by Rashid Ahmed
Sven made his way to his capsule, closely followed by Crystal who was concerned he might need help. She need not have worried. He was healing better than anyone expected. Just as they got to the capsules, local gravity began shifting about as the vessels disengaged. Then the power went out. Kei came in through everyone’s earpieces, “The armed drone identifies evolved technology and goes after it. I’ve temporarily disengaged power from all systems not crucial for survival. Stealth is key to your plan.” The AI was right.
As soon as Sven and Crystal managed to enter their capsules, the suits placed inside began to enclose each of them. Kei immediately ejected them from Norður. There wasn’t a moment to lose.
The crew aboard Átt, quickly donned their HSEVA suits as well. The proximity of engagement was decidedly dangerous. Debris from the colliding vessels could hit Átt, potentially penetrating the layers of panels. Although every SSEV was over-engineered to shrug off space debris, the prospect of critical damage remained.
Jón spoke to the remaining crew, “I’m tracking the capsules from Norður. Silhouettes only. Relying on passive sensor detection.”
The seconds ticked by eerily. Átt was closely following Norður, the bio module, which had a large asteroid fastened to its front. Norður coasted towards the drone. Everyone held their breaths. Kei, the AI had been instructed to manoeuvre Norður, towards the armed drone. Noticing the approaching asteroid, the drone was slowly moving out of its path. A sudden change in the asteroid’s course and speed activated the drone’s defences. It began evasive actions, changing course downward, unknowingly heading towards Átt. Norður pivoted keeping the asteroid pointed towards the drone, which continued to evade. The drone sharply altered course accelerating hard, to avoid the impact point between itself and Norður’s Nose.
As it broke away from the sudden assault, it shot a high energy weapon at the asteroid which tore a section of it away. The torn section spun away in the direction of the capsules with Sven and Crystal in them. As soon as it fired, the drone zipped by under the asteroid and over Átt, which was arching downward and away from Norður.
Identifying this new threat, the drone fired its energy weapon at Átt, hitting a section between Austur and Vestur SSEVs. Though external sections were hardened against high velocity debris impact and temperature extremes; the weapon’s energy agitated internal components on the universal docking ports. The forward port’s seal gave way and a hard, continuous shuddering, jolted the crew on Átt. Abruptly, the hostile drone silently exploded at the entrance of the wormhole. Kei calmly announced, “Well done!”
Stefán asked, “What just happened?”
Kei replied, “We have damage to the forward universal docking port. Please seal your suits.”
Stefán responded, “I meant, what happened to the drone?”
Kei took a moment, then came in over their earpieces, “Ásta and Jón redirected all focussed gravity to a point near the center of the attacking drone, a moment before it attacked us. They then increased power rapidly. At some point, the internal structure of the drone was compromised, and explosive material may have ignited. This caused the drone to explode.”
Jón took over the explanation, “Ásta and I had connected our diadems, exploring options together. We were searching for something to use against the hostile drone once it began to evade Norður’s Nose. We were looking for something to sling at the drone using focussed gravity. That’s when Ásta’s mind jumped to considering the crushing force of focussed gravity. My mind envisioned gravity pulling the drone into itself. We both reacted simultaneously, pinpointing where gravity needed to be applied, and acted. It all happened swiftly and spontaneously. Fortunately, it panned out like we hoped.”
Isla was going through the nearby debris and began actively tracking Norður. The bio module had gone into a high-speed torque-induced gyroscopic precession, following the last second manoeuvre to snare the drone. It was tumbling out of the wormhole, spinning on a shifting axis. She called out, “I’m unable to locate Sven and Crystal. Their capsules should have left the wormhole in the direction of ejection. We’re exiting the wormhole ourselves, right into an asteroid field.”
Stefán was concerned for his colleagues’ wellbeing. He added, “I’m not recording any telemetry from their suits either.”
Taking control of the situation, Jón said, “We need to prioritize activities. Kei will assign tasks, track progress and conduct general administration. What are the big-ticket items we need to focus on?”
The responses came in quickly. “We need to find Sven and Crystal. Norður needs to be retrieved.” said Stefán. Ásta said, “We need to repair the docking ports. Also, we’re in a foreign system where hostile actors track down unknown space-based technology. They may have already noticed us. We need to consider hiding while we regroup.” Isla said, “Noted. We also need to figure out how to proceed with the species here and find out if there’s any threat, to our own system.”
Kei, the AI, added, “We require additional resources to manufacture some of the components for the docking ports and to put together processing modules like the one AL-I left us. They’ll help us interact better with the locals we’re already in contact with. I’ll also set up a local space monitoring and situational awareness feed.”
