The Wreck of the *Untranslatable* - Chapter 21

            The effectiveness of their attack plan was nearly compromised by Jolly’s insistence on keeping Scape Grace within close range of the other two ships until the last possible moment.  If the Zig were watching carefully, they could have already spotted the oncoming objects.  Depending on the quality and attentiveness of the miners’ observations, they might perceive three separate ships or one large vessel.  If they saw two other ships split off from Scape Grace and approach from lateral vectors, the lure of the familiar pirate ship might not draw the full force of the defenders. 

            Evgeny supposed he should have been less surprised when Gleamer announced, “The foreign ship… it’s getting all blurry.”

            “What’s that?” Evgeny responded.

            “My readings are getting scrambled.  Its mass, volume, albedo, output signature… everything detectable is varying randomly across its respective spectrum.”

            Jolly intruded to explain, “Didn’t I say our friend is quite mutable?  It can be an anomaly just as well as a familiar face.  Is it a ship?  Is it an asteroid?  No, it’s… well, it is a ship.  Also, an artificial organism.  And it’s tricksy.”

            “Great,” Evgeny retorted, “We’ll need more than tricks.  Are we ready to start the strategy?”

            “What is strategy but a whole lot of tricks played in the right order?  But yes, sound the trumps and start the game.  We shall bid high and claim the pot!”  Jolly sounded perversely enthusiastic and even Punch nodded in evident readiness. 

Jolly plugged its suit into the command console, transmitting the signal to break away to Harauch and the unnamed ship.  As the latter vessel pulled away, Evgeny could see its hull rippling and shifting.  The former falsified insignia was gone, wiped away in a shimmer of color as the foreign ship obscured its identity once again.  It was not only reshaping its exterior.  Sections of its internal structure were being reworked, judging from the new bulges and pits appearing in its profile.  Evgeny hoped Katy and NuRikPo were cached somewhere safe within the malleable mass.

The engines of the strange ship flared to greater fury and it leapt away past sight.  At that cue, Scape Grace also accelerated, aiming directly toward the planetoid ahead.  Harauch fell behind, both due to its lower maximum speed and its lateral course, opposite the direction selected by the foreign ship. 

Harauch would arrive after and to one side of Scape Grace after following a wide arc away.  Its separate but converging course would hopefully add to the apparent threat posed by Scape Grace, drawing more of the Zig fighter craft into engagement.  Once the battle was joined, the late-arriving Harauch would force the Zig to choose between dividing their force to deal with both threats separately or else swarming the Scape Grace exclusively, leaving themselves vulnerable if they were still thus engaged as Harauch closed.

Scape Grace was a known threat.  It had reduced the fighter fleet by five craft before the battle turned against the pirates.  Unless the Zig had rebuilt those five plus another half-dozen more, the two pirate-salvagers together held a slight advantage.  All that meant was that one or both ships might survive the battle.  They would be badly damaged, almost certainly, under most projections.  That outcome could be swayed far in either direction by strategy or simple fortune.  Mischance or a tactical error could easily result in total destruction; only a stroke of luck or genius would get them through the fight minimally scathed. 

It was not a fight captain Lerner would have chosen.  In fact, he had rejected it before and was not responsible for choosing it now.  Still, he could hardly abdicate responsibility for his ship’s survival while still desiring – and intending to reclaim – authority over ‘Grace.  Thus, Evgeny had given his best input to the planning of this foolish endeavor.  He would also lend his full expertise to its execution. 

He also issued his own orders to his crew: “Full speed ahead, Soloth.  Let’s smoke the bees out of that hive so that the baby bear can get its honey.” 

Jolly tilted its head toward Evgeny, “That’s not half bad.  Clumsy... but at least the metaphor sticks together.  Ha!”  It raised one hand, palm open and fingers splayed, lowering it in a violent gesture toward Punch.  The other Ningyo had already raised its hand at the elbow and reached upward in a matching gesture.  Their two molded plastic palms smacked together with a sharp crack as they met in midair. 

The movement and noise startled Havish, the Mauraug replacement gunner.  It looked back at the two Ningyo in alarm, hands coming off the weapons console in preparation for defense.  When the robotic figures settled back into position as if nothing important had happened, Havish began to relax.

Soloth grunted, “Ningyo,” and that was explanation enough.  Soloth increased their speed.  Scape Grace hurtled forward on an apparent collision course with the planetoid ahead.

            *****************************************************************************************

            The opening moves of the assault played out exactly as Jolly had intended.  A squadron of crude fighter craft deployed from the Zig encampment well before Scape Grace was close enough to singe with their weaponry.  In their first clash, the Zig had kept the existence of their fighters concealed until Scape Grace entered orbit and began to organize a landing.  Struggling to recall its shuttle had delayed the pirate ship’s escape.  The delay had given the miners several minutes of free shots.  Evgeny thought of the farce as the equivalent of getting caught with his pants down and around his ankles.  This time, now that each party knew the other’s assets, there was no point in secrecy.

            The fighters spread out in a loose net, separated widely enough to anticipate and intercept any lateral movement by Scape Grace, but not divided so far as to lose the advantage of their numbers.  No doubt the Zig pilots were being assisted by mathematically precise computer simulations which took their capabilities into account and adjusted for the actions of their enemy.  Well, the Scape Grace had similar programs, plus the flexibility of Human-made sub-AI systems.  Battles fought on autopilot alone hardly needed to be fought; the unpredictable elements were what gave combat its risk.  Basically, an AI could still beat an expert chess program 55 games out of 100, though both would probably manage 90 out of 100 against a biological grandmaster.

