The ship sailed through the stars in
its persistent journey to get to Terran space. Through the small
time Marle spent on the ship she felt that something about Travis
didn't quite add up. Something about him... just his overall
personality that just didn't sit right. Who would program a computer
that so much as cared how she felt? Why program it with the illusion
that its 'feelings' could get hurt? She couldn't be sure. She just
knew that she was in space, alone with a computer to serve as a...
friend I guess?
In a short moment later the ship slowed
to a stop. Marle felt the momentum cease to be, and she made her way
for the bridge. The viewing screen on the bridge showed the
appearance of a cylindrical space station up ahead. It was a simple,
cookie-cutter design that, according to instrument readings, about
170m by 85m, with a landing platform about every thirty-four meters.
"Travis, what's going on?"
Marle asked outloud. After a brief moment the ship nigh made himself
known on a panel nearby the front of the viewing screen.
"Its just a routine stop,"
Travis replied, "We are about to enter Thak space, and I need to
provide clearance before I can fly in their space, else I get flagged
for trespassing and they send military ships after us. There's
nothing to worry about. Did this with the old crew."
"For the good that will do,"
Marle uttered under her breath.
"I beg your pardon," Travis
asked innocently.
"Its... its nothing," Marle
dodged the response.
"Its nothing invasive really,"
Travis reassured, "All I have to do is submit a code to them to
and they place a tracking signal on me, and merely follow my ship's
sensor signature to make sure that I am in fact just passing through
and that jazz. Its fairly routine."
"Alright, if it makes them feel
better," Marle replied.
"You don't believe its effective?"
Travis asked, "I mean, the Thak are a sheltered race and that...
can't say I think that's right in anyway but nothing I can do about
it, though the tech itself is intended to keep unwanted ships out of
there space... ships that conduct piracy or trafficking, or smuggling
prisoners... and such a culture would have a high number of bullshit
prisoners..."
"Yeah, the Terran Federation has
something like that," Marle spoke, "Freighters, Transport
ships, and military ship on authorized duty had to have tracking
chips placed on their ships to curb piracy."
"Oh really?" Travis ponder in
curiosity, "Been too long. So, how does that work...?"
The scowl on Marle's face was all the answer he needed. "Oh...
sorry Marle."
Moments later a message in some strange
guttural language was being transmitted through the bridge speakers.
"Its a bot asking to identity ourselves... I've sent a signal in
binary..." There was a pause. More of that language, and more
of Travis telegraphing what was going on: "Its asking for a
code... and if this one is still valid..." another pause, and
more strange-speak and more Travis, "code rejected, what?
Again, must have been a binary blip."
The process repeated itself thrice
before the guttural language came back in shrieks. "Dammit,"
uttered Travis, "the code... must be out of date... don't think
it can be brute-forced."
"So, do we risk it?" Marle
asked, "The Phoneix-Belle might be able to fly fast enough..."
"They got some pretty fast ships
of their own," Travis replied, "and lasors... lots of
lazors, and long-range particle cannons, harvast bots..."
"Ok Travis, you've made your
point," Marle sighed and sat on the chair by the helm. She had
no idea how to fly a ship: she was an engineer, and not a
Terran-Federation trained one. Travis would have to do all the
flying that was needed.
"You think if we asked them they
would grant us passage?" Marle enquired, "I mean, unless we
were going for a pit stop or something in the system."
"Not a bad idea," Travis
replied, "Course, they have had 'experiences' with us. Its how
I had that code in the first place. Oh well."
"Oh dear god," Marle rolled
her eyes, "what kind of shenanigans did the last crew engage
in?"
"Well, there was the time a group
of Thaks wanted us to take them out of the system, while smuggling
'vapours' for poltiticalla," Travis began, "they gave us
the codes, and there we were, being smugglers for them and various
surrounding systems..."
"Wait... what?" Marle
interrupted him.
"The Terran Federation has
problems... this area of space became unreachable as many of the
races and systems here formed alliances to keep the Terran
quote-unquote 'plague' out. During the standoff... that I believe is
still ongoing, many Terran vessels found themselves cut off.
Communications don't even reach this far, so the crew gave up and
well... did whatever."
"I see," Marle's face pinched
into itself.
"Oh, Marle... don't be mad at me,"
Travis spoke, "it was mostly getting political prisoners and the
occasional drug lord out of certain sectors and into others,
alongside sensor scans and some fast piloting... we weren't raiding
anyone: I don't think the crew would have stooped that low, dear
god."
"The though that you had anything
to do with piracy..." Marle snarled.
"We had been abandoned - the
captain felt abandoned," Travis spoke solemnly, "it felt
like we were given up on, I felt a little abandoned, though I did
suggested returning to Terran space, as far as it was.
"Mind you we were this far out in
space for a reason, and that was my fault, in a way. I was an
experiment, and one that we didn't want to be discovered
prematurely."
"So the crew abandons their
loyalty to the human federation?" Marle asked snottily.
"I don't think they ever cared
that deeply for the Terran-Federation in the first place,"
Travis replied, "They just wanted out.
"Like it matters now. Going
around will take forever and going through would be suicide, so we
need the updated codes."
Marle sat in silence. The gutteral
gibberish came onto the intercom. "They're saying 'hurry up or
get out...' I think," Travis translated, "hard to say with
translation algorithms."
A tense silence filled the room. They
both knew that boding too long would get them blasted out of
existence, and at the same time the most direct routes where through
the Thak spacial territory.
Finally, Marle spoke: "Can we ask
them for the codes? Any of them?"
