Alien Enigma

by Bain, Darrell; Teora, Tony

  "Yes, sir. Where?"

  "My day cabin to begin with."

  "Great. Thank you sir." Rambling stood up to leave.

  "I think June will need to work with the shuttle pilots as well."

  "Good thought, sir. I'll get on it."

  Once Rambling had departed, Keane had called engineering and asked for a quick revamp of one of the extra control room workstations Wannstead Industries had so providentially provided the Doc Travis. He found it surprisingly easy to visualize Cindy Cantrell there dressed in combat fatigues, at least until a battle stations alarm was called. After that everyone went into environmental suits.

  ***

  "Air cover from a starship? That's a new one," Platoon Sergeant Martinez noted. Ordinarily the marines sent out with military starships were more of a contingency force for unexpected circumstances on planets already settled or to protect scientific staffs exploring worlds just discovered. "Don't think I've ever heard of supporting troops on the ground like that." Martinez, Sun Lee and Jeeta Suharto, the three platoon sergeants of A Company, were in the senior NCO dayroom discussing forthcoming possibilities of a big fight. A very big one. The platoon sergeants of B Company and Headquarters were doing the same thing elsewhere. Once each had plans worked out they intended to combine the best aspects of all of them.

  "You haven't heard of it," Sun Lee declared positively. "Look, let's bring the layout of a Worm city as we understand it now up on a simulator, then see if we think defensive and offensive operations using the ship will work as well as the officers say it will. I guess we'd better allow for the assault shuttles to be included as backup and for fine work, the real up close fire support."

  Suharto rubbed his hand through his short black hair. It was beginning to be streaked with gray. "The Chink's right. It hasn't been done before. Hell, I don't think it's ever been put into a simulator, much less planned for. Starships are for fighting in space, if they fight at all."

  "No time like the present to see how it works," Martinez said. "I'll start plugging in some data if one of you guys will make the coffee."

  "I'll get it," Lee said. "Wogs can't make coffee worth a shit." He grinned at Suharto, displaying a shiny gold eyetooth.

  "That's a woman's job," Suharto said dismissively.

  "Better not let the XO hear you say that. You'll be a private in the ranks again."

  "She won't hear me. Anyone want some jerky while we're playing games?"

  "Bring me some," Martinez said without looking away from one of the monitors the dayroom was equipped with. It was a large, three dimensional screen with enough background built into the corresponding memory to make its graphics flow easily back and forth and to different views as he entered new data drawn from Mundahan's downloads to the simulator.

  "Better put the heavy weapons platoon in there, Julio," Suharto said. "We may need them, too."

  "If we fight, we'll need every fucking thing we got."

  A half hour later they began running very basic assault patterns with the data, adding in air support from the ship, shuttles and heavy weapons in various combinations. It was indeed a new paradigm for the marines, and took a lot of concentration and correction of mistakes. Three hours later they were still at it when Lee glanced at his thumb.

  "I admire dedication but I don't admire it enough to miss chow. Let's take a break. I need to talk to a couple of my sergeants, too."

  "Same here," Martinez said. He saved their work and sent a backup copy to Eve, the ship's computer and to the marine battle computer in their section of the ship.

  ***

  If I'm not mistaken, the interest is mutual. But what can we do about it? Not a damn thing, likely. Cindy Cantrell had been to the control room, but not often. She doubted that Captain Keane showed quite so much interest in just anyone who came into his realm as he had to her just then. Not that it helped. As courtesy demanded, she reported to the official watch officer, denoted by the unwinking red light above the console, which belonged to Keane himself.

  "Commander Cantrell reporting."

  "Sign in," Keane said, giving the standard reply. He also gave her a slight smile, the barest lift of his lips that no one would notice unless they were looking for it. Cindy was, but she had no idea that it was because of her unanticipated attire.

  "Over here, Major Cantrell," June Mundahan beckoned from the newly activated alcove, one of the spares built into the ship just for such purposes.

