Connor's Gambit

by Z Gottlieb

  “We don’t understand. The Aneplé planets were once part of CIG and over the centuries broke away from CIG. First, it was planets, then systems. Although the Fleet has been fighting them for over two centuries, experts believe the Aneplé have been spreading their poison for far longer. If CIG is able to rescue a planet quickly, the planets return to CIG. If not, the inhabitants demand freedom to join the Aneplé. The Aneplé choose to live in squalor, even as their populations are starving. They irrationally insist it is what they want even when the Fleet is available to assist the planet in reclaiming its sovereignty. There have been a few planets that wanted to remain with CIG; the most notable exception was the Neslins, who fought a bloody battle before CIG’s Fleet could provide assistance.” Laco paused and stared out the windshield before continuing. “It’s very strange, because Aneplé technology is our technology. Their Fleet assets were once our Fleet assets. We’ve seen no independent growth, either culturally or technically. There are a number of studies about the Aneplé expansion, and yet no logical explanation for their success. I’ll send the most popular studies to you.”

  “Thanks, I would be interested in learning more since I signed up to fight them.” Brad had been wondering about the relationship between the warring factions. Laco’s explanation matched much of the research he had found in the records. “Has CIG tried to negotiate with them?”

  “Yes, but they generally negotiate terms of surrender or truce only after they have acquired more territory. The Aneplé continuously lose battles; however, they continue the conflict by fighting for more territory. The only exception was the last conflict when they negotiated a peace agreement, or so we thought. It turned out to be a ploy to convince CIG to agree to a draconian disarmament that turned out to be one-sided. Instead, they rearmed quickly and have since acquired some of the Fleet’s most advanced vehicles.”

  “Admiral Griken indicated the current circumstances may be salvageable with Connor onboard,” Brad added.

  “I don’t know. It isn’t good, but the admiral has access to more intelligence reports than I do. It’s a sensitive subject. Most of us have experienced personal losses due to the Aneplé’s aggression. It’s made worse in that the Aneplé’s area of space is quarantined.”

  “Why is that?”

  “People either don’t return or they infiltrate the Fleet and become problems. Even with the quarantine, we have to deal with spies who compromise the Fleet’s integrity. It’s easier to quarantine their regions, although it’s not as effective as we could wish. The most recent losses have been due to spies disrupting Fleet operations.”

  Brad thought it was odd there wasn’t much information on the Aneplé despite fighting them for centuries. When he reflected upon the advanced technology available to the Aneplé, he had no desire for them to discover Earth beyond the pilot in the back of the vehicle. Not wanting to think about the nightmare that could affect Earth, just from his brief exposure to the Aneplé spy, he focused on his gesturing to ensure a smooth flight.

  Brad continued to gesture for the next hour and half before he felt the vehicle oscillate slightly, indicating small changes in the folds. He looked on the windshield to see a small vehicle icon near the top edge of the overlay. The icon increased slightly, indicating the approach of another vehicle on the projected path ahead. They still had over an hour before the vehicle would meet them head on in the same lane. “Unlucky me, there’s another vehicle in the transit lane. How often does this occur?”

  “It depends. Rarely will there be two vehicles in the same Transit Gate on the outer edges. Closer to the center there will be regular traffic in both directions with parallel lanes, where the folds are more stable.”

  “Do you want me to contact the other vehicle?”

  “No. I will initiate first contact since they may not have an administrative update with your recruitment information. I recommend you just listen for now.” Laco gestured over the communication unit. “This is Pilot Laco Voodel on Transport Vehicle Vetyhym number 743 at marker 98.32.4522, destination Battle Cruiser Zuonopy, requesting identification and destination of vehicle located at marker 36.76.2316.” Off the mic he instructed Brad, “As you probably know, information on the oncoming vehicle is located on the communication panel’s seventh touch pad. It’s always a good idea to have it on display.” Voodel leaned over and pressed the touch pad for the information to appear. “Voice confirmation is a courtesy. It isn’t necessary, but it’s suspicious when there is an unwillingness to share information.”

