by Ted Iverson
Chapter Nineteen
Ed gingerly helped Alec up and draped Alec’s right arm over his shoulder for support. “Alec, I thought our arrangement was for me to keep an eye on Ty.”
“Oh, was that it? I must have totally misunderstood.”
Ed found a chair that hadn’t been broken in the scuffle and eased Alec into it. Alec grunted in pain.
“I’ll be right back,” Ed told him. “I should secure your assailant. You’ll need to question him later. When I’m done, I’ll patch you up.”
Heading over to tie up the attacker, Ed turned and said, “By the way, you were wrong.”
“Wrong? What do you mean?”
“Way back, when you were a student at the academy, you told me that with all the technology at the disposal of the police, hand-to-hand combat was a waste of time. So, it’s simple: I was right and you were wrong—again.”
After all these years his mentor still remembered something like that. Alec started to laugh then quit abruptly. It just hurt too much.
With a big smile on his face, Ed turned and walked away, shuffling through the debris. He found a loose rope in the wreckage, and carried it over to the unconscious man. As he rolled the motionless form over, a small object fell from the man’s uniform. Ed picked it up, looked it over, and shook his head, his smile disappearing. “Alec,” he called. Alec looked up and Ed tossed him the device. “He tracked you. You should find the transmitter on the Turtle and dispose of it. Be more watchful.” Turning back, he placed the man’s hands on the small of his back, and bound him.
Alec rotated the device in his hand, grunted, and dropped it on the ground, crushing it beneath his foot. Mumbling he said, “Should’ve known...”
Ty returned, having been unable to catch his prey. He rushed into the room to find his brother badly beaten. With the drying blood and dust covering him, Alec was a frightening sight.
Alec saw the look on Ty’s face. “Hey, don’t worry. I only feel worse than I look. But,” he added, pointing to where Ed was now finishing his handiwork, “at least I’m not that guy. When he wakes up, he’ll need a whole lotta aspirin.”
“What happened here? You okay?”
“Hmmm. Where to start? First off, I’ll live. The cuts and bruises, they’ll heal. As for him,” he pointed indifferently toward the man now propped in a corner, “I was in the hangar when he came out of nowhere. We had a firefight and I managed to escape. As I was flying away in the Hare, I decided I should find out who he was, so I turned the ship around and... well, obviously you see what happened next. I think I won this small skirmish but, Ty, I think we’re in a war.”
“War?”
Ed returned with a damp rag and first aid supplies. “Here,” he said, handing them to Alec. “Try to clean yourself up a little. You’ll feel much better.” Ed looked somberly at Ty. “I have to agree with your brother. This is the second attack in twenty-four hours. I’m guessing it won’t be the last. We’re going to have to be much more vigilant. Alec, I think you should inform Orion and Zach of this incident and they too should be on the watch. We don’t yet know who we’re dealing with. This is an issue that must be handled fast.”
He looked over to Alec to make sure he was paying attention. Alec’s shirt and pants were torn and blood spattered. And now that Alec had finished wiping his face with the dry towel, Ty and Ed could clearly see what a beating he’d received. He had a cut above his right eye, and the other eye was swollen. One ear was bleeding, and he had small cuts on his cheeks. His mouth didn’t look that great either.
“Alec, will you need medical assistance?” Ed asked.
“Thanks, Ed, but have I ever gone to a doctor? I think I’ll pass this time too.”
“As you wish. Ty, looks like you weren’t able to track down the other gentleman?”
“Umm, no, I wasn’t, but I don’t think that it’ll be too hard to find him. I think he was just frightened and ran like greased lightning.”
Ty motioned at the two men. “Do you two know each other?”
Alec looked up at Ed, who smiled and laid a hand on Alec’s shoulder. “Actually we do. Years ago, when your brother was attending the academy, I taught him. One of my best students. He graduated and went to Chicago, and I eventually left to work for Paul Spencer. And now, here we are working together once more.” He gave Alec a good pat.
