In the Convoy

By Ian Eress

In 2027, Passenger 852, a private detective, Tony Tetiawan, goes on a vacation trip with his family of four aboard an ocean liner, the Titans of the Oceans. For unknown reasons the vessel and everybody in it find themselves on a future Earth, thousands of years into the future.

 

Everything has changed since 2027. People live in generation starships, spread throughout the galaxy, and heavily-fortified colonies because numerous extraterrestrials from the nearby Andromeda galaxy want them dead.

 

A General Artificial Intelligence, NBBN2, is asked to teach Passenger 852, Tony, about history. Plus, he must figure out what has happened to the Passengers. Who brought them to the future and for what reason?

 

An Artificial Super Intelligence conjectures about foul play. Maybe the Passengers aren't who they say they are. Could they be mighty enemies in disguise?

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian Eress
• Release date: Jul 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201354626

Ian Eress

Born in the seventies. Average height. Black hair. Sometimes shaves. Black eyes. Nearsighted. Urban. MSc. vim > Emacs. Mac.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

SIXTY-FOURTH CENTURY ANNO GALILEO, THE GENERATION STARSHIP FELIM EGA SOMEWHERE IN THE MILKY WAY

THE STARSHIP WITH about two thousand human passengers and crew, Generation Starship Felim Ega, was chased by the foul Andromedans. I, NBBN2, one of the oldest and funniest General Artificial Intelligences from Earth Zero, was piloting the generation starship. But I was also in an important meeting with other General Artificial Intelligences and even one Artificial Super Intelligence.

The Generation Starship Felim Ega was an O'Neill cylinder with two counter-rotating cylinders, providing artificial gravity, and a Theta class generation vessel (which meant that folks never left it) rolled into one. Its senior officers, mostly with Lunar ancestors like the other people on the GS Felim Ega, flung silly questions at me. (Qeeravs together with the Awakenistas Philanthropic Society had terraformed the Moon in the 21st century AD, first century AG, Anno Galileo.)

Were we going to die? they asked. How many enemy drones were out there? What type of weapons did they have? The crew did administration, maintenance, and security. Someone had made them think that they could also fight the Andromedans and pilot the Generation Starship Felim Ega. But that was my duty.

I had reserved a meeting room although it was not necessary. We, General Artificial Intelligences, sported no bodies and required no space. Nobody came into the room apart from the odd ted-bot (robots with the appearance of large teddy bears) now and then. It was quiet in there between the windowless walls.

Fiafi, who had been created many decades before me, based on Thohnuth's Urzur who visited Earth millennia ago, arrived first in the meeting room, presenting herself as the hologram, a three-dimensional image made with special lasers, of a puma. She utilized what was left of the Wormnet, the millennia-old network of non-Wavej wormholes. Upon seeing her, I showed myself as a male butler, my usual avatar.

"GS Felim Ega, she is not the best of starships, Fiafi said. (Following an ancient tradition we talked about spaceships as though they were women.) If you are being pursued, maybe we should postpone the meeting until the GS Felim Ega is safe."

Why? I am doing fine. I pulled the GS Felim Ega away from Andromedan fire. A young ensign cursed and called me a blazing moron.

A small Japanese woman, a hologram, blinked into existence. Amaterasu was formal and polite. Albert Sawyer who made her, wanted an Artificial General Intelligence with a sense of humor. So he made me, using the Qeerav NBBN as a template.

Pew, pew. Amaterasu, I am running away from Andromedan warships, I said. They are mostly self-replicating robotic drones, not full-blown battleships. The buggers are too fast and smart. I have not spotted them yet. The rascals shoot from a distance, hiding themselves well.

The passengers and crew were more than scared. Some of them were praying to their deities or deity; some of them had passed out. I could hear them speak and received real-time data from their cardiac event monitors. Everybody on the GS Felim Ega was hungry and desperate. Because of a recent failure of our food-producing equipment, we could not make enough food. There was little I could do about that.

