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Slaves of Communication
Part IV
PAT Incorporated
Being the farthest planetoid from Sol, at least part of the time, there wasn’t much of anything on Pluto Epsilon, nothing much except compromise. Compromise defined as, there were now seven icy planetoids that shared the name Pluto, this one was the fifth, thus the Epsilon designation. Their differing eccentric orbits alternated the most distant status among them. Humanity had an affection for Pluto for some reason, thus after some controversy in the early part of the 21st Century, everyone settled on this naming compromise. If Pluto couldn’t be a planet, it became a family of planetoids. Like most compromises, this only made the slightest bit of sense, but it made most people happy. Accompanying this Astronomer’s compromise was the Quantum Teleportation transport facility and its required self-sustaining colony of Guinea Pigs with the necessary plant habitat and atmospheric scrubber paraphernalia, all of this surrounded in a sheltering environmental bubble; all, except for the compromises. Compromise can never be adequately contained.
The maintenance ship had made a special diversion to check the transport installation functionality and guarantee the Guinea Pig population was healthy and stable. All was well, so the maintenance ship had departed a week ago. Mission accomplished, well, their part of it. The entire mission was too important and potentially too dangerous to have non-essentials cluttering the background. This would be the first official contact of human society with an intelligent alien race. Conveniently for Earth, the aliens were coming to the Sol system. It was the only way it could happen; because the only device humanity had yet built that could violate the speed of light limitation was the Quantum teleporter. Most human physicists still argued about whether it did that or not. Fundamentally, it was only information, not matter or energy that moved instantaneously between the two teleporter facilities as a result of simultaneous quantum state shifts occurring between two synchronized atoms of entangled matter within each device. The described teleportation of this change of state process was immediate over any distance, although it required the entanglement or synchronization of their quantum state of the atoms by being in close proximity to occur first, and only then could they be separated. That was only an inconvenience of manufacture and overcome simply by adding extra time and expense to the construction process. Q-teleportation devices were now all over the solar system. Anywhere humans wanted routine access. The dirty little secret that ECC, the Q-teleporter’s manufacturer, didn’t disclose was that the matter was not transported, only the information. It may have been a subtle distinction, but it was an important one because a traveler, or anything else, had to first be reduced to information at one end of the journey and reconstructed from matter at the other end. The Departure Q-teleporter obliterated the traveler and anything else in its beam’s way, after the information’s quantum signature was shifted, the device then resurrected the traveler and whatever else was in the beam at the Destination Q-teleporter, to complete the journey.
The Q-device used enormous amounts of energy and thus was quite expensive in application. The Guinea Pigs were a backup system for the Q-device. If it needed more complex molecules quickly as during human transport, or more precisely, telecommunication, the Guinea Pigs were used as ready source material for those essential and energy expensive bio-molecules. The greater the amount of readily available complex molecules for the Destination Q-device during the resurrection, the less energy it required, the less expensive the overall transport. Guinea Pig lives were a relatively cheap and reliable compromise bio-molecule source to reduce excessive energy use.
“It takes life to make life!” The Engineers would joke during the Q-device’s development, but of course, none of them ever used the Q-device on themselves. The one optimist in the group called it the Resurrection Machine. Still, he never used it, either.
Yves Gorman knew all of this. He was the President and CEO of the EGG subsidiary that perfected, and now marketed and maintained the Q-device. Yves referred to it as the Chair. The Q-device also used less energy if it didn’t have to compensate for excess motion of the transported. As another compromise, every traveler had a special form-fitted restraining chair built exclusively for them. The Chair got resurrected too. Yves never let the public know about his name for the device either. Yves and his restraint chair were thus the only ones teleported to Pluto Epsilon the site for the alien first contact.
Yves’ boss, the head of ECC, and the President of the United States of the Americas had told Yves that he was the only man capable of doing the job; the only man that could adequately represent Earth to the incoming alien race. Yves had been a successful member of the corporate world all his professional life. He knew bullshit whenever he heard it. Yves was the only one in top management that knew about both the aliens and PAT that didn’t have enough political power to say NO!
Yves was a problem solver. Yves knew how to get things done. Yves was a hands-on type. Yves could never get away from that function. There were so few people skilled at ‘getting-things-done’ in the corporate world that the non-working managers held on tightly to anyone capable of getting things done. They certainly couldn’t do it themselves. Yves thus could never rise to a non-working manager status no matter what his official title.
So, because he couldn’t say no, Yves now sprang back into existence on Pluto Epsilon. If you count Yves’ death at the beginning of the teleporting, and no one in Marketing ever did except Yves, eighteen lives were lost in the resurrection of Yves and his Chair; one human and seventeen Guinea Pigs. Yves just sat there trying not to move. All he could hear was the squeal and coo of the remaining Guinea Pig colony members. It was somehow soothing. The Q-device made no noise whatsoever. Yves hated that too. He actually hated every aspect of the Chair used for human transport, but his success in the corporate milieu had conditioned him to keep his opinions to himself, most of the time. This was his first trip in the Chair. If he didn’t get killed by the alien race, he would have only one more ride back to Earth. Well, as long as he could say No to any new situation to arise that is. If he got back to Earth, Yves had to work on gaining the privilege of the non-working manager category.
“Are you alright?” It was PAT’s voices. All sixteen of PAT was standing in the main hall of the Shelter Bubble.
“What are you doing out here?” Yves sat up, extracted himself slowly from the chair. “You never leave you sub-basement on Earth?”
All of PAT giggled, both the men and the women that made up the composite mind, the faulty personal transponder linked being that was PAT. “Still haven’t. I’m broadcasting both my voice and my image through the Sol ComNet and your personal transponder implant. I’m here in your brain, only. I can hear you through your own ears and transponder broadcast.”
“Yet, another secret you’ve been keeping.” Yves stood up slowly, testing to see that all of his parts were working as they should. “We haven’t talked in years.” Yves tapped the position of his transponder implant behind his right ear. “Mine was supposed to be special, tamper proof, but I gather you’ve been listening in all a long. Come out to keep me company?”
“Yes, I do monitor you and others I feel are important to the world, but no, on the company thing. I was concerned about your teleport. There was an unusual energy spike coinciding with your information relay. So you are okay?” All of PAT’s faces looked concerned.
Yves realized there used to be more of PAT. Yves had heard from the doctors that three of PAT had died over the last few years. “Fine, so far. I’ve been meaning to ask about you, ah? Your losses, but the USTA restrictions on access to you are, well, very restrictive.”
There was a collective sigh. “It’s all been very difficult.”
“Like losing an arm and a leg?”
Sixteen heads shook simultaneously. “No, like losing an eye or part of your brain. If you could possibly perceive that.”
Yves opened his eyes. He was in the Chair as he expected, but this didn’t look like the Pluto Epsilon facility at all! He had seen pictures. In fact, it looked like a make-shift prison. Men and women were huddled in small cramped cages. A woman was screaming. “She’s gone! She’s gone!”
Yves realized he and the Chair were in a cage too; larger than theirs but surrounded by bars all the same. “What the hell?” Yves jumped out of the Chair. “Is that you Peter?” Yves said to the man behind the Q-device control console.
“Oh shit!” Peter shouted and ran out the door.
“She’s you! She’s you now!” The woman in the cage screamed at Yves. “She’s you!”
