Chapter 13: Turning the Table

Kayla was actually enjoying her job as a senior lifeguard. The clever girl told the lady in charge of teaching a swim class for the little kids that she was going to supervise as she needed to write a report on her efficiency. The reality was that Kayla needed to learn how to swim, so getting in the shallow end of the pool with toddlers gave her the opportunity to learn the basics. During the hours outside of her shifts, she accessed first-aid and lifeguard training videos from a terminal in her room. By the end of that first week, she was so confident in her new role that she felt ready to jump in at the first sign of trouble. Fortunately, there wasn’t anything more drastic than some boys who had to be called out not to run around the pool.

I, on the other hand, was bored to tears. Aside from the few times that Kayla and I were able to sneak off to a quiet spot to talk and share some intimacy, there was mostly boredom on the job and even more boredom off the job. My relationship with Kayla had gone from odd to complicated. It was clear that we cared for each other and that we enjoyed being with each other, but whenever we brought up the future or what we might want to do after this whole running from killers was over, the conversation would veer off into something else. Neither of us was sure of what we wanted, and I think we were both afraid of not wanting what the other wanted. So there was an unspoken agreement that we would leave the discussion for later if there was a later.

Mitchell got her message off, but could only do it as a recorded message sent in a scheduled burst transmission. Two-way communications between star systems were possible, but only with a quantum transmitter that was very expensive. A burst transmitter used the same technology, but was much cheaper and used a lot less energy. With a BT communication system, you record a message, address it to the recipient and once or twice a day the ships communication officer points the array towards the nearest receiving station and sends it. The message is then relayed to the system where it is addressed. There was a risk of the message being intercepted if the syndicate was using AI’s to scan all transmissions within 10 light years for our voices and images, which is why we wanted to wait until we were as close as possible to those who could help. We just wouldn’t know if the message got to the right person until someone showed up.

Two days after she sent the message the ships were about to jump to the next system when a PA announcement told of a change in plans. “Ladies and Gentlemen. We apologize for the inconvenience we will be delaying our transit to the Fulton system for a few hours as we have been directed to rendezvous with an Alliance ship for a required inspection. This is a common practice, and we comply with all Alliance Interstellar Laws. This inspection will focus on the crew and cargo so there will not be any disturbance to any entertainment activities. If you have any questions, please ask a porter. Thank you.”

Hopefully, that was our ride. A few days earlier I had figured out how to hack into the ships command database from my palm computer. I couldn’t do anything more than read status reports, but at that moment that was all I wanted. Telling my supervisor that I was going to take a break I walked off the deck to an employee break room and pulled out my computer. It only took me a moment to find what I was looking for. The ship they were meeting with was an Alliance sublight shuttle. That was a military ship, but with no armament and limited to flight within a star system, which meant it couldn’t be coming from the military base that Mitchell transmitted the message to. It was possible that her Colonel friend contacted someone he trusted who was in this system to save time, but that was a big assumption.I sent a text message to Kayla and Mitchell to meet me in the employee conference room on the mid-deck. It was a central point where we could meet that wouldn’t draw any attention to us. Kayla was in her quarters and Mitchell was just getting off her shift. Within three minutes we were together in the room that was used for training meetings and employee gatherings. Before saying anything, I showed the data on my computer to Mitchell. Her face showed the same concern that I was feeling.

“What do you think?” I asked.

She took the palm computer and scrolled through a couple of more screens. “The shuttles registry looks legitimate, but I don’t know a General Carter. It all seems wrong. First, why would a General come in a sublight shuttle to collect witnesses and an officer that is not even in his command? Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

“I’ve never known of a fleet admiral riding in anything smaller than a gunboat simply for the security requirements.”

“My guess is the syndicate is using a stolen shuttle to get to us before our people can,” she said, clearly frustrated and a little discouraged. “And if they know we are here, it won’t take them long to track us down. Even if we protest, the ship’s command won’t help us because they wouldn’t want to interfere with the military.”

I took back the computer and looked up some additional information about the shuttle that was coming. “Huh,” I said.

“What?” Kayla asked, in desperate need of good news.

