by Dietmar Wehr
“I want TacComp to identify a signal source in the asteroid belt that’s as isolated as possible. When we’ve found one, let’s get over there with a wide enough detour that the risk of detection will be minimized. Any questions?” Neither the AIs or the XO had any.
Identifying an isolated mining ship took longer than expected. Almost all of the signal sources were relatively close to where the mammoth object was being constructed. That made sense in terms of minimizing the time needed to transport refined elements back to the construction site. What did become clear after monitoring the signals for a while was that each mining ship was not transmitting continuously but rather intermittently. There were far more sources than expected—thousands of them in fact— and that seemed to be a problem. However, further scanning of signals finally detected a mining ship that was much further away than the rest. The tactical AI speculated that it might be conducting prospecting activities to identify asteroids that were rich enough in elements to justify the longer transit times. Once it’s location was pinpointed, Koenig approved the astro AI’s recommended trajectory of approaching the target from above the system’s ecliptic.
That was the easy part. Getting close to it was a bit tricky because it was deep inside the asteroid field. The ship couldn’t afford to give itself away by using radar to navigate around asteroids large enough to pose a collision danger. It therefore had to rely on visual detection, which required a very slow velocity. Consequently, it took almost a whole day to get close enough to see the mining ship optically.
Koenig hadn’t known what to expect in terms of what the mining ships might look like, but the size of it surprised him nevertheless. It was almost as massive as a standard heavy cruiser, with a wide maw that allowed it to swallow asteroids before somehow breaking them down into their constituent elements.
“That opening is big enough to swallow Excalibur,” whispered an awed Vasily.
“And there are thousands of ships like this extracting metals to feed that monster,” said Koenig. “The amount of resources they had to have devoted to this project probably totals hundreds of millions of metric tonnes just for the mining ships.”
“With hundreds of millions of tonnes, maybe even a billion tonnes, for the monster ship,” said Vasily.
“And it certainly looks like they’re not finished with it yet. Either that or they’re getting ready to build another one. Why would you send out a ship to prospect if you were almost done building only one monster ship?” asked Koenig.
“Engineering, how many passengers could a billion-tonne ship carry?” asked Vasily.
“A precise answer would require input parameters; however, I can give you an estimated range of one hundred eleven million up to a maximum of four hundred seventy-seven million,” said the engineering AI.
“That’s one hell of a transport,” said Koenig. “I wonder…” When he noticed Vasily looking at him with a questioning look, he continued, “I was wondering if that monster actually is intended to just transport civilians from their home world to a new planet. Think of the logistics involved in loading hundreds of millions of individuals, their belongings, food, equipment needed by the colonists at the other end, hundreds, maybe thousands of shuttles needed to carry everyone and everything up to the ship and then down at the other end. How long would it take to load and unload all that? Months? Years? And how would millions of colonists survive when they arrive at their new home with no stockpiles of food and shelter waiting for them? Transporting that many persons all at once makes no sense. But if the intention was for the race to abandon living on planets altogether and stay on the ship indefinitely, then you’d need something that big to have enough room for food production, etc. And given that assumption, then it also makes sense to build more than one so that you don’t have all your population eggs in one basket.”
“Wow. An entire race transforming itself from planet-based to space-faring. What if not everyone wants to leave?”
Koenig shrugged. “I guess there would be some who refuse to believe in the threat posed by the super-wave or who decide that colonizing another planet the old-fashioned way is preferable to living their entire lives on board a huge ship. I can’t see the authorities forcing people at gunpoint to board the big ships. Can you imagine trying to run a ship when millions of your passengers might try to take control and turn the ship around?” He paused to look at the display again.
“If that planet is occupied by the pacifist race who developed the technology, then the Xenophobes have taken over constructing that monster for themselves. When it’s finished, they’ll fly it back to their home system, load up with their people and head off into the wild blue yonder, leaving the pacifists stuck on their planet waiting for the super-wave to arrive.
If Vasily was about to respond, she didn’t get the chance.
“Alien mining vessel is maneuvering and may be turning in our direction,” said the tactical AI.
“What? How can they possibly see us with our active hull camo at this distance?” asked Koenig.
“Unknown. However, the mining ship is now pointed at Excalibur and is moving closer.”
“Maybe they can detect large concentrations of metal and that mining ship thinks we’re an asteroid,” offered Vasily.
“Mining ship is now actively scanning with both radar and lidar,” said the AI.
“Back us away, Astro. Keep our distance to that ship constant.”
