Beyond Humanity

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The planet was nearly invisible, with only the light of the ship's engines and the distant stars giving it a vague shape to those on board. These engines were scheduled to flare up again soon for the final phase of deceleration - far less spectacular than the two preceding it as no antimatter would be used this time. It was unlikely to give them much more of a view, however, which Carter considered a shame. It would have been nice to take a look at the planet before landing there. He was tired of looking out the ship's viewports to see nothing.

They'd better use lights, he thought to himself, knowing that there was a good chance they wouldn't. They were transhumanists - why have lights when you could have a colourful simulation of the world around you pumped into your visual cortex, or have transcended the need for visuals entirely. He'd been thinking of the possibilities for many years now, written long dry academic papers on them. They were, of course, all just suppositions, but now was the chance to find out for real.

But he still hoped they had lights, because not everyone in the galaxy had transcended humanity - and certainly no one on this ship. Maybe they'd put up some just for them, if they were feeling especially thoughtful or diplomatic (not that they had any reason to be diplomatic - it's a long way from Earth, and the way they were treated there - they have every reason to be as undiplomatic as they feel like).

Carter left the viewport - it wasn't changing, nor particularly engaging - and picked up a PDU, opening it up. It still had the page loaded that he'd been reading last night, a bad sci-fi novel of the sort that had been creeping back into circulation just before the launch of this mission - full of transhumanist conspiracies and them eating hapless researchers for lunch. They amused him, being one of those hapless researchers.

But now he brought a different book to the screen - one he'd written, in fact. The book that was the reason for his inclusion in this whole affair - an anthropological study of the transhumanist movement on Earth and then an entirely speculative extrapolation based on this trying to show what their society might look like. He knew it was probably crap - really nothing more than a science fiction story made to look like an intellectual wank - but it'd gotten someone's attention, and so here he was. He brought up the first page and started reading, wondering as he went over each atrocity why they shouldn't expect to be eaten on landing - they deserved it.

 

As Katrina entered the ship's lounge she was approached by a tall man, her assistant, Jason.

"we'll soon be there. What do we know of this place, Katrina?"

"Very little, Jason. I was surprised the transhumanist agreed to let us explore the planet. But I guess even they could use the funds they would get if we find an interesting ore." She looks around at the others, two women and two men. They glance at her then continue with what they were doing. A thin. lanky man is staring out the dark viewport. Alan and Lynda are talking quietly, while Bertha studies something intently.

They are a good crew accepting her lack of tact and working together harmoniously.

She turns back to Jason, "I know little of transhumanist and it isn't important to me. I doubt we will have much contact with them. I do wish they had given us more information about the planet. We can't afford to waste time exploring for non-existent minerals."

She sits down in a comfortable chair and stretches out. She is impatient to get to work. Despite the marvels of space travel it has been a long journey.

 

Jake stretched back on the bunk in his cabin, and closed his eyes. He slowed his breath for a moment, before twitching in irritation and reaching around for a remote. After seizing it, he flicked a button and altered the music that flowed throught the room.

The new sound was much quieter than the old, soothing. He looked at the screen by his bed, and saw that they'd be arriving long before his next shift began.

He lowered his head back onto the pillow, closed his eyes, and waited for the announcement of arrival to come.

 

Time passed, and the book (with which he was already intimately familiar already) began to blur. Maybe it's time to give up, Carter thought, and put down the unit. The bed was looking rather inviting, and he went to lie down. Just as he was nearly settled though, the ship's PA systems blared with a pre-recorded voice speaking in flat monotone.
"All high-level personnel, please make your way to the bridge. Repeat; all high-level personnel, please make your way to the bridge."

Carter sighed. Typical. He got back to his feet with some effort and started making his way along the corridors. At least this time it would probably be for something important, seeing how close they were to the planet.

He made it to the bridge first - a room full of buttons and monitors which they'd been told not to fiddle with under any circumstances. He dropped himself into one of the black leather chairs and waited.

