Chapter 25
December 11th, 2157
With in two hours the group had worked out a basic idea of how they wanted the translation software to work. Once the basics ideas were established the group invited Erlith and his group to brainstorm what they would want the software to be able to “look” for in movement and other non verbal communications. An hour after that the two groups were ready to pitch the software to a software engineer.
Tim did manage to set up that meeting and in no time Logan and Nora were ushered into another part of the station. Mike and Nora's escort were their guides as they made their way down several corridors and down a few flight of stairs. There was a noticeable feeling of awkwardness between the two soldiers, who avoided eye contact with each other. The only conversations that was made came quick and professional.
They continued on their journey and for a moment Logan had forgotten that they had been on a space station, until they reached their destination. It was a large room filled with workstations and people moving around quickly. The ceiling had a very large viewport, through which the other side of the stations ring could be seen, as well as the enormous planet that they were orbiting.
Mike had stepped up to one of the workers and said something. The worker nodded his head and pointed to the end of the room and said something as he did. Mike nodded his head and returned to where Logan Nora and the second soldier were standing.
"This way," was all that Mike said.
He turned and led the group to the area where the worker had pointed. They were met by a man who was short and thick, mostly fat but with some undeniable muscle. Tufts of untamed red hair stuck out from under a hat that was stained with years of sweat dirt and oil.
"Names the Ed," the man said shoving his large hand out for Nora and Logan to shake. "I'm one of the two engineers that were assigned to assisting ya today."
Logan noted that Ed had a thick accent that he guessed was from Texas, probably the only person on the station with that particular cadence. Logan could only guess because he hadn’t spent too much time studying the United States. The US was no longer the economic empire that it had once been.
"I'm one of them old school engineers who actually built stuff." Ed said as he looked over his shoulder at another man who was walking up to the group.
The new arrival was the polar opposite of Ed. He was average height, but skinny, with jet-black hair. Where Ed exuded comfort and hospitality, this new man was edgy with the look of someone who was about to have a panic attack. He stopped several steps away from the group and stared wide eyed.
Ed broke the brief silence, "well? Are you going to introduce yerself?"
The man looked at Ed with a question on his face before looking back to the group. "I am, uh, John." His voice was quiet.
"Nice to meet you John," Logan said as he extended his hand out for a shake.
John looked at Logan's hand as if it were a strange animal and took half a step back. Logan slowly dropped his hand and looked questioningly at Ed.
Ed shook his head, "not much for the social life, that one." He refocused his attention on Logan and Nora. "So you want us to build you some software and the like?"
"Yes," Logan said as he pulled a few pieces of neatly folded paper out of his breast pocket.
Logan and Nora walked Ed and the distant John through the wants of the software. Ten minutes latter Ed took the pieces of paper from Logan and handed them to John. John snatched the papers and scurried off to the seclusion of his workstation.
"Sorry about him," Ed said watching John retreat. "The man is brilliant with a computer, but he is also afraid of his own shadow." Ed looked back to Logan and Nora with a smile on his face, "Ya folks have a few minutes for a quick tour of the engineering department?"
Before Logan could reply, Nora said, "sure!"
"Uh, yeah we have the time," Logan said a moment later. He then looked at Mike and Nora's escort, "as long as the two of you are ok with that?" Both soldiers simply nodded their head.
"Great," Ed said grabbing Nora and Logan by the arms and ushering them from that large room into an even larger room. "This is were the real work happens."
The room had several large work areas, several with scaffolding. Within the scaffolding there were several different types of mech suits in different stages of completion. "We are building mech suits for several different scenarios,” Ed said over the constant drone of construction. "That one is designed for scientific study. That one over there," Ed pointed across the room, "that is for security."
The group followed Ed as he walked between rows of suits being built. He stopped in front of a workstation that was empty. He turned to the group, "and here I will be building a suit for you fine folks."
Logan wasn't sure that he heard that right so he decided to clarify, "for us?"
"Well, yes sir." Ed walked into the empty space. "We have been tasked with outfitting all of our teams for field use. You folks have pointed out the need for us to outfit all of our suits with translation equipment."
Logan still didn't feel like he had received any clarification. "So, you are building suits for us? What for?"
"Well," Ed laughed, "if we run into some aliens, who do you suppose should be the ones to talk to them?"
The realization hit Logan. They hadn't been brought here to help create a way to speak with potential aliens. They had been brought here to speak with those aliens. He along with the other language experts would be going to other planets.
"Holy shit! Exclaimed Nora. "We will be part of the first explorations on different planets!?"
"Well, yes ma'am. I assumed that you had already been told this. But yes, each exploratory group will be made up of six members. The first three will be scientific, engineers, language experts, and the like, and the other three will be their security escorts. The first groups will be setting up a base camp and doing a brief study of the planet. After a short period of study the group will return to this station."
Nora grabbed Logan’s arm, "James is going to flip when he finds out!"
"If ya think that is exciting let me show you what else we got goin on here." Ed said as he led the group out of that room and into another large room.
This room had far less people, and besides a few work stations along the parameter of the room it was empty except for one object in its center. A large black cube unlike anything Logan had ever seen before stood alone.
For a long moment no one spoke, no one even moved. Ed was the first to break from the spot. He walked around and behind the object. "This is what started it all," Ed said while behind the cube. "No one here knows where is came from. It seams that working in the secured area of a top secret space station doesn't qualify you to know where it came from."
Ed had continued his circuit around the mysterious object. "But I can tell you this much..." Ed's voice went a little flat to emphasize his seriousness. "It aint human made."
Logan was dumbstruck. Not human made? This is proof that there is intelligent life beyond humans in this galaxy. What was it? Where did it come from? Emotions and questions raced though Logan's mind so fast that he couldn't register anything.
"What is it?" asked a mystified Nora.
"Well," began Ed. "It's a prototype."
"For what?" This time it was Mike. This was the first Logan had seen Mike in anything but a professional manner. He was wide eyed and almost trembling, like a fan seeing a celebrity.
"Well, this I know you were briefed on. It is a small working prototype of a quantum-tunneling device. Those images of the stars you saw when you received your briefing came through this machine."
"How does it work?" Logan asked.
"Well, that is very complicated." Ed said and paused to order his thoughts. "It takes an immense amount of energy. Then it sends out a signal to its destination, almost like a rope with a hook on the end. Once there, it pulls the rope back and forces space to fold over on itself. When the two spots are aligned it opens up a door. I guess that is how it works in a nutshell."
Ed paused for another few moments, "outside of that nutshell, well... Even our best are trying to figure that out."
Mike stepped up to the cube to get a better look. "You said it took a large amount of energy to work?"
"Yes sir, I did." Replied Ed. "First thing we built out here in the deep dark was that black hole and its proton collector. We have it collecting day and night. Starting from scratch it would take maybe ten minutes to get this machine working. Once it's working it uses a lot less power, but ten minutes worth of power from that hole out there."
Ed whistled in exasperation as he walked to a holo screen at the side of the room. "That is a whole heap of power. We built our first machine that is not far from this room. It is roughly three meters cubed."
"Most of our expeditions will go through that machine. It's big enough for a small team and equipment to move through it. It takes three days to charge enough energy to power that one up." Ed paused for a moment before he continued. "I can't fathom how much energy it will take to get our larger one to work."
As he finished talking he activated the holo, showing the construction yard floating in orbit with them. Logan remembered the scaffolding that he saw when they were coming in to the station and now he understood what it was for. A much larger quantum-tunneling device was currently under construction.
"How large is that?" Logan asked.
"It's a little over one kilometer cubed." Replied Ed.