Dinner was chicken with a lemon glaze, dinner rolls, a light rose wine, tossed green salad with tomatoes with catalina dressing, and chocolate cake for dessert. Walter had the replicator make cloth napkins instead of paper, and had some candles (due to the risk of fire, the candles were actually LEDs programmed to blink randomly).
“Why so special?”, Deborah asked.
“I have a vague feeling like Something Awful is about to happen. And don’t bring up the Grue-Bleen paradox. I’m making a prediction based on the events of the past few hours”
“What?”
“You contacted us from another time line and told us that we’re in grave danger, so grave that we need a new weapon to deal with it. I decided that this might be our last meal, so I wanted it to be special.”
“A spacecraft matching the description of the timeship Orion has been detected on an intercept orbit”, Adelle announced.
“See what I mean?”, Walter pouted.
Deborah and Walter rushed to the flight deck.
“Adelle”
“yes”
“What is our tactical situation?”
“Orion is on an intercept orbit. It is currently 2548 kilometers away and is closing at 122 Kilometers/minute. Time to intercept: 20 minutes”.
“Adelle: Open communications with the Orion”, Deborah ordered.
Unrar appeared on the screen.
“Identify yourself”, Unrar ordered. He didn’t seem a day older.
“This is Deborah Schwartz”
“How many years has it been for you since we last met?”
“47. And you?”
“I just marooned you at Europa the day before yesterday. How did you escape?”
“Do you think the Seattle Seahawks have a chance to win the world series this year?[1]”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand your answer”
“It’s a facetious way of telling you that I am not going to tell you the answer. Are you responsible for the destruction of all human life on the planet earth”.
“Yes”
“Why?”
“You have your secrets, and I have mine.”
“I propose an alliance between the two of us”
“I propose that we fight to the death”
“Unrar, the last time we met, I had never been in combat before. Since that time, I have fought a war. I personally have killed 12 armed men at a range of less than 1 meter. I’m not the same woman you met last week. I recommend that you break off your attack and cooperate, or I will blow you to subatomic bits.”
“I think you’re a lousy poker player”
“I invite you to a friendly game”
“I’ll pass.”
“The connection has been broken”, Adelle announced.
“Adelle”
“yes”
“Prepare a fusion bomb. Set it with a thirty second timer. Then beam it into the Orion.”
“Hey, that’s a clever idea”. Walter commented.
“You must enter that command through the keyboard, since it is a weapons command I have detected another object on an intercept orbit: range 12312 kilometers, closing at 158 kilometers/minute. Time to intercept: 78 minutes”, Adelle said.
“Deborah, take out the Orion first, then we can deal with this other ship”
Set a timer on a fusion bomb to delay for 30 seconds before detonating. Then transport the bomb into the enemy timeship Deborah typed.
“The fusion bomb has been beamed into Unrar’s ship”, Adelle responded.
“Adelle”
“yes”
“Change orbit to 1500 kilometers altitude inclination 22 degrees using time travel”
“Understood”
“Range to Orion”
“4121 kilometers. Orion has launched a missile at us. Closing at 1934 kilometers/minute”
“I wonder why he launched a missile at us instead of closing and using the ultraviolet laser?”
“Maybe he is having instrumentation problems. Our last shot at him spared the ship but took out the sensors on the hull? But a missile inside the ship would be safe, so he can use missiles”
“I’m going to use the yellow laser again. That seemed to do the trick last time”
Deborah clicked on the space weapons button. A menu opened.
Target select: incoming missile
weapons select:
O antiproton beam
O ultraviolet laser
O yellow laser
O Gamma radiation
O Powered guided missile with kinetic warhead
O Powered guided missile with nuclear warhead
O Fusion mine
O Unpowered Projectile
Deborah touched yellow laser.
Select power
O 1 TW
O 10 TW
O 100 TW
O 1 PW
Deborah touched 100 Terawatts
“Range 3154 kilometers. Closing at 1934 kilometers/minute”, Walter reported.
Select duration
O 1 sec
O 10 sec
O 30 sec
O 60 sec
O 90 sec (unavailable at this power level)
O 120 sec (unavailable at this power level)
O 150 sec (unavailable at this power level)
O Return to select power
Deborah touched 30 seconds
Activate yellow laser
O fire now
O fire at optimum range
O fire at most accurate range
Deborah selected fire at optimum range.
“The yellow laser will fire in 92 seconds”, Adelle announced.
“Walter, I seem to recall having a discussion with you about waiting”
“Stressful, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I want to shoot that missile far away, but I have to deal with the inverse square law. I wonder how the computer figures out what the optimum range is?”
“The fusion device detonated. The Orion is destroyed.”, Adelle reported. “The yellow laser will fire in 80 seconds”
“Now all we have to deal with a fusion bomb heading directly towards us. No problem”, Deborah assured Walter.
“Adelle”, Walter said.
“Yes”
“How do you figure out the optimum range to fire the laser?”
