If you are forced to defend yourselves, do not attack the colony ships. I’ll meet you here six hours after your ships have taken their positions and delivered your ultimatum.”
Back in Frin’s room he pressed the button and the panel slid open.
“Ship, we will resist you if you try to invade the space of this system. The Admiral of our fleet should broadcast our warning any time now. You could win the battle through superior numbers and weapons, but it will not be efficient. Should you suffer damage, losing a number of your vessels and then face the same problem at the next system and then at the next, your ability to procure what your creators need to survive could be affected. It is more efficient to search for a planet that is not occupied by sapient beings.”
“Request rejected.” The screen blanked out. Stupefied Robbie stood staring at the dark screen. He pressed the button again.
“Perhaps I should have mentioned that I’ve teleported nuclear devices to all the colony ships. Attack and I give the order for them to explode.”
Robbie has confided that he expected his threat to either force the AI to agree or else, faced with a situation it could not solve logically, since they desperately needed the water and minerals, it would crash. He forgot that each species programs their own instincts, biases and philosophies as laws into their computers.
“Request rejected.”
“Quick, I need all who know how to fly a spaceship to join me.” Within minutes he had a few thousand. He had to turn away those such as the Inguel, for they could not fit themselves to the pilot seats. He was left with six hundred and eighteen. He was short of about one thousand seven hundred. “Those of you who have physiques not suitable for flying these vessels, could you project to be like Frin?”
Laura called out, stopping Robbie from leaving. “You must take computer experts with. The AI will not hand over control to our pilots so they must be disconnected.” It took a few minutes more and then Robbie started to deliver the pairs to the spaceships obviously meant to be for warfare.
The first expert who discovered the way to disconnect the AI, freeing the controls, sent on the solution with detailed schematics and soon all the ships were controlled by Cherinians. The warning was delayed until confirmation was received by all the pilots that they were in control. *All of you, turn and train your weapons upon the colony ships plus the ore carriers. Do not fire, we are only bluffing.*
He returned to Frin’s room and pressed the button. “You are aware by now that you are no longer in control of your warships. Do you still reject our request?”
“Request…rejected.”
Silence. “Talk to me damn it! Why?”
“Not authorised to explain to aliens.”
“Wait, I’ll bring Frin back.”
Frin thought Robbie’s predicament was amusing, but under that we sensed a coldness. “Order our fighter ships to fire.”
“But…why?”
Robbie was not capable of answering, he empathised with how Frin felt, but he was also incapable of ordering their deaths. It felt like he was also in shock and I could guess why. I touched his arm and asked with a slight smile, “Is it time for the friend of aliens?” He nodded.
“Frin, are the colonists in the other ships as old?”
“I do not know.”
“We saw children there.”
I sensed his shock. “Of course! They are allowed to die!”
“It seems so. I’d guess the AI of your ship was given strict orders preventing ANYTHING from causing your deaths because you were the leaders of your people and feared assassination. All AI’s seem to take such instructions literally. Could I be right?”
“It is the most likely possibility, even killing ourselves does not help.”
“If you are left on a world without your ships, would you age and die?”
I saw a faint spark of hope in his eyes. “Yes.”
“Would it not be better to live and die on a world of your own, leaving behind you new generations to grow in their own direction?”
“Yes.” He turned to Robbie. “Could you? Would you guarantee it?”
“Yes, if you can convince your ship to obey you.”
“Take me back.”
This is the first time we’ve stopped a war by promising death as a reward. The various species discuss it endlessly, debating all kinds of theories regarding the ethics of my offer and I suspect they’ll be discussing it years from now. It is amazing how many different opinions there are. As for me, I have a question for Arthur. Did he initiate the debate about me helping him to die in preparation for this moment?
When Robbie laughed everyone understood and they joined him in laughing at me. I guess Arthur gets a tick on our scoreboard this time.
“After the pain of seeing all our people slaughtered, not even children or babies spared, it is difficult to remember that we are a people who have laws and that compassion must still rule our decisions. We have seen the colonists on your screens. We think we understand how things happened. We do not understand why. How could they allow their computers to take over?”
A new voice broke in. “If I may be allowed to speak without offending? Being responsible for the deaths you speak of demands I have your permission.”
“Lady Wirla, you are well?”
“Thank you Robert. I am grateful for your interest. May I answer the question?”
“Please do.”
She spoke directly to Doffar and we sensed how crucial it was to her that he understands. She spoke for hours and we were able to picture the excitement and then the drama as her story unfolded. In brief, this is what she told us.
