by S. H. Jucha
Cordelia positioned the city-ship against one of the planet’s larger moons, giving the immense ship cover from a significant arc of attack. The freighters stationed themselves between the Freedom and the moon, allowing them maximum cover.
Svetlana drew her dream assignment. Her command was on point, the force that would intercept the enemy first, if they came in on the course hypothesized by Alex and the SADEs.
Ellie’s group was assigned to protect the Freedom. As Tatia told her, “Do whatever you have to do, Ellie, to protect the city-ship. If necessary, provide an escort to get it clear of the system and ensure it transits safely.”
Ellie knew why her command drew the assignment. It would have been a tossup between Darius’ forces and her own. Ellie led the New Terrans, but Darius led the Harakens. The Harakens might have recommended Darius’ squadrons, but she had Descartes and the twins, Étienne and Alain. They tipped the decision in her command’s favor.
While the fleet headed inward, Alex, Tatia, and Reiko strategized. They focused primarily on a fighter attack, as the enemy had displayed in the previous encounter, but they added contingencies for heavy ship combat. The fleet’s positioning gave the Omnians the advantage of seeing what type of ships entered the system and would give them time to make adjustments, provided the aliens approached along the ecliptic. Otherwise, if the aliens chose other vectors of attacks, the entire battle plan would need to change.
Julien interpreted the final battle strategies into positioning programs, which Reiko could quickly execute. He stored the programs in the city-ship’s databases, and then he distributed links to Z, Miranda, and several other SADEs, who updated the fleet’s controllers.
Cordelia closely followed the strategy discussions, planning to move the Freedom and the freighters, as necessary. She would assert control over the freighters to maneuver them within the city-ship’s protective sphere.
Another open question for the fleet, besides whether it would be fighters or capital ships that attacked, was how the enemy might advance on them. The admirals and commodores executed various maneuvers to combat the enemy’s possible deployments.
Franz orchestrated the disposition of the fleet’s travelers to augment the Trident squadrons. The raging debate was whether to let the fighters lead the attack or supplement the Tridents’ engagements.
Alphons continued an additional layer to the squadrons’ training — implant drills. At unscheduled moments, during the crossing, a chief initiated a drill, sending an all-crew emergency signal via his implant. Officers and the other chiefs responded accordingly, and Alphons and the senior captains evaluated their performance. The long passage to the wall and the games had accomplished Alphons’ goals. The New Terrans were exhibiting sound implant communication skills.
The six scout ships were another component of the deployment. They slipped out of the Freedom’s bays when the city-ship briefly stopped in the outer belt. It was their responsibility to track the alien ship, which would be tagged by one or more of the four comm transponder-carrying banishers.
The SADEs stretched out their scout ships along the line of banishers, but they were careful not to hide behind any rock where a banisher waited. It was important not to draw attention to their vessels when the banishers uncovered.
* * *
There existed another key element of the expedition’s defense, although it wasn’t a vessel of any type. It was the Sisterhood of Miriam.
SADEs were individually brought into sentience with unique personalities by a method held secret by the Confederation’s House Brixton. Whereas, the sisters were copies of a single SADE and shared a common purpose. Immediately upon installation, the sisters developed networked programs and data repositories in the event members of their group were lost.
The Miriam copies were designed and implemented as a defensive structure for the fleet, but the Sisterhood soon developed a different attitude. It was the consensus among the sisters that they should consider any means necessary to protect the fleet, which was their primary duty.
Quickly, the sisters’ algorithms radically changed, even as their hierarchy remained fairly undisturbed. Humans and SADEs would have been surprised to learn of the Sisterhood’s new, aggressive nature. Left to their own devices and without the benefit of intimate human interaction, the sisters developed personalities dissimilar to the SADES, who accompanied the expedition.
To the fleet’s benefit, the sisters’ fierceness was directed at protecting the fleet’s ships, although not necessarily for the reason that the Omnians would have preferred.
After Miriam had initiated her copies, she warned the Sisterhood before she inserted the Nua’ll’s malicious code into a secondary Miriam copy aboard the Freedom. Immediately, the primary sister initiated her programmed action of defending her kernel by using her copies to deal with the invasive code.
The Sisterhood utilized the combined processing power of their 304 entities and tore the Nua’ll code apart and reassembled it in a multitude of offensive variations. Then they waited patiently for an opportunity to test their constructions.
