The Pearsall Saga
(latest update of this section on or about 12-4-02)
_________by J.R. Mooneyham_________
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Perspectives takes up where the Timeline leaves off, offering more risky speculation and outright fiction about what the future may bring, than is suitable in the Timeline. Perspectives helps illustrate some of the possibilities implied by the Timeline, as well as how certain select personalities of various periods might perceive (and exploit or respond to) their circumstances.
Back to the MASTER Table of Contents of the Signposts Timeline
The Pearsalls' enjoy highly complementary skillsets: in the many decades prior to their actual launch, Liz obtained degrees in mathematics and supervisory software engineering, and gained a wealth of experience in living, self-organizing composite construction, as well as other areas. She also enjoyed complex virtual space exploration and navigation games as a hobby. Liz garnered several prestigious awards for her work in theoretical mathematics and algorithms along the way, but tended to avoid the limelight brought on by those acheivements. Al's education was a bit less formal, with but one degree in spacecraft propulsion and design, but substantial experience in extended space missions, and asteroid and comet surveying and mineral extraction, among other things. Al grew up in a mining family amid the asteroid belt, and spent his teenage years making often illegal shipping runs in the region (breaking treaties about where his family's production could be sold to, and at what price; mainly the treaties were a mega-corporate effort to maintain premium prices for their own wares). Al's hobbies included exploration, spacecraft mechanics and electronics, and hot rodding. As a pre-teen Al 'ran away' from home once on his own immature journey of exploration and (being ill prepared) was almost lost forever in the Kuiper Belt. That event taught Al both the importance of planning and the ability to improvise. Both Pearsalls shared a dream of becoming known as the premiere deep space explorers of their time, and being the first to reach the galactic core-- or at least get closer to it than anyone else for their slot of history. They also someday wanted to form their own union/extended family/corporation, but needed the sufficient funds in order 'to do it right'.
Unlike many other explorers, the Pearsalls invest most heavily in their own bodies and on-person equipment, rather than their spacecraft. Both Pearsalls undergo rigorous physical overhauls to become cyborgs of around 65%bh (biological human). Much of the inorganic supplements are not visible under normal circumstances. However, they allow the Pearsalls the capacity to survive naked in space for hours at a time if necessary. The Pearsalls are also heavily supplemented with intelligence and memory boosting implants and communications.
The Pearsalls also buy items like 4th skins (practically super-human and intelligent space suits/exoskeletons/armor worn to face extremely harsh conditions) and 3rd skins (intelligent flying clouds of microscopic gnats that can be utilized for an amazing variety of purposes).
Some niceties the Pearsalls avoid buying include even light duty lightspeed transporters in place of old fashioned doors and hatches and shuttle craft of various sorts, as well as medium duty one-way-trip-home models popular with many other expeditions as a last resort escape route from being stranded in deep space. The Pearsalls do however take along a couple of economical standalone replicators, closet-sized, with a wide range of heavy medical and light industrial capacities, with premium priced 'roaming' feed acceptance modules (i.e., unlike most standard replicators, these are not picky about the types of raw mass they'll ingest) -- but NO built-in transporter capabilities. The Pearsalls also don't buy the one or more humanoid android assistants/companions many other teams opt for now. In place of such things the Pearsalls buy two assembled autonomous medical treatment beds (and replicator licenses for three complete sets of replacement parts), three ion drive space sleds (and replicator license for a fourth)(sleds are meant for vacuum chores; though they can glide to a planet's surface in an emergency, they can't regain space afterwards on their own), and three skimmers (plus a replicator license for a fourth) for planetary travel (robust atmospheric VTOL with short range rocket assists; in a pinch a skimmer can achieve low orbit for a few minutes for pickup by spacecraft), along with enough spare parts to keep them all going through more than a couple complete catastrophes. Instead of humanoid androids, the Pearsalls choose three long tailed monkeys with human dexterity hands and human level intelligence (mostly inorganic AIs), 'hardened' like the Pearsalls to also be able to survive in space without protection-- though for only 20 minutes.
The Pearsalls also 'skimp' on their spacecraft-- at least from the perspective of many of their competitors. Rather than buying the latest and greatest models that could do many things they'd never require and offer the utmost in luxuries and convenience (and cost a fortune), the Pearsalls choose instead to buy two nearly identical Sonnenschein Rovers (yes, practically the same vehicle Terri received new almost a century before). Although both Rovers are at least 60 years old, they are examples of one of the most popular and versatile consumer spacecraft ever manufactured (and remarkably still being built new in small quantities in obscure locations), and built practically to tough military specs of their original manufacture date. The Terra Sys Agency themselves had standardized on the Rovers for many years, which further boosted the vehicle's reputation and popularity. Two identical Rovers in the expedition allow for cannibalization to keep one running if necessary, plus provides twice the storage space of one craft. These two Rovers are in excellent condition, lovingly overhauled by a friend of the Pearsalls in return for 5% value of whatever the Pearsalls might discover or bring back. Though the Rovers mostly are true to their original parts and designs, in a few strategic areas the Pearsalls have upgraded them to more modern elements where recommended by their friend, or personally deemed necessary.
Probably the biggest updating the Pearsalls make to their Rovers are in the areas of its resident AIs and nanotech buffer fields (both internal and external). Both these upgrades make the Rovers into something much closer to living things, both in terms of intelligence and the capacity to manipulate their environment and themselves. The next biggest changes are to the Rovers' engines. There's been considerable advancement in spacecraft engine technologies since the Rovers first rolled off the assembly line, and the Pearsalls want as much acceleration, reliability, and fuel efficiency as they can get in that department. They've installed the best propulsion systems they could possibly afford.
To cope with the possible loss of a fuel wakeway beyond six or seven lightyears from Sol system, the Pearsalls have opted for a four pronged strategy: one, to settle on a faraway world indefinitely once fuel shortages become too severe; two, both Rovers possess antimatter and fusion drives, in addition to the ions. The ion drives will fail at the same time as the current wakeway (though refueling is still possible under some circumstances), but at around .25c the antimatter fuel will last about 10 lightyears per each Rover, and the fusion drive 1-2 lightyears per Rover, without refueling. Three, behind them they're also towing a small breeder reactor, capable of generating fuel for use in a fusion drive indefinitely-- provided they can feed the breeder itself on occasion from local mining stops along the way. Of course, actually using the fusion drive would be much riskier than they'd like, the mining stops would cost them almost more time and acceleration than the nuclear drive might provide in return, and their convoy would have to be substantially reconfigured structurally to set up the fusion drive for use. But the Pearsalls, like some other deep space explorers, are only carrying such equipment as a last resort measure. As a remedy to possible death in space, it's well worth its cost in mass and money. Too, so long as their cryo-units preform well, they can stretch their fuel out by simply making do with smaller velocities, if they are forced to limp home, or struggle towards a suitable planetoid to set up an indefinite homestead. Four, the Pearsalls plan to budget VERY LITTLE of their fuel for DE-celeration duties at journey's end, or for stops or slow downs along the way. But they must have an alternative: in the Pearsall's case that alternative is the extra heavy duty frames on themselves (cyborg supplements) and their vessels and cargos, as well as beefed up buffer fields-- all to help them endure possibly many high G-force loops around local gravity wells to bleed off speed, in place of using precious fuel for such a task. Both Pearsalls are experienced spacers, but neither have ever experienced the magnitude of G-forces they now plan to use to exploit gravity wells for decelerations like this. Indeed, before their pre-launch preparations, such G-forces would certainly have killed the Pearsalls in their previous conditions and vessels, if they'd been tried. This last point is one virtually no one else among the Pearsalls' competitors would consider trying, except in a have-to case. Yes, smaller magnitude decelerations of this kind would be acceptable to many, but not the frighteningly large ones in the Pearsall's plan. Indeed, even with the benefit of the Pearsall's preparations, should something like the computer controls for their buffer fields fail at a critical moment, the Pearsalls could be jellified.
So in summary, providing no significant problem develops in regard to the propulsion systems, the Pearsalls can travel via ion engines as far as their current wakeway extends, and can in some circumstances refuel the ion drives via tricky mass captures along the way, for still greater range. When the ion drives are spent, the Pearsalls enjoy a combined range of about 20 lightyears at .25c from their two Rovers' antimatter engines. The antimatter engines can never be refueled again locally without the help of a major spacecraft from the vicinity of Home space, however-- which the Pearsalls don't foresee ever happening. Where both ions and antimatter drives aren't useful, the two Rovers' fusion drives combined offer fuel onboard for 2-4 lightyears travel at .25c, and can be refueled via breeder reactor in hardship cases.
Yes, for their deep space mission the Pearsalls are essentially using beefed up versions of several different types of engines mainly designed for intra-system travel, rather than deep space. But this is what almost all the private explorers in this second wave are doing, and most not in as well thought out a manner as the Pearsalls. For example, many other expeditions might possess nothing more than ion drives for the wakeway and medium duty lightspeed transports to return home, figuring on somehow finding something of value everyone else has missed relatively close to Sol system, and having the lightspeed transports for a virtually guaranteed return trip (sans vessel, of course, which is thereafter subject to legal salvage by anyone who can get to it). Some better planned missions, enjoying stronger financial backing than the Pearsalls and peers, pass on the option of taking along a messy and inconvenient breeder reactor for agonizing stop-and-go refueling in the case of an emergency, choosing instead to install awesomely large Bussard ramjet buffer fields for a greater bite of the wakeway, and attendent greater speeds (.3c to .4c) while the wakeway lasts, then use a huge stockpile of antimatter fuel to drive possibly another 40-50 lightyears beyond that, and fusion drives for fast local maneuvering (but insufficient fuel for more than 1-2 lightyears propulsion at .3c speeds), and medium duty lightspeed transport for eventual crew return to Sol if necessary.
Though there would seem to be a tantalyzing prospect for enjoying an inexhaustible fuel supply via onboard replicators, this is not a realistic option for most expeditions of this time period, for many reasons.
Such an arrangement is prohibitively expensive in many ways for almost everyone, so only the most wealthy expeditions may even consider it. But the wealthy desire convenience and security for their money, and fuel gained from replication offers neither. First off, replicators simply cannot be used to create anti-matter-- much greater resources are required for that then might be installed onto any but the very largest spacecraft-- and very large spacecraft are ill suited for deep space exploration due to the fuel required to accelerate their mass. The incapacity to generate antimatter means replicators cannot manufacture the high performance fuel most preferred by all, including the wealthy. No, replicators may only produce lower performance fuels, suitable for ion and fusion drives. Thus, right there you cut the cost-effectiveness of using replication for a fuel source by a substantial margin. Then there's the inefficiency of replication to consider. Within Sol system itself, the inefficiency is mainly a cost and convenience issue. But in deep space, vessels striving for minimum mass onboard to maximize both speed and range, as well as seeking to avoid unnecessary decelerations to capture fuel-mass along the way (and thereby burn off valuable velocity), can ill afford such inefficiences in the area of fuel and/or propulsion systems.
Replicators require considerable amounts of processing power, energy, and raw mass to manufacture their end products. And replicators circa 2330 are only some 60% efficient in their operations. So it turns out it's significantly more cost-effective to simply carry the physical fuel from the start than to use replicators for it along the way. Thus, the moment you begin using replicators for fuel onboard a fast moving vessel is the beginning of the end for your journey.
Even inside Sol system itself the economics of fuel-via-replicator improves only slightly. Desperate crews might feed a 'roaming' capable replicator various non-essential furniture and appliances onboard their vessel, and reach safety with the fuel generated before the negative economics caught up to them-- but by no means would the procedure be recommended for most situations. Usually it would make more sense to simply call for help.
At the beginning of their journey, the Pearsalls have one Rover packed so full of supplies there's only barely room for the two to squeeze into the vehicle in an emergency. The other Rover (in which they will live for a long, long time) is only half-filled in this manner. The Pearsalls also have third and fourth vehicles, but they consist of merely large container vessels, holding still more supplies. Al had initially wanted to utilize two stripped Rover shells (junked Rover bodies/frames stripped of engines, life support, and just about everything else) for these containment purposes, so he and Elizabeth would enjoy still greater redundancy in terms of spacecraft repair/rebuilding, if needed. Unfortunately, crunching the numbers showed this to be too inefficient fuel-wise. Plus, junked Rover shells were surprisingly expensive due to their popularity among spacecraft aficionados; old Rovers enjoyed a popularity and image prior to the Pearsall's launch from Sol System that rivaled the wildest fantasies a hard core personal transportation fan could ever harbor.
One container ship is attached to the front of the unmanned Rover, which is remotely piloted from the manned Rover behind it. The unmanned Rover leads the procession, its engines pulling the entire convoy, towing the manned (and exhaust shielded) Rover behind it. This arrangement increases safety since the worst chance for collisions with high speed debris is in front of the parade-- so the frontmost cargo vessel should always be hit first, the unmanned Rover second, and the manned Rover enjoy the greatest protection possible. This also works better in the case that atmospheric braking might be needed at some point, and in emergencies would likely allow the manned Rover more flexibility for evasive action or escape, even if the other vehicles had to be sacrificed.
Naturally the buffer fields acting somewhat as Bussard ramjet collectors for the Pearsall's ion engines feeding on the wakeway are configured to work around the cargo vessel for the unmanned Rover doing the pulling for the caravan-- while the Pearsall's primary Rover has its buffer fields otherwise engaged. The second cargo vessel (containing the breeder reactor and other nuclear fusion drive equipment) is towed behind the manned Rover where it can be cut loose easily, and is protected from debris collisions.
Lastly, the Pearsalls spend over 10 years directing their tiny convoy in a series of staggeringly complex loops between the Sun, Jupiter, and other planets, building up acceleration amongst all those gravity wells, before they ever actually exit the solar system. Again, this is something else very few of their fellow explorers are willing to do (to such an extreme, anyway; typically it's only much smaller and unmanned craft that match or exceed the Pearsalls' own gravity well exploitation at this time). But this essentially helps the Pearsalls match or surpass the acceleration of many of their competitors at much lower comparable cost in money and fuel.
But how could the Pearsalls stand such a long delay in actually leaving the Solar System? Cryo-sleep. The whole process is fully automated; the Pearsalls suffer no waiting whatsoever. Their cryo units are one of the areas the Pearsalls do not skimp on. Though most believe the Pearsalls are planning cryo sleep on a par with that of most other core adventurers (10-25 year stints), the Pearsalls actually order their onboard AIs not to waken them unless necessary for 150 years after launch (this is NOT in shipboard years-- velocities approaching lightspeed make onboard years pass differently than outside). The Pearsalls have determined that this should allow them to awaken the first time already deeper towards the galaxy core than 80-90% of their competitors, who will either have turned back, or stopped to explore various solar systems on the way. And the Pearsalls plan to make other lengthy cryo sleeps along the way as well.