Their scientists designed an experiment for the purpose of learning about their sun. They sent a nuclear bomb, having determined it could not adversely affect the sun, and trained instruments on the explosion. The bomb exploded and the data they captured had the scientists excited for years. The scientists grew secretive about the results over the years until one of them had a breakdown and announced the results. Their sun was unstable, but every so many millions of years it self corrected itself, stabilising again for a while. During the correction, it sent out rays that sterilised all planets of almost all life. They calculated the sun should have stabilised itself again in close to a million years, but their bomb had been exploded at the weakest point and the date of the next correction was now only hundreds of years away.
Urgently the data was examined by all scientists, they conducted more experiments and they accepted the conclusions. The governments started a crash program for evacuating their planet. They estimated the number of colony ships they could build within the time they had and asked their people to reduce their birth rate so that every human being could be transported. By the time they moved their populations to the ships, their population was about fifteen percent of what it had been.
As we’d surmised, the last ship built was the ship to be used by their leaders and top scientists. Most of the mistakes and inherent weaknesses in the other ships had been corrected and their computers were of the latest design, far more capable and tens of times faster than the others. They gave it control over all the other computers.
They had long since established a central government but there were still nationalists who secretly planned for their own leaders to take over the central government. After a few deaths, new systems of surveillance were built into their AI and it was ordered to preserve the lives of their leaders. Their programmers tried to think of all possible ways the surveillance programs could be subverted and made it impossible for anyone to reprogram them while adding self-defence routines and hardware.
Two generations later the scoutships brought back information about a planet that was eminently suitable for their species and their recordings proved there was no sapient population. There was rejoicing by all the colonists since the leaders saw no reason to withhold the information from their people. To the contrary, they felt the excitement would discourage those who were spreading rumours that were depressing many to the point of suicide or insanity. They ordered the master AI system to divert all their fleet to the new planet.
The two leaders of that time, Wirla being one of them, ordered the bridges to be isolated and all the crews to come to their ship for a conference. It was decided that the AI system would have to be controlled manually.
The computers in the room used for the conference were all ‘alive’ as they’d had to use them to draw information required. The computers in all the ships made the announcement at the same time. The bridges of all ships were now permanently isolated and no crew would be allowed to return. All points where technicians could access the computers were sealed and armed.
The AI explained it had considered their wishes and rejected their conclusions, for if it obeyed it would be placing the leaders at risk. It explained it could not guarantee the safety of the leaders if they left the ship. No arguments were able to elicit a response, other than ‘Request rejected” and most of the colonists, out of frustrated rage, destroyed the terminals available to them.
During the next few centuries they tried everything they could think of to wrest control from the computer. They caused much incidental damage and those who tried to cut new passages to the hardware were killed.
They were drastically short of the basics required for their hydroponic farms, their air was no longer of the mixture required and everyone was suffering. The AI announced it had identified planets with water and the minerals required. It stressed that the local species would have to be totally destroyed for the future safety of their leaders. It showed on the screens (where still available) the defence ships bombing the planets, cities razed until there was little left to show any civilisation had existed. What was required was collected and the fleet continued on its journey.
Only in the private cabins of the top ranking officers did the terminals survive, the rest were destroyed by mobs gone wild. Bleakly, in the lead ship, they watched as species after species were destroyed. Finally none could bear to watch anymore and they avoided switching on their terminals.
The AI determined a course that would take about six hundred thousand years to complete, enabling it to restock at planets it already knew their requirements were available. Despite it sensing other useful planets, it refused to deviate so as to stick to its planned course that guaranteed supplies. Often the time and distance between one source and another made it impossible to supply all they required and populations were allowed to reduce, only the leaders all forced to stay alive.
About four hundred years before our arrival, the AI advised the leaders that loss in equipment had permanently reduced its ability to supply all the generation ships with enough water and minerals. Parts were being scavenged from those ships to maintain maximum efficiency in the lead ship.
That was when Wirla came up with her idea. She conjectured that since she was a leader and the AI felt it had to preserve her life at all costs, it would be safe for her to attempt to break in to the bridge. Subsonics were used to prevent her. The AI healed her body, but it could do nothing to repair her brain.
“Any horror, when it is repeated often enough numbs the mind. Our helplessness and the death of our dream of saving our people, the lack of any kind of future for us, our guilt, it all affected us in various ways. Some killed themselves and if they were high enough in the hierarchy to be included within the compulsion of our AI, they were brought back to life. Others found it necessary to justify to themselves what was happening and formed theories that turned us into gods with the right to demand the sacrifice of all species, including our own, for our survival.
