From: pjd@hpespjd.fc.hp.com (Paul Dorweiler)
Subject: Space Cadets!  episode #17
Summary: Dohram's paranoia pays off
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 19:55:35 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Fort Collins, CO

Spaaaaaaaaaace Cadets, episode #17:  "A Fish out of Water"

<Author's note: Decided that I'd stick another episode in this week to hold
 the storyline until Ender gets back from his vacation.  --pjd>

===============================================================================

(Hiya!  MORC again, not to be confused with my bigger brother, MROC.  After
 latching the Shark onto a large Gizmonics transport ship just before it was
 guided into the largest of three planets orbiting a small black hole located
 in the "middle" of five neutron stars, Dohram and I found ourselves about
 2000 meters above ground at a landing facility on THE headquarters planet of
 the largest and most powerful corporation in the known universe, Gizmonics.)

D: "Well, we're here.  Now I've somehow got to find Andrea."

MORC: "What happens if this transport lifts off while you're on the planet?"

D: "Hmmmm.  Good question, MORC.  Glad to see your higher-level reasoning is
    coming along.  Well, before the transport hits orbit you'll have to
    disengage the Shark from this ship and try to get back down to the planet.
    That, or you could just sit in orbit and try to look like some orbital
    garbage."

MO: "How?"

D: "Turn on the surface camouflage -- that should make the ship look pretty
    old and meteor-struck from a distance.  If not, get the heck down onto
    the surface or get into an ocean and wait for my signal."

MO: "Okay, I can do that.  But how are you going to signal me?"

D: "Oh, that's right -- I haven't told you about my telepathic implants yet.
    Scan on your channel 7; you should find my biostats occasionally
    transmitted."

MO: "Checking...  Yes, I have some data there."

#Then you should also "hear" this...

MO: "Hey!  How'd you get there!?!"

#This is one of the functions of my implants.  They allow me to talk to MROC,
 or you, in this case, from anywhere on this planet without speaking.  You can
 talk to me on this channel as well.  Try it.

#This is MORC.  Can you hear me?

#Loud and clear, my friend.  There are a bunch of other telepathic features,
 but I'm not going to describe them to you right now.  I've got to get down
 onto the surface and set out to find Andrea.

MO: "Should I do anything here while you're gone?"

D: "Log any ships entering or leaving this planet.  Oh -- and scan on channel
    nine for a very faint ID signal.  If Andrea is still wearing that pendant
    I gave her, it should be transmitting now that the 'Plat isn't around."

MO: "Got it."

(Dohram loaded up the exosuit with some weapons and extra powercells.  He then
 grabbed a large worker-type coverall and somehow got it over the exosuit.  He
 basically looked like a slightly overweight technician.)

D: "Okay, MORC, keep me informed if anything happens here I should know about."

#Okay, chief.

#Glad I brought you along, MORC.

===============================================================================

(Dohram opened the Shark and climbed out onto the hull.  He scanned for a place
 where no one was around, and then slid along the transport's hull until he was
 down on the ground.  He must've been using the magnetic suspension of the
 exosuit, otherwise he would have fallen 1000 feet after he slid off the top
 of the transport.  Once down, he walked away from the ship and looked like one
 of several hundred techs in the area.)

"This isn't going to be easy," Dohram thought to himself.  "Without access to
 their computer system, I have no easy way of finding out where everything is
 on this planet, how to get around from city to city, or where the most likely
 places are for them to keep Andrea.  I just hope she is wearing that necklace
 I gave her...."

(Dohram walked out of the space complex and into the streets of a large city.)

===============================================================================

(On another part of the planet, Andrea finally awoke after being unconscious
 for the better part of two days.  Disoriented, and with a really bad headache,
 she looked around the room she was in.

 It looked to be a rather lavishly appointed suite, with rich decorations and
 doors to the WC and another room.)

A: "Dohram?  Are you here?"

