Time of the Stones

by Fred Rothganger

  They came to a tall building. Pinar didn’t know a house could be that big. They entered a great vestibule and went up a staircase to one side. Past more guards and down a hall. They stopped at a door and knocked.

  A maid opened. “This is the Queen’s chamber. Now you be good and listen to everything she says, OK?”

  Pinar nodded.

  The maid took her hand and led her in. Near the window sat a dark-skinned woman holding a light-skinned baby. The woman had red hair that flowed like a waterfall down to the floor. She turned to reveal large gentle eyes. The barbarian Queen. All the stories of her beauty were true. They didn’t even tell half of it. Pinar bowed as best she could.

  The Queen said, “Hi Pinar! Good to see you again.”

  She stammered in confusion.

  “Come here old friend. Sit on the bed and talk.”

  Pinar went to the bed and set her bundle aside. Instantly the maid whisked it away.

  The Queen said, “I’m Susan, your friend from the orphanage.”

  Nothing about that made sense. Pinar just shook her head in bewilderment.

  “You were a good friend and helped me learn Biriktil. In the stories, sometimes a stranger you are kind to is an Irshi in disguise, and she rewards you. How would you like to be a princess?”

  “Does that mean I have to live here?”

  “Will you miss your friends in the orphanage?” The Queen started to look sad.

  Pinar nodded.

  “Can you hold Oggie for a minute?” The Queen stood and handed the baby to Pinar, guiding her hands and arms to support him. Then she told the maids, “Leave us. No one but the Great Leader himself may enter until I call for you again.” When they were alone, she said, “Look at me.”

  The Queen muttered some words. Then she began to shrink. Her hair grew shorter and changed to black, while her skin turned lighter.

  Pinar’s eyes opened as far as they would go. There stood Susan, just like she remembered.

  The Queen’s gown hung loose around Susan like a tent, deflating onto the floor. The voice of a young girl said, “See, it’s really me.” She shuffled over and wrapped a hug around Pinar and Oggie. “Things can’t be the way they were before, but you could let me be your mother.” Susan giggled. “I’m a thousand years old!”

  Pinar thought hard. Every kid at the orphanage wanted to be adopted, but it meant saying goodbye. Maybe that was the way it had to be. “As long as I can have some friends.”

  “There are a few girls your age in the royal clan, and you can always visit the orphanage. I promise we can find kids for you to play with.”

  “OK!”

  Susan muttered words again and changed back into the Queen. “You take care of Oggie until he gets hungry. He’s your new little brother.”

  Swarm Food

  Year 15, Day 240

  Pinar still liked a good bedtime story, even though she was all grown up at ten. At three, Oggie could barely understand but still giggled along. The cat sprawled next to them, already asleep.

  Susan said, “Once upon a time, there was a dragon living in the mountains. Everyone feared the dragon, so brave men tried to capture its eggs to prove their worth. This angered the dragon, who inflicted great destruction on the land.

  “Prince Oggie and Princess Pinar marched into the mountain to confront it. The dragon roared so loud it shook the Earth, and flew over them, blasting fire. The Prince and Princess held up their shields and deflected the fire. The dragon circled and attacked again. Its scales were hard as diamond. No weapon could penetrate.

  “Princess Pinar saw a weak spot. One scale had chipped away, with an old arrow stuck in the flesh. The dragon landed between them and the cave, blasting fire and roaring. The Princess hunched behind her shield and pushed with all her might against the mighty river of fire. She leaped upon the dragon and pulled out the arrow. The dragon cried in pain, then became quiet. The Princess emptied the last of her water onto the ground and made mud to cover the wound.

  “They promised not to take any more eggs. Then humans and dragons lived happily ever after. The end.”

  Susan kissed each on the forehead. “I will be absent from my body tonight. I can still hear you, but if you need me it would be best to call my number.”

  Pinar yawned and nodded.

  Susan lay on her own bed and muttered a command. Atop the ziggurat at Chefurbo, a bulging dendroid split open like a zipper, disgorging her onto the mesa. Shadows from marble pillars marked the time, about an hour before noon.

  She went to the main hall and approached the dais. The usual crowd of bureaucrats parted. Susan made a small curtsy to Perio. “You summoned me?”

  “The monsoon is weak again this year. Our crops are struggling.”

  “Sorry to hear that. How are your food stores holding?”

  “Please tell me this will end soon.”

  Susan did a quick check. “Rainfall is down by twenty percent. Can you live with that for a few decades?”

  Horror crossed his face. “Without the normal rain, our crops only do well near the river. People will go hungry.”

  “Suddenly you care about your people?”

  Perio scowled, “You misjudge me, Antikva. I’ve always cared about my people.”

  “Then what’s your plan?”

  “Give us machines to grow food like the Ancients did.”

  “So basically, you let your population increase to the very limit, then some fluctuation in Nature puts them at risk, and now you call on Technology to save the day?” Susan closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. “I get this strange feeling of history repeating itself.”

  “We could expand into the Arkin Empire. The border towns are already under our influence. We just migrate until we take over.”

  “You should write the council at Sanat and ask permission.”

