The Off-Worlders

by George Willson

  “Is that the Back to the Future Part II hoverboard?” Michelle asked.

  “The what?” Perry asked.

  “I remember everyone wanting these hoverboard things after this movie came out in 1989,” Michelle said. “There was some making of video where someone stated that they had been around for years.”

  “They learned about these hoverboards while writing the movie and tried to include them,” Blake said. “Unfortunately, it was technology inserted by an off-worlder who wanted to cash in. He was jailed. The hoverboards confiscated. Movie made with standard special effects.”

  “To your point,” Turner said, “it may not be illegal, but being involved in a crime is different.”

  “Why don’t you let us help you with Pingrit?” Blake asked. “We’re already here. We already know him. If you still feel bad when it’s over, you can pop us on a ship to wherever you want.”

  Turner stared at them suspiciously. “Why don’t you exist?” he finally asked.

  “Because we’re time travelers,” Blake said.

  “Time travel isn’t possible,” Turner said.

  “And yet, before you, you have two Terrans and a guy who doesn’t exist, all of whom you want to deport even though your machine says not to,” Blake said. “Other than your own doubt, do you have any reason to disbelieve us?”

  “Why were you in that warehouse?” Turner asked.

  “Because our time travel portal dropped us in there,” Blake said. “We don’t control where we go. We just arrive and hop out. If you send us away on a ship, at some point, the portal will open once more, and we’ll leave this time period. If you let us stay and help you, we’ll still be leaving when it’s done. It’s a win-win for you.”

  Turner started at him for a very long moment. His eyes shifted as he thought about whether he wanted to do this. Finally, he closed his eyes and shook his head.

  “Fine,” he said, and he turned to the women on his staff, “Talia, pull up any information we have on a Pingrit Talkisan.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, and a moment later, his face and information were suspended in the air above her terminal. It did show his name as Pingrit Talkisan, but it also listed several aliases and quite a few crimes for which he was tried along with the names of associates.

  “Your friend is not a good person,” Turner said. “Theft. Murder. He has multiple warrants for his arrest on several worlds. Oh…” Turner grew quiet drawing their attention to him.

  “What is it?” Blake asked.

  “He’s a known associate of Jimmy Demarrs,” Turner said. “He’s what you would call a kingpin or crime boss. Responsible for some of the most heinous crimes of our time. Been captured and escaped so many times that some people think there’s more than one of him, or that his name is a figurehead passed from one man to the next. No one knows where he came from or where he lives. Everyone in law enforcement dreams of taking him down.”

  “You think Talkisan knows anything about him?” Perry asked.

  “We’re gonna find out,” Turner said. “You all wanted to help? You’re on. What we know at this point is that he used a short range matter transporter. Transporters use tremendous amounts of energy which means that he must have a ship capable of producing that energy nearby. The maximum is around fifty miles, but it is probably closer, or he wouldn’t risk using it.”

  “I don’t suppose you have a way of scanning the area for a ship,” Blake said.

  “Yes, but Demarrs ships usually have a shield of some kind that prevents them from being detected,” Turner said.

  “Like a cloaking device?” Perry asked.

  “Sort of,” Turner said, “but in the real world it isn’t invisible. Doesn’t need to be. Ninety percent of our eyes come from scanners. As long as you can scramble the scanner, you might as well be invisible.”

  “Then we take a different angle,” Blake said. “Forget the scanner for now. Can you pull up a map of our location and a fifty-mile radius?”

  “Of course,” Turner said. He nodded to Talia who loaded up Google maps.

  “All the technology in the universe and you use Google maps?” Blake asked in an almost disappointed tone.

  “No need to reinvent the wheel,” Turner shrugged.

  “All right,” Blake said, “we know that his ship has got to be larger than the little one that unfortunate bounty hunter was using. From this map, we can rule out several areas where a ship large enough to handle the power consumption of a transporter cannot be. The city covers a pretty wide area, and the ship would have to be in an area with lots of space, and where people would not likely notice a spaceship parked there. So things like parks and backyards are out. Ideally, it would be an undeveloped area away from most roadways.”

  “Hang on,” Perry said, “wouldn’t you have some record of ships coming down? I mean, your whole purpose here is to track that sort of thing, right?”

  “Yes,” Turner said, “but let me say that the tracking of anything is only as good as the help, and some that I’ve had here have been even less enthusiastic than these two. They may not want to be here, and that’s fine, but they do their jobs. I’ve had others that have completely ignored, or even worse, officially acknowledged but ignored, proximity alerts and even landings. Did Talkisan say how long he had been here?”

  “Couple years, I think,” Michelle said. Turner clearly reached back into his memory to sort this one out. At length, he nodded.

  “Yeah, that was Dresda,” Turner said. “We had a long period where there was only one, and you take away the accountability of a second person, and it goes badly. Dresda did nothing but watch television. She obsessed over it. Earth dramas are a novelty elsewhere in the galaxy, and she was in love with them. If she were any good, she probably would have stayed here, but once I found out that she wasn’t actually doing anything except watching them, I had to send her back.”

