Framandi Alliance- Galaxy Accretion Conflicts

by Rashid Ahmed

  Lei responded, “Do it. Marks look good. Proceed.”

  The hard-shell EVA suits had three lasers each. These were suitable for penetrating or slicing asteroid sections during extravehicular activities, when needed. The shoulder mounted one was military grade capable of sustained hundred kilowatts, while the forearm mounted ones were rated at thirty kilowatts, meant for close range use on asteroid surfaces or chunks. The shoulder laser tended to drain the suit’s battery when used at full wattage.

  Sven had taken on Crystal’s tasks on the exterior of the bio module. He said, “Be careful. Call out if you need help. I’ll focus on attaching the remining drills.”

  Isla, a materials science specialist announced, “I’m suiting up to come help.” Sven didn’t counter that. Norður’s Nose was close enough it felt like he was beside a large building. He could do with the assistance.

  As soon as she was out, the next problem hit them. Eiji let everyone know, “I’ve picked up a transmission on both the extra-terrestrial communication units on Átt. Kei’s interpreted it to be a generic request for communications, initiated with an ID exchange. We’ve confirmed this is normal procedure.” A split second later he hastily added, “There are a bunch of asteroids that have been hurled in our path. Looks like we haven’t been quick enough responding.”

  Taking charge of the situation while Sven was on EVA, Jón said, “Find the right responses and send them. AL-I informed us it had left satellites behind. We’re not expecting anyone else. The satellites don’t know we’re friendly.” Kei cut in, “Try using the head-ring brain-machine interface devices. They’re supposed to be able to connect with the satellites.” Eiji put his interfacing ring on. He’d taken it off to examine it earlier. He imagined agreeing to communicate and permitted the processing module from AL-I to pass this on to the satellites.

  Immediately, Eiji received a response which was a mishmash of imagery, emotion and other information he couldn’t fathom. He spoke to the AI, “Kei, are you able to interpret this?”

  The AI replied, “Yes, this is a fairly basic exchange. Instead of just saying hello, this species tends to throw an entire encyclopaedia into each sentence.” A second or two later, after Eiji had refocussed himself, Kei continued, “We’re being asked about our intensions. The satellites have identified themselves. We don’t know if some of them haven’t. They’ve put asteroids in our path to prevent us from accessing the wormhole.”

  Ásta said, “I’ve got my interfacing ring on now. Let me give this a shot as well. We’ve got to get through the wormhole, before the approaching hostile drone on the other side.” She spoke while she connected to AL-I’s processing unit, “Syncing up with the processor. Putting together an ‘intensions’ package. The processor is letting me know I’ll need to give history of interactions, background and information about myself as the communicator. The unit is pulling the information together now.” She mentally followed the processor’s actions. It took focus and concentration. It was like putting together a complicated stacking-blocks puzzle, where each block was a preconfigured package of information. It looked like a complicated strand of DNA with branches. “Wow, that’s fast.” She said after the processor had compiled the communication.

  Sensing it was ‘okay’, she gave the processor the go ahead to send. She relayed to the crew, “Communication package sent.”

  A short moment later, Ásta announced, “The satellites are going to destroy the asteroids placed in our path. The location of the wormhole has been shared with us.” She continued, “Kei, can we have the wormhole and the satellites, visually displayed on the situational awareness and navigation interfaces please.”

  The wormhole showed up looking like a tornado funnel-end, seen bottom-up. There were colours flowing into the funnel. Ásta asked the AI, “What do you make of the flow lines moving into the wormhole?”

  Kei replied; “We have data on it from the information storage system. It’s a sluggish flow of dark matter. It seems our portion of the galaxy has a higher concentration of it than the other end of the wormhole, which happens to be in the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. The flow rate is negligible according to my interpretation of the data provided.”

  The foreign satellites were rotating a short distance away from the circumference of the wormhole. They were tasked with gradually expanding the wormhole, from the solar system side. Half of them were moving clockwise, the other half anti-clockwise; criss-crossing each other’s paths.

  Ásta announced with urgency in her voice, “The asteroids in our path seem to have blown up. The debris is continuing to disintegrate. I haven’t detected any weapons fire from the satellites, so I’ve no idea how they’ve accomplished this. We should assume the satellites can knock out unauthorised vessels as well in a similar fashion. We’ve got a lot of debris headed our way. Norður’s Nose will take the brunt of it, but some may find its way to Átt. Crew on extravehicular activity, how much longer? You need to get inside right away.”

  Lei said, “I’ll coordinate.”

  Instructing the crew on EVA, she said, “Crystal’s nearly cut through the lattice. The last two drills are being placed. The drones can take over in about two minutes. Debris will begin impacting us in one. We’ll be left with one other problem. The lattice section that’s been cut out will need a patch of some sort.”

  Sven said hurriedly, “We can have one drone fix the other one, in place of the section that’s been cut out. They’re built like little battle tanks. I think they’ll take the stress. Also, it may be good to have a drone on the outside.” Isla agreed, “Yes, a drone will do. We’ll get the ball rolling.”

