“Having located a probe in every system that we’ve searched has scared the Leaders out of their lethargy on the question of adopting offensive ships. They aren’t sure where it might lead, and they’ve even discussed hiring the New Terrans or Harakens or both governments to protect the Confederation.”
“We’re too small, even if we combined forces to defend your worlds,” Maria noted. “We could sit for generations in our ships waiting for a sphere to appear, while you expanded the reach of the Confederation. That’s not a feasible idea.”
“Excuse me,” Alex said, holding up a finger.
Those at the table watched Alex, Tatia, and the SADEs quiet.
“They’ve located our system’s probe,” Renée said into the silence.
While the Omnian guests waited with Renée, Gino said, “Maria and Terese, we had considered sending ships to your systems to assist you locating your probes, but it was decided that would be politically insensitive.”
“Smart decision, Gino,” Maria commented.
“Agreed,” Terese added. “The subject of a Nua’ll probe monitoring the system will be disquieting in and of itself. A Confederation ship arriving to announce the message would only make it worse for our leadership.”
Silence once more enveloped the table, while individuals wondered at the communication taking place with Alex.
<Status, Commodore?> Tatia asked Reiko.
<Approaching the probe now, Admiral,> Reiko replied. <We didn’t locate the object by its broadcast as detailed by the Confederation data. The SADEs located it by sifting through a huge mound of telemetry data collected during the past three years by ships entering and leaving the system. It was the Sojourn, an explorer ship, which had done a thorough job of researching the space, which recorded the probe, although it never realized it.>
<Visually located, Alex,> Z noted.
<Details, Z?> Alex asked.
<A round sphere approximately 2 meters across with a matte black finish,> Z replied.
<Makes it easy to spot,> Tatia commented sarcastically.
<Telemetry is resolving details,> Reiko said, narrating what she was seeing on the OS Liberator’s holo-vid display. <Captain, let’s circle the sphere and collect more data before we close.>
Julien linked to the Trident’s controller and relayed the display to Alex, Tatia, and the other SADEs at the table.
<It’s been holed, Alex,> Julien said, analyzing the visuals.
<In and out the other side,> Miranda added. <Most likely created by a piece of high-velocity space dust.>
Alex’s expletives were heard across the link. <Why do we have to get a broken one?> he asked rhetorically, which caused Reiko and Svetlana to share quick grins.
<Orders?> Reiko asked. Deliberately, she didn’t direct her question to either Alex or Tatia.
<Thoughts?> Alex asked.
<Tamper and boom,> Z replied.
<There is that possibility,> Julien agreed. <The question is: Do we ever intend to examine a sphere, and, if so, under what conditions would it be optimal?>
<If we follow where Julien is leading, Alex, it would be smarter, certainly safer, to examine a defunct sphere under controlled conditions,> Tatia commented, and the SADEs agreed.
<Mickey,> Alex sent.
<Mickey, you get to investigate a Nua’ll probe that we located in our system. It’s not broadcasting due to a meteorite holing it, but I want you to devise a method of capturing and transporting it to a mining base. All initial operations designed to recover and investigate it are to be conducted remotely. I want the risk of detonation and subsequent injuries to our people reduced to an absolute minimum.>
<What sort of distance do you think needs to be maintained?> Mickey asked.
The SADEs quickly calculated a dangerous energy radius based on the size of the sphere and the potential to carry a nuclear drive or some other highly volatile energy source.
<Ten million kilometers appears to be a safe distance, Mickey,> Z replied.
<Commodore, coordinate with Mickey to assist in the retrieval. This is a priority,> Alex replied. <And, Mickey, while you play it safe, I want to know everything about this sphere … how it was assembled, the energy source, how its transmission was created, what the circuitry is based on … I want to understand as much about the civilization that created it, as how and what the probe might be possible of communicating.>
<Understood, Alex,> Mickey replied and dropped off the comm, as did Reiko.
