New Eden

by Kishore Tipirneni

  “It was very interesting,” Rachael remarked. “Intense might be a better way to describe it. We talked about sentience, immortality, and life and death, with some Star Trek thrown in.”

  “Yeah, Seth told us the meaning of life,” Vinod stated matter-of-factly. “If you’re into that sort of thing, that is.”

  “Really?” Langdon replied, somewhat startled. “Damn but that’s intriguing. I definitely want to hear about his nuggets of wisdom. You can tell us the details during the call. My curiosity is most assuredly piqued.”

  “Seth did have a request for us, though,” Joshua added.

  “A request?” Robert asked, sensing hesitation in the scientist’s voice. “What kind of request?”

  “The dude wants us to build him an android that he would control remotely,” Vinod answered. “Says he wants to be able to walk around and see more of our planet. I guess it’s the alien version of wanting to visit Disneyworld. You know—Epcot and the World Showcase. You get to sample a little of everything.”

  Langdon, who was in the process of grabbing a cup of coffee on the side of his desk, froze and stared at the team. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No,” Joshua replied. “This was his request, and I assure you it wasn’t prompted by anything we said.”

  “He wants to experience Earth firsthand is the way he put it,” Vinod said by way of qualification.

  “We all know that’s a no-go, right?” Langdon said, eyebrows raised as he surveyed each member of the team for a reaction.

  “Yes,” Rachel replied. “We told him we didn’t think it would be possible, but that we’d bring it up with you anyway.”

  Langdon’s face showed consternation. “Remote control? What’s he talking about?”

  “He’d control the android through the spookyon connection,” Joshua explained. “The robot would be our new interface with him. Robert, your own team of engineers told him of our advances in robotics. I strongly suspect that’s what gave him the idea.”

  Langdon slapped his desk in anger. “This is just the type of thing we feared would happen. We give him one seemingly insignificant detail and he takes it in a direction that’s totally unacceptable. And we’d have to disclose his existence to everyone on Earth if we granted his request.”

  “It’s problematic, to say the least,” Joshua admitted, “but we’re simply relaying what Seth has asked for. I’m sure Porter will be apoplectic, but this is the gist of our daily report, and he’ll have to live with it even though I don’t anticipate getting his approval.”

  Langdon saw that digital numbers at the bottom of the screen in his office were counting down from thirty.

  “I’m totally against this, Josh,” he said, a stern expression on his face.

  “I think we should at least discuss it before dismissing it out of hand,” Joshua rebutted. “It presents an enormous opportunity to accelerate the learning curve.”

  Langdon appeared conflicted. “I don’t even know if we should bring this up in the call,” he said. “What’s the point?”

  “The session is already recorded,” Joshua pointed out, “and I’m not going to lie in the debriefing. That will piss off Porter just as much.”

  The screen in Langdon’s office was activated, with video feeds of Mitchell Porter and Dina Williams shown split screen on the monitor.

  “Good afternoon, everyone,” Williams said in an affable tone of voice. “It’s a busy day here at the White House, so let’s get started, shall we? First, is there anything new to report from this morning’s session or is Seth still playing his cards close to the vest? I’m urging the president to have realistic expectations, but he feels we should be gaining more information.”

  Rachael gave a report of the morning’s conversation with Seth, relating details given to Seth on the Ebola outbreak, Seth’s claim of immortality, and his definitions of life and death.

  The expression on Williams’ face clearly indicated that she was taken aback. “Oh, is that all?” she said wryly. “It’s Alien Philosophy 101. I’m not sure I buy into everything he told you, but our purpose is to gather information, not come to sweeping conclusions on the nature of existence.”

  “I think it’s a load of crap,” Porter said in his usual clipped manner. “For the sake of argument, however, let’s assume that his race is indeed immortal and has all of these backup copies of themselves. I don’t like it one damn bit. It means they can’t be killed because of their redundant patterns stored at unknown locations. There’s no way they could ever lose a war. They’d have unlimited troops.”

