Laszlo was now living at the research facility full time. Lately, the conditions were so bad and unpredictable that workers were lucky to get into work three times per week. Sometimes the dust storms hit when people were trying to go back home and people had to stay in the city overnight. Like refugees, people were camped out in the parks and lobbies of public buildings. Or, if they had planned ahead and had the money, they were staying at hotels.
Laszlo’s parents had made it to the city on this particular morning, leaving early to give themselves time to come visit Laszlo before going to work. He was happy to see them. Yet he didn’t miss home anymore. He had his best friend here at the research facility and had even made some new friends, including girls! The food was good and he could play outside whenever he wasn’t in classes or doing lab tests. Sometimes he felt bad for not missing home, but the guilt was short lived as he was soon off on some new adventure in the big city.
No one saw the old lady anymore. Lola. Rumor was that she was now just a ghost living in the machine, which was creepy because Laszlo had to talk to her every few days. She was like the sweet grandmother he never had, always making sure he was well cared for. “Laszlo, do you remember talking to me yesterday about the Martians and what they found on Mars down in the caves?”
“No, I don’t remember.”
A few minutes later, after discussing some other unrelated things about his classes and his friends, Lola once again came back to the same subject. “Laszlo, do you remember talking to me yesterday about the Martians and what they found on Mars down in the caves?”
“Oh yah. That was cool. You said the Martians were like so small and weak, but they were really smart. And people now think that we came from the Martians. Maybe everything that’s alive came from Mars. Is that true.”
“Maybe it is. That’s one idea. It has to be proven.”
Lola had had the conversation about Mars a day earlier with Laszlo’s online instance. Laszlo had not been recalibrated with his online instance since that time. Then during the course of his live conversation, the recalibration took place and then he recalled the meeting from a day earlier. It was a routine exercise the researchers did every week, with all subjects, to make sure that everything was accurately retained and shared. In the latest revision of software, there had never been a flaw detected so far.
The beauty of the online instance was for the young Laszlo, and any other students that were still learning and growing, the rate of educational development. The online instance was in school all the time and never grew tired. It resulted in an astounding rate of academic progress. Lola figured that the loss of biology wasn’t so bad after all, especially for an old woman who already had a lifetime of human sensory input, mostly on an earth that was still livable. And eventually we will have more sophisticated vision systems and robotics and all kinds of great sensory input. It was a massive parallel engineering effort to enhance all of these technologies to complement a human race that was to be otherwise confined to a universe of bits and bytes.
But Lola soon had a new premonition. There was no confusion this time about whether it was just her vivid imagination. Despite here online existence, she literally experienced chills running up and down her spine. That was a nice sensation in itself, but it was caused by a very unsettling realization. Before Mother Earth phases out humanity within her domain, an unwanted visitor will come and make the end of mankind sudden and final, and leave Mother Earth badly scarred in the process. Lola saw a gamma ray burst (GRB) on its way. Not only did she have a sense that it was coming but she saw its direction, its distance and its intensity and duration. From that information, she quickly calculated when it would occur and also which part of the earth’s surface would receive this unmerciful and unstoppable pounding of high energy light waves.
After Lola pondered the facts and had her predictions in order, she realized something else. She had information that was seven light years away and she received it in an instant. Sub space communication. Something to think about later. Right now, there were two emergencies. One was to get as many people online as possible in seven short years. Second was to keep the system safe from the GRB, else the very essence of humanity would be lost forever.
General Avery Balanson could only witness the mayhem through the control room monitors. “Rescue protocol, right now!” Balanson shouted in a loud but controlled tone. The monitors registered only gray shadows and glimmers of light, interrupted by sudden movement. The movement came from desperate miners trying to escape or save themselves by finding breathing equipment. Thick dust choked the air, rendering it unbreathable without intense filtration. The cave-in was so sudden. Many of the miners, who having lapsed into a fall sense of security, didn’t bother with filters or goggles. They were caught by surprise and now paying with their lives.
Balanson knew full well that most of those miners were doomed. At a depth of nearly two miles, with the elevator system totally out of commission, the reserve air would run out, filters would quickly clog and they would all die within the next few hours. This was the second major setback. The first cave-in caused a lot of anxiety and fear about if and when it might happen again. Now, the reserve crews and even the leadership felt a numbness. Avery himself appeared visibly on point to those under his charge. But internally, he was detached and had a feeling of hopelessness.
