Passengers: Revelations

By Peter Salisbury

Third in Peter Salisbury's Passenger series of SF novels.

With the news media in a frenzy imagining man-eating aliens, Ben and Lori need all the help they can get in breaking the news that an alien race had been found. Meanwhile, doing penance for their previous misdeeds, Symch and Goster have a shock in store for their jailers.

Spider technology is licensed for industrial use but at a price, and old foes reappear to do no-one any good but themselves.

Raife and Nancy find their semi-tropical city to be more of a handful than they anticipated with dangers of its own, and their science teams struggle to make progress with the crashed ship left behind by the long-vanished Zetans.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Salisbury
• Release date: Apr 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476277189

Peter Salisbury

I am a life-long fan of science fiction, and so when I had an idea for my first story, I wasn't surprised that it was in that genre. The first book took me ten years to complete, but I've got a little quicker since. I am pleased to say that I now have over thirty books published in my name. What next? So far I haven't run short of ideas for new stories, so there are several projects in various stages of completion, and I hope to be publishing the next story before too long, so please subscribe to my alerts. My profile picture is a portrait of the author as a young man, painted by my daughter Charlotte Salisbury who has also contributed to several of my book covers. Professional background In the 1970s I studied Chemistry at university and then spent over thirty years in classrooms across England teaching almost anything but Chemistry, including Photography, Communications Skills, General Science, Computing, and Information and Communications Technology. In the 1990s I spent ten years writing abstracts of chemical patents. This was a most exacting process but very rewarding to be reading about the very latest inventions in the field, and the abstracts were distributed world-wide to research scientists by subscription. Articles of mine have been published in magazines and I have written assignments used for assessing Communications Skills for a major international Examination Board. After retiring early this century I began writing in earnest.

Book preview

Chapter 1: A Close Shave

The body had remained inert for more than an hour, when an alarm sounded.

'Don't tell me we've blown it,' Goster said, his eyes pleading.

'It's nothing to do with him,' Symch said, pinching at a piece of clammy flesh. 'It's a trigger I set if there was movement anywhere else in the base.'

Goster whirled across the tiny transfer cubicle to a display showing the front entrance. His shoulders tensed at what he saw.

'It's Stainer,' Goster snarled, picking up the sharp which was still bloody from severing the clone's umbilical. 'If he catches us, we'll never get off this dust-ball alive.'

Symch pointed at the scalpel. 'Put that thing down. And don't worry, the kid's come here on his own. I'll make sure he doesn't interfere.' He shot out of the cubicle and ran the hundred and fifty metres to the middle of the complex.

'Stainer!' Symch barked, as he entered the command centre. 'I wondered what idiot was wandering about in here.'

Lounging against the main console, a youth in a dusty security uniform clutched at his chest. A cloud of fine sand billowed from the navy blue cloth of his tailored jacket. Five minutes out in the mine and you were covered in the stuff. He'd been out there a lot longer than that. 'What do you think you're doing?' he gasped, 'You half scared me to death.'

'We're about quits, then, with the fright you gave me, turning up in the middle of the night. You're supposed to be with the rest of your team, re-tracking the digger.'

Stainer recovered at once. As he straightened himself up, his expression changed from surprise to contempt. 'So what? You're supposed to be asleep, so you can take over from us on the next shift.'

'Why, you insolent little whelp!' Symch put up his hand as if to strike.

Stainer raised his baton and Symch backed off, relieved Stainer wasn't trustworthy enough to be permitted to use the discharge model. As Symch knew to his cost, they dropped you on the spot.

'What do you want, Stainer? They don't usually allow you in here.'

Stainer looked down his nose at Symch. 'Pheen sent me.'

'Pheen?'

'Yeah, to find out what to do with the track pins so they don't fall out.'

'Hmm, track pins…' Symch tapped his fingers on the console, thinking the quickest way to get rid of Stainer was to answer his question. 'Vill would know about that,' he muttered to himself, forgetting how close Stainer was.

