by Gadi Migdal
She was surprised again. “How is that possible? Do the domes get enough sunlight?”
“No, Commander. Earth is dark and will continue to be for tens of thousands of years. Each dome has a fusion reactor that produces enough energy to operate the dome itself and generate light for the plants.”
“Do you think it’s possible to rehabilitate Earth?”
He hesitated before replying, “theoretically, I suppose so. On a practical level, no. Cleaning the air, the soil, and the water on Earth would be an inconceivably expensive project. It would require the economic cooperation of several dozen rich planets, and even then, it would take centuries.”
She smiled at him in understanding. “However, you can live on Earth under a dome and walk the Earth where the human race originated and developed.”
“Precisely, Commander.”
What was the logic of this mission? The coordinator within her cried out.
Earth was a dead planet. Why would the Whole want to travel there? Did it think that it would find some information that had eluded human beings for the seventeen hundred years they had watched their home world being destroyed?
Nola closed her eyes and transmitted her questions to the Whole.
No answer came.
Fine. If the Whole didn’t want to respond, she would ask someone who might be able to give her an answer. “Tom, why do you think they want us to travel to Earth?”
Tom considered the question for a few seconds before speaking. “I have no way of knowing, Commander. I don’t think that it would be possible to establish a cluster there. It’s a strange decision and doesn’t really suit Mika. She always prefers practicality over nostalgia. I lived on Earth for two years, and although I really enjoyed it, I don’t see what the council hopes to find there besides a big graveyard.”
Nola didn’t hide her surprise. “That’s not exactly a common term for our mother world. Why do you call the cradle of humanity that?”
“Because that’s what it is, Commander.” He smiled at the sight of her eyebrows raised skeptically. “Those are the facts. At the end of the twenty-first century, when the first outbreaks of the Seventh began, nearly 11 billion people were living on Earth. It took them 20 years to build the elevator to the moon. 10 more years passed until the wormhole was opened near the moon, the first agreement was drawn up, and humans went to the planets which had the resources necessary for human survival. All in all, it was almost thirty years from the beginning of the outbreaks until the second bang. Most of humanity died in those years. Less than 100 million humans managed to escape Earth alive. The rest died of hunger, suffocation from the volcanic ash, fire, or mostly, fighting one another. Earth is one huge graveyard. Many hopes, plans, suffering, and desperation are buried there. The Seventh buried all of that.”
Nola nodded. “Yes, but on the other hand, the Seventh created the second bang. Thanks to that, now there are 70 billion humans spread throughout hundreds of worlds, so you can look at it as an opportunity, not just a catastrophe.”
He looked at her curiously. “That’s an interesting perspective, Commander.”
Nola hesitated. Was that her understanding or did it come from the Whole? She shrugged; the source didn’t really matter. “An ancient proverb says that necessity is the father of invention, so the need to stay alive is the greatest need of all. Although the Seventh forced us to escape our home, it also taught us to live in other places and spread throughout the galaxy. Before that, we lived on one planet for millions of years, and apart from expeditions to the moon and nearby planets, we never left.”
He nodded his head with evident agreement and appreciation for what she had said. “You’re totally right, Commander. Leaving Earth was a good step for humankind. The Seventh was the end of our childhood, and thanks to it, we grew up.” He paused for a moment. “It doesn’t change the fact that today Earth is a big, contaminated graveyard. Unfortunately, the future of our species doesn’t look much better.”
“Because of the dreams? Do you think that they endanger the future of the human race?”
He nodded decisively. “Yes, Commander, humanity is dying.” He smiled, “If we want to further the analogy, we could say that we managed to survive our childhood, but we have not succeeded in handling the challenges of adolescence.”
She pondered the subject, “so actually what you are saying is that the human race experienced millions of years of childhood. But our adolescent stage will only last a few hundred years?”
He looked at the screens for a moment, checking the report of some sensor, and then he returned his gaze to her.
“Yes, Commander, we have three hundred, maybe four hundred years left - not more. Our development accelerated tremendously in the last two thousand years with the growth of the population and the technological improvements. As a mature species, we have much less time remaining than we did as a young one.”
“What do you mean when you say that humankind is dying?”
“Dying as a species, Commander. Physically, humans will go on living another few hundred years, but as an intelligent species, humanity will disappear long before that. They will remain just bodies, well-maintained, deep in their imaginary stories. These days there is negative population growth on all of the planets. I’ve heard of people who haven’t left their beds for decades; they have dogs and monkeys managing their businesses. They are sleeping and creating different lives for themselves in their dreams, the machine keeps them alive.”
“But Neifar is in good shape, Tom. Humans can go on existing on Neifar as they have been for about a thousand years.”
