All Along The Watchtower
"Okay, gang," Flynn hit a few switches on the dashboard and decelerated the ship. "On approach to Janus Station. Soviet IFF is installed and online. Tak, you ready with the rest of those clearance codes?"
The Maximus was now temporarily renamed the Sarajevo since the ship's registry had been altered so it would appear as if they were making their first entry into Arcadia. With the IFF codes now in their possession, all that was left was to make it through the Iron Curtain.
"Standing by," Tak gave a thumbs up from his seat.
K and the rest of the crew were currently gathered in the cockpit, sitting in their respective seats. The last leg of their journey to Arcadia had passed by uneventfully, but now that they were arriving, they could see that something big was going down. They had caught wind of all the news surrounding the arrival of the USS Roanoke and the American armada gathered outside of the Iron Curtain, which they had been able to avoid.
Before them was Janus Station, the sprawling city that hung in orbit above Arcadia. Elsewhere, in any direction, whether it be up, down, or sideways, there were other defense platforms that held gigantic mass accelerator cannons, making up the Iron Curtain that shielded Mars.
Ever since receiving the IFF codes from Elsa and Anna, the Maximus had been radio silent to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. Now was the moment of truth to see if they could actually get through without being blown to pieces.
Mouse whistled and pointed out the windows towards the Roanoke, which was docked at the far end of Janus Station. "Would you look at the fucking size of her?" she asked. "Man, she's a beast. Shame what happened. I would have loved to see her in her prime."
Among the Roanoke, there was a multitude of Russian and Chinese warships hovering in orbit. Squadrons of starfighters were patrolling in force, and only approved vessels were allowed entry into Arcadia.
As they approached, a pair of starfighters swooped in on the shiip and flew on either side. A moment later, the intercom system of the ship was hijacked and they were addressed by the pilots of the starfighters.
"Unidentified spacecraft, you are flying into Arcadian space," a pilot said in Russian. "We're reading you as friendly. Declare your intent."
"Tak, your time to shine," Rapunzel whispered.
Takahashi leaned forward in his seat, speaking in Russian. "We are a cargo freighter, designation, Sarajevo, contracted by SovAir for supply delivery."
"Declare your cargo," the pilot said.
"We are loaded with preserved foodstuffs, fifteen hundred kilos. Ammunition, two thousand kilos. Electronic components, twelve hundred kilos," Takahashi replied.
"Sarajevo, you aren't on the shipping manifest," the pilot said.
"Yes, we were rerouted from Oracle Station," Takahashi made a few gestures on the holo-display in front of him and sent over a set of credentials. "Transitting clearance codes."
"Received," the pilot said. "Give us a minute to check our logs."
A minute passed, during which the crew of the ship nervously fidgeted in their seats. It wasn't the first time they were sneaking into Arcadia, but it was certainly the first time they were attempting to do so with all of the increased security measures in place.
K himself had never been off of Earth before, so as exciting as all this was for him, it was equally frightening.
"Cleared," the pilot said as the starfighters pulled in front of the ship on either side. "Our logs are showing this is your first entry into Arcadia. We will escort you to landing pad B-34. Submit your shipping and personnel manifest to flight control, then prepare for a boarding party to have your ship inspected and cargo verified."
"Understood," Takahashi said.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and Flynn gently accelerated the ship forward, following after the pair of starfighters. As they came in towards Janus Station, they passed by numerous watchtowers, topped with anti-spacecraft gun batteries, satellite arrays, and flight control centers. Other ships were pulling into their respective landing pads as well, while others were taking off.
"Whew," Flynn wiped his brow. "That's a relief. Looks like our friends came through."
Augur raised his hand. "We actually have all that stuff, right? All the cargo that Tak said?"
"We should," Mouse shrugged. "Did anyone check?"
K tensed up in alarm. "Wait, you guys aren't even sure if we're carrying the right cargo? They're coming in for an inspection, what do we do if we don't have it?"
