Koban: When Empires Collide

by Stephen W Bennett

  The Silha stood there, in its towering four and a half feet of grandeur, a bipedal, silvery skinned, scrawny armed, naked, stooped figure, with two large eyes and a greatly outsized oval skull.

  It looked up towards Prola and Frithda looming over it on its right, chittered in an Olt’kitapi chuckle, and said in their language, “We are pleased to renew our acquaintance with your promising species.”

  Turning to face the two humans to its left, only a foot or so taller, it spoke in unaccented Standard. “We are intrigued to meet your unusual young species, with your potentially dark, and simultaneously a possibly bright future. We have traveled far to meet and experience you, to determine if you warrant monitoring for continued advancement, perhaps with moderation, or require suppression.”

  Maggi was put off by its simple and sudden appearance, and its directness. It was speaking as if it were capable of wielding considerable power over humanity. She asked, “Where’s your ship?” She’d anticipated being impressed by an overwhelming presence, arriving in huge intergalactic vessel that commanded awe and instant respect.

  “You see it before you.” Seeming to sense her thoughts, it said, “You expected a pretentious display, like a clumsy yet weak Crusher. Perhaps if I triggered a supernova somewhere?” It laughed softly.

  She blinked. “Could you?”

  “Of course, but then my controllers would never have advanced to achieve elevation if they would do that. Showy displays are for insecure Type one species. Your small Scouts, which have destroyed Crushers, are examples of inauspicious applications of real power over grandiose pretensions of power. They are also, like the ship you arrived in, examples of the tools for application of power that you may not be mature enough to for us to allow you to apply.”

  “You just arrived, what can you know about us?”

  “In the interval while we have conversed, we have examined the entire body of your libraries in your Comtaps, and of the larger database resident in Jake, the rudimentary artificial intelligence of your ship. Your records and history are unremarkable, except for their extreme brevity before you suddenly appeared in the galaxy, displaying Type two characteristics.

  “You are a fledgling example of what your own basic astronomy has speculated should be a Type one civilization. Which we, and your Olt’kitapi hosts, would identify as an evolutionarily marginal Type one species. You were discussing this very subject before we arrived.

  “Yet, we learned remotely that your young species is currently exploiting the beginnings of a Type two gravitational technology, and remarkably are also displaying unmistakable evolutionary markers of an equivalent Type two species. You have not used the typical amount of real-time to achieve either of these markers. We now know your species has not stumbled upon, let alone mastered, the mathematics of higher dimensional levels, which would be required to bypass the time required for such advancement. The Olt’kitapi know these dimensions exist, and suspect they are reachable, but they require more time to evolve and learn.

  “Monitors hope the Olt’kitapi will progress to that level, after they have lived among and learned from the many species that might share Excelsior with them. Those resident species at Excelsior may also rise in turn, after the Olt’kitapi have evolved and are elevated. The Olt’kitapi are a type of species we hope for as future neighbors, and partners. You are one we did not expect, and could not predict, but may also be welcomed for your novelty.

  “It is rare in many galaxies for a species to rise as rapidly in both technology and evolution as you appear to have done. It is rarer still for such a rapid rise to be beneficial to the many slower rising, possibly more deserving species who share the galaxy with them, which they may make extinct. If they become extinct by your rise before you advance to a Type two, monitors are not permitted to do more than express an interest, and our estimation of which is more deserving is not relevant. Natural selection has proven to be an effective means of tempering the characters of those that succeed in advancement beyond Type one.

  “After a species advances to reach Type two capability, many other species could perhaps be eradicated by overt actions, or via inadvertent actions of reckless application of new technologies, for which their unevolved minds have failed to predict the negative consequences for the future of elevated species.

  “The monitors that observe the rise of intelligent species are not allowed to select which species will survive, or that will advance beyond their youth. Most species will never achieve Type two status because they are mentally incapable, perhaps they will destroy themselves while still a Type zero, as you nearly achieved, or will be destroyed by equally youthful neighbors. That has happened by the tens of thousands within this galaxy alone, at its current age.

  “Candidate species on the threshold of, or within Type two status, are capable of being monitored remotely via their gravitational technology. They can be dissuaded from, or prevented from eliminating neighboring species if they apply that technology for that purpose. Prior to achieving advanced gravity control, their ability to destroy another species is limited to other youthful species, using less dangerous technology. After that, they may threaten candidates that have also reached type two status. The monitors will watch those species, and perhaps regulate them.”

  For the two Kobani listening to this, their minds were swirling around the implications, and reeling with the number of questions they wanted to ask. They were conversely struck mute for a moment when The Silha suddenly ceased speaking.

  In that brief interval, the small silver figure offered a very human gesture. It extended its right hand, the four long digits slightly spread, towards the closest human. “Tetsuo Mirikami, we offer a token handshake of your culture, and a promise that there will be no malice involved in our decisions concerning the future of your species.” How comforting, and chillingly indifferent.

  Mirikami, although surprised at this gesture from the shiny little alien, didn’t hesitate to accept the contact. As he extended his hand, he asked, “What will you learn about us when you experience us?”