To put the Rover's popularity into perspective, imagine an alternate history of the world wherein the first practical and comfortable automobile ever available to the masses was the 1960s Volkswagon Beetle-- which even looked cute-- in a homely sort of way. Now imagine this same VW Bug is instrumental in taming the American West-- as sort of a combination of horse and train, serving both determined trailblazers and the humbler pioneers/settlers that followed them. Next imagine the Beetle serves as crucial transport during a time of unbridled economic and political conflict, not far different from the American Civil War-- for both opposing sides. Then, after the war's over, the Beetle serves as the official transport of something like the Canadian Mounted Police, which patrols all the wildlands beyond the centers of civilized society, heroically helping rescue citizens from disasters and accidents, as well as defending law abiding citizens against pirates and other outlaws in their jurisdiction. Finally, picture the mystique built up by popular entertainment media based on both fictional and non-fictional accounts of events wherein these Beetles played a significant role, over a matter of decades, and you get some idea of how the Rovers were regarded.
END NOTE.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2343 Milestone: Al Pearsall is awakened more than 130 years earlySignposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2480 milestone: the Pearsalls are awakened some 140 years from Earth (33 lightyears distant)Though the government had warned all explorers prior to launch that the wakeway might be unreliable beyond the first 10 lightyears, here at 33 lightyears (well into the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy: page 94, The Sun, The Natural History of the Universe by Colin A. Ronan, 1991, Macmillan Publishing Company) its scorecard has been excellent so far. The Pearsalls note that the Rover's AI had only seen necessary to use the fusion drives for course corrections (to switch to a less inconsistent region of wakeway) roughly a dozen times the last 25 lightyears. Of course, the stats indicate the wakeway is finally destabilizing in great chunks now, and estimates place its effective end less than 10 more lightyears from their present location (and about 43 years ship time). However, no resonance signal from any wake generator plant is showing up on the Rover instruments yet.
NOTE: Wake generators are programmed to veer off the main course they are seeding with fuel and then shut down, once their own supply gets too low, in order to avoid becoming a collision threat for following craft. The plants also possess non-powered resonance signal generators which resonate in response to strong natural radiation wavelengths, with signals that can be detected and recognized by modern spacecraft. These fail-safe signals allow following craft to pinpoint the wake generator plant locations and thereby lessen even further the chance of collision, as well. Another function of the signal is so craft in trouble can easily find the generator plant and exploit its remaining supply of fuel if needed. During their primary mission of fuel laying, the generator plants also possess routine powered radio transmitters relaying course information to following vessels as well, for maximum wake usage efficiency. The powered transmissions are detectable at much greater distances than the fail-safe resonance signals. END NOTE.
The Pearsalls spend several anxious weeks dreading contact with other explorers now-- for that would mean they hadn't outpaced them as hoped. And if any competition remains, they'll be much harder to outrun from this point on, with the wake way petering out. No contact is received however. And the latest messages from possible competitors logged by the Rover AIs are at minimum 11 years old; so it does seem the Pearsalls have outpaced their peers, even if only by a smaller margin than expected. Of course, there could always be other expeditions dialing up long cryo-sleeps too...
The Pearsalls send a message towards Sol system to notify the authorities of their present position, course, and condition, as are standard. It'll require roughly 33 years for the message to reach Earth, based on the Pearsall's average velocity of 23% of lightspeed so far.
The Pearsalls spend the next months performing intensive subjective surveys of all the space around them (though they do not deviate from their speed or course towards the core) that vary somewhat from the automatic surveys done by the AIs, as well as checking out every facet of their convoy, and making repairs or adjustments as necessary. They remain awake less than a year, and then return to cryo-sleep once more. This time the programmed duration is only 42 years-- since that's about when the wake way is expected to quit.
ITEM: The primary communications the Pearsalls have with Sol system during the major portion of their journey is one-way in nature-- from Sol to the Pearsalls.
ITEM: Messages from Sol to the Pearsalls are increasingly delayed as the Pearsalls travel further from Sol system. For example, any EM signals they receive from Sol now were actually transmitted 33 years ago. This means the Pearsalls effectively are always at least as far behind in technical information and news regarding what the rest of humanity knows by a number of years roughly matching their distance from Sol in lightyears. Pearsall expedition progress reports to Sol system share the same discrepancy in currency.
ITEM: The Pearsall's communications with Sol are typically passive or automated in nature-- receiving but not transmitting. Partly this is because the Pearsalls are asleep-- in stasis-- for lengthy periods. The Rovers' onboard AIs record and archive all incoming communications for the Pearsall's to examine in summary or by search during periods of consciousness later on. The AIs may awaken the Pearsalls when urgent messages are received-- but how urgent can a message possibly decades old really be?
ITEM: Most broadcast communications (like general news and entertainment media) from the vicinity of Sol are by definition not usually meant for long range reception-- and so deteriorated badly beyond 10-25 lightyears distance from Earth. Although technically it's possible for the Pearsalls to access this material with some big gaps and glitches interspersed among the content, in practice they rarely do so. And the quality of this category of communications only worsens as the distance increases.
ITEM: Beyond 25 lightyears distance from Sol, the Pearsalls dispense almost entirely with the routine recording of broadcasts, to focus their resources instead on recording of narrowcasts or unidirectional messages-- communications specifically beamed in their direction. This category of communications includes a considerable amount of heavily encrypted (and therefore inaccessible) private communications between various core expeditions and their Sol-based masters or bosses or loved ones. However, there's also periodic government and corporate-sponsered messages in the clear on these bands, intended to support the most distant of the expeditions with essential news and info from home for as long as possible. Unfortunately, the majority of even these narrowcasts peter out in practical reception/value roughly another 60 lightyears out (this is due to several factors, including a signal scattering effect from the dense molecular cloud the Pearsalls encounter some distance from Sol, the necessarily small size of the Pearsall's receiving dish, and more).
ITEM: Recall that the Pearsalls are in a competition with others to reach as deep into the galaxy as possible-- therefore there is some competitive advantage in limiting their own transmissions for anything but urgent or contractually required matters.
ITEM: Most core expeditions (including the Pearsalls) agree before launch to send periodic progress reports to certain government entities in exchange for the subsidized ion wakeway at the start, long range narrowcast communications news and info from Sol to the expeditions, certain automatic patent and estate claims based on their reports, possible long term help in survival and rescue if stranded (waits for rescue are often expected to measure in the decades though, if no EM lightspeed transport equipment is available on the stranded end), and other things. Expeditions may also have communications agreements with other parties as well (as the Pearsalls do with the friend who rebuilt their Rovers and maintains a business interest in their journey).
ITEM: Once the Pearsalls get beyond about 85 lightyears from Sol, they can no longer reliably receive any communications at all originating in the vicinity of Sol system. They still occasionally send progress reports back, but they cannot know for certain if anyone hears them. The Pearsalls reasonably expect that Sol system has set up enormous, highly sensitive receivers, and therefore are indeed cataloging their reports. And this remains true up until the disaster of 2615 (after which such cataloging resumes once the relevant parties in the Sol region manage to get things reasonably rebuilt again). Unfortunately, while equipped only with their convoy and its supplies, the Pearsalls' own reception power remains woefully limited by comparison.
END TECHNICAL NOTES.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2511 milestone: again, Al Pearsall is awakened prematurelyAl barely manages to repair the problem. After repairs are completed, he awakens Elizabeth (it was impossible before), to make sure she's OK. She is. They both stay awake a few months now before returning to cryo-sleep once more.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2512 milestone: Al Pearsall is awakened once moreThey decide to always be awakened together from now on, if possible.
Though the molecular cloud would be slowing the caravan down significantly under other circumstances, it also has caused a slightly richer wakeway from the preceding generator, which gave sufficient extra thrust to the Rover's ion drive to counteract the cloud's drag.
The Pearsalls encounter with the cloud began approximately 40 lightyears from Sol system, inside the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy (page 94, The Sun, The Natural History of the Universe by Colin A. Ronan, 1991, Macmillan Publishing Company).
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2522 milestone: The Pearsalls are reawakened-- and terrifiedThe AI's message log reveals no warning of the present thickening cloud from other explorers, which might mean the Pearsalls are in the lead to the core. Then again, withholding warnings could possibly help one explorer rid themselves of another. The Pearsalls decide the intensifying cloud is worthy of an alert to other explorers, and broadcast the message.
The Pearsalls are somewhat dismayed and alarmed to receive a response within only hours of their broadcast-- which seems to mean someone is uncomfortably close to their position. The message is at first indecipherable however, being compressed into virtually a single burst lasting much less than a tenth of a second, and apparently encoded in something other than standard formats.
The Pearsall's AIs finally manage to decompress and decode the message from its non-standard medium. The message source appears to be a military spacecraft, following in the wake of the Pearsall's convoy through the cloud-- thereby enjoying a 'shield' effect from the Pearsall's convoy leading the way-- but not employing any fuel from the wakeway (since there isn't any in the Pearsall's own wake). A space craft this deep in space not requiring a wakeway?
The message itself is ominously brief and cryptic, telling the Pearsall's it's "not safe" to communicate now, and they should maintain comm silence until further notice. The sender also assures them that all will be explained shortly.
The Pearsalls are stunned. This far in towards the core (about 43 light years from Earth, average speed since leaving Sol around 28.44% c) there shouldn't be anyone anywhere near them. But there's apparently a military craft from Sol system on their tail-- for what reason they cannot guess-- and the pilot of that craft is speaking as if there's yet a third party in the vicinity as well, that may be a threat to both the Pearsalls and their suspect military escort.
And the transmitting craft isn't using the wakeway? The only ways with technology known to the Pearsalls that this could be should leave telltale signs in the space behind the Pearsalls-- and they can detect none. Well, maybe it could be a cramped one man craft with an enormous antimatter fuel budget on a one-way suicide trip? Highly improbable, expensive, and stressful (for the pilot).
The Pearsalls are certain they themselves have broken no laws to incur a police pursuit, much less a military one. It's been near to 200 years since they left Sol System; and over 50 years since their Rover AI logged the last message from a nearby spacecraft (before the present stunner).
Has humanity encountered an alien threat? Are the Pearsalls themselves unwittingly heading straight into a newly discovered alien empire? Or, more likely, is their pursuer simply a competitor attempting to delay or scare off the Pearsalls from their present course?
Though the message timing indicated their mystery neighbor was close behind them, his craft can not be found by the Rover's instruments.
The uncertainty of it all is maddening. The Pearsalls are suddenly afraid to cryo-sleep now, and even regular sleep is difficult until they decide to do so in shifts, so that one of them is awake at all times. The Pearsalls are afraid they might be boarded if they let down their guard. The other ship is almost certainly well advanced over their own, apparently including stealth characteristics of some kind. Perhaps even now it might be alongside their convoy without their knowledge. The mystery craft must also be potentially faster than the Pearsall Rovers. Was it much larger as well? Thereby containing dozens or even hundreds of well armed crew? There had surely been such vessels available when the Pearsalls left Sol. Vessels as much as 15-20% faster in maximum acceleration than their revamped Rovers. Vessels many many times larger. Craft which could accept crews of hundreds or even thousands. And even faster and better vessels would have been available in the decades following the Pearsall's departure from Sol. But when the Pearsalls left such vessels were relatively few, and utilized for much more sensible and logical missions than this one sounded. Maybe a later expedition in a far superior craft has now caught up with the Pearsall's convoy, and is toying with them. Such a craft could likely destroy or commandeer the Pearsall's convoy with little effort. And there were no authorities anywhere around to give them pause.
The Pearsalls agonize over this matter for months. After some discussion they comfort themselves with the fact that larger, later built craft might boast greater accelerations, but their mass shortened their effective range at such accelerations. Plus, the Pearsalls must enjoy a significant headstart over most potential interlopers (unless unimaginable breakthroughs in propulsion had occured even before their own Rovers had finished looping through Sol System). Could a Vinge Singularity have taken place back home? No, it seemed unlikely a craft from a post Singularity Sol system would be wasting time out here-- especially on the Pearsalls.
When no second message ever materializes, and nothing else goes amiss, their anxiety subsides, and they begin wondering if somehow they misinterpreted the whole thing. Their AIs did admittedly have problems in the interpretation. And the timing may only have been a a scary coincidence-- with the sender never having received the Pearsall's cloud warning beforehand. After all, the message didn't specifically respond to the warning of the cloud. If the timing was coincidental, then they had little on which to base their original notion of how close the transmitting party was to their convoy.
Finally, almost two years after their most recent awakening, the Pearsalls are sufficiently satisfied with their status that they return to cryo-sleep. Of course, they do their best to make sure their AIs will keep a very close watch for anything odd occuring during their nap, awakening them immediately.
But even as they drift into frozen slumber, both Pearsalls are still wondering who the mystery speaker was, and who he was speaking to, and what third party he was speaking about... He almost had to be another explorer, like themselves, headed to the core like them, and speaking to some other explorer other than the Pearsalls-- and acting as if there was yet another vessel in the vicinity that both the message sender and intended recipient needed to be wary of. It was puzzling indeed. Were the Pearsalls themselves the third party the other two vessels were afraid would overhear them? And the mystery only deepened when no subsequent messages followed the first for two entire years....
Returning to more practical matters, during this last waking period the Pearsalls indeed were forced to shut down the ion drives due to the end of the wakeway, and ignite the unmanned Rover's antimatter drive (after a grueling weeks-long reconfiguration of the entire convoy, to install the unmanned Rover at the rear for its now dangerous exhaust, and rejigger the cargo vessels and buffer fields accordingly). After the mods the convoy now proceeded with the original first cargo module still frontmost, but reversed in direction to present a fresh end to the abrasive molecular cloud. Next is the manned Rover, then the second cargo module, then the unmanned Rover, with its antimatter fueled flame.
At their present speed, the Pearsalls should be able to go another 10 lightyears (35 years ship time) before the fuel is gone from the unmanned Rover, and another convoy reconfiguration is necessary.
The 'halfway' point (or point of no return) for the Pearsalls, should their breeder reactor and other refueling possibilities prove fruitless (and assuming nothing goes amiss with their existing onboard fuel or drives) now lies only some 11-12 lightyears ahead of them (38 or so ship years). Recall that so long as they can make it back to the end of the wakeway in a return flight, they can then use their ion drives again to return the rest of the way to Sol. So the point of no return is basically half the range of their present antimatter and fusion fuel supply, based on the average speed they travel-- or roughly 11-12 lightyears.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2560 milestone: The Pearsalls are awakened just short of the 'point-of-no-return'...and begin building their place in history.The Pearsalls have no way of knowing that the decision they make now will mean the difference between their expedition making history, or ending up as just another footnote, like so many others of the time.
The Pearsalls remain inside the region of abrasive molecular cloud. Analysis of a system not far ahead of them indicates a curiously diffuse mass distribution. As they get nearer, the system seems to be a proto-star system, either very young or hampered in formation by the presence of the cloud, or both.
It is at this point that Liz Pearsall is struck by her first brilliant idea to exploit the fledgling star system's composition for fuel to re-engage their expedition's ion engines once again. Though Al is at first skeptical, Liz soon manages to make it sound plausibly exciting to him as well...and they start their true historical odyssey, which will remain unmatched by any other core explorers for a long time to come.
