by S. H. Jucha
“Tatia,” Julien suggested, and Alex tipped his head.
Alex briefly outlined the plan with the Nua’ll and the lesser fleets.
Alex replied.
“Mickey, Miriam, let’s get back to work,” Alex announced. He had no need to update Mickey on the actions that he’d just taken, Miriam had already done that.
“How ironic,” Mickey said. “Now, the Nua’ll are working for us.”
“It can be a mysterious universe,” Julien commented.
“To continue,” Alex said. “The access point and the traps are just the first hurdles. My biggest concern is whether the creators allowed Artifice to have comm capability within its domain.”
“This has been discussed,” Miriam interjected. “Consensus has been reached. If the creators took the precautions that we’re discovering, then they’d not have wished to give Artifice that capability. Communication would be via hard connection only.”
“I agree with the SADEs’ reasoning,” Alex said, “but I want every precaution taken. Use shadows with short-range comm capability and interface a sister between the shadow and any Omnian.”
“Wise precautions,” Miriam commented.
* * *
Mickey, ensconced in his environment suit, surveyed the wreckage that stretched for hundreds of meters around Artifice’s towers. In many places, it was piled high, as the Dischnya had fought the army and the onrushing bots climbed the mounded bodies of the fallen.
Mickey, on the other hand, was doing no such thing. He was trying to imagine he was a Toralian. Alex is so much better at this, he thought.
While Miriam peered into the distance, Mickey spun slowly in a circle, seeking the unusual. A thought occurred to him.
Mickey ran the short distance to the base of the primary tower. The minelette’s explosion had knocked the tower over. The heat from the device had softened the tower’s lower structure, and the blast had pushed it over.
Miriam knelt, placed her palm flat on the tower’s base, and sent a brief, powerful surge down her avatar’s arm into her hand. After analyzing the pulse’s reflections, she stood and said,
Mickey ordered a team to attach bolts to the cover and cut it free from its thick casement, the walls of which penetrated many meters underground. When the work was finished, the crew attached cables to the undercarriage of a cargo shuttle, which lifted the cover free of the casement.
Miriam stared into the hole and waited.
Tittra didn’t have an issue with Herrick’s case being used by the Omnians. He was pleased that it could be of some value. However, he did have one stipulation. He wanted to be present when Artifice communicated through the console.
Mickey and Miriam considered it an advantage to have Chistorlans handle the setup of Herrick’s case at each point along the trek into Artifice’s domain. It saved them the effort of learning the process, and since the Chistorlans had no implants, they would be immune from Artifice’s intrusions.
A traveler delivered a shadow from Claude Dupuis’ lab. The engineering tech worked with Z to build the SADE’s avatars and shadows. This particular multi-legged unit was larger than most and carried an assortment of equipment — appendages equipped with hard connections, a comm system with auto-attenuation circuitry, lights, and a high-density vid pickup.
Inside a cargo shuttle, Miriam activated a holo-vid. She signaled the sister, who took control of the shadow, and linked its vid pickup to the holo-vid.
The shadow descended a long set of steps.
“No lift,” Claude commented. “Nothing to commandeer.”
“It underlines the depth of the precautions the creators took to isolate Artifice,” Mickey added.
At the bottom of the steps, the shadow entered a wide corridor and the sister halted its advance, while she played its lights over the walls.
“Panels on the wall,” Miriam said, and requested the traveler’s sister shift the lights there.
“Try the panels,” Mickey said.
The shadow received its signals. It stood on its rear legs to reach them, braced its middle legs against the wall, and touched the first panel with an extended foreleg. Then the shadow’s signal disappeared.
“Alex said we should be careful,” Mickey said. “I thought he was being overly cautious.”
-36-
The Lesser Fleets
Tatia selected five Tridents from those guarding the lesser fleets. They rendezvoused with the Freedom to take on SADEs and sisters and make for the elder fleets to clear them of Artifice’s programs.
Meanwhile, Z and Miranda calculated that the aliens who occupied the lesser fleets had no more reason to trust the Nua’ll than the Omnians did. To communicate their intentions, they prepared vids to play for the fleet commanders.
Miranda waited near the Trident command that guarded one of the
fleets above the ecliptic, while Z approached the other nearby fleet. The Nua’ll had tagged the commanding ship of each fleet for Miriamal, who directed Z to the appropriate battleship.
A bay door opened at the fighter’s approach. When the bay was sealed and pressurized, Z and Luther, with a small grav pallet, exited the ship. On the other side of the airlock, aliens in heavy suits, with darkened faceplates, met them.
Z activated the holo-vid strapped to his arm. The four aliens watched the scenes unfold. The Omnians’ unmistakable ships launched banishers to destroy Artifice’s probes across many systems, including Talus. An armada of Tridents tracked a giant sphere, which detonated during the battle. The Talus comm platforms capabilities were truncated. Bots fought to protect Artifice’s towers, and they were destroyed. Then Artifice’s towers were taken down.
The SADEs hoped that the Nua’ll had communicated the details of what would be done for the lesser fleets, regarding the clearing of their ships. The vid was about establishing credentials, and the sequence delivered an indelible message — Artifice ruled no more.
One of the aliens motioned Z to follow, and the group trooped through the battleship to reach the bridge. The route was circuitous, and the SADEs thought that it was probably due to the ship’s extensive damage.
On the bridge, Z played a second sequence showing the Omnians repairing their Tridents, and he pantomimed helping the aliens with their ship. The response was instant and evident. The offer was refused.