He shook his head slowly. “I disagree, Commander. Neifar depends on other planets. Our lifestyle depends on our trade with the rest of the galaxy. Without it, we will lose our quality of life and the excitement that it has. The moment we can’t carry on funding our lifestyle, people will seek solace. They will escape to using drugs or sleep while waiting for a better future. Neifar’s fate will be same as the rest of humanity.”
He laughed bitterly, “it’s not a distant future, I know that. There are advantages to being married to the head of the council. I will reveal one of the council’s big secrets to you: our orders have been declining for decades. Less and less humans in the galaxy bother to order quality fruits and vegetables. Luckily for us, there are still enough enhanced animals that order fruit for themselves, but that doesn’t make up for the drop in sales. The council members are keeping it secret from the city residents to prevent riots, but the city is on the brink of bankruptcy. Our whole way of living is in danger.”
Nola looked at Tom. There was no doubt that the subject was very close to his heart. “What do you think is needed in order to save humanity?”
He smiled sadly. “A miracle, Commander.”
“Do you believe in miracles, Tom?”
“I have to, Commander. If only for the sake of my youngest daughter and her children. I have to hope that the next step in humanity’s development will happen in the next hundred years.”
He pondered for a moment, then went on. “That’s the reason I am happy that Julia is in a cluster. She is experiencing a better life. I see her every now and then. She looks very happy.”
Nola was astonished. He saw his eldest daughter while she was in the cluster? That couldn’t be. “How exactly were you able to see her?” she demanded in a sharp voice, too sharp.
He smiled at her apologetically. “Through geological and meteorological research satellites, Commander. She goes out nearly every day at noon for a light rest in the sun. She always looks restful and relaxed.”
Nola laughed in surprise. “Wow, I never imagined that it was possible to watch us.”
She went quiet a moment and recalled her life in the cluster. “Good thing you didn’t watch me. I admit that I spent entire years in ways that would not be appropriate for a civilized city girl. Actually, at
times I still wonder why it’s necessary to wear clothes all the time.”
He laughed. “My daughter also behaves like that, but it doesn’t bother me. The important thing is that she’s happy.”
He was clearly devoted to his daughter. Nola smiled at him, “you are a very resourceful person, Tom.”
Tom smiled back, “Thanks, Commander, but the truth is that all parents of coordinators watch their daughters via satellites and drones, the robotic hovercrafts which come to the clusters every day and even through the maintenance robots that the city sends to clusters.”
Shock.
Everyone?
Her parents too?
They watched her and saw her growing up all of these years?
Yes! The answer was certain and decisive.
The Whole knew about this but saw no need to prevent it.
She wanted to ask Tom further questions.
Did he know her parents?
Did parents of coordinators speak with one another?
A beep from Singa’s computer announced that they were approaching the wormhole. The brain that managed wormhole traffic control asked them to identify themselves.
They would have to continue this conversation another time.
The cradle of humanity was coming closer, and with it, the end of its short adolescence.
Chapter 14
Development
Taige turned off the helmet with a disgusted sigh. Human philosophy was simply ridiculous. Thousands of years of contemplation, discussion, debate, essays, and introspection completely failed to understand the fundamental problem of human beings. All their philosophers claimed to represent new modes of thought for humankind that would lead to personal enlightenment or improvement of the entire species. To the best of Taige’s judgment, their philosophy indicated that it was the product of homo sapiens. They weren’t able to think any other way.
He was sure that a dolphin would have been pondering much more interesting theories; perhaps one day he would take the time to write down the fundamental principles involved. For now, there were more important things to do.
Elmer was very sick.
The life-support bed in which he lay and dreamt kept him alive, but according to the data that it gave Taige, the old man only had a few months left to live.
Taige was surprised. It was just three months ago that his intelligence began to develop at an accelerated speed, and it grew quickly with each passing day. Taige had learned a lot about Elmer in the months that had passed and learned to appreciate the extent of Elmer’s investment and the price he paid in order to create Taige.
Elmer’s parents had left Neifar before he was born. They left in order to give him a long life; life that was forbidden on Neifar. Elmer was thus raised by people who had left their home and community just to give their son a longer life. It was a rare move, and they paid dearly for it. The life-extending treatment had to be given in childhood. The Byron couple knew that they would die long before their son, and spent the rest of their lives lonely, far from their friends on Neifar, a place they could never return to. They died when Elmer was only 45 years old, which was very young in human terms.
Elmer didn’t say so, but it was easy to guess how his parents’ death had affected his life’s choices. Taige presumed that Elmer was trying to replicate something of life on Neifar, a world he would never set foot in, but of which he had heard a great deal from his parents. He used his inheritance to buy Asteriskus, the planet where Taige was born, and then spent over a hundred years learning chemo-genetics and carrying out research. A lot of research.
