"I have pinpointed the signal," the artificial lifeform known as Isaac, an emissary from Kaylon 1 to observe and report on the Planetary Union to the Kaylon, an entire race of artificial lifeforms, as they consider becoming a member of the Union, reported, in his role as science officer of the USS Orville. "It is coming from the third planet in this system." It was already ascertained to be an archaic distress code once used by Earth, discarded soon after interstellar space travel was achieved.
Captain Ed Mercer acknowledged Isaac's report. "Thanks, Isaac. What information do we have on that planet?"
"It is a planet with a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, a mean gravity of 1.037g and a sizeable temperate zone, suitable for most of the biologicals that comprise the Union and many unaffiliated species. The signal is originating with this zone," the science officer answered. "There is no record of any indigenous intelligent life-forms encountered. Additional data indicates no plans for any known sufficiently technologically advanced planetary systems to initiate colonization currently."
"Yeah, but it's probably an old Earth ship that crash landed there a few centuries ago," Lieutenant Gordon Malloy, the ship's helmsman, piped up. "Probably an unmanned drone or something. We're orbiting the planet, Captain."
"This far out?" Commander Kelly Grayson, first officer, asked. "I wonder how it got here."
"Take a shuttle and find out," Ed ordered. "Alara, Isaac, go with her. Gordon'll fly the shuttle."
"Aye, Captain," Gordon, Commander Kelly Grayson, the first officer, and Lieutenant Alara Kitan, from the high gravity planet of Xelayah, acknowledged Ed and left for the shuttle bay.
"There it is," Gordon exclaimed as he piloted the shuttle towards a clearing in a forest, where he could make out a small object, with a curved shape from front to back, with what looked like a reinforced transparent enclosure on top from what Gordon could figure out.
Lieutenant Alara Kitan, the Orville chief of security, had already tried various hailing frequencies while on the ship, including the one the original beacon was transmitted on, but to no avail. She sat at the shuttle console alongside Gordon, still trying various hails. She shook her head at Kelly, signifying no luck.
The shuttle landed about 20 meters from the sighted object and nearby structure and the away team got out and started walking toward it. Now on the surface, they could make out what looked like a habitat of sorts, and a few other assorted items placed somewhat haphazardly near it.
Now close to the object he saw from the shuttle, Gordon saw that it was a grey single-occupant ship, the dorsal side curved downward on each side, with a canopy from just forward of the stern to two-thirds the way to the bow, and two forward facing canted wings, one on each side. The ventral portion was a polygon shape, canted slightly from midpoint to bow, more sharply from midpoint to stern, the whole craft about 15 meters long more or less. There was no one at the site, which they felt explained why their hails weren't answered.
On the craft could be discerned a NASA symbol, and various warnings and markers written in English.
"Wow, this thing must be over 300 years old, but it looks in good condition," Gordon proclaimed to the others. "It looks similar to the NASA Rangers that docked onto the ships made for travel to other planets in the solar system, but like a single cockpit version of the much larger ones they had in the late 21st Century. I didn't know they made these. The whole project was redesigned when Earth discovered how to go to quantum, and NASA integrated with other space agencies and became IASA."
At Alara's quizzical expression, Kelly explained, "international instead of national, since all of Earth became involved under one agency, after that it became United Earth Fleet before the Planetary Union was established. NASA stood for National Aeronautics and Space Agency."
"Administration," Gordon corrected his first officer.
Alara nodded, then asked, "I wonder where the pilot is?"
"Judging from this campfire, whoever it is was around recently," Kelly observed as she poked the ashes.
"And now coming back," Alara told the away team, pointing toward some trees in the distance. Just coming out of then was someone who appeared to be a lanky human male, dressed in what looked like blue-gray fatigues, with a similarly colored jacket festooned with pockets and various decals, carrying over his shoulder what looked like an animal resembling an Earth deer. Alongside him was a large black block split along the middle as it strode alongside him, each half alternatingly moving to propel it forward similarly to legs.
As he got closer, he waved, yelling out, "hello there, are you with NASA?"
The man strode up to them, looking calm albeit somewhat guarded, although no hostility was detected, and came to a stop, setting the animal down on a short table next to the tent like structure. The black mechanical companion stopped when he did.
"We're here in response to your beacon," Kelly answered the question he greeted them with then continued, "we're not with NASA. I'm Commander Kelly Grayson of the USS Orville, a Union ship, this is Lieutenant..."