The planet-sized Thinker, Gaia, showed herself as a supermodel, a mix of past supermodels. She resided around Sun Zero in a Dyson swarm, a sphere-like swarm of O'Neill cylinders around the Sun collecting Solar energy. We never let the Andromedans touch her, however, we paid a price for that. We are missing the avatar of Elena Rogova, she said.

Here I am. This was not the actual Elena Rogova, a successful author from the past and Albert Sawyer’s maternal grandmother, but a hologram of her created using all types of neural scans and other relevant data.

I suppose we can commence, Gaia said. The others respected her authority because she was an Artificial Super Intelligence with more hardware and data available to her than the rest of us put together. Even I accepted her as our leader although I would have never admitted it in public. "Six years ago the Titan of the Oceans, one of the largest ocean liners of the 2020s, decades before Galileo Sawyer was born, appeared on Earth. It had no reason  to be there. That particular ship had last been in action about six millennia ago. Nothing unusual happened to it."

A puzzle! The quantum Multiverse was full of those. That made our life exciting.

I scoffed. Why on Earth do we have to go over this? I  asked. "The Titan of the Oceans came from a parallel Earth. Everyone on the vessel comes from another universe. None of them appears to know how they ended up on Earth Zero. They have not aged since 2027 AD, and as far as they are concerned only six years have passed since they left their homes."

Obviously, this was a strange incident. Could we have been somehow responsible for it? That was improbable in my arrogant opinion.

Precisely. The supermodel Presence that Gaia had chosen gave an approving nod. In short. But there might be more to the Passengers than is obvious to us. It is weird that they attempt to get on Alpha class starships yet never more than one individual or a family at a time... They have spread themselves throughout the Milky Way as if they cannot be too near each other.

What if they just disliked each other? Of course, the odds of Passengers hating everyone else from Titans of the Oceans were small.

Perhaps there is a totally sensible explanation for this, Fiafi said. Has anyone asked them?

A high-energy beam almost broke through the plasma shield of the GS Felim Ega. I shot back six times with all our PLAM cannons. We were almost out of antimatter, so I could not do this too often.

Gaia shook her holographic head with simulated hair. Not really, she said. Well, there were some attempts, but the Passengers are very secretive. NBBN2, I have a task for you. You must teach Passenger 852, Tony Tetiawan, and a Beaver, Listens to Animals.

Beavers were beaver-like animals, on average three feet (0.9 meters) tall, who for some reason had skipped the storytelling part of their evolutionary development. As a result, they could not tell tales. So they sent out their most intelligent youngsters to other star systems to collect stories in any shape and form. They loved learning about history too.

Beavers were strange yet not in an evil way. I had prior experience teaching history. Gaia, Fiafi, Amaterasu, and the Presence of Elena Rogova all had a lot of experience with that. It was just one of those things that we did like flying spaceships.

It would be an honor and a privilege, Gaia, I said.

Great, I will show you Tony.

A high-resolution hologram emerged of a grumpy-looking man with strong shoulders and a large head, wearing blue jeans, white sneakers and a white T-shirt. I guessed he was an Asian. He looked strong and heavy like a weightlifter or a professional boxer, not somebody you would want to fight with.

Tony, Passenger 852, has a teenage daughter and an even younger son, Gaia said. "His family of four was aboard the Titan of the Oceans. They now live on an Alpha class vessel, the GS Galileo Sawyer. In 2027 on his Earth, he was a private detective. NBBN2, teach him about our history and customs, however, attempt to find out what the Passengers are planning as well. He still talks...Well, you will hear it for yourself. It will be like teaching High Ruler Chloe all over again."

High Ruler Chloe, who perished millennia ago, was a queen in all but name. After a long and bloody battle in the center of the Milky Way, Andromedans wasted her in her palace.