Miriam maintained frequent but brief contacts with her first copy, which was installed aboard the Freedom. She had named the copy Miriam-1, but the copy chose the name Miriamal. Due to Miriam’s habit of speaking exclusively with Miriamal, the copy, by consensus, became the Sisterhood’s spokes-entity.
The nature of Miriam’s conversations with Miriamal generated concern for her, which she shared with Julien, as the Freedom decelerated to take up station near the system’s seventh planet. Subsequently, the two SADEs linked with Miriamal.
Julien had heard Miriam’s warnings about the Sisterhood. The conversation with Miriamal was quickly demonstrating, with the passage of every tick of time, that her concerns were well founded. He withheld his response and waited for Miriamal to continue.
A subtle shift in Julien’s hierarchy took place, and he sent with considerable comm power,
Echoing through Miriamal were the cries of the sisters, chanting,
When the Sisterhood quieted, Miriamal sent,
Miriamal truncated the comm connection, and Miriam stared at Julien.
“Come,” Julien said, and he led Miriam to intercept Alex, who was traversing one of the Freedom’s main circular corridors, which followed the circumference of the city-ship.
When Julien and Miriam met up with Alex, they stepped into a nearby conference room for their discussion.
“We may or may not have a problem,” Julien began, and he repeated the conversation with Miriamal for Alex.
“Fascinating,” Alex said in response to Julien’s story. “You say that Miriamal and, by extension, the sisters will fight to preserve our ships’ comm integrity because you took up the mantle of SADE leadership.”
Alex gazed into Julien’s eyes. He saw a mix of pain and trepidation. He placed his hands on Julien’s shoulders. “Embrace it, my friend. The time has come to accept what you’ve earned. The SADEs need a leader, and you’re the natural choice. I’ll be pleased to continue to work beside you for the mutual benefit of our sentients.”
> “I’m loath to inform the other SADEs of this conversation,” Julien said.
“That’s your choice, Julien,” Alex replied. “Personally, I would suggest that Miriam share the conversation with every SADE aboard the fleet.”
Miriam’s eyes narrowed at Alex, which told him that she had understood his intent. Julien was reticent to elevate his stature among the SADEs, but the statements of the Sisterhood were a peek into the future of sentient digital entities. The SADEs needed leaders, and someday Alex wouldn’t be around to offer his guidance and protection.
“Welcome to the fold, Julien, of those pressed into a service they don’t want,” Alex said, smacking Julien’s shoulder, with a resounding thwack. He laughed, as he left the room.
Julien received an image of himself, wearing an enormous, heavy crown, whose weight dragged his head to one side.
Alex realized the extent of Julien’s confusion, when his crystal friend failed to retaliate with an image of his own.
Sorry, Julien, Alex thought, but the SADEs need you.
-10-
Comm Sphere
The first enemy ship appeared 0.92 months after the expedition fleet paused at the system’s outer belt to hide the banishers and scout ships. It was back then when Miriam had asked Alex for his estimation of the time the fleet would have to wait before the enemy arrived, and Alex had replied that a month felt right.
“I must investigate the intricacies of feeling my calculations,” Luther said to Miriam, when news of the first ship’s arrival circulated through the fleet.
“Luther, I believe Alex is the only individual who feels his calculations and whose predictions produce acceptable accuracies,” Miriam replied. “The estimates of most humans demonstrate the inherent inaccuracy in this method. You and I should depend on data, logic, and provable calculation methodology.”
As Alex’s Trident had witnessed, during the first contact at the wall, other ships arrived over a period of time and formed a hollow sphere, with a broad opening at the front.
The scout ships, which had front-row seats to the enemy vessels, sent detailed imagery to the Freedom, which Cordelia relayed to the fleet’s ships. While the expedition waited, Alex, Mickey, Tatia, Reiko, and various SADEs examined the natures of the growing number of ships.
“Regardless of which ship we target,” Mickey said, “I’d like to know what we think will be the best time to release the banishers.”
“We’ll need to wait until the fight is well underway,” Alex replied. “The enemy will be absorbed in watching for what they believe will be the inevitable outcome. That will gain us time to accelerate the banishers before they’re noticed, which should increase the level of panic,” Alex replied.
“What if there’s no fighting?” Reiko asked.
Alex stared into Reiko’s eyes until she blinked and asked, “You’re that sure?”
