They where finally ready to start their experiment. The idea of connection an isolated computer to the alien core was a simple one. Implementing it was another matter. They had started with preparing a portable computer. It was cleaned of any redundant software that was not necessary for the task at hand and had then installed everything that they might need, which turned out to be a lot. Among diagnostic and analytical software the included a first contact package and the complete translation matrix that was available. They specifically excluded the language data from the data dump they had received earlier in their journey.
After that was done the computer was set up on a workbench next to the one occupied by the core and the robot. Power was provided and the computer was ready to go.
The connection was a bit tricky. They used one of the cables they had salvaged with the core. Conveniently they did also take some of the connectors stored next to the cable itself. They did not have the proper tool to install the connector to the cable but they managed to improvise with the tools they had. It was easier for the other end of the connection where they could use a proper tool as they used a standard connector that would go to the computer.
"Alrgiht." Hannes said. "I'm launching the optical calibration to figure out a wavelength. This might take a while." The two scientists next to him nodded and he launched the program.
One of the challenges to connect wildly different computer systems was to find a basis for communication that could be understood by both sides. Optical cables where able to transmit a large range of wavelength with distinct enough wavelengths not interfering with each other. Using different wavelengths to simultaneously send and receive data added more complexity.
"Any idea how long this will take?" One of the scientists asked while monitoring the readouts of the core.
"We have a range for the wavelength based on the material of the cable but we can't narrow it down any further without access to the hardware of the core, so there's really no way to tell." Hannes answered. "We don't even know if this will work at all." He finished on a somber note and leaned back for the wait.
Tony was still going over the partly-dismantled ship after he had removed the core and apparently caused the whole fuss. He didn't mind that. This was completely alien technology that was several thousand years old. Who knows what they would find? It was stated to be cautious after the incident and he understood completely. So he had used his scanner extensively and had not disassembled anything in the last two hours of analyzing the ship.
Joe was at her station in the middle of her shift going over the readouts of her console. Everything read as normal, Hermes was stable at – the still mind warping speed – of Warp 4.5 and would arrive at the next target system in ten days. Not needing to fully focus on the ship as the console was set to alert her she focused back on her reading. The data from the station was fascinating but was so wast that everybody was welcome to sort through it.
"Scan is done, Sir. I have two possible locations of activity but the area is cold." Hannes reported.
Sunblast looked up from his console. "More of these robots?"
"I don't think so. I'm only getting trace readings, most likely where the one robot we know did repairs. Only one way to find though."
"Let's go then." Sunblast ordered.
Removing the bulkhead in question had taken Hannes and Sunblast the better part of two hours. Unlike the junction box this area was not intended to be ever accessed again after the ship was constructed. But in the end they managed to gain access to the the small compartment housing neatly ordered cables. At least Sunblast managed to squeeze partly into it.
"Hand me a scanner, will you?" He asked with his outstretched hand behind him.
Hannes passed the already opened and set up scanner.
Putting the scanner on the floor before the cables he took a close look at the cables with his flashlight. "I don't see anything that would suggest any manipulation."
He picked up the scanner and went over the cables carefully.
It took almost 20 Minutes, he was about ready to give up.
"Got you!" He exclaimed.
"Found something?" Hannes asked.
"Definitely." Sunblast answered. "Look like one of the data cables was cut and refused just like the last one. But I cant find any evidence of the piece that was cut out." He answered while slowly working his way out of the compartment.
Handing the scanner back to Hannes he started to close up the bulkhead. "I'll task another group to investigate the other side. You go back to your station and try if you can find the route this robot took."
"Understood." Hannes left with the scanner in hand already thinking about a way to further fine-tune the internal scanners, maybe a higher yield on the Theta-Band?
"Alright, Gentlemen. It's been two days. What can you tell me so far?" The Captain opened the meeting.
Sunblast stood up and activate the screen with a schematic of the Hermes.
"Mr. Kleinn was able to modify the internal scanners. With this we found two places where the robot repaired data connections. Due to the fast decay of the energy signature of the robot we can't rule out that the robot did not repair anything else." The others in the room looked at each other.
"However based on the speed at which it is moving we're confident that it did not get farther into the ship or even left the deck. We managed to verify when it activated itself from the labs logs and when it aborted the last repair with the removal of the core."
"We also found no evidence of another robot or any other active tech in the ship that is not supposed to be there. The only indication of this tech is the cargo bay and that is expected." Sunblast took a seat after finishing his report.
"Very well." The Captain answered. "I feel relieved that we have nothing else skittering trough the conduits. What about the repairs itself, we didn't notice any problem with the data connections beforehand, right?"
"You can read the details in my report but in short, no. The data cables tested fine with our equipment. Upon close inspection, which included a detailed scan that takes about five minutes to scan one centimeter of data cable we managed to find an impurity from the manufacturing. It was not even close to being enough to have any impact to our normal mode of operating the connections and was therefore never found. I guess whoever programmed the robot has some higher standards than we do."
"That would explain why we didn't make any progress connecting with the computer core." Dr. Schmitz stated.
