Chapter 3 - One... Two... Many!
March 2109
Interstellar Survey Headquarters
Luna Prime Base
#The probe fleet reports another planium detection, John. The largest one yet by a huge margin.#
John Anderson, director of the IS, nodded absently as he went over the report that the AI Minerva had uploaded to his n-link even as she spoke. "Vastly more than we've found in any other location so far," he commented, looking at the star map in his mindscape as he rotated it and zoomed in with instinctive mental operations. The map showed every star out to two hundred and fifty light years along with data on each one where available, including information on the ones that had so far been scanned in detail, which covered a much, much smaller volume.
Since there were at least a quarter of a million visible stars inside that spherical area, and possible at least as many again brown dwarfs, they hadn't yet visited even a fraction of one percent of them in the five years the program had been running. The number of probe ships was steadily increasing though, the construction facility at the L4 point expanding rapidly and turning out craft at a very respectable rate. Mining operations in the asteroid belt in the last twenty years since the beginning of that part of humanity's expansion into space had completely removed any problems of material availability, which wasn't even taking into account the ease of bringing things from almost anywhere in the galaxy that was allowed by the blink drive.
Ships were being made by the thousands now, much like large trucks had been back in the fossil fuel era, and were becoming nearly as common and matter of fact. Space travel had gone from a purely research function in the late twentieth century through an expensive luxury in the mid twenty first, to something that these days was almost considered routine. To anyone under the age of forty, it was seen as entirely natural.
The simplicity of the blink drive itself once the basic operational theory was understood had made all the difference. Yes, it was a fearsomely complex machine in some ways, and required a very high level of technology, but as it was today it was not really much different from making a cutting edge internal combustion engine back in 2020 or so relative to the tech level then.
Admittedly one needed to understand WIMP theory to a fairly impressive level to know how it worked, but actually making one didn't need a doctorate in the field. Merely a good education and a decent level of intelligence, which these days was basically everyone. Modern medical techniques, the omnipresence of n-links and AI, technology based on spintronics, and all the other things that had come about after the mad years, had changed everything to the point that someone from the beginning of the last century probably wouldn't recognize it.
He was pretty sure that in another fifty years at most there would be humans of one sort or another all through the solar system and beyond. Already there were plans afoot for setting up colonies on the two potentially habitable planets that had been found around Alpha Centauri B, which had been the obvious first place to look once the interstellar program restarted after the Charon Mass had been rendered safe. And in that first year, people had jumped around all over the place almost randomly while the drive was tested properly, meaning that there were reams of information on widely scattered star systems across half the galaxy and even a couple in Andromeda when one test pilot got carried away with enthusiasm.
Fairly quickly the IGCC had called a halt to ad-hoc exploration, mainly due to a worry about accidentally triggering another planium weapon. Everyone was sure that the Promethians, or their enemies, would have left traces somewhere else other than the Sol system, and even with the latest shielding being considered about as close to perfect as possible, there was always the chance of an accident. The IS had been set up in late 2104 and exploration of new systems handed over to it, along with a list of standard protocols for discovery of planium weapons or deposits, contact with aliens, hostile or otherwise, and the location of habitable worlds.
People were fairly certain that sooner or later humanity would encounter another alien species, considering that at least two different ones had visited their home system in the reasonably recent past. But no one knew how long it would be until that happened, or what those aliens would be like. It might happen next week, it might take centuries, but it would happen eventually and they wanted to be prepared.
They also wanted to be absolutely sure that no planium was present in any system marked for eventual settlement. Every system surveyed was first scanned very thoroughly with sacrificial drones for the presence of the hellish material. The decision had been taken very early on that the presence of the substance in a system, unless there was something else there that made it of significant interest, would be sufficient cause to mark it as unsuitable and move on. If there was good reason to further study such a star system a decontamination operation would be put into action to remove all traces of the material.
Extremely cautious testing had shown that the latest shielding technology allowed planium to be transported by blink drive, although no one wanted to be on board a ship at the same time so the process would always be automated. Not even the AIs fancied the risk, which mildly amused John. So as and when planium was found, it would be transported to a safe place outside the galaxy where it wouldn't be a problem. It could be studied there safely without risk to anyone, even if something catastrophic happened.
The end result of the Charon Mass destruction had produced a small black hole and an amazing display of light when it finally became visible to the inner system, easily viewable in daylight on Earth for several hours. No one wanted that sort of thing happening anywhere near an inhabited world. The research ship that was still studying the Charon Singularity was also towing it away on a course that was projected to eventually end up in intergalactic space. They had it up to nearly ten percent of c by this point. When they'd learned everything of interest from it, the thing would be abandoned to the depths of space, although it's course would be logged so everyone could avoid it.
