The virtual beings realized that planet colonization was the opportunity to separate from the humans. But the costs were so high that the project could take off only with the financial support of the Confederation. Ten years ago, the Martian government proposed a large scale colonization to the federal parliament, and offered to accommodate the orbital construction yards for the spaceships, as well as the plants for the production of the androids, robots and automatic factories needed for expansion on the planet. The Alpha Centauri project was born. Then, without waiting for approval, the Martian government began the construction of the fleet.
The humans, who could not take part in the mission, tried to block it by appealing to the federal constitution that for the most important decisions requires the approval of the three ethnic groups of parliament: men, souls and intelligences. Later on several humans agreed to the project, on condition that the explorers made the planet inhabitable for man. In their opinion, it was indispensable for mankind to participate in the colonization in order not to be excluded from progress. They also proposed a plan to introduce into the alien ecosystem organisms capable of removing the life forms harmful to man and of reproducing the main terrestrial food chains. Their proposal was interesting because it confronted the fundamental problem of man’s destiny, but since the very beginning it was strongly opposed not only by the virtual community but also by many humans, for whom the huge costs and the long realization times were just unacceptable.
The initiative was challenged for other reasons, too. Most people, who were not interested in matters of principle, asserted it was no use undergoing sacrifices, since the Earth was already on a human scale. Some, mindful of the disastrous human experience on Mars, maintained man would never consolidate his presence because of unavoidable adaptation problems. Others feared a difficult cohabitation with the virtual community, which would be quite numerous by the time the first humans could arrive, and ecologists refused every modification of the alien ecosystem, branding it as a senseless act of violence.
As the discussion was getting heated and its outcome more and more uncertain, it became clear that the defeat of the human proposal would cause the end of the whole project. The Martians worked out a new strategy, and on July 4th 2293, in a historical session, parliament accepted the plan of modification of the ecosystem.
A protocol of implementation was also prepared, that gained the approval of the moderate ecologists. The humans succeeded, but only apparently: the protocol required an infinity of studies and checks that would delay the modification of the ecosystem for many years.
Moreover, the virtual beings were going to take advantage of the distance from the homeland, to postpone the project further. Actually, they knew they could avoid its realization forever. In about a hundred years, the population of the solar system would increase thanks to Net people and the political balances would turn in their favor.
To silence the remaining opponents, the virtual beings put into the field the major industrial groups and banks of the solar system, that had been financing the project for years and that in default of government grants, would be destabilized by an impressive liquidity crisis, capable of triggering a series of disastrous failures. Under the pressure of powerful lobbies, an influential joint party favorable to colonization started playing a leading role.
The Alpha Centauri project was finally approved by general consent. The humans drew a sigh of relief for having avoided even worse troubles.
0101 010101001 “The new species” (2298).
GENERAL HEADQUARTERS
Defense General Headquarters, Earth.
The gynoid’s body lies on the couch.
When Eve recovers consciousness, General Marcus Rand is next to her. “As soon as I was told about your arrival, I rushed here.”
The woman feels numb. She slowly gets into a sitting position on the couch. “Marcus, I need to embark on the Caravels.”
“What for?”
Eve explains the situation.
“Only the Staff can take this decision. I will fix a meeting.”
The man steps aside and starts speaking to his superiors.
He rejoins the woman. “We are meeting in half an hour.”
“I knew I could count on you.”
“We have to hurry up.”
Eve jumps to her feet. They enter a corridor and then an elevator.
“We are descending to a depth of two kilometers.”
They fasten their seat belts. A small object rises from the floor and begins hovering. They are in free fall. The elevator starts decelerating; electromagnetic brakes are working.
The door opens in front of the imposing entrance of a nuclear bunker. Eve has always dreamt of entering this place, where the Staff takes vital decisions for the safety of the Confederation and develops strategies towards a distant future. When she served in the army, it was the most coveted goal, for her as well as for many other young officers eager to excel. Most of all, it was an unshakeable point of reference. And now she has the honor of entering it as a civilian, in the same way as heads of state.
They walk along a corridor. She senses the prying eyes of the cameras.
At the end, a robot is guarding a door. They enter the hall. Behind a majestic table, five staff officers are waiting for them.
Eve stops a few meters away, and even though she has not belonged to the army for many years, she springs to attention. Marcus remains a few steps back.
From the center, the elderly officer gazes at her. He is white-haired and has a dark blue uniform with medals.
“General Marcus Rand informed us about your proposal,” begins the Chief of Staff. “You deserve the greatest attention, because of your brilliant past in the army and the help you have recently provided us.”
He looks through a dossier. “You distinguished yourself in the Red Helmets by foiling a terrorist attack which used nuclear weapons. You were decorated for bravery and awarded several citations. You were destined to reach the peak of a military career. Instead you resigned.”
