Invisible Hijackers

by D Gemcats Purcell

  So having drawn a blank there, we went back to the conference room and sat again three on a couch occupying two couches. Captain Ronald who happened to be passing by saw us sitting there and came in alone to sit a little apart from us. Cherese at our urging gave him a briefing which he recorded on his vidcom for official purposes as all of that would figure in the inquisition and insurance claims that would follow. Of course we did not give details of how we subdued the vishes and vinbeests nor minor details of the revitalization of the rescued crew with energy harvested from those animals. Nothing controversial like that escaped Cherese’s lips. We came back having never depleted our charges on our cannons or blasters but I doubted that anyone was going looking at that. We told him after the debriefing that we hoped to quickly get those who were sick and injured to the Baclet main orbit station (BMOS) to get expert medical care as soon as possible, but that we needed a quiet room with minimal magnetic or electrical interference from which to go over some plans. We were trying to use our brains and AI to figure out the likely hiding spots for the hijackers and their booty. He looked a bit puzzled but said, “I know just the room for that.” He suggested the observatory room which also allowed an excellent view of the space around the ship. He by now had an inkling that there was nothing really normal or conventional about us. We got stuff done; no if ands or buts it seems. He asked if we minded him observing us and knowing that he could look at every room on board with cameras anyway, we said, “Of course.” Our magnanimity knew no bounds I tell you. What a group we Six had become, the sum of us all exceeding the total of us as individuals, definitely. Although we should have been tired, we were not, only exhilarated really. Vishes energy profile must be good for us, plus what we needed to do was time sensitive. We filed out behind Captain Ronald and into a room that seemed like a viewing room for visitors to look out through many layers of highly reinforced glass.

  We settled on the long bench seats there and pulled up the information on our vidcoms which we synced with each other. Knowing the expected fastest speed of the cargo barges which would we reasoned, be towed by another vessel or two, plus factoring the vector of forces resulting from the explosion that separated the command module that would have pushed them away from the planet of Tsatvik and the number of hours that had since passed, we developed a few likely scenarios for present locations. We focused on moons and small rocks behind and around which they could be hiding or camouflaged. We recognized that, like the Outlaws on Toigan who had been using a rather dangerous version of cloaking technology, the hijackers may have also created their own. In fact Six and Breecher had improved on the Outlaws’ device for Securinet use making it a lot safer for the human body. So we had some distance and time parameters to use and there weren’t any decent sized moons or planets in the vicinity unless they had headed back towards Buboni. In twenty four hours they couldn’t have gone very far unless they’d gotten a significant upgrade in their propulsion and although that was not impossible, it seemed unlikely.

  So we sat quietly as we relaxed, allowing ourselves to build some comity in our minds. We reached out into the dark space feeling the web of magnetic and electrical force, looking to connect with human energy that might be out there. Our eyes closed in the effort as we tuned into each other. We scrolled through the various frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum, looking for some leaks. The only area of interest lay about one tenth of the way between Tsatvik and Baclet but on a vector sixty degrees away from the direct course between the two and as we were going to be traveling, to our right side. While slowly scanning the background radiation we noticed basically a ‘blob’ that did not look like a planet nor any physical object that should be in that area. There really shouldn’t have been any reason for the drop off in starlight there. What was very telling too was that it fell within the possible area that could have reasonably been reached by the convoy of cargo barges traveling at typical speeds. So we discussed among ourselves mind talking about the options. With no human life signature obvious to us, we reasoned that that could be due to the distance or some form of cloaking just like the Outlaws on Toigan had done with their cloaking bubbles. We felt overall, that having scanned a three dimensional spherical area around the spaceplane and with this being the only suspicious area, that there was no choice left but to investigate it.

  We were of the opinion though that while we needed to investigate, it was imperative that we did so in a way not likely to tip off the hijackers as to our intentions. We also didn’t want to blast the valuable cargo to smithereens. We would love also to be able to catch the real kingpins. Those likely would be safe on the surface of Baclet and or less likely Threeme. Those planets did not have as solid governmental and law enforcement cultures as Toigan. In many cases, the folks generations ago who had emigrated from Toigan the first inhabited planet in our solar system, to Baclet and later on to Threeme, had felt the need to move to places where their free spirit wouldn’t be curtailed. They wanted to live life unencumbered by lots of rules and government controls. That is not to say they were lawless any more than the Noncoms in Toigan were. However any interactions with folks from those planets needed to bear in mind that despite the number of generations since the first occupation of those territories, one might find a bit of the Outlaw spirit. We would therefore have to be very careful to avoid disclosing sensitive information to either governments or the Trat mining conglomerate. Either of these entities may have sympathizers to those hijackers who essentially had had no qualms about putting the lives of the crew and workers in dire danger in order to capture the prized cargo.

