Chapter 4: Nano-Bots & Obelisks

I woke up the next morning feeling relaxed. The past few days had transformed from a crazy escape to a pleasant vacation.

Laine was sleeping in the cot next to me, with her arm draped over my chest. I eased her arm off me and got out of the shelter.

After my morning ritual, I got our morning coffees and returned to wake Laine.

“A girl could get used to your attention,” said Laine with a smile.

Laine sipped on her coffee until she had to step out back.

When she returned, she asked about breakfast.

“Sure, take a seat and I’ll get it,” I said.

We had two Quard dishes for breakfast, together with coffee.

After breakfast, Laine took out her device and scanned her ankle.

“My ankle is almost better,” said Laine.

I smiled.

Then I realized what I had missed for the past two days.

“Laine, before we left the orbital station, you were downloading data from the computer core?” I asked.

“Yes, but the download didn’t finish. There is no guarantee we have anything useful,” replied Laine.

“You have a partial download. And the data you downloaded is in your device?” I pointed at her device.

“You know it,” said Laine.

“Please examine the downloaded data. See if you can decode it. There might be clues that can help us,” I said. I was certain of it.

“It could take us years. The data is huge and my device has a limited processing ability. Can you refine the search parameters?” she asked.

“Try looking for anything related to the obelisks,” I replied.

“Obelisks, got it. It will still take time,” she said.

“Understood. Perhaps you can leave your device running an initial scan while we have a swim,” I suggested.

Laine smiled. She punched a few buttons on the device and put it on the table.

“The scan will take hours to figure out the data formatting, then it will try to decipher the languages and encoding used. Let’s get changed!” she said.

We changed into our bathing outfits and left for the water.

Jem and Mina stood in the corridor on the cargo bay level.

“Mina, keep your weapon pointed at the door. Shoot anything that steps through,” said Jem.

“Understood, Commodore,” replied Mina.

Jem felt terrified as she approached the downed androids.

As soon as she was close enough, she pointed her weapon at the knee of the android on the right. She fired, severing the lower leg.

Jem grabbed the android leg and ran back to Mina.

Mina stared at Jem in shock.

“I’m trying to think like Brian did. I needed a sample,” replied Jem to the unasked question.

Mina nodded.

“Keep your weapon trained on those doors!” cautioned Jem.

Mina turned back to the doors.

Jem put the leg down and pointed her weapon at the doors. Then she lifted her left arm and looked at the readings on her suit display.

“Crap!” said Jem.

“What’s wrong now?” asked Mina.

“Mina, we have to withdraw now! Keep your weapon pointed at the doors and walk backwards,” said Jem.

Mina didn’t waste any time and walked backwards.

Jem picked up the leg and followed her to the elevator.

Once inside the elevator, Jem pressed the button to go back to the decontamination level.

“Why did we withdraw after we took out two androids?” asked Mina.

“How many more androids do you think were inside that cargo bay?” asked Jem.

“Up to ten more,” replied Mina.

“We got shot by two androids. Our personal shields are down by over fifty percent,” said Jem. “We could not survive another two shots like that.”

“I didn’t realize that,” said Mina.

“If we walked in to the cargo bay and took more than two shots, we’d be dead,” said Jem.

“Crap! We nearly died!” said Mina.

Jem nodded. The elevator doors opened, and they walked out.

“Ship, do what you can to seal off the entire cargo bay level. Shut down the elevator,” said Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

They walked into decontamination.

Jem dropped the leg onto a nearby table.

“Ship, scan this leg. Find out the alloy used in the construction,” said Jem.

“Confirmed. Scanning...” replied Ship.

“Why are we scanning this leg?” asked Mina.

Jem turned to Mina. “Know your enemy.”

“Ship, I need you to program nano-bots that can distinguish between the alloy used in the androids and the alloy used in the decking, walls and doors,” said Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“I need a means to deploy the nano-bots, and I need them priority,” ordered Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“I get it. You’re making nano-bots to use against the androids,” said Mina.

