The Last Man on Earth Club

by Paul R. Hardy

  At time of contact with the IU, the Pu population had been reduced to less than ten thousand, the majority of whom were held as slaves. Despite objections from many IU member species, assistance was nevertheless given to the Soo, who instituted a breeding programme to rebuild Pu numbers.

  Following representations made last week by the Soo delegation to the IU ahead of an inspection scheduled for next year, it is now known that the breeding programme was a complete failure, and that this was deliberately concealed for at least two decades. Widespread disease among Pu populations resulted in mass casualties and sterility.

  Kast Khraghner, Contact Director of the IU Diplomatic Service, said: “We are of course deeply saddened by this extinction, and very alarmed by the failure of the Soo to protect a vulnerable human species under their care. It is too early to speculate on what might have been done to prevent this tragedy, but we will investigate fully and act appropriately to ensure this terrible event is not repeated.”

  The two species share a common ancestor but evolved separately. Contact between them was minimal until early historic times, when they became mutually antagonistic. The Soo defeated and enslaved their rivals, breeding them into a slave race upon which their economy came to depend. With the development of steam technology, Pu were allowed to decline in numbers as machines could do much of the same work at lower cost. Some were repurposed as factory labourers, mechanics and domestic servants, but the majority were unsuitable for these tasks after millennia of selective breeding. An infusion of new slaves taken from wild populations near the Arctic only served to slow the decline of the species.

  * * *

  Hub Chronicle

  Y273.m13.w1.d3

  08:67

  LATEST — Lone Pu survivor to be brought to Hub

  In an apparent effort to mitigate IU sanctions, the Soo World Conference have offered to transfer a single Pu survivor to the care of the IU along with their full genetic records of the species. IU sources have indicated this will happen as early as next week.

  The individual, whose anonymity is protected by law, is a 20 year old male who has spent most of his life in the Pu breeding programme after capture in the Arctic at the age of 6.

  Following this latest revelation, Kast Khraghner said: “While this will not in any way influence our decision regarding further contact with the Soo, we welcome their new policy of honesty and co-operation, and will of course provide this young man with a home on Hub, full IU citizenship and any assistance he may require.” He refused to comment on using the genetic archives to reconstitute the Pu species.

  7. Group

  “Liss, I believe it’s your turn?” I said.

  “Oh! Course! Yeah! Okay, um. I was talking to Pew. Is that how you say it?”

  Pew looked depressed. “It doesn’t matter. Nobody ever pronounces it right.”

  “Well, okay! So he’s called Pew. And that’s what his species is called as well. Isn’t that weird? He says all the Pews had the same first name. Pew! His real name’s Lee’un, so he’s really Pew Lee’un, but everyone calls him Pew. Are you sure you don’t mind?”

  “There’s only me left. I might as well be called Pu.”

  Liss shrugged happily. “And his story’s so sad! So he’s like a caveman or something in the Arctic, back when he’s a little boy. And his family died from some bug that killed everyone, because they didn’t have any hospitals or anything. But then he got rescued — well, kinda. Turns out there’s two lots of humans on his world. There’s his lot, the Pews, and the other lot, the Soos.”

  “Just Pu and Soo.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry! Anyway, they take him off and put him in a zoo, because the Pew are like an endangered species on his world or something. There’s some other Pews in there and they raise him, but they’re all really old. And, like, the Soos were swapping all the Pews around the world so they could get the girl Pews pregnant, but that didn’t work. All the Pews kept getting older and older, and I guess they weren’t very happy, because a lot of them killed themselves. Seriously, this is really horrible, the whole thing had been going on forever, the Soos had been treating the Pews, sorry the Pew, real bad for hundreds and hundreds of years, kinda like slaves, I guess…”

  “Exactly like slaves.”

  “And it winds up with just him and a girl Pew left, and they tried to get them to hook up but she was really young and, well, I guess Pew was a gentleman, so they didn’t do it.”

  “Hang on, hang on,” said Olivia. “Are you telling me that you were the last man on earth and she was the last woman and you didn’t screw her because you were too bloody polite?”

  Pew flushed. Liss looked back and forth between him and Olivia. “Uh… isn’t that what you said?”

  “I didn’t say anything,” he mumbled.

  “So what was it, then?” demanded Olivia.

  Pew looked up at all the eyes questioning him. “I… she was old enough. But I couldn’t… I couldn’t. All right? I just… couldn’t.”

  I expected Olivia to make a wounding remark, but instead she looked grudgingly sympathetic. “Yeh. Well. It happens.” Pew kept looking down.

  “Embarrassing!” trilled Liss.

  “Just get on with it,” muttered Pew.

  “Uh, well, it was really sad as well ’cause she was in an accident on the way home and she died. So Pew was the last one left, and they sent him here ’cause, well, I guess they’d run out of things they knew how to do.

  “So Pew went to college and studied math (because he’s really, really clever!) and he thought he was better but it all caught up with him and he cut his wrists, only you can’t do that kind of thing here ‘cause they’re really good at stopping you. They put him in the hospital for a while and then they said Hey! Why not come and be with all these other guys who’ve been through what you’ve been through? Which I guess is kinda what we are, ‘cept for me.

