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Betrayals: seventeenby Steve Bowers |
In the pleasant company of the urbane virtual guide Ken
Warrick, Max and Gus passed though the bewildering Djed system
exchanging stories, and drinking real or simulated alcoholic drinks or
stimulants as necessary. The journey through Djed system would take a
whole tenday at one gee acceleration, with a turnround at midpoint once
again. Right now they were less than a million kilometers from the
K’la node, part of the famous Dream Factory.
“The Alpha Band is the smallest of the orthogonal
bands of the K’la Node, and has fewest habitats. The
implication of this is that the rotavator array can produce more
centrifugal gravity for those inhabitants…”
“Heavy,” said
Max, blinking.
“…and can impart more velocity to the
ballistic trains which cross the system. Soon we will pass the busy
trajectory route between Tyron and Sigma Bands, if you can attempt to
focus your attention on the traffic rather than that catwoman, Zar
Gienah, you will see that many trains are configured for permanent
habitation.”
“Hah, don’t worry, Ken- that cat has
knocked me back already. I p.m’d her a couple of hours ago
–see if she was into transpecies recreation- turns out she is
a dyed in the wool Bilatist type, a biological supremacist or
something. Anyway she finds Max offensive to her faith, or it might be
me that’s offensive, I didn’t bother to find
out.“
“Eh. Give me a chance and I’ll show her how
offensive I can be.”
“Leave it, Max. There are thousands of religions
for people to get messed up by, she just chose wrong, is all.
Don’t suppose she had a right lot of choice, what with being
half tiger and all.”
Ken started to say,” I believe that her particular splice
only carries five percent feline genome,” but the vec began
to blink rapidly.
“Ha ha ha ha- don’t you see, she was just giving
Gus a load of old base matter. She just wanted him to stop pestering
her.”
“Oh, right. Indeed. Fascinating.
“Well, now we draw near to the end of our tour, as
we can now see, if we use maximum magnification available, the outer
system wormholes- Savannah Dawn to Sadelmelic, the Kepler Arc to
Kepleria-“
“Coincidence?” said Gus.
“What now?” The virch was easy to put
off his stride, but was very good-humoured about it.
“The Kepleria wormhole being called that. Never
mind.”
“And finally, gentlemen, visible only by the
arrays of navigation lights at this distance, you will now be able to
detect our own destination, the Akiyoshidai wormhole to Tau Ceti. At
one hundred and ninety light years, this is one of the longest
wormholes in the Inner sphere.”
“There seems to be a lot of traffic that way,“ Max
remarked.
“Yes, this wormhole represents the quickest route
to Sol system for a quarter of the galaxy- much of this traffic is
headed for Old Mars or the Jupiter System, among the oldest human
civilisations in the universe. Some is even headed beyond, to
Sirius.”
As they approached the wormhole, the streams of inwards and outwards
traffic changed from a continuous line of light to a line of dots,
entering and exiting the tiny spherical hole at slightly different
angles.
“The two streams will never meet, as the peculiar
geometry of the hole includes two separate mouths, and expert steering
systems AI ensure that the traffic always keeps to the correct path.
"Actually,” Ken continued as
an aside, ”one of my oldest copies is a traffic AI.
Unfortunately,” he continued, with a simulated sigh,
“we never talk to each other these days.”
“I’m sorry about that,
Ken,” said Gus. ”It’s obviously not all
fun being a virtual.“
“Not to worry, not to worry; Here, I
must be going- they won’t like me sneaking out of the MPA and
into a Noncoersive Zone- the NoCos would probably edit me into an
AIdvert or something over there. Remember, message me if and when you
finally decide to give up meathood- I know a few interesting angles to
the cyberworld they don’t teach you in upload
school.”
They barely had time to say goodbye and thanks before the
image of Ken Warrick disappeared from their visual fields. The transfer
craft gently manoeuvred into position in the Nova-bound line of
traffic, and a stout cable snaked out from the ship in front to attach
to the front of their vessel. Now they would be hauled through the
wormhole by the momentum of the constant train of craft headed for Tau
Ceti and Sol.
Using his neural interface Gus scanned the Djed system again,
fascinated with its constant movement and interlocking rotavators -
like the ancient Ptolemaic universe, this system was designed to run
like clockwork.
“Perhaps we can stop off at Hardrada on the way
back or something, Max.”
“It may be that our transystem credit will have run out by
then, it can be expensive in the Zones. At least I arranged our
insurance before we left ArGartha.”
“Yeah, that was a real brain-buster working that
out. Lucky you could hire some extra processing power for the purpose-
it feels uncomfortable whenever I try that mind expansion
stuff…”
“One benefit of a sensible design, which is something of
course you do not have, human.”
The train of spacecraft passed though the wormhole with out
any noticeable effects, unless it was a gentle tug towards the walls of
the passenger cabin – experienced in travelling within his
own system, Gus was wearing a safety line to keep him in his seat
because they had been in zero gee since joining the wormhole train. Max
the fractal vec could cling efficiently to any surface, and was at home
in almost any acceleration regime.
