Alien Singularity

Chapter 12. Rescue Mission

A rescue team was formed, led by corporal Ed Blunt. Ed was an expert in alien languages. Tall and lanky, wearing frameless glasses, Ed was the typical nerd you would expect to find within the military. The Military had been using advanced devices to intercept alien communications, and Ed had successfully decoded the alien language and figured out how alien machines talked to each other.

Ed formulated a plan, and he was leading the planning meeting:

"Our plan is to completely disassemble and reengineer the Type S alien machines - their patrolling crafts, we captured during the war, so we could fit a human driver inside. We then will use two alien machines, one driven by the special rescue commando, followed by another empty one remotely piloted by me. This one would be essential to carry Andrew out once they reached him. And since alien machines always worked in teams of two, this strategy would be perfect."

The team lead engineer Jennifer Walker had a question:

"Corporal Blunt, the Type S machine is a small size machine, and after we leave room to fit a human driver, there will be not much space to fit in an efficient cooling supply to keep the commando cool enough for the long round trip journey of the rescue mission. Wouldn't it be better to consider using a larger alien machine, such as the Type X, so we can fit more cooling supply to ensure the safety of the commando?"

Ed replied, "That's a good observation Jen. But big machines like the Type X only stay outside the alien colony, or only can go to limited areas of the colony that have large tunnels. Andrew is locked in a secured area where only smaller machines can access. It is far too dangerous for our commando to get out of the machine near or inside the colony. And that's why we have to use those smaller machines, so we can reach directly to Andrew. So Jen, your team needs to work hard to fit in enough cooling supply inside Type S to keep a human alive for the round trip. Report back to me tomorrow on your progress."

"Yes Sir!" Affirmed Jennifer.

At the meeting the next day, Jennifer was briefing Ed on the engineering results:

"Sire, we have successfully reengineered alien Type S machine. A human can stay inside and pilot the craft, and the cooling supply could barely last long enough for the round trip. If the commando inside is wearing a heat protective suit, it would prolong his heat resistance for an extended time, hopefully to get back into our military base on the border. Let me show you on the simulation run."

The simulation run illustrated 2 vehicles, one with the commando inside and one empty, started out from our military based near 66 parallel, running straight towards the alien colony. Once reaching one of the colony entrances, the empty machine started communicating with the entrance terminal, and the gate opened, allowing them both in. The two machines then navigated through the labyrinth of the colony, reaching Andrew. They disabled his alien monitoring system, put Andrew in the empty machine, and headed back. Half way on their way, commando's machine started running low on cooling supply, and the commando put on his heat resistant suit to keep going. When they finally reached safely our military compound, the commando had elevated body temperature, but was still alive.

Jennifer turned to Ed and the team: "Sir, this was the best we could do."

Ed frowned: "That is not good enough. The commando barely made back alive. If there were unforeseen situations that could cause any delay, the commando would not make it. We don't want to sacrifice one human to save another."

And Ed added: "We can't remotely pilot both machines. Inside alien's colony our signal is very spotty. We must have a human commando for the extraction mission inside the colony."