Alicia Jones 4: Enigma (4 page)

I stared at the hologram that was in my head, a part of my
overlay.  I was bored and needed to something to do, and was honestly kind
of avoiding the rest of the people on the ship right now.  I’d felt
inspired to build this visual mock up in three dimensions, and design it. 
It was only when I was halfway done that I’d realized what I was doing.

Al reported, “I have an update from the stealth sensor net,
is now a good time?”

I looked up in thought, now he wondered if I was too
busy?  Maybe I should have Kristi take a look at his programming.

“Summarize Al.”

Al said, “We found three more bug worlds.”

I giggled, “Not that summarized.”

There was silence for a moment, and then Al said, “They are
laid out quite similarly with only minor variations.  They are all fully
occupied, and still building ships.  As far as we can tell so far, there
is no interaction between the hives.”

“As far as you can tell?”

Al replied, “No physical interaction, no ships visiting or
commuting between them so far.  As you know however, quantum
communications are impossible to intercept without knowing the exact quantum
frequency, of which there are an infinite amount.”

“I wonder if there are just nine planets, and the waves are
caused by the different arrival times.  Postulate that is true, and then
estimate where the other colonies would be.”

Al disagreed, “We don’t have enough data yet.  By my
estimates it will take them approximately twenty-seven years to build up enough
ships to have a million.  That suggests there are multiple groups of
differing numbers of hives that attack in waves every nine years.”

I tilted my head, “That’s indirect evidence of communication
between them, or at least between each set of hives.  It can’t be coincidence
that nine of them finish building about the same time.”

He replied, “Affirmative, it’s just as unlikely that the
three groups of hives attack nine years apart from each other without
communication.  The idea that they are randomly set at such an even
interval is unlikely.”

“So the question is, will they support each other,” I
mumbled under my breath.

Al replied, “Unknown.”

I smirked, he wasn’t quite perfect yet if he thought that a
valid question.

I looked at my project again and sighed.  It was
something I’d never make, or submit to anyone else.  I’d designed a combat
suit, not even questioning where the inspiration had come from.  It stood
about ten feet tall, with a metal exoskeleton and its own A.I. and
nanites.  The back had a small pack on it with a series of small fusion
devices instead of one large one to keep the thickness down.

It was built like my bustier, using the small ball approach
for EM and anti-mass shielding, and it also had several gravity emitters to
make it fast and maneuverable in atmosphere.  It didn’t have the shield
strength of a ship, but then on Earth it wouldn’t need nearly that much, it
could easily stop anything short of a nuclear explosion, and most likely even
one of those.

It had small versions of plasma cannons, although the
ejection mechanism wouldn’t exceed the speed of light, it was still capable of
heavy damage against anything unshielded.  The gravity emitters were
capable of reaching far beyond the suit itself as well.  In short, it was
a one-man suit that was probably capable of invading any country on Earth, and
winning.

I deleted the file and the hologram of it winked out, it was
a monstrosity.  I hadn’t really been thinking, just creating.  It
hadn’t been until I was done that I realized what it was for, and it was far
too late to protect him.  I felt guilty at that, he wouldn’t want my
protection, or to act the way I’d been acting.  He’d died for what he
believed in, and enough was enough.  I needed to truly let go and move on.

Easier said than done.

Kristi barged in with her arms crossed, “You going to hide
in here much longer?” she demanded.

I smiled, “Maybe.”

Kristi rolled her eyes, “Come on, I want to show you
something.  You can look at the data more later.”

The data?  Oh crap, the data I was supposed to be
reviewing in more detail.

“Sure, what is it?”

Kristi grinned, “You need to come to see,” and then she
walked out.

Of course I followed, and she led me to the lab and brought
up a screen.  It had our lab ship shown from the outside, with a strange
turret about twice as big as the plasma cannons.

“What am I looking at?”

Kristi grinned and said, “Watch this,” in the, your about to
see something awesome, like an explosion, voice.

I looked back at the screen, and it showed a shuttle on it
now.  She whispered a few words and the shuttle twisted, collapsed inward,
tore, and bent… before it exploded.

“What the hell was that?”

