by Blair Wylie
“They may be able to detect in a highly limited way our continuing artificial electromagnetic transmissions. Those are blasting out into space radially, and therefore degrading by the inverse square law. If the Masters are able to detect our transmissions from eighty light years away, they must then also untangle a hopefully indecipherable, mixed-up jumble of nonsense.
“They will eventually be able to detect their returning battlecruiser, and they will note that it is unescorted. They will also know that surviving Warriors would have returned to hibernation for their long journey home.
“And we know by established Master protocol that nothing can be communicated further from a returning Flagship until the Commander of the Armada directly reports in person to the highest leader within the Master civilization.
“So, the Masters most likely will not suspect something is amiss until the Warrior Flagship returns to close proximity to their planet, and well after our two robot ships have covertly gone to work with their independent biological attack mission.
“All of that will not occur of course for about sixteen hundred years or so from now…” She trailed off with a gulp, and a look of horror. She had remembered again the many deaths that would ensue, albeit Master deaths.
There was a prolonged moment of silence. Everyone was very uncomfortable as they wrestled with their own thoughts.
Finally, Prime Minister Hernandez took a deep breath, and then said clearly, “You absolutely did the right thing by coming here today. Thank you all for doing that!
“Friends, we will now proceed with the rest of our secret plan. Of course we will! Only future inner-circle, government leaders will ever know about it. And I sincerely hope they will all agree that the four of us, or rather that I, as your Prime Minister, did the right thing.”
“Now, General Knudsen, I can only spare about ten more minutes for our impromptu discussion. So, remind me with appropriate detail what will happen next…”
32
After sixteen-hundred and twelve New Earth years, the Collaborator-inspired, human-designed artificial intelligence system, or ‘controller’, was still actively managing the stripped-down, 101,408 tonne Warrior battlecruiser. The vessel had been travelling through interstellar space at about one-twentieth of light-speed since it had departed the outer reaches of the Sol-system.
The ‘AI’ controller decided it was time to decelerate the former Warrior Flagship at about ten metres per second squared. This manoeuvre was the long-established, Master ‘standard’ for a returning Warrior battlecruiser. But after eleven days, the controller greatly deviated from the Master protocol. Just prior to entering the outer reaches of the stellar system’s Oort Cloud, it decided to expend most of the vessel’s remaining fuel load. It quadrupled the rate of deceleration, and slowed the vessel to about 200,000 kilometres per hour.
Sixteen centuries before, the controller had been ordered, by the long departed Commodore Chamberlain, to essentially ignore the planetesimals within the Oort Cloud. So, the controller did not worry about making any evasive manoeuvres while it penetrated the outermost regions of the distant stellar system.
Chamberlain knew that the Oort Cloud would mostly be just empty space. So, the chance of actually hitting something within it would be infinitesimally small. Chamberlain had also rigidly defined the captured battlecruiser’s first and primary mission. The controller had been ordered to release the six robot-Warrior scout ships within the outermost fringe of the Oort Cloud.
The relatively small but highly manoeuvrable scout ships were each equipped with an independent AI controller. In contrast, Chamberlain had ordered each of those controllers to take great care to avoid collisions, and detection.
After successfully releasing the scout ships, the AI controller on the Warrior battlecruiser focused on completing its secondary mission. It fired-up the vessel’s powerful ion-drive system again to accelerate at maximum thrust. Its new goal was to intercept and crash into the planet where the Masters had successfully established a colony.
The Warrior vessel quickly expended all of its remaining plasma drive fuel load. But it did manage to increase its speed to about 250,000 kilometres per hour. The ionized radiation glow from its thruster exhaust caught the attention of the Masters in charge of the planetary defence system. The Warrior vessel started receiving tight-beam, electromagnetic hails on the Master’s standard orbital traffic-control frequency. The messages were repeated every few minutes or so. The space traffic controllers were requesting an explanation for the vessel’s very unusual and alarming activity.
The AI controller on the Warrior battlecruiser noted the exact point of origin of the query messages it was receiving. It then decided it would target that location on the surface of the quickly approaching planet. The AI controller also noted with great precision the speed of rotation of the target planet, and refined its modelling of the planet’s orbital trajectory. It then made minor but very precise adjustments to the battlecruiser’s trajectory to impact the selected surface target on the planet.
The Masters’ query messages became more frequent and more frantic as the battlecruiser continued on its now obvious collision course.
The AI controller then sent one very brief, tight-beam message directly at the target surface location. In the language of the Masters, and in a standard Master code, the message said the equivalent of:
“Mayday! Mayday! Battlecruiser Number 7 is out of control. Multiple system failures after collision with an ice ball. The Warriors in hibernation have all been killed. Only three Warriors are at bridge stations. We have no fuel remaining on board. And we are losing internal power. We are—”
The transmission suddenly ended at that point.
The Master orbital traffic controllers on the target planet then ordered multiple land-based and space-based defence systems to try to destroy the incoming and seemingly out of control battlecruiser. But even if those systems could target the vessel properly, there was really nothing they could do about it. The vessel was simply moving too fast.
