Sleeping in the Stars

by D Patrick Wagner

“Don’t call me a girl, you big lug,” Sue came back.

  “You’re a girl, Lassie. And a sweet one, at that.”

  “Keep it up, and I’ll hack your cabin. You wouldn’t like that.”

  “That’s what’s wrong with you nerdy types. You don’t respect us worker bees.”

  “So, now I’m a nerd. I can run you around the block, Mr. All-Brawn, no brain.”

  Krag half-listened to the banter as he kept scanning the space for any threats. “One minute, then we go dark and ballistic,” he announced.

  The minute passed. Griffin broke out of Titan’s gravity well and targeted the Cencore star. As it broke free, Krag shut down all thrusters, powered down every energy emitting device and took a breath. With the flat black, electro-magnetic ceramic coating on the hull, it became nothing more than a lump of dark metal freely falling towards the local star at six-tenths the speed of light.

  “Sue, how’s our patient doing?” Krag opened up the com system so that everyone was in on the conversation.

  “I’m heading there, now, Krag.”

  “And I hurt all over, Big Guy,” Keiko contributed. “You’re going to pay, Mon Capitan.”

  I know, I know, Little Bird. You just rest and get better. Next workout I’ll even let you get in the first lick. Mack, fire up every passive sensor we’ve got. We need to know if this worked.”

  “I’m already running the first sweep, Cap. It looks like they’ve called in a bunch of corvettes and they’re all collecting at the wrecked gun ship. It’s twelve, by my count. My guess is that they are going to start a search pattern. We should be long gone by then. You done good, Cap. I don’t think they know where we are.” The last was said with a note of admiration.

  “We’ve got two hours until we loop Cencore. I’m sticking us in the corona. No one will be able to find us there. Even with everything turned off, we shouldn’t get too hot. Let’s meet in the wardroom in thirty minutes and plan our next step.”

  Buster was monitoring the sensors. Krag and Mack were sitting at the table when Keiko and Sue entered. A pale Keiko limped in using a crutch, Sue hovering around her like a doting aunt.

  Once Keiko painfully lowered herself into the chair, she remarked, “Your drugs weren’t as good as you said, Big Guy.”

  Krag noticed that Keiko had shed her professional façade. He also saw something, a weariness, maybe sadness.

  “Sorry. How do you feel?”

  “I’ll live. But I won’t be running anytime soon.” The physical drain which Krag saw displayed in Keiko’s answer.

  “I have an idea about that. First, let’s see what we’ve got.” Krag lifted the solid-cased backpack from the floor and set it on the table. Undoing the straps he lifted the strangely vericolored metal cylinder. Everyone studied the alien artifact. They saw the cylinder, flat at one end and coned at the other. He handed it to Hank.

  “What do you think?”

  “Ya. Just like Shelly said. No weight. Weird.” Mack answered, while shifting the object in his hands. Holding it close, and inspecting it, he continued. “I don’t see any openings or seams. No lid. It looks like it’s all one piece. I can feel a humming. The two red bands, even though they are lit, are cool. Keiko, where was it when you found it?”

  “In a vice, with a metal ring on one end, wires leading to sensor equipment.”

  “Ok. A sensor ring. They must have still been analyzing it, trying to come up with a game plan. That’s good. They hadn’t gotten very far.”Mack began to hypothesize, “I’ll bet that whole lab is filled with good little Federacy lackeys, without a wild thinker in the bunch. But, we’ve got our own wild one,” Mack said, while looking at Sue. “

  I’ve seen stuff like this before. Not this shape, but the same metal. It is alien.” Handing the cylinder back to Krag, Mack stated, “I can see why this thing is so valuable. It’s got to be the first live alien tech every found. But that doesn’t mean that it’s important. Hell, it could just be a toaster or coffee pot.”

  Strapping the cylinder back onto the pack, Krag responded, “Could be. But the Boss wants it. Mack, Sue, play with it. But don’t break it. See what you find. Now, about our invalid,” Krag smiled at Keiko, the humor in his voice covering his relief. Keiko kept her head hanging..

  “Keiko needs to get back on her feet and we need to hide. Our poor little rich girl needs a vacation.” Krag tried levity, tried to bring Keiko out of her funk.

