by David Brin
“Arbitrary rules, you mean.”
The eye stalks shrugged gracefully. “Arbitrary, but elegant and consistent. And there is another requirement. Above all, our user of magic must intensely believe.”
ᚖ
Peepoe blinked at the diminutive wizard standing on the nearby dock, in the shadow of a fairytale castle.
“You mean people in this place can command the birds and insects and other beasts using words alone?”
She had witnessed it happen dozens of times, but to hear it explained openly like this felt strange.
The gray-cloaked human nodded, speaking rapidly, eagerly. “Special words! The power of secret names. Terms that each user must keep closely guarded.”
“But –”
“Above all, most creatures will only obey those with inborn talent. Individuals who possess great force of will. Otherwise, if they heeded everybody, where would be the awe and envy that lie at the very heart of sorcery? If everyone can do a thing, it soon loses all worth. A miracle palls when it becomes routine.
“It is said that technology used to be like that, back in the Old Civilization. Take what happened soon after Earth-humans discovered how to fly. Soon all people could soar through the sky, and they took the marvel for granted. How tragic! That sort of thing does not happen here. We preserve wonder like a precious resource.”
Peepoe sputtered.
“But all this –” She flicked her jaws, spraying water toward the jungle and the steep, fleshy cliffs beyond. “All of this smacks of technology! That absurd fire-breathing dragon, for instance. Clearly bio-engineered! Somebody set up this whole thing as... as an...”
“As an experiment?” The gray-clad mage conceded with a nod. His beard shook as he continued with eager fire in his piping voice.
“That has never been secret! Ever since our ancestors were selected from among Jijo’s land-bound Six Races, to come dwell below the sea in smaller but mightier bodies, we knew that one purpose would be to help the Buyur fine-tune their master plan.”
ᚖ
Tkett reared back in shock, churning water with his flukes. He stared at the many-eyed creature who had been explaining this weird chamber-of-miniatures.
“The B-Buyur! They left Jijo half a million years ago. How could they even know about human culture, let alone set up this elaborate –”
“Of course the answer to that question is simple,” replied the little g’Kek, peering with several eye stalks from its cracked crystal shell. “Our Buyur lords never left! They have quietly observed and guided this process ever since the first ship of refugees slinked down to Jijo, preparing for the predicted day when natural forces would sever all links between Galaxy Four and the others.”
“But –”
“The great evacuation of starfaring clans from Galaxy Four – half an eon ago – made sure that no other techno-sapients remain in this soon-to-be-isolated starry realm. So it will belong to our descendants who inherit! In a culture far different than the dreary one our ancestors belonged to.”
Tkett had heard of the Buyur, of course – among the most powerful members of the Civilization of Five Galaxies, and one of the few elder races known for a sense of humor... albeit a strange one. It was said that they believed in long jokes, that took ages to plan and execute.
Was that because the Buyur found Galactic culture stodgy and stifling? (Most Earthlings would agree.) Apparently they foresaw all of the changes and convulsions that were today wracking the linked starlanes, and began preparing millennia ago for an unparalleled opportunity to put their own stamp on an entirely new branch of destiny.
ᚖ
Peepoe nodded, understanding part of it at last.
“This leviathan... this huge organic beast... isn’t the only experimental container cruising below the waves. There are others! Many?”
“Many,” confirmed the little gray-bearded human wizard. “The floating chambers take a variety of forms, each accommodating its own colony of sapient beings. Each habitat engages its passengers in a life that is rich with magic, though in uniquely different ways.
“Here, for instance, we sapient beings experience physically active lives, in a totally real environment. It is the wild creatures around us who were altered! Surely you have heard that the Buyur were master gene-crafters? In this experimental realm, each insect, fish and flower knows its own unique and secret name. By learning and properly uttering such names, a mage like me can wield great power.”
ᚖ
Tkett listened as the cheerful g’Kek explained the complex experiment taking place in the chamber of crystalline fruits.
“In our habitat, each of us gets to live in his or her own world – one that is rich, varied, and physically demanding, even if it is mostly a computer-driven simulation. Within such an ersatz reality every one of us can be the lead magician in a society or tribe of lesser peers. Or the crystal fruits can be linked, allowing shared encounters between equals. Either way, it is a vivid life, filled with more excitement than the old way of so-called engineering.
“A life in which the mere act of believing can have power, and wishing sometimes makes things come true!”
ᚖ
Peepoe watched the gray magician stroke his beard while describing the range of Buyur experiments.
“There are many other styles, modes, and implementations being tried out, in scores of other habitats. Some emphasize gritty ‘reality,’ while others go so far as to eliminate physical form entirely, encoding their subjects as digital personae in wholly computerized worlds.”
Downloading personalities. Peepoe recognized the concept. It was tried back home and never caught on, even though boosters said it ought to, logically.
“There is an ultimate purpose to all of these experiments,” the human standing on the nearby pier explained, like a proselyte eager for a special convert. “We aim to find exactly the right way to implement a new society that will thrive across the starlanes of Galaxy Four, once separation is complete and all the old hyperspatial transit paths are gone. When this island whirlpool of a hundred billion stars is safe at last from interference by the Old Civilization, it will be time to start our own. One that is based on a glorious new principle.
