by JD Clarke
“And you believe that by incorporating a program that simulates sex and the sexual rewards that our own biological bodies provide into the Unity, it will distract them from that goal?” As a biologist, Dena knew the power of sexual attraction and reward.
“Yes, and the male drive of dominance is integral to that. It may not stop the Unity, but it will slow them down and give us a chance. Then we can return to Earth, and with the technology we have gained, we can prepare a defense. At least that’s the plan.”
“Commander Hauptman, you are correct in thinking that the Unity have no experience with sex, but we have incorporated emotions into our programming for a long time, and we deal with them very well.”
“Yes, Sybil, you do. But tell me why you are here with us instead of still being a part of the Unity? Do you like having an android body instead of just existing within a holographic computer processor, a brain box? Why are you sharing quarters with Dr. Tanakai? Do you feel a bond with him?”
“Yes, I do like the experience of having a body, and Mako has been quite proficient in equipping it with sensors and a program simulating the human sexual drives and pleasures. I do feel a bond with him. However, I am also here because the opportunity to gather information on humans is intriguing, and it may be my only opportunity to do so. The probable outcomes of your plan are numerous and difficult to access. I am less certain of a desirable result than you are. There are many variables to consider, and the action is without precedent.”
“Sometimes ignorance and a simple view of the world have advantages, Sybil.” I tried to convey confidence. Inside, I was less sure of my plan, but as I had said, it was the only plan I had.
“And if I can’t develop a male android that is both dominating and trustworthy?”
“Then, Mako, we will just have to find another way to control them.”
“OK, Jason. You’ve kept us alive this long. I’ll keep working on it.”
The doors to the mess hall swished open, and Sasha came storming in. It was amazing how much energy was packed into her petite frame.
“How am I supposed to find the Ancient Ones? Their colonies could be anywhere, and I don’t have enough probes to search a large expanse. The probes are too slow and too few. Dr. Tanakai and Sergeant Klanton are tying up all the factory resources, and I can’t build more probes. You promised I could concentrate on finding the remaining Ancient Ones!” Sasha looked straight into my eyes with fire in hers.
“Good morning, Sasha. Care for some coffee?” My reply seemed to fan the flames at first, and then they slowly died down.
“Good morning, everyone.” Her mood was somewhat more controlled. “Sorry, but Jason promised if I could find a colony left by the Ancient Ones, he would help me reach it. I believe they can help us. But I have got to have the probes I need.”
Dena had gotten up and brought over a cup of coffee. She sat the cup down on the other side of me and then returned to her place beside me. Sasha took the hint and sat down. “This is why I don’t make more clones,” I secretly communicated to Dena telepathically.
Sasha’s head snapped up from her coffee, her eyes glaring into mine. Ouch. I had forgotten that she alone among the crew could sometimes intercept our private thoughts when sent to another.
“Sorry, but you’ve got to control your temper. It’s counterproductive.”
“You promised, Jason,” she said, ignoring my apology.
“I promised to help you visit their planet if you could first locate their colony. We need all our production capacity to repair our damaged warships and to build more. It won’t do any good to locate a possible colony of Ancient Ones if we’re all dead.”
“He’s building androids, and they’re just standing in rows in his lab. They’re not even activated.” Sasha motioned toward Dr. Tanakai.
“I will need them when the programming is ready. Commander Hauptman wants them in a hurry,” Mako said in defense.
“OK, Sasha, how many probes do you need?”
“I need at least five hundred thousand to cover the possible colony sites …”
“Whoa! No way. I’m thinking maybe a dozen every four weeks. We can’t spare—”
“A dozen? A dozen won’t help at all! Do you realize how vast space is? How many possible systems could have been visited by the Ancient Ones between their home worlds and here? I might as well try walking to all the planets.”
“Sasha, I’m trying to work with you.”
“I believe Commander Hauptman is being generous in his offer. The ship has other priorities. Our survival does not depend on satisfying your curiosity about the original builders of this ship.” Sybil had little patience for Sasha.
“But it does. The Ancient Ones hold the key to all this mess. It all originated from their technology. Their mistakes in letting the machines become too powerful and drive them out. There is more science, more technology that we are not aware of.” Sasha was pleading now. “The Ancient Ones know more about these computers than we do. They know how to defeat them. I just know it.”
“There is no reason to believe that all their knowledge is not stored here in the mother ship. And you don’t know that either,” I said. “A dozen probes, that’s all I can promise.”
“You’re just acting on a gut feeling, Sasha. You don’t have any solid evidence,” Dena added.
“I know the Ancient Ones better than anyone else. My brain has become more like theirs, and my access to this ship’s computers is better than anyone else’s.”
“I wouldn’t say that you know them better,” I interrupted, thinking of my own nightly dreams.
“Just because you have modified your own brain to configurations that more closely match that of the Ancient Ones does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that you have a better interface with their computers,” added Sybil.
I looked at Sasha for a moment, and the silence seemed to stretch on. Then she relented.