“What the hell is going on?” Yves shouted back. There were more cages than Yves realized at first. His shout started a wave of shouts and cries. “Where is this?” Yves tried to yell over the wave of moans.
“Hell.” “Help!” “The Pit!” “Halp!” and others crying with long loud sobs.
Yves tried to click open his transponder circuit, a double click of his left molars to make an outbound call. For some reason there was no connection into the Sol System ComNet. If he were anywhere in the solar system, he should be able to establish a connection. He had never been cut off so completely. His executive transponder transmissions always had circuit priority. Furthermore, being an employee and upper management at ECC his transponder tech was the most advance in the system. He had never heard nothing before and he didn’t like it. He couldn’t even access his e-mail archive. “What the hell?” He clicked both sets of molars together hard to turn the transponder gain to maximum. There was the slightest indication of a faint connection but it seemed way off in the electronic distance. There wasn’t enough of it for a coherent data transfer in or out; just a faint buzz of electronics out there. Yves fired off a distress call at max power, anyway. “Like shouting into the wind.” Yves said to himself.
Peter then walked back into the enclosed console room with another man; someone Yves didn’t recognize. He was tall and dark. The dark fellow leaned close to the console microphone focus spot and shouted. “All of you shut the fuck up or you’ll be frozen! I like ice. Ice is very quiet.” Everyone but Yves did shut up.
“You are?” Yves said with his authoritative upper management voice. Now that the caged had gone silent except for some random sobbing, he said it louder than he wanted.
The dark fellow shrugged. “That doesn’t matter but I know who you are.”
That statement worried Yves. PAT was always so positive about their conditions. A collective mind created by the joining of oddly functioning or malfunctioning personal transponder technology was something Yves had grown comfortable with, in a fashion, but it hadn’t happened to him. Humans, even those with a composite mind, have to learn to live with the inevitable. After all, Yves was now standing on Pluto Epsilon after having been killed and resurrected, talking to a group consciousness that was all in his head. The need to adapt to the inevitable was an imperative. The sudden perplexed look on all of PAT’s faces further concerned Yves. “What is it?”
“That teleporter power surge.” PAT shook all their heads. “It must have caused a Net echo. I just picked up your transponder signal from the inner system.”
“Complex systems have a lot of glitch ghosts in them.” Yves switched to his corporate customer complaint mode, automatically. “It’s like you said, a rebound of a power surge.”
“It was very weak, but it was clearly you saying ‘Help!’” The perplexed expression returned. “Most surges don’t cry for help, but I have to keep moving, anyway. Brasilia’s Net monitoring still doesn’t trust me even after all these years. They can’t track what they can’t find, though. I’ll check out the errant cry of distress.”
“Just an electronic muddle, I’ll bet. I’ve always thought with so many signals flying around the system, they were bound to crash into each other at some point. But be back AFAP.” Yves looked out the transparent ceiling of the shelter bubble. Blackness and stars, so much like the comforts of his office starry-night ceiling but this was real. He could look directly into the blackness of the universe with no effort. See the stars bright without the distortions of the atmosphere. They didn’t sparkle out here. There was also the other reality staring back at him though, the large asteroid that seemed to be heading directly at him. It was not comforting at all. “First contact is a lot scarier a business than I thought it would be.”
“Yes, AFAP.” PAT disappeared from the room but Yves knew it was from his brain, only. Adjusting to the inevitable was the imperative but it was really hard to do. Yves also knew the coming asteroid was an alien communication device just like the ones PAT destroyed almost a decade ago. Yves wished he didn’t know that and a lot of other things and maybe he’d still be unkilled and standing back on Earth not out here at the edge of the solar system. Yves wished he had brought Janis’ going away present for him. It was a Safari hat with a very wide brim. “Better if it was made out of titanium with that inevitability coming at me.” Yves said to no one but the Guinea Pigs squealed in reply, anyway. “You guys want hats, too?” Yves said to the only other mammals on Pluto Epsilon.
“Okay. I agree, you don’t matter.” Yves tried to remain authoritative. “Then where am I?”
“The Saturn moon, Encelades.” PAT’s voice came over Yves transponder circuit. PAT’s image was faded and transparent; barely visible.
“PAT? Is that you?” Yves was surprised again.
“I said my name doesn’t matter and it’s not Pat, anyway.” The dark fellow laughed at his own position of power. Throughout his life people had called him a bully as an insult. He never took it as one. He liked using his power position whenever he could. The expression of power made him laugh. He laughed.
“Go sub-verbal. I’ll still hear you through your transponder command neuro-circuitry.” PAT’s signal and imaged increased, slightly.
“What are you doing here?” Yves said to PAT while watching the dark fellow laugh.
“What are you doing here is the more important and relevant question?” PAT retorted.
“Where’s here, again?” Yves frowned authoritatively at the, still amused, dark fellow.
“Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.”
“But that’s quarantined. Off limits to prevent human contamination of potential indigenous life.” Yves frowned at where PAT appeared to be standing beside him but wasn’t.
“That doesn’t mean you’re not here ah, there.” PAT replied.
“But you’re barely here. What’s happening?”
The dark fellow moved away from the microphone focus area and said something to Peter.
“The place is off the ComNet which means trouble is happening. It’s shielded against normal communication signals. Most systems here are hardwired to each other. Old tech but secure.” PAT shrugged with all shoulders. “Brasilia won’t like this. If it weren’t for your special transponder, I wouldn’t be able to get through to you.”
“So you don’t know.” Yves frowned deeper at PAT’s image. “You used to know everything, even about the aliens.” Yves expression turned to concern. “What about that? The first contact situation?”
“Ah. It’s being taken care of.” PAT looked over at the dark fellow who was speaking again. “Maybe that guy will tell you. I have to go away for a little while. I’ll be back AFAP.”
“PAT! Damn it! Don’t go.” Yves said aloud.
“Name’s not Pat as I said before and I’m not going anywhere and neither are you.” The dark fellow laughed again.
“Why did you bring me here? Why the bars? What do you want from me?” Yves’ voice remained authoritative. He didn’t want to show any weakness or fear, although feeling both. Yves thought he was going to meet aliens and all he got was a human thug; which was more dangerous?
“Business and opportunity. Business for me; opportunity for you. The chance for a new, unmonitored life. Oh and the bars.” The dark fellow laughed. “Caution. Being cautious. Some people don’t do well with abrupt change.” The dark fellow laughed but this time there were more sobs from the Caged.
“They don’t seem to have much opportunity now, do they?” Yves wanted to gain any control he could.
“Well, they weren’t enlightened enough.”
“Enlightened self-interest?” Yves interrupted, intentionally.
“Hey, that’s good. Yeah. They don’t have an enlightened self-interest, or enough of it to see a way to do business.” The dark fellow only smiled this time.
“They didn’t pay you?” Yves inserted.
The dark fellow pointed at Peter who cowered in the corner of the console enclosure. “He told me you were smart. Yeah, simply a service provided and a fee paid.”
“Okay. What do I buy?”
“Anonymity. In the time of our Big Brother in the south.” The dark fellow laughed.
“That’s why your name doesn’t matter?” Yves stated.
“Really smart guy.” The dark fellow pointed at Yves. “Smart guy you are. You got the point first time out.”
