Chap. 406 The Factory Ship

“Excuse me, ma’am, do you remember me?”

The young apprentice looked shyly at Jansen. She and Crista were working together on the database. They were trying to understand the radio antenna’s first message. They’d moved into the same room they’d been in the day they found the shifting of work assignments and were on terminals side by side.

“I’ve worked with codes before,” Jansen had said when she pinged Christa for help, “but without a key, I’m lost.”

Christa nodded. “Everyone I know is trying to break it. But it’s not like anything we’ve seen. Something tells me it’s too simple and we’re trying to re-invent the wheel.”

“Y’know, there’s a young lad, a new apprentice in Communications. I didn’t catch his name and just between you and me, he’ll talk the hind leg off a horse. But he said he really enjoys codes, I think we should call him in and see if he can help.”

“I can go down to Commo if you want and…”

They turned at the voice. “Never mind,” Jansen said, “he’s here.”

They turned to see the lad. I hope he didn’t hear me, Jansen thought, I don’t mean to hurt his feelings. But it is true, he IS garrulous.

“Yes, I do remember you, you sat next to me at the first Incognito briefing and told me you like breaking codes.”

Was that just three weeks ago? she wondered. Life has been so strange since the shutdown. And now it’s getting close to this anomaly coming here. Rahman can’t be wrong. Neither can the Yokohama. We need to get this message broken and SOON.

“Yes, ma’am. And I think I can break the one on the ray dee oh message that came in this morning.”

“Hmm,” the two said, “We’re in a race, I guess, everyone is doing the same thing!”

“Yes,” he said, suddenly realizing that not only was he infatuated with Jansen and had been from the first, but now there was Christa, an even prettier girl more his age.

“You’re a new apprentice in Communications.”

“Yes, ma’am. My name is Alfred. Like Alfred the Great. He was a great leader back on Terra. He…” Oh. He stopped. They went all glaze eyed right away. Everyone does that. Doesn’t anyone read the encyclopedia?

“Nice to meet you, Alfred. I’m Christa, I’m apprenticed to Data Division.”

“What brings you here, Alfred?” Jansen asked. I really don’t have the time to listen to him. He’s nice, but he talks too much and I really want to break this message.

“I, uh, well, I told you that I like to read the encyclopedia.”

“YES. You’ve told me that.”

“But I really don’t know how to use the computer yet. I think I know what the code is and it’s so old, I think only the computer can find it.”

“It’s old? How Old?”

“Ancient Terra Old. Like thousands and thousands of years before we got here. Even before star flight.”

“Hmm,” Jansen said. “How do you know this. Can you show me?”

‘Yes, yes. Let me show you. Please call up the message from this morning? With all the dots and the sounds?”

Christa called it up. “See here? This first sequence of sounds, and dots? It’s the same, same for three, and then a whole lot of different sequences. But there’s still a lot of the same three sequence of bee bee bee and bip bip bip.” The sounds made the difference. Bip is a short sound. Bee is a long one.

“I see that, Christa said.

Yes, Alfred said.”See, there’s sequences, easy ones. See this one? It’s just one short one.  What’s the most commonly used vowel? E. So this one must be E. Then there’s A, it’s a short and a long. Bip bee.  Bip bee. Everywhere throughout this message, the little sequences. Those are vowels, I’m sure of it.”

Suddenly Christa and Jansen both saw it. “Yes……”

“So when I was researching codes a month ago, I read of one called morse. It was the name of a man, he invented it for use over wires. He tapped them out and the waves, I don’t think it was radio, but the message went over a wire and stopped in someone else’s tapper, and he knew the code and was able to read it. That’s how they communicated! Over wire.”

“Huh,” Jansen said, beginning to feel excitement.

“So I did some research on it in the encyclopedia. And I found the entire morse code.”

WHAT?”

“Yes. See this set of three sequences at the very beginning? Three bips, then three bees, then three bips.  Again and again. They’re letters. The bip bip bip is S and the beee beee beee is O. So now we have THREE vowels and a consonant.

The women looked at the message.

So, the first three lines all read SOS?”

“YES.”

Sos? is that a word?

“No. I don’t think so,” he said, but Jansen was quick. She typed in “What does SOS mean in Morse code.”

The database ruminated for a moment, then said

SOS: a distress call for aid. Literally, SOS means Save Our Ship in Morse code. It was used to contact rescuers when a ship went down in heavy seas. Usually sent over copper wires on land, and by radio when sent while at sea. Later on, it was used in many different scenarios, but always meant the same thing, a distress call for aid.

Jansen looked at Alfred with new respect.

“You’ve done it, Alfred.”

“Well, um, not me..”
“Yes, you, Alfred. We have three vowels and a consonant. Now, all we have to do is …” Jansen said.

“Figure out what the rest of the code says,” Christa said.

“That’s easy,” Alfred said, “Look up Morse code in the encyclopedia.”

“I’ll do better than that”, Christa said, typing as she spoke,” I’ll have the database translate it.”

“Show me how? Please?”

