Story code: ST-001166
Part 2: The Forced Sequence
Marcus led me down a narrow utility corridor behind the Gate 12 Embarkation Chute, away from the crowded main concourse. The walls here were bare, raw metal, and the distant rumble of the Vanguard-9’s pre-launch engines vibrated through the floor.
‘I need to go to the customer service wing,’ I said, pulling away from his grip. ‘If they check the lobby security logs, they’ll see my physical entry was stamped at ten. They can reset the sequence.’
Marcus pulled out his corporate sponsor tablet, his fingers moving quickly over the interface. ‘You can’t go to customer service, Leo. The moment Officer Cruz flagged your ticket as a duplicate, it entered the queue for security review. If you walk onto the main concourse, the automated scanners will match your biometrics to a flagged ID and detain you. I’m placing your pass on a sponsor hold.’
My wrist-pad chimed, the screen turning a solid, restrictive amber. He had used his terminal protocol to lock my access card. I was now restricted to this corridor, unable to pass through the security doors to the lobby or the customer service counters.
‘A sponsor hold?’ I stared at him. ‘You just locked me out of the terminal. You’re hiding me.’
‘I am protecting my investment,’ Marcus said, his voice dropping to a low, defensive whisper. ‘And I am protecting this family. The launch window closes in forty minutes. If the system flags a major manifest error, the entire launch is delayed, costing Sterling Transit millions. It’s a database glitch. We’ll file a correction report once the ship is in transit, and get you on the next flight next month.’
‘Next month?’ I stepped back, looking at the wall-mounted public access terminal. I tapped my locked wrist-pad against its sensor. Because I was under a sponsor hold, I couldn’t change my ticket, but the system allowed me to view the transaction history of my own boarding pass sequence.
I opened the detailed Timestamp Log Receipt.
The data line was clean, but the sequence of events made Marcus’s explanation impossible.
According to the Vance Spaceport rules, a boarding pass cannot scan at Gate 12 unless the passenger has first cleared the security entry lobby. My physical entry log at the outer lobby was stamped at exactly 10:00 AM. Yet, my boarding pass VT-908 had bypassed the lobby log entirely and checked into Gate 12 at 07:00 AM.
There was only one way to bypass the lobby entry log: a manual sponsor key override.
A database glitch didn’t enter a physical gate three hours before the passenger arrived at the spaceport. Someone had deliberately used a sponsor key to check my ticket in early, bypassing security protocols.
I looked up at Marcus. ‘You said it was a glitch. But the gate sequence was manually forced three hours ago. You checked someone else in under my name before I even got to the terminal.’