CHAPTER 20
August 25, 2089
The Space Force cruiser Northcutt had been docked to the Samaritan for several hours. Ray looked out the porthole of the guest quarters he’d acquired before the cruiser had left orbit at Mars. The ship looked bigger to him now than it did with the Moon hanging behind it. The large interstellar ship stretched beyond the limits of the porthole in all directions. Ray pulled the diplomatic pouch from his things and cycled the combination lock and the thumb-print scanner. The case clicked and he slid it open carefully.
He couldn’t help but smile while shuffling through the various security badges, ID data cards, and other “tools of the trade” within it. He picked up one digital badge card with his picture on it that stated he was Raymond Simms from the Space Press Corps. He touched the back of the badge with his thumb and it shimmered slightly, giving off a digital blue and red flash. The card reconfigured into a blank white card with no information displayed on it.
“Mimi,” he whispered to his AI data assistant. “Activate Ray Gaines ID.”
“Identification for State Department Attaché Ray Gaines is activated,” a soft female voice replied. The data card in his hand shimmered and showed an image of him in a blue suit and red tie wearing black horn-rimmed glasses.
“Ah yes,” he said to himself. “The glasses. Almost forgot.”
Ray rummaged through the things in the case until he found a small case of glasses. He mused at them. Nobody actually needed glasses for eyesight impairments any longer. Implants and various treatments had solved all of those problems. But many people wore glasses as interfaces, heads-up displays, and connectivity. Ray used these glasses for all of those, but mainly they made him look like a different person. He had contact lenses for other identity purposes.
He tapped the rim of the glasses on the right side, bringing up a virtual three-dimensional environment desktop in front of him. He shuffled through several icons until he found the folder he was looking for. He tapped the air before him effortlessly and the file opened up into a virtual diagram of the Samaritan.
“Mimi, find the most out-of-the-way path to the starboard gamma ray telescope,” he said softly.
“There are several paths to the starboard gamma ray telescope.”
“Can you open the ship’s interior cameras for me and then identify paths with no other personnel in them?” He waited patiently.
“Yes, there are two. I have highlighted them for you.”
“Thank you, Mimi. Now I’m going to take this path.” He touched one of the ones before him and it lit up with a light purple hue. “Please hold the cameras as I pass. Stealth-mode algorithm.”
“Understood, Ray, but note, there is someone approaching your door.”
“Very well. Who?” He waited for Mimi to access the face recognition algorithms, AI ID tracking system, and other shipboard systems that would identify crew members.
“Ambassador Charles Jesus, the ship’s political officer,” Mimi replied.
“Well, I’m sure Ray Gaines isn’t in the least reminiscent in appearance as Raymond Simms. And politicians shake a million hands all the time. I’m sure he will not recall me. Just in case, I’ll be prepared to take actions.”
* * *
“Yes, Mr. Gaines, this is really the first we’ve heard about this.” Ray listened to the woman, a Dr. Lorraine Gilster according to Mimi, explain her whereabouts over the past few days. Of course, Ray knew who she was, everybody on Earth knew who she was, but he had to act the part of the curious investigator. The woman continued. “Captain Crosby mentioned there was a glitch with the PINS, but that he had it under control. Charles, what’s this all about?”
“Rain, don’t worry about it. The captain has authorized me to tell everyone what has happened and why we have had two vessels dock with us in the last few days,” Charles Jesus started saying. Ray let him go. “A few days back the CHENG and one of the astrogation techs noticed there was a slight problem with the pulsar nav-system thing. At that point they reached out to the test engineer Dr. Roy Burbank, who just happened to be on a Samaritan fly-by cruise vacation so they brought him onboard to help. It turns out they found evidence of sabotage.”
“What?” Rain and several of the other scientists Charles had gathered in the galley all gasped and started jabbering back and forth. Ray noted the chaos that could be instigated, but he wasn’t sure if it were the right way to go—yet. So, he let them go on. But the ambassador didn’t.
“Hold on! Hold on!” Charles held up his hands palms outward. “It’s all under control and been fixed. There’s a team of US Space Force experts here now sweeping the ship for anything else, and Mr. Gaines here has been asked to do interviews. None of you are suspects. In fact, it’s pretty clear that whoever did this did it a long time ago. We’re just collecting as much data as possible while we are still in the system and they can.”
“So, as you were saying, Dr. Gilster,” Ray interrupted. “Please, the first time you were on the ship was when?”
“A week or so before we left lunar dock,” Gilster replied. “Like most of us that chose to stay awake for the first bit of the trip.”
“Most of us?” Ray asked although he knew the answer.
“Mr. Gaines, if I may,” Charles inserted himself back into the conversation.
“By all means, Ambassador.”
“Only about ten or so of the crew chose to stay awake for the trip out toward Mars and then for the main step-up sequence of the Samara Drive,” Charles explained. “The rest of the crew are already in cryosleep.”
“I see.” Ray nodded. “And once they are in sleep, how long does it take them to be awakened?”
“About ten minutes or so. Although I hear you still feel a bit hungover for the first day,” one of the other scientists added. Ray looked at him and ENRICO VULPETTI appeared in his HUD view.
“I see.”
Ray continued his investigation for about thirty more minutes or so and then decided that he’d done enough to fill his cover duties. Once during the conversation, Charles Jesus did make the comment that Ray seemed familiar to him and wondered if he’d ever been at the UN building. Ray brushed it off as if he just had one of those faces.
“I get that all the time,” he said.