[ May 04, 2006, 14:41: Message edited by: Aikanaro ]

 

Katrina raised an eyebrow at the annoucement, gestered to Jason and the two of them headed to the bridge. Arriving there they saw the researcher Carter. Katrina nodded at him and Jason seated himself next to him. Katrina took the seat next Jason and waited silently.

 

Jake sighed as the tone rang through the ship, and swung his feet onto the deck. He supposed he'd best turn up, as one of the pilots of the ship he was senior enough to be expected.

He stepped through the door of his room and locked it behind him with a verbal command. Then, he trudged to the bridge, running a hand through his hair, and tucking his tunic into his trousers on the way.

When he finally arrived, he noticed that he was the last person, and that the others were waiting for him. With a sheepish grin and a mumbled apology he sunk into the only empty seat.

 

Once Jake had sat down, several lights on one of the panels lit up. The monotonous mechanical voice came out from an overhead speaker.
"Data received from surface at 0500 hours Earth time. Included was an extensive translation program which will allow some understanding of their language. Also included was a message, which was translated using aforementioned software. Would you like to hear the message?"
Carter assumed he spoke for everyone when he gave an impatient "Yes!".

"Message is as follows: 'Greetings Oppressors. I hafraganos have equipment capable of running translation. Equip it and land! We have much to discuss.' This is a rough translation, and several different versions of the message could be relayed. If you wish to hear them, please say so. The translation software provided failed to recognise one word. Otherwise, that is all."

The voice stopped, and Carter looked to the pilot, who's call the landing and any reply was.

 

Jake leant back and steepled his fingers, eyes closed in thought. When he opened them again he saw that all eyes were on him.

"Well, that sounds friendly. I guess we had better comply with them. Rely a message- tell them we're on our way."

He swung one knee up onto the other, and closed his eyes again, thinking furiously. The message certainly sounded threatening, though perhaps that was simply the translation.

"It would probably be a good idea to hear these other translations as well," he added aloud before returning to his thoughts.

We'd best hope they aren't too unfriendly , he thought

 

Katrina looked at the pilot with an expressionless face. She had a contract that hopefully would be beneficial to her group and to the transhumans. Her sole interest was the potential minerals to be found on the planet. They had their own equipment including a hovercraft for exploring. She had no interest in the transhumans themselves, although, there were those who called her inhuman.

She shrugged slightly and waited for the translations.

Jason leaned forward a little, interested in what was going on. He accepted Katrina as she was. The team had been very successful under her leadership.

 

The panel lights flicked back on again. "Request for further translations noted. Alternative translations for word one, identified as 'Greetings', could also mean 'hello', 'I' can also be translated as 'we'...'," the computer rattled off a number of synonyms for 'I' and 'we'. Indeed, most of the alternative meanings were useless.

Carter sighed. Translation just wasn't a job that computers could do well - they weren't flexible enough. Rather than listen to the endless tirade, he booted up a word processing program began to draft the reply message, keeping it in simple terms to try and avoid any confusion.

 

Jake cut the translation problem off before it bored any other crewmembers to death.

"Well, that was useless. So, the general gist of the message is that some unsociable people on the planet want to talk to us. We don't know why or what, but they're obviously eager to discuss it, whatever it is. I hope everybody's ready, because we're going down."

He climbed from his seat, and dropped into the vacated pilot's throne. He pulled the controls forward and keyed in his ID. When the screen flashed a welcoming blue, he lifted the headset from the back of the chair and slotted a card from his pocket into it. A visor slipped down over his vision, allowing him to see multiple views of the ship as it moved through space.

He drawled a few verbal commands, and the descent began.

 

Monitors showed what was going on outside the ship; first more stars disappeared as they drew closer to the planet, then the computer informed them blankly that they were entering the upper levels of the atmosphere. It all seemed to be going a lot faster than Carter had expected.

Now, finally, he felt real excitement. They were almost there, first contact with an alien species was about to be made. If that wasn't any anthropologists's dream, he didn't know what was.
The screens showed nothing as they entered the clouds, which were thick in the extreme. Readouts on the computer screens mentioned high lightning activity, which quickly became evident when the clouds around them started lighting up, making a spectacular show on the small screens.

