Nebula

by Howard Marsh

  “We have about thirty six hours before they get here,” Brad said as they all sat in the common area of the forward ops base. This was the place where they could meet to plan and discuss things and was an extension off the small kitchen, so it was also where they would eat when they felt hungry. But no one had much of an appetite at this point.

  “It doesn’t pay for us to just pace the floor,” he continued. “We’re going to need to be ready for some very long and intense work, so let’s try to get some rest. Here’s the schedule for standing watch. We’ll take four hour shifts until an hour before the estimated time of arrival. Then we all need to get ready. Everyone not on watch should try to get some sleep. I’ll take the first watch, then Yuri, then Harry, then Ludmila, then Judith. I want the four of them to have enough rest when the time comes. The other four of you can choose where you want to be on the list.”

  *

  The estimate of thirty six hours was almost exact. Robby and Igor received the approach signal, and Robby went into action to guide the alien ships into the base while Igor stood by and watched, weapon at the ready. Yuri and Harry had their helmets on and could see that everything was proceeding as it should. There were several exchanges of messages between Robby and one of the alien ships, and Igor was processing data on the number and types of ships and was entering it into his memory. Judith and Ludmila could see that the data was also going automatically into Robby’s memory, in both the alien and human sides of the partition.

  “So far, so good,” Ludmila said, and Harry also gave a thumbs-up. He didn’t want to speak at this point since he wanted to concentrate any verbal thought processes on the link with the robots. He and Yuri had five of them to keep tabs on, and they needed to get into the rhythm of the activities before they could relax and time-share their attention to be able to communicate with the other team members.

  The six alien ships glided smoothly onto the landing area near the alien base and storage facility, and all five of the robots waited in a small group and watched as they set down. Harry and Yuri also watched through the eyes of the robots, and a somewhat similar view was also displayed on the computer that was connected to the interface box.

  Two of the ships were the type that carried living beings. One of them was larger than the other and looked like the pictures of the fighters that were in the order of battle display that Haverford had shown them. The other one seemed to be identical to the ship that crashed on Earth years ago, so it was a lightly armed reconnaissance ship with a crew of three or four aliens and a few robots.

  The four remaining ships were robotic ships, quite a bit smaller than the first two. They would probably each have at least six robots, probably a mix of sentry-soldiers like Igor and workers that could also serve as soldiers.

  Brad commented that he thought that this first group would use the newer models since they’d probably want to have the greatest capability for combat if they did encounter an advanced race of beings with technology on a par with their own.

  “Try to get a reading on the robots that they’re bringing on these ships.” Brad said to Ludmila and Judith, as he continued to watch the evolving situation on the computer screen. “We need to know how many there are of each type and especially if they are the new or old models. Can you make a record of them and see if you can connect into their supervisory channels through Igor?”

  “We’re already doing just that,” Ludmila replied. “So far, I count four sentries like Igor and one that looks like Robby. We’re into the supervisory functions on that one. We can see all the current settings. That part was easier than I expected. We can get into that one through both Igor and Robby. I think that we’re negotiating connections to two of the others through Igor, but give us a few more minutes. We need to be careful not to alert the aliens or the robots by doing something wrong. So far, it looks like the new robots are set to accept networking with any other new model, so Igor may be into the network as a full participant soon. Then, we’ll have to see if Robby can also get connected. That may be possible since the old model that looks like Robby does seem to be networked with the newer ones.”

  Eight aliens had now disembarked from the two ships. That meant that a few more might still be onboard. It was important to get a good head count since if any intervention became necessary, they’d have to make quick work of every one of them so that they wouldn’t be able to send a message back to their fleet.

  Gladys opened a new data file on one of the computers at a workstation near the current operational stations where Yuri, Harry, Ludmila, and Judith were. She created data files to list every alien and robot, including current status of each and with space for other comments and entries. She gave names for each entity. The aliens were designated A-#, and the robots were listed as S-# for sentries and W-# for workers. She also added notations in parentheses for each robot to designate new (n) or old (o). Then she started to populate the file with data from the current observations. Fortunately, each of the aliens could be identified by the alien number symbols on their space suits, as long as they didn’t interchange suits. The robots also had identification numbers, like the ones on Robby and Igor. All the numbers were, of course, in alien notation in base twelve, but Nebula had long since translated them to standard Arabic numbers, in base ten.

  Seven aliens fanned out to inspect the area. Two of them (named A-5 and 7 in Gladys’ scheme) went to the storage facility, opened it, and did a quick inventory. They opened the small cabinet containing the pathogen containers and entered something into a hand held device that must have been their version of a portable computer. If it sent data to the network that the robots were on, Ludmila and Judith would soon see what they entered. Then they closed the cabinet and inspected everything else in the storage facility, entering data at each stop.

