"Ops, talk to me. What is happening?" The Captain inquired irritated.
Smyke was busy working his station. All screens on the bridge had frozen, no system was reacting to any user input at all.
"Somehow our computers are being accessed from outside over the comlink to the away teams." He answered.
"That should not be possible. The contents of our databases is being transferred."
"Can you stop it?" The Captain urged.
"The system is completely frozen. I'd have to shut down the comlink. It's too late. All data has been transferred." Smyke answered.
"Can you reach the Teams again?"
"System is still frozen. Now data is being dumped into our databanks. Lots of data." Smyke reported.
"A virus?"
"I don't think so, that is way too much data for a virus. It's dumped as fast as our system can handle it. That's why it's frozen, it's busy." Smyke reported astounded.
Before the Captain could make up her mind about any next step the system cleared. All screens returned to normal and both teams where heard over the speakers.
"I want to know what happened, asap." The Captain ordered.
"Understood." Smyke answered, already busy working his console.
They stood fixed in place staring at their scanners.
"Hermes, please respond." Joe called out.
Silence answered her calls to the ships and to her team mates. They where gesturing to each other, communication obviously out.
As fast as it had started it was over again.
"Hermes, please respond." Joe called out again.
"This is Hermes, whats your status." the response finally came.
"We're fine so far. Something seems to have hacked our scanners and interrupted communication." Joe reported.
"It appears that the open channel was used to hack into our systems as well. We're still trying to verify what has happened." The Captain answered her.
"Should we return to the ship or continue our investigation?"
The answer was taking quite some more time than Joe was comfortable with.
"Stay put for now, don't enter deeper into the structure while we asses the status of the second team and our systems." The Captain answered.
"Understood. Team one out."
"Alright people. Options?" Joe called out to the team around her.
After a while of more or less coherent answers they all started to notice a subtle change in their surroundings. The lights where turning up slowly.
"Ok, now that is something." Joe called out.
"I'd say so. Maybe the station is being activated now that we're on board." Rick theorized.
Right in front of the scanning arc two displays lid up. They where showing the same symbols as where used in the instructions they had discovered so far, only a lot more arranged around a basic layout of the station.
"Would you look at that." Rick whispered in astonishment.
"They seem to be floating freely." Tony mentioned, looking up from his scanner. "I don't detect any signature that would indicate any projection technology we're familiar with."
Carefully Rick approached one of the displays and carefully touched it. To his amazement he felt a resistance.
"I'm detecting a very faint energy signature. Might be a very low powered force field." tony reported.
"Amazing technology. What if I try this.." Rick mumbled and touched some random symbol that was no different from the rest. To his shock the display disappeared completely. Instinctively he pulled back his hand. Before he could complete the motion the display reappeared with the same graphic but with a radical different description.
"This is in plain English." Rick announced flabbergasted.
That was sure to get him the full attention of the rest of the team.
"Welcome to Station 14". Rick read.
"Please select your purpose of visit."
A wide variety of options was shown on the display.
"How about Information?" Joe asked.
Rick touched the word carefully.
The display cleared and started to scroll a long text interlaced with schematics of the solar system the station was situated in.
"Amazing." Rick exclaimed.
"Hermes. We managed to access an information display that is showing information in English. Do you copy?" Joe called out.
"This is Hermes, we copy. It looks like our data banks have been accessed for information and translation. Additionally a very large database has been dumped into our data banks. We have not tried to analyse it yet." came the response from the Captain back on the ship.
"Sunblast to Hermes. We can confirm that we can now read schematics as well. We're analysing what appear to be computing nodes. They went active for a short moment, no more then three seconds. It seems that was all that it took to do all that." Sunblast reported.
"This is Hermes. Copy that. Stand by for further order."
"How about residence?" Tony asked.
"Let's see." Rick was scrolling through the options. "There it is."
The display changed to show a brief text and a basic schematic of the station.
"Looks like the station has very large habitation areas. Let's see… There. Current number of residents: 0." Rick stated.
"That is not a real surprise. Anything else would have been." Joe answered. "Check for historic information. When was this station constructed and by whom?"
"Good idea." Rick started browsing the options.
"No good. There seems to be no historic information available. At least none that I can find right now." Rick reported after a while. "This database is massive, going through it like this would take forever."
"Agreed. Let's check the main options again, I thought I saw something there." Joe instructed.
"There. Try 'Purpose of visit'".
A number of options was presented.
"How about residency?" Joe suggested.
Rick selected the option and was prompted a question: Number of residents? Below the question was a numberpad.