Jón and Ásta were tasked by Kei to assist drones from both SSEVs, to disengaging and remove the damaged universal docking ports. Their skills were most suited for the job. Isla was to locate suitable asteroids in the immediate vicinity which could be harvested, to meet the requirement of a list of manufacturing raw materials. The two SSEVs of Átt headed in the last known trajectory of Sven and Crystal’s capsules. Stefán was coordinating with Eiji and Lei who were on the solar system end of the wormhole. He was putting information together, to better understand how to communicate with the local extra-terrestrial species. His first step was to grasp AL-I’s originating species’ biology and physiology.
There were others concerned for Átt’s crew as well. Using nascent molecular manufacturing capabilities, gaupas were produced on the Earth-Moon and Sun-Earth Lagrange point platforms. Ten new quantum foam communication devices were produced in the solar system. These were synced to each other through a peer seeking protocol. They exchanged identifying codes and set up multiple cross transmission channels. The gaupas’ communication, operated outside the electromagnetic spectrum and was beyond interception by conventional communication transceivers. The bandwidth occupied by voice and video transmissions was miniscule.
The AIs Kei and Shun were benefitting the most from this new-found communication capability. Kei was able to consolidate information across interstellar space nearly instantaneously. Earth-side transmissions were being managed traditionally until the technology could be safely deployed.
Lýsi leadership had evaluated and permitted three gaupas to be manufactured on Earth after putting together a permission-based protocol. These were only allowed connections to a limited list of approved quantum foam communication devices. Each space platform in the solar system, and remote Lýsi locations on Earth, began developing capabilities to manufacture advanced AL-I like, quantum processing modules. The first gaupa to be completed on Earth was on the group’s Kuril Islands facility.
Rafael had established a voice and video conference between Stefán, Eiji and Lei. This wasn’t just a conversation between Earth and a vessel in the solar system, it was connectivity between two galaxies. Rafael was excited about this. He’d been studying the information being received from Átt. He said, “I’ve been assigned to provide Earth-side support and brought on-board Max Andersson, who is an expert on security, defence and infiltration. He’s been vetted and has passed our tests, which identify power hungry or malevolent individuals.”
Max came online. After a moment studying everyone, he said, “Hello! I’m glad to be a part of this.” He noticed Stefán looking stressed and addressed him, “Stefán, we don’t have the information processing capabilities to absorb AL-I’s data di
rectly yet. I need you to access information on our behalf, by querying AL-I’s data storage device. There are some questions about AL-I’s originating species, we would like answered.”
Looking through the list of questions, Stefán made his first query, quite literally a thought translating to, “Who’s in the system Átt has just arrived in?” This was too broad, and his mind was immediately bombarded with an overflow of information, about species in the system, known locations, known origins and even information about their makeup. He imagined, “Stop!” The information inflow ceased. He said to the team listening in, “There’s just too much data, all at once.”
After getting a short description of the way information was provided, Max said, “Understood. This time, try asking for a description of the extra-terrestrial individual, communicating with you through the gaupa on your SSEV.”
Stefán tried that. He still received a massive inflow of information, so he mentally thought, “Slow down.” Not slow enough to sort and comprehend, he thought, “Slower.” The information inflow began slowing down in increments. When the flow arrived at a level, he was comfortable with, he thought, “Okay, this rate is fine. Start from the beginning.” Aloud he said, “Kei, please patch in the crew so they can hear this as well.”
A separate channel opened connecting Átt’s crew to his narrative. “The individual at the other end of the primary connection with the gaupa onboard Vestur, is identifiable with a thought. The closest I can get to describing the identifying thought is, ‘Advisor of the Masked’. ‘The Masked’ are a part of the local system’s inhabitants which specialize in hiding themselves, on behalf of the species. The other two groups in the communication are what I would describe as ‘The Enlightened’ and ‘The Explorers’. Individuals are identified by their group’s role. They switch groups if needed, after absorbing the information required for specific tasks.”
He continued rapidly, “Advisor of the Masked, is a humanoid. How? It seems there have been numerous interactions between many species across both the Milky Way and Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. The interactions go back to a period when Canis Major got close enough that wormholes between the galaxies began occurring naturally.” Diverting from the immediate query, Max asked, “Have there been interactions with the solar system?”
“Okay, I’ll shift focus to us for a bit.” Stefán said while continuing, “Ah! Here’s something. The last interaction with the solar system. I’m getting concepts of telling time, based on the spin of what I interpret as a blackhole. Kei, please access this data subset and calculate time from Earth’s perspective.”
Kei responded a moment later, “I queried AL-I’s processing module on Suður, and fed it packets of information on how we measure time. It’s done the math and responded. The blackhole is supermassive and rotates at eighty percent the speed of light. One complete rotation is a unit of time. Measuring and back calculating, the blackhole completes twelve hundred rotations every Earth second. So, the accurate response to Max’s question; the last interaction occurred twenty-seven thousand Earth Years and four months ago.”
