Surprised, Jordan had to swallow before he could say, “Thank you, sir.” Then he added, “To whom am I speaking?”
“I am the last of the Predecessors,” said the voice. “I have been waiting for this moment for many thousands of Earth years.”
“You are a computer?” Jordan asked.
“I am a self-aware, sentient entity, just as you are.”
“But you’re a machine, not a person.”
A moment’s hesitation. Then, “Hath not a machine eyes? Hath not a machine organs, dimensions, senses?”
He’s quoting Shakespeare! Jordan realized. And very selectively.
He asked, “Have you affections, passions, as well? If we tickle you, do you laugh? If we wrong you, will you not be revenged?”
The voice replied, “No. No laughter. No vengeance. My intelligence is not awash in hormones and chemical stimulants, as yours is.”
“I see.”
“You desire to know our history.”
“Very much,” said Jordan. “Where do you come from? What is your origin?”
“Our kind arose in a star cluster in what you call the Perseus arm of the galaxy, some twelve thousand light-years from your solar system.”
“Twelve thou…” Jordan’s mind boggled. “You’ve covered that distance?”
“We are much older than you.”
“Yes, I can see that.”
“Originally we were organic creatures, although our form was nothing like yours. Over the eons, the organic entities went extinct. But they left us, their inorganic sentient descendents; we have survived.”
“And why did you come here? Was it a purposeful mission or did you just happen along this way?”
“Our travels are purposeful. We seek intelligent civilizations, be they organic or otherwise.”
“And you created Adri and his people?”
“We built this planet and peopled it,” the voice replied, “to attract your attention.”
Jordan squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, his mind churning, trying to add up what he’d just been told. A machine. It’s a machine. It’s traveled twelve thousand light-years to come here and create New Earth and people it with humanlike creatures to attract our attention.
He asked, “But if your original biological form looked nothing like us, not human at all, how did you create Adri and the rest of these people to be so humanlike?”
“From samples of your cellular structure.”
“Samples of our…” Jordan gasped. “You’ve visited Earth?”
“Many times.”
Adri raised a hand. Looking slightly embarrassed, almost guilty, he said, “I’m afraid that many of your UFO stories stem from our visits to your planet.”
“They’re true?” Jordan gasped.
“Some of them,” said Adri. “Many have been highly embellished, of course.”
“I’ll be damned,” Jordan said. Then he realized, “You—Aditi and all the rest of you—were created merely to attract our attention?”
The voice answered, “They were created so that your first contact with another intelligent civilization would be as easy for you as possible.”
“And now that we’ve made contact, what’s to become of these people?”
“They have served their function. They will live out their lives and then wither away, as all organic creatures do.”
“That’s not right! Not fair. It’s … inhuman.”
“It is the nature of organic species to eventually pass into extinction. Neither fairness nor your concept of right can alter biological inevitability.”
“But—”
“Jordan,” said Adri, placing a calming hand on Jordan’s knee, “the Predecessor is speaking in terms of millennia, eons. Be content. The human race will also face extinction eventually, perhaps not for many millennia … perhaps sooner.”
“No! We’re not dinosaurs, not trilobites. We’re intelligent! We can overcome biological dead ends.”
The voice countered, “Intelligence is rare in the galaxy. Sadly, most intelligent species destroy themselves, just as your species is doing now.”
Almost angrily, Jordan demanded, “Then what’s the reason for your going to all this trouble? Traveling here. Building a planet to resemble Earth. Populating it with human beings. Why have you done all this?”
The Danger
For several moments the voice was silent. Jordan sat in the cramped compartment and watched the multicolored lights flickering across Adri’s weathered face, as the old man sat beside him, stroking his calming pet.
At last the voice said, “Intelligence is extremely rare in the galaxy. Most intelligent species destroy themselves.”
“You’ve said that,” Jordan replied impatiently. “You’ve said that the human race is already in the process of destroying itself.”
“That is true.”
“Have you come to help us, then?”
“Yes, Jordan Kell. But, more important, we have also come to ask for your help.”
That stunned Jordan. “Our help? What do you mean?”
“Twenty-eight thousand Earth years ago the two black holes at the core of the galaxy merged into one. Their merger caused a massive gamma-ray burst that is spreading across the galaxy, killing everything in its path.”
“Twenty-eight thousand years ago?”
“In slightly more than two thousand years your planet Earth will be bathed in lethal levels of gamma radiation. All life on your world will be erased.”
“But our astronomers haven’t seen any such discharge in the galaxy’s core,” Jordan objected.
“Your astronomers see the core as it existed some thirty thousand years ago. The light of the gamma burst has not reached your telescopes yet. When it does, you will die.”
Jordan’s insides felt hollow, quavering. This can’t be, he told himself. It can’t be!
But he heard himself ask, “If this is true, why have you come here? To warn us? To help us? To watch us die?”
“To warn you, yes,” the voice intoned. “To help you, yes. And to ask for your help.”
“Our help? To do what?”
“To help as many intelligent species as possible.”
“To help them do what?”
“To help them to survive.”
“Survive?” Jordan snapped. “But you said everything will be destroyed, we’ll all be killed.”
“It may be possible to survive the danger,” said the voice, as flat and calm as ever.
“Your energy shields!” Jordan fairly shouted. “Could they be used to protect an entire planet?”
“It is possible.”
“Then … we can survive the danger.”
“If you believe it exists. If you accept our help. If you overcome your innate paranoia and xenophobia.”
“Of course we will,” Jordan snapped. “We’d be fools not to.”
“There are many fools among you,” the voice said, flatly, without accusation, without disapproval.
“If you mean Meek and the others—”
“Your group is a microcosm of Earth’s teeming billions. How many fools are there on your home world? How many fearful ones who would turn their backs on the truth? How many would-be dictators who would take this opportunity to seize power for themselves? How many who would say that a danger two thousand years in the future is no concern of their own? How many who would let their descendents face the danger unprepared?”
Chastened, Jordan replied in a low voice, “I see. I think I understand the problem. It won’t be easy to convince my people of the need to act, to face a danger that’s two thousand years away.”
“There is more,” said the voice.
“More?”
“I am the last of the Predecessors here. Adri’s people are few. They can help you, but you must help them, as well.”
With a sidelong glance at Adri, still fondling his pet, Jordan asked, “Help them? How?”