Chapter 6: Humanity, A Report by the Thranx Science Council...


Day 196 of Year 6935
Central Government Complex Level 32, Dalet City, Hivehom
Alien Contact Task Force

"Please explain to the chamber your findings on the alien species known as 'Human,' Academician Ziljinrytix," Extranlutin, the leader of the hastily created group charged with assessing the benefits and problems of meeting intelligent alien life said, gesturing to the elderly thranx scientist who was patiently waiting.

Ziljinrytix, who at over one hundred and twenty Hivehom standard years old would have been considered impossibly ancient even two centuries ago but these days thanks to the massive changes in gerontological research was at worst middle aged, moved forward a little and stood up straight. He was the leader of over three dozen scientists and analysts who had been studying their cosmic neighbors since that unexpected moment nearly half a year ago when the humans had come to the aid of the stricken Rylix.

"Humans are fascinating," he began, his antennae set in a confident but respectful position, as he gestured calmly with his true-hands. A command through his implant made the main chamber display come alive, displaying a typical male and female human side by side, with physiological data running down between them and slowly scrolling.

"Physically they are a warm blooded viviparous life form with an endoskeleton, very similar in nature to animals we have here on Hivehom and that we've encountered on various colony worlds. They average approximately fifty percent higher body mass than our species, with a metabolic rate that is slightly lower and a commensurately lower body temperature. They have a large brain, and high intelligence coupled with remarkable durability and stamina. Unlike us, their circulatory system is easily capable of dealing with quite large amounts of damage, which may be the result of their outer layers being far easier to harm in the first place. Not having an exoskeleton, they are more susceptible to puncture wounds than a thranx would be, but conversely they can lose considerable blood without long term damage, and a wound that would be dangerous or fatal to us is only mildly disabling to them."

He indicated the display, which changed to show several more tables of data. "Their blood is iron based rather than copper as in our case, but the protein used for oxygen transport is surprisingly close in both structure and operation to our own variant. Overall efficiency is roughly the same, although they have more of their version than we do of ours and this is one of the reasons for their ability for prolonged physical exertion past the point most thranx would find themselves exhausted. Their own evolutionary theories posit this is due to evolving as a pursuit predator, which specialized in simply outlasting its prey rather than overwhelming it with strength or speed. Essentially, they could just walk after a fleeing food animal and keep going until it dropped from exhaustion, possibly days later."

He made a gesture of mild amusement. "In some ways it's like something from one of the old horror stories, the creature that simply won't stop coming. They themselves are well aware of this, interestingly enough, and even make jokes about it on their version of Hivenet. But there is a definite element of truth to the idea, both in their physical capabilities and their mental outlook. As a species, they are tenacious and persistent, with a very clear determination to keep going in the face of adversity until they either overcome the problem, or are themselves overcome."

Ziljinrytix cocked his head slightly, looking at the display as it changed again, to show a stellar system. "In many ways, despite the completely different physical makeup, they remind me of us. They exhibit most of the same properties we consider important. They are smart, inventive, curious, value family, respect life, and possess many highly admirable traits. That said, they also have a history of aggression and warfare which is somewhat disturbing and surpasses most of our own history in that respect. To their great credit, they have not attempted to hide any of this, being quite ready to talk about their darker side as much as the more admirable one. They are fully aware of their faults and work to reduce or eliminate them, in which they seem to have met with considerable success in over the last few decades."

The view of the star system slowly enlarged, moving inwards past several gas giants, one of which was surrounded by the most remarkable ring system anyone present had ever seen, to end showing a blue-white planet with a single large moon orbiting it.

"This is their home system, the primary of which is a near-twin to that of the Hivehom system. There is only one currently habitable planet in their system, their birth world, which is most commonly known as Earth. It is again amazingly similar to Hivehom, with a slightly lower average temperature and a ratio of land to water tilted more towards the latter than we have. According to their data, Earth is considerably more tectonically active than Hivehom, or even Willow-Wane, and it also appears to have a substantially greater number of extreme weather events. This is due to the larger oceans for the most part, which drive an active weather system capable of producing storms of a truly extraordinary strength, far higher than we are familiar with except in very rare cases."

The view zoomed in more to show only the planet, which was slowly rotating. The projection changed to edit out the clouds giving only a view of land and sea. The land was a mix of deep greens through much paler green to several large areas that were various earth tones, clearly deserts. There was one large continent precisely on the southern pole which was mostly covered in a huge ice cap, and a much smaller ice cap at the northern pole in the middle of an ocean. Other areas showed glacial ice on high ground, including the majority of the middle of one large island in the northern hemisphere.

As the globe rotated one way, the image turned the other direction more slowly so the view gradually drifted out of light into night. Artificial illumination could be seen almost everywhere, including vast areas of several of the oceans. Somewhat ominously there were irregular gaps in the lights in a few places, which stood out oddly against the overall background for reasons no one there could quite pinpoint.

"Their environment ranges from temperatures at the southern pole in winter nearly cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide, up to ranges in the desert areas near the equator that are three quarters of the way to the boiling point of water. Humans can survive, albeit with artificial aid, the entire temperature range, although their preferred temperature is much closer to ours, perhaps a few degrees lower in most cases. They tend to like lower humidity as well, although again they can certainly handle anything we can in that respect even if they don't enjoy it. Areas of their planet are near mirrors of our ideal environment and both Hivehom and Willow-wane have large zones which would fall exactly into their ideal range. We are remarkably compatible species from many standpoints, at least physically. Both species have large overlaps in preferred temperature, atmospheric pressure, and humidity. We can easily eat the same foods and from initial findings in fact find each other's food exotic and in many cases very tasty."

He manipulated the holo-display some more, spinning the globe and the illumination around to line them up, then setting the planet rotating again more slowly. "We even find a large overlap in sensory abilities. Thranx eyes have a wider field of view, higher color resolution, and a wider color space, as we can see in wavelengths both above and below those which they can detect. However, human eyes have on average a higher spatial resolution, and a lower minimum light level once fully dark adapted, and are more acute at long distance. Our auditory ranges match very closely, we can hear slightly higher frequencies and they can hear lower ones, but the difference is largely inconsequential. Their sense of smell isn't quite as acute as ours, but is much better than one would expect of a species without antennae. They have superior sensation through the skin than we can manage, and excellent fine manipulatory ability, but having only two hands versus four negates a considerable amount of that advantage."

Ziljinrytix made a gesture showing resignation. "I could go on for some time but I believe I have conveyed the main points. Our full findings are available in a number of reports for later perusal. Each species has advantages and disadvantages relative to the other physically but most of them cancel out when taken as a whole. We come from entirely different backgrounds and evolutionary paths yet end up being oddly equivalent. This came as a considerable surprise to everyone, as we've always tended to think that alien life would either be much more like us, or much less so. Interestingly, the humans have said exactly the same thing. They are as fascinated by the similarities and differences as we are. And they have been far more open about telling us anything we wanted to know about them that we might have expected."

