Axis crossing, p.23
Axis Crossing, page 23
When Kelley entered the freight depot, with tunnels that led to the shuttle tubes, he signaled the traveler holding station above the port. The ship dropped onto the frozen surface, and Cremsylon exited the airlock and jumped to the sheet of ice. His destination was the engineering service hatch.
The massive hatch revolved at Cremsylon’s request, and he stepped inside.
The techs working inside the bay were shocked to see the telltale shift colors and the airlock revolve.
“Greetings, Naiads,” Cremsylon said to the techs, who replied in different and subdued ways, while the SADE marched past them.
In the dome’s reception area, Cremsylon located Captain Stegmeir and Lieutenant Caballero by using the vid cams posted around the dome. He also identified the agents, who lay in wait, by their surreptitious glances toward the officers and around the dome.
“Greetings, officers,” Cremsylon said to Johann and Stacey.
“Hello, Cremsylon,” Johann replied. “I’ve some bad news. Escher and Ceda won’t be joining us. The council intends to see Escher charged, and she won’t leave him. I’m sorry.”
“As are we at your council’s shortsightedness,” Cremsylon replied.
“Does this negate our opportunity to ride with you and investigate Beta One?” Stacey asked.
“Not at all, Lieutenant. We’ll uphold our part of the agreement,” Cremsylon replied. “It’s not in our makeup to abrogate our promises.”
Indicating the officers’ bags, Cremsylon inquired, “If you’re ready?”
Johann and Stacey nodded affirmatively. They followed Cremsylon, and their electric dolly trundled after them.
Cremsylon returned to the engineering bay by the same route he’d arrived in the dome. When he entered the bay, the Naiad techs stood close against a far wall.
The techs had watched with interest as unusual events took place in their bay. First, an alien had arrived, greeted them, and exited into the corridor leading to the port. Second, more aliens arrived from the surface. Third, a Naiad engineer arrived with a dolly and a crate. After popping the lid, two people climbed out.
Then the couple stripped out of their top clothes and donned environment suits similar to the ones worn by the aliens.
Now, the first alien reentered the bay with two security officers.
“You’ll need to pack your outer garments,” Cremsylon instructed the officers.
As Johann and Stacey stripped down, SADEs stood ready to help them into their suits.
When the officers were ready, two groups rotated through the engineering airlock.
Escher was mesmerized by the sheet of ice and the fierce vista that lay before them.
A SADE held each human’s arm to steady them against the seventy-kilometer-per-hour wind that threatened to sail them along the ice.
One by one, the entourage climbed aboard the traveler.
When everyone was seated, faceplates were retracted, courtesy of the SADEs. Then helmets were removed.
Johann stared across the aisle at a smiling Escher. “You?” he managed to sputter.
“Yes, me,” Escher replied, his smile widening.
Johann swiveled to locate Cremsylon, who stood in the aisle. “I can’t allow this craft to lift, Cremsylon. We’re still on Naiad. I must take Escher into custody. That’s my job.”
“Let me correct you on two counts, Captain,” Cremsylon said, in a tone that brooked no argument. “One, this traveler is a component of our ship, the Alexander. As far as the Naiad Council is concerned, it’s sovereign territory. Second, we haven’t been on Naiad for the past six minutes.”
A SADE seated across from Johann and Stacey extended her hand. She projected a view from the ship’s front sensors. The traveler had crossed the boundary from Naiad’s weak atmosphere into the empty darkness of space.
“We’ll be aboard our ship soon, Captain,” Cremsylon said. “If you wish, we can return you to the surface after our other guests exit the traveler.”
Escher was surprised to see the officers’ broad smiles.
“No, we’re good,” Johann said, relaxing into the amazingly comfortable seat. “Your surreptitious arrangements have freed us from explaining to the council why we couldn’t do our duty.”
“I, for one, appreciate this amazing ride,” Stacey said contentedly. “No tightly wrapped seats, no harnesses, no takeoff g’s, and no rough ride.”