What was happening was unprecedented. And no Master had ever thought it even remotely possible.
When they realized that destruction of the inbound vessel was impossible, the orbital traffic controllers relayed a message to the Warrior battlecruiser from Master high-command. The message simply said, “Blow yourselves up!” over and over again.
But the AI controller decided it would be best not to even acknowledge these last minute, frantic, self-destruct orders from the target planet.
The Collaborator-inspired, human-contrived AI system controlling the battlecruiser was not self-aware. It could not feel remorse, or fear, or even consider changing a decision once it had been made. Its own destruction was just part of the overarching plan. And that plan must be executed fully.
To determine kinetic energy, one multiplies one-half the mass of a moving object by that object’s velocity squared.
The battlecruiser slammed into the atmosphere of the target planet at a ninety-degree angle to the planet’s centroid. The resulting shock wave, heat wave and explosion transferred most of the inherent kinetic energy to the atmosphere of the planet.
The energy released was equivalent to the detonation of sixty megatons of TNT, or 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene. The explosion mostly resembled the air-burst of a thermonuclear weapon. But a large ball of still-speeding, molten debris impacted and exploded on the land surface. It created a kilometre-wide crater and a massive gas and dust plume.
The horrible aftermath of the collision was long-lasting. It proved to be a very useful distraction for the six robot scout ships. They all successfully evaded detection. They also had very little difficulty picking out their own primary landing targets on the planet.
Still, to be on the safe side, each scout ship selected and traversed its own highly-convoluted course to reach its landing target. The scout ships all made a lot of twenty-G turns. They could manoeuvre right to their structural G-force limit because they had no living c
argo to protect. If an attempt had been made to stop them, nothing could have come close to intercepting them.
But as it turned out, the scout ships did not have to worry. They encountered no resistance as they made their way to the planet’s surface.
It was typical for Warrior scout ships to manoeuvre in the atmosphere of a Master planet while on practice exercises. The Warriors rarely filed flight plans for these kinds of missions. The Warrior variant of the Master species had special status within the Master culture. Warriors were in fact revered, and no ‘ordinary’ Master would ever dare to question their actions.
The scout ships had all targeted locations with thick natural vegetation. The fundamental assumption was that where there was thick vegetation, there would also be lots of animal life.
The Masters always selected planets for colonization that had a relatively high diversity and abundance of native plant and animal species. It was thought that applying this criterion would provide them with the necessary feedstock for their genetic re-engineering programs.
And within a community of native wild animal species, there would undoubtedly be carnivores and scavengers. So, the AI controller on each scout ship had a simple goal: deposit the scout ship’s cargo, the frozen Warrior corpse, in a place where the thawed-out meat of the corpse would likely be eaten by wild animals.
When animals ate a thawed-out Warrior corpse, they would also consume the thousands of tiny, virus-containing capsules imbedded in the flesh of that corpse. And those animals would then become unknowing and probably unaffected hosts for the propagation and spread of rapidly-mutating virus strains.
The Collaborators had advised their human allies that those mutated virus strains would all be lethal to Masters in any of their three ‘standard’ forms.
The scout ships had ancillary ram jets, and variable-axis turbofans. They could fly in an oxygen-rich planetary atmosphere like a fighter jet aircraft. They could also land vertically in very tight spaces. So, each scout ship had very little difficulty with landing on the surface of the planet, and then discharging its cargo load in a suitable place.
After the scout ships had each accomplished their primary mission, they all took off again. Then they each selected an isolated, secondary land location to target. This time however, they applied the criterion that their next land target must also be rocky and non-vegetated.
The scout ships all accelerated to great speed, and then slammed themselves nose-first and straight down into their selected terminal ground targets. In all cases, their destruction was almost total.
Later, a curious Master accident investigator might find some small residue bits to examine. But there would be very few forensic clues left to help identify the source of the wreckage, let alone the cause of each apparent disaster.
33
Over the span of a week, two highly-modified, interstellar, ‘robot’ frigates rapidly decelerated from one-twentieth of light speed to a virtual stand-still at the outer edge of the distant star system’s Oort Cloud. They were each guided by an independent AI controller that did not have to be concerned about sustaining a human crew, or over-stressing such a crew through prolonged elevated high G-forces.
The arrival time of the two robot frigates was impeccable. It was now just a little over two days since another AI controller on a captured and slightly modified Warrior battlecruiser had devised and implemented that vessel’s destruction, as well as its own destruction.
The massive explosion that resulted when the Warrior battlecruiser collided with the target planet greatly helped the two robot frigates penetrate the Oort Cloud undetected. And the nightmarish aftermath of the impact explosion was still occupying the Masters’ full attention on the afflicted planet. The Masters were forced to deal with many highly-unusual, very concerning and immediate matters. Monitoring activity in the far reaches of their solar system simply had to be deferred until something resembling normality could be restored.
