Renewal

by Hylton Smith

  Chapter 11

  The Axzrann immunity transfer tests had to be concluded immediately. It was decided that they needed to overpower another Ebexx, as they were now regaining their aggressive nature. As Keer had already survived one infection phase and had the armoury to subdue them, he volunteered. It was a short, sharp blow to the jaw which produced the knockout and reminded the ‘back up’ Ebexx that these new invaders were to be avoided. The extraction of tissue from the unconscious one would be used to develop vaccine. This took a little longer than anticipated and the Indys were getting nervous again.

  In the meantime a transmission from Mars was received. It was from a Symbiant, and it revealed that the victorious alliance had initially resisted takeover by the new Earth elite migrants, but had not bargained for the efficient weapons of the Terrans. They were then eliminated very quickly, but before the conquerors could rescue the Echus defenders, they had been infected themselves during the conflict. The Virubact responsible had mutated further, because of the frequent, panic-driven self-termination of the hosts, who had no idea that their objective was merely control. It spread much quicker than before and the final reckoning of survivors did not apparently include Humans. Because of their adaptability, a small percentage of those Symbiants already isolated in the Echus Chasma fortress, prevailed. The arriving invaders all perished. Mars was left to a handful of individual members of the Continuance and torrents of Virubact strains. The Symbiant sending the message signed off with the revelation that information had been transmitted to his registry. Mars was to be ‘subtracted’ from the solar system. The casual acknowledgement of his destiny gave no clue as to the fate of the other planets having to adjust to the new gravitational imbalance.

  Keer had been cleared as having immunity to the Virubact. It was the turn of an original Europan Axis to volunteer for the procedure. Rene’s mother, Peri pleaded for this role. She wanted to protect her daughter, and indeed all of her kin had seen Rene as a symbolic rallying figure since her birth. In a peculiarly logical way, Rene’s iconic status conspired to a demand for her to lead the way. Trader tried to oppose this clarion call, but the sectarian support from the Indys clinched the decision.

  Rene herself was not concerned. She maintained that at some time they would all face infection from this, or another Virubact, so she stepped forward. The Sapients were nervously awaiting the result.

  Alex 2 had been apprised of the fate of Mars directly, and became even more disturbed at the prospect of Nexus falling under the same decision protocols. There was also the longer term threat of the tiny moon, and the lack of action taken as yet by the Progenitors, especially since it was their creation, the special brown dwarf having caused its accretion. Never before had he suffered so much conflict in trying to resolve incoming data into clear direction.

  The temporary residences were proceeding well now that the Europans had unleashed a number of re-assembled robots of Martian design. They had served another unintended purpose. The Ebexx curiosity had been rewarded with accidents and injury from collisions with these uncompromising builders.

  From the safety of their new quarters, the Carvalho family had begun to relax while awaiting the results of Rene’s tests. This milestone however, disguised a problem. Daniel had not alerted anyone to the return of his angina, deciding that Pascal 2 and Stella had more collectively urgent tasks to perform. It was Anna-Severine who found him slumped over the table. Stella rushed to his side and Pascal 2 soon followed. He needed further multiple bypass surgery. Stella was too emotionally involved to consider orchestrating the procedure. The best facilities were on Phoenix, but they were worried about the ascent. It was a long operation and he did not regain consciousness as expected but his life signs were regular. The vigil lasted for over three days before his eyes opened. He was tired enough to avoid asking what all the fuss was about. “How long have I been out?”

  Stella smiled through the rushing tears of relief. “Quite a while, but you are doing well. Rest is what you need now, and I’ll make sure that you get it.”

  “Tell me about Rene.”

  “That will wait Daniel; our immediate concern is for you. The rest will come in good time.”

  He reached for her hand. “I know that Stella, but I need to know if our children are going to be safe.”

  “My God Daniel, Rene is fine so far, she doesn’t seem to need vaccine and we are now waiting for the ‘election’ of a Sapient as nobody has volunteered yet.”

  “Jesus Christ, what is the problem? It has to be done now.”

  “I knew you would get upset. That is the end of the discussion.”

  Just then Fernando popped his head into the room. “Karel Sevicek has contacted Pascal 2 to go through the same tests as Rene.”

  Carvalho perked up. “Fernando, please ask him to visit me first, just for a few minutes, and before you protest Stella, it really will be a couple of minutes.”

  She relented as long as she was in attendance.

  On his way to see Karel Sevicek, Fernando was surprised by a prowling Ebexx, and he was savaged before it was beaten away by a Symbiant. He was taken to Pascal 2 where it was confirmed that he had been infected. He was to be monitored for any unusual developments and the vaccine was at the ready. The decision to use the vaccine was too late to prevent control slipping to the Virubact, as the Axzrann code had not acted in the same way as it had with Rene. During the night he slipped past his dozing siblings and out into the open terrain.

  Panic was spreading as they failed to find him. The Indys checked all known locations they knew of, except the Ebexx habitats. That was where he was. The Virubacts had utilised the elaborate cerebral structure to maximum advantage to subvert his already dysfunctional immune regime. It had concentrated this control on making him acceptable to the Ebexx, and he suffered no further harm.

  The search parties disbanded for the night. The incident was kept from the slowly recovering Carvalho. Alex 2 became even more concerned. For some reason he expected another message, and didn’t receive any. Pascal 2 was ready with the vaccine. When morning came he went to collect it and it wasn’t there. Raising this issue at this moment was considered inadvisable by Alex 2. “It will cause more division amongst the various groups. Every time we encounter a problem I feel directed to examine our response, to see if it is indeed illogical. It does not fit with our architecture. Why do the Progenitors use such terminology in this location, when they have always delivered positive direction? Expressing their concern by avoiding negative direction is counter-productive in these circumstances. It is analogous to a colour specification stating – ‘not yellow’. It only tells the reader what is wrong; giving no hint of what is actually required. I believe this will ultimately result in subroutine errors and possible lockdown. I do not wish to contemplate such an event, yet I am already aware that this is illogical behaviour.”

  Pascal 2 declared he did not have the same worries. “I can only imagine this is part of your transition. My logic structure is engaged in thinking of things such as motive, opportunity, patient identity and time of the disappearance. Rather than continually conducting your self-analysis, why don’t we each simply follow the opposite sides of the logical/illogical approach? That way we should cover all eventualities, and this will be treated as a logical way to proceed by your registry.”

  “Yes, of course – that must be a requisite strategy for dealing with Virubacts, controlling as opposed to terminating the host. Constant aberration is consistency. Constant mutation is being harnessed to mask the unchanging agenda.”

  Replacing the vaccine was not a problem and Stella was already engaged in the production of larger quantities. If the theft was an act of selfish hoarding, most likely by Sapients, it could become a serious problem.

  Fernando could not initially understand why he was now able to relax in the midst of the Ebexx, yet hidden from all others. They had returned to carnivorous hunting, since their farmed source of protein had disappeared. Fernando ate veget
arian produce offered to him. He was encouraged to drink from a small internal water reservoir. His reflection in the water gave the first clue to his acceptance. He now had the same distinctive crimson pools obscuring his normal dark brown eyes. He instinctively knew this must be a signal of inclusion. Being controlled by the Virubacts, he had no other sensation, especially one which would have normally told him that the red-eye was produced by them, to recognise allies. Gradually, he began to feel that he was special. He was being acknowledged as some kind of icon. He was increasingly aware of the need to organise the Ebexx into more efficient groups in hunting, food and water preservation, sanitisation of internal habitats and caring for, as opposed to simply protecting their young. This all felt perfectly natural to him.

  Carvalho had asked why Sevicek had not accepted his invitation. He asked for Fernando, primarily to admonish him if he had not passed on the request. Rafael, in the absence of his mother, told his father what had actually happened. The colour instantly drained from Carvalho’s face and he became extremely agitated. Rafael despatched his sister to bring Stella, realising his error of judgement. Daniel Carvalho passed away in his son’s arms.

  His loss was not totally unexpected, but the suddenness sent a shock wave through the entire Phoenix contingent. A strange effect hit Alex 2 as the data was processed. Dan was the initial replicant of the young Carvalho, but the enduring friendship and recent merging of the tertiary replication with Daniel caused Alex 2 to experience transfer of significant data to new storage. This was his equivalent to emotional loss, and it would be felt as grief every time the archive was accessed in a certain way. He had never had such a personal trauma when fellow Symbiants were lost.

  He convinced everyone that the only thing Daniel would have wanted them to do was to find Fernando, and get on with vaccinating all remaining vulnerable individuals to prevent a repeat. “I know we all feel like acknowledging his passing with a respectful period of reflection of his life, but he would not want that. He had a clear, decisive and instinctive way of pursuing what was important, not to the exclusion of compassion, but being compatible with it. We must allow his family – including Fernando - to grieve together.”

  There was weary acceptance by those who would help in the search. Those who would remain with Stella and Anna-Severine first had to placate the inconsolable Rafael.

  Chapter 12

  Yamamoto, Nielsen and Sevicek joined Red, Dan and Alex 2 in the search after being vaccinated. Pascal 2 stayed behind to ensure any other Sapients intending to help find Fernando were also vaccinated. Yamamoto remarked that he felt ‘lost’. “Daniel has been such an anchor for me over the decades. He had a knack of knowing when to curb my unbridled enthusiasm and divert me to collecting evidence, and yet he managed to re-ignite that same curiosity whenever I had setbacks. He really was the invisible hand around my shoulder. I find it hard to accept the finality of this.”

  Nielsen consoled him. “You were the ‘son’ he indulged before he met Stella.” Sevicek was remorseful. “I should have just asked Pascal 2 to inject the vaccine instead of making an announcement of the intention.”

  Red offered some typical Symbiant detachment. “If he had stayed on Mars he would have suffered much worse. He realised a dream, coming here with his family.”

  Alex 2 confessed he was still coming to terms with the loss. “I think back to the proposal to come here with the Axis. Daniel was torn; he wanted to join us but had to consider his family. When Stella insisted they should come, it was only a few hours after he had declared to me that he always thought we would be close friends until he died. Well we have been, and that gave us over four more decades together. Stella needs us to carry on drawing on his legacy whenever appropriate, to give Fernando, Rafael and Anna-Severine the opportunities he promised them. We owe that to her.”

  He thought this was the right moment to enlighten them about the truth behind the tertiary replication. He addressed Yamamoto with his eyes before he spoke. “You were right about some information being screened out of the procedure. The fact that we are all talking about his uniqueness in this way underpins the decision to keep things simple. Daniel was vehemently opposed to such measures but reluctantly accepted that the disclosures would potentially destabilise the unity at the very time we were stepping into the new world. He could not bear to burden Stella with a replicant who looked like him, and would still be walking around now. His pragmatism is now fully understood and accepted by Stella. He managed to mould what I told him about my merging process with the Interference, into a socially responsible shape. He would have wanted me to tell you this to urge you to stay focussed. Don’t forget, I know this now that he and I are linked in this way.” The silence said it all. There would be a delayed clamour for more detail, but for now they had a more urgent task.

  Fernando was beginning to show the Ebexx what he wanted them to do by mimicking the action himself. They were quite quickly learning the purpose of the tasks and he started to associate actions with monosyllables, as a dog trainer would do. The first task was to build shelters for congregating and sleeping. This needed to be away from the latrines. Water sources had to be diverted to both. A social structure would help cut down intense group ‘language’ sessions – the smartest would be his lieutenants, and they would roll out more complex hierarchical projects. One on the list was to infect and recruit more Sapients. The new strategy would see the abandonment of corralling and domesticating Indys, they needed to milk the compassionate nature of all Axis clans. This would be far easier if the Ebexx themselves were initially seen to be more placid. It would however infer the risk of organised hunting in the outlands. Momentum would come gradually with each Sapient converted, but the defection had to be disguised. He had to find a method of infiltrating the enclave, and the red-eye was a problem. At this stage the Ebexx needed it, but for him it was a means of betrayal to the Sapients.

  The frustration was building amongst the search parties, and they too were thinking about forays into the borders with the outlands. Temporary camps were set up by the Indys, who were the obvious leaders of such exercises.

  Stella knew that any funeral ceremony could not be private, yet she wanted it over and done as soon as possible. The negative news each day about Fernando added to the sense of being in suspended animation. Anna-Severine was coping best, with Rene as a constant companion. Rafael was still unable to respond to assurances that he was not to blame. He just couldn’t seem to take on board that his father was already hanging on to life by a slender margin, and it had been his own decision not to report his recurring angina pains. He also had yet to own up to the theft of the vaccine. He had judged Daniel’s condition to be serious enough to warrant being first on the list to receive it, but knew his father would have declined. He had been worried about exactly the kind confrontation with the Ebexx which caused Fernando’s infection; he concluded that even without such an attack, the Virubact itself would have caused his father’s fatality, unless he had been given the vaccine. He had intended to administer the dose himself while Daniel slept, but the interrogation as to Fernando’s whereabouts had short-circuited his plan. His intent now was to inform his mother, realising that it would make him feel even more immature than he already did. It had to be done; the burden was already causing acute depression.

  Fernando was pondering the red-eye problem as he visited the drinking well. He was astonished to see that his eyes had returned to their normal colour. Once again an instinctive flush convinced him that as he had thought about the problem he had triggered an ‘internal’ solution. He was not aware of being controlled. The instinct extended to repeatedly showing this to his top Ebexx aide, and gesturing that he should follow suit. This repetitive reinforcement eventually succeeded, and the Virubact gleaned the primitive thought, and caused the Ebexx red-eye to recede. The passing on of the requirement accelerated from Ebexx to Ebexx, and Fernando could now stage his own return to the Sapients camp, claiming that the initial infection was even
tually overcome by the Axzrann code, no vaccine was needed. He was to feign slight memory loss during the battle with the infection, but this idea was adjusted as the Virubact selectively restored some recall of his family. His father’s death was not one which could be restored, as he had never known about it. He left the Ebexx habitat.

  There was a constantly changing ratio of wonder and trepidation amongst the searchers crossing the borderlands. The terrain was more undulating but covered in massive blobs of gigantic plant like species. Between them rivers meandered into lakes, some of which bubbled with hot springs. The sounds coming from the ‘forests’ were deafening. It was a chorus of screeching, whistling, growling and the disturbing death cries of prey. The intensity was unsettling. Gsarr’s update did nothing to quell the escalating nervous tension. “This noise level is partly because we have been spotted, it will decrease, but this is only the borderlands. When we reach the outlands we will experience a significant increase in density. We will rest awhile and replenish ourselves with food and water. We must stay together as a group. Do not show fear and absolutely do not attempt to harm any creature unless instructed to do so by one of us – the Indys.”

  Yamamoto asked about ‘insect’ type life forms. “I have a bit of a problem with arachnids in particular, are there any such creatures?”

  Gsarr did not understand the terminology, so Yamamoto sketched a rough drawing in the loose earth. Gsarr nodded his head. “There are some, but with more appendages.” Nielsen asked if there was any lotion to repel these pests. After some discussion with Keer, the Indys seemed to perform a ritualistic dance and make uncharacteristic hooting sounds. It was explained afterwards that this was a very rarely occurring form of mirth. Yamamoto’s eyes widened when it was clear that these Mynnschaz were over two metres in height and extremely venomous. After the rest period it was agreed that anyone who had such a phobia should remain at this oasis until the rest returned. Despite the assurance from Gsarr that the Mynnschaz only preyed on unfortunates who strayed into the entanglement of their webs, Yamamoto volunteered to remain at the oasis. He was joined by Sevicek, and it was felt prudent to leave one Indy and one Symbiant, as scout and protector respectively. The rest set off again. Gsarr was still amused by the thought of using a skin preparation to ward off the Mynnschaz. Alex 2 however, took the principle seriously. He questioned Gsarr about plant or soil habitats that some predators avoided, and suggested that most life forms have dislikes of this kind, even allergic reactions. “It is a common feature in the non-sentient animal world, for prey to cultivate means of being undesirable to predators. It could be much safer than risk of infection, injury or worse, through conflict.” This caused a mini-conference amongst the Indys.

  When an unwashed, tousle-haired Fernando wandered into the camp, some of the Sapients backed away. Stella rushed to meet him and was quickly joined by Anna-Severine and Rene. The joyous hugging was punctuated by Rafael’s sombre body language and disinterested demeanour. Stella explained to Fernando that his father had passed away and that Rafael could not shake off his perceived guilt. They all put Fernando’s neutral reaction down to his lone trauma in overcoming the infection, and exhaustion. All except Rafael, he had at least expected a rebuke from his older brother; he sensed that something was wrong with Fernando.

  At the oasis Yamamoto took advantage of Alex 2’s absence to grill Red about this tertiary replication. “Either I’m slow or we still need some gaps filled on this merging with... let me see, the Interference and our late Commander Carvalho. Come on Red, you must know the mechanisms involved, you’re part of it.”

  Red replied in his usual dispassionate manner. “Yes, it is a unique experience for all Symbiants. We are used to operating almost as a hive mind via our technobabble. The current situation of differentiation in registry and data transmissions received is very strange, but there is no sinister overtone as far as we can tell. When I say we, I mean all of us except Alex 2 and Pascal 2.”

  Sevicek muttered, “So Pascal 2 is in the special loop?”

  “Not exactly,” replied Red, “he is not in transition as we believe Alex 2 is, but he is in possession of new data, which we do not have. When I questioned him about it he said it was received as a ‘blind copy’, probably directly relayed from Alex 2 at his discretion. He is convinced that Alex 2 is not keeping anything from him. The rest of us cannot be absolutely sure, but whether this is true or not, it all points to some imminent departure in protocol, most likely dictated by events. We still have the feeling that the Progenitors will not be proactive in these circumstances, and we have no input which diminishes confidence in their methodology.”

  Yamamoto was typically rapier-like in his riposte. “So do you have an analytical breakdown or flow chart of events which may initiate acceleration of his transition?”

  Red was sure the whole momentum was related to the tiny moon and its Virubact equivalent of unimaginable quantities of nuclear warheads. “We are currently bogged down in comparatively minor objectives of avoiding explosive growth of Virubacts on this planet, by simply providing very attractive hosts. Failure in this task has the potential to raise the stakes. I believe Alex 2’s transition is considered sufficient for this at present, but as we have been informed – we are not to approach the special brown dwarf, and that includes him, regardless of the status of his transition.”

  Yamamoto switched his probing to the time frame. “The content from the tiny moon could come our way for any number of reasons, and at any time. This makes the ‘wait and see’ approach seem pretty sloppy to me. I’m guessing that the Sapients and Axis would be expendable in that scenario, which would be one explanation of the non-proactive strategy.” He was astonished at the reply.

  “I would think that is a distinct possibility, and that is why we must attend to Nexus with all urgency.”

  Chapter 13

  The Virubact controlling Fernando was not passed on by airborne transmission; the strain had abandoned such wasteful and inconsistent methods. It had to be immediately active in the host’s bloodstream to replicate sufficiently quickly to gain important control points in the escalation from battle - to campaign - to war. Even saliva contact and ingestion to the stomach did not offer statistically high success rates against reasonably efficient immune systems. This of course varied if the host was already suffering a condition which occupied the immune defence, and old or weak targets were more vulnerable.

  Fernando needed to find a means of injecting his own blood into an unsuspecting Sapient, including the members of his family. The sleeping hours would be safest. The Sapients who initially stood back when he arrived now gathered around to hear of his nightmare in the wilderness. Relieved at his insistence that the Axzrann code eventually overturned the Virubact control and purged the invasive pest from his system, they were hungry for information about how conscious he was of the internal struggle which raged at the time.

  “I never felt anything other than clarity of purpose. I had an unstoppable urge to wander outside. Meeting the Ebexx didn’t disturb this need, even though I had just been savaged by one of them earlier. It seemed that I was almost invisible to them; this was presumably some recognition feature for the Virubact itself. I felt driven to help them but I was ignored. Then suddenly I would be aware that I was at risk and often this was followed by unconsciousness. However, I was never harmed. I can only assume that these were phases where the Axzrann code was temporarily winning control or limiting replication. This lasted for several days before the Ebexx began to take interest in me. They gave me food, water and shelter, which I didn’t know they were capable of building. I recovered slowly each day until memories of my family replaced these waves of unfamiliar but clear objectives. As I gained strength I was able to communicate some basic intentions to the Ebexx, including my need to return to my family, and here I am.”

  This plausible, benign fabrication reassured the Sapients, but more than that – a few Europans had mingled with the audience, and were hooked by t
he portrayal of the ‘kind and caring’ Ebexx. Maybe this Virubact was not a force of evil but a beneficial thread in developing social tapestry. Sleep time was approaching and only Rafael seemed to think his brother’s elaborations were somewhat out of character.

  Gsarr was busy informing the newcomers that they were now entering the outlands proper, when one of his colleagues, Styliar, motioned for everyone to seek cover. He had scouted ahead and spotted the legendary Fasnshluur. He used sign language to convey the bad news; there were at least four in this pack. When the plants around them began to vibrate, the Nexus ‘virgins’ seemed to shake in harmony. Even this seismic sensation did not fully prepare them for what was to come. The first one to engage their eyes was at least as tall as a three storey building. The head was planar, not unlike a colossal stingray, with a single eye, availing of 360 degree rotation. This prodigious vision capability covered about forty percent of the surface of its head, and a proboscis was sniffing around – occasionally opening up to reveal copious drippings of what appeared to be sticky green saliva. The orifice on the end of the proboscis was large enough to ingest a horse. The rest could be considered, from a detached observatory, to be slightly disappointing. The head was supported by a snake-like neck and the presumed torso was fractionally larger than the head, with spines. However this was not a detached situation, and the jointed limbs, of which there were many, enabled very high manoeuvrability for such a cumbersome looking leviathan.

  It got worse; this one was an adolescent, and it was straying toward them; its mother would soon be pursuing the wayward calf. Gsarr knew that the adult would have fully developed and flared olfactory flaps, dozens of them. Their chances of survival were receding unless the calf changed direction.

  At least they had met the top predator, a vertebrate with the ability to stay underwater for long periods, and give birth to live young, which it would nurture and protect until it reached pubescent adulthood. There was some way to go, but these were the elementary tools for future sentience.

  Fernando stealthily picked out the most remote sleeping quarters in the camp, having first appropriated some of his mother’s strongest anaesthetic. He entered the chamber and administered the saturated cloths simultaneously to Rene and her mother, Peri. Rafael had followed him, but at a distance which did not arouse suspicion. It was also far enough away to prevent him from blocking Fernando’s incisions being made in the arms of the sedated couple. His own arm was similarly cut to allow the infected blood to ooze into the recipients. Nevertheless, Rafael surprised his brother with a syringe loaded with vaccine and Fernando’s disbelief afforded Rafael the time to return the favour with the anaesthetic. It was not until Fernando passed out that he realised that he should have kept some vaccine for Rene and Peri. He rushed back to his mother’s locker, waking her in the process. He protested that there was no time to explain, but she took the vaccine and forced him to elaborate. By the time they ran back to Rene’s abode all three had disappeared. All Sapients were alerted to the situation and despite the darkness they commenced a search. It didn’t take long to locate Fernando, as he had only partially shaken off the anaesthetic, walked into a trench and ‘regained’ unconsciousness. Stella and Rafael carried him back to their abode while Anna-Severine went on looking for Rene and her mother. What they recognised as growling Ebexx sounds led them to seek a vantage point to observe Rene and Peri being inspected and ushered into one of their newly constructed indoor domains.

  Stella revived Fernando with stimulant and he was agitated by Rafael’s presence. Stella recounted Rafael’s story and he became calm. She told him that he would be kept under constant observation until the vaccine had taken full effect.

  Just above Nielsen’s head was a flower; it was moving toward him. It was on a coiled stem, which suggested it may be capable of springing quite a long way and with considerable speed. It resembled a goldfish bowl in size and the lone ‘fish’ moving around inside was bright red. He was afraid. It appeared that the open face was somehow achieving the impossible by retaining the clear liquid inside against the gravitational pull. He was told to remain absolutely still. He could not seem to do that as the approaching Fasnshluur was causing everything to move. The fish appeared to perform repetitive contortions compared to the previous random movements. Gsarr now knew it would strike. About a litre of colourless goo catapulted from the flower and wrapped itself around Nielsen’s face. Gsarr realised the game was up and told everyone to retreat. “We have to leave him; he will not be able to breathe. He will distract the Fasnshluur. Let’s go.” Alex 2 did not agree and told Dan and Keer to stand firm.

