The Light Blue Jumper Read online

  I marched him out of there as soon as I noticed he was preparing to speak.

  “We have come out empty-handed,” he whispered angrily as the door closed behind us.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, would you rather have come out dead?” I asked as we moved away from the door.

  “Wait. I have an idea,” he said as we walked towards the storage closet. We peered in and saw that the guards were still there, lying down obediently. Donning their helmets, we turned back and knocked on the General’s door. “If you’re housekeeping, I swear I will shoot you dead.”

  “Security detail, General,” Lethal mumbled.

  “Then do your job, outside! Why the hell are you knocking?” the General asked quite rightly.

  “There has been a breach of command quarters. Please let us come in and secure your private quarters,” he said.

  A bullet whizzed past my ear. “I do not need your help! Stand down before I have you court-martialled.” We immediately removed ourselves from the General’s door and huddled by the storage closet.

  “Let’s wait till she’s asleep. We’ll go in and abduct her,” I suggested.

  “Let’s blow the door away and get her then,” he offered in response.

  Suddenly the door to the General’s private quarters flew open. She emerged with a communicator in hand and started walking swiftly towards the exit, crooking a finger to tell us to follow. She led us outside to a waiting shuttle. “To the secret meeting spot we go!” she said as she indicated where we should sit. “Inform my ship to follow us,” she ordered base control through her comms.

  “You can remove your helmets now. There is a lot we need to discuss, Lethal and Dinaara,” she said as restraints clamped themselves around us in our seats.

  76. The General

  The secret meeting spot was a tiny abandoned space station owned by the Ministry of Commerce, with just enough space to house a few drab meeting rooms and offices. Possibly, the Minister of Commerce would find a task for Lethal and Dinaara to do. I looked over at them and smiled in anticipation. They would soon wish they had shot each other on my command.

  I docked the shuttle and marched through the deserted compound with Lethal and Dinaara in my wake. I raised my right hand skywards in salute as we went through the door, looking back at my prisoners so I could enjoy their expressions when they saw what was inside. I noted with approval that they were looking past me in shock. It was to be expected. Even I was star-struck the first time I had the privilege of meeting someone from the Council.

  But I found myself standing face to face with a squat, light blue creature, like a puffed up balloon, with tiny squinty eyes. “Identify yourself!” I commanded the Zaaronian. This one seemed familiar, but it was so difficult telling them apart. There should be a law requiring ID tags for all the inner rim species. There would be; I would make one.

  “I am Zaaro of the house Nian. I have been in the service of the IPF as a prime weapons developer for much time,” he said.

  “I am here to meet the Minister of Commerce. I am not interested in meeting you, traitor.” So that’s why he seemed familiar, he had run off with the executable codes for the Zaaronian missiles. I was quite sure I had ordered his elimination. The codes he had absconded with were useless without my password, but it was the principle of the thing.

  “He is no longer a traitor. We have re-recruited him. Strangely enough, it is you the Minister is not interested in meeting. He has received information that you have defected to the rebels and are working covertly to sabotage the IPF’s long-term plans.” It was my head of security, Colonel Bob, speaking. How strange. I hadn’t noticed he was there. I hadn’t seen him leave the ship. And what did he mean?

  “How dare you speak to me in that tone?” Outraged, I still answered the question, in case the whole set-up was a test and the Minister was listening to our exchange. “I have never worked against the interests of the empire, I mean, democracy,” I hastily corrected myself, lest I caused offence.

  “I act for the Council. I speak for the Council. I am the Council. I interrogate for the Council. You are hereby on trial for crimes against the IPF. Prove your innocence and you will be honourably reinstated.”

  “What are the charges against me?” I asked, fear writhing in the pit of my stomach. I had heard of vicarious information extraction before, and he was standing terribly straight. “I am a faithful servant. I have carried out all Council commands as directed,” I said.

  “For instance?” he asked.

  “I am not at liberty to disclose state secrets,” I told him, avoiding the question in case it was a trap.

  “Explain how and why your secret password is no longer secret,” he continued. “The Zaaronian missile launch sequence has been compromised.”

  “I have seen to it personally that my password to the launch sequence is kept secure. In fact, I can guarantee it,” I told him.

  “The rebels have gained control over the missiles.” He held out a remote console. “They have locked us out. Care to explain that?” Colonel Bob asked.

  “You have been misinformed, I will demonstrate,” I said, as I whipped out my handheld detonator, punched in my password and accessed the launch sequence. “All systems ready to launch,” came the satisfactory reply. I looked up smugly to see my expression mirrored in Colonel Bob’s face, which hastily turned apologetic. He spoke again, “It appears there has been a misunderstanding. The Council allows you to proceed with whatever you were doing,” he finished lamely.

  I looked around for my captives but they seemed to have been relocated. The blue creature had also slunk out of the room. If the Council had been controlling him too, he must have taken Dinaara and Lethal to their sorry fate. I nodded at my worthless underling to follow me. He got up obediently and fell into step. “Sorry about all that, not that I remember anything,” he said hastily, “I was under mind control.”

  I believed him when he said he was being controlled. It explained his perfect posture and his uncharacteristic eloquence. But I responded with a withering glance, out of sheer force of habit.

