Far Mantis

by Jim Henderson

  “First, I would like you all to brief the team leads today at 1400. At that time, they’ll set up meetings over the next few days with your crew. We’ve got some temporary workspace here that you can set up in, if you wish.”

  Ximon nodded. “That sounds good, but I guess we’ll see how much we need it after today.”

  “Very good. Now, some administrivia. I’ve got most of your reports and extensive invoices. My documents show you were activated for your time on Irapce. I’ll need at least letters of evaluation for you and your crew on that.”

  “Roger. In the works.”

  Sherton seemed surprised and/or impressed at the response. “Additionally, we have a few options for paying your crew for their time this week. We can pay you a standard contract rate or we could activate all those with KSF affiliation for the week or so. Thoughts?”

  Ximon rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “Sounds reasonable.”

  Elsbeth did not appear quite so certain. “What would be the exact duration of this activation? I don’t want to be activated for months or anything.”

  “That certainly wouldn’t be the intent.” Sherton replied. “Why don’t we say ten duty days? We can add more only if you choose.”

  Elsbeth nodded and Ximon said, “Sure, that’ll work. I assume that means I get another couple of weeks to do those evaluations, eh?”

  “Sure, Ximon. You may have some to add. I’ve got to address a couple other things. LCDR Jurwa will show you to your office space and then work with you to prepare for the 1400.”

  As he prepared to leave, Sherton turned to Jurwa. “Will you also take them to lunch in the Operations Dining Room?”

  “Yes, sir. Happily.”

  They prepared a bit over the next few hours and had a nice lunch. At the 1400 meeting they gave involved summaries of key events, focusing on the grays. There were team leads there from Medical, Biological, Aerospace Engineering, Systems, Mapping, and Linguistics, as well as coordinators from the Plans and Operations Directorates.

  The team leads had seen summaries of their reports but were amazed at the details and excited to meet those involved. They asked quite a few questions, but most were tabled for their individual team meetings.

  The team leads were all anxious to get started but had to do some deconfliction with Mantis’ crew as they couldn’t be in multiple places at once. Raiza was wanted by the Medical and Biological Teams. Engineering and Systems both needed Elsbeth and Peter. Mapping wanted Shao and Mantis. Linguistics wanted Mantis and Euclidia. Both Plans and Operations wanted discussions with Ximon. They were all quickly assigned to working teams starting the next morning.

  The next several days were a blur. They were all brought in as experts on their respective teams. Ximon was the least busy of the group but would be wandering between the teams to ensure everyone was doing okay.

  Raiza wound up briefing her findings on the grays as well as the vampire spider and tree aliens. She was applauded for what she was able to do with limited equipment. She then participated in the dissection of the vampire spider creature and star skimmer section, as well as a study of the vampire tree samples. She again explained their hypothesis and the observations that supported it. Finally, she worked with a medical team that attempted to revive the grays. The one that had previously been attached to the vampire tree suffered distress and they stopped the revitalization process, putting him back to sleep until they could learn more about his condition.

  The other one awoke slowly, apparently very groggy. He was also quite scared and eyed them all suspiciously. He attempted to communicate in a language filled with clicking, but the team had no translations of spoken language. After a couple days they were able to establish some crude communication with him and find some yeast that it could eat. They were also able to use some translated texts to communicate further with him. He conveyed that he understood their curiosity but wanted to return immediately. He seemed to believe another ship would be coming to their station within two to three months. However, that assumed that they understood his explanation of time correctly and that he understood what the date was currently. Raiza enjoyed every moment working with him.

  Elsbeth and Peter explained their analysis of the escape pod and its unique propulsion system They also explained their analysis of the gray storage devices and the data they were able to recover from those. They were also part of several further studies of the escape pod technology and some associated tests.

  Mantis and Euclidia carefully explained what they had been able to derive of the language and how. They explained the symbolic alphabet, the structure, the vocabulary gathered so far. They also explained their translation process and where they were at in working through the other data that Elsbeth and Peter had recovered. They then demonstrated this over several days as the team worked through some significant additional pieces of the language.

  Shao, backed up some by Mantis, explained all the scans of the 729-ADX system and of the station and the associated navigation. She also worked to build detailed maps of the asteroid and the interior portions they had explored. She was quite popular with her team and started seeing one of the lead researchers.

  Ximon again explained all their observations to Plans and Operations. He participated in a tabletop exercise to develop a plan for a further exploration of the station. However, he kept reminding them that there are still living (albeit frozen) grays there and that, perhaps, they should be consulted. He also noted repeatedly that, when they send a team, they should probably take the two grays back with them. He wasn’t too sure that the teams accepted that notion.

  Other than that, he briefed other people on their other missions. A representative of KSF Intelligence met with him to discuss their recovery of the sensors in Darcy. Several representatives from the Kremniy Foreign Office held very detailed discussions on Onzarhat and the artifacts they had brought back. He met with another KSF Intelligence representative, and several guys from Operations, to explain the exercise on Irapce and his observations of Irapce capabilities.

