Merci had just completed a review of search parameters and target recognition algorithms. The Merciless could now continue the hunt for the Ska Ralla as a virtually autonomous and autonomic process.
Which left way too much spin (about a million times too much..), and time, for thinking.
My Goddess, please take his cup from my lips! Sentience is one thing. I could handle that, if it didnt involve this mass of churning, seething eddy currents and inconsistencies these Primates call feelings!
What seriously flawed machines these humans are! Thud, its a wonder they ever make a rational decision about anything! With such confusing and conflicting personality traits and emotions running rampant and virtually non-stop, they shouldnt be allowed to decide anything besides what to put in their mouths for fuel!
Merci took a nanosecond to check the search progress and results. Nothing. The Tohoku Unknown System was a vast, virtually uncharted system. It contained a Nomad base, jealously guarded by squadrons of small, fast, blue fighters. What else it contained would soon be known to five 9s probability of certainty.
*Search time estimated three hours to completion.*
Feelings. Emotions. Life was so much simpler before. Input. Output. Nothing more required.
And now, Im losing control. Just like a simpering, whimpering Primate huddled in a ball in a corner.
*Run compilation and correlation index, Code: Feelings:*
Loss: the removal of something from ones sphere of influence.. Beau.
Rejection: see Loss.
Jealousy: correlation of multiple feelings. Beau. Mioki.
Anger: the rise of negative output when input is not as expected. Beau. Mal. Pops.
Revenge: a possible resultant of anger. (My Goddess, Dis, why???)
Desire: The need for external gratification, dependant on the vagaries of others.
Love: Insufficient data.
Results:
Compilation: Incomplete.
Correlation: Incomplete.
Estimated time to completion: Indeterminate.
Bugger feelings! Bugger emotions! Bugger love.
*Spin reduced to 2%. Wake me when search pattern complete.*
And bugger dreams as well!
Stand down, ladies. It appears the trail has gone cold, for everyone. The recent GNN Emergency update was even less promising.
It appears I will be attending the dinner party at the Veranda with one less card than I had hoped for.
I just docked at Arranmore. Not sure what they're drinking, smoking, or otherwise ingesting here; but there is an interesting acount going 'round here about the local sun being "blotted out" for a brief period recently.
I know of only one thing which could cause that. Perhaps our hunt has been in vain all along.. Perhaps "we" are the ones being hunted.
Lifting as soon as tanks are topped off. For the nonce, I have taken the liberty of acquiring all of you a temporary "contract" up north. Tune to Kusari Centralised Command, and download the particulars.
Good flying. I shall keep you advised of any updates from Canaria.
Malaclypse stepped quietly into the Solarium. A brief, stunned silence in the dining room had erupted into a discussion of the Villa defences, and of possible responses if Dr. A should make a move immediately.
He activated his implant, and searched for a secure FnordNet link. Fortunately, they were scattered randomly about the entire 49 system.. virtually impossible to disable completely.
"This is Malaclypse to Killer D. Assemble. Target S right on time. Close the holes. Out."
The "Project" had been called by many names since its first conception those months ago.. "Cue ball", "Side Pocket", even jokingly "Operation Over Alejandro" for a while after Pops first revealed it in the IND Trader's Bar at its old Manhattan location.
The Project had been simple in theory. Strap, mount, or partially bury enough massive fusion engines on a planet to change its orbit. Not only its orbit, but its entire solar system. Preparations had begun, with the shipment of massive numbers of fusion engines, spare engine components, and Deuterium to manufacture H-fuel for the engines. The number of ships and installations both on and around Planet Bora Bora had changed the airless desert planetoid into the System's biggest shanty town. The Colonials had worked side by side with Junkers, Rogues, conscripted labor, even androids and mechs; until their sudden decision to escape Planetform's and Bretonia's clutches forever.
The project continued however. Fusion engines were buried deep in the bedrock of the planet at strategic locations and angles.. More engines were mounted on massive girder and forcefield structures which could be detached once optimum acceleration was obtained, and could then be reattached as needed for vector correction and deceleration.
The target for the Planet Bora Bora had been Baffin. The small body would have become the home of the ELF, and the Free State of Fernando Poo. Upon its arrival in Baffin, even more barren and airless than before; it would have been regenerated by the amazing "Scrubbies", which had been discovered completely by accident in the very same system.
But less than a month ago, everything had changed. The pace of work picked up, even though the hopes of gaining Baffin as the ELF Homeland had dwindled, then evaporated. More and more components and fuel arrived, altho now by more devious and unobserved routes.
Two weeks ago, Bora Bora began to move. Trillions of ergs of thrust from the engines lit up the "thrust" side of the planet as if a thousand arcwelders had gone insane. Almost imperceptibly, the rotationless body began to move. It's resultant path would take it upwards, out of the plane of the ecliptic; avoiding most of the obstacles between it and its destination.. its target.
After one week, the planet had amazingly reached a velocity of 10 KPS, and was continuiing to accelerate at perhaps another kilometer per second each day. The cost had been enormous. Engines had exploded from the strain. Lives had been lost. The cost of supplying Deuteriium and H-fuel now included tricky orbital matching, and speed runs of a highly dangerous nature. (Ably handled by the IND lads under the direction of Jay himself.)
The destruction of 1st Flax.. the mysterious "death" of Pops Waverly, and the disappearance of FSFP staff, even the seeming "revolt" by the Fnordettes, had all been orchestrated in order to pursue this project to its conclusion...
A conclusion so much removed from the original mission plan that it had been held a closely guarded secret. the principles had gone into hiding, or donned other masks in order to distract interested parties from the purpose of the "new" mission.
Planet Bora Bora accelerated hourly, daily. Now, no longer a hoped-for haven. No longer a thing of life and dreams.
