by J. N. Chaney
“You two be careful,” Arun said, stopping at the door as she turned to leave. “The Disciple tried to attack us a day into our journey. You can bet he or she will try again.”
With that, the trio was gone. I stood in the room looking over at Stacy with an arched eyebrow.
“What?” she asked, tilting her head down and looking up at me with those big brown eyes. “You want me to say I’m sorry or something? It’s my job.”
“Naw, I get that,” I said. “I’m just debating whether I should be able to tase you back to be fair and all.”
“What?” Stacy scrunched her brow and shook her head. “No way. When I tased you, I thought you were a Disciple. Anyone could have made that mistake. And for the record, when I found you hunched over that pen of canines, you looked super guilty.”
“I think you’re mistaking guilt for what a concussion looks like,” I answered back. “Speaking of that, you should know the Disciple is strong and really knows how to fight. They were precise with their attacks, and each blow felt like a sledgehammer.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound promising,” said a voice from the door. Doctor Allbright entered the room with her data pad in one hand and a motherly expression on her lips. “Mr. Slade, what are the chances that we’d meet again?”
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it's not the last time you’re going to see him either.” Stacy found a stool tucked into the corner of the room and plopped herself down. “This one is accident-prone.”
“’This one,’” I said, repeating Stacy’s new name for me, “was fine until he stumbled across what he thought was an innocent mechanic getting mugged. Turns out, you’re neither of those things.”
Stacy just grinned at that.
“My goodness, you must be in a serious amount of pain.” Doctor Allbright ran the Med-Aid across my ribs and face. “Mild concussion, bruised ribs, and a laceration inside of your mouth.”
“Sounds about right,” I said.
Doctor Allbright went to work on me with the help of the Med-Aid.
When she gave me a mild sedative, I didn’t fight her.
“All due respect, Doc, but I think I’ll let the inside of my mouth heal on its own,” I said, looking at her right hand as she tried to open my jaw to insert the device. “I’m not too excited about opening wide for that thing.”
“Understood,” Doctor Allbright said, then lifted the side of my shirt to look at my ribs. She frowned at what she saw. “If you remove your shirt, I’ll be able to use the Med-Aid to speed the healing process along.”
I complied, moving my long-sleeved shirt gingerly over my head. With each new motion, I bit back the need to grunt in pain.
Both women’s jaws dropped when I uncovered myself. I wished all of their drooling had been about my abs, but I had picked up more than a few scars over the years. Surgeries, fights, and accidents had taken their toll across my body, painting a canvas of pain that shocked most people.
“You can take a picture while you’re at it,” I told them. “We can put it in a nice frame, too.”
Stacy looked away. Heat rose to her face.
“Yes, sorry,” Doctor Allbright moved the Med-Aid to my side. A warm feeling came from the machine, not quite burning but hot enough to notice. “We’ll be done in a moment.”
When the doctor was through, I waved goodbye and thanked her for the help. It surprised me to find her on the ship, but I supposed it made sense, considering she’d been a little overqualified to be the on-site doctor for our little construction site. Had she been stationed there to simply wait her turn to leave?
Stacy cleared her throat, getting back to business as soon as Allbright was gone. “We should head up to the tech floor and talk to someone about the cloak our Disciple is wearing. See if we can get any information that would help find this person.”
“Right,” I said, getting to my feet. “I could probably use a blaster, by the way.”
“Yeah, right,” Stacy said with a laugh, throwing me an amused smile. “No way you’re getting your hands on one of those.”
Chapter 12
The Orion was truly a masterpiece. With one hundred thousand Transients on board, two Eternals and a Cognitive, you’d think the moon-shaped ship would be cramped, but it wasn’t. Three hundred levels ranging from cafeterias to sleeping quarters and recreation areas, filled the ship.
As Stacy and I made our way from the medical level, she whipped out the same red holo card I had seen her drop in the alley. She swiped it in front of a waiting elevator. Without pause, the cylinder-shaped lift dinged open.
