posted 12-08-98 08:35 AM ET        

Legrand didn't recognise Mike because of the extensive facial rebuilding he had undergone. Had to look like the real and recently deceased Michael Hefferan after all. But Mike smiled as he considered how Legrand might have been surprised to see his old instructor strolling onto the Unity in an officer's uniform. As far as Legrand was concerned he was the second highest ranking Spartan on the Unity. Technically he was right. Mike's official rank in the Spartan Federation had never been specified officially in fact Legrand and Santiago were two of only 4 Spartans who knew of his existence. There were rumours of a "Shadow" in the Spartan organisation but most Spartans would never know he was on their side. Hopefully that would change when they got to the Planet. Of course The Shadow's unofficial rank was high, he only took orders from Santiago.

Legrand had been a good pupil. His specialisation wasn't in the same sort of areas as Mike's but more in the management, economical infiltration and sabotage. He did it well though, well enough to be a member of the Unity expedition which included only the cream of the Spartan network. The only top Spartan not yet involved was Venom, his kind of muscle might be useful later in the project but at the moment he was clearing up some crew in New York who thought the Spartans were the sort of people you could rip off. "I wonder if the entrance to his safe house is still through that dumpster?" thought Mike.

In any case he had to force himself to relax as he came on board. He lowered his heart beat and body temperature as he passed through the sniffer. Those things could detect excess tension, amazing the developments in artificial noses. It forced operatives like Mike to need to have hormone balancers implanted in their bodies. Which meant a fairly painfull operation every 6 months.

posted 12-08-98 05:50 PM ET            

"Col. Greg Woodstock reporting as ordered, sir." Zakharov cut off his harangue in mid-sentence to look at Greg. A huge smile burst on his face and he gave a surprised Greg a huge bear hug and kissed his cheeks.

(think Boris Badinoff accent)* "Greg, Greg, Greg, I tought you vould never get here. Come widt me, we must talk in private. You! You Morgan capitalist robber! Yes, you Roland! I vant no more excuses. Get that fuel loaded at once. I know your boss is gettink a huge bonus for the accelerated deliveries, that thief. Do it at once. You are endangerink the mission." Roland grits his teeth, gives Zakharov a stiff formal bow and leaves the bridge.
Greg and Prokhor retreated to the relative quiet of the command center and sat down.
"It is good to see you again, Prokhor. I met Andrew Kasantsev and Oleg down at The I Club and they send their respects." Greg hands over a liter flask of some colorless liquid.
"Ahhh, tank you Greg, tank you Andrew, tank you Oleg dis is a very good tingk. But first the business, da? My team of Environment Systems engineers has been fallink off schedule. I need your help to back up on the systems installation checks. You vill be working with a talented, though frustrated, engineering officer named Michael Hefferan. He, and his assistant, Lieutenant Sparkatron, (what kind of name is dat?), have run into some problems. Maybe even the sabotage. You will help, da?"
"I've got a bad feeling about this, Prokhor." Greg replied.

posted 12-10-98 12:51 AM ET            

Jonathan Sagan put down the diary for a second, wiping a tear from his eye. His nine year old son, James, appeared in the door.

"James, you should be in bed now."

posted 12-10-98 06:00 PM ET            

"Col. Treestock, sir." The voice from behind him caused him to jump. "The Captain wishes to speak to you, sir. Now, sir." Spinning around Greg was confronted with one more of the seemingly inexhaustible supply of young ensigns. His red shirt and shredder pistol established that he was part of the security detail and his I.D. badge indicated that he was Rang Lieu.

"Oh, Ensign Lieu. I completely forgot about the Captain. I hope being late isn't a fogging offense." The attempt at levity fell flat in the presence of such a serious young officer. "Please follow me sir." Was the only response.

