by Philip Elrod
Next, he walked into the sleeping room. It was sparsely furnished with only a couple of chairs; again, he pressed a small panel on the wall and a large bed appeared. He touched it and was quite surprised at how he could press down into the material, but, when he removed his hand, there was no indentation.
On the far wall, he noticed a tiny symbol, similar to the one at the entrance from the roof. He touched it, and the wall opened to reveal a massive closet area. There were many garments and footwear, all neatly arranged. There was a large, floor-to-ceiling mirror of some type on the back wall.
Tom stood silently for a few seconds and then reached out and selected a shirt, more like a loose tunic. It was of an extremely soft, silky material and shimmered with pastel colors. Remembering what the robot had told him about Mylean fabrics, Tom crushed the sleeve into his fist tightly and then released it; the fabric gently returned to its smooth state without a sign of a wrinkle.
He decided to do a bold experiment and so he quickly removed his shirt. He pulled the tunic over his head and looked into the mirror. His mind reeled in shock. He was looking at himself; no he was looking at Tanaka, who had been dead for all these years. Tom experienced the eeriest feeling that he had ever felt in his entire life. It was as if he were both a ghost and himself at the same time.
Next, he checked the footwear and picked up a strange pair of boots. They were unusually large, but they were very soft and would surely be most comfortable. He slipped his shoes off and slid his feet down into the huge boots.
Instantly, the material, whatever it was, gently molded to his feet. His transformation was complete. He stood straight and tall and imagined speaking to the Grand Council to make his proposal for the interstellar transporter.
Just then, he heard the softest of whispers. At least it seemed to be a whisper. There were no words, just a few sighs that seemed neither sad nor happy. He knew that his seduction was complete. Maxx had made certain that he would have a strong connection to that original Tanaka and that connection could be used to ensure that Tom would agree to provide his DNA for the password.
He quickly removed the boots and tunic and placed them, carefully, back where he had found them. After dressing, he would search for Tanaka’s office, his workplace, and that would surely be the most interesting room of all.
Next door was the large office. The entire far wall was a huge display screen with a large, sleek desk before it. Two chairs stood behind the desk. Everything else was concealed behind panels just like in the kitchen.
He walked slowly around the room noting that the utter simplicity would prevent any distraction from interrupting Tanaka’s thinking while he planned and studied in this very room. Perhaps he had even designed the desk and chairs himself.
Tom suddenly decided that it would be an excellent idea to redesign his rather chaotic office at home. He knew that Tanaka would probably not approve of the books and papers stacked here and there, much less the cluttered bookcases and ancient television set.
He sat down at the desk and touched a tiny symbol beside his right hand. The screen was suddenly alive with scenes of the city. Myleans walked about while transport craft sped above in neat rows, obviously following the established gridlines.
Tom could hardly breathe and felt that he could step into the scene and be part of it. After a few seconds, the scene changed to the quiet garden at the front of the house. A tall man stood facing away from the camera. He wore a tunic similar to the one that Tom had tried out. It was in soft shades of blue with matching boots and pants. The man walked through the garden, obviously enjoying the plants and flowers. A small robot was working nearby, planting some palm-like plants.
Then, slowly, very slowly, the tall man turned toward the camera and smiled into it. He spoke in an unknown language. There was a translation at the bottom of the screen, but for some reason, Tom didn’t need the translation. In his mind, he could hear Tanaka speak, very clearly. “Welcome to my home, my friend.” With that, Tanaka bowed deeply and the screen faded to darkness.
Tom had never been so close to fainting as he was at this very moment. He wondered, How had Maxx accomplished all this? For what purpose? I am quite sure that Maxx felt confident that he would get the DNA to change the password, but, could there be another reason too? Could there be something devious, maybe even dangerous?
After briefly touring the remaining rooms, Tom returned to the living area where Mister T patiently awaited him. Even though he already had substantial knowledge of Mylean culture and history, this visit had raised many questions. His curiosity was boundless, and he would surely tire Mister T with his endless questions.
Most of all, he would love to have had Tanaka here to explain it all. How wonderful that would have been to meet this great man and listen to him speak. What magnificent conversations they would have had. Now, he could only feel a pang of loneliness in this beautiful, empty house.
He spoke to Mister T, “I am humbled and honored by this visit to Tanaka’s home. Right now, I feel that my Mylean half is dominant, and I have a feeling of being very strongly connected to Tanaka. It’s probably some DNA thing. I’ve got about a million questions to ask, so please be patient with this poor earthling/Mylean.”
“Yes, sir," said the robot, “I will tell you a brief history of Mylean civilization and Tanaka.
“This planet is much like your own in many aspects, but there are many important differences. You have separate continents divided by huge oceans.
“Here, we have a single large continent that spans the middle of our planet. The oceans are above and below. So, you can see that we have a climate that is moderate and conducive to the development of civilization. After many millennia, the people were in a very advanced state of civilization and technological progress.
