Running With Argentine

by William Lee Gordon

  The fragmentary ruins of what might have been alien civilizations had been found before. But this…

  Apparently, because of his scientific background, the powers that be at the Terran League felt that he would be the best person to dump this mess into the lap of.

  On the one hand, it was an honor to be thought of so well… On the other hand, this was his for life. He would never be given another assignment and, assuming the universe didn't end tomorrow, his career was effectively dead-ended.

  The Admiral wasn't the type of man to dwell on those thoughts, however. His task was to assume that the information was correct and that there was an existential threat – and then formulate a plan to deal with it.

  How did you plan for something when you had no idea what you were planning for? Or, for that matter, should they even believe it? It seemed so fantastical and they had so little evidence.

  And then forty minutes ago the captain had walked into his office…

  "What is your name again, son?"

  "Jacoby, Sir. Captain James Jacoby, Terran League Army."

  "How many others know about this report, Captain?"

  "The actual report was written by me, sir. And no one else has seen it. I spoke to my commanding officer who pretty muchly laughed it off as a joke. He told me it was my career, and then directed me to the Space Navy Admiralty, who immediately routed me to you."

  The Admiral made a mental note to vet everyone that might've been exposed to this information…

  "And how did you become aware of this… Object that you talk about?"

  "I work in Army intelligence, Admiral. I understand that they have now put you in charge of the discoveries on Betelgeuse, but some of the preliminary information was made available to us. Amongst that information was the description of crystalline objects…

  "It triggered something in my memory that I'd read in a report long ago. I tracked it down and actually found the artifact stored in a warehouse. No one believed it authentic, but no one had bothered to throw it away either."

  The Admiral made a decision…

  "Captain, you now work for me. Consider yourself attached to the Terran Space Navy and bump yourself up a level in rank… What's above captain in the Army? Major?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Okay, Major Jacoby. Your first assignment is to gather the artifact and bring it here. I will also want a detailed report on anyone that might be privy to even a portion of the content of this report…"

  Once the new major had left his office, the admiral looked back at the report and started reading it again…

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  A Tall Tale

  Climbing the Gravity Well

  "Explain."

  "Well I couldn't very well let myself starve. I didn't think you'd mind if I pinched a few peaches."

  "I'm not talking about the peaches, Mandi," Argentine said. "I want to know what's going on here?"

  "Mandi?" Sami said with surprise. "You know this woman?"

  Looking at Sami, Mandi said, "Don't worry, dear. We shared a few laughs and a cup of coffee. We barely know each other at all…

  "By the way," she continued. "How long until we reach Asperia?"

  "We're not going to Asperia… We're turning the ship around and taking you back to Tiffany's planet."

  "What!" the chief and Barry said at the same time.

  "I highly suspect that she's a wanted criminal and I don't want us getting caught up in her machinations," Argentine said angrily.

  "Then why are we taking her to Asperia?" Sami asked. "And why were you having her hide in the shuttle?"

  "I wasn't having her… She's a stowaway," he said forcefully.

  "A stowaway?" said Barry.

  "That's not possible," said the chief.

  "Come on Frank, I think the game is up," Mandi said with a reluctant smile. "You should probably tell them what's going on between us."

  "Yes Frank, you should tell us what's going on between you," Sami said with her arms across her chest.

  Trying to pretend that his face wasn't growing red, Argentine said slowly, "There is nothing going on… But I promise, if this woman doesn't start explaining there will be."

  Looking directly at Mandi he concluded, "And she won't like it… one… bit!"

  "Oh, hold your water," she said.

  And then to the group in general, "Is he always this uptight?"

  It didn't help Argentine’s focus that through his peripheral vision he noticed Sami nodding.

  ΔΔΔ

  "This whole situation isn't complicated at all," she began.

  "I needed a way off of Tiffany's planet so I hitched a ride with you guys. It's no big deal."

  "Don't you think you should've asked? For that matter, why didn't you just buy passage on another ship?" the chief wanted to know.

  "If I'd asked you might've said no. It was really so much simpler this way."

  "And you needed to get off the planet without the authorities being able to trace you," the lieutenant said as he finally entered the conversation.

  "Well, there is that," she responded.

  "This is all bloody well and good, and it seems like you're having a jolly good time with us, but I'm still missing something… Why did you pick our ship?" Barry asked.