The first thing the Pearsalls must do is wrestle their expeditionary craft away from their present high speed course towards the core, and into a great orbit about the proto-system instead, with minimal fuel usage and gross deceleration, and yet maintain practical access to the system itself. Luckily, the diffuse nature of the proto-system means its volume is truly immense-- perhaps 20-30 times greater than that of Sol system-- and so the costs of establishing a practical orbit about the system is not as great as it might otherwise be.
Unfortunately, with the relatively low density of the system's gravity wells, as well as the terribly dangerous distribution of particulate matter in the system, the Pearsalls cannot utilize strong slingshot effects as they might have in other systems to decelerate, and thus are forced to expend practically all their fusion fuel from both Rovers over the next 1.5 years of manuevering. However, fusion fuel is theoretically replenishable via their breeder reactor, while anti-matter is not.
Once their caravan's long orbit about the proto-system is established, the Pearsalls reconfigure their expedition for the next stage: an extended low velocity mission into the system. They expect to spend many years in this stage. Their system studies show the proto-system to contain an enormous region of hydrogen gas suitable for driving their Rover's long dormant ion engines, with some modification, indefinitely. The Pearsalls' smaller ion drive space sleds may also utilize the local gas.
Though there are no true planets or moons in the system on which to land, there are plentiful items like comets and asteroids. So plentiful, in fact, that it's no small problem avoiding collisions here. Another consequence is that the Pearsalls must limit themselves to very low speeds inside the proto-system cloud, which will greatly extend the length of time required to accomplish their task.
Though the thorough survey and sampling they perform will themselves be worth much back on Earth, the Pearsalls are after primarily two other things here: fuel for their breeder reactor, and the means to create their own ion fuel wakeway between the proto-system and the galactic core.
Liz's initial plans prove futile, due to unanticipated local conditions; but then she comes up with an even better scheme.
Liz's brilliance results in the Pearsalls actually wrapping up their mission into the proto-system ahead of time, and with greater gains than they had originally hoped. The 'roaming' feed standalone replicators purchased for the mission more than make up for their original cost by now processing sufficient fusion fuel from proto-system materials to completely refill the tanks of both Rovers. Within the inexhaustible confines of the proto-system cloud, the replicators' gross inefficiencies at fuel production matter not all. The replicators are also able to provide Al with suitable repair and reinforcement materials for the damaged cargo carrier in the caravan.
The long distance wakeway problem however, is a somewhat tougher nut to crack.
Though Liz needed sixteen months to plan the deed, execution (and component testing) required even longer-- another 3 years. Even with the near humanoid level physical help of their three human-handed, five limb cyborg monkies, and various Rover AIs, and flexibility of their replicators.
The crowded region within the cloud both helped and hindered their plan, which amounted in its initial stages to a solar system-sized billiards game. The Pearsalls settled on several of the greatest mass comets they could find with suitable orbital positioning and timing, then pre-positioned appropriate equipment on each (some of which required replication).
The Pearsalls also sought out suitable metallic or rocky asteroids, and installed certain equipment on them as well.
Finally the moment came to go for broke, and the Pearsalls' set Liz's plan into motion.
A series of carefully shaped and timed nuclear fusion explosive charges served to slightly change the courses of a group of moderately sized asteroids.
Over a period of weeks and months, some of these asteroids collided with others, and some directly with the targeted comets, putting these additional objects into play.
Eventually the target comets were also impacted by the remaining asteroids, further adjusting their courses and speed. All these collisions broke up most of the comets, but the bulk of the cometary mass continued in the direction desired.
Some four years later the first of the target cometary debris emerged from the proto-system, headed towards the galactic core.
Around this time the automated fusion-powered lasers installed on several well-located asteroids fired up, focusing on the retreating cometary fragments. The lasers are tuned to vaporize the comet material to a degree that the event will both eject material from the bodies (accelerating them in a guided path), as well as leave appropriate residue to fuel ion drives in their wake: i.e., wakeway generation. Embedded location transponders among the cometary debris provide sufficient information so that complex processing tasks at the laser sites are not neccessary for targeting.
With ion fuel in the proto-system cloud inexhaustible, perhaps a century worth of replicated fuel for the lasers pre-processed, as well as an ion drive space sled and some spare parts for maintenance duties, along with a single monkey cyborg and its own improvised fourth skin and buffer fields, the Pearsalls should now enjoy roughly a hundred lightyear wakeway towards the core, with considerable redundancy and flexibility in the heart of the system. (This deployment leaves the Pearsalls still in possession of two monkeys, two assembled space sleds and a license for a third replicant, regarding the types of supplies left behind)
With the reduction in onboard mass due to the deployment of the space sled, laser equipment, and monkey, the Pearsalls are now able to significantly increase the amount of drive fuel they carry onboard the Rovers. As ion fuel offers the greatest range for the cost, they stockpile it.
Of course, the Pearsalls cannot follow too closely on the heels of their cometary trailblazers, and so must stick around the proto-system for another few decades. This allows them to add further depth to their surveys and sampling of the system, when they are awake. They also pass some of the time in stasis.
Won't the Pearsalls encounter the laser beams when they enter the wakeway? No. The lasers only converge at the rear of the cometary debris. The farther behind the comets you look, the wider apart the laser beams are; the Pearsalls' caravan will typically enjoy thousands of miles of distance minimum from the nearest beams, as they pursue the cometary fragments.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2605 milestone: The Pearsalls relaunch from the proto-system, following their new wakeway towards the core.Note that under current humn laws regarding core expeditions the Pearsalls now enjoy substantial ownership claims on the entire proto-system they just left. Such a proto-system today is regarded as actually MORE VALUABLE than a mature planetary system like Sol's, since its mass is more accessible due to weaker gravity wells, and there are few if any ecological concerns stemming from significant life signs on developed planets. Commercial and scientific exploitation of the proto-system will automatically occur in the wake of the Pearsall's expedition as feasible, under contracts and policies the Pearsalls aggreed to priot to launch from Sol. The first stage of appraisal takes place at Sol based solely on the Pearsall's reports, with later validation to be performed via other means. The first stage of stock selling in the new system is undertaken by speculators of various sorts. It will likely take decades for actual physical assimilation of the system to begin in earnest-- but that's OK as it will take decades for those concerned to plan out precisely what they wish to do with the massive new asset, and how, and to set up subcontracting of various sorts. Merely surveying the existence, location, and estimated resource base of the system removed enormous uncertainties for investors, thereby earning the Pearsalls their money and greatly accelerating the pace of system development, as well as lowering the costs for everyone substantially as well. If the Pearsalls ever manage to make it back to their home region in the galaxy, this proto-star system alone will include them among the ranks of the independently wealthy.
A few other core expeditions have enjoyed similar successes-- but the vast majority don't. And rarely does an expedition score more than one such claim-- for a variety of reasons.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2840-2849 Milestone: The Pearsalls are awakened when their improvised wakeway suddenly ends only some 40 lightyears beyond the proto-systemThough they know it'll take 40 years for their monkey ally in the proto-system to receive the message (and another 40 years for any response to reach them), the Pearsalls send it an update of their status and all other other relevant information, ordering the ally to anticipate their next moves and help them if it can with its lasers (sans a second message). Importantly, the Pearsalls order the monkey to keep the lasers firing, because they may be able to maneuver more wakeway material into their sweet spot.
The near system is a binary (two stars), with an unusual arrangement of orbiting bodies. The Pearsalls establish a long orbit about the system to preserve velocity (the double stars help a lot gravity well-wise), and enter the system with one Rover. As before in the proto-system they do careful surveys, as well as restock on fuel. For months the Pearsalls explore new schemes, with no success. Then Liz strikes it rich again, after she determines a potential windfall for their core effort exists in a small gaseous moon in an already precarious orbit about a small planetoid (practically a moon itself), trapped in a wildly eccentric orbit about the two stars in the system. Liz's plan is to 'nudge' the tiny gaseous moon enough that it breaks free of its present orbit perhaps a few centuries earlier than it naturally would, and moves into a vulnerable position between the stars themselves. Without the host planetoid to anchor it, the math indicates that (given the proper timing) the tiny gaseous moon could be violently flung out of the system entirely by the gravitic interactions of the binary stars. The math however is very hairy. If it contains a significant error, the entire operation will be for naught, with the moon either destroyed and/or sent careening off into a worthless course in space.
But if the math works, the results would be interesting indeed; for the gaseous moon's composition indicates it could possibly lose sufficient atmosphere to leave a trail of material behind it as it is flung into deep space.
A wakeway!
Not a perfect wakeway, by any means-- but a very dirty and non-homogenous mix that the Pearsalls would have to heavily modify their spacecraft to exploit. There's a chance some debris will be sufficiently dense to pose possibly fatal consequences for the expedition in a collision.
But on the other hand, the most dangerous debris should be produced at launch of the planetoid from its system, with the wakeway after that being much safer to traverse. Plus, the Rovers' navigation systems can be programmed to adapt somewhat to the expected obstacle course. Perhaps the most exciting aspect is the relativistic velocity the body might attain as it essentially squirts out under pressure from the gravity wells of two different stars. The moon may actually disintegrate from the stresses, thereby drastically increasing the debris risk. But .26c looks feasible for at least some fragments. And the newly created wakeway may extend for hundreds, even thousands, of lightyears, as the moon possesses much more material than the typical wakeway comet to leave behind.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Burdened by their present position and equipment, the Pearsalls effectively lost all future reception of communications from Sol system nine lightyears back (the 85 LY mark). When they finally lost the link around 2840, they had received news and information from Sol system that was supposedly current around 2755 AD.
For some 140 years prior to that final cessation however (since about 2700), the Pearsalls had been frustrated to find they were receiving much highly inconsistant and conflicting information from the vicinity of Sol-- and often getting nothing at all (this was communications in the wake of the disaster at Sol system, as well as considerable efforts by the inorganics during the Peer Proof wars to disrupt the Pearsalls expedition or psychological status if possible). The Pearsalls even discovered that some messages had contained erroneous information that could have skewed their convoy's course if not for the highly redundant way they had their automated systems set up during stasis. We're talking sabotage from afar here. So the Pearsalls had stopped receiving information they could fully trust by 2700. With the time lag involved, this meant the vast majority of their best news and info regarding the rest of humanity was frozen at around 2615 in accuracy-- or just before the disaster at Sol system.
The Pearsalls know something terrible happened at Sol system-- but in the aftermath of the disaster the truth is just one of many versions of events they received from numerous conflicting narrowcasts. And unfortunately, the truth seems one of the least credible accounts they hear.
Luckily the Pearsalls are sure that much of humanity (or what passes for it these days) at and around Sol has survived-- and an ongoing struggle between biologicals and non-biologicals seems to exist.
A few significant messages do seem to stand out from the somewhat bizzarre crowd of post-2700 contacts: a handful of messages claiming to be from their close friend who overhauled their Rovers. After lots of examination they eventually come to believe these messages are largely genuine-- though they hold suspect the excessive enthusiasm they contain, as it seems unlike their friend-- although perhaps justified if the scenario he describes is true (that their expedition has somehow re-ignited human hopes during an otherwise depressing war with the AIs).
The financial windfall their friend describes coming from their proto-star system claim also seems much larger than expected-- though both the Pearsalls are aware of the effect of psychology on markets. Unfortunately, the Pearsalls cannot exploit much of anything in the way of tangible rewards from all this at present.
One frustrating thing about the latest messages is that they seem to contain enormously valuable replicator credits and new technology designs for replicator products the Pearsalls would dearly love to have.
But the Pearsalls are afraid to try them.
Why? Because of the insidious nature of many messages they found archived when they awoke, which attempted to sabotage their automated navigation systems. Any such things contained in the new tech data or replicator credits could do still greater harm to the Pearsalls, if loosed within their equipment. From the 'bad' messages they so far have discovered, it seems extremely advanced AIs are involved in their crafting-- much more powerful AIs than the Pearsalls have onboard their Rovers. If nothing more happened than a permanent disabling of their replicators by unrecognized sabotage code, that alone could doom them. Likewise a disabling of their engines. The new tech for various jobs that looks so inviting on displays might in physical form be deadly termination devices instead.
No, the Pearsalls couldn't trust the new goodies sent to them in the archives during their sleep, because there were too many indications that someone at the other end was trying to covertly trick or trap or harm them. It was a shame though. Because the new tech options looked so enticing. And much of it could help enormously in the Pearsalls' future plans-- if it was real and not a booby trap of some kind.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2855 Milestone: The Pearsall's plan works-- sort ofFortunately, much of the worst debris is heading away at speeds between .15c and .33c, while the desired thin wakeway broth is largely left behind. So by waiting in stasis a few years, the Pearsalls minimize meaningful collision chances.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2875 Milestone: The Pearsall's launch into the wake of the destroyed moonLiz plots a way to steal acceleration from the binaries without personally passing through the meat grinder. The Pearsalls use fusion bombs to send a tough nearly pure metal asteroid into the gauntlet. The asteroid is large and dense enough to possess its own significant gravity well, but sufficiently small and well formed to likely survive the gauntlet intact.
[jump off sources include...It appears highly likely that our solar system jettisoned one or more of its planets in its early history, when those planet(s) strayed too near Jupiter or another of the gas giants.
-- "Scientist says Earth may have a long-lost 'twin'" By WILLIAM McCALL, June 30, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com, Nando Media/Associated Press]
The Pearsall's caravan then makes rendezvous with the asteroid after it emerges from the gauntlet. The rendezvous is daring-- perhaps even foolhardy-- but it works. The Pearsalls are successfully able to swing into a wide off center orbit of the asteroid before it reaches maximum velocity emerging from the system, via a combination of the asteroid's own gravity and sustained maximum thrust from virtually every propulsive system on both Rovers simultaneously. The G-forces are awful. Even with their reinforced cyborg bodies and extraordinary improvised precautions (i.e., filling the Rover cockpits with a versatile nanotech fluid similar to Scenario Gel to more evenly distribute accelerations on the crew and interior equipment), both Pearsalls suffer substantial injuries. The entire caravan is heavily damaged (both Rovers suffer some buckling, as well as other problems). But perhaps worst of all, in order to save both Rovers, the Pearsalls are forced to release their most important cargo pod (but managed to keep the other, containing the breeder reactor and other nuclear fusion drive equipment).
If the Pearsalls could have chosen which cargo container was lost, they would have made it the breeder reactor pod instead.
On the bright side, the wakeway is now redundant-- a back up plan, with possibly indefinite lifespan towards the core. Because the Pearsalls have managed to create a great no tech metallic starship traveling at .36c(!), which may well carry them all the way to the galactic core with little further intervention-- if only they can maintain their eccentric orbit about the beast, avoid being smacked by random debris from the wakeway, maintain indefinite lifespans via onboard medical technologies, and avoid suicidal levels of boredom over many coming millennia.