Captain Garland was sitting in his Ready Room studying an array of commlinks and dictating orders. Expecting to get chewed out by an irritated superior officer Greg was relieved when Garland, while still giving orders, offered him a chair skipping military formality.

posted 12-11-98 02:50 PM ET            

There was a voice coming from above and to the left-if he could only make out what it was saying. No just a voice-"can't understand what it is saying". Sleep.

posted 12-11-98 05:55 PM ET            

Garland had given him directions to the Light Industry landing pod and, thankfully, didn't ask Greg what he wanted there. Walking through the food concession bay he noticed a number of Morgan Conglomerate types hanging out just inside the company owned food counter. He recognized Roland from Zakharov's chewing out and there was Legrand too. The guy who had paid Greg off for the consulting work he had done for MC a decade earlier. Unity sure was a small world.

Greg froze in his tracks at the sight of a woman's back entering the "Daughters of Gai All Natural Fruits Bar." It looked just like his old lab assistant, Cindy Crawford, the woman that nearly caused a fight between Greg and his old friend Raymond back on earth in the Hong Kong CC Club. She and Greg had a great thing going. Why did it end? The woman disappeared into the gloom. Greg knowing that it was impossible for Cindy to be on board just sadly shook his head and continued his search for Rivera.

"Get that bleepity bleep container dogged down, pronto!" came roaring out of a pressurized viewing balcony. The pod was being loaded from space side and was in a vacuum. "Oh, bleep! Be careful with that bleepin' thing. If you break anything I'll have your bleepin' bleep!" Arsinio yelled into his headset helpfully encouraging the careful loading crews of the light industry modules.

"Chief Rivera, may I have a word with you?" asked Greg. Arsinio turned to him ready to unload some more colorful expletives when he saw the colonel's eagles and the ID.
"Col. Treestock, I was about to give up on you." Replied Arsinio. The two men connected their comlinks allowing detailed information concerning a transfer of funds to an account in Zurich and instructions concerning a certain package pick up. "That's OK chief, I'll find my own way to the moon bus." With that Arsinio's account was enriched and Greg would double the amount of personal property he would have on Chiron.

posted 12-11-98 10:47 PM ET            

I was still nervous. I had finished up my research, but I couldn't find Santiago for the life of me, and she didn't seem to want to find me. And I was far too busy with other MC business to really mount a good search for her, and I already had other "homework" that I had to do instead. I will do my sleeping after this is done.

In my research I find out about Santiago as well. She surfaced in Los Angeles from Latin America as a gang leader, where she quickly moved up the ladder. She made her gang the most profitable in the city and was smart enough to "retire" (taking a lot of the dough with her) with a head still on her shoulders. Since then she had supposedly been in involved in several similar organizations, but the UN was a fairly new one. She had risen pretty quickly up the ladder in that one, too. And as for the Spartans... well, she had been a sectional chief before as well, like Legrand. Far higher than an operative. And considering she survived the coup, she was probably his new leader. The question why was why was Santiago holding all this back and keeping things secret? Why had she killed off the other section chiefs in the CfS and kept him? Questions fell down like the rain in my head and had no easy answer.

I had put together a conclusive display of evidence against Yang for his superior's murder. The scary thing was that half of it was true. Not enough to be sure, but enough that this could be used as more than a bargainig chip. Also, I noticed one quirk about psionics. If the victim of a psionic attack realizes what is happening, he can disbelieve the illusions / resist the temptations/ or whatever the attacker is trying to do. This is of course assuming that Yang's "technique" is psionics, as if it's metal detectors we're all going to feel silly for getting worked up.

I continued waiting. Someone knocked on the door. "Come in," I said, too busy to follow protocol and check the peephole. "It's locked." I then realized how lost in thought I was. I checked the peephole and let a Lieutenant come in. "Much obliged. Just delivering a request that you meet with Commander Yang sir. Do you know the way to his office?"

I looked at the lieutenant carefully. He had "SnowFire" in his labels, and the hint of a smile seemed to be on his face. Like he knew everything about me and enjoyed the fact that I was about to meet my arch-foe. This was one creepy guy.

