“Our race against the clock to rebuild the Vert-Ring is over, Aki,” another member said. “I know it’s hard and it hurts, but you should face the reality of the situation. They gave the decisionmaking authority to us at first because we were a small group. We could come to a consensus quickly and take action. Our having the responsibility was nothing more than an emergency measure. You didn’t think they were going to give us free rein forever, did you?”
“I supposed that they would do what was right.” Fuming, Aki had always known that the UNSDF might decide to assert control over her research. She could not help but think of how hard Molly and Anastacia had worked at the RMRF. Aki knew that her colleagues had already accepted defeat on the matter and that she had no choice but to give in. This was a battle she could not win. “Rum-ruff ” had grown into a large-scale space facility and been renamed the Mercury Base Station. At any given time, there might be as many as forty researchers stationed aboard. Combined with the rest of the rotating crew and support personnel on Earth, there were now over one thousand people involved with the project. Its scale was far greater than what the members of the Science Subcommittee were capable of overseeing. Finally accepting the facts, Aki felt a weight lift from her shoulders. Now she could focus on more practical pursuits.
ACT VII: JANUARY 12, 2029
“IF THE BUILDERS are hostile, there is no way that humanity could prevail in a war with them. If the Builders are not hostile and we attack, we would most likely drag Earth into a battle we cannot win—therefore a preemptive strategy is just an exercise in futility,” Aki said to the audience. “In looking at the possibilities, it behooves us to greet their arrival peacefully. No matter what their intentions, this would ensure the best outcome in any scenario.” Cornell University’s Ridley Hall was packed. She opened the floor to questions. One male student raised his hand immediately.
“Don’t you think your logic is pessimistic and defeatist? You claim to promote friendship. I don’t think that adopting forced amicability simply because we can’t defeat the Builders is a genuine olive branch.”
“The point I made is that there is still hope even if we cannot defeat them,” Aki responded.
“And what if we could defeat them? If we had the military power required to drive them off, would you advocate the ‘Let’s be friends’ approach?” The boy was clearly mocking her in the way he accentuated let’s be friends.
“Of course I would.”
“If we see this as being analogous to game theory and the prisoner’s dilemma, taking the pacifist route is the fool’s choice. If we do nothing and the Builders don’t attack, everybody’s happy. However, if the Builders attack we’re toast, right? If we attack no matter what, at least we’re refusing to succumb to annihilation,” the student said. The audience began to murmur excitedly.
“Your situation assumes a one-time encounter with the Builders. If we posit subsequent encounters, or an iterated prisoner’s dilemma, fleeing will only result in being run over, and I think that fighting them elicits consequences that you are failing to admit. A sufficient amount of cooperation, however, provides the potential of long-term survival with an accumulation of rewards, since it is not a zero-sum game.” Aki regretted the touch of superiority in her voice. She felt it was beneath her to fear being outsmarted by a college student.
“We should look at it as a one-time occurrence. One wrong choice and humanity is extirpated.”
“There are too few premises to build to logistic certainty or even close. If humanity were on an even playing field with the Builders, we would be able to migrate to another solar system. If this situation were fair, one Builder attack would not lead to extinction.”
The student said something about her not seeing his point. Whispers traveled through the lecture hall. Several years prior, Aki would have earned a standing ovation for a speech like this. A young woman raised her hand.
“Yes, please go ahead,” Aki said.
“I’m worried, to be honest. Next year, 2030, is the beginning of the arrival window. If the Builders arrive and see that their decelerator was tampered with, I’m afraid they’ll retaliate by launching an attack. How can I do anything but live in fear until the new Vert-Ring is completed?” Concern was evident in the quiver of the young woman’s voice.
“In life, we always have options. Why not turn that fear into a passion that you channel into researching xenocommunication methods?”
“I’d like to second those apprehensions,” said a male student seated next to the young woman. “We’re afraid, whether it’s easy to admit or not. But we need to try to be useful. If too many people are convinced that the end is nigh, or are doomsaying and spreading the meme of pessimism, the economy will collapse again. By preparing to fight, we can focus on survival instead of focusing on the possibility of being wiped out.”
“It is true that we need to prepare for all contingencies and remain positive, but fighting is not the only way to turn our outlook around,” Aki said. “We are the technologically inferior civilization. We have to adapt socially, since we simply do not have the time or resources to match the Builders in the time left before contact.”
“I was thirteen when you destroyed that first Ring. People danced in the streets for days. Photos of you and the Phalanx crewmembers were as ubiquitous as the American flag. You, Aki Shiraishi, taught me that humans can do anything they set their minds to, anything they believe in. You seem like a different person now. Why aren’t you encouraging us to be brave?”
