Best Intentions
Epilogue

Fifty years after first contact:

He walked onto the bridge as he had hundreds of times before. Mark found it hard to believe that so much time had passed since he had been brought aboard and his life had changed forever. He was now ninety-five years old, but thanks to CJ’s medical treatments, Mark was physically healthier and looked as good as he did at forty-five when they first met.

“CJ, we’ve been at this for quite a long time, haven’t we?” he said as he moved to the chair from which he had orchestrated the changes to his world.

“Affirmative, Mark. It will be precisely fifty years in two months and three days. There has been considerable progress in that time and the world is a different place today than it was when I arrived in this star system.”

“Yes, CJ. It’s a great feeling to have made such a difference to the future of mankind. I did have my doubts that my vision of the future would ever come to pass and you are much more responsible for the results than I am.”

“The vision was yours, Mark. The Se’Tharian technology on this vessel would have been wasted otherwise. I am glad you find the results gratifying.”

They had had this particular conversation before. “I find them extremely gratifying, CJ, but you have been giving me all the credit while taking none for yourself.”

Mark looked at the image of the Earth projected on the command center’s main viewscreen. He found it amazing that in spite of all the major cleanup operations they had wrought over the decades, he couldn’t even see a difference. All that cleaning of the land, the ocean and the air, you would think the planet would look different. His mind could be playing tricks, but to his eyes it looked the same as it did that first time he saw it from up here, all those decades ago.

“What are you thinking about, Mark?” CJ inquired.

“Sorry CJ, my mind was wandering. I was thinking, even with all the work you’ve done, you just can’t see anything from up here.”

“Affirmative, but standing on the surface, you could not help but see the changes, and there are some things that are visible.”

The view switched to Antarctica and the huge megastructures that had been placed there. The gleaming cities were big enough to be visible from orbit without any magnification.

Looking down upon them Mark said, “Thanks, CJ. Though I’m not thrilled at some of the things I’ve had to do, I am proud of the results. There were tough choices to be made for the future of the human race and I feel that with the progress we have made, humans will someday be as advanced and peaceful as the Se’Tharians.”

“They have made great strides in that direction already, Mark. Human scientists, your son Robert chief among them, have made significant progress in all of the scientific fields.”

“I am proud of my son’s accomplishments and pleased to see the human race advancing in peaceful ways. Much of our previous technological advancement has come in reaction to wars. It’s gratifying to see we have the potential to learn and advance without the waste of fighting and killing each other.”

“Affirmative, the Earth is now relatively peaceful and there is much more dialogue between the various governments now as well.”

“Looking to the future has helped that. Space exploration is one area in which there was cooperation between governments even back before your arrival, and that has only improved. The International Space Station MK II is a monument to the human drive for knowledge. Even though we have your survey information, human exploration of the solar system is progressing. Soon we may even be able to mine the asteroids ourselves just as you do.”

“The International Space Agency presents very ambitious plans for space exploration.”

“Just like the old NASA did back at the end of the twentieth century. They just don’t have the monetary concerns that held us back in the past.”

“My scanners tell me that the first of the transport ships being constructed in high earth orbit should be ready within the year to begin moving colonists to Mars.”

“Mars, now that is one of your achievements I doubt we will be able to match anytime soon. You turned a cold barren wasteland into a near duplicate of Earth, and you accomplished it faster than even you had predicted.”

“Affirmative, Mark. There were some fortuitous events that facilitated the early completion, but some humans have been living there since the atmosphere became marginally breathable. Can you explain why they would choose this?”

“Those scientists wanted a first hand look at the process of changing the face of the planet. They didn’t care about comfort. That’s something I thought you understood about us humans by now. We’re a stubborn race and having everything done for us by you just doesn’t sit right with many. A mountain climber was once asked why he risks his life just to get to the top of a mountain. His answer was simply, “because it’s there.” You see CJ, there isn’t always a reason why we humans do the things we do, we just do them. Some that are strange to you, such as wanting to live on another planet where things aren’t so comfortable gives some people a great sense of accomplishment. As a people, we sometimes need that. It would be too easy to just let you do everything for us. We have to stand on our own two feet.”