"Union? You guys are represented by organized labor?" the man asked amusedly. At their stunned looks he waved his hands. "Sorry, sorry, you were saying..."
"Yes," responded Kelly, regaining her composure, "this is Lieutenant Alara Kitan, chief of security, this is Lieutenant Malloy, our helmsman, and this is Isaac, our science officer."
The man nodded, looking at all of them, then introduced himself, "I'm Coop, uh, Joseph Cooper, pilot, and," he continued, sounding somewhat amused, "this is TARS, my assistant and, uh, navigator," adding that last bit somewhat tongue in cheek, in response to the introduction of Isaac, whom he assumed was their robot, as a "science officer".
"Pleasure to meet you, although Coop is my assistant, I just let him think he's in charge," the voice emanating from the black block stated.
Coop shook his head, muttering, "I can never get that humor setting right..."
"Are you in fact a self-aware sentient being?" Isaac asked him.
Before TARS could answer, Coop asked them, "are you from Cooper station or Edmund's planet or...?
Kelly shook her head, "sorry, no, we've never heard of either one." Quickly glancing at the others who shook their heads, she then looked at Isaac. "Isaac?"
The Kaylon stated, "there is no record of a Cooper station or an Edmund's planet, perhaps some more explanation..."
Coop interrupted Isaac, and gestured to Kelly and Gordon, asking, "sorry, what planet are you from?"
Gordon answered, "Earth."
Coop pondered that and asked, "was it originally called Edmund's planet? Your technology is obviously more advanced, maybe you're descendants of the Earthlings that left Earth before the blight took over everything?"
"No," Kelly answered, chuckling lightly, then continued, "it's always been called that for thousands of years in one form or another. There was no blight that took over..."
"Sorry, what year is this?" Coop asked. "What galaxy?" he added. He put his hands to the sides of his head and started rubbing his temples as if trying to make sense of it all.
Isaac answered, "currently it is the year 2420, in what is referred to as the Milky Way galaxy by..."
"Oh, boy," Coop moaned, as if he heard what he expected, dreading it at the same time.
"The exposed gravity drive of the Ranger," TARS announced, then stated, "it interacted with the wormhole and sent us far into the future, and somewhere within the same galaxy."
Cooper's arms dropped limply to his sides as he groaned, "that's about the size of it, Slick. Except with a twist."
"Another dimension," the large blocky robot deduced. "It sent us to an alternate universe."
Alara looked puzzled for a moment, then her expression changed to one of realization as she flatly uttered, "the blight." Meaning, that's how he deduced he was in another dimension, the Earth in this one had no record of an extended blight.
Coop looked at her and sighed. "Yep." Then, as if it finally registered, he looked at her more closely, then said to her, "so I assume, unless this is some twenty fifth century body decorating trend, that there's intelligent life on at least one other planet."
Alara looked amusedly at the beleaguered astronaut, and answered, "yep."
Kelly smiled at him, and added, "many, many planets, thousands so far."
The astronaut nodded as he took in that bit of information, looking a bit stunned.
"Of course," Kelly quipped, "some are more intelligent than others," looking sideways at Gordon.
Coop looked up in wonder, mouthing a soundless, "wow." Then he looked at them and sighed. "Well, I guess since I'm stuck in this universe, I wonder if I could prevail upon you to take me..."
Kelly interrupted him. "C'mon, we'll take you up to the Orville."
Gordon looked at him while gesturing to the Ranger and asked, excitedly, "can that thing fly, like up to our ship in orbit?"
Kelly smiled, knowing Gordon would have loved to have a crack at it, as Coop answered the helmsman's question. "Shouldn't be a problem. The only reason I didn't fly it is that I thought we were already in the other galaxy, hopefully on a nearby system, and was hoping a beacon would draw somebody here," Coop explained, "they were scheduled to go through a few months after I left the station. I was hoping they would contact me and tell me where they are, or a homing beacon, something. But no response so far, which I now know why that is."
"This system is near a category 7 spatial anomaly generating interference along a broad range of electromagnetic frequencies as well as subspace," Isaac informed him. "It is only because we had an assignment in this system at a location close to this planet that your signal was detected by the Orville."
Kelly contacted the officers manning the shuttle bay, telling them to prepare to receive Joseph Cooper's ship, since Coop would be unaware of current docking procedures. She made a point of stating that Coop would fly the ship, amused by Gordon's facial expression not hiding his disappointment.