"In a moment," I said. Immediately followed, as I went into the bathroom, of "Can I have some privacy?"

I wanted to make sure I was up to date on everything they might try- if they even knew anything at all. I had heard that they had been cycling crew members out to be randomly checked. This was bad, did I just get unlucky or had everything been found out? Maybe this was the cause of Santiago's absence, maybe the caught her and tortured me out of her!

Now I was thinking irrationally, a dangerous thing. If they were sure I was who I was, I'd have found 3 security teams chasing me through the Unity. The reason why they only sent one officer and expected me to come quietly was that they either weren't sure, or just doing a random test.

I gave up, any new injections just might give me away anyway. Besides, people with suspiciously normal psych tests often find more suspicion heaped on them from what I read of Yang's style.

posted 12-11-98 11:16 PM ET            

"Ahh, what the hell's goin' on here!" I demanded while turning my head to the ground to avoid the light

"Well, Mr. Junack. You entered UN property with a concealed weapon!" the thug said to me in a thick Italian accent. I could tellhe was a mobster. They had practically taken the UN over, using it as a front to get rich. Who knows how many billions they've stolen from various countries paying thier annual UN dues. They get understandably angry when "President" Gitana doesn't pay the dues he owes to the UN. That's exactly why one man can't have all the power in a country.

"A concealed weapon!! Bah! I was bloody defending myself on the streets. You know how dangerous those bastards can get. Mobsters & all" I screamed.

The thug punched me across the face, & said to me, "Don't raise your voice with me son!

I shook the hit off, and said, in a kind of delirious voice, "Why the fu.ck did ya hit me!?!"

He punched me in the head again, "Don't fu.ckin' swear at me jackass. I'll break your face!"

That punch hurt more, but I took the pain. I had scored extremely high on the Alterholt trauma test. Then I heard footsteps come up behind me. The man's heavy feet barely tapped the floor, but it made my heart jump. The man came in front of me and said, "Do ya know who I am??"

"You...you're Nicky "The Dog" Vossbrinck. I knew this place was dirty!" I replied.

"Yeah, you're right, I am. Now Richie-" He started.

"Call me Rich" I snidely said.

"Ok, Rich. Rich, I need you to do a little job for me." Nicky said.

"What?" I asked

"I need ya to go on a little mission to the UNS Unity for us."Nicky said in his thick Italian voice, while lighting a cigarrette.

"The Unity?? That damn spaceship, I work on the ground crew! I hate space!" I screamed back to Nicky.

"Junack, you will go to space, & plant this here bomb on the Unity before it goes off to Chiron" Nicky said.

"What?? Why would ya wanna do that??" I asked hysterically.

"Simple, it's wasting our money, & I need some public sympathy. What could be better than a ship, the you put your heart into, suddenly blowing up??"

"Well Nicky-" I started

"Call me the Secretary General" Nicky said quickly.

"Secretary General, I can't do this. My sister works on it!" I tried calmly to say, but the fear was visible in my voice.

"Listen Richie! You will blow that damn ship up, or I have Alessandro here bring you out back, where you will spend the rest of your short life in agonizing pain!" Nicky screamed at me angrily

I stood silent. Nicky pulled out his shredder pistol, & pointed it at my groin area.

"Decide Junack, five, four, three, two-" Nicky starting counting down.

"Ok, I'll bloody do it!!!!" I screamed from fear

"I thought you'd see it my way. Now, you set sail to the UNS Unity in 5 days, along with a bomb, & a pistol. The job will be explained in more detail tomorrow. In the meantime, you stay here. You're not gonna jump ship on me" NIcky said.

I just stood silent after Nicky left the room. Alessandro, the thug, untied my ropes, & escorted me to my quarters for the enxt 5 days.

