In the deepest part of space there is only dust listening to what happens around those that venture there. The endless wail of stars is all they normally hear, but today something new touches life at the edge of eternity. "zz--zz- burn 12 Starboard...." "Sir.. so far I have detected no...zzzz" "zzzkkkk... probe comes back negative..zz... IO base is abandoned...zzzz..." "..zz.. Captain speaking, as you all ...zzz.... we will be home soon ...zzzz..." The dust is all that hears this, sound as the StarGlide passes them by. Completing a 2,000 year mission, and returning home at last. It reminds them of other sounds that they heard, not so long ago, ones that are not there now.
Ensign 2nd class Crandall looked up from his garbage hauler and sighed... Dust, he reflected... Nothing but dust out there, and nothing, it seemed, but dust in here. <<Now entering Recreation Level>>, the computerized voice informed him. Crandall sighed as he entered the room, and picked up, piece by piece, all of the refuse left by his careless crewmates. "Idiots...", he thought. "I play one lousy prank, and I get garbage duty for a week. So what if the Captain nearly broke his arm? It got a good laugh..." Suddenly, a small piece of machinery caught Crandall's eye. Hello, he thought, what's this?
As he looked the large piece of machinery over, he wondered. What is it? It boggled his mind. He then spied a long slit of metal sticking out of it. As he pressed it, a loud sound resounded throughout the recreation center. The barrel of the object was smoking, and he noticed the mirror had broken. "What is this," he thought. He decided to show it to the captain.
As Crandall walked up to the captain, he gave Crandall a mean look. He obviously hadn't forgotten. The ensign ignored the look, and showed the object to the captain.
"Where did you get that?!?" asked the captain.
Crandall explained all how he did, and asked, "but what is it?"
"It is a gun, from when our race fought uselessly."
But, where did you find it Crandall? I have never seen one of these. "It was in with the trash in the recreation center, sir. I recognized it because my grandfather had one similar when I was just little. This is the first, I've ever held tho. I thought I should bring it to you."
The captain nodded and looked at the gun warily and then back at Crandall. After his last prank he wasn't sure what to think. Was this thing another tool to play a joke on him. He looked up at Crandall, "Thank you... I will put it in a safe place for now. You may continue your duties Crandall."
Later, as Crandall was resting in his bunk during the off-duty cycle, he was jolted to full alertness by the deafening clamour of the alert klaxons. He rushed outside his quarters, just as the sirens were silenced. "What happened?" he asked a random passerby. "The captain was attacked," he said. "Some sort of weapon. We're confined to quarters for the remainder of the duty cycle."
Crandall stood in the doorway to his quarters, watching the corridor empty out. He nodded and exchanged concerned words with various other crew members. "No, I don't know what happened either..." "I'm sure he'll recover..." "Well, some one tell me when the confinement is over." Finally he was alone. He glanced in both directions. No one to the left, no one to the right. Crandall stepped through the doorway and headed for the nearest elevator. He stepped inside. "7th level, please." Captain's quarters.
Crandall made his way up to the Captain's quarters and tapped on the door with his hand. "Captain? Are you alright? It's Crandall. Can I come in, Captain?" He waited there for some time, very worried about the Captain and wondering what 'guns on board the Starglide' meant. Finally the door opened and the Captain was there. The gun that he had given the Captain was in his hand.
Cliff looked at Crandall and waved him in. He put the Gun to the side of the door like before and limped over to the sofa. "Welcome in Crandall. You are supposed to be in your quarters and not here. Mind telling me why?
Crandall *gulppped* and nodded. "I was worried about you, Captain. People were saying that you got hurt... that someone attacked you too!"
Cliff nodded. "That is kind of you Crandall. You run along now."
Crandall looked at the Captain. Then he blurted it out. "Why would someone attack you Captain? Nothing like that has happened on this ship in over a hundred years.
Cliff looked at Crandall and nodded. "I know Crandall. Do you really want to know why? ...at least what I think is the reason I was attacked?"
Crandall nodded. He was very very curious why. It was unheard of for such a thing to happen at all. "Yes I would... Captain. Why? What is so strange with the ship for the last few weeks?
Cliff bowed his head. "You heard me two weeks ago Crandall... that we are going home? Well, we have been heading into Sol system for two weeks now and detected nothing. IO base was just a ruin. Looked almost like it did in the pictures that we had of it. I think someone is very mad at me for bringing us here."
Crandall gose wide eyed. Everyone knew that the mission was almost over and most were looking forward seeing Earth. This though.........?
..This was something completely different.
The captain sighed... "I felt sure that, by the time this ship got back from its mission, we would at least have forgotten the old ways. War, violence, anguish they all should have been a thing of the past by now. But evidently two thousand years weren't long enough... I realize, Crandall, that you knew of no life beyond the ship. Nor did I. But the films were all there in the archives. You saw them..."
