Errant Contact

by T. Michael Ford

  Smirking, she crouched down until her face was only a few inches from mine. “I was having a conversation with Laree when suddenly my transmission was cut off. Care to explain why I’m back down to minimal power in the aft portion of the ship? You’re not punishing me for being bad or any silly archaic notion like that, are you?”

  “I don’t know. Have you been bad?” I grinned.

  “Very, but I suspect you wouldn’t want me any other way.” She straightened up, towering over me, and struck a very provocative pose. “You’re not going to make me beg and grovel, are you?”

  I stuck a finger under my collar to try and loosen it. Gulping, I answered distractedly, “What was the question again?”

  “Power grid?” she said cattily. A few seconds later, a small agricultural drone rolled up on six small rubber tires and aimed its hydroponic watering spout at me. “You have three seconds before you either get a drink or a shower or both…make it good.”

  “You keep wearing outfits like that and I’ll need that shower!” The little bot brandished the spout at me menacingly. “Ok, Ok! When the backup navigation computer landed the Aurora, well, let’s just say throwing all the thrusters into full reverse at the exact same moment isn’t good for a ship with this much mass. There’s some serious damage to the nexus between the reactors and the main drives. That’s the one spot where the three redundant power grids all join before feeding the main engines. If we want to get the old girl back into space, we’re going to need that fixed.”

  “And when, pray tell, were you going to inform me that you were going to cut power? In case you forget, I have 642 production points in full swing, or were in full swing, I should say. Do you know how much of a pain that is going to be to restart? It wasn’t exactly a soft shutdown, you know.”

  Crap, I forgot about that. “I’m sorry, Kalaya. Really, I am. I guess I was so focused on the repairs that I completely forgot to tell you. I’ll try to isolate the problem to the nexus aft; you should be able to restart your lines shortly. But communications is going to be sketchy for a while, the grid that feeds the transmitters is the most heavily damaged of the three. I’m actually surprised it’s worked as well as it has.”

  “Open,” she commanded, and I opened my mouth so the drone could squirt cold water down my throat. Its other articulating arm presented me with an unwrapped meal replacement bar. She glared at me for a second, then her face softened in concern. “I understand, Kodo, you have been working to the point of exhaustion for days now. It hurts me to see you taking on so much yourself; can’t a drone do that?”

  I shook my head. “The drones for this system were programmed and equipped for routine maintenance tasks. They wouldn’t know what to look for or how to repair the kind of damage I suspect is present. I designed these conduits and this is the only ship ever built with anything like it. Trust me, it will just be faster if I get down and dirty with your infrastructure.”

  Her jaw dropped and her eyes lit up even bluer than normal. “If only it were that easy.” She tilted her head slightly. “Wait, are you flirting with me, Kodo?” Her tone was somewhere between happy and astonished.

  “What? You can dish it out but not take it?”

  “I think associating with humans has had a vulgar and corrupting influence on you…I like it! Now, how much longer will the main power through to the nexus be off?”

  “I’ll have your lines back up in a couple hours. The nexus? Probably a day to find the problem. As far as fixing it, that will depend on the damage. I’ll need you to craft the necessary replacement parts and then turn it off again to swap them out, so get used to some periodic outages. The good news is that I believe this is the last obstacle to overcome before test firing. But it’s a big obstacle, figure on four days.” Kalaya sagged visibly as if this was the worst possible news she could receive. “What’s wrong? We’ll be long gone before the human fleet shows up. They aren’t due for nine days, right?”

  She forced a tenuous smile. “Of course, you’re right, I shouldn’t worry. But I can’t help but feel that Laree had something important to tell me. I guess we shall see.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Laree

  Three and a half nerve-wracking days had passed, and in less than twelve hours, the course of the rest of my life would be set in motion. Would Kodo and Kalaya pull off a miracle and take the Aurora far away from this mess? Would the Jeff become so much space dust? I had no doubt that if Kodo died defending the Aurora, Kalaya would follow him to whatever afterlife they believed in, taking Fleece and the rest of the system along for the ride. You thought the threat of eminent death would be like they claim in the books…your life flashes before your eyes; day-to-day chores take on a piquant sweetness…nope. In my experience, it’s just misery and worry.

