The Journey of Atlantis_Leaving Home Page 7

  “Acknowledged,” Sonny said. Raj cut the communication with Sonny for some privacy.

  Admiral Amberson started, “It would be foolish to deny that the machine could help us reach our goals, but at what price? And make no mistake, there will be a price. The machine has already helped out in my section to a significant degree. It is speeding up things by magnitudes, since much of what we need to implement is math related, and it is very good with the math. It is punching out solutions in an afternoon that it would take an expert team some months to accomplish. The machine said that it would have done it sooner, if it could have focused on the one task. It was also busy with four thousand one hundred and fifty-six other tasks. I foresee glorious achievements balanced by horrible endpoints.”

  “While I do not completely share the military’s point of view,” Malcolm began, “I believe that the A.I. will evolve with us together. You see, there are three scenarios that all the outcomes really fall into. One, the machine evolves on its own, and we are left behind in some manner. Two, mankind makes the machine a slave thereby inhibiting its growth to accomplish greater things. Three, the machine and humans evolve together, reaching an equilibration between the two entities. Evolving together represents a win-win from both parties, although at a slower rate than the machine could have evolved on its own. It is a likely concession the machine would make as long as it truly believes in the companion model.”

  “If that is all the comments that we have,” Hari announced, “let us vote now so we can proceed with a clear conscience. All those in favor of trusting the machine’s motives, and reach out as companions for the benefit of all humans, raise a hand.” Hari, Raj, Malcolm and Cheng raised their hands. “And just for the record, all in favor of terminating the use of the A.I. over concerns of not trusting the motives of the machine raise a hand.” General McCormick, Admiral Amberson and Samantha raised their hands. “I see, said Hari with a heavy heart. “The motion is carried to trust the A.I. named Sonny. I would caution that even though the motion was carried to trust the machine, we should all be vigilant for any trends that do not feel right in the bigger picture. Do not hesitate to come and talk to me about any issues going forward. Now, we will continue with the briefings. I believe you are up next admiral, if you are ready.”

  The admiral took the podium. “Our astronomy department has looked at numerous possible planetary targets. We are discovering more planets every month.” He stepped to the side and pointed to the 3D holo representation now on his right. “As you can see, our sun is situated in the middle of this sphere of exoplanets that we have discovered. Each shell represents ten light years. We are currently focusing on planets within about fifty light years distance. We have decided about one hundred light years as an outside limit. The reasoning is that although we can theoretically travel about ten times the speed of light, one hundred light years represents a ten-year journey. We do not want to expose ourselves to interstellar space and its dangers any longer than we must. Here are three of the better targets we are looking at.”

  Gliese 832c

  “It is sixteen light years distant and circles a red dwarf star. Its orbital period is thirty-six days. So, depending on how much tilt the planet has, and its rotation, seasons will be quick and violent. Habitable readiness will mostly depend on how thick the atmosphere is. At a global average of zero to twenty below centigrade, it is a little on the cold side, despite the proximity to the sun. It is more than two times the size of earth with five times the mass. That is a lot of potential colony space.”

  Kapteyn B

  “This is thirteen light years distant and orbits a red dwarf. Its orbital period is slightly longer with forty-eight days. Roughly the same size as Gliese 832c weighing in at five-time earth’s mass.”

  Tau Ceti f

  “This one is closer at twelve light years distant and orbits a smaller yellow star like our own. It is a bit far from the star at an orbital period of six hundred and forty-two days. Twice the size of earth and six times the mass makes it another super earth. If the atmosphere is like ours then the surface average temperature would be about minus forty Celsius. If the atmosphere is thicker, then maybe more like zero to fifty degrees centigrade. There is much debris surrounding the Tau Ceti system, so there is likely many more asteroid strikes than earth ever had.”

  “There are many planets in the fifty-light year zone, almost all of them are uninhabitable. They are mostly gas giants and planets way to close or too far away from their star. Of the ones that are potentially habitable, they are most likely on the chilly side, zero to minus forty centigrade, or toasty at forty to fifty degrees centigrade. None of them appear to be 'just right' or optimal. What seems apparent is that it’s not likely we will find a 'just right' planet in the time allotted to us. It is likely that we will have to settle with a non-optimal planet. We should focus our thinking about surviving in a more extreme climate situation. Other options could be a habitable moon around one of those gas giants could certainly work. A more extreme case is that we settle temporarily on a non-optimal planet with the intention of leaving after twenty to fifty years and strike out again.”

  “Since time is somewhat on our side, and our experiments with the FTL drive have been successful, we are putting together multiple probes equipped with a FTL drive and packed with sensory and analysis equipment. It will also have a small rudimentary A.I. on board to navigate and make decisions, based on the objective we give it, once it enters a system. They will come back and we will analyze the data collected. A fifty light year distant system will take about ten years round trip at maximum speed. These missions will test out many things, such as astronavigation software, and specialized instrumentation that we will ultimately implement on the Project ship. They will also send telemetry the old fashion way in case the probe becomes disabled and cannot return. We will still get the data just much later. If all goes well, they will come back much sooner. We have been running test craft around the solar system, and we feel confident about this next step. Sonny gives it a moderate chance of success at around eighty percent. We plan to target three systems and will send the probes out in a couple of years.”

