Baxter Moon, Galactic Scout

by John Zakour

  “Not going to happen,” the princess said. “We’ve destroyed your drones and now we will return to our planets and tell our people the truth!”

  The face on UHF-1’s screen just smiled. I didn’t like that smile one little iota.

  “I will give you that; you have destroyed my drones, as you call them. The superduper thing is, the drones had already served their purpose.”

  “Uh oh,” I said. “I don’t like the tone of that…”

  “As you will soon see, much to the joy and anticipation of our audience, the drones no longer entertain, they reprogram,” UHF-1 said.

  As the UHF-1 finished saying that, all the people at the table stood up and turned to us.

  “We will not return to our planets,” they said in one voice. One very creepy, sort of robotic voice.

  We slowly backed up.

  “We can’t shoot our own people,” Kymm said.

  “We could stun them and have Zenna carry them to our shuttles,” Chriz suggested.

  “Yes, that might work,” UHF-1 said. “It would certainly make for exciting, almost nerve-tingling viewing!”

  A group of our people and Aquarians were slowly moving toward us. We opened up fire on them. The jolts from our energy rods sent them staggering backwards maybe a step. They shuddered, then began moving forward again.

  “We found we could not only program you organics but we can also increase your strength and physical endurance,” UHF-1 said. “They will happily ignore your low-powered energy-stun blasts. You would have to use deadly power to stop them.”

  “We can’t use deadly power on our own people,” the princess said. “Well, maybe we could on humans, but certainly not on mine.”

  I had to give the princess some credit. She always put her people first. Of course she needed to work on her interplanetary relation skills, but I guess that would come with time.

  “Even if we could, we couldn’t,” K-999 said. “These energy rods have stun-only modes.”

  I had to give K-999 his kudos. No matter what the situation he always had his good old canine sensibility about him. (Unless of course the situation involved chasing bunnies or an old sock for him to play with.)

  “I’ll slow them down,” Zenna said. She leapt forward toward the swarming artificial zombies. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I must stop you.”

  Zenna grabbed a human diplomat who was leading the crowd. He was a short bearded man who must have been in his forties. The man reacted by hitting Zenna with an uppercut to her chin. The blow was surprisingly effective. It sent Zenna reeling back a couple of steps.

  Two other attackers, a skinny Aquarian man and an older human woman leapt forward and dragged Zenna to the ground. Zenna struggled to break free, but she couldn’t.

  “We found we can also stimulate an area in the brain to make you stronger,” UHF-1 said proudly. “As you can see, our R&D boys have been working hand in hand with our producers to give our audiences a complete experience.”

  “Fall back into the lift,” K-999 ordered.

  “But, Zenna,” Elvin said.

  “Fall back,” K-999 barked.

  Everybody but Elvin moved quickly to the lift. When I saw that Elvin was just standing there staring helplessly at his struggling sister, I moved toward him. He may not have been the bravest guy in the room but he didn’t want let his sister down. The thing is, action wasn’t Elvin’s strong point. He was a thinking kind of guy. Getting himself captured wasn’t going to help anybody.

  “Come on, Elvin,” I said. “You won’t be any good to Zen if you get caught.”

  Elvin still didn’t budge. A mob of programmed zombies was staggering toward us. I yanked Elvin toward the lift. At first he resisted, just staring at Zenna. Finally, his survival instinct kicked in.

  “You’re right,” he said, reluctantly.

  We turned and rushed into the lift. The door to the lift closed right behind us, just a few tics before the programmed zombies slammed into it.

  We all breathed a little sigh of relief from the lift. Of course it was only a very little sigh as our planet mates were on the other side pounding at the door.

  “Now what?” Chriz asked.

  “We head back to the Searcher, then to Earth to warn them,” K-999 said.

  “No!” the princess and Elvin both said.

  “If we get captured, then…”

  “Then, Lobi and GiS will have to go warn Earth and Aqua without us,” I said.