Stefán picked up from there, “There was a space-based conflict during which the solar system was a battlefront between multiple species from both galaxies. Earth life suffered significant collateral damage. Advisor of the Masked’s counterparts - ‘The Explorers’ made their way through the last known natural wormhole between our solar system and theirs, after the larger battling forces annihilated each other. The remnants of the forces engaging in the solar system, had collapsed most of the large artificially created wormholes through which they had entered our system. The Explorers set up outposts on Earth, to help us recover. They stayed for almost three thousand Earth years. Then, they left to explore other systems. Interestingly, a similar battle was fought in The Explorers home system, which we are presently in, approximately fifty-two thousand years ago. They indicate that recent increased drone activity in their system, may be a precursor to conflict close by.”
“The natural wormhole between our two systems, our two galaxies; was maintained by The Explorers, using minimal power on their side. This allowed probes through. Now however, with conflict being foreseen, the local populations are seeking to spread out to all known unoccupied systems, for survival.” Stefán paused for his account to sink in.
Getting back to the initial question, he described, “Now about the locals, ‘Advisor of Masked’ and the individual’s species looks somewhat like ours. They have a similar range of heights, weights and even colours. They all come across as very thin. That’s where similarities end though. They’re hermaphrodites, so they can take on the role of both male and female as needed. They have a cartilaginous skeletal structure, layers of dermis or skin which form an exceptionally resilient but soft exterior. Most interesting! The musculature and nervous system are highly complex, allowing for great speed and strength. It’s almost as if each one was manufactured!”
Max asked, “What can you tell us about their brains and their thinking? I’m trying to determine how they’d interact with us.”
Stefán looked further into the results of his initial query and answered, “I’ve just delved right down to their DNA. Fascinating. It’s just like what we saw from AL-I’s language and its information packets. Twelve bases. Short strings attached to longer ones, which attached to the primary strand.” After a short moment of thinking he said, “It’s like they have the equivalent of twenty or thirty peoples’ DNA, compressed onto a single strand.”
Stefán paused a moment before continuing. He said, “This species can reconfigure their DNA throughout their lives and pass on relevant information to their offspring. They appear to code-in skills, knowledge, learning and even language; right into their DNA. The basis of their language is complex thought sequences, where the simplest forms or alphabet, are DNA bases. Their brains are able to process information magnitudes ahead of ours.”
“Does that make them more intelligent than us?” Max asked.
Smiling to himself, Stefán answered, “Not necessarily. With the amount of information, they’d be throwing at each other to communicate, just deciphering thoughts might require intensive processing. They’d want to minimize the amount of thinking. What they would have is common levels of knowledge which would then require minimal exchange. If they keep updating common information, embedding it all into their DNA; it would simply require an inbuilt pattern identifier for rapid decision making. Not unlike a computer with rules for output processing. So, long story short, their knowledge is great, their reaction time short, but I have a feeling their ability to make mental leaps may be limited.”
Ásta cut in on the channel, “Stefán, I need your assistance checking the internal sections of the universal docking port seals from the inside. We’re ready to separate the SSEV’s”
Stefán excused himself and checked both ports on the inside of Vestur. He announced, “Looks good!”
Ásta said, “Okay, I’m initiating disengagement between the SSEVs.” A split second later, Stefán was struggling to hang on to something as a large volume of air began escaping from the forward port previously attached to the other SSEV. Kei immediately announced, “Critical Damage Alert! Sensors have not identified cause. Unknown physical damage. Deploying drones for visual aid and damage control.”
The situation on Átt began compounding. Rafael put their connection to standby, and only monitored AI delivered systems telemetry.
The two SSEVs comprising Átt were separated. Vestur was venting internal atmosphere, causing the SSEV to go into a quickening spin. Ásta, who had been beside the rear universal docking port which had successfully detached from Austur, found herself being swung around Vestur, attached to the SSEV by her tether.
Outside Austur, Jón saw what was happening. His twin sister still had her diadem on. He thought to her instructing, “Reel yourself in. You’ll have more control once you’re on the SSEV.” Ásta activated her suit’s tether winch with a voice command. Jón then contacte
d Stefán over the common channel. He asked, “Stefán, are you mobile? Your suit shows green across the board, on its internal sensors.” He received a positive response, so he gave precise instructions, “Get to the forward port. Its evacuating internal atmosphere. Activate the emergency port seal. Something must have damaged the automatic trigger and Kei hasn’t been able to initiate it.”
Moving slowly while avoiding articles floating about the inside of the SSEV, Stefán got to the forward airlock and noticed it too had been damaged, because of which the internal atmosphere was escaping. Each port including the internal ones for the airlocks, had emergency port seals. He didn’t wait till he got to the universal docking port. Instead he triggered the port seal between the forward operations area and the forward airlock. Reporting to the team he said, sounding anxious, “Sealed the forward airlock. It’s damaged as well. We need to control this spin.” Getting to a grav-chair in the forward operations area, he said, “Kei, release propulsion control to my pad.”
