Space Trippers Book 1: Trippin'

by A. Lightbourne

  Valesque looked a bit uncomfortable as she glanced quickly over to where Lola and the Lieutenant were talking and giggling as Lola fixed the cut in the Pilot's hand.

  "How did you know about Lola?" Valesque finally whispered, obviously upset about the subject.

  "Well," Sanic began nervously, noting her intent and a bit unfriendly stare. "I...uhh. I am a scientist too, you see. I like to build things and to make electronic gadgets. Like these.." he said as he reached down and took two small discs off the bottom of his shoes. "I made these. " he continued, showing her the small, metallic circles. "They are anti-gravity discs. You can put them on your shoes and you can move without having to walk or climb."

  "Hmm...very interesting. I was wondering what you were using. Don't let the Captain see you with those though. I doubt she would approve, she would probably find something in her rule book about requiring movement that involved exercise."

  "Oh, I get plenty of exercise with these, believe me!" Sanic laughed, "They are extremely sensitive, it takes a lot of concentration and effort to get them to move the way you want. They are controlled by body balance and just a little too much pressure in one direction and you can go flying off out of control. I should know, it took me a while to get used to them."

  "Mmmm..." the Engineer muttered trying to see what this had to do with anything, "but that still doesn't explain why you were asking about Lola."

  "Well, being used to making mechanical things, I guess I just have an eye, or actually an ear for them. I have slightly more sensitive hearing than most people do when it comes to electronics, and when I got near Lola I heard that distinct high-pitched sound all electronic things put out. Not that it is very noticeable." he added quickly afraid of offending her. "She seems to be very well insulated."

  Valesque sighed as she laid her head back on the exam table and stared up at the ceiling as she thought of an appropriate response.

  Sanic watched her in nervous concern, he got the feeling she did not appreciate him finding out that Lola was an android.

  "She isn't mine." Valesque finally said softly, so only Sanic could hear. She looked back over to where Lola was still flirting with the Lieutenant to be sure they wouldn’t be overheard. "She was created by a couple. Doctors Larea and Neegal Triumdic. They are both scientists. She is in biomechanics and he is in microbiology. She doesn't know... I mean Lola knows she is mechanical, that she is an electronic being, but she does not know that is something different.

  That she is any different from a so-called "normal" life form. So, just don't...don't treat her like she isn't a real person, just because she is mechanical, okay. She really wouldn't understand and it would upset and confuse her."

  "Okay. I mean, no, of course I wouldn't. She is just amazing." Sanic stumbled out as reassuringly as he could. "So... real and lifelike."

  Valesque scowled at him as if he just insulted her child. "She is real, she is a person and she is alive." she said sternly. "Just be sure you remember that in your admiration of her.”

  "I understand." the Ensign assured her hurriedly, hating the idea he might loose Valesque's trust and good opinion. "I wont treat her any differently than I would anyone else of another species that fascinates me." he smiled.

  Valesque looked back over to where Lola was giggling and sighed again. "She is very young and naive still. She has been in creation for over a decade but she has only been active in that body for about a month. Although, she does not know that.

  She has implanted memories of an entire childhood growing up, just as any other being would have. She has memories of a past and a home and of her parents; Larea and Neegal. They knew it would be easier for her to interact with others if she could reflect back on 'past experiences' and relate to others more intimately by having childhood memories to share with them. That way she will never feel any real difference in herself compared to anyone else." Valesque explained.

  "Oh, no!" Lola suddenly exclaimed, putting a hand to her face in alarm.

  Valesque and Sanic looked quickly over to her to see what the problem was, hoping she had not been upset by something she had overheard.

  Lola turned to Valesque with wide, worried eyes. "Oh, no." she repeated, this time addressing Valesque as she walked quickly back over to the side of her exam table. "The Lieutenant and I were just discussing our home worlds and our families when I suddenly remembered. My parents!" Lola exclaimed. "I haven't seen or heard from them in over three days. They may not even know where I am. They will be so worried!" she cried in her cute innocent way.

  Valesque sat up, pushing the medical exam arm out of the way. It had stopped humming and showed all green lights on the front panel so she assumed it was done with its programmed treatments and she could get up. Lola helped her remove the metal cuffs from her fingers as she looked intently at the Engineer for guidance.

  "It's alright, Lola." Valesque said calmly and with a slight reassuring smile. "Your parents probably weren't informed of your departure and they are probably wondering where you are, but we can contact them from the ship. The main off-ship communications aren't working, but I think I can rig up a relay that will get a message to them for you."