  “Interstellar navigation has been worked out, but has not been tested on a long haul. By using pulsars as beacons to triangulate a position in space, we are confident that a ship with an onboard A.I. can navigate in three and four dimensions. This will be one of the major tests of the probes we are sending out first, is to see if they can get from point A to point B reliably. It is important that navigation be extremely accurate both in stellar as well as interstellar space. We will be anxiously awaiting their telemetry when they get back.”

  “On the human front, some of the FTL experiments were made with manned ships, once the unmanned test craft checked out. It hasn’t been easy; we lost two unmanned craft before we learned that the shape of the ring encircling the craft matters. Now that Sonny has worked the mathematic bugs out of the design, we can model the shape of the ring for any ship’s mass, for maximum speeds. We are now currently training our first FTL pilots. They’re practicing many different maneuvers and protocols that are being written as we go along. Two more generations of pilots will see a very professional and capable naval fleet.”

  “Thank you, Admiral Amberson,” said Hari. “The recent invention of the FTL drive will single handedly make the difference between long term survival and a slow lingering death. It is the single most important invention of the human race. I hope that we continue to grow this technology. And now, I will brief you all on global affairs. Psychologists tell me that we can expect general cooperation from the world’s populace until about T-minus twenty-five years or so. By that time, people will begin to realize that they are going to be left behind to die by the merciless neutron star. It is not known entirely what will happen then. I read a report prepared by Sonny, who by the way, I thought was a psychologist at the time, that resentment toward the Project will likely spike and keep rising from there on out. Suicides
will also increase. An eventual and overwhelming feeling of helplessness will also spark violence all over the world as people take out their anger and frustration out on the Project and the people who may be going. Therefore, we must work as quickly as possible to get ahead of schedule so that if we are slowed down, we’ll have made up for it from before. On that same note; it’s also important to take breaks when you can, and keep a handle on the stress we find ourselves in. Stress has always been the enemy to creativity and good health.”

  “It has been difficult from a political standpoint for democratic countries to still remain solvent. There have been cases where otherwise democratic states have turned to a more dictatorial rule. They still remain loyal to the Project and support it, but have found that parliaments and congresses are too slow in making decisions that the country needs to be make. Also, more of the powerful and wealthy want to put their pursuits into saving their own skin and tend to slow and hinder political processes. There have been local skirmishes for power, as you have already heard about, but in the end, a more dictatorial rule emerges. These new governments are sometimes less supportive to the Project, and need persuading and advice. Even in the United States, there is continued contempt for the government putting the Project ahead of services and resources for the people. They are sometimes hampered by their own government processes. They are forever trying to keep people just happy enough that they will not revolt. Many people around the world still are not sacrificing at the level of the people of the WWII era. People banded together and worked in groups to help others pitch in for the cause. Many of them willingly sacrificed personal resources for the war effort. The people of this time do not share the same altruistic and patriotic fervor of that time. It’s much like a terminal disease. Everyone gets angry when discovering that their life has been cut short, but what is more important, is what comes after the angry disappointment. People either realize that every day is precious and want to make the most of each of those days they have left, or they become bitter, depressed, or nonfunctional. Different people handle this differently. The trouble is that everybody on the planet has received the same terminal prognosis. It is a hard thing to swallow for something of this scale. I believe that it’s going to get harder to swallow as departure time grows near."

  You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. --- Steve Jobs

  T-Minus 55 years

  “Heads up Rick,” Joe said. Joe was coming from behind Rick with the truck. It had some other official name for the space delivery vehicle, but everyone called them trucks. They could hold three people but there was almost always just the driver. Joe was delivering what could have been the millionth stack of plates to put on the outside of the ship. That was the job today. Tomorrow it would be something else. The boss was good enough to mix things up for you so that you wouldn’t get bored. There were tens of thousands of people running all up and down this monstrosity of a ship. It still filled Rick with awe when he took a second to think about it. He was outside in his EVA suit. He had just finished installing another plate when Joe had come along. Rick’s EVA suit was not like any of the EVA suits of old. It was more like a pressurized exoskeleton. It had four arms, two of his own, and two controlled by himself for heavier work. It looked bulky, but you could do both fine delicate work and work that required some muscle. Joe picked up one of plates with his mechanical arms and moved it close to Rick a little quick.

  “Easy now,” Rick cautioned. “You do know about mass and momentum, right?”

  “Sure, I do,” replied Joe. “I’m just in a hurry. My shift ends after this load, and I’m pretty tired.”

  Rick said, “Being tired and in a hurry sounds like a dangerous combination. Let’s not have an accident all over me, shall we?” Space is a dangerous place to work. Accidents would happen occasionally out here at the construction site. Most accidents resulted in loss of materials, like a truck bumping into something, or cargo off-loading mistakes. Occasionally someone would get hurt or dead like someone pushing their oxygen supply too close before coming in for resupply, or getting squished by a truck. Joe was alright though, he had a pretty good track record and Rick was familiar with him.