  “That’s it. That’s all he said. I guess it’s his turn now, huh?”

  8. Katie

  Observer Report

  Regarding Mission LSHV-987277-002

  Ebugh-kiriagh-Alier 9182

  Scientific Attaché, Embassy of the Siciline Autonomous Republic

  Placed with IU Exploration Service

  It is hoped this report finds the reader well, and recovered from any shock and sadness accompanying the tragic loss of the scout ship Valence. Furthermore, I regret that I was unable to complete my task as diplomatic observer on mission LSHV-987277-002, but trust my observations will assist with the analysis of the mission.

  I was placed with the IU Exploration Service to promote understanding between my species and those who have difficulties with machine intelligence, following the recent demonstrations against AI. Consequently, I was downloaded into a type A8 android body, easily identifiable as a machine and deliberately limited in capability, save in one regard. Given the inherent risks of interversal exploration, I selected the most extensive backup options to ensure I would retain a copy of my consciousness in all but the most extreme of calamities.

  I accompanied the crew of the exploration ship IUS Chemistry on their mission to investigate anomalies found by an automated probe in the target universe. There was no visual evidence of an Earth or Moon, but the probe had remained in a stable L2 position despite this, and detected equivalent-mass gravity wells in the positions of both bodies. It was speculated that both objects had been transformed into singularities. We were able to confirm this hypothesis through more direct observations, including gravitational lensing at points corresponding to the cores of both bodies.

  We also found artificial debris throughout the volume of the L1 point. Observations confirmed debris fields of similar composition at L4 and L5. In addition, we noted an asteroid with a mean diameter of 5.23km and mass of 4.56 million gigatons in orbit around the Earth singularity, which was another oddity as the asteroid was too massive to be captured by the Earth’s gravity. Commander LuGararda decided to remain at the L1 point while sending
the Valence to investigate the asteroid. I have no doubt this was the correct decision. Both ships were more than adequately stealthed, and we had detected no immediate evidence of surviving intelligent life in the volume.

  The L1 debris derived from multiple vessels, and materials analysis suggested a conflict that had ceased approximately ten years earlier. This conclusion was strengthened by the discovery of 1,954 human corpses, all cybernetically enhanced. The Valence signalled the discovery of another body during their journey to the asteroid, but this one seemed to be alive. She was completely exposed to space in an elliptical orbit around L1, but nevertheless displayed a core temperature several degrees higher than expected for a corpse. The Valence was unable to reach the survivor without abandoning her primary mission, so the Commander sent our second scout ship, the Phase, to intercept.

  When brought aboard, KT-00932/IN was completely comatose. Like many of the corpses, she benefitted from a high degree of cybernetic enhancement, including a whole limb replacement. The Commander ordered her placed in a makeshift hypobaric chamber and the medical staff raised air pressure at a rate they hoped she could withstand. She quickly regained consciousness, and immediately proved to be extremely dangerous. Two of the medical staff were seriously injured as she escaped. It was only her damaged state that made it possible to subdue her before she could reach the control room.

  The Commander was forced to restrain KT-00932/IN by chaining her to a bulkhead. She was unresponsive during the first attempts at communication. We soon found she was attempting to make contact with outside forces using radio transmission, but had no success since the chamber had been rigged with EM shielding. She did not respond when we attempted to reply in kind.

  As the Valence began its survey of the asteroid, I suggested to the Commander that I make an attempt to communicate with her. I hoped that, as a cyborg, she might feel differently about speaking to a fully artificial being. The Commander assented, and KT-00932/IN did indeed respond when I spoke to her. At first we had no common language, but over the next few hours we were able to establish an understanding based on memetic phoneme exchange. Her rate of learning was far beyond the human average, suggesting cybernetic enhancements to mental function as well as the more obvious physical modifications.

  Once it was possible to communicate, though in a very simple way, I reiterated the Commander’s offer of assistance, which she ignored. Instead, she demanded proof that I was fully artificial. I exposed a number of my internal workings to demonstrate this. She then questioned me about the IU, interversal travel, and our mission, and although she claimed interversal travel had long been demonstrated to be impossible, she seemed to cautiously accept my explanation of who and what we were.

  Our discussion was interrupted by the Commander informing me that the Valence had detected signs of functioning technology on the asteroid, and was investigating further. KT-00932/IN inquired as to what we were doing, and I saw no reason not to inform her. She immediately demanded that the Valence cease its investigation. I asked her why, and it is at this point my records cease.

  It seems a minute gravity fluctuation emanating from the asteroid was actually a weapon which disrupted my AI core to the point of complete failure. It is only through the system of multiple backups that any records were recovered from my android shell. I understand this weapon was primarily directed at the Valence, which was disabled and then destroyed by other means.

  Noting the loss of several (though not all) onboard ship systems, the Commander demanded that KT-00932/IN explain what she had done. It is to his credit that he acted upon her warning of imminent destruction from enemy forces resident in the asteroid and returned both ship and crew back to Hub without further loss.

