Escape to Earth-Living Legends (21 page)

• • •

Jan stood up and stretched. Budge came over and looked at her scores. “My, my! You’ve got a perfect score on the weapons simulation.”

“Nudge said the same thing about my piloting scores.”

Budge looked at her, “You’ve completed both programs?”

Jan saw his expression and she said, “Is something wrong?”

“No one else has completed one simulation.”

“Is that bad?”

“Your scores say it isn’t. Do you remember all of it?”

“I think I do.”

“Where is the Disruptor override slide?”

“Top right corner of the panel.”

“The barrier button?”

“Just above your right index finger on the steering wheel.”

“Force field power slide?”

“Above your left index finger on the steering wheel.”

“Full thruster switch.”

Jan smiled, “There isn’t one. Thrusters are controlled by the right foot pedal.”

“Auto pilot?”

“Orange button in the center of the steering wheel’s hub.”

“Full power to the disruptors?”

“Red button on the steering hub.”

“Have you always possessed this memory?”

Jan sighed, “I guess. It’s like your feet. You sense them if you focus on them but otherwise you just walk on them without thinking. My memory is like that. I just seem to have a knack for remembering things.”

“Come with me.” Budge walked with her across the classroom and pointed to the chair in front of the training control panel. Jan smiled and waited for him to call out a control. “Not so fast.” Budge pulled a blindfold out of his jacket pocket and put it over Jan’s eyes. “Ok…”

“Give me just a moment to get the picture in my mind.” Budge waited and after a minute Jan said, “Go.”

Budge called out the various controls and Jan instantly put her hand, finger, or foot on it. He mixed the controls up often calling two or three out together and Jan went to them unerringly. Finally Budge reached and removed the blindfold, “Jan, I have to agree that you are blessed with amazing gifts.”

“What should I do now?”

“I suggest you go out to Hanger X and watch your ship being built.” Jan’s smile was huge and she jumped and took a step. She stopped and turned around and hugged Budge’s neck and then ran out of the building. Josey and Jay watched her go and Jay yelled, “Where is she going?”

“She’s completed both programs. She’s going out to the hanger.”

Jay looked at Josey, “Our girl is a show off.”

Josey sighed and shook her head, “You know that’s not true. There’s not a shred of ego in her.”

Jay smiled, “I know.”

Josey looked back at the simulator’s screen and said, “I’ve got dib’s on her.”

“No you don’t.”

“I called it first.”

“You’ll take whoever the Commander puts you with.”

Josey leaned her head back, “I forgot about that.”

“Shut up and keep picking that cotton.” Josey laughed and started the next module.

• • •

Jan’s credentials were checked by the Guard and he handed her a badge, “I suspect you’ll be coming here regularly. Wear the badge and we’ll do a simple retina scan to confirm you from now on.”

Jan smiled and the door next to the huge vertical door opened as she looked into the eyepiece next to it. She went inside and saw more than a hundred of the new ships being worked on by hundreds of engineers and technicians. She ran over to Trevor and said, “Do you know which one has my computer.”

Trevor saw her bright eyes and barely restrained excitement and he pointed to the furthest one on the right in the front row. She ran to the ship and saw the port was open. She slowed down and looked in before she entered. There were six technicians running control wires and she yelled from the port, “Can I come aboard?”

A technician looked up from the control panel and saw her. He did a double take and he waved her in. Jan ran to the command chair and sat down. She pressed the computer button and said, “Langley?”

“Hey, Jan. I thought you were still in class?”

“I’ve completed the program. How are things looking?”

“I just received the downloads yesterday. This ship is incredibly similar but also very different.”

“You’re right. The controls are the same yet the controls on them are completely different.”

“I assume you’ve got them down.”

“I do. What’s the biggest difference you’ve seen?”

“The disruptors have the ability to be moved inside the hull.”

“What? I didn’t see that in the simulations.”

