“I hope you find what you’re looking for,” the doctor said.
Derek suddenly climbed out of the truck. Otherwise he was going to start crying. That was all he needed! He walked around the truck and took the large travel bag from the truck bed. It had everything that he needed, plus his gun. He dropped the bag three meters from the truck, opened it, and took out a pair of night-vision goggles.
Then he turned to go back to the truck. He hadn’t noticed that Akif and Gita had gotten out of the truck too and were standing right behind him. He had wanted to give the truck keys to Gita, but she embraced him before he could take them out of his pocket. Akif followed her lead. Derek swiped at some dust that must have somehow gotten into his eyes and let a couple of tears fall down his cheeks.
“Are you going to give me the keys now?” Gita asked.
Derek wiped his eyes again and tried to laugh. Then he took out the keys and handed them to her. The plan they had worked out was for Gita to park the truck at Santa Maria’s local airport. They were hoping that no one would notice it there, because people taking trips on airplanes, especially their own airplanes, would have to leave their vehicles at the airport. Then she would go to a hotel in the center of the small city, check in to the room that she had reserved by phone under a false name, and wait for Akif.
She would have to wait, because Derek still needed the doctor’s assistance. Akif would take up a position at the edge of the plateau and monitor the surroundings with the night-vision goggles, while Derek slipped into the base. Then Akif would ride away on a bicycle that was still on the bed of the truck. Two hours later he should be back in Gita’s arms.
“Just a minute,” Derek said, “we still have to unload the bicycle.”
Nimbly he climbed onto the truck bed, hoisted the bicycle, and handed it down. Akif took it and set it on the ground. Then Derek jumped light-footed onto the ground from the lowered tailgate.
“You move well,” Akif said.
“I’m a little surprised myself,” Derek said. “I guess all that military training is hard to forget.”
“Do you still need me?” Gita asked.
“Absolutely,” Akif replied, “but not for a few hours.”
“Thank you so much, Gita,” Derek said. “I’m so glad we became friends.”
She hugged him one last time. “Good luck,” she said. “I hope we see each other again sometime.”
Derek felt a lump forming in his throat. Why had he met these two only a few days ago? Couldn’t they have met earlier? Fate worked in strange ways.
“Be careful,” he said, “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you because of me. If they catch you, blame everything on me. Say I was confused, deranged, I threatened you with my gun. My records will show them I’ve been trained to kill.”
“Right. A crazy man kidnapped us. That should work,” Gita said.
She detached from the embrace and looked at him as if she were committing his face to memory. Then she took a step closer to him, raised up on her tiptoes, and planted a kiss on his cheek.
“Good luck, you crazy man,” she said. Then she turned around quickly and walked to the driver’s door.
Derek watched as she wiped a few tears from her face. Then she climbed in, started the engine, and drove off in an arc slowly fading into the darkness.
Derek took his phone from his pocket to check the time. It was just after midnight. “Okay, it’s time to get to work,” he said. “There shouldn’t be any civilians outside anymore, just guards.” He handed the night-vision goggles to Akif.
“I’ll look for a good place to set up,” the doctor said.
“We’ll stay in contact by radio,” Derek said. “We should test them first.” He took the earpiece from his pants pocket and put it in his ear. Then he pressed the send button on the walkie-talkie and whispered something into it.
“I can hear you loud and clear,” Akif said. Then he whispered something into his walkie-talkie.
“Copy,” Derek replied. “We can hear each other. This kind of mission is my specialty.”
Akif gave him a pat on the shoulder.
Derek turned around and disappeared in the direction of the plateau’s edge.
