by Nick M Lloyd
And a second alert was created by a passive observation programme running within a Gadium mini-bot which was happily sequestered in one of the main MOD datacentres in Basildon. The small size of the robot meant it had to be quite ingenious to get its message out, as its transmitter arrays were tiny and only suitable for short range communications. It couldn’t risk trying to hide in the MOD wireless network, as the MOD security was pretty good at detecting active tampering. However, the security guard with his swanky new mobile phone provided a short range Bluetooth connection which allowed the mini-bot’s message to get into the phone and then hitch a ride out on the 4G connection into the wider world. A Gadium watching programme running in a UK network provider data centre picked up the message and forwarded it onwards.
Chapter 15
In the crew room, Aytch was eager to review the data on Jack Bullage. He called across the room to Justio. ‘How long will we need to wait for data?’
There was a pause before Justio replied. ‘A small number of weeks.’
‘Would you like support updating the data aggregation feeds?’
Again, Justio let the silence stretch for a few moments then looked up. ‘It’s fine, Aytch, I’ve got it covered.’
Aytch stood and started to pace the room. Justio flashed a look of annoyance. ‘Aytch, just get on with your revision. Why don’t you read through a few intervention scenarios?’
Gadium training focused on data collation and analysis. Aytch knew they needed to wait for sufficient information before they could make a judgement on Jack Bullage. He sat back down. ‘Computer—Chapter 6.1.A.’
The computer generated text on the wall and narrated at the same time.
Chapter 6.1.A—Intervention Tenets
Overview
1. Gadium is committed to introducing new worlds into the galactic population
2. New worlds must successfully navigate a Full Emergence
3. Gadium will help any new world through its Full Emergence only if it is determined the new world can take a meaningful place in the galaxy
4. Until a Full Emergence is clearly underway Gadium intervention must be kept secret, irrespective of the new world’s attitude to aliens
5. If a successful outcome is at risk then produce models based on a 10-generation, 100-generation and 500-generation isolation. Where no clear advantage shows, act in favour of the longer isolation
This was basic material, and Aytch had memorised these many years previously. The onus was on Aytch to understand (through investigation of case studies and through hands-on experience) why these tenets were critical. The material on alien exposure was of particular interest. It was an area in which he had once watched Sharnia discipline his brother for a wrong answer. She’d lost her temper and not stopped far short of tearing him in half. He still had the scars. Never let them see us until the right time. Certainly the histories were full of case studies where a civilisation had collapsed utterly through the confluence of knowledge of alien worlds, and inability to join. The civilisations tended to revert to animalistic basics.
Chapter 6.1.D—Intervention Tenets
Professor Harkin Commentary
‘The act of Emergence for a species is a rebirth, the gains from Emergence are astronomic (literally—as they will gain the ability to perform inter-stellar travel). However, the inferiority complex usually sustained when not able to join is usually fatal to the…’
The narration and display froze as a high priority incoming message overrode the screen. Aytch had received a QET message.
The energy required for storing QET particles in a stable state was immense. The Gadium Earth team, like most other missions, had only enough quantum entangled particles to be able to encode a few hundred short messages (and their mission lengths were typically hundreds to thousands of years). Each QET particle could only be used once, after which it was useless, so once all the QET particles were used the communication reverted to tight beam laser. Given the power requirements, a regular Gadium ship could only generate a laser broadcast for distances less than fifty light years (and it was slow…only operating at the speed of light). Effectively, over these distances, once your QET ran out you were on your own.
It was marked as personal, and Aytch routed it to his communications tablet. Once decrypted, the message displayed in normal text. It was from Commander Sharnia.
Vantch. Monitoring indicates conflict, perhaps Triple Alphas. I suspect GF. No supporting evidence yet. Be alert.
It was big news to receive a second QET within a month, Sharnia very rarely wrote to him. Aytch reflected on the actual message. Conflict. It wasn’t unusual, particularly when Gadium forces were not yet on station to keep control. Gadium First. That was bad news, although Aytch noted with a grimace his grandmother did tend to suspect everyone of being covert members of GF. The planet Vantch was interesting though, it was a new mission in a star system relatively close to areas where Gadium were not well liked. Aytch was not 100% sure if the Gadium mission team had actually arrived on Vantch yet, but it was certainly due there sometime soon.
Justio looked at Aytch from across the room. ‘Anything interesting?’
‘Just a note from my family head, general concerns only—reminding me to focus.’
Justio held Aytch’s gaze for a few moments. ‘So nothing about Vantch?’
‘How did you know?’
‘I had a note from a contact back on Gadium earlier today. The GEC are trying to keep a lid on this, but they’re nervous. There is potential war on Vantch and it appears our mission team is still a few years away.’
Aytch nodded, although he couldn’t remember hearing the alert of another recent QET. Perhaps while I was meditating?
Anyway, he knew Justio was well-connected. You could hardly fail to be well-connected once you had been on 30 missions. ‘I’m sure we’ll sort out Vantch. What do you think the GEC will decide to do?’
