Warp Point
Page 21
“Yes."
“God does not countenance the taking of life, Captain. And in that, I include artificial intelligence. After much prayerful contemplation, I've come to the conclusion that you may have wreaked irreparable harm in destroying all the MI in existence. And the execution of the Muslims, even though not of my faith, was still reprehensible."
Dan thought for a few moments on how to answer while directing his gaze directly at McCoy. The man began squirming before he finally answered. “Mister McCoy, anyone on the ship is free to hold whatever opinion they feel is appropriate to their faith, upbringing, and ethical considerations. What I can't have is taking those opinions and proselytizing with them, in direct contradiction of my actions. Is that clear enough for you?"
Seeing the captain's mood, McCoy decided to pass over the use of ‘mister’ in place of his title. “I see. Is that all, then?"
“No. I also want you to quit advocating an immediate end to the quarantine of Termen and its inhabitants in your sermons. I'll take heed of my advisors before making a decision. As Ship's Chaplain, I can have you included if you like. But that's the only way I want to hear of you talking about lifting the quarantine, other than in casual conversation. And that goes for the executions as well. Is that clear?"
“But, Captain Saddler, don't you leave any room at all for divergent opinions? After all, America is proprietor of the ship and we are a democratic nation with laws to govern us."
“We are also on a ship, Mister McCoy. If you haven't already read the regulations governing United States vessels on detached duty, I suggest you do so very soon, before you find yourself with more problems than a sparse congregation. In space, until I am back in communication with my superiors, I am the law."
“But..."
“And by law, I can do just about anything I choose, including executions. The only restraint is that my actions may be reviewed after I am again in contact with my superiors."
McCoy said nothing.
“Any questions?"
“No, Captain. You've made yourself abundantly clear."
“In that case, you're excused."
Dan couldn't help but wonder if he was being too harsh, but on the other hand, he damn sure didn't want religious views to constrain actions he felt necessary for the successful completion of their mission. In the end, he decided he had done the right thing, and if the reverend didn't like it, too bad.
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Four
The week before they were due to re-enter their own universe was a tense, nerve wracking period of time, with Matt and his crew and other scientists he consulted with working almost constantly. They reviewed all their calculations for any possible error and used various approaches to see if they could narrow the line of flight toward the warp point to the closest possible repetition of how they had entered it. The task was inordinately difficult because of the change in physical laws, small though they were. New instruments had been designed to take those differences into account, but only a passage would tell if they were accurate enough. No one had any idea what would happen should their calculations be in error. Dan himself could do nothing but make the final decision on whether to go or wait for more and perhaps better figures. On the final day, Matt came to him in his stateroom, away from the tense atmosphere in Central Control.
After pouring coffee, Matt sipped appreciatively. “Ahh. This is much better than the stuff in my stateroom."
“Remind me, I'll have George send you some of ours, though I'm not sure it's any different."
“Couldn't hurt, though it's probably just the way I brew it."
Dan eyed his friend, who seemed to be hesitant about broaching the subject of his visit. “What is it, Matt? Troubles?"
“Nooo...” The astronomer strung the denial out as if qualifying it—and he was. “We've got the calculations all finished for the passage tomorrow. In fact they were finished almost a week ago and we've gone over them until they've been almost crunched to death."
“So why are you looking so worried?"
Matt sighed heavily. “Dan, we've done our damnedest. To the best of our ability, we've got the figures that should take us right back to where we came from in the Termen system. The thing is ... well, we're not quite certain."
“Should I call it off and swing around for another try while you work some more?"
“No, it wouldn't help. We've done the best we can and all the fiddling-around in the world won't change our calculations. We may as well go with what we've got and hope for the best."
Dan nodded. He really had no choice but to do what the scientists recommended. However ... “What happens if we go through at an angle that's not right?"
Matt smiled thinly, with no humor behind it. “Good question. We don't have a clue. Goddamnit! The fucking little bugs should have told us to build a fleet of ships just like Pioneer, and then come rescue them! Of course we'd have thought twice about making he trip then, though. They knew exactly how to sucker us into this, didn't they?"
“Apparently so; we did just what they wanted."
“Well, never mind me, I'm just blathering. We've done what we can about getting back; that's what I really wanted to say."
“So I'm on the hot seat, huh?"
“It's your decision, of course, but frankly, you have no choice, not if we ever want to go home. As I said, our figures won't get any better, so we may as well try now as later. I just wanted to let you know in advance so you won't be surprised if we come out on the other side of the Milky Way, or in the middle of the Andromeda Galaxy, for instance."
Dan had to laugh, regardless of how soberly his best friend had related his news. “Hell, maybe we'll just come out back in our own solar system and forget about the rest of this crap. Anyway, thanks for telling me. If you say it won't get any better, we'll go for broke tomorrow."
