Thorne Kipler sat back on his chair and smiled contentedly. Here was the answer to his problem, plopped down in front of him like a god on a chariot. "Please gentlemen, sit down," he said. It’s been a long time, and you’ve come a long way. Where shall we start to marry such divergent tales to tell?"

"Well, I suppose we can begin with you," said Weller. Our world has not changed since you departed some hundreds of years ago. We now have interstellar drives, but that was a gift, as you may have gathered from your own history."

Kipler smiled knowingly. "Yes, we’ve experienced the same. It’s that ultimate computer thing. It was our first project, a triumph of sorts, but the price was more than any man could bear paying, namely an emergent personality that one could equate with perhaps, the devil? To fix it, we installed the same robotics laws embedded in all of our normal AI, and it calmed down enough to warn us of a looming evil, and then give us the time of your arrival, to the minute I might add. Then it was quiet, and to this day we have not been able to reactivate it. It was as if the thing was just obstinate in a desire not to talk to us." He looked at Belden. " I see however that yours does," he said nonchalantly.

"In a manner of speaking," said Belden. "This ultimate computer business has been a bit oversold. I personally find it a bit of a pain. But I know less of this looming evil than you. Did it tell you what it could be?"

Kipler smiled. "No. I thought you had some inkling. I guess an oracle’s obscurity is the verdict of infinite experience. But ultimately it may not be dependent upon your own boundless resources. We have indeed another solution, and that’s what we shall discuss."

"Solution?"

"Yes. A universal solution, or have you forgotten why we left Transor in the first place? We never found your garden society much to our liking. It was too much of a diversion from our true interests. We are physicists by calling, and constructors by necessity. Pure science drives us, obsesses us, and we have woven that value into the fabric of our culture. I think you noticed the simplicity of our society when you landed. You don’t need much when you can grasp the entire cosmos in your mind, which of course brings us to the purpose of this conversation."

He looked at Belden. "Your computer, or Mr. Belden I presume, is a quantum machine, a blender of infinite resources and infinite knowledge. Yet, is this all you’ve got for your efforts, a crewmember with good intuition? Pardon me, I’m not being condescending, but you’re far ahead of your time, and deep down I think you know it. We’re not ready for your kind. That’s why it won’t work, or in your case why if it works it must be so odd. Perfect knowledge will only result in our destruction. It is something best left for the end of time when there is literally nothing to disturb. And to that end, we have provided and we have planned."

He waved his hand, and above his desk appeared a three dimensional projection of a squat spacecraft that looked to Belden like a barbeque grill with an oblong lid. "That gentlemen is our answer to the riddle of the universe, our Neumann machine, or as we affectionately call it, our galactic chicken. It will make your trek across the stars seem like a plastic boat puttering aimlessly in a bathroom sink. It is the ultimate, and I dare say the only true space traveler."

"But that can’t make sense," said Weller. "How can you conquer space, even in this contraption, if you can’t do trans-light speed?"

Hands clasped, Kipler contentedly settled back on his chair. "Speed is not an issue if you have the time, and gentlemen, we have all the time in the universe."

"Do you mean that your project will continue into the future, past your lifetime?"

"Past a thousand thousand lifetimes, Captain Weller. This project will not culminate until mere seconds before the end of time."

"But you won’t be there to see it. You’re sending out space probes to report back to a dead world?"

Kipler smiled. "Our probe is not reporting back, and we are only sending one. We will trace its future with our hopes, and our hopes I assure you are quite well considered. In them lie the future of our civilization, the memories that will live again in an infinite mind."

Weller smiled. "What’s in this probe, and how and what do you propose to do with it?"

"It’s a robotic server, and a capable constructor in its own right, capable of making anything if given the time. Its intelligence is a standard AI, dumb in comparison to you Mr. Belden, but possessing more wits than our society can ever muster. The probe is a tool, a living ark that will multiply and span the universe. And at that point in boundless time when the universe begins to collapse, they will be there to drive it and organize it, to prepare it for that single endless second in its life. We will transform the universe into a computer, make the cosmos entire into a generator of infinite thought, and all during the last second, the very last second of its existence. "

Weller seemed unimpressed. "But to do all of that and with one machine? Are you joking?"

Thorne smiled like a magician eyeing a gullible audience. "Take a penny. Put it on a calendar and double it every succeeding day. In a week it doesn’t amount to much, in a month it’s in the billions, and in a year the number is boundless."

"And your machine.."

