Contact across the Solar System

Touring the Northeast

Kalna and Ilmuth continued doing research in Boston, and Kalna's fear of thunderstorms faded. Summer turned into fall, and they then visited other big cities in the northeastern United States, visiting residents there also.

New York City was nice in some ways. It was like other big cities, but even bigger, and Manhattan, with its numerous tall buildings, seemed almost like Kalna's hometown on Venus and Ilmuth's on Mars.

The two visited the American Museum of Natural History, and they let themselves be impressed by all the work that the Earthers had done in exploring their planet's past. They asked the museum's staffers about a lot of things, and Kalna had a curious exchange about evolution with one of the staffers.

After discussing evolution with a staffer there, Kalna thought a bit, chose her words carefully, and said "I agree about evolution. It would be just plain silly to reject it. I agree about natural selection. Just as silly. But there is something that I can't get out of my mind."

"What?" said the staffer.

"I think that natural selection need not be the whole story. Visitors from outside the Solar System could have edited organisms' genes. Or the Universe's creative power could have done some editing."

The staffer was at a loss for words, but Kalna read his mind. He was thinking that this is creationist crackpottery.

Kalna continued "I'm not a creationist. I think that creationism is totally hokey. It's like saying that some magician did it by waving his magic wand. I just think that evolution can be engineered."

"I think I understand", he said.

"I'm sorry if I unnerved you. You've been a great help."

"Thank you. It's just that your beliefs are ... rather ... eccentric."

Kalna was careful not to talk about the SSC, but she would have had to concede that learning of humanity's origins was as controversial for SSC people as it was for the Earthers. When SSC people first learned of Earthers, they thought that Earthers were some degenerate offshoot of SSC people, because they were so backward. Likewise, when some SSC people showed that it was the Earth that was humanity's original world, it proved very controversial. In fact, the Earth turned out to be the original world of *all* of the organisms that the SSC people lived with.

Then the SSC people learned that their homes were created by a mysterious race from outside the Solar System, a race that the SSC people named the "Founders". It was these Founders that brought their ancestors to their homes and that are responsible for many of the SSC's technologies, though in a very behind-the-scenes sort of way. However, the SSC people have gradually been taking over their cities' infrastructure and the spaceships from the Founders, though the process is still not complete.

Why the Founders did that continues to be a mystery, though they seem to have genetically engineered humanity into existence over the last several million years. When they saw that our present species was advanced enough to develop a lot of technology, they decided to continue their experiments in habitats that they created across the Solar System, habitats that became the SSC cities. They wanted to leave the Earth undeveloped as a sort of genetic reserve, something that explains the backward state of humanity there. A backward state that now threatens its status as genetic reserve.

But if Kalna revealed all that, then she would be telling a story as farfetched as any of the original contactees' stories, and she knew what happened to George. Like being ridiculed for what he said about the Moon and Venus. Even hinting that visitors from elsewhere had meddled with Earth organisms' genes was almost too much for that museum staffer to take.

The two also visited the United Nations building, the headquarters of the closest thing that the Earthers have to a world government.

"Let's go announce ourselves in front of its General Assembly", said Kalna. "Just kidding."

After visiting the Statue of Liberty, the two decided to check out something rather odd: big-name universities out in the countryside, far away from where their students come from.

They first decided on Cornell University in upstate New York, and they took a bus to there. They noticed something about the trees' leaves become red and orange and yellow. They had sometimes seen this effect from the air, and they vaguely recalled something about the leaves dying in preparation for the upcoming cold season. So Kalna decided to ask some Earthers about it. She soon found out that the leaves had died and that their trees would soon drop them. That's their way of getting through the winter.

"What happens next spring?"

"The trees grow new leaves."

"So the trees grow new leaves each year for all of their lives?"

"Yes."

When she told Ilmuth about that, Ilmuth asked if it was worth importing some of these trees to their homeworlds' cities. Kalna doubted that any city council would think it worth doing to create the environmental triggers that would make the trees drop their leaves and regrow them again. Both women had seen plenty of weird artistic indulgences, but they didn't think that meddling with a city's environment systems would get much support.

Cornell University was as big as was advertised, almost as big as the surrounding town of Ithaca. It was atop a sizable hill relative to its bus station, though the Earthers' vehicles had no trouble with it. Just north and south of it were steep canyons, and west of it was the southern end of Cayuga Lake, a long, thin lake between the hills.

The two asked some Cornell staff members whether there was anything strange about such a university being far from its students' homes, and the staffers found that question rather puzzling. They thought that it was normal, and they noted that even big-city universities get plenty of students from out of town.

Where next? Ilmuth noted that a neighboring state had a town in it called "State College", a town on the way to their next big destination, Washington DC. She found out that it was also a small town with a big university: Pennsylvania State University, or Penn State for short. So she and Kalna went there next. It was much like Ithaca and Cornell, with most of its students coming from distant cities. But it didn't quite have the spectacular views that one could get from Cornell, though it had some nice views from its nearby mountains.

Then back to business. The two headed for Washington DC, the United States's capital city, and they met some residents there. The two described how Earther space vehicles work to the DC residents, while the DC residents described the intricacies of American politics to the two. They then had some pleasant arguments about which was the more complicated subject.

The two visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, stuffed elephant and all, and they also visited such touristy DC sites as the Capitol Building and the Washington Mall. The Lincoln Memorial was especially impressive, with inside of it a big statue of that president that made him look majestic, almost godlike. But when Kalna read the text in that memorial, awe quickly turned into disappointment. It was about him being a war leader and how he hoped that his war efforts were worthwhile.

"I don't recall very much about this Civil War", she conceded.

Ilmuth said "Me neither. Let's find a library and learn about it."

The two did, and they found out about that war. It killed more Americans than any other war that Americans have fought, not even World War II. It was fought because the South wanted to protect slavery while the North wanted to keep the nation from getting split up. As Kalna learned about that, she concluded that it would have been better to arrange a peaceful split or else for the northern states to kick out the southern ones. In the meantime, Ilmuth learned about the president's other achievements, like promoting land-grant colleges and the Transcontinental Railroad. The latter was built across deserts and mountains, a major feat for its builders. Kalna agreed with her that colleges and railroads would have been a better honor for that president.

Soon after, they were headed back to Boston.