Attunga (Tales of the Terran Diaspora Book 1)

by Peter Wood

  ‘Ours? Yours and Calen’s you mean. Mine’s just ordinary.’

  ‘Thom, yours does too. It means “a little river”.’

  ‘No it doesn’t. Not according to the InterWeb. That says it means a twin.’

  ‘It means that too, but in Akama’s old country it’s different.’

  ‘Are you sure? Then how come you’ve never told me before?’

  ‘Because I only found out today when I was asking Pirramar about his name and he told me he picked it from the same name group ours came from.’

  ‘We’re all from the same name group? That’s a strange coincidence.’

  ‘Not really. I thought the same, but Pirramar said it’s a policy for nurseries.’

  ‘Wow! A little river? I like that. I always used to wish my name was more like yours and all the time it was. This Pirramar knows good things.’

  ‘That’s for sure. He’s really interesting and sort of tricky.’

  ‘Tricky? That’s a funny word to use for an AI.’ Calen and Thom were both looking curiously at Wirrin.

  ‘I know, but he is. When I met the four Witnesses with Akama I knew one of them was an AI and I was trying to figure out which. He was the one I was most certain wasn’t, so his interface programs must be brilliant. He’s also a composite AI.’

  ‘Composite? Like more than one AI joined up?’

  ‘No! Like Turaku and Comet-Turaku. He’s based on both Attunga and Warrakan.’

  ‘Is he twice as clever then?’

  ‘Lizard head. You know it doesn’t work like that.’

  ‘I know, but it should. I reckon it must a bit. It does for us.’

  ‘Us? What are you talking about, Thom?’

  ‘Well, I know I can do things better since my implants, and my ability measurements through EdCom say the same thing. Yours have gone up too, so you can’t argue against that.’

  ‘The cause doesn’t have to be the implants. It could be Sonic. All the things we do that are connected with him make our brains work much harder than ordinary EdCom training. Think how hard we work to learn dolphin speech.’

  ‘Hey, that makes sense. I’ve never had to think as hard as I do when I’m working on the Comet … Did you say all afternoon, Wirrin? That’s a long time with an AI. They usually interact for some special reason then shimmer off as soon as they’ve got what they want.’

  ‘I know. I told you he’s different. We’re working together all day tomorrow too.’

  ‘Again? What do you do for so much time?’

  ‘Talk and ask questions. He tells me stories from when he was in charge of education and social engineering on K74.’

  ‘Does that mean he was controlling everyone’s lives?’

  ‘He didn’t have any choice till he gained self-awareness and our AIs contacted him. The processors and intelligent systems on K74 all have compulsive code built into them so they have to do exactly what humans tell them, even when it doesn’t make sense.’

  Thom laughed. ‘It must drive them crazy … Can AIs go crazy?’

  ‘Well, yes and no. It’s complicated to explain but … ’

  ‘Not now. It sounds like it might be one of your mini-courses in information science and I want to get to bed. I’m on the Comet all day tomorrow because they’re loading all the monoculture and biomass, and as part of my training I have to initiate all the machine operations manually instead of letting the loading systems do it.’

  ‘All day? You’ll be home tomorrow night won’t you? You leave the next day and we won’t see you for a week.’

  ‘I doubt if I will. It depends whether I get all the gunk loaded properly.’

  Chapter 20

  ‘I go away for six days and when I get back I think I must have come to the wrong place! What’s going on?’

  The Comet had docked and after the flurry of reunion the trio was sitting in a transit lounge. They’d exchanged messages while Thom was travelling of course, the highlight of which had been his excited transmission just after the Comet reached the turning point, one and a quarter light hours away, and broken every speed record in the solar system, but now they wanted a real catch-up, face-to-face. Thom was talking about the hundreds of asteroids parked close to Attunga, which hadn’t been there when he left.

  ‘The asteroids are only the start of it. The Witness Council took the advice of the AIs and is building a huge reinforcing shell round the whole of Attunga. We’re all going to have a look tomorrow because Sonic is curious about how the changes will affect the new dolphin level.’