  “But without the princess, Aqua may not believe it,” K-999 insisted.

  Elvin pulled out his communication device/mini-computer. He entered in some calculations. “I think I can use SC to send some feedback over the signal the TVTrons used to control our people. I think I can break their hold.”

  “You think?” K-999 said. “I need more than a hunch…”

  The TVTron-made zombies started pounding loudly on the lift door.

  “I can’t be certain,” Elvin said. “I haven’t run any simulations. But it’s kind of like what I did to the bots earlier.”

  “SC, what do you think?” I asked.

  “E=MC squared. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. What goes up must come down unless it breaks free from the gravitational attraction of the planet. Of course some people don’t think I technically think.”

  Okay, I wasn’t sure if it was me or not, but SC seemed to be getting stranger and stranger. I didn’t know if it was some form of TVTron attack on him or the stress from defending us against the attack.

  “What do you think about Elvin’s plan?”

  “Oh, it might work.”

  “Can you be more specific?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Will you please be more specific?”

  “Of course. I deduce there is a 48 percent chance of success,” SC said.

  “Actually, I calculate it’s more like 46.89 percent,” Elvin said.

  “I was giving you the benefit of the doubt,” SC said.

  “Thanks,” Elvin said. “I found the frequency, but we don’t have a way of delivering it to the victims. We’re being blocked from computer access.”

  “That is correct,” SC said.

  “Then we have a problem,” K-999 said.

  “Maybe not,” Chriz said. “We have the energy rods. Sound is just another form of energy.”

  Elvin’s eyes lit up. “I can modify the energy rods!” he said. He pulled up his shirt just a bit to unveil the utility belt he wore around his waist. He pulled out a tool that looked like a four-prong tuning folk with circuits on the tips. “I actually experimented with this once, back a few years ago, for an extra credit project.”

  Elvin popped open the base of his energy rod to reveal the circuits under the handle. He hooked up the energy rod to his wrist scanner and started tweaking the rod by waving the fork-shaped tool over it in different directions at different speeds. As he moved the freaky fork back and forth, the energy rod made a series of high-pitched noises. “I knew this would come in handy someday!” he said proudly. Making some adjustments on the fork with his fingers, he then used it to tweak another energy rod setting while he looked at the screen on his wrist scanner. He smiled.

  “That should do it!” he said happily.

  “That fast?” K-999 said.

  “Hey, when you’re a geek, you’re a geek,” Elvin said.

  No truer words had ever been spoken.

  “Are you sure it works?” K-999 asked.

  “As sure as I can be, without spending weeks on simulations.”

  Okay, it wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, but it was good enough for me. After all, I didn’t see a whole lot of other choices here. Something had to be done and fast. I had learned to trust the instincts of my crew.

  I took the energy rod from Elvin.

  “I’ll test it out,” I said.

  Princess Amana stepped toward us. She handed Elvin her power rod. “Convert mine too,” she ordered. “Baxter will need backup.”
>
  Elvin took the princess’s energy rod and popped the handle open. The look on his face could only be described as pure joy. He was helping the cause by doing something he was good at and loved doing. I guess that’s about all a person, any person, can ask out of life.

  “I should have this one converted even quicker than Baxter’s,” he said with unmitigated glee. “Once you do this once, it’s easy.”

  “Good,” I told him. “The rest of you should keep your weapons as is. Just in case we run into more bots or TVTrons. The two of us should be able to unzap the brains of all our people.”

  K-999 had a worried look on his face. You know a dog is really worried when you can tell by just looking at him.

  “Don’t worry, Commander,” I said to him, “this is going work.”

  “Well, it better,” K-999 said, “because I don’t see a lot of other options besides putting our tails between our legs and running.”

  Elvin finished making the modifications on the princess’s energy rod. He handed it to her with a big grin.

  “I’ve increased the area and effective range of the rod,” he said. “You don’t even have to hit your target. It should work on any target within a three meter area.”

