Before Dobbins could say anything, the old man motioned for them to follow him. He led them through a door into a large room with a low-ceiling. The room seemed cold and damp, lit dimly by LEDs recessed in the ceiling. The room felt old, indeed ancient, as if it had been there forever. It almost seemed to Dobbins like the room smelled moldy, like the basement of an ancient house. Surely that was his imagination, though. The designers of the Lethe had not gone so far as to add actual mold to basements just to make them seem old, did they?
The old man, Leon the Watchmaker, nodded to himself and spoke. “It’s safe, now. We can talk here. It’s a good thing for you that I happened to see you turn down that alley from upstairs. It’s obvious to me that you are from an Earth ship. Perhaps my distress call has indeed been answered! Who are you? What ship are you from? How long have you been traveling to catch us?”
“I am Captain Christopher Dobbins of the Earth Ship Hyperion,” Dobbins replied. “We were sent here by Fleet Com to assist you all on your trip to Elysion. We caught up with your ship a day or so ago and have been trying to figure out what has happened since. We tried to talk to Captain Loman, but we couldn’t. And when we came on board, we were detained by security androids who called themselves Enforcers. Do you know where Captain Loman is? And who are you?”
“One question at a time, young man,” replied Leon. “I’ve been around quite a few years now, and my memory’s not what it used to be.
“To answer your second question, I’m Leon Sapens, and I’m the Chief Engineer of the Lethe, or at least I was until the mutiny ten years ago. I can see from the look on your face that I need to explain more. Let me see, where to start. Oh, yes. The first part of our journey was quite enjoyable. Everything was running fine and most days, we forgot that we were on board a starship. It felt like we were in a small town. We even decided to name it ‘Larson,’ just to give it a more homey feel, you know.
“But about ten years ago, this man named Desmond, the first officer, decided that he wanted to take over. He commandeered the Control Center, took control of all of the androids somehow, and then proceeded to take us all in for a ‘health check,’ which was really a way to brainwash all of us into believing that we were the only town that had survived a worldwide nuclear holocaust. Everywhere outside of this ship (or valley, as they called it) was said to be so radioactive as to make a person crazy within minutes. And anytime anyone started to cause trouble or agitate, they were said to be ‘Radioactive,’ and taken to the Security Center for ‘detoxification.’
“Well, as you can imagine, the end result is that this Desmond, who claims to be the son of Captain Loman, even though Loman had no son, is in charge, now. Everyone who resists his authority is quickly and swiftly dealt with.”
“How did you manage to escape ‘reprogramming?’ ” asked Commander Ella.
“Just by being clever, missy,” replied the old engineer. “When they started taking people in for this ‘health check,’ it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize what was going on. Several people tried to resist, but they were all taken in, one-by-one. I was one of the last, whether it was because of my age or just random, I don’t know. All I know is that I got to hear enough of the official line from those who had been brainwashed to know what to say, and I did a little quick re-programming of their database to make sure that I was listed as already having been taken in.
“After a few weeks, once the takeover was complete, I tried to gain access to the hyperwave array. Unfortunately, one of the androids working in the Control Center must have detected my access attempts, because before I could do anything, the array was disabled, turned off from inside the Control Center. I did manage, though, to gain access to internal communications and use it to send a radio message back to Earth. I assume that you came in response to my radio message.”
“We never received any radio message,” replied Dobbins. “We must have jumped passed the radio wave’s location in space, because we never detected it.”
“So, jump drive has been adapted to serve on ships, huh?” said Leon. “It’s about time! It would’ve been nice to have had that form of propulsion 13 years ago.”
“It’s been a little more than 13,” Skylar broke in.
“Oh, right,” responded Leon. “I forgot about time dilation. Anyway, however long it’s been, the important thing is that you’re here. Now, maybe, we can get free of the control of Desmond and get everyone to Elysion.”
“How do you propose we do that?” asked Dobbins.
“Well, now, let me think,” answered the old man. “As long as those androids are out looking for you, we can’t do much because you’ll be arrested on sight. So, we’ve got to find a way to shut down all of the security androids. As far as I know, the only way to do that is from the Control Center. There’s an emergency shutoff sequence that we can initiate from there that will disable all of the androids. Of course, only Captain Loman could do that, and as far as I know, he’s either locked away or dead. The androids took him away, and he never returned. Desmond told everyone that he died as the result of an ambush by Radioactives.”
Dobbins thought for a second before asking, “Mr. Sapens, do you think that you could override the security codes and initiate that deactivation routine?”
“I don’t quite know, Captain, if I could anymore or not. I’m pretty good at cracking systems, but I haven’t done anything like that in several years.”
“I could, sir,” Zhang’s voice interrupted. “If this computer system is the same type as the one we trained on at the Academy, I should be able to trick it into thinking that one of us is Cleopatra, if necessary.”
Dobbins smiled. “I don’t think that will be necessary, Mr. Zhang. We’ll settle for getting the androids shut down.
He took a deep breath. “All right, then, here’s the plan: Mr. Skylar, Commander Ella—you two will try to sneak back to the shuttle and send a hyperwave message back to the Hyperion. Advise Commander Brackers of our situation. And have him prepare another away team of psychologists and engineers. We’re going to need some help if we’re going to convince these people that what they’ve been told for the past 13 years is a lie. Once you’re on board the shuttle, do not leave it for any reason until you hear from us.
“Mr. Zhang, Mr. Samuelson, and Mr. Sapens, you’re with me. We’re going to try to get into that Control Center and deactivate those androids. Once that’s done, we’re going to go have a talk with Desmond. Mr. Sapens, do you know of a way to sneak into the Control Center without being detected?”
“I think I could set the sensors throughout the ship to give false echoes for a couple of hours,” replied Leon. “That should give us time to get everything done that we need to get done. And there is an entrance from the lower decks. Our only challenge will be getting to the nearest stairway down. And I think that could be a bigger challenge than resetting the sensors. The androids guard the entrances to the lower decks vigilantly.”
“We can handle a couple of androids,” Dobbins said. “If you can keep them from tracking us, then we should be fine. Questions or comments?”
After a pause, Dobbins continued, “Excellent. As soon as Mr. Sapens has made the necessary preparations, we’re going to see if we can make some progress in getting the Lethe and its passengers to Elysion.”
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