"Relax," Rapunzel smiled. "Of course, we do. What kind of smugglers would we be if we didn't?" she leaned towards Flynn. "Did you make sure we have all that stuff?" she whispered.
Flynn nodded and gave her a thumbs up. "We're good," he said. "What's more important is getting our stories straight. We all have different passports, but you, K," he turned around in his seat. "You don't, but what we did get you was a work visa. Getting a forged passport takes time and credits. You know how it is."
"Okay, what's my story?" K asked.
"Your name is Krispin Eisläufer, you're from East Berlin, and you're listed as the ship's physician," Rapunzel raised her omni-pad and transferred a set of documents. "The proximity to the American side of the wall made you fluent in English so you won't have to speak German or Russian. These are your credentials. Tak will do most of the talking, but if you get asked anything, just say some stuff about how much you hate Americans, how glorious the motherland is, and how great communism is."
"Got it," K examined his falsified credentials. "Krispin, huh?"
"Yeah, figured we'd play around with your name a bit, see what else fits," Flynn said. "I mean, K R I wasn't much to work with. Man, that orphanage really messed up your name, didn't they?"
"Yeah, you're telling me," K shook his head. "What's Eisläufer?"
"Means ice runner," Rapunzel replied. "I thought it had a nice ring to it."
Ice runner, that's interesting, K thought. Hmm. Maybe in a different world.
They began to pull into their landing pad, which held an airlock door that opened up before them. Flynn guided the ship inside and after setting down the landing gear and turning off the power to the engines, the airlock doors were closed. Then began the pressurization sequence, and when the landing pad was fully sealed, oxygenated, and the artificial gravity was activated, a flight control officer spoke to them through the intercom.
"Sarajevo crew," the officer said in Russian. "Transmit your shipping and personnel manifests. Prepare to receive a boarding party."
Flynn submitted to their request by transferring the relevant documents and by opening the cargo hold doors. "Alrighty then," he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of his chair. "Let's go and say hi."
K and the rest of them did the same as they departed from the cockpit and proceeded towards the cargo hold. Ahead of them, a door that led further into Janus Station opened up, and out stepped the flight control officer who was accompanied by two robotic security guards. The boarding party entered the ship via the cargo hold and stood before the crew members.
The officer was inspecting their passports one by one on her omni-pad, pausing to glance at Flynn, Rapunzel, Mouse, Augur, and Takahashi in turn. When she came to K's file, she paused and frowned.
Takahashi stepped forward. "That is a class three work visa, with special permits for interplanetary travel."
"I see," the officer said. "Krispin Eisläufer. You're from East Berlin?" she asked K directly. "So am I. How is everything back home?"
K looked at the others, who looked at him and remained silent. "Uh, it's good. Things are- things are good," he stammered. "The weather, so nice this time of year."
The officer frowned and squinted at K with suspicion. "Odd. You prefer to speak English and your accent is quite strange. You don't sound like an East Berliner at all."
"Well, that's because... I lived so close to the American side of the wall where English was primarily spoken," K chuckled. "You know how things are. When you live near those filthy Americans for so long, some of their mannerisms rub off on you."
The officer regarded K for a few more moments, then she smiled. "That is true," she laughed. "Getting their dirty claws into everything, dividing our homeland. Still, they have not learned their lessons from the collapse."
"Yeah, yes," K continued to laugh nervously along with her. "Communism is- it's- it's great. So great. I love... I love communism."
"As well we should," the officer regained her composure. "Your visa checks out. Now, we'll just inspect your cargo," she gestured to her robots.
The robots obeyed by heading over to the various supply crates and opening them up, examining their contents. As they were doing that, K rubbed the back of his neck and gave a few sparing glances to the others, who remained calm and composed.
"You are bound for the Yuri Gagarin Spaceport?" the officer asked.
