The final edit is complete, and “The von Neumann Contract” will hit Kindle and Amazon on August 15 2021, in both ebook – available on Kindle Unlimited for those who have it – and in paperback.
The lower case v in the title is not a typo, by the way. The ‘von’ is a German prefix, signifying descent from the nobility, and it is properly lower case. Jon von Neumann was the mathematician who originally came up with the idea of self-replicating machines.
The final snippet before the release is here. Amazon only allows 10% of a book published on Kindle to be published elsewhere, or I’d publish more.
In the meantime, exploring the unknown means you find new things and encounter the unexpected. The unwritten clause in any Contract is that Murphy’s Law always applies …
Chapter 2 Standard Contract 48
Education is what you get when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get when you don’t.
Pete Seeger
On Board SS James Cook
Star System Hipparchus 139543
Mission Day 87
Ashley was working on her email queue, which had exploded in response to what would normally have been a routine data upload to PortalNet Liaison via the Portal of this system. They in turn had converted it to the standard PortalNet format and uploaded it to the customer’s web page. Then the Responsible Entities, local and Earthside, had realized exactly what they had found.
The first reaction had been from Risk Enterprises HQ on Earth. Ashley had called their attention to the discovery as a matter of routine. The fear they might have woken up something dangerous by tapping on it seemed to be unfounded. So far, anyway. There had also been no reaction from the PAR. Ashley was quite happy to stay under the radar of the incredibly powerful Entities who ran the Portal network.
Right now, Ashley was back in business mode. This was a very interesting find, but they still had a Contract to fulfill, a given for an Entity right alongside the Law of Gravity. They could run if it came to it and Ashley would do so in a heartbeat at need.
Ashley thought it very likely a Variance would come out of this. The Contract process made allowance for the other invariable given in the Universe, Murphy’s Law. Unforeseen problems happened. Certainly no one had foreseen this.
She had already staked out her position as Entity in an email to the home office. A Variance, if it happened, was going to come from the Contracting Entity. She had laid out the parameters to determine what the locals wanted and, more to the point, what they were willing to pay credit for. She would have the backup of the Contract Analysts back on Earth to do the detail work, but the final call was hers as the Entity.
If the locals wanted the tune played they were going to pay the piper, and it was not going to be cheap. At minimum the locals were going to be paying for a resupply package for Cook, including the transit fees. Ashley was going to charge a premium for the extra time for her and Cook‘s people to do whatever more they wanted. Plus a margin of profit.
She didn’t see any urgency. AO-1 was a good long way from anything. It wasn’t headed for anywhere except interstellar space via a close pass on Hip-13 I, the gas giant in the system. It was even money whether it burned up in Hip-13 I’s atmosphere.
The heading on the next email, flagged Urgent and Important, was, “WTF? Are You All Right?” Ashley smiled and opened it up. Jamie Cartwell wasn’t the Galaxy-class worrywart his mother was, but he still considered worrying about her to be part of a boyfriend’s job description. She worried about him, too, and with more cause to her way of thinking. He worked on planets. Space would kill you if you let it. Planetary environments sneaked up and tried to knife you in the back when you weren’t looking hard enough in the right direction.
She sent him a short, reassuring reply and added some kiss emojis. The next one was both personal and business. It was from her grandfather. Conrad Hanson was one of the founding fathers of Master Blasters. It started with “Ashley, are you all right?”.
The second paragraph was business, but still with an edge of concern for her. He wanted to know how soon they could complete the current Contract and head home, and whether they needed anything. There was as yet no word of a Variance, and if there was he would handle it personally.
The reply to the first paragraph was easy. The second was a bit more involved.
Granddad:
Yes, we’re all fine here, now. Really. We had a surprise, but the object is as cold as space and there’s no sign of any activity.
We’re almost done on the Contract. There’s only one sector left to do, plus the data crunching to find the objects, if any. It’s off the ecliptic and so pretty empty. Give it a week and we can head home. If it comes to a Variance, it’s not going to be cheap. We have fuel and life support to get us home with a decent margin, but not much slack for extra time on station.
I expect I’ll see you in a couple of weeks or so.
Ashley
She sent it, giving mental thanks for Stone’s meticulous mission planning, which put them inbound for the Portal at the end of the Contract. Then she went on to the next, which had just popped up in her queue.
It was from the Head of PortalNet Liaison, Angus Archer, flagged Urgent and Important. The subject was the message. “Check WRAITH Email”. She had an email on the high-security network, so it was Contract business.
Ashley raised an eyebrow, turned and thumb printed the WRAITH terminal awake. Face and retinal recognition and password got her in, and she pulled up the email queue. There was a new one, flagged Important and Urgent.
It was … It was from the Portal Contract Authority, as translated by PortalNet Liaison. She had thought there might be a Variance on this, but not nearly so soon, and she had Granddad’s word he would handle it. She would see it when he had it all together as a complete package for her decision.
Speculation is pointless. She opened up the email, read it, and then read it again. Apparently, it was the best of good news. The Responsible Entity for this system notified her the Contract for the survey was now complete. Payment in credit had been made to the account of the Contractor Entity, with a bonus for timely completion. Five-star review had been posted in recognition of their work on this Contract.
