This story was inspired by two articles. The first a rogue wave that killed two people on a cruise ship and a second about an old World War II plane that crashed. To be considered for publication it probably needs more conflict. It's only 1900 words. Are the scene jumps too big?

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The Program Will Be Delayed

Dave Krenitsky

 

Titus pulled his car into the hospital parking lot and checked the patients name. Since the rogue wave had killed two aboard the cruise ship in the Gulf he had been watching for a second event. Exiting in the atmosphere, he thought, someone was getting sloppy.

He searched through his documents and pulled out the FAA ID. It might spook the pilot into silence or it might make him talk. He showed the ID to the nurse and she directed him to the patient.

Titus slipped into the room and eased the door closed behind him. In the bed an older man lay with one leg in a cast and suspended in the air. Titus cleared his throat to let the injured man know he was there.

"Who are you? I thought visiting hours were over."

"I'm Mr. Smith. I would like to ask you a few questions about the accident," Titus said.

"I've told my story. Who are you again?"

"Mr. Smith, with the FAA." Titus pulled out his ID and showed the man. "We are still trying to figure out why your plane went down."

"It was old. Those things happen."

"The P-40 was in good shape; you have a few thousand hours in the type. I checked the records. Besides, I love those old World War II planes. If there is anything I can do to keep others flying I..." Titus trailed off hoping to get the other to open up.

"I don't know what went wrong. I just crashed. That's all."

"We can send some divers down if we need to. What do you think we will find?"

"No, don't. I can't tell you. You'll pull my certificate if I talk."

Titus folded his ID and slipped it into his pocket. "One old plane buff to another. Off the record."

The man in the bed squirmed then looked out the window. "I got shot down."

"Shot down? By what?"

"A 109. A stupid 109. I shot down three of those over North Africa, now I let one get me." The man in the bed looked at Titus. "Now you think I'm nuts. You'll never let me fly again."

"By guns? Not lasers or rockets?"

"What? Course guns."

"I said off the record. All I am interested in is keeping others from having the ... uh, same problem you had." Titus stood up and walked to the door. "I will keep my mouth shut if you will." Titus closed the door behind him.

Walking back to his car Titus wondered why anyone would travel to Earth to shoot down an old man in an antique plane.

* * *

In his apartment Titus activated his equipment. The energy discharge would tell him the rough distance the alien ship had hyper-jumped. Not much to go on but it would narrow down the systems he would have to search. The answer came back as seventy to one hundred light years. There were six inhabited systems that far from Earth. Bilmax and Fromhurt didn't count. Their inhabitants hadn't developed FTL yet and like Earth were isolated from the galactic community. As a courtesy he would inform their protectors that his planet had been violated. Three others were gas giants and their inhabitants would have little interest in Earth. That left Staggiie.

It's inhabitants were oxygen breathers and the gravity much the same as Earth.

He called his ship and told it to prepare for a trip. Then he called his co-protectors and let them know he would be off-planet for a bit. It would take him a few hours to drive to the cave where his ship was hidden and a few more to finish the prep on the ship. The timing was good. By then it would be dark and he could leave the atmosphere without much chance of being sighted. Unlike whoever had come in he would not engage the hyper-drive in the atmosphere.

* * *

The car drove itself to the cave while Titus studied the details of the energy signature. He had gotten lazy. He should have checked as soon as he had heard of the wave. Such things didn't happen this time of year but he couldn't believe that any being would have been crazy enough to exit hyper-drive in the atmosphere and release the energy that caused the wave. So now he was left with a trail that was a few days old and no other leads.

"You're making me miss my soaps you know," the ship said.

"I keep telling you that you can't get a feeling for humans by watching the soaps. They are not real."

"I disagree. Didn't I predict the last election based on my models?"

"Everyone predicted the last election. Besides you know where to find archives of them. How are we doing?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. We should pick up some fuel while we'll in civilization."

"OK, you can load up while I'm on the planet. They don't let mechs on the planet anyway. This shouldn't take long, whoever did this is not too bright."

"Great, you've got it narrowed down to only ninety percent of the Staggiie population. How did they ever discover hyper-space anyway?"

"You know they have a few super geniuses and a lot of normal beings. Staggiie tech is the basis for your processor. Better not let them hear you bad mouthing them. You might end up without a mind or body."

