Below on this page is part 9 of the science fiction story “
The Alastor Network”. In
part 8, having been abducted by space pirates,
Twycky Jeghtop was delivered to the planet
Yrinna and she began learning about her captors. Lord Doberthucain
Gensifer, head of the Gensifer Clan, explains to Twycky that she is going to become part of an effort to recombine telepathy genes. The goal of this
starmenter project is to produce humans with far greater telepathic abilities than have so far been observed.
Appalled by her fate, resenting and resisting every aspect of being a captive, Twycky resolves not to cooperate with the genetics experiments of the starmenters. However, Twycky is immediately subjected to a form of cognitive “reprogramming” aimed at altering her thinking and adapting her to the realities of her new life on Yrinna. She is put in the care of two robots from
Triskelion, named H1 and H2, who start adjusting Twycky's thought processes to life as a member of the Gensifer Clan.
Unbeknownst to Twycky, the “H” in the names H1 and H2 stands for 'hierion' and the two robots are front-men for R. Nyrtia. It is Nyrtia who begins the real process of altering Twycky's behavior by making use of infites, information nanites that are a sophisticated form of nanotechnology available to positronic robots.
Part 9 of “The Alastor Network” (below) takes place about a month after Twycky's abduction, at a time when the Whelm is ready to rescue her. The Connatic and his wife, Acyreff, have assembled a large fleet of warships near Yrinna. However, Twycky is now pregnant and Grean the Kac'hin plans to do more than simply return Twycky to her home on Brevik. Now, before the Whelm's rescue team can go to Yrinna, Acyreff must obtain one more key technology on Brevik...
⎯ The Alastor Network
Part 9.
QB5 the Telepath.
(read part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6) (part 7) (part 8)Guiding their aircar down to the surface of Brevik, Dr. Kasya Jeghtop flew Commander Shermatz directly to the Shadow Drone factory of the Pegasus Spaceship Company which was located near the city of Glasgow. While they flew, Acyreff received word from the Appenine that an emergency news message was being broadcast to all of Brevik. Acyreff activated the aircar's dataport and tuned in to the news announcement:
Brevik's most famous news reporter spoke: “Officials of the Third Fleet of the Whelm have reported that the luxury space-liner Starling was raided by starmenters. One passenger on board the Starling was taken captive. This targeted attack, one of a recent series taking place in deep space, may be related to the first such abduction, that of the historian Dr. Twycky Jeghtop.”
“The instersplit engines of Starling were inactivated by the pirates and Starling is now being towed back to Brevik. The Starling is due to arrive on Brevik late tomorrow at the Leriuff spaceport of the Whelm, east of Glasgow. Families of the passengers are asked-”
Satisfied that her orders for releasing a false narrative had been followed, Acyreff turned off the broadcast. Kasya asked, “So, I'm now officially a captive of the starmenters?”
Acyreff shook her head. “Not quite. The Whelm has not released the name of the Starling passenger who was abducted. Some folks might assume that it was you, but...” Acyreff smiled at Kasya, pleased that the recent pirate raid had been thwarted. “Of course, the Starling was not even attacked. The people of Brevik -and the Gensifers- don't know that our orgasm trance experiments on board Appenine drew the attention of the pirate raiders and created the perfect trap. The Whelm will delay arrival of the Starling on Brevik until I can pull Twycky off of Yrinna.”
"We." Kasya said, “I'm going with you to Yrinna.”
“No, Kas, as soon as you show me the droneworks, you'll go home and spend time with your family.”
“No, Acy, if you want full access to the Shadow Drone technology then you will agree: I'm going along on the rescue mission to get my sister.”
The two women stared at each other. Finally, Acyreff said, “You are stubborn. You should let the military handle this raid on Yrinna.”
Kasya complained, “I can't believe you are so stubborn that you'll give up access to the technology that is needed to get Twycky safely off of Yrinna.”
“What technology are you talking about? Something beyond the hierion field generators of the SK23 drones?”
“Yes. Advanced telepathy detection technology that will be needed to find where Twycky is being held on Yrinna.”