“Nifty little card you got there,” I said, motioning to it. “Give you access to the whole ship?”
“All access whenever I need it and no stops along the way,” Stacy said, punching in our destination on the holo-screen in front of her.
A moment later, the elevator doors closed and we were moving. The same tech that aided the inertial dampeners in propelling us through space while standing still, made the feeling of the speeding elevator feel well, like not moving at all.
“I’m going to guess the chances of me getting one of those cards is…” I allowed my voice to trail off.
“Maybe if you joined the Civil Authority Force on Kronos Five, I could see about getting you a blaster and a holo card,” Stacy said, eyeing me as if she was expecting my answer.
“Me? A suit?” I said, shaking my head. I ran a hand through my hair. “No way. I mean, I appreciate all you do, but trying to police a new colony on an alien planet is not my idea of a fun job.”
“Shame, you’d look nice in a suit.” Stacy shrugged as the elevator doors opened in front of us. “Listen, let me do the talking. I don’t want you to spook the head technician. He’s sort of an oddball.”
The way Stacy said oddball told me all I needed to know. Whoever we were about to see was a straight up loony. That was fine. I had a running theory that we were all a bit broken and crazy in our own ways. Anyone who denied that was just lying to themselves or trying to hide who they truly were.
The elevator dropped us off in a hall alongside the doors of another dozen elevators. I followed Stacy to the left where the level opened into a large waiting room area. There was soft carpet underfoot with chairs and even a fresh assortment of flowers on the table next to a pile of reading material.
Stacy made her way to a desk with a holo-screen. There was no one present, receptionist or otherwise. Stacy opened the display, scrolling down the names of technicians and workers until she stopped on a Doctor James Wong. She tapped the name, opening a line of communication.
“Doctor James Wong’s office, how can I help you?” A cheery female voice asked over the line.
“Hello,” Stacy begin in a rather cherry voice of her own. “My name is Stacy Wilson, I need to speak with the doctor. It’s an important matter straight from the Eternals.”
There was a pause on the other line.
“Are you still there?” Stacy asked.
“Yes—yes, I’m sorry,” the woman recovered. “Doctor Wong is in the middle of his designated resting period. He doesn’t like to be disturbed, but if it’s a matter from the Eternals—may I confirm the request?”
Stacy reached for her holo card again, tapping it a few times before swiping it across the open channel on the larger holo on the desk.
“I see,” the woman on the other end said. “Please, just give me a moment to wake him. You may proceed all the way down the hall and make a right when it dead ends. His office will be on your left.”
The line closed. A quick second later, there was a click at the door leading deeper inside. I followed Stacy as we strode toward what I hoped would be answers.
The technician floor was nothing like I’d imagined. No cubicles or closed doors, and no privacy at all. As far as I could see in every direction, there were teams of technicians in white lab coats and white aprons hard at work in glass rooms divided by narrow walkways.
It was hard to say what th
ey were working on, as different teams in different rooms seemed to be handling a variety of projects at once. Behind goggles and gloves, they worked on advancements I had no doubt we would need once we reached Kronos Five.
I saw one group on my left, working on something that looked like a high-tech lawn mower, while another team of two struggled on my right with a sort of black goopy substance.
“Makes you wonder what they didn’t have time to complete since the launch date was moved up,” Stacy said as we strode forward. “I mean, unless they had everything ready to go in advance, it’s likely they launched without even being ready.”
“Nice thoughts to keep me company at night,” I growled. “The real you is just a ray of sunshine.”
“Ah, you’re sweet,” Stacy beamed, looking back and batting her eyes before continuing forward.
We made it down the first hall and turned to the right. Obeying the instructions we had been given a moment before, we looked to our left where a glass room opened. There was a perky receptionist that looked a bit nervous in a smaller outer chamber.
Another glass wall showed the view of an older man with his feet propped on his desk and some kind of mask over his face.