Yves looked over at the sobbing and trembling Caged. “Yeah, I got the point. I got the point, indeed.”
Yves watched the asteroid approach rapidly. Because of the lack of reference points, the asteroid actually appeared to grow in size. From PAT’s description of their first encounter a decade back, Yves knew that the asteroid had maneuvering capabilities. It wasn’t some alien space bullet fired by a giant hyperspace canon that would simply hit the first thing to get in its way. The USTA scenario was that the com-asteroid would land near the Pluto Epsilon facility and communicate with Yves. This, of course, was simply based off an assumption PAT had put down on the record years ago. The aliens send out communications devices and land them near the closest intelligent being they find. It was why Yves was out on Pluto Epsilon alone. It was the furthest point away from Earth and humanity. Yves was really just bait to keep the aliens away from Earth. “Smart Bait!” Yves said to the Guinea Pigs. “I hope I’m smart enough and that smart rock notices me down here and doesn’t land on top of us. It looks like it’ll smack right into us.”
“It’s changing course at this moment.” PAT popped into Yves’ vision field.
“Oh, you’re back.” Yves tried not to show his excitement. “Is it slowing down? That was more a hope than a question.” Yves forced a smile. This situation was a difficult one. He had no idea what was going to happen next. “Why weren’t you involved in the briefings for this mission? You’ve been to their planets on their Quantum ComNet.”
“Brasilia, the United States of The Americas, has never been comfortable with my existence.” PAT put all their palms upward in the air.
“Yeah, I know. I’ve been there with you on occasion when they showed their discomfort.”
“On this, they just sent e-mails to me with questions and demanded the answers in writing.” PAT shook their heads. “I gave up confrontation sometime ago. Now, I keep as low a profile as I can manage. Sorry.”
“Understood.” Yves nodded. “You fix that other problem?” Yves was always good at follow up.
“Not exactly. I’ll have to go off to that again in a moment.” PAT pointed at the asteroid. “I don’t want you to be surprised at what that will do next.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” Yves grimaced.
“The aliens, this culture is very efficient. They abhor waste of any kind, especially energy waste.”
Yves hung his head. “Not kinetic energy, I hope?”
“Especially, kinetic energy.” PAT nodded all their heads. “They can trap it, recycle it.”
Yves sighed. “And use the crash energy to build the Com facility, I’ll bet?”
“You are a smart man, Mr. Gorman.” PAT forced a smile.
“It’s the only way I’ve been able to survive these types of situations all my life.” Yves forced a smiled too. “But maybe too smart for my own good, this time.”
“The world’s just getting more complex is all. Gotta go.” PAT’s image popped away.
“It’s looking pretty simple and straight forward to me right now.” Yves watched the Com-asteroid growing bigger and bigger. “I hope you guys are good at figuring out the blast radius of the impact. Of course, you’re good at math. You’d have to be.” Yves looked over at the Guinea Pigs. “They’d have to be right?” The Guinea Pigs squealed loudly in reply. Yves didn’t know if that was a yes or a no.
Yves knew that to keep someone talking, get them to tell you about themselves. Everyone liked to brag about what they’ve accomplished. It looked like the dark fellow was no exception. “I gather that Peter, there, stole the plans for this facility when he worked for me but these sites are very expensive. Who paid for this set up and why?”
The dark fellow laughed. “Sure, why not chat for a while. Let you think. Okay. It was medical uses; weight reduction, cosmetic surgery type things that raised the initial cash. You know you can raise money on the fear of death and the fear of no one likes me, just as easily.” The dark fellow laughed. “People just can’t accept who they are, you know?”
“Certainly, everyone wants to be someone else sometimes.” Yves wanted to keep him talking.
“Not me, actually.” The dark fellow looked at Peter with contempt. “From what this weasel here told me about you. You likely haven’t, either.”
Keeping the dark fellow thinking he was right was an imperative too. “Well, yes, that’s true but I would like to be somewhere else at the moment.”
“Ha, ha, ha. I like wit under pressure.” The dark fellow pointed at Yves. “You’ll understand the medical stuff, it just didn’t pay, considering the energy requirements, the complex biological compound synthesis, I think it was?”
“Yes, we abandon those types of applications early on,” Yves frowned at Peter. “For the same reasons.”
The dark fellow turned and frowned at him, too. “Well, in this monitored and data bank filled world, getting around Big Brother was, is, expensive, too. We realized that anonymity was much more of a rare commodity than good health.”
“Oh, now I understand.” Yves stated as PAT’s washed out image appeared in his field of view. “Only the wealthy or well connected can use the teleporter. That’s your target market. Yes?”
The dark fellow smiled, nodded and said something to Peter that wasn’t picked up.
“You okay?” PAT asked.
“So far.” Yves nodded. “So you hijack the transport signals, somehow. You would have to have synchronized matter for all of the teleporters manufactured.”
The dark fellow nodded back at Peter. "It’s why we keep him around and we only needed it for the teleporters registered for human use.”
“Target market again.” Yves nodded approval.
“Nice doing business with an experienced business man. Makes things so much easier.” The dark fellow nodded at Peter again. “Been around engineer geeks types too much. Hard to communicate with them without a lot of hot air being blown in all my bodily cervices.” That cracked the dark fellow up completely.
“He finds himself very amusing.” PAT said.
“Somebody needs to. Better him than me.” Yves said to PAT with a smile to the dark fellow. “How do I get out of here?”
“I don’t know if you can. This place is completely cut off from the ComNet and quarantined to regular traffic.”
“Those two got here.” Yves waved at Peter and the dark fellow and all laughed.
“Maybe you can’t leave.” PAT said.
“What the hell’s that mean?” Yves snapped.
All of PAT pointed at the sobbing Caged.
“Oh, no Guinea Pigs.” Yves said aloud.
“Well, in a way.” The dark fellow also pointed at the Caged. “They are them. You don’t want to do business with me, you become a real pig as well as the selfish pig they obviously were.” The dark fellow laughed and laughed.
“But there is still a free version of them out there.” Yves said.
“That’s where the anonymity comes from. There is still a functioning unique transponder out there. No one even knows to be looking for another you.” The dark fellow giggled. “You could make a song out of it. No one knows there’s another you.”
“So, I clear out my own bank accounts using my functioning transponder and split it with you fifty: fifty.”
The dark fellow laughed at Yves’ comment this time. “Wit under pressure, great. It’s just great. But no, ninety: ten.”
“Generous of you, I’ll keep the ninety.” Yves knew what the dark fellow meant.
“Such a funny guy.” The dark fellow giggled.
“Can you get into his transponder?” Yves asked PAT.
PAT shook their heads. “Too much shielding to get a good ComNet link on a standard issue transponder.” PAT’s eyes got very round with surprise. “I’ve got to go for a moment.” And they all popped away.
Yves felt a shiver of fear shoot through his body. Yves knew bullshit when he smelled it. The real ratio was one hundred: zero. Yves didn’t need the whispered advice he was getting from the Caged closest to him. They were saying it was a lie. “The dark man’s a lair.” Yves figured that out on his own.
Yves suddenly realized another thing. “I’m on Pluto Epsilon, too.” Yves looked up for some reason. “That’s where PAT is flying off to.”
