by Juli Blood
‘Malfunction is right!’ Kalea replied, with all her irritation clearly evident. ‘That stupid system sent me here simply for trying to reenter the atmosphere and land. I’ve been here for over an hour with absolutely no way to communicate.’
Bryan tried not to share her irritation even though he understood it. Instead, he relayed her comments to Gilbert but spared him the emotions.
Gilbert groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
‘We should be arriving any moment,’ Bryan said, trying again to calm her. Realizing that an explanation might be more effective he continued, ‘It seems Gilbert was trying to make the changes you requested but was called away last night before the program was finished running. He left it to continue on its own and when he arrived today he was shocked to find that you had taken the shuttle. It seems a mechanic or someone was to inform you that the shuttle wasn’t ready for flight but due to a scheduling mistake, no one was there when you arrived.
‘In addition to the system malfunction there was another malfunction somewhere in the system that failed to notify us of your arrival. We were searching for you for some time before Dr. Wingate notified your father that you were fine. It seems the part of the system that relayed your medical stats is still working.’ Bryan hoped she would calm down a bit more before they actually arrived, as she was still feeling very hostile to him.
Kalea made a determined effort to calm down. “Bryan and Gilbert are coming,” she said out loud in order to reinforce the fact and hopefully, help herself calm down. “This was simply an accident. Gilbert didn’t do it on purpose. This was not a joke - just a mistake. I really need to control my temper.”
‘You seem to be feeling a bit calmer.’ Bryan noted as he watched the shuttle bay on Moon Station 4 open to allow them access to land.
‘I’m trying,’ Kalea replied but decided not to go into detail of all the horrible things she thought were going on while she waited.
‘We’re landing and will be there soon.’
Gilbert released his restraints and looked at Bryan for a brief moment. “Thanks for trying to calm her down and letting her know what happened. I know that must be what you’ve been doing and I must say I have never been so thankful that we can link with our spouses as I am today. If nothing else goes wrong we should be able to get her out in just a few minutes.”
Placing his hand on Bryan’s shoulder he gave it a squeeze as he rose out of his seat and stepped out of the cockpit. Bryan stood also and followed Gilbert out of the shuttle as he relayed the information to Kalea. Again he felt her relax a bit more but could tell that she was still upset.
It was a short walk to the hidden access panel that Gilbert used to enter the secure quarters where Kalea waited. When the door to the area opened Kalea was outside and beside them in the hallway before either could enter.
“Let’s go,” Kalea said as she glanced around and then headed for the shuttle bay. Bryan quickly caught up with her but Gilbert took a moment to look inside. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Closing the door and re-securing the access panel he hurried to catch up.
“I’m sorry, Kalea,” Gilbert said as soon as he reached her side.
“Bryan explained that you were working on the ASRS system and got called away. You expected someone to tell me if I came down and you couldn’t have known that no one would be there. It wasn’t your fault,” Kalea replied, although it was obvious she was trying to believe what she said even as she spoke it.
“Well, it wasn’t intentional,” Gilbert said as he let her and Bryan enter the shuttle first.
“What?” Kalea asked in a voice so calm it was frightening.
“I mean, it might have actually been my fault in that I didn’t get the program properly installed and therefore should have gotten back to it sooner,” Gilbert explained as he passed Kalea and headed toward the cockpit. “I’m not sure what went wrong with the communication system though.” Gilbert said almost to himself as he made the necessary adjustments to prepare for launch.
Kalea turned away from the cockpit and went to sit in the main cabin of the shuttle. Bryan followed her and waited to see what she would do. Curious as to her reaction he asked, “What did you think he meant?”
Leaning her head back on the seat cushion Kalea tried to gather her thoughts and calm her emotions. It was several minutes before she realized she hadn’t answered. “Growing up, Gilbert and Randy often played pranks on each other and me. Every time I thought they had grown out of it they would pull another stunt. Randy finally quit when he got serious with Alexis. Gilbert, however, hasn’t given any indication that he is finished with pulling pranks. Even from space he would send mini programs in messages that would mess up various things for days before self-destructing.”
Looking over at him she tried to make him understand. “Bryan, I know how the system is supposed to work. When it didn’t, I wasn’t sure if it was a prank or a malfunction. Then, when there was no response from anyone and I couldn’t get out of that room...” Kalea stopped for a calming breath before she could continue.
“Do you remember my Father mentioning the escape pod incident?” Kalea asked. When Bryan nodded she continued. “Well what he seems to have forgotten was the reason that I was in the pod in the first place was because of Gilbert. He tricked me into going in and then locked it behind me. He then ran off to play probably thinking I was going to be able to open it from the inside and come after him. Unfortunately, the lock malfunctioned, or so everyone said, and I was stuck in there for what felt like years.”
“For a while I suffered from a condition you call claustrophobia. I worked with a few therapists and did overcome much of the irrational fear, but I still get angry. I’m usually fine in small spaces and even escape pods don’t bother me… as long as they are working properly. Today, too many things went wrong. I was sure that Gilbert was tormenting me again. I’m sorry to say I lost my temper. I can’t believe I went from completely relaxed and trusting to completely furious and untrusting so fast. The Holy One is surely disappointed in me today.” Kalea covered her face with her hands and groaned her own disappointment.
