The murmuring crowd fell silent. The red glow within the opening of the machine faded and the hum dissipated. Next, a powerful sucking sound could be heard, followed by the thump of a large valve closing, and Reesta’s body disappeared from sight. One minute it was in plain view, the next minute it was gone.
The crowd remained still and mute. Seconds ticked away. Suzanne was confused emotionally as well as intellectually. Death in any form disturbed her. She hazarded a glance at Perry. He shrugged his shoulders in equivalent bewilderment.
“So, is that it?” Richard queried.
Arak gestured for him to be silent and to wait.
Michael shifted his weight and yawned.
All at once there was a simultaneous activation of everyone’s wrist communicators, including those of the secondary humans. Although Ismael and Mary Black had given them the simple instructions to use the units-which involved merely speaking into them in an exclamatory fashion-no one had actually tried them yet. So when Reesta’s voice issued forth, the five were taken aback.
“Hello, my friends,” Reesta’s voice said. “All is well. Death was successful and without complication. See you all in four years, but don’t forget to communicate.”
A general cheer arose from the primary humans, and they enthusiastically touched palms with each other in obvious celebration.
“Death’s no big deal down here,” Michael whispered to Richard.
“Yeah, but I think it’s got to be done in this special way,” Richard whispered back.
“This is a good time for us to leave,” Arak said. As unobtrusively as possible, he shepherded the secondary humans out into the hallway and then directed them back toward the elevators. Suzanne and Perry were full of questions, but Arak put them off. He was too busy keeping Richard and Michael moving. Donald was his usual stony self.
It wasn’t until they were back in an air taxi that conversation was possible. Even before the craft’s entrance sealed over Perry said, “I’m afraid this visit has posed more questions than it has answered.”
Arak nodded. “Then it was successful,” he said. He put his palm onto the central, circular black table and said, “Spawning center, please!” Almost immediately the saucer sealed, rose, then shot off horizontally.
“What actually did we witness back there?” Suzanne asked.
“The death of Reesta’s current body,” Arak said. He sat back and began to relax. He was unaccustomed to the stress of being out in public with such a large, uninitiated group of secondary humans.
“Where did the body go?” Richard asked.
“Back into the molten asthenosphere,” Arak said.
“And what about his essence?” Perry asked.
Arak paused as if he were searching for words. “It’s difficult to explain these things, but I suppose you’ll get the idea if I say his memory and personality imprint was downloaded into our integrated informational center.”
“Holy shit,” Michael exclaimed. “Look down there in front of that building! It’s a goddamned ’Vette!”
Despite everyone’s intense interest in Arak’s explanation, they couldn’t help but respond to Michael’s outburst and follow his pointing finger. What they saw was a barnacle-encrusted vintage Chevrolet Corvette on a basalt dais in front of a building that appeared like a haphazard pile of children’s blocks.
“What’s a ’Vette doing down here?” Michael asked as they zipped past. “It’s a sixty-two,” he continued. “I had one just like it but in green.”
“That building is our Earth Surface Museum,” Arak explained. “The automobile is the one object that we feel currently symbolizes your culture.”
“It’s in sorry shape,” Michael said. He sat back down.
“Obviously,” Arak said. “It had spent a good deal of time underwater before we salvaged it. But getting back to Perry’s question. When the worker clone started the death sequence, Reesta’s entire mind in terms of memory, personality, emotions, self-awareness, and even his unique way of thinking was extracted and stored en masse available for total recall.”
The secondary humans stared at Arak in stunned silence.
“Not only can Reesta’s essence be recalled,” Arak continued. “He can be consulted and even chatted with through your wrist communicator prior to his recall. Or better yet, he can be not only communicated with but viewed in his last body configuration via the media center in each of your quarters. Central Information creates a virtual image in conjunction with whatever conversation you are having.”
“What if someone dies before they get to that download machine?” Richard asked.
“It doesn’t happen,” Arak said. “Death is a planned exercise in Interterra.”
“This is all too much,” Perry said. “What you are telling us is so far from believability that for the moment I don’t even know what to ask.”
“I’m not surprised,” Arak said. “That’s exactly why Sufa and I decided to start showing you things rather than just telling you about them.”
“I have a hard time believing the mind can be downloaded,” Suzanne said. “Intelligence, memory, and personality are associated with dendritic connections in the human brain. The number is staggering. We’re talking about billions of neurons with up to a thousand connections each.”
“It’s a lot of information,” Arak agreed. “But hardly overpowering by cosmic standards. And you are right that dendritic arrays are important. What our central information does is reproduce the dendritic arrays on a molecular level using isomeric, double-bonded carbon atoms. It’s like a fingerprint, we call it a mindprint.”
“I’m lost,” Perry said.
“Don’t despair,” Arak encouraged. “Remember, this is just the beginning. There will be time for you to put all of this into context. Besides, our upcoming visit to the spawning center will show you what we do with the mindprint.”
“What’s in that Earth Surface Museum we passed?” Donald asked.
Arak hesitated. Donald’s question had interrupted his train of thought.
“I mean, what’s specifically on display?” Donald said. “Other than the water-soaked Corvette.”
“Many different objects,” Arak said vaguely. “A cross-section of things representing secondary human history and culture.”
“Where have they come from?” Donald asked.
“Mostly from the ocean floor,” Arak said. “Besides maritime tragedies and war, you people have been progressively and foolishly using the ocean as your garbage dump. You’d be surprised what refuse says about a culture.”
“I’d like to visit there,” Donald said.
Arak shrugged. “As you wish,” he said. “You’re the first visitor to voice such a request. Considering the wonders of Interterra that are now available to you, I’m surprised you are interested. Certainly there’s nothing in there that you are not already entirely familiar with.”
“Everybody’s different,” Donald said laconically.
A few minutes later the air taxi deposited the group at the front steps of the spawning center. It was housed in a building that resembled the Parthenon, only it was black. When Perry mentioned the resemblance, Arak told him it was again the other way around, similar to the Greek adaptation of Cerberus, since the Interterran spawning center was many millions of years old.
Like the death center, the structure was sited in a less congested section of the city. Regardless, once the secondary humans appeared, they again attracted a crowd, forcing Arak to be put to the task of maneuvering Richard and Michael inside the door and out of reach of the primary humans’ eagerly outstretched hands.
This interior was the antithesis of the death center’s. It was bright and white like the buildings at the visitors’ palace. The other difference was that many more worker clones were in evidence here, busily scurrying from place to place.