Chapter 4

(Conversation in a biological laboratory)

//Martha is a researcher, Arkady is the head of the laboratory, Ryuken is the second employee. //

– Even when biological institutions were on Earth, they set the task of human survival in space, – Arkady said.

– Man is a very gentle creature, adapted to live in greenhouse conditions. For a comfortable life, he needs a very narrow range of temperature, humidity, pressure, light, radiation level, noise level, etc. Gravity on Earth has made man who he is. The first inhabitants of the colonies on the Moon felt at once less gravity. The load on the bones was reduced and the human skeleton had to be artificially loaded in order to avoid major changes. In weightlessness, a person also cannot stay long.

Such a woman in Cosmos cannot squeeze, especially in the far. On bases in the solar system arranged conditions similar to Earth, but all this is difficult. Small malfunctions in life support led to big problems. With relatively “calm” life in the solar system somehow managed to find a balance, but we are now flying to the distant Cosmos. Whether we like it or not, a person needs to change and change very much.

– What decision did they come to? – Martha asked.

– The decision was unusual, – Arkady said.

– The most important thing that Man has is his brain. It is what sets one person apart from another. All other parts of the body provide brain function. Vision – gives information to the environment, hearing – the ability to hear sounds, hands – to perform appropriate functions, legs – to move, etc.

– And what changes in the human body are we able to make? – Ryuken asked.

– Almost everything, – Arkady replied.

– If we want to survive in the far Cosmos, we cannot do without basic changes. The biggest problem is that it is not a technical problem, but a moral one. We on Earth have long learned to replace the hand of the person who lost it in an accident or accident. Installed artificial with many sensors. Yes, she worked like a native. How to look at such an artificial hand to a man? Does he see it as his own? If you change everything? Is the man ready for this?

This applies not to one person, but to the whole community. I think we need a long transition. It is better to start with small children. They perceive all changes less painfully. It will take 30—50 years and it will become the norm.

– In addition, what will change drastically? – Martha asked.

– Everything, – Arcady answered without hesitation.

Unfortunately everything. Whether we like it or not. Otherwise, we cannot survive. Yes, we will leave some of the migrants unchanged. Enormous efforts will have to be made to ensure them. All this will be done in the hope that at the place of arrival there will be similar conditions for life, as on Earth. It will certainly be an incredible success. Then in a new place, we can (if possible) adjust the environment to ourselves. You should not count on it.

– Well, what about love, feelings, – Martha asked.

– It is more complicated than that, – Arkady said.

– This is how our world on Earth was arranged. Nature is so disposed, a man is born, lives, dies. To procreate, you had to produce the same kind. Women started from men, gave birth to children, raised them, parents died, and children continued the path of parents. That is the way it is on Earth. There are two individuals: male and female (mostly). It might not have been that way. Nature has “forced” people to reproduce. Came up with a simple method – the male sex should gravitate to the female. Everything was provided for. The female sex draws attention to itself; the male sex (having a sexual attraction) is looking for opportunities to connect with the female. A woman chooses a whiter partner than a strong, intelligent, and beautiful. Why? Nature wants to continue the family, but the successors must be strong and healthy, otherwise in a difficult world the weak do not survive. There would be no sexual attraction; there would be no continuation of the human race. Hence the love, attraction, the cell of society – the family. Well, how further we will develop I can hardly imagine. If a person has only the brain left alive, and the rest of the other parts are artificial? Will such a man want to snuggle up to a woman, pet her, feel the warmth of her body, her aura? It is very hard to imagine that we are going to have to give up on this. Perhaps everything will move to another form of communication. I do not see how else you can survive in Space. We do not have a lot of choice.

That is how we will fly to the destination of two species. One species is gentle, fragile. The other is with artificial organs (except the brain), which is less whimsical to the environment, which will be able to carry loads ten times more than a biological person, for whom the temperature range will be comfortable not from -30 to 30 degrees, but somewhere -100 to 100 degrees. The composition of the air is a little critical and gravity too.

Chapter 5

– Commander, there is important information from navigators, – Ivan said.

– Something important? – Scan asked.

– Yes, – the deputy replied.

– You are very much asked to come to the navigation department. There was some tension in the department. The faces of the staff were focused and agitated.

– Commander, – the head of the department said. We have very important information. For several months, our navigators scanned the near space. According to our observations and calculations, it turns out that some objects are approaching us. There are 80 or 100 of them. All of them fly together and apparently, their speed slows down synchronously. It cannot be asteroids or comets.

– Did you calculate their braking speed? – Scan asked.

– Yes, – the head of the department replied.

According to all our calculations, the end of braking will take place in the area of Eris.

Now the distance to us is about 5 million. Kilometers. In 10—15 days, they will be in our area. Most likely, these are objects of artificial origin, judging by their movements. Of course, I am far from thinking that this is something reasonable, but I think we should continue to scan them and send some information just in case.