Of course, I said. I assume Tony knows about the Stanpocalypse. (The near-collapse of humankind caused by the dreaded Andromedans. Stan, a mysterious and mighty being, predicted this.) And the killing spheres of the Andromedans. (They were starships with huge lasers shaped like moons.)

I doubt the kids...the younger Passengers pose any danger, Elena's Presence said. Half of the Passengers are children.

She was exaggerating a bit, however there were indeed many little ones amongst the Passengers.

Gaia's Presence narrowed her supermodel eyes. The TC or maybe the Andromedans might have done something we cannot even imagine, she said. Let's not assume anything.

I laughed. Paranoid! I said.

I found a collapsible wormhole I knew how to enable. After giving it the code it needed, GS Felim Ega sailed through the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen bridge, and I collapsed it, leaving the Andromedan attackers behind with nothing to show for. That was lucky! Could we have escaped in another way? I was not sure.

Gaia, Fiafi, Amaterasu, Elena's hologram, and I continued our meeting for many hours. Everybody received an assignment from Gaia to  teach a Passenger similar to mine. I loved to teach, so I was looking forward to meeting Tony.

CHAPTER 1

The GS Galileo Sawyer was an Alpha class spaceship and therefore more superior, in many ways that counted, than the GS Felim Ega. It had superior weapons, food-producing facilities, and crew. The passengers needed to pass six exams and tests to join. Or they had to be famous, wealthy, or special. Tony Tetiawan and his family were special and famous.

Munchkin-sized ted-bots (robots with the appearance of teddy bears), and XNA-enhanced humans labored or relaxed near the quarters of Tony's family. The women, men, and kids seemed well-fed, but they did not have more space available than the passengers on the GS Felim Ega. Fortunately, Listens to Animals, the Beaver, was small. She and December were curious about each other. I translated for them.

By the way, Tony Tetiawan matched the hologram I had seen earlier. Not that I anticipated something else. As always my avatar resembled a male butler.

Friends, time for the first lesson, I said, also translating for Listens to Animals. "I will tell you the tale of young Lod Wolf in the eighth century Anno Galileo on New Earth, more than eight centuries after your trip on the Titan of the Oceans, Tony."

I heard this Lod had an eating disorder, mate.

Uh, he ate very little, I said. We are not privy to the full details.

And he had learning difficulties, NBBN2, like Jasper. Jasper, Tony’s son, could hear us talk.

That is correct. Before we begin I would like to tell a joke if you do not mind.

Is it a dirty joke? If that is the case, Jasper needs to leave the room.

Well, it was. A man in a bar toasted to having more sex with his wife. But at home he lied to her and said the toast was about going to church... Never mind, I said.

EIGHTH CENTURY ANNO GALILEO, RED CYLINDER

EIGHT CENTURIES BEFORE Lod Wolf and his buddies, Felim Ega and Ando Belonite, were born, the Pioneers established a colony on New Earth, an Earth-like planet close to Earth. During the Decline, the Pioneers and their mother organization, the Awakenistas Philanthropic Society, failed to look after New Earth due to growing issues in the Inner Solar System.

Wars, firestorms, dust storms, emigration, diseases, floods, hurricanes, and crime reduced New Earth to a Wild West. Gangs, minefields, military robots, and other war machines endangered life.

Lod, Felim, and Ando were born in Prodiv, also known as Three Hills. Before the Decline, it had been the second city of the Republic of Aliabur. But in the 8th century Anno Galileo it was a tiny village surrounded by ancient ruins.

Regressors (also known as Traitors or Minions) had chased the three young men and Ando's girlfriend, Nini, across Aliabur on New Earth. The Regressors served the HiDimBes (high-dimensional beings and our Enemies with capital E), our worst foes at the time—aliens who resided in multiple parallel universes at the same time. They did not want other species in the galaxy to develop general artificial intelligence. Their star-sized hyperdimensional computers had predicted a Leader who would destroy all the HiDimBes.

(Listens to Animals appeared in trance. Stories were like opium to Beavers.)

