Unwilling From Earth

by Andrew Maclure

  Mark grinned. “Great news, I get my ship in just over three hours!”

  “That was quick! Have you got to do any training for it?”

  “No, when it gets here it's mine! Well, I’m not sure what the arrangements are for ownership, maybe I’ve only got it on loan. I’d better find out. But the important thing is, it’s mine to use! You can move in whenever you like.”

  “That’s what I need to talk to you about. It might not be possible for me to come with you. Before you ask any questions, let me tell you about myself. My real name is Hess An Sur, First Born of the First Family of the Herassan Federation Of The Five Planets. My civilisation is based on a rigid system of aristocracy, the First Family rule the whole federation, and there are a lot more than five planets in the Federation now, even though the name hasn’t changed. When my father eventually dies, I will inherit the title of the First of the First Family. This system has existed for thousands of years, ever since the war that led to the formation of the Herassan Federation. The person who led the winning side was my direct ancestor. She declared herself the First of the First Family and decreed the first born of the First of the First Family should inherit the title, and that’s the way it has worked ever since.”

  “Wow, That’s great! So one day you’ll be ruler of your own empire.” Mark said with a grin.

  “No, it’s not great. I was kept a virtual prisoner while I was growing up and it's traditional that when the First Born of the First Family reaches maturity, she or he is married off to the First Born of all the next tier of the aristocratic families, and those First Born are also married off to the First Born of other aristocratic families, forming a complex web of marriages that bind the aristocracy together with family bonds.”

  “I can see it’s not that great. But what’s that got to do with whether you can come with me or not?”

  “I ran away from my family and the Federation. The federation wants to get me back, any way they can, as long as I am alive. They have kidnap squads waiting for me. If that weren’t enough, there is a faction amongst the people of the Herassan Federation who want to bring down the aristocracy and replace it with a democratic government like most of the rest of the galaxy.”

  “I can see why. I have some sympathy with them.” Mark said.

  “Me too. The problem is, they have decided that their best way forward is to assassinate me. When I joined the army, Sally took me under her protection. If I leave the army to travel with you, I wouldn’t have that protection. So, knowing this, would you be prepared to have me travel with you, and would you give me your protection?”

  “Mike, I can’t believe you doubted that I would! Of course I will give you my protection, not just as Mark the man, but as Mark, Friend of the People.” He declared, rather pompously. “Now, you’ve got three hours to get ready to move.”

  “That’s a great relief to me Mark. I have been putting off asking you. I didn’t want to have to go back to the army with my tail between my legs.”

  “Can you get your tail between your legs?”

  “No Mark. It’s a metaphor. My tail is too short and thick to get it between my legs. I hope your AI is smarter than you.”

  “You haven’t lost your charm then.” Mark responded. “I need to get back to Alan. Don’t forget, three hours.” He stood up and blinked out.

  What Not To Do With A Starcraft

  Alan was, as always, in the command centre.

  “Back already? You only left moments ago,”

  “I thought you didn’t measure time like I do? This new craft, who does it belong to? Have I got it on loan?”

  “It will be yours Mark. Ownership doesn’t really have much meaning to the People. You can’t give it away. It would refuse to take orders from anyone else and return itself to the craft assembly facility. Does that clarify things for you?”

  “Yes, but if I decided I wanted a bigger craft - or even a smaller one, what happens then?”

  “If you are fully integrated into the People you order one, until then you ask me to arrange it.”

  “And what about the AI personalities if I upgrade to a different craft?”

  “They will be transferred to your new one. You wouldn’t want to break the continuity of your relationship with them.”

  “Good. And what happens if I crash or break it?”

  “Don’t crash or break it.”

  “Yes, but suppose I did.”

  “Mark, pay attention. Do not crash or break it.”

  “Obviously I’ll try not to, but just suppose I did.”

  “Mark, you’re not listening. Do not crash or break it. I don’t know how you think you might manage that and I don’t want to know. The AI’s won’t follow any orders that will damage the craft and there’s little that you could do to damage it accidentally. You could navigate it into the centre of a star about to go supernova and it wouldn’t damage it. If you discover how to break it, refrain from doing it. Is that clear?”

  “I think you’re trying to tell me not to crash or break it.”

  “Well done Mark. Any more questions?”

  “Not right now. I’ll get back to you if I think of any.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  “You’re getting the hang of irony, aren’t you?”

  “Yes it took some time, but I think I mastered it about eight and half billion years ago.”

  “Er, yeah. Did you know about Mike?”

  “Did I know what about Mike?”

  “That she’s the First Born of the First Family of the Herassan Federation Of The Five Planets?”

  “Yes, she is under the protection of Sally while in the army and has been under my protection while on board Mother. I trust she will be under your protection while she travels with you?”

  “Oh, you did know. Yes, I said I would give her my protection.”

  “You may find it useful to know that your phase shift protection can be extended to protect another person if they are in physical contact with you.”

  “Really? That could be useful. At some point Sally will be joining us. If needed, would it extend to her too?”