The ship broke free of the clouds, and finally they had their first view of the planet's surface, lit briefly again and again by lightning flashes. Carter thought it looked miserable - the kind of gloom expected in Hell, the comparison assisted by the faint red glow caused by numerous volcanoes, some not very far away.

Bright artificial lights could be seen below - a small cluster of them, growing larger as the ship descended.

 

With a few more commands, the ship transgressed the atmosphere, and hurtled towards the ground. WHen it looked like the ship was out of control, Jake pulled it sharply out of the dive, and looked around the bridge, smiling.

"Scared you, didn't I?"

The groans all around showed him that his immaturity was not appreciated, but that wouldn't convince him to ever grow up.

"Landing in twenty seconds. Prepare yourselves."

His message passed thorugh the ship's intercom, alerting all on board that touchdown was imminent.

 

The ship descended smoothly into what seemed like a bowl, fitting the ship's somewhat rounded hull perfectly. The monitors had shown the landing platform changing shape just before the ship had touched down on it, moving rapidly and almost seamlessly to create the proper shape. Outside the area was very brightly illuminated by what seemed to be quite conventional spotlights beaming down from squat towers.

"Well, at least there's light," Carter said, feeling himself relax after such a ridiculous descent. Privately he was cursing the pilot. Despite the obvious effect of being horrible to his nerves - who knew how the transhumanist would take it? Foreign envoys should arrive in a dignified way, not acting like immature children! It was not the first impression he'd been hoping for.

[ June 28, 2006, 10:26: Message edited by: Aikanaro ]

 

When the ship had landed, Katrina returned to her quarters, got her things and met her crew at the exit. The door opened out on to a normal looking landing site. They exited the ship and looked around. She tried to look beyond the lights to see what the planet looked liked but only blackness met her gaze. Her crew headed to the cargo bay to retrieve their equipment but she saw a figure standing near a building watching them. She headed over and spoke to the person.

"I and my crew are here under contract to seek out minerals and set up mining operations if likely ores are found. To whom do I speak?"

The figure said something completely unintelligible to her and then handed her a small box. As the person spoke the box translated.

"When all are gathered I am to take you inside to meet with planet representatives." The figure then fell silent simply staring out over the field.

Katrina didn't even bother to shrug but simply turned and walked back to where the crew was assembling and checking their equipment. Some boxes where stacked to the side to be stored until needed. She told them about meeting the representatives and once they were sure everything was accounted for and safe they all walked back to the building.

 

Steve, still nauseous from the shunt through the atmosphere, stowed his ph test and sample extraction kit in its belt pouch (where it had been before he pulled it out to check on it for the tenth time in as many hours), smoothed his nonexistent hair and hurried after the others who were following their guide toward the meeting with the H+ representatives.

As he trotted in the direction that his internal compass told him was east he was distracted again by the utilitarian elegance of transhumanist construction: the planet itself seemed to be mostly either molten or freshly cooled. The slag of the natural landscape was blistered around the spaceport by the spires that held the spotlights and what appeared to be bubbles; bubbles that could easily encompass their ship. As they drew closer to the structure he could see that it was not part of the natural landscape. It was a building, but it was formed out of a dark grey latex-like substance which showed stretch marks and other telltale signs of a grown structure.

Their guide moved towards the structure with long slow strides. He or she (if it was a he or she, these were transhumanists after all) seemed to be disconnected from the ground as if skating on ice. Or as if he could as easily glide, but pretended to walk out of deference for his less evolved cousins.

As the party approached the featureless structure an archway about 3 meters tall and 2 meters wide seemed to melt from its face. Inside Steve could see only blackness. He would have to get his eyes augmented one of these days.

[ July 06, 2006, 04:42: Message edited by: moulderingstump ]

 

Carter gritted his teeth watching Katrina's reaction to the transhumanist - even if they didn't understand anything about common Earth courtesy, even saw it as unnecessary and primitive, it still would've been nice to see some attempt at it made. There was, after all, every chance that the transhumanists knew when someone was being rude, and weren't so ineffable as not to care.