Great news. They were done, had been paid in full and then some, and they could go home with a good review on their Entity’s record.
There was an addendum, though. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, but it dampened Ashley’s mood. “Contracting Entity is advised to vacate vicinity of object forthwith, to avoid interference with possible [untranslatable] space operations(?).”
Observation was right next to the bridge of the Cook, and neither of them was very big. She leaned over to see the passageway through to the bridge, and sure enough Stone was there.
“Captain. If you have a minute, there’s something I’d like you to see.” She was careful to keep her tone casual. James Cook was a small ship, and the grapevine worked at Portal speeds.
He glided into Observation, moving slowly in the light spin gravity here near the hub. She pointed at the screen and let him read it.
He raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”
She lowered her voice, putting words to a hunch. “I don’t like it. All along they wanted their credit’s worth out of the Contract, which is normal. Business is business. All of a sudden Santa Claus slides down the chimney, and we’re getting paid for work we haven’t finished and a bonus we haven’t earned. Then we are told, not too politely, that our room is more welcome than our company.”
“You have good instincts, Ashley. Do you remember Fimbulwinter?” Stone replied.
“Before my time. I know there were a lot of problems.” Ashley wasn’t sure what he was driving at. Jamie had a lot of bad memories from Fimbulwinter. He didn’t talk about it if he could help it.
He could have been reciting a technical spec. “As soon as they finished the Contract, the Responsible Entity for the T’laq’it paid up in full, then invited them to leave — forthwith. They had an escort of two major warships to see them to the Portal, and a military grade radar tracking them all the way. There was fighting around the last drill site, and around them as they headed to the Portal.”
Stone’s eyes narrowed. “Bronco Anderson was sure there was a faction fight among the locals, and they didn’t want to lose their Portal to a Violation if someone took a shot at Emporium. This could be something similar. If the Responsible Entity doesn’t want us here, they’ll get what they want. We now have no reason to stay and every reason to leave.”
Ashley frowned. It made a good deal of uncomfortable sense. The PAR had absolutely no sense of humour about hostile action between Contract Entities, and Entities were responsible for the safety of Contracting Entities in their system. Breaking those rules carried very stiff penalties, up to the loss of Portal.
Ashley knew little, and up to now had cared less, about the capabilities of the Contracting Entity. They were never going to be any closer than several hundred thousand kilometres to their world. Now, she had to assume they could still be at risk. Stupidity was a very common element in the universe, and human beings did not have a monopoly on it.
“Why?” Ashley asked automatically, then added, “Aliens are alien.”
Stone shrugged. “Human politics get very convoluted, never mind aliens. Still, the timing is certainly suggestive. We find this object and report it, and we are immediately told not to let the door hit us as we leave.”
Ashley made a moue, then shrugged. “They closed the Contract, and they paid us in full. Let’s go home.”
Stone swung back into the passage to the bridge. Ashley turned her attention to the process of rigging in the telescopes and securing the other sensors. James Cook‘s acceleration was gentle. One hundredth gee was hardly noticeable, in fact, except for the vibration from the once every thirteen second explosions. The fragile, expensive equipment still needed to be protected from hazards such as space debris when it wasn’t in use.
Ashley had just finished the checklist, her mind on what she and Jamie could be doing on their downtime, when a ping from her WRAITH workstation announced the arrival of an email.
She turned back to her workstation, waited for it to recognize her face to open the screen lock, and opened the email. Her jaw dropped, in one tenth spin gravity. The email header was a standard one, but she had only seen it three times before. It was normally the culmination of a very demanding process. “Notification of Contract Acceptance“.
This has to be a mistake. Grand-dad would never agree to anything like this. Somebody must have forwarded the email to us in error.
She opened it and read it. The header showed it had been automatically translated and forwarded by PortalNet Liaison’s software, immediate priority and well within the known syntax.
A Contract between two Entities is now in force. Contractor Entity shall be Galactic Surveys, Inc. Contracting Entity shall be Portal Contract Authority. Terms are attached, as per Standard Contract 48.
This just has to be some kind of translation error. The software PortalNet Liaison used to translate between the synthetic language of the PortalNet and English was a work of genius, but it was also a work in progress.
There was an attachment. Ashley opened it automatically and started reading, then switched back to the email and rechecked the header. Yes, it really was addressed to her as the Entity of Galactic Surveys. Yes, it really was from the Portal Contract Authority, the Portal Alien Race(s) their very own darned selves.
She started reading again, and her jaw dropped some more. She had never seen anything like this.
1. Standard Contract 48 shall come into force upon discovery of a von Neumann machine, or any object which may, at the sole discretion of Portal Authority, be a suspected von Neumann machine. The Discovering Entity shall be the Contracting Entity.
“What?” Ashley’s disbelief slid into anger. She couldn’t be reading this right. We took Contract just by finding this thing?
She was so scope locked on her screen she didn’t notice Captain Stone’s arrival until he touched her on the shoulder. “Miss Hanson, is there something wrong?”
She looked up at him. “There’s something wrong all right. We didn’t read the fine print.”
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