An older fusion ship, Midloth's Run, was outfitted with the scientific equipment the scientists needed, and its retired but distinguished captain, Adam Williams, volunteered to pilot. The rest of the crew comprised a wide range of ages and expertise but all were volunteers.
The Midloth's Run had made a jump and was now orbiting its first recharging star. It had been three weeks and the chief engineer estimated a few more days until there would be enough power to open a wormhole to their next designation.
Jean and the other scientists had stayed busy but the rest of the crew were getting restless waiting for the isotopic power reservoir to recharge. The Captain was trying to maintain a routine for the crew but he could see that after only three weeks discipline might become a problem with ten more such jump and recharge cycles to go before they got to their destination.
Finally, after five weeks, the isotopics were recharged and the ship was preparing for its next jump, a star system right at the forty light-years limit of the wormhole drive. Its central star was somewhat larger and hotter than the Sun which should shorten the next recharge cycle.
Captain Williams announced the impending jump over the ship's com and Emmies. He then turned to the drive engineer and said, “Very well Ms. Morgan, engage the drive.”
Lt. Morgan cast the near wormhole mouth. There in front of the ship, a bright point of light shone. The point enlarged quickly into a sphere and grew to a size large enough to swallow a ship. At this point Lt. Morgan began the cast of the far wormhole mouth. Just then the ship shuddered and rushed towards the wormhole.
“Helmsman why are we moving?” said the Captain.
“I'm not sure sir, engines are not engaged.”
Before the Captain could order the ship to maintain its position it had lurched into the wormhole mouth and was through the wormhole.
“Navigator where are we?” said Captain Williams.
“I'm not sure sir the navigation Ems are recalibrating.”
“Look,” said the helmsman pointing at the wallscreen.
There on the screen was a planet.
“How'd that get there,” said one of the crew.
“Sir,” said the navigator. “I believe we are in the target system.”
“How's that?” said the Captain. “You're talking about a jump of almost five-hundred light-years. It's impossible, you know that.”
“It's not me Captain it's the navigational Ems. They put our location as the original destination.”
“Okay,” said the Captain. “Regardless of how impossible it is, helmsman put us on a course to orbit the destination planet.”
The Captain immediately called for the scientists and his officers to assemble in the wardroom.
“Ladies and gentlemen the Ems tell us we have arrived at our destination.”
“How is that possible?” asked Dr. Schenk.
“I have no idea. But there's never been such an error made by any navigational Ems. So my conclusion is we are at our destination.”
“Lt. Morgan,” said Jean. “You are aware of what happened on our expedition to Earth?”
“You mean the wormhole cast?”
“Yes the impossible distance that the wormhole was cast. If it was possible for someone to recast that wormhole mouth over five-hundred light-years then wouldn't it be possible for it to happen again?”
“Perhaps but the scale of the cast, the power required would be impossible.”
“Well maybe whoever is responsible for these 'impossible' casts knows how to do it without requiring such impossible amounts of power.”
“Well that would explain it,” said Captain Williams. “And I expect whoever has the knowledge to cast such a wormhole is on that planet below us.”
Surprisingly it only took a few hours to put the ship into orbit around the planet. That meant that they had emerged from the wormhole mouth much closer to the planet than the usual quarantine limits allowed, another unexplained difference. By the time they were in orbit, the scientists were ready to use their tools to search for the possible reservoir of recorder globes.
“Okay we have the coordinates from our previous contact on this planet,” said Dr. Burton from the forward stationary bridge of the fusion ship. “Lt. Morgan if you would feed these coordinates into the wormhole drive and open a small wormhole, please.”
“Yes sir just a moment,” said Morgan in the rotating crew wheel bridge. “Okay Dr. Burton there you go.”
Burton could see the small wormhole mouth just ahead of the ship. It was about the size of a basketball. He loaded the modified bird into the ejection chute and launched the bird toward the wormhole mouth. It entered and was gone.
Burton waited a moment then opened up a link with the bird. Turning on the camera he felt a sense of deja vu as the returning picture was very similar to the one they had received while orbiting the Earth. It was obvious that they had come, or had been kidnapped, to the right place.
The recorder globes filled the walls of the room the bird found itself in. And as Dr. Burton moved through the door of that room and into the hall they saw room after room filled with globes. At the end of the hall was an opening in the floor and the ceiling. They could tell from the glow of other halls that the corridor went up and down for many more levels.
“Okay everyone let's get to work.”
At first, the work consisted of finding the correct sequencing of the globes. It wasn't long until the other two scientists were with Burton operating their own birds. They were all looking for something in the globes that would indicate how they were sequenced.
It was several days before something occurred that would help speed up the search.
As she hopscotched from room to room Jean found out quite by accident when her bird failed to respond fast enough, that it could pass through the wall of globes without incident. It became a quicker way of investigating the site than using the “doors” and “halls”.
