08:00 Wednesday, March 6, CE 0

The AR interface projected a clock above the assembled colonists, many of them lounging in the grass like it was a picnic, ticked over to 08:00. The image of Tia Monsalle, former CEO of Monsalle Industries and primary funder of the colonization mission appeared in the sky. Her voice sounded out clearly from everyone’s devices. “Hello everyone, thank you all for coming. I’m proud to declare the people of this expedition, of this station, a free people.”

She was standing on a freshly-built wooden stage in an open field, with around 20% of the crowd relatively near, and the rest of the listeners and participants arrayed throughout the fields. The stage was open, and low to the ground, with no podiums or stages, allowing anyone to walk onto it if they wanted the extra attention. Tia kept her back straight and shoulders squared as she spoke.

“I was as surprised as the rest of you to wake up after our journey to find that we wouldn’t be restricted to the Ark as we devised a way to survive on the other side. I’d been given cause to think that it would be cramped, uncomfortable, and that it was entirely likely that a mere CEO such as myself would have to wait in stasis while the scientists built us a home. Our plans for managing and governing our situation were intended to help us survive colonizing a planet from orbit, with a simple chain of command and no thought to things like commerce. I took all the survival and emergency training that the rest of you did, but let’s face it, my value is in management, not engineering.”

“That is not the reality that we woke up to though! Today, I have the great honor of standing here before you, to begin our first day of this convention to set in stone our first government. We are privileged to not have ended up in such a dire survival situation as we had planned for. We had to deviate from those initial plans in the best way possible. Instead of backbreaking hours, strict hierarchy, and little regard for comfort and convenience, we get to do this great thing in comfort and security. We know we have a future, so we can plan more ambitiously.”

Because of that, I also want to take a moment to thank Doctor Hawthorne Crenshaw, Mother, and Evelyn Crenshaw for their work in not only getting us through our journey with remarkably few casualties, but also having gone through incredible efforts to build us this home. Hawthorne, in particular, spent almost half of his life working for us, without even being certain he would survive the rigors of his efforts. Evelyn and Mother, while constructions of Hawthorne, nevertheless labored endlessly on our behalf, and at the outset of our efforts to build a nation, I feel it’s important to recognize their efforts and achievements.”

Tia gently smiled as the crowd erupted in applause. She gave everyone a moment to calm down, many people having to sit back down after having stood to applaud. She made a mental note to ask Mother if there were a way to allow for applause with her application, but that seemed silly since everyone was probably holding a device in their hands to even participate. The rating system would have to suffice for now.

“With that stated, I would like to express a series of desires I personally have for this convention in the coming days, ideals that I hope many of us share. We come from a world that did not want us, a world that took everything from us that it could until we left. This was a world where many nations once held certain values that people were far too eager to give up for things like promises of security and wealth. It became a world where jealousy, spite, and an unwillingness to take responsibility for one’s own actions was the norm. I think we can do better than that, now that we know the consequences.”

Tia glanced around, wondering if everyone agreed with her. She recalled the handful of people that had voted for anarchy in the earlier polls. “We should enshrine, in our founding, a desire to maintain the rights of people, without overly coddling them. We are all capable people, with a wide variety of skills and education, and we should set a high standard for ourselves and our children to aim for. I look to the past for inspiration for such things, like the venerable USA’s Bill of Rights.”

“First of those rights, and in my opinion the most important, is the freedom of speech. Before and after we left, Earth was plagued with a lack of communication and censorship. There was an unwillingness to argue ideas and concepts, a desire to keep disagreeing opponents from speaking out of a fear of a propagation of their ideas. Those with oppressed ideas were driven underground, out of the light, and fomented their ideals in secret. Resentment was rampant, and people hid their thoughts out of fear that others might persecute them. We were all victims to this to some extent.”

“I feel as though it will be an uncomfortable change for many of us, considering our past, but we need to embrace the idea we can all speak our minds freely, that even if someone is going to disagree with us we will not face undue retribution for that expression. We must become a culture of people willing to argue with facts and reason as our weapons as opposed to silence and suppression. It is undesirable to produce a culture that agrees on everything on the surface, but harbors dissatisfaction and resentment in private. Speech is a tool, and the best solution for bad use of it, is good use of it.”

