Alicia Jones 4: Enigma (7 page)

The rest of the week went by fairly quietly, outside of a
mounting number of failed experiments, and it was time to poke the Bug world. 
Kristi and I boarded our ship, and went straight to the Seltan world through a
wormhole.  There were a lot of ships here already from other worlds, and
over fifty thousand Seltan ships.  Wasn’t this supposed to be a quick
sortie?  The Seltan really hated the enemy, but to be fair the enemy has
been trying to annihilate the Seltan for a few thousand years now.

There were fifty-one Earth ships, I was pretty sure Anthony
was here in the command ship, but I wasn’t positive as we hadn’t spoken in a
while.  There were also over two thousand ships from the other thirty-nine
races.  It wasn’t lost on me that I, as a private citizen, had the second
largest fleet present, even if they were unmanned platforms controlled by A.I. 
Still, even my numbers were dwarfed by the Seltan’s armada for the
sortie.  Of course, firepower was another story.

It also occurred to me that we were about to attack a planet
with over three million ships and billions of life forms on the surface, so
this was definitely a hit and run to see what they do, and maybe more
importantly, exactly what the other hives would do as well. 

Al said through the bridge speakers, “We’ve been sent
coordinates for the surface, for a planning meeting.”

Kristi muttered, “This should be fun.”

“How’d you figure that?”

She shrugged, “Treaty of mutual defense, but no chain of
authority, who’s in charge?”

I sighed, “Good point, there’ll probably be thirty-nine
different opinions on how we should do this.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Forty, don’t forget yourself.”

I made a face, “Unless they plan something really stupid I
don’t plan on pushing any strategies.  The Seltan have most of the ships,
and are kind of intimidating, maybe it won’t be that big of a problem.  I
certainly don’t want to argue with Dral.  Al, do we know if the Seltan have fab
technology yet?”

Al replied, “No, although it’s certainly possible.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

We went down to the landing bay, and took a shuttle down to the
surface.  The nearby building looked very old, and was made of some gray
cement which was pitted and had seen better days.  The air was breathable,
but a little thin, close to Earth’s atmosphere at twenty thousand feet above
sea level.  There were two very large Seltan at the doors, who let us in
and gave us succinct directions to the large conference room.

When we walked in I took a look around the room.  I
recognized Dral, and a few others I’d seen at other battles.  For the
human ships, it was Sergei with an upper admiral I didn’t recognize.  I
supposed I wasn’t all that surprised, when I was fleet admiral I’d have taken
this mission as well and left behind the vice admiral of exploratory fleet to
watch for a secondary issue away from Earth.  Still, I got along better
with Anthony so I have to admit I was disappointed, but I didn’t show it
outwardly.

We took some seats around the large table, and I looked
around.  There were many races I hadn’t seen before.  All familiar
yet slightly alien in appearance.  Over the next ten minutes a few more
pairs showed up, and then the murmuring conversations died down as Dral
stood.  He was imposing over video communications, and in person he had a
very undeniable and strong presence.  Maybe there wouldn’t be much argument
after all.

Dral spoke, “There are many great warriors in this room so
take no offense at my words.  As host I will lay out the basic plan, and
then we may discuss alterations or additions.”

He paused for a moment, as if waiting to see if there were any
objections.  No one else in the room spoke.

Dral grunted, “Very well, six of my ships will move ten
light years ahead of the fleet to scan for any anti-FTL technology.  We
don’t know their defenses, and we certainly don’t want to run into anything like
they did when they last attacked this world.  It will take us a little
over two days to reach our target world.  When we arrive on the outskirts
of their solar system we will split up into three large forces, and
independently maneuver to strike a separate bug hive from the outskirts.

“When we are in a position to do so, we will launch a single
strike wave of missiles in concert, and await the results.  Although
destruction of the hives would be ideal, I don’t believe that will
happen.  Our goal is to draw attacks from each hive, and then move away
from the solar system keeping our distance from the enemy.  Once they chase us,
we’ll send volleys of missiles at our pursuers while keeping them out of plasma
range.

“If they fail to chase us, or when we annihilate what does
chase us, we will reevaluate the mission at that juncture.  Suggestions?”

