Ran, p.8
RAN, page 8
The screens blanked and remained so. Jocara presumed this was because they were in nullspace.
“We’re in position,” the AI said softly moments later. “Five minutes remain till drone launch.”
Jocara knew the transit would be quick, but its suddenness amazed her. She looked at Daphne with her strange face and body, and yet somehow she felt a kinship that transcended species and gender, strengthening her resolve to remain with the offworlders.
Kenred picked up the drone and headed to the lock.
“At a half-kilometer altitude, there should not be much wind, but attach a safety line anyway,” Daphne said. “Close the inner door, open the outer, and launch the drone on my signal.”
“Do I have to launch it in any special way?” Kenred asked.
“Nope,” Daphne said, turning toward him. “It will align itself automatically and follow the instructions it receives through the power portal.” She turned back to the console and moments later gave the order to launch.
“Mother, take us out of the atmosphere and hover over the compound, moving in and out of nullspace so we remain invisible to radar while being able to assemble a composite image of events below.”
It doesn’t take a skilled pilot to fly one of these, Jocara thought, just a detailed knowledge of how they work and how to issue orders.
The space above the console filled with holoimages of the drone as seen through a telescopic lens and of the massive government building as seen through the drone’s imaging. At the top, a terrace-like compound enclosed on all sides, filled one-half of the space, and Arclando’s offices occupied the remainder. General Sudajos appeared in the compound with several uniformed Ceffids. Daphne zoomed in on them and determined that they were armed.
“If I were in Arclando’s place,” Kenred said, “I would send out armed personnel.”
Jocara agreed.
The drone landed, and the top popped open. One soldier gingerly approached it. He retrieved the disk and handed it to the general. Then he attempted to grab one of the quadcopter arms. The drone slipped sideways and shot into the sky. The soldiers brought their weapons to bear and fired on the drone. The AI detected their action and maneuvered the drone radically so that all the shots missed.
“Down and pick up the drone,” Daphne ordered, “then return here.” As an afterthought, she added, “Maintain visuals.”
Jocara felt nothing during the radical maneuvers, but when Kenred opened the inner lock door, the quadcopter rested quietly on its supports. He brought it into the lounge area.
Thorpe stuck his head through the still-open portal to Katengi’s office. “Well done, guys. Now the fun really starts.” He looked at Jocara. “You have your E-disk, right?”
She held it up before placing it inside her clothing in her belly pouch. “It’s as physically safe as possible,” she said, patting her belly.
Kenred chuckled. “You got that right!”
“After the portal opens, wait for my signal,” Thorpe said. “I want to scan his entire space before you step through. We don’t want any surprises.”
Amred President Binecot Katengi’s Office—Amred City, Amred, Planet Arcan
A holoimage floating in the center of Katengi’s office showed a disk view of a soldier holding the hyper-disk and handing it to General Sudajos. They picked up shots as the other soldiers tried to take down the drone. Then they moved with the general through a door, past several guards, and through another door into the Leader’s office, where he placed it in the center of Arclando’s desk. The room was large, with plush carpeting. The desk, placed three meters out from one wall, dominated that side of the room. Arclando sat behind the desk, his back to the wall. An armed guard stood in each corner behind him. A wide elevator door flanked by two armed guards occupied the wall opposite the desk.
“I count seven armed guards,” Katengi said, “three outside the door and four inside.”
“They appear to be carrying live ammo,” General Kaylambo said.
“Who’s the big fellow?” Thorpe asked.
“That’s General Garkid Sudajos, Arclando’s top military officer,” Katengi answered.
“Both of them have side arms,” Kaylambo added.
The comm screen on the wall flickered, and Leader Bopr Arclando appeared. “We’re ready to open the portal,” he said without preamble.
At the sound of Arclando’s voice, Max jumped from Kaylambo’s lap.
“Watch him!” Thorpe said. “Max roams throughout Andromeda and explores every new portal he finds. The last thing we want is for him to jump through the portal into Arclando’s office.”
