Utopia War

Chapter 8 - Sol

The U.F.O. reached the Sol system 8 and a half years later. It had been lurking in the main asteroid belt, building things, for a standard week.

The alien machine was being monitored at a distance by the Mother Of Irregular Objects, a saucer-shaped Horizon-class Stellar Engineering ship. So far the U.F.O. was not responding to any attempts at communication.

Yakenonokarasu Tea, organic co-pilot of the Mother Of Irregular Objects, sat back comfortably in her co-pilot's chair. Somewhere deep within the bowels of the ship, nobody really knew where, the android body of the pilot Sagacity Invictus.6.3 was similarly situated. Sagacity hadn't checked in on it in years.

Both Sagacity and Yakie were watching the same three dimensional representation of the U.F.O. at work in their mind's eye.

<One week's grace period is the recommendation,> said Sagacity.

"You don't need to convince me," replied Yakie.

<I bring it up because I question the prudence of following the guidelines in this instance,> said Sagacity.

<Proxima?> thought Yakie <Thoughts?>

<You're a little more than 4.1 lights from Proxima Ring,> said Proxia <The Human Consensus has decided not to take action regarding the U.F.O. until it comes within 0.00000190258 lights without responding to contact.>

<Cutting it a little close?> Yakie more stated than asked.

<You're suggesting we refrain from acting?> asked Sagacity.

<I'm informing you what the Human Consensus has decided to do specifically regarding that U.F.O. This has no impact on our territorial claims to Sol, which are ironclad. This nature preserve is your responsibility and you should use your own discretion.>

<Read between the lines, Sagacity,> said Yakie <Let's do everyone back home a favor and discretion this thing someplace far away.>

<If you do take action be extremely cautious,> warned Proxima <The U.F.O. has already killed three Proxima citizens, one permanently.>

<Who died?> asked Yakie.

<A scientist named HandosomeNose. He was a highly complex 10th generation machine intelligence who was attacked unexpectedly by the U.F.O. on the far edge of my field's range. I didn't have enough time to copy his entire consciousness.>

<We are comfortably within the medium range of your scanning fields at the moment, correct?> asked Sagacity.

<Yes,> Proxima confirmed.

<If I was suddenly imperiled is my mind-state too complex to copy at this range?> Sagacity continued.

<No,> admitted Proxima.

<What about me?> asked Yakie, grinning. She knew full well her mind-state was less complex by orders of magnitude.

<I could capture you both easily on very short notice from here,> said Proxima.

<Then I judge the risk to be acceptable,> said Sagacity.

<Yeah,> agreed Yakie <I was thinking of being a man for a while anyway so dying right now might actually be convenient for me.>

<Just be careful,> said Proxima.

<Right, or not,> said Yakie <Whatever. We'll play it by ear.>

<I will take every possible precaution,> said Sagacity.

<Listen up children,> said Yakie, expanding her thought speech to include the crews of the three Silverfin-class High Speed Space Dolphins that made up the rest of their tiny fleet <Get in formation. We're going to haul that alien whatever through hyperspace.>

<Coming in first,> replied SingSongVoice before Yakie could even finish.

<It's not a race,> said Yakie, firmly.

<I disagree,> said TheLittleCuteOne.

<I think we'd know,> added JustKidding <We race all the time.>

As quickly as possible, which was very quickly indeed, the three starships formed up around the Mother Of Irregular Objects. SingSongVoice was the first to arrive.

<I demand a rematch,> said JustKidding <That start was sloppy.>

<We'll do it later how about?> asked Yakie.

The rematch happened immediately.

After a few more races to really settle things, the fleet set out to remove the U.F.O. Standard procedure was to assume ignorance, and simply remove any trouble-making craft from the star system. Catch it in an attractor field, pull it through the higher dimensions, and leave it to do its thing where it's not bothering anyone.

As soon as the fleet set a course for the U.F.O., the small tube began to emit something.

<Yakenonokarasu Tea, are you capable of seeing this?> asked Sagacity.

In her mind, the ship's sensors appeared as bursts of color. Interpreting them usually came like second nature, but this time they just seemed like sickly brown fireworks.

<I think so but I don't know what I'm looking at,> she replied.

<Neither do I but whatever it is the U.F.O. is projecting it at a distance of 1.37 lights all around,> said Sagacity.

<Well grab it,> said Yakie <Just grab it and let's go.>

Sagacity reached out with the Mother Of Irregular Object's massive, heavy-duty attractor field. He couldn't grab hold of the U.F.O. with it. It was like trying to grab the air; the field passed right through it.

<I can't,> said Sagacity <It's not being affected by the attractor field.>

<Let me try,> said Yakie.

<Weird balls incoming,> said TheLittleCuteOne.

<Are we towing these too?> asked SingSongVoice <These actually look like fun.>

Dozens of spheres began to materialize instantly out of the ambient dust, as though assembling themselves. At optimal firing positions they all attacked at once, the barrage of red tearing through each individual ship. The combined assault was enough to render all four ships into floating wreckage.

The sickly brown emissions had blocked Proxima's scanning field, as well as her ability to telepathically warn them. All 8 members of the Sol Wardens were dead, permanently.