by Jeff Sims
Carank said, “That’s devious. I like it.”
Lorano said, “We are going to tell everyone that the key information is stored on the Vista. You may get your mini-freighter stolen, but you won’t be harmed.”
Victor said, “How do you activate it?”
Lorano said, “Just box both of your ears like so and the collar will automatically link with the hyper-drive unit of whatever ship upon which you are traveling.” Lorano gently hit both of his ears.
Victor said, “So, we could technically override any ship?”
Lorano responded, “Yes.”
They reviewed their orders. The Vista was to return to Advranki Prime and return the flight simulators, diagnostic computer, and several other expensive pieces of equipment that had been used for the mission. The Alliance Senate had decided to temporarily stop monitoring human communications, meaning Victor was out of a job. However, he was going to be well compensated for this mission, so he and Crista could indeed travel to wherever the solar winds took them.
Lorano was going to return to Altian 1. Lorano hadn’t been home in quite a while, so was actually looking forward to it. He was going to be the leader of a new project to work on recharging ion cannons faster.
Carank was going to remain on Advranki Prime. He had been assigned to work on a new ‘heavy’ missile type. With the threat of conflict, it appeared that all new projects were military related.
Victor saw a blip on his communicator pad and said, “Hold those thoughts; the four of us have been summoned to the Alliance Senate and to give our report.”
Lorano reminded everyone that they still had to dump the four flight simulators made on Earth before they could go to Advranki Prime. They discussed places to hide them, but they really only had two choices – dump them in space where they could recover them later or dump them in the Earth – Conron hyperspace lane. The first option had the risk that someone else could find them or worse yet run into them. The second option meant destroying them.
Suddenly Crista had an idea. She said, “Let’s hide them in the forts guarding Earth.”
Victor waited until the Sunflower jumped and then set a course for the nearest fort. It wasn’t far; they would be there in a few minutes. He contacted the fort and said, “Permission to land and temporarily store human made goods inside. You must protect these goods until we return.”
The fort had no issue with this and didn’t even threaten to blow them up for their own safety. They offloaded the flight simulators without issue. Lorano suggested they try to hide them, so they moved them into a corner, covered them with dust protectors, and marked them property of the Alliance Senate. No one would see them unless they were intentionally snooping. He considered labeling them ‘No peeking, this means you’ but decided against it.
That task completed, Crista set the course for the Conron - Advranki Prime hyperspace lane. They were not given priority clearance or allowed to micro jump, so the trip lasted four days. They again passed by the Advranki mining colony and military depot. The debris from the collision of the two moons had now mostly cleared from the system.
Lorano and Carank entertained themselves reviewing the collision and calculating the required angles that would have been necessary for one moon to hit another moon and deflect it directly into the hyperspace lane. The odds were astronomical. Lorano concluded that the hyperspace lane had been intentionally closed.
They obtained clearance from traffic control and made the jump to Advranki Prime. Exactly 80 real-time hours later they exited hyperspace and were hailed by traffic control. The controller said, “Traffic control here, welcome back to Advranki Prime. Please state your business.”
Victor responded, “We have a meeting with the Alliance Senate.”
You are approved for landing on pad 149.15.2. You can set your navigation system to those coordinates and have your ship automatically flown there. Have a great day. Control out.”
Traffic control scanned them and allowed them to proceed to the planet. Coincidentally, they were given the exact same landing pad as the last time they had visited. Victor carefully set the ship down in the correct spot and noticed a minor bureaucrat was waiting for them with a small army of movers.
Victor opened the loading ramp to the secondary hold. The ship’s crew had moved everything that needed to be returned to the very end. This would keep the moving crew from seeing the main hold and the sleeping area for 20 people. It was one thing for the movers to wonder what they did with 4 flight simulators and some advanced equipment, but quite another to realize that 20 people had lived here.
The bureaucrat gave the hold a brief inspection and asked why the manufacturing equipment was missing.
Victor said, “I am sorry. The equipment was destroyed during the mission.”
The movers entered the hold and cleared the items. The bureaucrat checked everything off on a list as it was removed. When he was satisfied that everything else had been returned, he thanked Victor and they movers exited.
A hoverbot arrived shortly thereafter and escorted them to the Alliance Senate. There was a loud conversation going on in the senate chamber when they arrived, but it quickly died when the Ceremonial Master announced that Lorano, Victor, Crista, and Carank had returned from Earth and was prepared to discuss their travels.
Senator Figur wasted little time in speaking, “Were the humans able to pass the flight test?”
Lorano approached the podium and answered, “Respects Senators. Yes. We were able to test a fair number of humans. Of those, we had over four hundred humans pass the test.”
Lorano stopped because all of the senators gave some form of ‘whoosh’ sound. Lorano waited a few moments until everyone had collected themselves and continued. However, just before he was able to start, Senator Figur asked another question, “Are you sure they actually passed the test?
