by S. H. Jucha
At the final dome, Luther welcomed Kasie. “We look forward to your inspiration, Kasie,” he said.
“No promises, Luther,” Kasie replied. “I apologize for the fuss I made. I hated being left out of the opportunity to discover one of the last great secrets of the domes.”
“Your emotional involvement with these creations is evident,” a SADE replied. “It gives you an advantage that we don’t possess.”
The SADEs nodded in agreement, which made Kasie feel better about pushing her way into the SADEs’ work. She gazed around at the equipment that littered the deck. Based on the possibility of her intuition succeeding, they’d brought every device from below deck — corridors, dorm rooms, and tunnels.
Kasie turned slowly toward the enigma that had frustrated everyone, the dome console.
“Kasie,” Luther said, “it’s twenty-five hours outpost time, which runs on the Pyrean chronometer.”
“Oh,” Kasie replied. She checked her implant’s chronometer and realized that she’d spent much of the day journeying. While she stood uncertain about what to do next, her body answered the question. A wide yawn escaped.
Excusing herself, Kasie made for the ramp and sought out a dorm room. After the refresher and a change of clothes, she grabbed a plate of paste.
Yum, she thought sarcastically, as she stuck the first bite in her mouth and shuddered. Despite her tease of Mickey, she was entirely sympathetic to him.
After recycling her cup and plate, Kasie triggered a pallet from the wall, lay down, and was quickly asleep. She dreamed of the console, the panels, and myriad Messinant symbols.
2: Sixty Degrees
When Kasie’s implant chronometer signaled, she woke. With a yawn and a stretch, she stood and tapped a glyph on the wall. The pallet slid into the wall to be cleaned. Then she made her way to the facilities. Afterward, she choked down paste and water and made her way to the upper deck.
Kasie smiled at the subtle movements the SADEs made as she gained the ramp’s top. The first time she’d asked Juliette why that was their habit, the SADE had demonstrated the options.
Juliette had locked her avatar and frozen all facial movements. She’d held that position until Kasie noticeably shivered.
“Eerie?” Juliette had inquired, resuming human imitation.
“And then some,” Kasie had replied.
“Julien has taught many of us the necessity of making biologicals comfortable with our unusual nature,” Juliette explained. “The energy expenditure is minimal, and the returns are invaluable.”
Kasie approached the console, and her vivid dreams returned. Staring at the complex Messinant device, she mused, “Why are the consoles the same build ... a primary panel and six operator panels?”
“We presume that’s a rhetorical question, Kasie,” Luther replied, approaching Kasie.
“I would mark it as that of an efficient manufacturing process,” a SADE added. “The configuration would allow for a dome’s future platform expansion without retrofit of the console.”
“Exactly,” Kasie said, turning around to face the SADEs arrayed around her. “We accept that the Messinants are or were marvelous engineers. Therefore, they would have built the domes with a care to easily add platforms as they tinkered with new races.”
Luther activated a holo-vid that rested on the deck. Its power supply drove an image that rose high into the air. The SADEs supplied their memories of platform decks, and Luther overlaid them.
Kasie’s head cocked to the side. She reached into the holo-vid and rotated elements of the display. She wasn’t adept at this, but Luther moved the images to imitate her actions.
The overlay proved confusing to Kasie. It delivered too much information.
Luther completed Kasie’s request, linking through the comm relays within the dome to reach the traveler that floated above the shuttle launch tunnel. The traveler connected to the Trident stationed in space, which maintained a link with the outpost.
Mickey frowned, as he eyed Jess. His preference was to work with engineers, humans and SADEs, or leaders who were capable of clearer communications.
On the other hand, Jess understood his sister. She wasn’t a detailed person, but she was amazingly intuitive.
Kasie smiled. It was like Jess to figure out her poorly worded request.
The SADEs comprehended Kasie’s line of inquiry, which elevated their emotional algorithms.
The display shifted, and Luther replied,
Mickey sent an image to the SADEs of an ancient clock recording the passage of time by circulating hands on a marked face.
Kasie hoped to see the display change, but it never did. She made a face at being left out of the calculations.
Kasie sent.
Jess understood what Kasie was trying to say, and he added,
Lucia’s point halted conversation. The focus had been on the immediate technical problems, but the future presented entirely new political challenges.
Jess reviewed imagery stored aboard the outpost’s data banks, and he sent one to every individual on the call.
Kasie interjected.
The conference call audience received an image from Tacnock, which caught many by surprise. It was an image of the Triton dome deck, and it was heavily annotated. Five platforms had been added to the dome’s single gate. Text accompanying the image read Hyronzy, Sol, and Omnia.
Frowning at Jess’s practical advice, Kasie nonetheless turned her attention to the console. The single gate was controlled by the console’s far left panel. At least, humans and alliance races had that in common with the Messinants — gate controls worked from left to right. Menus within the panels read down, and glyphs read left to right.
The second panel from the left was dark. It would light with a touch and would offer the primary menu. However, none of the menu items would activate.
Kasie considered addressing the centrally located primary panel and its powerful submenus to activate the second gate panel, but she dismissed the idea. We need access to a deck’s sublevel, she thought. The machinations necessary to install a second platform should activate the panel.
When Kasie reached for the primary panel, she heard,
Kasie stretched her arms to see how well her reach encompassed the primary and the secondary panels. The reach was sufficient, but her simultaneous view of both panels was restricted.
Keep it simple, obvious, Kasie encouraged herself. She perused the primary panel, pretending to see it for the first time. She also tried to think like an engineer, who would be routinely adding another gate.