To be continued

posted 12-13-98 05:52 PM ET            

Zale was stunned. He had long given up hope of getting on board the Unity. The psych-chaplain corps was filled with religious fanatics, and his own philosophies differed strongly with theirs. He could put up a good front, but those psych-chaplains weren't incompetent. He knew he'd never get aboard that way. But this way. Yang's methods didn't always sit well with Zale, but he was an effective leader.

"Why me? I've don't know anything about security."
"Ah, but it is the things you DO know about that interest me," Sheng-Ji smiled. "I don't wish to discuss this further over an insecure line. Do you accept my offer?"
"Yes. Yes I do."
"Report to me as soon as you are aboard."

As the communicator screen went black, Zale thought about the situation. His life here on Earth would be over. But what an opportunity! A whole new planet. A chance to build a new society that wouldn't make the same foolish mistakes that this one had. Yes, this was a very satisfying development.

posted 12-13-98 09:44 PM ET            

Gordon shook Zale's hand as Zale sat down. "The problem," Gordon began, "is that there are several subversive elements active aboard the Unity. First, there is the Morgan Conglomerate. Analysis of their financial reports indicates that they are losing a lot of money on the Unity project. They may attempt to sabotage the project to remove the financial drain and collect the insurance. However, it appears that Mr. Morgan has taken a personal interest in the project. We suspect he has some grander scheme, but the true nature of that hasn't come to light yet.

"Then, we have the so-called Spartan Federation. These thugs are better organized than our initial reports had suggested. We know that there has been a change in leadership recently. They seem to be operating far more effectively than before. However, the organization is an inherently unstable one. When one element gained power, another must have lost it. We must be prepared for a split in that organization, or at least rogue operatives who are not comfortable with the new power structure. This makes the Spartans more dangerous than before, since they will be harder to predict.

"Finally, there are reports of people who are determined to destroy the Unity at any price. These may be somehow affiliated with either the Morgan operation or the Spartans, but until we have conclusive evidence, we should be ready for the actions of an organization or organizations unkown to us at this time."

"And what can we conclude from this?" asked Yang, testing his subordinate.

Gordon responded quickly, prepared for the question. "Regardless of their political affiliations, I believe we should regard the potential security risks as members of two different groups. First, there are those who seek to control the Unity from within, people who wish to secure special conditions for themselves during the voyage or after planetfall. Second, there are those who seek to destroy the ship, either before it leaves or once we are in cryo-sleep. The second group is clearly more dangerous, and should be our primary focus."

"And what do you think, Steven?"

"Well, I think he's correct in his analysis of the situation, but doesn't go far enough in his conclusions. The members of the first group have a vested interest in the completion of the Unity mission, so their efforts will be directed against the second group as strongly as ours will. By not interfering with them now, we increase our chances of making it to Alpha Centauri in one piece."

"Interesting," replied Gordon. "But then we will have to deal with these 'first group' conspirators once we arive at our destination."

"Yes," Yang stepped in. "But once we are there, we will have a definite advantage. Here in earth-orbit, these subversive elements have access to the full resources of their earth-bound organizations. Once we arrive at Alpha Centauri, however, they will have no resources to draw on, no reinforcements to back them up, and no political strings to pull."

"Political strings?" asked Zale.

"Yes. Many of my actions have been resisted by the entrenched forces of politics. I have been unable to remove some undesirables from the ranks of the security forces. It appears that my... predecessor... viewed a job in the security force as a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder or traded for a political favor. As such we can only trust a small number of them. That is why I've brought you in, and promoted Gordon to his present position. Both of you are trustworthy and capable."

"Thank you, sir," Gordon accepted what he thought was a compliment.

"No thanks are necessary. I merely state the facts as they are before me. Now go and begin work on finding the members of this 'second group'," Yang directed.

After Gordon left, Zale turned to Yang. "You made those same conclusions yourself. Why did you bring me here?"

posted 12-14-98 01:48 AM ET            

Lieutenant SnowFire left me there outside the door to Yang's office. He still creeped me out with that look like he was God or something, controlling everything. I never saw him again, and after I checked the ship's roster he did not appear on it. This remained to this day the creepiest and haunting person I ever met.

