After the difficult landing, the Butterfly was temporarily shut down. It was ready to accept whatever service the UEC engineers and technicians could render to help its wings. However, the works never stopped on the planet RA. 2 massive tractor beam emitters held the massive Dimensional Displacement Gateway above the planet. The problem was that in space, nothing is stationary, so the long tractor beams which were rotating with the planet's rotations exert an enormous amount of energy, it's like attaching something to a rope and swinging. To overcome this, the UEC engineers created a shield bubble which effectively lowered the weight of the massive gateway and made the structure a rigid part of the planet.The colonists were getting ready to start their new life. The process might sound very romantic, but from a logistical point, it was a nightmare. The minerals, mined from the moon and refined by H.M.S. Isambard Kingdom Brunel were turned into construction materials, especially metal
While emotionally involving someone or something can be gratifying, the practical implication of it was problematic. As per Cohen's request, the Butterfly was involved in the party, but how would it participate at the party was a major concern. The engineers and technicians repaired its wings. The actuators were worn off, but some of the actuator fluids were only available in the largest shipyards and they were used for deep crust mining robot arms. The fluids the creators of the butterfly used were very alien, but one thing it had was an ability to self-replication, in the UEC space self-replicating technology is very controlled, but not outright banned. The philosophy of the UEC was "if we ban things, we won't know enough to safely use them."UEC ship, H.M.S. Alan Turing was assigned to go to the Earth after the settlement festival. Captain Probir volunteered to stay with the main team, to "cheer the colonists" however deep down, his motivation was to oversee the construction of the
Sam sat down on his bed, it was harder than his bed on the ship, the reason was, his bed was made of stacks of books and journals and a bedsheet covered it. He took out a book from underneath the bed, it was about xeno-biology. Slowly, he opened the book and saw some hazy doodling on it."It can't be!" he exclaimed. His hand was shaking and his eyes were wide open. He was searching for something. He then stood up and opened another book, this time, it was about the history of the UEC."No!" he was upset by the fact that the book was hazy and strangely written. The butterfly asked why was he very upset about it."Look, I can imagine things way better than anyone else, I can visualize things, imagine things and make connections better than all the fat cats like the captain Probir and Cohen. This room, you are seeing? It's my visualization, it's my imagination. Trust me, if I see a book is hazy, I will know that something is definitely wrong," he desperately tried to open the closed wind
The butterfly was restarted and as per Sam's request, it stopped its wings to flap around. The only thing it did was made an enormous foghorn-style sound which nearly deafened the technicians around 3 miles radius. Sam was inside of the butterfly when it started its massive 8 reactor cores. it was amazing to see the restarting sequence of a beast, also Sam felt very small, the ingenious and advancement of the species did not save them from just simply Vitamin deficiency.The Settlement Festival was a 7 days long celebration. For the first couple of days, people had to eat field rations to signify the struggles of the first people who settled on the land. The slow and consistent humming of the machine's interior made Sam a bit annoyed, but he kept it to himself. He then went to the bridge, where the chair was awaiting him. The bridge of the butterfly was a cold and dark place, the temperature was around 2 degrees Celcius. Sam wore his winter dress. He sat there and touched the com pane
Final Hours“Captain, we are receiving the last transmissions from home.” said ensign Volim with a heavy voice. I was not so sure what these “Last Transmissions” means, but I was built for only one purpose and one purpose only, that was to carry the scientific research crews and perform every single scan stored in my database.“I wish there was another way, ensign. I wish I could come back to our mothers and scoot on their laps. I am as helpless as you are.” replied the captain X’Elom.My transmitter received a transmission which said, “This is the O’linian command. I wish you a peaceful rest. From the rest of the O’linia, goodbye.” I played the message to the crews. They became emotional in a way that I could not grasp. Maybe it was necessary not to provide me with data like that. That would interfere with my higher function.Everyone gathered around the bridge and had a drink. One commander came to one of my ventilation grids and installed something, and said to the communicator, “Y
Waking Up:Captain’s log, supplemental: “After 3 months of long travel, H.M.S. Gauss finally reached the N1/S1 region of the Andromeda galaxy. There is a lot to unpack here. My Sagittarian 1st officer wanted to wait for 1 more month before assigning crews for assignments. I agree. However, crew morale is at an all-time high and everyone wants to explore the galaxy. It’s an amazing engineering and scientific achievement that we finally managed to use a Dimensional displacement drive to travel to another galaxy. My science officer, Sam, is trying to solve his typical Riemann Hypothesis problem, which he started working on since we left the Sol System Outer Mooring. I’m happy that the crews are happy. Sagittarian crews and human crews were more than friendly recently, however, I have no objections here. If they can perform and meet our exceptions, their personal lives are not my things to worry about. End log.”Captain Probir Sen ended his log. He and his crew were finally in the Androme
The Struggle:“Scan beam detected. Reboot protocol initialised.” My sleep mode was disturbed by an unknown scanning beam. It was penetrating my primary firewall, so I tried to reboot myself in safe mode. The scanning beam was getting so intense, that I tried to make a feedback pulse against the scanning beam to scare away the scanner, but as it seemed, the scanning beam started to get even more intense. I tried to move my camera to see what was scanning me. It was a colossal ship, that looked like a half-circle and several other ships, full of organics. None of the ships and organics was in my database, so I could not find a way to disrupt the scanning beam.“Primary Firewall Compromised, Deploying Secondary Firewall.” I tried to move for a bit, but a green beam was holding me in my place. It had a very strong graviton signature and bent the space-time around me. So, I tried to engage my thrusters to get behind the ship to align my main gun to fire a warning shot, but suddenly, everyt
The Judgement:The court was in session. Dr Leonard and T’Mera were on the judgement chair while Tatiana was in defence of her proposal, that the creature must not die right away, it has much to learn about the universe and the captain was there to represent the UEC. The reason why there were 2 judges is that it was a difficult case and they were in the other galaxy. Thus 2 judges must agree on the verdict.“The court is in Session,” said T’Mera.After taking the oath, everyone stood up, while a hologram of a butterfly-like machine appeared in the courtroom, which was the ready room of the captain. The reason why the creature didn’t take the oath was that it was not part of the UEC.“Tatiana stood up and walked towards the hologram. The green hologram spoke, “Tatiana…” and stopped. She said, “Yes, tell me. Please.”“I don’t know how to continue the conversation with organic species,” replied the creature.“Okay, I’ll ask first. Do you want to self-terminate?” asked Tatiana.“I don’t k