“Our probe has been hit by some space dust,” Alex said, returning to the table. “It appears to be inoperable, but we’re taking all precautions, while we collect and investigate it.”
Renée, Maria, and Terese looked at the stricken faces of Gino and Katrina and either smiled or chuckled.
“You didn’t expect him to destroy it outright?” Renée asked, surprised at the Méridiens’ reactions.
“Will you bring the probe here, Alex?” Katrina asked.
“Sure. Mickey has his engineering labs on board the Freedom, best place to examine it,” Alex replied with a deadpan expression.
“Alex,” Terese admonished, narrowing one eye at him.
“Apologies, Sers, I was joking. We’ll collect the probe remotely and examine it at a distant mining site,” Alex replied. “You were saying about the Council’s new attitude toward armed ships, Gino.”
“I always thought, given enough time, that someday I would become as agile-minded as you, Alex. Now, I think I won’t live that long,” Gino replied, shaking his head. “Yes, I want the Haraken deal to present to the Council.”
“That’s only half the challenge, Gino,” Maria said, leaning on the table with her forearms. “Once you have the ships, you need crew, and, most important, you need well-trained senior officers, captains, commodores, and admirals, who have the knowledge and expertise to sail and coordinate your ships in a fight.”
Gino looked at Alex for guidance.
“If I were in your boots, Gino, I’d make good use of what’s at hand. There’s an extensive naval training base at Haraken, where individuals are trained to pilot and service travelers and sting ships. Both are examples of the technology employed in Tridents. Train your people there.”
“We can offer you the expertise of our senior commanders to teach your best naval personnel how to operate squadrons in combat situations,” Terese said.
“And, one more critical point, Gino, never stop the training and testing of your squadrons for readiness,” Alex added, staring hard into the Leader’s eyes. “You’ll probably not have advance warning of a sphere entering one of your systems, and the odds are against you having stationed a squadron there. That means you’ll arrive too late to save the colony that resides there. But if your squadron attacks a sphere, carrying bullet ships, without proper readiness, you can say goodbye to your warships and their crews.”
-11-
Nua’ll Device
The Omnians’ guests, Gino, Katrina, Terese, Tomas, and Maria, continued negotiations, while their hosts took on the task of capturing the Celus probe. None of the guests were in a hurry to complete the contractual agreements. They were determined to wait and see what the Omnians discovered during their investigation.
Mickey prided himself on his hands-on engineering approach, but manipulating the capture and investigation of a probe at a distance of 10 million kilometers needed thinking far outside his normal box. It required Mickey to broadcast an appeal for ideas.
<Not a problem, Mickey,> Claude Dupuis responded immediately. <Z has a collection of avatars and remotes in a Freedom bay. I’m sure we can prepare some of them to operate remotely for the probe’s investigation. Don’t know about collection and transport though. You’ll have to solve that one.>
<Tell me how you can help with the examination of the device, Claude,> Mickey sent.
are too small to last for the length of time you’ll need, but you can configure some of the larger specimens with grav shells for their energy supply and then outfit them with a set of tools.>
That was easy, Mickey thought, smiling at the collection of individuals Alex had amassed, who came with a plethora of experience, skills, and, oh, yes, toys!
The mechanics of capture, transport, and dissection weren’t the only issues requiring resolution. Mickey also needed a means of collecting the minute observations that Alex required, which meant data collection.
<Miriam, I need your help,> Mickey sent to the SADE.
<With the probe?> Miriam replied. Every Omnian SADE was aware of Alex’s request, concerning the probe and its subsequent investigation.
<Yes. It’s Alex’s priority. We’ll need a team to work with Claude on reconfiguring Z’s shadows to investigate the probe. They’ll have to be controlled remotely. I still need a concept for remote collection and transport though.>
<I will enlist Glenn to help with the method of transport,> Miriam sent. <We can use Killian, Bethley, and Trium for the team. Alex has ordered the scout ship to remain in system.>
<Are the SADEs upset about being restricted to the system?> Mickey asked. Only humans who had lived in close association with the freed SADEs, understood that even though they were digital entities they had emotional algorithms that required satisfaction.