Kristi replied, “I call it a gravity pulse weapon.  The
DE reactor gives us power to burn, and boy does this thing burn power to
project a gravity field up to thousands of miles away.  But it was cool
right?”

“Yes, how does it work?”

Kristi bounced on her toes, “Gravity sheer.  The weapon
pulses gravity fields at a target, with varying field strengths in disparate
directions.  The coolest thing is an EM shield has no defense against it.”

“Umm, Kristi, doesn’t that mean we’re defenseless against it
as well, even with our much stronger shields?”

Kristi nodded, “Sure,” the lab ship picture changed to the
inside, and there were devices planted around the hull, “If we didn’t have a
high intensity gravity field for shielding it would be an issue.  An EM
shield won’t stop a gravity field, but another gravity field will.”

She shrugged and continued, “I know the plasma cannons we
have will destroy just about anything that we or our enemies have quite easily,
but you’re always saying someone else can come along, it seemed like a good
idea to have options.  The gravity shielding also has some stealth
properties, it makes our energy signature much smaller.  Not invisible,
but it makes the DE reactor have a much smaller energy footprint to scans.”

“Cool, will you submit it to the council for consideration?”

She nodded, “Yes, although I’m going to guess they’ll just
shelve it for now, until we need it.  It was such a pain in the butt
building this to withstand the energy requirements.  That’s what took so
long.”

I grinned, “Feel free to put it on our ships though.”

We talked a bit longer, but we both avoided my
crazy
theories.  It wasn’t awkward or anything, we just avoided that
topic.  Then we brought up the Drenil data from the probe, and instead of
splitting up, we went over it together…

We were back inside the conference room.  Nadia, Nora,
Senna, and Blue were here, but sitting slightly apart from the geeky
scientists, which of course, I was one of.

“So, anyone find anything to invalidate what I said, or come
up with another possibility?”

Kristi didn’t wait, “No, of course it’s almost impossible to
determine.  As far as their technology, there is exotic radiation in there
we don’t understand, and I’m wondering if its natural or not.”

“What do you mean?”

Kristi shrugged, “I have no idea how to create that
radiation to run a test, but maybe that’s not more leakage or a reaction from
slipping between subspace barriers, but instead the medium they use to slip in
and out of dimensions, or it could be as simple as a byproduct of a cloaking
device while it cloaks.  And as far as talking to them, I have no ideas at
all.”

She frowned, and then continued, “It’s probable that,
inter-dimensional or not, they do not communicate the same way as we do. 
It would be like trying to teach a blind man, that was never even told what
sight was, to build a video camera and a transport medium, as well as a
display.  We could probably talk to them with the right technology, but
where do we even start?”

Nalla went next, “Well, if we can’t talk to them on our or
their level, we pick a different place.”

Ellis asked, “What do you mean Nalla?”

Nalla clenched her hands and I could tell she was highly
annoyed, I wondered what that was about, and she continued, “Well, both we and
the Drenil are familiar with the radiation their ships have in common with a
wormhole.  What if we sent them a simple message that way?  Pulses
and pauses of radiation, maybe in prime numbers, or even just simply count, and
see what they do back?”

That might work.  Of course we wouldn’t have a wormhole
device in the shuttle, which might be a snag.  We could do it from the
ship, just open holes nearby from the other end.  I was also reluctant to
push my theory again, if they speak and think on another level of reality, they
might be as incapable of understanding us as we do them.  Still, it might
work even then, as long as they can recognize it as an attempt at
communicating.

“That’s a pretty good idea.  Talmor, Ellis?”

Ellis jumped in, “I suggest a group of different
things.  We can flash normal light, pulse and pause the radiation like
Nalla said, maybe do the same with gravity, radio waves, and blink our shields
to cover EM and anti-mass particles.  Hopefully they’ll pick one of those
up.”

I sensed the annoyance again when he said her name. 
Maybe Nalla preferred to be called by doctor or professor?

I nodded, and we all looked at Talmor.

Talmor cleared his throat, he’d been fairly quiet so far.

“All good ideas, perhaps we should try all of them
simultaneously.  I’m for trying it out before bothering with anything
else, let’s get out there.”

