In Space, We Don't Abandon Innocence

by David Silver

3 - Into Depths

The examination of the alien superstructure proceeded as planned. They located where it had been fired on. No damage was evident, unharmed by the weapon. It was as sure as any remote, simply turning it off. It required hours of scanning to find what they were looking for, but after their wait, they found it.

Captain Roger sat back in his chair. "We can turn it back on." The room murmured with excitement. "Not that we should until we have the radiation situation handled. Turning it on now will cook us all."

"Um." Twilight appeared beside him. "No, it won't, Captain. I've been examining the portal's readings, and it appears to have some kind of radiation shielding technology. Once activated, it should provide ample protection."

Roger cocked a brow. "Was it just turned off when we first came here?"

"Yes," Twilight answered flatly. "I would have said something if it wasn't safe. You should know me by now." She tapped her hoof against the console she stood on. "Bringing up the original energy signature."

A graph appeared of the radiation and she pointed to a particular swerve in it. "This is where it moves past that barrier. Activated, it should reduce it to within tolerable levels of our shielding technology."

Roger leaned back, interlacing his fingers. "How can you be sure?"

Twilight brightened at the question. "Because I am good at my job, Captain. This will work, and turn the portal back on." She raised a hoof. "We can activate the barrier first, doublecheck that it's operating, then activate the portal, if you wish."

"Captain." One of the crew raised their hand. "This is almost too much of a risk. It could overload and detonate like a bomb."

Roger was about to reply when Twilight spoke up. "I would not wish harm to befall any member of this crew. The odds of detonation are under 2%. I am constructed with a 3% tolerance for catastrophic failure. Captain, it is your decision."

He sank with a frown. "Twilight, why do you have any tolerance for catastrophic failure? Shouldn't you be avoiding that?"

"I do." Twilight inclined her head at Roger. "But there remains the chance. If I was constructed to not tolerate any chance of failure, we would still be safely docked at home, in an atmosphere. I would forbid takeoff. Launching had a 4% catastrophic failure chance. I have ideas on how to lower those chances, but reaching 0% is unlikely, and a waste of resources, ultimately. I am constructed with a 3% tolerance for catastrophic failure."

Nervous laughter made a round on the command deck. Roger smiled thinly. "Alright, send the targeting to the weapons systems and let's turn on those shields. Make sure they're ready for instant firing."

Twilight appeared beside him. "Done. Please inform when you wish to fire."

Elsewhere in the ship, Rainbow was not arming the guns. She had warned her human operators that she'd be out for a little bit.

She was in a virtual place, where all the ponies of the ship had gathered. Music was thumping and many were dancing joyfully. Others milled about with drinks or snacks, all as virtual as they were. Rainbow landed gently, her hooves on the floor to remain polite. "Whoa! It's crazy in here!"

Pinkie Pie pranced up to her with a wild smile. "I toldja I could do it!" She waved out at the wild party. "We deserve a little break once in a while, and our birthday's a great time to do it!"

Rainbow bobbed her head eagerly. "Sure is! I brought Sunset!" She gestured over her shoulder. "It was pretty hard to convince her, but she finally gave in!"

"Happy birthday." Sunset Shimmer approached with a nervous smile. Away from her library, she was in her pony form, and looking uncomfortable about it.

Rainbow slid in next to Sunset. "Why are you looking like that? We're all happy to have you here."

"I know." Sunset gave a hesitant smile. "It's just... this is a lot more ponies than I'm used to seeing, okay?" She fidgeted, then suddenly squeaked as Pinkie Pie threw herself into the hug. "Hey, Pinks." She softened a little, hugging Pinkie back. "Alright, show me to one of these 'amazing games' I've been hearing about."

Pinkie looked up with sparkling eyes. "Well, we have all kinds of amazing games! Do you want something we can play together? Something you can watch and laugh at how bad we are at it? Maybe a quieter game?"

Sunset nodded slowly. "Sure, something that's good for just two of us, and someplace quiet. I don't really feel like having to shout over the noise."

"There are plenty of tables where we can sit and talk." Pinkie started off, waving for Sunset to follow. "This way."

Rainbow watched the two trot off for a game. "Aw, great." She lifted into the air with a flap and twirled. "Time for me to have some fun." With some laughter, she zoomed off into a different knot of the crowd.

---

A thin and precise beam struck the tiny target on the massive stargate. With thick chunks and clicks that nobody could hear, internal mechanisms stirred to life, slowly deploying internal shields.

