Ran, p.10
RAN, page 10
“Your people have made tremendous progress, but now they know there is something better out there, something they will want. A famous leader in our past, Winston Churchill, once said, ‘Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’ I firmly believe that I and my people have learned from history. If you give us the chance, we will assist your move to our technology level. Your scientists can work alongside ours, your engineers can design alongside ours, and your artists can work with ours to make the universe a more beautiful place.”
“That sounds too good to be true,” Katengi said, “and in our culture, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”
“Again,” Thorpe answered, “I don’t disagree.” He placed folded hands on the table and leaned forward. “If you choose to withdraw into your shell and try to ignore our presence, I will respect your decision; however, I will welcome anyone who wishes to join our expedition and has something to offer.” He turned to Kenred. “Kenred and Jocara have already made their choices. As the word gets out, so will others. Remember, Ran is just a stop on our journey. When we leave, you will have whatever you learned from us during our stay, but nothing more should you choose to withdraw.”
“I understand,” Katengi said.
“On the other hand, if you choose to join our interstellar community, before we depart, I will introduce you to John Butler, the current Chairman of the Oort Federation, the central coordinator for our interstellar community. John is the wisest person I ever knew, Human or otherwise. He will assist you in establishing your place as a co-equal in the Federation.”
Out of deference to his president, Ferron did not speak out, but inside he cheered loudly and enthusiastically for Thorpe’s words.
“You have just returned from a meeting with Leader Arclando?” Ferron asked, directing the conversation to a new topic.
“Not me—it was eThorpe, actually. He will join us shortly.” As Thorpe spoke, eThorpe’s holoimage appeared, sitting in a chair in an empty slot at the table. He greeted President Katengi and Ferron and nodded to Kenred.
“My conversation with Leader Arclando was not very fruitful, although it went as I expected. There is no chance that he will step down from his dictatorship to establish a democratic government in Ceffid. I sensed no remorse for his launch of nuclear weapons. He was resentful and perhaps a bit frightened at how easily we thwarted his intentions. I am certain even now he is looking for a way to circumvent my nuclear weapons sanctions.”
Katengi spoke up. “There is a robust resistance movement in Ceffid. I understand your reluctance to interfere in the affairs of planetary populations. It makes sense to me, but this might be an exception. You are involved with Amred. You thwarted their nuclear attack against us. Several of our people have joined you—even, I suspect, several from Ceffid. If you were to enable the resistance—not take up their cause, but just enable their victory by giving them a strategic advantage…” His voice trailed off. “…Ceffid and Amred together could integrate your technology into our cultures so that we, as Arcans, could become part of the Federation.”
Ferron was surprised at the president’s audacity, but recognized this as an example of why he was such an outstanding leader. If Thorpe takes him up on his proposal, he thought, there’s a chance Ceffid can throw off its dictatorship. There’s no downside to that.
Phoenix Starship Andromeda—Hovering Invisibly in Nullspace Beyond Lodan, Jocara’s & Kenred’s Quarters
Kenred was unsure why Thorpe had asked him to join the discussion with President Katengi and Director Ferron. And if me, why not Jocara, too? I think I was on display as his Amred advisor…or is that Arcan advisor? Thorpe has full confidence in Jocara, but perhaps he thinks President Katengi does not, even after her heroic confrontation in the Leader’s office. Things are not always what they seem. His scales rippled multiple colors as he walked to the room he and Jocara shared.
Once inside the room, Kenred nuzzled Jocara’s snout and dropped into a chair, flipping his tail to one side, his scales rippling pale lavender.
“I think the offworlders are going to help the Ceffid resistance,” he said. “President Katengi made a powerful argument, and I think Thorpe accepted it. I don’t know how they will do it, but I think you and I will be involved.”
They sat for a while quietly. Then Kenred asked, “Do you know who Spajo Boszut is?”
“Not really.”
