“Searching for new planets”, part 10 of the series "After The Pandemic. A Fictional Story" by Karin Sawetz
“How time flies. Two weeks ago we sat here together and enjoyed the Valentine’s flower bouquets and now Emil and Demian leave the planet again,” says Naomi with bitterness in her voice, looking at grandson Emil and son Demian. The family met again in her house waiting together for the shuttle of the space station Neowise. From there in 23.000 kilometers height they will start the space flight to the next wormhole transfer point. A risky passage - even when the human-made wormhole transfer leads to better results nowadays than in the beginning. Some of the early passengers landed at undefined time and space coordinates because the systems on earth broke regularly. The technology had to be adjusted for the jump.
“Do you know which galaxy and time you will explore at your next jump?” Sarah asks her uncle and brother with a worried look in her eyes. “No, this is always top-secret, “ Demian answers, “We still have the problem that some countries don’t work in a team. Sometimes it seems as if human kind hadn’t learned from wars. Nobody wins, everybody loses. Always the same. Also ‘cold war’-spy games are unnecessary in our times. But sabotage, the cyber threat through hackers, the stealing of knowledge, the manipulation of data and research results for the economic pursuit of profit is still the same in our world like before the pandemic. We knew already before the 2020ies that the human race grows so fast that we have to migrate sooner or later to other planets. But in the 20s, the knowledge was for the first time so profound that the theory could be set into practice.”
Joyce comes in, followed by her shepherd Sweetie. The dog trots with hanging head - such as if it knows that this meeting could be the last in this constellation. Sweetie finds its place at the feet of Demian, who was its original owner. He has chosen the dog from a litter offered by a breeder who specialized in watch dogs. Demian hasn’t trained the dog like it was common for watch dogs. Demian's sister Joyce first took the people-friendly, emphatic dog only for some weeks and later when her brother served longer periods in space, Joyce became officially the owner.
Joyce looks critically at her brother: “Do you think that Neowise has enough control over the wormhole technology?” “We never know if we are hacked.” “How did it start that the world drifted away from the peace route?” Sarah wanted to know. She is the youngest in the round and in an age when pieces of learned, experienced and supposed have to be put together. Naomi steps into the conversation as she was the only one who experienced the period in her lifetime. “It was a geopolitical dispute that should have been cleared diplomatically - and on both sides it could have been a win-win situation. But sometimes, people want war. They don’t select the peaceful way even when it’s easier. That’s the way humans are. And the pandemic didn’t change the world in this aspect. Demian, have you implemented the latest generation of AI for the detection of intrusions on your missions?” “Yes, but the problem with the latest AI is the time-space shift which interferes with logical programming. The basic structure works with the linearity known from earth.”
The shuttle lands with a loud swoosh in the garden. “Noise canceling isn’t such a new technology.” Sarah remarks snippy. Naomi and Demian ignore Sarah’s commentary - there is no time left for explanations why noise canceling is a minor problem for space shuttles. Naomi and Demian stand up and continue their conversation about AI. “Have you tried to re-program the linear to empathic-like routines? Perhaps the time-space shift can be bypassed and hacks can be observed more efficiently this way.” They arrive at the loading flap of the shuttle. "Come back soon." Naomi hugs her son before he is boarding.
