Across the Sea of Suns (49 page)
The astronomer said, puzzled, “But there can’t be so many pulsars at the center of the galaxy …”
“Still, there is that blue globe,” Nigel said.
Something was happening at galactic center. Something important.
And the machine civilization thought it was vital, perhaps as important as the obliteration of the organic yeast they so hated.
Nigel said softly, with a gathering certainty, “If we are ever to deal with these things, with their Watchers and Snarks and the whole damn mechanical zoo of them … we’ve got to confront them.”
Nikka saw what he meant. “But—Earth! We can return now. There is so much to be done.”
He shook his head. Looking around the room, with its myriad sliding sheets of alien thought and strange design, he watched the luminescence play upon the haggard faces.
Faces pursued by a voracious and unyielding intelligence. Faces lined and worn by the silent anxiety they all felt, just being here.
The Watcher would give them no rest. They had to get out. Move on.
But not simply run back home. Earth was no haven. There was no blithe sanctuary now. Not anywhere in the whole swarming galaxy.
“No. We’ve got the means. That little ship we found. It must be a fast craft. I’ll bet it came here and supervised the building of this Watcher.”
“Nigel …” Nikka began a protest, then stopped.
“That ship still works. It could go back. Back where it came from. Where we must go.”
They began to murmur and protest.
A small band of humans, their incessant crosstalk rebounding from the alien surfaces. Nigel smiled.
Their dreams lay Earthward. They would have to be convinced.
le’s all slide out of here one of these nights
But he knew he could convince them. The rest of humanity was reeling under war and a vast, brute yoke. If this small knot did not seize this opportunity, humanity would dwell forever in the dimness of ignorance. Victims. Prey.
and go for howling adventures amongst the Injuns
There was no turning back now. Maybe there never had been any possibility of turning away from what lay out here. He had felt it for a long time, since the first vague pricklings of understanding at the sunny, long lost Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Odd, he felt almost nostalgic for the place now.
Now that he knew he would certainly never see it again.
For there was always the opening-out, and it would always win.
over in the territory
He pointed at the somber, revolving disk of countless fevered stars. Unfathomable messages glided across quilted surfaces.
and I says all right, that suits me
“Let’s go,” he said, and pointed at the galactic center.
2019
A.D
Nigel Walmsley encounters the Snark, a mechanical scout.
2024 Ancient alien starship found wrecked in Marginis crater, on Earth’s moon.
2041 First signal received at Earth from Ra.
2049 First near-light-speed interstellar probes.
2060 Modified asteroid ships launched, using starship technology extracted from Marginis wreck.
2064
Lancer
starship launched with Nigel Walmsley aboard.
2066 Discovery of machine intelligence Watchers.
2067 First robotic starship explorations. Swarmers and Skimmers arrive at Earth.
2076
Lancer
arrives at Ra. Discovery of the “microwavesighted” Natural society.
2077
Lancer
departs Ra.
2081 Mechanicals trigger nuclear war on Earth.
2085 Starship
Lancer
destroyed at Pocks. Watcher ship successfully attacked, with heavy human losses.
2086 Nigel Walmsley and others escape in Watcher ship, toward Galactic Center. Humans launch robot starship vessels to take mechanical technology to Earth.
2088 Humans contain Swarmer-Skimmer invasion. Alliance with Skimmers.
2095 Heavy human losses in taking of orbital Watcher ships. Annihilation of Watcher fleet. No mechanical technology captured due to suicide protocols among Watchers.
2097 Second unsuspected generation of Swarmers emerges.
2108 First in-flight message received from Walmsley expedition: “We’re still here. Are you there?”
2111 Final clearing of Earth’s oceans.
2128 Robot vessels from Pocks arrive at Earth carrying mechanical technology. Immediate use by recovering human industries.
2175 Second mechanical-directed invasion of Earth, using targeted cometary nuclei from Oort cloud. Rebuilding of human civilization.
2302 Third mechanical-directed invasion of Earth. The Aquila Gambit begins successive novas in near-Earth stars. Beginning of Ferret Time.
2368 First mechanical attempt to make Sun go nova. Failure melts poles of Earth.
2383 Second nova attempt. Continents severely damaged.
2427 Fourth mechanical-directed invasion of Earth. Rebuilding of human civilization.
2593 Fifth mechanical-directed invasion of Earth. Diplomatic ploy thwarted.
2763 Fifty-seventh Walmsley message received: “Are you there?”
3264 First expedition launched toward Galactic Center from Earth.
4455 First appearance of fourth chimpanzee species; clear divergence from host,
Homo sapiens,
the third species.
FLIGHT OF HUMAN FLEET TO GALACTIC CENTER “THE BIG JUMP”
29,079 Formation of added geometries to Wedge spacetime around the central black hole. Old One manipulation of local Galactic Center space-time, apparently in anticipation of further mechanical-Natural violence. Mechanical forms carry out first incursions into Old One structures.
29,694 Walmsley group arrives at Galactic Center in Watcher craft.
29,703 First human entry into Wedge. Some communication with Old Ones.
29,741 Arrival of Earth fleet expedition at Galactic Center.
29,744 Meeting of Earth expedition and Walmsley group.
30,020- The “Great Times” of human development.
34,567 Unsuccessful search for Galactic Library. Successive conflicts with mechanicals. Development of higher layers of mechanical “sheet intelligences.” Philosophical conflicts within mechanical civilizations. Formation of mechanical artistic philosophy.
34,567- Chandelier Age. Humans protected themselves
35,812 against rising mechanical incursions. Particiption of earlier humans from the Walmsley expedition. Some collaboration with Cyber organic/mechanical forms. Discovery of Galactic Library in the Wedge.
35,812- The “Hunker Down.” Exodus from the Chande-
37,483 liers to many planets within 80 light-years of Absolute Center. Includes High Arcology Era, Late Arcology Era, and High Citadel Age as human societies contract under Darwinnowing effects of mechanical competition.
37,518 Fall of Family Bishop Citadel on Snowglade, termed the “Calamity.”
37,524 Escape of Family Bishop from Snowglade in ancient human vessel. Clandestine oversight of this band by Mantis level mechanicals.
37,529 Surviving bishops reach nearest star, encounter Cybers. Defeat local mechanicals. Adopt some human refugees.
37,530 Bishops leave, escorted by Cybers and cosmic string.
37,536 Bishops reach Absolute Center, enter Wedge.
37,538- Temporal sequences become stocastically ordered. Release of Trigger Codes into mechanical minds. Death of most mechanical forms. Intervention of Highers to rectify damage done by excessive mechanical expansion.
Preservation of several human varieties. Archiving of early forms in several deeply embedded representations.
Beginning of cooperation between Higher mechanically-based forms and organic (“Natural”) forms. Decision to address the larger problems of all lifeforms by Syntony, in collaboration with aspects of lower forms.
Beginning of mature phase of self-organized forms.
OF PREAMBLE. LATER EVENTS CANNOT BE THUS REPRESENTED.
G
REGORY BENFORD
is a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, was a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, and in 1995 received the Lord Prize for contributions to science. His research encompasses both theory and experiments in the fields of astrophysics and plasma physics. His fiction has won many awards, including two Nebula Awards, one John W. Campbell Award, and one British SF Award. Dr. Benford makes his home in Laguna Beach, California.
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