Alicia Jones 4: Enigma

by D. L. Harrison

  I would have blushed, but I suppressed it, and I also felt a sharp stab of guilt from checking him out like that. Truth was though, he was also my first kiss when I was just thirteen, and I’ve always had fond memories of him. He’d been one of the few people my intelligence hadn’t bothered at all.

  “Hey Billy, good to see you. They let you have a gun and be deputy? Speaking of which,” I waved at it and trailed off.

  It was his turn to blush, but being that he’s human, he was screwed and I saw it. He lowered the gun and holstered it.

  “Bill now. Good to see you too,” he drawled, “Sorry about that. Came out to the house because of them protestors. They haven’t been on the property at all, but they blocked the driveway and gave your dad a hard time getting back on the property before finally moving. Heard the back door and assumed…”

  My mom came in the kitchen interrupting his speech, and she gave me a hug. I swear she had creepy mom radar, because she took one look between us and I could see her mind turn and click as she turned to Billy and asked, “Can you stay for dinner?”

  I almost rolled my eyes at my mom’s obvious attempt at matchmaker, but then my stomach also had butterflies at the idea of getting to know him again. The childhood crush was long gone, but enough good feelings remained that I was very curious about what sort of man he’d become. I was sure the fact that he was insanely attractive had nothing to do with it. Or the smile in his eyes when he didn’t take his eyes off of me while he answered.

  “I’d love to stay for dinner, unfortunately I’m on shift until midnight, so… a raincheck?”

  He finally looked away and at my mother, when she answered.

  “That’s fine Billy, we’ll be sure to let you know, and thanks for coming out.”

  He gave me one more look and then said his goodbye before he headed out the door.

  I actually had a great time with my family that evening. I also managed to drag my younger sister to the bar, and we actually bonded a bit over drinks and boy talk. Something we’d never really quite managed before when we were younger. As for the protestors, we’d taken my shuttle so they never saw either of us leave, or come back…

  Chapter 19

  I wanted to know the results as soon as I woke up, but I waited until I’d gotten a shower, and half of my first cup of coffee down.

  “Status of tests Al?”

  Al replied, “The tests that were duplicated worked correctly with the double shielding. You were also correct about the shields effects on plasma, even at a low power level the attack simply doesn’t even reach the ship. I ramped up the power, and it took fully powered shots without apparent effort.

  “The shield imbalance testing was also successful. I was able to create a short wave, several million miles, that was just a mile wide and high. On the other end of the scale, it was thousands of miles wide and high, and reached out twenty light seconds.”

  Holy hell, what was I building?

  Al continued when I didn’t comment, “The particle testing was a bust, however I made an error yesterday when I told you there was no radiation like that present. During my testing of the shield weapon? Subspace wave?”

  “I’ll have to think about what to name it, shield weapon works as a temporary designation.”

  He continued, “During my testing of the shield weapon I did notice the radiation faintly. The radiation is actually the result of subspace impacting on our shields. I was able to test minor variations to the composition of the field, and hit upon a configuration which yields more of it. I also noticed a correlation between the radiation and what was around us in normal space.”

  I frowned, “Explain.”

  Al was silent for a moment, “The radiation was strongest from direction of the milky way, there was also a small, but measurable difference, from the direction of the lab ship, and even the probes. I tested by circling the test ship, with both the lab ship and all the probes to verify this supposition.”

  I drank more of my coffee, “So that radiation, or whatever hits the shield to cause that radiation, is similar to reflected light off of objects in normal space, it lets us what, see stuff that correlates to stuff in normal space?”

  Al replied, “A crude metaphor, but yes. Though I believe it’s more specific than that. There is an almost endless amount of variety and subtlety to the changes in the radiative signatures. I believe it will take time, and a lot of testing and verifying, but I believe from where the test ship is now, we can scan the entire milky way, or more specifically, the milky way is radiating information about itself, all we need to do is learn to read it.

  “It also appears that this radiation, unlike light, is up to date information. This level of subspace is… for a lack of a better word, smaller and more compact than normal space. It’s why we can travel so far and fast, because in that layer of subspace, everything is much closer together.”

  I thought it would take forever to find a way to scan, but it turns out we need to learn to read instead.

  “Did you learn anything else?”

  Al replied, “No, but I have some ideas on how to learn to read the data.”

  “For example?”

  Al explained, “I suggest we move above our solar system, and then correlate the scan data from the stealth net to the radiation signatures of the planets, sun, ships, and other objects present in the system, it will speed the learning up. After we do that in several solar systems with several star types, I can work up an algorithm that will display the actual systems and ship types while in that space.”

  “I’m starting to feel superfluous here Al.”

  Al replied in an unsure voice, “Does that mean it’s a good plan?”

  I laughed, “Yes Al. You can do that, but I want a ride first. Also, talk to no one about this but me or Kristi, and in no place we can be overheard. I’m not sure about revealing this yet.” Or maybe ever, not if they decide on eradication. Once a society dehumanizes an entire race like that, it’s too easy to do it again. Sure, human as a description doesn’t fit the Bugs, but sentient lifeform does.

