ALICE Explorer: Book 6 of the AL:ICE series, page 18
“Aye, Sir,” came the reply from Abby at the tactical station while Heather simply nodded from the life sciences station.
Captain Erisey knew that activating an active scanning array was like turning on a flashlight in a darkened room. While anyone in the vicinity might not be able to see the source of the scans, they would know there was someone in the area.
“All clear,” came the confirmation as both tactical and navigation confirmed there were no other ships in the area.
“Then let’s drop the curtains and get back to work,” James ordered with a smile.
----*----
On Surface, Reaper’s World
Tim waited until it was very dark before he left Rachel and headed out into the city streets. He warned her prior to placing another trap at the base of the ramp, one intended to alert her should anyone try and enter the building in his absence. Should it go off, he instructed her not to engage the Phasers, but instead, she was to hide until his return.
Not nearly as accomplished as his sister or his dad, he still had a tinge of pride about his ability to move about in the dark undetected. By the time he was twelve, he could move from one end of the main hangar to the other without detection by anyone except ALICE. At fourteen, he had secreted himself aboard a transport and spent the night in LA with Uncle Chris before calling ALICE for a hovercycle and a panicked ride home before sunrise. He had no delusion that he was alone in that adventure, sure ALICE was watching him the entire time, but for him, it was the satisfaction he was not caught by anyone else that mattered.
Exiting the structure and moving toward the place where the Phasers seemed to be centralized, he had mapped a path from his overhead vantage point while waiting for darkness to fall. Without a moon to reflect the light, the planet’s surface held uniform darkness that aided Tim in his efforts. His flight suit had gone completely black, aiding in his concealment by absorbing as much of the limited light as possible.
Pausing in an open doorway, Tim could see the three Phaser troops as they made their way down the narrow walkway in total darkness. Flipping through the spectrum in his helmet visor, he discovered they had infrared emitters lighting their way, invisible to the human eye. He had no doubt they used light-enhancing viewers as well, should they even require such, but so far, his suit’s ability to mask his unseen presence was holding true.
Unsure of the location of his specific goal, Tim was attempting to follow one of the many Phaser patrols he assumed was returning from their rounds in the city to their base of operations. It was hard to tell for sure as they didn’t seem to have any real intensity in their movements like human troops did. They just appeared to be wandering aimlessly, pausing at various intersections as if uncertain which direction to take before finally heading off in one.
Finally, he caught a glimpse of dim light and scattered movement at the end of one alleyway. As he got closer to the Phaser camp, Tim could see two small dropships, and a significant number of Phaser troops all gathered in a large square between several large buildings. As he moved closer, he noted that the stars above him disappeared as he neared the perimeter.
Backing away, the stars reappeared above him once more, suggesting the Phasers were hiding under some overheard cloaking or shielding technology like old camouflage netting used on earth long ago. That would explain why the hundreds of combat troops he knew were aboard Kola were not now routing these interlopers out of the city and driving them off-planet.
It also told him that if these Phasers were in hiding, then the humans controlled the sky above. He had assumed as much, but the confirmation gave him a warm feeling. Now, however, was not the time to dwell on such things. He still needed to let them know where he and Rachel were hiding.
He had no doubt in his mind that every available resource was scouring the planet looking for him. One of the irrefutable facts about his life was every ALICE cared about him and his siblings more than any other humans they interacted with. Try as they might to deny that position, the fact that he was here today was evidence enough. Were it up to his parents, he would still be on earth and under their watchful eye.
That fact alone gave him the confidence he needed to attempt the crazy stunt he was about to perform. Studying the open area for quite some time, he was able to discern three boxes spread equidistant around the square. Every so often, one of the Phaser troops would walk to each, checking all three, one after another, and then go on about his business.
Tim noted the box to his right was closer to the perimeter than the others and more out of the way. For that reason, he moved in that direction to get a better look. By now, he had been gone a good two hours and was sure Rachel was probably worried, but until he had more than unit size and location to report to her, he needed to do more.
Slipping up to the corner of one building and trying to blend in with its edge, he set his helmet viewer on high magnification as he studied the control panel on the side of the box. Most of what he saw was unreadable, either the cryptic symbols of the alien language or lights of irrelevant colors as the Phasers used a different color spectrum than the human red, yellow and green status colors.
What did catch his eye was a slider bar to one side that indicated it was at set at maximum, or so he guessed. After verifying no one was nearby, he quickly slipped up next to the unit and began sliding the slider bar up and down in a fixed sequence, one that would not be seen as a naturally occurring event by any outsider.
Working the slider in bursts, he could see the stars above appear and disappear as the power was raised and lowered on the unit. He tried to remain calm as he worked it, knowing the longer he stood by the unit, the greater his chance of being discovered.
Tim felt rather than heard the Phaser behind him as it reached for his left shoulder. Grabbing the offending hand by reaching across his chest with his right, he clamped down hard on the wrist and then spun under his own arm. Pulling hard, the alien’s arm almost came off with a loud popping sound, causing it to flip in the air and drop on its back with a smack.
