A meeting (IV 1)

Tags: Me Science fiction Stories

Three persons were sitting at a round table. We might call them A, B and C. A was leafing through some papers in front of her, and sighed now and then. Eventually she collected the documents in a pile and folded her tentacles. "Has the last prognosis of 90% been confirmed?"

B pulled his long, white beard while he nodded. "There is no doubt. The result has been verified by three independent committees, and we have used both old, recognized and new, fascinating methods. With the uncertainty to be expected, they all reach the same result. And as already mentioned the bottom line is 90."

C interrupted. "One of my colleagues has simulated the problem 16,384 times, and in 14,819 cases he had to abort the program within the standard horizon. And he didn't just have to abort - in several cases he had to reformat, after endings that were especially creative and destructive." C's diodes began flashing faster, because it was so eager. "In fact he wants to write a report about it - it's possible we have to lower the limit from 90 to 80 in these cases, because the ending can be so sudden."

"Very well." A leaned over the table, and her cilia began fluttering determinedly. "But then we know the next step. Shall we spend the next five minutes checking our backing?" B and C endorsed this, and there was quiet around the table, while A used telepathy to contact her staff, and C used its wireless network. B used the fact, that certain facets of his being was everywhere and everywhen.

(I know, there was no long, white beard, no flashing diodes, and no tentacles. In fact there was no table, no papers, and not what we would recognize as a conversation. This is just an attempt to describe an event, that really happened, in a way you and I can understand. As I know how intelligent you are, dear reader, I am sure this is no problem.)

When the five minutes had passed, C coughed slightly. "Are we ready to proceed?" As both A and B seemed to be fully present again, it continued. "I have a backing of 76.3%, among the 92.0% who answered. That puts us over a 2/3 majority."

"Apart from a smaller group of angels, who may be considering applying for a job with Lucifer, there's full backing - and this small group represents less than 5% of those who can vote." B seemed relieved about this solid result.

"Among the most influential nests, we have enough support to reach 67%." A seemed animated now action was at hand, and her skin was also a brighter green. "But then it's just the details. Are you taking this down?" C nodded. "Good. Project 2372 in the intervention class. Prognosis of 90% chance of self-destruction within the next 100 local years confirmed. Target: Earth."

Created: 8 February, 2008 - Last changed: 27 March, 2008 - Comments (0)