“Lieutenant, get your team to the mid-ship workstation immediately!” the captain ordered. “We're about to lose our sails to an emergency ejection. Find out what is happening down there before we lose our brakes with them!”
Glennay Mercedes' face switched from a look of greeting to one of grave concern.
“Right away, Captain!” she responded quickly.
Dropping the napkin she held in her left hand from dinner, Glennay sprinted to the corridor exit, around the door as it opened, and down the hall. Simultaneously, she unsnapped her Ksync and brought it to her face.
“Tech and Sentinel band,” she managed to spit out as she ran. “Ashley, John, Kyle, I need you at the mid-ship workstation right now! Emergency!” Strapping her Ksync back to her side, she ran right past the main lift and to a small open tube beside it. In stride, she leapt to the ladder in the vertical shaft. With seemingly reckless behavior, Glennay let her body drop down the ladder using her forearms, thighs, and boots to slow her decent like an old-fashioned firefighter down a pole.
#
It was becoming a tradition for the Quinns to have Sunday dinner with the Ramirez family. Jessica and Mary were practically inseparable already and their parents had become good friends as a result. This weekend Mrs. Ramirez was cooking up la Bandera, which was quickly becoming Mr. Quinn's favorite dish.
“I hope you still like my cooking, John,” Ana Ramirez joked.
Before he could reply, Ashley jumped in. “A little too much, Ana. How am I supposed to keep my man with you cooking like this for each meal?”
Both ladies laughed as Vin Ramirez sat up in his seat. “That does it John, I'm going to have set things straight here. If you like her cooking that much,” he paused with an angry look on his face,“ maybe I can loan her out to you so I can get some peace and quiet around here.”
This time around Vin chuckled as John tried to hold off a laugh. Just as John had control of his laughter, Vin received a sharp elbow in his arm from his wife. Unable to hold it in at this point, John let out a good laugh himself.
“Oh, I'm sorry, Vin,” Ana smiled as she circled by him passing out part of the meal.
The comfortable banter was just beginning for the evening. Formulating a joke of her own for Vin, Ashley's thoughts were interrupted by a page coming in on her Ksync. Glancing down at it, she saw that it was a priority page to her lab.
John noticed her checking the Ksync and asked, “What's up?”
“Oh I may have to duck out for a few minutes,” she tried to say gracefully. “Someone must've crossed a connection working overtime down there. I'll just take a few minutes to check it out and be right back. I'm sorry Ana.”
“We'll keep everything warm for you until you get back, especially that handsome husband you have… oh did I say that out loud?” she replied, covering her mouth while glancing at her husband.
“Keep it up my sunshine,” Vin countered. “I might make John’s loan a rent to own program.” He followed his remarks up with a large grin.
“Don't worry Vin, while I'm away,” returned his wife beaming a larger smile, “the children shouldn't ask you to play with them more than sixteen, maybe seventeen times a day. I hope that won't interfere with your napping,”
“I'll try to keep these two married,” interjected John. “Go on check the lab. Be quick though, I may need your help here sooner than later.”
Ashley hurried down to her lab. She couldn't figure out who was spending a Sunday working overtime, but she didn't think much of it. Swiping the security pad, the lab doors opened revealing a darkened computer lab. Ashley walked in, glanced around, and then hit the panel for the lights.
“Hello,” she asked several times, looking around computer workstations. “Who's working too hard on a Sunday and needs to go home?”
“I'm afraid that's just me,” said a voice coming from behind her.
Turning, Ashley saw no one. The light on the main vidcomm panel was flashing though as if an incoming call was on hold. Swiping the panel, a familiar figure appeared on the screen.
“Dom, why are you calling?” Ashley looked around the lab again. “Did someone call you? What's going on here?”
“Oh no,” Dominic replied casually. “I'm afraid I needed to make a visit without knocking first actually. You see I have something important to tell you and I wasn't exactly looking for an audience.”