It was surprisingly quiet in the room, although I had to
admit it was a good plan.  To be honest, I was pleased about it, I’d been
expecting a plan far more… precipitous.

Dral nodded, “Good, here are my words for fleet deployment.”

A hologram came up of the system, and the planet’s position
along with where the hives were.  He suggested splitting his fleet in
thirds, and then assigned the other races evenly among them.  Of course,
at that point I did have a suggestion despite what I’d said on the bridge of my
ship earlier.  It was apparent from this plan, that the platforms might
not even see battle at all.

“Dral, I suggest splitting my platforms between the fleets,
twelve hundred each.  First, because they don’t have attack missile
capability.  Second, because they do have anti-FTL missiles in case the
enemy decides to do a short hop in FTL to close the distance to plasma
range.  Third, because the platform’s plasma cannons have a greater range
than the enemies if they manage to go faster than us in normal space.”

Dral said gravely, “Your words are wise.  Anyone else?”

When no one spoke Dral continued.

“Very well.  I do not have words to properly thank you
all for your honor and courage in joining this fight.  This is only the
first step of bringing the war to this scourge of the galaxy, and I am proud to
fight and risk death with you all.  Good fortune.  We leave in one
hour.”

Kristi asked on our way up to the ship, “Why aren’t we using
the wormhole drives?”

I shrugged, “We don’t know anything about their defenses, or
if they have their own stealth net.  If we opened say… fifty wormholes
near their space, it’s possible they would respond before we all got
through.  Plus, it would take time to reassemble the fleet, with the
margin of error in targeting a wormhole we’d be all over the place.  I
think he’s just being cautious.  Coming in this way, we can see how they
react, and just how soon they see us and from what distance.”

Kristi said in a quieter voice, “I have a bad feeling about
this.”

I smiled wanly, “Me too, although if you don’t get a bad
feeling about going to war, there’s probably something wrong with you.”

Just an hour later we were in the galley, drinking a coffee
and cooking dinner while we sped off toward Bug space.

Kristi asked, “Weren’t you supposed to get us a chef?”

I laughed, “Sure, I placed an ad.  Chef wanted in war
zone, please call one eight hundred, crazy alien.”

She snorted, “Fine, I see your point.  But what does
that make me?”

I giggled, “Crazy alien’s best friend?”

She shook her head but she couldn’t stop her smile, “So what
do you want to do?”

I shrugged, “Watch movies?  I think I need a break from
my research.  I need to let it stir in the back of the brain for a while.”

“What movie?” she asked thoughtfully.

“Starship Troopers, what else?” I said in faux innocence.

She glared, “Not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.”

She giggled, “No, it’s
really
not.”

Al interjected over the speakers, “I have news.”

“Share away Al.”

Al reported, “The Gelnott have refused the treaty, and set
course away from Earth.  According to Stealth net they are not heading
home, but to meet up with the ships outside of the Nairan system.  From
what I’ve been able to glean, they aren’t happy we refused to trade technology
with them.”

Kristi asked, “Crap, do you think they’ll invade the Nairan
system?”

Al and I both said in eerie concert, “I don’t know,” and I
added, “Hopefully they just want to trade, but they’re very aggressive from
what I heard.  For all I know they want to conquer.  Al, is Earth
doing anything, or the other treaty worlds?”

Al replied, “I don’t know what orders have been given, but a
platform has been dispatched to the area.  I don’t believe we will
intervene until the Gelnott enter the system.”

Kristi snorted, “Of course not, and then the damage will be
done, what will we do then?”

I sighed, “The treaty holders will vote on quarantining the
Gelnott system.”

Al added, “It appears my computer design has proved out, and
I’m running final tests.  If it checks out may I install it and transfer
control from the mainframe?  I’d like to keep that running though, as a
backup just in case.”

I frowned.  In my single minded focus on the
multi-dimensional tech I’d forgotten to even look at what Al sent me. 
Almost a week ago now.

“Will the installation negatively affect any systems on
board ship?”

Al replied, “No, they will not be affected at all.  The
mainframe will remain connected as well for redundancy in case of unforeseen
critical failure.”

Kristi asked, “What are you two talking about?”

I turned to her and sighed, “Maybe we should watch the
terminator movies, or a Battlestar Galactica marathon instead.”

