Far-out Show (9781465735829)

by Hanna, Thomas

  * * *

  Biccup had set the transport system to signal with a tone if the change that had occurred several times should happen again. Sooner or later he needed to find out what was causing that.

  The tone sounded and he was promptly focused on a quick check that the same change had occurred and then in making the adjustments to remedy that alteration. He worked as fast as his hands would go. “We should alter the system so I can write and store sub-routines for this kind of correction so I don’t have to put them in by hand each time. At least after several times I know what should work. Maybe I should take the time right now to understand what’s happening better and that’ll be easier before I change it back. No, they said Nerber’s in big-big danger so I need this working now.” He finished the input and stood back. “Done. But no way to test to be sure it works.”

  * * *

  The three producers were startled to full attention by a very harsh signal tone. Lacrat almost fell out of his chair reaching the console to connect to the program edit room.

  When Svenly and Venrik appeared on the view-screen Feedle shouted, “Don’t you dare ever use that annoying...”

  Svenly cut her off, saying, “Shut up, Feedle. The others of you probably want to consider what's coming in from Wilburps.” She tapped buttons and the feed from that zerpy looking over the front car seat moved to the central screen. The audio feed was off. The nearby fearful crowd was obvious and ominous.

  “What's happening?” Hasley asked, staring at the image.

  Svenly said, “Nerber and his new human associate seem to be the focus of a mob. It's almost like being on the street at home when there are no distracting entertainments being aired.”

  “Is this all being recorded?” Feedle asked.

  “Yeah, Wilburps is transmitting live whether he knows it or not and we're recording audio and video both muchly improved by better filtering. Do you want to hear the audio now?” Venrik asked. “They're talking about blowing things up.”

  The first firecracker exploded in the parking lot and Nerber glanced back at Wilburps, his terror obvious.

  “Whatsydoodle! That answers my unasked question about what the inhabitants mean by blowing things up,” Lacrat gasped.

  Hasley asked, “Can we adjust Wilburps's focus from here? If we can see the crowd's faces, maybe we can judge how much danger Nerber is really in.”

  The second firecracker exploded. The crowd focused on the car.

  Nerber scrambled from the car. The view shifted around as he got Wilburps from the back seat.

  “Hey, this is happening now,” Lacrat shouted as he frantically pushed buttons on the console. “Lock onto them and bring them back now. Please, please, please transport system work as you're supposed to.”

  Svenly and Venrik concentrated on working the controls. On the view-screen people rushed at Nerber, who grasped Wilburps in his arms and turned in a circle looking for a way to safety.

  On the screen there was a puff of smoke and paper shreds, then nothing. The screen was dark and blank.

  “Did we get them in time?” Svenly wondered aloud.

  “Stand by for word from the transport room,” Venrik replied.

  * * *

  In the control room Icetop and Yelpam called to Eroder, “We think that’s it. All the self-destruct units, the big one and the personal ones, should be turned off. They were all designed by the same team so they used the same pathways. Figure out any one of them and you can modify them all.”

  “Great job. I’ll send silent alerts to the other crew members,” Eroder said.

  “You’re not going to broadcast the news?” Yelpam asked.

  “I’ll let all the techs know. Everybody else can wait. We know they’d do the same for us,” Eroder said. “Or to us.”

  * * *

  Hasley paced the length of the producers’s office at a moderate pace. Lacrat nervously paced on a parallel track at twice that speed. Feedle sat before the console, the picture of cool detachment. A view of Svenly and Venrik in the edit room was on one section of the view-screen; Eroder and Molten at the main console in the control room on another. All of those were focused on the equipment and saying nothing intelligible, only an occasional grunt, gasp, or whispered naughty word.

  “What happened to Wilburps’s feed?” Lacrat asked in a whiny tone. The agitated slaps of his feet on the floor almost drowned him out.

