Virtual

by S A Pavli

  “And we do have official exploration rights,” she added.

  “Damn right,” agreed Mark. There was a warm silence between them as they waited for Alden to come back to life. She leaned her elbow against the back of his chair and he smelt the faint fragrance of her perfume and felt her breath on the back of his neck. He wanted the moment to continue, but in what seemed a few seconds there was a series of beeps from the console, a scroll of figures and a flash of lights, and the warm measured tones of Alden's voice came from the speakers.

  “This is the ship's AI on line. I am fully operational and await your commands.”

  “Welcome back Alden, delighted to hear your voice old chap," said Mark enthusiastically. They all exchanged grins of delight and Andy made a triumphant fist.

  “Thank you Captain. Can I ask, was there some sort of hardware failure to my systems?” asked Alden politely. Mark carefully explained to the computer the events of the past day, as well as the trapping of the alien intelligence in the spare AI modules.

  “We have set up a comms line to the modules,” he finished. “We would like you to try and establish communication with this alien intelligence, if that is what it is.”

  “I have programming subroutines to do that," said Alden.

  “What sort of programming Alden?” asked Mark curiously.

  “Alien communication software. Designed to allow the development of a common language with the alien," said Alden. Mark looked enquiringly at Andy, who shrugged doubtfully.

  “Not something that I'm aware of Captain. But Alden does have a huge library of both data and subroutines," he said.

  “As a matter of fact,” interrupted Melanie. “It was some programming that we supplied as part of our scientific analysis software. It was developed at the University. It was a bit tongue in cheek in fact, we never expected it would be used in anger.”

  “Well, let's see how good your chaps are at the University," said Mark. “Just a thought though, I don't suppose their's any chance of Alden catching some sort of virus from the alien? Or even the alien uploading himself and taking Alden over again?” He addressed the question to Andy.

  “I'll have a look at the software Mark, but those are pretty elementary precautions,” said Andy. Mark nodded.

  "That's probably true, but we have underestimated these things before," he said. "Alden, please take all precautions to ensure your systems are isolated from the alien.”

  "Certainly Captain,” agreed Alden.

  "Melanie, let's get together and make plans to split the team into two. One group will stay here and investigate the moon base, and the other team will pay the planet a visit," said Mark briskly.

  "Excellent idea," said Melanie. “The more we get done before the authorities try to stop us the more of a fait accompli we can present to them.”

  "I can almost hear your father talking," said Mark impishly, as they both left the Bridge.

  "Ah sorry Captain, I was talking hypothetically," she said innocently.

  "Of course Miss Carstairs. I would not under any circumstances entertain lying to the authorities," said Mark, poker faced.

  Chapter 19

  The blue green planet filled the main view screen on the Bridge of the Bounty Hunter. Mark occupied the pilot's seat, with the co -pilot seat occupied by Jimmy Petrov, with strict instructions not to touch anything. In the transit room sat Melanie, Doctor Leslie and James Walters. They were the full complement of the Bounty Hunter. The others, LeBlanc, Andy Baross, Josephine and the Major had been left under the Captaincy of Anja Pederson on the Chameleon. The tasks for the crew of the Chameleon were to explore the ruins of the alien moon base, and to bring the alien robot on board for further examination. The Bounty Hunter was to explore the main planet. The crew and exploration team had been divided up by function. Andy and Jo, being the technical experts were allocated to the job of investigating the alien robot. LeBlanc, the Major and Captain Anja would explore the alien moon base.

  On the Bounty Hunter, Leslie and Melanie were the life sciences team, and Walters was the planetary geologist, so they were the natural team to explore the planet. Jimmy was to be pilot of the Hover car, and general gopher .

  "Stable orbit achieved,” announced Alden.

  "Right Ho Alden," said Mark. “Let's start the scan of the planet's surface. Feed all data to the science room terminal.” The computer confirmed his instructions, and Mark clicked the ship's intercom on.