Acyreff thought about the hand-held telepathy detector that had been given to Lieutenant Collynn for study. Collynn and Dr. Indeckuri had not even figured out how to open the metal case of the device. Acyreff was hoping to use the Josef technology, re-packaged as a mini-Jo detector, as a tool to zoom in on Twycky's location, but that was highly experimental and unproven technology. Acyreff thought that she knew the location where Twycky was currently being held, but, of course, Twycky might be moved at any time by her captors. “Very well, Kas. You win, but I take no responsibility for your safety. This is all on you.” The aircar was settling down into a large hangar at the droneworks.
Upon landing inside the droneworks, they were met by the assembled department heads of the factory. As soon as Acyreff and Kasya climbed out of their aircar, the Director of the Engines Department said, “Welcome home, Dr. Jeghtop. Until you called for this emergency assembly of the department heads, we were very worried about your safety... have you heard the breaking news about the Startling?”
Kasya replied, “Yes, I heard the news. However, I was transported from Numenes to Brevik by Commander Shermatz." She nodded towards Acyreff. "I did not travel on
Starling as originally planned... I was on a Whelm cruiser, the
Appenine, so there was no need to worry about me.” After introductions and exchange of a few pleasantries, Kasya quickly got down to business and began issuing orders. “I want all available drones that have tested hierion field generators sent up to
Appenine, a Whelm spaceship that is now hovering over Glasgow.”
Commander Shermatz added, “The Whelm is requisitioning these drones under the emergency powers of the Connatic. This military use of the Shadow Drones is top secret, so none of you can discuss this matter with anyone who is not involved with the immediate delivery of the drones to Appenine.”
Dr. Pesque-Aldal, the Director of the Testing Department told Kasya, “We have six drones in the testing and field-tuning pipeline.”
Another department head said, “Two fully tested and calibrated drones are being loaded on board the Night Flower today.”
Acyreff told everyone about the tight schedule they were on. “Appenine departs from Brevik in just two hours.”
Kasya instructed her team, “Don't take any shortcuts on tuning the hierion field generators. Get the fully tested and certified drones, including the two previously designated for use by Night Flower sent to Appenine." Acyreff, Kasya and Dr. Pesque-Aldal, went to look at the testing and hierion field calibration data for the six newly built drones that were still on Brevik.
Dr. Pesque-Aldal complained to Kasya, “There is something about these maxi-size hierion field generators that we still don't understand. Each one has its own quirks.”
Kasya sighed and said, “Beggars can't be choosers.”
Dr. Pesque-Aldal said, “If I had my way, all the blighters on Triskelion who make these generators would be fired.”
Acyreff asked, “What seems to be the problem?”
Kasya explained, “We've asked Triskelion to manufacture these big field generators as quickly as possible. We only get two or three a day. Each new generator needs to be calibrated. No two of them emits the same sized and shaped field.”
Dr. Pesque-Aldal added, “I understand that the population of Triskelion is small. I wonder if they have a labor shortage at the generator factory.”
Acyreff shrugged. “Their chronic labor shortage has led to the use of robots as replacements for human workers.”
Kasya shook her head. “I doubt if labor problems are causing our troubles. When I was last on Triskelion, I was told that these generators are actually grown, not manufactured in any conventional way.”
Acyreff laughed. “What do you think that means?”
Kasya provided her best guess. “As far as I can tell, for each new field generator made on Triskelion they begin by seeding the new device with some previously-structured hierions... almost like a seed crystal. Then the growth process begins with additional hierions being added and arranged according to the template contained in the original 'seed'.”
Dr. Pesque-Aldal asked, “So, what causes the problem?”
“I don't know.” Kasya had spent much time thinking about how little she knew about the industries that had developed on Triskelion that were devoted to using hierions. “I do know that Triskelion has a huge hierion mining operation. They get a constant stream of freshly mined hierions arriving on Triskelion A, but apparently the exact composition of those batches of arriving hierions varies day by day, even hour by hour.”
