Six Bits (6 page)

"Lieutenant Snellen, immediately upon arrival in P3 orbit, you and Gunner Nedcam will locate this White House and their president, then set up to transfer a party of three to that location."

Snellen nodded.

"Engineer Smide, are all antennas stowed and the ship’s exterior clean for shift?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good, you will initiate a fast reload of another shift-ring after we arrive. If needed, I want to be able to shift away from P3 immediately…” he gave a grim chuckle, “or sooner."

Leis turned, "Mr. Swayze, immediately upon arrival you will locate escape transfers, one max jump and one to P5 farside. You may now proceed with the shift to the backside of P3’s moon."             

As he heard the rumble of the shift-ring running down the length of his ship, Leis saw Snellen frowning at a bright red message on her holo. The bright flash from the shift lighted numerous instruments on the bridge as she turned. Her voice trembled, "Captain! The 'puter’s analysis of 2-D news shows from North America has noted several reports of an extremely brilliant broadband light flash in P3's near space about seven hours ago! They don't know what it is—it isn't ours—some kranes may already be here!"

Resisting the temptation to swear at such news, Leis said in steady tones that surprised even himself, "‘Puter, all hands… Battle stations! Battle stations! Presumed krane ship already in orbit about P3! Let’s figure out where she is, no active systems, no EM radiation. All antennas deployed must be set for rapid collapse.” He studied the holo for a moment, then spoke to his bridge personnel, “They may not know we're near P3 because our shift-flash should have been screened by the moon,” he shrugged, “though they should have had observation ports back here. Place our own observation ports behind the moon, on the other side of P3, in between P3 and the moon and on the surface of Exceltor. Ship surface observers to notify me if they think they
might
have seen an approaching locator port, even if they’re pretty sure it was really only a meteoroid strike on our surface.”

Leis felt good that he’d managed to keep his voice relatively calm through that whole set of commands. He wondered at how his team managed to look calm as well and wondered if perhaps he’d fooled them into thinking he had it all under control. Maybe they couldn’t tell how hard his heart was thumping. “‘Puter, bridge… That krane bastard sure as
hell
knows we're in the system 'cause our original shift-flash got here two hours and 45 minutes ago. Azimus, you're going to be able to see him in the reflected light from this moon and we know that his passive gear isn't going to work very well looking back toward the moon as we come out from behind it.”
Damn, damn, damn, damn!
Leis thought, then managed to continue, still surprised at how calm he sounded, “Let’s hope he’s not on the opposite side of P3, ‘cause we need to find him
now
.

"Snellen, as soon as you and Nedcam find that president, snatch him. We'll talk to him here."

“‘Puter, how many words in your translation vocabulary now?”

“Thirteen thousand sir.”

GUNNERY ROOM—HUMANIFORM CRUISER EXCELTOR—COMETARY EARTH ORBIT

0905 EST

Nedcam flipped his holocube image away from the 2-D pix of the president, thinking that this would be the first time
his
shiftgun had been used to kidnap a head of state. A glance at his panel showed all green. He started his scope. His holocube showed the sparkling lights of a P3 city beneath the opening of the port-ring. The minuscule port-ring had the snout of a hololens protruding a mere tenth of a millimeter. At this height and small size, no one should have seen the little flash when it opened. He sent it rocketing toward the surface and then began to track laterally. He recognized the Washington monument from some of the 2-D pictures that Snellen had fed him.
Right city!
He settled down to the tedious business of looking for the White House. No maps on any of the 2-D entertainment programs picked up so far... Wait was that it?

Yes!

Nedcam felt incredibly lucky that the White House was so close to the monument. He sent his hololens approaching at high speed.

WHITE HOUSE—WASHINGTON DC

0911 EST

A minuscule, faintly-glowing port-ring slid up to the door of the White House. Turning the orientation of the port-ring so that he was looking up, Nedcam slid the tenth millimeter sliver of protruding hololens under the door and into the hallway. It rose to the ceiling and moved down the hall, looking for areas that looked active and hoping he could recognize the voice of the president from the audio recordings Snellen had sent him. Because the atmosphere on this planet was much thinner, the recordings of the president’s voice sounded very deep.

