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  The Lýsi Group’s immediate objectives of placing resource gathering and habitable stations at Earth-Moon and Sun-Earth Lagrangian points, was ahead of schedule. Crews were continuously trained and launched into space. A fleet of Autonomous Cargo and Transport Vessel (ACTVs) nicknamed ‘Nesting Dolls’ distributed resources between platforms and transported personnel. The ‘Nesting Doll’ name caught on because the vessels were designed in five sizes, with the smaller ACTVs snuggly fitting into the larger ones. The largest could even accommodate four interlocked SSEVs. The allocation and distribution of resources was taken care of automatically by the AI Shun. The group was in a good position to take its next steps in space.

  Human-AI interactions

  By now, the twins Jón and Ásta were participating operationally. They’d been involved with the AI research group, helping Shun learn and develop its human and moral side. Shun never passed on instructions without passing its R&D work through key members of the AI research group. The AI had learnt to mimic the twins’ behavior. The upshot of this was that the AI began prioritizing human acceptable options when providing researchers with analyzed solutions, without keeping any of its activities hidden. The twins and key members of the AI research group were also learning to better define objectives and to provide as much supplementary related information to Shun. So far, Shun the AI as well as all the transhuman children including the twins, appeared to have picked up human morals as a part of their learning and upbringing.

  Four years after the first transhuman twins Jón and Ásta were born, next generation transhuman babies were brought to term, an improved version each year. Each of them was provided with a human-AI interface from infancy, aimed at accelerating learning. There were three babies now, each being born to a separate Lýsi research family. The groups were located at Havana in Cuba, Wellington in New Zealand and Honolulu in Hawaii. Third generation transhumans were scheduled to be developed, after a ten-year research and study interval. For this, a state-of-the-art Hong Kong facility was commissioned.

  AL-I exhibits strange behavior

  By late January of 2001, the anomalous asteroid-like space object - AL-I, began exhibiting strange behavior. It began to slowly creep towards the Sun again. This was also when the smaller object which had detached itself from AL-I returned to the solar system. The smaller object traversed across the solar system to the asteroid-like object within a week. An exploration mission to intercept AL-I was given the go ahead, soon after Jón and Ásta turned eighteen.

  Fortunately, the orbital and the three Earth-Moon Lagrangian point platforms were fully staffed and operational. The AI had been hived off into two separate entities Shun on Earth and Kei in space. Kei meaning ‘wise’ in Japanese, was named so because it inherited all of Shun’s knowledge. Both communicated with each other, maintained information backups of each other, but began to evolve their own codebase and hardware separately.

  In early February that year, Jón and Ásta were scheduled to join a team of six already at the L2 Earth-Moon Lagrangian point platform, named Álfhól by the twins. The name was inspired by the 'tiny wooden elf houses' which Icelandic people build in their gardens for Huldufólk or 'hidden people', the term used for elves. The twins were setting out to investigate AL-I, the medium sized asteroid-like object, discovered approaching north of the solar system’s ecliptic. The object, which was headed towards the Sun had slowed down, and then stopped in space. Numerous cargo capsules were ejected in preparation for the mission.

  Unrequired attention

  Just before they were due to launch, ‘Univers Aerospace’ a private French-Swiss aerospace technology multinational, took notice of the high-altitude activities being conducted by the flying wing aircraft. The organization was conducting routine atmospheric observations over the Pacific Ocean with a sounding balloon at an altitude of fifty kilometers, when the onboard cameras relayed several dull-grey, evenly timed objects hurtling by the balloon. Since most of the onboard data was relayed to Univers' automated data collection facility in Switzerland, it wasn’t till a week after, that the ascending objects were noticed and analyzed. The objects had sped by the balloon too fast and close, to be clearly visible. However, the incident rapidly drew interest amongst the analysts and was kicked up to management. An investigation was initiated.

  Univers was operating a small constellation of weather satellites, through which the organization provided continuous weather data and imagery to global government agencies and companies. The Univers constellation comprised of six satellites in geostationary orbit above the equator, at thirty-five thousand kilometers altitude and two polar orbiting satellites at nine hundred kilometers altitude. Images from these satellites showed a series of space injections of capsules shot from a large barrel, like a circus canon, but much longer and mounted to the roof of a flying wing aircraft. None of the dull and nonreflective capsules seemed to be heading towards any single location in space and tracking these was beyond the satellites’ capabilities. However, the base of operations of the aircraft was located to a modified airport on the Kuril Islands.

  The organization decided to find out more. Any advantage it could gain in the aerospace industry would greatly enhance its position. The multinational brought onboard defense consultants, to penetrate the Kuril Island facility, investigate the nature of operations and extract usable information and material. Univers wanted to lead the private space technology industry, and they were willing to get their hands dirty.

  Álfhól Platform

  Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange Point.

  The trip to Álfhól space platform, went without a hitch. The platform was remotely constructed behind the moon and was unobservable from Earth. It was constructed by the Lýsi Group’s growing number of space-based Asteroid Mining and Construction Autonomous Robots or AMCARs as they were referred to.