“I think I have a way to turn our disadvantages into an advantage.”

~~~

Within the hour, the shuttle was pulling up alongside the cruise ship which extended a walkway with a docking collar. I had returned to the bar, but then faked an illness and got excused by the supervisor. Kayla had gone to a maintenance room on a lower deck that was right below the main computer network node. From there she was able to run a hard wire into the network and get into the system. The computer had firewalls that would have sent out an alert if she tried to override everything, but for our plans, she only needed to implant something. Mitchell went to the shooting range on deck 9 and acquired three of the laser light weapons. In reality, they were little more than toys, but the rich like their realism and when pointed at someone they looked real enough. The three of us met up in a supply closet near the docking collar shortly before the shuttle arrived.

Kayla hacked into the ships security system, and we were able to watch a camera feed that looked down the walkway. A man dressed as a general walked out first, followed by eight large men in army uniforms and sporting MP armbands. To a civilian, they would look real enough, but both Mitchell and I could see that their shoes were wrong, the unit patches were inconsistent and a couple had their name tape in the wrong place. As soon as they were aboard, the General started talking to the Captain, but the MP scattered onto the ship each with DNA scanners in hand.

“Okay, Kayla,” I said, “Release the worm.”

She pulled out her little employee computer that was only meant to be used for schedules and employee account access, but that she had gotten into and installed a few more programs. With a slide of her finger a button appeared and she pushed it. Immediately an alarm sounded for a seal breach, and it came from the docking collar. The ship’s Captain grabbed the man dressed as a general and pulled him all the way into the ship just before the emergency hatch slammed down. Then another alarm sounded. This one for an impending collision. It continued as a prerecorded voice announced, “This is a code orange impact warning. Please find your nearest environmental suit locker and in an orderly fashion put on a suit, check the air supply and report to your designated shelter.” The message repeated on a loop over the whoops of the alarm and yellow flashing lights. As expected, the goons that came with the fake general ran back to get on their shuttle but found they couldn’t, so they scrambled to find EV suits for themselves and save their own skins. Once they were out of sight, we emerged from the closet two doors down the hallway, and Kayla hit another button on her computer that opened the hatch. There were two men left on board, the pilot and co-pilot. They came running out to find out what was going on. Mitchell and I pulled out the fake guns that she had acquired and pointed them at the two men. “All we want is the ship,” I said as we stepped to one side to give them a clear path through the gateway. “Go.” They looked at each other for a moment and then both decide running from us was their best option, so they bolted onto the cruise ship. Kayla, Mitchell and I ran aboard the ship, sealed it, and I made a sprint into the cockpit.

“Tell me you know how to fly this thing,” Kayla yelled from the main compartment as she was buckling herself into a chair.

“Every cadet gets a crash course in basic shuttle flying. You don’t want to serve on a starship without knowing how to fly one.”

Mitchell climbed into the co-pilot’s seat and asked, “Is that true?”

“Absolutely,” I said and then cocked my head as it wasn’t entirely true, “They explained to us how to launch and program a shuttle to land, in a classroom. Unless you actually go to flight school, you don’t get to actually fly one. But I did do it in a simulator a couple of times.”

“How did you do in the simulator?” She asked.

“Let’s just say I learned what not to do,” I said as I flipped the switched to release the magnetic seal on the docking collar and pushed the stick to the right to fire the thrusts to push us away, I then activated the main thrusters, and we were on our way.

“Kayla,” I shouted back over the noise created by the vibration of thrusters. “Activate the last command.”

“I can’t, she called back. The signal isn’t getting through.”

I turned off the engine and let the craft coast as I unstrapped and climbed out of the pilot’s seat. When I got to her, I took her little computer and took it to the aft section where there was an emergency transmitter. I didn’t want to use the main comm unit because the cruise ships main computer is set up to filter out incoming transmissions to prevent exactly what we were doing. I ripped open the panel, used a fruit knife that I had been carrying in my pocket to cut lemons and limes, sliced open the wire leading from the sensor system to the transmitter system and spliced her computer into the network. That boosted the signal by 400%, and the little device showed that it connected and executed the command. We watched as every light on the cruise ship flickered off as every system except life support shut down as if it was in a dry-dock because that’s exactly what the computer thought.

