Ellis raised an eyebrow, “Bigger?”
I grinned, “Sure, but we won’t know until we go take a look at neighboring galaxies for a similar pattern.”
They all gaped at me, apparently they hadn’t even considered an experiment on an extra-galactic scale. I figured if our theoretical seeders could build and dictate what life appeared on worlds, then they were certainly capable of doing it elsewhere.
I added rather pessimistically getting us back on subject, “I don’t think that ship is coming back.”
Talmor asked, “Giving up already? It’s been an hour.”
I saw his point. Yet, I had no idea what else to try.
I shrugged, “They either have no interest in responding, or we can’t see their response. Either way we aren’t ready. We need to advance our science to make up technologically what they have before we can bridge the gap. Does anyone disagree?”
Ellis sighed, “Anyone else have any ideas,” he gave me a look, “besides trying to master an entirely new theoretical field of science?”
I bit my lip, “There is one more thing we could try, or at least, I could try.”
Nalla frowned, “What’s that?”
“We could land on the planet, and I could approach a live being. See what my soul reading ability picks up.”
Kristi tensed, “Do you think they’d actually let us land?”
“No idea, but we could always go back, and I could take the shuttle alone so we aren’t all at risk.”
Nalla said disgusted, “Not this metaphysical crap again, what good will reading their souls do anyway, tell you their emotions?”
Well, I figured I could tell if they were at least curious about us, or willing to communicate if we could figure out a way. But I didn’t bother saying that.
I waved a hand to dismiss it and thought about just doing it on my own. She had a point though, no matter what I found communication was still doubtful. And there would be no way to record the interaction either, or prove anything. It would just be my opinion, based on senses that I wasn’t even really sure how they worked, just that they did.
Nadia said in a concerned voice, “That sounds risky, for not much of a payoff. It’s not worth your life.”
She kind of had a point as well, even if I proved without a doubt in my mind my theories were right when I read their souls, I still doubted I’d be able to make any meaningful communication. Plus, the scientific community would hardly accept my assurances based on a sense that had no scientific proof of any kind. Even the other Knomen might not take me at my word. There was no point, and it would be a stupid gamble.
Except of course, I would know I’d been right, for myself. Plus, there was always the possibility they would read me and figure out how to talk to us instead of the other way around. But would they want to? It was just too risky, there was a high possibility they’d never even let me land anyway.
Chapter 9
Senna asked, “So that’s it? Has this been a waste of time?”
I frowned, “It was a long shot to begin with. Plus, at the very least we have a new science to look into. If we can figure out that, contact will be possible.”
Ellis nodded, “More than that, the bug threat won’t be a threat anymore.”
Perhaps. I had a feeling that issue would be decided long before we figured out the science behind the Drenil’s technology.
I said carefully, “We have no theories or math to describe the phenomena we’ve seen them capable of. All we really know is that it’s possible to take a ship into subspace, and to create some kind of wave that is capable of destroying ships. Our only starting point is radiation we have no idea the source of.”
I wasn’t giving up, just being realistic. It would take time, and a lot of experiments. Perhaps if I started with what we knew of wormholes. We needed to open a hole in that other subspace layer or dimension, instead of a tunnel that ended up somewhere else in ours. Easier said than done.
Then I suspected, we would have a whole new universe to explore of sorts, with its own laws. Understanding would not be quick, or even all at once.
Ellis agreed, “No doubt, it’s the work of a lifetime.”
We were silent as we got off the shuttle and back onto the ship and I went to my quarters. I wondered if I was suicidal, because I was still tempted to jump in the sports shuttle and go say high to the Drenil in person on the planet. But really, it was just curiosity on my part so I suppressed the urge.
Al interrupted my thoughts, “I have an update on the Gelnott.”
“Go ahead.”
Al briefed me, “They are holding position outside Earth’s solar system, and only four ships completed the trip. They have contacted the council, though that information isn’t part of what I can access. The other two ships left the convoy after detecting the Nairan home world.”
I felt tense for a moment, but forced myself to relax. It wasn’t my responsibility anymore to protect pre-FTL societies.
“Has the council sent ships?”
Al replied, “Not yet. I estimate a high probability they will try a diplomatic solution before interceding directly. So far according to the Stealth net, the two Gelnott ships are undetected by the Nairan, and they’re merely running scans. We finally have a visual of the Gelnott, and it is somewhat of a surprise.”
“In what way?” I asked patiently.
“The Gelnott are humanoid like all the rest, but saurian in appearance. Perhaps what would have been on Earth, had the dinosaurs not reached extinction.”
That was new. I wasn’t sure what to think about it, had the seeders made a mistake, or were the people of Earth a random happenstance due to the asteroid strike, and our planet’s inhabitants should be similar? They were pretty close to Earth, just five thousand light years away, and I wondered when we found more humanoids toward the rim, if more would be this way. Al continued the summary.
“Their skin tones seem to vary between dark green and light brown, possibly an indication of age, and the skin itself is reptilian in appearance. They have cranial ridges, claws although just as dexterous as a human finger, and carnivorous teeth.”