“Argh!” Alec hunched over slightly from the shoulder pat. Holding his right wrist with his left hand, he moved his right shoulder in a small circular motion for a moment and winced. “Ty, I can’t be with you every minute and clearly we’re all in danger, so I had to call in help. My good friend Ed here, well, he’s worth his weight in gold.” Alec looked over at the large man. Smiling through his swollen face, Alec managed, “No offense.”
Ed gave Alec another good hard pat on his injured shoulder and smiled. “None taken. Alec, will you be able to fly? It’s getting late and your brother has a meeting to attend.”
“Of course. I’ll be okay. What should we do with him?” he said, pointing to the corner. The man was still propped against the wall. He was semi-conscious now, but he wasn’t moving much and he still looked groggy.
“Would you like me to arrange a trip back to Space Tech for him?”
“No, Ed, but how about contacting one of the local police stations? If we give him up, they can’t get us on a trumped up kidnapping rap. That probably wouldn’t be good for our image right now. I’ll wait here until they arrive.”
“Very well then, I’ll place the call. Ty, we really must be going.”
“Gotta go, Alec,” Ty said. “Take care. I’ll let you know what I find.” Ty looked at his watch then turned to Ed. “Get me to the Senate Building.” Both men immediately headed to the hover.
Orion had been busy with the androids ever since his morning talk with Alec, and they were making good progress. They weren’t actually constructing the ship yet, but testing the material was going well. He was using two droids on the ship for half the day. Then they would help two other droids on the rebuilding of the docking platforms. Watching them work was an amazing thing. The androids were faster and better than any human construction worker he’d ever seen. They never really spoke to each other. They just seemed to know what the others were thinking. The next step just came naturally without anyone asking.
The first project, given to them upon their return to the Outpost had been to modify a cargo container so it could fit twenty-five passengers and could connect to Captain Lyet’s ship. They’d accomplished that task in two days. Lyet had left on Monday the 19th to pick up more workers. When he arrived back the following Saturday, the 24th, he’d have twenty more droids and ten humans. The population of the Outpost would then be thirty-two.
Orion was looking forward to those additions. He was getting tired of the daily chores, one of which was caring for the hydroponic plants. Granted, doing so gave them access to all the fresh food they could eat, but it was a lot of work on top of all the research and experimentation Orion was responsible for. Caring for the plants would be one thing he’d gladly pass on to someone else.
At some point he had to deal emotionally with the idea that his parents were probably murdered and that the prototype was sitting somewhere, possibly millions of miles from him, gathering dust. If only they could find the ship, they could dissect it and see what really made it tick.
Were the schematics somewhere in the wrong hands? As he pondered this, thus avoiding paperwork, the lights on the bulkhead blinked and a red light started flashing. Orion stood up and looked around, not knowing what to do. In all the movies he’d ever seen, this was never a good sign. He guessed it wasn’t a good sign in real life either.
“Captain Bindl, please come to docking platform three. There has been a small incident.” The voice was one of the androids, no emotion, just matter-of-fact.
Orion hurried over to the com. “On my way.” He rushed down the halls. After what seemed like forever, he found three of the androids huddled aro
und a fourth, who was lying on the ground, a severed arm and leg nearby. There was no blood, of course, just wires and bits of diodes, condensers, and other android parts. What startled him most was the steel rod protruding from both sides of the android’s head.
“Geez, what happened to him?”
One of the androids spoke up. “I am sorry to bother you, Captain, but we were outside working when a beam broke loose. It shot straight through his head. These things happen from time to time. It is not anything that anyone of us cannot handle. Repairing others like ourselves is a built-in protocol. This may be different, though. We chose not to take care of this without your approval. He kept asking for you personally, so I felt you were needed. Let me reactivate him.”
With one arm, the android continued to support his fallen comrade. The other he moved to the base of the fallen droid’s neck, opened a small panel there, and pushed an unseen button.