  Jón and Ásta were the last of a group of specialists to get to the platform. They had spent an extra month on Earth intensively studying AL-I, the medium sized asteroid-like object, which was on a trajectory towards the Sun, moving slowly, north of the solar system’s ecliptic. After the initial detection by the group, there were Earth-based as well as deep-space platforms constantly monitoring AL-I. The object seemed rocky, reflected little light and had few noticeable features. But it was starkly different from other asteroids. It was not moving within the solar system like other orbiting asteroids, nor was it behaving like other observed bodies.

  AL-I was not believed to be orbiting the Sun. Nor was it considered to be a part of the solar system. It was determined to be interstellar in origin. What really caught the Lýsi Group’s attention was that it began massive deacceleration soon after it was originally noticed. This was highly unnatural, and several theories were doing the rounds that included a concentrated patch of dark matter in the area, an undetected object exerting significant gravity and an outlandish idea that it was an artificial object that was able to control its own motion.

  Lýsi had no illusions about extraterrestrial intelligence or the fact that at least remote contact had been made by off-world intelligence. A lot of the group’s key technologies, advances and research was based on acquired off-world artifacts. The group would investigate AL-I not just because it was unique, but mainly because its sudden appearance and erratic behavior, posed a hazard to the planet. Time was of the essence and the group decided to intercept and investigate the object before it got too deep into the solar system.

  The twins were launched into the thermosphere from one of the group’s fleet of flying-wing aircraft. Ejected at high Gs while nestled within their individual crew launch capsules which were shot from the roof mounted cannon, both transhuman twins lost consciousness even though their physiology was tougher than their human colleagues.

  The crew capsules were automatically captured by AMCARs, which were temporarily reassigned off their space junk recycling, fabrication and manufacturing jobs, for this specific task.

  The twins only awoke on way to the moon in
an S3 ‘Nesting Doll’ - a midsize Autonomous Cargo and Transport Vessel or ACTV, capable of accommodating people, or if the need arose any other life-forms. The nesting doll cargo vessel was fitted out for a crew mission and was as comfortable as travelling in a luxury train coach. It had cocoon-like bunks which doubled up as escape pods, a common area with ergonomic seating which was used for dining and mission operations. There were toilet and fitness areas to the front and rear of the vessel.

  Manual maneuvering and vessel control units were built into digital pads contained in each of the bunks and the common area grav-seats. But these would only be required during an emergency.

  Ásta groggily whispered into her hard-shell extravehicular activity suit’s helmet microphone, “Jón, you there?” They were both equipped with the very latest HSEVA suits.

  He responded just as groggily “Yup, I’m here”. After a brief pause, he continued “Really didn’t expect to be unconscious for long after the launch. My neck feels like it was viciously twisted”.

  Ásta giggled and replied “The AMCARs arms must have handled you by the head. Anyhow, we were given a drug-cocktail injection before the launch to fortify and sedate us. The sedative is administered so we don’t do anything stupid while the automated robots and systems carry out their jobs. Also, presumably so we wouldn’t notice if anything went wrong”.

  Jón muttered “I’d feel safer getting from the launch capsule to the transport myself, thank you very much!”

  Ásta mollified her brother “It isn’t so much for you as it is for others. Besides, the entire transfer process is efficient, and the automated systems are used to handling inanimate cargo. Anyhow, we designed the process ourselves and worked on getting this setup as close to perfect as possible, so no protests.”

  Her brother’s focus shifted, and he brought up the transit tasks on his HSEVA suit helmet’s heads up display. He said, “Since we haven’t been in zero gravity, other than training, how about we keep the local gravity under us switched off and let our bodies get used to null-gravity operations?” Ásta replied in the affirmative.

  The twins opened and rolled out of their bunk pods. They separately went through a checklist of the nesting doll’s systems to doubly ensure everything checked out. It turned out the S3 Autonomous Cargo and Transport Vessel was named Habogi by the AI Shun, after a young man in one of the twins’ most loved Icelandic fairytales.

  The internal environment was nominal, and the local gravity was set at twenty percent above Earth gravity, to force their bodies to exert and offset atrophy. The twins then stood against magnetic mounts next to their bunk pods and undid their suits, which began a rapid recharge. The HSEVA suits could produce their own energy since they utilized compact versions of the dual-purpose Cosmic Ray Energy Generator shielding panels. The more compact CREG panels provided excellent exoskeletal rigidity to the suits, and long duration protection against cosmic ray radiation. Energy was stored in gel batteries, built into the suit’s skeletal frame. An additional layer of overlapping hexagonal scales made with double bonded nano-carbon and interwoven with graphene, provided added protection against hypervelocity projectiles. Since the exoskeletal panels brought up the overall suit weight, electrode-mesh gel filament artificial muscles, were used between and under joints, to augment the wearer’s strength and movement.

  The HSEVA suits were overengineered to operate between superheated and cryogenic environment ranges. The twins did a checklist assessment of their suits to ensure they were prepared for quick deployment. They then did a once-over of each other’s suits as well. Checks completed; they were both eager to get on with their self-training by conducting the remaining trip in null-G. Deciding on a series of physical exercises between operational tasks, they began with a floating sprint across the interior length of the vessel and ended with manual maneuvering. They’d both been brought up fully immersed with the technologies being used, often leading design and development for many of the deployed vessels. Young as they were, each was well known and respected amongst the tightly woven teams within Lýsi.