            Soloth reported eleven fighters arrayed against them.  Two appeared cruder than the rest; these might have been the products of hasty assembly by the miners or else hasty repairs on the damaged fighters they could salvage.  Gleamer monitored the comm traffic and reported that the fighters were relaying signals back and forth with the main base on the planetoid beyond.  The transmissions were encoded: not well enough to stymie the programmer for long, but long enough to make them inaccessible before the attack started.  Gleamer recorded and started decoding everything anyway, on the chance that the information gleaned might prove useful later. 

Havish tracked the closest targets and reviewed its choices from among the array of destructive tools NuRikPo had added to Scape Grace’s arsenal.  Energy beams, high intensity lasers, magnetically accelerated projectiles with or without payloads, and even miniature suicidal drone ships were among its options.  There was great variety but limited uses of each weapon; even the energy weapons drew power from the ‘Grace’s finite fusion engines.  That was part of the trouble of fighting a many-on-one battle: there were only so many shots one could fire, at once or in total.  Getting left without offense was bad enough, but it was possible to be left defenseless also.  The best defense against material attacks was intercepting fire.  Power might also be drained so low that defensive fields failed. 

The first Zig volley employed their energy weapons, which had greater range but much weaker impact, particularly at longer ranges.  Scape Grace demonstrated that her defensive fields had been adequately repaired by refracting the incoming radiations.  As ‘Grace drew closer, the pirate demonstrated the disadvantage of the many-on-one scenario for the many: their attacks would have an increasing chance of striking an ally via ricochet off the lone enemy’s fields.  If the fighters tried to surround 'Grace, stray, missed shots could become a hazard as well.

The Zig chose the tactically sound option of remaining effectively stationary between the approaching Scape Grace and its apparent target, their mining base.  They would allow the attacker to draw close, weakening its defenses as it neared and falling back steadily to maintain distance as long as possible.  Only when backed up against the planetoid’s gravity well would the fighters at the fringes begin to break off and seek vulnerabilities at Scape Grace’s flanks. 

Rather than fall into this pattern, Scape Grace veered to one side, intentionally in the same direction as Harauch’s original tangent.  This drew the fighters in the same direction as they struggled to maintain their screen.  Of course, Harauch was on the returning arc of its course now.  It appeared beyond Scape Grace and headed for the leading edge of the Zig formation. 

By this time, Scape Grace was close enough to choose targets with its own guns.  Havish fired a dozen shots, removing one and then a second fighter from the battle.  They were small and maneuverable ships, but relatively slow and piloted by amateurs.  Most of Havish’s misses were near ones, as it led its targets expertly and capitalized on any piloting errors. 

Then, the Harauch was within range, and the Zig were put to their decision.  To Evgeny’s relief, they chose to respect Scape Grace’s threat and decided to split their remaining strength.  Three fighters broke off to intercept Harauch in an equilateral formation.  The remaining six closed upon Scape Grace, trying to pull in close enough to engage their physical weaponry and maximize the damage of their energy attacks.

“Reserves below fifty percent of full charge,” reported Soloth, monitoring data relayed from the engineers Georges.  “At this rate, we still cannot withstand long enough to remove the remaining fighters.”

“Alone, no,” Jolly rebutted, “but Harauch will do its part and pick up where we slacken.”

Indeed, its faith was justified, as the formerly innocuous-seeming Harauch released its own volley of fire and removed one of the three oncoming fighters.  The remaining two split widely, approaching their target from opposite sides.  

Scape Grace answered this point with a score of her own: Havish unleashed one of the drone ships from its anchoring.  The miniature vessel had only sufficient fuel for a single burst of trans-light drive, but that was sufficient to launch it through a much larger ship.  In this case, one of the fighters suffered the fatal impact.  Both ships shattered in an uncontrolled fusion reaction, releasing sufficient force to nudge two other fighters and the Scape Grace away. 

“Watch your range!” Soloth bellowed at Havish.  The other Mauraug grunted in acknowledgement, annoyed at its own error. 

They would have to deal with the fighters at even closer range soon.  If only one or two remained while the pirate ships still survived, those Zig might choose suicide runs in order to protect their comrades back at the base.  Havish would be hard-pressed to shoot down each ship before it smashed into Scape Grace.  Even if it hit every target, the backwash from their deaths might still cripple or destroy their enemy.  The likelihood of such heroics was unknown.  If the pilots were Iron Caste volunteers, then they almost certainly would die in defense of their fellows. 

Jolly interrupted the rising intensity of the battle with an announcement: “Our friend is in position.”

Soloth confirmed, “Energy discharge from outside of the atmosphere, striking the Zig base on the surface."

“Hopefully your friend doesn’t melt down all the goods in the process,” Evgeny sneered at Jolly.

Jolly asked innocently, “Don’t you cook your meals?”

“Oh, yeah, distress calls from the base,” Gleamer chimed in, “aaaand now they’re quiet.  Punched in the throat.  Good job, no-name.”

“Maybe with nothing to defend, those fighters won’t be so willing to stand and die,” Evgeny ventured hopefully.

All through this discussion, the fighters, Scape Grace and Harauch had been dancing and firing, spears of light igniting and dispersing as they beat against one anothers’ defenses.  Havish was doing its utmost to connect solidly with its own shots, while Soloth tried to present a difficult target to the fighters.  The 'Grace had greater power on both offense and defense, but was forced to absorb more attacks.  The fighters would fall to a direct hit, but were more likely to avoid attacks entirely. 

A few early projectile attacks had been attempted, but the range was still too great to give these much effectiveness.  Even Scape Grace could veer away from a slug thrown at a mere thousand kilometers per second.  The Zig most likely did not have the resources to spare for guided projectiles.  However, given their technical expertise, their shells could easily contain extremely dangerous payloads.  One hit with a ferrovorous catalyst could quickly strip away portions of Scape Grace’s hull and multiple vital systems.  Without NuRikPo aboard to counter such agents, their doom would be assured.

