FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 16: Apocalypse

“So you’re here to save us from global warming?” asked Officer Wright.

Again the canid paused. Then he leaned forward with his elbows on the table and looked contrite as he spoke. “We made a catastrophic mistake. Something we didn’t foresee when we first examined your world is going to cause our intervention to destroy your Sun and most of the inner Solar system.”

The humans blanched, horrified. Officer Laidlaw’s knuckles whitened on the crowbar he still held.

“Dear god…” gasped Doctor Ash. “You’re going to wipe us out?”

“No! Not at all!” protested Chase, raising his palms defensively. “I’m here to prevent that exact outcome. Please allow me to continue. Your species is so resource-constrained you’re experimenting with ever more powerful sources of energy. Doctor Karl your miniature fission reactor is one example and also part of the reason I’m talking to you. You understand exactly how important energy is for the advancement of your species. Right now, while we speak, in a high-energy laboratory in Geneva scientists are experimenting with a new energy source. Using data they gained from tests on the crystal orbs they will forge a naïve bridging interface to a higher dimension to access unlimited energy.”

Chase gestured with his hands and an intricate web of golden lines and glowing pearls with an inky blotch materialized at the centre of the conference table. The tangle was impossibly complex. “Ah, shit, I forgot you don’t have enough dimensions to properly represent the event tree. Hang on… I’ll simplify it to the most relevant chain of causality.” Most of the structure faded away, leaving a few thousand strands and dewdrops. The inky blotch resolved to a prominent feature of the structure. “See here,” he indicated several lines and large pearls, “they successfully create the bridge. For nano-seconds there is a pathway for exotic trans-dimensional waves to pass unhindered into this universe.” Several large pearls dropped from the web and the dark blotch spread tendrils along the connecting fibres. “There are components of your physics you have yet to discover – actually most of it. Filaments of elongated particles suffuse space. The exotic waves disrupt those filaments. Imagine lighting a fuse to a bomb – the energy cascades along connected webs of filaments and infect your star. There is a catastrophic implosion of space which sucks in the planets up to and including Jupiter. Three hours after creating the energy bridge the entire inner solar system including your Sol is a sucking void of zero-space.” Chase produced another tree with dark tendrils seeping in from knotted tangles of lines. “The resulting disruption to the underlying structure of space bleeds across dimensions and annihilates a good chunk of space in my universe and thousands of other universes. Trillions of minds are ended in a conflagration.”

Silence of appalled horror greeted Chase’s pronouncement.

Doctor Ash cleared his throat and gathered his resolve. “We… we have to stop this! We’ll phone our associates in Geneva and convince them to stop. Doctor Karl, you know the team best…”

“Unfortunately that doesn’t work.” Chase raised his hand. The web resolved to a closer detail. “Despite your insistence the Geneva labs don’t believe you and think you’re jealous about the loss of your own project. You attempt to shore up your argument by presenting evidence of this alien interaction. This is dismissed as a hoax or…” he pointed to a flickering thread, “… the governments involved assume I’m a hostile alien attempting to sabotage your species’ attempt to get free energy.” He gestured to the web. “There is no outcome where you can stop the coming conflagration. Your species, your planet ends in approximately a month.”

Chase flicked a finger across the projection. “With a small compression of event sequences this cataclysm never will have happened in the future. We have not coerced or forced any event – every interaction would still have happened but the collaboration of gems would have occurred past the cataract. See here,” he indicated a blue strand shortening, bringing a string of pearls back through the dark blotch. A bright pearl passed through the blot. “This is this moment now, all of us talking here.” Smaller points of light passed through the black stain. Suddenly the dark smudge faded away. “At this point we are asked to share knowledge of unlimited energy. We impart a safe, secure way to harvest extra-dimensional energy that cannot cause a runaway cascade. Instead of annihilation you gain unlimited free energy, we save uncountable minds. No coercion or compulsion was used on any person. We merely compressed time between already inevitable events.”

“Hold on… hold on…” protested Doctor Karl. “You’re talking like you can see the future. You don’t know what is going to happen…”

“Leon, calm down,” said Chase, “We can see the future in the same way you can see light. You’ve evolved an organ to resolve electromagnetic waves which benefited your ancestors who passed along successive refinement by out-competing others. We evolved an organ to understand consequences which allowed us to collaborate toward more favourable long-term outcomes for our community. I can give you an example of how it works if you like.”

Doctor Karl nodded warily.