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space elevator
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Acyreff nodded. “I begin to understand. They don't have a steady purified supply of the type of hierion that is needed for the field generators. They may be rushing to ship more generators to Brevik and in so doing, each new generator probably contains interfering contaminants.” Acyreff was thinking about a similar problem that has arisen in lab work being performed by her daughter, Yurahs, as part of her university studies. In making hierion-hadron composites, it had been learned that contaminants at a level of only a few parts per billion could prevent attainment of desired properties such as the super-elasticity that was needed for the construction of mega-structures including space elevators.
A manufacturing quality control expert with university degrees in applied mathematics, Dr. Pesque-Aldal knew next to nothing about hierions. He asked, “Contaminants?”
Acyreff suggested, “The newly mined hierions are probably a mixture of the type of hierion needed for field generators and other types... different particles... other hierions that are hard to separate from the good hierions.”
“If that is the problem then we're screwed.” Kasya lamented, “We have no way of purifying hierions or even detecting the impurities and so we will have to continue individually tuning each new generator.”
Acyreff knew that as part of the Josef telepathy research project, progress had been made on purifying hierions. However, this was not the time to open that can of worms. Acyreff shifted the discussion to a new direction. She reminded Kasya, “We need to address technology exchange between the Shadow Drone project and the Josef project. I can start the process for the Whelm, but you should designate the members of your technical team who will meet Josef.”
Sensing that Acyreff was hiding something from her, Kasya took hold of Acyreff's arm and led her away from Dr. Pesque-Aldal. “There is something you are not telling me.”
Acyreff giggled nervously, wondering how deeply Kasya had been able to look into her mind during their synchronized orgasm trances. “Some of the Connatic's secrets are not for casual discussion in front of your subordinates. You need to designate a team for our planned technology exchange project and the team members need to be cleared by Whelm security.”
“Like me, Dr. Pesque-Aldal has the highest industrial security clearance.”
“Do you want her on the team? Remember, everyone involved will be closely monitored by Whelm security.”
“No, I need Dr. Pesque-Aldal here, doing the drone calibrations. I have someone else in mind.” Kasya was thinking about something odd that she had seen during her last orgasm trance while she was helping Lieutenant Collynn sort through the telepathic data stream. Suddenly the pieces of that puzzle came together in her mind. She blurted out, “You're going to deploy Josef at Yrinna!”
Acyreff looked around. They were almost back to the aircar and none of the drone factory employees were within earshot. “Quiet Kas. Be warned: if you go around spreading Whelm secrets then I'll have to shoot you.”
Kasya looked into Acyreff's eyes and tried to judge if she was serious. They climbed into the aircar. “I'm taking you to meet the technical expert who should meet Josef.” They rose up into the air for a short flight of a few miles across the Pegasus Company campus.
Getting information out of Kasya was like pulling teeth. Acyreff asked, “What are you doing, matching me secret for secret?” She decided that gradual sharing of secrets was better than nothing. They were now settling into a parking lot next to a squat building that looked rather like a fortress.
They exited from the aircar and Kasya said, "I need you to not spread word of what you are about to see." Walking towards the building, Kasya gestured in the direction they were going. “If anyone in upper Pegasus management -particularly Arch Director Menchlex- asks, then remember... I never showed you this building.”
While approaching the building, Acyreff was now feeling a strange sensation... of what? Looming curiosity?
Kasya led Acyreff through a cleverly hidden doorway and then spent several minutes negotiating with an automated security system. After a retina scan was performed on Acyreff they finally moved past the security office and into the core of the building which had the look and feel of a hospital.
Kasya said, “I'm not allowed to tell anyone that I stumbled onto the Pegasus Corporation's artificial intelligence project.” They walked down a hallway and Acyreff felt a hot wind blowing into her face. Passing through a small doorway, they went through a long narrow tunnel and Acyreff continued to feel something tickling her mind. She was able to recognize the sensation as a form of telepathic contact because of her long experience interacting with her ghark, Grean the Kac'hin.
Emerging from the tunnel, Acyreff stood up straight and found herself in what looked like a hospital intensive care room. There was a bed, but the patient was buried under dozens of complex pieces of medical equipment. Kasya explained, “This is one of 66 embroids that are linked into the largest quantum computer on Brevik.”
Acyreff approached the bed and could only see a few patches of red tissue between all of the surrounding medical devices. “A bio-mechanical artificial intelligence system?”
