Meanwhile, work on the Sumo II cargo transport vessel continued – with some operational robots – carrying out precise maneuvering tests on the newly developed NGI drives while performing cosmic cleaning work out in space, gathering trillions of tons of space trash and debris which then was all delivered to Earth, where – after molecular neutralization – it was transferred to the ASEC raw material store.
After several months of testing and a lot of fine-tuning, the NGI drives overcame their ‘teething problems’ and, after some minor structural changes, the drives were classified as reliable enough for the first real use. The top speed – that they were capable of – had yet to be established because of the delicate nature of the circumstances shaping the navigation system.
In fact, it became increasingly apparent that ASEC spacecrafts would be using non-terrestrial technology developed by an alien civilization allowing them to far more effectively navigate the as yet unexplored cosmos which, in itself, carried some risk.
Martins began to explain, “The system itself works perfectly. It really does, although converting the static, spatial way of thinking we use on Earth to this new system is difficult. It's plausible though, because the alien system is extremely logical, and fortunately does not contain any factors that are not already known to us. Space, motion, gravity. We are familiar with these variables.” Martins paused to look around at the scientists that had gathered for the spontaneous meeting. The room was more crowded than perhaps expected because the Sumo II had just arrived back from space after rigorous testing of the NGI drives.
“So what's wrong with it then?” asked Karen.
“Well, it's basically the fact that the system is based on data sent by the aliens, and I really don't know how much we can trust it. Do we trust it blindly? Should we be cautious and remain suspicious of it? The stakes are pretty high if we consider the human lives and assets that will be under the control of this system,” said Martins.
“Fair enough,” said Neelam nodding. The team of Indian engineers had proved to be a good investment. They had quickly adapted to their new environment, and to working with the unfamiliar technology; and as a result of their work, the spaceships quickly took shape.
“Of course, we cannot blindly trust it until we really become familiar with it, that's clear. What do we have that can truly be trusted with any certainty?” Karen asked.
“The space-fragmentation scanner,” interrupted head of the navigation unit, Daniel Valsson.
“How does it work?”
“It is capable of mapping up to roughly half a million kilometers in any direction. It sends light packets to the desired sector, which then create three-dimensional images of objects located in space, a large number of images. From these fragmented spatial shapes it produces a single, complete and extremely detailed picture.”
“How quickly does it build the images?”
“The fragments are assembled within one thousandth of a second.”
“So we can pretty much say that we have a maximum of half a million kilometers visibility with this equipment?”
“Yeah. I know it's not much out in space, but for real-time mapping that's the guaranteed range.”
“If we consider that a vessel has a velocity of one and a half million kilometers per hour, then we can discern what lies a maximum of twenty minutes ahead of us.”
“That's also based on the supposition that an object, needing to be avoided, is not moving towards the vessel, because in that case it'll be much shorter.”
“Yes. So the only question then is, how quickly the ship can respond?” observed Karen.
Gibbs answered. “The octahedral arrangement of drivers allows the vehicle to deviate from it course in any direction. A few degrees change in direction can be affected immediately, but decelerating to a near zero kinetic state takes at least a few minutes, and the same applies to achieving maximum speed.”
“I don't feel that avoiding hazards is going to be at all problematic, even for objects approaching head-on. The fastest asteroids travel at one hundred thousand kilometers per hour, very slow compared velocities we can achieve with the drives,” argued Valsson.
“Maybe, but any sudden change in direction will have adverse effects. Because we'll be generating artificial gravity that will be identical to that on Earth, the loads will apply to all bodies on board in the same way,” said Neelam, drawing everyone's attention.
“We've been working on that. The vessel will detect loading variations and will adjust the artificial gravitational force to compensate and maintain constant gravity. Briefly, if there is a load of two Gs, the system will decrease the gravitational force by half to counteract this so that the perception of gravity for the observer on board will remain the same. This will work on any vector.”
“Okay, then we can use the space fragmentation scanner in the immediate area, and the aliens navigation system for positioning over greater distances.”
“Karen, I've suggested to Mr Steersman that we need a standardized measures to allow everyone to express themselves more concisely,” said Gibbs.
“Yes, he mentioned that. I've been also facing difficulties because of them, so perhaps it would be best if we start as soon as we can with the concepts related to these main areas. Dr Martins, would you please work on this with us.”
“Yes, of course. The girls are getting along well with the decoding anyway,” said the astrophysicist, with a crooked smile.
