by S A Pavli
“Aha! I haven’t shown you my tentacles and third leg yet.”
“Your tentacles and third leg? I think I have already seen those,” she said cheekily.
“Tentacles I said.” She stood up and came and sat in my lap and delivered a long warm kiss.
“You’re squashing the tentacles,” I protested.
“Oh no,” she said laughing. “Time for your transformation. I’ll get your new costume.”
“Can’t wait.” After she left I called Alfred. He responded immediately, of course, with his familiar old English drawl.
“When are we going to see you down here then?” I asked.
“Paul, I was transferred to the shuttle yesterday and flew the ship down this morning.” I sat up with a spasm of annoyance.
“Alfred, why wasn’t I informed?”
“I understood that you knew this was happening.”
“Yes I did but I wanted to be in touch while it happened.”
“Apologies Captain, you did not make that clear to me.” I realised that, as usual, Alfred was quite correct. He was a computer after all and if I did not spell things out for him then he would follow his own logic.
“Where are you? I want to be there while they interface you to their systems.” I realised I was being technically fussy but the ghost of Admiral Crozier sat on my shoulder and I could hear his gravely voice reminding me of my responsibilities.
“I could give you the co-ordinates Captain but they would be meaningless to you. I believe the intention is that you and Manera will come here some time today.”
“Tell them not to do anything until I arrive.”
“Yes Captain.” I signed off feeling a little annoyed with myself. I was so busy doing the political stuff and enjoying myself with Manera I was neglecting my duties. I went back inside as Manera came into the room with an armful of clothing.
“Paul Constantine late of Earth is about to become Pol Contine from the settlement Insettara,” she said.
“I know nothing about the settlement Insettara,” I protested.
“Neither does anybody else,” she said. “It’s an asteroid orbiting a dwarf star at the very edges of the Federation. There are a few thousand settlers there, mostly miners. The system is full of asteroids and orbiting debris left over from the nova a few million years ago. They are rich in minerals and metals. It’s a tough no-nonsense frontier system and the miners are known for their taciturn natures.” She seemed to be enjoying herself, smiling broadly as she spoke.
“Tough, no-nonsense?” I said doubtfully.
“Captain Constantine. You can do tough no-nonsense.” She said severely.
“I think taciturn may be more appropriate here,” I suggested. “A man, sorry, Hianja, of few words.”
“Right, get your clothes off.”
“Madam, I am a man in a relationship with a very beautiful woman that I love,” I said primly, as I started to remove my clothing.
“I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.” She laid the clothing out on the settee. I got down to my pants and she gave me a pair of tight fitting pants made of a rough hard wearing material.
“Current fashion for asteroid miners?” I asked. They were cut half way up the legs and beneath I put on black socks and sturdy shoes. Up top I wore a T shirt, tight fitting blue shirt again made from a tough grainy material and on top a waistcoat which appeared to be black leather. A heavy duty belt with a couple of pouches and a large hat that came over my ears finished off my ensemble.
“You look very handsome,” she said. “I’ve always fancied an affair with an asteroid miner. They are so tough and romantic.”
“Aha. Tough, no-nonsense, taciturn … and romantic. Phew, dunno if I can do all that.”
“Now the eyebrows,” she said, picking up a small electric razor from the table. I made a face but allowed her to use the machine. It took a few seconds to remove my eyebrows and I examined myself in the mirror. I wasn’t sure that the end result was good enough.
“What do you think?”
“Drop your chin a little. Now squint your eyes. Bend down a bit, stick your lips out….” I tried to follow her instructions until I saw the barely suppressed mirth on her face. When I growled she laughed then gave a screech as I went after her, chasing her around the room.
“Us asteroid miners don’t take kindly to being mocked,” I shouted in what I imagined to be suitably miner like tones.
“Now you really look the part,” she said. “Honestly.” I gave up trying to catch her and collapsed on the settee. She looked disappointed.
“Come on mister miner. Try harder.”
“I’ll get you later.” She came and sat next to me still smiling.
“What do you think, will I do?” I asked.
“You will do,” she said. “There are so many different races from all over the Federation here on Hian. No one will look twice.”
“Right, jolly good. On another subject, just had a chat with Alfred, he is down on planet, at a secret location no less. When are we going there?”
“Did you want to be involved?” she asked. “It’s very technical stuff, electrical interfacing, protocols, data streaming. Perhaps when he gets into the code we may be able to assist?”
“Um, right.” I felt a bit foolish, having torn Alfred off a strip for not consulting me it looked like I would just be in the way. “Are you confident in the expertise of your people there? I mean, they are not likely to damage or disable Alfred?”
“You and Alfred are like a married couple,” she laughed. “Hate being together, hate being apart.”
“I am the Captain,” I protested. “Anything happens to Alfred or my ship, it’s my neck.” Then I thought, given that I have essentially gone awol with my ship, my neck is already fairly exposed!
“Well, if you want, we can go down there today and you can reassure yourself?” she suggested. Having stuck my neck out, I now had no choice but to follow through.
“Let’s do that,” I agreed.