It was a couple of more days when Jean found what they were looking for. In almost the top level of the recorder bank, as they had started calling the installation, she began searching a room with her bird. At first, she thought something was wrong with her equipment. Globe after globe seemed barren of information. But that was only at first appearance because each globe did have a single piece of information. Jean got excited.
She quickly recorded this piece of data from globe after globe and through several rooms. The only problem was that even after being decoded by the Ems the resulting numbers made no sense. They were neither sequential nor related in any other manner as far as Jean could tell. After puzzling over the mystery for awhile she submitted the problem to her Emmie and retired for the night.
Jean awoke late the following morning. She opened up her Emmie and found the answer. The Em had enlisted the aid of almost all the other Ems on the ship and together they had discovered the pattern of numbers. Each number was a concatenation of several primes. These linked numbers taken together gave the level, room, wall, shelf and position of the present globe, the previous globe, and the next globe. Jean was excited and quickly dressed. She would see if she could make the morning meeting which had already started.
15
Jaeon placed the plates before Pieon and Georges and took his seat. “Try this Georges,” said Jaeon in Rigan, “I believe you will like it.”
Georges tasted the liquid, it had a berry taste which was surprisingly good. He said, “Thank you Jaeon, it’s different but I like it. Jaeon, Pieon and I were just talking about how the doorways sense your approach. Pieon, I was asking you if the doorway is sensing the natural EM field you and other Trilons project.”
“Yes,” said Pieon, “I believe that is so.”
“And if that is true,” continued Georges, “you can not only sense the EM fields of other Trilon but the EM fields of machinery. But machinery produces powerful and chaotic fields that must be very confusing to Trilons. So much so that I bet some Trilons would become almost comatose under such bombardment.
”
“I think that is possible,” said Pieon, “but I have never experienced such confusion and I have been around Rigans more than any other Trilon.”
“That's true,” said Georges, “but you are an expert in taking in knowledge and organizing it into understanding, you seek out such knowledge. But some Trilon do not. To them when presented with machine noise they might have a difficult time filtering out the chaos and they could be overcome to the point of becoming catatonic until the noise source is removed. There are case studies in Rigan psychology that support this hypothesis. That would explain, Pieon, why the Trilon cannot be in the same area as our machines.
“That also answers the question that the council put to me. Other Trilons, unless like can be trained like you, cannot be expected to assist us in our work. The danger is too great. Some might be interested and acclimate to the work but most could not be expected to participate. This puts a hard limit on how much direct support the Rigan hierarchy can expect from your species.”
“Some may like to help in some way,” said Pieon. “But I think you are right, that the Rigans should not expect a large number. Many cannot or are not interested in much understanding, they will never be of help.”
“Well Pieon, Jaeon, I will have to return with this information to the council. I will convince them that they need to look elsewhere for a larger workforce, although I can tell you the expense will not be welcomed by those in charge.”
16
Georges spent a couple of diurnals resting and discussing Trilon and Rigan physiology, history and social organization with Pieon and Jaeon. Their Rigan improved dramatically, his understanding of Trilon was still sparse. He found the food satisfying even though it was completely vegetarian. Pieon and Jaeon could not seem to understand a desire to eat meat. Jaeon supplied Georges with a bedroom which was more spacious than even Georges’ apartment and more comfortable too. Sleep and rest were not long in coming in such surroundings.
After a morning meal that seemed tailored to his tastes, Georges and Pieon set off in the direction of the Rigan encampment. Georges thanked Jaeon for his hospitality and said he hoped they would meet again.
Pieon and Georges took their time walking and discussed the future relations between their peoples. It was toward the end of the light that Georges remembered something that he had wondered about during his research.
“Pieon,” said Georges, “when you have found new knowledge on the Long March and assimilate these new findings do you ever feel different?”
“How do you mean?” asked Pieon.
“I don’t know,” said Georges, “I mean do you feel that something fundamental has changed in your outlook on life?”
“I think,” said Pieon, “that each time I harmonize and then understand I become more Trilon, it is hard to explain.”
“I understand Pieon, the Rigan species has few words for feelings that transcend, we mostly emote. But feeling more Trilon, as you say, may be enough of an answer to explain something I’ve been wondering about.
“You see, Pieon, Trilon are unusual when compared to Rigans. In my area of psychological testing, we have some tests that we expect to get quite consistent results from during test-retest sessions provided that they are administered properly. But testing Trilons has completely discredited what I learned in my training about these tests. Either they have no applicability to your species, which I suspect is not the case because of the way you and I are able to interact.
“Or they are showing something unique among all the species I’ve known about. I now think that the test takers fail test-retest, not because of a wrong application, but because many of the Trilon we test have changed fundamentally between testing periods. You put on a new personality Pieon, each time you gain knowledge, you harmonize and you understand. It is quite amazing really.”