  The group of four hammered out a plan of action, finalizing it by the time Griffin approached Cencore’s corona. Krag had vectored his ship to the opposite side from where Olympia currently sat in its orbital cycle. Using the star’s gravity well, Krag again slung the ship around the star and, this time angled it towards the first planet of Cencore’s system.

  The planet didn’t even have a name. It was a barren rock, the size of Old Earth’s moon. Being mostly nickel, it didn’t have any real value. So it was never exploited or occupied. But, as something that the ‘spoiled little rich Asian girl’ wanted to see, it did give the crew of Griffin a reason to be in that part of space.

  Mack jettisoned the backpack into the star. Buster’s avatar returned to being a labor android, with all of its battle equipment in its concealed lockers. Mack had constructed a pipe that appeared to be part of one of the fusion reactors. In it, nestled the alien artifact.

  The CERVEs were again attached to the modified torpedo and launched into space, matching Griffin’s planned escape path.

  Just before the fast little ship broke through Cencore’s coronal shell, Krag had Buster switch the ID transponder back to its original setting and activate it. He then restarted all of the normal functions for a completely legal ship on a tour around the sun and its system. Throttling back to a comfortable three-tenths SOL, the entire ship and crew became the luxury yacht that it was advertised to be.

  Krag took Griffin on a whirlwind tour of circling the rocky planet, taking pictures, recording readings, proving that tourism was, indeed, the efforts of the ship.

  Keiko, back in her cabin, lost track of time as she drifted in the fog of painkillers. She alternately slept the sleep of the dead or dreamed the dreams of the tormented, reliving her cutting the throat of one guard and mistakenly killing another by grabbing a deadly dart, when a stun one would have sufficed.

  Sue and Mack sat in the galley, formulating a plan to crack the secrets of the cylinder. As they huddled over the tablet, each alternately inputting ideas and schematics, Sue came to a realization. She wanted to be with her son but she didn’t want to go back to the humdrum, time-killing existence that her life had become. Krag had offered a possibility of a solution, but as to what that was, she didn’t know. As she and Mack worked through the alien artifact problem, a corner of her mind worked through her dilemma and searched for a solution.

  Krag sat in his command pod, listening to his ship, content with his current state of being. He checked gauges, read dials and touched a control, here and there. Throughout his comfortable, familiar activities, Krag’s mind kept drifting back to the small wounded woman on his ship.

  He reviewed her actions, her confident way she carried herself. He tried to parse how she would slip from professional to comrade to quiet associate. Krag struggled to come to grips with what the tiny woman with the giant courage began to mean to him. Having been a loner for his entire adult life, Krag felt stuck. He unsuccessfully wandered down his past experiences for any way to connect with Keiko but couldn’t find the path.

  And he worried. He worried about her state of mind. Seeing her wrapped in her morose cloud as she struggled with her injury, Krag worried.

  Shaking himself out of his mental meanderings, Krag decided that they had enough tourist memorabilia to satisfy a cursory look and set a heading for Olympia, before heading for his chosen place to get Keiko healed. Griffin needed to be resupplied and he needed Intel to find out how much trouble he and his team were in following the heist.

  With the leisure pace that Krag took for the return f
light to Olympia, everyone, except for Keiko, had time to double-check Griffin for any incriminating evidence of their crime. Keiko remained drugged up and alternately slept, dozed or sat in a fog, letting time float by.

  Krag had Buster go back under and had Sue dive into Duke, learning everything there was to know about the less-proficient AI. Mack went about re-checking that all of the illegal weapons and sensors were withdrawn into their concealed compartments and no odd transmissions radiated from the ship. Krag worked through the log and, very illegally, edited it to verify the tale of the rich girl going on a guided tour.

  After a day in flight, Krag requested and received permission to once again orbit Olympia for refueling and restocking. Once again, Mack contacted his suppliers and placed the appropriate orders. One order, highly clandestine, restocked the spent munitions and energy cells.

  Once in orbit and the restocking underway, Krag announced over the intercom, “Sue, we’re in orbit. Let’s meet at the shuttle, settle up and get you home.”

