Jinks on Sirius 4

by C. E. Engelbrunner

  McCall nodded. He knew what it meant to be an independent forwarder out here in space. No transporting jobs, no pay. To be stuck in one place for any length of time was a just a plain loss of money.

  "Look, " McCall said, "we will find the son of a bitch who did this, and we'll make him pay. That's my goal at the moment." He patted Lerille on the shoulder and went outside.

  McCall noticed Burke was standing outside on the promenade. He was gazing out at the sea, pretending not to see McCall. This guy was certainly on his watch list now, he thought. He watched Burke as he began walking back into town till he disappeared between the buildings.

  "AYE MATE!"

  McCall jumped. "Good god, don't do that, hon, dammit!" He yelled.

  Lily was laughing. Good old crazy cockney Lily had gotten him. He had to smile and shake his head as soon as he was able to catch his breath. Stunts like that were typical for her and he knew it.

  But then her face took on a serious expression as she asked, "What do you think about this? Sucks, huh?"

  He nodded. "Makes no sense at all. I mean you could almost think it was only a game, you know, like a war game for someone. The attack wasn't lethal, but it could have been. Right? Almost like a dress rehearsal for the real thing."

  Lily agreed and looked worried. "It stinks!" she grumbled, "We've had pirate attacks before, we know how they act. But this is not how pirates operate. I mean, nothing was missing, no valuables, no ore gone, nothing."

  They started walking away from the city towards the dunes.

  "What do you know about this new IT guy?" he asked and looked behind them.

  Lily shrugged and said with a bland expression, "Well, not much. He came here about year ago. An American with a military background. Best references, a whiz kid. Sometimes he socializes with us or with the other citizens of the colony at the bar. Nothing special otherwise. He's good at his job." She looked at McCall wondering what he was getting at.

  "Where are we going?" Lily asked suddenly.

  McCall felt unsure, but since Lily was holding him tight around his waist he knew he would not walk alone. "Let's hit the dunes and sit down. This day sucked enough and I need some rest."

  "Yes sir, Captain!" she said as they went towards the beach of Sirius 4.

  They sat down on a dune near the beach, watching the surf. Sometimes a Siriusian dolphin jumped up out of the water and made a roll in the air before falling back into the sea. The fog was gone now and had drifted out to the sea. The temperature was nice and the double sun was heating up the sand. The entire scene looked like a beach at the channel coast in Europe.

  "What about you and that chick in Munich?" Lily suddenly asked.

  "Huh? How did you know about her?" McCall frowned.

  "Just trash talk on the commercial fleet. They say that you almost married her."

  He rolled his eyes. "Old stories from the war. We met during shore leave on the moon base. And yes, we got close for a while toward the end of the war. Why do you ask?"

  "Just some rumors I heard. You never talk about your personal life. And I'm just curious." She gave him the big eye.

  "Don't be so nosy, okay? She wanted me to get a job at ESA, an office job, at a desk. No flying. Except maybe a PPL for a small atmospheric job, you know a hop to the Moon or Mars. Not my lifestyle." He looked out at the sea.

  Lily followed his gaze at the sea. "You know, I wanted to know because I have a similar story. There was someone on Earth who wanted me to be grounded too. Get married and stuff."

  McCall looked surprised, but collected himself quickly. "Girl or boy?"

  "It was a girl. Damn, she was bloody gorgeous, big tits, hot ass and cute!"

  "Well, that's not quite enough to make up for missing out on all of this action."

  He gestured over the landscape of Sirius 4 and said, "Am I right, or am I right?"

  Lily stretched out on the warm sand and started giggling.

  "You're right, she was hot and cute, but Earth is still a bunch of wannabes, liberal conservatives, full of AI controlled, politically correct lives. No booze, no swearing, no fun. Such a mess. But I have still have a crush on you."

  "Shocking!" McCall mimicked her, "But I'm honored."

  "What does that mean? You don't wanna fuck me? WHHAAAT?" She said in her shrill, cockney voice.

  McCall blushed. "Yeah, no, yes, uh, I mean...."