  “Nobody said anything about war, general,” Rachael said.

  “I get paid to think about it, young lady.”

  “Let’s file this away for now,” Williams suggested. “We’re obviously not going to be able to interpret such wide-ranging data in a single debriefing. The bottom line is that it sounds like a very productive morning. Our data analysis team will have their hands full for a long time. Nice job, team. Anything else?”

  Joshua shifted uneasily on the couch as the trio looked at the director.

  “There’s one more thing,” Langdon said.

  “What is it?” Williams asked.

  “Seth has a request for us,” Langdon replied. “He wants us to build an android that he can remotely control using the spookyon connection. He says he wants to be able to see more of our planet—in person, so to speak.”

  “What?” Porter exclaimed. “Is this a joke? No goddamn way that bastard’s going to do anything close to that! That’s an absolute veto on my part.”

  “Really?” Vinod asked with a straight face. “General, we told him you’d be okay with it.”

  Rachael turned to Vinod with a slight smile and shook her slightly-lowered head. During the past year, her friend had yet to give Porter the deference he was accustomed to receiving.

  Porter’s face grew red. “You’d better be shitting me, Bhakti, because if you’re not . . .”

  “He’s kidding,” Langdon interrupted. “They told him it was a no-go.”

  “That bastard Seth has got a lot of balls asking for something like this,” Porter claimed. “I’m going to have my security team comb through everything that’s been said in that damn cave of yours. If I find that Mr. Bhakti had anything to do with this, I’ll make good on my promise to put his ass in prison.”

  “This request just came through?” Williams said.

  “This morning,” Rachael said. “Session 103.”

  “And what was the precise nature of your response?” Williams asked.

  Joshua answered for the group. “I told him there were security issues attached to building an android body and that I seriously doubted his request would be honored.”

  “It was the correct response,” she said, relieved. “No one involved in this project would consider it for a moment.”

  “Actually, I would like the issue to be debated,” Joshua retorted.

  “Really Dr. Andrews?” Williams said. “You think this idea has merits? I don’t feel that there’s much of a debate here. What do you think, Robert?”

  “I only learned of it right before the conference began,” Langdon confessed. “Personally, I’m against it, but Joshua has the right to be heard. Dina, he’s not just a messenger boy. He’s an integral part of this project.”

  “I disagree,” Porter said. “He doesn’t make policy. He’s strictly a liaison, an ambassador. I don’t have time for this BS.”

  “Yes, I’m an ambassador of sorts,” Joshua said, “and so is Seth. It’s my job to not only present his request to you, but to analyze it and look at its pros and cons. Yes, it’s risky, but so was sending a man to the moon. This entire mission is fraught with unknowns, and today Seth made an unexpected request. But what did we expect? That everything was going to go according to our script? How can we summarily dismiss what he asked without even giving thought to the possible benefits?”

  “There are none!” Porter said tersely.

&n
bsp; “Let him speak,” Williams said coldly. “Dr. Andrews, I’m affording you a professional courtesy, nothing more. This isn’t going to happen.”

  “Everything we do here is risky,” Joshua stated in an impassioned voice. “Right now Seth is nothing but a voice and an image on a screen—one, I might add, that is hard to relate to. Also, remember that he’s deaf and blind. If he can experience the senses we have, or at least some facsimile of them, he might be willing to share more about his culture with us because a commonality would have been established—a fundamental understanding of what it means to be human. Maybe Seth the individual and not the collective would be of greater value than a human-sounding voice that can’t relate to humanity beyond a certain point.”

  “Which is the way I want to keep it,” Porter declared. “It’s giving away the store. I was guaranteed that his species could never travel here, but isn’t that exactly what we’re talking about?’

  “He has a point, Josh,” Langdon said in a cautionary tone. “This is essentially no different than Seth stepping off a spacecraft.”

