Skylar Holmes: The Last Hope

4. CLUES REQUIRING CLUES

... AND THERE WAS Piron standing on the edge of the platform immediately passing Skylar down a small pad that had a blue plasticised surrounding border.

"I have not tried to operate mine yet," he said.

"Yes, and please don't, Piron. I'll try to work their use out later when we're in a safe place. Somewhere off the Faraway. I fear use of the location finder pads might be noticed as they are probably some sort of computer device that's networked to who knows what sort of network."

"Maybe the bracelets are on a network and we've already blown our cover."

"I doubt it. Teleportation by thought would surely only be acceptable if it had inbuilt privacy. I should think the bracelets could only be networked with the consent of the user. Probably a setting on the location finder."

"I think I see what you mean. If I was desperate for the bathroom, I wouldn't want anyone knowing I had teleported there. That sort of thing."

"I take it you replaced the box containing the location finder pads back to its original position?"

"I have. It was easy to get to, being on top of a stack of metal boxes. And as I shapeshifted away my finger prints ..."

"And our footprints do not matter as I'm wearing standard starship Faraway boots that will merge with the many footprints of the ranked crew."

"And I have my ways of leaving no footprints despite taking many steps as both a panther and a human. And in my firebat form, I never touched a thing except your shoulder."

"Right, let's get off this platform and out of the view of the Main Cargo Bay door window. Then we will have executed the perfect heist, all bar the shouting."

Skylar carefully stepped off the platform together with Piron, and they disappeared behind some cargo racking like a couple of nocturnal animals hiding from a clearing subtly bathed in a sliver of moonlight.

"Where shall we teleport to, Skylar? There's no need to sneak back out through the data and lighting duct. From now onwards, we can breathe in at a location A and exhale at a location B. I take it we will not be attempting to teleport to anywhere unusual like the Captain's quarters."

"You take it correctly. Let's keep things simple when taking our first steps in this teleportation business. We'll teleport out of here to our cabin. Then I'll get myself on the starship Faraway's disembarkment log for the planet Zetum, from where the aliens will be shuttling up to the Faraway through the normal physical method, as they need to attend a security check before boarding. Hence the reason for their disassociated property trunks. And you don't need to be on the disembarkment log because you're bonded to me."

"So we are getting off in a shuttlecraft ferry? How will we pass the disembarkment security checks? We'll never be able to risk taking the bracelets and location finder pads."

"We will not risk the disembarkment security checks because we will rather risk teleporting directly down by thought to a place on Zetum that we know well. I just have to hack the disembarkment log to show we are on the list. It's a complicated hack, but you know I can do it and verify it was successful after the fact."

"Let's hope there is no distance range limitation in this teleportation by thought method." A mixture of doubt and fear flashed across Piron's eyes.

"We'll soon find out, Piron. And I'm sure such advanced technology must be safe, so don't fall into a fug of anxiety."

"And will the teleportation really be instant? I wonder if it is executed at the speed of light. Perhaps it was just because the Main Cargo Bay office was so close that the teleportation we experienced seemed instantaneous."