Breach
fiction by michael werneburg
2002.07.26
"She's right," the Prince said. He looked utterly defeated. "They saw me coming a light-year away, they know what technology we have and how to take it."
Marl regarded him with misgiving. "So, we need to show that we've recovered 100% of the memory cards."
"And the missing field generator. It's my only hope!"
Marl looked at the Prince in disgust. How he could have betrayed his entire species because his privilege had been infringed for a few years! Marl and Xin exchanged glances. The naked contempt in Xin's eyes told Marl that neither woman thought he had a prayer of avoiding the death penalty.
Xin said, "We likely have custody over all of the aliens that the Prince may have spoken to. Or at least, we have no reason to think that any of the Caofsh back at the site where the Prince surrendered to these people knew he existed."
"There's Four Quartet," the Prince suggested.
"You mentioned him," Xin said. "But you said he's not aboard?"
Through the swelling of his smashed lips, he said, "I tried to sell him the sled I took from Virga. I gave him a tour around that pit mine with it at 10% subtime. When we got back, he tossed me some gold coins, cut the field generator out of the sled, and took off in another ship."
"How did you wind up here?" Xin demanded.
"Some soldiers grabbed me, right after that. They took my suit." With a gesture at the aliens hanging from their seats above them, he added. "The soldiers sold me to these .. people."
"Right." Xin turned to Marl. "You know, Ilyana, we'll have to show that none of the data was transferred off world."
"That's not going to be a problem, Chrissy. These people simply don't have the tech. They travelled here from some other planet, sure. But they don't have a lot of high-tech to go around. They still fly the jets manually! I'm guessing they put the Prince on this jet because they didn't have the technology to read his data or transmit it to other worlds."
"We need to track down this Four Quartet. And to lock down all traffic attempting to leave the planet. And all transmissions. I'll talk to the Admiral."
"That's good thinking. They'll make you Captain for this, Chrissy."
"They will indeed. And your guilty Oluk consciences will be clear. Everybody wins. Can you please get up to our ship and set a course for the repository? We need to meet the Admiral's people and get these aliens off-world."
"Yes, Lieutenant."
"Ensign," Xin said, "Let's log our discoveries and decisions."
The Ensign nodded, but he was looking at Marl admiringly. She realized he'd been watching, hoping she would uphold their creed.
###
Four nominal hours later, Marl, Hiram, and Eisberg were aboard Virga. Xin had taken the XP-38, its captive alien jet, the aliens themselves, and the Prince to the Admiral's ship. Eisberg had tracked down nearly all of the memory chips already, and seemed confident the rest would turn up. As Eisberg had predicted, their sleds would be scrapped and those had been transferred to the Admiral's ship as well. They was now discussing the situation with the Admiral, whose face loomed above them on the display.
"Lieutenant Eisberg, your work with a private tricorder has really shown us we need to upgrade our field gear. It's obscene that your ten-year-old retail gear was more advanced than anything that Terra Corporation had provided."
"Thank you, sir," Eisberg said, carefully not agreeing too strenuously.
"We've gone over the entire ship and every last one of the chips has turned up."
"I suggest they be scrapped, sir. The contamination--"
"Already done, Lieutenant. We've evaluated the data aboard, what was accessed and by who, and we're now linking that to the data your AI pieced together from the satellite records."
"Oh!"
"Damn good work all around, I have to say. The vital first hour of this engagement was textbook."
"Thank you, sir," Marl said. Eisberg clapped Marl on the shoulder, congratulating her warmly.
"The field generator is still unaccounted for. We're scouring the breached site but it doesn't seem to be present."
"That's a problem," Eisberg said.