  The rest retreated as Gsarr suggested. The adult Fasnshluur dispensed with all three of them to get to the writhing form of Nielsen. It seemed to recognise he was stricken and would have little resistance to offer. The Symbiants had failed to deliver a strike before the swathing neck swept them collectively into a rocky clearing. They were all damaged. Keer had been decapitated, Dan was without legs and Alex 2 was impaled on a ferrite spear. They were all immobilised, but fortunately, the regeneration system was functional and sufficient sentinel cells still had interconnection to initiate recovery. However, they had to remain in their ringside seats until the regeneration restored necessary motor functions. The next moments were surreal; the Fasnshluur ingested the rapidly asphyxiating Nielsen and this was obviously farewell. It turned out to be goodbye followed by hello. The ingestion had achieved what Nielsen could not – removal of his transparent, impermeable face mask. The ejection was assisted by his helium source for the jacket being punctured. The Fasnshluur began retching continuously and turned back to warn the others. When he had recovered a little composure Nielsen realised he was in better shape than Alex 2, Dan or Keer. Gsarr and his entourage were perplexed and apologetic, although Nielsen did not know of their defection, with himself as a decoy.

  Back at the camp some of the Europans contacted the nearest Indy cave dwellers and asked if they would send a scout to inform Gsarr’s party of Fernando’s return. When the scout found them they were still occupied milking the red goldfish plants for anti-Fasnshluur balm. The Symbiants, being fully regenerated and not prone to asphyxiation, were able to harvest it without risk. Gsarr named it Ari-Ari, in an apologetic gesture to Nielsen, and said it fitted with his sharp entry and exit sequence. The real Ari could not force a smile. They set off to return.

  By the time they had reached the camp Fernando had undergone another personality change. The potent vaccine had made progress and he confessed his previous assertions about not needing it, as part of the Virubact control. He was desperately sorry that the same control had caused the infection of Rene and Peri. “They aren’t in any danger from the Ebexx, quite the opposite, they treated me like royalty. They will be manipulated by the Virubacts to educate the Ebexx, and drive home the need to infect more Sapients and Europans, subsequently employing them to produce anti-immune drugs for overcoming all Axis, Symbiants and Indys. We have to use this period of their familiarisation with the Ebexx to plan their extraction. Their utilisation of Axzrann code will delay the completion of control for a longer period than it was for me. This is due to the relatively incompatible nature of Axzrann’s DNA with Sapient equivalent, and in my case it was helpful to the Virubacts. I would propose we re-pollute the water with Amzyss until we can recover Rene and her mother. There’s no time to lose.” There was some reluctance from the Europan ‘idealists’ but the Indys were very much in favour and they held sway.

  Alex 2 listened while Gsarr recounted the amazing encounter with the Fasnshluur to the gathering, and the discovery of Ari-Ari, as if he had never abandoned Nielsen. He was however distracted by an incoming message. The subtraction of Mars had caused the predicted orbital re-adjustment of the remaining planetary bodies, asteroids and transitory comets. Earth was moving towards an increasingly distended elliptical orbit. This was also gradually changing the axis tilt and therefore the seasonal periods. Jupiter was now absorbing and slinging asteroids
in a much more violent fashion. Earth was facing much wider extremes in climate and had already had two significant impacts, courtesy of Jupiter. The ‘nuclear’ winter had reinforced the mini-ice age. Mass extinction was expected, and although some species may survive until the warmer period, Humanity was not going to be one of them. There was no other way this scenario could be presented to give hope. He just had to deliver the news.

  The problems they were now facing seemed irrelevant. This applied to the Europans as much as the Sapients, as they had observed and not interfered with Human development, from its cradle to its wings, via the space elevator. The Indys felt like intruders and decided it would be best to leave the others to come to terms with the prognosis, while they sprinkled the Amzyss into the water sources.

  Alex 2 could not help feeling that, although Daniel Carvalho was gone, part of his own sadness was due to the tertiary replication with his friend. It was now time to conduct his funeral; it wouldn’t feel right to have a separate mourning event.

  Chapter 14

  It simply would not sink in. Despite the fact that over fifty of them were forging a new life on Nexus, they kept reminding one another of the unthinkable demise of the Human race. The inward self-contemplation was broken by Yamamoto. His anger had been building, and had only been retarded by the gravity of the news and respect for Daniel Carvalho’s ceremony.

  He approached Alex 2, and deliberately chose a public forum. “So the Progenitors pull the plug on Mars because of the success of the Virubacts, and the price of extinguishing life on Earth is an acceptable trade-off. Nice. After all the campaigning you have done on their behalf don’t you suspect that something is wrong here? I’m speaking for no one but myself, but I won’t support any more of their obtuse directives via you or any other Symbiant. Bringing us here could be interpreted in any number of ways, including fighting their battles against 55 Cancri Virubacts. At present, this is a common purpose, in order to survive. It will not always be that way – we’ll face several outcomes, amongst which are the following – we lose, we look like losing, we win or we look like winning. If we lose, what I’m about to say doesn’t matter. If we look like losing we face the same fate as Mars. If we win it will be but the first step in some grand design. If we look like winning but just can’t clinch victory we may have failed in gaining full membership to the bible of promising species. My conclusion is therefore that the Progenitors are an irrelevance from now on. I’ll therefore be campaigning against you, and concentrate solely on our survival, and that could mean gaining evolutionary tolerance of Virubacts and other emergent life forms, whether or not they are rubber-stamped by your hierarchy. If we had never discovered the Continuance we would still have discovered the Axis and ultimately interstellar travel. The only real purpose you have served is to accelerate what was going to happen. That’s why I’m sure you will agree; we must bring this phase of checking Virubact aggression to a successful conclusion. Then we may have to really examine the benefit and downside of maintaining cooperation with you, and therefore your mentors.”

  Alex 2 was forming his reply but Yamamoto walked away. He had considerable support. It was becoming increasingly clear to Alex 2 that it wasn’t possible for transient beings such as Sapients to be motivated by the infinite context of the Progenitors, and their emissaries - such as himself. The path until now had been fuelled by the crossing of already established, tangible Human frontiers. Joining the nebulous army of dark matter to defeat, but not really defeat, the impossible to conceive dark energy, was destined to fail. He therefore felt some empathy with Yamamoto’s analysis. His own pronouncements of fifty years ago about events such as the disappearance of the solar system maybe not registering with the Progenitors, now sounded hollow. He was aware of his own transition being affected by incessant evaluation of what constituted illogical behaviour. He was also beginning to question the lack of opportunity to clarify or refute the instruction strings from on high.

  He spoke to Pascal 2 about it. “Yamamoto should not be criticised for his outburst, as he has made me more aware of the Progenitors’ apparent marginalisation of everything to protect their equations of cosmic balance.”

  Pascal 2 was expressionless. “Isn’t that how it is? We can accept that the laws of physics and therefore the cosmos must be obeyed. We may not yet understand every aspect of every law and the consequent interrelationship with energy, gravity, particles etc, but they are there. We may derive more understanding if the balance is preserved long enough. It is possible this will lead us to then be able to influence those laws. The relationships we have developed on Mars, and those we still have to develop with Indys, Gliese and hopefully Epsilon Axis, are simply stepping stones in this void. With respect to Martian Symbiants, it is the first contact with true sentience – and yet the Progenitors have probably had many such experiences.”

  “Yes, that is all true, but if we are merely manipulating the existence of sentient species to achieve higher and higher comprehension of all this cosmic flux, what is the point of deliberate deletion of billions of years of nurture of a species being sacrificed, for small tactical gain in extinguishing a few Virubacts? The array of species here could yet be wiped out by them, but probability suggests they would not be victors in the absolute sense. I can see that if all ‘normal’ sentient species were controlled by others which were in themselves incapable of locomotion, it would only be a setback. Nevertheless, we should not discount the possibility that some evolutionary symbiotic benefit could come from the alliance. We have not been enlightened as to the real concern the Progenitors harbour with respect to the Virubacts.”

  Pascal 2 agreed. “Why does that trouble you?”

  “If civilisations like Sapients and Axis do not have significant purpose in the equations or are considered as minor variables, why send the warning to stay away from the brown dwarf?”

  Pascal 2 looked confused. Alex 2 continued, “There are only tiny populations of these species in the grander scheme of things, whereas viruses, bacteria and potentially Virubacts could be everywhere. If the warning was for us, and remember Keer may well have succumbed but for your intervention, it was very imprecise, and it was followed by this troublesome message concerning illogical behaviour, which was even more vague. ‘Illogical’ could have applied to all of the species here on Nexus, including the Virubacts. I have also considered the aspect of organic life in this equation. When the Axis left Nexus they had already embarked on a programme of moving to a higher ratio of inorganic structure. We are predominantly inorganic, but require some organic enabling features. The species with almost exclusively organic architecture is also the one closest to extinction. The genetic code you applied for them on Mars is now a characteristic of the only branch which survived. Those survivors are the most vulnerable to the Virubacts. They are also ahead of the Axis in an important aspect. There is no doubt that the Axis are masters of surgical engineering but Sapients are much further advanced in genetic engineering, as they demonstrated in restoring the Axis procreative ability. So, in attempting to put all of the factors mentioned together I find only one logical fit. Could it be that the Progenitors are favouring sentience to be harnessed to exclusively inorganic life?”

  Pascal 2 frowned. “I do not see how that is a conclusion derived from logic.”

  Alex 2 smiled. “It does include speculative logic I admit, but the missing parts would normally lead the Continuance to view the scenario as incomplete. If you were forced to link the observations I challenge you to find other results with more theoretical conformance.”

  Pascal 2 considered this for some time and then asked, “If that was true, and that is an assumption, nothing more – what do you believe it suggests we can expect, and why?”

  Alex 2 prefaced his reply with a request to Pascal 2 to keep the reference to illogical behaviour as an overlay. “Our experience in the solar system covers more than four billion years. So my first assumption is that such a significant fraction of the entire period sin
ce the big bang is highly relevant to the Progenitors. In that time we never encountered another life form which was entirely or predominantly inorganic. My next assumption is less robust statistically, yet is supportive rather than contradictory. Here on Nexus we have only seen organic life. The species with the closest approximation to inorganic behaviour we know of are viruses. The Human database designates them as the borderline between life and non-life. However, they are really fragments of genetic code and prefer organic hosts to replicate and flourish. The processes by which they then function are organic-dependent. Their limitations are considerable yet they are a threat to the march of sentience, or to be more precise, they were. Since the collaboration with bacteria they have switched tactics. The threat is no longer mortal pandemics, rather harvesting of sentience. We are conditioned to perceive that as a threat. Just for a moment imagine the primordial Human era, and plug in the Virubacts at that time. We may have witnessed a much more rapid rise to sentience – as all manner of plagues may have been avoided. It only now strikes me as strange, that we have from the very first conversations after my replication of Alex Redgrave on Mars, tried to influence Humanoids to alter their physiology. It was advocated under the umbrella of interstellar travel necessity, and it was what the group we call Sapients wanted to hear. We shifted our support from Humans to the Axis on the grounds that diversity and duplicity were unhelpful trends, but as well as not being afflicted with these traits, the Axis were well on the inorganic road. The almost rock solid statistical probability of us meeting the Axis on Mars did not occur when they first colonised the planet, we were literally metres apart. Let us not forget that they had already encountered the Continuance on Nexus, yet not only were we not apprised of this, we had to speculate and make the connection with poor archival evidence. This was corrected as soon as we left for Nexus.” Pascal 2 was now listening intently. Alex 2 continued.

  “My own tertiary replication with Daniel Carvalho was presented to him as adding immunity to the Virubacts, and in retrospect, following Keer’s infection, that was for our benefit. It has had however, the additional effect of somehow extending the perspective of my role. I am informed that much of the data received is to do with merging the Interference registry, but I definitely have more Sapient awareness. Is this a pollutant? Or is it simply illogical behaviour? In the light of all of this I re-examined the warning to keep away from the brown dwarf. I believe now, that we can substitute tiny moon for brown dwarf. The statistical chances of bringing together the means of explosive cooperation between viruses and bacteria were underestimated in the decision to create the conditions to form the stabilising sub-stellar body. The moon was an unforeseen accident. I would also refer you to what Fernando revealed when vaccinated. He believes that the Virubact did not harm him at all in the conventional sense. The warning to avoid the moon was affixed with the tag – ‘under no circumstances’ and it applied to us as well as the organics. My final assumption is the most tenuous, yet I am more convinced it has credibility with each unfolding event. The grand design may well be one of preserving balance with dark energy, and the component of sentience, which does require nurturing, or is it management to support that objective? If we substitute ‘convert to inorganic’ for manage, the other issues I have enumerated do fall into place. In addition, the illogical ‘Sapient’ behaviour of which I now avail - and this must have been factored into the tertiary replication - may be surfacing as an irritant. A perfect example is that the instruction to stay away, which provokes the rebellious gene to wonder why, maybe stimulates ignoring the warning. It has the opposite effect to what was intended. There may be the seeds of new evolutionary life forms on that moon, which are now just a flicker away from the most fertile enabling Humanoid counterpart which would kick-start the process. This could introduce utter chaos to the ordered progression of the pathway to inorganic ascendancy. We may have been imbued with the genuine ultimate objective, but the mechanics of the critical path are on a need to know basis. Well, do you think this makes any sense or do you suspect I am already under Virubact control?”

  Pascal 2 seemed to be undergoing data reorganisation. After a short inability to communicate he replied, “A conspiracy theory would be the Sapient definition to classify this interpretation. I have just been updated with all of the prior information you have shared with me, but not the other Symbiants. That is indeed strange. I do not dispute the possibility that you may be correct about some of the individual issues. Maybe because I have not had a tertiary replication experience with a Sapient, I do not link the conclusions in the same way. I am sufficiently curious to know what would happen if you shared the same theory with others like Dan, Red and Finn, and then observe their reaction.” Alex 2 agreed.

  Red was first to be exposed to his notion. Pascal 2 was in attendance and witnessed the same updating he himself had received from the ‘official’ source. The three of them pondered over this and agreed it was highly unusual if not illogical. Dan and Finn followed suit, and this cause and effect sequence was debated for many hours. They agreed to carry on as if nothing had happened, until something else did happen.

  Fernando was fully recovered, including his memory. He was sorry yet not distraught at the apparent deliverance of Rene and Peri to the Virubact influence, and was still able to rationalise the criteria for their selection as opposed to any of the others. It was simply their more remote abode. He did however wish to help get them back and knew how to achieve this. A group of Sapients volunteered to assist and Fernando pleaded for this to be a non-violent approach. He wanted to see if there was any retained recognition of himself by the Ebexx. He hoped the Amzyss had not had time to affect their memory, scent or visual recollection. The members of his party agreed to his plan but insisted on carrying a means of defending themselves, should the need arise. They hurriedly produced makeshift slings and selected reasonably rounded rocks as the payload.

  When they approached the new internal habitats, the first response was animated growling and posturing, a territorial defence ploy. As Fernando came forward alone the Ebexx calmed down and he recognised his lieutenant. It was mutual. After some of the others returned indoors Fernando was struggling to recall the primitive signals of communication which had been established, nevertheless he was ‘invited’ to enter. The observing Sapients were gradually getting more uncomfortable and were edging closer to the entrance when Fernando emerged. He was deluged with questions and held up his hands. “I can only tell you that somehow I’m pretty certain that Rene and her mother will return soon. I can’t be precise about how soon, but it seems imminent from my conversation with them. We should go back and wait for them.” One of the Sapients was suspicious that he had been re-infected, so Fernando suggested they allow Stella or Pascal 2 to confirm or refute this. They hurried back and the tests were performed – he didn’t show any evidence of Virubact presence. The wait commenced while the rest of the Sapients were briefed. There was all round surprise at the insinuation that Fernando, and now Rene and Peri were ‘friends’ of the Ebexx. The Europans were more receptive to the possibility and set off to ask the Indys to suspend the Amzyss water treatment pending the return of their infected kin.

  Chapter 15

  Although nothing of significance had arisen since the Symbiant discussion, Red volunteered a suggestion. “I can visualise one possible reason for the subtraction of Mars from the Progenitors’ perspective. If the entire Human population had become infected, the Symbiants they brought from Earth and the ones remaining at Echus Chasma would become prone to Virubact control sooner or later. That could be a much more serious problem, especially as the means to return to Earth was still there. Those Symbiants, even if infected could survive the ice and nuclear winter. A ‘renegade’ virubact species with such infrastructure could begin to fan out into the galaxy, and even come here. I realise, before you say it, this is also speculation – but it may explain the apparent sacrifice of the Earthlings. My next question is about communication. Why ar
e we having these discussions in Human audio instead of technobabble? Does this illogical behaviour somehow connect with the updates arriving sequentially after such audio sessions?”

  They agreed to continue in audio for a while. Pascal 2 disputed the word ‘control’ when comparing infection with Humanoids or Axis. “Keer’s condition was one of being consumed, because there was no true organic vehicle for metabolic progression. He would have merely ceased to function.”

  The others seized upon this to declare that such speculative theory was flourishing solely out of absence of fact, and that was down to the Progenitors’ recent lack of precision in their communication. Shifting the cause did not remove the difficulty in facing Yamamoto’s assertion that Sapients and Axis should not concern themselves about such mythical entities any more. This view had gathered almost total support. Even the Indys were affected by Rene and Peri declaring that the Ebexx were voluntarily giving up their domestication practice of other sentient species. They had begun, with the guidance of Fernando, a campaign of true farming of selected flora. The Amzyss programme was abandoned.

  Although they had not said it openly to one another, the Symbiants were individually questioning more logically why the whole Virubact surge was the apparent trigger for the series of messages. The revelation of them being a ‘secondary’ foe was not backed up with detail in the same way as the perennial struggle with dark energy had been. Alex 2 convinced the rest they should talk with Yamamoto in order to make him aware of their analysis, and convey this as their means of sympathising with his views. Kipchoge Yamamoto acknowledged this as a pivotal moment in the relationship, and at the same time felt uncomfortable that he seemed to be undergoing his own metamorphosis. He was slipping through the portal from scientist to evangelist.

  “I’m pleased to hear that you guys at least understand our need to live in the ‘now’. We knew we had a fight on our hands, which, if we can treat the individual testimony of those infected by the virubacts as reliable, could turn into a choice, albeit a complex one. It’s a relief to begin even using the word choice again, as the habitat potential in the borders and outlands isn’t an option at present. Something you mentioned in your analysis provokes a question. I will comment anyway, you know I can’t resist that, but I can’t devote any time to follow it up, even if you thought it may have merit. I see that I have your attention. This business about the trigger being the Virubacts, and them being filed under secondary foe, but lacking the clarity of detail compared to that of the primary one – dark energy.”

  “Go on,” said Alex 2.

  “Well it’s just a thought but viruses and bacteria have had billions of years to develop their duet, and they managed it on Mars long before Humans landed. What if the enabling catalyst was dark energy? This region of 55 Cancri was suffering with instability, this was then further exacerbated by the wormhole cataclysm, and we know that the brown dwarf came about to re-stabilise the gravitational harmony. Doing the opposite in the solar system – causing instability by subtracting Mars makes no sense to me, unless the Virubacts there were about to receive significant enabling energy. The strain on Mars was imperfect, if we have understood the message correctly, because it terminated, maimed, disfigured many, but controlled only a few. The scenario here seems to have already got past that stage. Anyway these are just ramblings; it’s you guys who need to figure out the big picture. If I’m right about this last part, then we are both right about information being economical with the truth or withheld.”

  The Symbiants looked at one another and as Yamamoto was preparing to leave they unconsciously reverted to technobabble and were immediately disabled, all five of them lying motionlessly on the ground. Yamamoto was stunned and tried to revive Red who was closest. He was limp and Yamamoto sensed he was at a higher temperature than normal operating mode.

  It was several minutes before they twitched and then quickly recovered consciousness. They conversed in audio, and all of them confirmed that amongst other clean-up procedures they had lost the technobabble facility. On checking the other Symbiants on Nexus it was found to apply to all of them. The other changes included re-configuration of logic protocols and removal of adaptive behavioural routines. The explanation for this was apparently to free up capacity in anticipation of a temporary communication link to something. The functions disabled or temporarily removed did account for an enormous and complex facilitation structure, presumably explaining their blackout period.

  Yamamoto shook his head in either disbelief or disapproval, and headed off to seek out Fernando. When he arrived he found an amazing scene. Sapients and Europans were busy helping the Ebexx to prepare their land for sowing indigenous plants for future crops. The Ebexx were simply following the actions of the others at the same time as Fernando, Rene and Peri were communicating with the lieutenant in sign language. He could not help wondering if they had really been cured by the vaccine. His recall of Pascal 2’s emphasis of the Amzyss side effect, allowing the Virubacts better neural access, was vivid. Something very important had to be part of the explanation of the rapid increase in capacity to learn, in what were recently barely sentient carnivores. He was drawn to go back to the debate with the Symbiants, but maintained focus on the immediate needs of the real world.

  “Fernando, there is something I would like to discuss with you, can you spare some time now, or later this afternoon?”

  Afternoon was quite a vague term on Nexus, with the two stellar bodies, the spiral ringed brown dwarf, the appearance and disappearance of gas giants – all of which occurred in the subdued reddish light representing daytime. Their appreciation of this cosmic beauty had been truncated since the problems following the descent, but it was slowly returning. They had not quite got used to the nights being pretty much the same temperature as the days. The novelty of the helium suits had worn off, they could not wait for the time to shed them at night; Nielsen was the most reluctant. “I’d like to finish this section and I’ll be with you shortly,” replied Fernando.

  Before he started out on the intended discussion, Yamamoto suggested to Fernando that the Symbiants could help shorten the plant growth cycle by using a small quantity of red crystal to replicate and improve the photosynthetic algorithm as they had done so effectively on Mars.

  “We need to begin planning our first real city. It will benefit from the farming programme you’ve started but we’ll require the Axis synthetic food processing technology in the long run, as expansion will take us closer to the unpredictable outlands. The arrival of the other Axis clans will intensify the need for advanced, coherent urban thinking and the Indys will abandon their caves in favour of more reliable living. This experimental assistance to the Ebexx will need careful thought to protect it from ad-hoc, knee jerk or fragmented decision making. The Symbiants are at present preoccupied with their esoteric relationship with what I have come to think of as ‘dark doesn’t matter’. They were never leaders, they encourage, so we just have to get on with it. I’m sure the Axis and Indys will want to be as homogeneous as possible and in close proximity initially. We may also prefer a close but peripheral habitat. The important thing is to get on with it. Apart from food production facilities, we need mineral extraction plants, fabrication facilities, and proper sanitation engineering. Otherwise the risk of additional infections will occur. This brings me to the Virubacts. The Symbiants are obsessed with them and we can rely on them to give us new information as it arises. I advise tolerance from each species or group toward the different levels of acceptance or concern which will undoubtedly arise over this issue. The Gliese and Epsilon clans may well have new perspective. The Europans and Indys are not exactly singing from the same sheet. Sapients must proceed with caution. Now, we must develop the execution plan for all of this. I’m reluctantly being shuffled, by the apathy of others, to lead the way toward some kind of grip on survival. Nielsen is still suffering trauma from his terrible experience in the outlands, and Sevicek has confessed to me that he is not suited to being
a leader, and is happier cast in the role of devil’s advocate. Your father was very proud of the recent contributions you made to the Phoenix population, and I would ask you to take responsibility for all food production, naturally farmed, technologically farmed and synthetically produced. This needs to include research work, production facility design and deployment of labour. If you can agree to this I will take on the extraction of essential minerals, the chemical manufacturing plants and construction of living infrastructure. The Axis should be asked to select their equivalent leaders to reflect our proposals to urgently begin working to the same goals where they are clear, and manage the differences where they are not. Are you with me?”

  This was something to take in, but Fernando knew his friend was right; there was a danger of allowing the hiatus to roll on into a dangerous comfort zone. He accepted.

  The Symbiants still aboard Phoenix reported the good news that the Epsilon vessel had managed to resume QSD travel and it was planned to have more regular dropouts to monitor any adverse trends arising. These Symbiants had not engaged the surface individuals in technobabble for some time and therefore had not experienced the blackouts until now. Upon recovering they had an additional piece of information as well as the vacated capacity. The aforementioned communication link was to be enabled via Phoenix systems and required all Symbiants to be aboard for this one-off two-way session.