  “Of course I have a point,” Porter reiterated. “His presence could wreak havoc on Earth, and I’m not talking about all of your sociological crap. He could destroy us if he wanted to. He’s billions of years ahead of us. He would no doubt know how to use our own materials to build a single bomb that could wipe out every living being on the planet.”

  “Not if we did it the right way,” Joshua replied. “Look, we would be building the android and could have complete control of its construction. We could also mandate that it be monitored by us at all times. We could also build in any security measures we wanted to, including the ability to switch it off anytime we wanted. If we decide to do this, we could build it with minimal risk.”

  “Besides,” Rachael added, “just because humans have aggressive tendencies doesn’t mean that petrins do as well. If they’ve survived for billions of years, they must have learned how to use technology peacefully and safely. Our own scientists have said as much for years when speculating about extraterrestrial intelligence.”

  “That’s the first valid point I’ve heard thus far,” Williams said, “although it doesn’t change my decision. Dr. Andrews, who would provide the specs for this android?”

  “I think that we would have final say on the specs, although with Seth’s input.”

  “That would make all the difference in the world,” Langdon pointed out. “If we built something according to only his designs, he might go well beyond anything our robotic engineers could construct. Such a device could be dangerous, even lethal.”

  “It could be the prelude to an invasion,” Porter said.

  “Wait a minute, people,” Joshua said. “Seth is prohibited by his culture from introducing any new technology into our world. You’re all ascribing sinister intentions to someone who has demonstrated nothing but cooperation and a posture of peace. I believe that his request was to use our existing technology to build the android, not give us new technology.”

  “I think I’ve heard enough,” Williams said. “I agreed to let Dr. Andrews make his case, and we’ve done just that. But the risks are far too great. Assuming I or Director Langdon or General Porter were willing to entertain this request, which we’re not, it’s a matter that would have to be considered over a period of months, possibly even years. At this point, I can speak for all of us and say that the matter is closed for discussion. Dr. Andrews, you’re going to have to find a way to break the news to Seth but let him down easy so that the future of the project isn’t endangered. Thank you all.”

  The screen abruptly darkened and the teleconference was over.

  “Vinod, why do you torture Mitchell like that?” Langdon asked. “You’re a man who likes to throw gasoline on a fire.”

  “Because it’s fun ruffling the old dude’s feathers,” Vinod answered. “He’s so tightly wound and paranoid that it’s easy to trigger him. Besides, I agree with Josh. We should give this android idea a try.”

  “That old dude, as you put it, is perfectly capable of making good on his threat to put you behind bars,” Langdon said, deadly serious. “Tread carefully.”

  “Whatever,” Vinod said, folding his arms defensively.

  “Robert, I appreciate your allowing me to present my rationale for building the android,” Joshua said. “I knew it was a longshot.”

  “Josh, you know I’m a scientist at heart,” Langdon replied. “Even though I’m part of the bureaucracy, true science should not be about the suppression of ideas but entertaining all ideas and allowing everyone to weigh the merits. You make a compelling argument for this android, and I agree with you that we could conceivably build in the proper security protocols, but the fact that we’re keeping Seth a secret from the rest of the world, negates any chance of constructing it at this point.”

  24

  Breaking News

  Joshua and Rachael once again mounted the Harley, with Rachael seated comfortably on the Bobber as if she’d been raised to ride. They had decided to take an extended lunch break after their morning session with Seth and had packed a picnic lunch to eat while hiking a trail at Tilden Regional Park in the hills above Berkeley. The pair came to the park frequently to hike familiar trails such as Nimitz Way or the area near Wildcat Creek. Eucalyptus, newly-planted sequoias, and native coastal scrub gave the park diversity and beauty, and the trails provided the perfect rural setting for the couple to detach from science and the weighty responsibility they’d been given. Joshua parked the bike close to a trail head, and they started their hike hand-in-hand along a wide, wooded path.

