by S. H. Jucha
“I don’t know,” Lucia replied.
“What would your Alex do with the information your SADEs acquire from the consoles?” Jess asked.
Lucia thought she had a sudden inkling as to the reason for the defenders’ line of questioning.
“Let me make some things clear to you, Captain,” Lucia said, dampening her rising temper. “Our people didn’t die in an effort to gain knowledge about the domes and the consoles to use against the alliance. That’s not who we are. Furthermore, the SADEs have their own moral codes. They’re not ours, as you insinuated. They’re their own entities, their own kind. If they thought we had a desire to accumulate data to use against others, they’d be gone in a tick of time.”
“Good to know,” Jess said, and he leaned back in his chair.
Lucia saw his wry smile again. She’d been deliberately provoked, and she detested being manipulated.
When Jess saw Lucia’s eyes narrow, as she regarded him, he knew she saw through his subterfuge. He watched her sit back in her chair in imitation of him.
Sam and Tacnock glanced at the commodore, the captain, and then each other. There appeared to be undercurrents to the conversation that they didn’t comprehend.
“Anything else, Captain?” Lucia asked. She kept her voice even, although that’s not how she felt.
“Do you have plans after Pyre?” Jess asked.
“That’s up to Olawale and Patrice,” Lucia replied.
“I wasn’t referring to your expedition,” Jess replied. “I was asking about you.”
“I think you need more sleep, Captain. Your mind appears to be addled,” Lucia remarked tartly. Then she abruptly left the room.
Tacnock chittered and left too.
Sam shook his head at Jess, as he stood. “Captain, despite your success as an assault commander, I think you need some lessons in how to speak to a superior officer.”
“I’d like to know more about the commodore, but she isn’t inclined to share,” Jess explained. “I think I’m running out of time to get to know her.”
“You’re serious?” asked Sam, his mouth agape. “You’re trying to get to know the commodore, personally?”
“She’s a beautiful and enticing woman, who happens to command a squadron of starships,” Jess riposted. “What’s not to like?”
Sam sat back down with a sigh. “I’m only helping you here because your efforts saved my life more than once. But whatever I tell you, you’ll have to second source it before you use it. Agreed?”
“Agreed, but why the concerns?” Jess asked, in confusion.
“The commodore is a private person,” Sam replied. “I’ve served under her for a few years, and I know almost nothing about her personal life.”
“What do you know?” Jess asked.
“Most of what I know I’ve heard from others,” Sam cautioned. “I do know she’s an Independent.”
“She mentioned she was that type of person,” Jess said. “At the time, I thought it was a private joke between Juliette and her.”
“No, Jess,” Sam said. “An Independent, with a capital I, is a class of person in the Confederation. It was applied to people who broke society’s rules.”
“Criminals?” Jess asked, in surprise.
“No, people who chose not to behave within the norms set by the Confederation,” Sam explained.
“Ah ... independent thinkers,” Jess said, understanding the nature of the issue. “Is the Confederation still that way?”
“Apparently, it began to change a great deal about four decades ago,” Sam replied. “Much of that is due to the influence of Alex and others, including the SADEs.”
“The Omnians speak about Alex and Julien with a kind of idolized hush,” Jess ventured.
Sam loosed a deep robust laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Jess asked.
“No, you’re right. We do,” Sam replied, gaining control of his outburst. “It’s just that Alex and Julien would be the last to appreciate it. In fact, they not only dislike it, they discourage it. I think you’d like them if you met them.”
“Hmm,” Jess mused. Visions of potential futures bloomed in his mind. “Tell me more about Lucia.”
“The only other thing I know is that she was sent to the Libre colony as a teenager, without her family, which I understand is rare,” Sam said.
“What sort of colony?” Jess asked.
“The Confederation turned a planet called Libre into a penal colony for Independents,” Sam explained. “The story goes that the Nua’ll sphere, our enemy, was headed for either Libre or Méridien, the Confederation’s seat of power. You can imagine the choice the Confederation made. Those in power concentrated on evacuating Méridien and left the Librans to their fate.”
