Vortex incursion, p.13
Vortex Incursion, page 13
“Yes,” Claudia replied uncertainly.
“I wish them good fortune with those tasks,” Claudia opined.
“We got off topic, Samuel. Explain the reason for the scout ship’s visit,” Claudia requested.
“I suppose that they’d like a meeting as soon as possible,” Claudia assumed.
Claudia laughed. “You’re a wit, Samuel,” she said. “I’ll organize a meeting with the council.”
A thought occurred to Claudia before she ended the call. “Samuel, I’m wondering how to contact you about the council meeting and when I want to continue the discussion about ships in our space. Your call came in on the Alexander icon. If I use that, I’m calling the ship, correct?”
“Will do, Samuel,” Claudia said, ending the call, which proved Samuel’s estimate that Claudia had guessed where he hid.
Samuel sent a message to the Reflection to inform the scouts of Claudia’s plans to add an item for them to the council’s agenda.
“Samuel, what do you know about our visitors, which the shuttleport just announced?” Gemma asked.
When the partners were alone, usually isolated in an office, they felt comfortable speaking directly to Samuel, knowing he was ever listening.
As for Samuel, he enjoyed the open conversation. It intimated that he was a silent partner of Truth Matters.
“The scouts are returning from investigating the Kilmer unexplored wormhole,” Gemma surmised.
“Oh, a good story,” Gemma enthused. “Go ahead.”
Samuel explained.
“And this necessitated the scouts come here again?” Gemma inquired.
“What did you find?” Gemma asked. She had a feeling of trepidation.
“What do you think you saw?” Gemma pressed.
“When you told us that the galaxy was more populated than we could ever believe, I treated it as hyperbole,” Gemma said. “Now I’m beginning to believe that it wasn’t an exaggeration on your part.”
Two days later, the scouts landed and made their way to Justice Hall.
“Welcome back, Killian, Bethley, and Trium,” Claudia said graciously.
“Our greetings to you, Councilor Hoffing, and the other councilors,” Killian replied.
“We presume that you explored the wormhole that the Dominance visited,” Claudia said.
“We did,” Killian replied. “When we exited the anomaly, we found a single battleship. Later, many ships arrived.”
“You provoked the aliens,” Fillery accused.
“Technically speaking, Councilor Partus, we compounded their sighting of ships arriving into their space via the anomaly,” Trium corrected.
“We learned of the race from an inhabitant of Helgart,” Killian continued. “He’s a digital sentient called Kreus. The ships are crewed by the Krackus, and they rule the Imperium Empire.”
“An empire?” Ramiro Ferraro repeated.
“Unfortunately, the Krackus have suborned hundreds of races, according to Kreus,” Bethley replied.
“Did you speak to the Krackus leaders?” James Soisson asked hopefully.
“Our opportunity was limited,” Killian replied.
“How so?” James pursued.
“First, it was an armed probe. Later, it was a missile barrage,” Bethley replied.
“They fired without provocation?” David Yewall sought to confirm.
“You’ve seen images of our ship. It isn’t intimidating, and we did nothing to warrant an aggressive response,” Trium noted.
“Then the Krackus will be coming to dominate us,” Fillery concluded with disgust.
“You despair without a fight, Councilor,” Killian admonished, which earned him Fillery’s scowl. “The outpost fleet sent Cremsylon some ships. Three are Tridents, and he requested that the senior captain guard the Krackus anomaly.”
“In addition, Councilors,” Bethley interjected, “the Krackus sail metal-hulled ships. Until they solve the problem of radiation penetration through their hulls, they won’t be appearing in your space anytime soon.”
“This seems like a report that you could have delivered via the new comm station,” Claudia pointed out. “Is there other business that you wished to conduct?”
“There is, Councilor,” Killian admitted. “We’ve been apprised of unusual data within the Densing Array’s recordings. Researchers hoped to corroborate the sighting by comparing data collected at the same time and in the same direction, but cooperation wasn’t forthcoming.”
“Why should you be concerned with a trivial —” David began. Then he abruptly halted. “It isn’t trivial, is it?”
“We aren’t sure, but it deserves investigating,” Bethley replied.
“What are the best- and worst-case scenarios, Killian?” Claudia asked.
“If fortune is with Naiad, space dust landed on the array and was later dislodged,” Killian replied. “However, there is a possibility that a small probe exited the farther anomaly, viewed the Gelus system, and retreated.”
“This is your doing,” Fillery declared, pointing a finger at the SADEs. “Your presence has attracted these other aliens.”
“Ignorance doesn’t offer you protection against future events, Councilor,” Killian replied.
“How do we know that you aren’t inventing these circumstances to frighten us into doing what you want?” Fillery asked.
James leaned toward Claudia and whispered softly, “Easy to see why the SADEs came here rather than send a message.” Then she nodded her agreement.
“We thought that might be an opinion,” Trium said, “and we offer you a method of independent verification.”
“Explain how?” Ramiro asked. He dearly didn’t want to make the same mistake of siding with Fillery out of fear.
“Research Director Pashtani has data that can possibly confirm or refute our assumptions, but he’s refused to share it with the research team who were party to identifying the object near the anomaly,” Trium replied. It was the closest he’d ever come to obscuring the truth.
Claudia asked, “Who should receive Pashtani’s data?”
“Research Director Ian Kilpatrick,” Killian replied.
