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- Adventures in Internal Affairs
-
- I wasn't sure why I'd been chosen for the job, but as the infiltration pod
- drew closer to the ominous vessel ahead, my questioning thoughts were buried.
- The teams' mission was one of close knit planning and intricate execution.
- Apparently, some scientific information was being held within the comuter of
- this great barge. But why an Infiltration Task Force was used to get to it...
- I don't know.
- My company was nice. We were all of equal rank and no one man lead. We
- often did it this way since our plans always dictated what each person had to
- do according to his ability. However, we didn't have precise plans of the ship
- and this time, I feared having an equalibreum might be suicide.
- Marc was our technical advisor. He was a tall man of 6'2" and medium build.
- He was often made fun of for his very wavy hair styles that tweaked his bangs
- into "surf's up" positions. Antony was our security loophole. He knew how to
- disarm any security system. He was about as tall as I am, 5'11" with a neatly
- parted haircut. He and I often preferred a casual approach to infiltration and
- we always wore tennis shoes, black shorts, and a black tank top over a white
- T-shirt. It was almost a uniform to us. Lucas was even shorter still cashing
- in at a mere 5'8". He was always a lookout. He and the other member of the
- team, Dianne, were engaged and planning to get married in about a year. Dianne
- herself was as tall as he, with blonder hair flowing down to about 5" past her
- shoulders. She was our "land-mover" so to speak. After we'd disable a security
- system, she'd bust down the doors or break the newly unprotected locks; a very
- important memeber of our team and a pleasant person to be around. Of course,
- the whole team was. It surprised me since this was my first time serving with
- them and all the other teams I'd been on left much to be desired.
- "Ever do this before?" Marc called to me from the back of the pod,
- I was the pod pilot and backup man, "Yeah. Here and there."
- "Any good?"
- "I'm still serving..." I commented with a quick shrug.
- "Sounds like you don't have a very high opinion of your work there,"
- Dianne pointed out.
- "I don't. I'd like to be a more active member... I mean, I know what needs
- to be known about infiltration, but my commander suggested I be put in as
- pilot since that's what I did best."
- "Well, don't let it get to you. You're just as important as we are," Marc
- concluded, putting his hand on my shoulder and looking forward as the massive
- star barge came into range.
- "Steering point five four mark thirty negative. That'll put us right into
- the defense fuselage. We can get anywhere on the ship from there." I turned
- the pod to bring it parallel with the massive reflective plating of the hollow
- defense shell. Then with a soft hiss then clang, the magneto hydro airlock
- clamped to the barge. A perimeter cutter then incised a sqare hole through
- the foot-thick metal allowing just enough room for one person into the hull
- at a time.
- The four got through and signalled for me to come. With a final flip of
- the power center, the pod went dead and I descended into the blackness of the
- defense hull.
- The defense hull is basically a layer of thick metal spaced about eight
- feet from the main hull of the ship. It completely surrounds the ship but is
- often built upon and only a few sections will remain open to space. We
- happened to lock onto one of those open spaces. Within the defense hull, is a
- cold, dark, ecosystem. Microbes thrive and form thick slimey films on the
- walls and floors. Large colums often dangle from the ceiling dripping a foul
- smelling fluid. In this case, the hull had recently been depressurized. It was
- colder than usual and the slimey film was reduced to a crusty dirt-like
- material on all walls.
- Marc switched on his hand light, "This whole place is dead. They must have
- figured out that stuff grows nicely in these shells and done something about
- it."
- Meanwhile, Antony and I nearly froze. We'de once again decided to wear our
- casual uniform. It proved a most poorly planned descision. The temperature
- averaged about 27 degrees in the shell and made for a poor place to wear
- shorts and a short sleeved shirt.
- "The main computer bay is this way," Lucas pointed to a a row of columns,
- probably running water and elevators to one of the structures built onto the
- defense hull. Each was numbered in decending order, and we established that
- eighty feet beyond the last tube was the computer bay.
