Stargods by Ian Douglas (best summer books TXT) 📕

“Truitt.” Gray nodded. “Difficult man . . . but brilliant.”

“His number two is Commander Samantha Kline. She’s worked with Dr. Truitt for a long time.”

“I remember Sam,” Gray said. “And, of course, we have you. If you three can’t figure out what the aliens are saying, nobodycan.”

“Your expression of confidence is gratifying, Admiral. Some of the N’gai species are more easily understood than others . . . the Baondyeddi, for example. The Adjugredudhra, and the Groth Hoj. All three of those species have developed robotics to a surprisingly high degree, and with it an expertise both in cybernetics and in cerebral implant technology. That means that despite the differences in physiology and in culture, their psychology, at least, has been partly shaped by computer technology. And that makes them accessible.”

“You’re saying that talking to a big, blue-eyed pancake might be impossible,” Gray said, “but if that pancake has computerimplants, then communication is easier because we have AIs and electronic implants ourselves.”

“Essentially, yes. We would possess both primary and secondary channels of communications.”

“Admiral,” Rand’s voice said in his head, interrupting. “Excuse me, sir, but we’re about to go into Alcubierre Drive.”

“Thank you, Captain. At your discretion.”

For just over an hour, America and her escorts had been crowding the speed of light as they hurtled outbound from Earth. Now, their relativistic massesalready distorting local spacetime, and with the metric of local space flat enough to allow them to kick over, they engagedtheir space-bending drives. Crumpling the fabric of space forward, lengthening it astern, they in effect created tight littlebubbles moving through space many times faster than light . . . but within which each ship obeyed the inviolable laws of Einsteinrelative to its immediate surroundings.

One of Gray’s office walls was set to display the view outside . . . a motionless panorama of the stars ahead distorted byAmerica’s forward velocity into tight bands of light. Seconds later, the scene turned black as the carrier wrapped itself up in itsown private, bubble universe.

Gray switched the view to a generic scene on Earth—rugged cliffs with a cascading waterfall and rainbows dancing in the mist.

“So, tell me, Konstantin,” he said. “What do you know about the impending Singularity on Earth?”

“I do not have the same scope or depth of information of my previous iteration,” Konstantin replied. “I can give you the short version.”

“I’m not looking for exhaustive detail,” Gray said. “Just what you know in general.”

“More than anything else, I would have to say, is a heightened sense of awareness, a deep-seated belief that the TechnologicalSingularity is about to occur, and that it could take place at any moment. It is a popular topic of conversation and of research,both throughout the Global Net, and within the Godstream. Many believe that the Godstream itself is the beginning of the Singularity,a kind of private universe where people can create their own realities.”

Gray nodded. He was familiar with the idea, though he didn’t buy it. To him, it seemed foolish to collect all or most humanminds within a matrix that required maintenance from the outside and protection from possible marauders. The Baondyeddi hadretired into an artificial reality within a planet-sized computer within Heimdall, a world circling what was now Kapteyn’sStar . . . and as nearly as could be determined, they had been snuffed out by the Consciousness. The Satorai at Tabby’s Starwere another, their K-2 Dyson sphere civilization destroyed, their organic components lost due to a vicious e-virus attackby their extremely powerful neighbors at Deneb.

Some observers speculated that if organic humans vanished down an electronic rabbit hole, their intelligent machines couldremain behind and protect them. Again, Gray was skeptical. Why should highly intelligent and self-aware mentalities spendthe rest of eternity protecting their human creators who’d abdicated themselves from the real world?

Why would they even care what happened to Humankind?

“So people think they’re going to vanish into the Godstream,” Gray said.

“Some do. Not all. Opinion on Earth has become increasingly polarized since the end of the Sh’daar War. There may be as many ideas of what the Singularity will be as there are humans to imagine them, and there is little agreement. There is a new religious sect called ‘the Singularists.’ You’ve heard of them? They interpret the Singularity in the same way as the fundamentalist Christians of past centuries thought of the Rapture, believing that humans will vanish from Earth to live immortal lives in other dimensions with their AI ‘gods.’ Another group calling itself ‘the Transcendentalists’ believes humans will create doorways into alternate dimensions or pocket universes or into computer-generated artificial realities. ‘The Cosmists’ see humans merging with AI machines so completely that telling the difference between the two would be impossible. The ‘Nirvanists’ believe that super-AIs will transform Earth into a kind of celestial paradise, giving humans immortality and godlike control of their environment as they do so. The ‘GoddAI’ agree with Walker, at least in part. For them, the Singularity happened in the 2040s, when the first computer minds became smarter than humans. That was the original definition of the Singularity, by the way. And then the ‘Humankind Firsters’ believe the super-AIs will simply exterminate all humans and evolve themselves into something Transcendent—”

“Okay, okay, I get the picture,” Gray said, holding up a hand.

“The only real point of agreement,” Konstantin added, “seems to be the idea that whatever happens, Humankind will be so completelytransformed—Transcended—that what it means to be human will be unrecognizable from anything we understand today.”

“That agreement isn’t enough, though, right? These different groups are fighting each other?” Gray had heard stories of majorclashes, of rioting, even of pogroms in various countries.

“A few. Most groups seem content to let things take their natural course. The most serious conflict is between those humans convinced they are about to ascend to a new existence, and those who insist the Singularity is not going to happen at all.”

“Walker and his the-Singularity-already-happened nonsense. The Internet. I know.”

“Not complete nonsense, no,” Konstantin told him. “The Internet, beginning in the last decade of the twentieth century, maybe the most profound development in Humankind since the taming of fire. It