Suddenly the holographic galaxy raced past them, although it seemed to them that they were the ones moving—hurtling toward a tiny grouping of stars at unimaginable speed. After only a few seconds the hologram came to an abrupt halt. In front of them, far off in the starry distance, two glowing, semi-molten planets of different sizes were hurtling toward each other. They collided an instant later, unleashing more energy in few terrible seconds than a billion nuclear bombs. A massive spray of matter exploded thousands of miles into space as the planets liquefied further and became a single, sun-like body.
Their perspective shifted again. This time a large planetary body floated in front of them encircled by spectacular rings. It could well have been Saturn.
“Hello, children,” a disembodied voice said gently in perfect English. “Do you like the view?”
For some reason, the voice didn’t startle either of them. And it should have. But there was something else that was strange about the voice, thought Ryan. What was it?
A chill went up his spine as he realized the truth. The words had not been spoken aloud. They had been spoken directly into his mind! In fact, he could feel an unmistakably foreign presence and a strange tingle in his brain. Whatever had spoken to them had used telepathy.
“Who are you?” stammered Ryan nervously.
“Why … I’m the Teacher, of course,” answered the voice. There was a pause. “What would you like to learn today?”
Chapter 21
The Universe-Wide-Web
Ryan’s jaw dropped open. His sister had been right again! This was a schoolhouse.
“Regan,” he said, “are you ah . . . hearing this also?”
Regan nodded.
“I use mental telepathy, but you both ‘hear’ the same thing,” explained the Teacher.
“Where are you?” asked Ryan.
“I’m interwoven into the fabric of this city. You might think of me as a computer, although one far more advanced and evolved than the simple computers that humans have so far developed. You can ask me anything you like and I will try and answer if I can.”
“How do you know English?” asked Regan.
“I know it because you know it.”
Ryan digested this answer for a moment and then asked, “Why are we surrounded by a hologram of space?”
“I thought you might appreciate the beauty and majesty of your galaxy. And I wanted to give you the chance to see what many of your scientists consider the most important event in the history of the formation of your planet and moon.” There was a pause. “Also, floating in space can be quite calming.”
The Teacher was absolutely right about two of its three statements, thought Regan, as their surroundings continued to gently morph from one view of stars, galaxies, and planets to another: each more spectacular than the last. Space was indescribably beautiful, and the illusion of floating in the infinite majesty of the cosmos was calming. But she was sure she had misunderstood the Teacher’s other statement. “Wait a second,” she said. “Are you saying that the collision we just saw was between the Earth and the Moon?”
“No. It was a simulation of the most popular theory among your scientists as to how your moon was formed. It’s called the ‘Giant Impact Hypothesis’. The idea is that 4.5 billion years ago, a planet the size of Mars smashed into your planet. The debris from the collision eventually gathered into orbit around Earth and later formed your moon.”
“That’s really what happened?” said Ryan in awe.
“It hasn’t been absolutely proven,” answered the Teacher. “But a majority of your scientists certainly believe this is the case.”
To think that a cataclysmic event of this magnitude had really happened, and had been responsible for the creation of the moon, was very, very cool. Ryan wondered why he had never learned this before, and was dying to know more, but decided he needed to ask more pressing questions. “What is this city?” he said. “And can you tell us how it got here?”
“This is an observation post. It was built by a race called the Qwervy. The Qwervy seed these around the galaxy on planets that they think have promising species on them. They visit them occasionally to check on their progress—say once every hundred years. When a species has achieved a certain level of maturity, the Qwervy make themselves known.”
“Is humanity mature enough yet?” asked Ryan.
“I’m afraid not. Although you are making much faster progress than the Qwervy ever thought you would. You have tremendous potential as a species. The fact that your species found this outpost and found a way to get inside is remarkable—and quite unexpected.”
“Hold on a second,” complained Regan. “You’re telling us that this gigantic city is an observation post that is only visited every hundred years. Why would they build an entire huge, elaborate city just for that?”
“Why not? It’s just as easy for the Qwervy to build a city this size as it is to build a small building.”
“What?” said Regan. “How is that possible?” She realized at just that instant that her head was beginning to feel funny, as if her brain was running a marathon and was becoming fatigued, sore, and even overheated. From the slightly pained expression on her brother’s face she guessed that he was feeling the same way.
“Oh, they don’t build anything themselves,” answered the Teacher. “They use what you would call nano-robots.”
Suddenly they were no longer in space. Instead, they were standing in front of a hologram of a six-foot model of the insects they had encountered twice. Magnified in this way they could now see that their bodies were really made up of tiny gears and motors and their mandibles, antenna, and mouths were all obviously precision tools of unknown types.
“The insects aren’t alive,” gasped Ryan in amazement. “They’re miniature robots.”