“I told him you were coming with business straight from the Eternals,” the receptionist said. She stood from her desk, wringing her hands. She was nervous and not good at hiding it. “He’s awake, even if he looks like he’s not. He’s just pretending to be asleep to see if you will leave him alone.”
“How annoyingly delightful,” Stacy said.
The woman tried a nervous laugh then stopped halfway through. She looked over at me with that same strange smile. There was something in her eyes I couldn’t quite place.
Stacy didn’t waste any more time. She crossed the room and let herself into the glass office. The place was a pigsty. There were food wrappers and containers littered all over the ground, with a few used shirts and data cards. It looked like the nerdiest man alive had gone on an education bender in the two days we’d been in space.
“Doctor Wong?” Stacy asked.
The balding man behind the desk didn’t move. A black night mask covering his eyes hid any indication whether he had seen us or not.
“Excuse me, Doctor Wong?” Stacy said a bit louder. She took a step closer. “We’re here on order of the Eternals to ask you a few questions.”
He didn’t move but a steady snoring came from his thin lips. Not like real snoring but the kind of noises you make when you want someone to think you’re sleeping.
“Okay, rise and shine,” I said, moving past Stacy. I swatted at the man’s polished dress shoes propped up on his desk.
His feet came off their resting place as he swung around in his chair. He grabbed at his mask as he lost balance, wobbling to try and stay seated.
“How awfully rude!” He said, finally removing his mask and staring at me defiantly. Reaching among the debris of packaged food wrappers and papers on his desk, he grabbed a pain of thin, wire-framed glasses and perched them on his small nose.
He glared at me, darting his eyes up and down, taking in my less than impressive clothing. He blinked a few times, turning to Stacy.
“What is it that you want? You are interrupting my personal time, and when Doctor Wong doesn’t get his nap, he gets angry.”
“Well, when you see Doctor Wong, tell him this will only take a few minutes of his time,” Stacy said, producing her magical holo card once more. “I have orders from the top to speak to you.”
“What are you? Civil Authority, here on The Orion? No, you’re not wearing uniforms.” Doctor Wong drummed perfectly manicured nails across his glass desk. “No, you’re something else, aren’t you?” He studied her for a long moment, narrowing his eyes before smacking the desk. “Consider my attention grabbed. What is it that I may do for you Mr. and Mrs.?”
“My name is Stacy Wilson, and this is my—associate, Mr. Slade,” she said.
“We’re here on behalf of the Eternals, working on an issue they have,” Stacy said. She walked over to the desk and leaned down, so she was eye level with Doctor Wong. “What do you know about personal cloaking devices?”
Doctor Wong’s eyes widened. He looked to Stacy and then at me.
“Hey, don’t give me that look. The lady asked you a question,” I said.
“Are you serious?” Doctor Wong asked Stacy.
“Dead serious,” Stacy replied.
“Well, well, well, the plot thickens.” Doctor Wong actually smiled. “Things here were starting to get boring. Sure, space travel was fun the first day, but now I’m stuck here for six weeks in a glass box.”
Stacy and I looked at each other.
“Back to the matter at hand,” I said, trying to reel the strange doctor back in. “Does tech with the ability to cloak someone exist?”
“Well, yes, of course it does. I’ve seen a cloaking mechanism before, but we don’t have one here or on the ship.” Doctor Wong studied my expression. “Or do we?”
Chapter 13
I looked over at Stacy, I wasn’t sure how much of this she wanted to divulge to the doctor. He was a weirdo for sure, but he wasn’t stupid. He understood exactly what we were getting at.
“Who did you say you were again?” The doctor pushed.
“We didn’t,” Stacy answered back, going for her holo card yet again.
Man, that thing is like a magic ticket, I thought to myself.
She swiped it over Doctor Wong’s holographic enhanced table. A decree signed by Arun, stating that we were sent by the Eternals and to be treated as officers of the ship, popped up.
