by Dan Kelly
When the switch beneath the desk is activated, a bell will ring in Chief Shandul’s office, signaling him to place a call to Proton’s Secretary of State. Proton’s Secretary will be instructed to stand up and turn his back to the monitor immediately after flipping the hidden switch and appear to be looking for someone and not noticing what is happening with his monitor. When the outside line buzzes, the secretary is to loudly exclaim, “Oh, oh.” The combination of what is happening with the monitor and the “Oh, oh” should cause Erebus’s Secretary to pick up his transceiver and listen in. Normally, he’d only be able to hear what Proton’s Secretary was saying, but he will be allowed to hear both sides of the dialogue which, hopefully, he will attribute to the same cause creating the problem with the monitor. The following rehearsed conversation will take place.
Secretary: “Hello.”
Chief: “Mr. Secretary, Chief Shandul here. I’m sorry to disturb you, but something has
come up that requires your immediate assistance.”
Secretary: “What has come up and what do you want me to do?”
Chief: “Mr. Secretary, for security reasons Queen Quasar has made secret arrangements
with the Ruler of the planet Cartanus in the Milky Way galaxy to send a special
group of kids known as the Power Pack to Proton to explore ways to duplicate
their special abilities in selected Protonese children. Until now, the Queen and I
were the only two on Proton who knew of their existence. Covertness is extremely
important as the powers these kids possess are awesome. As you are well aware,
Emperor Eclipse has been doing everything he can to wreak havoc on Proton. If he found out about these kids and their visit to Proton, there’s no telling what he would do to get his hands on them.”
Secretary: “These kids sound very special indeed. What’s the problem and how may I help?”
Chief: “The Power Pack’s spaceship left Cartanus four days ago headed for Croag to pick
up King Kordol and then fly on to Proton. The only way the Cartanusians would agree to letting the Power Pack come to Proton was if they were accompanied by King Kordol. The Cartanusians trust King Kordol because they have a long standing relationship and the Croagans have been hosting the Power Pack and providing all kinds of training for them for quite some time.”
Secretary: “All of this is very interesting, Chief, but what’s the problem and what do you
want me to do?”
Chief: “The problem is this. Their spaceship has developed some serious technical difficulties with its anti-electro-gravity shield. The technicians on board know how to fix it, but they don’t have the parts to do it. Somebody messed up on the pre-flight inspection of all gear and supplies and these parts never got loaded on board.
The shield is what protects the ship from meteors, space trash and weaponry of enemy spacecraft. Without it they are sitting ducks waiting for calamity to happen. The captain has the spacecraft hovering in a fixed position, waiting for help to arrive. His present location is free of any harmful detritus for the moment and he’s doesn’t want to move in any direction for fear of flying into a meteor storm or some other harmful debris.
The flight path the Captain chose to get to Croag is one that would not be selected by any experienced flight commander. It is for this reason that the captain chose it. He knows how precious his cargo is and he knows that there have been a lot of space piracies occurring lately. He figures it’s the safest route. However, this portion of the universe is so far off the beaten path that there are no spacecraft nearby that could provide assistance.
I want you to make discreet inquiries of our allies at the meeting, asking them if the route they plan to take to return home will come near enough to the co-ordinates that I’ll give you to provide assistance. Since the members of IGTO come from all over the universe, the allies attending the meeting are our best bet for finding prompt aid. There’s no need to tell them about the kids.”
Secretary: “I’ll get right on it. What are the co-ordinates?”
After the Chief provides the co-ordinates, the call will be ended and then the Secretary will pretend to notice the display on his monitor for the first time. He’ll slap the monitor with his left hand while simultaneously flipping the hidden switch to the off position. The monitor will go blank and the Secretary will walk off looking confused.
The Queen is confident that as soon as the Secretary leaves, Erebus’s Secretary of State will be calling Emperor Eclipse to let him know what he has just heard. Once that is done, the trap will have been set and baited.
If the Queen’s assumptions are correct, the Emperor will be on his fastest spacecraft heading for the spaceship from Cartanus before any one knows he’s gone. The contrived conversation will reinforce everything the Emperor has been led to believe about the Power Pack and will validate his decision to act swiftly.
The greatest thing about what the Queen has come up with is that no one is exposed to any harm. Everything is make believe. There is no planet Cartanus, there will be no kids on a spacecraft at the given coordinates nor will there be a captain.
There will be a spaceship though, but it will be a drone controlled by ground personnel stationed in Proton’s Space Exploration Center at Cape Constellation. The ground personnel will be able to see and hear everything going on in and around the drone and their voices cam be transmitted through the drone’s communication system.