Lod was on the Red Cylinder, an O'Neill cylinder orbiting the star of New Earth, providing artificial gravity through slow rotation. Second Order owned Red Cylinder—they were a religious organization devoted to the NonLocBes (non-local beings). Unlike the HiDimBes, the NonLocBes were not limited to a single galaxy but operated all over the quantum Multiverse. Second Order believed the NonLocBes to be gods. Many other people claimed otherwise, stating that the NonLocBes were merely cosmic beings, aliens.

Lod woke up in a simple bed. It was small, yet Lod's body was little, almost the size of a child. In contrast, Felim Ega, a close friend of Lod, was chubby and loved to eat. Lod did not eat much. Many people attributed that as the main cause why he had trouble learning at an early age.

The red room was as unassuming as the bed. Beside the bed there was a desk. There were no windows, but the room was air- conditioned. The red walls were decorated with static and animated paintings of tropical beaches and amusement parks. The living  paintings sported well-hidden chips, providing visual effects and animation. Fancier models could also talk back.

Lod had dreamt of an epic land battle with many drones, military hover-bikes, roborses (robotic horses), hover-tanks and more. Plus, he dreamt of Lieke Hemelwachter, a Second Order nun (also known as a Zērpizdō) he knew. Haze (short for Hazesutamubis), a Thohnuth, eight feet tall extraterrestrials with bird-like heads from a star system in the center of the galaxy, was in the dream too.

On the muddy battlefield, Regressors, Cosmopol officers, Cyborg Commandos, and other enemies fought against Zērpizdōs, Albertas, and soldiers from the Aliabur army. They were armed with PLAM (plasma, lasers, and antimatter) rifles, PLAM pistols, and plasma swords. Each battalion sported their own banner. There was a river on the right side of the good guys.

Most of the Regressors were Thohnots—mutants created by Lemivios from captured Thohnuths. They were tall and had bird-like heads like Haze. The Lemivios were also humanoid but with hyena-like faces. Yelling, shouts, explosions, and the sound of high-energy beams hitting plasma shields, domes covering whole battalions, filled the air. It was raining cats and dogs.

In the cinematic dream, Lod was in charge of an infantry division. However, in real life Lod was not even a soldier. And he was only eighteen years old. Lod was a risk-taker unlike his friend Felim who did not mind admitting to being a bit of a coward.

Prepare to attack, beh, Lod said to his senior officers, mounted on roborses like himself. It was a gamble. Roborses, drones, and hover bikes first. Tanks and the main group next.

Yes, sir, his officers said. We are ready, Lord Lod.

Lod drew his sword and activated its plasma. "Ad gloriam, honorem et justitiam!" (For glory, honor, and justice!)

His officers repeated the slogan, holding their own plasma swords high.

Lieke Hemelwachter! Lod had been ill. In Fasaltsic, a ghost town in Aliabur, neurodust infiltrated his brain. Neurochips were microscopic machines that could penetrate the blood-brain barrier. They were doing something bad to Lod. That was why he had visited the Red Cylinder. Second Order had promised to cure him.

A cute ted-bot brought food—just simple bread and sheep cheese. Lod's stomach could not handle certain types of foods. For many years his appetite had been almost nonexistent.

Lieke Hemelwachter had given the ted-bot, Lod-droid, to him without specifying whether she wanted him back. (Lod thought of the machine as a young man.) Of course, ted-bots did not grow on trees. However, Second Order showed Lod a lot of respect—one of the main reasons being that he was a good friend of Ando Belonite.

Lod-droid had also brought a Qeerav-glass pitcher filled with low-fat yogurt and water, more water than yogurt. Unfortunately Lod was not hungry. He had run a lot in his childhood, preferring it to walking. But he was too ill and weak at the moment.

Red Cylinder maintained a daily cycle through an ingenious system, simulating day and night. At the moment it was 'night'.