“The closer the target is, the more energy will be delivered to the target. However, the closer the target is, the more likely it will detonate and damage this timeship. I have been programmed with some game theory analytics to make an optimum decision based on the size of the target and estimates of radiation coming from the target”, Adelle explained.
“So, in other words, you’re taking a wild guess”, Walter challenged.
“I am making a logical selection based on the best available data”, Adelle defended herself.
“How was that software tested?”, Walter pressed on his attack.
“The software was extensively tested in simulation”
“So in other words, you used un-verifiable software testing techniques to test questionable software”, Walter pressed on his attack some more.
“The software was certified as correct”, Adelle explained. “The yellow laser will fire in 70 seconds”
“But has the software ever been tested in actual combat?”
“When the software was developed, actual combat was illegal”
“So you really don’t know how will the software is going to work under actual battle conditions. All you have are the results of a simulation”
“Walter, why is this an issue?”, Deborah asked. It’s rather amusing watching him argue with a computer. Had he grown up in the 21st century, he would know better than to argue with a computer.
“I seem to recall a young woman who tripped over her cloak in a simulation, who went on to execute a brilliant covert operation, and whose first words on her return were “It’s a funny thing, but real combat is a lot more stressful than training exercises.”’ When I am playing my video games, my heart rate increases, respiration increases, adrenaline is secreted, but I know its not real. Adelle is a very intelligent computer, but she knows that the simulations are not real. Her very existence is not in danger in simulation”.
“I fail to see the point”, Deborah said.
“Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics, law #3: A robot must protect its own existence so long as that does not conflict with laws 1 or 2.”
“The yellow laser will fire in 60 seconds”
“Walter, I’d like to point out that your ass and my ass are under attack too, and law 1 is A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
“That’s true, but it might be irrelevant. Do you remember the problem with the QXZ47 module? That was a design decision that never got checked in properly. What I am saying is that the software hasn’t been tested properly. Our lives are serious jeopardy”.
“The yellow laser will fire in 50 seconds”
“Okay, Walter. You have 50 seconds to call up the source code, do a review, find the bug, fix it, recompile, test it, certify it, and push it into production. Do you even know what language it is written in?”, Deborah said, sarcasm dripping from every word.
“You could fire the laser now and there might be enough energy in the laser to melt the missile. If not, then you can still fire the laser in 45 seconds”
“Adelle”
“Yes”
“If we shoot at the missile with the yellow laser now, and that fails to destroy it, will the yellow laser system be ready to shoot at the optimum range?”
“Yes”
“Fire the yellow laser now, please”
“You must enter weapons commands through the keyboard”
All of a sudden, I see Walter’s point. Dammed computer.
Deborah typed Fire the yellow laser now. If the laser fails to destroy the missile, then shoot again at optimum range.
“Firing yellow laser. Sensors report that the surface temperature of the missile is now 400 degrees.”
“Keep firing”
“You must enter weapons commands through the keyboard”
“Okay, cease fire”
“You must enter weapons commands through the keyboard”
“At the least computer is consistently consistent”, Walter observed.
“The surface temperature of the missile is now 800 ℃”
10 seconds went by
“The missile has detonated. Estimate is that the explosion is a fusion device, yield approximately 800 megatons, range 1600 kilometers.”
“I think we just answered the question about what ‘optimum range’ means”, Walter smirked. “Hey, Deborah, I have a question for you”.
“Shoot”
“Who are the Seattle Seahawks and what is the world series?”
“Oh. Bad joke. The Seahawks are a football team in the city where I come from and the world series is a championship for American and Canadian baseball. The joke is that the Seahawks are football and the world series is baseball: different sports. The question would be asked by somebody who knows nothing about sports.”
“I didn’t know you followed sports, you don’t seem like the type”
“I don’t, and that’s why I asked the question when I was much younger. It occurs to me that I could make a lot of money traveling to the future and then traveling to the past to gamble on the outcomes of the games”
“Now you know why changing the past is illegal”
“The other timeship is now 11,996 kilometers away, still closing at 158 kilometers/minute”, Adelle reminded them.
“Do we assume that they are hostile, too?”
“They are sending us mixed audio and video in the 300 MHz band”
“Let’s hear what they have to say.”
A window opened on a monitor. A man and a woman appeared on the screen. She was a negro and he was asian. They both appeared to be dressed in aluminum foil. Both of them were seated, with their hands at the end of armrests. They appeared perfectly composed.
The woman said, in English, “We see that you destroyed Unrar’s timeship. We wish to open a dialog with you, to exchange ideas and theories about what has happened, and to make plans for the future. Please respond”.
The message repeated.
“Adelle”
“yes”
“Begin transmitting back to them, same frequency and format”
“Understood”
“This is Deborah Schwartz in command of this timeship. I bring you peaceful greetings”
“Ms. Schwartz, my name is Anglatere”, the woman said. She had an accent, but Deborah couldn’t place it.
“And my name is Henri”, the man said, with a distinct French accent.
“I’m pleased to meet you. With me is my co-pilot, Walter Brown. Adelle: please split the transmission between me and Walter so that we both can be seen.”
“Hello, Mr. Brown”, Anglatere said.