Lorano was a little bit queasy about this one. Carank was convinced that 10,000 was the minimum passing score, but what if he was wrong? Oh well, this was the moment of truth they had feared for several months now. Lorano answered, “Well, the flight simulator gave each of them a passing score.”
Senator Figur said, “What were some of the scores?”
Lorano responded, “We really didn’t think to record any. Are the scores that important?”
Korno answered, “No, not really I suppose. It just would have been nice to compare the scores to Altian or Advranki average scores to see how they compare.”
Lorano responded with his well-rehearsed lie, “We did have the battle computer perform an evaluation comparing the human pilots’ simulation to the Advranki baseline from the battle.”
Senator Figur helpfully interrupted, “The same evaluation that you used to compare the Netos and the Hiriculans to the Advranki?”
Lorano continued, “Yes. We used the exact same one. As a point of fact, there is only one. I don’t think there would be any value in creating additional ones.”
Senator Figur ignored the veiled insult and said, “How did they do?”
Frank had lost all patience with Senator Figur. He didn’t think he could stand being around him for another minute. Unfortunately, Figur’s polling results were steady to trending upward. He would solidly win the next election.
An Advranki citizen hadn’t been murdered in over 1,000 years. Frank daydreamed of making an exception.
Lorano said, “The humans did quite well in the battle simulator. They exceeded the Advranki baseline by 15%.”
Senator Frank spoke for the first time. He said, “That is amazing news. So, you believe they could hold their own against the Hiriculans?”
Lorano hesitated at the question. It wasn’t a curiosity question. Frank had asked it to try to trap Lorano and discredit him later if the humans failed. He thought carefully about his answer. Finally, he responded, “I really don’t know. The simulation results indicate that they can, but we will have to see them in action to know for sure. The variables were inputted from a simulati
on, not a real life battle*.”
*Plus, and probably more important, Lorano had made up all of the aforementioned variables so that the battle computer would give the answer that he wanted.
Senator Figur interrupted again, “You mentioned a moment ago that you had over 400 pilots pass the test. What is the population of Earth?”
Lorano answered, “Approximately 7 billion. We tested over 1,000 to find the 400 that passed.”
Senator Figur said, “So, rough math means that 2 in 5 would qualify as a pilot? That is astounding. Unbelievable more like.”
Lorano held up his hands. He said, “No, you can’t make that assumption. Humans are very short lived, and they only have a useful flying window of 20 years. You have to discard 80% of the population, or those below the age of 18 and older than 38.”
Lorano paused to wait for the inevitable next question, but none came, so he continued, “As you recall, we used a video game to perform prescreening. We only tested the very best ones from the game.”
Senator Figur seemed determined to calculate statistics for he asked, “Well, how many had to play the game to get the 1,000?”
Lorano clarified it for him. He said, “Approximately 100,000 played the game. Initial screening showed that only 1 in 100 had the ability to play the game at a high enough level to be considered for further testing. From there, forty percent (40%) of those screened passed.”
Senator Figur said, “So…”
It was obvious that the senator was trying to do math, so Lorano calculated it for him. He said, “7 billion times .1% times 20% times 10% (only in 10 healthy enough) times 40% equals about 56,000. Of those, approximately half have some family or other issues that would prevent them from volunteering. So, it would be safe to assume that there are 28,000 potential pilots on Earth.
It was clear that that was the number everyone wanted to hear. Lorano had rigged the numbers to ensure the calculation turned out that way. They didn’t even match what he had said earlier.
He honestly had no idea if there were 2 thousand or 2 billion potential pilots. However, Lorano knew that the Senate knew there were 12,500 active pilots in the Alliance Navy. There were enough potential humans to backfill or even replace the current pilots.
Senator Korno asked, “So, were the humans safely delivered to the Navy?”
Lorano answered, “Yes. We met the cruiser in Conron and transferred them there.” Lorano wasn’t sure whether the name of the ship the humans were transferred to was public knowledge, so he refrained from referring to the Sunflower by name.
That seemed to mollify most of the Senators, so Frank flashed his manipulative smile and said, “I want to thank each of you for your excellent service on this project. I have a small gift for each of you. Please stop by my office tomorrow morning.”
The crew was stuck. There was no possible way to refuse the request after receiving the wonderful compliment. Lorano responded, “We will see you tomorrow then. Thank you esteemed Senators for your time and your kind reception.”
Frank was sitting at his desk the next morning staring into a small pocket mirror. He was practicing his latest smile – the ‘I don’t know who you are but you know me so we must have met at one time’ smile when the door chime rang. Frank verified who his visitors were and pressed his com pad to open the door.
All four had dutifully trudged to his office and were exactly on time. They were joined by Senator Korno. Frank would have liked to have found a way to question the head hunters without Korno present, but he couldn’t devise a plan quickly enough to get rid of him.
Frank smiled and said, “Welcome friends, it is always a pleasure to see all of you.”