- It took no time to get there... which was a blessing comsidering the cold
- that Antony and I had to bear with. We cut through the six inch metal and
- peered out at the bay below. There was eight computer cages for each of the
- barge's functions. Basically, there were two rowns of four cages each. The
- first row was right next to a console area with windows looking panoramically
- into the huge cargo bay. The others lined up behind them. No one was in the
- room. And the room was huge! Usually, on a well organized ship, an important
- station such as this would never be left ungaurded... but sure enough, not a
- soul was present. A quick estimate of the room gave it the dimensions of 150
- feet by 300 ft with a height of 40 feet. Each computer cage was about ten foot
- by teen foot and eight feet high with a square opening in the bars on the top,
- and a seven by three foot door on the side. Both entrances would lead to a
- sufficient link up to extract this important scientific information we were
- after... Our only problem was: Which computer was the science computer. We'd
- have to check them one-by-one.
- Antony had rope, 100 feet of it which we used to lower ourselves down from
- our small hole in the ceiling to the top of the cage just below. when we were
- all down, we noted the hallway on the far left of the room, entering right at
- the back wall. If anyone was to came, I'd be from there. Lucas positioned
- himself on the cage so he could see deep into the hallway. Antony observed the
- setup of the cage and finally concluded that the system was unprotected. It
- was easy game.
- Marc jumped into the cage. Looking around he saw he was completely
- surrounded by computers. There was enough room in there for all five of us,
- but we gave Marc all the room he needed to tap into the computer to find out
- if this was the science computer or not.
- "It'll be the last computer we check... you can bet on it," Lucas said
- sarcastically, even though he was probably right.
- With intricate precistion, Marc pulled out a small databank that he would
- put the extracted inphoto-disk into. Then he gently pryed off one the the
- computers panels to ge to the meat within; wires and circuit boards that
- pulsed messages to other parts of the ship. It was a matter of tapping into
- the pulse and finding out what it was saying to find out what computer this
- was. Marc touched a probe to one point on a large circuit, then touched
- another probe to another... And problems arose.
- A siren echoed through the computer bay. Lights of bright white pulsed in
- each corner of the room... and the computer cage doors began to slide closed.
- Lucas was the first to plunge into the cage with Marc, in an attemp to hide.
- He figured that even if they eventually got caught, he'd rather not draw any
- potential discoverers before the info could be extracted out of the computer
- and transmitted to the pod. Dianne jumped in quickly after as the door slipped
- further across the opening. I then signalled Antony who plunged in next...
- just as the door reahed halfway then slammed shut unexpectedly. I was left
- outside for all to see.
- In a last attempt to find a suitable hiding place, I jumped off the cage
- and grabbed the side door, just inches before it closed. I leaned back pulling
- on the door so hard my entire body ached. It slid an inch backwards then
- thrusted forward an inch. I pulled harder causing my complexion to phase into
- deep red. The door slipped back an inch again... then slammed shut. I pulled
- my fingeres out just in time and breathed heavily to help my skin color
- return.
- Just as my breath settled, A troop of fourty men ran out from the hallway
- not twenty feet away. The commander, a stout man with an assured smile walked
- up to me, menacing his sharp face into mine and uttering the words,
- "Which way did they go?"
- My first thought was, "He's got me..." Then as his words sunk in, I
- realized, he didn't even know who I was. I was an invader on his ship and he
- didn't even know it!
- I responded, "That way," pointing towards the windows to the cargo bay,
- "around where the console is. I think they were trying to get into the
- computer."
- The entire troop of fourty proceeded to the front where I had told them to
- go... not questioning me further.
- I didn't know what to do. I felt that if I ran, they'd get suspicious, so
- I stuck around to see if they's "get the bad-guys." After a little while, I
- noticed a group had formed in the hallway entrance. It was composed of about
- seven people and all looked entertained at the sight of fourty armed guards
- looking in the wrong place for my team. I decided to belnd in a bit and
- socialize.
- I walked over to them and said a simple, "Hi."
- "Hey," came seven individual voices.
- One voice continued, "Who are you, I don't think I've seen you around? And
- what kind of uniform is that?"
- Somehow, I managed to think really quickly and I answered the inquisitive
- girl's questions, "I was just transferred from an independent science vessel."
- "Must be for that secret project the science crew is working on." She continued, "Sounds neat."
- "Yeah, it's real neat. I've done a lot that could benefit this fleet
- anyday though... some even more so than the project." I bragged, even though
- the stuff I'd worked on was top-secret, "I was lead programmer for a new drive
- protocol. Initial tests show my programming is up to 88% faster than the
- standard programming. I also did a few assignments on fuel extraction on
- Grodian 4. I'll have to tell you about it sometime."
