Dadr'Ba (10 page)

Su’Zi began having second thoughts about having Pri’Api and Ti’Reso’s as her mentors; their training had raised her expectations, and her experiences with Vas’Tu
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, the vehicle mechanic that supported her tunneling crew and a few other select individuals were not up to what she expected.

Vas’Tu, and the others, though good looking and nice enough were not very good in bed, she had found herself having to take charge of the experience, responsible for making it satisfying, for both of them. She’s been able to reset regularly, but mostly due to her training, control and discipline which takes away from enjoying the experience herself, at least occasionally she would like to let herself go, not to be the one driving but enjoying the ride.

She quickly figured out that for many people being properly mentored is not high on the priority list, and picked mentors based on popularity rather than respect.

Some individuals fail to recognize the fact that there is someone else involved, thinking only for themselves and use the practice purely for entertainment or a quick reset after a frustrating day at work.

Vas’Tu was okay and had gotten better, being a Mi’Nr and having psychic ability he realized that their experiences together weren’t up to Su’Zi’s expectations.

Vas’Tu is at his core a simple basic guy and just didn’t think of it the same way. It’s not that he didn’t care, he just expected his partners to feel the same way he did about it, he likes to eat a meal rather than dine. Occasionally Su’Zi felt like a meal, but more often she wanted to dine, a full-fledged experience, one that sends shivers all the way to your fingertips and toes, leaving you floating as if weightless, a truly existential experience. Su’Zi wanted something more out of a relationship; she would have to keep looking.

Dr. Chn’Gi
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dreaded giving these reports, since the initial discovery of Intelligent Life and its, confirmation, verification and security clampdown, Chn’Gi’s life was turned inside out and upside down and having to face the CA Council and the Commander was torture.

What she thought would be her crowning achievement, a career maker, turned out to be a curse. In the immediate aftermath of the discovery of IL
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on O’M her email account was locked, guards showed up at her door, and some of her coworkers disappeared
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. She wasn’t allowed to publish, at least not to the public, and all of her communications her email, text and voice became monitored.

The worst was her TaC-B was taken and replaced with an eTaC-M fused to her skull, and she was forced to move from her cozy little studio apartment into a large one bedroom with a small study. Her new place is equipped with the latest technology; automated access with intelligent lighting, integrated apartment wide sight and sound system with flat panels, and, surveillance cameras in nearly every room.  

Chn’Gi prepared to report her latest findings to the Central Council. She hated it, the Council and in particular the Commander wanted information that just wasn’t available yet, and no matter how hard she tried to explain that fact, they didn’t seem to get it. They made her feel stupid, demanding more information when there wasn’t any.

Before the discovery, there had been talk and speculation about what impact finding IL on O’M would have, but the statisticians made it sound that the odds were so astronomical, nobody paid any serious attention to the possibility of IL. After the discovery, Chn’Gi searched but couldn’t find any record of any plans or contingencies, all traces of preplanning for IL, if there were any, simply disappeared.

Of all the hundreds of billions of stars in the universe and the tens of thousands of planets discovered and of the hundreds determined to have the potential for supporting life, doing statistical analysis in reverse made for impossible odds, on the order of trillions to one. Such probability calculations are fallacious and meaningless, because the fact is the fact, and no amount of calculations will change it, there’s intelligent life on O’M.

We’re only about a hundred years from Planetfall and passed the last chance to divert point centuries ago. There’s no avoiding it; we’re going to need to learn as much as possible, as soon as possible to provide time to plan for how to deal with them. Chn’Gi can’t blame the Commander and the Council for wanting to know, but why can’t they be more patient.

The plan for monitoring the IL is evolving and needs to adapt as more information becomes available. The central council placed Chn’Gi, the lead scientist on duty during the discovery in charge of the IL research team. And to make matters more frustrating Chn’Gi and her team was given very restricted antenna time, not the full access she anticipated for such a vital mission.

Was it a miracle or a disaster? For life to develop at all, then evolve advanced intelligence, have the resources and then develop the technology needed for radio communications, for all that to happen was surely a miracle. But it means our O’M, our new world is tainted by some alien life form… our O’M is no longer pure.

Chn’Gi fears how the Central Council is reacting, approaching the only planet that they have detected so far to have confirmed and verified advanced intelligent life; and no other choice but to go there, could this be another act of God? The Church had not yet been informed and based on the rapidity and harshness of the security crackdown by the CA it’s doubtful, the Church will find out anytime soon.

