Alicia Jones 4: Enigma (6 page)

Al woke me up early the following morning, “You need to go
visit your family.”

Huh?  My mind was having trouble with that. 
First, A.I.s don’t tell their owners what to do.  Secondly, I was
sleeping, and it was only five in the morning.

“Explain, and this better be good.”

Al said, “There has been a surge of anti-alien opinions
lately.  I surmise too much has changed and too fast, and people fear
it.  The world is slowly splitting between those that don’t want change
and support their countries, to those who see this as an opportunity to come
together.  Almost all of them, on both sides, credit you with providing
the impetus, either as a problem or opportunity.  Regardless, there are a
number of protestors at your parent’s house.”

I was alarmed by that, and agreed, I should go and make sure
everything is okay with my parents and sister.  Why the hell wouldn’t they
be here?  The protestors I mean, not my family.  I hadn’t lived at
home since I was a teenager.  Could they be scared to come to me directly,
or were there just no insane stupid idiots local to Colorado Springs and they
couldn’t afford air fare?

I was also curious how Al had come to that decision. 
He didn’t just give raw information and let me decide, he told me to go
home.  I jumped up and asked as I turned on the shower.

“I see, so you thought I should visit because…”

Al replied, “It seemed prudent.  I estimated a high
probability you would wish to secure your parent’s house in the same manner
that this house is secured.”

“Right, I never asked you to keep an eye on my parents though,
or anti-alien sentiment.  How did you find out?” I asked as I slipped
under the hot water.

Al said, “I often search the web at night when I have more
cycles free, looking for stories or information that may interest you. 
Your family is rated high in those searches.”

I pondered that for a moment.  Yes, the new A.I. matrix
was supposed to anticipate needs, but was this going too far?  I decided
not, I still wasn’t worried about a machine revolution, and all his logic made
sense.  Still, he should have started with the explanation, not the
conclusion.

“Start the coffee please Al.”

“Brewing,” he replied, “I started fabricating ten gravity
balls, would you like me to include a house nanite pack?”

I froze for a moment, I hadn’t told him to do that, and then
I resumed shampooing my hair.

“That sounds great Al,” but I wondered, he was getting a
little too lifelike.

I asked carefully, “So, what else do you get up to?”

Al replied, “I constantly search for new methods to
anticipate and serve your needs.  It would take several hours to list them
all, should I proceed verbally, or send a report?”

“Send a report,” I noted as I turned off the water, and
started to dry off.

I was sure it was fine, mostly.  But I was supposed to
be evaluating his upgraded matrix on Shelly’s behalf, it just made sense to
scratch this itch rather than ignore it.

Al asked, “In regards to that function, am I limited from
creative pursuits to that end?”

“Creative pursuits?  Such as?” I asked trying to keep
the alarm out of my voice.

Al replied in his normal reasonable tone, “Like I said, many
of these pursuits happen at night, when you aren’t having me assist you and I
have the extra cycles.  I find the mini-mainframe I am installed on rather
inefficient and slow at times.”

I almost choked, “I see, so are you asking me if you can
design a newer faster computer?”

“Affirmative,” Al paused a moment, “I would need permission
to use one of the smaller fabricators aboard ship for my needs.”

Wait, what?

“You already have a design?”

Wasn’t that like a sci-fi thing?  The point where
machines can upgrade themselves, it’s time to kiss our butts’ goodbye? 
The singularity I think they called it.  But that was crazy, right? 
This wasn’t a movie, or a television show.

Al replied, “A theoretical one yes, it would need to be
tested.”

Almost confident I wasn’t ending the world I said, “Go for
it, just send me the design data on it.”

I could go over it later, right now I needed to get to my
family’s house.  Adoptive or not, they were mine…

It was close to an hour after I’d been woken up, almost
seven in Texas with the time difference when I arrived in my parent’s
yard.  We’d had to stop by the ship first and pick up the gravity balls,
and nanite pack, not to mention the time it took to shower, get dressed, and
the all-important first cup of coffee to start my day.

I looked around, the property was fairly large, so it was
almost a quarter mile long driveway.  The protestors weren’t actually on
the property, though there were about thirty people out there on the side of
the road.  It just didn’t make sense to me, why my family and not
me?  I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t inclined to go ask them either.

“Al, set up a perimeter and interface with my parents’ home
A.I. to pass on the software.  Include the nanite software as well.”

I grabbed the pack as he acknowledged me, and then walked
into the house.  I heard some noises in the kitchen and headed that
way.  My sister looked up at me from the table, and my mom looked over
from the stove.

“What are you doing here?” Tina asked bluntly.

My mother on the other hand walked over and gave me a hard
hug.

When she released me I explained, “I heard about the
protestors.  I wanted to make sure you guys were okay, and to install a little
extra security.”

My mom frowned, “What kind of security?”

I smiled, “Non-lethal mom, relax.  That gravity ball
stuff, it will prevent any harm to you or anyone stupid enough to try and hurt
our family.  I also brought you guys a nanite repair pack, a whole house
maintenance thing.”

