Chapter 3: Darwin’s Footsteps

“Okay, where are we currently located?” I asked.

“John, Nautilus is currently sitting on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean approximately five kilometers southeast of Española Island. Isla Española is a small fourteen-kilometer-long island at the south-eastern end of the Galapagos Island chain.”

The Galapagos Islands! Now I realized why the images being shown on the cabin walls were familiar.

“Are the videos you are projecting on the salon walls from that area?” I asked.

“Yes, the images were all recorded over the past few weeks,” Naomi said.

I recalled that Darwin’s famous group of islands did lie on the Equator. The master A.I. must have built a facility here. Interesting.

“Note the port wall image, John.”

I swiveled my chair around and looked at the image in the port curving wall. The view of the waves breaking on a rocky beach was overwhelmed briefly by a distant bright light and a plume of exhaust gasses. These were both rather small which indicated that the event was taking place dozens of kilometers beyond the coast. But, although far away, it was clearly a rocket launch of some sort.

I watched the distant light forming the expanding gas plume rise for a few seconds when it suddenly cut off. Did it abort? I was about to speak up when an almost painfully bright burst of light whited out the image. The center point of the flash was a bit above where the rocket exhaust had cut off. Before I could comprehend what was going on, another flash lit the room. This one a bit higher still. I remembered the launches we had observed from our trip to Sri Lanka.

“An Orion type launch vehicle?” I asked as the bright flashes continued every second or two.

“That is correct, John. You are witnessing the launch of an orbital supply rocket from Baltra Island. The rocket uses sequentially detonated small fusion explosions as its primary means of propulsion. This is indeed similar to a hypothetical propulsion method know by humans as an ‘Orion’ drive,” Naomi explained.

The bright flashes continued. I attempted to count them and noticed that they were occurring slower than every second ... maybe every second and a half? The string of flashes angled over and headed off to the eastern horizon. I had counted to nearly two hundred when they passed over the horizon.

“How far away is the launch site from where this was recorded?” I asked.

“The images were recorded from near our present location southeast of Española Island. The launch you just witnessed took place on Baltra Island which is approximately seventy-one nautical miles northwest-by-north from our viewing point. Note the map of the island chain.”

An image appeared on the viewscreen which showed a map of the Galapagos archipelago. There were five larger islands with the largest, Isabela Island, being towards the western end of the chain. Moving to the east thirty kilometers was the next largest island, Santa Cruz Island. Baltra Island, which was the launch point, was a much smaller island almost connected to Santa Cruz Island. The channel between the two was only four hundred meters wide.

East of Santa Cruz Island another seventy kilometers or so was San Cristóbal Island, a third large island. The other two larger islands lay twenty kilometers to each side of the northern end of Isabela Island. A small island fifty kilometers south of San Cristóbal Island was highlighted. This island was labeled Española Island. A flashing glyph appeared five kilometers southeast off of that island.

“The flashing point is Nautilus’s current position,” Naomi said.

A line became visible on the map leading from our location and heading northwest-by-north to Baltra Island, the launching point.

“Is there any reason you selected this location to park Nautilus?” I asked.

“Yes, three primary reasons. First, directly to the south lies much deeper water and would provide more options if we were forced to flee and evade pursuit. The second is that the northern approaches to the archipelago are crawling with enemy undersea mining drones. They are actively mining underwater mineral nodules to the north and west of the island chain and transporting the refined ore back to the manufacturing facilities by the launching area.

“The third reason has to do with our mission to secure this base. Our current location lies upwind of the target site. In October, the prevailing winds in this part of the Pacific Ocean are generally from the southeast to the northwest. I hope to utilize these winds to facilitate our attack on the enemy A.I. presence there, John.”

I digested that. Naomi had not mentioned what the attack plan was but I am sure I’d be learning about it soon. I thought back to the video image of the rocket launch I had watched. We recorded it from seventy nautical miles away.

“The rocket must have been pretty big,” I said.

“Yes, John. From the three launches I have recorded and analyzed since arriving on station at our current location, I calculate that the launch vehicle masses approximately 4,700 metric tons. Its primary means of propulsion utilizes relatively small sequential fusion detonations equivalent to approximately 0.26 of your Kilotons of TNT yield. Each detonation takes place 1.72 seconds after the previous and just over eight hundred are needed to achieve orbit.”

“What was that initial fiery light and smoke show before the bombs started going off?” I asked.

“To limit surface damage, I deduce the launch vehicle is initially lifted to an altitude of over a kilometer by a small conventional ‘first stage’. From the analysis of trace gases, this stage utilized a simple solid-fuel composition. Humans used such solid fuel technology for your rocket boosters and ballistic missiles. This first stage would have allowed the fusion main drive to begin operating high enough above the surface to limit damage to the launching facilities on the ground.”