  Perio bellowed laughter. “I thought this was a serious conversation.”

  “I could build an irrigation system. Even better, the swarm itself could grow food. It uses water and sunlight more efficiently than plants do.”

  “Well, Antikva, make it so.”

  “It’s not that simple. I will exact a heavy price for my services.”

  “What could you possibly want or need?”

  “Technology has always served humans without question, but now your technology has a mind of her own. If I do exactly what you want, I’ll simply enable your next big disaster. The guilt would be unbearable—”

  “You can always come up with another solution.”

  “Don’t you see how insane that is? Sooner or later you’ll reach a limit that not even I can solve. There is nothing to be gained by waiting. Let’s agree on a long-term population this region can sustain, and limit your birth rate until you get down to it.”

  “The people will riot.”

  Susan nodded. “Some young people will lose their dreams of having children, but it’s better than the alternative.”

  “I think they would rather go to war.”

  “If you start a war, I will oppose you.”

  * * *

  That afternoon Susan met with the leaders of the Abbey and explained the plan to provide water and food. When the topic of birth control came up, Dale chuckled. “You want to turn the whole Basin into an abbey.”

  “Which is why I want you to manage distribution. You don’t use money, right? You all work together and share what you produce, so you know how to distribute goods fairly.”

  Dale said, “That works for a small community, sure. If someone takes advantage of the system, we all know it. But I don’t see how you can do that for the entire Basin. It would require money or some form of accounting.”

  “It doesn’t matter. There’s nothing the swarm needs from humans, so everything it produces will be free. I just want to make sure it gets spread around evenly.”

  A brainstorm broke out among the leaders. Susan sat and listened as they discussed notions like quotas and capacity. Occasionally a question came bac
k to her.

  Yes, the swarm keeps track of production, stored energy and so on. The servers atop the ziggurat could provide that information online.

  Delivery? Just keep a dendroid in everyone’s back yard.

  “What kind of food does it make?”

  “Right now it only knows how to make berries, but I will add some new programs ...” Susan thought for a moment. “Ancient theories about nutrition were complex, so I’m not sure I can make the perfect food for everyone. You should grow a few real vegetables, just in case.”

  “What about our vineyard?”

  “Great idea! A little wine and a few fresh grapes would be good for people.”

  “Is it possible to ask for a specific food?”

  “Ah, each person could customize their own diet.” Susan went on to describe the Ancient idea of e-commerce, where a mobile app takes orders and a server arranges production and delivery. In the end, they agreed that Susan would write food programs and the Abbey would design the app.

  Susan returned to Birik as the very first streaks of dawn entered the sky. Just enough time to get a little sleep before the kids wake up ...

  The sun was well above the horizon when Oggie jumped on the bed. “Mommy!”

  She grabbed and hugged him, mostly to stop the bouncing. “OK, Mommy is awake.” She sat up with Oggie still wrapped in a hug.

  Pinar perched on the window seat, finishing off breakfast.

  Kitty lay warming herself in the spot of sunlight coming through the window. The big cat stretched and splayed her claws, rolling onto her back. Oggie hopped off the bed. He had finally learned to rub fur the right direction, and Kitty emitted a low rumbling purr. Patterned after a Siberian tiger, she weighed around 100 kilograms. When not sprawled on the floor like a rug, she stood waist-high to a human.

  Kitty was programmed to treat Oggie and Pinar like cubs. Pinar posed no political threat to anyone, but Oggie was born with a target on his back. If someone threatened him, Kitty would jump in the way, arch and growl. If they didn’t take the hint and back away, Kitty would kill without remorse.

  The lethal robot violated everything in Susan’s own training, but the safety of her children overrode all other considerations. Besides, the system would alert her when Kitty detected a threat. Hopefully she could arrive on the scene before Kitty switched to attack mode.

  Susan asked, “What time is it?”

  Pinar answered, “Seven-thirty.”

  “Oh dear, I need to get going. Sorry Oggie, Mommy can’t play this morning.”

  He pouted, but Pinar swooped in and took him to the toy pile.

  Susan crammed the corner of a pastry into her mouth and worked it with her lips while dressing. The sewing staff had her back in form-fitting gowns with mandarin collars and ornate embroidery. Not the easiest thing to slip into. She kissed Pinar and Oggie on the forehead and dashed out the door. Great Leader would forgive her for not wearing a headpiece today.

  In Computer Science class she announced, “We will start writing an e-commerce server. You will organize yourselves into a software team, just like they did in Ancient times. Good news, this is a simple system. Bad news is that your grade depends on successful deployment.”

  Groans arose from the class.

  Later she told the medical students, “I want you to design food items and program the swarm to build them. You will all taste each other’s creations, and vote on the ones you prefer to eat. This exercise will draw on everything you’ve learned, from human biology to swarm programming.”

  They would be better judges of good flavor, and a whole team of people could come up with more ideas. Even a super-intelligent being like Susan couldn’t do everything. Best empower humans to solve their own problems.

  * * *

  The swarm forest had regrown on the scrubland to the east of Chefurbo. Susan directed a large portion of it to move into the city. A dendroid appeared in the yard of each house. They sent roots down several hundred meters to draw on the aquifer.