  “I love the fact that you got me into hiking, not to mention that I find your hiking boots and shorts pretty sexy,” Joshua remarked as they walked down a gentle incline bordered by fir trees. “You know, a lot of girls don’t like roughing it with nature. They put on spandex and hop on the elliptical, but that’s as far as it goes.”

  “Well, that's certainly not me,” she said, brushing away dark green branches on the heavily-shaded trail. “I've always loved being outside, even when I was a little girl. Richard and I spent a lot of time outdoors and fancied ourselves intrepid explorers. And I still love being around all this natural beauty.” She pointed to the crest of the Berkeley Hills in the west. “I feel connected to nature and myself when I’m here. It helps me stay grounded. As much as I love science, being outdoors helps me unplug and get off the grid once in a while.” As she took in the splendor of the nature around her, she remarked, “I can definitely see why Seth would want to be out here with us. It'd be fun if we could show him all this. I guess it would be like him hiking through a hologram, but it would still be pretty realistic.”

  Joshua was coming to regard Rachael more and more as a Renaissance woman, and he couldn’t imagine living without her. She was well-versed in science, the arts, and was always up for a challenge. Most of all, she loved to examine issues from every possible angle and seek unorthodox solutions.

  “Yeah, he's going to be disappointed when we tell him that his android idea got nixed,” he said. “His planet seems so sterile and uninteresting by comparison. The petrins could have bioengineered more diversity into their landscape, but since they’re deaf and blind, why bother, even with the help of arachnids? They wouldn’t be explorers in the true sense of the word since they themselves would have created everything. Disneyworld, to use Vinod’s analogy, would hold little interest for me if I’d created it myself.”

  “I never looked at it that way,” Rachael confessed, “but it’s an interesting point. I wonder . . .” She gazed at a valley to her right as she thought of the petrins and their bland landscape. “I wonder if they live vicariously through the other species they contact, just as they use arachnids as their senses on Petri and need to encounter new worlds more directly. Perhaps the universe is a playground for such creatures. Seth’s request may be that simple—and that benign.”

  “A plausible hypothesis,” Joshua said, stepping over a cle
ar creek only a foot wide. He was reminded of Seth’s interest in the date of his and Rachael’s engagement and their wager. Maybe they do live vicariously through the species they encounter. “And to think I’ve been suspicious of many of his statements. I’ve had the feeling for months that he and the collective are hiding something from us, but despite their superior intelligence and technological capabilities, maybe they crave the diversity that their planet lacks. Maybe they want emotional experiences a lot more than Seth lets on. The petrins have evolved into almost pure intelligence, and maybe that’s not such a good thing.”

  “You may be onto something,” Rachael said. “He claimed they like to access emotions occasionally for recreational purposes, but maybe it goes a lot deeper than that. Maybe being part of a collective stifles individuality up to a certain point. It’s sounds boring, not to mention intrusive.”

  “That would explain a lot, not that we can use our conjectures to change the minds of Porter or Williams about the android. Langdon, on the other hand, might be a tough sell, but I get the feeling that he’s secretly more intrigued with all of this than he lets on since he’s not just a fed. He has the heart of an explorer.”

  “Yeah, I think he’s more open-minded than the others. His job is to explore new worlds. Porter and Williams are political and military creatures by nature, but NASA has always fought the government and military for funding.”

  Joshua followed Rachael as the path narrowed, carrying a small basket as they neared a clearing that overlooked the valley. “I feel sorry for Seth,” he said. “The government feels as though the petrins want to position a mother ship over the White House and recreate Independence Day. I don’t see it that way.”

  “Seems like you and Seth are pretty chummy. Have you guys been hanging out and holding private sessions? I just may get jealous.” She turned to watch Joshua as a small cooler with sodas and bottled water swung in her right hand.

  “Yeah, I guess we are. He's seems to be a great guy—inasmuch as he’s assigned himself that gender. He’s funny, smart, and comes through as genuinely caring despite my occasional paranoia about his redactions. Strange that my best friend may be an alien on another planet.”