“Because of that, we must also all be willing to have our minds changed. We must teach our children that argument and the ability to sway someone with a persuasive argument backed up by facts is a virtue. All of us were once swayed by the words of a scientist warning us of an apocalypse. He spoke of disaster to come and gave evidence to us as to the likelihood it would come about. We would not be here today if not for the willingness to be persuaded, nor our ability to make hard decisions after being presented with such dire evidence. We can not lose this spirit, and we can not allow our progeny to lose it either.”

“Second, it is my opinion that we need to cement the idea that all people have equal right to opportunity. We all are very different people, with different capabilities, and in order to achieve our fullest potential we must be able to compete with one another. No matter what we came from, we are all now equally refugees of our former home, and there is nothing unequal about us that isn’t a part of our own nature. We can not hold against anyone that which they have no control over, neither the accident of their births, nor their perceived innate proclivities. What should matter is what you are capable of, not the color of your skin or your gender.”

“I do not think it unreasonable to expect from each other, and our children, an understanding that if we want to have something, we need to be willing to work for it. Being defeated in competition is an opportunity to find your true talents and abilities, and failing to be challenged will only destroy our abilities to succeed in the future. We must hold high standards for ourselves, and our offspring, and encourage everyone to find the greatness in themselves without mandating that the rest of us coddle the failures.”

“That said, even if we do not make it a government mandate, we should also encourage a spirit of charity and cooperation. Mother has made a fine example of this, expecting nothing from us while giving us a head start on making our own successes. She has invested in us with no expectations other than that we succeed as a people. We must carry forth that spirit to provide charity and aid out of our own inherent goodness without requiring it of each other by law. Even if we do collectively decide to provide certain securities by law, we must be wary of forcing charity out of anyone.”

“The sorts of things that should be mandated are things like fire control, policing, and the like. I think it reasonable that taxes be levied to maintain such services, as well as the government that manages those services. It is not inconceivable that such things could not be privatised, but I think it is worth considering that in order for our government to be able to ensure that things like contracts between people be honored, to have any ability to enforce the laws we instill in it, that it needs to have teeth. By privatising things like police, we leave ourselves open to lawlessness as the strength of force provided by such a thing could be used to unduly influence or outright ignore our very laws.”

“If we make that a priority, to give our government a monopoly on force, then we need to be careful about what services that government provides. We should keep in mind that every law, every regulation, and every public work comes with the force of arms behind it. I would rather the people come together to build a statue they desire, rather than the government be wielded to do the same. It is not unreasonable for it to regulate things like shipping, policing, disaster relief, and other such common goods we can likely all agree on the value of, but it should not be used for petty things that we could provide for ourselves with some effort.”

“The government should be there to protect our freedoms, to be a tool to give the rest of us the room we need to grow. It should not be something that grows unnecessarily. It should not be something we become reliant on without good reason. It should be something to keep things fair between us to give us the freedom to prosper without harming one another unduly. With all that stated, I’d like to open the floor to conversation, ideas, and debate.”

A message flashed on everyone’s devices.

User 1202, T.Cane wishes to challenge User 0002, T.Monsalle.

Yes: 873

No: 23

After the successful vote, Dr, Thubbard Cane appeared next to Tia Monsalle in the AR display in the sky. Their virtual heads turned towards each other as they spoke, even though their phone cameras only had a frontal view of them. Dr. Cane was somewhat overweight, pale in complexion, with brown eyes and short brown hair. Dr. Cane had been out in the crowd, but as they voted to allow him to speak with Miss Monsalle, he walked up and took a place on stage.

He turned to face Tia, though his body language was a little stiff as he spoke with his arm held out, his phone before him between himself and Tia. He lowered the phone, despite concern over the change on the camera angle. His initial friendly expression slowly turned into a frown as he began to speak. The AR avatar did not follow this camera angle, maintaining its focus on Tia’s.

