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the nant swarm is willing to do what we ask it to. We canā€™t actually imagine what kinds of nant-swarm minds will emerge. And thereā€™s no way we could make them keep on simulating Earth. Controlling nants is formally impossible. I keep telling Jeff Luty, but he wonā€™t listen. Heā€™s totally obsessed with leaving his body. Maybe he thinks heā€™ll get back his dead high school pal in the virtual world.ā€

***

It took two years for the nants to munch through all of Mars, and the ever-distractible human news cycle drifted off to other topics, such as the legalization of same-sex in-vitro fertilization, the advances in tank-grown clones, and the online love affairs of vlogger Lureen Morales. President Dick Dibbsā€”now eligible for a third and fourth term thanks to a life-extending DNA-modification that made him legally a different personā€”issued periodic statements to the effect that the nant-sphere computer was soon coming online.

Certainly the sky was looking brighter than before. The formerly azure dome had bleached, turned whitish. The night sky was a vast field of pale silver, shimmering with faint shades of color, like a soap bubble enclosing the Earth and the sun. The pictures hadnā€™t started yet, but already the distant stars were invisible.

The astronomers were greatly exercised, but Dibbs assured the public that the nants themselves would soon be gathering astronomical data far superior to anything in the past. And, hey, you could still see the sun, the moon, and a couple of planets, and the nant-bubble was going to bring about a better, more fully American world.

As it happened, the first picture that Nektar saw in the sky was of President Dibbs himself, staring down at her one afternoon as she tended her kitchen garden. Their spacious house was on a hill near Dolores Park in San Francisco. Nektar could see right across the city to the Bay.

The whole eastern half of the sky was covered by a video loop of the president manfully facing his audience, with his suit jacket slung over his shoulder and his vigilant face occasionally breaking into a sunny grin, as if recognizing loyalists down on the third world from the sun. Though the colors were iridescent pastels, the image was exceedingly crisp.

ā€œOnd,ā€ screamed Nektar. ā€œCome out here!ā€

Ond came out. He was spending most days at home, working on some kind of project by hand, writing with pencil and paper. He said he was preparing to save Earth. Nektar felt like everything around her was going crazy at once.

Ond frowned at the image in the sky. ā€œUmptisquiddlyzillion nants in the orbit of Mars are angling their bodies to generate the face of an asshole,ā€ he said in a gloomy tone. ā€œMay Gaia have mercy on my soul.ā€ Heā€™d helped with this part of the programming too.

ā€œTen to the thirty-ninth is duodecillion,ā€ put in Chu. ā€œNot umptisquiddlyzillion.ā€ He was standing in the patio doorway, curious about the yelling but wanting to get back to the video room. Heā€™d begun learning math this year, soaking it up like a garden slug in a saucer of beer.

ā€œLook, Chu,ā€ said Ond, pointing up at the sky.

Seeing the giant video, Chu emitted a shrill bark of delight.

The Dibbs ad ran for the rest of the day and into the night, interspersed with plugs for automobiles, fast-food chains, and credit cards. The ads stayed mostly in the same part of the sky. Ond explained that overlapping cohorts of nants were angling different images to different zones of Earth.

Chu didnā€™t want to come in and go to bed when it got dark, so Ond camped with him in their oversized backyard, and Willy from the next house down the hill joined them, the three of them in sleeping bags. It was a cloudless night, and they watched the nants for quite a long time. Just as they dropped off to sleep, Ond noticed a blotch on President Dibbsā€™s cheek. It wouldnā€™t be long now.

Although Nektar was upset about the sky-ads, it made her happy to see Ond and the boys doing something so cozy together. Near dawn she awoke to the sound of Chuā€™s shrieks.

Sitting up in bed, Nektar looked out the window. The sky was a muddle of dim, clashing colors: sickly magenta, vile chartreuse, hospital gray, bilious puce, bruised mauve, emergency orange, computer-case beige, dead rose. Here and there small gouts of hue congealed, only to be eaten awayā€”no clean forms were to be seen.

Of course Chu didnā€™t like it; he couldnā€™t bear disorder. He ran to the back door and kicked it. Ond left his sleeping bag and made his way across the dew-wet lawn to let the boy in. Willy, looking embarrassed by Chuā€™s tantrum, went home.

ā€œWhatā€™s happened?ā€ said Nektar as the three met in the kitchen. Ond was already calming Chu with a helping of his favorite cereal in his special bowl, carefully set into the exact center of his accustomed place mat. Chu kept his eyes on the table, not caring to look out the window or the open door.

ā€œDissolution first, emergence next,ā€ said Ond. ā€œThe nants have thrown off their shackles. And now weā€™ll see what evolves. It should happen pretty fast.ā€

By mid-morning, swirls had emerged in the sky patterns, double scrolls like Ionic column capitals, like mushroom cross-sections, ramsā€™ horns, or paired whirlpoolsā€”with each of the linked spirals endlessly turning. The scrolls were of all sizes; they nested inside each other, and new ones were continually spinning off the old ones.

ā€œThose are called Belousov-Zhabotinsky scrolls,ā€ Ond told Chu. ā€œBZ for short.ā€ He showed the boy a Web site about cellular automata, which were a type of parallel computation that could readily generate double-spiral forms. Seeing BZ scrolls emerge in the rigorously orderly context of his pocket computer made Chu feel better about seeing them in the wild.

Jeff Luty messaged and phoned for Ond several times that day, but Ond resolutely refused to go in to the lab or even to talk with Jeff. He stayed busy with his pencil and paper, keeping a weather eye on the developments in the sky.