- "How about you meet me at the cafeteria this evening... say at nineteen
- hundred hours." she smiled and winked.
- I suddenly came to the realization that this girl was nice looking. She
- had shoulder legnth blond hair and greyish hazel eyes somewhat analogous to my
- own. Her smile was perfect and her figure was smooth and perfect as her
- uniform adhered to each curve. I blinked out of my daze to answer her
- question.
- "Sounds good..." I suddenly saw the biggest, strongest black dude I'd ever
- seen in my life. His face was huge and his cocked, perturbed looking eyebrows
- were shadowing his deep brown eyes that stared intently on me as he
- approached. I continued to speak to the girl making casual glances to the guy
- as he emerged from the hallway. With a short stride-sprint, he was at me, and
- with graceless motion, his enormous arms completely encircled me, trapping my
- arms from moving and cutting off a bit of my air... yet I continued to appeal
- to the girl.
- And as I was carried from my place into the hallway, I continued, "...just
- recently, I developed a matrix for plasticite. It's metal that's as strong as
- steel but as light as plastic..."
- Then I couldn't see her anymore. I couldn't see a thing. I'd been bonked
- efficiently on the head.
-
- I awoke in what appeared to be an interrogation room. A board of
- commanding officers sat around me, shuffling papers and watching monitors that
- kept flashing computer generated images of scientific and communication
- satallites.
- I knew they'd figured me out, and I knew they'd do something to me, but I
- wasn't sure what. I thought maybe they weren't completely convinced I was one
- of them and would question me by having me identify their satallites in order
- to prove my position. That was a test I'd fail anyday. I never kept track of
- my own fleet's satallites, much less an unknown fleet's. It was a disaster
- waiting to happen. One of the higher rank officials shuffled his papers on his
- desk, squring them off with very annoying "click click" sounds as the papers
- met the desktop repeatedly. My doom was come.
- I looked around for a hint or something. Maybe they had a chart with the
- satallites on them that they overlooked and left in view for me to cheat off
- of. A glance around the room revealed only three monitors and three windows
- beyond the monitor stands. On one of the monitors was the mentioned satallites,
- the other was a topographical view of the computer bay, which was abandoned
- like before. The third monitor was off but had a keypad below it. Evidently a
- communications monitor.
- Suddenly, the same alarm that had went off earlier went off again. the
- sound came from the computer bay monitor though. I looked focussing only on
- the four dots on the screen... the team had gotten out.
- The room went wild. Every man there stood up and looked towards the
- sliding door between them and the hallway. And almost all at once, every man
- in the room went out the door and to the left. I siezed the opportunity and
- ran for the door as well... but made a right.
- As I dashed through the crowd and out into the vacant hallway to the left,
- I yelled, "That's my boys!... And girl!!!" And darted down the maroon plush
- carpeted corridoor. Only one of the commanding officers noted my departure
- and quickly locked the elevators by remote control.
- The elvator was right at the end of the hallway, before it made a left to
- run parallel to and beyond the interrogation room. A green light illuminated
- on it just above the word "LOCK" and a clicking sound could be heard as a
- bulkhead was put into position beyond the elevator door.
- I yelled back, "I don't NEED an elevator" turned the corner, and all got
- silent.
- The hallway got wider. It went from aboutsix feet wide to about ten feet.
- On either side was a wall with doors placed every sixty or so feet. But not
- far ahead, the walls stopped and railings took their place. I was entering the
- observation balconys. I walked to the place where the balconys started and
- looked around. The wall fell back thirty feet away to my left and about sixty
- feet in front of me. The balcony continued forward thirty feet then cut
- another left into a set of gently inclining steps. Everything was still
- carpeted.
- Looking over the edge, another carpeted room sat below. There was nothing
- in it and it looked like there had never been enything in it. I kept going;
- around the corner to the steps, which had gaps between them so if you looked
- straight at them, you could see peices of the scene below. It didn't take me
- long after that to realize that not only the floor was carpeted, but the walls
- were as well. Only a strip of black painted wood in where the floor met the
- wall and where a wall met a wall broke the plane of the carpeting.
- At the top of the steps, looking ahead, I could see that there was one
- more set of steps just like the one's I's come up, ascending another four feet
- above the vacant rooms below. I proceded up them and looked over the edge.