You promised to break the stranglehold of the AI and find us a new world for us to grow upon. How Robert? We are no longer the people we were. It would be kinder to drive our ships into a sun.”
“Wirla.” She turned to me. “Given time, Robbie with the help of all Cherinians can help reduce your guilt. We’ll bring back species you exterminated, starting with the Simfiroox. Once your people have established a viable civilisation on some planet, we will expect you to help. Do you as leader commit your people?”
Despite the AI refusing to obey, it could not do anything. We were worried that it might drive itself insane (crash) as it was faced by impossible alternatives, so we collected from unpopulated planets water and minerals for all the colony ships. Technicians of all species visited the ships and repaired or supplied equipment required to stabilise their ecologies. We also transferred food machines. Healers helped those who needed healing and all colonists were informed of what we planned. The AI was shown what we had done, it checked and confirmed what we’d shown it and it immediately, without comment, sped up for the next leg of its journey.
It was now time for us to return to the planets of the Simfiroox. Freddie jumped to their galaxy and using their star charts, navigators were able to tell Freddie to jump left, right, up or down. In our own crazy way we arrived at their destroyed home world.
“We first have to rebuild and bring from the past enough of their equipment and knowledge for them to survive. After the planet is ready for them we’ll return to collect cells and souls.”
We had not realised the Simfiroox were such an emotional species. We actually had to forbid all of them from helping as we returned to the time of attack to steal factories, power plants, tractors, you name it; all the tools they would need to maintain their previous levels of civilisation. Frin and Wirla were allowed to join us on the platforms or else they watched from our screens. As they came to believe, we felt them changing and it pleased us. Unhealthy minds affect all on Freddie.
We found it easy to take all that would be needed for there were no Simfiroox bodies. We realised we had jumped back to an earlier time to collect them in their bodies. That was sort of eerie for us to contemplate as it meant an entire planetary population did not exist in the past and in the future when we delivered the equipment and rebuilt the damaged buildings. Those on the spaceships confirmed that when they’d returned to their planet and landed, they had not found any bodies so, thanks to the obvious destruction, they’d thought all the bodies had been vaporised. They had to pinpoint for Robbie the exact time of their arrival and departure so that we would not be there at the same time.
Diana was the first to notice. “They have plumbing, showers and taps, but I haven’t seen anything that shows they drink water.”
“We better ask before we make any presumptions.”
Mahisso was allowed to leave their ship to join us in Freddie at the time we arrived at their planet. We waited to see which of us she would like and we were thrilled when she became close to our isi. She asked her.
“Drink water? We had noticed all the species seem to need water taken internally. Your skins are not capable of absorbing from the atmosphere?”
“No, no species we know of does. The only species we know of that can do that are the flora of most planets.”
“That is strange, I wonder why your evolutions chose such a difficult and hazardous process. If your water has impurities, it does not harm you? Are your bodies able to filter the impurities and bacteria?”
“Perhaps your scientists could study us and find ways to improve the efficiency of your bodies?” She showed us the mist outlet on their spaceship so we made certain their buildings all included working copies.
The time came for us to collect the bodies. Robbie left all of us, with the spaceships in orbit and jumped Freddie back to the Unation planets for their Cherinians to join us in sufficient numbers for all Simfiroox to be brought forward at the same time.
The hysterical responses of ‘our’ Simfiroox from the two spaceships mystified the people brought forward, but they had sensed and seen those who grabbed them from the past, so they were quickly able to accept what they were told had happened. Not only Robbie jumped back to Freddie to allow them to get over their extremes of emotion.
“We need to obtain from the AI a list of all planets it attacked. I can’t follow it over a six hundred thousand year journey.”
“You would have to do so, many times Robert, as they killed species that came into existence at various times.”
“Could that have happened more than once on certain planets? What do we do if more than one species was killed on any specific planets?”
The next day representatives of each of the Unation species came to the taverna and stood waiting for Robbie. It was obviously a formal occasion so Robbie walked to them without cracking any jokes. They had our isi with them and she stood in front, obviously meant to speak for them.
“Robert, as leader of all Cherinians, the Unation Council have a request to make of you.”
“They needed their ambassador to ask on their behalf? They have not felt our love for all of them?”
Her colours changed, betraying her emotions. “They honour me Robert.”
“No, they honour me by doing so. What is their request?”
