Star Force: Keyholders (Star Force Universe Book 61)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  Watch my back?

  Sure, go ahead.

  Sara’s outline bent over and put her hands on the ground, then kicked her feet up and began doing handstand pushups to pass the time and feed her Saiyan genetics a bit. Nobody was going to notice the air rush out here, and as long as she didn’t stretch her Yen’mer tissue any they were going to remain completely anonymous standing out in plain sight next to one of the holiest class of ships within the Vargemma.

  1 hour 46 minutes and 2 seconds until they figured out if this was going to work or not. And if it didn’t, they’d have a long walk back like the last two times. This was the farthest they’d got in any of the cities, but Paul had a gut feeling this time they’d make it. The Dotaramin were just a little more relaxed than the other races, and if their ship security matched that modus operandi then this was their chance to make the big score…or at least give them a shot at the big score. Getting onboard was one major hurdle to cross, but if they could then they’d be cornered in unknown territory where things could get all kinds of bad.

  Fun stuff, Paul told himself as he glared at the countdown. His body was itching too, but this close to their objective he didn’t care. The Paladin were still fighting in Alpha as far as he knew, and unless one of the other teams had beat them to it, they were still shut off from the fleet. Maybe what they were about to try was redundant, but even if it was, it was their ticket out of this Temple without having to play tick again, and neither he nor Sara were going to do that except as a last resort. Nor were they going to be in a rush to get back to the others, not without a solution, and so long as the Caretakers were providing them food and power recharges for their armor, they would stay in Gamma Temple as long as necessary to get the job done.

  But Paul had a feeling this time they would hit paydirt…

  2

  When the cargo loaders finally arrived Paul and Sara had their chance. They were floating palettes using anti-grav, and hence showing up on the security sensors, but that’s not what the Archons were going after. A weight increase would cause the anti-grav output to spike, and depending on how close security was, they might notice the difference.

  Those palettes were going into three different loading doors that were on the underside of the ship. No ramps or ground-side access. They were being lifted up through a halo-esk gravity lift, and that too might pick up their mass and sound an alarm, but it was the security force field they were passing through to get into those underside openings that was the real concern.

  Aside from cargo there were also passengers entering via a diagonal tube that led to the restricted area of the ship that would ferry them to their destination. They were not allowed in the cargo holds or anywhere else in the ship, and the entrance to that access tube was heavily scanned on entry. It was possible they could try to get inside when it detached, but the odds of making it then were slim without using Yen’mer given the height.

  But there was one more group of people boarding, and those were the crew. They came up from a different entrance entirely, some 880 meters away from the passengers. Theirs had no scanning station on or above the tarmac, just a simple elevator-like lift that dropped down along one of the massive landing legs of the ship as a group of 23 of the knee-crawlers approached.

  Sara took point and walked up right beside them, with Paul lagging and circling around to the other side so they flanked them within a couple of meters as they accessed all their minds, getting information about the boarding methods and a host of other things they had not had access to before, for the crews were so revered they didn’t travel out in public like commoners. They lived very reclusive and exclusive lives behind layers of security, due in part to keep the possibility of them being bribed to carry unsanctioned items or information with them…though right now two of them were doing that very thing, and nervous enough about it that they showed up easily on the Archons’ mental scans.

  The Dotaramin had no telepaths in their race at all, nor did they have any publically used mental interfaces that could do the same thing, meaning these rule breakers had nothing to fear from eavesdropping…and that was another reason for the not so psionically gifted races keeping separate from the other Vargemma. They couldn’t keep secrets around them, and in order to maintain the balance of power they had to keep to themselves or they’d be owned by those that could manipulate and even take control of their minds.

  And that’s exactly what Paul and Sara did as the crew came up to the elevator, for they each had to scan in on their own, though the elevator itself could easily have carried 6 at a time. They let the first one go, seeing the procedure through their eyes and those of the Dotaramin they were mind hacking, then Sara picked her own buddy and walked up beside him as he input his access code. When he did the shield covering the recently returned elevator doors lowered and he pressed the decorative emblem in the center, causing them to part.

  Then Sara made him pause a split second as she touched her hand to his right arm, making the invisible physical contact without him raising an alarm. He didn’t even register the feel of it, and when he walked forward the scanning device saw no break from his body to hers that would signify a second boarder. The program looked for gaps on entry, but because her hand was connecting her to him it assumed they were the same person…or perhaps that she was clothing or gear that had already been scanned inside the terminal. Either way, there was no air gap between them, and even as the sensor could see her through her cloak it didn’t register a problem and allowed her and her passenger into the elevator before popping up the security shield behind them before the doors soundlessly closed.

  The ride up was just as smooth and pristine, as if the entire ship had been painstakingly crafted for elegance. Sara kept her grip on his arm just in case the sensors continued during the ride up, though the Dotaramin’s mind said otherwise. According to him that was the end of the security and he relaxed, glad to be rid of the public and eager to see Temple 127 again. He had one of his many high level mistresses there, who were more than eager to accommodate him in exchange for the right to reproduce with such a revered genome.