  “Can we look at acknowledged crashes or alerts from her time period then?” Blake asked. “Could narrow down the field.”

  “Already on it,” Karafka said. Turner walked up behind her to look at her screen as she pulled it up. “All right, Dresda acknowledged sixteen total alerts while she was here. Three of those were in our airspace. One listed as a possible landing.”

  “Show the flight path of the landing,” Turner said.

  “Talia, number one-seven-three-four-two-nine-oscar-papa-eight,” Karafka said.

  “Coming up now,” Talia said.

  A red line animated over their Google maps image leading over the city on an uneven path, but the line disappeared at several points until it completely vanished. The animation was automatically set to loop, and they all watched it several times as it snaked across their skies and every time, it disappeared directly over the city itself where it could not have landed. There was no indicator as to where it could have landed or even a direction. They had nothing.

  “What does that mean?” Perry asked.

  “It means we have to find him another way,” Turner said. “I have some thoughts for that, but there is still the matter of that other, smaller ship. He probably lives out of the wreck of his old one, but he is desperate to leave Earth. That would mean he probably tried to return to that smaller one. We might still get lucky.”

  “But Blake disabled it,” Perry said.

  “Blake pulled an old schoolboy trick to stop it from starting,” Turner said. “It worked for a moment, but starter links are a dime a dozen. We may have the ones he removed, but once Talkisan discovers the problem, there are probably enough spares in the ship to get it off the ground.”

  “Undoubtedly,” Blake agreed.

  “We need to get back over there,” Michelle said.

  “Actually, there’s an easier way,” Turner said. “Karafka, scan for a ship right over near that warehouse on third and Madison.”

  Karafka tapped and clicked on her terminal while she moved the data she was gathering to a holographic field above her.

  “Negative,
sir,” Karafka said. “It isn’t there.”

  “He already got to it?” Perry asked.

  “At least someone did,” Turner said.

  “Does that mean he fixed it already?” Michelle asked.

  “Not necessarily,” Turner said. “He may have moved it.”

  “He moved a ship?” Blake asked skeptically. “You can’t use a matter transporter on an entire ship. The power consumption would be astronomical.”

  “There are other ways to move a ship,” Turner said. “I’m not the only person on this planet who isn’t from Earth.”

  “And would he know about these other methods?” Blake asked.

  “Undoubtedly,” Turner said. “There has to be a reason his ship was here. Besides being an out of the way place for dirty deals, there is some trade between what are called Terran outcasts and certain Federation merchants. I even suspect he has been trying to get parts to repair his ship through these methods.”

  “I take it you know where to find these people,” Perry said.

  “They operate under the radar, but not that far,” Turner said. “They don’t make trouble for me, and I don’t do the same for them. They know who I am, though, and that I can make their lives hell in a heartbeat. They’ll work with me.”

  “Are we going with you on this?” Blake asked.

  “What tools are you carrying?” Turner asked. “What did you bring back from the future to help with this?”

  Blake appeared to consider this very carefully. It was one thing to whip his gadgets out around Perry and Michelle, but it was another entirely to show them off to someone who might be interested in keeping them. They were advanced far beyond the years of even Blake’s time, but that did not mean someone could not figure them out. Blake had casually noted at one point in their travels that without The Guide, even he would have had trouble with the operation of the scanner since it was thousands of years beyond his time.

  “I have two things that I keep with me,” Blake said. “Both are from even my future, which is five hundred years from now when Earth is in the Galactic Federation. One allowed me to open the door of that ship which I did while they were literally trying to find the key to it. The other is a scanner that is far beyond yours, but its range is only a few miles. Both will be very useful when we get closer, I’m sure.”

  Turner looked at Blake as if expecting him to show them to him, but past his descriptions of their operation and existence, Blake offered nothing. Turner finally nodded.

  “All right,” Turner said, “let’s head out to the car and get out of here. I can explain on the way. Talia, Karafka, you have the fort.”

  The women acknowledged him as he turned to the door, but Blake did not immediately follow.

  “Let’s say we get whatever information we need to locate his ship,” Blake said. “I know you need him to stand for a murder and some other things, but at this point, there is just the few of us, he knows that ship like the back of his hand, and he is probably armed.”

  “Are we hoping to capture him?” Perry asked.

  “No,” Turner said. “In fact, if we can find out where his ship is, I’m hoping he isn’t there at all. I’m hoping he transported the bounty hunter’s ship elsewhere, and his ship is empty. We have a procedure for damaged ships.”

  Turner reached into his pocket and retrieved a small device that looked like it would plug into something. “This is an emergency beacon. I plugged one into that hunter ship, so it won’t be around for long. I’m kind of hoping he’s inside when they take it. This is keyed to go directly to my central command so that they send what we call a ‘clean-up crew’ to pick up the ship and tow it back to our space for impoundment.”

  “Then what do we do about Talkisan?” Perry asked.

  “I have a stun weapon to knock him out with in case we come across him,” Turner said.