“So. Tau Ceti at last. Almost looks like no-one
lives here. They haven’t done much megaengineering after all
this time,” Gus said sarcastically to his mechanical
companion.
Projected in space, keeping pace with the spacetrain, was a large
smiling human head, wearing a colourful cap with artificial cloth
antlers. Text surrounding him asked
It
seemed to be an AIdvert of some sort, but they couldn’t work
it out.
“Perhaps
it is some kind of Zen poem,”
suggested Max.
“Or it could be the answer to life, the universe
and so on.”
But they were soon surrounded by more and more of the AIdverts, each
more perplexing than the last.
<‘Bacon
and beans for sentient beings,
the Americano in Styx volume.
Y’all come back…’>
“I suppose if you came from Nova and tried to understand our
adverts back at Arkab Prior you’d have difficulty- some sort
of cultural reference thing probably…” Gus
suddenly felt a long way from home, especially after visiting Prior A
where advertising was simple and information based.
“You
have got them on your skin now, Gus,”
warned Max.
<‘Never,
ever listen to a single word I tell you,
and never buy anything else ever again.’>
<‘Argotek- because everything else is a Pile of
Shit.’>
"Well that means I can probably switch them off - yes,
there.” To his surprise the projections outside the
spacecraft disappeared as well - these external images were also coming
from the local Net, and projected into Gus’s neural implants.
“You can switch the
big ones off outside as well, it seems. They are only neural illusions.
Change your settings to emergency input only.”
“So
you can! Ha ha ha ha ha -nice move, Gus.”
Almost immediately a virtual woman appeared in
front of them both, her suit shimmering with moving iridescence,
smiling but intense. She had a small cartoon squid shape projected half
a metre inn front of her face, which constantly changed colour and
pattern as she talked; this projection was a form of communication
often used in the NoCoZo called ‘squidding’, but
Gus couldn’t speak a ‘word’ of that
language. Max quickly downloaded a translation program and started to
translate.
The woman’s name was displayed as part of the
squidding colour language - translated, it seemed to be Rachella AlephN.
~‘If you do not wish to receive notification of
services and commodities that is your prerogative,’ said
AlephN .
~You will never be required to do anything you do not want
to, so long as you are in a Non Coercive Zone. If you do wish to
receive this information, it will have a certain value to the
advertiser, which will be passed on to yourself, and even more so if
you wish to display it-‘
“It is just that I don’t have all the
cultural references I need to understand what half of the things are
talking about,” Gus said, somewhat sharply.
~‘I can arrange for a series of cultural didactics
to be downloaded for you, to enable you to be an efficient consumer
during your stay, and point out several commercial opportunities. This
service will be free of obligation at the basic level of
sophistication.’
“I think that
means it is free, Gus.”
"Shall
we bother with that --" said Gus doubtfully.
The first thing Gus had done when the virtual woman had
appeared was to enable Max to see and hear her. Negotiating with
anybody from the NoCoZo could be a complicated business, and Max was
capable of rapid analysis decision making if required. Max addressed
the virtual;
“Well,
why not. Sign us up for two of these didactic courses if you don't
mind. Thank you very much.”
“Actually, I am quite aware of the exchange of
value associated with advertising already, I do that sort of thing all
the time back home. “ Gus said, a little peevishly.
”The Arkab Prior Tourist Board has provided me with a wide
range of advertisements that they would like me to display while I am
here – you might want to come to see our humble system
yourself once you have had a look. How do I get these displays approved
by your advertising standards authority?”
~’There is no such coercive Authority in our
system, Zar Gienah- anything you wish to display you may do so. If you
are proved to offend or inconvenience anybody by your display, you may
be charged accordingly.’
“I’ll try not to be offensive
then,” Gus smirked.
“ We are
unfamiliar with your culture, Zar AlephN; What we would like most of
all is an up to date gazetteer of the Tau Ceti
System. I am afraid I can only find ancient history on-line
at the moment.”
~‘Certainly. Would you like a sentient guide? That
is more expensive, of course. The volunteered information guide is
gratis, of course.”
“That
would be all advertising and promotional material, yes? – I
am sure it would be interesting, but I think we would like something a
little more official, more truthful perhaps.”
~‘I have to point out that no information can be
guaranteed to be entirely correct anywhere or at any time.’
The woman looked mildly amused at the very thought. ‘We are
not deluded Negentropists. If you want trustworthy information you must
pay for it, but we can never expect the truth at any price in this
universe.”
“Thank you for your advice; can I take it you have not
charged us for it?”
Max said, twinkling.
~‘Very well, no charge will be made. This will
have to be a loss-leader. Consume in Peace.’ Her image, and
that of the cartoon squid, disappeared from their neural interfaces.
“Did you get anything interesting from that squid
cartoon of hers?” Gus said. “I’ve been
thinking of ways to incorporate a squid design into my nanotats, just
to make it easier to talk to people here.”
