Really? No way.
“Yes, you have an alien space ship?” I asked doubtfully.
Jemma sighed, “Bear with me. In forty-seven an alien ship did crash, it was covered up poorly, and taken to area fifty-one. Several scientists were able to gain access to the ship, but no one was able to turn the thing on, figure out how it was powered, or anything else for several years. Eventually, area-51 became a tourist attraction, the outer fences at least, and the ship was smuggled out at night and brought to another location where it was buried in another top-secret location.
“It wasn’t until the nineties, when certain members of government discerned the presence of the supernatural, and the sciences had advanced enough that we succeeded in powering up the ship. The ship stayed powered for three tenths of a second only, and then died.
“We believe that three tenths of a second was long enough for it to send out a beacon, because several UFOs swarmed the skies above America that night, no doubt searching for their crashed ship. We speculate the beacon wasn’t on long enough for them to get a fix, and the aliens eventually went away. Still, the ship was moved again, one more time to this facility about a month later.”
Oh. I wondered if that’s where the area-53 joke came from, since it was moved twice.
Diana took up the thread of conversation, her voice was as adorable as her hot-geek form of dress.
“Ever since then, we’ve been running experiments on alien technology found on the ship, but not a part of the ship. We have a good idea how to power it back up, but we don’t dare before we can identify the beacon.”
“What do you suspect?”
Diana said, “I suspect the original power source was jettisoned, was perhaps even destroyed, before they entered Earth’s atmosphere and crashed. Some kind of high-energy reactor. We’ve identified several components which appear to be high capacity and extremely energy dense super-capacitors. I believe it had just enough energy in the super-capacitors to crash-land, and to open the doors when it was investigated, and even turn it on for less than a second. That action completely drained the ship.
“I believe with a nuclear reactor we could get it running again, but the risk of doing so has prevented us trying. That’s where you come in. I’m sorry for the hardship you faced, but it’s also what brought you to our attention.”
To say I was excited in that moment would be a massive understatement, I also felt a chill down my spine. Alien technology, holy crap.
Jemma picked up a remote, and grabbed the keyboard, and when the screen powered on, she brought up a picture.
“This is from the Hubble telescope, and highly classified. These are some of the asteroids that exist between Mars and Jupiter. There was actually never anything wrong with the mirrors, this was picked up in the first few pictures, and a cover story was created to give the government time to decide what to do about it. The aliens left our skies, eventually, but they didn’t leave altogether.”
She hit the keyboard, and another picture came up, of the same area but zoomed in. I could barely make it out, but it was obviously too smooth and perfect in shape to be a natural object, and it had a glare on part of it, reflecting the sun.
“So, some ships have been sitting out there and watching Earth, for the last seventy-two years?” I asked.
Jemma frowned, “At least thirty years, but we can’t be sure since Hubble wasn’t launched yet in ninety. It was also the nineties when UFO sightings finally dropped off around the globe, but regardless, it’s not the same ship,” she flipped through several photos, and although hard to make out it was more than obvious the ships sizes and even shapes varied in the photographs, “As you can see, it changes.”
Jemma took a breath, then continued, “Our thoughts are we’re being watched by an alien race, and as far as we can tell the tour of duty lasts approximately six and a half months before the current ship is relieved. It’s an odd time period, so it’s been suggested that’s a more even measurement of time for wherever they originate from. A half or full year tour of duty perhaps, based on their own planet’s year.
“We’re pretty sure it’s about the ship, they’re concerned we have the technology, but it may be more than that. We don’t know their intentions, or why they’re watching us. Some speculate they’re waiting for us to achieve a certain level of understanding before they come welcome us as the neighbors, conversely others believe they’re waiting for us to become a danger before they stomp us back the stone age. It could be either of those two, or a million things between those two extremes.
“Our focus is on learning their technology, reproducing it, and being in a position to defend ourselves if necessary. Your job is to find that beacon, disable it, and get the ship running, or tell us how we can get it running. Your magic can charge a phone, but I’m not sure if it will be up to powering that ship, the theoretical energy requirements are equal to several cities. You’ll be working with Diana on reverse engineering it, so we can understand it and reproduce it, without your help if necessary.”
“I probably can’t power it then, but I’ll be able to verify Diana’s theories, or discover what is needed, and where it will need to be hooked up.”
Jemma nodded, “If you have any doubts, don’t try,” she looked at Cassie, “Did we miss anything?”
Cassie shrugged, “A lot I’m sure, but that was a good overview.”
I asked, “So, the Velcro conspiracy?”
Diana snickered, “Fake. There’s no Velcro on the ship. But, the whole laser thing is true, we got that technology from this ship.”
I grinned.
Cassie rolled her eyes, but her smile took the edge off of the action, “You ready?”
I nodded, wouldn’t miss it for the world. I even kind of understood her compulsion, she’d let me make the choice as to participate or not, but this was too big to trust to a signature on a contract. Too many people were fickle, and this was… huge.
“Let’s go.”
The four of us got up and left the conference room, and it went through the double doors. The craft was at least two hundred feet long, and about twenty in width, in the shape of a cigar.