  “Captain, can we talk, first?” Sue responded. “Privately?”

  “Of course,” Krag answered. “I’ll meet you in my cabin.”

  When Krag arrived, Sue was already there, standing in the middle of the room, fidgeting.

  Seeing her anxiety, Krag gestured towards his reading chair. “Have a seat. Something to drink?”

  “No, thank you,” Sue replied while sitting in the indicated chair. “I’ve been thinking,” she began. “You said you could get a job for my boy after he is out of school. That’s about six months from now. Is that true?”

  Krag sat on the bunk. “I can’t say one hundred percent without checking with Mack’s father. But I can say that I can very, very probably get him that job.”

  “Ok. Then, if you can get him to a place with a good life and where I can visit him, I want to work for you and your team.”

  “That’s new. I thought we talked about your working for my boss, on his world.”

  “No. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be trapped on a planet. I’ve never felt as though I belonged, like I do on this ship, with you guys. I don’t want to start over.”

  “That could be a problem,” Krag kindly said. “Keiko and Mack joined me only for this job. I had planned on taking everyone home after it was done. So, if they want to go home, it would be just you and me on the Griffin. That wouldn’t work out.

  Sue slumped in her chair, crestfallen. She rubbed her fingers and chewed her lip.

  “Look, let’s talk to Keiko and Mack. Let’s see what their plans are.”

  Sue lifted her head with a look of hope. “Let’s” she popped out of her chair like a rabbit from a hat.

  “Mack, Keiko, Meet me in the galley?”

  Both responded affirmatively. Krag and Sue left his cabin and headed to the galley. They arrived first. Sue immediately went to the counter and ordered a drink. Krag followed suit. By the time it was ready, Mack and Keiko arrived. Keiko limped to the table and sat. Mack headed for the counter to order his drink.

  Krag’s drinks came out and he took them to the table. Setting one in front of Keiko, he commented and asked, “Black tea. Hot. Lemoned. Honeyed. How you feeling

  “Sore. Stiff from lying in bed all the time. Bored. And, I don’t know, lost.”

  “Quit whining, Princess,” Mack spoke as his drink finished being concocted. “You just got shot so that we all had to be your servants and wait on you, all day.”

  “How about, I shoot you in the leg, Lug-Nut? Let’s see how you like it.”

  Krag liked the banner, had grown accustomed to his once empty ship being filled with people and life. “Now, now, kids. Let’s not squabble. Play nice.”

  Once everyone got their drinks they all sat at the table. Krag noticed that, without any hesitancy, they all took their same chairs, as though they were formally assigned. Mack sat across from Krag. Keiko sat to his right, Sue to his left.

  “So, Sue, has a request,” Krag began after a swallow. “She wants to join the team. But, the problem is, we have no real team.” Krag took another swallow. They others waited.

  “But, first things first. Mack, when we first recruited Sue, we told her that we might be able to get her boy a job with your dad. Can that happen?”

  Mack looked at Sue. “Sue, is your boy any good? What does he do?”

  “He’s in school. To be a systems developer, like me. But he’s more hardware than software. He likes to tinker.”

  “Are his grades any good?”

  “When he finds something that interests him, his grades are better than anyone else’s. I’ve looked at his homework. He’s done some pretty good stuff. But, a lot of the time he gets bored. So a lot of his grades are mediocre. Then his work’s mediocre.” Sue said this almost apologetically. “But he’s smart. Real smart. He’s just lost.”

  “Has he ever gotten into trouble?”

  Sue paused, trying to find the words. “Sometimes he gets frustrated with his teachers. He talks back, when he thinks that they’re wrong. So, he’s got some marks in his jacket. But, he’s a good boy, just sometimes a little stubborn.”

  “Perfect. I’ll bet his being a pain in the ass is just following his mom. Besides, he’s a teenager. So he’s supposed to screw up. He’s hired,” Mack exclaimed.

  “Wait, just like that?” Krag interjected. “Don’t you want to talk to him? Don’t you need to check with your dad?”