Stainer snatched at what he'd let slip. 'Vill?'

Symch felt his cheeks start to burn.

'Er, yeah… used to be the boss round here.'

'Who? Vill, the dead guy?' Stainer's face screwed up with the effort of trying to work out why Symch would even mention him.

'Just thinking out loud.'

'Symch are you cracking up or what? Vill's the dead guy! How's a dead guy going to help us?'

'What I meant,' Symch said, feeling distinctly short of breath, 'was the computer probably contains his record of what to do. Now move over.'

Symch's hands flickered back and forth across the display. He accessed the assembly manuals for the thousand-ton diggers and searched under track pins.

'Yes, see,' Symch jerked his finger at the image, 'the ends of the pins have to be hammered over, like rivets. The tool kits you've got contain hot riveters. You need two.'

'Oh, yeah, I see. How's it work?'

Symch rolled his eyes. He could feel himself sweating and wanted nothing more than to see the back of Stainer. 'Like it shows here. You slide the pin through the channel made by the two pieces of track when they line up...'

'That's the other thing Pheen said.'

'What other thing?'

'We can't get the track segments to line up.'

'You tried using the track clamp?'

'The what?'

Symch sighed and shook his head. He hadn't planned on leaving Goster in charge of the clone for so long.

'Track clamp. It's like a set of hydraulic jaws. You put the jaws across the gap between the sections of track and apply hydraulic pressure from one of the transport vehicles. That draws the two sections together, until you can get the pin through. Then you hammer over both the ends of the pin using the induction riveters.'

'I thought you said they were hot riveters.'

Symch's knuckles whitened as he gripped the edge of the console. 'They heat the ends of the rivet by induction before giving it a whack to dome the end over so it can't drop out.'

'You could come over and show us,' Stainer said, a cheeky grin lurking under the grime on his face.

Symch shot Stainer a penetrating look. He suspected Pheen had worked out what to do by herself already and had sent Stainer on a fool's quest just to get him out from under the feet of the rest of them.

'And you, Mister Stainer, can take yourself back to your team, so I can get some well-deserved shut-eye.'

Stainer chose not to argue with that and Symch watched him climb back in his vehicle and drive off into the night. The minute Stainer had gone, Symch ran back to the transfer cubicle. Goster heard him coming and leaned out of the doorway.

Symch jerked his thumb back the way he'd come. 'It's OK, I got rid.'

'You took forever.'

'Stainer said Pheen sent him.'

'Probably just wanted him out of the way.'

'That's what I figured.' Symch shouldered past Goster to check on the body. It was alive but that was all.

'He's not done yet.' Goster said, pacing across the narrow cubicle juggling a spare comwatch.

'I can see that,' Symch said, his hands shaking as he made sure all the connections were tight. 'And keep still. If you break that thing, we won't be able to call him.'

'We've never revived anyone before. It's taking too long.'

'If we rush it and botch the transfer, then we'll have to get rid of the body,' Symch said. 'There won't be time to try again.'

'Yeah, and if the others catch us, we'll never get another chance.' Goster's plain brown fatigues were stained and a ragged scar on his cheek stood out, white against the deep tan of his face.

The pair stared intently at the expressionless face of the new clone. Points of light flickered on the surface of its personality transfer cap, then stopped. Another alarm sounded.

Goster turned to the display, his heart stalling at the thought of another interruption. 'I can't see anyone.'

'Good thing too, because that was to signal the transfer's finished. This is it. He's got to surface now!'

'Vill? Vill, can you hear me?' Goster said. He gripped the forearm of the body on the table, willing it to wake. Beads of sweat stood out on his bald head.

'Yeah... sure,' Vill said in a voice that was thick and slurred. His eyes blinked open.

Goster let go of his arm and fell back against a row of cupboards, weak with relief.

Symch shifted Vill into a sitting position by tilting the transfer table.

