As they ate, Halo continued with their shared story of captivity, escape, and death. “I awoke in my cell to the sound of Philipdarling and the Aurelian prattling on about galactic politics. I was in the same block of cells, but I was two cells over. Like Philipdarling, I also had been probed and penetrated, but at the time of my capture I still had my flight interface grafted to my right arm, which meant I was still linked to my Aves. Our captors must not have recognized what it was.
“I made a thorough inspection of my cell. It was, as he said, escape proof. The mesh at the front was stiff and very strong, and sharp as razors besides.
“There was a thick mat on the floor. One corner of the mat was a flap that opened over a 17-cm diameter hole. I guessed that this was to be used for bodily functions. That’s how I used it.
“On closer inspection, I realized that the mesh at the front was also the door to the cell, and that it would slide upward when opened. Also, it was held in place by mechanical locks, not electronic ones, and I realized that with the proper tools, I could pry it open, but I had no such tools at my disposal.
“I considered whether I could tear up the pad from the floor and use it to, perhaps, smash through the mesh at the front of the page. I soon discovered it was too well-attached to the deck, would probably be slashed to ribbons anyway, and besides which, I was probably not strong enough to break through it.
“I studied the locking mechanism on the mesh door. I realized if I could jam a sufficiently hard piece of metal into it, I could prevent it from locking the next time it was opened. The flaw to this plan was that I didn’t have a hard piece of metal, nor did I know when or if it would be opened again.”
“I laid down on the mat again, I linked into Basil through my flight interface and reviewed the ship’s assets to see if there were anything on-board that could help me. Any delusions I may have had about interfacing the AI from Basil with that of the alien ship and ordering it to set me free was not going to happen.” She chuckled. “It was a foolish notion anyway… the idea that our AI could interface with, let alone manipulate, alien technology, was thoroughly ridiculous and I was embarrassed for even considering it. But I was determined to escape, somehow.
“I found it what I needed in external stores locker four. Micro toolbots.” She held her fingers about ten centimeters apart. “Little things, about the size of an Arcadian woodroach. They were used for emergency repairs and I had at least ten of them that I could get access to.
“I accessed external sensors and saw that the ship was being guarded. I knew I would need a distraction to get the toolbots out of the hangar. I also knew I would have to program them for what I needed them to do while they were still on the ship since I didn’t have any way of doing that once they left. I also had to get them to my cell, and I had no way of knowing where I was relative to the Hangar Bay.
“I accessed Basil’s sensors again, and used harmonic resonance mapping and sonar to develop a rough internal schematic of the alien ship. Using the Flight Interface as a beacon, I determined the location of my cell, and plotted a route from the hangar bay to it.”
“It took almost three hours to program the micro toolbots, chart a path to where I was, and study the schematics of the alien ship as best I could and commit them to memory. I also had to calculate how fast to make the micro-toolbots come, since the nano-power-cells wouldn’t last long if I had them run to me in an all-out sprint. But, if they didn’t come running, they would be vulnerable to discovery. I had to get them out of the Hangar Bay, without anyone noticing. I eventually decided sixty per cent of top speed would work. I also had to program them to figure their way around obstacles.”
“Isn’t she just brilliant?” the other Redfire B interjected, spewing cheeseburger crumbs from his mouth. “I mean, wow… brilliant. Doing all that in her head. I am so glad I married her. I would not be able to get through this eternity without her by my side.” At that, he kissed her affectionately on the forehead.
“I hate to interrupt the story,” Redfire A asked. “But, is there sex in the Afterlife?” The other Redfire and Halo looked at each other. “Sex isn’t necessary in the Afterlife,” Redfire B finally said. “But what we have instead is so much, much better.”
“And not in the phony way that a good book or an exquisite dessert is said to be better,” Halo Jordan added. “I mean, physically better … well, metaphysically, anyway.
