For Joshua, the ramifications of Seth’s statement were staggering. Was Seth indirectly invoking a creator, or perhaps some creative process that his level of intelligence couldn’t understand? He wished Rachael were present to listen to Seth’s presentation and assess it.
“Billions of years ago, this information evolved into the society on Petri, and we eventually searched the cosmos for others like ourselves—for evidence of other life. Your species has been searching for extraterrestrial life for only eighty years, but we meticulously searched the heavens for thousands of years after our discovery of spookyons, but we found no evidence for it. We were apparently alone. We didn’t know why the universe was created or why we were the only life form within it, but the cosmos was vast, and we decided that if life didn’t exist elsewhere, we would create it. We would seed the universe with life since we had the technology to do so.
“Our scientists created a microscopic machine that could travel to other planets and replicate itself using the raw materials there. You would consider this machine a von Neumann probe, but in addition to being able to replicate itself, we gave it the ability to adapt to varying environments and improve itself. In essence, we built a machine that could evolve. For us, simply creating a machine that replicates itself and travels across the universe is akin to spreading cancer. In addition to being able to replicate, our machine had to be able to differentiate itself in each new environment it encountered, becoming a variety of new machines in the process, and that is exactly what happened. On Earth, you call this machine the cell, and we engineered it to spread life throughout the universe. Humans were naive to consider evolution to be a natural process—it is not. It is something that we invented.” Seth’s voice paused before speaking with an inflection Joshua had never heard before, one that conveyed maturity and benign authority. “Some of our cells landed on Earth billions of years ago and evolved into humans. Josh, we are your creators.”
Joshua’s mind reeled at the statement, but he didn’t have time to dwell on its profound significance, for he now saw a close-up image of a cell. It was incredibly vivid and was rendered in three dimensions, complete with nucleus and organelles. The image was projected directly into his visual cortex via his optic nerves and was therefore the clearest image he had ever seen.
Seth continued his startling narrative. “We decided to use the cell to seed life wherever there was fertile ground for our machine. In fact, the cell and the engineering beneath it were so compelling to our own species that we transferred our very existence into DNA-based multi-cellular creatures. We made ourselves self-determinate.
“There was a planet in our solar system whose outer two thirds was made of water. It had a highly elliptical orbit that revolved around our sun every 292 years.”
Joshua could see the water world traveling in its orbit around the petrin sun in accelerated time.
“When it was in the portion of the ellipse that brought it close to our star—its perihelion—the heat from our sun caused the water to become liquid, forming a deep ocean that covered the entire planet. When the planet was farthest from our sun—its aphelion—the water froze, resulting in a planet of ice. The planet was therefore caught in an endless cycle of water and ice, slowly shrinking in size as water gradually evaporated into space year after year. During one of its liquid cycles, we seeded it with our invention—cells that replicated and filled the ocean. These cells were different from cells commonly found on Earth in that they were covered with a layer that would protect them from the hazardous rays of space, enabling them to remain dormant for billions of years. They were intended to be space seeds. When the planet moved away from the sun again, the ocean froze, trapping our machines in ice. While it was frozen, we introduced a thermal fusion device into the planetary core that, when detonated, exploded the planet into trillions of pieces that scattered at an incredible velocity in all directions.”
Joshua saw the massive explosion of the ice planet, which ejected large boulders of ice into the interplanetary void.
“Some of these pieces are still travelling through space as I speak, destined to land on distant planets. When the pieces approach a star, solar winds evaporate their surfaces and cause trails of ice vapor—what you call comet tails. These tails contain frozen cells that eventually land on other worlds.”
Joshua saw a comet traveling through a solar system, its tail showering ice crystals onto the surface of nearby planets. The vision was more vivid than any projection he’d seen at a planetarium.
“Of course, not every comet you see was created by us. We don’t have a monopoly on the creation of water, but many comets are part of our seeding process. It’s a very efficient method for ensuring that our cells are only released close to stars, meaning that they have a high probability of landing on planets that can harbor life. Many of these cells don’t land on planets capable of sustaining life, but those that do usually replicate and evolve just as I’ve described. A few of our machines reach a point of intelligence that enables them to discover spookyons and eventually contact us. This was the case with Earth.”
Joshua thought of his work at the particle center. In actuality, he’d been fulfilling the petrin agenda that had been formulated billions of years earlier. He felt small, insignificant—a pawn.
“Once a species contacts us, we make a determination as to whether its planet will be suitable as a staging area for the creation of additional primordial cells so that we can continue the expansion of life. We make this determination based on the amount of water present on a planet. Those that do not contain sufficient water are left to continue on their evolutionary path without interference from the collective. Those that do contain enough water are used to further our seeding process. The planet is then bioscaped to resemble Petri, with only the three species that inhabit our home world. It therefore becomes a new node for our civilization. In this way, we seed life through the universe while expanding our own civilization. We’ve spread our lifeform to thousands of nodes without ever physically leaving Petri. These new civilizations are all part of our collective.