  Mating with someone from another Temple was virtually unheard of, and in the reproduction hierarchy was a mix of light treason and the holy grail of all matings at the same time. The Vargemma believed each Temple was to stand alone, in success or failure, as they worked toward bringing back the Founders…but since the stats required to do so, as ambiguous as they were, only applied to a single Temple and not all of them collectively, it had become more of a competition than a team effort, so the genomes from one did not always match those from others as certain adjustments were made in the hopes of goosing a little more Essence aptitude out of genetic alterations in addition to the endless training.

  So mixing strands of Dotaramin was only allowed when deemed prudent by the leaders of their race, and sneaking off to do so without permission was a game many of the pilots played. Those that got caught would lose their position permanently, but the risk was worth it as they could basically mate with anyone they wanted at any time, including those whose reproductive systems had not been activated. That sort of fruitless mating was considered dishonorable, but apparently there were many an urban legend of it happening, leaving the one who did so essentially a god to the local denizens.

  And Sara’s companion intended to get the god treatment as often as he could manage it, though never if he thought he’d actually get caught. He valued his position more, but then why was he risking it? This guy would never make it in Star Force, and not just because they had mental scans. They had challenges designed to weed this type of booty hunter out and only allow the truly motivated to pass, though to be honest, most of this grand position of his was merely steering a starship from point to point and didn’t require any skill above a sub-par pilot. There were no navigational hazards inside the Temple, for the Caretakers removed any rogue debris floating to keep the interior pristine. They didn’t even have interstellar jumps to make, so a
ny rookie pilots could have handled this task.

  But to the Dotaramin it was one of the highest honors imaginable, even higher than most local city leaders. They all revered the Temples, and those who set foot on more than one were immediately heros, whether they deserved it or not. And a great deal of the security around this ship was to prevent stowaways seeking out that honorary status, for even if they got caught after the fact they would become legend among the middle and lower levels of Dotaramin society.

  But Dotaramin didn’t have cloaking devices, so there was no heavy security designed specifically for that task. The shield barriers accidentally accomplished that task well if you were in a hurry, and making the elevator certainly qualified as a hurry, but if they had had their time to take, Sara and Paul could have slowly pushed through them without detection. The trouble was they didn’t have their time to take, for these cargo and personnel loadings were done all at once to diminish the chance of hitchhikers…living or technological…from making it onboard.

  When the elevator opened up inside the ship there was no reception committee, and Sara’s buddy simply walked off heading for the cockpit. She waited as four more came onboard, then found Paul’s outline coming out with another crewmember.

  Follow this one, he told her telepathically.

  What’s special about him, she asked, doing a deeper dive into his mind.

  He’s the only one in the crew that can dial the portal.

  Really?

  Yeah, the automated system requires a special input beyond Essence. Part of it is Vargemma security code, the rest is technique.

  Have you learned it yet?

  A bit. We’ve been practicing, Paul said, referencing the mental simulations he had the guy running while they waited in line. To his point of view he was really opening the portal and trying to use his Essence, but Paul had blocked the control pathways to his body…the blanked his mind after he finished before having him do it again and again without realizing it. It’s not as easy as we’d hoped.

  We’ve got time, Sara said as they walked through corkscrewing hallways that led up and forward. It was an odd layout for a ship, and very anti-angular, but apparently the design had more of a religious aspect to it than being based on functionality. All paths led upwards, as was what the Vargemma believed in various forms across the races, though what would ultimately lead to the Founders return was not spelled out by the Responders, so each race…and each faction inside those races…had their own take. Many made claims they could not back up, but then again religion was based on belief and not knowledge, for if you knew something then there was no belief necessary.

  When they got to the bridge the crew didn’t dither, immediately going to their stations and beginning the activation sequence for the ship. They were not supposed to stay on the tarmac any longer than necessary after boarding, again as part of their security protocols. The ship could stay parked as long as needed before being loaded up, but once it was full the Dotaramin viewed that as an opportunity for mischief and wanted near immediate departure.

  The 1.4 mile long ship drifted up a few meters, then drew in its landing legs before climbing higher. It rose up through the dome shield over the spaceport and raced skyward like it was in a hurry, punching out of the atmosphere then tilting over to skim just above it and still within the artificial gravity of the outer shell as they headed for the nearest primary portal set into the landscape and surrounded by a defensive ring that no one dared to mess with from the ground.

  It was harmless to anyone wandering to the sheer cliff, but attempt to cut into it or block the area above it and you’d get an immediate Caretaker response in one of two ways. If they were nice they’d send units out to scare or move you away. If you tripped an extra mean protocol, weaponry in the defense ring would shoot you out of the way and the Caretakers could come in to scoop up and remove the debris afterwards.