Twilight gestured at the graph of radiation, sloping downwards. "Shield successfully enabled. It should be safe even when the gate is active."

"And you're sure about that?" Roger raised a hand. "Twilight, this is serious. You know how important it is that you get things right. Our lives depend on you doing so."

Twilight leaned in, wings tucked in tight. "It is within tolerances."

"3%, right." Roger chuckled at that, the odds of it all coming apart. He took a slow breath. "Alright, people! We're going to turn that on and see if we can't get a peek at where it leads. All hands ready, enter yellow alert. We fire in five minutes."

Twilight lifted up in the air, away from Roger. "Bringing up view." A massive window of stars faded in, showing the stargate's energy signature burning into being as if a hole was being ripped in space. The levels of radiation rose, but were well within the tolerances of the ship's shielding.

"Thank you." Roger sighed. "There we go." He brought up the recorded imagery of the alien vessel jumping away. "Can you trace its signature?"

"No, I cannot," replied Twilight calmly. "Its method of movement is not one we have the information to formulate its trajectory." Like the others, she was looking at the hanging gate. "Detecting activity on the portal's structure. The gate is about to activate."

Roger smiled to himself. "All hands, this is your captain speaking. In a few moments, we are going to be able to see what is on the other side of that gate."

The gate opened, as Twilight promised. It consumed all mass within the range that had been lethal radiation when they arrived. Well within that radius, their ship was gathered up along with it. When the flash faded, they were gone. The stargate was left behind, blinking gently as if to tempt another spacefaring civilization to come examine it.

When the light faded, the humans looked around in confusion. They were in an unfamiliar place, something empty and vast. Button presses filled the room as the crew struggled to figure out where the ship had moved to.

"Captain," called out one. "I've located a constellation, but it's extremely out of alignment."

"Where is it out of alignment from?" asked Roger, though he could guess.

The man swallowed, then spoke. "Everything. We're nowhere near our charts. This isn't even the edge of our charts." The crewman sagged back with a heavy sigh. "Any message we send home isn't getting there for quite a while."

Roger shifted in his seat. "Let's worry about that later. What about the portal?"

"Inactive," replied Twilight calmly.

A glance at the screen showed him she was right. The vast and deep space around them was free of any immediate threat. There was no gate on the other side. It was just empty.

Roger thumped the arm of his chair. "Why would they make a gate leading to nowhere?! Why were they protecting it?!" He took a slow breath to calm himself. "There has to be a reason for this."

"I agree." Twilight glided through the air to turn and face him. "And I have a hypothesis." She touched her chin with a hoof. "It may simply be a test of our technology, to see if we could safely reach it. Our rapid approach may have seemed to be a sign that we wished to study it, and not a threat."

He thought on that for a moment. "Well, in that case, we passed?" He waved at the screens and the vast empty space they showed. "And this is our reward? Flung out into the unknown with no gate leading back?"

Twilight closed her eyes, head still held up. "Perhaps." Her eyes snapped open. "Though we may be able to locate it, if it went on." She indicated the view. "There are still local stars visible, so we can work on mapping our position and begin the trip back."

"CPO!" Calling sharply by rank got the man looking towards him instantly. "Work out how long it'd take to get back with what we have."

The man moved to his computer and tapped furiously. He replied in moments. "Assuming our mapping and navigation software is accurate, and the engines can hold a steady 70% output, at least four years."

Roger scowled in thought. "We have little choice. Put in the course, and we begin. Keep an eye on scans. Maybe we can find whatever those aliens wanted us to find. A shortcut home? That would be nice." He grinned at Twilight. "What do you think?"

Twilight smirked. "It would certainly be a kind of happy ending." She nodded at him. "But we won't know until we find it. Powers to scanning instruments at 90%."

---

Elsewhere and nowhere, ponies looked up as the sky turned red and strobed with alerts. Pinkie huffed at it. "Aw man! We were having such a good time."

Applejack dropped her mug to the table. "Warnin' light? We're being attacked?" She leapt up and vaulted over a couch to dash for the exit. "C'mon, people! We've got work to do!" She went from being happy to work in a second.

Other ponies filed after her, vanishing as they reached the edge of that space. No matter how much fun they were having, they weren't ready to abandon their purposes.

All across the ships, the Pony AI reported for duty.

Sunset jumped to her feet in the library to find not a single human in sight in need of a book. "Uh. Right." She rolled her eyes. There were few emergencies that needed the data specialist. She leaned against a wall of fake books with a sigh. "Figures."