  Crystal secured the section of lattice she had cut to free herself, to another section that was already in place. A drone maneuvered itself into the gap in the lattice frame. Crystal spun towards the front of Átt. She could already feel micro debris particles smacking into the outside of her suit. The others had noticed as well. She pulled herself towards Sven who was still holding onto a drill in the process of being attached. She braced him while the debris bombardment increased. A large chunk must have hit Norður’s Nose, because it instantly began to wobble, dangerously close to the front of Átt.

  Isla finished her task and got to them, just as Sven’s drill was attached. With urgency in her voice, she said, “Get to the top hatch. The combination of high velocity debris and this wobble, is perilous.”

  The three made their way to the top hatch on the bio module. A minute later, they were inside. But not without a severe battering. Once out of the airlock, each looked at the other. Isla had damage to her faceplate. A large piece of debris must have grazed it. A head-on collision would have been catastrophic at the closure speed they were at. Her heart was racing. She turned to Sven when he spoke.

  “I can’t articulate my right knee. Feels like it’s broken,” Sven said. The sensors in their suits usually picked up any injury and provided medication as needed right away; in this case a local anaesthetic. When Isla patched into his suit to check systems, it just showed a faulty knee. Looking at the knee, she saw why. There was a piece of asteroid debris neatly embedded on the side of the knee. It had not punctured the suit, but the impact had taken out the knee joint. Injury was likely. She said, “We’re going to have to cut you out of the suit.” She initialised the suit’s disassembly function. The right leg didn’t respond.

  Isla seated Sven in a grav-chair and brought up a rapid manufacturing interface, on a console screen. She said to him, “The drones outside have completed their tasks and returned to the bio module. Except the one fused into the lattice frame, as reinforcement. I’ve tasked two of them to retool, install manufacturing assistance software and get to work disassembling the leg portion of your HSEVA suit. I’m going to place you into a medical capsule so the drones can work in tandem with its robotic surgeons”. She rolled him off the grav-chair after directing it to the rear of the bio module, into the medical capsule. The drones were already there and began dismantling the right leg porti
on of the suit.

  Crystal came in through Isla’s earpiece, “I’m coordinating with Lei to ensure the drills do their job of sinking their teeth into Norður’s Nose. You get back to Austur. I’ll keep Sven company, till his leg is sorted.” Isla patted Sven’s shoulder once and nodded to him. She turned to Crystal and said, “Call me if you need assistance.” She headed back to her designated SSEV and patched into the common operations channel.

  Norður’s Nose was jostling while the drills were sinking their teeth into it. The movement was reducing, but it was still posing a problem. The drills weren’t functioning efficiently. Kei had worked out a system of keeping a few drills inactive, to hold the asteroid while others chewed through the inner material. They were making headway but were closing in on the wormhole rapidly.

  A day later, the asteroid was secured to the forward section of Norður, the bio module. Norður’s Nose would serve as visual camouflage for observers directly ahead. An added advantage was that the asteroid had high metal and heavy element content, so it would aid in distorting scans.

  Sven had been thinking ahead. He mentioned to the team, “We can’t risk taking the information storage module from AL-I with us. Or the processing unit. We’re close to completing another pair of gaupas, so we’ll have communication at distance. I’d like to leave Suður behind in the solar system. Your inputs?”

  Eiji and Lei understood the responsibility they had. They’d have to ensure the rest of their team entering the wormhole had all the information they needed. The two would need to pull data from AL-I’s information storage system, as soon as the crew needed it. The mouth of the wormhole was drawing close.

  One gaupa was manufactured ahead of time and replaced the one in Austur. The Austur’s gaupa had been placed in Suður SSEV so that the vessel could communicate with Átt. Suður disengaged from Átt as soon as the crews began testing the gaupas. The SSEV deaccelerated and fell behind, as Átt entered the wormhole leading to the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy.

  Unknown System

  Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy.

  Kei’s very neutral accented AI voice came in over the crew’s headsets, “The new gaupa on Austur has established a connection with Suður. Both have completed systems testing. I’m attempting to connect these to the gaupa on Vestur now. The Norður gaupa will be connected after.”

  Having communications up with the vessel which remained behind in the solar system was a massive morale booster for the crew on Átt. They’d been in the wormhole for half an hour during which time visual sensors were able to clearly see behind into the solar system. There was only a glimmer ahead; like a light source seen through a marble.

  Sven was feeling a lot better. An active healing serum injection delivered locally into his right knee allowed the joint to restore itself swiftly. He was keeping an eye on the visual sensor feeds. Sven sensed a change in the light coming in from the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy end of the wormhole, while the light reaching the vessel from the solar system seemed to merge into a soft glow. He spoke over the common channel, “We seem to be entering a transition point in the wormhole.” Isla concurred, “I’ve been monitoring it as well. There seems to be an increased amount of radiation too, like what we would expect if we went deeper into our own galaxy.”

  Ásta who was with Stefán on Vestur, spoke next, “The gaupa on Vestur has connected with Suður. It’s also getting sync requests from some new sources.”