“He’s the Ceffid who organized the underground resistance movement. I think Thorpe will find a way to assist his overthrow of Arclando. You and I will probably play a role.”
“That swamp lizard tried to kill me,” Jocara said, her scales rippling orange. “I’ll be happy to help get rid of him.”
Chapter Nine
Phoenix Starship Andromeda—Hovering Invisibly in Nullspace Beyond Lodan, Comm Center
Kenred had met Dale Ryan several times, but didn’t really know him. He knew Dale was part of the original team, and he had a long-standing relationship with Daphne and Kimberly. Kenred didn’t understand that, because such a relationship was entirely foreign to his species. Even the relationship between the females, Daphne and Kimberly, was absent from his species.
Now, Kenred was assigned with Dale to locate the Ceffid partisan leader, Spajo Boszut. Dale was an electronics guy who had designed the original matrixes that the uploads used. They needed to develop a method of tapping into Ceffid optical communications—not just government, but all communications. Ceffid had Central Dispatch, a huge electronic and optical complex that received all comms and dispatched them to their destination along branching trunks. The only place one could access all communications was at Central Dispatch. The government routinely tapped into private comms there to maintain control over everything throughout Ceffid.
Dale’s idea was to locate the endpoint of an optical branch, tap into it, and insert an optical tensor. The tensor would traverse back to Central Dispatch, where it would set up a filter that could identify any desired communication.
Kenred grabbed Jocara, and they entered the hangar bay by portal. They mounted the ramp to Kenred’s assigned M-Class, PS Neil Armstrong, and settled at the control console. “We’re going to a spot above this village,” Kenred said, pointing to a location on the holoscreen. “We’ll remain in a nullspace loop except to launch a drone.”
Kenred gave the AI the coordinates, and moments later, Armstrong hovered a hundred kilometers above the village.
“Make sure the hyper-disk is on the drone and launch it,” Kenred told Jocara, while checking for a second disk in his pocket that would connect him to Dale.
Jocara guided the drone down to a wooded area just outside the village. Then she assumed control of the spacecraft, and Kenred activated the hyper-disk and stepped through to the wooded area outside the village.
“Okay, Dale, I’m on the ground,” Kenred signaled. “I’m going into town to find the local comms terminal. I’ll activate the hyper-disk to Andromeda’s Comm Center as soon as I arrive and know I can operate for a while without bring disturbed.”
Physically, Kenred looked like any other Ceffidian, although his clothing differed from the locals. Hopefully, he thought, I can pass myself off as an official.
He walked to the village center and located the comms terminal, a low, squat building that obviously was designed for equipment, not lizards on a regular basis. The building front was emblazoned with the government’s OptiComm logo—a circle with a mouth and several trailing optical cables. A low door on the side granted access, if you had the key. The lock was a simple mechanical device that Kenred opened with one try, using an L-shaped tool from a lock-picking set he had brought along for just this purpose.
He glanced around, saw no one, and entered, locking the door behind him. Kenred activated the hyper-disk, and Dale entered the room carrying eDale’s matrix. Dale had already made an appropriate adaptor. He plugged it into the matrix.
“Everybody ready?” Dale asked and connected the matrix to the optical comms terminal.
eDale moved through the adaptor into the Ceffid optical termination unit. There are only so many ways you can terminate an optical signal. This setup, while not entirely familiar, was close enough that he found his way quickly to the central processor. From there, he followed the data stream back through increasingly large fiber bundles until he arrived at Central Dispatch, somewhere in the capital city, Ceffidia. Before he had departed Andromeda, eDale had structured a tensor that would filter all comms, isolate any originating from or directed to Boszut, trace their origin, and redirect a copy to the coastal village.
eDale returned and set up a Link through the portal directly to Andromeda’s Comm Center. Then he exited the Ceffid optical termination unit into his matrix. Dale and Kenred passed through the portal to the Comm Center, and reduced the portal inside the OptiComm so it accommodated the Link but was otherwise invisible.