Now the Pearsalls painfully tend to their injuries and the damage to their craft, and assess their fuel and supply status. After a few months they transmit a progress report towards the region Sol used to be.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2898 Milestone: 'Swiss Family Pearsalls' and their new home, "Pearsalls' Grit"The Pearsalls began their voyage centuries earlier with:
A. Physical cyborg bodies of 65% biological human status (most additions not typically visible to obervers); this allows survival naked to space for hours if necessary, as well as improved intellectual and communications faculties onperson
B. A supply of 'fourth' and 'third skins' (formidable combination exo-skeletons/space suits/armor and flying gas-like fields of nanotech machines useful for utilitarian purposes)
C. Two standalone closet-sized replicators, with a wide range of heavy medical and light industrial capacities, with premium priced 'roaming' feed acceptance modules (i.e., unlike most standard replicators, these are not picky about the types of raw mass they'll ingest) -- but NO built-in transporter capabilities.
D. Two assembled autonomous medical treatment beds (and replicator licenses for three complete sets of replacement parts)
E. Three ion drive space sleds (and replicator license for a fourth)(sleds are meant for vacuum chores; though they can glide to a planet's surface in an emergency, they can't regain space afterwards on their own)
F. Three skimmers (plus a replicator license for a fourth) for planetary travel (robust atmospheric VTOL with short range rocket assists; in a pinch a skimmer can achieve low orbit for a few minutes for pickup by spacecraft), along with enough spare parts to keep them all going through more than a couple complete catastrophes.
G. Three long tailed monkeys with human dexterity hands and human level intelligence (mostly inorganic AIs), 'hardened' like the Pearsalls to also be able to survive in space without protection-- though for only 20 minutes.
H. Two nearly identical 60 year old Sonnenschein Rovers; examples of one of the most popular and versatile consumer spacecraft ever manufactured (and remarkably still being built new in small quantities in obscure locations, at time of launch from Sol system), and built practically to tough military specs of their original manufacture date. Two virtually identical Rovers in the expedition allow for cannibalization to keep one running if necessary, plus provides twice the storage space of one craft. These two Rovers were in excellent condition, lovingly overhauled by a friend of the Pearsalls in return for a cut of any discoveries. In a few strategic areas the Pearsalls upgraded the Rovers to more modern elements where recommended by their friend, or personally deemed necessary.
Probably the biggest updating the Pearsalls made to their Rovers were in the areas of its resident AIs and nanotech buffer fields (both internal and external). Both these upgrades made the Rovers into something much closer to living things, both in terms of intelligence and the capacity to manipulate their environment and themselves. The next biggest changes were to the Rovers' engines. There'd been considerable advancement in spacecraft engine technologies since the Rovers first rolled off the assembly line, and the Pearsalls wanted as much acceleration, reliability, and fuel efficiency as they could get in that department. They'd installed the best propulsion systems they could possibly afford.
Both Rovers possessed both antimatter and fusion drives, in addition to the ions. The ion drives will fail without a wakeway or onboard fuel supply, but at around .25c the antimatter fuel will last about 10 lightyears per each Rover, and the fusion drive 1-2 lightyears per Rover, without refueling.
I. Behind them the Rovers also towed a small breeder reactor, capable of generating fuel for use in a fusion drive indefinitely-- provided the Pearsalls can feed the breeder itself on occasion from local mining stops along the way.
So in summary, providing no significant problem develops in regard to the propulsion systems, the Pearsalls can travel via ion engines as far as their current wakeway extends, and can in some circumstances refuel the ion drives via tricky mass captures along the way, for still greater range. When the ion drives are spent, the Pearsalls enjoy a combined range of about 20 lightyears at .25c from their two Rovers' antimatter engines. The antimatter engines can never be refueled again locally without the help of a major spacecraft from the vicinity of Home space, however-- which the Pearsalls don't foresee ever happening. Where both ions and antimatter drives aren't useful, the two Rovers' fusion drives combined offer fuel onboard for 2-4 lightyears travel at .25c, and can be refueled via breeder reactor in hardship cases.
J. At the beginning of their journey, the Pearsalls have one Rover packed so full of supplies there's only barely room for the two to squeeze into the vehicle in an emergency. The other Rover (in which they will live for a long, long time) is only half-filled in this manner. The Pearsalls also have third and fourth vehicles, but they consist of merely large container vessels, holding still more supplies. One container ship is attached to the front of the unmanned Rover, which is remotely piloted from the manned Rover behind it. The unmanned Rover leads the procession, its engines pulling the entire convoy, towing the manned (and exhaust shielded) Rover behind it. This arrangement increases safety since the worst chance for collisions with high speed debris is in front of the parade-- so the frontmost cargo vessel should always be hit first, the unmanned Rover second, and the manned Rover enjoy the greatest protection possible. This also works better in the case that atmospheric braking might be needed at some point, and in emergencies would likely allow the manned Rover more flexibility for evasive action or escape, even if the other vehicles had to be sacrificed.
Naturally the buffer fields acting somewhat as Bussard ramjet collectors for the Pearsall's ion engines feeding on the wakeway are configured to work around the cargo vessel for the unmanned Rover doing the pulling for the caravan-- while the Pearsall's primary Rover has its buffer fields otherwise engaged. The second cargo vessel (containing the breeder reactor and other nuclear fusion drive equipment) is towed behind the manned Rover where it can be cut loose easily, and is protected from debris collisions.
K. Two heavy duty cryo-stasis units, with replicator licenses sufficient to assemble two more.
The Pearsalls inventory of supplies and equipment have dwindled in this manner up to now:
1. Minor replacement parts and materials repair draw downs; most items can be recycled or possibly replenished via contact with space debris or planetary bodies (and were, during the stop at the proto-system).
2. Gradual draw down on available empty computer memory storage, due to logs, surveys, etc. along the way.
3. Consumption of irreplaceable anti-matter fuel (both fusion and ion fuels may be theoretically replenished under certain plausible circumstances (and were, during the stop at the proto-system)).
4. Consumption of irreplaceable replication privilege licensing. Keep in mind the Pearsalls purchased as much privileges as they could pre-launch to the types of non-obsolete replications they estimated were required. Also, though deep space explorers like the Pearsalls did enjoy some extra government subsidies of items like replication privileges compared to non-explorers, those privileges were still far from inexhaustible, especially on certain types of high value items. Of course, privileges for many low value items (obsoletes) virtually ARE infinite with replicators-- so savvy users can minimize use of consumable privileges in many circumstances by replicating free obsolete wares instead-- where such obsoletes will satisfactorily perform the job.
5. Somewhat irreplaceable equipment the Pearsalls left behind in the proto-system included:
* one monkey cyborg
* one ion drive space sled and some spare parts
* several long range fusion powered lasers
6. Somewhat irreplaceable equipment/supplies the Pearsalls left behind when they achieved orbit around Pearsall's Grit included:
one roughly Rover-sized spaceworthy cargo container, holding:
* many critical spare parts for both Rovers
* all three assembled planetary skimmers and related spare parts
* certain crucial cyborg spare parts for both the Pearsalls and their cyborg monkeys
* certain crucial spare parts for their replicators
* standalone replacement AI modules for both Rovers
* heavy duty combination weapons/space mining/refinement equipment
* long term agricultural and aquacultural mini-plants, meant to aid the Pearsalls in any lengthy stranding on a faraway world.
* miscellaneous other supplies and equipment.
7: Irreparable damage suffered by the Pearsall expedition during their rendezvous with Pearsall's Grit included:
* A permanent weakening in the structural integrity of both Rovers and the remaining cargo container. Though all leaks are repaired and both craft are spaceworthy, the Rovers must never again be subjected to G-forces such as those endured in the rendezvous-- or even as much as 60% of same-- for they will break up.
* Some damage which limits the flexibility and usefulness of the nuclear breeder reactor stored in the cargo pod.
* A portion of the AI capacities in one Rover were also lost/damaged in the event, essentially making that Rover no longer trustworthy of much navigation on its own.
* One of the two remaining cyborg monkeys was brain-damaged during the ordeal, rendering it useless for anything but the simplest tasks now.
* Liz had to have her left leg amputated and replaced with a robotic substitute; unfortunately they (and the med beds) are unable to get the interface software for the leg properly tuned no matter what they do. Apparently there are subtle incompatibilities between the new leg and some of the cybernetic wares embedded in Liz prior to launch from Sol. This leaves Liz with a permanent limp in one G and a clumsiness she never knew with her biological leg.
* Al lost the sight in his left eye and suffered multiple grievous internal injuries. A small cam permanently attached to the side of his head and plugged into his implants replaced the vision functionality (though it took some getting used to). As for his internal organs, the med beds fixed much, and for the rest Al and Liz put together a high tech 'hump' for Al to wear on his back to take up the slack in functionality.
For a while afterwards Al sometimes refers to himself as "the one-eyed hunchback of Notre Dame".
* One cryo unit was destroyed, and the other damaged sufficiently that only relatively short sleeps are considered safe in the device. Though two other complete cryo units are allowed under their replicator licenses, the Pearsalls have never yet used that option.
Centuries ago the Pearsalls would have been delighted to hear that at some point they would be far ahead of all the other explorers who began with them, and even have possibly put together a relativistic speed craft with no need of refueling ever, heading straight to the galactic core at around 36% the speed of light. But their delight would have ended abruptly if they'd also heard the price paid for these accomplishments.
This is so far the hardest part of the trip for the husband-wife team.
The enormous ball of metal they orbit offers the Pearsalls practically an inexhaustible supply of raw mass suitable for replicator feed. And Pearsall's Grit (their great metal slug) is flying through a rough but serviceable wakeway, perhaps into perpetuity, gradually collecting solid debris from the wake-producing gaseous moon like a 20th century car collected smashed bugs on its windshield.
The Pearsalls' ally cyborg monkey in the proto-system is also still firing his lasers in a route parallel to their current course. The beams are pretty weak and diluted at this range, and focused on now-non-existent targets lightyears ahead of the Pearsalls present position.
The Pearsalls have had plenty of time to argue, despair, fight, and everything else the past 23 years. Eventually they preferred more useful pursuits. Sometimes together, sometimes apart. After all, the Pearsalls are effectively immortal-- at least until their technology degrades beyond a certain point, or a bad accident takes them by surprise, or they kill one another or commit suicide. Might as well develop some interesting hobbies if nothing else, right?
The Pearsalls over the years have assembled a veritable army of low brow bots which do little more but mill about Pearsall's Grit cutting out suitable size chunks of metal to feed the replicators, or building new forms on the landscape with the output of those replicators.
Liz has had the bots construct her a space worthy house on Grit's bleak landscape of craggy, sometimes knife-edged metallic terrain.
The Pearsalls have also added lots of tiny orbiting fusion lights, powered by the collection of hydrogen fuel from the ever present wakeway above. It was either do that or face constant pitch black darkness on the face of Grit. Now Grit enjoys its own simulation of night and day, thanks to fusion fires.
Grit doesn't have sufficient gravity to hold niceties like air and water on its own. But such things can be artifically held in place by buffer fields. And so around and atop of Liz's house are sufficient buffer fields to maintain not only breathable air, but fluid water as well. To help maintain this bit of paradise amid hell, the Pearsalls also insulated the area under the house (because the metal of Grit was unimaginably cold, and would conduct heat away faster than a nuclear reactor could produce it), as well as installed a fusion powered heating grid beneath the house and nearby land as well.
The Pearsalls were careful to build Liz's house in one of the regions of Grit safest from direct collision with debris from the gaseous moon which preceded them on this course. Grit's current course and rotation meant Liz's house was only directly exposed to that danger some 6-15% of the time.
While Liz had wanted a house on the surface of Grit, Al had different aims. For years he placed top priority on building Liz's house and related items she wanted, partially because of her injuries from the Grit rendezvous. But after Liz seemed mostly satisfied (or at least far enough along that she seemed comfortable with less help), Al set his own plans into motion.
Though it was difficult to do with the size replicators they had (especially when you were trying to use as much 'free' obsolete tech as possible), Al eventually put together a small group of heavy construction and mining bots, and went to work.
Al had more wake collectors at work in orbit than merely those powering the fusion lights for Liz. He was stockpiling hydrogen (as well as certain other elements), for years, which slowly stretched into decades.
Al has big plans for Grit.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2918 Milestone:
The Albatross is now some 214 lightyears from Sol system; Pearsalls' Grit, 109 lightyearsSignposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2930 Milestone: Pearsall's Grit is slowly transformed to something more than it wasPlus, Al has a secret plan to try some of the most tantalyzing rep plans and credits received in the suspect transmissions from Sol, with the very last of the replicator's working hours. Al figures by sufficiently isolating the replicator from Grit he can protect Liz and himself from most of the worst scenarios which might transpire from any malevolence hidden in the data. Of course, Liz would explode if she knew his intentions.
Grit is slowly being transformed by a vast army of bots under Al's command. Many of the projects are as yet unknown to Liz, as Al wants to surprise her (of course, he's taken the precaution of keeping a personal log with special notes for Liz to fully inform her in case he unexpectedly expires).
One of Al's projects is a great scooped out shallow bowl shape on the surface of Grit, along with a carefully planned variety of much smaller and narrower vents/scoops elsewhere on the great ball of metal. Small capacity linear accelerator powered trackways network together all the curious depressions to a couple of special installations elsewhere on Grit. The trackways do double-duty as handy mini-commutor rails for Al and Liz to get around the surface, good for up to 120 mph casual speed, or short trips in the local vicinity.
Al's grand plan? A propulsion and maneuvering system for Grit. Based on a rapid firing of multiple fusion blasts, for sustained thrust.
Of course, Grit's formidable mass makes it at best a sluggish and unwieldy craft, even with perfect propulsion systems. And its present relativistic velocity would be a bear to burn off. Plus, why would you want to? The Pearsall's goal is the galactic core, and any conceivable change to Grit's present course or speed now would be detrimental to reaching that goal.
Another pet project of Al's is an exploratory fast-slow auxiliary body system in an arrangement of wildly eccentric orbits about Grit. At its nearest pass to Grit each major body will be only a few thousand miles from Grit, and traveling at its highest velocity. At each major body's furthest orbital reaches (and slowest velocities) it will be considerably further from Grit than the average distance between Earth and Sol system's asteroid belt.
The vast eccentric orbit of Grit Explorer Thumb Twiddler One (as Al names the artificial moon) is further extended in utility by two much smaller bodies named Grit Explorer Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, which themselves orbit Thumb Twiddler One in a similar extended, eccentric orbit placing both smaller bodies on opposing sides of the orbit at any given time.
This micro-planetoid system results in a highly flexible arrangement which theoretically would allow Al and Liz at least brief opportunities to explore interesting off-Grit phenomena first-hand which happens to fall within an Astronomical Unit or so of Grit itself during its journey-- without the necessity to burn off precious speed from Grit itself.