The injured android slowly came online with a slight whirring sound. Its eyes moved from left to right and back again. “Captain Bindl? I am sorry. It was clumsy of me. I did not see the beam. I believe that it has not damaged any major component.”
“Well, I’m sorry that you were damaged. Does it hurt at all? I mean, do you feel anything?”
“No, I have no tactile sensors. However, if I recall, your father was working on that issue for us. That and other things.”
Orion shook his head. More and more he was finding his parents were full of surprises. “So what is it you need? Why were you asking for me specifically?”
“Captain, the accident must have activated some shut-down memory chip. I’ve accessed a few things that were buried. I believe you would call it ‘remembering.’”
Astonished, Orion knelt down next to the android. “What do you remember?”
“The formula for the metal process. I know how to fabricate the ship’s skin, the protective plating, and possibly more. What we have been testing will not work. What we did before was to take the theory of metamaterial, develop it, and then improve on it.”
“Wha? Uh... You did?”
“Yes, sir. I believe my memory chips may have never been removed. If you could have me repaired, I may be able, with my partner’s help, to restore additional past memories.”
As he stood, Orion motioned to the three androids. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and repair him. When you are done, let me know ASAP.”
“Yes, sir,” all three replied in unison. They picked up the droid and his extremities and made their way off to what Orion surmised would be an android’s equivalent of a sick bay. He remained there for a moment, shocked, unable to determine what to do next. He decided contacting Zach might be a good idea.
If he remembered the process for the skin, what other things were locked away in that artificial brain? Were they on the brink of a major breakthrough? Orion hoped so.
Zach was conferring with one of his teams over the sequencing for the magna drive rings. A heated debate had broken out. Suddenly a shrill ring broke the discussion and every head turned toward Zach.
“Sorry,” he said. He plucked the com link off his belt and looked at it. “It’s Orion. I’ll be right back. Go ahead and continue.” He turned and answered the com as he walked away. “Zach here.”
“Zach, its Orion. How are you doing with things?”
“Okay, I guess. We were discussing the exact sequencing of the magna drives when you called. I’m thinking this one’s going to take a while to figure out. We all seem to have our own theories and formulas. I suppose that’s going to happen when you fill a room with physicists and scientists. So, why the call?”
“Well, you know how I told you we were having a tough time coming up with a skin that would be able to withstand the magnetism and speed?”
“Yes, you said they’d been using resources from the asteroids, but that you had no idea which materials to use. Have you solved it?”
“I haven’t.”
“Okay, then. Again the question: why did you call?”
“I contacted you because even though I didn’t solve the problem one of the androids may have. He had a slight accident. It may have jarred a memory chip or chips. He says he knows the formula and fabricating process for not only the skin but the protective plating as well. Zach, it’s what we hypothesized! Metamaterial! The droid also believes he may, as he put it, ‘restore additional past memories’ after some repair.”
“That’s incredible and a great stroke of luck! I’m afraid that even if he does have that info, it isn’t gonna do us one lick of good. We’re really having a difficult time with all the internal stuff. You know, with small items like, say, the cryogenic coolers, the dynamics of the four outer superconducting coils, the magnetic storage units. To be truthful, our theories are sound, but without access to the original schematics or the prototype, we may never get this to fly. We have to have one or the other, and sooner rather than later.”
Zach was about as straightforward as Orion had ever heard him. “You sound very doubtful that we can do this, Zach. I thought I was bringing some exciting news to the table.”
“Oh, you have really. It’s just that we’ve been working round the clock. I’ve not had a lot of sleep and the same for all the team up here. There is one thing we’ve agreed upon: this isn’t flying any time soon without one of those items. It’ll take years and years of testing our own models and prototypes to get this even close to a launch. You and I both know that we don’t have that kind of time. Heck, we may not have days, let alone years. The secret of where Mom and Dad got the technology for those ships probably died with them.”
