If this was true, perhaps they were better suited than humanity to rule the home galaxy.
Marty’s last encounter with Tasso had been a few centuries ago. The First Brother had informed his creator that the Artificials were striving to link their emotioprocessors one day. It was to be the first step toward a spiritual merging of all Artificials. They hoped to ultimately exist as a community intelligence and thus take the step to a higher spiritual level. First, however, they would have to give up their previous role as the Milky Way’s protectors.
This step was still far in the future.
Marty himself felt more and more like an outsider among the virtual incarnations. He hardly had any contact with other simulations. Only a former fighter pilot named Sarah came to visit him now and then in his own simulation world. Marty appreciated her quick wit and alert intellect. She was also good-looking, which was no disadvantage, although a virtual incarnation could give itself any appearance it liked. In any case, Sarah’s incarnation also suited his tastes in the opposite sex, and they had grown closer over the past decades.
Fortunately, being a virtual incarnation can also simulate sexual desires and functions, Marty thought with amusement.
Nevertheless, he had not given up hope of someday being able to walk again as a real person in a physical body across the now fully restored surface of Earth, to smell with a real nose the scent of the fresh forest after a downpour, and to feel the gentle breeze of a lukewarm tropical wind on his skin while on the white beach of a pristine island.
The best simulation could not offer a substitute for any of this!
Although the Artificials occasionally allowed him to roam the Sol system in a clone body aboard the field sphere ship, they had forbidden him to enter Earth in physical incarnation. Allegedly, they were working on a complete transformation of the planet and feared biological contamination from the clone body.
Marty didn’t know what to make of this plan.
8th of Zuhn, 299
“Slow down, Kimi!”
She raised her head. Alexa was in the column in the center of the control center. To her left and right she saw the three other tubs, which were still closed.
“What about them?” she asked.
“I only woke you up for now.”
“Why is that? Aren’t the others doing well?” An image spread through her mind. It was so blindingly bright that she had to close her eyes to recognize it. She had experienced this dialogue before. Déjà vu or a dream? This couldn’t be real. Alexa had stayed on Krungthep. They were probably still in hyperspace, and she was dreaming woozily.
“What about you?” asked Alexa.
Kimi opened her eyes again and tried to pull herself up on the edge of the tub. A ghastly pain drove into her right wing. The image shattered into a thousand shards—this was the reality.
“I... am in pain,” she said.
“Tolkut told me about your daredevil landing in the ship,” Alexa said. “Given that, you’re doing pretty well. The tub will have healed the fracture in a few more days.”
“In a few days? Where are we? Are we not being followed anymore?”
“We have reached the solar system. The braking phase is about to begin. Our pursuers have lost us. You can’t tell where a hyperspace tunnel is going from the outside.”
“But what are you doing here, Alexa?”
“I made it to the Sphere at the last second. It seemed to me you could use a pilot.”
“I am glad to see you. Why did you wake me up before the others?”
“I may be the pilot, but you’re my boss, so you have to give the go-ahead to initiate the braking phase.”
“Permission granted.”
“Thank you. Now get a good rest.”
Untitled
The Earth – One Hundred Thousand Years Later
The war had been won by the narrowest of margins.
Without the Artificials as the patrons of the Milky Way, the conquerors from Andromeda would have overrun the galaxy.
Even so, it had taken many centuries to push back the ‘Droxx,’ as the octopods from the neighboring galaxy called themselves.
Tasso had mentioned to Mart that the ‘strangers with eight limbs’ had nothing in common with the peaceful eight-limbed inhabitants of the terrestrial seas, but instead reminded him of the humans of centuries past with their aggressiveness and intolerance.
“There will probably always be species that try to dominate the universe by force instead of living in harmony with all its creatures,” Tasso had said. He no longer saw himself as First Brother, but only as one among many.
The Artificials and the still-existing copies of human consciousness remembered less and less the events that had taken place more than 100,000 years in the past. Moreover, they became more and more similar to each other. Mart, too, could hardly remember all that had happened back then. Over the many years, some memories had been lost. Even the best quantum memories did not work error-free over such long periods, and memory errors occurred now and then. But as long as his essence was preserved, Mart wasn’t going to complain.
He was also no longer fully aware of the difference between humans and Artificials. They were brothers, weren’t they? Or were they in a relationship like parents to their children? But who were the parents and who the children? Was there even a difference between them?
Mart could barely remember the names he had borne in his many lives, so how could he know who had once created whom?
In the end, it didn’t matter. Did it?
During the last conversation with his old friend Tasso, which, however, was also several millennia of real-time ago, he had told him that the brothers of humankind would now begin to merge their essences and become one with the universe. The process would extend over many millennia, but should they reach their goal, they would be able to influence even matter with spiritual power.
Tasso had said something about ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy,’ which Mart had not understood.