The plan was that the next weapon found would be just moved intact so it could be properly researched by remote, somewhere where a suddenly forming singularity along with a small nova-equivalent wouldn't bother anyone. No one doubted that eventually one would turn up, since it seemed immensely unlikely that the one hidden inside Charon was the only one in existence. Where there was one of something there was quite likely more of them, after all.
Up until now, only small traces of planium had been found in widely scattered systems out to about thirty light years, and in one that was visited before the IS was set up, some two thousand light years closer to the galactic core. All of those traces suggested they were the result of some form of combat operation, being tiny amounts widely scattered across large areas of a planet, or in a couple of cases throughout an asteroid belt. The patterns bore an unnerving similarity to the result of the Mars PDE, which reinforced the thought that there had been some form of interstellar war fought with planium weapons. Considering no other traces of either side had yet come to light, this might well mean that both were now extinct. On the other hand, one or other side might still be out there licking their wounds and waiting...
The systematic search that had been going on for the last half decade had been expected to find more and more evidence of past battles, and looking at the data that had just arrived by courier drone, it has just managed to achieve that.
#Yes, the scans show it is in the same configuration as the Charon Mass was. Approximately sixty one kilotons of planium in a compact mass, inside a clearly artificial structure that's concealed inside a small moon on the outer edge of the system. It bears striking similarities to Charon in most respects.# Minerva sounded thoughtful, as she brought up various data in his shared inner view. #Someone didn't want this device to be found, obviously. The probe can detect no visible signs of manipulation of the surface of the moon, which as in the case of Charon either requires the mass to have been placed inside sufficiently long ago to have allowed normal micro-meteor bombardment and tidal stresses to have erased it, or shows that someone went to great effort to cover up the traces they left.#
"I certainly can't see any other plausible way it could end up there, I agree," he said. "And hiding something that dangerous in such a manner still looks more likely to be for nefarious purposes than otherwise. We won't know until we can get at one safely and study it. And possibly not even then..."
#The deep scans show that the material surrounding the planium is an alloy of titanium, iridium, and silicon, with considerable quantities of a number of transuranic elements present. It's not one we've encountered before, or considered, and is definitely the product of a very advanced technology. Additionally there are signs of what appears to be an artificially modified strong nuclear force which would significantly enhance the material's physical properties.#
"I recall reading about some research into that recently," he remarked, thinking back to a report from the IAP, which over the years had become the most advanced scientific institution on the planet. Not that it was entirely on the planet these days, considering how large the Ceres Secure Research Facility was becoming. The place was basically an extension of the IAP now. "It's being studied for improving the strength of spacecraft hulls."
#Yes, the research is very promising,# the AI replied, sounding pleased. #If the current development path pans out as it is suspected it will, we could be deploying it in under ten years.# She paused, then went on, #However, it is more evidence that the builders of these devices were at or beyond our current technological level. Presumably beyond that of the Promethians as well, since we know that that species didn't appear to use spintronics. Although admittedly it's possible that they deliberately omitted that technology in the Mars outposts. However, in any case I would expect that study of the device could yield important breakthroughs in a number of fields.#
"And enough planium to kill a system," he grumbled. "We'll need to get rid of that. Hopefully we can extract it without setting it off or destroying the remainder of the machine. If it's booby-trapped, that might be difficult..."
#I suggest that standing a very long way away and using remote systems is probably a sensible precaution,# she said with dry wit. He chuckled at the comment. Minerva had a cutting sense of humor at times.
"That crossed my mind," he smiled. "I hope that the latest research into real time superluminal comms bears fruit. It would help a lot with this sort of thing. The ping-pong comm system is a little too high-latency for real time control if you want high precision."
#I believe the initial work is promising, but it's another field where only time will tell,# she said. #We need to contact the IGCC about this discovery.#
"We do."
The IGCC now included almost every government on Earth other than the insular Empire of Texas, which tended to keep to itself and just utter threats on occasion, and a couple of places in United Africa who had not yet made up their minds yet. It was pretty much a de facto planetary government even now and it was expected that within twenty or thirty years at the outside would become that in reality, uniting the planet fully for the first time in history. Evidence of potentially hostile aliens had helped a lot with making that possible, effectively completing what the Quick War had begun so horribly eighty years ago. He reported directly to them, and it was the IGCC's military research arm that would decide what to do about this new problem and how.
In all truth he was glad of that. He and his people had their work cut out for them just finding things. What was done with those things later was someone else's job. The IS was an exploratory group, not a military one, after all.
Seconds later John was placing an n-link call, soon finding himself networked in a virtual environment with the venerable and highly regarded General LeBatelier, who after nearly forty years was still in overall command of the CCF. Also present were Athena the IGCC primary AI, and several other people including the current IGCC Premier, Winston Clarke, a former President of the CAS and a highly regarded statesman with a distinguished career.