  Brad read the information on the supply vehicle approaching while listening to the feminine voice respond, “This is Pilot Trivis Mundasen on Supply Vehicle number 1983 at marker 36.76.2332 heading toward the Pertutinn System. Laco, this is a surprise, I thought you were scheduled for a down period, planet side.”

  “I was. We had a security incident and I needed to fill in at the last moment. When you report to the station, I’m sure you will be briefed about the incident. I don’t want to discuss it on open channels.”

  “Message received. I will send you my plan to drop to the next lane as soon as I have it configured,” Mundasen replied.

  “Negative. I have someone training in the first seat. He is junior and will pass his drop coordinates to you. Long story, I’ll explain it when I see you later.” Laco cut the communications and turned to Brad. “I may be senior, but you are sitting in the command seat, so this is yours to handle. As the junior pilot, you will need to find a different lane or route to give way to the senior pilot. Many transit gates have more than one lane, but because this transit gate is fairly new and not fully explored, there is currently only one fully mapped lane.”

  “Message received,” Brad affirmed. He gestured for the information in the vehicle’s computer and looked at the top five alternatives. None of them were ideal from his perspective. There were too many unknown issues. Most of the area in the lane below was blank, indicating it was unmapped. Piloting a well-marked area in folded space was one thing, but piloting the unmapped area was another. It would be akin to traveling the Wild West without a trail guide. He would be facing an insurmountable number of unmarked space folds and wrinkles. It would be crazy for him to take it on with his limited experience. Granted the area would be mapped as they approached it and more of it would be mapped once they covered it, but he wasn’t convinced he could do it safely by himself. Brad was frustrated to have reached this point, having to acknowledge that even with the chip he was too inexperienced to take on this challenge. But the safety of the vehicle and passengers came before his pride. There would be another time. At the minimum, he at least had a recommendation for Laco. “Looking at the alternatives, I can’t do this,” he admitted, as he braced himself for Laco’s response.

  “What do you mean you can’t do this?” Laco asked as he swiped his tablet.

  Brad watched Laco, annoyed by his reaction, and wasn’t sure what that meant. “I don’t think I could safely drop to the next lane. In addition, I believe you should pilot us through.” Ouch, Brad thought, hating to admit to his deficiency.

  Laco continued to swipe his tablet. “Hmm, interesting. Do you have a recommendation?”

  Brad stared at Laco, who seemed unmoved by Brad’s concern, and wondered if he was playing a game. Laco didn’t seem to be interested in the problem they were facing. “I do, but it is dependent upon Pilot Mundasen.” He sent his recommendation to Laco’s tablet.

  Laco looked up without opening the message and furrowed his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

  Brad was annoyed Laco didn’t bother to read the recommendation. He wanted to firmly tell the kid he should read his message box, but Laco wasn’t a kid and that probably would be the quickest way to be sent back to the trainer. He wondered if Connor and Griken were even aware of the situation and Laco’s lack of concern. “The safest place to drop down would be at marker 76.49.56.3497 because that’s the largest area of uninterrupted mapped space we could use. There would still be an even larg
er unmapped area to travel before we can pull up, but it is smaller than other alternatives. There is a ramp at marker 61.10.19.8756 that you can use to pull back up into the mapped transit lane, however it is very close to the halfway point at Mundasen’s current speed. She would need to increase her speed slightly to ensure she was well past the marker for you to move back into the lane.”

  Laco stopped swiping his tablet and looked at Brad. “Good choice. It looks to me like you not only handled it, but you also provided the best solution.”

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “I knew it was a complex situation, perhaps too complex for a first timer, but I wanted to provide you with an opportunity to plan a route. If you had come up with a solution that involved you piloting, I would question your competency and ability to make command decisions. No one travels folded space by themselves, if they can help it, and certainly no one would navigate the unmapped areas with your limited experience. Even pilots whose careers are to map these areas sit in the second seat for a significant amount of time before flying unmapped areas as first seats, due to the hazards. Even as we fly through the area and the vehicle’s sensors are able to map most at a close proximity, there will be little warning for the myriad problems we may encounter and navigating through this area will require someone with more experience.”