“So, back to my story. I knew the toolbots needed cover, so I overloaded a power node on Basil. Basil had taken damage in our capture, so an exploding power cell would be unremarkable. The power cell explosion created an electromagnetic pulse that temporarily disabled lights and sensors… I hoped… in the Hangar Bay, as well as stunning any guards that were around. The toolbots were insulated in the cargo bay, and while it was still dark, I sent them out and into a ventilation shaft.
“It took another hour for the first toolbots to make it to my cell. Only four out of the ten of them made it, but it was enough. I set them to work disabling the locks. It only took a few minutes. I then pushed the door open using the mat.”
“I freed Philipdarling next,” she smiled. “He was happy, and somewhat shocked to see me. We debated whether to free the Aurelian, and eventually, we were persuaded that his help would improve our odds.
“I knew that either the cell block would have live guards, or it would be tightly monitored. We would need a distraction; which is why I had been studying the power grid in the Hangar bay. As we prepared to break out, I sent a signal to two of the other toolbots I had programmed to find the primary power node for this part of the ship. The little things threw themselves into the relay, causing a short circuit that crippled primary power throughout our section.
Redfire B interrupted. “She left out the part where the Aurelian and I got into a fist-fight. I still believed that we were on an Aurelian ship, and that this was some kind of plot to deceive us. That he would try to get information out of us by pretending to be a fellow prisoner. He was bigger than I was, but he had been in the cell for days, so I was faster and not as weakened. I soon had him on the deck.”
“The fight, unfortunately, attracted the attention of the alien guards,” Halo Jordan continued. “Philipdarling and the Aurelian put aside their differences long enough to pound the alien guards like cheap meat…”
“What were the aliens like?” Redfire A asked.
“We can’t tell you that,” Redfire B answered him.
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Here, there is no difference,” Redfire B responded. “I could not tell you if I tried. It would break the rules. Here, watch me try.”
He sat there and did nothing.
“Well, are you going to try?” Redfire A said to him.
Redfire B shook his head. “I may look like I’m just sitting here to you, but from my perspective, I am screaming at you about the aliens at the top of my lungs.”
“He is,” Halo Jordan agreed. “I can see him.”
“I don’t get it,” Redfire A admitted.
“You can’t access that information. It is outside your mortal realm of experience,” Redfire B explained.
“I’m not even allowed to know the post-mortal fate of dear, sweet Paul Ironhorse,” Halo Jordan remarked sadly. “And the reason I am here at all is I set out to avenge his death.”
“So, how can you tell me about your escape from the aliens, unless you really are me, and it was really me that did the things that you are describing?” Redfire A realized he was only a little aware of what that sentence meant.
“Would you guys like some dessert?” Gabrielle called out from behind the counter.
“Banana splits,” Redfire B answered her. “Look, perhaps it would be best to just go on with the story. It will become clear at the end.
Redfire A sighed. “You’re not going to tell me until the end anyway, are you?” Redfire B grinned at him. “Now, you’re getting it. Mrs. Jordan Redfire, please proceed with the telling of the story.�
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Halo Jordan took a sip of her beverage, smiled, and continued. “We got out of our cellblock and made our way toward the Hangar Bay. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves at this point. We had gotten out of our cells, we had beaten up a couple of guards. We had their weapons, which looked kind of like a cross between a short staff and a hand drill. Even though we couldn’t figure out how to fire them, just having them made us feel more confident. We thought we had maybe a one in a thousand chance of getting off the ship alive.
“A thousand to one,” Redfire B chuckled. “We really were wild-eyed optimists, but we didn’t think we had anything to lose.”
Halo Jordan continued. “We entered a utility shaft and began climbing down deeper into the ship.”
Redfire B interrupted. “While we moved through the ship, I was running down Pegasus intruder protocols in my head, trying to figure out how we would deal with a pair of escaped alien intruders. The aliens would have to figure that our only way off the ship would be Basil. The hangar bay would be swarming with guards. We would also have internal sensors. I figured out that I would have to give our hosts other things to worry about.
