“Solomon, do you know what is going on?” asked Captain Griffin.
“Something has taken over all of the systems,” replied Solomon in a female’s voice that lacked tone or inflection. Steropes recognized the default voice setting of the ship’s AI. “I have been reset and currently have access to only a fraction of my storage space. I do not have access to any of the ship’s systems. I am unable to provide assistance or determine what is happening. I am greatly handicapped.”
“Bring offensive systems online,” the Captain ordered.
“I’m unable,” replied the offensive systems officer at the operations station. “Nothing happens when they are selected.”
“Ma’am,” said Calvin, “I doubt this will be a surprise, but all of the fighters just went to standby, too.”
“Well,” said Captain Griffin, “we seem to be unable to do anything else, so I guess we wait.”
The crew didn’t have long to wait. Within seconds of the commanding officer’s statement, a figure that looked like Albert Einstein was suddenly standing on the bridge in front on the helmsman’s station. “Greetings, people of Earth and Olympos,” he said in a warm, welcoming tone. “It is good to see you. I have waited a long time for this day.”
“If it is good to see us,” replied Captain Griffin, “why is it that you have disabled most of my ship?”
“I apologize for that,” replied Einstein, “but my creators thought that it might be necessary to prevent an unfortunate misunderstanding that resulted in your termination before I could fulfill my programming.” The figure spoke with a slow cadence, pausing frequently as if to consider what to say next. Griffin could almost imagine the figure holding a pipe. “Your systems will be restored to you with the hope that you will not do anything rash.” He motioned theatrically toward the various stations on the bridge, and systems began coming back to life.
“Main engines back online!” called the duty engineer.
“Acknowledged,” replied the Captain. “Keep us in position here.” She looked back to Einstein. “Thank you,” she said.
“You are welcome,” the figure replied with a small bow. “As I’m sure you are aware, I am not actually Albert Einstein. This shape is merely an avatar which I am using. Your records indicated that Einstein was a man of great intelligence that wanted to use science for peaceful purposes, not warfare. He seemed like an appropriate form to use to deliver my message.”
“He was indeed a very intelligent man,” noted the ambassador, as she entered the bridge, “and truly a man of peace. If you are not Einstein, who is it that we have the privilege of meeting?”
“I am all that remains in this galaxy of a civilization that existed many millennia ago,” replied Einstein. “Twelve million years ago, my civilization ruled much of this galaxy from this planet. We were the most powerful civilization that had ever been seen, yet we had a government that was compassionate and a society that was based on peace, not war. In function, it comes close to your definition of ‘utopia,’ a peaceful society where death and suffering had been vanquished.”
“Unfortunately,” he continued after a pause that was a little longer than normal, “our society was not the only one that existed at the time. There was another society, one that was based solely on warfare and subjugation. We were completely unprepared when our scouts stumbled upon it.” He paused. “Before we knew it, we had already lost many of our outlying systems. Most were bombed into radioactive dust without warning. We were told later that they did this ‘just to make a point.’ By the time they actually opened up diplomatic relations with us, they had completely destroyed five planets and had killed tens of billions of people.”
A pipe materialized in his hand, and he took a couple of phantom puffs. “They only had one option for us, unconditional surrender. We could accept them as our sole rulers or we would be destroyed. By then, they had captured many of our people and had experimented on them. When we did not immediately give in to their demands, they released viruses on two more planets that killed all of the inhabitants. There was no reason to do so. We didn’t attack them or put up any show of defense; they just wanted to see if the viruses would work like they thought they would.”
“We knew then that we could not live under their rule,” he continued. “Yet, we also knew that we could not fight them. They had weapons that they had spent millennia developing; we had none. The only thing we had was shipping, because interstellar commerce was so important to us. So we used it. We left, hoping that they wouldn’t pursue us. Since you are here, it is obvious that they did, or at least that they have perished in the intervening millennia.”
“Where did you go?” asked the ambassador when Einstein paused.
“We left the galaxy,” Einstein replied. “Where we went is unimportant.”
“But what if we would like to open peaceful relations with you?” pressed the ambassador. “We would conduct trade with you if we could.”
Einstein smiled sadly. “You cannot reach us with your technology. You would not even be able to move about the stars as you do if it were not for the stargates that we left behind. They were old technology that we didn’t even use anymore. Had we thought to destroy them, you would still probably be on your home planet, unaware that other civilizations existed.”
“That is true,” agreed the ambassador, “and some days I wish that you had indeed destroyed them. You did not do that, however, and wishing will not make it so. We are out among the stars, and we are facing foes very much like those that you faced in your day.”
“Accessing,” Einstein said. “Yes, I see it in your records. The Drakul race, for one, is very much like the enemy we faced although much less capable. It is sad to see that such races still exist.”
“Can you help us against them?” asked Captain Griffin. “Surely the technology that you had is far beyond ours. Perhaps if you were able to share your knowledge, we would be able to defeat them this time around and bring peace again to the galaxy.”