When the Emperor’s spaceship arrives at the co-ordinates he’s been given, he will see what he expects to see, a manned spacecraft. There is nothing on the outside of the drone to distinguish it from a passenger spacecraft. The Emperor will contact the captain of the distressed spacecraft by way of a highly sophisticated microwave communication system that is standard equipment on all spacecraft. It transmits on a very high frequency and at a low power level, producing high fidelity sound for a distance of a quarter of a mile.
Following universally accepted protocol, the Emperor will identify himself and his reason for being there. He will request permission for him and some of his crew to come on board to bring the required parts to the technicians and assist in the repairs. His request will be respectfully
denied for security reasons. The “Captain” will state that since there have been so many instances of space piracy lately no one is allowed to board unless it is at a spaceport. He will ask the Emperor to put the parts in a bucket hatch that will open in the bottom of the spacecraft near
the boarding ramp. Of course, the Emperor will be talking with someone at Proton’s Space Exploration Center pretending to be the captain.
This will be the crucial moment of the Queen’s plan. What the Emperor has been told about what the Chief has said regarding the special abilities of the Power Pack should be sufficient motivation for him to do anything to kidnap the Power Pack and have them under his control. The Queen will be banking on the Emperor’s innate stubbornness to drive him to violate inter-galactic law, unauthorized forceful entry of an alien spacecraft.
Since the Emperor is under the impression that the other spaceship’s protective shield is inoperative, he’ll threaten the captain with annihilation by his powerful weapons. Of course, this will be an empty threat because the Emperor very much wants the Power Pack alive and healthy. At first, for appearance sake, the captain will resist by stating that if the Emperor doesn’t back off he will immediately report the attempt to board to the appropriate authorities. The Queen doesn’t want to make it too easy for the Emperor and arouse his suspicions. There’s no way that the Emperor will back down and after some angry exchanges the captain will surrender and comply with the Emperor’s request. The two spacecraft will link up and then the Emperor will get the surprise of his life.
The Emperor is so eager to see the Power Pack for himself that he definitely will lead the boarding party. When all of the boarding party is in the boarding chamber waiting to be acclimated to the spaceship’s intern
al environment, the chamber will be locked down, preventing any egress back to their own ship. After acclimation, they will proceed to the flight deck and will discover that no one is on board. They will be notified by the person the Emperor has been speaking with that they are under arrest and will be transported back to Proton for prosecution.
Accompanying the drone will be one of Proton’s warships flying in stealth mode. As soon as the boarding party has been notified of its arrest, the warship’s commander will lower its stealth shield, revealing the warship to those left in charge of the Emperor’s spaceship. The remaining crew on the Emperor’s spacecraft will be ordered to fly to Proton under close escort by the warship. They will not resist as there is nothing more menacing than a Proton warship.
The Queen goes over her plan time and time again, looking for flaws, looking for contingencies she hasn’t planned for and can find nothing wrong with it. She calls Chief Shandul, Commander Caitlin and Director Drummel to her office and lays her cards on the table for their review and response. These men have known the Queen for a long time and are well aware of her intelligence and ability to adjust to any situation, but they are all flabbergasted at the cunningness, boldness and thoroughness of this elaborate scheme to put the Emperor where he belongs, in prison for the rest of his life. They like the chances of her plan being successful and urge her to proceed.
The IGTO meeting is scheduled to last three days and she gets the ball rolling on the second day. Everything unfolds exactly as the Queen has anticipated. It is like the Emperor is a puppet and the Queen is the puppeteer.
Needless to say, the Emperor is livid over his capture and screams, “This is illegal! This is entrapment! You’ll never be able to convict me of anything! This is an act of war! I promise you, I will do everything within my power to reduce the planet Proton to cosmic dust!!
This kind of reaction from the Emperor is not unexpected, but even so, threats of war from the likes of Emperor Eclipse must not be taken lightly. If the Emperor is prevented from carrying out his threats personally, rumor has it that the Emperor has a brother that will be more than willing to carry out the threats for him. The Queen knows that she must always be on guard and is not immune to deception herself.
Chapter 25
Upon arrival on Proton, the Emperor and his crew are locked up in the local jail to await trial by an inter-galactic tribunal of twelve judges. They will be tried on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, unauthorized forceful boarding of an alien spacecraft and attempted kidnapping. Unless some technicality crops up, conviction is a certainty as there is indisputable evidence to support the charges, video and audio recordings of the entire episode.
Justice is swift on Proton and the trial begins three weeks after the Emperor’s capture. Prince Pulsar is seated in the second story gallery that surrounds the courtroom on three sides and faces the panel of judges. He’s attending to observe the proceedings as part of his training to be the next ruler of Proton.
