The Ship Finder Read online

  It was May 3. After the crew had conducted training drills for a few days in the ship, which was still on Sunev, Raven called Wilson to the control deck just before the vessel was about to begin its jump to Earth.

  When Wilson walked onto the deck, Raven showed his lopsided grin and said, "The new crew has to learn how to work as a team. This will be their first big jump to another planet."

  "Will they be ready for battle when we return, even if their training is cut short?" Wilson asked.

  "I hope so. They must be prepared. If not, they could endanger the ship," Raven said. "We don't have many ships, and neither does Triod."

  "So, there's no chance Triod would invade Sunev?"

  "There's no risk of a big invasion," said Raven. "But there's a slim possibility that the cyborgs could drop mini-fusion bombs on our cities, if they've learned how to build them. We don't know if they stole, bought, or made the mini fusion bombs that they set off at the Parliament Building."

  "That makes me wonder if our next objective is to bomb Triod's capital before they bomb First City," said Wilson.

  "What I'm about to tell you is top secret, so don't repeat it," Raven said.

  "You have my word."

  "Both sides have fusion weapon detectors which can find large bombs even if they are shielded. Smaller, mini-fusion bombs are harder to detect," Raven said. "So, we would spot a big bomb before they could set it off."

  "But how can you stop them from detonating it even if you can locate it?"

  "We can disarm the big bombs from a distance," Raven said. His mention of an ability to defuse a nuclear weapon by remote control seized Wilson's interest.

  "How many dimension ships does Triod have?" Wilson asked.

  "We think that they have three. Just like our ships, their vessels can't carry enough bombs to win a war and have a capacity of just a few hundred soldiers. Because ships won't make much difference right now in the war, we have time to go to Earth to train the crew."

  "I look forward to showing Lena Northern California," Wilson said. He also hoped to see relatives and friends and introduce them to Lena.

  "And I can't wait to tour California's Gold Country again," Raven said. He winked and began to set switches and touch screen controls.

  Wilson remembered, another reason Raven wants to return to Earth is to find more gold for the war effort. Gold's a vital element in Sunev's fusion power systems. Wilson reached in his hip pocket. "That reminds me. Here's a plastic map of Gold Country I found when you were wounded. It's yours." He handed it to Raven.

  "Thanks. I thought I had lost it during our battle with the cyborg. I've already printed another one. How'd you find it?"

  "When you asked me to take the ray pistol from your pocket, I also grabbed the map. It was with the weapon. In my rush, I stuffed the map in my pocket.

  "How did you guess that the map was of Gold Country?" Raven asked.

  "Lena saw the map, and she told me she thought that it showed Gold Country. Where did the map come from?"

  Raven smiled and picked up a cheap looking digital camera near the ship's control panel. He handed the camera to Wilson.

  "I was in a museum in Gold Country the last time I was on Earth. I shot a picture of a map that had been scratched on a piece of leather in the 1800's. I made a copy so I could study it for my next California visit."

  Raven turned on the ship's intercom and said, "All hands, we jump in two minutes. If you haven't already strapped in, please do so."

  Raven and Wilson sat in flight chairs and fastened their seatbelts. Wilson gripped his chair's arms, Raven initiated the jump, and the ship began to vibrate.

  "What do you plan to see in Gold Country?" Wilson asked.

  "Sutter's Mill. I'd also like to spend a day or two at the Imperial mine, which is now a tourist destination. After you touch base with your friends and family, you, Lena, Roberto, and I will go to Gold Country together."

  "Should be fun," Wilson said, and he dozed off. He awoke when the ship's mild shuddering stopped after it had passed through the last of the dimension barrier. The crewmembers unsnapped their seatbelts while the ship slowly neared the edge of Earth's realm during the final minutes of the jump.

  "This trip will be fun," Wilson said as he stood next to his flight chair. He hadn't been to Gold Country in four years. He noticed movement in his side vision, so he turned and saw police officer Roberto Yarnell approach. In the last few days, Wilson hadn't had a chance to talk with him.