Chapter Seven
Operations Center, Government Compound—Ceffidia, Ceffid, Planet Arcan
Leader Bopr Arclando leaned over his radar operator’s shoulder. His snout pushed past the operator’s right eye, and his breath smelled of rotten meat.
“You should have something,” he hissed. “If they’re on time, you should have something.”
“My screen is blank, Sir.”
“Increase your power!”
“I’m at max power, Sir. If something is up there, we’ll see it.”
“Swamp-lizard-mentality Amred bastards,” Arclando muttered to Sudajos, his scales rippling an irritated pale orange.
General Sudajos glanced at the bulkhead clock. “It’s not yet thirty minutes.”
Arclando walked over to the radar operator again. “Keep looking,” he said, his voice cracking.
The operator hunched over his screen, intensifying his focus, his scales rippling red. Arclando walked back to the room center next to Sudajos. The clock indicated exactly thirty elapsed minutes.
“I got something!” the radar operator shouted, “at five hundred meters!” His scales rippled blue. “I got two blips—one dropping fast. It’s small.” He made an adjustment to his console. “Perhaps a meter wide.” He strained over his console. “The other one is gone. I had it for just a moment. Then it just vanished.”
“How do you explain that?” Arclando asked Sudajos.
“It could be anything—a bird, a spurious whatever-the-hell, even one of the alien spacecraft. They couldn’t launch that drone from space. Something had to descend deep enough into the atmosphere to launch it. The thing is, we’ll never know.”
“It looks like it will land in the compound,” the operator announced.
“Send some soldiers to retrieve it and meet me in my office,” Arclando told Sudajos. “Capture the drone.”
Retrieving the disk was simple; the drone offered it up. Capturing the drone, however, turned out to be impossible. When it lifted off, Sudajos’ best sharpshooters could not hit it. Carrying the hyper-disk, Sudajos returned to the Leader’s office.
“I want four armed guards here,” Arclando said, “each with a clear line to the front of my desk, and three outside the door.”
General Sudajos briefed the guards. “Your job is to protect the Leader. Astronaut Jocara Porovik will come through some kind of door. Make sure she is alone, that no one follows her. If she produces a weapon—any weapon at all—shoot her. Be prepared to take her into custody, should the Leader so indicate. Questions?”
Ceffid Leader Bopr Arclando’s Office—Ceffidia, Ceffid, Planet Arcan
Bopr Arclando sat at his desk facing the elevator. The office entrance door was to his right. General Sudajos stood to the right of his desk. Alert armed guards stood in the corners behind the desk and flanking the elevator door. All eyes were on the hyper-disk that occupied the center of the desk. Arclando glanced at his chief military officer.
“Are you ready to do this?”
“Yes, Sir,” the general responded.
Arclando flipped a switch on his desk, opening comms to the Amred president. “We’re ready to open the portal,” he said.
Arclando didn’t know what to expect as tension coursed through his body, and his scales rippled multiple colors.
Arclando and Sudajos focused their attention on the disk. Initially, nothing happened. Then the disk vanished, and a door appeared in thin air in front of Arclando’s desk.
“That portal opens to an armed spacecraft outside the atmosphere hovering above Ceffidia. Are you ready to receive Astronaut Porovik?” President Katengi’s voice sounded neutral and nonthreatening.
“We are ready, Mr. President.”
With that, Jocara stepped through the portal. She wore her astronaut uniform with a small patch on her left shoulder, indicating that she came from Ceffid. She came to attention and saluted Leader Arclando and General Sudajos—right forearm across her chest, fist closed. The general returned her salute.
“Astronaut Jocara Porovik reporting as requested, Sir.”
Her voice was neutral and her eyes showed no guile, but Arclando felt a rising rage at her words. As his scales rippled orange, he bellowed, “I did not request your presence, I ordered it!”