  Aliens A-1, 2, 6 and 8 went into the underground center that the robots had built. They didn’t have to crawl through the open airlock, or even bend very much since they were much shorter than humans. Once they were inside, they vanished from view. Brad often thought that they should install covert sensors inside that facility too, but it was judged to be too risky. If any bugs were discovered, the whole plan would be blown, so they had to accept that they wouldn’t be able to see everything that the aliens were doing. Fortunately, everything of importance would probably be logged into the data bases on the network, so they’d see it anyway, even if not in real time.

  A-3 did a quick tour around the base area, inspecting for anything that may have been left by the original explorers. Finding nothing of interest, it went into the underground center and joined its four companions to inspect and probably assess how to use it for the invasion.

  A-4 stayed with Robby, Igor and the two workers and began to download their memories. This was the important action that Nebula was counting on to get the aliens pointed toward the biological option. Ludmila and Judith could see the memory locations being accessed and downloaded, and Yuri and Harry could sense the alien interactions and the commands from A-4’s computer to the robots’ memories and data files. Everything seemed to be going as planned. The human-accessible parts of the memory appeared totally invisible and inaccessible as all the other records were sent to the alien’s computer.

  A-5 and 7 were finished with the storage facility. A-5 went back to his ship, and A-7 walked over to join A-4 who was looking at the records that it downloaded from the robots’ memories. The two of them appeared to be talking to one another, and A-7 showed A-4 the data about the pathogen containers that it found in the storage facility. They talked some more, and then A-4 called up the records on the biological attack preparations and showed them to A-7. The two of them then went quickly into the underground center, obviously to discuss things with the five that were in there.

  “I think that the fish see the bait and may be about to take a bite,” Brad commented as they all watched.

  “But they’re not hooked just yet,” Mikio cautioned. “Let’s cross our fingers and see wha
t happens next.”

  A few minutes went by, and then the seven aliens emerged from the underground base and headed back to the smaller of the two ships. Two other aliens came out to meet them. One was A-5 and the other was a new one. Gladys named it A-9. They gathered in what looked like a huddle in American football and had a discussion that lasted several minutes. During this time, two more aliens emerged from the fighter, and Gladys immediately named them A-10 and 11. Those two joined the other eight already in the huddle.

  “That’s eleven of them,” Mikio said. “There must be one more left on one of the ships. They always seem to do things in sets of six or twelve.”

  He was right. About a minute later, A-12 emerged from the smaller ship along with two worker robots. The workers were carrying what looked like a big piece of equipment of some sort. It seemed to be a stand, with strong legs that looked like they could be adjusted to keep the upper part level when placed on an uneven surface. It was about half a meter in total height, with the legs folded straight down, so it probably would support something about a quarter meter off the ground when the legs were opened and placed on the ground.

  The two robots carried the stand to a place designated by A-12 and then set it up and adjusted it to keep the upper part level to the Martian ground. They then returned to their ship and brought out another piece of equipment. This one looked like a huge piece of electromechanical equipment, one that was probably intended as a weapon. It had a large box-like compartment on one end and a tubular structure on the other. They fastened it onto the top part of the stand that they had erected and leveled.

  “What the hell is that?” Nigel asked.

  Judith replied, “It looks to me like it could be a big plasma cannon of some sort. See how the barrel seems to taper down at the end? And see the big sockets in that box on the other end? If the next thing that they bring is one of their high power sources, we can bet that they’re setting up base defenses.”

  The next thing was indeed one of the high power sources, and the robots connected it to the sockets in the box. Then A-12 confirmed what Judith had said. It operated some controls on a hand held device that was evidently connected by radio link to the box, and the gun swiveled, pointed upward into space, and fired a strong burst of plasma. Off in the distance a small piece of space debris flared up and vanished as the plasma struck it.

  “Well, we can forget about having any rescue party come to our assistance,” Nigel remarked. “These blokes have one impressive weapon here.”

  “OK, look,” Brad said. “We expected that they’d deploy a base defense. This is nothing that we didn’t anticipate, so let’s not get ourselves all worked up. So far, things are going like we planned.”

  A couple minutes went by as the aliens seemed to be discussing things and working with one of the small devices that they brought out of the ship and set up next to the entry to their underground operations center.

  Then Doug called out, “They just sent a message back to the fleet. I picked it up on our communications intercept grid. They use the same encryption code as the one that was on the Roswell UFO, just like we thought. They must not change codes very often. I guess that they don’t worry that someone might be able to intercept their messages. That’s a good piece of luck for us. I’ll have the message translated in a few seconds.”

  Judith confirmed that the data from the message was also being loaded into the robots’ memories. “It looks like the robots also receive and decrypt the messages, so we should be able to read their mail even if they do change codes. It’ll just take a few seconds longer to get it from the robots’ storage instead of directly as the robots receive it, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem as long as we’re still able to read it.”