  “I’m afraid if we come across him, he won’t consider stunning us,” Blake said.

  “Then we better hope your scanner will let us know if we’re not alone,” Turner said.

  The group waved to the women as they headed back out to the garage and piled into the car. As they drove away from the house down its long driveway, Michelle looked back at it. She wondered how many houses set back away from the road so far were inhabited by actual families, and how many were used by the government or even otherworldly peoples. It was a simple enough cover since no one would be bursting in unexpectedly.

  She looked forward as they passed out of the gate and into the night. They had only arrived in this time a few hours ago, and already, it seemed like an eternity. As she watched the darkness outside her window as they drove, the one thing she really wanted right now was a nap, but there was no way she was getting one of those anytime soon.

  CHAPTER NINE

  They rode with Turner down the road that led back towards the city. As the lights grew brighter around them in the transition from suburb to city, Turner had some explaining to do.

  “Blake,” Turner said. “You had indicated that off-worlders were allowed on non-Federation planets as long as they did not introduce outside technology to the local populace. You are correct in that. Where we are going is a sort of off-worlder’s hangout. There is some local trade to get items from other worlds they are accustomed to having, especially foods, parts for repairs, such as Talkisan might need, and other services. Sometimes, but rarely, you can get a ride off-world, but a lot of people don’t do it just because of the risk involved.”

  “Is this where you take us to a seedy bar because you know a guy that knows everything?” Perry asked.

  Turner gave him a confused look. “No,” he said. “I don't ‘know a guy.’ I know a lot of people, and they know me, but there is no all-seeing, all-knowing guy that I could just ask a question to, and he knows all the answers.

  “Where we are going is unofficial, off the map, unknown to the local government as far as I am aware, and in some cases, not entirely legal,” Turner said. “However, it is necessary for it to exist. My assertion is that Talkisan may have come here to order parts for his ship to repair it, and more recently, may have requested that someone move the deceased bounty hunter’s ship somewhere else. We’re here to see if he did either of those things or if anyone is familiar with him beyond that.

  “To that end, I suggest that we split up and tackle each question individually, and then meet up later to figure out what to do with what we’ve learned. If we're lucky, we will know where his main ship is located, as well as where he transported the hunter ship. However, the location of the hunter ship is less important, as we have already ordered a pick up for it. We need the large ship more so we can have it removed and to bring him to justice. Whether we find the hunter ship or not, once the pickup for that is carried out, he’ll return to the main one.”

  “So, is there a store or something where we would go in this place?” Michelle asked.

  “Oh no,” Turner said. “There are no stores where we are going. There is only a bunch of people standing around with some vague notion of what they do. Where we are going, we're just hoping to get lucky because this is the only type of place on Earth where this kind of luck can be found. And here we are.”

  They looked ahead of them and found they were approaching a building called Holy Life Church. The building was massive - clearly one of those mega churches with the population numbering in the thousands. The parking lot was almost bigger than the church itself and was sparsely populated with a couple dozen cars that were near a side door rather than the main, covered entrance in front.

  “This is in a church?” Michelle asked.

  “We have found no better place to conduct off world business than in a church,” Turner said. “People that go to church are church-centric, and those that don’t, don’t care, so any churches that off-worlders construct are largely ignored. They blend into the landscape. Odd symbology is unquestioned by anyone. People can do their thing at any time of day or night. Churches are only primarily in use
on Sundays and Wednesdays, so that gives the off-world people two days off a week. They are used all over the world as meeting places for off-worlders, and off-worlders actually own the majority of those churches. The church side pays the Earthly bills while the off-world side helps with the bottom line. It’s a very convenient arrangement.

  “You see that symbol after the church name up there?” Turner asked. They all looked at the sign to find the picture of a person depicted with a circle for a head and a rectangle-like shape with a rounded end next to the head for its body. This “body” seemed to have six arms. Two were over its head holding a circle while the other four held one circle each in a sort of semi-circle of circles.

  “I’ve always thought these church symbols were weird,” Michelle said.

  “This one means something though,” Turner said, “And it has nothing to do with Jesus. That symbol is a person who is supposed to be holding a group of planets. I don’t know where they came up with six arms to hold five planets, but that’s what it is. A guy holding five planets with his six arms. Anyway, it’s an official symbol of the Federation. It is used on this planet as a signpost for those who want to find other off-worlders. Subtle from a Terran perspective, because they don’t know what it means, but rather overt if you know it.”

  “And you just let this go on?” Blake asked.

  “As you said,” Turner indicated, “as long as they don’t interfere, it is allowed. A symbol isn’t considered technology. Their using it also makes it easy for those of us in law enforcement to find them. As long as they stay quiet, we let them go about their business.”

  “Then why are you trying to get rid of us?” Perry asked.

  “Because you were found at the scene of a crime,” Turner said. “Any criminal involvement, even accidental like yours seems to be, is grounds for deportment. Your innocence is irrelevant. That’s on any planet, although Federation worlds conduct a review first. ‘Send them home and let their own people deal with them’ is an unofficial motto.”