Vill leaned against a white metal side bar and dragged aside a grubby sheet the other two had covered his torso with. He groaned at the sight of his new body, faintly yellow and greasy from the vat. 'Not again!' he said, looking around. Immediately he recognised the transfer cubicle from its array of active electronics, its harsh stone walls and its dimmed lighting.

'What the hell are you two up to? Vill's voice rose. Why isn't Dyne doing this?'

'Shh!' Symch said. 'They have monitoring systems around the place.'

'What? Who else is here?' Vill's brow creased with concentration. He wasn't used to not being in control. Even though he'd only just gained consciousness, his mind was full of questions.

'The STs, Security Team.'

'What security team?'

'Tell me the last thing you remember,' Symch spoke with as much force as he could muster.

Vill looked glum. 'Oh, yeah,' he muttered. 'Security landed at the Orbital Transit Site. Big fight.'

'A real bundle of fun that was, knowing there was no chance of us winning. Then they carted us all off back to Centre,' Goster said.

I remember flying back here to the mine,' Vill stared across the room. He was lost in thought. 'Only just had time to back myself up and encrypt the file where they wouldn't find it.'

'Yeah,' Goster said, beginning to puff himself up with self-importance. 'And you told us to get you back as soon as possible.'

'So, how...?'

'We seeded you a new clone, right here.' Symch also looked very pleased with himself.

'But the STs...?'

'We told them we needed another spare in case there were any accidents. Luckily, the STs here don't know what your human body looked like and of course the vat bodies all look fairly similar anyway.'

'And they agreed?'

'Yeah, one of them nearly copped it recently, so they went along with it.'

'Good work, lads, for once,' Vill grimaced at the effort of hauling his legs over the side of the table. 'What I really meant was how long's it been?'

'Since when?' said Goster.

'Since, I dunno. Since I was last...'

'Alive? Symch said. 'Several months.'

'Months?' Vill's face fell. 'How many?'

'Easy, Vill,' Goster took a firm grip on his arm and Symch helped him into a set of fatigues. 'Don't worry about that. The main thing is we followed your instructions to get you back and here you are.'

'OK but why isn't Dyne doing this?'

'You nearly killed her, remember?'

'Nearly?'

'Yeah. She pulled through, which is more than you did. You did for yourself trying to escape on Centre. Ended up outside the airlock breathing the wrong atmo.'

'Don't remember,' Vill grunted.

'Just as well, not a nice way to go. You wouldn't remember. It was after the backup.'

'Course.' Vill paused to let the air flow in and out of his new lungs. He put a finger to his strong, steady pulse and pinched a flabby arm, not exactly happy but glad to be alive.

'You know you're on Nur, the mining planet, not on our homeworld, don't you?'

'Ha!' Vill said. 'You must think I'm in a bad way not to recognise this place.'

'Like we said, it's been a while.'

'Where are the STs now?'

'Something big came up, they're all out in the mine, fixing it.' He considered mentioning the scare they'd just had with Stainer turning up but decided against it.

'You guys must've been busy pulling this resurrection stunt for me.'

'We had a deal.' Symch said.

'I guessed there'd be something in it for you two,' Vill said.

Goster shifted uneasily. 'Yeah, you said if you got off this dust ball, you'd take us with you.'

'That's what you said, Vill.' Symch stood firm between Vill and the door. 'Because they've dumped us two here for life.'

'Listen, despite all our falling out in the past, did I ever go back on my word?'

'No, Vill.'

'No,' Goster said.

'Right, that's it. I go, you go.'

Chapter 2: Vill's Lost Team

'We can't stay here,' Symch said, ducking his head out the door and scanning up and down the corridor. His rapid movements betraying a nervous haste.

'I got time for a shower?' Vill said, wiping a hand through his greasy hair. 'You guys only just pulled me out the vat.'

'Nah, not here,' Symch said, checking the corridor again. 'Too risky.'