Rescue teams were in a different place. It was all Adrenalin and a mission to save lives, or at least try to the bitter end. And that drive paid off. A cool headed miner below, working in zero visibility, collaborated with engineers topside, and forty five minutes after the collapse, one of the elevators sprung to life. Luckily, the electrical break was exposed, not buried deep in the rubble. Suddenly, the teams above buzzed with excitement, as the first group started their ascent. Avery was wrong to assume the worst. But the loss of seventy, over half of the below team, still weighed on him.
Marcus was the chief engineer on duty and escaped without injury. He recounted to Balanson and a packed control room of scientists, staffers and other technical personnel, the situation below. “The temperature was stable and seismic pulse readings looked normal. But just seconds before the event, [cough], the seismic tripped an alarm. We hit a large void and the bottom fell out. Most of the losses were those that just disappeared with the floor.” Marcus had a severe coughing spasm and an attending medic put oxygen over his mouth quickly.
“He’ll be alright,” declared the medic.
“Marcus, do you have any idea what that void is? How big? The shape?” Inquired Balanson. Marcus just nodded in the negative while still pressed into the oxygen mask and breathing heavily. “Have we got the new crew ready to go take a look?” Pressed Balanson, glaring at his senior operations leader.
“They are leaving as soon as were done here. Just waiting for any useful details from these debriefs.” Suddenly, Balanson saw in incoming call on his corneal monitor, an enhancement that was required for all military officers. He accepted the call with a thought.
“Okay, Marcus. Get that team going, but only when it’s safe to do so. I need to take a call.” Balanson turned and walked to a remote corner of the control room. “Lola?”
“Avery, I heard the news. How terrible. I’m sorry.”
“We’re dealing with it. That aside, we are still on schedule.”
“You are a truly brave man and how you remain calm, … , I am so glad you are in charge of this project.”
“Thank you ma’am. I will be topside tomorrow to work on the provisioning, which I think is our biggest challenge at the moment. We have ramped up production a lot. But in the end, this will probably be the biggest challenge.”
“Yes. Food and supplies for five thousand people for god knows how long. At this point, I have a new estimate and that is why I called. I think we are looking at thirty years now, not twenty.” Avery’s heart sank. At age forty eight, he realized that he may be facing the rest of his life underground, without the possibility to ascend. He had volunteered to lead the below team, so called Project Oasis, and forgo ascendence and potentially immortality, for the sake of saving more lives than could be uploaded in time to Sahara station.
The government was constructing a massive, deep shelter under the plains of western Nebraska. The location was based on a large isolated, deep aquifer that was discovered at a depth of nearly two miles. It was determined to be independent of the nearby Ogallala aquifer, whose shallower depths would invariably be pumped with ozone following the incoming GRB, which was due in less than six years, according to Lola.
Although the GRB was not expected to hit North America directly, it was expected to wipe out most of the fauna and flora due to the devastating effects of heat, choking dust, acid rain and spikes in ozone affecting the air, water and all living things. So, North America was considered possibly the only viable location for such an endeavor. The idea was to have a contingency for humanity, in the event that Sahara also fell victim to the GRB in some unexpected way. Assuming everything went according to plan, the humans down on earth would have a choice. They could later ascend or they could continue on earth, living a primitive existence. A new beginning.
In parallel with the deep shelter, a shallow subterranean network of small shelters was under construction. These would be sealed off for up to twenty or thirty years and would be later inhabited as a first step toward re-emerging on the surface. There was to be extensive instrumentation to monitor the air and water, temperatures, and weather. There were also cameras and drones. Air systems were located in the main shallow shelter, called Main, while water was handled by the large, deep shelter called Oasis, as it was situated close to the deep aquifer.
The general public was completely unaware of the situation. Knowledge that only five out of every one hundred Americans had a path to survival would completely unhinge society. The rest of the world would be significantly worse off. In some ways, getting hit by the GRB in the eastern hemisphere was preferable to a slow, painful death in the west. But in either case, the conclusion was swift and certain.
Lola was now among a dozen or so elderly or sick subjects that had now followed her lead into the future of humanity. Lola felt better about having such community, as there were needs that only the disembodied would understand fully and want to address. The most important was the need for sensory input beyond the audible and the visible. Life felt a little flat and lacked richness without the aromas, the flavors, a cool breeze tingling on the skin or the rumble of a thunderstorm. Half of her new neighbors were from Mars, so weakened by the shock of earth’s gravity that they became critically ill. One woman even slipped into a coma, but was able to transition without any apparent complications.