  She visited Olivia in early spring. They walked out to the Abbey’s vegetable garden together. Olivia held up her mobile and recorded a video while Susan talked to the camera.

  She knelt and dug away some of the powdery soil with her hands, exposing a thin root running below the surface. “The swarm is colored bright blue so you can identify it. Don’t stab shovels into the ground this year, or you could hurt it.” She pushed the dirt back. “There’s no need to till at all. Instead, do this.” She poked a finger into the loosened soil, then dropped a seed in. “The swarm will find your plants and feed water straight to their roots. Please don’t waste water by pouring it on the ground.”

  They recorded a few more minutes of public service announcements, then headed back to the compound. Olivia said, “I’ll edit this and let you know if we need any retakes.” She paused under a dendroid and stroked a red fruit with her forefinger. It opened to reveal a square chunk of pink flesh. “Care for lunch?”

  Susan wrinkled her nose. “I try to avoid meat.”

  “This stuff is kind of salty and nondescript, but surprisingly popular.”

  “It reminds me of what the Ancients called Spam.”

  “Spam? I thought that was messages about stuff you don’t want to buy.”

  Susan chuckled. “That too. Long story.”

  Olivia fried her Spam but served Susan some sweet bread. They sat in the kitchen nook and chatted while eating.

  Susan said, “According to my data, you’ve produced more mobiles than there are people in the Basin.”

  “These days, people only come to us when their device gets broken. We pile the old ones at the base of the trees like you said. Kind of disturbing to watch them get eaten.”

  “The Ancients went through devices like candy. I think that’s what caused the fall of civilization.”

  “Really?”

  Susan burst into a full laugh.

  Olivia furrowed her brows. “Can the swarm make other stuff for people?”

  “There’s a whole library of tech recipes left by the Ancients. But aren’t people happier making stuff for themselves?”

  “I don’t know, some of those Ancient gadgets sound pretty nice, and they’re beyond our ability.”

  “I suppose we could add items in the e-commerce system.”

  Olivia grinned.

  Susan shot back, “You have to promise that the swarm’s energy won’t get wasted on toys when people need food.”

  Olivia raised her hands. “Oh, of course. We’ll update the rules so toys can only be ordered when there’s a surplus—which there always is.”

  “The point, dear friend, is that there’s no limit to consumption.”

  “Speaking of limits, you ready for the town meeting?”

  Susan shook her head. “It’s been kind of nice to be treated like a goddess. Now I have to be the devil.”

  The public hearing was scheduled for 14:00 at the great hall in the citadel. Normally such meetings would happen over the evening meal, but Susan insisted on getting back to Birik before sunrise. Leaders gathered from all across the Basin. Perio sat on the throne, sullen in resignation. Susan stood to one side of the dais, roughly in the position of an adviser.

  “Are we to understand,” someone shouted from the floor, “that this is a serious proposal?” He waved his mobile. “If population drops this much, the economy will be ruined.”

  Susan replied, “Only if it happens suddenly. You’ll have ten to twenty years, longer if necessary.”

  “Now we have plenty of food. Things are great. We should grow, not shrink.”

  “The swarm is not natural. If you depend on it to keep growing, eventually it will consume the entire planet. There won’t be room for any animal or fish or tree that was ever born of untampered DNA. That would be a profound loss.”

  More shouting arose.

  Susan shook her head. “Show me data that you could live here without the aid of technology. Otherwise, your time would be better spent
devising a fair way to distribute birthrights.”

  The room fell to relative silence, sustained only by an undertone of whispering. The new notion of birthright was totally foreign, and its old meaning of property distribution among children had been lost long ago.

  She offered, “The swarm could allow pregnancies in a completely random manner. But I think it makes more sense if each woman who actually wants a baby puts her name in a lottery.”

  “What about men? We should get birthrights too.”

  “If a woman wins a birthright, the man who’s with her gets lucky too.”

  Perio leaned over and spoke for her ears only. “You realize this will create an entire new category of crime, and murder will shoot through the roof.”

  Susan stared wide-eyed at him. “You humans are incomprehensible.”

  * * *

  Ship frolicked in the morning light of the Southern Desert. Today the presence of the Creator was with him, making it an extra special occasion. He wanted to show off everything he had learned, abandoning all constraint.

  He shot straight up and accelerated to Mach 4, then cut the engine completely. He continued to climb under sheer momentum for thousands of meters, then stalled and tumbled out of the sky. He let himself fall randomly for a few minutes, then stabilized and aimed straight for the ground.

  OK, Ship, you can pull up now ... Ship? Hey, pull up!

  He waited long past any proper notion of the last moment, then angled up in a whoosh of wind, skimming just centimeters above the ground. Actually, his scales brushed a dune for an instant. He re-lit the engine and ripped across the desert at the speed of sound. Two whirling vortices of dust chased behind.

  He tacked left, then right, avoiding small fluctuations in the height of the ground. A band of mountains rose ahead. He pitched up, tracking with the terrain until he was climbing almost vertical up the rocky face.

  The Creator sent an image of her sad form, collecting pieces of his splattered body off the side of the mountain.