by Paul Reaver
The meeting adjourned, with Kirlin and Jenore making arrangements with their team to show John’s team to quarters that they could use, and familiarize them with Martian technology – how to use various appliances, prepare food, etc. As their teams left to begin this task, John walked up to Jenore and Kirlin and brought up the subject of the apparent technology disconnect they perceived.
Kirlin said, “As I mentioned before, Earth has advanced technologies that we are unaware of because they were top secret, as you call it, and therefore hidden. Still, although a great deal of our scientific knowledge is well advanced beyond Earth’s, the vast majority of our scientists perished in the disaster, so we can’t turn to them as experts. However, we do have a positive note on the issue, as taken for what it’s worth. We have the total of Martian knowledge, including that of our lost scientists, stored in our computers. If there are areas of technology that our remaining scientists are unfamiliar with, we can search our knowledgebase for this information. Is there a particular field of science you’d like to start with?”
“Let’s start with nanotechnology,” said John. “I have a feeling that it will be the best tool, by far, that will be useful in rebuilding your planet and infrastructure.”
“That is logical,” said Kirlin. “Give me just a few moments to concentrate.”
As John watched, a series of symbols appeared in the air in front of them. This was obviously an informational display, representing a computer projection.
“This is the introduction to our store of knowledge on nanotechnology,” said Kirlin. We rarely use this type of display anymore. We can communicate with computers using telepathy, and we can arrange it so that multiple individuals ‘see’ the same information at the same time, also using telepathy. We do, however, find that the projection method works better for large groups of people for three-dimensional displays during meeting discussions. This would also work for your scientists. Let me translate the presentation into your native language so you can see the information for yourself.”
Immediately there were paragraphs and pictures that John could recognize. The information shown was rudimentary; it represented what was just beginning to scratch the surface of the subject.
“Can we delve more deeply into the knowledge?” asked John. “This information is very fundamental.”
“Certainly,” said Kirlin, and the projection immediately changed.
“Now this is more like it,” thought John. The information for this technology began to approximate, and then surpass, what Mark, Roberta, and Jose had developed.
“I can arrange to have the information beamed directly into your brain via telepathy. We find that this method allows you to concentrate on the information and absorb it more easily,” said Kirlin.
“Yes, please do,” said John, although he was a bit uneasy about how his brain might interpret such a technique.
As he finished this thought, the information that had been projected in the air a moment ago was now visible in his consciousness. Kirlin was right. Instead of seeing the information spread out over a somewhat wide area in an aerial projection, it now manifested itself as if it were his own thoughts. It took John a minute to assimilate this mental environment; he felt a little light-headed for a few moments. He sensed Kirlin’s mind touch his.
“Excuse me for communicating with you like this before getting your permission,” her thoughts said. “It may take a few moments to make sense of the information. The best way to approach it is to relax and let the images and information present themselves to you.”
And they did! He found it mind-boggling. The experience was better than looking at a computer display or a book. John could not come up with anything with which to compare the sensation. But it seemed as if he had always had this knowledge, not that it had to be received and absorbed; the information was just there. One additional odd aspect to it was that when he reached the “end” of the transmitted information, it felt as though he had reached the end of a chapter in a book; there was clearly more information; he just had not received and “read” it yet. The information he could sense right now left him wanting for more.
“Could you please supply me with some additional information,” asked John. “What I see here appears to be only part of the research.”
“Of course,” said Kirlin. “You should be developing the necessary skills to assimilate and use this information more efficiently as you go along. I will try not to overwhelm you. Here is more.”
“Wow!” thought John. “The benefits of being part of an advanced civilization!”
This time, when he reached the last ‘chapter’ of the information he had received, he could see that the Martians had surpassed what his team had developed, but it was only theory. His team had surpassed the Martians with what they had actually built. But he could definitely see that the knowledge of the two peoples could advance very rapidly if they worked together. Without trying to come up with any methods for applying the technology, he was quite sure that it would be nanotechnology that would be a large part of how they would rebuild Mars. They could recreate the atmosphere and terraform the planet. Was it a massive project? Absolutely. Was it worth the effort? There was no question!
He explained this to Jenore and Kirlin. They were entirely in agreement.
“Let’s get our teams together tomorrow and brainstorm on anything and everything we can think of to restore Mars to the great planet it once was,” said John. “My personal belief is that if you can conceive of an idea, and you have the technology to support it, you can make it a reality.”
“I agree,” said Kirlin. “Let’s get together at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”
John’s team had started using Mars time since they were now living on the planet. This allowed them to avoid switching back and forth between Earth time and Mars time and live in the same timeframe as the Martians. When someone would reference a time for a meeting, as Kirlin had just done, there was no confusion about whether it was Earth time or Mars time, or any reason to have to convert from one to the other.
“I look forward to getting our teams together and beginning the process of restoring Mars to a thriving planet,” said John. “I’ll see you at nine.”
