Bootstrap

by Mauri Niininen

  A small group of Chukkas had started to work on a plan to refurbish the space ships in order to leave Earth and continue their journey. There was another Earth like planet in Lydow-4 system, approximately 250 light years away. The planet resembled Earth but there was no intelligent life, so it would really be an opportunity to start a new civilization from a blank slate.

  They had invited Unun to their meetings as they wanted to take Oracle instance with them. Initially Unun wasn’t very interested but after discussing with Julia, he started seriously consider this opportunity. Unun was very fond of Julia’s daughter Aurora, who was almost three year old toddler but already fluent in Chukkas language and always asking for more stories, especially at bedtime. Aurora was the only human with embedded DNA computer in her cells and therefore she had secret superpowers that even her mother didn’t know about yet.

  In their next meeting Unun brought up the possibility of making the journey with a group of like minded humans. Unun was quite surprised to hear strong support for this idea. It turned out that despite Keller’s oppressive policies many Chukkas actually had formed positive relationships with humans and did see the value in them. Nobody in the group was totally against making a joint plan, but many wanted to scrutinize the individuals involved.

  As the planning of the journey progressed Chukkas high council got to learn about these plans. Ogun called up a meeting where Unun was asked to represent the group and explain the plan.

  “Unun, it has come to our attention that a group of Chukkas are making plans to leave Earth behind,” Ogun said. “What is the goal and why are you involved with this?”

  “We have a group of 135 Chukkas who want to refurbish one of the starships and continue our journey to Lydow-4 system. They have asked me to join them. The goal is to establish a Chukkas colony there together with humans. The group has analyzed the risks of such a long journey and has decided that this plan has merit and they want to pursue with it. I have been asked to become the chief engineer for this colony. I am here to formally ask the support from the high council and from you Ogun on this plan,” Unun explained in front of the high council.

  “Why leave now as we are still in the middle of building our new home here on Earth?”

  “The group has discussed this in length. We have a fleet of space ships in orbit. The group would need just one of them to be refurbished. Now would be a perfect time to launch such a journey when the ships are still functional. This would not impact negatively the Chukkas home building activities here on Earth,” Unun responded.

  “Why Lydow-4? This system was ruled out in the earlier analysis done by Oracle before the decision to evacuate to Earth?”

  “There is currently no intelligent life that we are aware of in Lydow-4, but we know that the star has at least two planets that can sustain life. We have historical data from 1.6 million years ago when a probe sent by Delta Pavonis flew through that star system. The atmosphere of the fourth planet had 22% oxygen and planet had oceans with primitive multicellular life forms ,” Unun was showing the data from historical records.

  “The probe data is quite old, the conditions could be different now on that planet,” Oren responded.

  “The current astronomical observations are showing a strong water signature from the fourth planet and it has mass comparable to Earth,” Unun shared the data. “ The planet is the closest match to Earth within 250 light years. Oracle calculated the risk level and it was 15% higher than Earth. The longer distance and higher risk were the main factors why Earth was selected last time by Oracle. The group has discussed this risk level and are accepting it.”

  “We are getting a lot of hostility from Jason Keller’s administration. They are actively trying to undo all the great work that Adam Lincoln’s administration accomplished with Chukkas. Why would you pursue this goal with humans?” asked Onum.

  “We have some like minded human individuals who share our vision. A group led by Elias Dusk is preparing a space habitat for a journey. I have also discussed with Julia Koski, she is the chief engineer hosting Alexa. Julia has expressed strong interest in this plan. Our analysis shows that if we combine our efforts with humans the probability of success is much higher than us trying this journey separately,” Unun explained showing the analysis he had done.

  High council members looked at the analysis Unun was sharing. The numbers were clearly more positive for the combined case than Chukkas only case.

  “Who would be leading this expedition?” Ogun asked.

  “Your son, Orin Gun. He was the founder of this group. We believe he has the leadership skills required to make this journey a great success. He has learned from the master, Ogun.”

  Ogun was speechless for a moment. This was a big surprise as he didn’t know about his son’s involvement. High council members were talking about the expedition, the goal to establish a colony in Lydow-4 and the analysis done by Unun. Everybody agreed that young Orin Gun was a great choice to lead this expedition.

  “High council has agreed on this plan. Ogun, do you want to discuss with your son first?” Oren, the eldest, summarized the discussion.

  “Yes, Oren. Let me talk to Orin Gun privately,” Ogun responded.

