“I do not consider it a waste of time. Hive creatures do not function with fear as a motivating factor. They are driven by millions of years of evolution and tend to follow tried and true practices that have continued over time to advance their growth. The fact that they were defeated once by the Umon might prevent them from coming back. More likely, it will not. They will just bring more of their kind, probably more ships and several more queens to make sure they have a leader should another be killed. In fact, they will likely have followed the same course for millennia and will not change the way they go about conquest.
The ships they build are probably replicas of those taken from other conquered species. I say that because such hive groups tend to stick to any method that works. Building spacecraft would not likely be among their talents. Nevertheless, if they managed to conquer a space traveling species, their ability to copy technology would allow them to expand their reach. Whether they would have gone on to design and build their own spacecraft seems farfetched to me. So I am of the view they will not have improved their space traveling abilities much at all once they left their home planet.
If humans and Umon focus on building what you call FTL craft, you will remain far superior to them. My judgment is that the Umon are correct in that it would be best to engage them far out of this system. Thus, discovering them first should be a priority.”
I nodded and then realized I had not turned the video on. The computer knew only was what I was typing in. It could not see me, and for some reason I now thought that rather stupid. How could we truly interact if neither of us could see the other?
“Computer, is the video on? Are you able to see me?”
“No, and no. I do not activate video unless requested or it is obvious that it should be on. Do you wish me to do so?”
“Yes,” I said. “I think I would be more comfortable looking at you while we talk. Can you create an avatar with whom I could reasonably relate?”
“If you wish. What image would suit you best?”
“Perhaps, Captain Picard?”
“Of the fictional Star Ship Enterprise?”
“Yes, I think I would like that.”
“Your wish is my command. Is this sufficient?”
A hologram of Captain Picard came up on the control board. He was standing before a view screen.
“Can you put him in a command chair?”
“Certainly.”
Now I was looking at a three dimensional close up of Jean-Luk Picard sitting in his bridge chair, hands resting on the arms and command buttons. Other members of his crew were busy in the background and when the computer spoke, it seemed to be coming directly out of Picard’s mouth.
I must be losing my mind, I thought. Here I am talking to a fictional character on a fictional star ship, just because I had a need for personal contact.
“Okay,” I said. “That looks good. I feel much better now.”
“Your answer would imply that you have not been feeling good. Perhaps you should go to the medical facility for a check-up?”
“No, I’ve just been too busy lately and was feeling the need for companionship.”
“What about your friend, Lt. Commander Sakura? Are you and she not talking anymore?”
“Of course, but we’ve both been extremely busy.”
“And that interferes with the functioning of your mouth?”
“Ah, not quite. We have simply not been able to see each other as much as we would like and unlike you, we cannot communicate effectively when separated. Yes, we could use the com/link, but that is rather impersonal and we are not an impersonal couple.
Now that you mention it, I think I am going to suggest we go to the lounge for a drink and a chat tonight.”
“I can send her a message.”
“No thanks. I’ll do it myself. She would not think well of me if I delegated that duty.”
“As you wish. Now, would you like to continue our conversation about the aliens?”
“Yes. From the descriptions given to you by the Umon, do you have an idea where the aliens might have come from?”
“Yes, they set a course, presumably back toward their home planet or the last one they had conquered. The course data is a series of complex numbers and their home star is probably over a thousand light years away. I say that because in that particular direction, the closest star is a thousand light years away. I do have a straight line track of the way they were headed when they left. If they were not trying to mislead the Umon, it was again out through the outer bands of the system and would have gone through what humans call the ‘Oort Cloud,’ in the Sol system.
It is also possible they might have stopped on one of the outer planetoids. Some of them are known to harbor water and possibly a thin atmosphere. It is extremely cold out there and most large bodies are either made of ice or contain a great deal of it. If the aliens are in fact like large black ants, they might have been able to survive frozen or in one of their ships for a very long time.
It is worth checking out. Even after hundreds of thousands of years, they could still survive if they were hibernating and waiting for reinforcements to arrive. And, that would make more sense than going all the way back to their star system and then returning to the fight. The Umon did say they periodically picked up alien signals, but they did not say how far out they thought those signals had originated. You’d need to ask them if they have an estimate, or if you wish, I could do it.”
“Please do. Just tell them that I have asked the question. Now, I have been planning to talk with the Captain about all of this soon and have formed the basis in my mind for a defensive network to possibly include a counterattack.”
“I thought as much and was stimulated by your question regarding the alien methods of communication. I have been working on that. The sounds made by the aliens and reproduced by the Umon are indeed reminiscent of your Earth’s old style telemetry. Why they would all be talking at once is perplexing. Nevertheless, I think I may have an answer by way of analogy. Do you recall a song called, “I’ve been working on the railroad, all the live long day?”
