Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (17 page)

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The host had told the audience who would be speaking, and
also mentioned where restrooms, refreshments, and other things could be found. At
last he was introducing Bugs and the mass of assembled scientists, politicians
and VIPs all stood and began clapping and yelling. The host had a very hard
time getting through the introduction.

The shiny mechanical robot that was Bugs’ avatar walked out
on the stage, his metal feet thudding on the wooden floor. The applause
doubled, then tripled. Bugs shook the host’s hand and as the host exited the
stage, Bugs got behind the podium and waited. The applause went on and on, thirty
seconds, sixty seconds—Adamarus looked at Harrington, both a little worried
that Bugs might not understand, but then the applause started to die down. Looking
back they could see that Bugs had raised one manipulator in just the right way
to indicate that the applause should end. Finally there was quiet.

“Thank you.” Bugs said. “I am honored to be here and humbled
by your warm reception.” The avatar paused and squared himself behind the
podium. “It is said, or I guess” it looked down as if he were reading from
something on the podium, “estimated by some, that our species is about a
thousand years ahead of you in science and technology, and yet,” it looked back
at the audience, “we find your species… you,” Bugs lifted both arms to indicate
the audience, “to be… so very, very special, so very unique, in so many
different ways. For instance, the many things you have developed that we have
never even dreamed of. I refer specifically to…your music, your art, the
theater and…let’s not forget video and radio shows.” This brought laughter –
the fact that the Loud had for three years watched and listened to these in
order to study the humans of Amular was well known.

Bugs continued, “The architecture of your cities and also the
many forms of mathematics you’ve developed which, to us, seem more like art,
but which express the universe around you in so many beautiful ways.” Bugs made
a noise like he was clearing his throat, then leaned towards the microphone so
his voice would be a little louder yet imply he was saying something in
confidence, “All of it wrong, of course,” it inclined it’s head, “but
beautiful.” The audience exploded in laughter. Bugs waited for it to die down. He
held up his arms, “I’m kidding… I’m kidding. For the most part anyway”—more
laughter.

Bugs leaned back again and stared at the audience making his
tone more serious. “And so ambitious.  I had the opportunity to review the five-mile
high super conductive rail gun you had planned to build to hurl payloads into
orbit. I also had a ring-side seat to the operation to collect iron meteors for
the resources to build this vast construct. Amazing. Simply amazing. At the
evolutionary stage you are at now, we were nowhere near as ambitious and
creative. No – in all sincerity, I say that in these areas, it is you who are
ahead of us.”

Adamarus leaned over to Harrington and whispered, “I’m
astounded. Bugs is playing this audience like a symphony orchestra!”

“I know!” she whispered back.

Bugs continued, “And now that I have built you up…” there was
a little laughter, “I’ll get into the ways that we are ahead of you”--more
laughter.

Thirty minutes later, the 200 seat auditorium, overflowing
and standing room only, was completely enthralled. They were hanging on every
word Bugs uttered.

Already Bugs had drop kicked many of the cornerstones of
present day scientific belief right out of the stadium. Many scientists and
professors were madly taking notes while others just stared with glassy eyes. Some
looked very unhappy and a few actually hyperventilating or sweating profusely.
Now Bugs was about to delve into realms that were beyond imagination.

“So as you progress and begin to take knowledge directly from
the fabric of our universe, scientists, like the alchemists and medicine men
before them, will eventually be replaced by…well, a new discipline that we now
have – but one that you have not yet created or have a name for. We shall
continue to call them ‘translators’ as this is the word you have that comes
closest in meaning.”

“Now…as I said, the translators extract data from the
vibrations of the universe’s most elementary particle, the super speck. These
vibrations contain an enormous amount of data, in fact, all of the information
needed for the creation of a universe. And, as I alluded to a moment ago, if a
species spreads its seed far enough, or managed in some other way to survive
the extinction probability curve for planets, solar systems, and galactic
extinction extents – that is to say, if the species existed for long enough,
say about 500 million years – then they might have time to extract all of the
data. They would know everything that could be known and thereby reach the Phi
State.”