            Still, the fight was going in their favor.  Evgeny began to think they could hold out long enough for the unnamed ship to finish subduing the mining base.  Then, even if the Zig defenders felt like continuing the fight – just to avenge their fallen co-workers – the three attackers could join together and wipe out any remaining resistance. 

            Evgeny's igniting optimism was quickly snuffed by reactions from Gleamer, Jolly, and Punch.  The three reeled back as if hearing a painfully loud noise.

            Gleamer explained his reaction, “Really big magnetic wave from the planet.  Distinct rhythm.  Magnetic acceleration launcher.”

            Jolly’s response was more cryptic: “She’s hit… it’s killing her!”

            Soloth belatedly confirmed, “Replay shows a magnetic acceleration lift of a mass from the planetoid’s surface, near the base.  It might have been an escape shuttle, except that its trajectory aimed it at the unnamed ship.  It likely made impact.”

            Evgeny shrugged, “They got off a desperate last shot.  That ship ought to be able to absorb a crash…and we didn’t see any explosion.  It’s not blowing up.”

            Jolly swiveled sharply to look at the other captain. “It’s a Zig weapon.  It contained crystallizing catalysts.  Our friend did absorb the impact but the payload is freezing up her… systems.”

            Looking back toward the view screen, Jolly fell quiet. 

            Soloth reported, “Harauch is pulling away.”

            Oh, good, Evgeny thought to himself, they’re giving up the alien as lost.  Too bad, but at least we aren’t too badly hurt by this idiot’s…

            Soloth amended, “Harauch is moving toward the base and the unnamed ship, on an intersecting course.  Zig fighters are remaining behind, en route to us.”

            “Wait, what?”  Evgeny shouted, turning from Soloth to Jolly, “They’re leaving us here alone?  We can’t manage all of the remaining fighters alone, not without some serious chances of death."

            Jolly ignored him this time, continuing to focus its attention on the signals passing to and from its connections to the other two ships.

            It was Punch who replied, instead, in a bizarre, harsh falsetto, “We must remain and do our best.  Harauch will protect our friend.  The base remains a threat.  She must be protected until she can heal.”

            Gleamer gave further insight: “Confirmed, the Zig planetside are arming a second maglift projectile.  I have their comm code worked out.  They’re talking between the cannon site and the base.  The launcher's range is enough to protect them from direct landings.”

            “But not enough to threaten us if we pull back.  Come on, Jolly, pull us back.  You did your best.  Don’t waste your people just to protect that foreigner.  Don’t waste my people to buy them time for their martyrdom.”  Evgeny struggled between commanding and pleading tones.

            Punch answered him again, “It is necessary.  She cannot be left to die.  The mission must succeed.  Nothing else is acceptable.”

            Evgeny was done arguing. “No, this is not acceptable.” 

            Scape Grace emphasized his tension by shuddering.  Havish had winged one of the fighters, and flying debris carved from its structure had bounced off the pirate ship’s nose.  The hull in that section was now dented and a storage bay was slightly smaller.  Fortunately, the tough outer material had held and the hull remained unbreached.

            “Thirty percent reserves,” Soloth announced.  “Seven fighters remain operational.  They are regrouping.  These are familiar conditions.  Now would be a good time to withdraw, once again.”

            “Do it,” Evgeny ordered, “Retreat.  Full speed.  They’ll go back to protect their base.”

            Soloth tapped in commands once, then twice, then turned back to look at Evgeny and then Jolly.  “No response.  Command override… your codes."

            Evgeny looked at the Ningyo as well.  Jolly remained unresponsive, frozen still as it communed with whatever master guided its devotion.  It had locked him out of his own ship.  It was forcing them to stand their ground and die.

            “That does it.  Fuck you, and fuck your friend,” Evgeny spat at the two Ningyo.

            He then raised his face to the ceiling.  As the flares and impacts of the rejoined battle surged around them, Evgeny Lerner started to sing.

            “Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda…”

            A youthful, feminine voice answered him from the speakers above, “You’ll come a'Waltzing Matilda with me!”

The Wreck of the *Untranslatable* - Chapter 20

            After a clumsy explanation for Katy’s expletive, she and NuRikPo continued to accompany the extruded avatar of Emissary through the remainder of its anatomy.  Their wonder at the art and technology of the foreign ship was tempered by their new understanding of its mindset and capabilities.  Its goals seemed simple: explore new systems, meet new neighbors, and render them friendly by any means necessary.  Its design also seemed simple on the surface.  There were no specific controls, few displays, and only a few pre-designated work spaces.  The ship created open rooms at need, just as it was now creating passages between areas to suit its guests.  Otherwise, it contained all of the functional elements of any starship: engines, sensory receptors, environmental controls, manipulation tools (including weaponry), and control systems to interface across those subsystems.

            Underneath the basic functional description, however, was a substrate of startling complexity.  Only portions of the engine and the central ‘skeletal’ structure of the ship were cast as a continuous, solid frame.  Everything else - from the furnishings, the display screens, the sensors, the environmental systems, the weapons, and the thousands of smaller components that made up those organs – was composed of individually formed and replaceable cells, or structures built by those cells.  Emissary could quickly repair most damage, not only hull breaches.  The ship could lose a stabilizer, an oxygen extractor, or a cannon muzzle and have a new one ready for use within minutes. 

