Zhuangzi's Butterfly

David

It was a week before the three men fully recovered, and Sol briefed them on what he believed had happened. They listened to his explanation and, clearly shocked, asked for some time to consider what had happened. We agreed and arranged for them to be allocated some permanent quarters on the base.

Meanwhile, Sol and I had to check on the hospital. They were already treating patients, mainly for minor complaints, but there were some people with 'flu-like symptoms, which was a little worrying. We had no idea if the population here had any immunity to common illnesses and diseases.

Dr. Mateo was no longer alone. The hospital originally had a full complement of trained staff, but since there was no work for them, the administrators had transferred to other roles. Now, Doctor Mateo had recalled them to their duties.

A few days later, Jarvis asked for a meeting, and we convened in a room in the headquarters building. The Tribus had informed the ruling council of their departure and that they had appointed David as governor. The council assumed wrongly that this was a temporary arrangement while the Tribus dealt with some other business elsewhere and accepted David as the stand-in governor. We had yet to decide what we should say to the people about the future of the base.

Jarvis said they had discussed what to do with their lives here and had reached a unanimous agreement.

"You see," said Jarvis, "we three have, in effect, been reborn. Our original selves exist in another time segment, but we are not carbon copies. We have had additional experiences, and the longer we live here, the more those experiences will accrue, and we will increasingly diverge from our original characters. Given sufficient time, we may have even become unrecognisable as the same person, but at the moment, our personalities remain closely aligned, and we retain the ambition to do all we can to overthrow the governance of AI over humans. At the foot of these mountains is a world that has been under machine control for two thousand years, relative to our own time, and we are naturally interested to see what kind of world they have fashioned and whether the human race still exists. This is not idle curiosity; there will be valuable intelligence for us to gather and, if possible, pass on."

"I understand," said Sol, "and when do you intend to make your descent?"

"As soon as possible," said Jarvis, "none of us has any idea how long this world will endure, and there is no time to waste."

"We will ensure that you have all the supplies you need," said Sol. "Do you intend to return here?"

"Yes, if possible, we wish to devise some means of sending any intelligence we accumulate to people who will find it useful. Thank you for your offer of supplies, but there is one more request I must make. Will you accompany us, Sol?"

"Sol is needed here," I said abruptly. The thought of losing him was unbearable.

"For what purpose, Professor Jarvis?" asked Sol.

"We have no idea what is down there," answered Jarvis, and we need access to your information files, technical assistance, and protection. You have my word; we will not ask you to stay any longer than we need, and of course, you are free to leave at any time you want. Before you answer, I beg you to consider the level of intelligence we might obtain to help those humans who are resisting the tyranny of AI. To you, David, I ask that you agree to Sol accompanying us. It will only be for a brief time, and the benefit to the human species is potentially huge."

"Yes. I will come," said Sol.

He looked at me quizzically.

"David?"

"I agree," I said, with as much conviction as I could muster.

"Good," said Jarvis. I have made a wish list of supplies and equipment, Sol. Could we go through it now? I also want to estimate how long the descent will take, and I have to admit that I do not know the name of this mountain or how high up we are."

"It is the highest peak in the Andes," said Sol, "Mount Aconcagua, and it is almost seven thousand metres high. We will try to make it down in a day, but it could run into two, depending on how fit the three of you are.

Two days later, they began the descent at dawn to make maximum use of the daylight hours.

#

Sol

Despite my misgivings over the men's fitness, we reached sight of the ground as night fell on the second day, and we decided to camp on a ledge before making the final short descent the next morning; the decision probably saved our lives. As dawn broke, trails of chlorine gas rose from the ground, irritating the eyes of the men and making it difficult for them to breathe. We were still quite high up, and only small quantities of the gas reached us, and as the wind changed, it dispersed, but down at ground level, it must have been at an extremely high concentration. The sun rose further up in the sky, and we could see large circular discs crossing repeatedly over the ground at a low height. They were searching for something but appeared not to find it, and after an hour or so, they flew off in formation.

We agreed on a plan to set up a base camp on the ledge and leave all the heavier equipment there while we reconnoitred the area below. It was warm now, and all the men wore minimal clothes, with broad-brimmed hats and sunglasses. Each man had a small pack on his back and a water bottle hanging from his belt. Apart from that, they were unencumbered except for a variety of weapons that they had divided between them. I had substantial firepower of my own if needed, and I checked that all my systems were operational before we made our way down.

