In the meantime, on the eight day approach, Robert's been working on the automated shutdown program. It's difficult work, but he's making progress. It does not look like he'll be able to extend this to a ship like the Nightshade.
Edward "Shark" Teeth asks for an update on the arcs of fire of the
weapon systems. Of course the missiles exit the launcher forward,
but can maneuver to any direction, and the lasers start several meters
from the hull and can fire in any direction. Privately, he is informed
that the third weapon can fire in any direction too -- it does not, of
course, show up on Kalida's console.
The object itself has been doing nothing.
It is in stealth mode, stationary relative to the star.
Misha Ravanos asks Robert Morris to open a channel in tight-beam
communications. They will of course give away their location by transmitting,
but he considers it worth the risk.
Robert opens a channel. Misha asks him to
hail the object; Robert tells him it's not responding.
Shark points out that if it's in stealth mode, it's
using power. It's not a dead object.
Nevertheless, there is an open channel, but the
object is not responding.
Misha says, "Hello," to the object. There
is no response. He tells Robert to kill the channel.
Shark points out that since their targeting system
can see the object in stealth mode, it can probably see and target them.
He suggests closing to 2 km.
Helia Sarina brings the Nightshade in to 2 km from
the object.
Shark wants to bring up a visual of the ship.
He is astonished to find that there is no visual. There is a general
location, a rough size (between 20 and 100 m), but no visual. The
only reason they know it's there is that their ship indicated it as an
"object in stealth mode."
Misha asks Robert whether the ship can handle communications
with another ship, like it does with the starport personnel. Robert
replies that it can, but in this case the object is not responding to hailing
protocols, despite having an open channel.
Shark suggests they try assuming the object is an
automated station of some sort, and try to get it to send them its data.
Robert tries that, but still there is no response.
Shark suggests they dock. Misha asks for other
options from the crew. Robert tries to hack into the object, but it's not possible.
Misha asks the ship, "Nightshade, is there anyone
on board the ship in stealth mode?"
"It is an object in stealth mode," replies the ship.
"Is there a way to ask it it's function, purpose,
or name?"
"It does not respond to hailing protocols."
Kalida asks, "Are there other protocols we can use?"
"I don't know."
"What other types of ship to ship communications
do you have?"
"I don't know."
Robert says he's been in sparkly pink mode trying
everything he can to contact the other ship, and nothing's worked.
MIsha asks, "Nightshade, If the object in stealth
mode were an object similar in design to yourself, would there be further
protocols you could try?"
"I don't know," says the ship.
Robert says he's tried that too. He's tried
everything.
Misha asks again, "If this were a ship of similar
design to yourself, could you request that it step out of stealth mode?"
Nightshade replies, "It does not respond to hailing
protocols."
Shark says it's time for physical action.
He suggests sending over one person. That seems to be the only option
left. He says he has enviro combat, but not vaccsuit. Should
they send the launch, or a suited person? A gravcraft wouldn't work
well this far out from the system.
The launch cannot be set up for unmanned operation
-- and they've never used it before, either. The gravcraft aren't
set up for remote control either, certainly not from the Nightshade.
Misha asks the ship to take them out of stealth
mode, but not turn on the transponder.
The Nightshade drops out of stealth mode.
There is no response from the object -- it is still not responding to hailing
protocols.
Shark pulls out his binoculars, walks up to the
window, and looks in the direction of the object. He can see nothing
there.
Misha tells Helia to take the ship in to ten meters,
slowly and carefully.
Shark still can't see anything. It's even
stealthy to visual observation. He says, with wonder in his voice, "We can go into stealth mode in the
atmosphere -- we can land in stealth mode," he says.
Helia flies to ten meters from the "object in stealth
mode."
They still can't see the object.
Shark suggests extending the gangplank from the hatch
behind the bridge, and sending someone across. A quick poll of the
crew reveals the obvious -- the marines, Teri Cralla and Kalida, are the most
qualified. So they are therefore assigned the mission.
Shark explains to Kalida how they opened the hatch
to this ship -- the hidden panel with the hand crank beside the hatch.
Of course the object has power, and the crank might not work now.
Misha authorizes the mission. "Don't die,
don't get lost," he says.
