New Neighbors

Chapter 23

 

Amy and Jake retired to Amy's quarters after the meeting was finished. It had been a long time since they had the time to spend alone, and both of them were looking forward to that time together. After a relaxing shower together the two of them went to bed, but not to sleep.

Amy woke up first the next morning and was just finishing her morning chores in the bathroom when she "felt" something wasn't right. She couldn't locate the source of what was wrong no matter how hard she tried. She tried scanning for the source, but all she found was several couples enjoying each other's company. As she continued to scan, reaching further out, she noticed a "blank spot"; this was a first for her. After trying for a few minutes more without success, she returned to the bed. Jake was awake now so Amy told him about the "blank spot" and her feeling of something being wrong.

Jake contacted the bridge and asked for an update on the status of the system, he made it sound routine, and was told that everything was quiet onboard and within the system. Jake asked when the last sensor scan was done outside the system and was told it had completed just 10 minutes prior to his call. Just as Jake signed off AL asked for permission to enter, Jake told him to come in.

AL had an update from the space dock on the Iberian ship. The communication and identification codes had been found in the ship's computer and were being decrypted and translated. Also, a self destruct had been terminated. It would take several days for a new AI to be constructed and installed on the ship. Jake acknowledged this news and then asked AL if he would review the last few scans for anything out of the way. Amy explained about her feelings and the "blank spot" she had detected. AL said he would review the scans and let her know what he found.

After AL left, Ted called to report the same "blank spot".

"Usually, I have to tune-out the voices. But for some reason there seems to be an area that I can't sense. I'm not sure where it is located but it seems to be out there." Ted said.

"Amy had the same experience; she couldn't tell where the spot was either." Jake replied.

It was a couple of hours later when AL reported back on the analysis of the scans. "I reviewed the scan in question and found a slight anomaly at the extreme edge of our range. I then went back and reviewed the previous scan of the same area and it showed the same anomaly. After rescanning the area in question, I could not detect the anomaly. A diagnostic of the sensors shows no faults and they appear to be working correctly."

Amy asked that AL continue to monitor the scans for the same anomaly. She then wanted to know when the probe would be launched to investigate the coordinates they had discussed last night. AL told her the probe should be ready after lunch, but it would take a day or two before they would have any reliable information from it. Amy told AL to alter the coordinates so that the probe would be about 100,000 km from the original point, just to be on the safe side. AL said it would be done as she requested.

Shortly after lunch the probe was dispatched to the coordinates found in the old recorder. All reports showed that the system was quiet and repairs were underway. Tuvok was still feeling a little weak but was recovering nicely, he continued to advise Amy on how to get the most from the council.

It was two days since the probe had been sent to Empire space and the first bit of data was just being analyzed. The initial data showed what appeared to be an empty stretch of space with nothing out of the ordinary found. But the in-depth scans were yet to be received, they were still in progress. When the updated scans were reviewed they showed an old beacon that seemed to be inactive. Jake asked what would happen if their probe decloaked for a few minutes and then cloaked and moved to a different position; maybe the beacon was just passively monitoring the area or waiting for a signal. This was tried but there was no response from the beacon.

Marcie, the AI on Mars, sent a message thru AL that on re-examining the recorder found she thought that she had found an access code that needed to be transmitted once SuLak arrived at the coordinates. AL had the probe de-cloaked, send the code and then wait to see what happened. As soon as the code was sent the probe detected the activation of the beacon. The probe sent this new information on its next transmission. As soon as AL saw the information he had the drone cloak and move again and instructed it to hold further transmissions until queried. AL then informed Amy, Jake, and Ted of this event.

Somewhere in Empire Space

The beacon had not received any activation codes in a long time, but it continued to passively monitor for those signals. While this beacon was not "intelligent", it did have a set of instructions as to how to respond when it received the awaited codes.

