Sold into Marriage

Chapter 29: Surrounded

Chapter 29: Surrounded
Copyright 2021 by John Wells. All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday morning, the AI woke us up. The aliens were a light year away perpendicular to our planet’s orbit for a moment before using light speed to arrive in orbit. Both Earth and Moon were now protected by force field. All of our ships are in an outer orbit near their ships. I made my ship visible, as we all appeared near the transporter. We each beamed up to our ships, with me going last so I could create the ships needed for Steve and Jessa to exceed their fleet of forty by one. With the force fields in effect, only the network connections of the mats allow transportation. The ships can not beam through the field. Debbie had the ships with people with five or six robotic ships in between them. My extra one was next to a robotic one. I have Debbie split the alien ships between us so everyone knows which they must deal with.

After I grab a quick energy bar breakfast, I transport myself invisible to their ship next to mine, the size of a fly within a single air shield in case there was no oxygen, or I get run into by an alien. I also did my time trick, so I had all the time I needed. I searched for an empty room and entered it to search for a network interface. Given the uniqueness of computer signals over wires, it was easy to find the connection. I created a plug to match with a wormhole to Debbie on the moon and plugged it in using air. She would attempt to break into this network like she did with our ships. This would be much harder because our ship’s network was based on the same Internet we currently used. This one could be anything. I connected the data to Debbie and she first needed to figure the protocol that packaged the data. Followed by figuring out what that data means. We assumed that the internal network did not use encryption, as that would make the issue unsolvable in the time we have.

Next, I search for energy locations on the ship and traveled to the nearest. Based on the power and its direction, this appeared to be an engine room. I figured out how to disable it and automated sharing it with all, including Steve and Jessa, who were now on their ships. Debbie assured me the ships all looked the same, so should be the same internally. However, I asked my team to double check they could find it on each of their assigned ships.

I continued to the second location. This seemed to be weapons. This was much like our ship, so disabling was simple. Once automated, I shared to our team having them double check their ships once more.

Now came the hardest part: their shields. Feeling the energy was simple. Tracking to the projector was harder. Finding the device that turned it on or off was impossible. There was a central location on our ships. There is not on these ships. The commands came over the network, which was all over the ship. I started on the bridge. Reading the minds of some of the crew had been easy. Understanding their thoughts is impossible. We had nothing in common to build translations with. The bridge personal all had mental shields, so magic seemed a requirement for leadership. Dan, Debbie, and I decide to put a bug in a corner of their bridge. We record their discussion to be figured out later once we understand the language.

I found their computer, next. That was easy as all the network lines lead to one place. I automated, taking out the connections for both power supplies. It had a small power supply as a backup and a power line from the principal supply. I shared this automation with our team as the first target. They presumably double check it out.

I went back to where I could read minds to try once more for real. It shocked me they had not fired at us. A ship for each of theirs basically appearing as if from light speed should have gotten some response. The alien I was reading was looking at my ship. This gave me a start of words. With Debbie’s help of likely thoughts, we started figuring out words. A few at first, then a flood as Debbie’s predictions matched the test subject’s thoughts.

Debbie states the ships are identical so we can take them all out with my automation. She had me test the air with a device I made to her specifications. The air was like ours, so I returned to my ship and cloned my alien. I did my time trick, so they were with me inside the field. First, I tried English out which failed. Next, I started talking in their language with the few words I knew. By redirecting their thoughts, I increased my knowledge. Eventually, Debbie and I spoke their language enough to get by. We continued until we were fluent enough to make use of this to communicate with their leaders.