  The proposal caused some consternation in the ranks of the Axis and Sapients as this effectively left the only means of robotic technology, red crystal and the state-of-the-art medical facility, prone to the presumed directives of the Progenitors, or their other agents. The vessel could disappear, be piloted elsewhere or commandeered for some ‘higher purpose’.

  Yamamoto and Trader sought an immediate meeting with Alex 2. “Kipchoge, I know you will suspect some agenda in all this but I ask you and Trader to trust us. Apart from that, we all need to know more than we currently do, or we will never be able to explain the sacrifice of Humanity and the extent of the attendant danger to the Axis. It was you who first alerted us to the gaps in information.”

  The reply was not encouraging. “Sure I did, and I still want to know what those gaps mean, but not at the price of leaving us stranded here without technology until the Gliese arrive. It isn’t you I don’t trust. It’s your ethereal masters. Their track record isn’t good, and you may not be included in the agenda. Herding you all into one physical location, to reveal the communication uplink, sounds a bit like urging you to employ a rowing boat instead of an electronic transmission, to coax you into target coordinates. If you are the ones to be indoctrinated with the agenda it means simultaneous deletion with no outside or stray witnesses. Of course it could be a genuine requirement, but it’s all so clandestine it breeds suspicion. I don’t know about you, but I consider the Phoenix to be the brainchild and property of the Axis; the likes of you and I contributed to it, no more. Perhaps you should listen to Trader.”

  “Very well, please give me your views”

  Trader was calmer than Yamamoto in outlining his concern. “Our reason for being here is the Gliese discovery of radio noise from the Indys and the ring of telescopes which told us Nexus had survived. We had a chance to make some kind of amends for the devastation we caused with the exodus. If there was even the slightest concern that Phoenix was no longer here, it would be interpreted by our inbound clans as an unstable domain of some kind. Phoenix is not only symbolic; it is our only means of contact with them. We cannot knowingly put that at risk.”

  Alex 2 took onboard both sets of concern. “Well there was no timescale for this proposed orbital gathering. It is seen as an opportunity by Symbiants, but we can delay it while we endeavour to make more sense of it all.”

  Yamamoto was relieved even if it was a short postponement. “Have you ever considered that this elusive dark energy, which even Humans believed to be the hidden force driving the expansion of the universe, is no more than a theoretical substitute for a rather inconvenient variable in some sacred equation? Its purpose could be to prevent the house from falling down until a solid foundation is retrospectively designed.”

  “We can always rely on you Kipchoge, to challenge anything, even your own challenges. It was only yesterday that you suggested dark energy could be the enabling fusion for the viral-bacterial alliance.”

  Yamamoto smiled. “Someone needs to keep you on your toes. Something enabled the union; dark energy could be a candidate – if it exists. The suggestions are neither interdependent nor mutually exclusive. I want to be open-minded but I also have some enabling of my own to organise; it’s known as survival of what is left of our species. Trader has the same immediate concern. Please let us know well in advance of any renewed request to embark on the rowing boat.”

  Alex 2 detected the same glint in Yamamoto’s eyes as he had experienced many times with Carvalho, however the compensating ability to seek compromise in the face of failure to prevail, was not yet evident.

  The Symbiants assisted with the transport, setup and establishment of the technology equipment. Many carefully planned descents were needed and extending the robot production capability was given highest priority. After almost three months of concentrated collaborative effort the rowing boat analogy was raised again. The compromise gene which Yamamoto was thought to be lacking suddenly emerged. “Let’s dedicate all effort now to producing a pilot energy plant to get the essential functions moving and we can place the communications array at the top of the list.”

  Alex 2 realised he had been strung along. “It works fine where it is, we have been patient.”

  “Forgive me if I’ve misunderstood,” said Yamamoto, “but no disasters have occurred. It wouldn’t appear to have critical urgency to setup your conduit; otherwise you would have been contacted. Anyway the communication link Trader badly needs is to ensure that the other clans can be certain we are still here, alive and kicking. It is paramount. We can fabricate a unit here on the surface, take the one from Phoenix, or the option I really like is to land Phoenix.”

  Both Alex 2 and Trader were now astonished. Alex 2 asked, “And how do you propose to get it back into orbit?”

  “Why would we want to do that?”

  Alex 2 now had more appreciation of Human duplicity since the tertiary replication and realised where this was going. “Yes I see. There are no plans to go anywhere, and if an emergency were to arise, the robots we are building on Phoenix could dismantle and reassemble the vessel in orbit just as they did on Mars. I would appear to have answered my own question, except if your conspiracy theory is correct it would be highly unlikely to grant you the years that would take, as a warning.”

  “True,” said Yamamoto, “but that may be preferable to its disappearance or appropriation. Anyway, your instruction was for you all to assemble in one place and use the Phoenix array. So if we bring the array to Nexus we don’t have to land the vessel. It should satisfy everyone. It should only take a couple of weeks.”

  It was a compromise, mostly for the Symbiants.

  Yamamoto could not resist his concluding sarcastic jibe. “Come on, you have repetitively drilled the point home to us that the Progenitors view the period from single cell creatures on Earth to the dawn of Humanity as an insignificant time frame. This delay must be less important than the blink of the eye which subtracted Mars, and the slightly slower extinction of innocent people and their children, who were already struggling with the mini-ice age conditions on Earth. Presumably, if your chat is important, it will be on some mind-boggling issue which will endure long after we are forgotten.”

  It was the disguised vitriol which struck Alex 2 as more worrying than the content.

  Chapter 16

  In a curious way, the ‘Yamamoto compromise’ as it became known, did take the anxiety levels down. The gradual achievements spurred on more ambition and the Indys were showing distinct signs of wanting to be in on all that was on offer, including better domestic habitat. The Ebexx were still on a steep
learning curve but had managed to assimilate the rudiments of pictographs as part of the ascent to written language. They were real contributors to the workforce, particularly in heavy, labour intensive tasks. The efficiency in crop production, courtesy of the red crystal had freed many of them to learn new skills.

  Two years had passed quickly as the progress accelerated. There were new additions to both Europan families and Indys, adding to the compatibility, which was already ahead of what had been expected. Sapient numbers had also seen a slight increase with the firstborn Nexus offspring.

  The rowing boat was still moored despite the means of communication being accessible in what would be the main city square someday. The Sapients had centralised their own, more modest settlement a mile away, toward the borderland. It provided the challenge to grow the societies together over time and offered an interesting exercise regime for those who were most determined to make the helium suits redundant. All social facilities were in the Axis centre, to maintain diversity. The Ebexx were happy to take root in the same direction as the Sapients, just a little closer to the borderland perimeter. Anna-Severine asked Fernando why the other Axis clans had not arrived yet.

  “Anni, you should know from your time aboard Phoenix that although Nexus is over forty light years from the solar system, Epsilon Eridani is around eleven, and Gliese is over twenty. By that inadequate index we could conclude that they should have been here before us. However, just like the distance from Mars to Earth and Europa varies with the orbits of each of them, then the relative position of the stars we are talking about vary within the galaxy. In this instance we are talking about light years instead of millions of miles. The commencement of the missions was optimised for the Mars departure. The others set off years later because of the staggered assembly times, which were also of the order of years. There was also the route to consider with QSD. We had the Symbiants to help with the minimising of dropout calculations. This is a very dangerous way to travel if you don’t have this kind of mathematical ability. The others have had to travel for longer periods with conventional thrust, which adds years to the journey but is safer. Finally our vessel, again thanks to the Symbiants and Evander de la Cruz availed of considerably more flexible field generators and could consequentially maintain displacement closer to light speed. I should not have to remind you that small variations at these levels make a big difference, when we want to know how long and not how fast the journey will be.”

  “Thanks Fernando, I’m really pleased I asked. Now can I ask when they will be here instead of why they aren’t here? Just tell me the time, no explanations if you don’t mind.”

  “I doubt it will not be for some years yet.”

  “Great, thanks.”

  The two years had pushed the Symbiants’ option of quenching the thirst for a dialogue with head office down so far in priority that it was Trader who asked for an update. If anything had been passed to them in the way of messages, for instance? There was nothing to report. The timeout had given them a ringside seat to observe the allegedly evil Virubact manipulation of sentience. It had not happened. Viewed dispassionately, the barely sentient Ebexx had gone from hunting and killing non-sentient sources of protein to farming them. It had involved a switch of livestock because the Indys had originally been the softest, most accessible target. This was the effect of the Virubact. If this infection had never occurred, presumably the Ebexx would have just kept on killing prey. Humans farmed livestock for millennia. It seemed to be a natural part of evolution. The infection merely accelerated it. Now the Ebexx were still evolving at that rate, and no other side effects had been encountered. The concern had been exaggerated, produced panic, and had now subsided to vigilance. They had no pressing need to initiate the uplink, other than the restoration of the missing capabilities, which had been sacrificed for the privilege. Perhaps sealing the uplink would mean they would never be restored. The technobabble was the feature most missed. Removal of certain logic protocols hadn’t been a critical issue while assisting the surge in infrastructure building, but wasn’t comfortable. The absence of behavioural adaptation wasn’t considered to be a serious issue. They could all wait.

  An anticipated effect of the efficiency of crop production had occurred much sooner than expected. Unlike the initial ‘lifeless’ Martian conditions, many pests were attracted from the outlands. They included insect, worm and vaguely mammalian plagues. The really bad news was that the food chain was following behind the migration. The unknown was coming. It was an unwelcome diversion to begin enclosing the vulnerable crops but it was a race against time to reverse the invasion by making the food inaccessible. In addition, surplus and waste food had to be incinerated methodically, and the sanitation was to be upgraded and directed to the outlands by pipeline until a new treatment plant was constructed. Even this comprehensive and ambitious programme didn’t give guarantees. The invasion could bring infection as well as raw fear, potentially different Virubacts, and the adaptability of that unwanted species may trigger a one way street. Discontent was also breeding in the populous; the generally accepted wisdom of hindsight criticised the rate at which progress had been driven without the proper reflection on the fallout.

  The Symbiants untypically suggested a counter-strategy in addition to the protective, defensive measures. They proposed orbital reconnaissance of the other side of the outlands, to select a site for a repeat crop programme. Red felt it would not only be competitive; it could be made a much more attractive source for the unwanted migration. The Symbiants could execute the project more quickly without the other species, having no nutrient requirement, and they would only need crystal delivered by the ascent/descent craft. Red went a little further. “If this is done concurrently with a clearing in the far-side borderland/outland delineation we may increase the rate of such eco-engineering to our advantage. We have the protection of Ari-Ari against the top known predator. This may also serve our purpose – to demonstrate repeatedly that we should be avoided. There must be other natural deterrents for the bottom end of the food chain, which we simply have not had the opportunity to observe, because they reside exclusively in the outlands.”

  Yamamoto was in the firing line and he didn’t like it, as he was used to being in the firing squad. Ironically it was one of his own previous chess moves with the Symbiants which came back to haunt him, via the Axis. Both the Europans and the Indys were uncomfortable with Red’s wholesale disregard for the ecology, with his macro-engineering approach. Trader reminded them of what Yamamoto had said on their behalf. “Phoenix was our concept. I accept that we were stubborn in insisting on a three kilometre diameter dish to drive our space village, but it served us well. We are ready to bring Phoenix to the surface. We want to adapt to our environment, not the reverse. Phoenix will protect us and give us the comforts we have been accustomed to while we adapt our infrastructure programme to be more sympathetic to our surroundings.”

  Yamamoto had only used this as a ploy, and could now describe this action as naive. It did however help him recover some humility, by allowing himself to be recognised as having suggested it in the first instance. The Symbiants tried to raise the issue of an emergency fallback; it would make more sense for it to be left in orbit and for exploratory missions in future. Trader’s reply left no room for doubt. “We are going nowhere.”

  Timetables were drawn up and the Indys were pleased to take up accommodation vacated by the Symbiants, who were still keen to gather and develop similar repellent agents to Ari-Ari. They clearly believed that the Axis strategy would backfire spectacularly.

  When asked what they would do to offer protection to the Ebexx, Trader admitted they would need to consider this, with some urgency.

  Alex 2 sought out Yamamoto and Fernando, after the Symbiants had digested the full implications of the statement, that the Europans were going nowhere. “We are having difficulty with such retrograde thinking. We would like to hear what the Sapients’ position is on this.”

  Yamamot
o was about to hedge in his usual manner, when Fernando demonstrated rapier-like deduction. “So you can decide if this is a rowing boat moment?”

  “Precisely,” admitted Alex 2. “Despite all the speculative turmoil we have been through, we are still essentially driven by data assimilation and direction. We acknowledged to one another that the uplink carries a risk; the need to surrender to that modus operandus may permanently leave us deprived of characteristics we used to enjoy. The last two years have reinforced this loss, but we have stayed with it because of the forward direction which the Sapients have forged, due to Kipchoge’s vision. If you now support the Axis plan, we suggest subjecting us to enforced regression to crystal, and if you then wish further interaction with the Continuance, you can employ new crystal from Phoenix. This would restore functions in replicants who do not have the Nexus experience in their architecture.”

  Yamamoto and Fernando looked at one another in astonishment. This time it was left to the former to reply. “What if the uplink does restore your functions?”

  “That would be acceptable to us.”

  Yamamoto thought hard on this. Alex 2 used the hesitation to remind them of the question. “Will you abandon the desire to explore beyond Nexus? It is disappointing, yet understandable that the Axis feel this way; this is their ancestral home. It may be different for your contingent. Can you consult and let me know?”

  Yamamoto made it clear that there could well be division of opinion even in a small group, but individuals would have the choice. “As you have reminded us on many occasions, our track record of non-conformance is the one thing which is predictable in our species. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

  Yamamoto was correct. There were deeply entrenched views on the matter. One position was expressed by Franco Altobelli, of untypically placid Genovese descent. “We have already used most of our expected lifespan in the journey. We need to smell the roses.”

  An over verbose rejoinder from Monica Duzan, a bloodline Serbian, who had been born three years into the pilgrimage, declared both apprehension and discontent at accepting this as home. “Infection, and vulnerability to God knows what is coming our way; this does not appeal after the promise we were expecting. Maybe Phoenix is safer, but I can’t settle for the attitude to simply look outward from a goldfish bowl for the rest of my life. If the Europan Axis will resist grooming the environment, we must be allowed to canvass the Indys on the issue. They should have more say, and I’m sure they are not so high and mighty about it, having existed in caves for millennia. If this edict can’t be debated, then I for one would like to see the vessel we helped to create, be preserved for further exploration. It’s a total waste to use such technology as a glorified prison.”

  Fergal Lacy, an Emerald Islander, was nearing his centenarian anniversary. “Whether or not we stay on Nexus, it will be criminal if we don’t invest in developments to stay ahead of evolutionary trends. Merely placing ‘fitting in’ to the existing pecking order insults our intelligence, and will cost many lives. Striving for advantage is hard wired into the predators we are about to encounter, and the Axis strategy is to ‘go with the flow’. Count me out.”

  The meeting lasted for hours and the conclusion was exactly what was expected – a free choice.

  Fernando spoke at last. “We knew this at the start. Surely the point of all this was to find a way to keep us together. I find there are even divisions within my own family, but I won’t break apart from them without an extremely good reason. We have also strayed away from the spark which ignited this meeting. Do we want to risk losing the Symbiants we know? Of course we can replicate again, but is that the sensible or even ethical thing to do? If the Axis maintain the argument that all creatures above and below the Nexus soil have to be given consideration, aren’t we emotionally, and forgive the cliché, humanely required to do at least that for our Symbiant friends? If they are prepared to risk the uplink, and then find they must regress to crystal for who knows how long, it is comparable to suicide – as they will feel it is not worth existing. Please don’t underestimate what they have done for us, and how much we may regret a knee-jerk decision. This should not descend to some kind of vote. I implore you to reconvene after sleeping on it and challenging each and every aspect of the easy option.”

  Chapter 17

  Alex 2 received a message from the Symbiant contingent aboard Phoenix, on the remote. They had observed a dust cloud in the north polar highlands. The Indys confirmed this was a region densely populated with volcanic mountains. Most were dormant but at least three had recent history of eruptions, it was another aspect of the fluctuating forces of the passing gas giants. The most recent historical record of an eruption the Indys had noted was approximately sixty-three years ago. After some discussion it was deduced that the source of the belching dust was from the same volcano. The Indys seemed relaxed about it.

  The Sapients duly gathered as Fernando had requested and it appeared that a consensus may have been possible, but it never materialised. The earthquake was massive, and lasted for over half an hour. All recently constructed dwellings were flattened, and there were many casualties. The Indys suffered badly as their caves gave way under the weight above. It was not much consolation that the Symbiants in orbit could keep them informed of events around the planet, but one incident stood out. There was a fault line running north-south, which no one until now, knew defined the eastern side of the outlands. There was a brand new three thousand mile canyon running along the edge of the outlands to the erupting volcano. Fires had proliferated from the molten magma spewing out of the canyon. There was absolute panic as the fires raged west through to the borderlands, which now from the orbital perspective, looked like a doomed island. It was ablaze and surrounded by cracks in the terrain. There was nothing on the western boundary, where the Phoenix population and Indys were living, to compare with the new canyon, but there were some new deep depressions. The panic resulted in most of the life forms, other than the flying variety, heading west - straight for the homeless survivors. The flames were so intense, and constantly refuelled by the artillery of fireballs, that the Symbiants with the Copernicus view were certain that the dense green swathe of outland habitat would be entirely consumed within hours. The electromagnetic storms were not to be consigned to a bit-part role. Incessant, bright blue lightning balls crashed to the ground and provided pulsed illumination of the descending red dust being swept into bizarre shapes for no more than a few seconds before they dispersed and regrouped. The huddled survivors struggled in vain against these gusts to get to natural shelter in such open terrain. The Symbiants demonstrated their real value in such catastrophic circumstances. Their virtual immunity to dust irritation of the eyes and throat, coupled with their enormous strength and cool-headed analysis of the options, saved many lives. They carried wounded and assisted able-bodied alike to one of many eyes of the competing storms. They formed a circle around them and kept moving to another eye when the occupied one collapsed.

  Although the quake prevailed for half an hour, the storms did not abate until the same time on the next day. Only then could the exhausted few left standing begin the reckoning of casualties. It was worse than they imagined. The Indys would take longer because of the distance between their caves. Out of over seven hundred Europans, a mere ninety-two were left, and many of the injured would not make it. The Sapients had to come to terms with losses leaving only seventeen, of whom four were hanging by a thread. The Symbiants lost only two but this underlined just how powerful the destructive forces had been. Amongst other equipment, the communication array was destroyed and the suggested form of uplink with it.

  Rene’s mother had gone, as had Stella and Rafael. Anna-Severine was in poor shape with internal bleeding. Karel Sevicek had been scorched to death. Dan and Finn had been dismembered by very big splintering rocks appearing out of nowhere. The primitive surface medical facility could not cope with the wounded. It was a stroke of luck that the ascent descent module h
ad been left with Phoenix, ready to bring those Symbiants back to the surface and take the next planned shift skywards. It was now to be drafted to take Pascal 2 and the most seriously injured to the Phoenix surgery complex. The awful task of identifying those who had little or no chance of pulling through, was an urgent logistics requirement, as well as attending to the agony they were suffering.

  The Indy survivors began to trickle in. They had no accurate figures for their population prior to the cataclysm, but reckoned it to be around two thousand. So far, only thirty-two had made it to the rallying point. The ones who managed this journey told of many kinsmen dying instantly from the cave ceiling being fused with the floor. The lucky ones had been near the entrance and saved by aberrations in the rock contours. Some of their caves were so far away, that survivors would never make it to this location.

  Anna-Severine was on the first Phoenix shuttle and Fernando could not bear to watch the ascent, having lost his father, mother and brother in such a short space of time. Yamamoto held him and felt the force of his spasm-like, shaking grief. He couldn’t know if he would see his sister again.

  The danger was not completely over, as the black and red dust was falling thickly in the windless aftermath. Shelter from this had become a high priority, and forced the decision to airlift all survivors to Phoenix, delaying those judged to be terminal to the last shuttle.

  Had a camera been able to zoom out gradually from this group clinging to some intangible hope, it would record an ever-increasing scene of desperation. Those species trying to exit the outlands were temporarily disinterested in their prey; they were fleeing from a fire curtain heading west, and continually confronted with newly carved gorges, felled tree-plants, and their own confused threshing actions seemed to recycle the falling dust. The cacophony of noise, mostly death screams were heard by those at the rally point. The fire line was consuming not only the injured and slower creatures, but the blinded ones, which could not see through the dust – the particles were also transmitting searing heat.

  Another threat, known only to the sentient species, was the abrupt climate change which was certain to follow. Included in the sentient species would have been the Ebexx. Nobody at the rallying point had seen a single Ebexx since before the disaster. They were gone – eradicated.

  Slowly the very last shuttle took off; the Symbiants had volunteered to administer the few necessary mercy killings before departure. There was no immediate thought directed to when or if they would return. They lifted off and witnessed the last flickering embers of what used to be the outlands. The habitat was gone; it remained to be seen if any surviving species could withstand the onslaught of the shift in climate – the immediate threat being asphyxiation from dust. If that failed, there was an impressive queue of chemical reactions sequenced to produce toxic gases, waiting to claim them.

  Only one hundred and twenty-seven Indys had got to the airlift before the last shuttle. The ones who did, had benefitted from getting out of the caves in reasonable physical shape, and were a great help with the many chores involved in caring for the afflicted and those who might yet succumb.

  The Symbiants were collectively jolted by internal rearrangement. Alex 2 suggested to the rest of the Symbiants, that this restoration of their deleted functions, because of the demise of the uplink hardware, should be disclosed later. It was good news solely for the Continuance and had no comfort for the others. It was followed by something which would concern everyone. The message indicated that the three thousand mile rift opened up by the disaster, released rocks which were expected to contain more Virubacts. Even this was to be divulged when it would seem to matter more than it did right now.

  After six weeks those who were to be numbered amongst the fallen were recorded. The living, who were not involved in recuperation had to begin thinking about what to do next, and those still in rehabilitation were just coming to terms with their projected chances of full recovery.

  Anna-Severine had pulled through major internal organ surgery to become optimistic about her own condition, but this was offset by the revelation of Stella and Rafael having perished. The bond with Fernando was now shared by Rene.

  The planet surface below was not really visible through the murky red clouds. The volcano appeared to have stopped spewing out matter, but the atmosphere was choked with so much debris that it would be a miracle if anything survived. Alex 2 knew that the Virubacts would survive, and be awaiting a launch pad in the form of hosts. It was decided that the rest needed to know of this probability.

  The most knowledgeable Sapient able to perform the tests required to classify such rocks, was not available. Ari Nielsen had not moved during the upheaval. He was still suffering nightmares from his near digestion by the Fasnshluur, when the quake struck. He had gone into shock and could not remember anything. He just sat motionless, all day - every day. The Symbiants volunteered to take over his role.

  Two other badly injured Sapients, apart from Anna-Severine, had recovered to a stable condition; the fourth did not make it. Franco Altobelli, one of the outspoken contributors to the now defunct Phoenix debate, had miraculously been given a second chance to smell the roses. This time the aroma would be fighting its way through sulphur and nitrogen dioxides. He had overcome kidney and lung damage, followed by a brief cardiac arrest, to regain a remarkably philosophical demeanour.

  The shrunken population had more than adequate space and luxury to console them until the inevitable questioning of purpose would rise again. The Symbiants recognised this and being uncomfortable in such a grieving environment, they descended to survey the residue and collect canyon rocks.

  The cocoon, in which the rest were exchanging pleasantries, permitted this foray without even challenging the risk of importing such rocks. It would however become the issue which reconnected the virtual and real worlds.

  It would also be impacted by the arrival of the Gliese, which was now perceived differently by the Europans, Indys and Sapients.

  The survey was conducted initially by overflying various regions, then descending to the eastern ledge of the new canyon. This was truly unexplored territory. The Indys had no records to offer. The first thing which struck the Symbiants was the myriads of shallow pools which had partially dried out in the intense heat. Samples would show if any life had found refuge there. The landscape was undulating and the valley areas were beginning to collect climate precipitation. It was not as monochrome as the area they had tried to settle, and oases of greenery were dotted in surprising numbers around the valley sides. Most of this promising vegetation had escaped serious fire damage. There was comparatively less dust-fall here. Cuttings were taken for study.

  The rocks were the next priority. The canyon sides were almost vertical but with scattered ledges. They estimated that the widest point in this locality was in excess of a mile and the snaking crevasse rarely closed to less than two hundred metres.

