What matters to you? No no, what really matters to you? You have asked yourself before but it’s all different now isn’t it? How did it change so fast?
Why, just this morning you were making plans for the annual Fugazi Day. This year’s celebration was supposed to be the biggest ever. Fugazi was supposed to celebrate its 200th year as a settled exoplanet. Its Founders were to be celebrated for their rapid conversion of Fugazi’s atmosphere from one that humans could only tolerate a few hours to one nearly identical to earth’s. This of course was only possible because of the planet’s energy rich core, the same core that’s changed your life forever.
Fugazi’s core, made of Shahzonite, is the reason Fugazi was settled in the first place. First found on an asteroid almost 400 years ago, a sphere of Shahzonite the size of a soccer ball can power an interstellar spacecraft over 10 light years of travel. When Shahzonite was discovered it was almost as if humans found a way to break the first law of thermodynamics, creating something from nothing. Shahzonite revolutionized the way civilization was powered. That first asteroid, plus several more, were mined successfully…for a while. But one by one, without warning, they all collapsed, killing every person and destroying everything within a large area around them.
Your roommate, Pieter, has a theory for why all of these asteroids eventually imploded spectacularly. Pieter is the lead research scientist on the matter and is stationed on Fugazi specifically to study the matter. He believes Shahzonite has an interconnected memory spanning across the universe like a telepathic being. Every piece of Shahzonite mined and subsequently destroyed by humans communicates across space with its original piece. Once enough Shahzonite is removed and destroyed the core piece rapidly destabilizes, or so Pieter thinks.
In this rapid destabilization process Shahzonite is somehow able to change the spin of all nearby subatomic particles, rapidly converting them into completely different forms. Pieter calls this process “Shahzonization.” His theory comes from what the rescue crews discovered visiting Shahzonite asteroids after their collapse. Instead of finding a large asteroid gliding through space they instead found volatile clouds of primordial dust. As part of his research Pieter developed 2 unique warning systems forewarning Fugazians of an impending destabilization of the planet’s core as any Shahzonization event would undoubtedly kill all its inhabitants in an instant.
Unfortunately for Pieter his first alarm was imperfect. Designed to give days of forewarning it would go off every year or 2 but was never followed by disaster. On the first 2 alarms the entire colony evacuated to safety only to return 2 weeks later to a fully intact and unchanged Fugazi. 2 weeks in space, 2 weeks in fear, too many false alarms. Pieter was ridiculed.
“Research into core instability has never shown that planets will collapse due to Shahzonite mining. Unlike asteroids, planetary Shahzonite cores are very stable.” Said the president of Fugazi publicly one day. “Furthermore, there is no proof that Shahzonization is a valid scientific theory. Our most powerful computers, over billions of progressive iterations, have never presented Shahzonization as a valid hypothesis. Core instability and Shahzonization are mere ghost stories told by a carbon based charlatan to make a name for himself.
“Going forward I am directing the government of Fugazi to defund our errant, human run research into mining safety and instead invest that money into our Advanced Creative Intelligence Computing Program that will henceforth oversee mining safety. We can no longer allow fallible neurons to control our decisions given the robust abilities of our current intelligence machines. Today, as we ready to celebrate 200 years as a people, Fugazi graduates from an era of fear to an era of unbounded prosperity for all! “
Wild applause erupted from the speakers that day as the real time audience reaction algorithm detected delight on the faces of all Fugazians watching. The algorithm fed back on itself multiple times as viewers’ feelings toward the speech were validated by the simulated applause piped through their speakers, culminating in the president signing off to a virtual standing ovation from viewers.
“He’s wrong you know,” Pieter said. “Creative general intelligence, even at a billion iterations per minute, still can’t beat most humans at creative tasks. Especially me.”
Pieter was cocky and for good reason. He had a gift for seeing things others did not, even if those ‘others’ were computers. But after a few false alarms and constant judgment from fellow Fugazians you started to question your faith in your friend.
“But how do you know you’re right?” You asked.
“Because I did the math,” he replied angrily. “Seventy to eighty percent of alarms given by the first warning system will be false alarms. I’ve said this repeatedly. Alarm system 1 exists for advanced warning. By the time alarm system 2sounds it’ll be too late for anyone not already in an escape shuttle.”
“If it is 20–30% accurate why have we had so many false alarms recently?” You asked.
“It’s a probability game. Every alarm is independent of the previous alarm. Just because a mother has had 4 girls in a row does not guarantee that her next child will be a boy, it’s still 50/50. I will say the data does seem to suggest that the more false alarms over a short time from system 1 the more likely the next one will be accurate, and we’ve had a lot recently. No one’s observed a Shahzonization event before you know, or I should say no one’s observed it and survived. The theory is still work in progress. Just keep your bags packed in case we have to jettison quickly. We don’t have much time left here.”
