The penny dropped forJacoway as he exclaimed, “You’re going to send the message inChiricahua?”
“Yes.” Ricci offered abrief smile in acknowledgment of Tal’s perceptivity. “In the27th century it was still only spoken by a few thousand people –it’s almost impossible that their censor-bot will recognizeit.”
Bayer rubbed her handstogether in excitement. “We’re going to call theAurora to ouraid?”
“No,” Ricci said, “I’mgoing to tell them to stay away.” He turned to Drawde. “Can we geta message to Tolu from the shuttle?”
“Yes, I believe I canassist you in achieving that goal, as long as the message is quiteshort. But that communication will save only a relative few of theendangered humans.”
“Not if things goaccording to my plan.” Ricci and Drawde started towards theshuttle’s hatch, the captain motioning for Tal to join them. “I’llneed your help, Jacoway – my Chiricahua is prettyrudimentary.”
“Mine’s not muchbetter…but I suppose between the two of us, we can construct acogent message.” Jacoway followed him onto the shuttle. “But,Captain, I don’t understand how keeping the Aurora away can possibly saveeveryone.”
“The key to this wholething is Millua. As it stands, killing off the humans would makeMillua’s position as leader almost invulnerable – we have to changeit up so that killing us does quite the reverse.”
“I’m not sure I understandhow warning the Aurora off will do that.”
“I’ll explain in greaterdetail after we send the message. I want to get this done ASAP.Knowing Avery, the Aurorais either flight-ready or soon will be and Ican’t risk them showing up here now. That would ruineverything.”
Chapter 14
VaryingDegrees of Certainty
“Scientific knowledge is a body of statements ofvarying degrees of certainty—some most unsure, some nearly sure,none absolutely certain.” Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
The day after they’dreceived the cryptic message from Captain Ricci, Decker and Kennedy were inAurora’s mainlaboratory. They were attentively listening to Lateef and BlytheBrodie expound on what they’d learned about the veil-worms fromtheir examination of the sample Decker had given them. Sanaa Jallowwas nearby, busily loading dozens of small silicon wafers into acomplex-looking instrument. Moira was present, as well – since shehad acquired a tendency to dog Decker’s steps almost as much asKayatennae did.
Deck and Kay were equallydisturbed to see that the scientists had reanimated the 2-footlength of worm tail in a nutrient tank. The dog stared at ittransfixed, while Naiche couldn’t resist throwing a few suspiciousglances at the twitching monstrosity while listening to Brodietalk.
“Besides the usualcamouflage abilities that a lot of animals have, the veil-wormsalso employ bio-electric countermeasures against any kind ofsub-molecular detection. Our data indicate that the galvanicsignals that their bodies emit closely mimic the ones that sensorswould receive from the worm’s surroundings.”
Kennedy said, “So in thefloat-ways, the sensors interpret the signals from the worms as anempty tunnel.”
“Exactly,” Aqila agreed.“We’re still trying to figure out what prompted the worms todevelop these abilities. They must have had a natural foe whichused something approaching sensor technology to detectprey.”
Finnegan blurted out, “Ohno! You mean there’s something else hiding out in thosetunnels?”
“We don’t think so,”Lateef said. “Sensor readings would’ve spotted anything like that.Also, both the Featay and the Maykure have legends or stories aboutthe veil-worms but nothing about other animals living in thefloat-ways. It’s more likely that the natural enemy of theveil-worms died out years ago.” She waved a hand in Jallow’sdirection. “Sanaa’s agreed to interrupt her DNA analysis of thepeerazu samples, and tackle some from the veil-worm. That mighttell us more about their evolutionary development.”
Moira shot a startledglance at Sanaa. “You can use that instrument on something otherthan humans? I didn’t know that.”
Jallow looked up, her smileglowing white against her dark complexion. “I didn’t know it either– not until Aqila explained it to me. It turns out, a lot of aliencreatures have molecular structures similar to humans: DNA,proteins, enzymes…just like us.”
His eyebrows raised, Conlooked back and forth between Sanaa and Moira. “If you didn’t knowthat, then what were you intending to use it for? Disease diagnosisin humans?”
“No,” Sanaa said. “EricBaseman has one in Med-bay for that sort of thing. This one wasreserved for genetic assessment of New Earth’s colonizing personnel– to determine the best prospects for parenthood.”
Bly asked, “You mean aftera couple has decided they want to have children, you tell them ifthere are any issues?”
“No, I do pre-screeningand then make suggestions to couples who would produce the fittestoffspring.”
With an exaggeratedeye-roll, Deck quipped, “How romantic.”
Moira cocked her head,apparently parsing the sarcasm for a moment. “How is that youpeople decide to have children, if it isn’t based on geneticfitness?”
While the Lovelace crewexchanged amused glances, Deck retorted, “Uh, we have childrenbecause we want to.”
“And because it makessense for our situation in life,” Aqila added.
“Nice save, honey,” Conmuttered.
“Okay.” Naiche put herhands on her hips as she surveyed her teammates. “Let’s focus onthe problem at hand – you know, the veil-worms? How do we defeattheir stealth systems so that we can detect them withsensors?”
“Why is it so urgent forus to do that?” Bly asked.
“Because,” Aqila sighed,“this morning, they somehow convinced Commander Lindstrom to letthem take a trip to the home of the Intabet – in those floattunnels.”
Brodie’s mouth fell openfor a moment. “Wow, you have?”
His hands up, in aquelling gesture, Con explained, “Only if I can assure him that thejourney will be a safe one. And the first step in that task isfiguring out how to deal with the veil-worms.”
Lateef said, “We’ve triedusing a solution similar to the one we developed to penetrate thecloak around Maykah – with limited success. The problem is theseanimals are using an active rather than a passive cloakingtechnology. So, it works – but doesn’t yield instantaneousdata.”
“Yeah,” Deck said, “thatwon’t do. Those things move fast and are super deadly. We need toknow where they are – not where they were. Can you rig something upto defeat their stealth abilities entirely, rather than justpenetrating them?”
“I’m sure we could come upwith something eventually, but not in the timeframe you need.” Sheshook her
