It was late into the night and the scientists were exhausted. They had spent hours typing
the rules of nature and natural laws. Now, after almost five years, the work was
completed. Saved into the memory of the computer was the masterpiece of a world.
The late thirty-second century showed remarkable advances in all aspects of human
existence. The first years brought about the development of faster than light speed. After
that, Earth came into contact with advanced races of people. some proved to be hostile,
but most were peaceful and made peace with the people of Earth. In the year of 3199, a
farflight expeditionary unit discovered a race of people with the practically impossible
ability to create worlds. The expeditionary unit stole a program for a world named
A’klaghk. They sent the program back to Earth where scientists at UES (United Earth
Sciences) took the program apart, finding out exactly how it worked and started building
their own world.
The scientists soon found problems. They weren’t being exact, and that sloppiness
was costing trillions of dollars. The new worlds that were being built never reached
Earth’s level. They were only getting to a certain point and then the planets would swiftly
die, killing anyone or anything that happened to be on the planet at the time, usually small
protazoins. The scientists, desperate to build a fully operational world, took all their
programs back to the laboratory and went through the manuals they had found with the
program. Then, in a snap of inspiration, the scientists figured out that the reason that the
planets were dying, was because everything about the planet had to be exact. The
scientists weren’t taking the time to set very precise geological structures and weren’t
following the natural laws that they had set. They were letting things slip into the program
that defied the laws of nature. They rebuilt each planet at the expense of 10 billion dollars
per planet. In the year 3250, the scientists finished their fist flawless program. They
named it, Le Premier Planete. They sent the program to the world government of Earth.
The government awarded UES 800 trillion dollars to build worlds. If they could build
hundreds of these worlds, then Earth could have an empire without ever having to go to
war.
++++++
Reyn Marou sat in the jump seat for the final jump to Morroac, the spaceport
planet near the edge of human territory. They were having problems with their workers.
They weren’t doing what they were supposed to. Their supervisor would tell them to
hook up a coupling for the ship, and they would connect the coupling to the hatch. It was
comical until news came that the native people were dying earlier, at around the age of
fifty. The GIA (Galactic Intelligence Agency) had sent Reyn to Morroac to find out what
was wrong.
Static came over the loudspeaker, “ Prepare for the final jump. We’ll be landing in
ten minutes.”
Morroac was actually more shabby than Reyn had expected. When the ship
landed, he went directly to the supervisors office.
“ Supervisor Gerrul, what’s up. You call me down here to help you and I see
nothing wrong.” Reyn said, when he’d sat down.
“ It’s very sutle. This planet has been fully operational for what... five years. Most
of the people here are in their forties, and they’re starting to die. You ask them for
something even like a beverage cube and they look at you like your speaking a different
language. I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“ Well,” Reyn said, “ I will take an unguided tour of this facility and see things for
myself.”
“ OK,” Supervisor Gerrul said.
Reyn walked out of Gerrul’s office and down to one of the cargo bays. He stopped
a worker and took him to a pallet of medispanners.
“ Put these in compartment 117.” Reyn ordered.
The workman just looked at him then asked, “ What are they?”
“ Medispanners. They have to go in compartment 117.”
“ Where do I put them?”
“ In compartment 117, over there.” Reyn pointed and the man got up on a crane
and picked up the pallet. It was obvious that he was having trouble manipulating the
controls, because the crane kept moving in all direction, until the worker finally found
foreword.
Reyn moved away and saw a technician holding a computer panel, obviously for
the min computer. He was standing right in front of the entrance to the computer
compartment, but looking around blankly, as if not sure of where to go. Reyn walked up
to him and asked, “ Can I help you with something?”
“ Where do I go?”
“ Right there.” Reyn pointed into the computer bay and the man walked away,
looking around wonderingly.
He went back up to Gurrel’s office and walked in.
“ I see your point. It’s like they don’t remember anything of what their supposed
to.”
Over the next week, Reyn went to twenty different artificial planets, and
witnessed the same events. Workers not doing their jobs.