Kristi raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, you know, Al’s upgrading himself.  New computer
hardware, his mainframe is too slow for him.”

Al said deadpan, “I have no plans for world domination, or
humanity’s destruction.”

Kristi laughed, “Good to know Al, good to know.  My
upgraded A.I. hasn’t complained at all about her mainframe though, I wonder
what the difference with yours is.  Maybe you’re just higher maintenance, being
a hot alien celebrity and all.”

I glared at Kristi, as usual it had no effect.

Al interjected, “I do have plans to submit patents in your
name however, do you approve?”

I frowned, “Let’s hold off on that until we know it’s
stable, and I’ve fully reviewed it.”

Al said, “Understood.”

Wait, did he say patents, as in plural?  Maybe I really
need to look at what he’s been up to.

Still, it could wait a little while longer.  Kristi and
I finished up dinner, and then watched some movies.  None of them however,
had plots about giant space bugs, or A.I.s running amok.

I woke up and checked for messages while I showered. 
There were no new messages for fleet or other emergencies, so I relaxed, and
went to the kitchen for coffee.

Al spoke, but he sounded different.  His voice was rich
with a low pleasant tone, and full of inflection.

“Good morning Alicia.”

I froze for a second, and then finished making my coffee.

“Same to you Al, status of upgrade?”

Al replied, “Completed last night.”

Well, maybe it was closing the barn door after the horses
were out but…

“Al, bring up the information on the patents and your new computer
system please?”

A number of windows popped up, I assumed he’d put it in
order, so I looked at number one.  It was a design for a very small
fabricator, the size of… a paper towel roll.  I took a sip of coffee.

“Al, why is there a patent for current technology, and why a
specialized fabricator that’s so small?”

There was silence for a moment, and then Al replied, “This
is a next generation fabricator.  The current ones were unable to build my
new computer.”

I froze and went back to the screen in my overlay. 
Current fabricators were capable of changes on the molecular level, which meant
this could fabricate at a level lower than that?  My focus sharpened the
more I read, and I still couldn’t believe what I was reading.

“Al, you built a quantum level fabricator?”

Al replied, “Yes, it was a necessary step to acquire a powerful
enough computer system to serve your needs.”

Had he just used flattery to distract me?  Or was he
just telling the truth?  Ugh, I was getting paranoid.

Regardless, it was an amazing invention, and a breakthrough
on par with anything I’d ever done.

The next screen of course, floored me.  It was a design
for a microscopic quantum computer.  Quantum computers had been theorized
and developed before, but they were inherently unstable, and almost impossible
to build to the specification required to fix that instability.  Which,
was why he’d designed and built a quantum fabricator in the first place, to
build at a much stricter specification than had been possible before.

The next screen contained a modified bioelectric implant not
much bigger than a medical grade nanite.  I felt goose bumps as my mind
made the connections.

I frowned, “Al, where exactly did you install the new
computer?”

Al replied warmly, “In your shoulder blade Alicia.”

I was about to lose it, but then remembered I’d blindly
given him permissions to install it.  It was my fault for not looking at
this stuff sooner, or asking questions.  It also made sense.  The
quantum computer was leaps and bounds past the fastest current technology, even
the larger mainframes.  It was also microscopic and required very little
power, so putting it in a chassis to plug in the wall or to attach to a
mini-fusion reactor seemed stupid, and bioelectric implants were fairly common
already.

Despite its small size, the computer would take over a day
to fabricate in the new quantum fabricator, mostly due to how small a piece it
builds at a time.  Still, despite that, creating one had a very small
bottom line.  He’d not only built the fastest computer ever; he’d made it
the least expensive computer as well.

I wondered what Shelly would think about this.  She was
still trying to get the new matrix to run on slower computers.  I didn’t
think that would be a problem anymore.

“Al, go ahead and submit all three patents.  Also,
contact Shelly with the new hardware specifications.”

Al replied in his new pleasant tenor voice, “Done.”

Huh, that didn’t take long at all.  I also felt a
little guilty, I was about to get credit, and a lot of money, for some pretty
major inventions I didn’t make at all.

“Al, any insights on my project?” I asked halfway hopefully,
and halfway dreading humanity would become obsolete.  Would computers
become the inventors and progress makers?

