Deep

Chapter 12 SG's discoveries.

We followed Helle through several passages until we arrived at the Stellar Cartography Lab, where she expertly touched down in front of the entrance. Seki touched down neatly behind her, and I landed behind Seki with the agility of an enormous cat; an ancient, overweight, half-blind, arthritic circus tiger.

'Archie, will you inform the rest of the team to gather please,' Helle asked.

Archie is SG's internal AI that assists in the unit's operations. Alice is more than capable of handling SG operations and Maru's, but it was argued that Archie's astronomic origins would be more efficient. Archie is also a Quantum AI like Alice.

'Of course, Dr Enstad,' said Archie in a monotone tenor voice over a loudspeaker.

The door to the lab opened, and we entered.

The Stellar Cartography laboratory is a spherical room used to generate large-scale projections of astrological phenomena. The lab's surface is coated  in a material that absorbs most visible light. Objects in the lab create no shadows, and the space appears as an endless void.

 In the lab walls are thousands of laser projecting modules and sensors. The sensors keep track of where users are looking and beam images onto their retinas. This creates a fully immersive visual experience that is superior to the images of the internal enhanced reality the crew usually uses. 

There were several scientists already in the lab having an intense discussion over a three metre model of the solar system. Helle and Seki hovered over to the group and the discussion ended.

I have a bad feeling about this.

The doors opened, and a flood of researchers entered. I noticed Alice was missing.

I called her. 'Alice.'

'Yes, Captain?' Her portrait appeared.

 'Why aren't you here?'

'Professor Enstad informed me she did not require my presence.' 

Is that so? 

'Alice, could you join me, please?' She appeared distressed by my request.

'Yes Captain,' she replies ,appearing next to me, looking uncomfortable.

'Okay, is everybody here?' Helle asked. There was a murmur of assent from the assembled research staff. Helle turned in my direction, spotted Alice, and her face hardened. I returned her look.

Yes, that's right, Alice is back, you...

 'Right, Captain. As per your request, we have tried to come up with theories for why we have lost communications everywhere in the solar system,' Helle begins.

'Archie, if you please.' 

A twenty-metre projection of the solar system appears. A yellow date and time stamp appeared in the simulation's upper left quadrant. 

'Right, show all man-made electromagnetic sources we could detect one minute prior to losing all communications.'

In the solar system image, all the various EM sources appear as orange crossed spheres with their names.

'Also include Tama Maru's location.'

Tama Maru's location appears as a green crossed sphere.

'Okay Captain, we went through all the sensor data we had recorded, including gravitation.'

Her eyes lit up a bit as she mentioned her area of expertise. 

I nodded at her.

'Archie, gravitational overlay,'