Everyone seemed to agree with that sentiment, so we went…

We decided to take a wormhole to fifty light years from the
Drenil world, and then move in at FTL speeds after that.  I had Al use the
main ship to open one up, and took the shuttle through.  We waited a few
minutes for a response to our incursion in their space, and if there was one,
we didn’t see it.  I moved the shuttle in, fifty light years would take
less than a minute at full speed, but we went relatively slowly, so it would
take an hour.  The whole time we ran the scans at full power, but all we
picked up was minute quantities of stellar dust and normal background
radiation.

I wished I was more positive about this venture, but I
really wasn’t.  I felt like we’d have a better chance if we waited to
improve our understanding of multi-dimensional theory to the point we could
take a ship into other subspace layers without drilling a crude tunnel through
them first, and then try and figure out what was there.

It occurred to me the normal five senses would most likely
be less than useless there, regardless, it wasn’t going to happen
quickly.  Our only hope was if the Drenil could dumb themselves down to
our limited level, that might work.

To be fair, all I had were guesses and gut feelings, so I
kept my negative thoughts to myself.

“This should be close enough,” I said when we were at the
edge of their solar system.  Kristi had been working with her A.I. to set
up our little show, using gravity, EM, wormhole radiation, shields, and just
plain old light to send the most primitive communication of all, we were trying
to knock on the door and get an answer of some kind.  Problem was, we had
no idea what the door looked like.

The sequence started and I was actually interrupted by Al in
my head, “Is now a good time, I have some interesting news.”

I subvocalized while I kept an eye on our scans which so far
were flat, “Summarize.”

Al replied, “The FTL race out toward the rim are called the
Gelnott.  They have dispatched a small fleet of six ships straight to
Earth.  It’s likely they are coming to initiate first contact between us.”

I almost snorted, still looking at the current scan
data.  Of course they are, but what kind of first contact. 
Negotiations, saying hello, or saying die alien scum.  There was no
knowing until they arrived or sent a message.

Nalla said a little excitedly, “Radiation spike!”

I looked at the scanners and the view, and one of those
ships just… wavered into existence, less than two kilometers away.  We
caught the same exotic radiation types, the one for wormholes and the other one
we had no frame of reference for.  We waited for a few minutes, even I was
hopeful this meant something, but then they just sat there. 

An enigma and completely inscrutable.

Talmor remarked, “Perhaps we should cycle it one more time,
one at a time, see if there is any reaction to one particular energy or force?”

I said out loud, “Al, do that please.”

I caught a glare from Nalla, apparently she would have
preferred to be consulted first.

Oops.  Outside of Kristi I wasn’t really used to
working with other scientists, or their egos.

Ellis looked fine with it though, and so did Kristi, so I
wasn’t going to worry about it overmuch.  It was absurd, but I felt sorry
for her for just a moment, she needed a Kristi in her life, the Tressian woman
was way too serious.

Al ran through the series, one at a time, with a thirty
second delay between each.  Then we waited, and waited some more. 
Despite being almost sure it wouldn’t work, I was still disappointed.  Still,
at least we’d gotten them to come out and look.

Ellis said, “Well that was a bust.”

I frowned, “I agree, it might have attracted them, or not,
it could just be our presence here by their colony.  For all we know their
trying to warn us off right now in a way we can’t even detect.”

Talmor nodded, “Possibly, or they just don’t know what to do
back, or understand what we want.  Maybe they don’t see a point in
establishing contact.”

Ellis asked, “You think so?”

Talmor grunted, “Yes.  I mean, what do we have to offer
each other really?  I doubt they want to import cigars and liquor. 
The only similarity between us is defending against the bugs, and let’s face it,
they don’t need our help for that at all.  Not when they take out an
armada at a million to one odds easier than breathing.”

Nalla said almost wistfully, “Well, we could certainly use
their technology.”

Talmor nodded, “Sure, but would we even understand it? 
They’re really ahead of us, by a lot.  What’s in it for them? 
Outside that, I think Alicia might be right.  I could be wrong, and they could
be talking to us.  We just don’t have the right ears to hear their sounds,
so to speak.  Granted, it would be of benefit to at least make sure both
sides are non-aggressive toward each other.”