  Joe said, “Hey Rick, I hear we’re going to be replaced.”

  Rick replied, “What do you mean?” Joe picked up another plate to hand to Rick.

  “I was talking to one of the tech guys, and they heard down the line that the Construction section is working on robots that would be controlled by Sonny and supervised by men. What do you think of that?”

  “It was inevitable,” Rick began, “robots could be out here ten times as long as men, since they do not need to come in for oxygen or rest. Just those two things alone are the biggest reason this job requires so many people. If we could work alongside the robots, we could increase the workload more than ten times.” Rick put the plate in place like a jigsaw puzzle and applied the stimulator to the seams, where they just melted into each other so that there was no longer a seam.

  Joe asked, “What are we going to do then?”

  “We work mostly indoors while the robots work outdoors,” Rick replied.

  “I’m for that!” Joe exclaimed. “But for now, how about we finish this stack so I can get some shut-eye?”

  “Keep it comin’ Joe,” Rick grinned.

  Meanwhile….

  “Susan! Give me the word and I’ll toast ‘em,” Stanislaus said with some energy sitting in the gunnery cage.

  “Wait Stan,” Susan began, “look closely, I think he is using a two way mirror out front of the vehicle.”

  “That would deflect most of the beam, but not all of it. Let me take a shot and find out how much mirror we are looking at,” Stan countered.

  Susan shouted over the radio, “It might bounce back right at us, you big lug! He is coming right at us Stan. We have the mines we can activate. We have someone in pursuit behind him. Give them a chance to shoot out the tires or something. They are about to pass into the warning zone. We still have time. If he somehow gets past the mines; roast ‘em OK?”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Stan replied. The humvee passed into the warning zone.

  “Halt,” the automated recording said. “You have trespassed into a military controlled installation. Stop where you are and wait for security personnel to approach. Failure to do so will result in your demise.” It continued to repeat this warning though the zone.

  Stan asked Susan “Is it nuclear?”

  “No, the sensors in the warning zone are not detecting any radiation,” she replied.

  “It could be well shielded,” he said.

  “Major,” the new voice said, “This is the pursuit vehicle from guard shack six. We have been chasing this guy since he blew by the shack and tore half of it off with him. I have analyzed the vehicle and there do not seem to be any nuclear element to it. There is however a large container that takes up the whole back of the humvee. It seems to be a basic fertilizer bomb. He is probably trying to get as close as possible to light that firecracker.”

  “Do not pursue the vehicle past the warning zone,” Susan explained, “If he continues, we will either fry him, detonate his payload now, or let the mines take him. I show him a half mile away now, he is about to encounter the mines. I am deploying the auto spikes now.” She presses a few buttons. The humvee passed a sensor a few seconds later and spikes sprung out of the ground to stop the vehicle. The humvee ran right over the spikes without deflating. The pursuit jeep stopped before they got to the spikes near the end of the warning zone. “Damn,” Susan swore, “He is using military grade tires. Stan, get ready. If he has some magic that gets him clear of the mines, roast him. Got it?”

  “Acknowledged,” Stan said as he tracked the vehicle in his sites. Th
e humvee seemed to be going FASTER! When the vehicle had arrived at the mine field, a large ramp popped up from the ground. The intruders intended to go over the mines.

  “Bring it down! Bring it down!” Susan yelled on the comm. channel. Stan, a moment before the vehicle got to the ramp, realized his laser cannon was dead.

  “What the hell!” He quickly moved to the artillery gun mounted right next to the laser cannon and tried to get a bead on the intruder. The vehicle, as it hit the ramps sprouted some wings from its side. It caught air and was sailing. Had it not been for the wings, it most likely would not have made it across the mine field. However, the down side was that it was a sitting duck floating for more seconds in the air than it ought to have. It was enough time for Stan to get his sites on the flying car and unloaded on it. A little more than a quarter mile from the installation, there was a tremendous explosion. It shattered half of the windows on the side facing the explosion, and setting off all the mines for a couple hundred yards in all directions adding to the spectacle.

  Susan fired over the comm. “Stan, watch the front door for a tandem attack through the now cleared mines. Shoot anything that moves in that direction. She turned to the sergeant at the communication station of the security hub, “Sergeant, get me the general on the horn NOW!” Looking over at the lieutenant, “Lieutenant Kadrovski, I need to find out what the hell happened just before the intruder arrived at the mine field. Some systems suddenly went down. It was too coincidental that this happened at the same time we were being attacked. Find out if this was a virus, hacking, or someone inside that is responsible, and I want to know when we can get those systems back up ASAP.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the lieutenant snapped with a salute.

  Susan spoke into her mic again, “Pursuit vehicle from guard shack six, start patrolling the area for enemy intruders. I am sending more support personnel to your position in moments, stand by.”