  “Nah. My Old Man likes smart troublemakers. Look at me. Besides, I’ve worked with his mom.” Turning back to Sue, he continued, “Your boy gets a shot. I’ll get a message off to Pa. Today. By the time we get back from our little jaunt you’ll have the answer.”

  “Where would he be working? What would he be doing?”

  “Nope, can’t tell you. But, I guarantee you, if he is whom I think he is, he’ll like it. Trust me. If he’s anything like you, he’ll love it.”

  “Sue, does that work for you?” Krag asked.

  Taking a deep breath, a sip of her drink and rolling the thought around her mind, she replied, “I guess so. Yes. I trust you guys. It works for me.”

  “Ok. Next problem. Sue wants to work with us, on Griffin. But, as I told her, this was a one time job. We got together for this and there aren’t any plans for after. Any ideas?”

  “I need to get home and stay in contact with my parents,” Keiko apologized. “But, I would like to work with you three, again, whenever you need me. But not like Calius.” The last was said as she looked into her drink.

  “The Captain gets you in life-threatening situations, you get a hole in your leg and you still want to play with this band of miscreants?” Mack joked. “Keiko, you’ve got a few bats in your belfry.”

  Keiko cocked her head and rolled her eyes.

  “Well, I need to get back to my base,” Mack continued. “But that’s the same place that Sue’s boy is going to end up. So, Sue could work from there. And, I wouldn’t mind this smart lassie working around my toys. She’s already helped with the space miner. So, she’s welcome at my place. Besides, the place would look a whole lot better with this pretty one running around.”

  Sue blushed and looked at Keiko, who raised a brow.

  I don’t think heading back to base is a good idea. If anyone sniffs out that it was us that grabbed the artifact we could be leading them right to where we don’t want them to be. I have another idea. We take a vacation.”

  “Vacation, Cap?”

  “Vacation. We continue being an executive shuttle and take Keiko to Pacifica. She heals, we lay low and everyone gets to recharge. Ideas?”

  “I’m in, Cap.”

  “If I go, I’ll lose my job. But that’s good. Especially if I get to work on something I’d enjoy for a change.” The excitement in Sue’s voice came through.

  “It’s settled. Let’s sum this up,” Krag interjected. “After we get Keiko patched up, she goes home. Sue, you go with Mack back to his place and work from there. When your boy is ready, he joins you. Ok. Vac
ation time.”

  Everyone began to rise. “Oh, Mack, get an encrypted message to Gregor and your dad.” Krag looked at Sue as he revealed his boss’s name. “Let them know we had trouble with the grab and we need to hide. Tell them that we’re dropping off the radar. Tell them I don’t know for how long. And don’t tell them where we’re going.”

  “Got it, Cap.” Mack didn’t like the idea of not telling his dad and mom, but he understood.

  “Also, send your dad pertinent info about Sue’s son, Dean. Have him look into getting the boy out there.”

  “Will do.”

  Dreadnaught Odin

  Vice-Admiral Theodore Weiskoff the Third Stood in his customary, imperious pose on the bridge of his flagship, Odin. The fleet had just returned to port, the subjugation of another star system successful and satisfying. He had already put another planet on his scorecard, a plain, white board mounted in his cabin. As he stood and blankly stared out over his fleet, lit by the light of the Cencore sun, the thoughts rolling around his head were focused on whoever had raided the Federacy Research Center. As he pondered, his intrinsic hate increased. His heart beat faster, the constant buzzing in his ears increased to match the rise in his blood pressure. Someone dared to resist the Federacy, resist him!

  As his fleet had been inbound, a high priority communique had flashed into his tablet. By order of the Secretary of Sedition, actually his father, he was tasked with finding and capturing the thieves, the seditious criminals that attacked the Federacy.

  Now, the angry man with a great deal of power stood, frustrated by time and distances. He stood, waiting for any and all information that pertained to the perpetuators of the theft. His interrogation team had spent the last several days interviewing all witnesses, collecting all forensic evidence and duplicating the surveillance tapes. Despite his anger, the Vice-Admiral was a patient, precise man. He would wait. He would learn who these thieves were. He looked forward to finding and destroying this pirate and his ship. Maybe he would get a chance to use his new, experimental weapon. He looked forward to putting another ship decal on his board.