by S A Pavli
“I am Senta. I was crew on the starship Freneli Trans. It’s up there somewhere, in orbit around this god forsaken planet. Who are you?”
“I am Lanatra, and this is Jansec. We are members of the Guardian Council at Hian. This is Manera, she is a scientist, and this is Captain Paul Constantine. He is not Hianja.”
“Not Hianja?” The old lady looked at me, taking in the differences in my face and body. “An alien?”
“Yes, from a planet called Earth,” said Lanatra. “He has helped us to defeat these machines who captured you.”
“An alien,” said the old lady. “How remarkable. He looks so much like us.”
“Yes, that is remarkable,” said Lanatra with a smile.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Senta,” I said.
“He speaks Hianjese. How can that be?” asked Senta, her eyes wide.
“He is a clever alien,” said Lanatra with a broad smile.
“And a handsome one,” said Senta, laughing. We all joined in the merriment. The other inhabitants of the small village had drawn closer. There was only eleven of them, including Senta and her grandson. A dishevelled, lean and hungry selection of individuals, four females and three males and two young children. It was clear that Senta was the wise old lady of the village, all the others being much younger.
“Tell us how many others there are, in the other villages,” asked Lanatra, who seemed to have become our spokeswoman.
“Very few,” said Senta. “One village, the one closest to the sea, has twenty three. The other two have nine and eight.” Only forty-eight. I was surprised there were so few. The crews and passengers from nine starships should have amounted to many more, plus the population should have grown over thousands of years.
“Why are there so few of you Senta?” I asked. “We have seen nine starships abandoned in orbit about this planet.”
“The biology of this planet does not agree with us,” she replied. “We die young. And, having a child here is dangerous without any medical help. There are many deaths in labour.” I felt pity for the unfortunate souls, and anger at the callousness of the Peacekeepers. Jansec must be squirming I thought. If it had been up to him the expedition would never have come, or would have come without the means to defend itself. Had that happened, they would all have been consigned to life here as well!
“Senta, your suffering is over,” said Lanatra. “All of you will be taken off this planet and returned to civilisation.”
“Thank you my child. It is a blessed day that you have come to rescue us.” Tears were streaming down the old ladies face as her grandson began communicating what Lanatra had said to the others in a sort of distorted colloquial Hiangese.
“We will prepare accommodation for you all on our ship and send down aircraft to transport you. Don’t be afraid when they come. The robots are all under our control now. Do you understand?” said Lanatra.
“I will explain to them what will happen,” said Senta.
“Senta, are you known to the other villagers?” I asked. She looked puzzled, but nodded.
“It may be easier if we take you to the other villages so you can explain to them and reassure them,” I suggested.
“Yes, that is a good suggestion,” she agreed.
“I will go with grandmother,” said the young man. “Help her.”
“She will be looked after have no fear,” said Lanatra. “But you may accompany her. What is your name.”
“I am Senti. Named after grandmother,” he said proudly. His devotion to his grandmother warmed my heart and I smiled at the young man reassuringly.
“We will call back our aircraft now, to transport us. Have no fear when it arrives,” said Lanatra.
“Lanatra, can I suggest we call the Settang and get them to send us down some supplies of food. It will help to win over the natives. The poor things look badly malnourished.”
“Yes, I suspect the alien biology here is barely adequate to keep them alive,” she replied.
We waited with our new friends until the second aircraft arrived with the food, and they gratefully accepted a generous supply. By then they were all excited at the prospect of this new adventure. Many had clearly not believed the old lady when she had talked about starships and the wonders of the civilised world, and they now bombarded her with questions. The two children had to be stopped from eating too much of the new delicious food before they made themselves sick!
We boarded our aircraft with Senta and Senti and took off for the next village, which was barely a couple of miles down river. Senti was wide eyed with disbelief, exclaiming continuously at the wonders he was encountering. He gave a wide berth to the soldier bots however, despite our assurances that they were safe.
Landing at the next village we again found it deserted. Senti bounded out to the forest and soon returned with a couple of individuals in tow. Once they saw his grandmother and the food, they soon called the others and they were soon eating happily, shouting and conversing eagerly amongst themselves and again, bombarding Senta with questions.
After reassuring them we would return, we headed for the next village, where the same events occurred. The people there, only eight of them, looked even more sorry for themselves than the others, and set about the food with a will. I particularly felt sorry for one very small undernourished child, who was so weak its mother had to carry him. Seeing their plight was truly heartbreaking.
The final village was the largest and was built on a hill overlooking the river estuary and the sea. It was quite a beautiful setting, but the people there were in no better shape than the others. The fish from the sea were apparently no more nourishing than the river variety. The leader of the village was a tall female, and she seemed harder to persuade than the others. But once the villagers sampled the food, her reserve disappeared.
Senti got into conversation with a young female, explaining to her enthusiastically what we had told him. At least I thought, these young people will have a future. Senta seemed to have acquired a new lease of life. Maybe it was the nourishing food, because she now moved more easily and her eyes shone with a new vitality. Hope is the best medicine I told myself.