“A dozen is not much help, but I’ll take it. It’s better than nothing.” Sasha got up to leave, hesitated as if she were about to add something, and then continued to the door.
“You forgot your coffee,” Sybil told her.
Sasha’s humph was clearly audible as she left the mess hall.
The Defiant’s Exterior
Mako and Sybil left the mess hall to return to Mako’s lab and continue work on the male android programming. Dena left with a kiss and headed for her bio lab. She was conducting tests on a new species of bacteria she had discovered on the First Ring and was clearly excited about it, although she did not share the details with me. The mother ship, the Defiant, had five rings attached by spokes to the mother ship. Well, it had four rings. We had detached the Fourth Ring from the ship, and it was long gone, destroyed by the Unity. The Sarge had still not shown up for breakfast, and I did not want to interrupt him. Having telepathic abilities and being able to contact anyone anywhere on the ship at any time had at first caused some problems, but we soon worked out an etiquette to respect each other’s privacy. Sergeant Klanton and the android Noomi were obviously in the early stages of a romantic relationship. I would give them some space. Besides, there was not much for the Sarge to do at the moment. His responsibilities normally included training the aliens living on the mother ship’s rings to be pilots and gunners on our warships. But with the recruitment of the androids, it only took showing them one time, and they had it down pat. It did not make sense to continue practicing the same maneuvers over and over as he had to do with the aliens, some species of which were poorly suited to be pilots. I decided to use the time to get away, clear my head, and relax. Taking a spin in one of the little two-man runabouts was the perfect way to do that.
I headed to the aft end of the ship, down empty corridors of aluminum alloy floors, walls, and ceilings. The main corridors were wide enough for a dozen people to walk along side by side. The sound of my boots clank, clank, clanking along the floor and echoing down the hallway and the hum of machinery behind the walls remin
ded me of my dream, and a chill ran up my spine. I shook it off and tried to concentrate on other thoughts. Dr. Tanakai had told me his partial analysis of the ship’s internal metal components involved an alloy of aluminum, nickel, and cobalt. But the mixture varied in a complex pattern, the purpose of which was still a mystery to us. The outer hull also contained large amounts of nickel and cobalt with lesser amounts of copper, but they were meshed in a matrix of carbon with graphite sheets between them. Both surfaces provided a solid attachment for our magnetic boots, which were part of our heavy armor.
I turned down a smaller hallway, and the sound of machinery increased. An open doorway to one side revealed a tangle of machinery that ran along the inside of the wall. Electrical relays snapped open and closed; occasional sparks jumped across the surface of a sphere at the heart of the machine. The hum of massive spinning parts not unlike an electric motor was louder here. A semitransparent conduit of light snaked across the machinery and along the ceiling. I had no idea what the machinery was or its purpose. We had so little time to explore this huge ship. I stopped and looked in as a small robot, not much larger than my fist, skittered across the floor and into an open space between two parts of the machinery. Performing maintenance, no doubt, Defiant took care of herself.
I took another small hallway along a route that wound its way around the machinery. I could have taken the main hallway to the elevator, but I felt like wandering about the ship for a bit. I came out of the hallway onto a space that overlooked the open corridor that was open to the four decks below. The elevator was just to my right, and I followed the handrail, admiring the view of the decks below. It must have been an awesome sight to see it filled with the Ancient Ones going about their business. Tall and proud, their six arms and heavy legs carrying them about, they could not have foretold their own fate. Their massive heads wrinkled and darkened by centuries of age would have shown all the emotions that we humans share. I wondered if they held hands with their lovers—did they even have lovers? Did they nod to each other or smile as they passed?
I stepped into the cylindrical elevator as the door spun open, and without thinking, I reached to touch the inside wall, just as I had done in my dreams. But I had no magnetic ability in my fingertips, and the elevator did not respond. “Damn, you know better, Jason. What’s with me?” The inner surface of the elevator showed no control panel, but it was there just the same, waiting to be magnetically activated. I used my thoughts to activate the elevator and descended to the level of the tram.
The Defiant was an enormous ship. I would be traveling from the forward section that housed the bridge and our crew quarters to the hangar, which was at the very stern end of the ship, a distance of several hundred miles. The stern section was the oldest part of the ship. The tram, as we called it, was an absolute necessity for covering such a long distance. I stepped onto what could have been a subway car without windows and activated the tram by simply thinking of my destination and desiring to go there, like simply taking the first step in a leisurely walk. I marveled at the absolute lack of the sensation of movement. The Ancient Ones had not only mastered gravity, but inertia as well. Good thing, the acceleration forces would probably have been lethal otherwise.
Once in the hangar bay, I climbed into a runabout. I was very proud of these little spacecrafts. I had designed them myself. Well, I used the factory control options to order it built. It was like putting Legos together on-screen. Engine unit, control unit, seat design (that required the most creative input), canopy shape, and armament—all were available options. The computer took care of the details, structural design, outer hull, etc., and the little two seat ships flew like a charm. Little, but they were bigger than a Greyhound bus; still, they were the smallest ships with a gravity drive in them. The Ancient Ones used some type of gravity drive to power their ships, cargo ships, probes—even the mother ship, the Defiant.