Kenred returned to Armstrong, and he and Jocara returned to Andromeda. They both joined Dale in Comm Center.
“Now all we do,” Dale said with a hint of smugness, “is wait for Spajo Boszut to call.”
Several hours later, the coastal village Link announced an origin location for a short, encrypted call from Boszut. The AI quickly decoded the message. Although it was a routine dispatch, Dale now had a destination for an introductory message and an algorithm for their encryption protocol. He routed the message through a dozen internal transfer stations so that tracing the message’s origin would be impossible.
“I am Kenred Zlaxiz, SPC Astronaut from Amred, partnered with Astronaut Jocara Porovik from Ceffid. We know who you are and what you are doing. We strongly support your activities and want to help. I wish to meet with you to discuss how we can assist. Please meet me here at one of the following days and times.” Dale listed the hyper-disk location coordinates outside the coastal village and several successive days and times. “I will be at this location for five minutes each day and time listed until we make contact. I will understand any precautions you choose to take to protect yourself and your movement. Do not reply to this message. Just show up at one of the days and times listed.”
Ceffid Coastal Village—Ceffid, Planet Arcan
Kenred stepped through the portal at the Ceffid coastal village on the first designated day and time. No one was visible, and no one arrived within the five-minute window.
Back in the Comm Center, Kenred told Dale, “I saw nobody, but if I were he, I would have been out of sight, observing.”
“Do you think he saw you pass through the portal?”
“Don’t know, but if he saw me, he likely thought he had just missed me during his first scan. Let’s see what happens this afternoon.”
The next time slot was three hours later, in the early afternoon. Kenred passed through the portal, waited five minutes, and returned.
“Nothing,” Kenred said, “but I felt him watching.”
“You guys have some telepathic sense we don’t know about?” Dale asked, his eyes twinkling.
“Gotta keep some things to ourselves,” Kenred answered, his scales rippling pale blue at the humorous exchange. “Next one’s tomorrow morning. Perhaps he’ll show then.”
Rain was falling the following morning as Kenred stepped through the portal.
“Stop right there!” a male voice commanded. “I’ve got you covered.”
The bushes parted as an Arcan pushed through to face Kenred, weapon in hand. He was early middle age, Kenred’s height, with a better muscled body and stronger, thicker tail.
“Are you Kenred Zlaxiz?” the stranger asked.
“I am…and you are Spajo Boszut?”
“I am not, but I will take you to him.” The stranger tossed Kenred a plastic poncho. “Put this on,” he said. “It’ll keep you dry.” He tucked his weapon inside his poncho and started trudging through the woods. “We have a safe house in the village.”
Twenty minutes later, the partisan walked to the back door of a house and knocked with a security pattern. The door opened partly, the partisan gave a password, and they entered a room that Kenred recognized as a simple kitchen. The partisan led him through a door into a larger sitting room. An Arcan came to his feet. He was somewhat shorter than Kenred, of medium build and tail, with rugged facial features that told a tale of hardship and sacrifice. He held out both hands in the traditional Arcan greeting. He gripped Kenred’s hands.
“You must be Astronaut Kenred Zlaxiz…I am Spajo Boszut. We partisans operate without titles.” He motioned to a couch. “So, you found me, and I couldn’t trace your message. You must have some pretty sophisticated technology.”
“It’s a long, complicated story, Mr. Boszut, and I need to tell you all of it.”
“Spajo, please, call me Spajo, and I’ll call you Kenred, yes?”
They looked at each other with wide open, blinking eyes.
Kenred started with their circum-Lodan excursion, and related everything that had happened since.
“So, these offworlders of yours could dispose of Arclando with virtually no effort, but they won’t do that. Why?”