"We've found another Planium Mass," he said when everyone had greeted the others, which didn't take long in the shared mindscape. The slight delay between people on earth and him on Luna was mostly compensated for by the n-link system, but there was a minor and mildly irritating lag still present. Everyone was used to it and pretty much ignored it.
"Where?" LeBatelier immediately asked.
#It is orbiting the star HD40307 at a distance of just under two hundred and sixty-six light minutes, embedded in a small ice moon around a dwarf planet similar to Pluto,# Minerva said, her human-looking avatar that of a tall ice-blonde woman with a quick smile and green eyes. #The moon is half the size of Charon and consists mainly of water ice and ammonia, with a thin layer of rock deposited on top along with a number of cryogenic gasses such as helium and nitrogen. Unremarkable and typical of the sort of thing we've commonly found in that overall position on the outskirts of a star system.#
"I believe that HD40307 was one of the prime candidates for a habitable world?" Clarke asked.
#Yes, it's been known since 2008 to have at least six planets orbiting it, one of which was thought to be likely to be roughly earth-like,# Minerva confirmed, nodding. #There was some doubt at the time as to whether that was accurate, due to problems with the early detection methods. In 2053 another set of measurements were taken with the Webb 2 telescope at the L2 point which confirmed the original readings and refined them to show there were in fact ten planets, two of which are fairly likely to be in the habitable range for unmodified humans. Our probes have shown that one of those is approximately twice the diameter of Earth but with an average density low enough that the surface gravity is only twenty percent higher, while the climate is easily survivable if slightly cold. The other one is almost a twin to Venus in most characteristics but is cooler, at the hot end of Earth but still habitable."
"Do either have any signs of life?" Margaret O'Keefe, one of the scientific advisers to the IGCC, asked with interest.
"No. The smaller one, HD40307 h, appears to have a thin atmosphere mainly of nitrogen with trace inert gasses, while HD40307 i, the larger one, also seems lifeless although the atmospheric density is high enough that a human could survive on it with only an oxygen mask. Both have significant amounts of liquid water." John looked around at them as he spoke, trying to gauge their thoughts. Athena, who used a female avatar in the link which was for reasons best known to her, petite with cat's ears, smiled at him.
#We've known for decades that a number of exoplanets show signs of bearing life,# Minerva added. #This system didn't have those signs, and a closer examination only backed that up. We've found at least a dozen more planets in the last two years that do have life of various sorts, although so far nothing intelligent, or traces of any civilization having either visited them or evolved on them.#
"Except for the planium fragments," LeBatelier remarked sourly.
#Well, yes, that's true, but only two cases so far have had planium present in a system that also possessed a habitable planet that had life on it,# the AI admitted. #And one of those only showed planium traces in the asteroid belt.#
"Even so, it's pretty much proof of sapient life having been present at one point," the general declared. "We still haven't found any planium in a form that isn't obviously manufactured or concentrated, so it's quite possible the stuff is actually artificially created as we've suspected for years. If so, any system we find it in must have been visited by a space-capable species."
"True, which the discovery of another Mass tends to support," Clarke put in. "It concerns me. As the saying has it, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence..."
"I don't need three of the damn things to think of them as enemy action," LeBatelier said with a slight grin. "One was enough. We need to have a very careful look at this one. I would suggest that this is a good test case for moving it to the proposed extra-galactic safe zone for further research. If it works, wonderful, and if it doesn't, we lose a system that's got nothing particularly valuable in it we haven't already found elsewhere."
No one seemed to disagree. After a moment, John said, "We've transferred all the data on the system survey to you, and we've marked HD40307 as off limits to exploration until further notice. If you blow it up, let us know, will you?"
General LeBatelier looked amused. "We'll try not to destroy a perfectly good star system. Thank you for the report, Professor Anderson, Minerva. You can leave it in our hands now."
"Excellent. In that case, we'll get back to work." John nodded to the others. Minerva's avatar did the same, then they both unlinked. Opening his eyes he looked at the small holoprojection on his desk where his AI colleague was looking back at him. "It'll be interesting to see what they find."
#Indeed it will. I am very curious to know who made the Masses and why.# She shook her simulated head. #Assuming we can ever discover that.#
"Time will tell. We've certainly got more than enough to keep us busy as it is."
Sparing a few minutes for a cup of genuine coffee, John was soon immersed in other reports from probe missions spread out over a close to hundred light year sphere, Minerva aiding him even as she kept track of everything else in the IS.