“Would you have reacted differently if you knew the situation couldn’t have possibly been a prank?” Bryan asked intrigued by this new side of his wife.
Kalea thought about that for a moment and realized that the answer wasn’t a simple yes or no. “I think the most honest answer is yes and no. If I had known for sure it wasn’t a prank I would have still been upset but I would have focused more of my energies on figuring out a possible solution instead of just venting my anger. However, I still probably would have torn the place apart trying to get out.”
The soft smile tilting the corners of her mouth did strange things to Bryan’s concentration. It took him an extra few seconds to register the last bit of that comment. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, I tried to find an access panel so I could either open a door or communicate with someone. Unfortunately, I didn’t find one so that just reinforced my anger at Gilbert because I knew he had designed the room so I couldn’t get out. That just made me so mad that I unleashed my temper completely.”
Bryan successfully hid the smile on his face but not the emotion since Kalea didn’t even turn her head when she said, “I feel that smile so you might as well let it loose.”
“Thanks!” Bryan said as he relaxed and really smiled.
Just before they landed Gilbert asked over the AVID, “Kalea, what triggered the ASRS?”
“I’m not sure,” she replied. “The shuttle had just touched the atmosphere and then I was suddenly back in orbit and headed to Moon Station 4.”
“Hmm,” was Gilbert’s only response.
16
“Father its worse than I thought,” Gilbert said as he joined his father on the bench in the garden.
“How bad?” the King asked without taking his eyes from the horizon.
“I’m sorry to say that I have spent the last 14 hours reading every single line of c
ode in the program,” Gilbert answered. At his Father’s raised eyebrows he continued to explain why it was so hard to solve this mystery. “That’s what it took to find the coding that caused what we thought was a malfunction.”
“Thought?” The King inquired now turning to fully face his son.
“It wasn’t a malfunction. The program was tampered with. I don’t know what the true intent was but it was programmed to activate the ASRS at reentry into any atmosphere. If Kalea had not taken that little jaunt yesterday we wouldn’t have found this and it would have activated when she reached Saxionias. At least that’s the most logical conclusion that I can think of. I just don’t know if it was put in the program to keep her from entering Saxionias’ atmosphere or to reveal our secure locations in that region. There are more possibilities as the other part of the code was the failure to notify. Somehow they missed the medical notification code. My gut feeling is that the point was to send Kalea to a secure location and keep her there.”
Neither of them spoke for several minutes as all the implications of such a situation filtered through their minds. Most prominent being the question of how someone got into the supposedly secure system and so cleverly modified it.
“What’s more, I’m not sure it was just in Kalea’s shuttle that the program was tampered with. It could be system wide. I checked the specific changes I found in her shuttle with the code for the others and didn’t find anything but I’m not sure that’s a valid test. I will need to inspect every line of code for each craft, all the secure locations and the communications systems before I am sure that all the code is clean and the system is truly safe. Not only that, but I am going to recreate from completely new materials all the interface machines so that I can make sure that it isn’t hard wired into the machines or uploaded secretly from a supposedly clean system anazysis tool.”
“That’s going to take time son.”
“I know and if Bryan is right, time is one thing we don’t have,” Gilbert admitted.
After several minutes the King asked, “What do you feel safe doing right now?”
“Honestly, I don’t want any of us or the Royal Council members to leave Estar Beta until I get this fixed.” Gilbert sighed and then decided on what he would deem the second-best option. “You had plans for a new command ship in the works. Did you have it built?”
“Actually yes,” the King answered, having forgotten that Gilbert knew of the ship's existence.
“Where is it?” Gilbert asked knowing that he hadn’t installed any security or other programs on it yet.
“It’s docked at Space Port 5 waiting for you. Everyone got side tracked with the new Saxionias relations and I didn’t think it was a priority. I don’t even think Albert knows it’s done,” he said, smiling at the thought of his Commander of Defense not knowing of their latest addition to their fleet. Slowly the smile slipped as he wondered if that was really possible. Albert had a way of knowing things even when he wasn’t briefed on them. Gossip. There really was no way to defeat it.
“If I build a completely new system, using the latest security measures, that haven’t been tested yet, and none of the previous coding but wrote it all again. It would still take nearly two weeks.” Gilbert didn’t sound totally convincing and that spoke volumes to his father.
“Take Rose and leave as soon as possible. Use Kalea’s shuttle since you have removed all security protocol and know that it won’t send you off somewhere if you don’t reenter orbit. Take whatever parts you need BUT, and I know this will be difficult, take no personnel. Everyone is a suspect until you can figure out how they got access to the program. Focus all your efforts on the new ship and the secure locations in the Saxionias region. Also, give your sister her override function and add that to everyone’s system when you get back to fix all the ships here. I’ll have Albert find me a tech that can review all the security system logs, recording and hardware involved to see if we can find out how, when and whom is responsible.
“Gilbert, I know this is a heavy load and I’m sorry, but we must protect Kalea and Estar Beta with all we have. I know the Holy One has a plan and it will be accomplished, but I also believe He sent her up yesterday so we could find and fix this.” King Douglas took a deep breath and slowly released it. “If you need anything – just ask.”