<Alex told the Vivian’s crew that he would be ordering every returning scout ship to remain in system. He said, “We have a target. When we’re ready to sail to find the sphere that left the Ollassa system, the scout ships will accompany us.”>
Glenn chose to co-opt the Vivian to use as the sphere’s collection and transport vehicle. The enormous bays of the city-ship accommodated the scout ship for its augmentation, although it did require an empty bay.
Mickey’s engineering team took Glenn’s concept and turned it into reality. A small trap box was built and attached to the scout ship’s hatch with programmable extension rods to reduce interference in the shell’s collection capability.
When all was ready, the Vivian and OS Prosecutor, captained by Darius Gaumata, left orbit and headed for the outer rim of Celus. Killian would control the Vivian remotely from the bridge of the Trident warship. The SADEs had estimated that 10 million kilometers should be a safe distance, but it was unknown what sort of alien technology and power lurked inside the device.
When the Prosecutor came to a stationary position, the controller identified the distance to the probe at 16.43 million kilometers, and Killian glanced at Darius.
“Insurance,” Darius replied, which Killian translated as that was as near to the probe as the captain was going to get.
The scout ship’s telemetry was streamed to the warship’s controller, which Killian monitored. The SADE eased the Vivian beside the probe. Glenn’s design required Mickey’s team to mount four vid cams at the corners of the box, which allowed Killian to center the probe in the box’s opening.
The grav-capable scout ship enabled Killian to delicately maneuver the vessel. Mickey had wondered if a tethering process might have been the better way to go, but the SADEs had vetoed that idea, saying that the beam’s energy might disturb the probe enough to have it execute a fail-safe routine, even though it was incapable of transmitting.
Glenn had chosen the trap approach based on Killian’s assurance that he could easily slide the sphere into the box. And that was what Killian did. The sphere entered the enclosure without touching a side or the far end of the box. Killian signaled the twin doors of the box to close, trapping the sphere, and the walls of the nanites-coated box closed on the sphere, anchoring it in place.
“Well done, Killian,” Darius remarked. His warship’s controller was transmitting everything — telemetry data, vid cam views, comms, and bridge conversation — to the Freedom, where the action was being closely monitored.
Killian slaved the scout ship’s controller to that of the Prosecutor’s, allowing Darius to carefully back the warship away, towing the scout ship behind it, and maintaining a safe distance.
It took two anxious days before the Trident was positioned near a moon, which held a recently abandoned mining site. Killian released the controller link between the two vessels and guided the scout ship to an area that had been cleared and flattened for the upcoming operation. Once the Vivian was on the surface, the hatch was triggered and slowly lowered. The extension rods that supported the box were capable of cantilevering. This allowed the box to be kept level and prevent the probe from rotating.
The box gently touched the moon’s surface. The rods released it, and the box was detached from the scout ship’s hatch.
The SADEs aboard the warship began the next stage of the operation. Miriam, Killian, Bethley, and Trium were each linked to separate shadows via the scout ship’s controller.
The small devices, called shadows, that Z had first created to penetrate an Earther warship, which had masqueraded as an explorer, had a limited comm range. This meant the scout ship must remain on the moon’s surface during the investigation of the probe to facilitate communication. This aspect of the operation, exposing the scout ship to possible obliteration, didn’t settle well with the Vivian’s crew, but they kept their thoughts to themselves.
Killian activated the doors of the box. Then the SADEs initiated control of the four spider-like shadows. The devices crawled from the vessel, across the hatch, and dropped to the moon’s surface. Ever so carefully, the small but powerful creations hauled the probe from the box. The vid cams mounted on the box were repositioned to maintain a visual for the individuals monitoring the proceedings.