I entered the office. Yang was lounging on his chair comfortably, but he not seem to fit in the large expensive chair his predecessor had. I got the feeling he would have been just as happy in a plain wooden chair. A man with a notepad was standing off to the side, with the nametag "Gordon" on it. Gordon had a hard and compotent face, and he looked like someone who could find a needle in a haystack and yet not notice the obvious thresher coming at him. Physiognomy, the art of telling personalities from faces. Silly, but fun. Continuing my look around the room, there was a man in the opposite corner (it was a fairly large office) sitting at a computer, typing away. There was an aquarium near him with an octopus in it.

I was still standing rather nervously in front of the door. "Please sit down, Mr. Legrand" Gordon said.

I complied, and sat in the fairly nice seat facing Yang's desk. Yang was keeping a watchful and observant eye on me this entire time. Rather unsettling. The man in the back of the room continued to type away, but he still seemed to be listening. Gordon stayed standing up behind Yang to my right with his notebook, and began to ask me questions while occasionally glancing down at his notebook.

He started off with some fairly basic questions, and it looked like this was going to be easier than I thought. It was obviously just a random check, or a very well-rehearsed impression of a random check. The man in the back seemed just as uninterested as ever.

Gordon shifted his feet a little bit. "Have you ever heard any crew member mention anything that might suggest they wanted to destroy or otherwise damage the Unity?"

"No."

Yang turned at me directly and gave me a long, hard, look. I stared right back at him. It was one of the longer 3 seconds of my life, but Yang was the one who looked up- and smiled slightly. I think I had won, but if my research was correct, he might have gotten a few glimmers. I felt immensely better after he looked away, like a weight had been lifted off of me. I noticed that the man in the back had turned and had been looking at me as well.

Gordon started to ask another question, but Yang cut him off. "Thank you Mr. Legrand. Please continue helping out on the ship. By the way, though I know you were scheduled to return to Earth tomorrow, it seems that you have a cryocell now. If you have not already been informed, I offer you my congratulations and wish for your successful trip to Chiron. That was the original purpose of this meeting. I will insure that the person who suggested the additional questions is dealt with properly."

"Thank you." I turned and walked out of the office and back to quarters.

After I returned to my quarters, I found Santiago waiting for me. At last I would be able to get and receive the information on the Spartan master plan, now. I would not be denied.
------------------------------------------
NOT from the Memoirs of Alasair Legrand

Yang continued sitting in his chair.
"Interesting... very interesting. Not quite what I expected. This man... he has unusual abilities. We may want to look into this one more carefully- for several reasons. He spoke the truth in his response, though."

posted 12-14-98 08:08 AM ET            

Mike was in trouble, Yang wanted to see him. Yang had been bringing in his own staff of late and there was a lot of talk about Yang going on on board the ship. Mike knew a lot about him from the Spartan files but luckily they had never met, if they had Mike would have been transferred off the ship as soon as Yang was appointed. Even with his disguise and plastic surgery he would have feared recognition. There was some speculation about Psychic powers because of a couple of operations Yang had broken. Mike blamed bad luck and stupid operational errors but he wouldn't underestimate Yang. Santiago had given him sole responsibility for collecting information about the ship but now his focus was to change to concentrate on Yang's team. If Yang found out about the ship's saboteurs then the Spartans wanted to know about it. They had a lot of methods of dealing with them which weren't open to Yang.

Yang had already questioned Legrand which made it even more important that Legrand be left unaware of Mike's presence on the ship. Mike would only contact him in the most extreme circumstances.

posted 12-14-98 12:01 PM ET            

"Excuse me," said Legrand.
"Oh, it was all my fault. I'm sorry," she replied as she bent down to pick the folders up.
"Let me help you with those," said Legrand leaning down to assist.
The woman looked at Legrand. "Do I know you from somewhere? You look sooo familiar. I'm sure I've seen you somewhere before."
"No, I think I would have remembered you," laughed Legrand.

