Molly had many key competencies that made her suited for the mission. The examination of a specimen required the delicate touch of a human. Even at close range the team could not have relied on telerobotics to accomplish her task. The only option had been to establish a lab at a location where they could retrieve the particles.
“Outer doors are confirmed locked. Moving away from the ship.”
“Roger.”
Molly triggered her jet blaster, propelling herself the 300 meters toward her laboratory, the Ring Material Research Facility. She would be the only one there. Her automated sampler had docked earlier after collecting nanomachine specimens from the orbiting debris. Her sampler was completely shut down and its engine cooled, but the exterior was still emitting enough thermal radiation to appear white hot.
The sampler had passed through the specially designed airlock and automatically loaded itself into position inside the RMRF. The six-hour wait was a precaution against the sort of contamination that had led to the last mission’s fatality. One of the most fascinating properties of the ring material was how it stored enough energy to consume most substances with which it came into contact.
The sampler collected material from the stream that was still being ejected from the production facilities on Mercury’s surface. Just before arriving at the RMRF, the sampler shed the direct contact protective shell that had physically interacted with ring material. Even if the sampler functioned perfectly, there was still the chance that the RMRF could be contaminated from the inside. They had already lost one sampler vehicle due to exposure during testing several months before. Thus the long and anxious wait.
Molly entered the RMRF airlock, fighting against her own inertia to close the outer door. Looking out, the main ship—with six cocoons around the bow, a 120 meter–wide solar radiation shield, eighteen egg-shaped fuel tanks, and two NERVA III engines all mounted onto the truss of the keel—reminded her of a Japanese dragon or a Vritra serpent. She was the UNSS
Chadwick
, the third ship built by the UNSDF.
The automated production facilities on Mercury were still protected by the grasers and were in full operation, continuously launching ring material into space. The Ring would eventually rebuild itself. It would have to be destroyed again at regular intervals. Preparations for the Builders’ flyby were also underway. The United Nations Security Council had recently adopted a resolution to expand its fleet of nuclear-powered spacecraft.
The first ship, the UNSS
Phalanx
, and the second ship, the UNSS
Rutherford
, were being readied at a low-orbit space station, along with a fourth ship for the following year’s Ring destruction mission. Modules for the fifth and sixth ships were under construction at various facilities across the globe. Increased fleet size lowered certain production costs but the budget for each vehicle was still over a hundred billion dollars. Because poverty and inflation were universal and the population had thinned due to environmental devastation and resultant starvation, the world’s governments remained focused on the threat of the Builders. Internally, negotiation and grudging cooperation had supplanted warfare. Most solvent countries diverted the majority of their defense and security budgets into a universal fund to ensure the completion of the UNSDF ships.
Emerging from the hard shell of her space suit, Molly floated into the cylindrical lab module. She carefully moved the sample of ring material onto an isolation stage. Separating the material into twenty smaller segments, she sealed one portion in a container that she placed under the scope. The sample was insulated from the container walls by a vacuum and held in place by an electrostatic field. Scanning the sample, relishing the opportunity to do this inspection with her own eyes, she opened a vidlink to the
Chadwick
.
“
Chadwick
, this is Rum-Ruff,” Molly said, using the diminutive name for the lab that only she liked. “Can you see? I don’t want you to miss out on delving into this uncharted microcosm.” Molly knew that her words sounded grandiose. It was a momentous occasion for her.
“Crystal,” responded Anastacia from her cocoon, sounding as clear as she would if she were standing next to Molly.
To minimize the risk, Molly was examining the ring material sample while the three scientists aboard the ship followed along remotely. Anastacia was her partner for this procedure. Via the vidlink, they both examined what looked like a sea of countless shards of coral under the microscope. Every individual particle was a self-replicating robot only a few molecules wide. Essentially, the particles were cells combined with microscopic spaceships: a number of elements shaped for a specific function using superstrong molecular bonds. Four distinct types of nanobots had been encountered: the daddy longlegs, the couch potato, the tanker, and the tripod. Daddy longlegs were a large cell with four wiry appendages. Daddy longlegs interlocked to form a lattice on which the other cells could balance.
Couch potatoes were plump and only moved in cooperation with other nanobots. The cells were made up of a number of elements, and each seemed to have its own function, which remained identical for cells of the same type. Elements with varying valence electrons were combined to form novel compounds. Their function had not been identified, but the prevailing theory was that the potatoes facilitated bonding.
Tankers were relatively large cooling chambers that contained densely packed protons. It was unclear where the tankers’ protons came from, though it was hypothesized that the Ring’s shape was due to its highly efficient production of protons.
The function of tripods was also undetermined. Tripods were rare, with only a few being found in the quarter million particles that had been studied. The three-legged cells had a center hub that appeared to be a joint with nothing attached. The assumption was that an undiscovered fifth particle fit the other side of the tripod’s joint.
Molly and Anastacia were on a quest to find that undiscovered nanobot.
THE WHITE WALL
of the United Nations General Assembly building stood behind the curved row of flags, unchanged since it had been built in the previous century. National flags of every color blew in the May breeze. Aki flashed her UNSDF badge and underwent the usual security pat-down before entering the lobby. Even though she was in New York, the United Nations was international territory where the laws of the United States had no jurisdiction. The lobby was lined with artwork from around the world in a poignant exhibit that depicted the violent bloodshed from wars of the twentieth century.
She entered the assembly hall of the United Nations Security Council. Looking up at the mural by Fernand Leger, the abstract work’s symbolism of future peace and personal freedom gave Aki a moment of pause. She felt it stare at her, just as it had stared at the hundreds of people who had guided global events during the last seventy years. She arrived at the round table. A plate in front of her bore her name and her title of UNSDF Science Subcommittee, Special Advisor.
