Chapter 4 - Rational Machine from Rigel IV

“Where is your round-eared boyfriend, Nia?”
“He’s sitting in his ship, I think he’s homesick.”

Rey has been on planet Tenalp for almost a week now. He enjoyed his stay. He and Nia become very intimate but now he’s ready to go home. He knows that he has to get back to take care of his personal and business affairs. But most important he wants to announce his successful warp drive engine and also, of course, to tell the world of his encounter with people from another planet.

Ten and Nia came over to talk to Rey.
“You want to go home don’t you?” Ten asked.
“Yes I must. I will miss both of you but it’s time for me to go. With the supplies Nia and I brought from the mainland you two should not need me anymore.”

“I’m afraid that we still need you and your ship. Since we repaired our communications I’ve been talking to various people on our planet and the moon.”

“Now that’s interesting.” Rey said. “What have you learned?”

“Well, remember that most of our people left the planet for another solar system. But some stayed here and on the moon. Those that I managed to contact are afraid to leave their shelters. They don’t know if the war is still going on and if they’ll be attacked. Unfortunately I can’t contact anyone from the exodus since we don’t have warp communications.”

Ten continues. “Talking to some of the people I contacted I found out that there may be one or two warp capable ships left but that they’re badly damaged. It would take time to repair them, if they’re even repairable.”

Rey cuts in. “So why don’t I take you to these ships so you can see if you can fix them?”

“It’s not that simple. I need the cooperation of the people there and they’re too afraid to come and help. They don’t want to attract any attention of the attackers. What we really need to do is determine if our planet is still in danger and the only way to do that is to go to planet Rehto. I’ve been trying to get some information from our satellites we put in orbit there but they’re all silent. My guess is, is that they were all shot down.”

“I sense a proposition coming on.” Rey smiles. “Go on.”

“If you come back and take us to Rehto I will make it worth your while. I will give you the design specs for the hover engine as I promised and in addition I will show you how to double the speed of your warp drive. I will make you a very rich alien, I mean man.”

It didn’t take Rey long to decide. “Ok, we have a deal. I’ll come back, in about a week.”

Since he was coming back, Rey asked Nia to come with him, she gladly accepted the offer. “After all I need to have proof that I met people from another world.” He said.

Ten remarks, “Yeh I’d like to see the expression on their faces when you tell them that you met a robot and that she’s his sister.”

They planned to leave in the morning. As they were having their last dinner together Rey asks Ten to pick up on the lecture from that time on the beach.

“Oh yes, I was about to discuss the evolution of the nervous system.”
Ten displays a diagram on the nearest wall screen and starts talking.

“Here I will again be using your species as an example.
Man’s brain seems to be the result of nature’s desire to keep improving nervous systems toward having greater ability to gather information of the outside world. Figure 1 is a diagram classifying organisms according to their increasing levels of complexity. Level 1 represents the first living organism. It has a complete metabolic and reproductive system. From it evolved multi-celled animals.

Figure 1 - Evolution of the Nervous System

A living organism’s primary goal is the maintenance of its life. The actions the organism takes to sustain this goal is governed by its method of cognition, the mechanism it uses to acquire and use knowledge from the outside world and that of the condition of its own body.

The development of nerve cells expands this ability tremendously. In each next higher category of nervous systems, the organism’s range and resolution of sensory information input is increased.

As one moves up from level 2 to each progressively higher level the organisms become more and more complex. Each next higher level of animals develops a better method of dealing with its surroundings. Level 3 shows the first nervous system. Improved features to the nervous system are added in each next higher level and the animal’s organs become more complex. Note that each next higher nervous system still retains some representative features of all its preceding lower levels. Finally in level 6, the highest level, the important cognitive functions are performed in a centralized group of nerve cells, the brain. Man’s brain is at the top of this level. His is the most complex nervous system of all the animals.

One of the most important developments of the nervous system occurs when the animal acquires the faculty of consciousness. Consciousness is a state of awareness. It is the faculty of being aware of that which exists. Biologically this includes animals having nervous systems that produce discrete motor actions in response to discrete sensory stimuli.”

Rey interrupts. “That’s one of the areas I was most looking forward to hearing from you.”

Ten shakes his head. “Well, that’s another long lecture. Why don’t we wait till you come back to get into it, besides we need to discuss our business arrangement.”

Rey reluctantly agrees.

That night Ten and Rey sign a contract, with Nia as a witness. Rey is given exclusive rights to manufacture and market the hover engine on Earth. In addition Rey received specifications for upgrading his warp drive to double its speed.
In exchange Rey will return to Tenalp and take Ten and Nia to planet Rehto.
With these agreements they all knew that they were making “interplanetary” history.

The next day Rey and Nia prepare to leave for earth.
Nia says good-by to Ten by hugging him and kissing him on the cheek.

“Take care of yourself, my big brother.”

“I’ll be ok. I’ll keep busy. There’s more repair work that needs doing and I will continue talking with people I’ve contacted and try to contact others.”

Rey and Nia took off in his ship for Earth.

End of Chapter 4
River Road