X & Y - Part 4/5

The Security Council

Welcome to Part 4 of this five part exo-diversion. If you missed any of the previous parts, then the beginning is here if you’re not into spoilers. for Part 2, there’s the click, and for the previous Part 3, ditto.

In that previous chapter, Motherprobe and her nanobots continued her surveillance, streaming data back to Xaya, who did a lot of exo-analysis about the primate species dominating the third planet, and did not exactly warm to what she discovered.

In this episode, it is clear the primates are anxious for a response. And that response can’t really wait any longer.

The following is how exo-diplomacy with such a species should be conducted. Seems predictable, realistic, and reasonable to me.

As I said in the intro to Part 1, this story ended up in my mind as a kind of Act One to what could become a very fine, and pertinent, and quite frankly very much needed novel. And I do hope I get around to writing it one day fairly soon. Perhaps I should have more self-discipline, and chastise myself if I do not just get on with it and finish it this very year. Before it’s too late, that is. Before the asteroid cometh (on that note, by the way, I noticed another article today about a potential asteroid strike in 2032 other than Apophis; the conspiracy theorist in me is suggesting they’re priming people for a definite impact, which would be a great way to initiate the Endgame leading to New World Order; but you know perfectly well not to take conspiracy theories seriously, eh? Besides, it’s not as if they’ve been reading Pinko Commie Superbunker and getting ideas, is it?).

With that in mind, you could think of this chapter as the sort of turning point at the end of Act One. The final part of the story, due next week, is a little shorter than this episode and wraps it up quite nicely as a standalone thing, whilst giving you a fairly good idea of what would probably happen in the rest of the novel. This present chapter, then, is a little longer than the others, at around 4k words, but it needed to be read in one go and I was loathe to split up a scene between different chapters. Especially what amounts to the key scene.

Anyhow, enough intro from me. Here is how to deal with the so-called Security Council. They don’t really make much use themselves of like, comment and share buttons, but you may feel differently on that score. I don’t know.

But I do hope you enjoy it.

Great Image Generator time.

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Two Terran revolutions later, Qyi decided to allow Xaya to finish her steam bath meditation cycle before informing her about the new message.

Xaya manually switched on the LID and watched Motherprobe’s vision of the blue-white planet below. She shivered instinctively as Motherprobe passed over the southern polar continent.

She decided to switch to the message. Qyi displayed it on the screen, again with subtitles. It was the same primate as before. It looked even more uncomfortable than the first time.

“Greetings. I apologise for not waiting for your response to our initial message. We hope you do not consider it impolite. However, our people have become increasingly anxious with each day that passes without a response from you. We hope this is merely due to your not yet having deciphered our language dictionary. Likewise, we are aware of your orbiting probe, which has also increased anxieties. Given its trajectory, we are assuming it is simply providing a topographical map of our planet. If this is so, then to this end we are enclosing a comprehensive atlas with this transmission.

We would be very pleased and relieved if you could provide us with a response. Especially if such a response might alleviate our people’s anxieties. In the meantime, I repeat the hope for peaceful relations expressed by our initial transmission. We wish you well.”

Xaya leaned back and looked askew at the frozen image on the visiscreen. Then snorted. Then blinked several times.

“Are you ready to establish contact, Xaya?”

She snorted again. Then shifted her head from side to side. “I think so, Qyi. Yes. Please establish a direct channel with their computer network, specifically their United Territories structure. If you can provide a simultaneous interpretation, using subtitles, that would be helpful. Obviously.”

“Acknowledged.”

“They have a kind of council for their United Territories organisation, yes?”

“Affirmative.”

“Then transmit an initial brief message stating I would be happy to speak directly to that council at a time convenient to them. Then let me know their response.”

“Acknowledged.” And then a little pause. “Transmission complete.” And then another pause. “May I make a suggestion for your communication?”

“Please do.”

“You will need to employ deception.”

Xaya’s eyes widened. “Pardon? That’s against our code of ethics. You want me to lie?”

“Not explicitly. But you should use the collective pronoun rather than the individual. ‘We’ instead of ‘I’. They do not yet know there is only you.”

“I see. Well, I suppose if you count the embryos then technically it’s the truth.”

“Affirmative. But you should, at the very least, withhold information. Both your, and my, analysis clearly suggest that this species cannot be trusted. They frequently employ deception in their own intraspecies interaction. Their social decision-makers employ deception when addressing their own citizens. So we can quite assume they will not hesitate to deceive you likewise. They will assume you have little or no knowledge of their species or their psychosocial history. It would seem wise to allow them to maintain that illusion.”

Xaya contemplated the suggestion. Then she said, “I can understand what you’re saying, Qyi, and I do agree to a certain extent. But I also have urgent questions to ask them. Questions based on our initial observations. Your translation of their initial message, for example, said they ‘could not conceal’ our presence from their population. Why would they want to conceal information from their citizens?”

“This is a question you wish to ask them?”

“Exactly.”

“Acknowledged. Likewise, questions pertaining to simple observations from Motherprobe would not be unexpected. But most importantly, as you agreed, offering them any knowledge or technology would be a violation of your code of ethics.”

“I don’t need any further persuasion there, Qyi. Likewise acknowledged. So then, let’s see what they have to say for themselves. Open the channel, but don’t display any visuals until they’ve convened their little council. We wouldn’t want to frighten them any more than we have to, now, would we?”

Qyi didn’t need to answer that one. She opened the channel, and waited.