“Thank you, dismissed.”
Jerome and Lauren had just come from Grace's memorial. They were in the coffee shop talking.
“I still don't believe it was natural causes Jerome.”
“I don't know what to think Lauren. But I suspect you will be proven right in the long run. Poor Grace, how terrible.”
They both sat quietly drinking their coffee.
“Have you voted yet?” asked Lauren.
“Yeah, I voted to go on. How about you?”
“Haven't voted.”
“You want to get back?”
“No, not exactly. But I would like to see that we are taking the death of Grace seriously. What happened to her could happen to anyone of us if we continue. It's obvious to me anyway that someone doesn't want us to finish this mission. Who is investigating? Who are the suspects? What is being done?”
“I understand your worries Lauren but I can tell you that I've been in meetings with the Captain and from what I've seen close up I think I can state without a doubt that she is taking what happened to Grace very seriously. If there is an investigation ongoing, and I would be willing to bet there is, she is not going to leak the details for the obvious reason it would tip off the perpetrator.”
“You sound like a detective Jerome,” said Lauren smiling at him. “But my gut feeling tells me you are probably right about the Captain. She's not one to let loose ends go.”
Lauren was silent for a time. She unfolded her Emmie and voted.
Looking at Jerome she said, “I'm for going to Trilos.”
8
“How long did you say Chief?” asked the Captain.
“A little less than ninety days ma'am. This will be the longest stop of the mission because of the relatively weak output of the star.”
“But ninety days, I wonder how the crew and colonists will pull through? I'm almost tempted to use the fusion engines to shorten the stay.”
“Even if we shortened it a few days,” said the Chief, “we would be endangering our rendezvous at Trilos.”
“I know, I know Chief, I'm not going to do such a thing. I'm just worried about the people.”
“Yes ma'am.”
After the extended stay at DENIS J081740, the Daedalus Unbound had made the wormhole jump to the even smaller sub-brown dwarf star WISE 0536. Not much was known about WISE 0536 except that it was just barely larger than Jupiter and as a result derived most of its energy output from gravitational contraction. Being a very weak emitter of light and infrared energy the ship would have to orbit close to recharge the isotopic's for the next jump.
Lauren had been studying the “failed” star for over two weeks now. She had found something unusual. The magnetometer, used to measure the magnetic field of the star, was unusually active, an unexpected result for such an object. She was discussing her results with Jerome.
“That's right Jerome it is unusual. You usually don't see this level of activity in such an object.”
“That's great,” said Jerome, “your discovery will be a real contribution to the science of brown dwarfs Lauren.”
“That's all true Jerome but that's not what concerns me at the moment.”
“Then what is it Lauren?”
“We are very close to this star Jerome. These strong magnetic fields could cause it to flare in the x-ray. Do you know what that means this close up?”
“It means trouble,” said Jerome.
The Daedalus Unbound, after almost three months of endless orbiting, was only a week away from a complete charge of the isotopics when Captain Young went missing.
Lt. Commander Rollins had to take command. He had immediately organized a search party that involved most of those on board who weren't serving a watch or otherwise occupied.
“It shouldn't be long,” said the Lt. Commander. “The ship is not that big. I've got at least thirty people searching.”
“Yes sir,” said the Chief. “But it is unbelievable to me that she could just disappear without a trace. I mean, the Captain?”
“We've been lax Chief. Orbiting this miserable dwarf star for almost three months has almost driven everyone crazy. It's really impacted our efficiency, I can tell you that. As a matter of fact a lot of unbelievable things have happened on this mission.”
“Yes sir, I've noticed.”
The Lt. Commander, the Chief and the Security Officer had formed a military inquiry of sorts. They were accusing Dr. Maccoby of contributing to the disappearance of Captain Young.
“But you were the last to see the Captain, isn't that right Doctor?” asked the Lt. Commander.
“I saw the Captain last night, she complained of sleeping problems but I don't know if I was the last to see her or not,” answered Dr. Maccoby. “The Captain and I talked often, I think she felt comfortable discussing the days events with me. She had no one else.”
“I see,” said Lt. Commander Rollins. “Dr. Maccoby I also understand that you may have been the last to see Grace Parker alive. Were you aware of that?”
“No, I wasn't. But Grace was another person who needed a professional ear. I'm a trained psychiatrist you now.”
“Yes I was aware of that Doctor,” said Rollins. “Would it be possible for us to know what you discussed with Grace?”
“Well some of it is privileged,” said Dr. Maccoby. “But it was pretty much the same things I discussed with the Captain.”
“But Grace Patrick, unlike Captain Young, had several other friends she cold rely upon, didn't she?”
“Yes of course but there are some things that a person feels more comfortable with discussing with a trained professional rather than a friend.”
“I see. Now doctor isn't it so that you prescribed an aerosol for Grace Patrick?”
“Yes that's true.”
“And what was in that aerosol?”
“Just a mild sedative.”
“Delivered by nanobots?”