------------

posted 12-14-98 07:28 PM ET            

Pulling herself together, she wandered up to her boss' table, and with quick gestures of welcome to the mostly inebriated leaders of the UNS Unity, and a quick dodge away from the groping hands of Captain Garland, she settled into a crouch next to Pravin.

"Prav, there's been an anomoly in the psych profiles of some of the Unity crew. Some people's profiles are just not available, and despite my best efforts, it seems I don't have access to them. Someone VERY high up has locked them, and we can't get in."

Pravin Lal looked at her with a slightly unfocused look, very unusual for him, and mumbled something about looking into it in the morning, at which point he gave his appologies to his fellow commanders and stumbled off home.

Cindy followed him to the door, then stopped as Greg's song reached a kind of crescendo, with a lot of fellow Aussies belting out the tune to the delight of the crowded bar.

Watching Greg stagger off to the urinals to thunderous applause, Cindy decided that she had worked enough for one night, and deserved some time to let her hair down.

Stepping up to the bar, she ordered a Tequila Sunrise, which she downed quickly, and headed off to the stage. Never considered a great singer, she was nonetheless accomplished, and she quickly gave her erquest to the DJ.

Just as Greg walked out of the WC, Cindy started singing the old favourite ballad of hers, the Bon Jovi classic, "This ain't a love song". Greg, rather inebriated, and kind of caught off guard, could only stop and stare, wide eyed at the unexpected sight of his ex lover singing the song they had last made love to, so many years ago, on the night they broke up.

And as the song wound down, Cindy looked straight into his eyes as she finished:
"If the love that I've got for you's gone, if the river I've cried ain't that long, then I'm wrong, yeah I'm wrong.... This ain't a love song... Then I'm wrong, yeah I'm wrooo-oong. This aaa-iin't a love song..."

posted 12-14-98 08:15 PM ET            

Yesterday, I talked to the Captain about possible outbreaks on the Unity. We agreed that sterilisation must be preformed before entering. Steri-Lights will be set up today.

I also had a quick chat with Greg Treestock while I was in the pharmacy. He seems nice enough. Not the boring, strict, fun-hating guy the papers displayed him as.

Jamie is still sad. I don't think she'll ever quite get over loosing her mother so early.

posted 12-15-98 12:03 AM ET            

An explosive charge from the latest sabotage attempt had been recovered. The chemical composition had been analyzed, and the chemical tags had identified the source as Morgan Mineral Concerns, the mining wing of the Morgan Conglomerate. Never satisfied with the results of the civilian labs, Gordon had ordered a second analysis. His suspicions were confirmed, the chemical tags didn't exist in the proper proportion to the explosive material. The group responsible must have spiked black-market tagless explosives with this particular marker in order to cast suspicion on the Morgan operation.

Tagless explosives were an expensive commodity, and few organizations had the resources or the connections to procure them. The largest supplier was a black-marketeer named Gunderson. No one had ever been able to pin anything official to Gunderson, but most of the law enforcement officers in Europe knew him as the primary arms supplier for the Citizens for Survival. The last confirmed sighting of Gunderson was in the city of Sarajevo.

Gordon cross-referenced the shipping report that detailed the means by which the sabotaged equipment had gotten to the Unity. Sure enough, the train in which it had been transported had stopped in Sarajevo for some emergency maintenance on its way to the central European spaceport. The engineer who had ordered the maintenance stop was one Ferdinand Rodriguez. A quick check into Rodriguez's dossier revealed that his wife, Maria, was believed to be a compulsive gambler, deeply in debt to one Zoran Gajic, a prominent figure in the European underwold.

