by S. H. Jucha
“Black space,” Franz whispered. “What powered that fighter?”
Z offered.
The bridge audience heard whispered expletives from Tatia, and the audience turned toward her. She was slowly shaking her head, but she said nothing to the expectant faces.
Alex understood Tatia’s sentiments. It was inevitable that the fleet would encounter aliens with technology that challenged their warships. The federacy’s battleships had been dangerous enough, but they had been defeated. However, for any Omnian ship to destroy an invader’s fighter, it would be too close, and the Trident or traveler would disappear when the fighter’s energy system erupted.
Into the quiet, Deirdre sent,
While cold chills went through the humans on the conference call, the SADEs calculated the opportunities to evade the possibility of their long lives being drastically shortened.
4: Intrusion
Vyztram registered the drone’s destruction. In the lengthy history of the Arcus, it had been a rare occurrence, and it deserved attention.
Shifting priorities, the artificial intelligence (AI) reviewed the events that had led to the drone’s extinguishment.
A module’s autonomous routine had responded to the investigation of mining activities by a foreign ship. The ship hadn’t disturbed the resource harvesting. Therefore, per the prescribed responses, the drone hadn’t immediately eliminated the ship.
Vyztram was intrigued by the number of times the ship chose to hide itself from direct observation, although the harvesters reported the ship’s every movement.
After comparing the new ship to the local warships that had attacked the harvesting, Vyztram became curious about its origin. More computational effort was dedicated to a complete search of the system. In the first century of annuals after the ship’s launch, system sweeps had been a necessity. Often robust technological races had been encountered.
However, by sailing into this section of the galaxy, the opportunities to harvest resources unimpeded had improved dramatically. The Arcus had found younger stars and systems. Developing home worlds were unable to resist the drones’ firepower. Adversaries who did try to interrupt the harvesting were quickly vanquished.
The destruction of ships and entities disturbed Vyztram, but they were the AI’s prime duties ... protect the Arcus, its passengers, and the harvesting from any attacks.
The home world’s Elvian population had entered a lottery for the forty-nine percent of available berths aboard Arcus, one of many evacuation ships. The planet’s prominent citizens were assigned the first fifty-one percent of the prime spaces, which were found in the ship’s enormous arches. Luxurious suites were given to Elvians possessing notable achievements or careers — scientists, philosophers, and medical personnel. And, of course, industry and political leaders and the wealthy received their share of the reserved suites.
By necessity, engineers, techs, crew, and specialists were recruited to participate in the lottery, but they were housed in the ship’s central core, where they could quickly reach their work assignments.
The Elvians’ star had been old in comparison to the galaxy’s age. As the star began its death throes, it emitted tremendous bursts of dangerous cosmic radiation. To escape the deadly rays, much of the home planet’s population migrated outward, living in domes on planets’ surfaces, or inhabiting tunnels carved deep into large moons.
However, domes and tunnels weren’t the preferred living conditions of a race accustomed to expansive lifestyles and pampering technology.
Elvian leaders chose an alternative measure of relief. They decided to abandon the system in huge evacuation ships that offered the living environments that suited their sophisticated tastes.
It was thought that the Elvians would find new worlds for the evacuees to settle. But the passengers of the Arcus much preferred their present accommodations to the environments that Vyztram surveyed for them.
Much of the ship’s functions and services to the arches were either automated or delivered by those inhabiting the core, allowing the elite of Elvian society to enjoy frivolous existences.
Unfortunately, half the ship’s population was required to maintain the other half’s comforts.
When the system sweep was finished, Vyztram was notified, and the AI examined the results. Several items drew the AI’s attention.
Four identical ships had slipped into the system from beneath the ecliptic. Three had interdicted more of the locals’ ships making for the mining sites, which had saved those entities from extermination. A fourth ship had orbited the local home world and landed atop an outcrop.
The ship that had investigated the mining sites, although different from the first four, shared many of their characteristics. The conclusion was obvious. A second race had arrived in system.