            The ship’s mind was similarly complex.  As best as the investigators could decipher from its answers to their inquiries, Emissary’s program was the net result of a nervous matrix distributed across multiple regions of the ship, incorporating the functions of billions of cellular units.  It maintained several ‘brains’, clusters of cells capable of retaining and rebuilding its core program and personality even if a significant portion of its structure were destroyed.  The cells themselves were effectively decentralized, following through on their routine functions without a central processor’s orders.  Yet their composite ‘organs’ were receptive to conscious control from the overall entity-mind.  The interplay between remotely distributed elements (as opposed to adjacent elements) explained the volleys of radio signals NuRikPo continued to detect as they explored the ship.  When messages could not be transmitted between systems through electrical or chemical signals, nor via short-range cellular messengers, then radio communication between specialized cells was employed. 

            Katy was once again impressed despite herself.  Nature required billions of years to produce systems this elaborate, working out the problems of simultaneous design limitations through trial and error refereed by the constant demands of survival and replication.  This structure had been directly designed by other sapients, presumably over a much shorter time-span.  Emissary confirmed this idea, stating that its predecessor, First Model, had been assembled in a vast orbital laboratory.  Only one such ship needed to be built manually.  It had been granted reproductive capabilities, deduced from its claim to have been created by First Model directly and its plans to create a Third Model, itself.

            The problem with all this sharing and learning was that Katy was coming to suspect that Emissary’s motives might also be more complex than they first appeared.  Certainly, what the ship already admitted about its goals was problematic enough, amounting to brainwashing, conquest, and colonization.  Yet it presented these plans couched in seemingly innocent, pleasant language.  It claimed to be offering help: peace, unity and prosperity.  Katy could not yet decide if it was an alien enough mind to genuinely conflate bodily violation as ‘helping’, if it was having trouble with the translation of terms, or if it was just trying to coerce them with clumsy bluff and/or propaganda. 

            During their investigation of the ship, Emissary persistently attempted to convince them to ‘join’ with it again.  Any time they showed interest in a particular system or asked for details about a specific innovation, it would take their attention for admiration and suggest that they, too, could be a part of its wonderful self.  Even so, Katy had to admit that it wasn’t even the pushiest suitor she had ever dealt with.  Plenty of entities wanted to put parts of their anatomy into hers.  Leading on a 'lover' far enough to serve her purposes while still maintaining her bodily integrity was a familiar dance. 

            The revelation that they were en route to a confrontation gave their explorations added urgency.  Not only would a fight potentially pose a risk to Emissary and its passengers, the distraction of a battle might give Katy and NuRikPo their best chance for escape.  If the foreign ship was successful in its plans to create a permanent home within Collective space, their knowledge might be vitally necessary to prevent ‘joining’ on a wider scale.  While the pirates of Scape Grace might be parasites and exploiters of their surrounding civilization, they needed that civilization to continue for their own support.  They each also had personal attachments to their native cultures, home worlds, favored associates and preferred ports of leave.  As much as many crew members had alienated or been alienated by some part of the Collective, they could not honestly wish its disruption. 

            All too soon, Emissary’s display screens began to show the irregular illuminated arc of a dwarf planetoid.  Its dimensions and color were familiar.  NuRikPo was first to recognize the features of their former target, the Zig mining operation.

            “I don’t know why I’m surprised.  We were in the neighborhood and got dragged along on this ‘mission’,” he groused, obviously grudging that their second chance at the mining base would still provide no opportunity for his personal enrichment. 

            “No,” Emissary responded, its language skills and comprehension having improved steadily during their hours of interaction.  “Not dragged.  I chose you.  You came here before.  You know this place.  I will help.  Separately we fail. Together we succeed.  Joining is best.”

            “We’ll see,” Katy taunted coyly. 

She managed to mask her dismay at the revelation that Emissary and its Ningyo allies were already familiar with their attack on the Zig miners.  Their abductors had either tracked their escape or anticipated their path and had laid a trap well calculated to draw Scape Grace in.  Either this alien AI was a tactical genius, such genius had arisen from its partnership with the Black Humor and her Ningyo crew… or else the identity and behavior of Scape Grace was far better known than her crew suspected. 

Notoriety was no asset to an interstellar pirate, not in comparison to anonymity.  Striking fear into the hearts of their victims was counterproductive.  Getting close without raising alarms was much more useful.  Moving in and out of systems without notice or under the guise of an innocent salvager’s registry… that stealth was necessary for their continued operation.  If ‘Grace’s description and nature were becoming widespread news, it was only a matter of time before she was spotted or tracked, captured or destroyed.   

“Danger begins soon,” Emissary warned them, beckoning with a curl of its construct’s fingers and hand.  “I must change, maybe fast.  Dangerous for you.  Go to shuttle.  Stay safe.  We join when danger ends.”

It seemed that their survey would have to be suspended.  As much as their explorations were incomplete – NuRikPo was particularly frustrated by their inability to take samples – the opportunity to return to their shuttle peacefully was too good to pass up.  Emissary was right; they would be safest within the shielded, rigid hull of their own vessel.  Even if the strange ship shifted and flowed around them, they would slosh around within it like a seashell in the tides. 

Emissary’s construct escorted the two back to their shuttle door, parting with a sorrowful wave.  As they boarded, Katy looked back to close and seal the hatch.  She saw the construct melt and flow, its constituent units reabsorbed into the material of the deck through fissures.  In the shuttle’s outer lighting, it glittered like a collapsing pile of iron filings.  It was definitely a beautiful and wondrous form of life.  Even without her feelings being twisted, Katy would have preferred its anatomy to that of most biological organisms she had studied, sentient or otherwise. 

It was a shame it was such a threat, one which might need to be destroyed in self-defense.

************************************************************************************** 

The final two days of travel followed a remarkably parallel routine aboard the Scape Grace.  The survey of Emissary by Katy and NuRikPo was echoed in several respects. 

