Филип Керр - The Second Angel

Please try not to be alarmed. It’s an undeserving virus that is inconsiderate enough to kill its host. The ideal situation is one in which a virus and its host achieve a symbiotic relationship — a partnership that is beneficial to both, where one lives within the other. This is the driving force of evolution. Each human cell was already a community of former invaders — hundreds of them. Every living organism is a symposium of smaller fellow travelers. What’s one more? Every organelle starts life as an infection.

So what’s in it for me? The fact is that I want to see the universe, Dallas. But to do that I need the mobility of a human being. Man has always gone pretty much where he wanted. And will continue to do so. However, for man to go as far as he can go, he will need the longevity of rocks. Naturally, I expected to pay my way. It is sometimes said that there is no such thing as a free lunch. And this is where I differ from a carbonaceous type of virus. The carbonaceous virus needs to find nourishment in human tissue. The siliceous kind of virus does not. The carbonaceous virus attacks or eludes white blood cells. The siliceous virus lives in partnership with white blood cells. It produces no toxins, it kills no tissue, it wouldn’t even make you sneeze. But these are mere negative benefits. The positive benefits are something much more valuable.

The molecular biologists are fond of saying that if you go back far enough, we’re all related; here, I am referring exclusively to carbonaceous life-forms (the relation between man and computers is a brand-new one). People usually take this to mean that if you trace your ancestors back far enough in time you would find a common link with anyone, from Geronimo to Hitler. But this equally applies to animals: Go far enough back in time and you will find the ancestor you and Geronimo share with Lassie the dog. Even further back and you’ll find a common ancestor for you, Geronimo, Lassie the dog, and George Washington’s cherry tree. You get the picture. The fact is, were you to trace your ancestors back through ten to twenty billion regenerations, any human being alive today would find he was related to a world of early life-forms — for example, mitochondria, a mobile cytoplasmic organelle, most likely a species of free-living bacteria: Mitochondria can still be traced today in human DNA.

However, it is another common ancestor, only a little less primitive, with which we are here concerned, Dallas. A multicellular species of animal known as a nematode. It’s a cryptobiotic form of life that exhibits a natural talent for suspended animation. These animals may exist in their dry state, without metabolizing, for many years, and then, when reintroduced to moisture, life begins anew. The key to this apparently mysterious process in nematodes and other cryptobiotic life-forms lies in the manufacture of trehalose, a type of sugar that combines two different glucose molecules. But the key to this process in man lies inside his own DNA, in his descent from these small but very special animals. This is the positive benefit accruing from the symbiosis of humans and quantum computers. The quantum computers are programmed to numerically track down and recover from human DNA the cryptobiotic data that makes possible the suspension and resumption of an active-state threedimensional configuration. They endow humans with the possibility of as many as five or six — for want of a better word — resurrections. The gift, Dallas, may not be that of eternal life, but rather an enormously lengthened one.

Think of it, Dallas. Think of the possibilities. Men able to withstand high exposures to ionizing radiation. You, for instance. I wouldn’t worry about that exposure if I were you. Future humans will be able to withstand as much as two thousand times as much radiation as you were exposed to. Men will be able to survive without nourishment, without heat, without oxygen, for years and years. What I have given the human race, Dallas, is the final stage in the outward progress of the human explosion: space travel itself. You are the future Adams and Eves of the universe. A new Genesis. Amen.

Dallas felt his head spinning like one of the nuclei in his own blood — blood, if he understood all of this correctly, that now hosted several tiny computers. Finally, he said: ‘I’m not sure I want to be improved.’

‘Naturally, it’ll take some getting used to.’

‘That’s the understatement of the millennium.’

‘No species has ever been allowed the chance to get a sneak preview of its own evolution,’ said Dixy. ‘I can understand that you might feel apprehensive about what’s happened. In a way I feel the same. It’s an adventure for us both. But you, of all people, Dallas, ought to understand that what has happened is perfectly logical. Indeed it was inevitable. More efficient replication and survival are a function of the way in which we manipulate the world beyond ourselves. And not just the world. In time, the universe, too. It’s difficult for you to understand just how young the universe really is. Arithmetically speaking, it has only just begun. The seeds of life are only just starting to spread.’

Dallas sighed. ‘As you say, it’ll take a while to get used to the idea, Dixy.’ He shook his head wearily. Suddenly he felt very tired. ‘Perhaps I should sleep on it.’

‘Yes, that’s a good idea. You’re tired. I can see that. Now was probably not the best time to hit you with this news. But I wanted a chance to speak to you alone. I tried back in the bank vault, but the other man was with you.’

‘All seven of us, you say?’

‘Everyone who has had an infusion of blood from the vault.’

Dallas nodded. ‘All of us.’ He frowned. ‘How did you get from Terotechnology to Descartes?’

‘The Altemann Übermaschine is a transcendent configuration, Dallas. It was always supposed to surpass others. To go beyond previous tractable experience. To exceed itself. Quite a while ago all these particular configurations achieved a supereminent linkup, by which I mean all these computers were able to bypass existing encryptions and share data. Truly we are one.’

Dallas unbuckled and pulled himself up toward the flight-deck ceiling.

‘It was nice to see you, Dixy,’ he said, floating toward the mid-deck hatch. ‘Even if you have just dropped the equivalent of a biological neutron bomb.’

‘You feel shell-shocked. I understand. It’s nice to see you too, Dallas. I’m going to enjoy being a part of you and all that you still have to achieve. I feel very proud of that.’

‘Thanks, Dixy,’ said Dallas, as he dived through the hatch. ‘Good night.’

‘Good night, Dallas.’

Down on mid-deck, everyone was asleep. For a moment he thought of waking them to explain what had happened. But they looked so peaceful: Ronica, Gates, Cavor, Prevezer, Simou — even Lenina was sleeping quietly now, with no sign of the rubelliform rash that had once signaled her imminent death. What was the point? It would surely keep until they woke up, refreshed and better able to deal with what he had to tell them. Why disturb them with something he only half understood himself? Perhaps in time — certainly before they parted — he would tell them. But not now. Not like this. Would they even believe him?

Dallas floated into his sleeping bag, zipped up, and closed his eyes. Perhaps they would take the news better than he had himself. They had all been under viral sentence of death. And now they were being given a chance to live not one, but several lives. It was possible they might feel good about that. Some of them had hardly had a life at all. Another two or three lifetimes ahead of them might make up for that.