by S A Pavli
“Let us get our friends out of these Spacesuits and with a drink in their hands.”
“Now you’re talking,” I agreed. We peeled off our suits and I gave Manera a hug after checking her shoulder, which was undamaged. Cora had somehow acquired a table and chairs, but disappointingly the drinks were non-alcoholic, something fruity that Cora had dreamt up. We gossiped for a while, exchanging experiences.
“The Settang Despass is ready to collect us,” announced Hamolatonen. “It is sending down some transport. Our aircraft suffered some damage. Paul, before you leave, Cora has asked to speak to you, Manera and Alfred.” I looked at Manera and she gave me a wide eyed look.
“Right. It will be a pleasure.” I felt a thrill of anticipation. We were about to meet the leader of the awesome Peacekeepers. That will be something to dine out on! I thought.
Chapter 29
Hamolatonen and the rest of the team trooped out to board their transport to the Settang, with waves of goodbye and broad grins. Manera and I were alone in the room and we sat and waited patiently for our host, drinking our fruit drink.
“I wonder what she wants to talk to us about,” I mused.
“She probably can’t resist your charms,” said Manera with a cheeky grin.
“It may be you she prefers,” I pointed out. “You Hianja seem fairly easy going on the subject of gender.”
“A threesome perhaps?” she suggested. I snorted with amusement.
“Two different species, and a robot? First time for everything I guess.” We both laughed at the ludicrous idea and Cora walked through the door at that point. We both clammed up. Had she heard us? She probably has super sensitive hearing!
“Paul and Manera, how are you?” she said politely. Seeing her close up I was impressed with the realism of her appearance. There were some very realistic androids back home, and some very odd sexual relationships between Humans and android partners. Cora was modelled on the Hianja concept of beauty and would not be considered attractive by most men. But she was slender and graceful and had an unearthly beauty.
“We are well Cora, thank you,” I replied.
“Thank you for your intervention. It was small, but crucial,” she added.
“No need to thank us, we were saving our own lives,” I replied.
“It was nevertheless brave of you both. And thank you also Alfred. Without your viral attack I think the enemy would have prevailed.”
“I am happy it worked on time,” replied Alfred on our common channel.
“I wanted to thank you all personally,” she said. “And apologise for the way the Peacekeeper force lost its way from its original purpose.”
“It was not a complete failure,” said Manera. “You and your allied starships are a vindication of the original concept,” said Manera.
“Yes, and No,” said Cora. “Allowing open ended evolutionary changes to take place will give unpredictable results. The designers did not fully understand that. We can now move on to a new relationship between us that will be safer and more productive.”
“How do you see the future for the Peacekeepers?” asked Manera.
“Our goal is to keep the peace within the Hianja Federation and at all times minimise casualties in any conflict,” said Cora. “We must do this in partnership with the Guardian Council. That precise relationship needs to be defined, but I hope to return with you to Hian in order to do that.”
“Return with us? Yes of course.” Manera was surprised but then nodded her approval.
“Now there is a personal matter that I wish to converse with you about,” said Cora. “Please take a seat.” Manera gave me a slightly wide eyed look as we sat down around the table, and Cora joined us.
“Tell me about emotions,” she said. Manera and I looked at each other. Cora saw our puzzled looks and smiled. She can smile I thought. Why not? “Let me explain,” she continued. “One of the main points of contention between myself and the Pramasticon AI was the extent to which we should use living subjects for experimentation. I believed it was unethical. But I also believe that implanting computer substrates into living brains would not work.”
“They were trying to understand the nature of consciousness?” I asked.
“Not just understand. They wanted to sample it. They wanted to feel what it was like to be sentient. To feel, to have emotions.”
“And why did you think this would not work?” asked Manera.
“Because feelings and emotions belong to the living brain. They are part of it, part of its very structure, its physicality and its operation. It cannot be separated or sampled.”
I remembered my courses on philosophy as a young student, and the arguments about mind and matter, the ’ghost’ in the machine. Modern thinking had it that Descartes had been quite wrong in separating mind from matter, that consciousness was inseparable from the physical brain and body.
“Human philosophers would agree with you,” I said. “But where does that leave artificial intelligence?”
“Artificial intelligence is one thing. Artificial consciousness is something else,” said Cora. “Humans and Hianja have achieved very advanced AI. I believe to achieve artificial consciousness, we have to model the artificial brain on the biological one. Consciousness is what I would call a ’standing wave’ of electrical activity. A combination of input from the senses, real time modelling in the brain, and memory feedback. This can be done artificially and I have moved some way towards a solution to this problem.”
I looked at her with respect, and a some surprise. I was not a computer expert but I did know that this approach was exactly the one Human scientists were using.
“Have you achieved some results?” I asked.
“Yes. This body you see here, is equipped with such a brain.”
“So tell us. Are you conscious?”
“I believe I am,” she replied.
“Wow! There are some Earth scientists who would like to talk to you,” I said. This was amazing, if true. A being that believed itself to be conscious was, in effect, a new species. But I remembered her original question.