  "With all the information your Captain was kind enough to provide me about yourselves I thought you would be a good choice."

  "What kind of information?"

  "All sorts of good things, including the fact that you're on the run. This, by the way, is why you’re not going to take me back."

  All eyes now turned to Argentine…

  "I never said any such thing," he responded.

  "You didn't have to. When I mentioned being able to hack into databases and identify fugitives from other systems… Well, your face spoke volumes."

  "You're a hacker?" Barry asked in surprise.

  "Of course she is," said Lieutenant Stark. "It's how she was able to get aboard ship and hide out on the shuttle without us being any the wiser."

  "Yes, how did you figure it out? If you don't mind me asking…" she asked.

  "Never mind that," Argentine said. "You're going to give us your story. From the beginning. No more tangents, no more trying to change the subject… Just a straight linear story of who you are, what you did, why you're trying to get away, and how you ended up here…

  "If you don't do that to my satisfaction you're right, I won't take you back to Tiffany's planet. But I have zero compunction about throwing you out an airlock…"

  There was something in Argentine's tone and posture…

  "Fine, fine… You win. Where do you want me to start?"

  "At the beginning."

  She sighed...

  "Okay, if you must know, I was born on Tiffany's planet. Have any of you ever been there? On the planet I mean?"

  When no one responded she continued…

  "It's not a great place to grow up. Oh, there's plenty of opportunity for hard work, but I found at an early age I preferred to use my mind. Combine that with a small aversion to authority and, well… I found myself without a lot of legitimate opportunities."

  "I sincerely hope this is not going to turn into an Oh, woe is me, story," Argentine commented.

  "No, because I found I didn't need the traditional opportunities. It turns out that I've always been good at writing software. Or, more accurately, breaking software.

  "I'm not a criminal… Or, at least, I'm not a crook. I don't steal from people. But the government has a lot of money and wastes most of it. Why shouldn't they waste a little bit of it in my direction, huh?

  "At any rate, I learned, kind of the hard way, that you can't just program the government computers to send you money every month. Eventually, some real person will take notice.

  "So I cleaned up my act… You might say I got religion even… And I started using my skills to give myself gainful employment without having to mess with all those pesky credentials, references, and e
ducational requirements.”

  When she didn't continue Argentine loudly cleared his throat.

  "What?" she asked, surprised.

  "Tell us the rest…"

  "Well… I found that there were some jobs that I like more than others…"

  "And…" he prodded.

  "And I ended up working at Platform III's Office of Inner and Outer System Employment."

  As the silence grew uncomfortably long, she continued…

  "And I started augmenting my income again… But it wasn't anything terribly dishonest," she rushed to assure everyone. "I just looked for newbies coming in from out-system that were running from something and offered to help them for a small fee."

  Argentine cleared his throat again.

  "Okay, I helped them by not turning them in and my small fee was whatever they could afford. But it's not like they were innocent spacers!" she protested.

  "And the government was starting to catch on," Argentine finished for her.

  "Well, let's just say that I thought it was time for a vacation," she said brightly.

  "So, as you can see there's no harm, no foul… All this folderol is for nothing. When we arrive at Asperia I'll take my leave and we’ll never see each other again," she said with a smile.

  "And I promise you, I'll send you some money for the peaches."

  ΔΔΔ

  Argentine had seriously thought about throwing her out the airlock. Well, maybe not seriously… But he wouldn't claim it hadn't crossed his mind.

  He was in his cabin with Lieutenant Stark and the chief. No one was really offering up any good ideas.

  As a matter of fact, earlier that day when Mandi had made her revelations she'd finished by standing up and muttering something about needing to find an empty cabin.

  No one had stopped her as she left the room.

  "She obviously can't be trusted," the chief finally said.

  "No, but what do you want me to do? Tie her up? Confine her to her cabin? We’ve still got three weeks to Asperia," responded the lieutenant.

  "Once we get there we’ll be rid of her," Argentine mused. "We just need to throw the fear of God into her and makes sure she leaves the ship alone in the meantime.

  "Can you handle that, Lieutenant?"

  He shrugged… Then nodded.

  "So, for the next three weeks we’re just supposed to treat her like one of the crew?" the chief asked in exasperation.

  "Do you have any better ideas?" Argentine asked. "Besides, she's certainly got some spunk about her. It could make for an… interesting trip."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Making A Plan

  Dreamspace

  "My God! How old is this ship?"