"Ah, I see you are finally awake."  (The voice was very mechanical and not
                                     familiar at all....)

A: "Who are you?  Where am I?  Where is Dohram?"

"I am afraid I am not allowed to answer any of your questions.  I am simply the
 medical supervisory system assigned to monitor you until you awoke.  Now that
 that has happened, I will notify the appropriate authorities."

(Andrea became quite afraid.  This was unlike any place she had ever been in,
 and she knew Dohram would never leave her alone in a place like this.  In the
 short amount of time they had been together, they had come to know each other
 very well in many ways.  She was now very certain that he loved her, in ways
 she had never before imagined possible.  She also knew he had been deathly
 afraid of losing her for some reason, and began to suspect this might have
 something to do with it.

 "Where was I last?" she thought.  "Kathy, Ender, Dohram and I had just landed
  on a nice island on Heymon III, and everyone but Dohram had gone to the
  beach.  I spotted a nice grove of flowers, walked over to it, and ...."
  Andrea hit a mental blank.  "Something must have happened to me, but what?"

 Frightened, she clutched the pendant on the necklace Dohram had given her.
 It had been on the GGPlat just after they'd left Nymph, and he told her then
 that as long as she wore it, he would be near to her.)

===============================================================================

(I was monitoring a large fleet of fighters leaving the surface, when all of a
 sudden channel nine came alive with a small signal.  I quickly located it: the
 signal was coming from a city almost five hundred kilometers to the northwest.

#Dohram!

#Yes, MORC?

#I've got a weak signal on channel nine!  It keeps repeating 'Zerlog' in your
 code ten!

#That's her, MORC!  Send back 'Dohram' in code 12.

===============================================================================

(Andrea, still holding the pendant and wishing somehow this wasn't happening,
 suddenly felt a small vibration in the pendant.  "Could I just be imagining
 this?"  Then the pendant vibrated again, and she put it next to her ear to
 try and listen to the vibration.)

(in a _very_ faint voice:) "Andrea, this is Dohram.  I hope you can hear this.
                            You were captured by the Gizmonics Corporation,
                            because they have a long-standing vendetta against
                            my family.  I just arrived on this planet, but it
                            will take me some time to get to you.  Just make
                            certain that...."

(Two armed men entered the outer room and Andrea let the pendant fall back
 around her neck.)

"You will come with us now, ma'am."

(Andrea was abruptly escorted out of the bedroom.)

===============================================================================

#I hope she got that, MORC.  Thanks for relaying it.

#But how could she hear it?

#That pendant, among other things, has a very, very faint piezoceramic speaker
 in it, which can reproduce a voice trasmission.  If we're lucky, when it
 vibrated she put it next to her ear to see if the vibration was some kind of
 message.

#She's moving, Dohram.

#Frac!  I still have to find a way to get over to that city.  Don't lose her!

#I'm still getting a good signal.  I'll keep tracking her until you find her.

(Dohram resumed his search for a library, or information center, or something
 that would tell him the name of the city Andrea was in, and how to get there
 using some form of public transportation.  He couldn't move that quickly,
 however: there were uniformed and armed patrols all over the place.)

===============================================================================

Can Dohram evade capture on the Gizmonics' headquarters planet and get to the
city where Andrea is?  And if so, how will he get her away from the
"authorities" she is being taken to?

And what will Susan do to Ender and Kathy?  More riddles to follow in the next
episode of:

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCE  CAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDETSS!!!!

 
Dohram
Official Hobbes of the RFA, Dennis Mukai gallery owner
(and eternal bachelor... not necessarily by choice, for those who've asked)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Dorweiler  (Dohram) | Hobbes: "I don't know.  What did it sound like?"
pjd@hpespjd.fc.hp.com    | Calvin: "Sort of like breathing and drooling and
Hewlett-Packard Company  |          ripping the meat off human bones!"    
Fort Collins, CO         | Both:   "YAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"         
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