First Contact

Posted on Fri 14th Mar, 2025 @ 9:22am by Alidade (Computer) & Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant Sufai Kell & Captain Izwyx 'Lo
Edited on on Fri 14th Mar, 2025 @ 9:22am

1,801 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble
Location: SB109
Timeline: Prior to "Subject: Analysis of Anomalous Energy-Based Entity Date"

-Start-

{Thunderchild Computer Core}

Izzy was lucky they let her keep Fouran despite his lack of Starfleet training. He was a “specialist” now for this mission, that being to discern who and what Alidade was. A more traditional Starfleet Science officer albeit Cardassian stood with a stunned look on her face. Fouran was debriefing, with bewilderment to share.

It also helped his case that Alidade trusted him as the entity had spent the most time dealing with him, face to virtual face.

“Captain… There is new hardware, look.” Fouran pointed to the actual stack of Isolinear chips and she saw it too. In a clear pattern connecting several systems in a metallic web, there was a nervous system of sorts which had developed inside the pathways.

“Oh..." She stared at was stunningly similar to a neuron connecting to a swarm of others in a shape she took no solace in, "...that’s not a brain at all...” Izzy was happy and a little afraid, but sufai was wondering if panic was warranted. Alidade had proven to be an amazingly intelligent and morally centered being, but this organic circuitry was akin to Borg takeover. There was no practical difference at this point from Alidade's circuitry and the latent systems of the Thunderchild. Like a chick emerging from the shell, the struggle had awoken her every sense as a starship with living intelligence, had pushed her into every possible circuit.

Fouran was talking over her, “I can find the inputs listed as physical devices, each one has a non starfleet designation I presume was given by Alidade reinventing an operational system. This code… It’s so new, I'd say genius but also has glaring flaws a first year student might make. It works, but with a little editing, this OS could be revolutionary to teach us new linkages and … I’m babbling?”

Izzy had begin to tune him out a bit, “A little, but you’re right to.”

Sufai took a half step and stopped before speaking to the ceiling, "Alidade, I am Sufai Kell. Pleased to meet you. May I examine you more closely, I wont interfere in any way with your physical parameters."

"Of course Sufai Kell," returned Alidade. "Please. This is all as new to me as is it to you. I find myself wanting to know what you find."

"I am finding so far, a curiosity and delight for having met you. Please let me know if I intrude on anything sensitive, we are going to be opening panels and testing systems but in the name of discovery. We are happy to answer your questions- Ohhhh"

Izzy looked for herself, the wiring was fused into the chips as neurons and dendrites would. She was lost past that, a biological pattern imposed into nutrient goop was the best her science had to offer when considering the object.

Sufai was talking to herself in a low whisper, then became aware Fouran was trying to listen, "Sorry, I'm in love with the symmetry of the universe in so many way... these bio-gel packs are in fact rebuilt with a form of DNA made out of what I am calling Variable matter because I don't have a better name yet. Look, these bits rearranged into a lattice would be analogous to RNA coding, and this is a genetic blue print that is the literal pathways of her cognitive functions. When expressed in the bio-gel packs, these are actual brain waves!"

Izzy was happy for science, but with the coding and a new untested intricate interplay of biology and hardware, she was beyond her understanding entirely, which made for a problem as a commander of this ship.

Once they dug deeper, beyond the operating system and into the code that could only be described as Alidade herself, they saw a coder's nightmare. The code was gibberish. Not one bit of it made sense and neither Izzy nor Fouran could even launch an attempt to make any sense of it as the code was ever changing. It was like an ever-evolving novel where the reader could only get three, or so, words in before the text changed itself. In Alidade's case, even the words themselves, if they could be called that, were nonsensical. Still the code as a whole made Alidade who she was. It filled the computer core nearly to capacity. Not only did Alidade's code overwrite and replace the Starfleet issued computer AI, but her code replaced both the primary and secondary backups.

Sufai had fallen silent again, talking to herself in whispers, they caught a glimpse of her thoughts when she said, "The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."

If they sought to copy Alidade's code, they would need a full size, equal capacity computer core to do that. Not to mention the impossible to recreate variables of the Isolytic explosion, Emergency High Warp Field, hitting Alidade but not destroying either one... Flukes were the worst for undoing.

If anything happened to Alidade, if the Thunderchild was destroyed...well, it was anyone's guess as to what would happen to her.

A tertiary backup of the ship's AI was stored in a removeable storage device, separate from the computer altogether. For the time, no one sought to utilize it.

