Chrome Symphony - Chapter 6

Jess was still going through old hard copy files in her basement with Atlas when Camay called her again.

Jess answered on her communicator as she almost tripped over some boxes. "Dr. Thameh? Have you found anything further," asked Jess.

"Yes. We were able to get a probe inside the ship... we confirmed it IS a ship... by transmitting an inverted beacon signal. My hunch about it disabling the detectors was right."

"That's great," replied Jess.

"There's more. Our probe explored some of the interior and made its way to the center of the cargo area. The sphere is there."

"WHAT?" shrieked Jess. It caught Atlas's attention.

"Atlas," said Jess, "That thing we thought was a space ship, it is. That sphere we thought we destroyed on the asteroid is there!"

"There's something else," added Camay. "It's perfectly intact and, from what we can tell, self-powered. We don't know where it's getting its power."

Jess stumbled and tripped over a box, face-planting into another box full of old papers. Stunned, Jess started to get up and accidentally opened her left eye. A blast of energy sent boxes flying into the shelves and knocking Atlas into the wall.

"Atlas!" yelled Jess. "I'm sorry!"

"It's fine," replied Atlas. He stood up and looked at Jess. "Your power is a lot stronger," said Atlas.

"It's getting harder to control," said Jess as she moved her hair back over her left eye. "I've had to start wearing my hair like this again. Ever since my power returned, it's been like this. It isn't helping my campaign to have to cover my left eye, either."

Camay cleared her throat, which was an obvious gesture since she was an android. "Do you want to call me back later," asked Camay.

"No, sorry, that's quite alright," replied Jess. "Dr. Thameh, Crest will provide you with a spacecraft if you'd like to assemble a group to further investigate the ship. Either way, I need someone to go there in person to get some answers."

"Yes," replied Camay. "I will need a small ship with decent maneuvering ability. Cargo shuttles aren't really made for this sort of thing."

"I'll have my people arrange that for you," said Jess. "Please assemble a crew and I'll give you the dock address when you're ready."

After Camay had ended the call with Jess, she had been eyeing the group for a while.

"So...?" said Duncan.

"I've been asked to put together a group to go aboard the ship," said Camay.

"Ohhhhh no no no no no no no no no no no no no nope nope NOPE 15 buckets of nope - an Olympic-sized swimming pool filled with nope - an OCEAN of nope, I AM THE POPE OF NOPE..." stammered Duncan.

Jax rolled her eyes. "This isn't going to be like the asteroid, Mr. Sorenson," grumbled Jax, in a condescending tone.

"Folks, I'm two hundred and eight years old," said Duncan. "I've seen my share of near-death experiences already."

Camay pleaded, "Mr. Sorenson, we compensated you all for the extraction of Dr. Heimborem, even after he turned out to be a traitor. We need a senior-level decker on our team."

Duncan sighed. "I might be an upper decker but this is going to be a crappy situation no matter how many times you flush out the potential dangers," protested Duncan. "We're going to be in over our heads just like on NEA726."

Camay shook her head. "We're fairly sure there's no active security on board."

Duncan walked over to a chair and sat down.

"Let me think about this, Dr. Thameh. It's just... after what happened on that asteroid...." muttered Duncan.

"I'm not exactly excited about going, either," replied Shell. "It's hard to forget what happened on our last expedition."

Shell sat down at the small table across from Duncan. She stared at the monitors for a moment.

"Still," said Shell, "this is something that affects the whole world. If we're really the perfect group to do something like this... it would be, uh, selfish, I suppose, to decline."

Duncan sighed. "Alright, alright. Fine. When you put it that way, sheesh..." grumbled Duncan.

"I'm good with directly accessing and controlling hardware. Duncan, you're the expert at brute force cracking complicated security over networks."

Shell stood up. "Dr. Thameh and Jax, you two have access to vast amounts of data and an instant, guaranteed way out if we become trapped."

Jax nodded. "That's right. No matter what happens, Dr. Thameh and I actually exist on the 'net so if our bodies are trapped or destroyed, we can still summon assistance."

"See, Duncan," said Shell. "We're in much better shape than before... aside from not having any military experience in our group this time around, that is."

Jax looked over at Camay.

"Boss," said Jax, "While Mr. Sorenson's deliberating whether or not to work with us, could I have a brief word with you?"

"Of course," replied Camay. "Let's do a quick dive if you want to discuss something privately."

Camay and Jax walked over to some other chairs and sat down while Shell and Duncan discussed things. They closed their eyes and entered virtual space. Inside the dive was a quiet, green prairie. The sun shone brightly overhead.

"Last night at Shell's place," said Jax, "I was in a normal sleep routine. Biological humans, as you know, have this experience called 'dreaming'..."

"What about dreaming," replied Camay.

"During the sleep routine, my awareness started to experience something not hosted by a dive session or sensory input," said Jax. "It was very similar to a human's process of dreaming."

Camay's avatar shook it's head. "That can't be right, Jax. Our sleep routines are automatic data compacting and re-calibration processes. It's nothing like the biological process of human sleep. We cannot dream."

"Whatever it was, boss, I saw things that I cannot comprehend. For starters, the sound of Duncan's recording of the beacon signal was playing in a continuous loop. I also saw the images that we just saw from the probe of the interior of that ship. How is it possible to see them before we actually received them," insisted Jax.

"That is not possible," replied Camay.

"I know, Dr. Thameh! After I resumed normal awareness, I found that none of the images or other data related to the experience were anywhere in my system's logs!" said Jax.

"I think we should apply a little more scrutiny to the decker cyborgs in light of this," said Camay. "I trust them but it almost sounds as if your base program was hacked. This is a very serious threat if that's indeed what happened."

They exited the dive and opened their eyes. Duncan and Shell were still discussing the situation while Chester was busy pouring over images on the telescope's monitors.

"I can't really contribute much inside that thing," mentioned Chester. "but I can show you a good place we can enter the ship with our craft. There's another hatch leading to the cargo hold that's partially open. If we attach a robotic arm to our ship, I could open the hatch."

"You mean remotely?" asked Shell.

"I have piloting experience," replied Chester. "I can fly our ship there and wait nearby while you do what you need to do aboard that thing. Remember, Dr. Thameh and Jax can easily escape and summon help if something goes wrong but they will be separated from their android bodies if the ship suddenly starts using a jamming signal."

"Like on NEA726," replied Duncan.

"Right," said Chester. "You lost all connectivity to the network while you were there, from what I was told. Dr. Thameh and Jax would have been rendered inoperable if they were with you."

"Precisely," replied Camay. "That's why we can't perform this mission with drones or with only Jax and myself."

"That's why I would like to request that I pilot our ship," said Chester. "It would be the safest option in the event that everything gets jammed."