How they had made their way down here against the tide of refugees was amazing in itself.
They had on a lot more equipment than the last time they had ventured out from their ship. Each of them now wore bulkier chest and back plates, and gear was molded to every limb. Most interesting was that each of them had a small dark-gray-matte dome standing upright behind their heads.
The humans were stopped at the outer cordon of security.
Obragon watched the brief exchange before calling over, “Let them through.”
The Domums turned in surprise.
They looked back at the humans and then stepped aside with a “Yes, sir!”
Good old Domum training. Members of Manor Vax would never question their orders. He was the best example of the consequences these younger officers would ever need after all.
For my sins, and will now be my redemption?
The dark-skinned female human came forward ahead of the other three. He wondered where the fifth one was as she said to him, “Commander, we would like to volunteer our assistance with the Devourer threat. And we also would like to suggest how we may be best involved in your current strategy.”
Commander Obragon Vax raised a hairless eyebrow in surprise.
He hadn’t been expecting that when he had allowed them to come over. Demands for asylum, to be allowed to leave, various possible conversations that would center on their capacity for survival in the face of the Devourer threat, yes.
But volunteers?
“Well now,” he said slowly, letting his mind catch up from the reeling.
“I will be honest with you, human. I did not expect such an offer.”
She gave him a slim smile, her lips pressed together in what he thought might be some sort of self-depreciation.
“Yes, sir. Today is a day of surprises for all of us. May I offer our suggestions?”
“You may.” Obragon Vax certainly was curious as to what the humans would propose.
“Two of us would like to assist your security at the back of the refugee crowd. They can put in place barriers to narrow down the avenues of approach that the Devourer forms can use,” She explained.
Obragon Vax thought this over for a moment.
“I see. Let us assume that you can create these barriers, as I see no material with you to do so. That will likely create a funnel for the Devourer forms to attack along, forcing them into avenues of conflict.”
“Yes, sir. We thought that would be preferable to the refugees being lost with the current hit-and-run tactics, and that keeping them at bay and where we can see them would delay your complete eradication protocol.”
For the second time, Obragon Vax was completely surprised.
“I am impressed, human, that you have learned our protocols to such an extent. How did you come by this knowledge?”
“Sir, it is available in the Domum archives within the Puzzle Box newcomer’s guides.”
“Indeed, it is, human. Indeed, it is. Although very few choose to read that far in, and certainly not through all of that laborious detail. After all, there are over five hundred chapters on Domum protocols.”
He did quite enjoy her respectful attitude, and she impressed him more and more.
“Yes, sir. Five hundred and thirty-seven to be exact. We have gone through them in detail, and we want to lend our efforts to resolve this situation with the Devourer without the destruction of the Enone Hub or the Devourer itself, sir.”
“Ah, but to do that, human, we need to find a way to stop the Devourer as well. And believe me, we have tried to do that already.”
“Yes, Commander, we are aware of your efforts. That is the second suggestion we have for you. We would like to send two of our members into the Devourer hive ship to communicate directly with the hive mind inside.”
He’d been wondering what they were going to suggest for the other three humans—only two were here—but again, this was a surprise. It seemed these humans would be a fascinating species if they all carried on in this fashion.
“I see,” he responded. “Are you aware that the hive ships are notoriously trapped and very well secured as per specifications designed by the Domums and the galactic citizenship in our peace treaty?”
“Yes, sir. We are prepared to circumvent or avoid those traps and get into the ship itself.”
“Oh really? Do you also realize that one mistake will likely see you dead?”
“Yes, sir.”
Obragon Vax studied the dark-skinned female for a few seconds. She didn’t wither under his scrutiny, nor did she flinch when he stared her straight in the eyes. So, they were either mad or quite serious.
“I agree, human. What was your name again?”
“Lekiso, sir. And thank you. We are grateful for your acceptance. It is important that we establish a good relationship with you and your officers. We will have much to discuss when the current situation is over.”
“That sounds like a fascinating conversation, Lekiso human. And I will hold you to it. In the meantime, I suggest that you get started. You have little time to change the course of events if you can at all.”
“Yes, sir. One last thing. Please inform your men to expect us. We may appear rather…abruptly.”
Obragon Vax gave her a nod, accepting her at her word if not understanding what she meant. He turned his head to begin informing the communications officer to relay word of the humans’ assistance to the other security details, especially the team working on the Devourer ship, who had only gotten through the first door so far.
It took him less than forty seconds to issue the orders, but when he turned back, the humans had already left. He looked around and over the railing but couldn’t see them anywhere.
They move fast, he thought happily to himself.
* *
Engestine was taking its ease in the Danane Hub.
The Lopokin main family estate was nearby in a set of buildings leased from the Domums. It suited the family to operate near the command center; it allowed their monitoring software the best signal strength without being obvious enough to sit in the central carriageway nexus right under the center itself.