There! Nedcam and Snellen actually
saw
the president, walking down the hall towards the hololens. He was accompanied by a couple of men in uniforms and a man in clothing Snellen said they called a “suit.” Nedcam held the lens stationary as they came toward it. He knew that the 1 mm diameter wormhole was only emitting a hundredth of a watt and so the hololens would be difficult to see, but he suspected that, like most other humaniforms, their retinas were very sensitive to motion. After the men went by, the lens fell in just above and behind their heads and followed as they turned off into a large room marked "Secure".

Even before they were seated at the long table the president was asking questions. "What the
hell
do you mean ‘we don't know what it is’? I thought that was what we spent all the money on space radar for? Just last month you told me you knew the location and function of every significant bit of space junk out there, and
now
you tell me that a flash
so bright
that it was seen
all over this hemisphere
came from some object directly above the North American continent that you
didn’t even know
was there?"

"Well, ahh, Mr. President it is a
very
black object with a very strange radar silhouette."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, being black it’s extremely difficult to see with optical sensors. The radar silhouette is very faint, but appears extremely large. It appears to be at least six times larger than the space station, which is the biggest thing ever launched into orbit. I suspect that any operator who’s seen it in the past has simply assumed it to be a glitch in the system."

"Six times larger?!"

"Well, yes sir. Actually it appears very long and narrow. But we suspect that someone has simply discovered a way to electronically alter an object's radar return from small and dense to large and dim. A neat trick, I'm afraid and one we'll have to be on the lookout for in the future."

"Hell, Damn and Spit! And what was the bright flash? Some kind of nuclear weapon?"

"Oh, No sir. There was no radiation or EMF, sir. We don't know what it was."

Nedcam was working furiously to set up his transfer-ring. The four men were too close together for him to pick the president off alone, no matter how he angled a ring and no matter where he started and stopped its travel. The flash from a ring big enough to get them all would crisp the remaining occupants of the room.

Ah,
two of the group of four stepped away to a 2-D viewscreen on a side table and then the president stepped very close and began talking quietly into the ear of the uniformed man. Nedcam could take them both with the 1.5 meter transfer-ring. There! He had it lined up and ready to track. Waiting, waiting, everyone in the room was starting to look away toward the big display screen at the end of the table. Now!

There was a loud bang and a blast of air that blew every paper off the table. Even though they were all looking away, the men in the room were temporarily blinded by a brilliant flash of light. When they turned back, the carpeted floor had a 1.5 meter “crop circle” of closely trimmed fibers where President Rayland and General Price had been standing. A small oval of brown leather from the sole of the president’s right shoe curled up and rocked back and forth just off center. For a moment everyone blinked and stared.

Then alarms began to ring.

GUNNERY/TRANSFER ROOM—HUMANIFORM CRUISER EXCELTOR—COMETARY EARTH ORBIT

0915 EST

The president dropped a sudden inch, then stumbled to the side in the lower gravity. A blast of higher pressure air from the ship eddied little curls of carpet fiber around his feet. He and the General found themselves on a small pedestal in the center of a 1.5 meter ring that lay on the floor between two vertical rails. He could feel heat still emanating from the ring that appeared to have been the source of the blinding flash. He looked about, seeing that he was in a room with several similar rings of different diameters, all of them also on rails.

The computer translated for Lt. Snellen and synthesized her voice speaking English. "President Rayland, I’m Lt. Snellen of the DNA humaniform spaceship Exceltor. I apologize for this rude abduction, but it’s necessary that we move quickly. Please put on the mask you see on the table in front of you. The air pressure on board this ship is quite high compared to your planet’s, so we need to supply you an altered mix containing helium in order to keep you safe."

The president felt a wavering sense of unreality about the whole thing. His entire worldview reeled. For a few seconds he’d feared that he might be going to pass out, but apparently the sensation of lightness he felt was because his weight had truly diminished. The hard evidence of his senses was incontrovertible. He was awake. He’d just been moved to a completely different location and environment in a flash of light.

