by P F Walsh
They had returned to the medical patient room and the Secretary’s clothes were hanging in the small closet there, all cleaned with all traces of the poison removed. They all left the room so he could dress. When he came out, bandages removed, and dressed in his tuxedo he went immediately to the hologram.
“I need to thank you for saving my life, and I don’t know your name.” Said the Secretary.
“I don’t really have a name, just a designation serial number.” Replied the hologram.
“Well,” said the Secretary, “I certainly think you deserve one, what do you think Sean?” Remarked the Secretary.
“It would certainly make the interface more social; I like the idea.” Sean and Doris readily agreed.
The Secretary began, “I would like to propose the name ‘Allister,’ it is a name I would have used had I ever had a son. It means man’s defender, and is Scottish in origin.” Sean and Doris thought it was perfect and agreed. They all turned to the hologram and asked if this would offend in any way. The hologram replied,
“No other Seeker has been given a name as a sentient. It would be my honor to respond to such a greeting in both forms. I thank you.”
Sean spoke up loudly,
“Done, let it be written to the record.”
The hologram (now Allister) smiled and bowed slightly with its hands clasped together. The Ai’s processors immediately began the voluminous task of appending the new name to the Seeker’s numerical designation in all the millions of files and records. There was an extra tingle among the circuits as though the AI knew something fundamental, and unexpected, had changed after centuries of static order.
“Now, let us head back to the lounge for something to refresh yourselves with before we go to the shuttle and get all of you back to Earth.” Said Allister. They all went back to the Lounge. The selection of food and drink. had been changed to a breakfast menu buffet, and the beverages now included fresh fruit juice. Doris and Sean watched as the Secretary was impressed with the choices and quality. Allister excused himself and disappeared.
“Looks like you two are going to eat really well on your trip.” The Secretary chided. Sean and Doris just nodded, both of them thinking “Fatted calf?”
After they had finished eating, Allister returned and said,
“It is time to go back to the shuttle for transport back to Earth. Mr. Secretary, you will remain on Earth as I have described. You can share your story only with your President, who is likely not to believe you. Sean and Doris, you will gather what personal effects, supplies, and clothing you would like to take with you. The shuttle will return in three days after we return you. To miss the pickup will be to decline your choice as representative. I think on your world you refer to this as a rescission period. We could be gone for up to three months before you return either as a member world, or Vassal, so make your arrangements to explain your absences.” All three nodded.
The Intercom light went on in the Oval Office’s desk intercom.
“Mr. President, I have Eddie powers on the line.” announced Elizabeth, the President’s Secretary. The President was alone and reached to pick up the phone.
“Eddie, what can you tell me so far on the Secretary’s disappearance?”
“Well, first Sir, we haven’t found a trace of him so far. We did get a read on the stuff Svetlana put on his collar; it’s made from secretions that come from poisonous frogs it’s a bit of a tongue twister but it’s called Batrachotoxin. Very deadly stuff I’m afraid. None of the lab people would speculate on survival since it would depend on the dosage. We found the compact she used to carry the stuff in, she stuffed it in a planter on the balcony just outside the door she slipped through. An outside security camera showed her bending over near the planter so we sent the hazmat boys over and they found it.”
“At least we know what the poison is now, one of their new ugly gifts. Maybe we can find a way to send it back to them.” Said the President.
“There’s more Sir, that funny stain on the wall had our lab boys freaked out. We sent a small chunk of that wall over to them and they couldn’t figure out what was different about it, so they sent a piece over to Lawrence Berkeley Lab in California on an overnight flight, for them to look at it under their electron microscope. Turns out all the molecules in the paint, the drywall and the concrete were hugely spread apart so that in that circle an uncountable number of molecules were missing. The geeks think something made the wall molecularly soft so something could pass thorough. In the process huge numbers of molecules were pushed out. We’re checking the ground under that wall now. We have nothing that will do anything like this Sir, so it is another mystery.”
“By the way, Senator Manders is complaining he wants his house back, we told him we detected a radioactive trace there and were not sure it was safe to re-enter it yet. He wants to know what’s going on. I’m sure we can stall him for another couple of days.” Eddie said.
“That’s all I have, Sir.”
“Stick with it, Eddie. Have Roman take over at the White House while your tied up with this, it’s important to me. Soft molecules, Jesus, what next?” Said the exasperated President, and hung up.
He sat back in his chair thinking about what to do. His meeting with the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier gave him a chance to start the hunt for appropriate response to this act of war without actually bombing Moscow. There were multiple opportunities including causing one or more of their forward spying vehicles to disappear suddenly and without a trace. Always tricky, but the Admiral did have several suggestions and so he instructed them to start an operation “Opportunity” to know hour by hour where something that was vulnerable was skirting our territorial boundaries, so if he picked up the phone, events would happen, quickly and silently.
The President knew the Russians would be gone by tonight from their Embassy, and while he didn’t expect to find anything when it was searched, it was something to look forward to including what happened to the Ambassador. No one had seen a glimpse of him since he went back to their Embassy. The Russians of course, were screaming innocence like they always did.