  “We don’t know but we need to decide while it might still be possible – do we pop them with their self-destruct units? Otherwise we risk having them captured and examined by the inhabitants,” Feedle said calmly, sitting back, eyes closed.

  “Not yet,” Hasley said as he fidgeted in his chair, then quickly keyed in commands. “It’s a risk but I’m trusting the transport system long enough to be sure whether we can retrieve them. Besides which, if they’re in that system and those units activate that would likely destroy the transport system and part of the ship with it, stranding us all here.”

  “That’d be an interesting experiment. We could get on the good side of the governors by reporting on that,” Feedle said as she opened her eyes, and tapped firmly on a console button. “I’m not as trusting as you, so I’m making the decision.”

  Lacrat, who hadn’t watched Hasley’s actions, stared at Feedle and demanded, “What did you just do?”

  “I removed the problem of captives giving away our secrets,” she answered. “I obeyed the governors.”

  “Can she do that on her own, Hasley?”

  “We can argue about that later,” Hasley replied. “It seems that she tried. But did the units work as planned under earth conditions? That’s not clear yet but I’m not counting on it.”

  At a musical tone Hasley connected with Venrik in the edit room. Venrik said, “As you suggested earlier, I sent some of those last images of Nerber and the first of the things nearby exploding on to Ormelex to keep up excitement about the ending there.”

  “Good job. That’ll keep them on the edges of their chairs until we get around to telling them more – when we’ve thought through what’s most in our favor to tell them,” Hasley said.

  “Assuming we don’t all end up with the same fate as Nerber if the engines fail as the indications are they’re in the process of doing,” Venrik said, then disconnected.

  “What do we do now?” Lacrat asked nervously.

  “Wait and see how things work out,” Feedle said sitting back in her chair and putting her feet up on the edge of the console. “Nothing we can do but wait and see.”

  Hasley got up and hurried from the room. Lacrat jumped up and followed him. Feedle yawned and turned on her overhead basking lamp.

  Chapter 38

  Nerber stood in the alcove of Whizybeam’s transport room getting oriented. Quickly he clutched Wilburps who was hovering beside him – and removed Wowseyla from the side of the bigger zerpy and pocketed the mini-version. Biccup, who seemed annoyed but determined, stood at the podium pushing buttons and watching the results so he didn’t notice that maneuver.

  The single door opened and Lacrat and Hasley rushed in.

  Lacrat said, “Frinxbedunk grumpkers! We got you back in time.”

  Hasley asked urgently, “Do you need emergency medical care, Nerber?”

  “What I need is to imbibe a strong tonic. I was scared but I don't think any parts of me were blown up as the crazy inhabitants down there say,” Nerber replied.

  Lacrat gestured and Nerber turned in a circle for inspection. “You seem to be intact,” Lacrat said.

  Wilburps said, “I seem to be intact too, thanks for asking. Uh, Nerber, we are only work teammates.”

  Nerber self-consciously released the zerpy - that floated free and sank to hover a foot off the floor. Lacrat promptly stepped over and wrapped a light cover around the device.

  Hasley said, “Congratulations, Nerber. You won. You're a hero at home and you get all the prizes.”

  Nerber threw up his arms and did an abbreviated little dance in
place as his Yes, I am victorious gesture. Then he hurried out saying, “I need time alone to collect my thoughts.”

  “There's a bunch of stuff we'll need to explain and that you need to explain to us, Nerber. But for now we need to concentrate on keeping the ship safe,” Hasley said cheerily. He was so relieved to have the zerpy back seemingly intact that he didn’t register that Nerber walked out. “Wilburps, Lacrat will take you directly to the zerpy servicing room to complete your downloads and to have a tech turn off what you probably don't know is working full time. Keep that cover on until then so you don't give away some of our little secrets.”

  Lacrat hurried out the door, taking the zerpy with him.

  Hasley asked Biccup, “No luck bringing up the machine that caused the interference this time either?”

