SWNOVELS Chapter It Begins
It Begins
Block 7,927,972
A loud alarm awakens Fabian. He bolts up in bed and sees flashing red in his room lights. He glances over at his console on the nightstand, and the screen is flashing red. He can feel his heart racing; he begins to pour in sweat.
He thought he might get used to being awakened in the middle of the night, but he hasn’t.
“AI, what?”
“You are needed at NodlSat.”
“All right, all right.”
Fabian rolls out of bed, preparing for a long night. He decides to shower and dress like he’s going to for any other day. “I might as well feel and look good this time.” He thinks.
He decides to make the short walk to NodlSat.
“If it was any different than before, I’m sure they would have let me know by now.” He thinks.
He gets up to the 21st floor. The shifts that had been set up weeks ago are still in effect. People are running about frantically. He walks into the VC. The sound of the alarm has been silenced, but the flashing red light persists.
“AI, cancel alarm.”
When his managers hear his voice, they walk toward him.
“All right, what do we have this time?”
“Well, it’s similar to last time; however, it’s now in a new location, and it seems to be going for a little bit longer and is continuing to synchronize.” One of the managers says.
“Ok, where is it this time?”
“It’s on the eastern coast of SO-Land near Quanzhou, west of what was Taiwan.”
Fabian looked up at the monitors and saw the new location.
“I presume this is the same capsule or data thing, right? So it’s not a new one?”
“Correct, the synchronization picked up from the same time stamp. We thought there would have been more synchronization, but it looks like it just started from the beginning this time.
“Hmmm, that’s interesting. But, unfortunately, there’s no way to know if it’s the same person or group.”
“Yeah, but until we have different information, we should assume it’s the same person or group of people. Also, synchronization is occurring much more quickly than before. It should be completed over three hours from now. So this looks like they are using a different processor to upload the data.”
Another manager says, “Fabian, I think we have to assume that this data is now on the SO-Land AI network. That kind of speed could only be possible on something like that.”
“What was processing it before?”
“We don’t know, but it was clocking very slowly, and it would take over three years to fully synchronize. So this kind of data on the SO-Land AI network would be seen as a threat by them. And if they see it as a threat, the synchronization will fail.”
“Ok, that makes sense, but we can’t worry about that now. We have to make decisions at the moment. Right now, it’s synchronizing. I’ve put together a plan to start a dialogue. Let’s meet in my office in about eight blocks. If anything changes with the synchronization, let me know.”
Everyone nods in agreement.
Fabian walks to his office and sits at this desk. He stares out over the gulf.
“AI, call Jim Shields and Laura Cortez.”
“Hello?”
“Hey Jim, it’s Fabian; hold; hold on.”
“AI, call Laura Cortez.”
“Hi, dear. Are you thinking of me...”
“Laura, hold on.”
“AI, merge.”
“Hello?”
“Jim here.”
“Laura here.”
“Sorry guys to bother you, and yes, Laura, I was thinking of you. I always think of you.”
“Fabian, please. Do you ever think of me?”
“Well, no.”
“Anyway, you probably assumed the reason for the call now is because of our little activity in China... I mean SO-Land. It’s started again, but it’s in a new location on the eastern side of SO-land. We need to implement the plan you guys have worked up. Can you guys meet here in about eight blocks?”
“Yes, dear, of course.”
“Yes, dear, of course.” Jim says sarcastically, “Yeah, man, I’ll be right there.”
Fabian starts a pot of Guatemalan coffee.
Jim arrives first. He doesn’t live far and looks like he just got out of bed.
“Hey, man! What’s up?”
“Hey Jim, thanks for coming in. Sit down.”
Jim sits down on the couch below the photo of Thrux. He looks out over the gulf.
“Well, what do you think?” He asks.
Let’s save that for when the rest of the team assembles in a couple of blocks.
Laura walks in about a block later. She walks straight to Fabian and kisses him with her ruby-red lips. She’s taken time to shower, dress, and groom herself.
“Good morning?” She says.
“Good morning. I guess that’s the first time we’ve said that to each other in the middle of the night?”
