Nisha and Rachel awoke the next morning to the sound of rain on the roof of the tent.
“What’s happening this morning?” Nisha said.
Rachel blinked into her eyepiece to read the news.
“The biggest story is the destruction of Gol’s colony. There is nothing left except for a 300-foot-deep crater a mile wide. Fortunately, the winds were calm and most of the radiation had a short half-life of only a few seconds. None of the dangerous isotopes were floating around as they do after a standard nuclear explosion. I think few if any adverse health effects will be noticed from the explosion.”
“That’s good news,” Nisha said.
“Yeah, and the stock market is up 15% in the first hour of trading today. I’m glad it was closed yesterday. World markets crashed during the crisis. This is the second big up day in a row. I guess sad news for the Omanji is good news for us?”
“Are they leaving?” Nisha said.
“Let me see. Here’s a video stream from Bok’s monitor drones. They’re flowing out of the big colony and into the shuttle spheres. I think Zon has made his decision, but I’m confused. What are they doing? Why are they doing it? Are they afraid the earth will be destroyed by Bok’s colony?”
“Possibly,” Nisha said. “I think it’s also possible that they fear an internal colony collapse and a future war.”
“I think the AI intelligence explosion and colony destruction is hastening their departure,” Rachel said. “The shuttle spheres appear insignificant compared to the colony, but they’re 1,000 feet tall.”
“I’m sad about how that disaster happened,” Nisha said. “All those deaths.”
“Me too. I understand why they’ve had so many dark ages. Can you imagine if a runaway AI happened in the main colony? Many billions of Omanji would die just as they did on Oma over their long history. Humans too. No wonder their society is so restrictive. With all the technology under their control, one little misstep and the whole species could be wiped out. They follow the four foundational rules of AI. We need to remember them because we’re getting close to our own general AI now. We’ve been worried about it for decades now. If the Omanji are vulnerable, so are we.”
They heard Bok walking around outside of the tent. Nisha opened the door and he walked in.
“Bok, how are you?” Nisha said. “I’m sorry about the disaster.”
“Me too. This didn’t need to happen. They didn’t learn from history.”
“I’m watching the mass evacuation at the main colony,” Nisha said. “Where are they going?” Rachel said.
Bok displayed star charts on Nisha’s big holographic screen in Google Universe. He identified the destination planet as Gliese 581 g.
“It’s 20 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Libra,” Bok said. “Gliese 581 is a red dwarf like Oma’s parent star.”
“We know about that star and planet,” Nisha said. “It’s about the size of Oma and is right in the middle of the star’s habitable zone. It’s another candidate for habitability we’ve identified. The discoverer named it, ‘Zarmina’s world’ in honor of his wife.”
“Yes,” Bok said. “Conditions are favorable, though it’s colder than Oma. The Omanji lived near Oma’s poles anyway. They may have to live near the equator of the new planet. No signs of industrial activity have been detected. It’s tidally locked, but several large land masses are on the sunny side surrounded by deep oceans. It’s larger than Earth, so Omanji will like the stronger gravity and thicker atmosphere. It’s a slightly cooler version of Oma. The Omanji are moving there. While they’ve been on Earth, they’ve managed to create enough antimatter to fuel the trip to Gliese 581 g.”
“That’s a long trip,” Rachel said.
“Yes, only a few habitable planets exist in the local area although many millions of habitable candidates exist in the galaxy. The galaxy is too sparsely populated with stars to have a considerable number of habitable planets nearby. The distance between habitable planets is too large.”
“Too large even for the Omanji?” Rachel said.
“Yes, even for us. There’s a natural limit to how fast we can travel. It’s well below the speed of light. 99.2%. When you’re traveling at a sizable portion of the speed of light, hitting a grain of sand can vaporize a huge unshielded ship. There’s more debris floating around in space than it appears. We travel in space in a straight line behind several heavily fortified lead ships with no passengers, as if on a trail. A simple analogy would be like a human ice breaker ship. The hull is heavily fortified to break the ice for other ships to pass. An energy shield and titanium-alloy shield provide a first lines of defense. Even with these precautions, we lost several spheres and all those aboard on the passage to Earth.”
