System

20. Seeds of Life

The vast shape of Jupiter hung in the sky like an immense orange lantern, its presence dominant and brooding. Swan stood by the rail of the walkway soaking in the light through the space station windows.

'I know it's only a simulation,' he said with a note of awe in his voice. 'But it is impressive.'

'Indeed,' Watcher said as he looked backwards and forward along the corridor. 'And not a sight you are ever likely to have seen for real.'

'Sorry?'

Watcher shrugged.

'It's far too expensive to send unadapted humans this far out. Your bodies can't cope with the micro-gravity, the radiation or the rigours of long distance space travel.'

He stamped his feet on the metal deck.

'This station is designed to give the appearance that you can walk around but there's no actual gravity. If we were really here, we'd be floating.'

'A simulation inside a simulation...' Swan sighed.

'That's the idea. If this was the real world we'd be holographic projections. You would have uploaded your mind into the system so you could walk around a simulated version of the station and the image of your simulated body would then be projected into the real station so you could engage with the locals.'

Swan thought about this for a moment and lost his way somewhere in the various levels of simulations and projections. He decided to shelve the existential complexity of Watcher's explanation for another time.

'In practical terms we're standing in a space station orbiting Jupiter.'

'It's probably best to think that,' Watcher replied sympathetically. 'We're getting tangled up in multiple realities. Let's just go with the flow.'

Swan shrugged.

'Fine by me,' he said. 'I'll work it out later.'

Watcher smiled. He had developed a lot of affection for his human friend and hoped this latest trip would answer a few more questions about their mysterious journey - although there were still a large number of objects sitting on the table back in the white room for them to try.

'Okay,' he said. 'I think we're here to see something truly awesome. Prepare yourself for a glimpse of the future.'

'The future?'

Watcher nodded.

'This is present day,' he said. 'We're going to see the next step in the human journey - and I think it's going to surprise you.'

'Okay,' Swan replied. 'But I'm not sure anything would surprise me at this point.'

Watcher laughed.

'Let's test that out,' he said. 'Follow me.'

Watcher led Swan along the corridor and through a round metal hatch. They entered a large room where a number of people were hard at work on a variety of complex control panels and mysterious machines. Many of them were obvious astroforms like the woman on the city ship while some had the appearance of traditional humans but had unusual skin or facial features.

He could see that most of them were unaffected by gravity and were drifting around, moving like fish in the water. At the centre of the room a man was sitting in a large metal seat and he smiled as they entered.

'Do come in,' he said warmly. 'I think you're here to see me.'

Swan and Watcher walked over to the man and he shook their hands.

'This is my memory,' he said. 'It's the last few hours before I leave.'

'Leave?' Swan asked.

The man nodded.