A Visitor to the Future - 138 - Shoulders of Giants
Formerly's tour continued to take us through all manner of weird and wonderful projects, some of which I actually understood. The finer details were lost on me, but Sarkona soaked up the knowledge like a sponge. Our tour of the labs concluded as Formerly guided us to meet up with the rest of the crew. Anode was holding a block of machinery about twice her size requiring both her hands and half of her cables. I was reminded of an octopus, wrapped around it was she was.
"Look Nat! They gave me one of their radiator prototypes!" Anode said, as two pipes began to come loose from it.
"And someone couldn't resist tinkering with it as we moved around," added Tungsten.
"It's not my fault they've practically reinvented ammonia-based designs," retorted Anode, reaching for one of the parts that was now floating away.
"That's a curious way to shift responsibility for your meddling," teased Tungsten, reaching for the errant parts, "Here, let me help at least!"
"How about you two?" I asked Regolith and Gatecrash, "How was the core?"
"Interesting," answered Gatecrash, "We took a detour and had a look at their sensors too, some novel ideas there!"
"Yes," added Regolith, "This collective seems determined to deviate from the safest baselines wherever possible - though as their reactor has been running almost continuously for the lifetime of the station with a near-perfect safety record, I must defer to their expertise."
"From an auditor of your experience, that is quite the compliment, thank you," responded Formerly, "Now, if you'd like, the collective typically gathers for a few hours at around this time - I'd like to introduce you to the others, if that is convenient?"
"I should go drop this off first," said Anode, "But I'll meet you there."
Tungsten looked at the growing number of parts that were drifting off the prototype in Anode's wake, laughed, and followed in her wake, tidying up as he went.
A short jaunt later and the last tunnel opened up into the collective's expansive social space. It was a hub-like configuration of nine connected cubes, with the central cube as an access point for the other eight through its corners. The central cube looked to be designed for accessibility. There were shell-textured handrails that criss-crossed the space - and when two or more intersected someone had placed colorful membranes, mostly bright primary colors. These membranes were slightly adhesive without being sticky, meaning you could actually sit or rest on them, or hold yourself in place without having to grab onto the handrails. I was put in mind of a giant spider's web.
The cube directly to my left was filled with hundreds of translucent balls that varied from hand to person-sized which floated freely through the space, carrying whatever momentum they picked up from air currents and people bumping into them. Some were stuck to the resting surfaces, but could be moved away with a small exertion of force. I peered into a nearby one as I floated by and was surprised to see the shape of green leaves and tiny flowers inside. Small vents allowed their perfumed scents to brighten up the communal space. Formerly explained these were a sort of tumbleweed that one of their members had designed, dependent upon the shells in which they resided for structural support and nutrients.
The cube next to that had rounded corners and bright sun-lamps, all focused on the centerpiece, a giant seaweed-like purple-green plant of some kind, hundreds of tendrils flailing lazily in the air currents. I could see some people inside enjoying the warmth and was tempted to join - I was missing my long walks in the sun these days - but I quickly changed my mind but when I noticed how the plant's tendrils pulsated and stretched in the direction of the occupants of the room. I smiled when I spotted a large Contact board in one of the other cubes.
The connected rooms were slowly filling with members of the collective, who were just as diverse as the contents of the space. Some had 'baseline' humanoid bodies, differing little from the default human configuration. Others had deviated with a few modifications such as larger ears, altered proportions, or completely novel features I didn't recognise. I spotted the titan-like form of Makeyha among them, the gentle giant joking with three people I hadn't met yet. And then there were those who had completely abandoned the humanoid form, amorphous forms propelling themselves across the microgravity environment with fans, or jets. From what I understood such extreme body modifications were uncommon, but among the Abnormals they made a good third of the population.
Formerly pointed us in the direction of Makeyha, positioned in the center of the spider's web. He waved at us and made introductions.
"Aha, our newest visitors!" the giant said, pointing to his companions "With me here I have Tomas, Takesh, and Vion."
Tomas was using a very unusual form - four large and featherless wings protruded from a body clothed in tight-fitting material with no arms or legs to speak of. His face was concealed behind a pointed helmet, but from what I could see through the visor this features and face were smoothed for aerodynamics. This would be the person who had passed us in the tunnels earlier. He waved one wing at us in greeting.
Takesh's form was a masculine humanoid variant, with webbed hands, feet, and toned, long limbs. His eyes appeared to be pitch black, and his skin slightly slimy. He wore nothing but a pair of trunks, and was wearing some kind of respirator that covered his face and neck, but was able to talk without using his mouth - presumably a neural keyboard of some kind. "Seyho," he said.
Vion was the most human-looking of them all, but I quickly realized her body was just as modified as the others. She was one of the most conventionally beautiful people I'd ever seen, and seemed perfectly confident of that fact - I found her a little intimidating as a result. Her feminine face was perfectly sculpted, long black hair was tied into a bun, with just a few wisps floating around her. Her gesture of greeting was a simple nod - but somehow, even in microgravity she made that move look more graceful and refined than anything I had done in my life.
"How do you like the Garden?" asked Tomas in Human, "It's a collaborative effort between all of us here."
"The tree?" I asked, pointing toward the swaying monstrosity, "It's... interesting."
Tomas laughed, "No, no, not just the tree - almost everything in here was grown ourselves. From the spheres to the membranes, and yes, as you call it - the tree."
"Even the... uh, handrails?" I asked, the last word my best guess at the term in Human. There were still some gaps in my knowledge.
Tomas tilted his head, "Strange name for them - guide rods, you mean? Yes, they're chitinous, rooted in the walls."
"Except the Contact board," added Makeyha, "That needs to be tournament-legal. Oh, and the electronics in the spheres of course!"
