- You mean to tell me colonel McRae not only wants to take away all the soldiers, but also scientists who are providing us with engineering support? - to say that Jeanne Dubois was unhappy about the idea was a really gentle way to put it - I get he has authority to do that, yet I wonder if the guy understands how bad of an idea it is now. Specifically now.
John looked at Stan, remembering the weird conversation they had with two guards by the entrance to the command center, before saying anything.
- Mentioning that it's not a good idea right now, what exactly happened here? Guards were happening in unusual way and told us there was an incident that cause the security protocols to be adjusted.
- That's correct, sir - it was Arek who replied instead of Jeanne - We had an intruder. A group of survivors reached the First Haven two local days ago, and on second day one of them started causing a huge uproar, attacking two people and attempting to destroy the command center.
- Any casualties?
- Only one, that very guy.
- Meaning you didn't have a chance to interrogate him? - Marlow asked and, seeing how Wilkowski shakes his head, continued - How does it connect to asking for ID transmission? It's something that one could easily verify with the shared database of the crew, everyone got an access after all.
- Because that person was not listed - miss Dubois explained - There was no register entry for that person. Our PECs could not find their PEC's ID in registry after all. Moreover, that person was behaving funny according to people who interacted with him.
- Was it a ghast maybe?
Local representatives all shook their heads.
- Not according to the system we put in place - Connor told John - We did checks using the PEC adjustment that was shared, but it didn't show anything for that very person. I'm worried that this guy was acting like that intentionally, following his own agenda.
- Okay, but how such a person got here? - Stan asked - According to the procedures, everyone who travelled on Future had to be entered in the main database to be able to use all facilities. Without it, I cannot imagine how that person could have managed surviving on the ship, while not being found.
Listening to that, Marlow scratched his head, thinking about how something like that might have happened.
- Well, there are not that many options that come to mind to be honest - he finally spoke - It's either that someone tinkered with the registry system or that person got here by different means. First option is much more likely, and could have happened when the higher-ups had to do replacements after the incidents we had on the way. Since there was a lot of chaos whenever we lost someone from the original list due to various reasons, it might have been possible to tinker with the system for someone with high enough permissions. Otherwise, we would be talking about someone who managed to get advanced enough ship to follow the same path as we did, which feels quite unlikely...
- Someone intervening does sound as something most likely in this situation and it's pretty much what we speculated was the case here - Jeanne informed - However, this explanation is a problem in its own regard, because it means there is a party that, for some reason, wants to mess up with what we are building here. Moreover, if it was any other option of what you mentioned, John, it causes us even more problems. After all, we took quite a number of people who reached here from across all the pods that landed in the vast area around the First Haven and new ones are still getting here occasionally. What colonel McRae is suggesting is just outrageous in our current circumstances. Should you take already limited resources from us, I'm worried we can be subjected to some unpleasant events, to put it lightly, and I don't have many options to re-organize this settlement, not right now. I would like to have my brother here, but I heard he is busy handling his own group, so I cannot ask him to come to First Haven.
John sighed. It was not like he did not expect people being unhappy about the plan Ryan suggested, yet what he learned here from people supervising the settlement complicated things even more that he could foresee. Not only that, Marlow himself was personally interested in the topic of unregistered people on the planet - after all, he had a history of third parties being involved in incidents that happened close to him. This information itself could have been enough for McRae to reconsider his plan, though John was too unsure to give people here any promises that could prove to be empty in the end. Either way, while he had his orders, Marlow also knew that leaving the settlement defenseless should not be considered an option in such circumstances.
- Ok, I get your point - he finally told Jeanne - What you just told me is definitely something to be passed to Ryan first thing when we get a chance. Still, even if we take this info into consideration, our orders still stand, but I feel we could try for some compromise as a temporary solution for us to reach the main goal and for you guys to keep portion of your defences intact.
Miss Dubois looked at two guys who were helping her in managing the First Haven so far - both men nodded.
- I guess we have no other choice than to rely on you proposing a solution in that case - her face did not look happy as she said that - I'm all ears now, though I doubt it is going to completely take care of the concerns we have.
- Indeed, it's not something I can guarantee - John admitted in all honesty - That's why I'm calling it a temporary solution. What we are going to do is to ensure a bare minimum of security for the area until we manage to establish decent communication and connection between the settlements. The reason why we are looking for more resources to help is related to an alien installation we found, which we believe will allow us to learn more about electromagnetic activity, ultimately making it possible to limit the interference to the point of long distance communication being enabled to similar scale as we know it back from Earth. Moreover, in the long run, we will be able to use the flying vehicles which will make reaction times better.
- It's nice to have an update on the long term plan - Cunningham spoke to Marlow this time - but what exactly do you suggest, John? We are talking here not only about military stuff, but also science team members. Leaving the security part, Ryan should be aware that some of us decided to stay here for investigation, right? I don't think everyone is going to be happy with the idea, especially since there is still a lot for some of us to complete.
