Nebula (19 page)

“How long would that take,” Brad asked.

“I’m not sure; probably at least a month or two. It’s not going to be easy.”

Brad thought for a few seconds then congratulated Ludmila on her success. “Good work. Why don’t you forget about the partitioned memory for now? Just finish with the software to get the robots up and running without it. Do all the tests that you need to be sure that everything is OK. Don’t rush with this. It has to be right. Then you can work on the remaining problems and take whatever time you need. It looks like you already got to a point where we’ll be able to take them to Mars when we need to return for the real operation. If you have the partitioned memory by then, that’s great, but even without it, we’ll be able to use them. The partitioned memory isn’t that vital anyway, since we already have that in the three older models on Mars. We’ll be able to copy anything we need into those memories, right?”

“Sure,” Ludmila replied. “That’s done automatically.”

It took Ludmila and her assistants only two weeks to work out the remaining details and get Igor and the worker robot up and running. The memory wasn’t partitioned yet, but everything else checked out, so they invited the rest of the team for a demonstration.

Yuri and Harry put on the headsets. Ludmila had suggested that they be the first people other than Ludmila and her assistants to work with the new models. She figured that they would be the best ones to understand if all the interactive software was doing what it was supposed to do. They went through a standard battery of tests and expanded to some complex coordination activities and were satisfied that these two behaved exactly the same as the earlier models did when they were under human control.

“OK,” Ludmila said after all the others took their turns. “Now for the real demonstration. I told you that we would be able to impose supervisory overrides on anything that the aliens could do, right? Well, now we’ll show you how that works.”

She told Yuri to put the headgear on again, this time switched to a mode that was what an alien would use. Harry was given the other headgear that was still in the human mode.

“Start to direct Igor,” Ludmila said to Yuri. “We’ll let Harry enter the network and give a supervisory command to have it do something else and to stop responding to your commands. All you have to do is think the order, Harry. The interface software will automatically interpret it as a supervisory command. If there are any ambiguities, it will ask you if this is a supervisory override, and you can just think yes.”

Igor started to move in response to Yuri’s command. Then it stopped, and nothing that Yuri did could make it respond to him. He couldn’t even read the memory any longer. Harry had overridden his command of the robot.

“Fantastic,” Harry said, clearly amazed that it worked so smoothly.

“OK, that’s step one,” Ludmila said. “The next thing we’ll do is have Harry send a supervisory command to Igor that directs it to contact every other robot on the supervisory network and forward Harry’s initial override order. Harry won’t need to do anything else. The worker will automatically drop out of alien control. Send that command now, Harry. You just have to think it and the interface will do the translations like before.”

Once again, everything worked, much to Yuri’s frustration when he tried to get the worker to obey a simple command. It just sat still, ignoring him even though it obviously had no other tasks that might have conflicted with what he was trying to get it to do.

Brad seemed very pleased with the demonstration. He even took a turn for himself and was impressed by how easy everything seemed to be.

“Will these two be able to coordinate their work with the three on Mars?” he asked.

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Ludmila replied. “The coordination links are the same and the only differences are in the detailed ways that the robots respond. The newer models can do more things, but they’re backward compatible with the old ones, so a mix of models shouldn’t be a problem. The aliens apparently designed things that way, and it suits our purposes too.”

“Good. Then we’ll add these two to the three that we already have on Mars. It could come in handy to have a couple of the newer models there, especially if the aliens bring robots with them when they arrive. I expect that they will, since that seems to be their standard procedure. If we can take control of their robots, we could have a pretty strong hand to play if things start to go bad. I’ll arrange for us to go back to the base tomorrow and deliver these two. We probably should check on things anyway. It’s been a while since we were there.”

News would arrive later that day that would make tomorrow’s visit more than just a delivery and routine check on things.

It was almost dinner time when the message came. It was totally unexpected, like a bolt out of the blue and seemed almost unreal, even though they had been preparing for this and knew that it would come eventually. Still, it was a shock to see it finally arrive.

Robby had just received a request for approach authorization and guidance from a group of six alien ships. Their message stated that they were currently with the main fleet, about one light day outside the solar system, and were preparing to leave on an armed reconnaissance mission. The third planet from the star was their target of interest.

This was the standard first step, an attempt to contact any sentries that were active in the solar system. They would wait a sufficient amount of time for any reply to reach them. If none were received, they would proceed under the assumption that the previous exploratory group had perished, along with all its robots. If that were the case, they would come prepared to engage whatever enemy might have caused the destruction of the exploratory group, while the rest of the fleet remained far enough away to make a hasty retreat if that enemy were a powerful one.

So, the time had come. Robby sent the expected reply, with authorization to proceed and with guidance instructions to bring them to the alien base on Mars. That message would reach the alien fleet in about a day. One day after that, they’d arrive on Mars.