Taige found Elmer’s publications and was very surprised. To his astonishment he discovered that the sleepy old man had once been the leading authority in the galaxy in the field of genetic manipulation and animal enhancement. In fact, many of the better enhancements in the galaxy owed their existence to his research. At the height of his professional and economic success, Elmer decided to retire to his isolated world of water and focus solely on his research. After about two hundred more years of study, Elmer created Taige. Taige represented , in body and mind, his peak achievement of the two hundred years of effort, an achievement that Taige enjoyed embodying.
Taige loved himself and what Elmer had created within him. The way he saw it, it was unreasonable that Elmer should die now.
Nellie, for her part, accepted the knowledge of Elmer’s approaching death with serenity and began the processes of approving Taige as his legal successor. The monkeys in the offices of the first agreement on the moon refused to register an enhanced dolphin as heir to a human. They argued that only brains, dogs, and monkeys had a precedent for such inheritance. Other enhancements did not meet the criteria. Taige wasn’t interested in the legal argument and did not interfere with it. Nellie looked after it and it seemed she enjoyed the debate with the legal monkeys.
Taige preferred to focus on saving Elmer. He read every study that was ever done on extending life. To his disappointment, he discovered that there had been no new studies carried out on this subject for decades. He contacted the leading medical brains in the galaxy. All of them were very polite but preferred to learn about the enhancements that Taige had undergone rather than trying to save a 396-year-old man who had spent entire years sleeping. Taige insisted, begged, argued, and even tried to bribe them. It turned out that there was no need. All the brains he spoke with ultimately agreed to check Elmer. All of them did so for free. Evidently, they didn’t have much else to do. They passed their findings on to him within a short time.
Taige felt the weight of destiny falling on his shoulders. There was a consensus among the medical brains; Elmer’s days were numbered, and not a person in the galaxy could change that.
Luckily for Elmer, Taige was a dolphin and not a person.
He began to investigate other possibilities. Although Elmer’s life could not be extended, perhaps there was another solution?
If it was not possible to save Elmer’s body, the most logical thing to focus on was saving his brain. Taige considered the matter while going over the available options. It was impossible to transfer Elmer’s complete consciousness into a machine or computer. That had been attempted many times in the past and had failed each time. What other possibilities were there? Were there perhaps possibilities that the rigid human brain refused to consider?
The solution was plain and simple. If Elmer could not be contained in a machine, Taige would transfer him to another vessel. Of course. That was the only solution; stupid human philosophy could suit itself after he was done.
First, he had to obtain equipment, expensive equipment that Elmer had never owned, that was only manufactured in a handful of factories in the galaxy. Nellie informed him that they didn’t have enough money to buy the equipment, but Taige was not deterred by the challenge. He spent three hours learning economics and market forces in galactic trade. The subject fascinated him; it was strange to him that the galaxy ran on money and that everything had a price. He learned that a planet with no land, like Asteriskus, was cheap. At the other end, a planet such as Neifar with fertile soil, abundant fresh water, and 26% oxygen in the air, was very expensive. Taige discovered what market forces were and learned about supply and demand.
“Newman,” Taige informed the octopus, “we are going to develop an enhanced strain of cyanobacteria to feed the crabs. It will enlarge their protein capacity by 32 percent, and will thus meet the demand for proteins, in the production plants for molecular condenser fillers in Paris II.”
Newman examined him skeptically. He didn’t dare to be rude to him again, but the octopus still refused to accept the possibility that Taige had developed intelligence.
“And what exactly will that give us, Taige?” he inquired.
“A profit increase of 400%,” the dolphin replied calmly.
“Fine. And how exactly do you intend to do that?” Newman aske
d.
“By synthesizing the genome to produce the new cyanobacteria. I will do it in Elmer’s old lab. I already thought about the required genetic arrangement. I mapped it out in my head on the way over here.”
“You mapped an entire genetic structure in your head?” Newman asked in evident disbelief.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Newman. Just the parts that are relevant to me. About 20% of its genome. Anyway, it’s just a bacterium; not a complex creature.”
Newman stared at him in silence before slowly saying, “Why are you telling me this, Taige?”
“Because I need your help. The suit that Elmer made for me is not precise enough to work in the lab. You and your friends will construct a new suit for me according to the specifications I prepared.”
Newman burst out laughing, and his colors flickered quickly. “Designing an inverse field-based pressure suit is not a simple task. You know, it’s not enough to draw it on a page.”
“Of course, Newman. I already designed it. I sent you the complete specifications and all of the settings. You just have to build it. I need it within eight hours.”
Newman stared at him in shocked silence. Taige turned and swam back to the dome. Newman would manage.
Elmer was still sleeping. Still dreaming his imaginary life. Taige stood beside the old man and looked at him for a long moment. The dreaming man’s face looked peaceful and happy. The wrinkles which lined his face every time he woke up, became increasingly thin and delicate, as though the machine had managed to soften them. It looked to him as though the old man lost a few decades every time he connected up to the dream machine.