Judy in Skye

by Thomas R.

Holofernes, charmed by her, drank a great quantity of wine, more than he had ever drunk on one single day in his life. — The Book of Judith 12:20

Entry 1

The Quarantine period has ended. This means that, as the 40 centuries have ended, an observer can be sent to see if Earth is to be condemned or declared safe for trade or re-colonization. At this point the “mad” devices, devices reproducing without control, that destroyed all water sources, should have either killed the planet or be dead.

The committee chose me because as a holographic entity I could be transmitted to the Plutonian array by Qeca, while a human would be bound by relativistic speeds. However the other part is that I will likely be better equipped for dangerous situations. The transmission to Pluto was successful, and my information is being emitted as form in this new balloon body. I don’t especially care for it at present, but the Plutonian array made the best it could, I suppose. I’m rather excited to see what Earth is like now, but I have not yet reached it.

Holographic being Fernes 4.9 ending entry 1.

Entry 2

The planet seems mostly primitive, although this image is deceptive. There seems to be the presence of nano-tech throughout the ocean. This should not be, as the ocean and planet still seem quite alive. Still, other than the nano-tech I’ve found, little evidence of advanced technology. Further, the only communications relays seem to be a system of heliographs in what was once New Zealand. There is little evidence of widespread artificial lighting or large cities. Again, New Zealand has a few towns left of over one hundred thousand, but there is no electricity in them. Interesting, though the atmosphere as well as the view show evidence the land is full of vegetation and even animal life. The ocean is of course dead except for the nano-tech.

The probes I sent into the atmosphere gave a more detailed look of conditions on the ground. Somehow, human populations survive. Most of these seem quite primitive, even medieval. The exception is that they are cleaner, more hygienic, and healthy than any medieval villages recorded. Further, relatively few of the people appear to be children, which is peculiar for a primitive society, although perhaps not unheard-of, as there are societies where high sterility rates came after societal collapse. (See the fall of the Directorate on Avodmol and its links to the pandemic of Kelvin’s Syndrome)

I have decided to land soon on a place once called the island of Skye. I’ve selected it because the population seems peaceful, small, and the waters in the region contain very low rates of nano-tech. One slight advantage as well is the recordings discovered; their language is so close to Gaelic it can be deciphered rapidly from context of observation.

Only three other regions on Earth have languages that remain this close to something decipherable; Lake Tana in Ethiopia, Greenland, and Macao. However Lake Tana has an unusually high concentration of nano-tech as do the waters near Macao. The inhabited parts of Greenland seemed to be in a vicious war. A variant of tall, over two meters, albino people ride on gigantic domestic bears to attack a race of furry little earless people who have the advantage of spitting a substance that seems to transmute elements. Could they be incorporating nano-tech into their own bodies? The idea is without foundation, implausible on a biological level, but I have yet to find an alternate explanation for the observations made.

I say all this to give some sense of the situation and why I chose my landing site.

Holographic being Fernes 4.9 ending entry 2.

Entry 3

I have landed on the outskirts of the island’s main village. After a few hours analyzing the linguistic evidence and brain scans, I downloaded their language into myself. Their language has preserved much of the ancient Earth’s Gaelic, but has some curious anomalies. There is no word for “son” or “daughter.” At first I assumed this confirmed them as a sterile people, but there are several references to “babies” and, in fact, a few children have been spotted. More intriguing their language also lacks words for “death,” “disease,” or even “pain.”

My initial intent had been to go to their village to learn about these things, but I have been intercepted by a woman named Judith. Judith is in fact the diminution of her name, which is Ravana’samu’judith’ambu’rabia. This name is not remotely Gaelic-sounding, and she herself is not remotely Gaelic in appearance.

From my probes most of the people on Skye appear to be a tall, fair-skinned people with dark purple sclera and thick red beards for both sexes. Another common phenotype is dark-haired, green-eyed, average height, and twelve-fingered. The third seems to be a small people with enormous ears and no hair above the waist. There’s also a small number of amphibious people with webbed fingered and toes.