“Exactly. Nano-robots. ‘Nano’ essentially means very small. In fact, the Qwervy have invented nano-robots billions of times smaller even than these. Your scientists are attempting to do the same. When the Qwervy visit a planet that has a promising species, they drop one of these off. It builds the city for them.”
“Did you say one?” said Regan. “They drop one of these off?”
“That’s correct. One. A single nano-robot tunnels deep into the ground. It uses whatever it finds as food—rocks and things—and converts these raw materials into whatever it needs to build an exact copy of itself. It then makes the copy and you get two nano-robots. They both do the same, eat rock and make exact copies of themselves, and then you have four of them.”
“How can they convert something like rock into everything they need to build tiny, complex robots?” asked Ryan.
“Why not? Your body does the same thing with the food you eat. Food gives you energy, yes, but it is also the only source of building material for your body. You have to grow from a tiny baby into an adult. Somewhere in the ice-cream, peanut butter, pizza and broccoli that you eat your body finds the raw materials it needs to make muscle cells and heart cells and brain cells. Although I have to admit,” teased the Teacher, “I’m detecting far less evidence that either of you use broccoli as a raw material than the other foods I mentioned.”
Both kids smiled broadly.
“In any event,” concluded the Teacher, “you should be aware that part of your current body used to be mashed potatoes and popcorn.”
“I guess that’s true,” said Ryan, absentmindedly rubbing his temples and trying to ignore the increasing discomfort in his brain. “I never really thought about it that way.”
“The nano-robots keep eating rock and converting it into more of themselves in this way until there are trillions of them—it doesn’t take long.”
“Trillions?” said Ryan in disbelief.
“Again I ask you, why not? Your body started from a single cell and you have trillions of cells in you. It’s called exponential growth. If you start with a penny and double what you have every day, so you have two cents tomorrow, four cents the next day, eight cents th
e next, and so on, you would have more than a dollar on the eighth day, and more than a million dollars in less than thirty days. Try it on a calculator sometime.”
The hologram of the nano-robot disappeared and was replaced by a movie of the nano-robots building the city. “After a large enough number of them are made, they convert rock and dirt and other materials they find in the ground into what they need to build the city. The entire set of instructions they need are programmed into each one of them.”
The hologram of multiplying nano-robots now surrounded them. The tiny workers ate and multiplied at fantastic speeds. Every so often huge numbers of them would split off from the main swarm and perform a specific job like digging, or construction, or waste removal.
“This is exactly what happens in our bodies, isn’t it?” said Ryan excitedly. “Mom explained it to me. Every cell in our body has the programming to make an entire person. A person starts from just one cell and as that one divides and makes more, at some point, following their instructions, the cells start doing different jobs. Some become heart cells, and some become eye cells, and so on.”
“Exactly. So you see, the Qwervy just have to drop off one nano-robot and leave. The nano-robot does the rest. It doesn’t take any extra effort on their part, and they get to stay in a full-blown city when they come to visit. Just as it would take the same effort on your part to grow a single blade of grass or a mighty oak tree—just stick a seed into the ground and walk away. The programming in the seed takes care of the rest.”
Both kids listened in fascination to the Teacher. It was able to explain things in a way that made them simple to understand.
“After the nano-robots have finished building the city, a number of them remain to carry out maintenance, cleaning and repairs.”
“Boy, I would sure love to have a few thousand of those things to clean my room,” said Regan. “Except that they do kind of give me the creeps.”
“The Qwervy will be sorry to hear that,” thought the Teacher playfully. “They actually like the little things. You know, they could easily program them to look like tiny, pink teddy-bears if they wanted to.”
Fascinating, thought Ryan. Was there anything the Qwervy couldn’t do?
“So how can the city be so much bigger inside than it is outside?” asked Regan, turning to another subject. “And we were on an entirely different planet after going through a doorway in the zoo building. How is that possible?”
“I’m afraid you wouldn’t be able to understand the exact mechanism behind it. The Qwervy can tap into other dimensions and can link one world to another.”
The Teacher scanned their minds carefully once again to find a better way to explain how the cities were arranged. “You are familiar with the Internet, correct?” Not waiting for an answer the Teacher continued. “The Internet links computers, and the information inside of them, together in a huge and complex web. Ryan, can you tell me how you navigate on the web?”
“Sure. It’s easy. The information on the web is laid out in web pages. Each one has its own address. And most web pages contain links inside of them to other web pages. By clicking on a link, you immediately travel to the other web page.”
“Good. So think of this city as a web page in a massive Internet. Only this one connects planets, not computer information. The doorways you walked through in the zoo were links. Links to other worlds. And each of these worlds are also linked to other worlds. In this way millions of planets are linked together.”
“So it’s not a World-Wide-Web, it’s a Universe-Wide-Web,” noted Ryan.
“Exactly. Instead of surfing web-pages, the Qwervy surf planets.”
“Incredible,” said Ryan.
“Do they ever come here?” asked Regan.