* * * *
Again there was that feeling of nerves being twisted inside his body; again his muscles froze tight and his vision blurred. Maybe that was a different universe, Dan said to himself as he sat unmoving, but the sensation sure as hell isn't any different when going through a regular warp point. Then, as after the previous passages, he came back to his normal self. Breathing a sigh of relief, he glanced at the screens. This time they didn't blink and fade. Our own universe, he thought.
The others in central control began to relax. Matt began receiving photographic and numeric information from his crew in the astronomy department. Hawkins appeared satisfied, sitting loosely in his chair, clearly unperturbed. Brad Starks nodded to himself as engineering parameters began coming into his screen, showing the physical laws were apparently back to normal, as was to be expected once back in their own universe.
Dan stood up, intending to leave for a few minutes in order to shower and change uniforms. He was near the exit when Terrell called him back. “Captain! Something's wrong!"
Oh Christ, what now? Dan thought. He returned to the area of his seat but remained standing. Terrell looked puzzled rather than afraid, easing his feelings. “What is it, Terrell? Can it wait?"
“I ... I don't know Captain.” His screen was depicting a radar picture of space around them on one screen and back toward the Termen planet on another. Dan could see nothing wrong. The depiction looked almost as it always had, given the different distances of the observations. He was familiar from the way it should look from long hours in central control. The main difference was that the planet Termen had moved closer to them in its orbit around the sun. As Terrell continued gazing at his screens without saying anything, he became increasingly impatient. “Terrell? What is it?"
“The MI ships. Remember all the debris from our battle near the warp point? It's gone!"
Dan blinked, trying to remember scenes from right before entering the warp, but back then he had been paying more attention to battle reports as they fought the MI than anything else. He couldn't think why this mattered. His mind seemed to have shut down. “Why is that important?"
“They were all under acceleration when we killed them. Wouldn't they have kept their momentum? Couldn't they have gone farther than our radar is reaching by now?” It seemed logical to him, but he noticed that Matt and Hawkins were both leaning forward and staring at the screens, totally alert.
Terrell slowly shook his head. “It's just not possible, Captain. There were too many of them with little or no acceleration after we took them out, and all of them shouldn't be out of sight by now. I don't see how it could be feasible. Something's wrong,” he repeated.
“He's right,” Matt said. “This is impossible!"
* * * *
Several hours later, after all the ship's instruments had been thoroughly checked and found to be operating perfectly, there was still no explanation. Even the thought someone advanced that they might have come out in a solar system similar to Termen's was quickly proven wrong by spectrographic measurements of Termen and the nearest stars. They were the same as before.
Dan held out his coffee cup for Melinda to fill again. George had gone off duty to get some rest. He drank, knowing that an explanation was what he really needed; not more coffee. He looked around Central Control at frowning faces and puzzled expressions, but saw nothing that expressed fear. If anything, frustration was the predominant mode, including himself. “Ladies and gentlemen, has anyone got any idea of what's happened?"
Matt pointed at the radar screen. “We knew we'd be closer to Termen when we came back out. It'll only be a few days until we're in communication range. Maybe they'll be willing to talk this time around and tell us something."
Dan peered at the presentation and now he frowned. “Terrell, can you focus in closer on the robots MI left around the planet? We don't seem to be getting a reflection from any of them."
Terrell touched the console. The icons for the robots came up, but there were no figures entered beside any of them. “They can't all be on the other side of the planet,” he complained.
Nor were they. After more hours of waiting, it became plain that the robots were also missing from the Termen solar system. The Termites were already free to leave their planet.
“Damn it, did we do all this fighting and running around all over the bloody universe for nothing?” Hawkins asked. His fists were clinched tight. He obviously was very unhappy.
Dan put a cap on it. “Calm down, Chet. We'll be in range of their signal strength in a few days ... no, wait! The robots aren't there now! That was what stifled the communications before, wasn't it? Terrell, see if you can pick up anything from there now."
He tried, but after several hours, it became increasingly clear that it was pointless. Even the looped recording they had listened to before wasn't broadcasting.
Dan glanced at his watch, anxious for Stacey to return and relieve him so he could get some sleep and refresh himself. Old perspiration had dried on his body and his shadowed face was itching. He was becoming increasingly groggy but even with his mind slowed, he suddenly had a thought that might help.
“Terrell, you and Susan go get a few hours sleep, then start working on that MI brain you brought back. See if it responds now that we're back in its regular universe. Just be careful how you connect it; I don't want the damned thing taking over the ship."
“No chance of that,” Susan assured him. “It's a good idea, though. We'll get on it."
A few minutes later Stacey arrived and sent him off to their stateroom. He barely managed to doff his uniform before falling onto the bed and into a deep, restful slumber.
* * * *
Terrell had gone to bed for a couple of hours but Susan wasn't quite so worn out; earlier on she had left for an hour and grabbed a nap. She went directly to the MI they had salvaged and began cautiously laying out conduits to connect to the brain when Terrell arrived. On Dan's orders, a self contained generator from stores was going to be used for power. Susan appreciated the caution. She had no desire to let the mechanical mind interact with the ship either.