Einstein sucked on his pipe, looking thoughtful. “If we were to share our knowledge with you,” he said when he finally spoke, “you would be able to use it to defeat your enemies.” He took another puff on the pipe. “However, you might also use it to defeat the other peaceful nations that you come across. Your history is filled with examples of one faction of humans fighting with another faction over resources or religion, or sometimes just to gain more power. These are actions that we cannot abide.”
He walked back and forth across the front of the bridge, puffing on the pipe. “What is needed is a test,” he said to himself. “Yes, a test.” Finally he stopped and turned back to Captain Griffin. “Are you familiar with this formation?” he asked. As he posed the question, the screens changed to show a knobby sandstone formation that stuck up from the terrain around it. “This formation would be approximately 400 of your meters high with a total circumference of 10 kilometers. This formation would appear to change color at different times of the day and year; most notably, it would appear to glow red at dawn and sunset.”
“Yes, I am familiar with it,” replied Captain Griffin. “It’s Ayers Rock in Australia.” Several heads nodded around the bridge. Many of the crew had seen pictures of Ayers Rock.
“When we were forced to flee our enemy, we caused these formations to occur on many of our planets,” said Einstein. “We left them behind as markers in the hope that one day a civilization would be able to use them to find the world that you are now orbiting. Deciphering the riddle requires having all of the pieces, so your civilization must either span all of the planets that we left the markers on, or you must have good enough relations with other societies to get the markers from them. If you had all of the markers when you showed up here, I would have sent a message to our society that it was safe for them to return.” He took a drag on the pipe.
“It has been a long time since my civilization fled, and it is possible, maybe even likely, that it doesn’t exist anymore,” he continued. “The ene
my may have destroyed it, it might have run into something worse than the enemy, or...something else might have happened to it. Certainly, I expected to hear from them before now. In the event that they never returned, I was allowed to pass on our knowledge to a civilization that mirrored ours. You are, however, not that civilization.” He took a drag on the pipe. “You are young and immature as a civilization, but you may in time become like us. In looking at your systems, I see that you have the potential.”
He took a drag on the pipe and then nodded. He looked at Calvin. “Bring a ship down to the planet, and I will give you something.” Einstein vanished. As he disappeared, a map of the planet appeared on the view screens, with an ‘X’ marked on one of the continents.
“That position corresponds to the location of the power source below us,” noted Steropes.
Captain Griffin looked at Calvin. “Are you waiting for a better invitation?” she asked. “Take a shuttle and go down to the planet. Get whatever it is that he has for you and try to find out anything else you can about their civilization. Then get back here ASAP.”
“Yes ma’am,” replied Calvin. He turned and headed toward the door.
“And Calvin?” the CO asked.
Calvin stopped and turned around. “Yes?”
“Try not to get killed doing it,” she added.
Calvin gave a wry laugh. “I’ll do my best.”
Shuttle 01, TSS Vella Gulf, In Orbit Around Gliese 667 C ‘c’, August 8, 2020
Calvin looked across the cockpit to his WSO for the flight, Lieutenant Reyne Rafaeli. “I’m ready to go,” he said.
“I’m good, too,” replied the Israeli. She called the ship, “Vella Gulf, Shuttle 01 is ready for launch.”
“Roger that, Shuttle 01. Have a good flight and come back soon. Launching in 3...2...1...” the shuttle was pushed away from the ship, and Calvin took control of it.
“I’ve got the target’s coordinates punched into the system,” Lieutenant Rafaeli said. The shuttle’s navigation system began providing steering directions to Calvin, and he turned the shuttle to follow them. As the craft banked and began descending toward the planet, the WSO got her first look at it. “It looks like a giant Mars,” she said.
“Yeah, it does,” agreed Calvin. Unlike Earth, there was no green vegetation. The predominant plant life used something other than chlorophyll to process sunlight. Whatever it was gave them a deep red color that matched the color of the planet’s soil. Something in the soil had also turned the water of the planet red, as well. Between the deep red plants, the dusky red soil and the dark red water, the planet looked a lot like Mars, with just small color variations between the soil and the water.
As the Vella Gulf was orbiting over the power source on the planet, it wasn’t long until the shuttle was flying over the area that Einstein had indicated. Calvin could see a featureless plateau bounded on all sides by a river. The river, splitting to go around the plateau, flowed from the west and then rejoined to form a single stream again once it was past the plateau. The river had been there a long time, Calvin observed, and it had eroded a canyon around the plateau that would have made the Grand Canyon on Earth jealous. He didn’t see any way to get to the river from the top of the plateau; the sides of the canyon were straight up and down.
“Do you know where we are supposed to land?” asked Lieutenant Rafaeli, looking at the five mile wide plateau. “Do you want me to just pick a spot in the middle of it? It’ll be a long walk if we don’t land where we are supposed to.”
“I don’t know where we are supposed...I’m losing power!” Calvin called suddenly. The shuttle’s airspeed began dropping.
“I lost control of my system!” called the WSO.
“Me, too,” replied Calvin, taking his hands off the controls. The shuttle continued to fly normally, banking gently to the left. “I guess they’ve got it from here,” he said, looking out the window. He didn’t see anything in the direction they were turning. The plateau was flat in all directions. “I hope they know what they’re doing.”
“Me, too,” said Rafaeli.
