Vestige

“…it’s working!” Filleppe Natsome Thuall, one of the two middle-age sons of Geologist-Fillip Natsome and former pilot of the original Vestige colony, Lanay Thuall, was in the specially built structure that was solidly crafted from cMaj’s plateau-stones. It was the township’s only laboratory. It had only taken the villagers a couple of weeks to find the right stones and bush-branches to construct it.

Geologist-Natsome and Chemist-Luciana Salomenes an Preun—the last two scientists from the original survivors of the old Ship’s bombing—both scurried to where the scientist-in-training had been testing out how some of the acquired sentient-sand from Lake Thuall was reacting to signals being sent from Luciana’s own portable…the incredible thing was the direct-solarvoltaic properties typically found in glass or materials similar to glass was, at that time, found in the yet-living sentient-sand…

In other words, at least at that point in the team’s experiments with the sand, there was no need to kill the living sand in order to achieve solar empowering energy from the sentient-sand!

“How is this even possible,” Vestige 2’s councilor, Tyra Housenn Sohill, asked as she watched from a distance from the work area of the stone lab; making sure not to get in the way of the three scientists.

Luciana replied; keeping her eyes on the moving sand within the lab’s somewhat crude worktable, “Well, partially due to natural tropism—which makes me wonder if there are some vegetative elements to the sand…Essentially, Councilor, the sand is able to conduct cMaj’s local star photons and any other energy almost the same way the human body is a semiconductor. But even better! What gets me, Councilor, is how this synthetic species is able to take our signals and super-simultaneously express those signals—and it does not matter the distance between us and the sand!”

Tyra looked at her old friend with a shocked face. Geologist-Natsome and his scientific-protégé middle-age son both smiled as they began to set up a demonstration for Councilor Housenn Sohill on the wide slab of cMaj stonework.

“Luciana,” Tyra said; making sure she understood while the three scientists worked at the demonstration, “are you saying that I could be five miles from that portion of sentient-sand and send signals to it, it will instantly receive my signals—as if there were no distance between us?”

“Councilor…I’m saying that, if you were on one of cMaj’s moons you would have the absolute ability to make this thing crawl—instantly!—by sending commands; with the proper connections in terms of physics, of course…”

Tyra froze on the spot with such news! Even during the old days when Luciana, Fillip, and Tyra lived in the original Vestige colony with all its scientific and technological miracles, the Councilor had never encountered this type of technology where it utilized a synthetic being and one was able to harness a star’s power in order to operate as an astronomical puppet-master! The potential applications for such technology were astonishing!

All four went silent after they walked over and joined Councilor Housenn Sohill at her corner of the lab. None of the colonists in the stone laboratory were even close to the sentient-sand that was on the worktable. It was a way for them to conduct the experiments and practice without anyone who were to watch the recorded pictions having to say the scientists had cheated somehow.

Chemist-Salomenes glanced at Tyra. “And we are recording all our endeavors, Councilor. I know how important that is to you…Portable,” the chemist said with her voice raised a bit, for it was propped up on the ledge of a wall within the lab, “please send a command to the sand-portion to jump about five inches to its left.”

“Complying,” the portable’s old, scratchy actuator voice responded.

No later than five seconds the sentient-sand, at approximately one ounce, leapt to its side to the left—its granular properties moving like dry water! Councilor Housenn Sohill flinched and caught young-Filleppe by his arm—startled to see something, literally, so alien move in such a way!

“By my star’s gravity…” Tyra didn’t ask for permission—she slowly walked over to the open worktable and visually examined the portion of sand that, now, was inert. Behind her, humanity’s vestige of science were smiling and even tearing up at the achievement!

“Too bad our cerebral-comms gave out years ago…Could you imagine us using the comms; almost like super-humans, able to control swaths of sand just by thought,” Tyra quipped, though half-serious! The three scientists laughed at her comment. She went silent and focused on the sentient-sand again. “Portable, please instruct the sand to leap into my hand—”

“—Uh, Councilor…”

“—Tyra, that’s not what we planned!”

“—Councilor!”

“Complying,” Luciana’s portable said, ignoring the protestations from the scientists and sent a tiny shot of photonic-data to the sand!

The small amount of cMaj sand jumped off the open worktable and straight into the Councilor’s hands! Luciana, Fillip, and Filleppe all stood in silence while their councilor examined the synthetic sand in her hands…it slowly shifted within her cupped hands; not a drop of its granules being left behind.

Tyra simply and slowly replaced the sand onto the workstation and took a couple of steps back from the table; rubbing her hands together, ensuring that none of the sand stuck to her.

“Chemist-Salomenes…Geologist-Natsome…General Scientist-Natsome, this marks a key moment for this small human settlement…”

All three nodded behind Tyra, not saying a word. She continued.

“I’d like for all your recorded pictions to be catalogued and shared with the two other portables and synthetic Number Four, if you could, portable?”

“Complied, Councilor,” Luciana’s device said after a few seconds of Tyra’s request.

“There is an ancient saying,” the older Natsome scientist said after a moment of quiet thinking from the group, “The blade has at least two side and can cut either way…I can’t help but think what the Councilor and Number Four said about the likely origins of cMaj’s sand after their own research!”

So much for the glory of discovery!

“You know,” young Filleppe said, “my wife and our children had a long discussion about that a week ago…wouldn’t we have seen some kind of indicator of a more advanced civilization by now?” He shifted his eyes to his father. “I, also, have an ancient saying for us to think on—one of my favorites from the sciences that you, father, and the portables have taught my generation: the Paradox of the Fermi! If such advanced civilization exists on cMaj, most likely we would’ve seen them by now!”

The chemist shifted uneasily on her feet. “Not necessarily…as long as our colony has been on cMaj, we still haven’t been everywhere on this continent, let alone the rest of the planet!”

“Fifty years, and not even you original Colonists have seen a domestic civilization that could’ve created the sentient-sands,” Filleppe rebutted; his eyes squinting with incredulity.

Indeed, it was a point that resonated with the elders around him. They all looked off to some corner and nodded to themselves.

“I still find it hard to believe that such a synthetic sub-species could evolve naturally,” Luciana volunteered; her eyes back on the small mound of sand on the worktable. She shook her head. “It’s going to take some time to figure this one out!”

“If ever,” the younger Natsome scientist pointed out. Again, nods of consent.

“I don’t know about you scientists,” Councilor Housenn Sohill said after a short pause, “but I think we could utilize the sand against the Tardigrades!”

Geologist-Natsome was already nodding his head. “I was thinking about that, too, Councilor! Perhaps build some kind of wall around the village…fortify it with sentient-sand in such a way that we could use the sand’s properties to block the Tardigrades from getting into to the Settlement!”

The others voiced agreements.

“That is the most plausible usage of the sand I’ve heard from anyone within the village, yet,” Luciana’s portable stated. “Aside from the super-simultaneous application for energy and communications, of course.”

“Thanks, portable,” the young scientist said with a nod of his head.

That was all Councilor Housenn Sohill needed to hear. “Then we should start right away on figuring out how to harvest the sand from Lake Thuall and transport it back to the township…I’ll talk with some of the other colonists about it while you three continue the science end of it.”

The three scientists chorused a ‘Thank you, Councilor,’ and went back to work on the project with the sands they had on stock within the stone laboratory.