  "This is the Captain. We have achieved orbit. Alden is starting the scan of the planet's surface. Melanie, all data will be fed to your science station. Alden is carrying out his own examination and will let you know if he finds anything of interest.” Melanie's voice came through the intercom.

  "OK Mark, we'll start work.”

  "Alden, send a message to the Chameleon that we have achieved orbit.”

  "Yes mark,” responded Alden. Before departure, Andy and Jo, with Captain Anja's support, had gone across to the Chameleon and set up the hardware to trap the alien infestation in the Chameleon's AI. It had also worked, as in the Bounty Hunter, and the Chameleon's AI was now fully functional. Anja was now back in command of her vessel, albeit without her original crew. They had been consigned to a Space burial, with due ceremony. It had been a traumatic time for everyone, particularly the Captain of the Chameleon. The Major had officiated in a sombre ceremony, his military background had included training on how to handle burial in Space. His strength and the sympathy of the whole company had comforted Anja, but she had been unable to hold back the tears.

  But they were all glad to put that behind them and focus on the exciting challenges ahead. In the science room, the screens were cluttered with data. Walters and Melanie set to work eagerly, with Leslie watching over their shoulders. As the Bounty Hunter circled the planet, a full map of its surface began to take shape. Readings on temperatures, humidity and air pressure accumulated. Measurements on forestation, and the distribution of deserts and seas, the locations of volcanoes and mountain ranges, tectonic lines and continental plates, earthquake zones and fault lines, all were mapped by Alden's voracious instruments. It did not take long before the first signs of civilisation were detected.

  "I have detected artificial structures," declared Alden tersely. Walters gave a shout of aha!

  "On screen Alden," said Melanie.

  "I have a number of locations," said Alden.

  "Indicate them on the map," said Melanie. The screen displaying the developing map of the surface lit up with dozens of red crosses.

  "Good God, there's hundreds,” exclaimed Melanie.

  "Thirty seven, at present," said Alden.

  "Sorry, I was talking figuratively," said Melanie. “I'll settle for thirty seven.”

  "Thirty nine now, I have discovered two more,” announced Alden. The red crosses were distributed all over the map, with concentrations in a number of places. Melanie placed the computer cursor on the biggest concentration.

  "Show us some pictures of this one Alden,” she asked. The second screen lit up with a picture of a green landscape.

  "Can't see any buildings Alden," said Walters, frowning.

  "They have been totally overgrown and cannot be seen in a close up," said Alden. “If I zoom out you will be able to see geometrical structures.” The picture zoomed out , trees and hills shrinking until they disappeared. As they did so, shaded lines started to appear, tracing what was obviously the regular outlines of a city.

  "Unbelievable,” whispered Melanie.

  "Pretty amazing,” agreed Walters in hushed tones.

  "This is huge," said Melanie. “So huge, it's going to keep archaeologists busy for years.”

  "Christ, where do we start?” said Walters. “We have a whole planet to excavate.”

  "Well, let's accumulate all the high level information first," said Melanie. “Complete the mapping and identify all the sites where there are remains. Then we can pick one which is in the best condition or closest to the surface, and take a c
loser look at that.”

  "What could have wiped out a whole civilisation?” mused Walters. “Alden, can you scan for any major impact craters? The sort that can be made by an impacting asteroid. Or areas of very major volcanic activity. Something disastrous enough to destroy an advanced civilisation like this.”

  "If it happened a long time ago, won 't the evidence be hard to find now?” asked Melanie.

  "That kind of disastrous event should have left very obvious evidence," said Walters.

  For the next couple of hours, over two orbits of the planet, information accumulated. They then altered their orbit to pass over the poles, and then, over two more hours, carried out two more orbits to map the remainder of the planet. Interpreting, organising and summarising the raw data took them another couple of hours of concentrated work. Without Alden's immense computer power and data storage the work would have taken a team of scientists weeks. But at last they had a complete map of the planets surface and oceans, and detailed information on climate, weather, flora and fauna, and the locations of all artificial constructions.