“With the Holy One all things are possible and with His help I will succeed.” Gilbert said as he gave his father a rare hug and then turned and went to find Rose. They would be leaving in less than an hour. He could sleep on the way - it was at least a seven hour flight.
~
“Kalea, there’s been another development,” King Douglas explained over his AVID as he went back to his office. “Would you and Bryan join me in my office?”
“Yes Father, we’ll be there in a moment. We were just coming in from the garden,” Kalea answered as she gave Bryan a puzzled and slightly bewildered look. It was starting to feel as if new developments were an hour by hour occurrence.
“King Douglas wishes to see us?” Bryan asked since he’d turned off his AVID so he and Kalea could have some time alone. It wasn’t able to translate the conversation but he had recognized the word “father.”
“Yes. Something else has come up,” Kalea answered as they made their way to the king’s office. Bryan discreetly turned his AVID back on so it could work as his translator.
They walked in silence, both praying for wisdom to handle whatever was happening now. King Douglas was standing and looking out his office windows when they entered.
“Bryan, Kalea, thank you for joining me. I wish I had better news for you. The programming of your shuttle was discreetly and expertly changed, Kalea. There was no malfunction. The system was reprogrammed to react exactly the way it did including the failure to notify us of your situation,” King Douglas explained while carefully watching his daughter’s reaction.
Shocked, Kalea simply forced herself to breathe and think. This wasn’t a prank. Somehow, one of their highest security levels had been breached and they hadn’t even known it? “What’s the plan now?”
“After stripping out all of your personal settings, Gilbert has just launched for Space Port 5. He will work non-stop, alone, to get the new ship I recently built, ready for you. We have no idea who did this or how, but we will. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to wait for the investigation to be complete before you need to be on Saxionias.” Looking into her eyes King Douglas continued, “Gilbert is going to pour himself into this and make it as secure as he can but there are no guarantees. It’s a risk we’ll have to take.”
A quick succession of beeps interrupted any reply Kalea was going to make. Everyone glanced at their AVIDs and King Douglas activated his. “Yes.”
“Forgive me for interrupting, Your Majesty, but I have urgent news,” Dr. Wingate said with a tension in his voice that he couldn’t hide. “Would you and Crown Prince Bryan please come to Med Lab immediately?”
“We’re on our way,” King Douglas replied as he gestured toward the door. It didn’t take them long to get there and by unspoken agreement they were all lost in their thoughts as they walked. Dr. Wingate met them at the door.
“We don’t have much time so please, forgive me for being brief, but we need to act immediately. Lab results just came back on the blood sample taken from Crown Prince Bryan’s Chief of Security Nathan. The results show that he has been infected with a serious disease that attacks his autoimmune system. If we begin treatments within the first 36 hours we can cure him. If not, all we can do is slow it down.” Dr. Wingate explained, not having noticed that Bryan had already summoned Nathan from his AVID as soon as his name was mentioned.
“What would the treatment look like?” Bryan asked when the doctor paused to take a breath.
“Since we know when he was infected, the most effective course of treatment would be a blood cleansing regimen. We would filter his blood using a machine that would draw blood from one arm; run it through a cleansing process that would filte
r out all the disease molecules and then pump the blood back into his body on the other arm. Each treatment would take about an hour and we would need to do it twice a day for seven days, then once a day for three. After an additional two days we would take a blood sample and test it. If all goes as planned he will be cured and back to normal within 10-12 days.”
Just as Dr. Wingate began explaining the treatment plan, Nathan entered and stood beside Bryan. He didn’t like the sound of what was being discussed but he waited until Dr. Wingate finished before he cleared his throat to announce his presence.
“Nate,” Bryan said as he turned to him at the sound. “I have good news and bad. The bad news is that it appears Murdock did more than just attack you, he infected you with what sounds like AIDS.” At the look of sheer terror on Nathan’s face he quickly continued. “The good news is that Dr. Wingate has a cure, not just a treatment. You will let them begin immediately and I will resume my duties until you are back on your feet. It looks like two weeks.”
“Yes, Sir.” Nathan answered automatically.
“Nate, look at me.” Bryan ordered. When he did Bryan continued. “This is a cure. You will live and be at full health in two weeks. This is NOT a death sentence like it is at home.”
“Are you sure?” Nathan asked, fear evident on his face.
“Yes.” Bryan allowed not even the slightest doubt in his voice or expression. He would question Dr. Wingate at length later and Kalea as well, but right now Nathan needed hope and Bryan wasn’t going to let him down.
Nothing in Nathan’s expression changed but there was a slight easing of the tension in his shoulders as he nodded and then turned to Dr. Wingate. “Where should I go?”
“This treatment room right here,” Dr. Wingate directed as he pointed to the room that Nathan had been in before. It had the best view of the garden and he felt that would also be beneficial to Nathan’s treatment. “I will send in a med tech to prepare you for your first treatment. I will be right in to explain it to you and answer any questions as soon as I’m done here.” Nathan nodded, but didn’t comment.