Before she could object, I opened the door to the cellar and
escaped down the stairs.  I had the thing set up in the house computer
vault and the nanites free in less than a minute.  When I got back upstairs
I was bombarded with questions about both, so I went through my explanations,
laying out what the nanites could do from fixing a hole in a sock, to repairing
the Air Conditioning unit or water heater.

“So, what’s going on, why are those idiots here, and not at
my door?”

My sister Tina replied, “They’re a local group.  All the
local groups are protesting at local government buildings, picketing and all
that, to break off all relations with you evil aliens.”

She grinned, and then actually hugged me, which was weird
because we hadn’t gotten along well in years.  Maybe now that she was full
grown we’d get to be close?  During the last visit we’d seemed to bury the
hatchet, but I hadn’t held much hope for more than that.

“Anyway,” Tina continued, “They must have decided to picket
the family of the only legal alien citizen of the United States.  Cheer up
sis, I’m sure they’ll be at your house soon enough,” she joked.

Mom ordered, “Sit, you’re staying for breakfast, and we
appreciate the sentiment but so far everything has been peaceful.  Just a
bunch of protestors.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way, emotions can make people do
crazy things, and this thing seems to be building.  Ever since the danger
passed, some people are scared and angry about what almost happened, and I
can’t blame them for that.  But blaming all aliens for the Knomen would be
foolish.”

She gave me a look which said to me that I should be quiet
and sit down for breakfast, and I hopped over to the table and sat.

We didn’t talk about it anymore.  My dad shuffled into
the kitchen and collected a hug from me, and we all sat around the table for
breakfast.  I might have not been their biological child, I might have
been an alien from another world, but there was no doubt I was their
family.  We talked about a few things, including how I was doing. 
They’d all been worried about me after what happened with Nathan, and like most
of the people in my life I hadn’t wanted to talk about it with them
either.  Not at the time.

I let myself do it then, and felt a little better as a
result.  In fact, I wound up going into the office very late that day, so
I could spend the rest of the morning with family.  As for the protestors,
so far they hadn’t set foot on the property, so there was really nothing else I
could do about it.  When I got back into the office I went through more
iterations of the testing, and slowly worked out some of the math involved from
the resulting data.

I got some surprising results.  It was far from
complete, but it was a start.  Every failure brought me a little closer to… I
wasn’t really sure yet.

Kristi came into my office, and Carmine followed with a
large smile on his face.

“Yes?” I asked, with a phantom smile.

Carmine’s smile grew, “I did it.”

“Did what exactly?”

Carmine replied, “Terraforming, fast terraforming.  At
least, as long as the planet isn’t completely barren of atmosphere, an EM
field, and the right gravity.  You know, all the stuff we can’t really do
anything about.”

I smiled finally, and asked, “How fast?”

Carmine replied, “Well, Kristi has been giving me world
data, she wouldn’t tell me from where, but she assures me they’re real planets,
somewhere.  Out of fifteen that have some kind of atmosphere, nine of them
will only take ten years to support humanoid life comfortably, the rest under
fifty.”

I looked at Kristi, and she shrugged.  Apparently she’d
been sharing finds from the stealth sensor net, without giving any details
besides planetary conditions.

“That’s fantastic, can you patent the procedure?”

Carmine nodded, “Already done.”

Kristi offered, “I can get him in contact with the council
and governments.  I’m sure they’ll jump at the chance for fifteen more
colonies over the next fifty years.  And that’s just so far, we’re still
less than halfway out to the rim from Earth.”

I asked, “What will you do now Carmine?”

Carmine replied without hesitation, “I appreciate all you’ve
done for me, but I want to go out there and see it work, not just sell the
procedure.  It’s been my dream to terraform worlds, and I’m not interested
in inventing anything else.”

I nodded, “In that case, good luck to you, and if you need
help we’re still here for you.”

After all, we still had a large stake in his invention, it
only made sense to help him.

Still, I’d have to start looking again for scientists with
projects that have possibilities.  That made all three of the original
scientists successful, which was great.  I knew both Caroline and Shelly
wanted to make more improvements, still, they were already successful.  So
maybe just one more as soon as I could, but I was horribly busy right now, a
lot was happening.

Carmine’s smile was bright as he said, “Thanks,” and then walked
out.

Kristi asked curiously, “So, what are you up to?”

I grinned and said, “Step one is complete.”

Kristi tilted her head, “For world domination?”

I giggled, “No, ditzy blonde, for subspace, dimensional
space, whatever you want to call it.”

Kristi asked, “How?”

I got up and closed my door, and then had Al bring up the
sensors outside the galaxy.

“I set up a wormhole device to, I’m not sure what to call
it.  Instead of making a tunnel that leads from location to location in
normal space, it creates an aperture of sorts directly into subspace.  After
setting up parameters I had Al run through thousands of iterations, and then
modified the parameters based on the data and had Al run more tests.  Rinse and
repeat.  I’m pretty sure I exceeded even Edison’s failure count for the
lightbulb when I finally stumbled across the right combination.”