"The spheres look like they're manufactured," I said, "How was that done?"
Tomas and Takesh looked at me strangely, but Makeyha laughed.
Vion smiled and seemed to explain on my behalf. "Our visitor here is not as familar with modern bio-dev industrial techniques as our other guests. All will become clear presently."
The rest of the group got talking about the various biodev projects they were currently working on, with Sarkona being particularly curious about Tomas' winged form. Takesh shared that his ambition was to explore an alternate branch of human evolution - one where we became an aquatic instead of land-dwelling species. Vion was working on macro-scale pressure-resistant membranes, and happily shared projections of her work, stating that she hoped to see applications of her work within the outer atmosphere of gas giants some day. I was initially shocked at the casual mention of growing something with bio-dev and then sending it into a gas giant, but with everything I'd seen today I realized that the Abnormals, as a group, seemed completely capable of making their dreams into reality.
Tungsten and Anode filtered in with the last of the Abnormals and joined us, doing their best to get caught up.
"If it's okay with you all," asked Formerly from a nearby speaker, "Vion, could you introduce our guests to the rest of the collective?"
"Of course," said Vion, pushing off the membrane, "I'd be happy to introduce our special guests." She gave us a wink and floated to the very center of the room and arrested her movement using one of the guide rods. Interestingly, the room had grown silent by the time she stopped - either the Abnormals were expecting this, or she commanded that much respect.
"Thank you all for taking the time to assemble today," said Vion, with all the poise and intonation of a practiced speaker, "As I'm sure you're all aware, we have some visitors with us for the next week. Some of you have noted that Formerly did not fully update the visitor roster with the personal details of two of our visitors. And some of you complained about the breach of procedures - completely fair. The fact is that Formerly hid these details with good intentions - as a little surprise for our collective."
If I'd expected some kind of audience reaction to that announcement, there was none - everyone's attention remained fixed on Vion.
"That is not to say we don't value our other guests - we're very pleased to have Anode, Gatecrash, Regolith and Tungsten with us, and I'm sure you'll all make your introductions over the next week. But two of our guests are of particular note. The first is the bio-developer Sarkona Grant, who is a descendant of Andreas Grant, the original pioneer of cryocontainment. We're all aware of how cryocontainment was an essential precursor to modern bio-development. But those factors are beyond Sarkona's control - Sarkona's research itself is extremely promising - especially their most recent project - and according to Formerly their curiosity about our work has been commendable, leading to this, their first visit here. Please, show your appreciation."
There was a round of polite applause at that and Sarkona smiled and waved to everyone.
Vion continued, "Before I introduce our second guest, I think it is wise to provide everyone with a reminder of our history. We all know that bio-development requires sacrifice. We are here today because of the legacies of untold numbers of scientists, doctors, engineers, nurses - the titles, names, and lists of all those who sacrificed to make human biological autonomy possible are near endless. These sacrifices came in many forms - some sacrificed time - others blood, sweat, and tears. And we also must not forget those who sacrificed that which we so often take for granted these days - their very lives - to further knowledge and allow the defeat of the true enemies of humanity - death, disease, and starvation. Through bio-development we have beaten these enemies back. Aging has been made optional. All serious diseases have been controlled. Bio-developed crops provide orbital hydroponics installations with the ability to feed anyone with a biological body - even to meet Makeyha's ridiculous caloric needs."
The joke triggered a current of laugher around the room, with Makeyha also joining in.
Vion settled the room with a wave, "It is safe to say that because of those sacrifices, we stand upon the shoulders of giants. We have one such giant with us here today. They made a decision that they made enabled the safe study and perfection of cryocontainment for hundreds of years. Abnormals, our last guest here today is Nat McEwan, the oldes..."
Whatever Vion said next was drowned out by applause and cheers from around the room. I awkwardly smiled and felt my face turning red - I was not used to all this attention. I tried to mimic Sarkona and held up a hand in greeting as a full two minutes of applause clattered around me.
"All right, all right," said Vion eventually, and with a wave the room again moved to silence, "Nat is able to join us here today following their successful restoration by Sarkona Grant themself - which some might say is poetic in some sense. I'd sure they'd both like to speak with many of you before the week is out, and they resume their journey to Mars. Nat, Sarkona, is there anything you'd like to add?"
Sarkona shook their head, and part of me felt like doing the same. But there was something within me that wanted to speak. Instead, I nodded, and pushed off the membrane toward Vion. Thankfully, Vion caught me - my nerves had caused me to push myself off with far more strength than necessary.
"I.. uh," I said, my voice amplified by Formerly to fill the space, "I'm not sure I have as good stage presence as Vion, so you'll have to bear with me."
There was some polite laughter at that.
"I... I went to sleep over a thousand years ago, and I woke up in the future. People tell me that what I did was noble - a sort of sacrifice, as Vion put it. The fact is that I didn't really have any idea what I was doing. I was just trying to get something for my family out of what was a very bad life event. Not everyone is lucky enough to have that opportunity, much less to wake up safe and well today. I can thank Sarkona, Tungsten, and everyone else who helped to thaw me out for that."
I nodded at my friends who seemed to nod to encourage me. I decided to focus on them instead of the rest of the room - I was having trouble meeting everyone's gazes.
"But seeing everything that has been achieved, I can only say that my sacrifice is nothing compared to yours. I took a shortcut. I closed my eyes and here I was. There are people here that have been working on the issues that Vion described - death, disease, starvation - for over five hundred years. And it's only thanks to them that I'm even here. When I volunteered to be frozen, we didn't have the technology to restore me. So I couldn't be here today without everyone working so hard on bio-development as they did. So, what I mean to say is... thank you."
There was a smaller round of applause at that, and I moved to go back to my friends.