Chapter 5: Don't Know When I'll Be Back Again

Three days later Gail sat with Steve and the twins in the wardroom of the ship. It was odd, she thought. In theory, no one had to talk -- yet the room was filled with hum of conversation. "Have any of you seen the least thing that doesn't seem on the up and up?" she asked silently.

"Outside of the constraints, no," Steve replied. "And there are surprisingly few of them. The guys who have been studying the engineering aboard are delighted that I can make sense of what they are seeing."

Judy mentally laughed. "This ship is very large, and has taken a lot of manpower to explore. Everyone's so busy trying to find things of particular interest to them, not many have tried to put things together. Thus they missed the room with a dozen flight simulators and the mock bridge."

"I'm surprised they missed the bridge," Kathy said. "Practically everyone has seen it. The consensus was that it was 'bridge alternate' and not currently activated."

"I too have found everything to be on the up and up. I'm unhappy that there are only four of us with deeper access to the controls. I propose expanding the project's knowledge base with what I've learned."

"I don't see as how it will hurt. They might be angry that you've been withholding information from them."

"I expect they are withholding some information from us as well. Or at least trying to," she told the others.

Steve jerked his head and Gail turned and saw Dr. Christopher. "I missed breakfast," he told Gail. "Can we hold our meeting here?"

"Not worried about secrets being spilled?" she asked.

"We'll conduct the meeting via communicator," he replied.

"As you wish," she told him, this time communicating. "Where do you wish me to start?"

"Several days ago you said you wanted to do some independent research for a few days; you told me last night you'd be ready with a report this morning."

"That's right. Back to the question -- where do you wish me to start?"

"Start at the start," he told her.

She laughed. "I tried that. Did you know the ship's computer contains a ship's log?"

"We thought there had to be one, but we could never find it."

"You probably did like I did at first. The reason you couldn't find it? It consists of one sentence. 'Departure countdown interrupted with five minutes and thirty seconds left.'" Where they were departing to, who made the entry, why they interrupted the countdown isn't stated."

"There has to be more than that!"

"It was a woman's voice that made the entry. Her voice was dry and terse, and quite devoid of emotion. It was like you reporting on dinner last night."

"And that's it? There isn't more?"

"As you've discovered, the ship's computer controls all aspects of the ship. It has safety overrides to make it, I believe, impossible for even the biggest boob to do something lethal to the ship. Since you've had two accidents, the ship does allow accidents. Oh, I didn't fib about the 'only one log entry' but it wasn't completely accurate. There are log entries starting some time ago as the ship detected scans of its location. There are more extensive records of when the first party arrived, and quite detailed records of events since then. The two injuries were the first I learned of other things of interest."

"And what are those?"

"It was the first time I heard two important words. 't'landa' and just plain 'landa.'" Tom's spoonful of pancakes stopped halfway to his mouth.

"I was remiss. After three days you shouldn't be able to understand the language. How did you read the entries?"

"The computer can translate on the fly. For concepts that aren't shared -- I can access a dictionary and have it translated into English. I suspect that it can translate into Chinese and most other important languages."

"The computer can translate? There are alien to English and English to Alien dictionaries?"

"You don't understand the computer; you've been accessing it through icons. Those were created for people who were very busy, I think, whose hands were free and their thoughts otherwise occupied.

"The word you need to know is 'diku.' True, it has an unfortunate resonance in English, but the aliens never knew that. Say the word in your mind, instruct the computer to 'translate this to that' and it happens. Ask 'what does 'landa' mean and it will explain."

"You're telling me I wasted six months of my life -- my whole team wasted six months of our lives -- because we didn't know how to work the computers?"

"That's about it Dr. Christopher."

"And you just walk in here and know everything?"

"Not hardly. I've learned a few words of their language, but not many. There is quite a bit more data available if you know how the machines work."

She was aware of the frantic call that went out to a number of people. Colonel Baird, Dr. Chu, Dr. Healy...

