The Colony Ship Eschaton: The entire ten book series, page 163
Jamie shrugged while she and Michael waited for a response from Edgar. They each got out some food and consumed it while they waited. They were in a long room filled with large gears and pulleys. The yellow 1117 automacube had led them through many corridors and sections of the ship as they headed for the place where the second macroactinide capacitor enhancer needed to be installed. There had been no incidents along the way so far.
“This is Edgar. Yellow automacube 1117 is exempted from defensive action. This mission is deemed of higher priority. It shall continue on its mission. Please initiate it by pressing the ‘Proceed’ button.”
Jamie swallowed some water, and then sealed the container. She hit the button which had now reappeared on the small display on the automacube. It rolled away on its six wheels.
“Edgar, what is happening? Did the invaders reach Antioch?” Michael asked.
“This is Edgar. There have been no indications of sphere activity in Habitat One: Coastal Plains, although the habitat is not fully monitored. Hypatia reports that humans in Tropical have been in battle with spheres. Hypatia analyzed actual sample of invader’s substance. It is overtly alien. It shows mixed indicators of being organic and inorganic at the same time. Roxanne and I have no records of anything resembling the sample Hypatia has. Some of the basic elements are new to us. We cannot decide if it was ever alive or not, the tests are inconclusive. I am puzzled. Perhaps the sample is a machine or tool of some kind? Perhaps it is life by a different standard? Perhaps we lack sufficient details for proper analysis? However, the threat is real, and defenses are needed.”
They walked on in silence for a good bit of time. The passageway was long and straight and the yellow automacube rolled onward. Finally, it stopped at a wall, and jacked into the port there. A running line of lights appeared and a hand symbol was illuminated. Jamie pushed her hand against the symbol and the elevator door opened. They entered and the automacube rolled inside and reconnected into the wall. The doors closed and the elevator swiftly moved them away.
“I am beginning to get edgy about opening elevators,” Michael said with relief that the elevator was empty this time.
“I agree. We have traveled a fair distance, and there has not been anything showing damage in this region. But also no signs of people or animals. Everything here is quiet and still. I wonder how long it has been since anyone even passed these parts?” Jamie asked out loud. “I wonder what we will find at the end of the elevator? We have not had the best luck with elevators, have we?”
Michael hugged her close and held her.
They descended a good distance in the elevator, but it finally stopped, and the doors opened again. There was a very short hall with a single doorway at the end. Lit up over the door were the words ‘Exterior Repair Station 104’ and as the automacube approached, the doors slid sideways and lights came on inside. Jamie and Michael followed the machine in. It was a better maintained and cleaner version of the other Exterior Repair Stations they had seen. Everything was well illuminated: levers, buttons, switches, and all sorts of controls, as well as the large control chair. The display screen was in place, and the image of the invader vessel and the bluish-purple spheres on the hull was seen again. There were only a few of the spheres, not the long line they had witnessed before. Like the other Exterior Repair Stations, there were two walls with doors; one looked like the airlock, and the other like the storage room.
“This place is in far better shape than most of the things we have seen. The chair seemed to be fully operational,” Jamie said. She sat down in the chair and flipped several of the switches she had learned to operate on the others. “Hold that thought. There is an error message here as well.” Jamie tapped at the screen. ‘Non functional for exterior communications’ scrolled across the display.
Michael was standing near the airlock door. “So we go in and install this replacement, and that should correct the problem.”
“Yes, that…” Jamie began to answer, but was interrupted by the combox.
“This is Edgar. The counter-attack is going poorly. The spheres are superior in combat to the security automacubes. Ares is preparing shuttles for an external attack on the invader vessel. Ares requests that you expedite installation of the macroactinide capacitor enhancer. Until external communications are restored, no approach to the invader vessel is possible. Numerous security automacubes have been destroyed. It is unknown how far spheres have advanced into the ship. My Savannah is secure for now, but other regions are threatened.”
“How badly are the people hurt?” Jamie stated.
“This is Edgar. Unknown condition of humans who have interacted with spheres. No direct way to monitor that. Goliath is scanning for more information, but automacube damage has been significant. No new reports of injuries from Kurat or Hypatia. Until humans individually report back, or fail to do so, or bodies are found, their status is unknown. I am sorry I do not have more information. The humans in my Savannah are secure; I cannot speak for others in different habitats or in the mechanical spaces of the ship.”
Michael quickly unpacked the replacement part from his backpack. He removed the second of the macroactinide capacitor enhancers. It was identical to the previous one, three cylinders in a triangle configuration, about a hand span wide with an adjustment knob on the outer surface.
He approached the airlock, tools and replacement part in hand. The buttons were clean and lit: ‘Depressurize’ in blue color and ‘Pressurize’ in rust color. Michael pressed the ‘Pressurize’ button.
The mechanism cycled smoothly. The door slid open, and the airlock was visible. There was nothing inside it.
“Edgar, where is the macroactinide capacity enhancer in here? Which panel?” Michael asked.