Crandall nodded.
The captain continued, "We entered the Sol system two weeks ago, just when the readings went funny. I've got a feeling we have a stowaway on board somewhere. A careless stowaway to leave a gun in the lounge, but whoever it was probably figured it'd be safe there."
"But, sir - how could a stowaway have come on board?"
"That, Crandall, I haven't the foggiest idea about."
Crandall looked at the captain with a puzzled expression. 'He was the Captain... if anyone should know every nook and cranny on this ship it should be him.' "Well, sir... if you don't mind my asking. Did you plant the story about you being attacked with a gun? Were you trying to draw out the conspirators?" The captain nodded and smiled ruefully, "Yes, I hoped that it would work, but perhaps it is too soon yet. Go back to your quarters, Crandall. And keep quiet about finding the gun... I'd rather that no one else knew just yet."
Crandall shook his head in agreement and saluted the Captain. Then he turned away and opened the door to leave. On the way back to his quarters he watched carefully for any sign of the stowaway, but didn't see anything remarkable. He went into his room and thought about all that he heard today.
As he lay there, thinking over what he had transpired that day, he felt himself dozing off. A dream came to him, as dreams often do, unbidden. He dreamed he was in the recreation center, cleaning. He saw a shadowy figure, in the corner, near the rubbish bins. He tried to peer closer, but, as usual, the alarm bell for the morning duty shift chose that moment to sound.
Crandall was jolted awake by the sound of the alarm, androlled out of bed and hit the floor with a thump! The living areas of the ship were filled with confused crew members, some still in their pajamas, trying to decide whether to obey the confinement order, or get back to work as normal. Word of mouth revealed the Captain's orders to be leaning towards the latter - though only officers on duty were allowed in the halls. Crandall slipped into the recreation center. "Garbage duty" he said to the officer at the door. Inside it was completely empty. He looked at the rubbish bins, sitting exactly as they had been in his dream, and shivered slightly. Hoping to shake off the disturbing sense of deja vu, he walked purposefully to the leftmost bin, slid it aside, and stopped, staring in amazement at the pried-open service panel behind it.
Crandall stared at the askew service panel plate. Was this part of the ruse the Captain had created? Was this here to be found by the officers later when they were ordered to make a sweep? All conjecture, of course, but something disturbing remained in the back of his mind. "Was THIS intended not for them, but . . . for HIM?
Crandall dropped to all fours and pulled the plate aside to look inside. Nothing different . . . standard service panel . . . manual override controls for environmental systems, food replicators on the command and rec decks . . . bypass controls for the con. . . . WAIT! Crandall reached into the controls and pulled back a small red wire, unconnected at one end.
He bent low, twisted his head and followed it into the maze or circuitry.
This was wrong . . . It didn't belong . . . Huh? REPLICATORS! Following the wire with one hand, he reached up into the conduit and found its source. device connected to the wire. What was this doing in the replicator controls?
He examined it curiously. Strange . . . this device was unfamiliar, not standard for a replicator . . . all wrong . . . silvery, not standard flat black. Whatever it was . . . Crandall sat on the floor, his attention on the small silvery device. He held it firmly, twisted, and it separated into two halves. The circuitry inside raised hackles on his neck. If this had been connected . . . if it had been allowed to function . . . the whole crew. . . .! Crandall yelped! Sharp pain shrieked through his head from where he had been struck. Crashing waves of blackness swept over him. He never saw the hand pluck the device from his hand. . . .
Crandall slowly came around in the med bay. Overhead the lights had been turned off so that they didn't glare down into his eyes. After a moment Page showed up overhead. She had on her nurses outfit and grinned. "Are you alright, Crandall?
Crandall looked up and put his hand on the back of his head. "I am alright Page. Can I talk with the Captain?"
Page nodded and waved at someone out of Crandalls view. "Just a moment Crandall. He will be over to talk with you."
Cliff walked over to the bed that Crandall lay. He looked him over very well as he got close. There was a huge black mark spreading over the back of his head where he was struck hard. "Looks like you have gotten yourself into even more trouble Crandall. Maybe you can help though... Did you see who hit you over the head?
Crandall looked up at the Captain. "No Captain, I didn't see anything. There is something you should know though. I found a really strange module in the replicator. Was Silver and not at all like the normal equipment aboard ship at all. It had a very simple circuit inside. Mostly just a relay and a little of this and that. Would have shorted out all of the replicators on the ship if turned on!
Cliff nodded. "That fits with what we found on A deck. There is something on this ship."
