By the time I’m ready to head for home, I’ve definitely had a little too much to drink, but there’s not going to be anyone there to judge me. All I have is a single message from Jack, left on my implant about half an hour ago. It simply says that he’s gone to stay at his sister’s apartment in London.

Is there a point in time when you can just tell that a relationship has run its course? If there is, then I’m now pretty sure that we’ve reached that point. Maria telling me that she could tell we were not behaving the same towards one-another was enough to make it pretty clear to me that what had just been a vague feeling on my part was much more than it seemed.

When I make it to our bedroom, it quickly becomes apparent that Jack obviously thinks so too – and that he’s probably been planning something for some time. I can’t resist looking into his closet to see how much stuff he has taken, but I’m shocked to see that it is empty. Maria said he left with a bag over his shoulder, but that couldn’t have possibly been everything. Much of his stuff must have been taken somewhere else before this evening’s events.

Sure, I’ve been busy for the last week or so, but how have I not noticed that he’s been moving out around me? Maybe more of this than I’d like to admit has been my fault – or at least because of my inattentiveness and distraction with work. The alcohol in my bloodstream is doing a sterling job of making me feel indifferent to the whole thing, but I’m also sure enough of my own thoughts to realize that it’s not a false reaction.

Well, if he’s already taken all his clothing and personal possessions, he has no reason to come back. It takes only a moment for me to instruct the building’s security system and remove his access to the apartment. That’s just how simple breaking up can be in a world without keys.

Now feeling a little sorrier for myself, I force myself to take a shower and drink half a litre of orange juice before heading to a bed that now suddenly seems far too big for one person.

Maybe it isn’t. I get a far better night’s rest than too much booze and a breakup have any right to allow. I wake a little late – definitely because of the booze – but more rested than I have felt in a long time. It’s a good thing that we don’t actually have office hours, or Melina would be yelling across the Mesh at me by now. Instead, I have time to have a good breakfast and head for the office at my own pace.

In one respect, Jack was right, however. I don’t actually have any responsibility for what’s going on with the approach to Thermia and the communications stuff. I might need to tell the press what’s going on, but right now we don’t have much to say. That doesn’t stop me being both interested and invested. Whatever else, I want this mission to be some sort of success, whether it is because of my input or despite it.

With nothing specific to occupy myself, I head through the now open Manannan gateway and sit down in a quiet corner of the control room where I can simply watch the approaching world on the viewscreens.

The great ship is still decelerating, but by nowhere near as much as she would have been doing right at turnover. The push of the engines – rear of the ship towards the planet and star – is probably about 0.4 of Earth gravity normal, just enough to give some weight and make movement still relatively easy.

The human-centric spaces on the ship are positioned and angled in such a way that there can be the feeling of gravity when the ship is accelerating or decelerating. Like all the exploration ships, Manannan isn’t designed to have a crew during flight, but it is designed to have people on-board after landing at the destination.

The massive viewscreens that dominate one wall are the best that could be found, giving an impressive view of the approaching solar system. We’re coming in at an angle that gives a stunning view of the primary with the two red-dwarf companions not quite in opposition but very bright and extremely red when seen from out in space. I’m pretty sure they won’t be as impressive if we ever get to see them from the ground.

Nexi has always been one to put on a show and our track is taking us towards the inner solar system with a very close pass of the inner of the three gas giants. I’ve never spent an enormous amount of time on Sevrin as an adult, but my youthful memory is more than enough to have a good appreciation of ringed giants in general. 

This one is something beyond anything I could have imagined. It’s perhaps 30% larger than Jupiter and has a ring system that would give Saturn or Artan a run for their money. Nexi has somehow managed to get us on a path that is bringing us close enough to the rings that I feel as if I could reach out and touch them.

One of the larger moons is seemingly drifting towards us, cryovolcanoes at either pole spewing glittering fountains of ice off into the void. It could easily become mesmerising, but we’re still travelling fast enough for it to be little more than a fleeting view.

There’s a flickering display of light off to my left and then Nexi’s avatar is standing close to me. <You’re not usually one to come out here and just sit around doing nothing. Some of the others, yes, but not you.>

“Yeah. I just needed some space to sit and think. The last few hours have been, well, challenging.”

<Is it something you wish to talk about?>

“Not entirely. Jack has moved out. Gone to London and presumably not coming back.”

<I see. You seem more contemplative than upset.>

“And you’re as perceptive as always, my friend,” I manage a small smile at their skills.

<As I’ve been telling members of your family for more than a century, I spent long enough alone to want to understand humans better when I finally got the chance. I’m never going to understand their personal relationships, but individual emotional responses are a speciality of mine.>

“I suppose I’m trying to figure out if I really did anything wrong. I’m not convinced that I did, but I’d like to think I’m self-aware enough to know that it is a possibility that I’ve been a complete bastard.”

<I find that hard to believe, but, as I said earlier, I’m not an expert on relationships. I have no frame of reference.>

“Well, neither am I. Anyway, I’m determined to not let it all bother me. I need to concentrate on the job at hand.”

<Good, because we are finally making some progress on the signals.>

“And when were you going to tell me this?”

<Right now. I’m just getting the report from Minerva and Argus as we speak. You might be better heading back to Earth and finding Melina.>

“Right. I’m on my way!”

Melina’s office better fits her position as mission commander, being at least three times bigger than my tiny space. She also has a corner location within the building and is one storey higher up. From here it is possible to see the towering rocket garden that forms part of the exhibit for the Cape Canaveral Museum.

