Professor Doctors Small Fiction An Intelligence Solution (part 3 of 4) By Bruce I Friedman Liynas smiled at their burbling eagerness and got their attention with a whistle. He smiled at them and said, Well, that one worked! The room erupted in howling cheers, not quieting until Liynas held up a palm. Now what do you say we get started on hexadecima 2? The remaining 15 complex sounds proceeded with gathering speed. The scientists were developing a rhythm and a knowledge base for constructing sounds. They had built variable sound chambers which were immensely helpful, as discrepancies could be programmed into the walls, cutting construction time by up to 90% for some sounds. Liynas was able to watch more and instruct less, intruding only to make minor adjustments. The rest of the time he remained in one of the many guest quarters found on the science foundations premises. He wasnt able to interact with any physical objects, but he required sleep and alone time, much as any human would. His identity was kept a strict secret and he moved between buildings only when nobody on the crowded science campus was watching. Calculating all the variables in such a move was an impossible task that his massive intellect made simple. As each hexadecima neared completion, Liynas described a small sampling of their remarkable and exciting new abilities. And adding to their diversity, the hexadecimen could be combined in myriad ways to create still other incredible effects, by playing them in pairs and multiples, varying their volumes with respect to each other, adding flutter and pitch adjustments. Different staging grounds were set up worldwide to test them, in isolated areas rich with natural content for the test. With each test came invariably astounding results. For example, H2 (the second Hexidecima created) could alter any metal through a property range. Point it at a block of copper and depending on the input variables you could end up with room temperature liquid or gaseous or even gooey copper! That was exciting in itself, but when H1 and H2 were played together, one of the possible outcomes formed metallic wood! Alter the inputs slightly and now a new species of tree would be formed that sprouted copper foil leaves, leaves that turned sunlight into electricity at near 100% efficiency! H3 altered the freezing and boiling points of water. The sound-enhanced water, nicknamed warm ice, was able to freeze at higher temperatures and could be heated and poured into molds, cooling like metal and forming strong, clear building products! Unlike the outcome posited in a Vonnegut novel, it would not alter any normal water in contact with it, causing at least some of the scientists to draw a breath of relief. H4 turned any rock into a soft, malleable putty for 24 hours so that mountains could be tunneled with ease, and then after a day returned to its former hardness in the new shape. All the scoops taken from tunneling, with a little planning, could be easily stamped into ornate stone products of high sheen and durability, retaining all of their stonelike beauty, a green solution that left the construction zone clean. H5 humorously grew hair on anything alive or dead, but on nonliving objects it grew no further. However on living creatures the new hair came with their own follicular growth factories. Passing around flower petals flowing with luxuriant tresses, many of the distinguished group had the same thought and returned home that evening to gleeful squeals at their returned thick brush. Far better than ego relief though, was the way any item hit with this sound weaved into a strand with the highest tensile strength ever recorded by a wide margin, and looked to be the product which would realize space elevators. H6 at low levels desalinated water, leaving it deliciously mineral-rich. At higher energies it could separate any compound into its root elements. The scientists had fun turning salt water into sodium and chlorine and hydrogen and oxygen and a hundred other elements in trace amounts. One took the coins from his pocket and separated them into cool blobs of elemental metal. H7 killed all cancer cells, converting them into lipids the body used for energy. A small metal-detector type booth was rapidly built employing that sound in which anybody who stepped into it came out seconds later cancer free and vibrant. This was taken and placed unobtrusively in a nearby hospital entrance, causing it to later be renamed the miracle center for all its occurrences of spontaneous cancer remission. H8 could make an exact duplicate of anything. Anything. From seemingly nothing, although the building blocks of matter were everywhere and it was hard to determine exactly where they came from. One of the scientists duplicated himself to the protests of the others. Liynas was silent, presumably to teach a lesson. The copy was perfect in every way, except... it wasnt alive. Now the scientist had a dead body to deal with. Thankfully, H6 was available. H9 