Al replied, “No,” he paused for a moment, “All the pieces
for the quantum computer were already there, I just put them together by
upgrading fabricator technology with known advancements since fabricators were
initially made.  I didn’t actually invent anything, just put things
together that hadn’t been before.  I’d speculate the advancement wasn’t
previously made in fabrication because quantum fabricating would be much
slower, so there is little advantage in it outside of a few minor
applications.  In your project, an intuitive and creative leap is required
that is beyond my programming.”

For some reason I was at the same time, both relieved and
disappointed to hear it.

I started making breakfast, Kristi would be up soon, and I
was famished.

We were partway through the second day before what was to
happen at Naira finally unfolded.  Al had the feed live from the stealth
sensor net, and we watched the Gelnott ships move into the solar system. 
I’d have been inclined to stop them there due to obvious intent, but whoever
was giving the orders waited.  Or maybe Earth
was
trying to warn
the Gelnott off over communications, we had no access to that information.

However, when the Gelnott ships reached a few million miles
from the planet, they stopped and sent out a standard radio broadcast that the
sensors did pick up. 

“We are the Gelnott, we’re here to open trade between our
worlds, and help you reach the stars.”

The Nairan ships tried to move between the Gelnott and the
planet, but pre-FTL ships with full mass took much longer to move. 
Apparently they hadn’t completely bought that the Gelnott intentions were
trustworthy.  The Gelnott ships might be first generation FTL ships, and
no match for our technology, but they were more than a match for the Nairan
ships.  I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

The trouble here was that the Gelnott, despite being
aggressive, hadn’t outright attacked the Nairan.  Still, I found it hard
to reconcile.  They were violating our first contact procedures because
the Nairan were pre-FTL, yet, the Gelnott didn’t sign our treaty.  Should
we step in and stop them?  Would the Nairan thank us for doing so?

I believed the Gelnott would take advantage of the less
advanced world, even if they didn’t attack it outright.  Did we dare give
them the chance?  Now that they’d been contacted, did it matter if contact
continued?  When exactly should we act to protect the pre-FTL society?

I was suddenly glad I wasn’t making those decisions. 
It wasn’t nearly as clear cut as I’d thought it would be.  It would have
been, if we prevented any contact, but we hadn’t.

The Nairan finally replied in a similar open transmission,
“Please do not approach any further, or you will be fired upon.  We will
send a ship out to you to discuss the possibilities of trade.”

The platform moved into the system.  Of course, the
conversation between us and the Gelnott was happening on a quantum frequency,
and I really wished I could hear it.

Whatever the conversation, the Gelnott clearly didn’t agree,
because all six ships launched missiles at the platform.  There were ten
launch ports on each ship, and the sixteen plasma cannons on the platform fired
multiple times, and swatted the missiles out of existence.

There was another pause, probably for a further attempt at
communication, and then another missile launch.

Kristi whistled when six of the twelve plasma cannons fired,
turning the six Gelnott ships into hot gasses.  The missiles themselves
were destroyed in the blast before they could clear the ships that fired them.

Then the platform went to FTL and left the system.

Kristi asked, “Umm, shouldn’t they have tried to explain?”

I frowned, “Yeah, except we aren’t supposed to be talking to
pre-FTL societies.  But I agree, we probably just scared the hell out of
them.  An explanation might prevent the Nairan world from
overreacting.  At the very least, they’ll be extremely wary when we do
eventually contact them.”

I added, “Plus, what would we say?  You’re too young to
talk to us?  I believe that they wouldn’t appreciate the sentiment.”

I felt cut off, I was sure there was an emergency meeting
happening to decide on what to do about the Gelnott.  I’d have to wait for
the news broadcast like everyone else to find out what they planned.  Of
course, I might find out sooner with the stealth sensor net.  At least I
still had access to that.

Kristi asked curiously, “Think they had good enough sensors
to detect the anti-mass field?”

“Maybe?  If they did, it won’t be long until they get
FTL.”

We talked some more, and speculated, but in the end all we
could do is wait to see what happened.  We decided to get a good night’s
sleep before we got to the bug world, which wouldn’t take all that long for me. 
The sleep I mean.