Darkworld: Earth

2.24.

“And this is what the translator calls the Material Printer. We’re calling it a replicator,” Captain Anders said, continuing the tour of the Toormonda for the gathered politicians and scientists. “It has a wide variety of imprints which it can duplicate down to the subatomic level. It requires only an equivalent amount of mass and a good amount of energy to create almost anything you would want from it. And like everything else on this ship, we have absolutely no idea how it really works.”

That got a round of nervous chuckles from the men and women he was guiding. They were not aboard the Keeper of Dreams , but one of the nineteen other Toormondas which had been delivered as promised by the Yonohoans once Earth had formally accepted the gifts.

“The Replicator is different from the food forge. The food forge simply rearranges molecules, whereas the replicator seems to absolutely rebuild them. The food forge requires about the same amount of base elements in order to produce edible substances, whereas the replicator only requires mass. While you can replicate food, it’s easier on the ship to use the food forge, and it’s also much faster,” He continued.

“The bathrooms are right over here. As you can see, they’re quite luxurious compared to most spacecraft. The Yonohoans upsized many of the amenities for the Toormondas that they gifted us with the assumption that they would be piloted and used by adults rather than children. As such, while they can pack classes of up to fifty of their kids in these things at a time, we expect to run an average crew size of twenty. Yes, I see we have a question?”

“Does it gall you that our best efforts of making a science vessel is eclipsed by what is effectively an alien school bus?” one reporter asked.

“No, it doesn’t,” Anders said. “Some of the Yonohoans were worried that we would be offended in this manner, but ultimately science is a process of building a pyramid out of blocks, one block at a time. The Seeker was a necessary step in the progression of Earth’s scientific endeavors. And I believe that it was the pinnacle of what we would have achieved alone. The mission of the Seeker revealed the dangers of the Tunnel Drive and brought the reality of those dangers out in the open. Had we not encountered the Yonohoans, we would have either abandoned faster than light travel entirely, or we would have proceeded to continue exploring until we found someone like them, except maybe less friendly.

“If the Seeker was the pinnacle of what we could do alone, then using the Toormondas as a base for future developments does not upset me, but rather makes me look forward to what we can achieve with the help of the Yonohoans.”

The tour continued for some time, with everyone ordering a meal from the food forge and remarking on its quality. Some of them tried traditional food from Earth, while the more adventurous tried something from the Yonohoan menu.

Captain Anders served as an admirable tour guide, not for one second appearing as though it were beneath his dignity to serve in this capacity. Nor did he let the annoyance of having people crawling all over his new ‘home’ bother him.

He smiled. While the Seeker was being decommissioned, Anders was not. He retained his field promotion to the rank of Captain, and he was being assigned to this very Toormonda ship. He was going to have to get used to giving tours like this in the short term, but once the scientists got a handle on the opportunities that the fleet of Toormondas gave them, he would once again be leaving the sun’s orbit and venturing out into the depths of the firmament to guard those who asked questions which could be answered in no other way than exploration and experimentation.

He smiled, because he had just decided on the name of his ship.

A Good Question .

~~~~~~

Gabriel Nguyen sat the tray on the table and sighed. It had been an exhausting time dealing with his newfound fame. And now here he was at an ivy league university, a school which had likely used his application for toilet paper only a decade earlier, being wined and dined as he was courted for a position on the faculty.

His spacefaring days were likely well behind him. Like many of the crew, he was probably going to settle down and teach. While the scientific quest that had launched the Seeker was largely overshadowed by the unexpected contact with the Yonohoans, the fact remained that even the aliens admired the scientific value of the experiment that they had performed and were encouraging the Earthlings to see the results through to the end.

Whether the aliens knew what they would find or not was left open ended.

Some might find the Yonohoans setting of clear boundaries between the pre-existing science of earth and the race to reverse-engineer Yonohoan technology. The Yonohoans were eager to help the Earthlings advance, but once Yonohoan technology was used in a project, it was considered tainted somehow that the earth scientists didn’t really understand.

Gabriel understood, however.

In the greatest universe, Humans were one of, if not the, predominant species. They had not maintained this position for very long, only about fifty thousand years or so. The Liberation Wars had effectively stomped the previous monolithic empire, and the universe was still picking up the pieces.

One aspect remained from before the wars, however. Humans were seen by everyone as ‘uplifts,’ and many believed that they were in fact artificial life forms. That all of their advancements to science, medicine, literature, and other diverse topics rightfully belonged to the race which created them.

Never mind that their genome showed clear evidence of natural evolution. Never mind that, despite many races having claimed credit for human genesis at some point, all of those claims had been debunked. Never mind that the technology of the universe had effectively exploded once the curiosity and abstract thinking of the human mind was unleashed upon the old questions that had stumped the aliens for millions of years.

Humans were just uplifts. Yeah they ruled the universe now, but they’re still just uplifts.

He sighed in disgust.

He began eating. He had sneaked away from his tour guides and had gone through the cafeteria with the students instead. Despite that, the food was pretty good, and he was enjoying the contrast to Turkey Butthole Surprise when the egg in his pocket beeped.

He pulled out his PHDA and it flashed, a hologram of Captain Moon appearing.

“Good afternoon, Captain,” he said in greeting.

“I’m not catching you at a bad time, am I?” she asked.

“Nope. Just sitting down to eat. What’s on your mind?”

“I just spoke with Tukano,” she said. “He’s unable to leave for Earth, despite his wishes, due to the need to remain and protect planet Totola, but he wishes for me to extend his greetings to you. He didn’t have permission to contact you directly because you’re stepping down from active service. It seems that now that you’re in a new position, the Yonohoans consider you to be in a completely new phase of your life, and you must reach out to your old contacts to give them permission to continue to be part of it.”

“I was not aware of that,” Gabriel said, taking a bite of mashed potatoes. “I definitely want to maintain contact with Tukano. I’ll give him a ring as soon as we hang up. Is that the only reason you called?”

“We’re in the same position, you and I. Put out to pasture, but the grass of the pasture is tall and green and fertile. I was wondering if you had any insights into what we should do next.”

“I’ll be signing on to one of the teams analyzing the data from the Seeker ,” he said. “There’s a few different universities that are in a knife fight for my attention. They only really want me because of the fame of being the one who spotted the signal, but the job offers are real enough.”

“Yeah, I thought so. I’ve gotten a few offers from various corporations and NGOs to be their liaison with the Yonohoans,” Captain Moon said. “But a part of me just wants to tour the world, going to elementary schools and talking about the great adventure I had.”

Gabriel laughed. “Well, you can still do that in your downtime, can’t you?”

“I suppose you’re right. I’m going to let you go. Just wanted to pass on the message from Tukano. Good luck, Gabriel.”

“You too, Captain,” Gabriel said, and the call cut off.

It was at that point that he realized the cafeteria had gone completely silent, and that everyone was looking at him with expressions varying from surprise to awe. He realized that nobody had seen a hologram like that before, and he had just casually flashed around Yonohoan tech like it was nothing.

He sighed, finishing his meal before wandering off. Hopefully, he’d be able to get desensitized to being stared at sooner rather than later.

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