Aki wondered if she had changed that much in seven years. Perseverance had been the watchword that got her through the immense uncertainties of life and all the risks she took. “Until that day I set foot on the Island,” she said, “I had no idea how to envision what the Builders were and what they stood for. My belief that intelligent life was involved in the creation of the Ring was nothing more than a good guess until I stood there. Even before then, there had been a theory that the Ring was a biological entity made of tiny nanomachines. Once we realized the purpose of the Island, we understood that a massive fleet of ships was coming. Our attention shifted from the center of the solar system to beyond the Oort Cloud as we looked for signs of the Builders. Nonetheless, we clung to our mission. I struggled, and I made an incredibly hard decision, knowing that the entire world was counting on me. I chose to destroy the Ring. I have never felt like I deserved to be called a heroine for making that choice. Not even once.”
Another voice in the crowd asked, “How do you feel about the death of Mark Ridley?”
“Mark…” If Mark had known the purpose of the Island, would he have acted differently? She shook her head. Discarding the contaminated engine by remote control, we still could have continued our mission. He chose to do it by hand to give us better odds at reaching the Island. Our chances of success were slim. He bet his life that he would make the difference. “There’s no such thing as a battle where you think purely with your head,” he said once. He would have done whatever it took to save humanity. The young student even looked somewhat like Mark, Aki realized. If Mark were looking at me now, what would he say? Aki mustered a response. “Mark was brave. A true hero. I am honored to be speaking here at Cornell in this hall that bears his name. That is all I can say.”
After the lecture, Aki reported to the reception that had been prepared for her. The wealthy patrons of Cornell who had sponsored her speech were waiting to shake her hand.
“Thank you. You were wonderful,” said one of the benefactors.
“Pretty rough crowd,” Aki responded. She did not know what else to say.
“They’re students. More idealism and passion than ideas, with just enough knowledge to create a justification for their hasty conclusions. If the contact dilemma was easy to solve, there would be no point in debating.”
“That is certainly true.”
DURING THE PLANE ride home, Aki considered her own positions. Aki promoted the amicable approach because she desired direct contact�
�in a way, all of her arguments were post hoc justifications for the pure need to see the Builders, to meet beings from another world. She could not deny some defeatism underlying her philosophy. She had always tried to stay on an even keel by tempering her enthusiasms and passions with an awareness of worst-case scenarios. If Earth technology was roughly equal to the Builders’ and she were in charge, Aki would probably place a number of interceptor ships on the front line just to be safe. She wondered if it was naïve to believe that an advanced species would never cross the expansive divide between the stars merely to invade and conquer. On the other hand, whenever technologically advanced humans encountered less “advanced” societies, invasion and conquest was precisely what happened. But humans also communicated; the Builders remained unnervingly silent.
Mark would have placed the survival of humanity before anything else. If humanity tries to intercept the Builders, how could we even go about it? Anyone who says we should fight has not planned the logistics or considered the outcomes. If we knew they were going to attack, then maybe an all-out defensive assault would be just enough to send the message that the costs of conquest might outweigh the benefits.
This is different. I do not expect an attack or even an attempt to communicate. The Builders have ignored every message we’ve sent. Military solutions are often aimed at eliminating threats, but then military solutions end up eliminating people. A colossal ship, or most likely a fleet, hurtling through space is a threat. I just cannot see any defensive plan that would thwart an aggressive attack by such advanced intelligence. If that intelligence were serious about attacking, I think I would know…
In the seven years since the Ring had been destroyed, food production had partially recovered. Rationing was less common now and prices had fallen; the usual staples were more readily available on store shelves. Yet humanity had cause for concern instead of cause for rejoicing. Doomsday prophecies were gaining currency. Extremist cults and survivalists were recruiting members and building underground shelters to protect from invasion. Aki was unsure whether she should laugh at such measures or pity those comforted by bunkers, prayers, and canned goods. She tried to ignore the lunatic fringes of this most recent panic, but unfounded theories informed many of the resources she used for her research. Since so little could be proven with facts, speculation was used to spackle over the gaps.
Seven years earlier, starvation had been thwarted thanks to mutual aid and international cooperation. Destroying the Ring had shown Homo sapiens how questions of survival were ultimately only answerable on the species-wide level. Now, as 2030 approached, humanity was succumbing to the fear of extinction again. Motives were becoming murky. Dozing while watching a broadcast on the Worldunity Network, Aki was jolted awake when she heard the anchor announce that an anomaly had been discovered on the Vert-Ring. An amateur astronomer had captured the surprising appearance of a small, dark spot. The new Vert-Ring had only reached 30,000 kilometers and the shadowy feature was a mere 50 kilometers across, but it was unmistakably the beginning of a graser cannon.
The UNSDF made an official statement within an hour and released more detailed photographs to the public. Aki recognized the graser’s base and its accents of complex curved lines. The stump of the lens barrel protruded from the base like a searchlight. Strands extended up, growing in all directions, reaching like capillaries. Aki rubbed her temples, a headache starting as she remembered her experience on the Island.
A young man from the Mercury Base eventually appeared on the network screen. His innocent demeanor struck Aki as genuine, but his relentless enthusiasm seemed both forced and an artifact of inexperience.