“If we continue to rely on visual navigation, we will not be able to maintain the current range to the alien vessel. It is maneuvering faster due to its radar and lidar scanning of the asteroid field,” said the astro AI.
“And if we turn on our rearward facing radar, that ship will detect the waves bouncing off the larger asteroids and will know that there’s another ship out there,” said Koenig. “I don’t see how we can sneak up on it now, and if we try to disable it with cannon fire, it’ll probably send out a distress call, dammit.”
“Range is now less than ten thousand kilometers and continuing to drop,” said the tactical AI.
“If we turn and run, we may not get another chance to capture one covertly,” said Vasily. “What about just making contact openly?”
Koenig took a deep breath. “Might as well try it and see what happens. Okay, Com, fire a comlaser at that ship with a repeating message that we are visitors seeking peaceful contact.”
The com AI acknowledged the order, and the tactical display pinged a status change almost immediately.
“The mining ship is no longer accelerating,” said the tactical AI.
Koenig checked the display to make sure that Excalibur was able to keep its distance before turning to the com AI.
“Any response?”
“Nothing yet.”
“How long would it take for that ship to send a message to the construction site and get a reply?”
“Three point four minutes,” said the com AI.
“Okay. Start the standard translation protocol. We may as well let them know that we want to establish a common language.”
“Protocol has started.”
It was almost six minutes before the mining ship sent a reply, also by low-powered comlaser. It started with a repeat of the initial human message, followed by the same mathematical concepts that the com AI had used as part of the translation protocol.
Koenig looked at Vasily. “So far, so good, but this asteroid field is making me nervous. If they’ve called for reinforcements intending to attack us, I don’t like the ship being boxed in by all these drifting rocks. Astro, Back us out all the way until we’re clear of the big stuff while keeping us aligned with the mining ship. I don’t want them to figure out that we’re moving.”
“Understood.”
When it became obvious that the translation protocol would not be a quick process, Vasily left the Bridge to get something to eat. Koenig still had just over an hour left in his BDO shift.
“How’s the process going, Com?” he asked.
“Can you tell if that ship is equipped with an AI of comparable capabilities to you?”
“Affirmative. The speed of the replies indicated a device that has more intuitive capabilities than a mere ComComp.”
Koenig smiled at the hint that the com AI felt superior to the fast but comparatively stupid Communications Computer. When his shift was up, Vasily had returned to take over. He left specific instructions on what to do if there was even the suspicion that other ships were approaching and then went to his quarters. In spite of the uncertain situation, he found that he was able to go to sleep relatively quickly. When the alarm woke him, he was relieved to learn that the situation was essentially the same, although much progress had been made in the effort to develop a common language. A quick shower and breakfast enabled him to arrive back on the Bridge early for his next shift. Lieutenant Chen was relieved as BDO.
No sooner had Koenig gotten settled in the Command Pod when the com AI reported a new development.
“Sufficient vocabulary has been developed to begin exchanging situational information. My opposite number has asked why we are here.”
I have to make that decision now. Violate my official orders and try for a trade or…what? How likely are they to just give us the tech we want? Maybe we could give them information instead? Worth a try I guess.
“Translate this message: ‘We’re here because we too are threatened by the super-wave’s changes to our genetic structure, and we have heard that you have the technology to build large structures and ships quickly. Would you be willing to share that technology with us?’ End of message.”
The reply arrived minutes later.
“Our mutual translation matrix is still evolving, and any literal translation could be prone to misinterpretation,” said the com AI. “Therefore, paraphrasing incoming messages will minimize misunderstandings. Their reply can be paraphrased as follows: The matter technology used to build our large ship can also be used to build many smaller, armed ships quickly. How can we be certain that your race won’t use this technology against us?”
“Tell them that our home star system is a long way away. We humans are fighting for our very survival against another and closer race, which is seeking colonizable planets further away from the super-wave. We therefore have no desire to fight another race.”
The com AI transmitted the message and then paraphrased their response. “Send us the astrogational data on your race’s home system and the home system of the race you are fighting.”
“Are you able to convey that data in a form that they’ll understand, Com?” asked Koenig.
“Affirmative.”
“Astro, transfer the necessary data to Com.”
The next reply from the Xenophobes took longer than would have been justified solely by the distance.
“Your ship has travelled much further than one of our ships of a similar size could. Do you have advanced FTL technology?”
