Sleeping in the Stars

by D Patrick Wagner

  Krag and Sue spent the next hour in the galley. Krag approached her on an intellectual level, quizzing her about her current work, her thoughts and ideas on possibilities in cracking open the artifact and letting her just wander on thoughts and theorems about computer systems in general.

  At the end of the hour, Krag returned to his command pod and Keiko replaced him at the galley table. Keiko succeeded in becoming a good listener, absorbing Sue’s complaints about her life, her work, her motherhood.

  Mack showed up at the end of the hour and Keiko apologized profusely for missing the deadline. Mack waved it off, ordered a coffee with extra caffeine and sugar and took Keiko’s seat while she returned to her navigator’s pod.

  “So, the Cap tells me you’re a tip-top software engineer,” Mack began.

  “I used to be. Now I just do business applications, end user stuff.”

  “I’ll bet you could get back into the swing of it in no time. Do you want to get back to the tough stuff, or do you like floating?”

  “Floating is safe. Sometimes I do miss the fight. But I’ve got to be careful. So, for now, safe is good.”

  Mack shrugged, gave a small grunt and pulled a data pad from his thigh pocket. Setting it on the counter, he pressed an icon and spun the tablet to face her. “I’ve been working on a project. It’s a combination space and land explorer.”

  He shuffled through designs as he spoke. Sue saw a boxy spacecraft with retractable wings and caterpillar treads. The jet engines sat on top of the craft with the rear slanting up at an angle. The nose was blunt with a double-hinged arm mounted on a large ball joint.

  “So, Sue, this is my problem. The AI that is supposed to run this is actually three AI’s in tandem. There’s the space pilot, the ground pilot and the geographical AI that does the exploring and digging. Currently, all three of the AI’s do many of the same jobs, handling the ship and controlling the internal functions. I want them to each be unique, each with their own areas of expertise. Any ideas?”

  For the next hour Mack, Sue put under the gun, forcing him to keep up with the very sharp software guru and being forced to think in directions he hadn’t planned. Just before the hour was up, the pad dinged.

  “Well, that’s my cue. Gotta go. You are one tough lassie. I’m going to need to up my game to play with you. Here, fiddle with it. Tell me what you think.” Mack tapped the pad, leaving it on the table. He stood, smiled at Sue and headed back to work. Sue smiled at the tablet, feeling both the joy of getting back to the work she truly loved and the small thrill of being recognized for who she was.

  As Mack entered the bridge, Keiko announced, “Got them, Captain.” The CERVEs are about an hour out, at a declivity of fifteen degrees and a bearing of thirty-seven degrees.”

  “nice aiming, Wee-One,” Mack commented as he strapped himself into his pod.”

  “Use only alignment jets, Keiko. We’ll swing past, come about and do an emergency deceleration at the ten minute mark. Since they’re moving at about three-tenths SOL, it shouldn’t be too hard to match speed and pick them up.”

  “Do you want me to handle it?” a slightly nervous Keiko asked.

  “Yes, Keiko. You can do it. Mack, you’re backup. Let me know when the CERVEs are on board. I’ll be in my cabin.”

  As a former commander of a fighting force, Krag knew that he had to learn to trust his team. And he also knew that the team had to trust itself, the individual members had to trust each other. Although the task he had assigned required a good level of dexterity and concentration, he also knew that, unless they actually ran into the CERVEs, any mistakes would be correctable. So, with a certain degree of comfort, the captain retired to his cabin for a quick power nap, secure in his belief that his two charges were more than up for the task of retrieving the stealth ships.

  But, as with all good leaders, Captain Krag’s power nap never happened. When he reached his cabin, he sub-vocalized, “Baxter?”

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “Stay in background and monitor Keiko’s and Mack’s operations.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “If they plot a vector with a possible collision, notify me thirty seconds before hand.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Also, what is Sue Baxter doing?”

  “Mz. Baxter is in the galley, drinking coffee and working on a set of plans that Mack has given her.”

  “Thank you, Baxter.”