10th of Zuhn, 299
They gathered around the column as they had at the beginning of the journey. It was a sad community. Kimi’s right wing hurt with every movement. Norok’s broken beak looked terrible, and Kasfok, though conscious, couldn’t even manage to leave his tub because of weakness. He would have to spend at least another week in it.
Only Tolkut was physically fit, but would that be enough? Kimi had no idea what awaited her on the third planet. Landing as on Krungthep would not be possible in any case, because she could not fly, and Norok was not able to hold anything with his beak.
The planet below them looked beautiful. They were the first to be able to look at it from this close, because the preeminent human, Mart, in his blue sphere, had declared it off-limits from the beginning. Blue seas and green sandy areas alternated. The colors were somewhat different than on the home world, but otherwise the planet was very reminiscent.
Their trip to Krungthep had been a flop. But how could they have known that their destination was Earth? But some things had changed—for the better, if you will. Now Kimi was the official commander of the blue sphere, and Mart was gone. They had started the journey without him and thus emancipated themselves. They no longer needed the humans.
“I didn’t know Earth was such a paradise,” Alexa said.
“It’s a rocky planet with liquid surface water and a dense atmosphere. How can it not be paradise?” asked Norok.
“You should have seen the planet before. Humans had completely disfigured it. But now it looks quite virginal again.”
“When was before?” asked Kimi.
“Before the war, that is, over three hundred thousand years ago.”
We must hurry, Kasfok tapped from his tub. We have to go down quickly, find the Artificials.
You’re not going anywhere, my friend, Tolkut replied.
“But how do we get down?” asked Kimi. “My wings—”
We could call a net ship, Kasfok drummed.
We don’t have the time for that, Tolkut replied. Even from the fourth planet, it would take at least three weeks.
“There is a way,” Alexa said, “but only if you are sure this is the right place.”
“You want to land the Sphere on the surface?” asked Norok.
“Exactly. If I divert all available power to the shields and you get into the tubs, we should survive the crash. But after that, the engines will be useless.”
“And it’s going to leave some ugly scratches in the beautiful greenery,” Norok said. “Let’s hope the residents don’t hold that against us.”
“There’s no one left down there to hold a grudge,” Alexa said, “I’m not catching any signs of higher life.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Norok.”
“If we don’t find anything, at least we’ll spend the rest of our lives in paradise,” Norok said.
“Not the rest,” Kimi said, “just the next few days until the solar torpedoes hit. Then this planet will be roasted by its star.”
“Slow down, Kimi!”
Not this déjà vu again. But this time Tolkut was already standing in front of Alexa’s column. Kimi remembered everything. They must have landed successfully. Next to her, the last two tubs opened.
“How is the Sphere doing?” she asked.
“It doesn’t exist anymore,” Alexa replied. “The ship broke into several pieces. But we were lucky. The control center is mostly undamaged. It has separate shielding. It’s just all...”
That was when she noticed it. A force pulled at her feet. The control center had to be stuck in the ground at an angle. That was why Tolkut had secured himself to the column with a thread.
“Let’s go then. We need to find the Artificials,” Kimi said.
“You’d better stay here,” Norok objected. “Your wing—”
“That’s out of the question. I’m no more damaged than you are.”
“Now be—”
“I am being reasonable,” she interrupted him. “This matter is too important to be left to you and Tolkut.”
“Alexa can come with us.”
“No, Norok, I’d better stay here. Humans have a strained relationship with the Artificials.”
“But you—”
“I’m human too, at least I used to be.”
“What did you do to them?” asked Kimi.
“We created them, and when they outgrew us, we fought them.”
The hatch cover was stuck. Tolkut attached a thread to it and pulled—with no success.
“Wait a minute,” Kimi said.
She climbed up on a kind of shelf. From there, Kimi jumped onto the hatch. The metal groaned, the latch released, and the cover flew open to the outside. She fell with it. Crap. They hadn’t checked the height of the exit.
Kimi rolled over in the air and wrapped her wings around herself before she hit the ground. The impact was softer than expected.
“Are you all right?” exclaimed Norok.
He stood in a black square about 20 wing-lengths above her. Next to her was the metal hatch cover. If she had fallen on it... But she hadn’t. She’d hit the ground, and it had proved to be surprisingly elastic.
“It’s all good,” she exclaimed. “I’m fine.”
Of course, not everything was good, but after riding out the deliberate crash of a huge spaceship, their very survival was a joyful surprise.
“Come on down, but watch your mouth,” she shouted.
Tolkut rappeled down. Norok spread his wings and floated down to her. Eventually she too would be able to land so elegantly again. With her right wing dragging on the ground, she dragged herself forward. They were in the shadow of the wreckage, and Kimi wanted to get to the sunny side. They had to find out where they were, and where the Artificials were.
“Where are you going?” called Norok after her.
“Looking around.”