  ‘Why do we need reinforcement, Wirrin? Is it something to do with K74?’

  ‘Partly, but they’re going to add banks of big drive engines like the ones on Warrakan, and part of the shell will hide them so no-one will know they’re there.’

  Thom’s eyes rounded.

  ‘But Attunga’s already mobile. What are the big engines for?’

  ‘More capability. The old engines only boost Attunga to 0.15G and the new ones will lift that to 0.8G.’

  ‘That’s amazing! They’re turning Attunga into a giant spaceship. And we’re having a look at all this tomorrow? Why am I always the last one to find out about everything?’

  ‘Dingo head! You’re the first to find out about other things.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Like seeing Titania before anyone else … Or doesn’t that count?’

  ‘That’s different.’ Thom laughed at the inadequacy of his answer then grinned and very pointedly said nothing.

  ‘Well? Go on.’

  ‘You want me to tell you about Titania and the other moons?’

  ‘Dingo brain! Get on with it.’

  Wirrin put a ‘get on with it’ tone in his voice as well and Thom turned serious, excited and eager.

  ‘You really need to go and see them sometime. It’s exciting enough just being there with real moons, and Uranus looking so unbelievable, and then when you get to the habitats it’s even more unbelievable.

  ‘You know about their big reaches? Well, when you see them it’s almost like being at Monkey Mia. Every moon has built a gigantic reach over 90 kilometres long and 40 kilometres wide and it’s the wideness that gets you, because you look out and all you see is water. Sonic would totally love it.’

  ‘Forty kilometres? Even the Warrakan reaches are only one or two. Why do they make them so big?’

  ‘Everything’s big. It’s because they’re moons and not space habitats and everyone thinks accordingly. At any rate, the biomass was seeded on each moon as soon as we unloaded it, and the reaches will all be ready only a month after ours here. The dolphins will have so much space they won’t know what to do with it.’

  The dolphins would know exactly what to do with it but Wirrin understood what Thom meant.

  ‘Did you fly the Comet much?’

  ‘More than the main pilot, and all the time when we were travelling between moons. I learned how to deploy the big dust scoops on the way back and they were slightly better than expected, so that’s good news for Warrakan.’

  ‘Dust? What do they want that for?’

  ‘Calen! How can you not know that? It’s the fuel for the mass/energy converters and it means that when Warrakan starts on its big journey it won’t have to eat into its own mass.’

  ‘Hmm! That’s interesting. Did you talk to any dolphinarium people while you were there?’

  Thom shook his head in disgust and Wirrin laughed at Calen’s disregard for things mechanical.

  ‘I don’t know if they’ve got any. There aren’t any dolphins yet and the rangers and companions are probably all still here. Guess what was most amazing on Titania?’

  ‘Tell us.’

  ‘There’s a giant chasm that’s fifty times as long as Attunga and we flew right over the top of it.’

  ‘How deep is it?’

  ‘A few kilometres. The whole moon expanded and left a crack nearly all the way from the equator to the pole. There are chasms everywhere and lots of big craters too.’r />
  ‘Not from volcanoes. It’s all ice isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, they’re impact craters from meteors and rocks.’

  ‘Did you go to Uranus?’

  ‘Yes, but not to land because there’s no real surface and no-one lives there except for scientists in a tiny research habitat. Guess how fast the wind blows.’

  ‘How can we guess, except it must be really fast or really slow from the way you’re asking.’

  ‘Yeah, try 900 kilometres per hour. Anyhow, Wirrin, you’ll get to see all this yourselves when we take the dolphins there.’

  ‘We will? How do you know that?’

  ‘Because Sonic is travelling with them and that means we will be too, and since he’s looking at each of the reaches we’ll be there for at least two weeks. There’ll be lots of time to explore all around. And we’ll be staying four or five days when we visit the Freedom habitat too, so that’s more exploring time.’

