by Jeff Sims
He instantly received a tap back. Good, he thought, they didn’t suffocate to death. Lorano had calculated that they would have enough oxygen in the compartment to survive for 4.67 hours. Only 3 ½ hours had passed since they entered the spaceport, but Victor was still concerned.
He reversed fusion welded a fake wall set 60 cm (2 feet) from the actual front of the cargo area. He stepped back, covered his ears, and let the fake wall fall down. The wall made an enormous clang as it banged against the floor of the truck.
Victor looked tepidly into the secret space. Clowy smiled and waved. The foursome had come through the ordeal without issue. They all climbed out of the back of the truck and returned to the cabin area.
Lorano said, “Victor, Crista thank you. Our plan worked perfectly.”
Crista replied, “I’m just glad that you didn’t suffocate. That would have made an absolute mess.”
Lorano looked at her suspiciously and replied, “Well, we had to keep the false chamber airtight to avoid detection.”
Carank said, “Yes, coating the inside walls with carbon nanotubes was brilliant. The tubes absorbed the light from the scanner and made the false wall appear to be the real wall.”
Lorano said, “It wouldn’t have held up to a detailed, high level scan, but clearly it was able to fool the ineffective hand-held scanner employed by the Neto security guard.”
Carank summarized, “It was certainly an interesting trip to Solaria. We came, we saw, and we got conquered.”
It is an 8 hour journey from Solaria to Conron. So, at the 7 hour mark Lexxi, Carank, Clowy, and Lorano hid again. It would seem rather suspicious to have more people in the ship when they reached Conron than when they left Solaria.
This time though they were going to be scanned by a powerful military scanner. The scanner was programmed to check the exterior of the ship and the complete interior of the vessel. It scanned the area between the inner and outer hull, but not nearly as thoroughly as the rest of the ship.
Therefore, returning to the truck and resealing the secret wall was not a possibility. No, this time they would have to be buried in the space garden.
They went into the space garden and dug up 4 plots. Lexxi volunteered to go first. She wrapped herself into a large bag. After several reassurances that bugs were not able to penetrate the material, she laid down in one of the plots.
Carank positioned an air tube from the bag to the surface. The others covered her completely with dirt. It probably wouldn’t pass a visual inspection, but it should pass a semi-automated scanner.
Clowy got buried next. Lorano followed her. Carank was physically exhausted from the digging. Now he realized why Lexxi had volunteered to be first. He got in his bag and laid in the hole next to Lexxi. Victor and Crista covered him with dirt. Carank smiled – this wasn’t the first time that he and Lorano had been buried alive. He hoped it would the last though.
Victor and Crista washed themselves and returned to control room just before the hyperspace countdown clock hit zero. They didn’t want their absence or a delay in responding to a hail to raise suspicion. The Vista transitioned back into real-space and still maintained a velocity of .04 light.
Victor angled the mini-freighter clear of the hyperspace lane. He began both a passive and active scan and waited for traffic control to contact him. He didn’t have to wait very long.
Traffic control: “Please state your name, ship’s name, and destination.”
Victor noted that the traffic control officer was Hiriculan. That meant that the Hiriculans had conquered Conron. For that matter they had probably conquered all of the other Alliance worlds as they had claimed. Victor relaxed and tried to sound as normal as possible.
The passive scan confirmed that the Hiriculans were now in charge of the system. There were Hiriculan warships spread out throughout the entire system. Victor checked a second time and breathed a sigh of relief. There were Hiriculan warships everywhere except the Conron – Earth hyperspace lane.
Victor responded, “Victor Bullpeep, Vista, Earth.”
Traffic control: “Thank you Victor Bullpeep. The computer confirmed that you are the captain of the Vista. However, I cannot find the starting coordinates listed for that route. Do you have them?”
Victor sent him the coordinates to the Conron – Earth hyperspace lane.
Traffic control: “I thought that this hyper route had been corrupted by a mining accident. Is it now okay for use?”
Victor smiled politely and said, “Yes, there is some debris in the lane, but it is easily bypassed.”
Traffic control: “Please stay below .1 light for the brief segments of your journey in sub-light. Thank you for your patience and attention.”
The traffic control officer sent Victor a set of two micro-jumps that would take the Vista around the upper edge of the Conron system. The route wasn’t the greatest; when they completed the second jump, they would still have a two hour flight at .05 light to reach the entryway to the Conron – Earth hyperspace lane.
Victor followed the route precisely and 20 minutes later they had cleared the hyperspace lane and could micro jump to the space station.
Crista plugged the first one into the transponder, double checked it, and ran a simulation. She looked at Victor expectantly and said, “I believe that we are ready to jump.”
Victor said, “Engage the hyper drive unit.”
They made the two 11 minute micro jumps around the upper outskirts of the system without issue. Regrettably, they were forced the leave the foursome buried during both jumps. Even though there were only a few minutes between jumps, it would only take one wayward scan to detect their ruse.
They couldn’t risk uprooting the four plotters until they were sure that they couldn’t be detected by the Hiriculans. That occurred when the Vista was in close proximity to the two defensive forts guarding the hyperspace lane.