Not that Engestine cared about that sort of clandestine activity; it wasn’t around for the subtle affairs of the family. So, when its communicator chimed, and it saw the originator was Kalinvar Lopokin, a slow smile spread to show off the wickedly sharp teeth lining its jaws.
“Yes, master,” It answered.
“Engestine, our snoops have spotted the humans having a conversation with the good Commander Obragon. It seems they are about to join in the muddle of events taking place in the park on the Enone Hub,” Kalinvar drawled.
Engestine gave this a thought or two.
“Yes, master, and what can this servant of yours do with regard to that particular situation? I thought we had decided to stay out of that nasty problem.”
“Ah, yes, we did. And we do. However, the humans are still of great interest to us. Even more so now. Watch the video clip I have sent to your console.”
Engestine sat up from its warming rock and depressed a button with one sharp talon. Graphical displays didn’t tend to last long with an Antonasas, so rubberized push-button consoles had been installed for it.
The received video file popped up on an external display. Engestine watched the humans arrive and the conversation with the Domum, and then he watched them leave. The snoop had tracked them down the ramp and to the point where they had disappeared.
Engestine replayed the last few seconds to be sure.
“I see, master. Very impressive indeed.”
“Ah, I thought you might recognize the value of such technology. I require that you go to the park. I have prepared a shuttle for you. Amid a battle with the Devourer, a battle which I am sure is inevitable at this point, there will be an opportunity for you to capture one of these humans.”
“Just one, master?”
“One should suffice. Do not risk your own capture or loss for
more than one. Our snoop is independent of the Puzzle Box network and should not have been detected. We withdrew the device as soon as we captured this little tidbit. But I’m sure that your actions will not go unnoticed for long. Be quick and be sure, Engestine.”
“Yes, master.”
“Oh, and Engestine, one other thing.”
“Yes, master?”
“The human need not be in one piece, nor alive, for our purposes.”
The Antonasas smiled. It was a very unpleasant smile.
“Yes, master. I understand completely.”
* *
It was a good thing that the entry team for the Devourer hive ship had been alerted to their arrival.
They were already on edge, and Ormond was pretty sure they would have been more aggressive if they hadn’t been forewarned. He and Lekiso had come around the corner to find themselves greeted with Domum weapons pointed at them.
For a human, that was a strange sight, but since he knew the Domum weaponry was stored in those black ellipses covering their forearms, he also knew how threatening the gesture really was.
Once they were recognized, though, they were let through.
Now here they were, standing in front of the second doorway to the Devourer ship. The metal was painted a dark olive green, and it was bolted on to the bulkhead. Rather than the sliding doors everywhere else on the station or ships they had so far encountered, these doors were more like bulkhead hatches.
The peace treaty required that no one could get onto a Devourer ship without permission and that nothing could get off. There were no umbilicals attached to the vessel without strict supervision, no maintenance shafts or access crawlways.
There was only this one way on or off the ship, and it had many layers of security preventing simple access.
To get to the ship’s basic resupply systems required getting through the three doors on the single docking airlock. All three entries required that both sides, the docking station, and the ship, granted access.
The Domums were having so much trouble because the ship side wasn’t granting access, which meant they had to very carefully circumvent the failsafes that would destroy any intruder.
Since an intruder could also be a Devourer parasite trying to leave the ship, Ormond could understand the paranoia.
Over their private com channel, Ormond said, “Marc, have you got anything?”
“Uh, yeah. That door is wired with so many devices it’s amazing it can serve its actual function. But the good news is they are all hardwired. The room beyond is clear. There are motion sensors and other scanners, but since the ship connects over a network, SAI and I have disabled them.”
“Good job, mate. Thanks,” Ormond replied.
Then he looked over at Lekiso, who gave him a nod back.
SAI had explained to them that the Gravitonics they had been using was from a connected graviton in the Vector linked to the base of the spine of each human. There was a lot of technical detail, but the basics were that quantum entanglement allowed the gravitonic energy to pass to the humans at an infinite distance and through any obstacle.
This energy passed through power for all their equipment as well.
What was most important was that everything they had done that their systems had highlighted as “Gravitonics Detected” had been done by them—and that each of them should be able to do the same things.
SAI had then taken the wind out of their sails by saying that they were only using some of the most basic abilities and that it was only when Marc teleported into the ship that they had started to actively engage the higher functions.
The human brain and creativity were what limited their use of the sophisticated technologies wet-wired into their brains. Guiding and applying the gravitons’ power had become a part of their individual personalities, which was why it was so hard to teach all aspects of it.
Ormond looked through the top of the triangular transparent plate in the door; able to see the next room clearly, he focused. He reached towards the room, pushing his whole body at the same time, and then he was inside.
