Chapter 283

When the Prime entered the lounge with Dave a step behind him, the other Alphas were already seated at a large round table that Ship had prepared near the opposite end of the big room. Jeff was pleased to note that the table was centered in front of the wall/viewscreen, yet back far enough to provide easy viewing when Ship ran the vids.

Refreshments sat on a sidebar a few feet away. There were handheld computers on the table at each position, should anyone wish to take notes.

"About time the two of you got here," Fred said with a grin. "We've been waiting on you like one pig waits on another," he finished as he took a big bite of cinnamon roll while the other Alphas chuckled.

Jeff and Dave took time out to stock their plates with chunks of freshly-baked cinnamon rolls, and each man grabbed a cup. (Freshly-baked when Ship scanned Diana's cinnamon rolls into the database.) At the table, Dave poured them coffee from one of the carafes. When the two men sat, there remained three unoccupied chairs flanking Jeff, and one across the table with a lit placard that read simply, "Ship."

After a bite of roll and a sip of coffee, Jeff looked around the table before beginning. "Most of you were here when Ann returned from her mission. For those of you who missed it, Ship has a recording, should you wish to see it. I didn't ... authorize the mission, but it was necessary and she did a splendid job. To recap, her mission was to determine, if possible, what was causing the ripple that Ship had detected. It appeared to Ship to be similar to the warp pulse which usually occurs when a space going vessel drops out of, or goes to warp. But ... normally that pulse can't be detected farther than the approximate distance light travels in a minute. But Ship was reasonably certain that this 'ripple' was at least four light years away, and possibly up to ten light years away, and since it was a ripple, and not a pulse, she was able to give only a general direction to its source.

"She has postulated that, among other things, this could possibly have been caused by a warp drive seriously malfunctioning, perhaps even exploding, while in use, but then this 'ripple' or something similar, happened again. It wasn't exactly the same, and was actually weaker than the first 'ripple', but as I said, it was quite similar. To her knowledge, there are no naturally occurring phenomena that would produce this... 'ripple' in the continuum, and it was too far away to be a normal warp pulse."

After swallowing another bite, he continued, "I thought we were just waiting for more data, which on hindsight was far too tentative an approach. Apparently Ann realized that and took matters into her own hands."

On cue, Ann walked in, followed by Arlene and Diana. After greetings, the women each took a cinnamon roll, and were ushered to their seats near Jeff. After they had accepted coffee, Jeff continued. "Both Arlene and Ann have been taking advantage of the Ship's simulator as we have been calling it, and have been training to operate the scout ships. I discovered the simulator, or rather, Ship introduced me to it, while my team and I returned from the cavern where we found Ship, and ... where she saved my life. Since Earth is not in the same dimension, I had plenty of time to lie on my command couch while she trained me and, at the same time, searched out Earth using my memories as a guide.

"She was very skeptical of us, but according to her, realized that I was a Prime when Sarge dumped me in that healing chamber. Thus began our first stumbling steps of communication between an Earth non-telepath and a vast telepathic brain.

"We don't think alike," Jeff said, tongue in cheek. "And ladies and gentlemen, that should at least be a top contender for the most understated comment of the year. I don't even have a proper way of describing how she thinks, and Little One is telepathic, too, remember. I've said that they both think in concepts instead of linear thought, but that's only a very poor approximation – at best. Oh, you read stories where the hero meets the telepath, or is given telepathic powers, and presto, he's in business. That did not happen to me.

"Ship... 'examined' me (to use an Earth expression that poorly describes what she did) for several days while she healed me. Now, keep in mind she had never even seen a human before we managed to get into her cavern. Then my Sergeant dumped my bleeding butt into one of her healing chambers because, somehow, he had figured out what they did, or at least he thought they might have something to do with healing. What the heck; I was dead anyway, or would shortly be."

The blood drained out of the three wives' faces, then Diana's began to get red.

Oh, shit, Jeff thought. I've always given my wives the edited version. Gonna have to do some fast talking when they get me alone.

"You never related it exactly like that, Husband," Diana got out as she stared him in the face, hers devoid of all expression.

"It's not..." Jeff began.

"We'll talk about it later, Husband," Diana returned in a sickly sweet voice.

All the Alphas knew Jeff had just stepped in it, but none of them were foolish enough to hassle him about it in front of Di.

Underneath the table, the Prime felt Diana's hand drift lightly up his thigh, slowly moving to the inside. None of the others could see what she was doing, but he knew what she was going to do, and she knew he knew, yet she waited as he steeled himself not to flinch. This woman understands how to hurt me, he thought while trying to maintain an outward calm. The inside of his upper thigh and his sides below his armpits were points on his body where a pinch seemed to hurt the most. But when the pinch finally came, it was a gentle one, startling him even more.

He cleared a suddenly stopped up throat, and went on. "Arlene first, and later Ann joined her to spend time in Ship's simulation training. Trust me on this until you find out for yourself, but simulator or simulation are words that only faintly describe what Ship does. There is no way to tell the simulation from physically doing the same thing, right ladies?"

