The MERV started to decelerate as it approached the LEO 7 station, where the travelers would receive initial checkups and processing before making their final drop to earth. By the time Bill Jantzen finally responded to Command and their emphatic instructions not to launch, the MERVs were already accelerating for earth, now an unfamiliar and unwelcoming home. The chastising was quickly curtailed. What was done, was done, and there was sensitivity to the martian plight. That would be the first and last voyage home from Mars. There was no point in creating further contention.
“Why do you make this crusade with these misfits from Mars?” General Bud Haley pointed his question sharply at Lola. Despite her age and stature, Haley was not one to mince words, or waste any on pleasantries or diplomacy, even when addressing Lola. “Why, their situation is no worse than a lot of folks right here at home and you know it. So what’s the angle here?”
The General was responsible for the security and movement of all people and resources traveling to and from earth to orbit. Lola was disinterested in these types of concerns or questions, and did not pretend to feel otherwise. “My goal is to save everyone, General. Even you.” The power dynamic was now reversed and the General was suddenly struggling for words to counter Lola in this imaginary debate. In his position, he knew as much as anyone on the inside. Lola’s words, while seemingly timid and deferential to most, were taken differently by General Haley. He knew what she meant and it was neither timid nor deferential. “The Martians are of particular interest to me, not because I feel extra compassion for them, but because they represent a small society, completely segregated and self reliant. This has implications for the research we are doing. Anything further, general?”
“No Ma’am.”
“I need them to be released to the care of the research center as soon as you have cleared them.”
“May I ask why these subjects are so important?”
“Bud, we have known each other a long time. The explanation is quite involved. Can you just trust me on this?”
“Lola, I do trust you. I am just asking. I have an interest to understand it. I was a science guy too ya know, a long time ago.”
Lola gave Haley a look, eyelids heavy, as if to say, “really? I don’t have time for this.” But after a long steady exhale, she started. “The Martians help us understand how to operate under the effects of time dilation. There are two main causes of time dilation. One is caused by very high gravity. The other is caused by very high velocity.” Lola could see from Haley’s attentiveness and laser focus, that he was serious in his desire to know more. She continued. We are interested in both, but we don’t have ready access to high gravity or high velocity. But the Martians, given their distance from us, allows us to use the time delay as a way to simulate how the programming needs to work.”
“What programming?”
“Well. When the Earth is no longer habitable, humanity will need to be preserved in a non biological form. Surely, you are aware of this pending crisis.”
“Between you and me, I believe that. But the official storyline they tell us to follow, is that the cycle is about change - swing back to normal - back to the good ol’ days.”
“Yes. Well? That’s a fantasy. It’s just a distraction perpetrated by necessary players. I might normally despise the politicians. But out of their ignorance and self interest comes a kind of drumbeat for most of humanity. It keeps the order. If the masses knew that they were doomed no matter what, there would not be a lot of listening to me or anyone else.”
“But what about the Martians? What is the programming difficulty?”
“Even now, we have the capability of operating in two instances, one is in our brain, the other is in a computer. They are operating in parallel and they can interact and more important, they constantly recalibrate in order to be the same. Otherwise, we have merely created new entities, not multiple instances of the same entity. Currently, the brain is the limitation. It can’t recalibrate as quickly as the machine. But once the brain is out of the picture, there are new possibilities.”
“Such as?”
“Well the most obvious is that we can have many instances and they can be doing different things simultaneously. There is the issue of communication for recalibrating. It’s not enough to only consider distance as an obstacle to communication. If we are non biological, we will spread to places having gravity between zero and perhaps thousands of G’s. We might be traveling at relative speeds approaching C. Time dilation becomes a huge obstacle. It can make propagation beyond even a few instances very unstable.”
“I find it fascinating, but I still don’t look forward to dealing with these poor Martian souls. They’re going to be miserable for months just adjusting to gravity. That’s if they even survive. I think they’ll all catch the flu and drop dead within a few weeks. I hate to say it.”
“Make sure the isolation protocols are strictly followed. If they are, then I don’t share your concerns. Once in the lab, I will look after them carefully. Thanks Bud.”
“You’re welcome, ma’am.”
On LEO Seven, it’s otherwise stark white appearance and clean architecture were now disrupted by brightly flashing navigation beacons highlighting two of its three docking ports. A smaller port hole opened nearby the larger docking port, and two men in EVA suits stepped out and gently floated. Then they removed their tethers and clipped them to hooks near the door. Now they were free floating but they moved purposefully, aided by capable propulsions systems in each suit and their rigorous training and experience.
As with most of the LEOs, Seven had simulated gravity by centripetal force. The station was a giant wheel, with spokes, and it rotated about a central cylindrical structure, most of which remained fixed. The fixed portion facilitated shipping and receiving operations, while the wheel facilitated habitation in and earth like environment. There were also habitation areas along the spokes which simulated partial gravity and served to help acclimatize space travelers to one G, before going back to earth’s surface. This was a lengthy, but important step for the Martians, to minimize the shock.
After a lifetime on Mars, at less than a third of earth’s gravity and then over seven months of transit time at virtually zero gravity, it would be many months before the Martians would even be able to function on a basic level without pain and distress. The month on LEO 7 was just to brace these travelers mentally, to avoid complete mental shock and excessive loss of life as a result. There was no time to extend their transition beyond a month for another reason. Lola’s life clock was also ticking down and there was much work to be done. Sorrow for their suffering was a secondary concern. Lola was going to save their lives.
Against LEO 7, The MERVs were black by contrast and approached in a staggered formation, now controlled entirely by LEO 7 personnel. On board the MERVs, although many were sick, weakened further by months transiting at zero gravity, all were now up and attentive, anticipating the arrival, only several having vague childhood memories of earth at this point.
