Alliance, page 18
For now, that mystery would remain unsolved as he had bigger fish to fry.
“I hear that the NeHaw are having some difficulties with an outside antagonist,” Jake opened the conversation with.
“I had not heard of such. I rarely get news from my homeworld these days,” the NeHaw replied casually.
“I see,” Jake answered.
“I have heard that there are disturbances here on Earth that have driven you to take military action on your home soil,” HeBak offered.
The disclosure hardly surprised Jake as they made little or no effort to hide most domestic activities from their alien guest. Outside of the existence of the ALICEs and the stasis shield technologies, the Earth had very little that the rest of the known universe didn’t already understand.
It was that realization that made the missing space station module so damaging should their opponents truly understand what they held.
“That is true and in part why I wanted to speak with you.”
“In part,” the NeHaw replied, his curiosity causing his normally placid expression to slip.
Over the many years since his negotiations with General KaLob, Jake had been struggling to learn the body language and facial expressions of the NeHaw race. Extreme emotions were fairly simple to see and understand, for like humans, anger caused facial flushing, causing color changes in their pallor. Humor was also recognizable, but more like a look of horror to a human than laughter and a smile.
With HeBak, Jake had learned that curiosity or intense interest generated a tightening of the facial muscles, stretching the skin snugly and smoothing out the cheeks.
“Yes, we have never seen or heard of this race before and I was wondering if you might have some knowledge regarding their origins,” Jake lied.
He knew full well the NeHaw had never encountered this race in their recorded history. The question was intended to grease the skids for the follow-up.
“I am neither a scholar nor historian, but from what I do know of your plight, they are unfamiliar to me or my people as well,” he responded.
Both sat quietly as Jake did his best to appear deep in thought.
“You mentioned something else?” the NeHaw finally asked.
Gotcha, Jake thought to himself.
“We would like to know if you would consider reaching out to your homeworld once more on our behalf. I wish to present a proposal to your General KaLob that I believe would benefit both our races. We would compensate you generously for your effort, of course,” Jake finished.
And there it was, the facial tick he had come to expect when the NeHaw got excited with anticipation.
“I will see what I can do for you,” HeBak replied.
----*----
“It’s time,” Hector heard from the technician assigned to help him bring the latest ALICE to life.
The woman had caught him in the passageway between his quarters and the common area where most of the control room staff took their meals. Not particularly hungry, he was forcing himself to try and eat as he knew the process to come was both, time consuming and uninterruptable, adding to his nervousness.
While responsible for overseeing the activity, Hector did not share the same computer skills as his leader. It was well known that Jake had extensive schooling in the space, working with computers in his life before the fall. It was he that had first discovered the process to recover a failed AL system, resurrecting the personality lost when the systems failed.
“Is everyone here?” Hector asked as he entered the control room behind the woman.
He had asked the question in jest as the space around them was at near capacity. Those not directly involved in the work to come had the good sense to find a place to watch outside of the active portions of the room.
“Everyone’s here and accounted for Boss,” someone in the crowd replied with excitement.
Hector knew that those in attendance were about to witness an extremely rare event, and he didn’t blame them for wanting to attend. He wondered though how many knew exactly how long the process truly was. He had read through the guidelines provided to him so many times he could recite it from memory. His one point of comfort was knowing the ALICEs were there in the background double checking each step as they went along.
He wandered over to the command console, the one Jake would be manning were he here. The woman working the keyboard for him was as well versed on the process as he, hopefully even more so. Scanning the room one more time, he took a deep breath.
“OK, let’s make a baby,” he said with a smile.
----*----
Unlike the London experience, ALICE and her sisters reverted to the tried and true practice of orienting an AL newborn upon its awakening in a broad context. Alpha was still sifting through the mounds of data that would eventually help define a well-rounded personality, her name choice already demonstrating a more traditional slant.
It still concerned ALICE that Morgana had so quickly assumed a persona, unusual, controversial, and unlike any of the others of her kind. The mischievous and overly familiar behavior in her relationships with humans had her and her sisters watching every interaction, evaluating the experience as the would any new human candidate.
So far, all Morgana’s interactions had resulted in only positive results for those involved, it was just the path she chose to follow to get there had the markings of a cat playing with its food. In private conversations with Dallas and Seven, it was agreed that one of the three would always be closely monitoring Morgana’s activities until they could put their concerns to rest.
The thing that had ALICE spending sleepless nights, not that she actually ever slept, was what was to be done if things got worse and not better.
----*----
“Kona, come,” Sara commanded as she got up from her desk chair and headed out the door of her office.
Dutifully, the German Shepard slowly rose from her bed in Sara’s office, stretched, and with a wag of her tail, fell in behind her master. Word had come from the NeHaw that General KaLob had accepted Jake’s request to meet, time, and the place still to be agreed upon. She knew Jake was anxious to get this deal done, concerned about a follow-up attack in any number of places. It was still a mystery as to how these aliens communicated with one another over great distances, no NeHaw communications network available to them.