Justio shrugged. ‘It depends on the severity of the conflict. If there are many self-aware Triple-Alphas on Vantch there may not be much we can do.’
‘Standard procedure is to remove them.’
‘Fine if there are only a few…but very difficult if there are millions of them. It’s not unheard of for a 0.5% Alpha Population to find out about Triple Alpha abilities and convert themselves, leaving the other 99.5% as Betas.’
Aytch nodded. He’d read a few case studies on those situations. The Gadium doctrine on those was generally to isolate the planet and wait for a long time. While any Triple Alphas remained there were no new Beta to Alpha transitions. In these situations, infants were born as Betas. So, after a while, tens of thousands of years, the Triples died out and the planet was left in a Beta state again. The Gadium mission would remain hidden and covertly interrupt any significant advances by the host planet in the areas of space travel, AI or stasis development. However, fundamentally, planets with high levels of inequality across the population typically didn’t have the energy to do anything much more than enforce their positions, bemoan their inequality and look out for themselves. It really was normally a simple quarantine—a forest-fire burn out. Unless. Unless the planet’s population knew about the Gadium mission holding them down, and gave the planet a common enemy to unite against. Then it was more difficult.
Aytch remained silent. Justio continued to talk. ‘Once they have 99 per cent Alphas, then we deal with them: treaties limiting AI, acknowledgement of Gadium primacy in galactic exploration. You know the drill, they get interstellar travel and enormous gravity-warping stasis machines.’
Aytch nodded. The 99 per cent limit was important for all sorts of reasons, not least as it was the level after which all new-borns were Alphas. Fully Emergent.
He opened up a few more Gadium bureaucratic texts; then he stopped and turned to Justio. ‘What would you do?’
‘I’d have to find out exactly what’s happening on the ground in Vantch. Currently, we know
nothing, just a few QET messages from the mission team. We don’t know what’s really happening there.’ Justio turned his full attention back to his own screens.
‘But, Madam Chairwoman, we don’t actually know what’s happening there!’ Councilman Smitter looked around the table for support and got a few murmurs which seemed to embolden him. ‘How do we even know for sure they haven’t reached Vantch?’
Sharnia forced herself to remain in her dangerously creaking chair. It was all she could do to stop herself from vaulting the table and ripping his whining head from his shoulders. The QET message from Vantch had come through a few days earlier, and already the information war was in full swing.
The Chairwoman stood up, also bristling with rage. Smitter sat down quickly. ‘We have three Gadium officers of the highest integrity on the mission. Their few QET messages have been consistent for the last 50 years. Their families are convinced of the veracity of their QET messages. I’m convinced too. There will be no more talk of failed mission cover-ups. So Councilman Smitter, do you have anything more to add?’
Smitter was not the brightest, he stood up. ‘I do not mean to cast aspersions on the integrity of our officers. However, the mission should have got there five years ago. All I am saying…it’s unusual and we should have full disclosure.’
The Chairwoman remained standing, still furious. She looked around the room and took a few deep breaths before continuing. ‘I wish I could offer the council full disclosure but, quite simply, I can’t.’
The intimation that the Chairwoman was holding back information from the ruling council flashed around the room. The murmuring rose again, with words such as GF and sabotage and failure bubbling up. The Chairwoman sat down.
Sharnia looked around for the reactions of the key players. The Deputy was characteristically passive, whispering the odd message to one of his aides who, as ever, stood in readiness behind his chair. Sharnia’s gaze swung around the table. There was no hard support here for the rumour that the Vantch Mission were covering up their own failures, but more evidence would gain it momentum. Her eyes came to rest on Commander Jenkins. Exemplary service record but with over-liberal tendencies. She was concerned about him; a few references over the last ten decades needed to be reviewed.
The landmass of Vantch was almost a single supercontinent, similar to Earth’s Pangaea period. But on Vantch there were two continents currently separated by about 10 miles of ocean. The sentient inhabitants were very similar to humans, basically: mammalian, biped, heads, hands, faces, noses, etc.
The technology prevalent on Vantch was on a par with mid-20th century Earth. A closer inspection of the cities on Vantch showed the current sentient species appeared to be the second sentient species to have made this planet their home. There were residues of a previous owner, long since departed. Many of the buildings found were made from technology far in advance of the current incumbents. The new inhabitants had simply moved into the buildings left behind by the previous owners but had not learned the technology required to improve them.
At the northern end of the continent of Harfi, within the second largest city, a conference was being held to confirm the status of a new religion, led by the self-styled Prophet. The religion, The Many Paths, had, for the last five years, been gaining enormous traction.
The Palace of Infinite Wisdom, set in the middle of the city, was the focus for the conference; around the building large crowds had gathered. Mostly the members of the crowd were dressed in the orthodox clothes of the ruling party; full grey cloaks with hoods thrown back. However, there were pockets of people wearing the white trousers and green shirts of the Disciples of the Prophet. These small crowds were surrounded by armed soldiers.
In one such small group, the leader, Klope, one of the original converts to The Many Paths, pulled up his green shirt to reveal a tattoo of the sign of the Prophet—a single star circled by eight identical planets all equidistant from the centre. Klope called out above the noises of the crowd. ‘Freedom in my world. I walk the many paths.’