“Looking at the I-Life/Extinction Probability Chart, we get .51
species reaching the Phi State per universe. Or, assuming the theory of
reoccurring universes that means one species every other universe will reach
the Phi.” Bugs paused a moment to let this latest group of fantastic and mind
numbing ideas sink in.

Then, having turned the finest minds of men into jelly, he
proceeded to whip that into a uniform grayish slush. “But…remember,” he said,
“knowing is not understanding…and so, there are several states beyond the Phi
State."

"The final state is when a species has not only
extracted every fact there is from the vibrating specks, but has also studied
these facts to the point where it understands everything that there is to
understand. It would know how every fact interacts with every other fact. It
would know…” -- Bugs leaned forward to emphasize the next statement -- “… how to
fully use all of the knowledge that exists.” Bugs paused again to let that sink
in. There was total silence. “This species would have spread its seed on an
inter-galactic level. Of course it would have survived far longer than any
species conforming to the I-Life/Extinction Probability Chart – in fact,
reaching this level is something outside what we currently believe to be
possible. This species would at the very least need to exist for hundreds of
millions of years.” Bugs paused again, then, “We call this final state of
advancement the Omega State.” Bugs straightened up and let his gaze move across
the audience from left to right before continuing. “It is difficult to see how
any natural species could ever achieve this state. This concludes my talk.”

The audience was still in shock so the applause didn’t start
right away. First one person started clapping, then another. Within a minute,
everyone was standing and applauding. It went on for a full two minutes until
Bugs again signaled an end. “With this many people, it would not be feasible to
open the floor to questions, however, we know you have them, and I would
certainly be glad to answer them. I understand that today’s host, Wayne
Brittan, has come up with a plan for this which he will tell you about in just
a few minutes.”

As Bugs made his way off stage, Adamarus and Harrington got
up to make their way back stage as well. As they stood, they noticed that
Woodworth was headed towards them. They waited for Woodworth, and when he
arrived, they shook hands and exchanged pleasantries then headed back stage.

 They made their way backstage and entered Bugs’ room without
knocking. Adamarus brought Woodworth over to Bugs. “Bugs, may I introduce
Professor Floyd Woodworth,” Adamarus said as he indicated the Professor,
“Professor, this is Bugs.”

“Author of ‘Advancement of our Species – A Historical
Perspective’?” Bugs asked as he rose from his seat and extended his hand.

Woodworth interpreted the gesture correctly and stepped
forward to “shake” hands, “One work, but endless fame, it seems,” the Professor
deadpanned.

Bugs seemed delighted to meet the professor. “We could only
access parts of it on the World Net – it was the first book, or set of books, I
should say, that we requested. A masterful work!”

“Thank you for the kind words.”

Bugs turned to Adamarus, “Adamarus, it occurs to me that we
need a historian!” He looked back at Woodworth, “I can think of no one better!”

Adamarus jumped in, “An excellent idea! Professor Woodworth,
would you consider such a task?”

Woodworth had been looking back and forth between them. This had
caught him totally off guard. “I…I…Well, I’m of course honored.” He tried to
collect himself and think about the offer. It was an incredible opportunity,
and of course he would jump at it, so why was he hesitating? “And yes. Yes! I
could not possibly turn down such an opportunity!”

“Fantastic!” Bugs said. “Fantastic!” It clasped its manipulators
together with a thunderous clank that made everyone jump. “Oh, sorry,” it
looked at everyone, “we try very hard to express as much human body language as
possible with these avatars, but sometimes it doesn’t work as we expect. But I
am delighted. This is perfect.”

Adamarus had a broad grin – so did Harrington for that
matter. Adamarus got the professor’s attention, “We’ll discuss the details…say,
tomorrow?”

