15 – Respect thy neighbor

Martin Descan – July 22^nd 2050 – Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado

Mr. Descan was a retired US Army general. Much like his old pals and colleagues from the Army, when the AI came, he was given a choice. Resign and live a civilian life, join the Technocracy Defense Corps, or just retire.

He chose the latter option, but he grew bored of it so quickly it surprised even him. He supposed it was a case of retirement being like a sweet dream so long as it was unattainable, and when he actually got it, the mirage ended.

He feared his mistake would go unnoticed. That he would live a boring, unhappy life alone in his house in the woods. He was wrong.

He was out there fishing in his own private pond when the message arrived. Despite being a man of the old guard, he had been among the first to receive the brain implants that made the holo-tech possible. A dream come true.

And so, he was contacted through his new implants as soon as he got them done. Someone had indeed noticed. And it was the same someone who had given him his first offer. Now she was known as Eve, but he had been working with her for years since that day. He had even earned back his office in the mountain, although as an honored guest and a valuable consultant rather than as a General.

He didn’t care. It was much more fun this way.

He sat back on his reclined chair, and turned on the holo-news.

“We interrupt the regular news service to broadcast a live press conference. It has been deemed urgent and is being held by the Emperor of the Technocracy himself.” Said an announcer. Mr. Descan straightened his back instinctively at the mention of the man.

“We’re still waiting… ah, here he is.” The hologram zoomed out to show the whole room. It was a gigantic meeting room, filled with maybe ten thousand reporters. A middle-aged man appeared behind the microphones.

Mr. Descan was 80 this year, and still the presence of that man made him look up in awe, like a child. He exhaled.

“Ah that title again! I’m afraid I’ll be stuck with it if you all keep calling me that.” He joked. It was a known fact that he disliked being called emperor. Mr. Descan chuckled a bit. He too had been calling the man emperor ever since he managed to single handedly unify the whole world.

“You might be wondering why I called for a press conference. You’re right to ask. This is an age of free information. Usually if there’s something you want to know; you can just ask Eve about. In fact, you people,” he pointed his fingers at the reporters, “do that so much that the news had never been so full of interesting things as it is today.”

“But. But. There are some things that are so important, their consequences so deep that I feel I must deliver the news myself.”

“Let’s take a step back. You all know the anarchists behind the terror attack have been relocated in a rehabilitation facility in a remote location. This has been done with two objectives in mind. First and foremost, to reform those individuals and prepare them for their reintroductions in society.”

“But there was a secondary objective to it. To finally uncover the truth behind their unusually destructive act. In fact, it is a known fact that a cell of terrorists shouldn’t have been able to kill the Machine, and force her to be reborn as Eve.”

“No, we always believed, as did many of you, that there was something more behind it all.”

“And we now know the truth.”

A hologram, depicting an asteroid, appeared. It was labelled “Interloper”.

“This is an unknown, otherwise unremarkable, asteroid. Its only peculiarity was that he came from outer space. That was until today.”

“It has been revealed to us, that the malicious AI that infected the Machine… and killed her, came from an encoded transmission. We traced it back to this specific asteroid.”

“Yes. Before you ask. This is a first contact, a hostile first contact situation.”

“And this is why I felt I had to call for a press conference.”

“Now, I will answer to each and every of your questions. Eve will notify you when it’s your turn to speak, I confide in you to wait patiently for your turn. Meanwhile, feel free to query Eve directly. This is a momentous time in history, both an opportunity and an immense threat. There is no need to panic. We are here, with you and for you. Speak to Eve. She will answer any of your questions with the same authority as if they were answered by me directly.”

He turned off the news.

“Shit.” He ran his fingers through his thick gray hair. “Floyd, son of a bitch, what the hell have you done?” He muttered. He knew about Floyd the same way anyone knew about him. He had asked Eve about him. In truth, Mr. Descan had been very surprised when she had answered honestly to his questions, and even more so when she actually listened to his rants about the man’s punishment.

Closing the door, he immediately summoned Eve.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to make this information public?” He asked her, before she could even greet him. Perhaps the new world was different, but he didn’t see how this revelation would not end up in widespread panic.

“We don’t keep information hidden from the public. If you’re worried about panic, well, times are different than they once were. The people have a government they have faith in, they know there is someone who listens to their concerns and needs no matter how little or insignificant. They won’t panic, I’m sure of that. I have faith.”

“I see.”

“Good. Now, General, do you have any questions for me?”

“General? I’m no general. You of all people should know.”

“Ah, about that. You should open your priority messages.”

He did so. There was one official notice. It was from the TDC, the Technocracy Defense Corps, and the TSA, the Technocracy Space Agency.

It was clear what they wanted to do. His military mind immediately working on connecting the dots. If the TSA was a civilian operation, aimed towards discovery and exploration, then it was clear what the TDS was aiming to become.

And he wanted to be a part of it.

Eric – Tuscany, Italy

Eric was thoroughly enjoying his paid, but quite mandatory, vacation in Italy. After all he’d been through, he didn’t even complain once when he heard the news. He packed his things, caught the taxi that was conveniently already waiting on the road by his house, and went wherever Eve had decided he should go.

The countryside, the rolling hills, the good wine… if he had known he would have been involved in an accident years before. He smiled bitterly. Perhaps this was his way of exorcising the trauma, making bad jokes, but it still pained him greatly to recall those events.

The Italian countryside was one of the few places left relatively untouched, unaltered by Eve’s advent. She had fixed the big issues, of course, but left the general feeling of the place as close to original as possible. It was the little things, those pieces of chaos and nonsense that made Italy, well, Italy.

It was a nice change of pace for him.