After a brief round of pleasantries, Frank got straight to the point of the meeting. Not really, first he gave each of them a small cylinder of service (the Advranki equivalent of a medal) and gave a wonderful but short speech glamorizing their accomplishments. It nearly brought Crista to tears. After completing the speech, Frank finally got to the topic he really wanted to discuss.
Frank asked, “How did you get home? I bet it is quite a story.”
Crista responded, “We made a series of hyperspace jumps from Earth to Conron.”
Frank responded, “That isn’t what I meant. I reviewed Captain Solear’s report that you bent gravity or time or something. We all know that isn’t possible, so how did you really get home?”
Lorano responded this time. He said, “You are correct. We didn’t slow down time or bend gravity. However, we did do something pretty cool. We found a way to anticipate, or more precisely determine the gravity profile a distance in front of the ship. We were able to jump around gravity sources based on that information.”
Lorano’s response had some truth to it. They had invented a way to track gravity in front of a ship. It required firing missiles with gravity sensors into hyperspace and waiting days for a response, but it worked.
Korno asked, “If I understand you correctly, you are saying that you could potentially use this method to jump from any point to any other without fear of crashing.”
Lorano answered, “No. It really didn’t work that well. It is a slow and tedious process. We weren’t able to move in hyperspace while we were measuring the gravity in front of us. Plus, we had just flown that route, so we had a recent gravity profile for comparison. The process that we used wouldn’t work for an uncharted route.”
Frank said, “What exactly did you do?” There was no smile this time.
Lorano answered, “We rigged missiles to constantly measure gravity. We then created a hyperspace field in front of the ship and fired a missile into it. We then waited for the missile to hit something. Then we flew around the gravity source based on the missile’s gravity readings.
Frank said, “Hmmm. Well, that solution was certainly innovative.”
Lorano responded, “Thank you. Trust me when I tell you that it beats spending years trapped on Earth.”
Frank chuckled and nodded in agreement. He asked, “Can you travel back to Earth?”
Lorano noted he had been lying quite a bit lately; and it was all concerning Earth. He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to protect the route to Earth, even from the Alliance Senators, but he felt it was necessary. They four crew members had all agreed that they would continue the lie as long as possible.
Lorano responded. “Well, yes and no. The Vista can retrace its steps and go back at any time. However, no other ship can follow the path.”
Frank was intensely curious at that statement. He asked, “Why only the Vista?”
Lorano answered, “Only a few people know this, so I recommend that you never repeat it. There is a way to bypass the coordinates entered in the hyperspace computer. We calculated the coordinates for the last two jumps without the aid of the navigational computer and entered the coordinates into the system manually.”
Korno asked, “I didn’t know anyone could manually calculate coordinates. That is amazing. Why did you bypass them?”
Frank answered for him. He said, “I know. You realized that the hyperspace lane was corrupted and you didn’t want the transponder to advertise a new route to Earth immediately after the old one was permanently closed. That was really smart.”
Lorano said, “Thank you. We suspected that the hyperspace lane getting closed wasn’t an accident and that you would want to keep the new path to the planet a secret. The reason that the Vista is the only ship that can make the jump is that the corrected coordinates are stored on it. Anyone trying the published route will die.”
Korno asked, “You are saying that anyone could manually by-pass coordinates. What is keeping everyone from using different routes than what they publish?”
Lorano thought that question was way too close for comfort. He often discounted politicians as talking heads, but he had to remind himself that most politicians (and these two in particular) were rather intelligent and had a knack for thinking during a conversation. If he had known the Earth term ‘thinking on his
feet’, he probably would have used that to describe them.
Lorano responded, “It is extremely difficult to calculate a route manually. Calculating the first one is easier because you know the exact location from which you are jumping. After that, you don’t really know where you are or where you are going.”
Frank studied Lorano intensely. He could tell that Lorano was lying about some part of that story, or at a minimum, withholding information. Oh well, he thought, I know the most important fact. The hyperspace lane to Earth remains closed, but we can get a ship to Earth any time we need.
The four left Frank’s Senate office and returned to the spaceport. Carank summarized everyone’s feelings by saying, “Well, that was quite an adventure.”
Lorano, Crista, and Victor all nodded in agreement. Crista asked, “Do you think they will ask us to return to Earth to get more pilots?”
Lorano answered, “If the first batch do well, I would almost guarantee it.”
Carank looked at Victor and said, “Where are you headed?”
Victor said, “We plan to spend a few days on Advranki Prime visiting all of the tourist sites and going shopping. After that, we will return to Solaria for a month or two. Crista wants to see the stars on Opron, so we may head there as well in the next few months. After that, who knows?” He then looked at both of the scientists and said, “I hope your research goes well. We will probably need some new weapons if we actually have to fight the Hiriculans.”
Both Carank and Lorano thanked them. Then Carank said, “If you ever have any more questions from Earth, please don’t hesitate to call. I will help if I am able.”
It was a kind gesture, but Victor knew that help would be less forthcoming now that the recruiting mission had officially ended.