Alarm bells went off in Gordon's head. Gajic had been one of the top men in Citizens for Survival. Gordon checked his database. "...believed dead following a car crash in Brussels. Extreme burns prevent positive ID of the corpse... ". It seemed that reports of his death had been greatly exagerrated. Things seemed to be falling into place.

posted 12-15-98 07:40 AM ET            

--------------------

posted 12-15-98 06:12 PM ET            

The Michael Moore Militia was one of the more extremely paranoid isolationist separatist movements in North America. And that is saying a lot! They even thought the Spartan Federation was an international appeasement conspiracy. The 3M had effectively taken over the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as their own independent country, collecting their own tolls at the Mackinaw Bridge and Ste.St.Marie as well as other gateways to Wisconsin and Minnesota. The one entity that 3M hated the most on a long, long list of hates, was the U.N. The U.N. was the source of all poverty, pestilence, godlessness, and the nerve center (centre) of the movement to absorb the USA into the North American Federation and then into a unified World Government. The U.N. must be destroyed! To further this end 3M had "acquired" a missile and nuclear warhead from the Islamic Kingdom of Greater Afghanistan. Not exactly an ideological ally of 3M, but a government willing to sell surplus out of date armaments. The missile was launched from a secret site inside an abandoned copper mine near the city of Hancock. The air bust over NYC, while causing just fewer than 1 million casualties, the EMC temporarily obliterated most of the world's communication networks.

posted 12-16-98 05:51 PM ET            

"ATTENTION U.N. AND MORGAN CONGLOMERATE PERSONNEL. ALL COMMUNICATIONS WITH EARTH HAS FAILED. REPORT TO YOUR DUTY STATIONS IMMEDIATELY. TYCHO BASE AND U.N.S. UNITY ARE NOW UNDER MARTIAL LAW PURSUANT WITH U.N. STATURE 77B92-A. GOOD LUCK AND BE CAREFUL." (repeat endlessly)

"Oh, oh, it looks like the crap has really hit the fan this time." Exclaimed Greg as he tried to remember where the heck his duty station was. Squads of red shirted U.N. and black shirted M.C. security personnel were efficiently setting up checkpoints and were already asking for I.D.s and detaining people.

posted 12-18-98 01:14 AM ET            

From the Memoirs of Alasair Legrand

I had previously bumped into a unfamiliar woman before, so my nerves were already tense when I saw Santiago. We got to business immediately, after moving to an area not covered by bugs, cameras, the works. And checked too, with the finest in equipment.

"We have... a situation here on the Unity. I have recieved a message from the Secretary General of the UN. I have some old connections, you know. In any case she was calling from a phone booth in New York with someone else's credit card. She claimed that an imposter had taken her place-"

This was interesting. Scary that it was so possible, though I knew that Santiago probably had used the technique herself and had some people on board the ship who were not what they appeared to be.

"and was now plotting to destroy the Unity."

Now THAT really got my attention. We had been involved with some sabotage of the Unity awhile ago, but that had abruptly ended after the CfS merged with the Spartans. And with the tickets I got for the Unity voyage, it became quite clear to me that Santiago was going to seek her fortunes in the new world of AC. A fake Secretary of the UN trying to foil it?

"But here's the thing. This group doesn't have any real control over the UN. Otherwise they would simply cancel the proejct and scrap it. Not that there's any reason too, it'll launch within a week and there's only double checking to do now. They can't even send the imposter into UN HQ, the extensive DNA scans would flush her out. But they do have her credentials, which they're using to hire as many hitmen and mobsters as they can to infiltrate the Unity."

I responded now. "That's dumb. Trying to substitute quality with quantity? As soon as one's caught, security will go up, and pretty soon they'll all be caught. They'll 'fess up to who hired them and then the UN will do a blood hunt on the false Secretary General. And what is the real SG doing in New York? Why didn't they kill her?"

"Because they were using voice and hair samples from her to try and get the imposter into position where she could enter UN HQ without getting caught, and keep suspicions off why she never goes to work to do work. But she escaped... somehow."

