Tales From a Thousand Worlds

Ray and the Alien Princesses

Part Three – Gullibility

“Hello captain.” The alien woman’s voice was sultry and seductive, accentuated by her soft tones. “We always welcome visitors that drop by, though few do so quite so literally.”

“We, er, had a few technically thingies, er, problems with our ship,” Brian replied, bumbling over his words, Ray’s warning completely forgotten. “Engines failed, that kind of thing.”

“My, you did such a masterful job of putting it down then,” the woman purred, stepping in closer to Brian. An intoxicating aroma of perfume emanated from her, making Brian’s head spin and driving logical thought from him.

“Er, don’t mean to boast,” Brian mumbled lamely, cheeks starting to flame. There was a faux, pointed metallic cough from Ray. “Um, I am Brian.”

“I am the Princess Lahuska of the House of Skova. My six sisters and I have been cruelly exiled to this terrible planet by the merciless Grand Vizier Zboseko after he deposed our beloved father, King Svelavoj the Tenth. Our only crime was to not consenting to form his harem and so we were exiled.”

“Yes, well, Grand Viziers. All the same. Know what they are like.”

Lahuska laid a hand on Brian’s chest and slowly ran it down it. “Perhaps you can help us, brave captain.”

“Do what I can,” Brian mumbled, face growing warmer.

“We have been here alone for so terribly long, with no one but the droids who tend to us for company. We have no way to leave this planet and no one ever comes and visits us. Perhaps, if we help to see your ship repaired, we can escape with you. We would be oh so terribly grateful, my sisters and I. There is little we can offer in way of payment, but I can promise what we can offer will be enjoyable.” She leaned in close and breathed the last word out, her warm breath playing across Brain’s ear.

“Happy to, happy to,” he replied, beaming stupidly.

Lahuska laughed a husky laugh, slipping her arm through his. “Come, I will introduce you to my sisters. They will be overjoyed to meet such a brave and handsome man. I will leave my droid behind with yours to oversee the recovery and repair of your ship. BQ7, use side entrance three.”

“Yes mistress,” the droid BQ7 answered mechanically.

Ray shook his head as his master and the alien woman Lahuska walked off. “Humans.”

~~~~~

The fleshy sacks of meat had an expression; that they could feel something was wrong in the pit of their stomach. Ray found the concept ludicrous and illogical, yet now he was experiencing something similar, even if he lacked the digestive organ to have the feeling in. He couldn’t quite calculate what was wrong but the situation he found himself in didn’t quite compute. It was like when a gear went a fraction of a millimetre out of alignment. Sensors could detect that there was an error but could not pinpoint the exact cause initially.

Trying to converse with the other droid, BQ7, didn’t help matters. It was old, obsolete and of such limited intelligence it was barely more than an automated program. It was worse than talking with the sacks of meat and that took some doing. Nor could he check out Lahuska’s story. With the datalink to the ship cut off he had no access to the infonet.

The waddling droid led Ray to a much smaller side entrance set into a cliff face, a small datapad and screen alongside it. The door slid open as they approached.

“Enter,” BQ7 intoned. Warning sensors went off internally as Ray looked at the open doorway. There were a number of odd nodes set behind the door and a faint film of energy arcing between them. Ray knew exactly what it was, an Android Recalibration System. Stepping through the field would flip his programming back to base code, wiping memory and reducing him to a robotic zombie. It at least explained BQ7.

There had to be a way to get in without that happening, but for that he needed a way into the system. That would require the perfect bait, something that wasn’t hard to conjure up.

“I have the complete authentication codes to all sectors of the ship,” he told BQ7. “Do you want copies of them prior to erasure?”

BQ7 sat there whirring for a few moments, but, as Ray had expected, he passed the matter on to someone with more brainpower. A toaster would have sufficed for that. The small screen beside the door flickered into life and another of the green skinned alien women appeared on it.

“State your serial number.”

“X-Ray-374-A60R.”

“You have the authentication codes for the ship?” Ray could detect eagerness patterns in her voice.

“Affirmative. Weapons, propulsion, navigation, secure datalink access, medical.”

“Excellent, excellent. I am opening up a secure link for you to deliver the files through. Upload them then enter.” The screen flickered again and was gone.

Ray established a connection with the secure uplink and dove into the system. A quick glance showed the security to be frankly pitiful. It would take but a moment for him to hack through it and gain full access, and with it the means to deactivate the field at the doorway.

The meatsacks were so gullible. They said that humans were the masters of self preservation, but compared to Ray they regularly stuck their fingers in the power sockets of life.

~~~~~

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