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When I buzzed Anson he was working feverishly on computers. Two beads of sweat trickled down his cheek. He grunted and groaned. Then grabbed a water bottle and took a long gulp. When he saw the screen with my smiling face he gave a half-nod.
“Major, we are carrying out your orders,” he said.
“Thank you. I assume you are changing the information our MITTs are carrying.”
“I am. I’m having other scientists and the few military experts we have on board to help me. All the military information banks of our AIs will be totally changed. I hope our adversaries are not in the mood for specifics because we don’t have any. We only make mention in passing to our incredibly powerful weapons without giving any scientific verification or even any hints of how they work. But believe me, they will sound impressive. Along with our hyper-light speed ships which are utterly breathtaking, if the gold guys had any breath to take that is.”
“Always knew you had a creative streak in you, captain. I’m sure you have a way with words. Maybe you can convince our adversaries to head for the next galaxy over and not come back.”
“Not sure I’m that persuasive, major. But if they do download this information, it should give them pause. Of course we don’t know what their weapons look like, but I don’t think they would match our fictional ones.”
I smiled. “Neither do I.”
“I also have some more good news for you.”
“Good. I can use some.”
“Ralph was not exactly enthusiastic, but he did volunteer for the mission. He said he would do his best to convince his former buddies that we forced him to say the things he did. He will also tell them that after the capture he convinced the AIs to join him and the Destroyers to reap vengeance on humans.”
“Very good.”
“He said he feels he can be very convincing. He knows something of the military and the structure of his army and said he thinks he can use the information to help get the shuttle. He said his bosses may be suspicious, but to them it would be logical for AIs or any type of humanoid not fully human to join their team. Initially, they might believe the AIs are real defectors coming to join the Destroyers. Once they get in, the information about our alleged weapons should stun them.”
“Don’t forget to tell them the human ship is heading back to their home base.”
Anson nodded. “Yes, that’s what Ralph will tell them, that the shuttle headed one way and the human ship headed the other. If they believe that, then their defenses should be down. That might provide us with an opening.”
“Very good,” I said. “We will get one chance and once only. But we don’t have to be too precise. All we have to do is hit the planet. It’s a big target. We don’t have to be too precise.”
“And if we hit a planet with a bomb we should retire from the military.”
“Captain, how long before we’re ready to send off the MITTs?”
“Give me the rest of the day and into the night. By tomorrow morning we should be ready.”
I buzzed our engineering chief and told Mr. Christie I wanted some quick modifications done on a shuttle. We needed it to look... more impressive.
“More impressive, sir?”
“Yes, a shuttle is a shuttle. A basic transport. Let’s spruce up our transports a bit. Give them a little more technological razzle-dazzle. Get our robotic workmen to start making all the adjustments. If a routine shuttle suddenly pops up near the gold planet, I think the gold guys would question how such a small, slow shuttle could escape from a trap. We should be able to blow a rogue shuttle out of the sky. So give it as many high-tech advances as you can.”
Christie nodded. “If they capture it and analyze it, I can insert in the memory banks that we were testing an invisibility shield and first used it on the shuttle. The MITTs had it out for a test run. We used the MITTs because it’s unstable. The shield might be so erratic it could blow up a shuttle and we didn’t want to risk humans on the flight. So we used the MITTs instead. They zoomed off, disappeared and we never saw them again.”
“Brilliant idea, Mr. Christie. I like it.”
“The downside is after they see that information they will be searching for the invisibility shield and they won’t find one.”
“By that time, there will hopefully be a big ka-boom which, among other things, will shorten their search.”
“I will get to work on it immediately, major.” He smiled. “Did you ever see any of the old television shows of the science fiction show Star Trek?”
I nodded. “I liked them but, to be honest, most of the plots were weak. There were perhaps a half-a-dozen fine episodes during the three-year run. But I enjoyed the characters, especially the interplay between Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy.”
“Exactly. But we are very lucky there are no such aliens as Vulcans and we are particularly fortunate no Vulcan is aboard this ship. He would tell you this plan is totally illogical.”
“Yes, he would. But winning on a five hundred to one bet is also totally illogical. But sometimes it happens. Just ask the people in Kargar.”
“If we come out of this alive, we can have a drink together and toast to illogic.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”