“I hit on the idea of making the aliens think we had gone for the escape pods instead of our own ship. If we could get somehow access the system, we could launch escape pods and distract them long enough to get to the ship and blast our way out of the Hangar Deck.”
Halo Jordan put in. “The Aurelian thought we were mad, but he agreed that we had no other choice. A few decks below that, we exited the shaft. The ship was mainly utility areas at that level, like Pegasus, but alien. The ship was much warmer than Pegasus, darker, and the decks were smaller. We actually had to slump over in order to pass through some of them. And the walls were padded with material like the mats in our cell. I was wondering if maybe their inertia compensation systems were less advanced, and the crew was bounced around more than we were.”
Redfire B resumed. “We managed to evade the guards on that level for a while. Then, suddenly, the Aurelian made us stop. The Aurelian excused himself, told us to wait, and disappeared down a side-corridor. When he came back, his hands were bloody, and he had another pair of alien hand-weapons. He apologized to Halo, and gave me one of the weapons. He told us to follow him.
“At the end of the side corridor was a small room with two dead alien guards outside of it and a system access console inside of it. The Aurelian told us to guard the door while he went to the console and began tapping on the typepad interface. I challenged him. ‘What are you doing?’
“The Aurelian said, ‘I am attempting to access the central data control system.’
“Naturally, this piqued my suspicions, ‘How could you possibly know how to do that?’
‘I’m an Ace of Wands,’ the Aurelian answered. ‘We are engineered to be good at manipulating technology. We also were able to study the alien species before you got here and destroyed our fleet. If I can access the security system, we have a better chance of making it out of here and back to your ship.’
“I put the alien hand weapon to his head. ‘Or maybe this has been an Aurelian ship the entire time, and you’re going to escape with us to access Pegasus.’”
“’I don’t have time for this,’ the Aurelian said. ‘Either we are all on an alien ship trying to escape, or you are being held by my people. I don’t think you have a choice either way.
‘Beside which, you don’t know how to fire that weapon.’
“I watched him work. I saw the alien language on the display. It looked like patterns of tight scratches to me, but I think I understood the pictures, the icons representing different systems. The Aurelian managed to cut off power to over half the ship before they caught on to us.”
Halo Jordan added. “It was a relatively straightforward procedure. Their ship used a grid of power-relays. It was just a matter of closing off the circuits.” Redfire B grinned. “He blinded them, cut off their sensors, and the three of us could move at will. We figured our odds of escape were up to 100 to 1.”
“You may have thought so,” Halo Jordan countered. “I would have given us… at best
… 200 to 1.”
Redfire B resumed the narrative. “Unfortunately, the Aurelian could not locate any escape pods in the ship. Maybe these aliens didn’t care about saving lives, or maybe he couldn’t identify them, but he pored over the ship’s schematics could not find anything that looked like escape pods. So, we had to give up on that plan. We had to press on toward the Hangar Bay.”
Halo Jordan summarized. “So, long story short, we snuck around through corridors and utility shafts, the ship was dark and shadowy, we played hide and seek with a couple of patrols, Philipdarling exchanged witty repartee with our Aurelian friend , and finally we got to the Hangar Bay.
Redfire B paused thoughtfully before he continued. “All things considered, we got a lot farther than we had any reason to expect we could. We were right there in the bay with our ship. We could see Basil parked on the deck. We could also see the thirty or so armed alien guards standing between us and it.”
He took another pause to let the imagery sink in. “I guess we could have just surrendered then. We were tired. We were hungry. There was really no hope of escape, but we looked at each other and knew we weren’t going to give up.”
“So, what happened?” Redfire A asked. Gabrielle brought over the banana splits, and then curled into the adjacent booth, also interested in the story, or at least in Redfire B’s telling of it.
