Just as we emerged from the gateway two indicators came to life on our \u00adcar’s console. The green light indicated that this cluster’s nav data had been \u00adpicked up and stored in memory. The red one, that a piece of the car’s \u00admicronics had fizzled out of existence. Something profane immediately came to \u00admind, but since the kids were on board, I kept the thought to myself.<\/p>\n
“Something wrong, dear?” Rhiannah, my wife, sat in the front seat\u00ad opposite mine.<\/p>\n
“I’m checking it out.”<\/p>\n
I typed a command on the keyboard and the computer ran a diagnostic check \u00adon all the car’s circuits. A moment later the results of the check-up scrolled\u00ad down the console’s video screen. It displayed the part number of the \u00addefective module, what circuit it was in and on what board that circuit would\u00ad be found. It also displayed a disheartening message:<\/p>\n
THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL CIRCUIT IMMEDIATE REPAIR IS MANDATORY.<\/p>\n
This time the profanity slipped out.<\/p>\n
“Tighe, mind your words.” Rhiannah admonished, “What’s the trouble. Is\u00ad it serious?”<\/p>\n
“Yes. A major component in the propulsion system fried itself.” I keyed \u00adin a query. The computer checked and replied. “The computer can patch it with \u00ada bypass, but that won’t take the strain for long. We’ve got to get to a \u00adservice station quickly.”<\/p>\n
“Are there any in this cluster?”<\/p>\n
I was already busy with the keyboard. “I’m checking on that now.” The \u00adcar’s computer went through the navigation data that had been beamed to us by \u00adthe nav buoy posted just inside the gateway. No service stations were known to \u00adexist in this cluster.<\/p>\n
Another inquiry. Only one planet, Vagan 4, held any technology and it was \u00adprimitive. “Looks like we’re going to have to fix it ourselves.”<\/p>\n
“Can you do it?”<\/p>\n
If we had been using my vehicle, an older model, there wouldn’t have been\u00ad any problem. I’ve kept it running by myself for years. Its simple, straight\u00adforward design is easy to understand and repair. If a few inexpensive spare \u00adparts are kept on board, I have what I need to patch up nearly any problem that\u00ad could occur. These new ones; crammed full of high tech conveniences and gadgets, are \u00adbeing made with their components grouped, micro-miniaturized and encapsulated \u00adin blocks of hard black phenolic. A black box. You repair them by unplugging a burned out \u00admodule and replacing it with a new one. Simple but very expensive.<\/p>\n
I much prefer the older cars. Not only are they less complex, they are \u00adfar sturdier. The new cars are so much smaller and lighter, that they just\u00ad don’t hold up well. I know that they are made this way to cut down on \u00admanufacturing costs and keep the end prices affordable. But to sacrifice\u00ad safety for the sake of gadgetry seems silly to me.<\/p>\n
When Rhiannah decided to buy a new one, I urged her to look at a late \u00admodel used car instead. She wouldn’t listen. The prospect of arriving at work \u00adin a sleek new starcar, making all her friends envious, had caught her in its \u00adweb. When her emotions take control, reason takes a hike.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know. We’ll have to set down somewhere and check it out.”<\/p>\n
“How could this happen,” she wailed, “this car is only three months old.”<\/p>\n
I couldn’t resist needling her. “I told you when you bought this thing;\u00ad just because it’s brand new doesn’t mean it’s perfect. We should have taken my \u00adtruck for this trip, at least it has all the bugs worked out of it.”<\/p>\n
“I don’t like the truck.” She snipped, “It’s ugly and uncomfortable.”<\/p>\n
“True, it is something of an eyesore, but it is also dependable. And on\u00ad the rare occasion that something breaks down, I can patch it up myself with the \u00adtools and spare parts I keep aboard.”<\/p>\n
“This car has tools and parts.” She pouted. “In fact, there are trays \u00adand trays of parts back there, more than what you carry.”<\/p>\n