Leaping over the downed body, he sprinted across the open space, snatching up one of the largest alien weapons he had ever seen, and began firing in all directions. Typical for all species, the troops around him scattered, looking for cover as they attempted to return fire from the unexpected assailant.
In his best ultimate commando imitation, he grabbed another of the alien weapons, this one positioned at the far end of the square, and turned to fire both from the hip, missing far more than he hit but causing a considerable amount of chaos as he did so. His final act was to shoot the closest of the three boxes, a shower of sparks being his reward as the stars appeared overhead. Satisfied he had left his mark, he dashed into a nearby alleyway and then found one of the buildings he had spotted earlier in the day as a possible escape route.
Unsure of his actual objective, as he planned this outing earlier before darkness. There he had noted one particular characteristic of the alien city. All the high-rise structures were of a uniform height. At about twelve stories tall, every building between his current location and his target hideout varied in height by no more than a few feet at best, with the occasional open spot for a square or courtyard.
Darting up the ramp with energy explosions erupting all around him, he quickly put some distance between himself and his pursuers. For his plan to work, he needed to be out of their sight for a few minutes once he reached the top, or they would cut him off. Tucking both oversized weapons away, one under each arm like footballs, he pressed himself to go faster in the corners of the ramp.
Topping out at the rooftop, Tim picked up speed as he headed straight for the edge of the building, not toward Rachel, but ninety degrees away from her position. Hitting his stride at the edge of the building, he leaped the gap of about fifteen feet and landed squarely on the next rooftop. Not stopping to look back, he continued to the next building after that before turning left and making the third leap in a row to that rooftop.
Between the lower gravity and the enhanced strength his father had blessed him with, Tim had almost missed the last jump. Instead, it had taken him farther than planned, and so he flattened himself to the deck to halt his progress, sliding to a stop on his stomach. After a moment to catch his breath, he rose slightly and scanned the area looking for his pursuers.
He had no idea if the Phasers had the same strength as he, but his hope was he had taken them someplace they could not follow, as each of the leaps had been more than the average human would attempt, even in the lower gravity of this planet.
Helmet audio on high, he could hear the troops in the streets below scrambling in all directions, giving him hope that they had not seen him jumping from rooftop to rooftop and were now struggling to discover his whereabouts. Moving more subtly now, he waited to be sure no one could see him before repeating the process once more, leaping from building to building until he landed on his goal.
Descending the ramp from the rooftop, he appeared on the other half of the floor Rachel was secreted away on and announced his presence by tapping on her shoulder from behind. The lurch in her form as she spun in place told him he had surprised her.
----*----
Kola Bridge
“Ma’am, I am getting a bizarre signal from the planet’s surface,” the Tactical Officer reported to Isabella.
“Can you be more specific,” Isabella replied, trying to keep the irritation out of her tone.
“I see it as well. It is emanating from the city tagged Tango,” Kola supplied.
“What is it,” Isabella responded impatiently.
“Well, Ma’am. Best I show you rather than try to explain it. On the main viewer,” the Officer replied as she routed her video traffic to the primary monitor on the bridge.
Isabella could see an overhead view of the planet’s surface, the location in question on the night side now. While most of what she saw were various shades of black as buildings and open spaces all reflecting different levels of almost nonexistent light, a portion of the city seemed to be flashing from black to hazy light gray.
“That some kind of shielding?” Isabella asked.
“And it's fading in and out in Morse code. Three short, three long, three short again,” Kola explained.
“SOS?” Isabella translated.
“Precisely, and who on that planet would revert to the most arcane method of communication available,” Kola queried.
“It’s Tim,” Isabella declared.
“It stopped,” the Tactical Officer announced.
“Get that location to every available ground unit right now. I fear our messenger is now on the run,” Isabelle instructed.
----*----
On Surface, Reaper’s World
“We got company,” Tim blurted as he appeared unannounced in from behind Rachel, tossing her the weapon he had snatched up during his escape from the Phaser camp after she turned in place.
“Where did you come from?” She asked as she gave a sharp exhale from the impact of the weapon in her chest.
“The roof,” Tim replied as he gathered their things in preparation to relocate if needed.
“What is this?” Rachel asked as she struggled to get a handle on the overlarge weapon.
“A Phaser machinegun, I think, maybe a cannon,” he replied.
At that point, Tim started to hear firing outside their building, and a larger blast as his boobytrap on the ground floor had been tripped. He had no idea who the Phasers were shooting at down there. Perhaps they were firing randomly in an attempt to flush them out.
“We should go to the roof,” he explained to Rachel as the pair gathered their gear and headed around the other side of the floor to the ramp Tim had descended earlier.
“Look, if things go bad up there, I think I can make the jump, carrying you, to get us off of this building,” he explained as they cleared the top of the ramp.