The CA’s claim that the enhanced security is only precautionary didn’t match up with the security level. The discovery of IL (intelligent life) was compartmented and given the highest level of control. All areas doing SIL (Search for Intelligent Life) work became controlled access; all people working the SIL crews were questioned, investigated, put under surveillance and made to swear not to communicate anything about IL to anyone outside the program.

The original group involved with this discovery and confirmation was whittled down to less than ten. Most of the purged radio astronomers and support crew were reassigned to navigation duties and told that the IL discovered was a short-lived natural phenomenon that stopped almost immediately. Even so, they were forbidden to mention it to anyone and placed under electronic surveillance.

Chn’Gi and her small crew were indoc’d into the new security program; their TaC-B’s replaced with eTaC-M’s, and moved to apartments “upgraded” with surveillance systems.

Chn’Gi as had nearly everyone aboard Dadr’Ba at one time or another contemplated what life might be like on O’M; some thought O’M might be devoid of life. Had that been the case, it would have introduced a set of problems about how suitable the planet’s environment is and what terraforming would be required. Many had hoped that there would be life, just no IL. The probability that there is microscopic life that would be incompatible or a threat to their biology had been planned for. Protocols were prepared for ensuring compatibility between their species, down to the microscopic scale, careful introduction of Dadr’Ba’s people to the new environment, then careful integration of the ecosystem of Or’Gn, which Dadr’Ba carried aboard her, frozen and preserved.

Dadr’Ba is an ark bringing a huge collection of the biology of Or’Gn, frozen in sealed containers nearly forgotten near the outer shell of Dadr’Ba, shielded from radiation by Dadr’Ba’s artificial magnetic field, and tens of meters of compressed cometary material, kept almost as cold as interstellar space.

Or’Gn, whose real name the CA banned from Dadr’Ba’s lexicon centuries ago is long forgotten, erased from the records and databases. It’s another one of the CA’s many secrets, that carries the threat of capital punishment, this particular one endorsed (though not the punishment) by the Church.

Dadr’Ba has always been focused on the future and forward motion, most notably since the Touch of God event. It was then that the instantaneous communications link with Or’Gn (as the old world, the old home world, became to be called) was lost.

The Touch of God corrupted and destroyed the QECS (Quantum Entanglement Communication System) that provided instantaneous communications with Or’Gn. At the time of the communications loss, it’s said that the news from Or’Gn was the worst. The situation had gotten much worse in the thousand plus years since Dadr’Ba’s departure. The predictions came true and all that remained of Or’Gn were survivors of an apocalypse living in bunkers buried beneath a charred landscape.

The loss of communications, aside from being viewed as a further act of God was the end of a continuous stream of bad news. Now without the QECS, it would take over a hundred years to get a reply from Or’Gn and any attempt was deemed worthless.

Now with the discovery of intelligent life, the microbiology has become of secondary importance. The timetable for working through the microbiology had always been considered to be relatively long, and they could stay in orbit indefinitely while the terraforming and biology issues are resolved. The problem of how to deal with IL raises a multitude of questions that have no answer yet and has much more severe implications for both the IL and the people of Dadr’Ba. Time is running out, Dadr’Ba’s journey is nearly complete, having completed over ninety percent of the overall distance to reach O’M, with approximately a hundred years remaining.

Though Chn’Gi searched, she could find no record, speculative notes or discussions on what they would do if they found IL on O’M.

Chn’Gi had no idea how fast the aliens’ technology might develop; she didn’t even have any information based on their own history of development.

The CA prohibits anything to do with Pre-Touch of God history and knowledge of Or’Gn.

Chn’Gi and her team were told that they must work with the worst case. They are to report what the “O’Mi’s
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“ as Chn’Gi and her team have come to call them, are expected to develop, in the hundred years remaining before their arrival. Will the O’Mi’s develope advanced enough technology and multiply enough in numbers to pose a serious threat to Dadr’Ba and its people.

The CASC’s (Central Authority Security Council)
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  precautionary security crackdown is probably warranted, to avoid rumor escalation and possible panic of the crew. But shouldn’t the decision-making process involve more than the Commander, the four Sector Commanders, and the security chief?

