Only a few hours had passed in relative peace. While I was waiting for news from Tachibana, Mei was trying to decode the data we had received from our reconnaissance ship. Those would give us the chance to decide on our next moves.
My train of thoughts was cut in half by hydraulic noises.
"Hello."
It was Professor Yamamari, peeking inside from the bridge's doors.
"Oh, there you are." I said. "It's been a while."
"I guess." he said. "I heard that you were looking for me, so I came as soon as possible."
"Oh, yes, about that..."
"We want you to take a look at this." Mei completed my sentence.
I accompanied the professor to Mei's computer console.
"What exactly am I looking at here?" asked Yamamari. On the screen was a photo of the large, mysterious AI ship.
"Anything that looks familiar?" I asked.
"Familiar? Hmm..." he looked at the screen for quite some time before continuing. "I don't know about this giant thing in the middle, but the little silhouette there, on the bottom right, reminds me of Quasistellar ships; so I would guess this big whatever is their thing as well."
"Exactly." I said. "This photo has been captured by our Earth recon. I would like to see if you can make anything out of this. We want to know this ship's purpose, and capabilities."
"That might not be possible without continuous observation, but I can try to make a few educated guesses." the professor said. "At least we can decide whether this is a danger worth keeping an eye on, or a target worth attacking."
"I still haven't finished post-processing the data, though; so I will ask for some more time." said Mei.
"Please continue." I said. Yamamari turned to me.
"I was thinking, commander..."
"About what?"
"That we could take a look at the vicinities of Uranus and Neptune." he said. "The AI fleets might have taken full control of Jupiter and Saturn's moons, but I don't think they've made an attempt to really secure Uranus or Neptune... yet."
"What makes you believe that?" I asked.
"Well, first of all, the sheer distance of Uranus and Neptune alone is a good off-putting factor. Apart from that, neither has moons that are nearly as impressive as those of Jupiter or Saturn. And now, I see that they are putting their efforts on something weird like this gigantic thing in Earth orbit... It makes me think that they've changed their priorities a little bit. Humanity, at least for the moment, might not be on their list of existential threats."
"I think that this hivemind is capable enough to run multiple projects at once." I argued. "I would say that they can construct giant structures and hunt down humans at the same time."
"Building something this large would require most of their logistic resources." Yamamari said. "Even if they didn't give up on hunting us down, that would slow them down quite a bit - and look, I'm not trying to say they are not our enemies anymore."
"So, what's the point?"
"We should go check on our people who took refuge near those planets, Uranus and Neptune." he said. "This might be our only chance to save them - once the enemy starts attacking full-on again, they will probably be the first targets. Uranus and Neptune are juicier targets compared to miserable space rocks like this Makemake."
"I see." I said. "I will think about it."
"We don't have much time if you decide to help them out." Yamamari said. "Among them might be really bright minds, and they might even have gathered raw resources that could be helpful to our cause. Neptune, for example, is a great source of methane, which can be used as fuel for quite a lot of spaceships and primitive power plants."
"I know, I can see what you mean..." I said. "But I just don't want to leave Makemake defenseless. We have a somewhat established system going on here, and we know that there are hard working people down on the surface. What if we travel to Uranus and Neptune and find no one alive? I don't want to risk the lives of men who we know are alive, in pursuit of hopeful wishes."
"The final decision is completely up to you, but I just had to say that." said the professor. "I would respect your decision if you decided not to attempt an evacuation of the said planets, but I would also be quite unhappy, just so you know."
In the middle of my conversation with the professor, the fleet received a message.
"Okay, that's interesting." said Mei. The professor and I followed her to the communications console.
'---IDENTIFICATION DATA MISSING---
This is Tachibana. A Quasistellar Corp. probe is lingering around here. I don't know if we are noticed or not, but we will try to get out of here unnoticed. Keep your eyes open, fleet.
Oh, and if you still couldn't tell - yes, this settlement was attacked. Either the AI guys are spending a lot on R&D, or someone smuggled advanced kinetic kill devices on the evacuation of Mars.
I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Will post updates later.
---END OF PACKAGE---'
"Trouble." said Mei.
"Mei, alert the fleet. Notify all ships to retract their radiators to minimum safe level and reduce all of their emissions as much as possible. Thrusters will only be used for stationkeeping. Warships should turn their narrow-band scanners towards Tachibana's direction and look for the probe."
"Yes, sir." she said. "Relaying your orders to the fleet."
"Also notify The Council of the situation. They should take whatever precautions necessary to keep their city hidden from sensors."
"Alright."
"And connect me to the main engineering deck."
"Of course." Mei said, pushing many buttons at once to carry out my orders.
"This is main engineering. How can we assist you?" said Omar.
"Make sure all our torpedo launchers are loaded, then reduce our power plant's output to minimum until further orders."
"Sir, yes, sir!"