To Hold Up the Sky Read online

  The smart fields of the High Archon and the senator darkened. “Do you find this work distressing?” asked the fleet commander.

  “Another species gone, like dew in the sun.”

  “Think of the Battle of the Second Arm, Your Excellency—more than two thousand supernovas detonated, one hundred and twenty thousand planets with life vaporized. We do not have the luxury to be sentimental.”

  The senator ignored the fleet commander. He addressed the High Archon directly. “Random planetary spot checks are unreliable. There may be signs of civilization elsewhere on a planet’s surface. We should implement area scans, as well.”

  The High Archon said, “I have discussed that possibility with the Senate. We must destroy hundreds of millions of stars in the isolation belt. We estimate the belt contains ten million planetary systems and fifty million planets. Our time is limited; we will not be able to conduct a full area scan on each planet. All we can feasibly do is widen the detection beam to scan larger random samples … and pray the civilizations that might exist here have spread uniformly across their planets’ surfaces.”

  * * *

  “Next, we’ll learn Newton’s second law.”

  He spoke as quickly as he could, to teach the children as much as possible in the short time he had left.

  “An object’s acceleration is directly proportional to the force acting on it, and inversely proportional to its mass. To understand that, you need to know what acceleration is. Acceleration is the rate at which an object’s speed changes over time. It’s different from speed—an object that’s moving fast isn’t necessarily accelerating rapidly, and a quickly accelerating object may not be moving fast. For example, say there’s an object moving at 110 meters per second. Two seconds later, it is moving at 120 meters per second. Its acceleration is 120 minus 110, divided by two … that’s five meters per second—no, five meters per second squared. Another object is moving at ten meters per second, but two seconds later, it’s moving at thirty meters per second. Its acceleration is thirty minus ten, divided by two—ten meters per second squared. The second object may not be as fast as the first, but its acceleration is greater! I mentioned squares—a square is just a number multiplied by itself…”

  He was surprised that his thinking was suddenly so clear. He knew what this meant: If life is a candle, his had burned to its base, and its wick had fallen and ignited the last bit of wax there, with a flame ten times brighter than before. His pain was gone and his body no longer felt heavy; in fact, he was barely aware of his body at all. The life he had left seemed to be in his brain, which worked furiously to convey all its knowledge to the children gathered around him. Language was a bottleneck—he knew he didn’t have enough time. He fantasized that the knowledge he had spent his life accumulating—not much, but dear to him—was lodged in his brain like small pearls, and that as he spoke, a crystal ax chopped the pearls out of his brain onto the floor, where the children scrambled to gather them like sweets at New Year’s. It was a happy fantasy.

  “Do you understand?” he asked restlessly. He could no longer see the children around him, but he could still hear them.

  “We understand! Now please rest, teacher!”

  He felt his flame begin to sputter. “I know you don’t understand, but memorize it anyway. Someday, it will make sense to you. The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it, and inversely proportional to the object’s mass.”

  “We really do understand, teacher! Please, please rest!”

  With his last ounce of strength, he gave the children a command. “Recite it!”

  Through tears, the children began to chant. “The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it, and inversely proportional to the object’s mass. The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it, and inversely proportional to the object’s mass.…”

  Hundreds of years ago, one of the world’s great minds emerged in Europe, wrote down these words. Now, in the twentieth century, they filled the air of China’s most remote mountain village, recited by a chorus of children in a thick, rural accent. In the sound of that sweet hymn, his candle burned out.

  The children gathered around his body and wept.

  Target Number: 500921473

  Absolute Magnitude: 4.71

  Evolutionary Stage: Middle Main Sequence

  Nine planets found

  This is Vessel Blue 84210 reporting

  “What an exquisite planetary system,” the fleet commander exclaimed.

  The High Archon agreed. “Indeed. Its small, rocky planets and gas giants are spaced with wonderful harmony, and its asteroid belt is in a beautiful location, like a necklace. And its farthest planet, a little dwarf covered in methane ice, suggesting the end of one thing and the beginning of another, like the final note of a musical cadence…”

  “This is Vessel Blue 84210. We are commencing a life scan on Planet One. This planet has no atmosphere, a slow rotation, and a huge temperature differential. Scan beam is firing. First random site: white. Second random site: white.… Tenth random site: white. Vessel Blue 84210 reports that this planet has no life.”

  “You could smelt iron on the surface of that planet. We shouldn’t waste time,” said the fleet commander.

  “We are commencing a life scan on Planet Two. This planet has a thick atmosphere; a high, uniform temperature; and substantial acidic cloud cover. Scan beam is firing. First random site: white. Second random site: white.… Tenth random site: white. Vessel Blue 84210 reporting—this planet has no life.”

  “I have a strong feeling that Planet Three harbors life. Scan thirty random sites,” said the High Archon, his message traveling instantly over the four-dimensional communicator to the duty officer of Vessel Blue 84210, over one thousand light-years away.