The trip home was agonizingly long and as soon as the ship landed, Reyn went to
his office in GIA and turned on his computer. He accessed the construction logs of
Morroac and the alien manual that was with the A’klaghk program. He spent two full
days going over every possible detail about the construction of a world. Whenever he
found a variation in the program, he wrote it down. He finally finished the manual and
raced to his boss, the Director of Intelligence.
“ Sir,” Reyn puffed as he burst into his boss’s office. “ I’ve found out what’s
wrong with the artificial worlds.”
“ Care to explain your theory?”
“ When I got back from Morroac, I pulled up its construction files, listing every
detail about the planet. Then I compared it to the alien manual. There were over 300
variations from the guidelines. I also found several contradictions in the program. These
worlds are degrading. There are gaps in their programming to prove it. We have to stop
the construction of these worlds before they all die.”
“ How many variations did you say?”
“ Over 300, not including the contradictions.”
“ I would like to see that.”
“ Reyn handed him his tablet, with all the variations and pulled up both files on
his computer. they spent the next three day going over the program, and Reyn’s boss
confirmed that there were contradictions.
“ Come with me.” His boss said.
The presidential palace was huge, a sprawling sixty acre labreynth. Reyn looked
up at the huge gothic archways as they went inside. they were escorted to the President’s
office, and sat down. A minute or two later, the president walked in and shook both their
hands.
“ What can I do for you?” the president asked.
“ Show him.” Reyn’s boss, Frank, said to Reyn.
Reyn brought up the files on the president’s computer and went over the entire
Morroac program with the president. The flaws in the program were obvious.
“ How didn’t the scientists at UES see these flaws?” The president asked
incredulously.
“ Sir, UES is producing eight programs a day. They can’t go over every one to
find minuscule flaws in their programming. Some flaws they do see. Like a flaw in the
program might make a shorter growing season one year or make it one degree hotter then
it’s supposed to be for one day. the individual changes won’t do any damage to the planet,
it’s the exponential flaws that add up to make serious problems. I’ve seen some of these
worlds for myself and they are definitely starting to degrade.”
“ The president turned to one of his aides. “ Get me the director for production at
UES.”
The director of production and UES, A short fat man named Malory, came in a
few minutes later.
“ What can I do for you Mr. President?”
The president nodded to Reyn who showed the director the program and it’s flaws
for the fifth time that week.
“ What is this,” The director asked dumbly.
“ This sir, is the construction file for Morroac. This over here, is the alien manual.
Morroac is degrading, because of all these flaws and contradictions.”
“ How can you prove that.”
“ Sir, its right here, in black and white.”
“ I want my scientists to confirm all of these flaws.”
“ All right, I’ll send this information to your offices.”
The Director stormed out and and aide pushed past the director.
“ Sir,” The aide said panicked, “ thirty-three of the artificial planets are revolting.”
They turned on the viewscreen and watched the news unfold.
“ About half an hour ago, reports came in from across the galaxy that thirty-three
planets in the Earth empire have revolted,” The news woman paused for a second, looked
offscreen, then turned back. “ Actually the number is thirty-six.”
The president was already out of his office and heading to the large situation room
in Washington DC
++++++
“ Today, is a great day in the history of the empire,” The newsanchor was saying,
“ The revolutionary’s have surrendered and their planets are awaiting deconstruction.”
Reyn Marou III was sitting in his apartment, watching the news.
It had been almost one-hundred and twenty years since the revolution began, and
billions of people had died. Finally though, it was over, the revolutionaries surrendered
and the flawed planets were being destroyed.
His grandfather had found the problem and was world renowned for finding the
flaw before it destroyed the empire. He was awarded the highest honor the Empire could
give. The medal was now a family heirloom.
Reyn III was the supervisor of the team that had been assembled to destroy the
manual and any record of world building. Now, the empire would not ever be able to
make the same mistake again. Any record of the alien species was wiped of the records,
and any farflight expeditions were ordered to bypass a certain sector of space, which
included the alien race that made the worlds.
Earth was saved, It would never make the same mistake twice.
Gender:
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