  "Really?" Lola squeaked excited. "I can send my parents a message that I am okay, and about my new friends?" she asked, glancing back coyly at the Lieutenant.

  "Sure." Valesque replied obligingly. "You can tell them whatever you like. We just need to go to the main medical console and set up the signal. Do they know about your latest look?" she asked.

  Lola had the ability to alter her appearance by changing, among other things, her hair, eye and skin color.

  Lola patted her candy-pink hair satisfactorily. "No, not yet. I think I have decided I like this appearance best, I am going to keep it. Don't you just love it?" she asked Valesque, her eyes sparkling with glee.

  "Yeah, it's...uhhhmm…" Valesque looked her over as she searched for the right word, taking in her bright pink and blue hair, green eyes, fresh pink complexion and silvery blue uniform, "it is very...colorful."

  As Valesque and Lola left the patient treatment area of the Med-room to access the main computer terminal on the lab side, Sanic went over to chat with Tim who was still sitting idly on the edge of his exam table flexing his treated hand.

  The Med-room was a very large rectangular area that was used for initial exams and minor injury treatment. More severe injuries or long-term care was provided in other rooms on the medical deck.

  The Med-room had a large open doorway onto the corridor; just inside the doorway was a medical call button to summon medical help if no one was in the room at the time. From the doorway, looking to your left you could see three aisles, each aisle having a row of three exam tables.

  The tables were spaced wide apart allowing plenty of room for medical personnel to get around them and access each bed's medical controls. The medical controls were located in the large arm that hung over the head of the bed and could be pulled down and positioned over the patient, as well as in a standing tower console that housed all kinds of medical devices, including the finger cuffs Lola had used earlier on Valesque.

  Behind the rows of beds was a giant window that showed a panoramic view of space.

  Tim and Sanic were sitting on the first exam table in the last aisle, just in front of the large window.

  Across the room on the right side was a large table console for the medical teams to use for research and patient records.

  The door Lola had entered from earlier was beside this console. The door led into a smaller room that was meant to be used as a Doctor's break-room, it contained a desk with a computer terminal, a bed and a food duplicator. The main access panels to the medical computer core were also located in this room.

  In the main Med-room to the right of the main doorway from the corridor was a large 'L' shaped counter area with all kinds of beakers, glass slides, digital microscopes and other lab materials. There was also an island counter that housed the sink and decontamina
tion devices.

  Built into the large 'L' shaped lab counter was the main medical computer terminal where Lola was waiting as Valesque worked to set up a way for her to send a message to her parents.

  As Valesque tinkered with her hand held computer that was always at her hip, faint voices and sounds riddled with static were occasionally heard.

  "I am looking for a sub-space signal that I might be able to send your message on. The people who receive the signal will have to relay the message on to Saturna 3." Valesque explained as she continued her sub-space frequency scan.

  “This one should work." she said, finally deciding on a certain signal. "It is a sub-space music signal. Someone who receives this program should be able to forward the message for us."

  Valesque now reached forward and attached her Vid-screen mini-computer to the main medical console in order to boost the signal and hopefully get the message out clearly. Now all that was left to do was to record the message, pirate the signal long enough to send it out and then hope someone listening will be nice enough to relay it.

  "I sure hope this is a program signal a lot of people actually listen to." the Engineer remarked as she finished her calibrating. "Ok.. now we start the recording, get ready." she told Lola as she pressed the console's voice log recording button.

  "This is a personal sub-space message for the Tech-Labs on Saturna 3. Our ship's communications are non-functioning, please record and relay this message as follows. Repeat: Our ship's communications are non-functioning, please record and relay this message as follows: To Doctors Triumdic of Tech-labs on Saturna 3. This is a message from Scientific Engineer Valesque on the Magellan, your daughter is safe and with me. Her message is as follows." Valesque concluded, nodding to Lola for her to begin, before walking away to give her some privacy.

  The Doctors would know not to worry about Lola when they heard she was with Valesque, so whatever Lola added at the end was just for her own piece of mind. This was the first time she would be this far away from her family.

  Valesque put her hand to her head as she waited for Lola to finish her message. She had started to feel a little strange when she had first entered the Med-room, a little light headed with a dull throbbing in her inner ears. She had assumed it was a taser residual effect, but she still had it even after her treatment.

  The Engineer glanced back over to Lola and saw her still chattering away, she was definitely going to have to edit the message if they wanted anyone to bother forwarding it.