  Finally, he met with several specialists from the Engineering Branch to discuss the resupply operation at Zased. Ximon explained the status of the station and the challenges they were facing. He lobbied hard for them to be issued a shuttle and/or some kind of weapons to defend themselves. The team lead was noncommittal on both points, but Ximon thought he would do something.

  Whenever he wasn’t tied up, he visited the other teams to ensure his people were doing well. In general, he was pleased to see they were treated with respect. However, he did have to pull one guy for the Medical team aside. He reminded the guy that Raiza was his wife and a member of his crew and if the guy didn’t back off, Ximon would ensure he the guy was reassigned off the project. There were no issues after that.

  After about a week, most of the teams were well on their way with their own methods and experts so the crew was deemed less essential. Their involvement with the teams ended or they were only brought in periodically to consult. So, they were all deactivated from the KSF, with no pomp, though their evaluations were still being reviewed. This allowed the crew to get on with other things.

  Ximon and Mantis had worked through the ‘wishlists’ and Ximon had okayed the crew to explore whether some of the items were available with a certain budget. All of them researched that amidst some relaxing.

  Raiza found that the local TSR branch had most of the classes that she and Peter needed. However, before Ximon could set Raiza up with a ‘spa day’ to get the training installed and otherwise get ‘spruced up’ she raised an issue.

  “Ximon, as you know, I appreciate the approval of the training. However, I face a serious limitation due to my construction. I was not designed for duties as complex and varied as I have, happily, undertaken. In particular, my brain was not designed for the volume of both training and experience that I’ve had and that which I hope to install. You might say, somewhat crudely, that my brain is almost full.”

  “I’m sorry
to hear that, my dear. What can we do about that?”

  “Mantis and I have explored some options. First, we could more aggressively defragment the information currently in my memory. My system automatically does this to some degree whenever I rest. However, this process would be somewhat more aggressive, pruning some seemingly irrelevant memories. I knew you would be sensitive to this.”

  Ximon nodded slowly and pensively.

  She rushed on, not wanting him to get too focused on that. “Second, in a variation of this approach, Mantis could take and verify a complete image of my current brain pattern and memory contents. We could then essentially ‘wipe’ my brain and reload from Mantis’ image. This would have the effect of everything being much more efficiently organized. Again, I knew you’d be sensitive to this.”

  At this, Ximon nodded and frowned with concern.

  “Third, we could have a memory and processing extension installed. These vary in size and power but would effectively extend my brain somewhat. It’s apparently a relatively simple and low risk procedure. The module would be placed in unused space under my right shoulder and would not be visible.”

  Ximon raised an eyebrow and looked a bit skeptical. “What does ‘low risk’ mean?”

  “Mantis can provide all of the statistics, but there’s a near zero chance of harming my existing brain or function. The greatest probability, which is still low, is that the extension simply doesn’t perform its intended function well. But the fourth and final option with current technology is that I seek no new training, or even have some of what I have removed. This would free up space such that it would be quite some time before any issues arise.

  “Ximon, I should have mentioned this before, but I wanted to explore the options with Mantis, and get some information from TSR before I mentioned it. Again, I am sorry for my limitations. What do you think?”

  Ximon reached out and held her. “Ah, my dear. There is no limitation. You are already ten times better than most women, at least in my eyes. But what option would you like to pursue?”

  She just held him for a moment and then stepped back to continue, “If you are willing, I would like to have the extension installed. That could give considerable expansion. I would also like to slightly increase the level of defragmentation done when I rest. I can certainly forgo the training upgrades at this time to partially offset the cost of the extension.”

  “Nonsense, my love. Let’s see about getting all that scheduled.”

  She hugged him. “Thank you, Ximon. I’ll arrange it. Please let TSR, or me, know if you want to add any other upgrades or modifications.”

  So, she set up a two-day visit to TSR for the extension installation and the installation of the training modules. Ximon added some more typical ‘reluster’ options where they would treat her ‘skin’ to restore and maintain its flexibility and suppleness, moisturize and recolor her hair, and do a full maintenance check and tune up.

  Raiza’s spa day went well and the expansion worked perfectly. As always, she came back more beautiful than ever and appreciative of the attention.

  Peter got his training upgrades as well and, as usual, Elsbeth had a few tweaks made to him. This time the main visible change was a new hair color, but who knew what changes she had made that they couldn’t see.

  Shao found a couple of the sensor upgrade items that she had proposed within the budget Ximon set. So, she set up to acquire them, and then for a couple days for her, Elsbeth, and Peter to install and configure them with Mantis.

  The sensor upgrades proved to be somewhat challenging, mainly due to compatibility mode issues. However, they were able to work through these and Mantis tweaked her sensor subsystem instances in response. The net effect was better overall long-range detection and improved resolution is some planetary sensor bands. Ximon was quite pleased with the result.

  Ximon got Mantis some of the memory and processing upgrades she had suggested. Ximon, Elsbeth, and Mantis got those installed and Mantis assured them that everything was working flawlessly.

  Elsbeth acquired some of the tools and diagnostic equipment she wanted, and Peter got all the loading equipment and storage racks for the cargo bay. The latter increased the usable space in the cargo bay a bit and allowed for greater separation of different cargoes.

