Unnatural Selection

A billion-billion nopes. After forty cycles of searching the cosmos, I have only ever found wretched deadly, lifeless rocks or beautiful, verdant planets that are already inhabited. At a certain point, an evolutionary leap happens, and sentient life emerges. We have rules against meddling with that eventuality, and the council takes them quite seriously. We live in space, and it’s hard to remain optimistic in a vacuum.

My name is Telsom Ulna, and I imagine it will seem pointless to say, ‘I always knew I wanted to be an explorer,’ since our entire race lives exclusively on massive galactic cruisers, but it's true. Being in the unenviable position of not having a homeworld was not a deciding factor or even a casual motivation in my love of exploration. Still, I suppose being part of the Selection Team was influenced by that truth.

My father was a pilot, and my mother, well, a mother first and a geneticist second. They taught me that family comes first and that we all have a duty to our greater family. To ensure the survival of the species by any means necessary. Cohabitating with any other existing species notwithstanding. To be clear, that stance doesn’t come from a place of superiority, quite the contrary. We lay no claim on any other species’ homeworld. That’s rule number one.

Perhaps the tenets of the High Council informed my love for my job. The idea that I could be the citizen who finds a world for us to inhabit keeps me coming to my Selection Lab shift after shift. I know my desire isn’t unique. Every one of us dreams of being the one to find it, that one perfect world. The odds are against all of us. There may be an endless supply of viable worlds, but there are fewer and fewer of us as time passes and even fewer entering the Selection Program. I guess that dichotomy is where I struggle. It’s difficult to reconcile the search for a home with the responsibility of fostering one in the conditions we are forced to occupy.

Today is unlike most days because my mate, Devra, is occupied with the genetic assembly and delivery of our second child, who we have decided to name Talos after his grandfather. By that, I mean we sampled his genetic code for aspects of his character. Talos will be an excellent leader one day if all goes well in the delivery assembler. Because of this distraction, Devra is unable to supervise our first offspring, our daughter, Vionea. This means Vionea is spending the day with me in the Selection Lab.

An explorer's job is simple, really. The stellar cartographers choose an uncharted section of the universe, some new galaxy of the myriad available, and we go there. We go, and we search for star systems and catalog them. When we find one that has potentially habitable planets, we investigate further. My role is to send down probes to these potential planets and then project. Projecting is a more complex concept, but basically, it's a simulation. Based on extrapolation of data from what the probes find. It takes all of the factors of a star system into account and projects millions to billions of cycles worth of collected data into a representation of how a planet could evolve.

We use this to determine if Time-Slip is warranted and then if we have found a suitable world to inhabit. It was this very tech that allowed us to see that our homeworld was not going to last as long as we would. When a potential is found, we employ the time Time-Slip, by which we fold space-time and make actual leaps forward in time to target an assumed future. I’ve been on the Selection Team for twenty-two cycles and never made it past Projection. That’s the nature of the job.

Vionea is only a few cycles old, and at such a young age can be quite a handful. Sure there are symbiotes or mechanized assistors, but the life we live can be harsh and cold, and she deserves to have a father to care for her... So, I do.

“How are things progressing down there?” I asked Devra over the vidcom.

“We are just about to enter stage two, Tel, how is number one doing? Giving you any concern?” replied Devra.

“She is keeping herself occupied in the probe vault while I prep for the scans on planets three and four. It's really quite amazing that three of the first six worlds in this star system have potential,” I answered back.

“Tel, I wish you could be down here to witness this. It's not like it was with Darx. Not anymore. Those sequence errors are a thing of the past. This new method, Tel, really is quite an experience.” Devra sounded disappointed as she spoke these words, the look on her face expressed such emotion.

Deceit.

“I will let you know when I am free, perhaps if things go well we will be done early and we can join you,” I said the words, but I didn’t mean them. Deceit is uncommon among us in general, more so with Devra and me. I witnessed the attempt to bring a brother, Darx, to life. The anguish my parents felt, only to lose him in the final stage, and the way they treated me after that. I don’t think I could stand to watch that happen again. Vionea? I was away on another ship when she came. Conveniently. Devra knows how I feel about the matter, but I understand she wants our family to grow. That also happens to be one of the counsel’s directives, and her father is the chairman, so there’s no debating this. The child is coming. I just do not want to watch, in case…

My commander entered the room, “Specialist Telsom, greetings. What do you have to report on this system?” he said.

“Commander, Fal.” I bowed my head. “This system has one g-type main sequence star orbited by ten planets. The fourth planet is our best hope, but there are a few issues with temperature and cycle length”

“Elaborate on the issues, speculate on corrections.” Commander Fal sidled up next to me and eyed my console.