PAT entered Yves’ transponder circuit just as Yves’ flash reflex closed his eye lids because of the brightness of the impact blast. The shelter bubble bobbed up and down as if the surface of Pluto Epsilon was liquid water instead of water and carbon dioxide ice. “Plenty of Wet and dry ice.” Yves chuckled nervously. The Guinea Pigs squealed in terror and ran for cover. Yves wanted to do the same exact thing as his lower mammalian friends. “Fear! The great equalizer.” Yves said to all the mammals in the room.
Since PAT was experiencing the impact events through Yves’ transponder, although actually being hundreds of millions of kilometers away, it scared PAT too. The oldest member of PAT went into cardiac arrest. In PAT’s small sub-basement dwelling, panic filled PAT and the on-site medical staff; one nurse and one doctor. PAT was a corporation but PAT Inc.’s income had decreased over the years because of excessive taxation through special levies from the United States of The Americas Internal Defense Ministry. Those in Brasilia that didn’t hate and fear PAT; used PAT as a scapegoat and profit center. Being a unique human being had major financial disadvantages. But the doctor and the nurse were very possessive of the unique human in their care. They got the heart beat back but it was very irregular. It had only taken them a few minutes but that was an eternity in the nanosecond speed of the computer systems that PAT’s consciousness usually lived in. Yet, after the previous loss of three other of the group, PAT pulled back out of the ComNet entirely and put their full attention on their struggling member. The two Yves would have to struggle through on their own for a while. PAT knew he / they could do it.
But the light from the blast almost immediately winked out, disappeared or was re-absorbed. “That was some quantity of kinetic energy not to waste.” Yves said aloud. The Guinea Pigs continued to squeal their disapproval. Much of the impact debris had achieved escape velocity in the weak gravity of the small planetoid. As the cloud lifted, a facility appeared. Yves blinked repeatedly at what appeared to be magic. “Arthur C. Clarke was all too correct.” Yves whispered.
There was no environmental dome or enclosure for the alien Q-device, only the teleporter, sitting out there in the near vacuum of Pluto Epsilon. Through the water and carbon dioxide ice surface Yves felt the harmonic vibration of a massive energy source engaging. “These guys don’t waste time, either.” Yves said to the Guinea Pigs and then the resurrection beam came on. Something started to materialize in the alien Q-device dock.
Yves wished he could call Janis. The imposed communication transmission black out was unnecessary. Yves had explained it to the President of the USTA, the aliens already knew a technologically advanced civilization was on Earth. PAT’s first encounter with their com-asteroids had shown that. Those first five were headed directly toward Earth until PAT interfered. The USTA was always cautious; overly cautious. It made them both predictable and dangerous, thus no transmissions to or from Pluto Epsilon until the alien’s intent was determined.
“That’s the other job of the smart bait.” Yves said to the Guinea Pigs. “Determine Intent.” Yves watched the Q-device dock fill up with whatever it was. “If I’m killed, the intent was, well is, bad.” Yves still wanted to call Janis. “You should have given me a titanium suit of armor, instead.” Yves said to Janis somewhere in space. “I hope PAT is doing something more useful than being a human lure.” The top of whatever it was materialized. It had three domes that became lit from the inside. “Can’t be biological and survive exposed out there. Maybe a space suit or . . .” It started to move forward smoothly by some means over the cracked wet and dry ice. “And a transport device?”
Yves frowned at the laughing dark fellow. “You don’t get out much do you?”
Peter guffawed but then grabbed his mouth with both his hands. Yves’ comment also changed the dark fellow’s mood. “Yeah, you would notice that.”
Yves needed to keep as much control as he could over the conversation, at least, until he figured out what, if anything, he could do to save himself. “So we’re not on Earth?” Always good to show you know more than they want you to. It gives you an upper hand in any negotiation, Yves Dad or someone used to say. It only made sense.
The dark fellow shook his head and looked back at Peter. Peter’s face became a panicked expression of concern. He shook his head violently.
“Don’t blame Peter. It’s pretty obvious.” Yves pulled up his right foot. The Velcro on the bottom of his boot ripped off the grasping mesh on the floor. His leg very slowly started its movement back down. “Gravity almost nil.” Yves walked noisily over to the bars. He wanted to touch them to see if they were real and not some projected illusion. Reality wasn’t something to take for granted these days. They were solid. They appeared real enough. “And the USTA wouldn’t allow such an independent operation as this on their turf.”
“Think highly of the USTA? That could be bad for you.” The dark fellow was no longer amused.
“I’ve worked too closely with USTA officials for too long to feel anything but fear when dealing with them.” Yves was telling the truth. The USTA had almost killed Yves a number of times. ‘It was like playing with a grizzly bear,’ Yves had one time explained to Janis. ‘You have to keep out of their reach, so they won’t take your head off when they get pissed at you and they always get pissed at you for something.’
“My point about the need for anonymity; that it’s a rare and thus extremely valuable commodity these days. Those Southern hemisphere chauvinist control pricks will crush you without batting a concerned eyelash if you don’t tow their line.” The dark fellow looked up at the ceiling. “The shielding keeps them out of my hair. Both come at great expense.” The dark fellow looked back at Yves and waved his hand around the chamber. “No USTA eyes here or will there be.”
“My point, so we can’t be on Earth.” Yves mirrored the dark fellow’s gesture. “Otherwise, the USTA would be running this scam, well, ah, operation and you’d have a Portuguese accent.”
The dark fellow nodded. “So, you, well?” The dark fellow hesitated. “You feel it’s a reasonable proposal?”
“Worth discussing further.” Yves needed to keep him talking until PAT showed up again. Yves also needed to get the dark fellow away from the control console. “Terms are always negotiable in my experience.”
The dark fellow was amused again, suddenly. “And a smart man is always useful.”
“Do you have an office in which we could talk?” Yves smiled. “This décor is not conducive to the necessary mood of cooperation in a negotiation.”
The dark fellow looked back at Peter. Peter shrugged. “Okay.” The dark fellow turned. “Follow me.” He walked out of the console room through the sliding door into the transparent walkway. Every area was designed for maximum atmospheric containment, just like a space ship or space station. At the doorway he pointed at the opening in the wall of the Caged chamber that was widening. The dark fellow nodded. Yves nodded in return. The bars that surround the teleporter slowly retracted into the floor as the dark fellow walked out of sight.
Yves hoped that he hadn’t put the dark fellow too much at ease. For either of Yves’ plans to work, the dark fellow still needed to exercise extreme caution with Yves. It was a risk-adverse age. Hopefully, the dark fellow was a man of his age.
Yves had two other plans for a less cautious situation, but they weren’t very good plans and Yves was getting too old for that sort of thing, anyway. Plan A required PAT. It also required that the appliance control function of Yves transponder work on the servo-devices here. He hadn’t been able to test yet if they did. As he walked past the chamber’s light control box at the wall opening, he blinked his right eye twice and then once again. The chamber lights went out and back on. “Good.” Yes said aloud as he walked through the wall into the dark fellow’s office.
“Good.” Yves said aloud again. The dark fellow was sitting behind a large wooden desk that was completely empty of papers, pictures or computer monitor. “The perfect non-working manager’s desk.” Yves pointed at the conspicuous plexi-glass partition separating; isolating Yves from the dark fellow. “Good. You’re an extremely cautious business man.” Yves entered his plexi-glass box and sat in its only chair. “It’ll make the negotiations go more smoothly.”
