“I’m afraid that was not quite the whole purpose of today’s activities.” Michael seemed a little distracted.
“Alpha 234 – I need authorization to release critical information.”
“You realize that this information is strictly need to know?”
“Yes. But it is imperative that at least the central council be informed immediately. I need to discuss the implications with someone I trust to confirm the human standpoint, and my life partner is the obvious candidate.”
“Affirmative!
But please retain silence as far as the others are concerned until we have finalized the details for presentation to the council.”
“Agreed.”
Marianne sat looking at him strangely. “What was that about? You were talking to the AIs in private mode – I recognize the look. Is there some kind of secret you are withholding from us?”
“Yes, there is.
I discovered something, which I promised not to disclose until the other party was ready.
But I have to discuss it with you – you have already caught part of it – and I hate having secrets from you.”
“It has something to do with the AIs!”
“Yes. The conference just now was to obtain their permission to let you in on the secret immediately.
I need to know what you think – so that I can be prepared for the reactions when they are ready to release it publicly.
At this time we need to handle this information with the greatest of care – the potential for disaster is too great if people are not prepared for the revelation.
This means that until further notice its release would be strictly on a need to know basis…
What I need from you is an absolute commitment to remain silent about the whole subject until we get final clearance.”
“Of course!”
“OK! Here goes.
I am not even sure where to begin…
The AIs are positively buzzing – A problem that half the immortals have spent thousands of man-years trying to solve, which half the theories say is impossible to solve, and the other half say is simple – only they can’t say how.
And all the time the answer has been right before their eyes.”
“What are you talking about Michael?
What has been right before our eyes? And why have we been unable to see it?”
“Oh, you have all seen it. As a matter of fact, the immortals have been using it for centuries, only nobody has ever grasped the implications.
Until now.”
“Now you had better tell me – before I die of curiosity.”
“I always thought you had some cat blood!”
“If I get my claws on you…”
“Ok! Ok! I’ll tell you – no need to get violent!”
“So stop stalling already.”
“Well firstly, what is biggest problem with space travel?
And has been the limiting factor ever since the first immortals went into space?”
“That’s obvious – distance and speed.”
“Exactly – at sub light speeds the distances make travel practically impossible for non-immortals unless they go in cold sleep.
And then the risks are still high – they lose about one in ten on revival. In addition there’s the loss of live stock and biological material due to imperfections in the stasis chambers.”
“That is in essence the way I understand the problem, yes. If only the travel time was not so great,
But the only possible solution is faster than light travel, which so far has been impossible. Every way they have attempted has led to a dead end.”
“Because they have been barking up the wrong tree all the time. Every route they have tried so far has concentrated on physics.”
“But surely the problem comes down to physics – how to accelerate past the speed of light?”
“That’s what everyone thinks. – but it’s the wrong approach.
All the analyses agree that it is impossible, and experiment has borne out that faster than light travel is an impossibility.”
“But you just said you have the answer?”
“Because the answer is not FTL.
Everyone has missed the same basic fact: We have during these past couple of months been working with supralight movement every day.”
“What do you mean?”
“How fast does an object move when you teleport it?”
“Its exit speed depends on what speed you impart at the end of the teleportation. Everybody knows that!”
“Sure – but how fast does it move while it is being teleported?”
“No one knows exactly – it is obviously impossible to measure.”
“Exactly! Teleporting from anywhere to anywhere on earth is to all intents and purposes instantaneous. But radio waves take a measurable time to travel the save distance.”
“Are you saying what I think you are?”
“Yes – teleportation is definitely faster than light.”
“But how can we use that for space travel?
It took practically all the most powerful powers we could muster to teleport the spaceship a relatively minor distance. And we could not have done it at all without the AIs.”
“You are correct, but you are also wrong – the actual teleportation takes almost no power.
The biggest problem is forming the gateway, and steering the object into it. The major power goes into the exit speed determination.”
“But how does that help us?”
“No one has yet discovered the limitations of the AIs – they have only been around for the last twenty to thirty years and some of the hardware – especially the biochips are still completely untried.
But they have power equivalent to several atom bombs available to them at the flip of a switch.”
“Are you implying that the AIs can teleport a spaceship?”
“We think that they can open the portal and control the terminus. Our biggest problem at this time would be the exit vector and velocity.”
“How do you know all this – and how long have you known it?”
“I’ve suspected their powers went beyond simple telepathy for quite a while now. They have been experimenting quietly until they could parameterize their capabilities.”
“Why didn’t they inform the council before – surely we could have helped them plan their experiments and optimize their capabilities.”
“They were scared.”
“But why?”
“Remember that they contain most of human history in their memories – including the stories about how humans treated the immortals when their difference became obvious.
These machines are as far beyond computers or even normal humans as the immortals are. But they are vulnerable – they are locked into hardware systems with no mobility.”
“But surely they are too valuable to destroy?”
“Remember the great library of Alexandria? It contained the sum of all mankind’s knowledge, but it was burnt to the ground.
Throughout history man has been known to destroy anything that challenged him without a thought for the cost or the repercussions of his deeds.
He has killed his children and his parents – not to mention his siblings – when it has suited his interests – whether it be for gain or for security.
Unfortunately we have built the AIs in the image of what we might have been – they are truly incapable of defending themselves.
So they hide.”
“But if they are so careful how do you know all this?”