A moment later, Lekiso appeared next to him with only the faintest of violet shimmers, which quickly disappeared.
Teleportation, who would have thought? He wondered.
It worked quite easily, though the actual conceptualization differed for each of them—until they got to an instinctual action. Apparently, then they could teleport around at will, just like jumping or taking a step.
Ormond looked through the third door’s see-through panel and pulled again.
Lekiso appeared next to him. This time, they both got their rifles up against their shoulders to cover the corridor beyond. The three doors of the docking section were situated at the top of the massive ship’s triangular shape. The corridor ran along the top spine of the vessel.
This was where all of the monitoring stations and refueling or supply feeds started.
According to the schematic in his display, the ship was also divided into sections. Like the big metal sailing ships on Earth, each section could be locked down and separated from the others. The Devourer mind was spread out between all of the sections, and if one or a few failed, it could seal them in to prevent any danger from spreading along the length of the ship.
The design was meant to assist its chances of survival in space while maintaining its brain status.
It wasn’t just for the Devourer’s safety; it was to ensure that a ship this big carrying this many Devourer forms would always have a governing brain. That was the principle of the design for the hive mind’s survival. From where they were, Ormond and Lekiso needed to search the ship and figure out what had happened to the hive mind.
“Marc, we are inside. My system reads that there is air and no radiation. It seems like it is safe in here.”
“Uh, yeah, it does. According to your scans, the ship doesn’t have any damage either. I don’t see anything to indicate that the inside has met with anything severe enough to damage the Devourer. At least, not up to where you are. I’ve highlighted the maintenance hatch on your map that will take you down.”
Ormond’s display lit up a door hatch eighty feet down the corridor.
“Let’s go,” he sent to Lekiso, and the two of them started along the passage.
The problem with teleportation was knowing where you were going, SAI had explained. You could theoretically teleport anywhere as long as you knew your destination. One of the advanced capabilities of Gravitonics was to be able to sense or feel out an environment you couldn’t see and then be able to teleport into it.
Since they didn’t have that ability just yet, they had to go by sight.
It worked when their display showed them a schematic of an area, and they could see where it was in relation to where they were. That’s how they’d gotten from the ship to the park and from the park down to the docking arc where the Devourer ship was.
But to move inside the ship meant they needed to make shorter teleports since they had no idea aside from the schematics what was inside.
Marc was using their suits equipment to deep scan around them. Ormond could see the fuzz on his map display cleaning up as they moved further into the ship, but something was still jamming a lot of it—a sure sign that someone or something had interfered on this vessel.
The equipment they had on had taken fifteen minutes to equip. It was bulkier, and a bit heavier than before, and SAI had commented that it put them at the limits of what they could teleport.
Apparently, the more mass they had, the more energy was required to move it, or overcome it; he’d have to find out more later. They got to the maintenance hatch, and like the others, it had safeguards, but the resolution of the scan showed them open space on the other side, so they popped through.
The corridor beyond went at an angle following the outside of the ship. Among the pipes paralleling the corridor were other conduits, and spaced along those were small panels and displays.
Weirdly, the ar
tificial gravity kept them standing upright as they looked down the slope. Visually, Ormond was sure he should be sliding down the incline.
“Whew, that’s something,” he commented on the comm.
“It is strange. Do you think we could just go right to the bottom?” Lekiso asked.
“Hunh, good question. SAI?”
The voice of the ship spoke the same way on the private channel as it did out loud.
“Certainly. The scans show the bottom of that lateral corridor. From where you are, you should be able to teleport down.”
“Ha, okay, then. Hey, SAI, doesn’t all of this teleportation use up energy or something? Will we tire ourselves out if we use a lot of it?” Ormond had been wondering about that; so far, he wasn’t feeling tired.
“Yes, although you will come to understand your individual limits. The Gravitonics required to teleport does not bother with distance but with activation. The same effort is required to move your body mass hundreds of thousands of miles as it is for a single foot. It is the activation and opening of the wormhole by gravitic manipulation that exerts the effort. Since the effect is instant, there is no further energy required.”
“The energy passes through your system and brain in microjoules, still enough to cause some tiredness each time. There is more.”
Ormond was pushing implanted knowledge back so that it didn’t distract him.
“It would take some time to explain the propagation of energy requirements. I will do so at a later stage. As to how many times you will be able to use the Gravitonics, the method of energy manipulation comes from the neural structure of the brain. Ordinarily, the brain uses approximately twenty percent of all the energy in the body, more than the heart or any other organ.”
“That is during normal activity when the brain does not utilize its full capacity all of the time. The manipulation of gravitonic energy through the principal application of Gravitonics requires that the brain heighten its neural usage to higher than fifty percent for a comprehensive period, up to several seconds depending on the effect you are generating.”
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