She looked at Alfred. You seem like a shy little puppy, she thought, but that’s kind of fun.

“I will.”

Printed out on the screens, the message left more questions than answers. It also created terror.

SOS

SOS

SOS

LCT Manhattan has been captured by a giant starship of unknown origin.

Manhattan had just departed Uttar Pradesh Interplanetary Spaceport on a normal supply run to Tranquility City when approximately one thousand small drones appeared in the sky overhead. We were in contact with Air Traffic Control, which called us to warn of the cloud. We had just passed over an enormous gathering of people wading in Ganges Creek when the drones all fell like rain past us.

The drones were robots. Each was approximately 10-12 meters long. Each had no apparent means of propulsion. Each bore a cylindrical weapon on the front of the craft. Each had the bottom of the hull composed of what appeared to be grappling hooks and cutting tools.  

At this moment, all of Manhattan’s navigation and engine controls went dead.

It felt as if something grabbed the ship. We did NOT lose altitude.  We were as solid in midair as if we were still on the ground. We had the misfortune of having a grand view of the dreadful events below us.

The drones dropped in neat formation onto the crowd below, apparently noiselessly. We did not see anything emit from the cylinder but apparently it served to keep the people from scattering.  Once the crowd was tightly packed in a neat circle, each drone snatched a person. Some even chased a chosen victim. Once each drone had its human burden, they released the survivors, who stampeded, probably killing many.

It didn’t take more than five minutes for all thousand drones to rise back into the sky bearing their human victims.

As the drones rose into the air, their blades went into action. A horrid rain dropped past our viewing windows and onto the people below: clothing, guts, blood, limbs and heads. By the time they reached the starship, all they were carrying were naked and gutted human torsos.

Mumbai Control was reporting that its radar was dead. Uttar Pradesh’s controllers were sobbing. Then all communications from the towers went dead. All high frequency communications went silent.

Then the Manhattan rose into the sky behind the drones, again, no power. We were moved with no resistance to a lunar orbit with such astounding speed it was if we’d been teleported.  

Tranquility Base Control reported that their radars were dead, and almost immediately, a giant starship had appeared over the lunar horizon. The laser cannons illuminated the starship but failed to fire. The computer reported that Tranquility was being bathed in high energy gamma rays. We lost all contact with Tranquility at that moment.

The starship moved so fast, one moment it was behind the Moon and the next, we were no more than a few kilometers from it. A group of smaller spacecraft moved with it.

The drones appeared beneath the starship. A gigantic bay door in the belly of the starship opened and the drones entered.

The starship then rose up above Luna’s horizon. We had no control over the Manhattan. But a force moved us like a chess piece into the middle of the group of smaller spacecraft. They are from all over the galaxy-some were identifiable but many were from unknown civilizations. The starship is protected on all sides by this flotilla of space vehicles. I see one shuttle from the Cairns, from the Adelaide colony near Antares.

 The spacecraft, approximately 25 in all, were then moved about into one group in front of the starship. Then as one, the entire flotilla began to move. As my navigation system is dead, I have no way to tell how fast we are going, but there is nothing in our world that has this speed.

I cannot even begin to describe the size of the starship. It is beyond behemoth. No markings, no lights, just a dark mass blotting out the stars.

Our main monitor came to life. A voice that sounded like Nathi said,

“Earth spacecraft: Do not attempt to contact your planet. Your space station has been destroyed. All high frequency electromagnetic transmissions are jammed. Radio has been retained only because the starship’s crew apparently cannot hear such low frequencies.”

One of my crew opened the channel and said “What is this, who are you, where is that ship from.”

The voice said, “I was a Nathi. You were allowed to see the work of the drones as a warning to not resist. The starship is not ours. We have no idea where they are from. The beings in it are unknown to us. I have never met one of them. They hunt throughout the galaxy. They find their prey by following high frequency electronic emissions and laser beacons. Your planet, like mine, shouts out where it is. They hear and they come to harvest beings and then move on. They circle the galaxy every three thousand of your years.

Your ship and the others around you serve as shields to absorb attacks.

You earth people are lucky. You are food. The drones make your death almost instantaneous.  They do not eat my people. They destroyed several of our colonies. We are slaves. We are experimented on. We are worked to death. We are but dust to them.

My body is gone, but they put my mind in a computer as a translator. I will never die. *I have no mouth and I must scream.*”

That was the end of the transmission. I have pinged the other spacecraft without response. This is the only information I have on this monstrous starship.

To the colonies We Made It, Paratiisi, New Venice, Pern and any others hearing this signal, beware.

If you hear this, shut down your laser beacon. Shut down all high frequency electronic communications and emissions until the starship passes you. Hope that they don’t find you.

I am the last. The rest of my crew are dead from hunger or suicide. I will not let these monsters eat me. I am sending this via radio.

Some of us need to survive.

CPT Elisa Singh, Lunar Cargo Transport Manhattan.

*Quoted from Harlan Ellison’s novella of the same title

For background on the laser beacon, see Chap. 276, “Pandora’s Box.”