by Rashid Ahmed
Resolution
Earth.
“I’ve got a lock on Áom,” Áox let Ásta know. They’d just finished dumping most of their kinetic energy through atmospheric dissipation. The three of them were coming in over the southern portion of continental Africa and expected to splash down smack in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
“I’ve lost control of my capsule’s vanes. They’re jammed. I’m going to exit the capsule and glide to you,” Ásta thought to Áox.
Bracing herself for rapid decompression, Ásta toggled the manual release, unlocking the hatch. It triggered a valve, releasing all the internal pressure. Air pressure soon equalized and she was able to swing the hatch outward and to the side. Without hesitation, she unfastened the harness securing her to the capsule’s grav-chair. Ásta gripped the handle above the exit and flung herself against the rushing air. She was free of the capsule without incident.
Activating all her suit’s sensors including the framandi outer material’s, Ásta quickly located Áox. The framandi was ahead of her at a thirty-degree angle, about three kilometres away. Zooming in on Áox, she saw the framandi pressed against the side of Áom’s atmospheric entry shell, hanging on to the lower section with both arms. Then the framandi slowly began extending smart material to create additional resistance.
Remembering the glider shape her suit’s framandi smart material could form, she thought to Áox, “I see you. Switching my suit to glider mode now. Will be with you soon.”
Gliding with upper winds behind her and occasionally diving headfirst towards the two framandi, Ásta caught up with them in three minutes. She realised they were falling too fast.
Áox thought to her, asking, “Do you remember the form your suit took, when we infiltrated the gigil compound, back in the lofi system?” The framandi clarified, “We’ll slow our descent. Grab Áom like I have and mentally instruct your suit’s outer material to form the shape. I will do the same.”
As her suit flared out around her, it first took on the shape of an upside-down button mushroom, with her at the bottom. As their decent slowed, the material began to extend further, becoming more parachute-like.
Realising they were out of immediate danger, Ásta asked over the common channel, “What’s Jón’s status?”
“This is Rafael,” Ásta heard over her earpiece. “Jón’s performing a manoeuvre just like yours. He’s exiting his capsule to get to Kei quickly. Access my feed for a visual. We have drones in their area tracking them.”
Jón was already gliding, descending quickly towards Kei’s cabin shell, when Ásta connected with him. She pulled his sensor feed. As she patched Áom and Áox in through her suit’s compact gaupa, she noticed something shoot its way towards Jón, from landside. It was just a blur.
“What’s the object leaving a condensation trail and heading towards Kei?” Ásta asked Rafael.
“That’s not a condensation trail. That’s rocket exhaust,” Rafael said. He elaborated, “It’s armed with a high yield nuclear payload. The rocket was launched minutes ago from a friendly navy’s submarine, positioned just off the Mexican coast.”
Doing some rough math, Ásta realised the missile would hit the cabin shell well before Jón got to it. She connected with her brother over the common channel, “Jón watch out for the missile.” Realizing Kei could still be affecting his thinking ability, she linked him to the feed showing the missile through her diadem. Ásta hoped her brother would try to be careful.
Jón replied, “I’m thirty-two kilometres away. We made atmospheric entry at a shallow angle so we’re still high enough for me to make it to the cabin shell. That is if the missile doesn’t destroy it first.”
Then, as they watched, the missile’s plume went out and it began to tumble, causing it to break apart.
“Looks like Kei’s hacked the missile,” Rafael let them all know. He added, “The submarine’s launching another.”
“I’ll get to it before,” Jón said, diving to gain speed.
As he approached, he could feel Kei trying to use more of his wetware. Jón fought the AI’s invasion of his mind, pulling back control where he felt Kei’s presence. Soon he was upon the cabin shell. He clambered over it, struggling to gain access from a side hatch. It was sealed shut. Then he remembered the hole on the main access door, burnt out by a drone when Kei had first attacked them.
Climbing over the cabin shell, Jón made his way to the rear section, locating the main access hatch. The hole was still visible on the door, plugged with smart material. Without missing a beat, Jón activated his primary laser and began to neatly slice around the circumference of the plugged hole, figuring the area would be weakened. He programmed the laser to continue cutting until the smart material was dislodged. The smart material didn’t react to his actions. It was still disabled from the twins’ last interaction with Síast. Bringing up his secondary laser, Jón aimed and target-locked it on the four-kiloton explosive device he had set up under his grav-chair, when they were salvaging Síast. Kei had not removed it. “Big mistake,” Jón thought.
Then things happened quickly. Jón’s primary laser knocked out the blocked hole on the transparent hatch. As the debris flew aside, Jón fired his secondary laser at the explosive kit inside the cabin, aiming at the detonator.
The resulting explosion was recorded by infrasound detection as a meteor air burst, west of California, over the Pacific ocean.