  "It's good to have you as a comrade-in-arms again, Dr. Wilson," Yarnell said. The two shook hands. "I'll never forget the battle we had against Lena's kidnappers."

  "Neither will I," Wilson said.

  "Officer Yarnell is second in command, just under me," said Raven. "I'll announce his promotion to the crew in a short time. Until then, please don't tell anyone."

  Wilson was surprised that Raven had not mentioned this to him before. "I'm glad to have such a skilled officer working with us," Wilson said.

  "Roberto likes to hunt for gold with me," said Raven. "Our hobby has proved helpful to Sunev because we've delivered enough gold to the government for use in fusion generators to make a difference in the war effort."

  "When we find gold on one planet in a certain place, we often find similar deposits at the same coordinates on their twin planets in other dimensions," said Yarnell.

  I knew that planets which overlap in different dimensions are about the same, but I had no idea they'd match in detail, Wilson thought. "When you go to Earth, will you check places where people have already found gold?" he asked.

  "Yes," said Raven. "For example, we can learn where prospectors found California gold that was easy to locate. Then we can use that information to find gold on Triod. People have not explored that planet very much."

  "Now I know why you've traveled to Gold Country a lot," Wilson said.

  Raven and Yarnell smiled.

  The Ghost Liner vibrated very slightly, then eased to a stop on the edge of Earth's dimension, and Wilson relaxed. Lena walked up to him and gave him a hug. "I can tell you're happy," she said.

  "I can't wait to see my friends and family," he replied. "I'm glad that you'll be coming along."

  "She'll fit in very well," said Raven. "She knows how to handle herself on Earth because she's been here many times with me."

  Raven, Yarnell, Lena, and Wilson entered The Ghost Liner's transfer room so they could "jump" unnoticed to a spot near Sutter's Mill. The rest of ship's crew stayed inside the cloaked vessel, invisible from the edge of Earth's dimension, where they were to conduct practice drills to prepare for combat.

  Each of the four travelers carried $2,000 in cash and had access to $200,000 each held in the Jamaican National Bank of the People. Sunevian research teams on Earth had invested funds from gold in stocks and bonds, which financed their operations worldwide.

  Wilson planned to phone friends and relatives to say he was back in California, but now in Gold Country.

  The four sat in their transfer flight seats, and Raven commanded the jump technician to initiate their short trip from the ship to Earth. Raven had planned the jump so that he and his three shipmates would arrive within a large crowd of tourists. He knew there would be a reenactment of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill when they arrived in California.

  Raven liked to send travelers into big crowds because to people in the throng, it would appear that the voyagers had stepped around them from behind or from one side or the other. As the explorers transferred to Earth, their seatbelts unsnapped at the right moment. Each traveler took a pace or two like they would step from a moving escalator onto a floor.

  When they stepped from just outside of a dimension and into it, they sometimes had minor collisions with people. Therefore, the explorers marched out in slow motion. If they did bump someone, they would say, "Excuse me," and smile.

  When Wilson and Lena popped into sight near a few tourists close to Sutter's Mill, Wilson suddenly remembered details of
a recent dream. In it he had dreamt that Raven had snatched some gold nuggets from a display and fired an old time pistol into the air. Wilson's memory of the dream vanished when he saw tourists looking at leather goods that a craftsman had on display.

  Lena and Wilson held hands and strolled. He glanced to his left just as Raven and Yarnell arrived unseen by the crowd near some men on horses. The horsemen amused onlookers who were so absorbed in the reenactment that they never saw the two dimension travelers appear.

  The two riders were dressed as cowboys and sported six-shooters in ornate leather and silver holsters. The men also had rifles holstered on their saddles.

  The four travelers had reached Auburn at a perfect time to soak in Gold Rush history. Wilson read a caption on a display that said, "James Marshall discovered gold in the American River, helping to spark the human stampede to California called the Gold Rush. Not long after Marshall's discovery, Claude Chana was panning for gold in the Auburn River on May 16, 1848, and found the heavy yellow metal, which excited men enough to catch 'gold fever.'"

