Framandi Alliance- Galaxy Accretion Conflicts Read online

  Planet-side at the Kuril Islands facility, things were taking an interesting turn. Rafael who was undergoing movement training underwater in a pool, fully suited in a HSEVA suit, was informed of the situation by Dr. Popov and asked to investigate the matter urgently. While making his way to the edge of the pool and climbing out, Shun brought him up to speed and provided various feeds through his heads-up display in the HSEVA suit’s helmet. Rafael decided to remain in his suit, since it provided him a wide array of sensor inputs and enhanced mobility. He looked at the video feed of the suspected intruder, silhouetted against the wall next to the main entrance of the capsule assembly area. Shun was at a loss to explain how the intruder may have got in, since security was quite stringent across the island, and especially so within the facility premises.

  Walking towards the capsule assembly area, Rafael took in a few details about the person he was tasked with tracking down. He looked caucasian, was wearing a deep green-grey body-hugging garment and he had a bulge which looked like a backpack. The video was from five minutes ago when Shun had noticed the discrepancy while running through a three-minute surveillance cycle. This was a gap which would need to be fixed. The group’s ability to operate freely across the globe, depended largely on its ability to remain hidden, blended in behind layers of companies and individuals.

  Rafael entered the capsule assembly area through an emergency exit after asking Shun to temporarily turn off the door’s alarms. Crouching, he entered the cavernous room, which was sectioned off according to the stages of capsule assembly. The entire assembly process was automated, with little need for people to intervene, even to repair or replace robotic components. Still in a crouch Rafael duck-waddled five meters to the closest robotic assembly unit. Three drones had entered the area along with him and he assigned them grids to survey, while he shimmied himself along an aisle close to the assembly unit.

  The drones came up empty. There were two authorised base personnel in the area. Both were working on an input console of a composite materials moulding unit. Neither was aware of the activity around them. Rafael wanted to keep it that way. While turning a corner away from the two authorised personnel, he noticed a flicker from an overhead vent. Continuing without a pause in his movements, Rafael amplified the area within a small section of his helmet’s HUD. There wasn’t anything distinctly visible. Switching to infrared didn’t help either since the vent was a heating unit. The suit was capable of numerous sensory inputs, so he toggled through a few of them and stopped on a radar-audio combination, which showed a broken outline behind the vent’s grille.

  There certainly was someone hiding there. He spoke into his comm unit, “Shun, you’re picking this up?”

  Shun replied “Yes, it looks like there’s an intruder behind the vent’s grille. How would you like to handle this?”

  Rafael said, “It’d be ideal to let the person get out of the vent and enter an area which isn’t mission critical. While we’re capable of fixing or replacing equipment rapidly, initiating conflict here isn’t going to be helpful. Send a drone into the vent quietly behind the intruder and let’s monitor the intruder. Keep a camera on the vent in case the intruder decides to exit. I suggest deploying a few drones with motion detection capability into the area, just in case. Give the person space. I’ll retreat into the recreation area next door.”

  A short while later the two techs in the capsule assembly area exited. Rafael was monitoring the area remotely now. He’d just updated the launch director who agreed to let the intruder exit the sensitive assembly area without immediate engagement. Thirty minutes into the surveillance, during which time Rafael was also reacquainting himself with the island’s layout, Shun broke in, “The vent has opened and there seems to be movement. Sensors are picking up a male form. There he is, making his way towards the composite materials moulding area. The intruder has stopped and is observing the hardware there. Look closely, he’s wearing optical gear beside each of his eyes. I’ve identified them as miniaturised Swedish tactical communications gear. He’s obviously some sort of covert infiltration operative. The gear he’s using would be linked in live to whomever he’s in contact with via satellite. I’m going to locate and isolate the frequencies he’s communicating on. So far, whatever he’s seen and recorded has got out.”

  Rafael replied, “Okay, send in a few drones to flush him out without spooking him, even though he is one”. No one listening in got the joke.