"Anyway, I'm thinking of buying a body again. I've been saving up."

"You do better as a mech. First time you lost it in a bet. Going to give up gambling? Last time was some kind of female problem."

"I can't help it bio-brains don't have a math processor. And that female Slootian was nuts. She took everything so literal. Time to go."

Titus sat down and reviewed the status screens. Everything was in order and the trip through the atmosphere was quick.

"Time for the jump," the ship said.

* * *

Staggiie space control was located in some tiny moon far from the home planet. Titus started a search for any departures that would give an arrival time at Earth the day of the wave. When he entered the control center his results were waiting--nothing. Only commercial flights had left in that time period and all had arrived at their destinations without incident.

Either someone had masked their departure or the violator had come from somewhere else. Titus was not ready to give up yet, besides if Staggiie wasn't the source he had no other suspects. Titus walked back to the ship and checked on the fueling.

"You look down today. No luck?" the ship asked.

"No. There were no legal departures and their scanners didn't pick up and unauthorized departures. Course, they weren't really looking for departures."

"What you need is to get your mind off the problem. This place is just the right distance from Earth to pick up the early TV broadcasts. I can do a time dependent analysis of their social development. Plus they've got documentaries of the last big war. That guy you visited in the hospital, there's even a documentary about him. And the comedians, now maybe I'll..."

"What? Who"

"Comedians. There's this guy Milton Berle..."

"No, the pilot. He's on the network here?"

"Yeah, though he's not the best fly-boy from that war but I think that even the whiz-bang Staggiie brains can't pick up all the TV show from Earth. Wait until they find that most has gone digital." The ship paused for a moment. "Do they have a stock market here? If I short the companies rebroadcasting the Earth shows I'll make a killing when they go dark."

"That's fifty years from now. Can you wait?"

"Damn, I keep forgetting that Earth doesn't have FTL."

Titus stared at the console. "It can't be that simple can it?"

"What?" It was the ship's turn to ask.

"What if one of the locals forgot the time lag. What if they thought the action was real time? What if they went to Earth to take part in the war? Pull up their social networks. Start with any that are focused on Earth's WW II. Check to see if anyone has talked or bragged about visiting Earth recently."

"Working, working. Sure, I have the breakthrough idea, I do all the search work. Who's going to get the credit? Not me. No."

"Oh, shut-up. I'll put you in for a bonus if we get a conviction out of this. How's it going?"

"You're not going to believe it." The information popped up on Titus's screen." This idiot is bragging that he shot down some great P-40 pilot. You know what I'm going to do with that bonus? I'm going to buy a body. Not one of those weak dumb human bodies. I'm going to get a Bragorian. Now they have a math sense that calculates odds and they have these morphing sex organs. I hear that they can have sex with most other species."

"He or she or it is a minor."

"With all my winnings I'll... What difference does that make?"

"A minor by Staggiie law isn't responsible. He'll be taken to court and monitored but There won't be any conviction."

"So?"

"Alien protection only gives a bonus if there is a conviction. There won't even be a trial in this case."

* * *

Titus walked down the stairs from the court carefully, even in the lighter gravity the half meter drop of each step was dangerous. He pulled out his communicator, checked his messages and called the ship.

"It's all over. The kid is being counseled and his guardians are offering restitution for the affected humans. I'm not sure how that is going to play out since they can't legally contact anyone on Earth."

"I was following the hearing on the news channel. Hard to imagine someone can pilot an FTL ship but not realize the signals were from years in the past."

"And I got some good news," Titus paused to annoy the ship.

"Well, you going to tell me?"

"You won't get a full bonus but you will get about a third. Almost enough for a new body if you save it and don't gamble it away."

"Maybe, I'll let you hold it. Being mechanical is fine but bio's have some advantages."

"Like being allowed on some planets?"

"Exactly. I know the Staggiie's had a war with their AI's a few hundred years ago. You would think they would forget."

Titus boarded a transport to the spaceport. "Particularly if the mech had been a bio at one time."

"Exactly."

"How did you lose your second body? You never told me."

There was a pause from the ship. "Let me just say that when I told her I was into commitment and change she never expected that I would change my commitment. Her family had enough to transfer my mind to a mech but not enough to repair the damage she had done to me."