The forts’ scanners were so powerful that they acted like a shield and blocked out all other scans. The effect was similar to when a ship docked at a space station. Further, the forts scanning system was specifically tuned to search for life forms. As a result, the forts would detect everyone’s presence, regardless of whether they were buried.
The Vista was about 20 minutes from the forts when they felt safe to unearth their planted friends. Victor programmed the mini-freighter to decelerate and come to a dead stop right beside the first fort.
The computer that ran the forts was fickle and it was usually a mini-crisis to obtain clearance to enter the hyperspace lane. Victor thought it easier to just park beside it than to fly around in circles while they debated with the computer.
They left the control room and returned to the space garden. They began to dig up Carank. By the time that they finished the ship had passed into the scanning safety zone. Carank was free to get up. They then split up and freed the other 3 gardeners.
They each took a brief sonic shower and changed into clean smart suits. When everyone was done, they gathered in the kitchenette area and had a group meal. Crista made a point of using all of the vegetables that had been disrupted during the replanting.
As they were eating, Victor had a sudden realization. He said, “Hey, do you realize where we are?”
Clowy said, “I know. We are at the entryway to the Conron – Earth hyperspace lane.” She smiled brightly.
Lorano said, “We are parked next to two asteroids. The asteroids have been converted into fully automated guard forts. Each fort has an impressive array of missiles and ion cannons. One cannon is strong enough to vaporize a fully shielded battleship. The two asteroids combined have 16 of them.”
Lorano paused for a breath and continued, “They employ a series of ionic thrusters that can rapidly spin the fort in two directions simultaneously. It takes a couple of minutes for the fort to stabilize enough to accurately fire, but it is far, far faster than any other means of rotation.”
Carank knew what was coming next. He decided to participate. He asked, “Lorano
, how do you know so much about these forts?”
Lorano smiled brightly and responded, “Because I designed them.”
Victor waited patiently for Lorano to wind down. When Lorano finally stopped talking he said, “The last time we were here we left three fighter pilot simulators that were made on Earth on that fort. I think we should retrieve them since we are headed back to Earth.”
Lorano hadn’t actually told Victor where they were going yet. However, more than likely they would be headed to Earth at some point in the future. Further, they had plenty of room since they deployed one of the hyperspace communication devices in planet C2L2’s orbit.
Lorano laughed and said, “That is an excellent suggestion. I suggest we retrieve them immediately and leave.”
Victor carefully guided the ship into the one of the massive docking ports and carefully landed the ship inside the bay. He used the same hangar that he used the previous time. It wasn’t due to nostalgia; it was the closest port to where they had left the simulators.
Victor activated a control and said, “All external scans are now being blocked. We cannot see externally. I am scanning the immediate area now.”
He waited for a moment for the results to show and continued, “The bay is relatively empty, though there are more items here now than when we left. The three simulators are still there and appear to have been left undisturbed.”
Lorano said, “Is there a breathable atmosphere?”
Victor checked the readout and said, “The bay is pressurized and there is a low level atmosphere, but it is not breathable.”
Carank said, “Then we will have to wear our space suits.”
Victor continued to monitor the readout. He noted a change and said, “Wait, the station must have detected our presence because the bay is now slowly filling with oxygen. It will take 95 minutes for the bay to be fully breathable.”
Carank said, “We should go now. We don’t want to risk anyone sneaking up on us.”
Lexxi shook her head and said, “No way. I am not damaging my hair again. I think we should wait the 95 minutes until the bay fills with breathable air. Besides, we scanned the entire area a few minutes ago. There are no ships in the vicinity that could reach us.”
Clowy asked, “What ships?”
Lorano responded, “The only ship that could reach us in the next 2-3 hours would have to come from the Earth – Conron hyperspace lane.”
That decided it in favor of waiting.
He said, “I have an idea. Why don’t you leave the truck here on the station?”
Victor looked at him strangely and said, “What good would that do? Then the truck would simply be stuck on this fort.”
Lorano said, “You could send Jack Dogbarks a message to collect this truck after he obtains your toilet unit. He could then return both of them to Solaria.” He thought for a moment and added, “Isn’t there a Solarian saying about doing two things at once?”
Carank overheard and said, “A flying mammal sitting on your appendage is equivalent to two flying mammals sitting in overgrown vegetation.”
Lorano used the time to cover their trail the best that he could. He created a small device and attached it in the engine compartment of the truck. It looked like simply another component on the strange looking engine.
After Jack Dogbarks stopped at the fort and retrieved the Navistar truck, the program would activate. It would copy the Jackal’s telemetry from his navigation computer for the next few jumps until he reached Solaria.
Then, when he started the truck, the program would send a coded message to the real mini-freighter Vista, which was currently masquerading as the Travesty. The program would restore the ship’s transponder back to its original settings and add the jumps from the Jackal to the Vista. The Hiriculans should be left wondering how the Vista managed to evade detection and land on Solaria in spaceport dock 26.5.5.
Lorano was surprised how easy it was to add jumps to a navigation transponder. It was impossible to delete jumps and very nearly impossible to change them - but it was simple to add them. He guessed that the transponder manufacturer never envisioned that someone would want to add mythical jumps.
