“We must find out where they went,” she cries to her companions. “Follow me!”
With a jump, they get over the fence and plunge onto a lawn.
“You, inspect the park,” she orders eight raiders. The others encircle the building and break into it with leveled guns. Eve directs five androids to the second floor. Three others walk down to the basement, the rest remains with her on the first floor.
They enter the dining room. Deserted. Tables decorated with flowers and elegant tablecloths. In the air, the pungent smell of rotten food.
“The dinner was prepared a few days ago,” murmurs a raider.
“What a strange scent…”
They pass next to a stately branched candlestick. “Incense. They held a ceremony.”
They reach a corridor. Small clean rooms are along both sides. Beds prepared carefully. Narcissus in ceramic pots in a row on the shelves. Not a speck of dust. The linen arranged precisely in the drawers; nothing out of place.
They stop in front of rucksacks and suitcases, at the foot of the beds. “They didn’t take anything away.”
“But they left a few days ago…”
“They are coming back!”
“I know what’s happened,” Eve cuts them short.
In her visual field appears a message:
RUN DOWN TO THE BASEMENT, QUICK!
She dashes down the stairs, flings open the steel door of the basement and jumps over the last steps. Now she is in a white room. A few electronic instruments are lined up against a wall. It’s cold.
“I am here…” murmurs Victoria from the adjoining room. The girl is standing in a corner, with a pale face, pointing at a case with a trembling arm. Coagulated blood on the edge. Inside, in a dark red pool, three heads the tops of the skulls missing.
A raider examines the equipment: “That’s a scanner for the brain digitization, and those look like furnaces.” He touches lightly one of them. “Still warm.”
“They were cremated!” shouts Victoria, with her eyes starting from her head.
Eve returns to the first room. She bends over a machine and sets it running. The screen fills with data.
“A short while ago, this tank contained about a hundred souls. But now it is empty.”
Victoria looks like collapsing. “Another mass suicide…”
Eve stares at the numbers. “We entrusted Nihil with finding a system to embark us on the Caravels, but he disappeared. He wants to replace us!” She stops: a message arrived. “I must go.”
Eve strides upstairs, up to the second floor. She enters a corridor covered with fitted carpet. At the end, towers an imposing wood door.
The meeting room. An octagonal table at the center. Yellow chairs with comfortable arms like the petals of a daisy.
Adam and three other raiders are standing still in front of the life-size hologram of a dark android standing out from his followers who are along a wall. In a corner, is a server. Eve exchanges a few words with her companions, then bends over and starts it. After a few minutes, she succeeds in logging in and begins inspecting the files.
“I found his diary!”
The others stop rummaging in the cabinets and turn in unison.
The text shines above the table. A few lines are highlighted in yellow:
“The Council is spying me. I punished the novice and Wing, but now all of them must die.”
“He will avenge himself with a latest generation virus, I am afraid,” articulates Eve. “Impossible to neutralize it.”
She transmits a message to her companions in Net: they must abandon their hideout, immediately!
They continue reading:
“Yesterday I tested the followers' preparation, asking two of them to commit suicide. The younger drew back. The others encouraged him, telling that in a short time all of us would be facing the same fate. On my side, I explained in detail the reasons for the act. At the end I read a sincere impatience in his eyes…”
“Madness!” cries a raider.
They pass over the description of the suicide and arrive at the last lines:
“Now that I have collected the souls in a container, I must reach the transmitter and activate the transfer. On my arrival, I will be carried in triumph by the population. Alpha Centauri will be my kingdom.”
They are all motionless, staring at the transfer date blinking at the bottom, blood red.
FIGHT
The people of the Caravels were proud of their civilization and believed in a future of progress. But illness spread and civil customs broke down. War followed. At the beginning fate gave the illusion of victory first to one opponent, then to the other. Then, by a frenzied course of events, it bereft both of them of all hope.
0101 010101001
MARS
Caravels.
C573Y is on board, supervising the security of the Caravels. At the end of the day, he goes to the bridge and through a wide window admires the red planet that appears in its entirety twenty thousand kilometers away. The sandstorm that spread all over it during the previous weeks, has finished and now the canyons that furrow through the equator, like deep wounds, are visible.
The android magnifies the image with his electronic eye. The inlets branching off from the main flumes appear in detail. He can see the face he climbed a few months before and not far away the marks of the water erosion. In the northern hemisphere, imposing volcanoes rise on an expanse of red lava. At the foot of the highest one, the Olympus Mons, a glitter: it is Newton city, a densely populated town in continuous expansion that like the other settlements of the planet differs from the earthly ones in the almost total lack of human presence.
Certainly man, who started the exploration of Mars with a great enthusiasm three centuries ago, could not imagine such a conclusion.
Towards the end of the 20th century the first probes were sent and in the following years many others reached the red planet. They transmitted a considerable amount of information, but it was only in 2021 that the most interesting discoveries took place, when the robots identified a few colonies of bacteria in the polar caps of carbon dioxide and in the water deposits under the surface.
