by Jeff Sims
Crista asked, “Isn’t there a covenant specifically outlawing that?”
Victor said, “I am sure that eventually the Humans would surrender and become a part of the New Alliance. Then there would be 6 voting members.”
Lorano shook his head no, took another step back so that he was fully shielded behind Clowy and said, “I am sorry Victor; we now have conclusive proof that 4,000 years ago Altians visited Earth.”
He let that filter through their consciousness for a moment and continued, “My ancestors took 8,000 Humans from Earth and slightly modified a couple of their chromosomes so that they were more intelligent, longer living, and for some unknown reason had blue skin.”
Lorano continued, “They also made Solarians shorter and significantly less aggressive than average Humans. However, I am still unsure whether they accomplished it through DNA manipulation or selective breeding or a combination of each.”
Lorano was proud of himself and smiled brightly. He left out ‘less creative’ on purpose.
Carank concluded, “Then they transported them to Solaria, built them a settlement, and let them develop without any further interference.” Carank paused and then added, “We don’t yet know why they did this.”
“Which means,” Lorano prompted.
“Which means,” Victor answered. “The Hiriculans would not let the same race have two representatives on the Council. And since Humans outnumber us about 9 to 1, Solaria would never be able to elect a representative.”
Carank said, “Now, back to the issue at our respective appendages. We are all in danger and need to get off of this planet immediately.”
Lorano held his hand up and said, “Wait a moment. I have a question first. Victor, have the Hiriculans tried to coerce you into telling them the secret route?”
Crista responded instead, “No. No one has banged on front door and questioned us for information about the route to Earth.” She left the words ‘until now’ unspoken.
Lorano said, “The Hiriculans are devious. Can you think of anything out of the ordinary that has happened to you since your last trip to Earth?”
Victor replied, “Well, there was the lucrative shipping contract.”
“Shipping contract?” Clowy asked.
Victor replied, “Yes. We had a shipping contract. My old acquaintance Jack Dogbarks called us a couple of months ago, just after the end of the Solarian Celebration. He had accepted a shipping contract to bring the final loads of supplies for the new office building from Hiricula to Solaria.”
Victor continued, “The contract was for two trips. However, the Hiriculans didn’t communicate the shipping timing properly. As a result, they needed both loads delivered at the same time. Crista and I joined Jack on the voyage. We flew the Vista to Hiricula, obtained a load of supplies, and returned to Solaria.”
Lorano asked incredulously, “You went to Hiricula? What happened?”
Crista said, “They were waiting for us when we landed. It was awful.”
She paused a moment and continued, “A couple of dignitaries took us on a tour of their capital city and took us out to lunch in a beautiful art gallery. The tour and luncheon were nice, but the company could have been better.”
Victor responded, “Ambassador Luna, the Solarian ambassador to Hiricula joined us on the excursion. Crista thought that she paid a little too much attention to me.”
“And then what?” Lorano asked.
Victor said, “While we were touring the capital city, the Hiriculans loaded the cargo on our mini-freighter. We returned to our ship and flew back to Solaria. The contract was extremely lucrative. We are actually considering building a casino in Human Town.”
Lorano said, “We have to be missing something important. It seems odd to me that the Hiriculans would pay you an exorbitant fare for simply hauling a load of building supplies halfway across the galaxy.”
He paused for a moment and said, “Is Jack Dogbarks around? He is an old friend of mine too and I would like to hear his version of this story.”
Victor shook his head and said, “No. He got another shipping contract; this time to the Spindle Station. He left shortly before the invasion.”
Lorano asked, “And you know this how?”
Victor responded, “He called us just before he left. I had to leave some items on a space station in Conron and he volunteered to retrieve them for me on his way home – for a price of course.”
Victor thought for a moment and said, “Jack did say something odd. He said that the Hiriculans demanded that he leave at a certain time and fly through the entire the bottom half of the Conron system instead of jumping around it.”
Lorano sighed and responded, “It makes no sense. The, or at least some of the Hiriculans believe that you know the secret route to Earth. Then they had you captive on their planet for several hours and just let you go without even questioning you.”
Carank said, “Clearly we are missing something important.”
Clowy, still looking at the mirror, decided that she wanted one. She checked the sides and couldn’t find the data matrix code or the model number. She turned back to Victor and said, “The tracking number is missing.”
Lorano exclaimed, “That’s it! The Hiriculans must have installed an autonomous tracking system in the mini-freighter Vista and probably the Jackal as well when they were both docked at the spaceport in Hiricula. Clowy, you’re a genius!
Clowy responded, “No, I just like this mirror.”
Carank said, “So, their plan was to somehow get Victor to return to Earth and have the secret tracking system simply send them the coordinates that the Vista took. Clever.”
Crista said, “And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling genealogists.”
Lornao said, “Let’s give them what they want.”
Chapter 13
A Neto was standing guard at the main spaceport in Solar City. He was of average height and average weight and average intelligence. There was no physical or mental feature that separated him from the other Neto soldiers.
