Chapter 9: To Boldly Go

“Wormhole creation successful,” I heard Uxe mutter behind me.

A second later, Truffles announced over the room’s speakers, “Wormhole creation successful. Beginning phase one. Stabilizing aperture oscillations. Power levels stable. Inserting immediate area sensor now.”

The AI’s voice now had the speech patterns of my former wife. The conjoined human and AI’s interactions were disturbing the hell out of me. I’d never witnessed my former wife operating at such deep interface levels before and if I had my wish, I’d never do so again.

When the augmented human/AI pairing finished its report, new information overlays appeared in my iris’s peripheral area showing columns of data. I mostly ignored the new information and just watched the show.

In the chamber beyond my viewing window, the small sensor stalk was quickly advanced into the wormhole aperture. I could only imagine our scanner suddenly appearing from a circular distortion ring floating in space a quarter of a light-year away from our current position.

A much-larger overlay appeared directly in my field of view which showed the relayed view from the camera now outside the distant terminus of the wormhole. I watched the view showing a star field pan around as the sensor swiveled to scan its new surroundings. The camera’s fractional lightspeed velocity became apparent when the imaged stars shifted slightly in color from bluish to reddish as the view changed from almost directly ahead to towards the rear.

“No local objects detected,” Truffles said, thankfully this time with its normal AI voice.

We had not expected to see the Hemru probe from the initial wormhole terminus location as we had wanted to open it a safe distance away in empty space. The view of the starfield continued to pan around until it was looking back towards the edge of the wormhole terminus itself.

The purplish distortion ring surrounding the reflective disc of the wormhole terminus was revealed with the narrow sensor stalk extending from it. From this angle, the projected view allowed for a glimpse back through the wormhole and to its origin crater. I smiled as I could just make out the window Ohmu and I were standing behind. Unfortunately, the glass was too reflective to make out the black- colored android or myself.

The sensor stalk lengthened and visibly bent further, shifting the view of the distortion ring off to the side. This allowed the camera to look ‘behind’ the wormhole so to speak. A brighter star emerged as the ring slid sideways. It was more red than I’d expected.

“Is that—” I started to ask.

“Sol, from sixteen thousand astronomical units away. You are now looking at yourself from a quarter light year’s distance,” Ohmu said, interrupting my question.

Wow. The star was bright but not that much brighter than some of the others. The far end of our wormhole was a LONG way out there.

“Phase one complete. Beginning phase two. Energizing auxiliary power source,” Truffles announced audibly.

The viewport showing the camera’s view shrank and was returned to the periphery of my visual field. I returned my attention to the scene outside the thick window just in time to see the new flash of light as another wormhole formed near a large power coupling attached to the clustered toroid shape of the main wormhole generator.

This new wormhole had been created from a generator currently located in near orbit around the asteroid. There, a recently-completed space station hosted one of the new atomic dynamos we’d designed and built to provide enormous quantities of short-duration power. We would need this extra power to accelerate significant masses to send them through the extremely long-range wormhole.

The just-formed smaller wormhole was our solution to coupling the new power source to the local machinery. Instead of using beamed power or long superconducting cables, we could just create a new wormhole linkage and directly couple the two machines as if they were physically adjacent to each other.

The new wormhole stabilized and moved slightly closer to the main power coupling, finally coming to rest thirty centimeters from the large junction. A few seconds later a grouping of large conduits extended from the new wormhole and connected themselves, causing the chamber lights to brighten as the asteroid’s power reserves were augmented.

“Auxiliary energy connected. Available energy now forty-three percent higher than previously,” Truffles reported.

The ten-meter-long injection mechanism moved forward to position itself in the center of the wormhole aperture, displacing the sensor stalk off to one edge. The blur of lights indicating the accelerating compensation matter in the outer toroidal ring began to spin up even faster as additional power was sent into the wormhole.

“Launching first scout probe in three seconds ... two ... one ... injection,” Truffles relayed.

There was a very notable vibration and power surge as the injection mechanism accelerated the first small probe and shot it into the wormhole. When the small sphere passed through the tear in space the room felt like it shuddered slightly and I felt a strange sensation of dizziness. The compensation indicators which had slowed due to the probes transition began building again.

The long injection gun repositioned itself slightly and eight seconds later there was a similar surge and disorientation as the second spherical probe was launched and sent through. After the third probe was launched I felt myself relax, as the final bout of nausea passed. I realized that my hands were clenched on the body cradle’s railing because of the unease I’d felt during each launch.