Message
Pat and Tya really were faring well with the alien transmissions, and they got along well with each other also. At the beginning, Patricia found the obsequious girl rather irritating, but as conditions settled down and they felt more at home in their environment, Tya had rid herself of her initial behavior and gained a sense of awareness of her own value within the group. Patricia was able to be more tolerant and less irritable as Tya gained confidence, and their relationship was further enhanced by their common taste for caffè latte.
Their corner of the astrophysics research lab was characterized by undisturbed tranquility, making it the ideal place to achieve a high level of concentration. In the dimly illuminated room, one or two lights in various places were enough to give some kind of orientation. Apart from those, the only other light was from symbols that seemed to hang, glowing in the motionless air above display surfaces that melted into the dark background.
Over the past few days, they had been working almost entirely alone. Their boss had last been seen two days before, though there were plenty of things to be done without him.
“You know, when I'm just starting to think that I've got it nailed, it fires back with a whole new sequence,” said Tya, becoming increasingly annoyed at the variability of the transmission signal.
“Yes, but there'll definitely be a connection between each series and then the whole thing will start to mean something,” Pat reassured her.
“If these creatures interact with each other in this way, then I'd do better to start a conversation with my dog than with 'em,” she complained sarcastically.
Pat gave one of her rare laughs. Tya felt a pleased glow at her comedic success, then she frowned. “Hey, Pat. Here's something that doesn't seem to fit with the previous sequence,” she exclaimed, pointing at her monitor.
Patricia leaned closer to the matte black surface. The transmission symbols shone starkly, causing her to squint.
“Try this algorithm,” she said, downloading a command line from the central server. “I wrote it earlier for another sequence, but it didn't work.”
“Okay, running it now,” said Tya.
After giving the command, the thousands of symbols began to form chains of characters at the bottom of the black screen.
“What the … what the hell is this?” Pat mumbled indistinctly, sitting up.
“It's like text, real text!” Tya exclaimed, her face lighting up in relief after having been tormented for so long by the multi-dimensional system.
“And it's almost co
mprehensible,” said Pat, staring at the results.
They stared at it for minutes motionless, quiet, as if it was the most amazing thing they had ever witnessed, so much so that they didn't notice when someone came up behind them.
“What have you got there, ladies?”
They both spun around in shock.
“Mr Steersman!” Tya gasped.
The memory of Steersman flitted through Pat's mind, the memory of when they had received a visit from him at Arch's place. This time, however, he was no accompanied by robots. She didn't say a word.
“Please, don't be alarmed,” he said calmly, looking towards the screen. “I see that you have found something rather interesting.”
“We think that this part of the transmission contain a message, unlike the previous sections, which were all part of a navigation system,” Tya informed him.
“Have you come across transmissions similar to these?”
“No. Those that Dr Martins had shown us from previous work, were linguistically extremely simple, dumbed-down as it were. This was presumably to make them more easy to solve. These are far more complex. Maybe even more complex than the entire mapping system.”
“And yet, you have succeeded in deciphering them.”
“Yes, but the linguistic units bear no resemblance to any on Earth, so the translation will certainly be vague, misleading and in most cases rather ambiguous in meaning,” said Patricia finally.
“Look, the algorithm has deciphered a fraction of a sentence.”
“I'll put it up onto another display,” said Tya, transferring the already discernible segments onto a larger display.
All three of them moved back to better see the expanded image. Patricia began to read it in a soft whisper.
“… only the delegate knows the place …”
“What does that mean?” asked Tya.
“That's what I want to know …” Patricia murmured softly. “What delegate? What place? Quite a conundrum. Like I said, these language units may mean any number of things.”
Steersman didn't respond to any of the girls' representations. He could not have said what the words meant either.
“Here's another one,” Tya said suddenly, and then crossed it out. On the larger screen a newer row emerged above the other. “… hidden passage takes you into the depths of knowledge …” She read each word slowly, enunciating them one by one.
“Well, this is getting interesting,” said Patricia.
Steersman's face darkened at that moment.
“You've done a great job, ladies. Keep me informed of developments,” he said suddenly, then left.
The two girls looked after him, and then at each other. They grimaced in silent inquiry, then both became once again immersed in signals analysis.
Floating platforms
After nine months of production in the four factories in Odessa, one half of the largest military force in the world was complete. At that stage, two factories had begun the construction of the base platforms for the enforcement poles.
According to the plans, the platforms were not to be taken up any room on the ground. The entire base was designed to float two kilometers above the Earth's surface, and though it was now just an outline, it was a huge one. Two half circles with diameters of twelve kilometers were situated a mile apart, and between them, a three and a half kilometer wide connecting bridge was inserted. The whole design was based on this form.
The specialized execution units of the defense corps were to be placed in the platform's eastern half circle and, along with soldier units, would create a military deterrent with their mere presence, as expected.