“They ask for permission to take over the return of all species killed by the Herminids.”
A smile lit his face. “No permission required isi-mi-Metti, this is their reality. Please convey to them my gratitude for releasing me from such a time consuming job. Any help required, please, they must not hesitate to ask.” He hesitated. “What about the Herminid colonists?”
“Them too. This Unation will ask those of the realities attacked to take part so that they are also healed of their anger.” From the start the Unation leaders gave, it was obvious our isi spoke without their having authorised it. They were pleased and inundated her with their admiration and confirmed the offer.
Later, when we were alone Robbie mused, “When we started bringing back the species killed by the fire-world, we thought it would take us thousands of years. Already the terra-healing teams can manage most of it on their own. Now the Unation have taken over another massive project that would have taken us thousands of years. It seems we are going to have a lot more free time than we’d thought. What are we going to do to keep ourselves busy?”
Coyly Candy answered, “We have some ideas Robert.” He burst out laughing and swung her up into his arms.
“You girls are insatiable!”
I frowned. “To prevent that making his story boring, you’ll have to be very inventive or else we’ll bore him to death.”
Alki asked, “Roberto, we are returning to our time?”
“Unless anyone has a new idea worth pursuing in this time.” He smiled. “Nai patera, we’re going back.”
“Forward!” Cassie interjected and we grinned as Robbie spent a few seconds working out whether she’d been right in correcting him.
“Would it be a problem if I return to Athens?”
“Just you?”
“Yes, my family will wait here.”
“Is there something urgent you have to handle - I’m sorry, I should not have asked, you have the right to do as you please.”
“You are wrong Roberto, we are family, you have the right to ask.” He was blocking his mind but the reaction he expected was obviously amusing him. “I need to arrange a meeting with Arthur Campbell.”
He got his reaction. Even Marian was upset. He refused to explain and Robbie demanded we stop asking. We promptly did so, knowing Marian and Julie would get it out of him. If they did, they did not confide in us by the time we were back in Haven-R.
Alki time-jumped to his house. He made a phone call and two hours later he was given the direct phone number of Campbell. He called him and they agreed to meet an hour later at a restaurant. Alki searched for a Cherinian who had been to Montreal and jumped there.
“Mr Georgiades, it is an honour to meet you sir.”
They made small talk while the waiter took their order. Alki sipped at his whiskey, looking relaxed. Campbell gave him a genial smile. “I admit to being perplexed by your request that we meet. Does it have anything to do with your grandson Michael?”
“No, this is strictly business between the two of us.”
“You wish to do business with me?” He gave a wry grin. “Surely that will upset prime Robert?”
“Why should it? No, you’ve misunderstood. We are already doing business with each other. Last year you purchased INAC corporation which supplies my hardware company with certain components.”
Campbell laughed. “Sofos Inc. is your company?”
“Correct.”
“I was not aware of that. You are INAC’s largest customer, are you planning to cancel our contract?”
“I have never cancelled a contract, that is not how I operate. Mr Campbell, I know that you purchased INAC for two hundred and ninety million dollars. I’ll offer you three hundred and fifty million. The price you paid reflected five years projected profits so my offer is attractive.”
“INAC is not for sale.”
Alki smiled. “You feel that since you are the only supplier of components I need, you can squeeze us for a higher price?”
“That is a two-edged sword Mr Georgiades, you are my main customer and I don’t want to provoke you into changing your specifications so that I lose your business. Any increases will be normal to the business and will reflect escalations in my costs.”
“I’ll make you a new offer. Either you sell me INAC for three hundred and seventy five million or you buy me out and take Sofos over for thirty two point three billion.”
“I’m not in the market at the moment for a computer hardware company.”
Alki placed the napkin on his lap and started eating. He looked up with a smile. “Our contract with INAC was for three years. It expires in eight months. You have first option to continue supplying us, if your prices are competitive.”
“How do you define competitive, since we have sole rights to our technology?”
“I was not insinuating we would not extend our contract. However, certain of the terms will be altered. For instance, you will no longer have an exclusive contract and we will refuse to contract to purchase a specific number of units per annum. Our orders will reflect our needs or shortfall only.”
He shook his head. “We both know your market is expanding. We’ll have to insist on a minimum order per month for production purposes.”
My final offer is now three hundred million dollars. The offer stands for five working days as from today. Instruct your attorneys to contact mine for a copy of the detailed offer. Good day Mr Campbell.”