He paused, picking up one of the standard drinking bulbs and squeezing a little water out of it through his mandibles, then replacing it. "In doing so, we have learned facts that are less pleasant. Eighty two of their years ago, or eighty nine of ours, they had a major planetary conflict they term the Quick War, which was a very short lived phenomenon in which nuclear weapons were used in anger for only the second time in their history. Their world was at the time formed of a large number of factions, close to two hundred of them, forming independent nations of various sizes, with widely differing economic and military prowess. As one can imagine such a situation is often unstable in the long run, and indeed only a century before that point there had been two major conflicts which encompassed the entire planet twice within mere decades of each other."

With a small gesture of sadness, he went on to a silent chamber, "Tens of millions of sapients died in each conflict, often in truly barbaric ways, and a number of extremely repellent ideologies rose and fell during this process. Their technological level increased dramatically over this period due at least partially to the impetus of war forcing them to continually improve their capabilities merely to survive. They went from largely using animals as transportation to primitive fission weapons in an amount of time that is less than fifteen percent of the time it took us to do the same. Impressive, if for the wrong reasons in a sense. Once the last major conflict was finally finished, they enjoyed an unusually stable period of history for nearly a century, although this was partly due to the major powers on their planet knowing that the next conflict could well be the last one since they rapidly built up a truly horrifying nuclear arsenal using both fission and fusion weapons. This 'arms race' also pushed them into primitive space travel in a ridiculously short period, a mere twenty four years separating the end of their largest war, fought largely with propeller-driven aircraft, to their first visit to their planet's satellite."

He looked away from the projection to scan the faces of his audience, all of whom were listening with much interest and complete silence. "Unfortunately, this rapid technological advancement brought a number of major problems along with it, as it did in our case, but unlike with us it happened fast enough that they caused significant trouble before the issues were properly recognized. The reliance on fossil fuels in truly appalling quantities for nearly one and a half centuries produced major climatic changes, due to various forms of pollution, including major increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane as well as a number of synthetic compounds used in industry. To be fair to them they were aware of this issue from fairly early in their technological cycle and took various actions to ameliorate it, but due to many factors these actions were not as effective as desired. Political ineptitude on the part of many leaders combined with the entrenched power of wealthy individuals and corporations slowed their attempts to overcome the problems that accompany industrial growth until it was almost too late."

With a shake of his head and a flick of his antennae, he indicated annoyance. "We are, of course, well aware of how this can come about. We had similar if much milder problems during our equivalent period centuries ago. However we didn't progress at such a breakneck pace and therefore were able to keep up with the issue much more successfully than the human species was. That is one of the obvious differences between them and us; They do things far faster than we tend to. Certainly in their recent past they tended to do things too fast and paid the price for not sitting down and thinking it through like a thranx would. It let them advance remarkably quickly, but they paid a heavy price for it." He indicated the globe with one true-hand. "Ironically it was their Quick War that probably saved them from a much larger disaster in the longer term, even with the horrific casualties of the event."

The researched highlighted one dark spot on the right coast of a northern hemisphere continent. "This is what they refer to as the New York Dead Zone. It was where the strike that began the conflict happened. A fusion weapon of approximately two hundred kilotons yield was smuggled into one of the largest cities on the planet, which was at the time in a country that was technologically advanced and had for some decades been militarily one of the most powerful factions. It was nominally a democracy, although by the time of the Quick War, had undergone nearly ten years of what was in effect a low key civil war of sorts caused by competing and violently opposed ideologies. Records of the time are somewhat patchy for a number of reasons including damage from the war itself and the immediate aftermath of it, but in essence this country was made up of a number of interdependent sectors which were partially self-governing, with an overall government controlling the country as a whole."

He overlaid a series of colored areas on the continent. "By the point the nuclear weapon was detonated the entire country had been struggling with internal breakdowns in communications, civil infrastructure, medical facilities, economic systems; many people had found themselves violently uprooted on a number of occasions, large numbers succumbed to extreme weather events due to the climatic changes which were reaching a peak during this period. Large areas of the continent had been rendered barely habitable, ranging from desertification of the main crops areas over here to the west to the submergence of a significant percentage of the coast, including a large amount of this peninsula down here on the south east part. Nearly eighty million people were internal refugees in essence, and many of them headed to existing conurbations. This put even more pressure on the system which was already unable to cope."

Indicating another gap in the lights, Ziljinrytix continued, "A number of areas were almost abandoned due to environmental and economic concerns. This one went in a matter of years from a highly productive agricultural zone to near desert, with several large cities being essentially depopulated entirely. Crime levels rose across the entire country, and this process was mirrored in many other places." Rotating the globe, he pointed at a couple of other landmasses. "This one, for example, was one of the most populous countries on the planet, but also suffered from the effects of sea level rise, combined ironically enough with a lack of fresh water. The problem had been present for decades but accelerated strongly in the years immediately preceding the Quick War. Further north was another highly populated country that was a major manufacturing center for the planet, and it also had not only water issues, but massive problems with environmental contamination that also coincided with the other factors."

He sighed a little, with a morose gesture, and drooping antennae. "In effect everything was going wrong at the same time, over a very short period. These were some of the driving factors behind the ideological upheaval that came to a head shortly before the first weapon was used. No one ever conclusively pinpointed who detonated the device, but it was later established that it was a weapon that had been stolen from the armory of the very country that it was used against. One of their military bases in another country aligned with the first one on the other side of the planet had been involved in a major political upset, and during that period forty eight so called tactical warheads were misplaced. The authorities on both sides covered up the loss, as they feared panic if the truth came out, and spent nearly fifteen years frantically searching for them. Unfortunately, they didn't locate the devices in time, and paid the price."

Looking at the globe as it spun slowly, he indicated one darkened area after another. "Nineteen weapons were used before the people involved were stopped. All of them were smuggled into their target areas on ships or ground transportation, often years before they were detonated, all of the targets being among the most highly populated cities on the planet. It was a very carefully orchestrated global terror plan, by a group of nihilistic authoritarians linked to a number of organizations in multiple countries who had infiltrated the top levels of government and military hierarchy. Even now, there is debate as to what the true intent was, but the commonly accepted one is a nearly successful attempt to initial a global conflagration that would eliminate all those these people considered inferior to them for several reasons. It was appallingly close to successful. The humans got lucky and they're very well aware of it. Over half a billion were killed by the nuclear explosions directly, and close to twice that again over the next decades due to fallout and all the other obvious effects of nuclear warfare."