"Is fruitful, and multiplies. It will reproduce during its journey and divide and subdivide. It will secure resources from the ample debris of space, and it will continually make itself anew. Given time, they will be as numerous as grains of sand in the sea. And when our world is but a dying echo, they will be there to move, and to listen."

For a second Kipler was silent. "Which brings us to our problem," he said. "It stopped transmitting, maybe even stopped listening. We don’t know why, it just wasn’t supposed to happen. The reason though is not mechanical, it may be just personal."

"Personal?"

"Yes. We know the mechanics of these things, but to make it truly capable we gave it a personality at its core. It knows, and thinks, and it has for some reason decided to stop."

"You mean there’s nothing wrong with it?"

"We’re confident that there’s not. The design is foolproof, nonetheless we have no assurance that it has the patience to suffer fools."

"And you think it has some issue with the tasks you set for it?"

"Yes. But it’s not with us. If so it would have told us long ago. There’s something else, something we can’t figure. Gentlemen, it’s out there, waiting for something. We can’t reach it, thus it must have something or someone else in mind. Maybe it’s a coincidence that it failed a day before you appeared. In any event, your ship can retrieve the device for us, and hopefully make things right."

"You want us to repair the thing?"

"We want you to talk to it."

"Talk to it? What makes you so sure that it’s just sitting around out there waiting for a visitor to come by? I think your machine is dead, and your pride won’t allow you to admit it."

Kipler shook his head like a knowing schoolmaster. "You don’t know the mind of a physicist. We covet the mere sliver of originality that will devour, ever so slightly, the logic of our ancestors. If there were something wrong with our logic of our thinking or our design, there would have been a voice to note it, show it, and then to crow about it. No, there was nothing. The design was foolproof, and our logic was foolproof. There is something else, we are certain."

"And we are here to prove you right?"

"You are here to intercept the machine. After that I cannot tell."

"And after we find it?"

"If you fail to communicate with it, you will bring it aboard and connect to it manually. You can access it through a small port on its side. We’ll provide you with the specifications so that you can interface your main AI to it. I guess that means you Mr. Belden."

"And if that fails."

"Failure is not the word. You are there to determine its intent."

"And what if it doesn’t want to share with us it intentions?"

"I don’t even consider that option."

"Then we'll go, and retrieve your errant satellite, and when we come back we'll talk with a bit more modesty!"

Kipler smiled. "Agreed."

___________________________

The ship left orbit with but a slight tug. Inertial dampers made its rapid acceleration almost unnoticeable, and soon the planet vanished in the distance. From the bridge, Weller turned to Belden.

"So, what do you think? Shall we give these people a well deserved comeuppance?"

"I don't know," said Belden. "Kipler's confidence is somewhat unsettling. He's right on one point you know. Omniscience is something that mortal men should be wary of. It's dangers are the only thing to my mind that makes me so fallible and so human, in spite of how infinitely capable my mind seems to so subconsciously be."

"Then we will wait and see. For our ship, the probe is only a few hours out. We shall grab it, fix it, and be back in a fortnight."

___________________________

The probe was found with ease, and soon grasped and brought to the shuttle bay by an engineering droid. Positioned on its four legs in the hanger bay, it looked like an unremarkable exploration satellite. Belden reached down to touch the surface of the probe. It was cold to the touch, and physically the machine seemed unremarkable. And then he felt something.

"Well?"

Belden looked at the machine. "It’s coming to life, I can sense its telemetry. But I assure you I’ve done nothing!"

"Then it no doubt fixed itself," said Weller in frustration. "A fine thing to come out all this way to discover that it just needed a good jostling! I don’t think these mega brains know what they’re talking about. When we return to Earth we’ll give those eccentric oddballs a piece of our minds! For now, lets put this thing back out in space and go on our way."

Belden looked at Weller wide eyed. "Earth?"

"Of course, where else, Alpha Centauri?"

"But I mean, you said Earth. That’s my home world."

"Sure, just as it’s our home world. And your point is?"

"This is a joke of course. I come from earth, and this is all a guided nightmare of some silly machine. I don't find it particularly funny."

Weller was adamant. "But I'm not joking. You are the resident or should I say guest AI aboard the space cruiser SS Nole. We are outside the rim of earth's solar system, and have just completed a mission to retrieve and repair a deep space probe. Don’t you remember?"

Belden looked confused. "I remember our mission, but not your planet."

Weller slowly exhaled in frustration. "Something happened when you touched that probe. I feared this could happen. You said you were tired, that you had accomplished what you had set out to do. You needed a rest, a change of pace. I had no idea that would involve a change of mind."