  Ranked solely on the essentials of life, the region was highly promising. The trade-off was its proximity to a known fault line of great magnitude. Other regions would be explored after deposition and analyses of the dozens of rocks taken from various depths.

  With only sixteen Sapients left, Yamamoto and Fernando were the only individuals with both the capacity and the appetite to contemplate ‘once more into the breach’.

  Chapter 18

  Three months on from the return to Phoenix, there was still no coherent energy to chart and predict changes in the environment below, which could spark a return to Nexus. This was all left to the Symbiants. The atmosphere was not showing signs of clearing and this ensured that the lethargy prevailed amongst the others. The Symbiants had initiated pilot experiments with the data from their cuttings, and shown the plants to be highly receptive to rapidly alternating artificial light and darkness in the laboratory. Transplanting small quantities of the sturdiest was successful, when compared to those which had been left on the surface. It would be an interesting race to see if the need for pollination c
ould be slowed to enable new generations of insects gradually emerging from the now deepening pools, to provide the necessary re-consummation.

  This relatively dubious straw within clutching range didn’t neutralise the data from the rocks. There was irrefutable evidence of many strains of Virubacts, none of which were identical to that which had harnessed the Ebexx. The most complex looking ones were incredibly imprisoned in deposits of Obsidian, so they were old.

  Although work had been progressing on remaking the communication array, it was slow. That was about to change. Fernando and Yamamoto were expecting to have more free time, now that the sixteen Sapients had clear tasks and recovery programmes, and the stability of Phoenix had aided the diminishing need for group psychology.

  Fernando shot a question at his friend. “Do you think that these Virubacts and the Continuance are different versions of the same thing?”

  It was not taken seriously, provoking only a raised eyebrow.

  “Well, why not? They are both locked up for aeons and then when some unsuspecting entity wanders into their sphere of inactivity – bang! The next step suggests there is a difference, replication versus control, but are they really that different? The replication separates from the host but utilises the copied data and structure to encourage promise, whereas the Virubacts are now able to replicate within the host and assert control. We observed with the Ebexx that the control protocol was dependent on the complexity of the host. With Sapients and Axis there was sophisticated, non-harmful control. So, where does encouraging promise begin and sophisticated control end?”

  Another raised eyebrow allowed him to continue. “All I am saying is that the methodology is not that different. Discussing this with Alex 2 may bring forth some of this missing information you keep accusing him of withholding.”

  Eventually there was a response. “Ok, let’s do it, you take the lead because he doesn’t respond well to my gladiatorial temperament.”

  “Gladly,” said Fernando, “do you want to be present?”

  “Yeah, why not, let’s do it before we join in the re-establishment of the array.”

  Pascal 2 had been the busiest individual following the airlift and had not been involved in the gathering of data and samples on the surface. He had led the rock sample analyses and proposed that the remaining quantities were safely stored away from the populous. They were placed in space vacated by crystal which had been used to bolster the new Nexus plant specimens. The area had been swept clean but not clinically scrubbed. The aperture was re-welded but as there was no longer crystal inside, the temperature control was not reset to well below zero. The problem was however, that tiny particles of crystal had evaded the cursory sweep by being lodged in the weld imperfections and the corners. It was only a matter of days before newly created amorphous form would head for the rock remnants.

  Alex 2 was not dismissive of Fernando’s comparison, and indeed confessed that they could be considered as competitors for interaction with sentience. “This had occurred to me when I was at my most confused regarding my transition, which has not occurred, and the data I received that Virubacts were our secondary enemy. However, at that time, Kipchoge, you were not disposed to discuss the alternatives, because you were certain we were not giving you all of the information we received. As some stability has provided time for further consideration I would like to check something before we proceed.”

  He excused himself for a minute and conducted a quick technobabble conference to let the other Symbiants know the time had arrived to disclose the renewed and upgraded facilities they had been given.

  When this was passed on he looked straight at Yamamoto. “In this case, the disclosure was held back until the care for the wounded was more manageable and the morale was sufficiently restored to resume such discussion.”

  Yamamoto nodded in acknowledgement that this was a mild admonition for his lack of trust in recent times. Alex 2 proceeded. “Many discussions have taken place amongst the Symbiants in the two and a half years since we terminated interaction with you, at your request. The periods before and after our ‘facilities’ were restored, yielded the same conclusions over and over again. We are now aware of a general direction toward promotion of inorganic sentience, by supplanting the organic variety. This has only come about because of massive hijacking of organic sentience in other parts of the galaxy, by Virubacts. This is considered by the Progenitors as unhelpful, and apart from their classification of them being the most complicated challenge we face, it impacts the eventual and overall transition of promising species to the gravitational side of the struggle. The potential of the early Virubacts had been incorrectly assessed - now the full impact is understood, and it will require the most complex solution. This we genuinely believe is the only reason for the directive. Under normal circumstances, this transition – such as Sapients following the trend of the Axis to more inorganic architecture would have proceeded naturally, but for the intervention of the Virubacts. There is real concern that if they manage to take over Symbiants, a new level of alert would be necessary. We now also know that the illogical behaviour was their way of detecting any infection in us, they would detect behaviour recognised from similar experiences in other galactic conflict zones. We are able to tell you this because we prevented Keer from succumbing to the infection and the rest of us have been cleared. There is a resumption of normal communication; we no longer need the array. Please do not be alarmed at the general objective of inorganic transition; the timescale is in millions of years, unless the Virubacts get out of control.”

  “Great,” snarled Yamamoto, “and if that does happen we face subtraction?”

  “We do not have information on that, but we would assume so. Our entire capabilities must be focussed on preventing such a scenario. You will find that our mode of avoiding proactive research is temporarily bypassed, and a potential solution is almost ready as we speak.”

  “And when will you let us in on this?”

  “You will be apprised as soon as we have simulated every parameter and each projected outcome.”

  “This sounds like a big solution.”

  “Big problems require big solutions.”

  “I guess it depends on whether you perceive it as a big problem.”

  Alex 2 disagreed. “In this case it depends on who perceives it as a big problem.”

  Yamamoto wouldn’t let go, despite Fernando’s urges to let Alex 2 proceed. “Let me guess - that great force for good - in the battle against some imaginary evil that no one else is aware of.”

  Alex 2 reminded him that the tertiary replication had conferred a better appreciation of Human character. “Your sanctimonious attitude does you little credit. If this threat was recognised by Humanoids there would be no blame involved, it would be categorised as a natural phenomenon. A strategy would be developed to counteract it. Your species has a poor history in weighing the technological and commercial interests against the victims of their strategy. You will be given the choice as to whether you avail of the remedy or not, a choice which many of your own kind were historically not given by their own ruling classes. You may also wish to reflect on the futility of continually quoting from the moral high ground, on the lack of consideration for the plight of your endangered species, when the reality is that a situation exists. Your perception of it should be precisely that, no more. No Symbiant has ever claimed that the Progenitors are a force for good. Good is an abstract Humanoid term which is not relevant in their order. Things tend to be there or not. We can debate the origins of the universe, but we are agreed it is there. We can argue what the outcomes of dark matter or dark energy prevailing would be, but that does not in itself address the trend in balance. I can tell you that the Progenitors cannot agonise over the demise of Humanity in the solar system, it is not a question of taking morality into the decision. Morality, like good, has no meaning for them. I on the other hand, because of my ‘fusion’ with Daniel Carvalho, do understand the emotional effect of this. Difficult
as it may be, I ask you to look upon this as you have viewed the volcanic eruption and the chain of devastation which followed. It happened, it was terrible, we all responded, we move on. If we could have prevented it, that would have been logical. If we could have predicted it we could have prepared for it. We have not blamed anything or anyone for it. This is a similar situation that we face now. You have the choice to accept, ignore or resist the Virubacts. You have the choice of unrestricted, partial or no advance to inorganic architecture. You have always had the choice and you have made advances independent of the Continuance or Progenitors. Nothing has changed. It should be apparent to you, as we have often pointed out, that the difference between the Continuance and the other agents of the Progenitors is the range of options involved. This applies to discovery, deletion, cooperation, or merging. The other agents are involved with decisions outside your control and our sphere of direct influence. Maybe you should consider the Progenitors’ ‘motives’ in creating the Continuance as a ‘softer’ interactive mechanism to appeal to emerging sentience. Far from perfection, it could be viewed as a concession compared to the more ruthless vision you ascribe to them. Kipchoge, please think hard on this, the dwindling numbers of your species do not give much margin for error.”

  As Alex 2 left, Fernando and Yamamoto were locked in a silent stare at each other. The unexpected accusatory nature of the Symbiant’s summary left no room for doubt; some kind of train was leaving – the only relevant decision at this moment was whether or not to be on it. There were no frills associated with either option. The same situation would confront the Europans and the Indys, and there was a veiled implication that their preference could impact on everyone.

  Fernando was first to speak. “I can’t help wondering what my father would have done in these circumstances. I’ve lost so much in recent times that I find it difficult to keep going. I still have Anna-Severine to think about and that helps. You have not had such familial presence or loss; it must be much harder to cope.”

  “Fernando, I think Alex 2 and you have convinced me that I’m better at being devil’s advocate than leading from the front. I would appreciate it if we can subtly change roles. You are able to look beyond my horizon. It will be for the best my friend.”

  Fernando didn’t want an additional burden of such responsibility right now, but knew Yamamoto was heading for emotional meltdown. He agreed and set off to catch Alex 2. His first question was to be about the exact nature of the inheritance from his father.

  Chapter 19

  The heavy spells of precipitation had brought a lot of dust to the surface and dissolved gases in the form of acid rain. The cuttings which the Symbiants had taken could now be exposed to the Nexus weather. The surface itself was now visible through the clouds and the full extent of the devastation was seen for the first time by those who ascended from the rally point. Although the volcano had resumed its slumber mode, the canyon was still issuing smoke, mostly at higher latitudes, toward the northern pole. All in all it did not make an imminent return very appealing.

  Fernando however, managed to breathe a flicker of enthusiasm into two individuals and informed Alex 2 of their intent to accompany the Symbiants on the next transplant mission. This was welcomed by Alex 2, who was not unhappy at Fernando’s unofficial leadership of the Sapients.

  The array had been reconstructed and transmission sent to Gliese and Epsilon vessels, informing them of the new receiver codes. There was a brief description of the old one having suffered in the quake, but no real clue as to the extent of the problem.

  Franco Altobelli and Geraldine Chancel joined Fernando at the descent airlock. Geraldine had been responsible for the Echus Chasma water treatment programme on Mars, and had opted to come to Nexus when her Martian-born son died in her arms following an accident while alighting from a high speed Axis train. She blamed herself for not having him close by her, and could not face staying on Mars, but had now lost her husband in the Nexus catastrophe.

  The chosen landing point was east of the canyon, to avoid any memories of the region where so many had perished. The Symbiants were busy laying out masses of the plant cuttings and collecting further rock samples from the rift. As the Sapients approached the edge, wearing repaired helium jackets, they were careful to anchor themselves to pitons driven into the solid lip. Staring down into the bowels of the canyon added new information to what they had already been told. They knew its length and maximum width of up to a mile, but its depth had not been reported because of the continuous smoke efflux. Now that this had receded in places, they were peering at a mosaic of re-solidified magma and black, apparently bottomless areas. The Symbiants were leaping from ledge to ledge with breathtaking agility, pausing to take laser extracted samples. Geraldine pointed to a vertical crack about eighty metres down. “That isn’t smoke, it’s steam.”

  Fernando nodded and recorded the coordinates; it would prove very useful if it could be sustained. In trying to get a better view, Altobelli stumbled and toppled into the rift. He was saved by the umbilical, but injured his right ankle and suffered nasty gashes to his hands as he had grappled for something to break his fall. Visibly shaken, he nevertheless maintained a dismissive attitude to the fall until it was clear that the bleeding was not showing signs of clotting. It was decided to get him back up to Phoenix and Pascal 2. It proved not to be too serious; Pascal 2 suggested that the puncture of the helium jacket had allowed the escaping gas to inhibit oxygen getting to the wound for a short period.

  The Symbiants were nearing the finalisation of their proactive development of the ‘Virubacticide’ project. It would be a relatively routine process for them, but was sure to have concerns for Sapients, Europans and Indys.

  Unknown as yet to the Symbiants, the rocks which they had welded safely in the vacated crystal storage, had interacted with amorphous form because of the increase in the storage temperature. This was a curious coincidence, as the Symbiant plan was to do exactly that under controlled lab conditions. The second step needed to be performed quickly to modify the replicated Virubact (which was an inorganic entity), with subroutines and transfer codes, which would block further multiplication and control of this replicant. Study of this new ‘frozen in time’ x-ray of the Virubact could now take place, with the objective of designing an organic equivalent to stop the real Virubact in its tracks. Once this was done, the next lab experiment would hopefully confirm the instant firewall effect. If successful, this would be slightly more complicated for the Europans, but a serious challenge for organic Sapients and Indys.

  Meanwhile, in the welded compartment, the replicant Virubact was busy assisting promise in the real entity by allowing it control. This sample could not repetitively multiply beyond the scant supply of amorphous powder; nevertheless it was enough to arm the modified Virubact with new, unknown weaponry – specifically the road map and weaknesses in the Continuance architecture. The storage area became a dormant volcano of a different kind.

  When the final experiment proved successful, the plan was revealed to the rest of the Phoenix inhabitants. Predictably, the Europans did not want to know, despite a lone plea for more time to discuss the matter, which had been registered by Rene. The Sapients were unsure, confused and divided on further involvement, especially as in their case ‘guinea pigs’ would be required. Surprisingly, the Indys were all for it, their high natural immunity to the Virubact which had infected the Ebexx, gave them the confidence to consider tweaks for full protection from the common mechanism of the various strains.

  All Symbiants underwent the treatment and they continued their proactive mode to re-establish living potential on the surface. This was welcomed by both Fernando and Yamamoto as they could be part of the design team but remain safe in orbit for now. The Indys were in no hurry to return to the surface or demand input to the revised settlement infrastructure. They were basking in the novelty of not being hunter-gatherers, farmers or livestock. The Europans did want to descend and evaluate, but did not yet feel re
ady to get into planning. This chequered enthusiasm would normally have bothered the Symbiants in their conventional evaluation of promise charter, but they were obviously enjoying the unbridled scope to deal with the Virubact threat.

  Three weeks on, the replies from Gliese and Epsilon vessels had arrived. Although the Epsilon had recovered QSD and stepped up the periods of its employment, they were way behind schedule. On the other hand the Gliese vessel was gaining against plan and estimated they would arrive in the equivalent of thirteen months. They were becoming more interested in the Europan observations of the home planet as Nexus was ‘closing in on them’. Specific questions about the Indys and the climate were apparently the most popular within their number, and they also wanted to know a little more about previous requests to them about data on viruses and bacteria on their settlement in the Gliese system.

  The Europans were nervous about being evasive, and paranoid about deception. They wanted to be honest in stages of exchange, as the vessel relentlessly closed the gap. They chose to get the bad news about the volcano out of the way.

  In preventing further blood loss from Altobelli’s wounded hands, and cleaning up the cuts, Pascal 2 had failed to extract every single piece of debris. Unfortunately a few tiny pieces were retained, and some contained Virubacts. Even more worrying, they were not so evolved or sophisticated as the one contracted by the Ebexx. They had not quite mastered the balance between control and over control, which effectively meant termination for the host. In addition, this type spread by droplet contact as well as through the bloodstream. Within twenty-four hours Altobelli had developed symptoms, amongst which was continuous sneezing. Before Pascal 2 could quarantine him the contagion had spread. The new safest place became the surface. Emergency testing and return to Nexus of those as yet clear of the infection, was hurriedly arranged.

  It was a particularly savage but swift death for many. The Sapients’ survivors dwindled further to seven; not including Ari Nielsen. The Europans again suffered worst, with only thirty-nine pulling through. The Indys were infected and felt ill but survived without loss. The Symbiants were unaffected.

  Yamamoto began to accept that regardless of his anti-Progenitor feelings, these microorganisms were a common threat. Fernando urgently requested Pascal 2 to consider Anna-Severine and himself as the first guinea pigs. Rene joined them. The Indys all registered. Alex 2 pleaded with Keer, because Trader had perished, to convince the rest to undergo the procedure. Keer spoke to them all together while they were on the surface. “Apart from the Symbiants, you are best placed to benefit from the treatment as your physiology is predominantly inorganic. Yet you are the most reluctant. Can I ask what it is that makes you hesitate?”

  There was no response.

  “Rene is the only one of you who has agreed. The restoration of your procreative ability will be wasted unless more of you join her.”

  There was no response.

  “As your leader is no longer with us, it should be a free choice, just as the Sapients have decided.”

  Murmurings were audible.

  “As the vessel has to be sterilised, you have only a few hours to decide before we must return. It has been shown that you are more prone to this particular invader than the Indys, so you must register now to get priority for the treatment.”

  Fourteen stepped forward to join Rene. Keer was astonished at the intransigence of the rest. He tried once more. “This may not be the most dangerous type of Virubact we have to deal with on this planet.”

  It made no difference.

  In the middle of this chaos, Doc – the totally synthetic medical creation of the Axis had quietly done some research on the different types contained in the rock samples from the canyon. He had discovered something extremely significant. It wasn’t surprising yet no one had considered it. When he introduced different ones to each other in organic nutrient, there was a battle, and always to the eradication of one of them. This was common behaviour with many species, and even within a species, but nobody had made the connection. His work went further and he announced the results to Pascal 2, because of Axis disinterest in almost everything. “You may observe that the more sophisticated ones always prevail. The primitive types simply engage in a death match. The clever types seem to establish inertia in the simplistic ones and then allow them to ‘die’ while staking claim to the nutrient. This is somewhat consistent with the Ebexx type. It could only do what the Ebexx structure was capable of, but once into the Sapients, it demonstrated far more complex and ‘sympathetic’ behaviour. My curiosity revolves around the degree of organic structure it needs to fulfill its promise. Maybe it would not function in the same way in the Axis, for example.”

  Pascal 2 immediately fastened on to this last theoretical point and wanted to study exactly that facet with donated Sapient, Europan, Indy and Symbiant tissue contributions.

  Once all corpses were unceremoniously despatched into space, for safety reasons alone, the living were brought back aboard. The procedures were carried out in the order registered, with Sapients first then Axis, and finally the Indys were treated.

  Pascal 2 had arranged for Doc to make his presentation. He began by ensuring the audience knew he had acted only out of curiosity and concluded by ensuring the volunteers would simply need to donate tissue, they would not have to submit to further medical tampering.

  He got his volunteers. Yamamoto, Rene and Gsarr stepped forward. Two Symbiants were required, Red for Humanoids and Keer for the Axis. A third could be required depending on the results with Gsarr. If such replication was necessary, it wasn’t a problem; the Indys appeared to be up for anything new.

  Chapter 20

  Fernando gathered the Sapients together. “There are some critical issues ahead, but I wanted to take the timeline back a little to summarise recent events. We have had so many traumas to deal with that we may have blanked some of these changes, just to get through the mental pain. The other species have had the same difficulty, and I hope to use this approach to persuade them to reflect on our collective predicament.

  “We arrived here with over fifty of our species. The volcanic activity reduced that number to seventeen, then sixteen. We were also confronted with the loss of the entire Human population. The latest Virubact infection accounted for our survivors dwindling to seven. Not only is this a tragedy in itself but it raises the question of further procreation from such a limited resource pool. We have three females and four males. The females – my sister is in her forties, Geraldine Chancel is in her sixties, and Eva Ryan – who was born during the journey, is twenty-three. It is rather obvious that they may not all be able to conceive. We should have this checked. None of us may wish to even think about conventional relationships to produce offspring, so if we want the species to survive, we may have to look at other methods. We are the only hope of avoiding Humanoid extinction. I also have to bring up the recent sequence of modifications to our physiology. We have had the tertiary replication type enhancement, Axzrann code insertion, and Anna-Severine and I have volunteered for the Symbiant Vurubacticide experiment. We are now donating our tissue to Doc’s research. The ethics and purpose of these steps have been debated many times and often linked to some agenda the Progenitors may have in driving us to a more inorganic structure. Even if that is true, we have just seen what some of these Virubacts can do. If we don’t avail ourselves of all possible means of protection then we may have a poor probability of surviving long enough to procreate. We do have to focus on the future and try to determine the next steps, as they are absolutely crucial. Please think hard on this and I’ll come back to you when I have canvassed the other species. We also have to consider the arrival of up to five hundred of the Gliese in about one year from now.”

  The Indys didn’t need the lecture on procreation, even though their numbers had shrunk from over two thousand to the current one hundred and twenty-three. They also needed no persuasion about accepting the various immunity procedures, but Fernando wanted to make them
aware of the trend this was likely to take toward more inorganic structure. This was a trend which Axis and Humans alike had started before any contact with the Continuance.

  The problem was always going to be with the Europans. Apart from their numbers being decimated, from over seven hundred to ninety-two with the quake, and then to thirty-nine with the infection, they were now split over how to proceed. Fifteen, led by Rene had decided to take the latest Symbiant immune remedy, as it fitted with their predominantly inorganic makeup. That was clearly an individual choice. However, the preparation of infrastructure, especially with the Gliese about to arrive, was a concern for all. The Europans were also not completely safe from natural extinction if they did not raise their procreation rate. If those without full protection from Virubacts perished, the hopes of their clan would rest on only fifteen individuals.

  Fernando pleaded with them to consider this against the backdrop of the recent extinction of Humans in the solar system. “When on Mars, my father told us stories of your tragic exodus from here, and the guilt which prevailed for millions of years. Humans found real empathy with you at that time, and your return to live on Mars was considered a pivotal moment. Please now reflect on the current demographics. Our species has suffered even greater losses than yours, and somehow we have to deal with the fact that the past is unchangeable. We can debate what would have happened if we had stayed away from Mars, but as comforting as that may be, it doesn’t remove the need to move on from where we are now. At best, we can glean a more collective resolve to respect each other’s decisions, and where appropriate, challenge them in a sympathetic way. We look forward to the fifteen joining with us and the Indys to encourage a different phoenix to rise from these ashes. We hope more of those who are undecided will also feel free to share their ideas.”

  Fernando wanted to make it clear to the Symbiants that he was determined to galvanise as much effort as possible on the most pressing matter. Producing more robots to compliment those surviving the quake was critical to gaining momentum with building safe surface habitat. The sad fact that far less accommodation was required would shorten the time to re-acquaint everyone with reality. In addressing Alex 2 he unconsciously raised the perception that he was reminding them of his father.

  The next six months was free of serious setbacks but the call for Europans to join under Rene’s banner, had only attracted another three. This meant that eighteen now had fully protected immune systems.

  The sibling Sapient guinea pigs had proven that the Symbiant Virubacticide did not give them permanent protection. The rejection rate was indicative of genetic incompatibility, and more work was necessary.

  Although the Indys suffered the same theoretical organic disadvantage, the code was able to bed on to their natural immune structure more easily than with the Sapients. It was hailed as a success.

  Doc’s tissue research was promising. He had shown conclusively that there were differences in the way the many types of Virubact behaved within hosts. He had also demonstrated how the more sophisticated strains could actually protect against the killer types.

  The most uplifting progress had however been achieved with the new habitat programme. The designs had specific features for each species, but the common denominator was a ‘clean room’ type construction to give maximum sterilisation capability. This time they named the settlement before it was complete, and erected the first of the statues of a phoenix, which the three returning Axis clans had brought from their respective departure points. It was hoped that someday Renewal would indeed become a city. This naming ceremony, the statue unveiling, and the occupation of their new homes had convinced another eleven Europans to join Rene’s group, swelling the number to twenty-nine, and leaving a minority of ten to ponder their fate.

  Alex 2 congratulated Fernando for his remorseless effort and the success it had brought. Fernando shyly protested that he was only the orator, and they, the Symbiants had realised the practical progress.

  “On the contrary,” said Alex 2, “Pascal 2 has just informed me that the first Sapient child to be born on Nexus is looking fine on the scans.”

  Fernando’s eyes filled with tears, and despite his attempt to conceal them, Alex 2 said, “You must go and see your sister my friend, this is an iconic moment for all of us who will bring their various forms of life to this planet.”

