by S. H. Jucha
Henry straightened his shoulders. He was prepared to be honest, but he was also aware that the admiral wasn’t pleased with the lack of action she’d found after boarding.
“Fleet Commander Hector is probably competent in many aspects of calculation, which aids his ability to use Méridien-designed controllers and navigate, but he is a SADE,” Henry explained, “and you, Admiral, well ... you’re human.”
Ellie couldn’t help smiling. Unfortunately for Henry, it wasn’t a pleasant smile. She started to pace and realized the similarity to Alex’s maneuver when he was thinking.
“Who gave Hector the responsibility for the fleet?” Ellie asked, after she stopped pacing and stood eye to eye with Henry.
While Henry outmassed Ellie by nearly twice, he’d never felt smaller than when the admiral’s eyes bored into his.
“Alex Racine,” Henry managed to reply.
“What level of responsibility do you think Alex gave Hector?” Ellie asked.
“Total, I would think,” Henry replied.
“Total is correct, Captain,” Ellie said sternly. “Although, I would have preferred to hear you say absolute. If Hector gave me an order, what do you think I would do?”
“Obey it?” Henry queried.
“You wonder whether I should obey it?” Ellie challenged.
“What if he’d made a mistake?” Henry questioned.
“So we’re back to that, are we?” Ellie said, relenting and stepping away from Henry.
“Captain, I requested a dedicated Trident in the event that I have to leave my accompanying command at Talus, and Hector assigned your ship to me. Of all the Tridents in the fleet, why do you think he chose your ship?” Ellie asked.
“Unsure,” Henry replied.
“If that’s your answer, then I think you need to be dismissed from service to Omnia Ships,” Ellie replied. “I suggest you think on my question and try again.”
“We haven’t any exemplary service,” Henry replied, appealing to Ellie. “Other than destroying an errant battleship headed toward Toral, we haven’t fired our beams.”
“True,” Ellie said. “Keep going.”
“There’s nothing else to distinguish us,” Henry said. “Most of my days consist of crew maintenance procedures and communicating with other New Terran captains.”
Ellie’s eyebrows rose to hint to Henry where she wanted his thoughts to go.
Despite some of Henry’s xenophobic views about digital entities, he was a bright young man, and he immediately understood Ellie’s implication.
“But ship-to-ship communications are capable with controllers alone,” Henry objected. “They don’t require SADEs to be in the loop.”
“SADEs don’t need to be, but they’re always listening,” Ellie replied quietly.
“Doesn’t that bother you, Admiral?” Henry asked. He was torn between embarrassment about the errant remarks he’d shared with other captains and aghast at the lack of privacy. However, now that he thought about it, he couldn’t recall the other captains agreeing with his sentiments. Nor did they warn him off from expressing his views about a SADE fleet commander.
“I consider SADEs’ gifts to humankind to be treasured. Why are you bothered by them, Captain?” Ellie asked. When Henry struggled to find an answer, she said, “Never mind, Captain. You and I will have plenty of time to investigate your concerns. At the end of our time together, I’ll make a decision about your service to Omnia Ships.”
“Understood, Admiral,” Henry said, relieved to have the immediate interrogation end but dreading the future with the admiral.
“You have Hector’s directives, Captain,” Ellie said. “Execute them. I’ve three SADEs waiting in a bay. Communicate with them. I’ll be in the commander’s suite.”
Before Henry could reply or salute, Ellie whirled and strode through the swiftly opening cabin door.
Henry leaned against the back of a chair. He felt as if he had gone ten rounds of hand-to-hand combat training. Then he quickly straightened and relayed instructions to the lieutenant who waited with the SADEs. It was a small departure from the admiral’s instructions, and he winced after recognizing that he’d chosen to communicate through a subordinate rather than directly to a SADE.
5: Mickey On-Site
Regarding dome investigation, Mickey had enough of playing remote viewer. He stood on the platform deck of the dome that had been considered target two. The new gate, the third in the dome, had been used incessantly since its installation and had performed flawlessly.
“Seems to work fine,” Mickey commented, as he stepped off the platform after journeying from dome one. He was greeted by Kasie’s derisive laughter.
“Mickey, when are you going to accept that the Messinants didn’t make engineering mistakes?” Kasie charged. “The only things we have to discover are the means of activating their processes. Then they’ll work fine every time.”
“You’ll have to excuse me, Kasie,” Mickey replied, with a self-effacing chuckle. “I’ve been an engineer all my adult life. I’m used to things working ... well, but not perfectly. And, while the SADEs can design impeccable tolerances, reality intrudes even on their work.”
Mickey turned to eye Luther and Minimalist. “What’s the consensus?”
“Apologies, Mickey,” Luther replied. “There is no consensus.”
“Explain,” Mickey requested.
“Insufficient information, Mickey,” Minimalist replied.
Pia regarded Mickey sympathetically. She knew the onus that Alex had placed on her partner’s shoulders before he’d sailed.
“We’re unable to discover how to separate the various parts of the dome’s underpinnings, especially the power sources, to investigate them,” Edmas explained.
“The console is an intricate part of the dome’s workings,” Jodlyne added. “How are we supposed to replicate something that we can’t even understand how the components are created?”
“I didn’t think it would be easy,” Mickey replied, but he was disappointed to hear that his best investigators were no further than when they’d installed the consortium’s new gates. “Well, take me on a detailed tour,” he requested. “I can see and understand better in person than through the eyes of others.”
The tour lasted two days. Mickey thoroughly questioned the SADEs and the humans about every detail. In the end, he was as perplexed about how to proceed as everyone else.
In the evening, sitting around the simple tables of a dorm room and eating Messinant paste, Mickey bemoaned the lack of progress.
“I don’t understand,” Kasie said. “Why are you doing it this way?”
“What way?” Mickey inquired.
“You’re trying to reengineer the Messinant domes. That’s the right word, reengineer, isn’t it?” Kasie asked. She’d heard Edmas and Jodlyne repeatedly use the word.
“Yes, that’s our intention,” Mickey said. He was careful to pay attention to Kasie. Jess had frequently warned him that, while Kasie might not seem to make sense, her intuitive leaps were often valuable.
“But why?” Kasie pursued.
“Do you have an alternative method for us?” Luther inquired.
“Of course,” Kasie replied, as if she couldn’t believe the roomful of engineers hadn’t thought of it.
“What method, Kasie?” Pia encouraged.
“Move the whole thing,” Kasie replied.
“The entire dome?” Minimalist asked, seeking to ensure he understood.
“Of course,” Kasie reiterated. “Luther, aren’t there a number of domes like this one that sit at the end of a line, and they’re based near planets that are failing?”
“There are many domes along terminal lines,” Luther agreed. “A portion of those reside over planets that are habitable, but sentient species aren’t developing.”
“So there are plenty of extra domes to select,” Kasie said. “There you go,” she pronounced with a flourish.
“Kasie, what makes you think that moving
a dome would work?” Jodlyne asked.
“That’s the way Messinant engineering works,” Kasie explained. “Domes are built to repair themselves.”
Mickey regarded the SADEs.
Mickey nodded thoughtfully at the proposal.
* * * * *
Ensconced in environment suits, the team walked the moon’s surface. The dome was built on a small plateau, and there was room on the plateau to move the dome a few hundred meters.
Overhead, the traveler imaged the site for the SADEs to plan the new installation.
After returning to the dome, a conference link was established with the previous participants. This time, Miriam was added to the call.
The conference link heard Jess’s laughter.