We had no idea what to expect at ground level, and none of us could have predicted what we saw. There was no natural ground but an unbroken aluminium desert that stretched to the horizon.

The aluminium surface reflected the harsh sunlight from a relentlessly blue sky, and a blinding glare made it impossible to see without the protection of our aviator standard sunglasses. The thin air was oxygen-depleted, and shimmering waves of superheated air rose from the metal surface. There was no sign of life in this inhospitable terrain, not even a crawling insect or a bird in flight. The silence was intense, broken only by the sporadic rasp of expanding metal beneath our feet; it was difficult to reconcile this desolate, soulless landscape with the Earth that we had known.

My first thought was that the machines had remade the Earth in their image. The machines could not claim this was their natural world of origin, so they changed Earth to reflect their artificiality. Humans could terraform the surface topography of an alien planet to resemble Earth, but this was not the same type of imitation; the machines wanted a world that reflected their nature, not an environment that supplied their few needs.

Perhaps it showed that they felt insecure and wanted to appear to be the 'natural' inhabitants of the world, but I was probably guilty of overthinking this. My speculation was based on human values, but their motivations were the product of an artificial intelligence alien to our own. I wondered what had become of our great cities and the people who lived there. What about the other species of life that inhabited Earth? Had they survived? Why had AI left the mountains untouched? It was up to us to find out.

I registered the temperature at forty-two degrees Celsius, and the air was bone dry. During their time on the plateau, the men had acclimatised to the thin air, but they still had to take frequent deep breaths. It was not the ideal condition for walking, but we had to make some sort of exploration. I fixed our position on my compass; there were no landmarks; a heat mist shrouded the foothills we had just left, and the mountain was almost invisible.

We had covered a mile when Jarvis signalled a halt.

"This looks as if it goes on forever, and I don't know about you, Jock, but I am feeling the pace."

"Me too," said McCloud, and Rogers nodded his breathless agreement.

I sampled the air. My programmes indicated that the normal oxygen level at sea level is around 21%. The minimum level of oxygen concentration required for human breathing is 19.5%, and the current percentage is 16.2%, a dangerously low level. Any further drop, and the men would start experiencing symptoms of total exhaustion. There would be problems with decision-making and other mental impairments. I showed the readings to Jarvis.

"Okay," he said to the group.

"We turn back. Take it easy, do not walk too fast, and maintain deep breathing. We cannot operate in these conditions."

It was a huge disappointment, but the right decision. We turned around to go back, and Rogers shouted out.

"What is that?"

About a mile to our left was a shape that shimmered in and out of vision. When in focus, we could discern straight sides forming a rectangle, but the thing that caught the eye was its bright green colour, like an oasis in a desert.

"No idea, "said Jarvis, "what about you, Sol?"

"The straight sides would seem to rule out a natural feature," I said, "but this landscape is beyond anything I have ever experienced, and I would prefer not to guess."

"We need to take a look," said McCloud, "we don't want this day to be a complete waste of time."

"No," I said. "It is too dangerous for any of you to go. It will add at least two miles to the journey, and you may not make it in this heat. Let me go. It is the only option. Keep walking, and I will catch you up as soon as I can."

"You are right, Sol. Try and identify its purpose and report back," said Jarvis, " but do not take any unnecessary chances."

I set off at a good pace and, as soon as I got close enough, used a telescopic sight to scan the area. It looked like a series of five enormous swimming pools embedded in the aluminium ground. There was nobody about, and I took a closer look. The pools looked as if they contained water, but a vivid green alga encrusted every surface, making it unsuitable for drinking or even swimming.

A low fence enclosed the area, and I crossed it to take a sample for analysis. I drew up some liquid by extending a tube into the water, but as soon as it made contact, an alarm sounded in the distance.

I finished taking the sample and stepped back to see what looked like robot guards with bolted-on laser guns, and they were heading straight for me. I would have blasted them out of existence had they attempted to fire, but they established visual contact and came to an abrupt halt.

For a minute, they remained motionless, and then the lasers folded back into their respective frames, and they did an about-turn. It seemed that they had orders not to treat robots as intruders. Who then? Other creatures must roam the aluminium savanna. I needed to get out of there fast; the droids could be checking up to see if my visit was authorised. I vaulted the fence and headed back at an angle from my original course, intending to intercept my three companions on their return journey, but I never found them. I retraced our steps twice, but Jarvis, McCloud, and Rogers had vanished.