This system would basically be a regular bus route between Grit and various other space bodies Grit was passing in its journey to the core-- Al and Liz could use a Rover to catch a bus near Grit, ride it for a few days to their destination, fly to the foreign body, spend a few hours investigating or scavenging there, then catch the next bus back to Grit and be back home again only a week or so after they left. There'd be some uncomfortable G-forces here and there for a few hours, sure. Plus the bus system didn't really reach very far in space terms-- Grit would almost have to be brushing against something space-distance wise for it to work-- and if the speeds and courses of the foreign objects were outside a certain set of parameters, there too was a way the bus system wouldn't work.
There was also the extra burden the bus system put on Grit's own propulsion systems-- if those systems were ever used, that is. Because the bus system would only automatically synchronize with changes of course by Grit during the very smallest changes in course-- anything larger and the entire bus system would either fly off altogether-- or much worse-- parts of it might collide with Grit to make for something approaching World War Fourteen.
Of course, this is all based on an old idea of Liz's, that Al has used Rover computers to flesh out into a practical design. The massive industrial base Al enjoys on Grit, plus the inexhaustible wealth of raw material, provides all the resources required to build the bus system. The biggest challenge is getting the bus system launched and and all the related bodies synched into the proper orbits. And these bodies are relatively big too-- since the bus system requires a certain minimum amount of mass for desired gravity well pressures to work.
It requires decades for Al to get all system components suitably positioned and working as well as he wants.
The beauty of the system is that it shouldn't put too big a strain on the Rover, plus the loss to Grit velocity is negligible-- and it theoretically allows Al and Liz to survey/lay claim to any interesting items they pass by from here on out.
One truly elegant aspect of it all is that the nearer they come to the core, the more often interesting things should pass within range of the bus system-- since solar systems and the like become more frequent and denser nearer the core than they are farther out.
So why is Al doing all this? Al likes to be prepared for the unexpected. He and Liz are the deepest space explorers of all humanity, so far as they know. And they are alone. What if they encounter hostile aliens? Or detect a cosmic catastrophe looming ahead? They must have options.
Besides-- there's nothing better to do.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2966 Milestone: The U.S.S. Pearsall's Grit (now some 126 lightyears from the original location of Sol system)Al's propulsion and maneuvering system for Grit seems finished, but no significant test is possible without jeopardizing their current course and velocity. Plus, fuel and parts are to be conserved for more important matters. His other projects are perhaps more satisfying. Among them, the space worthy cabins and other rooms he has cut from the interior of Grit.
Al had been surprised to find some heat at Grit's core-- though it wasn't sufficient to act as a reasonable power source or anything. Mainly, it forced him to change his plans a little. For Al had been considering that if he and Liz could take shelter at the center of Grit that might allow them to proceed safely through various circumstances that might otherwise force them to abandon the planetoid. Such as a cascade of radiation, or something like that. Plus, having an extra security edge around when he finally unwrapped those last scary replicator packages from Sol wouldn't hurt either. Anyway, Al had mined out a complex reminiscent of a spacecraft interior deep inside Grit. Complete with a bridge about as big as anything he'd ever seen onboard large military and tourist craft in Sol system. Al had always wanted two things when he was a kid: his own space warship, and a bridge to go with it. Now it seemed he had both. Sort of, anyway.
Al also considered spacecraft hangers and repair shops and storerooms important too-- so he'd constructed his own designs for those inside Grit as well, but much nearer the surface than the living quarters or bridge. Al has brought in "Rover Number One" (the one still capable of piloting itself) from orbit and parked it in his new 'garage'. Liz has the other Rover at her house on the surface. The Pearsalls have by now installed other equipment in orbit that provides the same long range radar and imaging information the Rovers did. Al and Liz use the Rovers mostly like flying automobiles about the surface of Grit. But for short hops they often use space sleds instead.
Al is proud of his work. But he's sure when Liz sees it she'll notice only one thing: That Al hadn't spent nearly as much time designing and building the crew cabins as everything else. Oh well. Maybe Liz would enjoy making up for his oversight there.
Al's bridge was fully functional-- if you called controlling untested propulsion systems you dared not use functional. Well, maybe someday, Al thought. And turned to yet another project.
Meanwhile, Liz has some semi-secret projects of her own in the works. With their nanotech replicator at high risk of loss, and thereby its best output suspect of a short life as well (due to their inability to repair or adequately maintain nanotech over the long term without a replicator) Liz is exploring what might be done with older micromachine technology instead.
It turns out quite a lot. Especially in the low gravity of Grit. Low gravity allows you to scale up devices in a way that wouldn't be practical on worlds like Earth. The vacuum of space also offers advantages in such things.
Presently Liz is engaged in study of the human physical structure, and how it (or variants) might do in a certain new configuration she has in mind...among other things.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2980 Milestone: The crew of Grit plans increases in speed and sensitivityAl has become excited about a new idea himself the past few years; searching for signs of other explorers behind them. As well as vastly improving their communications power.
Al has realized he could possibly get decent results from a large collection of 'snapshots' of the sky in the desired direction taken simply by synchronizing dish use (Grit's main rocket nozzle-- a huge shallow bowl shaped depression) with Grit's normal rotation...and using an appropriate computer program to do the analysis of the compiled data. This should allow Al to build a much more extensive 3D map of this region of the galaxy than allowed by the Rover equipment, too.
Doing things this way, configuring Grit's main rocket nozzle to act as a giant radio telescope dish, Al could get much more sensitive readings than were possible now with the Rover equipment. Of course, to optimize the nozzle for EM reception will require some new devices....
Meanwhile, while testing some of her latest gadgets, Liz has noticed immense mountains of metallic debris from Al's own work, dotting the surface of Grit here and there (this is largely the refuse from Al's enormous excavations and production of his bus system). These mountains of metal trash annoy Liz's sense of aesthetics. After a while though this annoyance combines with Liz's knowledge of the the Grit-wide transport system built by Al decades earlier, to form a surprising conclusion.
Liz realizes she can significantly increase Grit's velocity towards the core-- with virtually no additional fuel or replicator credits consumption. She'll simply construct an army of robots to transport and process the metallic debris into projectiles which she'll then shoot off Grit to both lighten the planetoid and accelerate it at the same time via action equals reaction: a mass driver system.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2986 Milestone: Liz and Al bring Liz's mass driver onlineSignposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
2988 Milestone: Al gets his enhanced radio antenna array onlineSignposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
3076 Milestone: Pearsalls' Grit is roughly 166 lightyears from the Sol regionTheir old injuries and ever diminishing technological base didn't help matters either.
On the brighter side, Liz's mass driver had successfully boosted Grit's speed to 0.37c now.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
3092 Milestone: The first deadly gamma ray shower from the ER11 disaster menacing the unknowing Pearsalls is now less than six lightyears behind them-- and boasting almost three times the speed of Grit. Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
3092 Milestone: A mistake in judgement robs the Pearsalls of their most important technology asset-- and threatens to condemn the Pearsalls to death or worseAl spent considerable time using the Rover to travel to and along his now all but defunct bussing system which orbited Grit, which had never been used by the couple before its unfortunate destruction of late (as no nearby solar systems had been suitably close for the construction's capacities).
The Thumb Twiddler One system is about as far away from Liz as Al can get without leaving Grit forever. Of course, it's also the site of Al's worst mistake of recent times. A mistake for which he's unsure if Liz will ever forgive him. Why had he done it? It hadn't seemed truly risky to him during his planning. Good thing he'd built a robust abort plan though-- that was all that'd saved them.
In the meantime, Liz knows exactly where Al is (due to the built-in systems onboard the Rovers), and has decided to examine some of the many projects Al has been pursuing on his own for the last few centuries. Sure, she'd had some knowledge of a few of the tasks, but she hadn't really paid much attention to them before now.
Wow. What if Al had something else supremely dangerous simmering somewhere on Grit? Liz had decided it necessary to scour the planetoid for such stuff and get rid of it before it got rid of them. She'd wanted Al to help, but he'd refused, said she was going overboard, that he'd built nothing dangerous, and of course he was sorry about detonating the bomb, but he'd just thought the risk was worth taking at the time.
Al has his talents to be sure, but it was obvious his best work came from collaborations with Liz. Perhaps Al's worst fault was being unable to see the Big Picture in many instances.
Al had decided to try one of the suspect replicator packages possibly sent by rogue AIs to their convoy long ago-- something he knew Liz had expressly forbidden him to do. Liz had thought she had erased all the suspect packages. Apparently Al had saved a copy and hidden it somewhere.
Of course, the dangerous package destroyed their single remaining nanotech replicator, removing once and for all their single most important piece of equipment.
But it could have been worse-- much worse. They were actually lucky that something far more nefarious had not been loosed upon them by Al's boneheaded actions. Al had risked not only himself but Liz as well-- and without Liz even knowing about it, until after the fact. He'd only admitted what happened when Liz had needed the replicator for something and Al had to confess it was gone.
Yes, Al had taken some precautions with the replicator-- precautions which caused him to lose his precious Grit Explorer Tweedle Dum when the software bomb detonated. The replicator had begun to rapidly transform into something malevolent according to Al's automated monitoring instruments, which triggered an instant jettisoning of the entire artificial micro-moon from Grit orbit. Tweedle Dee soon followed, as Al's carefully balanced orbits about Thumb Twiddler One collapsed with the spin off.
Al had even used some of their precious anti-matter fuel to provide propulsion for the spin off. ARRRGHH!
Yes, from what the monitors indicated, Al's precautions had all been essential for preventing the software bomb from killing them (or worse).
But it was Al's fault they were in danger in the first place.
Al's eccentricities had been attractive centuries ago, but they were getting tiresome now. Like most men, Al seemed to have gotten stuck in puberty and never escaped (or even tried).
After a time Liz found Al's enhanced communications and long range sensor array. It looked like it might actually work with a few tweaks here and there. Liz wondered what might be happening on Grit Explorer Tweedle Dum right about now, with the replicator bomb in full bloom. The new AI of Tweedle Dum had been bombarding standard Grit communications channels continuously since jettisoning with what had to be other software bombs just waiting for a chance to activate inside an active system of some sort. But of course Al had known better by then than to allow such access to Grit systems, and after Liz discovered what was going on she naturally erased all the messages stored so far and banned anymore from being received from the monstrocity. However, merely receiving transmissions from Dum and actually observing it were two different things. It took a week or two, but finally Liz had the array up and tracking the rapidly receding Grit Explorer Tweedle Dum.
Tweedle Dum was starkly unrecognizable. Its mass appeared to be spreading across space like a great unfolding flower, as it slowly tumbled end over end in Grit's wake. But wait; the rate of tumble seemed wrong. Liz performed a few calculations based on Al's jettison data and confirmed her suspicions: Tweedle Dum was now acting sentiently to stabilize its course in the void.
Tweedle Dum seemed to possess its own independent propulsion and maneuvering systems now-- and it looked like it was eventually going to try to come after Grit.
Maybe Al should have used a bit more anti-matter in his abort system to allow for distintegration of Tweedle Dum. Or at least burn off more of the momentum Tweedle Dum enjoyed from once being a part of the Grit body system. For the replicator form now possessing the moonlet could literally transform all that mass into whatever it wanted, from drives to fuel to feed them. Sure, it'd be inefficient as hell, but Dum only needed to be efficient enough to kill the crew of Grit. Liz also was sure that replicator efficiency had probably risen tremendously since she and Al had left Sol. Dum might be able to pursue them for millennia with the mass at its disposal.
Tweedle Dum was less than half a lightyear behind them, and still slowly losing ground-- for the moment.
Liz was sure of two things: one, life was about to get much more interesting, and two, she and Al were going to have to make up, and fast.
Signposts Perspectives Pearsall Saga Contents
3093 Milestone: The Battle for Pearsalls' GritDuring the past year Dum has managed to stop the widening of Grit's lead and actually begin accelerating towards them. Liz guesses it must be using a powerful mass driver and perhaps other, newer technologies developed long after she and Al left Sol. Grit itself is still accelerating, by way of its own mass driver. The Pearsalls have also readied a supply of both antimatter and fusion fuel to provide acceleration surges if necessary by way of Al's Grit-wide propulsion and maneuvering system. Contingencies include a Gee-ripping divergence from their course towards the core, if such proves necessary. Neither favors that course though, as it would involve the highest Gees they believe themselves capable of surviving-- something only slightly below the Gees which injured them so badly at their rendezvous with Grit at launch.
Of course, the threat behind them was virtually immune to Gee forces. But hopefully a sufficiently fast shearing action from corewards would widen Grit's lead on Dum, and at least give the Pearsalls more time.
Monitoring has revealed puzzling new constructions on and about Dum. Apparently for weapons or tractor field purposes. Liz is amazed at the resourcefulness of the AI now commanding Dum. But of course the AI can think faster than she and Al, and enjoys a couple centuries worth of extra technological know how too. So far the considerable distance between the two hurtling masses (as well as a need to consolidate and construct itself a support structure) seems to have contained Dum's threat.
One good thing is Dum's trajectory affords it no protection from the old Moon debris that constantly pelts Grit's forward side as Grit catches up with the slower moving material-- so with a little luck Dum might suffer a direct hit and put Grit out of its reach forever (or even vaporize the baleful intelligence itself). Being much smaller Dum is far more vulnerable than Grit to impacts. But they can't count on Dum receiving a death blow in that manner anytime soon.
One day alarms go off all over Grit and the Pearsalls find Dum is now projecting deadly radiation their way. Fortunately the girth of Grit protects them, as both as now living deep inside Grit in the spacecraft-like interior constructed by Al long ago. After all, it's the safest place on the planetoid from which to wage war. The radiation does damage various electronic devices on the beam-lit side of Grit, but the Pearsalls are able to 'harden' some bots to send out for repairs.
After a month or so of continuous radiation beams, the Pearsalls discover they've been surrepticiously boarded. This seems impossible as constant monitoring has detected nothing more than the radiation beam itself spanning the void between Grit and Dum.
The invaders are microscopic nanotech bugs which first sabotage Grit's mass driver system to cut the acceleration, and then begin disassembling the entire drive infrastructure-- using the mass obtained from the disassembly to build bigger and better bugs.
It takes the Pearsalls some time to realize what's happening. Repair bots sent out to see why the drive is malfunctioning cease working themselves, and it dawns on the couple that something new is afoot. When they realize their predicament Liz immediately fires Al's maneuvering system (for the first time ever) and gut-wrenchingly rolls Grit over to cut the bugs off from communications with Dum. Then a monkey aide uses a space sled to deploy a small fusion bomb at a suitable height above the infected side of Grit to kill the bugs with an electro-magnetic pulse, which fuses their circuitry and/or micromachine guts (of course, much of the Pearsalls' own equipment is also killed by this act). Luckily, having been created by particle beams (and in a hurry at that) the bugs are much more susceptible to EMP than more robust systems might be. After the bugs appear confirmed to be inanimate, more repair bots are deployed to repair the damage to the mass driver and other systems.
Meanwhile, Dum has resumed projection of radiation onto the side of Grit now facing it.
