Existence

The logic of this Uniqueness Hypothesis seemed so compelling, growing numbers of scientists gave up on alien contact. Especially when decade after decade of radio searches turned up only star static.

Of course, events eventually caught up with us, shattering all preconceptions. Starting with the First Artifact, we met interstellar emissaries at last-crystal eggs, packed with software-beings who provided an answer, at long last.

A depressing answer, but simple.

Like some kind of billion-year plant, it seems that each living world develops a flower-a civilization that makes seeds to spew across the universe, before the flower dies. The seeds might be called “self-replicating space probes that use local resources to make more copies of themselves”… though not as John Von Neumann pictured such things. Not even close.

In those crystal space-viruses, Von Neumann’s logic has been twisted by nature. We dwell in a universe that’s both filled with “messages” and a deathly stillness.

Or, so it seemed.

Only then, on a desperate mission to the asteroids, we found evidence that the truth is… complicated.

– Tor Povlov

67.

ANCIENT LUMINOSITY

First Light.

Drifting in a gravitational eddy-the Martian L2 point-eighty-seven petals finished unfolding around a common center, each of them electro-warping twenty kilometers of cerametal into a perfect curved shape, reflecting starlight to a single focus.

The spectacle was lent even more grandeur for spectators who watched from the Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta’s slowly spinning gravity wheel. The great telescope, and all of the surrounding stars, seemed to gyre in a slow, revolving waltz.

“So beautiful, like a fantastic space blossom,” murmured Jenny Peng. “I wish my parents and Madam Donaldson could have witnessed this.”

“Perhaps Lacey will see it. In time,” Courier of Caution replied in soothing tones, emitted by the resonant surface of his crystalline home. The alien entity seemed like a disembodied head floating in a translucent cube, carried by a hovering robotic drone. “Lacey’s sons ordered her cryo-frozen when she passed away. Given your present rate of technological progress, in as little as thirty years she may yet have a chance to revive and-”

“It won’t be the same,” Jenny answered, firmly. Despite her family’s longstanding relationship with Courier, they always disagreed with him over this issue, siding with the Naturalist Party on matters of life and death. “Lacey would have loved to watch this telescope unfold, but with her own eyes.”

Gerald saw Courier’s simulated mouth start opening, as if to argue that organic sensors held no advantages over solid state ones. But clearly this was an old dispute between friends. Anyway there were other things on the ancient star mariner’s mind.

“I still do not understand why we must wait so many months before turning the gaze of this magnificent machine toward my homeworld.”

Gerald had concerns of his own. He was communing with the ibn Battuta’s detection and defense ais, as they scanned the inner edge of the belt according to his orders-vigilantly watching for potential threats. But with a corner of his mind, he gathered words to answer Courier.

“You know why this observatory was established at the Martian L2 point. It allows us to take advantage of the Phobos staging area, but stay away from any major gravitational wells. It also means the telescope will stay mostly aimed outward, away from the sun. Your homeworld is in the direction of Capricorn, presently too near the sun for safe viewing. It will be more accessible in half an Earth year, or a fifth of a Mars orbit. Do try to be patient.”

That last part was a dig, of course. He watched Courier take the bait-

“Patient. Patient?” The vision-strip seemed to flare. “After all the millennia I endured in freezing space and fiery plummet, immured under ice, then communing with erratic primitives, worshipped, stolen, worshipped again, then buried and drowned, interrogated then drowned again…”

The alien envoy stopped abruptly and rocked back. Gerald knew Courier well enough by now for some of his mood-expressions to be familiar. Including rueful realization.

“Ah, Gerald my friend, I see that you tease me. Very well. I will stop demanding haste. After waiting thousands of years for humans to develop technology, then dozens more for you to make up your minds and build this instrument, I suppose I can be patient a few more months.”

Jenny shook her head. “Or much longer. You do understand, Courier. Even this powerful new telescope may not verify continued existence of your species, on Turbulence Planet?” She used the Chinese pronunciation chosen decades ago by her father.

“We should be able to get spectral readings of some atmospheric components, and a clear enough image to tell if there are still oceans. Methane and oxygen together will prove life. If we detect lots of helium, it might indicate the presence of many busy fusion reactors… or the same trace could suggest extended nuclear war.”

“That, I assure you, never happened.”

“You can guarantee that-across the last ten thousand years? Anyway, I admit it could mean something if we detect fast-decay industrial by-products in Turbulence Planet’s atmosphere. That may indicate an ongoing technological civilization. On the other hand, such signs could be absent because your people moved on to better, more sustainable methods.”

“This big array can also scan for radio traffic?”

“It can, and will. So far, with Earth-based dishes, we’ve heard nothing above background static coming from your home system. But again, they could be using highly efficient comm-tech that emits almost zero leakage. Earth was loudest during the Cold War of the 1970s, with military radars blasting around the clock, along with prodigious civilian television stations. Our planet got quieter then, less wasteful. And yours may have advanced much farther, since you were hurled across space.

“But our beautiful new blossom…,” she continued, nodding toward the vast array outside, spanning forty kilometers and shimmering back-reflections from the distant sun, “may let us eavesdrop much better. That is, if anyone is still using radio or lasers, on or near your homeworld.”

“Hence, you can understand my eagerness,” Courier commented.

“Sure I can.” Jenny smiled. “But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before Turbulence Planet comes into view, we’ll turn the Donaldson-Chang Big Eye on systems that other artifact aliens claim to be from.”

“The homeworlds of fools and liars,” Courier murmured, as he had during the first Great Artifact Debate, before Jenny was born. He went on though, with grudging courtesy. “Of course, I hope all of them survived the plague, and that you will find them living, in good health.”

Clearly, Courier did not expect that to happen. Nor did the other emissary beings. It was the shared litany of all crystal-encased aliens.

Gerald listened to the conversation with just half an ear. His main concern had little to do with planets that lay light-years away. Other dangers loomed closer. He queried the ship’s defense ai.

Any sign of activity along the inner belt?

Having learned the modern knack of volition-messaging, Gerald no longer had to send subvocal speech commands to his larynx, almost-speaking with real muscles. The answer came as both a faint audible response, and quick-sign glyphs in his upper left field of view.

We detect no unknown active objects.