  77. Zaaro Nian

  “Salaar, are you in position?” I asked, as I sped away from the abandoned space station in the shuttle the General had arrived in. Dinaara and Lethal had used the platform on board to beam themselves onto a passing hospital ship. We had heard excited chatter on all frequencies about the miraculous healing abilities of a good doctor aboard that sounded very like The Good Doctor.

  “I’m in position,” he confirmed.

  The password was saved on the remote signal logger the minute it was entered by the General on her handheld detonator. Now we could begin Operation Lock Out.

  “I’m starting the lock out procedure. Are Dinaara and Lethal secure?” he asked.

  “Yes. They have escaped; they are on a hospital ship they think The Good Doctor might be on. We can retrieve them later. The General has taken Colonel Bob with her though,” I said.

  “He will be back soon enough. I have never met anyone who comes and goes as easily as he does. What about Madam and The Good Doctor?” he asked.

  “We have no contact with them,” I reported sadly.

  “I will find them, don’t worry. Now let’s begin the lock out to announce our control.”

  “General 1.2.3,” I enunciated clearly for Salaar.

  “You’re serious? That’s the General’s password?” He seemed impressed.

  “Yes,” I answered with equal enthusiasm. “It’s got more than seven characters with letters and numbers. I thought it was a good one too.”

  Suddenly there was a loud explosion. The shuttle swung alarmingly then came to a jarring halt. Had Salaar accidentally launched the missiles at the abandoned station rather than simply used the password to change the launch sequence? He could have warned me if he decided to destroy a place while I was still within its gravitational pull.

  I ran out to investigate and volunteer my services to help the injured, if there were any. It was prudent
to make sure. Adding to my sense of altruism was the fact that part of the shuttle was ablaze at the time.

  I ran smack into Salaar who looked as taken aback as I was.

  “What in the worlds?” he asked, perplexed.

  “How did you get to here so quickly?” I asked in turn, my words tumbling over each other.

  He reached out a hand and steadied me. “I was about to ask you the same question.”

  “I didn’t get anywhere. I was trying to leave,” I said kindly, in short simple sentences for his benefit.

  “You did leave. I mean you have left,” he said, totally off the mark.

  “Well, obviously not,” I said, patiently.

  “Look around, Zaaro, you’re at Weapons Control on Zaaron.”

  “That’s impossible.” I did as requested and realised that Salaar was right. Somehow, I had flown straight into the glass and steel, thirty story tall Weapons Control Building on Zaaron. I felt a rush of warmth for the beautifully appointed megastructure that was like a second home to me. “Maybe the shuttle malfunctioned when you blew up the space station?” I voiced my immediate thoughts.

  “That could be plausible, except for the fact that I didn’t blow up the space station, or anything else for that matter. I didn’t launch the missiles,” he said.

  “Then why is part of the shuttle on fire, pray tell?” I was getting tired of stating the obvious.

  He seemed to have come to a realisation. “I know exactly what happened. I had imagined this very differently, with a lot more preamble, but this will have to do. Allow me to explain. You were fired upon by an IPF security patrol while leaving, which is why part of your shuttle caught fire. I’m not done,” he said when I started to interrupt. “You jumped out of danger, because you are the one, you are the Jumper! But this time you brought the shuttle along with you, and you came to a place that you were thinking about, which means your powers are getting stronger!” He looked at me expectantly, waiting for a reaction.

  “Thank you Salaar, you have given me a lot to think about,” I said politely. How many times was he going to give me the You have the power speech? It was getting a little tiresome now.

  Personally, I still thought my theory about shuttle malfunction made a lot more sense, Salaar probably hadn’t realised he had launched the missiles and blown up the space station.

  78. Lieutenant Salaar (Flashback)

  I grabbed the fire extinguisher and doused the fire in the shuttle. We had our escape vehicle thanks to Zaaro. Now all we had to do was to locate Madam and The Good Doctor, rescue them, exit Zaaron, locate Dinaara and Lethal, rescue them as well, and rendezvous with the Second Light. So far, this mission was proving to be a lot easier than I had expected. When we set off from the rebel ship, I had thought the mission could go either way. We could land on Zaaron and get killed, or we could land on Zaaron, get tortured first, and then killed.

  After the others had beamed down outside the perimeter around the Convention Centre, Zaaro kept the Second Light in orbit while I beamed myself directly into the Weapons Control Building with his executable codes for the missiles. I then hid myself within data range of the missile launch room and waited for a signal from him, in order to reset the password and launch sequence. Our only hope for getting the password to the launch sequence was for Lethal and Dinaara to force it out of the General. From what I’d heard about her, I was highly sceptical about their success.

  It was while I was waiting that I overheard one of the security officers, a sergeant to be precise, telling another officer something about the General and a mop and pail. I realised that we could access the General’s communications frequency from Weapons Control. It was then that the plan formed in my mind for obtaining the password from her without using force.

  I thought if we could make her believe she was talking to the Council, she would probably volunteer the information. I tackled the sergeant and tied him up in a corner, wresting his comms device away from him. He looked horror-struck as I tapped into the General’s personal frequency. A curt voice squawked “What?” almost immediately.