For his part, General Price took a few steps toward the bulkhead door, then returned uncertainly to stand next to his commander in chief.

Snellen’s voice came on again, “Sirs, please. We need you to put on the breathing masks so I can equalize the compartment’s pressure to the ships’ and take you to the captain.

Neither of them said anything. Then President Rayland reached out, picked up the mask and put it on his face. The general frowned, “What if they’re poisoning you?”

Rayland snorted, “It’d be a lot easier to just shoot me, wouldn’t it?”

General Price hesitated another moment, then put on his own mask. With a whooshing sound the pressure started going up.

The president and his advisor began vigorously cracking their jaws as they tried to adjust to the painfully higher air pressure in the ship.

Rayland said, “Damn! My ears hurt. I was never any good at diving to depths more than a few feet.”

Not knowing that a port in the mask supplied their breathing mixture, Price had been wondering if the masks really did anything, but the high pitch of Rayland’s voice told him they really were breathing helium.

BRIDGE—HUMANIFORM CRUISER EXCELTOR—COMETARY EARTH ORBIT

0916 EST              

Azimus stopped weaving in his seat for a second and then turned to the captain. "Sir, there’s a krane light carrier in low P3 orbit!"

Damn! Damn! Damn!
Leis thought,
nothing but bad news!
“How’d you find it so fast?"

"Sir, at first I thought it was actively radiating. Instead it seems the locals are bouncing all kind of microwave frequencies off of it. I suspect
they're
just trying to figure out what it is, but they're lighting it up like a Sinto beacon. Do you want me to pass the location on to gunnery or are we getting out of this orbit?"

“If they can, have gunnery run some locator lenses over and sit them right on the surface of that bastard. Don't heat them yet, the treaty’s in effect 'til they act in a hostile fashion or we reach an agreement with the humaniforms.” Leis turned, “Swayze is that president on board yet?"

GUNNERY/TRANSFER ROOM—HUMANIFORM CRUISER EXCELTOR—COMETARY EARTH ORBIT

0920 EST

Lt. Snellen stepped in as soon as the air pressure in the transfer room stabilized at ship normal. "Gentlemen, I’d like to take you forward to meet the captain."

The two men jerked back as they heard both Snellen’s voice and the translation coming from overhead speakers. The General stepped between the president and the Lieutenant and they both goggled at the sight before them. The Lieutenant appeared human, yet, oddly alien. She was short, about 1.6 meters and had a wide pelvis, but a narrow chest. Her eyes were set a little too far apart, her hair was
very
light blond, almost white and was combed back from an extremely low hairline that almost merged with her brows. She looked mammalian or at least had masses of flesh in the same locations as human mammaries, though they looked odd on her small chest. She had no apparent weapon visible. General Price said, “
What
the hell are
you
and how do you know our language?”

“I apologize. I’m Lieutenant Snellen and I don’t actually know your language, but our language computers have worked up a reasonable translation algorithm based on many hours of your 2-D video transmissions. Translations are being delivered from those computing resources.” She held out some small objects, “If you’d put in these earbuds, the translation won’t have to be broadcast from the overhead speakers. I’d like to explain all this in more depth, but time is very short.”

President Rayland recovered his grip on whatever reality this was and in his usual assertive, confident style brushed the General aside to pick up an earbud. "Hell, General, if
these
people wanted to hurt me, they would've done it by now."

Thinking that her skin was too pale, the president followed Lieutenant Snellen out into an astonishingly long, narrow corridor. Her limbs seemed surprisingly thin, though still muscular. Despite all the oddities, he still felt sure somehow that this "Lieutenant" was a human female. Or some kind of human female anyway.

For her part, Snellen thought the earthmen's larger chest cavities and thick heavy legs made them look like aging bodybuilders who’d forgotten to work on their arms. She wasn’t sure whether to appreciate or be concerned about the president’s rapid assimilation of the situation and almost sudden cooperation.