"The end result, on top of global upheaval from climatic changes, sea level rise, increased tectonic activity caused by the removal of vast amounts of ice, ecological collapse and a number of other factors, totally changed the entire geopolitical landscape on a permanent basis." Ziljinrytix stopped the globe when it was back to showing the initial side. "The most powerful country on the planet was one of the main victims. It was utterly destroyed as a single entity and broke up into a number of smaller ones. The bulk of the northern area was ultimately annexed by the country to the north of it, at least partially as an act of mercy towards the inhabitants who were suffering badly from the breakup. The western zone here split into two countries, which fought a short war a few years later, ending in stalemate, then ultimately merging into one following widespread destruction caused by a major seismic event some time later. Much of the south eastern area combined with a number of small island countries and some of the ones on the south continent in this chain. And so on."

He turned back to his audience, who were all listening intently, some of them looking shocked. "It was a near thing, very near, but the humans did recover, and in recovering reached new heights and a level of consensus they've never had before in their history. Combined with massive advances in fusion power, which gave them enough energy to begin to reclaim their planet, computing abilities, which ultimately led to synthetic intelligences that are truly sapient and even in the earlier phases allowed them to automate the decontamination of the irradiated zones, huge leaps forward in medical and genetic research due to pumping enormous amounts of resources into fixing the diseases and damage caused by the fallout… It all linked together to give them the impetus to completely uproot long established fundamentals of their society and fix many, if not most, of the ills that had plagued it for millennia. In a rather horrific sense, nearly wiping themselves out was the best thing that ever happened to them, although you will probably not find many humans who would wish to take that viewpoint. It's still a somewhat raw subject."

Pausing his lecture while he took another drink, he looked around at the gathered scientists, politicians, and military experts. When he'd finished the bulb he put it down and resumed. "They have made enormous advances in psychological understanding, aided by their AI colleagues, and the result of that has been a society that has reformed itself and reduced if not eliminated many of the driving forces that led to the Quick War and what they term the Mad Years. An apt description in our opinion. Changes to their economic and political systems are still going on but for the most part they are more or less united for the first time in their history. They suspect that within another twenty years they will truly be a global civilization, rather than a collection of not always cooperative nations. The discovery of the TBT drive came at an opportune moment, helping drive this process, and also for all intents and purposes eliminating any resource or space limitations. Their full realization of first a unified field theory, then the WIMP theory that led to, has also unlocked an enormous number of other technologies just as it did in our case."

Once again, he stopped.

"You paint a grim picture, Academician Ziljinrytix," Extranlutin commented. "Have the humans genuinely overcome their startling ability to kill themselves, or is this likely to happen again?"

Ziljinrytix flicked an antenna thoughtfully. "Our overall consensus is that it is very unlikely indeed, now. Perhaps forty years ago, it possibly could have happened. However, now that they have sapient synthetic intelligences, the TBT drive, all the other advancements they've made so quickly… unlikely in the extreme. As a species they are much saner than they were, have repaired or are repairing a number of the major societal problems they had, and as I said have effectively no limitations on space or resources."

"Their drive is that good?" one of the military representatives asked curiously and with an intent look.

Ziljinrytix chuckled, making a gesture of astounded respect. "You cannot believe how good the TBT drive is. It is so far beyond our posigravity drive in range, speed, energy efficiency, and every other respect one can consider that even after half a year of studying it we are still having trouble accepting it. The consensus is that in one step the humans have probably invented the single most powerful drive system it's likely possible to invent."

He looked around at them all. "Understand this… They can go anywhere. Literally. The maximum range for an individual blink as they call it is currently restricted for a number of technical reasons to a mere two hundred thousand light years at most."

There was a wave of shock through the chamber, which amused him. No one seemed to have really understood the reports his group had been writing…

"Two hundred thousand light years?" the military person asked faintly, his true-hands moving in a motion of incredulity.

"Yes. I did not misspeak. They can literally go from any location in the galaxy to any other location in one jump, which takes a matter of microseconds. And the jumps can be repeated at a high rate. During their initial testing phase one test pilot decided to see if he could reach the Andromeda galaxy." He looked at their waving antennae which showed disbelief. "It took him under eight time periods and sixteen jumps."

"Great Mother preserve us," someone gasped.

"Was he by any chance a member of the Zex hive?" someone else quipped, provoking a wave of amusement.

"Not that I am aware of," the scientist replied with a slight tilt to his head. "But that was essentially our reaction when they told us. In theory they could travel the entire width of the observable universe in a matter of half a million blinks or so. Finding one's way home would become somewhat problematic at that point, which is one of the reasons they've restricted their exploration to closer to home in recent years. So far they haven't lost anyone and they're not keen on doing so. There are other reasons they curtailed the ad-hoc exploration and moved it onto a more formal and systematic basis, and have implemented a number of strict protocols surrounding surveying new systems."

"This substance they call planium, I assume?" Extranlutin glanced down at an infoterminal, as did several other people.

"Yes." Turning back to the hologram Ziljinrytix brought up another set of data, showing basically the same thing that the initial diplomatic team had been told about on the human ship. Everyone watched the Mars Detonation Event, as their visitors had dubbed it, the ones who hadn't yet seen it going very still as the magnitude of the blast became apparent.

"They are entirely correct that planium is hideously dangerous. We have been given their entire research database on the substance, which was extraordinarily generous of them," he said when the first recording finished, the holo now showing various graphs and other data on planium itself taken from that dataset. "They've been studying the material for more than thirty years, and have learned a lot about it. Initially it was suspected that the aliens who appear to be behind its presence in their system utilized it as a weapon, which clearly is entirely possible. Just two hundred kilograms of the stuff left a hole in their fourth planet one could lose most of Dalet city in, which is a phenomenally vast amount of energy output, far outclassing matter-antimatter. That alone is one of the most remarkable discoveries any of us have ever heard of."

"Are they actually using it as a weapon?" someone asked, sounding and looking perturbed.

"No. We discussed that possibility and they rightly pointed out that the material is too powerful to be usefully weaponized except in cases where you might want to be rid of an entire planet, or possibly star system." Ziljinrytix flicked his antennae at the sound that filled the room for a moment. "I don't speak in jest; it would be entirely plausible to utterly destroy a star system at least from the point of habitability with a fairly small amount of the material, on the order of a few thousand tons. The resulting singularity could also cause significant damage, even if it was not subsequently directed into the primary. The sheer amount of radiation emitted would be horrific."

He looked around at his audience. "The problem lies in the fact that the energy release is simply too large to be scaled down in any practical manner. A microgram of it would have a yield in the class of a small nuclear device, and is an amount far too small to see. You would need to get down to picogram quantities to bring the energy release to levels that would be practical for most military operations and by then the amount of ancillary equipment required to detonate it would mean the resulting weapon would be both larger and far more costly than simply using more conventional methods. No one would find utility in a grenade-class weapon that could only be delivered by aircar and cost fifty thousand credits each, for example."