  Their hands clasped, and he obtained an answer.

  ****

  A flood of mental replies reached him, with no more than a consensus being apparent from the huge flow of innumerable minds, which washed over Mirikami and made him feel lightheaded. Yet his mind felt heavy, as if it was being overfilled with myriad thoughts, each with their own concept of the appropriate answer to his question.

  He had tried the old Mind Tap trick, to focus the mind of the individual he was about to touch on a subject that he initiated. It worked, but not like he expected.

  “Slow down! It hurts. I can’t understand you all at once.” He didn’t know if he shouted that, or if it was sent only via Comtap. Nevertheless, it had an instant effect. The flood of minds diminished to one cool, rational voice, which was still received via Mind Tap, but also by Comtap link.

  “Remarkable. My controllers and I knew you had a form of telepathy, unique to your variation of humanity, a trait rarely encountered. Your ultrasensitive nervous system is also considerably more conductive to thoughts than they or I appreciated in advance. Your thoughts were intense in their arrival to us, but were divided between many recipients. Their return thoughts were not as weak in their combination when I unintentionally relayed them to you in their multitude. I have been granted greater autonomy by my controllers and acted promptly. I lowered the intensity of what proved to be an unanticipated strong mutual experience between you and my Silha controllers, who were linked to you through my presence.

  “In your terms, this would be described as an extraordinarily unusual event. There is nothing in the details recorded of your base society’s records that prepared them, or me, for this capability. Earth is larger and heavier than ninety six percent of the worlds that develop intelligent life, and it is not rich enough in the heavy metals and rare minerals that could produce the infrequent evolutionary advantages from that availability, such as organic superconducting n
ervous systems. That evolutionary development is seldom seen even when those materials are widely present in a planetary crust.

  “That library of human history and achievements did not hold any details of your unique genetic changes, and your own Comtap, because you are not a scientist, does not contain technical specifics of your enhanced nervous system, only a broad description that failed to alert us of its superconductive nature until we made physical contact.

  “The record from your mate’s Comtap, examined only now, revealed the origin of your capability, and furnished us with the specific genetic changes. The explanation of why that genetic technology did not appear in the larger human library is now clear.

  “On Koban is where your new branch of humanity obtained its particular genetic diversity. It happened very recently in human history, and its secretive aspect limited the spread of the achievement to the remainder of humanity. That was a result of sensible resistance to this risky biological science, which nearly led to your extinction, and only the pressure of another extinction event, posed by the Krall, forced you to adapt. You have combined three traits from non-human life to increase your mental capacity, as well as a robust physiology, which is less important.

  “Your brain’s improved memory organization, gained from the wolfbat genetics, is common to many Type two species. All Type twos eventually have devised equivalent electronic or quantum based technologies to supplement their biological minds, such as Comtaps, to organize, preserve, and make quickly accessible, a great store of knowledge within themselves.

  “Finding the widespread organic superconducting nervous system of Koban life was far rarer, and the ripper brain mutation to use that rare nervous system as a conduit for thought sharing, produced an exceedingly rare combination.

  “Your three-way combination of these is something the Silha have never encountered in a pre-elevation species. We admit, as a younger elevated species having monitored Type Twos in only the nearby galaxy cluster, there is a far greater volume where this combination may have appeared previously. We will share the discovery with our more distant neighbors, to seek precedents, and learn if any species like you has survived to achieve elevation. A novel discussion will certainly ensue.

  “We predicted you had enhanced your native genetics, based on older records of the genetic experimenting of your species. Extinctions are common in species that extensively meddle with what evolution and their technology makes possible.”

  Noting the change in the use of we, me, and my, in the conversation, and the cool silvery hand of The Silha, with its highly conductive surface, something clicked in Mirikami’s now relaxed mind.

  “You are a construct, are you not? When you called yourself The Silha, it was as their intermediary for physically interacting with the species they monitor. It was some of their minds I sensed, when I asked what you would learn when I was experienced.”

  “Yes. I am what you might call their physical avatar, and they detect, or feel, if that conveys a term more relatable to you, what my many sensors collect. You know of the artificial minds of the Olt’kitapi Dismantler and Differentiator ships, which are representations of their creator’s mind patterns. I am a more advanced equivalent, with considerably greater capability.”

  This was all happening at the rapid Comtap speeds possible, but Mirikami knew Maggi had to wonder why the two were still touching hands seconds later.

  “I can sense your thoughts, the avatar informed him, “and I now shield you from most of those of my Silha controllers. I will link to your mate via Comtap, sparing her the disorientation you experienced, and I will simultaneously explain to the Olt’kitapi that we are in communications.”

  A second later, an updated Maggi asked by Comtap, “What is it you experienced dear? You stiffened up, and your face looked strained. I knew what you were doing by asking that question. What did you learn? You didn’t seem to receive my Comtap inquiry.”

