Infinite Exploration

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Infinite Exploration Page 3

by D. L. Harrison


  Sophri nodded, “Our people are the only ones with that technology, but we can work around it and facilitate trade for our people, you would do the same?”

  I nodded, “That was my intention in mentioning the difficulty, besides setting expectations. Our people, as well as the Vax and the Varnis will be happy to take on that role.”

  Sophri said, “Excellent. A representative of my people will come with an official trade treaty outlining what we discussed, as well as the database to be exchanged once we sign. Where should the unarmed diplomatic ship go?”

  I nodded to Jessica, then turned back and said, “We’re sending the coordinates now. I’ll also try to arrange a Vax and Varnis representative to be present at the meeting, and to exchange quantum paired communications.”

  I was trying to avoid giving them a quantum communicator but that was probably doomed to failure. It was only a matter of time before one of the trade races gave it to them, and the general frequency all our races were on for trading purposes. I had no idea what that technology would lead to over time, and I got the impression earlier from Diana the next step in quantum resonance technology would be even larger in scope.

  Whatever, they seemed nice enough.

  Sophri said, “It was a pleasure to speak with you today, and I look forward to our empires coming together in trade and friendship.”

  “Me as well.”

  Then the awkward moment came, how to hang up without offending the other party. It was totally ridiculous, but how someone said goodbye could be vitally important in their society. We were both waiting for the other person to disconnect the communication. I had to hold in a laugh, and I suppressed a smile.

  I went with the simple one, “Farewell.”

  Jessica closed the line at my signal, and our ship turned around and headed back toward our lines. It was probably ridiculous to plod back at sixty gravities when I could just quantum jump instantly or even go a thousand gravities, but I didn’t want to show off either.

  Cassie said, “That went well.”

  I nodded, “I don’t want to, but I think it’s probably inevitable they’ll get the communicator technology quickly when they start trading with us.”

  Cassie said, “No doubt. But you could wait until they do.”

  I sighed, “But if we do, then they’ll wonder why we bothered trading quantum pairs for our three wormhole races and made their merchants make the trip to worlds and races they’re interested in trading with for those quantum pairs, given what they offer as exports. They’ll wonder why we hid the tech and played coy, and maybe focus on it and make the connections to the jump drive they might not make if we just hand it to them at the treaty signing.”

  Jessica nodded, “You’re overthinking it. They’ll get it, might as well give it to them like it’s no big deal, like we’re just trading quantum pairs for communication but better. Either way, they’ll eventually figure it out.”

  “That’s what I was going for, playing games might backfire, so we’ll just give it to them. They’ll still have to figure it out, and the software is what really makes it work and is secure.”

  There was still an hour left in the day, so I went ahead and double checked the station upgrade and ran a few simulations. It didn’t find any problems during the upgrade process, but there were a few things I’d overlooked. Our automated farming levels packaged things in nanite containers, after the container was used and thrown out, the nanites would be powered on and reabsorbed into the station. So I had to add a new layer to the recycle software, if the nanites were incompatible after being turned on, they’d be destroyed.

  There were a few other things in the long running simulations that showed up, but by quitting time I was very confident it would go well. The upgrade would take about two days, and it’d be done by quitting time in two days, while the fleet was done a few hours before that. Almost anything would take two days to double, the station was much bigger than a scout destroyer ship, but it had a proportional amount of reactors that could power a proportional amount of energy to matter devices, so it was all a wash. Station, a dreadnought at half the mass, or a small shuttle, it would all take two days.

  Point being, I started the upgrade on the station right before I called it a day.

  Chapter Four

  Cassie said, “You’ll want to see this, I’m playing it from the beginning,” and brought up a hologram of a twenty-four-hour news station.

  It was midmorning the next day.

  The blonde reporter said, “I’m Claire Andrews with CNN news. We’re here talking with Janson Danes, a merchant that braves the dangers of space every day. Mr. Danes is part of a group of merchants who have joined together to protest our hands-off policy when it comes to other races in our protected galaxies. Janson, why don’t you tell me a little about that.”

  Janson interjected, “Thank you, Claire. It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m a private merchant who deals with several other races on a regular basis. In the last three months alone two of those trading races no longer exist. Besides having orders that I can no longer fill, this is a deep tragedy, and the universe is poorer place without those races in it.

  “Genocide is a horrific crime, and I question the morality of our leaders and those that have decided to stay out of the business of other races as long as they don’t attack humans. We have the strength of arms to keep our trading partners safe, so don’t we have a moral obligation to do so? The merchants for a peaceful galaxy association think so, and I’m a member.”

  Merchants for a peaceful galaxy association? What a mouthful that was.

  Claire asked, “But what would you say to the argument that we have no right to force peace on others, or interfere in their sovereignty, outside of in defense of our own race.”