“Captain, we need to have a further understanding,” Cremsylon continued. “Escher and Ceda are our wards while aboard this ship or in our company.”
“You’re implying that Naiad law doesn’t apply in Escher’s case while he’s with you,” Johann replied.
“That’s precisely what I’m saying, Captain.”
“Cremsylon, you might have mentioned that to the council,” Johann suggested.
“Captain, Earthers have an old, although not always applicable adage, about possession implying ownership. I find the proverb suits this case. We’ll assist you in your clone investigation, but everything the lieutenant and you see, hear, and experience regarding Escher isn’t to be reported or recorded unless we approve. Do we understand each other?”
Stacey regarded Johann, who seemed loathe to acquiesce. She decided to help him. “I agree, provided Captain Stegmeir does too.”
Reluctantly, Johann assented.
On Naiad, security failed to find Escher and Ceda. They’d disappeared without a trace, and it was assumed that they’d been spirited aboard the alien ship.
Commandant van Dysen reviewed the final report. He noted an uncharacteristic item in the panel log report. The shuttleport panels had been accessed many times in a short period by a single person. That individual had traveled through freight and engineering tunnels. This included accessing the engineering airlock to the surface. He grinned as he thought of informing the council that the logs implicated Councilor Laura Marolakos as the guilty party.
20: Here They Come
BETA TWO, MONART SYSTEM
X-ORE PLANET
Turmoil grew within the Beta Two domes. The alien ship, now known as the Dominance, mysteriously floated above the administration dome, as if supported by lines connected to the dark. That in itself was chilling.
The SADEs’ technological advancements encouraged division among the humans. To some, like Peter Doell, the director of operations, the SADEs represented an opportunity. Individuals like Doell thought only of the corporate gains and their rise within X-Ore.
Others, like Ricardo Broadus, the flight controller, and Harlyn Blackwell, head of research, weren’t convinced of the SADEs’ intentions.
Negotiations had lasted a month. Harlyn was pressured by the specialists to read between the lines of Miriamal’s messages. Unfortunately, the team only received the messages in text form.
Miriamal had swiftly discerned the dome leader’s predilections and reserved her comm calls for him.
Elisabeth Flaum, the dome facilities head, who sat in on the conversations, as did the other X-Ore senior personnel, routinely passed summaries to Harlyn.
“I think we’ve exhausted our routines,” Rachner Freiberg, the Pure Pour specialist, lamented.
“I’m afraid so,” Harlyn agreed.
“Which means what?” a timid woman from Transit One asked.
“That Miriamal knows we’ve been stalling,” Sherilyn, Rachner’s partner, replied.
“I think Miriamal has known that for a while,” Timor Talons remarked.
“And, according to the reported conversations, Doell has been nothing but encouraging,” Dan Skolnik remarked. “I’m surprised he hasn’t opened the shuttleport’s hatches for them. Oh, he can’t. We’re on an airless planet!”
“Not funny,” Erin, Dan’s partner, commented.
“I agree,” Dahlia Talons said. “With their advanced technology, they must have the means to easily surmount our planet’s conditions.”
“I think it’s worse than that,” Harlyn remarked. “I’ve been talking with Ricardo, the flight controller. Knut Kielpinski, our pilot, and Ricardo have had their heads together. They’re concerned about the shuttleport’s integrity.”
“Explain?” Sherilyn requested.
“Remember how Knut closely examined the traveler in the Dominance’s bay,” Harlyn replied. “Knut believes that the ship can receive signals from a SADE to respond.”
“Easy enough to do,” a specialist from Geneva commented. “What’s important about that?”
“I think Knut wonders how far the SADEs have taken that aspect of their technology,” Timor said. “In other words, could their shuttles be automated, programmed to follow a course, land, board passengers, and return to the mothership?”
“I’m not following,” the female partner of the Geneva specialist who spoke said.
“If the SADEs have developed their control processes to the extent that they can easily communicate with their devices, why can’t they do the same to ours?” Dahlia explained.
“You mean the SADEs, like Miriamal, could circumvent our security and open our hatches at will,” the woman replied.