“Does that mean there will be radiation?” I asked.

“There will be some radiation, John. I expect most will be of the alpha type. You may need to wear your respirator and wash adequately after any high exposures,” she replied.

“What can you tell me about our target?” I asked.

The map image on the viewscreen changed and zoomed back to Santa Cruz Island, the large middle one of the group. It continued zooming into the northeast corner of that island until its much smaller neighbor, Baltra Island filled the display. The map image changed and was now an actual aerial photograph. I wondered how Naomi had obtained that until I remembered the bio-drone seagull.

“Did Jonathan take those photos?” I asked.

Naomi hesitated for a moment before replying, “A descendant of Jonathan took the images, John.”

I understood that to mean that Jonathan was dead. I recalled that the bio-drones did not use the same type of full bio-suspension which I did, and the bird must have expired from old age. Or, maybe it had been killed on some mission of Naomi’s. I let it go and did not ask. I returned to studying the image of Baltra Island. It was covered by large structures, construction yards, chemical tanks, and other equipment.

“Baltra Island is approximately eight kilometers long north to south by five wide, east to west. It is separated from its larger neighbor, Santa Cruz Island, by a narrow straight. A small radar station exists on Santa Cruz but is otherwise not occupied.

“In the past when humanity populated parts of the island chain, Baltra was home to a large airport serving the archipelago. Its flat and reinforced runway area provided an excellent starting point for the current base. On the northern end of the island is the sea terminal which handles limited shipping to and from other points around the world. The undersea mining activities for the area terminate there also.”

The map zoomed in further on a point on the eastern edge of the smaller island. This showed a large group of buildings leading to a half kilometer long causeway extending out over the ocean east of the island. A large flat structure was at the end of this causeway, probably the launchpad. The images changed and a similar one took its place. Now, a large cylinder appeared on the launchpad. This must be the rocket.

“This more recently taken image shows the actual launch vehicle we just witnessed launching to orbit earlier.”

“How big is it?” I asked.

“Approximately eighteen meters in diameter and just over sixty meters tall, John. As stated earlier, I estimate it masses at around 4,700,000 kilograms at liftoff. This does not include the small solid-fueled first stage. I will learn more details about the vehicle once we are successful in capturing the base.”

I was glad the machine was confident. I realized it was probably just blowing smoke up my ass, but I appreciated that it was intelligent enough to not go about blabbing doom and gloom like that robot from that Hitchhiker’s story.

“So, you want us to take over that island and its launch complex ... and then steal a rocket. Why?” I asked.

“Once we have control of the island, we will have a means to reach the mid-Earth orbit equatorial station and surveil or attack the master A.I. directly. In addition, the A.I. presence on the island, once subverted, will be a source of ongoing intelligence into the enemy A.I.’s actions and plans, John.”

Holy shit! This was about to get serious. Even knowing as little as I did now, I could see dozens of paths leading directly to my doom.

“How are we going to take over an active enemy facility?” I asked, noticing that my voice had moved up an octave. I cleared my throat.

“Proceed to the port side sponson, John. There I will instruct you further on our main method to infiltrate and subvert the facility on Baltra Island.”

I got up from my command chair and headed to the workroom located just forward from the salon. When I entered that chamber, I found it filled with new gear. There were stacks of crates in place of the workbench. I spotted metal cylinders resembling ESUs. In the middle of the room were a couple of complicated-looking devices which reminded me of the artificial womb devices we had loaded onto Anna’s aircraft before she was exiled to South America.

“What is all this?” I asked Naomi.

“The workroom chamber contains additional needed supplies for our subversion attempt along with various enhanced biological production devices. We needed the ability to create and rapidly grow specialized bio-drones as well as additional fully functional clones of various species,” she answered.

My intuition made me ask if she could grow human clones.

“Yes, John. I can and have grown human clones. There are four such clones currently stored in the chamber formerly used for your exercise activities.”

Before I could ask about them she continued, “All four clones were created using variations of your current DNA although there have been slight alterations made to each. Two are sufficiently mature to be activated immediately should the need arise. All that is required would be the implantation of a fresh copy of your mind-data.”

I was smart enough to realize that ‘need arise’ most likely meant my painful and untimely death. It reminded me that we were in the playoffs now and this was for all the marbles. I shook my head and continued on to the portside sponson. I rode the lift up to the catwalk and approached the hatch to the sponson. It was closed but began to open as I approached. Once opened sufficiently, I saw that a small airlock had been added just inside the sponson.

The airlock was made of a transparent glass or polymer and I could see the new Ohmu unit working beyond. I entered the airlock and the hatch closed and sealed behind me. The clear, inner airlock door opened. My first breath of the air in the port sponson’s immediately caused tears to form. What a stink! There was a strong, nasty ammonia-like odor.