  She hit him on the shoulder and started laughing. "Got you, again, haha!"

  A rumbling noise drew their attention away to the spot where the Buster K stood.

  Beaumont had just fired up the engines of the Buster K, that was still parked on the beach. Because it was just a short hovering flight, he activated the anti-gravity drive and let her float over the cliffs towards the airport of the colony. The ground crew signaled to Beaumont where he was to set her down and within minutes he had parked the ship in the designated spot near the cargo hangars. He stayed on the flight deck to investigate. Maybe he could find out what had infiltrated the ship's flight system. He decided to keep the doohickey in his pocket until he knew more.

  First he switched all external interfaces off. Then he disconnected the flight controls from the flight system. He ran the analysis routines on the mainframe, and suddenly it popped up again, this time without vocal assistance, only in writing on all of the screens: "INITIATING LANDING PATTERN".

  If he hadn't separated all the interfaces and connections, he would have been able to hear the servos lowering the flaps, ailerons and air brakes.

  "I will find you, you bug, I will find you." he murmured as he tried to isolate the virus.

  Chapter 7: A Snake Egg in the Grass

  McCall and Lily watched the Buster K glide by at low altitude overhead towards the airport until it disappeared behind the next dune.

  "Tell me more about this new IT Guy St. John hired." He said, glad to change the subject.

  Lily shrugged, "Ok, what would I say to describe him. Nice, cute, professional worker, but weird. A bit cold, that fella. "

  "Ok, you tried him?"

  "Of course! He's a cutie! But he seemed more interested in machines and robots."

  She pointed into the sky, "Maybe he's a genius. Those guys from the military station orbiting the sun requested his help a few times."

  "Oh, so you have a Bill Gates clone around here? Good. But I thought the military had their own nerds and eggheads for stuff like that."

  He looked up at the sky and felt somewhat uncomfortable, thinking about Matthew Burke. Something about him wasn't right. McCall had felt it when he saw him the first time. A top secret military installation was asking for a civilian to fix a computer problem?

  Okay, he was a former member of the military. And they operate in deep space where it takes weeks to get from Earth to anywhere. McCall's mind started circling around that thought.

  Suddenly, he turned his head and looked at Lily. "Why did you leave Earth? I mean why did you come out here, into nowhere?"

  Lily looked back, frowned a bit, but smiled. "For the same reason you skipped off that bloody job back home. Freedom!"

  She looked up into the skies when she continued: "Also, I was so sick of being pampered by assholes and robots. You know what I mean?"

  McCall nodded. He knew. "Yeah, it's even worse now. There's almost no vehicles any more on Earth that aren't robot controlled. No car, no train, no airplane, no sextoy, no...... "

  Lily bursted out laughing, trying to imagine the last item. "Typical Linus McCall quote!" She punched him on the shoulder.

  "OUCH! I'm telling the truth! 'For your personal comfort and safety, this anal device is under permanent network control. Thank you for using Buttmeister'."

  "STOP IT!!!" Lily rolled over on the dune and covered her face.

  He had to laugh too, but then he said, "Oh man, I sure do wish it was funny."

  Lily was still giggling. She wanted to open up to McCall, "Yeah, I was so pampered by the hospitality. It was ok being lesbian, bi-, whatever. If
anybody harassed me about it, they would have ended up in Dartmoor."

  "Yes, but isn't that a good thing? Think about the old days."

  "Sure Mackie, but they turned this into a politically correct nursing home, controlled by artificial intelligence."

  McCall nodded again in agreement. And then said, "Speaking of transportation, did you hear about why Siberia, Africa, Greenland and Antarctica became the major vacation destinations on Earth?"

  "You can drive your car by yourself?" She smiled.

  "Yeah, you can even FLY an Aircraft without a robot on your back!"

  "Wow!" Lily was thrilled, "but for how long?"

  "Don't jinx it..."

  "Aye, lovebirds!"

  A rusty voice from behind made them both jump. St. John suddenly appeared on the dune, grinning and holding a bottle of Single Malt.

  "Uh, what's the occasion?" McCall asked.

