Resilient - Evolution

Chapter 7: Slaramin Sidestep

When they were in the water east of the coast, Nina said, "Carlos, see if you can detect energy signatures or anything that will tell us exactly where this base is."

"It appears that they are attempting to shield their location. I can still see them, though. I see six bio-habitable domes. There are only life signatures in three of them. There are twenty-four operational drones ... those that are about the size of the ones that the fighters carry. There are also two dredgers that have atomic structure separators and compressors."

Eric said, "What are you calling a dredger?"

Carlos sent the data to both of them.

"So these dredgers can even work in space? How cool is that?" Nina said.

"I was thinking about the compressors," Eric said. "Talk about your miniaturization. Those things make anything we've ever had look like old-school tech. Well, I guess that everything the Tollix systems have do that too." It was starting to all come together for him. He said, "Those 3D printers in the Hub ... they used the separated atoms to print with, don't they?"

"That is correct," Carlos said. "The blueprint shows the material needed, the system locates and puts the necessary raw atomic comps in the printer cartridges, and they make an exact replica of whatever is programmed."

"The 'comps' ... they're the compressed cubes of isolated atomic structures?" Eric asked.

"Yes, Eric," Carlos said.

"And we've got dredgers that work in space," Eric said. He was putting together an idea, but he wanted all the information first. "Can we use dredgers to harvest resources on asteroids and other planetary bodies?"

"After setting up the necessary prints and getting established, the AeroC had plans to begin mining for what they needed on the other planets. They wanted to develop a series of stations to give early warning and protection. The Glaxis sent their virus probes before they could do that. Speaking of early warning ... the station has detected us, and their shields have been activated."

Nina said, "Do they have any weapon systems we need to be guarded against?"

"They potentially have whatever you have," Carlos said. "After our experience with the two fighters that came against us, they may be more limited in their control over their systems, though. An operational system would have stopped these guys in their tracks."

She spoke now over the comms. "Lucho, our system just told us that the station is aware of us and has put up its shields. Did they try to defend themselves when you came in before? Anything you know could really help. We want to meet them on friendly terms, but if they're shooting at us, it might be difficult."

"I don't think they had any weapons they could use against us," Lucho said. "They did not hit us with anything anyway."

"Carlos, can you open a direct channel to the station?" she asked.

"Channel open," Carlos said.

She said, "Hello on the station in the Peru-Chile Trench. We've just had an altercation with two fighters that left this vicinity. We've taken control of both of those ships. We are interested in an information exchange. Do we have permission to dock?"

"Unidentified craft, we show four ships incoming. Show your system identification."

"Carlos, what's that?" Nina asked him over her link.

"I'm sorry, Nina. I don't have that information," he said.

"Station," she said, "We don't understand the request. We're new to all this. What identification are you looking for?"