I didn’t see any point in arguing with her. She didn’t understand what \u00adwent into a car’s systems, or the lack of interchange ability being built into \u00adthe new ones. I think the manufacturers do it to keep their repair shops in \u00adbusiness. “Besides,” she went on, “if we had stuck to the regular routes \u00adinstead of taking this short cut of yours, we could just get it replaced and be \u00adon our way again. It’s under warranty, it wouldn’t even cost us anything.”<\/p>\n
“This short cut will take nine hours off the trip.”<\/p>\n
“Not if we get stuck here.”<\/p>\n
She had me there. I conceded the argument and returned grumpily to my \u00adkeyboard. The computer plotted Vagan 4’s current position and calculated the\u00ad shortest safe route to intercept it. I was glad it wasn’t the computer that had \u00adgone out. Normally we would have skirted around the clusters planets, moons, asteroids and what have you to get to the next gateway. Hopping from cluster \u00adto cluster this way is no big problem even with only one logic unit active, but \u00adgoing inside a cluster is tricky; not something to be done without two fully \u00adfunctioning computers constantly checking each others data. A deep space \u00adcollision can ruin your day.<\/p>\n
“Couldn’t we just wait here and ask the next car through to send back some \u00adhelp?”<\/p>\n
“This cluster isn’t used much. It might be a long time before another car\u00ad comes through and we don’t have the stores to last that long.”<\/p>\n
I was about to mention that my truck, with its large cargo area for extra\u00ad supplies, would have allowed us to do this, but the smug look in her eyes made\u00ad me think better of it. I really didn’t want to debate my route planning skills\u00ad again.<\/p>\n
I kept the strain on the patched up circuitry down by loping along at half \u00adour normal cruising speed. It was a long ride. Vagan 4 finally loomed up \u00adbefore us; a bright sapphire masked behind white whorls of cloud. I punched up \u00adthe nav-aid data on this little planet and its inhabitants. It wasn’t \u00adencouraging.<\/p>\n
Several paragraphs on the composition of its soil and atmosphere, another \u00adcouple on the animal forms but only two sentences on the intelligent life: \u00ad”THOUGH POSSESSING A BASIC LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY, THEY ARE VERY AGGRESSIVE AND\u00ad SHOULD BE CONSIDERED DANGEROUS. CONTACT IS NOT RECOMMENDED.” That was all it\u00ad said. No port of entry, no recommended landing area, no cultural data,\u00ad nothing. If we had had any other option, I would have taken it. A travel log\u00ad entry like that is just too scary. But this was the only planet with life at\u00ad all, let alone technology. If we ended up needing parts, this was the only\u00ad place we could hope to find them.<\/p>\n
I picked a large land mass, reduced speed and headed in. Deciding to \u00adavoid the areas of highest population, I set down in a small wooded area \u00adadjacent to some sort of agricultural plot. The day was just ending in this \u00adpart of the world, the clusters single star just dipping below the horizon.<\/p>\n
“Papa, are we there?” Lothahn, my son, rubbed his eyes sleepily. His \u00adsister still snoozed in the seat across from him.<\/p>\n
“No, son. We’re just stopping to fix the engine. You go back to sleep.”<\/p>\n
Rhiannah slipped out of her seat and followed me down the narrow aisle to \u00adthe rear compartment. We didn’t bother with survival kits because the data \u00adfile did say that the air was safe to breath. A bit thin, but safe.<\/p>\n
I activated the hatch in the rear of the car. With a hiss the cover split\u00ad in two unequal parts. The longer, top part cantilevered up out of the way as \u00adthe lower section swung down to form a step. As quietly as possible, I removed\u00ad the tool tray from its niche and stepped out into the alien dusk.<\/p>\n
No amount of travel ever really prepares you for the sight of a totally \u00adnew place. Unlike the trees of our home, these were squat, rough textured \u00adthings. Instead of the high plumage and slender stalks that we were used to, \u00adthe stalks of these split into several sections low to the ground and grew off \u00adin all directions. Each stem split again and again as it went higher up the \u00adtree. Small oval shaped foliage sprouted from the ends of the smallest stems. \u00adThe stars twinkled brightly above as a huge moon peeked through the trees. Its \u00adlight was sufficient to locate the correct body panel and remove it.<\/p>\n