  As Lena and Wilson were about to enter a small building, the Gold Rush Display House, he saw Raven and Yarnell go into the bigger Gold Nugget Display Museum.

  Wilson said, "I don't remember that museum. They must have built it a year or two ago." Wilson squinted to look through its wide entry. The exhibition housed some of the largest nuggets prospectors had found in California. Armed guards moved among the displays, which were wired with alarms.

  "It looks like Raven's got some more data about where to look for gold on planet Triod," Lena said.

  "Where will they find big nuggets in California Gold Country, if most of the easy pickings are gone?" Wilson asked. "Maybe they found a big nugget on Triod, and its twin hasn't been found on Earth. They must have a place in mind with a big payoff."

  "Maybe," Lena said.

  While Raven and Yarnell were in the museum, they looked at a large gold nugget. Raven took a picture of the display, which included a map that showed the place where a lucky prospector had found the big chunk of gold.

  Chapter 17 – Lena Meets Bill's Friends

  Lena and Wilson left Sutter's Mill Park in a lavish Electric Lance automobile, which they rented at an agency two blocks from the park.

  Just before they drove away, Wilson phoned his secretary, Mona Parker, at Metro General Hospital to tell her that he would arrive late that afternoon for a short visit home and then would soon return to Scandinavia to do more proprietary research.

  It's a white lie, he rationalized. After all, I've learned a few things about nano meds when I was on Sunev, and I'm sure I'll learn more when I go back.

  Wilson also told Mona that he would bring his new girlfriend, Lena, with him.

  As Wilson drove from Gold Country to the Bay Area, he stopped often so Lena could look in small shops. She was happy away from the war, and Wilson was elated as they neared the East Bay and his hospital in San Ramon. The weather was dry, cool, and clear. Wilson's world, despite its flaws, felt friendlier than planet, Sunev.

  In a few hours Wilson and Lena arrived at the hospital where they had battled the cyborgs in April. Though it had only been a month since that fight, Wilson felt like he had stepped back in time to enjoy the Earth. He had to remind himself that he had not awakened from a dream.

  Wilson parked his rental car in his reserved space, and he walked with Lena to his secretary's cubicle near the hospital's front door. Because he hadn't seen her in a while, he looked at his secretary like he had seen her for the first time. Mona was blond, with an hour-glass figure, thin and fit.

  She looked up from her desktop computer. "Dr. Wilson, it's so good to see that you've returned from overseas," she said.

  "I had a trip that amazed me," Wilson said. "I'll tell you more about it later, but I'm sure you remember Lena Lavelle. She's my girlfriend now.

  Mona took off her black-rimmed glasses. "Congratulations to both of you," she said. She got up from her desk chair and went to Lena.

  Lena hugged Mona. "I'm glad to see you again," said Lena.

  "The pleasure is mine," said Mona. "As I recall, you said you were from Europe?"

  "I've spent a lot of time in Scandinavia," Lena replied.

  "You're a world traveler, then?"

  "Yes."

  "We should have coffee in the cafeteria while Bill deals with the messages and paperwork he needs to take care of before he touches base with his co-workers," Mona said.

  Mona handed Wilson a fistful of telephone messages on yellow memo paper and also gave him patients' medical forms to sign.

  "We'll be back in forty-five minutes," Mona said, as she guided Lena to the glass door that opened to the hallway. "That should be enough time to get most of that stuff done," she said as the two women left.

  Wilson phoned his friend, Dr. Ron Jamison, the pulmonary expert who would have operated on Raven, if he had not mended after his dose of nano medicine.

  "Hello," said Jamison.

  "Hi, Ron. This is Bill Wilson. I've just returned from Denmark where I had a chance to review some confidential material about nanotechnology and how it relates to medicine."

  "Sounds exciting," said Jamison.

  "It is, but I have personal news. I have a new girlfriend, Lena Lavelle. I plan to introduce her to my family."

  "It must be serious. Will you settle down?"

  "Maybe," Wilson said. "I've asked her to live with me, and we'll see how it works out. She may be the one for me, but she's from another culture."

  "Where?" Jamison asked.