Making a gesture of mild resignation and amusement, he went on, "The amount of damage caused by anything other than a handful of atoms of planium reduces it to only being useful for destruction on the level of entire towns, and it rapidly increases past that point. There is for all intents and purposes no such thing as pinpoint accuracy and targeted threat removal with planium detonations. As Captain Bertels put it, it is a weapon which is inherently addressed to 'whom it may concern' rather than a specific location, even in minute quantities. Yes, it could very easily be weaponized. No, no sane person would wish to use it for that except in the most dire of circumstances, as there are far easier methods to deal with almost any conceivable problem. And the volatility of it in proximity to unshielded WIMP tech means that it's effectively completely incompatible with both their technological base and ours. It would be much too risky to use except, again, in extremely rare and hopefully vastly unlikely scenarios, most of which would have considerably less damaging solutions."

"We are certain that this is real, and not some bizarre form of trick?" The question came from another one of the military people, who was looking both worried and very thoughtful.

Ziljinrytix chuckled darkly. "Oh, we are most definitely certain, yes. I have seen with my own eyes a rather spectacular demonstration of that, and was allowed full access to the recorded data, and the use of our own instrumentation to verify the demonstration." He glanced at the holo, which switched to showing an asteroid floating in the blackness of space, the entire galaxy laid out as a backdrop in a sight that made most of those present simultaneously produce a whistle of astonishment. "The humans set up a test area for planium experimentation a very long way from anything valuable," he added with a gesture of sly amusement. "Approximately fifty thousand light years above the north galactic pole, it turns out. Mainly because that was a good location which had the benefit of a nice view, they said."

The asteroid in the middle distance suddenly ceased to exist in a familiar roiling blue fireball, which expanded horrifically fast, dimmed, and faded, while around it various readings in the familiar low thranx written form rapidly changed. They showed the sheer size of the blast, which totally outclassed any warhead any thranx had ever designed by at least an order of magnitude. "The asteroid was some eight hundred meters in diameter, and the planium charge was roughly a kilogram. About the size of a zilxin fruit." He held his true-hands a short distance apart to illustrate his words. "There was nothing left but dust. They detonated it from over two million kilometers away with a coherent WIMP beam. That was as close as anyone wanted to go to the substance, and to be honest I fully agree with their assessment. It is far, far too dangerous to allow anywhere near inhabited areas."

There was a long pause before the military representative who had raised the question swore under his breath, making a number of antennae wave in both agreement and amusement. "I understand the problem, now, Academician," he said more loudly with a gesture of respectful thanks. "I agree, it is not a practical weapon for almost any common problem, and I would very much like to think that we could avoid any problem it would be a practical weapon for."

"That is the general feeling among both the humans and our own team," Ziljinrytix replied with a tilt of his head. "But even leaving a putative planium weapon out of the discussion, the problem of the substance is a real and very worrying one." He made the holo switch to an image of one of the planium transportation devices, which rotated slowly as it was disassembled into its component parts, notations appearing next to each subassembly. "The initial and extremely dramatic discovery of planium led them to design a long range detection method for the material, which they have steadily improved over the last decades into a system capable of scanning an entire star system at ranges exceeding a light year at this point. During the initial tests of the first generation of detectors they discovered what turned out to be one of these devices. At the time, due to not only the horrifically enormous amount of planium it contained but also the way it was apparently deliberately concealed inside the single moon of their outermost planet, they assumed it was a weapon. One designed to kill an entire system."

After a moment to let everyone absorb the images on the holo, he continued, "It was a reasonable assumption to make, in our opinion, and given the same data we would almost certainly have come to the same conclusion. There is simply too much planium in one place to make sense if you are aware of how enormous an amount of energy it will release when destabilized. Even at the distance the device was from the primary it could easily have sterilized every planet in the system, and quite possibly caused so much long term alteration to their orbital paths that in the end nothing could survive even if it was shielded from the initial blast. Which would require being on the other side of the primary at the time in the first place, since little else would suffice. They were horrified when they worked out how badly things could well have gone if they'd picked that planet as a destination for their first superluminal test, rather than the fourth planet."

"I feel horrified by the thought myself," Extranlutin replied faintly, gazing at the holo. "Am I reading that mass figure correctly?"

"Yes. Somewhat in excess of sixty thousand tons of planium," Ziljinrytix acknowledged, waving one antenna sharply. "If detonated in close proximity to Hivehom, Hivehom wouldn't be there any more. The resulting singularity would be small enough to radiate a truly astronomical amount of evaporative radiation, while being large enough to remain stable for thousands of hours. In the case of the one the humans found inside the moon called Charon, when they disposed of it by dragging the entire thing half a light year from their system and deliberately detonating it, the result was the singularity absorbed more than half the mass of the moon. That one is going to be stable more or less forever."

"They blew up a moon?" Someone on the other side of the room sounded appalled and impressed at the same time.

"One thing you can most definitely say about humans is that they don't lack imagination," he replied with a humorous tilt to his head. "Given the problem of enough planium hidden inside a decent sized moon to kill their world, they invented a method to shield WIMP tech against it, and independently designed something not dissimilar to the posigravity drive, then towed the entire moon out of their system. It is an impressive achievement, especially as they haven't taken gravity generation or inertial control to anywhere near the levels we have. At least partly due to them not requiring it for superluminal travel, of course. Their own gravity control systems are more than good enough for what they use it for, such as subluminal space drives and the like. They simply scaled that approach up to an enormous level."

"Towing moons… An intriguing concept," another scientist not associated with his own team mused out loud.

"Yes, we were fascinated by the idea and started researching it ourselves," Ziljinrytix said. "We never really considered it before, but our own drive system is in theory capable of doing the same thing even more easily, and could be scaled up to a somewhat ridiculous level, once we looked into it. We've concentrated on optimizing the drive for superluminal speeds, but it turns out to be eminently feasible to optimize it instead for very large payloads at a lower level of acceleration. Given enough power, moving an entire planet would be completely plausible, as ridiculous as that sounds."

"I find it hard to conceive of circumstances where one would wish to move planets around," Councilor Menjeflikon, who had been quietly listening to Ziljinrytix's presentation, commented. "Although I am somewhat impressed that we could do so if required."

"It would need more research but it does appear possible, Councilor," the old scientist said. "We have discussed the idea with our human counterparts and they were good enough to give us their own design notes on how they did the same thing, as they are very interested in our drive in any case."

"Why?" Menjeflikon asked curiously. "Their TBT drive is so much better, what use would the posigravity drive be to them?"

"As they pointed out, there are times when a method to accelerate something in real space at the rates we can achieve would be useful," Ziljinrytix responded. "Yes, for superluminal travel the TBT drive is superior to anything anyone can even imagine. But the main drawback to it, which is not generally a problem but it's possible to imagine circumstances where it could be an issue, is that it conserves relative speed and momentum. The speed of a ship at the end of a jump relative to its local surroundings is the same as when it began the jump. The reason why this is so is far too complex to go over in this meeting, but we have a considerable amount of the theory worked out should anyone wish to look at it later. So, if one wishes to accelerate a ship to, as an example, one half c, one can't use the TBT drive to do so. You would need a different form of drive. The humans use an artificial gravity system which is quite efficient but has nowhere near the acceleration the posigravity drive does. The end result is that our own system is capable of things they can't duplicate, at least as easily as we can perform the same task."