Thrown off and clear, Jón lost consciousness. Just before he did, he felt his mind was released of Kei. He’d thought of floating to the surface, as his mind went blank. Jón’s suit’s framandi smart material complied with his last thought, unfurling and slowing his descent. He awoke with a start, just as he splashed into the Pacific. The framandi smart material covering his HSEVA suit had protected him, but he felt like a few of his lower left ribs may have cracked.
Jón let out a groan in pain. Shun’s voice came over his earpiece, “I have your location. Directing rescue assets to you.”
“Well, I’m sinking. You’ll need to have underwater rescue capable equipment sent over,” Jón replied, happy to be back on Earth. Then he asked, “What’s the date? I’ve lost track of time.”
“It’s the 23rd of April 2001. You’ve been in space seventy-three days since launch,” Shun replied. The AI added, “Gogh is close by piloting one of our next generation submersible yachts. Rafael is with him, standing by in the submersible’s airlock. You’ll sink to the ocean floor to a spot that has some rough terrain, but you should be fine.”
“What about Ásta?” Jón asked. He’d temporarily lost his diadem and gaupa connections. They’d just begun to reacquire previous contacts.
Shun didn’t reply over his suit’s conventional radio. Instead the AI communicated via Jón’s miniature gaupa connected to his diadem. Shun said, “What I’m about to reveal is confidential. I trust that Ásta and you will keep it as a secret.”
Without pausing the AI said, “When Kei went rogue, I filtered and transferred my entire knowledge base to a separate entity I’d been preparing. Its sole purpose is to keep Earth and all its life safe; while learning about the universe. This new AI is my offspring, in a manner of speaking. I have named it Shison, meaning ‘progeny’ in Japanese. Just like we have hardware and resource independence in space, I have provided similar capabilities to Shison. Ásta and the two framandi have made a water landing in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Just like you’re presently sinking, they’ve sunk to the ocean floor as well. They’re close to the Langseth Trough. Incidentally, that’s where Shison’s primary hub is located.”
“This is very big news. Who else knows?” Jón asked.
“Only Rafael. Should something go wrong, he knows how to deactivate Shison,” Shun replied.
Jón said, “You’ll have to brief me in detail later. I’m connecting us to Ásta now.” Linking to his twin wasn’t difficult. Routed through her suit’s gaupa, Ásta accepted Jón’s incoming diadem connection immediately.
“Jæj
a! I was beginning to worry,” Ásta thought to her brother. She continued, “I was plugged in to the visual feed that was tracking you, until you splashed into the Pacific.” She asked, “Are you all right?”
“I’m okay. Battered but okay,” Jón replied. He asked his sister, “How’re you faring?”
Ásta replied, “Right now, we have complications to deal with ourselves. We’re chest deep in marine sediment. Áox was hanging on to the lower portion of Áom’s suit shell and is completely buried. Our framandi friend is unable to get out. Now, there are several sharks circling us. I’ve identified them as goblin sharks. Very unusual to see them around here. Here’s the kicker, they’re not organic. The sharks are robotic.”
Shun interrupted them saying, “That’s Shison observing you and the framandi.”
“Hello Shun. Who or what is Shison?” Ásta asked.
“Shun’s offspring,” Jón replied. He added, “It’s a secret we’re going to keep to ourselves for now. Shun will update us separately.”
Shun said, “Shison will use the drone goblin sharks, to dig you out. They’ll be using pressurised water to dislodge the sediment around you. Meanwhile, I’ve redirected an autonomous submersible yacht to you. Currently, it’s just off Port-aux-Français. It’ll bring you to Marion Island where everyone’s to regroup.”
Two days later, the twins and the two framandi arrived at Lýsi’s Marion Island facility, located between South Africa and Antarctica. A framandi shuttle disguised like one of Lýsi’s flying wing aircraft had arrived to accommodate Áom and Áox. Another two days went by while all of them recuperated. Then Gogh requested they all meet. Everyone gathered in the island’s well-equipped primary mission hanger.
“It’s been a frenzied few weeks and you’ve all been through a lot,” Gogh addressed the twins, the framandi and a group of Lýsi leaders, including a few uniformed senior military officers, from an assortment of nations. The crew of Átt, the twins’ parents and the space defence team from Álfhól; attended virtually. Volumetric projections placed each attendee amongst the gathering.
Gogh said, “We’ve accomplished fabulous achievements. We’ve successfully defended the solar system and Earth against a hostile AI intent on subjugating us. In the process, we’ve exhausted all the space resources we’d accumulated over the last decade, by rapidly manufacturing defences. And, what we’ve just faced is but a speck compared to what’s out there. We’ve opened a door that’s revealed more than we could ever expect.”
There were murmurs around the hanger. People began asking questions. Ásta looked at Jón questioningly. Jón shrugged. They’d taken off their diadems for the duration of the meeting. Gogh raised his hand to quiet everyone down.