As the vessels slowly and precisely docked, the Martians moved about, readying themselves to exit into a new world. None of them envisioned the pain and suffering that awaited them, nor did they fear the risks of infection or countless other bits of unpleasant information repeated several times before and during the long journey. They only had room in their pathetic souls for optimistic thoughts.
The Martians filed into the large cargo chamber and spread out, looking weary yet curious. The receiving staff wore special quarantine suits, designed for those suspected of carrying harmful diseases. This time, any microorganism was considered potentially harmful. The cargo area had been disinfected and outfitted with beds, lavatories and bathing facilities, as well as an independent food preparation area and a medical testing area.
One of the receiving staff identified himself as a Dr. something or other. No one had the energy or attention span to recall. He started to speak through his light gray suit with its bubble surrounding his shaved head. “Folks, make yourselves comfortable. This will be your home for a week or two.” There were immediate sounds of protest, many sighs and one woman burst into tears. “We need to take blood, analyze it and start inoculations. Once we have done that, a group of you will go in for a few days. We will test those individuals and pending the results, you can all go in. I’ll need eight volunteers, four men and four women who are willing take the risk of going in first.” Every hand in the room shot up immediately.
Bill Jantzen carried on a dialogue with Lola as he attended to his other daily routines. Lola did the same. It was the reality of light speed communication at a distance. What a slow and brutish obstacle, light speed, thought Lola as she scrolled through reports on her large desk screen. It occurred to her that this would not be an obstacle forever. She stopped, suddenly shocked, almost paralyzed. She realized that it wasn’t the first time she had made this proclamation to herself, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Well everyone knows that, don’t they? The fact was that no one knew anything about that. It was a notion right out of old science fiction. Star Trek? Or maybe it was Star Wars. She made a mental note to find all sci-fi references to sub space communication.
Lola recounted the times during her long life when thoughts had just popped into her head and they turned out to be revelations. It had occurred several times. It was part of what made her special, unique. The most recent had to do with the very architecture for preservation of human consciousness. The very first time was when, as a young girl, she had a premonition that she would live forever. Shortly after that, she had known that a murder had been committed. In fact she saw that act taking place, without actually being there. It hadn’t happened in a while and on this particular topic of faster-than-light-speed communication, she thought it was just her imagination, dreaming up new ideas. But now she knew. This was different. It was as if she was receiving instructions. She knew the feeling. I will have to tackle that one in the afterlife, she thought to herself, knowing that her time was near and that this was a large technological endeavor.
“If the theory is right, shouldn’t there be Martian fossil remains on earth?” Jantzen inquired.
“True, but they would predate the entire fossil record. And what if the composition of their bones was so weak that they would just dissolve before a fossil could form? There could be a lot of reasons. But there is a dig going on. The idea is to build some very deep shelters, capable of long term habitation. In case the earth becomes untenable. The purpose of these shelters is not to escape the earth’s environmental problems, but to escape humanity itself. Otherwise the dying human population will stop at nothing for its own survival, so the shelters must be protected from those last desperate souls at the surface. But I digress. My point is that in the course of digging deeper than man has ever done before, they are also looking for something to substantiate the Mars theory.”
“Wow. That is interesting to know Lola. Thank you. Now, about the trials. The earth arrivals will be united with their non biological selves after having been apart in time to see what level of calibration occurs and how the system deals with calibration errors. This is my understanding. What do you expect to learn?”
“I will be able to understand how the two instances stitch themselves together, for lack of a better term. You see the algorithms themselves decide at this point. We can only asses whether the outcome has any negative, unexpected consequences. We can no longer dictate any particular outcome. This is the decision and actions of each individual. Or I should say, it is the joint decision and actions of the biological and non biological sides of the individual. We hope that there are no mental disorders or major changes in personality, that kind of thing. It’s a little scary but we are very excited. If it works out, then we have a way forward for all of you. And that is my goal - to upload all of you and never have the need to bring you home. Which of course is now virtually impossible.
“That’s certainly my goal as well. Most people here wouldn’t understand, so it will only be in the final hour, for each individual, when they have nothing to lose, that they can make their decision. I think it will be an easy one.”
“Bill, I would encourage you to try and make everyone understand. Throughout history, belief in the afterlife has been a powerful tool to keep people calm and productive. If you have devout Christians, they may take issue with it, but at least they will understand their options. I am most likely to be among the first to truly transcend. At the rate I am declining, I think I may in fact be the very first one. Even I am scared. But at the same time, I am so excited. You will never know that anything happened to me. I will still be here, same as ever. Better, I hope. If it works, then so many can be saved. It will be wonderful.”
“God bless you, Lola. I know you don’t believe in god, but I believe that some things can’t be explained by science alone. Like your visions and the things that you experienced in your life. There is something more. Something we don’t yet understand. Whatever it is, it found you. And then you found me. I don’t know what to say.” Bill welled up with tears, sniffled and regathered himself. “I will see you on the other side. I wait for your good report on the experiments. Jantzen out.”
Lola also had to control her tears. The stress of these deep feelings caused her breathing to increase, which triggered a tightening in her chest as her ineffective lungs struggled to convey oxygen to the passing blood cells. Suddenly she felt like she was drowning and she quickly squeezed a button that was always attached to her wrist. Within a minute, two nurses came blazing trough the doors to her room, ready and equipped to deal with any emergency. Within minutes they had Lola resting comfortably in bed. It was a close call, like so many others. To transcend properly, Lola needed to be connected to the system at the moment of death. That was important. It was dangerous to risk another episode like this. Yes. It was time.
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