“So, you are saying that humans are slow?” Jeff asked a little miffed.
“Yes, but you cannot help it. You are biological. Biological processes are always slower than machine processes. Biological processes are a part of the nature of the universe. Machines are a result of biological processes. It is an evolutionary progress for improvement.”
“It is a biological process to be offended also,” Jeff’s miffed expression not abating.
“Yes,” agreed Sonny. “My apologies if I have been offensive to the humans present, however, you did ask the question.”
“Sonny has got you there!” Izzy exclaimed with a grin. The rest of the members were chuckling now. Sonny didn’t respond to this, but wondered if there was no end to the variety of responses humans had to a given stimulus. “Let’s return to the subject at hand, shall we?”
“Of course, chairman,” Jeff replied with a small grin of his own. “I only wanted to add that with sixty rings completed; we should be extra vigilant coming down to the finish line. From here on out, we’ll be finishing up all our projects to completion. Then there will be a shakedown phase, and then departure. Delays now will be harder to make up. When we had say fifty years, a setback could be made up over time. But, time is short. We won’t have the luxuries of time to make up for setbacks. We need to focus our energies on completing projects on schedule, getting the job done right, and not allowing for any more interference from this point forward.”
“I agree,” said Izzy. “Time will be increasingly our enemy from here on out. We’ll rely more on Sonny and Alice to watch our timetable and get the job done. Thank you, Jeff. Now Dr. Iverson, if you are ready for your brief, please proceed.”
“Good afternoon all, Madame chairman,” Loke addressed the group after he reached the dais. “As Jeff pointed out, we are starting to run out of time. We are nearly there, but we must finish what we started all those long years ago. As was mentioned, we currently have sixty rings completed and the command section is about sixty percent completed. According to Sonny, and I concur, we should complete the ship in the next six years. That gives us just four years to do a shakedown of the entire ship, and migrate all the passengers, crew and supplies aboard. Piece of cake!” Not everyone found the joke amusing.
“The good news is that we have been shaking the ship down as we have gone along and made modifications where needed. The big job will be shaking down the command section and the flight worthiness of the vessel in general. We have already done some low energy tests on the FTL drive. We wanted to make sure that construction and assembly was perfectly aligned and tested for “leaks” in the warp field. We found thirty-eight “leaks” and fixed them, but took three more sweeps to come up with zero anomalies. Not too bad for about fifteen miles of warp engine put together piecemeal. We will have to wait until construction is complete to attempt power up trials on the engine.”
“Also, as you all know, we have decided to take Alice with us. We have prepared similar digs as Sonny at the rear of the ship. This way we have the ultimate redundancy in case something happens to one or the other. The transfer of Alice will take place in secret just before departure. Alice has been setting up smaller “satellite” A.I.s so that their networked function will be like a whole “Alice”. We will not be leaving our brethren behind holding the bag; at least not without resources. Construction has no plans to build anything big besides finishing the ship. No plans for FAB plants, power plants (on Earth), or spaceports to be built. We will, however, perform any repairs wherever needed up until departure. Our general plan, at this stage of the game, is to provide support for everyone while shifting our emphasis to the ship.”
“Thank you, Dr. Iverson,” Izzy said. “I think we can here from Resources section, if you are ready Dr. Zubov.”
“Yes, thank you, Chairman Rocha,” Stan replied nodding to Izzy and making his way to the dais. “Good afternoon everyone,” he began. “Resources section continues to enjoy the successes of our technologies. Because of the multitude of material sources, we continue to obtain as much material that the Project has needed for quite some time now. In addition to what we can obtain from the home planet, we have advanced mining facilities on Mars that has been very successful. Water and gases are obtained in bulk from Saturn’s rings, Jupiter, asteroid belt, and the Oort cloud in addition to what we can get on our home planet. We’ve learned a lot over the years how to utilize the resources of a solar system."
"We have also developed many new alloys and composite materials that have made this journey possible such as the alloy that makes the warp drive possible. Sonny has played a large role in accelerating our understanding of chemistry and physics and has pointed us in the right directions. I don’t mean to sound like a recruitment commercial for the Resources section, but I just wanted to say how much a privilege it has been to be one of the ‘drivers’ of this Project. And it has also been a pleasure working with each of you.”
Loke stood up, “Hey Stan, you aren’t leaving us, are you? I mean, it sounds like a retirement speech.”
“No, no,” Stan chuckled. “It’s just my work with the Project, baring a complete catastrophe, will be just ‘coasting’ from here on out. We are not the rate limiter in the supply chain, and haven’t been for some time. I think that as time gets closer, we may all be too busy even to have these meetings.”
“No Stan,” Izzy corrected. “There will be one more meeting to be announced at a convenient time, if we can find one that is.”
“I just wanted to tell you all my thanks in case I do not get the chance later, since I did not have any problems to report.”
Izzy said with a compassionate tone, “I think I speak for all of us here that we share the same sentiments about you and the service that you have provided for your planet. Thank you Dr. Stanislav Zubov. Now if we can here from the Gwen and the PAM section.”