Checking all four sides, he noted what seemed to be an excessive amount of shooting near the place he had discovered as the Phaser camp. Maybe he had hit an ammunition supply box or something and what he heard was it cooking off charges.
Satisfied that he found the closest building, he began moving items on the rooftop to create a defensible position for the pair.
“You think you can jump that?” Rachel asked in skepticism as she watched the boy move the oversized objects with ease.
“Watch,” he said in frustration, knowing it best to prove it to her now than the moment it's needed.
Taking a few steps, he cleared the distance quickly and then made the return jump before anyone below had a chance to see him.
“Wow,” was all Rachel would say as the pair began preparing their defenses together.
“These things shoot pretty well, but I have no idea how much charge they have left. Once it stops firing, switch to the rifles we picked up earlier. Once they run dry, get ready to make the jump,” he instructed while pointing to extra rifle charges and then their handguns.
“These are our last defense,” he finished.
With everything in place, the pair lay prone, their field of fire directed at the entrance to the ramp.
Looking up, Tim saw dark forms dropping from the sky all around their position and onto the rooftops nearby. He hadn’t expected the Phasers to have vertical mobility and was at a loss as to how he was going to extract Rachel from the rooftop now.
A large thud behind him caused Tim to spin on his back with the Phaser weapon still in hand. As he turned to position the weapon for firing, a large gloved hand reached out and grabbed the barrel, deflecting it away just before he fired.
“Who’s the wise guy that booby-trapped the doorway?” The Marine Lieutenant asked as he stood over the pair hunkered down behind the debris.
Chapter 18
NeHaw Homeworld
To date, the latest messages from the NeHaw spy on Earth had little value beyond being mildly curious. General KaLob had a slight concern that no one in his analysis team could unravel the mystery of why the humans wanted to explore the uncharted edges of the Empire, but so far, nothing to cause alarm had been uncovered in the attempt.
KaLob considered himself a master strategist, and as such, he was constantly evaluating his position in the universe. A second war with the Phasers was inevitable, as was the strong probability that the humans would unravel the secrets of the NeHaw phase inhibitor. If they did not manage it on their own, they certainly would with help from other races. After all, that’s how the NeHaw had invented it, to begin with.
The combination of those two events would leave the NeHaw in a horrible position to defend themselves. Even with the new ships, the humans had released from the Wawobash shipyards, the Empire needed both the other half of the phaser interrupter paired and the human shielding technology to stand a chance on their own against either adversary.
As for another direct war with the humans, he held less concern around that possibility. He was beginning to understand the motivations of the race, and as far as their regard for the NeHaw, they would be much more inclined to seek revenge for the damage to their planet than they would be motivated to invade the Empire for conquest.
Unprovoked, the humans were far more consumed with their own petty issues and would continue this path of Alliance until forced to change direction by a direct assault. KaLob was sure of it. A new war was something he did not plan to pursue in the near future, as the Humans represented the Empire’s best protection against Phaser hostility.
That hardly stopped him from plotting their eventual overthrow, but for now, he was happy to keep them as a bodyguard.
----*----
Magellan, Uncharted Space
“Captain, we have another FTL drop at the edge of the solar system,” came the announcement from tactical.
During the last few days of exploration, the crew of Magellan had been working twenty-four hours a day to acquire as much information as possible in the shortest period of time. Split into two groups, the crew worked four hours on, four hours off, a rotation to allow for a sustainable work/rest balance as they analyzed their surroundings without interruption. Lacking an understanding regarding the frequency of Phaser visits to this solar system, they wanted to be prepared to evacuate the area at a moment’s notice with as much data as possible.
“It’s a tiny craft on sensors. IFF says it’s the pigeon we sent,” came Annie’s explanation after the slightest hesitation.
The Identification Friend or Foe was an old tried and true way of quickly identifying friendlies when in hostile circumstances. It is based on a transponder that listens for an interrogation signal and then sends a response that identifies the broadcaster. In this case, the pigeon initiated the sequence to not betray the presence of the Magellan should there be hostiles in near space.
Despite the name, IFF could only positively identify friendly targets, not hostile ones. If an IFF interrogation receives no reply or an invalid response, the object cannot be identified as friendly but is not positively identified as a foe, just someone who required more scrutiny.
Had the pigeon appeared with the Phasers present in the solar system, the Magellan would not have replied, and the Phasers would have likely destroyed the craft as a threat before it could be retrieved. The truth was, the craft would have self-destructed without the proper response code at the first sign of hijacking.
“Transmit the navigation instructions, and let’s see what the folks back home sent us?” James ordered.
“Deferring to Annie for navigational programming,” Alice said with a smile.
“Understood,” came Erisey’s reply.
After that exchange, everyone returned to their work, every shift bringing a greater understanding of what the Phasers were doing in this solar system and how they were achieving it.
“Instructions transmitted, I estimate the pigeon will be recovered in twenty-eight hours and forty-seven minutes,” Annie declared.
