The Hesperian Dilemma

by Colin Waterman

  ‘We came from the city,’ said Geoff. ‘We escaped before the missiles hit, and thought we’d hide in the bush.’

  ‘And I’m a boomer’s auntie,’ said the man. ‘This place ain’t no hideaway – it’s too obvious.’

  Geoff looked at his boots, still bound with cloth strips. ‘Okay, you’re right. But you’d think I was lying if I told you the truth.’

  ‘Now you’re talkin’. I’m Wally, by the way. You look as if you need a beer. Not to mention a shower an’ a change of togs. You stink, mate!’

  In a flash of ruby light, the sun slipped below the horizon. Geoff and Wally were sitting under the great dish, surrounded by empty cans of 4X Gold.

  ‘We should have waited for Maura and Leona,’ said Geoff. ‘They’d enjoy a beer too.’

  ‘Nah, don’t worry, mate. The sheilas’ll still be doin’ their hair for a while yet.’ The Oztralian drained his glass and opened a bottle of Sullivan’s Cove Single Malt. ‘We’ve gotta make the most of this. They don’t make it anymore. So, you’re tellin’ me you’ve come from another planet with a load of aliens, and now you’re tryin’ to find ’em a home. Is that right?’

  ‘It was actually the moon of a planet.’ Now Geoff had decided to tell Wally the truth, he wanted to be accurate.

  ‘Struth! I preferred your war refugee story. By the state of your nose, you look as if you’ve been in a war.’

  ‘Let’s just say that was the result of an unexpected betrayal.’ They tossed back their whisky and Wally poured another.

  ‘Well, at least you smell better now.’ Wally laughed. ‘I’ll show you round the rig tomorrow. It might interest you, you bein’ scientists an’ all.’

  Geoff was trying hard to understand why an Anangu warrior was using a skull as a drum. It’s my skull. He must have scooped out my brains. I must find them, but he keeps stabbing my eyes with cactus spines. Oh Lord, now I’ve fallen over the edge of a waterfall!

  ‘Geoff Kirby – you’re as useless as a bucket of steam. We’ve been up for hours while you lie there, catatonic. You were well scuttered last night. If you’ve got a hangover, it feckin’ well serves you right for drinking without us!’

  It was Maura’s voice. Geoff made an effort to focus and saw her standing over him with an upturned glass in her hand. Geoff thought about the glass. It must have contained water. Possibly ice cubes too. The evidence is dripping down my shirt.

  ‘Sorry, Maura,’ he croaked. ‘It was Wally. He doesn’t get many visitors. I couldn’t refuse a drink.’

  ‘Obviously,’ said Maura over her shoulder, as she marched imperiously out of the room.

  Wally’s breakfast was amazing: emu eggs, roo sausages and toasted home-made bread. They enjoyed the feast, all except Geoff who wasn’t feeling up to it. But he did drink half a gallon of coffee. When they’d cleared away, Wally announced he would take them on a tour of the site.

  ‘Are you researching anything specific?’ asked Geoff huskily. ‘Quasars, super novae, black hole lensing?’

  ‘Nah, mate,’ said Wally. ‘No one’s interested in astronomy anymore. The war’s killed all that.’

  ‘So what do you do?’ asked Maura.

  ‘I listen to messages from outer space. Come on, I’ll show you.’

  Geoff and Maura exchanged glances and followed Wally, who led them to an air-conditioned room full of computer servers. They all wiped their feet on a sticky mat before entering. Geoff realised they were entering a clean conditions area.

  Wally started up a com-pad and chose an audio file to play back. It sounded like white noise. He displayed the signal as a waveform on the screen, and zoomed in to show the separate peaks and troughs. ‘You think it’s random, but you get repeats in the pattern – you see here, and here, and here?’

  ‘Well, I’ll be damned!’ said Geoff, excited. ‘But the time interval between the repeats is different.’

  ‘Too right, that’s the key. I’ve studied this. The interval varies, but it’s not random. I counted 8,105 variations. A hell of a lot, but not infinite.’

  ‘So 8-1-0-5 is some sort of magic number?’

  ‘You know, for a Pommie, you’re a real bonzer bloke. Yeah, 8-1-0-5. I grappled with that for months, tryin’ to figure it out. Then I found this official Khitan government rulin’. It was to try and get ’em all writin’ the same. It had a list of characters, an’ guess how many there were.’