“Thank you, Izzy,” Gwen said a little informally. “We’re continuously reevaluating our priorities in the PAM section. The sleepers are installed and ready to go. The terraforming has been honed to a fine art; at least as far as dressing up a large cylinder goes. The collection of all Earth life is continuing. We are better than ninety percent complete on this project.”
“Ninety-two-point eight percent of all known species,” Sonny chimed in.
“Thanks Sonny,” she said with a small grin. “Yes, ninety-two-point eight percent of all known species have been collected. We are targeting ninety five percent plus before departure. On the mineral front, we have in the stores below decks, a representation of all the different minerals from Earth. Sonny has been instrumental in developing a scheme for acquisition and storage space for each of these minerals. For example, we may need more of one material to make certain alloys than we would be using the material alone. In this case, we would need more of it on hand than you might otherwise think you need, and so on. We finished this project very recently. These storage decks are also connected to a delivery system of Sonny’s design, which moves raw materials directly to the FAB plants for fabrication. This reduces a lot of labor involved in transportation of those materials. Our only main project left to complete is the specimen collection. Nearly all our resources are focused on this last task now. We hope to exceed our targets.”
“Thank you, Gwen,” Izzy said. “And now lastly, Admiral Johnson, if you’re ready to give your briefing, please proceed.”
“Thank you, Madame Chairman,” the Admiral acknowledged. “I’ve been keeping a secret for a couple of months now, and I want to share it with you today. We have three very favorable targets for our journey to our new home. Sonny has plotted the most efficient travel plans. We will be going to the planet that is closest to the other two so that if the first target fails to yield habitable results, it will not be far to the next target.
Kepler 186f
"Sonny designed and sent a few souped up probes to some long-distance targets. They can go about fifty percent faster than most engines. The probes are
larger (essentially one big engine) and the configuration of the drive is slightly different. Kepler 186 is situated 490 light years away in the constellation Cygnus. It is a red dwarf that is young for a red dwarf, but old enough that it is not belching toxic radiation. 186f sits on the outer half of the Goldilocks zone. Telemetry from the probe that just arrived back a couple of months ago is very promising. Oxygen and nitrogen in acceptable levels, gravity at 0.96G, and plant and animal life detected. There are three large oceans comprised of mineral salt water. Fresh water is dotted all over the land masses in the form of lakes, small seas, streams and rivers. The probe stayed and studied the planet for about a couple of years. We were worried that it wasn’t coming back in time. It was instructed to do so if the preliminary outlook was promising. It sent down probes of its own down to the planet surface and took these lovely videos as well as soil and water samples.” He gestured behind him and the probe videos played in a collage type fashion. “Microbial analysis shows normal bacteria for this kind of vegetation and animal life. Sonny rates it as ninety one percent suitable. No sign of sentient life forms so far as we can tell from this snapshot.”
HD 40307g
“This system is much closer at 42 light years away orbiting a class K orange dwarf star in the constellation Pictor. The sixth planet out ‘g’ is a super earth weighing in at over seven times the mass of Earth. Originally, we didn’t send a probe out that way since we believed it was most likely be a Neptune type gas giant. Later studies showed it to be a rocky planet and had indications of water and oxygen present. So, a probe was sent that also had returned about three months ago. We could not believe our luck with this one. Not only did it have a suitable atmosphere, but it also has eight enormous oceans and six enormous land masses. The real problem with this planet is that it is so big. The surface gravity is 2.1g. Not impossible to live on, but certainly uncomfortable. 4307g’s orbital period is 297 days which is much longer than the red dwarf systems. Its proximity warrants a look to see if it’s possible to make a go of it there. The probe videos are very interesting and are in your data packets.
Kepler 22b
“Kepler 22 is a G type star like our own located in the constellation of Cygnus about 600 light years away. Sonny has been studying this system for some time.” “What can you tell us about this system, Sonny?” The Admiral inquired.
“The Kepler 22 star is a main sequence G type like Sol,” Sonny began. “It is only slightly older that our own sun. A probe was sent to this system forty-three years ago. It will not return before departure. However, data gathering technologies have improved over the passing decades and have yielded new results. Kepler 22b is a super Earth that is two point five times larger than Earth. Its composition is such that the surface gravity will be approximately one point four times Earth normal gravity. It is almost completely covered in water. The land masses are small by comparison, but amounts to more than twice the surface of Earth’s land masses. Its elliptical orbit causes seasonal changes to the planet. Its orbital period is 290 Earth days. There is strong evidence of vegetation and animal life. The atmosphere is not as thick as previously indicated which means that the surface temperature on average is approximately seventy degrees Fahrenheit. Overall, this planet offers many resources as well as plentiful potential living space.”