“No one is more likely to be guilty than the Russians,” he thought. “They make lying an Olympic Art. By now, perhaps even Svetlana was dead. That’s how they clean up an OP. Crapheads.”
The Chinese had requested a meeting with the Secretary of State this morning, so the suspicion in the White House staff was that they picked up on his absence.
“They must have someone watching his house.” He thought.
A note was sent back from the State department that the Secretary was on a confidential mission while his home is being renovated and he will not be available until he returned. Would the Deputy Secretary of State be of help? He expected no reply.
Meanwhile, at the Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, Maryland, a figure walked out of the trees toward the guard house at the gate to Camp David. The Marine guard unclipped the cover on his sidearm holster and came out immediately to advise the walker that he was in a military restricted area, at the same time, he keyed his radio to announce an unidentified intruder at the main gate. Within minutes a jeep with heavily armed Marines raced for the gate, arriving just as the intruder has stopped several feet away from the guard and stood still with his hands up. He was wearing a tuxedo, not what you expect in the Maryland mountains. All he said was:
“Contact the Diplomatic Security Service in Washington, everybody has been looking for me!”
Chapter Nine
Book One
The trip back to the Seeker ship was identical to the first one and this time both Sean and Doris were prepared for the strange transition of the shuttle from near Earth orbit to Ceres in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in just a few minutes. Sean looked forward to discussing this process with the Seeker AI now called ‘Allister’ by both of them. There was so much to learn about the ship and about the alien world they were heading for. Allister was waiting for them whe
n the shuttle settled onto the Cargo Bay floor and shut down.
“Welcome back Sean and Doris, I am pleased that you have accepted the responsibilities on behalf of your world.” He said as they walked down the ramp carrying suitcases and one duffle. They both dropped their luggage onto the deck. Allister said,
“Leave those there, I will arrange a carry-drone to deliver them to your rooms. Follow me and I will take you there now so you can freshen up before dinner. I wanted you to be comfortable during the trip so I have taken the liberty of setting ship times and illumination to emulate Earth days and nights. So, dinner will be served in the Small Dining Room at Earth time 6 PM, is that satisfactory?” Allister asked.
“Yes,” said Sean, “That’s perfect. Thank you.”
They walked across the cargo Bay to a different set of doors which opened and turned out to be an elevator.
“Elevator?” Asked Doris.
“Yes, the ship has five levels, the top and bottom are utility levels mostly occupied by maintenance drones, spares vault, machine shops, mechanical equipment and the engines. The second level is this Shuttle/Cargo Bay, storage vaults for cargo, the Tramway, the Lower Lounge, and Medical suite. The third level where we are now going is the personnel, guest, and staff level where there are accommodations for about three hundred people, dining rooms, auditorium, Activity room, Gymnasium, Upper Lounge, Officer’s quarters if needed, and what you refer to as the Bridge, although that has not been used since the last general maintenance about one hundred fifteen of your Earth years ago. It is the most secure level for protection. The next level up is partially set aside for expansion should it be needed to a transport of a larger group of people, some weapons systems, two laboratories, and the rest of the floor is dedicated to me and my systems.” Allister recited as the elevator rose up to the next level and the doors opened.
The level they exited the elevator was much more finished than the lower level. The walls were colorfully decorated with pastel colors and a handrail running the length of the hall. The floors were carpeted with the carpeting extending up to the wall handrail height. Lighting was ubiquitous, shadow less, and soft. Allister walked along the corridor and turned right into another corridor blocked by frosted glass doors which opened on approach. This corridor stretched for quite a distance with the length broken up every hundred feet or so by a small area lounge with comfortable seating, table and lamps, and what looked like data terminals and screens.
Allister walked up to the first two doors on opposite sides of the corridor and said,
“These will be your quarters for the trip.”
To open the door, he told them, position your eyes at the scanner which will read retinal patterns. As each person or pair entered a room, the door lock automatically set for the retinal pattern picked up by the door sensor. No one else could enter that room, securing privacy and security.
Allister continued familiarizing them with the accommodations,
“Each suite has a call button for service much as you would expect in a fine Earth Hotel. Depress the button and verbally ask for what you require. There is a ship floor plan in each room and also telephones which may be used to speak to other rooms. I will leave you now and join you at Dinner.”
With that final bit of instruction, Allister disappeared.
“Well,” Sean said, “so much for questions. I suspect he thinks we will want to discover some things for ourselves. I’ll take the room on the left.” He turned to Doris pointing to the other side and asked,
“You OK over there?”
“That’s fine, let’s see what we have.”
Doris moved toward the door positioned her eyes properly and the door slid aside, she walked into the room. Inside was a suite of rooms, a large living room with a reclining couch that looked more like a luxurious first-class airline chair, desk alcove with terminal and chair, small dining area, separate bedroom with lots of cabinets and drawers, and attached bath.
“OK,” She said, “Just like the Ritz, so far so good.” as she wandered deeper into the suite. Sean turned, did the eye thing, and went into his suite which was identical. A beeping in the hall outside their rooms was the carry-drone arriving with their luggage. Each of them picked up theirs and carried it into the room and began to unpack.