The first task was a minute examination of the probe’s surface, which every shadow was capable of transmitting.
Mickey was hosting a small gathering in his engineering bay, where everyone was focused on an incredibly large holo-vid display.
“Looks like a miniature sphere,” Tatia commented.
“Typical of any intelligent species,” Mickey replied. “If a design works, why not keep using it until something better comes along?”
“Okay, Mickey, does that mean we can grasp it by the top and bottom, twist the two halves, and get it to open up like the sphere does to disgorge its bullet ships?” Ellie asked.
“Not a bad idea,” Mickey quipped, giving Ellie a quick grin, before his face took on a flat expression, and he added, “But I don’t suggest it.”
<Council Leader Gino Diamanté,> Miriam sent, while her shadow continued its closeup scanning, <I am unable to find details in my recording of your communication with Alex as to how you destroyed the probes that you found and what the results of your actions were.>
Suddenly, more than one Omnian was berating themselves for not having asked the same question but much earlier.
<I’m embarrassed to say, Miriam, that without defensive weapons we resorted to primitive methods,> Gino sent.
<Which were?> Alex coaxed.
<We used mining excavators accompanied by ore loaders to launch rocks at the probes until we demolished them. It was a slow and laborious process. Many times, I wished for a single, beam-capable fighter or warship,> Gino lamented.
<And, specifically, Ser, what happened to the probes?> Miriam prompted.
<There was no active reaction from the probes,> Theodore interjected, after quickly reviewing the pertinent data. <In every case, the impacts continued to dent and then break the probe into pieces.>
<But you never collected the pieces?> Alex asked, wanting to ensure he understood what Gino had said during the conference.
<Ser,> Theodore replied, <the excavators launched continuously. By the time it was observed that the probes were breaking up, there were many more metric tons of rock and pebble headed the probes’ way. Eventually, the entire stream of device debris and rubble sailed out of the system. We always located the probes at systems’ peripheries, and the Méridiens were careful to direct the streams of ore outward.>
<Pardon my desire to ensure accuracy in our communication, Theodore,> Miriam sent, choosing to ignore discussing the fine details with a human. <How did the probes break apart?>
Theodore pulled the detailed vids recorded from the observing vessels and sent the imagery to Miriam, who studied the probes’ demolishment.
<Sers, the cases of the probes dented, cracked, and sections broke off, exposing the internal systems. In every case, the probe revealed a glow from some unidentified source. The opportunity to study the inside of each probe is limited to a few ticks of time before the next onslaught of rocks demolished more pieces of the probe and extinguished the light source,> Miriam summarized.
There were audible sighs of relief from the humans, who shared the comm link. Having missed the opportunity to delve deeper into the Méridiens’ method of removing the probes, it appeared that there had been nothing more to glean.
Belatedly, it occurred to Alex that if a warning about a probe’s demolishment had been needed, Theodore would have sounded the alarm, which made him wonder why Miriam was questioning Gino and Theodore so closely.
<Miriam,> Alex sent in a private comm. <What are you concerned about?>
<A thought has occurred to me, Ser. Our enemy is a technologically sophisticated species, much more so than us. Therefore, I asked myself: If I could design a probe to do anything I wanted, what would it be capable of doing?>
<And the answer was?> Alex asked.
<First and foremost, I would have designed my probe to tell the difference between common space events and investigations by intelligent life forms.>
<Meaning, when the Méridiens resorted to the simplistic approach of rock throwing, your probe would have acquiesced to being demolished rather than give up its secret,> Alex replied.
<Precisely, Ser. However, if my probe were discovered by a spacefaring life form, one probably originating from the system under observation, then —>
<You would detonate your power source, eliminating all trace of your surreptitious observation of the system and those arriving to observe you,> Alex finished. <We’ve already captured and moved the probe, Miriam. Doesn’t that negate your theory?>