  After a brief hand-to-hand close combat sparring session, which they checked off their list of activities, they secured themselves into mission operation seats and unfolded manual maneuvering and vessel control units bringing them to chest level. Jón sent a quick text message letting Álfhól platform know of their intension to go manual for a short duration. The message went out over an encrypted tight-beam communication, which bounced off two line-of-sight satellites before arriving at its destination.

  Kei the space-based AI, was plugged into and in charge of monitoring all autonomous and automatic systems. It let the twins know, “We’ll be arriving at Álfhól in an hour, so you’ll have about ten minutes each to try your hands at maneuvering the nesting doll”. Kei and its Earth-bound counterpart had picked up on the language, colloquialisms, nicknames and comfort levels of everyone they had encountered. Both AI offshoots were most accustomed to the twins, as they had spent considerable time providing moral, directional and decision-making guidance to Shun and Kei in the last five years. The twins in turn had picked up several traits from the AI like multi-pronged cause and effect problem analysis, an ability that the twins were adept at. They operated cohesively being able to intuitively predict each other’s intensions. Ásta took manual control of the vessel first.

  “I’m going to try out a series of random maneuvers, that will take us off our current course. First off, I’m going to rotate the nesting doll full circle clockwise, and then reverse the move.” Ásta said while delicately spinning the vessel on a pivot. She completed the anti-clockwise maneuver and then followed up with bringing Habogi vertically up on their plane of travel. “This is a lot like training,” she said while trying out a few tricks which she had been planning in her head. Her ten minutes up, she handed over control to Jón.

  After a few standard directional maneuvers, Jón said “Ásta hang on, I’m going to try some evasive maneuvers against simulated space debris. Kei, will you please insert some virtual debris into the path we’re currently on, I’ll try and avoid them”.

  After the first few chunks of virtual rocks and asteroids, Jón noticed the debris field become thicker. The approach velocity for each lump became progressively faster and he had to really juggle Habogi around to keep from hitting any of the debris. This went on for a full minute, which felt to Jón like at least twenty. On one occasion during the session, Jón tossed Habogi end on end like a caterpillar, in a maneuver which nearly knocked them unconscious.

  Kei took over control of Habogi. Jón realized that the AI may have been testing the twins for their G-tolerance. Since both twins had a very close relationship with the AI, he asked, “How did we do on the gravs?” Kei replied, “You both easily managed upwards of ten Gs for up to five seconds, without your innerwear pressure systems activated. With the pressure system initiated, both your enhanced bodies would be able to sustain forty Gs. Of course, once the local gravity systems are activated, you wouldn’t have any problems with acceleration forces in any one direction.”

  All space vessels constructed by Lýsi were optimized for exploration and expected harsh environmental conditions. While transport and habitable exploration vessels could withstand up to twelve thousand bar pressure, the autonomous multi-purpose space robots could theoretically withstand up to fifteen thousand bar. Kei continued, “You’ve got just enough time to get clean and suit-up. We will be at Álfhól in half an hour.”

  Ten minutes to arrival, the twins were tucked into their HSEVA suits in case of a rapid depressurization during docking. This was just a precaution, but a vital one. There hadn’t been an accident during the docking process involving people yet, because the entire process was completely debugged by the AIs - Shun and Kei, during construction of the platform. While each space vessel had their own mission AI to independently operate, they were all monitored and tasked as needed by Kei.

  Before docking, Kei announced into the twins’ headsets, “I�
�ve just heard from Shun. There seems to be an intrusion into the Kuril Islands facility. Shun picked up an unrecognized face within the main hanger of the flying wing aircraft. The person seems to have entered the launch capsule assembly area. The space launch director, Dr. Maksim Popov was updated as soon as Shun noticed the intrusion. Your young transhuman colleague Rafael Borrego who’s undergoing space mission training at the facility, took it on himself to investigate this incident with Shun. A score of autonomous micro airborne drones have also been deployed throughout the facility to track down the infiltrator or any others who may have been missed. Dr. Popov has instructed that all scheduled activities are to continue, unless any physical threat is perceived.

  “The priest made a sound decision to let Rafael jump in,” quipped Ásta. They had picked up the nickname given to the Space Launch Director by the operations team at the Kuril Islands facility. The nickname was a translation of Dr. Popov’s surname in Russian; and besides, with his beard and piercing eyes, he did look like a priest. Ásta continued speaking to Kei, “Rafael will get to the bottom of this in no time. He’s consistently performed better than Jón and me on mental agility tests. He’s quite dextrous too.”

  Jón teased his twin, “You’re just sweet on him!” She stuck her tongue out at him. Grave as the situation was, the twins allowed themselves to behave childishly around each other. With company, they were quite the adults. Kei, listening in and remotely observing the interaction, was used to this behaviour. The AI provided a situational awareness feed from the island, for the twins to observe.