"How many should I put in?"
"Lets try slow. 20 Million."
Rick carefully input the number and selected the next item. Another question was displayed: Species?
Rick selected human from the options that where only humans and others.
This triggered another unexpected response.
In front of Sunblasts eyes the computing nodes flared to live again briefly only do become dormant again. In another part of the station systems came to live that had been dormant a very long time.
Activating central processing node…
Main node at 24%…
Current status: inoperative...
Analyzing residency request…
Analyzing environmental conditions for selected species...
Status of habitation area 1: uninhabitable
Status of habitation area 2: uninhabitable
Status of habitation area 3: uninhabitable
Analyzing…
Time to convert habitation area 1: 356 days…
Initializing conversion…
Initializing negotiation mode…
The screen cleared and promptly show something very different.
Please proceed to yellow area for negotiation.
A yellow line pointed down to the floor where it continued passing the arc and angling to the side.
"Team 1 to Hermes. It looks like the station is accepting residents. We have triggered some sort negotiation. How should we proceed?" Joe reported back to the ship.
"Team 1, hold one." The Captain replied.
"Alright, you're cleared to proceed with preliminary negotiations."
"Understood." Joe answered. "Let's go and see what happens."
They followed the line through the scanning arc that remained passive this time. The line continued passing nondescript stalls, their purpose unknown at the time. After walking two minutes the line swung to the right towards another nondescript door. When they approached a panel light up in green that simply said "Open".
They gathered in front of the door and triggered the panel. The door opened swiftly and they entered a small chamber. The door closed behind them and they where bathed in a deep crimson light.
"I'm reading atmospheric changes. This seems to be another airlock." Tony answered watching his scanner.
The light turned green and the next door opened. "I'm reading a breathable atmosphere."
They carefully entered a room that held a large screen at the front wall and nothing else. Once the door closed behind them the screen came to live.
Welcome to station 14
Atmospheric conditions at Earth-normal
Temperature 22°C
You can now remove your helmets.
They looked at each other carefully.
"The scanner confirms it, the air is save and it has warmed up. Should be fine." Rick stated.
Joe carefully opened her face-plate and took a breath. "Seems fine to me." She continued to remove her helmet followed by the rest of the team.
"Much better."
You're welcome.
"You understand us?"
Affirmative.
Initiating Negotiator.
The screen froze and a being materialized in front of the team. It was vaguely shaped in a humanoid form without any features. It's limbs where very basic, hands and feet not fully formed, the head was completely blank. An opening formed and it began to speak.
"Welcome, I'm Negotiator 5. You wish to apply for residency on Station 14, correct?"
The team stood silent in fascination. "How is this possible?" Joe asked. "Are you real?"
"I'm a mere projection, created for this negotiation. After it is concluded I will shut down again. I'd like to rephrase my question. You wish to settle some of your people on Station 14, correct?"
"Yes, that is correct." Rick answered. "Would that be possible?"
"Certainly. Station 14 is currently on standby and therefore uninhibited. According to the data that I have access to your planet faces overpopulation. A nuclear war has destroyed much of the surface. Ecological collapse is not imminent but can't be ruled out based on the data available. Resettling a large portion of the population would ease the situation tremendously. Is this summary correct?"
"Yes, pretty much so." Rick answered startled.
"Resettling 20 Million of your people would not really help your situation, is this correct?"
"Again, yes. It still seems like a large number to us."
"Understood. Logistics would be a challenge given the level of your technology so far analyzed. But still within manageable limits. Correct?"
"That is our assumption as well. Might we asked some questions?"
"Of course. An answer can't be given in all cases as my data access is limited."
"What is this station? Who build it?" Rick asked excited.
"Station 14 is the 14th Station build as a set of 30 in total. Currently no further data is available on its construction. It's purpose is a scientific one, details are currently unavailable."
"Can you tell us more about habitation? Where would people live here and how?"
"Certainly."
The Negotiator and the screen vanished altogether – it had just been a projection as well. The Negotiator reappeared to the side of the front wall and a diagram of the station was shown. The Ring was highlighted.
"Station 14 has a habitation ring that is divided into three areas. Each habitation area can be configured completely independent of each other."
One of the segments was now displayed as a cutout.
"Each habitation area has three levels. The top level consists of a housing area. Cities are spread around in regular intervals. There is one larger city in the center of the top level that functions as an administrative hub for the population. The cities are connected with a gravity-based transportation system. This system stretched all through the station.