“My, my, I thought I was going to nap all day again and then go out for drinks, but you have my interest piqued.” Doctor Wong rolled his head around his neck stretching his muscles. He then waved his hand over his deck and brought up a screen and keyboard. His hand flew over the keyboard like a true professional.
“I appreciate the help,” Stacy said, taking a step back to let him do his work. “But you’re the head of Technology Advancement, shouldn’t you be more interested in work and less sleep?”
“Trust me, I’ve been over the numbers a million times.” Doctor Wong’s eyes never left the holo-screen in front of him. “Barring a catastrophic event, we’ll make it to Kronos Five in one piece. Once we get there, we have all the tools necessary to begin a thriving colony. The fun part will be working on the fly as we encounter obstacles we never prepared for. Right now, I’ve just been bored. I spend most days napping and drinking. Ah, here we go.”
Doctor Wong pushed his spectacles up further on his nose and turned his holographic screen toward us. On the screen, there were two videos playing. One was of a woman holding what appeared to be a blanket made of some kind of translucent fabric. She placed it over herself and completely disappeared. The other screen showed a man with a heavy wristwatch. He pressed a few buttons on it and also disappeared.
“As of this moment, these are the two ways to do it,” Doctor Wong explained. “One projects images around it through thousands of tiny cameras showing what is behind the wearer. The other bends light. Of course, there is always the possibility that someone has created a third option we do not yet know about.”
“Is there any way to track it?” Stacy asked, trying to come up with a solution. “Does it leave a trace of any kind?”
“I’m afraid not.” the doctor swung his monitor around again. His fingers flew over his keyboard faster than I could track. “What I’m getting from this conversation is that there is someone on board you need to capture that has a cloaking device. I’m guessing it’s a Disciple since they’re the ones with the strongest vendetta against the Eternals and this project.”
“We’re not at liberty to speak on the matter,” Stacy said calmly.
“Oh, a mystery.” Doctor Wong stood from his desk with a huge Cheshire cat smile. “My, my, how I do love a mystery. Sign me up.”
“Sign you up for what?” I asked.
“I’ll h
elp,” he said as he began to pace back and forth behind his desk. “As of right now, there is no way to track someone using either type of these cloaking devices, but that doesn’t mean it would be impossible to create one. Give me a day or two, and I’ll figure it out.”
“Very good,” Stacy said, and walking forward she extended her hand. “Thank you. My contact information is on the holo info that I downloaded into your desk computer.”
“Yes, yes.” Doctor Wong shook her hand half-heartedly. His mind was already racing with the possibilities of a new conquest. He pressed a finger of his free hand on his holo-desk. “Marcy, would you be a dear and get me some of that sniffing caffeine, please? I have a long night of work ahead of me. Thank you.”
I looked up to see Marcy the receptionist staring at us from the glass wall that divided her area from the doctor’s office. She pressed a button on her holo desk. “Yes, doctor, right away.”
“We’ll leave you to it,” Stacy said, motioning me out of the office and down the hall.
“You feel like we can trust him?” Stacy asked.
“Well, he sniffs caffeine, and that has to mess with his head somehow, but I think he’s telling us the truth,” I said scratching at my beard. “I think he’ll come through.”
We walked the rest of the way in silence out of the technology advancements level and back to the cylinder-elevator waiting for us.
“So, what now?” I asked thinking Stacy had some master plan or some kind of suit protocol to follow. I waited to hear her groundbreaking insight.
“Now we get lunch,” Stacy said as we entered the elevator. “I’m starving.”
We rode the elevator to the closest cafeteria. The door opened in front of us to a bustling sight of Transients from all walks of life, waiting their turn in line for a hot meal.
The smells coming from the kitchen area were absolutely mouthwatering. I loved food in all shapes and sizes. From burritos, to burgers and cake, I didn’t discriminate. What I smelled now was barbeque, and it made my stomach rumble with greed anticipation.