by Jeff Sims
He handed the man the flashdrive cube and the man turned it over in hands. Finally, he said, “Where is the really good stuff?”
He handed him a second cube, this one containing Japanese game shows. A very small portion of the public found them extremely entertaining. The man took the second cube, smiled and disappeared.
Victor exhaled, shook himself, and looked down at his hands. They were slightly trembling. He hadn’t realized how nervous he was. He started walking through the park, retracing his steps past the monument and back to the hovertram.
His next stop was at a friend’s home. Victor’s friend was an electronics integrator. He worked for the government, testing and validating the EMP. Victor described the concept of a human bark collar to the integrator.
The integrator was stunned. He looked at Victor and said, “Do humans really shock their pets?”
Victor nodded affirmative and told him it wasn’t near as bad as it sounded. He then described in length the required function and controls for the collar that he needed built. He paid his friend handsomely for his effort. The integrator, now turned inventor, reviewed everything and said that everything he needed to build the collar was readily available and he could assemble it in two days.
“I must warn you though, if the EMP goes off, the link between your monitor and her will be severed and she will die. Also, if you get too far away from her, she will die.”
Victor next proceeded to the local council building where Crista Cowbleat was being held. Victor was lucky in that he didn’t have to travel too far to get there. Crista lived on the outskirts of Solar City, not too far from the spaceport.
Victor arrived at the council building and was stunned to see an Alliance Armored Unit (or AAU) standing outside the door where Crista was being held. An AAU is basically a powered exoskeleton. The suit was heavily armored and had massive shield generators. It also had two powerful beam weapons. There were probably 10 suits on the entire planet.
Victor asked the receptionist, “Do you really think it is necessary to have an AAU guarding the prisoner?”
The receptionist answered, “Safety first. We don’t want her breaking free and stabbing more people.”
Victor had the receptionist schedule an appointment to speak to the council the following day. He then returned to his ship for the evening. He had a small apartment in town, but didn’t feel like reactivating everything.
The next day Victor again took the tram the short distance from his ship to the council building. The building was 12 stories tall, about average for this part of the city. It was a standard constructed tower, steel covered with electricity generating solar glass. The building was surrounded by an appropriate sized grassy area that emphasized the importance of those inside. The workmanship of the exterior was excellent and the attention to detail flowed through the antechamber. The walls were covered in a rock mosaic, probably from the Southern continent.
His appointment time had arrived and he entered the chamber. He described his idea and showed the concept of the new collar. He could explained how he could permanently solve their problem.
One council member looked at Victor and said, “Do humans really shock their pets?”
Victor nodded affirmative and told him it wasn’t near as bad as it sounded. He again went through his stock speech about humans becoming less aggressive and probably joining the Alliance in the near future.
The council took a quick vote and suggestion passed. Everyone agreed it was an excellent solution to their problem.
……………………
Crista awoke from a long nap and looked around. She hadn’t remembered falling asleep and didn’t recognize where she was. She could tell that she was inside a mini-freighter, but little else.
Her last clear memory was of eating dinner in the council office. They had chained her legs to floor of an unused room and had remained far away from her. No one had talked to her, not even to ask why she had done it. Even the man that served her meals did not interact with her; he simply slid the food tray across the floor to her.
She tried to get up and noticed she was no longer chained. It was then that she looked at her hands and screamed. Her hands were white, so too were her arms, and legs, her entire body. She asked, “Am I dead?”
“No.” She immediately got a response from somewhere off to her left.
This made her scream again and almost pass out. She recovered, sat up and looked around. She felt a slight pressure at her neck and felt it with her hands. She was wearing a small collar that fit tightly against her neck. She felt it with hands and could find no way to remove it.
“Don’t bother,” said the voice, “It doesn’t come off.”
“Who, who are you?” She asked.
Victor responded, “My name is Victor. And the collar, it doesn’t come off.”
“Why, what does it do, where am I, why am I white, and who are you really? And don’t just tell me your name again.” she answered.
“A lot of questions. Relax, I will answer all of them one at time. Which subject first?” Victor said and stepped closer to her, directly in her line of vision. He hadn’t really meant to make an eerie appearance, he had simply been sitting beside her. Oh well, he thought, maybe mysterious was the way to go.
Crista looked at Victor. She noticed that he was taller than most other Solarians and that he was relatively handsome. However, the word that best described him was white. She fixated on his skin. Finally, she said, “Tell me why your skin is white. And mine.”
“I have white skin because I am in charge of monitoring human communications. I had to have my skin bleached white so that I would fit in while I was on Earth. Blue is not a human skin color.” He wanted to say more, but he paused to give Crista some time to process the news.
“Okay, that sort of explains your skin. How about mine?” She asked.
Victor thought best about how to answer and finally settled on, “Your skin is white because you are going to start accompanying me on my missions to Earth.”
“Um, no.”