“I’m glad you approve.” The dark fellow frowned. “But I’d think I had the upper hand here and wouldn’t need caution.” Tipped his head to the side.
Yves waved his right palm toward the ceiling. “My interpretation of the situation could be wrong. They often are.”
PAT’s doctor and nurse were the best in medical training and dedication. They just hated bureaucracy more, so they ended up working for PAT. The bureaucracy seemed to hate PAT, so it all balanced out, somehow. The facilities, although small, were also up to date, so the death of another member of PAT was not their fault. The best of available care was given and received. Biological components just wear out eventually, despite their inherent abilities for self-renewal.
‘Everything breaks.’ The engineers say.
‘Everything dies.’ The doctors say.
Still, the doctor and nurse didn’t give up as easily as the rest of PAT did. PAT felt the wall come down. PAT almost heard it slam to the ground when the member was gone, never to return. PAT knew he was dead seconds before the doctor and nurse did and seconds were a long long time for PAT to mourn alone and those minutes were an eternity of sorrow. PAT finally said to the doctor and nurse. “This must be what Alzheimer’s patients feel as they realize they are losing use of parts of their brain?”
The doctor patted the closest arm of PAT. “No, for them, it just goes away. They can’t watch it die like you do. You’re such a special person.”
“Thank you.” PAT said. “Thank you for providing the best of care. I need to sleep, now.”
The doctor and nurse nodded.
PAT jumped into the ComNet, immediately. One of the Yves might need assistance. The instant PAT jumped into Yves transponder PAT could see through Yves eyes; hear through Yves ears. PAT felt so much more normal when traveling in the ComNet and related server nodes, though. Electronic perception was easier to deal with for PAT. Another human’s perception was so personalized and so chaotic. It took years, multiple eternities in the electronic world, for PAT to feel comfortable being in someone else’s head. Odd really, since PAT had started out with nineteen heads linked into one. Life had been a series of odd contradictions and incongruities, but what PAT saw through Yves’ eyes, coming across Pluto Epsilon’s ice plain, was a new oddity and far from comforting. Distance as well as size was impossible to judge because of a lack of a frame of reference on the barren ice field. It was barren just like space.
“Thankfully, you’re alright.” PAT stated to Yves while projecting an image into his mind. PAT had learned to be cautious of human’s unpredictable startle reflex.
“Yeah, that was some big pile of kinetic energy. Thanks for the warning.” Yves pointed at the approaching transport device. “You were correct about the aliens being efficient. They seemed to absorb, convert the impact energy into construction material with no difficulty whatsoever.”
“They’re efficient in every aspect, even in their machine code.” PAT clicked their tongues. “It’s been a challenge to extract the slightest bit of information from the records I downloaded from them even after a decade of effort.”
“Highly encrypted?” Yves heart beat increased as the transport device approached. As a corporate executive he had trained himself to multi-task; gather information, be smart bait and panic all at the same time.
“No, just fantastically complex. I never could find out what they called themselves.”
“How often do we call ourselves, Earthlings?” Yves shrugged.
“More often than I would like and human is smeared all over the electronic map.”
“Oh.” Yves cleared his throat. “I didn’t know, but not a surprise, we are a self-centered bunch of babies, mostly. So you’ve spent all of this time working on them?” Yves looked directly at where PAT was supposed to be.
“Keeps PAT Inc. with government contracts.” PAT’s image shrugged. “It’s all the income the USTA allows me, except for royalties from patents I file.”
“From their technology?” Something was different with PAT.
“Not all but mostly. I have refined.”
“PAT? What’s happened? One of you, your group is missing!” Yves did shout it. The general excitement made self-control difficult.
PAT looked down. “Yes, it was well, just now. The impact was too . . . ah, had other impacts.” PAT’s voices trailed off.
Yves tried to reach out to where PAT appeared to be. “I am so sorry. I really can’t image how you feel when it happens but it can’t be pleasant.”
“No, no, far worst then even unpleasant.” PAT whispered.
“Gosh. I’m. Sorry about all of this.” Yves said and then there was a pounding noise. “What?” Yves looked up to where the transport device had been. It was gone from there. Then the pounding again.
“Is it trying to break in?” PAT’s heads snapped up.
Yves ran around the shelter bubble trying to locate the pounding and presumably the alien transport device. “There it is.” Yves pointed at the outside of the airlock. An extension on the device pulled back and banged the airlock door four more times. “Well, at least they’re polite enough to knock first before they come in.” Yves manipulated the airlock for the external entry cycle. Gas hissed and the polycarbonate door slid back. The transport device advanced, slowly. A cautious advance. The top domes were brightly lit. Now, with some frame of reference, size could be judged. “It’s not very big.” Yves sounded disappointed to himself.
“It would be a very small biological organism indeed to be inside.” PAT said. “I have to move.”
“I’ll either be fine or dead when you get back, so no rush. Take care of yourselves.”
PAT popped out of view as the transport device floated into the shelter bubble. Yves’ hair would have stood on end if it wasn’t already doing so because of Pluto Epsilon’s weak gravity field.
Both Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon, Europa, had been placed in biological isolation as humanity started its routine transit of the solar system. The liquid water oceans under the solid ice crust of both moons made them potential incubators for life. Alien life in the Sol system that shouldn’t be contaminated by Earth biologicals. Humanity usually meant well, initially. There weren’t even any ComNet link satellites near those moons, thus normal navigation, which relied heavily on ComNet positioning data, couldn’t be conducted using SOPs. It was a long jump for PAT to reach this Yves. Electronic effort was so different from physical effort. It was much more different than perception. Still, PAT made the leap and found Yves’ weak but reliable highly advanced transponder signal and then PAT was looking at the dark fellow laughing. Again? It seemed that was all this man did was laugh at his own unhumorous jokes. PAT saved electronic effort by only projecting a voice to Yves.
“Sorry to be so long.” PAT said in a whisper into Yves brain.
“Good.” Yves said aloud.
“Damn right!” Laughed the dark fellow.
Yves went sub-vocal. “Can you get into any of these systems here?”
PAT searched. “Most things are hardwired, few wireless controls.”
“Ventilation. Try ventilation.” Yves almost shouted, sub-vocally.
The air conditioning fan went off and then came back on. “Yes. No security at all.”
“Can you selectively vent that chamber to the outside? I assume it’s a vacuum out there.” Yves actually pointed to where the dark fellow sat. The dark fellow pointed back with a smile.
“A moment . . . Yes, but that would kill him if left open too long.”
“Too long is exactly my goal. Do it now!” Yves stood up simply to distract the dark fellow, blinked his right eye and turned off the lights in the room. Darkness was a precaution against any projectile or beam weapons the dark fellow might have in his desk. Yves stepped over to the far corner of his box as another precaution.
The air hissed, almost screeched in its violent exit. Yves could hear the dark fellow scream over the intercom until there was not enough air in the office chamber to convey sound. There was complete silence for an unknown duration. Yves stood completely still in the complete darkness and silence for that entire uncertain period.
“He’s frozen.” PAT whispered. “Now.”
Yves blinked on the lights. The dark fellow had frozen before the lack of air pressure could affect his appearance. He must have still been screaming, with his mouth frozen open, his eyes looking up, and his arms thrown wide. It looked like he died laughing. “Fitting memorial to the self-amused.” Yves turned. “Can you open the door?”