That was 2 months ago. Carrying your ‘go bags’ to the shuttle yet again today you wondered if you’d misplaced your trust in Pieter. After the president’s announcement Pieter’s first alarm stopped being broadcast to Fugazi. Today alarm one sounded again for the first time since the announcement but no one knew about it except Pieter. He alerted everyone he could to the alarm but so far it appears you’re the only who listened.
Your HeadSat alerts you to an incoming call from Saren. You accept the call and her hologram projects in front of you.
“Hey love! Where are you? Is everything alright?” She asks.
“I am fine, just decided to go on a last second shuttle ride with Pieter today, that’s all.” You reply.
Saren is clever, she knows you’re lying. “Don’t tell me you’re evacuating because another one of his false alarms again are you?”
You try to lie but can’t. “Look, I’ve never seen the guy be wrong. It’s the safe thing to do.”
“He’s been wrong every previous time! How can you still trust him? Fugazi has been stable for its entire 200 years of colonization. Our parents, their parents, and their parents’ parents lived their entire lives here without anything going wrong and we’re going to live here without problems either. At some point you’re just going to have to realize Pieter is a little boy crying wolf.” Saren delivers in a tone of playful rebuke. She stops talking as she feels the ground rumble beneath her. Moments later you feel it too.
“What was that?” You ask.
Saren looks at an array of monitors in front of her. “Probably just a mech down in the mine with a poorly placed charge, AND evidence that you need to get back here to work. These mining mechs don’t have the hardware for generalized intelligence yet remember?” She awaits your earnest agreement. She’s annoyed when it never comes. “Don’t get to thinking that tremor was an impending core collapse, tremors aren’t new to Fugazi. They aren’t proof of Pieter’s shahzonization theory; they’re proof I need you here working.”
You decide Saren is right. “I know. I’ll be there soon. I’m not sure how I’m going to break this to Pieter though. I’m the last person in Fugazi with any faith in him. I hope he’s not upset.”
“Pieter is too arrogant to be upset that no one believes him. Anyway, it’s just alarm 1 that’s been activated. People will pay attention when alarm 2 goes off. It’s never gone off and never been tested,” Saren replies. Another, stronger tremor rattles your building. Indicators on Saren’s monitors flash red. “Now get back here, the mechs are doing a royal job of screwing things up in the core and I need your help.”
You walk out of the launch bay loading area to your living quarters. All Fugazi residents live in communal buildings with living spaces for two to four people. Living alone is not allowed due to the scarcity of supplies on Fugazi which is how you and Pieter came to live together in the first place. Entering your shared living space Pieter is frantic. In one arm he holds computer components and memory drives while in the other he has his pet lizard, a prized possession that few on Fugazi are allowed.
“Get back to the shuttle, we’ve been sabotaged!” Pieter says in a panic. A visceral terror radiates from your belly to your throat. You have never seen Pieter like this. He has cussed and carried on before but never panicked.
“What is the matter?” You ask.
“They’ve killed us! That’s what’s the matter. I thought we had time but we don’t. Get your bags and get to the shuttle, we may already be too late!”
“Who’s killed us? How?” You ask. Your mind stumbles over a million thoughts leaving you confused and scared.
“The president! Alarm 2 just went off but it’s also been deactivated from the public feed! It wasn’t just alarm 1 he silenced. Only I can see it. We have to go, it’s real this time but nobody knows, nobody cares!” Pieter says. He struggles to stay on his feet as another tremor shakes your building. The two of you share a knowing look before he bolts to the shuttle.
“Send an alarm to the others!” You shout after him.
You scramble to grab a last few precious items: a picture of you and Saren, your computer, a favorite shirt. You don’t know why but on your way back to the shuttle you grab a handful of dirt to remember Fugazi by.
Back in the shuttle Pieter sends a warning message to the other residents of your building that Alarm 2 has activated and everyone should evacuate. You make sure he includes Saren in the message while you try to get a hold of her over HeadSat. She doesn’t answer your call so you leave a message pleading with her to evacuate. You convince Pieter to wait 5 minutes for anyone else to come to the shuttle but no one does. While you wait several people send snide, profanity laden messages mocking him as a fear monger but most just ignore him. You send one last message to Saren but its status never changes from ‘received’ to ‘read.’ The 5 minute window expires with no one accepting the invitation to evacuate so Pieter closes the shuttle doors and the two of you blast away from Fugazi.
The Shahzonite powered shuttle accelerates to almost 99% the speed of light. Pieter nervously tracks your distance from Fugazi. He marks a red line on the navigation system’s screen. “This is the guaranteed safe distance we need to be from a Shahzonization event of Fugazi’s size,” he says.