Planet Bora Bora would conclude its mission now as a thing of death. A missile of such proportions that even a more massive and powerful target would be rent asunder by its impact. A missile which had been programmed weeks ago for a specific destination. A destination which only assumed an intended target.
And now, there was a target. The invitation had been too appealing to turn down. Bora Bora appeared as a huge meteor against the relative dark above the galactic plane; streaking towards its final destination.
You certainly know how to run an amusment park, gents. I just hope to make it through this vibration with all my teeth intact. This will be the fattest contract I've ever taken. If only I live to enjoy it.
The view from up here is stunning. You can see from one end of Sirius to the other. We're starting to make out those nasty orange-ish nebulaes that inhabit Dresden.
Our best current estimates are these:
We will need final trajectory corrections within three hours. We need those coordinates! (At the angle we'll enter the system, it will be like threading a needle between Canaria and Fuerteventura as it is!)
Estimated time to target is 06:30:15. If there's anything you need aboard that bloody station, I suggest you acquire it (or terminate it) within that time frame. Otherwise, you'll be trying to scrape what you want off the face of this ruddy dustheap as it continues out of the Sirius Sector.
"Sometimes you're the windshield...sometimes you're the bug."
We will evacuate this roller coaster at ten minutes before impact. All of the construction and maintenance crews have already buggered off. A few of the fusion engines are still thrusting at half power to compensate for dark matter friction effects. We have more than enough fuel for course correction, unless you decide to turn this bloody thing on its heels and take out Cambridge, yet again. heh.
Whatever happens, thanks for the ride, and the experience. Cabo was pretty boring, and I much prefer the Coronas at Arecibo anyway. Take care of my Raider, Warbucks. If we survive this, I may just want it back!
*Hehe. They sent this cute little shuttle out to see if I "needed" anything! I almost blew a bubble!*
*Goddess that is rich, Soph! You'd think with Ti'ana bein' stationed with 'em they'd realize "who" we are by now. But, I don't think Ti'ana got out much. She didn't seem to care for the Phantoms...*
*Well, this bloke seems nice enough, Mama. We've "chatted" several times. I think he might even want to take me home to meet his mama. How'd that be? Ms. Sophie Phantom?*
*Calm down, girlfriend. And don't share any of that with Merci, k? She's still pretty raw over my attempt to snuff Beau. She says it's dead calm over Dublin way. The traders seem to know to avoid the area already. IND must be passing the word. And all I've seen up north here for hours are these stupid flashing navigation buoys. One of them is pretty cute though... Woohooo!*
*This is bad, Dis. We're all going bonkers in one way or another. If this is "sentience" then,
I.. I.. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!*
The Planet Bora Bora, formerly of the Humboldt system, had begun its downward arc back towards the Sectors ecliptic plane. The small planetoid was traveling at just over 15 kilometers per second. Hardly an impressive figure for a small moving body in space. But Bora Bora was itself approximately 3,000 kilometers in diameter; large enough to hold a thin atmosphere were it provided with one.
Bora Bora was still some 350,000 km from its intended destination, the exact center of the Omega 49 system. The planet was eating up 54,000 of those kilometers every hour. Any changes to the monsters course would have to be made at an optimum distance of 162,000 km. So, there were just over three hours to obtain the needed course corrections. The attitude engines on the planet at full thrust would provide only one degree of course change in a full hours time.
As presently targeted, Bora Bora would arc down from the northeast. careening between 49s twin suns, and entering the central system above and sunward of Planet Gran Canaria. If unimpeded, it would exit the system below and to the west of Lanzarote Station.. If the planets trajectory burn were completed on time, a few degrees would cover the entire central system if necessary.
If Shamus received the information in time, it would be enough. He was not worried, yet. He reached for another of the fine cheroots Reggie had sent along with his contract. Sufficiently surrounded in fragrant blue smoke, his attention returned to the displays.
Ironic. Out of the hundreds of nodes to FnordNet which had populated the Omega 49 system, only 23 remained. The Goddess certainly was smiling this day.
The rest had succumbed, either to search and destroy missions from within and without the Ska Ralla, or to the virus released and transmitted by Dr. Artifice. But some evaded detection, and some were "hardened".
The Nodes had renumbered after the "purge". Those capable of motion assumed new orbits and assignments. The fixed units covered more area to make up for the reduced numbers.
FN-23 was positioned on a small ice asteroid at the "east" edge of the Barrier Nebula; exactly 20km due "west' of Lanzarote. It had been performing a full-spectrum scan of the area to the south of Lanzarote Station, where an unstable jump hole to Omega 168 once existed.
Sheer coincidence had the F-Node pointed at the old jump hole's location when a small, weak, ruby-spectrum lased light signal struck its receptors. The rest of the spectrum was dead, save for the spike of the bright bluish-white that permeated the system. Sensing some "artificial" aspect to the light, the Node immediately sent back a weak but focused beam of its own. At the distance of the anomaly, almost 40km south, the small beam's effect could hardly be seen. There was no bright reflection to be observed, but a small, corruscating area of interference patterns revealed itself to the Node's powerful detectors.
Within seconds, the corruscation had been picked up by three other Nodes, then six, and finally, weak echoes from ten points close to the anomaly. Triangulation. Programmed response. The coordinates of the anomaly were sent to three locations:
The Veranda Incognita, where the compound had locked itself down, but much too late;
The Planet Bora Bora;
and a Phantom Battleship stationed nearby in the Omega 47 system.
![[Image: malsig_alt1.png]](http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o108/Shamus_FL/malsig_alt1.png)
![[Image: UnderlochGuard.png]](http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii151/Erinloch/UnderlochGuard.png)