How the Nanites Work

 “We weren’t super humans, just ones with advantages. Most of the time, that meant a keener intellect, better overall perception, more physical strength.  In addition, of course, to better soldiering.  But that much was due to the nanitic programming,” Eric said in response to my question.

“Then what about your legendary abilities to survive even the most ghastly attacks?”  I asked. Few stories survived about the TDF Elite, but those that did made them sound like gods.

“Once again, it was the nanites.  When we would be in battle under attack and get shot, the nanites would protect the host by taking the damage, even to the point of destroying themselves.  Whenever one nanite was destroyed, another would replicate a replacement ,” Eric replied with a shrug.

“Did the nanites ever fail to protect a host?”

“In prolonged battle, yes.  A host can only hold so much energy in reserve,” Eric said.  “Think of a reactor.  Once the reagents are exhausted, power production shuts down.  The nanites, when they sense a low power reserve, stop replicating as fast, or, in the most severe cases, altogether.  When all the energy available is gone, the nanites simply go into hibernation, retreating into the host and leaving him or her to fend on their own.  It’s a mechanism that was meant to save the host in the long term by giving the body a chance to regenerate its reserves.  During the Insurrection, though, the battles were so fierce that people simply fought on past that limit.  So, many good people died simply because they wouldn’t leave their post.”

“Then how did you get your reserves back?  Did you jack into a power source or something?” I asked. With how little we know about the TDF Elites, it was possible.

“Normally eating was sufficient.  The nanites helped our digestive systems convert food energy at nearly 100% efficiency,” Eric replied.

“So, what about those times of prolonged conflict, such as during the Insurrection?  There are first-hand accounts of how you people would stay on the front lines for days at a time.  Was food still enough, even then?”

“Once we realized that the fighting would be nearly continuous, our best bio-engineers, yours truly included, came up with new coding for our nanites which allowed us to gain energy from the sun, exactly like plants do,” Eric said.

“How so?” I asked.

“We always wear a thin layer of nanites to passively protect us.  After we figured out how, and implemented the code-patch, the nanites were able to function, essentially, as solar cells.  Such solar capabilities, along with pizo-generators which ran through most of our bodies, helped boost our energy reserves.  In battle, however, that was more a stop-gap measure as more energy was being consumed than produced.”

My mind suddenly clicked, latching onto a passing thought.  “So that’s how your people survived on Mars! The thought just occurred to me that if your nanites were always active and protecting you, and that they were able to, for lack of a better word, ‘recharge’ you, that’s how you were able to survive on Mars despite its hostile environment.  Your nanites would have still been able to gather the power they needed to protect you from the original Martian atmosphere.  And, I think it would be reasonable to assume, doing so took less energy than was gathered.  At least, I should think so if the original purpose of such energy-gathering and storage systems were to help during battle,” I said, nearly breathlessly.

“You’re not so dumb after all,” Eric said with a smile.  “Very true.  Our nanites did offer us enough protection against the environment on Mars.  But they can only work with what’s available,” he added.

“So…they functioned as environmental suits but not space suits?” I asked.

“Spot on. So long as there is some sort of substance, the nanites can generally sustain the life of their host.  I still wouldn’t want to try jumping into a star, though.  Their interlocking nanitic matrices can be reasonably tough, but a star has a lot of heat and pressure,” Eric commented.

“So that’s how you survived, but what about the terraforming?  Even now we don’t possess the technology to do what you people apparently did in the time you did it.”  Most theories on the Martian Terra-formation indicated it should have taken decades to accomplish what, according to soil records, had taken under ten years.

“That lack of knowledge is largely due to the government’s shunning of nanitic technology.  Too many viewed the arbitrary creation and destruction of ‘sentient’ organisms, which they weren’t, as ‘unwholesome,’ ‘morally corrupt,’ or even as something ‘the Supreme alone’ should have the power to do,” Eric said with disdain in his voice.

“Clearly you disagree.”

“Is it that obvious?  I was trying to hide it so well,” Eric said sarcastically.  “As the co-lead of the first project to create and harness nanites, of course I disagree.  They can’t feel and have no sense of self.  They are programmed, nano-scopic insects.  They protect their host as warrior bees do their queen, with selfless disregard. It all was simply an excuse to block the research.”

“You feel that we as a society would be more advanced if we used nanitic technology?”

“With nanites we could specifically target disease cells, cancer cells, even use them to form a lattice and encourage repair of major wounds or organs.  Amputation, organ destruction due to chronic damage, could both be things of the past.  We could re-grow any organ from the inside out,” Eric said passionately.

“So then how were the nanites used in the terraforming process?” I asked.

“Believing that you wouldn’t be interested in or capable of understanding the details,” Eric replied, “let me just say that we first aerosolized the nanites to convert the atmosphere.”

