Death Ship - SDD Five, Part Five

It took the rest of the day to interface the diagnostic unit to Raven’s main computer. The next day Valerie and the SPINTEL agents began the search. They queried the system for all references to the star system and portals. They found hundreds of references.
“Now what,” Valerie asked.
“Now we examine, prioritize, and graph.
The data began to form logical units. Alan came up with the first conclusion, “We must have twenty references to star systems, seven in human space, but bless me if I cam find a word about portal connections.”
“At least we were right about the portal in the Tau Ceti system.” Matt said.
“Yes,” Valerie said in frustration, “but where does it go, and where in the Tau Ceti system is it?”
“Aren’t there any references to transit or connections?” Matt asked.
“Nope,” Alan said, “not a one.”
“This is crazy,” Valerie said, “if they must travel through portals. The portals must connect.”
“Logically,” Matt said rubbing his chin, “if a transit system is going to work, there must be connections.”
“Remember,” Valerie said, “they travel instantly from on portal to another. They can afford to be inefficient.”
“But,” Alan said; “they can’t afford a great distance between the portals. It seems to me that if they wanted to go more than one place, that they would need more than one portal in each system.”
Matt questioned, “But there hasn’t been any indication that any of the systems have more than one portal. How the heck are they doing this?”
Valerie looked up at the two men, smiled and simply said, “A hub.”
“A hub,” Alan said; “my dear, you are smart as a whip. No wonder you are friends with Susannah. Let’s find references to hub and any similar word.”
It took only a second to get there answer. “There it is.” Matt announced, “They call it a transit cluster, and it’s probably where we should have expected it, in the void.”
“I should have realized that. The portal that Mr. Naponiello disabled was at the edge of the void. It must have been the closest one to this end of the void. We’ve got to alert the directorate at once.”

Captain Merriel just received the news from Valerie when Steve Delms knocked on his door. “Come in Steve. What do you have for me?”
“Well.” Steve began, “I tracked Corporal Jackson’s communications like you asked. He was pretty clever. He used the shuttle communication system to send messages and piggy backs the messages on some of our standard traffic to orbital control. A neat trick, but I’d seen it before.”
“So the corporal has been in active contact with is hard line friends.” the captain said.
“Yes sir, and from what I have deciphered, he may be up to his stripes in this entire plot. Shall we send security for him sir?”
“Not yet Steve; he may be of more use to us playing his game. Does he get any answers?”
“No Captain, it seems like a one way communication.”
“Can you repeat the crypto code he’s using?”
“No problem captain. It’s just a variation on one of the standard marine assault codes.”
“Excellent, our dear corporal just gave us a line for miscommunication. What have you found out so far?”
“Corporal Jackson seems to be sending them as much information as he can on the alien ship. From what he’s sending, I would guess that they are missing some critical data that would allow them to proceed.”
That brought a smile to the captain’s face. “Good.”

The three searchers completed their work and as Valerie reach for the communication switch, the system buzzed. Amy Zero’s voice came through the speaker. “Commander, Lieutenant Bort’s signal is indicating that he is leaving the planet.”
Valerie responded as she rose from her chair. “Find out where and how Amy, tell Steve to get the Captain to the bridge, we’re on our way.”