  "She's spent a lot of time in Scandinavia. Also, she is a United Nations citizen of the world – a traveler," Wilson said.

  "I'd like to meet her, but I have to leave in a few minutes," said Jamison.

  "I'll introduce you to her at the earliest opportunity," said Wilson.

  "That would be great. I've gotta go now."

  "See you soon," said Wilson.

  "Bye," said Jamison, and Wilson hung up.

  Lena and Wilson had come up with the U.N. citizenship cover story. Experts had forged her papers before The Ghost Liner had departed Sunev. There were about ten million U.N. citizens, enough of them that Lena could be inconspicuous.

  Wilson breezed through his paperwork. He was sipping a cup of black tea when Lena came back to the office by herself. She smiled and sat in the visitors' chair next to his tan metal desk.

  "Mona said she had to go to training for a half hour," Lena reported. Her eyes sparkled.

  "You look cheery," he said.

  "It's refreshing to be in such an open society, where people don't fear that they're being watched or worry they might break some rule," she said. "When I travel to Earth, I realize how paranoiac Sunevian society is."

  "I agree that the people of Sunev are scared," Wilson said.

  "I doubt if Sunev's way of life will change soon to be more like that of Earth," Lena said. "I hope I can help the people of my planet to become more tolerant. When I've visited libraries here, I've read about the Indian Mahatma Gandhi and the American Martin Luther King. They impressed me."

  "What did you like about them?"

  "Gandhi developed non-violence to oppose discrimination. Martin Luther King also used non-violence to protest racial inequality."

  "Do some races on Sunev suffer from discrimination?"

  "The races don't, but clones of all races and cyborgs do," she said. "I hope that I can use my dimension traveler status on Sunevian TV to change things in a delicate way because I'm a clone."

  "You may well be a person who can change Sunev," Wilson said. "I was surprised when I learned you're famous."

  "I just became famous by chance," she said. "The people at home think of me as just a well-known clone, but I'm not a papier-mâché person. I think for myself, and I have a free will. I hope freedom will evolve even if it's being stunted by a dictatorial regime."

  "I am grateful you feel that way," Wilson said, and he took her hand. "I didn't know how to
tell you that I have great concerns about how your government works, that it's a dictatorship."

  She leaned to him and kissed his lips. They hugged. "I knew you'd understand," she said, her head close to him as she looked into his brown eyes. "I have one more confession that you need to keep secret. Do you promise not to tell anyone from Sunev unless I say it's okay?"

  "Yes," Wilson said.

  She whispered, "I'm with the Underground, the clone warriors who fight the Great Leader and his regime. We are allied with the cyborgs and clones of Triod as well. We want to replace tyranny with democracy." She bit her lip. "I wish our revolution could be non-violent, but our struggle has spun out of control. People want freedom now, and we're caught in the frenzy."

  "I'm proud of you," Wilson said. He was surprised to hear himself add, "And I'll fight the Great Leader and his bunch, too."

  She exhaled and smiled.

  "I like that," she said, and she kissed him with passion.

  She rested against his arms and closed her eyes for a few minutes. He felt relieved, like a load had been lifted from his chest. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "I once met a lady, a sociologist, who studied monkey and ape societies. She told me how these groups of animals are run by a few elitists. So, even if we beat the Great Leader and his oligarchy, it'll be hard for us to set up a free society that isn't ruled by a few. Apes and monkeys, after all, are our closest cousins in the animal world."

  "In history, I can't think of a time when a few people didn't rise to control the people around them, no matter what kind of a political system they had," Wilson said.

  "Who knows if we can ever bring down the small group that rules Sunev," Lena said. "But if we do, we need to make a new form of democracy. No system I've ever seen or read about allows everyone to be free."

  The more Lena spoke of her goals for a change on her home planet, the more Wilson learned how smart she was. "Everything you've said has lots of value," he said.

  "Thank you, but these are only words," she said. "To make such a big change may be impossible. Even so, most people will always want to rule themselves. Their desire to be free will help us to develop a true democracy. They don't want masters. You see this when children rebel against their parents."