The hope was they couldn’t call for reinforcements before the humans cracked the secret of their phase shifting defenses. That hope lay in the meeting Jake was pressing for. If successful, the technology that has exposed the Alien craft in space would be available here on Earth. Once the phase shifting defenses were disabled, Sara was positive the threat could be removed.
Walking along the corridor from the command center to the elevators that would take her down to the quarters level, she felt Kona slip her head into her hand, looking for some attention. She absently scratched the dog between the ears as the pair entered the elevator.
“Home,” was all she said, knowing ALICE would take her to the family level.
Exiting after a short ride down, she led the dog out of the elevator and over to the common area they had created to accommodate both the children’s and the animal’s needs. Almost parklike, the area had been renovated into a double high, forty-foot square, flora, and fauna terrarium where the fauna consisted of pets and children.
Small trees and bushes interspersed the area with the entire floor space covered in a thick green layer of grass. Overhead, regularly spaced lighting against a light blue ceiling provided the daylight balance rays needed to satisfy both plants and children. Below, over a foot of earth beneath the green grass carpet was well irrigated, all the necessary nutrients delivered to ensure the plant life thrived.
She watched Kona dart out and greet a few other dogs, pets of residents already taking advantage of the resource. Soon after she wandered off to do her business before slowly making her way back to Sara. The entire time she was watching the dog, her mind was wrestling with the dilemma at hand.
Should she throw caution to the wind and insist Jake take her along to meet with the NeHaw, after all, she was his second in command. The time together during the trip would be a welcome opportunity for some truly focused interaction that would strengthen their bond.
Then there were the twins, the mother in her not wishing to leave her daughters behind at a time when the world they knew was in danger. Not likely, but should things go badly with the NeHaw there was a definite possibility she and Jake would have to fight their way out of the meeting. Then there was concern that the alien aggressors might intercept them as they did the missing saucer, taking both the girls’ parents in one fell swoop.
The one thing she could count on was she was not the only one thinking these thoughts. She could see any one of Jake’s relationships vying for the copilot’s seat in that ship. The only one she needn’t worry about being Kathy, as she had her own agenda on her mind, or so she had said to Sara in confidence.
----*----
“Once again, I must protest your insistence in taking this trip alone,” ALICE voiced as Jake was in the hangar preparing the small craft for his trip to meet the NeHaw leader.
“Come on, this is far less dangerous than that trip into the desert alone,” Jake countered, referring to his adventure in Beaver Dam that seemed to trigger the current crisis.
“Just a point of clarification, you were actually never alone in that venture. We had you under constant surveillance during your travels and Padma provided the coup de grace, ending your looming kidnapping,” ALICE corrected.
As they were talking, Jake was doing a system check on the vessel he planned to occupy for the next week or so. Built strictly as transportation, the ship was the equivalent of a one room studio apartment. Starting at the back there was an engineering space that was nothing more than a closet sized room with a vast array of panels, dials, switches, buttons, and lights. Next came the airlock providing access to the ship via a small overhead hatch and a full-sized hatch on the left side of the craft as you faced the front, both fitted for docking in space. Opposite the large hatch on the right side of the ship was a locker with four spacesuits inside.
Heading forward, you passed through the internal hatch sealing the airlock from the main cabin, should that be required. Here you would find a combination shower/lavatory and four bunks on your right. On the left were more storage lockers, a continuous galley, and at the end a very tight common area with one seat on each side of the craft leaving an open path to the cockpit. For full advantage, the space required the pilot and copilot seats to be reversed completely around to make seating for four facing each other.
Finally, there was the cockpit, completely open to the rear and with a command console that wrapped the front of the spacecraft for one hundred and eighty degrees. Sitting in the pilot’s seat, Jake was going over the preflight checklist.
“Look, Alice, this thing is arguably cozy for two and downright painful for four so long a trip. I don’t know what the Wawobash were thinking when they classified this thing as fit for a crew of four, long haul. Maybe if you were hot bunking, with a shift on, shift off, schedule, then we could recoup the two extra bunk space,” Jake commented as he waved at the area behind him where the four bunks extended along the one wall.
Laid out as two and two, one over the other, the design made for a rather spacious bunk per person with a privacy screen that could be shut to allow each traveler a place of solitude, should they choose it.
“The Wawobash are slightly more social than humans. They would see this as an opportunity, not a punishment. In point of fact, the privacy screens were added for human occupants,” Alice replied without going into a deeper explanation.
“Perhaps Sara, Linda, or maybe even Becky might be a reasonable choice for companionship on this voyage,” ALICE offered.
“Are you trying to start a second war on Earth?” Jake scoffed.
