The mission to Playa left Earthsea first. Loukas Diakos had been on Earthsea for almost a year by this point, and did not need time to recover from an inbound flight. For his part, Jeong Minho was young, and had a lot of experience working in zero-gravity by this point. His own recovery requirements were much shorter than those considered safe for Paul Chen-Jasic and Chen JuPing.
For this trip, it was just Jeong Minho and Loukas Diakos, so they had much more room in the small shuttle cockpit. Loukas sat in the back row, which allowed them both to stretch out across the seats for sleep. Somehow it felt more natural to be stretched out ‘horizontally,’ even in zero gravity.
For this trip, Hyper-4 carried four containers – one with personal cubic and water, and also containing tea from Arcadia, coffee from Amber, and cheese from Earthsea; a standalone shipboard radio for Hyper-4; and two of the big multi-channel QE radios to remain in Playa.
During the trip, Diakos studied up on Playa. Their technical specialty was cybernetics, and they also had a lot of different varieties of mushrooms.
The data collected in the flyby of Playa was curious, in that it included a lot of communications streams with a human identifier on one end and a machine identifier on the other. It wasn’t the central server farm of the colony’s network, however. Every colony had one of those. This was a lot of different machine identifiers. Thousands upon thousands of them.
The other thing Diakos noted in the imagery in the data stream is that most of the prominent people on Playa appeared to be overweight, in a way that was seldom seen on Arcadia, for instance. Not the average man in the street so much, but the rich and powerful were, by and large, on the heavy side.
That was curious.
Given that they had QE radio while in hyperspace, Diakos talked it over with Rob Milbank.
“So what do you think, Rob? Why are they all overweight?”
“Maybe they have the robots do all the work, and sit around all day,” Milbank said.
“But if a robot was doing the work, wouldn’t you go out and play golf or go climbing or something? Compared to sitting at a desk job, you would get more exercise, not less.”
“I don’t know, Loukas. I guess you’ll have to find out. One caution, though.”
“What’s that?”
“If all the wealthy and powerful are overweight, they might think a wiry, skinny guy like yourself must be a nobody.”
“But that’s because I’m a climber, Rob. You know that. You often end up supporting yourself or pulling yourself up with one hand. If you’re heavy, it’s much harder to climb.”
“Just saying, Loukas. Watch out for it.”
“Playa Air Traffic Control, this is hyperspace shuttle Hyper-4, inbound from colony planet Arcadia. Estimating arrival in twenty-two hours. Request instructions. Over.”
“Hyper-4, this is Playa Control. Repeat your transmission. Over.”
“Playa Air Traffic Control, this is hyperspace shuttle Hyper-4, inbound from colony planet Arcadia. Estimating arrival in twenty-two hours. Request instructions. Over.”
“Roger, Hyper-4. Maintain profile. Radio when two hours out for landing clearance.”
Jeong turned to Diakos.
“Well, more sit back and wait,” Jeong said.
“If they run true to form, they’ll ask for more information within about an hour.”
“What was that?” Planetary Chairman Oliver Nieman asked.
“They said they were a hyperspace vessel inbound to Playa from the colony planet Arcadia, sir,” Nieman’s chief of staff, Reginald Field repeated.
“An interstellar vessel? How extraordinary.”
“Yes, sir.”
I would have expected this to happen much earlier,” Nieman said. “I had decided it wasn’t going to happen at all.”
“Nevertheless, sir.”
“Yes. Yes, quite. Hmm.”
First interstellar contact, for Playa at least. Arcadia had been the third drop-off, and Playa had been thirteenth. So the Arcadians hadn’t known where Playa was from the viewscreen recordings of the original drop-off. Which meant the Arcadians had to look for them. They had probably contacted at least a few others already. The first two, for sure.
“Reg.”
His chief of staff turned back toward him in the display.
“Yes, sir?”
“They must have an ambassador or some such aboard. Have traffic control ask if they have briefing materials for me.”
“Of course, sir.”
Field cut the display, and Nieman sat back to think about interstellar contact.
Field was his chief of staff, but Field wasn’t actually in the same location with Nieman. The powerful didn’t go into the office, at least not on Playa. Field was at home, as Nieman himself was. He seldom left his home and gardens these days.
Contact with other planets was interesting, though. How much would the colonies have drifted apart from a more or less common start a century and a quarter before? Call it six generations.
And what would the implications be for Playa?
“There it is, right on time, The request for briefing materials,” Jeong said. “You want me to send the video recording?”
“Yes, go ahead and transmit it,” Diakos said.
“Did you have a chance to watch that video, Reg?” Nieman asked.
“Yes, sir. And I’ve read most of the accompanying materials.”
“I’m surprised they sent such a junior person as ambassador. Then again, perhaps no senior people wanted to go on such a long trip.”
“I think that may be a misreading of the situation, sir,” Field said.
“Really? Why so?”