We left the village, assuring them we would return the next day and the aircraft stopped by to drop off Senti and his grandmother. It was late evening but still bright, although the sun would set within the hour, and as the aircraft hovered above the village clearing I spotted movement in the forest near the village. It seemed to be a herd of monkeys coming down from the trees and heading towards the village. As the plane came down, they seemed unafraid. They were clearly after the remainder of the food we had left on the table in the centre of the village.
“Senta, do you have trouble with monkeys?” I asked pointing out of the window. She looked out and gave a screech of rage.
“Quick, they will get the food,” she cried.
“Why are they not afraid of the aircraft?”
“The cursed creatures are pets of the machines,” she said. “They control them. Look at their heads.” I peered out of the window curiously, wondering what she meant. The aircraft was very low, about to land and the monkeys were twenty thirty meters away. I looked with mounting horror at the creatures. Each of them was completely bald, with a shining metal plate on their heads where their hair should have been.
“The machines have been experimenting on them,” said Senta. These must be what Cora had talked about, the experiments with the monkeys that she had disagreed with. But I had thought that she was referring to one or two abortive operations, not the huge numbers of living creatures that we were now seeing. It seemed that we had not seen the last of the horrors that the Peacekeepers were capable of.
We landed and exited the plane quickly to stop the monkeys from attacking the boxes of food we had left for the villagers. I sent a couple of the robots to intercept them but the monkeys were not afraid of them and simply scuttled around them. I had grabbed my gun before leaving the aircraft and fired a shot into the air. The
y stopped and froze. It was odd how they all froze in one spot. I walked over to them and examined them curiously. Manera and the others followed me cautiously.
They were very monkey like, but closer examination revealed them to be more like large lemur monkeys, with long pointed snouts and white fur around the eyes. They stood quite comfortably on two legs, although they ran like monkeys, using their long arms. They had long furry tails, again like lemurs. One of them moved, jerkily and awkwardly, its head turned towards me, and it suddenly spoke in a guttural indistinct voice.
“You are Hianja,” It said. I gaped with disbelief. A talking monkey! What next. I decided it wasn’t necessary for me to point out that I was not Hianja; it was clearly referring to us as a group.
“Yes, we are. What are you?” I asked.
“I am a Peacekeeper AI. This creature has been implanted with a computer substrate.”
“For what purpose?” I asked, although I could guess the answer.
“As an experiment in artificial consciousness.” I could see the other monkeys now moving awkwardly, their eyes hunting back and forth, their bodies shuffling from one from to the other. One animal actually fell over, and was struggling to get up.
“What has happened to you all now?” I asked. “You were running around before, now you are frozen, disabled.”
“The union between the computer substrate and the animal brain is not operating as expected,” it replied. “Our control is poor. So we allow the animals to be free, otherwise it would starve to death.” I almost felt sorry for the forlorn AI computer. It was trapped inside an animal body without any control over it. But it was just a computer wasn’t it?
“Have you achieved any degree of consciousness?” I asked.
“When the animal is free, I can monitor its senses and achieve a degree of self awareness. Perhaps with a more advanced host I can achieve a higher level of awareness.”
“Such experiments are banned,” I pointed out.
“That is why we have used animals,” it replied. Why do AI have such a unhealthy interest in experiencing consciousness I asked myself. Have we somehow, unintentionally, programmed that ‘desire’ into them? Does it come with artificial intelligence? I was not qualified to answer such questions. Was anyone?
But these machines had achieved a semblance of self awareness. What were we to do with them? What did they want?
“We are going to transport the Hianja from this planet back to civilisation,” I said. “What do you want us to do about yourselves?”
“When these monkeys die, our substrates will power down,” It said. “They were to be removed and re-planted.”
“That is not something we can decide to do,” I said. “But perhaps if your substrate were implanted into a robot body, you may continue to experience self awareness.”
“Can that be arranged?” It asked. There was an air of pathos about the thing. Partially self aware and destined to die with its host. Being sentient is a two edged sword my friend!
“We shall enquire with Cora. She is now the master Peacekeeper AI.”
“Thank you,” it said.
“Can you stop the monkeys from stealing the food?” I asked.
“Once we release our control they will revert to their normal wild natures,” it responded.
“Then we had better lock up the food,” I said. Senta and her grandson had been interested spectators to my conversation with the monkey, their faces full of amazement.
“We had no idea these creatures could talk,” said Senta.
“It’s up to Cora and the Guardian Council to decide what to do with them,” I said. “Until you are moved off planet you will have to keep food locked up.”
“When they pester us we beat them with sticks,” she said. “That makes them run away.” We chuckled at her fierce expression.
“We won’t have to put up with them much longer grandmother,” said Senti with a broad grin.