  Melanie instructed Alden to prepare a selection of the most prominent artificial structures and their locations, and sat down with Walters to examine them. To their shock, Alden had listed more than a thousand locations.

  "Alden, it will take forever to go through these,” protested Melanie.

  "Please refine your selection criteria," said Alden. Melanie looked at Walters in frustration.

  "How do we refine our selection criteria without first examining the data?” she scowled. Walters was paging quickly through the first few locations.

  "Many of these have been covered by earth movements or are partially under water," he said.

  "Alden, choose only those locations which are accessible. “That is, above ground," said Melanie. It took a minute or two for Alden to comply, and their list dwindled to just fifteen locations.

  "Bloody hell, you know what this means? muttered Walters. Whatever happened here, happened a long time ago.”

  "Well, I think we already knew that," said Melanie.

  "No, I mean, a very long time ago. We are talking a hundred thousand, maybe two or three hundred thousand years ago," said Walters. Melanie shook her head in wonder.

  "Let's have a look at these," she said. Walters selected the first entry and paged through the maps, photographs and supporting data.

  "Small town in the middle of nowhere," he muttered after a while. Small buildings, were arranged in regular circles with roads radiating outwards to interconnecting ring roads. The whole town was just a couple of miles in diameter and the buildings were all in a bad state, walls and roofs collapsed and half covered with rubble and dust.

  "It's in the centre of this large continent,” pointed out Melanie. “Quite high up on a rocky plain.”

  "Yeah. That's why it hasn’t been buried,” agreed Walters. “Let's have a look at the next one.”

  It took them a couple of hours to work their way slowly through the fifteen locations selected by Alden. They were visited by Leslie, then Mark came to have a look, followed by a curious Jimmy who sat and looked at the pictures over their shoulders. The best preserved towns were in dry desert areas, far from active earthquake zones, flood zones or coastal areas. There was evidence that coastal boundaries had changed substantially, drowning major cities. But the biggest cause of destruction was vegetation. Cities had been completely suffocated and overgrown by forests and jungles where previously there had been huge urban conurbations. Their final choice was a small isolated city in the middle of a desert.

  "Elpida Three's equivalent to Las Vegas," said Walters.

  "Let's hope not," said Melanie. “It won t tell us very much about their culture if it is.”

  "Don t know about that," said Leslie, craning her neck to look at the pictures over Jimmy's shoulder. “Las Vegas tells us a lot about human nature.”

  "Notice the common architectural theme," said Melanie. “Circular buildings and cities built in circles. Every city we have seen is the same. Even the Moon base.”

  "Odd, to have such a single world wide cultural theme," said Leslie.

  "Could there be a single world wide culture? asked Melanie.

  "These are aliens," said Walters. “Maybe our human way of thinking just doesn't apply.” The discussion continued as they examined their target destination more closely. Eventually they agreed they had to start somewhere and Melanie called up Mark and informed him of their conclusion.

  Preparations went ahead for the expedition to the planet's surface. In the meantime, Mark announced that he had received a communication from the Chameleon that they were about to embark on another trip to the moon's surface to explore the alien buildings and prepare for the recovery of the alien robot.

  "Rather them than me,” muttered Leslie distastefully. But then she remembered the passionate ending of their first trip to the moon and smiled secretly to herself. She had been looking for another assignation with Mark, but he seemed to be always busy. She was trying to be patient, but annoyance that the Captain seemed so able to resist her charms was beginning to creep into her thoughts. Time to take the bull by the horns, she thought, smiling at her choice of metaphor.

  But preparation for their trip to the planet put a temporary halt to such thoughts as the level of activity became frenetic. All of them had to think about their own area of speciality and ensure that the equipment they needed was available and fully working. The Bounty Hunter would stay in orbit, and the Small Fry would be loaded up with one of their two hover cars and all the equipment. Mark would pilot the Small Fry, drop them off and remain with the craft. Jimmy would pilot the hover car with Melanie, Leslie and Walters to explore the alien city.

