The rest twenty percent of the complex consisted of mostly submerged enclosures. Some of those enclosures were filled with stuff, but nothing inside was powered. The only sane conclusion that one could draw was that those were storages, and whatever was inside those enclosures were supplies. There were eight enclosures of relatively modest size, which were of most interest to the engineers and the scientists. These enclosures had equipment, which human sensors could detect were powered. While the mechanical hum from a few of them was unmistakable, most powered equipment were deemed to be such by sensors which could detect faint or strong electromagnetic emissions from those equipment.
None of the equipment had lights or switches like humans expect their equipment to be. This wasn’t surprising. Shaitan equipment didn’t have lights or switches either. They could be operated just fine with interfaces that could either be plugged in or operated remotely. The fact that there was a treasure trove of new technologies to be discovered and learnt was beyond doubt, but what had really baffled the engineers had be the power source that powered the entire complex – or rather the lack of one. The complex had active filters, temperature control and other functions that required a substantial amount of power to keep it running. The problem was that the engineers had failed to identify any equipment that remotely looked like it could power this complex. The power seemed to appear magically inside the complex!
The other enduring mystery about the complex was a sealed enclosure, which the engineers hadn’t figured how to open. There seemed to be no door to the enclosure, neither was there a window. The only reason that the engineers were sure that there was something behind the sealed wall was because their sonar scans clearly told them so. In fact, it was the largest enclosure in the complex other than the three semicircular chambers, yet it was completely sealed! It was in fact the only sealed enclosure in the entire complex. The only thing that the scientist and the engineers knew about this sealed enclosure was that it was very cold inside – almost a hundred degrees colder than the outside water, which was very cold in itself. Until the source of power for the complex could be ascertained, and more was known about the potential dangers inside, it was unwise to try to force open the sealed chamber by breaking anything. So, the explorers had bypassed the mystery of the sealed chamber and busied themselves with the other mysteries of the complex.
The seed of the thought planted in Yukio’s mind by her assistant germinated further as she spent time in the decompression chamber after her visit down to the lake bottom in the alien complex. The complex didn’t seem to be a hidden weapons depot. From whatever could be discerned about the stuff stored in storage, most of it looked like raw materials that could be fed into manufacturing machines to produce implements as required on demand. It was possible that this alien species had amazingly good automated manufacturing machines that could produce weapons on demand, but it was unlikely.
Both humans and Shaitans used their general purpose automated manufacturing machines to produce daily implements that needed to be replaced often like spoons and plates, or door knobs and hinges. Both the species manufactured their weapons in specialized weapons factories. The general-purpose manufacturing machines, often called 3D printers for historical reasons were very convenient because they could make any implement as long as its shape and design could be fed into the computer. These machines could take a variety of raw material as input like plastics and metal alloys. These standard materials could be shaped into any desired day-to-day objects. This was extremely convenient and useful to a mission far away from home. It provided critical equipment or comfort implements for the mission, which would otherwise be unavailable to them.
The downside of this convenience of general purpose manufacturing was that pliable materials that needed to be used in the manufacturing machines by necessity could not make implements that needed high strength and durability like a shock absorber or the barrel of a gun. The general-purpose manufacturing machines couldn’t produce sophisticated equipment either, like a microelectronics chip or a solar energy array. All such equipment needed to be manufactured in specialized factories.
Assuming that the same principle held for these aliens, then the equipment and the raw materials in storage couldn’t be meant as a weapons dump or a sophisticated listening post for spying on this planet. The material was likely meant to support the activity within the complex. What though could be the activities that the complex was designed for? The complex was bare except for being littered with junk objects. Those junk objects however started making eminent sense if they were meant to be children’s toys or training equipment like a jungle gym for human kids in a nursery.
The aliens were clearly an aquatic species, and their young would have been at home in the water. From the dissection of the two aliens, it seemed that the aliens could breathe in air as well somewhat like the lifestyle of a crab. That is why the three large chambers have air pockets in them. To give the young aliens and exposure to life on land. If this was a nursery to raise alien young, then where were to young aliens? The complex had been guarded by only two aliens. There had been no other living being inside! Yukio stopped herself from wishing that there were more aliens. Those two aliens had killed thirty-one Marines before they could be brought down by heavy firing from guns and missiles. A few of the Marines had died by the weapons of their own comrades, who in their desperation and fright had fired indiscriminately. It sent shivers down Yukio’s spine to even imagine what could have happened if there had been more of those aliens inside.