October 2109
31.8 AU from primary of HD40307
Onboard IGCC Research Ship Threshold
#TBT drive unit reports ready status, reactors at full power, capacitors charged, destination coordinates set for research area in sector A41Q,# the ship AI Neils said. #All personnel report to duty stations. Initiation of TBT operation begins in thirty seconds from… mark.#
There was a rush of crew to various seats. Even though essentially all functions for most systems were carried out via n-link, everyone had an assigned station and many of them also had holoprojectors. Some people preferred to look at things with their eyes, not their minds, even now.
Captain Hirase looked around, pleased at the quick response from his crew. Training paid off.
"Whatever happens, this should be interesting," he commented.
#Undoubtedly, Captain,# Neils replied. #The consensus is that it will work, but if not, we will still make the Mass safe. Just somewhat spectacularly...#
Hirase nodded, smiling a little. He was keeping an eye on the timer in the corner of his vision rapidly counting down the seconds until the operation to move a six hundred and forty kilometer moon began. It would be over almost instantly one way or the other.
#Ten seconds,# Neils announced. #TBT drive online, accelerator at threshold. Awaiting go signal.#
As the timer hit zero, they blinked to a safe location on the other side of the system, while five seconds after that the drive on the moon they'd left behind activated. They watched through the near real time link to a probe orbiting the same dwarf planet the moon was.
When it, quietly and without fuss, simply vanished, everyone cheered.
Captain Hirase let them carry on for a little while, then said firmly, "Calm down, people. We know it left successfully, we need to find out if it arrived safely. Neils, take us to the rendezvous point and let's see if we have an intact moon or a black hole."
#Yes, Captain. Probe retrieved and docked, coordinates set… jump complete. Deploying probe to the transport destination...# Moments later they got an image from the deep scan system on the probe showing a bright spot in the middle of a misty complex mass that was the moon they'd just transported nearly ninety-two thousand light years in an instant, floating gently in the black of intergalactic space far outside the Milky Way. The visible light view only showed a black spot against the spectacular backdrop of the galaxy they'd come from. #We appear to have succeeded.#
"Wonderful." His smile was much wider this time. "Now all we have to do is cut the damn moon up, get at that whatever-it-really-is without blowing it up, and try to figure out what it's for and how it does it."
#I still think the weapon theory is most likely, but I am intrigued to see if that's the case,# Neils replied. #It will take some time to even begin to access the device, though, as we will have to proceed extremely carefully.#
"We've got time," Hirase chuckled. "All the time in the world, really. Let's get to work."
The order went out, and other ships began appearing around them, as a complex scientific operation went into action.
January 2112
2.4 light months from Arcturus, KO III star 36.7 light years from Sol
Onboard IS Scout Ship Seeker of Interesting Things
"What the hell…?!"
"That's a lot of planium..."
#That's far too much planium...#
All three of the scout's occupants exchanged looks. Roland Warden, grandson of both of the famous inventors of the TBT drive that powered his own ship, was technically the commander of the small vessel, while his second in command and wife Sarah Kimura was the researcher. His own doctorate was in WIMP field research, while hers was biology and stellar mechanics, an odd but useful combination in the jobs they'd ended up with.
The third member of the crew, Isaac, the ship AI and close friend of the other two, was present as a full size holo projection, although he also had a human-form body stowed away for use on the ground. He claimed he enjoyed actually walking around on new planets, and it wasn't the same without a body.
Most AIs thought he was a little weird.
So did most humans.
He merely grinned when this was commented on and ignored the opinions of others.
Roland and Sarah considered him part of the family, and he'd been best AI at their wedding.
"Six of the damn things?" Roland inspected the deep scan results with incredulity. "Christ. People are going to go insane when they see this. In eight years and over nine thousand star surveys we've only found two of them, and now there are six in the same system? Someone must really have hated whoever lived here if they put six system-killers in one place."
"We still don't know for sure that they're weapons, love," Sarah pointed out. "The IGCC investigation has only just got to the point of uncovering the HD40307 one after two and a half years of careful work, and they haven't even started on the one found last year in the HD207098 system."
#There's something different about these two,# Isaac pointed out, highlighting a pair of the planium masses their distant remote probe array had found. #Neither of them appears to be buried inside anything. This one is orbiting the star about eighty light hours out, while the other one here is in orbit around the biggest gas giant in the system. All the others are concealed.#
Roland glanced at him, then his wife. "We could see what they look like without a few hundred kilometers of ice covering them," he said, feeling excited. "That would be a first."
"Let's get one of the probes close enough to have see the gas giant one," Sarah suggested. Quickly they commanded one of the two dozen remote units to jump to a safe distance from the detected planium concentration, then sent it in on AG drive while aiming the optical telescope at the alien machine.
Half a minute later they had a nice clear picture.
All of them studied it without talking for a little while.