He was alone. It hadn’t been that long ago that he had loved these moments, after everybody else had gone away. But now he felt more lost than ever. Derek bent over and opened his bag. Things were different now, because this time he had a purpose. He was going on an expedition, even if he was only going to be a stowaway. He took an Air Force uniform out of the bag. How lucky that he had chosen to enlist in the Air Force, way back when. He removed his street clothes and put on the uniform. It changed him. He could feel it on a gut level. The farmer had turned once again into a fighter. ‘Clothes make the man’ was more than just a saying. He set his service cap on his head and exchanged his tennis shoes for black military boots. Then he swung the small backpack with the special equipment and special design from his time in the war onto his back. He had only brought it from home for nostalgic reasons. Finally, he put on his belt, checked the holster, and then slid his gun inside.
He needed the gun only to hold his traveling companions at bay. He was not planning on using it under any circumstances. If that were to become necessary, then he would have already lost. He would have to get onto the base unnoticed. He couldn’t risk anybody becoming suspicious. A few thousand soldiers were stationed on the base, so nobody knew everybody else. But the team that was guarding the fence right then would know each other, just like the soldiers who had been ordered to guard the space elevator today. After the alarm yesterday, the guards’ attentiveness was likely to be lower today, but it could still be difficult.
“Got anything for me yet?” Derek asked Akif by radio.
“I see two groups that are patrolling the fence together, on the inside. You might have about five minutes between the patrols.”
The outer fence would certainly be electrically charged and equipped with motion sensors. The intervals between the patrols would be calculated so that an intruder would never have enough time to disable the protective mechanisms. Derek ran to the edge of the plateau and started his descent. He came to a small stream at the bottom. He jumped across and walked into a dense forest. Beyond the forest was an open field, with the fence being located in the middle. The forest was so densely grown together that he couldn’t avoid walking into branches. So, he would have to move in a way that didn’t draw extra attention, even if it caused a bit of noise. He got down on his knees and crawled through the underbrush like a wild pig. If anyone was looking through an infrared camera and spotted him, he hoped they would think he was an animal.
He reached the open area that was covered with scrawny, tough grass.
“How’s it look, Akif?”
“The next patrol will be there in a minute.”
Derek crouched down, took the backpack off his shoulder, and didn’t move. Nobody was expecting an intruder today, that was his big advantage.
“All clear. The patrol is gone,” Akif reported shortly thereafter.
Derek reached into his backpack and activated the first drone, then the second. They floated noiselessly next to him. He walked deliberately forward. The two drones protected him from being detected by the motion sensors. With the help of metamaterials, they had set up a cloak around him that made him invisible to certain wavelengths—more precisely, the radiation at these wavelengths was being guided around him. But it didn’t work with visible light. If a soldier appeared and saw him, he was done for.
“Four more minutes,” Akif’s voice said in his earpiece.
Derek couldn’t advance too quickly, or the drones wouldn’t be able to match him step for step. They must stay at the exact right height so that he remained in the center of the invisibility field. Derek carefully placed one foot in front of the other. An observer might think he was strolling calmly up to the fence.
“Three minutes,” Akif said. “A little more to the left, then you’ll ha
ve some cover after the fence.”
Derek followed the instruction. He would need to hide once he got onto the base.
“Two minutes.”
The fence was right in front of him. Derek remained standing. He could smell the ionized air from the high voltage running through the fence. It was buried at least two meters deep into the ground, so it would be no use trying to go under the fence. There also wasn’t enough time for that. Quickly he took a pogo stick out of his backpack and clamped his feet around it. It was a single-jump pogo stick that could noiselessly thrust a person a few meters into the air using electrical energy from the quick discharge of a high-capacity battery. He had tested it only once, and while the launch generated almost no noise at all, the landing could be much louder.
“Ninety seconds,” Akif said. “Cover at eleven o’clock. Three meters away.”
