Surprise! It's a Freebie!

 I know it's not Humpday. By the way, sorry I forgot about Humpday Freebies. Anyway, I want to start making up for that. And to show everyone that I mean it, here's a chapter from my latest book in the new series What It's Like to Travel Time.

Enjoy! 😁

Signed, Greg Wilhelm, Author of What It's Like to Travel Time and The Pendleton Files.

Chapter 26

   “We need to get off this ship,” the other Sam said to his other self.

   “Nice trick,” said our Sam. “They’re not going to allow anyone to leave.”
   The other Sam cocked his head and gave our Sam a look that said he wasn’t planning to ask.
   “How the bloody hell do you expect this to work?”
   “We’re going to steal a pod.”
   “Steal a pod! Are you mad!”
   “You asked if I had any better ideas.”
   “Give me your gun.”
   “Why?”
   “Because I want to shoot myself for asking.”
   The other Sam pointed at himself.
   “No. I really did mean me that time.”
   “Well, you can’t blame me for asking.”
   “Okay, if we’re doing this, then we better do it now. They’re going to be here soon to … to do whatever ‘Crazy’ Sam said they were going to do.”
   The telecommunications array had been located near the lowest deck on the ship. The nearest Liftpod bay is seven decks up. To get there, the Sams had to take a lift up five decks. Then walk a third of the way down a walkway to a lift that will take them two decks up. Then, once they arrive at the Liftpod bay, hope to find an unattended pod they can steal.

   Meanwhile, a little more than half of the ship’s bot-less crew we're still coming to grips with the discovery that they had been tech addicts this whole time. Some had relied on their naNabots so much that they lost the ability to think on their own. Personnel were found to be wandering aimlessly down passageways without knowing why. Instinct was all they had. Some of the crew’s condition was so bad that the need to get off the ship was more than just a necessity. It was an obsession. If only they could remember how to do that.
   Like Sam, Captain Saunders is a man who likes to know where the brakes are before getting behind the wheel. He considers the worst scenarios in every situation and thinks of ways to keep things from getting out of hand. This is one of those situations. He had taken stock of the ship’s vulnerabilities and considered how someone could take advantage of them. One of these vulnerabilities was the ship’s personnel. He was secretly aware that the naNabots had taken the place of some people’s ability to think. It was a problem that had been discovered soon after the introduction of naNabot technology and was promptly swept under the rug. There was one incident where the secret got out but the people who knew weren’t too concerned. By then, everyone thought the naNabots could fix anything. They believed this was something they could remedy themselves. After all, isn’t that what they’re designed to do? The cause is the cure. But Captain Saunders knew better. The moment he realized what the Nanfrees had done, he implemented Order 666. He had installed it soon after taking command of the Argo.
   Order 666 initiates automated commands that give the ship’s computer more control over important functions. Under normal circumstances, these functions are manned and monitored by the ship’s crew in case any adjustments are needed. But unfortunately, such a task often requires more than just a trained eye. One of these functions was the one that oversees the ship’s security. Thanks to naNabot technology, monitoring security often isn’t a high priority.
   When the computer saw the two Sams wandering through the ship’s corridors, it correlated this information with its historical file on retired First Officer Samuel Jones. Once again, it interpreted it as a false reading and ignored it. Unfortunately for the Sams, Order 666 automatically opens a subfile. This subfile had remained hidden throughout the ship’s subsystems routine. It’s designed to tell the computer to notify the current Captain of the ship of any actions it takes that a ship’s crewman normally wouldn’t. Ignoring a false reading is considered to be such an action.
   “Waltham,” Captain Saunders said to Chief of Security, “could you come here a moment?” The Captain was standing near the back wall of the bridge facing a monitor. The monitor had notified the Captain of something the computer had done and was showing him why. He paused the video until Chief Waltham stood beside him. Then he rewound it and replayed what the computer claimed was a false reading. The Captain turned to his Chief of Security and said, “Find as many men as you can who can still do their job and take them with you to find those two. When you do, hold them in the brig.”
“Aye, Sir,” said Chief Waltham and left the bridge.
   The Captain looked at the monitor and under his breath said, “Sam. What the hell did you do?”

