AMP Colossus (19 page)

I replied, "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that. It must be exciting to finally be going home, and to get your fleet back."

The comm was silent for several seconds before Huff replied. "When you say ‘get your fleet back,’ what are you implying, Mr. Grange?"

I sat up on my bed. "Just that it must be exciting to get your ships back. I understand the journey back across the boundary will take a long time. But, you are finally going home."

Again Huff Gervel was silent for several seconds. "Mr. Grange. We do not have ships, and Ponik is our home. The Colossuns have promised us freedom and transport to another habitable planet, where we can live free. They have promised to allow us to determine our own destiny. The ships they are sending are the same ones they originally used to enslave us. I am apprehensive about this deal that has been struck, Mr. Grange. It is out of character for the Colossuns to give or offer anything without a high price."

I replied, "We were told that the Colossuns were the originals on Ponik and that the Grell attacked, with the fleet of ships that is on its way. They also claimed that the androids who have governed you were originally your soldiers. They were reprogrammed for the duties they now perform. Convince me that they are lying."

Huff grumbled and spoke. "When your ship returns, have it scan sector 10F.3345 for underground structures. That is one of our cities. It was more than two thousand years old before the arrival of the Colossuns. Its existence should tell you who is being honest, Mr. Grange. As I said, the Colossuns do not make deals or offers without extracting a high price."

I stood and paced the marble floor in my room. "The monitor that I had the major give you—my intentions for that were twofold. I wanted to see if the Colossuns were keeping their word, and I wanted a comm connection to you should we ever find each other in need. We will be departing tomorrow for locations that I would guess are deep within the Empire. I wish you and your people the best, Mr. Gervel. The next time we meet, I will be expecting a small glass of that wine your people make. Keep us posted. And Huff, good luck."

I switched the comm channel back to the major. "Give Mr. Gervel any help you can. And if you do not hear from me again before the
Granger
arrives, I want you to pass on a message to the Captain. Have her shadow the Duke’s ship as best she can. If we have to jump ship to get away from the Duke, I want someone in the vicinity who can pick us up."

The major confirmed the orders and went about his business. I made my way to the quarters where the others were just about to head out for lunch. I joined them in a meal fit for a… duke.

The following day, the Colossun fleet left orbit around Ponik and set course for the Verna. I had no way of knowing if we were being followed by the
Granger
. Shortly after our departure, I had left a message with our direction for the Captain to follow. Soon thereafter the Duke turned on the comm jammer internal to his ship. I now had to walk to the others if I wanted to have a conversation.

After being confronted by a scantily clad Frost several times after knocking on her door, I had changed tactics and started knocking on York’s door instead.

York spoke. "Good morning, Mr. Grange. Has the Duke given any indication of when we might arrive at the supposed Verna?"

I replied, "No, he keeps telling me ‘soon.’ I’m just making the rounds this morning to check on everyone. Not having the convenience of the comm is eye opening. It makes you wonder how people used to live without them."

York invited me in. "Have a seat, Mr. Grange. Rodriguez is hanging out with us this morning. Funny that you brought that up, as we were just talking comms before you knocked."

I replied, "I wish we had some way to get around this jam."

Rodriguez spoke. "Well, we may have a way, Sir. I’ve been monitoring the frequencies used on this ship. I think there are a number of maintenance channels that we might be able to piggyback on for transmitting messages. And I think I may have an RF channel that we can use for voice."

I replied, "That would be good news, Maria. Tell me what you have."

Rodriguez moved her chair over next to mine and held up her arm pad. "If we each enter a key into our pads, we can split a text message over several channels at once. Since those are active channels, it is doubtful our messages would be detected. And, if they do pick up on it, they won’t be able to reassemble the messages without the key. Voice is a little different, as it takes more bandwidth. And, we can’t use our encryption over that one, because it’s analog, but we can change our voices."

I sat back. "I get the first part with the texts, but I don’t follow your voice solution."

Rodriguez continued, "It’s really simple, Sir. We just use our translator chips to output another language that is not from this sector. They obviously already have translations for ours. York thinks she can augment another language in such a way as to make it difficult for the translators to crack. There are parts to some languages that the chip has extreme difficulty with. She thinks their gear is probably similar."

I replied, "So, you are going to take another language and do what with it exactly?"

Rodriguez smiled. "We take another language and add every nasty language conversion we can to it. If we use it sparingly, the Colossuns will have a difficult time translating it, should they ever figure out it is there."

I spoke. "So, how will we know what it is that we are saying?"

Rodriguez shook her head. "Don’t overthink this one, Sir. We are constructing the language, so we already have the translation. York had an idea of how we might test it several times a day to see if they are onto us. Tell him, Diane."