The Chief of Staff pauses. “You are probably wondering why in all these years, we never stopped being interested in you.”
Eve has an impassive gaze - just a blink. Meanwhile the officer continues: “After the military academy, you accepted to undergo a treatment able to improve your mental and physical characteristics. A very secret experiment, that Defense was trying for the first time on a human being. Your memory of the cure was erased, in order not to influence your behavior.
When you resigned from the Defense, we had a moment of hesitation. Finally, we set you free; surely your behavior in other fields would be very interesting as well. This regularly happened. You worked in AISI, distinguishing yourself by the quality of your research.”
His face darkens. “While belonging to the Certification Committee, you were charged with corruption. The scandal was a surprise to us. We didn’t want your life to have anything hidden from us, so we put General Marcus Rand in charge of an enquiry. It was all a plot.
With the brain digitization, you became a virtual being with unique characteristics. You got in touch with the Elects, an organization we appreciated for its participants’ merits. You started transferring your characteristics to its members. Thanks to you, the Elects succeeded in escaping Security, but most of all they began transforming into a new race.”
He gives her a piercing look. “Let’s get to the point. You want to recover the population and stop Nihil. How can you manage it?”
“Once Nihil showed me a new virus. He wanted me to study it, but when I asked how he had got it, I didn’t receive any answer. A few days later, he wanted me to erase it from my computer. However I had enough time to study it.”
“How are you going to develop a treatment?”
“I need the Defense’s simulator.”
The legendary supercomputer which is more powerful than all the other machines in the solar system put together. Placed under kilometers of rocks. One of the mo
st closely guarded military secrets.
The high-rank officer puts on a solemn expression. “Our computer is engaged with important projects and to meet your proposal, we would have to delay the activities in progress. Nevertheless we are willing to listen to your reasons.”
“As you know,” begins Eve, “the virus is lethal. We cannot restore the population, because the backups have been erased. We must develop a treatment, but if we fail, no one will survive.
I applied to you for three reasons.
First of all the Defense supercomputer is the only one that can perform such complex computations in a few days. The other machines would require months.
Secondly, this computer uses unique simulation programs.”
“How do you know what software we have at our disposal?” asks the Chief of Staff.
“I was the one who developed them. The Defense entrusted AISI with this project.”
The officers talk in low voices.
“You mean…” intervenes the top officer, “that you not only have a deep knowledge of the infection, but also of the tools necessary for a cure. In conclusion, you can judge the need for the simulator better than anybody else.”
“So far I have explained two reasons. The third one is that I have already worked with the scientists of the Defense. They are the best team I have ever met. With their help, I am sure I will succeed.”
“The Chief of Staff reads an hologram: “In exchange for your help, you ask to continue the voyage to Alpha Centauri with the Elects. Explain to us the reason.”
“The Alpha Centauri Project marks the beginning of a new era. We want to contribute. You know what I mean.”
The Chief of Staff ends the meeting: “Thank you, captain.”
The sitting is adjourned.
When it is resumed half an hour later, the most senior officer stares at the young woman who is standing at attention. A proud bearing and resolute expression, like the best officers.
“Captain Dirac, you are an excellent soldier, you know Nihil better than anybody else, so much that you worked with him on some secret projects. We are sure your contribution on the Caravels will be decisive.”
He gives a deep sigh. “The Alpha Centauri Project will take the digital people to another solar system. But there is a second and even more ambitious objective, that we have kept secret till now. We believe that, far from human influence, the digital beings will be able to express their potential at best. We are looking for people that can help us to reach this objective.
Therefore the President of the Confederation, having consulted the Net representatives, has decided to accept your proposal. Our simulator is at your disposal, Captain.”
He points to the officer behind Eve. “From now on you can address your requests directly to General Marcus Rand. The Alpha Centauri project has top priority.”
Eve and the young officer take their leave. They reach the elevator.
“You made a hit with him!” jokes the man.
“Thank you for your help, Marcus. You had me put on board and in charge of so important tasks…”
“You know this work better than anybody else.”
On the tips of her toes, Eve kisses him on a cheek.
Now they are on the terrace. They stride towards a streamlined aircraft parked in the middle.
The man hands over a suit. “We will be at the simulator in half an hour.”
They climb the ladder and slip into the cockpit. The engines are hissing. An instant later the aircraft rockets into the sky.
A LEAP INTO THE PAST
General Marcus Rand stops a dozen meters from the entrance. “I cannot go any further.”
Eve looks at him calmly. “If a solution exists, I will find it. In a few days it will all be over.”
“I will be here.”
The woman sets out along the corridor. After fifty meters, she enters a circular room. At the center, is a black column about her height and twenty centimeters thick.
“Here I am.”
“I was waiting for you.”
When she closes her eyes, her programs are sucked into the computer.
