “Let’s get him back to medical.”
“A most prudent form of action,” Maker said. Using a force field generator, they floated Hayden down the hallway.
They pushed Hayden into the medical lab. There were a few of Maker’s experiments on the operating table. Grannork brushed them off, and they clattered to the ground. Maker was about to protest but thought better of it. Kal would have to have a talk with Maker about keeping the medical lab in a state of preparedness for medical emergencies. They lifted Hayden onto the bed.
“Let’s see what is wrong,” Haath-Nlo said as he dragged himself into the lab. As soon as he turned on the scanning equipment, alarms and warnings sounded. While he was the ship’s unofficial doctor, they never really had a medical emergency during the better half of a year that they had been a crew. Haath-Nlo usually treated most minor burns and scrapes on the spot with the goop that his body naturally produced. There hadn’t been even as much as a broken limb since they began, so the medical lab was unused.
The main reason for only having minor injuries was that most of the jobs they had taken since the prison were very small time and barely enough to keep the ship running. They all seemed to be ok with playing it cautious in the beginning and avoiding any big and dangerous scores. They had to learn each other as a crew before they could test their limits.
Doubts were beginning to form in Kal’s mind about the decision to even test the implant. They had never truly taken any risks, and now they were going
to take one of the riskiest missions they could imagine. Kal wondered if her quest for revenge was the reason why she had given in so easily. She knew it was a bad idea. They had never taken too much risk before, but now that she had a chance to cause a blow to the man she hated most, it seemed to her like she turned a blind eye to the risk. Now Hayden would pay the price. Even though it was only nighttime encounters, now that his life was at risk, she couldn’t help but feel that there was something there.
Kal was about to call the whole thing off and get them to the nearest space station to have the thing removed when Hayden stabilized. His breathing returned to normal. His muscles stopped seizing. The monitor for his heartbeat beeped at a regular pace. Kal turned to Haath-Nlo and said, “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Haath-Nlo said. “I was simply doing my scans.”
Hayden’s eyes popped open, and he sat up on the table. He lost what little he had eaten before the attack, and Maker steadied him while Haath-Nlo did some follow-up scans.
“His physiology is completely normal,” Haath-Nlo remarked. “It’s like nothing happened.”
“Why do I feel like I have the worst hangover I’ve ever had in my life?” Hayden said, and dry heaved some more.
“We can give you something for that,” Haath-Nlo said and nodded to Maker, who was already preparing an eNeedle.
Once the medication began to take hold and Hayden wasn’t as sick, he was able to talk. “I don’t feel any different. Like, there is no ‘on button’ in my field of vision or anything.”
“Try thinking about it,” Maker suggested.
“Think what?”
“Activating the interface, turning on a heads-up display, something to power the implant.”
Hayden’s face folded in thought. He perked up almost immediately and said, “That’s weird.”
“What? What are you seeing?” Kal said.
“I can see an interface, but it is imposed onto my field of vision,” Hayden said. He could see the medical lab without trouble, but superimposed over what he was seeing was a display. There were atmospheric readings, flight controls, navigation menus, fuel ratios, and just about any information a helmsman of a starship could want. There was even a systems menu. Hayden reached out to press the menu with his hand, but it seemed impossibly distant like it would always be out of his reach. “There is a system menu, but I can’t seem to press the button.”
“Remember,” Maker said. “This is an interface wired into your brain. You probably only need to think of pressing the system button.”
“Ok… I’ll try.”
“Wait,” Kal said. “How do you know that Hayden fiddling with the controls won’t alert them to our presence? Right now, they think the implants were lost in the explosion on the Tricore vessel. Wouldn’t fiddling around with the ship system let them know otherwise?”
“So long as there are no measurable changes to the ship, there shouldn’t be any harm looking through the menu.”
“I’ve piloted enough ships,” Hayden said. “It’s not like I’m going to activate the thrusters or open the cargo dock on accident.”
“Besides,” Maker said. “if he is connected to the ship, he may be able to find out the location of it. If we do end up liberating it from the Teristaques, then we’ll need as much information as possible.”
Kal nodded in agreement. “Do it.”
Hayden thought about pressing the system menu button. A drop down window appeared in his field of view. Hayden noticed an interesting aspect of the display. When a person was talking, or he was focused elsewhere, the display faded and felt like it was in his peripheral vision. It was still there, but not distracting to his focus. It was like a computer display that would only come into existence when he was paying attention to it.
The system drop-down menu had many different commands and sub-menus. He found a training simulation and stored it for later. Someone would need to pilot the ship out of wherever it was being held. He eventually found the sensor array. He had the ability to scan in just about any method. It was fully equipped with every detection means possible. He was careful not to activate a scan because those holding the vessel would notice if it began to scan its surroundings. Instead, he decided to look through the sensor logs.
