Jinks on Sirius 4

by C. E. Engelbrunner

  It was Crazy Cockney Lily.

  She sauntered across the room, all in pink, and sat herself right on Linus McCall's lap. He winced a bit as she plopped down on his crotch. Then she started kissing his face all over, covering him in, what else, pink lipstick. Lily Spector was the colony's chief pilot. A tiny, cockney woman, only about 5'4'' , with the temperament of a pubescent teenager. And she loved McCall. There had never been anything romantic between them, but she displayed her attachment to him openly, as she did with everything. Her standard outfit was sort of a crazy punk thing in pink. But anyone who knew her, knew not to underestimate her based on her appearance. She was one of the most capable and best pilots McCall and Beaumont had ever met in their lives as well as being a loyal friend. They had worked together when she was a fighter pilot in the Royal British Air Force, escorting them and their ship to Mars. Their final and most memorable flight to the red planet.

  McCall remembered when they stood parade together in front of the line-up of kings and presidents of the planet to get their promotions. She might be eccentric, but she was hard-working, capable and honest, and a war hero as well. McCall always thought that you weren't able to detect the really crazy people running free in the world, some of whom were even heads of government and in similarly powerful positions. He would take Lily as a colleague and friend any day.

  McCall gave in and hugged her back. And after the events of the day, he felt relieved to find her in good shape and the same old Lily, just as zany as ever.

  "I.. need to breath, hon." he finally croaked, and Lily released her grip on him.

  "You did save us, didn't you? I knew it!" Lily said and gave him the big eye and a smile.

  "Well, it was more by chance. We got a message that the La Fleur wasn't responding and..." He couldn't finish this sentence because Lily was grabbing him again, kissing him on the mouth. At least the others were entertained.

  They all felt relief and were glad to be able to spend the time together, chatting, and toasting to a healthy future.

  After a while the door of the pub suddenly flew open again. A man in fishermen's clothing walked in and went straight up to St. John.

  "Mr. MacGill," he said breathlessly, "We found something on the beach!"

  "Laddie, you look upset, what is it?", St. John said.

  "Another life pod, looks like from the La Fleur, it just appeared when the tide went out. It's almost buried in the sand," the fisherman answered.

  St. John stood up and looked at the others. "Might give us some answers. Come on, let's go."

  They were all in agreement on that idea. The entire lot of them got up and followed him through the streets of the colony.

  Along the way, Beaumont said that he would rather go back to the hospital and check on the status of the situation over there. Beaumont left the group and walked off in the direction of the hospital. The rest of them continued down to the beach.

  The group walked over the wet sand toward the washed up rescue pod. Heavy clouds were looming over the mountains and covered the sun. Even crazy cockney Lily was quiet during their march.

  "Look at that", Captain Lerille was pointing at the pod, "That's definitely from our ship."

  On the hull of the escape pod the ship's name "La Fleur" was printed clearly on each side in bright orange on the yellow surface.

  "But look at the number. It's pod number three. I'm sure we didn't use that one. We only used the pod numbers one and two, that was enough to hold all of us."

  McCall frowned, taking a closer look inside the open hatch, and said, "So there wasn't anybody else on board your ship? No stowaway? You're absolutely sure?"

  "Hey, Captain, you know the procedure, especially nowadays. No living being can get aboard any star ship without being scanned. Nobody!" Lerille was adamant.

  McCall nodded and looked over at St. John. "Why don't you tow this thing to your lab and let the flight recorder figure things out?"

  "Aye Laddie, I thought you'd say as much." He turned around and gestured for two of his people to come closer. "You two, get a tractor, a forklift, or whatever can pull that out of the mud and bring it into the main workshop."

  The two men nodded assent and went back towards the colony.

  As they were leaving, McCall received a call on his communicator. It was Julien from the hospital. "Yo, Julien, what's the good news?" McCall asked.

  "Actually it is good news. Everyone's alive. Even the older people and children who had suffered the most from the gas. But they were able to reanimate them. No losses today!"