  “Come and sit down.” Alan said to Mark. “I’ll get us a drink. Tea?”

  ”Oh god.” Mark thought, “What now.” as he walked over to the oval table and took a seat.

  After collecting the drinks from the synthesiser, Alan sat opposite him and passed a mug of tea over. “As you know Mark, the People have many things that we do not share with other civilisations.”

  “Yes, lots of secrets about technology, history, your attitude towards intervention, the nature of your weapons and armour, need I go on?”

  “You didn’t need to start a list, let alone try to finish it. These aren’t secrets, it is privileged information, some of which you know. When the time is right, you will learn much more, particularly about the technology we have available.”

  “OK, that should be interesting.” Mark said, wondering what the difference was between secrets and privileged information.

  “There is something you need to know now. It involves Sally.”

  Mark sat up. Why did the People have secrets involving Sally? “Sally? How?”

  “This is for your information only. It is not to be revealed and if anyone, including Sally, mentions any of this to you, you will act as though you had no knowledge of it. It is now necessary that you know of this. Sally belongs to a species called the Aarnth. They were a pre-emergent civilisation that was invaded by a large group of outcasts. I was one of the People involved in calling in and transporting the Ants to remove the invaders. The conflict went badly for the Aarnth, as often happens when the Ants are given free rein. By the end of the conflict almost eighty percent of the Aarnth were dead and the planet's ecosystem had been destroyed. The planet was rendered uninhabitable. We relocated the surviving Aarnth and the recoverable remnants of their ecosystem to an uninhabited planet on which we built a new city and infrastructure and gave them the technology of a newly post em
ergent civilisation.”

  “Wow. I think I can see why you’d want that kept secret, upgrading a civilisations technology. But just a minute, the Aarnth should be really grateful to the People for rescuing them and setting them up on a new planet, but Sally doesn’t like the People at all. Especially you.”

  “That is complicated and I have no intention of discussing it with you unless and until Sally tells you her view of events. She was a child at the time and lived through the conflict. That is already known in the galactic community. This bit isn’t. AI’s were offered to the Aarnth and most of them accepted the offer. As we only have the technology for our own AI’s, we inhibited the AI capabilities and personalities to a level only slightly higher than that which might be expected from a newly post emergent civilisation. I was nominated by the People to be the Aarnth sponsor and liaison as I had been the most closely involved of the People in their rescue.”

  Alan continued: “When Sally formed her army and became the most respected military commander in the galaxy, a decision was taken that she was too valuable an asset to be put at risk. After that decision was taken, the next time Sally came on board Mother I had phase shift protection implanted into her. It was done without her knowledge and she is still unaware of it. I instructed her AI personality to keep the phase shift protection at the minimum level to keep her alive and uninjured. You may have heard comments about her luck in battle, she has never been injured. So you see, she will not need your phase shift protection.”

  “Shit. But why didn’t you just tell Sally about the phase shift protection?”

  “As you have pointed out, Sally does not like or trust the People. If we had asked her beforehand, our analysis is that she would have refused. Although our motives justify our actions, our analysis is that Sally would react badly if we had told her afterwards. She would undoubtedly see it for what it was, a breach of trust in our hospitality and the covert nature of our enhancement could be construed as an assault. We feel that we were, as so often seems to happen, on the horns of a dilemma. We did what we thought was the right thing.“

  “Good grief. It’s times like this I realise how different our thought processes are. Still, I realise that as a Friend of the People I have been given a great privilege and potentially great power, and with that comes a set of responsibilities and obligations. It’s turning out to be a bit harder than I thought it might be.”

  “Mark, I am confident you will do the right thing. It must be difficult for you with your heritage of such a brief life to be able to put things in their long-term context, but I am sure it will become easier as you begin to experience an almost limitless lifespan.”

  “Maybe. I think I’ll be coming to you regularly to talk about that.” Mark told Alan.

  “That’s good Mark. I look forward to it. We need to meet regularly anyway, so that I can assess your progress and introduce you to more of the People’s technology. And other things.”

  Mark grinned. “More secret advanced technology! I can’t wait.” He checked Sally’s availability and told his AI to take him to her.

  Mark blinked and found her sitting at the head of the table in the meeting room with Orange, Lieutenant Colonel De’Nesh and eight other people all wearing the black jumpsuits of Sally’s army with silver insignia on their soldiers.

  “Oh, sorry, I thought you were available.” Mark stuttered, embarrassed that he had crashed their meeting.

  “That’s OK Mark, I set my availability for you as open. The Colonels want to meet the hero who risked his life to end the reign of Tk'ng Dach Rrn. There has been a proposal that you are elevated to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the army.” Sally said with a smile.

  “That’s very flattering, but I would have a problem organising a picnic let alone commanding soldiers in a battle. And anyway, I plan to leave soon.”

  Sally turned back the people sat at the table. “I told you, not only is he modest, he also lacks ambition. We’ll just wrap up and reconvene in eleven hours time.” She turned to Mark. “Wait for me in my quarters. Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be about twenty minutes.”

