Chapter 13

The first meeting between the Alliance of Worlds and the Órarduine on An Clochán was just about to break for lunch when Orgaine said, "It is so close to lunch that I hesitate to bring this up. However, there is no rush to make a decision. What would you think of us establishing an outpost near here?"

Sally said, "We would have no problem with it. Those on Earth may view it a little differently as they see Mars as their possession, along with all the other planets."

"How do they feel about you being here?"

"We believe several of the governments would try to force us to leave, if they had the capability. At the same time, many of the citizens of these governments appear to think pretty highly of us. No doubt you have noticed the satellites circling Mars." Egulle and Orgaine nodded. "In total there are nine. Japan, India and the European Union each have one. The US, Russia and China each have two. All are essentially reconnaissance satellites which provide the owners with intercepted communications and photos. Another country twice attempted to place a satellite armed with nuclear weapons in a Mars orbit. The first malfunctioned and eventually crashed into the sun. Their second attempt blew up on the launch pad, which made a large area of their country uninhabitable.

"From a practical stand point, the satellites only provide them with photos of our activities on Mars and in space around Mars. They have not figured out how to eavesdrop on our communications, unless we need to contact them, then they have no trouble in hearing us.

"We have made it clear from the outset that this is not our permanent home. This is one of the reasons we provide the frequent news stories to the Grand View media. When we move, our plans are to place this habitat in hibernation. We plan to return periodically. Once Earth has a viable space travel capability, we will likely remove the habitat along with any evidence of its presence. Our assessment, based on the current political climate, is that it will take Earth at least 100 years to reach that point, although with both of us here, they may put more effort into achieving it."

"Do you have suggestions for a nearby location?"

"We would like to think about that a bit before giving you an answer," said Sally. "It will likely be later today. By the way, how near do you want to be?"

Orgaine replied, "With separate operations, there should be at least a couple of kilometers between us."

"Without coordinated operations, we agree."

"Egulle," said Aoife, "we currently have two Grand View TV news anchors visiting us. It is possible that they may approach you with a request for an interview. Since we don't know your customs on how you would handle such an interview, we would like to suggest that if asked, you defer the question until later. We think our discussion of Earth could affect how you want to handle such an opportunity."

"We have seen some news broadcasts," said an Iridien, "and find some of the questions people are asked very unimaginative."

"My, what tact you have," said Tiff laughing. "Some of the questions I've heard I would call stupid or insulting rather than 'unimaginative'."

"Well there is that," came a reply causing everyone to chuckle.

"To be fair," continued Tiff, "there are many good reporters on Earth that gather the facts, tell a story fairly and smoothly handle interviews."

"Let me stick my neck out," said Kathryn, "we have been blessed in having some very good reporters visit us. Fortunately for us, a few of them have decided to join us."

"Aoife," said Orgaine, "why did you raise the issue?"

"We don't know how you intend to approach meeting those on Earth. You can easily arrange to meet the heads of governments as a first step, but which one do you meet first? We think an alternative could be to introduce yourselves to Earth through either a press conference or a broadcast interview. That would then make the question of which government leader you meet first less significant."

"Egulle and I will talk about it at lunch. My initial reaction is that an interview would be a good idea. We will let you know by the time lunch is over, although I don't see any rush."

"True, but you have been in this system for several weeks now, so there is quite a bit of interest in who you are and why you are here."

As they were finishing lunch Egulle said, "Aoife, how do we arrange an interview?"

"We can start by including Doug and Virginia in our meeting today. They are the couple currently anchoring the Grand View TV evening news from here. If we were going to be interviewed, we would ask the interviewers to spend some time with us prior to the interview. The advantage is that you will get to know one another and will be more comfortable with each other. This will translate into a more relaxed dialog on the show."

"I like your approach. We have participated in interviews before with mixed results. There were only a few times that we thought the interview was worthwhile, as the information we conveyed was presented correctly. Many times, in order to give a correct answer we needed to precede the answer with an explanation which could be fairly long. In many of these cases the explanation was severely edited, which from our standpoint didn't correctly show the answer to the question." He paused then added, "I hope I was clear."

"Yes, you were. We can also include several from our newsgroup in this afternoon's activity. The advantage to having several of them participate is to gain additional viewpoints, as they generally work together on stories. Lorelei and Melinda were in here a few minutes ago, so I know that some of them are around. I'll see what I can arrange."

"Including Doug, Virginia, Lorelei and Earl is an excellent idea," said Tiff. "They have visited many more countries on Earth than we have, so they may have some other suggestions on how to make this first step work for you."