The flow of newcomers would start to accelerate rapidly, as the limitation in bandwidth required that people begin transitioning even now, six years in advance, else run the risk of being left behind.
Lola’s death and the fact that she lived on in the computer, was viewed as something of a sideshow by the masses. Conservative and religious leaders in particular decried the entire affair as blasphemous. After the news carried the story for a short while, the attention faded and everyone plodded along as if nothing had changed. But many in the scientific community, as well as the well informed, could start to see the picture coming into view. Consequently, parents tried desperately to get their children into special programs. Initially, the motivation was to get their child a leg up in technology, to secure their professional prospects. That was now shifting. Many parents now feared for their very lives and the lives of their children.
Laszlo’s parents felt strange, sitting in a small room, with their son, waiting to converse with a dead women, now residing in the computer. But they were scared and stared at one another, anxiously. “Heather and Attila, am I right?” Laszlo’s parents nearly jumped out of their seats. Laszlo smiled but held his laughter.
“Yes. Lola, we are here. Thank you for this invitation,” stuttered Attila.
“You’re welcome. I won’t beat around the bush. We are all very busy. I would like the two of you to join Laszlo online as it were. So you will be a family both in the physical and the non biological world. Then, once a week you come here for something called recalibration.”
“Yes, we are familiar with the way it works. I mean not really how it works, but Laszlo told us roughly what he does here,” explained Attila.
Heather then jumped in. “He said it helps him learn much faster. It’s incredible how much he knows. Naturally, as parents we want the beat for him.”
“It goes beyond learning. As a biological species, humanity is scheduled for extinction.” It was cold, hard, machine like to put it that way, and it gave both of Laszlo’s his parents the creeps. “If you knew that on a particular day, life on earth would come to an end, would you elect to live on as a consciousness being in the machine? Or would just prefer to die?”
“Is this some kind of test? Why are you asking such a question? And you say we are going extinct? How do you know?” Demanded Heather.
“If you look at the world and consider the rate of degradation, you must realize where things are headed.” Lola was careful not to imply that she knew specifically the time, as most people, scientists in particular, would call her out on the GRB prediction. According to known physics, information could not travel faster than the speed of light. Therefore, existence of a GRB could not be known until it hit the earth, completely unexpected.
“Well, we agree with that. But I don’t think it will end that quickly. I suspect war over shortages and masses of refugee migrations will be the real threat to life and freedom. But extinction? I doubt that,” expressed Attila.
“I submit that this is the conventional wisdom of today. But you should consider another way of thinking. Expect the unexpected. If you want to be completely secure, I can offer you that. Think of it as insurance. And while feeling more secure about the future, come what may, you will also expand your intellect. Expand your mind.”
“When you put it that way, it sounds great,” stated Heather. “If I can offer you some advice, you should just stick to the insurance pitch and the increasing intellect. Drop the part about extinction.” Lola was not accustomed to being lectured, as she stayed within a close community where she was revered for her knowledge and insights. In that moment she realized that she too had some things to learn. She suddenly took a real liking to Heather.
“Heather. Thank you for that. You are absolutely right. I need to work on my approach. So if we can forget about the extinction part, do you like the idea?”
Heather thought about giving the typical response, Can we think about it and get back to you? But when she looked at Attila and then Laszlo, they both nodded their heads and pleaded with their eyes, so she leapt. “We would love to join your program,” Heather declared.
“Yes!” Laszlo’s fist shot into the air, triumphant. Now tireless and ageless, Lola forged ahead with a recruitment effort like no other. She started with her research subjects and their immediate families. Once these new recruits were in and committed, she circled back and asked them to recommend others that would be open minded.
Lola was surprised to know that she could still feel anxiety. There was no longer a stomach to tighten, or a chemical to bathe and disrupt the organs and the mind, but nevertheless, there was something. She was thankful to still feel somewhat human. Her anxiety was for the fact that ascension was limited to the sick and dying. But every unused available resource for an ascension was ultimately a lost human soul. But how could she tell people and have them believe? Who would be willing to die before their time based on an assertion she had no way to prove?
The answer came to her. There were major enhancements needed. It could not be that someone needed to die biologically before the online replicate could become whole. That way, people can and will die, yet they will carry on in full. Lola gathered her growing numbers of disembodied colleagues and they set about to make this new capability a reality. It was the difference between saving tens of thousands and tens of millions, maybe billions.
Comments