“Well, you can’t stay on Solaria. The council made that perfectly clear. Think of this as an adventure, a new chapter in your life,” Victor responded.
“Um, no.”
“Look, you really don’t have much choice. This is the better choice than what they had planned for you,” Victor responded. He actually had no idea what the council had planned for Crista and he knew that neither did she. For that matter, neither did the council.
“So, what was my punishment?” Crista eventually asked.
Okay, Victor, thought start out small, then work your way through it. He said, “Well, I asked for the council to release you into my custody. I had to take full responsibility for you. I had to make financial reparations to the person that you stabbed. Part of that responsibility is that I had to marry you.” That last bit was a lie, but oh well. He didn’t have to marry her, but he thought it was the prudent thing to do.
“I will never be your wife,” she responded.
“Yes, you will,” Victor said. “In fact, you already are. The council married us yesterday, just before the skin bleaching procedure.” Victor described the short ceremony and showed her some pictures. The first showed the happy couple standing at the top of a stairway and saying their vows. Victor had spray painted his hands and face blue for the wedding.
Crista was a wearing a beautiful white dress with black threads that highlighted her hair. Her makeup was perfect. She had a faraway look in her eyes and some drool dripping out of her mouth, but otherwise she looked great. She saw in another picture that her parents and brother had attended. They had an odd expression, like they were both scared and relieved at the same time. After scanning the pictures, Crista realized that she had been physically there, but she must have been drugged as she had no memory of it.
She said, “Fine. I may be your wife on paper, but I will never be your wife in reality.”
This made Victor smile and for som
e reason it made her become extremely angry. She screamed, “I will kill you before I let you touch me!.” She stood up and started to approach him.
Victor said, “Now it’s time to answer your second question. The collar around your neck is a control collar. It is similar to one that humans use to control barking dogs. If you hurt me, the collar will inflict pain to you 10 times worse. If you kill me, or if I die for any reason, the collar will poison you and you will die. If you try to remove the collar, the poison will kill you.”
Victor slapped himself on his cheek. Crista winced and touched her cheek and sat back down on the bed. Victor looked at her and slapped his cheek a second time, this time much harder. This time Crista screamed in pain and held her face in her hands. She started rocking back and forth uncontrollably and sobbing hysterically. Victor made a mental note to check the pain threshold setting. It may be set a little too sensitive. He didn’t want her screaming in pain every time he stubbed his toe.
After a few minutes the pain had subsided and a little of Crista’s anger returned. She looked at him defiantly and said, “Fine, I won’t kill you, but I will never let you touch me.”
Victor pressed a button on a controller. Crista went limp and fell on the bed. She was wide awake and conscious, but she couldn’t move her arms or legs. “You will, anytime I want. But I don’t want you like that.” He released the button, allowing Crista to again move.
Crista took several minutes to process this. Finally, she said, “Do humans really shock their pets?”
He was about to give her the same boring answer, but instead he said, “You will soon see for yourself when you are on Earth.” He wanted to look like a bad boy to her.
…Sorry to interrupt, but you have an emergency message….
Victor briefly thought about having it routed to his personal quarters. He rarely received a message, let alone an emergency one. He thought perhaps someone had a question about the human surveillance report he had just filed. He decided he wanted to impress her and said, “Computer, play message.”
…Victor Bullpeep. Please proceed immediately to Advranki Prime. The Alliance Senate is having an important debate about humans and requests your presence as an expert witness…
Victor smiled. That couldn’t have gone better. He could see she was a touch impressed by that message. He said, “Well are you ready to start a new life adventure?”
She looked at him and paused for a moment. He could tell that the reality of her situation was starting to sink in. She said, “Yes, but I want to grab some things from my apartment before we go. And if it isn’t too much trouble, there is this new blouse at the mall I really want.”
Chapter 3
Frank adjusted his tie and admired himself in the mirror. His green skin was wrinkle free and his hair was dark and full despite his advancing age. He was taller than most members of the Advranki race – just tall enough to lord over others during an argument, but not so tall that he made anyone uncomfortable.
He was due in the Alliance Senate chamber in 20 minutes and wanted to look perfect, for it was very rare when he “lost” an argument. In truth though, he wasn’t going to lose. He had carefully positioned his political opponent into a corner and today was the day he planned to set his trap.
This particular power struggle involved Humanity. “When doesn’t it involve the humans,” he thought aloud to himself. He mentally reviewed the situation. There are 4 intelligent species in the known quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy. No, it would probably be best not to lead with that sentence. There are 6 intelligent species in this tiny part of the universe. He listed them one at a time, holding up a finger for effect as he said each name: The originals; including the Advranki, the Altians, and the Hiriculans, Then there were the Solarians, the Netos, and of course the Humans.
The Advranki are eldest, and in Frank’s humble opinion, the wisest of the races. They had been the first to develop interstellar flight, and he was sure that they were first in every other relevant discovery or invention. Frank wasn’t a racist, far from it in fact. No, Frank was just setting the framework for his victory in council today.