“Thank you friend Georges for understanding, you have also changed in good ways. But here I will leave you because we are close to your labs, just continue in that direction. Until we can meet again,” said Pieon as he somehow managed to shrug and bow his head at the same time.
Georges returned the gesture, knowing its significance for Trilons but not feeling its life-changing effect himself.
EPILOGUE
Jean had rushed into the meeting on the morning she had discovered the sequencing of the globes only to find that the others had something equally as astounding to tell her.
“Here she is,” said Dr. Burton. “We were just about to send someone to find you.”
Jean noticed that there were more people in the wardroom than usual for a science meeting.
“We've got something really exciting to tell you.”
At first Jean felt a letdown.
Have they discovered the sequencing also?
Taking her chair next to Dr. Burton he continued, “Jean you will not believe what communications has discovered. You just won't believe it.”
“That's enough Dr. Burton let's let Jean hear it herself. Ensign if you would please.”
Ensign Castellan tapped the screen of his Emmie.
Jean heard what sounded like music but of a quality, she had never heard before and when the voice came in she was shocked. It sounded so human although she couldn't understand it or place the dialect. After a minute it ended.
“Where did you get that Ensign?” asked Jean.
“I recorded it while I was doing a sweep of the local area. I often do that to calibrate my equipment and catch any nearby radio chatter. Anyway once I heard it I narrowed the source down to the next planet towards this solar system's star.”
“That planet is in the habitable zone,” said Jean.
Dr. Schenk was grinning and shaking his head.
“We've discovered life Jean, alien life,” he said.
“I don't know,” said Jean. “That voice sound's too human to me.”
“Perhaps just a consequence of a planet very similar to Earth circling a star very similar to our Sun,” said Dr. Burton.
“The first aliens humanity encounters and their singing love songs in a very human voice?”
“Well it's a surprise but there it is on the Ensign's Emmie and he's sure of the location.”
“Anyway, I may have found a way to determine if they're human or not.”
“How?” said Dr. Schenk.
“I've discovered the key to the sequencing of the recorder globes.”
“Really? Let's hear it.”
Jean then explained what she had found. They could now place the information in sequence. They could decode the history contained in the globes. A history of humanity more complete than any ever written before.
That meeting was now a month in the past. Many of the globes had been read. Jean had particularly concentrated on the expeditions. She had discovered the truth about the planet and the voice.
“Somewhere on the planet below us are a third faction of AIs that we have never been aware of,” said Jean to the other scientists, Captain and crew assembled. “These AIs are responsible for the recorder globes and the treasure trove of history and culture. There purpose though is still a mystery.
“However I believe the mystery of the human-sounding voice on the next planet towards this system's sun is solved. My research for the past month has focused on the lost expeditions. Lost for almost a thousand years, they are lost no more. I am convinced that one of those expeditions found its way to that planet.”
“How's that possible?” said Dr. Burton. “At the time the wormhole drive was new and even more limited than now.”
“It happened the same way it happened to us. The AIs brought both the expeditions here. And I think that the other expedition is on the second planet from this system's star, also in the habitable zone.”
“But why?”
“Well this is speculation but I believe the AIs felt obligated to humanity, maybe even attached to us. In exchange for their existence, they attempted to secure a continuing human presence in this galaxy. And to do that
they needed to take a sample of humanity and put it in safekeeping, so to speak. As all of you know it was hit or miss at the time those expeditions were launched as to whether or not the Earth and its offspring would survive. The rogue AI almost drove humanity to extinction less than a hundred years after these expeditions.”
“Well that beats all,” said the Captain. “They were saving us from ourselves and themselves.”
“You could say that Captain.”
“But Jean what about the other planet? We haven't heard anything from it.”
“Too early to say. It will take more research and maybe someday, contact.”
AFTERWORD
This book of stories continues the series begun in the “From The Earth” books. The Jackson family had a part in this book though more and more the stories moved farther afield.
I've made changes in the chronology of the stories and not the stories themselves since I first began writing. The book “The Age of Em” by Hanson convinced me that the first true artificial intelligence (as opposed to the narrow artificial intelligence that we are now seeing) will be imprinted brains running in hardware. The several technologies needed for this exist now, it is just a matter of engineering. In contrast, the true AI that we think of as AI (if we think of it) is not nearly as far along. So I moved up quite a bit of technology that would be affected by this in my new chronology (see my blog).
So I placed Em AI in this century and General AI in the next (although General AI could easily take four to five hundred years if not more). I've seen nothing to make me change my mind and it still seems a long way off.
But what if Ems and their advanced capabilities can be used to engineer General AI? If that turns out to be true (and if Ems cooperate although I think there may be some friction between them and General AI) then General AI may follow relatively quickly. Just as many areas of current narrow AI technology such as vision and voice recognition developed quickly after the technology of deep learning was employed.
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