Q Is for Question

The (Ultimate) Answer is  profound, an epiphany, and also a myth. The (Ultimate) Question is all to real. I know. The archaeological dig to Quaestor-4 found the ruins, as as hydrogen. They scanned their glyphs brought them back to Station Solis for translation. The computers there were the best in the known galaxy. Unfortunately they were up to the task.

The Fleet quarantined the station after some weird distress signals. A boarding party from a frigate was ported over and never came back. The team leader kept chanting that he had to know ... had to know ...

The Fleet sent the dreadnought Zenith to Solis. It hit the station with a dozen torpedoes. Then it followed up with an attack run on the frigate. Something had gotten onto the frigate’s computers and they were going berserk working at ... something. The frigate’s AI kept saying, “Query ... Query ...”

The Zenith’s computer was removed at Fleet Com for a major overhaul. Overhaul? More like junking it. In the process three technicians came down with something. Those three are kept in complete isolation at Thule Base out on the Spinward Rim, served by dumb remotes and constantly monitored via image only cameras. The cameras do not record. The patients or prisoners or weapons have their mouths blurred to prevent lip reading. No psis are allowed within a five light year radius of the station where they are being held. The station is built around a one gigaton  nuke. It’s surrounded by jamming stations and communication is by precoded light display. 


I don’t want to know what the Question is. 

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