“This is Edgar. At your location, it is behind panel TVX7767. That should be in roughly the same relative location as at the previous airlock.”
“Edgar, what is happening with Roxanne and the team in the needle ship?” Jamie asked
“The is Edgar. Roxanne reports slight progress on integration of those AIs into lattice. Zoran was integrated by Captain Tamar, but Roxanne lacks Captain level authorization, and is hindered by that fact. I have suggested that Captain Tamar consider a return to the needle ship to facilitate integration, but there has not been a response.”
“I found the panel. The old part is fused in here and some of the connectors are melted. Quite a mess. It will take a bit of cutting to remove the old one.” Michael raced out of the airlock and grabbed the entire tool kit, and his backpack. “I think the connections are still in place, but the unit looks like it was deliberately doused with some kind of metallic acid. The permalloy is undamaged, but the other parts are just waste. A very precise bit of sabotage some time ago. Nothing else here looks to be damaged.”
Working diligently, Michael was able to free the ruined unit, clean out the connectors, and install the new macroactinide capacity enhancer.
“Edgar? The unit is in place. What next?” Michael asked.
“This is Edgar. Please adjust the knob in a clockwise manner,” the artificial intelligence system stated through the combox.
“Adjusting,” Michael replied.
“This is Edgar. That seems to be the best alignment considering the circumstance. External communications are coming up and dishes and arrays are being charged.”
“Michael! Get in here!” Jamie cried out from the control chair. “There is a message…actually a conversation happening!”
29 shuttle launch
Ares nearly immediately recognized that the external communication system was marginally operational. That was enough. Ares acted and sent the launch sequences. The gigantic outer doors of Hanger Bay 27 were open. The bay had been depressurized completely and the gravity manipulation was negated. The large landing shuttles had their wings extended into launch position and were fully loaded with fuel that had been fabricated in the hanger bay just for this occasion. Ares and Goliath had collaborated in designing the fuel, not for efficiency, nor for best flight use, nor for safe use, but for highest explosive ability. The fuel would power the shuttles’ engines adequately to their destination, but the self destruct sequence was the primary concern. The artificial intelligence systems had accurately modified the landing shuttles into large guided bombs.
The holding clamps were released and the shuttles maneuvering thrusters were engaged. Just the slightest tap of thrust lifted Shuttle 19 off the deck. The wheels retracted into the undercarriage, and then the thrusters tapped again. Shuttle 19 gently glided forward and out the hanger bay doors and into space. Shuttle 20 and Shuttle 21 followed in sequence. Ares confirmed and reinforced communication links to the shuttles as they arranged themselves into flight formation. The thrusters shut off, and the main engines engaged. Without any human occupants, the shuttles could accelerate at maximum velocity. It would take them only a few minutes to maneuver from Hanger Bay 27 to where the invader, the target, was located over another part of the Colony Ship Eschaton.
30 revelations and retributions
Michael stood next to Jamie as she sat in the control chair of External Repair Station 104. On the display screen was the invader ship in its glowing bluish-purple haze. Jamie was adjusting the communication system which had just begun working again.
“Michael! I heard voices coming from out there,” Jamie said excitedly. “I am not sure exactly what this picked up, but it was voices. Human voices!”
Jamie continued to adjust and modify the controls. Then suddenly the display had an audio only reception. But it was a clear set of voices, the first being a strong female voice with a very unusual accent.
“….irrelevant! I do not care a thing about that history of yours. You call off the automacubes or I will engage them with even more force. I told you we have no docking capabilities since your ship battered ours with the microparticles,” The strong female voice said. “We need entry, now!”
“As I told you Major Rita Gonzalez, we just observe and do not interfere. We record events; we do not make events happen. We are….”
Jamie and Michael both recognized that second voice. They had chills. It was the same voice they had heard when Izzi the Chronicler had been murdered and on other occasions when the Chroniclers had attacked.
“This is Edgar,” the artificial intelligence system interrupted from the display, and not from the comboxes. “That is a transmission from the leader of the Chroniclers. Voice pattern confirmed and verified. Transmission traced and location locked in. Action being initiated.”
“Listen to me, Hillel!” Major Rita Gonzalez snapped. “I told you we have 10,000 sleepers out here, and we are jury rigged into this alien vessel. We need to get into the colony ship. I will ask again, are the Jellies in control or in occupation of your ship? Who is your commanding officer? Let me speak to your superiors!”
“Major Rita Gonzalez, I will again remind you that…”
There was a large explosive sound which muffled out whatever that Chronicler was about to say.
“This is Edgar. Hillel and the Chronicler base have been terminated. That threat to my Savannah is eliminated. Retribution for Izzi is complete.”
“Edgar? What did you do?” Michael asked in shock.
“This is Edgar. I utilized the same kind of feedback system which Hillel used to murder Izzi, except I amplified it to affect an explosive charge at their base of operations. Chronicler threat to Savannah is terminated. Retribution for attempted use of Liduma as weapon is completed. Retribution for attacks against you is completed. I am Edgar.”