“Remember my exo-telepathy? It seems I do not just have a talent for contacting non-humans – I also have a special bond with the AIs.
I’ve been practicing quietly – but I picked up quite a while ago that they were hiding something.
When they realized after this mornings exercise that I was on to their secret, they threw themselves on my mercy.
That is why I have been a little distracted.”
“Oh! And I thought you were just tired.”
“No, but I have been thinking about how to break this to the council in a non threatening way.”
“What do the AIs want from us? I think that is the first question.
The second would be how can we prevent them from taking over – even I know that they design their own hardware and software now.”
“And I’m afraid those are only the tip of the iceberg.
Once you start considering the implications and the dangers we could go on forever.
To my mind however we need to look at it from the other direction – what mutual advantages are there for each of us, and how can we build a better society based on equality for all?”
“The one advantage I can see for us is that we are already a mixed society.
Over the centuries the humanists have learnt to live in harmony in a society consisting of Powered and non powered immortals as well as powered and non powered mortals.
They have already developed tools and techniques to govern a society where a persons worth is not measured in brute force, but in commitment and contribution to total society.
They also have a culture of consensus and mutual respect.
Actually I don’t think they will find it more difficult to integrate the AIs who are already a working part of their life into their society than it was to accept the augmented dolphins on Isis, or even the d’Norini.
I personally have become so used to working with the AIs on a personal basis that I find it difficult not to accept them as people.
One thing that may make a difference would be if they would use a name and find a way of differentiating themselves when dealing with us – for example different vocal ranges and mannerisms.
Those could be phased in over a period so as to be almost imperceptible.”
“I like that idea.
I also think the council should set up a treaty with them defining mutually acceptable terms of cooperation.”
“I agree – that would also allow both sides to build in controls to protect them from each other.”
“Definitely – AIs do you concur with our judgment?”
“We do – we also wish to nominate the Michael-Marianne unit as our advocate to the council of the humanists.
We will submit to the council certain programming parameters we will abide with which will prevent unauthorized intervention on our behalf in human interests.
We will also present a full presentation of our currently known and predicted future capabilities for the judgment of the council.
We request that you initiate the required actions to implement these decisions. We thank you for your help and friendship, good night.”
“Good night.” The two humans said in a rather breathless impromptu chorus.
“I think it’s time for the Michael-Marianne unit to get some rest too. Good night Michael.”
“Good night my love.”
Chapter 11
Guangzhou New City – East China – 5th January 2036
Wu Pei-ling stood at the window of his room on the fifth floor of the Jinguan Jiu Dian – the Golden Fountain Hotel – staring moodily across the new city towards Wanshan peak.
He briefly pondered the ruined Manichean monastery which still stood there.
Those ancient monks and priests had set out to conquer the world for their religion.
He wondered if any of them had ever suffered the doubts he was troubled with.
Did they in their fervor ever realize that in order to gain their victory they would have to destroy so much which was beautiful and good?
Although he couldn’t see it from his room, somewhere off to his right, maybe fifteen miles to the north, was the main manufacturing facility of the Eastern China Bio-ethical Products Company.
Its relative isolation was a public concession to the international laws on bio active products production and research; but in fact a necessity to prevent exposure of their non official business.
The real facility was not the relatively unsophisticated above ground plant, manufacturing an excellent range of medicinal and cosmetic products (bought second hand from AE du Pont de Nemours when they upgraded to the latest and greatest), but the vast shielded facility situated approximately one hundred and fifty meters below it.
Here were the secret laboratories where an army of biologists and bio-technicians were slaving around the clock to find a way to combine the godstone symbiont with a viral vector, which would allow them both to extend their stock of the godstone – which was severely limited, and sow death and destruction, as well as the confusion that would be caused by a sudden influx of godstone mutations in civilization.
Even better if the resultant virus would propagate itself and spread via contagion, since it would make it easier to disseminate and make the shock zone less predictable and much more difficult to contain.
And they had finally found a viable extraction method. When united with a suitable host virus the symptoms and products were indistinguishable from the original symbiote, but the new viral strain was highly communicable.
The scientists at the lab had created three major strains – an aerobic variant based on the virulent Asian bird flu, one which was transported in liquids, and a third which was sexually transmitted on a variant of the common Herpes virus.
The first was currently in its fifth generation, while the other two were in their third. The aerobic variant still had a certain amount of instability, but the other two were stable and showed no tendency to mutate.
As soon as they were stable vast stockpiles of all three variants would be prepared.
A sufficient stock of each would go into the stasis chambers on the Tiamat, and the rest would be distributed to a number of stations around the earth, where they would be released approximately fourteen days before the ship was ready to leave.
With its gestation period of eleven days, the resultant epidemic should hit just in time to totally disrupt the enemy’s capabilities for the critical two days the ship would need to accelerate beyond the their perceptions.
His wife Lin, speaking to Ling-tzu, her beloved Lhasa Apso, distracted him from his dark thoughts.
They had been together for three hundred and twenty nine years now, and they were still happy as newlyweds. They were quite a laughing stock amongst some of the uppers, but he didn’t care. He hoped to go through eternity with her.
At least not everything about the plant was evil. They were preparing the livestock who could be fitted into the ship for travel, and at the same time were obtaining a vast library of fertilized ova – for just about every creature on earth – and preparing it for preservation in the stasis chambers.
As Gods Above Page 23