The AFO had to be in place and ready for them before that, and this meant getting Igor and the worker robot up there as soon as possible and updating the memories in all five robots to make the fictitious histories stored in the alien-accessible memories look real. Fortunately, Ludmila had already written the code and stored it on a transportable memory unit, so it would go quickly once they got to the base.

But Brad was still concerned that this was happening too quickly to be able to test everything as thoroughly as he wanted and to rehearse operations with all five robots. Ludmila, Yuri, and Harry tried to tell him that they already did all the tests that they needed and that integrating with the three robots on Mars wouldn’t present any new, unexpected problems. But Brad was Brad. His military training and his work on difficult security missions topside, as they referred to the world above the ocean, made him a bit paranoid and obsessive compulsive. He wanted all the i’s dotted and all the t’s crossed. That wasn’t going to happen this time. They would have to go to Mars and start the operation “come as you are.”

There was no time to waste, so they loaded the robots and their gear onto two spacecraft as quickly as they could and started the short trip to Mars before midnight. They reached the base less than an hour later and began to prepare for the long stay. Once all the gear was unloaded and checked out, the two spacecraft returned to Earth. The AFO team was now on its own, and the countdown to contact with live aliens had begun.

All of them, even Brad, were visibly nervous, but they knew their jobs and got busy setting up the equipment, getting the ops center in the bunker ready for action. From this room, they would monitor activity at the alien base only several hundred meters away and intercept communications between the aliens and their main fleet, and they would coordinate all the AFO team’s actions to respond to whatever the aliens did that might compromise the overall plan.

Two computers and human-to-robot headsets were connected to an interface control box with its covert link into the robot network. They were the main tools for observing and clandestinely controlling the robots. Two other computers and interfaces were running as hot spares. They were for standby backup in case there was a malfunction in the primary systems. If they weren’t needed for that function, they were available for any of the team to look into the data stored in the robots.

Harry and Yuri were the primary operators at one of the computers, and they also had headgear to link with the robots. Ludmila and Judith were the primary operators at the other. Their job was to monitor the software and electronics and to take supervisory control to prevent or correct problems. When these four needed to take a break or when alien activities were slow, Nigel and Gladys would stand in for Harry and Yuri, and Doug and Mikio would back up Ludmila and Judith. They had rehearsed these roles many times back at Nebula Ops, but this time it was on Mars, and it was for real. They were all on edge as they waited.

Three diagnostic computer stations had permanent links directly into the supervisory channels. They were programmed to give alarms if anything out of normal was detected in any of the robots. This relieved the team members from the burden of maintaining continuous monitoring of all details in the multi-robot network.

There were also a number of optical and infrared sensors deployed covertly around the base and providing good views of the entire area outside the aliens’ underground operations center. Their outputs were sent to another six computers and could be selectively called up and displayed on another six screens.

Alien communications would be intercepted by the five early model robots that had been configured with partitioned storage. Ludmila had programmed them to monitor all alien channels and to route the messages into the human-accessible storage area. From there, the stored data could be read through any of the computers connected to the robots. They would be able to read the enemy’s “mail” as quickly as the data and language translations could be processed.

“We have about thirty six hours before they get here,” Brad said as they all sat in the common area of the forward ops base. This was the place where they could meet to plan and discuss things and was an extension off the small kitchen, so it was also where they would eat when they felt hungry. But no one had much of an appetite at this point.

“It doesn’t pay for us to just pace the floor,” he continued. “We’re going to need to be ready for some very long and intense work, so let’s try to get some rest. Here’s the schedule for standing watch. We’ll take four hour shifts until an hour before the estimated time of arrival. Then we all need to get ready. Everyone not on watch should try to get some sleep. I’ll take the first watch, then Yuri, then Harry, then Ludmila, then Judith. I want the four of them to have enough rest when the time comes. The other four of you can choose where you want to be on the list.”

*

The estimate of thirty six hours was almost exact. Robby and Igor received the approach signal, and Robby went into action to guide the alien ships into the base while Igor stood by and watched, weapon at the ready. Yuri and Harry had their helmets on and could see that everything was proceeding as it should. There were several exchanges of messages between Robby and one of the alien ships, and Igor was processing data on the number and types of ships and was entering it into his memory. Judith and Ludmila could see that the data was also going automatically into Robby’s memory, in both the alien and human sides of the partition.

“So far, so good,” Ludmila said, and Harry also gave a thumbs-up. He didn’t want to speak at this point since he wanted to concentrate any verbal thought processes on the link with the robots. He and Yuri had five of them to keep tabs on, and they needed to get into the rhythm of the activities before they could relax and time-share their attention to be able to communicate with the other team members.

