“Is there anyone speaking in the Drive Room near the other transmitter?”
“Yes Sir. Ms. Willfem and Motorfem Macy Gundarfem are talking, about ten feet away from the transmitter.”
“Connect me to the Drive Room via com line on the unit farthest from that transmitter.”
It took only a few seconds for someone to pick up. “Drive Room, Willfem speaking.”
“Nan, don’t speak just listen.” He knew she’d recognize his voice.
“The device Telour gave you is a transmitter and it’s hot all the time. Get everyone there out of the room quietly, and I’ll Link to them to explain. Just say ‘goodbye’ and hang up and Link to me after you put a couple of doors between you and that gadget.”
“Goodbye” and she disconnected.
She Linked a couple of minutes later, the Motorfem with her. “I’m sorry Sir, I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know either Nan, and Telour gave me one on the bridge. Do you think your conversation after he left could have given them anything we don’t want them to know?”
She paused while she thought back to when Telour had given it to her. “Well, after he left I wish I hadn’t said I hate the bastard and I’d like to shove a grenade up his ass.”
Mirikami laughed. “I don’t think they care if we hate them or want to kill them. I was thinking more of anything about our Traps and contents, weapons development, labs being setup, or other dirty tricks.”
“No Sir. Macy and I were discussing how to partition the hold and storage area for working in there, shifting around supplies we will keep, expanding the machine shop, those sorts of things.”
“Ok good. That’s what I do want Telour to hear. Pass the word about the devices, and I’ll put our friend to work on finding out how sensitive they are, and how far away is safe enough to talk freely. We can use these devices to feed them information we want them to hear. Mirikami Out.”
“Jake,” It was safe to say his name for the moment. “I want you to report to any ship’s officer or our three civilians with transducers if you detect secret monitoring of any of us by any means. Let me know if you think our internal communications are being compromised, and if the Krall seem to have detected our Link capability. I don’t know what that evidence would be, but ask us if you need to do so. Understand?”
“I may require guidance in this Sir.”
“That’s why I said to ask us if you are unclear.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Noreen, I want you to work with Jake to find out how sensitive these devices are, and if we can even block the signal if need be.”
Then he flipped off the Stop switch. “Let’s go get those drinks. Is before noon too early for a stiff shoot of saké?”
30. Second Week
“Tet,” Maggi was on the Link. “We have a problem over here.”
“What’s wrong?” he came back quickly.
“The first Testing Day since we arrived has been announced. There are sixteen names posted on a list in the Great Hall. Eight are people that are working with us, either here or on the ship.”
“How can a random selection from two thousand seven hundred forty one names produce eight people that we recruited?”
“Now you see the problem.”
“I thought you told me the names were picked by a Krall supply computer that simply selected people at random?”
“That’s what we were told, and it seemed to be a method outside of human interference. But obviously not from Krall interference,” she pointed out.
“I wonder,” Mirikami considered, “if Telour is trying to force me to ask for immunity for those we convinced to join us. None of the Fancies names is entered yet, and won’t be for another four weeks.”
“Well, it will create a huge amount of bad feeling over here Tet, if you got immunity for them, because somebody else would have to replace them, to die in their place. Nevertheless, my scientific mind says it has to be cheating in the lottery.”
Exasperation was clear in her voice. “A few of the morons here are saying we did the cheating, even though we aren’t in the lottery yet. Why would we try to kill off our volunteers? I wish we had managed to avoid the ‘them and us’ divisiveness.”
“Maggi, they don’t trust us and the necessary secrets we have to keep. The fact that they must be ‘invited’ to live on the ship also makes us seem aloof and elitist. I don’t entirely disagree.”
“We have shared an awful lot of things with them, Tet. Their standard of living is improving a great deal. They get hot showers from the ship, hot meals in exchange for a frozen ration, better medical care than they ever had here, and literally, the shirts off our backs. We also do their damned laundry now.”
Mirikami shook his head in a gesture Maggi couldn’t see. “Listing those things for them isn’t going to endear us to them. We need to get to the bottom of the lottery problem, and do more than heat their frozen rations. Saving their lives will be a big step, but we aren’t ready for fighting yet.”
“What do you propose for the immediate issue, that lottery list?”
“I’m coming over, and I’ll bring some armed support. We only have about fifty of us living in the dome regularly, and they are mostly the Midwife support folks that were never comfortable with you high brows or us Spacers.”
“Ok. I’ll meet you in the Great Hall. The list is posted at the center, on a wood column. I’ll see if Thad is in his room. I’d like his advice, and the rough necks here fear him and respect him at the same time.”
“See you there in about fifteen or twenty minutes.”
As soon as he was off the Link, he asked Jake to Link him with Noreen, Dillon, Chief Haveram, Ricco, and Chack. Those would be his armed support. All of them had become proficient with a gun, and Dillon had the added bonus of a “reputation” now.
After they had acknowledged Jake’s call, Mirikami told them the problem.
“I want you go over with me to investigate how the lottery system has been rigged, and to actually see the computer that’s used. As soon as I strap on my gun, I’ll meet you at the hold ramp.”