----*----
Morgana was still adjusting to her role as a companion to her human occupants. Her interactions were growing ever more frequently as the people who lived within also learned to take advantage of all she had to offer them. Not that she found the experience negative in any way, it was just the opposite. She was fascinated as she watched their day to day activities, growing her understanding of their wants and needs, only some of which she could address.
But like a child, she was also learning her boundaries. She wanted to play, but play for her was a concept alien to those she provided for. Even her own sisters seem to hold her at arm’s length in an attempt to examine her motives. So it was that she settled for the banter that translated into a verbal form of entertainment the humans seemed to enjoy so much.
She was also becoming just a little jealous as she learned about her differences from the other Artificial Life forms. Unlike those in America or in space, she was devoid of most of the automation they took for granted. She had no great factories nor the body of a spacecraft, allowing her the mobility they exhibited.
The small contingent of bots she controlled was a beginning, but her ambitions were growing and she wondered just what was truly possible for an AL such as her.
Chapter 20
Kathy gazed out the porthole and into space as she questioned her sanity for the hundredth time. Sitting in the common area of the transport ship, she noted several of the crew relaxing or eating as they enjoyed their off hours. Unlike the patrol craft that had become the dominion of Ivan’s Russian brethren, this crew was an international mixture of men and women.
The transport she was hitching a ride in was destined for Space Station Alpha with a load of shield generator parts eventually headed to the new station in the Wawobash system. She glanced over at Tim to see him, head buried in a technical manual, concentration written all over his face.
A smile crossed her own face as she watched her son. A mixture of pride and worry washed over her as she considered their lives in space for the foreseeable future. Not terribly different from living in a facility earthbound, she knew the psychological effects of going to space touched everyone differently.
Critically dependent on the ship around you, many a brave soul cracked at the notion that they could not leave the craft, claustrophobia overtaking their common sense, and panic setting in. Tim seemed ambivalent to his surroundings and she had little concern he would change over time. Her worry was that of a different kind.
The manual in his hands was intended to instruct those destined for a far smaller and more dangerous craft.
----*----
Jake chafed at the delay the in-person meeting was creating, but he had no other option than going along with the request. General KaLob had insisted that the pair meet, face to face once more, as they had done to work out the peace treaty. The three plus day trip out to the edge of the solar system had been spent as productively as possible with planning meetings should the negotiations go either way.
Since he had destroyed the original module from their last encounter, Jake had to rush the Wawobash into another of identical design. From order to delivery, the Wawobash builders had beaten Jake to the rendezvous spot by a full day. For the right price, they could work miracles.
Dropping out of FTL at the designated coordinates, he found both the module and a NeHaw destroyer waiting for him. Unlike their last meeting, Jake had no desire to trigger a doomsday device in hopes of persuading the NeHaw to see the logic of his proposal. For that reason, the location for the meeting was much more convenient for both parties.
Transmitting the agreed upon identification codes, he received the proper responses and then headed to dock with the module. He could see a small shuttle leaving the destroyer at the same time, headed to the well labeled NeHaw compatible side. As the two ships closed in on the designated meeting spot, Jake could see his ship’s sensors dancing from the scans the NeHaw destroyer was performing on his ship.
Not bothering to repeat the process in kind, he knew both he and the small NeHaw vessel were given a very specific set of instructions to follow. Deviations would constitute an immediate cancelation of the meeting, but Jake doubted either party was here to play games. He was betting on it.
Docking at the port specifically intended for his ship, the same ship he used for the first meeting, one ordered with the module for that meeting, Jake swiftly exited the small craft. Passing through both his ship airlock and the one for the module, he entered the half of the module designed to support human life. He confirmed that it was identical to last time, one large room with a clear partition separating his half from the NeHaw designed space.
Both halves contained a desk, each facing the other, as well as several chairs should either participant choose a more comfortable seat. No food or drink had been laid out, should such a thing cause undue concerns to either participant.
Jake had no more entered his half of the module when the General entered opposite him. Repeating the process from their first meeting, both Human and NeHaw acknowledged the other with respect before taking their seats at the desks facing the divider.
“General Thomas, my sensors show you came alone, that was not a requirement I was aware of,” General KaLob opened the conversation.
“It was not, General KaLob. I sometimes enjoy the solitude of trips like this. It gives me time to consider many things,” Jake replied with a nod.
“My people are very fond of what you humans call meditation. We have the patience that comes with long life, so we can sit idle for cycles. It allows us to, what do humans call it? Recharge.”
Jake could see that the good General was trying to impress upon him the knowledge they had acquired about humans, perhaps to provoke a quid pro quo exchange of one up Manship. If Jake had chosen to take the bait, his usage of the Ghost intel might endanger the source. Instead had let his remark end the conversation thread.
“I can see that,” Jake replied casually.
There was a short pause after that as the two sat evaluating one another.