Eventually Isaac said, very doubtfully, #If that's not a weapon, someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look like one.#
"Yeah," Roland agreed uneasily, as Sarah nodded. "Rail-gun, by the looks of it. One big enough to fire entire ships through." He indicated the larger end of the device, which was apparently currently inert. There was a series of rings of an unfamiliar metal surrounding a large sphere of what they'd all have recognized instantly as planium even without the deep scan results. The dim glow was a dead giveaway that more or less everyone could spot at a glance, which normally was followed by rapid retreat.
"That thing is enormous," Sarah said with a note of wonder overlaid with apprehension in her voice. "Both the arms are measuring as nearly fifteen kilometers long, and those rings in the fat end are over five kilometers across."
#This part seems to be a power plant of some form,# Isaac said, highlighting a section right at the rear end of the massive device, assuming the two long protrusions were the front. #I think a variant of fusion. It's completely cold at the moment, it obviously hasn't been used for decades, probably centuries. No radiation at all, no thermal output, no electrical activity… The device is completely shut down, if not dead.#
"I sure wouldn't want to assume it was dead," Roland muttered. "We're not going anywhere near that system. We'll collect all the data we can from here then pass it on to people who get paid to risk their lives tinkering with bombs large enough to blow Mars into confetti."
#I can't say I disagree,# the AI nodded. Sarah, who was still studying the probe results very closely, did the same.
"Send another probe to the other one, let's see if it's also inert," she suggested after a moment. Isaac did so, and a few minutes later they had an answer. "Yeah. Exactly the same, down to the centimeter. And dead as a rock from the appearance. I wonder what the hell they really are? We were thinking bomb but that looks a lot more like a cannon of some sort."
#Possibly a shaped charge? Or it might be intended to use the planium as projectiles and fire them at a distant target,# Isaac replied.
"Maybe it's a rocket. One that uses planium as fuel." Roland grinned as the other two exchanged glances then stared at him.
"What's it meant to move, stars?" Sarah sighed. "Look at it! That amount of planium is absolutely appalling. You know how much energy that would release if it detonated. If you want to push a planet around there are easier and safer ways to do it."
He shrugged. "I have no idea. No one does. But we've found something that will make it easier to find out, assuming they don't blow up in our faces when someone goes and pokes one."
#That isn't going to be me,# Isaac said with vehemence.
"Me either. Let's send this data back home and move on to the next system," Sarah commented. "And get something to eat, too, I'm starving."
Shortly they'd sent a message courier drone back to IS headquarters, had lunch, and blinked away to investigate the next star on the enormous list that would take the Survey group decades to deal with.
March 2114
International Governmental Cooperation Committee Building
Extrasystem Control Group
"...and the two new settlements on Delta Pavonis d are expanding rapidly. Despite the slightly higher gravity, we have more people applying for permission to relocate than we currently have resources to construct living space. There is some concern that environmental damage could result if we don't create more settlements in suitable locations. As such we would like to request an upgrade to a class one colony world from a class two, to increase the resources we can call on."
The governor of the Delta Pavonis system sat again with a polite nod to the assembled people.
#Please vote on the proposal to upgrade the status of Delta Pavonis d to a class one colony system,# Athena said. Her avatar looked around, which was only really for the benefit of the fairly small number of people physically present. Everyone else was linking into the virtual duplicate of the room in the n-link mindscape. #Vote passes, one hundred and forty eight to one.#
"Thank you, Governor Bishara." The IGCC premier nodded politely to the other man. "Please report back in six months as to the progress you've made so we can make sure things are going smoothly."
"Of course, sir. Thank you all for your time." He disappeared as his holo deactivated.
"Now, next order of business. The Arcturus system, the six Planium Masses found there two years ago, and the study into their function and makers. Doctor Warden, it's a pleasure to see you again after so long."
The famous physicist nodded back with a smile. "It's a pleasure on my part too, Premier Clarke." Now seventy-eight, someone from the twentieth century would have pegged his age at a robust early forties. Medical technology had already extended the human lifespan to at least a projected two centuries and was steadily improving, even before the experimentation in mind uploads which could well become feasible in a few years were taken into account. "These last few years have been fascinating. We've learned a lot about the device creators, and are very close to cracking the encryption on the computers they contain, we think."
"For the benefit of those who may not have kept up on the research, can you quickly provide a summary for the situation to date, please?" Clarke asked.
"Of course. As everyone is aware, the devices were initially thought to be weapons of enormous destructive potential. All the evidence we originally gathered supported that theory, and until very recently we had no good reason to believe otherwise. Up to the Arcturus discovery a little more than two years ago, all three of the devices we knew about had been buried deep inside small moons, in what was obviously an attempt at concealing them." Doctor Warden looked around at the various representatives present, a few of them nodding as they listened.
