“Could be reading that under duress,” observed Rob.
“Maybe,” said the lawyer, “but there is no hard evidence for that. What we know the Sponron commander has done is, so far, only the testimony of some of his crew and our own gut instinct.”
“And we cannot name our informants, or, indeed that we have met others on the ship at this stage,” added Prof Rob.
“Quite. Anyway, the upshot of all this is that the UBIT accepts the Sponrons’ right to the ship and its cargo. We have no right in law to impound the ship or arrest the crew.”
“Unless we can prove they have committed murder and are detaining people against their will,” reflected the director.
“Agreed,” said Prof Rob. “But we can’t at this stage without invoking evidence we have gleaned from our visit – evidence that would endanger the innocent Sponrons on-board. Any ideas?”
“The law is an ass!” grumbled Kakko.
“In this instance, it might be, but if we disregard the law we end up in chaos.”
“Agreed,” said Tam, as a law student. Kakko scowled at him.
“Thank you. Our young people keep us on our toes. But there will be ways forward that break no laws. We just have to find them,” said Prof Rob.
“Er… um… excuse me,” said one of the engineers. “I have to confess to having already broken the law.”
“Explain,” said Prof Rob.
“I noticed the engines’ control panels were set to operate only from radio signal remote control from the bridge, not just the engines but the engine room computers too. The commanders don’t seem to trust the crew to operate them independently. So, for that to work there has to be two RCCs (remote control couplings) plugged in.”
“Understood. So?”
“When they want to restart the engines it will have to be done remotely from the bridge. The programme protocols will default to having to be controlled remotely. If the link with the bridge is absent, the system cannot be operated from the engine room.”
“And how have you broken the law?”
“The two RCCs have to be plugged in. They are very small – each only about one centimetre square. And they have… er… become… sort of, er… displaced. I… er… have to confess, I was examining the couplings and they must have accidentally slipped into my pocket…” and he placed two small devices each no more than a centimetre square on the desk. “I know my actions are quite out of order, but, the thing is that when they try to fire the engines they will not be able to do so, unless they can hack into the system – a system that they set up specifically to limit access and resist overriding.”
“A heinous crime indeed!” declared Prof Rob. “But, don’t blame yourself too much,” he said with a smile, “these little incidents can just happen sometimes. I’m sure we can restore the RCCs in due course. But for the moment the Tal is grounded it seems.” A rustle of satisfaction rippled around the room and the ‘culprit’ clapped on the back.
“They can’t make a quick getaway now,” continued Prof Rob, “even if they don’t care for our more searching questions. So then, colleagues. Since our Sponron friends cannot leave, I propose the following:
“At this juncture, the Sponrons’ commander suspects nothing. Our knowledge of his deceit must remain a secret. A communication should be sent telling them that contact has been made with the United Bureaux of Interplanetary Transport in the sector and they have confirmed the Sponrons’ claim to the salvage rights of the Tal. We will invite the commander and those engaged in the commercial trade to come to our spacedrome with a list of what they are wanting to sell and their price. Once they have arrived they will be told that an application for asylum has been received from members of their crew. No deal can be reached until this has been investigated. The law demands that the crew must all be asked whether they wish to stay on Joh or continue with the ship. We tell them we have to be seen to be acting in accordance with the law.”
“I have two concerns,” said Director Ylah. “What if the commander radios orders to his henchmen on the bridge to discipline or intimidate the crew – or worse?”
“The commander is aware that all transmissions to the Tal can be monitored,” suggested the lawyer. “If he radios such orders, or attempts any transmission in code, then that will be ground for his arrest.”
“How he takes the news,” suggested Prof Rob, “will depend on the manner in which we inform him that we have had an application for asylum. I recommend that we do it intimating that we are frustrated by the request and apologise to him. We can make him think we do not intend to take such an application seriously.”
“Especially if we kind of hinted that all we are after is a bribe,” smiled a female officer.
“You mean,” said Prof Rob, “pretend to be as corrupt as he is? That might work. We will request that he send for all their crew members to come to the planet.”
“But he won’t send for them all will he – only the ones we are supposed to know about,” remarked Tam.
“That is easy,” said one of the others, “we inform him we have the technology to read all carbon-based organic life-forms on the ship.”
“Do we have such technology?” asked Rob. “You didn’t tell us that.”
“We haven’t. But the Sponrons don’t know that, do they? All we need do is draw up a CAD graphic of their ship and scatter it with red dots. So long as we cluster them a bit they won’t be able to count them. We can ensure that there is a fairly dense cluster in the rear of the ship in what our young friends tell us is the restricted area. As soon as the Sponrons see that, they will think that as long as we have red dots on our screen we will know there are carbon-based beings still on board.”
“What if they decide to kill the ones they don’t want to admit to?” asked Shaun.