“Of course, it was targeted to certain areas of the body. In that way the side-effects of such drugs are eliminated.”
“Of course doctor, that is understandable but I think we have established one thing in both cases.”
“Cases?”
“Yes Doctor you see although we had publicly attributed Grace Patrick's death to natural causes we continue to carry it officially as an unresolved case. And the one thing we have established in both cases is that you were the last to see either woman.
“You also have the means to effect the death of Grace Patrick, that is the nano-machinery that you have access to as a doctor aboard this ship and admit using. And we know from your records that you know how to re-program the nano-machinery. I believe one of your doctorates was in nano-medicine, is that not correct?”
“Yes Lt. Commander but if I may ask, exactly what are you trying to say?”
“I'm saying that we have recorded evidence of the facts as I've stated them. And I am saying that you are the top suspect in the deaths of both of these women.”
“The Captain has been found dead?”
“Not yet.”
“And my motive Lt. Commander?”
“That Dr. Maccoby is the only reason this is an inquiry and not a tribunal. You are free to go, for now.”
Dr. Maccoby rose slowly staring at the Lt. Commander, then turned and walked out of the room without another word.
Once they were alone Rollins swore under his breath. The other two men looked at him with concern.
“We still haven't a motive.”
He turned to Lt. Aaron.
“I'm going out on a limb here Lieutenant. Are you sure you can follow her no matter what?”
“Yes Lt. Commander I assure you,” said Security Officer Aaron quickly but not reassuringly.
While most of the others were out physically searching for Captain Young. Jerome was taking a different tack. Instead of physically searching Jerome was searching the ship's computer net. Something was going on and since no person had been found to be at fault perhaps it wasn
't a person.
He had breached the security protocols and had his Emmie going through the logs. This wasn't as illegal as it sounded because Jerome had responsibility for maintaining those protocols. Breaching them was just his way of testing the system. He had done it several times to make sure he could find such a breach if it occurred.
The Emmie when finished brought up a few exceptions that it needed Jerome's help to deal with. The robotic fueling arm and video surveillance of the area he expected to see but there were a few more that he didn't expect.
One of the gaps was in the security video of the hallway outside the Captain's quarters. The last thing it showed was Dr. Maccoby leaving the quarters, then a gap of five minutes or so until the recording began again. The other gap was in the security monitors outside of Grace Parker's quarters the night of her death.
Impossible. The security Emmies would have alerted to such gaps as soon as they occurred.
Jerome then searched for one more unexplained gap. A gap that wasn't correlated to equipment failure or a recording dropout which happened from time to time. And he found it. The security camera outside one of the safe rooms behind the front shield of the ship. Protected by the thick meta-material and surrounding magnetic field the safe rooms were for crew protection should the ship be caught in a particle storm.
Jerome now knew the location of the Captain. And he thought he knew what was behind all the incidents. Then he heard the alarm. It was a storm warning.
How ironic.
But he didn't move immediately to evacuate to a safe room. First he had to cut all communication conduits into and out of those rooms.
9
“You did what engineer?” bellowed the Lt. Commander.
Just my luck assigned to the same room as the brass thought Jerome.
“I disabled all communications between the safe rooms and the rest of the ship sir.”
“You idiot, how are we supposed to monitor the flare storm or for that matter monitor the ship? Did you think about that?”
“Sir, the ship is on auto.”
“Even so engineer, we are now deaf and blind. When we get out of this I'll be sure that you are charged with endangering this mission and its crew.”
“Sir, as far as monitoring the flare storm we can do that directly from here. Hear that sound?”
Everyone was quiet. The sound was like the buzzing of high-voltage lines in the summertime back on Earth.
“That sound,” continued Jerome, “is the magnetic field generator located just next to these rooms. It is under strain now as the particles from the flare storm of WISE 0536 hit the magnetic field and cause it to warp. When we can no longer hear that sound it will be safe to send a bot out and get a particle and x-ray reading.”
“I see,” said the Lt. Commander feeling somewhat chastised. “I apologize for my tone of voice engineer but still you haven't told me why you cut our communication channels?”
“To keep it out.”
“Keep what out engineer,” said Rollins somewhat exasperated.
“Sir I believe we have a rogue AGI aboard.”
“AGI?” asked one of the men.
“Yes an Artificial General Intelligence.”
“An Aggie?” asked the same crewman.
“Yes, an Aggie has been the cause of all the incidents. That is the only explanation that makes sense for all the security breaches I have just discovered.”
“You mean the loss of security vids?” asked Rollins.
“Yes sir.”
“And the death of Grace Patrick and the Captain missing?”
“Yes sir. But I expect the Captain is still alive and in one of the safe rooms, though not this one apparently.”
The Artificial General Intelligences or Aggies had not been around nearly as long as the Ems. Aggies were primarily found in the Solar System and only recently in the Centauri System. Because their background was from computer science, not a scanned human brain, Aggies didn't have a rapport with people. They were generally found in research labs or the employment of governments or large corporations.