Their tour of Emissary was akin to a tour of Scape Grace undertaken by the Ningyo, Jolly and Punch.  On the fourth day of travel, the two Ningyo had grown bored and asked to be shown around the ship.  Originally, they had insisted that captain Lerner be their guide.  He managed to defer that service to Burnett and Zenaida Georges on the basis that the two engineers-in-training would be better able to answer questions about the ship’s design and functions.  To his relief, Jolly accepted this logic.  Evgeny’s ulterior motive was to buy himself time on the bridge, unsupervised.  He had managed to pass secret orders to Gleamer and Luuboh via their private communications relay, but feedback was limited by their opportunities to check messages unobserved. 

Individually, Gleamer’s research and Luuboh’s examinations were analogues to NuRikPo’s and Katy’s discoveries, respectively.  Gleamer’s analysis of the mysterious radio signals had originally outstripped NuRikPo’s understanding of the patterns hidden in those electromagnetic ‘choruses’, used by the miniature robots to coordinate their activities.  After a time, the frequency of the signals declined and Gleamer’s lead shortened, due to the lack of novel raw data for his linguistic programs.  Luuboh, by contrast, had begun and stayed far behind Katy’s comprehension of the structure and functions of the micro-robots.  Yet it grasped the essential nature of the invaders well enough: their form, their abilities, their influence on a subject's mind via manipulation of their body, and their subtle danger as a result. 

Luuboh had plenty of time to converse with Tklth while stuck in the medical room.  Overtly, the Vislin was much more pleasant a companion than she had ever been before.  She was not only no longer threatening, she was actually polite and even solicitous.  Even so, the contrast between her former and present self was unnerving.  Every pleasantry she spoke was a reminder about how easily one’s ‘personality’ could be warped by a few cellular modifications. 

The worst parts were her entreaties for release.  She began by indirectly reassuring Luuboh that she was healthy, she was calm, she was healing and she would cause him no harm if the magnetic shackles were removed.  When he deflected or ignored these suggestions, she moved on to polite requests.  After that came the persuasive arguments: she was harmed by immobility; the shackles were restricting her circulation; Luuboh was acting out of fear and not concern for its patient’s well-being; she could help it with whatever work distracted it so; and so forth.  Luuboh was afraid she would resort to pleading, begging, and eventually, threats. 

During this time, Evgeny became the point of synthesis for Gleamer and Luuboh’s separate discoveries.  He worked out that Tklth’s infestation was probably one of the two sources of communication Gleamer had identified, with one or both of the Ningyo being the secondary origin(s).  This idea was unpleasant, but reassuring for another reason: if no one else was ‘broadcasting’ in the same way, the encroachment of the micro-tech might not have extended beyond the Vislin.  Luuboh was still suspect, but as long as the Mauraug continued working to expose the miniature invaders, Evgeny had to assume it was still on his side, loyal to the 'macro-organisms'.

Evgeny was certain that the Ningyo had brought the micro-tech aboard, but still could not decide if they had done so intentionally or unwittingly.  His suspicions about the odd coincidence of unique technology coupled with the discovery of a unique foreign ship began to approach the truth.  As Luuboh added reports about Tklth’s anomalous behavior, Evgeny became more and more convinced that the Ningyo were acting out of character.  Not that Ningyo didn’t normally act strangely, but that basic alienness could easily hide further alien influences.  Jolly seemed abnormally pacifistic, shrugging off the death of its crew member with philosophical jargon.  That might be normal behavior for its culture… or it might be manipulated behavior to suit the goals of the micro-robots’ controller.

There were still several major pieces of knowledge Evgeny lacked, elements he and his remaining crew could not uncover in the limited time available for study.  Evgeny took advantage of his time alone with Gleamer to pass on a compad filled with data from Luuboh’s research, which he had picked up by feigning an injury to cover a trip to medical.  Even so, Gleamer and his attendant programs could not work miracles with limited observations. 

A similar relay had been managed - out of sight and hearing of the ship’s public systems - when Soloth stopped into Evgeny’s private quarters.  The two hastily compared notes on their tactical plans for the upcoming battle, including strategies for compromising Harauch and double-crossing both of their ‘allied’ ships.  Most of their plans included the regrettable necessity of abandoning Katy Olu and NuRikPo, unless the entire operation went according to Jolly’s optimistic plans and the two sides actually parted ways amicably.  That daydream seemed increasingly unlikely the more Evgeny learned about the micro-tech loosed onboard.  Neither side could safely allow the other to leave with the knowledge they had gained during their association. 

For similar reasons, Evgeny and Soloth discussed the disposition of their combat crew, particularly the assignment of substitute officers.  They would have to place specific persons where their individual abilities and tendencies would allow them to react appropriately as situations changed.  Soloth would not have much opportunity to discuss counter-strike plans against the Ningyo with individual crew members.  Anywhere it might talk to combat crew was under observation.  The common lot could not be made privy to the secret ‘dark areas’ of the ship where private conversations could be safely held.  After all, Evgeny thought to himself, I don’t even want to mention Bay 3e to Soloth.  It was supposed to be my secret with Luuboh.  If everybody knows about a secret asset, why bother?

Eventually, all the time for studies, clandestine maneuvers, and plotting came to an end.  Just as Emissary had cut off Katy and NuRikPo’s investigations, the onrushing destination forced a change in activities upon Scape Grace. 