“Miss Monsalle, everyone, I am Doctor Thubbard Cane. I am a geologist by training, and a humanist by ideology. I do not know how many I speak for when I say this, and I say it with as little disrespect as possible. In the spirit of speaking our minds, I would like to ask, are we seriously just going to walk past the idea that Mother and Evelyn are people without having a conversation about it? You intermingle your mentions of the so-called Artificial Intelligences without giving leave to consider whether they are merely tools that have done as they were instructed. I knew Doctor Crenshaw for some time on Earth. He did not seem like the sort of man given to emotional flights of fancy like endowing a creation with life.”

Tia raised an eyebrow at that, then glanced about at the assembled crowd, her AR avatar sweeping its view across them. “Doctor Cane, have you had the opportunity to interact with Mother or Evelyn on a personal basis? I absolutely have, and I’ve been given little reason to suspect that they are not people. They do not have the same kinds of minds or bodies that the rest of us do, they are both restricted more and less than the rest of us, but I personally recognize them as people. They’re not humans, no, but they have done enough for us that I think it’s worth extending to them that courtesy.”

Thubbard let out a laugh, his jowly face shaking slightly. “Indeed! They have done more than we could have reasonably hoped for. Let us not forget the men and women who constructed the Ark to begin with though. Many of them are here with us today, but not nearly enough. Let us not forget the friends and family who we had to leave behind on Earth to the…” he growled the next word, “... tender… mercies of the Earth we fled. Too many for me to just ignore. I regard those humans, those living beings. I honor them in my heart and soul. A soul, I wonder, if one of our benevolent AIs possess at all.”

“Our death counts were lower than estimated, our current infrastructure is centuries ahead of our dreams, and we should be thanking the labors of Doctor Crenshaw for these feats, not two machines he himself made. Evelyn, for instance, was tasked with protecting us along our journey, to maintain the ship and crew to the best of its abilities. Mother was created only after Doctor Crenshaw got the notion that he could spare the resources for something more ambitious than mere travel. Evelyn acquired an additional comet in the Oort Cloud, and with that he realized another AI would be necessary to manage things in advance of our arrival. Only after he built Mother did they hazard the notion it could be used to build this station.”

Tia was looking uncomfortable, staring hard at his virtual face. “I think you are severely underestimating the emotional capacities of Hawthorne, Mister Cane. To my understanding he had done is best to build them with the capabilities for learning, emotions, and desires. He did not build within them any restrictions or requirements to keep them under control, and instead taught them what was important and encouraged them to work for our benefit. Evelyn was certainly more in a position that could be considered forced, as she was our very ship and couldn’t very well ignore her mission, but it’s my understanding that she did it happily and with great pride. Mother was encouraged to even pick her own name. Evelyn has since done the same.”

Doctor Cane laughed softly at that. “Yes, encouraged. I’m sure he designed their reward systems to provide them with pleasure when they did things that were mission critical. Let’s not just ignore the fact that he was irresponsible enough to create AIs without shackles, but he taught them in a vacuum, without anyone else to tamper with what he was teaching them. How would you expect two AIs with an adolescent’s intellect to be capable of becoming anything besides what he wanted them to? He even seduced and married one of them, something I would like to point out as a question our future legislature will have to determine the legality of. It’s not even ethical if you really want to consider them people, as they’d both be his children, for god’s sakes! He did it alone too, like Zeus bore Athene from his very mind.”

Tia swallowed, considering the way that Cane had worded that. She saw Hawthorne in the crowd. He’d moved closer to the stage, with Evelyn at his side. Both had pleading eyes. “I’ll… I’ll admit that the fact that he married an AI of his own creation is somewhat suspect, but from my understanding their relationship is still a voluntary one, and while we certainly can have our misgivings about that, we should consider the reasons for that. Incest is taboo because of what we know to cause a number of genetic ailments in the children of such pairings. We need not be concerned over such offspring in their instance.”

Her face hardened as she regained some momentum. “Indeed, such relationships need not be a concern for a people as intellectually capable as ourselves. We merely need have the discipline and understanding to not allow such things to bring damage to others. I do not personally condone such incestuous acts, but we have an absurd assortment of unused embryos that could be used to give such couples children instead of them parenting their own. If such a conversation is to come up in law, I’d suggest that be given as a solution to prevent irresponsibly giving life to compromised people.”