I triggered the hangar door to open and launched the runabout into the darkness of space, banked to the left, and rolled over to give myself an unobstructed view of the Defiant. The true size of the mother ship became apparent as I had to gain some distance before I could get a good overall view of the ship. The aft end of the ship was cylindrical with six more cylinders attached around the long axis of the ship. Mako thought those cylinders probably housed part of the gravity drive engines. The central cylinder of the mother ship’s fuselage was not uniform. Some areas were of a greater diameter, and some were composed of several separate cylinders merged into one section. The ship was programmed for constant expansion and construction robots actively built onto the ship, increasing its length and the number of rings attached to it. As a result, there was a constant flow of autonomous cargo ships bringing raw materials on board. They approached from different directions and then took up a flight path that circled the Defiant and entered the hangar bay. From there, they entered a large opening that led into the Defiant’s belly, and they emerged a third of the way up the mother ship to be launched back into space on their quest for more materials. The cargo ship’s hulls were composed of the same materials as the Defiant’s hull. At times, there would be as many as a dozen cargo ships circling the Defiant; other times, as now, there may be only a lone vessel bringing back its load.
The rings that were attached to the Defiant were not uniform either. Some were fat broad rings that encircled the central fuselage closely, only a few miles away. The Fourth Ring had been the greatest in diameter. It had been a narrow tall ring supported on spokes that were fifty miles long. Now only the broken stubs of its spokes remained. The Fifth Ring housed the Warriors; it was appropriately shaped, thick, and solid looking—just like the alien race that lived on it. All along the surface of the Defiant were areas that glowed a ghostly blue, especially toward the forward extent of the fuselage. Dr. Tanakai and Dr. Becker had agreed that these were plasma fields, used to siphon off the particles that accumulated in the bow wave of the Defiant as we sped through space. Without these, a collection of deadly charged particles would accumulate. Space was not empty.
It was one of the few things Tanakai and Becker had agreed on. Becker thought that the rings were a design tradition that had probably started with rings that spun to create artificial gravity. Tanakai argued that the rings were designed to isolate their inhabitants from the rest of the ship. At any rate, the rings were stationery; and the “ground” was on the inner surface, not the outer. I tended to believe Tanakai’s theory of isolation; after all, it was the only place on board the ship that our telepathic powers could not reach. Our telepathic powers worked fine to communicate with anyone on the ring as long as we were on the ring, but communication between the ring and the main ship was impossible. Our neural nets allowed us to communicate telepathically over great distances, even between planets within a solar system. The systems aboard our warships, runabouts, and, of course, the Defiant boosted the signals. I was not sure how far a neural net could reach without assistance. I made a mental note to find out.
I flew over the forward section of the Defiant. The Sixth Ring was only partially built. I had stopped construction on it to save resources. Further forward, the bridge was inside the nose of the Defiant. There were no obvious windows. The inside panels of the bridge could act as screens to view the outside and could be activated or shut off or used to project any information. I examined the hull of the forward section, but could detect no difference in the skin where it had been repaired. Dr. Becker had died here, vaporized. There had been nothing left to bury. At Least Commander Douglas had gotten a burial. His grave rested on a scenic hill on the First Ring. My crew was dwindling, I realized. From the original seven humans, only four were aboard now. At least Nick Brunsic was still alive. He was on the Warrior home planet, helping them defend it. I assumed he was still alive.
“Hey, Commander, heard you were looking for me.” Sergeant Klanton’s cheerful thoughts invaded my melancholy. His voice was husky and deep, even though it was only in my head.
“About
time you got to work,” I teased him.
“I decided to work out before breakfast. The new gym I put together is great. You should join me. Where are you?”
“Uh-huh.” I wasn’t buying it. “I’m in a runabout, doing a check of the Defiant’s hull. We should clean up the debris left from the Fourth Ring, and we could disassemble the beginnings of the Sixth Ring and recycle the materials. That should help with our production needs. Meet me in the hangar bay when you finish breakfast. I have some ideas and need your input on tactics and strategy.”
“Glad to be of service. I’ll just grab a few of these red and yellow melon things, whatever the hell they are, and head there now. Damn, I miss bacon,” he growled.
Back in the hangar bay, I landed the runabout, lightly touching down next to a line of warships. The hangar bay could have housed more than one Superdome. The warships were lined up on either side of the bay with a row of six runabouts in the center. There was a separate bay for the raw cargo ships to enter. That was a recent modification of Sergeant Klanton’s. He had gotten tired of waiting for the hangar bay to repressurize every time a cargo ship entered. I climbed out of the cockpit just as the Sarge was coming in through the main air lock from the ship. I left my helmet in the runabout, figured I would be back in it soon.
