The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception

by Andrew Beery

  Eleven approached the neutralized human probe. It was much smaller than Eleven, so he pulled it into one of his storage bays designed for sample collection. His primary programming kicked in, and the cybernetic probe, known as Eleven, resumed its original course.

  Unknown to Eleven, while he was studying the probe, the human probe was studying him. A detailed data feed was send via an ultra-secure and utterly untraceable quantum entanglement communications device. Old fashioned but highly effective thermite charges, rigged to mechanical deadman switches, insured the true capabilities and purpose of the probe would not be discovered.

  ***

  "So..." Cat began as she, her First Officer and a team from engineering began to brief Admiral Faragon. "The D'lralu probe started with a series of low power assaults designed, we think, to ascertain how robustly defended the target's systems are. It then followed up with a precisely tuned attack, which just defeated our probes defenses. Once defeated, it hit the probe with a ten mega joule electromagnetic pulse, frying the internal electronics."

  "What about our special payload?" The Admiral asked.

  "Infrared scanners on Ganymede station confirmed the activation of the thermite pack. The quantum link should be just so much slag mixed with the other bits of mining samples we planted," Ken Kirkland reported.

  "The best news is, this gives us a clear road forward."

  "Explain, Captain."

  "Well, Sir, since we now know that the D'lralu probe will seek to investigate technology. To inflict minimal damage, we can utilize that to get close to the thing, and in essence plant a tracking device."

  "How would you pull this off?"

  "As you recall..." Thais said, "We created two mining probe decoys. We use the second one to get the D'lralu to stop."

  Ken held up one hand flat and zoomed the other hand up to it, "While it's storing the second probe, we sneak onboard and plant the tracker."

  "And how does one 'sneak' up?"

  Cat smiled... “We are going to borrow a play from the D'lralu's game... We've fitted one of the shuttles with cloaking technology, very similar to what our friend out there is using. Obviously we can detect a ship through a hyper field deflector cloak, but our guess is the D'lralu can't."

  "That seems to be an awful risky assumption."

  "Not really, Sir. If they were aware of the vulnerability, they would have fixed it."

  Ken piped in..."All it would really take, is a second field designed to detect a sensor scan, and modulate the scan to cancel out the effects of the first field. We can do it, because unlike the guy doing the sensor scan, we know the strengths of both fields. Plus, the second cloak field is so much weaker it's unlikely that it could be detected."

  "OK... I'll buy you can cloak a shuttle but how do you plant the tracker?"

  Cat looked the Admiral directly in the eye... "You're not going to like it."

  Chapter Thirteen – Home World

  Eleven's sensors detected another electromagnetic signature. The craft seemed to be transmitting across a wide number of frequencies. Its behavior did not fit normal parameters and was deemed aberrant. A special subroutine was triggered. Eleven neutralized the alien technology per a well-established protocol, and moved in to recover the craft. Eleven continued to charge its EMP weapon.

  Cat watched the D'lralu probe approach her cloaked shuttle. She had been right. The Admiral had not liked their plan, but in the end he agreed that the rewards well out weighted the risks.

  The problem with the cloaked shuttle was, that there were very few options for leaving the shuttle, and entering the D'lralu vessel, in order to plant the tracker. Opening a door on the shuttle would disrupt the cloak. While a person wearing a vacuum suit tethered to the shuttle would also be exposed. The solution was suggested by Cal.

  Cat's unique Heshe nanites, and their ability to change her physiology, meant not only could she survive the rigors of space without a vacuum suit, but even more important in this instance, she could literally coat herself with a thin layer of metal, which would allow a miniature version of the shuttles cloaking displacement shield to mold over her body, while her Heshe enhanced muscles clung to the exterior of the shuttle. The plan was to simply float into the D'lralu's ship's bay with the second probe, once it was collected... Plant the tracker and then quickly exit before the bay door closed.

  It is a well-known fact that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

  ***

  Ken sat in the Captain's chair on the USC Yorktown. He had to admit, it was a nice seat. "Keep a close watch on our shuttle, Lieutenant"

  "Aye, Sir." Lieutenant Carstairs answered. "The probe's storage bay is opening up, just like last time. Our shuttle is right there so the Captain is in the right place... Sir, I am picking up something unusual... There seems to be a large buildup in their EMP generator"

  "What!" Ken yelled. “Quick! Call her back... If it fires that EMP, she is toast."

  Suddenly the cloak on the shuttle evaporated, as the D'lralu's EMP shredded the displacement field. In the next instance the D'lralu probe disappeared.

  ***

  Reconnaissance probe Eleven's threat mitigation subroutines responded to the sudden appearance of a vessel within close proximity. It did not pause to determine how the craft got to where it was. It did not link the random EMP that it discharged, as part of its previous evoked 'Aberrant behavior' protocol, with the collapse of the other vessels cloaking shield. It simply responded as per hardwired instinct, and performed a random jump.