“We confess that the culmination of this investigation moved too slowly. We were about to release the photograph ourselves. This is not Builder-coded construction; it is our own work. We have spearheaded the formation of a new Island. The graser cannons that surround the Island are more complicated to create than the Island itself. We have been trying to separate these cannons to be able to incite the formation of deceleration lasers. Breakthroughs in the decoding of the mechagenetic Ring particle makeup allow us to grow isolated components. As a test, we attempted to initiate the creation of this single graser cannon.
“To be frank, we didn’t expect such success. We’re investigating how to harness the graser for defensive purposes. The firing range of the graser cannon is 2.8 million kilometers. As a defensive weapon, we would need to mount the cannon to a massive transport ship and move that weapon to a more strategic location. We have not developed the technology necessary to remove it intact and operational as the graser is powered by the Ring itself. We have learned that the tanker, one of the fundamental Ring particles, contains the energy we would need to operate the graser. We have developed the technology to handle small amounts of ring material. We feel that we will be able to develop the technology needed for this endeavor within the next six years. Harnessing the power of the graser will allow us to target high-speed objects and destroy them. Our plan has certain issues of complexity, but given the current state of our defense capabilities and few other alternatives, we are going to do everything in our power to see it through to fruition in the name of human and Earth survival.”
The next segment discussed an instant survey that showed 87 percent of three hundred thousand respondents in favor of developing grasers to defend humanity. Aki yawned and fell asleep on her couch, exhausted from worry and stress.
ACT VIII: FEBRUARY 23, 2029
RAUL ASKED TO meet at the same café. The menu had a broader selection now than it did when Aki had been there five years earlier.
“I still live on the combo platter.” His tray overflowed with french fries, chicken strips, and some deformed dumplings.
“Someday you will understand how ‘garbage in equals garbage out’ applies to both coding and the human body.” Despite such a horrendous diet and a bit of acne, Aki could not help but notice that Raul was more muscular than when she had first met him. His green eyes looked clearer, and Aki had a sense that he still knew her better than most people did, partially because he was one of the few people she could be honest around.
“Aren’t you going to take off your shades?” he asked.
“No. I’m incognito. I use a bodyguard now.”
“Your life’s like an old spy movie,” he said, craning his neck in an attempt to spot her bodyguard.
As vain as it sounded, Aki also knew that on some level she preferred to keep her sunglasses on because they hid a wrinkle or two. “How are things at the ETICC?”
“Paradisiacal. Hundreds of times more computing power.”
A year and a half ago, Raul had been offered a research position at the ETICC. Connecting with Aki had been a turning point in his life. Accepting Natalia as a failed effort and moving forward instead of hanging on when Natalia never quite worked seemed to allow him to move on to other pursuits. With Aki’s encouragement, he had earned his multidisciplinary doctorate in linguistics and cognitive psychology. Since working at the ETICC, his name had appeared in prestigious papers, and Dr. Raul Sanchez had presented his research on extraterrestrial civilizations at several conferences.
“Are you still doing research on AI?”
“Not officially, but it’s on my mind all the time,” he said. Aki wondered if she heard regret in his voice. “I haven’t made much progress. I’m too busy trying to create a universally comprehended artificial language.”
As the conversation became more complex, Aki asked Raul to slow down and stop mumbling. She hoped that Raul did not feel like he was talking to his mother. After dinner, they walked along the tree-lined streets of the campus. He seemed anxious, anticipating that Aki had some favor to ask. Maybe that was all in her head, but she did indeed have a request. As they passed Bancroft Library, Aki decided to broach the subject.
“I watched a recording of one of your speeches.”
“Not my favorite thing,” Raul said. “Especially the speaking in front of people part.”
“I need you to write one for me to deliver.”
“What kind of speech?”
“One in your universal language.”
“Damn, lady. Someday I hope you’ll give me an easy request!” Raul tilted his head back and laughed. “I was afraid something like this would come up. What kind of speech do you have in mind? I assume we’ve gotten over the whole ‘Hi, we know some prime numbers and pi’ monologue?”
“Funny. Something more along the lines of ‘There are intelligent beings living in this solar system.’”
“That’s a no-brainer. Is that all, my noble savior of the aforementioned solar system?”
“We live only on the planet Earth, the third from the sun.” Aki appreciated his humor, but her need for his help was more pressing than her need for flattery from an old friend.
“You’ll save the fine print for later?”
“We will take the necessary steps to avoid situations that could be perceived as a threat.”
“Now you’re giving me the chance to show off. Care to end with a zinger?”
“We cannot take the risk of allowing a Trojan horse into our solar system,” Aki said.
“Ouch, now you’re putting me to the test. You’re already speaking in culturally specific metaphors.”
“You have to be able to handle this, Raul.”
“If you can tell me what it means first.”
“Humanity places doubt before hope,” she said, rephrasing her last message.
“Come again?”
“We fear an intelligence greater than our own,” Aki blurted, clearly upset.
“So you’re trying to say—”
“Damn it. Tell them to stay the hell away from people if they know what’s good for them!” she shouted, much more loudly than she had meant to. Several college kids playing Frisbee turned and looked at her, then went back to their game.
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