  ‘8,105?’ suggested Maura.

  ‘You ripper! Yeah, so I did the correlation. Each time the pattern repeated, I measured the time interval, one out of 8,105. I picked out the character from the list, stuck it in a translation program, and, great gallopin’ goannas, I got a message.’ Wally paused, clearly waiting for the next question.

  ‘And?’ said Leona.

  ‘Well – it was pretty weird stuff. I’ll show you the transcripts. They’re kinda funny in a perverted way. Real creepy.’

  ‘D’you know where it was coming from?’

  ‘Think I do. First thought – it’s from a Khitan on their Mars base. Second thought – nah, we did for them when we nuked ’em last year. Last thought – signal’s comin’ from the middle of the asteroid belt.’

  ‘Like from Euphrosyne?’ asked Leona.

  Wally looked at her intently and then nodded. ‘I gotta a computer programmed up. Used the dish to beam up a response an’ had a fair old yabber with this thing. Once upon a time, he was a Khitan. He replicated his brain as software in a robot body. This robot got cleverer and cleverer. It taught itself the whole damn total of all existin’ knowledge.’

  ‘So it is possible,’ said Geoff, unconsciously speaking his thoughts aloud.

  ‘It learnt everythin’ that’s ever been discovered,’ Wally continued. ‘It could make slave robots, any damn thing. But it was its computin’ power that really lifted off. It had a way it could control atoms, and, after that, it didn’t need no robot body, or hardware, or nothin’. It became pure AI.’

  Geoff gave Maura a knowing look, remembering what Atherlonne had taught them: there were beings in the universe that were just intelligence – software without hardware.

  Leona seemed to be mesmerised by the waveforms on the computer screen. ‘Does it have a name?’ she asked.

  ‘Yup. It, he, whatever – calls itself Shetani.’

  Leona nodded, as if she’d expected Wally’s answer. ‘In my language, Shetani means Man-devil. It’s definitely a he.’

  Geoff was sitting under the dish with Maura and Leona. They were reading transcripts of Wally’s conversation with the being called Shetani.

  ‘This creature is evil,’ said Maura. ‘The first thing he did was kill off the human version of himself.’

  ‘He’s a nasty piece of work, all right,’ said Geoff. ‘He can artificially create disasters: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods. Then he infiltrates victims’ minds and enjoys their suffering, without being harmed himself.’

  ‘Yes, but he’s subtle, you know,’ said Maura. ‘The victims think he has good intentions and the end justifies the means. Slowly he gets people to corrupt themselves, stealing, grabbing power, even killing.’

  ‘I understand now what happened to Kai,’ said Leona. Geoff and Maura stared at her open-mouthed for several seconds until she continued.

  ‘When we were on Euphrosyne, Kai went off in the shuttle to set up a sentry post. He radioed us to say we should ignore his short-range transmissions until we were given the all clear. Then he spoke to someone, or something. We only heard one side of his conversation, but it seemed he was talking to something that existed in space, independent of material.’

  ‘We think there are many entities like that,’ said Geoff. ‘Atherlonne told us they were called Virtuons.’

  ‘Well, all I know is, from that time onward, Kai’s personality changed,’ said Leona. ‘He became introverted, and spent long hours scanning radio waves as if he was listening for something. But the big change was he seemed to be driven, totally focused on some mission, and it made
him utterly ruthless. All his wisdom and compassion had been sucked out of him.’

  ‘Okay, somehow you knew we had to come to this place,’ said Geoff. ‘I don’t know what led us here, but let’s assume we were meant to meet Wally and hear his story. You believe it helps us understand the past. The question is, what does it mean for the future?’

  ‘Shetani is already amusing himself with us humans,’ said Maura. ‘He probably has an insatiable appetite for that sort of thing. He may have lots of experiments he wants to carry out on us.’

  Geoff nodded. ‘He wants us all as slaves. And he’s not the only one. According to Huang, when he tried to hijack the whale-bot, the rebel Thiosh are planning world domination, and we saw what they were doing to achieve it. And Kai’s in cahoots with Voorogg – Huang told us that.’