I was kind of curious.
I ordered, “Keep an eye on it, what they do at Naira and at Earth, and any available news on them.”
It probably hadn’t been necessary, I had a feeling he was already doing it anyway.
I brought up the wormhole calculations, and the multi-dimensional math as we understood it for gravity devices, and just tried to find a place to start. The universe was infinitely complex, or at least, it seemed so to me. For instance, just how many levels of subspace were there? I had no idea. At least I’d found something to work on, the idea was fascinating, and who knew what else I’d learn on the way to understanding, or at least in attempting to grasp the technology of the Drenil…
Kristi walked into my office at our company, and she was clearly on a mission with a seriously stubborn look in her eyes.
We’d arrived home after our tragically short expedition to Drenil space, and I’d been working hard trying to understand exactly what I didn’t know, and had to figure out, which is much harder than it sounds. Regardless, I’d been working long hours.
Kristi said firmly, “We’re going out tonight.”
I felt my stomach plummet. I wasn’t a zombie anymore, and had made progress after Nathan’s death, but I wasn’t sure about going out to party, at all. Even just dancing I mean, which would no doubt involve dancing with men. Dating wasn’t even on the radar, and wouldn’t be for a long while.
“We are?” I asked brilliantly.
I was pretty smart, but couldn’t think of a valid reason to duck out.
Kristi nodded sharply, “We are. Joe is out of town, and its long past time for you to have some fun, way past time.”
I objected, “But, I am having fun.”
She snorted, “Yeah, banging your brainy head against the chalk board fun maybe. I mean real fun.”
I smiled and thou
ght fast, “Fine, but you’re my dance partner for the night.”
Kristi looked at me in faux shock, “I had no idea you felt that way.”
I just stared back, and tried not to laugh. I wondered if guilt would always accompany joy and laughter now, or if that would fade over time.
Kristi tossed her hair in ditz mode, and said in a considering voice, “Although those purple eyes of yours are kind of sexy.”
I giggle snorted since I couldn’t hold it back anymore. It was a bit embarrassing and oh so attractive.
“Fine, I’ll go, if we end this ridiculous conversation right now.”
Kristi smiled brightly, “I win,” and turned around and left my office.
It took me a little while to get back into the math.
Chapter 10
I looked in the mirror. Light makeup, a strapless red dress, and black high heels. I looked good, and I tried to smile, but it fell flat. Moving on was easier said than done, I already felt guilty, because I was excited about going out. I’d always loved to dance, and I knew once I’d had a few drinks I’d loosen up and have even more fun.
How could I do that with Nathan gone just under a month? Life went on though, and I knew I had to as well.
I walked out, ready to go, but with reservations.
Kristi was in dark blue body hugging dress, and as usual, looked better than I did. I didn’t say anything though, since she would just argue with me.
We headed out to a club in Denver instead of going far off, Kristi had said she’d heard good things about it.
As I expected it was a little awkward for me at first, as we entered the building. The music pounded and I felt the itch to go dancing, let go, and lose myself in the rhythm of the music for a while. I also felt disgusted with myself. Make sense or not, how could I dare to enjoy myself when he was gone forever? I considered squashing the emotion, it wasn’t overwhelming anymore, but I suspected that would just make it even worse later.
Still, after a drink or two, and being dragged out onto the dance floor, I couldn’t help but start to enjoy myself. I did try not to dance with anyone outside of my best friend, but that was difficult as well without being rude. It was awkward, the harmless flirting while dancing with a man was completely out of the question for me, but I managed to have fun anyway.
That night, it took me a while to get to sleep after we got home. I laid in bed and stared at the ceiling feeling guilty for the fun I’d managed to have. I also knew the next time I went dancing, that it would be a little easier to let go, and have fun. Of course, knowing that made me feel guilty even before it happened…
I looked at the data on the screen and frowned. I’d made a few guesses, and tried to open up a passage into subspace using slight modifications on the wormhole drive. It was ultimately a failure, but I’d gotten a lot of data out of it. I was hopeful once I combed through it all, that it would lead somewhere. I also wished for the umpteenth time I could consult the Drenil, who we couldn’t even get to count to three for us.
Al interrupted my thoughts, “Bug update, and a few other things if you have time.”
I sighed and wondered why I even bothered. It wasn’t like I could do anything about it. But the curiosity would keep me checking up with things.
“Go ahead Al.”
“We found two more, for a total of five hive worlds. They, like the other three are set up similarly in numbers and functions, and seem to be overbuilding at both new sites as well. There is more, the races have finally agreed to a sortie type raid on one of their systems. Get in, start trouble, and then get out. The objective is to figure out how they’ll react to an attack.”
“When?” I asked feeling conflicted. I wanted to know too, but we only had a little over three thousand platforms right now, I wanted twice that number or more before we went.
Al replied, “One week, the various forces will be gathering at the Seltan system that was attacked. There is another interesting piece of news.”