  “Excellency, our schedule is very tight,” said the fleet commander.

  “You have your orders,” said the High Archon resolutely.

  “Yes, Your Excellency.”

  “We are commencing a life scan on Planet Three. This planet has a medium-density atmosphere, and most of its surface is covered by ocean…”

  The first shot of the life-scan beam struck a circle of land in Asia around three miles across. In the light of day, the effect of the beam would have been visible to the naked eye—it turned every nonliving object in its field transparent. The scan hit the mountains of northwest China; in daylight, an observer would have seen a spectacular sight as sunlight refracted through the mountain range and the ground under her feet seemed to disappear, revealing an abyss into the depths of the planet. Living things—people, trees, grass—remained opaque, and their forms would have stood out clearly against the crystal background. However, this effect only lasted for the half a second it took the beam to initialize, and onlookers would likely assume they had imagined it. Besides, it was nighttime.

  In the direct center of the beam’s field was the village school.

  “First random site … we’ve got green! Vessel Blue 84210 reporting—we have discovered life on target number 500921473, Planet Three!”

  The beam began automatically to sort the many life-forms it had hit, entering them into its database in order of complexity and according to an initial intelligence estimate. At the top of the list was a group of life-forms inside a square shelter. The beam narrowed and focused on the shelter.

  The High Archon’s smart field received an image transmission from Vessel Blue 84210. He projected it onto the black background, and in an instant, he was standing within a projection of the village school. The image-processing system had removed the shelter from view, but the life-forms inside were still hard to make out, as their bodies were so similar to the silicon-based planetary surface around them. The computer eliminated all nonliving objects in the image, including the larger, lifeless body the other beings encircled, and the beings now appeared suspended in a void. Even so, they were still dull and colorless, like a
bunch of plants. This was clearly not a species with any remarkable phenotypic features.

  Vessel Blue 84210 was an interstellar warship as large as Earth’s moon, and in its position outside Jupiter’s orbit, it was like an extra planet in the solar system. It fired a four-dimensional beam that moved through three-dimensional space nearly instantaneously. In a moment, the beam had arrived at Earth and pierced the roof of the village school’s dorm. It scanned the eighteen children inside down to their elementary particles and transmitted the enormous amount of data back into space at an unimaginable rate. The main computer of Vessel Blue 84210 had a storage capacity larger than the universe itself; in an instant, digital copies of the children were constructed and stored there.

  The eighteen children floated in an endless void whose color was indescribable. In fact, it didn’t strictly have a color. It was a limitless field of perfect transparency. The children instinctively tried to grab hold of nearby classmates, but their hands passed through their bodies without resistance. They were terrified. The computer detected their fear and judged that they required some familiar objects for comfort, so it altered the color of the simulation’s background to match their home planet’s sky. Immediately, the children saw a cloudless, sunless, deep blue sky. There was no ground beneath them, just endless blue, the same as above, and they were the only things in it.

  The computer reassessed the digital children and found they were still panicking. In a hundred-millionth of a second, it understood why: Whereas most life in the galaxy had no fear of floating, these creatures were different in that they lived on land. The computer added Earth-like gravity and a ground to the simulation. The children were astonished to find under their feet a pure white plain, extending into infinity in all directions and crossed by a neat, regular black grid, like a huge piece of writing paper. A few children crouched down to touch the ground, and it was the smoothest surface they had ever touched; they tried taking a few steps, but the ground was completely frictionless and didn’t move beneath them. They wondered why they didn’t fall down. One child took off a shoe and threw it level with the ground. It slid along at a regular speed, and the children watched it glide off into the distance, never decelerating.

  They had seen Newton’s first law.

  A melodious, ethereal voice permeated the digital universe.

  “Commencing 3C Civilization Test. Question One: Please describe the basic principles of biological evolution on your planet. Is it driven by natural selection or spontaneous mutations?”

  The children had no idea. They stayed silent.

  “3C Civilization Test, Question Two: Please briefly describe the source of a star’s power.”

  Silence.

  …

  “3C Civilization Test, Question Ten: Please describe the chemical composition of the liquid in your planet’s oceans.”

  The children still did not speak.

  The shoe had slid off into the horizon, where it became a black point and disappeared.

  “That’s enough!” said the fleet commander to the High Archon, one thousand light-years distant. “We won’t be able to complete the first phase of the project on time if we keep on like this.”

  The High Archon’s smart field vibrated slightly, signaling his consent.

  “Fire the singularity bomb!”

  The beam containing the command shot through four-dimensional space and arrived immediately at Vessel Blue 84210, which was holding its position in the solar system. A faintly glowing ball left the long track at the front of the ship and accelerated along an invisible force field toward the sun.

  The High Archon, the senator, and the fleet commander turned their attention to another region of the isolation belt, where several planetary systems with life had been discovered, the most advanced of which was a brainless, mud-dwelling worm. Exploding stars filled the region, like galactic fireworks. They all thought of the Battle of the Second Arm.