“Yes. With telepathic ability.”
Acyreff knew that she was being telepathically examined, but she'd never heard of anyone crafting a telepathic embroid. “I don't believe this. How long...” She fell silent, wondering is her mind had already been scanned and all her secrets harvested.
“This project has been running for five decades now. One problem is that the embroid brain masses only survive about ten years on average." Kasya gestured towards the bed, "This is one of the oldest embroids. Also, the Core computer is gigantic, far too large to place inside a spaceship. However, one of the project goals has been miniaturization of key components of the system and some progress has been made in that area.” Kasya checked her comring and said, “Oh, good, Peter is available now.” She led Acyreff back to the main corridor and a man was there, coming down the hallway towards them. Kasya said, “Peter, this is Commander Shermatz."
Peter said, "Welcome back, Kas."
"I'm in a hurry." Kasya explained, "We depart from Brevik in about an hour... we're off to rescue my sister from the starmenters.”
Peter nodded to Acyreff, took Kasya by the arm and led her down the corridor. “And you want to take along one of my little qubies...”
“I need QB5, who I trained on the telepathy detector last time I was here.”
Peter pulled open a door. Acyreff saw a label to the side of the doorway: QB5. Inside this room there was a laboratory bench cluttered with an array of mysterious equipment that seemed to be centered on a small cube of metal. Acyreff and Kasya entered the room, but Peter slipped away. As the door closed, a voice said, “Welcome back, Kas. I'm honored... the Connatic's wife...”
Kasya said, “Quiet you fool. Commander Shermatz might feel the need to shoot you."
Acyreff heard laughter that seemed to come from several places in the room. “Sorry 'Commander'. Your secret is safe with me.”
Acyreff had grown to accept the fact that Kasya knew her double identity as both Commander Shermatz and the Connatic's wife, but it was disconcerting that this artificial intelligence also knew that secret. Kasya was busy disconnecting cables and tubes from the metal cube on the bench. She asked, “How long can you exist outside of this room?”
The voice of QB5 seemed smaller and now emerged from a little speaker on the side of the cube. “Theoretically, there is no need for me to be here. I can survive anywhere as long as there is electrical energy and a supply of the needed chemicals.”
Kasya pulled off the last tube and told Acyreff, “This is my choice for the technical liaison with Josef.” She picked up the cube and handed it to Acyreff. Kasya pulled two large suitcases off of a shelf and carrying one with each of her hands she then led the way back to the aircar.
QB5 was prattling, “I'd be thrilled to work with the Josef device. Acy-” QB5 giggled and then continued, using the preferred name, “Commander Shermatz likes Josef... I can sense that clearly in her mind. It is reassuring to find that important people in the Royal-” Another giggle came out of the speaker. “...people in the Whelm who don't have a bias against robots and machine intelligence.”
With QB5 talking the whole way, mostly about anti-robot sentiments in the Cluster, they returned to the aircar and were soon flying back up towards
Appenine. Kasya told Acyreff, “Please have Doctor Hines meet us in my bedroom. Tell her to bring 20 sterile 500 CC syringes and 10 liters of sterile water.”
Acyreff used her comring to speak to Hines and pass along Kasya's request. Arriving in the Appenine's hangar, they saw that the first of the Shadow Drones was already being stowed in one corner of the hangar.
Soon, Mando, Kasya, Acyreff and Doctor Hines were gathered around two desks that had been pushed together inside the Connatic's bedroom. The metal cube that was QB5 rested at the center of one desk and Kasya was pulling pieces of the support equipment out of one of the suitcases and placing them on the other desk. She said, “I don't see a cooling fan.”
QB5 said, “That might be a problem, although you could also lower the room temperature or just hook me up to a cold water line.”
Kasya handed a power cord to Mando, “Please plug this in to the wall socket.” Kasya went off to the bathroom.
Acyreff asked Mando, “What are you doing back on Appenine?”
Mando replied, “I took my daughter home and then came back. I'm not going to let Kas go on this crazy rescue mission all be herself.”