“Loukas Diakos was actually a senior member of the lower chamber of their legislature, called the House, before moving into the ambassadorial role. He had been there fifteen years, after making his fortune in business by his early forties.”
“He made a fortune by his forties, and was in the legislature for fifteen years?”
“Yes, sir. Now, their House has ninety members, so it’s larger than our Council, but even so. He’s a senior government guy, and a savvy businessman, both.”
“Hmpf. Well, he certainly doesn’t look it. He looks half starved to me. Makes me hungry just to look at him.”
Nieman shifted his bulk in his chair to grab another cookie, then thought better of it. He returned his attention to Field, in the three-dimensional display that took up the entire wall in front of him.
“I understand, sir, but they have a very different culture. From the video, it appears that even their rich and powerful people go into the office every day. You saw those shots of their legislature in action. They were all physically present in a large auditorium.”
“Yes. Remarkable. Why not just call in from home? All that running about. And the time wasted in travel.”
“Like I said, sir. A very different culture. Part of that may be because they have little or no automation compared to us.”
Nieman nodded. He had seen no robots anywhere in the video recording, on any of the three planets, Amber, Earthsea, and Arcadia. Did they do everything themselves?
“And they have all joined this agreement of theirs. All three planets. Apparently we would be the fourth,” Nieman said.
“Yes, sir. It looks as simple as they said. Arcadia discovered the hyperspace drive, and they knew where Earthsea and Amber were, so they just went there. They had to look for the others, and have found some of them, including us.”
Nieman nodded again. That all sounded right. Whether by design or chance, they had found Playa.
“What do you think this agreement of theirs is like, Reg?”
“They say it is an open fair-trade agreement, sir, and that all trading partners have equal status.”
“Which is what I would expect them to say.”
“Of course, sir. Without having seen the actual text yet, it’s hard to say.”
“Well, we shall see. Let’s put their delegation up in the hotel downtown.”
“Do you want me to meet them at the shuttleport, sir?”
“No, I shall meet them.”
“Very well, sir.”
Nieman cut the connection and signaled his major domo. His primary robot came into his living room several minutes later carrying his dinner on a tray. He fixed it across the arms of Nieman’s chair.
“Will there be anything else, sir?” the robot asked.
“Dismissed.”
The robot nodded its head once and left the room.
After dinner, once the major domo had returned and removed the tray, Nieman maneuvered his powered chair out through the powered sliding patio door into his gardens.
He looked up into the darkening sky as the stars started to come out, one by one. Which one was Arcadia, he wondered?
Then again, he could probably not see it from here, even in full dark. A G2 sun – like Earth’s, like Playa’s – from six thousand light-years distant would be lost in the cloud of nearer and larger stars in the Sagittarius Arm.
To have crossed such vast distances, finally. It was a remarkable achievement.
Of course, Janice Quant had achieved the same thing over a century before, but that was different. The massive artificial intelligence Bernd Decker had constructed had solved space travel in a most elegant way.
But Playa’s engineers and scientists had never been able to duplicate what they called the Decker Breakthrough, Bernd Decker’s unpublished and undocumented architecture for Quant. All such efforts had resulted in failure. The Decker Architecture that did get published was solid computer design, an advancement of the field, but it was not artificial intelligence.
And Quant was long gone. At least, Playa’s scientists and engineers thought the odds of her having survived so long were slim to none. For one simple reason if no other.
If Janice Quant had in fact survived, where was she?
So Playa had not solved the artificial intelligence problem. Playa’s robots were mechanical devices, not artificial beings. They were task-oriented, not self-directing.
Oliver Nieman thought that was probably a good thing.
“Hyper-4 to Playa Control. We are two hours out. Requesting landing clearance. Over.”
“Roger, Hyper-4. You are cleared to shuttlepad 3. Playa Control out.”
“Huh. No other traffic warnings,” Jeong Minho said.
“Maybe they don’t have a lot of other traffic today,” Loukas Diakos said.
“I suppose. Well, the computer has lock on shuttlepad 3 and there’s a standard approach that comes with that. Keep your eyes open.”
But the computer put Hyper-4 down on shuttlepad 3 with no problems. A stairway drove up to the shuttle, and someone was coming up the stair. All good.
Jeong opened the shuttle cockpit hatch to find a mechanical man standing at the doorway. He was a bit taken aback by that, and looked at him curiously.
The robot was humaniform, more or less, about average height and build for a human. It did have two arms hanging from each shoulder, but was otherwise much like a human. It was covered in a plastic flexible skin that was colored blue like a coverall, but was flesh-colored on face and hands and black on scalp and feet, which had no toes. Like it was wearing boots.
“Welcome to Playa, gentlemen,” it said.
“You’re our welcoming party?” Jeong asked.
“I am the planetary chairman’s aide, sir. I am to take you to the hotel for your stay here.”