Kalida and Teri go off to suit up in battledress,
while Helia lines up the Nightshade with the gangway pointing at
the object.
Still no-one can see the object. The ship
does now indicate that the size of the object is 50 meters, plus or minus
20.
Teri and Kalida reach the hatch, ready to leave.
Teri is carrying her favorite gun, the FGMP-15. Both are in battledress;
they match, of course, both in Imperial
issue suits. Teri's has no
insignia at all, but Kalida's personal suit carries the marks of her Brigadier
General rank.
The gangway extends about ten meters, but it can't
be seen over five meters -- it just chops off in mid-space.
On Kalida's orders, Teri steps out onto the gangway,
still in its artificial gravity. They walk across into nothingness,
and vanish. Contact is lost.
Kalida steps through, and sees an egg-shaped object.
It has no windows, and is the same black as the Nightshade.
It is about 30 m on the long axis, and 20 m in diameter. Behind her
she can see her own ship; as she stepped through, everything in front of
her became visible -- nothing in the view behind her was lost. The
gangway extends another five meters to the object.
Kalida looks around for some sort of hatch.
She notices something at the far end of the object -- towards the "base"
of the egg, and flies over there.
There is indeed an indication of a hatch outline
in the hull. She's a little surprised at this, as the hatches on
the Nightshade were pretty much invisible, but since she's taking all boarding
action precautions anyway it doesn't change her plans. Teri stands
guard while Kalida finds the crank access panel, and prepares to open the
hatch.
As Kalida reaches for the access panel, the hatch
opens. There's an airlock behind it, big enough for about three people,
oriented as if the "base" of the egg were indeed the bottom. The
interior of the airlock is lit, and status indicators inside are glowing
a comforting red. She reorients, and moves inside as Teri holds guard
outside the hatch, FGMP-15 at the ready.
Kalida briefs Teri on her plans, and moves into
the airlock. The outer door closes, and after a short pause to cycle
the air the inner door opens. Inside is a small circular room.
There is a small rest area, with a bed and small table. There is
one console. At the far side is a ladder leading to a hatch in the
ceiling. Kalida checks that Teri is still in contact, and feeds her
video from her exploration.
Lights are on, but the console is not powered up.
She walks into the room, and over to the ladder. It's a normal deck
height, about three meters.
She then moves over to the console, and sits down
at it. It powers up, labeled in the Nightshade's script language.
Back to the ladder... she climbs up
and the hatch above her opens.
This area is clearly storage, with quite a lot of
boxes. They look like the ones on her ship, also labeled in the
script.
The ladder continues up to another hatch.
She moves on up to the next area, and finds that it's the entire rest of
the egg interior. It's just one single open area. The other
two decks were like a short cylinder inside the egg, and the rest of it
here is filled with all sorts of unidentified equipment. It's quite
easy to move around up here -- the gravity is off, and she maneuvers around
in zero-g, making sure she gets good video of the entire contents.
Kalida then returns to the airlock -- which opens
for her -- and joins Teri outside the egg. The airlock door closes
behind her.
The two of them return to the gangway. Walking
out from the egg, they step over the boundary. The object behind
them disappears -- they can see the stars through where it is -- and they
regain communications with the Nightshade.
It's been about 20 minutes when the two Marines reappear
on the gangway.
"Sweet!" says Helia, "I want to go!"
Kalida and Teri step on board, and the airlock corridor
cycles.
Helia asks, "Should we move away, or are we OK?"
Kalida replies, "As far as I know we're OK.
I didn't see any other living thing there."
Shark asks, "Did you go on board?"
"Yes. We've got a fifteen minute video of
the inside of the ship. There was one console -- I turned it on,
it was all the funny symbol writing. There were boxes, again with
that writing, and a lot of unfamiliar equipment. So have at it."
Robert pulls up the video feed on the command holodisplay.
He soon determines that the console is probably dedicated to communications.
Shark theorizes that it's a courier ship, like an xboat, or possibly a
communications relay station.
While they're still looking at the video, Helia
moves the Nightshade to line up the starboard gangway with the egg's
airlock in the proper orientation.