  Cindy went over to where the commander had scrounged an extra battle chair and moved it into the alcove. She sat and Mundahan began introducing her weapons to the marine. An hour later she felt as if she had gone through a seminar on how much power it was possible to cram into one starship.

  "Commander, I knew Doc Travis had some heavy duty weapons, but this is beyond anything I was expecting."

  June Mundahan gave her a bright smile. "The problem is knowing how and when to use them. We were lucky before because we were engaging a city that wasn't completely finished. In fact, it was barely begun. I have to wonder how much more effective the defenses of a fully functional city will be."

  "Mmm." Cindy plucked at her tunic's collar. She had been in dress uniform only on formal occasions since embarking. "Well, the only way we'll know for sure is in combat. In the meantime, I guess we'd better start working up some scenarios for the simulator and see how they come out. I've got some that your NCOs devised that we can start with. I guess we'll have to assume that their defense center will be in the same location. Given that, I'll plug in some attack modes and let's see what happens if ..."

  "Whew! Time for a break, I think," June said.

  "I'm ready. Coffee?"

  "Let's go to my stateroom."

  The first thing Cindy noted was that Commanders had a much roomier living area than 'Majors'. June's bedroom was behind a closed door but the remaining area was double the size of her humble stateroom. After accepting the inevitable coffee Cindy wondered why Mundahan had brought her. There was coffee available in the control room and an alcove designed for short breaks.

  "In case you're wondering, I invited you here so we could have some girl talk," Mundahan said, as if reading her mind. "I'm June while we're in here, by the way."

  Cindy raised her brows and nodded. "Alright, June."

  "I've noticed the way Captain Keane looks at you-and you at him."

  "I ...I haven't done anything wrong, have I?"

  "No ...not yet, and I doubt you could so long as you're not in direct line of command. It's just appearances that the Captain worries about. Unnecessarily, I think. After all, it's no secret his girl friend found someone else while he was out last time and he got this assignment almost immediately afterward. I'm reasonably certain he's not um, involved again yet."

  She's trying to tell me something, Cindy thought. "What are you saying, June?"

  "Just don't be scared of him. He's a man, like any other. And we're a long way from home." She shrugged and smiled winsomely, as if she wouldn't mind the Captain looking at her in a certain way if only regulations didn't forbid it.

  "What am I supposed to do, trip him in a passageway?"

  June giggled like a little girl. It made her look much younger. "I probably wouldn't advise that, but ...if opportunity presents itself, I'd say grab it. He's really a pretty decent guy beneath all that formality."

  The two talked about life aboard the ship and relaxed for long enough to finish their coffee. After another session in the control room, both decided a four hour rest would sharpen the mind and allow Cindy to absorb the ship's weapon specs in private. When Cindy got back to her stateroom it gave her a lot to think about that night, tired as she was from working with the simulator and computers all afternoon and evening.

  If opportunity presents. Sure. When they were only about four days from the next city. She could see where all her time was going to be spent, and if it was in the control room in the presence of Captain Trent Keane, it was also in the presence of a dozen other people. The
good part was that she was already seeing the possibilities and limitations of air cover from the big ship. Most of its weapons were in the sledgehammer range, with the periphery of the areas of destruction well-nigh unpredictable. But there was no arguing with a pulsing barrage of plasma sweeping over an enemy concentration, or repeated rail gun strikes to dig out deep enemy concentrations.

  Tomorrow she intended to run some simulations with the rail guns, using recordings made from their last use as a guide. They would probably be better for precise work. But how precise? Maybe, she thought dreamily before finally falling asleep, she could think of a question to pose for Keane, and get him in range of her perfume.

  ***

  "That's about the best we can hope for, sir," Cindy said to her CO the day before reaching the next system. She had shown him all the projections and a summary of all the simulations she and June had worked up.

  "It's better than I expected, if not quite as good as I hoped," Rambling said. "Good job, Cindy." He turned his office screen off for the moment. "I hope you see now why I want you in the control room with Commander Mundahan and Captain Keane if the shit hits the fan, as I kind expect it to do."

  "You do?"