Jocara’s scales remained pale green. She stood quietly, hands at her sides.
“How dare you decide to remain in Amred with the offworlders without consulting me first? I tell you where to go and how long to stay.”
Jocara straightened and lifted her snout. “No Sir, you do not. I am an SPC Astronaut assigned to the offworlder starship. I take orders only from SPC.” Her scales rippled orange with a tinge of red.
Arclando jumped to his feet, shouting, “This is outrageous! You will submit to my authority.”
“No, Sir! I will not!” Her scales rippled full orange. “You are powerless to stop me.”
“Arrest that swamp lizard!” Arclando ordered his guards. “Arrest her!”
The guards ran to her side and gripped her arms. As they did, Jocara vanished. They looked at their empty hands in astonishment.
“Where’d she go?” one guard asked.
“Fuck if I know,” the other answered as the portal behind them closed.
Arclando and Sudajos looked at each other in astonishment.
“Do you suppose she was just a holoimage?” the general asked. He addressed one of the guards. “Did you feel her? Was she real?”
“Sure was, General, as real as you and me.”
Arclando picked up the hyper-disk that had reappeared on his desk when the portal closed. He rubbed his thumb across the shiny side. It was totally smooth. He turned it over and rubbed the deep black side. The disk vanished from his hands, and the portal reopened in its former position.
To Arclando, it looked like Thorpe had walked through the portal. “Shoot him in the legs,” he ordered his guards. “Don’t kill him.”
Nothing happened. The bullets slammed into the wall behind Thorpe without striking him. Before Arclando could issue any more orders, Thorpe held up his hand.
“Stop! I come in peace. I am eThorpe. What you see is a holoimage. I am an uploaded entity on the starship Andromeda. I am projecting my holoimage through the portal. I wish you no harm, but I will tolerate no acts of violence against my holoimage, or anything connected to Andromeda. Anyone initiating violence will die.”
A holoimage of a chair appeared beside eThorpe. He sat down facing Arclando.
Arclando’s scales rippled multiple colors as he evaluated the situation. He looked at Sudajos whose scales had turned bright orange. This offworlder is usurping my authority. I can’t allow that, Arclando thought. “Take him out, General,” he said. “A headshot.”
Sudajos signaled the guard on his side of the desk. The guard fired a round through eThorpe’s head…and dropped lifelessly to the deck. The second guard raised his weapon.
“I wouldn’t,” eThorpe said. “You’ll die for no purpose.”
With rippling red scales, the guard looked at General Sudajos, who shook his head slightly. The guard lowered his weapon and stepped back into his corner, scales fading to green.
“Now that’s settled,” eThorpe said, “let’s talk.”
“We need to establish a basis for future interaction,” eThorpe said to Arclando. “I have a rapport with President Katengi and SPC Director Ferron. We are laying the ground rules for trade and technology exchange. It should be apparent that any input from our cultures to theirs will give Amred a material advantage over Ceffid.”
Arclando felt the offworlder’s eyes boring into his. He is obviously right. Virtually any offworlder trade with Amred will put Ceffid at a disadvantage. But how to reverse things? The offworlders and Katengi are obviously in bed together. My instinct says the offworlders are not trading weaponry—at least not yet. This means that Ceffid and Amred are on par in any confrontation. Would the offworlders step in on Amred’s side? Arclando shifted in his seat, glanced quickly at Sudajos, and then locked eyes with the offworlder. He had an inspired thought. These guys are no smarter than we are—they just have better toys.
“I will leave our portal in place,” eThorpe continued. “When it is open, you can speak into the portal, and one of us will respond. If you wish privacy, you can request that we close the portal. When it is closed, you can open it at will by rubbing the black side of the hyper-disk. Let there be no mistake, however. The portal is for our convenience, not yours. Anyone attempting to enter the portal will die. Anyone firing a weapon into the portal will die.