  The new tech seemed to be coming almost too easily now, once I’d made the initial breakthroughs by running thousands of tests, and all of it so far was based on just the shield configurations? Well, subspace was an extremely hostile environment, and that meant lots of radiation and particles that didn’t like normal matter, given off by just about everything. So it made sense. I’d just expected it to take years to figure out, it had barely been a month since I’d started.

  Not that there wasn’t much more to learn, but it almost seemed manageable now that we’d be able to see, move around, and even shoot.

  Save for the Drenil, I once again had one of the most powerful ships in the galaxy, and this time it wasn’t even in the same neighborhood. And it was nothing but a cobbled together shuttle. I also wondered if the Drenil would take exception if we weren’t good stewards of the technology and the power involved. So far they’d just ignored us, but right now all our fleets weren’t as bothersome as a gnat would be to a human.

  I was about to change that, at least for me.

  Kristi woke, and we had a quick breakfast and took the sports shuttle up to the ship, which opened a wormhole for us to go through. For the first time ever we went out to the void, and we landed on the lab ship, and then switched to the new shuttle.

  Honestly I don’t know what I’d expected, but when we left the ship and were far enough away to slip into the subspace layer, I didn’t feel or sense anything. We were protected, cocooned in a pocket of normal space that was held within the shield.

  It was just five minutes later, which I thought was a long time to go anywhere, when we dropped back into normal space and there was a spiral galaxy large on the screen in front of us at an angle.

  “Al, where are we?”

  Al replied, “Andromeda. It took us a little over five minutes to travel the two point five million light years.”

  Holy crap, I thought.

&nb
sp; Kristi echoed my thought and said, “Holy crap!”

  I giggled, “Take us back Al? We’ll let you start calibrating the sensors. Also, upgrade our command and lab ship with the shielding, but put in fail safes that it can’t be activated at the same time as the FTL or wormhole drives, or anywhere near a planetary body for that matter. No, make that anywhere near a solar system. Pass any inquiries about the activity to me.”

  I turned to Kristi, “Do you mind if we keep this a secret for a while? That means we can’t come out of subspace anywhere there is a stealth sensor. Which ironically is about to become obsolete, so much for needing it for a thousand years. But yeah, we’ll stick to FTL and wormholes when in view.”

  Kristi pondered that, “It is big isn’t it? You’re worried about the Drenil, and if Earth is trustworthy enough? I can’t blame you, they’re about to use our tech to commit genocide.”

  “Maybe they will? I still hope not. But the argument has gone on a long time, much longer than I’d have expected, and Earth seems closer to the yes column along with the Seltan. They’re convinced the Bugs are merely irredeemable monsters. It’s really Leira and Omara that are leading the camp who just wants to fence them in.”

  Kristi winked, “Plus, you know, they stole our toys.”

  I sniggered, it wasn’t a real valid reason in my thinking, but it still put a smile on my face.

  Kristi asked, “Do you think the others will figure it out? They had the same clues you did.”

  I wavered my hand back and forth, “Maybe. The shielding we create is far more energy efficient than the wormhole, but it still requires just over ten percent of available power from the DE reactor. At the very least, they’ll need to make both of those breakthroughs first. Without those stepping stones and the hints from the radiation I couldn’t have figure it out nearly this fast.”

  Chapter 20

  Dr. Cindy Delouse called and agreed to meet me over coffee and a snack. I wasn’t that familiar with Chicago at all, so I had Al drive and just enjoyed the scenery on the way. It was a small coffee house and I recognized Dr. Delouse from the photo attached to her grant request when I entered the building. She was in her mid-thirties, had dark curly brown hair, brown eyes, and had a faint smile on her face. She looked, and felt, pleasant.

  A short wait had a coffee in my hand and I walked over and sat down.

  “Dr. Delouse, it’s nice to meet you.”

  She smiled wider, “It’s nice to meet you too, worth the time just to say I chatted with Doctor Alicia Jones.”

  I smiled back, probably a little uncomfortably from the hero worship thing, “I was hoping to hear what you’re doing with neuro science?”

  She took a sip of her coffee before answering.

  “We are working to understand and exploit how memory functions in regard to retaining and learning. May I share a video?”

  I nodded, “Go ahead, Al, accept a video stream from Dr. Delouse.”

  A video came up, it showed three rats all at the beginning of duplicate mazes. It ran at higher than normal speed to save some time, as the first rat ran through the maze almost perfectly. The second rat made a mistake or two, and the third rat was helplessly lost and still hadn’t made it through when the video ended.

  She explained, “Okay, the first rat was very familiar with the maze, and how to get its food reward. The second and third rat had never been inside that maze before. Yet, you noticed the second rat hardly made any mistakes.”

  She sent a second video, and I watched again, but this time one and two were flawless, and three still didn’t have a clue.

  She smiled, “This was the second time through. As you can see, rat two made no mistakes, same as the first who’d been through the maze hundreds of times.”