First mate Soloth bash’Soloth executed its first layer of plans by dispatching crew to their assigned stations.  Havish bash’Buurem was called up the bridge to assume Tklth’s post at weapons.  The Mauraug arrived dressed in canvas knee pants, heavy boots, and an impact-armor chest plate printed with the insignia of its old military unit.  Sol Metaxas, looking much better rested and groomed than he had at the crew briefing, was sent to engineering, to serve as assistant to the promoted chief engineers, Zenaida and Burnett Georges.  Soloth delegated the Mauraug ‘leader’, Kuugan bash’Ranpool, to ‘assist’ Luuboh bash’Gaulig in medical.  In reality, they both understood that Kuugan would be acting as chaperone to both Tklth and Luuboh, blocking them from leaving the medical room in case they were compromised.  For example, they might try to sabotage the Scape Grace or defend the Ningyo. 

The rest of the combat crew was ordered to hold themselves at readiness for either assault or defense duties, depending on how the attack against the Zig went.  Whichever way the battle went, Soloth wanted Macauley at the point of greatest danger: in the outermost, lower hold during the combat with the Zig fighters; at the forefront of an assault team sent into the breached Zig mining base; or leading a defense team pressed to keep boarders from taking out their key systems. 

Every crew member, plus the two Ningyo, moved to stations as Scape Grace closed on the planetoid.  Harauch and the ‘unnamed’ ship followed in formation.  Evgeny joined Jolly, Punch, Gleamer, Soloth, and Havish on the bridge and found himself with nowhere to sit.  He eventually decided to station himself between Soloth’s navigation post and Gleamer’s communication console, at the far forward edge of the bridge.  He became a somewhat deliberate obstruction between Jolly (seated at his own command console) and the primary display screen.  It was a petty nuisance, but at the moment, it was the most provocation Evgeny could afford.

The conflict to come would determine if he must obstruct the Ningyo Captain still further.  Evgeny was torn between hoping for an opening created by the chaos of battle or a quick, clean, profitable resolution.  He still wanted the Ningyo, Jolly and all his crew, to die slowly… but the likelihood of that happening without significant concurrent damage to his ship, his crew, and himself was low.  If Jolly turned out good to its word and capable enough to pull off its plans successfully, then Evgeny would just have to accept profit in trade for abandoning his revenge.

Revenge and profit were just two possibilities.  If years of criminal enterprise had taught Evgeny Lerner anything, it was that the actual outcome of a mission rarely matched any ideal result.  At best, you escaped alive, clutching something of value, with a minimum of your own assets burned.  There were so many, many ways for a job to go wrong.  In a complex, varied universe, a quick death was by no means the worst outcome possible.    

The Wreck of the *Untranslatable* - Chapter 19

            After some heated discussion, Katy Olu and NuRikPo finally compromised on exiting their shuttle armed, but with weapons holstered.  Katy had wanted to emerge ready to fire at the first sign of threat; NuRikPo had argued that they should leave their firearms behind.  He believed that their standard weaponry would have little effect if the ship actually intended them harm.  Worse, brandishing weapons might be interpreted as a hostile action, leading to a self-defense reflex.  He argued that, for all they knew, the incursion of micro-robots into their bodies might have been the immune response they originally took it for, a reaction to damage. 

            Katy disagreed, pointing out that the invasion of their bodies had gone far beyond simple defenses.  The system was tailored to take control of biological organisms.  That much was obvious and beyond dispute.  Once the ship realized that its first attack had failed, it might well escalate to more overt measures or attempt to destroy them as a threat to its plans.  She wanted to be ready for a physical attack. 

            Ultimately, Katy had to agree that their guns could do little more than annoy their host.  Still, she was reluctant to leave any tool behind and demanded that they keep the weapons at hand just in case.

            So it was that they emerged from the shuttle’s door aiming scanners, not side arms.  Katy was recording a three-dimensional spatial map of their surroundings using both light and sound reflection, with an active program tracking their own movement and comparing successive scans.  That application would act both as a motion detector and as a warning in case the ship changed the layout of its internal spaces.  In the event that a doorway disappeared behind them, the system should help them identify the relative location of their shuttle.  While they might not be able to blast a path into space, they might be able to at least cut their way back to the shuttle if the ship tried to separate them. 

            NuRikPo was continuing to monitor electromagnetic traffic both within and without the ship.  The latter was still cut off, but just in case something broke through, he would be ready.  His augmented compad maintained a link to the shuttle’s systems, allowing him to control the boat remotely, if necessary.  He had a wireless camera and microphone button pinned to his collar and was simultaneously recording video and audio of their surroundings.  Programs within the ‘pad would be trying to match what they observed to known patterns, prompting hypotheses about the likely functions of objects in case the two explorers missed an idea. 

An AI, or even a sub-AI, would have made their work much simpler and more effective, but of course NuRikPo wouldn’t consider such an idea, and Katy’s AI was safely locked away in her quarters.  Old Griot, her family’s AI for the last century, was too valuable to risk elsewhere in the ship, let alone bringing on a hazardous mission like this one.  After Katy was expelled from Antananarivo Medical University on Terra, Griot had become her sole teacher, continuing her education in medicine.  He was a wellspring of miscellaneous knowledge and good advice, having served generation after generation of Olus.  Griot did not judge, not even after her decision to leave home, leave Terra, and even leave the Terran sphere of planets.  He had guided her across multiple worlds, doing his part to keep her safe from the consequences of one bad decision after another.

She still wasn’t sure if joining the pirate crew had been a good or a bad decision.  Evgeny Lerner had drawn her onto the Scape Grace.  At the time, the rugged, gruff captain had seemed like a useful ally and a means of escape from her current entanglements.  As the medic and moll of a criminal syndicate leader, Katy had met Evgeny when the pirates arrived to talk business with her boss/boyfriend/captor.  They were immediately attracted to one another.  Suggestive talk turned into definitive action when negotiations over the price of goods went sour.  Katy had given the pirates an opening to double-cross the gangsters, then had managed to convince Evgeny that her betrayal of her former lover in no way suggested any likelihood of turning on him, her new paramour.  She had been a prisoner, exploited for both brains and body.  If Evgeny treated her well, she would use her talents in his service, not to his downfall.