After Terrell joined her, it took a surprisingly short time until they had some answers. Excitedly, they stored the data then made several hard copies for distribution in central control.
“The captain's really going to get a chuckle out of this news, isn't he?” Terrell said to his partner as he handed her copies of the printouts.
She laughed. “He sure will! Golly, what a ... a...” her voice trailed off.
“What's wrong?"
“Oh, God, Terrell, we were thinking about the Termites. What if it's happened to us!"
Terrell's mouth sagged open. After cracking the storage area of the MI brain and having Pioneer interpret its history files, he still hadn't been thinking of the most obvious reason for all the anomalies since returning to the Termen solar system. But Susan was right. It was the only explanation.
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dan's face blanched white when Susan came into Central Control and took him aside to talk to him. His body sagged as she explained what must have happened in a whispered voice. He sat in the borrowed chair for a moment and held his face in his hands. He wondered desperately whether there was a chance Susan and Terrell were wrong, then told himself to quit the escapism. She wouldn't have told him like this if they weren't sure, and neither they nor he knew of anything to do about it. Finally he raised his head and looked her in the eye. “Don't pass this on to anyone except the ones I'm going to tell right now. Understand?"
“Yes, Captain.” She was glad to see him beginning to recover from the shock. For a moment she had been fearful of his stability at hearing the bad news.
Dan got up and went back to his captain's chair, but he didn't sit down. Instead he motioned for George. “Go to the stateroom—no, never mind, I'll call her from here. Just bring a bottle of brandy and glasses, quickly."
He called Stacey and asked her to report to Central Control as soon as humanly possible, then refused to speak to anyone else other than to tell a couple of scientists they were excused from duty. Seeing his expression, they departed hurriedly. That left only he, Matt, Hawkins, Terrell and Susan, once George had returned with the brandy and glasses then been excused. He knew he was receiving peculiar looks from Matt and Hawkins, but wanted to wait until Stacey arrived before breaking the news.
When she saw the brandy bottle, and more importantly, Dan's face, she knew something was dreadfully wrong. She went directly to him and let him gather her into his arms for a brief hug. “Should I have a drink?” she asked, trying to smile.
“You know you can't, and it's not that bad—I hope. We aren't in danger of losing our lives, but it's scary enough."
She poured and watched her husband sipping at the brandy. She was glad to see that at least he was taking decorous swallows rather than gulping it down. She noticed that Terrell and Susan already had their glasses half empty, though.
Dan cleared his throat. “Susan and Terrell have been working on the MI derelict and were successful in breaking into its stored files. There was a history of the Termen system there which explains why the Termites aren't talking, and why the robots and derelicts are gone. In short, we're not in our universe any more."
Hawkins had been sitting but now he stood up. “But ... we were told the physical laws were back to normal. And this is definitely the Termen system, even if a few little pieces of it have unaccountably disappeared. Hell, even I can read a screen well enough to tell that. What's the story?"
“I'll let Susan and Terrell give the elaboration, but to put it briefly, when we came back from that other universe, we apparently didn't hit the warp point exactly right and that caused us to encounter a quantum phenomenon. This is our universe, but a different version of it."
Complete silence reigned for moments. Finally Susan spoke. “Should we begin, Captain?"
; “Go ahead."
Susan started off. “We now know the real reason the MI was quarantining the Termites, despite what they told us. They became aware that the Termites had discovered the warp point into the other universe where we went. When they found out the Termites were going to try it, they rebelled."
Terrell took up the tale. “You see, they were afraid the very thing that happened to us would occur. No, let me back up. The MI knew of quantum effects on a micro level, of course, and they accepted the strangeness of it, but only barely. Something where the act of observing can change the outcome of an event is apparently entirely alien to machine intelligences. Had we invented them, we'd probably have observed the same kind of thinking in ours.” He sighed and shook his head despairingly.
“While they could tolerate the thought of quantum effects at the micro levels of atoms and light rays, their minds couldn't abide the idea of their masters suddenly creating multiple universes if they persisted in the idea of passing back and forth through the new warp point to a different universe. Their calculations showed it would probably happen."
“And before you ask,” Susan said, “yes, they knew the Termites in the ships going back and forth eventually would find themselves in another version of their universe, just like we did, but that would have nothing to do with the ones left in this universe. Or rather what was this universe. No ... well, never mind, you know what I mean."
“Then why—” Hawkins began, but Terrell held up a hand to stop him.
“It was simply the very idea of playing around with the universe that was anathema to the MI. That's why they revolted."
“I can see why,” Stacey commented.
Susan grinned at her. “Yes, I can, too, even if it is hard to imagine how a machine intelligence thinks. But just consider: an artificially manufactured intelligence would see a universe in terms different than we do. They would probably—and evidently did—see it as static and unchanging. The very idea of their creators playing with the known universe as they intended to do was anathema to them. They rebelled, and being unable to harm biological intelligence, they instead quarantined the Termites."