“The fourth planet rotates quickly, several times faster than our previous world, it also makes a complete orbit of the star about thirty-seven times more often, resulting in various weather and temperate zones on the surface. A surface that hasn’t completely cooled yet. This is a very young planet. You can see here that its only moon, which I believe to be a portion of the planet that was sheared off in a collision, is not yet fully formed. The third planet is a dwarf and is likely a rogue moon from the second planet. It's throwing all the orbits off, keeping the fourth planet from optimal distance from the star.”

The commander fired back, “What do you propose?”

“In my projection, removal of the third planetoid would allow the corrected first three planets to settle into a more appropriate orbit, allowing the now third planet to develop a climate more hospitable to life, our life, specifically.” I looked over his shoulder to check on Vionea.

“That is a novel approach. Risky, but, well, let’s just say that’s the sort of bold thinking we need from our Selectors.” He pinched his chin and appeared to contemplate my wild suggestion. “Is there any life on the planet now?” he asked.

“No, sir, there is not, there have never been optimal conditions. Any opportunity for life would find it nearly impossible, as things are now, to take root here. This is true of all the planets in the system.”

“I will run your request by the council and have an answer for you shortly.” The commander smiled at me, turned, and left my lab.

I was stunned by this. He is actually going to ask if we can destroy a planetoid to give the current fourth planet a chance. I have heard tales of terraforming attempts. All failed. And have even heard stories of excess moons being devoured. Removal of small planets and moons is referred to as devouring because our massive ships eat the raw materials and convert them into energy for our Time-Slip drives. I never thought I would ever be witness to it. Something has changed. Restrictions may be getting laxer. There’s still hope.

Maybe Dev knows. Perhaps her father mentioned something. I turned back to the console and spoke aloud. “Devra Ulna, birthing lab ten” Within a few moments, Dev’s face was on my screen.

“Tel! There’s still time, are you coming down?” She asked, but I was so excited to share my own news that I don’t think I heard her, and if I did, I am sure I simply blocked it out and focused on my own happy news.

“Fal was here, he liked my assessment enough to speak with the council about devouring planetoid three, Dev, based on my projections. This is very exciting. This could be it. Finally, a home for us all if the council votes it in.” I spat my words into the vidcom, not even recognizing the look of disappointment on Dev’s face.

“That is wonderful news, Tel. It would be nice to raise both of them on a planet, rather than in space. Kefaris is stepping down this cycle, policy changes may be coming.” Her words were distant and cold. I knew why.

I replayed the conversation in my head. Devra was right. It would be nice to raise them on a planet. Nice to return to the old ways of raising offspring, a more natural selection. A return to love and family and working with our hands to build things and plant seeds and harvest their bounty. To live like living, emoting, thinking creatures rather than synthetics. She sees that future as something worth having. I only ever saw it as a goal to achieve, never giving thought to why we needed it. She truly is the better of us.

It was at this moment I realized that my entire life has been spent searching for a home, and that success meant I would have no job to do. What becomes of a man who has achieved his ultimate goal in life...The ultimate goal in all our lives?

The call came down from the commander; “Your plan has been approved. Please prepare a targeting probe for planetoid three and we will spool up the MAW.”

Here we go. Can this really be happening?

I prepared the probe as requested and fired it off to the third planetoid. The entire ship began to vibrate as the MAW came to life. A great beam shot out from the front of the ship and churned through the surface and drew the material back toward the ship. It didn’t take long before the relatively small obstacle was gone. An amazing sight to behold, awesome and frightening. I see know why there is so much oversight placed on this power.

***

We stayed in the system, using the Time-Slip Drive to experience the changes in what had become the third planet. Probes were now reporting that extra-system asteroids had impacted the surface and delivered the necessary chemicals and elements for rudimentary life. Time-Slip again a few billion local cycles, and there are several large creatures living on the planet along with a diversity of vegetation like we’ve never seen in any system, on any planet.

It just keeps getting better.

“Tel, this looks very promising. These creatures are, in some ways, similar to the ones in our own evolutionary codex, correct?” The commander stood by the large clear portal of my lab, looking down onto the surface. He reached out with his hands and enlarged the view to a small area on the surface. Large herds of creatures could be seen running from predators. “This ecosystem is young, but it seems to have balance, wouldn’t you agree, Tel?”

“Yes, sir. But long-range scans have plotted a collision course between a very large asteroid and this planet, in approximately thirty-five million of this system’s cycles. It will likely destroy most life on the planet” I replied, shaking my head in defeat.