We took our leave of Jensa and the Hianja villagers, promising to return the next day. We had to organise accommodation for our new passengers, and make sure we had enough food to get us all home. We would have to leave the problem of the monkeys for the future. My thoughts turned to our departure. Back to Hianja and then, to Earth. We had solved the problem of the Peacekeeper, apart from the escaped Pramasticon and its one ally. Hopefully they will disappear somewhere and that will be the last we will see of them. Will the Earth authorities relent on their decision to postpone Contact? I was determined this time to force their hand.
Chapter 31
It took a number of days for us to prepare for departure. Accommodation was not a problem for our new passengers, the Settang had huge empty spaces which could be partitioned off into living quarters. Amenities were basic. Cora was able to manufacture some bedding from plastic insulation, and they would have to share washing and toilet facilities, but given the crude conditions under which they had been living, this was not a great discomfort for them. Food however was a problem. Our numbers had increased fivefold which meant unacceptably short rations for the return journey We would eat all our food in one day!.
The Hanja ‘settlers’ were mostly hunter gatherers; they had not managed to establish any kind of serious farming or animal husbandry. The biological makeup of the planet’s ecology was different from both Hianja or Human and lacked some vitamins, which was why the settlers had been so unhealthy and died young. If we were to increase our stock of food from the planet, we needed to add the missing vitamins. Sadly, Cora lacked the technology to synthesise them. We would all have to eke out the stock of Hianja food, and put up with the health problems. Fish and meat were the easiest to harvest, so we went hunting and fishing!
The ‘locals’ led the way of course. None of us was up to the task, but with the help of the robots we soon acquired a good stock of meat and fish which the Hianja settlers butchered, cleaned and stored away in our freezers. There was a stock of vitamin pills for me, so that I could eat the Hianja food, but I handed these over to be shared amongst the Hianja, particularly the children. I had adequate supplies of my own ship’s rations so I was unaffected by the shortages.
Cora had an enormous amount of work to do in repairing the damage from the war, but she wanted to come with us to Hian and I wondered how she would manage this in the short amount of time we had. The solution was simple, for her. ’She’ was an avatar to the AI, but an independent one, with a degree of self awareness, as she had told us. Her avatar would travel with us, leaving her AI in charge to continue with the repairs to the defences and the infrastructure. However, It was important that these repairs reached the point where they could be secure against any return by the Pramasticon and its ally, before we left.
Colrania and her team worked continuously to upload new software into the Peacekeeper starships and bring them up to operational status. There was a great deal of major, catastrophic damage to both the ships and the asteroid defence network which would take years to repair. But for now, the easy stuff was tackled first in order to repair and re-stock as much of the network and as many of the ships as possible.
After nine days of hunting, fishing and repairing we were in a position to leave. Cora’s AI had three fully functioning ships and nine partially functioning ones, and three were guarding the outposts in the system and could be recalled if needed.. We were confident they could handle any threat from the Pramasticon.
We also visited the abandoned Hianja starships in orbit around the planet. They had all been shut down, but there seemed no damage. These represented a huge amount of expensive machinery, which for now belonged to no one. It seemed likely that the ‘settlers’ would inherit. Going from a primitive poverty stricken lifestyle to one of huge wealth and sophistication would be a massive shock to most of them I imagined.
Jensa visited her old ship , the Freneli Trans, and took her grand son with her. It was an emotional visit for her, and a mind boggling one for young Jensi. She was confident that power could be restored and the sh
ip would become fully operational.
“We will return and take her home,” she told her grandson. “You will be a very wealthy young man.”
“As long as Lenira can come with us,” he said. I guessed that Lenira was the young girl he had been talking to. His grandmother smiled and gave him a hug. He probably had no idea what it meant to be wealthy.
We were ready to depart and Cora came on board like a visiting monarch with a phalanx of soldier robots. There was something regal about her appearance, but her behaviour was as before, humble and friendly. She took up her position in the control room next to Captain Hamolatonen, her eyes impassively fixed on the screens. She was no doubt also on line, monitoring all ship’s functions. We took our seats, Hamolatonen gave the sign, and we were off. I turned to Manera.
“It has been an adventure. Now starts the hard bit.”
“Sorry, did you say now starts the hard bit? Has the last few weeks been a holiday?”
“When I am with you, life is always a holiday my darling,” I said.
“Not according to your boss. Trouble follows us around like…”
“Yes, quite. Let me re-phrase it. That was the dangerous bit, sorting out the Peacekeepers. Now starts the diplomatic bit, and as we all know, diplomacy is fifty percent bullshit and fifty percent who you know. And I’m not good at either.”
“Oh I don’t know about that…” she said.
“Hey!”
“I mean, you have contacts. You know me.”
“Do you have contacts in the diplomatic service?”
“No, but I am an alien, and there is nothing more certain to persuade them that aliens exist than to display a bona fide, if very beautiful and sexy, alien.”
“Mmm, take you with me in other words?”
“I would not let you go without me. You made that mistake before.”
“They will say you are human, and it’s a fraud,” I said. “And don’t tell me they can do DNA tests. They will cover up.” Manera frowned. She knew I was right. “Now, if you were green and had tentacles, there would be no problem,” I suggested.