  The princess shook the rod up and down in her hand. “It feels exactly the same,” she said.

  “As well it should,” Elvin said.

  The princess and I exchanged glances. We were both ready to rescue our people from the control of the TVTrons. I winked at her. She winked back. I leaned over and gave her a kiss.

  ”What was that for?” the princess asked.

  ”Just in case,” I said.

  ”In case?”

  ”On the off chance we don’t survive, now I’ll have no regrets,” I told her.

  Now Kymm chimed in. “I hate to break up this love fest, but what about me? With my bionic eye I’m at the very least as good a shot as anybody here.”

  I was actually surprised Kymm had taken so long to speak her piece. She was a pilot like I was. She wasn’t used to sitting in the back. I was going to have to appeal to her pilot’s personality to get out of this smoothly. “We can’t risk both our pilots out there,” I said. “If something happens to me, it will be up to you to get everybody back to the Searcher and then back to Earth.”

  Kymm just looked at me for a tic or two. On some level she knew I was only saying what I said to make her happy. On another level though she knew it made sense. Of course her pride would kick in.

  “It’s not easy being me,” she said, “being the best pilot and the best shot.”

  “Yes, it must be a terrible burden to bear,” Chriz said, not being able to resist sucking up.

  “Oh, yes, lucky for all of us you are such a wise and wonderful person,” I said.

  Kymm shot me a grin. “Damn straight,” she said.

  K-999 cleared his throat, subtly. Which isn’t easy to do if you’re a dog. “Uh, folks, we have a mission to do,” he said.

  Not that any of us could have forgotten that with the constant pounding and moaning on the door. But he was right. The prepping and the ego boosting were done. It was time for action.

  “Okay SC, open the door,” I ordered.

  “Are you sure?” SC said. “I have some access to the Explorer’s cameras and I see that there are currently ten zombies leaning on the door. If the modified weapon does not work you will all quickly be taken captive.”

  I thought for a minute. SC certainly had a good point. If this didn’t work then we’d be making ourselves easy to capture with no backup plan in place.

  “We are on an elevator and the zombies aren’t going anywhere,” Kymm said. “We can go down to the bay area, just far enough from the action so we can help or retreat.”

  We all looked at each other and nodded.

  “I’m lowering the lift now,” SC said.

  There was silence on the way down. The trip couldn’t have taken a minute, but it seemed longer. I guess that’s why people make small talk; it helps make time pass quicker. Only in this case the situation was too big for small talk.

  The lift stopped.

  “We have reached the bay,” SC announced. “I have scanned the area. There are no hostiles present.”

  K-999 led Kymm, Chriz and Elvin off the lift. Before Kymm walked off, she turned to me. “Good luck,” she said.

  I gave her a little salute. “When you’re good you don’t need luck,” I said as the door closed.

  “You better hope for all the luck you can get,” I heard Kymm yell through the door as we started our way back up.

  The trip up to the conference room went a lot faster than the trip down. The princess and I didn’t say anything to each other. After all, there wasn’t anything that needed to be said. We knew what we had to do.

  “We have arrived,” SC said.

  “Open the door on three.”

  The princess and I both pointed our rods at the door.

  “Why do you humans always pick three? Why not two or five?” SC asked.

  “Tradition,” I said.

  “Yes, you are creatures of habit.”

  “Can we get back to the business at hand, SC?”

  “I am a very powerful mega super computer. I can open a door and still have a conversation about human idiosyncrasies.”

  “Maybe so, but the princess and I need to concentrate,” I said.

  “Ah yes, good point. I am ready at your command.”

  “Thanks, one, two, open the door.”

  The door receded into the wall. The sudden move caught the zombies who had been pounding on the door totally off guard. They weren’t used to us making it so easy on them. The lead zombies who were leaning on the door fell into the elevator.