'OK, so, what you got planned? I guess we're not just gonna jump planet with these STs around, otherwise you'd be out of here already.'

'The only place you can hide out is Old Site,' Goster said.

'Quiet,' Symch said, raising his hand. 'I thought I heard something again.'

'Don't tell me Stainer's back?'

'I'll go check. Goster, get Vill into a dorm cell just in case.'

Symch returned five minutes later, to find Vill sitting on the bed in a disused dorm cell. 'It's OK. Must have been rats in the conduits.'

'There ain't no rats here. This planet's completely dead, apart from us.'

'Just a sayin'.' Symch shrugged.

'Where'd that come from?' Vill gave Symch a baffled look.

'Dunno. I guess the sound was just the transfer equipment cooling down.'

'Wasn't the STs then?'

'Nah, computer shows they're all still out on the job. Come on, we gotta get a move on.' Symch reached down to give Vill a hand up. 'OK, Vill, time to go.'

'I can manage,' Vill said, brushing Symch aside.

Goster checked the corridor. 'All clear.'

Vill heaved himself off the bed in the dormroom but after no more than half a dozen steps along the passage, his legs gave way under him. Goster grabbed him one side and Symch the other but he was already on his knees.

Vill struggled for control of his legs. 'Well, you two goin' to get me up or what?'

'Yeah, we need to get him out of here fast,' Goster said.

'Damn clone bodies,' Vill grumbled. 'You sure you did this right?'

Symch exchanged a look with Goster. After a few moments thought, Symch said, 'We did the best we know how. Checked the computer logs, did it by the book.'

'Yeah, well, I don't remember feeling this groggy before.'

Symch lead the way towards the back of the building, through increasingly dusty corridors. 'We got the water running again over at Old Site. You can get a shower there,' he said.

'You've been busy, then,' Vill said.

'The STs run the place and there's eight of them, so they hardly need us, except of course we know more than they do.' Goster laughed.

'Yeah, we've been a bit clever, see,' Symch added with another burst of enthusiasm. 'Because the STs here don't really know what's what, we've been able to sneak over there and set a few things up for you.'

'Like what?'

'Well it's not as good as over here but you've got a solar generator.'

'OK, good, a passive power source, and?'

'There's a wireless link into the computer system over here.' Symch said. 'I've been using the training interface and got top level access now.'

'Yeah, that's a good one,' Goster put in, 'because the STs never think to check the computer.'

'That's lucky. What else?'

'You've got a portable water condenser and we managed to get the old canteen plant working a bit. Enough to feed one person, at least.'

'Where are Gran and Xlok, then? Where's Dyne now?' Vill said, changing tack.

'They all got, er… What they call it Symch?'

'Rehabilitated.'

'I see,' Vill said, his voice rising, 'so they're proper citizens again, now.'

'That's what they're saying. They didn't believe us when we said we had no choice.'

Vill laughed. 'You sound surprised, Goster!'

'Yeah, well, I think we was scapegoats.'

'We'll talk about that later. How did you clear the ST's out of the building long enough to get me out of the vat?' Vill said.

'Took a while. We had to wait until there was a big blowout.'

'Yesterday one of the diggers threw both tracks, so it's a major repair.'

'Puts a dent in the productivity graph.'

Goster caught the look on Vill's face. 'It wasn't us! There's no way we're gonna do something makes more work!'

'That figures!' Vill said. 'But how come you two aren't working on it?'

'We'd already done half a shift when the tracks came off. We called the STs. Got the whole bunch out there, saying it was a big emergency.'

'Which it is,' Vill said.

'Yeah, for them. So, after we'd inspected the damage and showed the STs what was needed, there was only about an hour of shift left. We told them we were totally exhausted after explaining the procedures and safety protocols.'

'Yeah, we worked out a whole schedule for them.'

'Right, only we forgot to put ourselves on it,' Goster said, laughing.

Vill nodded. 'You'd better get me over to the Old Site, before any of them come back.'