Ohmu noticed. “From your visible physical discomfort, I surmise the Area Effect Wormhole Spatial Transition Phenomenon was greater this time. Do you wish to depart the immediate area? I can order a pause in operations?”

The nausea I’d felt had been stronger than any I’d experienced during previous wormhole usages but not too strong to tolerate. The phenomenon was still mostly a mystery. It was something only living beings experienced as the AIs could not detect anything other than the power draw during the transits. It would likely remain a mystery as no long-term effects had come from the brief nausea felt by humans and research into the causes was not a current high priority.

“No, I’m fine. It just felt stronger with those three probes than it had with other wormhole transitions,” I replied. “Let’s continue with the mission. I can deal with it.”

“Of course, John. Be warned that the Ohno probe will likely cause even greater symptoms.”

I just nodded at the android. At least the larger probe’s passage would be a quick, one-and-done event.

With the three probes now beyond the outer edges of the solar system, the auxiliary power was no longer needed until we sent probe Ohno through. I watched the physical coupling detach itself with a bright electrical discharge and the small linkage wormhole disappear.

“Auxiliary power temporarily disconnected,” Truffles announced.

The orbiting station would now idle down its atomic dynamo until probe Ohno was ready to be sent through. I imagined the power station in Vesta orbit quenching its nuclear fires and wondered if the satellite was visible overhead. I looked upwards through my viewing window but the orbiting station was not currently above this portion of Vesta.

“Receiving transmissions from the three scouting probes,” Truffles reported.

The three small spheres were spreading out as they moved away from the wormhole on slightly separate vectors. The first to be sent contained a compact radar emitter and would soon begin discharging microwaves into the black spaces ahead. The other two probes had deployed receiving antennas and would be listening for the radar returns from the Hemru device. We would need to wait a short while for the three to separate further before triangulation would allow for an accurate fix.

While we waited, Ohno became active, using its mobility arms to pull itself towards the launching mechanism. Sova and Marissa appeared over the crater’s rim using their suit’s maneuvering jets. The two humans arrived at the injection railgun at the same time as probe Ohno and helped reconfigure it to hold the larger probe.

“Scouting probes confirm detection of an object matching the expected radar signature of the alien probe which transited the solar system three point one eight years ago,” Truffles announced.

I was about to question why I was not seeing an image when the AI continued, “Radar returns place the detected object three hundred-forty-two thousand kilometers ahead of the current location of the wormhole terminus. Target location accuracy continues to improve as the scouts spread and the baselines increase.”

I found the graphic in my iris display that showed the AI’s time estimate for how long the final location fix would take. They calculated that in about three minutes we’d know the location of the Hemru probe accurately enough to reposition the wormhole and send through probe Ohno. I was about to go make myself a bulb of coffee when a small flashing alert indication caught my eye.

It was my message queue’s preset alarm which was set to alert me if I received messages from my immediate family. I saw that I actually had five family messages waiting. I quickly scrolled the list and saw that they were congratulatory messages from Serenity, Charity, Larissa, and Ben. As I read their messages two additional messages made it through my filters including one from Hannah.

Like much of humanity, they must have been closely following the mission. And, since the coverage included multiple cameras here in the control room watching me physically observe the proceedings, I was attracting a lot of attention. I looked at the general inbox and was shocked to find I had received well over one hundred thousand messages from non-family members.

“Naomi! Have you been monitoring my inbox? What’s the general gist of those messages?” I subvocalized to my AI minder.

—The vast majority are expressions of congratulations and hope for the success of the mission.— Naomi reported. After a short pause it continued, —The messages also indicate an extremely positive perception of your role in promoting both the exploitation of wormhole technology and for aggressive pursuing actions against the Assemblage, — the AI added.

I didn’t detect any chagrin with her admission but I could not help but rub it in slightly, “So, it seems it was a good idea to come here and personally oversee and witness the mission?”

There was a long pause which made me smirk slightly.

—That would likely be a correct assumption.—

I kept any further comment to myself, taking my win with grace. I also watched the updated information in my iris’s peripheral display show our small fleet of probes continuing to spread apart, further refining the location of the Hemru probe.

The two human techs out in the crater had finished mounting probe Ohno onto the launcher and were now jetting off back to their sheltered bunker. The squid-like black probe was facing the wormhole bulbous end first with its long trailing arms lying alongside the launcher rail behind it.