“I do not mean to threaten your sovereignty. We will not interfere with your internal workings without your express invitation, but we will respond vigorously should you attempt to interfere with us.”
eThorpe’s holoimage disappeared abruptly, and the portal closed, leaving the hyper-disk on Arclando’s desk.
“What now?” Sudajos asked, scales rippling bright yellow. Arclando motioned the general to a chair.
Remembering his earlier thought, Arclando said, “Keep in mind, General, the offworlders are no smarter than us. They just have better toys.”
Arclando looked at the lone guard still manning his station behind him in the left-hand corner and the two guards by the elevator.
“You’re relieved,” Arclando told them. “Remove your fallen comrade and set a normal two-lizard watch outside my door.”
The guards dragged the body through the door, their scales rippling from red to green.
With just the two of them in the room, the general said, “Better toys, I agree, but what can those toys do to us? If we don’t get a handle on this immediately, I fear Amred will overwhelm us.”
“The offworlder said they wouldn’t interfere…”
“And you believe that, Sir?” the general asked. “I don’t—not for a minute.”
“What are our options?” Arclando asked.
“With the offworlders gone, we can pressure Amred.”
“So, how do we get them to leave?”
“How, indeed? Let me give that some thought.”
Arclando watched his senior military officer settle back in his chair and close his eyes in contemplation. Normally, he would ask the general to do his thinking in his own office. But this was different, and time was critical. He stayed silent while the general remained deep in thought.
After about fifteen minutes, Sudajos opened his eyes and looked at Arclando with some hesitation. Then opened them wider as his scales rippled pale yellow.
“We need to gain the offworlders’ confidence,” Sudajos said. “We need to reach a state of cooperation so that they will invite several Ceffids as guests aboard Andromeda. We need to do this as quickly as possible. One of my most trusted lizards will join the guests. We will surgically remove part of his tail, replacing it with a small nuke—it will be indistinguishable from his original tail. Once onboard Andromeda, he will find the best place, go there, and detonate the nuke.” Sudajos blinked his eyes while his scales rippled blue. “Even a small thermonuclear detonation should destroy Andromeda.” He blinked his eyes again. “Even if it doesn’t, the havoc it will cause should be overwhelming. If offworlders survive the blast, we can offer assistance that will further endear Ceffids to them. Then, when the time is ripe, we can hit Amred and take out the remaining offworlders. That will leave us in sole control of Arcan.”
“What about The Geroptic Nation and the Prophet?”
“If we succeed in neutralizing the offworlders, the Prophet, and his ignorant hordes, they will pose no problem…Trust me.”
Arclando mulled over what General Sudajos had said. It’s tempting, he thought, but what do we really know about the offworlders and their advanced technology? This portal transportation—I don’t begin to understand even its basis. And what about electronic uploads? I think I grasp what they are doing, but the how is a mystery totally beyond any science I know. What killed my guard? I saw nothing—no visible shaft of energy, no…no nothing, and that’s the problem. How did the offworlders get the drone here so quickly? Even without an engineering background, I know it takes time to get from here to there in space—and they launched the drone from 500 meters. They have better toys, alright, MUCH better toys. I like Sudajos’ thinking, but it’s much more complicated and involved than that.
Arclando turned to Sudajos. “I like your out-of-the-box thinking, but we have too many unknowns to implement your proposal. We need to pressure Katengi into severing his relationship with the offworlders. Like us, I’m sure he is overwhelmed by their superior technology. Things as they were before the offworlders arrived were much better than things as they are now. No matter our differences, I think Katengi feels the same way. We need to nudge him in that direction.”
“I don’t think nudging will work,” Sudajos said. “Katengi needs to know that with or without the offworlders, we will destroy Amred if he does not sever his ties with them.” Sudajos paused and shifted his position in his chair. “We have another matter that needs our attention, Sir. That partisan rebel, Spajo Boszut, has taken out several southern power transfer hubs, disrupting our southern military command.”