Judith fits none of these. Her phenotype is similar to women on file from ancient Bangladesh. Her genotype, however, is the most unusual encountered and quite perplexing. She contains chimeras I have not yet placed. What I can tell indicates her hearing range goes from the infrasonic to the extreme ranges of ultrasonic. She can sense the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and somehow interpret information sent in all frequencies. This puts me at a disadvantage as it seems to mean she can read my mind. Further she appears to be partially a chemo-synthesizing organism. Meaning she can transform the chemicals in dirt and rocks into the nutrients she needs. Her teeth, and digestive system, appear strong enough to eat anything softer than diamond. Hence she is out here with me without supplies, as she can live well on nothing more than rocks, dirt, water, and lichen. The ocean is, even here, devoid of any sea creatures to supplement that.

She is also frighteningly intelligent and states as “Speaker for the Ocean” she can not let me visit her village until she has judged me safe.

Fascinating thus far, if frustrating.

Holographic being Fernes 4.9 ending entry 3.

Entry 4

She has shown herself thus far to be quite aware of science. More so than Earth was when beginning its Quarantine. She knew I was a holographic being from the beginning, so calls me “Holo-Fernes.” She also knew of the Grand Unified Theory, methods of increasing stellar lifetimes, how to build a series of nesting rings around a star, how to heighten the intelligence of any creature, the conditions at Planck Time after the inflationary birth of the Universe, all known theoretical uses of multi-dimensional space, and some theories I can not yet confirm.

Perhaps more strange, she knows how the Qeca works, but she calls it an ansible for some obscure reason. This is peculiar, as the invention of the Qeca occurred more than fifteen centuries after the Quarantine. Most peculiar, she has proven, through DNA evidence the probe found in ruins in what had been Syria, that she is eighteen centuries old.

This is even longer than any of our people live. Our subjective life spans can be increased to far beyond that, through altering our perceptions of time, but chronologically no one has figured out how to break the millennium mark. That point at which almost everyone has died by accident, toxins, or wear. The “millennium mark” is a rough statement, it really ranges from 803-1260 years. No one known has lived beyond fifteen centuries though, at least until now.

Yet her people live as medievalists. Indeed, the whole world seems primitive. My first thought is that she is exceptional. Thus, I asked who the oldest person in the village, besides her, would be.

She answered promptly, “Talitha Egaladon turns 1,624 in late Winter. Around five percent of the villagers are over fifteen centuries old, though.”

I realized her “telepathy” had affected her response, as it often does. Still, she later brought the evidence she needed to confirm this. So I asked her another question. “Why do your people live so primitive if you understand technology?”

“There is no need of machines, we have what we need.” Judith.

“What about clothes, don’t you need machines to make your clothes?”

She looked at me sadly. “Do our clothes displease you? If they do, new clothes shall come as needed.”

“From where?”

“From that which makes clothing.” Judith could tell though that answer was unsatisfactory, but gave a more detailed one with reluctance. “I fear you will not understand, but I will try to answer. The Ocean provides what we need. It gives us food, clothes, comfort, and life. It produces that which we require when we have need.”

This answer irritated me. The Ocean was apparently their God, but an answer saying in essence “God provides” I still found unsatisfactory. Still, my reaction to her was perhaps too hostile, and part of my frustration came from the fact words for “death” or “pain” are unknown to them. “Your oceans lack life. They have no algae, no kelp, no crustaceans, no gastropods, no mollusks, no fish, no mammals, no birds. All that’s in them is destruction, madness, and small amounts of bacteria. How can such waters provide you with anything ?”

Her answer alarmed me. “My dear Holo-Fernes, it provides through destruction, madness, and bacteria. Because all here are born of what you call madness, and they return to it in time. It has been thus since I arrived and thus it shall always be.”

This disturbed me enough that I fell silent for a time. It seemed obvious what she meant, but it still struck me as alarming. If these people were creations of the nano-tech, that would explain why words like “son” didn’t exist, but were they people at all, then? How were they to be treated in our system? After a time I asked something more. “When you say the Ocean provides, what about the homes I see from here. Does the Ocean build them too?”

She laughed. “The ocean getting up like a man made of water and building houses? Don’t be daft, we make the homes.”

So they did have machines, maybe. “How do you make the homes?”

“With our blood, sweat, and spit.” she said colorfully.

“So you make them with the work of your own hands then?”

She frowned. “If I meant the work of our hands I would’ve said that. If by work you mean moving objects, then art or stick games or merriment is the only work of our hands. Still, I suppose the hands have some part in architecture.”

That just raised further questions, but she raised her hand and signalled it was time to return to her village.

Right now I’m perplexed on this Earth and its status at present. I am also becoming concerned.

“Holo-Fernes” 4.9 ending entry 4.

To be concluded...