EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING, THE team prepped for the Bard’s interview in the car.

Peter was worried about getting stuck without their mapping apps. “We’re headed out of town where?”

“Not far from here. Get us to the turnpike first then over to Waltham. He’s in a hotel by Brandeis,” Ears directed. “Molli, your friends appear to be following us just fine. Do those guys ever eat?”

“Yes, sometimes. And the two who were with us at BioEthel’s interview shared that hundred thou with the rest of our class. Plus, I’m asking you two to pitch-in a little to help them with expenses and such. Some of my kung fu brothers and sisters are even taking time off work to protect us.”

“Great,” Peter observed. “You’d hope we had enough PD or FBI resources, but they’re too stretched. We really appreciate your friends, and I assume they know that.”

They arrived in Waltham at a standard business-class hotel.

“He’s a nanotech professor from the West Coast, and remember to be sensitive about questions on his background,” Ears warned. “I’m sure he has tenure and might be concerned about jeopardizing his position.”

“No problem,” they replied.

After phoning from him the lobby, the professor asked them to come up to his room. The Bard fit the classic professorial genre with a long beard and disheveled clothing, and it appeared as if he could tend to nothing beyond his work. They greeted him and introduced themselves.

“Obese chest-breather. Twenty breaths a minute,” Molli surmised. “I’m at five when excited. How different people are.”

They sat around a small alcove in his room on the fifth floor overlooking the campus.

“Beautiful this time of year,” he began. “Reminds me of the Pacific Coast where trees are turning and fall is in the air. Seasons come and go for all things, don’t they? Now, let’s discuss what we’re covering.”

Peter was ready to explain, but the man held his hand forward to stop him.

“Wait. Meant to tell you. I listened to the podcasts from the last few weeks. Saw the news, and all that surrounds it is viral. In a related sense, viral is what I plan to talk about today.”

“Thanks,” Peter replied. “It’s great you listened to understand our format. We’ll use this little Sony recorder since we couldn’t bring our usual studio setup, but it works just fine for quality. Let’s get started, understanding we’ll be sensitive to exposing who you are.”

“Perfect.”

Peter commenced with his usual introduction.

“Today we are interviewing a renowned scientist and researcher in nanotech and synthetic life tech. We’ll get right to the topic on how these technologies might protect us from future threats, real or imagined. We agreed to call our guest William, after the Bard, our friend from sixteenth century England. That Bard is credited with creating the phrase ‘fight fire with fire.’ You’ll understand the reference as we get through the interview.”

Peter paused as he always did to allow the intro sting to play.

“William, I gave a short introduction. Do you care to add more?”

“No. That’s close enough.”

“Fine then. Can you describe possible responses to the alien or obelisk threat within the larger nanotech and synthtech fields?”

“Sure. But to be more specific, nanotech and synthtech, or synbio, were once separate areas of science with clear-cut distinctions. From those early days of this century, the two evolutionary paths have evolved and converged. Synbio is nanotech, inherently.”

“How could that happen? I mean, nanotech implies nano-sized robotics and is clearly focused at machines. Meanwhile, synbio is about synthetic life forms that might emulate or enhance biology. How do you bridge those two together?”

“They bridged themselves. A few years back, we researchers agreed we were working on the same problems with nearly the same solutions. From that convergence, we’ve been able to advance the pace of progress.”

“Can you provide more depth?”

The professor leaned forward in his chair, the topic animating him. “Nanotech was and still is robotics, if you can call it that. The tech is comprised of tiny machines made of metals or chemical elements tasked at a very small level to perform a function or functions. Synbio was initially only about synthetically created amino acids combined into the structure of DNA to super-enable or enhance life forms. This initially resulted in great discoveries such as new wonder drugs and vaccines. In other words, both nanotech and synbio were tasked to perform these desired functions at the very small level. One solution was metallic and chemical, and the other was an extension of biological and bioelectrical.”

“And does that distinction still exist?” Peter wondered.

“Yes, in rare cases, but in other cases the various technologies have crossed-over to resolve the same problems. In human systems, for example, synbio might be employed to rebuild a fractured bone. Similarly, a nanotech could be employed to repair the same bone. In both instances, they typically use elemental components in their environments to perform the same function.”

“The goal was the same, the components were the same, so the two became one?” Molli interjected.

He laughed. “Yes, a marriage of sorts. What one must realize at these molecular levels is that the type of machine required to perform the desired work is not what matters so much. It’s achieving the end goal that matters. It’s a classic case of the means not mattering because the ends are the same, to use my castrated English.”

