Virtual said, ‘Yes. And maybe behind these other moons in my sky lie gateways to other Titans – other sustained ecologies, maybe with different biological bases. Other experiments, elsewhere in the universe.’
Miriam said, ‘So if metals are so essential for the spiders, why not have supplies brought to them through the interchange?’
‘Maybe they did, once,’ the Virtual said. ‘Maybe things broke down. There’s a sense of age here, Miriam. This is a young cosmos maybe, but I think this is an old place . . .’
The real Poole murmured, ‘It makes sense. The time axis in the baby universe needn’t be isomorphic with ours. A million years over here, a billion years there.’
The Virtual whispered, ‘Those spiders have been toiling at their task on Titan a long, long time. Whoever manufactured them, or bred them, left them behind a long time ago, and they’ve been alone ever since. Just doing their best to keep going. Looking at them, I get the impression they aren’t too bright. Just functional.’
‘But they did a good job,’ Miriam said.
‘That they did.’
‘But why?’ I blurted out. ‘What’s the purpose of all this, the nurturing of an ecology on Titan for billions of years – and perhaps similar on a thousand other worlds?’
‘I think I have an idea,’ Virtual Poole said. ‘ I never even landed on Titan, remember. Perhaps, coming at all this so suddenly, while the rest of you have worked through the stages of your discovery, I see it differently . . .
‘Just as this pocket universe is a junction, so maybe Titan is a junction – a haven where different domains of life can coexist. And it’s been designed that way.
‘You’ve found the native ammono fish, the CHON sponges that may originate in the inner System, and the silanes from Triton or beyond. Maybe there are other families to find, if you had time to look. All these kinds of life, arising from different environments – but all with one thing in common. All born of planets, and of skies and seas, in worlds warmed by stars.
‘But the stars won’t last for ever. In the future the universe will change, until it resembles our own time even less than our universe resembles this young dwarf cosmos. What then? Look, if you were concerned about preserving life, all forms of life, into the very furthest future, then perhaps you would promote—’
‘Cooperation,’ said Miriam Berg.
‘You got it. Symbiosis. Maybe Titan is a kind of prototype, a forced cooperative ecology where life forms of such different origins are compelled to mix, to find ways of using each other to survive—’
‘And ultimately merge, somehow,’ Miriam said. ‘Well, it’s happened before. Each of us is a community, with once-disparate and very different life forms toiling away in each of our cells. It’s a lovely vision, Michael.’
‘More important than that, it’s plausible,’ Poole’s original self said gruffly. ‘Anyhow it’s a hypothesis that will do until something better comes along.’
I sneered at that. This dream of cosmic cooperation struck me as the romantic fantasy of a man alone and doomed to die, and soon. We all project our petty lives upon the universe. But I had no better suggestions to make. And, who knows? Perhaps Virtual Poole was right. None of us will live to find out.
‘Anyhow,’ I said, ‘charming as this is – are we done now ?’
Miriam snapped, ‘We can’t abandon Michael.’
‘Go,’ whispered Virtual Poole. ‘There’s nothing you can do for me. I’ll keep observing, reporting, as long as I can.’
I gagged on his nobility.
Now Harry intruded, grabbing a little of the available Virtual projection capacity. ‘But we’ve still got business to conclude before you leave here.’
15
Poole frowned. ‘What business?’
‘We came here to prove that Titan is without sentience,’ Harry said. ‘Well, we got that wrong. Now what?’
Miriam Berg was apparently puzzled we were even having the
Miriam said, ‘So if metals are so essential for the spiders, why not have supplies brought to them through the interchange?’
‘Maybe they did, once,’ the Virtual said. ‘Maybe things broke down. There’s a sense of age here, Miriam. This is a young cosmos maybe, but I think this is an old place . . .’
The real Poole murmured, ‘It makes sense. The time axis in the baby universe needn’t be isomorphic with ours. A million years over here, a billion years there.’
The Virtual whispered, ‘Those spiders have been toiling at their task on Titan a long, long time. Whoever manufactured them, or bred them, left them behind a long time ago, and they’ve been alone ever since. Just doing their best to keep going. Looking at them, I get the impression they aren’t too bright. Just functional.’
‘But they did a good job,’ Miriam said.
‘That they did.’
‘But why?’ I blurted out. ‘What’s the purpose of all this, the nurturing of an ecology on Titan for billions of years – and perhaps similar on a thousand other worlds?’
‘I think I have an idea,’ Virtual Poole said. ‘ I never even landed on Titan, remember. Perhaps, coming at all this so suddenly, while the rest of you have worked through the stages of your discovery, I see it differently . . .
‘Just as this pocket universe is a junction, so maybe Titan is a junction – a haven where different domains of life can coexist. And it’s been designed that way.
‘You’ve found the native ammono fish, the CHON sponges that may originate in the inner System, and the silanes from Triton or beyond. Maybe there are other families to find, if you had time to look. All these kinds of life, arising from different environments – but all with one thing in common. All born of planets, and of skies and seas, in worlds warmed by stars.
‘But the stars won’t last for ever. In the future the universe will change, until it resembles our own time even less than our universe resembles this young dwarf cosmos. What then? Look, if you were concerned about preserving life, all forms of life, into the very furthest future, then perhaps you would promote—’
‘Cooperation,’ said Miriam Berg.
‘You got it. Symbiosis. Maybe Titan is a kind of prototype, a forced cooperative ecology where life forms of such different origins are compelled to mix, to find ways of using each other to survive—’
‘And ultimately merge, somehow,’ Miriam said. ‘Well, it’s happened before. Each of us is a community, with once-disparate and very different life forms toiling away in each of our cells. It’s a lovely vision, Michael.’
‘More important than that, it’s plausible,’ Poole’s original self said gruffly. ‘Anyhow it’s a hypothesis that will do until something better comes along.’
I sneered at that. This dream of cosmic cooperation struck me as the romantic fantasy of a man alone and doomed to die, and soon. We all project our petty lives upon the universe. But I had no better suggestions to make. And, who knows? Perhaps Virtual Poole was right. None of us will live to find out.
‘Anyhow,’ I said, ‘charming as this is – are we done now ?’
Miriam snapped, ‘We can’t abandon Michael.’
‘Go,’ whispered Virtual Poole. ‘There’s nothing you can do for me. I’ll keep observing, reporting, as long as I can.’
I gagged on his nobility.
Now Harry intruded, grabbing a little of the available Virtual projection capacity. ‘But we’ve still got business to conclude before you leave here.’
15
Poole frowned. ‘What business?’
‘We came here to prove that Titan is without sentience,’ Harry said. ‘Well, we got that wrong. Now what?’
Miriam Berg was apparently puzzled we were even having the
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