Starglide traveled on for three more weeks. Crandall got over his bump to the head, and the crew was told of the intruder. They all looked hard for him/her/it but never found anything. Soon though they were in visual range of the Earth and Crandall was back as his post. Assistant Science Officer.
Cliff look up at Badger, his first in command. "Will you read off the reports?
"Status report ready, sir," reported Badger. "First matter is the sabotage..."
"Go on...?
"All traces of any foreign machinery have been disposed of, sir, although Crandall wanted to keep the relay he found, for further study."
"He always did have a knack for circuitry - anything else?"
"Well, sir, everything is back to no --"
Badger was cut off by a sudden interruption from the viewscreen. Raucous laughter erupted - "Bwa-ha-ha... So. You've returned. We've been waiting for you."
"Who are you?"
"This is a recording - by now, the automatic systems will have been triggered on your arrival. As soon as this countdown finishes, all of the electric systems on your ship will suddenly become nonoperational. No lights, no replicators, no engine... You will drift until you finally enter the Earth's gravitational field, and then crash to the surface! Mwa-ha-ha!"
Cliff made an exasperated look. "Badger, where is this signal coming from?"
"Right here on board... Very strange..."
The figure began to count down. "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven..."
"Sir, what do we do?!"
"We wait it out."
"Five... Four... Thr-hwlk!"
A new voice broke in on the PA. "Sorry about that sir - like you thought, that was Crandall. Hacked up some voice-modification software. We caught him, though, and he still has that relay. Here he is..."
"Um - sir? I d-didn't mean to scare you, really. I-I-I thought - please don't get mad - I knew you'd know it was me. I was trying to scare everyone else..."
"...What for?"
"Well, I uh.....um, that is...." Crandall's voice was uncertain to say the least. There was a long static-filled pause...
"I thought it would bring the conspirators out of hiding. If they believed that the sabotage plan had neared completion, they would want to join in. And if they believed that someone else had gotten there beforehand, they would do whatever they could to save themselves."
"Clever, Crandall, very clever of you. Alberts?"
"Yes, sir?" This from the voice which had interrupted the countdown.
"Search our Assistant Science Officer for any sort of, shall we say, interesting devices. He's probably telling the truth, but I've dealt with one too many of his pranks."
"Yes, sir. Uh, sir?"
"Yes, Alberts?"
"What do we do with the recording?"
"Hang onto it. For, um, posterity."
"Yes, sir." The PA was silent. The Earth loomed in the viewscreen.
"Sir," Alberts' voice returned. "We've searched Crandall's quarters."
"Did you find anything?"
Well, sir, we did find something.... interesting...
"Yes? How so?"
"Well, sir, you will recall that glitch we picked up in the sensor arrays that won't go away?"
"Yes?"
Found out why. Crandall's got his terminal boot-strapped to the sensor bus. The cable runs right by his quarters on the way to the bridge." The Captain grinned. "Well, well, well...."
"But sir... That's not the curious bit..."
"Oh?"
"No sir. The strange part is that he's logged all the readings, and they don't match what we saw at the time."
The captain sat up striaghter. "How so?"
"Well, sir... um....
"Yes?"
"It appears that, err..."
"Come on! Out with it man!"
"Sir, we've been being followed for the last seven light years. And captain..."
"*sigh* ....What?"
"It ain't Earth-built, Captain."
The captain's first act was to order all records of the incident, and the sensor readings sealed. Officially, the incident was a prank, and nothing more. Care was taken to keep all sensor emissions focused on the planet ahead, so as not to alert the... whatevers... that they had been seen after all. Meanwhile, the chief officers -- Captain Cliff, XO Badger, Alberts of Comm, and Rodgers of Security, prepared a mission to find out, first hand, what their sinister shadows were made of. Science was excluded, at Rodgers' request, due to the possibility that the entire department was working with the 'enemy', as he insisted on calling them. This made it rather difficult to carry out the preflights and maintainance on the ancient shuttles, particularly in secrecy, so the ship was set into a long orbit around the planet to buy time. Finally, though, Cliff gathered his trusted few one last time. "It's now or never, men," he said, "The crew is getting anxious, and sooner or later the aliens are going to act if we don't."
"I still don't think we're ready," Albert said, "I'd really like to wait until we can get more information out of Crandall." Rodgers snorted and rolled his eyes. "He still maintains it was all a prank. He isn't going to talk."
"Enough," Cliff said, "I know this isn't something any of us are used to, but we don't have time to talk this out. We're leaving tonight."
A few hours later, the needed equipment was gathered, and Cliff gave the word. Albert removed an access panel and tore out several wires, simulating a power failure in the hangar bay, and the four of them put on their pressure suits and strained at the wheel to open the door manually. "I don't see anything, Captain," Albert said. "The sensor data didn't mention any sort of cloaking. That was why they needed a shill on board."
