He paused as if to savor the magnitude of the interval.
Then Reyes y Pastor continued: “Would our remote descendants actually be so honest and honorable that they would pay a debt the hunter-gatherer older than the Abel who first domesticated the ox had pledged? Or take possession of goods which the husbandman older than some Cain who gathered lentils and almonds in the Franchthi Cave in Argolid once contracted with the star-beings to buy, or the magician older than Enoch who painted shamanic images on the cave walls of Lascaux?”
Sarmento i Illa d’Or sat at the table like a black mountain, powerfully-built and with a voice to match, like a subterranean rumble: “Learned Montrose, from your speech—the speech of your otherself, I mean—we can conclude that this group of symbols, 113 through 151, in the Kappa area represented the racial intelligence quotient of the Hyades Cluster, measured by the amount of matter and energy in their environment they could reorganize to their use over time. You and the Xypotech machine compared it to world energy use, to global industrial output on Earth. You put us at four times ten to the twentieth power, at four exajoules per year; they—the Hyades Domination—ranked fourteen orders of magnitude above that, at around three hundred million yottajoules per year. I, that is, we did not necessarily agree with the idea of measuring intelligence by energy consumption, because the, ah, theoretical framework, that is to say … but you were not exactly in a position to discuss, uh, the details…”
“You could ask Blackie to dope me up again,” snorted Montrose. “But of course I’d bite. Where y’all keep the ketchup?”
“I have a question for the Learned Montrose,” Narcís D’Aragó broke in. “The difference in what we can call the racial intelligence quotient defines the relative utility of the Client species, Man, to the Patron species, the Hyades Domination, is expressed in this formula.” A touch on his bracelet made certain of the floor symbols brighten for emphasis. “The delta of the relative utility defines the curve expressing minimal–maximum cost-efficiency for dispatching the World-Armada. That is expressed here, the political game-theory expressions. The Beta Section of symbols which describes the galaxy, apparently has additional figures, a type of star-map, showing the lines of communication, the orbits of incoming fleets or travel routes or something of the sort, reaching from Epsilon Taurus in Hyades to Sol. The value—if we are translating the figures correctly—equals the mass of the gas giant astronomers detected in orbit there. Perhaps that is a vessel, not a gas giant. Or perhaps the gas giant was to be totally converted to fuel to launch flotillas of smaller vessels this way. The symbol did not distinguish between mass and energy. I am wondering on what grounds you concluded their launch date? Apparently there is a formula in here determining not just the date, but the composition of the Armada, its acceleration—how did you deduce it?”
“The composition? That I don’t know. One of those expressions is their launch-energy calculation. We can deduce the energy-volume and intelligence of whatever is being sent against us. A small flotilla of very large ships or a very large flotilla of small ships, it is all the same as far as the total mass-energy of useful weaponry is concerned. It could be a gas cloud or a dirigible gas giant. Doesn’t matter. We know the total. The number is large.”
“And the launch date?”
“It can be calculated from their expression controlling our value to them.”
“What is our value to them? What do they want with us? Do you remember?”
“No, I—wait—” He started to speak, but stopped. Because he did remember.
His eyes grew round.
4. Memory Fragment
He would have expected their symbol for the Milky Way galaxy to be a double spiral. It was not. The position of the visible suns in the arms of the galaxy was not what the Monument Builders had emphasized as the identifying symboclass="underline" Instead it was a Cartesian square of text, showing the black-body radiation wavelengths of the gravitational centers of the galaxy, with an additional ring of symbols which could deciphered into the absorption characteristics and geometry of the gas cloud surrounding the Milky Way and her gravitationally-trapped neighbors. In his mind’s eye, Montrose converted the glyphs in the Zeta Segment into a map that could visualize in crisp detail. To the Monument Builders, the galaxy was not a double spiral of light, but a black doughnut with a dark heart.
It was easy to assign a fragment of his mind to the task of detecting the pattern in the strings of number-symbols. The fourth degree expressions were the six parameters of orbital mechanics, which identified specific stars. The fifth degree gave not orbits, but acceleration and decelerations of moving bodies.
The stars of the Hyades Cluster were shown swinging along in the great orbits around the core of the galaxy. Here was Sol, tracing out another orbit. Chains of acceleration and deceleration, like threads of a spiderweb, reached through the diagram. A set of lines connected the two: the path elements of a coming armada.
Other mathematical expressions described volumes of spheres, expanding from certain centers over time. Here were equations he recognized as hierarchical cascade functions.
Even in his superior state of mind, he was not immune to fear. If anything, the sensation was sharper, more precise, scalpel-like, because he saw more of the implications, more possible dangers, than his sleepwalker mind.
That equation was divarication function applied to governing systems, to prevent orders from being mutated and misinterpreted when passing from decision-centers to action. The theorem could apply to any information system, the core in a computer, the brain in an organism, the court of a sovereign …
It was a pantomime in mathematical sign language to show the size and boundaries of the movements of human populations into the stars, the degree of control.
The equations taken all together, smaller symbols insider larger ones which in turn were written in lines and shapes to form larger symbols yet, all were rich with meaning. If put into words, it would have said:
THE MATTER-DISTORTION PROCESS KNOWN AS LIFE WHEN FOUND DISQUIETING THE MAGNETOSPHERE OF THE ANTIMATTER STAR AT V 886 CENTURI TO BE RESTRICTED TO THE STATUS OF NEGATIVE-POWER IMBALANCE, HENCE ARE CLIENTS (PASSIVE RECEPIENTS OF ACTION) OF THE ACTIONS OF DOMINANT POWER (HYADES CLUSTER). IF DETERMINED TO POSSESS SUFFICIENT UTILITY TO BE HELD IN INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE TO THE IMPERATIVES DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING EQUATIONS … ALL OTHER OPTIONS ARE SUBJECT TO RETALIATION OF THE FOLLOWING MAGNITUDES … PAIN IS THE DETERRENT OF NONCOMPLIANCE, INCLUDING CESSATION OF MATTER-DISTORTION PROCESS KNOWN AS DEATH …
Then came a group of symbols he could not read. But the next group after that he was able to convert into a star-chart using the same semi-automatic “idiot savant” segment of his mind as read the greater galactic map. He could read the star-chart and accompanying legend.
DEATH … CASUALTY RATES OF NINE OUT OF TEN ARE EXPECTED AND ACCEPTABLE … FIRST DERACINATION SWEEP … SOL, ALPHA CENTAURI, 36 OPHIUCHUS, OMICRON ERIDANI, 61 CYGNI, 70 OPHIUCHUS, 82 ERIDANI, ALTAIR, DELTA PAVONIS, EPSILON ERIDANI, EPSILON INDI, ETA CASSIOPEIAE, GLIESE 570, HR 7703, TAU CETI …
5. Deracination
That was what he remembered. But nothing was clear. He could not summon back the equations themselves. Inside the hollow circle of the Table Round, the Monument underfoot remained meaningless to him, a chaotic fractal pattern triangles and curves, sine waves and Celtic knots. The crystal clarity of thought could not come back to him.