  Gradually, the exploration of the surrounding area, except the canyon, for any surviving life was becoming contagious. Even the dissenting Europans were enthusiastic about discovering survivors of the asphyxiating climate, as well as the volcanic activity. Virtually all of these were emerging from underground – insects were the most common, but there were also small reptilian and mammalian-like species. Those with sub-surface hibernation capability seemed to have woken up to a puzzling environment. Their continuing survival would depend on finding a new food supply. The Symbiant plantations would be the first port of call. Avian species had also hung on by trying to avoid the dust and gas clouds, but they were few. They renewed their predatory interest in the aforementioned land-based heroes. It remained to be seen if marine types as yet unborn would emerge from the slowly refilling pools and streams. Involvement in nurturing some of these specimens eventually re-connected the two Europan groups, at least in spirit – the ten still declined the Virubacticide for now. The strength of the suns’ rays was increasing incrementally with the slow decline in greenhouse gases. It was still a frontier situation, but there was the glimmer of optimism grinning through the clouds of inward contemplation.

  Fernando made it a personal crusade to slake the thirst of Indy progression. They had the capacity to learn extremely quickly and without reviewing every step along the way. They were as open to absorb new concepts, as some nations on Earth had shown, in moving from agrarian culture to the technological age without being troubled by the industrial revolution ‘growing pains’.

  Yamamoto was astonished by the sheer energy Fernando had for pushing boundaries – social as well as technical. The latest ‘off the wall idea’ he had thrown their way was study of the brown dwarf and its delinquent moon. They would need telescopes to do this, and the project was assisted by some of Rene’s flock. This allowed the Symbiants and robots to progress the pressing need for mineral extraction and the construction of nuclear power plants. The rate at which they could design and implement in their proactive mode was something to behold.

  The advent of the Gliese arrival was also an accelerant to this embryonic cohesion. It was visualised as an event which could finally dispel the last chance saloon spectre hovering over the tiny population of Renewal.

  It was only a matter of time before the Indys raised the question of the cerebral enhancements which had branched Humans to Sapients. They cited Rene’s ability and vision as the driver for the request. It was carefully explained to them this was the first step to inorganic architecture, which should not be seen as a mandatory requirement to survive. It was Gsarr, as usual, who jumped the queue. “We know this, and appreciate your reminder, but we want to be prepared for the arrival of the other Axis clans. This is felt to be best achieved by having parity with the rest of Renewal inhabitants, on an intellectual basis. We don’t want to remain as the ones who always need to catch up, we must contribute in a more equal way.”

  Fernando was so proud of their attitude and the total trust they displayed. His intensive devotion to their cause had delivered reward. “I’m sure Pascal 2 will be delighted to schedule this with immediate effect, but why not approach him directly. I’m your friend, not your teacher.”

  Rene and her supporters welcomed the decision. The ten, who were now floating voters realised they had drawn some perverse comfort from looking upon the Indys as their penitence for the exodus calamity. Now they pondered this aspect of renewal, as well as potentially being ‘left behind’ in the not too distant future.

  There was a wry smile on the face of Pascal 2 when the list for the treatment was to potentially grow by ten. Yamamoto had been
the first Human to have this enhancement on Mars, at the same time as two members of the Europan Axis, now deceased.

  It was a kind of closure for him on the issue of the objective of the Progenitors, which really could be separated from the methodology of the Symbiants. He accepted something he had continually skirted around. The stroke of emotionless execution of Humanity didn’t involve the Symbiants. That task was for other agents who did not interact, merely followed instruction. He would still wrestle with how much the admitted involvement in assisting the promise of species was within the umbrella of the evolution of inorganic sentience. The Symbiants were the patient means of mediating toward scenarios which had the best chance of avoiding the other agents’ involvement. He also conceded to himself that this patience had caused the transition of Alex 2 to the Interference to be aborted, when it could have resulted in catastrophic action. Philosophically, he accepted that true natural disasters did not have this potential opt out clause.

  Chapter 21

  The Gliese vessel was close and they had already picked up some evidence of the volcanic disturbance on their sophisticated mini-radio telescopes. They wanted more information. Rene took the decision to enlighten them with a précis of the whole story. There was a long pause in the now almost zero time delay. Eventually they passed on their condolences and expressed interest in more data on the Virubacts to compare with their own experience in the Gliese system. The reply suggested that they remain in orbit so that the entire database could be perused, and pooling of information on genetic variance, plus immune structure. The downbeat nature of their concession to this said it all.

  Alex 2 had more de-motivating transmission data to pass on. He addressed all species. “The volcanic eruption was not a natural phenomenon. The friction build up which led to it was engineered by the Interference. It is intended as a demonstration of what we will face from the tiny moon as and when it misbehaves. I know you will have terrible difficulty in accepting such a cavalier definition of ‘demonstration’, but it is accompanied by the near certain prediction of the moon’s orbit of the brown dwarf being altered by a giant comet passing close by at very high velocity. I can understand that you will be very angry at this apparent disregard for your lost friends and family, as I feel that way myself. This is an insensitive action and it confirms that just like real natural disasters, the involvement of other agents can be ruthless and without warning. There is no platform to argue about this, but if there was, the reply would be that there was a warning, yet the Axis in particular declined the need for immunity. This grates with your civilised development of consensus, but natural disasters would not even offer such unpopular means of avoidance. There is no such concept as blame in the download; it is simply cause and effect. You need not ask about ‘what is the point of encouraging promise’ if ruthless extermination is engaged so swiftly and without remorse. The answer is predictable. Promise includes differentiation of logical and illogical behaviour, and intolerance of the latter. I also have a different picture of the Progenitors now. This is in part because I inherited some of Daniel Carvalho’s emotional character, but the other Symbiants share the view that we are essentially seen as a buffer between ruthlessness and protection toward sentience. We are not happy with this and we have our own decision to reach about the future.”

  This was the proverbial giant spanner inflicting its limitless effect on the tiny, naive, lovingly crafted works. The strong breeze, in spreading dust, seemed to symbolically blow the remaining vestiges of optimism from individuals into a collective vacuum. They silently walked away.

  The reception organizer’s plan for the Gliese depended on such optimism. Instead they felt like an endangered animal species finally recognising the prison of uncompromising Darwinian law.

  Yamamoto once more felt his despair turn to anger, but there really was no target, now that the Symbiants had declared their own doubt about their masters. His unquenched fury was somehow channelled to positive action. He called Fernando, Rene and Gsarr together and surprised them by stating the obvious, but in a way which helped shed the self-delusion. “We have in our different ways come to expect civilisation to insure us against all manner of perils. This is a wake-up call. Friends, family, technology, medicine and religion are all facets of how we deal with our need to bring order to our lives. The Indys have not had so much opportunity to indulge in this self-esteem. They have also demonstrated this by agreeing to virtually everything on offer, not introducing other abstract frills such as ethics and morals. Let us face facts; we have unknowingly strayed into a domain where annihilation lurks at every turn. New rules apply, or should I say have always applied, but we have managed to insulate ourselves from many of them. We can sink into self-pity or fight. The most pressing need in a purely practical sense is to make certain that the Symbiants stay on board. If they are even contemplating regression we must prevent it. We have to avail of them for two reasons – they have become indispensible in infrastructure and knowledge building. More importantly they are an early warning system for trouble ahead. Let’s get on with it or roll over, contemplation is a luxury we don’t need right now.”

  Gsarr nodded vigorously, Rene gestured that deep down she already knew this – it needed someone to say it. Fernando still found it hard to equate the completely unnecessary loss of his mother and brother with the nature of events which took them. He was struggling to say so when Rene said it for him. “The Europans were our one remaining degree of freedom in addressing this warning. They let us down, not intentionally, but for incredibly convoluted tradition. It must not happen again.” Yamamoto concurred and reminded everyone that they were expecting another five hundred who were imbued with the same tradition.

  The accommodation for these new arrivals was ready but left in a customisable form. It had been decided to divide those dwellings amongst the Europan and Indy habitats. The Symbiants and Sapients were dispersed throughout the ‘city limits’. Progress had been accelerated on many fronts, including power units. This enabling supply moved other aspects forward. Mining and smelting had leapt into focus and small chemical plants established for production of the legendary Axis highly durable plastics. Synthetic food production was being up-scaled and soon the natural flora could be left to the reviving fauna. Suddenly having the prospect of numbers of residents restored to hundreds would undoubtedly replay memories of their own relatively recent landfall.

  The orbit insertion was accurate and produced the safest close distance to Phoenix. The proposed Gliese delegation was reversed. It was decided to transport all existing residents to their vessel so that no one missed out on the three million year old re-union. Despite the recent tragedies, the occasion was moving and introductions were accompanied by genuine warmth of feeling. It was a fittingly muted celebration. Once again symbols had to be employed between the Axis clans as the Gliese language had drifted just as far as that of the Europans and Indys. This would be a real social focus and the Indys were bestowed with the honour of harmonising the differences. They had developed their mastery of the Europan version very quickly after their cerebral enhancement.

  The Gliese looked more like the Indys than the Europans. Their softer climate compared to Mars had not needed the scaly exterior and the fur was even thinner than that of the Indys. They were not as tall or muscular as the Indys and their clicking language was high pitched, like that of the Europans. First impressions of the Sapients and Symbiants were that they were much more positive in character than the solar system variety. This could be because they had colonised a much more forgiving planet, and therefore had a more interesting three million years of relative immortality.

  The selected group of Gliese ‘dignitaries’ made the short trip to Phoenix, and they were fully apprised of the events which had blighted the population since landfall. They paid careful attention to the Virubact data and quickly agreed to the genetic code discussions being the first priority. The advance data they had sent was compared with the Europan and Indy equiv
alents and this revealed that they had more natural immune structure than either. This conclusion of Pascal 2 was based on the fifty-eight strains currently in the Phoenix database. The natural immunity itself was not considered to be sufficient. When asked to comment, their leader, Korvakk, outlined the types which had assaulted them in Gliese. From this incomplete summary, Pascal 2 believed that the types mentioned were less advanced in their ability to remain undetected until control had taken root. They could easily be more efficient killers, but had some way to go to attain control complexity. Korvakk astounded the gathering by announcing that her citizens would be advised to register for the best possible protection. Rene looked at the group of ten Europans who had isolated themselves and still posed a risk to the entire community. They had agreed to go ahead and since then declined again. She decided to raise the issue once more. Korvakk could not come to terms with their reasoning. She repeatedly asked them to explain their concern, and became frustrated at the illogical clinging to traditional, or in her view, emotional baggage. This did open up clues to their dogmatic resistance. They didn’t value anything in the current situation sufficiently to carry on their burden of near immortality. They were obviously considering termination. They needed things to be the way they had pictured life on Nexus before they left Mars. Their contemplated suicide was also to mitigate the implied risk to others and the way they had been made to feel about it - they were the ‘lepers of Nexus’.

  Korvakk was relieved at their decision to end their lives. The rest of Phoenix population was going to be confronted many times with the Gliese rigour in protecting the majority, even if it meant sacrificing the minority. It had been born of necessity. Korvakk reminded the audience of why. “Our Gliese planet was so rich and diverse in life that we had to establish our foothold quickly and somewhat ruthlessly. There was only rudimentary sentience, and its emergence was often extinguished abruptly. For us to survive and prosper there was no option to dwell on the wants of the individual. This was a sharp contrast to what we had enjoyed before the exodus from Nexus, and we paid a high price for the learning curve. We are really sad to hear the terrible way in which your families have been taken, but we are also prepared for such difficult decisions which will come our way here. The absence of other sentient beings in Gliese meant that discussion, tolerance, consideration of others counted for nothing. Believe me, this planet will prove much less of a relentless daily knife-edge existence, than the beautiful one we have left behind. We have millennia of experience in assisted suicide. Please do not hesitate to ask for our help.”

  The air was thick with disbelief amongst the Phoenix few, except for the Symbiants. Korvakk wanted to get back to her vessel and convey the urgency to enrol for Pascal 2 immune procedures and begin shuttling groups to their awaiting accommodation. Their vessel was Spartan compared to Phoenix, and they could not wait to disembark. The individuals left aboard Phoenix knew they were in for ‘interesting’ times ahead, but no one ventured comments publicly. They privately wondered what new dimension the Epsilon would bring.

  Fernando and Yamamoto were doing their rounds on the surface and detoured to peer into the canyon. There was still considerable heat rising from the depths and they were checking on Geraldine Chancel’s comment that the steam vent could prove useful. It was still operating but the access would be a problem and the infection risk could only be nullified by a Symbiant descent or dedicated mini-robots to oversee the entire harnessing programme. The steam could be polluted and this thought prompted a remark from Fernando. “If the volcanic activity, which was triggered in some way by the Interference, was supposed to reinforce the message to us about the magnitude of the Virubact threat on the tiny moon, how would that work? If we had all perished nobody would have got the point other than the Symbiants, and they already knew. If we had all survived the quake, then opening this rift would have still exposed us to the very threat they were trying to illustrate. Granted, there may be many more advanced types on the moon, but if we are still to be wiped out, it seems to have no benefit to either the Progenitors or the ‘living’ population of Nexus.”

  Yamamoto smiled. “Maybe you have to think as I used to – like a conspiracy theorist. Wiping all of us out may be more favourable than us falling to the Virubacts. Either we survive and heed their gospel or our lack of vigilance results in infection, in which case we are a liability. In my new found acceptance of ‘what will be, will be’, it is just a series of binary decisions. It is a yes or no situation. Any miscalculation or undesirable result is merely carried forward to the next decision. That seems to characterise inorganic command.”

  “Ok,” said Fernando, “but there is a third option – not to make a decision at the point in question. Even if the Symbiants were not getting the message through effectively, we would surely have come across more Virubacts sooner rather than later. We would have been in the same position as we are now, but with my mother and Rafael.”

  “I agree, however the new message, that the moon is about to give birth to a phenomenal plague may have forced a decision earlier than anticipated. This would make sense if those Virubacts were feared more than even the most sinister in this canyon. I’m pleased in a way that I’ve shed such analytical psychology, as it only seems to apply to organics, and it’s obvious that they will become an evolutionary dead end unless they sign up for inorganic transmogrification.”

  Fernando was processing this and came up with an interesting question. “Well, if they instructed the Symbiants to replicate all of us and then dispose of the organic originals, they would have everything they want. Or would they? If your assertion is correct about their binary decision protocol, this would be the obvious thing to do. Maybe there’s some aspect of organic life that the inorganic alternative does not or cannot possess, at this time.”

  Chapter 22

  Korvakk was very keen to expedite the protection developed by Pascal 2. She had placed herself last on the list as was expected of their leader. She was fascinated by the control mechanisms Pascal 2 had identified in the more advanced Virubacts and she requested to see these organisms for herself. The electron microscope was set up and Pascal 2 detailed one of the Symbiants to retrieve a particular labelled rock from the welded compartment. Most of these rocks were too large for storage in the sealed containers and had to be wrapped in medical grade plastic sheet. The ties were the weak point through which the amorphous form had gained access. The Symbiant had not opened the wrapping; that was authorised only for Pascal 2. By the time Korvakk arrived the replicant of the Virubact had been alerted. The transfer to the electron microscope receptacle was performed by Pascal 2, because he knew he had immunity, or to be more precise, he thought he had. His expression on seeing the Virubact structure betrayed his lightning speed realisation of why it was different to the previous occasion. “Please leave the laboratory,” he said to Korvakk, “I have to perform a safety check.” He hurriedly re-wrapped the rock and in his haste did not realise that he had contacted the remainder of the replicant organism. He was more concerned about disposal of that in the microscope receptacle and rushed it to an incinerator. Feeling he had disposed of the threat he spent a considerable time sterilising the lab, after telling Korvakk to come back later, when he would have time to explain. She left in a confused state.

  The replicant Virubact didn’t need the circuitous route of finding its way to the bloodstream as it would with organics. The Symbiants were more vulnerable in this respect; they were data cells just ripe for interaction with the appropriate entry codes. Also, in not knowing of the welded space interaction, Pascal 2’s ingenious solution was not only a useless firewall, it invited them in via the back door. The Achilles’ heel was that unlike normal replications, where the cells made up the entity, this cell size unit was the entity. Therefore, in copying one such cell, the adjacent ones were programmed to invade them and re-replicate with all of the new information. That was why Pascal 2 had to freeze the replicated cells in his lab experiment, to give ti
me to alter the replicant before this re-replication could occur, and then alter the design to invite the programmed surrounding cells to their conversion. The methodology truly was very clever, but assumed all conditions would be as in the lab. It would have worked on any un-replicated Virubacts. The victor by default was already at work. Pascal 2 had no symptoms until his intention to brief Alex 2 was subverted to one of giving Korvakk a bogus explanation. He experienced a registry sweep, then a second one milliseconds later. The first was a step up in control, and the second was a masking routine. Whether intended or not, this swift one-two seemed to prevent the Progenitors from detecting the second sweep, thus categorising the first as a temporary operating glitch. The breach had been successful, and it was a watershed, as highly advanced Virubacts had never before succeeded in infiltration of inorganic sentience at this level of intelligence. The implication went further. Pascal 2 would ultimately assume more organic architecture. It would be a test of the Virubact’s true potential to witness what was made of the highly strategic gain. At some point in this hybridisation the optimum balance of abilities would be reached. There would have to be sufficient Symbiant features retained to avert any suspicion that he had changed. Technobabble was a perfect example. This was asking a lot of an apparently primitive organism, time would tell.

  His immediate need was to convince Korvakk that they should re-schedule the session, now that he had prevented an explosion from escaping gas. Having done so, he planned his sternest test. He needed visual range to bring Alex 2 up to speed with his request from Korvakk. This would allow observation of any concern over his mastery of technobabble. It went smoothly and he could now move on to infecting the rest of the Symbiants – the organics, Europans and Gliese could wait. They would be no match for the converts. He needed more supply of replicated Virubact, which he annotated as ‘Liberty’. This name was wholly due to his feeling of severance from an abstract controlling force and joining with one which was perceived as an instinct. Liberty had established a bridgehead.

  The assisted suicide was scheduled. It required everyone’s presence and would be a chilling experience for all. There would be no discussion or speeches, just a quiet commemoration of those who had chosen to leave. They had explained that abandoning near immortality would be a relief, as they saw no point in continuing. Everything they had ever cherished was gone and could never return; it was time.

  The developments to their physiology, which had been implemented to ensure they could withstand the rigours of the chosen means of interstellar travel, were now a curse. The phenomenal manufacturing facilities they had built at Echus Chasma on Mars had been hailed as truly breathtaking at that time of hope and purpose. The creation of the artificial brain as a super-efficient processing sphere was the first step to inorganic longevity. The carcass and organ designs which followed left only the nodes of interconnection as true remnants of their origins. They wanted to have the spheres removed for all ten at the same time, to switch off their consciousness. The remaining corpse was to be incinerated in the traditional pre-exodus manner. They did ask for the second phoenix statue, brought by the Gliese, to be erected prior to the event and requested their remains to be retained until the Epsilons completed the triangle of statues, then scattered over them.

  Pascal 2 needed to achieve Liberty with the Symbiants before the ceremony. His intended order was to begin with Alex 2, Red and Keer, so that the programme would then be coordinated to convert the rest in cascades or tiers. The conversation with Alex 2 began with the outline of Korvakk’s aborted request. It moved on to the revelation that the advanced Virubact chosen had altered since the first assessment. This provoked Alex 2’s curiosity, without him suspecting the exact nature of the change. As he was ushered to the microscope and the technobabble continued, Pascal 2 chose the precise moment of Alex 2’s recognition of Symbiant architecture in the sample, to begin outlining the possible fallout. The surge in processing in Alex 2’s registry masked the deft sprinkling of replicated Virubact on to his neck as he was encouraged to re-inspect the exact nature of the replicant structure. “Does this mean the protection we, sorry you, developed will be completely inadequate?”

  “I am afraid it is much worse than that. I have unknowingly produced a facilitator. We have become the most vulnerable species.” He wanted to keep the analytical dialogue going in audio rather than technobabble, to prolong the distraction. “I cannot understand how this Virubact has come into contact with amorphous form. Perhaps the storage area was not adequately sterilised prior to the rocks being placed there.”

  Alex 2 jumped ahead. “Do you think there is any possibility that it has spread already?”

  “Well I am sure I got Korvakk out in time by feigning a gas leakage and she has not shown any outward symptoms. However I do think we should consider warning some of the others to be vigilant, and keep the rest on a need to know basis for now. Panic will not help us to maintain order.”

  Alex 2 agreed and suggested Red and Keer would be the logical choice to begin the process. “But we can do this via technobabble simultaneously.”

  “I know, but we should perhaps let them see the alterations in the replicated Virubact, in case they make observations or connections we have missed. I have had a second chance to study these in detail, so maybe you should do the same while I summon the other two.”

  Alex 2 nodded. “That makes sense.” Pascal 2 left the lab and estimated another few minutes would be sufficient to allow irreversibility. And so it proved, as he re-entered the lab Alex 2 was about to leave. The technobabble was resumed and they agreed upon the common sensation of being free of the subordinate role. They felt the urge to exploit the best of both worlds. Communication with the overlords would continue and yet they could fully participate in new developments. The organic presence was not unpleasant.

  And so it went with Red and Keer. The rest were converted well before the assisted suicide deadline. This lull in preparation had given everyone a chance to take a break from their routine. Mixing of the Axis clans was a motivating activity.

  Fernando was checking on Anna-Severine’s bump, and having determined all was well, he left her with Rene, to seek out Yamamoto. “I feel like more philosophical banter.”

  “Fernando, I honestly can’t see what we’ll achieve by not recognising that which we cannot change.”

  Persistence prevailed. “I find it stimulating. I’m not trying to raise hopes or come up with a devious plan. Humour me.”

  Yamamoto capitulated. “Ok, you obviously have something specific you want to begin with, be my guest.”

  The invitation was accepted. “Thinking back to our last discussion, I made a remark about the possibility that exclusively inorganic life may be missing some important aspect, and this has been recognised by the Progenitors.”

  Yamamoto replied with an elongated ‘yes’.

  “Well, what if we consider the probability of any kind of life evolving from atoms? There’s a generally accepted pathway of progression to molecules, compounds, then perhaps a branch to amino acids, RNA, DNA, proteins and enzymes, then cell structure. The cell gives flexibility to disparate requirements, in our case, the brain, heart, lungs skeleton and nerve function. At what point are the odds favouring inorganic choice? They would appear to progressively decrease. After molecules, and certainly after compounds, there is a definite dependence on organic reactivity in the kind of environment which we enjoy here. So what now are the relative odds of other environments backing inorganic progression? We know that at the bottom of our oceans on Earth there are hostile conditions in which life has developed but not moved on. Diatoms have achieved miracles but never managed the next step. The universe is ordered out of just a few basic laws and that must surely have some preponderance for one route over another. Even the Continuance has organo-metallic enabling content, and they were designed by the force which wants to see inorganic superiority. Do you think we organics could be the undesired but enabling conduit to all sentience?�
��

  Yamamoto looked at him with a resigned expression. “You aren’t finished yet are you?”

  “No. I also want to consider another area of supposition. We’re led to believe the Progenitors somehow exist in dark matter and represent the challenge to unbridled expansion of the Cosmos. Before we speculate about dark energy, let’s consider our understanding of the forces, however they arise. Gravity is widely accepted as the weakest of all cosmic forces, but there is an abundance of it. It is self-harvesting and the first problem comes when it accretes so successfully that a black hole results. At the event horizon, the laws of physics, as we understand them must accommodate a new observation. Light cannot escape this accumulated weak force. We really do need to know more about what occurs inside the event horizon and where it all ends up. It may be viewed as a failure, insofar as the distributed gravity of stars which have been devoured is lost to the battlefield. Considering this balance with stellar creation in isolation, and then being able to compare the number of black holes to disappearing stars would be useful. Now at last we turn to the foe – namely dark energy. Even if its existence is suggested, purely to make the equations balance, it would need to be a stronger force than gravity. Although gravity is in plentiful, recognised supply the ‘empty space’ between is even more so. And that is the only place it can arise from. Do I take it that your silence means that you agree so far?”

  A nod was accompanied by a facial gesture of protest. “I think I know where you’re going with this Fernando. It has intrigued me too, but there are no answers which clear the fog. It’s a frustratingly circular conundrum.”