Scott walked onto the bridge of the Pegasus. He was greeted by the ship's security officer. "Welcome aboard the Pegasus Lieutenant. My name is Phil Baxter. I don't know if you remember, but we met at a tactical seminar that was held on board S.D.D. Victory a few years ago. I was security officer on the Yorkshire then.
"Yes I do." Scott said with a smile, "Captain Merriel was the executive officer on the Yorkshire at that time."
"Yes," Phil said,” served with Matthew Merriel on the Yorkshire, and I served with Linda Merriel when she was Captain of the Deliverer."
"Of course, "Scott said," you were with Linda Merriel during the first contact at the Solarian/Epsilon transfer station."
"That was one interesting rest period, that's for sure."
"So," Scott began to probe; "now you're in this game."
"Game Lieutenant?" Phil questioned, "We're just on our way to the mining colonies in the Tau Ceti system to pick up raw materials. That's our job transporting raw materials."
"And that's why you were expecting me." Scott said, "So I could help you transport raw materials."
It was now Phil's turn to smile, "Well some of the materials being transferred aren't so raw, and some reasons for transport are far more logical. I think you can agree with me on that, can’t you Lieutenant."
"Absolutely," Scott answered, "and call me Scott, I'm not on duty here."
"Oh you will be soon Scott. Please follow me. I think it’s about time you found out just what we need from you."
Scott followed Phil Baxter into a small room behind the bridge. There he was greeted by two women and another man, all directorate line officers. The sat down around an oval table. A view screen on the rear wall was the focus of attention. On the view screen was the alien ship sitting quietly in a dark area. It was clearly an enclosed space. "There it is." The senior officer said, "Just sitting there waiting to fulfill humanity's destiny. It just needs a little help from a friend Lieutenant, and that friend is you.
"I don't understand Commander," Scott said, "all that I know about that ship I put into my report when the ship was transferred to space dock. You have all of that data."
"Not quite," the second female officer spoke up, "our plan worked extremely well, but not to total perfection. In the process of denying the directorate data on the alien ship, we managed to deny some of to ourselves as well; a rather foolish blunder that has not gone unpunished. In any case we are missing one vital piece of data, and it's beginning to effect our timetable. We need to know how to activate the portals. We know it is part of helm control, but we don't know the initiation sequence. You studied this ship's helm control while you were onboard. You can help us in this manner."
"I did work with helm control," Scott said, "but helm was locked under the Captain's voice command and a digital code. As you know the captain of that ship was dead for over 150 years."
"We know that part," the senior officer said, "but you did some experiments after Dan Naponiello disabled the portal. You found out that once it requested a course correction, the captain's lock could be overridden. That's how we were able to take it out of the space dock. Come on Lieutenant, you're not stalling for some reason are you?"
"No Commander," Scott quickly answered, "I want to lay this bug on the Takelvee as much as you do, but just like your crew, my experience was only with the sub-light controls, and not with portal access."
"Well your experience with the alien ship should be helpful. Maybe your memory will be stimulated when you see the helm control again."
"I hope so Commander."
"So do we; Lieutenant. You will be in charge of getting the alien ship out of the rock it’s in and into Takelvee space by zero four hundred on the fifth. If this bucket keeps schedule, you should have thirty-two hours to achieve your task. This is not the directorate Lieutenant. If you fail in this task, we may consider your failure to be purposeful. We leave you to ponder the meaning of that. Your quarters are done the hall. Get as much rest while you can. Once you start working, I doubt that you will get any rest until your task is done."
"I'm not sure I have much more data that your own technicians have." Scott said as he backed toward the door, "they've done about everything that I've done."
"Except;" the male officer spoke up for the first time, "record the command sequence sent from the ship to the portal just before it was disabled. Lieutenant, your Corporal Jackson is a charter member of this group. This group was not just conceived by officers. I certainly hope it is just a poor memory that is hampering you. We fully expect your memory to clear up when you see the helm control again. Do I make myself clear Lieutenant?"
"Yes sir," Scott answered with a strong voice, "I’ll work it out."
Scott was dismissed and he headed for his quarters. Phil Baxter walked up beside Scott as he made is way down the passageway. “I was just informed that there is weak but steady signal being transmitted from somewhere on this ship. Whoever’s doing it better stop before it is localized.” Phil Baxter continued to walk past Scott as if he hadn’t spoken.
“Damn,” Scott said to himself. He made his way quickly to his quarters. Expecting surveillance, he jumped in the shower. Once there, he unfolded his key chain pocket knife and began to dig into his heal. “Oh man,” he said as he gritted his teeth, “they sure put that thing in deep.” A small stream of blood ran down the drain as Scott dipped into the incision with the tweezers part of his knife. Scott grabbed it, tossed it in the john, and flushed. Then he thought, “Well so much for SPINTEL tracking.”

When Valerie got to the bridge she heard Amy explaining the situation to Captain Merriel, “We were about the get a fix on the signal and it just went away. The signal was definitely off the planet, but we have no idea where.”
Valerie took a breath; then took her place on the bridge. Captain Merriel caught the look on her face as she passed. “Valerie,” he called to her.
“Yes Captain,” Valerie tried to be as business like as possible.
“Don’t worry Valerie, we’ll find him.”
“Thanks Captain.”