“I’ve read about the disease you mentioned,” Jenetta said. “It was terrible. So you believe the memories might still exist in the cyborgs, but they just can’t be accessed?”
“Yes, Admiral. If we could learn how to restore the severed links, the cyborgs might regain access to all of their memories, but there’ll have to be a lot more research done before any advancements can be made in that regard. Since the Denubbewa have literally exterminated entire species, there’s no way to study any living members of those species.”
“How were you even able to communicate with the cyborg’s biological brain?”
“We couldn’t— at least not directly. So we discovered a way to communicate with the cyborg’s interface box. That’s really an electronic brain of sorts, although the higher level of control rests in the biological brain. In order to communicate with the cyborg’s biological brain, we had to first crack the encryption code that prevented interference with its orders from superiors. Once we managed that, we were able to remove all of the programming in the interface box and install our own while the biological brain remained untouched.”
“So once you cracked the access codes, it was like deleting an operating system in a computer and installing a different operating system?”
“Exactly, Admiral. I’ve heard that you were once involved with cryptology with SCI so I’m sure you understand the difficulties we faced.”
“Does your success mean you can now also alter commands that have been sent to a cyborg by its supervisor?”
“I— suppose so, although that wasn’t our goal with the cyborg we worked with. We wanted to completely realign his loyalty. Once that was done, he was receptive to whatever new commands he received from us. We also created a new, more sophisticated encryption system to block any changes from the Denubbewa. We believe they would now have to remove and replace the interface box to regain control.”
“But the cyborg you altered was still able to hear all of the electronic chatter aboard a Denubbewa spaceship?”
“Correct. But nothing could alter the programming we had uploaded. While pretending to follow new directions from Denubbewa supervisors aboard the ship, he could make decisions regarding the actions he believed were necessary to complete his mission. We made him loyal to us but gave him the ability to think for himself as long he performed in line with the policies and ideals of the Galactic Alliance. We tried to give him decision-making abilities as close as possible to that of a live person. His mission was dangerous, and we believed the odds of him surviving and completing his mission were about one in ten thousand. But we wanted him to have a semblance of life for as long as he lived.”
“So we can override commands given to Denubbewa cyborgs by their supervisors now that you’ve broken their encryption scheme,” Jenetta said in a thoughtful manner. “Commander, could it be done remotely?”
“I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t, as long as the Denubbewa haven’t changed the encryption system that controls access to the interface boxes. If they haven’t, we can issue new commands at any time, just as if we were the cyborg’s supervisor. However, the command cannot disagree with their basic programming.”
“You mean that if we were to issue an order to a cyborg still under the influence of the Denubbewa to kill their supervisor, it wouldn’t be carried out?”
“Most likely not, Admiral. To accomplish that with any certainty, we’d first have to delete their basic command system and install a new one.”
“How long would that take?”
“To do it remotely, we’d have to learn the individual’s identification number. If we knew that, it could be done in a matter of minutes.”
“And how would you learn their identification number?”
“We’d have to poll the cyborg with new numbers until it responded.”
“I know you don’t want to tie yourself down with a time that may not be accurate, so give me the shortest possible time and the longest time you suspect might be required to achieve that.”
“I would have to say it would take anywhere from ten seconds to— ten minutes for each cyborg. That’s assuming a direct line-of-sight contact so we would know when we were successful.”
“Thank you, Commander. That’s all I needed to know. The other members of the Board may have questions for you.”
* * *
Chapter Five
~ April 6th, 2292 ~
Several hours later, the A.B. members were relaxing in the comfortable seating section of Jenetta’s enormous office to conduct a closed executive session. No aides or clerks were present, and all recording devices were turned off.
“Did Commander Ellingford’s responses answer all your questions, Jen?” Admiral Bradlee asked after taking a sip from his coffee mug.
“Yes. Although it’s not what I’d hoped for.”
“What were you hoping for?” Admiral Holt asked. “Did you expect that we could simply turn the cyborgs off with the flick of a switch?”
“Turn them off? No. I originally hoped that if we could make them remember who they had been before they’d had their memories taken from them, we might be able to realign their sentiments with ours. I believed the possibility was slim, but it was worth asking. When that seemed to be ruled out, I hoped that we might be able to take control of the drones and order them to destroy their supervisors before laying down their arms.”
“That’s not entirely out of the question,” Admiral Woo said, “if I understood the commander’s response. We merely have to learn their assigned individual identifier.”
“According to what we heard in my sister’s initial conversations with Sywasock, their identifier is seventeen digits long, and it’s composed of numeric and alphabetic characters. Assuming an alphabetic value of just twenty-six characters and base-10 mathematics, the number of possibilities have to be in the thousands of sextillions. It’s not something we can really guess at with any hope for real success. Either the drones would have to tell us what their Denubbewa ID is, or we’ll never know in time for it to do any good.”