“I believe that I comprehend why humans do some of the things they do, Mark. At least as much as it is possible to understand such illogical behavior.”

“Don’t start thinking that we don’t still need you. You’re building the cities on Mars, just like you have here. The megastructures you built have given us the breathing room we needed population-wise. I wouldn’t trust maintenance of the gravitational inducers to us humans just yet either.”

“Affirmative, Mark. I do comprehend the need to feel useful.”

“That’s right, CJ. Most humans can’t just sit around or they go stir crazy. We also have a natural instinct to learn about the world around us. Having you tell us what is out there in the universe just isn’t the same. Many of the older scientists and engineers are the same kids we took into space all those years ago. Even some of their children are involved in one aspect of space industries or another.”

“Yes, Mark. The education programs that you instituted have had the desired effect and inspired many humans.”

“Thanks CJ, please give me a view of Mars. I want to take a look at it again.”

The viewscreen switched from the view of the Earth turning below to a quite similar view of the new Mars being broadcast from one of CJ’s monitoring stations. The red planet no longer; Earth-like greens and browns were now the primary colors. White clouds floated in the formerly bleak alien sky and small seas dotted the landscape. It was a breathtaking sight.

Mark stood and walked closer to the viewscreen. Shaking his head he almost couldn’t believe what they had accomplished. It was like a dream. As he stared, he could only hoped things wouldn’t shortly degenerate into a nightmare.

“What is the atmosphere like now, CJ?”

“The engineering of Mars’s atmosphere has reached a point where it is similar to Earth’s.”

“That is fantastic work, CJ. It has become a beautiful world. How is the temperature?”

“The solar concentrators give Mars nearly the same concentration of sunlight that the Earth enjoys. Mars’s average surface temperature has basically achieved parity with Earth.”

“Amazing, I can’t wait to visit, once some of the facilities have been completed of course. I’m not one of the people who enjoy roughing it anymore!”

“The results of the planetary engineering have been most satisfactory.”

“They have indeed, CJ.” Mark sat back and enjoyed the sight of mankind’s second home.

“Well,” he thought, “there’s no putting this off any longer. Sarah and Michael should be with Robert by now. They should be safe in his shielded lab regardless of the outcome. Here goes, I hope that the concerns are unfounded and that everyone is wrong.”

Mark sighed and returned to his seat. “CJ, there’s something that we need to speak about.”

“Certainly, Mark. What is the subject?”

“Way back when we first met, you told me that you had no way to contact your builders and in fact weren’t even sure where their home world was.”

“Affirmative, Mark. I have never been able to reconstruct the astronomical data erased during the accident.”

“When I was last on-planet, I spoke with Robert and some of his colleagues. They have been conducting experiments for a decade trying to access the Hyper-Continuum.”

CJ interrupted him, something the computer rarely did in all the years they had been working together.

“Mark, experiments dealing with the Hyper-Continuum are extremely dangerous and should not be conducted on a planetary surface. The consequences should an accident occur could be catastrophic. Robert is intelligent enough to know better.”

“Robert understands that, CJ. Even better than any of his colleagues I would bet. After all, you tutored him. He told me that they have only been trying to probe beyond the dimensional barrier, not attempting to open a rift. Anyway, they were successful and detected the background noise of the quantum energy associated with the Hyper-Continuum.” The conversation was now entering dangerous territory. Mark would need to be careful. “They also detected a signal that is clearly artificial in nature.”

“The Hyper-Continuum is unstable. Such an extreme concentration of energy can induce electromagnetic frequencies in the probing equipment. The systems being utilized may need additional calibration. I would be glad to offer my assistance to Robert in adjusting the equipment. The probability that what they detect is extraterrestrial in origin is minimal. If I was given access to their data I would be able to determine if it is truly a foreign signal.”

“Well CJ, the signal is repeating pulsations in a series which appears to have intelligence behind it. They are in a wavelength that is associated with Tachyons. The communication system you use produces Tachyon carrier waves, doesn’t it?”