  “What about my asking Mundasen to increase her speed? Is that an issue?”

  “Folded space hazards require the cooperation of all who are transiting it. It doesn’t always happen. For instance, if an Aneplé citizen or a pirate piloted the other vehicle, you shouldn’t expect any assistance from them. But not cooperating could result in the loss of one or more vehicles. Once the transit was complete, if Mundasen had not cooperated, she would risk losing her piloting authorization because of our report. She has the easy part, to increase her speed. Rarely will a legitimate issue come up, and if she has an issue, it had better be a good one. As for who should pilot, the more experienced individual should pilot through this area. Generally, it would be the senior pilot in command of a vehicle who has more experience, but there are exceptions such as this. I fully expected to pilot this vehicle. The question was who would be in command. If you had selected the transport vehicle as your primary vehicle, your training would have had you observe senior pilots several times before you would be allowed to pilot through the unmapped areas, regardless of what your trainer led you to believe. Swarm Defenders as a rule do not pilot through the gates, since the heavier class vehicles handle the turbulence better, but this will still be a good experience for you.”

  Brad wasn’t sure if he should be annoyed at Laco or pleased that he understood the dangers and was still able to flesh out a solution. “So I’m still in command?”

  Laco gave him an affirmative nod.

  “Is there anything else I should consider?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Nothing personal, but it would be easier for me if you shared the information instead of leading me around on a leash.”

  Laco looked at him. “Hmmph, the impatience of youth.”

  Brad glared at Laco, wondering where his sudden arrogant attitude came from. Laco quickly looked down at his tablet, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned. How could he have missed it? Laco was playing with him. “Okay, old man, what do you have for me?” Brad responded in kind.

  Laco laughed at Brad. “You’ll do fine when you report to your squadron. Don’t let them run you in circles. For the record, when it comes to being an old man, our friends in back have centuries on me.” Laco pointed to the different routes on his tablet that Brad had examined. “Looking at the alternatives, you selected a good plan for the vehicle, but this vehicle is carrying passengers. In the future as well as now, you will need to include arrangements for their safety. Confirm your plan with Mundasen then let the passengers know they will need to be harnessed either in their seats or tubes when we ramp off to the other lane. Finally, lock Divazz’s sleeping tube to ensure she has a warning before she takes a walk while we move through the uncharted areas. If it’s locked, she will know something is going on and to be more careful than usual when she opens it. I also want you to provide me with a route with as much detail as possible.”

  “Got it,” Brad confirmed and proceeded to discuss the plan with Mundasen. She agreed to increase her speed as requested, once Laco dropped to the parallel lane. He then told the passengers to harness themselves during the detour.

  Brad passed a more detailed route to Laco to review on his display. He was nervous looking at the large areas of unmapped space. While the vehicle would map and display most of the area ahead of them in advance, it wouldn’t give them much time to navigate smoothly. He wasn’t bothered by the turbulence, but if they located a large dark area the ship could not map, that would be a different story. The unmappable regions were called dark holes because vehicles rarely recovered from flying into those areas. While the transit gates were manmade, dark holes were natural space phenomena resembling wormholes comprised of weak gravitational waves. Ships that crossed the hole’s boundaries would be pulled into the dark hole’s gravity well. A few of the dark holes were suspected to be additional transit lanes because a small percentage of vehicles showed up in CIG space many years later. However, the scientists and explorers had not yet been able to prove the dark holes were reliable transit lanes, despite the advanced instruments used to examine them. Escaping the dark hole’s gravity well was nearly impossible without advance preparation and special equipment, and even then it was extremely risky to enter a dark hole. Brad was uncomfortable knowing that even with CIG’s advance technology, there were still limitations to their abilities when it came to nature.