York spoke. "Twice a day I will transmit a voice message stating that I have a bomb in my room. If they come storming in, we will know they can understand us. It isn’t a high-tech solution, but it should be effective in letting us know."

I nodded in acceptance. "I like it. How long will it take you to implement?"

Rodriguez replied, "We already have it ready, Sir. We worked on it most of the night. You know, Sir, that there is nothing much I like better than to talk to someone’s face. I’m a chatterbox when I can be, but I also like being connected to others who are not with me. It kind of gives you a sense of security knowing that others are around."

I spoke. "Are there any limitations to this?"

York sat forward. "That is the great thing about it, Sir. Those maintenance channels are available ship-wide. We should be unrestricted in when or where we can use it. Here, let me see your arm pad… OK, you should be set up with a voice channel. Let me go across the room and see if it works."

York stood and walked to the corner of the room. I could see her lips moving but heard nothing but gibberish coming over my comm.

I spoke. "I couldn’t understand a thing you said."

York smiled as she walked back and punched a key code into my arm pad. She then walked back to the corner again.

York spoke. "I said, can you hear me now?"

I nodded. "Crystal clear! I say we roll this out to everyone immediately. I’ll let you two handle that with Frost, as she has been creeping me out when I knock on her door."

York replied, "Oh, it's all innocent over there, Sir. If you ever have the pleasure of sharing a bunk room with her, you will find her like that during most off-duty hours. Try that for a six-month deployment and then come talk to me about it. She won't cross the line with aliens, but she would try to push as close to that line as she could."

We were all startled by a knock on the door.

A voice spoke. "It’s Keith, Ma’am. I have news."

York opened the door. "Come on in."

Keith replied, "Thank you, Ma’am. Oh, good, Mr. Grange is here. It looks like the majority of the Colossun ships just peeled off, Sir. We are left with the Duke’s ship and three others. I couldn’t get a final heading, but it looked like they were turning back towards Ponik."

I spoke. "Well, that can’t be good news for the Grell. I wish there were something we could do about it, but there isn’t."

I stood and gestured towards the chair I had risen from. "Have a seat over here, Corporal, and let these two get you connected to our new comm system. York, fix him up."

I moved to another chair and sat as the four of us got into a long discussion. I looked down and noticed a little pudge forming around my otherwise firm gut. The Duke’s food was rich, and with a lack of exercise, I had begun to put on an extra pound or two. It was decided that we could compensate by setting the gravity resistance on our suits to slightly heavy.

We also began a regimen of daily walks around the ship. Oddly enough, the Duke did not seem to care. I was quizzed by the Duke about the scarfs we had begun to wear around our mouths. It was our attempt to hide the fact that we were talking over the makeshift comm as we walked. I made up a lame story of it being the month of Abutan and how the scarfs were a Human ritual that we practiced for that month. He found it odd, but other species had always had odd behaviors. So the scarfs were allowed to be worn.

Over the course of several days, Corporal Keith had been messing with his arm pad sensors as we walked.

The Corporal spoke. "Sir, I think I have identified the source of the comm jammers. As we have moved around the ship, I have been checking signal strengths. I’ve identified six nodes on the ship that are emitting the FTL frequencies that we use."

I replied, "Are the nodes accessible? Could they be disabled?"

The Corporal thought and replied, "I believe they could be, Sir. They are in open hallways that we pass every day. I don’t think we could knock them off the wall or anything, as they would know immediately that we had done that. But, I think I might have the materials that would allow me to fashion a shield, a cover, that would knock that jammer signal down by 95 percent or so. Unless they notice the cover, they would never know the jammer wasn’t working. The materials in our rooms are the same as in the halls. We just need to find the proper density of metal for a screen, so all I really need is something to bond it to the wall."

I gave the Corporal the go-ahead to work on his boxes.

The following day, as part of my morning ritual, I made my way up to the bridge to chat with the Duke.

I spoke as I walked into the room. "Any sign of the Verna yet? We must be getting close."

The Duke replied, "As every morning with you, Mr. Grange, we are moving closer each day. I’m sorry for the delay, but we had to take a slight detour due to conditions beyond our control. Space is a big place and often filled with hazards. There is no sense in risking our lives to save a single day. As always, I will let you know when we arrive."

I spoke as I sat in the guest chair that had been constructed next to him. "So, Duke, what did you do as a child? I mean, for Colossuns, were there sports? Games? How did you keep yourselves occupied?"

The Duke rested his right elbow on the armrest and placed his chin on his right fist. "Hmm. That was such a long time ago, Mr. Grange. How long is the expected life of a Human?"

I replied, "Well, if you include the wars we have been in, we average about sixty-four years. If you exclude, that number jumps up into the nineties. How about Colossuns?"