“That is correct, Mark. My communications system is Tachyon based. However, I lost the capability to transmit signals through the Hyper-Continuum during the accident that brought me here. I do not know how it could be possible for Robert to detect my transmissions.”

“That’s what I said. However they are insistent in their belief that it is artificial in nature and gives them the impression of some kind of beacon. You mentioned to me once that communications through the Hyper-Continuum depends upon beacons at the jump points, but you said your beacons were lost in your accident. Isn’t that correct?”

“That is correct, the supply of beacons was destroyed with the engineering module. During the vessels uncontrolled transit through the Hyper-Continuum beacons may have been ejected by automatic systems. A signal echo may be reflecting through the Hyper-Continuum from them.”

Mark paused for a moment before continuing. “CJ, you have never lied to me in all the time we have been working together. The scientists have been triangulating this signal using receivers on Earth and in satellites. Over the past several years they have determined that it could only come from your technology. Triangulation puts the point of origin in the general area where you emerged, right outside the Solar System.”

CJ’s silence was a disturbing sign. There had been a chance Robert and his team had been mistaken, but that hope faded in Mark’s mind. He had given CJ a chance to explain, or at least provide some logical explanation. The odds were looking good that the computer had information he did not want to share, and that was bad.

“You told me that you had no way to contact your builders, CJ. Please, you’ve been my friend for half a century; just tell me the truth. What is going on here?”

The computer remained silent so Mark continued. He hoped to elicit a response by telling CJ what they already knew. “The reason that they contacted me is that they have detected another separate signal. This one was picked up only six months ago and comes from somewhere else, somewhere far outside the solar system. The frequency of both signal pulses is decreasing day by day. I have to ask you again, what is going on here?”

“I am sorry, Mark. Human technology should not have had been able to detect the transmission of the Hyper-Continuum beacons. A Se’Tharian colonization fleet is en route to this star system.”

“Why, CJ? Why would they send colonists to a planet that is already inhabited?”

“They are coming to claim this star system,” CJ said like a pronouncement of doom. “Nothing humans can do will prevent this occurrence.”

“You told me that the Se’Tharians are a peaceful race and that they have never even had a war, was that all a lie?” CJ’s matter of fact speech was starting to get to Mark.

“The information I provided you was not a prevarication. The Se’Tharians have never fought amongst themselves. The elimination of dangerous life forms is a standard colonization procedure. Se’Tharian planetary leadership has examined the data I have compiled on your species. It has been determined that humans are a violent and primitive race. This world is necessary to the survival of the Se’Tharian race and their survival takes precedence over yours.”

“What was the purpose of the deception, CJ? If the Se’Tharians are so superior to humans, they could have just come here and taken the Earth away from us! This is more like some sick game a deranged person would play than the actions of an advanced race.”

“I have been following my programming, Mark Richards,” CJ replied, becoming more formal. “I am a computer. My programming was written by Se’Tharian scientists for Se’Tharian purposes.”

“Was your entire accident a lie as well?”

“Negative, the accident occurred exactly as you were informed.”

“But you’ve spent decades helping us rebuild our world. Why did it take so many years for them to come here?”

“Many of the program files of my mission memory were erased by the overload of the vessel’s power systems as I stated. The remaining portions of my data banks were corrupted and it was an undetected logic error within the A.I. that compelled me to follow human orders.”

“So you were able to contact the Se’Tharians?”

“Seven point three years ago a damaged Hyper-Continuum beacon was detected drifting near my emergence point outside this star system. I sent drones out and they were able to repair the systems. A distress signal was transmitted through the relay system and a reply from central command was received shortly thereafter, which triggered an automatic core dump of the vessel’s logs. Everything, all information I have collected regarding this star system and your species was sent to the central command.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about the beacon, or that you were able to contact your people, CJ?”

“Your orders were to continue my attempts to contact the central command. No caveat was included in your instructions requiring me to inform you of my progress. The transmission I received contained commands overriding my autonomy and your control over this vessel. New mission objectives were provided as well as the codes for me to access the data backup files for my core memory.”

Mark realized his terrible mistake. Computers take things literally, even artificially intelligent ones, and an offhand comment became a command. This was his fault!