After his ‘recruitment’ – he laughed at the absurdity of the word – he had tried hard not to stand out in any way. He had been polite to his fellow Neto soldiers and followed every order given by his Hiriculan commanders. All of his evaluations had listed him as average.
Therefore, he was at a complete loss as to why he was being punished. Most of the other Neto had been assigned to guard empty warehouses. Their duties included doing nothing all day. But by some random twist of fate or bad luck he had been assigned to the spaceport in Solar City.
While his fellow soldiers were lounging in the sun, he and a select few other unlucky Neto had to take care of the business of guarding the spaceport. They had to physically inspect all incoming and outgoing ships, interact with the ship’s captains, and maintain all of the shipping records.
Fortunately Solarians were still in charge of actually running the spaceport, but Hiriculans had taken over the customs inspections. Unfortunately, they had assigned the physical portion of the inspecting the ships to the Neto in general and at that particular moment, to him.
And adding insult to injury, he had been assigned to the upper levels of the spaceport where the extra-solar shipments were made. Dealing with Solarians making local flights around the planet was bad. Dealing with all alien races trying to make shipments from other planets was far worse.
“Oh well”, he said to himself. “It’s all right though. At least I get paid for working overtime. Eventually it will all work out okay.”
He hated anything out of the ordinary. The last inspection had been difficult. The one before that had been bad too. And this next captain and next shipment was absolutely shaping up to be the worst ever.
He checked the time on his communication pad. Unfortunately, there was no way that he could delay this one to the next shift.
Some sort of contraption that he had never seen before exited the cargo electro lift and was slowly
approaching. It was large and had strange wheels and smelled horrific. Plus, it made a really loud sound when it moved. He had never seen anything remotely like it.
The vehicle left the electro lift and approached the main nexus where he was standing. Groups of launch pads branched off here in six directions. He inadvertently stepped aside as the vehicle approached. Finally, the contraption reached him and the driver turned it off.
He hated speaking Alliance Basic almost as much as he hated being at the spaceport. The Solarian driving the vehicle rolled down what appeared to be a large piece of glass and looked down at him.
He said, “Hel-lo. Howww may I hel-p youu?”
He was pleasantly surprised when he received a communication link. Finally, he thought. Some of the Solarians are finally getting communication devices installed. He accepted the request.
The Solarian said, “Hello, my name is Victor Bullpeep.”
The Neto responded, “Hello Victor. Please state your ship’s name, cargo and destination and tell what me this monstrous thing is.”
Victor smiled as pleasantly as possible and said, “It is an International DuraStar class 7 commercial vehicle that is made on Earth. It is used to haul large things.”
Victor continued, “My destination is Earth. My cargo is this vehicle. I have to take the truck back to Earth for its 10,000 mile check-up. If I don’t, I will void the warranty. My ship is a mini-freighter called the Vista and is currently docked on level 27, pod 4, landing pad 6.”
The Neto shrugged. His earlier assessment of joy from actually being able to communicate with someone had vanished. He had understood exactly what the other being said and didn’t like it. Unusual destinations required additional paperwork. A trip to Earth was probably going to require him to write a novel.
He typed in the name of the mini-freighter and frowned. He discarded these results and typed it in again. This time his frown deepened. Everything about this particular shipment was unusual and shaping up to be a real pain in his posterior.
He said, “I do see that the Vista is currently docked at pad 27.4.6. However, a few weeks earlier it landed on pad 26.5.5. There are no records of it leaving and landing again. Further, the ship was on pad 26.5.5 through yesterday. Why is the ship now in a different location today?”
Victor tried to remain smiling. This was the one part of their plan that they couldn’t conceal. Everyone had hoped that the security guards would simply overlook the launch pad change, but that was not the case.
Victor responded, “This vehicle is extremely difficult to maneuver. As a result, yesterday we moved the mini-freighter to a launch pad that has more of a straight line approach. The change will make it much easier to load the truck into the mini-freighter.”
Victor got out of the truck and walked to the back. He grabbed the locking mechanism and swung it up. He then grabbed the door and wrestled it up about three-quarters of the way open. He stood aside and allowed the security guard to climb in.
The guard looked around for a moment and saw that the truck was completely empty save for a few pieces of luggage stacked neatly in one corner. He waved the scanner around the truck in one quick motion and received a negative beep in response. He climbed down and motioned for Victor to reseal the door.
The Neto said, “Please wait a minute. I have to check with supervision.”
He called his supervisor and informed him of the situation. His supervisor promptly put him on hold and called his supervisor. The process repeated itself until eventually someone called Ambassador Lone.
Ambassador Lone bypassed the various management layers and spoke directly to the Neto security guard. He said, “Let me understand this correctly. Victor Bullpeep just submitted a request to go to Earth to have his Earth vehicle maintained.”
The security guard responded, “Yes Ambassador. He has submitted the appropriate trip request. Apparently the truck’s warranty will be voided unless he returns it for scheduled maintenance.”
Ambassador Lone replied, “Is anyone with him?”
The security guard responded, “Just his wife Crista Bullpeep. I scanned the truck. It is completely empty.”