  Standing in his cabin, Krag fought the temptation to return to the bridge and micromanage his team. He did have a task for Sue. Picking up his tablet, he headed to the galley and his possibly transient hacker. He was curious about the task that Mack had given to Sue but he was determined to keep his nose out of it, whatever it was. He’d talk to Mack about it later.

  Entering the galley, Krag surreptitiously watched Sue from the corners of his eyes as he went to the counter and ordered up a coffee and a pastry. He watched as she toiled away at the tablet. He watched her be so lost in her work that he wondered if she even noticed that he was there. Sue alternately chewed on her lip, then, with a quick jerk of her head, she’d rapidly tap something into her work screen. Then she’d nod, wrinkle her brow and begin the lip chewing again. Krag just stood there for almost five minutes, eating his pastry, sipping his coffee and watching the bright systems engineer work.

  Finishing, he poured a refill, walked over and quietly placed his coffee mug on the table. The movement startled her. Quickly looking up, Sue stammered, “Captain. Sorry. I get caught up in my work, sometimes.” She looked at her tablet again and was almost sucked back into her project.

  “It’s ok, Sue,” Krag said as he sat across from her. Placing his own tablet on the table, he continued. ‘I have a task for you.”

  Tearing herself away from what was consuming her imagination, Sue asked, “What is it?”

  “Nothing big. I need you to hack the ship’s transponder to emit these identity codes.”

  Krag turned his pad around so that Sue could read the long sequence of numbers, letters, symbols and characters.

  She looked at his tablet, then the one Mack had given her and tapped a few keys. “Got it. What security does the transponder run on?”

  “I’m not sure. That’s your job. Can you do it?”

  Sue gave Krag an ‘are-you-kidding’ look and almost sighed. “Of course. Give me thirty minutes.”

  “Perfect. Give me a call when you’re done.” With that, Krag picked up his mug then tablet and left the galley and Sue.

  Less than thirty minutes later, while Krag was in his cabin, trying to stay out of everyone’s way, Sue contacted him over the ship’s intercom. “It’s done, Captain. Do you want me to activate it?”

  “Not yet, Sue. We’ll fire it up after we retrieve our cargo. And, thanks. We needed that.”

  As the hour wound down, Krag felt the ship begin its deceleration and coming about. Again, he forced himself to fight the desire to return to the bridge and look over everyone’s shoulder.

  “Captain?” Krag heard through his cerebral web.

  “Yes, Baxter?”

  “We are currently on a collision course with the CERVE/drone configuration. However, we are still within correctible parameters for avoidance.”

  “Thank you, Baxter. Put a forward display on my monitor, along with a sub-window displaying flight and proximity data. Oh, and give me a view of Keiko and Mack.”

  A moment later, Krag’s monitor flicked from his current work to his requested data streams, three windows, three views. Krag nervously leaned back and watched the results of his two team member’s efforts.

  He saw Keiko singly focused on the displays floating inside her pilot/navigation pod, mentally projecting where she guided Griffin and if that guidance was correct. Her eyes would flick down to her touch pad where she would tap an icon, slide an optical bar or rotate an optical dial.

  “Up just a degree,” she heard over the intercom, Mack’s voice, soft and confident.

  “Got it,” Kei
ko acknowledged while giving the vertical control a single tap. “I’m cutting back on the burn and using the bow control jets to slow our forward velocity.”

  “I agree. Good choice.”

  Krag sat and fidgeted as he watched and listened to someone else controlling his ship.

  “Buster, Status?”

  “Mz. Suzume has corrected the flight path and is proceeding well controlled and on target.”

  Krag watched Mack continue to monitor Griffin’s progress. He stayed quiet and watched as Keiko pulled up, over and finally in front of the bundle of drone and CERVEs that continued its ballistic path towards Calius.

  Once Mack read that Keiko had properly aligned Griffin, he asked over the ship’s intercom, “Sue, Krag, is anyone in the bay?” when he got negative responses from both, he announced, “Opening bay doors.”