- Below was what looked like old instruments for generating electricity and
- static fields. Confusing above all. I made another note that I saw no way of
- getting down to those lower levels... no way short of jumping 25 feet down.
- I continued to lean over the edge, examining from a distance the primitive
- devices, when I heard the soft pat-pat-pat of someone very light running on
- carpet. I turned around to see the girl I spoke with in the computer bay
- running up the steps to me.
- "I finally found you," she said between pants.
- "Here I am..." I looked at her as she started to relax and breathe
- normally.
- "I thought I might find you here." she said.
- "Why?" I inquired.
- "Because, this is the old science museum. this is the kind of place a guy
- like you would hang out." She explained intelligently.
- "Is that what this is?"
- "You didn't know?" She looked surprised.
- "No. I had no idea. I was just looking around and I found myself here."
- "What were you looking for?"
- "The science station."
- "Well... why? The project staff has the week off."
- "Um... I know. I just wanted to look over the place while the ships'a
- having problems with security."
- "Good idea. But, why can't you find it... you've been there before haven't
- you?"
- "I can't lie to you," I grew a bit grim, "I'm not who you think I am. I'm
- not scientist for this ship... I am a scientist, but I'm also on an
- infiltration task force that was assembled to recover stolen technology.
- Unfortunately, this secret project doesn't belong to your fleet... it belongs
- to ours and I'm here to get it back."
- She stood there nearly shocked by this blast of bad news. Her left hand
- brushed through her hair and she backed away from me. I hardly even knew her
- and I'd already let her down.
- "I'm sorry it has to be this way..." I tried to explain, "I really like
- you. I didn't want to hurt you."
- A tear rolled down her cheek, "Then why did you tell me all that stuff
- about being transferred here from an independent fleet?"
- I gulped nearly audibly, "Because, I didn't want any of the officers
- around me to know I wasn't part of your crew. They'd have killed me on the
- spot... Even without them knowing, I was nearly killed."
- "Take the third tunnel on the right ahead. That'll take you straight to
- the sciance labs." She wiped her tears.
- "Thank you. So much. You've done a great deed for my fleet. I'll never
- forget you for this." I held out my hand and waited for her to grab it.
- Instead, she walked up to me and put her arms around me. I repeated the action
- and kissed her on her head, "I'm sorry. It just won't work."
- She sniffled, "I thought I'd finally found someone who liked me for who I
- am."
- "I do, I do... but we're born enemies. If not for that, I'd take you with
- me... But I fear harm would come of you if you return with me. They'll try to
- get every shred of information out of you that they can. I promise... If I can,
- I'll came back."
- I slipped out of the hug and turned back to face the long stretch of
- balcony that lay ahead of me. I could see the first of three platforms leading
- back into the hallway structures. And as I walked towards them, I couldn't
- ignore the soft cry from behind, as I left a girl I'd never forget.
- My job pressed on. Pretty soon I was out of audible distance from the
- sobbing, heartbrokem girl and on my way to the third balcony to the right. I
- passed the second and noted it lead to a large airlock door about three
- hundred feet down it. Finally, I reached the third turn off and hung a right.
- This particular balcony led into the hallway like the others did, but turned
- left thirty feet in. After turning left, it went straight for another thirty
- to a clear glass door with a green light next to it. Beneath the light was the
- word "LOCK" just like the elevator. Somehow I'd have to get into the lab
- without setting off the alarm... but then the light went off, and a click
- could be heard from within the wall...
- I looked around and noticed that the reds lights that I was accustomed to
- seeing mixed in faintly with the white lights had shut off. There was no more
- security breach which meant one of two things. The team was captured or the
- team got away. Either way, I still had the job of getting the information out
- of unfamiliar computers.
- I walked foreward and the glass door slid up allowing me to enter the lab.
- As soon as I walked in, the door slid closed behind me and the floor shifted.
- I was in an elevator taking me down. the wall directly opposite the door was
- glass as well, and as soon as the elevator cleared the wall of the hallway,
- the giant labratory was visible expanding in both directions from my point of
- view in the elevator. The wall just opposite me, all 500 feet of it was one
- huge window to the stars. Beyond it I could see the ominous image of the dark
- half of Tielsa, a large mining planet.
- The lab was abandoned, just like the computer bay. But unlike the computer
- bay, nothing was caged in. The entire lab was open for all to see. And laying
- on a large table in the center of the room was the great experiment. A large
- black panel with tiny blisters in it, so small that you can't even feel them.
