Tanner, in the middle of an extensive monolog about navigational systems, realized that Denton wasn't paying attention and stopped mid-sentence.
"Hey, Denton, are you still listening?"
"I think I know what the coordinates are for."
Tanner paused and his holographic image appeared to lean closer. "I'm listening."
Denton pulled up a map of the Descent paths. He overlayed the map with the coordinates Tanner had found. They were close but not an exact match.
"The desert destination, I'm pretty sure it's the landing zone for the Descent pods."
"The Descent pods? Really? I didn't realize they landed in the desert."
"Safety reasons. If anything ever happened, a high-speed impact would be a disaster."
The color of Tanner's face drained. "So, the new coordinates are aimed right at the crowds..."
"That's right. The casualties would be catastrophic."
They both sat in silence for a few moments taking in the imminent disaster brewing before their eyes.
"Tanner, we have to figure out which pod this patch is for. Can you get the official paths for all the pods and compare them to the desert coordinates?"
"Why all?"
"Each pod has a different path. Another safety feature. If one fails or ends up with a problem, a crash wouldn't endanger the landing zones of the others."
"Alright, alright. Give me a sec."
With Tanner silent and focused on finding the data they needed, Denton left his desk and walked over to the observation window in his office. Although his office assignment wasn't what he had requested, the view wasn't terrible. Sure, he didn't have the greatest view of Proxima b, but he could see the Descent Hub in the distance. Somewhere in there, in the middle of preparing for one of the most dangerous sporting events in the universe, one of the pods had been sabotaged. A pod racer was in danger. One of them would impact with the planet's surface within the Olympic Stadium and not land at its designated landing zone in the desert. He shook his head. It would cause havoc, not to mention a public relations nightmare for the organizers. Denton didn't even want to think about the diplomatic implications.
Denton had a hard time understanding who might want to cause such a disaster. What was the point? What could there possibly be to gain from killing hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people who only wanted to have a good time and enjoy the games? Maybe that was the point. There was no articulated reason, just chaos for the sake of chaos.
"Ok, here we go," Tanner said. "I've compared all the official pod paths to the coordinates in the patch. There's only one that's the same."
"And it is?"
"The Vanquisher."
"The Vanquisher? Are you sure?"
"Am I sure? Of course, I'm sure. I did a cross-reference search in the code of the patch, and I found an abbreviation of The Vanquisher name embedded in the code. VNQSHR. I'm sure."
The Vanquisher. Denton felt a chill run down his spine. Not only was The Vanquisher the most popular pod on Proxima b, but it was also piloted by one of the best pod racers on the planet. No, the universe. Jarell Osprey. Although he had never met him, he felt as though he knew him as a friend. Obsessive was a word his friends threw around whenever Jarell and The Vanquisher came up in a discussion.
The continuing Olympic commentary suddenly caught his attention. The fifteen-minute countdown had started. The racers had to be in their pods, strapped in and ready to deploy at the fifteen-minute mark or they would be disqualified. It was almost a mini-race before the race. Once the racers entered the pods, the hatch for each pod would be sealed until the race was complete. No access was allowed. The countdown also meant that Denton only had fifteen minutes to stop the disaster.
He closed all the files on his desktop and transferred the call with Tanner to his mobile communicator. He picked up his uniform jacket and dashed out the door.
"Tanner, I'm heading over to the Descent Hub."
Tanner gazed at Denton over the rims of his glasses. "The Vanquisher?"
"What else?" Denton said as he rushed towards the elevator. He barely made it in. He overrode the direction the elevator was traveling with his credentials over the objections of the other passengers and tapped the button for the transit center.
"Sorry folks," he said as he held up his badge, "It's an emergency. Tanner?"
"I'm here."
"Freeze the VIP shuttles."
"What, wait, the VIP shuttles? Why not use our own?"
"Because the VIP shuttles have extreme speed modules. They're faster than ours. Unofficially of course. Just do it, alright?"
"And you know this how?"
"Just do it."
Fifteen seconds later, the elevator came to a stop at the main platform of the transit center. Denton burst through the door and raced towards the VIP platform. He squeezed between people that had just arrived and those that were heading back to their hab modules after a day out. As shopping bags flew up in the air in his wake, he shouted apologies over his shoulder.
He turned a corner closer to the departure and arrival platforms and plowed right into two security bots. He threw one off balance and sent the second one spinning on the floor while he struggled to stay on his feet. He ignored the bots and their requests to stop and continued to run.
"Tanner?" he said between breaths.
"Still here."
"Which pod?"
"Bay 24."
"24. 24. Got it, thanks, Tanner," he said as he spotted the entrance to Bay 24. "Get out of my way," he shouted as he made his way through a small crowd waiting on the platform next to the shuttle.
"Hey, man, what's the deal?" a tall man with a long beard and pointy blue hair said, pointing a finger right at Denton. "This is my pod."
"Not anymore, it's not," Denton said as he flashed his credentials. "Take the next one," he shouted over his shoulder as he entered the pod.
"You little..."
Denton slammed the hatch using the emergency closure mechanism and made his way through several rows of comfortable chairs to the flight deck. Or, what the shuttle pilots called flight deck. The shuttle itself was, of course, nothing but a glorified bus and the person responsible for propulsion hardly classified as a pilot. Except maybe for the VIP shuttles with unofficial mods. They often required a little bit more skill than just accelerate and decelerate.
"How do I override the controls on this thing?"
"Just a sec."
A few seconds later, the control panel came to life. Denton tapped a few buttons on the dashboard, and the shuttle started to move. Slowly, at first, while the shuttle was still within the superstructure of the hub but once clear, the shuttle picked up speed. Denton, satisfied that they were moving, changed the destination to that of the Descent Hub, bypassing all other scheduled stops.