  McCall smiled and released a long deep breath. "That is good news, indeed. But we have some news that might be troubling. We found an escape pod from the La Fleur down on the beach. You better come down here and have a look." He signed off and informed the rest about the status at the hospital, which seemed to cheer up the somewhat forlorn group for the moment.

  Chapter 5: Ghosts on the Beach

  Beaumont was walking circles around the pod, inspecting it from all angles, "This is suspicious, at the very least." Then he suggested, "Malfunction during evacuation?" .

  "Doesn't look like it. It ejected from the ship on purpose, landed by the rules." McCall answered and pointed to the marks of the retro engine's exhaust on the side of the pod.

  "There was certainly no malfunction at the time. We were able to evacuate according to protocol." Captain Lerille said. "We got into two escape pods and banked away from our ship after the reactor warning."

  McCall nodded. "Two pods. But we got three on the ground, three missing from your ship. Stinks!” He was rubbing his chin, “So what happened? Did your log book list a passenger that didn't exist? Or maybe only as a virus in the mainframe?"

  "Don't know. If someone got on board, they would have had to have gotten on when we took cargo from that military station. Before that, everything was normal. We noticed some disturbances in the flight computer, but that happens sometimes when you pass a large sun, like Sirius with its double suns, or other abnormalities in space. You know what I mean, Captain McCall." Lerille shrugged.

  McCall felt uncomfortable as the fog began moving down the hills. "We should get this thing away from here as long as we can see. Come on."

  St. John nudged McCall's shoulder and pointed toward the colony. A big tractor towing a long flatbed trailer was driving down in their direction. "Let's go, get to some place where it's warmer. My men know what to do."

  McCall touched Lily's elbow, steering her away. She had been quiet the whole time they were at the beach. That was unusual for her. The group walked back through the sand together just as the fog was beginning to envelope them, Lerille in the lead.

  Beaumont caught up to Lerille, Lily following close behind.

  "What cargo did you pick up at this space station, Captain Lerille?" Beaumont asked.

  "We don't know. It always comes in sealed containers. Sometimes they want us to shoot it out into the sun." He shrugged, "They pay, it's the army, and we don't ask questions."

  "Oui, mon ami, that sounds like the Army." Beaumont gave him a cynical grin as they walked on.

  "If we were to ask they wouldn't hire us anymore. That's part of the deal," Lerille added, "You know how it is, mon ami."

  As the group reached the promenade, another huge tractor passed them. It was equipped with a crane, strong enough to lift the rescue pod.

  Lerille stopped and watched the tractor for a while. Beaumont and the others stopped and stood by him.

  "I still don't get how this pod was able to launch without anybody in there. They can't launch if they're empty, that's just wrong. Did you two really check my ship's system for malfunctions?" Lerille asked.

  "Well, we didn't find any. There was a report that three pods had launched in a regular manner." McCall answered, "But there was this reactor warning, that appears to have been a false warning."

  "Yes, that's why we abandoned ship in the first place." Lerille shook his head, lifted his hand limply in the direction of t
he beach, turned around and walked back toward the city, muttering french cuss words.

  McCall was still looking back in the direction of the pod as he sighed and said, "He's right. This entire story keeps getting more and more suspicious."

  "Yup, and the drone attacks on us, the gas attack on the colony. Too much for one day." Beaumont said and then turned and followed Lerille.

  St. John was already at the administration office and hollered back at them, "Come on Lassies! We all need another drink, hurry up now!"

  Lily looked up at McCall, holding on to his Arm. She hadn't spoken for a long while and she looked a bit worried, as McCall locked eyes with her. That was also something unusual for her. She looked more like a scared puppy than her usual high-spirited self.

  “Hon? Whazzup?”

  “Dunno, Mackie. You know me, we flew together, but this is all wrong.” She held his gaze.

