Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 3: Yours Is No Disgrace
Scene 12: Equilibrium
3.12
Equilibrium
“So if you’re right, we could sit here for 4 years trying to solve this riddle and that subspace shattering death armada would never know we’re here?” asked Captain Rhonda Carter. “It will just sit out there and keep taking itself apart and putting itself back together?”
“4.8 years,” Dr. Rush corrected.
“It can’t be that convenient,” Commodore Yui Song observed.
The three captains, most of the U.S.S. Beagle’s leadership, General Krank and several others were gathered once again in the Beagle’s large conference room. The Beagle’s complement consisted of dozens of civilian scientists from several different institutions within the United Federation of Planets. Of all of these august scientists, probably the most impressive (and disturbing) was T’Eln, a former premiere of the Vulcan Science Academy now in her 217th year and serving as the director of the Beagle’s Astrophysics and Stellar Cartography department.
“Your human intuition is congruent with the readings we have examined over the past 3 weeks.” T’Eln’s eyes were as cold as her voice, conveying not the slightest sense of compassion. Simply being in the same room as the ancient vulcan was quite disturbing. Listening to her or looking into her eyes tended to cause even other vulcans to flinch - particularly when doing both at the same time. “Falok, you will explain.”
“It may appear that the machine intelligence is stuck in a loop, endlessly repeating the same routine,” said the younger vulcan. Falok was the astrophysics team leader. “Careful analysis over the past 3 weeks indicates a far more dynamic process. The code is continually re-writing itself. It has to be re-written every cycle to take into account the changes in the system, drift of each vessel and each machine… In short, some program within the overall code for the Al Seribo armada is deliberately re-starting the process and actively re-writing lower level and upper level command codes to maintain this equilibrium.”
“And our analysis of the radio bubble produced by the race that built those machines indicates they have maintained this equilibrium for nearly 80 years,” added Dr. Arthur Rush.
“Considering the dynamic nature of this equilibrium, it would be unwise to rely on its stability,” Falok intoned. “A change in the system inputs could easily upset the loop. One way, or the other.”
“So this armada has a devil on one shoulder telling it to build these horrible engines and an angel on the other telling it to take them apart?” asked Rhonda Carter.
Dr. Rush shook his head “I think it is a single program responding to changing conditions. Now, unfortunately, I’m relying on leaps of human intuition…”
T’Eln raised an eyebrow. “Human intuition occasionally provides very interesting starting points for logical analysis. Please, illuminate us, Dr. Rush.”
Coming from any other vulcan, such a statement could easily be taken as a subtle insult. But the ancient vulcan had purged all her emotions through the kohlinar and there was no hint of any such subtlety in her demeanor. T’Eln simply said exactly what she meant. Coldly. The sound of her voice was enough to make ice seem warm by comparison.
Dr. Arthur Rush took her statement at face value. “This is a very stable, isolated system, where life has flourished for billions of years. As a result, the humanoid species that created the radio bubble we recorded entered a hydrocarbon era approximately 140 years ago, which led to a greenhouse effect. Which, in turn, inspired an environmentalist movement on both continents. Two very different cultures, each blaming the other for an environmental disaster they were both causing…”
“And what, regarding the base code and the single program you referenced earlier, do you intuit from this history, Arthur?” asked T’Eln.
“Someone wanted to return the 8th planet, which the natives called “Bor”, to an environmental golden age - a primeval paradise - and they wrote what would become the base code for that armada,” Dr. Rush replied. “We actually have it. The proto-code was transmitted by radio approximately 85 years ago. It was written as a virus. Our computer systems are far too well-protected and too sophisticated to be taken over by it. But their systems… Well, we have their systemic architectures as well - all of that got broadcast at one point or another…” Dr. Rush was speaking more quickly, brown eyes sparkling. He turned to address the Dean of Ship:
“Sakura, with your permission I would like to re-task as many resources as you can spare. I think we can recreate the code series that led to the creation of this armada. If I’m right, the armada exists to seek out threats to the Bor environment and neutralize them. In so doing, it first neutralized the cultures on both continents and destroyed their cities, then created a vast armada to go out and seek new threats to neutralize - threats scattered across our galaxy. But it only has one model for superluminal transportation and as soon as the armada is completed, it identifies itself as a threat to the Bor environment and dismantles itself. Only to rebuild itself for the same purpose. All driven by a dynamic code that is constantly assessing and reassessing environmental threats to the 8th planet in the system…”
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