It's time to send the technical crew. Robert,
Mich Saginaw, and Shark suit up to go across. Helia is very keen to go too,
but Shark says she should wait for another trip.
Robert sets up a fiber-optic cable for communications
while they're inside the stealth bubble, but it is snapped at the connection
when the hatch of the Nightshade closes behind them. They
keep going anyway. Shark does a few experiments with the stealth
boundary, leaning back and forth, before he joins the others at the airlock.
The hatch opens in front of them, and they move in to the airlock, which
cycles automatically.
They find the egg is set up exactly as they'd expect
from Kalida's description and video. Mich confirms it's the same
technology as the Nightshade. There is, however, no power
cube on board.
Robert goes over to the console and turns it on.
He says it's definitely a communications console. He checks the message
log; the last message received was the tightbeam transmission they detected,
and it contains the same (or rather, the equivalent in script) as the Sheriff's
message from the forest. The message was not so much relayed as replayed
-- it was stored, then it was fed through equipment which just used power
in such a way that the power use was the data of the message -- it didn't
actually do anything with it.
"Oh, cool!" exclaims Shark. "They're the gnomes!
They're the people inside the box, pedaling! They encoded the message
in the power stream by drawing power. Now who can hear it but the
people on the other side, creating the power? No-one! So replay
transmitted the message to the gnome. To the other dimension where
the power is generated. They're talking to the gnomes -- when I said
that, I was serious. They are the gnomes."
Robert says, "Well, we could insert a message that
says, 'We're here at your relay station if you want to come any sooner.'"
"I wouldn't do that," smiles Shark, "But we'll talk
to the boss. I mean, now it will say, 'Not only can we talk in your language,
but we can find you too.'"
Robert wonders if they can do the same thing with
their power system. He does point out that it's has to be a one-way
transmission, from power user to source.
Shark asks if the console can be reconfigured for
engineering or something. Robert says it's just a communications
station -- there's no access to any other functions.
Shark then goes up to the storage room to look at
the boxes. None of them are opened, and their weight varies.
They're all labeled in the ship's script. Shark is having some difficulty
with the language, despite learning more about it in his last klatrin experience.
He inventories them -- they are all the same size and shape, but of course
the labels on every box is different.
Robert has been looking through the comm logs again.
There are very few messages transmitted. The one that Robert intercepted
(now presumed to refer to Mich) passed through. Before that, a couple
of months before they arrived here, was a message saying "In place and
ready, stand by." There is a first test message that was fed through
approximately 200,000 years ago -- two thirds of the time Lap'da claims
his people arrived here. There were a number of other messages over
the years, mostly of the "I'm here, everything's fine" sort. There
is apparently no facility to receive a message through the power system,
just from the RF transmissions to this station from the planet. So
it's a one-way relay -- unless, as Shark suggests, sticking his head through
the hatch above, the zuchai crystal array on the planet has something to
do with it.
Robert goes up to help Shark with identifying box
contents. There is a lot of food, some generic tools (probably the
same as on the Nightshade). He then turns to Shark and says,
"So as far as we know, this has been sitting right here in stealth mode
for 200,000 years."
Shark adds, "Not being clobbered by comets, or asteroids,
or other debris from the Oort cloud."
"Space is really, really, huge, so the probability
of getting hit is very small. Also it's made of the same hull material
as the ship, and it doesn't have a large gravity field drawing things in
towards it."
Mich tells them about the systems. There is
a small station-keeping maneuver drive. There are some simple sensors,
so it can avoid objects on a collision course. There's life support
to the small living section, as well as atmosphere in the rest of the egg.
There's radio receivers, and communications equipment for local communications.
It just feeds the communications to the person at the console -- there's no
automated response. It is really pretty simple -- it keeps its station,
avoids large objects, it relays what comes in (assuming it's properly structured).
There is no power cube -- it looks like the setup of the launch, remotely
powered. There is no way to tell where the power source might be.
Mich wonders if their launch can send a message to the ship. The egg
has no controls to turn off the stealth -- like the position to be held,
it can be reconfigured by an engineer. All non-communication settings
like that are part of the initial setup.
Shark points out that such messages could be sent
using a flashlight, or medical scanner, or any of the items powered by
the Nightshade 's cube. They had better start learning morse
code!