Steve and the twins stayed next to her as the brass assembled. Dr. Christopher briefed them in. Dr. Chu, Gail found, had a really nasty temper.

Dr. Christopher was more sanguine. "Cameron, Colonel Baird -- did you see the Star Trek movie 'The Voyage Home?' Lily, did you?" The three Americans had, the Chinese physicist hadn't.

"Lily, in the story, people from the future travel back to our day. One of the engineers from the future sits down at a computer terminal and he picks up a mouse and talks to it."

"Oh God!" Cameron said. "That hurts!"

"I don't understand," Lily said belligerently.

"They were from the future; they'd had voice interfaces with their computers for hundreds of years. The engineer couldn't, in fact, imagine a computer without it. This is the gg of mistakes people routinely make. When faced with something outside our experience, we extrapolate from data we know, guessing at how things work. In this case, we were wildly wrong.

"Right now, I'm curious about the words Dr. Taylor gave me. Landa appears to mean crew or ship's complement. The computer is fuzzy about which. T'landa adds the word 'provisional' and doesn't refer to ship's complement. I'm trying to find related words. Alas, they use prefixes, which messes up alpha sorts."

"Think 'grep' Doctor Christopher. This is a computer, after all. A very, very, very fast computer," Gail told him. "Ask it to pattern match."

She turned to the others, but still spoke privately. "I think 'landa' is best translated as 'those who belong to the ship's complement.' T'landa is one who has a provisional higher status. If you think my name, you'll find the word the word 'k'landa' next to it. That means something like a 'ship operator.' I'm authorized to make things work aboard the ship. Some particular things. Steve, Judy and Kathy hold that title as well."

"I'm only paying half attention, Dr. Taylor -- and saying half is being generous. I'm busy catching up correcting months of half-assed assumptions."

"I hesitate to offer direction to such august company," Gail told them. "I hope at least Colonel Baird is paying attention."

"I'm hanging on your every word, Dr. Taylor."

"Sir, the computer has access to brain scans of every living person on the planet. I limited my search to the five main members of this project -- the US, the UK, Australia, Japan and China. The computer has tried, unsuccessfully, to integrate a number of people into its network. Forty-five of them are in those four nations. Fourteen more Americans, six from the UK, three Aussies, a dozen from Japan and just nine from China. Education has some component in this, as well as genetics. Think of the bars at some amusement park rides -- if you can walk under the bar without hitting your head, you're too young. If you don't have sufficient education, all the genes in the world don't help.

"It worked with me because evidently I was dreaming of being on the bridge of the Enterprise, at the science officer's console. It inserted the actual for the imaginary and sat back to see what I'd do. I surprised it, I think. I surprised everyone.

"Turning back to those scans -- I can give you names and instantaneous GPS locations on each of those people. If you want to take in 41 more random people off the street who can control various ship functions."

"It won't be up to me. I'm just a flunky," the colonel said without bitterness.

"Assure the powers that be. I thought about targeting the phasors on the lethal setting on someone. Just targeting -- I had no intention of shooting, but I'm not authorized to kill people without permission.

"Another word Dr. Christopher has come across now is 'a'landa.' That's an officer with command authority. I don't have it, no one aboard does, and without it, I can scorch the decks well away from anyone, but I can't get close with the targeting. I was logged for 'unauthorized non-lethal weapons access' when I fired my first shot. The log entry adds 'awaiting review by a'landa or higher.' H'landa is something like the ship's executive officer. The word 'p'landa is the one for captain -- the ultimate authority aboard. As I said, I'm an operator; my cousins are operators. No one aboard merits higher; no one on Earth merits higher."

Colonel Baird made a rude noise. "It's so easy to sit on the sidelines, Dr. Taylor. I want your recommendation -- do you think we should expend the effort to find these people?"