seemed to have no effect on anything, and Liynas was deliberately opaque on the subject, but insisted each of the scientists be exposed to it. Over the coming months the work began to seem easier, with scientists in separate fields coming to similar conclusions, and formerly heated discussions over contrary postulations began drying up and disappearing as they began agreeing on methodology formerly foreign to them. One asked Liynas, Did that sound make us smarter? Liynas shook his head. Another ventured, Nicer? Closer. What then? Dont get angry... its the golden rule sound. People hearing it naturally want to treat others the way they themselves would like to be treated. Oh. Im not angry at all. The scientist scratched his head and asked, But couldnt you use that sound on the people in your time, to stop the violence? If it works here... No for two reasons. One, this virus modification sped up evolution and it doesnt effect us the same way it does you. Second, even if it did... many of my people are treating people the way they would want. Theyre sociopathic, after all. Well, how about shooting it worldwide now, to end war and usher in a new age of human cooperation? So nothing would go wrong with permanently altering all of humanitys brain chemistry, is that what youre asking? Liynas smiled in that shiny way he had. Ah. Of course. Too bad. The scientist wandered off to join another hexidecima assembly group; Liynas wondered briefly if it had been such a good idea exposing them to H9, but knew he could pull the plug if it caused more harm than good. At long last the final hexidecima was created, involving of all things, the sound of a fearful goat in the back seat of a 1958 Austin Healy traveling a dirt road in Nebraska at 57 miles an hour. When completed, Liynas directed that this test occur aboard a fleet of 625 jets, all equipped with sound distribution hardware, flying 20 miles apart from pole to pole in a straight west line for as far as their fuel would take them, coupled with the worldwide directive for people to stay indoors while the jets were overhead and soon after. This was a strange request, because up until now he had kept most testing away from the public eye, whereas this one would involve the entire world. Preparations were made and the citizenry were told what to expect. Checklists and worldwide safety equipment was reproduced using H8 and distributed. The day came and 625 jets aligned themselves in a latitudinal path, 20 miles apart and 35 miles high, from the North to the South poles, traveling west, with many others on the ground ready to take over at predicted locations. Announcements were made on every manner of communication equipment, and all of humanity took their places indoors or under cover as they had been directed. Some ignored the requests; those people would be facing an unhealthy situation if protection was not available to them. Liynas nodded and the switch was flipped. All the planes began broadcasting. The hexidecimas volume was calculated so that it was too weak to reach the ground by a safe amount, too weak even to affect flying animals. The shielded sound-broadcasting equipment was tail-mounted so that the aircraft themselves wouldnt be affected. People on the ground watched the sky from their windows with excitement. They were told that this was only an experiment and nothing might come of it, but hopeful chatter zoomed around the world nonetheless. If it worked this would be something to wish for, that was certain! Behind the jets there was now something happening; it was clearly visible to the pilots while still too distant to be observed from the ground. There was smoke! Black smoke! Spreading out in a V until it intersected the V from its companion jets, it seemed as though the aircraft were burning up, as the black cloud gained thickness and lost striations until it was as night approaching from the East. Soon it made itself apparent to the citizenry at large. It was terrifying, and even with words of calm emanating from radios and televisions worldwide, there were still many who sought refuge deep in the bowels of their homes, slamming their cellar doors shut as if in preparation for tornadoes. But the jets were not burning up; this was in fact, exactly what was supposed to happen. They continued on their paths, oblivious of the escalating fear below them. Deeper and darker the cloud became... and now it was apparent that it was coming closer as well! From circulating ground vehicles with mounted loudspeakers came more instructions, blared to everyone within earshot: Find indoor protection. Avoid breathing the dark cloud. Remain calm. Find indoor protection... Simulated nightfall descended in moments. The lights in every home and business on this no-longer-sunny day flashed on. The blackness grew closer, more ominous. A new sound began-- rain.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 14:34:35 +0000
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