They've pretty much seen everything now, so they
return to the ship.
Back on board their ship, they tell everyone what
they've discovered -- including that they can't figure out anything about
where it might be powered from.
Mich and Robert check
their own power systems to see if they can set up that sort of communication
with the launch. They find it's already built into the launch.
It is of course only one-way. It's labeled as "fast alert message."
They still don't know the range of such a system, but presumably it would
be the operational range of the launch. As for what that range is,
they have no idea, and the ship itself says, "I don't know."
They tell the crew that the Sheriff's message was
relayed correctly, and that none of their open broadcasts were relayed
-- they didn't have the right protocol. They can now send a message
from here via the console on the egg. Their only clue so far as to
range is that the medical scanner operated several thousand kilometers
from the ship, and that there was no change in power drain with distance.
Robert points out that the message, while one way
only, could be instantaneous with an infinite range -- they have no way
to know. You could make it two-way by having each ship having a transmitter
unit slaved to the cube on the other ship.
Shark adds that at the moment there is no evidence
that they've been on the egg -- unless they go over and send a message,
of course.
Robert says that they don't need to be on the egg
to send a message, now they have access to the correct protocols to access
the relay. He asks Sagan if sie wants to go over, but the hiver
declines
-- sie doesn't trust these alien systems not to shoot one of hir race automatically.
Shark asks Robert if there's anything more they
can pull out of the systems over there. Robert replies that they
have everything -- there's just the message log, no entertainment even.
Mich adds that there's not even any control over anything like position,
which is all hard-coded into the system and can be changed only by an engineer.
It's pre-programmed to have the stealth on, and to avoid anything that
might collide with it.
Shark suggests to Mich that he rig up one missile
to leave here and use power, and so when they jump they can see how far
away the power communication works. Or they could even use something
like a medical scanner, just pick up transponder systems and relay it through
the power system or something. They can work on it during jump, and
leave it somewhere later.
Mich suggests renting a locker somewhere and leaving
it there. Then he stops, and with a strange expression on his face,
says he's just remembered a black box they found a long, long, time ago.
There was a black box, which just transmitted a signal. He shielded
it to mask its signal while it was on the Anastasia. It could
not be opened without destroying it. They eventually traded it to
Jack the Younger (of the FarSpace Service) for an EMMask and other services.
Mich says they found it near the Anastasia -- they figured it was
designed so that if anyone ever found the Anastasia and moved it,
it would squawk and someone would know they had the Anastasia.
Shark says quietly, "And it worked. They eventually
found the Anastasia and blew it up."
Mich says, "Or they took the Anastasia and
blew everything up to hide that they took it."
"But then they came after you... if it's the same
people."
"The Anastasia was not in serviceable condition.
They would have had to haul it away with a freighter, just like it was
being hauled away. The 2000 ton ship was broken."
Shark says again that they should work on the transmitter.
If it does work, they can plug it into the Mora
net and just
have it transmitting all the time. Put it in the Marquis
' house,
and have it transmit news data up to date.
They decide they will send a message through the egg. They
discuss the content for a while, whether to reiterate the same message
or send a new one. In the end they take Misha's idea -- "This is
the Nightshade, contact us."
Helia takes the opportunity to go over to the egg
and look around. Unfortunately, as the lock starts to cycle, it's
apparent that a seal on Robert's vaccsuit hasn't been properly connected,
and is leaking to vacuum. Helia quickly identifies the problem and
fixes it.
Robert has rigged up the fiber-optic cable again,
but again it fails. Obviously there's a flaw in the design here --
going through the airlock just isn't working. Next time, he says,
he'll take a small unit to put on the ramp and run the cable from there.
On board the egg, Robert sends the message (in script,
of course). The whole message is just one symbol, and an easy one
at that. It's so simple, in fact, that he has no trouble vocalizing
it -- so he sends the message in voice too. Helia watches over Robert's
shoulder, and she is pleased to notice that she indeed is getting better
at the language. She says she needs more fish oil experiences.
Robert nods.
Helia looks over the entire egg. She can't
find anything they'd want on the Nightshade, and she satisfies herself
that it's just a station, not a ship.
They return to the Nightshade.