  Mark was vaguely unhappy with the idea that Melanie would be exposing herself to danger, but he was also certain that expressing any such sentiments would earn him nothing but contempt from Melanie.

  “OK Alden, are you sure I can leave you in command of the Bounty Hunter?" he asked facetiously as they prepared to leave.

  "If you prefer to stay on board Mark, I can also pilot the shuttle," replied Alden smoothly. Mark was seated in the pilot's seat in the Small Fry's tiny cockpit, with Melanie seated in the adjoining seat.

  "Bloody show off," said Mark, winking at Melanie. She smiled and Mark began to feel that having her distracting presence next to him was not a good idea. He concentrated on working quickly through the checks. The clamps securing the Small Fry released with a series of muted thumps and the small ship dropped gently away from it's mother ship. Above them the curve of the Bounty Hunter's hull receded, and beneath them the blue green ball that was Elpida 3 slid smoothly into view.

  "Shuttle is clear, secure the airlock,” said Mark. Doors in the Bounty Hunter's hull slid shut to cover the shuttle's docking bay. “Flight path selected, auto pilot engaged.” Mark leaned back, his eyes on the control panels and indicators.

  "Looks like Alden is flying the shuttle anyway,” smiled Melanie.

  "Yeah, sometimes I feel totally redundant,” grinned Mark. “Actually, Alden isn’t flying the shuttle at the moment. It's on internal auto pilot. But he could.”

  "Why do you have an internal auto pilot if Alden can do everything?” asked Melanie.

  "It's the principle of duplicate systems. In this case, triplicate, since Alden can fly the shuttle, so can the auto pilot and so can I.”

  "How do you decide who does what?" she asked.

  "Procedures,” he replied. “There is a Procedure for everything.”

  "For everything?" she said archly. “The Captain is not allowed any initiative?” He looked at her askance. She looked innocently back, big dark eyes slightly mocking.

  "What do procedures say about dealing with passengers?”

  He pretended to examine his displays.

  "Well.” He cleared his throat nervously, then turned to look at her. Her gaze was direct and challenging. “Use my initiative," he said, returning her gaze.

>   "Then you should," she said, her eyes unwavering.

  "Perhaps I will," he said defiantly. He looked at her enquiringly and she returned his gaze boldly. He looked blank and confused.

  "Do you want me to write you a letter?" she asked impatiently. “Do you like me Captain Alexander?”

  “God yes!” he exclaimed. “Do I like you? I can’t get you out of my mind.”

  “Well? Is there a procedure for kissing female passengers?” she asked, her eyes mocking.

  “Uh…no, that is definitely Captain’s initiative,” he muttered. He leaned sideways to kiss her and she did the same, but their seat belts locked suddenly, preventing them from reaching each other. They both laughed nervously.

  "Procedures,” muttered Mark, and snapped his belt off. He leaned over and cupping her face in one hand, planted a long kiss on her lips. She responded enthusiastically, her arms pulling him close. At some point she also undid her safety belt, and they got down to the task at hand with total concentration.

  "Fifty thousand feet at mach two,” announced the auto pilot.

  "Oh yes!” agreed Mark. “Mach two it is.” She smiled, and after another warm kiss, she pushed him gently away.

  "Are you sure it's not mach three?" she asked.

  "Mach three? He looked puzzled.

  "Doctor Leslie?" she said quizzically. She was surprised by the expression of guilt that briefly flashed across his handsome features.

  "There's nothing between Leslie and me," he said, defensively.

  "Leslie would like there to be," said Melanie, frowning at his discomfort.

  "Well, that's up to her," he said. She was looking searchingly at him and he squirmed under her gaze. “I did nothing to encourage her,” he went on.

  "I know that," she said. “She complained to me that you were always very correct with her.” He looked surprised.

  "She complained to you ?”

  "Girls talk," she said quickly.

  "I was only ever interested in you," he said. “From the first time I saw you.”