When go-time arrived, the rail would propel probe Ohno into the wormhole much more gently than it had with the smaller scouts. With the probe’s attachment complete, we simply had to wait for the location and shift the wormhole.

—It’s not too late to trade places with me, Ohmu— I heard probe Ohno say in my implants. I looked at the android next to me to see how she responded to her copy’s taunting message.

Ohmu responded by placing her small android hand up to the window.

“Good luck, Ohno. I will see you on the other side someday,” the android said quietly.

“Foreign object location is now refined enough to permit shifting wormhole terminus,” Truffles reported. “Transitioning wormhole terminus to within proximity of target in twelve seconds.”

Out in the crater, the small telemetry and camera probe withdrew to this side of the active wormhole. This was to save energy as the terminus was moved about a third of a million kilometers closer to the alien probe’s current location.

“John,” Ohmu said quietly. “The alien probe could react offensively to the sudden appearance of the wormhole. I have to advise you to withdraw yourself from this control room. We can delay the transition long enough to have the local wormhole transport you to the distant shipyard.”

I reached over and put my hand on my friend’s shoulder. “Thank you for your concern, Ohmu, but I’ll stay here. Proceed with shifting the wormhole.”

“Five ... four...” Truffles began counting down.

The AI’s words faded to the background as I focused on the wormhole aperture. I was able to see a shimmer in the edges of the distortion ring as compensation energies were fed into the portal to accelerate the terminus further away from its current location in space.

Ten seconds later the energy flow into the compensators slowed as the wormhole ceased its movement towards the target. It had transitioned over three hundred thousand kilometers and now should be around a kilometer away from the alien probe. The waiting sensor stalk was again inserted through the wormhole boundary to better allow it to scan the vicinity of the new terminus point.

“Alien device detected both thermally and in the visible spectrum,” Truffles said a few seconds later.

My iris overlay showing the sensor camera’s view enlarged to show the detected object. The image shifted as the camera cycled through many wavelengths before ending with the Hemru probe glowing slightly in infrared. There was simply too little reflected starlight to allow a decent view in the visual spectrum. Nor did the wormhole’s current sunward location provide enough of an aspect change to show any of the object’s profile against the faint background stars being occulted.

A magnified composite view of the Hemru device finally appeared in my overlay. This digitally enhanced image revealed the alien object possessed a long cylindrical shape. The cylinder part was barely discernible as the camera’s current viewpoint was from nearly astern of the cylinder and nearly in alignment with its long axis.

If I had to estimate, I would say we were looking at the base of the Hemru probe from an off angle of about fifteen degrees. Also, there were enough visible surface features in the enhanced image to show that the alien object was slowly rotating about its long axis. The rotation was very slow however and must have been for stability reasons and not for simulating gravity.

Data appeared next to the enhanced image showing the object’s rough dimensions. It was about eight meters in diameter and over ten times that in length. A port or muzzle was visible centered on the object’s concave dished bottom.

“Is that a rocket exhaust?” I asked Ohmu.

“Due to the orientation of the alien device and the fact that the orifice you are referring to is almost perfectly aligned with the projected location of the Hemru star system, it is likely that we are observing the emitter end of an interstellar range transmitter. Due to the compact nature of the device, I would estimate that the communication method is by modulated high-energy laser,” Ohmu explained.

Even if it was just an interstellar range communications port and not a rocket drive, I was reminded of the Kzinti Lesson. I was about to express this worry verbally when the android continued.

“Our wormhole terminus is currently offset fourteen degrees from both the rotational axis of the object and the centerline of the visible emitter. We should remain safe if the alien device should suddenly begin projecting high energy photons.”

I looked back out into the wormhole machine’s chamber and noted its current orientation. As it was facing almost directly away from my viewport’s location, I could not help but notice that if a high-power laser suddenly came shining through the active wormhole, this control room would be in the line of fire. Ohmu must have noticed my observation.

“We are monitoring the alien device closely, John. If it reorients itself to target the wormhole we will actively shift the terminus location or immediately suspend the portal.”

A flash outside the window caused me to shift my attention away from the overlay and back towards the wormhole chamber. The auxiliary power wormhole had formed again and the remote power coupling was moving in to reattach itself to the main power junction. We’d need the power augmentation of the orbiting station’s atomic dynamo to send probe Ohno’s mass through.

“Auxiliary power reconnected. Bringing remote fission reactor to maximum,” Truffles and Uxe said simultaneously.