The challenge that faced the SADEs was that they had no help from the aliens about where to attach the sister. Together, Z and Luther created a third vid sequence. It began with an image of the battleship’s antennas. Then an image of their bridge appeared. The next image placed the two side by side and a point of blinking light moved across the bridge.
An alien understood the message. He clapped two, long appendages together to catch Z’s attention and pointed to a section of the bridge.
Z pantomimed getting access to the section, and the alien gestured to another, who bent and went to work opening the console’s underside.
Z and Luther connected the sister they transported to several different lines, allowing her to search for a connection to the bridge’s major data and control hub. Finally, they were successful, and the sister began clearing the ship. Knowing the nature of Artifice’s programs, it was done in a few moments. When she was finished, she signaled Z via a bridge monitor. These hastily prepared sisters didn’t have comm antennas attached to their boxes.
The SADEs disconnected the sister, and Luther gestured to the alien, who’d recognized their initial request, to confirm their actions. That alien glanced toward the individual who had greeted the Omnians and a signal was passed. Immediately, the crew member approached a section. Multiple appendages flew over the controls and panels.
The SADEs noted that there were no seats. All the aliens stood on two, thick, short legs, whereas the multiple upper appendages or arms were long and slender.
One alien turned to a senior individual and another message was passed. There was no fanfare or celebration. The SADEs were gestured to follow, and they were led back to their ship.
Outside the battleship, Z transferred the contact data to Miranda, including his opinions about the reason that the aliens had refused help. Trust was in short supply. The Omnians might have defeated Artifice, but who said the Omnians didn’t want to rule the federacy in its stead?
Miranda began her efforts with the other fleet that rested above the ecliptic, and Z and Luther worked quickly through the remainder of their fleet.
Z communicated to Miriamal that she should deliver a message to the Nua’ll. The collective was to notify the lesser fleets’ commanders that they weren’t to exit the system until the ships of all three fleets were cleared. Comm signals being as weak as they were, the worry was that one fleet seeing another fleet leave would think that gave permission for them to do the same.
In less than a day, the SADEs completed their work on both fleets located above Toral. Neither commanding officer accepted the Omnians offers to assist in the repair of their ships.
The fleet below the ecliptic had put up the greatest resistance during the initial fighting, and the SADEs approached it with some trepidation. They waited at a respectful distance from the target battleship, but no bay opened for them.
Darius questioned.
Z suggested.
It worked. The Trident command had narrowed the distance to the remains of the lesser fleet by about one third, when Z notified Darius that bay doors had opened.
The aliens that waited inside the battleship for the SADEs appeared hostile. But that only lasted for an extremely brief moment. They were about half the height of a human, which meant that one look at Z had them fleeing down the corridor and around a corner.
Like the other occupants of the lesser fleets, these also wore suits. It occurred to the SADEs that it wasn’t only for protection against explosive decompression from ship damage or the Omnians, but it also might have been a preference to hide from aliens.
An alien peeked around the corner and gestured at them.
There seemed no need to play the credentials vid. However, Z did activate the holo-vid to demonstrate the need for access to the ship’s central controls. This kicked off a discussion between several of the aliens.
After some more back and forth, one of the aliens was unceremoniously shoved forward by two others. The individual stumbled toward Z, who extended a flat hand. It caught the alien’s chest, and tiny hands gripped it to steady the individual. Hastily pushing itself upright, the alien backed away, made a wide circle around the SADEs, and motioned Z and Luther to follow.
The SADEs were led on a tour to the bowels of the battleship. On what was probably the lowest deck, the alien entered a large room that housed massive banks of electronics.
Z played his vid of the antennas and swung his hand at the vast array of electronic banks. Unfortunately, the sweep of his hand over the alien’s head sent the individual tumbling backward. It took the alien considerable willpower to climb to his feet and lead the way between two rows of electronics. It stopped and pointed to an inscription above a set of panels and blinking lights.
The alien gestured by waving his hands back and forth and then scurried away.
Luther commented.
The SADEs investigated the reverse side of the row. Two banks did fit back to back, but the space between them would only accommodate the small aliens. Not even Luther, who wore a human-like avatar, could squeeze between the rows.
They returned to the front of the row. There wasn’t a connector on the panel’s face or next to the series of blinking lights beneath it.
While Z examined the outer st
ructure for access points, Luther slowly ran his hand over the surfaces. Internally, he’d activated sensors in his hand to ping the electronics. Both SADEs were unsuccessful in their searches.
Some tiny misalignment in the nameplate caught Z’s attention, primarily because it annoyed his sense of precision. When he bent close to examine it, magnifying the image, he detected fingerprints and imperfections in the plate. Gently he grasped the plate and levered it down and then up. In the latter direction, the plate swung upward, and connections were exposed.
Z sent trumpet blasts to Luther, and Luther’s emergency klaxon blared in answer.
There were four ports available, and Luther connected the sister to the farthest port to the left.
While they waited, they discussed the nature of the timid aliens. Luther sent,
Z considered the question. Then he sent,
Luther replied. He annotated his sending with an image of Renée from his database. Her hands were on her hips, and she wore a distressed expression.
Z was about to respond, but they were interrupted by the sister’s comment, which appeared on a small monitor. It was the monitor’s brightness change that caught their attention. Otherwise, they’d have missed the output. The monitor was about mid-thigh on Z.
Luther bent down. “The sister is finished. The ship is clear,” he read.
After they disconnected the sister, Luther glanced around and asked,