Then Kasie touched the primary panel in an unmarked location and signaled Luther to do the same. The result was no action. Kasie continued to try combination movements until Luther suggested she take a break. She shrugged, exited the deck, ate some paste, visited the facilities, and lay down for a nap.
A few hours later, Kasie was back at the console. She admitted that working with Luther was easy. The SADE often correctly calculated what she wanted, and his reactions were swift.
Two cycles passed, while Kasie attacked the console panels with every combination she could imagine. Only Kasie, Luther, and other SADEs were linked. If anyone wanted to know about their progress, they connected to Miriam.
Kasie had long ventured past the concept of dual entry to activate the second panel in tandem with the primary panel. Now, she was attempting to use both panels to activate a new window in the primary panel, which would require an input.
“You’re hiding from me, but I know you’re there,” Kasie whispered to the console. Frustrated, she turned to stare at Luther.
Suddenly, an idea occurred to Kasie. “Could it be that easy?” she asked.
Luther recognized a rhetorical question and remained silent.
“Luther, I need a human,” Kasie said excitedly, “and I need them here now and for a while.”
Luther relayed the request to Miriam, Mickey, and Jess.
The SADEs in the dome perceived Kasie’s inspiration. A biological and a digital entity were trying to activate the second dome. It might be the attempt didn’t fall within the range of acceptability for the Messinants.
Edmas said a quick goodbye to Jodlyne, his partner, and hurried to catch the scheduled transport from the outpost to Triton. Riding the lift to the lower decks, he received a link from Miriam. It gave him a dome-by-dome path of the gates and instructions for remote console operation to reach Kasie.
It was late when Edmas arrived at the final dome.
“Welcome, Edmas,” Luther said. “Kasie has retired. It’s her habit to rest for a few hours and then return to work. You might want to take an opportunity to get some paste and refresh yourself.”
“Paste ... can’t wait,” Edmas replied, chuckling. Then he headed below in the company of a SADE, who pointed out an available dorm room. Edmas memorized the glowing glyph that marked his door. As an engineer, he was always amazed by the near-perfect seal that hid the doors.
Taking time to eat and rest, Edmas set his implant’s chronometer for the hour and a half that Luther estimated would return Kasie to the deck. The SADE was accurate. Edmas stood by the console only a few minutes before Kasie made her way up the ramp.
Kasie grinned and shook her head when she spotted Edmas.
“What?” Edmas asked, spreading his arms. “I won’t do?”
“You’ll do fine, pretty Earther man,” Kasie replied. “I’d expected a security type ... maybe a New Terran, who would argue with every directive I gave.”
“Engineers ... we aim to please,” Edmas replied, sharing a broad grin with Kasie.
“You’re familiar with what I’ve been doing?” Kasie asked, as she approached the console.
“Yes,” Edmas replied. “You lead and direct me to follow the image you send.”
Turning to Luther, Kasie said, “I’d like to recreate the entire period of trials, eliminating duplicate attempts.”
“Understood, Kasie,” Luther replied. “Would you like them in any order?”
Kasie thought about Luther’s request. “Yes,” she replied. “I want to begin with my later attempts to get the primary panel to respond with some kind of input request.”
Luther nodded and linked with Kasie and Edmas. Then he fed Kasie’s routine to the two humans.
What had first taken Kasie a full cycle to work through was compressed to little more than a few hours, as Edmas and Kasie touched off the panels in accordance with the SADE’s images.
Afterward, Kasie and Edmas took a short break to eat.
Edmas thought to engage Kasie in some conversation about the Messinants, but she ate mechanically, her eyes staring far away. When she finished, she recycled her dishes and headed to the deck.
The routine continued. Luther sent the actions, and t
he humans followed them.
Edmas found the process mind-numbing, and his attention started to drift. He nearly missed what happened on his panel.
“Wow,” Edmas uttered. His hand froze above the panel before he’d responded to the SADE’s next operation.
“What?” Kasie demanded, stepping over to examine the panel in front of Edmas.
Luther immediately linked to the outpost’s senior staff.
Kasie and Edmas stared at a window that had popped up.
“What should I do?” Edmas asked.
“What’s your instinct?” Kasie returned, which the SADEs found a fascinating response.
“This doesn’t look like a normal window that’s seeking glyph input. It’s too large. It covers nearly the entire panel,” Edmas replied.
“So, what do you think you should do?” Kasie pressed.
While they were talking, the popup window disappeared. Kasie returned to the primary panel and repeated her last input. Then Edmas followed suit, and the window reappeared.
Operating as Kasie had urged, Edmas placed his hand palm down in the middle of the window.
“Yes!” Kasie said excitedly, when the panel accepted Edmas’ input. She glanced at the primary panel, which now had the same type of window. Without a thought, Kasie placed her hand in the new window.
“Step back,” Luther instructed the humans. He and the other SADEs had detected subtle vibrations in the deck.
As Kasie and Edmas stepped away from the console, it lifted a few centimeters and slid backward, taking the power supply and data lines with it.
Kasie clapped her hands and threw her arms around Edmas’ neck, delivering a fierce hug. Then she disengaged and made to inspect the opening, but Luther stood in the way. She had to be satisfied with the view that Luther sent her.
“Steps,” Edmas commented, sharing Luther’s view.
The SADEs picked up equipment. With Luther leading the way, they descended. Two SADEs remained on deck.
Edmas caught Kasie’s attention and glanced toward the two SADEs, who stood beside the open hole.