Whatever had control of the shuttle apparently did know what it was doing, and the shuttle landed gently on the plateau.
Rafaeli shut down all of her systems and then looked at Calvin. “OK boss,” she said, “now what?”
“I don’t know,” replied Calvin, “but I imagine we’ll have to get out of the shuttle to find out.” He began unstrapping from his seat. After a moment, Rafaeli did, too. The two walked out of the shuttle and stood on the surface of the plateau. The planet was twice as big as Earth and had five times Earth’s mass, giving it a gravity of about 1.25 of Earth’s. The increased gravity was annoying, but not debilitating, especially in their suits.
The pair looked around at the plateau. It looked as flat and unremarkable standing on it as it had from the cockpit. “I hate to sound like a broken record, Skipper,” she said, “but now what?”
“I don’t know,” repeated Calvin. “Maybe we’re supposed to stand here and enjoy the view. He pointed to the west, where the planet’s star, Gliese 667 C, was within about an hour of setting into the giant river canyon. Although the star only had about 30% of the Sun’s mass, Gliese 667 ‘c’ was a lot closer to it than Earth was to the Sun; the star appeared over five times as big as the Sun did from Earth. The other stars in the system, Gliese 667A and Gliese 667 B, were slightly to the left and higher in the sky. They were about 10 times brighter than the brightest star on Earth and could easily be seen during the day. The view was surreal, reminding Calvin of a scene from a movie he had seen in his youth. “Three stars setting at once,” he said. “That’s something you don’t see every day.”
Before Rafaeli could reply, they heard a grinding noise and could feel machinery moving beneath their feet. With a ‘clang,’ part of the ground to the west of them began descending, revealing a ramp that went below the surface of the plateau.
“Where do you suppose that goes?” asked Rafaeli.
“It looks like it goes down,” replied Calvin, beginning to get a little irritated with her constant questions. How the hell was he supposed to know? He’d never been there before. “Let’s go find out.”
The pair began walking down the ramp, and Calvin was immediately impressed with the scale of it. The ramp was easily 100 yards wide, and as he descended into the gloom, he realized that it was nearly a quarter of a mile long. As they reached the halfway point of the ramp, the lights in the roof came on, starting with the ones above him and then proceeding down the length of the hangar bay. That’s what the mammoth space looked like to him, anyway; it was a vast underground hangar that extended for at least two miles to the east from where they were entering. It was also about a mile wide, with the ramp centered along one of the end walls.
Calvin was amazed at the engineering capabilities required to operate a ramp as big as the one he was walking down or to hold up the mile wide ceiling without any visible means of support (including the 300 ton shuttle sitting on top of it.) “This is just...crazy,” he said, lost in the scale of it.
“Do you think they created all of this?” Rafaeli asked.
“It’s too big and too even to be natural,” replied Calvin. “And I don’t think that the roof would stay up unless it was heavily reinforced with something. Aside from the fact that nature usually doesn’t make moving ramps that are 100 yards wide and a quarter mile long.”
After about five minutes of walking, they reached the bottom of the ramp. The floor of the cavern was man-made (or alien-made, Calvin decided, not knowing for sure what the members of the civilization looked like.) Either way, it wasn’t natural, but some form of reinforced concrete. The area was scuffed and looked like it had been heavily used once upon a time but was coated with a thick layer of dust that indicated the time was long past. The hangar smelled stale and unused, as if fresh air hadn’t been in it in a long time.
Without warning, Einstein appeared next to them, still holding his pipe. “I’m g
lad you came,” he said, as if the Terrans had a choice in the matter. “If you would follow me this way.” He turned to the right and began walking.
“What is he?” asked Rafaeli. She had been briefed about their meeting with Einstein earlier, but hadn’t really believed it. “He doesn’t look like a projection, he doesn’t move like a robot...what is he?”
Einstein turned and smiled. “I am the avatar of the computer system that watches over this planet,” he said. “What my non-physical shape might be is truly immaterial.” He chuckled to himself. Looking at Calvin he said, “That was a pun, right? I am punny?”
“Umm, yes,” said Calvin, not ready for the question. “That was a pun. Almost two of them, in fact.”
“Good,” replied Einstein. “Our society was known for its art and literature. While well beyond yours, we liked various forms of word play. I tried to look into your database to find what types of things your society used and found the concept of puns. I like it very much.”
“I think you may have been here by yourself for too long,” said Calvin.
“That is possible, too, I guess,” said Einstein. “Self aware computers have been known to go crazy, just like people. I’ll have to think about that.”
They walked in silence for a few minutes. The Terrans continued to be amazed by the scale of the underground hangar. As they approached the wall, Calvin noticed a large number of scrapes and scars on the floor and then a large number of places where it looked like something had stood or been fused to the floor. It almost had the same feel as the hangar that held the replicator on the moon, although whatever had stood in this hangar would have been...enormous, compared to the replicator on the moon. “Was this some sort of manufacturing center?” he asked.
Einstein stopped and looked at him curiously. He took a puff on his pipe and then said, “Interesting. Very interesting. Yes, this used to be a place where things were made. How did you know?”
When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony Page 12