There were various tests of the sensors stored in the logs. It was fairly boring data, but Hayden figured he could use it to figure out the surroundings of the vessel when it was tested. He would take note of all the planets in the area that may have been picked up by the sensors and attempt to find the solar system where it was hidden.
After he had picked up enough planets caught by the sensors, he didn’t even need to cross-reference to figure out the solar system. He knew the system well. The experimental craft was located in the solar system of Sol, the heart of the Teristaque Empire.
_______
Between what they scored from the dwarf planet and what they saved from free resupplies, Kal decided to purchase false identities for the whole crew. The ones they had purchased a few jobs after their escape from prison were already building a criminal history. If they were going to plan a major heist, Kal wanted it to be done on clean identities. The best way to test the new fakes was by giving the crew some much-needed rest on a Moffat. An Earth-based company ran the Moffat Industries Entertainment Class Pleasure Stations, which prided themselves on offering anything a lonely space traveler could want.
Since Moffat’s were always carefully located outside a solar system in interstellar space, they weren’t subject to local law. Moffat’s had a saying, “whatever happens on a Moffat stays on a Moffat.” Since Teristaque soldiers usually had long tours of duties, they were always full of off-duty humans. Had their new identities been unclean, there would be plenty of soldiers to arrest them as well as plenty of escape routes and plenty of officials to bribe their way off the station. Moffat’s may be Earth controlled, but soldiers didn’t have free reign like they did on her home world.
The new IDs worked flawlessly, and her crew sunk into mindless debauchery with their share of the marauders’ cash they had stolen. While Kal didn’t want to speculate on the acts of her crew during shore leave, she decided to spend most of her time with relaxation therapies and reading in her hotel room. When she would become too nervous or pensive about the Teristaque implants hidden under the floor panels in her cargo bay, she did virtual adventures in the immersive arcade. She picked the most strenuous activities she could find to keep her muscles fit and tone. She climbed a large cliff on Earth. It was a barren desert landscape. The view was quite breathtaking because she could see for miles and miles. Since she grew up in the forest, she didn’t often get to see grand vistas.
The simulated Earth was much different than she expected. There was no population or manmade structures in the desert. She heard rumors that the cities on the real Earth were as large as mountains with skyscrapers reaching into the upper atmosphere. Hayden later confirmed her suspicion that the simulated rock climbing experience she used was called “Vintage Earth.” Often, natural Earth experiences were all simulated from the early 2000’s Earth before climate change turned the planet into a different place that required human intervention to maintain natural spaces.
One night, when she had her fill of spas, books, and immersive arcades, she wandered down to the casino deck. Most of her crew participated in games of chance in an attempt to pad their earnings. Sometimes they were successful, and more often than not, they said it was for the “thrill” of it when their earnings ran dry. Kal thought a low orbit jump fit her definition of thrilling, but she learned that the crew needed to be their own people. She never set limits on shore leave with the exception that they should be able to pass a tox-screen when they returned to the ship.
When she entered the casino, the room was vibrant and wild. There were machines and lights, the sounds of coins clattering into metal collection tins. While cash had disappeared long ago, gambling establishments still used poker chips, tokens, and casino branded mon
ey in exchange for coinchips. There was a psychological effect of holding money, hearing the clatter, and seeing the piles of chips some players had accumulated.
After exchanging some of her coinchips for casino chips, she meandered to the card games, attempting to decide which one she wanted to play. There were all sorts of games from Earth, ranging from a variety of card games to slot machines, as well as more alien ones from other worlds. There was one with several fish swimming in a tube while a mix of humans and aliens cheered on the fish. Another involved a tree with several mystery compartments. A squid-like creature pressed several colored pads. If a species in the known galaxy had a way to gamble, leave it to a Moffat to figure out a way to put it into their casinos. Kal saw Hayden at a table with a green felt cloth and several circles for bets. It was an old Earth card game called Blackjack. Hayden saw her and offered her the empty seat next to his. It seemed like as good a time as any to educate herself about Earth culture.
“You finally decided to join the dregs at the bottom of the station,” Hayden said as Kal took her seat. The casino was at the lowest level of every station, right above the spaceport. To get to other guest services, a traveler would always have to walk through the casino. It was an old Earth trick to get people just staying the night to play a hand or two. In most stations, you could dock anywhere there was a hatch. In Moffat’s, there were secure hangers at the bottom and a patrolled shipyard with free shuttles for larger ships. Moffat private security was some of the best, second only to the Teristaque themselves.
Due to the weapons ban and the tight security, even high profile people felt safe at a Moffat. Also, human law required a warrant to collect DNA samples, so she wouldn’t have to worry about things like the DNA lock on her hotel door, or the retinal scan when she acquired gambling chips and so forth. While humans seemed to bend laws like warrants on some of the frontier worlds, Moffat’s had standards to uphold, and even the Teristaque soldiers had to be on their best behavior.