An access code was detected, it was the correct sequence, so the beacon began broadcasting the homing signal, as instructed by it's program. The access code also started up a routine that had not been used in 500 years, the beacon set a self-destruct sequence and tried to home in on the source of the access code. If an override wasn't received then the beacon would destroy itself and the closest ship(s).

The beacon locked onto the source of the access code. About an hour later it's "target" disappeared and could not be located. There was not any provision for this in the beacon's instructions so it continued the countdown to self-destruction, and continued to broadcast the homing signal.

The homing signal was received by the closest Empire ship which then started towards the beacon. This was a signal that the ship's captain had not encountered before, but the signal was one recognized by his computer and his instructions were clear - go to the beacon and transmit a specific code, or else the beacon would destroy itself and any ship in the area. Two hours later the ship arrived at the beacon, transmitted the code and looked for the ship which had initiated the broadcast. No ship was seen or detected in the area. 'Probably a malfunction due to age' thought the captain. But unknown to the captain, the beacon had now locked on to him and the code wasn't the correct disarming code.

Upon receiving the disarming code the beacon's program determined that the code was incorrect, now it had a target to destroy; in one hour it would self-destruct. A second then a third ship arrived and sent the same code to the beacon. The beacon now had three targets, and 15 minutes left to self-destruct. All three ships were within 2 km of the beacon and their captains were making plans to join each other for the evening meal aboard the largest and newest ship there, the ship carrying the Emperor's head of command.

Fourteen minutes and 30 seconds later, the beacon self-destructed and took out the three ships. The shock wave rocked the probe from the PDF but did no damage. The probe recorded the arrival of all three ships, it also noted the id of each ship, and then recorded the destruction of the beacon and the three ships. Now the probe waited for permission to transmit those recordings back to its base.

Back Onboard Amy's Ship

It had been a whole day since AL had the probe hold all transmissions, now it was time to query the probe for any new information and hope that the query wasn't noticed by anyone in that area. At Amy's instruction, AL sent the query out. Three hours later AL gave the results to Amy. Amy and Jake looked at the report and wondered what was really happening in the Empire. Amy called a full command staff conference for 2100, she also wanted Alpha and Sol in attendance.

At 2100, with everyone in attendance, Amy presented the report from the probe in the Empire space:

"As you can see by this extract report the area in question appears to be a meeting spot for covert ops. I find it interesting that a new beacon was left by the last ship. This implies that there are still some 'people' out there that the Empire doesn't want to be known. AL is still reviewing the data from our probe to see if we can identify any of the ships. The ship EXP002 appears to be a capital ship; recorded transmission between the ships shows that the other ships were deferring to this one. Anyone have any comments or suggestions?" Amy said after everyone had a chance to read the report.

Nobody said a thing for several minutes; then Sally spoke up. "What do you think would happen if we had the probe send the same access code again and follow that with the code that the other ships sent? I mean, the destruction of the beacon and the ships could just be because the beacon was old and some of its programming damaged. Marcie was already aware of this report from AL and had the space dock reexamine the computer logs on the captured ship, the same coordinates and access codes were found."

Amy had not been aware of this information, so she was as surprised as everyone else. Admiral TuLak and Ted both had the same "knowing" look on their faces. Amy asked them what was going through their minds. ADM. TuLak spoke up and said that it wasn't possible for the Empire to have changed the codes yet and that this might just be an opening that was needed for the invasion of the Empire. Ted jumped in and told everyone that since the beacon was old that just maybe the Empire would assume the same thing as Sally, that is to say that he beacon malfunctioned or did not understand the second code. If that was true then if their probe sent the access code and waited a short while then sent the second code they might get a better idea as to whether or not the first beacon malfunctioned or preformed as instructed.

"If I remember correctly, when we first started this adventure back in Sol, we had to capture a couple of probes and rework them to prevent problems there. Maybe we should try the same thing with this Empire probe. But that would mean sending a ship to the area and risk detection before we are ready." Jake added.

Since nobody else had much to say Amy called the meeting to a close, after about another 30 minutes.