by Nathan Pedde
“Why?”
Sheemo opened a couple programs on the computer. One showed a map of the city with lines going from different places. Sheemo clicked his mouse. It showed the location of origin and the location of the destination. It also showed the date, time, and length of the signal.
“It started to read signals going around the station which begin and finish at my own house.”
“Is there a way to tell the signal apart from all of the rest?” Des asked.
“Yes, easily.”
“Can you isolate the signal type and then discount them.”
“Discount?”
“Hide it,” Des said. “Remove it. It’s not important.”
“I can, but which ones.”
Des pointed at a handful of signals around the station.
Sheemo clicked a couple buttons on the keyboard.
“Done,” Sheemo said.
The lines Des knew were his communication with Cryslis, disappeared.
A handful of the lines were still around. Des’s eyes found the signal from Elsie in the school’s bathroom.
Cryslis buzzed in his head. “Have him discount any which originate from the safe house and the captain's office.”
“Discount those signals,” Des pointed at the safe house and the Captain’s office.
Sheemo did as he was told. Elsie’s signal stayed on the screen.
“Discount any signals that don’t leave the station.”
Sheemo did so, and Elsie’s signal also disappeared.
“How many different types of signals are still on the screen?”
Sheemo clicked a few more buttons, and a new window popped up.
“Eight,” Sheemo said.
“How many have a signal leave the station just before and during the attacks.”
“They all leave the station either during or before the attacks.”
“I want to know both before and after,” Des said.
“Why?”
“Cause the saboteur sends a signal just before,” Des said. “Maybe twelve hours before to set up the attack. The attacker responds and gives a time. The saboteur then gets into the Undercroft to set off an undetectable shield disruptor and then the attack heads for that area.”
Sheemo’s eyes lit up. “Shield disruptor? How do you know that?”
“It’s the only way an attack could succeed,” Des replied. “The station's defenses are too good otherwise.”
Sheemo opened a couple other windows with a flurry of mouse clicks. One of Sheemo’s school friends nodded, flipping a couple switches on the device. The computer screen went back, and a load bar flashed on the screen.
“Do it,” Sheemo said to his friend.
The load bar raced forward, completing itself. The computer screen flashed once more before returning to a map of the station, which was blank but started to fill in bit by bit. The station rocked and vibrated.
“That was close,” Des said
“Sweet Jupiter…” Cryslis called over his earpiece. “Long range reports indicate there is over four hundred missiles headed for this station. The enemy has sent more than four times than any other attack. You need to hurry.”
“I think this may be the one,” Des said. “The defenses aren’t going to hold. We need to hurry.”
Des examined the station map.
“There is one signal in the Undercroft,” Sheemo said.
“Where?” Des said.
“Green sector. Mechanical room 1126.”
Des turned to leave. “Got it. Now get to the shelter.”
“I’m coming,” Sheemo said.
“Negative cadet, you are going to do a final sweep of the school, and then you’re going to get to the fucking shelter.”
“But-”
“That’s an order,” Des said.
Des ran out of the room toward the exit of the school.
“Cryslis,” Des said, repeating where it was.
“Got it. We’re on route. Get there. Now.”
Chapter Thirteen
Des soared through the mostly deserted streets. Cars and trucks were left vacant on the roads. A couple of guards rushed around the streets.
“Stop,” the guard said.
“Out of my way,” Des yelled. “Station intelligence. Move.”
The guard moved out of Des’s way as he soared past. Des hopped off his scooter, racing down the streets out of the Teal Sector. The station rocked once more, it vibrated so hard he almost lost his balance.
He flew by a sign stating: Welcome to the Green Sector.
Des sprinted up to a small door with faded paint - Maintenance.
The door clicked open as he approached it. Des looked up at a camera above the door.
“Thanks,” Des said.
Des slammed through the door and then raced down the tunnels. The green sector’s corridors were still in a state of disrepair, but there were some piles of supplies. The company repairing this sector in the Undercroft hadn’t gotten this far yet.
He ran up to Mechanical Room 1126. He tried to open the door, but it was locked.
“Level four alert,” the emergency voice said. “All civilians please evacuate to the nearest shelter. All Emergency Personnel, please report to your duty stations.”
“Cryslis,” Des yelled. “Get the door open for mechanical room 1126.”
A moment later. “It’s unlocked,” Cryslis said.
Des jiggled the door handle and the door didn’t budge. He slammed his shoulder into the door. However, the door still didn’t move.
“What are you doing kid?” a voice said from down the hall.
The voice belonged to a construction worker.
“Station intelligence,” Des said. “I need in this room. Now.”
Des recognized the face. It was one of the workers he had seen before.
“What do you mean?” Robert said. “You need to get to a shelter.”
“So do you.”
“I’m sweeping the Undercroft for stragglers. It’s my job.”
“And I’m doing mine,” Des said. “I’m a member of the intelligence service, and a shield disruptor is in the room behind the door. I need in this room now.”
Robert hesitated.
“Name,” Des said, “so I can…”
Robert lifted a boot and struck the door just above the door handle. The door splintered open.