"Tanner, connect me to the tech lead at The Vanquisher pits."
While Denton waited for the call to go through, he had a priceless view of Proxima b. The shuttle traveled along the spine of the habitable zone of Proxima b on one of many orbital tracks that stretched between the various orbital hubs. His team was stationed at the central hub of the whole orbital complex. The orbital residents often congregated there for parties, shopping and other forms of entertainment. It was the perfect spot to have an office for the Orbital Secret Service, right in the middle of all the human intelligence in orbit. Any rumor worth its salt was whispered in the hallways below his office.
Denton zipped by multiple hab modules on his way over to the Descent Pod. Not much different than apartments in the cities on the surface, those with the views of the planets were usually those with the most credits in their bank accounts. Denton himself had a comfortable hab, even though his view was of the darkness of space and the occasional moon or sister planet that were brought into view by their revolving orbits. He saw Proxima b every day anyway.
To see the planet fly by in what seemed slow motion was something Denton never grew tired of. He could see both the southern desert and the frozen north as he traveled parallel with the border zones of each area. Directly beneath him, the green, habitable area of the planet.
As the shuttle traveled further up the orbital ring, mountain ranges, rivers and other geographical features that he was all too familiar with came into view and then disappeared behind him. Interspersed throughout the landscape were the cities, big and small. He smiled. It was beautiful. Although the rarely made it down to the surface these days, it was still his home.
"Denton, I can't get through to the Descent Hub at all. Voice comms are down."
"Down? That's not possible."
"Yeah, I'm getting nothing."
"Try the emergency frequency."
"Already did. Zip."
Denton looked out the window of the shuttle towards the approaching Descent hub. It was getting closer every minute. From his perspective, everything seemed to be in order. The hub itself didn't seem to be structurally compromised, at least.
"Is the Olympic broadcast still going?"
"Yes, it is. Live from the hub."
"Tanner, where did this patch come from in the first place?"
"The patch? Umm, I think it was a diplomatic intercept."
"A diplomatic intercept? Since when are were monitoring diplomatic traffic?"
"Are you kidding? With the Olympics, we look at everything. It helps that officially, you know, we don't exist."
Denton rolled his eyes. He knew that Tanner relished working in the shadows as if he was some secret agent.
"What was the source of the wire the patch came through on?"
"Earth."
"Earth? You're telling me the Earthlings are trying to sabotage the race?"
"No, not necessarily. It would seem that way but remember, anyone could have sent it from Earth. That doesn't mean Earth wants to sabotage the race."
"Tanner, don't be naive. It's not a secret that some of them don't exactly approve of the Descent. I know some of them have called it too extreme."
"Still, Denton, you're making them all extremists. You can't label them all terrorists just because there are a few bad apples."
Tanner was wrong. Denton knew it. Alright, maybe they weren't all terrorists, but he did know for a fact that one faction of the Olympic Committee from Earth had objected to including an event they couldn't properly train for. Something about the facilities they had around Earth not quite being up to par with those around Proxima b. It just wouldn't be fair. Denton wasn't sure how the event eventually made it into the Olympics, but an agreement must have been made to include it. The rebellious faction had been overruled for the sake of interplanetary political correctness. Fantastic.
"Tanner, how hard is it to reprogram the patch?" Denton asked as he willed the shuttle to move even faster.
"That's not a problem. Getting it over to the pod is the tricky part. With no comms channels open, I can't exactly send it over there."
"Can't you hijack the broadcast signal or something? Hack your way in that way?"
Tanner coughed and looked away for a moment. Denton thought he saw a blush on his cheeks but decided not to push it.
"Of course I can," Tanner said. "I was just about to suggest that."
"Ok good. Do it and send it over to me. I'll relay it through the hub system once I get there. Just hurry, alright? They shut the pods in just a few minutes."
Moments later, the shuttle pulled into the transit center of the Descent hub. Denton exited the shuttle and pushed through the crowds. Angry voices rose up behind him, but he ignored them. He followed the signs to the depot areas of the pod teams. He was just about to enter through a restricted door when someone grabbed his arm.
"Sorry, pal, that's restricted. Authorized personnel only."
Denton flashed his badge. "It's a matter of interplanetary security. Let me through."
The guard scanned his badge, furrowed his eyebrows and looked back at Denton.
"Orbital Security Service? Are you kidding me? You think I'm an idiot?" the guard said and took a step towards Denton.
"Just run it through, alright?" Denton knew it would only take a second and although it might not answer the guard's questions, he would be forced to let him pass.
The guard looked at Denton suspiciously and then processed the verification. The result startled him, and his eyes went from the terminal screen to Denton and back a couple of times.
"Uh, alright, sir, my apologies. Go on through."
Denton thanked the guard and rushed through the doors. He asked the first person he saw where The Vanquisher team had set up shop and then hurried through the crowd of dignitaries and celebrities, all there to try to outshine each other. Out of breath, he burst into the depot of The Vanquisher team and asked for the tech lead. A dark-haired woman approached him, apparently annoyed at the interruption. He flashed his credentials, which she ignored.
"I'm Gabi, the tech lead. This better be good. The race is starting in just a few minutes, and I'm swamped."
"The Vanquisher has been compromised," he said. "You need to stop the race."
Gabi looked at him for a few seconds before she answered. "That's not going to happen. They just shut the hatches. Ready or not, the pods are launching."
~~~
That's the end of chapter 2. Incidentally, this whole chapter is longer than the original story. I'd love to know what you think and of course, if you like what you're seeing so far, vote :) Then, get ready for the fast-paced rush to the surface.