Carl Sagan’s Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe Read Free Page A

affixed to the sides of their skulls enable humans to talk mind-to-mind. Every human with the metal implant has nanos—tiny machines—in their brains. They are awakened in later adolescence.” Noa was too young, but her “data port” and “neural interface” had been checked by a “physician” at her yearly “checkup.” She’d taken Hsissh to the visit as a “security blanket.” A bit of the memory of the enclosed doctor’s exam room slipped into the wave and some of the werfles hissed in fear. Hsissh rushed on. “The nanos turn their thoughts to waves, and allow them to interface mind-to-mind via light beams, radio, and microwaves—they call it ‘the ethernet.’”
    Misch’s mind hissed, “Primitive and barbaric! Even a lizzar can hear and see, and a “nano interface” is not much better!”
    Hsissh’s chest tightened, and he couldn’t help thinking of rats feasting on Noa’s flesh.
    “But they are wave aware!” Ish said.
    At Ish’s opening, Hsissh said, “Yes, yes! They know that all matter is made of waves.” Hsissh shared the memory of a lesson he’d studied with Noa, a history of physics from Isaac Newton to the current ethernet age. Humans were aware of the subatomic world, but they couldn’t feel it and barely used it; they hadn’t found a way to do so practically. “But they are on the verge!” Hsissh said, as his memory of the holo documentary ended. “Lizzars aren’t wave aware! Nor were the creatures we eradicated at the end of the last Epoch.”
    Shissh clacked, “Interesting … ” very slowly, the way she did when Hsissh had said something stupid.
    There was a collective silence from The One.
    And then a thought, so soft he almost missed it, entered his consciousness. “Hsissh’s Third died the true death ten cycles ago, it’s left him addled.”
    From the collective consciousness rose an unmistakable feeling of pity. In Noa’s attic, his physical body shivered … he’d failed.
    Ish stood on his back four hind limbs and waved his paws. “The humans, as they call themselves, are wave aware—in the truest sense of the word!”
    Thoughts rose in The Gathering like swirling mist.
    Misch swished his tail. “I know nothing of this!”
    “Because you haven’t been to their places of worship,” Ish said. “It is my understanding that on their home world the practice is all but forgotten; it was one of the reasons we have humans on our planet. The ones here were seeking enlightenment and to escape the material, non-wave focused cultures of Earth.”
    “Worship?” the question rose from Hsissh and all in attendance.
    Ish clasped his top two claw pairs behind his back and strode through the Gathering Place on his back four legs. His middle pair of paws waved. “They enter states of profound meditation in group settings.”
    Misch hissed. “They don’t feel the waves!”
    Ish bowed his head, and said, “They feel closer to ‘God’ in their meditative state, a being they believe is responsible for all creation and is all powerful. That is the waves from which all matter is derived, obviously.” Stopping his pacing, he raised his head and faced the crowd. “They have a concept of the oneness of everything.”
    There were soft noises of awe from around the cavern.
    “Humans brought the rats,” someone else thought. “They’re everywhere.”
    Nearly everyone in attendance licked their lips; even Misch’s feline form did. “We should reward them for that,” said another werfle.
    Clacking her pincers, Shissh drew the audience’s attention. “If they could join the waves, they could become useful allies.”
    “Allies against whom?” Misch cried.
    “You know it is only a matter of time!” Shissh snapped.
    Misch’s cat form’s fur rose.
    A member of The Gathering wearing a werfle host said, “In all probability, we will discover an enemy—or they will discover us. The universe is predator and prey.”
    “And symbiosis!” Shissh