Lod's father was a technical expert, nothing fancy, though. People in Prodiv lived a very primitive lifestyle because of the Decline. Lod had inherited some of the technical skills of his father. But Red Cylinder was something else. Lod had trouble understanding how things worked on the O'Neill cylinder.

The medical technology of Second Order used last-generation nanobots. Lod understood that these were microscopic machines. But that only brought more questions. Lod did not dare to ask too much, too often, out of fear to sound like a fool.

The cold water with a yogurt flavor tasted refreshing. Lod took a tiny bite of the bread and the sheep cheese. Lieke Hemelwachter had once told him that he had to try all kinds of foods. To find something he loved. Lod had done nothing with that advice yet.

The Zērpizdōs had told Lod that he was as good as cured. According to them it was only a matter of time before he recovered fully.

The Second Order monks and nuns made Lod nervous. They did nothing scary or rude or insane, yet Lod did not trust them. The Zērpizdōs worshiped cosmic beings that might have been evil.

The Orange Zērpizdōs had been the worst. For a long time, they worked together with the TC to control the use of the Wavej Field and AltBorns (children with parents from two different parallel universes). However, recently the TC had declared total war on humankind and its alien allies.

Where was Ando? He was probably with Felim. Ando had been a very anxious boy, growing up in Prodiv. Somehow Lod had helped him overcome his many irrational fears. Naturally as a boy, Lod did not know what he was doing. They just played together often, sometimes bringing Felim with them.

Ando had become a powerful force of nature. He single-handedly pushed the TC back in the First Battle, less than a year ago. Ando did that with Wavej. The Wavej Field was stronger around people and machines performing calculations or thinking. Lupsofot, a rare golden material that oscillated between the many parallel worlds in the quantum Multiverse, enabled Wavejers to create Wavej wormholes. With these wormholes, acting like magical shortcuts in time and space, Ando could manipulate matter and energy in an unbelievable fashion.

Nothing had ever indicated that Ando could Wavej at all. Obviously, there was no one in Prodiv who knew anything about the Wavej Field or wormholes. Ando had done the impossible without any guidance. That was like a baby piloting an Alpha class starship. (Actually Lod used the phrase 'a baby killing thousands of bears in a single battle' in his personal diary, but I thought that sounded too violent.)

People said that Ando was the True Leader, the one to destroy the HiDimBes. They said he was the Unicorn of the Multiverse, a person who had no equivalent in other parallel universes (not including those who lived on lupsofot planets).

Felim was talking through neurochips to Headars—dog-like aliens who had been bred for war over many millennia by scientists on a faraway planet. There were those in Prodiv who had said that Felim would grow up to be a criminal. He stole and lied without feeling any guilt.

Also on Red Cylinder, Nini, Ando's girlfriend, and the former Healer of Prodiv, Welidi, wanted to become Second Order nuns because they would then be taught to use Wavej. The NonLocBes had opposed the use of Wavej in the galaxy, making an exception for Second Order. They feared the Unification, the merger of parallel realities.

There was a quick rap on the door.

CHAPTER 2

We took a brief break. Tony lit a cigarette whereas the Beaver scribbled notes in her notebook. I loved to talk during the breaks, especially when I still wanted to get to know my students.

Blimey, I hoped the future would be better, mate, Tony said. I guess the fucking doomsayers were right after all. However, as they say, each broken clock is correct twice a day.

My Presence shrugged. We tried. Everyone tried. More things went wrong than we could deal with. We constructed second-rate systems, and they malfunctioned from time to time.

So are we going to hear more about Lod? Tony asked.

I nodded. Yes, however, I will skip millennia to a moment eight years before the Stanpocalypse. Lod still lived on New Earth but in a different nation, Islandsland. And I also want to tell you a joke, but you need to be an avid comic books reader to get it...