“Wow,” I said. “You really have been doing your homework. Yes, I do remember it, although it is many, many hundreds of years old. I believe I first heard it in an old Earth movie.”
“Yes, and it goes like this:
I've been working on the railroad
All the live long day
I've been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away
Can't you hear the whistle blowing
Rise up so early in the morn
Can't you hear the whistle blowing
Dinah, blow your horn.”
I had a sudden inspiration. “That song was of a type sung by prisoners working on a chain gang or workers while harvesting some crop. They did it to pass the time while doing repetitious work. Is that what you are saying, that the beings were just passing the time while carrying out their function?”
“Yes, I think that would explain it. And the ending, ‘Dinah, blow your horn,’ would have been the signal to stop working. Careful examination of the noise suggests that at the very end of whatever they were saying, they were asking the same kind of question: Can we stop now?”
“So, the way to get them to stop is to get their queen to shut them down?”
“Yes. Of course, that should have been obvious given the hive as their model. Without a queen to take care of they are without purpose, so the first thing they do is make another queen. Of course, if they’d brought another queen along, there would have been no break in the attack. So, I am suggesting that if and when they are detected, they are likely to be in more than two ships as they were before. And, I believe each ship would have its own queen with the last ship designed to carry out a final extermination attack if those in the lead failed.”
“So, it would make sense to consider the last ship the primary target? If their main force is destroyed, they might remain so determined to win that they
would commit suicide rather than give up and have to come back again?”
“That is not unlikely; however I do not think they would view it as suicide. They would just be carrying out whatever their last order was.”
“Is it possible” I asked, “… that we could duplicate that order? To broadcast an order for them to stop what they were doing? If we could do that, we would not have to worry about the last ship unless it gave more orders.”
“Possibly. I will have to work on it to make sure I am right as to which verse is the actual order to stop.”
“Please do, and when you have achieved as much as you can, call me for another talk.”
∆ ∆ ∆
Once the situation was discussed with the colonists, they started working remarkably well with the Umon and ultimately had things running like clockwork. There is nothing quite like the fear of attack to stimulate hard work.
The colonists were directed to continue with the plans they had previously developed, but to give priority to building out a planetary defense system. Priority within that concept had to be manufacturing plants for new colonial spacecraft with an emphasis on fighters that could exceed light speed. Those were to be provided to the Umon first so they would know we were serious about protecting them and providing them with the means to strike from very long range. We also thought we needed more fighters of our own, but believed the Kennedy and Kepler Dawn squadrons would be sufficient for the near future to deal with any attack directly on Dawn.
There was no objection to giving priority to the Umon. Fulfilling our promise to them was seen as critical. While the Umon did not have a practice of titling property, they did recognize its importance to the colonists and knew they would work all the harder to get things done when that title was transferred. From there on, less critical trade could be established.
I know that is how I felt and believed. It was a factor of considerable importance and one that would cement relations between us all. When it was accomplished, those of us remaining on Kepler Dawn could all feel better about travelling to another system and leaving the colonists to their own devices.
∆ ∆ ∆
Once the defensive plans were in place, focus was turned to rejuvenating the life forms on Umon. One of the first things realized was that we would need more pollinators if we were to clone Earth plants to fill in the dead spots not yet recovered. The various plants and flowers that existed there should not have been able to survive without them, but as it turned out most of the native plants were self-replicating and without need for pollination. Still, we wondered if that would be sufficient if we were to introduce Earth crops that required such pollinators. Much study was necessary to develop a compromise between them.
As for the replacement of Umon animal life, it was a snap. Kepler Dawn possessed millions of frozen embryos from various Earth animals and was able to bring them to life quickly. Once a large number of bison, for example, were created and turned loose, they replicated like rabbits. Predators would have to be introduced to help control many of the animals introduced, but it had all been planned out in advance back on Earth and proceeded apace. The Umon were thrilled.
Not being staffed by agronomists or biologists, the military crews of Kepler Dawn and the Kennedy stood back from colonial work and focused primarily on the security and rejuvenation of our ships for the next leg of our journey.
Miki and I were kept so busy we’d hardly had time to maintain our relationship. We’d become, without intention, the primary link between the Umon and our colonials. Rewards were plentiful, however, with promotions following until we could go no further without commanding our own large ships. That was not going to happen for many years, but we expected more ships from Earth to arrive at any time.
Unfortunately, that did not turn out to be the case. We’d been in orbit around Dawn for five years and had watched as the colonists expanded their works into a bustling colony with cities all over the prairies and the mountains beyond our original landing site. We were wondering when we might expect the next Earth ship when we found out the brutal truth. The powers on Earth had decided to send the next expeditions to other planets, such as were known to exist in the Trappist-1 system only forty light years from Earth.