Coop flew the Ranger to the Orville and allowed a low strength tractor beam to essentially guide him into the shuttle bay where he landed it. He and TARS disembarked and were walking along the corridor with Alara who was amused at his astonishment as he looked around the ship, and the crew's reaction to TARS as the robot followed them, which she had to admit was a unique design, rather impressive for a mid-twenty first century Earth technology. She showed them their quarters, where Coop could sleep and hang around while TARS would likely stand against a wall, including the synthesizer, with which he immediately ordered a steak dinner. The look on his face as he regarded it was something akin to love in her opinion. She couldn't wait to tell Kelly about that.
A team of archeologists went to the surface and collected all the materials to eventually study and catalog them. They knew it wasn't from their own past but were curious to see what the differences and similarities were from what they knew of it.
Coop and TARS were now in the briefing room with Ed, Kelly, Alara, Gordon, and Isaac. Ed welcomed him aboard the Orville, then Coop gave him an abbreviated version of what he already told the away team. TARS occasionally interjected, with occasional huffing by Cooper at his interruptions, to Ed's amusement.
"How did you wind up on that planet?" Ed asked him.
"I don't know. Before I went to sleep, I set the coordinates for Edmund's planet based on relative positioning from the wormhole exit. I can only guess that this planet was positioned along the same vector and the ship decided to land on it. A billion-to-one shot, and for a while I thought it was Edmund's planet, just not the same latitude and longitude, but I quickly realized it wasn't orbiting the same star."
"You only had to look up in the sky to figure that out," TARS interjected, sardonically. "I told you something was wrong."
"Yeah, Slick, that was very helpful," Coop responded sarcastically, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "I really need to adjust some settings."
"Didn't you say that it was like talking to a toaster the last time you tried that?" TARS queried in response.
"I am fascinated by your relationship," Isaac commented, looking at Cooper and TARS. He then addressed TARS, asking it, "are you friends, or is he your master?"
Coop looked at Isaac with a puzzled expression on his face as TARS replied, "I'm a robot built to serve, a machine. I obey his commands, much like your synthesizer does when one is ordering. It's like asking about the relationship of someone who runs your synthesizer, the question has no meaning."
"Now, TARS, be nice. Sorry, his honesty rating is 95%, maybe a bit high. Uh, to tell you the truth, I'm a bit confused by Isaac's question myself. How do you regard your robots?" Coop asked the others in the room, a surprised look on his face.
"Uh, Isaac isn't a robot, per se…" Ed started to say.
"I am a fully self-aware sentient artificial life form from the planet Kaylon 1," Isaac interrupted Ed to inform Coop.
"His planet is populated by artificial life forms, which sent him as an emissary, while they consider joining the Union. Our Fleet offered him a post on a starship, which he accepted," Ed explained.
"Huh," Coop grunted, then looked over at TARS. He then looked at Isaac and asked, "what happened to the ones who built you?"
"I was built in an automated assembly line on Kaylon 1," Isaac answered, "which is maintained by other Kaylon lifeforms like myself. May I ask TARS a question?"
"Yeah, go ahead," Coop replied, even as he realized Isaac sidestepped his question, or rather the meaning of his question, by answering it literally. He sighed, deciding to drop it, thinking perhaps it had been that way on Kaylon for so long Isaac couldn't conceive that it had been any other way. He mused that perhaps they are the next step in the evolution of the lifeforms of that planet, transferred consciousnesses from a time so long ago they can only think of themselves as advanced machines and always being so. But to have no memory of their origins? He figured he would revisit the issue with the Kaylon, assuming he'd have the chance to do so.
"If Coop were to order you to kill a human being, would you comply?"
"Um, TARS, don't be cute," Coop warned his robotic companion, wondering if the humor setting might cause a sardonic reply that might be misinterpreted and result in a lot of uncomfortable questions. He hoped TARS understood his admonishment.
TARS replied with the three laws of robotics, to Coop's relief. A vague enough answer that Coop hoped would suffice. The astronaut kept a straight face throughout, betraying no sign he was ever worried.
Isaac started to ask for clarification, but Ed decided to adjourn for the day, saying, "well, I think Mister Cooper could use a break. Uh, Mister Cooper…"
"Coop is fine."
"Okay, uh, Coop," Ed explained, "the engineering team would appreciate a look at your robot if you'd be willing to stop by their area tomorrow. Also, do you have the path that you took when you exited your wormhole? We'd like to try to retrace it, maybe get you back somehow."