By the time I get to the office, seats are becoming a premium. Minerva, Argus and Nexi are all present in avatar form, sitting on a couch off to one side and apparently chatting animatedly – well by AI standards anyway.

Apart from Melina, there are about half-a-dozen other members of the team, but there are still a few chairs left and I have no problem getting a seat. I’m pretty sure that attendance isn’t compulsory, but I am nominally the communications specialist and know I should be here. I’m surprised to see Tom sitting next to me. His speciality is geology, but he’s not the only somewhat unexpected face in the group.

Melina wastes no time getting started – it’s as if she was waiting for me to arrive, even though it’s only taken me a minute to get here from the ship.

“Right, I understand that we are making some progress on the signals from Thermia. Why don’t you tell us what we’ve found out, Minerva.”

<I need to emphasise at this point that we’ve not made a full analysis, just some preliminary findings that need to be discussed,> Minerva states.

“Okay,” Melina assures her.

<Whoever it was who first suggested that there might have been some encryption of the data was correct.>

<That was me,> Argus mutters with a burst of colour through his avatar.

<So, we have got as far as being able to confirm that there is encryption being used on every transmission, but not as far as being able to decode the encryption used.>

“Is that really progress at all then?” I ask.

<Well, we know more than we did yesterday and there are some interesting findings even at this stage,> Minerva continues. <While we cannot decrypt, we can confirm that there are two distinct types of encryptions being used. They are being shared fairly equally across the transmissions we are picking up, but they are mutually exclusive and really very different in style and implementation.>

I glance towards Melina as she mutters “Shit!” and our eyes lock in mutual understanding.

<Oh, this is bad,> Nexi manages as they also realize the importance of that revelation.

Several of the people in the office glance at Melina and myself for some sort of explanation of this and I’m the first one to manage to gather enough of my thoughts to speak up.

“There’s an implied suggestion that this means two separate cultures in conflict,” I suggest. “They are both using their own secret ciphers and codes to keep information from their enemies.”

“And, if it’s got so bad that they’re encrypting everything, then it’s pretty bad indeed,” Melina adds for emphasis.

“I see,” Tom mutters. “We’re flying into a war zone?”

“Well, we honestly don’t know the answer to that one,” Melina tells him. “It could be a full-blown planetary conflict or maybe just some sort of cold war situation. We won’t know until we can decode both sides.”

“Why both sides?” Tom asks.

“Because we won’t know if one side is telling the truth or not,” I tell him. “Sure, they could both be piling on the propaganda, but that makes it easier to read between the lines.”

<There is some other pertinent information,> Argus says when we grow quiet. < Now we are a little closer, we can confirm that all the signals are coming directly from the planetary surface or from satellites in orbits no further than geostationary.>

“So, in summary,” I say, “we have two groups on the surface either in full-blown conflict or close to it. They have space launch capability but have not gone beyond their planetary system. Are we to assume they have weapons commensurate with a space-launch capability?”

<That will be a clear and pretty obvious yes to ballistic missiles, or they wouldn’t have what appear to be orbital satellites,> Nexi adds. <We’re not in a position to know if this includes atomic or thermonuclear weapons. I’m still too far away to check the surface radiation levels to find out.>

“There are two fairly large moons, aren’t there?” Melina asks.

<Yes. No sign of signals from either of them so far,> Nexi tells us.

“Strange question,” I begin slowly and carefully, facing towards Nexi as I ask it. “If we were to be in orbit, would you be able to dodge a missile if someone fired one at the ship?”

<I think so, but not if there were dozens or hundreds fired at the same time.>

“Are you suggesting that we continue into orbit?” Melina asks me.

“Well, as long as the ship is safe, it’s the best way to find out what exactly is happening on the surface,” I point out with a shrug. “We can still choose to leave orbit again and head to the alternate target, even with a different pilot if Nexi doesn’t want to go any further. It’s just another advantage of not carrying fuel with us.”

<I don’t have a problem with it,> Nexi tells us quickly. <Whatever information we gather will be new and interesting, even if we decide to leave them to their conflict and fly away.>

“I’m going to assume that the AI network is continuing to work on the process of decoding these signals,” Melina asks, looking at Minerva and Argus in particular.

<Yes, of course,> Argus assures her. <It is still our main priority. We are currently looking at both transmission types and trying to detect the differences to see if that helps us at all. Again, I can’t emphasise strongly enough just how much of our space-wide resources we are putting into this.>

“Right, then that means we carry on as we are and wait for further breakthroughs,” Melina suggests with a frown. “Do we actually have anyone who we could add onto the team who is an expert in the sorts of conflict we are dealing with?”

<I might have someone,> Minerva suggests. <Do you just want an expert on military history or are you looking for a person with the requisite skills to add to a possible ground team?>

“What?” Tom asks incredulously. “Are you actually suggesting that you have trained military operatives available?”

<It’s certainly not common knowledge,> Minerva agrees, <but there are still people who take more than a passing interest in such things and even though we are at the heart of a benign federation of worlds and species, the AIs have not assumed that all encounters will be peaceful. There is a small but very competent military.>

The effect of this statement on Tom, and not a few of the others present, is pretty dramatic. I’d actually always assumed we still had some sort of army or whatever, but not that they were ready and waiting.

<There’s a junior history professor at Oxford who has also done the training necessary. He’s told me several times he’d like to put his skills to work.>

“We may not need his special skills,” Melina points out dryly. “Still, if you can give Axios the details, we can see about getting him assigned to the group on a temporary basis.”

<Done,> Minerva says simply.

“Good. I know there’s lots more to think about, but let’s wait and see if we can crack these codes,” Melina says, bringing the meeting to an end.