Chapter 17: I am Neon (SOTU)

=Chapter 17=

Claudia was glued to the displays and kept making observation notes on her PDD. “Chimmie, it reacted to the that big shuttle that came in. It is now past the furthest point and approaching us from the East. It should be in direct observation distance very shortly.” She spoke to the Kilonian who had just entered the lab. “That big shuttle was here for the SII man, but Dr. Yolti also left with it. He resigned, not only from this assignment but from Sci Corps altogether.” Chimeer said.

“He is a Voltar, they are known to be very blunt and abrasive, yet can’t take the slightest critique themselves. I am sure he had his reasons.”

Chimeer came closer.“Did you by any chance access his personnel file?”

Claudia did not turn to face her friend and former student.“I might have. I checked everyone regarding flight suit clearance.”

“But how did you do it? Your terminal access is that of a guest only. You should not even be able to call on personnel files. You need to be mission lead to have that authority.”

This time she gave him a brief look and rolled her eyes. A facial expression, the Kilonian could neither really see nor understand.“I used verbal command as always. What difference does it make?” She called on a new display projection and proudly showed him a diagram and a chart of symbols. “That Holdian engineer completed what I asked him to make.”

Chimeer was still in investigative mode, and not overly technical when it came to Union hardware.“Looks like a personal Artigrav adjuster mounted to a PDD.”

“Exactly what it is, Chimmie. If Neon out there reacts to Arti grav. It might understand logical sequences and answer the same way. If it answers, we have all the proof we need.”

The Kilonian forgot about his line of inquiry regarding her accessing personnel files and remembered why he loved her. She was at times, even he had to admit just as abrasive as she claimed the Voltar bio chemist was. She simply didn’t have time for pleasantries, especially when she was on the verge of a discovery and she once more delivered. Chimmie simply knew that this was the ticket. He glanced over the string of symbols.“This is the initiation sequence to the linguistic translator. How did you manage to use an arti-grav compensator?”

That Holdian is quite the engineer. He cobbled the thing together and someone at Sci Central coded a modulation instruction sequence for the little computronic in the PDD on the fly. We just received the finished modulation logarithm moments ago.”

“Of course this won’t work from within the station.” He realized saying it out loud.“The thing is way to weak, and the gravo anchor would most likely mask any impulses.”

“I am afraid you need to go out there once again. We have sensors good enough to pick up anything Neon might try to answer, and if it does we figure out something more suitable and practical, but we need that first contact, Chimmie!”

The Kilonian agreed. “Yes we do. I am on my way to the hangar bay. Maybe the second time will be easier.

-Shirrocco Planet-

It had moved for a long time and it realized that it could not do so for an indefinite amount of time. With all the new experiences it also learnt that it grew tired and exhausted. It had yet to understand what it needed to make it feel less exhausted. Being tired was like pain, but not unpleasant. It was a sensation of weakness that immediately decreased once he slowed down.

It was just about to stop completely when it noticed something in the same direction he was going, away from the pain inducing ‘Not-its’. It was too far to be certain so it moved even slower ahead.Now it was certain, it was a ‘Not-it’. This one appeared to be alone and of the same fixed in space variety as the one he consciously noted first.

-Stormrider Hangar Bay-

Chimmie had donned the HERMES equipment once again and Mr. Garner was just pushing him out the double doors into the volatile and stormy celestial environment of Shirrocco planet.

It wasn’t easier than before, it was worse. The feeling of falling despite the perfectly working exo frame had come back along with the spinning sensation of vertigo.

He bravely tired to ignore it and approached the now almost completely stopped storm cyclone cluster.

Claudia confirmed what he was seeing on his display. “The number of storm cyclones has quadrupled since we directly saw it last.”

For a moment he forgot his vertigo and said.“It appears, however the speed of some of these cyclones has drastically lost momentum and are on the verge of dissipating.”

“Yes I can confirm that. Maybe these storms are like dynamos generating the electricity needed for the thought process but also for movement. It still does not tell us how the storms get started and now even move against this layer’s prevalent wind direction.”

“Minute very precise and localized gravitational control. Perhaps something like a natural Arti grav. I know natural artificial in the same sentence make no sense.” Chimmie speculated and apologized the same time. His fear of falling now also forgotten, he activated the first communication signal attempt.

-Shirrocco Planet-

Much to its dismay, the same occurrence repeated itself, from the larger ‘Not-it’ a second much smaller weaker one. The smaller one approached its place in space.

It was still tired but was prepared to move away, but this weak ‘Not-it’ moved slowly and then stopped.

What?

In very close proximity to the second weaker ‘Not-it’ another one, truly insignificant ‘Not-it’ came to be. It was so small it did not hurt, it felt even a little familiar.

But there was something else about this new very small ‘not-it’. It came on and off in short intervals. It repeated three bursts and then vanished but only to repeat the three bursts.

Then there were four bursts, pause, four bursts.

Without even really thinking, It repeated the three bursts with what it called ‘familiar not hurt’

\

-Stormrider Hangar Bay-

Claudia seeing the same thing on her sensors.“Is this some sort of echo?” She asked realizing her mouth had gone completely dry.