Derek turned slightly to the left. He checked the position of the drones. He hoped they would be able to follow him easily enough over the wall. The motion sensors shouldn’t be active inside the fence, so he would deactivate them once he was inside. Then he pressed the pogo stick’s ignition button, and flew! He held on tightly to the stick with his legs. He didn’t want it to fall or it would make a lot of noise. With his hands he tried to steer his flight. He saw something gray coming toward him. It must be a small building. Quickly he shifted his body weight and was able to move just enough to come down to the left of the building. Derek prepared himself for impact. He pressed his chin against his chest. He saw the ground. He smelled wet grass and hit the ground with a thud, rolling to a stop on the grass. He quickly moved against the wall of the building and listened.
Silence. He hoped he hadn’t raised anyone’s suspicion. He remotely signaled for the drones to land and then waited.
“The patrol will be at your position in 30 seconds. They haven’t changed their pace.”
Good. He pressed himself against the wall. Two soldiers walked past him only two meters away. They were talking about women. “My new girlfriend has enormous tits,” one of them was boasting. Derek had to stifle a laugh. If they only knew that someone had broken into their base right under their noses!
But that was just the beginning. Derek took a deep breath in and let it out. He signaled for his drones to return to him. One after the other they landed on his outstretched hand. He put them and the pogo stick back in his backpack, as he hoped he wouldn’t leave any trace of having been there. He didn’t want anyone to find out someone had been here before the next morning’s planned launch.
“What do you see, Akif?”
“Very little activity. I’m sure most of the soldiers are asleep. You’re getting close to out of my range, but I think we’ll be able to stay in contact until you’re aboard. There are some barracks and other buildings in front of you that I can’t see through. Your goal is at one o’clock, so west-southwest. You’ll have to find the best path yourself.”
“Understood.”
He was inside a military base, but he was wearing the right uniform and he knew all the right military protocols and procedures. If he could safely get farther away from the fence—it would be more dangerous for him to keep creeping around the edges. He would have to move out into the open, completely normally, so that any chance encounters wouldn’t lead to suspicion. It would probably become more difficult when he got closer to the space elevator. Access to it would surely be permitted only to those with special authorization.
Derek walked quietly across the grass. He came to a dirt track. He immediately turned right as if he already knew where he was going. To his left and right were one-story barracks. They looked like warehouses, not living quarters. The track ended at a paved road. He turned to the left, always heading more or less toward his goal. A truck approached him, traveling in the opposite direction. Right before it passed him, the driver flashed his lights and saluted. Derek saluted back.
Then he passed a two-story, white-painted building with a large NASA logo. A light was still on in one of the windows. Maybe it was one of the crew members for the space elevator mission sitting in there. Derek thought about whether he should change the plan. He could go in and take the person hostage. But they would never be allowed to board the elevator, so that would be much too risky.
He walked past the entrance to the building and came to an intersection. This time he turned right. Someone on an electric bicycle was approaching on the other side of the street. It was a man, and he was singing. When he got closer, Derek could tell that the soldier was drunk. Derek hoped to avoid being caught. Apparently, there must be a relatively low risk of being caught at this time if soldiers were moving around drunk on the base. He hoped that would be true for an intruder like him, too.
At the next intersection, Derek kept walking straight. “What do you think about my path?” he asked over the radio.
Akif could track his position on the map display of his phone. “Very good. If you turn right after the next block, the launch pad should be directly in front of you.”
“Is there anybody there right now?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell. Be careful.”
“Understood.”
He adjusted his backpack and walked determinedly toward the intersection that Akif had mentioned. At first, the building next to him blocked his view, but then he saw it—a nondescript platform with an even more nondescript capsule sitting on top of it. The path leading to it was blocked. Signs reading ‘Restricted Area – Authorized Personnel Only’ were posted on the path.
Derek briefly considered his options, then decided to look for another way. He kept walking straight. Again, a low building blocked his view of the platform. Behind it, a narrow dirt track headed off into the darkness. He turned and quickly switched into stealth mode and started edging along the side of the building. He was sure this was not the sort of path anyone should be walking on at night.
Then he heard steps. They were irregular, so it had to be at least two people. He hid behind a tree. Two men passed, then he smelled cigarette smoke. They hadn’t noticed anything, as they had been deep in conversation.