“Then the only thing to do is fall back on the idea of bombing each of the thirty-eight locations where those cyborgs are rebuilding warships in the rubbish piles,” Admiral Hillaire said.
“There’s no real hurry,” Jenetta said. “At the moment, they can’t escape from the rubbish ring around Lorense-Four, so we can continue to monitor their progress with CPS-16 flights. If we can’t come up with another solution by the time they near completion of the first warship, we’ll still have time to blow them to hell.”
“Do you have another idea, Jen?” Admiral Bradlee asked.
Jenetta took a deep breath and expelled it quickly in a sign of frustration with herself. “Not at the moment, Roger, but I’m going to concentrate on finding one. There has to be a better solution than one that requires us to fill space in this solar system with garbage because we scattered those weightless mountains of rubbish in a million different directions. The stored missiles aboard Sywasock’s ship were all unarmed so we felt safe transporting the destroyed ships without separating all the rubbish at the battle site. But if we begin detonating WOLaR bombs in those piles, who knows what else might be detonated? I’m hoping I can find a less dramatic solution.
“Oh, and I just received a message from the Senate Council. They’ve approved my request to establish a Marine Ground Force Initiative. They’ve decided they have the power to approve the initiative under existing Senate rules without taking it to the full Senate. That way, the expansion remains a closely guarded secret— for now— and prevents mass panic among Galactic Alliance citizens. They’ve released funds from their discretionary-allotments account, which will be fully adequate to get the program started, and they’ve promised that the GFI will be fully funded in our next annual budget.”
~ ~ ~
Just seven hours after departing from Doc on its way to Grumpy, the Ares received a Priority-One message from Commander Burl Kalborne, the temporary
base administrator. Gavin naturally played it immediately, leaning in for the retinal identification scan and then sitting back to listen to the message from the captain of the Scout-Destroyer Ottawa.
“Captain, the base is under attack from within,” Kalborne said. “Cyborgs have gained a foothold in three of the fourteen CJ Gate rooms. We’ve managed to stop them at the other eleven Gate rooms because Marines immediately open fire with laser rifles as soon as cyborgs materialize in any of those booths. When a new group of three appears, the dead ones disappear. I don’t know if they’re being returned to the sending location or if the process vaporizes their bodies. I’ve just given orders to take whatever steps are necessary to power down those eleven booths. If the booths are rendered permanently non-usable in the future, I take full responsibility. I can’t fight a war on fourteen fronts with such meager Marine forces.
“At the three booths where the cyborgs first began to appear, our forces were overwhelmed before they knew what was happening. They pulled back out of the room to regroup and then were unable to reenter the room because new cyborgs were arriving every few minutes. As you instructed, we had installed the video monitors so we can observe the activity in the room. At present, the cyborg strategy seems to be to bring as many reinforcements into the room as possible in preparation for a massed attack. They’re packing them in against the four walls, but the room only appears large enough to accommodate about forty-five to fifty. All seem to be armed with laser weapons. Our Marines are wearing their personal armor so we believe we can hold the station. My people have moved away from the doorway now and are positioned at either end of the corridor outside the Gate rooms. As they wait for the Denubbewa to emerge for the expected assault, they’re constructing barricades using whatever they can find. I’ve also positioned people in the access tubes behind the rooms and in the rooms on either side of the Gate room in case they try to break out by cutting through the rear or side walls. The cyborgs apparently haven’t yet realized there’s a camera mounted on the wall.
“We could sure use some support but know it will be days before any can arrive. Please send reinforcements as soon as possible.
“Burl Kalborne, Commander, Captain of the GSC Ottawa and temporary administrator at the new Space Command base. End of message.”
Gavin sighed quietly. The Ares was already traveling at its maximum speed of Light-14,685.7 so there was nothing Gavin could do to get there quicker. But he could alert the other base administrators.
“Priority-One message to the Administrators of the five Space Command bases identified in the computer as Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Friendly.
“The new Space Command base where Commander Kalborne was assigned is under attack by the cyborgs from within. They’re entering the base via the fourteen CJ Gates located in that former Denubbewa mothership. You have all received information regarding the Gate rooms, and I’m sure you’ve heeded it and taken the ordered actions.
“Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security if your station hasn’t been attacked yet. The cyborgs may appear at any time. I suggest you immediately triple the forces assigned to the rooms. We will reinforce you further as forces become available.
“Stay alert!
“Lawrence Frederick Gavin, Captain, Captain of the GSC Ares. End of message.”