"We moved the first two complete with their moons to the test zone far outside the galactic perimeter to ensure that in the event of an accident, no damage would be done. As we still don't know who made them or precisely why, or for that matter how long ago, we can't be sure that they're not monitored in some manner either, so that is also a sensible reason to move them to a distant location. If the worst happens and we get a visit from hostile aliens, they would find only a small research facility which we would hopefully have time to evacuate before they arrived."
"Do you think that is likely, Doctor?" one of the EA ministers asked.
"Not particularly, no, or someone would have come looking when we dealt with Charon," he replied. "However our military colleagues put it forward as a concern so we have to take it seriously, however unlikely."
"I see. Thank you."
"My pleasure. Now, the Arcturus find changed everything. We had almost finished carefully removing the covering material from the HD40307 device when the IS team located six more of the things, including two that were fully exposed. One was orbiting the primary unaccompanied while the other was in orbit around a gas giant. The remaining four were encased in ice and rock as in the case of the previous three. We moved all six of them to widely separated locations in the test zone and began very carefully examining the two exposed ones. Both of them are identical, showing signs of mass production. Based on the readings from the buried ones, and records of the Charon Mass, we are confident that they're all the same device."
"But you don't know yet what it's for?" Premier Clarke asked.
"No, not with any degree of certainty," Doctor Warden replied, shaking his head. "A weapon is still considered a likely scenario." He pointed to the high resolution image of one of the alien devices that appeared in the middle of both the physical room and the virtual one, everyone present examining it. "The two spikes or rails coming out what we've decided is probably the front end suggest a mass accelerator of some form. Considering the sheer size, it would be very potent indeed. The huge planium mass is in the form of a perfect sphere made of essentially pure planium, which is held in place in the center of the gap at the back and those rings, which as best we can determine at this point form some type of enormous power supply."
He highlighted each point as he spoke.
"We've known since the very first time we studied planium recovered from the Mars Event that in theory it could be used as an energy source if you were crazy enough not to worry about the excessively high risk of catastrophic failure," he carried on. "Right at the back here is a fusion generator that feeds an excitation system in the rings, which as far as we can tell shape and control the energy released from applying a large electrical charge to the planium core. For what end we're not quite sure yet. One possibility is to fire projectiles at extremely high speed down the rails, making it a giant rail gun. Possibly using the planium itself as the payload as well, since you would only need a small amount which could be accelerated to a very large fraction of c with this machine."
He paused, then went on, "Based on research into the material combined with the latest WIMP theory, it is possible that superluminal velocities could be reached in real space."
Everyone stared at the machine, then him.
"I didn't think that was possible," the EA minister said, sounding astounded.
"It was a somewhat surprising outcome when we were initially studying the stuff years ago," Warden replied with a wave of one hand. "Not everyone believed it, and we've never dared play with it enough to find out for certain. WIMP theory does allow for superluminal particles if you look at it in the right way, and there is considerable research ongoing into realizing technology that could utilize the effect if real. Based on more recent studies into planium, though, we think it may just be possible to use it to get the same result, albeit nowhere near as efficiently, with very simple machinery."
"Do you have any idea of the potential speeds one could achieve using that method?" someone else asked.
"It's a little complex to answer that simply, but a ballpark figure of perhaps seven and a half thousand times the speed of light seems plausible. It sounds like a lot, but that's barely twenty light years per day. Compared to the TBT drive, it's a toy. And that's leaving aside the problems of planium instability and toxicity, of course."
"Interesting. And you believe this machine might make use of that effect?"
"We suspect so but without activating one, at the moment we can't be sure. And no one is keen on doing that, even if we knew how. If it really is a weapon, we don't know what would happen, and if it's not, we really don't know what would happen." He shrugged. "More study is required. Once we get into the computers we'll probably learn a lot more very quickly but until then we're disinclined to experiment too much. No one wants to see that much planium go up again if they can avoid it."
"I can't say I blame you, Doctor," Premier Clarke commented with a wry smile. "Once was enough."
"Definitely."
"How close is your group to accessing the computers?"
"It's very difficult to put numbers to it," the physicist replied. "The technology is surprisingly primitive in some ways. We were expecting advanced spintronic arrays, while what we found was fairly basic quantum computing. That said, the encryption algorithms are very good indeed and even our best AIs are having some trouble with it. We're certain we'll manage it sooner or later, but estimates as to when are between a week and a decade."
"Something of a wide range of times," the other man noted.
"Unfortunately, yes. We suspect that once we've successfully cracked one, we'll learn enough to make subsequent efforts far easier, but this is an entirely alien technology we're working on, with a completely unknown history."
"Don't worry, Doctor, no one is upset. Your progress has been remarkable to date and you personally are responsible for a lot of our current technological progress."
"I had a lot of help," Warden smiled. "I can't take credit for that. It was very much a group effort."
"Even so. Take as long as you need. We're all sure you'll succeed in the end and we await the results with enormous interest."
