Minerva: An Alicia Jones Novel 06

by D. L. Harrison

  It was actually somewhat of a relief to know that would heal too. It also wasn’t something I shared overly much, people seemed to get skeptical when I shared my views about souls.

  The second major change was the androids. We’d taken more of a middle ground between telling them and letting the scientists and their families find out. When we’d sent out our new workforce, we’d published the information and sent out an update message. Of course, as I’d predicted very few people actually read it.

  Word of mouth from the few that did read it sufficed for most to find out over a day or two. At first, only a handful of people complained, and I think most were uncomfortable with it, ironically because now that they couldn’t tell they weren’t real people they were creeped out by it. But it wasn’t an instinctual creep out, just a social one, which seemed to pass after the first week.

  Humans could get used to anything.

  So the idea was mostly accepted. There were a few holdouts, three families, or just under three percent of the current population. It wasn’t lost on me that none of those were the scientists with spouses that worked. Still, it’d been better than I’d expected, I’d hoped that everyone would be okay with it, but I knew that just wasn’t realistic.

  The third thing was that we’d set up more detailed plans for the wedding. We chose the park in the middle of the ship for the actual ceremony, and got a menu worked out with the chef. We even engaged in a little trade on other worlds for the flowers.

  The last thing that happened was we sent out over a hundred of the new subspace probes for operation Snoopy, and had them hovering over each of the galaxies for constant updating of the general state of each galaxy. The database was absurdly huge, and if we wanted to zoom in on any particular solar system in any of those galaxies it was a matter of seconds before the small probe got there and updated the database with more specific information.

  Honestly, it was probably overkill, but we were fairly sure we’d have sufficient warning if anything would be coming our way. It felt a bit… paranoid, but ultimately wasn’t a bad idea. Too much information never really hurt anyone, whereas too little could be a problem. It was also a good way to kill some extra time, as we started to build translations for thousands of languages…

  Chapter Eleven

  It was late afternoon when Al interrupted my thought process, I had been attempting to figure out the next direction for my research. I still felt like we’d barely scratched the surface on subspace technology.

  “Incoming message, from the Drenil,” and then a moment later, “All Drenil craft have disappeared from subspace scans, all Drenil planets now show zero population.”

  I forgot to breath for a second, gasped a breath, and then asked, “Put it up?”

  I stared at the message for several minutes, a mere twenty-five words, and then I got up and searched for some alcohol. It wasn’t exactly a bad message, good if anything, but also shocking. Worse, it was so cryptic it didn’t really prove anything, only I would understand it, and perhaps Kristi.

  I was on my second glass when I sent out a message for Kristi, Bill, Nadia, and Karen to meet me in Bill’s quarters. This job was making me an alcoholic, I’d need to watch that, but at that moment I didn’t really care. I blew out a breath as they all came in. Kristi would have to tell Joe later, right now he was off world making us all more money, and making contacts.

  Kristi studied me carefully before she asked, “What is it?”

  I frowned in thought, “The Drenil sent a twenty-five-word message, and then disappeared.”

  Bill drawled, “Disappeared?” as he sat down next to me and grabbed a drink for himself.

  I nodded, “Literally, all of their ships, and populations just dropped off of the scans.”

  Karen asked, “What does that mean?”

  I shrugged, “That even with subspace technology we’re still babies compared to them. Or at least, our current understanding of it.”

  Kristi asked the obvious question, “What did they say.”

  “Peaceful intent, content, regret harm, forgive self-actions, saved life from others in your tribe. Speak more when you grow up more. We were lonely.”

  Nadia grunted, “That’s rather nonsensical.”

  I sighed, “Not if they tailored the message specifically for what they read in my mind. The first five words are fairly obvious. They are peaceful, content with us, and regret the harm done to me.”

  When no one said anything I continued, “The next ten words were about the way I’ve been beating myself up over the massacre of the Bugs, they’re telling me to let it go. The next seven I already covered, we’re still babies compared to them. I don’t even get the idea that they meant babies technologically, I don’t think we’re done evolving as humanoid species, and when we do evolve they’ll be waiting for us. Our evolutionary paths as humanoid species is far from finished.”

  Nadia shook her head, but Kristi’s eyes had gone wide.

  Nadia said, “How did you come to that conclusion, what would they know about our evolution?”

  I smiled, “The last three words, we were lonely clued me into the context for that.”

  I shook my head, and took another drink, “It’s simple Nadia, but I have no proof and no one will believe it. The reason they know about our evolution is they designed it. The Drenil are the seeders.”

  Nadia frowned, “How’d you get that from we were lonely?”

  I shrugged, “It was my personal favored theory for the seeders, that we weren’t some kind of lab experiment, or that ridiculous king of the hill theory, but a project to make neighbors. My idea, which admittedly isn’t new, as it was done in science fiction, is that the seeders were the only intelligent race in the universe, and they were lonely in the vastness of it, so decided to make neighbors.”