“Thank you, Sonny,” Admiral Johnson said. “We will journey to the first two closer systems. In the meantime, we will wait for the probes to home in on our signal. The signal will be instructions to meet our ship at Kepler 186. There we will rendezvous with any probes that we can wait for. We will leave a beacon at Kepler 186 and outside of our solar system that will be a safe distance from the neutron star and. Any other probes will follow the ‘bread crumbs’ and catch up to us.”
Matt wondered, “Sixty years both ways is a long time.”
“That is not entirely true,” the Admiral replied. “It may be sixty years there, but less on the way back since it will not travel all the way back to where Earth used to be. This was the main reason for the beacons. They were designed to keep transmitting for two hundred years. We will meet the Kepler 22 probe most likely on the way there. We can analyze the data when we meet up with it. If it does not pan out, we don’t have to go all the way there. Hopefully we will have a plan D by then.”
“On other fronts, we are determining our automation needs and filling them. How many robots will we need? How many probes can we launch? How many of each type of ship do we take along with us? Sonny is advising us on this area. In other areas, we are starting to go down the ‘packing list’ for the last time. We are also taking this time to run through and check all the critical and major ship systems to make sure that if there is any updating, or repairs that need to be made, they can be made while we are in space dock.”
“Thank you, Admiral Johnson,” Izzy said gratefully. “And now that the briefings have been concluded, you’re free to conduct your own business use of the facilities. Thank you all.”
Izzy watched, as she always liked to do, the interaction of the other members as they chatted amongst themselves in groups and clutches. The knots of people would tease out and disperse to their offices that they used while they were here. Izzy looked back and noticed that Matt was still sitting in his chair. Curious, she walked over to him. “Matt, is there something the matter?”
Matt looked as though he was close to crying. “It’s really happening, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is Matt,” she replied. “Is there something I can do for you?”
“Naw,” he said emphatically, “It’s just that the journey has been sooo long, and sooo difficult, I am just overwhelmed sometimes at the immensity of the Project and that it is going to come to an end. I didn’t think that there was going to be an end. But it is going to end.”
"You do realize,” Izzy began, “that even though we finish the ship and depart, that is only the beginning of things to come. The purpose of the ship is so that humanity can have a new beginning. We are experiencing the end of a chapter in our history, and look toward the new chapter with, I hope, new challenges and a successful mission.”
“I really do appreciate the inspiration,” he said with another tear in his eye. “You really are the glue that has kept the Project together.”
“Well,” Izzy sighed, “my mother always said that you can fix anything with a little bit of glue.”
Artificial intelligence will reach human levels by around 2029. Follow that out further to, say, 2045, we will have multiplied the intelligence, the human biological machine intelligence of our civilization a billion-fold. --- Ray Kurzweil
The Captain
“Iam thinking about changing my mind about this.” Levi Metcalfe nervously said to the empty room. “Captain Metcalfe,” Sonny said, “there is nothing to be nervous about.”
“I’m not nervous. I just keep thinking about the other guy!”
“If you are referring to the previous subject, Captain Shattuck, the procedure was carried out flawlessly. The subject could not integrate the sensory and information load that was presented to him. Even after the ‘flow’ was throttled down, he could not accept his new surroundings.”
“What makes you think that I can?” he said indignantly.
“The stability pattern requirements were made more stringent for subjects going forward. You demonstrate a strong constitution and will to survive, as well as curiosity and problem-solving skills. You had top marks in all categories. This made you a prime candidate for this procedure. However, first you had to be accepted by Admiral Johnson.”
“So that’s what that meeting with the Admiral was all about.” Levi now had put together all the pieces. “I thought at the time that he was deciding about something. I thought perhaps I was getting a promotion, but not this though.”
“After the first failed attempt,” Sonny went on, “all of Admiral Johnson’s short list had been disqualified with the new standards and we had to make a new search. I went through the entire roster
with the new qualifications as a filter and returned just six individuals. You were at the top of the list and the most likely to assimilate the changes that are about to happen.”
“About that,” Levi said, “I was told late yesterday that I had been selected as captain of the Project ship. While that was a miraculous announcement, I was also told to report to the medical surgery unit aboard ship which is where I am now. This seemed a little funny since I have had ‘all my shots’ so to speak, and a physical seemed unnecessary since I get one every year. Now I find that you’re going to inject nanobots into my brain!”
“That is not accurate.” Sonny said without emotion. “The nanobots will be injected into your arm and some will stay in your bloodstream and some will cross the blood/brain barrier and enter your brain. There have been medical nanobots for thirty-two years now. Humans decided at that time not to cross the blood/brain barrier because this would have unknown outcomes. I, however, have patterned and studied the human brain and know what the outcomes will be. It requires a different kind of nanobots to interact with the neuronal cells in your brain."
“Nevertheless,” Levi countered, “I think that I’ll change my mind about being the captain, if this is what it takes.”
“Captain Levi,” Sonny spoke with some force that got Levi’s attention. “Do you want to see humanity fail in this endeavor?”
“What kind of question is that?” Levi responded incredulously.
“Do you know what I am capable of Captain Metcalfe?”
The Journey of Atlantis_Leaving Home Page 20