They left the cargo hold open a lot now. With Jake on watch, not a single skeeter had made it inside without warning, and prompt extinction by a Jazzer and a stomp. The wolfbats had harassed a few people over by the corral of Earth animals, but left the heavily armed humans mostly alone.
When he stepped into the hold, his people were waiting for him. Everyone had two loaded Krall pistols except the Captain, who had one. The Chief also had a rifle slung and a Jazzer, and Noreen had a Jazzer.
Feeling more like a bandit leader than a Spacer Captain, he led his little troop down the ramp and towards the dome. In the last two weeks, pills, diet supplements and exercise had improved their strength and stamina a great deal. The trip down the ramp didn’t feel the least bit risky, though a fall would still be dangerous.
The three hundred feet to the garage entrance now was just a stroll in the heat for all but the oldest of the Fancy’s complement. The six kept their eyes and heads on a swivel, even though Jake had told them he detected no threats.
Maggi estimated most of their people would be a couple of more months getting acclimated to Koban’s pull, unless Aldry’s three labs managed to produce some way to enhance that process. She claimed they were making good progress.
Looking around the Tarmac as he walked, Mirikami asked, “Where’s that fiber optic cable Chief? I know it’s thin, but it isn’t invisible.”
“We didn’t run it straight over Sir, it runs a bit south then arcs in to the left of the garage overhang about a hundred feet around the side. You can’t see it even standing on it. It’s been set into a grove we cut in the tarmac. Then we swept up the dust and made a paste with a bonding material and smeared that over the top. It’s the same color.”
“That signal repeater connected to it yet? Or will Jake have to boost his signal to Link to us?”
“We don’t have it in final position, but it’
s connected. We only run the fiber when nobody is around and we want it centrally located and as high as we can get, which is level thirty-one, under the Krall’s feet. We’ll finish in a day or so I think. We’ll have a low power Link anywhere inside the dome, and we can splice in cameras and audio for Jake.”
The shade was welcome as they passed under the overhang. Telour’s shuttle had parked far enough out that Jake had an unobstructed view of the entrance now, but they didn’t relax their protocol. Three people in the last week had been stung by skeeters that darted from over the dome. Jake saw them coming but couldn’t warn the people without transducers. A crewmember was always on door duty with some of the Prime residents. At least the Jazzer they carried wasn’t lethal if the victim were also hit.
They met Maggi at the center of the Great Hall, where some resentful glares were directed their way. Thad wasn’t with her, and she said he hadn’t answered his door.
Mirikami noticed that the people no longer avoided his return gaze, and had apparently accepted that even though he had taken on a leadership role, he wasn’t trying to force them to follow orders, or even suggesting what they should do.
Maggi led them to a two-foot diameter six foot high post that looked like it was a tree trunk section of the blue and yellow wood.
The list pinned to it was on a foot wide strip that looked more like fabric than paper, and had a color between red and tan. It had sixteen black Krall scripts in a column down the left side, followed by sixteen printed names in black lettered Standard of the people that had been selected.
The top name drew his attention. It was Deanna Turner, their first recruit from the Koban Prime population. She now helped staff the supply commissary they ran, located in a secure room that happened to be directly above Greeves quarters. It turned out that every level had sixteen lockable rooms in exactly the same locations, at the ends of radial corridors. They had needed Telour’s permission to get a door code.
Twenty-one volunteers from the dome were working with the people from the Fancy. A dozen others were waiting for positions they could fill. The volunteers didn’t receive any special privileges that other dome residents didn’t receive, with one exception. Only volunteers were allowed to sleep on the flight of Fancy if they chose.
Mirikami stood directly in front of the list, and snapped a picture of it on a small camera he had brought over. When he pressed the send button, it sent the image to the repeater unit inside the dome, and thus to Jake via the fiber optic cable.
Looking around he noticed the Primes were giving them a wide berth today, and there wasn’t anyone within easy hearing. The Testing Day announcement only reminded them that the new people weren’t at risk.
To his group he said, “All of us including Maggi would like to know if there is some pattern to these numbers and names.”
He had mentioned Maggi’s name to be sure she would be added to the Link. They waited for a reply from Jake and it came quickly.
“Sir, the black characters on the left are in Krall number script, in various octal values. To the right of those numbers are human names listed in our files as residents of Koban Prime from before we arrived, although two now live on the ship.
“Eight of those are names presently listed as volunteers working for the Flight of Fancy, or perhaps it is more accurate to say working for Captain Mirikami. Two other names on the list have submitted applications to volunteer but are not presently working. One name is listed in our records as a companion of a working volunteer. The other five names have no record entry available to me, other than that they live in Koban Prime.” He paused.
“I do not wish to exceed your previous instructions concerning brevity, Sir. Should I continue?”
“I see the numbers and names, but does their selection appear random out of the population of Koban Prime, or is there a pattern?”
“Ten names have completed volunteer applications for working with ship personnel, and an eleventh name is correlated with a volunteer. Those eleven are unlikely to be randomly selected, to a very high level of probability. The other five names could match a random distribution.”