Arlene grinned at the men. "Hurt, tired, scared shitless: guaranteed you will feel all of them, and you won't have the foggiest notion that what is happening to you isn't real. And... even now, I'm still not absolutely certain it wasn't real."

"I totally agree," Ann said. "When I was welcomed by the Scout's AI and stepped aboard for what was really the first time, I had no doubts about the ship, its controls, or my ability to operate it, because I had already flown it many times, and generally under some rather trying circumstances. I didn't have just simulator knowledge, but for all practical purposes, I had actual physical knowledge of flying it. Operating the scout was so thoroughly ingrained into me that I didn't even think about it when I sat in the pilot's seat on its bridge for the first time. To my brain, I had many hours of flight time behind me. The seat felt like home."

Ann shifted her gaze to Arlene. "Arlene first trained on a different scout, but later trained on the same type I used on this mission, but I'm jealous. She's already well into her training of that bad ass interceptor, as she calls it, and I want to catch up with her."

Arlene wrinkled her nose at her sister-wife, causing both of them to smile.

Oh, shit, I've created a couple of monsters, but there's no fucking way either is leaving here in an interceptor. Jeff tried to calm his thoughts before continuing with his story. "Anyway, I began to learn about the Ship, but having her try to communicate with me was a bit like I imagine it would be standing under Niagara Falls. Only instead of water pouring over me and pounding me flat, it was ... information that poured over me, practically drowning me in it. Apparently, I knew enough basic astronomy for her to eventually find a star configuration and a dimension that fit. I'm still vague on how she determined the correct dimension, although she has enthusiastically tried to show me several times. Once to the point that I threw up. She has senses, I suppose you could call them, that don't seem to fit well into the human psyche."

Ship's voice, seeming to originate from her place at the table, interrupted Jeff to say aloud, "But you do have them, my Prime. They are part of what a Prime is. Those senses have lain dormant until I began the enhancement process in your body, and my Prime Healer has continued this process. You have accessed three power levels of the dimensions so far and are able to put them to practical use, and you continue to gain knowledge on a continuing basis. All of the Alphas at this table have abilities that are beginning to awaken, and I suspect that most of you have already felt the processes beginning."

"Fred's and Quinton's abilities to unfailingly detect a lie," the Prime said. Then addressing the two men, "Both of you have told me that it's easier to do now."

But both men were shaking their heads. "Not necessarily a blessing," the Sheriff said. "True, I've always been able to detect a lie – at least a strong one, anyway. What we would normally call an outright lie. But now I'm struggling with the little lies. The white lies as people call them. 'Good morning, Sheriff.' How in the hell could that be a lie? But then I realized the greeting was coming from someone who had received a written reprimand recently. He mouthed the correct platitude or greeting, if you will, but he was still pissed at me because I approved his Lieutenant's discipline of him. He obviously thinks the discipline was wrong. If he feels that strongly about it, and since he has never been disciplined before, I'm going to conduct my own investigation into the original incident. The discipline was a letter of censure that was put in his permanent file and will remain there throughout his career. The letter will certainly be a part of any considered promotion in the future. The incident involved the deputy and a citizen almost violently arguing. But with this 'expanded' sense, I want a more detailed investigation and a review of the whole situation. But a year ago, I would never have detected his 'lie.'"

"You, Fred?" Jeff wondered aloud.

Fred thought for a moment. "Well, I spend most of the time on the farm with my wives, but I haven't plied my trade since moving out here. I've thought about setting up a detective agency, but we're doing okay with my investments and the farm, and ... to be frank about the situation, my women don't want me to spend that much time away from home – and neither do I. But I have noticed that I'm almost unconsciously checking out most everyone I meet, and I have noticed subtle 'lies' that occur in daily life. Something like Quinton just mentioned, although mine were more in line of the bag boy at the grocery store saying, 'Certainly, Sir, I'd be glad to.' But what he meant was, he would be glad to with a five dollar tip, otherwise I could take my own damn groceries to the truck. I really don't need to know some of this."

There was a round of soft laughter and chuckles around the table.

"All right, let's get back to the main subject of our meeting. First off, I would like Ann to narrate the edited version of her trip that most of us have already seen. After that, we'll go into a more detailed review with Ship and the scout's AI to provide us with technical data along with Ship's take on things."

Ann spent the next forty-five minutes describing what was going on and what she was doing as they watched the vids on the big screen. When the edited version was over, they took a potty break and relaxed for ten minutes before Ship presented them with a more detailed account of Ann's discoveries. Since she and her scout had been limited to passive techniques, they were not able to determine in any great detail what materials the aliens were mining from the asteroids. They were able to detect some weak radiation escaping from some of the bore holes, and their best guess, for what little it was worth, was that the aliens were retrieving a number of different materials, some in large quantities, others in smaller ones.

"But, I keep wondering?" Jeff continued. "They are probably from a long distance away, or at least that's the impression I get. So why would they stop at a rogue asteroid belt and begin mining operations? Unless..." he said, his voice trailing off as he thought.