In Space, We Don't Abandon Innocence

by David Silver

1 - Episode 1: Boldly Going

The cockpit was a murmur of soft exchanges as fingers danced over buttons that only existed as glimmering planes of light. Each chimed gently with each strike, adding to the soft noise that filled the room. In the center of it all, projected onto a blank wall, was the front view of the space before them and what had them all talking.

Space was lit up by a roaring fire. Not a literal one, but a sparkling flow of matter being ripped from reality and into an artificial portal that glowed blue and white with a growing heat. It rippled, seeming to slide across the sky even though it was fixed in space.

The captain raised a finger at it. "There is no way that's natural. Someone built that, likely many someones."

"Affirmative, Captain," said one of the crew members. "All scans show no evidence of artificial supports or structures, but the level of energy needed to open such a portal requires enormous amounts of power, much of which is still being channeled from the region to the anomaly.

"The draw on the internal manifolds is minimal," added another with a nod. He looked up. "I can't recommend getting much closer, Captain."

"A fair assessment, but a good scientist takes risks, Cadet!" he replied. "The smart ones don't get themselves killed in the process, however. Scans?"

"At best we're looking at a third-tier reactor system, Captain." A woman leaned back, reaching a button to press a new button. "Twilight, any insights?"

Appearing in the center of the cockpit, a pony with wings and a horn. She was purple, and smiling. They could see through her holographic form. Adjusting her glasses, she turned to look at the same screen. "It's amazing. But I wouldn't want any of you being harmed. As fantastic as this find is, it appears to be causing no harm. I recommend taking careful notes and broadcasting them back home."

The captain turned in his chair, tapping his chin. "Oh, we'll be doing that, Twilight. That's not the issue. I want to know how they did it. If they could do it, and it's possible for us, that's worth the risk of getting a bit closer." He folded his arms as he sat up. "Casey?" The woman that had summoned Twilight perked up. "Can you nudge us just a little closer?"

She looked over her shoulder at him. "Sir, you do know what radiation is, right?" She sighed as she adjusted her glasses. "The proximity we're at already is safe, but it will grow exponentially more dangerous the closer we get."

"Roger, Captain, Sir." Twilight smiled at their captain gently, spreading her wings. "If I may suggest?" She didn't wait for an answer, fluttering her wings as she grew in size. She placed her hoof on his lap, meeting his eyes with her own. "This is amazing, and I want to see it too. But the safety of you and the others is of higher importance. I would be very sad if you came to any harm."

He seemed to shrink just a bit under her gaze. "Of course, Twilight. You're right." He took a breath. "Just make sure to record everything we can for now."

"You mean as I have been doing since we entered the system, Captain?" Twilight turned away with a giggle, returning to her usual, smaller, size. "I'm eagerly absorbing everything our scanners can detect for later analysis. Permission to begin broadcast? The scientists back home are probably very eager to begin their own examinations."

The captain smiled at her. "Permission granted. Be sure to include the newest data."

"Already included," replied Twilight in her usual cheery tone. Her horn glittered with energy as she nodded. That energy was just for show, the ship doing the work of sending data the long distance back towards civilized planets. "Can I help in any other way?"

"Yes," he replied with a smile. "Go get yourself a cup of tea."

Twilight frowned at him. "I appreciate the gesture, but I am incapable of—" She paused suddenly. "I'm being silly, forgive me." She drew a cup of tea from nowhere, just as holographic as the rest of her. She sipped from it gently. "It is nice to work with you all."

The crew all smiled at her. The captain cleared his throat. "Now that we've got that out of the way, let's look at some numbers. Casey, bring up our readings."

As the woman tapped buttons, Twilight shrank down to the corner of her screen, leaving the rest of them alone. Even as she poked and prodded at the numbers, Twilight was eager to point out interesting bits and offer quiet advice on parsing it all.

The portal swirled with growing violence in front of them, and as they watched, its form shifted slightly. Twilight herself grew more active, jumping from screen to screen to provide commentary. It seemed the portal was about to do something, but what that something was, none of them had the means to guess.

The portal blinked. A wash of blue light rolled out from the center of it, sending ripples across space itself. From where they were positioned, they could see a beautiful sight of stars, twisted by the portal's radiance into new and stunning patterns. In one moment they saw a burst of purple fire from one edge of the sky, and in the next a radiant stream of blue light raced over the top of the portal before vanishing.