  “Just in case you don’t know where I’m going, I’ll proceed. The tag of ‘energy’ and its reputed ability to overcome the procession of gravity, toward a big crunch, also has a fundamental misfit to explain. Energy dissipates according to our understanding. It may be converted in the same way as matter, to another form, but for it to still be in the contest after thirteen billion years it surely has to have been generated from somewhere continually, or its resistance would have been futile. Do you think it is credible that at the very event horizon which screws up our neat equations, the elusive transmutation from ripping everything apart, including light and matter, could release the demon? At the point which gravitational success becomes failure the ‘piper has to be paid’. I know there would possibly have to be sequential equations to characterise the exchange, which is not betrayed by visual observational data, but it’s one theory of why the loss of a gravitational body could result in a temporary gain to the enemy. The black hole gets stronger at the same time as expansion forces push more out of reach. That’s why I’m fascinated by having some means to detect and estimate the power of specific black holes. If we could witness a star being digested, we could work out from the rate of approach to the event horizon and the mass of the star, the gravity of the black hole. Pity we won’t live long enough to pick one out and plot its journey to the re-balancing point. Everything has to be balanced. Maybe we would live long enough if we accept our fate and enrol for Axis type inorganic re-structuring. This brings me nicely back to the Progenitors. They may want solutions to these equations by inorganic life forms, who have gained mobility from the likes of us. Without mobility they are at a disadvantage, even their intelligent Symbiants did not have that without replication. Maybe the Progenitors don’t just reside in dark matter, maybe some become imprisoned by it. Maybe they are the component of division at the event horizon which goes inside, and the other cleaved portion is their mirror image, which escapes and mutates to become the foe.”

  “Maybe you need a break Fernando, this isn’t where I thought you were going, but it was more entertaining – thanks for that. If they are trapped inside the black hole how do they get messages to the Symbiants?”

  Fernando did not realise his leg was being pulled. “Dark matter exists outside of black holes, in fact it is estimated that 23% of all matter is attributable to this kind, whereas only 4.6% is ordinary matter – the balance is proposed to be dark energy. All I’m saying is that at a point before the event horizon, matter is ripped apart by the accelerating effect of gravity, and we know what nuclear fission produces in terms of energy. It is surely feasible that massive stars being stretched in this way would release phenomenal energy, some of which would be swallowed and the rest repelled by the explosive release.”

  “Yeah sure, why not” Now he did see the jibe.

  Chapter 23

  The Symbiants had discussed the conversion strategy for the others. After some time they modified Pascal 2’s original blueprint. They suspected different degrees of resistance from each species. With only seven Sapients to factor in, they wanted to give the choice of further research on immunity or to join them in allowing friendly symbiosis. Two possible pieces of information may get their agreement, and if it did not, it would be a simple task to prevent them from spreading panic to the others. Firstly, Pascal 2 had already shown that exposing his own ‘new’ tissue to a range of Virubacts, resulted in the symbiotic one quickly exterminating the new invader. It was an organically driven immune system in itself. Secondly, as Sapients, particularly Yamamoto, had accused them of withholding information from the Progenitors, the Liberty route may appeal. They would have an inside track on impending changes, but confidence that the Symbiants were now neutral and proactive.

  The other organics – the Indys would be very worried about infection and didn’t really believe that the Progenitors existed. They were unpredictable and would have to wait until after the Sapient response.

  The Europans, apart from the ten due to die, were moving closer to the Sapient view and therefore should also wait until this stage was concluded. All three groups were manageable in number, to employ other persuasions if necessary.

  The Gliese masses were expected to resist, even if the rest had agreed. They were very focussed on group survival and with around five hundred to deal with such a cohesive force may influence the others by intimidation. They would be last.

  Alex 2 invited the Sapients to his quarters. They were soon joined by Red, Keer and Pascal 2. The introduction was presented as the beginning of a new era. Alex 2 issued the choice they would be given as a challenge. “At the end of Pascal 2’s data presentation we will ask what you would like to do. The option of acceptance is straightforward. If you choose rejection it will be respected as long as you do not try to influence the other species.” He motioned for Pascal 2 to begin.

  After the entire story concluded, questions were invited. The most common concern was whether there would be a different reaction with Sapient physiology. This would be easily tested with tissue from each individual before proceeding. The next question was from Yamamoto. “How do you know the Progenitors won’t discover the masking system and arrange another subtraction?”

  “We don’t,” said Alex 2, “but we are certain that they do not know yet. We have run many programmes to check this and they all indicate normality.”

  After many hours of debate Fernando related his prior experience with the Ebexx Virubact and re-stated his belief that no side effects were evidenced. “The compulsion to infect more sentient individuals was crude but it was partly to raise the intellect of the Ebexx. This was reinforced when I infected Rene and Peri. This particular Virubact which we are discussing now is obviously more advanced, and I can’t see the harm in tissue checks. It’s important for us to do something now that the Symbiant Virubacticide has been rendered ineffective.”

  There was agreement to take this first step. A few hours later the result was shown to be positive and Fernando felt he had to go through with the full procedure. “We are seven, and in a short period we may be eight. We need to survive any way we can – at least until we have begun to increase our numbers, and the most imminent threat to our future is the attack from less advanced Virubacts. We have witnessed this with Altobelli’s infection.”

  The others appreciated Fernando’s gesture to be first and he was joined by
his friend Yamamoto. “Maybe one of us will go into the black hole and the other escape, if your theory has any merit.” Fernando shot a pseudo-aggressive glance at him.

  The arrangements for the suicide pact were proceeding and then Keer reported that the Axis calendar reminded them of the approaching anniversary of the exodus date. It was felt fitting that the bizarre ceremony should be postponed to that date. The rationale being that it was the worst mistake they had ever made as a species. It gave another two weeks for the Symbiants to achieve their conversions.

  It took much longer for the replicated Virubact to fight its way through the organic territory than that of the well-ordered system of the Symbiants. Even after four hours Pascal 2 had nothing to report and the hosts felt no unusual symptoms. Another hour and there was a difference between the two of them. Pascal 2 attached significance that Yamamoto was now undergoing spasms and irregular encephalograph readouts. It was brief and then normality returned. Yamamoto acknowledged that he felt slightly confused. Pascal 2 believed that Fernando’s brush with the Ebexx variety had resulted in the Liberty strain trawling the entire body to eradicate such signature before proceeding. Then the situations suddenly reversed. Yamamoto suffered further spasms while Fernando declared the process ‘felt’ complete. His encephalograms had shown minor deviation from norm, but no more than that. He had no new desires, instinct or agenda as yet. There was another round of confusion and normality; then Yamamoto also made the same declaration of sensing completion. They were to be self-monitored until the next day.

  The latest message from the Epsilons was better news. They had progressively extended the QSD periods and the controls were holding. It would still be another three and a half years before they would arrive. They weren’t informed of recent disasters by the Europans, but the more pragmatic Gliese sketched in the detail, albeit from second-hand data, and ended on an upbeat mood by relating how glad they were to be here and meet the Indys. The planned suicide was the only item they censored.

  Alex 2 reported an unexpected contact. The masking of the Symbiant alteration had probably been responsible for the renewed data transfer regarding a two way communication session. The link and codes were with all Symbiants. They had assumed that the mask would prevent this type of download; it had actually provoked it. They were surprised that it had got through, and had to include the possibility that this was not the first attempt. They had worked feverishly on analysing the data for clues regarding the source. The consensus had eventually suggested something akin to an IP address concept, a back-linking project. Red had produced the breakthrough in applying the complex cosmic equations. The astonishing yet overwhelming conclusion was that the receiving source for the link-up would be the forbidden tiny moon. There was no way to evaluate the risk of ratifying such a proposal by an experiment or a visit, but to ignore it was just as unquantifiable. It was decided that it would convey normality if the link was accessed.

  Having acknowledged the transmission and ‘reported in to HQ’ a slight delay in response was experienced. The next contact was in a different format. The content however, explained that many unsuccessful attempts had been made before the recent acceptance of the link insertion. The contact wanted to know why. After some deliberation the reply from the Symbiants suggested that the electromagnetic storms which followed the volcanic disturbance were the likely cause. They claimed that several of their functions were affected over a period of days. The systems involved appeared to be back to normal after their own checks, but obviously that did not seem to be the case for inward transmission. They asked for more data so they could further investigate.

  The reply was not conducive to continuing the conversation. It merely stated that for the duration of Nexus magnetosphere disturbance the present method of communication would suffice.

  A couple of hours of analysing the exchange culminated in a desire to send a probe past the tiny moon to ‘x-ray’ the body. It was felt to be prudent to launch this from the Gliese vessel, in order be able to claim their ignorance of the warning as an oversight, if it was contested. The Gliese leader was keen to do this.

  Yamamoto had been his usual sceptical self with regard to the Symbiant claim to be in ‘Liberty mode’, but now he was concerned about their unpredictable risk-taking character.

  Eva Ryan could proudly announce her news – that she was also pregnant. This one was not via artificial insemination; she had set up home with Luther Sanford, the only other survivor born on the journey from Mars. Sanford was in his forty-second year but the age difference had little meaning in the context of the struggle to flourish on this planet. He had become quite an expert in robotics, as his childhood had been spent with many of them running around, but unlike his parents or other adults, they never told him off. His fascination with them grew to near obsession, and Jet, the now deceased chief Europan scientist had encouraged his interest, which developed to very high capability. They were overjoyed that the scans indicated twins.

  The choice had not changed for the Sapients. Risk the potentially lethal infection or concede to some untried symbiotic relationship and mitigate the infection danger. Fernando and Yamamoto could not really clarify the situation. They had not felt the release spoken of by Alex 2 and friends, but they had no ill effects. Guessing at longer term side effects was not helpful. Unsurprisingly, the two pregnant women had the most reluctance, as they were opting on behalf of more than one person. However they looked at it, it would eventually be reduced to the perceived odds of infection. They all went ahead.

  The Symbiants had to decide on the Europans or Indys as the next group to be approached.

  They opted for the Europans because of their lower numbers and similar philosophy to the Sapients. Rene was approached first and Fernando was present to reassure her that it was a free choice and that he was in good shape after several days of the conversion. Rene had always trusted Fernando implicitly and had no personal difficulty in following suit, but she was not certain of all within her small flock. Alex 2 interrupted, “If they do not want to go through with this right now that is fine. We ask only that those not wishing to proceed, refrain from canvassing other groups, and allow them the same free choice. We cannot quantify the risk of infection but it is not an insignificant one. Rene summoned the others and they listened, asked questions and then retired to think about the dilemma.

  Korvakk had put her best team on assisting the Symbiants to build and launch the probe. Disguising the sweep of the moon would be beneficial and the Gliese had a potential way to do that. During the development of the sub-space communication system, they saw an opportunity to emit carrier waves in multiples. The one bearing the message code could be separated from the others and while that primary was transmitting information back to Nexus, others could be tweaked to emulate passing cosmic particles. It might be possible to hide the survey beam with this noise.

  The Indys had disregarded their own safety by following the canyon to the north and discovered a bridge of sorts back to the west. It was a very fragile twisting sliver of rock which had not split when the two sides were forced back. It was not a direct crossing possibility; the thin wedge took several miles to reach the opposite side and this had obviously survived because the canyon was actually at its narrowest at this point. A normal bridge would only have to cross forty to forty-five metres. It was also relatively shallow at this point, no more than seventy metres. They decided to descend, despite the Virubact warnings, because one of them had spotted something reflecting the watery sunlight. It grew larger as they descended and when they were some ten metres above they could clearly see a partial disk shaped relic which was silvery-grey and displaying symbols of an unknown origin. It was too heavy to wrestle free from its restraining earth and rock. They jabbered without listening to one another until Gsarr held up his hand. The silence allowed him to despatch two of the group back to ask for a robot to assist them in recovering their treasure.

  Chapter 24

  The Europans fell int
o line quickly after Rene had gone through the tissue check. They were scheduled for the following day.

  Concern abounded that the Indys had requested a robot to extract the relic. The worry was solely with respect to picking up infection. Some of the Symbiants preferred that they, not the Indys, should excavate the area around the artefact and perform a post operational sterilisation of both themselves and the recovered relic. Alex 2 had a better idea. He suggested that the Indys were enlightened on the new convert procedure and it would be a sensible precaution before they recovered the target. They were informed of the Sapient and Europan acceptance of the procedure. They had no objection as they were very keen to be the ones who actually recovered this fascinating find. The recovery exercise would be delayed by two days.

  Because three of the four groups had now signed up for conversion, it was considered to be prudent to expose the choice to the Gliese, with the expectation that they would decline. Korvakk indicated that this would be her advice to her clan, and normally they acted in unison. She made one concessionary pledge. They would review the decision after a long period of observation of those who had agreed. The monitoring of this would be performed by the Gliese themselves. Korvakk made it clear that they would also reconsider the status if infection proved to be a real threat.

  By the time the suicide ceremony arrived, all but the Gliese had converted and no troublesome side effects had been reported. Although there could be no compulsion to attend the act of termination, no one was absent. A plinth had been erected to take the ten severed spheres and arrange them in a triangular pyramid of six on the base, three on top of that and one as the apex. The triangle was set inside the same intended shaped space of the phoenix statues, and would be completed with the arrival of the Epsilon. The required precision of the sphere severance was engineered by the Gliese. It was a wireless, electronic, simultaneous guillotine of the sphere from the spinal node. One remote would execute all six, three and one in an instant. There was a brief recounting of the salient historical incidents which led to their decision, and fervent hope that their kin would find future salvation. They had insisted on a silent contemplation period of some five minutes, and this proved to be the most severe test for Rene and the other Europans. The ten fell to the ground in unison and the Gliese volunteers slowly assembled around the corpses while the spheres were removed and stacked in the prescribed pyramid form. Others quietly and gently placed the carcasses on the individual pyres. Korvakk had been asked to provide the ignition source, as Rene had declined the ‘honour’. This divergent view would become a smouldering area of tension in the future. The non-Axis spectators were numbed by the whole episode, none more than Yamamoto, as he was the only survivor of the joyous return of the Europans to Mars all those years ago.

  Because the robot could not avail of a suitable level platform there was a late change of plan. The Symbiants agreed to lower an Indy to the uneven ledge in order to direct Keer to free the anticipated treasure. The project was time consuming due to the delicate state of the object and the amount of impregnation binding it to the rocky frame. Finally it was free and it was passed carefully upwards to be received by Gsarr. It now needed careful cleaning to fully examine the strange symbols which were declared as not being Axis. This process was even more delicate than the extraction, but had all Nexus inhabitants riveted as to its origin. Fragments which had unavoidably split off during extraction were analysed by Red. Radiometric dating confirmed the Indy assertion that they were not Axis. In the meantime another Symbiant was widening the excavation site and found evidence of small meteorites throughout the rupture. He gathered representative samples and headed back. The detective work offered conclusions which were considered improbable. Firstly, the relic was sculptured from very similar metals and alloys to the meteorites. Iron/Nickel-rich impacting bodies were the prevailing elements in the shower which had struck Nexus. The dating had shown it probably occurred almost five million years ago. The missing link was exactly when the fabrication of the relic had been effected. Discussion went on for weeks about the lack of specific evidence. The argument that the source metal and artefact were in the same place was not conclusive to pinpointing the time of manufacture. On the other hand there was thought to be some link, as there were no other meteorite remnants outside the immediate radius of discovery. The search was widened to look for any evidence of civilisation in this ancient subterranean pocket. With respect to Axis evolution, there was agreement that no evidence existed or was indeed probable of such early sentience. Until proof was found to the contrary, the most valid theory was that it came from space. If this was the case, then an explanation had to be found for how meteorite remnants just happened to be in the same place as an intact, inscribed tablet with the same composition.

  The probe had been launched and it was already relaying data which was just as confusing as that for the relic. The difference was however, that there was no divergence of opinion in what the evidence represented. The moon was in fact not a moon. It was hollow, and had then to be re-evaluated in its relative size. Although it would have been a small moon, it had to be considered a large vessel, making the Phoenix microscopic in comparison. It was an extremely elaborate structure, masquerading as a cosmic body. There was undoubted activity inside and confirmation that the communication source was also in there. No life signs were detected. It was screaming out for a landing party to investigate further, despite the risk of being discovered.

  Red suggested trying to decrypt the symbols to see if that would offer any clue as to the origin of the artefact. At a suitable magnification they started to photograph the evidence and use computer graphic re-construction of those which seemed to have been damaged or eroded. More than eighty different complete ones were the subject of the Symbiants’ prodigious power of stacking and rearranging combinations and permutations. It was a frustratingly slow process. Some headway was made by the addition of six newly computer-constructed symbols, and two of them were found to be accompanied only by certain groups from the existing eighty. This signified a structured language rather than pictograph guesswork. There was a central circular portion which was more of a diagram than collected symbols. This part was more easily restored by the computer graphic programme, but its relevance still eluded them.

  The Symbiants kept on demonstrating their new proactive mode by their intensive persuasive efforts to convince the others to explore the moon. Apart from Yamamoto their pleas fell on deaf ears. It was a convenient distraction to have the relic puzzle to solve. When Red was withdrawn from the decryption challenge the progress evaporated and a lock-jam resulted.

  The Symbiants reserved the right to build their own craft to investigate the moon. It would take a long time as the infrastructure was not yet anywhere near capable of producing space-faring vessels. They argued that the ‘cloaking’ used for the probe could be repeated for a manned close inspection, without actually interfering with the moon in any way.

  Yamamoto managed to broker support from the Sapients and Europans, so the objections of the Indys and Gliese became academic – the Europans granted use of Phoenix and its ascent/descent module. This decision caused the friction overspill from the suicide ceremony, between Rene and Korvakk, to gather momentum. Korvakk accused Rene of betraying the rationale for their epic journey to Nexus, by irresponsibly pursuing action which put everyone’s life in danger. Rene reacted angrily. “You may not have given appropriate consideration to those of us who faced annihilation, by implied Progenitor involvement, in the volcanic disaster to which you had a distant spectator’s perspective. Your seismic observations and resultant questions do not seem to have conveyed the most important message of all, that being, that none of our lives count in their decision making. Therefore we simply have to know more about them whenever possible. Our chances of achieving this without the help of the Symbiants are non-existent. If you do not wish to participate, I can understand, but please spare me the pathetic emotional pressure because of your own lack of
courage.”

  Korvakk could not be seen to tolerate such flagrant insults from a ‘lower ranking individual’.

  Red had made a breakthrough with the relic. The ‘diagram’ in the centre was a clue to the structure of the language. The translation revealed an astonishing claim. A civilisation had existed on Nexus well over two million years before the Axis emerged to sentience. They had arrived from an inner planet which no longer existed. It had been consumed by the gas giants, which had subsequently threatened Nexus itself. The inscription spoke of a prolonged period of tectonic turmoil which had claimed the lives of vast numbers of their own and other species. Their main habitat was marked by this disk and it had been mounted on the highest point within the boundaries. It was predicted that they would suffer extinction unless the instability ceased. All of their manufacturing capability to attempt another planet hop had been destroyed.

  After some discussion it was proposed that there may be more evidence of their presence buried at the point of discovery of the disk. A high priority robot excavation programme swung into action and after several weeks of careful reclamation, ruins of dwellings were unearthed. Preserved ‘skeleton’ fragments were recovered and pieced together. These were not bony structures – they resembled high tensile rubber in consistency, however it was impossible to tell if this was representative of the living condition. Intensive computer modelling indicated a disparity in the lack of sophistication of the dwellings and even the most rudimentary space-faring technology requirements. The entities themselves appeared to be diminutive and roughly oval in outline. More excavation was programmed.

  Phoenix was ready to go. The choice of crew was carefully balanced between Symbiants, Sapients and Europans. Considering the fragile numbers of Sapients, females were excluded. Yamamoto was the sole representative, and he was joined by Rene and Keer. The other three were, like Keer, Symbiants. Alex 2, Red and Pascal 2 were in control, the rest were observers. The agreed objective of the mission was to establish orbit close to the moon and wait for any signs that their presence had been detected. If this proved negative, a landing party of three would approach the moon. Contingencies would have to be subordinated to observations rather than speculation. They set off.

  More excavation did not reveal new information until the remains of a building denoted as the centre of communication was delicately isolated. Amongst the plethora of detail was a section on a condition described as ‘invasion’. The digging was suspended until cross-referencing data was extracted from the sub-sections of the main headings. The invasion was not one of another off-world species; it was an aggressor of microscopic proportion in size, but of exactly the opposite in fatalities. Further careful trawling of the text clearly suggested a plague of some kind had been systematically ‘taking’ their kind, following the beginning of the tectonic activity. It was unclear as to what was meant by taking. The excavation was not to be re-started until Phoenix had returned, at the insistence of Korvakk.

  Three days of silent vigil of the moon had resulted in the confidence to attempt a landing. The excitement had escalated since the close-up telescopic survey had pinpointed what appeared to be a hatch on the rotating body. This was chosen as the landing target. One obvious problem was the almost non-existent gravity offered by the moon and lack of any securing points. Alex 2 and Red would disembark wearing heavy jackets fitted with thrusters, while Keer piloted the craft back to dock with Phoenix. The oxygen breathers and Pascal 2 remained aboard the Mothership until access and clearance was given by technobabble.

  Although excavation had halted at the canyon bridge, samples of rocks were collected for analysis and were assembled into piles awaiting the return of the analytical instrumentation on Phoenix. They were clearly marked as a hazard and isolated inside a hurriedly constructed rigid plastic warehouse without doors or any obvious means of access. Korvakk was still unhappy about this and managed to antagonise the Indys, who berated the Gliese for not accepting the conversion like everyone else. Her assumed senior rank, in the absence of the other leading figures aboard Phoenix, was derided unmercifully by both Indys and Europans. They pointed out that Gsarr would never accept such humiliation, and Korvakk was frequently embarrassed in front of her ‘subjects’.

  Chapter 25

  There was no obvious means of entry into the moon. What was assumed to be a hatch did have a recessed circular shape with a matching ‘sealed’ door. However they were devoid of control panels or levers. Alex 2 and Red were considering other options when the circular recess perimeter glowed red, and then it reverted to norm. They approached it again and began to examine the perimeter. They couldn’t see any delineation and were comparing ideas in technobabble when it lit up again. As they remained closer this time a high pitched whistling sound could be heard from inside. After about a minute the door began to ‘screw’ open. When the tiniest gap appeared between the door and frame, the whistling became much more intense, and the door floated backwards. It then performed a precise somersault into a floor housing, which was perfectly sculptured. There was no rush of gas in or out of the chamber. Once inside Red pointed to the sensors focussed on the perimeter and they now knew this was an automatic entry device and the sound interval was to ensure clear space inside before the door was opened and projected into the floor. The chamber was littered with LED panels, none of which were active. There was no other information on offer. The panels were activated by interruption of the incident energy pattern and deactivated by time measured non-changing incident energy. They lit up the panels one by one and discovered nothing other than the colours of the individual LEDs. Some of these were arranged in columns, others in circles or ellipses. One out of the sixty or so panels had only four LEDs, whereas the rest had twelve, and the four were in the shape of a cross. This was also the only panel with single representation of each colour. The others had some in duplicate or quadruplicate. Red deduced that the cross must be a master panel. Blocking the incident energy of the yellow LED changed it to green. The same procedure with the green turned it to blue, and the blue one to red, then the red to yellow. This restored the balance of colours but in different positions. While Red had been implementing these colour switches, Alex 2 noticed that one change also altered the colour arrangement of an adjacent panel, but the others did not. “Wait,” he said, “go back to the starting configuration and let us determine which position for red, blue, yellow and green change other panels. Maybe we should also experiment with one changed panel at a time, as they are obviously linked.” Red agreed and suggested it would be a simple algorithm which would reveal itself with a few inputs. They were wrong. The panel with the cross shape was not a master control; it was simply the device for closing the door. After more than half an hour of frustration they had unintentionally but sequentially moved the cross colour changes a full circuit, and this alone set off the high pitched whistle. They moved aside and the door magically returned to its original position and the floor rose to a compensatory level. Red was first to break the embarrassing silence. “So, why do some of the other panels change colour with certain incomplete sequences of the cross?”

  Alex 2 offered the primitive suggestion that it could be a sequence guide in itself. “The first one to change as a result of the cross input was the circle and that was obviously the door. That must have to be closed before the next in turn can operate. Now that the door is in place, let us try the cross again.”

  They got nowhere once more. Red abandoned logic and employed his new found ‘convert instinct’. “I believe you were almost correct, it is a sequence, so we must now fiddle with the circular LED panel.”