  ‘I’ve had a thought,’ said Leona. ‘If Shetani has to communicate with radio interference, it means he can’t do telepathy – at least, not at first. He gets close to people and then changes their brains somehow. That’s what he did to Kai. But until he’s got someone hooked, he has to communicate more physically. That could be why he’s infiltrated Kai. He’s using him as a go-between to incite Voorogg to take over the planet.’

  ‘At least Shetani is putting a stop to humans persecuting Thiosh,’ said Maura.

  ‘That’s not his motive,’ said Leona. ‘He wants the human race subjugated so it’s easier to use us as playthings. He’s a lazy bastard. He doesn’t want to micromanage twelve billion people, or however many there’ll be after the war.’

  ‘Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph. This is my worst nightmare. An evil artificial intelligence using an alien race to build weapons to attack Earth, while the humans are trying to kill each other. Here we are, back on our home planet, but what on Earth can we do?’

  ‘We must destroy Shetani,’ said Leona.

  Return to Antarctica

  ‘Hi, Wally,’ Geoff called. ‘Have you got a boomerang, by any chance? I’d like to see one.’

  ‘Sure, Pom, I’ve got an old one. But they were really only for the Abbo kids – God bless ’em! There aren’t any anymore. Real throwin’ sticks were for huntin’ and flew straight. But I can give you a demo, if you like.’

  Wally disappeared into his accommodation and came back with a beautiful boomerang made from polished tulip oak. They walked out to a high point on the ridge and, with a practised hand, Wally cast the boomerang high in the air. It circled and fell back at his feet.

  ‘Thanks, I can see you’re an expert,’ said Geoff. ‘But can I show you a trick the aliens taught me?’

  The boomerang raised itself off the ground and hovered in the air before them. Then it shot off in an arcing trajectory, performed a figure of eight and returned to land before them.

  ‘Hooly dooley!’ Wally said, and pushed up the brim of his bush hat, unconsciously repeating his actions when he first met Geoff.

  ‘I don’t know how much you believed of our story, but I wanted you to know it was the truth,’ said Geoff. ‘You’ve helped us more than you know. We want to thank you. We can’t give you anything. We came out of the bush with nothing. But perhaps one day we’ll be able to return your hospitality.’

  Wally grinned. ‘Well, that’s a pretty little speech, and I thank you for it. But I knew your story was dinky-di. You were so pissed, you could only tell the truth.’

  ‘If I could ask you another favour, can we stock up with provisions? We’ve got the mother of all walkabouts ahead of us.’

  ‘Nah, no worries, mate,’ said Wally. ‘I’ll fly you back in my airplane.’

  Wally entered a command into his com-phone and the ground began to vibrate. For a moment, Geoff thought Wally had summoned an earthquake just by pressing a button. A huge, irregular hole appeared in the rock face. Geoff closed his eyes to accustom them to the shadowy interior. Then he opened them wide. A delicate flying machine, like a dragonfly, stood in a vast cavern, dug deep into the monolith that was Uluru. Geoff guessed the hangar was actually a tunnel, and the plane could be flown into one opening and out of the other. He turned to look outwards, and saw how the rock fell away in a steep but smooth incline. Is that the launch ramp? he wondered.

  Geoff, Maura, and Leona climbed into the narrow fuselage and sat in line. Wally carried out the preflight checks, set each of the four propellers spinning in turn, and then powered the craft towards the cavern’s mouth. The machine hummed loudly but without the roar of a jet or rocket engine. Checking the cockpit dials, Geoff realised the plane was powered electrically, the wings constructed entirely from photovoltaic cells.

  ‘Hang onto your breakfast,’ said Wally as he released the brakes. The plane crept to the brink of the launch ramp and tipped down. It accelerated virtually in free fall for a few seconds and then the wings lifted it clear. Wally banked into the prevailing wind and circled to gain height. They rose higher and higher, until Uluru was no more than an orange half-moon pinned to a damask backdrop.