“That’s easy. The dots show dead as well as living carbon-based beings. We can put a few smaller pink dots around the kitchen areas and joke about the meat they have in store. They wouldn’t want any bright red dots suddenly becoming pink, or clustering around the airlocks.”
“They might suspect we’re bluffing,” suggested a more cautious member of the team.
“They might. But if they don’t think we are making much of the asylum request – if they think it is only a formality – then the risk of calling our bluff will be too great,” suggested the director. “When we think we have all but the agreed two here with us, then we can go up and check out for ourselves to ascertain we actually have them all.”
“And, at the same time, surreptitiously return the couplings,” suggested the thief.
“After that,” continued Director Ylah, “those who choose to stay here can, and those who don’t are free to leave. No laws will have been broken.”
“When we have the crew here we can arrest the officers and charge them with murder,” said one of the team.
“That’s a possibility,” said the lawyer, “but it would be difficult. With no independent witnesses it would go to trial with no guarantee of success. It would be argued by their defence attorney that the crew have an axe to grind. In my opinion it would be better and cleaner to allow them to depart but then inform the UBIT that we are not accepting the goods because we are not convinced they were rightfully come by. We could recommend that they are taken to the original port of destination where the people are in need of them. This will be seen by the interplanetary community as just. The ship will, of course, remain the property of the Sponron officers; but since it will take them ten years to get to the original destination planet, the only place they can possibly dispose of the cargo and probably for very little, and then another twenty years or so to get back to their home planet – all this time without a crew and any female entertainment – it will add up to a life sentence anyway.”
One man started clapping and was followed by general acclaim. This seemed to be a workable plan; it appealed. With the couplings in their possession, any chance that the commander decided to make a run for it would fai
l. It would take some time for them to realise what the problem was, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
***
Later, as the three made their way home, Kakko wondered whether a deception was ethical.
“The only really illegal thing,” said Tam, “is holding on to the RCCs.”
“I think,” mused Shaun, “that if we are faced with a choice of two evils, taking the lesser evil is justified. I mean, we do have a request for asylum and we are obliged to act on it. We know the request is justified because we have seen exactly what is happening for ourselves. But if we are transparent with the Sponron commander and tell him the entire truth, then we are putting the applicants at serious risk. Therefore, we cannot be transparent – even about the reason why they cannot fire up their engines or how we have come by the request for asylum.”
“I was just saying,” said Kakko a little irritated, “you don’t have to be so analytical. OK, so it’s ethical. I agree with you.”
Shaun held his tongue. He knew his sister was still sore at being left out.
***
In the event, the commander was more suspicious of them than they had anticipated. Devious by nature, he didn’t take much at face value. When he was asked to return to negotiate, he replied that they knew what he had. All he needed to do was send a consignment down. When the director insisted on them coming, he decided to make a run for it. Rob and his colleagues didn’t know that at the time. The command panels were locked. It was easier to conclude that there must be some external control exerted than detect that something as small as a coupling is missing, especially when he didn’t trust the Johians any more than anyone else. The furious commander and his colleague entered their shuttle and came to Joh protesting. They were told that a jamming signal was a standard procedure to ensure the safety of the planet and they would be released when they returned to the Talifinbolindit.
The rest of the plan worked well. When only male crew members appeared in the first batches they played into the computer programmers’ hands. They simply retained the grouping of dots in the restricted area. It looked convincing. The commander struck the desk with his fist and uttered an expletive that the translation program couldn’t translate, but it didn’t need to. The female Sponrons were conveyed to the spacedrome. The shuttle returned to the space-craft with a team from Joh, including women (to make a point), and inspected the Talifinbolindit for others. They found only one officer whom they bundled aboard the shuttle before replacing the couplings in the intrahelical drive control panels.
In the end, the commander and two officers were relieved to be allowed to return to the ship and within minutes it had disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. It was a matter of speculation just how long the three of them could live together with nowhere to go that would accept them within less than ten years worth of travel, without going mad.
***
Later when the three young people met together with Rob and some of the others, Shaun commented that he felt for them.
“I do too,” said Prof Rob, “but I do not feel any guilt. If they had chosen to, the three officers could have asked to stay here too, and if they were to reappear now we would still grant them entry. Of course, they would be tried for murder, abduction, rape and theft, but prison here on Joh in the open air under our blue skies would be infinitely preferable to being cooped up in that ship, no matter how state of the art, with two other corrupt individuals.
***
The captive Sponrons were overjoyed to be on Joh. The clean air, the colour, the sound of the birds, and the fresh smell of the planet was amazing. They just stood, gazed and breathed.