Des turned to look into the room. It was completely empty except for a single large device on a pallet.
“Get out of here,” Des said.
“Why?”
“When the missiles hit, they’ll target this room.”
Robert ran out and down the hallway. His boot steps thudded down the corridor and away.
“I found it,” Des called to Cryslis. “Its a large device in the middle of the room.”
“Study it,” Cryslis said. “What does it say?”
“Sweet Jupiter.”
The device was a sizable cylinder-style object with a panel full of buttons on one side. It made a low electronic whirl. Des wasn’t sure how to turn it off. One button flashed red. Des touched the device, and a small shock zapped up his right arm. He heard a loud pop in his ear.
“What the hell was that?” Des said.
After a few moments of no response.
“Cryslis,” Des called. “Are you there?”
Still, no answer followed Des’s voice. He pushed the red button. The machine beeped once, and then the whirling noise stopped. The device turned dark and silent. He attempted to pick up the device, but it was more substantial than it looked. He carefully tipped the invention to the side. It thumped when it slammed into the metal floor.
Des rolled it along the floor to the outside of the room. He pushed it down the corridor, and he passed the intersection. Des followed the footsteps marked in the dust and made his way towards the exit.
He should leave the device behind and save himself. However, he hoped he could use the device to find the culprit. It was going to
be worth the risk.
Outside of the station, a couple of explosions reverberated around him. The station shook. He was knocked onto his feet. The device rolling down the corridor.
“Cryslis, that was close. Are you there?” Des said into his earpiece.
No one answered him.
The station shook once more. A loud metallic screech sound echoed down the hall. Des ran up, pushing the device further down the corridor. A loud bang resonated through the mechanical room behind him.
Panic filled him. Air tugged at his clothes from the sudden decompression.
“Hull breach in Green sector,” the Emergency Voice echoed from speakers in the corridor. “Blast doors dropping. All personnel stand clear.”
Des grabbed at the walls of the corridor. The suction pulled him across the passage and off his feet. Des slid along the floor toward the mechanical room door. He looked down at where he was going. The door bent itself inward, toward the breach in the room. Des grabbed hold of a metal pipe which was attached to the wall as he flew by.
Pain shot up his arms and hands. Des wrapped his arms around the pipe. The suction of the breech pulled at Des’s body. His shoes flew off. His pants rippled in the wind. The disguise necklace snapped, ripping from his neck.
A set of blast doors began to close in front of him. He was going to be trapped on the wrong side. Des looked around him for some way to climb up out of the corridor to the other side of the blast doors. He only had to move one meter to get clear. All that separated him from life and death was one meter. Des thought if he could climb higher on the pipe, he could grab the blast doors door jam.
Des struggled to climb any higher. There was no way he could get any higher. The blast doors were half closed.
Fuck, Des thought. This is it.
“Hold on. I’m coming,” someone called to him.
Des looked up. A small figure slid down the floor of the hallway. Tied around the person’s waist was a rope. As the figure drew neared, Des smiled. It was Elsie.
“Des?” Elsie yelled over the noise of the wind. “Hold on.”
Elsie flew through the blast doors, using her arms and feet to guide her along the floor. She grabbed hold of Des’s arm and the pipe. The rope went slack for a moment.
“Grab hold of the rope,” Elsie said.
Des grabbed hold of the rope, slamming against Elsie as his weight stretched out the line. Elsie let go of the rope. Des was pulled upward toward the closing doors.
He neared the doors and grabbed hold of one. Elsie grabbed hold of the other blast door, and they pulled themselves through as they sealed shut.
Des fell onto the floor of the Undercroft corridor. Elsie collapsed next to him. Des let Elsie lay with her head on his shoulder. He panted and sucked air in an attempt to calm his breathing down. He didn’t realize his hands shook and he felt like he was going to lose his lunch.
“It’s okay,” Elsie said, holding him. “I got you.”
Des was silent for a moment. Thoughts ran through his head in a jumble. The loudest of which was the disbelief he almost died. He had given up and was ready to be taken. Footsteps boomed down the hallway. Des turned to look. Robert came running toward him and Elsie.
“That’s not the kid I saw in the hall before,” Robert said. “We left the worker behind.”
Robert pulled out a radio off his belt pocket.
“Belay that,” Des said. “I’m an intelligence officer. You’ll say nothing to anyone, but report to Captain Kusheeno and talk to him. Do you understand?”
“What…”
“There was no one else in this area, but me. Your quick actions saved my life, and I thank you.”
Robert gave him a weird, questioning look and was silent for a moment.
“Okay. I’ll report to the Captain and say nothing. I hope you were right.”
Des sat on the dirty floor of the Undercroft corridor. His back leaned against a steel bulkhead door. Elsie sat next to him on the floor. Sirens and alarms rang out in the distance.
“Level four alert,” the Emergency Voice said. “All civilians please evacuate to the nearest shelter. All Emergency Personnel, please report to your duty stations.”
The worker's footsteps faded into the distance of the station Undercroft.
“Intelligence officer?” Elsie said to Des.