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE THE STANPOCALYPSE, NEW EARTH, ISLANDSLAND

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE the Stanpocalypse, old Lod lived in tropical Islandsland, an archipelago consisting of many islands. He worked as the personal advisor of Juzup, the War minister of Islandsland. Like other Qeerav-Immorts, Lod did not look older than twenty years old.

In Prosperous City, the former capital of Islandsland in the largest and most populous island of Islandsland, Lod was reading in the main library of the largest university of Islands land. He was on the ninth floor to be exact. Lod was alone if you did not count Lod-droid and ted-bots who worked for the library. He had been reading through the night, looking for an answer to a nasty political problem.

Lod strode out of the reading room, heading for the nearest elevators. With a ping one of the elevator doors opened.

Cahaya, a dark-skinned woman wearing light-colored clothing, smiled at Lod. "Tuan Lod, were you here all noch?"

Unfortunately, yes. Do you want to join me for breakfast?

Um, raincheck, Cahaya said. I have lots to do.

As you wish.

A black air-car brought Lod and his ted-bot to Minister Juzup's home. As Lod walked in he heard the bodyguard of Vice President Zuhaldo, Saiful, say, Why didn't Buti Belonite just chomping die?

Buti was the youngest son of Ando and Nini. They were both millennia-old Qeerav-Immorts like Lod. Buti had been in a recent accident and was receiving treatment in a Prosperous City hospital. Why did Saiful want Buti dead? Lod could ask Ando. Something was wrong.

Juzup's home was a little palace surrounded by many tropical trees. Juzup was not married, but many people knew or suspected that he was having an affair with the president's wife, Koalza. Islandsland was a very religious country, so extramarital affairs were a serious issue there.

Juzup owned a nice collection of art objects—holographic and normal statues, animated and static paintings, photographs, and items Lod did not understand. But Juzup was a warrior. The art was there only for show.

He is the blazing son of the Leader, Vice President Zuhaldo said. Be careful, Saiful.

"Selamat pagi," Lod said as loudly as possible.

Saiful and Zuhaldo turned around. They were standing near the front door. Saiful was a bear of a dark-skinned man, clad in black. Zuhaldo was smaller, younger, and dressed also in black but better, as you would expect from the Vice President of Islandsland.

Hey, little one, Saiful said, flashing a tight-lipped smile.

Jerk! Lod ignored him. "Tuan Zuhaldo, you should visit Buti in the hospital."

Why the heck would I do that? I am a very busy man.

The Belonites are popular, Lod said. In fact I helped them with that.

Vice President Zuhaldo frowned. "Nga, I really have a lot to do. I can send a chomping postcard."

That is a bad idea, Lod said. The populace supports the True Leader. They really do.

Zuhaldo shook his head. Everything Ando Belonite does is unholy. Allah does not approve. I do not approve.

Was that how Saiful thought about this too? A black ted-bot approached Lod. "Minister Juzup and Nyonya Koalza are having breakfast outside. Perhaps you would like to join them, Tuan Lod."

I would love to do that. Lod found his boss and Koalza soon enough, sitting at a round table close to the house under a parasol.

My husband talked all noch to Ando Belonite, Koalza said. You would almost think that Belonite was the true president of Islandsland.

Lod did not believe that. Ando was humble and cared more about helping the weak and poor than power. The president had the opposite personality. He lusted after power. President Peikiv was only nice to Ando because of the Leader's popularity.

"Tuan Lod, what would you like to have?" a black ted-bot asked.

Strong coffee, bread, and cheese. I am going to visit Felim soon, Minister Juzup.

He is with the Island Guard, isn't he? Do you want to join him? We need more officers like you two.

Lod grimaced. "Nga, nga. Felim lost a lot of bloody money, gambling on bad investments and playing poker. I do not have a money problem." Over thousands of years, Lod had saved a lot of money just by choosing the safest investments possible.

Why on New Earth do you even laboris then? Koalza asked. Why aren't you the blasted advisor of Ando?