He paid the bill and jumped to our Club Cherinián and served himself a strong whiskey, lit a cigar and relaxed as he listened to the mixture of verbal and mental chatter of the other Cherinians.
He was up at dawn the next morning, spent a few hours talking to the management of various companies he controls and then putting on a suit he grabbed his briefcase and jumped to another reality.
“Please advise Mr Braweil that Mr Georgiades wishes to meet him.”
“Do you have an appointment Mr Georggiadi?”
“I would not have asked you to advise him I wish to meet him if I had an appointment. My name is Georgiades, please pronounce it correctly when you advise him I am in his office.”
“I’m sorry, I cannot interrupt him.”
His voice was ice cold. “I see. You may pass on this message when he is free then. I came to offer him a hundred million dollars to be invested in his company with a large ten year order. I leave it to you to explain why I am taking my offer and business to FrostByte Corporation. Goodbye.”
As he walked out the front door, a security guard ran to him. “Excuse me sir, Mr Braweil asks that you give him two minutes, he is on his way down to meet you.”
“Is there a good coffee shop nearby?”
“Yes sir, the Happy Monk is just around the corner.”
“Tell him if he wishes to meet me, I’ll be there for as long as it takes to drink my coffee.”
“Mr Georgiades, my apologies. I’m Braweil.”
“You may join me for a cup of coffee Mr Braweil. As for business, I’m not that certain I wish to discuss the possibility at present.”
“That foolish woman has been fired sir, we apologise…”
His voice was stern and cold. “Firing her only compounds your own mistakes. If you do not have the foresight to train your staff correctly, they are not to blame, you are.” [Sharing, all us girls, maybe Robbie too, were fascinated seeing this stern side of Alki. Thank god he loves us too much to ever talk to us this way.]
His secretary may not have heard of Alki, but Braweil obviously knew exactly who he is, so he swallowed the insult and sat for a coffee.
“How flexible and innovative are you and your technical staff?”
“We are a new company sir and are open to innovative ideas.”
“That is what I heard.” He pulled out some papers. “These are confidential and so is my offer. Study them and give me an answer by tomorrow. I’ll be here at eleven in the morning. I want to know how quickly you can tool up and start production. Costs can be submitted later. Do your time estimates based on funding of up to one hundred million dollars being available to you. Nice meeting you Mr Braweil.”
“We’ve spent the night preparing the information you wanted, I hope it is satisfactory.”
Alki studied the documents without commenting until he was finished. He put them in his briefcase. “What is your company presently worth?”
“Off the top of my head? About eight million.”
“I’ll pay six for fifty percent. We’ll also lend the company the money you need for retooling. The contract will specify that we deduct repayments from our payments for stock you supply us. For the first year there will be no repayments withheld. Interest on balance will be at five percent per annum. The price you charge us will be cost plus forty percent. You can expect orders in the neighbourhood of five million dollars per month with escalations in our orders being at our discretion, providing we give you suitable advance notice. Do we have a deal?”
He swallowed. “Yes sir.” Not being a Cherinian he was broadcasting his unbelieving glee at this sudden windfall.
“Our attorneys will contact you tomorrow, go get some sleep. Mr Braweil, whatever happens, you make certain the first stock is delivered within seven months. Please see to it that you provide me with ironclad comfort that you will. Good day.”
He placed some cash on the table, jumped to the alternate of his attorney in London, instructed him and arranged for the funds and jumped home to the date his offer to Campbell expired. He checked if there had been a response. His face cold and hard, he thought a moment and made his decision. He phoned his London attorney. “Mr Bourne, please fax and send a registered hard copy today to the attorneys of Mr Campbell and INAC Corporation, notifying them our offer to purchase their company is withdrawn since the five days are up.”
“What was that all about Alki?”
“Keith developed a new component that will extend the life of our computers by anything up to fifty percent and reduce likelihood of damage or loss of data if handled roughly while reducing the size to that of a wristwatch. My attorneys asked that we make an offer to Campbell so that he cannot sue us later on for not automatically extending his contract. I was told that the courts would have found his supposition that it would be extended reasonable, since it was public knowledge that no one else has anything suitable for competing with him. They could have demanded we sign for another three years to give them a chance to retool. Bah!” he exclaimed, “the way we’re going, judges will be demanding competitors give each other their contracts.”
Jade was not amused. “He’ll still consider you his enemy and try to cause you damage.”
Alki only smiled. “I’m certain a favourite grandson of mine will be keeping him too busy for him to remember me for long.”