The conversation had got them as far as the back door of the facility. Symch was pleased at Vill's curiosity; it was no bad thing if someone who'd had a newly installed persona did a fair bit of talking. It helped with some technical thing called 'personality stamping' according to what he'd read up in Dyne's notes.

'OK, we got that hovercycle Lump and Similie used as a decoy.'

Vill sighed. 'Don't remind me.'

'No, well, they'd pulled the locator module but we've taken out the low power alarm, too, so it's completely undetectable.'

'But three of us won't fit on that.'

'No, we've fitted a boost motor to it, in case you need a bit of speed anytime, so it's got the power for us to drop a tender on the back. You can sit in that while I drive and Symch hangs on up front. After we've dropped you, we'll come back here, set it on auto and it'll take itself back over to you. You should be able to guide it straight in the main doors, so it's always at the ready.'

Chapter 3: Baker in Trouble

'And that won't be the last of it.'

'What's that, Ben?' Lori said.

'I was just thinking out loud what was going on inside my head when Coordinator Baker said what he had in store for us.'

Ben and Lori Thomas were sitting at separate desks in an office so new it still smelled of paint, varnish and furniture wrapping. Ben's chair was too low. Somehow, the posture sensing system wasn't interfacing properly. He could feel it shifting uncertainly underneath him.

'The term pompous doesn't quite cover Baker, does it?'

'As I recall his words were 'You personally will be the ones to reveal that humans are no longer the only intelligent species in the galaxy.'

'We might get a few calls today, then.' Lori ran her fingers over the coms bead embedded in her sleeve. She got up and walked to the window facing her desk. Ben joined her, glad to leave his jittery chair. They looked out at the woodland beyond the boundary fence. The building itself was so new that the view from their window was of a wide swathe of trees, the stumps of those cut down still rising from the ground on the far side of the bike park. The cover for the office was the adjacent insurance building. Multi-coloured cycles of varying designs stretched out across the hard-packed gravel park. Leaves and little eddies of leftover sawdust swirled against the kerbs.

A rising chirrup sounded from the coms bead in the sleeve of Lori's smart business suit. 'Hello? This is Lori Thomas.' She returned to her desk and pulled on her interface goggles so she could access the Net.

Ben's coms bead signalled him only seconds later. He stayed by the window, watching the tall poplars sway in a light breeze.

'Ax, yes. I'm in the office. No, not at home, the downtown office they've given us; the Bureau for Inter-Species Relations.'

'BISpeR.'

'That's the one! It's probably bugged from side to side, knowing Central Coordination. Here, I'll show you our bit.' Ben put on his interface specs and hand-signalled the computer to camera mode.

'I see Lori's there on another call,' Ax said. 'She's looking nearly as stunning as she did at the wedding.'

'I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing that. Do you still have your position as Chief Backgrounder or have they transferred you over to us, already?'

'Neither, I got transferred to Secure Coms to deal with Knass's kidnap and then getting you both back in one piece.'

'So when are you going to join us?'

'They're cloning me over tomorrow. I have less than a day now to say goodbye to my folks. All my stuff's up for exchange on the Net.'

'I can't believe you'll be with us so soon. It'll be good to have you here in person, after all those years working fifty-two light years apart.'

'That's close, compared to some of the colonies.'

'Be even closer tomorrow.'

Lori completed her call and began combing the news feeds via her uplink, while she waited for Ben. 'Was that Ax?'

'Yes, he'll be with us sometime after his transfer tomorrow. What was your call about?'

'I'd ask you to sit down if your chair was working.'

'I can soon fix that.' Ben downloaded a software update direct to the posture management module. 'That should do it,' he said, finding it moved to fit his muscular frame. 'Perfect.'

Lori sat on the edge of his desk. 'Well, apparently the very person we were talking about earlier has upset some folks on one of the new colonies.'

'Not Baker?'

'Coordinator Baker himself.'