  I hadn’t been able to reestablish contact with Kalaya, and that ate at my soul like the bitterest of acids. To know that I frivolously bantered and joked around with her and my roommate. Even took a shower, when the first thing that should have been on my mind was to warn my friends on the planet of the impending deadline. The only thing that gave me any comfort at all was the hope that Kalaya had somehow monitored the last transmission from the fleet. But if she can’t communicate with my pad, does that mean she is blind to what is happening on the Jeff?

  I did get a brief message of text left on the pad yesterday telling me not to worry, that Kodo was making repairs to the main power system and she would call me back in a few days. A few days would be too late! There had to be a way to contact them, there just had to be! I stared down at the reconstituted food that I’d allowed to get cold for the second time in the past hour. Sitting alone in a corner of the mess hall, I considered the options yet again, all of them bad.

  I could somehow overpower the communication’s tech monitoring the primary transmitter in the aft of the ship and broadcast a warning to the surface. However, that would alert the military, and who knows if Kalaya is even listening with the power grid repairs underway.

  Another option would be to lock myself into an escape pod and trigger it manually. That, at least, I am fairly confident I could accomplish because it’s part of our monthly evacuation drill procedure. Eventually, it becomes automatic; the abandon ship alarm sounds, and you drop what you are doing and head to the nearest life pod. Once the door is closed, simply entering your service number into the door pad launches the craft automatically. A valid concept; however, the problem is that you don’t steer escape pods. They are preprogrammed to set you down expediently in the safest spot available. With my luck, I would end up on the other side of the planet surrounded by wolves with no way to reach my friends. So another bad option.

  The third brilliant idea? Steal a shuttle and crash it on the surface close to the Aurora. I say crash it because I have no idea how to fly a shuttle. It doesn’t look that hard, but the shuttle bay is locked down at all times, and airlocks and the shuttles themselves are passcoded for security. Again, not an easily overcome set of obstacles.

  Suddenly the intercom speaker in the ceiling above my head blasted to life. “Crewman Laree Kinser report to the Captain’s quarters.” The command repeated twice more before it registered that I needed to move, and move now.

  Crap…what now? And the Captain’s quarters, not the bridge. Little people like me were usually only summoned there when they were in serious trouble. Suddenly, I was the focus of attention of every other crewperson in the room. Some of the looks were of obvious sympathy and others expressed predatory glee that someone was going to be getting a dressing down. I heard a few snickers and groans as I stood up and dumped my untouched tray. With a reluctant sigh, I made my way forward. A few minutes later, I made a last turn through the passageways to find Max leaning up against the wall outside the Captain’s office. “What are you doing here?”

  He scowled and straightened up, his brown eyes flashing in anger. “Cleaning up your mess, Laree. What else would I be doing here? This whole situation is your fault. I told y
ou not to get so chummy with the aliens, but you wouldn’t listen. Your foolishness is going to get us and everyone on the Jeff killed. Did you think I didn’t see that extra bag you brought on board? Do you think the military would miss something like that? I only hope the Captain can salvage something out of this mess and make it right with the fleet.”

  “Max, what did you do?” I said warily, shaking off my funk and starting to get angry myself.

  “You’ll find out it was for the best, Laree. I don’t know what’s going to happen to you, but I can’t help you this time.” Abruptly he turned and stomped down the hallway, leaving me shaking with dread about what I was going to step into on the other side of that door.

  Timidly, I touched the proximity pad with my hand to request permission to enter. The door slid open to disclose a small waiting area with a couple of chairs, and beyond them, another open doorway. I could hear the Captain’s chair slide back as he stood and called out, “Come in, Crewman Kinser.”