“The collective has determined that Earth will become a new node and will be bioscaped since two thirds of Earth is covered with deep oceans. We sowed our seeds on your planet billions of years ago, and we’re now ready for the harvest. As I’ve told you before, we are opposed to extinction, especially of sentient life forms. For planets that we bioscape, we catalog the life of all non-sentient species as data that is stored in our nodes. We then relocate the sentient species to another planet so they can continue to live and thrive.”
Live and thrive? Joshua wasn’t sure what connotations these words held.
“We have bioscaped a new home for humanity on a planet inside the realm of the collective, and when you wake, you will find yourself on this new world. The reason we want you to see it up close is that you need to understand that it’s a true paradise, one engineered from the ground up for humans. You will have three days to explore the planet, after which I will return you to Earth. It’s my hope that you can convince humanity how wonderful this world is so that it won’t be frightened about being relocated.
“When you wake, you may wonder how you are able to be there. We have used the DNA from your body to clone you on the new world. The clone is your exact twin, with the exception that it has no brain. Your brain, and therefore your mind, is still in your body on Earth. The biograins will relay sensory and motor information from your mind as data to the Bowman sphere inside of me. That data will, in turn, be relayed through a spookyon connection on Petri to a neural nest enclosing a spookyon located in the head of your clone. This neural nest connects directly to the cranial nerves and spinal cord of the clone. Using this method, we are able to transport you to the new planet in a form indistinguishable from your own body. Even though your mind is still on Earth, your existence and reality will be on the new planet. In essence, your mind on Earth will remotely control your clone, but this transition will be completely s
eamless.”
Joshua’s vision returned to black.
“Josh, I know you have many questions. Rest assured that when you awaken, I’ll answer them for you. In the meantime, welcome to New Eden.”
Joshua had the sensation of returning to his body. He felt his hands and feet and knew that he was in a supine position. His vision glowed a deep red that he recognized as the inside of his eyelids. Upon opening his eyes, he saw a strange room and sat up to examine it, turning his head left to right. The room had circular, concave walls and was fifteen feet across. The ceiling was flat and glowed a soft white. The grayish-blue walls of the room were textured, slightly uneven, and had the resemblance of fine tree bark. The walls had three large circular openings, of which the right-most opened into what Joshua assumed was another room. He sat on what could only be described as a couch, which was tan in color and had the feel of soft fur. The floor was flat, slightly textured, and off-white.
Joshua was clothed in grayish-white skin-tight fabric that conformed effortlessly to his own movements. His feet had shoes that were made of the same material on the top sides but were covered in hard rubbery material on the soles.
Joshua peeled back the sleeve of his right forearm and discovered that the scar from his recent surgery was completely gone. Looking up, he heard Seth’s voice in his head. “Joshua, can you hear me?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“I know that you may be somewhat disoriented but take a moment to get your bearings. I’ve told you much information that may be shocking.”
Seth had told Joshua that his transition to humanity’s new home would be seamless, and it was: he had been instantaneously transported to the strange habitat without any sense of movement. He felt completely normal. In fact, the pain from his hip was no longer present, and he felt younger and more virile than he had in years. Dozens of thoughts coursed through his mind as he searched for what questions to ask Seth. Petrins created the cell? Earth was going to be taken over? Humans were to be relocated? How was any of this possible?
“Did you create the virus?” he asked. He knew that the only way that petrin DNA was growing on Earth was because humans had asked for Seth’s help in fighting the viral outbreak. Seth’s agreement to do this now seemed opportunistic.
“No, obviously your viral outbreak started prior to your communication with us. We had nothing to do with it.”
“But it’s because of the virus that you were able to transport petrin DNA to Earth. It’s because we gave you the lab to use in complete seclusion. What if we had contacted you and there had been no virus?”
“An opportunity would have eventually presented itself,” Seth replied. “It always does. Humans are at a precarious stage of their technological evolution. We call this ‘the adolescence,’ a stage when new technologies and powers are being discovered, but most societies cannot find ways to control them. We’ve learned that the vast majority of societies—ninety-four percent, to be exact—do not survive this adolescent stage of development. There are many things that can go wrong and wipe out young civilizations. Some succumb to viruses or other infectious outbreaks, while others are destroyed by natural causes they cannot control, such as asteroid strikes, volcanic activity, large solar flares, or gamma ray bursts. Others destroy themselves through warfare shortly after discovering nuclear fission or fusion. Some irreversibly poison their environments, but by far the largest destroyer of sentient civilizations during adolescence is a technology that humans have not yet discovered but which lies in their immediate future—self-determination.”
“Self-determination?” Joshua said, remembering the first conversation that he’d had with Seth in Vinod’s study. “The ability to manipulate DNA?”
“Yes. When we created the cell and its microscopic inner workings, we never realized that these mechanisms possessed the power of self-destruction. When our creations evolve to intelligence, they invariably have a need to understand their existence—how they themselves work. This need propels them to strive to understand their own genetic makeup and eventually to control and modify it. Once sentient societies discover the secret of DNA, it inevitably leads them on a path to self-destruction.”