“Any way I answer you will be just my opinion. They are a private venture, not subject to any government rules, except for those they impose on themselves. They see interference with other sapient species as a negative, although they are happy to expose another species to their technology and invite a partnership where one is possible. Obviously, they cannot do this for a stone age culture, but are happy to do so with us. They don’t want to give one nation an advantage over its neighbors that it does not already have, but they hate dictatorships like Leader Arclando.
“I’m here to offer you access to technology that should enable you to overcome the Arclando dictatorship quickly. If you do this successfully and establish a representative government, the offworlders will be happy to include Ceffid in their cooperative technology plans.”
“What kind of technology?”
“Three things. The offworlders have developed a spread spectrum communication technology that is undetectable, even by them. There is no way to track the sender or receiver. As much as possible, the offworlders want to avoid bloodshed. I already told them you were not interested in killing a large number of your countryfolk. They have a personal EMD weapon— Electro-Muscular-Disruptor. It is adjustable from a simple, powerful shock to a killing charge with an accurate range of a hundred meters. It gives your people the opportunity to take down opponents without taking them out.
“The lizard who met me at the rendezvous point never mentioned it, but I’m sure he wondered how I got there. This is perhaps the most important technology the offworlders are willing to give you. You do not have the background to understand the underlying science or engineering, so I will simply describe it to you. We call it a portal. It opens a shortcut between any two points. For instance, I stepped from the starship through a door to the rendezvous point. It’s a bit like putting two spots on a piece of paper and drawing a line between them. That represents the normal path you would have to take to get from one point to the other.”
He bent the paper, so the two dots touched each other.
“The portal makes this happen.”
He displayed a hyper-disk.
“We call this a hyper-disk. It is one-half of a portal. We call the other half the Locus. A Locus must have a significant power supply at hand, and it takes up about the same space as a small suitcase. Rubbing the dull side of the hyper-disk opens a portal to the Locus. The portal can also be activated, shut down, or recalled at the Locus. The power draw is a function of the distance between Locus and hyper-disk and the size of the portal.”
“To say I am astonished would be a great understatement,” Boszut said, his scales rippling yellow. “The offworlders are willing to make these things available to the resistance?”
“They are,” Kenred said.
“How can we possibly power the portals? Arclando’s security forces would find us immediately if we were to make a large power draw.”
“That’s one of the beauties of portals,” Kenred said, eyes wide open and blinking. “They will set up a power portal to any spot you wish, or even to numerous locations. These portals are nearly microscopic, and they supply unlimited power. You can tap into them and disappear entirely from the electrical grid. With secure comms and no power draw, you’ll disappear, and can take over with the least possible bloodshed and disruption.”
“In my experience, when something seems too good to be true, it usually is,” Boszut said. “I want to meet these offworlders.”
“Their leader, Thorpe, said you would want to.” Kenred opened his eyes. “When would you like to visit them?”
“How about now? I presume you have the appropriate hyper-disk with you.”
“I do,” Kenred said, “but first, put this on.” He handed Boszut a wrist Link. “This is a communication device that we all carry internally. This unit will let you communicate with me, Dale, whom you will meet shortly, and the captain. When it is fully activated, you can communicate with anyone on Andromeda and access its complete knowledge database.”
Kenred showed him how to use the Link.
Phoenix Starship Andromeda—Hovering Invisibly in Nullspace Beyond Lodan, Thorpe’s Office
Kenred and Boszut stepped through the portal into Thorpe’s office. Thorpe sat at his desk and Dale occupied an easy chair facing Thorpe’s right.
“Thorpe, Dale,” Kenred said, speaking the Ceffid language, “this is Spajo Boszut, leader of the Ceffid resistance.” He turned to Boszut. “Spajo, please meet my captain, Thorpe, and Dr. Dale Ryan, Senior Research Scientist, and Andromeda’s Comms Officer.”
Boszut held his hands together in front of him and said, “I am honored to meet you. Kenred told me about your portals, and I know I just stepped through one, but I really do not know where I am or how I got here.” He opened his eyes wide, the Arcan equivalent of a Human smile.