  I laughed, “It’s crazy right? I have no proof though, so I won’t be spreading that around. The fact that they’re ridiculously ahead of us both technologically, and biologically, should attest to the age of their race, but that’s just circumstantial as well. Of course, I’ll never find out if I’m right, because if I am it will take perhaps another billion years of evolution for us to catch up. Still, I choose to believe it.”

  Kristi was rather silent, and had joined me by getting her own glass of wine and got to the second rather quickly.

  Karen asked, “Why do you think they left?”

  I frowned, “Just a guess. I think they were surprised I’d developed subspace technology at our current level of evolution, so they investigated it. They rightly came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t have even conceived of looking into that direction without observing them doing it. I supposed they left before I could figure out the next step by continuing to watch them? I don’t know, I’m really speculating now, maybe much like we don’t interfere with pre-FTL races, they left for who knows where until we can figure out how to get there.”

  Nadia grabbed a glass and poured herself a generous portion to the rim, “It seems horrible that we can’t tell anyone, but you’re right. You’d be laughed at by the scientific community. There’s no proof, it’s all guesses based on your own mind and the message.”

  I agreed, “No doubt, and perhaps the message was that cryptic on purpose. A small hint to me as an apology. Regardless, the Drenil are gone. Can you even conceive of the patience or scope of their project, they started it billions of years ago, and it will continue for another billion or so before it provides any dividends. Maybe I’ll include it in my memoirs.”

  Kristi sighed, “I wonder what the other worlds will make of their leaving like that. Why were they just here though? It seems a hell of a coincidence that the Seeders chose our little galaxy to watch their neighbors grow up.”

  “They weren’t, just here I mean. Sorry I wasn’t clear. They disappeared from all the other galaxies as well. There are only eleven race types left. As for why they didn’t have ships in the other places, perhaps they didn’t need them there, because as far as I c
an tell the Bugs in the other galaxies aren’t as… destructive. Our galaxy was perhaps an error that way, a divergent evolution that the Drenil didn’t anticipate. So they needed ships here to watch and protect their colonies.”

  They all looked at me and I shrugged helplessly. I couldn’t blame them.

  “I know, I’m talking out of my ass, but it still sounds right to me, and fits in with all the other facts and supposition. The Drenil aren’t perfect, obviously. If you think about all the worlds that are close to Earthlike but need just a little bit of terraforming, they succeeded about ten percent of the time. I have a feeling that number will get lower still as evolution goes forward and some humanoid and other type races either dead end or self-destruct.

  “In a way, none of it really matters to us in this room, only to the Drenil and our far distant descendants. I’ve always thought the seeder theory interesting, but always believed it didn’t matter all that much at the same time. They may have decided to make neighbors, but right now this is our story, and our existence a gift. That’s what matters. Still, it’s hard not to think about it and be staggered by the scope at times, like right now.”

  Bill grunted and stood up, “We have a security breach, seems I finally get to earn my pay.”

  I stood up too, disturbed by the idea. We’d vetted all the scientists, and while soul reading was far from perfect I’d expected it to work. Sergei had fooled me for months, but then I hadn’t questioned him to get past his deception. The questions we’d come up with would have, should have, triggered a response that would have showed us he was up to no good.

  As we walked out the door I asked, “What pay?”

  Bill chuckled, “Evil woman. No money, no guns, just seems wrong. The security A.I.s caught someone hacking the security systems. I’m sure it won’t surprise you to find out it was one of the Earth scientists? He’s in the brig courtesy of high speed artificial gravity transport, and his A.I. has been locked out of all systems.”

  I sighed, “I was surprised when they sent two, but they seemed to settle in just fine.”

  Karen went back to her office, but Nadia and Kristi followed the two of us.

  It was almost funny, because it was close to the whole government going for the scientist. Still, I got the draw of something new and a little excitement, since I was just as guilty of it, Bill hardly needed my help, much less all of us.

  “Which one?”

  “Dr. James Arnell. Microbiologist,” he snorted, “Not sure what he was looking for, but I don’t think he found it. He was only caught when he tried to take over the control systems, which worries me. If the data had been here, we’d have never known we were hacked.”

  I frowned, “He was probably after the subspace tech, but none of that data is on this station, and inaccessible to anyone but Kristi and I. Obviously the control systems are here, but that doesn’t explain the design, math, or theories behind how it works. My guess is he tried to take over the station when he failed to find the data. The question is why.”

  Kristi said, “We’ll find out why. Either he wanted to destroy us, or gain access to the physical hardware to reverse engineer it?”

  Bill cleared his throat, “Let’s not make assumptions, you’re probably both right, but we might miss something without an open mind. You might want to review your security protocols for the network.”

  Kristi sighed, “Fine, I’ll get on that right now. Our external security is very good, but an inside job is always easier since he was already on the network. I’ll have to go over our intrusion protocols, I also want to rip his A.I. apart, I bet it has government level intrusion programming. Fill me in?”

  She split off from Nadia, Bill, and myself and headed to her office.

  I frowned as we walked into the brig, James was very relaxed considering his position, his soul I mean…

  Chapter Twelve

  Bill drawled, “James, we’d like to speak with you.”