  So any ships wanting to pass had to arrive outside the ring, stop, and then produce both the Essence and the dialing procedure. Paul had a couple hours to practice with his unwitting partner before they arrived and set into a proper parking place some 18 miles away from the 127 mile wide inner ring that had another 0.73 mile wide barrier around it that looked like a sheer white crystal cliff extending some 3.4 miles upward.

  Paul’s partner was the only person onboard the ship skilled enough to operate the interface, which connected him to the portal via a relay, both in Essence and mind, and the Archon knew from practicing that once the connection was made the portal would touch their minds to confirm at least one person had been through it before. That was a security protocol of the Founders that no one truly understood, at least not this ‘Keyholder,’ but what they did know was that everyone onboard, including the passengers, would become potential Keyholders after transiting through the portal to whichever Temple they went.

  If someone knew the technique but had never traveled to another Temple, the ring would reject them, so part of the reason for having a bridge crew full of redundant pilots was to give them the necessary ‘pass cards’ for future travel. When the portal accessed Paul’s mind he let it in, seeing it go to his memories of other Temples and look for something particular. The contact lasted so briefly he couldn’t identify exactly what it was looking for, but the fact that it had accessed his mind despite him being fully cloaked indicated that the portal was operating off of some form of psionics or Essence detection rather than sensors, otherwise it wouldn’t have known he was there in order to try and access his mind.

  But as soon as it did all hell broke loose on the bridge, for the Keyholder began yelling frantically and got the rest of the crew doing the same. One of them went for the comm to inform the leadership of their race, but everyone on the deck suddenly froze in place as Sara exerted her Ikrid over all of them simultaneously.

  I’ve got them, she said with a grimace. Do it.

  Paul knew what she meant, for he had figured it out at lightning speed too. What had got the Keyholder going so crazy was the interface map that listed all of the Temples within the galaxy that they could travel to. It overlapped with a map of all Temples, with a swath of them being off limits because no one on the ship had ever traveled to them. They were Temples that the Dotaramin did not have any colonies in and they could not access unless another race brought one of their people there as a passenger…which they wouldn’t unless an agreement by all of the Vargemma insisted that they had to, for they didn’t want to share Temples more than they already did.

  They knew they hadn’t all started off in one Temple, but in different ones. How they had mixed and formed the Vargemma had been lost to history, and these high level pilots didn’t know much more than the general population did, but the map of Temples had been constant the entire time…but now a new one had popped up on the portal map that did not exist on the Vargemma one, and that’s what had sent the crew into an excited and confused hysteria, for it wasn’t just a new Temple, but an accessible one, and both things should have been impossible, for all Temples had been inhabited since the beginning of Vargemma memory.

  Paul and Sara knew it had to be because they were here…and that now accessible Temple had to be Beta, for it was the only other one they had personal memory of. Could the portal read their memories so close to identify each Temple, which were nearly identical to one another, as different locations? Or was there something hidden in their memories from their time at that Temple that the portals used as a pass card?

  Paul couldn’t find it in his own memories without a long and deep dive, which was time they didn’t have. Whatever the case the pathway to Beta was open and these Dotaramin were about to report it back to their bosses, which was why Sara had stopped them. Now they were all frozen on the bridge, visible to any camera surveillance there even as their captors remained invisible. It wouldn’t take long before the delay to leave through the portal was noticed, and they couldn’t just hitchhike anymore as they’d planned.

  Paul used his Essence and
touched the interface, drawing on his partner’s memories as he tried to duplicate the technique necessary to dial the giant supergate…

  3

  Damn, this isn’t working, he said after a few minutes of trial and error. It’s like trying to pick up a needle wearing mittens.

  Then have Bob do it, Sara said, starting to have a little trouble holding all the minds on the bridge frozen while monitoring the far larger number throughout the rest of the ship.

  Alright, Bob, Paul said to the captive Keyholder who he took control over from Sara. Just like we practiced, only this time for real.

  An Essence rush from the Dotaramin manifested and reached out to an input pedestal made of crystal material similar, if not identical, to the type the Temple used to create Responders and other important interface terminals. That Essence tendril was the connection to the ship, and then the ship replicated it only many times larger using the Essence well inside it and the delicate technology that allowed the range boost necessary to reach across the miles of distance to one of the many input terminals on the portal.

  When the connection was made, a series of manipulations had to occur in a sort of combination lock that required various different skillsets. The pattern was one that had been discovered by the placement of several of the more notable Caretaker facilities in the Temple. When viewed from above they created the pattern, essentially hiding the combination in plain sight for anyone with a starship, but each portal had its own combination, so someone standing on the far side of the Temple couldn’t look across and learn it without actually getting into space.

  Star Force hadn’t even figured out those clues yet, but then again they were far from even making contact with the portals, for the basic technique required was a certain ‘frequency’ of Essence contact that the portal would recognize. Anything else it would simply shrug off as if there was no receptacle there at all.