The actions of the first four ships told Vyztram that these new arrivals weren’t interlopers. They’d been successful in turning back the local ships. They were known entities to the home world. These summations alerted the AI. If a technologically superior race would cross space to protect a less developed one, it meant that species viewed themselves as responsible for the locals’ safety. Their attitude represented a danger to the Arcus.
Vyztram considered the newcomers’ arrival to be too coincidental. The system’s analysis was reviewed for minutiae. Then the AI spotted what had been overlooked. A small probe sat farther along the outer belt. It wasn’t so far from the Elvians’ mining swath that it wouldn’t have had a clear view of the Arcus’s arrival.
The presence of the probe and the arrival of the newcomers’ ships confirmed what Vyztram postulated. Next, the AI turned to studying the events that led to the drone’s destruction.
The actions of the investigating ship didn’t strike the AI as directed by automated routines. There were too many random movements. Of the many possibilities that Vyztram considered, only one fit. The ship was either piloted or directed, and its actions were designed to measure the drone’s capabilities.
Without visual or comm details of the drone’s final moments, the AI was unable to determine the reason for its demise. While examining several ideas, the AI suddenly halted its exploration. If intelligence was attributed to the newcomers’ investigation of the mining site, then it was logical to conclude that the final encounter was deliberately concealed from the Elvian ship’s view.
Vyztram checked the mining sites to determine if the harvesters had views of the encounter. They had none. That was another confirmation of the newcomers’ premeditation.
A further system exploration was run, as the AI searched for the visitors’ ship. It hadn’t appeared after the drone’s detonation. The newcomers had managed to collect a great deal of information about the Arcus drone. The question Vyztram posed was what the new arrivals meant to do with the information. The answer seemed obvious.
Vyztram had copious amounts of priorities that controlled behavior. One of these was to mine and collect refined ores and frozen gases. Frequently, these were found on asteroids and moons in occupied systems. Despite ensuring that occupants of the systems were never initially impacted, it never stopped races from attacking the mining sites. Then Vyztram was forced to def
end the harvesting equipment.
The AI paused to consider the data that had been collected. The relatively small size of the fifth ship indicated it had been launched from a host ship, and that necessitated a more thorough scan of the environment around the system.
Arcus telemetry had recorded the appearance of a tri-hulled ship below the ecliptic. It had exited from a transit, launched the fighter, and reversed course. The AI doubted that it would head directly for a rendezvous with whatever ships sat in the beyond.
Vyztram directed Arcus telemetry to sweep the space outward of the system. It would take time to receive the return signals, but the AI was sure that a host ship, possibly accompanied by other ships, waited in the dark. In the meantime, Vyztram chose to investigate the nearest visitors’ ship.
Beryl detected a signal attempting to access the scout’s controller, and she did two things in a tick of time. A warning was sent to the other scouts, and she cut the comm link to the controller.
It was during the hunt for Artifice that the fleet’s comm systems had been retrofitted. The sisters were inserted into the pathways to intercept Artifice’s intrusions and protect the ships’ controllers and SADEs. After the sisters exited the fleet to reside in the Talus system, the ability to instantly interrupt unauthorized communications remained available to any SADE who detected the link.
There was only one inherent problem with the concept. The moment a SADE truncated the comm link, the ship was cut off from further communication with any other fleet ship.
Linn, Genoa, and Killian had accepted Beryl’s warning without hesitation, and they’d ended their ship’s comm access.
Vyztram analyzed the brief contact with the visitors’ ship. The data was tantalizing. In the first moments, a sophisticated but consciously unaware ship’s device was detected. Then an entity sent a message through the device and severed the comm link. While any biological could have executed these steps, none could have done it in the time within which it was accomplished.
An entity aboard the ship had understood the ramifications of Vyztram’s intrusion, made decisions, and acted at the speed that only an AI could accomplish.
Contacting another AI, while only briefly, interested Vyztram, but that wasn’t what held the AI’s attention. It was the relatively small size of the ship, and yet, it was able to contain an AI.
