The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict Read online

  Victor said, “You only chose 19. Who is the 20th pilot?”

  Carank responded, “He is number 42 in the ranking. His highest score in the obstacle course is 11,420, but he is special for two reasons.”

  Lorano feigned interest and said, “Please, tell us both of them.”

  Carank responded, “Well, he was the first gamer to complete the mission and score over 10,000 points. More importantly though, he lives in Akron, only a few kilometers from here.”

  Lorano was suddenly interested, but now feigned non-interest. He asked, “Well, why does that matter?”

  Carank answered, “Because we can get him here quickly. We can put him in one of the flight simulators and verify that the humans can actually fly fighters before we bring the other 19 humans here.”

  “Great idea,” said Crista. “What do you want me to do, go to his house, shoot him with the stun gun, and drag him here?” Her face brightened visibly at the prospect of getting to shoot someone again.

  Carank looked at her worriedly and answered, “I have a more subtle idea. Crista, let’s keep your idea as plan B for now.” Carank showed Victor and Crista a short script he had written. They reviewed it and nodded that they understood what needed to be done.

  Carank said, “Computer, call the telephone number 330-867-5309.”

  …Dialing…

  Crista grabbed the receiver and put it to her ear. She heard it ringing and then heard the phone make connection. She heard, “Hello.”

  Crista said, “Hello. Is this Jim Donovan?”

  “No. This is Jennifer, his sister. I will go get him.”

  There was a slight pause, then Crista heard, “Hello, this is Jim.

  Crista clarified, “This is Jim Donovan from Akron Ohio who was the first to blow up the Hiriculan cruiser.”

  “Yes,” he responded.

  This time she thought she detected a little bit or nervousness or possibly impatience in the response. She quickly said, “Hold please,” and handed the phone to Victor.” She then posted the number to her communicator page in the event she would have to redial it and hoped the sister wouldn’t change it in the next week or so.

  Victor said, “Hello Jim, My name is Victor Tyrano. I am the CEO of Victory Games, the maker of the Alliance flight simulation game.”

  “Is this a joke?” Jim responded.

  Victor answered, “No. No joke. My reason for calling you is quite the opposite. Is this a good time to talk?”

  “Yes, it is fine.” Jim responded.

  Victor continued, “As you probably know, the corporate headquarters of Victory Games is in Akron, just a few miles away from you. The reason for my call is that I have created the next generation of the video game. It is a full immersion flight simulator. I want a person who has actually completed the simulation to try it. Are you interested?”

  “Yes, absolutely,” Jim responded. Victor gave him the address and agreed upon a time later that afternoon.

  They then removed one of the flight simulators from the freighter hold. There was a secret corridor from the hangar to the adjacent corporate headquarters / assembly building. They used the corridor to move the simulator to the headquarters area. Carank also used it to enter the facility and hook up the machine. At the last moment, Crista noticed that on the side was written in alien language the equivalent of ‘Made in Advranki 3’. Crista exited the office area, went to the assembly line, and picked up a ‘Made in USA’ sticker. She then returned and placed the sticker over the writing.

  Jim Donovan arrived at the facility. Crista and Victor were waiting for him.

  Victor shook his hand. He said, “Hello, I am Victor. This is my bodyguard Crista.” Victor had found that Crista enjoyed being introduced as a bodyguard and he did so whenever possible. He only introduced her as his wife or assistant when absolutely necessary.

  Jim smiled and shook Victor’s hand. He looked at Crista from head to toe, but did not address her or comment about her. She had dumped the cowgirl outfit for skin tight yoga stretch pants and a tight fitting shirt. She had kept her cowboy boots because they were great for hiding knives. Both Lorano and Carank had said they liked the new garments much better than the old one. They had done so selfishly though, as their primary motivation for the compliment was that the new outfit made it easier for them to determine if she was armed.

  They gave Jim a brief tour of the facility. They showed him the production floor. It was basically broken into four areas; CD burning, flight cap assembly, flight panel assembly, and final packaging and warehousing. They then went through the office area, walking past HR, accounting, logistics, plant management, and finally Victor’s office.

  Jim asked, “Where is the research and development area?”

  Victor thought quickly and said, “The R&D department is located in the hanger looking building next door. The scientists seem to prefer the big building.”

  Jim followed with, “Just out of curiosity, how many engineers do you employ?”

  Victor responded, “Only two. One focuses on software and the other on hardware.” Jim looked stunned at that answer, so Victor added, “We only have two, but they are really, really good.”

  They walked into Victor’s office and to the machine. Crista took her usual position near the back door. It appeared to strangers that she stood there to be able to scan the entire room, but in reality she stood there to keep people from seeing the hidden door that led directly to the hanger.

  Jim looked over at her. She responded by making her meanest looking face and putting her hands on her hips, each hand just above the gun strapped to either leg. Jim looked away.

  Victor said, “Jim, go ahead, hop in and run the obstacle course. Oh, by the way, the opening speech sequence is slightly different. Also, I programmed her with a French accent. After the game, please tell me which one you like better.” Lorano had decided that they shouldn’t modify the software of the flight simulator for fear of being accused of tampering. As a result, the Advranki female gave the long winded version of the welcome speech in Alliance basic versus Lorano’s short version in English.