  “Ask me, we found the La Fleur, got attacked, found you guys all passed out. Great day, isn't it?”

  She smiled and gave him a slap on his butt as they walked on.

  Later on, they were all gathered together in the conference room in the administration building, located in the center of Lyman City. The Crew of the Buster K, the La Fleur and all the high ranking officers of the city. The colony's chief systems engineer, named Matthew Burke, had also joined the group. He was the responsible IT specialist for the colony. He would present his analysis of the incident. He was a young, humble looking man and what anyone would expect in a hacker nerd. He looked around, somewhat insecurely, until his eyes met with St. John's. He asked, "Can I start?"

  St. John nodded with a fatherly smile on his face.

  Matt glanced around at the group that had assembled and then back to his papers. He hesitated for a moment, before beginning with his report. He was nervous and his hands were shaking.

  "There was a disturbance in the mainframe at around midnight, local time. After that, when my...err, when the security staff were alerted to the disturbance, we all became unconscious and were no longer able to perform any further actions."

  McCall and Beaumont locked eyes, and McCall shrugged as if saying, "so what". They knew these facts already, except for the timeline maybe.

  Beaumont cut in with a raised voice, "Hey, wait a minute. We were attacked by your very own defense system! Our ship has been here several times. Your robots should know our transponder signal by heart by now. And our transponder was definitely online!"

  The young programmer looked startled, and stuttered as he answered, "I...I just don't know. The system should have identified any friendly ship."

  "Sounds pretty lame to me." McCall was getting impatient. "That sucker of yours was close to bringing our ship down for good, and you are telling me there is nothing on the record?"

  Matt was becoming more and more nervous and said, "These...are all the facts we have at the moment." and looked over at St. John hoping he would come to the rescue.

  St. John just looked back into Matt's eyes. Matt was the one who broke the contact and moved his head to avoid the glare from his boss.

  "What the hell are we doing down here on this planet?" St. John exclaimed. "What is the purpose of a system that was designed to keep the pirates and looters out, when it is shooting at our friends instead?"

  "We got hacked, Mr. Mac Gill." Matt almost shouted back. "The mainframe was corrupted."

  "Point taken, laddie." St. John said. "That'll be all for now. Maybe you should return to your work. Thank you for your analysis."

  Matt stood up, still looking worried, and was ready to just leave the room without saying any other word.

  "Wait a minute!" This was going too fast for McCall. He looked at Matt and asked, "How can a mainframe get corrupted in deep space? I mean we are here way out in the middle of nowhere. No connection to anything. We're too far away, farther than 9 light years. So, how is this supposed to have happened? Who did it?"

  The young IT man was still looking back at McCall when it suddenly came to him. "Have you ever been in the Army?" Matt asked McCall, still fixing him with steady eyes.

  "Well, yes Sir, uh, I served at McChord for almost three years."

  Matt said.

  "I thought so. I think I noticed you there when we had a cargo job down at McChord. Two or maybe three years ago?" McCall gave him a brief smile.

  "Aren't you and Captain Beaumont in the history books? Your performance in the Battle on Olympus Mons was mentioned in class at the Air Force Academy."

  McCall smiled and felt humbled. That kid had paid attention in his classes in military history.

  St. John held his E-Paper into the air and cleared his throat loudly.

  "Laddies, and Lassies," a few in the room chuckled, "We need to clear up what happened to this colony, the La Fleur and the Buster K. Under the circumstances, I, as the highest representative of the law, will conduct a criminal investigation and call a hearing under international maritime law."

  He looked around, with an officious look and asked, "Any objections?"

  Nobody objected.

  "Then, I hereby declare this to be a court of the admiralty. I appoint Flight Captain Lilian Spector and Chief Medical Officer John Mahoney to be my assessors. Do the you accept these offices of the court with all of the duties attached thereto? Any objections?"

  No one objected, both nodded and said: "Aye, we accept."

