by Marc Neuffer
Martin sat. I opened up the floor for questions and ideas.
Ranger’s AI spoke first. “One thing we have in our favor is that the Zees. On the other side, were provided minimal technical knowledge of how AI and Q-com systems work. It wasn’t deemed necessary in light of the main thrust, being the closing of the rift.”
Traveler’s AI appended that with, “No Surron technical information was ever sent back. As you know, in the distant past, they held that information, but had lost it during a transformation. We’re also lucky that, as an aggregate, the Zees have very little interest in our dimensions, however, Ranger and I both agree it could become a hot pot if something stirs it.”
“So,” Mica interjected, “it’s a three-fold decision. Either we proceed on the timeliest path, taking the tech from galaxy to galaxy, protecting each as we go, or install as many as practical and then flip the switch for everyone at the same time, or wait to see if the Bears uncover something in the Mintic archives. I think we should game-plan all the possibilities, team against team. My instinct is to go sooner rather than later.”
For a solid week, we planned, refined, gamed. We had a plan. A very good plan, I hoped.
20 Metastasis
Metastasis: a spread from an initial or primary site to different or secondary sites from the direct extension and penetration, by a progenitor, to its neighbors.
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One of the technical hurdles, in going dark, had been how to differentiate between natural, gravity-well, quantum signatures and the artificial ones, created by Q-coms, ship jump drives, and quantum computers. Our aim was to allow the Zees to still see our universe, but as it had been before the advent of artificial quantum manipulation. Nothing they could tinker with. Another little matter about that; we used gravity-well quantum signatures for interstellar and intergalactic navigation.
We had a three-part plan. Implement universal Q-coms, share the masking and monitoring tech, and open a quantum hole, an embassy, a single point the Zees could use to contact us, a bright blazing quantum beacon they couldn’t miss.
By opening up communication between races, many galaxies apart, we could tweak and mask those Q-com channels. The Zees would be blind to the entire network; to them, it would be nothing but a slight white noise. This was to be coupled with our first overtures, to specially selected species, for creating regional galactic congresses.
The second part was sharing the quantum masking and monitoring tech, with all races who had access to our satellite libraries. They had been well informed about the Zees and their potential for mischief. The reactions had spread across the spectrum, from fright to very blasé.
We had library off-shoots in over a half-million galaxies. By last count, the universe is filled with over a trillion galaxies, two percent of those probably held advanced races. The remainder were, either without life above the cellular level, or, in three percent of cases, had sentient races who were well below the interstellar capable level. The low-rung species, we knew of, were in a cooperative, no-contact protected status. Five-hundred-thousand galaxies barely scratched the surface of the twenty-billion probable candidate galaxies. It was a start. We needed reliable and stable partners out there.
By sharing, we wouldn’t have to shoulder the immense burden of building and transporting the stop-gap platforms. Some races would build platforms, and then convert to inbuilt systems, faster than others, creating a random sequence of non-natural q-signatures dropping off the Zee’s radar, if any of them were actually watching. Full shift, to the new built-in systems, for those participating races, was projected to be completed within ten to twenty years.
The foundation would cover the human and Bear galaxies. When human governments, and corporations discovered they would be able to communicate across the universe with others, our new Q-com tech would reap billions in profits for the foundation. The Bear galaxy was not charged, nor were other species who didn’t operate on a capitalistic or socialistic model. It was foreign to us that those species had no concept of profits, but their systems worked for them, generally in very peaceful ways.
We handed the entire project to a team of Bears, to fine tune and flesh out the framework.
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I was going to meet the Surrons. However, before Noah, Martin, and I left for the Mintic-complex planet, Sarah and her team of engineers had a presentation for us.
We were aboard Avalon, outside the phase shifted zone of Shangri La, in a nearby, uninhabited star system. Atlantis was close alongside. Sarah and her lead engineer stood at the head of the conference room table, other Bears sat with us, two were elder representatives of the Library Council. Charts and graphs were displayed on three large screens.
Nodding to the seated Bears, Sarah began. “We have developed a passive weapon system that will be acceptable to the Bears, sensible, non-violent policies in warding off warlike species. It started when I asked some engineers if we could better direct our ship’s defensive shields, in different configurations, other than a sphere.
“We know the Surron had tech that could shape ground-based shields, as we have at the ranch, but we had no clue how that was done. We use micro-gravity differences, in the topography, to adjust the shape, but that was simply adjusting controls on already built tech. We could build them, but could not backward engineer it. As with a lot of tech we have now, we must use Surron replicators to build shield systems.
“I asked what would happen if two shields bumped one another. It was nothing catastrophic, just a slight push away from each other. The interesting thing was, when shield contact is made, the push-away vector was not the same as the approach, not even a reciprocal angle. It was along a z-axis, relative to the x-y of the approach vectors. The resulting bounce angle was determined by the field dynamics; frequency, strength, modulations, that sort of thing.”
Was she dumbing it down for me?
“We set up a static test stand, with two small shield projectors, pointing at one another.” She paused, for effect I’m sure.
