On the Mars-like planet:
three slim gleaming helices;
delicate, intricate 3D webs;
smaller moving shapes;
mirror-flat rock.
Lissa and Hebo speculate:
continuing construction;
preparing for the wave front from the black hole collision;
maybe mostly forces, subatomic or vacuum energy;
a von Neumann seed growing machines for three million years;
probes near the event but also here for long-range study.
Response:
a gleaming, shimmering complex of coils and strands centered on an iridescent sphere flies to a position three hundred meters from their ship, Hulda, with no visible propulsive force or deceleration stress;
a radio voice, speaking first in Anglay, then in other spacefarer languages, warns them off and informs them that their hyperwave communicator has been disabled.
There is now a "...fragrance of summery meadows..." (p. 259) in Hulda. See In Space.
Then a Susaian ship arrives and destroys the Forerunner sentry craft.
The warning voice resembles similar voices from unknown aliens in Anderson's The Avatar and in Arthur C. Clarke's 2010.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Can any race be THAT patient, creating von Neumann machines for purposes set millions of years in the future? What would be the point of doing so, if that race was not going to be THERE to collect and make use of the information collected by those machines? That is the point which has most puzzled me!
Sean
Sean,
But they will be there if they have immortality/regeneration etc.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Granted, with some reservations. Strictly speaking, anyone living in a physical body which can be killed is not truly "immortal." I admit to finding it hard to imagine even people with bodies that can be rejuvenated living for millions of years.
Sean
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