  I moved into the room and through the second doorway. The Captain gestured for me to take a seat at one of the two chairs in front of his desk and finally sat back down himself. His face was like iron with no emotion whatsoever. The fact that he didn’t look angry actually made me feel even more nervous. The Captain was silent for a few seconds as if sorting out what he was going to say. The interim of silence forced my imagination to run wild, and I could feel a trickle of sweat run down from my scalp line past my ear.

  Finally, he made up his mind and broke the ice. “Laree, I have to say that your work on board my ship has always been exemplary, and I have a great deal of respect for you. I hope you will offer me the same respect and honesty in this discussion we are about to have.”

  I nodded dumbly as he reached down behind his desk and picked up something enfolded in his huge hand. He gently set it on the desk’s shiny surface, and the smiling face of my red-haired pixie figurine stared back at me. With a sick realization, I now knew exactly what Max had been up to; he had rifled my room and turned over my gifts from Kalaya.

  “A fine figurine you have here. Care to explain how you acquired it?” Oh, I’m screwed.

  By now, the sweat was pouring off me in buckets, and the Captain frowned and punched a couple of buttons on his desktop. Cool, sweet air began to filter into the air above me, but I would have to be staked out naked on top of a glacier for it to make a difference at this point.

  “Kalaya gave it to me as a gift; it was from her personal collection. She would be very cross with me if it were somehow broken,” I said haltingly.

  He was quiet for another moment. “Rest assured, Laree, I would never intentionally break such an item, and I believe your story. My question is; do you actually know what this is?” He got up and walked across to a panel on the wall. After fiddling with the settings a bit, he brought back a large tumbler of ice water and set it on the desk in front of me.

  “I’m afraid I am not following, it’s a beautiful gift,” I said, still very confused.

  “Academic’s,” he grinned. “Let me start again. Do you know how much this would be worth back on Earth?”

  How much it’s worth? “No, I never thought about it. I suppose since it’s alien artwork, it might be worth something to the right collector.”

  “That is one part of it, yes. I have already had it analyzed, non-intrusively, of course. Are you aware that it is made exclusively from crystals of a purity that mankind has never seen before? Your geologist friend, Elleen, would probably have fainted if she knew the details. Add where it came from, and there isn’t an art collector or scientist on Earth who wouldn’t pay a fortune for it. You have quite the generous friend there.”

  “Yes, sir, I do,” I said absently, looking down at the floor.

  “And what is the story with this gift?” I looked up again, and he had set aside the figurine and placed the coffeemaker on his desk.

  “Um, well, it’s a coffeemaker, actually,” I said shyly.

  He eyed me. “You made first contact with aliens, investigated a culture light-years in advance of our own on an incredible starship, and brought back a coffeemaker as a souvenir?”

  “Sir, it’s a very good coffeemaker,” I said defensively. I got up from my chair and took the half-full cup he had on his desk. He didn’t have a sink or anything, so I dumped the liquid into the overflow tray. Placing the cup under the dispenser, I started the machine.

  “I was drinking that!”

  “Believe me, Captain, you’ll wonder why in a few seconds,” I grinned, starting to relax a little.

  Once the cup had filled and the room was awash with the captivating scent, I removed it and placed it on the desk in front of him. Cautiously, he took a sip as I sat back down, and he actually smiled. “I stand corrected, it’s a fine gift. Well, what about this?” He held up one of the t-shirts that Kalaya had packed, the one saying “Spent a week on Fleece and all I got was this crummy t-shirt!”

  “A girl can always use another t-shirt,” I said matter-of-factly with a shrug.

  “And this one?” he said lifting up the other shirt. Oh, crap! “Did you actually participate in a wet t-shirt contest?” he asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

  I must have been blushing from ear to ear. “No, sir, I sort of won by default, being the only one on board with actual breasts. Although Kalaya would have won hands down if the judging was based on appearance and not actual ability to display one’s flesh through a thin fabric. Honestly, Captain, I have no idea why she sent me that one aside from being the prankster that she is.”