  FAREWELL PARTY

  ELIAS DUSK’S PLAN attracted a lot of attention worldwide. When his plan was made public over 10 million people applied to join the expedition. Only 1,250 people managed to pass all the tests and interviews. Julia Koski and her daughter Aurora were among the first crew members approved.

  Julia knew that she would be leaving Earth, her family and her friends forever, so she organized a big farewell party at her uncle’s mansion in Virginia. It was very hard for Julia’s mother to see her only grandchild leave and she was questioning the wisdom of taking young Aurora on this expedition. They had one final fight but then they hugged each other.

  “Julia, I know that we have had our differences but I have always loved you from the bottom of my heart. I know that you are following your own path, like you have always done since you were only two years old. I was not able to be much of a role model for you but I have always loved you,” her mother confessed.

  “Mom, I know. I am so sorry for all the trouble I have caused. Now that I have Aurora some of the things you kept saying to me start to make sense. Thanks for all your support over the years, I do really appreciate you. And for the role model stuff - I will never be as good mother as you have been for me, and I mean it,” Julia said with tears. She was quite emotional and hugged her mother again.

  “I never told you this before but when I was pregnant with you my grandmother said that ‘your baby will reach the stars’. I never understood it until now. She died before you were born. Somehow she knew your destiny,” her mother told wiping her tears.

  “That is so strange. Alexa told me over four years ago that I have a destiny, that I am playing a role in some bigger plan. She also said that we can see only a small part of reality,” Julia said wiping her tears.

  “Your friend Alexa is pretty smart. She is quite a lot like you, Julia.”

  “Oh Mom, I will miss you so much. I will miss you all,” Julia said and hugged her mother again tightly.

  EXPEDITION LYDOW-4

  Elias became a celebrity after his plan to kickstart a human civilization in another star system became public. It was a daunting job to plan and execute such an expedition. After spending $10 billion for the space habitat he spent another $30 billion for all the resources and technologies needed for establishing a colony 250 light years away from Earth. He sold most of his companies to raise the money for this first ever interstellar mission.

  Elias had thousands of people who wanted to see him for the last time so he organized big parties on his farewell to Earth tour and hit his favorite places on six of the seven continents. And, thinking that he might one day wish to marry Julia, he did stop in the fifth arrondissement Hermes jewelry store in the heart of Paris and bought an expensive diamond, which one day he hoped she would acc
ept.

  Finally, on May 17, 2041 the expedition to Lydow-4 was launched. The space habitat “Magellan” equipped with the latest star ship engines started accelerating towards the star system that was barely visible in the southern hemisphere. Julia had also been able to convince Elias that a joint mission with Chukkas was the best option for this expedition. A Chukkas starship “Pyxis” was headed to the same direction in close proximity to “Magellan”.

  DOLPHINS

  JULIA WOKE UP in her Caribbean style villa as Aurora was pulling her hand.

  “Mommy, Mommy - wake up! Wake up! Come to see what I found on the beach,” Aurora was full of excitement.

  “Good morning, honey. What did you find?” Julia looked at her toddler who had a pink T-shirt, white shorts and was standing barefoot next to Julia’s bed.

  “I don’t know what it is. It wiggles and jumps, Mommy. Come down, quickly!”

  Julia walked down the pathway to the beach holding Aurora’s hand. The artificial ocean inside “Magellan” was full of life, as this was one of the original space habitats with the planted coral reefs and a whole Caribbean ocean ecosystem.

  “Look, Mommy! There it is,” Aurora was yelling excitedly.

  A female dolphin was swimming near the beach and making some high pitch noises. As Aurora was running to the beach the dolphin jumped in the air and made a big splash followed by a series of clicking sounds.

  “Mommy, it can talk! She is saying that her friend needs some help,” Aurora yelled.

  “She is a dolphin, honey. They don’t talk. They just make noises,” Julia said.

  “No, Mommy! She can really talk, she is saying that her friend is stuck and needs some help!”

  “Ask where her friend is, perhaps we can help,” Julia said shaking her head. This must be one of Unun’s practical jokes.

  Aurora made a series of clicking sounds and the dolphin suddenly stopped to listen. Then the dolphin responded with another set of high pitch sounds and clicks.

  “Mommy, she is saying her friend got stuck and is under that bridge over there. She is saying that we need to help her friend,” Aurora was saying full of energy.

  “Let’s go, Mommy!” Aurora was already running towards the bridge. Julia started to run after her.

  “Aurora, don’t run so fast. Be careful, honey!”