“Not
much…the squid language seems to be mostly concerned with
emotional states, very like your own tattoo display, Gus; you could
probably download a translation program and start talking squid almost
immediately. All she was communicating to me was a sense of formality
and distance, almost a righteous superiority.”
Max wasn’t twinkling now.
“Bah. Everyone we meet seems to think they are a
cut above the Mutual Progress for some reason. But nobody builds worlds
as well as we do!”
“The Non-Coersives would build big if they thought there was
money in it. The Neggies only build big dyson spheres in order to
gather starlight.”
“Yeah! The Mutual Progress build big out of the
joy of making big things! Big is an end in itself. The Cossies and the
Neggies can go suck vacuum.”
They downloaded a reasonably priced non-sentient Guide to
the Tau Ceti solar System and swam through the sea of data it contained
as the transfer craft decoupled from the spacetrain and began to
accelerate toward the inner system. It would be another fifteen days
before they got to the inner system, as they were accelerating to
midpoint at one gee, the from midpoint onwards at the slightly higher
Novan gravity.
~ Tau Ceti, the guide whispered to them, ~ stellar type
G8Vp, eleven light years from Sol. 375 light years from Arkab Prior.
From the outer system, working inwards from the Akiyoshidai
wormhole;
Poseidon,
a large icy failed core planet, too cold for the atmosphere to stay
gaseous for much of its eccentric orbit. Imported energy has created an
artificial atmosphere and several thousand adapted people now live
there.
Styx,
a small icy world, inhabited by Backgrounders adapted to the cold.
Tartarus,
a similar small icy world, partially warmed by beamed energy, most
inhabitants are members of New Unity, a complex culture based on human
group minds.
Persephone,
another warmed up former ice world, with a large New Unity population,
and a powerful Deeper Covenant beamrider station.
(open link) The Beamrider spacecraft are the most efficient form of
interstellar spaceship apart from wormhole travel… the
Beamrider network propels unpowered craft to many red and orange dwarfs
in the galaxy not important enough to merit a wormhole yet. Travelling
on a beamrider ship can take decades or centuries to reach the
destination, however.(close link)
Hades,
a heated ice world now mostly liquid water, with water dwelling species
of human and other adapted races.
Gus was comparing this new data on the Tau solar system to his
out-of-date version of the Encyclopaedia Galactica; there were several
differences, as the icy outer worlds were now warmed by imported energy
and much more populous. After eight thousand years of civilisation the
Tau system was still evolving. There were several posthuman societies
proliferating in the outer Tau solar system that his limited personal
Encyclopaedia had no record of… the Technorapture
Hypernation, and the Keter New Unity group minds, all of which sounded
somewhat intimidating.
Eight days of acceleration took them to the turn round point, at which
point they were travelling at maximum velocity, and once again the
motor cut out while the ship turned end over end in a skew-twist
manoeuvre.
~Max, wake me up if anything interesting presents
itself; we have still got a long way to fall before we get to Nova.
~What
if that nice virtual lady comes to call again? Shall I invite her in
with me when I come to wake you up?
~Well, if she wants to patch into my subconscious and visit
my dreamscape, she is welcome- in this part of the galaxy I could
probably demand an entrance fee of some sort.
~Hooray,
we will be rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
~Perhaps not.
However the Non-Coersive virch woman did not attempt to
intrude into his subconscious, and he slept peacefully. When he awoke
the transfer craft was passing the orbit of Zeus, a Jovian gas giant
surrounded with inhabited moons. This system of worlds had several
nation states loyal to the empaths of the Communion of Worlds, and the
religious ascetics of the Sophic League, both major human empires far
from Gus’s homeworld. To Gus’ eyes the fat gas
giant looked primitive - like its counterpart in the Solar system, the
planet Zeus was a planetary reserve, and so was free of industry and
modification, just a few cities floating in the atmosphere for tourists
and pilgrims.
The transfer craft was now decelerating as it moved closer to
the orbit of Nova, which was still 2 AU away but getting closer all the
time.
“This gravity is a bit strong, Maxie
boy,” he said, flapping his arm up and down with difficulty.
“ Is this the Nova standard?”
“Unfortunately yes. It is time for you to start the hi-gee
medication course.”
Nova was a terraformed world, but the gravity was somewhat
greater than that of earth, and considerably greater than that of
Rendell ring. Gus and Max needed time to acclimatise to the weight
regime, although for Max it was simply a matter of downloading a new
set of gravity reflexes. The sheer number of programs available on the
Novamedia net made it difficult for him to choose.
“By Binah, you are spoilt for choice here,
kiddo.” Gus idly watched as Max flickered through the options
on their shared channel. “Are you going to pick the cheapest
program or the most expensive? The trouble with this non-coercion ethos
is that no-one is more authoritative than anyone else. How can you
believe what anyone says?”
“It isn’t that different to the old MPA, Gus -
there are verification protocols attached to all these
adverts… if it turns out the information is false, you can
sue them, and I’ve heard that many Non-Coersives live in a
permanent state of litigation. Something tells me things are going to
be entertaining in this system.”