Twilight gasped, a sparkle appearing at her horn. "That was a transition radiation burst! This must be a stargate!"

"And this," began the captain with a nod, "is where we get ourselves some real data. Where does this gate lead? Is it known territory or deeper into the unknown? I need to know, now."

The crew went to work, screens flashing with new information as the portal finally gave up its secrets. One member of the team jumped from his seat with an unsteady laughter. "It's stable, and completely disconnected! It has to be!"

"Or maybe not," added another, her face drawn in a frown. "Energy readings are fluctuating, and I'm picking up an incoming—"

A sound rang out across space, like a wave hitting rocks as a new ship snapped into existence, its form speaking not at all of Earth designs. No smooth curves of aquatic origin, no, this strange thing had spikes and hard corners, blinking with dull red and orange lights.

Its engines glowed a deep purple, clearly not of any design the crew knew. Its lights flashed a series of colors that made no sense to them. Even as they watched, Twilight expanded herself, covering all screens. "Alien vessel detected," she informed, voice devoid of its usual warmth. "Battle stations recommended. Standard introduction is without reply. No identification detected." She spread her wings. "Please, be careful."

The ship fired its first shot.

An energy blast filled with violet and blue raced across space, striking the far side of the stargate itself. As it did, a strange phenomenon began to take place. The portal seemed to swallow the attack, as if it was simply gobbling it up into itself. After just a few seconds of the blast, it cut off as if suddenly sealed away. The gate went dark.

Twilight inclined her head. "Radiation levels are dropping rapidly. The portal has been deactivated."

"Get me distance and speed on that alien vessel," shouted the captain. "Who do they think they are, shooting at something like that?"

Twilight coughed quietly. "Alien ship has changed course." On the ship, they could see that was true, the alien ship turning in place before it stretched to infinity, jumping away with a snap and a pop. Just like that, it was gone.

The captain rose from his seat. "Captain's log, supplemental. A promising find has turned into a bit of a headache. We have an alien ship, non-aligned with Earth or any other known civilizations, firing on one of the largest structures we've ever encountered." He slammed a fist into the arm of his chair. "If I had to guess, which I do, we found a stargate to an alien territory and they came to close it up before we could investigate."

Twilight was still staring at the empty space where the ship had been. "Captain, that was amazing." She smiled, all guard leaving her. "Today's been an amazing day of discovery." As terrifying as half of it was, Twilight exuded cheerful optimism on the bright side of it. "The gate is now harmless, we could approach it."

The captain narrowed his eyes at Twilight. "Did you just volunteer us for something? We need to figure out who those aliens are and why they shot first and asked questions later." He gestured around him. "Get me what you can on that ship. Scans, energy readings, everything you can find."

Numbers and figures danced around Twilight in a dazzling display of information. "We won't be able to know much about them until we establish contact. I humbly suggest that be our priority."

"Humbly?" The captain smiled at Twilight. "We can start with that, but first, let's make sure that gate is completely down. If the rads are down like Twilight said, bring us in for a closer look. Cancel all ship alarts." Pulsing lights faded away, allowing others on the ship to move freely.

They all set to work. With the immediate threat gone, they focused on gathering as much information as possible. Everything from scans of the area around the gate to detailed readouts on its dimensions.

In the middle of it all, Twilight remained, ready to assist how she could.

"Darling." Roger jerked in surprise, another pony gently nuzzling under one of his arms. "You're stressed. Come now, dear. They can work on their own." Rarity smiled gently and gestured with a toss of her head. "Let's get you a break, dear." Unlike Twilight, Rarity was not a hologram and was quite solid against the fingers she nuzzled into.

The rest of the crew seemed to barely notice, or were trying not to pay too much attention to their captain being lead away by an equine AI. He didn't bother resisting, instead looking back at Twilight with a gentle nod. "Alright, you have a point." He stroked down Rarity's back as they stepped onto the elevator. "I haven't eaten in hours."

"Well, that's hardly any good." Rarity fluffed at her mane gently. "You need proper rest and food to be at your best, dear. We can't have you starving yourself. You deserve better." The elevator rose through the ship, past its many floors of crew quarters, medbay, engine room, and more. Finally, it rose to the top, depositing them into the lush garden that was the captain's private refuge.