“By analyzing the results of each experimental habitat, the noble Buyur will know exactly how to implement a new realm of magic and wonders. Then the age of true miracles can begin.”
Listening to this, Peepoe shook her head.
“You don’t sound much like a rustic feudal magician. I just bet you’re something else, in disguise.
“Are you a Buyur?”
ᚖ
The g’Kek bowed within its crystal shell. “That’s a very good guess, my dolphin friend. Though of course the real truth is complicated. A real Buyur would weigh more than a metric ton and somewhat resemble an Earthling frog!”
“Nevertheless you –” Tkett prompted.
“I have the honor of serving as a spokesman-intermediary....”
ᚖ
“...to help persuade you dolphins – the newest promising colonists on Jijo – that joining us will be your greatest opportunity for vividness, adventure, and a destiny filled with marvels!”
The little human wizard grinned, and Peepoe realized that the others nearby must not have heard or understood a bit of it. Perhaps they wore earplugs to protect themselves against the power of the mage’s words. Or else Anglic was rarely spoken, here. Perhaps it was a “language of power.”
Peepoe also realized – she was both being tested and offered a choice.
Out there in the world, we few dolphin settlers face an uncertain existence. Makanee has no surety that our little pod of reverts will survive the next winter, even with help from the other colonists ashore. Anyway, the Six Races have troubles of their own, fighting Jophur invaders.
She had to admit that this offer had tempting aspects. After experiencing several recent Jijo storms, Peepoe could see the attraction of bringing all the other Streaker exiles
aboard some cozy undersea habitat – presumably one with bigger stretches of open water – and letting the Buyur perform whatever techno-magic it took to reduce dolphins in size so they would fit their new lives. How could that be any worse than the three years of cramped hell they had all endured aboard poor Streaker?
Presumably someday, when the experiments were over, her descendants would be given back their true size, after they had spent generations learning to weave spells and cast incantations with the best of them.
Oh, we could manage that, she thought. We dolphins are good at certain artistic types of verbal expression. After all, what is Trinary but our own special method of using sound to persuade the world? Talking it into assuming vivid sonic echoes and dreamlike shapes? Coaxing it to make sense in our own cetacean way?
The delicious temptation of it all reached out to Peepoe.
What is the alternative? Assuming we ever find a way back to civilization, what would we go home to? A gritty fate that at best offers lots of hard work, where it can take half a lifetime just learning the skills you need to function usefully in a technological society.
Real life isn’t half as nice as the tales we first hear in storybooks. Everybody learns at some point that it’s a disappointing world out there – a universe where good is seldom purely handsome and evil doesn’t obligingly identify itself with red glowing eyes. A complex society filled with tradeoffs and compromises, as well as committees and political opponents who always have much more power than you think they deserve.
Who wouldn’t prefer a place where the cosmos might be talked into giving you what you want? Or where wishing sometimes makes things true?
ᚖ
“We already have two volunteers from your esteemed race,” the g’Kek spokesman explained, causing Tkett to quiver in surprise. With a flailing of eye stalks, the wheeled figure commanded that a hologram appear, just above the water’s surface.
Tkett at once saw two large male dolphins lying calmly on mesh hammocks while tiny machines scurried all over them, spinning webs of some luminescent material. Chissis, long silent and brooding, abruptly recognized the pair, and shouted Primal recognition.
# Caught! Caught in nets as they deserved!
# Foolish Zhaki – Nasty Mopol! #
“Ifni!” Tkett commented. “I think you’re right. But what’s being done to them?”
“They have already accepted our offer,” said the little wheeled intermediary.
“Soon those two will dwell in realms of holographic and sensual delights, aboard a different experimental station than this one. Their destiny is assured, and let me promise you – they will be happy.”
ᚖ
“You’re sure those two aren’t here aboard this vessel, near me?” Peepoe asked nervously, watching Zhaki and Mopol undergo their transformation via a small image that the magician had conjured with a magic phrase and a wave of one hand.
“No. Your associates followed a lure to one of our neighboring experimental cells – to their senses it appeared to be a ‘leviathan’ resembling one of your Earthling blue whales. Once they had come aboard, preliminary appraisal showed that their personalities will probably thrive best in a world of pure fantasy.
“They eagerly accepted this proposal.”
Peepoe nodded, shocked only at her own lack of emotion, either positive or negative, toward this final disposal of her tormentors. They were gone from her life, and that was all she really cared about. Let Ifni decide whether their destination qualified as permanent imprisonment, or a strange kind of heaven.
Well, now they can have harems of willing cows, to their hearts’ content, she thought. Good riddance.
Anyway, she had other quandaries to focus on, closer at hand.
“What’ve you got p-planned for me?”
The gray wizard spread his arms in eager consolation.
“Nothing frightening or worrisome, oh esteemed dolphin-friend! At this point we are simply asking that you choose!
“Will you join us? No one is coerced. But how could anyone refuse? If one lifestyle does not suit you, pick another! Select from a wide range of enchanted worlds, and further be assured that your posterity will someday be among the magic-wielders who establish a new order across a million suns.”