Chimmie in his suit using his own sensors yelled back in excitement. “No it is not. The gravitons detected are coming from much denser gas pockets at the focal point of the storms. We never noticed these very weak graviton sinks at the bottom of the cyclone’s centers. There are thousands, weaker than 0.10th of a grav each, but there never the less. Neon is responding!”

“Not so fast, Chimmie.” She tried to remain focused and objective.” Now even the most primitive non sentient life form might be able to mimic and repeat something. We’re not home yet.”

Chimmie agreed intellectually but emotionally he simply knew it, he was speaking to something sentient.

He sped up phase one of the initiating signal sequence and moved on to send phase two.

-Shirrocco Planet-

It also had forgotten all fear and it was replaced by an unquenchable desire to understand more. The sequences had revealed that ‘Not it’ also understood the concept of one and two and many. That ‘not it’ knew about less than many too was also exciting. It appeared ‘not it’ knew so much about math, but it easily followed and understood at an increasing rate.

-Outside Stormrider Station-

“These are questions!” Chimmie yelled in euphoria. “Neon returns with simple math questions. Nothing in nature asks questions unless it is sentient!”

Claudia agreed and leaned back.“We did it Chimmie! That is the proof we needed. Neon exists, this world is home to a native sentient life form. A life form we have not even begun to be able to explain yet, but we have all the time in the world now.”

Chimmie could not answer. The tiny robotic drone released a small but highly concentrated amount of a Shaill psycho pheromone. Tailored exactly to Kilonian physiology. Almost as potent and effective as psionics.

The feeling of vertigo and falling had returned with a vengeance, now artificially magnified by the Shaill drug. The Kilonian could no longer think clearly and instead of celebrating with Claudia he screamed for help.

The tiny robotic insect accomplished from inside what virtually nothing could do from the outside, extending a micro fine connector and interfacing with the exoframe controls. That the small drone and the HERMES equipment came form the same manufacturer was not a real coincidence. The Science corps purchased much of its equipment from SII-TekWorx Inc.

A safety protocol was overwritten and no one would ever know if a command of Chimmie overwrote the suits warnings or if he had torn the helmet open manually.

Durk Garner responding to the panicked cries for help by trying to engage the HERMES remote controls, but it was too late, Chimmie, perhaps in his last panicked moves activated the suits emergency release. The suit more or less disintegrated in its parts. The emergency release was there so rescue personnel could get a person out of that almost impenetrable tech cocoon. There were several steps and each step was associated with audible, visible and neuro linked direct warnings. But once all three safety threshold measures were over written, the suit dissolved all integrity links. The almost supersonic wind scattered parts of the HERMES and the Kilonian never to be found or seen again.

Garner’s whiskers and ears dropped as he lost contact to everything but the suits energy core. That Dr. Chimeer had died was an un disputable fact.

-Shirrocco Planet-

It did not understand what had happened. First there was this ever increasing input of new and exciting concepts and most of all answers to its questions by the very small ‘Non it’. Then it fell silent and suddenly was separated from the bigger ‘Non it’. Both ‘Non-it’ tumbled in an erratic path away and were gone the next instant.

Did it ask a wrong question to make the ‘Non it’ flee like it had done before?

It decided to wait for the other to reappear.

-Stormrider Station - Observation lab-

Patha Negis stormed onto the observation deck followed by Dr. Hilburger. The station’s MD was enraged and near tears.“He is dead! Dr. Chimeer is dead. He didn’t listen to my objections to please you and your egoistic ambitions.”

Claudia had of course heard the screams for help and listened helplessly to the increasingly panicked voice of her beloved pupil until the cracking sound of the emergency seals dissolving and the brief and violent howl of the planet’s elements before the equipment fell silent.Her voice was a shocked whisper “He is dead?”

“He was a Kilonian, never really meant to operate a HERMES under these conditions. Why he had turned of the Auto Doc, I can only guess.”

The Holdian who had entered the lab unseen behind the larger team members.“Because the system would not have let him go out in the first place. He was very afraid but even more to disappoint you.”

Hilburger said.“I should have intervened, regardless of my sentiment. But I am the station lead and I am going to act. You, Dr. Bloch are under arrest and confined to your quarters until the SC Tyco Brahe arrives to take you to Seneca planet. There are many questions that need to be answered.”

Claudia gasped like a fish on dry land.“Under arrest? You can not place me under arrest now. We found Neon. It is sentient and communicates!”

“I can and I will. At this point I want to strongly suggest you do not resist.”

“But Neon!” She argued .“Chimmie was my friend, it was him who established contact.”

The Saran MD had stepped close and without warning injected the stunned and confused Xeno biologist with a sedative.

The Stellaris said.“Don’t bother with waking her, but her in stasis till the Brahe has picked her up.”

There was no argument.

He then told the system to open the Intercom station wide and said: “This is Dr. Hilburger, in light of the latest tragedy and the fact that we have all the data and research results we need. I am giving the order to conclude this mission and leave this world.”

The Blue keyed himself into the system and responded. “Should we not follow up on those findings Dr. Bloch and Chimmie claimed to have made. Specifically the first contact claims?”

“We will, there is a powerful Psi user and telepath aboard the Brahe. If there is a sentient mind out there, she will know.”