Chapter 127. Data sharing, Noah and Otis meet again
"Before we left, I looked into Shu Ran. Based on your information, I thought it might make sense to do so. I know some of the people who were on Shu Ran's ship. I talked to them and they told me that Shu Ran had Got a boyfriend for like four weeks. I thought you should know," Celia said.
Ingmar stared at her intently, as if his brain couldn't process the information. Perhaps his subconscious refused to accept the words as some kind of self-protection mechanism. But in reality, he was trying to find an explanation in his mind. Four weeks! During this time, she contacted him three times. But she never mentioned it. Instead, she even gave him a kiss during their last contact. But friends wouldn't do that, no matter what Celia said. After all, he never delivered a kiss in his messages. And neither did she. None of this made sense to him. "Are you sure?" he finally asked weakly.
She sighed. He could clearly see how devastated he was, and now she felt guilty because she was the one who told him the news. But he would find out at some point. "I have confirmation from three people. I believe them." She looked at him worriedly. "Did she never mention it?"
"No." He smiled ruthlessly. "But she doesn't have to. After all, we've broken up. We're just friends. Friends don't have to tell everything."
Celia shook her head in confusion. "If you were a true friend, there would be no reason to hide something like this. And I guess she knew exactly how you felt. Then she could have been more considerate and told you the truth. How else could you defend her?"
He shrugged helplessly.
"Does she know you were transferred to the Republic?"
He shrugged again. "I haven't told her yet. There hasn't been the right opportunity yet." After all, he didn't even know until a few hours ago.
"Well, if she doesn't know, she won't contact you again. Then you can be free and start your life again," she said, trying to cheer him up.
"Yes." He said simply. Then he turned and walked toward the door. "Goodbye," he muttered and walked away.
She watched his leaving figure. She hoped she could help him in some way. But she also understood that there was nothing she could do except stay by his side. He must face it alone.
Just as Noah walked into the bridge, he heard Carol give an order to display something on the screen. The next moment, he saw a sandy-yellow planet appear on the screen, orbiting a bright sun. From this angle, no blue spots are visible, indicating a very dry world. Overall, the place was not a very attractive one, however, he knew this was their target.
He had just been informed that they had arrived at the target planet, the planet where the meeting and explosion disaster took place. This means his mission begins now. By now, he was more like a guest on the ship, or so he felt. He took the time to visit this wonderful new ship and prepare it for this mission as well as possible under these conditions. He tried not to draw too much attention to himself. Because the last thing he wanted to do was bother Carol that people might forget who the captain was and see him as the old captain. Now, he must come to the command bridge and participate in the arrival ceremony. From now on, he doesn't want to miss anything. Each point may be important and contribute to the success of the mission.
"Captain, we have a convoy." Ingmar reported from his post. "Three Sindy ships are intercepting the route. They sent a message saying they will escort us into Earth orbit." He turned to Carol. "There are two crawler warships and an insect ship." His tone indicated that he did not think this was an escort, but a surveillance of the Republic. This is a perfectly reasonable judgment.
"Thank you, Mr. Ingmar. We will be happy to accept the escort." There was a hint of sarcasm in her tone. Obviously, her views on escort were consistent with Ingmar's judgment. Then she looked at Noah. "Admiral, welcome to the command bridge." She wanted to stand up and give him her seat, but he waved her hand to indicate that she didn't have to. There is no need for him to take command now. He doesn't do it unless the situation calls for it. For now he is just background and observer.
She nodded briefly in return before focusing once more on the current events.
The convoy deployed evenly around the Republic and moved on together. They still have thousands of kilometers to travel until they reach synchronized orbit. It was not a long journey and within a few minutes they reached their destination. However, the convoy did not leave after this. Instead, they repositioned themselves to either side of and above Republic, with the target planet below it. It was clear that the Sindi wanted to keep an eye on their guests and restrict the freedom of movement of Federation ships if necessary.
"I had guessed it," Carol said softly. She wasn't entirely happy about it, but she had to admit that she would do the same thing if it were her place. And since they had no plans to do anything to deceive the Sindi, she could almost tell that it would make little difference to her whether the Sindi surrounded them or not. Because who knows what they are planning. "Mr. Ingmar, keep a close eye on the Sindis. In an emergency, you must activate the shields immediately, even without explicit orders."
"Are you expecting an attack?" he asked, somewhat surprised.
"No, but you never know. We know too little about the Sindy to predict their motives," Carol said.