“Huh, I thought it was a saucer.”
Cassie said, “That really was the weather balloon it hit on the way to the ground.”
There was an entrance toward the middle of the craft, it was a round hole that looked perfect.
“No door?”
Diana said, “I can show you the video later, though it’s in black and white. I suspect it’s some kind of liquid metal.”
Liquid metal?
Enough with the questions, as soon as we were close enough to walk through the magic blocking shield, I sent my magic into the craft.
Shit, I fell on my ass, and felt dizzy, as information flooded my mind, not just systems, but whole new branches of scientific understanding. To say I was overwhelmed by the technology would be an understatement, and my heart pounded in my chest as I took it all in.
Anti-gravity, viable fusion, artificial gravity which was completely different from anti-gravity. The first involved anti-matter, the second dark matter. Impulse propulsion. Wormhole creation for travel between stars, though it was only viable far enough away from a gravity well. It also explained the cigar shape, wormholes were geometrically more energy intensive based on how large the opening was.
Energy to matter used to create food or replacement parts. Medical technology. Nano-bots, self-repair, quantum computing, and the list went on.
We also had a problem.
Cassie asked, “You okay?”
I nodded, “I think so. It’s not liquid metal, it’s nano-technology. The whole ship is made up of nanites that bond on the molecular level, using the same quantum forces that hold an atom together. When millions of the things moved and opened up the hull, I bet to the human eye it would look very much like the metal had turned to liquid.”
Jemma asked, “Hold an atom together?”
I said, “Sure, basic science. An atom is
made up of protons and neutrons in a nucleus, and electrons in the outer shell. Without those forces holding the nucleus together, all matter would explode apart, until it was nothing but hydrogen. Something has to keep those protons together, they’re all positively charged and should push away from each other, but they don’t. It’s called the strong force, and holds them all together, quarks and shit.”
I shook my head, “Point is, the ship looks like one solid piece because all those nano-bots are held together and bonded at that level. That’s where the problem comes in.”
Jemma asked, “What problem?”
“Well, everything in the ship is made up of nano-bots except for the power systems. All the drive systems, life support, lighting, and everything else… including the computer. Every nanobot has a tiny built in quantum processor, the control computer is the ship. All the nanobots are connected together quantumly for instant communications between each other, and the ship is literally a computer made up of trillions of miniature processors. Any damaged components can be rebuilt with re-tasked nano-bots. The nano-bots can also be replaced and manufactured on ship, so it only runs at less than a hundred percent efficiency for a small amount of time. The only exception is main power.”
Jemma frowned, “So… why is that a problem?”
Diana narrowed her eyes, “Because that means there’s trillions of beacons on the ship, the ship is the beacon.”
“Bingo. I also believe with that many processors and being quantum, that the ship is most likely going to be sentient, unless the aliens took steps to prevent such an occurrence.”
Cassie asked, “Options?”
“We’ll have to risk powering it up and hope I can turn off the beacon before the aliens can triangulate our position. The problem is it might be hardware and not software. Consider this idea, imagine an airplane where the black box sits safely in a warehouse at Boeing. I believe each nanobot is quantumly connected to each other, but also connected to a device on their home world, though that’s just supposition. If that was the case, there would be no turning it off, even for me. Maybe.
“The safe thing to do is we can try building our own ship, and just leave this one off. The second option would be safer, but also much harder. Actually, I take back the safer part, it’s only safer when it comes to the aliens.”
Jemma asked, “Why harder?”
Diana said, “Software.”
I smirked, “She’s right. I can duplicate the hardware, and all the systems, but the control software not so much. Not unless we turn it on, and I can read it. I might be able to program it on the fly with magic, but it’d be dangerous.”
“Dangerous how?” Cassie asked.
I said, “Well, the anti-grav system is used to escape a gravity well, and the gravity system is for both artificial gravity and impulse propulsion. Those systems use anti-matter and dark matter respectively. I suspect if I get the containment wrong the first time on either of those systems, I won’t get a second shot. Possibly no one on the planet will get a second shot. There’s also other less scary problems, like gravity field settings, I could turn us into paste, or rip the ship in half, then there’s the shields, and a few other things that could make us all have a very bad day.”
Cassie frowned, “So, it’s either we risk the aliens to get the software intact, or risk blowing up the planet.”
I nodded, “That about sums it up. Although I suspect the planet will still be here, just uninhabitable.”
Diana laughed, but Cassie didn’t seem to appreciate my sense of humor.
“I have a suggestion to minimize the danger on option one.”
I raised an eyebrow.
Diana said, “What if we take a small piece of the ship and leave. Say, go to the desert about five hundred miles south. You could power up just a few thousand nanites, and then see if you can disable the quantum connection that goes to their home planet, while leaving on the local one. If not, turn them off, and we leave the area at high speeds. According to last time, it will take them a few hours to reach the planet from out by the asteroid belt.”
“That sounds reasonable, good idea. If I can leave it on a few seconds, I could get a good read of the control software, assuming it’s present in every nano-bot, like DNA in a human cell. If that’s the case, plan B becomes a lot safer if I can’t disable the beacon.”
Diana winked at me.