  "Yes. Just remember how the Worms acted the last time, and what their former captives have told us." He couldn't quite bring himself to call them slaves.

  "That would be hard to forget. Sir, I think we'll be okay if the ship is actually able to provide air cover for us. What bothers me is what might happen if it goes down after we're already committed."

  "That's an easy one. If we see we're going to be overwhelmed, we'll head for the jungles and wait for the Santa Cruz to bring help."

  Chapter Fifteen: Worm Soup

  Human beings are under the control of a strange force that bends them in absurd ways, forcing them to play a role in a bizarre game of deception.

  - Dr. Jacques Vallee, Messengers of Deception

  "The city here is finished, or near enough that I can't tell the difference from this far out," Commander Manheimer announced after the first visual report came in from the astronomy department.

  "Does it look any different from the old images of Xanadu?" Keane asked from his position in the control room.

  "We're still too far away to see that kind of detail, sir. Give us another few hours."

  "Com, go ahead and send the contact protocols, just in case this place is different. Set up a loop and have an auto-interrupt if and when we get any sort of reply."

  "Aye, aye, sir," Bogarty said and began the pre-recorded routine after adding a series of commands designed to alert them if a reply came.

  "Helm, steer a direct course toward the planet with a geosynchronous orbit insert on standby, but bring us in slowly. "

  "Aye, aye, sir," CPO O'Neal said from the helm. He was wearing a satisfied grin because he had control while Lt. Chavez was assisting Manheimer with the continuous updates from astronomy.

  "XO, check with the marines and pass on what we have so far. And I suppose we need to get Major Cantrell up here and ready. I know we're several hours away from any possible action but I want her to go over our battle station routine once more before we come into range. Remind her to bring her environmental suit, too."

  "Yes, sir," Dunaway replied. "When do you want us to go to battle stations?"

  "Let's hold off for a little while yet. We don't know how long we'll be in a holding pattern, if at all. No sense in getting everyone tired. Including us. In fact, I'm going to take a short nap. Call me in an hour or before then if anything comes up."

  Keane didn't think he really needed any sleep but he wanted to act as calm as possible. Taking a nap, if he could sleep, would serve that purpose admirably.

  ***

  Lt. Fred Jergens stood in one of the Doc Travis Engineering work rooms and brushed his hands through his recently shortened black hair while wondering how long it would take to grow back. Finally, he and Harriette were both available and had no other urgent tasks facing them. All the way to Beta Planet, one or the other had been called on to solve military problems, like wiring and connecting the new control room station and integrating it into the portion of Eve's CPU that handled battle tasks. Or delving into the mechanisms of the hand weapons used by both the Worms and robots. Captain Keane hadn't tagged working on the robots with any kind of priority so they were just now getting to them, almost at the same time the ship and its marines were preparing for combat again.

  Jergens looked at her and tugged at his drastically shortened hair. "When I asked Captain Keane why we had to wear short hair he gave me a number of reasons. One was so an enemy couldn't grab a ponytail while fighting you. I didn't tell him, but if anyone is depending on me doing hand to hand combat, we'll all end up as Worm soup." Jergens wiggled his hands like worms, and tried to make a monster face.

  Harriette smiled, familiar with Jergens's theatrics. "Well Fred, personally, I think your hair looks better a little shorter."

  "Really?"

  "Yes, but I think we should focus on examining the robots, don't you?"

  "Uh huh. Guess so." Jergens was beginning to like Harriette even though she was in her late twenties and he was about ten years older. Jergens hadn't had too many girlfriends since he finished his two master's degrees five years ago, one in Electrical Engineering and the other in Quantum Physics. As a matter of fact, when Jergens came to think about it, he hadn't had much more than a coffee date in the last five years. He didn't count a few casual hookups of one night. He did have a Japanese sex gaming toy he bought before shipping out, but that was a far cry from a real live girlfriend. "Harriette, let's pull out one of the robots and see what makes them tick."