  Mack checked the status of the bay hatch and insured that it was closed and sealed. Next he pressed the control that sucked the atmosphere into the holding tanks. Once the status gauges indicated that almost all of the air was stored in the containers he pressed the bay door icon on his console and watched the meters on his screens. The bay doors swung up and down. The small remaining atmosphere blew out with a silent swoosh.

  “De-activating mag-grav in the bay.” Mack pressed more icons.

  Keiko sat back, an endorphin shake causing her to take quick short breaths and to rub her hands on her thighs. She put her head back into the head rest, tilted her chin up and closed her eyes. Then she took a long breath in through her nose and exhaled through her mouth.

  “Well done, pilot,” she heard Krag say over the spaceship’s intercom. “Mack, bring our toys aboard.”

  “Aye, Cap.” Mack, looking through the rear cameras, saw that the cargo was almost perfectly aligned. “I don’t know, Cap. It looks like it’s about half a foot low,” he joked.

  “Don’t you even get started, Lug-Nut,” Keiko cut in. Her nerves hadn’t quite calmed down and it showed in her voice.

  “Lug-Nut? Lug-Nut?”

  “Ignore him, pilot. He’s just jealous,” Krag said with a smile.

  “Lug-Nut,” Mack repeated. “Firing a single pulse of the rocket engine, now.” He went through the sequence and a quick burst of gas and light ignited the black of space. Relatively to Griffin, the package slowly gained speed and floated into the cargo bay.

  Mack watched the rocket/CERVEs package center in the storage area, then announced, “Activating mag-grav to two-tenths earth-normal and closing bay doors.”

  Once everything was secure and the atmosphere replenished, everyone moved to the bay, Krag inviting Sue as they passed through the galley. The three experienced spacers shuffled into the bay. Sue stepped in and yelped. Her normal stride launched her towards the roof. Mack quickly reached up, grabbed the belt at her waist and softly floated her back to the floor.

  “Slow, shuffling steps, lassie. We can’t have that brain of yours bouncing off a bulkhead.” Mack placed a hand on Sue’s shoulder and held her down as he helped her catch up with the other two. The four of them ended up standing to the side of the bundle.

  Krag pointed at their cargo. “Well, team. Let’s set them up and check them out. Mack, you’re in charge.”

  For the next couple of hours the three worked while Sue watched, careful to not launch herself off of the deck. After the first CERVE was removed from the modified torpedo, she spent time shuffling around it, poking her head into the cockpit and inspecting the electronics.

  “Admiral, I mean Captain, what are these?” she asked.

  “They’re called ‘Covert Entry and Return Vehicles’, or CERVEs. They’re our rides down and back.”

  “They look Federacy. I’ve never even heard of ships like these. I take it we shouldn’t have them?”

  “You might say that.”

  “You get them from your mysterious boss?”

  “Yup.”

  “They don’t seem very smart, mostly mechanical.”

  “Good eye. They’re just down and back, in and out.”

  “Stealth ships. No electronic signatures, no light emanations or reflections. And illegal as hell, I bet.”

  “Yup.”

  By this time Mack and Keiko had gotten the two CERVEs dismounted from the rocket and standing on their struts. Keiko sat in hers, wearing her helmet and going through diagnostics.

  Turning to Mack, Krag commanded, “Mack, run diagnostics on mine. Also, review Keiko’s results. I’ll get us heading back to our target. And, both of you, good job. Well done.”

  Shuffling carefully in the two-tenths gravity, Krag left Sue watching Mack and Keiko as they inspected and tested the two stealth ships. Once in the command pod, he worked the control thrusters and re-aligned the Griffin’s heading towards Calius. During the maneuvers, the ship had lost some of its velocity, but with a low acceleration thruster burn, Krag got the ship back up to speed. Once the desired heading and speed were reached, Krag powered down all non-essential systems, rechecked all of the concealment settings, detection dampeners and passive sensors. Once completed, he relaxed and just felt his ship as it ballistically sped towards Titus’s moon.

  Chapter 9

  The Griffin

  Three hours later, two hours out from their target, the four sat around the community table in the galley. All consuming meals and drinks, fueling up for however long it took to accomplish their mission.