Rarity stepped out onto it, looking around. "Oh! Your room. I don't get to visit here often, darling. Thank you for the vote of confidence in allowing me in. Now, how can I help you enjoy your snack, hm?" She turned in place, looking at Roger with a soft smile. "Just us and the garden, you're all mine."

Roger laughed as he stepped past her towards a terminal on the wall. A few quick taps and it hummed. "It's making me something. Now, you don't eat, last I checked."

"Mmm, afraid not." Rarity shook her head slowly. "Unless you count some lovely voltage. I'll sup on that, dear, but little else. On the other hoof, I'll gladly pretend." Her horn glowed as she produced a holographic sandwich in the air. "Only polite, and it's fun to eat with a friend, is it not, dear?"

Roger took the plate that had finished appearing in a small cubby. "Here's mine." He led her to a bench and sank on it. "Now, what made you come seek me out?"

"I wasn't joking, darling." Rarity nibbled on her fake snack. "You were looking harried, and I wanted to help. That is my job, among a few others. We're here to help you all be at your best."

He smiled, a sigh on his lips. "You're a good friend, Rarity." She smiled in reply as he bit into his sandwich. They ate in silence, allowing him to really relax for the first time since the portal's activation. "You weren't wrong." He rose, a quick jog to order up a drink and return with it. "I did need a break, and the lack of sudden alerts means I'm not off the bridge at a bad time."

"Indeed, I wouldn't risk your career like that." Rarity perked her ears as she nibbled at her food. "A good captain must be strong in mind and body, after all. That means taking some time for yourself." She leaned against him gently. "Now! That stargate; fascinating thing, isn't it?"

"That's one word for it." He sipped from his drink. "It could lead anywhere, and those aliens turned it off."

Rarity tapped a hoof against the bench. "They may well have come through it. They were certainly in a hurry to leave." She looked up at him with her gentle smile. "Whatever the case, they weren't very polite, now were they?"

"Scared." Roger folded his arms. "I think they were scared. I'm just guessing, obviously, but they acted like we were the ones that could have opened fire on them at any instant, and they didn't hang around to wait for that to happen."

Rarity turned to face him, pressing herself closer to him. "Do you think they could have?"

"Destroyed us?" Roger shook his head slowly. "Maybe. Maybe not. It's clear they were at least technologically advanced. We should keep that in mind."

"We will, darling." Rarity's ears turned towards the door as it opened, revealing Twilight. Twilight was still a hologram, but she had the manners to trot along as if gravity were a thing she had to worry about.

"Captain." She stopped in front of him with a smile. "I trust Rarity's been helpful." Rarity saluted. "Excellent. I'm just stopping by to check if you'll be taking a chance to nap, or if you'll be returning to the bridge."

Roger sighed and put his empty plate aside. "If I don't nap, you two will gang up on me, won't you?"

"A good captain needs his rest," replied Twilight as she nodded at him. "But you are the captain, Captain. If you wish to return, we won't stop you. We speak only as friends."

Rarity slid over, sandwich and plate vanishing. "Mmhm, and if you were to have trouble sleeping, I could help." Her horn sparkled gently. "I can cast a few relaxation spells."

Roger imagined what those spells actually meant, in terms of what the ship would be doing. "No, I really should be on deck. This break was wonderful, but we're still in the middle of something." He stood up, casually stepping through Twilight on the way towards the elevator. "No rest for the wicked."

Twilight and Rarity glanced at one another before they joined him. Soon enough, they were emerging back into the main command post. Twilight promptly vanished, though she was already on many screens where she had never left.

Rarity, a physical object, trotted along with Roger back to his chair. She reared up behind him and casually began rubbing at his shoulders and neck in slow motions of her hooves. "If you won't rest, I can at least tend to you, dear."

He tried to object, but as she massaged at his shoulders, he simply couldn't muster up the energy. He sunk into his chair, glad that none of the crew was looking. They knew what Rarity was like.

Casey whistled in a rising tone. "This is amazing." She brought up the view of the gate as they circled it. "Their gate technology is nothing like ours, but it certainly a gate. If it was still on, and not belching radiation, we could learn so much from it."

"Yes," began Twilight. "From this position, we've picked up a lot of information on it." She frowned softly. "It will require further analysis, but my initial findings suggest it would take an enormous amount of energy to activate, and very little to maintain."