Rachel raised both eyebrows at Nisha.
“That’s millions of lives. I’m sorry to hear that,” Rachel said. “Are you sure you want to stay behind? We’d like you to stay here, but we know Earth is an alien world to you. Its atmosphere is abrasive and contains too much oxygen. Earth orbits a star that’s too bright. I guess even with a habitable planet, there are a million variables that can make life difficult.”
“Yes, the gravity here is a problem for us too. I wish to stay for now. I can build my small colony here and live peacefully with humans. Also, I’ve been studying Venus.”
“What about it?” Nisha said.
“I think Venus has some potential as a home planet.”
Nisha laughed.
“Okay Bok, I think of you as being intelligent and logical, but Venus has a surface hot enough to melt lead and a runaway carbon dioxide greenhouse effect.”
“Yes, but it’s what you humans call a good fixer upper.”
“Maybe the atmosphere on Earth has gotten to you Bok. How is Venus a good fixer upper?”
“Well, if we scrub the atmosphere of CO2, block some of the sun’s energy at a Lagrangian point and redirect some comets to the surface to create water, then terraforming can begin. However, I know of some significant problems which make moving to Venus impractical.”
Nisha and Rachel turned to each other and laughed at the same time.
“Why are you laughing?” Bok said.
“It’s so like you to think up such a scheme,” Nisha said. “That’s beyond the capabilities of the entire Omanji culture.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I say this because there’s a planet in Oma’s solar system that you told me is partially in the habitable zone that the Omanji ignored. That planet has much better possibilities than Venus. Why didn’t you terraform that planet?”
“We decided it would take 300 years to make the planet marginally habitable but traveling to Earth would only take 40 years. Oma became inhospitable and we evacuated as soon as we could. Now they’ll travel for 40 more years in ship time to reach Gliese 581 g. Zon and the Esteemed Elders slightly miscalculated how inhospitable Earth is for our species. They mention the same problems I’ve discussed. The atmosphere, gravity, sunlight, day/night period and climate of Earth are marginally suitable for the Omanji.”
“That makes sense,” Rachel said. “If you stay behind on Earth, you might leave here someday?”
“Yes, that’s possible. Right now, so many things are happening that I can’t say anything with 100% probability.”
“Make sure it’s easy for everyone to leave your colony,” Nisha said. “I know you want as many to stay as possible. But you also don’t want anyone to be unhappy. They might cause trouble and your entire colony or even the earth might be destroyed. In your talk of encouragement, you need to foster an open discussion about whether to stay or leave. Allow them to do either. This is the best time to filter out those who will not fit into your new colony. They can still return to the big colony today, right?”
“Yes, they can still leave. Approximately 20 million remain in my colony. Many are leaving even now.”
“That’s good,” Nisha said. “Let the natural filter happen. It’s better that way.”
“You’re right Nisha. Lately, you two have been highly accurate,” Bok said.
Nisha glanced at Rachel and smiled again.
“Yeah, we’re not bad for a couple of primitive humans.”
They laughed. Bok said nothing for a moment.
“Someday, I’ll study humor. I still don’t understand.”
“You’ll get it eventually Bok,” Nisha said.
They smiled again.
“Okay, go begin the filtering process,” Rachel said.
Bok walked down the path and disappeared into the colony, which in the morning light looked like a surreal painting by Salvador Dali.
Over the next month, the world watched as the Omanji left for Gliese 581 g, one sphere at a time. The stock market began the biggest percentage bull market run in history. Bok persuaded some of his friends to send back images and other data from the new planet, 20 light years away. It promised to be something exciting to look forward to many decades from the present time. Pictures from a remote extraterrestrial world. Nisha sent Zon a message wishing him and the Omanji good luck. She asked for permission for humans to visit their new home world someday. Permission was granted. Bok’s colony became stable at 20 million inhabitants. He planned on terraforming Mars rather than Venus. He was never one for small plans. The main colony gradually transformed into a beautiful but empty shell. The President signed a proclamation declaring it the Omanji National Monument. People speculated about how it would be best used.