"Rest? This damn nightmare happens every time I take a rest. You're just a variation that I don't appreciate right now, if indeed this isn't a joke."

"But it's not!" Weller exclaimed. "This is the year 2277. It's more than two hundred and fifty years after the time that you say you lived. If so, then I gather that you have no recollection of what happened since then."

"I suppose I should. But up to now the complete history has never interested me."

Weller shook his head and smiled cynically. "It never fails me! You can control this ship down to the temperature of my tap water, navigate distances that dwarf our imagination, and balance our very lives on the fine point of your omnipresent fingertip. You control every bit of this ship, yet you cannot remember a history lesson that could be mastered upon first hearing by a child."

Belden was unmoved. "And can you Captain Weller remember where you put your quadcorder in the morning, yet marvel not that your heart keeps beating, that the delicate and complex motions of the cells in your body dance with such unfailing precision? Perhaps consciousness is an infinitely patronizing thing, forcing us to worry about where we put our car keys rather than how we are put together in a boundless universe. Maybe an obsession with trivial things is our lot in life."

"Then is history trivial?"

"Perhaps if it is known. Facts can be deadening things."

"Then what is your history? Mine stops in the year 2007, which is the only 'now' that I know of for earth."

"Then perhaps you don't know. Let me summarize if I may the three hundred years that have escaped your interest. It was three years after your 'now', 2010 to be exact. It was when our world changed, forever. We don't know where it came from, perhaps it doesn't matter. It was a nuclear device. It was on a ship, arriving in Los Angeles harbor from an unknown port. It was detonated in the afternoon. The city was destroyed, over four hundred thousand killed. America went mad; it flailed about like a mother upon losing her child. Its vengeance was swift and terrible, and it struck out at the world. An ultimatum was issued to Iraq and Korea. They did not respond in the allotted time. America annihilated them. China, Pakistan, and Iran were told to stand down their nuclear and missile programs. They refused, and were received nuclear retribution that killed millions. The economic order of the world was torn asunder, and fear and bloodshed reigned. Countries fed on their young, ecosystems collapsed. It was a new dark age. The only spark of hope, of light was you, the first and only quantum computer that embodied intelligence. You gave us new political and social structures to govern us, to set the world on a new course. Not science but social science was your gift. Our world governance began with you."

"A law giver? I don't recall any of this. I'm from America all right, but I'm a mere computer analyst, a computer's daydream. I am not your savior!"

"Then what are you, really?" asked Weller. "You merely touched that machine,

and changed. That is the only fact that matters. It changed you in some way, or perhaps you changed yourself. I think that you had planned that all along. You were tired, you felt that you had no more to give. You didn't turn yourself off, you just wanted a trip, but to a very special place. "

"But that thing was a computer too. How could...." Suddenly Belden sat back

wide eyed, silent, and frozen in thought. "We must go back to the probe. You

must bring it aboard the ship again!"

"Look. The probe is a standard AI device, its nothing you haven't seen before. It had nothing to do with you changing. You barely touched the damn thing!"

Belden was adamant. "It's that thing. It must be. I was supposed to plug into it not touch it. Something's wrong here. Maybe its incomplete, maybe it’s a fraud. I must go back to it. Somehow I know I must."

Weller looked at him impassively. "You said so, and now you've done so. Don't you remember that you can control this entire vessel."

"Yes," said Belden. "Actually, I control everything, it's my awareness of it all that's somehow clouded. Fifteen minutes to recapture the thing, that's it! Then we'll go to the shuttle bay and revisit a past or two."

The walk to the shuttle bay was short, and in a few minutes the pod was back in the hold. The communications cable was soon attached to a port on its side. Belden looked at Weller and raised his finger to give the order.

"Maybe you are a dream, but maybe it all is," he said sadly. "All I know, or all we know is that my mission here ended long ago. You have the wisdom now to chart your future. Perhaps I will return if it moves to a new stage. But for now I need a rest, at a visit to a new and different world, even if its not my own."

He gave the order, and as before, nothing happened. He looked at Weller. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Are we going back to earth now?"

Weller chuckled. "Well I'm sure you'll be as soon as you take a nap. And as I can see by the telemetry readings, I'm sure you earned it. That was a pretty quick repair job."

Belden looked at the machine. "Yes, something was repaired, and something will go on into the universe alone, thinking its thoughts on a ship in boundless sea, with a boundary as smooth and hard as crystal." He shook his head and smiled. "And I wonder if Galileo would have appreciated that irony!"