ᚖ
Tkett saw implications that went beyond the offer itself. The plan of the Buyur – its scope and the staggering range of their ambition – left him momentarily dumbfounded.
They want to set up a whole galaxy-spanning civilization, based on what they consider to be an ideal way of life. Someday soon, after this ‘Time of Changes’ has ruptured the old inter-galaxy links, the Buyur will be free from any of the old constraints of law and custom that dominated oxygen-breathing civilization for the last billion years.
Then, out of this planet there will spill a new wave of starships, crewed by the Seven Races of Jijo, commanded by bold captains, wizards and kings... a mixture of themes from old-time science fiction and fantasy... pouring forth toward adventure! Over the course of several ages, they will fight dangers, overcome grave perils, discover and uplift new species. Eventually, the humans and urs and traekis and others will become revered leaders of a galaxy that is forever filled with high drama.
In this new realm, boredom will be the ultimate horror. Placidity the ultimate crime. The true masters – the Buyur – will see to that.
Like Great Oz, manipulating levers behind a curtain, the Buyur will use their high technology to provide every wonder.
Ask for dragons? They will gene-craft or manufacture them. Secret factories will build sea monsters and acid-mouthed aliens, ready for battle.
It will be a galaxy run by special effects wizards! A perpetual theme park, whose inhabitants use magic spells instead of engineering to get what they want. Conjurers and monarchs will replace tedious legislatures, impulse will supplant deliberation, and lists of secret names will substitute for physics.
Nor will our descendants ask too many questions, or dare to pull back the curtain and expose Oz. Those who try won’t have descendants!
Cushioned by hidden artifice, in time people will forget nature’s laws.
They will flourish in vivid kingdoms, forever setting forth heroically, returning triumphally, or dying bravely... but never asking why.
Tkett mused on this while filling the surrounding water with intense sprays of sonar clicks. Chissis, who had clearly not understood much of the g’Kek’s convoluted explanation, settled close by, rolling her body through the complex rhythms of Tkett’s worried thoughts.
Finally, he felt that he grasped the true significance of it all.
Tkett swam close to the crystal cube, raising one eye until it was level with the small representative of the mighty Buyur.
“I think I get what’s going on here,” he said.
“Yes?” the little g’Kek answered cheerfully. “And what is your sage opinion, oh dolphin friend. What do you think of this great plan?”
Tkett lifted his head high out of the water, rising up on churning flukes, emitting chittering laughter from his blowhole. At the same time, a sardonic Trinary haiku floated from his clicking brow.
* Sometimes sick egos
* foster in their narrow brains
* Really stupid jokes! *
ᚖ
Some aspects of the offer were galling, such as the smug permanence of Buyur superiority in the world to come. Yet, Peepoe felt tempted.
After all, what else awaits us here on Jijo? Enslavement by the Jophur? Or the refuge of blessed dimness that the sages promise, if we follow the so-called Path of Redemption? Doesn’t this offer a miraculous way out of choosing between those two unpalatable destinies?
She concentrated hard to sequester her misgivings, focusing instead on the advantages of the Buyur plan. And there were plenty, such as living in a cosmos where hidden technology made up for nature’s mistakes. After all, wasn’t it cruel of the Creator to make a universe where so many fervent wishes were ignored?
A universe where prayers were mostly answered – if at all – within the confines of the heart? Might the Buyur plan rectify this oversight for billions and trillions? For all the inhabitants of a galaxy-spanning civilization! Generosity on such a scale was hard to fathom.
She compared this ambitious goal with the culture waiting for the Streaker survivors, should they ever make it back home to the other four galaxies, where a myriad competitive, fractious races bickered endlessly. Over-reliant on an ancient Library of unloving technologies, they seldom sought innovation or novelty. The desires of individual beings nearly always subsumed before the driving needs of nation, race, clan and philosophy.
Again, the Buyur vision looked favorable compared to the status quo.
A small part of her demanded: Are these our only choices? What if we could come up with alternatives that go beyond simple-minded –
She quashed the question fiercely, packing it off to far recesses of her mind.
“I would love to learn more,” she told the gray wizard. “But what about my comrades? The other dolphins who now live on Jijo? Won’t you need them, too?”
“In order to have a genetically viable colony, yes.” The spokesman agreed. “If you agree to join us, we will ask you first to go and persuade others to come.”
“Just out of curiosity, what would happen if I refused?”
The sorcerer shrugged. “Your life will resume much as it would have, if you never found us. We will erase all conscious memory of this visit, and you will be sent home. Later, when we have had a chance to refine our message, emissaries will come visit your pod of dolphins. But as far as you know, you will hear the proposal as if for the first time.”
“I see. And again, those who refuse will be memory-wiped... and again each time you return. Kind of gives you an advantage in proselytizing, doesn’t it?”
“Perhaps. Still, no one is compelled to join against their will.” The little human smiled. “So, what is your answer? Will you help convey our message to your peers? We sense that you understand and sympathize with the better world we aim toward. Will you help enrich the Great Stew of Races with wondrous dolphin flavors?”