“You don’t think this time is real do you?” You ask hopefully.
“Certain to 1 quanta of 100%. Fugazi is dust,” he replies without looking up from his calculations. “But it hasn’t happened yet, or at least not in the time we’re aware of. My sensors haven’t picked anything up.”
“Do you think anyone listened to you?” You ask.
“No.” Pieter replies.
You travel in silence for the next hour or two. You worry about Saren. You worry if you brought the right supplies to survive a prolonged period of time in space. When the navigation system shows you’ve passed the safety point you talk to Pieter again. “Can we slow down so I can call Saren and see if she’s alright?”
“Sure.” He replies begrudgingly. “But if she’s still Fugazian don’t stay too attached.”
The shuttle slows to a speed that won’t affect communications. You call Saren and the HeadSat indicates a delay in communications of 15 seconds. Conversation will be hard.
She answers surrounded by your friends drinking and celebrating. “Happy Fugazi Day Love!” She shouts. Other friends join in playfully mocking you for leaving.
“Everyone got word of Pieter’s level 2 alarm but look! No Shahzonization, no core instability, not even a tremor since you left! It’s Fugazi Day!” Saren proclaims. The rest of the crowd erupts into euphoric celebration around her.
You fall back into your seat dejected and embarrassed, but mostly relieved. “I wish I were there with you guys.”
“I’d say just turn around and join us but by the time you get back everything will be over. You’ve already lost a day on us it looks like.” Suddenly Saren’s hologram shakes and she falls to the ground. Her HeadSat can’t adjust quickly enough to the jolt making her fall out of frame. When it focuses on her again she lies sideways on the floor. The HeadSat continues to have difficulty resulting in her hologram floating haphazardly around the shuttle in front of you as she struggles to her feet.
“What was that?” You ask. “I’ve never seen you that drunk.”
“Everyone OK?” Saren asks, clearly worried. Your question still hasn’t reached her while she starts to help others to their feet. “That was a big tremor, I think. And no I’m not that drunk yet.”
Pieter, who had been silently eavesdropping, walks to a window in the rear of the shuttle. Saren clutches her head as the hologram stabilizes again. “We’re all OK I think, just a massive core tremor. I’m going to link into the command center and make sure the other crew is doing OK, that one was wild.” Saren isn’t smiling anymore, she looks concerned. She accesses a virtual command console through her HeadSat and examines the monitors. The ground beneath her starts to tremble and her hologram glitches again.
“Something’s wrong, this can’t be right.” She says in disbelief. The shaking increases and Saren struggles to stay on her feet.
“You’re going to want to see this.” Pieter says from the back of the shuttle.
You walk the length of the shuttle toward Pieter while watching Saren frantically work the controls of the virtual command console.
“No no no!” She cries before looking at you. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you love, I’m so sorry.”
The hologram loses its crispness then jumps about the shuttle in front of you. Saren is thrown to the ground again causing her to fall out of frame. When her HeadSat finds her again she looks at you one last time and cries “Love? Love!”
The hologram feed ends. The HeadSat informs you your call was ended because the connection with Saren was lost. You look at Pieter who is preoccupied with aiming an instrument out the back window of the ship. Through the window you see a brilliant blue orb swell to massive size then suddenly collapse into darkness. Fugazi and all it held are no more, vanished into a cloud of dust.
“I hope my probes got some good data from that, I’ll need all the data I can get if I want to win an Excelsior Award from the Academy.” Pieter says before folding up his handheld instrument.
You stand in shock until you find the words to scream at him. You curse. You cry. You shout at Pieter every foul thing you can think of, anything to help cope with the loss of everything you held dear.
“If you want to go back I can turn around and drop you off.” He says coldly. You can’t tell if he’s too intelligent to possess normal human emotions or simply doesn’t care about them. “I hope you got everything important to you off of Fugazi. It’s me, you, and this ship for the next year.”
You rifle through your bags and see what you packed. Some of it seems so silly now: trinkets, a stuffed Shiba Inu toy, and Fugazi money, the supreme example of your shortsightedness now that the planet, its government, and its people no longer exist. The only belongings that matter now are those that let you survive: food, water, clothing, shelter. The luxury items you placed so much value in before are now only as valuable as they are useful. The dirt from Fugazi, instead of being a keepsake from home, only serves as a reminder that everything you once had has turned to dust.
Finally, you see the picture of you and Saren. A lump forms in your throat. Tears well up in your eyes until you are balling on the floor of the shuttle alone and full of regret. She was valuable, she was important and even still you left her behind to dissolve as just another piece of Fugazi.