Deceit, once more.

I failed to mention to the commander that the reason the asteroid was coming was because we destroyed the third planet. Over a billion or so cycles the gravity of the planets in their new orbits affected the asteroid and pulled it from its previously benign trajectory. We gave this planet a chance at life and simultaneously took it away.

What was I thinking? That they would vote to destroy the asteroid, too? That will never happen. No amount of policy change would allow that sort of interference.

“Then I suggest you pinpoint the time you expect impact and pass that up to Time-Slip so we can observe,” he instructed.

Thirty-five million cycles later and we would only watch as a six dectaur wide asteroid crashed into one of the larger oceans, throwing up a cloud of ash that covered the entire planet in a shroud of death. Yes, we can devour worlds, but only dead worlds. We could have intercepted the asteroid, but that qualifies as unnatural selection, and that is one rule we never break.

Never interfere with the evolution of a living world - even if it means that world’s death.

Vionea was still with me, still playing in the probe prep lab. The probes are just small glass-like spheres. She had several of them on the floor, playing some game of her own design. For as young as she was, her creativity astounded both Devra and me. That sort of creativity is a genetic gift from her mother’s genes. I was grateful for it today because Vionea not needing attention, or much supervision was critical to my work.

I called up to the Time -Slip control deck and requested another fifty million cycles of advancement. I reported that I wanted to send down one last probe to see if things self-corrected, a long shot to be sure. Why would this planet heal itself when our homeworld failed to?

As I approached the probe vault I could see that Vionea’s game had changed. Rather than shooting them at one another with her thumbs, she had escalated to trying to eat them. I could plainly see she had one of them in her mouth.

A probe...In her mouth! What does this child’s mother teach her when I’m not around? I just got done praising her intelligence and I find her with sensitive quasi-organic scientific equipment in her mouth.

“Vionea!” I shouted. I scared her. She instinctively gasped in fright and the probe became lodged in her throat, her face turned red and her eyes started to tear up. I ran to her, scooped her up, and slapped her on the back. What is the correct amount of force? This is my child, not a mathematic equation. I struck her harder and harder with each blow until she finally coughed up the probe.

Covered in saliva, the probe sailed across the room and landed back in the reservoir with the other probes. Vionea gasped for air, then let out a cry of relief as she wriggled her way around and wrapped her arms around my neck, holding me tight.

“It's alright, now. Everything is alright, you’re safe. I would never let anything happen to you, I promise.” I did my best to comfort my frightened child. But I did let something happen. I let my focus lean towards work and away from family. My mother would be ashamed of me.

The vidcom came alive, it was Devra. The incident alerted her that Vionea was in distress, “Telsom Ulna, what exactly is happening to our child? My alert com went off, is Vionea in trouble?” she asked, frantic and scared with more than a hint of annoyed.

Deceit, again.

“Vionea is fine, Dev, nothing to worry about. Just a little, uh, excitement up here after the last Slip.” I changed the subject to hide the fact our number one child nearly choked to death. “This world is amazing, Dev, it survived an impact that should have killed it, and only fifty million cycles later it looks perfectly healthy again.”

“As long as Vionea is perfectly healthy. That’s all I care about, Tel. If you can’t watch her, I’ll send a synth up.” Dev spoke matter-of-factly, completely disinterested in my news.

“No need, Dev. We’re fine here. Just fine.” She was right. My news was never going to outweigh hers. “How is the delivery going down there?”

She huffed at my placations. “It should be any time now. They are just finishing up imprinting of the genetic code I prepared”

I hadn’t lied about the Time-Slip. I had felt the Time-Slip wave wash over me and in an instant, we jumped another fifty million cycles further in time. The planet’s land mass was different, but the atmosphere was clear. I was stunned. Visually it appeared as if the planet had indeed healed itself. A cursory glance via the window located only smaller creatures inhabiting the surface. Life had survived. Only the massive creatures had perished, and the strong, resourceful, smaller ones survived.

I had Vionea by my side as I dropped a probe-selection engram onto the console, setting the last probe to go down and take proper readings. The screen turned an angry shade of red as I tried to launch the probe.

BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINANT IDENTIFIED. PROBE DISPERSAL NEGATED flashed across my console.

More deceit.

I could see Commander Fal approaching the Selection Lab, and I knew he would want answers, not excuses about ‘contamination protocols.’ You might think we have all the time in the universe, with a Time-Slip Drive, but the Commander does not like to wait for anything. I found this system, I found this resilient world. They ate a planetoid for me, they believed in me, in my science. I can’t fail now.