“Are they still floating around today?”  I was suddenly worried, having lived on Mars my whole life, more or less.

“No.  Of course not.  Once they produced the right atmospheric mix to sustain animal life they self-terminated.,” Eric replied.

“Without a host, how were they powered?”

“Nanite photosynthesis, just as in a host body,” Eric said.

“But then how did they store energy?  I mean, it’s not always sunny out,” I commented.

“Well, of course they couldn’t store energy outside a living being.  They would simply go dormant at night, picking up their work when it was again light out,” he said, becoming impatient. Which was rather odd for him.

“Sooo…what about all the flora here?  Our scientists contend that it couldn’t have grown so abundant in such a short amount of time,” I asked, again thinking about how quickly Mars had been terraformed and covered in plant life.

“They didn’t.  At least not by themselves.  We infused every square inch of Martian soil with nanites set to encourage cell growth.  Trees grew at a rate surpassing 1000 times normal.  In days, forests that rival the largest old-growth forests on Earth sprang up, all protected from the adverse soil conditions by the nanites,” Eric finished.

“And those nanites …”

“Were home-grown here on Mars and, once they were done with their work, they went dormant as well.  We left no trace of their presence here,” Eric replied.

“So that’s why you’re so confident about nanites.  You’ve seen the results.  But what of such an accelerated growth process?  Isn’t that what forms cancers in living organisms?” I pushed.

“Yes, but again the nanites provide the solution.  They’re able to monitor their surroundings and ‘trim’ cells that begin to exhibit abnormal growth patterns.  In this way, any number of diseases, environmental or genetic, can be prevented while cells are still forming.  Their very DNA can be pre-analyzed for defects.  It’s a proactive approach to disease that most research doctors tend to shun, even today, as it isn’t nearly as profitable,” Eric replied.

“Even so, why not bring such knowledge and data to the larger scientific community?  Why not make your case and try to get nanites accepted as legitimate?” I asked, genuinely curious.  After all, if nanites held such promise, why not try to reintroduce them in a more enlightened age such as ours?

“We did some time ago.  It was shunned as ‘unstable technology,’ ‘pure science fiction with no basis in fact.’  We tried to fight that fight.  Those in power, both in the scientific establishment and the Government, were too scared of its possible implications towards human augmentation to allow it even the most remote foothold in the workplace of real science.  There’s still the memory that something of the sort was core to what happened in my time, to what befell Earth those centuries ago.  Instead they concocted stories of how cures already existed such as we described.  They wouldn’t listen,” Eric said.  “So we did try, and failed, to resurrect the tech.”

“Were you at least able to improve it in the attempt?”

“How so?”  Eric seemed truly perplexed at the question, one that had seemed a logical next step in technological advance to me.

“Well, with technology where it is today, I imagine that you could have made the nanites…smaller.  Better.  Have improved their design and function somehow.”  I could almost see thoughts beginning to pile upon each other in Eric’s mind.  It was as if such an idea had truly never occurred to him before.

“It is odd we would never have tried in that time to improve the tech,” Eric commented.  “With so many of us working together on the research you would think one of us would have brought the idea up in counsel.  Looking back at that present, it almost feels as though a wall existed around such an idea at the time.  Yes, a wall that we could not surmount, but also which we couldn’t see.  As if something were intentionally keeping the idea from us.”  After another moment of contemplation, he waved off the whole train of thought.  “But no.  There had to have been some reason we didn’t pursue such advancement of the tech.  We would have thought of it were it possible.”

“What about now?”

“Hrrmm?”

“Would it be possible now to improve the tech,” I asked again.

“Well …” Eric again seemed as though the thought of improving the nanites had never occurred to him.   “I should think so.  I mean, with the right equipment and the best and most capable minds, perhaps.  But none of those are real anymore,” he said.  “And I certainly don’t have access to the facilities to conduct such advanced research anymore.”  I would later come to find out that this was a lie.  “I mean, with the right equipment one could massively shrink the hardware while improving its overall efficiency, yeah.  I’m just not sure right now how you’d go about that.  Which I find quite odd, suddenly.”  Eric began contemplatively stroking his goatee.

Suddenly, after a slight twinge in my head, I found myself inexplicably curious about the whole affair.  I pressed, asking, “How, precisely, could they be improved?”

“Well, I mean, certainly they would no longer be nanites.  I mean, with lasers alone such as we have now we’d be talking at least pico-sized.  And at that level of tiny the nanites would be able to interact with matter in a wholly different way.  Instead of having to take on traits of things to act as catalyst within a host, they could simply construct the necessary catalyst from the sub-atomic up.  They would machine substances in the body.  Even the level of interplay between swarm and host would change.  I mean, think of a construction site.  So many different sizes of equipment could work in perfect harmony to achieve a level of sophistication and efficiency as we never thought of.  Instead of nano-sized machines reaching across dimensions to affect change, they could network with and command their own armies of picites to help.