'Mind you, I can see that shouldn't be difficult for him.' Ben grinned. 'More like the sort of thing he'd do all the time.'

'Baker was a bully with an over-active sense of self-importance.'

'Arrogant would fit.'

'All joking aside, I mean he's seriously upset them. In fact, he's been replaced.'

'They're replacing Central Coordination officials for upsetting colonists, now?'

'Listen! There's rather more to it than that. He's accused of authorising illegal transfers, maybe worse.'

'So what's the deal? Start at the beginning.'

'These colonists are on a new planet, Zeta Nine.'

'OK.' Ben signed for the holographic projector and called up the location of Zeta Nine. It was one of the outermost colonies. 'They're very new, not been down on the surface for more than a few weeks. Had a false start, I see.'

'Getting yourself killed at least once is one of the hazards of pioneering, which is why you wouldn't catch me anywhere near it.'

'Me neither but I suppose someone has to do it.'

'The first vat couple are Professor Raife Harris and Doctor Nancy Zing.'

'They've birthed a few more by now,' Ben said, checking the data file. 'Doesn't sound like anything that would get Baker excited, so far.'

'This is the other bit you need to be sitting down for. The part you won't find in those data files.'

'Which is?'

'They found alien remains.'

'Remains?' Ben said. 'Not live ones like we found?'

'No, mainly a lot of stone ruins. And artefacts.'

'Artefacts? I bet that caused some excitement!'

'Yes, electronic artefacts.'

'Baker wanted to take control, I assume?'

'He took it upon himself to switch some semi-military agents into the bodies of Raife and Nancy's friends. Then he tried to take over the colony by force.'

'But they rumbled him. Let me guess, the agents weren't very good at pretending to be someone else and somehow the colonists put them out of action.'

Lori nodded. 'I imagine it was all pretty unpleasant. Baker got really out of hand and issued restraint orders without due process. This is the last message he sent when he thought he was still talking to the agents.'

"The time for a clandestine mode of operation is now past. CC strategic analysis concludes that the individuals designated Professor Raife Harris and Doctor Nancy Zing have compromised their position and will jeopardise further implementation of the CC programme. They must submit all their tablets, communication and storage devices to your scrutiny, as they are believed to be concealing vital data.

"I hereby direct you to use whatever means necessary, under directive 12a, excluding the use of lethal force to secure the success of the programme you have been charged to complete. You are fully authorised to restrain and, if necessary, incarcerate them. If they do not cooperate fully, you are required by protocol 72 to immediately take them into custody indefinitely. Any injuries said individuals may sustain during such procedures will not result in court-martial.

"I expect to be informed of the status of this part of the mission in the next communication, in which I require direct, real-time, face to face communication.

In addition, your next report must include verifiable data that additional CC agents are approaching birthing. If you are unable to comply with the above, you are ordered to submit to immediate replacement.

'That would not have gone down too well.'

'He also sent them what is supposed to be currently top secret information about 'our' aliens, the Sentience.'

'Is that how he got found out?'

'No, it was when he started shifting funds around, to pay for his exploits.'

'I see. Then what happened?'

'Baker was arrested, his agents' personalities were removed by Raife and Nancy, they reinstated their friends...'

'I bet they got a surprise.'

'Of course, stop interrupting.'

'Sorry.'

'And the colonists sent in a reply, saying they were cutting themselves off, until they decided otherwise.'

Declaration by Professor Raife Harris (Member of the Institute of Pioneering Science), Nancy Zing (PhD Astrophysics, PhD Pioneering Colonisation, MIPS), Tinc Vassallo (BSc Physical Sciences, MSc Geological Engineering, MIPS) and Riajh Vassallo (BSc Biological Sciences, MSc Field Medical Practise, MIPS) hereinafter referred to as the Four:

Unlawful attempted infiltration of Zeta nine by subterfuge and occupation of clone bodies intended for two of the above-mentioned personnel, by Central Coordination agents, has made it necessary to reject all prior claims on the financial or jurisdictional status of the expedition of Explorer 5017.