  “We’ll discuss that afterwards, love. Not that I’m sure it will be private. I just now had a thought about what you must be thinking, and I did not intend to share that. The Silha form you see here is an artificial construct, an avatar, which I assume is modeled after the people that built it. It sensed my shielded thoughts, and linked to you.”

  He was letting her know that they couldn’t shield their thoughts, but of course, the artificial being with them would know they were aware of that fact. It might be impossible to prevent it from detecting their every thought, expressed or not. This was a bit of their own medicine back at them, like when they met a new species that didn’t know how to mask their own thoughts.

  Prola and Frithda suddenly turned away, presumably after a private contact from the avatar. They strolled through their gardens, now mingling with other Olt’kitapi that came to join them to share what they had learned.

  The avatar resumed its conversation with them. “I believe the Jing|!| will send their avatar back to this galaxy, to closely observe the Olt’kitapi as they progress through their reentry into a Type two technology, and eventually become a full Type Two species. They need no monitoring, but there is pleasure in the observations. The Jing|!| avatar departed the Milky Way after its controllers felt the disappointment of the loss of a species we expected to successfully reach elevation.

  “My controllers, the elevated versions of the physical form of the Silha I am built to resemble, as you surmised, will continue to monitor you, primarily because of having encountered such a seldom experienced surprise. There will be some overlap with two avatars in the same galaxy, but curiosity doesn’t vanish when a species is elevated, on the contrary, curiosity is revived when a surprising young species is detected.”

  “What do you mean by elevated?” Maggi asked.

  It deflected rather than answer her directly. “You wondered why most of the stars still shine in old galaxies, long after early Type twos should have spread to become type Threes. Very few new Type zero species would ever evolve to advance, if any could, in a galaxy whose stars fell to the exploitation of the first Type twos that spread to every one of them to become a Type three.

  “Space is expanding, and that expansion is accelerating. In the far future, all galaxies will be farther apart than the visible horizon limit set by the physical laws of this Universe, and light from none will ever reach a neighbor galaxy. The galaxies will eventually shed stars from their edges, and they will spread and burn out. It would become very dark and lonely for the sociable elevated species. We want many interesting neighbors to visit. The distances and rate of expansion isn’t an insurmountable barrier. This isn’t the only Universe in an infinite cosmos, but this one is home to the species that originated here. Even if no longer corporeal, they like the companionship of fellow but varied and different minds.”

  Maggi asked, “How will they communicate and visit one another if the space between galaxies is so vast? And if space is spreading far faster than the velocity of light?”

  Mirikami thought he saw a flaw in her view of that future, and sure enough, the avatar pointed it out to her. “You think like a Type one species, having skipped ahead to reach the brink of a Type two. Do you think what you call T-cubed travel is the ultimate mode of travel? This avatar form was in another galaxy when I initiated travel to where we are now. There is no true universal time, but from your perspective, one instant I was monitoring a pair of Type two species in a small galaxy that your astronomers have named M32, a satellite of your slightly larger neighbor you call Andromeda. In the next instant, I was here.

  “Time isn’t real, and its perception can be manipulated like the eleven physical dimensions your physics calls M-theory, and is related to string theory, both being aspects of a complete quantum field theory. Your scientists and theoreticians learned enough to develop a field theory to reach into Tachyon Space, and found it possible to transfer energy from that Universe to this one, and could use that energy to crudely control basic gravity here. You learned to travel though the lower dimensional levels of Ta
chyon Space, and like you learned from Olt’kitapi technology, you now use what you call level three of that space. The eleven dimensions there are not tightly curled up in the same manner as they are in this Universe.

  “Now, you are learning how to precisely control gravity fields, because you have skipped ahead to the edge of Type two technology. An analogy might be that you are running before you have mastered walking. Stumbling is a real risk, in this analogy.

  “It is fortunate that you developed some evolutionary mental capabilities of a Type two species to match the technology you borrowed. Although, without that new mental ability, you would not have been able to reverse engineer the Olt’kitapi gravity projector. The Comtaps embedded in your brains, which are also borrowed technology that you use to improve your minds, would not have been adequate to modify your behavior, to protect your Type one and Type two neighbors from your reckless natures.

  “You can thank the genes of the wolfbat for your expanded and better organized biological memory, and that of the rippers for your nervous system and telepathy, which act together to moderate your behavior. You have tread close to the edge, and may yet step across the boundary of unapproved behavior. If you do, this avatar, or that of The Jing|!| will curb your capability to use Type two technology.

  “If that happens, the intermediate Type one Thandol may eliminate your species, or block them from future advancement if you are defeated but not eliminated.”

  Maggi happily pounced. “Are you saying we will be monitored, but we will not have our new gravitational projectors taken from us?”

  “There would be need to take them from you, they would simply no longer function if you continue to use them in an aggressive and highly destructive manner. A gravity gun, as you named it, or small black holes used as missiles are limited scale weapons made possible by early Type two technology, and little more damaging than more conventional non-gravity weapons. However, breaking apart a living planet, or using stars as weapons to wipe out life on an entire planet or in an entire solar system, is large scale, and that use can result in multiple mass extinctions. That will be moderated.