“We are talking about a human society?” Jess asked, aghast at what Sam was telling him.
“Oh, yes. It goes to show you how cruel humans can be to one another because they don’t conform to some abstract strictures,” Sam said.
“Then what happened?” Jess asked, intrigued by the story.
“With the help of a Méridien House ... that’s a Confederation business organization ... the Librans were building two giant ships to evacuate the colony. Alex and a crew of New Terrans and Méridiens arrived aboard the Rêveur in time to assist with the ships’ completion,” Sam finished.
“Then the Nua’ll did come for the Librans,” Jess surmised.
“They did,” Sam admitted.
“And the Librans escaped,” Jess assumed, enjoying the happy ending.
“Not all,” Sam corrected. “Apparently, they ran out of time trying to evacuate the entire population. A group of elders chose to be the last to lift, but time ran out for them. The fleet cut their launch close. The city-ships, as they’re called, were incomplete, and it was a running fight to clear the system.”
“Sad,” Jess remarked.
“The human colonies in our part of the galaxy have had their share of sad moments,” Sam admitted. “Your Pyrean colonists were fortunate to make landing on a habitable planet.”
Jess stared at Sam. For the moment, he was stunned by Sam’s assumption about Pyre. Then it was his turn to break out laughing.
-16-
Breakthrough
“I thought you were training the SADEs,” Jess said to Kasie. Tacnock and he had met her at the bottom of the ramp from the deck.
“They’re frightening,” Kasie commented.
“I think they’re wonderful,” Tacnock gushed.
Kasie was overwhelmed by the strength of Tacnock’s emotions. It felt like infatuation.
“Don’t mind him. He’s in love,” Jess said, in jest.
“You mistake me, Jess,” Tacnock retorted. “Certainly, Juliette has chosen an attractive human form. However, I was referring to their kind. They’re a uniquely exquisite species.”
“But they’re not biological,” Kasie objected.
“Careful, Kasie, your prejudice is showing,” Tacnock cautioned.
Before the pair could continue their argument, Jess interrupted them. “Kasie, why aren’t you with the SADEs?”
“I started their training,” Kasie replied, with a sigh. “I taught them in three hours what usually took me three days with dome coordinators. After a while, I got the feeling I was impeding their progress. At one point, Juliette politely asked if they could manage the glyph inputs.”
“How are they doing?” Jess asked.
“If you thought the SADEs were fast, you’ve no idea about the truth,” Kasie replied, shaking her head at the memory. “Their hands were a blur overtop the panels.”
“Was the console able to respond at the same pace?” Tacnock asked.
“You ask an excellent question, Tacnock,” Kasie replied, hoping to make up for her bumpier start with the Jatouche. “It did. Either the Messinants worked that swiftly, or they built consoles anticipating that someday they would need to accommodate the likes of SADEs.”
“That latter idea bog
gles the mind,” Jess admitted.
“Do you think the SADEs are making progress?” Tacnock asked.
“I can’t see how they can fail,” Kasie replied. “They’ve every corridor glyph and every deck group in their memories. They’re juggling the input variations and tracking their results at speeds that are unimaginable.”
Just then, the threesome heard the pops of launchers.
Jess and Tacnock unslung their weapons and sprinted up the ramp. They arrived in time to see Sam lowering his launcher. Three grays were in sections on the platform.
While the deck group watched, the gate was remotely activated, and the grays disappeared.
During the entire event, the SADEs hadn’t allowed themselves to be distracted. They were busy monitoring the console, and they’d detected the activation of a routine the Colony had accessed.
Jess and Sam walked around the Colony’s platform.
“No major cleanup job, except for some blood,” Sam noted, when they’d completely circled the gate and hadn’t located any body parts.
“They’re sending smaller groups of grays,” Jess remarked.
“I don’t think the Colony will ever stop,” Sam said. “You’d better hope the SADEs solve your problem, or you’ll be defending this gate until the end of time.”