“That’s exactly what Ricardo and Knut are warning,” Harlyn said.
“Does Doell know this?” Timor asked.
“Ricardo tried to tell him after Miriamal entreated Doell with the various things the SADEs could do to help us,” Harlyn replied, “but Doell isn’t listening to him. All he can see are the potential promotions, increased stipends, and greater bonuses.”
“Could you be wrong?” a man from Transit One asked. “I mean, you weren’t aboard the SADE ship for long. You only saw the bay and the one SADE. Isn’t it fair to say that you formed a quick and unsubstantiated conclusion?”
“Fair points and questions,” Dahlia replied. “I can’t argue in the negative. I think what’s important about our conclusion is that it was reached independently by every specialist and the pilot.”
“Admittedly, I was the only holdout,” Harlyn said. “I was enamored of the possibilities.”
“What changed your mind?” the partner of the Transit One specialist asked.
“The team did, or rather, the details did,” Harlyn replied. “The more the inconsistencies were pointed out, the more I realized that I’d let emotion blind me to observation and logic. I think that’s what Miriamal intended, and I was the only one to fall for her ruse.”
Harlyn’s slate shrilled, and the specialists stilled while she read the message. “It’s from Ricardo. He’s in the shuttleport. He says, ‘Here they come.’”
“Attend in person, or watch from a distance?” Timor asked Harlyn.
“We’re staying here,” Dahlia adamantly told her partner. “I think there’ll be plenty of time to meet them in person.”
“Won’t the SADEs make repairs to their ship and be on their way?” a specialist from Geneva inquired.
“If you believe what Miriamal said, then that’s what they’ll probably do,” Dan replied. “However, if you don’t believe anything she says ...” He left the conclusion to his remark hanging.
Harlyn hurried to a bank of computers. She used her slate to command their projections and chose various views from the shuttleport.
The first image to gain the team’s attention was the vid cam that captured the launch pad. Several shuttles sat ensconced in their boarding positions. The planet had rotated the X-Ore domes away from Monart’s brilliance. Without atmosphere, the stars were bright against the dark.
Suddenly, engineering service lights lit the launch pad.
“Check the projection to the left,” Harlyn said.
That computer showed a view from inside the shuttleport. It covered the passenger embarkation area.
Harlyn pointed at a man entering the passenger area. “That’s Doell in the lead. Five of our department heads are following him,” she commented.
“He struts like he’s attending a banquet in his honor,” Sherilyn said. Her disgust was evident.
“That’s Doell,” Harlyn said. “The man never saw an opportunity to promote himself that he didn’t embrace.”
“Launch pad view,” Rachner said, directing the team’s attention.
The traveler the team had seen in the bay, or one similar, silently glided over the launch pad.
“You have to admit,” Erin said, “that exterior coat is beautiful. I’d love to know how it’s made, and how it can hold up without being marred by the rigors of space travel.”
“I can’t imagine a more dramatic way of Miriamal making her point to the X-Ore population,” Timor said. “The SADEs arrive, hovering over our pad in a shuttle without demonstrable engines and painted like a water-lover’s dream.”
Timor’s remarks shook the team from their reverie about the shuttle’s beauty. It was a reminder of the possibility that the SADEs might have dangerous ulterior motives.
“Any takers as to whether Doell instructs Ricardo to open the hatches for the SADEs?” Dan asked. No one took him up on his offer.
The team watched landing gear mysteriously appear from the traveler’s hull, and then the shuttle settled gracefully on the pad’s icy surface.
“Good trick,” Dahlia commented. “I know I didn’t see hatches for the landing gear before the struts appeared.”
“We’ll probably see the same clever prestidigitation for the exit hatch,” Timor added.
In that respect, Timor was prophetic.
A hatch suddenly appeared in the shuttle’s port side. One at a time, three SADEs exited the craft.
“That’s the first weakness I’ve seen,” Harlyn said. “The SADEs’ avatars are vulnerable to the cold and vacuum. They need suits like we do.”