None of them knew how they were related to the other members of their group except they had all grown up together in an orphanage. It would take months, if not years, perhaps never fully, for them to recover from their ordeal. But they knew what love meant, and they knew what hate was. They respected goodness and were determined to live lives different from that which their captors had imposed on them. Contact was eventually made with their home planet, Ramal, but it was in the neighbouring system of Medlam and would take at least sixteen years for a craft, even with an intrahelical engine, to reach Joh from there. And, of course, Joh did not own such a craft herself. Besides none of them wanted to enter another spacecraft in their lives. Provision was made for them in a hostel on the edge of town where they were given language lessons and training; they rarely went far. Kakko, Tam, Shaun and Bandi paid them regular visits and took them out for walks.
It was on one such walk, several months after the departure of the Talifinbolindit, that Kakko spotted a white gate. They all saw it, including the Sponrons. Kakko gave a quick explanation and assured them all would be OK.
“It’s cool,” she said, “we always get looked after. We don’t need to be afraid. It’s an adventure.”
The Sponrons were doubtful about any kind of adventure but egged on by Kakko and without any opposition from the boys, who had no reason to doubt there was purpose in the white gate appearing, one by one they stepped through it. Kakko and Tam first (who was determined not to let Kakko act precipitously!) and the two brothers last after the Sponrons. They found themselves standing on a wooded hillside beside a road.
“Any idea where we are?” asked Kakko.
“No,” said Shaun. “Could be anywhere.”
They walked a few metres down the road and rounded a bend.
“A sign board,” declared Kakko. “Not in any language I know!”
“It’s Sponron. This our language,” declared One. “It says Par, ten jaks, and Kat, fifteen jaks. It’s Ramal! We’re back on our planet! How can this be?”
“The wonder of the portals. You have been brought here!” said Kakko.
The party were all leaping in joyful abandon when a bus rounded the bend. It pulled to a halt unable to pass them.
“What’s this all about?” mumbled the bus driver. An elderly passenger in a front seat stared at the group. They might be older, but they were definitely the children she had looked after for many years in the orphanage. They were the right age.
“I know them!” she exclaimed. “Wait.”
She got down from the bus and began to call their names.
“Mrs Fan! Mrs Fan!” they all surrounded her.
“What are you doing here?”
“We’ve just arrived. It’s a long story,” said One. “Come. You must meet our friends, they rescued us.”
Mrs Fan was introduced to the four from Joh.
“So where are you going?” asked Mrs Fan.
“We do not have anywhere to go. We’ve only just worked out where we are.”
“Then you come back with me. All of you.”
“Is anyone getting onto my bus? If not, clear the road!” demanded the driver.
“Bus!” they shouted like the children they had once been.
“Then get on,” ordered Mrs Fan, “I will mollify the driver.”
They went to mount the steps but then remembered their four friends. “You must come too.”
“No. You are home, our job is done,” said Tam decisively. “You go ahead with your lady. Our families will miss us if we don’t return. We will try and stay in touch through the Interplanetnet somehow.” The Sponrons all took it in turns to embrace them as they mounted the bus. And then it started up, descended the hill, rounded the bend and was gone. A minute later all that Kakko, Tam, Shaun and Bandi could hear was the sound of the wind in the trees and the hum of insects.
“Job well done,” voiced Kakko quietly.
“Is that a compliment to Tam and me for our work on the Tal?” asked Shaun.
“It is indeed, you did remarkably well considering you did not have a woman around!”
“We did, didn’t we? I guess you were praying, though,” said Tam.
“I was,” said Kakko. “That must be the answer then!” They all laughed.
“Imagine a planet without females,” said Band
i. “It would definitely be different.”
“Imagine a universe without God,” said Tam. “That would be worse. And those Sponron officers have neither now.”
“They don’t have to be without God, though,” said Bandi.
“Let’s hope they find him,” said Shaun. “I guess it won’t be in a hurry though.”
“They will, one day, when they leave this dimension. I believe God will take us all to himself whoever we are, wherever we might be, and whatever we’ve done,” said Tam with conviction.
“Do you think so?” asked Kakko as they walked back up to the place where they had entered through the white gate. “How can you be sure of that? I can’t see how God can take you into heaven if you are not good.”
“I’ve thought about that. The trouble is, like Pastor Ruk said, there is some bad in all of us. We might not be really wicked but we’re all a bit flawed, aren’t we?”
“Speak for yourself,” said Kakko.
“I do. And you too, Kakko. Even though I love you, I know that even you are a teeny bit flawed…”
“Definitely,” laughed Shaun.
“Watch out!” yelled Bandi as Kakko swung an arm at her brother. “No violence allowed in heaven!”
“I see it’s mended then,” smiled Tam.
“What!” sputtered Kakko.
“Your arm. It’s back to normal!” And then Kakko realised that she hadn’t thought about it for the first time since the cliff, and felt good.
“So,” Tam resumed, “if we aren’t perfect, we won’t measure up to heaven either. God has got to do some work on all of us – it’ll just take a bit more work on those deceiving Sponron officers.”
“You’re assuming they will let Her,” said Kakko.
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