“I’m afraid that will not be possible,” the computer answered.
Irons didn’t seem surprised by the answer. Nevertheless, he persisted. “And why not?”
“As I said, the ship was converted into an unmanned reconnaissance ship after it arrived at its destination. As there was no more crew on board, the manual controls were removed, and it was switched entirely to computer operation.”
Irons sighed. “Shame. I would have liked to find out more about the builders and their technology.”
Jeff nodded. He was particularly interested in the builders of this ship, and their culture. He signaled to Irons and tapped on his chest. Irons nodded.
Jeff cleared his throat. “I have a few questions about the builders of this ship.”
“I will do my best to answer your questions,” the computer responded.
“First of all, what did they look like?”
Joanne whispered something to Castle, who did not hear her, he was so engrossed in the conversation.
“You would call the form humanoid. In fact, they did not look dissimilar to you. A little smaller and more graceful and without body hair. Big eyes, small mouth. Is that sufficient for an answer?”
Jeff nodded. The description matched the dimensions of the corridors and doors they had seen so far. The prevailing darkness in the ship, even when the light was on, suggested very light-sensitive eyes. “Yes, thank you. In what ways was their culture different to human culture—as far as you can tell?”
“I’m afraid this question exceeds my analytical abilities.”
“Did they have a religion? Did they believe in one or more gods, or in life after death?”
Mac rolled his eyes and groaned. Irons looked at him sharply.
“I do not understand the question.”
Either the aliens lacked culture and religion, which could not be ruled out, or the computer simply was not programmed to answer such questions. It was impossible to say.
“Do you have any information regarding the history of the builders?”
“I’m afraid my memory banks contain no information for the time before the ship departed from the world of origin.”
Jeff sighed. “Are there any rooms on this ship that contain evidence of the builders, and could we look at these?”
“I’m afraid the answer is no. There is nothing for you to find.”
Somehow Jeff had the feeling that despite the computer’s cooperation, it did not approve of their further exploration of the interior of the spaceship.
“You said we could move freely around the ship,” Jeff said. The computer did not answer. “Didn’t you?” Jeff persisted.
“Yes,” the computer replied.
“Would you give us a three-dimensional map of the ship so we don’t get lost?”
Irons looked up. Several long seconds passed, without an answer from the computer.
“Computer?”
“I’m sorry,” the answer came at long last. “My attention is required in another part of the ship where there has been a power failure. I will get back to you.”
A faint crackling sound indicated that communication had been broken off.
“The last sentence sounded almost like a threat,” Castle said.
“It’s a computer,” Green laughed. “It’s hardly capable of making ambiguous statements.”
“It all sounded logical to me,” Joanne put in. “They probably radically rebuilt the ship after they arrived in their new home system. If it’s only controlled by one machine, then it really doesn’t need a bridge anymore.”
“But why are there any quarters on the ship at all then?” Castle asked.
“Well,” Joanne mused. “All that seems to be left are these empty rooms and corridors. These quarters were specially prepared for us. A few days ago, they were just empty rooms.”
“Well, I don’t have a good feeling about any of this,” Castle said.
“Me neither,” Finni agreed. “Every time I hear the voice of that computer, I get the creeps.”
Owl laughed. “I think you’re being paranoid.”
“Jesus, we’re on an alien spaceship,” Castle looked angry. “Surely it’s natural to be a little paranoid.”
Owl just laughed again and gave a wave of his hand.
Castle turned to the major. “That computer said it would bring us to Sigma-7,” he began.
“What’s your point?”
“How do we know that it’ll really bring us there? Without access to a bridge or a map room, this ship could take us anywhere it wants.”
Irons shook his head. “As soon as the computer tells us we’ve made the first jump, two of us will go outside and check our position against the stars.” He turned to Joanne. “That’s possible, right?”
The navigator nodded. “Sure. Every handheld is capable of determining our location from the position of the stars. I saved our position when we left the Charon, we can easily compare the two.”
“So what next?” Finni asked.
Irons shrugged. “Our plan hasn’t changed. We’ll continue to check out our surroundings and gradually expand the radius of the area we explore.”
“But the computer just told us there’s nothing on board for us to find,” Finni said. “So why bother?”
“Do you want to spend all day in your room?” Irons asked, with a hint of a smile. “No. For one, we need a purpose, and we need exercise, since we’re going to be stuck here for half a year. And I don’t think we should rule out finding something interesting.”
“Do you think the computer lied to us?” Jeff asked.
Irons shook his head. “I didn’t say that. On the contrary. So far the computer has responded to all our questions with logical answers.”
“So why won’t it give us a 3D map of the ship?” Castle asked.
Irons shrugged. “I’m not sure I would hand out maps to unknown guests on board an Imperial ship. But let’s stop with all this speculation. Please clear the table, Lieutenant Castle. That’ll give you something to do and less time to brood.”
6.
“We’ve reached—” The rest of the words were swallowed by static.
Jeff hit the talk button. “Please repeat, Finni.”
“I said, we’ve reached a dead end. The corridor doesn’t go on.”
Irons leaned over Jeff’s shoulder. “Interesting. The whole area there seems to be cut off. The only access is this corridor here.” He pointed at a line on the three-dimensional map projected into the room by the handheld. Jeff nodded.
For the last week they had been exploring the corridors around their quarters. And the more they explored, the more apparent it became that the corridors were arranged in a particular pattern. Several times they had come across smaller areas that were only accessible via a corridor, which then branched off into dead ends. They came across these areas particularly near the outer shell of the ship. But they could never make it right to the edge of the ship—the corridors ended at least three hundred feet away. The only access to the outside was the airlock through which they’d entered. Joanne had floated the idea that the ship’s corridors were arranged in a fractal structure like a snowflake. This meant you could only ever cover larger distances inwards or outwards, and only short distances going sideways. If they wanted to get to a part of the surface that was farther away, they would first have to go deeper down, then move across through another passage to a different part of the ship, and from there go back up and out. Castle agreed with Joanne and hypothesized that this structure might be a result of the automated production process of the ship. A robotic factory or nano-forge would be provided with a specific, basic formula, and the artifact automatically produced repetitive elements according to these formulae, without the need for complex blueprints. Jeff vaguely remembered hearing workers in the shipyards on Luna talking about a similar process. And if that was the case, they only had one option left. “We have to go further toward the center of the ship.”