“But even so, what sort of interdimensional play could be achieved by such systems?!  Personal power plants could be rendered if picites could use the same dimension jumping as their big brothers to subtly move about sub-atomics.  Nuclear fission and fusion, constant and safe, could be produced within cells themselves!  Imagine every cell of the body as a power plant for a Nanitic!”  Eric rose and began pacing as he continued.  “Such available power opens whole new avenues of possibilities.  I mean, such an ability to create power at such levels internally would practically free a Nanitic from physical limitations altogether!  And with such a system operating at maximum efficiency, the Nanitic could produce internally, from simple rearrangement of extant materials, all nutrients she would need.”

“You’re saying such a person would never have to eat?” I asked.

“I’m saying that she would never have too much of anything ever again!”  Eric’s replied.  “As much as our nanites could take salt water and turn it into breathable atmosphere, picites would remove the need to breathe!  They could simply take waste products and realign their sub-atomic structure causing a chain reaction of all such molecules to realign and become useful again.  They could turn CO2 into pure oxygen, make acid into raw amino acids.  The possibilities are astounding,” Eric finished, staring off into a corner of his ceiling.

 After some minutes I cleared my throat and said “Eric.”

His eyes came back to me, but they were now a solid, pupil-less grey.  “You,” came a chorus of voices.  “You have started something here that has changed time.”  It was the first time I had heard this chorus of voices from Eric, though it would not be the last.  It was a melodic voice, soft and strong at once, covering the entire gamut of human vocal range in distinct tones, and yet melding into one spoken voice. “For many reasons we kept such a thought hidden.  Among them, we could not see what such an innovation would do.  But as uncertain as the future is right now anyway …”  The voices trailed off as Eric’s eyes seemed to swirl through colors I could just barely make out.  Blues whirl-pooled to greens that mixed through to dark browns and light hazels before returning to the light grey they began with.  My mind raced, panic griping it at what went on before me.  Practicing magic as a hobby, I knew what I saw in front of me was not a trick. What was happening to Eric was real, and it frightened me deeply.  “The path we had seen, that we had tried to trend down, is now bent.  Where does it go?” the chorus asked me, Eric’s grey eyes somehow seeming to focus on me.

All at once he shook his head, closing his eyes.  When he again looked at me his eyes were their usual green.  In them was confusion and concern.  “What happened?” Eric asked me in his own voice.  “I feel like I’m waking from a dream.”

“I was actually hoping you might be able to explain that to me a bit, Eric.”

“I remember…impotence.  Possibility.  Roads opening through a dense wood.”  Confusion played across his face.  “Nanites and possibilities.”

“Eric.  Really.  What just happened here?  I mean, I was here but you weren’t.”  Eric seemed as though he gained some small understanding from my off-handed comment.

“Say that again.  With clarity,” he said.

“I was here, but you weren’t.  Your body was, but it wasn’t you talking.  And those were not your eyes,” I added.

Realization seemed to dawn on Eric.  “This is one reason I asked you here,” he said as he came again sat down.  “Things are changing within me, things I cannot control.  Even if such improvement to the nanitic technology could be made as we had been discussing, it would be too late for me.”

“Are you saying that you’re dying?” I asked.

“Not quite.  The entirety of what is happening to me is a story for another time.”

“Eric, I wish to understand.”  I was still getting over what I had seen, but suddenly found myself much more willing to believe any story Eric might present me.  The man sitting in front of me had shocked me to my core and I wanted to know how and why.

Few things in my professional career surprised me anymore.  I had interviewed people claiming to be demon-possessed, end-timers, even various pets since the invention of animal-speech translation.  While travelling in space I had seen such beauty and experienced such unexplained phenomenon as to make a believer of an atheist and vice versa.  During the water strikes in the Old Middle East I saw on the news how religious fanatics set themselves ablaze to make a point and have seen firefighters lift impossibly heavy loads just high enough to save people trapped beneath.  But never had I been as shocked.  That chorus of voices seemed to not just pass into my ears, but to touch my very soul.  My heart had grown cold from it.  And those grey eyes held me in a trance, willing me to pay rapt attention while making me want to run in terror.  Even so, I had to understand what had just happened.  Perhaps if for no other reason than that I saw an interview through to the end.

“James,” Eric said, now staring off through the front window.  “It is not yet time for you to understand.  But you will.”

“When?” I pressed.

“When the time is right.  Which it is not now,” he said with finality.

“Okay.  Fine then,” I said.  “To what subject can we return, then?”

“Not the picites.  Your current knowledge would not lend itself to a rich understanding of such a technology,” he replied.