  James replied, “What is the meaning of this? Why am I here?”

  Bill said, “It’s quite simple James, you were caught trying to take over the command systems of this station, you were also caught trying to search for data you have no access to. You’re in a really bad position here James. Perhaps if you help me out, I can help you out. Maybe we can just forget about all this and send you home.”

  James frowned and said angrily, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, either I was set up, or you’re harassing me because you’re not welcome on Earth anymore.”

  I shook my head, and walked out, Nadia and Bill followed.

  Bill asked, “What is it?”

  “My soul reading tells me he’s being honest. But it doesn’t match up, he’s way too calm and not upset at all. That indignant protest was an act.”

  Nadia looked up thoughtfully, “Maybe he’s been conditioned.”

  I raised an eyebrow, “Conditioned?”

  Nadia nodded slowly, “Sure, it’s like brainwashing, except a voluntary process he’s probably aware was done to him. Spies use it to evade interrogators and on deep cover assignments to prevent accidental slips. It will even fool a lie detector test because a part of them believes it all even as they lie.”

  I sighed, “Well, that’s interesting in a really creepy and spooky kind of way. So you’re saying there’s no point in even questioning him about orders and intentions?”

  Nadia grunted, “Yes and no. It can be defeated, but you’d have to go to extreme lengths to do it, which I don’t believe your prepared to do. But his A.I. should have a record of his intentions, so you should probably focus on that.”

  I supposed that to defeat that kind of programming it would take torture, and a threat of death that at least James believed, to break through the conditioning. Nadia was right, I wasn’t prepared to do any such thing, or even allow it.

  “Alright, I’ll update Kristi and hopefully she’ll have more luck than us. In the meantime, I’m going to tell the Knomen what to look for, it should be fairly easy to feel who’s conditioned now that I know what it feels like. Either way, I’m reluctant to let him out of that cell and have him sent to Earth until we’re sure we know his whole plan, and what if anything he may have accomplished.”

  Bill cleared his throat, “I’m going to talk to him some more.”

  Nadia volunteered to stay and observe, while I sent an update to Kristi. It was pretty much up to her programming skills now, which meant it was just a matter of time. My friend was very good at what she did. As for me, I went to update our Knomen on what to look for in the future…

  Al asked, “Do you have a moment?”

  I nodded, and he went on, “Dr. Cindy Delouse’s application for human testing with the memory teaching device has been approved. She indicated if the test was successful, there’d most likely be a second larger trial if no side effects show up for a period of five years.”

  “That’s good Al, keep me updated on her progress?”

  Al replied, “Of course Alicia. Nadia would like to see you when you get a chance.”

  “Tell her to come on by.”

  I wasn’t all that busy, I seemed to be taking the spy in our midst with a grain of salt. I wasn’t all that surprised by it. I figured once Kristi found what we needed to know, we’d just send him back to Earth, with a note to Earth about how not happy we were, copied to the all the other worlds. I figured that was punishment enough.

  Unless we found evidence he’d done successful damage somehow, then I’d have to revisit that decision. Regardless, Earth really seemed to be digging themselves in hole. Most worlds were already tired of their whining about how evil and duplicitous I was without proof, and they’d almost crossed the line last month and attacked a recognized sovereign world.

  Now they were what, sending spies and saboteurs? If that idiot had made it into the control systems he could have shut off the dark energy reactor and destroyed the place. Or any number of other things. Luckily, those systems were on a separate network, and Kristi had
them locked down hard so the intrusion was detected. It was the data network that she had to harden.

  Still, nothing bad had actually happened, and we were forewarned about mental conditioning and could identify it next time. It could have been worse.

  Nadia walked in and looked like someone had kicked her dog.

  “I’m sorry Alicia, my plan failed. The government has your families under very close watch. The only way to grab them at this point would be a smash and grab operation, and although my contacts owe me, they don’t owe me enough to take on the United States.”

  I nodded slowly, “Don’t stress it too much, I understand. We need our parents at the wedding though. What’s the fallout if we take a stealth ship in. If we’re quick enough we can land, load them up, and get back into space in under a minute. The trick would be to have Bill’s parents visit mine, as well as Bill’s friends. Stopping at Texas and Florida will take too long.”

  She bit her lip in thought, “Considering they already want you dead, and access to the technology, both at all costs, probably not much as far as Earth is concerned. However, the other races might look dimly on it, technically you’d at least be breaking air traffic control laws as soon as you enter the atmosphere. Plus, there’s the getting them back part. Can you really get by all the ships and emplacements?”

  “I think so? When we left Earth we couldn’t see stealth ships, except our own of course which had transponders in them. Outside of my new technology that wasn’t shared that is. You’d probably have newer information than I would that way. We could probably adapt some radar dampening technology, and the ship is already black, for a night drop?

  “But then we’d have to go slow, to avoid large atmospheric disturbance. Plus, as soon as we landed and our families got on, the government watchers would catch us out, so it wouldn’t be worth the extra trouble. I think I’m just babbling now to avoid a decision.”