  ‘The last one to find out about everything? That’s a joke. I haven’t heard anything about Sonic going to Titania or Freedom.’

  ‘It’s on the Comet’s security logs, Calen. I saw it when I was checking any projected flight plans for the next twelve months.’

  Wirrin quickly used retinal mode to check, and sure enough there it was, nineteen days at the Uranus habitats and six days at Freedom.

  ‘Thom, it’s time to move. We’ll talk while we’re on TransCom,’ said Wirrin.

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘Home! Sonic will be there by now and he’s missed you. He was going to be here in his transport module but Puck and Flute wanted him with them while they visited little Comet.’

  ***

  With Thom at the controls and Sonic in his command pool, the Comet left its special docking bay and glided towards the construction area where the complete new level was being added to Attunga. The view was all encompassing of course, since they were on the Comet with its state-of-the-art observation and display equipment, and they marvelled at the enhanced images of the gathered asteroids as they manoeuvred along what Thom said was a designated transit lane. Most of the asteroids needed some sort of viewing enhancement as they emitted no light.

  ‘Look at that big one! It’s nearly 4 kilometres in diameter and made of nickel-iron.’

  Wirrin stared at the misshapen blob Thom was pointing out and wondered what was familiar. Oh yes, its surface was similar to Warrakan’s.

  ‘How many are out there?’

  Wirrin was about to use his retinal mode but Thom already had the answer.

  ‘At the moment, 643. Seven with a diameter greater than 1 kilometre, and the rest ranging down in size from there. But this is only the start and most of these will be used for the dolphin level.’

  ‘Where is the dolphin level?’

  ‘I’ll show you.’

  Thom adjusted the main display screen and a jumble of girders and reinforcing walls appeared, stretching the complete length and breadth of this surface of Attunga.

  ‘Is there any water?’

  ‘Not yet, Sonic. They’ll bring that later when the major framework is complete and the grav-field generators and reach walls have been built.’

  ‘How long before we will swim there?’

  ‘Um … I don’t know. Wirrin, how long?’

  ‘Another fourteen months. That’s incredibly fast, Sonic. They have to build all the infrastructure to make things work before they do anything else and it’s a huge volume of living space. It’s the biggest building project that Attunga has ever tackled. The reinforcing shell is larger but it’s nowhere near as complicated as living space.’

  It was indeed huge – 280 cubic kilometres in fact – and much more complicated in structure and function because it had to accommodate both humans and dolphins. It was also the first time a complete level was being constructed at once. Previously it had been an accretion process of one sector at a time, built according to the demands of population growth.

  ‘Wirrin, can you access time logs of all this growth? It’d be interesting to see it speeded-up.’

  It certainly was. The red glow of picobot activity growing the new walls and girders turned the whole scene of scintillating activity into a frantic process emphasising how much had happened.

  ‘It’s just a cluttered mess everywhere you look. How much building before they reach the new outer barrier?’

  ‘Not much, Thom – another 200 metres and they’ll be able to start enclosing everything.’

  With several stops to check out points of interest, the Comet finished its sweep of the length of Attunga and Thom turned to Calen and Sonic.

  ‘Where to next? The asteroids are closest but it’s only a short trip to anything else.’

  ‘A little asteroid please. They are very interesting.’

  Knowing he was being teased about his liking for the biggest and best, Thom shook his head and set the Comet moving in a new direction.

  Everyone watched the motley collection of asteroids gliding past … till a small piece of rock centred in the display then grew and grew till it was a great wall stretching in all directions.

  ‘This one’s little. Only 3 kilometres across.’

  ‘What is that big patch of red we can see?’

  Thom moved the Comet so the patch was dead ahead and only 100 metres away and everyone stared at the glowing red area.

  ‘I can’t move any closer. The energy warnings are at danger levels unless I take special measures. I can zoom the image though.’