Jemma said, “We’d need to get approval, my standing orders won’t allow any part of the ship to leave this installation.”
Cassie nodded, “I’ll go talk to the general, why don’t you give him a tour of the ship, and then go pick a part out.”
I didn’t really need a tour, I knew its exact dimensions after a magic scan, but on the other hand I really wanted one. It’d be different seeing it in person.
The three of us headed for the ship, while Cassie headed for the exit.
Diana asked, “Any idea on the power source?”
“They use fusion.”
Diana snorted, “Cold fusion?”
“Nope, the sun kind. Hot fusion. They burn hydrogen at about five thousand degrees, their reactor is a sun the size of a basketball, with injectors to feed it hydrogen a few atoms at a time. They discovered an alloy that makes thermoelectric energy highly efficient, and it’s also a superconductor without freezing temperatures. The containment for the reactor turns all that heat into electricity to power the ship. It does it so quickly and efficiently that the heat doesn’t accumulate enough to melt containment. The tanks hold enough hydrogen to last a couple of months of hard use. Much longer, if the ship is idle. Anyway, it’s why the nanobots aren’t also containment, that alloy is extremely difficult to make.”
Jemma asked, “How do you know all that, if the core was damaged, jettisoned, and destroyed? It wasn’t there for you to scan with your magic.”
I’d wondered if anyone would notice that discrepancy.
I smirked, “Because, there’s a spare in the trunk.”
Diana’s eyes widened, and it was my turn to wink as I walked onto the ship.
Chapter Four
The inside of the ship was much like the outside, at least where we entered. The walls were a shiny light gray metallic finish. It was also very open, it appeared to be large fifteen by fifteen, by one-hundred-foot room, and there wasn’t all that much in it. Of course, it was basically a rectangle inside a tube, which meant there was plenty of small storage spaces between it and the hull that weren’t apparent.
A powered ship would be able to share that inventory, and even melt and shape the walls to hand it to the crewperson. That central room was just about half the ship, and clearly for storage.
Diana waved toward the front, and we moved that way.
“Can I see your tablet, Diana?”
Jemma gave me a suspicious look, and I suppressed rolling my eyes.
Diana handed it to me with a curious look on her face, and I sent my magic into it as I walked, then handed it back.
I said, “Everything I know about it. I organized it by scientific mathematical theory and discipline, then by system.”
Diana looked like she just might kiss me in that moment.
I said, “It’s worth looking at. Are you guys worried the aliens might attack, because this ship is… a scout. Maybe even an interstellar-shuttle. It only has one weapon system, energy beam technology.”
Jemma frowned, “What are you saying?”
I stopped for a second, “Alright, imagine a caveman gets sent to the future, and finds himself a Humvee with a fifty-caliber mounted on it. He’d be properly awed, might even take him a while to figure out how to open the door. He eventually learns how to drive, how to fill it with gas, and how to use the mounted weapon. Then… he finds out real fast he screwed up, when an apache shoots a missile at him, or a tank fires a large round, or an AC-130 brings the rain from so high up he can’t even see his opponent as the world explodes around him.
“This ship is awesome, nothing we have is close,
but I’m suggesting for the aliens it’s probably just a tiny scout. A tiny scout that could take over the world, but a tiny scout in their backyard. Granted, they could be a peaceful race, and only have one weapon for self-defense, but if that’s true, then you have no reason to worry at all in the first place. Well, except for them wanting to repo their technology from the primitive humans.”
Jemma asked, “What’s your point?”
I replied, “I imagine if Diana can learn the math and theories I put on that tablet, something stronger could be designed, if it’s necessary. My point is getting this ship to work is step one, at best you’d be one ship against god knows how many enemy ships that are equal to it. Assuming they even care. I’m sure the general would tell you that hope is a shitty plan. I hope none of it is necessary, but who knows what they’re up to.
“I’d even say the facts argue they’re peaceful, or they’d have made demands and started to dismantle the world looking for their ship seventy years ago. My guess is they simply don’t want their tech to pollute our natural evolution, and they’re waiting to collect it.”
Diana said, “He’s right. The underlying theories are more important than the ship itself, because human ingenuity will eventually take us in different directions than the aliens went.”
We started to move again, Jemma didn’t look all that happy with my insights, but I blew that off. Still, it was an obvious point, we might be in even more danger by getting it working.
The door opened up into the bridge, which was a room about twenty-five by fifteen by fifteen. The floor, walls, and ceiling were the same metallic color, but the four chairs were a dark brown. The four chairs surrounded a large blank rounded table in the middle of them. Of course, with power it wouldn’t be blank, it was a more advanced touch screen system, with a tactile holographic display above it.
Whoever the aliens were, they were obviously bipedal, and based on the height and size of the chairs they weren’t all that different from us. Despite having seen it all with my magic, it was a little eerie seeing it with my own eyes. Aliens.
We turned and left without a word, and we walked the length of the empty space to the back room, which was the engineering space. I imagined it wasn’t empty when it crashed, and I suspected most of its cargo was in labs or storage rooms in this installation for catalogue and study.
Tech Mage: Technomancer: Book One Page 3