“Okay, stand over there in the corner.” He gestured for the doctor to move, then he stood at the opposite corner of the large conference room. The alien moved his hands together, twisting and flicking his dextrous fingers. He separated his palms and held a finely crafted crystal filigree apple. The workmanship was superb – thin wires of glass and quartz interwove forming a supremely delicate structure. “How good are you at catching?” he asked, raising his arm. “Now, before you answer that question tell me what you’re seeing in your mind.”

“Uh… I’m a bit clumsy,” confessed the scientist. “You toss the apple, I make a good attempt to catch it, but worried about the delicate structure I overcorrect and it slips from my fingers, shattering on the floor.”

“Right. You’re collating the variables and forming a conclusion based on the data and your previous experiences,” said Chase. “We do the same but on a scale billions of times more interconnected, processing the minutiae of events and consequences. Now…” he continued, “Suppose you wanted a different outcome than what you’re imagining. What are you going to do?”

The scientist walked around the table and stood closer to the alien. “I can probably catch it if I’m closer. You’d have to throw it more softly.”

“Exactly!” Chase grinned. “You get it! You modify your personal circumstances which affects my behaviour without having to coerce or force me. You didn’t demand that I move close to you, or that I throw more slowly, or that I throw a more robust object. In addition you compressed time – it would take a shorter interval between the event of me throwing the apple and you catching it than it would if you stood on the other side of the room. I know… I know… it’s a simplistic example. When our cultures and experiences are so profoundly alien all we have are imperfect analogies to help illuminate our ideas.”

“Is our society really that different from yours?” asked Officer Wright.

The Great Dane nodded, replying, “Everything about your world is conflict. Imagine your society if every penny which was spent on war was instead spent on elevating your environment.”

Doctor Ash interrupted. “How does your species evolve? Isn’t survival of the fittest a universal requirement for evolution?”

“Not at all,” said Chase. “If there’s a genetic mutation that allows members of our society to collaborate better it becomes more prevalent. When the event map expands and improves for everyone - all creatures, all minds – our species has ‘advanced’. You’re caught up thinking of evolution of individuals. Instead consider how a whole society can make small changes, and select the changes that lead to the best outcome for the entire planet – the entire web-work of events. Competitive evolution leads to rapid depletion of resources as each species evolves to be better at exploitation. Your entire ecosystem is on the verge of collapse, killing trillions of creatures. This is not survival of the fittest unless you consider the bacteria and cockroaches who will inherit the earth more fit for survival than your own species. Collaborative evolution would pour the vast resources of your society into protecting and uplifting every creature sharing this rock.”

He sat at the table again. The glass apple was gone. “The exact reason we’re here is to work with you to prevent apocalypse.”

Officer Laidlaw jerked in his seat then glowered at the alien. “We? You’ve said ‘we’ a few times. Is there more than one of you here? Are you invading?”

“We are seven emissaries,” answered Chase. “One for each crystal. My brethren are already working toward avoidance of this calamity. You will meet them all soon.” He sighed heavily. “This is an enormous sacrifice for us – we are here to help you and we can never go back home. It’s not an invasion – we have more resources than you can imagine. This is your neighbour dropping by with apple pie and home-made biscuits to help you out.”

“Why can’t you go home?” asked Officer Laidlaw.

“Kim, imagine you lived at the top of a hill and rolled a giant rock down into a gully. It took a bit of effort to move the boulder but once it was rolling it was comparatively easy. Now imagine trying to get that boulder back up the hill. Your universe is ‘downhill’ in energy terms. While it was a huge expenditure of energy to get the seven of us here, that is nothing compared to what it would take to push us up the energy well. If we harvested your entire star it wouldn’t be enough to send one of us home. I’m afraid,” he sighed wistfully again, “we’re stuck in your thin universe forever.”

“Couldn’t you just prevent the disaster the way you magicked your apple?” asked Doctor Chand.

“Yes. Easily. Just as easily as you could pick up a knife and stab Brian to death with it,” sighed Chase. “In theory it’s little effort for you to murder your co-worker. You’re physically quite capable, Janice you’re stronger than Doctor Ash. How easily could you do it if it would save a community of strangers a world away?”

“I… Realistically I don’t think I could do that…” began Doctor Chand.

“And if the option to save the community of strangers was to make a donation of a few thousand dollars to a food charity…? Still a difficult sacrifice for you, but ethically more aligned to your values. We’re in the same conundrum. Directly interfering with the event tree is morally repugnant to my species. Coercing others is abhorrent. Your free agency is something I absolutely cannot interfere with. All I can do is allow you to discover the way to save yourselves.”

