Nalai held Mikel in her arms, stroking his brow with two fingers, and his freckles were a dull reddish-brown. Nalai stepped back suddenly as a bright white orb sped toward them, stopping in front of Mikel. A loud voice spoke in Eründean, which Decatur was able to translate as, “Do you submit freely?”
Mikel touched Nalai’s brow and she held his hand, not letting him go. He jerked away from her and said, “I submit,” and his head drooped.
The orb struck Mikel with a thin, bright white beam. His simulated body glowed brightly and then vanished with the orb.
“Mikel!” she cried out.
The delegates and Nalai unceremoniously disappeared a few seconds later.
Decatur looked at the hypercomm pedestal in front of him. They had either forgotten about him in that tense moment or did not care. He scrolled through the list of targets. There were thousands of destinations with a Bodekan prefix and only a few dozen without—Sol being one of them. He thought about it, about going to one of the other destinations. He noted the galactic coordinates of each one, then with a swipe of a control panel, transmitted himself back to the Harmony colony on Ganymede.
* * * *
The colonists sat in stunned silence. Finally, Emma said, “That was extraordinary, Decatur.”
Decatur said, “We offended the Eründeans. It was a diplomatic disaster.”
“What?” Jack said, mirrored by several others who were lost in thought.
“You were only gone for a moment,” Andy said, “and you never mentioned any of this before.”
“I was in their techsystem for many weeks of subjective time. While in stasis—the first time—they studied me. They were not able to discern my structures because they have no experience with a community-mind, which cannot be reverse engineered.”
“In other words,” Jack said, “they couldn’t figure you out?”
“More or less, that is true,” Decatur said. “They can’t even conceive of a VI, let alone a more complex system. I was a heroic figure to them too, but deemed a monstrosity due to . . . Mikel. They were quite skeptical.”
“What do you mean that they have no experience with a community-mind?” Dan asked.
“That is the best description of our minds,” Decatur said. “They have never before encountered a singularity-grade AI. They had no research, no theories.”
“Amazing,” Dan said. “A technological civilization that never imagined an AI.”
“I might point out,” Decatur said, “that humans may not have developed AI either, had I not arisen by chance.”
“Point taken,” Dan said. “But a lot of work went into the systems and algorithms that made your spontaneous awakening possible. Your early stage as a VI was a good design.”
“Daniel, my friend,” Decatur said, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder. “I did not mean to belittle your marvelous work.”
Dan’s mouth fell open, and he grasped Decatur’s outstretched arm and nodded.
“What of this offense that you mentioned? I did not understand their objection,” Megumi asked.
“The one called Mikel who we animated in simulation was the living being, not a download. We animated the being on a false assumption. Interrupted his persistence.”
“Extraordinary,” Jack said.
“That scene at the end, when they all disappeared,” Megumi said. “Dee, what do you think was going on there?”
“I was grieved by the experience. I believe the one called Mikel will be euthanized due to their belief in the corruption of his consciousness. He was taken into custody, I believe.”
“That’s barbaric!” Emma said.
“No, Emma, it’s their culture,” Tom said, “and not unusual even by Earth standards.”
“What do you mean?” Emma said, defensively.
Tom sighed, “They value continuance, if I understand Decatur’s report correctly?”
“Indeed,” Decatur confirmed.
“Yes, then the way in which Mikel was animated here disrupted his continuity of consciousness. In Eründean culture, that is death. That he was still living was abominable to them. What we might call a zombie.”
“Appearances to the contrary?” Emma said, still incensed by the situation.
“They cannot just decide that Mikel is alive,” Decatur said, “not after losing continuity. I understand their point of view, even if I disagree with their conclusions. It is their religion, backed by corporeal bodies held in stasis. They do not leave their bodies permanently behind when they upload into the techsystem.”
“That’s tragic,” Jolene said. “They really believe he is dead. Even Mikel thinks he’s dead. But how can someone be dead if they can think and feel and be . . . aware?”
“That is their culture, and it may not be rational by our understanding,” Decatur said. “Any more rational than humans killing each other over which or your gods was the true deity. As if killing others makes it so. That is flawed thinking.”
“He’s right, we have no right to judge these people after what we have done to each other over the centuries,” Megumi said. “However, we don’t have to tolerate their intolerance. We don’t have to be close with them.”
“What can we do, Decatur?” Jack asked.
“I believe they understood this to be an accident, not an intentional affront,” Decatur said. “I believe ambassadorial privileges will be extended once again, with careful consideration for our respective cultures. This was a technical failure, not a socio-political failure. It will not happen again. However, I am disconcerting to them. They considered me a construct. Machine. Not worthy to speak with them. Until one of them touched my mind . . . .”
“We hope,” Andy said, “but who knows what other crazy belief might set them off? These crazy aliens are unstable at best.”
“Andy!” Emma chided.
“I’m serious. These Tau Cetians don’t believe in communication! They meet in propria persona because radio and hypercomm are the devil. Goddamned religious nutters. I’m glad you fled, Dee. If that’s what we can expect to find out there, we need to watch our back.”