- I knew what it was the moment I saw it from the elevator glass: The densest,
- most powerful solar array ever made. According to the scientific reports I had
- to research before trying to join the team that built it, it could power an
- entire flagship on just the light of stars. And it was ours... we were ready
- to test it when all of the data disappeared as well as the team that built it.
- That was the only time I was glad I wasn't accepted on the team.
- The elevator came to a quiet stop at the bottom of the open shaft and the
- door rotated around to face the lab. The door slid up once again, giving me
- complete access to the system. I looked over the panel and made sure it wasn't
- altered in any way. Having not seen it before hindered that examination
- greatly. But I established quickly that it was still original.
- I pulled a homing box out of my pocket and switched it on as I attached it
- to the underside of the black silicate sheet. That was set... now all I
- needed was the research and data linked to it's developement plus any research
- the thieves did on it.
- Fortunately, because all the information stolen was on inphoto-discs, they
- had to build inphoto-disc drives to retrieve it. They never bothered to
- disable it which allowed me to extract all the information and delete it out
- of their system within five minutes.
- My job was done... now I needed to get home.
- I ran back to the elevator and got in. the door slid closed and the glass
- tube raised me to hallway level. The door slid up again allowing me to step
- out for the last time. I then ran out back into the balcony section, back to
- the second corridoor where the airlock was. All the signs indicated this led
- to the main cargo bay. Thinking back real hard I recalled seeing several small
- freighters and personal shuttels in the bay from the computer bay's window.
- I stopped short at the airlock and pressed the open key. the massive doors
- parted with the sound of hissing air and powerful servo motors. Just beyond
- that door was another identical door. there was a good six feet between each
- door, giving every indication that this was a pressurization chamber. I
- stepped in and closed the door. Sure enough, oxygen poured through the vents.
- A door opened to the side which was a small walk-in closet full of oxygen
- suits. I chose the one that best fit me and closed the closet. The air vents
- then began to hiss again as I put the suit on and sealed it. Then the vents in
- my suit activated making my breathing easier and clearing the fog that had
- already formed in the visor glass.
- Then without me doing anything, the main airlock door burst open releasing
- a gush of air. I was now walking in the vacuum of space, still held to the
- ground by the ships artificial gravity system. Right outside the door was a
- set of eight stepes leading down to flight deck level. And just as I had
- seen, several small personal shuttles sat at my disposal.
- I walked to the nearest one and popped the side door latch. The door
- hissed open. I stepped into the tiny cockpit and hit the door close switch.
- The life-indicator light went on immediatly to prevent anyone from opening
- the shuttle door from the outside, just incase I didn't have a pressure suit
- on. After the light went on, the internal oxygen tanks kicked in and
- pressurized the cabin. Even though I was in a different ship, I was still
- under the gravitational influence of the large ship's cargo bay gravity system.
- but I knew that would stop as soon as I launched, so I put my seat harness on.
- The ship I was in was quite simple. Everything was traight foreward and it
- was sure to be as easy, if not easier to fly than the infiltration pod. I hit
- the antigrav switch and the vehicle hovered four feet off the deck. Nudging
- the stick to the left, I faced the nose towards the open cargo bay door area.
- Nudging the throtle foreward, I left the bay, catching a glimpse of the
- massive ship in the rear monitor. I tried to see where the pod was to see if
- my team had left, but no such luck. It was too far away by the time I found
- where we'd landed.
- In a zip of light, I was gone. I never knew that a young blond girl was
- watching from observation window, wondering if I'd keep my promise...
-
- Everything came out fine this time. The technology was saved and
- successfully developed under us, the rightful owners. The panel aboard the
- barge was recovered by way of the homing box and the science team responsible
- for stealing it was charged with pirating and imprisoned. The commanders of
- the barge apologized and hoped that our two fleets could meet again under a
- flag of peace. We were just happy to have the science team that developed the
- solar array back. I found out not long after I returned that the rest of my
- team came back safely after not finding the information. And bacause of my
- acts of bravery and the successful recovery of the technology, I was promoted
- and given my own Infiltration Task Force. I was allowed to choose whomever I
- wanted to serve under me...
-
- I chose Marc, Lucas, Antony, and Dianne.
-
- The End....
-
- By:Matt C. Pelletier
- Based on:A really neat dream.
-