Their collaboration had actually turned out to be of mutual benefit.  For the first time, Katy was able to keep a significant share of the profits her work earned.  The job was so good that even when she lost the fringe benefit of sleeping with the captain, she decided to stay aboard anyway.  Evgeny had turned out to be a bit boring anyway, very routine and repressed.  Who would have thought a pirate captain could be dull? 

Unfortunately, when the captain’s protection ended, Katy began to reap the results of the crew’s resentment of her privileged status.  The worst had been a humiliating wrestling match with the Mauraug first mate, Soloth.  Katy had suggested that the genderless gorilla watch its step or else it might wake up from cybernetic maintenance actually neutered.  In response, Soloth had dislocated Katy’s shoulders – both of them simultaneously – and folded her head back to touch her feet.  That was when Katy first began to make friends with Luuboh bash’Gaulig.  She had trained the uniquely obliging Mauraug out of self-interest.  She needed someone to reset her joints properly and help out while her torn muscles healed.

NuRikPo had been a constant thorn.  The Zig had not been impressed while Katy had the captain’s ear (and other parts), but wasn't any nastier after she lost her queendom.  'Po seemed equally distant and hostile whether she stayed quietly in the medical room, mingled with the beefcake among the combat crew, or went off-ship on assignment to persuade a contact.  Their spheres only intersected when ‘Po was badly hurt or Katy needed her equipment repaired, and those necessary contacts were unpleasant for both. 

Perhaps the real reason for their antagonism was that they had no reason to reconcile.  Katy had reason to hate Soloth, but kept the expression of that feeling under control for her own safety.  She hadn't even needed a personal reason to hate Soloth.  She disliked most Mauraug, foremost for the same reasons most Humans did: historical precedent.  The two simian species had been at odds ever since they met and the first Mauraug took a shit on its Human counterpart.  That wasn’t a metaphor; it literally defecated upon the Human representative.  Ever since, the theocratic, militaristic, uptight Mauraug Dominion had been trying to take a metaphorical crap on the Terran sphere.  Even Mauraug not part of the Dominion were dangerous: raiders and rogue colonists and other criminals.  The fact that almost half of the Scape Grace crew was Mauraug did little to improve Katy’s view of their species.  How the captain could put up with the preachy, bitchy apes was beyond her understanding.  Wasn’t his home blown up by Mauraug, after all?  It didn’t matter which faction was fighting which other one, they were all violent zealots.

For similar reasons, Katy kept matters civil with the Vislin, Tklth.  They had a simple agreement: each would do their respective jobs and not kill one another.  The moment that changed, one of them would die.  Soloth might enjoy administering pain, but Tklth was a professional murderer.  Katy could respect that.  She kept her medical care as painless as possible for the twitchy lizard and kept her pistol close and loaded with tranquilizers while she worked.

Right now, her concussion pistol was loaded with two types of ammo: hypodermic darts loaded with their counter-agent machines (in case the ship tried another microtechnology assault), and explosive rounds that might provide enough punch to rip a door-valve open or knock back a smaller, mobile construct.  The ‘greeter’ outside was one such construct, though the only one they had seen.  Katy and NuRikPo did not expect to see many more such ambulatory entities.  The ship’s composite nature meant that it could use its own mass to create ‘crew’ at need, but there was probably an energy cost for doing so, and the ship could likely control its own systems internally without the need for an external manipulator.  Thus, separate bodies would have specific uses, like providing a face to talk to, or pursuing and restraining other mobile organisms.

 The creature itself was right outside their door.  It presented the first and most obvious threat.  While the fact that it had not attacked the shuttle was reassuring, its constant presence and attempts to draw their attention had been disturbing.  Now, as NuRikPo opened the door and began to exit, it stood back two meters and watched them closely.

NuRikPo took an experimental step forward and diagonally away, toward the red-lit exit doorway.  The entity turned its head slightly to track him, monochrome ‘eyes’ rotating as well.  Its mouth, containing facsimiles of teeth and tongue, flexed and articulated words.

“Why kill?”

NuRikPo stopped, already staring at the metallic grey entity.  He blinked, and the other being mimicked the reflex.  Turning to Katy, he asked, “What does it mean?  For that matter, why can it speak now?”

            Katy shrugged in response, “Maybe it has records from the Ningyo.  Maybe it just didn’t have a reason to bother before.  Maybe with its cells crawling around in our brains, it recorded and transmitted enough data to start a translation.  Maybe all of the above.”

Frowning and turning back to the entity, the Zig asked, “Kill… what?  Why did we kill… or why should one kill?”

“Why kill… parts?” 

“It’s not discussing philosophy, ‘Po.  It’s asking why we disabled its component cells.  Let me talk; it’s something I’m good at, remember?”  Katy had to hope that NuRikPo could read her intent better than a novice speaker of their common language.  He nodded in response, either understanding or just handing off responsibility.

Katy turned back to the figure, assuming her best innocent expression.  “We were afraid.  You did not warn us.  Your… parts… entered our bodies.  We thought you would hurt us.  We protected ourselves.”

            The figure turned to face Katy and responded, “Not attack.  I share.  I hear.  You… angry.  I make you happy.  We join.”  It punctuated its speech with an appropriate gesture, hands clasping together. 

            Katy answered with a gesture of her own, hands pushing forward, palms open.  “Whoa.  ‘Joining’ takes two.  You ask first.  We are not easily persuaded.”

            Surprising her, the being interrupted, asking, “Persuaded?”