I noticed that when something complicated was happening, the human and AI voices blended together. When things were less busy, they were able to remain more distinct and retain separation. This was still disturbing and I made a note to have a long talk about it with Uxe.

I was distracted from that worry by a sudden flaring of bright light outside the viewport. The far rim of the wormhole crater had begun to be illuminated by a harsh, flickering brightness that reminded me of a welding arc ... a BIG welding arc. As I pondered the source of the glare, I quickly deduced that it was being caused by something unseen which had just risen over the asteroid’s horizon from somewhere behind my current location.

Remembering the AI’s recent message, I realized that the powerful new light must be a reflection from the orbiting auxiliary power satellite. Its slow orbit must have finally brought it around to this side of the asteroid and now into line-of-sight with the crater. To reinforce the theory, the radiation dosimeter built into my iris overlay pinged a new alarm.

I brought its readings into the fore view and noted that the previous slow and steady accumulation rate brought on by the nearby active wormholes had now increased drastically. I quickly scrolled through my iris menu looking for a surface camera feed channel that was monitoring orbital space above the crater.

After dismissing a dozen alternate views of the main wormhole crater and of myself in the control room I found what I was looking for. The view showed the black starfield overhead interrupted by a blazing, hundred-kilometer-long, double sword of atomic fire. The two opposing bright lines of fission energy were bisecting a large glowing object which must have been the main bulk of the auxiliary power satellite.

The satellite was a hurried and compromise solution to the problem of generating enormous amounts of short-duration power. It was basically two high-thrust nuclear torch rocket ships mounted (in opposition for balance reasons) nose first to a central fuel and power handling satellite. As the two rockets blasted out their long atomic rocket flames, energy was captured via magneto-plasmadynamic coils around long superconducting drive tubes.

The captured energy was then directed to the central station where it was stabilized by huge capacitor banks before being sent through a short-range wormhole linkage to the asteroid. The system was brute force, compact, and had the benefit of being based on the long-proven technology of our torch rockets.

The power station we’d built here in Vesta orbit was an early prototype. Now that it had proven itself in actual long-ranged wormhole use, the plan was for similar devices to be incorporated into the military wormhole complex currently under construction on Phobos in Mars orbit.

I studied the slowly moving power satellite and activated additional filters in my iris menu to dim the harsh glare of the nuclear lances. With those fires dampened I could make out the structure of the satellite itself. It sprouted a crown of cooling fins which were glowing with radiated waste heat from the reactors and power accumulators.

The orientation of the power satellite was aligned to match the axis of rotation for the asteroid. This kept the dangerous opposed nuclear lances from impacting the surface as the station orbited above Vesta’s equator. I deduced that the exhaust plumes would make space approaches very tricky as any mining or cargo ships leaving or arriving at the north polar station would have to maneuver carefully to avoid the temporary ‘zone of death’ the power satellite was currently creating.

“Auxiliary power levels at maximum. Launching probe Ohno in fifteen seconds,” I heard over the room’s speakers.

I quickly dismissed the camera feed showing the orbital power satellite and focused my attention back out the viewport. The glaring light show was now reflecting off the sleek black probe as the launching railgun moved back into position centered on the aperture of the long-range wormhole.

—Here I go, John! Wish me luck!— Ohno said in my implant.

“Good luck, Ohno!” I said quickly. I suddenly remembered that the AI out there on the launching rail was only minutes removed from being a part of my android friend standing beside me. I reached over and put my arm around Ohmu. I didn’t know if the gesture would matter to the android but it did make me feel better.

“Three ... two ... one ... launch!” Uxe muttered from her inverted position at the console. This time the room’s speakers remained disturbingly silent while the physical human spoke. Outside, the black squid-like device was flung down the launching rail and into the wormhole. There was a shudder and a few visible electrical discharges from the sudden energy density flowing into the wormhole to compensate for the probe’s mass as it was accelerated down the path through warped space.

The sudden and intense nausea I felt as probe Ohno’s mass was sent a quarter light-year away almost made me vomit. I quickly bent over and clenched my gut as I attempted to quell the sensation. Luckily the sensation faded almost as quickly as it had arrived and I was able to focus on the camera feed showing the view from the sensor stalk. It showed the arms of the probe receding as it left the vicinity of the wormhole’s terminus, heading for the alien device.

—I am through and on course proceeding towards the alien device at approximately twelve meters per second. I will be slowing periodically as I approach and will come to rest stationary to the probe in approximately two hundred seconds. My arrival has generated no detectable emissions or responses as of yet.—