“Thanks to the geography and climate of the planet, there were few physical differences as you have on earth.
“Rather than evolving into many different nations, religions, and cultures, the Myleans developed into a single race with many similar genetic characteristics. Obviously, that is both good and bad in many ways. As an example, I think that we could have greatly benefitted from a little bit of ethnic and cultural diversities.
“As our civilization progressed, we were not subjected to the endless wars between nations, cultures, religions, and tribes as was the case with your Earth. With a homogenous people, it was easy to develop a common religion. Our culture was essentially based on the same principles as our religion.
“Myleans considered liberty to be very important, as you do on Earth. But we also recognized that liberty had to have limits. Those individual limits were important to protect the large amount of liberty available to all.
“Our religion, if you want to call it that, emphasized both rights and responsibilities. We believed that individuals had to meet their responsibilities to have rights. This very pragmatic approach led to our developing a law-abiding culture; the punishment for crime was extreme and administered quickly. Of course, we developed a set of checks and balances over the years to assure that all convictions were fairly administered.
“Eventually, the incidence of crime became almost nonexistent, and punishment was almost never required.
“Our civilization was very science oriented, and many technologies developed over a relatively short period. Certain fields were not of great interest. Art, music, and a few other areas were not deemed to be nearly so important and languished at a rather low level of development.
“I must say that earthlings did achieve a level of sophistication far greater than we ever expected. You did manage to accomplish quite a bit, even though you always seemed to be fighting over something. I am both amused and horrified by your human antics.
“Tanaka was from a long line of prominent Mylean scientists and scholars. I’ll tell you about his grandfather and father before we get to Tanaka.
“Tanaka’s grandfather, Unica, spent much of his life studying computers and means of speeding up
calculations and memory access. Toward the end of his long career, he discovered a means of detecting gravity waves. His son, Heilo, continued his work, and after much experimentation, perfected a method of rectifying and amplifying gravity waves. Their combined work resulted in revolutionary changes in Mylean civilization.
“The Myleans determined that even light waves have infinitely small particles responsible for their origin and waveform. Up until that time, the thinking had been that the speed of light was an absolute maximum for all waves.
“Now, the scientists could discard that theory for waves that did not have a material component. Eventually, they proved that gravity waves had no empirical mass whatsoever. They traveled at a speed that was immeasurably fast. Also, they confirmed that gravity waves were pure energy waves, thereby changing the whole science of physics that had existed until then.
“The measurement of all wave speeds had always been a two-point system. Aim the wave at an object in the far distance and attempt to measure the time it took to traverse the distance to that object and return. There was one very obvious flaw in this method. It required the wave to hit the object and return. They assumed all waves did so. The speed of the wave could then be calculated with great accuracy and precision with the proper instrumentation.
“The problem with measuring gravity waves is that they do not bounce off an object and return. They simply travel from the point of origin to infinity almost instantaneously and in an apparently straight line.
“Eventually, the Mylean scientists discovered that gravity waves were of ultra, ultra high frequency, meaning that they were so fast that they gave the illusion of not having any frequency at all. They simply penetrated everything in their paths without seeming to change anything in the matter that they penetrated.
“The discovery of a method of detecting gravity waves is most interesting. Unica Tainaikai was a highly regarded computer engineering genius, having helped increase the speed of Mylean computers by many orders of magnitude. His current project was an attempt to achieve a bit more speed by reducing memory access time.
“Mylean computer technology was already using solid state hydrogen as a memory storage medium. The on/off bit function being performed by reading the orbital plane of the single electron circling the hydrogen atom. That was currently done by manipulating the electron circling each hydrogen atom by ninety degrees with one position indicating ‘off’ and the other position being ‘on’.”
“Mylean memory readers, at the time, were able to distinguish between the two different electron orbits, one at zero degrees and the other at ninety degrees. That meant that each hydrogen atom in their memory matrix held a single bit of information. Considering the density of solid-state hydrogen, that was a lot of data but there was always a need for more memory, and faster access to that memory.
“It was not possible to distinguish between zero degrees and 180 degrees, or any degree past 180 degrees, using their current memory reading technology. That technology, therefore, was limited to a single bit of data per hydrogen atom.
“Unica thought he knew a way to improve memory density by a significant amount. He would develop a memory writer/reader that could distinguish the angle of the hydrogen atom circling its proton by a mere ten degrees increment. That meant that his system could provide eight memory bits per hydrogen atom rather than the current one resulting in an increase of 800% in capacity.
“While refining his instrument to do the read/write function of his new hydrogen atom memory, he discovered an unusual anomaly. Some of his hydrogen atoms were randomly shifting their electron orbit by three degrees. That was not enough to affect the current generation of writers and readers because they only measured zero to ninety degrees. However, Unica wanted to measure shifts of only ten degrees. These seemingly random shifts were unpredictable and affected only a few hydrogen atoms.