“You’re the Bard,” Peter affirmed, “which gives you the right to speak the language as you please. Our listeners should understand the analogy. Can you discuss how this technology may protect us? But please wait before you respond. Let me give a disclaimer to our audience. I want our listeners to understand that our intention in mentioning the obelisk is not to throw another log on that bonfire. Enough of those flames are being fanned by the major media outlets. We want our expert guests to provide perspectives on solutions to any future engagement that could occur with alien cultures, but not to foment additional concern or worry.”

“And that’s just the thing, Peter,” the Bard added. “We don’t know how imminent the threat might be. This object may have been floating in space for many billions of years. Could also be it was pointed specifically at Earth by a dying race, and unpleasant aliens are only a short distance away. We’re going through the Spanish flu stage of this discovery.”

Peter’s forehead creased at the mention. “Spanish flu?”

“Yes. Any time humanity has faced an unknown, we suffered social unrest and duress, as in the case of the Spanish flu epidemic. Even the Coronavirus epidemic, for that matter. This is expected, and we should have learned from these past cataclysms to calm down, plan, and execute appropriately and aggressively. As we grow to understand the nature of the obelisk and our own ability to respond to any threat, I hope we can get to that calming point.”

“And how will nanotech and synbio help?” Ears asked.

“Ah, consider Ears, my new acquaintance here. Your own biology was changed at a molecular level to produce your augmentations. I assume that was classic geedee combined with scrolling tech, correct?”

Ears nodded his head.

“I’ll answer your question, Peter. First, however, I prefer to only use the term ‘nanotech’ from this point, given the picture I painted. You must understand that nanotech may be in its fortieth year, but it is still evolving at a frenzied pace, off-the-charts. Frenzied is not negative, not by any means. Indeed, as it relates to future threats, it’s a clear positive.”

“This is for what reason?” Peter queried.

“Nanotech must be the first choice for any viable Earth defense. Consider the obelisk and its glyphs. That we can decipher, one alien race invaded another, and some form of nanotech was weaponized. Most of your listeners are aware through media reports that our defense agencies hold nanotech weapons on the mark and just need the ‘go’ signal. You must assume this is also true for many advanced countries. Moreover, previous challenges for the effective dispersal of this tech into the biosphere have now been resolved by discoveries made the last decade with self-replicating, motile and mobile agents.”

Peter clarified. “By this, you mean agents that allow the tech to disseminate broadly or quickly across an environment. I think you’re implying tiny legs or wings or airborne capabilities to ride the wind. You are also suggesting that these aliens may have attacked their enemies with this type of fire, and we should fight fire with fire?”

The Bard banged his hand on the table, causing the Sony to rattle. “My point entirely. Research labs around the globe have made significant progress using nanotech for positive purposes. Just like other technologies, it’s also being used for defensive means – which I don’t consider a negative. It’s simply defense. Their potential use is very similar to nuclear weapons, and they provide one more very competent tool in the arsenals of these countries. I can’t expose certain activities for obvious reasons, possibly even disconcerting ones, but most technologies like this are under watchful eyes.”

“Let me rephrase,” Peter insisted. “We can fight alien nanotech with our own nanotech. But isn’t it presumptuous to believe our tech could ever match theirs? You must assume that whatever they have in their quiver is many eons advanced from our own.”

“I’m not saying it will be easy. It is a new frontier of research and applied science that looks very promising based on the progress made. Funding had been pouring into this research far before this obelisk event, and we’ve progressed rapidly. Indeed, we are so far along that the tech is approaching a functional brick wall, meaning that any alien visitors have also likely encountered that same wall.”

“I assume part of that wall relates to how small we’re going. You mentioned amino acids, which are small things. Is it possible aliens are using nanotech at the subatomic level?”

“No doubt they are, but we’re there, too, and we have been for some years. Right in our own back yard is the technology to enable the wide-scale use of nanotech weaponry, and we can disperse that weaponry as fast and furiously and broadly as required. However, at a certain point of very, very small tech, even at the quantum level, you hit a point of diminishing returns. It’s likely these aliens hit that same point long ago, so our tech may not be as different as one might assume.”

“Great information, although it presents a quandary. If we were to release this nanotech weaponry as a defense, how does every person and everything avoid dying when that happens?”

He laughed. “Oh, sorry. I failed to mention the obvious. We’ll need to inoculate the existing population with the proper protective mechanisms. This might occur at various levels – white blood cells, antibodies, subatomic. It’s a reasonably foolproof mechanism and by no means secret. Publications are widely available online. I could point your listeners to some of this content, if required.”

“Sure, we can place that in the show notes. We do need to wind it up, but your analogies to the Spanish flu and Coronavirus are apropos. I assume it’s this: We’ll inoculate humans to counter or mitigate defensive agents released into the environment. That could include agents large or small, from a cellular, biological, or physical perspective. It’s like an anti-missile missile, only you’re inoculating against the known pathogens because we’re the ones producing them. Then, assuming there was an invading alien force, every human or hybrid is immune, correct?”