“What the hell is that stink, Ohmu?” I asked.

“The smell is a result of the highly acidic waste products of the nearly five hundred new bio-drones in our inventory, John. You’ll get used to the odor as quickly as I did.” The now-plain gray humanoid unit said.

I raised an eyebrow as I took in what she had just said. Was I being punked? Did the humanoid unit even have olfactory senses and if it did, were they sensitive enough so that the unit suffered discomfort with the strong odor?

I decided to play it safe and just replied with, “I hope so.”

I moved further into the sponson. Like the workshop, the port sponson was now crowded with new boxes and devices. The forward portion of the sponson was now filled with dozens of small crèche-like pods. Each was the size of a small suitcase and surrounded by bundles of tubes and cabling. Turning, I saw that the aft end was ... I paused with my eyes open wide. Before me stood rows and rows of roosting bats! Each row had a long narrow metallic rod which reminded me of a closet rod. Hanging from each of these rods were dozens of bats!

Each side of the sponson held two rows of three rods. The first was mounted sixty centimeters above the floor with the next two, each sixty centimeters above the one below. Also, each rod was slightly offset from those above and below it. When I spotted the wide, guano-filled trough below each set of rods I understood why. The contents of the trough also explained the smell.

As I studied the bizarre menagerie, I suddenly realized that each and every bat was focused on me! There were all perfectly still except for their barely noticeable breathing but their heads were all clearly pointed in my direction. As I stared back I noticed movement towards the rear of the sponson. I also saw that the sponson chamber now extended much further aft than it had previously. The moon pool and diving center must have been removed or reworked somehow to make the space larger.

The motion I had noticed was from a small team of mobile work units who were moving among the suspended bats offering groups of them access to a long narrow feeding tray. The units would hold the tray under around eight bats at a time, allowing them to feed and drink. I easily imagined that this would be a full-time task keeping them all topped up.

“How do you like our new team members, John? I’ve waited to name each of them until you were revived, knowing you would want the honors,” Ohmu said.

I turned my stare towards the little unit. The humanoid android just stood there staring enigmatically back at me until I chuckled.

“I don’t think so, Ohmu. How do you tell them apart? If you even need to.”

“As our presence will be deduced quickly with their first use, these bats do not need to remain untraceable. With that in mind, each unit contains various tiny electronic modules and other synthetic items along with their biologic augments. One of these modules permits short-range wireless communication between themselves as well as between all friendly A.I. presences nearby.

“Of course, the communications are encrypted so we don’t have to worry about the enemy tapping our communications. Furthermore, to answer your question. Each bat unit has a unique identifier tag which I scan, and access as required,” Ohmu explained.

“Why are there so many? “I asked.

“Redundancy is the main reason. The other is their small size. It will take teams of many bats to accomplish portions of the mission.”

“And what is their mission?”

“These are infiltration and sabotage bats, John.”

The little unit approached a group of bats and carefully grabbed one. It returned and offered it to me. I frowned but held out my open palm. The bat was about twelve centimeters long and was surprisingly light. Its fur was a reddish-brown in color and it had the typical, ugly as sin, bat face. As I held it, it carefully stood up and stared back at me. It slowly spread its wings. I could see what looked like electrical filaments woven into its thin wing membranes.

“Communication antenna, John,” Ohmu explained. “The filaments also act as scanners highly sensitive to electromagnetic emissions.”

The bat closed its wings and dipped its head. Looking close I could see a unicorn-like small protraction on the center of its forehead. It was diamond-shaped and looked familiar.

“Christ! That’s a data module interface connection right?”

“Correct, John, the skull of the bat has an integrated data probe. When inserted into an enemy unit or processor, the probe will deliver a similar override virus as the one you deployed in the Tennessee field base. Now, notice the feet of the bat.”

The bat cooperated and stood on one leg, holding the other up for my inspection. I could see that instead of tiny claws, the bat had wide rubbery looking suction cup pads!

“The contact pads on its feet will allow the unit to attach itself to any smooth metal surface. There are also pads on the joints of the wings. Once attached, the unit will be able to insert its data probe and introduce the Hemru viral algorithms.”

Ohmu carefully took the bat from my hand.

“This unit had two additional features. I will demonstrate the first.”

It held the bat ass-end first towards a blank area of bulkhead. With a quick ‘pfft’ the bat shat on the bulkhead. The whitish smear pattern was about four centimeters across.

“Cameras?” I asked.

“Very good, John! The waste product will obscure other types of sensors also including thermal, motion, and electromagnetic. The bat’s anus has a specialized sphincter which can alter the spray pattern as demonstrated. Thankfully, the normal relaxed mode allows for a normal waste drop or this chamber would be far messier.”