  Jim fastened in and began the test. It didn’t start well. After the speech, he said, “Karen, please switch the ship buster missile with a gravity missile.”

  The Advranki female responded, “Why are you calling me Karen?”

  Jim replied, “Because that is your name.”

  The Advranki female responded, “I am not Karen, I have no name.”

  Jim replied, “Then I am naming you Karen. Now, may I substitute a missile?”

  The Advranki female, now named Karen, responded, “No.”

  Jim was now able to continue like normal. He traded away the ship buster and ship to ship missiles for the gravity and hyper communication missiles. He launched and flew the obstacle course. He made it through the 90 degree turn. He defeated the single enemy fighter with ease and then flew past the three Hiriculan fighters without issue.

  He danced his fighter to the enemy cruiser, fired and destroyed the shield deflector. The three trailing ships proceeded to accidentally blow up the cruiser. The only change was when Jim made the power turn back toward the fighters. This time his whole body felt the weight of the 7g turn. After firing the three shots, Jim did pass out for a few moments. However, he was able to quickly recover and land on the Alliance cruiser, ending the simulation with a respectable score of 11,180.

  Jim exited the simulator slowly and carefully. It looked to Victor like he was a little wobbly on his feet. Victor asked, “Well, how was it?”

  Jim regained his balance and exclaimed, “Wow! That was unbelievable. The opening speech is little long, and I didn’t care for the alien’s accent.”

  Victor said, “Great, I am glad you liked it. I will work on the opening sequence. Hey, we are going to have a trial battle next week and I would like you to come. I will have my assistant send you a formal invitation.” They led Jim to the door and waved goodbye as he exited. Then they moved the flight simulat
or back to the freighter.

  That afternoon the foursome met to plan the final details of operation Candlestick. Lorano gave a brief review of the human’s first attempt in the flight simulator. He summarized with, “I must say that every indicator looked good. We can proceed.

  Carank handed out assignments. He said, “Crista, you make the invitations and travel arrangements. Victor, you make some promotions, Lorano,”

  “Yes,” he responded.

  Carank said, “Ten of the humans selected are currently serving in the US military. They are located in military bases in Texas, Colorado, and Ohio. You will have to hack into the US military database and forge some bogus orders to cover their absence. You are also going to need to work with Crista to create covers for the ten non-military humans, or at least make them disappear without a trace. They must not be tracked back to here.”

  Crista looked over her list and said, “I have a question.”

  “Yes,” Carank responded.

  Crista looked at her communication pad and said, “Do you want them fly into the Cleveland or Akron-Canton airport?”

  Lorano looked over at Crista. He couldn’t tell whether she was armed, so he withheld is initial response. Instead, he answered, “Cleveland. It is a bigger airport. You should probably pick them all up yourself. There will less of a trace to the company that way.” That really wasn’t what he wanted to say to her though.

  Their last 10 days on the planet were as busy as their first 10 days. Crista arranged travel details for each of the 20 humans. She booked a limousine service for the 3 pilots that lived in Ohio and airline flights for the 17 pilots that lived out of state.

  Then, she created catchy invitations and emailed them to each person. The invitation included the email below and the travel arrangements.

  Dear (Insert Name Here),

  Congratulations on being one of the very best pilots in the Victory Games flight simulator! As a reward, you have been cordially invited to attend the first annual Victory Games celebration and pilot competition next weekend.

  You will have the chance to meet and compete head to head with the top 20 pilots in the overall rankings. Plus, you will be one of the very first to try the new version of our full body flight simulator.

  Please see the travel arrangements below. We can’t wait to see you in your own fighter!

  Sincerely, Victor Tyrano, CEO of Victory Games

  Carank programmed the Advranki machines to build a whole body flight simulator. The simulator probably could have been built with Earth equipment, but he simply didn’t have time to create technology transfers with the participating companies. This was okay, since the human companies were producing the components, the machines weren’t at capacity. He thought the humans that worked for the company would like the long term stability of building the next generation flight simulator.

  That thought made him inwardly laugh. “Let me get this straight,” he said to himself, “I am suddenly concerned about the welfare of humans that would most likely panic when they saw me and kill me and possibly eat me?” Well” he thought, it is hard to find good labor.

  Lorano was busy as well. He created a relatively simple interface that anyone could use to create an on-line battle simulation. Every ship in the Alliance fleet and the Hiriculan fleet were available for selection via drop-down menus. Users could now create their own battle simulations.

  Lorano paused for a moment and called Carank. When he responded, Lorano asked, “What happens if the human pilots succeed?”

  Carank said, “I don’t know. I guess if these twenty work okay, the Senate will want us to come back and get another twenty or maybe a hundred. Who knows?”

  Lorano thought for a moment, “And if the additional pilots work out okay?”

  Carank replied, “The Senate will probably make us come back and get even more pilots and maybe even some humans to be maintenance workers.”

  Lorano asked, “So, let me get this straight. If the pilots don’t work, we will be considered failures. If the pilots succeed, it will be our greatest achievement, but we will have to return to Earth, maybe multiple times.