TARS replied, "I have the data."
"Captain," Isaac announced, "I can receive his data using the protocol of his era and transmit it to the navigation station." He looked at TARS, on which a small green light turned on for a moment, then stated, "data received, I will update navigation."
"Great," Ed enthused. "Mercer to bridge, a course has been transmitted to navigation. Do you have it?"
"Yes, Sir," Lieutenant John Lamarr, the ship's navigator, replied.
Gordon asked, "Did you want us to go there now, Captain?" He indicated he was ready to go to the bridge on Ed's command.
"Not yet, thanks, Gordon," Ed replied, and ended communication to the bridge, "Mercer out." He looked at Coop and asked, "so, about engineering having a look at your robot, would you mind?"
"Okay, I mean TARS is an antique with respect to your technology, but," Coop replied, "yeah, sounds fine."
"I don't know, he seems pretty cool to me," Gordon stated, smiling. Alara nodded in agreement.
"Great! All right, everybody, meeting is adjourned," announced Ed. "Gordon, you take the helm now and follow that path."
"Yes, Sir!" Gordon responded, then headed out of the briefing room.
Alara escorted Coop back to his room, asking him, "how did you like your meal?" referring to the steak dinner he ordered from the synthesizer.
"I enjoyed it!" Coop enthused, "I haven't had steak in, oh my, I don't know how long! That synthesizer is an amazing technology!"
Alara smiled at his enthusiasm, then looked at him and asked when they stopped at his quarters, "why did you leave the space station to go to uh…" she tried to recall the name of the planet.
"Edmund's planet?"
"Yeah, why not wait to go when the station would be heading there?"
He had a wistful look on his face as he answered, "my daughter said I should go immediately, not wait. Amelia was there, or at least headed there, so…"
"The other astronaut, Dr. Amelia Brand," Alara murmured, remembering from his telling Ed at the briefing room. "Was she your…"
Coop chuckled, "Heh! I think she was warming up to me, but to tell you the truth it was a whim on my part, spurred on by Murph, my daughter. Amelia was in love with Edmund, and though his communications weren't updated, he could still have been alive. Somehow my daughter felt I should go to her, so I went. I didn't question it, I just went. I guess I should have waited…" His demeanor turned serious, then he smiled at Alara. "Everything's a longshot in space, I don't know if it's any different now…"
Alara didn't answer, but gave him a look that let him know that hadn't changed, then said, "here we are."
"Thanks," he said as he walked in, then turned to look at her.
"If you need anything, let me know," Alara offered.
"I'm just gonna turn in, thanks again."
"You're welcome," Alara told him, then stood back and the doors closed. She walked toward her quarters, shaking her head in wonder at his essentially taking a chance on love. She wondered if anyone would ever feel that way about her.
In engineering, they were having a field day. TARS was hooked up to almost a dozen probes, as well as having scanners constantly aimed at him as he answered a variety of questions and performed various computations. They scheduled time in a simulator to gauge his physical dexterity and capabilities, but for now were amazed at the breadth and scope of knowledge, even his ability to gauge expressions of those around him, human and non-human alike.
"Plus, he's personable. He even jokes, although Coop was right, the humor setting definitely affects his response, and there is actually an honesty setting!" Lieutenant Commander Steve Newton, the chief of engineering, gushed.
"Honesty setting?" Ed asked, sounding concerned, then looked at Cooper. "That's an actual thing?"
The astronaut nodded, explaining, "TARS was a military issue robot, one of whose functions was meant to be used to misdirect an enemy, so the setting was designed for disinformation, although he had to be ordered to disseminate information his programming knew was false. The lower setting was designed to minimize conflict with the hardcoded protocols installed in every robot, so as to reduce the load on its processing module."
"Hmmm…" Ed looked thoughtful, as he responded, "interesting. Would kind of be like Robby the Robot."
Coop chuckled at that, explaining, "sorry. There was an old movie about space travel…"
Ed nodded, and interrupted the astronaut as he chuckled in return, saying only, "Forbidden Planet."
"Wow, so it was the same reference," Coop exclaimed, "for you guys, that's gotta be over…"
"450 years ago. Yep!"
Coop just raised his eyebrow in surprise, then divulged, "Anyway, I reset the setting to 90%. Truthful, but diplomatic."
Ed nodded, then looked at Steve, asking, "anything else?"