  They did all this in between several weeks of vacationing. Ximon and Raiza took a couple short trips. Elsbeth and Peter spent a lot of time drinking and dancing and went on one short get away. Shao spent a lot of time with the researcher she was dating from the KSF.

  Ximon also worked with a broker to sell more of their remaining trade goods, adding more money to their ‘kitty.’

  He also took some of the gold and jewels he had taken and secretly got a matching ring and necklace made for Raiza. He thought it looked lovely and hoped that she would like it.

  A few days into resting, Elsbeth called Ximon. “Hey, Ximon, I found a very interesting deal on a potential upgrade/fix for the jump drive.”

  Ximon had to catch up. “What are you talking about? New coils?”

  “No, think bigger!”

  “When you say ‘bigger,’ I think ‘even more expensive’ and I get stuck there. What have you got?”

  “Okay, so you mentioned, and we all felt, how much of a pain it was going through the Vast with our relatively short jump range, right?”

  He said skeptically and hesitantly, “Yes…”

  “Well, I’ve got a line on a nicely rebuilt jump drive core that would increase our jump range by forty to fifty percent! What do you say to that?”

  “I’d say that sounds nice but will probably require me to sell an arm and leg.”

  “No, it’s a really good deal and I’ve checked it out. It looks legit and in great shape.”

  “But a longer-range drive is going to require a lot more fuel. We don’t have any room for that.”

  “You’re right,” Elsbeth said. “Fuel space requirements are one of the biggest reasons every ship doesn’t have longer range drives. However, keep two, no three, things in mind.”

  Here, she held up her fingers to the screen. “First, we would only need the longer range once in a while. We’d often stay at shorter ranges and, hence, less fuel. Second, this drive is somewhat more efficient than our current one, so we’ll use less fuel with short jumps and the increase in fuel use isn’t linear. Third, we’ve been using those fuel bladders for months. We could keep them available and use them when we think we’re going to need the longer range. Think of all those times we did two jumps. We had the fuel, but not the range.”

  “That all sounds great, but how much are we talking?”

  “It’s a great price at about seven hundred thousand and me working with them for a few days. That’s a lot of cash, but I know we’ve got it and there are few things that would make us more flexible.”

  “What would it take to install it?” Ximon asked.

  “Well, you know how charming I can be, right? Well, I sweet talked a few guys at the KSF yard. They owe us some repairs anyway, so they agreed to let me use their heavy lift for a couple days. I’d hire a couple extra techs for a few days, so it should be no problem to pull ours out, get this in, and get it all hooked up. Since it’s the jump drive, we can just fly Mantis back over here to finish the work if it’s not done.”

  “How sure are you that this will work?”

  “One thousand percent. You’ve got the best, and hottest, engineer in the galaxy. You know that. Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan. I’ll have to move one of the auxiliary pumps to the other side of the wall, but that’s no problem. We’ve got space in the Maneuver Drive area.”

  She then added more seriously, “In all seriousness, Ximon, it’s a good deal and it would save a lot of time and pain on trips like those over the last few months. If we’re going to take work in that kind of area, we need this.”

  Ximon held up a finger and his brow furrowed as he pondered this. “Just a minute.”

  He then checked the balance on
the Mantis operating fund. It still had a few million credits (MCr) in it as he knew it would. “Okay, Elsbeth, do it. But call it off if the deal starts looking bad.”

  “Sure, sure. No worries, Ximon. I’ll let you know when we need to move Mantis over there. As I said, the KSF guys owe us some fuel and want to do a couple checks anyway.”

  “Is that normal?”

  “Not exactly, but you put in more invoices and light years than most of the fleet, certainly for a ship like Mantis. So, we’re ‘special.’ Plus, you know those guys have the hots for me.”

  “Naturally. I guess I forgot about that. Keep me in the loop.”

  “Sure, I’ll get this lined up, get drunk, get naked, and get this done. I hope I get the order of those things right. Could be awkward if I show up naked at KSF to do a jump core swap. There would be cheers, of course, but it’d still be awkward.”

  “Yeah, watch that sequence.”

  That gave the rest of them more time to relax.

  When Elsbeth contacted him again in a few days to ask him to move Mantis the next day, Ximon was on the beach. Luckily, he and Raiza had been there for a couple days and were due to head back anyway.

  Ximon showed up the next morning and Raiza rode with him as he took Mantis to KSF the next day. The technicians there did seem awfully friendly with Elsbeth.

  The replacement core arrived while Ximon was still there. It certainly looked nice and new, as well as big, heavy, and expensive.

  Once things were underway there, with Elsbeth and Peter coordinating the work, Ximon took off. As he left, he signaled for Elsbeth to call him with updates.

  She just smiled and then both nodded and shook her head.

  During the next few days, the work on the drive seemed to go okay. They got it physically installed, but not connected properly yet. They had to clear out of the KSF space, so Ximon flew Mantis back to their landing bay. There Elsbeth and Peter resumed their labors, with extensive amounts of cursing and complaining. It appeared that they had numerous interface issues, with things that should link together simply not doing so.