Breach

fiction by michael werneburg

Ensign Hiram, looking up from his console, said, "10:25. From the pattern of lights visible on the planet’s surface and the discovery of a small number of artificial satellites, it is clear a type I or possibly type II civilization has found planet designated Downspin 458, Rimward 178, North 47."

He was reading into the log. Marl nodded her approval. A type II civilization was one that could harness all of the energy emitted by its star. She didn't see any kind of superstructure around the solar system that suggested that, but they had to bear in mind that this might be nothing more than a fledgling colony by the standards of this race.

"Lieutenant, protocol states that we must now inform our superior officer."

"Yes. I've just triggered Xin and Eisberg to be woken. As for superior officer, well, our Captain's been reassigned to make way for our royal charge. Waking the Prince will have to do."

Taking the hint, he stood and said, "It is 10:27. I am rousing Prince Tensom."

She watched him head for the bulkhead doors before turning to her console. After two years of working with the Captain, she regretted their sudden separation. The Captain had maintained a good atmosphere and balance among the senior crew members, who had all made Lieutenant and who could between them butt heads in his absence. The Prince, with no field or space experience and seemingly no prior job, would need managing along with the ship.

The barely audible white noise from the console went dead for a second or two, which it always did prior to the AI initiating conversation. Sure enough, Mother had made contact with autonomous systems at the repositories. All but one were intact, though there were signs of alien activity near some of the intact ones that normally would cause concern. But one repository had actually been opened. Like most repositories, it contained toxic industrial waste carefully maintained by Waste Control.

Regarding the planet, she decided she needed to know more about events on the ground. "10:28. Sending the probes to the planet's surface," she said, and entered the sequence and authorization into her ocular heads-up display. Each probe would be safely hidden from detection within its own subtime field. With time passing more slowly inside the field, they would be practically invisible and any radar hit would be faint, dilated, and nonsensical to any observer that lacked similar subtime technology.

Behind her, the Ensign knocked on the Prince’s bulkhead door a second time. The Lieutenant was sure, some drama would ensue. She liked young Hiram and admired his youthful discipline. But she suspected his by-the-book ways might not survive long exposure to the likes of the Prince.

As the Ensign tried to rouse the Prince, Marl continued through the checklist. Knowing that they would have to send word back to the Corporation within minutes, she also warmed up the long-range communications equipment.

"Mother," she called, again. "Please add a standard coded message to indicate our intent to intervene."

"Commencing," said the androgynous voice from hidden speakers around the bridge.

As the AI busied itself with that, the Lieutenant started to surveil radio and television signals emerging from the planet. She already knew what she'd find; it was clear from the pattern of lights around the planet that a colony of hundreds of millions of aliens had sprouted since the Terra Corporation had left its waste here.

The open channels filled with a chaotic mix of voices and music. She spun up some low-level AI analyst sequences to hunt for facts among the cacophony. But something caught her ear, and she brought a certain signal to the fore. It was music that sounded for all the world like a pop tune that had hit the charts when she was a young woman. To lighten the mood, she turned up the volume, turned to the face the Ensign, and said, "You old enough to remember this?"

"Um, yes," the younger man said, still waiting for the Prince. "My brother had that album."