«Victoria?» Marcus asked as the silence became strained. «Have the satellite arrays found any heavy metal particles yet?»
«There are definitely traces of gold and platinum, but nothing to justify a rendezvous.»
«In that case, I say we start to research the xenoc wreck properly.» He looked straight at Jorge. «How about you?»
«I think it would be prudent. You're sure we can continue to monitor the array satellites from here?»
«Yes.»
«Good. Count me in.»
«Thanks. Victoria?»
She seemed troubled by Jorge's response, even a little bewildered, but she said: «Sure.»
«Karl, you're the nearest thing we've got to a computer expert. I want you over there trying to make contact with whatever control network is still operating.»
«You got it.»
«From now on we go over in teams of four. I want sensors put up to watch the airlocks when we're not around, and I want some way of communicating with people inside. Start thinking. Wai, you and I are going to secure Lady Mac to the side of the shell. OK, let's get active, people.»
Unsurprisingly, none of the standard astronautics industry vacuum epoxies worked on the shell. Marcus and Wai wound up using tether cables wrapped round the whole of the xenoc ship to hold Lady Mac in place.
Three hours after Karl went over, he asked Marcus to join him.
Lady Mac 's main airlock tube had telescoped out of the hull to rest against the shell. There was no way it could ever be mated to the xenoc airlock rectangle, but it did allow the crew to transfer over directly without having to use exoskeleton armour and the MSV. They'd also run an optical fibre through the xenoc airlock to the interior of the ship. The hatch material closed around it forming a perfect seal, rather than slicing it in half.
Marcus found Karl just inside the airlock, sitting on the decking with several processor blocks in his lap. Eight blisters were slowly circling round him; two on the wall were stationary.
«Roman was almost right,» he datavised as soon as Marcus stepped out of the airlock. «Your exoskeletons were cleared away. But not by any butler mechanoid. Watch.» He lobbed an empty recording flek case onto the floor behind the blisters. One of them slid over to it. The green composite became soft, then liquid. The little plastic case sank through it into the blister.
«I call them cybermice,» Karl datavised. «They just scurry around keeping the place clean. You won't see the exoskeletons again, they ate them, along with anything else they don't recognize as part of the ship's structure. I imagine they haven't tried digesting us yet because we're large and active; maybe they think we're friends of the xenocs. But I wouldn't want to try sleeping over here.»
«Does this mean we won't be able to put sensors up?»
«Not for a while. I've managed to stop them digesting the communication block which the optical fibre is connected to.»
«How?»
He pointed to the two on the wall. «I shut them down.»
«Jesus, have you accessed a control network?»
«No. Schutz and I used a micro SQUID on one of the cybermice to get a more detailed scan of its electronics. Once we'd tapped the databus traffic it was just a question of running standard decryption programs. I can't tell you how these things work, but I have found some basic command routines. There's a deactivation code which you can datavise to them. I've also got a reactivation code, and some directional codes. The good news is that the xenoc program language is standardized.» He stood and held a communication block up to the ceiling. «This is the deactivation code.» A small circle of the ceiling around the block turned dark. «It's only localized, I haven't worked out how to control entire sections yet. We need to trace the circuitry to find an access port.»
«Can you turn it back on again?»
«Oh yes.» The dark section flared white again. «The codes work for the doors as well; just hold your block over the dimples.»
«Be quicker to use the dimples.»
«For now, yes.»
«I wasn't complaining, Karl. This is an excellent start. What's your next step?»
«I want to access the next level of the cybermice program architecture. That way I should be able to load recognition patterns in their memory. Once I can do that I'll enter our equipment, and they should leave it alone. But that's going to take a long time; Lady Mac isn't exactly heavily stocked with equipment for this kind of work. Of course, once I do get deeper into their management routines we should be able to learn a lot about their internal systems. From what I can make out the cybermice are built around a molecular synthesizer.» He switched on a fission knife, its ten-centimetre blade glowing a pale yellow under the ceiling's glare. It scored a dark smouldering scar in the composite.
A cybermouse immediately slipped towards the blemish. This time when the composite softened the charred granules were sucked down, and the small valley closed up.
«Exactly the same thickness and molecular structure as before,» Karl datavised. «That's why the ship's interior looks brand new, and everything's still working flawlessly after thirteen thousand years. The cybermice keep regenerating it. Just keep giving them energy and a supply of mass and there's no reason this ship won't last for eternity.»
«It's almost a von Neumann machine, isn't it?»
«Close. I expect a synthesizer this small has limits. After all, if it could reproduce anything, they would have built themselves another starship. But the principle's here, Captain. We can learn and expand on it. Think of the effect a unit like this will have on our manufacturing industry.»
Marcus was glad he was in an SII suit, it blocked any giveaway facial expressions. Replicator technology would be a true revolution, restructuring every aspect of human society, Adamist and Edenist alike. And revolutions never favoured the old.
I just came here for the money, not to destroy a way of life for eight hundred star systems.
«That's good, Karl. Where did the others go?»
«Down to the third deck. Once we solved the puzzle of the disappearing exoskeletons, they decided it was safe to start exploring again.»
«Fair enough, I'll go down and join them.»
«I cannot believe you agreed to help them,» Antonio stormed. «You of all people. You know how much the cause is depending on us.»
Jorge gave him a hollow smile. They were together in his sleeping cubicle, which made it very cramped. But it was one place on the starship he knew for certain no sensors were operational; a block he'd brought with him had made sure of that. «The cause has become dependent on your project. There's a difference.»
«What are you talking about?»
«Those detector satellites cost us a million and a half fuseodollars each; and most of that money came from sources who will require repayment no matter what the outcome of our struggle.»
«The satellites are a hell of a lot cheaper than antimatter.»
«Indeed so. But they are worthless to us unless they find pitchblende.»
«We'll find it. Victoria says there are plenty of traces. It's only a question of time before we get a big one.»
«Maybe. It was a good idea, Antonio, I'm not criticizing. Fusion bomb components are not easily obtainable to a novice political organization with limited resources. One mistake, and the intelligence agencies would wipe us out. No, old-fashioned fission was a viable alternative. Even if we couldn't process the uranium up to weapons quality, we can still use it as a lethal large-scale contaminate. As you say, we couldn't lose. Sonora would gain independence, and we would form the first government, with full access to Treasury. Everyone would be reimbursed for their individual contribution to the liberation.»