"Mike, display the locations of the alien vessels with respect to our own on the main monitor please," Tabitha ordered.
"Yes, Tabitha," Mike acknowledged.
The image of our warp bubble and the Phoenix in the middle setting in the flat-space region of the modified Alcubierre warped spacetime appeared on the monitor. Flanking the Phoenix's warp bubble were Gray spacecraft immediately in front, behind, above and below us. The ships were just outside the van den Broeck warp bubble region and were maintaining our velocity.
"How did they detect us, Mike?" 'Becca asked.
"They detected the variation in the spacetime energy density in and around the warp bubble. The expansion in the spacetime behind the Phoenix causes an increase in the quantum fluctuations, while in front there is a decrease. SuperAgents like myself likely detect this through changes in data rate flow in this region," Mike explained.
"Uh, Mike, that sounds like they are simply measuring the curvature of the spacetime to me," Jim said.
"You say tomayto and I say tomahto," Mike offered. He must have been investigating humor again. Or perhaps that was the best way to explain it. After all, some of Earth's physicists have quibbled over quantum theory versus General Relativity for more than a century now and they both say basically the same thing—if you do the math correctly.
"I understand, Mike," Anson interrupted. "But tell me this: How the hell are we detecting them through the warp field? We've always had to stop to detect them before."
"I am detecting them by sending out pings through the alien Framework and timing the return. I'm not actually reading the return information so returning data cannot compromise my programming. Rather, I am simply timing the return like a radar system that actually sends a standing wave out through the . . . there is no human equivalent explanation here . . . but I think that Hilbert space is similar . . ." Mike paused for a second.
"Allow me, Mike." I knew what he was trying to say. "Anson, the Grays have some other model of the universe that is not really in line with our so called Standard Model. All of the universe is tied and connected through the infrastructure for this alien Framework. Their universal internet isn't artificial, it actually is part of the fabric of the universe. The Grays just figured out that it was there and how to use it."
"Is this Infrastructure something like Superstrings or quantum filaments?" Anson asked as he stared at the alien ships on the monitor. The ships looked pretty much the same size and type as the Phoenix.
"As far as I can tell, superstrings are a very very distant cousin to the concept," Tatiana added. "The interesting thing is that the Infrastructure and the Framework do require many more dimensions, like the infinite orthogonal dimensions of Hilbert space or of string theory."
"I see." Anson nodded and thought for a second. "You know, this is no different than the concept of quantum consciousness. Physicists have been considering the idea for decades. Basically, what you said was that there is some underlying 'connectedness' or Infrastructure throughout the universe that ties everything together. Well, this is no different than claiming that the universe is—one thing—and then writing down a quantum mechanical wave function for it. Granted, the Hamiltonian would be a bear, but I think I even remember reading something by Wheeler and something by Penrose about this. It isn't specific to the aliens. In fact, the quantum consciousness of the universe would explain the instantaneity of passing information through this Infrastructure. The wavefunction for the universe would be in a reference frame that is atemporal, and therefore time wouldn't even be a factor. Think about it. Most observations we make in this universe take some finite amount of time to complete. But if you try to measure whether you are 'self-aware' or not, does that measurement occur instantly? It is at least at the speed of thought. How fast is that? Hell if I know." Anson shrugged, then continued.
"If I recall correctly—and with this new-fandangled memory that your nanomachines gave me, I do—then I recall reading a paper that showed mathematically that if consciousness is a real part of the universe's wavefunction, and it should be, then it would be instantaneously connected throughout the universe. These little Gray guys must have figured this out to the nth detail and have determined how to implement and use it.
"Boy, I sure would like to get hold of that alien Infrastructure router hardware." Anson sounded excited.
Mike, download me all info on this quantum consciousness, I thought.
Okay, Steven, here it comes.
It was a very exciting concept. However, I think it was annoying Tabitha a little bit since there were more pressing things at hand.
"Ahem," Tabitha cleared her throat. "Steven, can the Gray ships penetrate the warp field?" she asked.
"Well, Mike, Tatiana, and I have been debating that for a few weeks now and we do not believe that matter can be passed through the warp bubble via the quantum connectedness. Information can be quantum teleported back and forth through the bubble as Mike is doing via the Framework radar pings. But sending matter through is a completely different question."
"Yeah, it is possible that a teeny tiny bit of matter the size of like a Planck distance could surf on the front of an information packet and be teleported across the Framework," Tatiana stated.
"That is possible, Tatiana, but to my knowledge it has never been attempted or even experimented with before. And it is possible to build regions of quantum fluctuations so violent on the surface of the warp bubble that it would become impenetrable even to that concept," Mike contributed.
"Okay. So they can't fire a missile in here at us, but they could bombard us with annoying infomercials if they wanted to." Sara smiled as she adjusted the nametag on her alien armor top. Tatiana noticed she was having problems with it and put her hand on it and had the nanomachines fix it. "Thanks," Sara said.
"No problem."
"Mike, is there any way they could get through your firewall and take control of you?" Al asked.
"I don't think so. But I will keep a continuous watch for intruders," Mike said.
We used every sensor that Mike had and all of the sensors the W-squared team had brought on board in an attempt to determine as much information about our tag-alongs as possible. We found out very little. Jim and 'Becca went down to the landing bay to make certain that the warp missiles were ready while the rest of us tried to find things to do that might help. There wasn't much to do except wait.
Four eight-hour shifts later, we were approaching the target star system. It was time to slow down and come out of warp. If we kept the bubble on we wouldn't be able to see out. If we turned the bubble on and off quickly with the so called "lights off, lights on" maneuver, or oscillated the amplitude of the bubble, the Gray ships might be able to time it right and pass through the bubble.
"Use the images that Mike gets by pinging the Infrastructure. Why don't we just use the alien sensors to study the star system while we leave the warp bubble on full?" Tatiana didn't understand why we were even considering turning off the bubble in the first place.
"Mike, scan this system and give us as much visual data on inhabitants as you can. Also, bring us to a star-centric orbit at about the midpoint of the solar system," Tabitha ordered.
"Yes, Tabitha," Mike replied.
The alien ships followed with us and soon fourteen others joined our convoy. We were completely surrounded by Gray ships the size of the Phoenix. But there were only eighteen of them and we had a hundred and something missiles.
"Shouldn't we be trying to hail them or something?" Jim said. "That's what they would do in the movies."
"We will follow the protocols we have put together," Tabitha said. "We will answer them back if they call us. After we are certain there are no hostilities planned, then we will consider hailing them."