by S. H. Jucha
“Faustus,” Alex announced.
“What’s the meaning of this word?” AR-13145 requested.
Alex heard Julien’s explanation and rephrased it for his purpose. “Faustus is the name of a character from ancient human literature, a liaison to an extremely powerful entity.”
“I approve of this name. You may call me Faustus,” AR-13145 replied. “Despite our convivial exchange, you’re still denied entry to this ship to view my process.”
“And, as I said, Faustus, we don’t need your permission,” Alex replied tersely.
“Before this communication is terminated, I would ask: Will my biologicals recover?” Faustus asked. “I detect signal links, but I’m unable to direct them.”
“They’re stunned,” Alex replied. “Under normal circumstances, humans recover in a relatively short period of time. However, your biologicals are in such appalling condition that I hesitate to predict when they’ll wake, or if they’ll wake.”
“Your anger is detectable, Alex,” Faustus replied. “I merely asked to determine whether I needed to prepare more specimens.”
“See you soon, Faustus,” Alex ground out.
“Your intervention will be your undoing,” Faustus replied. “I’ve sent an emergency beam, requesting support. A fleet, greater than the one you met a period ago, will arrive to permanently remove you from this space. You have a limited amount of time to remove your individuals from my vessel. I recommend you proceed with haste.”
Alex truncated the comm call. “Admiral Tachenko, retrieve your boarding party,” he ordered.
“Do you want them to take a … a specimen?” Tatia asked. She looked at Alex apologetically. Under the circumstances, she wasn’t sure how else to refer to the drones. She hated that word, not to mention calling them biologicals.
“No, Admiral,” Alex replied. “We’ve no idea what would happen to them if they were separated from Faustus’ influence.”
While Tatia recalled the boarding party, Alex sent a quick message,
-18-
Inward Bound
Reiko sent a question to Tatia, who asked Alex. “It’s obvious that you want to investigate the colony ship. However, Faustus just warned us of an approaching fleet. We can’t do both and protect the Freedom.”
Alex flipped the holo-vid display to portray a diagram of the enemy fleet at the wall. He placed the comm sphere, with its protective ships, and the carriers in the representation.
Tatia and Reiko studied it, looking for what Alex saw.
“The enemy ships are in the ecliptic plane. Every one of them,” Tatia said.
“And they advanced across the ecliptic,” Reiko remarked. “I knew that, but, somehow, it didn’t sink in.”
“You might have been too busy preparing for the fight of your life, Admiral,” Alex allowed, laying a powerful hand gently on the small ex-Terran’s shoulder.
“Originally, we guarded against intrusions on all fronts, including above and below,” Tatia commented, “and then shifted our forces to accommodate their attack.”
“So, why didn’t they make use of the shorter approaches?” Reiko asked.
“Habits, Admiral, habits so old that we can’t imagine their origin,” Julien commented.
“It’s like a fairly good engineer, but not a great one,” Mickey commented. When he drew questioning looks, he added, “If a concept or method works once, why not keep using it, without asking how to make it better?”
“We’ll be risking our entire expedition, if we assume this is the manner in which the next fleet arrives,” Reiko objected. “In fact, having been defeated at the wall, the next enemy fleet might choose a different tactic.”
“In my observations of this federacy,” Julien said, “the probability that the new fleet will deviate from its eons-old habits is a minute number. What it will do is bring a vastly superior force to the one we defeated.”
“In other words, a fleet so big that it can ensure we’re wiped out,” Reiko responded.
“Precisely, Admiral,” Julien replied. “It will be extensive in number. However, it will still approach us across the ecliptic.”
“Can’t agree more,” Alex commented. “Admiral Tachenko, move the Freedom near the colony ship. Have your commands take up stations near us. If any warships approach our squadrons, you’ve my permission to eliminate their engines.”
“What about freighters, Alex?” Tatia asked. “They could be used for ramming tactics, especially with the humans aboard under the influence of Faustus.”
“Good point, Admiral,” Alex replied. “We’ll make it clear to Faustus that the freighters are subject to being destroyed if they approach our ships at speed.” Alex hesitated and then said, “Miriamal, did the sisters detect from where Faustus’ signal emanated?”
“We did, Alex,” the bridge crew heard. “It originated from the New Terra.”
“Thank you, Miriamal,” Alex replied.
“Admiral Cordelia, if you would please, the Freedom and the freighters are to take up stations near the New Terra,” Tatia ordered. “Admiral Shimada, direct your Tridents to recover their travelers and converge on the city-ship and the supply fleet. We’ll escort them to their stations.”
* * *
The Freedom and the supply fleet had waited beyond the far belt, while the Trident commands had rushed inward. When a significant number of Trident squadrons were in close proximity to the city-ship, Cordelia signaled her fleet forward to join them and the expedition sailed inward.
It took days for the fleet to reform and close the distance to the New Terra. During that time, the telemetry was exhaustively reviewed by every senior member of the fleet.
Tatia and Reiko conversed with the command admirals and discussed squadron deployment. Central to their discussions was the best method of exiting the system should a second alien fleet arrive.
Darius sent.
Ellie replied.
Deirdre agreed.
You’ve not offered an opinion.>
Svetlana groused.
