Gods and Daemons
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At the scale at which I was usually working, a human hair is huge, with a diameter easily a thousand times larger than the nano-devices I was trying to build. The SEM's current magnification was still within reach of a good-quality optical microscope, and I could easily make out the plate-like scales - essentially dead cells - which make up the outer layers. I zoomed in closer, a single scale now filling the field of view on the screen. Despite the keratinization process, the remnants of the once-living cell were clear enough, although there seemed to be a certain graininess which at first I thought was some kind of imaging defect on my microscope. I refocussed my microscope further; the graininess suddenly resolved itself into a familiar form, one that I was utterly shocked to see. The entire surface of the 'keratinous' surface of the hair scale was formed by nanomachines, with the same ellipsoidal form as the ones I had been provoking in my experiments, although without the spherical head. The same toothed sprockets bound the nano-devices together in a rigid framework, presumably to mimic the tough structure of the hair strand. I scanned up and down the fragment of hair: every scale was the same: at low magnification, plausible scale; higher magnification, nano machines. I looked at every sample I had found in my bedroom. Everything I could find which was once part of Maeve's body was nanotechnology. Oh, she had cells of various kinds, just like everybody else but, instead of those calls being implemented by biochemical reactions and the catalytic self-assembly effects of RNA and the like, the whole biochemical world inside her cells was emulated by nanotechnology. She was, at one level, entirely human - a functioning collection of trillions of cells - but at another level, built upon a machine capable of simulating that biological complexity to the smallest detail. After several hours frantic work, I sat with my head in my hands, thinking about what I should do. What I ought to do, of course, was talk to the security service - military, really - which ran the orbital facility, explain what I had learned and put the problem firmly in their hands. But then I would never find out something which I thought was important: does Maeve even know who, or what, she actually is? In the end, I did something I almost never did: visit Maeve while she was working, in her office. When I arrived, the door was open; a good sign, since it suggested she was open to interruptions. I tapped on the door and stepped inside, quietly closing the door behind me. "Joe! What a surprise," she exclaimed, looking up from her computer, "What brings you here?" "There's some things I should show you," I said without preamble, "I should have shown you last night, but, well, I forgot." She frowned but said nothing. "I built a Nano-suppressor detector application," I went on, "It turns out it can detect other kinds of active nanotechnology as well." I showed her the phone with my prototype Nano-suppressor application running, which was now chuffing and clicking away furiously. I held it closer to her; the noises got louder and merged into a continuous buzz. She looked at me quizzically. "I used the equipment in my lab," I went on, "To take a look at some of your cells, in great detail." I showed her several high-resolution images from the scanning electron microscope, which I had loaded onto my other phone. She glanced at them, as if confirming what she had already expected to see. "You appear to be entirely made of alien nanotechnology, emulating a human being at the cellular level." I leaned forward over the desk, looking directly into her eyes. "Did you know that?" She did not answer for a moment, then looked directly into my eyes. She raised one hand and said: "You need to examine your loyalties, Joe. Do you really want a conflict, a war against a powerful and mostly unseen enemy, a war which will cost livelihoods and perhaps lives, with generations of people forever looking over their shoulders, justifiably paranoid?" She lifted the other hand. "Or would you, and all the peoples of this world, prefer to live in peace and plenty, surrounded by the beauty and bounty of nature, until the end of time. You should think about it." She lowered her hands, a look of grim determination on her face. "And now I must go," she said, swinging around in her swivel chair and standing up. Before I could move, she let out an ear-splitting scream; her entire body disappeared in a flash of heat and light which nearly blew me over; the singed fabric of her clothes fluttered to the floor. There was nothing of her body left at all; the nanodevices had triggered what looked very much like spontaneous combustion. I was stunned for a moment, both from her words and the force of the blast of her self-destruction. I thought about what I should do, now. The facility security chose not to put surveillance devices in private rooms - bedrooms, offices - but all the corridors and public spaces were heavily monitored by cameras and other sensors. Security would have seen Maeve enter her own office, and later me entering and leaving the same one. I had no option but to turn myself in. Now it seems I have incurred the displeasure of the security services, again, although slightly mollified by both the fact that I had created a demonstrably effective alien nanotechnology detector and also plainly demonstrated the existence of aliens in our midst. They were annoyed that I had allowed Maeve to get away, as they put it, although I believe I have convinced them that they could not have contained Maeve anyway. Still, I think about Professor Maeve's last words all the time. Is it really that important that we humans have the ability to leave the planet, or at least the solar system? Perhaps we should just accept the inevitable and enjoy the bounty available to us all?
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Part 4
