Chapter 11: Lockdown
The biomes were constructed in orbit. Given their size and complexity, there was no practical way they could have been built on Earth and still function as ships that could travel to the stars. The spavators allowed materials to be transported into orbit without the great expense of chemically-powered rockets. Each transport was tightly controlled and monitored. Nothing could be transported to or from the biomes without being subjected to extremely high levels of security. The scientists constantly worried about contamination. This led to the microscopic inspection of anything that entered a biome to ensure that nothing would upset the delicate ecological balance they’d designed. Shipments coming out of the biomes were less stringently checked. This weakness in security protocol opened up a black market in biome materials, some of which were no longer available to the general population back on Earth.
Both teams drifted to the center line of the grav tube. They sat in a circle; Joseph sat directly across from Jayne. He sprawled out until he was practically lying down. As she looked at him, Joseph smiled wickedly at her, wiggling his fingers in her direction.
Annoyed, Jayne turned away, glancing around to see if any of the others saw Joseph’s finger wiggle. Before she could sigh in relief that none of the others saw that smile and wave, she made eye contact with Spike, who was sitting beside her. He fixed her with a ‘what’s that all about?’ glance and Jayne felt her face flush. She put her hand to her forehead to hide her eyes, looking down at her feet, noticing how they stuck out of the oversized uniform. She kept her eyes down, intending to hide until she was sure that her face no longer advertised her embarrassment, but looked up as a new announcement broke the silence.
“All GravBall players, please exit the tube, remove your suits and prepare for a detailed inspection!” a new voice ordered.
Jayne and the other players exited the tube, removed their suits, and sat on the benches to await their next orders. Jayne was the only one who seemed to notice a quiet boy from the red team taking a detour, walking back to the suit lockers, and placing something into one of the empty lockers.
Suddenly, the gym door opened and a security team entered pushing a large cart full of sensor equipment and a portable body scanner. Each of the GravBall players was first checked using a handheld device, then directed to enter the body scanner, which resembled a giant bell jar with a sliding door.
Inside the scanner, a whirlwind of air was directed around the subject then sucked back through a filter. Any resulting material was collected and analyzed. A light on the front panel would turn green if nothing significant was found. The panel displayed only green lights as Jayne waited for her turn. She noticed that the quiet boy from the red team seemed nervous, continuously glancing at the security techs who were scanning the lockers. A tech stopped as the light on her scanner turned red. She reached into the locker, removing a small gravity metre. She carried it over to the senior security tech.
“Tisk tisk,” he said, a satisfied grin appearing on his face as he inspected the device. “What kind of GravBall player needs a grav metre in the tube? Not a very good one, I would say. So, which one of you is going to own up to it? This isn’t what we were looking for, but it’s still a serious offense. All of you nubes should be well aware that this is a restricted device. Obviously, one of you was trying to get an advantage in the game by checking the grav lines.” He held the grav metre aloft. “Now which one of you was it?”
He scanned the row of players, stopping in front of Jayne. He sneered at her. “You look like you could barely lift the ball, much less run with it. Did you think this would even out the playing field so you could show off your nonexistent skills to your friends?”
He turned to Spike. “What about you, pony-tail boy, how did you get this out of stores?”
Spike stood indignantly. “I don’t need a stupid metre to read a grav line.”
“No, I guess you don’t, but it might be worth something on the black market. What could a kid like you be looking for? Maybe you planned to sell it for some hubtokes. What would you need cash for? Maybe a haircut!” he sneered, shoving Spike back onto the bench. “Sit down, pony-tail boy.”
He turned to Joseph, who was staring at the floor. “Whatcha looking at, son? Them’s some mighty big feet you got there. Have a little trouble movin’ them down a high grav line? Needed a little help figurin’ which line was low? You know what they say about big feet….”
Joseph didn’t move. He didn’t even look up.
The senior security tech turned to the other tech and chuckled. “You know what they say, Nora?”
“Yeah,” Nora answered, “isn’t it Big Feet, Small….”
“Ha! I think the word you’re looking for is brain,” laughed one of the other techs.
“Small something for sure,” the senior security tech laughed, slapping his leg. “Did you steal this out of stores?” He tossed the small metre into the air, caught it with one hand and looked at it pensively.” No, I guess you didn’t. You’d need some brains to pull that off,” he said, turning away from the group.
“Well, I know one of you babies took it, and I want you to remember that I’m watching all of you.” He turned and scanned the group of players in front of him. “And, just so we’re clear, I couldn’t care less about this.” He dropped the metre on the floor and stomped on it, crushing it under his foot. “What I care about is how. How did one of you little pukes get this past the scanners? Until I find that out, you are all under my microscope. Just so we’re clear, that’s a very unpleasant place to be.”
There was an uncomfortable silence as Jayne and the others took their turns in the large body scanner. The technicians seemed disappointed as they were cleared, one-by-one. They finally dismissed the group with nothing more than a warning that their investigation would continue until they discovered how material was being transported past the scanners.
A short time later, Jayne breathed a sigh of relief as she arrived back at her quarters. She was greeted by Lucky.
“Everyone is under lockdown,” said Lucky.
“I know,” said Jayne, “do you know why?”
“There has been a serious security breach. A series of biologicals have been removed from one of the biomes. I will check for more up-to-date data.” There was an almost imperceptible pause before Lucky resumed. “Yes, security was looking for some rodent DNA from a jungle biome. Each biome has a unique nucleotide marker inserted into the DNA of all biologicals. This is done to prevent cross-contamination between biomes. The filters at each biome are programmed to prevent the entrance of any foreign biome DNA. Security is currently searching for whomever is responsible for the theft, not only to recover the stolen property, but also to determine how the perpetrators were able to bypass security. They are also trying to determine the motive behind the choice of these particular rodents. Thus far, they have been unsuccessful. The lockdown will continue until biome security is restored to 100%. That may take a while. Would you like to play the Guess the Music game to pass the time?” asked Lucky.
“No game, just music,” said Jayne. “I’m a little tired from playing GravBall. I want to sleep. Wake me if something happens.”
She crawled into bed and soon drifted off to sleep. Music played softly in the background. She dreamed of Joseph and Spike and the quiet boy who had stolen the gravity metre.