  “General?” I checked timidly.

  “Who else do you think would answer my personal comms! Rank and badge number!” she commanded.

  My captive gibbered in terror through his gag as I read his rank and badge number to her. I began to understand why when she detailed what she was going to do to him with the mop and pail they both seemed obsessed with. “It’s urgent!” I interrupted, “It’s the Council.”

  “What about them?” she asked.

  “I’ve decoded a private message to the head of security forces, ordering your arrest,” I improvised.

  “I am the head of security forces, fool.”

  “I just rechecked, my apologies, it says, head of security with a tiny two next to it. They are planning to arrest you,” I told her.

  “Obviously a misunderstanding. I will sort it out with the Council. I have to present a report on the success of the Peace Convention to them anyway. I think I will also present them with Lethal and Dinaara at the secret meeting spot as a gesture of goodwill.” She seemed to be talking to herself now. Her tone had become far more respectful.

  I signalled Zaaro next.

  “The General is going to a secret meeting. Can you follow her?” I asked. “Also, I need you to open my bunk cabinet, take out the remote signal logger you’ll find inside, turn it on, and get close enough to the General to eavesdrop on her conversations,” I said.

  “I would have to be within a certain range for one of those old things to work. Let me see what I can do. I hope you know that is unethical, though.”

  “I understand. Somehow, I will survive the guilt,” I assured him.

  I paused to take stock. I had sent Zaaro along with Dinaara and Lethal, with the General, to a secret meeting place. We still did not have the password. Zaaro was going to improvise. I sighed and sat down to commiserate life’s failures with the sergeant.

  79. Zaaro Nian (Flashback)

  On Salaar’s instructions, I kept the Second Light behind the IPF ship following the General’s shuttle, but I had to maintain distance to avoid being discovered; distance that prohibited correct usage of the remote signal logger even after I had tinkered with it. How would I get close enough to eavesdrop?

  Then I heard Colonel Bob’s voice crackle over the ship’s transceiver, broadcasting from the IPF carrier on all frequencies.

  “Mechanic required. Hyperdrive malfunction. Paging all mechanics in the vicinity.”

  I was no mechanic, but fixing a hyperdrive malfunction was so basic I could manage it in my sleep. In fact, it was one of my favourite relaxation exercises when I found it hard to wind down after a full day. I decided to answer the page while brainstorming how to get closer to the General and was immediately assisted on board the IPF ship.

  Trying to be inconspicuous, I shuffled in, playing the part of the archetypal mechanic. I tinkered with the hyperdrive, deliberately slowing my work. I did decide to speed up though when I realised that they needed the hyperdrive to get to the meeting spot. If only there was a way for me to stay on board while they jumped.

  “All done,” I told Colonel Bob, while trying to catch his eye.

  “Perhaps we had better test it with you on board to make sure there are no glitches,” he said without showing any reaction. I was deeply offended by his poor assessment of my competence.

  “I can assure you there is no need. My work is impeccable,” I told him, bristling.

  “It is standard protocol,” he said, a trifle apologetically.

  True to my word, I had fixed the hyperdrive, and we landed shortly. I was hoping to have a word with Colonel Bob about his management style, but he marched out. I decided to follow, so I could apprise him of asset management best practices before he needed another mechanic. It seemed very quiet wherever we were, almost as if it was abandoned. I followed him through a side door into an empty office of sorts. He stopped before another door, expectantly.
I had just opened my mouth to speak – I had decided to begin by introducing myself as it seemed he hadn’t recognised me – when it opened.

  The General marched in with Dinaara and Lethal behind her. I could do little else but remain frozen to the spot. I remembered too late that I was supposed to be a mechanic; when she asked me for my rank and designation, I told her the truth. It seemed she had little idea who I was, even after I had introduced myself. I felt more than a bit annoyed when she didn’t react. Strangely enough, she then started speaking to Colonel Bob about passwords. I took the opportunity to listen in, turning my back to the General as the remote signal logger was in my back pocket. When I noticed Lethal and Dinaara were sneaking out, I sneaked out too.

  80. Madam X

  Alarms started sounding as we were trying to reach the exit gates. Zaaron was in lockdown. I looked over jubilantly at the The Good Doctor. The others had managed it! Somehow they had completed the mission, barring, for the moment, our escape.

  “Salaar and Zaaro must be at Weapons Control. It is up to us now to get them out. Dinaara and Lethal probably have the General somewhere safe by now, so we will wait for them to make contact.” I urged The Good Doctor to hurry.

  “Where is Weapons Control though?” The Good Doctor asked as we ran.

  It was a pertinent question. “Well, there wouldn’t be any signs identifying it, and they would try to make it look inconspicuous,” I paused and looked around. “There it is!” I shouted as we changed direction and started running towards the only unmarked building we could see, it was a squat grey cement structure, the kind of building that could have housed anything.

  It was an employment agency. After several similar attempts, we had traversed a school, a hospital and a pharmaceutical company, all constructed out of the same drab grey cement, which seemed like a staple multi-purpose design on the planet.