The Alliance Senate consisted of eight members, one for each of the seven inhabited planets in the Alliance and one additional at large member. The at large member was always Advranki due to the simple fact that the Advranki were the most populous race. This meant the Senate was comprised of 4 Advranki, 3 Altians, and 1 Solarian.
Several accommodations had been made to the voting to ensure that no single race could pass a bill. The voting rules were such: (1) simple majority, bill passes, (2) Four members vote for the bill, including one member from each race, the bill passes, and (3) Four members vote for the bill, including at least one Advranki and one Altian, the bill is placed in temporary review / pass. The third outcome rarely occurs, but when it does it generally means that the Senate will adopt the bill as a pilot program or perhaps in a small area. This outcome requires a Senate member to take full responsibility for the pilot project.
Frank again studied himself in the mirror. He looked good and he knew it. Today would be the perfect day to spring his latest manipulation. He suddenly thought of his name. He had studied a little of the human language; no, he corrected himself, English - there were several human languages he reminded himself. Anyway, Frank knew that in the English language his name meant forthright or honest. This made him giggle and smile at himself in the mirror. Few that knew him well would ever describe him as such.
Frank mentally reviewed the bill; the giggle had caused the earlier practice speech to be forgotten. The bill was simple really. Since the Alliance was technically defending the Earth, humans should be actively engaged in that defense. Simply put, the Alliance Fleet was requesting that humans be allowed to join, hopefully as fighter pilots. Of course, it wasn’t that simple, it never was. There were multiple counter points, such as humans aren’t Alliance members, humans are way too aggressive and will never interact with other races, and probably the most valid, no one knows if humans have the mental capacity to fly the fighters.
The vote had come before the Senate three times earlier. Each time the three Altian senators had voted for it and the Advranki and Solarian had voted against it. This time was different though. Frank could feel it. Everyone was nervous after hearing about the brave Captain Solear’s incident. He considered the report for a minute – he still couldn’t believe what the Hiriculans had done.
Frank was going to change his vote! This meant that it would end as a four-four tie and fall under rule three. He would force his opponent, Korno, to be the sponsor of the bill. That way, if the humans failed, Korno would take all of the blame and if the humans succeeded, well he would be on record voting for the bill and he knew he could find a way to take the credit.
Frank’s communicator buzzed, and Frank said, “Computer, answer incoming call, voice only. Invoke Senate security protocols. ”
…Incoming call by unknown caller. The call is being patched through to your personal communicator, voice only, security is in place, the call is not being recorded…
Frank was so excited he couldn’t wait for the other person to speak. He blurted out, “Well, were you able to do it?”
The man responded, “Yes, the controls are on your pad. After you are done, delete the application.” His voice was strange and metallic sounding. Frank assumed that he was using a voice changer to hide his voice. He needn’t have bothered; no one could listen in on their conversation.
He checked his appearance a second time. Perfect. He was using a new hairspray and antiperspirant today that he had never tried before. Also, he normally wore anti-aging cream around his eyes, but he had decided not to wear that either. It was almost time for the council meeting to start, so Frank left his chambers and walked to the Senate chamber.
The Senate building was incredible. It was a stunning feat of architecture. The building swooped up in middle, then down on both sides, and back up at the end. It looked something like
a bird in flight. The outer chamber was spectacular. It was covered in stone and precious minerals from across the galaxy. The inner chamber was equally exquisite, with harmonics perfectly tuned so that any voice is amplified for easy hearing. It was a must see for anyone visiting the area and there were tour groups daily.
Of course, Frank wasn’t headed there. The place was too unsafe and noisy for actual Senate business. They actually met in a non-descript, underground bunker about a ½ block away. The inner chamber was an exact holographic duplicate of the real one. No one watching on television would be able to tell the difference. There was an underground passageway to the real one in the event they needed to make an actual appearance. Today, they were certainly going to have to use that passageway.
……………………….
Victor and Crista Bullpeep were approaching Advranki Prime. It had been an uneventful journey, but Crista had found it exciting since it was her first journey away from Solaria. She yelled “Wooo” as the exited the hyperspace lane and transitioned back into real space. They were deposited from hyperspace directly in front of a large space station.
The station was basically a large asteroid that had been hollowed out and repurposed. The station housed a weapons platform, several squadrons of fighters, and the traffic control office. They were immediately hailed by the traffic control.
“New arrival, welcome to Advranki Prime. We have your ship registered as the Victoria. Please verify and state the purpose of your visit.”
Victor looked at Crista. She didn’t seem to respond when she heard the name of the ship. Still, he was a little concerned that she would feel slighted because her name wasn’t yet part of the ship’ name. They were technically newlyweds after all. He made a mental note to change the name of the mini- freighter to Vista the first chance that he got.
Victor answered, “Verified. This is the Victoria with two passengers aboard. Our holds are empty. We were invited to attend a conference at the Alliance Senate.”