  So since we had been given the full resources of the Celeste which Captain Ronald commanded, we felt the we should send out at least two drones with no secret made of it, to search both sides of the direct line from Tsatvik to Baclet and another two drones from Tsatvik back towards Buboni and Trat. This is what our enemies would expect and we would rig these drones to fire bursts that hopefully if it hits these cloaking bubbles would lead to some measurable reflections that would confirm our suspicions. We had experimented with those cloaking bubbles that we had captured from the Outlaw Badjans enough on Toigan that we felt confident that we could detect them once we knew where to look. In fact we had carried one of the more refined devices with us. We knew that it still wasn’t safe for humans to hide behind or inside its shielding walls for too many weeks. However the folks who would do these high stakes hijackings would likely not be too bothered by such trivial risks like decreased fertility. They wanted to get rich and powerful. Plus their progeny or the means to achieve such were likely safe somewhere just as ours were, stored in a lab somewhere.

  Dillion was elected to break from our private group think and let Captain Ronald know what we had found. He said, “We have found an area on towards the path to Baclet but sixty degrees off to our right where there is decreased transmission of normal background space radiation and about a tenth of the way toward Baclet. So to us, it looks like a blob of an area and we’ve had experience with similar cloaking devices that were deployed by criminal groups on Toigan. They generally are not safe for live organisms to shelter within for long periods but have been used. We propose sending out four drones. Two should travel either side of the direct course toward Baclet and two back toward Buboni and Trat. We could vary their course to alternately gently dive below and above the flat plane of that tract to make it more interesting. We suggest monitoring any energy emanating from that area of interest and it would be a good idea to fire laser light of a frequency that we will let you know with the hope that it will reflect off their cloaked area. We have done our experiments on detecting such cloaks and we know that the drones will need to be fairly close to pull that off. Five hundred miles will be close enough to detect such reflections and the folks within the cloaked areas may not realize that there are reflections.”

  Captain Ronald shook his head, paused and said, “We will get our drones ready to launch in one hour and we will tune the lasers on them as
soon as you give us the correct frequency. Can I ask you guys though, how you are able to scan space with no equipment that I can see?” Dillion, keeping a completely straight face said, “It is still a guess at this point Captain, but let us just say that we are a very sensitive bunch and we are attuned to energy fields around us. None of us can truly explain how we do it really. It’s just a gift. That is why we were sent here after all the training.”

  The Captain just shook his head in a flabbergasted nod, “Thank you for trying to explain as best you could. Ignore the question; It was a silly one to you all, I’m sure. I’m so glad you are here to keep things on the level and safe for our interplanetary workers and travelers.”Dillion then said, “You do understand Captain that we need to fly under the radar and one loose lip about our abilities to the wrong person could endanger our lives as well as the Celeste and your crew. Your oath of secrecy that you took with your commission as Captain must be sacrosanct. You cannot even discuss this with the Commander of the MCOS or worse the BMOS. You should not make reference to it even to Jongi although she is in the loop, as you may be monitored by others in our own government’s secret services via even the encrypted radios. By the way could you walk us again through your cockpit and make sure that we meet everyone of your crew within the next two hours. Even your sleeping area and that of your crew needs to be swept for monitoring devices. This room is ok.” He said, “ I would be thrilled to know that we are secure by your standards so yes, let’s do it.”

  We agreed after checking on the injured men we had brought up to the surface to get the more detailed walk through. First on the list was the six computer rooms which ran all of the super computers that oversaw the two redundant fusion reactors, all the sensors and antenna, the powerful lasers as well as defensive shields that could project a wall of intense energy up to tens of miles away from the surface of the ship. These energy mats can reflect other lasers and cause missiles or small meteorites to shatter safely away from the spaceplane’s surface. These were routinely deployed anyway in front of the ship to take out stray meteorites that could destroy the ship especially when traveling at high speeds. We plugged into those and spent many minutes linking up with the AI systems to troubleshoot all devices that were drawing on ships power. Forty two anomalies were found that had not been flagged. The technical staff were sent scurrying to multiple remote crawl spaces and hatches to find those areas and flag them for closer inspection and in three cases, prompt removal. When those were brought to us, they were found to be in need of repair and Mader and I in particular gave the tech crew specific instructions on the broken or weakened components. One could not be fixed at all and needed a complete rebuild. So it’s function was bypassed.

  Then Six focused on locating silent equipment with their own power source that could hoover up data and then regurgitate it to others remotely or cause other damage on command. It was very rewarding to find two such, one on the bridge and another in the Captain’s quarters. They both had ultra long acting batteries that could be charged by induction such as passing magnetic fluxes. We were wearing magnetic shoe covers and walking by alone within a few feet would have helped keep those devices charged. We had gotten onto something brilliant here. Some cute intelligence agency would no longer be able to snoop. The info already on their disks were downloaded into our vidcoms and the circuitry was then deliberated fried. No more data would be forthcoming to those snoopers. Captain Ronald was truly amazed at the sophistication of those devices and how it had been likely used to gain intelligence on him and his crew. What might have seemed like a minor moment of static over the radio would have been a few microseconds blast of encrypted information going out to a passing ship, drone or someone on the orbiting station where they were docked. Even a crew member might have been a facilitator. However after every single crew member had been paraded before us, all two hundred and twenty four men and women not including the captain, we were confident that they were all clean in intent and not being used as spies. That was better than expected.