Ellis chuckled, “You mean them being non-aggressive toward
us.  I don’t think they’d have a problem spanking us.  Besides, I
know it’s not real proof, but they have the capability to easily destroy all
the bugs in the galaxy, they haven’t yet.  Something we should keep in
mind.”

The ship disappeared again, it was disconcerting.  It
wavered and turned partially transparent first, like… I have no clue at all
what to compare it to.

Nadia interjected, “What do you mean, something we should
keep in mind?”

Ellis said, “Well, they are purely defensive.  If we go
out in the rest of the galaxy and kill off the bugs, the Drenil might decide we
aren’t worth knowing, even if we ever do figure out how to speak to them.”

Nadia replied almost scathingly, “So we should just ignore
them, let them attack every nine years?”

How did this science expedition turn into a political
argument?

I interjected, “No.  But that’s a wide chasm of
difference Nadia.  There is plenty left between doing nothing, and
complete genocide.  Of course, we won’t know if containment is a
possibility until we go and poke one of their nests.  Besides, if the
Seltan are right about us being an experiment to see who comes out on top, I
kind of like the idea of three out of the four types of life surviving.”

Nora asked, “You believe that theory?”

I shook my head in denial, “Not completely, or not the
conclusions.  I have no doubts we were seeded, and with four disparate
life form types, but I dispute the king of the hill theory, there is no proof
of that.  For all we know, the seeders wanted us to bridge our gaps and
become friends.  Besides, the experiment might even be bigger.”

Ellis raised an eyebrow, “Bigger?”

I grinned, “Sure, but we won’t know until we go take a look
at neighboring galaxies for a similar pattern.”

They all gaped at me, apparently they hadn’t even considered
an experiment on an extra-galactic scale.  I figured if our theoretical
seeders could build and dictate what life appeared on worlds, then they were
certainly capable of doing it elsewhere.

I added rather pessimistically getting us back on subject,
“I don’t think that ship is coming back.”

Talmor asked, “Giving up already?  It’s been an hour.”

I saw his point.  Yet, I had no idea what else to try.

I shrugged, “They either have no interest in responding, or
we can’t see their response.  Either way we aren’t ready.  We need to
advance our science to make up technologically what they have before we can
bridge the gap.  Does anyone disagree?”

Ellis sighed, “Anyone else have any ideas,” he gave me a
look, “besides trying to master an entirely new theoretical field of science?”

I bit my lip, “There is one more thing we could try, or at
least, I could try.”

Nalla frowned, “What’s that?”

“We could land on the planet, and I could approach a live
being.  See what my soul reading ability picks up.”

Kristi tensed, “Do you think they’d actually let us land?”

“No idea, but we could always go back, and I could take the
shuttle alone so we aren’t all at risk.”

Nalla said disgusted, “Not this metaphysical crap again,
what good will reading their souls do anyway, tell you their emotions?”

Well, I figured I could tell if they were at least curious
about us, or willing to communicate if we could figure out a way.  But I
didn’t bother saying that.

I waved a hand to dismiss it and thought about just doing it
on my own.  She had a point though, no matter what I found communication
was still doubtful.  And there would be no way to record the interaction
either, or prove anything.  It would just be my opinion, based on senses
that I wasn’t even really sure how they worked, just that they did.

Nadia said in a concerned voice, “That sounds risky, for not
much of a payoff.  It’s not worth your life.”

She kind of had a point as well, even if I proved without a
doubt in my mind my theories were right when I read their souls, I still
doubted I’d be able to make any meaningful communication.  Plus, the
scientific community would hardly accept my assurances based on a sense that
had no scientific proof of any kind.  Even the other Knomen might not take
me at my word.  There was no point, and it would be a stupid gamble. 

Except of course, I would know I’d been right, for
myself.  Plus, there was always the possibility they would read me and
figure out how to talk to us instead of the other way around.  But would
they want to?  It was just too risky, there was a high possibility they’d
never even let me land anyway.