Chn’Gi knew that the Council would grow tired of her first weekly then monthly, NSTR’s (Nothing Significant to Report). She had hoped that the time distortion that often affects the crew, that loss of days that sometimes leaves the crew wondering where the last ten days, or years, or twenty-five or even fifty years have gone, would affect the Council.

But the Central Council is not like the regular crew. Their jobs keep them on guard, far from being a team they constantly compete among themselves for stature, status and position. Chn’Gi couldn’t tell if it was friendly or belligerent, it didn’t matter, it kept them sharp, on guard, always looking for an edge or a point to make.

These people, the Central Council, would never get lost in time, never be a cog, gear, or another component of the system of systems that makes up Dadr’Ba.  

Dadr’Ba runs continuously. It’s long work days divided equally and overlapped between the ships five sectors, ensured three sectors active at any given time, with the other two sectors on crew rest. No weekends to break up the routine and only three annual events and ceremonies; Graduation Day, Touch of God Day, and Memorial Day. These are Ceremonial Events only, not days off, nothing interferes with the carefully orchestrated operation of Dadr’Ba, never a day off to break up the continuous cycle. Nothing is allowed to interfere with the continuous mechanized clockwork cycle that marks the relentless progress of Dadr’Ba.

Chn’Gi looked again at the summons on the screen. This was to be a video teleconference from her office that would afford her the luxury of comfortable surroundings and easy familiar access to her data in case she needed it.

At the appointed time, Dr. Chn’Gi sat at her desk as the wall across from her desk disappeared, and she suddenly appeared to sit at a much larger conference table. Seated at the head of the table across from her, sat the Commander, to his right, the Vice, her new boss, (that used to be her boss’s. boss). Since the IL discovery and security crackdown, the SIL program was moved from the navigation department to report directly to the Vice Commander.

At the time of discovery, Chn’Gi was only able to get intermittent slices of antenna time from the array of antennas arranged at the end of tethers attached to one of the observation rings that girded Dadr’Ba. In order not to put too much stress on the antennas, the ring the antennas are attached to rotates at a much slower rate than Dadr’Ba’s gravitational rotation. Otherwise, the antennas on the end of the tethers kilometers away (to provide a large aperture) would be under so much stress that they would tear from the ship.

Additional antennas, operating together and opposite one another, had finally been constructed and connected to one of the other observation rings and had operating time allocated to Chn’Gi and her team.

The explanation provided to the rest of the crew is that these antennas were auxiliary antennas used to aid in navigation and object avoidance or eradication, whose frequency is expected to increase since they’re beginning to enter O’M’s Oort Cloud.

Everyone was sitting at what Chn’Gi assumed to be a virtual conference table. Most likely, no one actually sat next to each other, they were seated as she was, comfortably at their own desk.

Chn’Gi suddenly spotted and then, as nonchalantly as possible picked up several cartoonish alien figurines made of hardened modeling clay given to her by her staff, made by their children in art class. She placed the figurines in her desk drawer.

She went on acting as if she was straightening out her touch sensitive virtual desktop, flattening the heads up monitor into the table and looked up. All eyes were upon her.

She focused her attention on Commander Di’Zo. He sat at the head of the conference table across from her. She awkwardly said “Master Commander Sir” then remained silent, there was a hint of sarcasm in her comment. Chn’Gi inwardly kicked herself for not being better prepared. She reprimanded herself for allowing what she perceived as a scrap of contempt towards the Council show that she still resented the rough treatment she and her team received at first discovery.

The Commander, a thin man with fine dark hair, stony, expressionless face and cold piercing eyes. He wore a crisp military uniform with emblems that clearly showed his rank. He didn’t seem to breathe as he glanced around the table at the other, equally stony, expressionless faced, uniformed officers around the table. Before speaking, he paused, then his eyes narrowed as he focused his attention on Chn’Gi.

Then in a cold flat voice, “Dr. Chn’Gi please tell us the latest status of the intelligent life you discovered on O’M and be as detailed as you can about these invaders” then after a slight pause added “and it had better not be, nothing significant to report.”

Chn’Gi gulped, instantly recalculating her earlier decision to begin with “nothing significant” then go into what she deemed, “insignificant” but now trying to make it sound “significant.” It’s only been a week, or has it been a month since her last report to the Council? Oh my God! Am I getting lost in time? O’M technology doesn’t seem to advance very fast, but if I say that, I’ll get questioned: “fast compared to what?” I’ve got nothing to work with, nothing to compare or extrapolate against, what do they expect?