  Valesque took the time to look around the still room, noticing as she did so that her ears throbbed more when she looked in the direction of the break-room than when her head was turned anywhere else.

  The young Engineer's brow furrowed as she curiously walked towards the break-room door.

  She looked back around at the others in the room but no one else seemed to be having any problems. They all seemed at ease and as if they didn't notice anything unusual.

  Perhaps something was out of alignment in the systems and it was at such a low frequency only she could sense it.

  Valesque pressed the room access button on the side of the break-room's door frame. As the door slid open, a very low pitched drone flowed over her from inside the room.

  She went over to the computer terminal on the desk, to the right of the doorway.

  Valesque glanced over the terminal's screen as it glowed in the semi darkness, it was displaying a section of the Intergalactic Medical Encyclopedia, apparently Lola had gotten up to volume 'K'.

  She sensed the noise was not emanating from this direction.

  She reached out and touched the room's light activating panel, sliding her fingers all the way to the top, making the lights shine their brightest and then back down to the bottom, turning the lights completely off before moving the sensors back to the middle setting. The sound was not caused by a malfunction in the lighting.

  Valesque turned around and looked over at the food-duplicating unit, but it was not yet active.

  Finally, she moved towards the last possibility in the room, the electrical access panel. As she approached the smooth, pale green wall, the throbbing in her ears became stronger.

  She pressed the panel release button and a small section in the wall popped out and then slowly rose up out of the way.

  As soon as the panel opened, Valesque felt an increase in the low frequency pulse's intensity. Whatever it was, it was in here.

  As the access panel moved out of the way and the overhead lighting illuminated the interior of the opening, Valesque gasped in horror!

  Amid the silvery wires and multi-colored cables sat a black, metallic, titan spider of a device. Valesque was too shocked to do anything but stare for a moment, taking in the many 'legs' of wiring fanning out from the central device and intersecting every major circuit of the ship.

  The alarmed Engineer suddenly sprang forward and swiftly closed the panel as if she feared the spider-like device would jump out and consume her. She turned her back to the panel and leaned heavily against it, keeping it closed as she stared ahead in wide-eyed shock.

  "Oh, no." she groaned, trying to come to grips with what she had just seen.

  As if things were not bad enough already, and now this! She had hoped she would never see that thing again; that she could forget about ever having created it, but now here it was, on her own ship.

  The Space Tripper had returned.

  Chapter Four: Suspicions

  Apparently, whoever had put the Space Tripper there had wanted to be sure she found it, because she had not created it to be audibly detected. Someone had purposely adjusted its frequency to resonate a tone that only a Virrilian could detect.

  They wanted her to find it.

  This was very bad.

  But at least the device was not yet active, it still appeared to be in its passive mode, but that could change at any moment depending on what trigger it was set for.

  Valesque held her hand to her chest, trying to slow down her pounding heart, as she turned over in her mind all the difficulties this new obstacle would bring.

  Someone had purposely attached her horrible device to this ship, she did not have time to contemplate on who it had been, the more pressing thing was what to do about it.

  If she told the Captain, the woman would be certain to figure out who she was and that it was her device.

  The Captain already did not trust her.

  A Virrilian on board, who has already angrily confronted her once, and threatened her, Valesque remembered painfully.

  The ship was supposed to be going to aid the Earthians in the war against the Virrilians, so no doubt they would think she was a saboteur, especially since it was her device and nobody else knew how to operate it.

  At least she had thought so until a moment ago, but obviously, someone knew enough about it to connect it to every major artery in the ship.

  The medical electrical panel would have been the best location for it. The medical room had to have access to all the energy and computer sources on the ship, including any back up power supplies.

  That is what the Space Tripper fed on; it sucked all the power from the ship once it became active, effectively shutting down everything, including life support systems.

  If she didn't tell the Captain, she could possibly escape, she would take Lola with her of course...and maybe Sanic.... and possibly the Yorkie she supposed... but, everyone else on board might be killed. No, she could not do that.

  Then of course there was the problem with it being discovered that her device had destroyed them all and she had escaped before it happened and how would that look to the Universal Council.

  Valesque groaned at her dilemma. Someone had sure made things difficult for her. She is doomed if she does and doomed if she doesn't.

  Well, it had been an interesting life, might as well go out fighting, she thought as she reached the inevitable conclusion.

  She was going to have to try to deactivate it.

  However,
that was a risky idea. One false move and you either kill yourself with a massive power surge and activate the tripper's system, or you live and activate the system anyway.