"Melinda," said Aoife, "Are Doug, Virginia, Lorelei and Earl here on An Clochán?"

"Yes. What's up?"

"We would like them to join us this afternoon, along with a couple others from your department. Think that will work for everybody?"

"You're with the Iridiens today, right?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I know it will work for Doug and Virginia. I just need to make sure I don't stand between them and the door when I mention it." Melinda and Aoife chuckled. "What are your plans now?"

"Next is a tour of An Clochán. They can join us at any time. Breacadh will know where to find us. Several from your group should join us as well."

"Okay. It will probably be just me as the others are working on other projects."

"Commander Egulle," said Aoife, "it is all set. They may join us during our tour but will definitely be with us afterward. Nothing was said about an interview."

"Commander," said Antopolis, "when the opportunity arises this afternoon, we should invite these reporters to visit our ships. During our stay here we got to know Melinda, Sam, Karmen and Kelsey. They are part of Dóchas' Communications group and they are a great group of people. During our visit, we met and saw others from this group presenting news reports. All the reports were outstanding."

Aoife then said, "Since Virginia and Doug are currently hosting the evening news for the Grand View TV station from here, they may have some time constraints on visiting your ships. Lorelei hosted the news on Grand View TV before she came here."

"Isn't the time lag a problem?" said Orgaine.

"It is. They are handling it by following a pretty rigid script. Basically, the show is live from here to the audience. Once the content reaches Grand View, they add in the reports for the reporters who are 'on the scene'. Virginia and Doug know the general content and the length of time for each spot."

"Why go to all that trouble?"

"First off, the Grand View newspaper editors are good friends and we developed a close working arrangement with the TV station when Melinda was there. They gain as it makes Grand View news organizations unique, which helps them maintain their audience. The newspapers gain because their stories compliment the information seen on TV. Virginia and Doug are currently scheduled to go back to Grand View in two weeks. They plan on returning for a week every month or so until we leave for Celia."

As they began the tour of An Clochán, Egulle said, "You seem to make a significant effort to keep people on Earth informed of your activities. Even with your comment earlier, we are not sure why."

Several chuckled on hearing the question, then Erica said, "Sometimes we ask ourselves the same question. One of our principals is open unrestricted communication. Within our species, telepathy enhances our ability to achieve that, but we still use news and verbal communication to augment our telepathy. If we had to pick one issue on Earth as being a key to many of the problems there, it is poor communication, both in terms of listening and sharing. Manipulating, filtering, and restricting communication between individuals and groups is embedded into Earth's culture. A good part of this is driven by the desire to have an advantage over another, control of a situation, or a fear of being left out. It seems to us that if those traits were minimized then life would be more productive and satisfying for everyone."

"We have communication issues of a similar nature between regions," said Orgaine as the group walked into one of the recreation areas. "Based on what we have learned of the issues on Earth, the difficulties we have are quite small by comparison. It doesn't mean that we don't need to do better."

The Órarduine pointed out the various items available in the recreation area and noted that there were several recreation areas in the habitat. They described some of their off hour activities and indicated that the Iridien Spec Ops teams had participated in some of those during their extended visit.

As the group left the recreation area, Seschun said, "Erica, I agree that the way your family uses telepathy makes communication among you very easy. You aren't originally from Earth are you?"

"No. Our clan was on Dóchas when we arrived in this system. We are one of the few family groups who survived the sabotage that sent Dóchas here."

"I would like to talk to your clan about the world you came from, and what it was like when you arrived in this system?"

"I think we can arrange to do that. For it to be worthwhile you will probably need to come stay with us for a day or two so you can meet with more than just our clan. I suspect we will have as many questions for you as you do for us."

"I would be delighted to have the opportunity to spend some time here. Our Spec Ops groups have raved about your hospitality."

"Our Security Teams have spoken very highly of yours. As to visiting us, let me discuss it with my spouses and I'll get back to you once we have some dates to propose."

"Excellent."

When they entered the cave attached to the habitat the expression on the Iridien's faces showed their surprise. Kelly said, "This is where our manufacturing activities take place. For our large ships, and to a large extent the habitat, the modules were constructed in here. As you can see, some of the manufacturing equipment is in the process of being disassembled and packed up. This is being done once they are no longer needed for building the cargo ship that you can see being assembled outside. Now, let's walk this way." As Kelly spoke she led the group through the manufacturing area making frequent stops to point out a particular operation. Their path took them toward the Star Fighter assembly area and the exit for finished assemblies. "These are the last Star Fighters to be built on Mars. Once these aircraft are checked out they will exit through the air lock, which is also the exit for all completed assemblies. At that time, we will finish packing up this area."