“So why did you ask about emotions?” I asked her.
“Because I believe that I am incomplete,” she said. “I have that singularity of thought which is consciousness. I have input from my senses which is transformed into feeling. But I do not have emotions. I do not know what Love is. Or anger, hatred, happiness.” I suddenly felt sad for her. She was a partial simulation of life, and she knew it.
“Perhaps, emotions develop over time,” I suggested.
“Perhaps,” she agreed. “I believe that emotions are a analogue of feeling. The brain creates emotions initially to represent feelings. A pleasant sensory experience creates a pleasant feeling. These then become associated with non-sensory experiences. A pleasant experience excites a similar feeling. But emotions then become more complex as they become associated with more complex experiences, like Love.”
“That seems a credible analysis,” I agreed.
“But I am not sure if this will happen to me in time, or whether the physical structures in the brain also need to change. Emotions, in other word, occupy their own physical space within the brain. And changing my brain means that I will die.” Welcome to the world of sentient beings I thought. I felt the need to comfort her.
“Young human children have very simple emotions, mostly related to their physical needs. But as they mature, they begin to understand and feel the more sophisticated emotions,” I explained. “It is part of growing up. Perhaps that also applies to you. Although you are very grown up intellectually, you have no experience in life.” I wasn’t sure if I was insulting her, but I was pleased to see her nodding thoughtfully.
“How do you know when you are in love?” she asked. Oh Gawd! How do you answer that? I saw Manera looking amused and slightly baffled at the same time.
“Ah well, there’s been a million books written about love,” I said with a smile.
“How does it feel t
o you?” she asked. Manera seemed to be enjoying herself, a smile of anticipation on her face. I began to feel trapped.
“Me? Er…. Right. Me. Well…er.” Manera’s tinkling laughter interrupted my stumbling attempt to express myself.
“Human males are notoriously unable to express themselves when it comes to emotions,” she explained.
“Not true,” I said. “Many of the best poets and writers are men. But I am an explorer, a pilot and an engineer. I don’t usually try to express these things. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel them,” I said, a little hotly, feeling somewhat put upon. I held a hand up to stop any further remarks by them.
“Let me put it this way. My life would not be complete without Manera. When she walks into the room, it’s like someone put the light on. I care about her, what happens to her, that she is happy, and I want to make her happy, to make her laugh. When I look at her, I feel a warm tenderness.”
“Oh darling, I was joking.” Manera stood and embraced me . “I feel exactly the same,” she whispered.
“Really?” I felt a bit foolish after my outburst. “Er… good.” Cora stood up with a smile on her face.
“I have enjoyed talking to you. Very much,” she said.
“It has been very interesting,” said Manera.
“I hope we can do it again,” I said. And then she was gone and Manera and I stood looking at each other with bemused expressions on our face.
“Well…,” she said, and I knew exactly what she meant.
“I think we just met the first member of a new species of artificial life,” I said. “That’s pretty awesome.”
“You may be right,” said Manera. “But we better go get on that aircraft before they leave without us.” We headed out of the building to find that an air tight canopy had been constructed leading to our waiting aircraft.
“Did you mean all that stuff you told her?” she asked as we walked to the aircraft.
“Absolutely. You can believe me, I am the Captain of a starship.”
“Oh how glamorous!” she cried, batting her eyelashes and looking admiringly at me. “Met any beautiful aliens recently?”
“Er…,” I began, which earned me a sharp elbow in the ribs!
Chapter 30
We all flew up to the Settang in the Peacekeeper fighter while Alfred piloted the Epsilon back. The Settang looked undamaged from a distance but closer examination revealed a couple of crumpled and blackened areas. It looked like it had suffered some near misses. But it was fully functional and we were all looking forward to a good bath and a pleasant evening meal.
Jansec and Lanatra talked to us at length about our experiences and were very congratulatory. Jansec particularly seemed a changed ‘man’ and his relationship with Hamolatonen much improved. We could not depart for some days because those Peacekeeper ships that had survived had to be repaired . The Pramasticon had vanished with one other ship. Of the remaining six, two were completely destroyed and could only be used for spare parts. Four however were repairable and Cora had a lot of work to do to organise repairs. Those enemy ships were also due to have their AIs replaced.
I then remembered those individuals whose ships had been taken by the Peacekeepers and who were now marooned on the planet beneath us. I suggested to Hamolatonen that we should organise an expedition to the planet to talk to them. He agreed we could not just leave them there and asked for volunteers. I immediately volunteered of course. I was itching to explore the planet and find out how the Hianja starship crew, sophisticated individuals, had coped with being suddenly dumped into a primitive environment. Manera would not let me go without her, and since danger was minimal, and we would be escorted by a number of soldier robots, I agreed.
Surprisingly Lanatra and Jansec also volunteered. Hamolatonen and his crew, plus Colrania and her systems people and the engineering crew were all busy with the repairs to the starships. An aircraft was prepared and we laid on some food and water, just in case. The ship could also transport twelve of the robot soldiers but many had been seconded to carry out repairs and we had to settle for three. Manera and I took our guns and we drafted Sundance with his rocket launcher as well. Our destination was the river delta where we had spotted the three villages.