  The intruder noticed a drone approaching him from the direction of the vent he had recently been hidden in. He raised his hand, fist clenched, knuckles pointing at the drone. Rafael exclaimed, “He’s armed. Some kind of forearm mounted system. Send in a few more drones. Also alert the perimeter security bots to increase patrol frequency, in case there’s anyone else waiting to extract the intruder.”

  Another two drones approached the intruder backing him towards the primary exit. Shun informed, “I’ve located the frequencies he’s communicating over. He’s linked in via satellite or a high-altitude aircraft. Isolating and jamming now. Done, his communications are out.” The intruder was just exiting the capsule assembly area. Since he was armed, an alert had been silently sent out to all base personnel to vacate their work areas and head to the facility’s vast mess-hall.

  Rafael turned left and rounded a corner from the recreation area towards the capsule assembly area, bumping right into the intruder. Both backed off a few steps. Looking at the massive and imposing individual in the HSEVA suit must have startled the intruder quite a bit. But he reacted without flinching, raised his left arm and silently shot a rapid cluster of projectiles into Rafael’s helmet and torso. Protected against hypervelocity space debris, the projectiles just ricocheted off the suit. This shocked the intruder who spun on his feet and hit a dead sprint. Rafael pursued cautiously since he wanted to avoid violence.

  At the first corridor intersection, a drone relay showed him a door swinging shut. Slowing his approach, Rafael entered the room getting a full sweep of the area through his suit’s sensor arrays. The intruder was concealing himself behind a cabinet. Rafael approached. The intruder must have heard him. Three feet away from the cabinet the intruder raised his right arm and shot Rafael’s suit helmet, emptying his entire magazine. Seeing no effect on the suited person, the dextrous intruder ducked his way around Rafael and exited the room.

  Shun burst into Rafael’s headset, “Our mystery person is headed to the roof. He must have some sort of exfiltration plan.”

  Rafael replied while hitting the HSEVA suit’s open sequence, “I think the suit must be scary to this person. I’ve scanned him from close quarters, and he doesn’t seem to be armed any longer. He’s exhausted his forearm weapons. I’m going to ditch the suit and pursue him. Stay connected through audio.”

  Shun acknowledged saying “The intruder’s trying to get the roof access hatch open. You may have a moment to catch up.”

  Having got out of his training HSEVA suit, Rafael sprinted up the emergency stairwell, racing up the three flights of stairs towards the roof. By the time he reached the top, the intruder had already managed to jimmy open the lock to the roof access door. Cautiously exiting the door, Rafael looked around. The intruder was looking over the far wall towards the rear of the building. He called out to the intruder, “Hey! Hey you!” The person spun around without looking panicked. He didn’t consider the ridiculously young-looking Rafael a threat.

  Allowing Rafael to approach, the intruder smirked. As soon as Rafael was close enough, the person lunged with a close-fisted jab to the nose. Without pausing, Rafael deflected the jab downward with his left hand, his years of cross- discipline self-defence training kicking in.

  Each of the transhumans were placed on a heavy schedule of knowledge and skills development, and a rigorous physical exercise regimen. Going with the defensive flow, Rafael caught his opponent’s attacking hand at the wrist with his right hand and pulled. This drew in the intruder to Rafael who kicked up with his right knee knocking th
e breath out of his opponent.

  Normally, Rafael had to limit his more aggressive moves to favour his practice opponents. Having reacted instinctively to the situation, he hadn’t held back. The knee to the chest did considerable damage. Medically trained for surgery, Rafael noted the gasping breath of his opponent, now lying on his side with his arms wrapped around his chest, indicating that his diaphragm may have torn. Neither opponent expected the confrontation to end this quickly.

  Rafael spoke into his headset, “Shun, the intruder’s down but may require urgent medical attention. Send up a stretcher.”