The technician looked up from the conduit he was wiring and smiled, I’m the one that suggested the change.”

Jan looked at him, “Why are we doing it that way?”

“This ship can handle an unbelievable amount of punishment but the disruptors can’t. If the pilot chooses to fly through a murderous barrage, they’ll come through it with working disruptors.”

Jan thought about the issue and after a moment she started nodding, “There’s no way to have the disruptor barrels exposed without putting them in harm’s way if the hull is being hit by the giant disruptors on the Monster.”

“Exactly right. However, I think they could handle a number of hits and be ok. The barrels have been coated by the white material so they’ll hold up far better than the old barrels. As long as the force field is operational, there’s no need to retract them.”

“What can the ship use for defense if the disruptors are retracted?”

“A new missile has been developed to be fired out of a bow and rear tube. The tubes are made entirely of the silver coating so they won’t suffer any damage if they’re hit while they’re open.”

“Do they stay open?”

“No, they fire the missile and the cover immediately closes over the tube.”

“Where is the firing mechanism for the missiles?”

“Just under your pinky finger on your right hand.”

“And what happens if your hand slips?”

The technician smiled, “Usually, nothing. You’ve got to be at full Battlestations before the button is activated. To fire the missile you have to pull the control back to the stop and then pull through it.”

Jan turned around and looked at the steering wheel. “May I try it?”

“It’s not connected yet and there certainly aren’t any missiles on board. Give it a pull.”

Jan gripped the steering wheel and moved her little finger down to the switch as she turned the wheel. Jan sighed and the technician said, “What?”

“If I’m having to make a hard left turn, getting to that control isn’t going to be easy.” Jan stood up, “Sit down and try it.”

The technician sat down and turned the wheel hard left as he reached for the missile control. He tried it several time and shook his head, “You’re right.” He looked at her, “Where would you put it?”

“Are the missiles guided?”

“They are.”

“How do you determine whether you’re firing the front or rear tube?”

The technician smiled, “By sliding the switch up or down before you pull it. That makes this even more difficult.”

The technician stood up and Jan sat down. She closed her eyes and moved the wheel left and right. She imagined an enemy ship pursuing her and she turned the wheel hard left and then right. After a moment she opened her eyes, “The index fingers on both hands are currently used for other controls. But the thumbs are free. Would it be possible for a sort of horseshoe shaped switch to come out of the steering wheel when all weapons are activated?” The thumb would be placed inside the U and the switch could be pushed up or down by the thumb. If pushed up, the front tube would be activated. To fire the missile, just grip the switch depressing it into the wheel. Push down to fire the rear tube.”

The technician sat down in the chair and put his hands on the wheel and moved his thumbs up and down. He started nodding and said, “A U shape isn’t necessary. All you need would be a raised switch with a rough surface. Push it up and press it.”

Jan thought a moment and said, “Let me see?” She sat down and turned the wheel violently left and right while moving her thumb. She thought about it and said, “What about a switch under each thumb. Right is bow, left is rear. And only have to push them up. Pulling them down isn’t easy.”

The technician raised his wrist unit, “Hold all work on the missile controls. There is a redesign of the steering wheel.”

Amanda came running on board and yelled, “What do you mean there’s a redesign!?”

Jan smiled, “Hi, Amanda. Sit down please.” Amanda sat down and continued yelling about it being too late to make changes. “Amanda, turn the steering wheel hard left and use your little finger to press the missile launch button.” Amanda continued yelling at the technician and then immediately went silent.

She tried it again and stood up, “Do you have a solution?”

“We do.”

“I am authorizing it. Get it done.”

The technician nodded, “Yes Sir.”

Over the next five days, Jan had more than fifteen changes made to the control system. The last change was the addition of a button that turned immediate control of the ship over to the computer. Trevor and Amanda had been spending their time on Jan’s ship and Trevor said, “Why do you want that?”

“What happens if a Sentinel type of creature takes out the pilot?”