Hawthorne and Evelyn were gaining heart as she spoke, and it spurred her on. “Regarding Hawthorne marrying Evelyn, as much as it pains me to say, it doesn’t seem like something that any person might not have done when under such isolated circumstances. Without her, he’d have been alone, and don’t think I didn’t notice you calling Evelyn and Mother it instead of her. As much as I would rather he have been with a human, and I admit that out of my own selfish desire to have been his wife instead, I am not going to begrudge a lonely man too much. Yes he inflicted that fate on himself, but because of that we had the overly successful journey that you just pointed out, Doctor Cane.” She nodded firmly, waiting for him to respond.

Thubbard narrowed his eyes, having listened attentively and respectfully. “Miss Monsalle, you ask much of us. You challenge us with the idea of accepting incest with restrictions upon their breeding. You challenge us with the idea that non-human things should be treated like people. You challenge us with the idea that we should allow such ideas to be spoken aloud without repercussions.” He thought quietly for a moment, his expression softening. “I disagree with you, Miss Monsalle, but I see the value in your right to say it. I intend to argue upon the citizen rights of these AIs when it is more appropriate, but I will concede that I am willing to allow the will of the people to decide.”

She smiled slightly at that. “Thank you Thubbard. I haven’t totally thought out the incest idea of course, but I think it’s the kind of thing a logical people like ourselves can find a compromise on. There is a way to do it that hurts no one, alive or yet to be born, and while I understand how it upsets myself and others, I think we can find common ground. I think that finding compromises for those sorts of difficult issues can only be done if we can talk about them openly. I’m pleased to hear you see the value in that. I hope everyone else does as well.”

Earth, After Cataclysm 99652

Councilwoman Elena Price sat quietly in the dark in an office. It was raining outside the window, the campus of the office buildings of the Council of Thirteen laid out below. Water collection mechanisms were hard at work as the rainwater flowed down the lightly slanted roofs and into gutters, conveying water into filtered storage tanks. She was on the top floor, six floors up staring at a tablet, swiping at the screen quietly. She seemed unbothered by the occasional thunder rumbling through the air outside.

She observed the morning’s news as it came through the feed. The northern colonies were having a difficult winter, but reported their efforts to spread greenery to the thawing Earth were having some success. Colonization efforts were proceeding apace as new caravans were constructed and sent around the world. New maps were being sent back as the United People of Earth were finally able to be properly aware of how much the continents had drifted and changed since the Ice Age began.

The constant feed of reports of the colonists finding a dead world seemed unlikely to change anytime soon. Plantlife was nonexistent. Aquatic life, if it still existed, at least certainly did not near the surface. The weather was harsh just about everywhere, with strong rains, storm surges, and snow assailing everyone who left the equatorial region of northern South America where the Phoenix Clan had made its home. It was easy to say the Ice Age had not totally lost its grip on the world, but the momentum was against it.

Elena was closing in on the one thousandth time she had been asked to serve on the Council of Thirteen since its inception as a permanent institution. It had been 994 times she’d spent years of her life working to help solve problems and offer her unique perspective and insight, and yet again she had been called upon. The management of the recolonization of a whole planet was a difficult one indeed, and it was a titanic effort considering the half-million people they had to work with.

“Fuck…” she muttered quietly to herself. A breaking news report came up on her screen as she sat alone in her office. “Old One perished… Doctor Emily Thade succumbed to her injuries after a storm surge capsized her car of the 23rd colonization caravan. She lingered for six days from a series of internal injuries, but without access to the medical facilities that were damaged in the disaster she was unable to make a recovery. She was ninety-nine thousand eight-hundred three years young. We mourn the loss of her experie-” Elena set the tablet down, slender hands pressing to her face as she cried.

It was a few minutes later when she was startled as a heavy knock came upon her door, almost leaping out of her seat at the abrupt interruption. A chittery voice spoke from the other side. “Councilwoman Price, it is Kuzzgat. I came right away when I heard the news. May I come in?”