During the first day of the trial, as witnesses are giving testimony, the Emperor is seething over his predicament, but is managing to keep quiet. To detach himself from what he considers a circus, he begins to scan the courtroom and the gallery above. He sees nothing to hold his interest until he spots Prince Pulsar sitting in the gallery and zeroes in on him. His mind shifts into high gear and he starts asking himself questions. “Where have I seen this kid before? Why does he look familiar? Why is he in court today?” Suddenly, it dawns on him. “Croag! He was the kid I caught staring at me when we were boarding ground transportation in the parking lot. He’s one of the kids in that picture.”
When recess is called for lunch, the Emperor asks his attorney who the kid is and the counselor replies, “He’s Prince Pulsar, Queen Quasar’s nephew.”
Boing, boing, boing, boing. All kinds of signals and red flags appear in the Emperor’s mind. He starts asking himself a lot more questions. “What have I stumbled onto here? What special power does he have that qualifies him to be part of this Power Pack? Do the kids in the picture live on Proton?”
For the next several days, the Emperor is oblivious to what is happening in the courtroom. He is completely occupied with conjecturing a host of possible scenarios, both current and future. He couldn’t care less about the trial. He knows he is going to be convicted and sent to prison. He must now focus on how he can escape.
“As I see it, I have four choices when it comes to a location for an escape, the courthouse, my jail cell, the spaceship that will take me to prison or the prison itself. Wait a minute. There’s a possible fifth choice. If I were to feign serious illness, they might take me to a clinic or hospital. The first four have a lot of guards and sophisticated security systems to prevent prisoners from escaping, but a clinic or a hospital doesn’t. Oh sure, they’d assign a couple of guards to watch over me, but that’s about it. Yeah, I think this fifth option is the way to go.
“Ok, now what? What kind of sickness could I pretend to have? Better yet, why pretend? Why not have it be a real illness? There are a lot of health hazards that Erubians are subject to that the Protonese know little or nothing about. Some are pretty scary, but not usually lethal. Hmm. What is the name of that bug that was going around a few years back that almost reached epidemic proportions before a vaccine was discovered to get it under control and medication developed to effectively combat the disease? Scorisus. That’s it. It is harmless to Protonese, but will make me very sick. The most conspicuous indications of the disease are profuse perspiration with lower than normal body temperature, nausea, dilation of the pupils, excessive pulse rate, rapid respiration, stiffness in the joints and, the most obvious, the skin turning a light greenish blue. Yeah, that should alarm them enough to get me to a medical facility in a hurry.
“Next step, how do I get infected? My attorney is a Protonese assigned to me out of a pool, so he’ll be no help. How can I get a message to my advisors back on Erebus, telling them what I plan to do and what I need to do it? Who here on Proton can I use as an accomplice? It’s got to be one of my Protonese undercover agents. Hank Helios would be the ideal pick for a job like this. He’s intelligent and courageous enough to get me what I need and his reputation for persistence is something else I like about him. His friends call him Hankering Hank because he hates to give up on anything and that’s the kind of person I need to help me get out of this fix I’m in, but how do I get ahold of him?
“His cover is ownership of a restaurant not far from the courthouse, Hank’s Hangout. At lunch time, my attorney orders our lunch for delivery from various restaurants in the area. I could suggest he order lunch from Hank’s because I overheard someone in the cell next to mine say he has good food at reasonable prices. I know my agents here on Proton know that I’ve been arrested and am on trial for my nefarious deeds. Hah! It’s all over the news. If Hank gets a call from my attorney, I’m sure he’ll jump at the opportunity to come to the courthouse himself to deliver the food, looking for a chance to communicate with me.
“Now, how can I get a message to him? I could hide it in some of the food that I would deliberately not eat, something mushy but not too liquid. If the food is too liquid, it might blur the message and make it unreadable. Ok. This would work, but how do I get him to search the uneaten food? The vendors are not allowed access to the room the defendants use when in the courthouse and the proceedings are not open to the general public. All I can do is hope that Hank is as intelligent as I think he is and will check the food, figuring that I would use it as a means of communication because it is the only one open to me.
All right, I’ll run with it. If it works, I’m all set to go. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to come up with something else at another location.” When he’s returned to his cell at the end of the day, he writes the following note in very small letters.
“Will continue to order lunch from your restaurant. Infect food with Scorisus. If you have other orders, infect them too to make sure that I get infected. Have the antidote deli
vered to you. Trial scheduled to last for ten more days. Act quickly.”