“Yes, but it has to be safe to use inside Ship,” replied Jem.

“What about our personal shields?” asked Mina.

“Ship, our personal shields are inadequate against their energy weapons. I need more powerful ones. I need upgrades and I need them priority,” ordered Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“We need to stop them before they expand beyond cargo bay seven,” said Jem.

“Wow! This is scary,” said Mina.

“This is about survival. Ship, I need an estimate of when those items will be ready,” replied Jem.

“About thirty minutes, Commodore,” replied Ship.

“Mina, meet me here in thirty minutes. Then we finish this,” said Jem.

Laine and I spent the morning relaxing in the ocean.

I wondered about the minerals in the sea water. They had a therapeutic effect on Laine’s injuries. I should take a sample of sea water with us. Perhaps Ship could fill the pool in the lido with the same water.

Early afternoon, Laine interrupted me.

“I’m hungry, can we go back to camp?” she asked.

“Sure,” I replied.

We made our way back to camp. Laine went to the food dispenser and ordered a few of her favourite dishes. She brought them over to the table.

“Those look yummy,” I said.

She sat beside me, and we munched away. Laine looked at her device.

“How is progress?” I asked.

“It worked out most of the formatting. Now it’s working on decoding the language and character encoding,” replied Laine.

“We need to speed this up, Laine. I have an idea,” I said.

“I like it when you get ideas. Cool stuff happens,” replied Laine.

“You have the astral coordinates for this system?” I asked.

“For the Carolus system? Yes, I have the coordinates,” replied Laine.

“And the coordinates for the Avalon system and the system where we found the orbital station?” I asked.

“Yes, I have all those. What about them?” replied Laine.

“Use them for search parameters. I suspect the obelisk on the orbital station was from the planet surface,” I said.

Laine’s eye’s lit up as did her smile.

“I get it! We search for blocks of data referencing those coordinates,” said Laine.

“It should be easier to focus the search on just numbers. I don’t need schematics or videos or even text. The mathematics of astral coordinates should be a universal language,” I said.

“This reminds me when we extracted the astral navigation data from the Lagaid pirate vessels,” said Laine.

“It’s almost the same. We know of three systems that contain an obelisk. Hopefully we get a match on those coordinates,” I said.

Laine started a flurry of typing on her device.

“I’m just setting up the search parameters. It’ll take time to complete,” said Laine.

“I hope it takes a lot less time,” I replied.

“Done! Now we wait,” said Laine.

I slid a dish of crunchy vegetables towards Laine.

“Enjoy! You earned it,” I said with a smile.

Laine grinned back at me.

“I really enjoy working with you, Brian. You often come up with amazing things,” she said.

“It is amazing when it works. We won’t know until your search ends,” I replied.

I picked up an item from the dish and tasted it. It was a vegetable in a crunchy coating, very spicy.

Laine wore a near continuous smile. She picked up a vegetable and bit into it.

“On a different topic. I’ve a strange sense that Jem and Mina are in danger,” I said.

“What kind of danger?” asked Laine.

“I don’t know. I could be wrong about it,” I replied.

Laine’s smile turned into a frown.

“It makes sense to me. Carolus four is too good for us to stay here forever. A few days while we recover, yes. But we need to move on soon,” she said.

Thirty minutes later, Jem and Mina returned to decontamination.

“Ship, show us what you have finished,” said Jem.

“On the table are two new personal shield devices. Please remove the old ones from the front of your away team uniforms,” said Ship.

Their current personal shield devices attached to the middle of the chest on their uniforms. They weighed about a kilo in weight. Jem and Mina detached them and placed them on the table.

“The new personal shields look like backpacks,” said Mina.

“Confirmed, Lieutenant. They are heavier, and would disturb your balance if you wore them on the front,” replied Ship.

Jem picked up the backpack like object.

“Mina, turn around and I will help you,” said Jem.

Jem put the backpack on Mina.

“Wow, it’s significantly heavier!” said Mina.