  A rescue team was standing by and arrived on the roof quickly. Rafael looked at the intruder’s forearm mounted weapons. There were multiple barrels forming a double layer over the wrist. Shun too was studying the system while running multiple face-recognition queries globally. The arriving medics were already appraised of the intruder’s possible injuries remotely by Shun. Sedating and securing the injured person, the medics gently moved him to the island’s infirmary building.

  Rafael meanwhile went to check on his suit. When he got to where he left it, he saw it had been removed. Patching himself to the AI he asked, “Shun, has my hard-shell suit been taken in for a check? I’d really appreciate a full service and maintenance run-through. Whatever the intruder shot at me ricocheted off, but I’d like to know what kind of impact the suit can resist. Also, please scan the shielding panels for any inner layer damage.”

  Shun responded jovially, “I’m way ahead of you. I have three autonomous manufacturing robots taking the suit apart and replacing all panels which may have been affected. The artificial muscles which provide enhanced movement are also being looked at. I’ve also updated ‘the priest’, the group’s leadership team and my space-based AI counterpart Kei. Incidentally, Jón and Ásta were observing how you handled the intruder. They were impressed. Our priority now is to get to the bottom of this intrusion. We’ve largely operated under the radar globally. Someone seems to be taking notice.”

  Rafael replied, “I’d like to speak with our intruder soon. Let me know when he’s prepared to hold a conversation.”

  Leaving this instruction, he went to the barracks section to freshen up before re-joining the investigation. Hectic as the action was, it was a good break from the intensive training he was undergoing.

  Kei meanwhile was updating the crew in space. The AI had grown to learn that democracy of information was vital to successful operations in space and helped keep astronauts focussed. Kei had even spun off real-time engagement AI to hold conversations with each individual astronaut. The mission AIs were all a part of Kei and interacted continuously with the core AI systems. Essentially, Kei came across as a unique AI completely in sync with every individual. Kei updated information on the planet side intrusion at the Kuril Islands facility, advising all space personnel to be cautious.

  Jón and Ásta had just entered an operations centre where the crew put together to intercept AL-I were meeting. Kei did the introductions announcing itself from hidden speakers around the room, “Hello everyone. I’d like to welcome Jón Gylfason and Ásta Gylfadóttir to Álfhól. Jón and Ásta are twins born in Reykjavík, Iceland. They’re both transhumans, a concept you’re all knowledgeable about and comfortable with. Going around clockwise, I’ll introduce the rest of the crew.”

  The AI continued the introductions, “Stefán Gunnarsson is also from Reykjavík, Iceland. He is our Bio Specialist. He recently began researching synthetic bio technologies. Stefán, I believe you’re already acquainted with the twins.” Stefán nodded to the twins who nodded back.

  Ásta’s eyes lit up and she smiled. She’d been attracted to Stefán when the twins had taken a genetics and surgery course with him two years ago. Kei continued, “Next to Stefán is Isla Hansen, astronomer and materials scientist. She’s from Wellington, New Zealand.” Isla smiled around at everyone and nodded a hello at the twins. “Next, we have Eiji Ono, quantum hardware and software specialist. He’s been experimenting with molecular manufacturing and self-replicating machines. Eiji’s worked on my AI programming in Tokyo, Japan. He was born in the beautiful prefecture of Ōita on the island of Kyushu.” Eiji waved his hand at everyone after dipping his head appreciating Kei’s introduction.

  Kei continued, “Sven de Vries is standing beside Eiji. He’s a space operations specialist and the lead for this team. Sven is from Delft in The Netherlands, where The Lýsi Group was founded. He’s been instrumental in planning the interception of AL-I.” Sven smiled and spoke out in a deep voice, “I look forward to working closely with each one of you and learning from you.” Kei went on, “Crystal Vance is an Astrophysicist from London, Great Britain. Isla and Crystal have been keeping an eye on AL-I, evaluating the asteroid like shape and studying the object’s trajectory.” Crystal smiled around the room. Kei made a last introduction, “Leimomi Kaʻaukai is from Honolulu, Hawaii. She’s a psychologist, botanist and surgeon.” Leimomi exclaimed louder than she or anyone else expected, “Hi everyone! Call me Lei!”