Des blushed.
“Yeah,” Des said. “Station intelligence.”
“Captain Kusheeno?” She asked.
“Yeah.”
“He’s good at recruiting exceptional officers.”
“Why are you down here?” Des asked. “And who were you talking to in the bathroom after school yesterday? Something about a friend and protocol?”
“About that.” Elsie fidgeted. “I’m a junior officer in the Jovian National Intelligence Service. My bosses have had me watching you for a while. They thought you were the one responsible for the attacks.”
“And do you?” Des asked.
“I don’t. Never have. Doesn’t mean my Bosses will believe me. We’ll have to convince them.”
“I’ll let the Captain handle it.”
“Does your brother and Susan know about your new job?” Elsie asked.
“I hope not… Well… Susan might suspect something,” Des said. “I told her to drive me to a random location and she wasn’t to ask me any questions.”
“And your brother?”
“I used a voice and appearance disguise.”
“Nice. Your Captain doesn’t hold back on the fancy tech.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“How long have you been a spy?”
“Two years. My parents don’t even know,” Elsie said.
Des thought about Cryslis. “You there? Hello…”
Elsie grinned. “Non-appearing Communication Apparatus? I don’t see anything in your ear.”
“Yeah,” Des said. “I think it may be broken. I heard a loud pop earlier when I touched the device.”
“Speaking of the device, where’s it?”
“I hope it didn’t fly out of the tunnel and through the breach.”
“It probably did. This entire corridor has been blown clear of debris.”
Des looked down and around the hallway. The walls had been opened from the construction workers and wires and pipes were hanging from their hangers. A few pieces of debris had been caught in a few critical places as they flew by. Des searched the area. He knew he should get up and dig through the piles, but his arms and legs didn’t want to move for him. Jammed in a small opening to a far was the round cylinder device. It was dented from its tumble down the corridor.
“It’s over there,” Des called, pointing at the device.
“Oh, good,” Elsie said.
The alarms stopped ringing.
“Level one alert,” the emergency voice said. “Danger has passed. All civilians, please report to the nearest supervisor for debriefing.”
Des felt a sigh of relief. “Can you call your supervisor to let them know what happened?”
“No,” Elsie said. “I work alone and isolated. I don’t have much contact with my supervisor as you apparently do.”
“How do you know that?”
“Earpiece.” Elsie rolled her eyes. “Disguise.”
“Right.”
Boot steps echoed down the hallway in the distance.
“Someone is coming,” Des said.
“How do we explain why we’re here and not in a shelter?” Elsie asked. “If it weren’t for your quick thinking the first time, my cover with the Captain would have been blown.”
“I’ve no idea. I have no reason to explain why you are here. My supervisor thinks you’re the saboteur and wanted to arrest you.”
Des’s phone rang. The ringtone echoed off the walls.
“Hello,” Des answered his phone. “Hi Alix… Yes, I’m fine. Why are you asking… That’s funny. No, I didn’t go creeping in the Undercroft today… What? Where am I? Sorry, someone else is calling my phon
e. I’ll call you later.”
Des hung up. There was no one on his phone. He needed a reason to hang up. He had just almost died and was now lying in the dark with a girl. He wasn’t going to spend the time talking on the phone, friend or not. He didn’t want to listen to a cryptic message from Alix, especially one where he would have to lie.
“That was weird,” Elsie said.
“Yes, it was.”
Two figures run at full speed around the corner and into view, with little regard to any of the debris the breach pulled with them.
After a few moments, Des recognized Cooley and Cryslis.
“There you are,” Cryslis said she looked at Elsie sitting next to him. “What’s going on?”
Chapter Fourteen
Des sat in a chair in Captain Kusheeno’s office with a borrowed set of shoes on his feet. The room was packed. Elsie, Cryslis, and Cooley sat in other chairs.
“This is getting confusing,” Kusheeno said. “You stopped the attack and got the device.”
“Yes,” Des replied. “They used hidden signals to arrange when a missile attack happens. When the attack happens, they send a signal from the device to the missiles to get them to hit that area. The device weakens the stations shielding allowing for the weight of numbers to get a direct hit on the hull. Three or four hits and the station pops like an overfilled can.”
“Why have all of the other attacks failed?” the Captain asked.
“Not sure.”
“My belief is training,” Elsie said. “Learning where our defenses are. Where the weaknesses are. Where to put the device. That type of thing.”
“What do we do now?” the Captain said.
Cryslis cleared her throat. “I want to head the investigation and keep hunting for the person who’s responsible for this.”
“First. Des,” Kusheeno said. “Congratulations on saving the station. The last attack would have worked if you hadn’t turned off the shield disrupter when you did. I would put you in for a medal, but we can’t have the media attention.”
Des nodded. He was having a hard time focusing his mind on the debriefing. He almost got himself killed as he attempted to do the right thing.
“Second,” the Captain continued. “Elsie. I talked to the bosses over at the Jovian National Intelligence Service. They confirmed you’re an agent, we’re glad your quick actions helped stop the attack. They did express their disappointment you revealed yourself to us.”