  The journey passed like a dream. Wally landed close to the farmhouse they’d raided before their walkabout. They found it was still deserted, but they had no desire to linger on the coast. It was time to say goodbye. Maura and Leona kissed Wally, and he enthusiastically kissed them back. Geoff took his hand and held it for long seconds after shaking it. Then the trio walked to the beach and dug up the inflatable. There was still enough charge in its batteries to fill it with air. They powered the craft a few hundred metres from the shore and Geoff called the whale-bot via his com-phone. The glistening machine rose from the seabed and shot a fountain of water high in the air. Geoff felt it was pleased to see them, but then reprimanded himself for being crazy. As they climbed aboard they saw the solar-powered plane swoop over their heads, waggle its wings and turn to fly east, returning over the outback.

  Maura plotted a course for Antarctica, and they set sail. Following the revelations at Uluru, they’d had intense discussions about whether they should go back. Geoff would have preferred to go anywhere else other than Roosevelt Island. He was worried how Kai and Chen would react to them now Huang was dead. He felt guilty even though Huang had taken his own life. But his conscience told him it was his duty to return.

  Leona had admitted she’d had her own difficulties with Huang, but it was Kai she was most concerned about. She’d been very close to him, prior to their landing on Euphrosyne. She wanted to show him Wally’s transcripts. They could reveal to him how Shetani was manipulating humans, using them for his own purpose. She hoped Kai would conclude he was also a victim.

  Geoff pondered the significance of Wally’s revelations. How had Shetani managed to trick Kai, and why hadn’t he realised he was being used?

  As they neared Roosevelt Island, they radioed the base and asked Chen to come out to meet them. He came alone, but stepped out of the rocket-sledge holding a plasma gun at the ready.

  ‘He committed suicide, Chen,’ said Maura hurriedly. ‘We locked him up because he’d threatened us with a tezla pistol.’

  Chen kept the gun pointing at Geoff, as if he expected a telekinetic attack. ‘Why Huang do that?’ he demanded.

  ‘He told us we were going to be put out of harm’s way,’ said Geoff. ‘We don’t know why he attacked us, but I think he was following Kai’s orders.’

  Chen said nothing, and Geoff continued. ‘There was a fight. We managed to overpower him and lock him in the storeroom. I tried to remove anything dangerous, but I forgot the harpoon spears. It was my fault. I’m sorry, Chen.’

  ‘Geoff was hurt at the time,’ added Maura. ‘Have you seen his nose?’

  They remained standing in silence for long seconds. Then Chen lowered his weapon. ‘I think you tell truth,’ he said.

  ‘I not know Huang would try hijack,’ said Chen. They were sitting around the log fire in the communal lounge. Chen had built up a huge stack of firewood after demolishing some of the disused wooden shacks.

  ‘We wanted you in our crew, like the old days,’ said Geoff, ‘but Kai gave us Huang
instead of you.’

  ‘He is changed,’ said Chen, sadly. ‘You know what went wrong?’ In answer to Chen’s question, the Hesperians told him what they knew. Leona explained Kai had encountered an alien when they were on Euphrosyne, and Geoff gave an account of how they’d discovered the Virtuon Shetani was controlling humans for his own evil purposes.

  At this point, Chen himself filled a gap in their collective knowledge. ‘Maybe coincidence,’ he said, ‘but when Kai train as novice monk, there is Prior in monastery called Shetani. Kai goes back to the monastery when Abbot is dying, but Shetani no help. He not like Abbot. Maybe he poisons him.’

  They’d expected Kai would soon join them but, when a man in a thermal suit came in from outside, Geoff thought at first it was someone else. He now had a full head of hair, as grey as a storm cloud. Geoff was ready in case Kai pulled a gun on them but, in the event, he only greeted them formally, without smiling, and waited for them to speak.

  ‘We need to talk to you, Kai,’ said Maura. She explained how they’d been surveying the ocean for radioactivity and had seen the undersea cities the Thiosh were constructing, including military installations. Their discovery had seemed to alarm Huang, and she gave a brief account of how he had died.

  Geoff watched Kai carefully to note any response, but he remained impassive.

  ‘To tell the truth,’ said Maura, taking out a box file from a filing cabinet, ‘we were afraid of what you might do to us if we returned. We went to Oztralia and met an old astronomer who gave us these transcripts of conversations with a being called Shetani.’

  It was then Geoff saw it – a flicker of reaction in Kai’s eyes.

  ‘We’ve come back because we think it’s vitally important that you read them – for your own well-being.’

  Kai accepted a copy of the transcripts but made no attempt to look at them.