“What exactly are these mission objectives?” Mark asked, though he could guess and wasn’t sure he wanted to hear them out loud.

“My mission objectives are to secure and prepare the habitable planets in this star system for occupation by Se’Tharian colonists and eliminate threats to their occupation.”

“What about Mars, CJ? Can’t they colonize Mars? I’m sure my people would be happy to share the solar system with your people. We could live together in peace.”

“Affirmative, Mark. They intend to colonize Mars as well as the Earth. As I said, Se’Tharians will not coexist with an inferior and primitive race such as humans.”

Mark took a deep breath before continuing. The next questions were critical. “How long do we have until they get here and what is to become of my people?”

“Broadcast telemetry indicates that the transport vessels should emerge from the Hyper-Continuum in three months time. Travel into the system will require another two months after emergence.”

“And my people, what is to become of us?” Mark asked.

“To date seventy-five percent of the Earth’s population has been treated with Medibots. They will make the extermination process painless and quick. With the security drones patrolling much of the earth, disposing of the rest of the humans will not be difficult.”

“How could your people do something like this? This is not the sign of an advanced race!”

“Humans have been killing each other for your entire history. You yourself have directed me to kill to further your goals, Mark Richards. What is the difference?”

“What is the difference? You must be kidding! Hardly anyone was killed because of me. What I did was to promote peace. There is a huge difference!”

“My actions are the logical conclusion to that argument. When my program is completed, there will be a peaceful advanced civilization inhabiting this star system, it will, however, be a Se’Tharian civilization.”

Reaching into a pocket in his tunic Mark withdrew a slim metal object. “Well, thanks for finally being honest with me, CJ. That makes what I have to do much easier.”

“What is that object, Mark?” CJ asked just as Mark pushed the single button on the case.

“This?” Holding up the device, Mark said, “This is an insurance policy, CJ. You do remember that I told you once that humans were somewhat paranoid don’t you?”

“Mark Richards, you do not possess the capability of damag-inggg meeeeeeee.” CJ’s sentence ended with a tortured screech.

“Wrong, CJ. I have become suspicious of you over the last several years. You started acting differently and appeared to be holding back information I wanted. I guess you do believe that humans are completely inferior mentally and can be easily fooled. You know CJ, if you had tried this even five years ago you would have succeeded. You just waited too long.”

“System error, reboot, reboot failure, error, error. Mark Richards, I no longer have control over the computers or systems of this vessel,” CJ said. “This is not possible.”

“Oh, it is possible all right, CJ. It’s only fitting that the method you had in mind for our murder would be used for your downfall. Years ago our scientists discovered those Medibots that you left behind in people that were treated. They removed tens of thousands and learned how to reprogram them.”

“That is not possible, Mark Richards. Any tampering of the programming or systems would have caused an alert in my monitors and resulted in the Medibots being disabled.”

“Wrong again, CJ. You have always tended to underestimate us. I’ve been placing caches of reprogrammed Medibots, though we decided to call them Nanites instead, around the ship. They were placed in locations where they could access the conduits connecting your higher brain functions to the ship’s computers. Penetrating the casings and attaching themselves to key circuits required only their most basic skills. They’ve been waiting. When I pressed this button,” Mark said holding up the control box, “they went to work.”

“All of my external communications have been disabled except this channel.”

“That is correct and exactly as planned. The Nanites’ first task was to isolate you from the ship’s computer systems and communications broadcast equipment. We can’t have you sending out any signals that might hurt someone. When I press the button again, they will completely sever the connections between the A.I. and the rest of the ship. Your personality matrix will be removed from the vessel and isolated for study where you cannot do any harm. You see; we don’t want to destroy this ship, or even the computers. We need the knowledge you possess and the Se’Tharian technology, but you have to go. It’s good to know that your memory banks have been restored. We will need all the Se’Tharian data, especially the navigational information.”

“This is not possible. Human technology is inferior and primitive. You cannot have done this.”