Aki’s reputation wielded far more power than her title of Special Advisor would normally grant. Despite how rarely she tried to use her fame’s power, the world listened when Aki Shiraishi spoke. Giving a speech on the Worldunity Network led to half the planet watching and many simply adopting her opinions. Aki respected the faith that people placed in her, and she had never used her reputation for personal concerns, until now.
The chairman nodded. Aki began beaming the slides of her presentation. The title “The Ring: An Alternative Design” appeared on the monitors in front of the world leaders and on the gigantic screen behind her. The second slide showed the solar system circumscribing the Ring, as it had done for many years. The third slide showed the same Ring perpendicular to the orbit of the planet.
“I propose that we allow the Ring to rebuild with this orientation. It will allow sunlight to reach Earth and allow the Builders to come to rest in local space. Compelling the Ring to reproduce itself in this configuration will be a major undertaking. Fortunately, our role in this project would actually be relatively small. If this plan succeeds, we would be freed from the burden of having to dismantle the Ring as it rebuilds itself. It is a simple concept. The Ring has followed Mercury’s orbit. Since this plane is only a few degrees different from our planet’s orbit, the Ring has blocked a fraction of solar radiation large enough to create the well-known ecological and economic crises of the past fifteen years. A perpendicular Ring, conversely, would still allow the Builders access to their deceleration lasers, while also serving to reduce total solar blockage to less than 5 percent of the total that is currently caused by the Ring in its initial orientation, a dramatic improvement.”
A Pentagon representative asked, “Is it possible to change the configuration? We can’t get close to the surface without the grasers disintegrating as much as they can hit. How do we alter the trajectory of eighty thousand tons of ring material per second so that the Ring it builds will stand on its side? Will the nanobots continue to rebuild the Ring according to their programming?”
“Those nanobots communicate with each other. I am sure the nanites are equipped with a function that allows reprogramming and the replication of information throughout the system,” Aki said. “Introducing this instruction as new programming, like a genetic mutation, is extremely likely to alter the behavior of the production facilities on Mercury.”
“With all due respect, Special Advisor Shiraishi, the Ring killed almost two billion people,” said another member of Science Subcommittee, one who Aki knew had not stepped foot in a lab since before the Ring had even formed. “Even if their technology can be repurposed for this reconfiguration, why would we reward the deaths of two billion with a new Ring, especially one that will still block enough sunlight to kill...how many people? Another ten million?”
“I believe those unfortunate deaths were unintentional. The Builders failed to perceive intelligent life in the solar system. People in this very room would have sworn we were the only intelligent life in the universe before the appearance of construction on Mercury. It is an honest mistake. Now that we know that we were wrong, we need to face the facts in a new light. Sentencing the Builders to death without communicating our intentions would be inhuman.” Aki set her shoulders and looked out at the representatives of the world. Many were looking down at their monitors.
“Protecting ourselves is our number one priority! Let them sail into oblivion!” shouted an angry voice. Several cheers followed.
“Destroying the Ring must have appeared to be an act of aggression. For all we know, the Builders will retaliate during their flyby. We must explain that our intentions were not hostile but rather a simple matter of self-preservation. Our safest recourse is to show that we mean no harm whatsoever. We need a message that transcends language to avoid misunderstanding. Rebuilding the Ring would communicate our amicable intentions more clearly than any other action we can perform.”
Various shouts arose from the crowd. Multiple languages were quickly translated into tilted and passionless remarks through Aki’s headphones. “We’ve done enough!” “We’ve allocated ample budget to your research of the ring material and granted access to the
Phalanx
,” and finally, though she could not see who said it amidst all the grumbling, “I think the ETICC’s messaging efforts are more than sufficient.”
“I disagree. We have not done enough to contact the Builders, to communicate with them.” Aki’s frustration was mounting.
The meeting’s chair sounded an electronic gavel that also served to temporarily cut off translation. The floor was his. “Ms. Shiraishi, regardless of whether this unusual request can be funded or not, the flyby, and first contact, may be as little as six years away. How do we know that the Builders were not planning on colonizing Earth or purposefully trying to extinguish life on this planet for their own ends? They have fifteen billion tons of mass traveling at 6 percent of the speed of light. A slight course correction by one of their ships could result in a direct impact that would easily extinguish all life on Earth.”
Aki exhaled and tried to look less upset than she was. She knew better than to point out the contradictions in the chair’s statement. Finally, she said, “Fixing the brakes would make a collision less likely. Think of the Builder fleet as a car. Even if the driver is ill-intended, wouldn’t you prefer that driver to have control over the vehicle?”
“The first Ring took sixteen years to build. How could it possibly be rebuilt in six?” the chair asked.
“The production facilities are still in operation, which suggests that the Builders have some margin for error built into the schedule. It would be unfathomable for a species to master interstellar travel but have no buffer in their design specs.”
“You wrote several papers describing how the technology of the Builders lacked fail-safes because of an apparent inability to comprehend the possibility of either miscalculations or specific interventions by another technologically advanced species, did you not?” the man asked as he rose from his seat.
Aki decided not to say a word. Any explanation would sound like she was either contradicting herself or backpedaling—chum in the water for politicians and career bureaucrats.
“Many of our people are starving. Funding this project makes little fiscal sense. Our resources must go where they can do the most good for humanity, not to benefit a potentially belligerent alien species,” said the chair, turning to face the other members of the council.