Once opened, the compartment’s interior light came on. I searched through\u00ad the board ID tags. Finding the one I needed, I gently unplugged it and slid it\u00ad out of its rack. Laying it on the narrow floor of the compartment, we read the \u00adtiny yellow numbers on hundreds of solid black modules, looking for A7-21ctq.<\/p>\n
“There it is.” Rhiannah put her finger on one small plastic block. I\u00ad checked the number; that was it.<\/p>\n
“Keep your finger there, while I get the extractor.” The tool hummed\u00ad softly as its tiny jaws snaked under the module, located the mounting pins and\u00ad extracted them from the circuit board.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t look burned up.” observed Rhiannah.<\/p>\n
“All we can see is the plastic that the parts are encased in. Each module \u00adis a tiny circuit board molded into a solid block of hard plastic. Even if we \u00adcould get it open, the components are so tiny that we would need a magnifier \u00adscope to work on them, so we couldn’t repair it anyway.”<\/p>\n
“Then how do we fix it?”<\/p>\n
“Check our parts trays and hope the builders gave us a spare.” We went\u00ad back inside and looked through the trays of spare modules.<\/p>\n
“Here are the A7-21’s.” I said, running my finger down a row in the ‘A’ \u00adtray, “We’re getting close.” I looked for the one with the ‘ctq’ suffix. It\u00ad wasn’t there. I looked again. It still wasn’t there. I asked Rhiannah to \u00adlook. She didn’t see it either.<\/p>\n
“Now what?” she asked.<\/p>\n
I leaned against a locker door, staring at the floor and thought about it \u00ada moment. “I suppose we’ll have to jerry-rig one.”<\/p>\n
“You said that the parts were so small that you couldn’t do that.”<\/p>\n
“I said I couldn’t repair this one, but I can try to build a replacement. \u00adA few standard parts, long leads and a plug that would fit the socket on the \u00adboard ought to do it.”<\/p>\n
“But where will the parts go? The boards are so close to one another, \u00adthere isn’t room for anything extra.”<\/p>\n
“The long leads will reach across and the new board will just hang out in \u00adthe bay after the big board is plugged back in.”<\/p>\n
“Yeah, and if you mess it up, you could ruin my new car.”<\/p>\n
“Maybe.”<\/p>\n
She thought about it for a minute, then added, “We got this far\u00ad with it like it is, couldn’t we just go on through the next gate? There’s \u00adbound to be a proper service station there.”<\/p>\n
“Making the jump would burn out the by pass and leave us without any power \u00adat all in this engine. To get safely through the worm hole, you have to keep a \u00adperfectly straight course, even the computer can’t steer properly with only one \u00adengine.”<\/p>\n
She scrunched up her face, weighing the facts. “Where are you going to \u00adget the parts you need?”<\/p>\n
“I should be able to pull them out of the tools that won’t be needed to\u00ad build the new board.”<\/p>\n
“OK,” she sighed, “do what you have to. Just don’t hurt my car.”<\/p>\n
“First I have to find out what’s inside this thing.” I held the black \u00adcube up to the silvery moonlight.”<\/p>\n
We went back inside and sealed the hatch. That thin air was making us\u00ad dizzy. I dug out the car’s repair manual cartridge and plugged it into the \u00adcomputer’s reader slot. The moon had passed high above us and was dipping low\u00ad on the other side before I had the knowledge and most of the parts I needed. \u00adAfter trying everything I could think of, one crucial component still eluded \u00adme. I was left with my last resort.<\/p>\n
Even a low tech society like this one ought to use some basic parts like \u00adthe one I needed, all I had to do was find one. With the right materials I \u00adcould build it, if I had to. Rhiannah wouldn’t have liked the idea at all, but \u00adshe was asleep as were the kids. I figured I’d be back before they woke, so \u00adshe’d never have to know. I took the tools that still worked and headed for \u00adthe dwelling I’d seen when we came down. As I neared the structures a small four footed beast charged at me.<\/p>\n