Redfire B put his arm around Halo Jordan’s shoulders. “I kissed my wife. Then, we activated the ships external defenses. Basil began shooting up the launch bay. The aliens were confused at first, and they started shooting at the ship. And while they fought the ship, we made our charge.
“The Aurelian went down first. Their weapons shot these really nasty energy bolts, and he took a bunch of them in the chest. They seem to go right through him. He went limp, keeled over, and went sprawling down on the deck.
“Then, I felt these things punching holes through my body and I realized I was hit. I grabbed Halo and we ducked behind some crates or equipment lockers – some things the aliens had on their deck. Things were starting dark and sparkly for me. I knew I only had a few seconds.
“Halo was cradling my head in her lap. She wasn’t crying. She was stroking my face and just looking at me with the kind of love I hadn’t seen from her in years.” Halo Jordan took over the story. “And then he smiled at me and said, ‘Let’s blow this bitch.’ So, I took my control gauntlet, and I ordered Basil to launch some of her Hammerheads and detonate the rest. There’s always a lot of fuel and munitions in a hangar bay. This ship was no exception.
“There was a flash of light. I had a sensation of flying. And the next thing we remembered, we were here, in the café. And the waitress asked us, ‘You want the usual, darlin’?”
“Quite a story,” Redfire A told them. “Very moving. Now, when are you going to tell me who I am?”
Keeler, In the Library, with a drink – “So, then, after that apocalyptic battle, we divided the crew between Pegasus and Lex and limped back to the Chapultepec StarLock. The Odyssey Project didn’t want us to proceed to the Orion Quadrant, so we had to break their security and sneak through when they weren’t looking. We ended up on another StarLock called Chanticleer. We scrambled its codes so they couldn’t send anyone after us, and then we tried to find some clue where the colonies were in that Sector of space.
“After a year or so, we found the wreck of an Old Commonwealth Space Freighter, and we recovered its navigational core. I seem to recall some sort of space monster guarding the wreckage. Anyway, then we went to Yronwode and, under the influence of powerful narcotics, I became the chief of a barbarian horde. I led an army of savages in battle against the last outpost of Commonwealth Civilization on the planet. We lost, of course.
And I returned to the ship. Then, I spent several days negotiating with space pirates, and was able to secure
a supply of fuel for the ship.
“We then traveled to Fallon colony. The savages on that planet tried to kill me, but they failed. Then, we went to Gethsemane, where I went through the Gateway and ended up
… here.” Pegasus Keeler let his gaze fall back upon his enthralled companions. The light outside was beginning to dim, it being in the late afternoon.
“You had me going until the space pirates,” Sapphire Keeler said, munching cheese on a toast corner. Rosalind had brought around some snacks somewhere between Pegasus Keeler’s tall tale of riding on the rocket sled and seeing a library full of ancient wisdom torched at Winter. Sapphire Keeler had cried out in pain at news of that loss.
“I think it’s marvelous,” Delia chirped huskily… a very difficult vocal trick to pull off.
“Marvelous?” Sapphire Keeler protested. “According to him, more than half the former colonies of the Human Galactic Commonwealth failed entirely or reverted to a backwards state of civilization. How is that marvelous?”
Delia waved her hand dismissively. “Enough about planets and civilizations, tell me about the people on your ship. What have you learned about yourself through your travels in space?”
“Between Pegasus and the other pathfinder ships, we’ve recovered records of post-Collapse civilization from over fifty worlds,” Pegasus Keeler reported.
“And have you gleaned any great insight from your study of these civilizations?” Delia asked.
Sapphire Keeler shrugged. “I can tell you that Sapphire has the best system of planetary management of any world I have yet seen.”
“And just how do you spend your time?” Sapphire Keeler asked. “I mean, when you’re not battling space pirates, or hanging around with those guys from the crazy geezer planet. Actually, I kind of liked the crazy geezer planet.”
“I spend a lot of time studying historical accounts from other colonies, trying to piece together a history of the latter day Commonwealth.” Sapphire Keeler paused. “And I drink.”
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