Ingmar nodded in understanding, although he hoped such precautions would be unnecessary. "I'm going to be vigilant," he said, trying to put a positive spin on it. That way he had a task to focus on while they orbited the planet.
Carol turned and looked at her former captain. "We've reached our destination. Now it's your turn." She didn't seem to envy his mission.
Noah nodded intently and took a step forward. He needed to think about what to do next. Since the Sindi requested to investigate with them, he had expected them to be received in some way. Not just an escort, but a message, or even a person by Otis or someone else to welcome them. But that doesn't seem to be happening. This made the situation somewhat beyond his expectation.
The instruments on the bridge hummed softly, and everyone present was waiting for his next order. This was no longer familiar to him. For the past six months, he has been issuing orders from behind his desk that are no longer immediately enforceable but must instead work their way up the chain of command. You can see how quickly he adapted to this different, slightly slower pace. Now he must take initiative and do so immediately.
He walked firmly to the bridge chairman's side. "Mr. Ingemar, call the Sindi. Tell them we have arrived and are ready to begin the investigation," he ordered in a calm but forceful tone.
"Yes, Captain," after receiving confirmation, the atmosphere on the bridge seemed to have lifted a spell.
Noah then turned to the science station. "Mr. Jeffrey, scan the area below us. If I'm not mistaken, that's the area of destruction we want to investigate."
"You are right," the Vulcan confirmed, and immediately clarified: "But we are not directly above the destruction zone. Our deviation is 5.43 degrees."
Noah couldn't help but smile, and the corners of his mouth raised involuntarily. Standing here, giving orders, and observing the typical reactions of the crew, it almost felt nostalgic for him. But he wasn't here to bask in memories. "A deviation of 5.43 degrees won't have much impact on the sensor reading," he responded somewhat nonchalantly.
"The deviations are within acceptable limits," Jeffrey agreed.
Instead of continuing the discussion, Noah turned directly to the security officer. "Mr. Murakami Io, keep your team on alert. We may need a security team at any time to land on this planet, or go to the Cindy ship or other places."
Murakami Io nodded, and his tentacles seemed to indicate this action.
"Mr. Nilf, use computer simulations to calculate our best escape route to escape without causing significant damage to our convoy," his order was not finished. "We should be prepared if things don't go well here."
"Yes, Captain," the half-Vulcan nodded briefly and immediately got to work.
This way, everyone on the bridge is busy and no one feels nervous about having nothing to do.
He looked at Carol and she acknowledged him. She didn't know if she would have reacted similarly. Maybe, but she couldn't be sure. She stood up, walked unobtrusively to Noah, and offered him the position of bridge chairman. After all, he has the highest command over this mission, and the captain doesn't have much to do here.
This time, Noah accepted the offer and sat in the chairman's position on the bridge, with Carol standing beside him. It feels so good to sit on this chair. This is always the case, but when a routine becomes the norm, you soon stop noticing it. The dynamics of the entire spacecraft are concentrated here. This is the center of the ship. It is an indescribable feeling, but after half a year, this feeling has returned.
In this way, they completed a temporary transfer of command without attracting much attention.
Ingmar turned around, and it was impossible to tell whether he noticed the handover or what he was thinking. "Sir, we have made contact with the Sindi people. Mr. Otis is waiting for us and is on the phone now."
"Show him on the screen," Noah ordered immediately.
A Sindy appears on the ship's main screen, looking very similar to a human. At least that's what it seems at first glance. However, it was clear from his face that he belonged to a different species. The similarity is only because he is a similar race to the Sindi. And it's clear that intelligent humanoids will look similar, and this doesn't just apply to humanoids. Reptilian Cindy's with similar intelligence will appear similar at first glance, despite evolving independently on different planets.
This Sindi man seemed familiar to Noah. After all he had spoken to him. Although that conversation lasted only thirty minutes and half a year had passed, Noah had not forgotten this face. And because he had been told who he would be talking to, he recognized Otis immediately. However, the Cindy looked tired and exhausted.
"Mr. Otis. Nice to see you again," he greeted the Sindy friendly.
"General Noah, welcome. Although the circumstances under which we meet again are not pleasant," Otis replied equally friendly. However, there was the same tiredness in his voice as in his face. It seemed like something had drained him of a lot of energy over the past few days.
"Yes, it was a horrific event that struck both our species," Noah nodded politely. "Do you have any new insight into how things are going?"