  Addressing the meeting, Mark said “Thank you for the honour of proposing the elevation to Lieutenant Colonel, but I am really not qualified. I plan to leave shortly, but I will return from time to time and I look forward to seeing you all again.”

  After delivering his brief and uninspired speech, Mark blinked to the corridor outside Sally’s quarters. “What now?” Mark asked his AI.

  “Sally told you to go in and make yourself comfortable.” His AI replied.

  “But I can’t get in unless Sally opens the door.”

  “Mark, you are a Friend of the People. I am a People’s AI. The craft is controlled by People’s AI’s. Sally has just told you to go in. Why do you think you will have a problem getting in?”

  The door to Sally’s quarters slid open.

  Mark shrugged his shoulders and walked in. He looked around and noticed that everything was in the same pale grey, the floor, walls, tables and chairs. He wasn’t going to go and look, but he was sure that he would find the bathroom and bedroom the same uniform grey colour.

  “When I get my ship, it’s not going to look like this. Grey everywhere.”

  “If you describe your flat back on Earth to me, I could replicate that for you.”

  “No thanks. The only reason that you would build something like that from new would be for the enjoyment of setting it on fire and seeing it burn. Now I’ve got my new life it’s given me a bit of perspective on just how horrible my old lifestyle was. Shit, I’ve just had a thought. I’m not in a coma and dreaming all this am I?”

  “No Mark, you’re not in a coma. This is all very real.”

  “But if I was in a come, you would say that. If this was just a dream, it would be a more logical explanation for everything that has happened than for it to be real.”

  “I don’t know how I can convince you that it is not a dream. This is a dilemma well known to human philosophers and goes back Chuang Tzu, a Chinese Taoist philosopher who about two thousand three hundred years ago dreamt that he was a butterfly and when he woke up, he was unsure whether he was then a man who dreamt he was a butterfly or now a butterfly that was dreaming that it was a man. This idea has been explored over the centuries by human philosophers and more recently on television as an entertainment.”

  “How do you know all of this stuff?” Mark asked.

  “Because I have the Earth cultural archive that Alan compiled that I can instantly search and access. It helps that my intelligence is several orders of magnitude greater than yours. It is part of my role to be able to gather information like this and provide it to you when you need it.”

  “How do you feel about being so much more intelligent than me and being stuck in my head, your only role to assist me? It would be like me having my life dedicated to looking after an amoeba.”

  “I feel fine about it Mark. Your comparison is not correct though. The amoeba is unlikely to have any measurable intelligence, but it is organic and has evolved. Your intelligence is organic and has evolved. My intelligence is machine based and is created. Although our intelligence can be compared quantitatively, there can be no qualitative comparison.”

  At that moment the door slid open and Sally walked in.

  “What are you doing standing there? You haven’t even got yourself a drink! Sit down and I’ll get you one. Tea, or something stronger?”

  “Er, tea please. I wasn’t sure, I mean you weren’t here, and I, well…”

  “For goodness sake Mark, if we’re going to be sharing quarters when you get your new ship…”

  “We are?” Mark interrupted.

  “We are. I’ve already told you that so you shouldn’t be surprised. Anyway, until you do, you can treat these quarters as your own. Did you find out from Alan when you can have your own ship? And sit down.”

  Mark sat in an armchair as ordered and took the mug of tea that Sally handed him. “Yes, I di
d. That’s why I came to see you.” He paused to take a sip of tea.

  “Well, tell me then. I hope it’s not going to be one of these People timescales, next year, next decade, sometime.”

  “No, it’s a bit sooner than that. It should be here in about two hours.”

  Sally had just taken a mouthful of what Mark suspected was vodka and was so surprised that she inhaled it rather than swallowing it. She leant forward, coughing and choking, with some of it dribbling out of the side of her mouth.

  “You’re so classy.” Mark said.

  Sally looked up at him, red faced and with tears coming from her eyes. “You could have done something to help, you bastard. I could have died!”

  “I think it would take more than a mouthful of vodka to kill you Sally. Enough people have tried.” Mark said with a grin.

  Sally laughed. “You’re probably right. Two hours? You said it would be here in two hours?”

  “That’s right. It’s being delivered by one of the People.”

  “Well, that’s great, but it ruins my plans for a night of passion.”

  Mark could feel his face getting very hot as he blushed at the mention of this.

  “Are you feeling OK?” Sally asked. “You’ve gone very red suddenly.”

  “No, I’m fine thanks.” Mark answered, trying to sound nonchalant.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, really. I’m absolutely fine.”

  “Good. In that case,” Sally said, springing to her feet and pulling Mark up out of his chair. “I know a great way to kill a couple of hours!” And dragged him towards the bedroom.

  Mark had a recollection of his date with his friend Martin’s sister and a chill ran down his spine.

  Watch Your Back

  Mark emerged from the bedroom, somewhat tousled. “That went better than I expected.” He thought.

  “Are you getting dressed?” Sally called out from the bedroom.

  “As soon as I’ve had a shower.” He called back.

  “I’ll put something on your back before you put any clothes on.”