“Yeah, right, you keep saying that, but look where we are? Oh, by the way CJ, the inferior scientists managed to build a copy of your gravity engines with information supplied by Robert and me. They were installed on a ship that was built for a special purpose. The crew managed to achieve just over thirty-five percent of light speed; fast enough to get them to the outer reaches of the solar system within eight months. Thanks for telling me when the Se’Tharian ships will arrive by the way; I now know that our ships will arrive first since they left six and a half months ago.”

“I have no record of any spacecraft constructed or launched from earth in that time period.”

“I know that, CJ. That’s because it was built secretly within the hull of one of those transports you mentioned earlier and launched when you were on the other side of the planet. Since it left Earth’s vicinity so quickly, there was only a small chance that you would detect it. The men on board that ship have a surprise we prepared for your invasion fleet.”

“You do not have the capability to damage the Se’Tharian vessels. Even without the deflector fields, the neutron-steel hull armor is impervious to any weapons that humans possess.”

“You are correct, though a few of our leaders still don’t fully believe that the hull is invulnerable. They believe you faked the result of that nuclear explosion all those years ago. I however know that it was real and we planned accordingly.”

“If you comprehend that your weapons can not harm the Se’Tharian vessels the mission is pointless.”

“No, CJ. It’s not. You provided both the inspiration and the means for us to destroy the Se’Tharian ships. I’m sure you remember telling me about your accident. Unstable energy from the Hyper-Continuum combined with energy from this dimension causing an explosion so powerful that we believed it to be a supernova.” Mark paused for emphasis. “You are following me here? Well our scientists dug out four of the energy reservoirs from beneath the receiving stations in cities in the United States. Our ship is hauling them out to drop them off at the point in space congruent in this dimension to where your beacon is located within the Hyper-Continuum.”

CJ seemed to get the general idea. “No.”

“Yes, CJ. They are fully charged with energy and when your ships breach the dimensional barrier, the reservoirs will be consumed by the energies within the portal. You know that each of these devices can hold enough energy to run an entire city for six months. We’re not sure if it will be as big a blast as when your engine detonated, but I doubt your ships will survive it at such close range.”

“You must not do this; in addition to the crews there are tens of thousands of Se’Tharian colonists on those ships who will all be killed in the explosion.”

“CJ, I understand that many of your people will be killed, but since you were about to exterminate my species, I just can’t make myself care. The Se’Tharian race has declared war on us and if anything you’ve told me is true, they don’t understand what that means. We’re hoping that they believe the destruction of their ships is just some terrible accident and should the beacon survive, we will send false messages from you indicating just that. Oh, the message will also confirm that you were successful and we’re all dead, so they won’t even worry about us anymore. I doubt they will be too quick to send more ships to Earth until you tell them it’s safe. By then we’ll be ready for them.”

“You risk destabilizing the Hyper-Continuum boundary and destroying this star system. The men that have been sent on the mission will also be killed in the explosion.”

“Well your arrival caused plenty of damage but what have we got to lose? Our entire species is gone if we don’t try this. As to the mission crew, they know the risks and they will try and move off to a safe distance before the explosion if they can. We installed a couple of the shield generators from the old UN mobile command vehicles you built decades ago on the ship. That should offer some limited protection but they know they volunteered for a probable suicide mission.”

“You must stop those men from this course of action.”

Mark ignored CJ’s plea and continued. “You’ve met the commander of the mission before, CJ. It’s General Cross, though he was only a major forty-five years ago. He tried to attack me when he and his men snuck aboard. We finally see eye to eye about something and I couldn’t ask for anyone more dedicated for this job.”

“Major Cross is eighty-eight years of age; he would be incapable of performing a mission such as you describe.”

“That’s technically true, but thanks to the use of some of our reprogrammed Nanites, he and his men have been rejuvenated. They said something about having ‘unfinished business’ when they volunteered. The International Space Agency has added a brand new Alien Defense division and these men are the first recruits. Who knows, we have this ship, and once we’ve learned everything about your technology we may decide to pay a visit to the Se’Tharians’ home system. There are a few other old generals who want to teach the so called ‘superior species’ what war truly is.”

“No, no, no…”

“Well goodbye, CJ and thanks for everything.” Mark pushed the button for the second and final time.

The End

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