For her part, Cordelia was surveying the area around the New Terra. Faustus had chosen a similar body to the one the Freedom braced against at the wall. It was an ice planet, surrounded by a multitude of moons and rock fields. In addition, the remains of ships festooned the nearby area. The locale was so cluttered that even travelers would be required to navigate carefully.
Cordelia noticed that the colony ship appeared slightly embedded in the moon’s surface, intimating it’d been in place for a long period of time. Overhead, abandoned platforms and space junk had built up. It would seem impossible for Faustus to lift the ship and get clear of the obstructions above. That was providing the ship retained the ability to get underway.
For safety’s sake, Cordelia chose an upper ecliptic approach. It would allow her only one means of exit from the system. However, she’d heard Alex and Julien’s analysis of the approach an enemy fleet might take, and she was relying on their acumen. Or, perhaps, she was betting on Alex’s instincts.
Renée and Pia spent time reviewing the imagery collected by Z and Miranda. They reviewed the boarding party’s fight, analyzed the drones’ movements, examined closeups of their obvious medical symptoms, and listened to the exchange between Faustus and the expedition’s leaders.
The women were upset by the conditions of the humans under Faustus’ control.
“My worry,” Renée said, “is that this entire system’s workforce is solely composed of these human drones.”
“What does Alex think?” Pia asked.
“Julien and he think that Faustus is the only alien here,” Renée replied. “Which means, if you add up the number of mining bases, construction jobs, and ship crews, you’re probably talking about thousands and thousands of these poor creatures.”
“My stomach churns when you call them creatures,” Pia said, her face twisting in a grimace.
“Well, look at them,” Renée replied hotly, gesturing to the image on the holo-vid. “They moved woodenly, even when they were attacking. There was no animation on their faces, not anger, not fear, not anything.”
“I know,” Pia said, her hand held to her forehead in frustration. “The aspect of humans being subsumed to become drones is too ugly to consider. I wonder if Faustus was telling the truth about the procedure being irreversible.”
“I wondered about that too,” Renée replied. “We won’t know until we visit the colony ship and see what type of operation Faustus is performing on them.”
“These human drones represent an insurmountable medical challenge for my staff, Renée,” Pia opined. “We haven’t the facilities to take on this many patients. Worse, they’d be under our permanent care. Otherwise, they’d return to operating under the same conditions as before.”
“I was thinking on that,” Renée replied. “It also occurred to me that Faustus might have the capability and will to simply turn them off.”
“Kill them?” Pia asked in horror.
“Maybe not directly, but what if he decided to remove his control? Would they simply stand in a stupor, waiting for the next directive?” Renée replied.
Renée took sympathy on Pia, who appeared overwhelmed, and said, “Well, let’s put this part of the subject aside. Here’s what I want us to focus on. Faustus requires full-grown adults to operate the ships and the mining processes. That means there must be some form of incubation system that raises humans from fetus to child to teenager, including some form of education for their tasks.”
“That means the New Terra must have a form of crèche,” Pia exclaimed.
“Yes, but I can’t imagine what an alien crèche, which prepares humans to become drones, might look like,” Renée said. “But these young humans are individuals we can help, I hope.”
* * *
“Let’s talk about our entry,” Alex said to the individuals convened in the Freedom’s large conference room.
“Faustus is intent on keeping us out,” Reiko said. “Consideration should be given to whether we make entry or not.”
“I agree with Reiko,” Tatia chimed in. “We’ve no idea what’s waiting inside that ship. Our boarding party could be trapped inside and then hunted to death.”
“I would like to point out that this entire system is impoverished. Regard its ships, mining posts, and crew,” Alex responded. “Cordelia, how many minor explosions has telemetry indicated to date?”
“Fourteen, Alex, five within the ship scrapyards and the others at mining bases,” Cordelia replied.
“It does speak to the dangerous conditions under which the drones operate,” Julien added. “Logically, we could expect the same environment inside the New Terra.”
“Julien, are you suggesting that only humans are inside the colony ship and most of them are drones?” Franz asked.
“That would be the greatest probability,” Julien replied.
“And I would concur,” Miriam said.
“Why would there be only the one alien for control?” Renée asked.
“You should consider, Ser,” Julien replied, “that this alien is a creation. It’s obviously a digital sentient that has been assigned to operate this system. I would hazard to guess that much of the metal mined from here goes to other worlds that are faring far better than this one.”
“What about the possibility of Faustus detonating the New Terra just like the sphere we ran down?” Tatia asked.
“One problem I see with that scenario, Admiral,” Mickey said, “is that I don’t think there’s much to explode. Telemetry shows almost no heat sources emanating from the ship. I think the engines are shut down, if not destroyed, and the ship might have a limited power source. My guess is that it’s probably nuclear in origin and well-protected for Faustus’ sake.”
“We must take into account that, as a digital entity, Faustus might have no desire to end prematurely what could be a long life, merely to prevent our entry,” Julien said. “Recall, Faustus did warn us it sent for support to remove us. If it intended to self-destruct, when we boarded the colony ship, why would it tell us that?”
“Well, from a purely physical point,” Mickey said, shifting the conversation’s subject, “there’s a bay, which can easily accommodate a traveler. The doors are stuck open, apparently heavily damaged from multiple penetrations of space rock.”
“We land a traveler and then what?” Reiko asked.
“You’d need an engineer or a SADE to work through the airlock,” Mickey replied. “I don’t think Faustus is going to operate it for us.”