  I recommend that the IU consider any attempt to recontact this universe as extremely dangerous. Nevertheless, I believe further contact may prove to be necessary. The degree of cybernetic enhancements we witnessed are often congruent with a human society attempting to compete with a rival AI civilisation, suggesting a war between humans and machines in this universe. Given the current concerns regarding artificial intelligence, it may be of benefit to intervene to prevent any further conflict and demonstrate that human/AI conflict can be brought to a close, even in the face of such terrible destruction.

  9. Group

  Katie had not reacted to any of the previous introductions, and did not react now that it was Pew’s turn to tell her story.

  “So, uh, this is Katie, or at least that’s what everyone seems to call her. She says her real name is KT-00932/IN. But she doesn’t mind being called Katie…”

  He looked up at her for some kind of support. She kept her silence, so he went on. “I asked her for her story, and she told me but she went a bit fast so I had to ask her again. I ended up writing it down. Is that okay?”

  “That’s fine,” I said. “Please, carry on.”

  He looked down at a pad. “Katie was a soldier in a war between two species that were spread out in the solar system. It ended up with the Earth being destroyed by, uh, multiple staggered singularity release from the surface. It’s…”

  His eyes brightened. “Actually, that’s an interesting mathematical problem. You could get them to ping back and forth around the core, but their gravity would bend the trajectory so they’d keep making new tunnels and they’d consume the whole planet in just a few years…” He notice a disapproving look on my face, though Katie had no reaction at all. “Uh, sorry…”

  He looked down at the pad again. “Katie’s last mission was to attack the enemy as they approached the Earth, but her ship was destroyed before they could finish. She was supposed to crash into them but she never made it that far. She was thrown from the debris into an elliptical orbit around the L1 point — uh, that’s a point between two bodies in space where the gravity cancels out and you can just sit there and you won’t move relative to them, or you can orbit it as well. There’s five of them in any two body system, I suppose if you’re having a war they’d be important… sorry. I’ll finish what she said. There isn’t much.

  “She was designed to survive in space and stayed in orbit until she was discovered by the IU. After that, the IU ship was attacked by her enemies and some of them were killed. Then she was brought here where she says she’s provided as much strategic and tactical information as she’s allowed to give. She doesn’t want the IU to contact her world because it’s only her enemies who are still there. She said her enemies were kind of a different species, so I suppose that makes her like me, but… well, her people fought back.

  “She says she’s willing to co-operate with all reasonable requests. And that’s it. That’s… Katie. Is that enough?”

  “Katie, is there anything you want to add?” I asked.

  “The information is accurate.”

  “Okay then,” I said. “Katie, would you like to tell us what you learned about Iokan?”

  10. Iokan

  CONFIDENTIAL REPORT

  y276.m4.w2.d2

  From:

  Deputy Director, Diplomatic Service

  To:

  General Director, Interversal Union

  Assistant General Director, Interversal Union

  Directorate Committee, Interversal Union

  Director, Exploration Service

  Director, Refugee Service

  Director, Diplomatic Service

  Copied To:

  Shadow Director, Interversal Criminal Tribunal

  Mission LSHG-987372-002 has been nothing short of complete tragedy. Everyone on the planet had committed suicide within the three weeks prior to our arrival, save for one person who was on the verge of death when discovered. We found no clear explanation for this horrific event. We did, however, find evidence of multiple large-scale transits to and from the universe. As the inhabitants were not yet capable of this technology, we suspect there may have been interversal interference.

  We had expected to find a civilisation believed lost over three thousand years ago. N
anoscale portals had been detected emanating from their universe, a sure sign that they were rediscovering interversal transit technology. An Exploration Service probe found the world fully recovered from a long period of societal collapse, and ready to be contacted immediately. We intended to welcome them back to interversal life after their long absence, and hoped they could shed some light on the events that devastated interversal relations at the time their own civilisation collapsed. Consequently the mission was staffed with higher ranking personnel than usual, and I was asked to supervise the opening of diplomatic relations.

  When we arrived, however, we found only silence. Friendship hails received no answer from the planet or any orbital or lunar installations. A scientific station at the L1 point initially seemed evacuated, but closer examination showed the inhabitants had all been flushed into space. None had been spared — we even found a number of children among the dead. From that point on, the mission was nothing but horror piled upon horror.

  I asked the Exploration Service Commander to begin a planetary survey, and he soon identified the primary cities. Each one was choked with corpses. I cannot begin to describe the things we found — every kind of suicide was evident. There was clear evidence of organisation as well: a number of sporting stadiums were used as venues for many thousands to kill themselves, or die at the hands of others.

  We found the lone survivor in the central square of the largest conurbation of the Indonesian archipelago. He lay at the side of a quite beautiful series of fountains in which hundreds of people had drowned themselves. He was dehydrated, malnourished, unconscious and suffering from a form of cholera. We brought him aboard under extreme quarantine, and immediately returned to Hub. I can only hope he will be able to explain what has happened on his world — one of the most shocking acts of genocide yet witnessed in the current era, and all the worse if it came as a result of interversal interference.