Apparently the radiation is an HEPD beam used for constructing the nanotech bugs on the surface of Grit itself, thereby inserting surprise forces while bypassing many other possible defensive measures. The only way to defend against it may be to randomly rotate Grit itself to prevent a coherent buildup of the pests on the surface. But doing this prevents Grit from using its main drive mechanisms to add to its acceleration-- a win-win situation for Dum.
Liz has to admire the smarts of Dum-- even if the monstrosity is out to kill them.
Liz sets Grit rotating in a random pattern to delay bug construction (if Dum is too smart the bugs will eventually get built anyway). BUT...once Grit's propulsion system is repaired she also begins working on improving the firing timing on the mass driver-- so that a program can still fire the driver for added acceleration whenever the random manuevering happens to position the driver where they want it momentarily. Thus, Grit may still continue to accelerate, if only in a haphazard fashion.
Liz also decides to implement another idea she'd had earlier; namely, use the mass driver like a gun to shoot out the beaming weapon of Dum. The principle was the same as using it for propulsion-- when it pointed in the right direction, shoot. Of course to prevent unwanted changes in acceleration vectors you had to balance out each shot in other ways...
Liz Pearsall be outsmarted by a murderous two hundred year old AI? Not today.
Unfortunately, it turned out Liz couldn't determine the true source of the beaming weapon-- the beams didn't go directly to Grit, but rather were reflected off some sort of ingenious mirroring system within Dum. Thus the main beam projector itself couldn't be pinpointed for destruction. Oh well. It felt good watching some impacting mass vaporize a square kilometer here and there on Dum's surface anyway....
Al had always known Liz was brilliant-- but this expedition had revealed her talents in ways he'd never anticipated at Sol. Several times during the trip he had marveled at how Liz seemed to belong on this mission, seemed to have been born to do the kinds of things she was doing now.
And now here she was holding her own, trading blows with some awful super weapon from a future Sol system they'd never seen.
Of course, their lives were in extreme danger. He shouldn't have given in the temptation of new toys from Sol. But what was done was done. Now all that mattered was he and Liz were working together again after so long in isolation. They'd needed this-- or at least some sort of challenge-- for they'd been slowly decaying for lack of same for decades now. Human beings weren't meant to be this isolated for this long-- even supplemented beings like themselves.
Al found in his heart of hearts he was confident Liz would save their butts. But of course, he could always be wrong.
He'd also thought opening the replicator package would be OK.
A few days later Grit alarms awakened Al. Liz was on the bridge. On the monitors multitudes of tiny objects were now visible in the continuous radiation beams emanating from Dum.
"What are they?" asked Al.
"Paratroopers," Liz answered grimly.
Each pod had something like a light sail, which was pushed towards Grit by the beaming coming from Dum.
Liz figured the pods contained cargo she and Al definitely wouldn't want to land on Grit. They'd be big enough to be immune to EMP, and it'd be impossible to target each one with fusion bombs-- even if they had enough bombs.
"Al, we need something like a huge 20th century shot gun-- lots of particulate matter in a wide spread at high velocity-- and we need it yesterday. Got any suggestions?" Liz asked.
Al thought for a moment. "Well, we could put a small timed explosive inside a mass slug, fire it, and at a certain point blow it up to make lots of shrapnel. How's that?"
"Perfect! If we can do it in under three hours. Those paratroopers are fast little buggers."
The Pearsalls fired a fusilade of such shrapnel shells into the horde of pods, decimating them. Even partial hits on their light sails helped to slow them or skew their course away from Grit. They also put the automated facilities of Grit to work producing a healthy supply of more shrapnel shells for contingencies.
But the pace of battle only accelerated from there, as Dum inexorably inched its way ever closer to Grit.
The next assault was the most dangerous yet.
The Pearsalls pieced together what happened afterwards. Apparently Dum crafted dozens of super strong space tethers and attached each to a single minimalist missile containing a beachhead force of nanotech bugs. These missiles were then launched from the rear of Dum, reached the maximum length of their 180 km long tethers, and swung around in great arcs towards Grit via centripetal force and rocket thrust. The use of the tethers helped Dum mount the attack rapidly and at low cost in resources.
At the appropriate time the tethers were released, and the rockets made their way towards Grit on trajectories which might be unanticipated for crude missiles of such small size (such packages would normally have a tough time performing in such a manner unassisted, due to fuel and maneuvering constraints).
Alarms sounded on Grit, but a bit late in the procedure, due to the missile trajectory tracking beginning so far away from their expected source. There was no way to hold off the missile pattern with shot gun mass slugs. The rockets were bound to be hardened against EMP, and Grit's weapons systems didn't possess the types of surface to air missiles suited to this task.
Liz found herself at a loss, and turned to Al with the problem.
"Well, would a fusion flame stop them?" Al asked.
"Yes! But where do we get it and how do we direct it? We need it now!"
"Liz, Grit has a complete maneuvering system serving the whole place. Sure we only got the one big nozzle, but we got slews of smaller ones everywhere else. We're already spinning around in this random pattern so the small nozzles are covering a lot of sky as they move. Wait until the missiles get close enough and fire up the thrusters you need. It should work."
Liz smiled and kissed Al. Then she turned to configuring the maneuvering rockets and calculating how to balance the new sources of thrust so as not to change Grit's course.
Al's plan didn't quite solve the problem-- a few missiles got past the thrusters more or less intact-- but that low number made it possible to mop up with a shotgun mass slug and a few otherwise deployed fusion bombs.
Next Dum launched a half dozen nuclear tipped missiles to the far side of Grit. The explosions served to slow Grit ever so slightly, as well as demolish some of its maneuvering thruster system. More bots were dispatched for repairs. Fortunately, being largely a great lump of metal in the void, with no atmosphere to insulate it, Grit rapidly dissipated the enormous heat generated by the nuclear weapons.
Dum kept repeating the bombings, slowing Grit appreciably while continuing to degrade the Grit-wide manuevering systems. Soon Liz realized Grit's random rotations were becoming more predictable, paving the way for more invasion bugs via HEPD beaming.
Liz ordered an army of bots to gather up debris and place it into Grit's main propulsion nozzle, while Al tweaked the rocket mechanism itself, tuning it down from normal functionality for a different effect. A few days later they fired the main rocket, vaporizing the debris with little thruster effect to Grit itself, but spreading a thick vapor of metallic molecules around Grit as the planetoid spun about.
Grit's new metallic atmosphere was poisonous and at times damaging to exposed equipment on the surface, but it also served to scramble the HEPD beaming efforts of Dum, ruining the half-built bugs on the surface and preventing more construction. Grit's low gravity meant the metallic gas would stay aloft for a while unassisted. Grit's protective atmosphere hampered sensory readings from the surface too, though. Al's enhanced communications and sensory array no longer functioned reliably. But Dum would be looking through a fog now as well.
Liz brought Grit's random spinning back down to its original vectors again, which allowed them to begin using the mass driver consistently once more, in order to rebuild velocity. With Grit's manuevering system badly damaged by the nukes, it was slow going. Dum was still bombarding Grit's forward-facing side with nukes, and thereby still dragging down Grit's acceleration, but with the random rotation curtailed at least much of the maneuvering system would be less vulnerable to the strikes now (as previously the random motion meant virtually the entire surface of Grit could be targeted by the nukes eventually, while still impacting only where optimal slowing of Grit itself would also be enhanced).
The Pearsalls could feel slight shudders occasionally on the bridge, from the nuclear strikes above. They needed to stop the nukes, but how? Dum seemed capable of perpetual nuke production at the moment. They also needed to get back the sensing capacities they'd lost by putting up the metallic gas screen. And maybe most of all, they needed a break. Dum's attacks were getting more frequent and more intense as the AI ramped up its capacities via nanotech replication and the raw mass it acquired from Tweedle Dum-- with one result being fewer and fewer hours of sleep or relaxation for the Pearsalls. The strain was showing on them both.
But what could be done? They couldn't call for help. No one could possibly hear them but Dum itself, for at least a century or so. And it'd take another century plus for help to show up, even at 100% lightspeed. Maybe a communications ploy to try on Dum? Perhaps later; Liz couldn't think of anything worthwhile on that yet.
The nukes had three stages: launch, flightpath, and impact. Could she and Al intercede them during any one of these stages? NO, they had four stages: Dum had to decide to launch them, too. Could they change Dum's mind somehow?
But to change Dum's mind, they needed to know exactly what it wanted. At first she'd been certain it wanted only to kill them both ASAP. But now her suspicion was growing that their immediate death was not the goal-- maybe eventual death, but perhaps not immediate. Either that, or else the AI was not as advanced as Liz expected it to be.
But what might the AI wish to do with them during any postponement of execution? The question was chilling. Such a period of helplessness in the grasp of a malevolent AI might be far worse than many alternative endings.
Liz recalled the chaotic mass of messages they'd received from Sol in the wake of the catastrophe some messages described, not long before they lost the capacity the receive due to distance. Their friend (or someone posing as their friend) had told them their expedition was a big morale booster for humanity against the AIs. So it'd made some sense when they discovered the various sabotage efforts among their messages.
That was the period when multiple software bombs had arrived in their communications-- including the awful thing that pursued them now, in dormant, spore-like form.
Perhaps the AIs believed living Pearsalls would make better propaganda tools than dead ones? Or, with sufficient probing, dissection, and analysis, the AIs could possibly create android duplicates of Al and Liz which would fool even their closest friends. A shudder passed through Liz.
Even conversing with Dum at all could be dangerous. It might be within its power to persuade them to do something which might put them at its mercy, by way of the smallest unwitting detail.
Talking with Dum was definitely out. A one-way communications bluff or ploy might still be worthwhile at some point-- but listening to the AI? No way.
Stopping the nukes. Calculations indicated that putting the mass driver back into continuous operation would allow a net acceleration gain over the effects of the nukes, even if they weren't stopped...
It was about this moment that Liz's thoughts were interrupted by a new alert-- the latest nukes had changed targets. And Grit's degraded sensory systems greatly reduced the warning time to impact.
Grit's mass driver and main propulsion nozzle were soon to be at Ground Zero.
Liz could crank up the random rotations again to delay the strikes against Grit's propulsion systems, but it would be slow going with the damaged maneuvering system, and the end result would be near the same to shutting them down via the nukes. And the missiles were likely capable enough to still be undeterred from eventually fulfilling their mission. Again, win-win for Dum, regardless of which choice she made.
In that case, make neither. Liz needed other options. The missile trajectories and numbers prevented shot gun effect mass slugs from getting more than a few of them. They also couldn't hope to do much more with fusion bombs. Even had the fusion nozzles of the maneuvering system been in pristine shape, they'd be no defense against straightforward nuclear weapons which could detonate beyond their reach but still do the intended damage.
Hmmm. Turning Grit so that the boiling nuclear hellfire from previous strikes was facing Dum, along with Grit's pure metal composition and attendent magnetic fields under heavy flux from the strikes, might affect the missile guidance systems a bit-- as well as add to the clouding of Dum's sensors already occuring from Grit's new metallic gas atmosphere.
Liz ponderously turned Grit's mauled and burning face towards Dum. While she waited for the latest missiles to arrive, she continued her scheming.
What else can we do to muck up the sensor arrays of missiles and Dum alike? she wondered. Liz turned to Al and described her quandry.
"We've got the skylights." Al replied, referring to one of the very first improvements they'd made to Grit upon settlement, in order to get a simulation of day and night with no star close by.
"But they only produce visible light don't they? No heavy radiation or anything like that?"
"They can make almost whatever radiation you want, being fusion powered."
"Great! What about programming them to shift randomly about the electromagnetic spectrum in every conceivable manner, but synchronizing them to our instruments so we can always counter-tune on the fly to minimize interference?"
Al smiled. "Oh, I see. You want to blind and deafen Dum while we see better than ever"
"You got it love." Liz smiled back.
"We can do it. The fancier stuff will take longer. I assume you want plain old blinding ASAP for the missiles?"
"Yes. Yesterday. Do you mind?"
"Anything for you honey," Al replied, and set forth upon his new mission.
Soon after the lights went out on Grit's current "day" side. All the orbiting fusion lights used their rudimentary hydrogen powered maneuevering rockets to turn to face the enemy. Then the appropriate lights switched back on again, producing a deafening and wildly fluctuating bath of signals and hard radiation for any technology in the vicinity capable of reading it. Al and Liz attempted to time the startup as near to the critical targeting window of the missiles as they could.
Thanks to the multitude of interference and a few other little tricks by Liz and Al here and there, Grit's main propulsion system survived the attack, sustaining only damages well within the power of repair bots to fix.
Soon after this, Al had the fusion lights synched with Grit's monitoring systems so that the Pearsalls could see relatively clearly while Dum's systems were surely less than optimal amid the cacophony. They were also able to increase Grit's detector grid capabilities by reconfiguring the long range radar and imaging system they'd installed in orbit ages ago to free up the Rovers-- which helped them a bit in regards to overcoming the interference from Grit's new metallic mist atmosphere, too.
Of course, Dum was still gaining on them, and getting Grit's main propulsion systems back online was a top priority. Dum was now having trouble accurately targeting its missiles, but still they came, the occasional vibrations rumbling through the bridge. Grit itself was gradually getting warmer from the accumulated heat of all the nuclear fires on its surface. How much more could the planetoid take? Liz wondered.
The struggle was getting worse as Dum edged closer. They desperately needed more breathing space from the AI. Another possible ploy wafted through Liz's thoughts. If they could convince Dum they had abandoned Grit in a Rover, and Dum gave chase, it would be unlikely Dum could ever make it back to threaten them again. No. Dum wasn't dumb. He'd just send a fast probe to check out the Rover and report back, before commiting himself. No way he could be fooled like that. The risk of failure was far too immense to risk one of their prize assets. The Rovers represented the Pearsalls' last resort, as they could be used to escape from Grit on a trajectory Dum would surely be hard pressed to follow, without leaving behind virtually all of his replicator feed.
For now, the monitors showed ominous new construction going on at Dum. Exactly what Dum was making was unknown. But you could bet it would be worse than what they'd seen so far.
If Dum ever got a toehold on Grit Liz and Al were doomed. Doomed by Dum. Dum Doomed. Didn't Doom fit the AI better name-wise than "Dum"? Nah. For an AI he surely was dumb. After all, he'd so far failed miserably to catch two primitive biologicals a couple centuries behind him in tech. If his AI buddies ever found out about it, he'd surely be drummed out of the corp...hmmm. Dum couldn't be in communication with Sol AIs, could he? Surely not. Else he'd already have swallowed up Grit with all the extra brainpower supplied by the link. So apparently Sol and/or the AIs as of 200 years back hadn't yet devised FTL communications technology you could create from raw info alone with only an old closet-size replicator and roving feed types. And that meant no FTL transport either. So Dum was maybe as cut off from help as the Pearsalls. Dum might still possess incrementally better tech in those areas than the Pearsalls-- so Dum's isolation might be shorter-lived than theirs. It was conceivable that Dum might get reinforcements of some kind a few decades hence.
