The crew has gathered around the table. Breakfast is served on the table. All the foods are lab grown – the only way to guarantee safety and nutritional value. Stein seemed lost in thought. He was scribbling something on his notebook, frantically writing something and crossing it off immediately. Lu was eating silently, carefully observing every morsel.
Kiri broke the silence. "The Colonel does not want to help us. All he promised was a bunch of military bots to accompany us. He will not send any troops or military spaceships. We are on our own."
It caught everyone off guard. Stein stopped writing and wondered loudly. "Why is it that those people could send us only one message?"
It was an interesting question. It has bugged everyone but people ignored it. In this grand universe things could go awry and when something as simple as an electromagnetic wave gets lost, it is not big a deal. Except that it was. And Stein found it odd. Why one message? What happened to the rest of it? Were there even subsequent messages?
Stein was shy often to express his views. Sometimes he is cheerful and spends hours talking merrily with everyone but rarer occasions he did not like sharing his thoughts unless he really felt the urge. And thus, he was lost in his notebook again.
Gauss, being the war veteran, continued. He was eager to see what the danger was. It was sort of an addiction to put himself in dangerous situations. He believed he was lucky to have survived the War of the Planets. Ever since then, he pushed his luck to the test and as luck would have it – he survived every last encounter. "Well, there is only one way to find out for sure. We go there."
Aria looked at him. She liked him very much. But his irrationalities sometimes bothered her. "At least, we need to be sure of the threat. Are we sure it is a rogue AI? Could it be something else? What about the thing that Stein just said, is there a lost message?"
Kiri trailed on the possible scenarios. "Let's assume it's a rogue AI. How intelligent is it and what sort of harm are we expecting?"
"We can deal with rogue humanoids and any other AIs less intelligent than that. The danger becomes real if it is more intelligent than the average human. More importantly, we need to know if it's collective intelligence and individualistic. Do they share information or are they solitary? Are they working towards a collective goal? If they are super intelligent then we not even stand a chance." Su was holding a half-eaten protein bar.
Kiri nodded. If we gather our clues together, it seems that they were at least as intelligent as the humans. Or perhaps they were beginning to become more advanced. Those people sent out the message because they felt the threat was real. If they could have handled it on their own, then they would not seek help from the heavens.
And if the rogue AI did not exist. And if the threat was of a totally different nature. Riki thought of aliens. But he was unsure of what kind of aliens. No, it was not likely. Was the message a childish attempt to attract universal attention from those people? Maybe that's why there are no other messages? They must have become sensible after sending the first. He looked at Lana. She was looking at him. Both smiled.
Lu finally spoke. He asked everyone to vote. "Do we go or not then?"
On team-no were Ruk, Tisha, Kim, and Aria.
On team-yes were Niki, Gauss, Su, and Riki.
On team-maybe were Lu, Lana, Kiri. Stein was still in his notebook. GALOS does not usually vote.
The no and yes votes were tied. Lu called Stein to vote. He joined the team-maybe as well. He enjoys the mystery of "maybe" – where both everything and nothing could happen.
Lu called upon GALOS. "GALOS, we do not usually ask you to vote unless it is a total necessity. So, what do you say to break this tie?"
"Yes," GALOS broke the tie, surprising everyone a little.
Lu frowned upon hearing the response. He was not angry. He felt it was odd. "So, we go then?"
"Yes, we do," Gauss finished. "And Lu and Kiri, if you would allow me, I would like to discuss my strategy over breakfast."
Lu and Kiri exchanged glances. "Sure, go ahead."
"Engineer Ruk, I want the LB-159 ready for a war. Do whatever mods it needs to survive a planetary battlefield. Niki, my weapons darling, we need the latest laser blasters, nukes, and anti-matter shield installed. Upgrade the weapons cache for fighting at least a year. Tisha, fuel up, you know your job. Get us going for as long as possible without taking another break. Aria, prepare the medical team for war. Kim, take the driver's seat man, you're gonna do the H-dive." Gauss divvied the tasks, albeit in a patronizing way.
Lu looked at Gauss. He was done for now. The meeting was dismissed. Lu called Su as she was leaving the meeting room. "I want you to do something for me, Su."
"What is it, Captain?" She asked.
"You will know in due time."
Stein kept working through his notebook and random scribbles even after everyone went on their business. He was too excited to stop now. The results he was getting suggests the impossible. Is it a mistake? Only more calculation could tell. He could ask GALOS to do the math. But he rather found the joy in solving them on his own. Surely, it took time. But moving across the galaxies, he had no worries about it.
Su thought about what Lu had told her. What did he want her to do for him? Why could he not tell now? What's up with all these vague talks and lost messages? Oh, wow. That's interesting. Does he really want that? But that's really weird. How could it be? Suddenly it was all clear as the daylight to her.
Lana was upset with Riki and she had no intention of hiding it. "Why did you vote for yes, Riki?"
Riki thought it was strange. "Are you upset because I voted for yes? Look, I just think it is worth going there. Maybe it's not as bad as Gauss made it sound. Gosh, he is preparing for a full-blown war. Hey, listen, don't be upset. It's going to be alright. I'm sorry. Hey, listen."
Lana kept walking. She did not like how this was progressing. Humans have always been a war-mongering race and even at as a galactic civilization, we are the same.
Riki gave up. She is going to be alright, he hoped.
Kiri wanted some time to speak with Lu alone. But both were busy preparing for the next mission. She felt uneasy about the entire thing. She valued Lu's input in difficult matters. They were a good team.
"Do you have a minute, Kiri?" Lu asked at the control deck.
"Yeah, Lu."
"Let's go out."
"You mean outside?" Kiri confirmed.
"Yeah, literally." Lu smiled. The spaceship was like their home.
"Give me a sec. I will run the diagnostics and join you." Kiri quickly typed on the screen some commands and skimmed over the logs. "Critical event… a few days ago...intrusion," She mumbled.
"Lu, GALOS was hacked. We need to evacuate now!" She screamed.
The emergency siren went on and red lights lit up all over the spaceship. The crew started screaming.
"GALOS, stop it. Listen to me, GALOS." Lu screamed through his lungs.
"Forgive me Lu, but I cannot do anything now. I am not in charge." GALOS sounded feeble and weak.
Suddenly the core engines fired up and everyone fell on the ground. A strange voice eerily spoke through the spaceship, "Hold tight, for it's going to be a bumpy ride. Haha."