John Wright - The Golden Transcendence

"Why do you think none of the Sophotechs is speaking?"

"I thought they were preparing for the Transcendance ..."

"They are preparing for war!"

There was a pause while Helion's language routine brought that word up out of ancient memory, and checked the connotations for him. He said, "You do not call Phaethon's conflict with the Hortotors a war, do you? This is not a metaphor."

"I mean war with the Second Oecumene, which killed my horse and tricked the Hortators into banishing Phaethon. The attack on him was real! Everything Phaethon said was true! Why didn't you believe him, just believe him, instead of listening to other folk?! He would never have disbelieved, no matter what, in you!"

The sophistication of Helion's mental system allowed him to embrace sudden revolutions of outlook without disorientation. Assistance circuits in his thalamus and hypothalamus made connections, reassessed emotional reactions, calculated a multitude of implications.

Because of this, he straightened on his throne and spoke in a calm, quick voice: "It took ten thousand years for the Last Broadcast to reach Sol from Cygnus X-1. Vafnir's people sent one-way robot vessels, which, moving at far less than the speed of light, arrived some thirty thousand years after the death broadcast was received. Long enough for some sort of civilization to revive.

"No civilization answered their requests to build a breaking laser. The vessels fell through the dark Swan system with their light-sails spread wide, and to this day continue to infinity ... as the probes passed the Cygnus X-l system, their readings showed conditions were indeed as the Last Broadcast depicted. No sign of industrial activity, no radio noise. Silence. Death.

"But the survivors of that event might have hidden themselves. It would not be difficult. The signals of an extrasystemic civilization, especially one ten thousand light-years away, could easily escape the notice of our astronomers."

Daphne said, "Or the messages supposedly sent back from the robot probes had not come from them at all. The probes could have been destroyed. Their message content could have been forged. We are talking about a thousand light-years away, right? It can't have been a very strong or complex signal. And our astronomers are picking it up one hundred centuries after it was sent."

"In either case"-his eyes glittered dangerously- we are assuming an entire culture willing to go to ex-traordinary lengths to remain hidden. If that is so, what strategies would they have adopted? I submit that the Silent Oecumene would have, if they could afford the resources, both sent out additional colonies, in order to disperse their numbers, and posted watchers-what is the old term for it-?"

Daphne knew the word, "Spies."

"Thank you. And posted spies within our Oecumene, to negate any efforts which might lead to their discovery."

"You said the Silent Ones might have established colonies ... ? Just like what Phaethon wanted.... Where? How many?"

Helion raised his hand and sent an image into her sense filter. Suddenly the rotunda where they were now seemed to float in deep space, with stars overhead and underfoot, a wide, three-dimensional array.

Helion said, "Here is Cygnus X-l. Observe; I surround it with concentric bubbles of possible travel times for ships of the type of Ao Ormgorgon's Naglfar, built with Fifth Era technology. Likely candidates for star colonies are shown in white.... I now rank the possible colony stars according to their desirability as hiding places, not as colonies, taking into account the presence of nebular dust and natural sources of radio noise which might mask large-scale industrial activity from Golden Oecumene astronomers."

A sphere appeared around Cygnus X-l, and stars within the sphere were lit with ranking numerals. Slender lines from Cygnus X-l showed possible travel paths, none intruding anywhere near the space near Sol.

Helion continued: "Now then, making a rough estimate of the natural resources of the Silent Oecumene (and they do have limits on their resources-their black hole can produce tremendous useful energy, but it is nevertheless immobile), I conclude that, of these possible target stars, and assuming expeditions the size of the multigeneration ship Naglfar, there could be between five hundred and twelve hundred colonial systems, with at least two hundred expeditions still in flight, and destined to reach their targets over the next three millennia. ..."

More figures and light signs appeared near certain of the stars, and certain travel paths lit up, showing the locations of possible expeditions still in flight. "If we assume a less cost intensive method of spread, such as, for example, microscopic nanotechnology spore packages wafted through space on stellar winds or pro-pelled by light-sail launching lasers, the possible zone of colonies is smaller, because the travel time is larger..." A littler sphere of light, smaller than the first, appeared around Cygnus X-l. This one did not even reach all the way back to Sol. Helion said, "So we can assume the colonization takes place by shipping." Daphne had not finished upbraiding Helion about his conduct toward Phaethon, and wanted to get back to the subject of the bargain she wished to compel him to accept. But, nonetheless, she found herself distracted by the scope of Helion's speculations. "So the Silent Oecumene is... what... ? An interstellar empire?"

"I don't know. The planets would be too far from each other to be subject to central imperial control, nor would they be able to aid each other with mutually beneficial resources. The distances are simply too great, However, a society organized by Sophotechs, or even by immortal men with a fixed tenacity of purpose, could establish such colonies in order to fulfill some plan requiring thousands or millions of years to accomplish."

Daphne tried to imagine an undertaking on such a vast scale. "What purpose ... ?" "I do not know. But, assume it is one which is con-sistent with their desire to remain hidden. Why? Because they fear competition with us? But how can anyone in their right mind fear the Golden Oecumene? We are the most tolerant and fair-minded of all possible civilizations."

Daphne said, "In your view of the future, the one you were going to offer the Transcendence ... ?"

"Go on."

"How long would it be before the Golden Oecumene would expand beyond the Solar System?"

"Not until primary sources of energy in the sun were exhausted. What would be the need?"

"So, perhaps five or ten billion years ... ? Extrapolate the growth of the Silent Oecumene in the surrounding stars by that time."

Light-signs appeared on all the surrounding stars. There were no worthwhile stars left free in any area surrounding Sol; the Solar System was surrounded.

Daphne said, "Now, would anyone in the Golden Oecumene take a planet, or trespass on another's property, or take anything at all, just because they needed it, no matter how badly they needed it, without the consent of the owner?"

"We are not barbarians."

"So we'll be trapped with nowhere to go, held back by our principles, confined to a system with a dying star. And all because we did not have the foresight to do as Phaethon wishes."

Helion said, "Phaethon's wishes are what triggered the conflict. If the plan of the Silent Oecumene required them to stay hidden for millions or billions of years, until they could achieve a supremacy throughout all of nearby space, why risk it all, why risk generations of planning, just to strike down Phaethon? Here is why." He pointed once again to the sphere of light centered on Cygnus X-l. "This defines the greatest extent to which the Silent Oecumene could expand as of now. Here marks were they could be in five millennia, ten, fifty. This outermost globe embraces all the useful planet-bearing stars within about five thousand light-years. And here is where Phaethon, with the Phoenix Exultant, could plant colonies in fifty millennia...."