"Yes," Takahashi nodded. "We will offload our cargo, then enjoy an extended shore leave. Work during these times has been extraordinarily difficult."
"Understandable," the officer looked over to her robots and saw that they had finished their inspection. "Sign these forms, each of you, then you can be on your way," she transferred a new set of documents to their omni-pads.
They did as they were told, then once everything was in order and squared away, the officer departed along with her robots. Once they were alone and out of earshot, everyone turned to look at K.
"Man, your acting is fuckin' terrible," Mouse said.
Augur, who had been stifling his laughter, finally let it loose.
"Hey, come on," K held up his hands defensively. "Give me a little credit. You guys only just told me about my cover story."
Rapunzel smiled. "He did fine," she looked at K. "You did fine."
"Thank god she didn't ask you anything else," Flynn clapped K on the shoulder and walked past him back to the cockpit. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
Before long, the ship was back in space and heading for Arcadia.
… … …
"There she is, the crown jewel of the red planet," Flynn pointed out the window as they entered the Martian atmosphere.
Far below them was the colony of Arcadia. The three biodomes were equally spaced apart, connected by underground tunnels and freeways. Currently, they were heading towards the Yuri Gagarin Spaceport, situated outside of the biodome. To proceed into Arcadia from the spaceport, there were numerous surface-level magrail trains as well as underground roadways.
The day was bright, but far across the planet's surface, a large dust storm could be seen scraping the landscape raw, slowly approaching the colony. Thankfully, they would be able to land the ship in their hangar, disembark, and get inside Arcadia well before the storm hit.
"Holy moly," K muttered, taking in the view as his eyes rounded with awe.
"Never gets old," Rapunzel said. "Of all the places we've ever been to, Arcadia still takes my breath away."
"Eh," Mouse waved her hand dismissively. "Seen it a thousand times by now."
"How do you guys manage this whole smuggling thing anyway?" K asked. "You own property in Arcadia?"
"We got a hangar," Augur said. "Sort of like a vacation home. We rent it out for commercial usage when we ain't here, but when we are, it's ours."
"And on paper, we have an Arcadian-based revenue stream so we look even more legit," Flynn said. "Usually, we stay at the hangar, but that living situation isn't exactly the most comfortable."
"Right, so what is the game plan when we get on the ground?" K asked. "We're here now, shouldn't we let our friends know?"
"Aw, someone is excited," Rapunzel smiled. "Can't wait to see them again?"
"It's been two years since I've seen Anna or Elsa in person," K said.
"We'll give them a heads up as soon as we've landed and gotten all our ducks in a row," Flynn said. "Still need to clear some red tape, some bureaucratic mumbo jumbo. We don't wanna get tossed in a stockade, not when we're right at the finish line."
Mouse raised a finger. "Yeah, uh, question," she said. "What exactly is the finish line? I mean what's the endgame here? We haven't really talked about what we're gonna do if all this shit goes tits up and humanity gets fucked back to the stone age because of another nuclear war."
"She's got a point," Augur agreed.
K himself had been wondering the same thing, as were the others. In light of everything going on and with the threat presented to the human race, there seemed to be few realistic options on what to do next. War was all but imminent, and again like always throughout the entire history of humanity, innocent lives were at stake. Lives which at any second could but snuffed out if the wealthy, powerful elite and the select few in charge decided to press a few buttons and launch a few nukes.
Then again, perhaps it was better they hadn't spoken of it yet so far. Such quandaries were incredibly difficult and no real answers that any one of them could provide would make their situation any better. The fact was, compared to everything else, their movement and their struggle was just a tiny and insignificant drop in the ocean, just like humanity's entire existence was a minuscule and meaningless dot on the timeline of the history of the entire universe.
"Ugh, god, please," Flynn rubbed his face. "Can we save the existential crisis for later? We can hash all that stuff through when we get down to the planet. Just please let me enjoy these last few fleeting moments of blissful ignorance."
Nobody protested.