“Well, lead on, MacDuff.”
“I will lead you, sir, but my name is Fred.”
Jeong looked back to Diakos, who shrugged and motioned Jeong forward.
“Very well. Lead on, Fred.”
“Yes, sir.”
Fred led them down the stair and a short distance to a car. It opened the rear passenger door for them to get in, and closed it behind them. It then walked around to the driver’s door, got behind the wheel, and headed toward town.
Jeong and Diakos were used to self-driving vehicles from Arcadia, so they weren’t unaccustomed to vehicles driving themselves, but having a mechanical man drive a car was new.
They looked around curiously on their way into town. There were very few people about, at least compared to Arcadia or Earthsea. There were a lot of robots, though, each walking purposefully. On some sort of mission, they supposed. Maybe just to go get groceries. With four hands, they could carry a lot of grocery bags.
There was much less vehicle traffic than on Arcadia as well. Most of those vehicles – all of them that Diakos could see – were being driven by robots like their own.
“Not many people out and about, Fred,” Diakos said.
The robot’s head spun around to face into the rear seat.
“No reason to go anywhere, sir. We can bring you anything you need.”
“Uh, shouldn’t you be watching where you’re going?”
“I use the car’s sensors, sir. I normally face forward only because people seem to find it more comfortable.”
“I would find it more comfortable as well,” Diakos said.
“Very well, sir.”
The robot’s head turned to face forward again.
“So you’ll bring us anything we need.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What about meetings and the like?” Diakos asked.
“People just call each other. Meetings are all held in the displays. There’s no need to actually travel to get together.”
“How do people meet each other? You know, young people. How do they meet someone to marry?”
“I’m not sure, sir. They seem to manage.”
Fred spun his head around again.
“They prefer that we not be around, sir. So we don’t really know.”
The robot spun his head back forward again.
“Well, I can see that, I guess,” Diakos said.
There was no check-in process at the hotel. The robot led them past the clerk to the elevators and up to their room.
“Small hotel,” Diakos remarked.
“People don’t travel much, sir. There’s not much need.”
“I see.”
“Very good, sir. If you need anything, just let the front desk know.”
“When do I meet with the Chairman?” Diakos asked.
“The Chairman would be pleased to have lunch with you tomorrow, sir. After you’ve had a chance to recuperate from your travel.”
“Very good. And do we go to him or does he come here?”
“I’m sorry, sir,” Fred said. “I don’t understand.”
“Do we eat here, or at his place, wherever that is.”
“Oh. I see. You suffer from a misapprehension, sir. You will eat here, and he will eat there, and you will eat together, via the display.”
Fred waved at a large display.
“I see. OK, thank you, Fred.”
“You’re very welcome, sir. Have a good rest period.”
With that the robot left. When he did, Diakos and Jeong both laughed.
“Wow. What a planet,” Jeong said.
“Now we know why they’re overweight.”
Diakos looked around. The room seemed OK if a little stuffy. Like it wasn’t used very often. There were two bedrooms off a common living space. There was the large display in one wall, in front of which sat two large armchairs.
Diakos sat in one. It dwarfed him.
“Clearly made for a larger ass than me,” Diakos said.
Jeong laughed, then pointed.
“Loukas, it’s on wheels.”
“What?”
“The chairs. They’re on wheels. I think they’re motorized.”
“Huh. I can go out on the balcony without even getting up.”
Jeong just shook his head.
“Another hundred years and they won’t be able to walk at all,” he said.
“Maybe the robots will just carry them around, like in sedan chairs or something.”
“How strange.”
“Yeah,” Diakos said. “Takes all kinds.”
Jeong had left the shipboard QE radio on when they left, and patched into the ship’s radio system. Diakos tried to patch through to Arcadia, and got a call through to Rob Milbank. It was morning on Arcadia, though it was early evening here.
“Loukas, did you arrive on Playa?” Milbank asked when he saw the hotel room background.
“Yes, we’re in a hotel here. Or, I should say, the hotel. Apparently they only have one, and it’s a small one at that.”
“What?”
“People here don’t travel.”
Diakos brought Milbank up to speed on what they had learned since their arrival.
“So having lunch with the chairman means eating on a call with each other?”
“Apparently so. Nobody goes anywhere. The streets are deserted by Arcadia or Earthsea standards. I guess everybody stays home all the time. And look at the size of this chair. It’s more of a loveseat. You and I could both sit in it. and it’s on motorized wheels so I don’t have to get up to move around.”
“Remarkable,” Milbank said. “Absolutely remarkable. Well, that’s one I didn’t see coming. Of course, in the late Middle Ages being heavy was considered attractive. It meant the person wasn’t starving or diseased.”
“Yeah, I understand, but I don’t think the possibility of interstellar travel is going to be a big selling point here. They don’t even leave home. I’m going to push the gourmet imported foods angle. That sounds like it would be a winner.”