"Sir, I know people won't like this -- but the computer can read minds. A person with -- hostile intent -- won't even be allowed computer access, much less access to ship systems. None of these people can hurt the ship or crew. I get the distinct impression that while they aren't brainwashed, the concept of hurting another crewmember was inconceivable to the original crew. There are a dozen and a half people who will understand the engineering. Two who can fly this ship, a half dozen that can operate the fighters carried below us. And that's what they are -- not everyone in the universe is friendly, and those ships down there are able to deliver the message 'Stop! Do nothing further!'"

"There are people who can navigate this ship, communicate with others, people who can work the sensors. There aren't many of any group, Colonel. But enough to train up to understand their departments."

Gail paused. "The ship was designed for four thousand five hundred crew, five thousand students, faculty and staff for what I think was a 'space navy academy.' It's not entirely configured to teach war -- but that was certainly a large part of the curriculum. The opposite of 'landa' is 'hotha.' Staff -- and there were various degrees of them. Still, the computer was blunt -- they were just along for the ride."

"Three days is all this took?" Colonel Baird asked.

"A day and a half. I know that everyone thinks I'm a cowboy; that I fire from the hip. I think Dr. Christopher understands now. Dr. Chu understands what it means that I've never messed up a measurement I've published."

Dr. Chu spoke up. "Talk to my father. Measurements are tough. There are millions of sources for systemic errors. Fail to account for even one and your peers will leap on you and attempt to rend you from limb to limb. No one will care if their arrow misses -- but, oh how they care when a shaft strikes home!"

"It's that way in astronomy," Gail told them. "It's why I'm very careful with my measurements and why I posted everything before I presented my paper."

Lily Chu laughed. "Few would have the courage to let it all hang out, Dr. Taylor! You are our weapons tech?"

"I understand the offensive and defensive control systems; I don't understand the weapons or the shields."

"You opened the gates of hell, Dr. Taylor. I am authorized now to look at most things. You are authorized to study how those systems work. Study hard, Dr. Taylor! That's what this project is about! Learning how these things work."

Gail had been reading, the instant she knew she could. She looked up at Dr. Chu, and spoke to just her. "You're comfortable with me knowing how a beam weapon that affects the solar constant works? You're comfortable that I could build a weapon that would convert all the molecular hydrogen on the sun into helium in a few seconds? The fireball reaching nearly to Jupiter's orbit?"

"I believe the assurance of the computer that not only can't you imagine using that technology without a good and sufficient reasons -- but that it wouldn't let you if you did."

"We're human -- and I think that the people who made it are enough like us that we shouldn't rule out human mistakes -- even if they've tried very hard to eliminate them."

Dr. Chu walked over to Gail and kissed her forehead. "Like I said, Dr. Taylor."

The next few days were heady; when anyone aboard could understand anything that they asked, then the science leaped ahead; giant leaps.

Starting three days later the first of the "draftees" began to arrive. They'd been told nothing about what they were going to see. Gail had suggested asking questions about their dreams -- and prioritizing those who had dreams like hers.

That was a dozen people. She met attitudes that varied from rank incredulity to instant acceptance -- and a thirst for more knowledge. Judy took over the first group, while Gail stayed with the latter group, with Steve helping her.

A month passed. Most of the "draftees" had settled down, understanding the importance of what they were about. Three had been trussed up and shipped back to the mainland.

It was Steve, Gail thought later, who triggered catastrophe. How it worked or why they never figured out.

"How's it coming with the second rank?" Gail asked.

He laughed. "We're good to go. These people all have a huge sense of wonder..." the last word trailed off as a chime sounded.

"Departure countdown resumed. Five minutes thirty seconds to departure." The words were alien, the units were alien -- the meaning was clear.

"Kathy! Judy! To the bridge!"

"Kathy is there already," Kathy told her. "I'm still shut off from everything!"

"Not a twitch!" Judy confirmed.

"Steve! Shut it down!"

"Can't! The twins aren't the only ones shut down! Nothing I can do touches the launch sequence!"