Ashley stood confused. “Dom, what are you talking about? Is there something wrong?”
“Hopefully everything is going to be just fine now,” he remarked.
“I'm kind of in the middle of a dinner with friends, can I give you a call back in an hour?” Ashley posed.
“I'm afraid not Ashley, we’re on a timer right now, so to speak,” he replied shaking his head slightly. “You see, I needed to set a few events into motion to provide you a way over to me. There were quite a few hurdles to jump, and I was a bit worried I was going to have to leave you behind, but in the end I've found a way.”
“Dom... you found a way for me to what?” Ashley questioned as her face drew lines of confusion upon it. “You're not making any sense.”
“I wish there was more time to explain, I'll have to save that for later, in private,” Dominic's vision appeared to drift for a moment. “But for now, you only have a few minutes to follow these instructions.”
“Okay, I don't know what...” Ashley started but was interrupted.
“You're wasting time,” he reiterated briefly. “First I need you to gather up a few of your neurobands, the latest versions if you please, and any other experiments you have been working on. We have about ten minutes I'd say to pack what you can.”
“I'm not packing anything up, Dominic,” Ashley stated, with a hint of irritation. “I've no idea what you’re thinking, but nobody leaves the ship mid-journey. What in the world is going on? I'm calling Anita. Are you on something?”
Dominic's demeanor abruptly changed from relaxed to blazing anger.
“You'll do no such thing! How can you be so ungrateful?” he fumed at the comm screen. “There's an emergency protocol activating right now. In ten minutes you’ll have two choices. One, follow my instructions and be safe aboard my ship, or two, refuse me and I'll blow the emergency clamps on your ship's sail. That choice will lead to the unfortunate impact of your ship, with everyone on board, somewhere in the northern hemisphere of Mars!”
Ashley half tripped over a chair behind her as she stepped back in shock.
Recovering after a second she replied in dismay. “You can't be doing this, how...”
Looking at the crazed look on Dominic's face Ashley became inwardly frightened. She recalled the story, or part of the story, that John had told her about Dom. Ashley couldn't believe that of her close friend at the time, but suddenly the look on his face made every word John had said suddenly believable.
“Dom,” Ashley started in a meeker tone. “I can send you over several of my neurobands if you want to look at them. I'll send you my notes. I'd love for you to see how far I've grown as a result of your tutoring.”
“Yes you have,” Dom replied, his tone dropping several notches in intensity. “I'm afraid after looking at your files, it would take me far too long to replicate your marvelous invention without you. I'm sorry I have to admit to something I'm a bit ashamed of, but I couldn't resist. I peeked at your work while helping you out the other day. I must say you've grown far beyond my dreams, in many ways.”
“Alright,” Ashley thought to herself, “stay cool under pressure, just like John. Breathe. Relax.” She looked over at the secure cabinet holding her neurobands and then glanced at her newest experiment.
“You'll abort the protocol then, if I come over, Dom?” she asked.
“Of course, I just need to activate it for your ship to launch. It’s easily deactivated after that,” he replied.
“I need to see my children before I leave, they have to know I love them.” She started to tear.
“You can talk to
them for as long as you like, once aboard the Argo,” he countered. “Maybe we can find a way for them to join you, later.”
Ashley's mind reeled in terror. How was she going to get out of this? If she was going to find a way, then she needed to find out more of his plans.
“What do you need me to do?” she asked.
“Ah excellent, things will work out splendidly you'll see,” Dominic smiled. “In order to provide you transport over, I need to place your ship into a state of emergency. Several beneficial things happen at that point. One is the emergency escape pods become active. Secondly, the energizers lower their shields on the pod's exit point, making their use much more practical. After that, well, let's say it's just a matter of attraction for you to visit my ship.”