The two aliens were guarding what? The equipment inside? Was it that they were unaware of human presence in the planet and were simply caught trapped inside the complex? That last possibility was unlikely. The aliens clearly were an advanced species most likely more advanced in certain aspects than even humans. The Marines had actively scanned the complex, which the aliens would surely have been aware of. If the aliens wanted to escape, then they could have done so days or perhaps even months earlier. But they didn’t. Instead they stood guard over the complex, hoping it would stay hidden. When humans threatened the complex, they emerged to defend it in a last stand. Surely the aliens knew that they were going to die, and yet they fought till their last breath to defend the complex. There must be something in that complex that the aliens considered more precious than their lives! The only thing that Yukio could think of was the unopened frozen enclosure. That is where all the young aliens must be! From the temperature readings, the enclosure was frozen. This meant that there couldn’t be live organic beings inside there, which narrowed it down to only one possible answer – the aliens were guarding a big nest of frozen alien eggs!
Admiral Noah Hicks heard Yukio’s theory patiently. He hadn’t been able to find any holes in the young lady’s reasoning, which was the reason for his growing alarm. If the scientist was right, then they were all sitting on a potentially nightmarish situation. Just two of those unknown aliens had decimated his battle-hardened Marines in a matter of minutes. Imagine if there were tens or hundreds of thousands more of those aliens frozen, waiting to be hatched! They could potentially wipe out every human and a the few Heretic Shaitans who had landed on the planet. The complex was potentially a hazard and threat greater than anything that they had faced on this planet so far.
From the study of the two dead aliens by the scientists, it seemed highly likely that these were the same alien species which had perpetrated the unspeakable atrocity of the Shaitans of this planet. The anatomy, and their weapons matched with the evidence of the killings of the Shaitans so far. In front of such a deranged homicidal alien species, the Shaitans looked like tame saints in comparison. There was the disturbing possibility that the rest of the aliens had proceeded towards Earth after having slaughtered every Shaitan on the face of this planet.
Admiral Hicks had sent a direct warning message to Earth via radio signals within the first few days of discovering the slaughter on this planet. He had also send a detailed report on high bandwidth
laser transfer to the nearest captured settlement on World #9, from where it would be relayed to Beta Shaitan and then on to Earth. The high bandwidth laser transfer would take a few more months to reach Earth compared to the direct radio signal due to the longer zig-zag distance it had to travel, but would have a lot more details.
Adm. Hicks hoped that his radio warning would reach Earth in time. If these homicidal aliens were headed towards Earth, then they have had a two-year head start. His warning would travel to Earth at the speed of light, but if these aliens could travel close to the speed of light, then it might be too late. He had been assured by his scientists and engineers that travelling close to the speed of light was too difficult a proposition, even for a species with technology more advanced than humans. This assurance had laid Adm. Hicks mind at rest. The humans, thanks to the technology learnt for the advanced but extinct species of Ka-Let had managed a maximum of twenty percent of light speed, but accelerating faster in a travel of a just a few lightyears becomes increasingly difficult, unless one has some magical source of power.
“Sir, I think I have discovered the source of power of the underwater complex, and it is so advanced that to us humans it looks nothing short of a magical source of power!” Those were the opening lines of the Chief Engineer of USC Sacrifice, who spoke over the communication channel that was being relayed directly to the Admiral.
This was the last thing that Noah Hicks wanted to hear. He straightened himself in his chair and addressed the Chief Engineer. “Please explain!”
“Sir, we have finally been able to complete the mapping of the power flow throughout this complex, except for the sealed enclosure of course. We have traced the flow of power from every instrument and device that is powered back to this one enclosure where I am standing now. It is a modest sized enclosure even when compared to the other enclosures which aren’t that big either. This enclosure houses just one hermetically sealed box that is roughly about one meter, by one meter by three meters in size – not much larger than a large tools cabinet laid on its sides. This one box is powering everything including the massive rotor blades circulating the water and oxygenating it.
“This box is not a converter or transformer or any such thing. This box is the source of all power to this complex. The most amazing part is not even the fact that this relatively small box is being able to pump out hundreds of kilowatts or possibly even a megawatt of energy that this complex is consuming! The most amazing part is that this box has been supplying that massive amount of power for a long time, at least the last two years. There is no telling how much longer this box can keep supplying this massive amount of power. From whatever science we humans know, packing this kind of energy density should not be possible, let alone packing it so safely that it can be used a steady and reliable source of power.” The engineer concluded in a voice that could barely contain the wild excitement at the discovery of a lifetime.
Adm. Hicks thanked the engineer, and looked up to Yukio who was still sitting opposite the Admiral around his desk. “Earth might be in real trouble! It will be years before we get to know either way, but I think we have to start preparing for the worst!”