  “Let’s review and read Sue into the project,” Krag began while activating a three-D representation of their target moon. “Calius is a moon circling the sixth planet, Titus. The moon is about two thirds the size of Earth, with two thirds the gravity, a breathable atmosphere and a small population. It was specifically picked and terra-formed for one purpose-the establishment of the Federacy Scientific Research station or FSR. That’s our target.” A red circle glowed on the moon, depicting the FSR’s location.

  Krag had the three-D image zoom in on the circle, revealing the layout of the station. “The FSR is the government installation that houses the Federacy’s most top secret military research, discoveries and development. It is here that the data core holding the theory, design and plans of the most deadly inventions ever created by mankind is kept. And it is here that we are going to steal the alien artifact.”

  “So, you two are just going to fly down to a Federacy science station in your little stealth ships, walk right in like you own the place, grab the booty and hightail it out of there?” Mack began.

  “Yup. That’s exactly what we are going to do. You know the plan. We’re going to bluff or sneak our way in, Mack,” Krag responded.

  “You do know the place will be loaded with troops, not to mention all the electronic security, right?”

  “That’s why we have Sue to disguise our ship as we come into proximity. And that’s why we have you to fix all the shiny toys we break. And, that’s why I will be wearing my shiny uniform, with all the lettuce.”

  “Ok. But if you two get killed or caught, I get the ship,” Mack declared.

  “Don’t get too eager. I’ll be back,” Krag finished with his best terminator impersonation.

  Keiko and Sue just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

  “Let’s park Griffin in a geosynchronous orbit, keeping the moon between us and the planet. We don’t know what kind of defenses that the Federacy has planted there. Then we head to the bay, do one more check and get prepared. Any questions?”When everyone shook their heads, he rose, tapped a button to shut down the image and headed towards the bridge.

  Anxious energy crackled through the group, with only Sue moving fearfully and nervously. As they all rose, knowing that the waiting was over, their anticipation imbued their actions with the sense of urgency that only dangerous situations could achieve.

  Sue, with nothing to do, returned to her cabin. Mack and Keiko headed to their pods. Krag followed, just out of whispering range.

  “Buster,” Krag sub-vocalized. “Prep your avatar for an emergency assault lan
ding.”

  “Yes, Captain,” the AI responded. “Full weapons and aerodynamic package?”

  “For both individual landing and return. Prepare after we leave,” Krag answered

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Keep all detection dampeners up, and turn on our ID transponder with the new codes that Sue inserted. Make sure they are the right codes. Also, shut down all energy signatures, except for the essentials.”

  After a moment, Baxter responded, “All tasks completed, Captain.”

  “The transponder ID is good?”

  “Yes, Captain. And the automated response from the moon issued an ‘all clear’.”

  “Go quiet again and let Duke run the show.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  The three of them took their positions and began performing their tasks. This time, Krag did the piloting with Keiko watching and Mack surveying the surrounding space. After a short time Griffin achieved orbit on the dark side of Calius. Unbuckling, Krag and Keiko headed to their cabins to change into their mission clothes. Mack headed to the cargo bay.

  “Sue?”

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “We’re here. Meet us in Cargo.” Marston’s speech became clipped, authoritarian as he dressed and mentally prepared for the mission.

  All four, Krag, Keiko, Sue and Mack ended up standing in the cargo bay, staring at the two Covert Entry/Return Vehicles, or CERVEs.

  Krag stood, dressed in his armored body suit, covered by his day-dress major’s uniform. He looked every bit the Federacy officer. Head cover under his left arm, polished shoes filled out his facade. His only personal concession was the slug-thrower holstered on his hip. At his feet lay a duffle bag filled with equipment

  “Mack, do final checks on the CERVEs. Sue, I need you up front, eyes and ears. Take Keiko’s pod and familiarize yourself with the screens. But wait until Mack gets there before you activate anything. I want to stay dark. Just watch and see if anything is out there.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Sue responded, miming Krag’s professionalism.