Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 38: The Defensive Setup

Ermac looked worryingly at the tank at the end of the navigation room. A few more days and he would use it for the first time in his life. He knew how the device works perfectly. He had memories of using it before, in a place far away, a place he was never going to see again.

Ermac was the only person on the ship who could use the device properly. When connected with the machine and immersed into the life supporting liquid he would become a human computer incapable of error, assisted by the subconscious programing.

Nautilus was so massive that the only way to change its travel direction was to use the gravity of the stars the ship was passing by. When the ship passed any star with gravity influencing its trajectory Ermac would enter the tank and connect to ship’s control systems. All engines needed to be adjusted at the same time, turned at the small angles to help propel Nautilus into the required direction. Many parameters during the bypasses needed to be taken into account – the gravitational forces of the whole planetary system and the angular acceleration caused by them, the reaction of the protective shield against magnetic fields and incoming storms, the thrust generated by the engines and many other smaller factors influencing the ship.

Each Star on Nautilus’ path turned it by no more than two degrees, but it was more than enough to draw a curve to the desired destination two millennium light-years away.

The tank was physically exhausting device, Ermac had to enter it every 5-10 years.

Everything was more challenging after Stacy was shut down for indefinite amount of time. When she was on, and previous Ermac was in the tank, she would become his substitute on all the secondary control systems. Now he needed to train the crew Landau had provided for him. Luckily the team was bright and learned quickly. All of them were from the security - besides being good assistants, cooks and house maidens they had good combat skills. Even Tom would have hard time to get to Ermac using force if he tried to.

Ermac picked a woman named Cheryl for his assistant – a well build short haired blonde. She was a good subject to look at from time to time – a piece of well-balanced beauty. Had Ermac felt physical desires he would have made an attempt to seduce her.

She was a great student – it never took more than one time for Ermac to explain something to her. They had already talked about most of the equipment in the room during the last week and today Ermac was about to explain the peculiarities of the large console in the center of the room.

The main door opened and Cheryl stepped in into the room and said. “Good morning, sir.”

“Good morning. Have you slept well?” Ermac replied formally.

“Yes. Thank you for asking.”

“Great. Could you go through morning routine and come to me after you’re done?”

Cheryl nodded and began doing a circle around the room, while Ermac took the seat by the console.

He used his free time to read the news projected on a screen from the console. It was a small secret he kept – his desire to visit the city – an exotic unexplored place full of unmet people. He read about the city - the publications of the government, the new art exhibitions, the reviews of the new movies coming out in the theaters – about everything that was out of his reach. He has become quite curious for a man with preordained destiny.

He scrolled an artistic hologram when a call came in – it was Tom, and he wanted to meet as soon as possible. The man would not have disturbed him for a bad reason, so Ermac decided that teaching of his assistant could wait and he accepted to see the First Citizen in the new conference room.

******

Ermac sat in a humble circular room, by a large round table a few meters in diameter, mangling the computer attached to the table, when Tom came in. The table was massive and it was troublesome to get up and walk around it. Short nods were enough for a greeting.

Tom caught his breath before he began the conversation, “’am sorry to disturb you.”

“It’s fine. Just go straight to the point. What’s with the urgency?”

“I found a way. No—” Tom paused. “Someone explained me a way to stop the Outsider physically, and I will need your help in doing so.”

“And I would help you by…?”

“All computer controlled doors and drones, sleeping in outer City’s perimeter, are under your control. I want you to arm what you can. I knew there were some drones that could project low frequency EM waves to the target. Put them in the key places.” Tom took out his hand held computer and projected the map of the ship.

“How did you get that? That’s—” Ermac looked surprised at the map, but was quickly interrupted by Tom.

“I know. I borrowed it during my last in here for a short time. Don’t worry I keep it safe,” he said and pointed a finger at the middle section of the ship which was slightly above the City. “These five corridors would be the perfect place. They connect the upper levels to the lower ones. You can access almost any point of the ship from them. If you gather the drones in that place, they would react fast enough to stop any intruders. I will transfer the data on the alternating EM wave signal the drones need to project on the entity it will carry alterations of very low frequencies.”

Ermac crossed his arms and said, “It will take me 24 hours to do everything, maybe less if I get some help from my assistants. We will need to read some manuals. The thing you are asking is a bit uncommon I need to refresh my memory on the subject.”

“A day is more than acceptable,” Tom said.

“It will take even more to get to the drones and put them back to sleep in the places they belonged afterwards.”

“Sorry for the inconvenience, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

“I’ve already told you - no big deal. I still have at least a week before I need to use the tank. We could send a few members of the team to do the work,” Ermac said, laid back and crossed his hands. “Why the EM waves?”

 “There was a blackout two years ago. It corresponded with the Outsiders appearance on the ship. Your predecessor had sent me his analysis of the incident. A powerful energy blast shook the ship from inside. The low frequency EM waves emitted by the blast did not come out from space, nor did they come from anything we had inside.

“Three days ago the entity was in the labs and some devices caught weak impulses of the same frequencies when he entered a vessel. With one physicist we crafted a theory that the creature’s signature waves could be a small part of the bridge between here and out there.

“We came to a simple idea. We are going to project an impulse of the same frequency and of particular amplitude into him to mess up his link and disturb his connection. Or in other words – cause EM interference on the ‘radio’ between his physical and mental images.  If the theory holds - the Outsider should be locked down for as long as we keep the pulse directed at him.

“I might be wrong, but it’s worth trying.”

Ermac replied, “I would say that your theory is far-fetched and depends mostly on fictional theory crafting, but I agree – we must take all the precautions possible. If there is a chance to get him, we must take it. Just tell me if you need anything more. I will do everything that is in my power to assist you.”

“Setting up the drones and increasing the sensitivity of the alarms is going to be more than enough.”

Ermac pushed away from the table and said, “From your talks I understood that I should hurry. Shouldn’t I?”

“Yes. Time is of grave importance.“

“I am off then.” Ermac stood up strode out of the room.

Tom could hear his steps disappearing in the distance.