“Do you think that might happen?”

“We’ve found just that kind of being. This button would allow the ship to take evasive maneuvers and possibly save the pilot.”

Trevor looked at Amanda, “Where would we put it?”

Jan said, “Put it in the Pilot’s helmet.”

Amanda nodded, “No new modification other than a software change.”

Trevor nodded, “We’ll have it done in two days.”

The technicians working on the ship came away impressed by this young woman, who knew more about the ships than even the builders. As the changes were made, the simulators were updated and the new controls had to be learned. Jay asked Budge when Jan was coming back to take the updates and he smiled, “She’s the one that’s suggested the changes.”

Jay rolled his eyes, “That’s our Jan.”

H
engel sat in his command chair and thought about the two scouts that were killed before they could escape. He looked at his display and continued reading the Fleet Report on the condition of their ships at the moment they self-destructed; both of them had small breaches in their hulls. He looked up when he saw they weren’t done explosively. The Legends were trying to break in and take control of the two ships. One line of the report mentioned that a life-form was on board when the ship blew up. It was fortuitous that the ship had been destroyed when it was. He thought about that and then turned back to the report.

Two scouts dead. Ummmm. Did they die at the same moment? He pressed the reader control and pulled up the report written by Audrey on the dead bodies found in the rubble of the Monster. He looked at the readings made by the body scanner and thought about how a being’s brain could have every nerve missing. He leaned forward and read the report in small detail looking for a place on the bodies that indicated there was some kind of physical contact as they died. If a being’s brain was losing all of its nerves, it would have to be struggling, wouldn’t it? But none of the bodies showed any indication of physical restraint.

He leaned back in his chair. Why weren’t any of the other scouts killed? He leaned back and pondered how only two died and how they could have been killed without any damage to their ships. The breaches had to be done after they were dead or they would have reported in. If they knew they were under attack, they would have also reported. They had to be killed quickly before they could get out a warning.

He pulled up the interview that the Alliance Leaders had with Jan and he saw that her ship had detected a telepath commanding the Monster. It became clear that the telepath did not detect it was being followed. All of her ship’s electronic systems were shut down and she communicated with her computer through direct contact with her armor and the control panel. The telepath could not detect the computer.

Jan kept her thought blocker active throughout the chase. He turned off the reports and thought about a being that could kill telepathically. That had to be how the two scouts died. Both of them were unable to get out a warning before their minds where overwhelmed. Surely the being that did it would have to be close to kill them. If it could kill over extreme distances, no one would be safe. And only two scouts died. He immediately understood how it happened. The two scouts were killed separately. That had to be now it happened. Once the scouts’ ships were left hanging in space, the telepath that did it had to attack the others to remove them from the cluster so it could break into the two Pods and steal their technology. It took finding the dead bodies in the Monster to cause suspicions that the ships might not have self-destructed and still be intact. The delay between the scouts’ deaths and their destruction wasn’t long enough for the Legends to break through the Silver Coating.

How did that creature get close enough to kill the scouts? He rejected the notion that any telepath could kill from a really long distance. If that were the case, the Legends would already be conquered by a species that could pull that off. He chuckled, along with every other species in the universe.

The ship’s computer said, “That’s pretty easy.”

Hengel looked up, “Why do you say that?”

“What was the first thing you did when you went to a galaxy to scout it?”

Hengel’s eyes narrowed and he said, “Well, I’d come out of the barrier because it’s easier to hear thoughts in normal space.”

“And then?”

Hengel’s eyes jerked wide open, “I’d shut down most of my external systems to avoid detection.”

“And your scanners would be inoperable.”

“You’re right. The Legends have the dark cloud technology and a ship could move in and never be seen.”

“The scanners would have detected it but since they were turned off, the two were sitting ducks for the species you’re describing.”

Hengel pressed his panel, “Averel.”

“Yes.”

“Look up in the communications log when the last contacts were made with the two scouts that were killed.”