The news devastated Orion. He sank into the closest chair. That thought had always been in the back of his mind, but to hear Zach come right out and say it... well, it must be true then. The search was probably over.
“Zach, what if this droid knows more than just the skin fabrication? There is a possibility he knows the interior design as well. I think we need to be upbeat about this. Even if he doesn’t know all that, it is a big step in the right direction.”
“It is, but the chance of his having exactly what we need has to be incredible. I’m not downplaying your discovery, but the interior technology has to be perfect, as well as the exterior of course. It all has to be perfect. You understand what I’m talking about, don’t you?”
“I understand exactly what you mean, but couldn’t just the knowledge be the difference between getting the grant or not? Do we have to have everything in place?”
“Come on, Orion. You know as well as I do that what we’ve already given Ty will or will not be enough. There’s no more time for miracle plans.”
“I see your point. You keep plugging away and so will I. If there are any new developments, I’ll let you know. Orion out.”
Orion knew he’d eventually have to contact Ty and Alec about his latest findings and his conversation with Zach, but that could wait. He wanted to be sure the droid had no more buried information. That decided, Orion’s thoughts turned back to his younger brother. Zach seemed overworked and truly exhausted. Not that Orion wasn’t, but for Zach, usually full of endless energy, to feel this way was something Orion should possibly be concerned about. Orion decided two things: one was that he’d keep in closer contact with Zach, and two, they’d need to quickly find out exactly what that droid knew. He headed off to check on the injured android.
As the hover dodged in and out of the capital’s traffic Ty said, “Okay, now would be a good time to tell me what you know. I’m sure you and Alec have been conversing, so spill it, Ed.”
“Ty, why the tone?”
“Do you have any idea what’s been going on: chases, weapon fire, and all-out fighting?”
“Yes, I’m aware of all that. I was there.” It was an unemotional answer.
“Come on, Ed. What am I dealing with here? Be straight.”
“Your brother told you: it’s a war. Someone wants you all out of the way. Who and why has yet to be determined, but
this much is clear: danger is everywhere.”
“Thanks. I’m feeling so much better now. What exactly did we do to provoke someone to want us out of the way?”
“We’re not sure yet. We have several suspicions, but nothing solid. As for the provoking moment? I’d say it was when you declared you’d be continuing the search for FTL.” Ed gave out a loud sigh and shook his head with disgust.
“That sure sounded as if you might be angry.”
“Not at all. It’s just that we’re being followed again. You’d better strap yourself in tighter. If we’re to make it to your appointment on time—or at all—we’ll need to outrun them.”
“Not again!”
Ed turned around as far as he could to face the pursuers. He gave them a respectful salute and at the same time said to his ghost-white passenger, “Time to say goodbye.” He quickly faced front and the hover jolted forward, once more slamming an ill-prepared Ty back against the seat.
In the pursuing ship, the driver sat talking to the small image of a man seated behind a desk. “Sir, we’ve been following them since the airstrip. It appears as though they’re headed to the Senate complex.”
“Oh, really? An interesting decision.”
“How should we proceed?”
“Frighten them, severely. Intercept and damage the vehicle. It looks as if we must send a stronger message to the young man.”
“Why just continue to frighten them, sir, when we could end it here once and for all? It would be so easy, and it could be done quickly. They have no idea we are follo—” The driver looked up to see Ed staring directly back at him. Ed was giving them a salute. He’d known all along that they’d been following. As fast as that salute came and went, the lead hover shot forward, quickly putting distance between the two ships.
Ed was good, a little too good, Ty thought.
Ty certainly was not enjoying the ride, but he was outright impressed at how well Ed handled the craft. They were now weaving in and out and over and under traffic, and Ed never showed any signs of worry. Glancing out the back window, Ty saw that the other vehicle was not only matching every maneuver, but was gaining on them. “Any chance you could go faster?” Panic penetrated every syllable.