The council’s administrator raised her hand and pointed to her slate.
Claudia tipped her head, and the administrator transferred the connection.
“Yes, Councilor Hoffing?” Director Pashtani inquired, believing the council had initiated the call.
In a short, terse conversation, Claudia directed Pashtani to share any data recordings with Director Kilpatrick that he requested.
Pashtani resisted.
Then Claudia said she’d be happy to issue a council edict. At which point, Pashtani agreed to her request.
When Claudia ended the call, she regarded the scouts. “Anything else?” she inquired.
“We’ll be in touch after Director Pashtani’s data is reviewed,” Killian said. “Our thanks for your help.”
Killian connected to Samuel, as the scouts dropped down Justice Hall toward the transport level.
Samuel replied.
“Samuel, we received a message from Pashtani,” Lena said excitedly. “He wants to know what data we’re requesting. This is about the verification imagery you sought, isn’t it?”
“Samuel, does this have anything to do with the buzz about the three SADEs seen visiting Justice Hall?” Ian asked.
“More than likely, Pashtani’s team was researching something else,” Ian said. “You might need to process the raw data.”
“Oh, yes,” Lena replied.
Ian regarded his slate, which had received a message from Lena. He copied the link and responded to Pashtani.
Within several minutes, Pashtani replied.
“Uh-oh,” Ian muttered. “We received a link.” He accessed the link and discovered what he feared.
Samuel accessed the link and concluded,
“I’m sorry, Samuel, I can’t allow that,” Ian replied. “I’m not sharing our algorithms with Pashtani, not after the way he’s behaved to us.”
“I trust you, Samuel. Please, protect our programs,” Ian said, and Samuel ended the links.
Samuel monitored the slates of Pashtani’s team. Slowly, one by one, the employees left their offices. The last individual left just after twenty hours and triggered the company’s protective services.
Immediately, Samuel accessed Pashtani’s link and investigated the server. As he suspected, the program he needed was the only data on the machine. Working quickly, Samuel experimented with the array’s recording. It didn’t have any of the characteristics of the other work he’d delivered for his clients.
After two hours, Samuel discovered the type of conversion required to produce the necessary imagery. Then he ran the data through his new algorithm.
Pashtani’s array time had accumulated more data than Samuel would have suspected. The conversion required much more processing time.
Samuel tracked Pashtani’s and his employees’ slates. While the program still ran, several individuals were en route to the company office.
The conversion finished, as the company’s protector services were turned off by the first employee.
Samuel began the image transfer to his location, while the employee visited the facilities and prepared caf in the break room. He had no idea when or how the employee might check on the server, and he continued to wait and watch.
By the time the third employee arrived, Samuel removed the last trace of his presence, including the server’s log. He compared the pre- and post-image of the server, saw they matched, and ended his link.
Everything Samuel and the SADEs had done was for this next moment. The converted program was forwarded to the time period Samuel required. Then he studied the images. His blip was there and in greater detail than in the original recording. It was a probe, and the last recorded image had it headed toward the anomaly’s mouth.
Then Samuel uploaded the converted data to the Reflection.
Samuel was running various scenarios to decide how much to share, when the TM office received a slate call. He quickly accepted the call.
“Greetings, Samuel,” Claudia replied. She marveled that it didn’t seem odd to borrow the visitors’ speech patterns. “I’d like to continue our conversation about the outpost fleet’s ships that have arrived and where they’re deployed.”
“You mentioned a Quadrant, a Trident squadron, a freighter, and two carriers,” Claudia said, referring to her notes.
Samuel replied.
“Second-gen?” Claudia queried. “Would these be the sisters created by the original militarist sect?”
“Prolific at producing progeny,” Claudia mused.
Samuel ignored the statement to continue his explanation.
“I thought Peña was a first-gen sister?” Claudia asked in confusion.
“Okay, that’s one carrier. What about the others?” Claudia inquired.
“No, it didn’t,” Claudia vigorously stated. Simultaneously, she made a note on her slate to ask the significance of a storyteller.
Samuel ventured.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking,” Claudia replied.
Samuel chuckled in a way that made Claudia want to smile.
“Is Kilmer where the other ships are stationed?” Claudia asked.
“If the squadron is capable of protecting the wormhole, then they must be warships,” Claudia ventured.
Claudia considered what she’d learned. It was a lot to digest, and she knew she had a duty to share with the council. More questions occurred to her. “Samuel, who is in charge of the work at Kilmer?” she asked.
“What about Dyehouse?” Claudia inquired.
Samuel apologized.
“Lisa had to hate that offer,” Claudia mused. She curtailed the impulse to laugh at the chairperson’s possible diminishment in power. “One last question, Samuel. I’ll be checking with Director Kilpatrick on his study of the Pashtani work, but I understand these conversion processes take weeks or even months to process. I wonder if you’ve had an update on the progress.”
On several levels, Claudia was taken aback by Samuel’s response, and she was unsure what to question first. So she started at the minutiae to give her time to process the greater implications.
“You’re the entity who has been speeding the conversion processes that I’ve heard rumors about,” Claudia sought to confirm.
Samuel replied.
“Then the scouts’ request for Pashtani’s work to be sent to Kilpatrick was a ruse,” Claudia concluded. She wasn’t happy about that, and Samuel didn’t mistake the tone in her voice.