Woodworth nodded but seemed preoccupied. He turned back to
Bugs, “If you don’t mind me asking, just how do you ‘try to express human body
language’? You did not know you would need to do that beforehand and it was
instantaneous.”

Bugs looked at him for a moment then said, “Actually, it was
not quite instantaneous. We are very serious about communications. Each avatar
has an entire team of Loud assigned to it, one to be the id or self of the
avatar, in this case that’s me, and others for different purposes. One monitors
everything going on around the avatar and tries to suggest appropriate body
language. When you accepted the offer, I was truly delighted and I said,
‘fantastic’ and the hyper-translator translated it almost instantaneously. But
from the moment we saw the situation I was in, the database was queried for a
like situation. This was found and transmitted to me. In the lower portion of
my vision I saw a human clasping his hands together and I mimicked this
action.”

Everyone was amazed at all the behind the scenes effort that
had been hidden until now.

Remembering the Professor’s original reason for being here, Adamarus
said, “Actually, the reason Professor Woodworth is here is the sun flare. It
was his class that decided the question for my son to ask and your response was
unexpected. There was something observed which…”

Bugs held up both manipulators, “I had forgotten, I had
forgotten.” He spread his arms wide, “I am sorry. We have figured that out.”

“Well, I’m sure glad!” Woodworth beamed. “A month ago my
students were still beating me over the head for wasting their one question. What
did you find?”

“Nothing,” Bugs answered. Everyone looked at the robot, smile
froze in place.

Finally Woodworth stammered, “But…but…I don’t understand. Didn’t
you just say that you had figured it out?”

“Yes,” Bugs said this time. “First, I knew our sun had not
suffered a solar flare…”

Adamarus had now seen several translation glitches like this
in conversations with Bugs. Next time it happened, he would have to question
Bugs about it and see if the problem could be corrected. Something about this
and the other times seemed similar, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

Bugs continued, “Second, when Nero asked the question, he
stated ‘about a thousand years ago.’ I queried our database and found nothing
occurring near our star that would explain this. However, we observe the
universe not in visible light or slower wave lengths as you do, but in
Tachyons, which travel faster than light. Later I realized my mistake—that you
still used visible light and nothing faster—so I subtracted the time light
would take to travel here from our star – 112 years—in order to determine when
it occurred at our star, and still found nothing. Then I remembered Nero had
said ‘about,’ so I started searching before and after that time and found it. The
light from a super nova that occurred 10,798 years ago passed our system 911 years
ago and, therefore, passed here 1,023 years ago. The star that exploded was
almost perfectly aligned with both our stars so it looked like the light was
from our star.”

Woodworth put his hands on his hips and smiled, “Well, I knew
it was going to be something like that.” He turned to Adamarus, “Do you mind if
I call Nero and explain this to him?”

Adamarus said, “No, not at all.”

“That would be great!” Woodworth said.

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Two months later it was finally time for the Loud to make the
return trip to their system. They promised to return in under 300 years.

Many farewell celebrations were held. An official trade
agreement had been drafted and two of the Loud ships would make the 112 light
year journey back to the Loud system where their world was expected to ratify
it.

The third ship would stay behind for another fifty years to
help with the migration of people to off-world settlements and with the
development of various technologies and resources, including additional food
production to account for the population explosion.

Adamarus’ world had finally settled back to a normal state,
or as normal as could be expected now that everyone was around thirty years old
and immortal.

Training and education was the main concern so people could
develop, manufacture, service and operate the new technologies the Loud would
leave behind and were still handing out via the remaining ship. There was a
critical demand for trained people to fill the new positions, occupations and
services for the new forms of transportation, the expansion of new off-world
settlements, construction of the orbital habitats, the multi-level moon farms
and all the new and/or improved technologies blossoming everywhere.

Adamarus and his family, plus Radin, Leewood, Harrington and
Woodworth were on hand for the departure of the two ships. They gathered in the
new observation deck of one of the first orbital habitats to be built to watch
the ships depart. It was bare inside; no one had even moved in yet.