Read Online Creations by William Mitchell - Free Book Online Page A

course I would,” he said cautiously.
    “But bacteria are simple compared to other living things. We understand how they work. We understand how they reproduce. You can write down all the chemical reactions that go on inside them and appreciate fully how they do it. There’s no mystery there. Doesn’t that make them a kind of machine?”
    “Of course they’re not machines!”
    “So what are they then, supernatural? They follow rules, cause-and-effect physical laws. You could call them biological machines if you wanted to, but they’re still machines. Replicating machines. Reproduction in animals and plants is the same, just more complex. Trust me, there’s no magic to this.”
    Oliver didn’t answer, and there was an uncomfortable silence before Victor stepped in.
    “Safi, do you have anything you could show us fromEarthrise?
    “Yes, sure.” She seemed caught off guard in the wake of her exchange with Oliver, but collected herself immediately. “Just give me a moment and I can show you the whole thing.”
    * * *
    The setting was unmistakable. As the five of them watched the projection from Safi’s omni on the pool hanger wall, and saw the low rounded hills of the lunar landscape panning across the scene, it was as if those hills were close enough to reach out and touch, though equally there could have been miles between them. In fact the horizon itself was barely two miles away, but with no atmosphere to distort the scene, there was no indication of the distances involved.
    The foreground however, when it panned into view, was a different matter. The six people who were now visible in the shot gave a very clear indication of distance, from the closest pair, just twenty feet away, to the furthest, barely visible on the screen as tiny white figures, standing by an open-topped rover. Behind them though, even further back, was the sight that really dominated the scene: the factory itself, a vast open framework of girders and struts, filling the screen from one side to the other and stretching just as far toward the horizon. It must have measured hundreds of yards in length if the perspective was to be believed, and was well over fifty feet tall at its highest point with a bewildering tangle of pipework, storage tanks and other machinery housed inside. Only when Max spotted the crew quarters clustered at one end did he accept the scale of what he was seeing. At first he hadn’t believed that those tiny pinpricks of light really were windows, but now he could see the individual modules, and the pressurised walkways climbing up among the processing stacks. He was amazed he’d never heard of this place before.
    “Okay, what you’re seeing here is one of the Earthrise research sites,” Safi said. “They set this up a few years after the base itself was established: twenty plots of real estate hooked up to the power and water lines, all set for anyone who wanted to do research there. My company rented one of the sites, and I was lucky enough to go.”
    “A real life astronaut,” Ross said. “Nice one!”
    “No, Ross, I was just a passenger, nothing more. My job started once we got there and did the engineering work.”
    “Safi here is being too modest,” Victor said. “Going to the Moon back then wasn’t an easy journey. Not that it’s a day trip now of course, but Safi was one of the first real explorers. She was only the thirteenth woman ever to set foot there. I think you played more of an integral role in those expeditions than you’re admitting.”
    She nodded, but didn’t say anything.
    “So what were you doing there?” Max said.
    “Building a replicator,” she said. “We wanted to build a self-replicating lunar factory. We figured it would revolutionise the way off-Earth mining and production is carried out: you start with one factory, and you end up with thousands, all working away under your control. Compare the situation at the moment. There isn’t a single mining or factory project