"That sounds fishy. She might not have told you everything."

"True. In any case I am going to let the UN handle this one themselves. I know how a certain idealistic head of medicine will react to the news that the Secretary General is an imposter. Just a small scent to get him looking in the right direction, and he'll figure it out soon enough. Then he'll feel so smart for saving the Unity. His name is Pravin Lal, I believe. And the goons won't come until the last minute, in about 5 days. By then security will be doing full body cavity searches and passive X-ray so that any weapons they think they can smuggle in will be found, immediately. And who knows, they might even be dumb enough to put bombs, etc. in their baggage which is already heavily checked now. This is close to a non-issue."

"Yes. It still doesn't address whether this person claiming to be the SG is telling the truth, though." I had not talked as much as I wanted to. This was almost a briefing.

"First of all, it was the SG, thanks to my handy voice analyzer. It matched her pattern and yet didn't have the perfectness of a computer copied voice.
Second of all, there was some real fear in the voice from the analyzer. It could be she was coerced to say this by someone else in an attempt to embarras us, but by letting Pravin Lal discover its authenticity or lack thereof we take no blame. So that's a non-issue as well."

"Good point.

"Now, for a more important task. With your wits, while a bit slow in conversation, one of the reasons I picked you was because you tended to figure lots of things out eventually. So you probably know that with any luck, we will rule on Chiron."

"Yes, I'm familiar with that."

"Well, you have one of the more important jobs in this. I would do it myself, considering its vast importance, but in all honesty, there's a small chance of getting caught, and I'm also heading the final security detail that insures everyone is in their cell."

I was both scared and impressed. I might get killed, but she was clearly trusting me with something important.

"I'm going to send a certain team down there to check your cell block. That team will be nothing but Spartans and they'll ignore the fact you're not in the cell, and report everyone as there.
Then, you're going to use this."

She handed me a CD.

"A rather compact program, that will arrange for all of us to be awakened early. It will also will not trigger the auto-wake up alarms from our current tests on the system. It will however leave a record. That's why you need to put it in after everyone, even the bridge crew, is in nap-time. The idea is that we will wake up slightly before everyone else, and they will all wake up to find us with the weapons and their own leaders in a private prison. It all depends on you putting that program in when the time is right."

"Okay. Where shall I hide it?"

After hiding it in a place that no one could possibly find it, we set back about our duties. I had given her all the information I had collected, which I won't bore you with again here, and she had given me all the above information.

posted 12-19-98 01:41 AM ET            

I am pleased to report that construction is now officially complete. We now enter a period of final tests before we commence our mission. It is only a matter of time before we are on our way.

ATTACHMENT: Completion checklist

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Yang was pleased with the report. Once the Unity was away from Earth, no more saboteurs would be able to get on board. Lately they had gotten very sloppy. Most had been stopped by routine checks for weapons at the departure point. Things seemed to be falling into place.

A line in the checklist caught Yang's eye. "Cryo-Control Computer Security Enhancements -- staus: waiver". Yang punched Zakharov's code into his vid-screen, and the Russians face appeared. "Commander Zakharov, explain your waiver of the security enhancements for the cryo-computer," he stated flatly.

"I required the services of the engineer responsible for that task in order to fix some irregularities we discovered in the fusion control system. Captain Garland approved my decision. In a few days, we will be leaving this solar system, going to sleep for forty years, trusting this ship to get us to our destination. My intention is to make sure that this ship gets us to Alpha Centauri. You are worried about hackers? If you knew as much as I do about the dangers involved, you would realize that there are much bigger things to worry about." Zakharov cut the communication, and Yang's screen went black. HE considered contacting Garland about this irregularity, but Zakharov had final say on all technical matters regarding the Unity.

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TO: All Security Personell, UNS Unity
FROM: Commander Yang
RE: Final Preparations