  Biccup said, “I tried several times at all levels but it won’t do it. We need to try transporting a variety of their items to learn how to adjust for the conditions and compositions here. But we’re in emergency mode so I won’t have time to work at that now. Too bad, that would have been a useful system.”

  Finally Hasley remembered again who else was returned and looked around, saying, “Oh yeah. Nerber, you relax in your quarters until we get back to you. Oh, I guess that’s where he went.”

  “I should tell the captain that there’s an odd bit in the transport record,” Biccup said as he peered at the podium monitor. “It’s like something more came up with them than was expected based on the record of what went down with them. Well, the other interpretation would be that something was reconfigured for the trip back up.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it. With all the trouble you’ve had with the system I’d bet it’s just cripsminz in the system from all the changes that have been made recently. Unless it looks like it might mess things up and put us all in danger.”

  “No, it doesn’t look like it’s affecting anything, it just says that something unexpected seemed to happen.”

  * * *

  Nerber didn’t go to his quarters, he went to the back of the ship and stood at the closed, heavily reinforced door marked Restricted Access, Security Pod.

  He held out Wowseyla toward the door and said quietly, “It’s critical to my plan that I get into the pod where I can be secure while having access to all the ship’s systems. You have advanced programs, Wowseyla, let’s see if you can’t offset the lock-out program that the A.D.U. guys have in force right now. It’s the last insult that as things are going awry on the ship those at home want to keep there from being any survivors. I get their motivations but I reject them as acceptable. They’re depending on outdated programs though. Sib sog for them.”

  There was a faint hiss and the door opened to reveal a small-room sized space with two small windows on different sides that for now only gave views of the ship’s walls beyond them. He lost no time entering and closing the door behind him.

  Inside the pod he looked around to orient himself. “Stasis units in case I decide that’s the only way to survive. A full access control console. Two chairs fixed to the floor. Basic supplies in closed storage units. This should be all I need.”

  He sat in one of the chairs, placed Wowseyla on a marked spot on the console, deployed its view-screen and keyboard. “With you to take initial command by direct attachment I can get things going, then the combination of the pod’s signals and yours should give me override control of all the ship’s systems. I hope it’s not too late.”

  * * *

  Svenly and Venrik were at the program edit room console, Feedle behind them, when Lacrat and Hasley entered. Eroder was on the view-screen speaking from the helm saying, “We can all feel relieved now, fellow adventurous Ormelexians. Icetop and Yelpam have found how to safely deactivate all the self-destruct devices and have done so. Those far away can no longer destroy you or the whole ship at their whim.”

  Svenly tapped a switch and the image of Eroder was replaced by Wilburps's view of the parking lot scene leading up to the explosion when Nerber and the zerpy were extracted and the image dissolved into chaos. That sequence repeated in a loop.

  “That's a big worry off my mind,” Hasley sighed.

  “He didn't mention it, but we'll still record the self-destruct command if they send it,” Venrik pointed out.

  “Yeah, that seems like something we'd want to know even if it doesn't have the intended effect,” Hasley agreed.

  “I say we send on this entire last scene from the planet surface right way without altering or enhancing,” Feedle said.

  Hasley and Lacrat nodded agreement. Hasley said, “Give them a thrill too exciting to not show the audience but that leaves it all hanging in suspense.”

  Venrik nodded and touched switches. Svenly looked up from a small monitor on the console and turned to face the others and said with a stern look, “You're all fired.” Then she broke into a big smile. “In fact we're all fired. Word just came through. A.D.U. informed the Bang-Boom home office that the show is cancelled effective immediately. They wash their hands of us.”

  “Did they give us that word in proper legal form?” Hasley asked, leery of celebrating too soon.

  “Yes, the home office emphasized that it's all legal and definite,” Svenly confirmed.

  All the producers jumped in the air and happily flapped their feet.

  As she continued to monitor an arriving message Svenly added, “A.D.U. made a big point that they'll make no further payments to our company and have no financial or other obligations to the survivors of any who died making the show.”