Then he contacted his team members and requested that each bring appropriate documentation to support the technology they were working on to the meeting in the morning. This information would be disseminated to the Martians to help get them up to the level at which John’s team was currently working. He felt certain that the Martians would be quick learners.
Chapter 28
John headed toward his assigned quarters. The technology that the Martians used made the rooms seem alien. But after all, they were built by a different race whose civilization had evolved on a completely alien path. Probably the single most notable attribute to his quarters that he noticed right away when he entered was the unusually high ceilings. This, of course, was to accommodate the physical height of the Martians. But the ceilings also fit the architecture of the area. As with the conference room, the walls were curved, but the result was not egg-shaped. The walls and ceiling were sweeping, making the rooms quite large, but they also fooled the eye to make them seem even more extensive. There was no claustrophobia here.
The lighting was unusual in that there did not seem to be a source for any area. Kirlin had shown him how to turn the lights on and off, and indicated that much of the items in the room would respond to his commands via thought, but did not go into detail. With the lighting, it was as if the walls themselves glowed, yet that did not seem to be the case. The light was just there. Various artifacts as decorations in the room, such as statue-like items, appeared to be in spotlights, each to its own; yet there was no visible origin for the spotlights. The overall look was modern, yet the feeling it evoked was one of hominess.
The chairs were another unusual but pleasant surprise. Every chair John sat in that was designed for comfort immediately conformed itself to fit his body, like t
he ones in the conference room. When he would change how he was sitting, the chair would change to accommodate the move. He found that, if he tried to recline, the chair would modify itself and recline, providing an extension at the bottom that raised to support his feet. The chair did not follow his every movement; such behavior would make the chair seem ‘twitchy,’ when the design was to provide maximum comfort.
The bed was another wonder. To look at it, you would see what appeared to be traditional sheets and pillows, though made of an unfamiliar fabric. But if you were far enough away from the bed to see under it, you would see that there were no visible means of support. The sheets hung down at the sides and end of the bed, but they did not reach the floor. And there was nothing visibly there to support the bed. When John first saw this, he walked over and picked up the edge of the sheet on the side of the bed where it hung down. He looked under the bed. There was nothing there! He pushed down on the bed with his hand. The bed felt soft, but not too soft. He picked up one of the pillows and peeked inside the pillowcase. There was also nothing there! Yet, like the bed, it felt soft. Apparently the force fields powered both the bed and the pillows. What incredible technology for such a simple thing! The fact that he could pick a pillow up when it seemed virtually empty and it retained its shape was phenomenal. He lay down on the bed, and it behaved like the chair, only with a more rolling style of movement when he turned from his back to his side and so forth. It conformed perfectly to his body, and provided just the right amount of support. He began to realize that the bed, chairs, and pillows might be computer-controlled with computers that could sense his comfort – or lack thereof. That would explain why the bed and pillows were the perfect firmness. To test this, he put the thought in his mind that it would be nice if the bed were softer. The bed immediately got softer. He removed the thought from his mind, and the bed went back to the way it was before – providing maximum comfort.
Another thing that John had noticed was that whenever he lay down on the bed, the lights would go very dim, apparently doing so to provide a proper sleeping environment. He tried putting the thought in his mind that he would like complete darkness, and all the lights would turn off. Yet if he turned and sat up, as if to get out of bed, dim lights came on automatically so he could see where he was going. If he was going to get up, all he had to do was think about the lights assuming normal brightness. Instantly the glow became brighter.
So, John was not telepathic, but the brain wave sensors in the room were sensitive enough to pick up even his thoughts. After he discovered this, he consciously controlled the various items in the room that were linked to brainwaves to make his quarters the way he wanted them. It was interesting to see what items corresponded to his thoughts and how they did so. He was reasonably familiar with the brainwave communication process since he had been working with it on Earth. Though the architecture was still unfamiliar to him, being able to control his environment made it feel more like home. Then he had a revelation. The Martians had probably modified the rooms that their human guests occupied to make them more “Earthlike,” which had also been his theory with the conference room. Not only were the furniture, beds, shower and toilet facilities, and kitchen accessories well-suited for the humans, he was sure that the Martians had tuned the items that responded to his thoughts for that purpose. Marveling at all of the technology the Martians had, he got ready for bed and called it a day.
Chapter 29
John arrived at the conference room a little bit early, and was not surprised to see that, even so, almost everyone was already there. Both teams consisted of members that were go-getters. Those few that were not already there arrived shortly.
John said, “For the Martian scientists on our team, I have requested that my people bring documentation to support their current project technologies. Kirlin showed me some of the work that your people were doing, and from that information, I think we are going to find that combining our knowledge is going to give us some pretty quick advancements toward our goals. It is unfortunate that the Martian scientists who were working on the same type of projects as those of us from Earth perished and are not available to consult. Still, their stored knowledge should move us ahead by leaps and bounds. And just as an aside, I may refer to ‘my team’ and ‘your team,’ but at this point, we are all part of the same team with the same goals. I apologize if my references seem awkward, but I don’t expect that awkwardness to last long.