  Carank replied, “Probably.”

  Lorano said, “That gives me an idea. I know a way we can succeed and not have to return.” Lorano started crying tears of joy!

  Carank said, “Well, they say necessity is the mother of invention.”

  Lorano stopped crying as quickly as he had begun. He looked suspiciously at Carank on the monitor and said, “Who says that?”

  Carank responded, “They.”

  Victor had perhaps the most difficult task. He had to choose someone to run his company. That sounded silly to him – my company. The Alliance Senate had technically authorized him to create a video game and distribute it. However, he was sure they didn’t mean for him to create and run a successful business on Earth, especially one that was patenting Alliance technologies on Earth and transferring them to human companies.

  He sat at his desk in his office, verified Crista was in her usual place beside the secret door, and invited Amy Weisman into his office. Amy was the production manager and had shown dedication to her job and promise as a leader. He invited her to sit down and just bluntly said, “Amy, my wife and I plan to take some time and see the universe.”

  Amy laughed and responded, “That’s a pretty big place. Where are you going to start?”

  Victor responded, “Wherever the solar winds take us I suppose.”

  Amy said, “Wait, you’re married?”

  Victor said, “Yes.”

  Amy asked, “To whom? I have never seen you with a woman or even heard one call the office looking for you.” There seemed to be a trace of suspicion in her voice.

  Victor responded, “I am married to the most beautiful woman in the whole known universe.”

  He glanced at Crista. She smiled, clearly appreciating the compliment. Victor inwardly smiled at his play on words. He hadn’t said the prettiest woman in the galaxy or the prettiest in the world, he had actually said the heul’s known universe. A heul was a type of bug, similar to an earthworm, which lived in the uninhabited Southern continent of Solaria. The bugs ‘known universe’ therefore was a ten meter circle of dirt.

  It wasn’t that Crista was ugly, far from it in fact. Victor found her attractive enough. It was just that he wanted to give her a phenomenal compliment and have it be technically truthful. He supposed he could have said that she was his favorite wife.

  Amy had certainly noticed the glance, for she had a stunned look on her face. She addressed Crista and said, “You are married to Victor?”

  Very few people in the office spoke to Crista. Fewer still had spoken to her after she shot the cleaning lady’s cart when she tried to enter Victor’s office.

  Crista simply replied, “Yes.”

  “Wow,” Amy said. “I never put it together that you two were a couple. How long have you been married?”

  Crista replied, “We got married a few months before Victor started this company.”

  Amy said, “Well, you two are certainly inseparable. That must have been quite a courtship and wedding. How did Victor get you to marry him?”

  Crista said, “He drugged me.”

  Victor was starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the conversation, so he loudly said, “Okay, getting back to business. We have decided to take an extended vacation. Therefore, effectively immediately, I am promoting you to CEO. You are in charge of the business. I will obviously continue as owner, but you will be in charge of running the company.

  Amy just sat there with her mouth agape, so Victor asked her, “Do you accept?”

  She hesitated only a moment longer and said, “Yes. Yes, of course.”

  Victor said, “Good, then let’s get straight to it. We have already delivered 20 million gaming units, so the game is a huge hit. However, the orders have stabilized, and within the next six months, they will start going down. We will have to innovate new games and new devices.”
>
  She said, “Victor, all of the technology and real know how are in your brain. How am I supposed to duplicate that?”

  Victor responded, “Well, you will probably have to hire a small engineering staff to help.” Wait, he thought. Would employing humans to reverse engineer alien technology violate the directive from Alliance Prime? Probably, he answered himself.

  He continued, “Don’t worry too much about it though. I have created three new products that should keep us on the forefront of video gaming for the next couple of years. The first is a software package that lets people create their own missions. You can select a winner every day and have it uploaded to the network as the daily mission. The winner could get a $25 gift card or some other small token of appreciation.”

  Amy said, “Wow that sounds great.” She hesitated for a moment and then said, “We are going to make money selling the package and it also frees you from creating scenarios. Smart.”

  Victor thanked her and said, “The second is a full immersion flight simulator. I have programmed the machines to make the raw components needed and also created work instructions for assembly and testing. The first unit should be ready by tomorrow or the next day.”

  Amy said, “How much will a full simulator cost?”

  Victor said, “Well, that will be your decision. But I am guessing we will be able to build them for $30,000 and sell them for around $50,000 apiece.”

  Amy said, “Who is going to buy that?”

  Victor said, “I am envisioning us renting space in malls and setting them up. People will go to the mall to play them for a small fee, say $2.00 per mission. You could have a small bank of them and charge by the ½ hour. It could be similar to the coin operated video arcades of yesteryear. Plus, I imagine there will be many others that will want them.”

  Amy said, “Unbelievable, what is the third?”

  Victor thought about Lorano’s recent brainstorm. It made perfect sense. If they could make a video game to train pilots, then they could make a video game to train everyone else aboard an Alliance cruiser. Lorano had pulled the full schematics of the fighter and the cruiser from the computer database. He blacked out the details of the hyperspace generator, the missile, innards, and the main power reactor. There was no point in giving the humans any more technology than they already had.