“To put it in influenza terms, you create flu shots to meet every potential variation to the virus, irrespective of the variation. Given our definition of nanotech, this will cross biological or mechanical barriers. In other words, if an alien species arrives in robotic form, we have a formidable defense waiting. If it’s biologic, we have a similar defense. Better yet, in both accounts our offense may even be superior, or at least give us a fighting chance to fight their fire with our fire. Make sense?”

Peter placed his hands atop his head, trying to grasp the complete meaning. “Absolutely. We’re talking substantial new funding, I assume.”

“The world of research only moves forward with funding, for sure,” the Bard confirmed.

Molli signaled to Peter.

“I wish we had more time,” he admitted.

They then thanked the Bard and ended the session.

In the car on the way back into town, Ears volunteered his thoughts.

“After this last interview, I imagine you both are teched-out. I clearly am, and I’m the one accustomed to multiple inputs. Don’t forget, though, that the next interview is not so tech-oriented, at least from an alien obelisk perspective. It’s Oort Cloud, and it will be more grounded in today versus a few years away.”

“The foreboding thing,” Peter declared, “is the immediacy of this tech. These experts aren’t talking as if the weapon or defense is far off sometime. In fact, our Bard friend basically said if it’s not here today, it’ll be here tomorrow, whether it’s via our DoD funding or China’s or pick another country or trillionaire. I love tech, but aren’t we dancing into deep weeds on the virulent potential of this frenzy he mentioned?”

“My dear Peter, you are the worrier – and that’s okay since somebody should be. But getting back to business,” Molli suggested, “we’ll clean the Bard up and run it next Wednesday, a week from today. OmniBev plays today on our regular Wednesday 4 p.m. show, and Peter’s sweetie Jessica streams on our Friday special.”

She smiled into the rear-view mirror.

“Jennifer,” he insisted, shaking his head.

“Oh, of course, lovely Jennifer. Now, Ears, when are we getting with our surgeon friend? This Oort Cloud reference still has me confused.”

He chuckled. “Just consider comets and asteroids bouncing around in space and fracturing and recombining in various forms. All very broken and deformed. Yet solid, if that helps.”

“Slightly. What day?”

“He’s a busy guy, and he plans to catch us at the hospital when on break. The dude is working hundred-hour weeks. I guess that’s pretty normal nowadays, at least for physicians who are treating the geedee community. Friday is his best guess, but it will be on a minute’s notice.”

“Okay. Please try to firm this up the best you can, and thanks so much for doing the legwork. We love you, of course. You’re the best and are uniquely valuable in this venture.”

Ears confided, “As much I love both of you, that cool million sitting in the bank account was a minor extra incentive, I must say.”

They laughed.

“Yeah,” Peter admitted. “That helped ease the burden and possibly even the threat. I wonder where our Texan podner is right now? Roping a calf? They still do that in Texas, you know.”

Ears was peering in the visor mirror.

“Don’t turn around, either of you, but we’re being followed. Not just by Molli’s buds. I’ve been watching. These guys appear to be undercover with the sunglasses and all, but you can’t tell these days.”

“What do I do?” Peter wondered.

“Just be cool. No change,” Molli cautioned. “We’ll get pictures and track them, but nothing is likely trackable if it’s the Feds. These guys must have tailed us from the condo.”

“We can only hope for the Feds,” Ears pointed out. “I hate to think it’s our radicalized mech friends. And OmniBev plays in a few hours. That could amp-up the intensity.”

“Let’s chill,” she insisted. “We need to go our way and keep vigilant. Too many creeps coming out of the woodwork, mech or otherwise. Violence is rising to a fever scream.”

They reached home after a few minutes. Peter turned into the condo’s guarded gate driveway and glanced at Molli in the back seat.

“Good. They drove past us. Hey, you don’t want to stop the presses on the podcast, do you?”

“No. No stopping. I forgot to mention to you both. My friends are now carrying, by the way, with full body suits. That’s in addition to their other weapons. Above board and everything, but the last recourse.”

“Who’d have perceived it could ever get this serious?” Peter lamented. “I mean, a little gold obelisk? As obvious as it was in hindsight that something like this could happen, people were grossly unprepared for the impact.”

“We’re too presumptive as a species,” Ears observed. “Archaic beliefs about being the chosen ones in the universe. We are inherently narcissistic and small-minded.”

Molli smacked her lips. “Yes, boys, that is human nature. But don’t forget that those archaic beliefs, if it’s religion you’re referencing, had a few pluses with the minuses. I do find it ironic we once assumed we were at the top of the food chain. We might just discover we’re actually near the bottom."