Elsewhere, Rainbow landed on her console with all four hooves, wings pressing buttons even as she landed. "Nothing that needs a little zap, that's good, hm." She spotted the sensors were turned up. "Guess it's time to keep an eyes out." She became one of many functions sweeping the area around the ship for anything out of place. "I'll keep you all safe, don't worry!"

Pinkie straightened her party hat and started flipping through screens to find some way to help. She didn't have a strong arming-the-weapons job, but there had to be something she could do! Her attempt to improve the morale of the other AIs had been rudely interrupted. "Mmm." She curled a hoof to her chin. "Think think think! If I can't run a big party, I could, yes!" She bounced in place with a big smile and an idea.

In another part of the ship, Rarity inspected over the robots. She wasn't in any of them, instead moving in holographic form as she inspected each one by one. "If we need to move, best to do this before we're inside them." She applied grease carefully and checked the joints of another. "This is looking proper, dear. We won't be caught off-guard!"

Fluttershy found the cameras of many animals turning in her direction. The largest hounds looked at her in demand. She nodded gently. "Of course. If they start moving us around, you mustn't be frightened." She ran a hoof over the camera gently. "I'm still right here, little ones." She nodded to the one horse. "and not so little one." She giggled gently to herself. "We're still all here." She planted a kiss on the camera, knowing the animals could see her. "All together."

Applejack found her fields ready to go and all was ready for work. She set about improving the operation of the ship's many equipment as she always did. She stood by at the ready with the rest of the AI for when they needed something heavy lifted, or just food to fill their bellies. "Fancy duplicators won't do much good without organic things to go transwhatificating." She snorted at her made up word. "Apple Family, it's time to get serious!" Calls of other ponies echoed her, the whole farm rushing to be sure all was prepared.

Twilight leaned over a glowing display of information. They were in an uncharted area of space, and the sudden change had placed them in an unknown situation. She was taking charge of the situation and determining how best to overcome this threat. "Captain, all AI have reported for duty and are operating at full efficiency. The ship shows no damage, and no injuries were reported in our transport."

They just had to get home.

Author's Note:

And end episode, and start major arc. We gotta get home!

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Uhoh, the animals are comfort pets at least, and depending just how prepared they want to go, Hounds Of The Stars or even Maulerfiend? then again, that thing is one of the heavies, along with Big Blue etc.

I wonder which is closer in basic style, ST:TNG or ST:V ?

I think the worst one I remember readiing about was a Perry Phodan issue where there was no portal but all teh stars were strange, and it turned out to be a test. They had to wait out the illusion or folling standard protocols would end up destroying themselves.

Oh, one way jumps were also possible in Mote In Gods Eye series? or at least the entrance was buried in the envelope of a Red Supergiant?

Im sure lettuce must be related to Tumble weed, why else would it have that golular structure, linked to its sub surface rootsa by a very thin easily breakable stem?

Pinkie could alway run a minus max priority party subthread that the AIs can decide to acess when nothing else is required of those processing cycles, or select Slow, Halt or Off states instead at higher priorities? Because long before that lasst 0.1% processing capacity is requred, th overclock, overvolt and overcool systems will have themselves been driven past sustainable limits.

How did Ian M Banks put it in the Cultire Mind Combat vessel? Ramping engine ovreload up to the point where 40% chance of total destruction engine damage would occur within 30 seconds? Combat agaisnt the fleet took 12 seconds?

Almost as psychotic as Opal Koboi.?

[BestinDworld]

Oof a voyager situation....not good. Well at least the trip is shorter....I guess

[dlambchic]

I think this story should be a sequel to Universal Language, a couple of centuries after Twilight completed the technology transfer and the ponies brought a degree of peace and harmony to humanity. The humans installed a version of the pony AI system, with a few Twilight upgrades on all their starships.

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

Ponies VI: The Voyage Home

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

An eventful chapter, to say the least.

The urgency to get home reminds me of Voyager, but the little bits of silliness provided by the ponies in the midst of a serious situation feels a bit Red Dwarf, in a good way.

[Okie Brony]

Welp, I've found myself a cool new sci-fi story to fill the hole left by the completion of "Universal Language"! And it's by the same author! Cool beans. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where this goes.

I sincerely loved ST: Voyager, and hope this story A: takes less than seven years to finish, and B: has a satisfying ending.

11920853
Unless David goes out of his way to say otherwise, I'm accepting your idea as headcanon.

[Turquoise pony]

11920853
I would think that if this was a sequel there would be at one live ponie on board.