  "I don't really know," said Sami, somewhat surprised.

  "Well, I can't tell you how old the ship is but your systems are at least a hundred years out of date!" Mandi declared.

  The downtime for ship's personnel between star systems was the same for everyone spiral-wide… Boring.

  Argentine didn't require the bridge to be manned by more than one person at a time for this part of the voyage…

  So, Sami had decided to invite Mandi to join her on her shift…

  "Really? Seriously? That's the kind of interface you're using for your astrogational input?"

  "What's wrong with?" Sami wanted to know.

  "It's barbaric! If that's what they're forcing you to use, that means… Don't tell me you have to manually confirm feedback commands?"

  "How else would you do it?"

  "Oh girl, do I have a lot to teach you."

  Mandi lost herself in thought for a moment and then said, "I've got a few ideas…"

  ΔΔΔ

  Argentine was in the chief's cabin and had his feet propped up on the desk.

  "This is really good," he said as he slowly swirled the amber liquid around in the snifter.

  "I'm beginning to think we've missed out on a lot of the better things in life," the chief responded. "I picked this up on Tiffany's planet, and they didn't even consider it to be the best of their stock."

  Argentine thought about it. Like the chief, he'd spent his entire life in the People's Republic of Chezden. The only real contact they'd had with outside cultures was through war or by the information disseminated by the government.

  When you're fighting an enemy in space there is not a lot of personal contact; other than maybe gaining a little bit of technological insight, there is not a lot you can learn about your enemy...

  And trusting the government, of course, always presented its own challenges.

  "What did you think of Tiffany's planet?" he eventually asked.

  "Hmph... It's not like we spent a lot of time there, and I had to devote a lot of it to certain priorities," the chief said while holding up his own snifter.

  Argentine contemplated it briefly. Yes, cognac is definitely a priority in life.

  "All the same,” he said, "What were your impressions?"

  "Well, our main two experiences there are good cognac and a crazy redhead. All in all I'd say it balances out for a fairly neutral evaluation."

  While not being able to hide his grin, he pressed on…

  "But I will say this… There was something about the place that was just… nice. It had a good feel."

  "Their technology was better," Argentine mused.

  "Yeah, a little bit. But it was more than that. Everyone seemed more… Real. Or maybe I should say less constrained… Even less paranoid. I didn't get the feeling that everyone was always looking over their shoulder."

  "Hmm, well… I didn't get the feeling that Mandi was looking over her shoulder either, but she was sure in a hurry to get out of there. Maybe they're just better at hiding their problems?"

  "Maybe," the chief replied. "But I still think it's more than that.

  After a comfortable silence the chief continued…

  "So after we drop off your girlfriend, what's the plan?"

  Before it was discovered that she was stowed away on their ship, Argentine had made the mistake of confiding in the chief that he'd had high hopes for the woman he'd met on Tiffany's planet.

  Now that lamentation between two friends was destined to haunt him forever. In other words, if he knew the chief, he'd never let him live it down.

  Relieved to change the subject Argentine said, "I think we need to pull the lieutenant into this conversation, don't you?"

  Without waiting for a response, he continued…

  "Stark, I know you're listening… Why don't you join us?"

  ΔΔΔ

  Once they were all three settled in comfortably Argentine said, "Would it do any good for me to ask you, now that we're not a part of the People's Republic anymore, to stop spying on us?"

  "If you keep bribing me with good cognac like this you can probably get me to do anything," he replied.

  "The truth is, I think the monitoring functions are hardwired into the security system. I suppose I could ignore it, but it will always be keyed to notify me if certain keywords are mentioned."

  "Keywords like what?" the chief asked.

  "You know, standard stuff… Words like assassination, rebellion, fighting back, refusing orders, mutiny, my name…"

  "Why am I not surprised?" the chief murmured.

  "Unless your name is specifically mentioned," Argentine suggested. "There's no need to keep on monitoring everything else… Don't you think?"

  "Of course," he said with a small smile.

  After an uncertain silence Argentine pressed on…

  "At any rate, our conversation turned to what we’re going to do next and we thought you should be part of it. Any ideas?"

  After mulling it over for a moment he said, "I'm pretty open. I wouldn't mind putting a little bit more distance between us and the former People's Republic, but after that… Who knows?"