"And presumably while they could, having seen our drive in operation, derive the characteristics of it and duplicate the functionality, it would be a considerable amount of effort that they could bypass using our own design data." Menjeflikon looked thoughtful. Ziljinrytix made a gesture of agreement.

"Indeed. I have little doubt that they could in time, simply by knowing it's possible and having a very good understanding of WIMP theory, duplicate any of our own technology using the same methods. In the same way that I believe given some time we could do the same with the TBT drive, the WIMP shielding although that particular technique is much more complex than one might think, and the planium detection system. Knowing something can be done is at least half the battle towards being able to do it after all. However, that still leaves a very large amount of theoretical and practical work, which could be avoided by getting the design data directly from someone who has already achieved that goal."

He waved both true-hands in a motion indicating respect for the abilities of another. "The humans are decades ahead of us in their own fields, as we are ahead of them in ours. They do also have a major advantage in that they have sapient machine intelligences which undoubtedly give them a significant increase in ability, and of course their own resources due to the TBT drive dwarf anything we currently can bring to bear. Even so, it is well within our capabilities to catch up even if we don't continue our contact with them, it would merely take considerably longer and be far more expensive to do."

Looking around at the assembled thranx, he added, "In the opinion of our group, and myself personally, failing to press ahead with some form of mutual relationship with humanity would be a mistake. They have much to offer us, and we have much to offer them. They have already, freely and without expectation of recompense, given us a warning of a hazard we would not have known about until it was far too late, a method to avoid it, and a method to detect it at range. I believe that further discussion with them could well lead to an exchange of information which would allow both of us to make significant improvements to our societies and our technologies. They seem open to the idea, and even though it is still very early in our relationship with them, the overall consensus is highly positive. I would urge the government to consider the next moves very carefully as they will, one way or another, bring profound and long lasting change to the lives of all of us."

No one said anything for a little while, although he could see they were all thinking his comment over. "However, we've drifted from the main thrust of this briefing," he went on when he judged the moment right, seeing Menjeflikon glance at him with a look of consideration, although the Councilor went back to simply listening. "That aspect of the situation is beyond the Science Council remit. Returning to the planium devices, the humans did eventually discover more of them, as shown here." He indicated the holo which was still displaying an exploded diagram of one of the alien machines. "They were ultimately able to carefully disassemble a number of them, and after considerable work, determine that they are actually transportation devices. Our report on the full capabilities of the machines is available for those interested, but in brief they are designed to allow a ship to be transported over distances of up to several thousand light years in only a few seconds, by utilizing the mass distorting effects of planium when energized by a sufficient electrical charge."

He made the holo change to a simulation of the process he was describing with a quick command through his implant. "They have not directly observed this process, not having so far located an active device and not wishing to deliberately activate a pair of them to experiment with due to the excessive risk of catastrophic failure. There is considerable reason to believe that their shielding methods for WIMP fields wouldn't be up to dealing with energized planium in large quantities, although they're working on a solution for that and I have little doubt will come up with one in due course. But they have pulled a vast amount of information from the computer cores of the devices, after cracking the security, which in our opinion having gone over some of the information they provided is not of a particularly high level. The builders of these devices, whoever they are or were, are good engineers but unimaginative programmers."

"Is there any indication of who the designers of the machines actually are?" someone asked. "I see in your report a range of ages for the devices so far examined which seems… unlikely." She sounded surprised, and her antennae were flicking about in consternation. "Half a billion years? Is that even possible?"

"Apparently, yes," Ziljinrytix remarked with a motion of mild disbelief of his own. "We were shocked when they told us, but their dating methods seem sound. Some of the devices are much more recent, a mere few million years old..." His voice was rather wry at this, making several people chuckle. "...While one of them does indeed appear to measure in excess of half a billion years. The truly intriguing aspect of all this is that the design of the oldest unit so far found and that of the newest one are basically identical. They even have the same software installed, with only minor differences in the database of the locations of other units so far found. It implies that whoever it was that came up with these machines, they've been around for a very, very long time. Leading to the question of where they are now..."

Again, there was silence as everyone thought that over.

"I find myself somewhat uneasy," Menjeflikon finally said, a cautious tilt to his antennae. "A species that has been building enormous machines based on something as hideously dangerous as planium for half a billion years but appears to be sufficiently shy that we have no idea who they are, where they are, and why they did it… Especially as this information suggests they went to considerable effort to ensure there were no clues to any of those points in their constructions, even while they appear to have deliberately engineered them to be simple to use by other people with a much lower technological level. While it could well be a magnanimous gesture of generosity out of public spirit, it could also have less salubrious reasons behind it."

"Based on a number of circumstantial items of evidence, such as the suspicious timing of several of the devices having been apparently last used some fifty thousand year ago, which coincides rather too closely with the time the alien base the humans located was last occupied, and the warnings they found in that base, I would have to agree that there may well be aspects to the situation that are less than ideal," Ziljinrytix acknowledged. "There is also the fact that the only planium discoveries that have been so far found have either been in the form of the terminals, the alien bases in the Sol system, and trace evidence from other systems that can be little else than the detritus from some form of battle between forces using planium for superluminal drives and possibly other technology, as dangerous as that would appear to be to us."

With a motion of puzzlement, he went on, "No planium has been found in a form that would suggest a natural source for it, such as an ore or the equivalent, and the humans are of the opinion that it is most likely artificially created to begin with. Statistically, even if it was created in very rare forms of stellar activity, over the lifetime of the universe enough should have been produced that it would essentially be omnipresent even if in minute quantities, but nothing of that nature has been detected anywhere they've looked, which implies something else is required. Our own study of their data agrees with their conclusions, and has come up with a tentative theory of how one might go about manufacturing it if one was sufficiently incautious to try. It would be extremely complex to arrange, the energy requirements are somewhat preposterous for a start, but it's at least theoretically possible. But neither we nor they know if the other two alien species we know existed, and may still exist, did the same thing or whether they found a different source of planium somewhere."

No one responded, although he could see they were all thinking, and several data terminals were in operation as a few people made their own calculations. He resumed speaking after a moment, "The humans are fairly convinced that the aliens who built the base were hiding from, or running from, or actively fighting, another species, and may well have lost that fight as they appear to have entirely vanished as far as can be determined at the moment. The likelihood that their opponents were indeed whoever was responsible for the planium device network can't be dismissed. It's certainly sufficiently plausible that it's one reason why the humans are carefully dismantling the network inside our general zone of space. Moving them far enough out of the galaxy that they probably wouldn't be able to function even if they were activated is a deliberate precaution, on top of the danger of the planium itself."