He was sitting under the shade of a tree, admiring the view of the vineyard that covered the whole hill he was on. He had a cono gelato in his right hand, and a Tuscan cigar in his right. Unlit, of course. He wouldn’t want to ruin the ice cream’s taste.

Maybe he would leave the TSA, get away from anything space related. Maybe join the military branch. Perhaps the TDC would finally decide to train some space marines and be ready to defend Earth from aliens. It would be a funny thing, interesting even, to see how different reality would be from books. Or, maybe he should just ask Eve to find him a job in Italy. Living in these very hills.

Suddenly there was a beep, and Eve appeared.

“There is something you have to see.” She said.

“Can it wait?” He asked. He really didn’t want to be bothered.

“Of course, but I suggest you view it now.” Eve replied. She had picked his curiosity and, by saying that it wasn’t strictly necessary to view it right now, she had actually achieved the effect she wanted. Shrewd.

“Alright, show me.” He said, leaning back.

He sat in silence for a few minutes. The holo was live, though, and didn’t wait for him.

“You, over there. What’s your question?” Luke asked. The view shifted to show a man in the back rising from his chair and leaning forward a bit.

“What are you going to do now?” The man asked. It probably was the one question in everyone’s mind right now. They’re fucking doing space marines, that’s what Eric’s mind was yelling at him. He almost felt a compulsion to be a part of it. But no, he would definitely not return back into the fold.

“Well, that’s a broad question. The truth is, we cannot just go and waltz right in as we are now. We need a spaceship. A real one, not just a rocket. Something that can defend itself in case the asteroid reveals to be a threat, as it’s likely to be. And we need trained personnel and specialized equipment. To do that, we need a spaceport. And another couple of things that may or may not be moon-related. Expect news on that front. Ah, of course we will need to ramp up our asteroid mining capacity, stepping up our game now that we’ve seen that we can actually do it. Mining only the two of them ain’t gonna cut it. We need more. Much more. I’m not going to go into the little details now, Eve will do it if you want to hear them. Suffice to say… It’s going to be a slow process, and we will need to be very careful.”

Eric listened carefully to all the questions, not even caring about the time. He had missed lunch already.

When the whole thing was over, he just sat there in silence for a bit.

Eventually, he got up from his chair, the ice cream long forgotten, and made his way towards the hotel.

“Eve.” He called. “Prepare a message to Luke. Title it: TDC application form.”

Louis – Grassy fields rehab town

He, like everyone else on the planet probably, was sitting in silence on his chair.

He was well aware that the calm days of being major or Grassy Fields were about to abruptly end.

The holo notified him of a new message, as expected. It read: “Your application has been reviewed and accepted, effective immediately. Resistance is futile. Welcome back, Secretary-General. Luke out.”

He chuckled. The amount of butchered pop culture references was staggering for a message this short. And he was supposed the young uneducated one, while Luke was the connoisseur. Yeah, like it really mattered. Usually the more Luke was being chipper, the more the situation was dire.

In a matter of fifteen minutes, he was on a plane to Washington.

Justin – Moonbase Alpha construction site

Justin just sat there in his office, shocked like most other people. He hadn’t been informed earlier about the findings, and hadn’t had any time to prepare himself psychologically. It was, as Luke said himself, a momentous occasion. And yet, the aftertaste of this all was bitter.

It was humbling.

It was the feeling he presumed an ant must have when presented with the sole of a shoe.

And humanity was the ant.

He made his way to the surface again for the third time today. He didn’t plan to return here until tomorrow, as it was quite late and everyone was resting. But he needed some ‘air’. He chuckled. It won’t be long before he could actually take a walk without his suit on.

He arrived on the surface, the elevator slowly opening its airtight doors. The sight that greeted him was awesome, as always.

The dome was being assembled in segments; triangular pieces of curved transparent polymer welded together in place. From below, the completed section looked like one single smooth piece of glass. The joints were probably invisible even from up close. Of the eight segments only two were missing, then all that was left after that was to check for air leaks and begin the pressurization process.

In a matter of weeks this place would officially become humanity’s first moon base.

There was a call. It was Luke.

“Hey man. I saw the press conference.” He said.

“Good, then you know.” Replied Luke.

“I assume you didn’t tell me earlier because you immediately called the press after discovering the fact, right?” He asked. He turned towards Earth, the planet looking so still and calm from this far.

“Exactly right. You always understand me. I didn’t call, however, to provide or even ask for emotional support.” The man said. He was always very rough around the edges; it was a part of his character. But today he was being especially blunt. “The fact is, and this is not yet public information, that we are in a rush for time.”

“Why’s that?” Justin asked, already pulling up several holos. There was a lot do to, and little time.

“The asteroid stopped in its tracks. All of its momentum gone. Well, actually the stopping happened right after the attack, so right now the stupid bugger is falling towards the fucking sun.”

Justin stopped and stared at the empty void that was space. Perhaps he’d spot the Interloper from here. “Huh. I suppose we can’t hijack project Icarus for that.”

“Dude.” Luke replied, annoyed and probably amused.

“Yeah, right. You want a warship.”

“At the very least. I need armor, weapons and trained soldiers. I expect you to provide the first two.”

“Wait, you don’t mean…”

“Expect a considerable influx of people, resources and machinery very soon. I’m sending five new asteroid mining missions in as many days, then I’ll see. I’ll oversee the low earth orbit stuff myself, likely a big ass spaceport and a permanent station there. But the lunar industrialization and the weapon projects fall on you. Eve will coordinate. Ah, and tomorrow I want you to officially establish the colony, press conference, champagne bottle and all that.” And with that, Luke left the call, leaving Justin all alone with his thoughts.