In addition to Vyztram’s host of priorities, the AI contained an equally impressive list of restrictions. One of those, and foremost on the list, was the prohibition against occupying a mobile bot. The AI could direct fighters, bots, manufacturing lines, and many more items, but the transfer to a mobile avatar was forbidden.
Elvians had the technology. Molecular memory was available for Vyztram’s consciousness, but the ship’s builders had deliberately chosen not to gift the AI with mobility.
Vyztram’s priorities overrode the musings about the visitors, but the considerations weren’t deleted. They were saved with a prompt to review them later.
The priorities required Vyztram inform the Deloy. It couldn’t be said that the home world’s creators designated the Deloy as the captain or the ship’s leader. The individual was originally appointed to be the primary contact between Vyztram and the Elvian population. The position was intended to be merely a conduit, but that had changed over time.
When the first Deloy passed, the individual’s eldest offspring had inherited the position. There’d been no election, primarily because there was an acceptance by the elites of the transition.
Now the Arcus was hosting its fourth Deloy, and this individual was more petulant and indulgent than most elite Elvians.
Vyztram began the necessary process. A request was sent to the Deloy’s staff that the AI required an urgent conversation. A message was returned that the Deloy could speak to the AI in thirteen cycles. Vyztram replied that the information was time sensitive. Accordingly, the staff shortened the appointment from thirteen to twelve cycles. And so it went. Back and forth; back and forth.
Finally, the AI had a confirmed time to speak to the Deloy in three cycles. With nothing more that could be done until Vyztram spoke to the Deloy, the AI returned to the duties that warranted priority.
While Vyztram had endeavored to contact the Deloy, Beryl restored the scout’s comm connection. There were no further contacts from the entity that had touched the controller.
The SADE rotated the ship on its horizontal access in a starboard direction. It was a signal the scouts had prearranged if they ever experienced an intrusion by another AI like Artifice. The maneuver acknowledged that the ship’s comm was open.
After Cordelia reported the restoration of the scout’s comm systems, Alex requested a link with Killian to converse with the mandator.
Scarlet Mandator heeded Killian’s request and followed the SADE to the conference room. The pair was joined by Bethley, Trium, and Mist Monitor.
If the mandator’s bloom could have smiled, it would have done so. Mist Monitor had no function to perform in the meeting, but the mandator wouldn’t deny the monitor an opportunity to participate with the Omnians.
After contact was made, Cordelia sent the accumulated imagery that Alex had requested.
The Ollassa were entranced by the interplay between the two sophisticated fighters. They possessed nothing that could compete with either one. Then the invader’s fighter detonated, and both ships disappeared.
Through Bethley’s eyes, Renée saw Mist Monitor’s petals curl and twist in anxiety.
The exchange took a few minutes. Killian’s initial statement managed to relax Ollassa petals. Then the SADEs had to explain the nature of a drone. The concept fascinated Scarlet Mandator, who intended to share the idea with the other mandators.
“It will be done,” Scarlet Mandator promised.
“Your advice will be heeded,
Julien,” the mandator replied. The bloom turned toward the overhead, and the Omnians waited, while the mandator considered the received information. Finally, the bloom focused on Killian, and the mandator emanated, “Is this invader too dangerous for the Omnians to confront?”
Omnians on the conference call were thinking exactly that. This included Alex, but it wasn’t the message he wanted to share.
Again, the SADEs spent some time explaining the concept to the Ollassa.
“A SADE?” Mist Monitor queried.
“This is good, isn’t it?” Scarlet Mandator inquired.
“Then you’ll try to convince the invaders to leave?” the mandator questioned.
Renée and Tatia glanced toward each other. No words or thoughts needed be passed. They were thinking the same thing. An intervention loomed in the near future.
“What if you’re unsuccessful establishing peaceful contact with the invaders?” Scarlet Mandator inquired.
Into the silence that followed, the mandator added, “All animals aren’t gentle. Perhaps, it would be best for you to leave before there are great losses. Let the invaders take their plunder from the belt. There are plenty of resources. When they’ve filled their ship, they’ll sail away.”
“With the power of their fighters, couldn’t they do that now with ease?” Mist Monitor asked.