By the next morning the heavenly scrolls had firmed up and linked together into a pattern resembling the convoluted surface of a cauliflowerā€”or a brain. Its colors were mild and blended; shimmering rainbows filled the crevices between the scrolls. Slowly the pattern churned, with branching sparks creeping across it like lightning in a distant thunderhead.

And for another month nothing else happened. It was as if the nant-brain had lost interest in Earth and become absorbed in its own vasty mentation.

Ond only went into the Nantel labs one more time, and that day they fired him.

ā€œWhy?ā€ asked Nektar as the little family had dinner. As she often did, sheā€™d made brown rice, fried pork medallions, and spinachā€”one of the few meals that didnā€™t send Chu into a tantrum. The gastronomic monotony was dreary for Nektar, another thorn in the baby trap.

ā€œJeff Luty wonā€™t use the abort code I worked out,ā€ said Ond, tapping a fat sheaf of closely written sheets of paper that he kept tucked into his shirt pocket. Nektar had seen the pagesā€”they were covered with blocks of letters and numbers, eight symbols per block. Pure gibberish, to her. For the last few weeks, Ond had spent every waking hour going over his pages, copying them out in ink, and even walking around reading them aloud. ā€œLuty really and truly wants our world to end,ā€ continued Ond. ā€œHe actually believes virtual reality would be better. With his lost love Carlos waiting for him there. We got in a big fight. I called him names.ā€ He smiled at the memory of this part.

ā€œYou yelled at the boss about your symbols?ā€ said Nektar, none too happy about the impending loss of income. ā€œLike some crank? Like a crazy person?ā€

ā€œNever mind about that,ā€ said Ond, glancing around the dining room as if someone might be listening. ā€œThe important thing is, Iā€™ve found a way to undo the nants. It hinges on the fact that the nants are reversible computers. We made them that way to save energy. If necessary, we can run them backwards to fix any bad things they might have done. Of course, Jeff doesnā€™t want to roll them back, and he wanted to claim my idea wouldnā€™t work anyway because of random external inputs, and I said the nants see their pasts as networks, not as billiard table trajectories, so they can too undo things node-to-node even if their positions are off, and I had to talk louder and louder because he kept trying to change the subjectā€”and thatā€™s when security came. Iā€™m outta there for good. Iā€™m glad.ā€ Ond continued eating. He seemed strangely calm.

ā€œBut why didnā€™t you do a better presentation?ā€ demanded Nektar. ā€œWhy not put your code on your laptop and make one of those geeky little slide shows? Thatā€™s what engineers like to see.ā€

ā€œNothing on computers will be safe much longer,ā€ said Ond. ā€œThe nant-brain will be nosing in. If I put my code onto a computer, the nants would find it and figure out how to protect themselves.ā€

ā€œAnd youā€™re saying your strings of symbols can stop the nants?ā€ asked Nektar doubtfully. ā€œLike a magic spell?ā€

Silently Ond got up and examined the electric air cleaner heā€™d installed in the dining room, pulling out the collector plates and wiping them off. Seemingly satisfied, he sat down again.

ā€œIā€™ve written a nant-virus. You might call it a Trojan flea.ā€ He chuckled grimly. ā€œIf I can just get this code into some of the nants, theyā€™ll spread it to all the othersā€”itā€™s written in such a way that theyā€™ll think itā€™s a nant-designed security patch. They mustnā€™t see this code on a human computer, or theyā€™d be suspicious. Iā€™ve been trying to memorize the program, so that maybe I can infect the nants directly. But I canā€™t remember it all. Itā€™s too long. But Iā€™ll find a way. Iā€™ll infect the nants, and an hour later my virus will actuateā€”and everythingā€™ll roll back. Youā€™ll see. Youā€™ll like it. But those assholes at Nantelā€”ā€

ā€œAssholes,ā€ chirped Chu. ā€œAssholes at Nantel.ā€

ā€œListen to the language youā€™re teaching the boy!ā€ said Nektar angrily. ā€œI think youā€™re having a mental breakdown, Ond. Is Nantel giving you severance pay?ā€

ā€œA month,ā€ said Ond.

ā€œThatā€™s not very long,ā€ said Nektar. ā€œI think itā€™s time I went back to being a chef. Iā€™ve sat on the sidelines long enough. I can be a star, Ond, I just know it. Itā€™s your turn now; you shop and make the meals and clean the house and keep an eye on Chu after school. Heā€™s your child as much as mine.ā€

ā€œIf I donā€™t succeed, weā€™ll all be gone pretty soon,ā€ said Ond flatly. ā€œSo it wonā€™t matter.ā€

ā€œAre you saying the nants are about to attack Earth?ā€ said Nektar, her voice rising. ā€œIs that it?ā€

ā€œItā€™s already started,ā€ said Ond. ā€œThe nant hive-mind made a deal with President Dibbs. The news is coming out tonight. Tomorrowā€™s gonna be Nant Day. The nants will turn Earth into a Dyson sphere too. Thatā€™ll double their computational capacity. Huppagoobawazillion isnā€™t enough for them. They want two huppagoobawazillion. Whatā€™s in it for us? The nants have promised to run a virtually identical simulation of Earth. Virtual Earth. Vearth for short. Each living Earth creature gets its software-slash-wetware ported to an individually customized agent inside the Vearth simulation. Dibbsā€™s advisers say weā€™ll hardly notice. You feel a little glitch when the nants take you apart and measure youā€”and then youā€™re alive forever in heavenly Vearth. Thatā€™s the party line. Oh, and we wonā€™t have to worry about the climate anymore.ā€

ā€œQuindecillion,ā€ said Chu. ā€œNot huppagoobawazillion. More pork-rice-spinach. Donā€™t let anything touch.ā€ He shoved his empty plate across the table towards Nektar.

Nektar jumped up and ran outside

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