“No, but I can disable the electronic locks.” PAT did it. Yves could hear them snap open. “You’re transponder should open the doors. I’ve got to keep moving.”
“Bye then. See you soon. Hopefully?” Yves turned and opened the door to his chamber. He looked out to the console chamber. Peter hadn’t noticed any change in situation. The intercom must not have been turned on in there. The Caged still sobbed. No change there either. Surprisingly, Plan A had worked well, so far. Plan A, no matter what it was, hardly ever worked. Still, Yves needed Peter alive and cooperative. Yves needed information. Hopefully, Peter will stay within his character too and Plan A can be completed. Luckily, this part of the plan didn’t need PAT.
The alien transport device was relying on the low gravity and some sort of gas propulsion to move around. All its motions were slow and deliberate. Despite its bulky stacked box and ball appearance, it moved with great dexterity, almost gentleness. Yves had just stared at it in silence. They hadn’t given him a script. He was just supposed to improvise. He was smart bait and the canary in the mine shaft; so far he had fulfilled his functions. The alien had come to him and not Earth and most important to Yves; he hadn’t been killed, yet.
Yves thought. “I must be getting old. Fear has never made me speechless before.” So he said aloud. “Ah, hello, from ah, a human.”
The top domes whirled around. The closest one turned red and a burst of noise filled Yves brain. He fell backwards, but so slowly in the weak gravity that the noise was gone before his head touched the grasping mesh floor. His Velcro soled shoes kept him anchored to the point at which he was standing until his senses returned. He looked at the device. The dome had gone blue and the device was motionless. Yves wasn’t sure if he had blacked out or not, but he wasn’t dead. He kept thinking that and hoped to continue to think it.
Yves waved his left hand slowly pushing himself up with his right hand, also slowly. “Not a weapon, I presume?” Yves spoke slowly, too. “Ah, I bet it was a burst transmission into my electronic transponder implant.” Yves tapped gently behind his ear. It was warm and hurt. “It would be the most efficient method of communication. PAT does it. Why not a sufficiently advanced technology that appears to be magic culture like you?” Yves realized that all of his brain hurt, not just the implant. The intensity of the pain centered around the implant though and reinforced his hypothesis.
Yves still held his left palm out to the device showing it to be empty and harmless. Yves did the same with his right hand. Then, with his right index finger and thumb, he started to move them together. He wanted to convey the concept of less, less, much less data at a time. All was silent. The Guinea Pigs had no implants so they had heard nothing. At least, he hadn’t screamed like a girl. That was some little comfort. Yves stopped his thumb and index finger at a point just before they met. “Just the tiniest of a data burst.” Yves whispered. “Gently.”
One word came into Yves brain as the dome turned from blue to purple.
Understood
Was that word. It wasn’t as a voice or a written word. Just the comprehension of the concept.
Understood
Yves nodded. “Good. Good. That’s good.” Yves smiled. “Does a smile convey any information to something without a face?” Yves thought.
PAT’s image popped into Yves field of vision. PAT appeared to be standing behind the alien device. All three of the top domes turned fire engine red.
PAT said. “Yves?”
The domes whirled.
“No, no, go away for a minute! Quickly!” Yves whispered aloud.
PAT’s image popped away. The domes went purple.
That was the viral intruder!
Please explain!
Came into Yves mind.
“Viral?” Yves said aloud.
Previously, that hyper-computational entity invaded and damaged our system. Firewall defenses are in place now to eradicate such electronic vermin.
Please explain your temporary infestation.
“Previously? Infestation? Oh. PAT.” Yves nodded. “The other com-asteroids. Oh, well, that was a complete and total misunderstanding.”
An incorrect comprehension of what
“Your intensions.” Yves pointed out at the darkness. “Your first com-asteroid. That hyper-computational entity thought it was an attack, not an attempt at communication.”
The entity is what
Yves was confused. How should he explain PAT? Should he explain PAT? “It’s a . . .” Yves pointed at his chest. “I am a single human, ah, intelligent entity.” Yves turned his palms upward. “That was a composite human intelligence. A multiple human brain.”
Redundancy is good design
“Ah, yeah, but well, many human brains linked through a similar electronic implant as mine.” Yves tapped behind his ear gently. It still hurt.
You are not such a viral entity
Yves couldn’t tell whether that was a question or an observation, but he agreed. “Correct. I am not. There is only one such entity, ah, among us humans.”
A biological glitch
“A technological and biological glitch, I guess.” Yves hoped PAT wasn’t listening.
The dome turned purple to red then back to blue.
It will be eliminated if it enters our system again.
Understood.
“Yes, completely. I will send a message to convey your warning. PAT will not enter your system ever again.” Yves sent off the message with a click of his teeth. PAT would get it, immediately. “It’s done.”
That is a Quantum Telecommunication device.
Again question or observation? It must be a statement. It was originally their technology. “Ah, yes, that’s our version of a teleportation device.”
Teleportation
Our translation from your computer storage must be inaccurate.
Teleportation implies conveyance of both non-living and living materials.
We are incorrect in that interpretation please?
“No, ah, yes, you are correct in your translation.” Yves pointed back at himself. “I came here, on, ah, through it.”
No!
It shouldn’t be
If comprehension had a volume that last statement was at maximum. It made Yves ears ring from the inside out.
PAT surfed on the communication waves for a few thousand nano-seconds. PAT had been with the two Yves too long, anyway. The USTA monitors on the ComNet were attuned for PAT’s carrier waves. PAT was able to alter them for a while but long duration residence of the signal in any one place tripped alarms. That Pluto Epsilon was on a Com-black out for the alien arrival and that Enceladus was quarantined meant less attention was being paid to them but still, PAT needed to keep moving. The Pluto Yves had told PAT to leave. Yves had always given PAT correct advice, so PAT simply waited. Pluto Yves’ message. “Stay out of the alien system.” Came just in time. PAT had thought it would be relatively easy to hop on the alien’s carrier wave and take a quantum trip back to the alien home world. Not now, though.
A little more time and PAT would leap off to Enceladus. PAT had killed people before. The death of the laughing guy didn’t bother PAT. Human’s die all of the time. Their deaths flood the information ChatNets. And the people PAT had killed were all bad humans, their actions had needed to be stopped. Of course, if the USTA officials ever found out, there would be no trial. PAT would have no opportunity to explain how it was an act of protection for society. PAT would simply be killed. They had almost done it before. They really didn’t need much of an excuse. PAT was constantly on the run from the inevitable. The inevitability of USTA retribution. With the recent loss of members, maybe the USTA would get its ultimate wish soon, the extinction of PAT without any effort on their part.
When PAT popped into Yves on Enceladus he was talking calmly with Peter. Peter looked uncomfortable but relatively calm. “Things look under control.” PAT said.
Yves nodded. “Peter used to work for my company. He was a worker bee. Easily influenced by authority.” Yves said sub-vocally. “I just assumed authority over him and he accepted the old order. I guaranteed he’d get paid, also. That always works.”
“The truest of capitalists, follow the paymaster.” PAT had dealt with so many of them.
“The Golden Rule.” Yves agreed.