  "Occ-eh-sien?" St. John asked in his accent. "We should celebrate that we managed this crisis. Nobody fatally injured, even avoided losing two important ships!"

  McCall gave him a thumps up. "Thanks for calling our babe important."

  "My pleasure, Laddie!"

  St. John had brought some decent scotch and 3 glasses. He poured two fingers of his ancient, and of course rare and expensive scotch in each glass.

  "TO FREEDOM!" St. John hollered.

  McCall and Lily repeated his toast and everybody drank a good sip of the warming liquid.

  St. John looked at McCall and asked, "Any déjàvus today?"

  McCall grunted. He looked out to the sea for a moment and then said, "Not just today. I've been having them for weeks. Scary. I mean, even down on earth at Boeing Field I saw more robots than humans doing all the work."

  St. John and Lily nodded. "Yeah, we know!"

  "Then, we came to the Sojuz outpost and I met this robot-hooker...."

  Lily punched him hard on the shoulder, "You did WHAT with a robot?"

  "OUCH! Stop that! It was Igor's fault!" He rubbed his upper arm.

  "Yeah, good excuse. I wish I was a robot sometimes. It seems like you're fucking your way through the galaxy with everyone except me!"

  "Good lord, Lily- " McCall began.

  "Calm down kids! Let's have another sip of this gallus bevvy!" St. John said while he poured another glass of his smooth, warming Scotch.

  After a pause in the conversation, McCall said, "Well, you both know about the last war. We were fighting some sick fucker who thought he could be the big leader of a martian-robot-nazi community. The damn scars on my body remind me of it every day. But we had luck. Even the worst extremist on Mother Earth understood that this guy was a fraud and just plain old crap."

  St. John waved with his free hand. "That scumbag thought he could be the great leader. The origin of the human race from Mars. With control over the entire universe, all of humanity, everything. But the network finally decided that wasn't logical and shut him down."

  "Yeah, that was when we got his ass for good!" McCall said, "but Julien and I were in a MASH unit at the same time on Mars. We were there, you know."

  St. John poured them another glass, and shouted, "Hail to the Warriors, to our saviors who gave the ultimate sacrifice. To all of the defenders of FREEDOM!"

  "Hail to them!" Lily said.

  McCall lifted his glass in a toast and the three of them drank.

  After swallowing, McCall said, "Thank you, my friend, but I don't want to go through something like that again. I hope this isn't the start of another war."

  St. John raised the bottle again, and poured another shot.

  "Great, we'll be drunk and helpless when the next strike hits!" McCall said out loud,

  "Do you think this is another attempt by those lunatics?"

  St. John looked serious but shook his head. "Who knows, maybe some remnant of their movement. But why, and why out here in the middle of nowhere?" He gestured into the air.

  McCall stared for a moment into nowhere and then said, "Their insane belief was all about Mars and the leadership of 'true mankind', not about the colonies light years away, for christ's sake!"

  "I hope you're right," St. John said, "I really do."

  "And don't forget, he's dead. Brick Jordan is dead and his followers are in custody, most of them for life."

  Then suddenly, McCall's communicator announced an incoming call. He pressed the button. It was Julien,

  "Mon ami, my outstanding intellect managed to get the fierce bug contained!"

  "You need me to come?"

  "Oui, you got to see this, seriously!"

  "On my way!" McCall got up, brushed sand off of his clothes and walked, a bit tipsy, over the dunes toward the Airport. While still within hearing range he stood and looked back at St. John and Lily, "Are you drunks coming? This is important!"

  Lily and St. John were already in the process of getting to their feet and began stumbling after him. As they came closer to the airfield, another group joined them. Captain Lerille and his first officer, Rosen. Julien had called them too, because their ship was still in orbit and infected. And he knew they were eager to continue their journey to the Sojus Colony. Time was money.

  Suddenly St. John looked around as if searching. "Where is Matthew? Didn't Julien call him too?"

  McCall hesitated before he answered. "Well, maybe we should hear Julien's expertise first, I mean it has to do with our ships, right Captain?" He shook his head slightly and gave Lerille a knowing but discreet look.