The stored personalities of the intercepted CC agents will be transmitted after this message.

The Four, first pioneers of planet designated Zeta Nine, hereby declare said planet, its parent system and associated planets as an independent colony.

Despite the discovery of an ancient but mysteriously vanished civilisation having enormous significance for human society, the hereby formed government of Zeta Nine, comprising until further notice the Four, reject all claim by Central Coordination, including its coordinators, associates, affiliates, departments, operatives, agents or any other unlisted personnel. Rejected claims refer to the resources, artefacts or data derived from colonisation of this planet. Further, the Four declare the following conditions:

1. Any further attempts to download software with the intention of accessing computer systems on the surface of Zeta Nine or in orbit above this planet or anywhere in its parent system will be taken as acts of hostility and will adversely affect the price and terms of negotiation of any subsequent trade agreement;

2. All research carried out on Zeta Nine will be undertaken by personnel selected solely by the government of Zeta Nine;

3. Monitoring and quarantine systems, together with simplex communication will remain in place and in effect, until such time the Four deem it safe and prudent to remove such systems;

4. All data so far received from Zeta Nine will be considered as full and final payment for reimbursement of the cost of the expedition and of the ship Explorer 5017.

'We're advised to proceed with caution,' Lori said. I'll give them a call and say Baker's out of the picture, that we're taking over and that there will be no further infiltration attempts.'

'So, we might hear back, or we might not.'

Chapter 4: A Curious Call

'I have a call for a Ben Thomas.'

'This is Ben Thomas.' He was curious to know who was addressing him in such formal fashion. Lori had opted to work from home and he was in the office alone.

'You have a call from…' The transmission was momentarily interrupted and he wasn't able to hear the name of the person or organization.

'I didn't catch that.'

There was a noise like paper being crumpled. Ben put on his viewspecs and saw the icon for an encrypted signal. 'Let's try again.'

'Good morning. What can I do for you?'

'We didn't get you last time but we will if you don't drop the Yellow case.'

'I'm sorry, I think you're a little out of touch, I don't have anything to do with that anymore,' Ben said, trying not to sound as alarmed as he felt.

'Then who does?'

'I don't know specifically, the data police, officially the Department for Data Tracking and Determination, the DDTD. It's out of my hands now. I've submitted all my evidence. Who are you anyway?'

'Never mind that. What do you mean you've submitted your evidence?'

'I've told them everything that happened to me, which was very little. I just disappeared.'

'You could change your evidence.'

'I've told you, there was very little evidence to give and in any case, it's all been verified.'

'What does that mean?'

'It means the evidence I've given has been cross-checked and recorded as fact. If I tried to change it now, they'd know I was lying and then they'd try to find out why, which would probably lead to you. Do you want that?' Ben could feel his anger rising.

'You had just better not try anything.'

'If I were you, I'd consider taking that very same advice.' At that point the link went dead.

In the good old days when he was a senior data detective, Ben would have had a cybersnout on the guy's trail from half-way through the first threat. Now that he was Joint Chief Coordinator of the Bureau of Interspecies Relations, he didn't have at his disposal the cybersnouts and tracker bytes he'd used in what felt like a previous life. In fact, as he'd been cloned several times since then, it was in a previous life!

Ben called the other Joint Chief Coordinator.

'Hello, is that Joint Chief Coordinator Lori Thomas of the Bureau of Interspecies Relations?

'It is. And is that my odd-ball husband calling in such a strange fashion?

'It is. Have you had any odd calls today?

'Apart from this one?' Lori smiled to herself as she scooped up a cup from her workstation and carried to the kitchen.

'Listen, I've just had a mildly menacing call from some guy warning me off the Yellow case.'

'Is this a joke? We've got a pile of regulations to work out, so we can ensure fair trade across the Ultra Radio web link between us and our good, alien friends the Sentience.'

