Hoodwinked!

Astraeus Earth Force Station, 2115 A.D.

 

            Kerchev busily punched codes into his computer. He formulated a virus that would seek out all Gremlins and kill them the next time they tried to replicate. When he finished the coding, he called Rourke, who had been impatiently pacing the room again.

            “Sir, I am ready with the virus!”

            Rourke stopped in his tracks. “Execute it!”

            Everyone in the Command Center turned in their seats, all eyes on Kerchev. They were silent, with the only sound emitting from the computer as the virus was sent. It felt like an eternity for Rourke as he held his breath. Seconds flew by, then the whole minute. He exhaled. Another couple of minutes passed. They were running out of time. He glanced at the clock. Four minutes until the Assarian captain began making demands again. An alarm sounded on the computer, startling everyone in the room.

            “What the hell was that?” Rourke asked as he hurried to Kerchev’s computer.

            “Not to worry, sir. The Gremlins are dead!”

            Everyone got to their feet and the entire room exploded into celebration -- whistles and chants, high-fives and fist bumps. Rourke patted Kerchev on the back and sighed, relieved that for the moment, everything was fine again.

            “How long until we can get the power back on?” he asked Brody.

            Brody sat back down at his terminal and began tapping away. “Give me just a couple of minutes, sir.”

            Within minutes, the Station buzzed with power. Kerchev and Brody checked all the systems, nodding to Rourke that everything was operational again. Satisfied, Rourke called Davies on the intercom.

            “Get that Assarian b*****d in the unloading bay. If he gives you an ounce of trouble, expel him!”

            “Will do, Commander!” Davies exclaimed and ended the call.

            After the celebration waned down, Rourke sent the techs and engineers back to their departments. He sat down at his desk, folded his arms on the table and put his head down. With the excitement over, the adrenalin he’d felt the last few hours had dwindled. He was exhausted. He lifted his head and sighed. He had no time for rest. He still had too much to do. He called up the computer.

            “Computer, put me through to Stony Brook University, Long Island New York, Earth.”

            Davies had filled Rourke in on the email that had been sent to the university. He needed to find out who received it and what it contained. Within moments, a voice came across the intercom.

            “Stony Brook University, Admissions Office. May I help you?”

            “Yes, Anthropology Department, please,” Rourke said, then waited as the line rang six times. Finally someone on the other end answered with just a curt hello.

            “Hello, this is Commander Jeremy Rourke of Astraeus Earth Force Station. Who am I speaking to?”

            “Did you say Earth Force Station? You are calling from the galaxy?” The male voice asked in a thick Middle Eastern accent.

            “Indeed, I am. And you are?” Rourke said, frustrated.

            The man coughed and then there was a moment of silence before he replied, “Oh, I am so sorry. I am Professor Ameed. Head of Anthropology. Can I help you?”

            “Professor, it’s about an email you may have received from my Station. Do you handle all the emails that come into your department’s queue?”

            Another moment of silence. Rourke surmised that there was a delay from his Station to Earth and calmed himself. It was obvious that the Professor wasn’t deliberately avoiding his questions.

            “My assistant handles emails, Commander. Shall I put her on the phone?”

            “Yes, please,” Rourke replied

            After another round of silence, a soft spoken English voice came over the line. “This is Emily Clarke. How can I assist you, Commander?”

            “Miss Clarke, there was an encrypted email sent from Astraeus Earth Force Station to your department’s queue yesterday. It is highly critical that I find out what is in that message. Have you received one?”

            “We just got back from a dig, sir. I haven’t had time to check emails yet. I will check now for you.” Her voice fell silent for a moment and then she replied, “Yes, sir. I have a message here. Just let me run it through the encryption software.”

            “Very well, thank you.”

            Seconds later, she once again spoke. “Sir, I think Professor Ameer should speak with you on this,” she said.

Rourke could hear her and the Professor speaking in the background, but he couldn’t understand their conversation. Then the Professor returned to the call.

“Commander, it is fortunate that you had us check this email. Normally, it would have been forwarded on without being unencrypted and that would have been a grave mistake in this case.”

“What’s in the email, Professor?”

“It says: Stolen artifacts have arrived. Will ship after confirmation. I still require half of the sales. Do not tell Professor Ameer. No one on my end knows.”

“Professor, I need two more bits of information. Who was the email sent to and is there a return address or named signed on the email?”

There was a long silence and then the Professor said, “It was sent to Professor Delany, she is my right-hand, Commander. I don’t believe she could be involved in stolen artifacts.”

“Professor, this is very important. Is there a return address or name?”

The Professor sighed. “No, no return address or name, Commander. But Professor Delany…” his voice trailed off.

“Professor, it looks like we’ve both been hoodwinked. Someone brought those stolen artifacts on my Station. We’ve confiscated them. You understand the seriousness of this, I am sure. You need to call Earth Gov and have Professor Delany brought in for questioning.”

“Yes, yes… I will contact the proper authorities immediately. Thank you for alerting us to this, Commander.” The Professor paused for another moment, said goodbye, and then ended the call.