The six alien ships glided smoothly onto the landing area near the alien base and storage facility, and all five of the robots waited in a small group and watched as they set down. Harry and Yuri also watched through the eyes of the robots, and a somewhat similar view was also displayed on the computer that was connected to the interface box.

Two of the ships were the type that carried living beings. One of them was larger than the other and looked like the pictures of the fighters that were in the order of battle display that Haverford had shown them. The other one seemed to be identical to the ship that crashed on Earth years ago, so it was a lightly armed reconnaissance ship with a crew of three or four aliens and a few robots.

The four remaining ships were robotic ships, quite a bit smaller than the first two. They would probably each have at least six robots, probably a mix of sentry-soldiers like Igor and workers that could also serve as soldiers.

Brad commented that he thought that this first group would use the newer models since they’d probably want to have the greatest capability for combat if they did encounter an advanced race of beings with technology on a par with their own.

“Try to get a reading on the robots that they’re bringing on these ships.” Brad said to Ludmila and Judith, as he continued to watch the evolving situation on the computer screen. “We need to know how many there are of each type and especially if they are the new or old models. Can you make a record of them and see if you can connect into their supervisory channels through Igor?”

“We’re already doing just that,” Ludmila replied. “So far, I count four sentries like Igor and one that looks like Robby. We’re into the supervisory functions on that one. We can see all the current settings. That part was easier than I expected. We can get into that one through both Igor and Robby. I think that we’re negotiating connections to two of the others through Igor, but give us a few more minutes. We need to be careful not to alert the aliens or the robots by doing something wrong. So far, it looks like the new robots are set to accept networking with any other new model, so Igor may be into the network as a full participant soon. Then, we’ll have to see if Robby can also get connected. That may be possible since the old model that looks like Robby does seem to be networked with the newer ones.”

Eight aliens had now disembarked from the two ships. That meant that a few more might still be onboard. It was important to get a good head count since if any intervention became necessary, they’d have to make quick work of every one of them so that they wouldn’t be able to send a message back to their fleet.

Gladys opened a new data file on one of the computers at a workstation near the current operational stations where Yuri, Harry, Ludmila, and Judith were. She created data files to list every alien and robot, including current status of each and with space for other comments and entries. She gave names for each entity. The aliens were designated A-#, and the robots were listed as S-# for sentries and W-# for workers. She also added notations in parentheses for each robot to designate new (n) or old (o). Then she started to populate the file with data from the current observations. Fortunately, each of the aliens could be identified by the alien number symbols on their space suits, as long as they didn’t interchange suits. The robots also had identification numbers, like the ones on Robby and Igor. All the numbers were, of course, in alien notation in base twelve, but Nebula had long since translated them to standard Arabic numbers, in base ten.

Seven aliens fanned out to inspect the area. Two of them (named A-5 and 7 in Gladys’ scheme) went to the storage facility, opened it, and did a quick inventory. They opened the small cabinet containing the pathogen containers and entered something into a hand held device that must have been their version of a portable computer. If it sent data to the network that the robots were on, Ludmila and Judith would soon see what they entered. Then they closed the cabinet and inspected everything else in the storage facility, entering data at each stop.

Aliens A-1, 2, 6 and 8 went into the underground center that the robots had built. They didn’t have to crawl through the open airlock, or even bend very much since they were much shorter than humans. Once they were inside, they vanished from view. Brad often thought that they should install covert sensors inside that facility too, but it was judged to be too risky. If any bugs were discovered, the whole plan would be blown, so they had to accept that they wouldn’t be able to see everything that the aliens were doing. Fortunately, everything of importance would probably be logged into the data bases on the network, so they’d see it anyway, even if not in real time.

A-3 did a quick tour around the base area, inspecting for anything that may have been left by the original explorers. Finding nothing of interest, it went into the underground center and joined its four companions to inspect and probably assess how to use it for the invasion.

A-4 stayed with Robby, Igor and the two workers and began to download their memories. This was the important action that Nebula was counting on to get the aliens pointed toward the biological option. Ludmila and Judith could see the memory locations being accessed and downloaded, and Yuri and Harry could sense the alien interactions and the commands from A-4’s computer to the robots’ memories and data files. Everything seemed to be going as planned. The human-accessible parts of the memory appeared totally invisible and inaccessible as all the other records were sent to the alien’s computer.

A-5 and 7 were finished with the storage facility. A-5 went back to his ship, and A-7 walked over to join A-4 who was looking at the records that it downloaded from the robots’ memories. The two of them appeared to be talking to one another, and A-7 showed A-4 the data about the pathogen containers that it found in the storage facility. They talked some more, and then A-4 called up the records on the biological attack preparations and showed them to A-7. The two of them then went quickly into the underground center, obviously to discuss things with the five that were in there.

“I think that the fish see the bait and may be about to take a bite,” Brad commented as they all watched.