After Gavin had sent the recorded message to the five bases, he then sent messages to all ships still at the former battle site. Most were ordered to proceed to one of the seven new bases with all possible speed. The chore of protecting what was left of the Denubbewa ships from scavengers fell to a handful of CPS-16s. Although small when compared to a destroyer, each CPS-16 had multiple habitat containers loaded with deadly ordnance attached to its keel. In a brief fight, it was almost the equivalent of a Scout-Destroyer. Its main limitation was the amount of ordnance it could carry.
Although Gavin didn’t know that Quesann was presently fighting an army emerging from Gates not destroyed in the earlier attacks by Space Command vessels, Holt had previously told him that Quesann was harvesting all Gates it found in the wreckage. To Gavin, it made sense that some might still be operational. He couldn’t inform anyone not already in the know about the Cosmic Jump Gates, so he merely appended a message to the CPS-16s that Quesann continued to find live Denubbewa cyborgs in the destroyed ships returned to Lorense-Four for recycling. He warned all ships remaining to guard the mountains of rubbish because cyborgs could emerge from the debris fields and attempt to reach the picket ships, entering though an airlock or merely attaching themselves to the hull until an opportunity presented itself.
With his messages sent, Gavin sat back in his office chair and thought about the fight ahead. No matter how much he willed the Ares to travel faster, it wasn’t going to happen. He would just have to trust that his people would still be alive and in control when the Ares reached Grumpy.
~ ~ ~
“Sywasock and his people have discovered why the Denubbewa were unable to open an Armada CJ Gate and so had to resort to barely usable Personnel CJ Gates,” Admiral Plimley said to Jenetta.
Jenetta looked up at the monitor in her office and replied, “You have my undivided attention, Loretta.”
“During our investigation of the ship Christa brought back, one of the ORDER engineering teams removed an unknown device from a console on the ship’s bridge. Lt. Daminchic and Lt.(jg) Stiddant believed they had found an ultra-small long- distance communications device. So, in keeping with the orders to all Observe, Remove, Disassemble, Evaluate, and Report team members, they removed the object from the console and turned it in for further inspection in the lab. We found it with the other pieces of equipment that had been logged in and stored for later intensive scrutiny. Of course, since most of the people who would have normally examined it were totally occupied learning about Gate technology, the disassembled equipment is still waiting for proper examination. Anyway, Sywasock says the unit from the bridge is a long-distance communications device. It’s a transponder unit capable of being activated remotely. There’s one in every Personnel CJ Gate. If that device had been in place, the Denubbewa could have opened a massive Gate right here in our backyard. We could have found ourselves suddenly facing thousands of motherships and hundreds of thousands of warships. All ships in the fleet capable of establishing a double envelope would have been safe, but Quesann would have been lost for sure.”
“Thank heavens for lucky breaks. This is extremely disturbing news, Loretta.”
“Disturbing? It’s great news. The Denubbewa probably tried to open a Gate large enough for an armada to suddenly appear here, but failed. They must have initiated a backup plan to send cyborgs here that could occupy captured enemy ships right under our noses, never realizing the Gates they were using were buried in masses of material being recycled.”
“It’s extremely disturbing because it raises a lot of other questions, such as did we really find that Denubbewa ship by accident, or was it left there purposely for us to find?”
“You’re saying that Sywasock and his people are really Denubbewa double-agents?”
“Not necessarily. They might truly believe they were escaping and taking a highly dangerous weapon out of the hands of the Denubbewa. But what if they had been programmed to think that? What if they were placed where Christa found them? Remember, they never would have been found if they hadn’t been so close to that derelict ship. And why was that supervisor cyborg equipped with Dakinium armor? We’ve never seen any other cyborg wearing armor, much less Dakinium armor. But that was the only way he could hitch a ride on the outside of the Koshi. It enabled him to come here, pick up all kinds of intelligence information, and return to Region Three where he passed it along to his superiors. The Denubbewa then knew exactly where the Second Fleet could be found and where the G.A. leadership met.”
“But would they risk losing an entire team of scientists with advanced knowledge of wormhole physics?”
“They’d have to. They knew we’d never bu
y it if they tried that scenario with a bunch of mindless drones. By using some of their best and brightest, we fell for it completely and brought a ship with Armada Gate hardware right into our most important solar system. On Earth, around 25 B.C., a Roman poet named Publius Vergillius Maro is reputed to have written: ‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.’ He was referring to the Trojan Horse filled with soldiers that led to the downfall of the city of Troy after a fruitless ten-year siege by the Greeks in the eleventh century B.C. Tactics change slightly, but we must never forget the lessons of the past. That goes double for military strategists. And the Denubbewa might have believed they had a good chance of recovering their scientists after the battle was over.”
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