Koenig nodded. The Xenophobes had figured out that a relatively small ship the size of a light cruiser would have limited food supplies and therefore a limited practical range. Even if humans knew exactly which star system would be their ultimate destination, finding a path of safe jumps using the old system of optically lining up on a target star would have taken so long that a small ship would have trouble getting there and back before the food ran out. Saying no was out of the question. It would risk a reply saying that there was no further basis for communication. Saying yes had a good chance of getting the atom tech at the cost of violating his official orders and jeopardizing his career. But he had already made up his mind that if there were no other way to get it, he would trade for it and take his chances with his career.
“Explain to them that we have technology that permits adjustment of trajectories while in hyperspace, which enables our ship to undertake very long, direct jumps with perfect accuracy and greater jump velocities.”
Once again, the reply took longer than expected. When it did arrive, it was not what Koenig expected to hear.
“They say that they want a demonstration of our FTL capability. If we can prove that our technology is superior, they will agree to exchange their matter manipulation tech for our hyperspace maneuvering tech. The demonstration involves finding and determining the fate of one of their long-range recon ships that has stopped sending progress reports. They know which star system was the last one the missing ship reached, and they’ve supplied that astrogational data. It’s on the display now.”
Koenig watched as the star map zoomed out. A thin blue line zigzagged along a path that headed away from the oncoming super-wave until it stopped in a system that, according to the side bar data, was roughly the same distance from the Xenophobes as Earth was. Something about this data bothered Koenig, and he suddenly realized what it was.
“If they were getting real time progress reports from that missing ship, then they have FTL communication capability too.”
“A logical deduction,” said the astro AI.
“Are there any unusual risks involved in getting to that system, Astro?”
“Negative. The system in question is a red super-giant star but has no other unusual characteristics.”
Koenig couldn’t think of a reason not to agree to the proposal, but something was holding him back. This sounded too easy, and he didn’t know if he was being paranoid after the Zukas fiasco or just prudently cautious. Having a second opinion from another human would help. He checked Vasily’s duty schedule. She might be awake now. His call to her quarters got a sleepy response.
“I’m here, Wolfe. What is it?”
“Sorry to wake you, Karine. I have what is likely to be a very important decision to make and I’d like your input. Please come to the Bridge as soon as you can.”
“Of course, Wolfe. Give me a few minutes to get showered and dressed, please.” Koenig was about to respond when he heard the click that meant the intercom channel was now shut down. A ‘few minutes’ turned out to be twenty. Koenig was certain that the Xenos would be wondering what was taking the humans so long to reply. When Vasily arrived, Koenig brought her up to date.
“Their offer seems pretty straightforward. What are your concerns,” she asked.
“Well basically, I’m wondering if we can trust them. Suppose we bring back the information on the missing ship and they say okay, give us your tech first and we do that; then what’s to stop them from saying ‘we’ve changed our minds about giving you our tech. You can leave now’? Am I being paranoid after what the Zukas pulled?”
Vasily stared at the star map while she pondered his question. “That atomic manipulation tech has to be pretty complicated, I would imagine. Is that a correct assessment, Engineer?”
“It would be highly likely,” said the engineering AI.
“Okay, in that case, what about insisting that they give us a partial download of the atom tech before we send them anything involving our tech?”
“Yeah, that might work.” Koenig was about to say more when he noticed that Vasily was frowning. “Now it’s my turn to ask if you have any concerns.”
“I’m just puzzled by the demonstration they’ve asked for. How will they know if we actually go there or just pretend to go there and make up some story about their missing ship?”
“They wouldn’t know unless we brought back proof,” said Koenig after thinking that over. “If we don’t find any, then they have a good excuse to back out of the deal by claiming we never made the trip.”
“All that is possible; however, I think we have to accept the challenge, don’t you, Wolfe? What will Admiral Corrigan say if we go back without trying this because of the risk that the Xenos might renege on their deal, which you’re not supposed to be agreeing to anyway?”
“I think he’d be pissed that we didn’t ta
ke the risk. Okay, so we’ll try to discover what happened to their ship. Com, tell your counterpart that we will search for their missing ship, and if we find something and prove we have the superior FTL technology, we’ll want the complete atomic manipulation technology data before we transmit our hyperspace maneuvering data. If they agree to those terms, we’ll start the search.”
This time the reply came back about as quickly as possible.
“They have agreed to our conditions,” said the com AI.
“Good! Now ask them for data on the missing ship. How will we know it when we see it? What auxiliary vehicles is it carrying? If we find it, how can we communicate with it?”
That information also arrived quickly.
“Let’s get the ship moving to our target destination, Astro, and I’d like the Xenos to be able to track our pre-jump velocity, so orient the hull to maximize reflections.”