“Other sections?” I said. “There are more of you out there?”
“Oh yes,” Grandpa said. “Many more.”
“Every section is as well prepared as you are here?” I said.
Grandpa’s long bushy eyebrows drooped.
“In all honesty, we don’t know,” he said. “We couldn’t risk them discovering us, so we stopped communicating a long time ago. If they find one of us, they could find all of us. We can’t allow that to happen.”
Stari stepped forward.
“So you see,” she said. “We need you. Find their control room and we’ll do the rest. Only then will we have the resources to send you home.”
Discover the control room.
So they can destroy it.
And release an entire species from slavery.
No pressure.
My workstation was located on the other side of the base, back toward the shuttlecraft bay. I had the entire engineering department to myself. The other tables were stacked with boxes packed with replacement computer parts. As their only engineer, I would have worked alone if it wasn’t for Stari helping me as my assistant.
I wasn’t sure if she was there to keep an eye on me and ensure I didn’t run away or to help out. Maybe a little of both. She understood little about electronics and technology, but was inquisitive and seemed genuinely interested in the subject. I went out of my way to show her what I was doing.
I was pleased to have something to distract me from thoughts of Chax. Anything that helped crush the overwhelming feelings of sadness was always welcome.
Every so often, when I couldn’t shake an image of him—a smile, a touch of his hand to mine, or something he said during a moment of intimacy—my nose stung and a hot wad formed at the back of my throat.
I always excused myself and hustled to the restroom. I wouldn’t return to work until I got those images out of my system.
“Are you okay?” Stari always asked.
I gave her a stiff but friendly nod.
“Now, where were we?” I said.
“You were about to tell me how you plan on using the Changelings’ technology against them,” Stari said.
“Right,” I said, and I picked up from where I left off. “My first thought was using the tracking device they installed in the shuttlecraft location beacon we wore on our hips. They were the only device that could have informed the Changelings about our location. They also led us to the shuttlecraft, so it was unlikely we would lose them. Pretty clever on their part.”
“We put the devices in here,” Stari said, placing a hand on a metal box. “The box blocks the signal from getting out. We put it in here when we rescued you.”
“I’d like to open it to work on it,” I said, “but the signal might be strong enough for them to receive it if we do. That will reveal our location and they’ll be on us in minutes. Later, we’ll have to take it to the surface and take it out. We’ll use a machine I’ll build to track where the signal is picked up.”
“So how are you going to build a machine that can do that?”
“With some difficulty.”
We rooted through the broken computer parts until we found what I needed.
“I’m going to use the machine to trace the origin of the signal you guys get for your holo TV shows,” I said. “Have you ever noticed that when you’re watching something, sometimes there’s a delay between you receiving the program and someone else? It might even be your neighbors.”
“All the time. Sometimes it ruins the show when we miss out on the surprise because our neighbors see it first.”
I found it strange that the Yayora watched the Changelings’ TV shows knowing it was only possible thanks to them conquering their planet.
“If we track the delay all over the base, we can triangulate the signal tower’s position,” I said. “My machine will make the reading much more accurate.”
When I switched the channel, I saw there were hundreds of channels. Each one was a different TV show. Here, a cookery show using real alien body parts. There, a late-night adult channel, featuring alien species. They were chained up and forced to perform with each other. And there, a racing show where the machines were loaded up with powerful weapons and they were forced to fight to the death.
Nothing came close to this on Earth television.
Not even Japanese TV shows.
Over the following few hours, we carried out my experiment. It worked. Stari was very excited about it and was about ready to lead a team to destroy the signal tower.
“Wait!” I said. “The signal tower isn’t going to be where the Control Room is.”
Stari looked crestfallen.
“Then what was the point of all this?” she said.
“Because now we know my machine works,” I said. “Now we can use it to triangulate where the tracking device sends its signal.”
“And that will be the Control Room?”
“Probably, yes,” I said.
“Only probably?”
“There’s no guarantee the tracker will communicate directly with the Control Room, but it’s where I would place my bet. You wouldn’t want the signal to get mixed up with the regular transmission signals.”
Stari nodded.
“That makes sense,” she said. “So what happens now?”
My stomach performed a backflip and I felt sick.
“Now I have to take the tracker up to the surface and open the box,” I said.
It meant revealing my location to the Changelings, who would make an immediate beeline for my position.
Stari shook her head.
“You’re too valuable for us to send to the surface,” she said. “If it doesn’t work, we’re going to need you to try again.”
I tried to argue that I was the most qualified person for the job but it was only half-hearted. I was unlikely to avoid the Changelings on this alien planet, and they knew that. Instead, they decided to send a female soldier from their ranks.
The soldier’s name was Cik-A. She was tall for a Yayora. She saluted to her superior officers—Grandpa and his three top generals. The salute involved her placing her hands together and pushing something