Connor was one of the guys John absolutely wanted to take to Industrial Caves area as he knew the man's expertise would be a significant boost to the team they have on the site. Of course, that guy was among those who decided to stay behind on their own, hoping to learn more about the obelisks and pyramids located in the area, yet Marlow had an ace up his sleeve. Knowing Cunningham's interests, he just needed to give him something that looked like a better subject than what he was investigating now, or even something that was connected to the current subject - fortunately, what they had in the Industrial Caves had both points covered.
- What if I told you the system we discovered underground, in the area we want you to go, is connected to the very objects of the research you are doing here? - Marlow asked Cunningham - I guess the actual data will give you a bigger picture, though it's still only a portion of what is yet to be discovered - he added, opening a link for Connor's PEC to connect.
Once the man confirmed the linking with John's PEC, the data was shared with the scientist, whose eyes opened wide as he was going through the information he just received, and Connor ultimately smiled widely.
- You don't even know how big this finding is for me - he told John, not hiding his happiness - This data is still quite raw indeed, but when I see it and compare to what we found out already, there is so many dots I can connect now. I regret to say that, Jeanne, but it is indeed worth my time. Even though I know how much trouble we have here right now, I do want to go there as soon as possible. More than that, when others see this data, most of the people from the science team will be eager to go.
Miss Dubois let out a loud sigh.
- Yeah, so for now, you not only didn't provide me with a solution, you pretty much stole our whole science group in one go, John - her tone was far from being positive - I'd rather have you focus on helping us solve the issue we have at hand, not cause additional problems. Let's tell us your plan for handling Ryan's idea in a way that hurts our settlement less.
- This was never my intention, Jeanne - Marlow spoke to her with a confident voice - I do have ideas and topic I just touched on with Connor came up naturally, and it was not meant to make you feel as if I forgot about the main issue here. Now, for what I have in my mind for the current situation you described to us. Well, first of all, me an my current team are going to stand by here for longer than we originally planned.
Stan looked at John, surprised - after all, orders from Ryan did not include anything like that. They were supposed to handle the matter switftly, hence what major said was completely unexpected for sarge Szarak.
- Don't worry, Stan, this is something we need to do and I'm sure colonel will understand this decision - John spoke to the man before turning back to Jeanne - The idea I have here is quite simple. Since we are talking about security, we should start with helping investigate the incident that happened here and look through the information about the staff and security procedures in place to help optimize whatever possible. Once we do that, we will see how much can be done with the limited resources the First Haven end up having without the military support. If it turns out we cannot back them up with remaining non-military personnel, I will look into mitigating with adjustments to the plan colonel McRae suggested. Of course, it doesn't mean it's something I will be able to put in place immediately, we may need to introduce a transition period. Still, it all depends what we can do here in order, so it may be that the problem gets resolved on earlier stage.
- Well, lack of personnel is what I consider to be the biggest struggle here - Jeanne said with a face that was showing what John suggested did not convince her - You are talking about optimization, but what exactly can you provide? Unless we have systems in place and capacity to produce the devices to support us, we cannot possibly proceed with securely managing this settlement. Of course, I don't really expect military guy like colonel McRae would ultimately worry about colonists the most, so it probably doesn't matter for him whether our group stays here or somewhere else. Either way, I need something concrete, as in what exactly can you do? And, please don't get me wrong, I know that currently it's Ryan who has the right to give orders, but his actions may be taken as questionable by colonists should he end up forcing us to stay defenseless or just leave this area so many already started to call a new home.
Marlow had no intention of forcing anyone into doing something they did not want and he thought McRae is of the same mind on this topic. Having said that, he could not know what exactly the military chief was thinking and what would possibly be his agenda for this whole expedtion. Obviously, looking into the procedures and goals shared with the crew, military was supposed to act as security for other groups, of which every single one had their own objectives - colonists were supposed to establish first settlements on the planet, a cornerstone for the future human civilization inhabiting the New Gaia, while scientists were to learn as much as possible about ecosystem, natural resources depositories and, most likely the most important part, alien technology. From John's perspective, if the Earth Council really wanted to ease the load on their home planet and make human lives much easier, then building new cities on the New Gaia was the way to go and something considered priority, yet - knowing what kind of parties where involved in governing process - he could not be sure that there was no influence from any of the powerful corporations involved, and such situation would mean anything found by the science team would take priority. The more people with different objectives is involved the higher the risk of their goals becoming contradictory, and Marlow could not be really sure what kind of connections specific people have, including McRae - based on their interactions so far, colonel seemed to be trustworthy and caring about people's safety, though it did not mean he could not be on special orders that would force him to take actions conflicting everything the man did so far.
Taking all of it into account, John was able to imagine Jeanne's reasoning and understand why she was so concerned about the suggested plan. The only thing he could do for now was to act on the information and data he had at hand, and best he could offer was his brains and limited resources assigned to him at this point.
Marlow could not know for sure if his ideas would change anything for the colonists from the First Haven, but what he was convinced about was that leaving everyone here be and taking key resources from them would not sit right with his concience.
With that in mind, he provided all of the details about actions he wanted to take to everyone in the room and - after a series of additional questions - miss Dubois was still concerned, yet not as negative about the plan as before.
Unfortunately, planning something is one thing, and executing the plan is a completely different matter.