Otis shook his head in frustration. "We have taken as many measurements as possible over the past few days to record all the details as much as possible. But we have not yet been able to reconstruct the events. It seems that every answer raises more questions. The only thing that can be said for sure at the moment is Yes, a deadly matter-antimatter reaction chain appeared. But we don’t know the source of antimatter yet. According to the colony’s records, there is no antimatter here. The energy of this colony comes from solar panels, and the intensity of sunlight here is very high, Easier to control and monitor than complex matter-antimatter mixing reactions. We had hoped to learn something about the origin of antimatter, but no progress has been made yet."
While Otis was describing the progress of the current investigation, Jeffrey was already standing next to the command chair. He listened intently, and Noah knew he had recorded and saved every detail. For these questions, the Martian brain is absolutely unparalleled. Almost like a computer, Jeffrey can recall recorded data at any time. He exchanged glances with Noah, received permission, and then asked Otis a question.
"Mr. Otis. My name is Jeffrey, and I am the science officer of the Republic. Can you provide some references to these records? Perhaps I can help in analyzing this data."
Otis nodded. "Of course, Mr. Jeffrey. We are willing to provide you with the data. But I would like you to come to our ship in person. I would like to show you the data in person, and what we know so far. Although there is not much yet Progress, I must admit.”
Noah and Carol looked at each other. Of course, they were temporarily worried that it might be a trap. However, that idea was dismissed just as quickly. The entire mission may itself be a trap. In building trust, they have to start somewhere. So Noah was happy to accept the invitation. "When shall we go to your ship?" he asked.
"As soon as possible, I hope," Otis smiled with eagerness. "But to prepare us and you, I suggest waiting an hour, is that okay with you?"
Noah nodded. "No problem. We'll teleport to your ship within the hour."
"I'll send you the coordinates. See you in an hour." Otis ended the call.
The scene switches back again to show part of the planet and space in the background.
"Mr. Jeffrey, I want you to come with me to the Sindi ship." Noah said to the Martian. "Collate all the data collected by our sensors. We'll take it with us."
"Yes, General," Jeffrey nodded briefly before returning to his workstation.
Carol approaches Noah. "You're going to show Otis all our data?" she said to him softly, just for him to hear.
"Yes." Noah nodded. "We are here to work with the Sindi to figure out what happened. We should be honest with each other. Only then can we possibly investigate this incident."
"If the Sindi showed us all their data," Carol said without any other comment.
Noah smiled. "That's what's interesting about this type of mission."
The corners of Carol's mouth also raised slightly. "As long as you don't get tired of it, I wouldn't worry about it." Then she returned to the command chair again, taking over Noah's place. She was also required to keep the ship's logbook, documenting the events of the arrival of the Sindi. Although computers record all ship activity, a person still needs to summarize the data. Because the conversation and its contents also need to be recorded, at least what is important to the task, not everything is recorded.
Noah and Jeffrey were standing on the teleporter. When they entered the Cindy ship and faced Otis, they recognized him immediately. Noah stretched out his arm and took Otis's hand. "Thank you," he said. "Hopefully our cooperation will open up more and better cultural exchanges, despite the unpleasant events."
Otis nodded slightly. "Hopefully so. But I fear that will only happen if we can get a quick result or if our side is implicated in this incident." He raised an unpleasant possibility.
"You think so?" Noah asked in surprise. Of course, he also considered the possibility of a saboteur. But the idea seemed somehow unsuitable for him.
"I don't know what to believe anymore," Otis replied honestly, and motioned for them to follow him.
Otis took them to a conference room where there was a huge display showing some data. These data are not unfamiliar to Noah's eyes, they are very similar to the data on their own ship, but the details are different.
"This is all the data we collected," Otis explained. "We have analyzed and interpreted as much of this data as we can, but we still don't have a firm answer."
Noah studied the data on the screen. "Can we share our data?" he asked. "Perhaps we can see the problem from a different perspective and find clues."
Otis thought for a moment. "Of course, we are willing to share our data. It will help us understand this event more fully."
Noah nodded gratefully. Then they began to compare and communicate the data from both sides. Although they have not yet found the answer, the cooperation between the two parties has made a good start. Noah is confident in this mission, hoping to find the truth and promote understanding and cooperation between the two civilizations.
That didn't sound good to Noah. Might Cindy have discovered something that supports this argument? Or is Otis just a pessimist?