"Taylor for command. Recommend that people brace for acceleration. Isn't there a sub coming?"

Colonel Baird spoke. "General Sinclair is aboard, he's overridden the mission abort. They will try to board."

"Tell everyone they have two minutes to be in a chair. Or they are dead or crippled!" Gail told him. "Tell that general that the ship is about to fire a weapon the will lift a couple of hundred feet of overburden over the ship. If I was him, I'd be high-tailing it as fast as I could! If he continues to attempt to come aboard, he'll be toast!"

"Roger that. Engine shut down isn't an option?"

"Not an option, Colonel. Get comfy; it appears that we'll lift at three gravities."

"And our overburden?"

"That doesn't factor into the numbers. There is a countdown to firing our third level weapon -- it's going to make a lot of solid rock into something smaller than pea-size."

"Or no problem at all," Judy spoke into the command circuit. "The useless-as-tits-on-a-boar-hog pilot reports."

"Equally useless engineering reporting," Steve said next. "Nothing I can do is going to affect this!"

Gail saw it; it was so fast as to be hardly visible -- although the instruments recorded it clearly enough. "Colonel Baird, our first level shield just went to maximum and our third level weapon just fired a single shot at its lowest setting. Where is that sub?"

"What did they do?" Colonel Baird asked.

"What overburden? We don't have any at the moment. I can't detect much in the water -- the weapons stirred up a lot of debris. I can't detect the sub."

"Jin Dao, b'landa Taylor. We are lifting at once gravity through the debris -- most of it is pea-sized. We are maneuvering to avoid the sub. They never got close enough to try to board. They've stopped trying to close and have sheered off."

Norman Thomas, one of the forty-five spoke up. "The course has been laid in, Gail. It's ... pretty amazing. Our destination is fourteen thousand light years distant, with two stops en route. One is listed as a fueling stop; the other is listed as 'liaison' -- whatever that means. The first stop is 8216 light years from Earth."

Steve spoke up. "I heard that, Gail. We've been studying the propulsion systems systematically. That's the euphemism for 'glacially slowly.' Now that we're moving, I can 'see' the systems. We are currently moving using what I guess we could call the 'sublight propulsion.' It's limited under normal usage to three gravities. Command can override that up to five gravities.

"There is a 'star drive' that cranks our velocity up to about a light-year a day ... that might sound speedy, but our destination would be more than 38 years away at that velocity. The third level is what is called 'burst' engines. They can crank a light year an hour, but only for short periods and with only extremely poor precision.

"For what it's worth, I can't reroute us, but I'll be able, after the initial the maneuvers, to moderate, to an extent, the burst timing, and perhaps distances involved."

"Dr. Taylor," another voice intruded. "It's Hypatia -- I navigate." Gail knew of the woman, but she had never met her. The name was ... odd.

"Before I was studying the starship records of the local stars. I was very frustrated. I translated our stellar coordinates into theirs, and most commonly I was told there was no star there even if I could see it. The rest of the time I was told the closest star to the star I wanted evaluated wasn't a spectral match.

"Moving, however has concentrated my focus. I have learned a number of interesting things."

"For instance?" Gail asked.

"This ship is older than first supposed. I'm not sure of the causative event, but it appears to have been cloned from another ship, 64 million years ago, more or less. Probably less, but not much. Cloned isn't the right word -- the info I have is that the 'bud' was set to impact Earth about 63.4 million years ago. Dr. Taylor, I believe this vessel was deliberately sent to wipe out the dinosaurs."

"A bud? The entire ship wouldn't have been able to do that."

"Yes, Dr. Taylor -- at normal velocities. The bud was, as near as I can translate the dimensions, about ten meters in diameter. However kinetic energy -- kinetic energy being what does the damage is mass times velocity. Objects in the solar system typically travel twenty to forty kilometers per second. From the data, the ship encountered Earth a velocity a thousand times higher than normal."