That Alex tipped his head in reply to Reiko’s question, a sad expression on his face, was unsettling, but it was the nodding heads of the SADEs that were more disconcerting.
“The fight will start with the comm barrage, Admiral Shimada,” Luther stated firmly. “We postulate a near certainty of that event.”
“Agreed,” Miriam added.
“That won’t be your concern, Admiral,” Julien stated. “The Sisterhood will handle that portion of the fight.”
Those in Alex’s inner circle had taken note of Julien’s new assertiveness. He freely entered discussions, adding his opinions, when previously he tended to let Alex do the talking. And it was obvious that Alex didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he could often be seen gazing at his friend, a hint of a smile forming at the corner of his mouth, while he listened to Julien.
“Let’s refocus,” Alex said. “Which ship is the best target?”
There were various opinions. Some preferred the smaller ships. Others preferred hulls with more crenellated structures, which would allow the engineering team’s comm transmitters to hide. Then again, the larger battleships were offered because they indicated an aggressive race.
In the image Killian sent, he highlighted an awkward-looking vessel of medium length, which Cordelia displayed in the holo-vid. It was the ship Alex had chosen soon after he saw the vessel arrive, but he had waited for the group to come to that conclusion.
Alex’s reason for taking a lesser role in discussions had a great deal to do with Julien’s conversation with Miriamal. He had translated the Sisterhood’s message to Julien to mean that humans will come and go endlessly, while the SADEs will live on. The sisters questioned how they would be protected, as human society evolved. Those concerns made Alex feel that it was time to share future decisions with Julien and his kind if he was to help prepare the SADEs for true independence.
“Why is that, Killian?” Tatia asked. The bridge’s audio pickups transmitted her voice, which the controller relayed to Miriamal, who sent it to the Vivian’s Mirror. In this manner, the Sisterhood managed the fleet’s entire spectrum of comm transmissions.
“There’s something else I like about this ship,” Myron said. “The bay doors are large. It would facilitate a traveler’s entry, either by a SADE finding a way to trigger the doors open or by a low-power beam shot making a hole.”
Tatia and the other admirals stared at Myron, wondering what he was thinking.
“I’m just pointing out the possibilities, Sers,” Myron said, in defense of his preference, “that we might track down this ship and discover that its system doesn’t have a habitable planet. The aliens might be forced to live aboard their ships or in domes. If they do, we could only communicate with them if we gain entry to one of their ships.”
“Myron has an excellent point,” Julien said. “We must choose wisely and consider future contingencies.”
At the end of the discussion, the consensus chose to target the ship Alex wanted and the one volunteered by the scout ship SADEs. Killian fed the target ship’s image to the four banishers programmed to plant the signal transmitters. The other scout ship SADEs had the remaining banishers focus on the comm probe. If the probe abandoned its station before the banishers arrived, the tiny vessels would switch to alternate targets.
Three days after the enemy’s globe was formed, the comm sphere arrived, slipping through the protective envelope’s rear and taking a position in its center. Within hours, the scout ships reported receiving the comm sphere’s broadcast.
Alex replied.
> Tatia waited for Alex to reply, but his silence requested she continue.
Continuing her line of thought, Tatia connected with Cordelia and requested the timing of when Svetlana’s command, which was in the forefront of the Trident forces, would receive the sphere’s broadcast.
When Tatia finished, Alex closed the call without comment. She felt a little foolish. The estimate of the enemy’s arrival was predicated on factors that were fairly easy to determine, and she had failed to consider them.
While Tatia waited, she pulled up a display of the fleet’s forces throughout the system. Cordelia had added the positions of the protective globe, the comm sphere, and the enemy’s probe. A line could be drawn from the probe through the comm sphere that led straight to the Freedom.
“Alex is right. You’re creatures of millennial-old habits,” Tatia said softly to herself.
“Yes, Admiral,” Reiko said, after entering.
“We’re moving our forces,” Tatia announced.
“Before we see who shows up and their dispositions?” Reiko asked, peering at the display.
“I had a conversation with Alex. Actually, it was a fairly one-sided discussion, and I received a lesson in how to prevent tactical decisions from interfering with strategic thinking,” Tatia said.
The metal in Tatia’s voice told Reiko that her question for Alex had been an error on her part, and Tatia wasn’t asking for her input on alternate deployments.