  A while later, a small portion of the High Archon’s smart field split off from the rest and turned its attention back to the solar system. He heard the captain of Vessel Blue 84210.

  “Prepare to exit the blast radius. T minus thirty to warp. Commence countdown!”

  “A moment, please. How long until the singularity bomb reaches its target?” asked the High Archon, attracting the attention of the fleet commander and the senator.

  “It’s passing the orbit of the system’s first planet. Approximately ten minutes to impact.”

  “We will take five minutes to continue the test.”

  “Yes, Your Excellency.”

  The duty officer of Vessel Blue 84210 continued administering the test. “3C Civilization Test, Question Eleven: What is the relationship between the three sides of a right triangle on a flat plane in three-dimensional space?”

  Silence.

  “3C Civilization Test, Question Twelve: Where is your planet’s position relative to the other planets in your star system?”

  Silence.

  “This is pointless, Your Excellency,” said the fleet commander.

  “3C Civilization Test, Question Thirteen: How does an object move when it is not subjected to any external forces?”

  Beneath the endless blue sky of the simulated universe, the children recited, “A body at rest or moving in a straight line at a constant speed will maintain its velocity unless an outside force acts upon it.”

  “Correct! 3C Civilization Test, Question Fourteen…”

  “Wait!” called out the senator, interrupting the duty officer administering the test. “The next question is also about heuristics in low-speed mechanics. Doesn’t that violate the test guidelines?” he asked the High Archon.

  “Of course not, as long as the question is in the database,” interjected the fleet commander. He was shocked that these unassuming life-forms had answered a question correctly, and all his attention was now on them.

  “3C Civilization Test, Question Fourteen: Please describe how two objects exerting force on each other interact.”

  “When a body exerts force on a second body, the second body will exert an equal force on the first body in the opposite direction!” said the children.

  “Correct! 3C Civilization Test, Question Fifteen: Please describe the relationship between an object’s mass and acceleration when an external force acts upon it.”

  In unison, the children said, “The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it, and inversely proportional to the object’s mass!”

  “Correct! You have passed the Civilization Test! Confirming that there is a 3C-level civilization on Planet Three of Target Star 500921473.”

  “Reverse the singularity bomb! Disengage!!” The High Archon’s smart field flashed and vibrated frantically as he sent his order through hyperspace to Vessel Blue 84210.

  The force-field beam began to bend. Its hundred-million-mile path through the solar system curved away from the sun, like a tree branch that had been weighed down. As the force-field engine on board Vessel Blue 84210 worked at maximum power, its enormous heat sink glowed, first dark red, then with a bright white incandescence. The beam’s new thrust vector began to affect the trajectory of the singularity bomb, which curved away from its target. However, it was already inside the orbit of Mercury, very close to the sun, and no one was confident that the force-field engine could bend its course enough to prevent impact.

  The whole galaxy watched over hyperspace as the fuzzy, dark ball veered and grew substantially brighter, a worrisome sign that it had already entered the particle-rich space around the sun. The captain’s hand rested on the red hyperspace button, ready to leap away from the solar system the moment before impact.

  In the end, the bomb shot by the very edge of the sun, only a few dozen miles from its surface, sucking in huge amounts of material from the sun’s atmosphere as it brushed past. It glowed intensely with a blue-white light, and for a moment, the sun appeared to have a brighter twin star locked in close, binary orbit,
a phenomenon that was to become an enduring mystery to the inhabitants of Earth. The sun’s fiery surface darkened beneath the bomb, like the wake of a speedboat in calm water, and as the black hole swept past the solar surface, its gravity consumed the sun’s light, scratching a dark, crescent scar into the sun’s surface which grew to eclipse the whole solar hemisphere. As the bomb left the sun, it dragged an enormous solar prominence behind it, a beautiful string of flame one million miles long. The tip of the prominence flared violently outward, blossoming into a mass of whirling plasma vortices.

  After the singularity bomb brushed past the sun, it grew dark again. Soon, it disappeared into the infinite night of space.

  “We almost destroyed a carbon-based civilization,” said the senator, heaving a sigh of relief.

  “A 3C-level civilization here, in this desert—unbelievable!” exclaimed the fleet commander.

  “Yes. Neither the Carbon Federation nor the Silicon Empire has included this region in its plans for expansion and cultivation. If this civilization were to have evolved entirely on its own, that would be a rare thing indeed,” said the High Archon.

  “Vessel Blue 84210, you are to hold your position in that star system and commence a full-surface civilization test on Planet Three. Another ship will take over your prior mission,” ordered the fleet commander.

  The children in the village didn’t notice anything amiss, unlike their digital replicas outside of Jupiter’s orbit. They were still crying over their teacher’s body in their candlelit dormitory. After a long time, they quieted down.