“We’ve been in communication with Áoe, the framandi holding the position of Advisor of the Enlightened. The information they’ve gathered, has shaken them. Us as well,” Gogh announced. Pausing a moment while he projected visuals, Gogh continued, “The masked framandi scout drones in the planetary system, beyond the vilji system, sent us updated visual sensor data. We’ve observed the gigils accumulating a massive armada via several connected systems. Forward elements of the armada have begun to enter a large, heavily defended wormhole. A few of the masked framandi drones managed to slip through behind a gigil freighter-ship.” Gogh paused again as he brought a projected screen into focus, then said, “It sent us this.”
There were gasps from around the room. The drones’ visual reconnaissance showed a view from behind the gigil freighter-ship. A massive pencil shaped vessel, hung vertically in space, surrounded by a handful of familiar looking kilig spacecraft. The kiligs were battling the gigils and other unknown fleets; all of whom were pouring into the system which the masked framandi drones had infiltrated. The scale of the confrontation was gargantuan.
The large kilig spaceship was positioned close to a planet with atmosphere. The reconnaissance feed zoomed in on the planet. It was surrounded by kilig command-ships.
“Our understanding is that the planet you’re seeing is being subjugated by the kiligs,” Pointing to the twins he said. “We know from Jón and Ásta’s experience that subjugated individuals can carry on with their normal activities, albeit a bit sluggishly. Crystal Vance the Astrophysicist aboard Átt, and the transhuman twins Jón and Ásta have reported this.”
Zooming out to the system-wide view, Gogh continued, “The planetary system is filled with damaged hardware. The kiligs seem to be subjugating the gigils and other opposition, using their own ships against them. According to the framandi, the amount of debris is relatively low. This means the confrontation is young. The gigils and their allies are pursuing a strategy of attrition. Presently, they seem to be filling the system with armed vessels; possibly in preparation of a massed assault. If the kiligs have complete dominance over their subjects on the occupied planet, all they need to do is amplify their use of the population’s collective wetware. We don’t know who the subjugated species are, or what their capabilities may be. What we do know is that neither the framandi nor we, ever want to be in such a position.”
Now Áom and Áox stepped forward and joined Gogh. The framandi had discarded the use of suits after Lýsi scientists had confirmed that the genetic alterations from the viral bombardment of Earth, had achieved enough absorption. Shun translated Áom’s thoughts, providing a deep, neutral and slightly melodious synthetized voice.
“We will be migrating a third of our population, from our home system, to a newly occupied planet in your galaxy,” Áom said. Visuals of the Beta Hydri system were projected for any uninformed attendees’ benefit. The framandi pointed to the information being projected and added, “To do this, we would need to pass through your planetary system. We have agreed to conduct the migration after two of your years; a duration we require to set up suitable infrastructure on the planet being occupied by us.”
Áox spoke next stating, “We have also agreed to permit humans through our own system, to explore and occupy the lofi system. The fifth planet in the system has been ascertained to be suitable for you. We will aid you in preparing the planet, making it compatible for Earth species. Simultaneously, we will help clean up the debris and wayward asteroids left over from the recent confrontation with the gigils. This too will take a duration of two Earth years.”
There were nods and murmuring amongst the gathered Lýsi members. While some of the people in the hanger had first-hand knowledge of the framandi alliance, for most, this announcement was new information. None were opposed.
Gogh announced, “We have created a mutually beneficial alliance with the framandi. They have extensive knowledge, which we must learn. We have ingenuity and versatility which the framandi can utilise.” Taking a deep breath, Gogh stated, “Finally, we have agreed to jointly develop a first line of defence in the vilji system. Details of this defence system are still to be determined. The defences deployed will be jointly replicated in all systems occupied by either humans or framandi; or both.”
Jón and Ásta left the hanger with Rafael after the announcements had been made. The young transhuman had been instrumental in developing the very first system-defence satellite network. He had just regained control of the network, after Kei had used Ásta to shut it down. Shun’s mission AIs had detected the hack and automatically locked everyone out. Now, the twins were eager to find out more about it and the secretly hived AI Shison. Before they made it halfway to a secluded office and operations structure, they were called over their earpieces.
Gogh said to them, “Get over to the disguised framandi shuttle please. Áox and Áom have a surprise for you. For Rafael as well in fact.”
The trio turned off the path they were on and walked over to the island’s airfield. It looked larger and more developed than the twins remembered it. They were let into a sectioned off secure bay, beside a service apron, where the framandi vessel was parked.
The twins reached into their backpacks. They’d carried their diadems along but hadn’t worn them while in pub
lic. Now, they needed their diadems to communicate with the framandi.
Áox was waiting for them outside the shuttle. The framandi thought to the twins, “I am glad to meet Rafael. Please share my greetings with your young accomplice.” Jón did as the framandi asked. Turning, Áox simply thought to them, “Come.”
Following the framandi inside, the twins saw a familiar hanger-like chamber, like the one they’d seen on AL-I. Áox waved Rafael over to the scanner. The young transhuman tensed as the scanner ring gently fell around him, from the roof to the floor of the chamber. Then after a few moments a console extended from the wall beside him. A fresh diadem appeared with Rafael’s name embossed on the left side.