  Laco looked at the display in front of him. “Brad, the detailed route you proposed may be the most comfortable, but I need to pilot as close to the edge of the mapped area as possible. It will be challenging and there are a few minor risks. You will be better off learning from the beginning to over prepare for flying into these areas, especially since the transport vehicle wouldn’t be your primary vehicle. You’ll soon see that over preparing will offset your lack of experience in the future, since it is more than likely the opportunities for you to experience this again will be few and far between.” Seeing Brad’s confused expression, Laco pointed to the edge of the mapped area. “The folds along this edge are so frequent that navigating them will significantly increase the turbulence; however, it will give our sensors more range to map further out and provide better data for transits after us.” He pointed to the corner of the mapped area. “If I pilot at this edge, it would provide more options for alternative routes than if we were to approach the unmapped space at the center.” Using his finger, he showed Brad the different routes from the two points.

  Brad pointed to the center. “Why did they stop here? And why are there so many oddly incongruent off-ramps?” Brad pointed to the various ramps and odd mappings.

  Laco shrugged. “I really don’t know, but I have my suspicions. If transit pilots are on schedule, we are allowed to occasionally map areas because there are hazardous duty bonuses attached to newly mapped areas. These vehicles are not equipped with the more powerful sensors, and we are only allowed to map small areas at a time due to the dangers. Originally, Divazz and I were told we wouldn’t be authorized to map any areas because of our passengers. However, I was instructed by Connor not to treat you any differently than any other trainee. He authorized a number of contingencies for you to experience. We now have this opportunity. The bonus will be split between Divazz, you and me.”

  “What about Mundasen? Won’t she object?”

  “She may have already mapped other areas or have other plans. If this was an area she had planned to map, she would have said something.”

  “Cool beans, first bonus. Wonder what I can spend it on?” Brad momentarily thought he should find an “I’m sorry” gift for Shinny. Despite the hurt, he missed her. He was starting to understand the difficult
situation she had been in. He was now in the same situation with his parents as Shinny had been with him. Now if only his odd nightmare would stop, life with Shinny might have a chance of returning to normal, or at least the new normal with him joining a military organization and flying space ships.

  “Uniforms,” Laco laughed. “They won’t be free in the future.”

  “Funny. Keep your day job.”

  “Huh? I don’t understand?” Laco responded with a questioning look on his face.

  “Just chalk it up as a very bad Earth joke,” Brad explained.

  “Hmm, maybe I’ll use it in the future,” Laco said seriously.

  Brad smiled at Laco’s naïveté. Maybe Earth could enrich CIG with bad jokes and frozen pizza. Looking at the marker coming up he realized it was time to start preparing for the drop. “Laco, I’m turning over piloting to you.” He announced a ten-minute warning to the passengers, reminding them to harness themselves in their seats or their sleeping tubes. Connor, Griken and Kiraine quickly sat in the seats behind them. Shinny had decided to spend the time in the sleeping tube. He locked both Shinny’s and Divazz’s tubes as directed by Laco. While he was curious about Shinny’s decision to retire to her sleeping tube, he chuckled wryly, thinking she finally chose to abandon the gym just when he was too busy to take advantage of it. He would talk to her when his shift ended, and work toward mending their relationship. He would start by apologizing for his immature behavior. For now, he needed to focus on his flight.

  He turned to Laco. “Would you like me to continue programing and executing the counter maneuvers as we drop?”

  “It would be helpful. You may not have much warning in some areas; just do your best where the measurements are available.”

  Brad looked at the track they were planning to take and created more programs to counter the ridges and folds Laco might encounter. He wasn’t sure if they would be needed, but he was becoming more nervous staring at the large, blank, unmapped areas. Programming kept his mind off the dangers the unmapped areas posed, at least for the time being. As Laco approached the marker and began the descent, Brad contacted the other vehicle. “This is Trainee Johnson, at marker 76.49.56.3497, beginning descent. Pilot Mundasen, request you increase your vehicle’s speed to 750 LSUs now; confirm when you pass marker 61.10.19.8756.”