“Unica was most frustrated and performed many studies and experiments in an attempt to understand the situation. All failed, and he was considering abandoning the project completely. One day, at lunch with a scientist colleague, he brought up the issue. He explained that he believed something must be impacting the hydrogen atoms and altering some of their electron paths.
“The friend was keenly interested, and after a little thought, asked for a record of the dates and times when the phenomenon occurred. Unica was more than happy to comply but asked how the data could be of any help in resolving the problem.
“His friend replied that he was working on gravity waves. He explained that his laboratory had found a means of producing gravity waves, but their work was hampered by their rather crude gravity wave detection devices. They needed a precise and accurate method for detection. He went on to explain that his scientists had concluded that gravity waves were so difficult to detect because they penetrated everything seemingly without any effect. Perhaps there would be some connection between the two studies.
“To shorten the story, Unica supplied this friend the dates and times of his studies, and it was immediately obvious that the dates and times matched precisely. The two scientists made the extraordinary decision to combine their laboratories and collaborate on the common goal of accurately detecting gravity waves.
“Unica’s team proceeded to build the first highly accurate instrument for measuring gravity waves. They had previously discovered that gravity waves when passing through polarized solid state hydrogen atoms always moved the orbit of any electron touched by the wave by three degrees in a counterclockwise motion. This important fact led Unica to speculate that the gravity wave did not have any mass at all, but it did have a minute net positive electrical charge.
“Unica’s revolutionary work paved the way for his son, Heilo, to discover how to amplify and rectify gravity waves. That led to the eventual complete revolution in Mylean life. This discovery was, in the opinion of many Mylean scientists, the greatest achievement in the history of their technology. Indeed, without their mastery of gravity waves, their entire civilization, including the planet on which it resided, would have been doomed and most certainly would have perished many, many years ago.
“Tanaka followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and became a scientist, specializing in computers and robotics. He became renowned in both fields with many innovations that led to the effective use of robotics both on the planet and in the far reaches of space.
“Tanaka so devoted his life to science that he made no room for much of a personal life and remained a lifelong bachelor. Thus, when he passed away, it meant the ending of the long line of prominent Tainaikai scientists who had contributed so much to Mylea.
“But before he passed away, Tanaka produced the most remarkable achievement of all: the interstellar transporter and the computers controlling it. That incredible craft removed Mylea from harm’s way, and to this day, nurtures the planet as it awaits its new home location somewhere in the galaxy.”
The robot completed his story and waited for a response. Tom was so fascinated that he didn’t speak at all.
“Are you alright, sir?”
Tom waved his hand. “Yes, please tell me about how Tanaka was able to create this colossal craft. It’s beyond the limits of my imagination.”
The robot continued his story, “The government approved Tanaka’s project and put him in charge of it. He had sweeping powers over every aspect of the construction process. In fact, he had more power than any other Mylean on the planet.
“He was very careful not to abuse that power and dedicated his entire existence to the project. His last achievement was the computer system that would monitor and control the entire interstellar transporter throughout its travels to find a new home.
“That computer continues to be committed to completing Tanaka’s plan, and it’s why you are here. The computer, you call him Maxx, needs you to help remove an unforeseen obstacle that prevents Mylea from being placed into a new location.”
Mister T paused, “Please forgive me, I meant to mak
e this brief and I seemed to have made it extremely long. I only wanted to have the opportunity to enrich your knowledge while we were at Tanaka’s home. This place is almost sacred, and Maxx would never forgive me if I failed in my mission.”
After one last, brief look around the house and grounds, they returned to Tanaka’s little transport craft. As he climbed aboard, Tom noticed a neatly folded little bundle on his seat. He picked it up carefully and opened it.
“Sir, that is one of Tanaka’s scarves. He wore one of these around his throat every day. Gave him quite the distinguished appearance, so I’ve heard. Maxx is giving you this one as a gift in remembrance of your visit to Tanaka’s home. ”
Tom examined the scarf closely. It was of a material lighter than silk but seemingly quite sturdy. The colors were soft and seemed to flow together with a life of their own. Tom ran the scarf between his fingers gently, reverently, and then tied it around his neck, cravat fashion.
“Mister T, I am without words. This gift is the most special thing that I have ever received. I will treasure it above all other things.”
Mister T smiled broadly and then programmed the little craft for a visit to the Great Hall, the very place where Tanaka had made his stunning proposal.
Again, they landed on the roof and entered the hall by a flight of stairs that placed them at the entrance of the hall.
A relatively small plaque was placed at the entrance. Tom had no idea of the material involved and reached out to touch it. It was some metal, probably an alloy, that gleamed in the sunlight. Although it was a warm day, the surface was quite cool to the touch. He leaned forward and looked more closely and began to wonder if the material might be gold—solid gold.
Mister T translated the words and explained that the memorial plaque recognized Tanaka for his work and achievements. The words were simple yet elegant, respectful and appreciative. Tom reached out and ran his fingers over the strange, raised letters and bowed his head in a moment of respect.