Rourke stood up from his desk and walked the short distance to the viewing window. It was evening onboard the Station as the lighting began to dim. For the first time in years, he longed for an Earth sunset. He looked out into the vast darkness that surrounded him and let out a heavy sigh. It’d been at least a decade since he’d been home. Evelyn, his wife, had still been alive. He recalled their last vacation together in Hawaii, a night spent on the beach watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. Katie ran up and down the sand, still too young to fully understand that her mother was ill and dying. That day was forever etched into his mind. Three weeks later, Evelyn died in a hospital in New York, and after her funeral, Rourke returned to Astraeus. Katie refused to come with him and he had left her with her grandparents. In a little over three weeks, he would see Katie again. She’d grown into a beautiful young woman, so like her mother. So deep in thought, Rourke was startled when the computer interrupted his thoughts.

Reminder. Dinner with Ananda.

Thank goodness for computers, Rourke thought as he returned to his desk. He called Antonio’s Italian Eatery and confirmed his dinner reservation. Thankfully they’d recovered from the black-out and dinner was a go. He called Ananda and told her he would pick her up in thirty minutes.

 

Jeremy and Ananda sat across from one another with candles glowing between them as they sipped a red Arzanian wine similar to a fine Bordeaux from Earth. Jeremy loved this restaurant for its Old World charm, warm atmosphere and the quiet violin that played in the background. It reminded him of a small eatery in Venice where he had proposed to Evelyn, but he didn’t want to think about her now. He turned his focus to Ananda.  She was dressed in an embroidered pink Ghagra Choli with her black hair falling down her back. Jeremy had donned a black tux for the occasion. They rarely had opportunities to dress formally on the Station, both normally attired in their work uniforms. This was an even rarer treat for them. It had been weeks since they’d had a date.

“You look lovely tonight, Ananda,” Jeremy finally said after a long period of silence.

Ananda curled her soft pink lips into a broad smile. “And you look like a dapper prince, Jeremy,” she said in her soft Indian diction.

Jeremy returned the smile. He felt relaxed after the two glasses of wine. He stretched his hand out across the table and took hers. “I cannot begin to tell you how much I need this,” he whispered.

Ananda glanced down at their joined hands and then back up into Jeremy’s blue eyes. “It has been a hectic few weeks. We both need this.”

Jeremy nodded, the smile still upon his face. “Yes, it has been hectic, but I don’t like neglecting us this way. I know we both have our duties, but Ananda, we need to make more time for just the two of us,” he replied, massaging her hand with his thumb and forefinger.

“I couldn’t agree more, Jeremy.”

They stared for a long moment into one another’s eyes and then laughed together. The romance was lovely, but they still didn’t have that kind of relationship. They’d been on a few lunch dates, dinner occasionally and even kissed from time to time, but they were both practical people dedicated to their work. Jeremy released her hand and then lifted his glass of wine to her in a salute.

“To us, two lonely workaholics attempting a blossoming romance,” he said, clinking her glass.

Ananda laughed and took a sip of her wine. “Do you think we will ever get there?”

“Where?”

“A full blown romance with valentines and roses. Frankly, it doesn’t sound like either of us.”

“It will be whatever it will be, Ananda. I don’t think either of us are disillusioned about our relationship.”

“I agree. Still,” she began, looking at him with mischief in her eyes, “a girl has needs, you know.”

Jeremy smirked. “And so does a man. Perhaps after this bottle of wine, we can pursue that avenue of thought,” he said as he winked at her

Their dinners arrived and as they ate, they discussed the current storm of mishaps aboard the Station. Jeremy enjoyed sharing every day events with her. She had a keen intellect and her insights were invaluable to him.

“So you still have no idea who is behind all of this mess?” Ananda asked while lifting a fork of greens to her lips.

Jeremy wiped his mouth on his napkin and then replied, “Not really. There is one guy we are looking at that seems to be a good candidate. He is super smart and shouldn’t even be on this Station. Most of this began after he was hired. That’s why he is a suspect.”

“Can’t you just arrest him and interrogate him?”

“I want solid proof first. If we spook him and he has accomplices, then there is no telling what they might do.”

“Well I don’t think they can do much worse, what with nearly killing everyone on the Station today.”

Jeremy nodded. “True, but they already have blood on their hands. Whoever this person or people are, Ananda, they are stirring up quite a swarm… faulty equipment, stolen artifacts, that damn fruit, and then this black-out today…,” his words trailed off and he looked off into the distance for a moment before returning his gaze to Ananda. “Honestly, I don’t know how much more I can take.”

“You will catch them, Jeremy. If I know anything about you, it is that you always get your man.”

Jeremy nodded and gave her a slight smile. He was glad she had confidence in him. His own was waning.  They finished their dinner over lighter conversations, chatting about Katie’s upcoming visit and Ananda’s latest projects in Medic Labs. They were just about to begin dessert when Jeremy received a call over his link-in from Kerchev.

“Commander, I found something I think you need to see.”

Jeremy threw down his napkin and sighed. “Okay. I will be there in five.” He looked over at Ananda and shrugged. “Can I have a raincheck on those playful thoughts earlier?”

“Of course, go. I will see you tomorrow,” she said, a frown on her brow.

Jeremy stood, leaned over the table and kissed her, allowing his lips to linger for a moment. “Good night, my beautiful doctor,” he whispered.