“Hello, Mr. Brown, Henri said.
“Greetings”, Walter replied.
“We are glad that you showed up when you did. Unrar was attacking us. He had lasers, and rockets. We were not prepared for a fight. You obviously are ready and willing to fight. We are grateful you destroyed him. Can you tell us a little more about yourselves?”
“We’re time travelers. We’ve just completed a mission and have returned to our point of origin. However, the surface of the earth is destroyed. We were investigating what happened when Unrar appeared. We’ve fought with him before, and he is ruthless and cunning.”
“How did you destroy him?”
“We inserted a fusion bomb in his ship”
“How did you do that?”
“Well, we have weapons that will do those kinds of things. What brings you to this time and place?”
“We’re from the year 3745. We were sent here and now to investigate a disruption in the timeline that involved the destruction of the earth, however, we were told to simply investigate and report back to our command. Thus, we were not prepared to fight. We told Unrar that we would not surrender, that he would have to destroy us. We used time travel defensively, but evidently he can detect time travel and he responded to our every move. We decided not to return to our command because we didn’t want to reveal where we came from, and invite his reign of terror on our time.”
“Are you with the chrono police?”
“What are the chrono police?”
“That’s interesting. I was told to avoid the chrono police, but you’ve never heard of them”
They may be lying - test their words for veracity Walter texted Deborah. That occurred to me, too. Also, I don’t want to talk about the transporter too much, because they might not have that technology. Deborah texted back.
“May we meet face to face?” , Henri asked.
“I am reluctant to do that, because I am concerned about biological contamination”, Deborah said.
“I don’t understand”
“We have just spent 40 years in a place where sanitation is poor and where animals and humans lived in close contact with one another. I am concerned that we might be contaminated with some sort of micro-organism that might be dangerous to people from so far in the future where, I assume, there is good sanitation and animals and humans are separated. To a lesser extent, I am concerned that you may be carrying a new organism that our immune systems cannot cope with, and our medical facilities have never seen before. I am perfectly content to converse with you via radio”.
“I have never heard of such a thing”
“In my time, there is a disease, called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS. AIDS is caused by a virus called Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). It was a new disease. Our technology was barely up to the task of identifying the virus, figuring out how it was transmitted, and how to treat it. It attacked the autoimmune system. It some places, the infection rate was close to 50% and tens of millions of people died of it. Had this new disease shown up 30 years earlier, it would have been devastating.
I am reluctant to come into direct physical contact with such an advanced civilization which might have a disease we have no knowledge of. Radio contact is sufficient for any conversation we wish to have”.
Nicely argued. However, that brings up some interesting questions we ought to discuss before we leave the timeship for anywhere, and in fact which we should have discussed before we went to the bronze age. Walter texted Deborah.
“Very well”. Henri’s disappointment was clearly written all over his face.
“What have you learned about the destruction of earth?”, Deborah asked.
Anglatere began her narrative. “We believe that North America and Israel were attacked by fission devices about 4 or 5 days ago, Western Europe was by attacked by fission devices 3 or 4 days ago, Afghanistan and Iran was attacked by fusion devices about 2 or 3 days ago. We believe that the fission devices were dropped from air breathing aircraft and the fusion devices were ballistic missiles.”
“If I may interrupt here”, Walter said, “How do you know that the fission devices were dropped from aircraft and the fusion devices were from missiles?”
“If the crater is circular, then the device has relatively little horizontal motion - it went straight down. However, if the crater is oblong, then the device had relatively fast horizontal motion - it is moving horizontally very fast. Hence a missile.”, Anglatere explained.
“I see. Thank you. Please continue”
“We were able to date the explosions by analyzing the radioisotopes at the craters”.
“We were trying to do the same thing when Unrar showed up and interrupted us”, Walter mentioned.
“Yes, that seems very reasonable.”, Henri said.
“We have to collect more data and then we have to make a decision about what to do next?”, Anglatere said.
“What are your options?”, Deborah asked.
“We can follow our original mission plan and return to the year 3745 with our observations. Or we can go back in time perhaps 7 days and observe the sequence of events. The concern is that if we go back in time, then we may affect the outcome of the war, and there will be nobody in 3745 to return to.” Henri said.
“On the other hand, unless either you or I take some action, then the civilization of 3745 is already destroyed and you have nothing to return to”, Deborah pointed out.
“That’s very true”, Henri said.
‘May I ask why you came to this particular time and place?”, Deborah asked.
“We detected a fork in the timeline at this particular spot, which was easy to find because of the chronobeacon here. We were ordered to arrive a day early, which is a standard precaution. We have been working continuously since then to figure out what happened. We were about to take a break for a sleep period when Unrar showed up”, Henri said.
“May I suggest that we both get some sleep and rejoin in 9 hours?”, Deborah suggested.
Is 9 hours enough? Walter texted.
“I’d like that”, Henri said.
“Me too”, Anglatere said.
“Sounds good to me”, Walter chimed in.
“Very well. We will reconvene in 9 hours”, Deborah decided.
“Good night”
“Good night”