Lone: “Well, we certainly wouldn’t want the warranty voided. Victor is allowed to leave, but I want you to personally verify that he is traveling on the mini-freighter Vista. This particular ship is unique in that it has a space garden, a combination entertainment, exercise and communication room, and a backup generator in the hold.
The Neto looked at a schematic of the spaceport. The Solarian was correct; the new pad did seem to be a little better aligned than the old one. And that vehicle certainly looked difficult to maneuver. He waved them through the checkpoint and followed them to their ship.
He started the verification process by pinging the transponder. The transponder did indeed report that was the Vista. Next he checked the make and model number of the mini-freighter. Those also matched perfectly. Then he asked Victor to open the main hatch and lower the gangway so that he could enter and visually complete the verification process.
Victor sighed in relief. The transponder switch fooled the Neto security guard. He knew that it was difficult to transfer the information from one transponder to another.
Actually, according to Lorano, it had been a tremendously arduous task that only one of the brightest minds in the galaxy could even hope to undertake let alone master. Of course, he had said this while brushing Clowy’s fake hair, so the statement lost a little of its punch.
It would have been far easier to simply pull the transponder out of the Vista and switch it with the one in the Travesty. However, Lorano would have been recorded and probably detected if he had had tried to sneak into the spaceport.
Victor and the security guard entered the ship and checked the cabins. One of them was indeed a combination communication, exercise, and entertainment area. Victor then led him to the door and showed him the space garden located between the inner and outer hulls. Finally, Victor led the Neto to the main hold and showed him the secondary generator.
Victor couldn’t believe how similar the two mini-freighters were. Lorano said that they had modified their mini-freighter based on the Vista and he was correct. The two ships were nearly identical and clearly close enough to fool the security guard.
The guard established a link with Victor and said, “You are approved for departure. Please contact traffic control for exit coordinates when you are ready to leave.”
Victor replied, “Thank you. I appreciate your vigilance on our behalf.”
Victor activated the switch to open the hatch to the primary cargo bay and followed the security guard off of the ship. He got back into the truck and drove it into the mini-freighter. He maneuvered the truck into the bay and parked in the exact middle of it. He then bled all of the air out of the system to apply the parking brakes. He exited the truck, returned to control room, and closed the hatch.
Crista exited the truck and chocked the wheels with the specialized triangular tire stops that they had taken from Earth. She put two on the outside of the front tires and two on the outside of the back. That was the best that they could do to keep the truck secure. Despite her protests Victor had thrown away the Earth tie-straps that they had used when they brought the truck from Earth.
Crista’s exact words at the time had been, “You should probably keep those. You may need those someday.”
Victor’s response had been, “No I won’t.”
Crista remembered the conversation exactly because she had recorded it on her communicator. She had proudly played it for Victor on the ride to the spaceport. Oddly enough, Victor hadn’t been impressed.
Victor contacted traffic control and received a flight path through the system and to the Solaria – Conron hyperspace lane. Before the invasion commercial traffic had been allowed to use whatever path they wanted. Now though, the routes were tightly controlled and monitored.
He very carefully launched the newly christened mini-freighter Vista and slowl
y headed up out of the atmosphere and into outer space. Victor watched the main monitor as they flew past the Hiriculan warships.
He supposed it wasn’t any different than receiving a dedicated flight path when leaving Advranki Prime. When flying into that system, one had to take a circuitous route around the naval vessels.
However, unlike Advranki Prime, the Hiriculan military vessels on Solaria were stationed well outside of the direct route to the hyperspace lane. As a result, he didn’t have to fly around them. He thought that was particularly thoughtful of the Hiriculans.
An hour later they reached the entryway to the Solaria – Conron hyperspace lane. Victor again contacted traffic control and received clearance and coordinates. Victor carefully aligned the ship with the correct hyperspace lane and motioned to Crista.
Crista entered the coordinates for Conron, double checked for accuracy, ran a computer simulation of the flight, performed a status check on the hyperdrive unit, and declared that everything was okay.
She said, “I entered the coordinates. The status check is okay. The computer says the hyperdrive unit is on-line and functioning properly. We are ready to jump.”
Victor hated jumping in an unknown ship. He had really wanted to have an engineer check the hyperdrive unit before leaving. However, he had been reminded that he was transporting two of the best hyper engineers in the galaxy and he was technically on their ship. Besides, time was of the essence. If he dallied too long his much ballyhooed engineering staff would suffocate.
Victor said, “Engage the hyperdrive.”
Crista could have easily just pressed the button after the status check, but somehow hearing the command to press the button made sense to her. Crista pressed the button and they disappeared from Solaria.
Crista and Victor left the control room as soon as the mini-freighter entered hyperspace and power walked to the primary cargo bay. They really wanted to run, but they didn’t want to fall and hurt themselves. They were in a hurry, but not that much of a hurry.
They entered the bay and briskly walked to the truck. The brakes and the chocks had worked; the truck hadn’t moved during the short voyage. Victor opened the back of the truck and climbed inside the almost empty truck. He tapped on the forward wall.