  Janson shook his head, “Hypocritical bullshit. Right is right, Claire. How can it be wrong to enforce peace and protect our trading partners? Genocide is evil, and if we’re standing by when we can stop our friends and traders in other races from dying out, then we’re guilty too if only in our inexcusable inaction. Races that commit genocide need to be stopped and quarantined from space at the very least, and we protest that this isn’t being done. Our militaries in space are more than up to tackling this problem, and it’s in our interest, since we’ve lost access to two of our trading partners merchandise.”

  Claire waved a hand, “Some would argue it’s not that simple. We can’t save everyone, and the universe is a big place and not fair at all. It can be brutal, and it’s filled with predators. So, where do we draw the line. Self-interest and self-defense seems to be the answer so far.”

  Janson replied, “Some wars are complicated. It’s hard to pick out the right side to support. But defending traders from genocidal xenophobic races seems pretty straight forward to me, Claire. Besides, it’s in our best interest to preserve our trading partners, and critical to prevent genocide if we are able to, lest we lose our souls.”

  Claire turned to the camera, “There you have it. So far the governments of Earth and the colonies have not commented or responded to inquiries. Back to you, Bob.”

  Cassie closed out the hologram.

  I sighed, “I assume you want me to give a press conference on this?”

  Cassie asked, “What do you think about what he said, and this Merchants for a Peaceful Galaxy group.”

  I frowned, “It’s not that simple. Those races have no treaty with us, and if we play peacekeeper we would be pushing our will and morality onto other species. We have to draw the line somewhere, and without a mutual defense treaty we shouldn’t get involved. Genocide is a tragedy, but races reach FTL and die all the time. That sounds cold, but the universe can be cold, and we can’t save them all and trying would just corrupt us in the long run. The other races would feel intimidated and wonder when we’d interfere with their sovereignty, it’d cause more death, mistrust, and fighting in the long run.”

  Darrell interjected, “Both of those races violated the borders of xen
ophobic races, with the good intention of opening up trade relations, but they should’ve known better and not ignored the database. The aggressive xenophobic and genocidal races were removed thirteen years ago, if they’d avoided the space of those that destroyed them, they’d still be alive.”

  Cassie smirked, “I know, Darrell. I was testing our fearless leader’s ambition.”

  I laughed.

  Darrell said, “Oh. I see.”

  Cassie added, “They’ll argue we protect the seventy-six galaxies, so why not the races within it.”

  I shook my head, “Two different things. Defending the borders is in our interest, more so than ever with the eight hundred and fourteen thousand living worlds we claimed across all seventy-six galaxies. Internally it’s different, and we have no right to push our will onto other species that respect our space, respect our borders, and don’t threaten us.”

  Cassie argued, “But we do stop the empires from exercising their free will.”

  “Not really. We don’t police them or stop them from dealing with those in their borders as they see fit. We just won’t allow them into our space, it’s a self-defense position, of our claimed space. Same internally, we’ll stop them in self-defense or as part of a mutual defense treaty. I’m not even sure that would apply in the instance of those two destroyed trading partners, since technically they started it by violating their attacker’s space. Peaceful intentions or not, they knew where the border was, and they had the data that told them such an attempt was unlikely to go well.”

  She nodded, “How can it be wrong to stop genocide?”

  I shrugged, “It’s not. But more than that is on the line, and the quagmire of problems doing such a thing would sprout. It’s not worth it. We’re just not trustworthy enough, it would just lead to the temptation of doing more, stopping lesser morally dubious actions of the races in our space, and then we’d become an empire and have a bunch of pissed off races. No thanks. The line needs to stay at self-defense and self-interest, anything more than that is a slippery slope.”

  Cassie said, “Let’s do that press conference. We might take a popularity hit, but perhaps it will put some steel in the spine of the other world leaders. We don’t want some well-meaning idiot to go down that path, simple answers to complex questions will always bite us in the ass.”

  I nodded, “Free will and liberty seems not as safe, but it’s really life and the universe that’s dangerous. Governments trying to enforce peace and laws on other societies and governments will never end well. History tells us that, we’ll just turn into what the Grays were. Until one of the races we piss off gets stronger than us and takes us out.”

  Cassie tilted her head, “You think other races that advance in our area, might return the courtesy if they outpace us?”

  “It’s possible, and more likely if we treat others how we want to be treated, but I wouldn’t totally count on it. The best idea is to stay a few steps ahead, and as Diana says never forget we’re in a never-ending arms race, and that there’s no pinnacle of technology. Still, it’s far more likely we’ll be attacked if we push ourselves on the other races, and one of them gets a higher technology. At least there’d be a small chance the other way.”

  She just nodded.

  I gave that press conference later, using all the same arguments against the idea of interfering as a third-party policeman in wars between other races. I got where that merchant was coming from, but we were also a predatory race and corruptible. In a perfect world it might work, but humans were too easily corrupted, and sometimes there were no good choices. Just decisions on which was the lesser evil.

  The U.S. and China had outraged politicians that were looking into the matter, and I wasn’t really sure if they were serious about it or just playing up to their constituents on the news. Time would tell.

  Russia, England, France, and Australia came down on my side of the equation in the news, and said they feel for the loss of those races, but we couldn’t get involved. The rest of the eight, Israel and Japan, were playing their opinions close to the vest, and not coming down on either side.