  Lerille understood and just winked his eyes briefly. "Yes, I agree with Captain McCall, we should handle this on a confidential basis first. I want to hear Captain Beaumont's results first as well, anyway," he said as they walked over the tarmac.

  The Buster K stood in front of them, all ramps were raised. Beaumont saw the group and waved through the cockpit windows, as he lowered the passenger ramp to let them in.

  After the last of them had entered the ship, McCall pushed a button on the wall to raise the ramp again. St. John frowned a bit.

  "Is that necessary, Linus?"

  McCall said nothing, just nodded and guided the group farther in and up to the flight deck of the ship. Just as they arrived, the bulkhead opened and let them into the spacious cockpit. There were four seats for the flight crew and two jump seats.

  As they sat down, Julien Beaumont gave them a silent grin and then said, "I found, isolated and immobilized, this petite espèce de merd!" He took on a serious stance as he said, "And we're gonna have to have a talk about it, St. John and Captain Lerille."

  They were all speechless for a brief moment. Before Lerille could say anything, McCall cut in.

  "Whoa, Frenchman-!"

  "Je suis NORMAND, I'm from Normandy!" Beaumont corrected, but smiled and raised both hands to calm them down. "Can I explain, si'l vous plaît?" He looked around into their faces as they waited to hear what he had to say.

  "I take that as a yes. So here's the report of what I found in there." He pointed toward the main console and then took some printouts that were laying on the middle console. Everyone awaited his explanation curiously, but he took the opportunity of making it all the more dramatic, and hopefully showing off his knowledge and expertise in the process. It was his ego again. He started off in a patronizing, educational fashion.

  "Okay, let's begin. I don't want to bore you with details about contemporary IT and our flight systems. I found the bug in the voice control of our ship. It was able to enter the system when we did the handshake with the flight systems of the La Fleur."

  He looked at Captain Lerille and recognized the shock on his face.

  "I was even able to find the data showing the moment when the La Fleur was infected." He looked around to see if they were impressed.

  He took one of the printouts and looked at Lerille. "Your ship, mon ami, was infected when you took the cargo from that military station up in the sun's orbit. I can show you the exact time when it made its way into your mainframe."

  He handed
the printout to Lerille who began studying it frantically. His first officer leaned over and they both narrowed their eyes to see the confirmation of what Beaumont had found.

  "Merde!" Lerille shouted, "that would imply that the army got us infected on purpose." He waved the piece of paper in is hand in disbelief and with anguish and disappointment in his voice.

  "It would appear so, yes." Beaumont looked at Lerille first and then at St. John. "Do you know what the army is doing here anyway? I know that installation is secret, but you never know, maybe some drunken sailor on shore leave might have mentioned something."

  St. John looked puzzled and shrugged. He stared off into the distance and said, "Aye, they came down here, partying and drinking. But they never talked about their jobs, other than the regular army drill and the usual complaints about their supervisors and the pencil pushers back on earth and so on. No details, sorry."

  "I punched one of those assholes through the window of the pub once." Lily stepped in with the necessary comic relief. They all had to laugh.

  "Did he propose to you, on his knees, a ring maybe?" McCall asked and ducked as she tried to punch him in his face.

  "Captain Lerille", Beaumont asked, "do you have your cargo manifest with you?"

  Lerille shrugged and said: "No, we abandoned ship. Had no time to download it. But it should have been automatically saved in the memory banks of the escape pods. For insurance reasons. You know. Standard procedure."

  "Of course. That's right.", Beaumont continued, "What's weird though is, I was able to access them from here." He lifted up the printouts he had laying in front of him, "I found the cargo manifests in a couple of folders where they definitely do not belong. You wanna know where I found them? In OUR voice operation unit. The annoying voice controlled flight system of the Buster K."

  McCall got up from his seat with a confused look on his face. He took a step toward the part of the flight deck where the mainframe was located. He turned around and looked back at Beaumont. Then, he turned to face Captain Lerille. "Captain, how did your emergency start. I mean was there a forewarning like incorrect readings from the reactor, overheating or stuff like that?"