The former command center of the Sphere looked like a black box that someone had stuck into the ground at an angle. Kimi turned on her axis. She was standing on a slightly hilly plain overgrown with low green plants. On the horizon, where the sun was at the moment, a huge blue sliver of glass shimmered. It had to be a part of the Sphere.
But something was wrong. The bottom part of the control center, which jutted up above it at an angle, was full of mud and earth. The box must have slithered across the dirt floor for a while until its momentum had rammed it into the ground at the bottom of a hill.
Kimi looked at the box, thinking about how it stood, and how it must have hit. There was no doubt—there would have been a swath of veritable devastation in front of it. Such a landing would have marked itself deeply on the face of the planet.
But there was only virgin vegetation. It seemed as if the ship had been stuck in place for many years, and as if grass had grown over the injuries of the crash in the meantime. Yet only a few minutes had passed since they landed! It was impossible. Appearances had to be deceiving. Was she still lying in her tub and dreaming?
“Norok, do you see that, too?”
Her partner came closer. His beak hung down sadly. “Yeah, like we’ve always been here.”
“So you noticed it, too? Pinch me, please.”
He raised his beak and poked her in the left side. He obviously didn’t want to hurt her.
“That’s not hard enough to help me,” Kimi said.
She lifted her right wing and made flying movements. The pain was almost unbearable, but the image before her eyes did not change.
“It’s not a dream,” Norok said.
Kimi ran into the field. She simply let her aching wing hang. The leaves of the plants over which she roamed were pleasantly soft. Norok limped after her. She left the shadow of the ship. The hills continued to the horizon. To the east, they grew into mountains. To the north, she thought she saw forests.
“Where are you going?” asked Norok.
She did not answer. Kimi stopped and bent down. With her beak, she plucked off a few of the leaves that looked green and juicy. She squeezed her beak, and the leaves stayed dry. She sat down on her knees. Some of the plants had flowers on them. Then didn’t there have to be insects to pollinate them? She dug her beak into the soil. The earth was soft, but she could not drill more than the front quarter of her beak into the ground. There appeared to be a hard layer underneath. Kimi threw up some loose soil riddled with roots, but she didn’t find any worms or other creatures processing the plant debris.
“It’s an impossible ecosystem,” she said.
“We just don’t understand it because it’s so foreign,” Norok said.
“And why didn’t the ship leave a trail?”
“The plants may be growing so fast.”
“No, look, the hole is always...”
Norok was right. There was no sign of the leaves she had plucked off. The hole she had made with her beak had almost filled up again. If she turned around, there would be no trace of her.
“But you know what I noticed?” asked Norok.
“What?”
“There are no sounds or smells here.”
She looked around in amazement. It was so quiet that she could hear her own heart beating. Then she sucked in the air. It was fresh, with a slight ozone aroma, just like in a spaceship, not like on a living planet.
Tolkut tugged at her tail feather. He seemed very excited, because all his hair had stood up as if he had seen a ghost.
Look who’s coming, he drummed, and the rhythm was much faster than usual, so Kimi didn’t understand it at first.
She turned around. A second Mendrak came crawling around the box of the control center. When he came closer, she recognized Kasfok. The dents in his torso armor from age, the typical trembling of his middle limbs when he was in a hurry, it was clearly him.
“Kasfok,” Kimi called out.
But Kasfok was in no condition to leave the ship. He had to spend at least another week in his tub. That was how badly the inertial force had damaged him.<
br />
“This can’t be Kasfok,” Norok said.
Do you have a ship nearby? Kimi drummed.
No, Tolkut replied.
Then how did this Mendrak get here?
It is not a Mendrak. It does not possess any odor.
Who are you? Kimi drummed.
“I am proficient in acoustic communication,” the creature said as it drummed the exact phrase.
It only moved its legs, so where its voice came from could not be discerned.
“All right. So, who are you?”
“We have overcome the singular concept. We are the ones who are and always will be.”
“Who do you mean by we? I only see you,” said Norok.
“You see our feeler, but you don’t see us. That’s amusing,” said the creature.
“I don’t find that amusing. We’re in a hurry.”
Kimi reassuringly rested her left wing on Norok’s shoulder. It was better if she did the talking. He understood her gesture.
“We have to apologize for just landing on your planet,” Kimi said. “But it’s important. We’re on a quest to find the Artificials.”
The creature waved all six legs at the same time. It hovered in the air for a moment. “We were called that at one time,” it said.
“Someone told us you would want to destroy this system.”
The creature hissed in the exact way Mendraki expressed deep dislike. “A human.”
“We have nothing to do with the humans,” Kimi said quickly. “But both our peoples have inhabited this system for some time, so we would ask you not to destroy the sun.”
“And the ship you crashed in? It is of human construction. We had forbidden humans to ever enter this system again.”
“It belonged to this person, Mart. He came only to warn us.”
“Mart.” The creature hissed again, and this time even louder.
“What about him?”
Helium 3: Death from the Past (Helium-3 Book 2) Page 24