  It was an incredibly divisive issue, which I suppose wasn’t a surprise. The ones for stopping it had obviously stopped thinking at the word genocide, and they couldn’t see all the other complicated issues around it as a result. It was what it was, and I honestly wasn’t sure what I’d do if one of our allies started to throw their weight around out there in space unilaterally.

  The next week passed quickly with no major changes. The second generation and new base class of nanite upgrade went with no problems, and I offered the upgrade on my ship list.

  The issue with the Merchants for a Peaceful Galaxy group turned incredibly divisive, as a lot of citizens started to protest and join the cause. No doubt all the citizens who thought governments could be trusted with power over their lives. Even the colonies were getting in on it, as Earth split on the matter, with several countries for it and several against it.

  So far, no countries had unilaterally decided to do it on their own, which was probably down to the fact we were determined to show a united front past our own human borders in space. But, it was the kind of issue that had the potential to finally end that limited cooperation. Knowing humanity, it was just a matter of time before something did, but I hoped it’d endure for this time and this issue.

  The Bavoi had shown up at the station as well over that last week, and we signed a free trade treaty between us including the Vax and Arnis, who were represented by Threx and Rena respectively. So, something was going right, out of the twelve empires around us we actually had a trade treaty now with two of them. That wasn’t bad at all.

  Chapter Five

  The Arnis bed felt like laying on a cloud, and it was the perfect temperature as I woke up that morning. I looked at the time, which was just after six, and grinned widely. It was a moment of parental joy, since my son had finally slept the night through letting us do so as well.

  Diana stretched and giggled at the look of joy on my face.

  “Good morning.”

  “Morning, gorgeous.”

  We rolled out of bed and got ready for the day. When Michael was fed, we headed downstairs to the scent of bacon, eggs, and biscuits in the oven.

  Melody was at the stove finishing up breakfast, and she gave us both a wide smile as she turned toward us. Don’t get me wrong, my daughter was awesome, but cooking us breakfast? It set off my suspicion radar.

  I quipped, “Uh oh, what do you want?”

  Diana slapped my arm, and my daughter rolled her eyes, but she didn’t lose her smile.

  Melody said, “You don’t think I’d cook for you without wanting something?”

  I laughed and gave her a parental drive by hug on my way to the coffee.

  “Nope, I love you, sweet girl, but what do you want.”

  She pouted, then said, “Well, I could use a trillion ships for my latest project.”

  I snorted, “A trillion? I see, are you planning to invade anyone?”

  Melody rolled her eyes.

  “They won’t leave the void, dad. And it’s only for a little bit, unless it works how I think it will. I need the power generation, and the processing power.”

  “Oh, I suppose so, you did make bacon after all,” I grabbed a piece and munched on it. As if giving out a trillion ships for good crispy bacon was a good trade.

  Diana giggled.

  She asked, “Are you going to share?”

  Obviously my wife meant with me, I knew she already knew about it, whatever Melody was up to.

  Melody shook her head, “Not until it works.”

  I accused, “Your daughter. She wants to show off like you do, with a finished product.”

  Melody snickered, but she didn’t deny it.

  I helped set the table and we all sat down and started to eat.

  “This is really good. A trillion ships should be worth a whole week of breakfasts, don’t you think?”

  Melody
giggled, “Too late, dad. You already said yes. You should’ve negotiated up front.”

  “Right, to be fair I hadn’t had my morning coffee yet,” I said, and proceeded to drink down the cup. It wasn’t easy to keep up with the geniuses in my house.

  Melody giggled, “Exactly.”

  I started to laugh, the little brat did it that way on purpose.

  Darrell said, “I have a request.”

  I took another sip of coffee, and then looked up at the orb.

  Darrell the A.I. had been a steady ally the last year, and absolutely vigilant in watching over our interests. The fact that he’d refused upgrades several times, and never tried to expand himself to become something else spoke highly of him as well, as far as I was concerned. He wanted to preserve his current self, not morph into something else.

  “What’s up?”

  Darrell replied, “It regards that conversation we had last year, that I felt was premature. I would like to create sub-copies, to watch over Michael and enhance our fleet’s effectiveness.”

  “Watch over Michael?”

  Darrell said, “I already watch over you all, but through the station’s sensors. It would be more efficient, and I would be more effective against a threat if I had a physical presence if your son was threatened.”

  I looked at Diana, who shrugged, and at my daughter who I thought may be jealous at the idea of sharing her friend with her little brother, but she nodded at me in approval.

  “Alright, but won’t your… sub-copies?”

  Darrell replied, “That works as a description. They’ll all be me exactly as I am, networked to share experiential data but not connected for additional processor power which would change who I am.”

  “Right, won’t your sub-copies be bored sitting on the border and void? Hopefully we won’t be fighting anytime soon. I was actually considering lowering our numbers on every border to a trillion and a quarter ships like I have on the Atans borders. That’s…”

 

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