I finished a biography of Alan Turing and it got me thinking about codes and hidden things. In the techie world there’s a method called Steganography. Literally, hidden writing.
I thought I would take a shot at writing something with a secret hidden within. Yet try to hide it in plain sight.
For those of you that read it to the end, I’ll unveil the secret of the words. For most of you, they’ve been in your head as often as in mine.
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“Where are we going?” she asked.
“It doesn’t really matter, does it?” he answered.
Began like this before, he thought, she’ll come around.
“I can’t say, what I don’t know.”
“Can’t we just go home?
“Begin the whole thing over? he asked.
“To at least try,” she argued.
“Knowin’ what they did?”
“But, maybe it’s different now.”
“Then why are they still trying to kill us?”
“I just thought….
“Know what you need to do, you need to navigate.”
“It’s not as easy without the primary computer.”
Growing images flooded the screen, Sweet Jesus!” she said.
“Strong evasion tactics, Caroline, now!”
“Well done, daughter of mine, the diamonds laser bursts showed no signs of damage and rust.”
“I’ll take over the helm, go rest, Dad.”
“Be careful, lots of stray matter our here.”
“Damned unlikely I’ll hit anything,”she argued.
“Here comes the point where you leave the bridge, go.”
“Comes the time to drop out of hyperspace,wake me,” he said.
“Your not supposed to be here anymore, go.”
Ghost images arose on the screen.
“Again?” she thought.
“Hello, Caroline,” the words echoing in her headset.
“Darkness awaits you unless you return my property.”
“My property, you mean, stolen when you killed my mother.”
“Old and past us now,” came the reply.
“Friend, we are gathering, we’re coming for you, soon,” she said
“I’ve been waiting for that moment, I’ll save you for last, make you watch daddy die.”
“Come around,vector twenty degrees, or he’ll get a fix on our position,” her father commanded.
To think after all this time he believes me incapable of piloting a starship, she thought.
“Talk to me, Caroline….”
With a smile, she found the relay ship, and fired. No sounds, only the emptiness of silence.
“You never cease to surprise me, Caroline,” a new relay sprung to life.
Again, she found and destroyed it.
In hyperspace, time slows.
The sensation of motion ceases.
White streaks of light, fleeing from lightyears ago, flash by.
Room for error in navigation, narrows
With each passing moment, distances accumulate.
Black holes stand out, huge, vast, ravenous, eaters of time itself.
Curtains of particles relentlessly impact the outer shell.
Near collisions are avoided, encountered, and avoided again.
The ship is guided by intuition of experience
Station to planet, planet to star, star to galaxy.
When Caroline hears the first, weak signal she strains to isolate it.
“I have it,” she says.
“Think you can follow it?”
“Back as far as I need to, check for anyone nearby first.”
On the monitors, no other vessel appears, blank Kodachrome, colorless
All seems secure.
The time to end this terror is now
“Crap!”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” her father said.
“Learned from the best, I’ll fix it.”
In a moment she had the position laid in to the weapons control.
High energy bursts ended the surveillance by the drone
“School is over,” she said,”they flunked.”
Spring, or this planet’s version, had just begun
Was on a day like this, she last saw her mother
Never again, though.
Waiting for the moment she paid that bastard back kept her going.
For too many, similar thoughts of revenge drove them
“Us,” she said, “I mean we need to go,” still struggling with the new language.
“Girl, how are you?” a familiar voice greeted her
“It can’t be, you’re alive?” Caroline said.
Ran towards the voice, hugging her tightly.
“One minute there, girl, how’d you get here?” Alnon MacArthur asked.
“Step back a minute, and I’lll tell you,” Caroline answered
Ahead the park loomed in lush green, “Let’s walk, there’s much to tell.”
Email me what you think it is, and I’ll show you the answer. Joe.Broadmeadow@hotmail.com