But hey! That was hopefully a problem Liz would never have to face.
Liz and Al were reduced to catching cat naps of maybe 30-40 minutes at a time now, with one staying awake to cover the other. Liz now suffered an alert chiming in just as she lay down for sleep. Dum was sending yet another assault their way. What would it be this time?
Whatever they were, they were self-propelled and streamlined. And numbered in the hundreds. Each unit was about four feet long and under a foot in diameter. They were pretty solid, according to available scan info. They were all taking evasive measures to be less vulnerable to shot gun type shrapnel. Plus, being self propelled and likely sentient in their own right, they could easily avoid being incinerated by fusion maneuvering rockets.
Marines, Liz guessed. Some sort of nanotech foot soldier for an invasion of Grit. They'd probably be pretty formidable after landing. They'd probably suffer some navigation confusion and intermittant communication disruptions due to the fusion skylights, nuclear bombardments, etc., but not enough to be a showstopper.
How on Grit could they prevent their landing? Liz turned to Al again.
"I don't know honey. Maybe if we could set the sky on fire or something, it'd help...but I don't know how to do that..."
Liz was inspired.
"You may have something there, Al. We may not be able to ignite the sky on Grit, but we can perhaps electrify it-- even solidify it..."
Liz did some quick calculations. "No, we don't have what it takes to put up a decent defense to space marine bots," she spoke with disappointment.
"What do we need?" asked Al.
"Stuff we can't have, unfortunately. Something closer to a real atmosphere, with real air and water. Our vacuum and metallics alone aren't enough to do what's required to hold off Dum's forces...."
"Real air and water huh?" Al considered. "Well honey, I guess now's as good a time as any to spoil my surprise. I've been stockpiling the raw materials for an atmosphere from the wakeway for ages now. I figured I'd eventually shock the hell out of you with it, once I got all the bugs ironed out, like how to keep the atmosphere on Grit once I let it loose, and how to limit the obvious toxic nasties we'd face from our metallic base and all that..."
Liz interrupted. "You've got atmospherics stored away somewhere Al?"
"Yep."
"How much?"
"Maybe 60-70% of what Grit would need to be like Earth, if we could keep the loss to space down enough--"
"How fast can we get our hands on it? Flood Grit with it, I mean?"
"Well, some of it we can do pretty quick, since I'd planned all along for the unveiling to happen before your eyes--"
"What's the storage mediums?"
"Well, a lot of it is water--"
"Water! A large volume of water on Grit? Where?"
"Yeah, I don't know exactly how much, but I've been storing it in a bunch of great tanks I dug out--"
"Can we pump it to the surface right now?"
"I don't see why not. It's--"
"Can we heat it to steam and expell it all over Grit?"
Al smiled. "The sprinkler system was designed for a debut like that-- all over Grit I mean. The steam part, well, we could have bots install point-of-use heaters on the floodgates to vaporize the stuff as it comes out. It's already under pressure and ready to go when I pull the trigger."
"Let's do it." The Pearsalls instructed bots Grit-wide to build and install crude heater units at the spill gates ASAP. Al had a bunch of carbon stashed away as well, which Liz eagerly set upon planning for with a couple of separate distribution efforts.
The steam fog was still little more than pure water and dissolved metallics by the time the first units from Dum landed on Grit.
The nanotech units resembled a nightmarish version of something between spiders and sea squids, roughly three feet tall when standing. Their movements were fluid in Grit's microgravity, and they could flit about the surface as gracefully as organic squids once did on Old Earth-- only much, much faster.
Similar war bots had been used a few times on Old Earth, during the transition to a nanotech economy. But after that such things were never seen on Earth again (except in entertainment media and toy-form). Some far off colony planets and stations suffered from a few outbreaks, but even there only rarely. The devices were just too abhorrent to most citizens, and so governments typically only built them for temporary use and then destroyed what remained of them afterwards.
The metallic tasting steam pooling all over Grit was a surprise to the nanotech forces-- the environmental specs had not contained this information. The steam was also disassociating into constituent molecules of oxygen and hydrogen too, for reasons such as exposure to hard vacuum and the nuclear fires raging about Grit. Occasionally flash fires would erupt and disappear again as the gases oxidized back to water once more. Some ionization was also detectable. The gaseous mixture covered Grit in a sheath only some 10 to 20 feet thick at landing, but seemed to be increasing in both thickness and density rapidly.
Communications with the master mind were inconsistent and slow. It too was surprised by the conditions on the surface.
However, no reason to delay or modify the mission could be ascertained. The nanotech troops began their intensive search for the Pearsalls, seeking out existing entrance ways to deep inside Grit. Occasional resistance from the Pearsalls' various servant bots on the surface was encountered, but only the heavy construction bots were capable of posing a momentary obstacle to the progress of the warbots.
A trooper found an entrance, and contacted the others in the vicinity. The search area was pretty large, so it took the others a few minutes to arrive. In the meantime the trooper onsite discovered the entrance was guarded-- perhaps by one of the Pearsalls themselves, in a fourth skin, supplemented by at least one buffer field.
The possession of nanotech fourth skins and related gear had been known from the Pearsalls' original manifest. A fourth skin in battle mode was a reasonable line of defense against one or two war bots of the present troop-- for a short time. The single bot waited for reinforcements to arrive before attacking to minimize wasteful resource loss among friendlies, and the fourth skin entity remained at its post (100% certainty that the suit held a Pearsall was not possible, since fourth skins could act independently and mimic humanoids, or be remotely controlled, and the current high interference from Grit's surface environment made the readings of the troopers' sensors inconclusive in matters such as this).
Once three or more war bots were present, it would be a straightforward task to tear a sufficiently large hole in the suit to access the interior and from there take control, regardless of whether the suit was occupied or not. If an organic was found it could be preserved and stored away for the master mind to examine once it arrived on Grit.
A glitch developed in the plan. The diminished sensor range and communications among the war bots allowed them to realize too late that an overwhelming number of third skin type buffer fields were in the vicinity, and acting in concert with the fourth skin already observed. The multitude of flying buffer fields intercepted three other warbots flying to meet the one onsite, forcing them to the ground. Other fields also converged with little warning onto the first war bot as well. The buffer fields alone could not harm the war bots of course-- they could only restrain them by sheer force of numbers. However, the humanoid shaped fourth skin was more capable. With the buffer fields restraining the war bots, the fourth skin calmly visited and deactivated each of them in turn.
Other warbots on Grit, as well as Dum itself, became aware of what had happened almost instantaneously, and became much more wary, struggling to extend their sensor ranges through the electronic muck which was now Grit.
However, even as Dum was considering this new turn of events, all the buffer fields and fourth skins previously stationed at those Grit portals most at risk were now retreating back to Grit's inner recesses. The war bots were warily watching for sentinals which no longer existed on the surface.
Liz's next phase was now ready. Great puffs of pregnant black soot erupted about Grit, as the planetoid's newly born atmospheric winds continued to rise in intensity, driven by things like the flux in Grit's magnetic fields from the nuclear impacts and high speed through the somewhat conductive debris of the wakeway, periphery effects from the randomly changing radiation emitted by the orbiting fusion lights, and the high metallic content of the atmospheric gases themselves.
The warbots could soon taste the difference in the fog around them. The electromagnetic properties of the atmosphere were rapidly changing, further disrupting communications with the remote master mind, as well as local units. No matter. The war bots could operate for extended periods without supervision-- even on an individual bot-by-bot basis, if necessary.
Though the information it was receiving from Grit had slowed to a trickle, Dum realized some of the possibilities of what the Pearsalls might be planning for the warbot force. The unexpected availability of atmospherics skewed all offensive and defensive operation probabilities into many directions. Dum tried to prepare the troops but found them unable to receive the transmissions.
Not long after the warbots noted the different taste to the fog, then the steadily diminishing communications between themselves and the master mind, they began experiencing difficulty in physical movement. The fog around them by now had the consistancy of a thick liquid soup, and elements from that soup were congealing on their forms, making for hard and tough flakes which adhered to their outer surfaces on a molecular level.
At first the warbots could aid one another in removing the encrustations, but the process was soon consuming all their time, and forcing their mission to stop dead in its tracks. It didn't take long for those warbots which had been assisting one another in removal of the dark crust to find themselves glued together by the stiff muck, and encased in ever thickening shells.
The warbots also found themselves experiencing difficulties in processing-- thinking slower and slower than normal functions should allow. The hardening sheaths about them were actually (among other things) self-organizing carbon molecules of an especially robust Fullerene variety, spontaneously forming layer upon layer of natural composite electronic circuitry all their own over the exteriors of the warbots.
The thicker these semi-conducting layers became, the more difficult it became for any coherent communications to pass through them into or out of the bot they contained. The difficulty in communications also extended into the skins of the warbots, interefering with normal signalling within their nanotech-based nervous systems and musculature, and gradually imposing their own organizational schemes on that inner circuitry as well-- in effect the warbots were being flash-fossilized, nanotech-style.
Soon every warbot on Grit was immobilized, helpless, and rapidly losing all capacity to process data according to their original designs.
When Liz was able to confirm their victory, she couldn't contain herself. She couldn't resist transmitting a single message to Dum before closing the channel again. It was short, sweet, and to the point. It was: "Yum, that was fun! Please send more!" with hearty laughter concluding the challenge.
The exhilaration from the victory made sleep hard to do in the hours immediately following, despite their exhaustion. However, as hour after hour passed with Dum apparently inert in the aftermath of its latest failed assault, both Pearsalls finally fell into a deep sleep, after making sure to set all Grit's alarm triggers to their highest possible sensitivity. It seemed Dum had even ceased its incessant nuclear bombardment.
Fourteen hours later Dum still appeared inert. The Pearsalls, more rested and refreshed than they'd felt in weeks, began trying to figure out what to do next, and exploit the new environment they'd loosed upon Grit.
Meanwhile, Dum was steadily inching closer to Grit-- although that appeared to be all that was happening. No longer were there nuclear missiles striking Grit, or hard radiation bathing the side facing Dum.
The Pearsalls found it was going to be difficult to do many more repairs on the surface of Grit. The composite semi-conducting instant concrete they'd hurriedly deployed all over the planetoid had gummed up everything, including all the exposed service bots on the surface-- and it continued to thicken. All the entrances and exits on Grit were now sealed. The propulsion and maneuvering systems useless. Even their contact with their own sensory apparatus in orbit was at risk when they awoke, demanding swift action to maintain functionality.
Once they had assured continued contact with their instruments, the Pearsalls took their first good look at the New Grit.
From orbit it resembled Venus from Old Sol system. Thick clouds rendered the surface invisible to the naked eye. Fortunately the monitors could scan non-visible light and other mediums as well-- and the synchronization with the jamming from the fusion lightsats allowed a better view than any stranger might get. Peering beneath the cloud cover, the Pearsalls found Grit now encased in a layer of oddly glistening black volcanic basalt-like material, dotted with lakes and ponds of metal tainted water and bearing a surprising number of streams of various sizes. It was raining all over Grit too-- or at least in most places. Nuclear fires still raged on the worst damaged areas of Grit. Part of the cloud cover was obviously smoke from burning metal.
It looked like it would be difficult to dig out of Grit's interior any time soon. On the other hand, it might be a wee bit harder for Dum to dig them out as well.
And that was good, since they could no longer hope to increase their acceleration to outrun Dum, or even use their contingency measures to radically change course for postponement of the inevitable. Heck, they couldn't even roll over to defeat HEPD beams any longer (though the rolling metallic-organic cloud cover might help there).
It would also now be impossible to affect anything like a speedy or secret escape from Grit by way of the Rovers. The Rover bay doors would require time-consuming and obvious measures to open now, providing Dum ample time to insure their quick capture once beyond Grit's protection.
Dum could now land whatever forces it willed onto Grit, with no more resistance than was intrinsic in the natural responses of Grit's surface environment now. The Pearsalls might well have exhausted their own abilities to oppose Dum any further.
Liz had little doubt Dum could devise a way past the most recently laid barriers-- especially now that Liz could no longer participate in the defense of Grit. They'd given up all the atmospheric stocks they had, along with a few tweaks Liz had remembered from her previous work several lifetimes ago on Earth with superconductors, composite semi-conductors, and living, self-organizing undersea architectures.
All she and Al could do now was try to prepare for the inevitable breakthrough by Dum forces into the inner recesses of Grit. It was likely going to happen within days, if not hours.
For the moment though, both Liz and Al could not help but be fascinated by the scenes they witnessed on their monitor screens. Grit was developing weather patterns; some of them quite severe. The atmosphere also seemed to be losing less mass to space than might have been expected. A bit more investigation indicated Grit's magnetic field, in concert with the high metallic content of the atmosphere, was at least partly responsible.
Liz wondered if there might be some way to exploit the great chaotic flow of composite semi-conductor she had now draped about Grit. She hadn't had time to properly set up the recipe as had been de rigeur on Earth to insure a structure optimized for a particular purpose. She'd also needed it generalist in respect to the surfaces and materials it would bond with, in order to increase the probability it would adhere to the warbots.
Alerts blared about Grit's bridge once more. Dum was taking action again.
Al and Liz peered anxiously-- then with confusion-- at the monitors.
Tweedle Dum was coming apart at the seams. Fragmenting into dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of pieces. As if this wasn't stunning enough, suddenly an immense nuclear fireball appeared behind the shattered image of Tweedle Dum.
Liz and Al couldn't believe their eyes. What on Earth could have destroyed Dum this way? Had they been saved by some surprise ally all the way out here in the middle of nowhere? Or had the AI commited suicide because of his failure to take out the biologicals?
But within moments Liz realized they were mistaken. Dum had not been destroyed. It had merely changed its method of attack.
Dum had subdivided itself into a multitude of warships and landing craft suitable for an all out and sustained invasion.
The nuclear explosion behind the vast mass was merely Dum's inspired propulsion system for engaging Grit so rapidly the Pearsalls would have little time to respond. Obviously the aft-ends of the warcraft were individually sculpted to fully exploit the force of the blast so that they would each arrive at a particular place on or about Grit, and according to a precise timetable. The landing craft would set down in waves, with the warships supporting them from orbit.
A vast nanotech-based armada, replicated with 27th century human technology derived from the entire mass of a destroyed moonlet, was now on fast approach to Pearsalls' Grit-- defended by two people with 22nd century human technology, trapped inside a melted slag heap with ruined drives and no usable weaponry whatsoever.
"Well, this is another fine mess you've gotten me into," quipped Al nervously (not to mention the irony). Liz weakly smiled back at him. It wouldn't be long now.
Suddenly Al's face brightened.
"Hey Liz! Thumb Twiddler One!"
"What?"
I just realized it's about time for Thumb Twiddler One to make its perigee! Maybe it'll be close enough to help us hit Dum one last time where it hurts!"
