Day 227

Taking an existing story at an impasse, write two different directions it could go

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My space story has reached an impasse. We have what was a prisoner on one planet on board and having convinced the people that we intended to take her back home, after rescuing her from prison, they agreed. It was surprising, given that we were aliens to them and shouldn’t be meddling in their affairs.

But, in the process of taking her back to her home planet, we are ambushed by vessels from her home planet, and the planet she had been a prisoner on, and it transpires that the two planets had been at war for a very long time, and the Princess was a pawn in a larger game.

What to do?

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Option 1

Deliberate on how we can use the situation to our advantage. The Princess does not want to go back to either planet and much prefers to stay on our ship. No one seriously considers that there might be an ulterior motive for her decision.

Option 2

There is a plan in place by one or other of the alien planets at war, and that we are being used in some manner to further their ends.

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Option One

Once more, coming out of the elevator onto the Engineering deck, it looked like a shopping mall, the engine a centrepiece, only I’d heard a rumour that the big flashing light thing was all a front, and it had no other purpose except to make people feel good. 

My area of expertise was not engines, so I left that to the engineers.  The crew could believe what they wanted.

The Chief Engineer was standing in front of a half dozen lower ranked personnel, what I understood to be the group that were on board for training and practical experience before being sent to other vessels being built.  They would then become the experienced officer who passed on their knowledge.

As Number One I was supposed to do the same for the trainee officers we had been sent, but that thankfully had been transferred to the new Number One.

I waited until he had told them what their next task was, not very welcome given the groans, but if it was what I thought it was, they were going to spend some time in confined spaces.

“For a ship in the middle of a crisis, you seem very calm,” he said.

Appearances could be deceptive.  “I guess it will all depend on what answer you give me.”

“Is it difficult, or do I need to bring out the magic wand?”

“Magic wand. I think.  Can we create a device to stop those people out there from beaming personnel off the ship?  I know we’re averse to sending people by that means.”

“Because it’s unsafe at the moment?  Anything gets between the subject and the destination, well, you don’t need me to tell you what would happen.”

“That’s the answer then.  A disrupter?”

“Theoretically, yes, but to create something like that ship-wide would be impossible.  What you need to consider is how they can target individuals, because there has to be a device that emits a signature specific to you, they can lock onto it.”

“The communicator.”  I hadn’t thought they would use something of ours that to them would be so primitive.

“Exactly.  What’s bothering is the fact that these people have been to our planet, and I suspect insinuated themselves into our space program so they could monitor our progress, and perhaps not try to hinder our progress, simply make sure we couldn’t use anything against them.  Or perhaps push our development in a specific direction.”

“You’ve given this some thought?”

“When I don’t sleep at night, which is a lot.  But here’s a thought, why not let them take the Princess back?”

“Which group?”

“Not my bailiwick, Captain.  I’ll work on recoding the communicators and let you know.”

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but it was a step in the right direction, particularly when we met another group of potentially hostile aliens.

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Option Two

I sent a message to Nancy Woolmer the ex-detective, who had regaled me, over man a glass of wine, stories of her interviews with the best and worst of humanity in the course of her previous job, to join me in my day cabin.

One of the reasons why I had insisted on her joining the ship was her ability to look into the soul of a person and see what was in in there.  I needed to know that at least one person couldn’t be swayed by lies, half-truths, and potentially bad people.

It had saved us a lot of pain dealing with miscreants.

I was staring out at one of the alien vessels standing off us, a rather interesting light display going on, perhaps just to distract us.  I didn’t think it had a practical purpose.

We used Christmas lights for the same reason.

The outer bell chimed, and she came in.  Everyone seemed not to wait for me to ask them in.

“You wish to see me?”

“I was thinking about some comic light relief, but as you can see we’re basically between the devil and the deep blue sea.”

“I would call it something else, but what might be an interesting take, why haven’t they blasted us out of the universe?”

A question that hadn’t yet crossed my mind, simply because I believed neither wanted to kill the Princess.  It hadn’t occurred to me that something else might be in play.

I called down to the central computer room where a team constantly monitored everything that was controlled by our computer systems.  A thought just occurred to me.

“Hershal, Captain, what can I do for you?”

Hershal was secured from deep inside a black hole, a place where he could never touch another computer, a man who was regarded as the worst of the worst hacker villains.  An ideal man to be tossed into outer space where he could do no harm because he would only be hurting himself.

He was amused when I visited him on earth, thinking that I was sent to build up his hopes and then shatter them, like ten others before me.  Until he woke up, two months out from launch so far out into space he had nowhere to go but a desk and do what I asked of him.

“You monitor every panel on this ship?”

“All three and a half thousands of them, yep.”

“The one in my personal cabin?”

“I try not to aggravate the one person who thinks I’m useful, but if you want me to?”

“Do so.  Run whatever it is you run.”

I waited a minute, then he came back.  “Someone is trying to run a trojan on your panel.”

“For what reason?”

“I suspect they believe you have access to everything.”

“They would suspect right.  Except…”  I knew the answer before he told me.

The Princess was not a princess but a very life like robot.  I don’t know what it was that put that thought in my mind, other than one time back on earth I had gone to a robotic convention and saw some of the most remarkable robots ever created.

We had several on board, but we knew who they were.  There was a convention the insisted that flaws had to be built in.  These alien races were not bound by such conventions, and it was remiss of me not to consider the possibility they would have such hardware.

“No wonder the Forio were so glad to let you take her.  I’m betting they made you think you were doing them a favour.”

“And the Krulaxl want to get their hands on it, because it has all their secrets.”

“How is she trying to access the data?”

“Cable.  I’m not surprised because our systems to them are probably very primitive.”

“Can you run a reverse program and wipe her memory, a hard reset or something?”

“Does a pig have trotters?”

Interesting saying.  “Make it so, and let me know when it’s done.”

I looked over at Nancy.  “Seems I no longer need your services?”

“Just what did you have in mind?”

“I was going to get you to determine whether she was friend or foe.  I don’t think that would have been possible now we know she is not human.”

“Perhaps.  Perhaps not.  There would have been a sophisticated program running, and that would have glitches because no one can ever think of everything the human brain is capable of.  It’s why our robots are still so limited.

“But then this one might be programmed to harm someone who unmasks it.  I’m glad it didn’t come to that.  Dinner tomorrow?”

“The crisis will be over?”

“One way or another.”

She smiled.  “I’ll bring the wine.”

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Which one do you prefer? Let me know in the comments…

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©  Charles Heath  2025