The discovery of extraterrestrial life forms did not awaken surprise, as in the previous years the fossils of organisms populating the planet billions of years before, had already been found. What really struck both the scientific community and the population, was the likeness between the Martian and the earthly DNA. Some genes were even identical. This discovery confirmed the hypothesis of a common origin. When, some years later the same genetic sequences were found inside the tarry surface of a comet, the definitive confirmation arrived: life had been born in the depths of space and from there spread to the solar system planets.
These findings increased the enthusiasm for a human mission that took place about twenty years later. A permanent base was built too. But the adverse environment, forcing the use of pressurized suits and vehicles for scouting and living for the remainder of the time in the base, caused adaptation problems that even the oasis of green inside the domes could not eliminate. After a few years the explorers returned inevitably to the Earth. Then, in the second half of the 21st century, the supporters of human expansion suggested starting the plan of modification of the Martian atmosphere that had attracted so much attention in the euphoria of the first explorations.
First of all it was necessary to warm the planet with enormous orbiting mirrors so as to free the gases entrapped in the surface. In their turn, they would increase the temperature thanks to the greenhouse effect, and the introduction of synthetic gases able to retain warmth would do the rest. In only fifty years the pressure would rise just enough to allow the use of a simple respirator and most of all the building of the big pressurized domes necessary for a large population.
But this was only the first step of another modification, for which a term, as grand as the idea which it evoked, was coined: terraforming. It would be possible to create seas and oceans, breathable air and e
ven a terrestrial ecosystem, heating the planet further, in order to melt the frozen water in the surface, and to introduce organisms able to enrich the atmosphere with oxygen. Mars would become inhabitable, but with very long time scale: even a thousand years!
For the moment the supporters asked only for the approval of the first part of the plan. They put forward several forecasts, that, in absence of an authorization, did not paint a rosy picture of the humans’ stay on the planet. Human presence would continue to be restricted to the scientists' small community and to the few tourists willing to bear the financial burden as well as the long voyage and the hostile environment.
The opposition had different opinions. According to some, embarking on such an expensive project did not make sense, because the advantages would be clear only in the long term. The skeptics thought that even after the conclusion of the first phase, only a few would accept to live on Mars, and concluded that the planet would be still uninhabited for centuries.
In the end, only a few experiments started, but they were interrupted after some years, at the first signs of economic crisis. Later on even the small base was downsized. The scientists gave up their large scale studies and concentrated on essential research.
Towards the end of the 21st century, the technologies were developed which made possible the production of androids and robots that were able to take decisions autonomously. It was a real breakthrough that, with the automatic factories, would make human intervention in the building of the settlements superfluous. But these new techniques remained mostly unutilized because of the persistent lack of interest in the red planet. Thus the project to modify the Martian atmosphere, which from time to time was revived by incurable dreamers, remained a pure academic exercise.
During the 22nd century, while the colonization of Mars was making slow progress, the events destined to change the future of the red planet, matured. The souls and the artificial intelligences populated the virtual world and integrated their institutions with those of Earth in a long process that culminated in 2134 when Net joined the Confederation. This result was amazing because the virtual beings obtained in only half a century what men had achieved in thousands of years, but this was inadequate for the new people, whose enthusiasm for the acceptance soon turned into intolerance towards the innumerable restrictions imposed by the central government.
In the final analysis, every friction was caused by the profound differences between the two races: with the exception of a few recent modifications, mankind has not changed from time immemorial, while the virtual beings' evolution is getting faster and faster. In many Net creatures intolerance was replaced by anger at being confined in the virtual world and not participating in government and economy of Earth.
It became clear that the two civilizations were going to clash. To avert a war, a federal committee was charged with settling the issue. The sages suggested separating the races physically, in order to let them follow their natural evolution, and proposed entrusting the red planet to the virtual beings so that they could realize their digital and material dream. The Net creatures accepted the plan with enthusiasm as the adverse environment was not a problem for those that could live in the bodies of androids and robots. So the planet man had abandoned so hastily, started being considered by the virtual beings as a Promised Land.
At the beginning the project of colonization was opposed by part of the humans, who were asked for a financial contribution, and it took off finally in 2215 when it became clear the problem had to be solved at all costs. Now, the Martians have realized their dream: the planet has become the fourth state of the Confederation and its population belongs almost totally to the virtual race. The inhabitants live in the servers while a minority resides in the androids and robots populating the colonies. The human presence is restricted to a few researchers.
The colonization proceeds so rapidly that today the whole planet is an immense yard. New domes are rising everywhere, thanks to a streamlined production system and to the supervision of the Martian Coordination which, as soon as a settlement is completed, moves equipment and automatic factories to another place. According to recent rumors, experiments for the modification of the Martian atmosphere are about to start again.