  "I also request that our regular community recording clerk, Siobhán Flanagan, be the recording clerk at this court. Do you accept Ms. Flanagan?" A young redheaded women stood briefly and nodded, "Aye, I accept."

  "Then please make a note in the record that a formal admiralty court has been set up by the vote of the people of Lyman City on Sirius 4."

  St. John had spoken and no one questioned his authority. Light years away from any court or any authority, he was the man in charge. It was like in times long ago when there was no communication with the mainland, the times when it took weeks or months for a letter to get into civilization. The first talks started in 1959, when the superpowers reached for the stars. Then in 1967 Space Law was imposed. It was ratified by almost every nation on the planet Earth, but they still called it maritime law or admiralty court.

  St. John pulled a wooden gavel out of his desk and hit it three times on his table. "This Court is now in session!"

  St. John continued, "As a first witness I call Flight Captain Lerille, the commanding officer of the commercial space freighter La Fleur."

  Lerille rose and gave his report, explaining the happenings on the La Fleur and what had happened to him and his crew after landing on the colony, much as he had before.

  When he was finished, McCall and Beaumont were called as witnesses to give their testimonies about the incident.

  Finally, St. John said, "I now call Matthew Burke, System Administrator of Sirius 4 to the witness stand."

  The young fellow stood up and gave the same testimony as before. The proceedings seemed somewhat drawn-out and almost boring for most of the group of people attending, but it was the law.

  McCall tried to stay alert, as did the others, during the long accounts of each of the witnesses. And then something sparked his memory and he was suddenly wide awake during the testimony of Burke.

  McCall wondered why this guy was acting like he didn't know what was going on. Hello? He was the systems administrator in general for this deep space settlement. A job that carried enormous responsibility, but he was acting like a nerd from some gaming club in some crappy pot smokers den on Earth. Didn't he claim that he used to be in the military? Air Force Academy of the United States of America? Did he know what he was doing at all? This all seemed suspicious to McCall. His long-time comrade Beaumont, sitting next to him, noticed his tension as well.

  Many witnesses followed, mostly technicians and other crew members from the colony and the fishermen who found the third rescue pod. It went on for several hours.

  When everything that seemed relevant had be heard, St. John
adjourned the court and requested that Ms. Flanagan give over the recorded files of the court session to the crew of the Buster K in order that they bring them back to Earth along with the regular mail transport.

  St. John got up and approached McCall and Beaumont. Lily and Dr. Mahoney joined them, while Ms. Flanagan worked on her E-Paper.

  "So," St. John said, "we got nothing. At least nothing new. What do you think?"

  McCall looked as though he was still contemplating the court session. Then he said, "I smell a rat. I'm sorry, but it stinks." He stretched, and then put his arms on the table in front of him and lowered his head for a moment. Then he looked over and locked eyes with St. John and said, "My friend, a major colony, a big cargo ship and a another deep space ship were all hacked, their systems were corrupted, the colony is knocked out by nerve gas and nobody noticed anything? Are you kidding me?"

  St. John threw his hands in the air. "That's all we got, aye. We got all the records, they all tell the same story."

  "Well, then we should investigate further. Where is this guy..." He looked around, but Matthew Burke had already left the building.

  Beaumont was annoyed and said, "Well, whatever. Our ship is still parked on the beach. I want to shuttle it to the airport and have its systems checked."

  "Good idea. Do you need help?"

  "Nope. I'm eager to find out what fucked up our flight system. I mean that's what scares me the most."

  "Go for it." McCall said. He was also worried. It was his ship too, but Beaumont was more the IT-Whiz than he was. Beaumont left the building and went down to the beach to the Buster K.

  A few of the people who had attended the trial were still standing together, discussing the court proceedings and the strange happenings. Captain Lerille looked disappointed as he approached McCall, "Didn't solve anything yet, eh?"

  "Nope. Our ships got messed up by an unknown source. I sure hope we find out what happened."

  "I hope so too. You know, our ship is our business, we rely on our systems. It's the same for you."