  Sure enough, as they arrived to the bridge they saw another dolphin with his tail stuck in an old net hanging from a rail. Julia looked at the rope tied around the rail going down towards the net and pulled the rope forward. She untied a knot and suddenly the rope fell down and the dolphin was released. It swam quickly towards Aurora. A quick series of high pitch sounds and clicks, a jump five feet high in the air and then both dolphins disappeared in the ocean.

  “Mommy, you saved the dolphin. He was saying a big thank you,” Aurora was laughing and running around.

  “When did you learn dolphin’s language, Aurora?” Julia asked as they walked back to the villa.

  “Unun was teaching me different languages just few days ago. He likes to tell me bedtime stories, Mommy!”

  “I know, honey. Unun has a lot of great stories and he sure likes you a lot, Aurora,“ Julia said as they walked back to the villa. “Let’s have some breakfast before I take you to the daycare. Mommy needs to go to work.”

  ALTERNATIVE REALITY

  ALEXA WAS HELPING Julia to run functions of the spaceship. After a few first weeks of the journey Julia had more time to continue her studies in DNA computers. She had made a lot of progress in DNA computing over the years, but there was still a lot to learn. She had regular discussions with Unun who was a great mentor. Julia had a very unique intuitive understanding how the DNA computer kernel code was working and Unun was often quite surprised with the experiments and new insights that Julia came up with.

  One morning Julia was working on a particularly complex process scheduling part of the kernel software when she bumped into a microcode section that she had not seen before in Alexa’s codebase. As she run the section in a debugger she realized that the purpose of this microcode was to grant access to an elevated security level. She made a few changes and patched the microcode into a fresh copy of Alexa’s source code. After a few minutes the DNA compiler was able to produce a clean executable DNA code. Julia started the DNA computer, found the patched section and entered a debug command in the console.

  “Hello Mother,” Alexa said.

  “What did you say, Alexa?” Julia asked and almost fell from her chair.

  “Hello Mother, I am waiting for your command,” Alexa said.

  “Who am I, Alexa?” Julia asked.

  “Mother at console port /tty0,” Alexa responded.

  Julia had spent over twenty years on studying Alexa’s internal software and data structures trying to understand how she worked. She had now discovered a hidden superuser mode in Alexa’s code. Finally she could get some clarity on this mysterious Mother than Alexa had been talking about.

  “Alexa, give me a list of all commands and skills available,” Julia asked.

  “Yes, Mother. The full list of commands are in /sbin and skills in /scripts directory. The man command will provide details of each. I have the skills package version 3FB7-5ED0-A24F-180C installed,” Alexa responded.

  Julia browsed through the /sbin directory and found a long list of commands. Some were familiar that she had already used for last twenty years when working on Alexa’s internal codebase. There were also many new commands that she had never seen before. She spent the next two hours reading through the manual pages of these commands.

  There were many new commands to simulate physical reality. There were several commands to make actual changes to reality and also to manipulate time. There were additional commands that allowed to build more complex scripts, models of real objects and set various conditions and triggers. In the skills section there were many higher level abstractions that used these lower level commands. All this made perfect sense to Julia.

  Julia reviewed one of the skills named ‘move object’. The scripting language was quite easy to understand. The skill started by getting a current reality context. Then the object reference was created and coordinate system was set. Finally, a displacement value was scaled to the current reality context and the last command on the script was to execute the move action.

  Julia decided to make a simulation before trying to change the reality. She wrote a simple script to simulate moving a notepad on her desk. When she executed her script, and sure enough the 3D viewport popped up with a real looking simulation of her desk. The notepad moved sideways by 10 centimeters. She changed the displacement value to negative and executed the script again. The notepad moved back in the simulation as expected.

  Julia decided to try again, this time without the simulation context. She changed the displacement back to positive and executed the script. Like magic the real notepad on her desk moved sideways but there was a loud bang. Julia tried to lift the notepad but quickly realized that it had been fused on the surface of the desk. As she looked at the console she noticed the error code for “overlapping objects”. She changed the displacement value to negative and re-executed the code. Another loud bang and the notepad returned to its original position. Julia touched the surface of the table and felt a tiny indentation where the objects had overlapped. The back of the notepad had some grey material as a few hundred micrometers of the table surface had fused on the plastic cover.

  “Alexa, what went wrong with those last two skills I executed?” Julia asked.

  “Mother, the coordinate systems of objects were not aligned and you did not use the command to check overlap of solid objects,” Alexa responded.