VirileMail/END-1

I took six months for Chloe and I to finally get around to leaving Earth.

Soon after doses of the ant-Badhesin vaccine became available, Anthony Geisler got a dose and removed the nanobots from his brain. With his memories returned, he realized that he had been a puppet of the aliens his entire life. He forgave us for destroying the Lockback modules in the Antler server array and hired Chloe and I to work towards development of the remnants of the VirileMail software back into a human-like artificial intelligence. However, Janek had told us the truth. Without help from the aliens, we did not have a clue how to make an intelligent software program. All Janek had left behind was crippled VirileMail skeleton that produced poor translations of emails.

Conceptions Organiques had been put out of business after the resistance released its claims about aliens. Dr. Redes was hounded by conspiracy theorists and eventually decided to move to the underground city on Mars. Chloe and I were invited to Camp Geisler and Janek's farewell party. Anthony had invited Dr. Redes to the peace and isolation of the Geisler family mountain camp and he had been working hard to get Janek to share the alien knowledge of how to make truly intelligent machine intelligences, but Janek refused and said that Earth was not ready for that.

At the going away party, Janek made a final appeal to Chloe and I. Janek passionately lectured us about the wisdom of moving to Mars. Chloe and I walked back to our guest cabin under a brilliant field of stars. I said, "Chloe, I think Janek is right."

She said, "I'd like to at least visit Mars and see if their software development work is continuing. I can't bring myself to trust Janek, but I feel it is worth the risk. I can't stand the frustration of knowing we are so close to being able to crack the AI problem. Let's do it!"

As soon as we got back to the cabin I called Janek and said we were ready to go to Mars. Janek was pleased. "I thought you would come to your senses. Does Chloe need to do something silly like go back home and pack her shoes?"

I relayed the question to Chloe. She took the phone from me, "Janek, you're a sexist pig. I don't know how Dr. Redes can stand sharing consciousness with you."

Chloe held the phone so we both could listen. Janek said, "You never answered the question."

Chloe shouted, "The answer is no! I'm sure your silly decontamination process would ruin my running shoes. I'm ready to go now, if I have to. It would be nice to have a week to put my affairs in order; do little things like tell my parents where I'm going."

Janek laughed, "Now, Chloe, you know I'm working hard to put a lid on all this talk about aliens and spaceships. If you must, call your parents and tell them that you are running off to Outer Mongolia with Joe, but please don't mention nanobots, me, Mars or aliens. And I'm sure Briana will be happy to sell your house and throw your old shoes in the dump."

Chloe said, "I want to take you up on the offer that I visit Mars. I want to see the software development projects for myself before I decide to live there for the rest of my life. So tell Briana not to rush into selling my Earthly belongings."

"Tell her yourself. I'm sending her over with forms so that you can give her legal authority to manage your property. Make it quick, because we depart Earth tonight!" Janek cut the connection.

And Janek was right, we left for Mars that night. During the past few years, our artificial intelligence research has gone well here on Mars. Lately we've been figuring out how to communicate with Earth. We want to have access to Earth's developing nanotechnology industry, which is far ahead of what we can do on Mars. Janek refuses to share alien nanotech with us. I decided to send this account of past events to Earth as a test. Will they aliens allow us to start building links between Mars and Earth?

-Joe Daonet May 31, 2008