By David C. Daoust
Among the wide array of data streaming throughout Noreen’s domain, any number of functions were functioning, in time, as planned, all like clockwork. That’s not to say errors were not being thrown left and right. Pretty much if humans were in the mix, perfection is a thing best left to ideals. Among this very moment’s plethora of such errors, sudden departures from this clockwork, is the small collecting station Iopa XIX. A station located in the orbit of the Gas Giant Iopa… And considering the current political upheavals– a hotbed for such errors.
Among the errors, the small space-tanker that suddenly dislodged itself from its assigned dock.
To those within the station’s administration office, they should be completely up in arms that this craft, known as the Atlas, was no longer docked where it had been forced to. That is, if the young Danny Anders had not already circumvented standard protocol, blinding them, with a well-placed virus. At least, he thought of it as a virus. In reality, it was just an elaborately coded request, for which Noreen could either confirm or deny at her own discretion…
As the small ship reoriented itself, using small thrusts to aim itself up to where tank after tank were lined up and ready to be hauled away, nothing but droids swarmed the area. The many, many human workers, that manned the station, were currently in a down period. Part of a rotation common throughout the Onion; the hands-on workers stood down and droids came in to do maintenance. Any other time of day and the many mechanical tentacles, common to such stations, would be writhing around, coupling tanks, shifting tanks around… mostly just trying to look busy so their jobs weren’t threatened by cutbacks.
These ‘eel-like’ mecha protruded from the station itself, allowed them to pivot and move more readily than a vehicle that used small thrust-bursts to navigate the vacuum of space. The many mechanical eels were currently tucked within their holes, devoid of the human workers that manned them. Leaving only the droids, which most humans dismissed as mindless robots, floating about performing maintenance as the space-tanker passed.
The droids, in truth, were all Noreen. Unknown to most humans, it was Noreen that swarmed the area performing maintenance, like clockwork, throughout her entire domain.
The small ship would have been moving under the cover of complete darkness, if not for the single set of human eyes that had spotted the space-tankers departure. Noreen had suspected the heist would be stopped before it had even begun, to her surprise the watcher made no move to report the action…
Danny sat only half in the pilot’s chair, as the mechanical arm, that would shift the seat to where it was needed, currently bent back to allow Danny one boot down on the central platform, all while he gripped the controls- guiding the ship to its destination. In truth, this showed his nervousness for the action he was taking, and also his readiness to switch over to throwing his gear on, so he could get out and do what needed to be done, as quickly as possible.
Danny was filled with misgivings. His dissatisfaction suddenly erupted as he heard Rosie moving about below.
“We got this all mixed up…” Danny griped, “I should be on the station- hacking the release system, Dad should be up here flying this rig… how’d this get all mixed up?”
“Your father is not going to put you in harm’s way. That station is crawling with Constables… they’re known to be quick on the draw,” the tin voice of Rosie answered as her, much more slinky, human-form climbed up to join him on the central platform.
“What??” Danny only glanced back for a moment, but the shock registered, “I thought you said you only had your Moose form?”
“I never actually said that,” the lithe mechanical Aspirant shifted to an argumentative pose, as she explained, “Of course I brought my human form. I simply did not see a reason to represent myself as something I am not. Now though…” she took a moment to figure out what she wanted to say, “well, I can’t very well help you couple that tank as a moose! Now, can I?”
“Rosie, that’s not the plan,” Danny argued, “I don’t need help. I been coupling tanks since I was old enough to hold a wrench…” Danny’s nervousness showed through, making him irritable, “You’re the navigator. You should be in the ship-form! Not the human-form. Or the moose-form…”
“It will go twice as fast if I just get out and help,” Rosie argued, “Besides, if anything goes wrong, you might have to deal with one of those Eels… those things are made to move out there— you float around like a balloon!”
Arguments weren’t easily won with Rosie, Moose or no…
As the Atlas reached its target, Danny was suddenly too busy to argue. Setting the Atlas’ grappling arms to straddle the massive tank, he could feel it snap into place as his trajectory was spot on; Would that it were that easy! He needed to go out and actually secure the connection.
Danny popped out of the chair, quickly scooped up and dropped his helmet over his head; It sealed airtight once it was aligned correctly, his air tank immediately engaged. Danny made a few quick adjustments on the side terminal and hopped down to the lower Compartment… Making room for Rosie in the airlock, was as close to a concession as she was going to get.
As Danny and Rosie made their way out into space, Noreen had an eye on the disguised form of Pete Anders as well. The captain made his way past security and into the restricted areas of Iopa XIX. All in the aims of arriving on the other side of the targeted tank. At last, he had moved well enough away from the security kiosk that he felt he could drop back into a side door-well. He took a moment to collect himself. His hand went to his side, where the small handheld device still sat wedged in his beltline. He had thought the bulge would ruin the ploy. Fact was, the guards didn’t care. As long as that phony ID didn’t set off any alarms in the reader, the guards did not even bother looking up as he strode on by.
All of which would be optimal, if not for the snide young constable, that had been following the captain from the start. What, exactly, he was waiting for? Noreen could not be sure… she preferred to allow things to fall as they may.
Pete made his way into the loading arm. A long corridor, only broken up by a series of terminals planted in long intervals throughout. Each allowed direct access to the corresponding tanks locking mechanisms. Accessing here, would allow them to circumvent the administration office completely.
Pete counted each terminal under his breath as he passed. The long halls between were transparent, he actually ran ‘up’ the vertical cross section of the station, the bulbous tanks could be seen outside, blotting out much of the stars, despite having memorized its location, once he spotted the Atlas aligned with the proper tank, he knew, not only, that everything was going as planned, but that he was almost home free.
Pete whipped out the small handheld device from his beltline, and ran a direct line into the terminal.
Danny’s virus should do the rest…
No sooner had the locks released, then red lights began flashing throughout the corridors.
Alarms blared– unknown to the Captain of the Atlas, not only were these alarms going off everywhere within the station, but they were also caused by entirely different set of errors being thrown, left and right, from Noreen’s clockwork.
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