Just a handful of metres away, across the other side of the line of soldiers, an old lady dressed in the grey cloak stood resolutely facing Klope, holding her home-made placard. It read ‘One world. One god. One path.’
Klope made eye contact with the old lady and shouted to her. ‘The Prophet walks amongst the sick on Lokis. Healing them and succouring them. What does your Prelate do for you?’
‘He prays for us. As he prays for you also. There is one world, god’s world, and one path, god’s path.’
Klope felt the rage build. He remembered the old ceremonies, with this Prelate. Familiar and comforting, but lies…and now Klope’s eyes were opened. The Prophet had walked out of the crystal caverns of Dunsat and his words had shown the glory of the myriad of possibilities out there—The Many Paths. Yes, the simple monastic religion of The One was still prevalent here, but its days were numbered, its fires were burning low. ‘You have been misled, old lady. The Prelate does not pray for anyone but himself and his continued corruption of this world. Emancipation is near. Truth is near.’
The old lady’s eyes did not waver. ‘Was it truth driving your Prophet to order the atrocities in the monastery of Fairport?’ There was a murmuring from the crowd around the old lady. A swell of support for her words. The grumbling grew as they noticed Klope was not backing down. There was a general movement towards Klope’s group; the soldiers held the line, but were not quick to push the crowd back.
Klope noticed the looks shared between the soldiers and felt the animosity. This was not the day to make a stand, he decided, and turned away, back to his group. This is not your world, old lady. This is my world. And in my world the Prophet brings freedom to all of us.
The old lady saw Klope turn away, but called after him. ‘Is this your world? Is this what you have shaped for yourself; for us to share with you?’
Another Disciple close to Klope noticed the exchange and moved up to comfort him. ‘I, for one, am proud to be in your world, brother.’
Klope looked gratefully at him. ‘And I in yours, brother.’
Their moment was broken by a trumpet call from the Palace, and the crowds hushed as a delegation came out from the main doors and worked their way down to a large podium close to the main gates.
Chapter 16
Louise left the MOD unhappy with her achievements. She’d been so pleased with her performance of the heartbroken mother story. Yes, she’d managed to get confirmation Project Hedgehog had existed. It was obviously something the MOD was trying to keep quiet, and the General had looked pretty shocked when he read whatever he’d found. But she’d not walked away with any significant new information.
She got back to the Daily Record and started to write up the interview. Midway through, Harry Jones came to her desk.
‘Hey, Louise. How did it go?’
‘Pretty well. We’ve got the piece, with decent anonymous quotes. I’ll have it finished by 4pm.’
‘You’ve been flat out for ages now. Get me the first draft by 3pm, then go home and start the weekend early.’
‘Thanks, Harry, I appreciate it.’
By 3pm, the draft was in Harry’s inbox and Louise was out of the door.
Outside the tube station, Louise called Jeff to see how he was doing. Unfortunately, he was deep inside the University campus where the phone signal was severely restricted by the vast amounts of scientific equipment and electromagnetic shielding. So Louise left a message. ‘Hey, love. How are you doing? How’s the school of lust?’
Back home, Louise booted up her laptop and, with a cup of tea next to her, started more web sleuthing. Something more on FibonacciEddie perhaps? Louise loaded three different search engines and started surfing. She reviewed some of the old web postings and made some new searches.
After three or four hours, using very diverse searches, Louise found nothing of note related to Project Hedgehog. Nothing there, or just well hidden? The more
she searched, the more frustrated she became. There was nothing there. When Jeff came home, Louise related her disappointment.
Jeff soaked it up. ‘I would take the lack of information as a positive sign. We know there is something real and so there should be something coming up. Looking for the holes can be rewarding.’
Louise brightened. ‘Maybe the lack of references means the information has been cleansed. But we’re no closer to finding out what it actually means. Were there positive results? Are they just very embarrassed about wasted money? Were there unnecessary deaths?’
For a few moments Jeff was silent. ‘Did you search on drugs and mind-control? There was some whacky stuff postulated in the 60s.’
‘I tried all that.’
‘Well, no harm done, every loose end chased down means we are…’ Jeff paused.
‘We’re what?’
‘Not sure, I was hoping you would finish the sentence with something utterly motivational.’
Louise arched an eyebrow and, although her heart wasn’t in the retort, she made it anyway. ‘You can’t rely on me to do everything.’
Jeff leant over and gave her a kiss then disappeared into the living room.
Louise heard the television go on, and returned her attention to her laptop.
A few hours later, in his cabin, Justio saw one of his private email addresses had received a new message. It was an alert notifying him that searches were being made on the internet with a combination of words indicating interest in Project Hedgehog. Justio recorded the information and then checked to see if the UK Ministry of Defence had any alerts.
Interestingly they had a totally separate alert generated by MOD personnel accessing information on Project Hedgehog purely internally. Two separate incidents. Justio made a note of the details, and considered what to tell Aytch.