“Why?” Joshua wasn’t following Seth’s argument, which seemed presumptuous, even arrogant.
“Because there comes a crossroad, a decision point that divides advanced societies. One path is to preserve the natural order, not manipulate DNA, and to live as natural creatures. The other path is to re-form themselves into improved beings who can completely control their bodies. Try to imagine an Earth in which half of the humans are normal and the other half are genetically modified super-humans. The super-humans would be superior in almost every way, possessing immortality, higher intellect, and physical strength. In a world with limited natural resources, these two group would be incompatible with each other, and the situation would lead to a war between the groups—a war unlike anything you’ve seen, with biologically-engineered weapons that would eventually wipe out both factions. Very few civilizations survive self-determination.
“The collective has found that relocating civilizations to a new world under its guiding influence helps preserve societies and also prevents their self-destruction. This is our plan for humanity. I know that the thought of having Earth being taken over by petrins is not something you would wish for, but in the long run we’re trying to preserve your species since it has begun to explore the human genome. It’s already on the road to self-determination.”
Joshua tried to process what Seth was telling him. He wasn’t sure if the alien was being truthful or not. “Why can’t humans just shun genetic modification and resolve not to change themselves? It should be our decision.”
Seth remained patient despite Joshua’s challenge. “Many societies have tried to do so, but almost all have failed. The temptation to use genetic modification is too strong. Imagine being able to cure cancer, become immortal, or heal yourself after physical trauma. Most humans would want this ability.”
Joshua could see the truth of what Seth was saying. After all, there were whole industries committed to making humans healthier and more youthful. This could easily be accomplished if and when humanity became self-determinate.
“How would you transport humanity here?” Joshua asked. “What would the process be like?”
Seth’s voice adopted a reassuring tone. “The process will be gradual, something that will happen over decades. Individual humans will have the choice whether or not to come to New Eden. Those who decide to stay on Earth will be allowed to live out their lives as usual, but they will not be allowed to procreate. For those who decide to come to New Eden, the process will be similar to how I brought you here, but with one significant difference. Their bodies will be cloned, but their minds will be permanently transferred here by encoding the brains of the clones with information contained in their minds on Earth. After this transfer of information is complete, their bodies on Earth will be destroyed. They will not be virtually here such as you are now. They will be in New Eden permanently. Those who come will be allowed to procreate and thrive in order to further the human race, but with the protection of the collective to ensure that they don’t destroy themselves. Also, we will transfer all external data on Earth to New Eden—all of your literature, art, books, and even the complete data of your Internet.”
Joshua was amazed. The petrins could transport all of human existence, including all information gathered over thousands of years, to a new planet. The idea was sounding less ominous as Seth explained more.
“We feel that New Eden will be a paradise that will suit your needs well. There is absolutely nothing that can harm you here—no predators or poisonous substances. It’s my wish that you explore as much of this world as possible over the next three days. If you find anything lacking or want to change something, tell me after your visit and most likely it will be possible.
“It’s also important that you get an unbiased view of New Eden. For this reason, yo
u’ll be given complete privacy. Neither the collective nor I will monitor you while you’re here. You will be left completely to yourself.”
“Will Earth be exploded like the ice planet?”
“No, once its oceans are filled with primordial cells and then frozen, we will transport this ice into space and distribute it from there. Earth will be bioscaped as a new node for petrin civilization and the petrins there will join our collective. Do you have any other questions?”
The information Seth had given to Joshua was overwhelming—almost too much to absorb at once. “I don’t have any at present, but I’m sure I’ll have more later. What you’re asking is the very kind of thing General Porter feared all along.”
“I’m aware of that, but I wanted to emphasize that we are doing this for your own self-preservation. After I return you to Earth, I’ll answer any further questions you may have.
“There’s one more thing I need to tell you. Joshua, I consider you my friend. I personally requested something for you from the collective while you’re here on New Eden, and they granted my request that you have a companion with whom you can explore the planet. The one I have chosen is in the room to your right.”
Joshua’s heart suddenly started beating faster. He got up from the couch, walked through the opening on the right, and saw a bed. Lying on top of it, eyes closed, was Rachael.
33
Alive
Joshua’s eyes welled with tears of absolute joy. Was his entire experience of hearing Seth’s voice and being transported to New Eden only a dream? If it was, he didn’t want to wake up from it. He was overwhelmed with emotion and was able to utter only one word: “How?”
“When Rachael died, her last copy was never destroyed,” Seth replied. “As you know, her body was frozen. While in the lab, I created reconnaissance organisms. They were similar to a swarm of insects that flew out of the ventilation system of the lab to Rachael’s frozen body. They scanned the neural connections of her brain and catalogued this information, which they brought back to me at the lab. Using this information and her DNA sequence, I was able to grow a human brain in the lab that was encoded with data from Rachael’s neural connections. This brain is now interfaced with the biograins, just like yours, and is transmitting its information to her clone via my spookyon connection. Her clone is similar to yours in that it doesn’t contain a brain but has a neural nest to transfer this information to her cranial nerves and spinal cord.”
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