He waited a little while and then continued onward. He turned to the right and headed into the underbrush when he decided that he must have passed the platform. Now his forward progress was very slow, because he had to precisely check every individual branch and stay clear of any that he thought might make a noise.
Then the forest ended. In front of him was an area of flat ground, completely bare of any trees or bushes, and beyond that area was the platform. He could see the capsule. Its entry hatch was on the side facing him. That was good.
Derek looked around. He took out the night-vision goggles. No signs of life! The two men from before were apparently the only patrol in this area. They had passed him probably 20 minutes ago. So, he had at least ten minutes until they’d be back in view. He removed the goggles—he had to take his chance now.
Bent over, Derek sprinted across the flat area. He pulled himself up the back side of the platform. It was only about two meters to the capsule. He hoped that nobody was working on the instruments right then! He reached the hatch and pulled it open as quietly as possible. Just like the New Shepard’s rocket’s capsule, it was unlocked. It was dark inside. Perfect!
He closed the door behind him and put on his night-vision goggles so that he could orient himself. There were space suits in two long, flat boxes that looked like coffins. He would have to move two of those suits, or better three, out of the capsule, in order to compensate for his added weight. But first he would have to hide, because the patrol would be coming back around soon. He pressed himself against the suits in one of the two boxes.
Too late he remembered that he had left his backpack next to the entrance hatch. Suddenly he smelled cigarette smoke again. He desperately wanted to open the box for some fresh air, but he knew he couldn’t. The two soldiers must be inside the capsule. All at once a bright ray of light came flooding into the box through gaps at the box
’s edges. They had turned on the interior light. Then the ray of light disappeared as quickly as it came. They must not have noticed his backpack. His luck continued!
He waited a few minutes and then climbed back out of the box. Derek looked around in surprise, a sense of dread growing inside him. His backpack was gone. Shit. He had to stay calm and think through this. The soldiers had noticed it, but they hadn’t realized what it meant and hadn’t sounded an alarm. Maybe they thought a technician had left it behind. He could only hope that they would keep thinking that. Regardless, he had to act quickly. He picked up one of the space suits and carried it out of the capsule. To make sure nobody would see the suits, he would have to hide them in the woods. He took one suit into the trees, then went back with another, but on a different path, so that his tracks wouldn’t become too noticeable.
Then it was time to hide again. The patrol was right on time. He watched as the lights went on and off. Then he brought the third space suit to a hiding place in the woods. At last it wouldn’t be too cramped for him inside whichever he chose of the boxes. It was just stupid that his backpack was now gone, because it had also held all his provisions. But he could hold out without food or water until the morning. He just had to be careful that his snoring wouldn’t be too loud, because that might be heard by a patrol. So, he pulled on the remaining space suit, sealed the helmet, and crawled into the empty box farthest from the entrance.
“Good night, Akif,” he said into the microphone. “Mission complete. Thank you for all your help!”
“You did it! That’s great,” the Turkish doctor said. “Now I’m off to see Gita. Good luck.”
“Tell her ‘hi’ from me.”
June 3, 2085, Ceres
M6 had now visited eight different versions of Ceres in the past 24 hours of Earth time. Overall, this Ceres looked just like the others, and they all looked just like where he originally came from—the sky was black, the stars were cold and seemingly immovable, and right next to his platform was the end of the rift. But the data that he downloaded via the Deep Space Network showed significant differences. In each case, the Earth had indeed existed, but the number of contradictions nearly doubled with each jump. He had noticed an especially odd difference after the last jump—instead of a French president, the documents suddenly referred to a French chancellor, although nothing else about France’s government seemed to have changed. Nevertheless, nobody else seemed to have noticed the change, because everyone had developed new internal logic. The French believed it was just a traditional title that had been adopted after the Second World War with Germany, which had since become their ally.
The Rift: Hard Science Fiction Page 24