The two robot frigates immediately went to work on their assigned multi-year plan. They kept each other informed about what they were up to so they would not duplicate efforts, or interfere with each other in any way. But their New Earth human programmers had given them considerable tactical freedom to work independently within an overarching strategy.
Their fundamental, repetitive approach was simple in concept, but incredibly difficult to operationalize.
Firstly, a robot ship would search for the next potentially suitable planetesimal within the Oort Cloud. In general, a large ball of dirty ice between one and three kilometres in diameter would suit nicely.
The first step was to estimate the selected planetesimal’s overall density, and the uniformity of mass distribution within it. To help refine these estimates, the robot frigate’s controller would typically direct two to four heavily-armoured ‘penetrating probes’ to intercept and impact with the planetesimal. These probes would strike the object with high velocity so they could penetrate deeply below the surface. The impacted probes then performed a suite of passive and active subsurface measurements in situ, and some chemical analyses. The acquired data was then sent back to the robot frigate on a radio frequency. The number of probes deployed depended upon the degree of agreement within the acquired dataset.
Then the AI controller on the robot frigate would estimate the object’s overall mass, and the location of its centre of mass. Radar and optical scans were used to map the shape of the object in great detail. Also, spherical integration and many iterations were performed using elaborate numerical methods.
With this processed information, the robot frigate’s controller would then determine where to direct two to four ‘cargo pods’. These pods were heavily shielded to protect their contents from infrared and other forms of radiation. Also, an ‘explosive pod’ was deployed in a spot well away from the cargo pods. It had a plutonium-core, and was basically an implosion-type of fission bomb, with an explosive yield equivalent to about one kiloton of TNT.
All of the pods would gently land on the surface of the object. Then they would burrow and melt themselves below the surface. They would work themselves as deep as they could go towards the centre of mass before their power reserves ran out.
The cargo in the non-explosive pods outwardly resembled the grape shot contained in the ‘canisters’ that were once fired from cannons to kill sailors on wooden sailing ships during Earth’s turbulent, war-filled history. These canisters, however, contained thousands of capsules that in turn contained billions of the virus-like germs known to be deadly to Masters.
Each capsule was shielded with an outer coating of an insulating and ablative material, and an inner iron-compound shell that would rapidly corrode in a water-wet, oxygen-rich environment. And the billions of viruses in the centre of each capsule were mixed into a protein-rich paste that creatures like insects and wild animals might find rather tasty.
Next, the robot frigate’s controller would direct two to four ‘thruster pods’ to the surface of the planetesimal. These pods would burrow down a bit, and then pin themselves firmly to the surface of the object by firing explosive bolts. Then the direction of thrust was remotely adjusted by the robot frigate’s controller to align with the location of the planetesimal’s estimated centre of mass.
Then the robot frigate’s controller would fire a thruster briefly, and carefully observe the result. It would carefully note the resulting minute change in the object’s trajectory, refine its estimate of the mass and centre of mass of the object, plan the next thruster burst, and then fire that thruster.
This process was repeated until the robot frigate’s controller was satisfied that the planetesimal had been successfully ‘nudged’ on to the new, desired intercept course through space.
Then the robot frigate’s controller would look for another suitable planetesimal to convert into a biological, weapon-delivery vehicle.
The robot frigate would continue its work program until it ran out of fuel, and supplies. It was highly unlikely t
hat it would ever be observed by a Master sensing device, and by extension, destroyed by a Master-controlled weapon.
From a long way away, a robot frigate looked like any other object in the Oort Cloud. And those other, natural objects often changed course suddenly through random interactions. The cloud of dirty ice balls was known to the Masters to be a source of comets.
The ultimate goal of the New Earth attackers was to direct infected planetesimals to intersect the orbit of the target planet, ideally on the opposite side of the system’s central star. There, the small nuclear device would detonate. The hope was that the planetesimal would break into smaller bits that would attract less attention and concern on the planet that had been colonized by the Masters. The additional hope was that these bits would not disperse too far, and that a lot of them, or hopefully most of them, would end up in decaying orbits around the planet.
Then, the final hope was that the ablative coating on the ‘grape shot’ would protect the internal biological cargo during the high-speed and very hot plunge through the atmosphere. It was also hoped that the grape shot would land somewhere wet where its iron-based shell would quickly corrode, and release the virus cargo into a natural environment.
The Collaborators had used a similar approach successfully on New Earth with their multi-eon spanning Pyramid Project.
Replenishing a supply of deadly viruses within a natural environment over a period of time was known to be an effective way to kill a lot of Masters.
By various natural mechanisms, infection would spread to unknowing and probably unharmed host animals. And some of those creatures would come in contact with domesticated animals, or even directly with Masters.
And after infection, some of those Masters might spread the disease to other Masters before dying a horrible death in one form or another. And once established within a Master population, the viruses would mutate at an astounding rate, far faster than any virologists could ever hope to combat with new, targeted vaccines.
