Planet Nine Affair

Chapter 7. Plans.

Chapter 7. Plans.

All the crew's communications would consist of cursive writing on paper. No one would speak or glance at their assistant. They would pass their paper around so that each of them could read it.

"We are faced with coming up with a way to turn off all of these mechanical major domo machines," James wrote.

"There has to be a communication node somewhere," Leonard replied on his paper. "Maybe it's in the AzTeka facility."

"Wouldn't that be an obvious location to hit?" Janice wrote.

"Yes, it would," James wrote. "There must be a way to trace their connections to a hub. Maybe they're using a series of communication satellites."

"We don't have a way to track them," Leonard wrote.

"That's true, but NASA would be tracking them," Janice reminded them in writing.

James wrote "See if you could get access to them. In the meantime, we can try our buddies on the ship."

"Why would they help us?" Leonard asked in writing.

"They must be feeling lonely by now," James wrote. "That might help us get information from them. I'll take care of that. Let's see what we can find out and we'll get together later."

That ended the first secret meeting. They decided to make these meetings short to prevent any interference from their assistants. James destroyed the papers they had written on by throwing them into the fireplace. He didn't notice any attempt by the androids to find out what they were up to.

Later that evening, when they were gathered in the living room, James proposed a more dangerous plan to determine what the androids were up to. "We have a problem."

"Now what?" Janice asked, her brow furrowed and her eyes glaring at him.

"There's an unknown space craft on a course to here. At its present speed, it will arrive in three days."

"How do you know that?" Leonard asked.

"I couldn't sleep last night so I was out on the veranda using a marvelously advanced reflector telescope that just happened to be in a closet near there. I was able to see the object because of the sun's reflection off it just after twilight. It must be enormous to be that visible."

"Why was a telescope in a closet? Was that yours?" Leonard asked.

"Nope," James replied.

"I had a renter here that had that telescope," Marcia said. "He must have left it here."

Janice turned to James. "How do you know it's a ship. It could be an asteroid."

"I don't think an asteroid would be that reflective."

"Ok," Janice said. "So, what are we going to do about it?"

"I think we need to go to NASA headquarters and discuss this with Stevens."

"What good would that do?" she asked. "He acted as if he didn't seem to care about the android situation."

"I think he does care but doesn't wish to discuss it in the open," James said.

"Even if he would acknowledge that we are in danger, what good would it do to discuss it with him?" Leonard asked.

"NASA has the computing equipment and the satellite probes that we could use to solve this enigma," James stated.

Leonard and Janice realized that.

James turned to Tat, his assistant. "We wish to go to NASA headquarters."

Tat nodded. "I have requested a transport. It will arrive in ten minutes."

Ten minutes later the bus arrived. James, Leonard and Janice boarded it with their assistants and were soon on their way to the headquarters where they met with Stevens, who seemed to be perturbed by their unannounced presence.

"We need to talk, but we'll use paper and pen to discuss a proposal."

Stevens gave him a look that expressed confusion, but his expression quickly softened when he realized why that would be necessary. He nodded his approval.

"We believe that a large space craft is approaching Earth," James wrote. "This could be an alien invasion in which humans will be 'harvested' as my android assistant told me, as food."

Steven's eyebrows rose temporarily before he wrote a reply. "There is some scuttlebutt about that possibility, but we thought it was too crazy to believe."

"Well, we have a plan to stop it," James wrote. "First step is to get into AzTeka's main hub and rewrite the code to prevent the androids from participating in this harvesting by shutting them down and have the androids on the Planet Nine ship crash it into the alien ship."

"What makes you think that this could be done in such a short timeframe?" Stevens wrote.

James gestured to Janice. "I think she can accomplish it, with our help," he said in writing.

Stevens stared at her and then turned back to him. "Let's do it."

Stevens, James, Leonard and Janice headed to the main operations lab where android technicians were keeping watch on several astronomical objects.

Stevens pointed to the main computer array. "You should be able to get in from that system."

Janice sat down at the station and began by entering her NASA key password. Surprisingly, the system still recognized her. Her next step was to start up a search algorithm that would get her to the AzTeka main system where she began to look for a backdoor into the system. These backdoor systems involved so called Easter Egg code that would allow a break into the main hub. Once she had an opening, it was only a matter of time before she could get into their system and shut down all of the androids.

Stevens, James and Leonard noted that their assistants suddenly seemed to be inanimate. Janice turned back to them and smiled.

"Let's reactivate them," James told her. We need to go there and see what's going on."

Janice sent the instructions to reactivate the androids. They began to function with no signs that they had been turned off.

"Oh, and by the way, that object you sighted is in orbit around Earth might be a NASA craft. They did have a probe out there to search for possible asteroids on a collision course for Earth.

James smiled. "My bad. I was only using a small and very limited reflector telescope."

James, Leonard and Janice, along with their assistants, boarded a bus and were taken to AzTeka's facility at a location that was remote and isolated from any housing or other commercial infrastructure.

"Holly hell!" James exclaimed. "This place is humongous!"

"Note that there are no sign of cars," Leonard pointed out. "There's only androids here."

"We're not sure of that," Alice said. "If there are any humans here, they might rely on a bus like we do."

James nodded his approval. "Well, let's go see what's going on here."

Leonard and Janice were ready to see what was going on in this massive industrial facility, but they were not so sure it would be safe.