Gregory Benford The Sunborn

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at all?"
Shanna said, "Maybe humans did it with never-ending selection pressure through
warfare versus cooperation."
Julia laughed. "Just like us two, eh? We evolved ourselves in a kind of social
one-upping, predator-prey relationship?"
"Which fits with how you and I got along so well? Right? Our ancestors
switched back and forth in the roles of predator and prey constantly, as new
aggressive technologies developed. So I get your drift. Did the Beings
likewise go through warfare, territory protection, weaponry?"
Julia blinked. "Why else would they need such high intelligence? Unless there
really are dragons out here..."
Shanna said in a spooky voice, "Good ol' H. G. Wells. 'Intellects vast and
cool and unsympathetic.'
Brrrr!"
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Julia smiled. "It's good to think outside the box, but we have to have a
negotiating position with
Earthside, y'know."
Shanna thought, then said, "Okay-for starters, I won't take zand unless we can
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figure out how to protect them in low-temperature environments."
Julia nodded. "Goes without saying."
"And that means we have to look at a lot of problems. One, where is the
nervous system in a zand?"
Julia topped this with, "Two, how is genomic information stored and translated
into effector action in a zand? Is it done with low-temperature analogs of DNA
and proteins?"
Shanna shot back, "Three, what do zand use for muscle, bone, and blood? How
does temperature affect that?"
Julia spread her hands. "I say we just ask them. They-or the Beings who made
them-must know."
"And we must have their consent."
"I imagine they would, once the Beings let their feelings known."
"Just as for the Darksiders, it all comes back to the Beings, doesn't it?"
Julia shrugged. "They run the outer solar system. Apparently always have. But
you've hit the nub of it-
how do we get them to cooperate?"
"Do what they want and take a Being to Mars? Impossible. Hell, they're bigger
than gods!-but afraid of what to us is just about empty space, close in to the
sun. Go figure."
Julia chuckled. "I wish I could. Unless we can give them a visit with
Incursor, they will have little motivation to stop the bow shock from pushing
in, near Earth. Instigator will probably be happy to get more energy from the
bow shock boundary as it moves in. All the better to power its experiments-the
zand and all that skimpy biological substructure-on Pluto."
Shanna sighed, sitting back and looking beyond Julia again, at the wall
screen. It had cycled to a view straight out, at the stars themselves. It
combined spectra in the microwaves, infrared, optical, even mild
X-rays. A madhouse collage, until you got used to it. Each band had
sprinklings of color-coded information, lacy strands against a pervading
black. She now thought of that blackness as the Deep.
Living with it had made her see its beauty-stark, subtle, and old beyond
measure. A flickering cold glow
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discharges. The diamond glitter of distant starlight on time-stained ices; a
thin fog breath of supercooled helium, whirling in intricate, coded motion:
these were the wonders of the Deep, as she now knew them.
Shanna sighed, then smiled. "There have got to be a thousand doctoral theses
in understanding that-what did you call it?-skimpy biological substructure.
Ha! So true! Instigator just kludged together bits of essentials, rudimentary
chem, plus mechanics. Run it all with electrical currents-hey, that's what
makes the Beings tick over, too-and let'er rip. What an experiment! A whole
world to tinker with! And all to understand how the inner planets might work."
"What was its point?" Julia shook her head. "Alien goals..."
"To figure out what might be on Mars?"
"Um. We can't suppose that beings with lifetimes in the billion-year range
could even be bothered with the mayfly issues of humans. They think long
-and probably knew that Incursor got hung up there, sunk into the crust, way
back when Mars was young. Still..."
"What?"
"I wonder if they picked up radio and TV from Earth."
"Ummm. Could be. So we-more than a century ago-started all this?"
Julia shrugged. "Why haven't they said so, then?"
"Hey, they're aliens. Maybe they've been working on Pluto since the Roman
Empire. Or far longer.
Some things we may never figure out."
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Julia sat back and stretched. "I learned that lesson, in a different way, on
Mars."
Shanna reached across the table. "Look-let's bury the hatchets, okay? I envied
you, right. But now I'm over it."
"Done." They shook hands.
The two women gazed at each other, smiling, each liking the idea of not saying
anything. The moment stretched, then eased away. Shanna stood. "Y'know, we
were doing pretty well there ... until I realized that we don't have what it
takes to make this deal go."
"True." Julia, too, stood. "I'm just happy we aren't fighting anymore."
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"Me, too. If only we had some idea of what to tell the Beings-"
A knock on the door. Viktor edged it open. "Have had crazy idea."
12
THE TINY ONES
After all, Recorder said, the tiny ones have some intelligence. They can help
us.
I assume you mean for my grand prospect, Instigator sent.
Your experiments? To create more of the chemical life on cold orbs? Farther
in? Mirk asked.
No, no, Instigator insisted. To find our origins. They, the tiny ones, they
can lead us inward. Assuming they do not die. They seem to be extremely
mortal.
Recorder was skeptical. Find our origins? Discover what makes the Protos? This
is more ambitious than
I can fathom. How?
Instigator admitted, I do not know ... yet.
Recorder said, Historically some think that the central Hotness, circling the
Fount, is their origin.
Joy countered, Impossible! One cannot make Life from cold, hard non-Life. That
is surely a paradox.
I disagree. Fundamental logics show-
That would explain why it refuses to speak with us, Solemn interrupted his
inner ruminations to inject, tones rolling out. The Fount is a higher entity,
as are the others we dimly sense so far away. Only Founts can make Protos.
They deliver it to Beings, who form and shape Protos. This is the basis of
Life.
Perhaps in some way Founts make the tiny life we have encountered. That was
Instigator's purpose, recall: to discover how planets can make anything at
all. And she did achieve some insights. Her constructions are toys, granted.
But they are a beginning toward understanding the forms that now fly out to us [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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