She protects her eyes with a hand. Now she is in a space without walls, filled with an intense brightness. Ten individuals in spotless uniforms are standing around her: the Defense scientists.
“Welcome back, Eve!” greets her the highest ranking officer. “Many changes have occurred since you left.”
Her memories flood back.
Everything started about thirty years before on a clear spring morning, when the AISI director called for Eve.
“You have to go urgently to a military base to join a secret project. You will maintain your job with the Certification Committee, but you have to discontinue any other activity.”
“What else?” asked Eve impassively.
“A military ovoid will pick you up in two hours.”
She handed over all her projects. Towards midday, she embarked on the aircraft. A dark restricted space; small portholes along the fuselage. The aircraft headed for the desert to the south of the town, an expanse of black lava stones interrupted every now and then by majestic monoliths. A place she knew well, because she had climbed a few of those peaks. Nevertheless, she was unaware of the existence of the military base.
An hour later, the ovoid landed in the middle of the desert. A dried up square bounded by a ten–meter-high wall, topped with barbed wire, with a huge block of reinforced concrete in the middle. Burning air. Cameras and sensors all around.
Three sparkling robots were waiting for her.
“Doctor Dirac. Follow us, please.”
They escorted her into the building. A garage with a row of electric vehicles lined up along a wall, and the entry to a tunnel on the opposite side. They got into the first trolley that, through a succession of hairpin bends, ran more and more steeply down the tunnel, to the entrance to the main laboratory.
After walking for a hundred meters, they reached a room, where about ten scientists were sitting round a table. A few stood up.
“How was the flight?” asked a fair-haired young man, shaking her hand.
“The automatic pilot was not talkative. I enjoyed the view of the desert. I had never been so far.”
“We have been struck by two of your articles,” stated a senior officer in a corner, with arms folded. “We will put your theories to a hard test.”
A young woman with skin like polished ebony, offered Eve a hot coffee. “My name is Paula. I have been here for two days.”
The rest of the afternoon passed discussing a particular behavior of matter they had recently discovered. They decided to perform a simulation. Eve was put in charge of the development of the software.
Fantastic but difficult months followed, during which they produced the raw material for a new extraordinary quantum computer (18).
Defense decided to build a prototype. Scientists and technicians started arriving in dozens every day. With the delivery of materials and equipment, the preparation of the laboratories began. The base became a single gigantic yard absorbed in a restless activity.
Two months later, in perfect agreement with the plans, the staff counted five hundred units and the laboratories were the most advanced in the solar system. In the following year, they passed from the research to the design, from the testing of the components to the assembly, thanks to a streamlined organization and a good deal of favorable circumstances.
At last the object of their desires was towering at the center of the vaulted hall of the main laboratory, surrounded by lots of scientists and technicians in white uniform, ready for the final tests. A web of equipment and cables wound all over the floor. Excitement was palpable. The triumph near.
That day, when the Military Police stepped in, Eve was testing a piece of equipment. They approached her, and in a deathly silence, escorted her up to a room where three officers were waiting for her.
“Doctor Dirac, you are being investigated for corruption.” r />
They were staring at her, ready to notice the least reaction.
Finally the response: “We’ll hand you over to the civil authorities.”
An hour later Eve was on an ovoid, squashed on the rear seat between the powerful shoulders of plainclothes detectives. Bewildered. At the mercy of events she had not caused, and that were upsetting her life.
At the center of the room, Eve bends her head. "The beginning of a nightmare."
Immersed in dazzling whiteness, she remains motionless, till the officer brings her back to the present: “We can start.”
She raises her head. “I am transmitting the data.”
(18) Qubit strings of unprecedented size.
COMPUTER SCIENCE INSTITUTE
@ Virtual town of Alphacity.
The engines whistle. The aircraft is darting among the skyscrapers and over the palaces. Eve looks at the town through the transparent cockpit. The streets and the squares are covered with mass of bodies.
"My challenge."
After half an hour they reach the white building of the Computer Science Institute, in the middle of a lawn. The ovoid lands near a fountain, in front of the main entrance. Eve gets out. A few researchers, led by a small sprightly man, run towards her. They shake hands.
“Eve, what a pleasure to see you again!” says the director.
She smiles, only for a moment. “I know you are in big trouble.”
“The deaths are increasing. It is a side effect of the infection.”
The group walks into the building and up to an elevator.
“We are going down to the bunker. We were there when the epidemic broke out.”
They enter the laboratory.
Eve and the director step onto the platform. About fifty scientists are gathered in front. Strained faces stare at the director and Eve, a profound determination is expressed in their looks. This is the kind of people which loves intellectual challenges and lives them passionately, exactly as she does.
The director begins: “You know Eve Dirac, at least by reputation. She is joining us as a research manager.”