  Once the jump was complete, Elevens cybernetic brain began the task of evaluating its current location, followed by the tedious two to three week task of calculating the jump back to the D'lralu home world.

  ***

  "Tell me you got a fix on where that ship jumped to…" Acting Captain Ken Kirkland said in a low voice, that still carried across the suddenly hushed bridge of the USC Yorktown.

  “No, Sir… I’m widening the scan radius but they could be anywhere,” Lt. Carstairs said while quickly adjusting the array of scanners available to the crew of the Yorktown.

  “Cal, any input right now would be welcome.”

  "I'm sorry Commander. The D'lralu cannot calculate jumps of any distance, without an extensive period of time in which to carry out the calculation. If the probe is not in the immediate vicinity, then it must have engaged in a random jump. Which means, there literally is no way to determine where to look."

  Ken flagged a nearby yeoman. "Fetch the Admiral!" Turning back to his sensor officer he asked... "If the Captain got caught in that EMP blast would she survive?"

  Cal answered. "The pulse was something on the order of 10 mega joules. The surface effect currents would be on the order ten to the third amps. Any organic tissue would not survive. Please note, that even had she entered the D'lralu's storage bay, the x-ray discharge from the overloading hyper-field generators would have proven fatal."

  The Admiral entered the bridge as Ken asked... "So the Captain is dead?"

  "That is most certainly the case..." Cal answered. "...at least another fourteen hours."

  ***

  The Heshe AI, known as Cal, was remotely linked via quantum entanglement to the heavily shielded encounter unit installed in Catherine Kimbridge's cloned host. The host was heavily compromised by extensive electrical burns and radiation damage. Its organic components were swarming with nanites, that were rapidly reconfiguring ruptured cells, and repairing DNA structures that had become damaged by the probe's EMP blast.

  Cat's memories were incrementally backed up ten times a second. Cal, who had become an expert, over the last fifty years, at reintegrating Cat's memories with organic systems, decided to systematically edit out the last three seconds of Cat's second life. This would reduce reintegration stress while at the same time providing enough of the experience of death to allow her to comprehend what had happened.

  Cal took the opportunity to have Cat's construction nanites harvest 3.2 kilograms of titanium from th
e ore samples in the D'lralu vessel's bay. This material was incorporated into her skeletal structure. Since she was most certainly heading into enemy territory, he instructed the nanites repairing her organic systems, to make certain enhancements. Her already enhanced strength was increased by fifty percent. In addition, her reaction time was enhanced, by augmenting slower neural pathways between her extremities and her brain with superconducting fibers. Finally, since Cat's nanites could continuously repair damaged blood cells, the production of new cells in her bone marrow was redundant. This space was now used to hold massive numbers of dormant nanites, that could swarm in mass to any site on her body and rapidly address any trauma that might occur.

  With her repairs complete it was time to reintegrate her memories.

  ***

  Cat opened her eyes. She had just entered the D'lralu's sample bay, when there was a bone-numbing pain and a bright flash that seared her optic nerves... Now the pain was gone and everything was dark. She had a really bad feeling about this. Her nanites where reporting near absolute zero and the lack of an atmosphere. She knew she was not breathing, but she felt no lack of oxygen. Her nanites, in addition to handling respiration via some other means, completely suppressed her breathing reflex. If she had to guess she was still in the D'lralu ship but clearly a period of time had passed.

  "Cal?" She thought.

  "Greetings beloved of the creator"

  "Where am I?"

  "You are here."

  "Not especially helpful... Tell me we are not playing this game again..." remembering the surreal feeling she had had, when she woke up after her fatal crash on Mars. "I take it something bad happened?"

  "If by 'bad' you mean electrocution followed by lethal radiation... Then yes, something 'bad' happened."

  "Can my nanites repair the damage?"

  "Captain, you misunderstand the severity of your situation. Most of your organic systems were carbonized by the currents induced by a ten mega joule EMP. It has taken almost sixteen hours to literally rebuild you molecule by molecule."

  "You can do that?"

  "Your encounter unit contains a complete schematic of your organic systems, as well as a redundant incremental backup of your cognitive system. Rebuilding was not difficult given that most of your organic matter was still in the general vicinity."

  "Trust me when I tell you, this is not the way I envisioned my day starting."

  "I should hope not."

  Cat looked around the chamber. Her eyes saw deep into the shadows. She suspected her Heshe nanites were extending the spectral range of her eyesight. Not for the first time, she mouthed a silent thank you for the sophistication of the little buggers she had running around in side of her.

  "I suppose the tracker was destroyed?"

  "That is correct. Also, some of its component materials were harvested to rebuild you."

  "That's disturbing on so many levels" Cat muttered. "If I can get out of here... What are the chances the Yorktown will be close enough to pick me up?"