It was many years afterwards that Adm. Hick got to know from the command HQ at Beta Shaitan about the fact that Earth had gone silent. During this time, Adm. Hicks and his fleet had settled on the planet. The crew and the Marines had made the long arduous journey to such a faraway place with the intent of settling in a new colony. They couldn’t make up their mind if they should be thankful that they had gotten the entire planet emptied of its Shaitan inhabitants without having to fight because anywhere they settled, it felt like making a home in a graveyard. Even after so many years, not all the Shaitan bodies that littered the surface of the planet had been cleared. Yukio and Hector had started a family, as had many of the crew. There was this running joke among them about the fertility rate of pioneer settlers, and how the humans on the planet were reverting to the fecundity of the pilgrim settlers of the Americas.
Throughout those settlement efforts though, the USC crew hadn’t forgotten the possible peril that Earth and other humans might be in at that very moment. They had catalogued and studied the alien technology to the best extent possible. Opened the sealed enclosure to find tens of thousands of frozen alien eggs. Analyzed their DNA, sending all their information back via Beta Shaitan to Earth on high bandwidth laser links. The settlers were too far away to help in the fight, but they would help with whatever knowledge that they could glean about the aliens. When the news about the silence of Earth reached them, it just increased their determination to survive and learn. If nothing else, humanity would not die out completely from this universe. The settlers would survive, thrive and multiply to ensure humanity rises from the ashes once more!
Chapter 7
The Sacrificial Lamb
Solar System
2201
“Attention all crew. The Kourbania is now formally under the control of USC Patagonia. The handover of control was affected at 1600 hours, exactly as scheduled and programmed by Jehannum command. We will be running the show from here onwards. The captain will address all the crew at 1800 hours after the officers briefing currently in progress, please standby for the broadcast.” The priority 2 system wide broadcast sounded in the ear of every crew member on board the Patagonia currently awake, irrespective of whether they had switched off notifications by altering the “Do not Disturb” status of their in-head system.
The central computer monitored and kept constant touch with the embedded circuitry of each and every crew member on board the ship. The systems monitored the current state of health of every crew member including their blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose level and a myriad of other vital signs. Obviously, the central computer also kept track of crew members who were currently sleeping, and did not wake them up for a priority 2 broadcast. The broadcast rang inside the ear of all the officers and the captain as well inside the captain’s ready room. They had to momentarily pause their discussion to let the announcement pass, even though they knew the contents of the announcement beforehand.
“As I was saying before the announcement started, do not make assumptions about what the rest of us already know Lt. Chu. That goes for anyone else giving a briefing here. It is better to repeat something that some of us may already know, than to miss out anything that others may not have any knowledge about. I want every one of us to be not just on the same page, but to be able to fill in for each other in case of an emergency. It is important that all of us know, whatever any one of us knows. Please continue lieutenant.” Capt. Gorr urged Lt. Chu, while stroking his beard. Capt. Gorr had recently come out of cryo-sleep to enable him to personally handle this task. This could potentially be a dangerous task and could give away their hiding position.
All body functions when in hibernation go into a state of deep stasis, but they do not stop completely. One of the irritating facts about waking up after years of sleep, as in the case of Hannibal Gorr, was that one would find their fingernails, toenails, hair and beard had grown unkempt. The hair and nails didn’t grow at the same rate as when awake, but grew long enough for a person to need them clipped on waking up. Hannibal had decided to shape his beard rather than shave them off completely. It now gave him a look of a gentlemanly gravitas, but not being used to a beard irritated his skin from time to time, which forced him to subconsciously stroke his beard.
Lt. Wen Chu, the communications officer of USC Patagonia took a moment to collect his train of thoughts interrupted by the announcement and started off again. “The Kourbania is sending one-way radio broadcasts openly. The broadcast is centered on Earth, but since the transmission uses radio waves, it is not a tight beam. The broadcast can be picked up by anyone within the solar system. So effectively it is an omni directional broadcast, while seeming to be something aimed at Earth only. This is a deliberate choice. It enables us to listen to the broadcasts of Kourbania without giving away our position to the demons in
any way. Since the Kourbania is making a very visible entry into the Solar system using its engines to slow down, its arrival has already been announced to the demons in any case, so there is no point trying to be discreet about the broadcast. Might as well use it to the fullest to open as many channels of communication with us and Earth as possible. That is the underlying thought.” All the officers gathered around nodded in agreement.
Lt. Chu continued. “There are three layers of communication riding the carrier waves of the broadcast from the Kourbania. First is a channel of unencrypted and analogue signals. In plain language this is nothing but a radio broadcast that can be picked up by any radio set built in the early twentieth century. We have not been using this technology for at least the last hundred years or more, but as Earth is regressing back towards primitive technology, the analogue radio is increasingly a method of effective broadcast to a wide range of population. There are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of such home-made radio receivers being built in every cave and basement, where humans are hiding. It takes very little to build such a simple radio set, basically a copper wire coil, a few transistors and a large capacitor. You can hand-crank and charge such a receiver, which is important because functioning electric grid is a rarity on Earth.
Game Reserve: Earth (Shaitan Wars Book 5) Page 15