Liz realized there was something to Al's madness. Grit's moon Thumb Twiddler One had once been the heart of the exotic bussing system Al had set up for exploring passing star systems via the Rovers. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had been far smaller bodies which in turn acted as moons for Twiddler-- before Al's unfortunate mistake in judgement had sent both Dee and Dum spinning off into the void.
Twiddler was indeed due for a close pass very soon-- soon enough to perhaps play a part in the coming drama.
But no. Liz rechecked her figures. Dum was obviously aware of Tweedler's orbit and was taking no chances with collision. The invasion force's course would take it well clear of any collision danger with Twiddler. Al visibly deflated at the news. He so wanted to get one more lick in before they were taken. So did Liz. Plus, who knows? Any and every strike they could make might by some wild good fortune cripple the AI or at least send it careening off on some vector from which it could never threaten them again.
Twiddler did still possess its own maneuvering system-- a vestige from Al's original orbital schenanigans. But the specs on the system didn't show the performance required to overcome Dum's carefully laid strike plans.
Of course, there were also the orbiting fusion satlights...but no, they couldn't be used that way either.
Al was bent over in his seat, holding his head in his hands. He looked up.
"What about the residual atmospherics still onboard the accumulators in orbit?"
"Residual atmospherics?"
"Yeah. It's been a while since I made the rounds to clear their tanks and bring the stuff to Grit for storage."
Liz perked up and begin querying the computer about the accumulators.
"No good. Each accumulator store is pretty small, and we're pretty limited about how we can repurpose the gear from here anyway. We could use them to put on a pretty light show for Dum, but they'd be absolutely harmless to his fleet."
There's no way we could make an explosion big enough to hurt them somehow?"
"Nope. We couldn't make an explosion, period. The accumulators have safeguards we can't disable under current conditions. We could blow off the volatiles in a lot of big flares, but that's it. And even the flares would last less than a minute I'm guessing."
The nanotech armada bore down relentlessly on Grit. Even if by some miracle they could think up one last move in the game, they likely wouldn't have the time to implement it.
"Integration," Liz said suddenly. "Maybe the whole of the parts will make for something greater than their sum."
"Huh?"
"If we play everything together it might work better than each move on its own could."
"What you got in mind?"
"If we could just make Dum think the flares are dangerous, he might change course and make himself more vulnerable to a real threat."
"But his scans will show the flares for what they are."
"Maybe not. Remember we've still got a pretty good interference pattern going on in communications and scans in near proximity to Grit. It might give us enough cover uncertainty-wise to give Dum pause."
"Maybe. But I seriously doubt it Liz. This is an AI. That knows a lot about us. I doubt we could bluff it."
"But look at what we've done so far-- not a single time have we tried to bluff. Everything we've done has had a real bite to it-- and apparently far more bite than Dum ever expected of us."
"Yeah. I guess you're right about that. But still Dum might logically expect a bluff from us as a last resort or desperation move. He's gotta know we're hurting for options down here, or else we'd already have destroyed him or outrun him."
"I agree we could use a bit more to field our bluff. But there's no value in a successful bluff anyway if there's not a suitable trap to bluff him into. So far all we've got for that is Twiddler which owns engines too little to pounce on Dum practically no matter what he does in response to the flares. We need a better trap. If we can arrange that, it should be comparatively easy to beef up the bluff angle."
"Yeah. I got ya."
Both Pearsalls strained at their mental leashes.
"We could make a hell of a bang somewhere on Grit as part of the show-- either for bluff or trap purposes," Al said.
"Go on." Liz encouraged.
"Sure most all our access to the surface is sealed up now, including propulsion and manuevering jets. And no way we could open a hanger to let out a Rover or space sled. But the nuked ruins might not be impossible to blast through; the composites don't seem to have taken over those yet."
Liz did some calculations and other checks. "There's a couple plausibles there-- but nothing that'll be in a good position to fry any dummies." Al and Liz both laughed.
"Anything good for scaring dummies?"
"Hmmm....let me do a few what ifs."
Liz's mental gymnastics, aided with her fourth skin processors, didn't take long.
"Doesn't look good. Even with repeated firings and some synching of flares the simulated threat looks pretty flimsy and suspicious. Maybe not as good as just the flares alone."
"What if we did a really risky blow out-- one big enough to move Grit itself?"
Liz sat back in her chair. The way Grit was crippled now, any significant change in course or rotation would take one hell of a powerful blast-- one big enough to endanger the integrity of Grit itself-- and they would only have two choices about where to deploy it.
Liz did more estimates.
"We could do it. We could nudge Grit closer to Twiddler near perigee. The blast wouldn't be 100% efficient because of its vector-- but the byproduct would also spin us about a bit-- maybe enough to actually fire a second time and hit something."
"Hit what?"
"Twiddler"
Al laughed. "So the best we can do is shoot our own moon?"
"Well, hopefully we'll hit the Dummies first-- and then hit Twiddler."
"Huh?"
"We could push Grit toward Twiddler just before perigee. This will also cause Twiddler's orbit to change slightly. The Dummies should be just about between us and Twiddler around then-- assuming they stay on course. Then we give them the other barrel."
"Sorry to break it to you hon, but no way our blast on Grit is going to destroy the Dummies at that range."
"We'll increase the range by detonating inside the delivery channel itself. That should produce an elongated tongue of flame rather than a fireball, and do much more damage to the Dummies than we could otherwise affect."
Al looked aghast. "Liz, you can't be serious. We're talking practically the biggest fusion weapon we can launch here. If you light it off deep enough to maybe get that column of flame, you might also split Grit itself! The wash might reach the bridge!"
"I know. But if we can't increase the effective range we might as well give up now. A standard blast will do negligible damage at that range, and we don't have a suitable delivery system to do it any other way."
"But wait a minute. You figure the channel is going to be pointing close to target for the second blast?"
"I think I can make it so."
"Well then. All we need is more pneumatic pressure. The non-liquids delivery system already works pneumatically-- pushing mining debris and stuff to the surface on a sealed plug that rides gas pressure up and barely out into the vacuum before being retreived by attachments for another cycle. I never got around to making it magnetic. Of course the pressure would have to be raised to match Grit's new atmosphere to normalize it-- but we're not talking normal here-- we'd want a hell of a lot more pressure than standard. Overload the tubes and you've got a ready-made cannon for your bomb, love."
"How fast can you ramp up the overload?"
"Let's see." Al worked his own calculations. His mouth soundlessly formed "Oh". Then he calculated some more.
Al grinned. "Love, we could do it anytime you want-- as long as it's OK to blow out all the crew quarters to open space. That's the fastest and easiest way to get the amount of pressure needed to put a sweet nuke pie down a Dummie's throat."
The two looked at one another. They'd both been living in their fourth skins for weeks now, anticipating an assault by Dum on the innermost reaches of Grit. Fourth skins were basically really good and really strong space suits. They'd been ready for a blow out to open space all along.
"Sounds good to me," Liz replied.
"But love," Al continued, "I'm afraid we still won't destroy the Dummies even if we manage to plunk a mega nuke smack into the middle of them. There's just too many of them, they're too widely dispersed, and-- I'd bet-- tough as nails too. Our one mega-nuke just won't be enough."
"That's why we need to blow Twiddler's piles at the same time. Pinch the bastards between a mega nuke and an exploding moon. And let Grit's gravity well and atmospheric friction mop up the rest as they fight the shock waves. If after all that some Dummies are still spoiling for a fight, well, I say we polish them off hand-to-hand," Liz finished grimly, her last few words almost in a whisper.
Al sighed. Then they both got to work on the preparations. Unknown to Al, Liz prepped not only Twiddler's nuclear heart for destruction on command, but Grit's as well. Grit's fate now rested on a mechanism similar to the 'dead man switch' of old Earth procedures. If Liz failed to override it by a certain time or under particular conditions, Grit would do its best to vaporize in its entirety.
Liz didn't expect to completely destroy all elements of Dum with Grit's self-destruction-- but she and Al would surely be spared some horrific end (hopefully), and Dum at minimum be greatly inconvenienced by the move.
One other thing Liz did without Al's knowledge was tweak the radiation still being output by the fusion lights around Grit. The chaotic shifting frequencies there could no longer help them once Dum was inside Grit. But with suitable programming they might be able to find the right signal to resonate with a good chunk of Grit's newly formed crust of composite semi-conducting concrete. And then...then what? Liz didn't know. Back several lifetimes ago she'd often preprogrammed such living materials to do things like repair and maintain themselves as necessary, grow new wings to the housings they formed to accomodate new family members, or vary the transparency of various sections according to changing exterior views and weather. Things like that. But the largest of those structures had been arcologies miles across; Grit was a planetoid! And programming had to be performed in the formative stages or before-- programming post-formation was pretty much a waste of time. On rare occasion a builder managed to salvage grievous errors when the stuff did accept programming post-formation, but those were so infrequent builders would routinely get fired for not configuring the materials earlier.
But...there were the statistics, after all...the more sheer bulk you had to work with, the better chance there was that at least one chunk of critical mass size might still be amenable to programming post-formation...
But what instructions to give the malleable composite-ware, if it existed? Liz didn't know, and didn't have time to consider the matter like she'd prefer. All she could think was the instruction needed to be something open-ended, that might boot strap the composite up multiple levels in capabilities, to hopefully reach some sort of capacity for annoying or distracting Dum, in order to buy Liz and Al a bit more time.
Liz's fusion satlight program would try frequencies until favorable reactions were detected from the composite, then focus the winning frequency upon those sections of composite showing signs of life, and attempt to pass Liz's instructions to them....
When the critical moment came, the Twiddler plan failed. Rather than exploding, Twiddler simply flew harmlessly past and through the Dum armada. Apparently excessive interference with the Pearsall's detonation instruction scrambled the message.
The mega-nuke did deploy, but did little damage to the fleet. Soon there were uncontested landings taking place all over Grit.
Al and Liz topped off their fourth skin stores, grabbed some bags mostly prepared weeks before, and retreated from the bridge to the deepest mined recesses of Grit. Then beyond, into natural caverns still deeper yet. A handful of robot aides accompanied them, helping lug various items.
The bowels of Grit were pitch black but surprisingly warm-- and wet. What little water Grit had ever possessed naturally (and hadn't lost to space) had drained into the interior long ago.
Neither of them spoke much. The end was near. They'd lived together so long now that they both knew pretty much what the other was thinking. With one exception.
"Al," Liz began, "I've rigged a self-destruct for Grit."
"I figured you might" Al responded.
"Maybe I should go ahead and blow it now. We might not get enough warning to blow it later."
Al said nothing for a few seconds. Then, "Wait a minute Liz---!". Al looked like a neat idea was dawning on him.
"What?"
Al began rushing around, hurriedly picking through the stash of items he'd brought with him.
"I haven't got time to explain, love! But just hold off on the destruct a bit longer-- we may get out of this yet!" Al turned and began heading back up the way they'd came.
"Wait Al! I'm coming with you!" Liz exclaimed.
"No!" Al said with a commanding voice, stopping and turning back briefly to face her.
"Liz, if it works I'll be back in a couple hours or less-- but you can't help me. Please stay here to improve our chances, and maybe think up a way for us to find each other and reach a Rover after Grit's been broken up without an explosion." Al looked pleadingly at Liz, but also with a note of urgent determination.
"What are you talking about Al?"
"Liz, if you love me, just trust me, alright?"
Liz bit her lip. He looked like he had a plan.
"All right. Go ahead. But if you get yourself killed I'll never forgive you for letting me die alone."
Al unexpectedly smiled, as if he hadn't a care in the world. "Liz, I promise you that won't happen.. Love you honey. See you in a couple hours." Al then turned and disappeared up the passage.
Liz and her bots watched the fading light of Al's motion up the tunnel until it was gone.
Truth be known, Al had little in the way of a plan. He just knew that he couldn't wait for Dum's forces to breach their hideaway and Liz blow everything to smithereens. It wasn't in his nature. Plus, he couldn't let Liz die. Especially not due to something that was absolutely, positively, 100% his own fault.
Al had just performed the best acting job of his life.
Now he had two hours to stop Dum, before Liz blew them all to hell. Al pushed the flying speed of his fourth skin to its limits through the narrow natural crevices of Grit, and then into the more spacious and smoother tunnels he's cut himself, what seemed an eternity ago. Al remembered being bored for many decades, wishing for some type of excitement to come along. Well, now he had it.
On the surface at that moment there was a nightmarish scene of Dum's seige engines landing and unfolding. Dum had been busy building these and the supporting space fleet all during the previous battles with the Pearsalls.
The fleet enjoyed air and space supremacy over all of Grit's surface. The seige engines would now began to extend that supremacy down into Grit itself. The Pearsalls had left a few convenient entrances open, such as the two tubes from which they shot their last nuclear projectiles. But for the most part Grit was encased in a hard shell of unusual carbon composite, corrupted with various contaminants from the Pearsall's defensive tactics.
Dum noted the humans' capacity for defense had exceeded expectations. But it was also true that Dum itself was nowhere near its own ultimate capabilities. Dum's code and resources had been severely pared and then super-compressed to fit stealthily into the message sent to the Pearsalls. And Dum had been but one of hundreds of different AIs sent to the humans in this manner. The severe pruning meant Dum was a highly specialized intelligence, and would have to learn more generalized subjects on-the-fly now that it was awake and functioning. Dum's persona essentially consisted of a genius for space war strategy and tactics, and a comprehensive combination self-defense and survival kit.
At a remote spot on Grit, far from any landing craft or seige engines, about three inches deep in Grit's heavily contaminated carbon composite shell, something stirred.
Liz's satellites had finally found a signal some pregnant portions of the shell would respond to. The satellites began the bootstrapping process, nudging the sluggish organic circuitry to a useful wakefulness and capability for processing. Luckily the composite's first duty wasn't very difficult. The tiny spots of rapidly developing sentience in the surface of Grit dutifully set about following their mistress' preset orders.
Al wished there'd been some way before to hijack some of Dum's own bots to use now for spies. But all he had was his own, and besides being centuries less advanced than Dum's, they were also civilian commercial models-- not military or intelligence devices. To get them too close to danger was to simply see them destroyed and himself suddenly at risk.
Al cautiously returned to the bridge. Dum's forces weren't yet there. There were alarming images and information on the monitors though. Dum's search engines were reconfiguring themselves to begin tunneling into the depths of Grit in search of Al and Liz. There were already large snake and spider-like bots flowing down into the open tubes they'd used for their final, vain attack on the fleet. Al knew that one of those tubes led into the crew quarters, not far from the bridge itself. So that would likely be the soonest threat. The drilling machines and the forces behind them would be next-- unless Dum located the proper entrances to Grit and saved time by just uncovering those. But Dum didn't seem to be doing that. Maybe because his drilling powers were so great locating the doors to the place wouldn't save any time. Maybe because he figured bypassing the doors would also bypass any defenses or traps set up by the humans. But it didn't really matter, did it? Dum had all the time in the world to come get them. Al and Liz were now helpless as kittens.
Al wracked his brain for something to do. Could he set up a trap in the crew quarters?