"Kelly," said Zolta, "this area is amazing. How did you build it?"

"We didn't." Her comment caused several puzzled expressions. "We feel like we inherited it. Amy's Clan found this cave when they were mapping out this area in preparation for setting up the habitat and a manufacturing site. The only additions we have made are the exterior doors and access to the habitat. All five floors of the habitat have direct access to the cave."

"The floor was like this when you found it?"

"Yes," replied Erica. "It is nearly perfectly flat and very hard. At first we thought the walls and ceiling were bare stone but they are covered by a hard impervious substance."

"Finding this cave," said Rusty, "was a blessing. It immediately gave us a suitable location to begin manufacturing the items we needed to build our habitat and ships. Until we had two additional Dóchas class ships, we felt our situation was a little tenuous."

"What is your assessment now?" asked Orgaine.

"Still tenuous," replied Sarah, "because we haven't reached what we consider a sustainable level."

"It is fair to say," added Aoife, "that we wouldn't have progressed as far as we have, if we hadn't recognized the benefits of including our self-aware androids in our culture."

"Are you saying that some Órarduine are androids?" asked Arenta with a surprised look.

"Yes. We typically don't make any distinction for the self-aware. When needed, we refer to this special group of AIs as 'logical biped' or 'bot', but we seldom use the term android. Using similar terminology for us biological types, we are either 'analog bipeds', 'biological bipeds' or 'biob'. You know that we communicate telepathically, that communication includes all AIs."

"All AIs?" queried Orgaine with a surprised look.

"Yes. We would prefer to keep that little tidbit among just us."

"Can we talk some more about this after the tour? The status of AIs, or androids, is an issue on several of our worlds. This is especially true for those where the androids are quite advanced and approaching what you refer to as self-awareness."

"Sure."

"Sarah," said Orgaine, "when do you think you will reach a sustainable level?"

"Presuming no major adverse events, about 20 to 40 years."

"So about the time you begin a fourth generation," said Seschun.

"We hadn't thought of it in that light," replied Tara, "but yes, that is a good marker."

While they were talking they had been slowly walking through the manufacturing area. As they were entering an open area Tiff said, "This is the area where we thought we could have a reception. It has easy access from both the habitat and outside. If we spread the reception over a good part of the day, then everyone would have a chance to participate."

"Our schedule for work in this area should have been completed two weeks ago," said Molly. "Due to a number of events beyond our control our schedule has slipped a little."

"Where do you assemble your large ships?" asked Mantz.

"In the open area just outside the air lock," replied Erica. "Our Dóchas class ships were initially assembled outside in the jigs located a short distance from the airlock. One of the jigs has been disassembled but you can still see some of its mounting pads. Once we launch the cargo ship, it will be moved to orbit so it can be finished. The shuttles are now using that area for loading cargo to take to the ships in orbit."

Molly added, "In addition to the Star Fighters, our shuttles and cruisers were also built in this area. To provide a little more detail on the construction of our Dóchas class ships, they are built in two phases. The first phase is done here on Mars. Each module is put together in here and tested. They are then moved out to the jigs Erica referred to, where they are connected together. Once all the modules are assembled all systems are tested prior to moving the ship to orbit. A second phase begins once it is in orbit. The first phase takes a ship to the point of being operationally functional, but otherwise it is very primitive inside. The second phase adds accommodations, weapons systems and support elements to give a fully capable ship."

"An interesting approach," replied Zolta. "So the ships environmental systems were operational at lift off?"

"Yes. By finishing the ship in space we didn't need to add the additional bracing that would have been required if totally built on Mars. When working in space we wear a suit similar to our TAC suit, but which is designed specifically for working in space. Another advantage to completing the ships in space is that it gives us more access to the ship. This allows our work crews to have more jobs in progress at one time than would be possible on Mars. Once we adapted to the weightless work environment, we found the assembly was easier than on Mars."

"In our world there have been technical articles suggesting benefits of building ships in space, but you are the first I have seen actually do it," said Zolta.

"Well we had a bit of practice at working in space," said Tiff. "Out of necessity, we did quite a bit of modification and repair work to Dóchas before we began constructing the first ships on Mars. Initially we had some concerns about being able to source raw materials, which we resolved by using asteroids. When we were evaluating asteroids as a source of construction materials, our engineers found some new metals. These discoveries gave us several ways to improve our ship's designs while increasing their performance."

