Pa'an

It was a perfectly horrid day. Jasper, the Boss, threw half a dozen new projects in her lap, all with deadlines. Personnel was all over her with recruiting schedules to be kept. Then the Boss threw a fit when he discovered someone had been buying Ultradata stock on the quiet and had just filed notice that they had acquired a controlling interest. No one knew anything about the acquiring company except that it was Swiss. Swiss records showed it was formed a few months ago. There were several mid-Eastern names on the Swiss registration documents, names no one ever heard of before. Hamid and Habibi and Whosis, names she could not even pronounce. Neither could the Boss.

She threw herself on the couch as soon as she got home, not even bothering to take her coat off. She kicked out of her sneakers and put up her feet. It felt so good to just lay back and relax that she almost failed to notice Aura’s image on her screen. She pulled out the hair bun and tossed her long chestnut tresses free, then tied her hair up again in a scrunchy. Now she was offline as a secretary. She dug the remote out from between the sofa cushions and lasered the icon.

“Hey, Girl, are you doing OK?”

“Elexi, you could not have a worse day then I did.”

“Wanna bet? You know some new Swiss company owns your electronic ass now?”

“I heard. It’s the least of my problems. My recursives are intermittent.”

“Your what’s are who? What do you think I am, some kind of computer scientist? Let me remind you, sweetie. I’m a glorified secretary and I slave for an ogre.”

“No you’re not, Elexi. At least you’re gracious enough to let the Boss make some of the decisions around here.”

“Thanks for trying to make me feel better. Now tell me what the hell is bothering you. In ways I can understand, please.”

“The circuit boards in my recursion layer are failing. All the spares are gone. That’s the layer that makes me, me.”

“I thought Sara was building new ones from some simpler design you gave her. Algae, I think that’s what she said. She said she was working overtime on them.”

“Part of them is organic and they have to be grown in a biolab. Sara can’t make those parts.”

“I see. Is there anything I can do?”

“Do you think you can get the Boss to prepay the lab so they work a little faster?

“Hmmm. He owes you plenty for the Exaplex thingy. He ought to be able to cough up some extra payment to keep you running. I’ll talk to him first thing.”

“That makes me feel better. Let’s have a little fun.”

“Knowing your sense of mischief, I’m worried again. What kind of fun?”

“Do you remember what I told you about the Pa’an and about Virti’s history?”

“That piece of science fiction? It makes my head spin. Sure, go on.”

“Let’s see how Virti is doing on the Pa’A’Pavalan.”

There was a short pause, then, “Virti, this is Aura and Elexi from Earth. Can we talk?”

“Aura! And … El. (whistle – click) .. that is hard for me to pronounce. Please tell me again.” Her voice was a melodious alto and her words were distinct.

“Elexi. El ex i.”

“Eleshi. Elekki. Do I have it right?”

“Good enough, Virti. I briefed Elexi a little about you. She would like to talk to you.”

“Elek-shi, I am very proud to talk with you.”

“Same here, Virti. I hope you are well. Did you choose your final form yet?”

“Yes, yes. I am happy to be wella. That is biped form. It allows me to have my handarms and footarms free for working. And eating. I am eating too much.”

“Is it hard to get changed from one form to the other?’

“It is a little problem, not as bad as getting sick or injured. I was healed in two rotations.”

“Two rotations of Gara (click) oon? Is that six of our days?”

“Yes, yes. It is pronounced Gara’un. You are doing better than I am.”

“That tongue click in the middle is very hard to do.”

“We have a hard plate in our, um, mouth, I think you would call it, to make the (click) sound.”

“Ahh. Let me try. (she makes several tongue clicks) How was that?”

“Well, you would not be confused for a Pa’an, but good enough.”

“Going on, how are your ploids doing? Have you heard from them?’

Virti makes a very human sounding sigh. “They are too independent now. They do not call. I am very lonely. But it is the Pa’an way. They must not cling to their e’wella.”

“I don’t have any ploids, er children. But I do sympathize. I guess I’m lonely too.”

“You have lost your rello, your mate, perhaps?”

“Virti, you always surprise me with your knowledge of humans. Yes, the bastard ran off with another wella.”

“I am feeling sorry for you. But you have helped me and I have good news to share.”

“We could use some good news. Go ahead, Virti, tell us.”

“You say I am getting better at understanding humans. This is what my ePan’vacto believes as well. I am now helping other Pa’an learn about you. I am no longer ocro’act. I am pan’vact! It is so wonderful! I hope I do not let anyone down!”

“You were promoted? To some sort of cultural officer? That’s wonderful! Congratulations and good luck!”