  "Essentially non-existent. The D'lralu probe engaged a random jump just after the EMP blast. It was probably an automated defense routine, triggered by the sudden decloaking of your shuttle."

  "Great... We are God-knows-where, with no means of communicating..."

  "You are only partially correct."

  "Explain," Cat said suddenly hopeful.

  "God is indeed cognizant of our location... However, you are communicating right now with me."

  "True, but I was referring to communications with the Yorktown."

  "As was I."

  ***

  “Sir!” Ensign Davis shouted. “I have the Captain on comms.”

  Ken slammed his hand on the intercom button on the armrest of the command chair. “Admiral to the Bridge!” Swiveling his seat to face the Ensign he said, “Put her on speaker!”

  “Captain?”

  “Ken… it’s good to hear your voice.”

  “Yours too, Captain… can you tell us where you are?”

  Carstairs piped in, “Admiral on the Bridge!”

  “As you were,” the Admiral said.

  “Cat is that you?”

  “Yes, Sir… quite literally back from the dead.”

  Admiral Faragon grimaced... “Yes… Cal explained to us just how incredible those Heshe nanites in your system are. Can you tell us where you are?”

  “I’m afraid not, Sir. I’m still on the D'lralu ship, but I have no idea where that ship is.”

  “Understood… what are your plans… do you have access to food and water?”

  “Negative, Sir… but with the nanites neither is critical right now. I’m going to explore this vessel, and try to disable its AI. Once I have control, I will have a lot more options.”

  “Very good, Captain. Let us know what we can do to help,” the Admiral said.

  “Actually, Sir, I’m in continuous communication with Cal via his quantum link. With your permission, I’d like remote access to the ship's systems… especially stellar cartography and engineering.”

  “Captain, I can’t believe I’ve lived long enough to say this, but this is your ship… that doesn’t change just because you died.”

  “Thank you, Sir… I think… Kimbridge out”

  Chapter Fourteen – Eleven…

  Eleven’s internal sensors detected an anomaly. There was an unusual heat signature in a service corridor, just outside of the environmental control module for its cybernetic wet-pack. It could be a faulty sensor; the units in that corridor were scheduled for replacement on the next servicing rotation. Eleven decided to send a maintenance droid to investigate. He sent the unit to stores to secure a replacement sensor, just in case that turned out to be the issue. Before the droid returned with the spare part, the anomalous reading ceased, and Eleven’s mind went back to calculating the jump parameters to the home world. He estimated he had another two weeks before the calculations would be sufficiently refined to insure a proximal jump to the star system in question.

  ***

  "Turn left at the next junction," Cal prompted. He and Cat were carefully working their way towards the D'lralu probe's AI core.

  "How do you know that's the direction we want?" Cat asked.

  "I don't. I'm simply running a statistical probability algorithm, based on the tentative identification of surrounding structures, correlated against previous failure modalities."

  "You're guessing," Cat muttered..

  The corridor in question terminated against a sealed bulkhead door. The water pipe they had been following entered the wall just above the door. "So what do you think?" Cat asked.

  "I'd just be guessing."

  "No one likes an AI with an attitude." Cat muttered.

  "In that case, I'm inclined to speculate that we have reached our destination. The D'lralu tend to use organic components in their AIs... I can think of no other logical reason to transport water on an automated ship, other than in support of the AI."

  Cat looked at the door. She reached out and touched the surface briefly before Cal recommended she stop. As he explained, her nanites were very carefully controlling her micro environment to avoid triggering the numerous sensors installed on the ship. Apparently the D'lralu were paranoid as well as blood thirsty.

  "So how do we get in? If I read these D'lralu correctly, they will automatically blow this ship up, rather than allow another species to capture it."

  "I would agree with that assessment... It may, however, be possible to get the D'lralu to invite us in."

  At that moment a squat robot, that looked like an old-style 'Roomba' automated vacuum cleaner, turned the corner, and headed in their direction. Cat was not worried, they had encountered many of these machines. She knew, that so long as she did not touch it, her nanites would bend light and sound in such a way, that they would not detect her presence.

  "As it passes..." Cal instructed "reach out and touch it with your bare hand."

  "What?" Cat questioned urgently, sure she
had misunderstood.

  "I'm going to flood its systems with nanites and take control..."

  "Ahhh..." Cat thought as she briefly touched the passing robot. Immediately a quicksilver-like mass flowed from her hand into the robot... It shuddered for a moment, and then proceeded on its way as if nothing had happened.

  When the "Roomba", as Cat had started thinking of them, approached the door, it opened and the little machine entered. Immediately, the small device seemed to dissolve into the floor.

  Anticipating Cat's question, Cal explained that the device's entire mass had been rapidly converted into new nanites. These in turn, would start exploring the control room, looking for access to the AI.