“How about the local flora here, then.  How there came to be such a rich variety of species in such a short time.”  It wasn’t truly something I was interested in, but thought it might lead back to a discussion about the ‘picites.’

“Yes.  We could talk about that.  In Dune by Frank Herbert a people on a fictional desert planet go about terraforming it over the course of some 350 years.  On this real desert planet we followed largely the same ecological reshaping plan, though accelerated greatly thanks to the nanites. We first used nanites to create an atmosphere tolerable to plant life.  Then, relatively slowly, we began introducing increasingly more complex varieties of plants.  The tough part was keeping the system in balance as we went.  After all, humans can only control so many variables when we talk about doing so at a global scale.  The hardest part was introducing the right animals to keep the system in check.”

“How’s that?” I asked.

“Think about it.  We made breathable atmosphere. What do plants feed on in the air?” Eric asked.

“CO2,” I replied.

“And how much of that do you think several thousand humans were producing on a planet even this size?” Eric countered.

“Not nearly enough, I suppose,” I replied after a moment’s thought.

“Correct.  As we increased the plant growth, we had to increase the number and complexity of animal life here to keep the system in balance.  It’s easy at first.  You bring in small animals that chomp down the growth.  But eventually that population can grow out of control, so you bring in specific predators.  Once that is in balance, you bring in more flora and more animals to keep the balance.  Those animals, though, too often aren’t prey for the previous predators, so new predators must be brought in.  It’s a constant push-and-pull when you’re trying to create a planetary ecosystem from scratch.  And the worst part is that you eventually run out of animals to import.  Other than one.”

“Humans,” I said.

“At a certain point we had to start importing humans,” Eric affirmed.

“What do you mean by ‘importing?’  You couldn’t exactly bring humans here in cattle-transports.”

“How do you think construction workers travel?  First class?”  Eric replied. Something clicked.

“The government didn’t start the settlement of Mars, did it?” I asked.

“Nope.”

“You and your kind devised a scheme to attract people here, forcing more and more population to follow to support them. All the while quickly growing vegetation as the ability of human life to support it increased,” I said.

“Correct,” Eric acknowledged.

“Which is why there are still stories of people swearing that new forests and prairies would magically crop up overnight here on Mars.  Because they actually did,” I said, adding. “And…the whole while you and your people used the influx of new population to allow you, once exiles, to silently re-integrate into society,” I said, finishing my train of thought.

“A happy byproduct of making what had been a lifeless rock become a useable home,” Eric said.

“And no one was suspicious?” I asked.

“You know the reports.  Officially the exiles on Mars died out while trying to terraform it.  Such was the finding of several investigative committees.  The government took the word of the committees at face value since it fit nicely with a way to help ease the continually burgeoning population of Earth and Luna.  And those of us on the committees knew how to keep ourselves hidden,” Eric added smiling.

“And that would be how, from the start, you could…,” I began.

Eric finished, “Work our way back into higher places at Universities and in government.  It, like the terraforming, took time and patience.  But we did it.  “And the pull was an obscure contract for a government building.  Small but nonetheless requiring skills the settlers did not possess.”

“What settlers?” I asked, thinking for a moment before adding, “your people. But how did you keep the Terran Government from becoming too curious?”

“Bribe the right people and old flight records, land and building permits are suddenly unearthed in public records, right where they should be,” Eric commented.  “Once people began coming to and settling on Mars it attracted attention from the upper class.  Money poured in, as did more workers to fill the need.  Over time, a small settlement turned into the third pillar of the Terran Interplanetary Government.”

“So I have to ask for my own good,” I began, thinking back to the article on L&H bar, “did the city create L&H or did L&H create this city?”

“Ah, your human interest piece.  Laura and Hank were good friends and loyal to the cause.  They were some of the last to finally give up their immortality.  They stuck around to try and see things through and helped the new settlers adjust to the Martian climate. To do so they took on personas that allowed them to give folksy advice.  People trusted them.  After all, the barkeeps of already established scrappy settlers had to have some worthwhile wisdom to share,” Eric said.

“They were TDF?  ATMO?” I asked, amazed.

“They were nanitics, yes.  Hank Jr., the current owner, knows.  It’s a family secret.  They never told him specifically about me, though.”  Somehow even then I knew that my article on L&H, while it would still be published, would not be as important as it had seemed at the time.  Along with such a feeling was the knowledge that this new piece of the puzzle, that explained so much of the stories I had heard from the regulars and longtime patrons of L&H, could not be used for the article.  Only here, in context, could it make enough sense to be included.  Tucked away from that conversation with Eric, I kept highlighted the revelation about L&H’s past, as well as my very odd experience with the man yet seated before me.  An experience, once again, that opened my mind to the possibilities I would encounter in the days ahead.

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