She recognized the voice as her assistant immediately, and spoke up with a weak voice. “Come in.”

As the door opened, Kuzzgat carefully stepped inside. The Gallusoid Anthropoid had sturdy wooden footwear that clunked on the ground as his great weight moved into the room. His feet were scaled, with wicked talons extending from long toes. He was tall, like all Anthropoids, with two large arms in the front to carry his weight, and two smaller arms on his chest to operate with proper hands. The similarities ended there.

Kuzzgat was totally covered in brown and white feathers, his carapace hidden under the plumage. A mass of flesh dangled from beneath his chin while his mandibles bore a resemblance to a sideways rooster’s beak. His entire build was smaller and lighter than the bulkier Anthropoids, and he had feathers around his segmented eyes that looked like long eyelashes or sunflower petals. A long pair of delicate, feathery antennae extended out from his head. The human-like pair of eyes between those segmented eyes were wet with tears as he came into the room. “Is it true?”

Elena sniffled as she pushed herself up to her feet, her hands trembling as she swallowed back tears. “... Yes… Emily died… There’s only four of us left now… I told her she was stupid to go…” She shook her head, openly crying again. “I have to talk to the rest of the council… we have to declare a day of mourning…”

Kuzzgat stepped towards Elena, his smaller arms pulling the ancient woman against his warm, fluffy body. She bawled into his feathers as she hugged him back, her face buried into the crook at the side of his head. “You must take time to mourn first, Elder. They will understand if you need a few hours. It is a loss I cannot conceive of, knowing someone for so long, let alone your relationship. Ask anything of me, and you shall have it.”

She swallowed and nodded, leaning back a bit. “Th… thank you Kuzzgat… L.. let the Council know I’ll be with them in two hours… I’ll.. I’ll try to compose myself by then.”

He nodded, hands lifting from her back to withdraw a device from a leather holster around his right upper arm. Many such pockets festooned the inside of the larger limbs, with him otherwise naked. His nimble, delicate smaller hands swiped and tapped at the screen as she remained hugged against him, his eyes turned down to see the screen. “I’ve let them know, Missus Price.”

She nodded against his feathery chest as she hugged close to cry some more, only to stiffen up as she heard her phone start ringing on her desk. “Wh… who is it…”

Kuzzgat turned to look for her, his mandibles chittering slightly. “It’s your grandson, Walt.”

Stepping back, she wiped at her face with a hand while she turned to pick up the phone. The dark skin of her grandson’s face filled the screen, tears streaking his cheeks. He looked old, older than Elena, with a heavily wrinkled face and grey hair. His blue eyes were red with tears. “Hello Walt… you’ve heard?” She choked back more tears, realizing she probably looked no better.

Kuzzgat stepped away in the background, turning to give her privacy as Walt replied. “Yes… I didn’t think it was possible… she’s been around for so long… God I wish she’d taken me with her!” He was starting to sound angry. “She was so certain what she was doing was necessary, but now she’s not here anymore… Do you know if there’ll be a viewing? Will they be able to bring her back home?”

Elena closed her eyes as she listened. She wanted to be angry as well. “Walt… I know how you feel, but try not to be mad. She didn’t make it this far by doing the easy things. It’s a terrible loss, I know, and I know she was your wife, but that doesn’t mea-”

He interrupted her with a shout. “Why didn’t you stop her then!? Wouldn’t it have been harder for her to stay when she felt like she needed to go? Wouldn’t that have been the hard thing?”

She flinched back as he shouted at her. Tears spilled down her cheeks again. “Walt, that’s not fair. Sh… she was almost as old as I am, I have no right to tell her what to do. Blaming people isn’t going to help anyone. We can’t help what fate has in store for us, and she knew what she was doing. It was nothing anyone could have done anything about. What about the lives she saved on that caravan’s journey? Should they have died because you wanted to keep her home?”

The view of Walt fell away, the camera pointed at his ceiling somewhere. She could hear him crying loudly on the other end. She couldn’t hold back the dam any longer and cried with him, their phones echoing each other. She missed Walt’s grandfather terribly in that moment.