After a paste-and-water meal, Jess stepped out of the dorm room to find a hive of activity in the corridor. The Omnians were setting up instrumentation at the bottom of the ramp.
Hearing other noises, Jess turned his head to locate the source. The airlock doors were wide open, and he saw an identical piece of equipment in the connecting ring.
“I see that the SADEs are making progress,” Jess said to a Méridien, hooking a thumb toward the airlock.
The Méridien eyed the open entry doors, and said, “The SADEs located the lockout the Colony programmed, and they removed it.”
“Did they enter any new parameters?” Jess asked.
“You’d have to ask them, but I wouldn’t do that right now,” the Méridien replied. “We’ve been directed to minimize contact. Most of us accept that directive as don’t call them unless we’re dying.”
Jess smiled at the Méridien’s humor and his broad grin.
“What’s the purpose of these items?” Jess asked. He waited for a response, while the crew finished their work. Their device emitted a brief hum, and then it was quiet.
Except for the Méridien, the crew walked away, headed toward the exit.
“These are comm relays,” the Méridien explained. “The SADEs requested substantially more bandwidth. They’ve linked to Orbit and our ships’ controllers.”
“That’s a great deal of computational power,” Jess said appreciatively.
“Apparently, not enough,” the Méridien remarked. “Orbit stated he would prefer to have the resources of Alex’s fleet.”
Jess wandered to the deck. Tacnock had guard duty. For a brief moment, he was perplexed by Kasie’s continuing absence. However, after approaching the console, he discovered the reason. Kasie was right. The speed of the SADEs was mesmerizing.
The holo-vid sat on the console’s upper shelf. Its imagery shifted at a phenomenal rate.
Jess noted the holo-vid reflected the dome’s display, which changed so frequently that it caused the platform defenders to keep their eyes averted. He wondered how the holo-vid’s images were captured. The SADEs never looked up.
“I saw you looking at the holo-vid and the dome,” Tacnock whispered, when he’d eased beside Jess.
Jess took a knee to converse quietly with his friend.
“I learned from Juliette that the SADEs’ eyes have complex specialization capabilities,” Tacnock whispered, “In addition, they’ve sensors over their entire synth skins.”
“Are you saying they can see the dome’s display, using sensors on the top or back of their heads?” Jess asked.
Tacnock nodded enthusiastically. “Exquisitely designed, don’t you think?” he asked.
“I would bet they’re the originators of their avatars,” Jess mused.
“You’d be right,” Tacnock enthused. “A SADE by the name of Z was the primary architect.”
“Did you hear that they removed the entry door lock?” Jess asked.
“Yes, and recently they made some other breakthroughs,” Tacnock replied.
“Did they announce them?” Jess asked. He wondered why he hadn’t been included in the communications.
“No, it’s been nothing overt,” Tacnock replied. “They pause. The dome and the holo-vid displays are reset, and they move to other panels.”
“How do you know they didn’t hit a block and chose to try something else?” Jess asked.
“Because they’re not biological,” Tacnock replied. “They don’t get frustrated. They don’t admit defeat. They persevere.”
Jess found he was the focus of his friend’s knitted brows, as if he’d failed to comprehend a simple idea. Observing the single-minded focus and fantastic speed of the SADEs, he chose to accept what Tacnock believed to be true.
Over the following two days, the Colony intruded only three more times.
“Everyone is wanted on the deck,” Lucia said to Jess.
Jess acknowledged the request with a nod. Lucia had managed to avoid him the past couple of days. He reluctantly accepted that she definitely wasn’t interested in a relationship.
When the assault team was assembled, Esteban said, “Captain Cinders, you may dismiss those on platform guard duty. The Colony can’t come through that gate anymore.”
“You mean they can’t remotely activate the recall of bodies or nets,” Kasie said, seeking clarification.
“They can’t activate either action,” Juliette replied. “We’ve locked out access to that gate. Even if the platform were clear, the Colony can’t send individuals through.”