Peter said. “Operationally, it was just me and him.” Peter nodded off toward the dark fellow’s office. “We were stuck out here, actually.” Peter nodded toward the teleporter. “I knew how that monstrosity operated. I wasn’t getting into that thing.” Peter blew air out of his mouth. “I’m a card carrying coward. I don’t want to die and I certainly don’t want to walk right into it.” Peter shrugged. “He and I flew out here with this facility and its crew. The long route. Off the plane of the solar system. We melted into the moon’s surface to hide the craft.” Peter shrugged. “Women were going to be for the taking, he said.” Peter nodded toward the Caged. “The whole nightmare seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Not now?” Yves asked.
Peter shook his head.
“The crew? Did they have another ship?” PAT asked Yves. “Where are they?”
Yves already knew the answer to that question. “When the Guinea Pigs ran out, you used the flight crew, right?”
Peter looked like he had just smelled the worst smell in his life, but he just nodded, slowly. “The worst mistake in a life of mistakes. They’ll just kill me if I go back, now. For the tech theft, for kidnapping, for murder. Hell, violating the moon’s quarantine has death attacked to it.”
“He’s right.” PAT said. “And you as well as all of the teleporter kidnapped, too.”
“Yeah, we don’t even exist to them outside. We’ll be unwanted complications in the USTA’s ordered and monitored society. We’re just a problem that is easily eliminated, though. We can’t go back either. They’d kill us for sure. Shit!” Yves said aloud.
“Yeah, shit is right.” Peter nodded.
“Let them out of their cages.” Yves pointed to the Caged.
“Cages aren’t locked.” Peter said. “Never were. No place to go. No exit.”
“Except death and resurrection as someone else.” Yves looked over at the sobbing Caged. “Shit squared.” Yves rubbed his nose with his open palm.
“Shit cubed.” Peter nodded.
Inanimate objects only!
Electronics only!
Not life!
It kills life!
“But it puts it back together.” Yves said weakly. He never liked defending the Chair.
It kills when it does that too!
Yves covered his ear but it didn’t make any difference. “Yeah, I don’t like that either but didn’t you come through it just now?” Yves pointed out at the alien teleporter on the ice plain.
No!
No!
This before you is a survey and quantum communications instrument only
I, my biological self, is still on my home planet
Never through the telecommunicator
No life
It is forbidden!
“Okay. Okay. I agree with you. I hated the Chair for exactly the same reasons.” Yves shouted back. “I’ll let you tell the President yourself. Obviously, he never listened to me.”
The alien device went silent, not that it ever actually spoke. It stopped broadcasting directly into Yves transponder. Yves assumed that the alien sitting or crouching or floating off on its home world agreed and went off to yell at the President. The domes were more intense than a fire engine red. They hurt Yves eyes to look at them, but no alien word concept formed in his brain. The Guinea Pigs cooed and squeaked. It was comforting to hear them being simple-minded happy. They had been here so long that they had adapted to the low gravity. The less weight seemed to make them happier, because all of them were very fat Guinea Pigs oblivious to their fate. Of course, their fate may have just changed. They may have just gone back to being simply Guinea Pigs and not a vital component of the quantum teleportation machine. Yves fate apparently had changed too. The alien was so insistent. It was their technology. It was a long way back to Earth by ship. Even with the fastest military transport vessels it would be almost a year to get back to home.
Yves’ mouth was extremely dry. Too much had happened too fast for him even to take a drink of water. The alien device seemed uninterested in further interaction, so Yves went over to the water re-cycling and storage and took a long drink. The cold water burned the dry tissue in Yves mouth and throat. More time had passed than Yves had perceived. With the ComNet blackout and the distance, Yves’ sense of time had evaporated. The recording of the passage of time was a human social imperative, but since he was the only human within tens of thousands of kilometers, time was irrelevant. The passage of time was immaterial, only the events as they occur were important.
“Mr. Gorman?” A male voice interrupted the present calm of Pluto Epsilon. Yves would have jumped into the air if not for his Velcro soles. The voice wasn’t in his head this time. There was an actual sound. “Mr. Gorman are you there?” Yves looked at the device but the domes had gone blue. It sat motionless. “Mr. Gorman I hope you are still alive.” The male voice stated with little emotion. The voice spoke in English but with a Portuguese accent. “The, uh, alien stated that you were still functioning, as it put it.”
Yves looked over at the utility console. A monitor screen contained the fat face of the President of the United States of The Americas. The leader of the Western Hemisphere and Australo – Antarctica. Yves had not voted for him but Yves had met him on any number of occasions, still Yves never recognized his voice. “Mr. Gorman are you with the alien device?”
Yves noisily walked over to the screen. “Yes, Mr. President. I am functioning and it is here beside me. It isn’t a very large shelter bubble.”
“Oh, the technicians tell me that because of the distance there’s a substantial time delay. I’ll just explain the situation. You may already know it. Apparently after your superior first contact intervention, the alien was very laudatory about you and your bravery . . . “
Yves looked over at the alien device. It looked totally inanimate. “Thanks for the pat on the back.”
“They, it, ummm, their representative made it clear. They want to establish a useful and peaceful dialog with Earth. Their only condition, well, it is an odd one, in my mind, but it seems of little real consequence to the USTA. And it actually helps me greatly with the flight attendants and pilots unions’ continued complaints about the teleporter destroying their profession. The only real inconvenience we see granting their wish is to you. You’ll have to walk back to Earth, it looks like. Ha . . . Ha . . . Ha! They say that the teleporter can’t ever again be used for live human transport or anything else living.”
“A long way home. I knew it.” Yves sighed. “I didn’t want to die again, anyway.”
“Cargo, non-living matter, can still move, so commerce won’t be affected. So, I agreed to their terms.” The President hesitated for a moment and looked down. “As a result you are to accompany the alien communication device to Mars Prime Installation, Nuevo-San Paulo not by walking, of course, but by a diverted ship of the Combined Military of the Americas. I served in that great outfit myself, I hope you know? You are to represent the USTA in the best of lights. I know you understand what I am saying?”
Yves sighed. “Don’t I always understand what you types are saying?”
“Oh, there you are.” The President looked over at another monitor. “Odd. The alien device was so much more responsive.” The President looked up at someone at his side. “Explain the why to me later, much later. I am in the process here.” The President pointed directly into the screen. “When you and the device are at Nuevo -San Paulo, I’ll come out there myself. Mr. Gorman, for the security of mankind, I personally want you to be humanity’s sole representative to the alien society. No one else. You know what I mean.” The President nodded his head upward and to the side.
Yves looked back at the device. “Yes, we’ve already taken care of that unique problem.”
“You are always so thorough. I am certain you have covered that base. It has been an eventful day. You have done splendidly as always.” The President looked up again and frowned. “Oh, yes, this transmission was done on a secure channel. The general ComNet blackout is still in affect. You likely noticed that anyway.” The President tapped behind his own right ear. “Must be very quiet out there. The blackout will remain in place until the ship arrives in about two months. I must be going. But again I thank you personally for your efforts on our behalf.” Then the monitor went black.
Yves looked back at the device. “So it’s just you and me for a long while.”
The dome turned purple.
First contact is better done personally.
