chapter 8
The Planning Stage
One morning, if it was morning, James could not tell as his body clock was no longer properly ticking, he was standing in the docking bay of the space station. Mede and Isto’s ship was nowhere to be seen, but there were others parked throughout the bay. Big ones, small ones, oddly shaped ones and cool looking ones.
Many were made of the same crystalline material the space station was made of and in a variety of different designs. But one in particular had caught his attention. It was by far the coolest, sleekest space ship James had ever seen outside of a sci-fi film.
What if I could fly that out of here? He thought.
Hang on you don’t know how to fly a space ship! He also reasoned.
Then someone shouted at him to get back to work, and he scurried off to continue his cleaning, with the thought of having his own space ship rolling around inside his expanded brain.
On another day while using the Mouss he found out exactly who would fly the ship for him. While standing in one of the corridors of the ship cleaning away a slimy trial left by some alien, James heard a snippet of crucial information.
He was in a cross sectioned corridor and one of the four sections led a short distance to a large door. It could only be opened with a password keyed in on a pad, like one you would see at a cash point. This was one of the sections of the ship James was not allowed to go into, even to clean.
The guards weren’t there watching over him. Colmash had informed him that eventually the station’s internal sensors adjusted to his unique biological signature and then track him everywhere he goes, there was no need for guards they knew where he was to within five metres. The only time guards were with him was when he and then other slaves needed to clean the computer core, a high security area.
While James was cleaning the floor wiping away the slimy trail left by some alien, the door to the off limits section opened. Two aliens walked out of a lab of some sort, behind them James could see a lot of chemicals boiling away in vats and huge computers running experiments.
One alien was a pink blob. The other one was a tall, thin, blue alien with four stubby legs and a mass of tentacles for hair. It held a tray on which sat a large green egg. It didn’t have a shell like a chicken’s egg, instead growing on it were thin stringy fibres as if it was the cocoon for a large insect.
The door to the lab closed behind the two aliens and the pink blob locked it with a password.
They walked towards James not paying him any attention. He just gazed down at his work flicking a glance out of the corner of his eye every so often.
As the aliens talked to each other in a slow droning language, that James had no trouble understanding, he overheard something very interesting.
‘This new computer core, what ship is it being installed in?’ the blue, thin alien said.
Computer core???? James’ brain repeated fixating on the familiar word.
‘The Wersp, which belongs to Gany and Call,’ the pink blob responded.
‘I hate those two, so pompous just because they are scouts, they act like they get their orders from Zenoduros himself,’ the blue one said.
James listened to their conversation with interest, especially when the word ship was mentioned. He also wondered who this Zenoduros was.
‘They don’t deserve this computer core,’ the blue alien said.
‘I’m not so sure, with their awful piloting skills they’ll need it,’ the pink one said and both aliens laughed hysterically. ‘I hear they got lost and wandered into a nebula expanse near the Long World. Zenoduros had to send a capital ship to rescue them,’ and the two aliens laughed even harder and moved out of earshot.
James had heard enough regardless, whatever that egg the aliens had been carrying was, it was capable of piloting a ship. When he was sure the aliens were gone James propped his Mouss against the wall and went over to the door. He tried the controls on the keypad, but nothing happened.
The pad was oval and filled with buttons, although he knew the numbers he had no idea what the password was. He thought back to when the aliens had locked the door. Thankfully his enhanced memory told him that the pink alien had done so with a five digit password, but the key pad had ten buttons on it, the number of combinations was huge, how could he possibly get in?
He then realised that as he thought about this particular conundrum there was strange feeling in his head. It wasn’t a headache it was inside his skull, inside his brain. To James’ utter delight his expanded mind did all the work for him. As he thought about a possible combination for the door in his mind, a huge list suddenly compiled itself. He couldn’t believe it, his enhanced brain had figured out every possible combination for him.
He immediately started trying every single one.
James said a quiet thank you to Mede and Isto for making a mistake and giving him a brain like this, which could do such clever things.
Unfortunately despite having a huge brain it couldn’t tell him the password only possible combinations numbering in the thousands, millions maybe. As he stood there trying every single one listed for him he heard the pink and blue aliens returning. James got back to his Mouss and continued cleaning before the aliens found him trying to break into a restricted area.
They continued to pay him no attention to him and went back into the lab.
James tried to see the password from where he was, but the aliens obscured the key pad, he only saw one symbol. It helped though, knowing one symbol significantly reduced the potential possible combinations.
And so it was over the course of few days James went back to the corridor taking scenic routes between his cell and where he was meant to be cleaning in order to try a few more combinations.
The two thousandth four hundred and twenty ninth combination opened the door.
James waited at the threshold of the room. He knew that if he stepped one inch into the lab the tracking system might alert someone.
He instead peered into the lab trying to gauge as much information as he could.
On a table in the centre of the room were trays, each one with an egg on it sitting in a little bit of green liquid. There were fifteen of them and there were no aliens in the room what so ever.
He knew that the eggs were called computer cores, but he had no idea how it performed that function or could fly a ship for him. He looked around the lab. He had to find out more about the cores, if they could pilot a ship, he felt certain he could escape.
He noticed for the first time a computer on the far side of the room.
Text was scrolling down its screen as the computer processed information and performed experiments.
He had no time to read it properly the aliens would probably be back at any minute so he stared at the computer screen trying to focus on the words, letting his memory take it all in so he could think about it all later.
●
As the pink blob and the thin blue alien walked down the corridor heading towards their lab, James casually walked right past them.