A split screen lit up. One side showed the test apparatus, and the other, an empty room. A Bear started narrating the experiment, explaining the field settings being used. We watched as a small ball was placed between the two projectors, levitating in a magnetic field. The Bear voiced a countdown, which was also displayed in the corner of the screen. At zero, the ball disappeared from the test area and reappeared in the empty room.
I may not be the sharpest pencil in the box, but even I saw the ramifications of using opposing shields to move objects … instantaneously.
Sarah was grinning, “The empty room was ten kilometers away. But that’s not all. We learned how to use shaping, to create a torus-like shield variant. We can project it in any direction, reaching halfway across a galaxy. It has no effect until it encounters its twin. Anything caught at the joining point, the center of the two torii, can be accurately transported up to a quarter million lightyears, dependent on the strength of the field. Other modulation and shaping determines the vector location, relative to the starting point. Mass of the transported object has no effect.” Turning to another Bear, she asked, “Are we ready?”
Receiving an affirmative, she gave a command for Atlantis and Avalon to take their positions. We watched the scanner screen, as both ships short-jumped to a two light-minute separation, a large asteroid appeared between them, slightly off centerline, forming as shallow triangle with the two ships. Another screen lit up with a video from the surface of the rock, standard surface features with a wide, galaxy starfield on the horizon.
Another countdown. The scanner screen, showing the ships and rock, changed slightly; the rock was gone. The video from the target now showed the same star field, but with a significantly smaller galactic disc on its horizon.
“Targets are not changed or harmed in anyway. All living and non-living matter remains as it was. We tested with microbes, then progressively more complex organisms.” Again, a pause. “I took a short ride on that expr
ess myself.”
Sharply drawing in my breath, I was glad Sandy had not been around to hear that. Then, realization. I snapped my fingers, pointing. “That must be how the Mintic had transported the Tree’s planet those billions of years ago!”
21 Tropism
Tropism: a biological phenomenon, indicating growth or turning movement of a biological organism in response to an environmental stimulus. Tropisms are usually named for the stimulus involved and may be either positive or negative.
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Noah, Martin and I were outside the archway of the alcove where Noah had made his transit to elsewhere. Only Noah had the capacity to activate the gate, or whatever you want to call it.
Bears were standing by, taking videos and readings of the event. Everything the Bears did, discovered, or witnessed was thoroughly documented for the archives. It was their standard practice since they’d become a sentient race.
We stepped up. To take us along, Noah would have to touch us and the wall. We stacked our hands; Martin’s below Noah’s, mine above. The last thing I saw was his hand reaching for the alcove wall.
We were a three-star system, rotating around a common center, exchanging energy. A voice; “Follow me.”
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Archer stood beside us on a small grassy hillock, overlooking a winding blue stream. A red tree line and hazy blue-grey mountains in the distance, an amber sky.
Archer spoke. “This is the third time I’ve been able to be expressed in corporeal form. I thought I would pick the setting this time, from my home world, long ago. I wonder if any new beings call it home now.”
We formed a shallow semicircle. Archer looked at Martin, “You are a Human-Surron AI hybrid. Are there others?”
“Currently, just me. But we could provide human bodies for the other two remaining Library AIs if they wanted one.”
“So, the Libraries lasted. We had hoped they would. Only three. Well, that was enough to do the job, it seems.”
“I was guardian of the rift.” Pointing to me, “Hornblower was the one who closed it.”
Not exactly true. The rift was closed, but the actual closure could have happened without me being present. I simply helped set the stage. Martin’s proclamation made it a shorter story though; we weren’t here for that story rendition.
“And the remnant we left behind, to capture the rift after it was released from the neutron star?”
“Their linage died out shortly after creating me and placing the rift in stasis on a rogue planet. It was in the human’s galaxy. The Zees assisted in the closure.”
“And the Zees now. Are they still interfering where they should not?”
I spoke up. “The four Zees, who had come over to our realm, are still there. They were trapped by overstaying their clock. They’re friends and allies now. Two of them were inside my ship’s AI. A part of each chose to take human bodies, the other two had been in human androids, they converted also.”
Converted seem to be the right word for that process. Their exposure to humans had created, in that part of them, a strong yearning to be truly alive.
“The Zees, as far as we know, have remained on their side of the dimensional divide ... so far.”
Archer thought, then, “The Zees have always interfered, whenever and where ever they found a crack, I’m sure they still are. The twinning-Q-wave? Did you silence that as well?”
“Not me. Riley. You met her. A long-ago ancestor of mine and my son’s.”
“I was certain she would. Confirmation, that the reset wave is over, is comforting. Noah is your son, yet you don’t have the edge mark of quantum-slicing that he and Riley have.”
Quantum slicing?
“Noah’s mother, Sandy, also came from the line going back to Riley, many, many generations ago. I met Riley, and her sister Haley, not too long ago; rather she came to meet us, well into her future. She mentioned a Surron AI named Michael?”
“Michael. I suppose the AIs adopted compatible names when they met your race, as have I. Though mine is a more proper descriptive.”