The Duke thought and replied, "I cannot include wars, as we have been largely at peace for centuries. Of the wars we have had, we made use of our sentinels to do the fighting for us. It is much less for commoners, but I have been at my current stage of life for nearly three hundred of your years."

I sat back with a slightly stunned look. "Three hundred years is a long time. How do you manage that?"

The Duke looked forward towards the view-screen as he spoke. "I suppose it is a mix of our advanced medical technology, our physiology, and perhaps our diet. I never really thought about it, Mr. Grange. At three hundred, I am merely middle aged for a royal. Humans would be more in line with our commoners."

I replied, "Wow, three hundred. I suppose a good portion of that was on Colos?"

The Duke smirked. "Hmm. Colos. I left Colos when I was fourteen, Mr. Grange. I have done the King’s bidding on this ship ever since. I do have the occasional visit home, but there is much work to be done in keeping an empire running. My father and my brothers have been shipbound for most of their lives. It is a good life, Mr. Grange. We eat well, we have comfortable quarters, and we visit many planets as dignitaries, where we are treated as such."

I spoke. "You mentioned war. Is that trouble from outside of the Empire or skirmishes like the Grell rebellion?"

The Duke replied, "We have had the occasional rebellion, yes. It seems that sentient beings have a propensity to want to govern themselves on occasion. It is usually attached to some misguided greed or overreaching ideal. The people of the Empire are well cared for, Mr. Grange. Most rebellions don’t have a large following. You indicated war as an issue with your people. Enlighten me."

I spent the next few hours giving the Duke a detailed history of our dealings with the Milgari. I again mentioned that we had only recently defeated them before jumping to the Colossun sector. I neglected to outline my part in the war effort, or the weapons and methods that we had used against our enemy.

When I left the bridge for lunch with my squads, I somehow felt less threatened by the Duke. I remained suspicious, but being able to just sit and talk about anything was a foundation block for building trust. As I walked to the cafeteria, I wondered if the first block of that foundation had just been laid.

As I sat having lunch with the others, I turned to Corporal Keith for progress on his boxes. "Have you come up with any ideas for a bonding agent?"

The Corporal replied, "I have, Sir."

I sat looking at the Corporal for several seconds as I chewed my food. "Well? What did you come up with?"

The Corporal smiled and replied, "You are eating it, Sir. I had that sauce yesterday and managed to get a drop on my battle suit. It nearly took a chisel to get it off after it had dried for an hour. I plan on doing a test with it this afternoon. If it looks good, the boxes will be ready to go."

I looked down at my empty fork and then my plate. "So, what you are saying is that I am eating paste?"

I shrugged and continued, "Oh well, at least it has a good flavor to it. Which for some reason reminds me, I was talking to the Duke this morning, and he says he is over three hundred years old, and middle aged."

Frost spoke. "Ah, oh great. That means those two young Colossuns I’ve been chumming around with are not young; they are nothing but old men that look young."

I shook my head in disgust, but had to laugh. "No, you are OK, Frost. Only the royals have those life spans. The common Colossun is just like us."

After finishing our meals, we walked back to the Corporal's room. He picked up a sample box, coated the edge with the sauce, and held it against the wall. He pulled out his ion blaster, set it to a minimal setting, and used the flow of ionized particles to heat and dry the sauce.

The Corporal then stood back from the box. "I think we have a winner, Sir. Let me give it a bump and see how she holds up."

The Corporal smacked the side of the box with his open hand. It didn’t move. "I think we are ready, Sir."

I replied, "So, how do we get those boxes to the nodes and cover them without being seen? There are cameras in every hall."

Rodriguez spoke. "We are one step ahead of you, Sir. We take the box like this, flip it over, and wear it as a hat, or helmet, or whatever you want to call it."

I replied, "Well, that is just going to look stupid. Who is going to believe that?"

Rodriguez smiled. "Sir, we are already wearing scarfs for a month. I think the festival of Abutan can have a few more quirky rituals before they call a foul."

I spoke. "So, we walk out with hats and come back with none. There is nothing suspicious about that?"

Rodriguez shook her head. "I told you, Sir, we are one step ahead. Lift up the hat. The real box is inside. Take it out, stick it to the wall, keep the hat on. Our only problem at the moment is those cameras, and we have an idea of how to deal with that."

Rodriguez stood and began to gyrate. "When we get to each node, we start performing some whack-job dance. In the middle of it, York will cover the camera while Keith glues on a box. If they come out complaining, we just say that it’s part of the dance, that it’s private, that we don’t like to be watched or recorded. Yes, it’s lame, but it’s one of those things that will work because it is so lame. The Duke will think we are idiots. If they catch on, they are just going to take the boxes away, Sir. They are keeping us alive for a reason. I think this ridiculous plan is worth the risk, Sir, and we are ready to implement it whenever you are."