Tower of the Lost Ways

by Ander Nesser

world. There is only one.”

  “No. There are other worlds that orbit our sun, and even more worlds around other suns.”

  “Don't be ridiculous,” Ouo said. “There is only one Sun, obviously.”

  “Most of the Ascended Sisters you see in the sky are suns, too. They appear as cold points of light only because they are so far away,” Aoi said as she displayed diagrams of star systems on the screen.

  “That's blasphemy,” Ouo said in a raised tone. “What you say directly contradicts the Hallowed Scrolls, and therefore cannot be true.”

  “Then I suggest you look through the data in the Archives so you can--”

  “No, this is just text on a screen, like the Scrolls. What makes you think it has authority over them? You're tossing out the wisdom of the ancestors, our heritage taught for generations, just because you found some other text . . . .”

  “First of all, the information to which I refer follows the Principle of Non-contradiction, the fundamental axiom of logic, which the Scrolls do not follow. Second, these data correspond to observed facts, out there in the external universe . . . .”

  “The Scrolls are not constrained by your logic!” Ouo was shouting now. “This is a trick! You brought me down here to corrupt me. Well, I will not blaspheme. Good night to you, blasphemer!” Ouo hurried back to the bridge, covering her mouth. Aoi watched her go.

  “Well, I thought I might get a negative reaction, but I didn't expect her to be so emotional,” Aoi said to the Akran.

  The machine rotated and whirred. “She received input which contradicted her programming.”

  “People aren't machines,” Aoi said.

  “Of course they are. The major difference is that human intelligence is actual, whereas ours is virtual.”

  Aoi nodded and turned to face the large screen on the server. “If Ouo reacted so poorly, I can't imagine how others in our tier would react.” Displayed was a long alphabetical list of random topics. She touched one, and an encyclopedia entry appeared. She skimmed it, then went on to the next one. “Well, I don't have time for emotional distractions. I need to somehow characterize the type of information in the Archives. Perhaps there is some ranking of its contents, in terms of importance.”

  “There is more information in these libraries than could be read in six hundred thousand of your lifetimes,” the Akran stated.

  “I know, that's the problem. And not all of it is objective scientific data, as I presented it to Ouo. There appear to be historical accounts of events, undoubtedly biased. Then there are bodies of text which are pure fantasy.” She continued to proceed through encyclopedia entries at an increased pace.

  “Correct. Fictional works are preserved, in addition to myths, recorded speech, and almost any use of language imaginable.”

  “Hmm. It would take some judgment to decide what is worth reading. I think most people would rather let their tradition guide them. Is that why no one uses the Archives anymore? I wonder.”

  “It seems likely. An overload of information, combined with an inability or unwillingness to sort and judge it, could have led to the decline of Archive use by the general population. There is evidence, partially from the Custodians, which indicates the Archives continued to be used for a longer time by theocratic scholars.”

  “What's this?” She opened an entry explaining a scientific concept with multiple pictures and diagrams attached. “Male. Male? Good Goddess, there is an extinct subspecies of human I never knew existed. Oh, it is simply hideous. Why were . . . oh, did you know that humans used to have a different reproductive system? The genes were not manipulated--that seems risky--what if the results were undesirable? And instead of being grown in vats, children were grown inside people's bellies--how repulsive. Didn't that kill the mother? It says here, the males died out about five hundred thousand years ago. That's more recent than I would have thought. Their proportions are so different from modern humans. Ummm, the megacity towers are about a thousand years old, and the toxic disaster that caused the Great Extinction was about five centuries ago--it's hard to image a time earlier than that.” Aoi turned from the screen and looked at the Akran. “This is the kind of information I find fascinating, but probably not everyone would think so. There must be some objective standard, at least to apply initially. Would you be able to help me sort some data?”

  “Yes, if you specify parameters.”

  “Okay, let's see. Well, health is the most important thing, right? So, can you find references in the Archives which might indicate some threat to people's safety in the city?”

  “There are many potential threats to safety throughout a human lifetime. The list will be--”

  “No, I mean immediate threats. For example, will the food production system break down tomorrow. Something like that. Are there cracks in the foundation which could cause a structural collapse? And so on.”

  There was a barely perceptible pause before the Akran said “There are no immediate threats.”

  “Okay, good. Then . . . .”

  “I am making projections only based on the spatial extent of the entire city, forty-eight hours into the future. I can expand the spatial or temporal context if you wish.”

  “Oh? Wait, I thought you said there are no Akran in your network outside the city. How are you able to expand the spatial context?”

  “There are no Akran outside the city on the surface of the Earth. There is, however, a large swarm of Akran in high orbit. They form an interferometer which monitors the sky and transmits data to city servers.”

  “But how does that--”

  “I have accessed their telemetry. They have been broadcasting a warning for the past year.”

  Aoi's jaw tensed. “What? They have? A warning about what?”

  “A possible impact event. The Akran interferometer's main task is to detect approaching extraterrestrial threats, such as an asteroid or comet. One such object was detected four hundred twenty-four days ago. The alert level was increased just two days ago, and a warning was sent to every terminal in the tower.” A portion of the screen changed. Alongside a slew of numerical data, defined with words Aoi could not understand, there was also an image. It was small and blurry.

  “That's a space rock?” Aoi asked.

  “The chances of it being an asteroid are less than twenty percent. Based on sunlight reflection patterns, its probable symmetry indicates artificiality.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Most likely it is a ship. A large one.”

  Aoi looked back at the picture, then down at her feet. After a moment she looked back at the Akran and said “How is that possible?”

  “Humans traveled to other worlds and other suns about a million years ago. The Archives barely extend that far back in time, but--”

  “Yes, I know, they sent out the Akran as exploratory probes.”

  “At first. Eventually humans themselves ventured out in ships. This phase of exploration seems to have died out by the late Sixth Millennium of the Gregorian Calendar.”

  “And this was when? About a million years ago?” Aoi's eyes were wide and unfocused.

  “Yes. It is estimated that the most likely identity for the current interloper is a human ship. They may have retained records of Earth's location and trajectory, or may have been monitoring us from a distance. This is a much more likely scenario than a completely alien intelligence happening upon us by chance. But I should also mention the unlikely possibility that the ship is piloted by extraterrestrial entities--organisms which evolved on a world other than Earth. If this is the case, the exact outcome of contact is even more unpredictable though still likely unfavorable for the less advanced party.”

  “But is there any record of such a thing? Organisms from a different planet?”

  “No, but we cannot rule out that possibility. Even if they are human, do not expect
them to be like you.”

  “They could have changed along a different path, in the time since our ancestors diverged.”

  “Almost certainly they have, both culturally and biologically,” the Akran said.

  Aoi turned away from the screen and walked out to the edge of the circular porch. The Akran followed. She looked down at the trunks of the quantum computers extending into the depths. “The purpose of the Akran in orbit is to detect threats. Do they . . . do you think this city is under threat?”

  “Given historical precedent, it is unlikely there will be a favorable outcome for either party,” the Akran said.

  "How can you assign likelihood when there is no precedent for such an event?"

  "No precedent for alien contact, true, but there is precedent for similar situations, which we can consider by analogy. With a relatively small margin of error, I can predict that an encounter with a technologically superior people will be harmful to you in the long term. It is also safer to assume they will be harmful in the short term."

  “Is there anything we can do to . . . mitigate the harmful effects? To prepare?”

  “You do not have the ability to defend yourselves against entities who have the technological power to travel between stars.”

  “So that's it? We just have to hope they don't hurt us?”

  “Perhaps it would be best if your leadership were not surprised by their arrival.”

  “Then I should inform the Mayoralty. I don't know if they understood the