  Her twin Jón on Austur looked over at the pad they’d hooked up to the gaupas. Each was prepared to take over from the other, if either of their brain-machine interfaces failed. He confirmed Ásta’s input, “Here too. The one on Austur is showing six incoming sync requests.” Kei interrupted mentioning, “I’ve been exchanging identification packets using the procedure like the one we used with the satellites. There’s an issue establishing an active connection with any of the requesting sources. The other side may be taking time to examine our ID packet closely. They may not know what to expect. While we indicated to the wormhole satellites that we’d transit, we have not communicated our intensions once we made it through.”

  Kei continued, “Separately, I’ve established a direct open link with the processing unit, and through it to AL-I’s information module on Suður. All four of our gaupas can now communicate with each other and transfer information. They’re synced for real-time sharing.”

  Jón said, “Just in time too. Two of the incoming requests seem to have connected to our gaupas. Kei, see if we can let them know that all four of our gaupas are synced with each other.” Kei replied, “On it! Okay, now we have been asked for vessel details.”

  Jón, who was focussed on the interaction, responded, “Give them the specs of Átt, along with all the information you have on the crew and yourself.” Kei replied, “Compiling and sending immediately.”

  It was another half an hour before the next interaction. Átt’s crew were tense. None of them had enough rest or knew what to expect. This was first contact with extra-terrestrials. They weren’t ready; on that they were unanimous. Given their course of action, they hadn’t had enough time to research their destination, its inhabitants or any adversaries they may face.

  Sven got out of the medical capsule, bathed and was now massaging his recovering knee. The remainder of the crew too had freshened up and eaten. They now waited to exit the wormhole.

  Kei announced, “We’ve just been sent a fairly large volume of data from the Canis Major side. The initial part of it is related to background on our interactions with AL-I; which, they say is now headed towards the wormhole leading to Beta Hydri. You’d all want your head-ring machine interfacing devices on, to access and understand the information we’ve received. It would take too long to narrate it. You’ll need to mentally absorb it.”

  Lei, who had been interacting with Kei aboard Suður back in the solar system, came in through the common channel and asked, “Would it be dangerous to directly access the data with our minds? To let it flow in?”

  Sven smiled. He was relieved to have Lei and Eiji online.

  “Presently uncertain. Individuals will likely interpret the same data differently. However, I’ve already pulled random portions of the data, and examined these without any adverse effects. It doesn’t seem to contain anything which might highjack human thinking, or compromise the brain,” replied Kei.

  Ásta was the first to come in on the channel followed immediately by her brother. Sounding tense, she exclaimed, “Jæja! We need a plan!”

  Jón elaborated for the crew, “Follow the thought pattern, after the overview of the system we’re entering. Focus on the wormhole exit.” He’d learned to be patient with his colleagues, and to lead them towards the intuitive leaps which came naturally to his sister and himself. Ásta sometimes forgot they’d been engineered, pushing the known boundaries of human genetics.

  Catching up, Crystal said, “The armed hostile drone is just about to enter the wormhole. We’ve been given an overview of the conditions in the system we’re about to enter. There are other potentially hostile drones in the system. They seek out high technology traces. We’re going to be under threat from the moment we exit the wormhole and enter the unknown system. The hostile drone headed our way, will enter the wormhole just as we exit. The armed drone’s approach angle is from above the wormhole, as seen from our perspective. We’ll be entering the unknown system from below their ecliptic.”

  Sven said, “I see the problem. We’ll be unable to make it through without pre-emptive, destructive, diversionary action. Here’s what I propose. Crystal and I will disengage Norður from Átt. We’ll use it to plough upward into the approaching drone, while Átt tails us; diving below us and out of the wormhole during impact.” Everyone aboard Átt had their brain-machine interfacing devices on. They’d taken to calling these diadems. The ornamental headband-like crowns worn by royalty. They were able to visualize Sven’s thought just like he had.

  Not liking what he was seeing, Stefán exclaimed, “Not acceptab
le! Both you and Crystal will be crushed. The closure speed between Norður and the hostile drone, will result in catastrophic destruction of both.”

  Sven interrupted, highlighting the time remaining for wormhole exit. This information had been provided along with the first contact information they’d received. He said, “No time. We’ll set course trajectory, disengage and get into our capsules. They double up as deep-space escape pods. Each has adequate life support, EM communications and conventional thrusters for maneuvering.”

  Seeing his plan, the crew swung into action. They each knew there wasn’t enough time to come up with a more controllable course of action. The idea itself was elegantly simple. It was a rapid decisive operation that utilized a choke point to achieve an expedient outcome.

  Sven used the information provided to them about the armed drone’s wormhole approach, to calculate a trajectory that would put Norður on an intercept course. Crystal went through the SSEV’s disengagement procedure and turned off some of the time-consuming safety protocols. Kei spoke through their earpieces sounding urgent, “You’re out of time. Please get to the capsules right away. I tasked the drones left onboard to place your HSEVA suits within the capsules. These are secured inside. The gaupa onboard has been placed in one as well. I’ve taken the liberty of transferring space-agriculture and food production data, to the other SSEVs, including Suður. Hurry please!”