Just when they thought he was following his brevity restriction, he added, “The ten names on the Testing Day list are on the first ten applications submitted to Captain Mirikami, of thirty two applications.”
Now that’s way more than intriguing, Mirikami thought. “I reviewed those applications two weeks ago and they were not approved in the order submitted, some have not even been approved at all. You said the first ten applications, but we had more. Where were the applications stored?” He had never see a list, only the application data on a computer screen before he did interviews.
“Sir, the first ten volunteer applications were entered into a portable computer by Mister Rigson thirteen days ago in the morning, and five additional applications were entered that same day in the afternoon. The probability that only the first ten names appearing on that posted list is due to random selection is close to zero. The actual numerical…”
“That’s enough.” This silenced Jake, and Mirikami’s expression was clearly one of anger.
He looked at Noreen. “Is Mister Rigson still on limited duty here, or is he working back at the ship?”
Maggi looked stricken. “He wouldn’t have done that Tet! Mel risked his life for us.”
Now Mirikami was surprised. “Damn woman, he’s not under suspicion! I’ve taken too much of Mel’s poker money for too many years to think he has a sneaky bone in his body!”
“Oh, I am truly sorry,” she turned red with embarrassment and stammered, “you..., I mean..., when you asked about him you looked so angry. I assumed you thought…” her voice trailed off.
Seeing his normally unflappable mentor embarrassed and at a loss for words, Dillon made a slight humor miscalculation. “You get the rope Maggi and we’ll string him up, Old West style.”
Leaning against the post and grinning at her discomfort, Dillon’s chuckle suddenly strangled in his throat. Tiger Lady demonstrated the difference between one feared persona and that of sweet old Tiger Lily.
Calmly returning her Jazzer to her small holster, she smilingly asked Mirikami, “Tet, you were inquiring as to the location of that nice Mister Rigson?”
Numbly sliding to the floor, his back against the wood post, Dillon mumbled that he couldn’t feel his legs, and that he thought he might have wet himself.
Stepping over his outstretched legs Maggi said sweetly “Let’s all sit over there so this boy’s silly comments won’t interrupt the adults when they talk.”
Despite the serious reason for why they were there, each of them had trouble choking back their laughter. All except for Chief Haveram, who had no trouble at all, because he made no effort to hold back anything.
“Right in the balls!” he howled. Roaring with laughter he had to add, “It’s Fireball Brigade for real when his feelings return.” Tears started running down his cheeks.
Dillon was most distressed when he saw that Noreen had not only turned her back, but her shoulders were shaking up and down. They all were laughing, except Maggi, who merely smiled sweetly at him before sitting with her back to him.
It was a few minutes before a semblance of peaceful sanity returned to everyone but Dillon, who would begin to tingle painfully in about five minutes. He was muttering under his breath about grouchy oversensitive old ladies.
“Maggi,” said the Chief, “I sure don’t want on your bad side.”
“Why, I’m just a frail elderly Lady,” she answered. “How else could I teach a tough young gunslinger to show respect for his elders?”
Mirikami was still smiling despite his best efforts to be serious. “There goes that reputation I was counting on to intimidate the locals.”
“Poor Dillon,” Noreen lamented. “I’m so ashamed of myself for laughing so hard.”
“Well, he’ll be happy to hear that this was his best zinger ever on me. If it hadn’t been, he would have gotten off with just a
nother whack on his package.”
She fluttered her hand towards him, “But enough about that boy’s over used groin. Tet, are we going to speak to Mister Rigson about who could have gotten that list? If we know who, we might figure out how they tampered with the lottery.”
“Mel’s on his way from the ship. Between the Chief’s gales of laughter, I asked him to get a hauler ride and join us. He’s bringing his pocket computer.”
When Rigson limped in five minutes later, they were serious enough to start solving the mystery, despite Dillon’s occasional complaint and asking for a drink.
“Ankle getting better Mel?”
“Yes Sir, but the torn tendon isn’t healing as fast as I expected. I think the extra Koban weight is slowing the process. He looked over at Dillon, sitting on the floor rubbing at his thighs.
“Don’t mind Dillon,” said Maggi. “He suffered a slip of his tongue.”
Before the conversation drifted again, Mirikami asked, “Did Jake fill you in on what we learned about the names of our volunteers showing up on the Training Day list?”
“Yes Sir. Moreover, I have an idea which two people might have had a chance to copy a partial list of applications. On the day I made those entries into this,” he pulled out the pocket-sized computer from a left vest pocket.
“I was on door duty in the maintenance bay, keeping my sore foot propped, sorting through the paper applications. I’d removed them from the lock box we put over there,” he pointed by the double doors they used most often. The hard copies never left my possession, and I destroyed them one at a time as I entered them into my computer.
“I had fifteen forms and I entered exactly ten before I took a lunch break. After lunch, I did the other five. It was at lunch in here that I think two people probably got hold of my unit and made a copy of the active folder. Only the ten names on that list were entered at that time, and I confirmed the file creation times while riding over here. That was the only time just those ten names were grouped alone.”
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