  Doug continued, “OK, here it is.” He then started reading through the message and summarizing it as he went. “They’re going to do a reconnaissance of Earth. That apparently was what was planned when they left the fleet, so they’re just going to continue. And they also say something about preparing weapons for an initial probing attack, but they’ll wait for instructions before going beyond the preparations.”

  Doug paused as he waited for the translation to progress further and then continued. “Their preliminary scans while they were approaching Mars looked like there wouldn’t be any big threats to a direct attack. They reported that the inhabitants appear to have primitive technology, only rocket propulsion and artificial satellites. They said they don’t see any space-based defenses and no indication of gravity control at all. They again requested permission for a probing attack to verify this. Then they signed off.”

  “That’s not good,” Brad replied. “Mikio, send that information back to Nebula. Tell them that Haverford should prepare to respond to any reconnaissance that gets close to Earth, and he may need to exercise one of the deception ops. If they do send a ship to probe Earth’s defense capabilities, he may need to destroy it. Make sure that he advises us of what he plans to do.”

  Brad then returned his attention to the message that Doug had received. “Did they mention the preparations for the biological attack?”

  “Yes, but it doesn’t seem to be very important to them. It was just a small note about new information, nothing much more than that. The reconnaissance probe seems to be what they’re interested in at this point since that’s apparently what they were ordered to do. It’s also pretty clear that they didn’t know about the biological warfare preparations before they got here. They must have missed that message, so it’s not figured into their plans.”

  “OK,” Brad replied. “So we have to change their minds and get them to drop plans for a direct attack and start to figure on using the biological weapons to soften things up before they launch anything. We need to make them worry that we may be stronger than they are. I guess that Haverford is going to have his work cut out for him, and so will we.”

  “More activity outside,” Nigel announced, as he and Gladys scanned the visual sensors. “They have a few of the robots taking things out of a couple of the ships and fitting them onto the top of that fighter. They also seem to be getting the smaller ship ready for something. Five of them got back into it, and a sixth is checking something on the outside. It looks like it’s inspecting the landing feet or something else on the bottom. OK, it finished whatever it was doing, and it’s getting onboard.”

  Everyone except Yuri and Harry were now glued to the screens with the visual sensor inputs, following the activity outside. Yuri and Harry kept connection with the robots and were totally occupied with that task while the others watched what the aliens and their robots were doing.

  The fighter was definitely being modified with some sort of device attached to its upper surface. It was a strange looking piece of equipment, with a number of rods that looked like they formed some sort of antenna array and several cylindrical tubes that were placed between the rods and had struts to connect them with each other and with the rods. There was also a large box that looked like one of the high power sources.

  Judith was the first to recognize what the device might be. “I think that they’re constructing a high power electromagnetic wave projector. It may be an electromagnetic pulse gun, like the EMP guns that we developed quite a few years ago. That’s what those rods look like. They seem to be arranged in a way to create a narrow beam pulse of high energy. I don’t know about those cylinders, but they’re probably some sort of pulse generators. Can you get a magnified view of the markings on the box? It looks like one of their high power supplies, and if we can see any serial or model numbers we may be able to confirm that.”

  Gladys immediately adjusted the view and zoomed in on the box. The numbers were very similar to the ones on the power supply for the plasma cannon that had been deployed, so it definitely provided energy for some high power system. The cylinders had totally different markings.

  Judith had been scanning new data being entered in Igor’s memory. “There’s an update to the soldier robots’ instr
uctions. It looks like something to do with the armed reconnaissance that they’re planning.”

  “I see it,” Harry said. “I’m getting pretty clear instructions that seem to be meant for a couple of the other soldiers. They’re all on the net, and that coordination link seems to inform all of them of everything that the others know. Wait a second. We’re getting something about that device being installed on the fighter.”

  Yuri, Judith, and Ludmila saw the information very shortly after Harry. They confirmed that the plans were being coordinated for the armed reconnaissance of Earth. It would involve the smaller of the two alien ships and two robotic craft. They’d approach Earth and have the robots do a few close passes to see if there was any response. Then they’d have one of the robotic ships fire a few shots to provoke some sort of counterattack so that they could evaluate it.

  “I’ve got a bit of information on the thing that they’re putting on top of the fighter,” Ludmila said. “It’s called something that we haven’t seen before, but it seems to be in all the records in the sentry-soldiers like Igor. My translator doesn’t have a word for it.”

  Doug was already working with his translator to try to match the alien words and make some sense of them. He was also trying to correlate words and associations from the messages and the records that were available in the robots’ memories, and finally he was able to correlate some word combinations that made sense. “Oh shit. If I’m right, that thing is one of their big guns, something they call a world crippler or disruptor. It’s something like that.”

  Judith said that this would be consistent with a powerful EMP cannon. “It could cripple a lot of systems over a wide area. They could bring everything down and just walk on in if it worked.”