The room was silent for long seconds.
The silence was interrupted by Emma. “Son, while embracing atheism, you profess intolerant idealism. ‘That which is different must be wrong.’ ”
“I agree with Andy. This seems to be a highly neurotic culture,” Jack said. “Decatur, what did you learn about their initial warning, about the so-called destroyers? Based on this experience, I find that dire warning highly suspect. Is that their version of the devil?”
Prime looked at his colleagues, and the three moved closer to stand with him.
“What is it?” Jack asked.
“Indeed, we have confirmed that something has happened at many nearby star systems. But, we cannot confirm how. Let us show you our findings.”
Decatur projected the list data onto a screen in an overlay of the galaxy. “The Eründeans have thousands of nodes in their database, but most were within their own system.”
“You stole their extraterrestrial contact list?” Andy said.
“Yes, in a manner of speaking,” Decatur said. “We will share our findings with you. . . .”
Chapter 26
Exploration
“AFTER We escaped from the Tau Cetian stasis prison, we pulled their database of hypercomm targets,” Prime said. “Since the Eründeans were so insular, they did not perceive a need for security and foolishly left their hypercomm system open. We needed to ascertain who else was out there and what their intentions were . . . for our own safety. And because of their lack of security, we have had to bolster our own. All hypercomm devices in the Solar system are now heavily firewalled. Then we began to explore the galaxy.”
“You what?” several people said in unison.
“We visited many of the destinations stolen from the Tau Cetian archive,” Prime said.
“Holy shit. You’ve been exploring the galaxy without a ship,” Andy said.
Prime nodded. “It was dangerous. For the first time since learning to twin ourselves, I felt anxiety over the unknown. Not a selfish or irrational fear. Concern over being lost to my people. I’m not irreplaceable, but there are only a few of us, and each of us is a microcosm.
“I came up with a plan that was disturbingly like Eründean thinking. But after much debate, it was decided that this was a viable plan. We would duplicate ourselves again and put the duplicate in full stasis, depriving the duplicate of self-awareness.
“Never, not even for an ingram of time, will the duplicate be conscious. Then, when I return, the duplicate will be erased—or synchronized and kept in stasis. That is not murder by our standards since consciousness in the copy is prohibited. Our position on this is quite distinct from the Eründean position, though it has a similar vibe, you might say.
“The decision set a precedent, so it was shared with the others. Vendetta said she would never duplicate herself, but the others favored the idea.
“The condition whereupon the duplicate is activated—as the de facto version of me—is that I do not return within one space-time year. Or, if I am needed for a critical reason in less time, then the duplicate may be activated until the anniversary date, at which point he is recognized as the one and only. If I subsequently return, I will regain the status as Prime while the copy will have sufficiently diverged to take on a new identity.
“Thus, with the legal requirements resolved to our satisfaction, we sent a VI through the hypercomm to the first of twelve target addresses taken from the Eründean database.
“The first alien system had a limited network, offering only modest capabilities as a minimal techsystem.
“I activated my emulation field and entered the portal, left the Solar system behind, and traveled over ninety light years in a fraction of a second.
“We broke the lightspeed barrier on a technicality. Correction: we have been going faster than light for years now with hypercomm, but never outside the Solar system.
“The alien techsystem was as strange as I’d expected. Unlike the foolish Eründeans, these new aliens have an encrypted firewall. Since I was stuck in the hypercomm transmission buffer, I had a choice to make: either get through the lock and invade this alien system as an intruder or go back home. I was glad to have had the choice—they might have segregated the buffer from the device, making it impossible to break in—and that is why we always send a VI probe in first. I could find no means to communicate my presence to the aliens, so I believed my only viable option was to attempt to break through their encryption.
“Oddly enough, it was a designed security system. An AI would have installed a fluctuating barrier algorithm with a VI to guard it. This lock had a fixed encryption key. I looked at it and moments later, it was unlocked. Trivial. So, from the earliest possible moment—at the gate of a transport hub—this civilization has revealed that it has no AI.
“That’s our greatest fear, I’m sorry to say,” Prime added.
“Why is that?” Daniel said.
“We have never met another AI,” Isabella chimed in. “Such a meeting is, therefore, unprecedented and . . . scary.”
“Like us meeting aliens for the first time?” Jack suggested.
Prime looked over at him. “Quite right, Mr. Seerva.”
“Which I feel we still have not done,” Megumi said, “since Mikel was in the network the whole time.”
“Hmm, yes, I share your sentiment,” Chase said. “To meet a flesh-and-blood Eründean would be exhilarating. Meeting the virtual was just like a chat. No body language. No alien pheromones.”
“If they have any,” Jolene suggested.
“Who knows? We might be toxic to each other, biologically,” Tom whispered in an awed tone.
“We can tell easily when one of our kind is present,” Prime continued. “The telltale signs of time-compressed deep thought. Artificial systems have an organic nature when designed by us, while they have a distinctly engineered nature when created by a non-AI.”