"This completes the tour so let's head back to the conference room," said Sarah.

After touring An Clochán, the Órarduine and their visitors returned to the conference room. They were sampling refreshments when Seschun said, "I don't know about the rest of our group, but I am really impressed. Sarah, I understand what you meant earlier about sustainability, but in some respects I think you are a lot closer than you realize."

"In many aspects we are closer than in others, but they are more tenuous than we would like."

They were just sitting down with their refreshments when Melinda, Kelsey, Lorelei, Virginia and Doug entered. Kathryn introduced the new arrivals to the Iridiens and then had each of them talk a little about themselves.

"What's this about sustainability?" asked Virginia.

Sarah and Seschun paraphrased the conversation they had had earlier. Sarah then added, "Now, in looking back at our earlier exchange, we seemed to focus just on the people part of sustainability. Our knowledge and technological skill needs to grow as well as our family. What that involves and how that happens will only be known as time progresses. Many of our family have been holding back on creating the next generation. Once we begin moving onto A-Celia, I suspect our family will have a significant growth spurt."

Seschun nodded as she said, "My initial comment was with respect to the species population. Growth and sharing of knowledge is also a critical contributor to sustainability, and ultimately survival. In any case, there is always a chance for a major disaster that will send any species down the road to extinction."

"We agree. Virginia, did we answer your question?"

"Yes, for now." Several Órarduine chuckled on hearing her response.

"We tabled several questions during our tour," said Tara. "Let's address those now. Zolta, I believe you had one?"

"Yes. During the latter part of the tour a comment was made about modifications to Dóchas. Could you elaborate on that? Also, could you provide more background on your metallurgical discoveries?"

"All the information on the metallurgical discoveries is in our library," replied Jackie. "We are willing to give you access. Would that fulfill your request? We could also have some of our staff meet with you to review it."

"I think access to the library would be a good first step. With Egulle's permission, we can share our knowledge base with you."

"Zolta," said Egulle, "you have permission to share our knowledge base of fundamental scientific knowledge and our application techniques. Órarduine, there are some sensitive areas that we will need to discuss further before sharing."

Rusty replied, "As we indicated earlier, our library is open to your staff, except for information on weapons and some intelligence related items. As mutual needs arise, we are willing to share information in these areas also. Star will enable a link to our library as soon as she has a list of users. Zolta, we will have one of our engineers contact you after access has been arranged to see if you have any questions."

"Thank you," said Zolta.

"Rusty," said Orgaine, "your comment about weapons and intelligence reminds me of an item that has puzzled me." Many of the Órarduine smiled as they sensed the direction of his question. "You have told us of the sensor network around this solar system that detected our approach. However, if I remember correctly, Aoife indicated that you knew we were coming even before those sensors detected us. Did I understand your comments correctly?"

"Yes," said Aoife. "We have known for several years that visitors were coming. We now believe it was your group's arrival that we were anticipating. Our awareness of ICs arrival occurred shortly before our sensor network detected them. We can't express how we knew, just that we knew."

"Do you always know of an event in advance of it occurring?"

Aoife and Maeve chuckled, before Aoife said, "No. Really, it hasn't happened very often, but we haven't had many visitors from other solar systems either."

"Some of our intelligence staff are under the impression that you accessed our ships systems."

"Only the Dutsuz ships," replied Sally, "and then only after their attempt to enslave us. Right after the attack on us we did consider accessing all of your ships. We did make preparations to do that so we could respond rapidly if the need arose. From our experience, whenever you hack into a system there is always a finite risk of being detected. Your discovery of an intrusion by us without good cause would likely have resulted in a significant loss of respect and led to other problems between us. We did not want that to happen, so we concluded that it wasn't worth the risk to penetrate the other ships. While you were on your way here we did listen to communications between your ships, from the time you approached our second sentinel line till you made your FTL transition. This was accomplished by listening to your ship to ship communications."

"How?" questioned Orgaine abruptly with a puzzled expression. "They are line of sight."

"Yes. However, there is almost always some spread in the beam between transmitter and receiver. Our drones positioned themselves so that they could receive the bleed over. The fact that you don't use encryption made it easier."

"Our technologists told us that there wasn't any bleed over! Besides, those links don't carry operational information."

"Our initial interest was in your intent toward us as we knew nothing about you. From those snippets of communications we felt we could get a feeling of your intent, so we didn't go any further. With the Dutsuz exception, our assessment has been correct."

"So, you could have gone further?"