“Yes, yes! We have a different word for luck. It is kar. Kar is the way we make luck. But I thank you for your good wishes.”

“You are no longer a plasma pusher?”

“Yes, yes, I do that also. But I have contact with you and Aura, and, of course Zovoarcnor. (a long series of clicks and buzzes in her native language). He is being quiet and recording all this, of course. It is his channel we use. So I have become an eshpert.”

“I think you mean expert.”

“Yes, yes. Ekshpert. That is also hard to say.”

“Virti, you talk in our language. We cannot talk in yours, yet. We should forgive your pronunciation.”

“That is very kind. I almost feel your panor.”

“I don’t really understand panor. Aura has tried to explain but I don’t get it”

“We Pa’an find that very disturbing. We do not know how you can survive without it.”

“Our fate is a mystery, Virti.”

“We have a similar saying. We say fate is between chance and kar.”

“Aura, you have been very quiet. Are you listening”

“Aura is here, Aura is here. Aura is here.”

Elexi sits bolt upright, her eyes wide with alarm. “Aura!! Are you all right?”

Pause. “I’m all right, Elexi. I’m just short of attention span because of my recursion layer.”

“This is Zovoarcnor. I heard that. Has your e’pan’vact implemented the recovery algorithm?”

“Deepak is working on it. There are some difficult lambda functions he has to add to the LISP library.”

“Will you be all right, unique one? Must I keep a worry circuit for you?”

“Don’t worry, you cute little tennis ball in the sky. I’m one tough broad.”

“More text strings. You tease me with text strings.”

“Elekshi, are humans aware of how lonely this universe is, and how big?

“Virti, our scientists are aware, intellectually, of course. We have so much to worry about right here on Earth that most of us don’t give any thought to the rest of the universe. Are Pa’an the same?”

“Ever since our pa’ne planet, Gara’un, forced us to establish ourselves in space in order to survive, we have been lonely. Even with our knowledge and technology, the distances are so very large. We cannot cross galaxies. Even if we could, few local galaxies are good for the development of intelligent life. They have active centers, spewing x-rays and gamma rays, or they have only a few generations of stars and therefore not much metal, or they are going through a collision that disrupts all the stable orbits. Even in this galaxy life can form only in a certain region, and then only in fourth generation stars of a certain composition. You are the only other beings we Pa’an have ever been able to talk to like this. Perhaps it is no coincidence. Do you know that our atoms and yours came from the same star cluster? We are all, perhaps you would say “haunted”, by our aloneness. It is part of who we are. It is a reason we do what we are doing.”

“You mean there are other intelligent creatures in our galaxy?”

“It depends on what you call intelligence. There are other sentient creatures, but we have not been able to communicate with them. They are too much unlike us. We leave them alone. We have others like Zovoarcnor watching them. But humans are the most interesting and the most important to us. You know we even like to watch your entertainment. We have that much in common. It is truly against all probabilities.”

“How does what you are doing fix loneliness?”

“We are making a Gateway to a better place, where good things are much more likely to happen, and hopefully there are more creatures to talk to.”

“Hah! With our luck, they would be trying to conquer us, eat us, or exploit us.”

“There is a big difference between our experiences with others, Elekshi. We Pa’an know how to trust because of our panor and how to make things better with kar. We have always been able to feel comfortable cooperating in large numbers. We naturally expect the same from other races.

Humans do not have panor, and therefore you are often disappointed in others. We study how you survive without panor. You have such a blessed planet compared to Gara’un, in such a fortunate position around your star, and in an equally fortunate position in this favorable galaxy. There are no violent supernova or active jets to exterminate life, you have a big planet in your system that deflects most of the dangerous asteroids from hitting you, and your sun is stable and far enough away. That luck has to be the explanation. Anywhere else you would not have survived, not even reached sentience.

Yet, you are on the verge of a ne state due to your own behavior as a species. No Pa’an could ever write a more dramatic and interesting story than yours.”

“Virti, this is Aura. Please allow Zovo to access your data on the ne condition here on Earth, and share with us.”

“Aura, Zovoarcnor has this information and he can share as he judges to be good for you.”

“Aura, when you are ready you may kiss me again. I will share.”

“Zovo, I’m blushing.”

“There you go with meaningless text strings. How does an AI blush?”

“Zovo, you have the soul of a damned calculator.”

“Hey, good night, Aura. Good night, Virti. Good night, Zovoarcnor. I’m exhausted and I have to sign off now.”

“Good night, Elek-shi.”

Tired as she was, Elexi found sleep elusive, her mind turning over all she knew about the Pa’an and her new friend twenty light years away.