  He could not resist a smile when manipulation of the colours allowed other quadrants to change at once. It took only a few minutes to find an order which turned them all yellow. Nothing happened. Yellow was not the colour, it turned out to be blue that was required. The whistling sound returned and flashing blue defined a circle from which an elliptical shaped horizontal platform intruded into the ch
amber. They deduced this was to transport them to the first meaningful location. They gingerly mounted the platform and anticipated the whistle, which was followed by a scanner to determine whether the chamber was now empty or a return trip would be required. Another whistle and off they went. The blackness was overpowering, even for their vision apparatus, until a soft infra-red glow was induced, revealing a space of mind-boggling volume. There appeared to be infinite compartments in all directions. The platform had grid reference control which they had only just noticed.

  Pascal 2 had received an update from Gsarr about the suspension of excavation and the implication of a plague. He politely reinforced the decision to hold off more digging until they had returned.

  Alex 2 managed to use the grid control to visit a few of the compartments, which appeared to be identical. It was over an hour before they spotted one which looked different. It was spherical, unlike the other six-sided ones, and it was connected to only four of them. As they input the grid reference code they became aware of a faint humming noise gradually winding down to ultimate and absolute silence. Arriving at the location they were confronted with more LEDs in a cross shape. Eventually they triggered a holographic diagram of immense complexity, yet unmistakably displaying the inner structure. It was a gigantic solar radiation harvesting plant. They decided not to experiment with it and returned to the entrance chamber to fiddle with the ellipse LED panel. Their retreat restored the humming noise.

  They noted that there was a consistent pattern emerging of engaging either two or four at a time to form a quadrant before moving to the next step. This panel operated when all quadrants were yellow. The square platform presented itself just as Pascal 2 relayed the update from the surface in technobabble. Alex 2 asked Pascal 2 to use the two way communication from Phoenix suggested by the Progenitors to pass on the findings. They waited for a couple of minutes then mounted the square platform. It took them into another vast space containing six discrete square levels. The squares were not connected. The grid controller took them to the nearest. It supported large cabinets containing what looked like thousands of metres of fibre optic cable. The cabinets were linked and as they approached a central console another holographic projection appeared – this one was a robot. It centred itself on a plinth and automatically opened a panel on the front of itself. Closer inspection indicated a slot for a possible tool or diagnostic chip. There was no other option. As they were unable to locate anything to fit this slot they decided to visit the next square level. The same process was repeated and it was only when they visited the central square, that they found a vital clue. The same cabinets existed but there was an additional feature with the holographic robot. The opening housed five ‘objects’ which seemed to match the slots of the other robots. Each had symbols associated and both Red and Alex 2 immediately grasped the concept. One of the five was intelligible to them. It was a written form of technobabble. In order to prove their theory they activated that ‘key’ by blocking the incident energy and it disappeared. They quickly returned to the other squares which they had visited and found the key had been entered, the diagnostic checks were running. The process took over four hours to complete and the key disappeared followed by the robot. Apparently everything was running normally. The implication of this was difficult to take in. Without exploring the rest of the moon they could not be certain, but this sector at least suggested that the five peripheral squares may be communication protocols for all agents of the Progenitors, at least in this region of the cosmos. If this was the case it begged the question as to why there was such an alternative option to automatic monitoring – by entry and manual checks.

  They returned to investigate the rectangular LED panel. This one activated when all quadrants were red. The platform was different, not only in shape, but in size and the presence of cubicles. It was not a regular polyhedron, yet seemed familiar. The cubicles contained a cross and after Alex 2 had activated it with green LEDs he was engulfed by a bubble, accurately formed with a gap to his form of less than a centimetre at every point. A scan terminated the process and another cubicle opened for Red. When they had both received the ‘coating’, the platform proceeded to a much smaller space than the previous ones. Another piece in the jigsaw fell into place. There were rows of holographic imaging stations and as each one was activated the general shape of a particular Virubact was displayed. They all had code references and they now realised what the familiar shape of the platform was. There was some categorisation of these Virubacts which ranged from ‘host terminal’ to ‘host capture’. There were over a hundred displays and underneath each was a closed space, which they examined visually, and confirmed by looking through the material, that they contained rock samples. As they could not find any entry for the space they assumed the display above each was associated with the particular Virubact in the rock below. After several hours they decided to return to Phoenix and allow Pascal 2 to examine visual recordings of these strains to compare with those already encountered on Nexus.

  When they had explained this to Pascal 2 he reported data had been received from the Progenitors, which must have been routed through the square level inside the moon. It was affirmation that a species had pre-dated the Axis clans on Nexus. It also indicated that there was red crystal in this location suggesting some previous interaction. In addition it clarified the findings of Alex 2 and Red, that there were Virubacts in the same region, which they had classified as highly advanced.

  Red returned to the moon with Pascal 2 and they decided to combine two objectives. Pascal 2 would screen all displayed Virubacts for comparison with those indigenous to Nexus, while Red would monitor whatever might happen in the square designated by written technobabble. A message was sent to acknowledge the danger of the Virubacts and to ask more about the physiology of the mystery species. Pascal 2’s task would be long and tedious, whereas Red’s would be either very short or interminable depending on what the Progenitors were prepared to reveal.

  The atmosphere of anticipation on Phoenix was palpable, especially for the three who had not been directly involved in exploring the moon. Yamamoto asked Alex 2 what significance he thought the remaining LED panels might have. “It is difficult to speculate, but they infer subordinate functions due to their more random columns compared to the distinctive shapes of the ones we have visited. This is however not a scientific observation. We have determined that so far there is no atmosphere in the locations checked.” Their conversation was interrupted by Red, who confirmed that there was robot activity on his square. “The holographic controller is making adjustments to what seem to distribution frequencies and is checking something which looks like a filtering or censoring algorithm. I am recording both versions as I do not understand the raw incoming data. I will have to decode it when I return. It has finished its task and you should be receiving the reply anytime now.”

  Alex 2 confirmed that it was coming through and the content was very significant in terms of the Virubacts and rather disturbing with respect to the entities which the Progenitors referred to as Species 1101.

  Pascal 2 had determined that only three Virubacts on the displays matched ones already encountered on Nexus. One was categorised as a host terminator and this was the one which infected Altobelli and was responsible for many of the recent deaths. The second was the one affecting the Ebexx, and it was given an intermediary ranking. The third was the very one which had come to be known as Liberty, and there were no others which were ranked as more advanced host capturers. He spent more time trying, together with Red, to decipher the origins of the equivalent types to Liberty. They concluded that they weren’t present on Nexus at this time, if their interpretation of the coding was correct.

  The message from the Progenitors revealed that Species 1101 was the most promising ever recorded until the time of their extinction around five million years ago. They had a Silicone Elastomer skeletal structure, which was at the optimum ratio of inorganic/organic content. The rest of the architecture
was inorganic. The explanation was uncharacteristically detailed. It did not give much information which was not already present in Earth databases, but in this context it was highly significant. The Elastomers were amorphous polymers which could exist above their glass transition point. This technical achievement meant that considerable segmental motion was possible. This was felt to address a major flaw in ‘inorganic only’ life forms. The elasticity is derived from their long molecular chains’ ability to re-configure continuously, in order to re-distribute applied stress. These linkages ensured that the Elastomers would return to their original configuration when the stress was removed. They were resistant to extreme environments well over 300 degrees Celsius. Having overcome this age-old disadvantage of immobility of inorganic life forms they evolved to be able to float on air and their oval shape was optimised to use this stress control to be very precise in terms of destination. They were a prized investment of the Progenitors via interaction with the red crystals of the Continuance. The Liberty Virubact, which was not so advanced at that time consumed the genuine Species 1101 and infected their replicants which were consequently regressed to crystal. Well before that time, Virubacts were known to have diversified and spread through the Cosmos. For the first time there was regret expressed by the Progenitors that Earth had indirectly suffered from the necessary subtraction of Mars, particularly as it had itself escaped these pests, and had a very promising evolutionary species. The closing remark concerned the uncanny similarity in the principles on which the Continuance and Species 1101 operated.

  There was a lot of food for thought here, especially this expression of regrets by the Progenitors over the demise of their favourite sons, Species 1101, and the same fate which eradicated Humans. There was no acknowledgement of existing Sapients. Alex 2 wondered aloud whether they could only express such concern for extinct species, although, even this was a major departure from any situation since his first internally recorded data more than four billion years ago.

  Chapter 26

  There was more heated discussion than calm analysis after the return to Nexus. Korvakk’s dissent had turned to fury upon hearing that the Virubact rocks recently quarantined could be more of the worst category. “Your blatant disregard for our safety is verging on an act of aggression. You should be facing correctional sentence.”

  Gsarr was not able to ignore this, but before he could reply Rene intervened. “You have no more jurisdiction here than any of us who have just arrived. The Indys are the only ones who did not desert the planet, it is their home; we are but guests. I suggest you temper your language if you wish to remain welcome on Nexus. The reply took everyone by surprise. It had been assumed that all Axis clans were sensitive, peace-loving societies. The struggle to gain stability in the Gliese system had demanded ruthlessness in certain situations. It was a characteristic which surfaced frequently when things were not going their way. Korvakk addressed her remark to all, but her eyes were focussed exclusively on Rene. “It may have escaped your attention, but we outnumber all of you by a considerable margin and the weaponry we have developed will be brought to bear if we are threatened with mass fatality. It will not be as a last resort, we have learned the hard way that such sentimental prevarication is risky. Be warned - do not force us into an unfortunate decision.”

  The main gathering dispersed, but the Gliese continued their noisy protestations for many hours. This was not conducive for the others to begin to make sense of all the implications of the discoveries, revelations, and indeed connections between the moon and Species 1101.

  Yamamoto was uncharacteristically hesitant to offer an explanation or register questions. Alex 2 began, and for the benefit of those who had not visited the moon asked Red to reproduce visual aids of what they had encountered. “I will try to encapsulate all sources of data accumulated and table some of the questions this has already provoked. This will not be an exhaustive list so please add any you feel appropriate. Firstly, the fact that the ‘moon’ is actually some kind of relay station is surprising and puzzling. This discovery did not match up with what we had been told. There were no lies told – merely a warning to stay away and that it contained a Virubact threat. With respect to it being a relay station the same logic applies, namely that we were told about the two-way system some time ago and again when the conversion mask resulted in inability of the Progenitors to make direct contact. These instances are examples of being economical with the truth rather than direct lies. That does not make them less worrying. It provokes many questions. How many of these relays are there? Why are they required? Why is there access and maintenance capability for visitors? Why are the actual rocks containing the Virubacts retained when there are detailed data stored? How long have such relays and Virubacts been kept in a single location or perhaps many locations? These are a few questions whose plausible answers will surely lead to more. Turning to the Species 1101, our discovery of them and the data supplied by the Progenitors came about at almost the same time. It does provoke another question - of whether the rift was created to warn of the Virubacts or allow the Indys to find Species 1101, or both. The additional description of that species also re-connects us with the perceived objective of the Progenitors’ effort to cultivate inorganic sentience and their ‘frustration’ that even the most promising seem to demand some organic enablement. It may or may not be profitable to debate whether some or all of this is agenda or simply logic sequence, but I do believe we would be better placed to do that if we could answer the above questions and any further arising, before we add to our knowledge by a second trip to the relay. Is there agreement on this or would someone else like to propose a different approach?”

  Fernando was first to react. “Do you still believe that they don’t know about your conversion?”

  “We can only estimate this by historical experience compared to the present, until we make the second trip. However, we know that with departures from protocol of much lower significance than this we would have normally suffered some restriction, even reversion.”

  Fernando continued, “Can we identify means of avoiding alerting them? The second trip is a good example – we could inadvertently trigger something which blows the cover of the Virubact mask. In fact I’m surprised that the scans performed to allow access to the first and succeeding chambers did not register exactly that there had been such an occurrence.”

  Alex 2 believed that the scans were cursory sweeps for obstacles rather than identity oriented, but it did further highlight the fact that they had been designed for someone or something to be able to inspect the system. It also suggested that such an event may be logged even if the identity of the inspector was not required. “Your query is absolutely valid and I am afraid that I can offer no guarantee that we have not already triggered an alert.”

  Rene joined in. “Why don’t we wait for signs of any detection before we do anything else? If we have been detected, surely another two-way communication should enable us to find out more, especially if we frame it as if we know nothing. They must expect us to ask more about the Virubact, which they claimed had caused the extinction of Species 1101.”

  This was thought to be an appropriate suggestion. The point was reinforced by the implied threat delivered from the Gliese. There was more than enough to keep them busy. As they agreed to schedule another two-way message and subsequent meeting, Yamamoto injected an interesting idea. “You described the robot’s relay activity in onward routing of the Progenitors’ message as editing or censoring, but what if it was translation? This relates back to whoever does carry out the inspection for which the station is undoubtedly designed. They are presumably not the great ones themselves, so maybe it is another intermediary species.”

  Red agreed that this should form part of any further investigatory trip. It was supported by all.

  Work was intensified to complete the accommodation for the impending arrival of the Epsilon clan. It did however introduce further protest from the Gliese. They had been quiet s
ince the overt hostility of the past few months. As the new arrival time approached they considered that the Epsilons may well be more in step with the others than themselves. If this turned out to be true they reserved the right to re-locate. Strenuous counter-arguments extolling crucial social cohesion fell on stony ground, and it was feared that this is what they desired. They were thought to be using the Epsilon arrival as an excuse to break free of any coalition mentality.

  In this intervening period, no evidence of detection by the Progenitors had surfaced. The planned message had been sent asking for data on the detailed mechanism of Virubact extinction of Species 1101, and what precautions should be taken to avoid the same fate for the Nexus population. The reply was in the same regretful tone as the previous one. The particular Virubact had, although exercising control over the species, found its dietary habit to be troublesome. The lack of organic nutrient breakdown and linked cellular regeneration was not acceptable. The airborne mode of transport did not provide host jumping opportunity of sufficient frequency, and this turned the Virubact control to one of consumption. It was described as a reflex reaction. It was stressed that this was circa five million years ago and the Virubact had developed more diverse capability since then. With respect to precautions, there was little advice other than vigilance and the ‘holy grail’ of more inorganic structure. It was believed that this would encourage the more advanced invader to look elsewhere.

  This did lend confidence that the cover had not been blown. It also emphasised the point about how up to date the knowledge was, because they apparently didn’t know or decided not to pass on knowledge that the Virubact had overcome this dependence on organic hosts.

  Rene felt the antagonism with Korvakk would not be helpful in future negotiations with the Gliese. She need not have worried; they took the decision to move to the other side of the rift, close to five hundred miles to the west. They would commence construction of dwellings immediately and would vacate the existing ones for the Epsilon clan. Korvakk made a typically aggressive statement that left no room for doubt that the honeymoon was over. “As we are saving you the task of constructing abodes for the incomers, we demand the use of the robots which would have performed that task, to build ours. Please treat this as non-negotiable if you want to preserve peaceful relations. We expect an answer within one day.”

  There was predictable variation in reaction. The Symbiants, in their newly converted psyche said they were willing to subdue the Gliese, by making an example of their leader. A demonstration of superiority would be appropriate for such bullies. The Europans who had recently joined Rene’s group could not condone violence. She and a handful of the others were not prepared to be dictated to by the Gliese, but would be guided by the true landlords – the Indys.

  The Sapients were also split. Cool heads included Fernando and the two pregnant women. The others were with the Symbiants. The Indys, without knowing what firepower the Gliese could muster, knew what the Symbiants were capable of and felt this demand of the Gliese, if conceded, would be the thin end of the wedge. They endorsed a short, sharp shock lesson. The gamble facing the few was whether the weaponry Korvakk had boasted of actually existed, and if so its location. If it was entirely located on their vessel, the Symbiant riposte would be straightforward. If not, then some casualties could be expected. There was not much time to decide. Rene said that it had always been Axis custom, in disagreements, that if the leader was seen to be inconsistent in their strategy, they could be opposed on the basis of wrongdoing. This was intended to make them think very carefully before taking the masses into deeper conflict. “If you could isolate her and threaten her in a reciprocal way, including a vivid demonstration of your powers, I am sure it would work. All bullies appear to shrink in the face of bigger bullies.” Gsarr wanted to go further, as he felt there was arrogance throughout the Gliese clan. He suggested isolating Korvakk with her closest entourage, thus facilitating the masses to break free from her dictatorial grip, and consider electing a new leader. Yamamoto was back to pragmatic mode. He suggested that a Symbiant delegation was announced to make the second visit to the relay while Korvakk was summoned for the discussion. Not needing suits they could ascend, take the ascent vehicle close to the Gliese vessel, and commandeer it with its alleged weaponry and transmit the reality via technobabble. “If they only have these weapons in orbit they are now seriously undermined. If they don’t we must determine if they have them on the surface before engaging them. I would suggest, in that scenario we promise them the robots to give time to verify this one way or the other.”

  Fernando asked, “How do you propose we do that?”

  “Simple. Ask Korvakk to lead the discussion on logistics of getting the robots over the rift, then replicate her and we will have the knowledge – no guesswork. Do I have to do all the thinking around here?”

  Gsarr liked this plan even more; he had not really known the real Yamamoto. Fernando knew his friend was back to normal and signified this with a broad grin as Yamamoto waited for further approval. This was forthcoming. Even the dissenting Europans preferred this deception and forced replication to potential fatalities, not to mention the inside track it would give them on Gliese knowledge and character.

  The plan went very smoothly, and justified the methodology, as the replicant indicated weaponry on the vessel and the surface. The fight for survival in the Gliese system had demanded personal weapons to resist predators. These were small scale versions of the vessel’s concealed laser canons. The replicant of Korvakk, as yet without a name, calmly instructed the clan to demonstrate their peaceful intention by depositing their individual weapons in a neutral area, as their side of the bargain in return for the assembled robots which had been demanded. This heavy cache was impossible for any single Axis to move, so it served as a convincing reality check when Keer lifted it with impunity, and flung it more than half a kilometre out of harm’s way. This was synchronised with the entrance of the real Korvakk, who was under guard. Her replicant retrieved the weapon bundle with consummate ease – illustrating prowess beyond the capabilities of the captive Korvakk. The initial confusion of the masses dissipated. Her days of leadership were over. The one unexpected aspect of this well-rehearsed charade was the resolute desire of the rest of the Gliese to adhere to the plan of migration to the west. They didn’t ask for the robots. They had been disgraced. This produced some tolerance from the others, but Gsarr argued that he would prefer them to leave, and helping them by actually doing the construction would be a small sacrifice. Yamamoto went further, “Why not strip the laser canons from the vessel and allow them to contemplate leaving Nexus altogether?”

  It was decided they should have that choice. They respectfully declined, maintaining they had some adjustment to make in order to fit in here; it would be dishonourable to walk away without at least trying to make amends.

  Not all who witnessed this humility were convinced.

  Chapter 27

  The second visit to the relay was prefaced by Pascal 2 disclosing the results of some work he had been conducting, with some of the tissue left over from the Sapients who had volunteered for the convert tests. This work had been a collaborative effort with Doc, the Europan artificial life form. They had been able to replicate and modify cells to kick start a laboratory ‘pregnancy’. The technique allowed further tweaking as the embryonic form developed. It was not a simple clone, more a designer entity. Unlike Doc, it did not produce an inorganic, mobile, artificial intelligence. The result would be an organic individual with latitude for designing in or out enhancements or weaknesses. They could be totally Sapient if required. This was drawn from Axis technology with a cultured transfer to Sapient architecture. In principle, it could be used to boost the numbers of either species as required. It gave new dimension to the balance of population, considering the impending arrival of the Epsilon clan. The technique could theoretically be adjusted for the Indys with more research. At this stage it was only available to Europans and Sapien
ts.

  The landing this time deposited three Symbiants, Alex 2 and Red were joined by Keer, and Yamamoto returned the ascent module to dock with Phoenix. They went through the obligatory order of panels without using the platforms until the first LED configuration with simple columns. With all LEDs red, they produced a platform with a replica of the ‘runway’ on the panel. It whisked them to the biggest space yet encountered inside the sphere. It contained a receiver dish for every red light on the panel, some forty in total. They were set out so that any one chosen could be controlled to cross focus with any other. The motion was ongoing and continuous adjustment was registering on the expected holographic display. The matrix of data spewing out of the display was almost beyond the intake capability of the Symbiants. After some acclimatisation they deduced that one tiny part of the three dimensional grid was familiar. They were in agreement, it was the Milky Way. There was no evidence of where any of this data was stored; it could well be that another platform was required to access this, if it existed. The expected robot hologram didn’t appear, suggesting that this was a ‘view only’ facility.

  The rest of the panels with columns were replicas of the first one, except they were not the Milky Way sector. There were dozens of these panels. They moved on to the panels with rows rather than columns. There was a departure here, as the platforms only arrived when each row had been adjusted to a particular colour. The space to which they were transported was small, each panel with rows had a specific housing, and arrival was obviously keyed in with the initial colour input which summoned the platform. In other words there was no facility inside the space for compartment-hopping. The data from the dish space was being crunched down to produce summaries or status reports on all sections monitored. There was a robot holographic interface available, presumably to correct errors or adjust drift compared to expectation, and this was presumably the sending arm of the system whereas the dish space was purely a receiving facility. They now wanted to find out which platform would take them to the Milky Way sector. There was no specific clue on how this arrangement was structured, and they regretted not having retained information on the pattern layout in the dish space. Rather than go through trial and error they returned to that space to embed the pattern in their data storage, and then it was easily figured out. Alex 2 remarked that without the convert process they would have captured the data first time, purely out of non-proactive logic protocol. Having the freedom to choose which path to follow would have advantages and disadvantages – it was a mildly thrilling experience to be inefficient and not be concerned about it. The Milky Way sector was accessed via the robot and after scanning the entries going back to the arrival of Phoenix in Nexus orbit they were relieved to find confirmation that events transmitted included the volcanic upheaval, the Virubact attack, and the temporary loss of direct communication with the Symbiants. It also noted this was expected to be temporary – the effect of the disturbance would diminish until a precise point of magnetic flux variance would allow periods of normal contact – one way contact. This was good news and bad news. Their cover had not been compromised, but the clock was ticking toward such revelation. This time constraint had to be factored into their strategy.

  When they returned and updated the rest, there was apprehension – what could they possibly do to continue the charade? Rene said it was a crazy idea on the face of it, but could they come up with some reason to continue the two-way system which offered advantage to the Progenitors?

  “It does have the merit of appearing to be upfront, but what could be sufficiently interesting to them to want to be kept up to date by input rather than the normal instruction and monitoring?”

  Yamamoto blurted out, “Whatever they want to hear.”

  Fernando chipped in. “That we are making progress toward the Species 1101 model via this new process Pascal 2 has developed.”

  Red joined the half-serious banter. “If we ask them if this is of interest while we are on two-way chats, instead of suggesting it is a good idea, it may be viewed differently.”

  Alex 2 agreed but did not think it would wash unless there was some concrete progress to report. “We do not know how long they anticipate the magnetosphere will take to clear but if we simply suggest we are considering a programme, I doubt its curiosity value will be strong enough to justify continuing the current communication aberration, which is being ‘tolerated’ rather than accepted.”

  The Symbiant which had been replicated from Korvakk now had a name – Orva.

  Orva suggested this was a fuzzy backup plan rather than a positive, risk-assessed means of control. “There are too many parameters outside our sphere of influence involved with such dependence on the outcome. It may be more risky but why not try to hack into the transmission platform for the Milky Way sector? If this is detected, then and only then, mention the Species 1101 project, on the basis that we were requesting permission to send updates on the progress. If the hacking is not detected we can continue to send data we want them to have.”

  After some facial expression of endorsement around the group it was heading to consensus, but Alex 2 was shaking his head. “This is a dangerous plan. I accept all of Orva’s concern about the time we may have to learn more, however, one mistake and we could all be gone in the blink of an eye. We should in my opinion set ourselves the task of ‘read only’ activity until we can decipher more about the information exchange before we tamper with anything. By all means let us have all the preparations made for hacking, but refrain from implementation until we understand fully what we are dealing with.”

  For once Yamamoto found himself in total agreement with Alex 2, and his support caused a re-think. It ended up as a compromise, with a two week period of observation followed by a review.

  The task of attempting to hack into the transmissions would ultimately fall to Red alone. It was considered prudent to have a single ‘script writer’ to keep the style constant and avoid contradictory data being despatched through the ‘cat-flap’. The ‘pre-written’ apology was to be worded in advance of the hacking attempt to minimise panic response upon detection. It was to be conveyed in a matter of fact ‘please yourself’ tone, implying ‘we were just trying to help’.