   The Sams entered the Pod bay from the ship’s main walkway. An eerie silence filled the air. The bay was filled with pods that had been caught by the mandatory restricted movement order. The ones closest to them were Liftpods. Some were parked in the company’s reserved parking. Others were scattered along the pick up and drop lane where operators abandoned them. The Liftpod Co. has a sophisticated access safeguard on all their pods. They were clearly not an option for jacking.
   Our Sam made a hand gesture, suggesting they take the ramp to his left up to the parking level. It felt strange to walk around in an area of the ship that’s normally busy with people. They looked around to see if they could find a likely candidate but found the task exacerbating. All the pods looked the same. None of them stood out as being “stealable”.
   “This is hopeless,” said the other Sam. “It’s impossible to find one to steal without trying them all.”
   “You’re the one who wanted to do this,” our Sam said.
   “Yes. Well, that was because it was the only thing I could think of.”
   They startled by broken silence. They could hear active movement echoing off the bay walls. It was coming from all around them. It was impossible to pin down its origin. Seconds before they could finally figure out where the sound was coming from …
   “Stay where you are and don’t move!”
   … it was too late.
   Chief Waltham had actually found nine men who could point a Subson gun in the right direction. “Hands up.”
   The Sams were completely surrounded.
   Then without warning, just as the bay walls were recovering from all the noise everyone was making, they were startled by an intruder alert alarm.
   “Intruders detected in pathway G, starboard side,” a disembodied voice told the security chief over his comm tag.
   Waltham gestured to his men, telling them to grab the Sam twins and head to where the intruders had been detected.

   “Let me go!” screamed Candace. “I need to talk to Sam, Sam Jones!”
   “She means First Officer Sam Jones,” said the other Candace.
   Waltham and his entourage arrived. “What’s happened?” he asked the one who was busy trying to keep Candace from running. “Who are these women?”
   “We need to see First Officer Samuel Thaddeus Jones of Seventh Division,” Candace said.
   “That’s all they keep saying, sir,” said the man who was holding her. “And for some reason, that’s who the computer thinks they are.”
   “Explain yourselves,” said Chief Waltham to the girls. Then he noticed how identical they looked. He turned to the closest Sam and said, “Do you know these women?”
Our Sam lifted his eyebrows and shook his head ‘no’.
 
   “Get in!” demanded Security Chief Waltham. His men shoved the Candaces and the two Sams into a holding cell in the brig. Waltham indicated to his men to stay outside the door. Then he walked in and activated the doorway’s deflective field. He faced the cell’s new occupants and said, “Stay on that side and don’t move!”
   The Sams were both happy and worried at the same time. Happy that the girls were here, and worried that Waltham found them.
   “My God. It’s true,” said Waltham. “The computer was reading more than one of you.”
   “Would you believe twins run in my family?” Sam said.
   Waltham shook his head. “Sam what’s happening? Which one of you is the one I know? Who are these women and why do they look identical?”
   How much could he say? What could he say? Would The Consortium appear and fix things again? Or have they thought this was the last straw and given up on them? He was about to say the only thing he thought he could say to Waltham when he noticed his Candace had that unnerving smile he was starting to hate. But before he could stop her…
   “Now!” said Candace to her double.
   The Candaces grabbed their Sams by the arm and they vanished.
   Chief Waltham almost crapped his pants. The computer, now seeing that the threat had gone, deactivated the deflective field. Waltham’s men were surprised by this. Then they saw that the detainees had gone. “Chief?” said one of the men. Waltham hadn’t moved. He still had a shocked look on his face. “Chief?”

Price change, again

 As you may or may not have noticed, my prices have changed. And this time, unless there's a sale, that is where they remain. Sorry if anyone had been looking forward to buying File 3295: The Shanghai Tunnels for free. But then it's not like it's $14.99.

Once I publish the next book, What It's Like to Travel Time: Worlds Collide, I will consider lowering the prices of one or two books.

Thanks for your interest. As always, I will do my best to keep everyone informed.

Signed, Greg Wilhelm, Author of What It's Like to Travel Time and The Pendleton Files.