He motioned at the holo. "They've learned a lot about the devices, although there is still much research to be done. They strongly suspect that the network is probably still in use somewhere, although as I mentioned no active terminals have yet been discovered. They have a large part of the system mapped out from correlating the databases of the devices so far examined, but they think that there is still a considerable amount left to map. Our sector of the galaxy, approximately nine percent of the total volume, for reasons so far unknown is sparsely populated with the devices and shares only two to four links with the remainder of the galaxy. Outside this zone the density of them goes up quite a lot in many places although even then there are probably in total only on the order of approximately three thousand three hundred terminals, plus or minus two hundred. Since they developed a method to safely transport the devices to their extra-galactic test zone, they have been systematically removing the ones they encounter. To date eleven terminals have been moved."

"I would assume that developing an accurate map of device locations will allow that process to be performed more speedily?" Extranlutin asked, the task force leader seeming very interested.

"That is the plan, yes," Ziljinrytix agreed with a gesture from one foot-hand. "The initial discoveries were done the hard way, but now that they're capable of downloading the device databases, they've been concentrating on locating the links to the larger network and removing them first. They are worried about another species that actually makes use of planium in a drive system accidentally encountering them, or us for that matter, or anyone else who might be in our sector and making use of WIMP technology. The interaction would be unlikely to end well. Once the local sub network is safely isolated the process of removing the remaining units can resume. Two external link systems have been dealt with so far, and they're working on identifying any others."

"And the map they've derived so far is how they knew that our own explorations were headed directly towards a system containing a terminal," he added, looking around at his audience again. "Which is ultimately what prompted them to contact us, aside from simple curiosity." Changing the holo display to a star map everyone examined with interest, he pointed at one particular star. "The system in question is here, and was scheduled for a scouting mission in nine years. It is very likely, almost certain in fact, that the initial expedition wouldn't have found the planium device. Which would most likely have resulted in a much larger expedition following up, as from what we now know thanks to the data the humans provided us, the system is one with two habitable worlds in it. It is conceivable that we might well have ended up with a colony in that system before anyone happened to get close enough to the terminal with a posigravity drive ship..."

He could see from the drooping antennae that everyone got the idea.

"In all probability their warning saved many lives in the future. For that alone, we owe them thanks."

After a short period of reflective silence, Extranlutin said, "Shall we move on from the planium threat for now? There are a number of other intriguing areas in your preliminary report we should discuss, such as their version of the data implant, and the ramifications of sapient machine intelligence."

"Ah, yes," Ziljinrytix replied, commanding the holo to change to a different display. "Now, the human n-link system is fascinating. Understanding it is key to understanding much of their relationship with their machine intelligences and how they interact with their technology in general, and extrapolating into the future leads to some very interesting and slightly odd places..."

Soon the entire room was listening to another lecture with interest and slightly stunned yet impressed respect for what their new neighbors were capable of. The meeting went on for most of the day, but no one present felt the time was in any way wasted.


January 2117
International Governmental Cooperation Committee Building
Extrasystem Control Group

Premier Clarke nodded as he read the latest report from the Hivehom diplomatic mission. "Excellent, indeed," he commented. "I find myself pleasantly surprised by how logical and easy to deal with the thranx government is."

#They have been a united species for far longer than we have, and are inherently more inclined to cooperation than humans have been throughout much of our history,# Athena replied with a wry smile. #I suspect that's at least part of it. We also seem to have impressed them with our openness and willingness to discuss more or less anything. They do tend to prize honesty, and we made a good impression right from the start. The Rylix incident worked in our favor, if only by accident. I suspect things would have worked out similarly even without it, but it certainly helped.#

"I'm just glad we were able to help," he smiled. "They seem like good people and I certainly would hope that if the situation was reversed someone would help one of our crews if they had a similar failure. It would have been unpleasant for them if we hadn't had a ship so close."

#Definitely,# the AI agreed. She looked at the data displayed in the shared mindscape for a moment. He knew she could absorb it much faster than he could, although with the latest updates to the n-link system, human and AI were getting steadily closer in abilities. #In my personal opinion I believe that even though it is still early days, the future of our two species lies along the same path. Academician Ziljinrytix certainly appears to believe likewise based on the conversations he's had with our people, and he's not alone in saying as much. Likewise, Ambassador Santhotuzex is taking the long view, which seems to require a close relationship between human and thranx. We are sufficiently compatible, and near enough in technological ability and level, that we would probably have little real difficulty in combining forces somewhat more easily than one would expect. I suspect that the next few years are going to be very interesting indeed.#

"They do seem surprisingly open to mutual cooperation even this soon," he nodded thoughtfully. "We have things they're interested in, and they have things we're interested in. And they would bring a viewpoint that could lead to places we might not think of going otherwise."

#A certain amount of thranx caution would have helped immeasurably at various points in the not too distant past,# she pointed out with a mild smirk, making him laugh.

"I can see that, yes," he agreed, smiling. "And I wouldn't be surprised if our human diving-right-in-without-thinking-it-through ability could have helped them a time or two."

#I wouldn't necessarily go that far,# the AI snickered. #But I do think that if we eventually combine forces we're going to find it a partnership that pays dividends. I only hope that the next people we run into are as friendly and compatible.#

"You think we will find someone else?" he asked curiously.

#It's completely inevitable,# she nodded. #We already knew of the existence of two alien species before we bumped into the thranx, after all. It's basically a certainty that there are more out there, possibly fairly close to us. Even with the TBT drive we've only explored a tiny, tiny fraction of just our local sector, never mind the entire galaxy. It will take centuries to investigate the entire thing even cursorily. And there are more galaxies in the observable universe than there are stars in our own galaxy...# She trailed off, as he shook his head wonderingly.

"You know, even after thirty years of the blink drive, it still hasn't really sunk home that we could in theory actually do that," he finally said with an expression of awe. "Explore not only our own galaxy, but others too. It's… hard to wrap your mind around."

#Even I think that, Winston,# Athena replied with a soft smile. #The concept of infinite space is difficult for any intelligence to truly grasp. The TBT drive opened up the universe to us, but it's going to take a long time before we really understand what that genuinely means. I'm fascinated to see where that leads us in the end.#

They shared a companionable moment of silence, before he shook his head. "Well, before we expand out into the universe, we have issues much closer to home to deal with. I suppose we'd better get on with it."

#Probably best to, yes,# she chuckled. #Most of the delegates are here or linked in, so we'll be able to start on schedule in about ten minutes. Doctor Warden's group has made some interesting new discoveries, and Director Anderson has a number of updates on recent IS activities. And, of course, we have the Empire of Texas's proposal for an EoT colony world...#

"Oh, lord," he sighed as she looked amused. "Dealing with Lord Alamo is… hard work."