"Once we launch the shuttle we can use its sensors to track down our alien," Cliff replied. "I doubt it wandered far."
"Something's wrong," Rodgers said, "I can sense it."
"It's too late to be afraid now," the captain said. "Come on."
The four of them boarded the shuttle and, a few seconds later, it drifted out into space.
"My God... it's beautiful," someone said, as the brilliant green orb of earth swam out from behind the dark, pitted hull of the ship.
Cliff whirled. "You!"
"How astute of you to know, Captain." Rodgers pulled an ancient steel blue weapon from his pocket. "Thank you for stopping Crandall. He wasn't the enemy you know. . . ."
"Captain?' Alberts stood next to Cliff wide eyed.
"Alberts, meet our 'enemy' whoever, 'whatever' it is." Cliff gestured to Alberts.
"Why you . . ." Alberts hesitated when the weapon swung toward him.
"That will be enough!" Rodgers grinned a toothy grin that none had seen before. "We will drift here for a while and wait. My friends will be along shortly. Once aboard our vessel, you will be interred in the kitchens. Your ship will be destroyed and we will take up position outside your atmosphere. Soon afterwards, we will take possession of that lovely green and blue jewel you call home and a new chapter in your destiny will begin." Captain Cliff smiled wryly and folded his arms across his chest.
Badger slowly reached for his pocket.
"I wouldn't do that," Rodgers said and motioned Badger to join the Captain and Alberts. "None of you deserve that wondrous planet you left behind; that you are returning to after so long. We will see to it that you have a new place in the hierarchy of things . . . one you relegate to the lower species of that world . . . one you rightly deserve!"
"Before you do anything, answer us a few questions," Cliff said flatly. Who are you and what are you?"
"I am merely one worker in a larger society." Rodgers shook. His body shimmered and revealed its true form.
Cliff drew back in disgust. "Mollusk! Ugly bastard at that!"
"and you? Furry, nasty smelling . . . I have endured it too long!" Tentacles writhed. "Soon we will take control. You will all be ours!"
"Drop it!"
Tentacles wriggled and went limp. The ancient weapon dropped.
Cliff picked up the weapon and grinned. "Too bad you didn't notice it had no charges. I replaced them with dummy loads after Crandall brought it to me, before i turned it over to you for safe keeping." Cliff gestured to the security teams. "As to their weapons . . . dummies as well. . . ."
Alberts blinked. "How'd-how'd you know, Captain?"
Cliff shrugged. "I didn't. I had eliminated everyone except you three. Crandall suggested the ruse. It wasn't hard to rig. Some launch vibrations engine noise, a decent holgraphic display to look at . . . Trap set.
"We launched! I know we did! My ship signaled me!" Rodgers raged. "What launched . . . What went out if we didn't?"
"A shuttle from Bay two," replied Crandall with a grin. "Loaded with fuel and a detonator in the antimatter containment field . . . should go off once it's reeled in."
"Impossible! They won't haul it in without my voice authorization!" Rodgers flashed hot angry colors all along his sides.
Cliff gestured to Crandall. "Wanna tell him?"
Crandall nodded. "Why not? I taped your voice over the last month like I did the others. I created a set of proper authorization signals for each and fed them to an 'ai' in the shuttle. Once I knew it was you, I signalled the 'ai' and it took over, using your voice, it has been communicating with your ship, and they are reeling the shuttle in. . . ."
"NOOOOO!!" Rodgers flattened onto the floor, large eyes staring at the now activated view screen. His ship was clearly visible as was the shuttle being pulled into the open cargo bay. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
All eyes were on the ship. The cargo bay doors slid closed behind the shuttle once it was inside. The scene vanished in a bright light that made all who watched shield their eyes. when it vanished a moment later, a vast debris field, particles streaming vapor, drifted into view.
Captain Cliff nodded to the security. "Take our guest down to holding and seal him into a cell. Leave no cracks or openings. We wouldn't want him squeezing by."
Security crew members moved in with hand stasis generators. Rodgers was sealed into a neat shield bubble and carried from the shuttle, bright red with rage.
Alberts and Badger shook their heads.
"Captain, what brought all this on? How'd you know about the aliens?" Badger asked.
"Ask Crandall. He was the one who let me in on it. Seems our sensory arrays were recircuited by Rodgers so we wouldn't detect his friends. Crandall discovered an anomaly and set up his own sensor array to probe the problem. He discovered the ship back there and let me in on it. We have been playing a charade ever since so as not to trip up our guest. the rest you know."
Alberts blinked. He turned to Crandall and grinned.
Crandall grinned back. In all, this had been a boring trip home, but the end had been enough to last a lifetime.