“Also, those of us from Earth are in a bit of a quandary. Most of you here from Mars are probably at least somewhat familiar with the political structure of our world. There are many different countries, each with its unique form of government. The relationships between countries are in a constant state of flux. The people who are here from Earth, as you probably already know, are from a country called the United States of America. Our country is only 250 or so years old, but we are one of the most powerful nations on Earth. We do not take this position lightly. We try to do our best to help maintain world peace; an undertaking that is, at times, very difficult. We also provide aid to those countries who need it in the form of money, food, medical supplies, and so forth. Even within our own country, we struggle to maintain political stability. A part of maintaining that stability is to protect advanced knowledge from becoming common knowledge. There are at least two reasons for this: some advanced technology might frighten parts of the population, and of course, we don’t want that. The other reason is that we cannot afford to have our advanced technology fall into the wrong hands. We have tightly compartmentalized most of our advanced technological research and projects for those reasons. Such is the case with the team from Earth you see before you now. We work in what’s known as a covert organization. The amount of money that our government gives us to fund our projects is classified. No one outside the leadership of our organization knows where the money goes or its purpose. We have a single thread of communication from our organization to the outside world; that thread is through the person that is my superior. Hence, we are in what I call a ‘black box.’ I tell you this so that you know that all the knowledge that is used and shared by us will remain within our group. No one else from Earth will know.”
Both teams spent the day discussing the various technologies they were working on and sharing ideas. John expected the Martians to be extremely intelligent, but they still surprised him. By the end of the day, there were some excellent ideas on the table. The Martians had worked theoretically with all the technologies with which John’s group was working. However, they confirmed that the majority of the scientists that had been working with these technologies had perished with the loss of Mars’ atmosphere. Since the Martian scientists had only been working on the theories of the technology that the Earth people had worked with hands-on, it would fall to the Earth team to take the lead in developing these technologies as needed. It was excellent that all of the documentation about the theories of the various technologies that Mars had accumulated was still available. This stored information helped the two groups to brainstorm on ways to restore Mars to a habitable condition. They broke up into four smaller groups for further discussion: John, Kirlin, and Jenore; Max, Gorev, Oranda; Mark, Roberta, Lyron; Abigail, Ranella, Telov, and Joanne.
Though John was engrossed in conversation with Kirlin and Jenore, he kept his eyes on the other groups. They were also deep in discussion, and John smiled to himself when he would see a member of his team becoming animated as they spoke. They were a dedicated bunch!
John, Jenore, and Kirlin agreed that they would reconvene everyone into one group at 3 o’clock, which came quickly. When the time arrived, Kirlin said, “Ok, let’s all come together as one group now. One by one, each group can tell us what ideas they have come up with. Roberta, why don’t you go first?”
“Thank you, Kirlin,” said Roberta. “I should start by letting you know that, as we were discussing different ideas, one of our Martian teammates was keeping in touch with the other two groups via telepathy. The reason
ing behind this was two-fold; first, we’d make sure that we were all roughly on the same page, and secondly, we’d make sure that we weren’t getting too far afield with our ideas.”
Kirlin said, “That’s great, with one caveat. We have to be careful that the Martian members of the team do not slip into using telepathy without notifying the Earth members. We must make sure we share our thoughts. Please go ahead, Roberta.”
“Ok, I’ll start by saying that, for the Earth group, nanotechnology is squarely my specialty. However, Max and Jose, as well as John, are also very familiar with the technology. Though Telov’s specialty is space travel, he provided the Martian documentation on the subject telepathically so those of us from Earth could share in the information. It was extremely helpful. Mars had not surpassed our knowledge in this area; they were just beginning to scratch the surface. So, it’s a big plus that Max, Jose, and I are not only familiar with the technology, but have used it.
“What we have found is that we can manufacture nanobots to the specifications we need to construct almost anything for our purposes; within limits, of course. We can then program them to do the actual construction. Once we have the manufacturing and programming completed, which is the most lengthy and challenging part of the process, the real development will be quite fast.
“Our group was working with the goal of terraforming Mars so that it would regain the attributes it once had; the atmosphere, vegetation, surface water, weather, and so forth. This process would start with a small experiment. We propose that we create a dome that could house some of the Martians that are in stasis here. This was an idea that the Earth group discussed when we had gone back to our ship after the first day we met. Nanobots would allow us to create the dome and any buildings or structures required. This has limits, however. Some things may be so complex that it would only be possible to construct them manually; we are not sure that we can program nanobots to create them. We would have to explore the options and proceed from there. As it stands now, we are hoping that our knowledge of nanobot construction will increase as we use it, ultimately allowing us to do all fabrication that way.