One week meant another three hundred more platforms, I guess I could deal with that. I snorted at myself, as if I had a choice? I supposed I could stay behind, I didn’t have to go at all, but I rejected that thought.
“What’s that?” I asked dubiously.
Al replied, “The stealth sensor net in our arm of the galaxy has found a non-humanoid FTL race.”
“That’s strange,” I thought out loud. The seeders seemed more… competent than that.
Al said, “I believe based on the Seltan’s vague descriptions of the Reilan race, and the planets they lived on, that this may very well be a colony or outpost of that believed extinct species.”
I took a deep breath, Al’s voice was so clinical, he had no idea he’d just dropped a bomb of sorts.
“The Reilan, you mean the ones that were destroyed by the bugs in the galactic arm next to us, those Reilan?”
There was a brief silence, and Al said, “Yes. Or if not that specific race, one of the same race type from that arm who either fled here, or explored before the bug attack. I believe the council has ordered a first contact probe to the system, obviously they are an ancient FTL race, and we have no knowledge of their technological level.”
“Keep me up to date on that. Anything else?” I asked, almost hoping he said no.
Al informed me, “Only that the talks with the Gelnott are not going well. They seem to be both an arrogant and aggressive species. Things may change, but right now I find it unlikely they will sign the treaty and give up their right to do whatever they want.”
I frowned and said a little on edge, “You’re just full of useful and wonderful information today.”
I hoped it would be a long time before the new treaty was tested. If we had to, we would quarantine that world. Not back to the stone age like the Knomen did it, but kept out of space. Even if the Gelnott proved themselves a true threat, with such new relationships between the species, the other treaty worlds may worry that we weren’t any better than the Knomen. It wouldn’t be true of course, the Knomen did it for control, this treaty was about all the worlds having freedom, except of course to attack or interfere with their neighbors.
Al was silent for a moment, and then replied, “I would say thank you, but I estimate a high probability that you were being sarcastic.”
I grudgingly smiled, “You would be right, but that doesn’t make me less thankful for your input, keep me apprised of developments.”
“Will do Alicia.”
I frowned. I’d asked him to call me by name a great number of times, this was the first time he’d actually done so. Whatever Shelly’s new A.I. design was doing for Al’s responses and capabilities was obviously still in flux. I started to wonder more if the changes would ever stop, rather than wondering when they would stop. The problem with that is Shelly did want to eventually start selling them, so I decided we needed to judge it on stability rather than any kind of consistent action or response.
It did make sense, the new A.I. matrix was supposed to adapt to its user, I just hadn’t thought it would be so… ongoing.
As long as I’d been distracted from my work, I looked up some business figures as well. First, the inter-galactic taxi service was a bigger hit than I’d expected. I started it up after having ten built out, and they were almost constantly in use now. Each time I added two, the work seemed to increase. I was sure that would flag some before we hit our taxi goal of a fifty, but so far it was paying off. Since all the patents and designs on the ships were mine or Kristi’s, it wouldn’t take long before materials were paid for and I’d actually start making a profit from them.
It wouldn’t be much in comparison to my current royalty amounts coming in, but it wasn’t insignificant either. Even a small amount of gold per trip added up.
I’d also received personal thanks from twenty-eight of the thirty-nine treaty worlds to make my business available to their governments during a treaty emergency such as mutual defense.
The gravity ball had increased in sales as
well since Vegas, or I should say the amount of times the pattern has been sold on many fronts to Fire departments, police, and even military such as the coast guard and SAR units on air craft carriers.
The only other thing that was going on were the nanites, which were selling as fast as we could make them. I considered the idea of setting up an auction to sell off the rights to both manufacture and sell them to the public, mainly the fabricator companies, but car companies as well. I didn’t want to wait too long, since it might bite us in the long run if we do. I wrote up a quick proposal for it and forwarded it onto Kristi and Caroline for their input.
After that I got back to the data for the new technology I was trying to understand, and some testing. I kept making tweaks and educated guesses by what I was seeing for results to inform the next set of changes. No luck though, I was obviously missing something vital, perhaps something not even in the data, but I kept looking anyway…
Chapter 11
Al woke me up early the following morning, “You need to go visit your family.”
Huh? My mind was having trouble with that. First, A.I.s don’t tell their owners what to do. Secondly, I was sleeping, and it was only five in the morning.
“Explain, and this better be good.”
Al said, “There has been a surge of anti-alien opinions lately. I surmise too much has changed and too fast, and people fear it. The world is slowly splitting between those that don’t want change and support their countries, to those who see this as an opportunity to come together. Almost all of them, on both sides, credit you with providing the impetus, either as a problem or opportunity. Regardless, there are a number of protestors at your parent’s house.”
I was alarmed by that, and agreed, I should go and make sure everything is okay with my parents and sister. Why the hell wouldn’t they be here? The protestors I mean, not my family. I hadn’t lived at home since I was a teenager. Could they be scared to come to me directly, or were there just no insane stupid idiots local to Colorado Springs and they couldn’t afford air fare?
Alicia Jones 4: Enigma Page 5