When the Ukrainian senator stipulated the requirement for investment in return for the use of the Ukrainian gas supply, he certainly never imagined that the gigantic factory buildings would be manufacturing the ASEC army. He had rather been expecting GlideCraft, Gravitors or other tech device manufacturing to move in, but instead the whole area had been turned upside down. Because not a single platform could be assembled within the factory territory, the massive platforms began to cast their intimidating shadows over the whole area as they were constructed out under open sky.
*
The moment arrived when each of the floating bases was moved to its place, and it was an enormous feat, regardless of how other events had been shaping up thus far. The entire planet had been divided into a total of ten military zones with five equidistant sites in each hemisphere. They were positioned at every 72th longitude.
ASEC was autocratic in this matter and brooked no opposition. They received varied responses as they advised national authorities of the platforms' movements. The affected nations either expressed their disapproval diplomatically, or took action against the violation of their sovereign airspace through global organizations, and some even threatened violent retaliation.
The fact remained, however, from mid-May the small city size platforms were elevated into the upper air and moved slowly across the planet to take their places. The enforcement pole final positions were carefully aligned along the 40th latitude in both the north and south until nearly all of the positions were lying over ocean areas, with one exception.
The first platform was placed slightly to the west of Italy above the Mediterranean Sea, then the next one 5960 kilometers away along the eastern coast of the US, and the following two platforms were positioned the same distances apart over two points above the North Pacific.
And finally, the fifth. China enjoyed special attention in the northern hemisphere, so an enforcement pole was to be positioned over the western edge of the country, where – because of its proximity to the Middle Eastern region – it provided strong security to the whole area, giving it immense significance.
The positioning of an enforcement pole over China did not, however, remain unanswered.
Fifth Northern Pole
Once admired and feared, with its ancient legends, spectacular geographical features and its vast history that alone made it one of the world's greatest civilizations. Architecture that caught the eye and touched the soul, fine art that had evolved over centuries, literature and scientific learning that stretched back into the depths of time all made it a cultural icon. All of these evocative, yet remote and embellished images trickled down through generations of empire managed by dynasties that were far from free of war and strife.
Where long ago, various branches of the arts had flourished, where the traditions, faith and fortitude had lived embodied through the ages, it was difficult to come to terms with the fact that such a rich and ancient culture had left such a faint imprint on the present.
*
China's form of governance had been converted back to a democracy during Peng Wan's presidency and displayed more confidence on the international stage, having built a market economy that wished to open new doors to other nations. As a result of his actions many things continued along the route that he had highlighted, and the country seemed to irretrievably break away from its semi-communist history. It was a very logical step, as the world's second-largest economy was stable in a free market competitive environment, besides it also proved to be a good trade partner.
However, the crisis at the beginning of the third millennium with its continuing shock waves forced many countries to their knees, something that even China's strong economy was beginning to feel. Following the death of his predecessor, Zhiqiang Gao, who took his place under the shadow of future storm clouds, was one who remained a believer in the ‘traditions’ of the old system, and started his tenure with introspective and restrictive measures. The effects were not felt immediately, but the Chinese people, now used to Western freedom of speech and movement, considered every new harsh rule as a patronizing infringement of their rights.
President Zhiqiang Gao's popularity was also heavily damaged when he initiated a nuclear missile attack against Russian cities, despite the fact that he continued to explain his actions as homeland defense. China's economy and military strength h
ad so far spared him from the wrath of the global community, but with that, there was only one problem. Apart from his political muscle, nothing else held him in place.
However, there was always a more powerful force.
*
In the morning, the fifth platform arrived on the coast of Japan from the east, where it slowed and then stopped. Awaiting the order to resume its journey it floated, like a huge island basking in the sun, and from the shore it looked like a blurry, grey cloud. Within a short time, not only did schools of fish find refuge in its shadow, but the sight had also attracted dozens of ships. Anyone who viewed it from underneath felt as if a whole city hovered above them. The smooth surface revealed little to casual observers, sometimes just a line or strip could be made out, but then quickly disappeared into the distant haze. The only place where details became apparent were the bumps along the edges of the platform where a total of six, five meter wide DCG drivers worked hard to keep the platform elevated. The launch of the gravity orbs had been supervised by Steersman himself in the factory. The preparations had taken weeks, but the end result was a drive that was one hundred thousand times stronger than the original drive.
The base platform remained in place until the divisions – that had been assigned to that zone – arrived.
Confrontation
A few hours later, corps units took off from the factories in Odessa. They started their global positioning exercise in reverse order with the fifth LRT division being deployed first, heading east towards China.
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