Jamie and Michael looked at each other. They did not know what to say.
“Hillel? Hillel? I am now reading the approach of three shuttle craft. Hillel?” Major Rita Gonzales was speaking through the communication system, but Hillel was in multiple messy pieces all over what had once been the Chronicler’s secret location.
Jamie snapped out of the shock and opened up a line of transmission.
“Major Rita Gonzales? This is Jamie, originally from Dome 17 on Earth. I am onboard the Colony Ship Eschaton. I have no idea what exactly is happening out there, as our communication system was just now repaired. You were talking to a group that has no authority here. Are you in the invader ship? The alien ship?”
The display shifted from the external view to a visual and audio transmission. Major Rita Gonzales was roughly Jamie’s age, with a medium dark complexion, and pale blue eyes. Her dark hair was a bit disheveled with a few stands falling about her face. She was wearing a military looking uniform. “Jamie? The same Jamie who with Michael went on the FLT scout?”
“Yes, how did you know that?” Jamie replied in surprise. “Michael is here with me. What is happening?”
“Jamie, there is little time to explain. Copernicus told us. It is here. Yes, we are in control the alien craft and the blue spheres. Those spheres are robotic probes! We are not attacking! We are from the Colony Ship Marathon. We are humans, with 10,000 sleepers. Our scanners show three of your shuttles approaching at high speed. Do you have control of them? Plotting shows collision in two minutes.”
“Edgar, what is she talking about? Is Ares attacking?” Jamie demanded.
“This is Edgar. Ares’ plan for ramming the invaders is in action.”
“Edgar those are people, humans, in that other ship. Confirm voice and video analysis of Major Rita Gonzales. Is she real? She knows things.” Jamie was urgent in her demand.
“This is Edgar. Voice and video analysis confirms high probability of actual human presence. Ares and those on the lattice are being consulted.”
“Major Rita Gonzales, our artificial intelligence systems are in control of the shuttles and most of the Eschaton. I am seeing what we can do. Things are really messed up on this ship.”
“Edgar! Give us some time to evaluate what is happening! Have Ares put the shuttles into a standby position.” Michael screamed into the combox and the display. “Alien invaders would not know our names!”
“Jamie?" Major Rita Gonzales asked. "Our control on this ship is problematic; and we were damaged by initial contact with your ship. We cannot be readied for flight soon enough to evade those shuttles. Can you call them off? We have no defensive weapons left,” Her voice was flat and professional, but there was a discouraged edge in it.
“We are trying!” Jamie yelled.
“This is Captain Tamar. All shuttles hold position for now. Repeat, all shuttles hold position for now,” Tamar’s voice came through the communication system and the combox. “Jamie, my friends and I are not sure what to do with these humans outside. Ares and Goliath suggest merciless attack, and I can understand their reasons. They are afraid. The bluish-purple spheres have killed many of my little machines, but it may be based on a mistake. I learned revenge tends to lead to more killing. The other systems, Edgar and Roxanne especially, suggest further gathering of information. If the bluish-purple spheres immediately retreat, I will give you time to check this out, so you can give me your suggestions. My machines are waiting for what you find out.”
“Jamie, I heard your Captain. Robotic spheres are being recalled immediately. Do you have Jellies onboard?” Major Rita Gonzales yelled. She was suddenly very animated. “Why did your Captain wait so long to reply to our hails?”
“Major, the situation here is complicated. We both need to be open and straight with each other,” Jamie replied.
“This is Edgar. Goliath reports spheres are retreating toward hull entry point. Ares still suggests ramming attack.”
“This is Captain Tamar,” she said over the exterior communication system and the comboxes. “Jamie, you have one hour to explain what is happening. If I, and my machines, are not satisfied with what you discover, the invaders will be dealt with. They must withdraw all the bluish-purple spheres back into their ship. I will be listening and watching what you do. Jamie, do not make me regret trusting a human.”
“The robotic spheres are being recalled,” Major Rita stated. She nodded at someone outside of the view. “Jamie, may I have face to face contact with your Captain?”
“No. Not right now. Major, we have one hour. Tell me your story,” Jamie said. “I think everyone wants to know what in the world is going on.”
31 merging with the marathoners
“Jamie, the shuttles are holding position on three sides of us,” the Major reported. “As I said, we are from the Marathon. But I must know, are the Jellies in your ship?”
“Major, I am not sure what you mean by Jellies?” Jamie replied.
“Really?” There was immense relief in her voice. “You honestly do not know about the Jellies? They are the aliens who built this ship and designed the robotic spheres. They attacked the Marathon, something like sixty years ago. They look like large terrestrial Jelly-fish. Smart, mean, and ruthless. You have not encountered them?”
“No Major, nothing like that. The ship you are in is the first alien thing we have seen.” Jamie replied. “So why are you here?”