  “That last not a surprise but a claim worth fighting about in court to set a precedent,” Hasley said.

  “Hey, everyone, there's more,” Svenly called out.

  “Good stuff or bad?” Lacrat asked warily.

  Svenly replied, “It doesn’t sound good to me but I may not know all the implications. They say that from the moment they delivered their notice of the change our company will be charged for the use of all equipment, including this ship, at a rate they get to unilaterally decide. So whether we get home safely or not Bang-Boom will owe them a huge amount of money.”

  “That seems to me like strong motivation to make them squirm and then make them beg for forgiveness,” Feedle growled.

  Venrik tapped a button several times as he watched the display on a monitor then said, “Nerber brought some of the confusion up with him. He supposedly went to his quarters but almost immediately the routine monitoring system in that area went fritzerish. Not a real problem, just another example of how unreliable this ship is.”

  “Don’t worry about him,” Feedle said. “He’s back and, even more importantly, the zerpy with all its recorded material is back. Nerber needs some time to get over being scared so much for so long.”

  “Especially knowing so much of it was being done to him on purpose and without regard for his mental health,” Venrik added in a tone that left his attitude about this fact unclear and without looking at anyone to clarify that.

  After a moment of hesitation as they considered the implications of the tech’s words and tone the others refocused on other things.

  * * *

  In the security pod Nerber examined the data on the console monitor screen. “The initial scan finds that the connection is established as I expect but the ship’s control programs are in worse shape than I hoped I’d find.” He tapped a command sequence into Wowseyla’s keyboard. “I need you at full working capacity Wowseyla so I’ll free up more of your memory space by downloading a lot of the stored images to the pod’s even big-bigger memory. There I’ll store two copies to have a backup for security. If all else fails the new programs I’ve loaded into it will increase the chances of the pod reaching and going through the snaggiewarp even if nothing else does. The pod’s emergency beacon signals are to get it noticed and retrieved when it gets anywhere near home. Then someone can see what I learned and experienced here. I downloaded the important memories from Wilburps at the last moment so those would be avai
lable for examination too. Good, I’ve cleared your head of that stuff, now see what you can make of this mess.” He entered commands on the pod keyboard, then entered others via Wowseyla’s keyboard. He sat back to watch and wait. He was far from at ease.

  * * *

  In the program edit room Svenly directed everyone's attention to a screen section where Eroder appeared speaking from the helm. “You'll all be happy to hear that Yelpam thinks they've identified the damaged engine parts. Icetop says that if we land and shut the main engines down for a short time they can probably fix the problem. Then we can go home with reasonable confidence, not just hope to limp home with minimum facilities.”

  “Do we have to land on the planet?” Hasley asked.

  “No. Zebedee seems to be smiling on us. We're lucky because we seem to have everything on board that we'll need to fix what they've identified as the non-working parts so a spot on this moon will be okay. I have full confidence in the techs but protocol requires me to say that this conclusion assumes that they've correctly identified the problem.”

  Hasley said, “You're in charge of the ship, Eroder. Let us know when and if we're gonna make some major move so we can be sure the orbiting zerpy will record it.”

  “Right. We're considering two potential landing spots.”

  “News just in,” Svenly announced. “A.D.U. fired our company and legally cut all connection to us a while ago and just now they signaled us all to self-destruct. Oh, and the Power Players are dumping them.”

  Hasley smiled. “It's a whole new game. If we survive the next short time we're at the controls of a blockbuster show.”

  Eroder said, “Here goes everything, guys. We are descending and deploying the camouflage system.”

  Venrik tapped a switch and the whole view-screen image changed to a view of the back side of the moon and Whizybeam. The image then zoomed in on the ship as it dropped close to the moon's surface toward the upper polar area, then deployed an energy-based visual umbrella that covered it so it was much harder to recognize against the lunar surface.

  “Looks good to me,” Feedle said. “Or more precisely doesn’t look like anything of interest or out of place.”