– What information do you want to send? – Scan asked.

– As usual, what we sent before. Standard set: who we are, what we are, where we are. These signals in any case indicate that they are of artificial origin. We will wait for an answer if he follows. If there is an answer, we are kind of going to have to deal with something reasonable. Oddly enough, this will be the first contact with something similar to the mind. In the history of the Earth, it was not possible to hear signals similar to artificial signals from the Cosmos. I still have no confidence that there is anything reasonable in the nearest Cosmos. For almost 200 years, we have been listening to Cosmos and everything in vain.

A week later, the head of the navigation department again invited the commander.

– We can inform you that our requests have received clear signals and they are of great interest. The response signals were received at the same frequency. The first packet we received was the same as the one we sent. It was actually repeated. They are probably some kind of ship. Who is in them? Machines or sentient beings? That is the surprise. Is there going to be a meeting of sentient beings?

Is there going to happen to be a meeting of sentient beings on the edge of the solar system? It seems to be early to fantasize. It will be necessary to decide how to exchange information.

The whole department of cryptographers worked three shifts. The communication algorithm, which was developed on Earth, was improved. After two weeks of intensive work, the following

– 94 ships fly from another system, which, by the way, is in our Milky Way galaxy. According to the coordinates that we were given, we roughly identified this place. Almost all ships are living creatures, inhabitants of this system. Their system has become subject to the attraction of a local black hole, and after a while, this process will become inevitable.

They (like us) decided to build ships and look for a better place to live and colonize.

Now they are sent to our solar system, because according to their calculations it is suitable for habitation. Living creatures on ships of protein origin.

Here, in short, is such information. It is going to happen, we are leaving the solar system, and they are flying to it.

Captain Scan made this decision:

Let the aliens know what awaits them in our solar system.

Find out where they are coming from so we do not go there.

It was also decided to refrain from close contacts for the time being. It is not known what their intentions are. What we can expect: friendship or hatred, understanding or competition.

After a while, the following message was received: the exact coordinates of the place from which they fly, do not want to give.

The tone of the message alerted Scan. Turns out it is not that simple. Something is wrong. In connection with the current situation, it was decided to stop all contact with aliens and go on a given route. Contacting a stranger is not a predictable thing. Imagine you are walking alone in the desert for three days. You do not have any more power. Then on the horizon, you can see some settlement. You think that is salvation. Come to the settlement, and there live cannibals. In addition, they are very happy to see you. What are their intentions? Who are we for them? Friends, brothers of mind or competitors? At the dawn of our civilization, we were very naive. We thought that the brothers would come in mind, share their achievements, technologies. However, does it really have to be that way?

Chapter 6

(In orbit Ross 128 b)

/Meeting in the Committee on Planetary Development/

/Chief, assistant – Strokov, biologist – Litovskaya, physicist – Klarsen, chemist – Ji Li/

– First, I want to congratulate you all on the success of our mission and the achievement of our goal. It may be finite, or maybe intermediate. We are the fifth generation of forced travelers. We all come from planet Earth. Our predecessors cherished the memory of her. They passed on the knowledge accumulated by the humanity of the Earth, preserved culture, literature, and art. We will keep this knowledge forever, without it we will not survive in the vast spaces of space. We will always treat with great appreciation to those people who prepared the expedition and built ships. Billy spent a huge effort to organize mass flight

Now we are at the first point of our target and it is the planet Ross 128 b, which revolves around the red dwarf Ross 128.

Our ancestors could not determine with certainty whether it was possible to make this planet our home. We have to decide and draw conclusions about the possibility of staying there. All of you have sufficient knowledge. All this knowledge has been accumulated on Earth and carefully transferred to you. Now you have a great responsibility. We will not hurry, it is not necessary. The slightest mistake will be very expensive.

We have already sent robots to the planet. In the first stage, they will explore the planet and gather the information we need. Some of the information has already arrived, and your task is to handle it.

It has been three months. The Development Committee met for a preliminary meeting.

– I ask you to provide a general characteristic of the planet Ross 128 b, – said Mr. Saripov. Let us start with the chemistry department. Please, Ji Lee.

The chemical composition on the planet is not the same as on Earth and it was expected. The composition of the air is about 2% – oxygen, 90% – nitrogen, 2% – carbon dioxide. This composition of air was on Earth about 300—400 million years ago.

– As a biologist, I can explain the small amount of oxygen, – Litovskaya said.

– There is water on the planet, although not in large quantities. There are algae and on the rocky surface found primitive plants in the form of lichens. They give such a small amount of oxygen. However, the composition of the air suits us quite well. We have technical solutions to bring it to normal. Something else is unpleasant. Ross 128 b has only one side facing its Star. In addition, it is hot on this side. Solid stone deserts devoid of water. The opposite side is covered with ice, as in Antarctica on Earth. Only a strip of 2—3 thousand kilometers wide is of interest to us.