This warning was a malfunction, it has to be. In my haste, I convince myself there isn’t any reason to suspect biological contamination in my Selection Lab. In my effort to impress, I overrode the error and manually launched the probe just before the commander entered the lab.

The reservoir randomly selects any probe sphere and applies the engram with the requested tests. It’s then sucked down into the launch chamber and fired toward the surface.

I started to receive data back. The atmosphere was clean and comprised of many different gases, but nothing we couldn’t breathe. There were still many temperate zones all across the planet, from tropical to arctic to desert. The most promising aspect was the water. Our species needs water for life. This planet was covered with liquid water. Unlike most of the planets we’ve visited, which were either completely arid scorching rocks, or freezing balls of icy death. This one had all the best qualities we could hope for.

The probes are incredibly fast, and by the time Fal was at my station I had answers. The planet was very close to viable, a few million more cycles, and the ecosystem will have sorted out all the rough spots. I reported this to Commander Fal and the look of pride on his face, the sheer shared excitement was worth the minor deceit.

We did one last Time-Slip, an additional four million cycles and as I was preparing a new probe it struck me. I realized what the previous error was caused by. Before I could validate my suspicions, the vidcom pinged.

“You have a new son, Telsom Ulna,” said Devra as she held the squawking pink child up to her vidcom.

I smiled and said in response, “I’m very happy everything worked as expected, Dev - I have good news too... I think we have found a home”

***

Something wasn't right. Before I sent the probe down I could see light coming from the surface. Not volcanic. Not bioelectrical. But structured, artificial light. I could also see many objects orbiting the planet, now. I released the probe, again having to override the persistent contaminant protocol, and soon the probe was feeding images and data back to me.

Large cities, focused on shorelines, covered most of the landmasses. The atmosphere was filled with toxic gases. The places where the life collected was were crowded, loud, and filthy. The communications frequencies were flooded with data of seemingly unimportant audio and visual messages mixed with war, death, and destruction. There were clusters of opulence and poverty. A great disparity of disproportionate quality of life, despite the enormous potential resources of this world. The life forms here had learned to self-destruct. It reminded me of a similar story from when I was a child, learning our own historical record.

The life here had evolved and was now at a point in its history where things started to go wrong for us in ours. I thought again for a moment about the last two probes, and how this could have happened.

Deceit, one last time.

I didn’t even need to run the validation tests. I knew what had happened, what I had done. How my neglect and ambition doomed us all. I ran a decontamination routine on the probe hopper just as Commander Fal returned to my Selection Lab, one last time.

“What did you discover, Tel, with this last probe. Those lights on the surface concern us upstairs,” said the commander.

I replied coldly, knowing the news would destroy hope for our people, “The life forms on the planet have evolved into sentient beings. They are the dominant life on the planet, and they appear to be destroying it, much the way we did our homeworld. I’m afraid that this planet is not viable for us. Not just because of the atmospheric changes I am observing, but because it is already inhabited. I am afraid I have to recommend that we continue our search in another system.”

The commander drew in a slow, deep breath and furrowed his brow. Like all of us, he wants to find a home. The Time-Slip was reset to our baseline and we jumped to the next system in the galaxy.

Devra brought child number two, Talos, back to our living quarters and we celebrated the delivery. As wonderful and important as new life is onboard the ship, a ship with no home, I couldn’t help but feel ashamed of the choices I made today.

I never did tell her how I had saved my job, by destroying our chances of raising Talos and Vionea on that perfect planet. I didn’t explain how Vionea nearly choked, how her DNA got all over the probes, or how that DNA carries the recipe for self-destruction. That all human life on this planet was because I wasn’t paying attention to what my child put in her mouth. Too busy trying to save us all to keep from damning us all.

“What happens to that planet now, Tel?” Dev wrapped the baby tightly and put him down for the night.

“The coordinates for this entire star system get entered into the system as a forbidden zone. Natural selection has to occur as we observed it, and we cannot interfere with its progress.” I replied as I closed the file on my portable console.

I looked to Devra, Vionea standing beside her, arms wrapped tightly around her leg, and thought about the events of the day. My mind fell at ease when it occurred to me to return to the ways that had always worked best, and then I spoke only truth.

“My life is dedicated to finding us a new world. Not just for this family, for all of us. I will not fail in that because that is what family is about. I lost sight of that today for a bit, but I realized that as long as we are together, then this is where home is, right here, right now.”

We kissed our new son on his forehead and together, we tucked my daughter into her sleep pod. Devra and I retired to our sleep quarters where the window to space was so large it filled one entire wall. I told Dev I loved her and I held her until we fell asleep by the twinkling lights of a billion-billion maybes.