Roger huffed gently. "That explains the energy weapon it used. It took just as much energy to turn it off." He put his hands together, leaning back against Rarity's attention. "If we see even a hint of the alien returning, get us away from the portal. One blast and this thing will be on, and cooking us all."

"I understand, Captain." Twilight appeared on the central screen again. "I have studied the discharge and am currently running it through some simulations. I can not say for sure, but it may well be possible to replicate."

Another crewmember laughed. "After a year or three of our techs running through it." He waved the idea off, the idea that it could be made by them, in the middle of nowhere. "Still, this is what we're here for, right, Captain?"

Roger turned to face him with a nod. "Right, Lieutenant. It's dangerous, but if we don't explore the unknown, then who will?"

Twilight took the opportunity to interrupt. "The Gate has remained off and stable since the initial disruption, but my analysis suggests it is stable." She held up a holographic hoof. "It was designed to remain stable without any interference from outside forces, and given its size and apparent nature, I would suspect it has been active for centuries and would have remained active if not for the sudden forceful command to cease being so."

"I see." Roger rubbed his chin slowly. "That certainly makes it sound like it was meant to be discovered, then. A little too much like it, honestly."

Casey frowned at it. "Maybe they meant it once, but the moment we actually found it, they turned it off. What does that mean?"

Roger leaned forward in his chair. "That is something for us to figure out."

Author's Note:

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

I once had a go at calculating a reasonable aqmount of computational capacity for an ambulatory robot that was useful. I based it on a standard mammalian skelton muscular framework, reaching about 1000 CPUS so that each would have little to do, fire or not fire, and have immense amounts of parralel inputs for fast responses. Between 250 and 60 million sensor points. Which for calculator chips in the late 80s I beleived was a reasonable assumption.

Last week I discovereed there was a company that did almost 4 Z80 CPU componant count on a sliver a tenth by a 6th of a millimeter at arad resistant 130 nanometer scale. That would allow me to place 60 CPUs per square mm for th robot, one for each of so many fur elements, allowing for all sorts of signal processing and manipulation. A good comparison is monitors tend to limit 25 dots or so per square mm, so this old tech has plenty of room for multiplexing phase arrays of multiple sorts.

The gate sounds like a classic Einstein bridge but with a lot of harmonics modification related to Alcubierre optimisations to increase the useable diameter and stability by sacrificing generative energetics for gaining self reinforcing resonance structures.

Weirdly, the other day I was watching Numberphiles pencils. Taking a 3 axis orthognal form, and combining it with a 4 axis orthogonal form to make a 7 axis form, which made me think, I wonder if thats a reasonable model for how the three spacial axis of Relativity are related to teh 4 spacial axis of Quantum mechanics, all the axis being the vector space of Octonions, with the scalar of time being the missing non axis of the model?

Then again, the pencil model also points to me a way of increasing the complexity of the fibre optic cube, even give quick calculations shows the reduced overall density of packing. Weirdly, human brains also seem to be 7 based in several ways, makes coding AIs and data processing computers trickier.

I wonder if any of the shipborne structures use Smart Dust. Our best current tech memristors are 3 nanometre square by 10 nanometer long and can be assembled in 3D stack layers. or just over a million logic elements in a dust particle 1 micron in size. So how would Pinkie be represented as a Culture Special Circumstances Nano Swarm if Fullerene and Carbon nanotube smaller componants were used and other molecular builds?

Thing is, if the aliens just switched the gate off, but it still remains there, did they want to have an escape from whatevers happening thre, or was it so difficult to create in the first place that they dont have the resources, or more likely enough clear space to replicate it? Many years ago there was a book, The Black Sun, where it was proposed a theoretical method of building a 10 solar mass black hole for long distance fast travel could be dont by having fleets of thousands of moon sized Bussard Ram Ploughs collecting the matter from the Oort cloud, and literally shoving the material towards a central point, about a light year away from the sun, so tat the material collapses before it has chance to Supernova. A supernova miscalculation a lightyear from the sun would Obliterate all structures in teh solar system moons and planets, and Im not sure how stable the suns remnant would be.

Will be very intresting to see where this story goes. I only do the science and tech. Ive seen so much weird stuff over the years and know theres far more just on Earth.

[BestinDworld]

Rarity robot pony wife is best wife

[harts fire]

it has been a long time since i have pulled up to a David Silver story and i am liking this one.

[David Silver]

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