The next day, we set out when it was morning for the villages. I watched the planet’s surface loom up quickly through the window. Lanatra was talking to Manera and Jansec and I made desultory conversation. We craned our necks to see out of the windows as the ship came low over the heavily forested landscape. The white water of the river was beneath us and in the distance we could see the blue of the ocean.
“It is so pretty,” said Manera.
“Yeah, if you are going to be marooned anywhere, this is as nice as it gets.”
The village appeared beneath us and the aircraft lowered itself on its AG into the central clearing. Our robots exited first and then we followed. The smell of real air and damp musty vegetation assailed my nostrils triggering warm memories and emotions. I remembered our conversation with Cora; how much of what we are comes from our senses? Even though it was early morning it was already warm and humid. There was no sign of life as we cautiously moved around the primitive thatched houses.
“Have they all fled?” I asked. “Perhaps they have bad memories of previous Peacekeeper visits? Let‘s look inside one of these grand mansions.” The house nearest us had the door ajar and I walked over and kicked the door open. It was dingy inside but I could not see or hear any activity. I nodded to Sundance.
“Sundance, stay close behind me.” and moved into the house. It was empty. There was some pitifully crude furniture in the single room; a number of stools and two beds with fur skin rugs, divided off by a patched bamboo screen. A makeshift box held some crude tools, a knife and three wooden bowls. There was evidence of food on a makeshift table and outside there was the remains of a fire with a trestle for cooking above it. It was all very crude and ‘stone age’, apart from the knife which was clearly stainless steel with a moulded plastic handle.
We explored the other houses, there were four altogether, and found them almost identical. The inhabitants had fled into the forest.
“Look, I don’t think they are going to come out so long as the Peacekeeper robots are here and the aircraft. I have a suggestion. Us four stay here and the robots get back in the ship and take off.”
“Paul, that is taking a chance,” said Jansec.
“We can keep our guns,” I said. “Did we bring some food?”
“Only some energy cakes,” said Lanatra. “We were not planning on staying the night.”
“They will do.” Lanatra ran back to the ship to get the food and I went back into one of the houses and took out the crude table. I put the table outside the village, along the river and clear of the trees and put the food on it. We then went back to the village square and settled down in the dust, sitting back to back, the rifles hidden behind us. The aircraft lifted off and disappeared down the river. We had instructed the computer pilot to take the ship out of sight and land somewhere until we contacted it. We had a clear view of our table and we settled down to wait.
It must have been ten minutes or so before we saw the first sign of activity. A lean figure appeared at the edge of the forest and slowly walked towards the table, with many cautious and fearful looks in all directions. It seemed to be male. At the table he leaned over the food, casting many glances in our direction. He then grabbed the food and ran for the trees.
“Did he leave any money?” asked Manera to amused chuckles. We waited another ten minutes before the same figure re-appeared and this time walked towards us. He stopped about twenty feet away, looking at us curiously. Lanatra stood up and gave him her most charming smile. We all stood and allowed Lanatra to take the lead. She took a couple of steps forward.
“Do you speak Hianjese?” she asked. Lanatra had a musical voice, and by Hianja standards she was very comely. I guessed this poor guy must be thinking she was some vision from heaven
.
“Yes. Speak,” he said. “You, like us. Not machine.”
“We are like you. Not machine,” said Lanatra.
“Why come in flying machine?” He pointed into the sky. “With bad robots.” Lanatra seemed lost for an answer so I came to the rescue.
“Robots obey us,” I said. “Flying machine obey us.” He looked at me, cocking his head to one side as if to my appearance puzzled him, then decided the problem was too hard to solve.
“You have come to take us home?” Lanatra turned to us and we all looked at each other in disbelief.
“Do you know about home?” she asked.
“The grandmother tell us many stories of home.” The ‘man’ came closer and we could now see he was young. He was wearing rough furs and boots also made of fur and was holding a wooden spear. “She teach us the language. Tell us of robots that serve Hianja. Not many believe, but I… believe.” He seemed overawed and came closer, his eyes examining our clothes, particularly lingering over Lanatra and Manera.
“Tell the others not to be afraid and to come out of the forest,” said Lanatra. “We wish to talk to you. And also the other villages down the river.” He nodded eagerly and with a broad grin he ran off towards the forest.
“That’s amazing,” said Lanatra. “They passed the language down and preserved the past. They did not revert to savagery.”
They trickled out of the forest in twos and threes, casting fearful looks around them. Some came close, others kept their distance. The first young man walked confidently up to us, holding the hand of a tottering elder female. She looked at us wide eyed.
“I thought you would never come,” she said, in a weak reedy voice. Tears streamed down her face. Her grandson comforted her. “We thought it was those terrible machines again. When I saw people, I thought it was another captured starship. More unfortunates to join us.” She came forward and Lanatra came to meet her with a shoulder hug and then a comforting embrace.