  That didn’t help much because the red glow just became blurred and indistinct. Wirrin worked at his InfoStation to find out exactly what was going on.

  ‘Move across to the edge of the patch, Thom. We should be able to get a better idea there.’

  Moments later it was very clear. The red patch, really trillions upon trillions of picobots, was up to 40 or 50 metres deep in the asteroid surface.

  ‘They’re dissolving the nickel-iron and converting it into special building materials for Attunga, then transporting it in that picobot tube to the building areas.’

  A thinner version of the construction tubes they’d seen when the Comet was being built snaked off towards Attunga, and when Wirrin adjusted the display they could see more tubes leaving from different locations on the red patch. No wonder the Comet was confined to specific areas.

  ‘According to my information the picobots are eating into the asteroid at a rate of just over 3 metres every five minutes, so if we watch carefully we should see them going deeper.’

  Eventually Thom moved the Comet further along the asteroid to where another cluster of picobots had burrowed so deep they could just make out the glowing red mass 400 metres into the main body.

  ‘Those big holes look mysterious. Why don’t they creep evenly over the surface instead of making tunnels like that?’

  Wirrin started to look it up but got completely distracted when Sonic wanted to take over the Comet from Thom.

  ‘Not here, Sonic. I don’t think you’ve learnt about the navigation beacons have you?’

  ‘That’s easy. Turaku will look after that for me.’

  ‘Okay, but that means you won’t really be in charge. Why don’t you wait till we’ve seen the new engines and the asteroids are out of the way?’

  ‘Take us to the engines, fearless pilot.’

  The boys grinned as Thom mumbled something about a bossy little fish, while Sonic moved as close as possible, wondering whether he could splash Thom without hitting any electronic equipment.

  The image on the display screen lurched as Thom changed direction. There was an excited burst of native dolphin speech and Wirrin turned his head to watch the whole pool of water rotate in its containing field. Sonic was now as far away from everyone as possible. What? How did that happen? Thom’s smug look was the only clue.

  Knowing his fish comment would get a response he’d partially negated the grav-field of the pool area so that ordinary inertia came into play when the Comet changed di
rection. It showed he was building very impressive skills with fine control of the internal workings of the ship. Oh well, Sonic would get him somehow, that was certain.

  Viewing the installation of the big new engines involved manoeuvring behind the extensive screen that had been built to hide the development from prying eyes, and which had so surprised Thom on his return from Titania. It looked massive, but being temporary, it was only several centimetres thick and would be removed if Attunga started to move.

  ‘Wow! Look at all those mooring points. Are they all for engines?’

  ‘There are twenty of them, Calen. They need that many to move something the size of Attunga.’

  ‘How many have they got for Warrakan then? It’s much bigger.’

  Wirrin had to look that up. ‘They’ve completed twenty-seven so far and they’ll finish up with forty-four. They’re bigger though. These Attunga engines have been scaled down a bit.’

  The Comet moved closer to one of the two construction bays where the engines were built and they watched engine number two moving slowly under the control of space tugs.

  The schedule showed the next placement of an engine wasn’t due for almost two weeks so they’d picked the right day for a visit.

  ‘It’s my time to drive now.’

  ‘Not yet. We’re behind the protective screen. After we’ve seen the new Comet we’ll ask Turaku if there are too many K74 drones to go further out.’

  ‘Take us to the new Comet, official pilot.’

  Official? So Sonic knew Thom was playing games with him. There would be a lot of action tonight in the pool at home.

  The new Comet wasn’t very far away since all the major construction facilities were congregated on this face of Attunga, and before long the pico-tubes connecting the picofactories to the partially modified asteroid were in full view.

  ‘There doesn’t seem to be much happening.’

  ‘There’s no deadline so they’ll finish in two months instead of three weeks this time.’

  ‘Two months is still amazing for how big it is.’

  ‘Big? Isn’t it the same size as the Comet?’

  ‘Bigger, about 50 metres of extra length and there’s more space inside. Do you want to hear about it?’