Ashley thought about the realities of his plan. Dominic was easily the most gifted student to graduate from the academy in decades. He didn't just specialize in one area like she did, he specialized in three. If it was anyone else she wouldn't think for a second that his plan would work, but with Dominic this was relatively simplistic.
“I once thought he was sweet and now, well, crazy,” she thought to herself. Getting back to the matter at hand she tried to think quickly of a way out of the situation.
Ashley looked for a way to buy some time. “I don't think I can get this apart in short order Dom,” she pointed to her new experiment. “It would be a waste to leave it here. Can I send over the schematics to that and a few other projects?”
Dominic pretended to glance at the timer on the side of his screen. “I don't think we have time I'm afraid” he replied.
Ashley wanted to kick the man through the comm system. Instead she swiped her fingers across the workstation, hoping to find a way to contact John. Somehow he had locked all the comm links except the one to his ship. Then by accident she recognized the connection they established the other day to transfer files had remained active.
A thought popped into her mind, much like the time she thought of stopping time to help Stephanie. “Wait a second. What would John do? That's it!” she nodded to herself.
Ashley set the video on the workstation to record her after a five second delay. She then adjusted the controls to record for ten seconds, followed by a looping playback of the recording for one minute. Next, she programmed the video to freeze and end transmission. Finishing that, she quickly walked over to an old experiment. Once there Ashley began disassembling it with repeated motions, counting to ten in her head as she worked. At ten, Ashley dashed over to her new experiment. Accessing the workstation she synched the connection from the main vid screen, setting it to take over transmission upon freezing.
“There it is, port 5150, still active,” she confirmed to herself.
“Well Mr. Smarty Pants,” she thought to herself, smiling in Dominic's direction. “That's the problem with geniuses and their big plans, they overlook the little details.”
Ashley activated her experimental computer and quickly sat down on the bench beside it.
Then taking out her neuroband she swept it quickly through her hair and around her head. Leaning back, Ashley took a few deep breaths, and then pushed herself to focus more than ever before.
Chapter 10 Risky Deceptions
John looked at the clock across the room. Ashley had been gone only a few minutes. He figured if she didn’t come back soon, then she wouldn’t be back until late. At least it was always a good time visiting Vin and Ana. The kids played, the parents joked, and everyone left in good spirits.
Finishing their meals quickly the kids had been excused from the table to play. That left the three parents to joke in a bit more mature fashion. Vin was just working his way into a joke that would likely result in another elbow from Ana when a flashing light and warning tone sounded.
John jumped out of his chair and pulled out his Ksync. It was a general alarm, which could mean about anything. Almost immediately after the alarm sounded an all call came across the comm. “Emergency crews to workstations. Emergency crews to workstations. This is not a drill!”
Ana motioned him out the door. “We have them, go, go!”
John waved quickly at his children then turned and darted to the exit door. Split-stepping as it started to open, he jumped around and sprinted down the hallway. Halfway down the hallway to the lift, his Ksync activated.
“Tech and Sentinel band,” called tech officer Glennay. “Ashley, John, Kyle, I need you at the mid-ship workstation right now! Emergency!”
Doubling back, John headed for the lift on the opposite side of the deck. Seeing the deck ahead he pulled out his Ksync as he stopped on the lift platform. He quickly punched the deck number he need to drop to and then drew the Ksync to his face.
“Tech band,” he directed to the Ksync. “Any word on the alarm?”
A few seconds passed before he heard a winded response. “Negative, meet up at the sail couplings mid-ship John.”
“There in sixty seconds or less,” John replied.
Before the lift met with the floor, John jumped the railing and sprinted toward the mid-ship access door. As he rounded the corner, he saw the doorway ahead was open. Continuing through, he saw that the lift was already up to the next level. Saving time, John jumped up several rungs of the access ladder and quickly made his way up to the next deck level.
As he made his way around several machines, John saw tech officer Mercedes speaking with Captain Sterling over vidcomm.