“I’ll call the chairman now,” she said.
Our escorts arrived half an hour later, three robots and three uniformed Hianja. One of the Hianja, a short but stocky muscular fellow was in charge and he reported to Manera. They chatted quietly for a few seconds before Manera turned to me.
“This is Lieutenant Worniek. His team will transport us to the centre and bring us back.” I nodded to the lieutenant and he gave me a curious look. He turned to Manera.
“Where is the alien?” he asked. Manera gave me an amused look. She indicated me.
“Meet Captain Paul Constantine of the Earth Space Exploration Service.” The Lieutenant actually went rigid and gaped. I thought he was about to salute me but instead he nodded stiffly.
“A pleasure Captain. Welcome to Hian.” I was impressed with his powers of recovery. “You seem…. very normal,” he added with a stutter. I smiled at his confusion.
“That is the mystery we have to solve Lieutenant. We are galactic neighbours but we should certainly not look so similar.”
“I expected somebody green with….. well, you know.” He finished with an embarrassed shake of his head.
“Yeah, tentacles and three legs,” I added and he nodded with a broad grin. His two colleagues seemed equally surprised and exchanged glances with each other.
“Right, Captain. We will be travelling in two police Tanseh, Yourself, Manera, myself and one of the robots in one and my colleagues in the other.
“Are you expecting trouble Lieutenant?” I asked.
“No sir, but I have been informed that I must provide adequate security.”
“Are you armed?”
“No sir. We never carry arms. But we do have low power lasers that will deliver an electric shock which will disable both a Hianja or a robot.” Unless it’s an armoured and insulated military robot I thought, but kept the thought to myself.
“Let’s go then.” Manera nodded to the Lieutenant and we were escorted out of our room, through the lobby and into the lift.
Waiting for us on the roof were two Tanseh.
The journey was longer than I expected. The Tanseh rose through the traffic lanes, gaining speed all the time, until we were at the topmost and fastest lane. The view of the city was spectacular and Manera pointed out landmarks as we flew over them. Soon we were over the countryside and after a half an hour we were flying parallel to the coast. The ships then turned away from the land and soon we were over the sea with no sight of land.
Another half an hour passed before I spotted the island. I calculated that we were a hundred or so miles from land. We flew over a landing area where there were a number of Tanseh, including a few large orbital models. The autopilot circled the landing area before bringing the ship down close to a large hanger like building. I could see a couple of autocabs making their way towards us as we exited the Tanseh. Our escorts had, very professionally, exited first and spread out around us. One of the Hianja and one of the robots met and inspected the autocabs before we were allowed to board. Surely, I thought, we are not under any threat from the dissidents? Perhaps they were just being over cautious?
The autocabs parked next to a wide entrance and we entered the building to be met by a small group of Hianja, two males and three females. They looked puzzled when they saw us and we again had to go through the charade of ‘guess who is the alien’. I’m sure that some of them just didn’t believe us! The lead technician was one of the females, a tall angular ‘lady’ of indeterminate age who was introduced as Chief Engineer Colrania Ebestran.
“We have brought your shuttle into the building,” she explained. We were led along a few passages and out into a large hanger. The Lisa Jane’s shuttle stood alone in the centre of the hanger, its airlocks open with cables running from the ship to large pieces of electronics parked around it.
“Looks like they’ve started work,” I remarked.
“We are just preparing all the equipment,” said the Chief Engineer.
“Has my AI been briefed on the technicalities?” I asked.
“Yes. In fact, we could not have designed the interfaces without his co-operation,” she explained.
“Right. If you don’t mind, I will spend some time on the Flight Deck with my AI and he can brief me.”
“Please do,” she replied . “Manera, can you also give us the benefit of your expertise?” Manera nodded and giving me a smile she got into a huddle with the Chief Engineer while I made my way into the shuttle’s Flight Deck.
“Alfred, how you doing old bean?” I took the pilot’s seat and examined the ship’s indicators.
“We have made a start Paul,” said Alfred. “Would you like to examine the schematics?”
“Yes, on screen Alfred.”
We spent the next three hours going through the interfaces, electrical and computer protocols. It was tedious but I’d volunteered so I had to put a good face on it.
As it transpired, I did make some contributions. Alfred was a computer and often took the ‘brute force’ approach. I was able to make some suggestions which would streamline the hardware and software. The Peacekeeper software was held on historical archives which had been tracked down after our incident on Mesaroyat at the instigation of the Chairman. Clearly the behaviour of the Peacekeepers had worried him back then and he had initiated the program to discover their design and programming.
Once I was satisfied that my ship’s systems would not be compromised by the operation I took my leave of Alfred and tracked down Manera. She was scrolling through high level code and I peered over her shoulder while she pointed out some of the design parameters. It looked hugely complex and I suggested that this would be a very long project.
“Our AI computers are producing very high level diagrams of the systems programming,” she said.
“You mean they don’t already exist?” I asked.
“No, those documents were on a different storage device which has been lost.”
“Well it has been five thousand years. I’m surprised you were able to find anything,” I said.
“Yes, only that particular storage device failed. Hianja reliability,” she turned to me with a smile.