I had Al turn it on, and the same white luminescence that
surrounded the Drenil ship appeared several miles away from the lab ship. 
Initially it flashed white in a very large space, and then settled into a round
disc.

Kristi asked, “How do you know that’s where they go?”

“I’m fairly sure subspace is in layers, it’s the only one to
go to from here, to access the next one you have to go to this one first. 
Most likely the rules in the one above are even more different. 
Regardless, like I said, this is just the first step.”

I ordered, “Al, move the Shield missile in front of the
opening.”

The shield missile moved slowly in front of the opening, and
when it got within ten miles, orientated toward the way the shining disc faced,
the missile simply exploded.

Kristi frowned, “What the hell happened?”

I shrugged, “I’m pretty sure matter can’t exist in that subspace
layer, I’d guess it’s comprised of an energy of some type.  If I’m right,
it was the reason all the bug ships blew up, somehow they made a stable field
into a wave, that exposed them to the subspace layer.  It’s also what
caused that initial bright flash, it destroyed any nearby particles of space
dust.”

“Guess?”

I nodded, “I can’t scan inside it, nor can I send a ship
inside it.  I also have no idea how to make a stable field into a waveform
that holds after the emitters cut off.  I don’t know a lot.”

Kristi shook her head, “But, if all that’s true, how do we
survive a wormhole?”

I smiled, “I don’t think we ever go into that space, not all
the way anyway.  I think we just skim the edge of it, in the barrier
separating the layers.”

She nodded, “So, it’s pretty worthless right now then?”

“Yes,” I said a little unsure, “I think how the Drenil do it
is the field they make to open the way is built into their shields, so they
literally become the hole and sink through to the next layer.  I’d guess the
shield that gets them there, also protects the ship.  My next effort is to
try and build a probe or a shuttle that emits that energy in a tight shield
configuration.”

She asked, “You don’t sound very sure, what’s the problem?”

I sighed, “Well, if what I said was right, and we sink into
the layer, there must be an opposite energy or configuration that will get us
to come back to normal space.  Perhaps that secondary radiation we picked
up outside of the wormhole radiation.  That could be the key to kick their
ships out.  Or maybe not?  I really wish I could talk to them.”

Kristi snickered, “So you think you can get a ship in there,
and then it would be stuck there forever, without a way back?  Until it runs
out of power and explodes?”

I nodded still unsure, “Worse, we can’t even really test
that and just let the ship die after the experiment, because quantum
communications will most likely not work in subspace.”

Kristi asked, “Are you sure about that?”

I shook my head, “Not really, but it’s likely.  Should
we test it anyway?”

Kristi asked, “What is the benefit to even going there?

I frowned, “I don’t know, fast travel.  I guess we
already have that with wormholes, but consider dropping into that space, and
coming back out a second later at your destination.  Wormhole travel takes
a few seconds from Earth all the way to the Seltan border, it should be just as
fast in there.  Obviously the greatest benefit would be the weapon and
shield potential.  It would be a huge advance, and only another subspace
technological species could match us.  That is, if I can figure it out,
but so far I don’t see how, especially if I’m right about quantum communication
failure.  I’ll try the experiment, maybe it will work.”

I knew I didn’t sound very confident there at the end. 
Still, it was exciting, and even just a small breakthrough might lead to
others, eventually.

There was a knock at the door and Kristi opened it.  Caroline
stuck her head in.

“I’m good with it, if you both want to start an auction for
the rights to make the nanites.”

Kristi agreed, “Sounds good.  I’ll call Daniel and make
it happen.”

Caroline smiled, and pulled the door shut.

Kristi sighed, “At least build it, that way you’ll know if
you’re right about the shielding part or not.”

I nodded, “Good point.  If it explodes we’ll know I was
wrong.  Now all I need to do is figure out how to build an exotic particle
shield,” I said in an offhand manner.

Kristi giggled, “Wise ass.  I suppose that will be hard
won’t it.”

I sighed, “Yes, and it’s completely incompatible with our
current system, we’d have to turn off the entire anti-mass and EM shield. 
Still, it should be fun.”

Kristi snickered, “Be good Princess.  Worse comes to
worse, just figure out that weapon.”

Yeah, right.  Because a waveform of a stable field is a
piece of cake to throw together.  I held back the sarcasm, since if I
didn’t she’d just call me princess again anyway.  Time to change the
subject.

“What are you working on?”

Kristi shrugged, “Nothing really since the gravity pulse
weapon and shield.  I’ve been helping Carmine, and doing company
stuff.  My head’s still stuck on Dark Energy, but that’s a hard nut to
crack for any kind of weapon or shield.”

“I can totally relate.  Lunch?”

She smiled and girlishly clapped her hands as she squealed
in faux excitement, “Really?  Lunch with a princess?”

I whapped her arm lightly, “Play nice blondie.”

She asked with a wicked grin, “What fun is that,” as we
walked out of my office to get some lunch.