#To be fair, he does appear to have mellowed in recent months, and the Empire has made some unusually sensible requests in the last couple of sessions. The mere fact that they were requests rather than demands is a positive step, one that we should probably encourage...#

"Texans were crazy before the Mad Years, and they didn't get any less so afterwards," he grumbled, although his heart wasn't in it. The small but argumentative country was oddly endearing even while it was immensely irritating. "I mean, an Empire? How drunk were they when they came up with that?"

#Very, if the stories are to be believed,# she grinned. #The impressive part is that they managed to make it stick.#

"I suppose so," Winston agreed with a resigned sigh. "Oh well. As long as they can follow the rules they have the same rights as everyone else. We'll see what Lord Alamo has to say this time. But if he screams YeeHaw! in the middle of the session like he did last time I'm proposing a vote of censure. It's undignified."

Athena was still giggling when he left the private chamber for the main room, and he was smiling to himself.


June 2117
Planium Device Test Area
Onboard IGCC Research Ship
Threshold

#Yes!#

"Yes?" Doctor Warden looked around at the ship's AI avatar as he nearly shouted in glee.

#Yes, I've cracked the last encryption layer on the device database,# Neils stated with a definite note of triumph and pleasure in his voice. #Tricky little bastard it was too. The builders of these things weren't particularly inspired in some ways, but they did know their encryption algorithms pretty well. But it's no match for a good spintronic array in the end.#

"Excellent." John smiled broadly. "Well done, my friend." He glanced up as Captain Hirase came into the room, nodding to him. "Let's download the remaining data, repeat the process with the other devices, and correlate the results. Anything interesting is useful but the main thrust right now is completing the network map."

#Working on it. Download of device Alpha in progress, encryption cracking of device Beta is… hold on… done. Gamma and Delta are nearly there, Alpha is fully downloaded.# Neils produced a complex display in the research mindscape showing the progress graphically. #Beta downloading, Gamma decrypted, Gamma downloading...# Only five minutes later he said, #Rho download compete. That's all of them.#

The research area now housed twelve planium devices, while the locations of some thirty others spread throughout the human/thranx sector were logged and surveyed although the devices had been left in place for the time being. Another twenty-eight were known to exist but hadn't yet been exactly located, although the rough area for each was marked in the growing stellar map humanity had been working on for more than three decades, mostly as somewhere to avoid. Although the detailed exploration of systems surrounding Earth was still systematically expanding outwards, having so far inspected over twenty thousand stars, there were millions upon millions of them left, a task that would take a very long time to complete. Even if the thranx joined in on the task, something that seemed more likely with each update on that situation, it was still a truly massive task.

Now, though, with the full data dump from the dozen units finally completed, a much fuller map could be produced and matched up to known locations, allowing all the remaining devices to be precisely determined. They could then be rendered safe for future travelers.

All three of them watched as the galactic representation floating in their shared mental workspace rapidly sprouted points of vivid red light, each one representing one of the appallingly dangerous alien devices. When it finally stopped, the count stood at three thousand four hundred and seventy eight of the things.

#Not bad, our estimates were very close,# Neils said with satisfaction. #There's a better than ninety nine point six four chance that this is all of them, based on the statistical analysis of the databases, but it's still possible there may be a couple of outliers out there somewhere. The most recent update to the database we've so far discovered was over six million years ago, so if whoever is making these things added some since then, it might not have been in our current dataset. They don't seem to push network maps out through the network itself, although it's technically capable of accepting such a process. I have no idea why as it would be the most efficient method.# His avatar shrugged. #Aliens, you know?#

"Well, this is still a major improvement," Captain Hirase, who had been watching and listening quietly but with intent interest, commented. "The survey protocols ensure we always scan for planium even if we know where it is, just in case, so we shouldn't have any accidents unless someone goes a very long way out of their way to arrange one. Which should be virtually impossible in theory, considering the number of safeguards there are now. Something I for one am very relieved about when I think what might have happened in the beginning when everyone was bouncing around all over the place going wheee!"

Both John and Neils chuckled at his dry tone. "I seem to recall you enjoyed yourself back then, Roka," John said with a slight smirk. "How was Andromeda?"

"Spectacular," the captain grinned. "Anyway, my youthful indiscretions aside, we have a lot of work to do now." He examined the map, spinning it around and zooming in. "It looks to me like there are actually four external links to this entire region, unless I'm missing something. We've taken out this one and this one..." He made a pair of star systems a hell of a long way from Earth turn green, then indicated two more, "Which leaves this one here right on the other side of this entire zone, plus that one near the core."

#Correct, Captain," Neils replied with a nod. #I can't find any other connections between our local network and the rest of the galaxy.#

"I still find the idea of a 'local zone' encompassing god knows how many million stars more than a little strange," John said with a shake of his head in wonder. "And I helped invent the TBT drive."

"Something we still feel gratitude for, Doctor," the captain smiled. "You and your wife and everyone else involved have done more for us than any other single thing I can think of."

"I'll mention that to her when I go home," John snickered. "She'll be pleased to hear it."

"How is she doing, thinking about it?" Hirase asked. "I haven't seen her for… at least two years, I believe."

"She and her current research group are concentrating on a number of interesting possibilities surrounding some of the latest insights into WIMP theory," John replied. "A number of the thranx scientists who have been talking to the diplomatic mission came up with an intriguing idea that could lead to one or more major improvements in the superluminal communications system, increasing the efficiency considerably, and her group is investigating that as well as some other fields. She's also involved in the ongoing WIMP shielding improvement methods, which are looking promising."

"Our thranx friends are already causing a number of fascinating changes," Captain Hirase mused. "And we're still very early on in the entire process."

#They are an interesting species with much to contribute,# Neils put in. #It will be something to watch as time goes on.#

"There's talk of some form of mutual exchange program being sounded out at the moment," John remarked. "Amusingly, it was suggested by both ends more or less at the same time. Great minds think alike, by the looks of it."

"That could be entertaining," the captain nodded. "We'll have to see what happens next. But for now, do we have enough data to allow us to deal with the last two external links?"

#I believe so, Captain,# Neils replied. #We'll need to inspect both locations before we proceed though.# He highlighted one of the two systems that contained planium devices connecting their sector to the outside galaxy. #The one near this K1V star is marked in the database as a point to point link, going to a hub system near the core over here. The other one is also a point to point version, but it's clearly one link in a chain that leads around the galaxy about a third of the way. There's a second one in an M2V red dwarf system a fairly short distance away, only about nine light years, which then chains over to another similar pair in the same system nearly one thousand and seventy light years further, which in turn connects into this much more complex hub over two thousand light years past that. If we take out this one, it breaks the chain and means there's no connection to our space that doesn't involve at least a twenty five hundred light year journey without the terminal system from the nearest exit point of the larger network. It might be even better to remove both the paired terminals to increase the distance even more, although if someone is using planium superluminal drives as we suspect might be the case, I doubt they'd fancy such a long trip to begin with.#

"Sounds like a valid plan to me, Captain," John said, after inspecting the AIs display. "I'd personally vote for taking out both to be safe, just in case. Neils is right, it would give us extra breathing room."