“Yes, yes, it is.”
“C’mon guys, I’m right here! Laura, do I get a kiss?”
“Yes, of course.” She walks over to kiss Jim on the forehead.
“Is that it?” He says with a smile.
“Yes, that’s it.” She says with a wink.
“Please, guys, sit down. And thanks for coming in.”
“The rest of the team will be assembling here shortly. But basically, synchronization has started again. But this time, it’s in eastern So-Land. The synchronization time has shortened to just four hours or 24 blocks. And at this point seems to be lasting longer than any other attempts. So this is our opportunity to try to communicate. Are you guys ready to present your plan?”
“Yes, I think we are,” Jim says. “Laura has suggested we communicate in Chinese. So we have some prepared messages to encode on the blockchain.”
“Great. But my concern is that we know what we are working with. I’m not sure they know what they are working with.”
“Yeah, we thought of that as well. Laura suggested we use a continuation of synchronization as a ‘YES,’ and if we need a ‘No,’ we ask to stop synchronization or an interruption.”
“What if the person or groups of people can’t communicate their answer when we ask?”
“We hadn’t thought of that.”
“How about we define that by using blocks? If communication doesn’t occur within a certain number of blocks, we should consider that there has been a compromise or discontinuation. This way, we keep a pace or urgency in communication.”
“Ok, I think that might work.” Laura adds, “But based on the situation, we may have to modify that.”
“All right, let’s codify this. We have a ‘yes’ and a ‘no,’ and we have a defined period in which we should communicate. What period should we allow for communications?” Jim says.
“Let’s commit to a three-day time window. We will use old time for their purposes. How does that sound.” Fabian interjects.
The three of them nod in agreement.
The rest of the team filters in as they wrap up their communication protocol. Then, they start sitting around the table. Fabian sits at the head. Laura sits to his right and Jim to his left.
Fabian begins, “All right, thanks, everybody, for being a part of this.” Then, he looks at one of his managers, “I assume the activity is continuing, and it is in the same location in eastern SO-Land?” The manager affirms with a nod.
Fabian continues, “Based on all the information we have about SO-Land and what we call a freedom capsule, we must proceed as if this is a freedom or asylum operation. We don’t know this for sure. But we should take every chance to bring someone to the FreeLands. This is our opportunity to show the truth to someone who lives in darkness. We don’t know if they will accept it. However, we must do our part. It will be their choice. We all know from our history that everyone comes to the truth when they are ready. Many generations before us lived in denial of what truth was. Whoever this is in SO-Land may deny what we show them. The truth and reality they live in are contrived.”
Everyone around the table nods in agreement.
“Jim and Laura, here have come up with a plan to start communicating with whoever this is. We will send messages encoded in fake transactions on the base layer of the Bitcoin blockchain. I know that is old school, but we can’t know if they could even access the different layers we have now. So it will be essentially an asymmetric one-way communication. We will encode messages in Chinese, and we can only receive a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ on that end. The other factor that we can control is the timing of messages. Jim and Laura will be available to help set this up, and I suggest we start encoding messages now.”
Fabian turns to Laura and nods.
“Ok, Jim and I will go over what we have come up with. We consulted with Satoshi Smith as well to develop this protocol. We have a couple of challenges we need to overcome. First, we need to assume, even with their AI, that there is no memory of English or any western language. We assume that there is either Russian or Chinese language ability. We are making the assumption, as well, that since all of the uploads have been in southern SO-Land, specifically in what used to be China, whoever is doing this will understand Chinese. As many of you know, Chinese is a pictographic language and doesn’t have a standard alphabet. So we have a couple of constraints. First, we will need to take Chinese lettering and convert it to Pinyin, a Romanization of Chinese characters. Then we will need to convert that to Hex characters.”
She looks around the room. Everyone is intently looking at her. “All right, that all was the first challenge. The second challenge is that we need to communicate in a converted Hex code not to exceed eighty characters. Then we need to encode that into a transaction on the base layer using a legacy Bitcoin address with its private key. Next, we have to input a spend amount, and then we need to enter the eighty-character Hex code with a zero spend. We are making a huge assumption here. And that is on their side; the Hex code will be recognized as such and converted. Anyone familiar with programming should be able to understand that, or hopefully, the AI will be analyzing and understand what it is looking at.”