"Where are we on that, Dr.?" The Captain asked.
"There has been little to no progress I'm afraid, but with this new information I'm not really surprised."
"Care to explain?"
"We physically connected a isolated computer to the core with an optical cable and a connector that we salvaged from the base together with the ship and the robot. After that we tried to initialize any sort of connection between the two. So far there has been no measurable reaction from the core or the robot. If they look for flaws that we would never even notice in our optical cables then they might simply use them different than we do."
"Different how?" The Captain asked confused. "How many ways are there to send information over an optical cable?"
"From our understanding these options are limited, at least of what we utilize. I'm no expert but I think they might be using a completely different wavelength."
"Or something completely different we never thought about." Sunblast added.
"So is there a way to communicate with this computer core or not?"
"Impossible to tell. We need to analyze the ship more, that might get us the information we need. But even given ideal circumstances I need to point out that this core is a couple thousand years old. Who knows if it even still works." Dr. Schmitz concluded.
"Fair enough, keep trying. Anything else to report for now?"
"We're still analyzing the ship and the other items we retrieved from the base. It seems to be an interesting mix of sophistication. As we already discussed the computer core is incredibly complex and miniaturized way beyond anything we can do with our current level of technology. The ship in general is something that is way within our capabilities. Some components we can basically just take of the shelf, only some are quite sophisticated. The power plant is one of these components. It is much smaller and powerful than anything we have." Sunblast reported.
"How powerful?"
"We could scale it up to power the whole ship and it would be no bigger than our antimatter chamber. That is quite bulky, granted, but we could never do that with our current level of nuclear power plants. They would be way to large to be fit in the ship. We still have have to analyze some of the technology, it'll all be in the final report that should be due in a couple of days."
"Alright. I'm looking forward to your full report, should make some very interesting reading."
Sublast took his seat, making way for the next presenter.
Dr. Schmitz stood up next.
"After we realized that the robot had reactivated itself we took a look at the container it was stored in." The screen showed an image of the storage container brought back with the robot inside. "We took the time to examine it in detail. It is amazing! This container is a self-contained stasis unit." The screen switched to show a schematic of the container.
"The fundamentals are the same as we'd expect from the units we use for food preservation, but they're much more advanced than anything we know. The stasis generator is much smaller and more efficient. The container comes with a battery that has slowly run out of charge over the course of centuries from what we could tell. Analysis of the stasis generator is underway. Reverse engineering them would open so many possibilities! The details will be in the report once it is done. Who knows what else we left behind in that base, these people seem to have had quite the technology we could now profit of."
"Would this stasis field be compatible with living beings? Humans?" Sunblast asked.
"We need to study it much further to answer that question for sure. From the data we have already gathered the chances are very high. The field is pretty much identical to the ones we use already, we just don't use it on humans on a large scale anymore since we have FTL-travel." Dr. Schmitz answered.
"Right, also the amount of energy needed makes it rather impractical on starships. This could be quite a boost for colonization." Sunblast stated excitedly.
"How so?" The Captain asked.
"The amount of people our current transporters can carry are severely limited by the supplies that these people need until they reach their destination. If they could be put in stasis without increasing the energy demand astronomically the number of people could be increased tenfold, if not even more." Sunblast explained.
"Dr., please make this a priority. If I understand it correctly this could become a key-technology for earth in colonizing other planets." The Captain ordered.
"Of course, we're already on it, Captain." he answered.
"Anything else?" The Captain asked.
"I'd like to come back to the proposal of fueling the power plant of the ship for testing." Dr. Schmitz added hesitantly.
"So I assume you found a way to make sure it is safe to do so?" The Captain asked pointedly.
"As soon as we reach the next target, yes. I think we could use the power plant to get in contact with the computer core and the robot. It is technology they are familiar with and hopefully they recognize that we're trying to help." Schmitz explained.
"You're making quite a leap there, what makes you think we're dealing with an intelligence here?" The Captain asked.
"According to my colleagues it is a valid assumption. The computer core is way more complicated than it would need to be to pilot a simple ship. We could design a computer to do that even at the same size with a much lower complexity. We theorize that the complexity is enough for an artificial intelligence, something we never really managed."
"AI? Really? I thought that was just a pipe dream, a fairy tail from times long forgotten." The Captain answered skeptically.
"Not at all. We had simple AI in the first half of the 21st century. But we never developed things more complicated before the bombs fell. After that we never got back to even that. But the theories are still there. If an artificial brain can be build that is complex enough it can be stimulated in a way that it develops it's own personality and becomes self-aware. This computer is more than complex enough." He stood up and switched the screen to a new schematic. "That would explain the odd mix of technologies. One in particular is quite primitive and under-powered compared to the rest. The com-array. We theorized that the ship was remote controlled. The revelation of this computer core changed our minds quite a bit. This ship would not need sophisticated com-array. It has all the processing power it could possibly need." He concluded enthusiastically.
"Granted. I'm still skeptical as for the safety of the ship. Let's go over your proposal."