It was obviously a carnivore, its sharp fangs bared in a menacing manner. Its thoughts carried no words, only instinct. I thought-spoke to it lightly, trying to calm it. The creature’s mood changed suddenly from defense to fear and it ran away. I could feel it watching me, but never saw it again.<\/p>\n
There were several structures grouped together. All were made of plant matter fastened together with small pins of ferrous metal. Most of these sheltered a variety of machinery. I poked around, but found nothing that I could use. The other seemed to be the native\u2019s home. I crept up and peeked through several windows before spotting what I was looking for. In this room were several pieces of furniture, also made of plant matter covered with synthetic padding and fabric, a variety of trinkets, and some communications equipment. That’s what I was looking for.<\/p>\n
I examined the nearest hatchway. A panel hung on a pair of plain hinges and held closed by a simple latch. Rotating the handle opened the latch. I sensed several beings on the upper level of the dwelling. They were thought-speaking but their speech was disjointed and random. Apparently they were in a state of repose. I decided not to rouse them and went directly to the largest communicator in the room; some sort of video receiver. Its casing was held closed by simple mechanical fasteners which yielded easily. Inside I found the most bewildering array of junk you could ever hope to see. None of it made sense. Some of the components looked slightly familiar, but were monstrous in size. I had just set about the task of tracing out the circuitry of this thing, hoping to find a part that would do what I needed, when the cacophony from above me changed.<\/p>\n
One of the speech streams became ordered and intelligible. It desired refreshment and was going to an adjacent room to get it. I wondered what it would be like to live in a world where every one announced their every whim as loudly as possible. It was clear that I was not going to get the part I needed easily. These were crude at best. Perhaps this being would be able to explain what some of the parts do, speeding my task considerably. Of course it may not want to give away any of the components of its communicator, even for a worthy cause. Dare I risk it? Yes. If I was going to figure out this tangled mess in time, I would need help.<\/p>\n
I reached out and spoke softly to the being as it drank a vial of liquid it had drawn from a tap. “Hello, excuse me…” Its reasonably ordered speech-stream raged into confusion tinged with fear. Not what I intended. I tried again and got more of the same. I gave up. The being, however, seemed to feel threatened. It decided to have a look around and announced its intention of going to the lower level. I decided to wait\u00ad outside. It descended the steps carrying a weapon of some sort. I think it\u00ad was intended to hurl a projectile through a hollow tube. Just how it worked I \u00adwasn’t sure.<\/p>\n
The creature itself was not too different from my own race;\u00ad upright bipedal, with a pair of limbs mounted on the upper torso, and a head \u00adabove that. It had two eyes, but they were quite small and set beneath a heavy\u00ad ridge of bone. Its nostrils were cowled and there was a small, fleshy flap on either side of \u00adits head. The purpose of these was not clear, probably some sort of sensory \u00adorgans. Most of its body was covered with a thin fabric. That which was\u00ad exposed displayed a sparse covering of hair, particularly its head. Its mouth \u00adwas large with a fleshy protruding rim. Jagged teeth showed that this being\u00ad also was a carnivore. Most carnivores are dangerous. It noticed the partly \u00addisassembled communicator and its speech became confused again. Then it saw me \u00adwatching through the hatchway. Its eyes opened wide and its mouth dropped\u00ad open.<\/p>\n
Afraid that the thing was about to attack, I stepped out of the way and \u00adprepared to run if needed. But instead of charging, as I expected, it turned \u00adand tried to flee back up the steps it had descended earlier, screaming of fear \u00adand monsters. It tripped. The clumsy thing fell and bashed its head. Though \u00adit lay quite still, it continued to speak, though much less frantically now. I watched from a safe distance for a while. Then spoke to it again, very softly.<\/p>\n