The middle level is the agriculture level. It is covered with farmland. The soil can be adjusted to be able to support a wide variety of crops suitable for human consumption as well as industrial use. Farming equipment is to be provided.
The lower level is the environmental level. It is covered by a large forest. This is used to generate oxygen and clean water to the habitation area.
Light industrial areas are spread out in the top level. Heavy industry is situated in the outer regions of the ring, isolated from the rest of the habitation area."
Silence followed this explanation.
"Can you show us one of the cities? Are they fit for human habitation?"
"Certainly."
A diagram appeared of a sprawl of low story buildings. None taller than five stories. Broad walkways ran through them. Interlaced where parks and recreational areas.
"Currently the cities are not configured for human habitation, but that can easily be arranged. Likewise the farmland and the environmental level are currently not configured for human compatibility. This can also easily be changed."
"How? This surface are of each level equals the surface of our home planet. Configuring something of that size requires a level of terraforming technology way beyond anything we have seen so far."
"The relevant data was provided in the basic data package stored in your ships data banks. Please refer to it for more detailed questions."
"Thanks. How many people can this area support?"
"Based on currently available data each habitation area is able to support 2 billion humans."
The whole team was struck dumb.
"2 billion? That would easily solve a lot of problems we have on earth."
"I have another question. Why offer us this?"
"This station is currently uninhabited and therefore unable to fulfill its purpose. A workforce is needed for this station to function. This workforce is usually provided by the inhabitants of the station."
"So you need workers to do what, exactly?"
"Normal station operations require quite a workforce. Station 14 is a large space station and it can be used as that. Additionally a number of scientists are needed to further the purpose of Station 14. These need to be provided."
"Who would administrate the station?"
"Administration is usually split between the station and the inhabitants. Station authority is basically limited to the stations primary function, the inhabitants are free to govern themselves. As long as they follow a basic set of rules."
"This station was inhabited before. Where have they gone?"
"Station 14 was last time inhabited by a number of species. At some point tensions rose between them and a number of wars broke out. At that point they where asked to leave the station. More details are provided in the data packet, please refer to that for further information."
"When was this Station last inhabited?"
"The last inhabitants left Station 14 about 60.000 years ago. Since then you're the first documented visitors to Station 14."
"You said the habitation areas can be configured to support human live. That implies a sophisticated life-support system. Who controls this system?"
"The life-support system is currently idle and will only be fully activated once an agreement has been reached. Control of this system as well as many other are normally turned over to the inhabitants. A large part of this system is situated in the lower levels and is designed to work completely autonomously."
"That sounds very good. But what exactly are you?"
"I am a negotiator. I was created for this negotiation. After it's conclusion I will be deactivated and my pattern will be stored with the central processing node."
"So you're an A.I.?"
"In the truest sense of the word, yes. In your terms I would be classified as a true "Smart"-A.I."
Looks around the team. The room was already thick with tension and suspense.
"And this "central processing node?"
"The central processing node is a A.I. of a higher rank than me. It controls every aspect of Station 14 it chooses to. It is designed to be an passive observer and will only act when strictly necessary and mostly by proxy."
"Will we be allowed to study the technology on Station 14, including the central processing node?"
"Some systems will be off limits to for a time, I have no further information on how long or why. But in general it is encouraged for inhabitants to learn the technology of Station 14. A comprehensive technical database is already included in the data package provided earlier."
"Thank you. Do we have any more questions?" Joe asked into the open comlink.
"I have a million and a halve, but I think that would take forever." Sunblast stated.
"I'd like to start the preliminary discussions." The Captain said from the Hermes.
And so the discussions started in earnest.
The offering was very tempting. Humanity could settle Station 14 with a lot of people, solving the overpopulation problem on earth for the moment. It would also get quite a boost in scientific knowledge that would be available to them.
In return humans would have to provide quite a lot of man- and brainpower to Station 14. Running a space station that large required a huge number of trained personnel. These people would be at the complete mercy of a completely unknown factor – the central processing node. Humanity would not go for that this easily. They wanted reassurances. One was a manual cutout of the central processing node from life-support and other critical functions of the habitation area they would be provided with. The Negotiator had not been happy but had agreed.
With that Hermes was on the way again after sending a very long and detailed message back to earth.
The Negotiator had provided much more information than anticipated. The former inhabitants came from this region of space. The locations of their planets was provided with more details on the species. This information was accompanied by a warning. These species had fought a bitter war 60 millennia ago – they might have obliterated themselves.
The crew of the Hermes was about to find out for themselves.