Launch Time
© 2002 by Adrian Gaetano
It was a gay Bunyip that saved the world.
***
Hy'apest'aa was a member of a hostile alien race that lived on a harsh planet orbiting a star some one hundred light years from Earth. For millennia, his hive had conquered and subdued others from neighbouring star systems, after developing a sub-light star drive that had enabled them to travel around their immediate neighbourhood.
Planet Earth was discovered through the usual method: they tuned in to our radio and television signals. Hy'apest'aa's hive went mad with frenzy: here was another race awaiting conquest!
Earth was, however, simply too far away. Interstellar distances were too great for their sub-light drive. Furthermore, it was not practical to develop a multi-generational military ship.
Hy'apest'aa's hive pondered the problem. How could they invade and conquer planet Earth at this distance? Conquest was more than a matter of military pride; it was a beacon of hope - after all, if they could invent a new method of conquest at a distance of a hundred light years, then surely this method could be used to travel across the galaxy!
It was Hy'apest'aa who developed a possible method of interstellar travel. More than that, he volunteered as a test pilot for the journey - an advance scout on a mission that would determine the fate of another sub-species world.
Hy'apest'aa had proposed the method after viewing the Earthlings' own radio and video transmissions: if the Earthlings, inferior as they were, could travel the galaxy metaphorically on their radio waves, could not their method of transportation be reversed?
The theory was valid and involved acceptable risk - as risk was to be expected in any campaign for military conquest. The radio signals from Earth had taken one century of Earth time to arrive on Hy'apest'aa's world, and any reply would take the same amount of time. Two Earth centuries would undoubtedly be sufficient time to allow the Earthlings to develop their own technology to a point where they would inadvertently cause their own invasion.
Hy'apest'aa worked long and hard to adapt and evolve himself to the point where he could travel. His thoughts, his memories, the very engrams that comprised his personality, were recorded and stored electronically. The physical structures of his DNA, RNA and genetic evolution, his medical makeup and physiological parameters were dutifully submitted for data storage. Hy'apest'aa became a virtual soldier - ready to travel the vast interstellar distances between his home planet and Earth.
Finally, the time came to depart for the mission. Hy'apest'aa bade farewell to his home world and his hive - and he entered a century's sleep, with no certain guarantee of a reawakening at the other end. Indeed, if anything went wrong at his destination, he might simply never wake up - and face non-existence for eternity.
Nevertheless, he was proud to take the risk - for Empire!
His data was transmitted towards Earth - away from the jagged purple rockscapes of his own familiar home world, past the outer planets of his star system, into the icy depths of galactic space, through clouds of interstellar dust and pre-organic molecules, past dead rocks and frozen icy cometary matter, through the Oort Cloud and into the depths of the Terran Solar System.
Hy'apest'aa felt the journey take no subjective time - for he slept his simulated death throughout the long journey. It was only when his signal arrived at Earth, and found itself a suitable virtual storage unit to reassemble within, that his consciousness was restored and he regained sentient awareness.
Success! Now he had to ascertain where he was and plot to overthrow the Earthlings as a prelude to full invasion.
Hy'apest'aa found himself exactly where he had anticipated: within a virtual world, part of an alternative Universe within the confines of Earth's electronic realities. For, as anticipated, the Earthlings had expanded and evolved during the two centuries since their invention of radio. Their planet was now covered in a vast network of electronic cyberlife which had enhanced and supplemented its organic life.
Hy'apest'aa gloated and plotted with joy. He appeared to be safe within this Virtual World, and this location seemed the perfect place from which his compatriots could enter the whole planet. He sent off the confirmation signal: launch time! It would now only take another two Earth centuries before the invasion force arrived behind him - due to arrive at exactly the same location.
From here, the Earth's electronic communications could be tapped and disrupted. Medical and political records could be infiltrated with ease, to determine the Earthlings' weakest points. Electronic, economic and social sabotage could also be launched easily from this vantage point.
Hy'apest'aa had two hundred Earth years to perfect his plans, so that everything would be ready when his hive arrived. The sweetest irony for the Earthlings was his thought that here, in cyber space, he would not suffer the effects of physical ageing or deterioration. Barring unexpected circumstances, he was guaranteed virtual immortality.
He began to investigate his virtual world and its virtual inhabitants. That was when he finally ran into trouble.
***
The "Happy Valley" Zoo was a small and relatively insignificant virtual world located somewhere in the depths of an otherwise forgotten set of data storage banks. Here, there lived a variety of creatures most strange and unexplainable - the virtual animals that had been created by amateur and experimenting VR hackers, then had been unloosed over the electronic highway to rampage and stalk. These living, Jurassic versions of computer viruses had, one by one, been caught and captured by self-replicating electronic detective programs and sent to jail - assigned to live for eternity in the Virtual Zoo.
These creatures were varied: great and small, wise and wondrous, sentient and savage. One such critter was the gay Bunyip, which rampaged and pillaged; leaping and looting across its virtual landscape; screaming and snarling with rage against the confines of its captivity.
The Bunyip sensed a new movement amidst the swaying fractals - and leapt. Hy'apest'aa had barely taken a footstep into his new world when the Bunyip was upon him - savage and hungry. The surprised alien did not even have time to open his virtual mouth to let out an electronic scream for help. He was gone and gobbled within a nanosecond - his program and energy patterns absorbed.
The gay Bunyip let out a burp of excess electrons and sat back, temporarily satisfied. It had enjoyed the nourishment provided by this strange and alien program - and it wanted more. It pondered its meal. A new thought solidified in the depths of its electronic brain as it sensed a random pattern of data left over from its breakfast: more will arrive in two Earth centuries - a whole legion!
The gay Bunyip grinned happily and plotted its next meal. Within two centuries, it could happily self-replicate itself a megafold - nay, a gigafold! - and be ready for the most satisfying meal it might enjoy in an aeon.
Lunch was coming.
Picture by Dick 'Ditmar' Jenssen