I was consumed with anger for more than a week at this news, as were many others on the ship. We’d known of Trappist 1 as well as Gliese 667, both red dwarf stars within twenty to forty light years of earth and known to have planets in the habitable zones. They were also observed releasing massive plasma flares now and then and few of the planets observed had seemed habitable in light of that problem, at least compared to Kepler 186f. Why Space Command had changed its mind on this and did not tell us for a hundred years was frustrating.
Now, the only vessel I could hope to command over the next one hundred years would be my own AG fighter. I’d hoped to have one much larger and capable of many times the speed of light.
We did have such craft, but they had originally been designed for the Umon, and we could not in good conscience appropriate them for ourselves. Nevertheless, the slower ships were so efficient that we’d set aside several hundred of them for defense of the planet. The ones created for the Umon had a massive cockpit, which was needed for their larger warriors. It was a sleek machine powered by a medium sized AG engine capable of two point five FTL with phased plasma weapons in the nose. I doubted they would ever need such weapons, given their own EM capabilities.
Captain Hollenbeck was kind enough to teach me how to fly the slower machine. He and Commander Smith took great pleasure in developing a decent space force on Umon and taught their young to fly and fight if necessary. They learned very quickly and could be seen zipping all around the planet every time we arrived to consult.
After pondering Spa/Com’s decision to go elsewhere, we concluded we were on our own. Our decision became an easy one. We’d find our next destination ourselves and set sail, so to speak, when were ready. Our intention was finally arrived at after a series of long meetings with all concerned.
The very nature of Kepler Dawn was to colonize, so that is what we would do. Once the ship was re-stocked with everything likely to be needed, including new colonists sufficient to build out a new home, we’d leave the area and move on. But to where? That was the big question.
Our expectation was to eventually leave the system with a survivable complement of colonists and crew as soon as it was practicable. We would know the time had arrived when all of our promises to the Umon had been fulfilled and the colonists had viable populations capable of defending themselves.
I was surprised when in the midst of all this building the colonists decided to build a colonial ship of their own, one a little smaller than the Kennedy. This would take several years, divert necessary resources and delay the point at which Kepler Dawn might leave to colonize other planets. Captain Hollenbeck decided to confront them about it, but it did no good. They were adamant and refused to listen.
I thought the colonists were doing it as a means of escape, and did not approve. Anytime a military force plans an escape in advance, it means that force would likely lose the spirit necessary to fight to the death. Unfortunately, being in such a situation is often necessary for any defending force to win a serious battle. The famous general Julius Caesar of ancient Rome was not hesitant to put his men in positions without escape, and never lost a major battle. He’d called it putting “death at your back.” When you know you have no choice but to die, fighting men do not give up.
Chapter 32
Miki and I entered Captain Hollenbeck’s office with a touch of angst. It would be the first time either of us had asked for time off since our arrival and we were still in the middle of building out the planet’s defenses. Nevertheless, if we were to remain functioning at a top rate, we would need some time to repair our relationship. I was exhausted and I could see the same thing in Miki’s eyes. She had even barked at me once, only to apologize later for her temper. It had never happened before.
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The captain looked at me with surprise when I requested leave, and to his credit quickly took stock of the situation. We both must have looked horrible, because he did not hesitate to grant our wish. We’d been running on fumes and were desperate for a break. In fact, he apologized for not having recognized our state and given us time off earlier.
I told him we would try to make good use of our time by surveying the planet as well as Umon for a good place to rejuvenate, a place where all of our crew could go from time to time for R&R. He thought it a good idea and shooed us out.
Three weeks. We had three full weeks to be alone!
When we returned to our room and started talking about what we would do, Miki did not hesitate. “Let’s go back to Umon,” she said. “We’ve been working with them but have never asked to visit their cities or homes. They may think we have been rude in this and I’d like to fix it if we can. I have not said anything about it before because they had not invited us and I was afraid they might not want us to see how backward they are.
I looked at her. “I thought we were going to go camping here on Dawn and look for a place for R&R.”
“Yes. I do want to do that, but I think becoming closer to the Umon in an unofficial capacity must have priority. It should be enjoyable to see how they live. Then we can come back and go anywhere we want. We certainly have plenty of time.”
∆ ∆ ∆
The two-person AG vehicle I chose for our trip was capable of going anywhere in the system at the speed of light, although going to Umon at that speed would have been ridiculous. In fact, I had no idea what speed would be appropriate and determined I would leave that up to the ship’s computer.
The small fighter had plenty of cabin space, was armed and suitable for an Umon if one had wanted to go with us. None of them did, because I did not tell anyone we were going. At any rate, this left us with just enough extra space in the ship to store what we needed for our vacation, which included food for three weeks, camping equipment and all the comforts of the boondocks.
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