Chapter Six
The Planet Mazere
The first view that the crew of the Galactic Traveller had of the planet Mazere reminded them all of Earth, although of course the landmasses were distributed around the planet differently. There were two ice and snow covered poles, with a multi-coloured patchwork of continents and islands in between, and many wide oceans and seas surrounding them all. The two starship`s from Earth were guided towards the coast of one of the larger continental land masses, and they set down upon an ultra modern space port that was only a few miles outside of a very modern city that could easily have been on Earth. What their scanners also recorded was the vast amount of toxic smog that hung over some of the areas, which they assumed, must be the industrial areas. Thankfully, there was none of these near to the ultra modern spaceport. David took the Galactic Traveller to its allocated parking space which was in the middle of the space port, so there wouldn`t be any unauthorised trips while they were on Mazere, especially as the Intrepid was parked next to them.
Steve threw open the nearest airlock to allow some fresh air into the ship, although he soon noticed that the wind was blowing towards them from the large city that they had seen prior to landing. Although there wasn`t a particularly nasty smell associated with it, he noticed that it wasn`t as fresh as that upon New Mars, but hopefully there wouldn`t be any sand storms either. The sky was blue; although now it was mainly filled with grey clouds intermixed with some angry looking black ones that shouldered the others out of the way. When they had aired the ship sufficiently, they closed and locked all entrances into the starship, and then they returned to the shuttlecraft to consider their options.
“Well David, where do we go from here? It will be tricky trying to duplicate our last trick, we don`t even know who we would need to meet and greet, or where to look for information.” Steve said the words most of the others were secretly thinking but were to loyal to voice.
“I don`t know Steve, the space agency must have a record somewhere as to where they sent the survivors of the Blazer Explorer, maybe we can access their internet and let our fingers do the searching for us?” David replied paraphrasing a very old advertisement.
“Well Barney should be the one to try and access their internet, and then he can trawl through to see if he can locate any interesting possibilities, he will not only be much quicker than us, but he can also read the local language.” Sarah said. “If we get nowhere David, then maybe we should just approach the Admiral and come partially clean and say that while we were in this sector of space we would like to take this opportunity to search for a missing starship, surely it would be difficult to refuse our request without giving a reason as to why? We could even ask if he could have his fleet keep an eye out for any signs of the starship, all innocent like.” This last idea brought a chorus of laughs.
“He is a very high ranking officer in the Mazeren space fleet Sarah, and so there is no chance in a million that he would ever help us in our quest. Although I suppose he can hardly complain if we did ask for his help, it would be admitting to us that they were guilty of a crime. I hardly think it likely though that he will agree to help us but as you say we can keep your idea in reserve, should our other attempts come to nought.” David said.
“I too think that approaching the admiral would probably come to nought David, but I did get the feeling that he was reaching out to us, but as you say he was probably just after info.” Sarah said and smiled ever so sweetly at her fiancé as if to say, we shall see.
“Ok then as no one else has any suggestions Barney, why don`t you see if you can access their internet.” David said, ignoring Sarah`s unsaid words.
“Of course Captain I will start now.” And with that Barney left the confines of the shuttle craft to return to the starship`s bridge, and once there he began to hum. He was searching the airways to first find the Mazeren internet, which he quickly located while the others had a cup of coffee in the ship`s galley and spoke of Earth, and of their families. Thirty minutes later, Barney indicated that they should all retire back down to the shuttlecraft and once inside he gave them his report.
“I`m sorry it took so long Captain, but their system is a lot slower and more complicated than our own. For a start I had to piggy back on another user`s signal to gain admission into the network.” Barney said. “I first of all looked for the location of the Mazeren military headquarters, both local and national, that was a simple task as it turned out. Unfortunately, I was not able to find out any more information as I do not feel competent enough to hack my way by all of their security systems without being discovered. I`m sorry Captain, but it will be within such places that any data of a sensitive or secret nature is likely to be kept.”
“You were right not to try Barney; for we can leave the hacking to Steve and his little snoopers. What about it Steve, can you send your snoopers in again without too much of a risk of being found out?” David asked his very able friend.
It took a moment before Steve looked up at David, for he too had been surfing the Mazeren internet by piggy backing on a locals signal, and had not realised that David had asked him a question.
“I`m sorry David I missed some of that, what was your question again?” David then repeated what was said.
“I don`t think that we should risk my little snooper this time around, at least not just yet David. However, the searches made by Barney on the Mazeren internet have put me onto something that might fit the bill and allow us to use my little snoopers. Did you know that the Mazeren space headquarters has an official internet site? No, well they do, and they mention that they provide guided tours in the space headquarters building every morning. That could well be our way in. We will need someone to take one of my tablets along on the guided tour, and so be near to their mainframe computer, and this could allow me to gain access via it into the buildings network rather than via the internet. This would be a more secure method, for if they detect us while piggy backing, as Barney and I have been doing, then they will only need to find the area where the hacker is based to guess that we are behind it. The beauty of my new plan is that we don`t have to leave a device behind that would probably be found by someone eventually, either that or we would have to return to the space HQ to retrieve it, which is an added risk in itself.
“Fine then, Tony and Jimmy can take the hovercraft to town tomorrow morning and partake of the tour, hopefully they will attract less attention than Sarah and me, in any case we don`t know what plans other people may have for us back here at the space port.” David said and Jimmy immediately asked a question.
“Steve, would you like us to take our time while the two of us are inside the space HQ?”
“Yes but not so much time that you attract attention to yourselves, as then their security might find my device on you. Take your smartphones along with you and let me know when you are about to enter the building, and I will tell you when I`ve got the info that we are after. If during this time you think it advisable to leave then do so immediately, and without attracting any undue attention to yourselves.”
“Ok Steve, we understand exactly what you require of us. We are to let you know prior to entering the building, we are then to go on the tour but afterwards we are to hang around without bringing undue attention upon ourselves until you tell us that we can leave.” Tony Miles said.
“You got it Tony.” Steve said smiling.