  Sven took over from Kei, “I’m really glad we’re undertaking this adventure together. Each of you has multiple specializations. We will all have to work cohesively to ensure success. Kei, of course, will be along with us and will be fully involved with every aspect of our trip, including operations and analysis we will be conducting. The reason we can take this space journey with such a tiny crew, is because our abilities are amplified by our AI, advanced space vessel systems and autonomous robots. Instead of just one, we will be taking along three interconnected Standardized Space Exploration Vessels.”

  Sven explained, “The SSEVs will each provide redundancy or backup for our deep-space mission. Each may be operated independently should the need arise. They also contain an atmospheric operations shuttle. As you all know, each SSEV can support a crew of eight for an extended period. We’re taking all three SSEVs to break them in. We’ll rotate through each vehicle every two days while going out to meet AL-I. We’ll also be taking a bio module along, which is longer than an SSEV. Stefán has been working with Lei on a project aimed at growing an assortment of edible plants over the last month. They’ve had better than expected success.” No one noticed Ásta evaluate Leimomi.

  Stefán went on, “We will continue the bio module experiments in deep space to see how viable it is for extended periods of travel. AL-I is going to transit through the solar system. Its behaviour is of concern. We know we’re not alone in the universe. In fact, much of our recently developed technology is based on reverse engineered extra-terrestrial tech. We need to understand this object entering our system, evaluate the threat if any, and come up with executable solutions to deal with the situation. Now, let’s go look at the SSEVs. Our home for the near future.”

  The team shook hands with each other, and some individually welcomed the twins. Acquainted or not, the twins had studied each crew member’s dossiers and exploits extensively. They probably knew their colleagues as well as they knew themselves.

  Without a pause, the crew made their way behind Stefán towards an airlock on the moon-side of Álfhól space platform. Walking by a viewing port, they saw awaiting them, their three interlinked SSEVs. The bio module looked like a long, roof mounted, vehicle luggage carrier. They’d be aboard and away in another day. Each crew member felt the anxiousness of the unknown and the thrill of adventure.

  Interception

  Above Uranus Orbit.

  Accelerating at a continuous unhurried five Gs for five and a half days, the three hundred and sixty tonne integrated vessel arrived at nineteen astronomical units (AUs) from the Sun. The crew on Átt had travelled the distance of Uranus’ orbit, but north of the solar system’s ecliptic. They were on an interception course with AL-I. The asteroid-like object was under observation by the team during their journey. Many of the object’s details were clearer now that they were one AU away and closing in. The interception strategy involved deaccelerating and reversing course, so that the team would be beside and mo
ving parallel to AL-I, by the time it reached their current position nineteen AUs from the Sun.

  Before departing, the twins had come up with and had proposed a name for the combination vessel they were to travel in. Since the bio module they were taking along was placed like a roof rack, the twins had assigned it as being directionally ‘up’. The other three SSEVs were below and to each side. The names suggested for each vessel were drawn from the Icelandic names for magnetic directions. The bio module was named Norður for North, SSEV-2 on the right was named Austur, meaning East. SSEV-3 to the left was named Vestur or West and SSEV-4 was named Suður for South. SSEV-1 was not included for this mission. The vessel was already on a staffing assignment heading towards the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange Point platform. The platform had just been put through a rigorous three-month testing of systems and habitat. That platform would be an important staging point for all future deep-space activities conducted by Lýsi.

  The twins also suggested naming the combined space craft comprising the three SSEVs and the bio module. They’d come up with ‘Átt’, the term for ‘direction’ in Icelandic. Given the twins’ history in having designed many of the actively deployed space-based vessels, none of the crew objected to their naming the vessels. The names were adopted and immediately used. They’d already rotated through Austur and Vestur, thoroughly testing out the systems of each SSEV while using each as the central command module for Átt. They were using Suður when they began rapid deacceleration in preparation for manoeuvres to reorient the spacecraft.