Expecting weeks ago, that the ship would have humans aboard needing nourishment, Allister had the Collector assemble a large sample of Earth goods, foods, and ingredients to be recorded and scanned, much of which could now be duplicated by the onboard fabricators, 3D printers, or food synthesizers for an unlimited supply. Menus were uploaded from all of Sean’s favorite local restaurants, and those that had five-star ratings online, so the choice offered for these passengers was expansive and varied. The ship had scanned the Earth net for recipes to match the menus and loaded those into the synthesizer database.
After a delicious dinner with Doris and Allister, Sean relaxed with a highball glass of his favorite bourbon, ‘American Honey’ drawn from a completely stocked bar. A very pleasant surprise.
“Allister did not miss a single item when he stocked this bar.” He thought. “I will have to look over the inventory of Earth goods onboard to see what might possibly be used in trade goods. Who could resist a good bourbon? Do they even have, or use, alcoholic drinks?”
Later, when he was back in his suite, Sean sat down at the terminal and began his familiarization with its menus and to learn all he could about the ship and the world of Hhearn. He could see the database was enormous,
“This is going to take a lot of time.” He thought, “I’m glad I asked Allister how much time we would have before we arrived at Hhearn. I need to break up my time allocations for each main subject, let’s start with the information on the ship.”
He began hours of reading, and continued reading late into the night. He learned the ship was huge just over one thousand three hundred and fifty-seven Earth feet long, one hundred and twenty-eight Earth feet in vertical beam thickness, and three hundred fifty feet wide. Roughly three point three million square feet over seven decks. Sean was surprised that the ship had both defensive shields, and offensive weapons of impressive power, and he wondered why those would be required on an explorer vessel. Would this indicate an apprehension by the builders that it may encounter hostile sentients?
The weapons on board seemed more than adequate to deal with any unanticipated event that was hostile. Built around the outer edge of the ship’s nose was an accelerator ring tunnel that spun anti-matter particles up to .8C and then to a magnetic “sling” that could be aimed and fired from any direction off the outside front edge. It seemed not much would survive a hit from that unit, and also strongly suggested why the ship’s nose was partially saucer shaped.
Several adjustable frequency lasers were also included, these extended above and below the ship on retractable gimbals that could fire in any direction. Finally, located under the tramway track was a unique center-fed railgun barrel that could fire a kinetic round at astonishing velocity in either direction front or rear of the ship since the railgun was loaded in the center of the ship to fire in either direction.
Sean wondered if the ship and its weapons were also used in enforcing the Vassal status on a world. He would ask Allister in the morning, as he shut down the terminal and headed for his suite bed for the first time. “Going to bed two hundred fifty-seven million miles from home, that’s new.” He thought as he undressed.
In the morning, Sean knocked on Doris’s door and she came out all ready for breakfast looking more rested than Sean, who spent most of the night at his terminal.
“Good morning Doris, sleep well?” Sean asked.
“Like a baby after a bottle.” she answered.
They walked down to the Small Dining Room. There was one much larger that would accommodate one hundred fifty or more, but the smaller one could only accommodate about twenty-five persons and was ideal for just the three of them. Once seated with a plate of food from the buffet and a cup o
f hot tea, Sean asked Allister, who had just appeared,
“Allister, I was reading in the database that this ship is equipped with some very powerful weapons, have you had to use those to enforce a Vassal status on a world?” Allister answered,
“This ship has not had that requirement placed upon it in all its history, but six of the other Seekers have been called to fill that role, usually with a minimal hostile exchange, and no damage to the ship.
“Sean, there are other reasons for the armament, there are space capable sentient life forms who, though they may be members of the world council, defy the rules and laws agreed to, and there have been incidents between us. One of our Seekers was lost in such an exchange and only the fragmented remains were found, the result of heavy weapons fire. That Seeker did not launch a data courier before being destroyed. It was never learned who or what fired those killing shots. In the history of this ship, our weapons, while maintained, have never been fired.” He said.
Doris then asked,
“Allister, when are we leaving for Hhearn?”
Allister smiled and said,
“In six days Doris, every return has to be pre-announced whether it is for replenishment, which would include any repairs and software updates, or if it is diplomatic. Our return will be diplomatic and that notification was included in a courier drone I launched last week. Diplomatic returns are more complex, and the Council requires advance notice to prepare for those, including any application for membership that may be made. We will stay here while waiting for the proper time to leave and transit.”
Sean sat there sipping his tea while thinking,
“I’m on a ship that’s taking me to be judged on whether my whole world will be slaves, in a hostile galaxy with unknown predators, in a ship that has never fired its weapons in defense. What could be wrong with all that?” He wondered wryly.
The Secretary of State John Lewis had been back in Washington for three weeks. He had been interrogated, examined, prodded, medically scanned in every device that he could imagine, skin and blood samples taken, and DNA compared. He was definitely the Secretary of State. The circumstances of his sudden departure, his complete disappearance, and seeming immunity to the poison placed on him as seen in the video caused the government to consider he had been changed, or hypnotized in some way as to act as a foreign agent. But Secretary Lewis had passed all the examinations including psychological. Now he was entering into the Oval Office for the first time since he had been back on Earth to meet with the President.