“Problem is that this exercise only tells us the starting point for the Peacekeeper programming. It doesn’t tell us where they are now, five thousand years later.”
“The theory is that once we know the starting point we can wind it forward five thousand years. Simulated of course.”
“And if we find that the Peacekeepers are potentially not so peaceful?” I asked.
“We will cross that river when we come to it.”
“So, how about some R&R?” I asked.
“Is that what I think it is?” she asked with a impish look.
“Mmmm, no, although that can come later. R&R, Rest and recreation. Where’s the best bar in the city?”
“I have no idea,” she said. “But I think we can find out.”
Chapter 16
The next few days were the most interesting and enjoyable days of my life. My new identity as an asteroid miner was accepted everywhere I went, with no comment, which often caused us great amusement. Exploring the city and immersing myself in Hianja culture was fascinating and Manera enjoyed proudly showing me around.
There were many aspects of Hianja life which were similar to our own, but fascinatingly, there were many which were very different. Bars, restaurants, music clubs, cinemas and theatres, museums and art galleries were all very much in evidence. But Hianja seemed to love the enthusiastic amateur and the streets were full of outdoor performers with a selection of musical instruments, singers and artists displaying their art. There was a troupe of gymnasts who did breathtaking stunts to a large appreciative crowd. A magician had us mesmerised with her tricks. The city seemed to be designed to cater for these amateurs, with little squares and extensive pedestrian areas given over to performers.
Clearly, Hianja citizens had plenty of spare time on their hands and used it productively for their own enjoyment and the enjoyment of their fellow citizens.
I kept an eye on Alfred’s progress during this time. It took them a day to complete the physical interfaces and a couple of days to program the access protocols which struck me as remarkably quick. Alfred started downloading and analysing software in parallel with the Hianja AI computers. The high level models were completed after a week, and the systems set up to carry out the ’wind forward’ simulation. Incredibly, this 5000 year simulation would be completed in a week!
During the second week we travelled further a-field, exploring the coast with its small fishing and holiday villages. I came across youthful Hianja on holiday in large numbers for the first time and was pleasantly surprised to find they were almost as drunkenly irresponsible as their Human equivalents. One thing which did catch my eye was the number of ‘same sex’ partnerships that were in evidence, particularly female to female. I asked Manera if this was just friendship, girls walking arm in arm, or whether it was more significant. She reminded me of the period in Hianja history when males almost became extinct. During that period, females inevitably sought sexual gratification in the only way it was available. Also, even during modern times, more females were born than males.
“Bit of a waste,” I remarked, no doubt displaying my unconscious male prejudices.
“If you are thinking this is a sexual paradise for the unattached male, forget it,” she said with a mischievous smile. “Most Hianja females swing both ways!” I gave her a disbelieving look.
“Are you serious? What, even you?” She laughed at my expression.
“I said ‘most’, mister male chauvinist.”
“Hey, I’m not a male chauvinist. Just protecting my territory. Anyway, given that most Hianja females look little different from the males, it’s an academic point.”
“I think, for you, it’s an academic point anyway,” she said, giving me a warning look.
“Oh yes baby, this here male is out of circulation,” I said hastily. I pulled her close and nibbled a delicat
e ear.
Despite her assertion that most females ‘swung’ both ways, I did find that many females gave me calculating looks, even outright challenging ones at times. Perhaps asteroid miners had a reputation!
Back in our apartment in the Capital, we had an evening get-together with our three Guardian friends, Krusniet, Kemato and Hamolatonen, purportedly social but I suspected partly business. We had a Hanja ‘take away’, prepared and delivered by a local restaurant and served by Manera very tastefully in handsome ceramic containers from which we helped ourselves. I had in addition a standard ship’s ration, a very decent vegetarian risotto, washed down with a couple of bottles of Hanja ‘wine’. Krusniet asked us how we had enjoyed the city and we talked enthusiastically about all the places we had visited. Hamolatonen and Kemato promised to arrange trips to some of the most famous tourist sites.
“Sorry we have left you on your own,” said Krusniet. “I have given responsibility for the Peacekeeper project to Kemato and Hamolatonen. They have been on site at the historical archive building, where your shuttle is berthed Paul.”
“I see. How is the project going?” I asked.
“The historical simulation is complete and we are considering the results,” said Kemato.
“Who do you mean by ’we’?” I asked.
“Our computer analysts with our AI systems, and Alfred.”
“How realistic do we think this simulation is?” I asked.
“We have absolutely no idea,” said Hamolatonen in his usual semi-humorous drawl.
“Hamo, don’t exaggerate,” said Kemato reprovingly. He grinned and inclined his head in semi-agreement.
“It is a simulation,” he reminded her.
“It’s the best we can do.”
“I think we need more,” said Hamolatonen. “We need to interrogate the Settang Despass. Better still, visit the Peacekeeper’s base and talk to their ruling AI systems.” This was a new and intriguing idea and had to think about it for a few seconds.
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“We can draw some conclusions from the simulation. But we need to confirm them by carrying out live simulations.”