I looked at Martin.
“Well, yes. I took mine from an early video entertainment show from Old Earth. It was about an alien, from the planet Mars, in the Earth system. In the show, he’d crashed on Earth and befriended a human male. The human was about the same age as you; when we first met. My AI-block still has the entire series, if you’d like to see it.”
Noah broke the reverie, “On my first visit, I sensed you, and the other Surrons, wanted to come back from here. Where ever here is.”
“Yes, now that the rift is closed, and the wave is silenced. We have some unfinished business with the Zees. Noah told me you located a Mintic archive. By how he described it, we may have a means to prevent further action by the Zees.” He turned to Noah. “You can read the Mintic language now. I saw that change in your light.”
Unfinished business? Further actions?
I described our plan to hide quantum capable civilizations from the Zees, leaving only natural quantum markers and the one contact point, a possible embassy.
“That won’t keep them out for long. During our transit here, we learned much more about the Zees. They have an upper hierarchy. One, whose motives, the Lower Zees don’t know about. I’m sure the Zee representatives, sent to help close the rift, wouldn’t have known everything they do.”
Noah asked, “How do these Upper Zees interact in our dimensions. What do they do?”
“They start wars. Interspecies, intergalactic wars. It’s a game to them. The wave-mechanism was part of that; to achieve resets, wiping out advanced civilizations, starting a new game. Since the wave was disabled, I’m sure they’re still playing the one they started after all our generations, across the universe, had died off.”
We talked for hours, listening to what the Surrons now knew about the Zees, about the Surrons existence here. About their longing to walk in the flesh again.
They had no desire to exert dominion over anyone. The Surron archives had shown us that, in their peaceful psyche, they were just a bit askew of the Bears pacifist leanings, having a much higher drive towards justice, sometimes immediate justice. They approved of our continued use of their tech and our investigation into the Mintic archives.
We’re taking Archer back with us, to help bring back the Surron race, back to their home dimensions, as allies.
22 Hybridization
Hybridization: a compound-mixing of atomic electron orbitals into new configurations, with different energies, shapes, and interactions suitable for chemical bonding. Hybrid electron orbitals explain the molecular geometry and atomic bonding properties, symmetrically disposed, in space.
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In the quantum-vacuum, the Surrons had maintained their individuality, but at a cost. Natural forces there had a strong equilibrium affinity for prime factors, for each discreet type of energy particle-wave. When the number of Surrons shifted, through entropic decay, to a non-prime number, the vacuum void attempted to merge them into the unity prime of one. Sacrifices had been made to maintain the population at prime(n). There are only 331 Surrons left. We were bringing them across, through the Mintic portal.
Archer had not looked like a Surron when we met him in the void-reality. He had taken on a semi-human, fairly androgynous form. His first encounter with Riley, thousands of years ago, had driven that choice.
From a distance, Archer looked human. Until you got closer; about five meters. Then the resemblance shifted to a ‘smoother’ looking version of us. Beings with slightly different angular features, but still very similar. Noah described them as resembling anime characters from a series he had enjoyed as a child. I didn’t have a reference point for that. To me, they appeared to be just a few steps above frail, but healthy in appearance; a height between the short stature of the Bears and the taller basic human male.
Once a Surron had been brought through, they appeared as Archer had looked in the virtual-reality where we’d met, soli
d organics, like us. However, to stabilize their physical organic processes, they had to be placed in a Sauron auto-doc.
I had called in twenty Traveler class ships to expedite that process. Archer had stabilized aboard Ranger, in that ship’s single auto-doc. Without undergoing this process, the Surrons would perish in a few hours on this side.
They had made one attempt, in the past, to send through a volunteer to retrieve a possible Mintic process that would have allowed them to return here, to their home dimensions. We’d found the remains of that volunteer. He had been successful in pushing the, now missing, container through the portal, but that action had closed it. Portal restoration took over ten Mintic cycles. The container hadn’t transferred over properly; it proved to be worthless to the Surrons.
The Sauron had died. Dead from organic destabilization. Returning his remains from Shangri La, we held a funeral service, attended by Surrons, a few humans, and all the Bears in this system. The remains were encapsulated and given over to the Surrons.
I reminded Archer the auto-docs could clone additional Surrons, effectively creating groups of twins. The thought of cloning themselves was a highly abhorrent one to them. I never used that word in front of them again.
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Archer was their de facto leader. The Surrons were going to Shangri La. We had made that joint decision; the Bears Surrons and me. Before leaving, we met in Traveler’s conference room to discuss their preferences. Archer, and two other Surrons, wanted to defer most decisions until the remnant had psychologically acclimated to their return. Shangri La would be a good place for that.
Privately, I had offered to give them ships, upgraded from the original Sauron designs, and to help locate a new planetary home; help them rebuild their race. Again, Archer deferred. He felt that the Zee threat was a much bigger problem than we had prepared for. As allies, we needed to stay close, as well as hide their re-emergence from the Zees, for as long as possible.