  “I didn’t get that impression of Captain Kalaya from their initial broadcast.”

  “Trust me, sir, she is a horrible trickster, and a flirt, and a master of manipulation. But she has a good heart and I couldn’t ask for a better friend.”

  “You speak of her as if she were human.”

  “She would probably consider that statement an insult, sir. She is much more than an AI; her people are born, live, love and die much like we do, but without the frailties of the flesh. They are equal partners with Kodo’s people, or they were. If we survive to that point as a race, I think we might be looking at the next great leap in human evolution.”

  He nodded thoughtfully and placed the black cube on the desk. “What of this?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine. I really have no idea what that is, I was going to use it as a footrest under my desk.”

  Kumeiga snorted, “Well, I doubt your master manipulator sent it along strictly for ballast. We did some analysis on it as well. It turns out it is made of an unknown substance. Very hard and very strong. A warship made out this stuff would be practically indestructible according to your colleagues down in the labs. You truly have no idea what it is?”

  “No idea, sir. If I did, I would tell you, I promise.”

  His face grew a bit more clouded. “I was a bit stunned to see this last item cross my desk,” he said as he held up the tablet. “But when I ran the serial number, I was surprised to see that this unit should have been a fifty-count package of titanium Stem bolts. Not exactly the reader tool I was expecting. In short, it doesn’t exist. Despite my better judgment, I decided to activate it and see what it had to say.”

  He turned it on and spun it around to me, displaying the “Transmission lost” message. My heart hit the floor. “I don’t quite know how you did it, but you disobeyed my direct orders and made contact with them, didn’t you?”

  “Sir, not intentionally, I promise. I found it in my bag, and when I turned it on, there she was. I didn’t know what to do. She assured me that our call couldn’t be traced by the military.”

  “And you believed her?”

  I nodded in dread. “Of course; I have never had any reason not to. She wouldn’t lie about something like that.”

  Again, he was silent, only taking another sip of coffee, before finally speaking again.

  “Fleet Intelligence has been doing a lot of remote investigating, mainly into you. T
hey have inquired about the extra bag you brought onboard which doesn’t match up with the gear you reported having lost in your camp or that was sent down with you. Honestly, I don’t know what to tell them if I sent a report about all of this,” he said, waving his hand across the table at my things. “It will look like you stopped by an spaceport gift shop before coming onboard, something they will undoubtedly believe is a complete and sinister fabrication.”

  “So what is going to happen to me?”

  “That is what I want to talk to you about. They have infiltrated our systems and retrieved your medical records despite my efforts to keep them inaccessible. I have been notified that immediately upon docking, I am to surrender the three of you to them. But they are especially interested in you, Laree.”

  “Why?”

  “From what I can gather, they hope to extract the remnants of the Quetanae drugs that were used in aiding your recovery. Despite the best efforts of our fully-equipped onboard lab, we can’t seem to find any trace that you were given advanced medicine at all.”

  “So they want to turn me into a lab rat?”

  “And interrogate you for information about the Aurora,” the Captain confirmed grimly.

  Tears were starting to run down my cheeks as I realized the world as I knew it was truly crumbling down around my ears. “What should I do?” He didn’t say anything. “What should I do?” I repeated, now practically screaming at him.

  “Run,” he said softly.

  “What?” I questioned, wiping the moisture from my eyes and sniffling. I wasn’t sure I had heard him correctly.

  “Run, Laree, run as if the hounds of hell itself were on your heels. I’ve changed the access codes to the hangar bay and shuttle. Get off my ship and warn your friends that they are out of time. If they are going to attempt an escape, it needs to be soon.”

  I was utterly baffled. “What about the Jeff? What about you?”

  “Don’t worry about us,” Kumeiga said as he placed a hand on the black cube. “Your friend, Kalaya, is far cleverer than I initially dreamed. However, they have no concept of what is coming for them.”