The SADEs crossed about ten meters of pad to an outcrop that marked an engineering access hatch. It rotated aside at their approach.
“Harlyn, find out if Ricardo triggered the hatch,” Timor requested.
Tapping swiftly on her slate, Harlyn sent a message to the flight controller. “Ricardo says that the shuttleport’s servers were hijacked. There was no legitimate directive to the hatch.”
“The SADEs are coming in despite not receiving an invitation,” Rachner said, and he eyed the three couples who had posited the ideas that the team had formed the wrong opinion about the SADEs.
The shuttleport’s views tracked the three entities as they walked through an engineering bay, entered an access tunnel, and made their way to the passenger area. Hatches opened at their approach and closed behind them.
“They haven’t touched a slate or a panel,” Dan pointed out.
“I imagine that if you’re a walking, talking, thinking digital device, you can carry a gamut of electronic capabilities inside you,” Timor mused. “Why would you have need of the devices we do?”
“That makes me wonder ... uh oh,” Rachner said, interrupting his own thought. “Harlyn, can you get a message to Commander McIntyre?”
“Yes,” Harlyn replied.
The Geneva specialists weren’t supportive of anything that aided the commander who’d kidnapped them, but they kept quiet.
“Tell the commander that in all likelihood those avatars are hardened against security’s stun weapons,” Rachner said, “and another thing; she shouldn’t be overconfident about the power of her augmentations. The SADEs would have developed tremendous power within their avatars.”
While Harlyn tapped furiously on her slate, Timor regarded Rachner. “That was imaginative on your part. Well done.” He clapped a hand on Rachner’s shoulder.
Bethany’s comm pickup shrilled, and she accepted the urgent message. After reading Harlyn’s warning, she replied, “Acknowledged.”
When the SADEs passed through the sentinels to enter the passenger staging area, the bots never moved.
Harlyn checked her slate. “Ricardo said the sentinels were taken offline.”
The team watched a semicircle of security led by Bethany form behind the SADEs, as the three entities approached Peter Doell.
“Eerie how they need no help,” Sherilyn said. “They know where to enter our dome from the launch pad. They know how to navigate our tunnels, and they know whom they need to meet.”
“Oh, they needed help all right,” Timor said. “It just didn’t come from X-Ore personnel. The information came from our servers, and they didn’t need to ask anyone.”
“Another message to the commander,” Rachner said quickly. “The SADEs can probably shut down any agent’s augmentation.”
Harlyn frowned at the jump in intuition. When she did, Dahlia commanded, “Send it,” and Harlyn relayed the message.
Bethany replied, “Is this you, Harlyn, or your team’s opinion?” And Harlyn had to admit it came from her team.
Surprising to Harlyn, Bethany accepted the information. It made Harlyn wonder about the commander and her loyalties.
In the team’s computer projection, they watched the commander’s security forces change formation. The security members no longer appeared to provide a guarding force against the SADEs. Instead, they fanned out, intent on keeping the onlookers away from Doell, the department heads, and the SADEs.
A drone, requested by Doell, hovered in front of him. The drone would provide audio and vid pickup to record the momentous occasion. Doell wanted every X-Ore employee and clone to know who was responsible for the first contact opportunity.
As the SADEs neared Doell, Erin asked, “Did you see that? The SADEs didn’t even glance at the drone.”
Heads turned toward Rachner, who replied casually, “The avatars are probably equipped with many types of sensors, enabling them to scan in all directions. I imagine the SADEs’ eyes are capable of measuring light across a broad spectrum and magnifying their vision.”
Timor stared at Rachner with a questioning expression, and Sherilyn, his partner, laughed. She answered Timor’s unasked question, “You’re looking at a closet science fiction writer. He publishes under a pseudonym.”
“No wonder Rachner went from being one of the angriest among you for the kidnapping to being one of the most cooperative when the alien ship was shown,” Harlyn remarked.
“You could have asked us,” Rachner grumbled. “For this, I would have taken a hiatus from my job to come see an alien ship.”