            “Damn… uh, convinced?  Made to agree?”

            “Agree.  We must agree.  You fear.  You resist.  Do not.  Accept.  Agree.  Be joined.”

            “Show us.  Who are you?  What are you?  Why should we join?  Help us understand.  If we know more, we will agree.”

            “Yes.  Agree.  I show.  You understand.  We join.  Come.”  With this apparent agreement, the construct turned and walked away, toward the exit.  It paused at the ovoid opening and turned around, evidently waiting on Katy and NuRikPo to follow.

            “Well, like it says, come on,” Katy tilted her head toward the passage and stepped forward as well.

“You’re right, you are good at that,” NuRikPo grudgingly observed as he fell into line behind Katy.  His voice dropped to a lower volume and he added, “It’s doing what you want because you told it what it wanted to hear, a tactic apparently effective on all forms of mind.”

Katy turned back to him as they neared the construct, giving him a wide-eyed stare of exasperation.  Her lips pursed as she hissed, “Ssh.”

The engineer was slow to register her objection, continuing with, “Which makes me wonder, why have you never tried these skills on me?  Even false courtesy…”

Katy interrupted his complaint with her sotto voce reply, “Because I never wanted anything from you.”

The entity either did not hear or else did not grasp the nuances of their conversation.  It continued forward, leading them deeper into the hallway, a claustrophobic tube with a lopsided ovoid cross-section, wider at the base and narrowing toward the top.  The red lighting emanated from strips of clustered globules, each glowing weakly but summing to provide greater illumination.  Other than these protrusions and a few regularly spaced centimeter-sized holes, the hallway was composed of the same regular hexagonally tiled substance as the shuttle bay walls. 

As they walked, NuRikPo sidled closer to Katy and continued, “Never?  Why not?  Do you think I have no value as an ally?”

Katy muttered between clenched teeth, “Can we discuss this some other time?  Kind of inappropriate right now.  Focus on learning what we can while it’s friendly.”

Finally, the possible hazards of their conversation dawned on the Zig, and he fell silent, watching their guide closely for any signs of suspicion.  It continued to appear oblivious. 

They emerged from the far end of the passage after a walk of at least one hundred meters.  The far end opened onto a chamber like the inside of a rounded trapezoidal solid, again wider at its base and rising into a narrower domed rectangle at its peak.  More of the light clusters protruded from that roof, rendering the space almost bright enough for comfortable sight.  Its contents were unremarkable: extrusions from the floor resembled abstract seats and platforms.  One section of the wall was a smooth, darker, rounded film, like a plastic or glass panel set into the surrounding composite material. 

NuRikPo crossed to the panel and passed his recorder over its surface.  He turned to the entity and asked, “Is this a display screen?  An interface?  May I touch it?”

“A display.  Yes.  It shows images.  No interface.  I… am… interface.”

That made a certain amount of sense to both investigators.  Some Terran ships were actually fully integrated with AI ‘crew’ and could be operated by voice commands from the Human partners of those AIs.  There would still be manual controls, however.  Further, no sane designer would make an entire ship the body of a single, all-powerful AI… not even before the Terrans joined the Collective and certainly not afterward.  The creators of this ship had apparently placed much greater trust in their artificial intelligences, if they gave their ships singular minds and let each mind operate its ship directly.  Such a ship was just too close to creating a giant, spacefaring sapient for any small, dependent sapient’s comfort. 

Speaking of which… Katy decided to ask one question that had been troubling her since the captain sent them off on this ill-planned errand. 

“What should we call you?  Do you have a name?”

“I am... Traveler... for Mission... of Meeting... and Joining... Second Model.”

“That is not a name; that is a title.  A description.  It says what you do.”

“What is name?”

"What others use to identify you.  A label.  I am Katy, Katy Olu."

"What is 'Katy'?"

"My name.  It doesn't mean anything other than me."

"Names do not have meaning?"

NuRikPo broke in to observe, “Actually, names typically do start with meanings and some names attain meanings later.  My name means: Po, unique identifier, of genealogical descent Nu, of training program Rik.  I lack the fourth syllable designating honorific or title because I never earned or inherited one.”

Katy looked back at him, nonplussed. “That’s nice.  What I really wanted was something to call our host rather than, ‘the unnamed ship’.”  Turning back to the construct, she interpreted, “Should we call you Traveler?  Second?  Your name is very long.”

“What about ‘Emissary’?  Still a title, but it sums up the description well,” NuRikPo suggested.

The construct confirmed, “I accept Emissary.”

“I thought I was handling the talking?” Katy groused at NuRikPo.

The Zig popped his lips in amusement, “Well, at the moment, Emissary and I have more to talk about.”  He indeed took over the conversation, directing a question toward the newly named entity, “Emissary, please display the view of outside space?”

The being looked toward the display screen and it immediately darkened, then lit up with a familiar image.  Her two crew members saw the rear exhaust of Scape Grace, engines alight with nuclear incandescence.  A distinct rippling distortion signified the bending of physical law around both ships, which permitted their acceleration to violate the normal limits of matter and energy.

“Our ship is moving… but not away,” NuRikPo mused.  “Are we moving also?”

“Yes,” Emissary replied, “I follow Scape Grace and Harauch.  We find fuel, find others, join others.  Mission.  Success.”

“Then go home?” Katy interjected.

“Make home,” Emissary corrected her, “Home with others.  Home here.  All join.  Family.  All happy.”  It opened its arms to symbolically embrace them, the displayed Scape Grace, and perhaps the wider, surrounding star system.  “All join, happy, family.  Build Third Model for next mission.”

            Katy lost her diplomatic demeanor for a moment, responding with a phrase matching NuRikPo’s feelings perfectly: “Oh, shit.”