“The first time I visited the red planet, I was surprised by the Martians’ good mood. An attitude just the opposite of man’s who long before, after a short and painful stay, had abandoned the idea of colonizing the planet. When I asked my guide the reason for such optimism, he answered ‘Net provides every kind of satisfaction, even those man will never experience’. While I was thinking it over, he added that the material world is a source of great satisfaction for the Martians, as well.
The following day he took me to a hill. While we were enjoying the sight of the desert, he announced that just below a big town would emerge in three years.
I met him again at the inauguration. On that occasion, he explained that Martian optimism springs from the certainty of realizing even the most ambitious dreams and that the new town was just one of their many successes.
The departure day arrived. While the spaceship was orbiting around the planet, before plunging into space, I observed its surface glittering with light. We passed by the space yards where the construction of the Caravels had begun.
I watched them spellbound: the colonization of other star systems is too difficult an enterprise for man, but a fantastic challenge for the virtual beings, which can enjoy every step. I recalled that the mission will be guided by the same beings, that about a century ago had proposed the colonization of Mars, and that the new enterprise will employ the technologies developed in the Martian experience.
Then I understood: the Mars colonization as well as the Alpha Centauri project and the many others that will follow, all belong to a single gigantic plan. Now Net people are really mastering both the virtual and the material world.
During the return voyage, I read a few statistics about the red planet. The crime rate is the lowest in the solar system; self-fulfillment and solidarity are shared values. Progress is an aim for which it is worth living. I wondered if man will ever include these marvelous objectives among his priorities.
I closed my eyes, and I realized: we are too similar to the reptiles populating the Earth millions of years ago. I felt like a prehistoric animal.”
Arthur Barnard, 2298, “The new species”.
DEPARTURE
Mars, August 3rd 2300.
They swarm out of towns. They advance into the stony desert, climb the hills and the promontories and then stop in groups, millions of androids and robots, glittering in the sunshine. All of them turned towards the same sector of sky vibrant with life.
Twenty thousand kilometers above, a multitude of spaceships, big and small, is lined up by the orbiting stations, in front of three enormous spheres of titanium and beryllium.
Time has stopped not only here, but also in the other planets of the solar system, in the icy outposts of the deep space as well as in the comfortable worlds inside the computers. Everywhere. And everybody enjoys the same striking realism offered by virtual reality. Everybody lives it.
In the spectators’ minds, the images of the Martian surface crowded with metal creatures and the superb views of the Caravels at close range, follow one another. Some reporters run through the endless corridors, others speak excitedly from rooms packed with androids and equipment, but only the privileged few are on the bridge. All of them praise the characteristics of the Caravels, itemize the steps of the project and interview its makers. A deluge of information inundates the inhabitants of the solar system.
“We are lucky to live this historical event.”
“This is the apotheosis of human civilization.”
“A new one is born. Nothing will stay the same as before.”
Suddenly all the shots concentrate on the Caravels. The countdown is finishing. Silence is total.
“Three, two, one, zero!”
A thrill runs through the crowds and
a moment later, a dart of fire spurts from the bowels of the three giants. A powerful jet of protons and helium penetrates the vacuum silently. The Caravels shake, and then leave the orbit lazily, towards the star-spangled sky.
In the middle of the bridge, a large space pervaded by the buzzing of the nuclear propellers, stand the Fleet Admiral and his officers, in full uniforms, turned towards the panoramic window. Now the thousands of vessels that crowded around the Caravels are only twinkling dots.
“We will colonize other worlds.”
No one is more touched than they are. They have conceived this project and believed in it. They have followed its realization step by step, and now the fateful moment has arrived, they entrust their future to it.
C573Y is among them. Seemingly, he shares the general excitement, but actually he is deeply worried about the many uncertainties weighing on the mission. As in the outward voyage, he will return to the Earth via a laser beam, but only after having fought the most important battle of his life. Not only his life.
IN ACTION
Huge spaceships of unprecedented complexity. Millions of parts that neither the endless controls carried out on each component, and the several integration tests, can guarantee totally reliable. After departure, alarms sound frequently.
Computers transfer swiftly the working load to the functioning equipment. An activity that only the redundancy, carefully planned by the engineers, allows to perform in real time. In the corridors an unceasing coming and going of maintenance robots and spare part carts.
Unavoidable software malfunctions, since not even the most powerful simulation programs can test billions of code lines thoroughly. The automatic repair systems intervene promptly, making changes and executing tests.
Security is on alert. If an enemy strikes, he will act just after departure. The antiviral programs inspect the most hidden places of Alphacity, the virtual town of the Caravels. Hundreds of warnings which require exhaustive checks. The physical world is guarded by Security. Androids with blue shields are marshaled on the bridge, as well as in the interminable corridors of the starships. Microscopic fixed and flying cameras lie in ambush, ready to pick up the least movement and transmit it to diagnostic programs that analyze the data with unerring precision. In the armory, hundreds of brand-new war robots, ready to come back to life at the first danger, are lined up along the walls.