He headed towards the building indicated with the rest of the small group of those who were allowed off the craft (at least for this first face-to-face contact). The architecture was interesting - not particularly exciting, but interesting regardless. He hoped that it wasn't indicative of all architecture here though, as he imagined that the blank grey buildings would grow rather monotonous were they repeated.

He walked into the black room, hoping that they'd been thoughtful enough to install lights here also. It turned out that they had, and as soon as they were a few steps inside the interior was illuminated.

The inside of the building was as miserable as the out - grey, lifeless, with all the furniture looking as though it had grown out of the floor. Mostly the furniture consisted of benches arranged like church pews - perhaps they had been expecting more to disembark than had done so?

At the front were three ... entities. Each was humanoid in figure, but lacked many key features which would have classified them as 'human' - such as faces. Instead of faces, there was a blank, grey wall. Featureless in the same way as the building. He wondered if they were transhumanists, or merely some horrible android.

"Be seated," came a voice from an overhead speaker, and he wondered if it was one of the ... things at the front (no doubt being mouthless wasn't an impediment to speech in this world). He promptly followed the instruction, heading up the aisle and taking a seat on the front pew, trying not to stare.

 

Their guide stood just outside the structure as the terran scientists shuffled inside. Steve, bringing up the rear and fascinated by the transhumans, couldn’t take his eyes off of the only representative they had encountered so far. As the guid motioned them inside Steve noticed that his hands were truncated as if it had no fingers. Steve kept his head down in hopes that he wasn’t gawping like some country bumpkin, but when he saw the guide start to melt into the wall and ground he couldn’t help but gasp.

Inside the structure was the same dull grey as the outside the ceiling was high and the room broad. The room, which appeared like an old fashioned church more than anything else, was now lit from everywhere at once with no discernable source. The far walls came together over a raised dais on which stood three more of the transhumans. These had the same slender humanoid shape as the guide; as if they had all been stamped from the same mold. Except the faces. The three things (Steve couldn’t be sure they were entities as they were perfectly motionless and he was taking nothing for granted here) at the front of the room were clothed in grey slightly lighter than the building.

As the group walked towards the front of the room, passing rows of what could only be called pews; Steve started to wonder if this was all some kind of joke. This all looked to him like the perfect setting for one of the tirades he’d watched religious leaders deliver in the old news footage. The ones that called for the ban and outright murder of transhumans. The ones that finally lead to the transhumans leaving earth all those years ago. Thinking like this, Steve suddenly wished he was back on the ship.

When a disembodied voice boomed “Be Seated” Steve was grateful to be closer to a fetal position.

[ July 07, 2006, 02:51: Message edited by: moulderingstump ]

 

Jake walked along with the others, the visor of his helmet pulled down over his eyes, so that only his mouth and chin showed of his face. He was glad that the visor hid the look of distaste that he couldn't quite hide.

He sat with the rest and shivered as he caught sight of the figures at the front. He could feel eyes on him, even though they had no faces, and it made his skin crawl. The feeling soon passed, but his apprehension remained, and only worsened as someone began to speak.

 

"Oppressors," the voice from the speakers began once everyone was seated. "It is lacrctos that you have joined us."
Carter wished he knew the language, having just totally missed the meaning of that statement. 'At least it seems that 'oppressors' could just be a general term for us,' he thought, having noticed them being refered as that before. It was equally possible that they were just being bitter, however.

"Know that you are only tolerated here, but that little tolerance will be shown to those that break rakostos. Do what you came for. That is all."

The voice stopped, and everyone waited silently for more. Nothing else came.
'Well what kind of half-cocked bull**** is this?' he thought. 'Certainly not a very inspired welcoming speech. What the hell is 'rakostos' anyway ... and what the hell do we do now?'

He looked around at the confused people about him and waited for someone to take the initiative (the initiative to do what, exactly, he wasn't sure). The faceless humanoid shapes stayed perfectly still and silent at the front of the room.