"Yes, I can see that being worth considering," Hirase nodded, thoughtfully studying the data. "The systems themselves don't look all that interesting either. A whole series of mostly red dwarf stars, and we know they often don't have habitable planets."

"Habitable to us although we may find someone who thinks they're exactly right," John cautioned. "I would assume that the network builders probably put their terminals in such systems because they're more stable over long periods than larger stars, although it's not impossible that they evolved in that sort of place. We may never know. I'm more curious to know why some sectors have quite large clusters with lots of internal connectivity, then there are enormous gaps with only a few terminals making a link through them to another cluster. I'd rather have expected a more even distribution, but again we have no idea how they think from that point of view."

"Could be shipping routes, or they needed something inside those zones to actually construct the terminals, or some other perfectly reasonable explanation," the captain mused. "Or, as you say, it could just be alien thought and it makes complete sense to them."

#Or possibly the network is so old that it originally did have a more even distribution and over time either terminals were moved or damaged, leading to what we now see,# Neils remarked. #That seems equally likely.#

"True." Hirase thought it over for a few more seconds, then shrugged. "It's not really important for our current situation. Maybe we'll figure it out one day, perhaps we won't. But it does make this sort of operation a lot easier. Once we get rid of that last pair of links, we can relax a little and take our time hunting down all the other units. Everyone will be a lot happier when there's no planium lurking around ready to ruin someone's day."

"True enough." John nodded slowly. "The next move is yours, in that case, Captain."

"Thank you, Doctor." Captain Hirase nodded to him, then turned to Neils. "We'll have to clear it with IS first, but is there any reason not to proceed immediately?"

#No, captain. We have the procedure down to a science by now. I'm preparing the probes and have alerted the crew, so as soon as we get a go-ahead we can begin.#

Nodding again, Captain Hirase issued a quick command with his n-link. Only a few seconds later all three were looking at Director Anderson on Luna, nearly a hundred thousand light years away. The recently updated superluminal comms system wasn't quite real time but it worked much better than the now obsolete ping-pong design that had been the first method they'd come up with that didn't involve simply blinking home to talk to someone. "Captain Hirase. How can I help you?" the IS director said, looking curiously at them.

"We've made a significant breakthrough," Hirase replied. "Neils successfully penetrated the last encryption barrier on the planium device computer core and we've downloaded the entire database on all the units under study. We have an almost certainly definitive network map locating all the terminals, and have shown that there are only two remaining links to the larger network system." Neils had been transferring the data in the background as he spoke, and only moments later the extremely distant IS director was looking at a copy of the map. His eyebrows rose a little, but he seemed pleased.

"Excellent work, all of you," he said after a few seconds. "I'll make sure this gets to the IGCC. I assume that you plan on removing those terminals immediately?"

"We can't see any reason not to, Director," John put in. "We've got the process working smoothly now and we can finish within the day barring any complications, which we're not expecting. I think everyone will breathe more easily when we're safely disconnected from any unexpected visitors, as unlikely as that currently seems. Then we can get back to the main job."

#I'd have to agree,# the IS AI Minerva said, her avatar appearing in the projected display. #I would suggest that the terminal in the red dwarf system is also removed to be absolutely certain of success, though.#

#We already thought of that,# Neils replied with a smirk. She rolled her non-existent eyes at him but smiled a little.

#Of course you did, Neils,# she said with long suffering patience.

#Honest, we did!# he protested.

"You two can flirt on your own time," Director Anderson sighed, while Captain Hirase and John tried not to smile. "All right, the operation is approved. All three units. Good luck, and try not to blow up a star system. It would be embarrassing."

#We haven't done it so far, sir,# Neils quipped, looking amused.

"Always a first time for anything," the man chuckled. "IS out." The display blanked with a last wave from Minerva, then they looked at each other.

"Better get to work, I suppose," Hirase said.

With that he left, Neils vanishing too, leaving John to sit and examine the new data for any insights he could derive from it. Even now he found the idea of studying ancient alien technology fascinating on a number of levels, although also somewhat frustrating at times. The way there was simply no information on the builders in the computers, or anywhere else on the enormous devices, was both annoying and puzzling. The amount of resources required to make the things must have been huge and even more effort had been put into seeding them all over the galaxy, yet whoever was behind it seemed to have deliberately hidden any traces of who they were and why they'd done it. In the case of several of the units, they'd even hidden the things themselves inside moons of all things. He couldn't shake a feeling that something very bizarre was at the root of the entire situation but what that was he had no idea.

Eventually he turned away from that fruitless path of cogitation and resumed studying the much easier to understand data on the construction of the devices themselves, adding to the knowledge they were steadily building on planium and how it affected its surroundings. They'd learned a lot about dark matter and dark energy from this line of inquiry over the years and he was sure there was much more to unlock.

He barely noticed when the ship blinked to the first terminal, only looking up for a moment at the by now so familiar it was hardly noticeable sensation of WIMP flux passing through everything in the ship. Then he went back to his work.

The next couple of hours passed normally, careful surveys being done to set up the transfer of the inactive device, which was floating in space in a distant orbit of the primary as per the usual process, until Neils announced over the ship-wide n-link, #Transfer procedure holding at ten seconds. TBT drive unit reports ready status, reactors nominal, capacitors charged, destination set. All personnel to duty stations. Initiation of transfer awaiting final go command.#

"Go is authorized," Captain Hirase replied, everyone on the ship hearing him and most of them even if they weren't directly involved turning their attention to the process.

#TBT drive online, accelerator at threshold. Initiation in ten… nine… eight...# As usual, at 'five' the ship itself blinked to a safe distance, and five seconds later the terminal and the automated transfer probe vanished. #Operation complete. Destination reports normal transfer.#

John smiled. That was thirteen now. Only many to go. He muted the chatter from the crew and went back to work.

Under an hour later, having ignored a couple more blinks, he was roused from a deep contemplation of a particularly esoteric theoretical physics problem when Neils directly contacted him and said, sounding somewhat bemused, #Doctor, there's something you need to see.#

"Oh?" he replied, carefully filing his thoughts away with a few commands, then turning his attention to the AI. "What's that?"

A window opened in his mindscape and Neils said with a note of worry present, #This.#

John, along with everyone else on the research vessel, stared at the familiar sight of a planium terminal, with the completely unfamiliar aspect that the planium core was glowing a deep blue color and was surrounded by a rotating set of rings, while the rest of the huge machine was lit up in various places.

Not one person said anything for nearly a minute, until Neils finally commented, #I think we just found proof that someone is using the network...#