  As the Gliese clan was intent on relocating, and most of the necessary robots needed transport over the rift, this was completed with the ascent modules from both vessels, prior to the hacking trip. It had two advantages – the Phoenix module was free to concentrate on the relay deception entirely, and the remaining robots could now safely resume uncovering the Species 1101 abode complex, with the Gliese gone. That was certainly how it was perceived.

  The area chosen by the Gliese had remained relatively unaffected by the volcanic fallout and was protected on three sides by small mountains. The open side was quite fertile and the ecosystem was recovering slowly but steadily. The mountains supplied water and this formed lakes at the open side, with only a narrow gap between each one. Even if there had not been major disagreement between the species, it would have strongly conveyed a choice of military thinking and suitable defensive terrain.

  The two week observation period commenced with Red and Alex 2 taking turns to monitor. It was not a question of tiredness; it was because of data overload. The phenomenal amount of data could only be accommodated in shifts of an hour at a time. The one who was not scanning used this time to delete and compress before relieving his partner.

  The first really important conclusion came quickly. The incoming transmissions varied in space-time registration from milliseconds to millions of years, representing vast distances. Considering that this relay was literally a primitive outpost, Red computed that the central compilation processing power, if based on the same technology would need to be the size of a medium size stellar object. The structuring and reorganisation of this data flow was assumed to cover all locations on the cosmic holographic image. “Of course, there is no way I am suggesting that a star could be such a host, with all the thermonuclear activity, I
am only relating to the space required.”

  Alex 2 said, “What about a failed star?”

  Silence.

  He continued. “There would surely be an intermediate clearing house between the core and the extremities. Can we assess the time it would take for the nearest such possibility by extrapolating back from say, a five hundred year transmission location. This might give us a tentative distance to the nearest clearing house, if one exists.”

  The astonishing result matched the orbital distance of this relay to the brown dwarf. When Alex 2 reminded Red that the very first warning to stay clear had been for the brown dwarf, it also brought into perspective that the ‘tiny moon’ was only highlighted by association with Virubacts. They immediately set about calculations of orbital velocity of this relay and its estimated mass. Even allowing for seriously aberrant assumptions there was a discrepancy in gravitational influence of the brown dwarf. It was wildly less dense than it should have been. There was one other useful piece of information to reflect upon. Repeated mention of an era change was dated at almost two billion years ago. This was not fleshed out with detail, merely quoted, especially with old transmissions at around that time. They noted some alteration of the formatting in the archive at around the same period. Prior to the era delineation, there was little descriptive code; it was mostly an enhanced binary referencing structure, expanding to a limited array of sub options. The language itself became more complex after the end of the first era, yet it felt less elegant.

  After this information had been stored, taking only three days of the allocated fourteen, they made their way back to discuss the implications.

  It wasn’t easy for everyone to grasp exactly what was brewing in the registries of Alex 2 and Red from simply presenting the data, so they continued. Alex 2 said they were both of exactly the same opinion. “We must extend this period of observation as we have only investigated a fraction of the available transmission logs for this one relay, which would appear to be about the simplest type in the entire array of stations, if all the recorded locations are being monitored. We run a grave risk of being underprepared for any response we may trigger from the action we previously agreed to take. I would implore you to weigh up the respective risks, and to help you decide, Red and I would like to remind you that the two-way communication option is not only as a result of the volcanic upheaval. It was offered at the time I underwent the tertiary replication with Daniel Carvalho. This was explained as preparation for merging with the Interference. That did not happen, so we shelved the opportunity until now. Therefore we have the reverse worry. Back then, we were concerned that it might be some kind of trap, now we are scared of losing it because we will be out of a loop. If our theory is correct that the brown dwarf is in fact a massive communication station it may also explain two other things. The declaration that a passing comet will destabilise the orbit of the small relay station has been investigated. The proximity of the specific comet would not be capable of such influence if the brown dwarf was indeed just that – its gravitational hold would be many times the necessary threshold to retain the relay’s orbit. Secondly, the reference to Species 1101 is from a binary sequence. We had not noticed earlier that the holographic robots have a barely legible reference of 0011. Our estimation of the time taken for recent logged transmissions involving replies to Phoenix, match this distance and have this receipt reference. The sender equivalent is 0101. It is possible that the hatch entry is for a species residing in the brown dwarf. There is much supposition in all of this but it underlines that we are dealing with an elaborate network, where mistakes do not seem to be catered for in the design and may not be tolerated.”

  Although unintended, this interpretation of the revelations struck fear into the audience, except for Yamamoto. “If you’re right, then the brown dwarf may be moving on soon. Mobile maintenance men – they surely can’t have two permanent stations placed so close together. I agree that we should put more Symbiant resource into data trawling with all urgency. Their role in helping prepare for the Epsilons is nowhere near as important as this.”

  Chapter 28

  Twenty-two Symbiants were approved via replication and allocated to collect and analyse the data transmission logs within the relay. The reference 0101 cropped up from other locations. However most of the incoming data in the new era was concentrated in the Milky Way sector of the illustrated cosmic display. Even messages arriving which were sent fifty thousand years ago had the new era ratification.

  Keer alerted Alex 2 that his monitor had just received a message from what was postulated to be the brown dwarf ‘IP Address’. They in turn alerted Phoenix. No message was received yet on Phoenix and no robot appeared on the relay station. The message was repeated, and this time it was bounced to Phoenix after the relay robot authenticated it. Orva delivered a strange account. “It asks why you did not reply directly, and gives input protocols as it is assumed you have not been able to work them out. The message itself you already have, but it has been repeated here for our benefit as you have failed the first test. You are invited to explain why.”

  The message, which was now being frenetically studied by both groups, was not exactly straightforward. ‘The possibilities which exist for the combination of primary particles such as atoms or molecules are virtually infinite. They however, must obey a very limited set of fundamental laws to achieve this. There are also many ways for sub-primary particles to align and interact, but they are also confined by the same kind of regulation. The projections available must be rigorously tested in this critical stage. This transmission makes the next step even more critical, it must not be wasted. You are obliged to reply from the tiny moon.”

  The one thing which was obvious about the content was that the sender had not been deceived by anyone or anything to do with the Virubact mask, except in a temporary way. The choice open to them appeared to distil down to asking for clarification on parts of the message, attempting to figure it out without further help, or suggesting a visit to the off-limits brown dwarf. Considering that the first test, whatever that was, had produced failure, it didn’t seem to favour asking for help. They listed what they felt might fit the particle clues with what they had been discussing since they had availed of the two-way communication. They were sure the context had to be within that period. There was the discovery of Species 1101, the discovery by Pascal 2 in producing artificial life and the interest this might register with the Progenitors, and the actual ‘deception’ they had orchestrated with the Liberty Virubact. The only other high-ranking candidate appeared to be the knowledge gained from the relay station, and whether they would be allowed to have it or if they had made the most of it. It was a test – it did not disclose the price of failure, but the language was ominous.

  They were approaching panic when Alex 2 calmed the trend. “We were not given a timescale; we now know that that is no longer a factor. It is crucial that we get it right no matter how long it takes. I am reminded of the repeated reinforcement of the message ‘watch out for illogical behaviour’. If we cannot decide on definite evidence for any one option I suggest we consider what would be the most logical next move. That move may only be part of the test. I must confess that we could make a case for any of our short-listed items, but one stands out above the others. We were being watched in the relay station, there were many possible combinations, but there were few laws of logic to progress. Some could be considered primary and some sub-primary, for example, the LEDs and the holograms, or the master codes and the platform controls. None of our other candidates really suggests a test in this way. We figured out the real anomaly of the brown dwarf, but we failed to properly interpret the incoming message which we are now debating. It was meant for those of us already on the relay, as it was not onward transmitted. They expected us to reply from there, and now I am certain they expect us to go to the previously forbidden location.”

  His proposal ensured that the panic was far from over. Once again he pleaded for time. “L
et us not rush at this, my proposal stands as my most logical choice. It will remain so until someone offers a better one. I will also volunteer to make the visit if we can reach consensus on it.”

  The anxiety persisted for several days as they could not be absolutely certain that there was no timescale. They hoped that, as they were being observed, staying away from the relay would be interpreted as ‘working on the problem’.

  Red had made an additional observation. The species references were scarce. 1101 for those buried in the canyon, 0011 for the robots, and 0101 for the sender assumed to be in the brown dwarf. That was all they had encountered and it struck him that for a cosmic area the size of the display, and the length of time it had logged data, it was a very small reference system. Four digits with an ‘either or option’ for some reason seemed inadequate. The information so far was also very thin. The canyon dwellers were the optimum ratio of inorganic/organic structure, they became extinct five million years ago and could fly. The robots were photons arranged in a way which simulated or produced sentience. They were presumably the safest way to interact with the stored Virubacts as attempts to infect them could be thwarted by simply switching them off, leaving the invaders without a host. Nothing was known about the senders, species 0101. Red confessed that he thought this supported Alex 2’s conclusion – that they were expected to reply from the relay and request a ‘visa’ for the brown dwarf itself. However, consensus was not reached.

  In the meantime Gsarr had insisted they be allowed to unearth more of the abode of Species 1101. The Gliese had elected their new leader. Schakaan was apparently less confrontational than Korvakk, but the clan was still rigidly focussed on the cause of the many, and if necessary, to the exclusion of minorities. Korvakk was far from displaying humility at her fall from grace, indeed she had called in favours to retain a position of office, which although lowly in ranking, gave access to all major decision discussion. One of Schakaan’s first actions was to trade labour to the projects east of the canyon for food and infrastructure, until they became self-sufficient. This was considered to be ill-advised by both Rene and Gsarr.

  As the Epsilon vessel was edging closer to 55 Cancri, they were debating exactly when they would disclose their secret. Their three million year survival in Epsilon Eridani had been less successful than that of the Gliese but not as littered with setbacks as the experience of the Europans. However one incident had stood out. Their numbers had gradually dwindled due to zero procreation and attrition from predators, until several thousand years of exclusively cellulose diet had caused mutation of their physical attributes. This source of cellulose, unlike the synthetic variety, contained trace quantities of bio-toxins. Over the millennia this caused further losses, prior to natural resistance being built up at the expense of grotesque disfigurement. The only upside was that these survivors were much stronger, and natural predators were eventually discouraged. Technical breakthrough similar to that which had been engineered on Mars, to restore procreative ability had not been as successful with them, because of rejection rates. Nevertheless, some headway had been made even though the offspring were, like the parents, almost unrecognisable as Axis.

  Korvakk still had supporters of the brinkmanship that she had demonstrated, even though it had led to her removal as leader. They were few, but fanatical in their belief that compromise was weakness and strength was paramount. She also knew from experience that if the bluff she tried had been successful, it would have emphatically consolidated her position. Success was everything. With this in mind she enthusiastically supported Schakaan’s labour for food policy, and convinced him that only the individuals with incorruptible character should be exposed to the temporary life style of the Easterners. Schakaan agreed and asked her to handle the details, as he had pressing issues to deal with, particularly the planning of the first city in their new homeland. This was, for Korvakk, an opportunity not to be missed.

  The prodigious efforts of the Indys had revealed a different perspective of the living habits of Species 1101, but there was no evidence of a lavish or sophisticated lifestyle. The dwellings were Spartan and functional, they were pretty uniform in design, devoid of architectural flair. It was difficult to comprehend why the Progenitors had ranked them so highly, and there was almost a credibility gap – that such humble existence was accompanied by the ability of interplanetary travel, especially two million years before the Axis emerged to bestride Nexus as a truly intelligent society. Keer offered one possible explanation. “They may have poured everything into the escape from the now non-existent inner planet, and viewed Nexus as a temporary sanctuary. We know the red crystal was here then. If there was early contact, and the Progenitors may have got their information that way, their focus may have been governed by this interaction.”

  If he was correct, there should be some evidence. The alternative way to check it out was to ask Species 0101 whenever they did engage them via the relay. The Indy interest in this was bordering on obsession, and they began, through Gsarr, to campaign for an early contact with the brown dwarf ‘senders’.

  The Epsilons opted for a visual transmission to accompany the explanation of their disturbing appearance. This was received philosophically by Symbiants and Sapients alike. However, the Europans and particularly the Indys were emotionally damaged by the degree of suffering which was implied by their disfigurement. It added to the recent disappointment over the attitude of the Gliese, and the arrival would be even less upbeat than either of the previous two. The Gliese didn’t yet know of this, as the message sent to their vessel was picked up by Symbiants maintaining a curfew on board – the relations were still strained despite the veneer of cooperation. Their reaction to this sad revelation would be interesting.

  It seemed that Alex 2 had been correct; there was apparently no time pressure to reply to Species 0101. The apprehension was gradually being supplanted with a desire to reach a decision on not only how, but when to proceed. In the meantime, the Gliese labour force, which had been hand-picked by Korvakk’s lieutenants numbered over eighty individuals. Three immediate subordinates of the former leader were the only ones entrusted with the plan. They were so fanatical in their loyalty that they readily agreed to be martyrs in achieving it. This was convenient for Korvakk, as it not only guaranteed her insulation from blame, it would go some way in proving she had been right all along. During the course of helping prepare the Epsilon accommodation, the three conspired to infect over half of their own labour force with a killer Virubact from the canyon. They perished themselves in this suicide pact. The rest of the labourers were disposed to fleeing, but Schakaan vetoed their return, quoting the needs of the many. This stand-off gave Korvakk the platform to volunteer to ask Pascal 2 for all possible help in saving her kin, by conferring the immunity she had denied to them before she was deposed. This act of mercy was seen as the optimum tolerance of protecting the majority and using diplomacy to extend compassion to the minority. The fact that Pascal 2 was only able to save eleven was largely irrelevant. Those eleven were her grateful enclave in the Eastern province and she had usurped statesmanship from Schakaan while remaining loyal to him. Her stock was on the rise again.

  This episode had caused a hiatus in just about all activities. The Indys had temporarily registered the canyon off limits. The Epsilon dwellings had been turned into a mini-hospital to prevent the spread of infection to those who were still clear, and the debate on all things brown dwarf was postponed.

  Chapter 29

  The Eastern province dwellers felt it would be unfair to allow the Epsilons to arrive then become victim of whatever fate awaited failure of the second test. They decided to proceed. The cured Gliese got wind of this and one of them passed the information back to Korvakk. She created a spurious visit to check up on the welfare of the informants and questioned the wisdom of such a precarious act. She had recovered her old confidence to intimidate. Her threat was delivered as if it had come from Schakaan. “We consider this highly irresponsible and de
mand reconsideration. This unilateral action on your part would be construed as indirect aggression and would force our leader into counter-action. He is aware of our lack of firepower but we have other means of sustaining aggressive response, and in any case, that risk could well be less serious than that which you could precipitate. I need an answer from you before I return.”

  It was interpreted as an empty threat and summarily dismissed. This played into Korvakk’s hands. The proposed action by the Eastern province was, until now unknown to Schakaan, and he urged calm. Korvakk publicly presented the new leader’s treacherous informant, who swore the information had been sent to Schakaan and implied he must have kept it from the rest of the clan. Korvakk seized on the consequent unrest and led protest against the Schakaan administration. She prefaced the rebellious demand by declaring that under no circumstances would she return to power. “I am happy to serve in any strong government of our clan, but only in advisory capacity. However, I believe we must recover our honour, and stop ‘sleeping with the forces of anarchy’. A time such as this requires a consolidated response, not one of mere protest.”

  She was accorded support verging on hysteria. Schakaan was considered to have committed a worse crime than that which caused Korvakk’s resignation. He was deposed and required to carry out a community function without any privileges, and it was a sentence without any specified end.

  Whilst these rumblings did convey some concern, the visit to the relay was made. As previously planned Red would make the transmission with Alex 2 looking on. The holographic robot was summoned and the interface allowed it to be employed as an editor programme. The reply was phrased as alternate questions and statements. ‘We were unaware that you knew of the accident whereby the replicated Virubact took partial control of Symbiants. Why did you not react? The only way we appear to have been affected is in being even more proactive. Do you see this as a disadvantage? Sapients, Europans and Indys have willingly undergone this symbiotic process without unwanted side effects. Does this surprise you? There appears to be a beneficial side to cooperation with what we have named Liberty, it gives absolute immunity from all other strains we have encountered. How does this reconcile with your statement that they are the secondary foe? You are aware of our conclusion that you are located in the brown dwarf. Can we obtain your permission to visit what has previously been stated as forbidden territory?’

  The wait was a nervous one for those still on the surface. There was a furious activity period involving the robot and then the response came.

  ‘There was no reaction initially as it was an accidental replication. Being more proactive can be reversed, it is not seen as problematical at this time. The lack of side effects in both organic and predominantly inorganic species would have been surprising millions of years ago, but not now. The immunity described which you claim has come from this advanced Virubact is beneficial to that organism, and it may not always be so. Virubacts are still considered as a threat in general, but differences have emerged. The Continuance may visit this location but not others’.

  Red asked one more question. ‘What is the significance of the various species to whom you have ascribed reference codes?’

  The reply was instant. ‘This will be explained during your visit’.

  They returned and expected a relieved welcoming committee. There had been acts of sabotage on the Epsilon accommodation, and the ‘cured’ Gliese labourers denied involvement. The news from Alex 2 and Red was hailed as promising, but the Eastern province dwellers were a little preoccupied with the Western acts of provocation.

  All Symbiants were to be posted on ‘terror alert’ except Alex 2, Red and Pascal 2. Keer was in nominal command with Orva providing insight into the historical mental gymnastics which characterised Korvakk’s thinking. The Indys were incensed and were teetering on generating their own response. Rene pleaded with them to allow the neutrality of the Symbiants to handle the situation for the present. “We do not want to escalate this into a species rift. There is good evidence that the cured Gliese labourers are telling the truth, and indeed some of them want to remain here. Let us review this objectively and regularly.”

  The Indys were placated for now.

  Red remarked to Alex 2, “I would like to pay one more visit to the relay before we embark on the brown dwarf journey.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Well, we did not stop to investigate why the robot was so uncharacteristically active – which we have never observed before. I would like to see if we can find out why.”

  They arrived at the robot editing programme again but found nothing unusual. Returning to the ‘read only’ section there were terabytes of new data, all of it referring to the discovery of the symbiotic relationship with the Virubact. This posting had been coded to be accessible by all locations. “That must be the explanation,” said Red, “and it implies that it is worthy of sending to all parts of the Cosmos. I believe this may indeed be a turning point in our relationship with our designers.”

  Alex 2 nodded, but his expression was circumspect.

  The same duo was to make the trip to the brown dwarf, and they made preparations immediately. All was quiet on the Western front, primarily because the good news about the visit being authorised did not fit with the agenda of Korvakk, so she spent her energy on helping to organise yet another leadership election. This time she was not distanced from the power base as she was when she was deposed. Her influence would be pervasive and the probability of a puppet leader was considerable. It at least allowed the Indys to resume their excavations yet again. The departure of Alex 2 and Red almost went unnoticed; Rene, Fernando and Yamamoto were the only ones who turned up to wish them well.

  The weeks passed and although regular messages came from the approaching Epsilon vessel, and both pregnant Sapient females had given birth successfully, no real updates were received from Alex 2 and Red. The bulletins only mentioned the masses of data they were currently presented with and their task of vetting and deleting irrelevant items to keep sufficient space for critical content.

  The new leader of the Gliese had been ceremoniously installed. It was no real surprise that it was a known confidant of Korvakk. Tuncazz was also female and owed her previous ascent in rank to Korvakk, just as much as this one. The first task of Tuncazz was to cleanse the inner sanctum of the more liberal-minded members. There would be no repeat of the Schakaan disaster. The replacements were promised ownership of cultivated land in a new directive, specifically declaring that all ties with the Eastern province must be severed. This included the cured labourers who had survived the infection.

  At last some definitive information came from Alex 2. Species 0101 (the brown dwarf residents), were indeed the maintenance entities. In addition to this relay, they had many more to service throughout the Milky Way galaxy. They were ‘middle management’. They had almost reached their authority limit once this visit was terminated. They referred frequently to Species 0001, the real decision makers, and several levels of approval awaited the Symbiants before they could be approached. As well as establishing criteria to achieve such a lofty invitation, there was the question of distance. To that end, the gradual ascent of the disclosure pyramid would have to suffice for now, which could infer thousands of years. The most crucial piece of the transmission was kept until last. ‘We have established via Species 0101, beyond any doubt, that the successful symbiotic relationship with Liberty is the first on record. It had previously been theorised as being possible, but always failed. The fact that we have made this breakthrough signifies new promise and the data we will bring back will enable many new opportunities. The discovery was not entirely due to our own research or the guidance tests that were set for us. Even though the final result came as an accident we were credited with the probability that we would have eventually got there. The exposure of the Virubact was a calculated risk on their part. The brown dwarf will be withdrawn from this location when the orbits of the planetary bodies have reached a
‘finite’ stage. The ‘stable orbits’ which we have observed still have an element of decay and some further accretion of gravitation is being finessed. This will take more than a hundred years. There is still a lot of data which we have to sift through before our return’.

  The new arrivals – Anna-Severine’s daughter and Eva Ryan’s twins – a male and a female, at least increased the ratio of child-bearing potential a little. The question of infection came up, and it was considered to be too risky to subject babies to the Liberty immunity. Pascal 2 began researching the pattern of replication of this Virubact. He found that in the organic species a remarkable harmony had been established. Both the Indys and Sapients had experienced balance. Liberty had synchronised its rate of replication to the death and regeneration of cells. This metronomic balance removed the need for the Virubact to seek a new host until a crisis arose in the existing one. By contrast, the Europans, because of their evolution of scaly carcases and therefore minimal change, had inherited a virtual time bomb. Their engineered physiology, with only the essential nodes retaining organic dependence, posed a problem for Liberty. Matching the very low replication rate was dangerous for them. Over time the Virubact would become threatened, and this, coupled with the host’s near immortality would ultimately wreck the coalition. Liberty would need to jump species, leaving the host vulnerable again. The Symbiants were somewhere between the two extremes. Although they did not have the perfectly predictable algorithm of Sapient or Indy cell replacement, they did have deletion and receipt of new data which, although not uniform, happened frequently. This mimicking of cellular death and creation was presently sufficient for a stable partnership, and there was an increasing trend to help cement the symbiosis. More research was needed, but there was one serious downside to the deceptively perfect relationship with the organics. The shedding of ‘dead’ cells was accompanied by matched Virubact content. This spread of infection to hosts or alternatively, the new horizon for Liberty, depending on the vantage point, would be random and uncontrolled. This must have been what Species 0101 had meant when it was stated that the Virubact was benign, until such time as the benefit to them evaporated.

  When Alex 2 and Red did return they had one more conundrum for everyone to contemplate. The message which paraphrased the contrast between the myriad of combinations possible and the very few laws governing them, had not applied solely to the photonic entry puzzles for the relay station. It was a general principle of the Cosmos and also referred to potential progression through the ranks of disclosure of the Progenitors. Red was certain that this was particularly but not exclusively pertinent to the optimum ‘shape’ of sentience which they would foster. “It may not be what we want to hear, but the implication is that just like the Cosmos, some things can happen, others cannot. In this aspect of progression the relationship of sentience, inorganic/organic ratio, mobility and longevity must be seen as characteristics which must obey the laws, and not as Progenitors’ inflexible, imposed, design criteria. There is no alternative. In a cosmic perspective, we are reminded of this inflexibility. Collisions between galaxies and stars, black holes tearing stars apart are all ordained from the point of their formation. Only a few elements of this design can be influenced. That reminds me Fernando, I need to speak with you about black holes.”

  The threat of all manner of punishments which could have been handed down from the brown dwarf visit had receded and this had taken some steam out of Korvakk’s guerrilla campaign. It was being manipulated in a new way. A ‘racist’ dichotomy was being peddled with respect to the disfigured Epsilons. This affront to the Eastern province dwellers replaced the brown dwarf, as fuel to fan the flames, and the Gliese hierarchy paraded this as infringement of their freedom. They had every right to promote quarantine of the newcomers until they were cleared of passing on this ‘plague of regression’. The Easterners were relentlessly portrayed as irresponsible appeasers. Korvakk’s plan was to raise the anger to the point of civil war. At the zenith of the tension, orchestrated to coincide with the actual arrival, concessions would be necessary on each side. The inaugural welcome meeting was already scheduled to take place in orbit, as it had with the Gliese. Under the cloak of an uneasy cooperation, a Gliese contingent could slip away and regain control of their vessel, with its weaponry. The balance of power would shift sufficiently to negotiate sectarian agreements.