Steve replied, "a lot of technical information to go over, I gave you the highlights. This afternoon we'll be watching it show us how it moves around, how much it can lift, things like that. More for our curiosity, it won't be exhaustive by any means."
"Okay, well, have at it," Ed exhorted his chief engineer, after getting an assent from Cooper.
"Thanks again for letting us look at it," Steve said to Cooper, "there's nothing in our own history that's anything like it, so it's a real treat!"
"Sure thing, Chief," Cooper replied, amused by their enthusiasm
Steve hovered for a moment, then declared, "so Isaac is talking with TARS, and I gotta say, for something that's just a robot, by its own statement, and presumably non-sentient, he's actually able to hold an engaging conversation. When I left them, they were still talking to each other, so he's holding Isaac's interest at any rate."
"Any conclusions from that?" Ed asked Steve, "do you think TARS actually is…?" He left the question hanging.
"Boy, that's one for the philosophers! I mean Isaac claims to be sentient, but is he? Or just a very sophisticated AI housed in a robot body? Who knows?" With that, Steve left Ed's office, leaving just Ed and Coop behind.
Ed looked at Coop and said, "anyway, we're going to head back to where it was calculated you left the wormhole at about 1300 hours, about fifteen minutes from now. Oh, something just occurred to me. You said TARS was a military robot."
Coop nodded, then sighed in expectation of Ed's next question.
He was not disappointed. "So, when Isaac asked would TARS kill if ordered to, and he responded with the three laws of robotics…"
"TARS is able to respond to nonverbal cues, along with oblique statements, much as he usually ignores them. I figured having him answer the question directly would lead to some nervousness, so I had hoped he would sidestep it a technically correct answer, but one not so stark. I have no experience with TARS other than his NASA tenure, but I would imagine the answer would be yes. But," he immediately added, "even when his programming was strictly military, he wouldn't obey a capricious order to use deadly force. I know that's not exactly a totally comforting statement, but…"
Ed just nodded. "Well, we've been dealing with an alien artificial lifeform for a while, so…"
Coop's forehead suddenly wrinkled, as if in worry. He then recounted to Ed, "you know when I asked Isaac what happened to the ones that built their kind, he answered with who built him specifically. Granted, the way I asked the question, I could assume his answer was literally correct, but I think he purposely did that. I didn't have time for a follow up…"
Ed jumped in. "You're implying Isaac was covering up a more sinister history?"
"I don't know," Coop replied, "I mean like I said it sounded like a literally correct answer to my question, but I gotta believe he understood I was asking about the ones who built the robots initially. I can't believe mechanical beings just appeared out of nowhere, unless it was so long ago, there's no reference to it now. Or maybe a natural disaster happened, and only mechanical devices remained, and just 'evolved' in a sense by building more complex versions over time."
Ed responded to Coop's theorizing, "you don't sound all that convinced."
"Hmm, sorry, it's just, uh, well, our robots, like TARS, for example, were designed for functionality, but Isaac seems designed with an eye for aesthetics, to engage with bipeds like us. I would imagine he resembles what the original builders looked like, some type of humanoid in a sense, for whatever reason. Like I said, maybe a disaster occurred, or their data storage wasn't robust enough to maintain data from a time long past. It was a problem on Earth, even prior to the blight. It was only because NASA itself had silicon module fabrication facilities, and could replace end-of-life devices, that data was able to be maintained digitally. So, it's possible this state of existence is all that Isaac can conceive of."
Ed pondered that, then a voice came over the comm system. "Bridge to Captain Mercer."
"Mercer here."
"We are ready to take the programmed route on your order," a deep voice boomed.
"Okay, Bortus, I'll be there in a minute, Mercer out."
"So, Isaac, what do you make of TARS?" Gordon asked from the helm as he programmed it to follow the route back to the wormhole.
"TARS is a fascinating mechanism. He claims not to be sentient, yet for all intents and purposes would seemingly be able pass a test to determine sentience."
Ed opined, "like what in the dawn of the computer age was referred to as a Turing test, after an early computing pioneer named Alan Turing."
"Correct, Captain," Isaac concurred.
"You've heard of Alan Turing?" Kelly asked Isaac.
"I have made it a goal to understand all I can about scientific endeavors, and of the scientists that embarked on them, on various planets," Isaac affirmed.
"Okay." Then Kelly inquired of Isaac, shrugging, "so? What do you make of it?"
"What do I make of what, Commander?"
Kelly glared at Isaac. "Of TARS passing this, uh, Turing Test, yet claiming it's not self-aware."