“So what happens now?” asked Doctor Ash.

“Now?” Chase looked at his wrist. There was no wristwatch there. “Now I’m urgently needed elsewhere. In the meantime you scientists go back to school.” He gestured at a floating network of glowing wires and pearls. “You could attempt to prevent the disaster yourselves – the cost is your integrity and careers. You fail anyway. Kim’s colleagues from the army shortly arrive here. I’ll be gone. You can tell them I was a hoax – clever hologram, whatever. They’re annoyed but accept your explanation and go away. Or you try to convince them I was an alien and I was here. You show them all the video evidence. For a few days there’s general panic, but after a while when nothing eventuates everyone assumes it’s a hoax and you look like idiots.” He clasped his hands together and when he separated them a small plastic rectangle lay in his palm. “Or you spend your time learning what you’ll need to know for the coming weeks. This is a physics primer for stuff you’ll discover in a hundred years or so.” He tossed the black slab across the table.

Doctor Karl fumbled and the device clattered to the desktop. Picking it up he realized it was a USB thumb-drive – he wondered what miracles of alien technology lurked in the data.

The tall canine stood. “Before I leave for a few days I need to show you one more thing. Kim, you’ve been itching to use that crowbar since I arrived. I’d like you to swing it as hard as you can and hit me in the face.”

The officer stood, clasping the crowbar. “Are you sure? I coach baseball in my spare time – I’m a pretty good batter.” He hefted the hardened steel tool and the watching scientists thought he looked a little too eager to swing it.

Chase turned his profile to present the long side of his muzzle toward the officer. “Please do.”

“Alrighty then…” Officer Laidlaw grasped the crowbar with two hands. He turned his upper body away, bent and braced his legs and moved his arms back. Like a professional baseball player he swung his torso and arms, driving the crowbar onward with his shoulders. Everyone in the room winced as the heavy steel impacted Chase’s face. A loud clang of ringing steel chimed out as the crowbar bounced ineffectually from the canine’s head. “Mother-FUCKER!” cried the officer, dropping the crowbar and shaking his hands in pain. He buried his palms into his armpits, hugging his chest in agony.

“We are made of the same exotic material as the crystal orbs,” explained Chase. “I’m sorry, Kim. I didn’t think you’d actually swing that hard. This isn’t meant as a threat but as an explanation of why many of the actions you’re considering taking would be futile and hasten the annihilation event.” The canine bowed to the scientists and officers. “It was a genuine pleasure meeting you all. I will see you again in a few days.” With those words the tall canine faded to transparency, then disappeared entirely.

For a moment there was stunned silence in the conference room, then everyone began talking at once as though they’d been holding their collective breath. “Holy shit we just met a real-live alien!”, “So many question we should have asked.”, “Seven! There are seven of them out there!”, “…end of the world?”

“Quiet down!” shouted Doctor Chand, banging her fist on the desk. “Focus. We’ve just been informed by an alien that our world is a month away from destruction. What do we do now?”

Officer Laidlaw stood, still hugging his bruised hands under his arms. “We do nothing,” he said quietly through clenched teeth. “Think of all the things the alien told us without telling us. He knew all our names – everything about us. Even about coffee. For decades they’ve been studying us. It produced an intricate crystal apple out of thin air, like magic. Doctor Karl, you’ve used the Diamond Suit – if it didn’t constrain you and you wanted to kill us, what could we do about it?”

The scientists seemed taken aback, but considered the question. “Uh, I don’t think you could do anything. While wearing a gem suit the wearer is practically invincible, incredibly strong. I could tear a military tank apart.”

Officer Laidlaw nodded along. “That conversation told us we’re technological infants compared to the alien, that they can do whatever the hell they like. What we just witnessed was the end of human civilization as we know it.”

“Now, now… surely you’re exaggerating,” said Doctor Ash. “The alien seemed perfectly charming and quite eager to help.”

“Help resolve a problem they’re causing? Sure. Very generous,” replied the officer sarcastically. “Let’s say the alien is being one hundred percent honest. We have a month until apocalypse and there’s nothing we can do. Or the alien is lying and he’s off undermining governments to take over the world. We can still do nothing about seven invincible super-beings. In either case they either give us amazing technology which radically alters our society, or they destroy our society maliciously. Our world as we know it is ending.”

Sombre nods greeted his pronouncement.

“But man, what a sexy creature!” exclaimed Officer Wright. Everyone stared at him. “C’mon… admit he was gorgeous – that musculature, his beautiful face… those big dangly balls! You can’t tell me I was the only one who noticed!”