  "Which type?" The robots brought to the ship were of two different sizes and presumably had different functions. The larger one, shaped somewhat like a small passenger car, was equipped with six appendages. They were arranged four in front and two in the rear, given that the "front" and "rear" terms were applicable. The raised part, comparable to where passengers were seated in a car, had a small round dome atop it, common to all the robots. The domes had been diagnosed as sophisticated com units. The area below it was open in one section and had been partially filled with power packs and the hand weapons which both the Worms and robots used. They had been removed to one of the science labs for study. The rest of the area was closed but had what were obviously hatches on both sides and the top, designed for access to its innards. The smaller version was shaped and arranged somewhat similar but had eight appendages rather than six. Both traveled on treads made of what, for a better term, consisted of elasticized metal.

  "The smaller ones appeared to be more active during the fighting, so I was told. Let's try one of them first." Jergens went over to switchboard where he had created a file for recording results within his personal computer space. He brought up another window and hit a few keys. "Although this is a shielded room, I want to run a test before taking our tin men out of their metal coffins. Let's make damn sure no strong electronic signals can get out of this room."

  "We better have at least a hundred dB reduction."

  Jergens looked at a spectrum analyzer screen. "We have over one-forty, I think we're good."

  Jergens typed in some codes and accessed the robot labeled X1. A metal door opened, giving access to the robots. All four were strapped to dollies for ease of movement. Even though they didn't weigh as much as it seemed they should, it did take some effort to move them around. He selected the one he wanted and pushed it out into the room and under the overhead light, leaving the door open. It was a broken robot with half its treads shot away and one end crumpled, looking like a metallic patient tied to a very low gurney. Computer screens and monitoring equipment surrounded it via overhead spring-like arms.

  Harriette pulled down a miniature, but powerful, magnetic resonance imaging scanner. It used new mathematical algorithms discovered by her DARPA friends to extrapolate internal imaging a hundred times faster than the older technologies. Giv
en that a metallic robot couldn't be injected with various radioactive dyes to provide enhanced imaging, she and Jergens had devised secondary magnets of varying intensity and modulation to complement the primary one. They were still joking over possible patents for the apparatus. She started the scan at the closed "passenger" area where a preliminary but brief examination had identified it as the robot's CPU. MRI scans on humans take time, but this particular setup allowed her to follow the imaging as it took place. A short ten minutes later she uttered a pithy exclamation then said "Look at this-it makes no sense at all!"

  "Holy shit," said Jergens. "That's shouldn't be possible!"

  The words were no more out of his mouth than banging, crashing noises began coming from behind them where the other robots were strapped to dollies. He turned and his mouth fell open, gaping like a fresh hooked tuna.

  "They're trying to break loose!" Harriette screamed. She rushed to close the hatch. Jergens broke from his startled amazement and ran to help. They barely made it. By the time he and Harriette got it shut and he was dogging the lock, the two unhurt robots had broken free of their straps and were beating at the hatch, trying to break it down.

  "Whew!" Jergens blew out a breath. "What happened?"

  "I don't know," Harriette said, "but we've got to go tell the Captain about this!"

  "We'd better get engineering down here first with some explosives and weapons in case they manage to break out."

  "I don't see how they could, but it damn sure wouldn't hurt, Fred!"

  ***

  "You said this was urgent, Lieutenant, but make it quick. We've got a battle to fight."

  "Yes, sir. Captain, we just discovered some odd readings regarding the smaller class of robots found on Sleepy," Jergens said.

  "Really? What?"

  "Well, first off when we were imaging what we believe to be the CPU, we found that its design is different than our computers. It uses three states for its logic code rather than the two binary states we use for our computers. It's called ternary computing, and it's in its early stages on Earth-but it's very powerful. The robot CPU somehow manages this with molecular circuitry which is much finer and more compact than ours, enabling it to perform far more elaborate and intricate tasking. That's not too important but during the imaging it also appeared to be trying to connect to a central command module. There was some kind of hierarchy code as if it and other robots of its type were subservient to a controlling entity of some sort. At the same time it appeared to be seeking any secondary source of data. We think."