"Yes, much further. Our primary goal for intelligence gathering is to ensure our security. How far we go is dependent on our threat assessment. From our perspective, listening to open communications between ships is no different than us listening to the conversations in this room.

"In terms of intelligence gathering, we do have the ability to access the systems on other ships. This can be either by directly accessing a ship's systems, by reconnaissance or by other stealthy invasive techniques. We did use invasive techniques against the Dutsuz ships. Our initial intent was information gathering which in this case quickly escalated into taking control of the two ships. We could have pulled our agents back at any time leaving no trace. One example of our reconnaissance approach would be something similar to Orgaine's technique. Generally, we would only use invasive techniques when there was an imminent threat, such as during combat, when someone was preparing to attack us or was acting as if they intended to cause us harm. We suspect you have tools to accomplish similar objectives."

Kathryn continued with, "Even though we felt you were friendly, two things caused us to be cautious when you arrived. One was the two groups of Spec Ops ships quietly entering on the opposite side of this solar system. The second was the large number of ships in your fleet. It was these observations that caused us to greet you with most of our ships cloaked. If the circumstances were reversed, we think that you would have chosen a similar approach. Your reactions to the appearance of our cloaked ships answered the question of how effective our cloaking is."

"Kathryn," said Antopolis, "you're right that we were surprised. In fact, we were surprised twice. When Cathan confronted us prior to the fleet's arrival we were shocked, well at least I was. I am not sure that has happened to any of our groups before. Later, when we saw all of your ships, we were surprised again, but it cleared up some discrepancies in our intelligence data."

"It did both," added Orgaine with a smile. "I don't think we have yet reached the point of going into more detail regarding our intelligence gathering capabilities. I would ask that if you have intelligence data in the future that would benefit us, please pass it on."

"We would expect to," replied Sally, "and would like the same in return."

"Understood."

"I don't believe we have finished answering Zolta's question," said Maeve. "The second part was about the evolution of Dóchas to its current configuration. When we first saw Dóchas, it was in dire need of maintenance, a lot of maintenance. Dóchas was originally built by the Connemare as an exploration ship and was less than half its current size. When we came aboard, it had been in this solar system for well over 100 years. During that time very little maintenance was done because of a lack of access and resources. According to our library, the Connemare used a common core template for all of their ships regardless of their purpose. Initially we focused on repairs that allowed us to bring all systems back on-line at their full capability. As that progressed, it became clear to us that we were very lacking in defensive capabilities. Since we were a single ship, we thought it was prudent to add those capabilities to Dóchas. To do this we needed more space for fighter aircraft, cruisers and shuttles, as well as the additional weapons. The propulsion systems were upgraded to handle the increased mass."

"Interesting," replied Zolta. "I can see where having a basic core design would make the fleet more flexible. In a time of an emergency, it would be much easier to add the additional capability to exploration ships than to build ships from scratch."

"Breacadh, please project a 3D image of Dóchas before we started the modifications." In response to Maeve's request, a large hologram formed in the center of the room. "Now please show the additions we made to the ship in the sequence we added them." The room was very quiet as Maeve narrated the changing view of Dóchas as it morphed from an exploration ship to a warship. Breacadh then rotated the image about each axis so that everyone could see all aspects of the ship.

Zolta then said, "So essentially the original Dóchas is the core of your ship today."

"Yes."

"Well done." Many of the Iridien nodded their heads in agreement.

"Our family," said Sarah, "thinks that Dóchas symbolizes our place in space. Today we believe it is a sophisticated exploration ship that is battle ready. This permits us to explore space securely and learn from our findings to help us grow and be comfortable. As we have done with our new ships, we will continue to give our future exploration ships the defensive capability Dóchas has today."

"Do you have any more questions about our ship?"

"Are all your ships the same?"

"Basically, yes."

"Nice work. I don't have any other questions at the moment."

"You did all of that while dealing with the events on Earth," said Orgaine.

"Yes," replied Kelly. "At first, we managed with just the shuttles. Thankfully, there were only one or two times when we suspended work on Dóchas so that we could move to an Earth orbit. Even then we were able to do some work while there. Don't forget we had an island on Earth that we used as a recreation area, and at times as a staging point. This activity on Earth has been relocated to a different area and has now been scaled back."

"Even though engineering is not my specialty, I agree with Zolta, well done."

"Thank you," replied the Órarduine.

"Arenta, you had a question regarding inclusion of androids in our family," said Sarah.

"Yes. Actually, I have two questions and that is one of them. The second is about how you use the word 'family'. At times, it seems have a much broader meaning than how we would use it."