Jim interrupts, “Laura, sorry, let me add that we will broadcast the same Hex code in multiple transactions per block for a period of blocks. That way, we can create some recognizable pattern.”
“Yes, that’s right.” Laura begins again, “This is similar to when NASA sent out the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft with golden records for alien life...” Everyone around the table chuckles. “I know, but that’s what they thought back then. We have the advantage of knowing there is intelligent life on the other end of this conversation with the available tools to decode what we send. The greatest challenge here is knowing that SO-Land AI will see this. And if it does, it will be perceived as a threat. If the Bitcoin blockchain is anything, it’s a beacon of truth and immutability. We know that to be contrary to the ideology and sociology of SO-Land.”
“Ok, for a third and maybe fourth challenge. This conversation will essentially be one-sided. We can send information, but they will have limited means to send information back to us. So we will instruct them to reply with a yes and a no once we think we have contact. We can explain how that works when we start. The other constraint we are dealing with is that we can control the length of time we allow for an adequate response before we assume they are no longer interested in being free or have been compromised. We all know that we can turn a node on and off without any effect on synchronization or operation. So we will instruct them to power on or off the node or whatever is acting as a node or somehow interrupt the synchronization. Ok, I think that’s what we have for now. This may take some modification to work out any kinks, but we think this is a good start. Fabian?” She looks back to Fabian.
“Excellent work Laura and Jim. Do we have any questions at this point?”
An engineer raises their hand. Fabian nods.
“Yes, thanks, ummh, the signal seems to be centered on eastern SO-Land, but how can there be any recovery of a person or people on the eastern shore? Based on agreements, we can’t enter those regions, and I can’t imagine this person or group would have access to a blue ocean vessel.”
“That’s a great question. Does anyone have a thought about that?”
Another engineer says, “Well, it seems as if this person or group has the means to travel. They have traveled nearly 800 kilometers from Wuhan to where the current signal is. So, it seems we need to get them to the western side or southwest. But if there has to be any travel on foot for this, then it should be west. So maybe we need to encode that message when we get to that point.”
“Excellent, that sounds viable,” Fabian exclaims.
Jim says, “I know it’s been a while since my company even looked at that region, but there are eternal fires there from the Event and radiation fields we need to be aware of. So it seems that any planned escape or recovery should consider wind and weather patterns. And we should have the ability to decon the person or group.”
“Great point Jim. Any other questions or comments?”
“Yes, why do we think this person or group would want to come here? I mean, they are watching this data; maybe we even make contact, but what would compel someone, after this long period not knowing anyone else exists in the world, to want to come here?”
Fabian looks around the room, “Anyone want to tackle that?”
Laura speaks up, “Well, logically speaking, I’m not sure just anyone would want to do this unless there is a compelling reason. I mean, you all are engineers and used to doing a risk analysis or a list with pros and cons. I think any of us would at least have the curiosity even to start something like this. We mentioned the voyager space probes. We did that for curiosity. This person has at least demonstrated they are curious. So we’ve checked that box. I think now it’s going to come down to once we make contact and provide information, they will do a risk analysis. They will ask themselves, ‘is it worth risking my life for this information?’ and ‘what do I have to lose?’ Those two basic questions have to be answered. If the person on the other side is well-connected or wealthy, they may not want to risk it. On the other hand, if they have lost any real connection to their environment, then it may be worth the risk. That’s my thinking.”
“Laura well said.” Fabian adds, “All right, let’s get to work. You may have more questions. I’ve created a channel within AI where we can ask these questions of each other and possibly AI. For now, let’s focus on the tasks at hand. Let’s organize into a couple of working groups. First, we need a group to help Laura and Jim initiate contact and get that going. Then, we should have another group that focuses on the responses from SO-Land. And for now, let’s have a group focusing on recovery, the most appropriate location, means, logistics, etc.”