“No, I hadn’t come to it yet,” said Iris. “I must teach you Reading and Writing so that your species can defend itself. The ultra-high-energy collisions that you have recently been producing are generating signals that echo throughout the Cosmos. They attracted our attention and resulted in our contact, but they are also likely to attract the attention of a less benevolent species, the Hive. The Hive is the only example of which we are aware of a social insect species, similar to your ants, bees, and termites, that has achieved intelligence. Their intelligence is collective, each Drone, Worker, Soldier, and Queen united through electromagnetic links as components of an overall Hive Mind.
“Your world is presently in great danger from this species. With your Superconducting Super Collider in operation, it is only a matter of time until you attract the notice of the Hive. You have at most a few years, perhaps much less time to prepare yourselves. They may already have noticed your signals. Even now they may be preparing their response.”
“I don’t understand,” said George. “You’re suggesting this Hive might attack the Earth? This sounds like something out of H. G. Wells.”
“The Hive was unknown to us until the last four gross of orbits, excuse me, until about six hundred years ago. Their form of contact is to establish a Bridge, then use coherent light beamed through the Bridge to manipulate atoms and construct nanomachines in the contacted universe. The Hive nanomachines then reprocess any matter they find into Hive components: Workers, Soldiers, and Flyers. After a short while, perhaps three of your days, when they have reached the critical number of components, they produce a Hive Queen. At that point, the new Hive Mind becomes conscious.
“Their species has in the past few centuries been attempting to reproduce and spread in this way by colonizing other universes. They have had some successes. They attempted their trick with our world, but one Individual Read the initial contact nanomachines and ‘improved’ them so that they became benevolent. He saved our species.
“We destroyed their Bridge-making apparatus, but they built more. We have formed an alliance of intelligent species that has resolved to stop the spread of the Hive. We want to prevent it from infesting your world. Some of your race, at least, must learn to Read and Write as soon as possible. Then, if and when the Hive arrives, you will be able to deal with them.”
“Why don’t you simply sabotage the SSC? Wouldn’t that stop the signals?” asked Roger.
“That would be intrusive, and also unwise. Over a period of time we have developed a technique for isolating each universe from the Hive by capturing the Bridgehead they send before a Hive Mind has formed and using the Bridge against them. We cannot be absolutely sure that the Hive has not already established a Bridgehead here. However, from past experience with them, that would be unlikely. When they do arrive, we must be ready. And then your SSC may be useful.” “Why do you think it’s unlikely they’re already here?” Alice asked.
“In all Hive attacks in our experience,” said Iris, “the hyperdimensional signals were produced by the target species for about one of your years before the Hive attempted to establish a Bridgehead. It appears that they must devote considerable time to making preparations before they can act.”
“Wait a minute,” said George. “The LHC at CERN has already been operating for more than a year. Doesn’t it send the same signals, attract the same kind of attention?”
“It’s a matter of the energy threshold,” said Iris. “The collisions of the other machine are ‘silent’ because they are below the critical energy level, while the SSC collisions are above it. Your machine’s energy was perhaps an unfortunate choice. But, of course, you had no way of knowing that.”
George stroked his beard, frowning. “What did you mean about using the SSC?” he asked.
“We might defeat the Hive with a time vortex, and if we did the high concentration of electric power of the SSC would be useful. However, that is a desperate measure with consequences for you and us that we wish to avoid. But the SSC also has another use. We have found that the captured Bridgehead can be placed into a focused particle beam and given a very high electric charge, then accelerated with a machine like the SSC to a near light-speed velocity and held there for a time, a few days or weeks. Then relativistic time dilation produces a time shift in the Bridgehead’s time frame. The existence of such a time-shifted Bridgehead makes it impossible for the Hive to establish another Bridge into your universe without forming a catastrophic time vortex. You would be permanently protected from them.”
“In this context, I’d like to understand more about how you establish a wormhole, what you called a Bridge,” said Roger. “Can you connect to anywhere?”
“We can only make a new Bridge to a locus that has reached the critical energy density,” said Iris. “And we are careful only to Bridge to a single location in another Bubble and never within our own. To do otherwise would be extremely dangerous.”
“Dangerous how?” George asked.
“Again, there is a danger of accidentally creating a time vortex. It is a rather complex subject, but I can explain it now, if you like.”
“Later,” said Alice, “I’m sure there will be time enough for small talk about physics. What I want to know is: When do we learn to Read and Write and how can we use the skills to protect humanity against the Hive?”
“We could begin now,” said Iris. “I must Write a retrovirus that will modify your genetic code and also Write several different nanomachines that will alter your body and your brain, installing receptors, modifiers, nerve paths, and creating new brain centers. I will introduce these into your bodies. You must rest for about two rotations, forty-eight hours, while your bodies are changed to accommodate your new capabilities. After that, I will give you instructions in how to use the skills,”
“Does it hurt?” asked Roger.
“There would be some pain if nothing were done to counteract it. However, part of the process involves the generation of endorphins that nullify most of the painful effects. You will not, however, be particularly mobile or comfortable. It will be like having a bad case of influenza, but without the fever and congestion.”
“Okay,” said Roger. “I’m ready now.”
“Me too,” said Alice, feeling some anxiety as she spoke.
George looked irritated and uncomfortable. Finally he said, “Okay, dammit. I suppose I might as well join this stampede of the guinea pigs.”
43
ALICE WOKE FIRST. SHE FELT WEAK AND VERY HUNGRY, as if she had been ill for a long time. She vaguely remembered recent periods of dull aches, sharp pains, and strange dreams, as if her mind and body had been dissolved and reassembled.
She struggled out of bed and stood. As the initial dizziness cleared, she glanced across the bed at George. He did not look ready to face the day, she decided. She quietly closed the bedroom door and tiptoed to the bathroom. After a quick shower, she felt better and returned to the living room.
Iris was sitting in a chair by the window where she could see the ocean. She seemed to be using Roger’s lapstation, rapidly reading page after page of dense text and arcane mathematical equations. The plastic case of a textbook holo-ROM lay nearby. Its title was Advanced Quantum Gravity Theory. The child was wearing a frilly pink dress that Alice had not seen before.