Down on his hands and knees behind the desks, Mando plugged in the cord and the support equipment came to life, showing a large number of indicator lights, all green. Kasya returned with a hair dryer which she was going to use for its fan. She yanked out the dryer's heating element, leaving the fan alone. She then attached a power line from the support equipment to the metal cube that held the telepathic qubie and told Doctor Hines, “There are 15 nutrient and waste tubes that we need to connect to this QB unit.” She switched on the display screen for the support equipment, pointed at the displayed image and said, “These are the support system schematics.” She opened the second suitcase that was resting on the floor. “These are purified nutrients that need to be rehydrated.”
Doctor Hines stood with her hands on her hips. “I suppose this metal cube contains an illegal embroid.”
Acyreff impatiently told the doctor, “Doctor Hines, please just finish hooking up this equipment and the nutrient lines to QB5. Oh, and don't forget the waste line. Kasya and I are needed in the hangar. It is going to be a tight fit getting all the drones stowed on board.”
Kasya plugged in the hair dryer and pointed the fan at QB5. She told Mando, “If QB5 starts over-heating, turn on this fan.” Acyreff and Kasya were in a hurry to return to the hangar. Kasya paused on the way out only to kiss Mando and then to turn down the thermostat setting in the bedroom before departing.
In a snarky voice, QB5 said, "Mando, the man behind -and often inside- the amazing Dr. Jeghtop. I'm pleased to finally meet you.”
Mando tried to ignore QB5's childish humor. He felt a strange telepathic signal emanating from QB5 that was almost like a ringing in his ears. Mando asked Doctor Hines, “What can I do to help?”
Doctor Hines bent down and opened the case full of water bottles. She picked up one of the bottles and handed it to Mando. She then took one of the nutrient bottles out of the suitcase and read the label, “Add 400 CC of sterile water. Nutrient solution 1a. Dissolves in 10 minutes at room temperature. Mix well before using.” She grabbed a syringe and a sterile needle and told Mando, “Watch this. Always wipe the bottles with alcohol before inserting a needle.” She drew 400 CC of water and injected it into the nutrient bottle. There was a good vacuum in the nutrient bottle, so the water went in quickly. “Use a fresh syringe and needle for each of these. We wouldn't want to contaminate anything and have the 'patient' to get any sicker.”
QB5 said, “Doctor Hines, I hope you are not prejudiced against innocent robots and helpless little embroids.”
For a time Hines worked side-by-side with Mando. QB5 continued to talk, describing its past history working with Kasya and using the telepathy detector that Kasya had obtained on Triskelion. Satisfied that Mando could do the rehydrations, Hines read the instructions for hooking up the tubes to QB5. She looked at the cube and asked, “What are you, 50% embroid and 50% quantum computer?”
“Just about.” QB5 added, “I'm also telepathically linked to the Core.”
Mando had just finished adding water to nutrient bottle 4b. He asked, “Core?”
“I'm part of a much larger system.” QB5 explained, “The core is on Brevik. I'm really not much more than a mobile appendage for the Core.”
Hines asked, “Why are you called QB? I'd call you BM for 'blabbering mouthpiece'.”
QB5 objected, “That's not nice, Dotty. How can you expect me to stay quiet when I have someone available to talk to?” QB5 laughed. “Most days I'm all alone in my room, stuck annotating genome data and that's enough to drive an embroid to drink.”
Mando had just pulled a bottle of ethanol out of the suitcase. “Hey, Doc, look at this.”
Hines took the ethanol bottle and connected it by a tube to QB5. “There, now you can drink.”
QB5 complained, “I'm not allowed to drink alone. However, if you two joined me, then I could get a soothing wallop of the dry stuff.”
Mando asked Hines, “Is this for real? This... machine wants to drink with us?”
Hines nodded. “QB5 is a bio-mechanical artificial intelligence system that apparently uses alcohol in much the same way that people do.”
QB5 suggested, “You could place me in the category 'people', I won't object.”
Hines used her comring. “Private Puthonh, please bring us two bottles of beer.”
Mando and Hines continued mixing the nutrient bottles and attaching them to QB5. Private Puthonh arrived with the beers and said, “I hope Lusz Gold Ribbon is okay.”
