"Mr. President! Mr. President!"
"What? What!?"
Professor Yamamari barged into my office with the most worried expression one could humanly make.
"Sir... probe!.."
"Probe what?"
"There is... probe..."
"Take a moment to catch your breath." I told him. "What probe? Where? What happened?"
"Our sensors detected an AI probe, like, only a few thousand kilometers away from here. We were too late to see it coming - there is no way we haven't been detected by now! We are done for!"
"Wh-wait, wait, calm down. H-here, sit down."
"No!" he said, waving his arms around anxiously. "We don't need to sit down, we need to do something, because that probe is not just close, it keeps getting closer every minute. It will call in the closest enemy fleet to wipe us out, and we will be under fire before we know it!"
"Does the admiral know this?" I asked.
"Probably. I haven't talked to her, but the sensor station must have relayed the news to her."
Just as if she heard our conversation, Admiral Mei requested to open a comms channel to my office.
"Yes, admiral?"
"Sir, our sensor base has detected a probe about 3500 kilometers away from Makemake, and it will make a close pass at only about 25 kilometers above Makemake's surface."
Mei's voice was as calm as it has ever been, even in this situation.
"I got the news, admiral." I said, trying to hide my nervousness. "What are you planning to do?"
"If it came that close already, the only thing we can do is destroy it and hope we can prevent it from sending more information to the enemy fleets. But be aware, the enemy probably already knows about our location and approximate strength."
"Proceed with the plan, admiral. Godspeed."
"Thank you. Fleet admiral, out."
Yamamari was almost on top of me when I closed the channel.
"Destroying that probe won't do anything. We must-"
"I know, god damn it, I know!" I shouted. "Get off me!"
"What do we do!?"
"We will prepare for the worst: a full-on siege and assault to exterminate us."
"With what?" asked the professor. "Bows and arrows?"
"No." I said. "We are leaving the planet."
"We can't do that! After everyone worked so hard to establish a proper city and all the necessary industries are organized, we can't just leave all of our work behind and start over! We don't even have enough transports to carry everything we've created during-"
"What do you want from me, prof? 'No' to this, 'no' to that!.. We have to. There is no choice. If we have to start over, we will."
Professor Yamamari bit his lips, got his head between his hands and sat down silently; realizing our grim fate a second time.
"If we leave, the probe will just chase us and keep relaying information." he said.
"Not if we destroy it before leaving." I said.
"Okay... fair. But where do we go from here?"
"I don't know. We had extensive knowledge of possible refuge locations during the evacuations of Earth and Mars, but this time, we have no data at all."
"What about the colony ship?" the professor then asked. "Do we leave it here, or do we try to tow it with the fleet?"
"I don't know." I said. "I will ask the design bureau. But right now, we need to start the evacuation procedure. The sooner we leave, the better."
"I guess I will make the bad news public then... Prepare to hear a lot of chaotic screams."
I sighed.
"Make sure all families are registered to their ships and tell the crews to prepare for liftoff. We can't transport everything off the planet, but we might still overload the ships a bit."
"That's the best we can do."
"Form a commission to determine what sorts of cargo are more valuable and what we can leave behind. You have one day."
"Got it. Can we also use the cargo ships that are already in orbit?"
"What do you mean?"
"Can we call back the ships that are already in space but not loaded to 100% capacity, and use the remaining of their cargo space to carry more stuff?"
"You have your authorization for all civilian ships."
"Shuttles?"
"No, not the shuttles. They are not for long-term spaceflight."
"Yes, sir. I'll be on my way."
"Great." I said. "Meet me aboard Lodos once we are done."
"When are you leaving?"
"When the last ships engage their engines, I will be lifting off. You should have gotten off the planet by then."
"Understood." said the professor. "I'll meet you there. Don't be late."
"I will be right on time."
After the professor went out of the room, Admiral Mei contacted me again.
"Sir, we will be in missile launch range in three minutes."
"That was fast... Any other contacts besides the probe?"
"No. At least not yet."
"Did you detect any weapons on the probe?"
"That's a no as well."
"Be careful out there."
"Missiles loading, silo doors opening..."
Even over the comms channel, I could hear the noise the tubes were making as the missiles were being loaded.
"Offensive and defensive electronic warfare suits at full power."
My fingers were crossed. I was trying to imagine myself aboard Lodos, in the bridge.
"Good target lock. Missile trajectory set. Firing solution clean. One minute to enter effective engagement range."
"Come on..." I said. "Get rid of that little menace!"
"S-sir..."
"Admiral? Something wrong?"
"We are... being hailed."
"Hailed? By whom?"
"The transmission is coming from the probe."
"I thought your electronic warfare suit was active."
"At this distance it doesn't matter that much, we are a giant battleship in the middle of nothingness. It doesn't take much effort to get a lock on us, let alone see us."
My brain froze for a few seconds against the unexpected development.
"Isolate your comms system computers, confirm receiving the hail and establish a channel on that frequency."
"Sir, are you sure? What if this is some sort of a trick? They might transmit a virus!"
"That's exactly why you are isolating the computer beforehand. Now, open a channel before the probe decides that we are not going to answer it."