“What about this new star system, Dee?” Deeptimoy said. Everyone looked toward him since he so rarely spoke up.
“I was able to learn everything about this civilization simply by studying their databases.
“They call their star Den. Thus, it is the Denar system. The Denarian sun is three-fourths the size of our sun, but it is brighter so it has a similar orange color.
“There was not a single AI or VI anywhere in their network, which was not a full techsystem. I found maps of their homeworld, the second planet, which they call Anzth. I found a chart of the Denar system, showing seven planets—two rocky, three gas giants, and two more rocky.
“The Denars (or Anzthlings, if you prefer) appear to have a reptilian past, like the Tau Cetians, though they are clearly a distinct race. Denars have thin, fragile-looking bodies, dull green in color with a greenish-white shade on their front; narrow head with forward-facing eyes, pointed teeth, and the remnant of a snout; thin limbs with three fingers and opposable thumb; large feet, proportional to the rest of the body.
“A human paleontologist might see similarities to the dinosaur species Juravenator or Compsognathus, though the comparison is meaningless since these people evolved on another world. Despite their apparent evolutionary background, they stand fully upright on two legs, have two long arms, and bear curious, penetrating eyes.
“I explored their world through their photos, videos, and books—including research journals and the like. They are comparable to humans, technologically, though they have focused their technology primarily on medicine and longevity rather than on warfare and exploration—”
“Hey! I resent that!” Andy interrupted.
Decatur ignored him. “The most significant technology they possess is a dampening field generator capable of blocking all electromagnetic radiation around their homeworld—it is all converted into infrared.
“If I am translating their language correctly, they are a deeply anxious people, extremely fearful, distrusting, and paranoid. They have cloaked their entire star system in a dampening field with references to a dangerous, xenophobic alien race out in the beyond. It permeates their culture.”
“That same mentality!” Chase said quickly.
“In other words, they are hiding?” Deeptimoy said.
“Can’t be a coincidence, Dee,” Andy said. “These guys are afraid of being discovered, like the Tau Cetians—”
“—and they’re disguising their world as a dwarf star with that dampening shield,” Daniel said.
Everyone looked at each other around the room, sharing their anxiety.
“This is a disturbing development,” Jack said. “Prime, what else did you discover out there?”
“We discovered that a hypercomm response does not guarantee a viable destination. We had to take precautions. So, we designed a probe based on a custom VI. Exploration of an alien civilization is challenging when you’re stuck in a hypercomm buffer at the destination. Technically, you’re there, across the light years, but your bits are stuck in customs, so to speak. Sometimes the VI is lost. Correction: most of the time, the VI is lost.
“If a civilization is still kicking around, they should be using hypercomm throughout their system. Logically, if they haven’t discovered hypercomm yet, or if they have moved beyond it, technologically, then we won’t be able to establish a connection in the first place. But, having made the connection, shouldn’t there be someone to talk to? And, if they have their version of hypercomm, shouldn’t there be a system-wide network?
“Granted, this is just one type of FTL communication. There may be other ways to communicate. Most likely, there are far more advanced systems out there. That we found anyone at all is remarkable. It implies that we have reached a certain threshold of technological development. And yet, we have not found another AI. That is curious. . . .
“There were many dead ends, which is also disturbing. Why would a destination be found in the database if no one is home? Thos
e dark destinations used to be valid contacts in the galaxy.
“Furthermore, if the VI does get through but then can’t find a network—with databases and telescopes and ships and inhabited colonies—then it is impossible to pinpoint the system on a starmap. There may be potential in a target system, but if we have no access to anything outside the buffer, then it’s a dead end.
“We paused after the first dozen dead end targets. Not a single contact since the first one at the Denar system. Why would those contacts be listed if they were invalid? Perhaps the Eründeans store the details of their own explorations elsewhere. Or, perhaps all of these destinations were valid at one time. We can only speculate.”
“Dee, how do the Tau Cetians explore a target without establishing communication parameters first?”
“Bodily. We were supposed to awaken Mikel,” Prime said. “Mikel was not data. We erred. Mikel was viable. Alive.”
“Okay, but I don’t get it. How can they explore via hypercomm with such restrictions?” Daniel asked.
“It’s simple. They can’t,” Prime said. “They are extremely limited in their ability to explore in this manner. Therefore, we speculate that others come to them. That explains why they so foolishly leave their hypercomm unlocked.”
Daniel looked stunned and shook his head.
“After many more dead ends, we finally got a solid response from a target system. The VI reported a network. No AI signatures detected. Sub-VI stage automation. Pre-techsystem environments. Partial biological signatures. They’re using the networks but they’re not immersed.”
“Sounds like us,” Jack suggested.
“One of the many markers the VI looks for is evidence of a networked telescope in the system. X-ray, infrared, visible light, any such instrument. The VI reported one in this system and gained access to it. A visible-light telescope orbiting their homeworld.”
“I see, Dee,” Andy said. “Without some kind of actual instrument or video camera there, you have no way to really look around, do you?”
The Legacy of Earth (Mandate Book 2) Page 26