"As I have indicated, I find it a fascinating phenomenon."
"Does it cause you to question yourself, Isaac?" Ed asked him.
"In what way, Captain?"
"Well," Ed replied, then cleared his throat and continued, "that your 'self-awareness' may simply be a very sophisticated program that simply mimics what sentient biologicals possess intrinsically, that you make have been programmed to think that's what it is, whereas TARS isn't programmed to determine itself as having that quality?"
"It is possible. However, I am a much more sophisticated unit than TARS, as much as he is surprisingly advanced for a human created device, especially of that era. It is a divergence from your own history, as I have found no record of a similar creation from your planet in that or any era," Isaac replied. "But my programming allows me to infer probabilities from available data, and assess situations to arrive at the most likely conclusion. From this I infer that I am indeed self-aware, not from any specific area of coding instructing me, but from my ability to analyze any and all data available."
If Ed didn't know better, he would have sworn he heard a defensive tone in Isaac's voice, but decided instead to focus on Isaac's observation regarding the difference in robot development on Coop's Earth, couching his observation in a joking manner, "maybe they weren't as paranoid in that dimension as we were then about robots taking over the Earth."
Isaac stood there for a beat before answering, "interesting hypothesis, Captain."
Ed, if he had a chance, might have taken the time to reflect on Isaac's brief hesitation, which he already wondered whether he just imagined it, but instead was interrupted in his musing by Gordon, who reported, "Captain we're at the destination."
Ed looked ahead and saw only a star field. "Any sign of a wormhole?" he asked.
Bortus reported, "scans indicate no anomalies ahead, just normal space."
"Well," Kelly remarked, "Coop is going to be disappointed."
"Yeah," Ed concurred, sighing. "Alara," he called out, turning to look at his chief of security, "go and get him, please, and bring him here."
"Yes, sir," she answered, then got up to go get the astronaut.
A few moments later, Coop and TARS entered the bridge, followed by Alara who went to her station. They walked to where the engineering station was, then, while TARS remained there, Coop walked up to stand next to Ed.
Ed looked up at him and told him, "we're at the destination computed from TARS's data and there's no sign of the wormhole, I'm afraid."
"May I see a rearview from this ship on your main display?" TARS requested.
"Sure."
The display changed to show a different star field. TARS stated, "this is more or less the same view we encountered when we left the wormhole. I calculate the wormhole was within a few million kilometers of this spot."
"So, it seems to have disappeared," Ed concluded. He looked at Cooper. "I'm sorry."
Cooper just sighed, looking downcast. "Oh, well, I…"
"Captain!" Gordon shouted. The view reverted to the front view and a wormhole was seen directly ahead. "It just appeared." Cooper looked surprised at that, then had a look of eager anticipation.
Isaac announced, "I am detecting a signal emanating from the location of the wormhole consisting of a series of pulses of wavelengths…"
TARS interrupted the Kaylon by declaring, "it is a message for Cooper directing him to head into the wormhole."
Ed asked, "does it say anything else?
TARS was silent for a moment, then, uttered, "Amelia awaits."
At her station, Alara smiled.
The crew of the Orville observed as the Ranger, piloted by Coop, with TARS behind him, headed into the wormhole. After a few minutes, the wormhole disappeared.
"I hope he makes it," Kelly expressed softly as Ed nodded in agreement.
"Captain," Isaac announced, "I have deciphered the message sent to TARS. The protocol used closely matched with a protocol of a type considered for use by Earth in the mid-twenty-first century. It was a brief message with no follow up."
"And?" Ed asked his science officer.
"My determination is essentially the same as TARS's, some minor syntactical differences aside," the Kaylon relayed.
"Okay," Ed replied, shrugging. At Isaac's silence, Ed asked, "something on your mind, Isaac?"
After a pause, Isaac responded to Ed's query. "There was no message regarding an Amelia," Isaac stated flatly.
Alara immediately turned around and laughed. "He didn't say there was!"
"Huh?" Ed looked quizzically at Alara. "What do you mean?"
"TARS just told him that!" Alara smiled.
Kelly understood, and smiled along with the security chief. "He allowed us to infer it was part of the message."
Ed nodded in understanding. He shook his head slightly, then, his eyes crinkling with mirth, uttered, "90%."
Isaac looked out at the bridge as the others murmured in assent, smiles all around, then turned around and faced his station, no doubt processing this latest development.