"Thank you, sir. We'll do our best and keep you all updated on our progress."
"Excellent." Premier Clarke scanned the room. "In that case, I believe it's time to break for lunch. We'll continue in ninety minutes with the next item on the agenda, the proposal from the CCF that we expand the deep array to continuous operation around all inhabited systems. Please consider the subject carefully, and we'll meet back here after lunch."
The people physically present stood up while those who were only there via n-link began to disappear. Doctor Warden headed for the door with the rest, all of them looking forward to a meal after a long morning session.
December 2114
3 light months from HD1388, G2V star 85.3 light years from Sol
Onboard IS Scout Ship Seeker of Interesting Things
"Why are we all the way out here?" Sarah asked, hands on hips, as she stared at her husband and their currently embodied AI colleague, who were playing cards in the mess room. "This is at least eighteen light years away from the search radius we're meant to be in."
"Beer?" Isaac offered, holding up a container produced by the food system, while wearing a grin on his remarkably punchable synthetic face.
It really was. People had punched him in it twice in just the last two years. It might have also had something to do with his general attitude of laid-back sarcasm. Even some other AIs found him irritating at times.
"Oh, god. Let's not go there again," she said, although she took the beer away. "Explain."
"With the number of new ships that have joined the survey group in the last six months, we thought we were in danger of getting overtaken," Roland said with a smile, not looking up from his hand. "We have a reputation to uphold."
"One of getting drunk and starting brawls in bars, mostly," she snarked.
"Hey, you started the last one," he pointed out with a smirk.
"And I finished it too," the woman chuckled as she sat down. "Deal me in. And tell me what we're doing out here specifically."
"HD1388 is almost a twin to Sol. It's a high probability candidate for life bearing planets." Roland dealt her some cards as he spoke. "We thought we'd look through the list for something interesting and this one seemed like a good idea. So we decided to check it out."
"While I was asleep, I can't help but notice," she said acidly, looking at her hand.
"We didn't want to wake you up for such a minor deviation from normal routine," Isaac replied, then added, "Two." He discarded a pair of cards and accepted the new ones.
"You two are bad enough on your own and a bloody nightmare when you combine what passes for your minds," Sarah grumbled. "Three." She took the cards. "Welcome to the future. We had organic idiots, so we had to invent synthetic ones."
Isaac grinned at her over his cards, while Roland chuckled.
"Give it twenty years and there won't be much difference between organic and synthetic," he said.
"Have you at least deployed the array?" she asked with a sigh.
"Of course we did," her husband said indignantly. "We got drunk afterwards."
"Idiots. I'm surrounded by idiots."
Moments later an alert sounded, causing all three of them to check the system. "Holy shit."
Sarah looked at her husband. He looked back. Isaac looked at both of them.
"No planium, but that's way more interesting," the AI finally said.
"What, the planet with all the spacecraft around it and the orbital elevator, or the ship that's heading out of the system in our direction?" Russell inquired as they watched through the probe array while a fairly impressively large ship accelerated on a pair of white spears of fusion flame.
When it abruptly went all wibbly and disappeared, all three of them went quiet.
"I'm going to say the ship," Isaac finally said. "That was an FTL drive."
"Yeah. And it wasn't a blink drive," Roland nodded. "Based on the WIMP detectors, I think it was some weird variation on a positive gravity drive combined with maybe that old Alcubierre drive concept. The one that no one could work out how to make work and gave up on when the TBT drive was invented."
"Can the array pick up any radio or other EM broadcasts?" Sarah asked even as she was fiddling with the system. Isaac managed to get there first, as was usually the case.
"This looks like a digital video signal," he said, going through various techniques and trying to find out what the format was. "Trinary encoding, not encrypted… huge color space. Huh. Interesting, I wonder what that says about their eye… Aha! There we go."
A superb quality video image appeared in their shared mindscape, the content of which appeared to be some sort of documentary at a guess.
"Wow." Sarah's mouth fell open in surprise and delight. "They're giant bugs."
"Looks like it. Pretty, too. Like huge preying mantises." Roland studied the video as the two aliens depicted seemed to demonstrate the operation of something that looked like a welder of some form. "Well, I think we just earned our pay for this week. We'd better get the array stowed and get home to tell them about it. Looks like we just found the first contact scenario everyone's been worried about for decades."
"Yeah. Think they're the Device builders?" Sarah asked as they issued the commands to the probe network that caused them to sequentially blink back to the ship and dock. Under three minutes later they were ready to leave, and ten seconds after that Luna flight control was asking slightly puzzled questions.