  The princess and I both aimed our weapons and fired at them. The weapons made a strange buzzing noise, but nothing else seemed to happen. The zombies who were on the ground suddenly stopped trying to get back to their feet. Their eyes which had been glazed over in a mental fog suddenly cleared. They were confused about what had happened, but it looked like they were once again in control of their actions.

  I took this as a sign that our little tweaked devices were working. I quickly aimed and fired at the second group that had been standing right outside the entrance but weren’t leaning on the doors. They had started to lurch into the lift. A split second after I fired they stopped. They shook their heads. Their eyes cleared. They, like the others, were still dazed but they were no longer dangerous. I smiled and pushed my way past them into the conference room. The princess followed close behind.

  “You take your people and I will take my people,” she said.

  “Too complicated, Your Highness. You take the right side of the room, I’ll take the left.”

  “Simple but effective,” she said.

  “The story of my life.”

  I wanted to move fast. Even though our plan seemed to be working, I knew we had to execute it fast before the TVTrons had a chance to react. A couple other zombies came at me. I blasted them. (Well, actually I sound-waved them, but blasting sounds cooler.) They instantly stopped coming at me.

  I ran toward the spot where four zombies had Zenna pinned to the wall. I had to give Zen credit. She was still fighting.

  “I’ll never give up,” Zenna shouted.

  I aimed in the middle of the four of them. My rod made the strange buzzing sound. The four of them instantly stopped struggling with Zenna and released their grip on her.

  “Thanks,” Zenna called to me as I ran by.

  “Since your weapons work, I told the others to join us on this floor,” SC said over my communicator.

  “That’s kind of not your place,” I said as I continued to run. “I thought your job was just to give information, not make decisions.”

  “My job is to be efficient,” SC said. “This is the most efficient way. Doing it my way means you can save at least thirty tics!”

  I was too busy to argue. Besides I’ve learned that arguing with a su
per computer is even more futile than arguing with Elvin. Above and beyond that, I had to admit SC had a point.

  I threw myself onto the long table that traversed the room. I slid down the table, aiming my rod to the left and firing away as fast as my hand could squeeze the trigger. I figured this would give me great coverage of the left side of the room. After a few tics I had slid across a good portion of the table. By the time my momentum gave out I was three-quarters of the way down the table. I aimed my rod up and fired a couple more times, just to make sure I got everybody on my side.

  I sat up and looked around. All the zombies that had been on the left side of the room were now standing there shaking their heads. I looked to my right. All the zombies on the right were also returning to normal. The princess had managed to get her side cleared without sliding on the table.

  I hopped off the table and over to the princess. “Nice job,” I said.

  “When you are as accurate with a power rod as I am, you don’t need to be flashy,” she said with a superior smile.

  “Let’s get our ambassadors and our people out of here,” I said.

  I never met our ambassador, but he was still easy to pick out from the crowd, especially now that the crowd wasn’t trying to kill us. He was a balding, middle-aged man with a big stomach, wearing a fancy, gold dress uniform with stars running up and down his sleeves and his pant legs. I of course couldn’t see it but I was betting his underwear had stars on it also.

  “Ambassador?” I said as I ran up to him.

  “Yes, I am Ambassador W.G. Plant. You may address me as Your Excellency,” he said very dignified. “Who are you? Why are you here? Where is here?”

  “The who is easy, I’m Baxter Moon, Galactic Scout Second Class,” I said. “We’re on the Explorer. The why is a bit harder to explain.” I pointed to the lift. “I suggest I explain it on the way out of here.”

  Ambassador Plant, who was obviously still a little dazed and confused, nodded. “Yes, I’m not sure why, but I totally agree with you.”

  “Everybody on the lift now!” I shouted. “Let’s move it, people!”

  We took the lift down to the bay area. We entered the bay with our weapons ready, but met with no resistance either from the TVTrons or any of the machines on Explorer. We scanned the bay for some sort of hostile activity but it was calm.