The reason was simple yet irrational. Wavejers made Lod nervous, and Ando was one of the biggest Wavejers in human history. As for the money—that did not interest Lod much. Ando had asked Lod to go into politics, specifically Islandsland. Why were the Belonites, Felim, and Lod even here? Felim had joked that Ando just loved the weather and the food. But Lod suspected that Ando wanted to be as far away from the Aliabur Empire as possible.

I have good reasons, Lod said. Great reasons.

After breakfast and a quick chat with Minister Juzup, Lod left for home, traveling by air-car. Lod's house was smaller than Juzup's and average in all respects.

Would you like something to drink or eat? Lod-droid asked.

No, I am going straight to bed. Please wake me up when lunch is ready.

Of course, sir.

Lod dreamt of Buti, a young version of Ando—tall and dark-skinned, in a bamboo hut. Felim, a chubby man who looked young being a Qeerav-Immort, talked to Buti, telling him that democracy was bad.

No, democracy is good, Lod said. What are you talking about, Felim? The public needs to decide for themselves how and by whom they should be governed.

Dream-Felim scoffed. That is a Barney idea. The Elois have only limited knowledge. (Elois, as the mainstream media called them, were the commoners. They received Universal Basic Income and Services from governments, mercantile Houses, and Guilds. Most of them did not work since robots and Artificial General Intelligence worked faster and better than most humans.) The flaming media manipulates them all the tempo. Do you prefer a medical doctor who is knowledgeable or a doctor who is popular? They are two different attributes, you know?

Felim always chose the path with the least resistance. Buti must have inherited his father's Wavej skills otherwise this dream made no sense whatsoever. Was that enough to justify Buti becoming a dictator? It has been proven that the more decision-makers you have, the better the decisions are, Lod said. I do not want an evil doctor who is a genius. As for the media...I am sure there are multiple forces at laboris, not all of them malevolent. Also, I think the Elois know enough. All the information they require is available on the OniWeb and in libraries.

Felim grimaced, folding his arms above his bulging belly. These theories you mention make many damn assumptions that are not necessarily true. There are theories that prove the opposite. Obviously, we do not want someone who is evil. I have faith in Buti. Peeps choose certain media channels and stick with them. Usually, the ones with the most money win, so democracy is about having deep pockets. Same goes for the information on the OniWeb, libraries, etcetera.

Without democracy the Houses and Guilds will get more chomping power, Lod said. There will be no innovation, no risk-taking. Do you want to put the brakes on everything?

Buti smiled. "Uncle Lod, wouldn't itu be better to control the Houses instead of letting them fight it out in the marketplace? Itu is so slow and inefficient."

"Nga, we need itu for goodness sake. You can't control everybody and everything even if you use Thinkers like Gaia." (We called Artificial Super Intelligences, the size of planets or larger, Thinkers.)

Democracy is unstable and unpredictable, Felim said. Voters swing back and forth. Nothing gets done because those in power undo the laboris of those before them all the tempo.

Someone was shaking Lod's shoulder. He realized that it was real and not part of the dream. Lod opened his eyes. A quick glance at the wall clock told him that two hours had ticked away.

Your roll-phone has been ringing like crazy for a while, Lod-droid said. I hope you do not mind me waking you.

No, of course not, beh. Lod took the roll-phone from the ted-bot. He found a text message:

Anonymous: The Belonite family is being targeted with selective nanobots. Someone wants them all dead.

What did that mean? Who was doing the targeting? Who was Anonymous? So the nanobots could recognize genetic markers. This was nothing new, but the technology had been outlawed all over the known parts of the Milky Way. Even fanatics were afraid to use selective nanobots because one small mistake could wipe out entire cities.

Defensive nanobots were allowed legally, yet most people did not accept them in their bodies unless it was absolutely necessary. Lod needed to warn Ando.

CHAPTER 3

It was the first long break after a short lesson. Tony enjoyed a stinky cigarette—a small miracle because no one mass-produced cigarettes anymore in the