"Doubt it. No planium, and that drive of theirs gave off enough WIMP flux to detonate it from a thousand kilometers away." Isaac shook his head as he moved his body into the storage slot and shut it down. #They're someone else. But they've got some decent tech. I wonder if they want to be friends?#
"Hopefully," Sarah replied as the ship headed for the nearest dock. "We'll find out soon enough."
February 2115
Planium Device Test Area
Onboard IGCC Research Ship Threshold
"An FTL transportation device?!"
"Yes. That seems to be the case." Doctor John Warden shook his head. "According to the computer data, these things are used in pairs to transport ships over up to several thousand light years point to point. Not as fast as the TBT drive, nothing like the range, and severely limited in destination since you need one at each end, but the ship can be quite primitive. It would need to be fairly solidly built to take the stresses but aside from that something nearly as simple as our first interplanetary ships would have done the job. And it's old. Very, very old, if the star data we downloaded is to be believed."
"How old is very, very old?"
"Based on stellar drift measurements on a small number of distant galaxies we could positively identify..." John hesitated, then finished, "Close to a billion years. Although we can't be certain that this particular machine is that old, only that the data set is. But considering the way the strong nuclear force has been artificially enhanced in the alloy it's constructed from, it's not impossible it's genuinely that old." He shook his head in wonder. "At a minimum, based on the decay products we detected in the reactor core, it's at least half a million years old. And it was turned off around fifty thousand years ago."
Captain Hirase gaped for a second, then looked thoughtful. And worried. "That figure seems… familiar."
"That's what we all thought," John admitted. He looked at the holo of what they now knew was a giant and hideously dangerous transport terminal. "What happened fifty thousand years ago, plus or minus about a millennium? Where did the people who were using these things go? Who were they? We're certain they didn't actually make the things, the tech in them is quite different to the small amounts of Promethian technology we recovered on Mars. Were the Promethians using them? If so, who wiped them out? And did they use the things? How many other alien species were using them, and where are they? And so on. Every question raises three more."
"Can they be activated?"
"We could do that, yes. I don't think it's a good idea. We're almost certain that there could be a very unfortunate interaction with the WIMP flux of our technology even with the shielding if that much planium was energized all at once. We're going to have to improve it some more to make that aspect safer, but with the new data we have that should be possible."
#I wonder if anyone is still around using these devices somewhere?# Neils said, sounding quizzical.
"Who knows? The galaxy is a very large place. We could be looking for years before we happened to trip over them, especially if they're on the other side of the core," John replied. "And they're unlikely to trip over us, or any other species that uses different technology. They'd be limited to destinations in close proximity to one of these… terminals, unless they didn't mind very long very slow FTL journeys. Perhaps that's the case, but we simply don't know. What we do know is that we'll need to be very careful if we happen to locate anyone using technology based on those things. Depending on how much planium they use the results could be horrifying. Hopefully they realize how dangerous it is and minimize the amount they've got lying around, but..." He shrugged.
"We don't know."
"I would assume that anyone who started experimenting with planium would be bright enough to work out the problems with it sooner or later," Captain Hirase remarked.
"You'd think so, yes. We may find out one day. Until then, we need to design new protocols to minimize any possible interaction with planium-using species. And keep moving these things somewhere safe so no one unexpectedly comes through one and causes a disaster."
#They don't appear to be common considering how many systems we've surveyed to date, with only three other sites with the machines so far located,# Neils said. #I would assume that the Arcturus site was a hub in any network that might exist, and it was obviously not in use. Possibly moving them all here will prevent unexpected guests before we can enact countermeasures to protect them and ourselves.#
"With any luck, yes. But we're going to need to be even more cautious from now on. And keep studying the data from the devices. We've only scratched the surface so far." John moved to a chair and sat down, staring at the slowly rotating depiction of the giant machine fifty light hours away, safely out of range. "The funny thing is that even knowing what it is, I still can't shake the feeling it's a weapon of some sort too. I have no idea why."
"It's odd you say that, because I've got the same feeling," the captain said, sitting next to him. "We've been thinking that so long it's habit, perhaps."
"Maybe." John stared a little more, then shook his head and deactivated the projector. "I'm heading back to Earth for a meal with my grandson and his wife to celebrate their latest discovery. Their team does seem to be living up to its ship name. Seeker of interesting things indeed."
#Perhaps they should seek slightly less interesting things for a while,# Neils quipped. #The last two have been almost too interesting.#
"Tell me about it. Six Planium Devices and now a species of sapient insects with FTL technology," John said with a good natured shake of his head. "I have no idea what comes next but I'm slightly dreading it. Oh well. We'll soon see what these bugs are like, the first contact teams are due to go out next year sometime. Be interesting to see if they're friendly."
"Give my best to your grandson and his wife," Captain Hirase smiled. "And good work. We're learning a lot."
"We've got some very good people working on it," John replied as he left with a wave. "See you tomorrow."