  So having cleaned up the ship thoroughly we were finally feeling the weight of our journey and energy expenditures. Food and rest was needed during the short but fast journey back to Baclet to drop off our rescued personnel. During the journey we would be passing very close to the suspicious region and while not focusing only on that area to raise suspicions, we would all be monitoring the sensors. Of course the four drones were already released and on their way.

  The Celeste would be proceeding at 0.2 light year speed which is already faster than most other spacecraft goes anyway. Six took the time to mind talk with Jongi. “We got Mischa Jongi and only one of the passengers got killed. We were just in time as they were running out of good air since their engines were down with all fifteen in the command module which was having a tough time providing for such a large number of people plus their hull pressure vessel was also leaking. They had varying degrees of injury from their hard landing too. In addition there were vishes and vinbeests trying to eat their way into the craft to feast on them. We literally got there just in time. All are now onboard the Celeste with us and Captain Ronald with his crew. We have gone over both crews including the rescued ones and none seem to be compromised by the hijackers. There were only two stealthy monitoring devices on board the Celeste and they will no longer feed information to whoever planted them. We are still working on tracing who might have placed them by DNA and other means.”

  She replied, “As expected excellent work Six, we know if anyone can solve this crime you will. I, really we, are so glad that we didn’t lose Mischa and his crew plus passengers. Have you got any leads on the super valuable cargo or the hijackers yet?”

  We replied, “We have scanned the surrounding space where the hijackers could likely have reached given the number of hours that have passed since the heist took place and found an anomaly between Tsatvik and Baclet sixty degrees off what would have been a direct course. The sensors on board ship show nothing but we can feel a blocking of background space radiation there. So we have sent off four drones in different directions mostly as a feint to not tip our hand too early. One of the drones however will be maneuvered to pass real close to the anomaly and we will periodically have it and the other drones too, fire bursts of laser energy which we hope will help elucidate the nature of that anomaly.”

  She said, “Ah you are learning from the cloaks used by the Badjans here on Toigan against us! Perfect!”

  We said, “Yes we don’t want them to know that they can be spotted easily by us. Whoever pulled this off would be embedded in Government and the upper echelons of the private sector and would likely know that we are some kind of team from Toigan and would be digging like little moles to gain info on us. So we figured we would not show our hand too soon. We have mended the wounded with our energy some of which we borrowed from the wild beasts down on the surface and the medics on the Celeste are doing the rest. We are bringing all of the rescued back to Baclet where they are based anyway. One person broke his back and needs specialist treatment to re-wire his spinal cord so we cannot tarry. We heard that they are sending special medical teams to Baclet Orbit to facilitate the operation topside. He is too fragile to go down to the surface without danger of worsening the injury. We plan to watch the cloaked area with the drones once we confirm. It will be a waiting game. They can’t stay cloaked forever and we would rather not go into an ambush. We don’t know how lethally they are armed plus to risk the Celeste unnecessarily would be foolish. But drones are expendable and relatively inexpensive. The cargo is so valuable too, that we can’t go taking potshots at whatever is hidden there under the cloak. Two vessels were seen by Mischa. They may or may not know already that the crew were rescued. Whoever they are wouldn’t hesitate to take more lives. We plan to go to the surface of Baclet and circulate ourselves to find out who the real top players are and carefully dissect them out. However we are going to be on an unfamiliar planet and will need allies. We just can’t go there stepping on thos
e people’s toes indiscriminately.”

  Jongi said, “Well said, I will get back to you all on likely allies. I agree with your plan. We will put in the communique to the government of Baclet that you all are military rescuers and investigators from Defnet sent to help and offer your services in aid of bringing the culprits to justice if any happen to be based on Baclet. You should hopefully find a lot of goodwill, so they may team you with their investigators. It will be a good learning diplomatic opportunity for you all. Stay out of the limelight and we will request to keep your photos and information as low profile as possible. Try to hide behind your liaisons as much as possible. I know you will do well. Happy hunting team, Choka, Breecher and Buenafe send their regards.”

  On track to Baclet, the Celeste was unable to get a fix on what clearly to Six was an anomaly. In theory shining a laser should produce some reaction but at this distance, reflection as off a bubble, may not be seen. The best cloaks theoretically should be able to project on its surface an appearance of an apparent background so that the eye and even most instruments will glide over it without being distracted. There was no way that Six was going to underestimate the sophistication of the cloak being used here. It may be many orders of magnitude more sophisticated that the ones they’d experienced on Toigan.

  9. THE KILL ZONE

  The specific drone that had been launched toward the blob had had a head start on us in the main spaceplane but now that we had started on our way back to Baclet at the slow speed of 0.2 of a light year, we would get to our closest proximity to the ‘blob’ at around the same time as the drone. We discussed with Captain Ronald the offensive and defensive capabilities of the spaceplane just in case we were attacked. Our monitoring here on the ship as well as keeping up with the feed from the drones will be intense. The hijackers were capable of anything and we were aware that they may try desperate acts. Since we were far more sophisticated and dangerous to them than any spaceplanes from Baclet or anywhere else for that matter, eliminating us may be on their menu. They likely already know that we rescued the transport command module. They may have reasoned that there might be intel that is on our Celeste that should not get to the authorities.