Boss 302 - Chapter 4
As Gerry began to relax at the thought of getting the hell out of Dodge, his gate map went blank. Autopilot dropped off immediately and a warning message appeared on the mapping screen indicating that the gate’s location had been cleared from primary memory. Shit, he thought, glaring at the display. This goddamn thing better not be damaged. Now was not a good time to spend precious minutes reloading the gate request. He would need to set down in a good hiding place for a while to run a diagnostics check.
Gerry sped towards some cliffs to the west. In a few minutes he reached a sizeable cavern with sufficient cover and glided the Mustang towards it. As the tires touched the ground, a message appeared on the screen requiring a hard reset of the entire system. “I cannot believe this!” Gerry roared, slamming his fists on the steering wheel. Gerry grabbed the meta-tester from the passenger floorboard and got out of the car. He popped the hood and turned on the tester. The gate generator’s CPU was located against the firewall on the right side of the car. He connected the tester via the XAN port to the CPU.
As the test scan initialized, Gerry thought of his father. Thanks for cursing me with this hunk of junk Dad, he thought. His father had died trying to keep his invention from the Thorlacks. The night Admiral Latrec’s special forces killed his father, Gerry narrowly escaped the same fate. Gerry’s father dragged him out of bed and out the garage door, telling him to get away quickly even as the front door exploded and the troops stormed into his home. Gerry raced away as gunshots erupted from the garage door, cutting his father down and pinging the pavement in the Mustang’s wake. Only as he turned a corner, his brain awash with adrenaline, did Gerry notice the new equipment in his car and a note on his front seat explaining what was happening. Even though Gerry didn’t want to believe most of it, the reality of the situation demanded that he accept it. That had been six Earth months ago.
Gerry’s memories were broken by a faint hissing sound. He leaned into the engine compartment to investigate the noise and the tester began to squawk with interferenece. Something in the CPU was transmitting a signal. It must be how the Thorlacks were tracking him! Gerry punched a few buttons on the testing unit. His father had left the archive transmitter on. Gerry performed a hard reset from the testing unit and confirmed that all network transmissions were turned off.
“Catch me now slimeballs,” he said, slamming the hood and climbing back into his Ford. The gate generator readout had already given him a new destination, the planet Minnea, a deep space system. It was a name he recognized from the last line of his father’s note:
“Find Dorothy on Minnea. She will tell you all.”
Gerry sped towards some cliffs to the west. In a few minutes he reached a sizeable cavern with sufficient cover and glided the Mustang towards it. As the tires touched the ground, a message appeared on the screen requiring a hard reset of the entire system. “I cannot believe this!” Gerry roared, slamming his fists on the steering wheel. Gerry grabbed the meta-tester from the passenger floorboard and got out of the car. He popped the hood and turned on the tester. The gate generator’s CPU was located against the firewall on the right side of the car. He connected the tester via the XAN port to the CPU.
As the test scan initialized, Gerry thought of his father. Thanks for cursing me with this hunk of junk Dad, he thought. His father had died trying to keep his invention from the Thorlacks. The night Admiral Latrec’s special forces killed his father, Gerry narrowly escaped the same fate. Gerry’s father dragged him out of bed and out the garage door, telling him to get away quickly even as the front door exploded and the troops stormed into his home. Gerry raced away as gunshots erupted from the garage door, cutting his father down and pinging the pavement in the Mustang’s wake. Only as he turned a corner, his brain awash with adrenaline, did Gerry notice the new equipment in his car and a note on his front seat explaining what was happening. Even though Gerry didn’t want to believe most of it, the reality of the situation demanded that he accept it. That had been six Earth months ago.
Gerry’s memories were broken by a faint hissing sound. He leaned into the engine compartment to investigate the noise and the tester began to squawk with interferenece. Something in the CPU was transmitting a signal. It must be how the Thorlacks were tracking him! Gerry punched a few buttons on the testing unit. His father had left the archive transmitter on. Gerry performed a hard reset from the testing unit and confirmed that all network transmissions were turned off.
“Catch me now slimeballs,” he said, slamming the hood and climbing back into his Ford. The gate generator readout had already given him a new destination, the planet Minnea, a deep space system. It was a name he recognized from the last line of his father’s note:
“Find Dorothy on Minnea. She will tell you all.”
posted by Bill Nolen at 1:43 AM
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