'I am well aware of the complexity of the regulations but it is not a joke. I was simply concerned, Lori, that you might have had a similarly disturbing call.'

'I wish I had. I'd have soon told him where he could stick his Yellow case.'

'As did I.'

'Ha! I bet you gave some feeble explanation and talked his ear off until he gave up.'

'Is that how I usually deal with troublemakers?'

'Yes!'

Lori was a different person at home, where they shared the warm and loving relationship you would expect of two people who had been through as much as they had. There was first the Passengering body swap holiday, then there'd been the kidnapping, where both of them were 'chipped' and used for hard labour in a mining encampment. Putting a mind-controlling computer chip in their necks enabled the mine manager to ensure they were not even aware their mind patterns had been stolen, or who they really were. Finally, they'd escaped, only to have their space freighter apprehended minutes before firing up the fusion drive to take them back to known space.

Rather than ending up back at the mine, they were rescued by aliens who'd purposely kept their existence secret from the human race because they saw them as the threat! The Sentience, as they called themselves, turned out to be a remarkably interesting and friendly race. Eventually, on their safe return, after weeks of interrogation by Central Coordination, Lori and Ben had been given the job of organizing protocols and regulations to oversee trade between the human and Sentience races. All that, of course, was after the very secret and equally severe debriefing.

'Moving on from silly phone calls, I've had a very important exchange with Nancy Zing and apparently there is also a crashed alien spaceship.'

'Total wreck?'

'Not at all. It came in at a shallow angle and is all in one piece, though some of the parts have been scavenged for salvage. Raife thinks by the original aliens.'

'Do they need us to send anyone? Like specialists?'

'They're not accepting any more transfers right now.'

'Hardly surprising, after Baker's fiasco.'

'Exactly, plus they were in one of the Explorer class ships that had several hundred pioneers stored on board.'

'So they have all the personnel they need.'

'They've got two science teams on it already.'

'But they'd like our help with…?'

'With interpreting the alien language and decoding some of the video files they've found in the artefacts. Nancy is most anxious to find out more about the long lost aliens. It's become something of a mission with her.'

Chapter 5: That Old Hovercycle

Symch and Goster hauled the sand-blown tarp off the hovercycle while Vill leant wearily against a wall. They were round at the back of the New Site buildings, the area used as a junk pile. Vill looked on as the other two presented the old hovercycle with its chipped paint and sand-blasted exterior. The cab door and battery cover were missing but they were displaying it as if it was a customised show-piece. Vill failed to look impressed.

'Fully charged?'

'No, Vill, but this is.' Symch pulled a slim, blue cylinder out of his coverall. Its bright gold connectors flashed under the floodlight which illuminated the scene. He connected the power cell and the dashboard of the hovercycle flickered and glowed into life. It gave out a gentle purr. 'There you go, all set,' he smiled, patting the roof as if it was a friend.

'Listen, I think it's best if one of you stays behind. It's safer, quicker and it means we don't have to fiddle around with a tender.'

'Aw, Vill...' Goster began to complain.

'Yes, and it should be you because you're the one with the smart patter. If any of those STs come back, we need someone to cover.'

'It's me that's the smart one, Goster's just better at dreaming up excuses,' Symch thought.

'Yeah, OK. That's simple, I can say Symch is asleep and not to wake him.'

'You got it. Symch'll get me settled and we'll have chance to meet up later.'

'Sure, but what do I say about the missing body out of the vat?'

'I thought you'd already have a story for that,' Vill grumbled, turning a critical eye on Symch.

'Well, er...' Goster shuffled uncertainly, stirring sand with the toe of his boot. The others waited patiently until he got an idea. 'I know, I can say when we got back from the digger accident, we found that the computer had caused the vat to shut down.'

'Why would it do that?' Symch asked, concerned that Goster was going to end up out-manoeuvring himself.

'Er, there was a malfunction. It wasn't growing right. Um. Inside, where you couldn't see.