Finally, he changed their ship’s transponder from the Vista back to the Travesty. If all went as planned the Hiriculans should believe the complicated ruse. It would certainly help that the Vista would be sitting at the spaceport in Solaria.
Ninety-six minutes later they opened the hatch to the primary cargo bay. Victor checked the air with a hand-held scanner and declared that it was okay. All six then exited the ship.
They walked the 100 or so paces to the simulators. Lorano inspected them and declared that they were in perfect condition and hadn’t been touched since they left them there nearly two years ago.
They realized at that moment that they hadn’t brought any hover carts or gravity lifters. Lorano, Carank, and Victor walked back to the mini-freighter and collected a handful each of gravity lifters and walked back to the simulators.
Lexxi, Crista, and Clowy each grabbed an electro cart and tried to follow. However, they had some difficulty maneuvering the hover carts around the large truck. The difficulty culminated with Lorano banging his head against the side of the truck.
The pain gave him a sudden idea. Lorano left the hover carts lie for a moment and walked over to Victor. He said, “Why don’t you move the truck out of the hold now? It would give us a lot more room.”
Victor backed the truck out of the main cargo hold and parked it on the other side of the simulators so that they wouldn’t have to maneuver around it a second time. He noticed that there was an Alliance transport parked there.
He tried to remember whether or not it was there when they dropped the pilot simulators. He couldn’t recall though. However, the fact that he didn’t seem to remember it being there last time was some proof in his mind that it may be a new addition. He really wanted to look in the window, but he couldn’t because transports do not have exterior windows.
Once the truck was out of the way, the six beings separated by race at individual units. Lorano looked around and realized that the scattered approach was inefficient. He said, “Everyone, stop. It would be easier if we focused on one at a time.”
They attached the gravity lifters to the side the first simulator and carefully pushed an electro cart underneath. Once it was secured, they dragged it across the hangar and into the mini-freighter. They placed the unit against a now empty wall. They repeated twice more. They secured the simulators to the wall.
The full group of six naturally split into two groups – one group consisting of males and the other group of females. The females returned to the cabin area. Victor, Carank, and Lorano remained in the primary hold for a few minutes admiring their work.
Victor asked, “You have been rather quiet about our destination. Are we headed back to Earth?”
Lorano responded, “No, we are going to make a stop at an uninhabited and previously undiscovered system.”
Carank added helpfully, “We named it C2L2 after our first names – Clowy, Carank, Lorano, Lexxi.”
Victor nodded and said, “That is certainly inventive.” He paused for a moment and said, “Hey, if it is still undiscovered and we are going there, then Crista and my names should be added to the name of the planet.”
Carank said, “Crista’s name can be incorporated fairly easily. I guess we could call it C3L2V.” He repeated it for effect and said, “I suppose it that sounds okay.”
Lorano said, “I don’t like it. The name is no longer balanced. I suggest we take the weighted average based on the alphabetical location of the first letters of the three non-C names.”
Lorano assigned the number 12 to the letter ‘L’ and the number 22 to the letter ‘V’. He said, “Lorano equals 12, Lexxi equals 12, and Victor equals 22. So, 46 divided by 3 is 15.3. We can then round it to the nearest whole number and find the letter associated with 15.
“P; the number 15 corresponds to P,” Carank c
oncluded.
Lorano said, “That makes the name of the planet C3P. It doesn’t sound right though; it needs to be balanced.”
“C3P3,” Victor suggested.
Carank responded, “No. That would imply that there are 3 people whose names begin with the letter P. That is not what we are implying here.”
Lorano said, “The word for weighted-average in the Altian language begins with the letter O. Let’s put an O at the end to give it balance and to signify that we took a weighted average versus just summing the first letters like we did with the C’s.
Carank said, “So, that would make the temporary name of the planet C3PO. It has a certain ring to it I think.”
Victor said, “How do we get there? Specifically, what are the starting coordinates for the jump?”
Lorano looked at him quizzically and asked, “We are going to have to make an unauthorized jump back about a quarter of the way to the Conron – Solaria hyperspace lane and then make a series of semi-random jumps so that they can’t follow us. Why do you ask?”
Victor replied, “Well, I have a slightly better idea. We are sitting right next to the Conron – Earth hyperspace lane. Let’s just sail through the forts and then micro – jump to the correct starting location.”
Carank said, “They are expecting us to use the hyperspace lane and that is exactly what we would do. Clever.”
Lorano said, “I like the idea. There is a problem though. The computer will not allow us to pass through. It will try to blow us up for our safety.”
Victor said, “The Vista is already in the database as being allowed to pass. It let you, I, Crista and Carank pass once. It may do so again. That would only mean convincing it to accept Lexxi and Clowy and the Travesty.”
Carank said, “We could do that. Or we could just hack the fort’s database and add everyone in permanently.”
Lorano shook his head and said, “There are numerous safeguards that we would have to overcome. For one thing, I would have to plug directly into the core processor. Another is that this artificial intelligence is enhanced. It would be extremely difficult to hack.”