“That's correct, Captain,” replied Glennay. “Every code I've tried is locked out. Either we have a full system crash on our hands, or someone has found a way to shut us out.”
Seeing Sentinel Quinn in her vidcomm the captain called out. “Commander, we don't know what we have here. I want a physical search of all high target access points. If there's a saboteur tapping in to our systems, I want him found.”
“Aye, Captain,” John replied. “I'm not up on the situation yet, what do we have?”
“We're on an emergency station, escape pods are being prepped for launch and for some reason our sails are set for jettison in less than ten minutes,” summarized the captain.
“What's Ashley's ETA?” asked Lieutenant Mercedes.
“She should be coming from the lab,” John replied, “but I don't know what's keeping her now. There was a problem in the lab.”
“Put Lieutenant Jennings in charge of the scouting party commander,” reissued the captain. “I want you to head down to the lab and find Ashley. This might be connected.”
Commander Quinn briskly saluted and ran back to the lift. Swiping the controls for the next level down he waited for the lift to drop. Without enough room to jump off, he waited for it to level up with the floor below before running again. John flew down the hall, jumping sideways past two different crew members before reaching the lift area he needed.
“Never a lift when you need one,” he grumbled as the current platform was at another level. Jumping as he had before, he quickly scaled the access tube ladder beside the lift. Three decks later he hopped up on the floor and started to run once more. By the time he reached the lab his lungs were scorching and his heart rate was pounding the sides of his head.
“I need to hit the swim machine again,” he gasped.
Swiping the door controls, he quickly stepped inside. The main lab was dim, yet Ashley's experiment area was lit up. He maneuvered around lab equipment and then more lab equipment before stopping in his tracks at the strange sight before him.
Ashley rested on top of a bench beside her latest invention. The computer was clearly active and was displaying some sort of wave pattern on a visual display. Kneeling beside her, John could plainly see her rhythmic breathing. Less obvious was the rapid eye movement she had, typical of sleep or neuroband interfacing. The fact that she was now wearing her neuroband, made the latter far more likely.
“What are you up to?” he asked in a soft voice.
Almost in answer, a vaguely familiar voice came from her main workstation. Turning towar
d the workstation, John stopped in his tracks again. The screen was divided into two parts. The left side held the image of Dominic Andreou, and the right side flashed a message over and over. “Don't wake me! Stop the override!”
“Grab the last of your things, Ashley,” Dominic’s voice filled the lab. “You've 30 seconds left before heading to the lift.”
John looked at Ashley and then looked back at the screen. Charging the screen he challenged. “You Academy League prick, you're responsible for this aren't you? Stand down from this right now before I find a way to wipe that smug look off your face, permanently!”
John waited for a response, but none was given. In fact, Dominic seemed to be swiping something on his workstation wholly oblivious to him.
“I said stand down!” John yelled even louder.
Again Dominic seemed to ignore him.
“Okay, my dear,” Dominic seemed to speak into the lab through the vidcomm. “Your time is up. Head out to the nearest lift and take it down one level to the nearest escape pod. Don't worry, I've enabled your Ksync now and will keep in touch.”
Fighting off the rage coursing through his body, John tried to get control of himself.
“What in the blazes is going on?” he asked himself. Looking at Ashley, she remained motionless on the bench. Dominic had either gone mad or was talking to himself or both.
Through John's own Ksync a message came through, “John, where's Ashley? I need her up here,” asked Glennay.
“Um, she's kind of incapacitated at the moment,” he struggled to describe her current state.
“Is she O.K.? Do you need a med team, John?” she acknowledged in a worried tone.
John spoke into his Ksync, “No, we're good here I think. Listen Glennay, something screwy is definitely going on here and I'm pretty sure I know the man responsible... but I don't know what it is. Ashley can’t help right now. We need to find a way to stop this emergency situation Glennay. Pull out all the stops if you have to, I have a bad feeling about this.”
Curious Sols (The Sol Principle Book 1) Page 8