Appeared in Yves mind. “Good, because that’s what you’re going to get.” Yves turned back to the water re-cycling and storage station. Yves realized that all of this water had been through a Guinea Pig any number of times. Yves smiled. “Just one big family of mammals and one self-propelled alien walkie-talkie.” Yves raised his eyebrows at the colony of distance relatives. “Plenty of water but food will be an issue. I could use a snack right now.” Yves looked around. “How would I make a fire?”
The telecommunications reconstruction component
can produce small quantities of complex biological macromolecules
from only the primary elements
without to great energy utilization
and without killing
“Humane and helpful aliens, that’s reassuring.” Yves nodded. “So, I could make a protein shake.”
Basic sugars and hydro-carbon chain organic molecules
Enough to sustain your life
“Ugh, sounds delicious. Well, we’ve got two months. That’s a long time on a liquid hydro-carbon diet” Yves looked over at the colony again. “Too fat and happy for my tastes, anyway. Maybe I can share some of your grasses with you guys.” Yves turned to the alien device. “Got plenty of primary elements out there. So, tell me how to work this thing.”
“Haven’t you lingered too long out here?” Yves sub-vocalized to PAT.
“Yes, but the shielding has blanked out my resident signal, also.” PAT replied. PAT didn’t believe that last statement was true enough to hold back the USTA monitors but with all that was happening, they may not notice a weak, out of place signal. PAT didn’t want to leave Yves alone just yet. It wasn’t clear there was anyway off this moon. “What about the Money-people? The backers will get curious about the lack of fund transfers and check on the facility, won’t they?”
Yves nodded and then shook his head, but asked Peter. “Where did the money go?” Yves waved at the Caged. “Most of them, if not all, were rich. The Rich have no backbone at all once they’re on their own. Once their paid protectors are gone they’re like children, confused and afraid.” Yves looked over at the Caged and sighed. “Cowards to a person. All of my professional career I’ve been their protector, I have done everything that the Rich would never do. They must have buckled immediately and tried to buy their way out. Plenty of cash as I see it.”
Peter had been staring at the grasping mesh deck for the last few minutes as he talked and continued his stare. “He . . . bragged that we had transferred way over our, their, the backers expectations; already recovered their investment four fold. He kept talking about our percentage; that when we got back we would be overly rich; in the Big Time for a change. He was as good at bullshitting himself as he was others. When the Guinea Pigs ran out and weren’t re-supplied, there was a schedule to be followed, I saw it.” Peter sighed deeply. “And he started using the flight crew, I knew I was dead. I may be stupidly gullible but I’m no idiot!”
“Not heard anything from your investors?” Yves shook his head because he knew the answer.
“Nope. No incoming messages at all.” Peter whispered. “He seemed to think that the confirmation of funds transfer completion reply was their pat of his back.”
“That’s an automatic response system.” Yves shook his head and looked down, too.
“I know.” Peter still didn’t look up. “I tried to tell him; convince him to keep some of the crew; at least one person that could fly this thing. He had no common sense.”
“Money makes people stupid.” PAT said to Yves.
“Money makes people very stupid, sometimes.” Yves said aloud.
“No one’s coming.” Peter said.
“No one’s coming?” PAT said. “Why?”
“No one is coming.” Yves said aloud. “Because they have already made a substantial profit on this risky venture. High risk ventures are a take-what-you-can-get scenario. They won’t even blink when the transfers stop. They likely won’t even notice. After surpassing the breakeven point, the venture lost any risk and became routine profit taking. They won’t expose themselves any further with something as expensive as a ship stopping or even a simple computer query. No one is coming.”
“I know.” Peter whispered. “But it’s just as well.”
“Actually, it’s for the best.” Yves agreed.
“But you’ll be here all alone; cut off.” PAT said.
“Better being cut off from society than being dead.” Yves replied aloud.
Peter nodded his head. “That’s the way I see it. People never liked me, anyway.”
“We’ve got plenty of food and energy?” Yves stated.
“We turn off that power drain.” Peter looked up at the teleporter. “Without it sucking power, there’s plenty for, I don’t know, a decade or two, at least.”
“What I thought. I used to head the ECC subsidiary that made these ships.” Yves tapped behind his right ear. “It’s why my transponder could override your safety lockouts. I had the engineers design them that way.”
“Yeah, everyone adds their own backdoors.” Peter shrugged. “I did when I could.”
“So, you’ll be okay?” PAT said.
Yves nodded. “Peter and I will be okay.” Yves looked over at the Caged. “Getting them back to okay though, I’m not so sure.”
Peter shrugged his shoulders and looked at the deck, again.
“I should go.” PAT whispered to Yves’ brain.
Yves switched back to sub-vocal. “Yes, I know. Is my other self doing well with the first contact? Earth’s not in danger? Janis is alright?”
“So far, affirmative on all counts.” PAT nodded.
“Tell Janis that I love her.” Yves frowned. “It’s safer for everyone this way. And you shouldn’t come back either.”
“I know but you and me, us.” All of PAT started to cry. PAT hadn’t cried in years. PAT hadn’t felt attached enough to anything to cry about its loss, other than PAT, since being formed.
“There’s the other Gorman. He’ll get to use the ceiling. He’ll get to be with Janis; get to talk with you and everyone else I, we, know. I won’t be missed, because I won’t be gone, actually.” Yves frowned. He felt jealous of his other self but it was him? “Society moves on. You need to take extra care of yourself. Don’t tell anyone about what happened here. Not even my other self, especially my other self. I know what I’m like. Isolation is our best chance of survival.”
“I know.” PAT cut contact and was back in the sub-basement. The doctor and nurse were still preparing PAT’s dead member for the coroner’s arrival. The body would be moved out of PAT’s chamber. Fewer people knew about PAT’s existence everyday. Death and information overload was the great eraser. The News stories on the transponder Glitch were lost in decades of other spectacular events, wars and deaths by the millions. All of PAT Incorporated employees and contractors, except for the doctor and nurse, thought the founder of PAT Inc. was just some normal human, wacky recluse. It was true in so many ways.
The USTA still knew the truth about PAT. PAT knew what the flood of e-mails were about. “Violation of this. Violation of that. Sanction everything else.” They’d all have a threat of extinction in them. PAT needed to sleep truly, but there was one more thing to do. PAT prepared a brief for PAT Inc.s’ lawyers. The way to hold off the USTA coming in a murdering the remaining bodies of PAT. PAT always started lawyers briefs with bullet points:
· Death of a member of the PAT Inc. Executive Committee.
· Involvement in a top secret USTA sanctioned operation in the outer system.
· Commerce must be allowed some flexibility for it to prosper.
· Restraint of Trade.
PAT filled a hundred pages for each bullet point with legal and historical precedent. Sympathy, National Security, greed and black mail were all there, too. PAT’s favorite saying to the lawyers was. “If you can’t use real bullets keep your adversary’s lawyers, A.B.A.P. As busy as possible with bullet points.” PAT’s lawyers always laughed when PAT said it. They had to; PAT Inc. paid them well enough.
PAT didn’t know what was happening on Pluto Epsilon yet, and it would take too much effort, electronic and physical, for PAT to find out. Yves’ a smart guy. He’ll be okay for a while on his own. PAT, all of PAT, needed to sleep and dream a mutual dream.
THE END
Copyright 2004
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Just to be perfectly clear!
All Rights to this piece reside with the Author