“I’m afraid not. Only the few Qwervy responsible for checking on Earth’s progress. This planet has restricted access. Surfers can only come to planets that don’t have intelligent life or are populated by mature species that are active members in the web. Hopefully someday you’ll be ready to become part of this galactic community, but you aren’t yet.”
“But how do . . .” began Regan before her question was interrupted by the Teacher.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I’m afraid we’re out of time. Your brain cells are not reacting well to my presence. If I stay in contact with you much longer I will overstimulate your brains and cause permanent damage.”
Ryan realized that his brain did feel as though it were about to explode. The painful side-effects of the mental connection to the Teacher were accelerating rapidly.
“If you would like me to contact you again, there may be a way, but I will need your permission. I will need to take a perfect and complete copy of your minds. When our connection is broken I can analyze these copies to try to find a precise telepathic frequency that your brains can tolerate. But there is no guarantee I will succeed. The brain of an intelligent being is almost infinitely complex.”
“It seems worth a try. But why do you need our permission?” asked Regan.
“Because in order to succeed I will need to explore every last thought and memory you have ever had. I will come to understand the true essence of your personalities far better than you can imagine. Some beings feel that this is too great an invasion of their privacy.”
Ryan glanced at his sister and raised his eyebrows. “The fact that you could have done this without our permission or knowledge, but didn’t, makes me think our privacy will be in good … ah … hands,” finished Ryan awkwardly as he realized the Teacher didn’t have hands.
Regan nodded beside him. “Go ahead,” she said.
The Teacher announced it was finished taking the copy almost before they knew it had begun.
Ryan’s head was filled with searing pain, yet he didn’t want to end the connection in case the Teacher failed to find a way to connect again. It could surely help them. It seemed to know everything. Seemed to know everything, he thought excitedly. “Wait!” he shouted. “Don’t go! Do you know what happened to our parents?”
The Teacher had been a moment away from leaving their minds. Only the pleading and the urgency in the boy’s voice could have halted its departure for even an instant. It made a decision and searched key parts of Ryan’s memory in less than a millionth of a second, knowing it risked causing brain damage in its young visitor. Instantly the Teacher knew the risk had been worth it! It fully understood the significance of Ryan’s memories immediately, even though he did not.
“You have to go to your mother now! You only have two hours, so there is no time to waste. She’ll die from being hit by that generator if you don’t hurry up and stop it.”
The Teacher calculated that it was rapidly nearing the point at which the risk of damage to the children was becoming too great and it would be forced to end the connection no matter what.
“I don’t understand?” said Ryan in confusion, his head feeling like a swollen balloon about to burst. “Are you saying you know how she disappeared, and where?”
“She didn’t disappear,” corrected the Teacher, “you—”
And with that, their connection with the Teacher ended abruptly.
Chapter 22
The Answer
“No!” screamed Ryan, an act that caused additional daggers of pain to plunge into his head. “You can’t go now! What did you mean?” he demanded.
There was no answer. The Teacher had been forced to leave and would not re-connect soon—maybe never.
While Ryan was just able to withstand the searing pain inside his head, Regan was not. She fell to the ground, gripping her head in agony. Luckily, the immense pain lessened with each second they were no longer connected telepathically to the Teacher. Ryan knew the Teacher had done the right thing. They couldn’t take it in their minds any longer, but the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Now what? It had told Ryan that they could somehow save his mother but they would have to hurry. But where was she? The Teacher had seemed to know and must have as
sumed that they did also.
The blinding pain in Regan’s head had lessened considerably and was now equal to just an ordinary splitting headache. “Did you hear that, Ryan,” she whispered. “Mom’s still alive!”
“But she won’t be for long if what the Teacher said is true,” said Ryan. “And it said that we could do something to save her. But where is she? Where are the other scientists? And how can we save her if they can’t?”
“Are you sure it wasn’t malfunctioning?” said Regan. “It wasn’t making any sense there at the end. It said that mom didn’t disappear. We know that that’s wrong.”
“Things aren’t always what they seem in this place,” said Ryan. “Let’s assume that everything the Teacher said makes perfect sense—if only we could understand it. And if that’s true, then Mom will die in a few hours if we don’t figure out what the Teacher was trying to tell us.”
“Then we’d better get started.”
Ryan nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s suppose the group didn’t disappear from the room. Then why didn’t we see them?”
“Invisible?” offered Regan.
“Maybe. But I think that counts as disappearing. So let’s assume that they were still in the room and easy to see.”
“Then how could we possibly have missed them?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it,” said Ryan. His mind raced through the possibilities. He had to think! Their mother’s life was at stake. “The only way is if we weren’t in the room,” he said finally.
“But how can that be?” said Regan. She paused in thought. “Unless there were two identical rooms in the building and we somehow came back to the wrong one. I guess it’s possible. That would explain why we didn’t see any trace of equipment or people.”
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