Supernal

Chapter 12

3:15 pm Saturday, 23rd June 2029

Crew Room on the OCF

Toby watched as Jayal and Charlie made tea in the crew room kitchenette. They were talking quietly together and seemed to be getting along well. Toby realized he was jealous. He noticed Velan give the two women a disapproving glance.

When everyone was seated and ready, Velan announced they would start with a short presentation by Nimir.

"My knowledge base is biology," Nimir began as soon as Rob had started recording. "So I will expand on some of the points Mutu touched on yesterday.

Dr Jardine's paper entitled 'Intelligent Design' was mostly correct. Natural evolution is a very unreliable process and is limited to mainly inconsequential changes. When the Atikas evolved, their physical bodies hardly changed. Although they grew larger and more intelligent they remained rodent-like in appearance and physiognomy.

The Atikas were not satisfied with the physical restrictions of their bodies so their genetic experiments on Earth had two purposes. The first was to create as many varied species as possible to use as sources of food. The second was to introduce mutations that could be adapted to improve their own physical bodies.

Homo sapiens emerged as a result of their experiments on primates to allow them to stand on two legs. Although that improvement gave primates the advantage of being able to see further, the main purpose of it was to free their hands.

The Atikas wanted to stand upright so that their hands were free to perform delicate tasks, and they used genetic modelling to try and achieve that. Dr Jardine's paper specifically mentioned the human ankle. The Atikas studied many bipedal creatures and genetically altered the ankle bones in primates until they perfected a design that enabled a primate to stand comfortably for long periods of time.

The nuchal ligament that keeps the human head steady, and also figured in Dr Jardine's hypothesis, was modelled from a similar tendon found in ungulates."

"Can I ask something that has always bothered me?" Toby broke in. "Why has no fossil evidence of these changes ever been found?"

"Probably because the Atikas were experimenting on a small number of individuals and over just a few thousand years, which is the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. Also, I suspect that most of the subjects were destroyed or possibly eaten. The Atikas are omnivores."

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"Unfortunately for the Atikas," Nimir continued, "they never perfected mutations that worked for their own bodies. They experimented on some other rodent species and the best they achieved was similar to the animal you now call a kangaroo. Eventually, they accepted that their skeleton would need too many drastic changes so they gave up. They decided to concentrate on ways to enhance intelligence instead."

Velan asked Toby if he had any other questions and Toby asked why the Manitan spoke English and if the Atikas could also speak English.

"English is not our original language," Velan explained. "The Atikas taught themselves English from your early radio broadcasts which were almost all in English. They can understand English but can't vocalize words. When you started satellite television broadcasts, the Atikas re-broadcast material to the Manitan populace and encouraged us to also learn English. There was so much fascinating information coming from your planet that it quickly became Vitu's second language."

"How do the Atikas communicate?"

"They communicate with each other in ultrasound, and with us in audible sounds similar to your old Morse code. It's laborious and inefficient, so the Atikas are now working on methods of direct thought transfer."

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Nimir finished his talk with some other examples of animals that were genetically engineered on Earth and described how they were thriving in Vitu's forests, seas and farms. Many species that were extinct or endangered on Earth were flourishing on Vitu. From Nimir's description, Vitu sounded like a paradise and Toby wondered if the visits the Manitan made to Earth through the ages had sparked ideas about the existence of heaven. They must have interacted closely with the human population. Perhaps they had initiated the whole idea of religion. It was even possible that Jesus had been a Manitan, spreading ideas of peace and non-aggression on the orders of the Atikas.

Toby was jolted from his reverie when Velan stood up and said he would give them a brief overview of the technology on Vitu.

"I thought you were a medical doctor?" Summers asked.

"Yes, but on Vitu a doctor is also a scientist. I understand the principles of our technology."

Velan pressed the side of his neck and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Toby glanced at Summers and Charlie to see if they had noticed as Velan began speaking.

"The technology of Vitu is quite different from Earth. In some areas, we are far in advance of you. In other areas, you are ahead. This is one reason why a friendship between our planets would be mutually beneficial.

On Vitu we have never used fossil fuels and because of that, our planet is unpolluted. Our technology has always been based on magnetism, electricity, chemicals and genetics. Nuclear physics was unknown on Vitu until you exploded your atomic bombs, and then the Atikas decided not to pursue that line of research.

Our electricity is all generated by natural means such as wind and water power. We also have electrically powered vehicles that self-drive using an onboard intelligence unit."

Rob lifted a hand and Velan paused.

"Could you explain 'onboard intelligence unit'? Is that some kind of microprocessor?"

"No, it is nothing like your microprocessors. We don't have computers like yours, which are basically only simple adding machines. Our equivalent devices are organic. They use living brain cells and are capable of making decisions."

"Woah!" Rob exclaimed. "You have brains hooked up to machines and they work like our computers? Where do you get these brains?"

"It's not like that," Velan frowned. "Our intelligence units are incorporated into machines, vehicles and display screens among other things, but some units have only a few cells. Others have more, depending on their function. The cells are harvested from deceased Manitan and Atikas. It is a normal and accepted process on Vitu."

"I'm sorry if Rob has caused offence," Summers apologized. "I'm sure he'll come to accept that there are bound to be cultural differences between our planets."

"I think it's time for a break," Charlie suggested diplomatically.