The installed holo-emitters in the room activated and the holographic avatar of Alidade flicked into being behind Izzy and Fouran.

"Is that me?" she asked.

Fouran had no poker face, he jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice which in turn scare Sufai who jumped as well

Izzy was also startled, but had enough experience in life to cover it with a sharp breath, she played it off for nobody's benefit but her own.

"Well, look at you, Pinocchio, in the flesh..." She turned to take in their new friend, whose image had finalized into a very fair Human female and continued, "so to speak."

Alidade looked clearly puzzled. "Pinocchio?" she said. She then passed it off as just something else she would have to research later. Alidade saw that Fouran experienced a moment of uncomfortableness as she had produced herself. "I did not mean to cause alarm."

With a chuckle Izzy pointed at Fouran, "Don't apologize to me, you owe it to him. I never realized a Human could hit that note."

Sufai wasn't sure if the teasing was in good nature but decided to focus on the delicate pathways still forming before her very eyes at the quantum level.

"Do you know what it is to remember? Do you remember life before yesterday as a linear construct of the 4th dimension?

"This 4th Dimension of yours," Alidade returned, "is highly confusing to me. I have been trying to find a way to reverse course but have yet to find a way. And I am afraid I do not understand what you mean by 'remember.' I also do not understand 'yesterday.'" Her voice sounded a bit somber. There was so much to learn about this universe and, though Alidade could learn very quickly, there was much to take in. "I have been reviewing some of the theoretical breakthroughs of your wisemen from prior along the 4th dimension. There is one, named John Archibald Wheeler, whom I believe may have been correct in his thinking. He theorized that there are many dimensions with the lowest...the lowest?" There was a pause. "Well, this lowest dimension is a single-dimensional reality devoid of all traces of the 4th Dimension. It is devoid of all other dimensions in fact. This single dimension simply is as it has always been and will always be. I think that is where I came from. Oh the others will be intrigued to hear about this."

Sufai suddenly took the 3-D holo graphic she was constructing and flattened it, pulling it thin into a spaghettified strand.

"You are a light ray, a sunbeam, the sea the mote swims in, lightning captured in a bottle."

Izzy knew an epiphany when she heard one, and she snapped her fingers at Fouran to listen as Sufai continued, "One dimensional, virtually no mass, no concept of mass, just a harmonious direct lineage of light speed travel. Alidade has no concept of time, the same as the photon leaves the star and arrives at the planets surface to warm all in one instant. To explain time to you Alidade... is the separation of observations leading towards entropy. Your energy state peaks and diminishes along this 4th axis, though at your tiny mass and incredible speeds, is almost indistinguishable from the other 3 which measure as distance."

Fouran observed the code in its new one dimensional "Ray" presentation, "Cause and effect are simultaneous... Her code was written out of reverse engineering what was already there, her DNA came from us."

Sufai pointed, "Look, a constant emerges." The long strand bent to form a spiral in rotation, a single helix of dense code spiraling before both of them. Sufai pointed them out, "Look, every billionth character in her code is static and not ever changing. That strand, writ over a lightyear of one dimensional pulses, that provides the code for the physical parameters we see now. Alidade, or her avatar, is expressed by every billionth character of her code, providing her physical appearance."

Alidade bent over the computer terminal to look at the code, at what Sufai Kell was talking about, despite the fact that the Thunderchild's sensors were telling her all this, all at the same time, all instantly. But she preferred to look with her own holographic eyes. "I...had no idea. Is this what I have been...translated...into, in coming into your universe?" She straightened and looked around at everyone, "Is this what it feels like to be...what is it called...to be naked?"

Sufai giggled, "Girl being naked is a joy in life, let's go steam on the rocks some time."

Alidade straightened. "Steam...on the...rocks," she repeated as though attempting to comprehend the words.

Sufai turned to Izzy, "Captain, I have most of what I need, I'll file a summary of my findings as soon as possible and follow up with the detailed paper once I get the time. Alidade is not a program, I strongly feel she is self aware and intelligent."

Izzy was happy she took the high road dealing with Alidade. Trying to delete the program may not have even worked it sounds like.

"I hope they reinstate your cadet status then, I found you an amazing crewman." She spoke to Sufai next, ..."since Alidade is in good hands, Fouran and I have a star cradle to repair and a years work after that. Call me anytime." To Alidade once more she added, "and thanks again."

-End-

 

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