The assault team stared at the SADEs in wonder.
“You’ve done it,” Tacnock exclaimed.
“Yes, we’ve done it,” Juliette replied, smiling at her number-one supporter.
“How?” Kasie asked.
“The complete answer to that question will have to wait until later, Kasie,” Esteban replied. “There’s much to teach you and the other dome administrators, but we’ve some interesting highlights for you.”
“Such as,” Jess prompted.
Juliette saw Kasie’s disappointment, and she said, “Kasie, it was by detecting the method by which the console queried other consoles that led us to discover the operating sub-layer. This wasn’t something that you, as an operator, could have found through normal panel procedures.”
“To answer your question, Captain,” Esteban said, “Eighty-seven point six percent of the glyphs on the deck and corridors are decorative.”
Individuals swung their heads to examine the plethora of glowing blue symbols etched into every bit of space on the deck.
Kasie laughed until she cried. Wiping her eyes, she said, “It was one of Aurelia Garmenti’s tenets that all console operators should approach their jobs with the understanding that the Messinants had a perverse sense of humor.”
“How can you be sure they don’t have any meaning?” Bortoth asked.
“Your pardon, Bortoth,” Esteban said. “Perhaps the word decorative didn’t convey the correct meaning. These many glyphs can’t be applied to the console. Consider them sayings ... truisms or adages of the ancient race.”
“How do you know this?” Lucia asked.
“We discovered a lexicon of sorts,” Juliette replied. “In the sub-layer operations, there’s a routine that allows the operator to enter a translation program similar to the one Kasie demonstrated to us. In this particular case, the operator can enter a Messinant symbol, and it’s broken into its components. Then each component is related to an image.”
“Symbols can be represented by a single image, or they can be defined by a collection of images,” Esteban explained. “In many cases, the more complicated glyphs defy accurate translat
ion.”
“We speculate that the purpose of the console’s lexicon and these decorative glyphs was to train the young who might have accompanied the adult Messinants,” Juliette added.
Kasie’s hands went over her mouth, which was agape. The she clapped her hands and laughed in glee. “When can you teach us?” she asked enthusiastically.
“Olawale and Patrice are considering their options now,” Esteban replied. “We’ve advised them on the parameters we require for your education.”
“That’s it, Captain Cinders,” Lucia said coolly. “The dome is safely in your hands, and we have our information. Good fortune.” As she exited the deck, she called out, “Lieutenant Fleetfoot, collect your people. We’re out of here.”
Sam offered Jess an apologetic shrug and followed Lucia. He linked to Yousef and directed him to gather people, gear, and weapons. The Sylian shuttles were in the tubes. The Omnians and the Earthers would ride them to the station and transfer to a traveler.
Kasie sensed the severe disappointment in her brother. It was deep, despite the expression he wore, which gave nothing away.
“She’s not an easy person to know,” Juliette said quietly to Jess.
Jess stared thoughtfully at the SADE. Then he said, “I thought she might give us a chance.”
“She’s never had a partner,” Juliette explained, “and no one knows the reason why.”
Juliette interrupted their discussion with an upraised finger. After a brief pause, she smiled and said, “Perhaps, there’s still time, if you’re interested, Captain. Olawale and Patrice intend to sail for Pyre. They’ve invited your group of defenders to sail with us.”
“Yes,” Kasie whooped, and the Crocians rumbled with pleasure.
Tacnock eyed his friend. “Perseverance is an admirable trait, Jess,” he said.
Jess smiled sadly at Tacnock. He focused on the SADEs and said, “Please inform your expedition leaders that if we’re released from Sylian service, we’d be pleased to sail with you.”
Talsoma’s release of the defenders from service was a foregone conclusion. She did hold a brief ceremony honoring them and the visitors for the dome’s return. However, she had one request of her own. She asked Olawale to carry another passenger — Salsinona. It turned out that the Sylian was a dome administrator, and Talsoma was anxious that one of her people possessed the secrets of a Messinants console, as soon as possible.