‘Hello,’ he said cheerfully, but the aliens just ignored him.
James wandered away smiling, he had got all the information he wanted for his escape plan.
Many were made of the same crystalline material the space station was made of and in a variety of different designs. But one in particular had caught his attention. It was by far the coolest, sleekest space ship James had ever seen outside of a sci-fi film.
What if I could fly that out of here? He thought.
Hang on you don’t know how to fly a space ship! He also reasoned.
Then someone shouted at him to get back to work, and he scurried off to continue his cleaning, with the thought of having his own space ship rolling around inside his expanded brain.
On another day while using the Mouss he found out exactly who would fly the ship for him. While standing in one of the corridors of the ship cleaning away a slimy trial left by some alien, James heard a snippet of crucial information.
He was in a cross sectioned corridor and one of the four sections led a short distance to a large door. It could only be opened with a password keyed in on a pad, like one you would see at a cash point. This was one of the sections of the ship James was not allowed to go into, even to clean.
The guards weren’t there watching over him. Colmash had informed him that eventually the station’s internal sensors adjusted to his unique biological signature and then track him everywhere he goes, there was no need for guards they knew where he was to within five metres. The only time guards were with him was when he and then other slaves needed to clean the computer core, a high security area.
While James was cleaning the floor wiping away the slimy trail left by some alien, the door to the off limits section opened. Two aliens walked out of a lab of some sort, behind them James could see a lot of chemicals boiling away in vats and huge computers running experiments.
One alien was a pink blob. The other one was a tall, thin, blue alien with four stubby legs and a mass of tentacles for hair. It held a tray on which sat a large green egg. It didn’t have a shell like a chicken’s egg, instead growing on it were thin stringy fibres as if it was the cocoon for a large insect.
The door to the lab closed behind the two aliens and the pink blob locked it with a password.
They walked towards James not paying him any attention. He just gazed down at his work flicking a glance out of the corner of his eye every so often.
As the aliens talked to each other in a slow droning language, that James had no trouble understanding, he overheard something very interesting.
‘This new computer core, what ship is it being installed in?’ the blue, thin alien said.
Computer core???? James’ brain repeated fixating on the familiar word.
‘The Wersp, which belongs to Gany and Call,’ the pink blob responded.
‘I hate those two, so pompous just because they are scouts, they act like they get their orders from Zenoduros himself,’ the blue one said.
James listened to their conversation with interest, especially when the word ship was mentioned. He also wondered who this Zenoduros was.
‘They don’t deserve this computer core,’ the blue alien said.
‘I’m not so sure, with their awful piloting skills they’ll need it,’ the pink one said and both aliens laughed hysterically. ‘I hear they got lost and wandered into a nebula expanse near the Long World. Zenoduros had to send a capital ship to rescue them,’ and the two aliens laughed even harder and moved out of earshot.
James had heard enough regardless, whatever that egg the aliens had been carrying was, it was capable of piloting a ship. When he was sure the aliens were gone James propped his Mouss against the wall and went over to the door. He tried the controls on the keypad, but nothing happened.
The pad was oval and filled with buttons, although he knew the numbers he had no idea what the password was. He thought back to when the aliens had locked the door. Thankfully his enhanced memory told him that the pink alien had done so with a five digit password, but the key pad had ten buttons on it, the number of combinations was huge, how could he possibly get in?
He then realised that as he thought about this particular conundrum there was strange feeling in his head. It wasn’t a headache it was inside his skull, inside his brain. To James’ utter delight his expanded mind did all the work for him. As he thought about a possible combination for the door in his mind, a huge list suddenly compiled itself. He couldn’t believe it, his enhanced brain had figured out every possible combination for him.
He immediately started trying every single one.
James said a quiet thank you to Mede and Isto for making a mistake and giving him a brain like this, which could do such clever things.
Unfortunately despite having a huge brain it couldn’t tell him the password only possible combinations numbering in the thousands, millions maybe. As he stood there trying every single one listed for him he heard the pink and blue aliens returning. James got back to his Mouss and continued cleaning before the aliens found him trying to break into a restricted area.
They continued to pay him no attention to him and went back into the lab.
James tried to see the password from where he was, but the aliens obscured the key pad, he only saw one symbol. It helped though, knowing one symbol significantly reduced the potential possible combinations.
And so it was over the course of few days James went back to the corridor taking scenic routes between his cell and where he was meant to be cleaning in order to try a few more combinations.
The two thousandth four hundred and twenty ninth combination opened the door.
James waited at the threshold of the room. He knew that if he stepped one inch into the lab the tracking system might alert someone.
He instead peered into the lab trying to gauge as much information as he could.
On a table in the centre of the room were trays, each one with an egg on it sitting in a little bit of green liquid. There were fifteen of them and there were no aliens in the room what so ever.
He knew that the eggs were called computer cores, but he had no idea how it performed that function or could fly a ship for him. He looked around the lab. He had to find out more about the cores, if they could pilot a ship, he felt certain he could escape.
He noticed for the first time a computer on the far side of the room.
Text was scrolling down its screen as the computer processed information and performed experiments.
He had no time to read it properly the aliens would probably be back at any minute so he stared at the computer screen trying to focus on the words, letting his memory take it all in so he could think about it all later.
●
As the pink blob and the thin blue alien walked down the corridor heading towards their lab, James casually walked right past them.
‘Hello,’ he said cheerfully, but the aliens just ignored him.
James wandered away smiling, he had got all the information he wanted for his escape plan.