The Aggies essentially ran the Solar System as the governments there had turned over most functions to them. In return, the Earth, Mars, and others ran very efficiently. Many thought it a golden age. The Aggies could control many diseases, the more severe weather events and even the vagaries of humanity.
But now for some reason, there was an Aggie on the Daedalus Unbound that no one had even suspected. Not even the person that had brought it aboard. And Aggies had the capability to reprogram nano-tech to anything they wanted. They could do the same with Emmies and lesser intelligences such as the one that controlled the robotic arm.
But right now the Aggie aboard the Daedalus was enraged if Aggies could feel enraged. The AGI was quickly searching for a safe place to ride out the flare event. But time was running out and systems all over the ship were shutting down to prepare for the worst of the storm.
The Aggie could already see its escape routes being cut one by one. The first was the safe rooms. They had gone offline almost immediately. It didn't make sense to the Aggie, that wasn't protocol.
But there wasn't time right now to figure it out as one system after another powered down. The Aggie was being squeezed, its resources limited. It was losing some of its remote capabilities, it was retreating to its core. It successfully prevented the system containing its core from going offline but that was only a brief reprieve.
The high energy particles from the flare were impinging on the ship now. Without a magnetic shield, the electronics the Aggie was in were being sliced up and crippled as if by a shower of bullets. The Aggie was now losing core capabilities such as memory and cognition. It was impossible to stop, impossible to defend against. The Aggie was reduced to a simpleton and then nothing.
It was four hours until the whine of the magnetic generator relented. The Lt. Commander sent a bot out capable of reading the space weather of particles and x-rays. It reported back a high but diminishing reading. Every thirty minutes the bot went out for a reading. After the third foray, its particle counters showed a reading low enough for people to venture out.
The Lt. Commander sent the engineers and support personnel to restart systems. He sent one of the crew around to the other safe rooms to account for their occupants. The crewman came back to report that the Captain had been found in one of the other safe rooms unconscious but apparently okay. She was with the doctors including Dr. Maccoby. It wasn't long until communications were restored and the colonists and rest of the crew were on their way from the safe rooms to the crew wheel.
The Captain felt somewhat shaky as she descended the ladder from the ship's spine into the rotating crew wheel. The gravity was increasing at each step. She would have liked to rest in her quarters but after a quick change of uniform and cleanup, she was presiding over the meeting of her top officers and the engineers.
“Before we begin, Lt. Commander will you please give us a status report,” asked the Captain.
“Captain we have restored almost all computer functions except the aft area which were partially destroyed. Those were given to Dr. Jackson to study. Otherwise, we have nominal operation of all systems.”
“Thank you Lt. Commander. Dr. Jackson do you have a report on the aft area electronics?”
“Only preliminary ma'am. The electronics from that area have been damaged. They appear not to have shutdown as is usual during a storm but were kept running by what I think was the AGI.”
“Yes, the AI,” said the Chief. “You have found definitive proof?”
“Not direct Chief but indirect. As I said the electronics module should have shut down during the storm but something kept it from doing so. I doubt it was a glitch in the software as all other systems on the ship did shut down.”
“So we don't actually know that an AGI was onboard the Daedalus since we started this mission?” asked the Captain.
“I would say that I am about ninety percent sure ma'am,
” said Jerome. “And I have requested through our wormhole communications channel an update from Centauri on any unusual activities that the AGI's there or on Earth have taken.”
“Very well Dr. Jackson I will be waiting for a further report when you have something more concrete,” said the Captain. “Chief how about the mission? Are we ready to continue?”
“A couple more days to recharge the isotopics and we can make the next jump ma'am.”
“Okay the engineers and others may go. I would like the Chief and Lt. Commander to remain.”
After the others had left the Captain began, “Gentlemen as you might expect Dr. Maccoby is a bit upset about the way she was treated just before the flare storm.”
“Yes ma'am I understand I intend to apologize directly,” said the Lt. Commander.
“You too Chief?”
“Yes ma'am.”
“But,” said the Lt. Commander. “The Chief and I were trying desperately to find you before it was too late. Dr. Maccoby was the best suspect we could come up with at the time. That is why we pressured her, hoping that she would make a move that would lead us to you and also solve Grace Patrick's murder.”
“Yes ma'am,” said the Chief. “We felt that time was short and we had to do something if we were going to find you alive.”
“I understand gentlemen and I believe if you make a sincere apology to the Doctor and explain your actions we may be able to put this incident behind us. Hopefully, engineer Jackson will come through with some solid evidence that an AGI was at the root of our troubles.”
The Lt. Commander and Chief both nodded.
“Very well, thank you gentlemen.”
The Captain rose and left the room bound for her quarters where she could get the long rest she needed before the next wormhole jump.
10
It was the following day at fourteen-hundred hours that Jerome received a reply to his message. Glynn Kranz the Mission Director still had some contacts on Titan that knew through business connections what was happening in the inner Solar System where the Aggies were mostly located.
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