“Even if they fix the computer lockout quickly, it will still take them at least three hours to get the main reactor back online. Now our friends are stuck on a drifting hulk in space for a while with no way to call for any backup,” I stated as I made my way back up to the cockpit. Once I was buckled back in, I laid in a course for Woodland Beach, a spaceport on one of the moons near the third planet in this system. I would have preferred someplace that had a military presence or even a legitimate government, but the little shuttle we just swiped only had enough fuel to cross part of the system, and there weren’t any better choices.

“We could wait and see if the help I called for actually shows up. I’m certain my message got through, and the Colonel will have insisted on sending a ship for us.” Mitchell said as she saw what I was doing.

“Maybe,” I said, “But we don’t know that for sure, and I doubt this tub has much in food and water on board, plus it uses fuel to keep the life support systems going so we can’t just coast for a day or two. We need to land someplace where we can ditch this bird and find a way to get another message out or another ride to a safe harbor. Woodland is our best bet.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I just hate it when things go sideways.I’ll check out storage to see if they have an armory. We’ll need some real hardware where we’re going,” She unstrapped and headed to the back. Kayla decided since the seat next to me was free she would move up and take it. At the time I was keeping myself busy by reviewing the technical manuals in the database to make sure I knew what all the buttons and switches did.

“You know she has a crush on you,” she said as if I knew it as a fact.

“What makes you say that,” I replied, my attention on the gages more than on her.

“She told me.”

That deserved a little bit more of my attention, so I looked back over and asked, “She told you?”

“Well, I don’t think she meant to. The other night when she got shit-faced, and I had to help her out, she was telling me everything like I was her best friend.” Kayla said that last part with such disgust I couldn’t help but laugh a little. Then she continued. “She went on and on about how lucky I was to be with a guy like you and how you reminded her of the first man she ever loved, the only man she ever loved, some guy named Roger. She wouldn’t shut up about how he could make her feel like a little girl and a real woman all at the same time, and after he died she had given up on relationships, but when she met you all those feelings came back, and if I wasn’t in the picture she would jump your bones.”

“She said ‘Jump my bones’?” I asked.

“Well, her exact words were more like ‘make a play for you,’ but it’s the same thing.”

I was finding the entire conversation so absurd that it was hard to keep my amusement off my face, but Kayla was truly upset and feeling threatened, so I said what I thought would make her feel better. “Haven’t you ever got so drunk you’ve done and said things that you later regretted.”

With an embarrassed pout, she said, “Yes.”

“So why can’t you cut her some slack?”

Her face puckered like she had just been scolded by a hateful stepfather. “Because I don’t trust her, that’s why.”

“Do you trust me?” I asked. She didn’t answer right away. “Do you?” I asked again.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Well that’s honest,” I replied as I put some attention back on the gauges while the autopilot was having us bank left. “Look, I’ve never been very good at relationships, and I couldn’t handle going out with more than one woman at a time. So I can promise you that I have no desire to complicate my life any more than it is already it by getting involved with anyone else while I’m with you. And by the way, I do trust you. I don’t know if that means anything to you, but I do, and I think it’s important that you know that.”

She ran her finger around a dial on the co-pilot’s side as she thought about what I said. “It does make a difference, that you trust me that is. I don’t think anyone has ever trusted me with anything before. No one has ever said that to me before.”

We both sat there quietly for a while. Kayla looked back to see that Mitchell was still too far back to here our conversation and then asked, “Do you think she’s pretty?”

I sighed knowing there was no right answer, so I stuck with the truth with some honey. “In general, yes, but compared to you, no.”

She nodded as it was close to what she wanted to here. Then she asked, “Are you scared?”

I thought it interesting that after everything we had been through for the past several weeks she was just now asking me that. “Yes,” I answered.

“How can you not show it?” she asked.

“Practice,” I answered. My life had been on the line for most of the war, and that was most of my adult life. Eventually being scared is more normal than not being scared.

She looked out the side window for a while lost in her own thoughts and then asked, “Do you think we are going to make it?”

“Yes,” I said as confidently as I could, for both her and me.