  I nodded, “So what exactly does this mean? How did rat two manage that?”

  She took a sip of coffee, and a deep breath.

  “We installed a small device in rat two’s brain. Basically, what I’m trying to create here is a learning system. Rat two may have never been in the maze, but the knowledge of the maze was transferred straight into his mind. Yet, he made a mistake or two the first time, there’s a difference between knowledge and understanding, or experience.

  “Still, he learned in just one run through the maze, not to make any mistakes the second time. Which is quite a lowering of the learning curve involved.”

  That was… impressive, if a little concerning. I was trying to keep an open mind though.

  “So, what’s the final result you’re pushing for?”

  She replied, “A learning device. Say you want to visit France, well this could teach you French overnight, or it will be able to when I’m finished. Or a doctor could use it to keep up on all the latest technology and drugs while they’re sleeping. Schooling itself would change and greatly accelerate as a result of this, classes could simply be a review of the information downloaded the night before to increase retention. Even everyday life could be enhanced, by waking up in the mornings knowing all the recent news, or simply increased recall of actual experiences and memories that have faded.”

  “That’s incredible, could it be abused? Used to indoctrinate?”

  She looked amused, “You mean brainwash people? No. It would place memories but the mind would still have to filter the reality of them. Just like the guy on the corner that proclaims the end of the world is nigh, that won’t make you believe it, even if you have a memory of it. It also couldn’t be used for physical tasks, or rather, the knowledge could be given but it wouldn’t affect muscle memory experience. It can’t delete memories either, if you’re curious.”

  “Sorry if I insulted you, but I had to ask,” mostly because I’ve watched too many bad sci-fi movies.

  She waved it away.

  I offered, “So, I’d like to offer you a deal that isn’t a typical grant. If you could accept the package from my A.I. and go over it. Maybe get back to me in a day or two?”

  It was a standard offer, or standard for my company I should say, much like I’d made in the past. To be honest I wasn’t thrilled at the idea of having something in my brain feeding me information. But then I didn’t really need it, I’d already gotten to college in my early teens. I imagined it would have been a different experience if everyone around me learned that fast though.

  We talked a few more minutes, and then I headed back to Colorado Springs, and the office. Al was busy calibrating the sensors and upgrading our ships. I’d also heard back from Jason Matthews on his grant but he wouldn’t be in until later this afternoon. I really didn’t have much to do relating to science, so I wound up getting caught up on all the company stuff, which though a little boring, was still important.

  Al asked, “Got a moment?”

  “Sure, what’s happening?”

  Al replied in a voice reminiscent of a news caster, “They decided to uphold the treaty in the case of Naira. They won’t be contacted for any reason until they achieve FTL travel. The Reilan still haven’t done anything about the probe flying around their system, and there is some debate as to try to contact them anyway with a group similar to the one sent to the Drenil. Some are urging to leave well enough alone however, and argue curiosity isn’t a good enough reason to stir the pot.

  “The big question of the bugs is still on the table. The latest vote attempt still doesn’t show a clear majority either way. Some worry if we don’t do it, the Seltan may go and do it on their own, and then have a million ships with nothing to do along with a bunch of worlds that annoyed them. Not in those words of course, I am paraphrasing.”

  I grinned, “I imagine so. Anything else?”

  Al pointed out, “That implant that Dr. Delouse spoke of would make these briefings more efficient.”

  I almost choked on a laugh, “I see, that all?”

  Al paused a moment, “I believe I know how the Drenil communicate.”

  This time I did choke, on my coffee…

  Chapter 21

  “Explain,” I s
aid rather weakly.

  Al replied, “Everything that exists here in the galaxy has a different radiation signature in subspace. So far I’ve learned enough to type stars and identify other solar bodies in addition to several different ships. There are even minor variations for type that enable me to quickly locate a specific ship, like our command ship for instance. By the way, based on the data I’ve gathered there are twenty-seven Bug worlds in the arm next to us, and an additional sixty-one in their origin arm. Their combined ship totals are just over two hundred and sixty-four million ships.

  “Back to the point, once a ship moves into subspace, it’s radiation signature changes significantly, it is no longer an echo or extension from normal space, but actually there. The Drenil ships are easily identifiable, and they only have four hundred and thirty-one ships currently spread out through their arm of the galaxy. Their signature is not constant, but is instead changing. I believe that they are modulating their shields slightly to communicate.

  “I have no idea what they’re saying, but it seems very likely they are talking that way. We may never know considering the lack of a common frame of reference. So far I have been unable to decipher or understand anything they are saying.”

  It was probably something about those pesky humans invading their space.

  “See if you can correlate anything to what the ships are doing. I won’t hold my breath though, bring up the data?”

  So much for being bored, I leaned back in my chair and studied the data in my overlay with the same excitement most kids show on Christmas morning. I really was weird sometimes…

  It was quite a few hours later, and I still had no idea what they were saying, but there was a discrepancy that ticked the back of my mind. I decided to talk it through with Al, use him as a soundboard, and see what came of it.