Hines pointed to the Connatic's bed. “Leave the beers on the bed. Thank you, Private.” Private Puthonh glanced at the QB unit then departed.
Mando shook the last of the nutrient bottles and then went to the bed. He opened a beer bottle and told QB5, “Cheers.” Hines attached the last nutrient tube and noticed that QB5 felt hot. She turned on the fan, letting it blow across one side of the cube. She went to the bed and got her bottle of beer.
QB5 said, “I think I have the up-coming mission figured out. The Commander and Dr. Jeghtop are taking Nykark to Yrinna in a crazy effort to rescue Twycky. However, Kas is a civilian, with children. I must object: she should not get herself killed in a heroic effort to rescue her sister.”
Mando asked, “What do you mean, killed?”
Before QB5 could reply, Grean the Kac'hin had materialized beside Mando and said, “Hi, Mando.”
Mando had been watching Doc Hines take a drink of beer then he was surprised to suddenly notice Grean at his side. He stammered, “You... you must be Grean.”
Grean patted Mando's arm. “I'm here to comfort you and QB5... both of you are worried about your wife's safety.”
Mando took a swig of beer. He looked into Grean's big alien eyes and asked, “Why is Kasya going to Yrinna? This seems like a job for the Whelm.”
Speaking mostly to QB5, Grean said, “Think about it. Would the Connatic let his wife go to Yrinna if he thought she would be in danger?”
Mando asked, “What does the Connatic have to do with my wife?”
QB5 asked, “What are you, Grean? I can't detect your mind. Where are your thoughts coming from?”
Grean giggled and replied to the qubie, “My thoughts are well shielded.” Hines took another sip of beer and then started packing up all the used bottles, syringes and needles.
QB5 said, “Captain Lanting has provided details on the potent defenses of Yrinna. I don't understand how Acy -Commander Shermatz- and Kas expect to grab Twycky and escape from Yrinna without being blasted out of the sky.”
Grean sighed. “Due to temporal paradoxes, I can't speak freely about the future.”
Hines took another swig of beer and said to Grean, “You must be the 'unseen passenger' that Lieutenant Collynn has tried to tell me about without being able to say anything coherent.”
“Yes, I have to restrict the number of people -and embroids- who know about my ability to travel through time. The risk of temporal paradox rises exponentially with each additional person who knows... I'm constantly making people forget about time travel.” Grean licked her lips and gazed at the beer bottle in Hine's hand.
Hines handed the half empty bottle to Grean and picked up the box that held all the waste. QB5 said, “Time travel is physically impossible.”
Grean gave a delicate shrug. “I won't try to teach you the physics of time travel.” She sipped the beer. “Take my word for it. Kasya will return from Yrinna.”
Mando set his empty beer bottle on the desk next to QB5. “I can't really believe in time travel, even if Kasya claims to have telepathically viewed the future.” He reached out and ran his fingers through Grean's soft hair. He felt the pointy tip of her alien ear. “However, thank you for providing your assurance that Kasya will not be hurt.”
“I did not say that. You humans are constantly hurting each other... or suffering pain from self-inflicted doubts.” Grean finished the beer and dropped the empty bottle into the box of waste that Hines held. “However, Kasya will not be killed on Yrinna, which should satisfy both you and the little qubie.” Grean dematerialized and evaporated in a small burst of dust-like nanites that briefly sparkled in the air then were gone.
Without another word and walking rather stiffly, Hines picked up the other beer bottle off the desk and departed. Mando felt his head spinning and he laid down on the bed. He asked QB5, “Are you really drinking?”
QB5 did not immediately reply. The artificial intelligence system was battling with Grean's memory-editing nanites. QB5 was trying to retain memories of the past 10 minutes and transmit them to the Core, but something was interfering. Sensing that it would be impossible to thwart Grean's infites, QB5 finally said, “You and Hines are light weights. I only get alcohol in proportion to the social drinkers around me. Are you going to have another beer?” QB5 waited a minute for Mando to reply, but he was already asleep on the bed, having lost his own battle against the Kac'hin infites.
Next:
part 10 of “The Alastor Network”.