These creatures were so unstable it was absurd. Slowly I got it to talk to me. \u00adI explained that my family and I were stranded here due to a failed part in our \u00advehicle. I needed some things from his communicator. I need his help in \u00adfinding the proper ones. He responded by saying, “Jack knows about that stuff. \u00adNot me. I’m just a farmer.”<\/p>\n
“And who is Jack?”<\/p>\n
“My son.”<\/p>\n
“Where would I \u00adfind your son now?”<\/p>\n
“Asleep. In his room.”<\/p>\n
“Which one is his room?”<\/p>\n
“At the end of the hall.”<\/p>\n
I thanked him for his help and left him to rest, although\u00ad I’ll never understand how they can get any rest when they are constantly \u00adbabbling like that. I relieved the being on the stairs of his weapon, just to \u00adbe safe, and went up the stairs to find Jack’s room.<\/p>\n
They seemed to be easier \u00adto talk to when they were asleep, so I didn’t wake him. I spoke to him and he responded well.<\/p>\n
We had a long discussion about what he calls electronics. His \u00adterms were different, but the basics were the same. Through this I was able to \u00adlearn what components I needed to finish my replacement module. He told me to\u00ad take what I needed, they were common parts that he could replace easily. I \u00adthanked him and promised to repay his kindness.<\/p>\n
After removing the parts, I\u00ad closed up the communicator, left a ten credit stone to cover the cost of replacement parts and hurried back to the car.<\/p>\n
A new day was just about to \u00adbreak, the sky turning from black to grey. I worked quickly and had it done in \u00adno time. I woke Rhiannah and asked her to stow the tools while I mounted the \u00adrepaired circuit board. We ought to leave before it was fully light. When I \u00adreturned, the kids were awake and munching on some snacks Rhiannah had packed \u00adfor the trip.<\/p>\n
“Are we going to leave now, daddy?” my daughter asked, eyeing \u00adthe wonders outside her window.<\/p>\n
“Yes, sweetie,” I responded as I slid into my \u00adseat. “We’re going to leave now, and we’ll be at Grandma’s in no time.” The\u00ad children cheered as I flipped on the power. Hesitantly I asked the computer \u00adfor a diagnostic check. Those seconds seemed like hours, then it\u00ad displayed:<\/p>\n
“ALL SYSTEMS OPERATING NORMALLY”<\/p>\n
What a relief! I made\u00ad a mental note to buy a special gift for Jack while we were on Primus 3, and wondered how I was going to explain having to stop here on the way home to\u00ad Rhiannah. Oh well, I’d worry about that when I got to it.<\/p>\n
As we rose through \u00adthe trees we could see long whisps of cloud, turned pink and red by the rising \u00adstar.<\/p>\n
“What beautiful colors,” observed Rhiannah. I agreed as the children \u00adoohed and aahed.<\/p>\n
“Daddy,” inquired my daughter, “Do you suppose we could come \u00adhere again? Maybe for our next vacation. This is such a pretty world, I’d \u00adlove to see more.”<\/p>\n
“We’ll see, honey.” The ground dropped away below us in a \u00adshrinking patchwork of green, yellow and brown. We passed through a group of \u00adclouds and watched them recede, billowing and soft. Soon the whole planet was \u00ada bright blue-green jewel set against the silver specked blackness of space.<\/p>\n
“It certainly is a pretty little world. A shame it’s so unfriendly, it would \u00admake a great vacation spot.”<\/p>\n
<<<<< THE END >>>>><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just as we emerged from the gateway two indicators came to life on our car’s console. The green light indicated that this cluster’s nav data had been picked up and stored in memory. The red one, that a piece of the car’s micronics had fizzled out of existence. Something profane immediately came to mind, but … Continue reading “Black Box Blues”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-5114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative","tag-scifi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21544,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5114\/revisions\/21544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}